Plant or Pivot

Uncover the untold story of rapper Armani White’s journey from West Philly to the center stage as he shatters misconceptions of instant success with his hit “Billie Eilish.” Join hosts Darren and Donny as they delve into Armani's resilience in the face of adversity - overcoming house fires, relentless house fires, relentless gun violence, his father's battle with cancer, and discovering how Armani, through vulnerability, learned to embrace bravery, celebrating small victories while embracing the uncertain future. Discover how music and fitness served as therapeutic outlets for Darren and Armani, and watch as Donny reveals Darren’s rap talents.

0:00 - In West Philadelphia Born and Raised

9:48 - The Seed of Inspiration

24:23 - Planting Your Feet

41:20 - Get Out of Your Own Way

► YouTube https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCriVmGIBt38uDKYOL3pmjkw 

► iHeart https://www.iheart.com/podcast/1119-comeback-stories-119696372/ 

► iTunes https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/comeback-stories/id1551398819

► Spotify https://open.spotify.com/show/6aatkzIGU9a7rrp26gAoTp?si=60d9e02713f448bb 

► Instagram https://www.instagram.com/inflectionent/?hl=en 

► Instagram https://www.instagram.com/comebackstoriesshow/?hl=en 

#ComebackStoriesPodcast

 

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:04):
Comeback Stories is a production of Inflection Network and iHeartRadio.

Speaker 2 (00:13):
Welcome back everyone for another episode of Comeback Stories. I'm
one of your co hosts, Darren Waller. I'm joined by
my guy, my friend, Donnie Starkins. Donny, how you doing man.

Speaker 3 (00:23):
I'm doing well.

Speaker 4 (00:24):
Man.

Speaker 3 (00:24):
It's good to be here again. Good to see your
face as always always brother.

Speaker 2 (00:28):
I'm super excited for the guests we have on today.
You know me, I love to create music, just listening
to music, just the overall energy, anything that has to
do with music. And we have an artist on today
who is really seeing the fruits of his labor.

Speaker 4 (00:42):
It really started to come to fruition.

Speaker 2 (00:44):
A lot of the listeners may know him as putting
out an infectious single called Billie Eilish, but a man
who has so much good work in his catalog and
is really still just warming up. Love to welcome our
Money White to the show. Our Money Welcome Bro.

Speaker 5 (00:58):
Thank you, thank you, Bro, thank you for having me.
I appreciate you, yes, sir, Man, appreciate you creating time
for us. What you went up to lately?

Speaker 2 (01:04):
Man?

Speaker 4 (01:04):
What's going on in your life these days?

Speaker 2 (01:06):
Man?

Speaker 6 (01:06):
Ducking from the sun.

Speaker 5 (01:08):
We've been uh, you know, like I take as much
as you know, the time that I can when I'm
home to just like sit down, work on.

Speaker 6 (01:14):
Some music, like be a human, play a video game
or something like that.

Speaker 5 (01:17):
It's like, you know, like it's I only get like
two days after the week to be home Tomorrow We've
headed out for another festival, and then I think after
that we running New York, Montreal back to LA So.

Speaker 6 (01:26):
It's just it's not stop running.

Speaker 4 (01:29):
I feel you, bro.

Speaker 2 (01:29):
I'm definitely on to dive in with you on how
you stay human because I think some of the same
problems myself. But I'd love to just dive right into
your story and start about growing up for you and
what was growing up for you, like where was it
at and just painting a picture for the people.

Speaker 4 (01:43):
Yeah.

Speaker 5 (01:44):
No, I think I think we were the last kids
like that were outside. You know what I'm saying that
we was like the we're like our generation was like
the turning point of the internet kind of taking over
people's lives.

Speaker 6 (01:55):
So like my like, you know, we we spent our last.

Speaker 5 (01:58):
Couple of days just like being outside, like you know,
getting the only time I wasn't outside, I was on
punishment and like those moments when I on punishment was
where I kind of learned how to work then, and
that work my space, work Facebook and Tumblr or whatever
it was at the time. So but yeah, I mean
for the most part, we was just I was just,
you know, just just the little the little bad kid
in the neighborhood that just couldn't stay out of trouble.

(02:19):
And like everybody knew my parents, so anytime I did something,
they told my parents and I just get back right rightment.

Speaker 2 (02:24):
I feel you, man, So you grew up in Philly, right,
there's a lot of Uh. I think there's a lot
of different images of phil You got like fresh Prince
of bel Air, Will Smith getting out of West Philly
and still representing. You got meek Mill, you got a
little uzy and people painting a side of Philly that's tough,
but they all love and have a sense of pride
about it, and I believe you do as well.

Speaker 4 (02:45):
What it makes it so tough? But what do you
love about it?

Speaker 6 (02:47):
Yeah, I mean that's what it is.

Speaker 5 (02:49):
It's like the fact that it's so tough and the
fact that we came up in this city it kind
of gives us that that sense of pride to say, like,
you know, if you can make it out of here,
you can make it anywhere. Even if you can make
it and stay in here, you can make it anywhere.
Like just because it's a very uninviting city, Like if
I could, if I could describe it in any way,
like if you're not from here, it's like, well, what
you're doing here? You know, And that's that's kind of

(03:09):
the mentality, the personality that just like the city has
for you. But but once you you know, once you're
kind of getting graceated into the culture, like it's a
dope city, it's always something some way to be a
part of something, you know, just something going on in Philly.

Speaker 6 (03:23):
There's always something.

Speaker 2 (03:24):
Is there any distinct memories of pain that you look
back on early growing up as a kid that may
have affected you in a way or affected the way
that you just looked at the world or approached life.

Speaker 5 (03:35):
Well, to be all, to be honest, is as much
as much pride as I have for Philly being from Philly,
there was a big piece of my life that I
had to just step away from Philadelphia, like because of
all the trauma that I experienced in Philly, Like you know,
just just growing up being outside, like all the trouble
that we got into. But also in two thousand and six,
there was a house fire when I was staying with

(03:56):
my aunt. I was like back and forth between my
aunt's house and my mom's house, and there was a
house fire that my aunt had where she lost her
life and my three cousins lost their lives. And from
that experience on, it was like really hard for me
to just be in Philly. One top of just a
few other things like I like, like a few a
few years following that, my uncle, her brother he was

(04:17):
shot and killed, and the road rage incident. It was
a lot of just trauma, like just a lot of
trauma that I think that I experienced in the city
growing up, and some things that like it's kind of
like a hungry dogs keep running kind of thing, where
like you you don't even really get the process some
of this when it's going on, you just kind of like,
especially for me as a kid, I didn't I didn't
understand the concept of like, you know, my cousin who

(04:39):
was my best friend at the time, like I'll never
see her again. My aunt, who was my second mother
at the time, I never see her again, like you
kind of just have to keep growing, keep learning, keep running,
keep like experiencing things, and you don't really get a
second to kind of step back and just look around
and say like, oh, this is what happened, and this
is how I'm affected by this.

Speaker 6 (04:55):
You know, Like a lot of that, a lot of
those things I took with me.

Speaker 5 (04:57):
I didn't realize how much of a shift it created
in my life until I was, you know, maybe like
like reaching like twenty twenty one years old, and like
I'm starting to just like peel back the layers and say, oh,
this was actually the happening.

Speaker 6 (05:09):
You know.

Speaker 3 (05:10):
I read a quote from you that said, a lot
of us in Philadelphia, when you just talk to someone,
you feel like there's a lot of trauma, a lot
of pain.

Speaker 6 (05:19):
There's just a lot of layers to that.

Speaker 3 (05:21):
City that we've all gone through, and if we haven't
gone through it, it's it's the trauma's been passed down, right,
and we find ways to make our trauma sound and
feel and look beautiful, but at the end of the day,
it's still trauma. When I read that, I was like, wow,
because I'm watching someone like you that's transmuting that trauma
and transmuting that pain into a greater purpose. And in fact,

(05:43):
that's why all three of us are sitting here today
with our own past and our own pains. But yeah,
I always say like people were all the same. We
all have pain and we're all just trying to find
freedom from that pain. And a lot of people like
myself and Darren back in the day, would numb that
pain through drugs and alcohol. Other people will hide in

(06:04):
their work and get busy, some will close their hearts,
and then there's other people that find that greater purpose.
So yeah, yeah, I just found that fascinating in that
awareness that trauma is passed down and sometimes we don't
even realize it even if we haven't had it. It's
that ancestral, that deep stuff that's just generational dysfunction more
than anything.

Speaker 5 (06:24):
Yeah, no, absolutely, I think I tried at the very earliest,
I tried to just kind of understand the through lines
of I guess, like how trauma and how like pain
affected people and when they resorted to things, like you said,
like drugs and alcohol. In my head, if I wasn't
doing drugs and alcohol, then I was not like I
wasn't taking my trauma out and in a toxic way.

(06:47):
I was handling it in a healthy way because I
didn't go resort to drugs and alcohol. But I think
my downfall was I used to take that trauma out
on other people and my relationships, and like you know,
like when I said, like you know, we used to
go outside and just try and like, I don't know,
I wanted to be the bad kid. I wanted to
be the tough guy in the neighborhood. But it was
all because I had this feeling of misunderstanding that like

(07:10):
I felt like nobody could understand who I was, what
I was going through with pain I felt, and so
I had to inflict that.

Speaker 6 (07:16):
Pain on other people. But it didn't even process to
me how toxic that was because I wasn't doing drugs
or alcohol.

Speaker 5 (07:23):
I was, you know, even in the moments when I
was involved in the distribution of these things that it
was like I didn't even think into the process of like, Okay,
if this is not me doing it per se, then
I can't be affected by this, I can't be actually
dealing with anything.

Speaker 6 (07:38):
It was just, you know, it.

Speaker 5 (07:39):
Was almost like you said, it's just kind of like
we all are just living in a world of trauma,
and we're so like deeply tied and connected to the
trauma that it just seems natural to us.

Speaker 3 (07:49):
That's that saying hurt people hurt people exactly. And if
we don't, if we don't heal our own wounds, then
you know we're we're we're sure to inflict it and
and bleed on other people. If you will, if coming
from somebody, maybe Darren, you can maybe speaking for both
of us, but I can't. I would never understand how
you didn't tap into to drug and alcohol abuse just

(08:13):
based on the trauma and the pain, because I don't.
I mean, we all have pain, even though my pain
might look different than yours, but just hearing your story
and everything that you went through, I don't feel like
mine was on a level of yours. Yet I still
went down that road. So how did you steer clear
of drugs and alcohol?

Speaker 4 (08:30):
I did?

Speaker 5 (08:31):
I will say I drank alcohol until I was fifteen,
and it wasn't it wasn't never.

Speaker 6 (08:36):
Anything related to pain.

Speaker 5 (08:39):
It was like I just thought it was cool because
everybody else is doing it, and it was like, you know,
you see all everybody would come back to school like yo,
I was we got drunk and we did such and such,
so I, you know, I used to try and do
it and it just tasted awful to me.

Speaker 6 (08:52):
And I remember one time.

Speaker 5 (08:54):
I did it in California one of my cousin's house
and I blacked out, woke up like didn't remember anything,
and I was like, yeah, I don't. I don't like
that feeling like I'm not really not really And that
one and as far as like just drug related drugs
and itself was so it was so embedded into my
culture growing up, you know, like my my father, my

(09:15):
father played a hand and distribution to drugs, my lot,
a lot of other family members, a lot of friends,
a lot of people in the neighborhood. Like I seen
how drugs had kind of just derailed the course of
people's lives so much that I've always just kind of
just been you know, what's the word, looking like tunnel
vision do on this idea that I want to be

(09:35):
a success story, I want to be a musician, I
want to be someone great. And I was like, I
feel like, if I you know, if I ever let
my trauma, let my pain put me in this pocket
where I start to kind of abuse drugs, then I
may be taking away from the larger picture, the bigger
goul and that was you know, that was just always
the thing that was hanging over me.

Speaker 6 (09:55):
That was like kind of keeping me in the right direction.

Speaker 2 (09:57):
That level of focus from a young man is impressive
to me, especially with all the things that are swirling
around on the outside of you and on the inside
of you, with the violence and you know, navigating the
also drugs and alcohol and everything else is going on
in Philly. Where does your music passion come into the picture?
When did that begin? How did that begin to sprout?

Speaker 5 (10:20):
Honestly, music was always music was before me. It was
my aunts and uncles, my grandfather, like everyone everyone in
my family played music, like played some sort of an instrument.
So it just kind of became a thing that, you know,
it just became a thing that was passed down for me.
By the time I got to it, I was in
a choir. My mom had me an choir early on, so, uh,

(10:43):
you know, after I realized I was like, maybe I
don't got the best singing voice, I started, you know,
just started messing around with the ideas of like just
I will watch all all the rat videos like you know,
run back from school so I could turn on BT
one of six and parking watch all the rat videos
and like that just became a thing where I was like, yeah,
I feel like I.

Speaker 6 (11:01):
Could do this.

Speaker 5 (11:02):
I feel like this is something that I you know,
I could excel and I could be like really good
at telling my story whatever the story was.

Speaker 6 (11:08):
At the time. You know, I was like second or
third grade. My story wasn't that impressive.

Speaker 5 (11:11):
But like you know, over time, it just developed into
like from a hobby to a I was trying to
get all of my friends around me.

Speaker 6 (11:19):
I was like, y'all write your reps. I'll write your reps.

Speaker 4 (11:21):
I write your.

Speaker 5 (11:21):
Reps, like, you know, just trying to get everybody to
be a rapper with me, so it wasn't just me,
and and then it just developed more and more into,
you know, just into a real life thing. It was
like for a while, honestly, like as as the as
the street culture, like the neighborhood culture and music blended.
You know, you're talking about like the Lil Wayne era,

(11:42):
like the mixtape era, like like everybody at that point
was rapping, you know, like like my mom, remember my
homie Keen, His mom bought us a microphone and we
were just sitting in his room and just like you know,
we take turns, one person in press record and the
other person in press record. And that was my earliest
memories of like, oh no, we could actually do this,
We could actually make songs. We could actually you know,

(12:03):
turn these in the MP three and download them onto
our phones and show people.

Speaker 6 (12:08):
But it was always the thing that was embedded in
my life span.

Speaker 4 (12:11):
You know.

Speaker 2 (12:11):
Can you take us through any moments that may have
almost detourred you from wanting to pursue your passion? Was
there any disappointments along the way from before from when
you started to when you started to get on, like
where you may have wanted to give up, or people
were telling you that this wasn't the route, Like, are
there any moments like.

Speaker 4 (12:30):
That your story?

Speaker 6 (12:31):
Absolutely?

Speaker 5 (12:32):
I mean you got understand like I've been rapping since
I've been rapping since I want to say.

Speaker 6 (12:38):
In second grade. I've been trying to put words together.

Speaker 5 (12:40):
So by the time I hit fifth grade, sixth grade,
that was when I was like, yo, I can actually
take this serious. At that point, I remember it was
a moment where we thought we was gonna get signed
to State Property and Rockefeller.

Speaker 6 (12:50):
You know, we were.

Speaker 5 (12:51):
Kids and we're like, yo, we're gonna be the next ones. Like,
you know, there was there was so many of these versions.

Speaker 6 (12:56):
I had to you know, I had to.

Speaker 5 (12:57):
Go through the experience because I wasn't like the cool
rapper that was just rapping about drugs and guns and like,
you know, a bunch of guns and the videos, a
bunch of money, a bunch of girls in the videos.

Speaker 6 (13:05):
I had to go through the experience of like just
being the.

Speaker 5 (13:08):
Quote unquote rapper and trying to explain to everybody that
I'm a rapper. Nobody actually cares. And you know, by
this point, you graduate high school, you graduate, you know,
and everybody else got it is in college, got a job,
and you're just like, nah, naw, I'm a rap, trust me,
it's gonna work out, like you know. And and that
was a you know, that was that was a real
like awakening moment. For a while, I was just sleeping
in my car in a garage, you know what I mean,

(13:30):
Like I was sleeping in my car in the garage
behind the movie theater, and that happened.

Speaker 6 (13:33):
I want to say, that went on for about like
two months.

Speaker 5 (13:36):
Yeah, I think there was a lot of There was
a lot of these moments that just played and played
out for a long period of time until until that
that you finally get that breakthrough.

Speaker 6 (13:44):
And for now now it's like a conversation on the internet.

Speaker 5 (13:48):
Where it's like, yo, it's an overnighte success and I'm like,
overnight success took ten years.

Speaker 3 (13:52):
You know what I'm saying sounds like you've you've always
no matter what, we're gonna fight for this stream and
this vision of rap stardom, Like where does that Where
does that juice and where does that fire come from?

Speaker 5 (14:07):
When I was a kid, my dad didn't let me
quit anything, And I think that's a big root of
like where a lot of it started from. It was like, yo,
like it don't matter if he put me in some
sports that I never wanted to be. And I remember
I did karate for like a year and a half
just because I could not quit.

Speaker 6 (14:21):
My dad wouldn't let me quit anything.

Speaker 5 (14:22):
I couldn't get up front the front of dinner table
until I ate like eighty five percent of the plate.

Speaker 6 (14:27):
Like it was just like there was no quitting in
the household.

Speaker 5 (14:30):
So at that point, even when it got like really
really tough. It was like like you know, when I decided, Okay,
I'm not going to do anything sports related, I'm not
going to do anything, you know, like anything I don't know,
college related and so forth, it was like I was
so far down this path.

Speaker 6 (14:43):
It's like if I quit.

Speaker 5 (14:44):
At this point, like I didn't shot myself in the
foot for literally anything else in life that I want
to do, It's like I can't, you know, I can't.
I can't turn back to the clock and you know,
go back to high school and you know, like I didn't.

Speaker 6 (14:56):
I didn't.

Speaker 5 (14:56):
I skipped so many big milestones in my life too
dedicated towards this thing that it was almost like, yeah,
it has to happen. I don't know how, I don't
know in what way, but it has to happen. And
that was you know, like it was just something I
fought for for too long for me to give up
on it.

Speaker 2 (15:11):
That lesson that your dad shared is like people not
really understanding that fully in twenty twenty three, Like when
things get uncomfortable, people want to go to something that
is easier or like that's not going to have them
in fear or in doubt, when really like that character
quality of you. Nah.

Speaker 5 (15:30):
I read this quote that was like my friend's Asiana
voice did it, and it was, what's the point of
having faith if you're going to lose it when you
need it most?

Speaker 6 (15:38):
And that's like my favorite quote right now. That's my
favorite quote right now, is like, what's.

Speaker 5 (15:43):
The point if by the time when you actually need
faith to kicking, anybody can have faith when it's easy,
when you actually need faith to kick and you just
get rid of it, what's the point of having it
at all?

Speaker 4 (15:53):
You know?

Speaker 3 (15:54):
Well, I just posted a story on Instagram yesterday about
that where I believe faith relieves us from the burden
of excessive responsibility. Like whatever your faith is, faith in God,
higher power, universe, like in my and my beliefs. Are
you better believe in something bigger and badder than you
because like when things do get tough and when things

(16:15):
get too heavy, like who are you going to give
it up to?

Speaker 6 (16:17):
How are you going to really be able.

Speaker 3 (16:19):
To trust trust the process and trust that life is
always happening for us and not to us. And even
some of the things that you went through, you know,
it's like there's lessons there. I'm thinking back to the
lessons that your dad taught you, and even the lesson
of I heard the story of your dad getting getting
you the bike and you were getting bullied and your
dad said, whatever, do whatever it takes to bring that

(16:41):
bike home. And it's almost like that lesson, right there
is another one of those don't quit lessons where no
matter what happened, you always you always brought your bike.

Speaker 5 (16:50):
Home exactly exactly, and that's that's that's always. That's that
was just my dad. That was my dad, and any
like any and everything. It was like I don't care.

Speaker 4 (16:59):
I remember.

Speaker 6 (17:00):
I remember when he had me in boxing.

Speaker 5 (17:01):
I had this far against somebody that was like two
times my size, Like, well, look, this is what you
asked for, Like don't you know.

Speaker 6 (17:07):
I'm like, yeah, you sure? It's nobody else in the gym.
He's like, nah, listen, the person you're looking for is
right there.

Speaker 5 (17:12):
And And that was always, you know, that was it
just kind of gave it gave me that like fighter spirit,
that fighter mentality, because that was that was exactly who
he was.

Speaker 6 (17:20):
And he only wanted to train, you know, like.

Speaker 5 (17:22):
When I was a pup, he only wanted to raise raised,
like you know Pitbull's bulldogs. That was like actually going
to go in there and fight for whatever it was
that you want it, no matter if you wanted to
be a chef.

Speaker 6 (17:31):
He was going to fight for that, you know, that
that that food plate. You want to be a trash man,
he was going to fight for that trash can, whatever
it is.

Speaker 2 (17:36):
Like, you know, so, so when did when did you
start to reap the harvest of that faith that you
just told us about.

Speaker 5 (17:44):
Honestly, the journey is never it's never just a linear path.
And you know, I'm pretty sure everybody can attest to that,
it's never a linear path. My first like the first
moment when I really started to reap it. I remember
I was in college. We had dropped a song called
stick Up when I said, like we had no money.
I was in college. I had I just bought a
we bought a tryod to make the camera steady, one

(18:07):
of my homies cameras, and like it was, you know,
it was just like yo. I had called like ten
homies like yo, you stand right here, you stand right here,
you stand right here, you walk behind the camera, man,
make sure he doesn't fall. And then we just shot
this video on my friend's block and the video went
like it was like, you know, whatever the version of
viral was in twenty fifteen, it was like it popped
up on YouTube, popped up on Tumblr, it went crazy

(18:28):
on SoundCloud, et cetera. And at that point, that's when
I first started getting like phone calls from the label's,
phone calls front of different companies, managers and everything. And
then it started to feel real. It was like, oh,
I'm getting interviews, like people are asking me who I am.

Speaker 6 (18:41):
That was the start of something bubbling.

Speaker 5 (18:44):
That was the first moment where I felt like I
can actually do this, this thing, this thing I've been
telling people that I'm gonna be one day, It's like
it's not as far as I thought it was. I
remember we went on we had got the call to
go on tour that fall with a Big Crip. It's like, yo,
we're gonna go on tour for a couple of days.
And the first night we're like, we're like, I think
seventeen eighteen years old and Big Crid is.

Speaker 6 (19:06):
Like thirty five. I don't know, Like his audience is
way older than I am.

Speaker 5 (19:10):
And I know the first night we went out there,
we like hype jumping around my DJ he throws water
in the crowd, misses the entire crowd.

Speaker 6 (19:18):
Gets it all over the equipment.

Speaker 5 (19:20):
They kicked us off toward the first night, and I'm
just like, wow, this is a quiet car ride home
back to Philly, Like oh man, that was salty and
you know, and but we still had.

Speaker 6 (19:32):
This like we was riding on the high, ride on
the high.

Speaker 5 (19:35):
And then that following year, I got the phone call
that my father I had just we had a show
in Philly, and I was like, let me just go
and invite my dad. Me and him was like we
weren't on the best term, so let me go invite
him to the show, just like let by guns be
by guns. And when I pulled up, that was when
I found out that he had cancer and he was
going through chemo. It was like really like you know,

(19:57):
and like and it's terminal stages of like you know,
it's only a month or two left to live. And
I just remember that that like crashing, halting moment where
like everything just stopped. We get so so like I
explained it to you, like that was the first moment
where I I remembered that I was real, if that
makes sense, Like like I've been so lost in this

(20:20):
journey of I'm going to be a rapper one day,
I'm gonna be a star, I'm gonna be at this
or that. That was the first moment where it like
it pulled me out of that world and it said, wait,
this is I'm actually still just OURMANI I'm Lee's son,
I'm Donna's son, I'm this kid who grew up around here,
and these things are happening in the real world that's
actually affecting me and this like I can't write a

(20:43):
song that's going to fix this. I can't, like you know, yeah,
like like that was so IOK. I took a step
back just from everything music related. I took a step
back from everything music related in twenty sixteen. It just
like I wrote, I wrote it out with him until
he passed that June, and honestly after that just took
a break from music and Philly like all together.

Speaker 6 (21:04):
I just I moved out to U, I moved out
to LA.

Speaker 5 (21:07):
Moved out to LA for a couple of years from
the end of twenty sixteen up until I want to say,
like the end of twenty eighteen, I was just I
just couldn't Like it was like a I don't know,
a demon on my back kind of thing. Anytime I
came back to Philly, it was this idea that was
like just it's something that was haunting me, that just
didn't allow me to be in the city and feel

(21:28):
good and feel comfortable until I, you know, I finally
came back.

Speaker 6 (21:31):
Twenty eighteen, twenty nineteen.

Speaker 5 (21:33):
It was like, you know, like let me just kind
of face my fears and staying on top of whatever
it is that's like haunting me right now, and you know,
and from there, I think from there on was where
things started to kind of there's honestly, it's just again
it's just these these like it's.

Speaker 6 (21:48):
Never a linear path.

Speaker 5 (21:49):
Because I came back to Philly and everything was going good,
the pandemic.

Speaker 6 (21:54):
Happened, and we had a house fire.

Speaker 5 (21:57):
We had a house fire in twenty twenty and just
when I'm thinking everything is cool, this house fire happens
and they charged us for arson for the house fire.
And it wasn't like, you know, like there was there
was no no intentional house fire nothing. It was literally
like a fire got called a fire called something called fire,
and we called in, we called nine one one whatever
whatever they got to taken care of nothing, no real damage,

(22:19):
nobody hurt, but they charged us for arson. And this
is like pandemic times. It's like we don't know if
we're ever getting out of jail. We don't know like
they you know, they're not giving nobody bails. Like it's
just so we got warrants out. We like I'm literally
like in my mom's living room, like anytime somebody rings
the doorbell, I'm terrified. I'm like, I won't know who
that might be. Like it was, it was bad for

(22:40):
like a month. We're just trying to figure short lawyers.
Like I'm like, I can't get pulled over. I get
pulled over, they gonna find it. Like it's like, you know,
we're trying to figure this out for like a month,
and we finally just had to we had to turn
ourselves in go to jail. And I'm you know, and
I'm just thinking about it from the perspective of like
if I go to jail and like, you know, I've
built this like clean image for so long that like

(23:00):
everyone just disappears. Everyone's like, ah, you know, how fickleed
this these these entertainment industries are.

Speaker 6 (23:06):
It's like, you know, like you can.

Speaker 5 (23:07):
Nobody ever takes an account that you're a human who
sometimes makes mistakes or things happen, Like it's just like, ah,
you got.

Speaker 6 (23:14):
A bad strike against your name.

Speaker 5 (23:16):
I don't really want to, you know, So I'm just
thinking about all of this, Like, yo, everything I've built
for all of these years is just gone from one
you know, somebody putting a a a warrant out for me.
That doesn't even make sense to have, you know. And
so we went through that, We went through that moment,
finally made it. We made it out of the jail,

(23:37):
and a year later we went to trial or pre
trial for it, and it threw our case out and
now was like I've been it's been greener pastors ever since.
Like that was like the moment where I finally like
just you know, started to soar because at that moment,
I really was like, you know, we made a project
called Things We Lost in the Fire, and it was
really just like about taking that moment and the house

(23:59):
fire I had.

Speaker 6 (23:59):
As a kid and just making a piece of music.

Speaker 5 (24:02):
Like almost like a journal entry that like that just
kind of talks about the things that I've been running
from for the past ten years, past fifteen years and
just really get it off my chest to really speak
about it, really just be vocal, be open, honest and.

Speaker 6 (24:16):
Vulnerable about it, and get past that.

Speaker 5 (24:18):
Moment so I can just get back to making fun music,
having fun with music, enjoying myself with the things that
I'm creating. And that was right after that, that was
the Billy Eilish moment. That was when we walked into
that Billy Eilish era.

Speaker 2 (24:31):
It's crazy how in order for you to get to
the moment of you know, where everything takes off and
everything starts.

Speaker 4 (24:37):
To get good. It's like it feels like there's.

Speaker 2 (24:39):
A sense of it doesn't seem like I can escape
this pain. It doesn't seem like I can escape bad
things happening to me. Like you talk about being real
and you can't escape the pains of life as a
human being. But for you, it's just like it feel
like an avalanche, Like it's just like it won't stop.
Like did you feel like that.

Speaker 4 (24:57):
You know what?

Speaker 6 (24:57):
It feels like. I'm gonna make a make a football reference.

Speaker 5 (25:03):
It's almost like it felt like anything good, anytime something
good happened, you just kind of had to plant your feet.

Speaker 6 (25:08):
You had to plant your feet, lean forward.

Speaker 5 (25:10):
You was like, yo, just kind of breash yourself for
the impact because something I don't know what it is,
but something bad is around the corner, like uh and
and you know, like even and we've been I've been
dealing with it a lot more amicably and just like
a lot and a lot healthier every way because it's
a slower process. But like we I was fighting, fighting,
fighting to just get this project out, just like you

(25:32):
know this Rod Casablanco ep just out the way so
I can start working on the album. And the moment
we finally do, I'm like, wow, I can finally wosa,
I breathe, I got the tour dates is done.

Speaker 6 (25:41):
Like I'm good. I can sit back for a second, relax.

Speaker 5 (25:44):
I get a call while we're on the press run,
I get a call from my uncle that says, yeah,
you know, we just we just found out that Grandpa
Lee has terminal lung cancer and you know, they're giving
them a few months or like up up to a
few months left. And I'm just like god damn, Like
it's like, at what point does like the good not

(26:06):
come with the bad?

Speaker 6 (26:06):
And that's that's where I say. It's like when these
things happen when you get these really high highs, like
I just plant my feet at this point, I'm like,
I don't know what it is.

Speaker 5 (26:14):
I don't know where it's going to come from, but
I know at some point, like there's something that if
I feet aren't playing, it can knock me over, you know,
if I'm not embraced, if I'm not ready for it.

Speaker 6 (26:25):
I'm not ready for that embrace, if I'm not ready
for that impact, and it could knock me over.

Speaker 3 (26:28):
If we go back to I just wanted to circle
back about the conversations around your dad. What did you
learn about death and maybe grief the process of death,
and then also maybe what you how you could have
handled it better and what you learned in the process
of actually processing the loss of your father.

Speaker 6 (26:51):
My dad.

Speaker 5 (26:52):
For a lot of people who have their father and
their lives, their dad is like the strongest person, like
as is your kid.

Speaker 6 (26:59):
You know, you you kind of idolize and view your dad.
It's like the strongest man.

Speaker 5 (27:03):
The words Superman and watching my dad have cancer, it
broke a lot of spells and like there were good
spells and bad spells that I learned from him, and
it was just like this idea of fearlessness, this idea
of bravery, which he instilled in me. But I think
I learned bravery in ways that weren't all there, weren't

(27:23):
actually braving, but I mean by that's like in those
moments of weakness, he showed me bravery from a different
perspective that it was okay to cry, it was okay
to lean on someone, it was okay to have help,
and it was okay to have family. And that was
a new level of bravery that I learned just dealing
with his transitioning and when he ultimately transitioned, because you know,
like dealing with something like the house fire in two

(27:44):
thousand and six, I went down a dark path because
I didn't know how to channel that energy, that energy,
I didn't know how to process it, and I didn't
know how to express it. And one of the you know,
one of the rawest things I could have did when
my father passed.

Speaker 6 (28:00):
Was just cry, you know.

Speaker 5 (28:02):
And it's like, and it sounds crazy like because because
you know, like everybody you know, like have has that emotion.
But for me, it was just like that was a
hurdle just to be able to cry, just to be
able to let that, like let that expression out and
and dealing with like dealing with losing him. I just
I got really really comfortable with just the idea of crying,
like being okay with crying, being okay with being expressive,

(28:25):
being okay with like not like not having a calculated response,
but just having a raw emotional response when it comes
to the me, the people I love and the things
I love and how it's affecting me.

Speaker 2 (28:38):
You know.

Speaker 6 (28:39):
And that was that was a real that was a
really really really sharp learning curve for me.

Speaker 3 (28:43):
What did what did grief teach you? Did you ever
go to grief therapy or counseling or get outside help
through this process?

Speaker 4 (28:51):
Yeah?

Speaker 5 (28:52):
We we? Uh, Like so again I think I did,
like I did grief grief counseling, and then there was
a level of therapy. There's a version of therapy that
I did not that long ago, but even you know,
and even just talking to doctors and talking to therapists,
like having like just like you know, free conversation a
lot of it.

Speaker 6 (29:11):
What I always get back is like a lot of
this is in you.

Speaker 5 (29:15):
And and for me, what people would tell me is
that you're just an open book you're an open mind
and you're just like an open thinker. Like as long
as you're able to put yourself in an environment where
you can think all these things through and think all
these things out loud, then it's not so much of
like the external help that you really need. It's just
like you being comfortable with like speaking it out loud.

(29:37):
You know that that was for me that you know,
and I'm not speaking for everyone, but for me, that
was what was most helpful. Grief counseling. When I did
it was like I want to say, seventh grade, there
was so much that was going on, like seventh and
eighth grade. There was there was the house fire I had.
There was like my sister's boyfriend he had just got shot.
There was we had a friend out, a friend in

(29:59):
Kwadir who had just got killed, and just and there
was like that that was something know like that was
really like a I don't know, it was a weird
thing for me because he was playing football. We was
just he was at practice and like I think, you know,
somebody was tackling them and it's their foot kicked them
in the head too hard or something, and he you know,
like the trauma killed him on impact, and you know,

(30:21):
even for that, it was weird for us.

Speaker 6 (30:22):
It was like he just died doing something that he loved.

Speaker 5 (30:24):
It didn't do anything wrong, you didn't do any you know,
but it was in that moment, It was in that
phase of my life where it was like, you know,
you just got to pick it up and keep going.

Speaker 6 (30:34):
Whatever it is that you're dealing with, you just got
to pick it up and keep going. Pick it up
and keep going.

Speaker 5 (30:37):
So much so that like all of that unrolled and
like this this the processing of like external pain just
taking it out on everybody else. When when when I
did grief counsel and I'm not sure, I'm not sure
if I even listened. You know, I was a kid,
you know, I was a kid. I was just kind
of like, all right, yeah, like this person is saying
things to me, and I don't you know, maybe it

(30:57):
makes sense or maybe it doesn't.

Speaker 6 (30:59):
I don't know, But.

Speaker 5 (31:00):
Honestly, I'm you know, sometimes I might even just be
like I'm I'm very hard headed. Sometimes it might even
just be a process of like me being a slow
learner and a sense of like I'm just being a contrarian,
like you know, just being like just just being a
contrariant to whatever it is you're saying, even if you
are making sense. And then like three or four years
down the line, when I don't have you and I

(31:22):
realized I need you, I'm going to remember everything you
said and it's going to make sense and it's going
to steer me in the right direction. And I think
a lot of which because when I turned it off,
when I turned off the I want to be a
hood kid, I want to be the street dude whatever.

Speaker 6 (31:34):
When I turned it off, I turned it off. I
have no interest in it, Like it doesn't excite me.

Speaker 5 (31:38):
I'm not you know, like it's not even the yeah,
I want to buy all these guns for protection or whatever.

Speaker 6 (31:43):
Like it's like I turned it off like.

Speaker 4 (31:46):
It was done.

Speaker 6 (31:46):
And so I think, but I think a lot of
it was because.

Speaker 5 (31:50):
I had these small, small seeds planet throughout the process
that didn't really like they didn't grow, they didn't sprout
until years down the line. But when they sprouted, they
finally like you know, like when a moment like my
father passing happened, all those things that didn't make since
then made since Now that's.

Speaker 2 (32:06):
That's a beautiful realization to come to man, And I
love how you talked about you felt like you had
to dig your heels in right now that you're seeing
a lot of your dreams come into fruition and there's
abundance of blessings coming into your life. Do you still
feel like you got to dig your heels in even
though things are going great? Or have you escaped that mindset?
Are you still trying to find your way out? Like

(32:27):
how are you dealing with that now?

Speaker 5 (32:28):
I mean even with my grandpa. My grandpa was that
was recent, That was real recent. So like it's it's
a little bit of it. It's a little bit of
a digging my heels in, But I don't know, like
like it's like I try not to.

Speaker 6 (32:41):
I try not to like be so so.

Speaker 5 (32:43):
Invested on this idea that something bad is about to happen,
because you know, it might, it might, it might stifle
you on like create a cloud over all the good
things that's happening. I just I kind of focus on, like, Okay,
what's in front of you right now? What can I like, Uh,
there's a there's actually a quote that I've seen and
like it's like an old old episode of Oprah. I
think with my mom watching it as a kid.

Speaker 6 (33:05):
But it was this guy was selling a book and
I don't I don't know why this one moment stuck
with me.

Speaker 5 (33:10):
This guy was selling a book and he said in
this book, it was a quote that said, you're only
in control of two things in life. It's how you
prepare for what's about to happen and how you reacted
with just happened. And so like a piece of me
is always digging my feet in and saying, Okay, I'm
prepared for whatever is about to happen, whether it's good
or bad.

Speaker 6 (33:29):
But at the same time, I'm reacting to all the
good that is happening, because it's.

Speaker 4 (33:33):
Just a lot of good. You know, that's beautiful.

Speaker 3 (33:35):
Man, What are your what are your practices today as
far as being able to stay in the present and
not time travel or future trip too much or go
back to the past, Like, what are the practices you're
doing today to keep you there, to keep you present?

Speaker 5 (33:49):
I think, you know, Like what I learned a lot from,
especially with my father passing, is how important family is.
Family is quantified, Like you don't you know, you don't
get another mom, you don't get another dad, You don't
get like a lot of these things. So it's, uh,
it's just like I value that's so much value, like
the importance of family, Like what I now you know,

(34:11):
with these with this newfoilnd career, with this money whatever
it is, like what I now can do for these
people because I don't you know, like for me, I'm
so you know, just setting focused, laser focused on what
the goal is that like I don't even think about,
you know, if this person is dealing and struggling with
this bill and this is something that I can easily
help with. That literally does not it doesn't changed my trajectory.

(34:33):
It doesn't hurt me, Like I literally wouldn't even you know,
I wouldn't even realize if you.

Speaker 6 (34:36):
Took it from me.

Speaker 5 (34:37):
Like I'm like, but that one little thing I can
do could change somebody's entire day. I just try to
do that as much as I can for the people
that's like that's around me, and I try to find
little ways, little pockets to stay human. Like I'm at
the end of the day, I'm just like a real
big kid at heart. So like I might just I
might just ignore my phone for the whole day and
watch Dragon Ball z like I might, you know, like
just little things that like make me still feel like

(34:59):
in my raw essence, I'm the kid that didn't you
know that that that just did everything that he wanted
to do and didn't like conform to whatever everybody wanted.

Speaker 6 (35:08):
Me to be.

Speaker 2 (35:08):
I think staying human is so important, man, because we
see so many people rappers, athletes, like when they reach
a certain level of success, it's like it leaves. It's
like the humility may may leave, like just the passion
for creation or whatever their craft was may leave, and
it's like they change almost And it's like, how do

(35:29):
we continue to achieve all of our goals and our
visions that we have set out for ourselves, but don't
change in the process, continue to still be ourselves, continue
to grow and change in the ways that we need
to change, but just foundationally who we are. We don't
change in that way though, And that's it's beautiful to
hear you say that.

Speaker 5 (35:46):
No, I think I think it's just important as far
as like like you just said, like humility, being a
human being, like being present in this because what you
got to like what I understood and learned to understand
is like like this this idea of the entertainment world
is so like it's all about the side honestly, like
like the success, the the trajectory, the longevity of it.

(36:09):
It's like, Yo, did you buy this Shane? Did you
get this car? But you know, there's there's pages that
that can can count up how much outfit is worth.
There's like there's all about the besides so much so
that it's like you don't really get the chance.

Speaker 6 (36:21):
Like nobody's talking about the goods.

Speaker 5 (36:23):
Somebody did Nobody thought, you know, there's no there's no
trophy for you know, for for for waking up on
time and taking care of somebody I don't know, like
if likes a lot of times I might, I might
pay for the car behind me a chick forl Like
nobody nobody hears about this, Like you know what I'm
saying is but these it's all the little things that
just make you feel human, make you feel real. If
you just went to the park to like throw a

(36:43):
frisbee around, if I just you know, if I just
sat outside and put my feet in the water, like
these these little things that like we completely throw throw
away sometimes because getting the chain is cooler, or like
you know, like I need I need forty girls to
pull up with me at this section of the club for.

Speaker 6 (36:57):
The I don't know, It's like, like none of these
things really exciting that much.

Speaker 3 (37:02):
Darren and I talk a lot about finding your center, right,
I think we all have a center. We all get
pulled off our center from the world's demand for the
attention of our minds and YouTube specifically if we're talking
us three, because of the platforms you have, you know,
I know you mentioned that you'll often pay for maybe

(37:22):
a family member's bill, But I think there's a balance
between also setting boundaries where there's a lot of people
wanting certain things from you.

Speaker 6 (37:29):
So where do you find that balance?

Speaker 3 (37:32):
Like what are you doing to protect your mental health
and your energy these days? And do you have practices
like meditation or any movement practices that actually bring you
back to your center.

Speaker 6 (37:42):
Yeah, I go through the gym.

Speaker 5 (37:45):
It's like that's like my meditation, that's my you know,
And Dre tell me, tell me, I'm if I'm just
making this stuff on my head.

Speaker 6 (37:53):
But there's like a certain level of I feel like,
I like, for me, it's on a bench.

Speaker 5 (37:58):
If I'm a bench person and I'm small dude, I'm
like one seventy, but like I can bench to twenty
five now like tive couple of times. But that idea
of the weight of the world on me and I
just pick it up and put it off of me
is like I feel like I could accomplish anything, you
know what I'm saying.

Speaker 6 (38:14):
And so that's like that's my.

Speaker 5 (38:16):
Real you know, that's like my real hyperbolic time chamber
where I can kind of go in and just like
and be at peace, be centered, be training, be focused.

Speaker 6 (38:25):
But at the same time, when it comes to you.

Speaker 5 (38:26):
Know, like the demands, what I realized that family and
people with other like who aren't in this world don't understand.
There's like there may be a day where thirty thousand
dollars comes in and at the same time that that
day that thirty thousand came and it gets broken down
like say it's for a show that showed Godless show
amount got broken down to like maybe eight thousand dollars.

(38:47):
And at the same time, just in other expenses, I
spent about another I don't know, twenty thousand, and like, yeah,
we had to set this up for the sprinter, We
had to set that up for security we had to
set that up, so like you know, like thirty thousand
might have became I don't know, like negative twelve thousand.

Speaker 6 (39:02):
Like I went on tour for it for two months.

Speaker 5 (39:05):
I went on tour with two months and I'm made
twenty five thousand, and we spend about sixty just staying
aflut you know, and so like.

Speaker 6 (39:12):
But the people who don't, who aren't in this world,
don't understand that concept. So I don't know.

Speaker 5 (39:18):
When somebody asks me for money, I'm broke. I mean,
I'm holding out on that as long as I can.
I was like, yeah, I'm broke, I'm super broken.

Speaker 2 (39:25):
No. I can relate to both of those examples, especially
like in the weight room. It's, uh, there's something that
that's trained in your mind. When there's like something providing
resistance to you and you're able to push through it
and overcome it, like it translates into your character. It
translates into your everyday life. When you make that a
habit of your life, experience that becomes your character becomes

(39:46):
it gives you the strength to put your heels in
the ground, like when it's when it's healthy too, and
when you and when you have no other choice and
anything difficult that comes. There's, like you said, just trying
to stay afloat or things aren't where exactly where you want.

Speaker 4 (39:58):
Them to be.

Speaker 2 (39:59):
I push through because I don't quit. And there's also
the family side and the money. It's like, you know,
you got to be willing to have that courage to
say like this, this isn't what it is, Like I
love you and in ways that I can, I'm gonna
bless you. But yeah, it's like people see my name
go across the bottom of screen. It was like three

(40:19):
year fifty one million. It's like that's really just an extension.
It's like they put fluff on the contract, like I'm
really only making twelve this year and then I'm out
in New York now, so it's taxes on that. So
it would be like six, like fifty one my account
right then and there tax free. Like a lot of
people don't yeah, yeah, don't understand.

Speaker 5 (40:39):
That's you see and yours is fifty one. MINS is
like I think I don't know what that number is,
and other people say is, but like MINS was was?

Speaker 6 (40:49):
I think it was like six million total or something
like that.

Speaker 5 (40:51):
It's like, I mean, like and people think that six
million line is like, oh, you have six million dollars,
Like nah, I got like a couple hundred thousand. It's
like that was that was before, like you said, before taxes,
and then I took care of this. I had to
take care of that. Then I had that, like you know,
like it was things that we were still taking care
of on top of just like now my image is
a lot higher.

Speaker 6 (41:11):
I have to pay for it, you know, like I
have to look the part a little bit.

Speaker 4 (41:13):
Either get a.

Speaker 5 (41:14):
Chain or get just get little things like that just
make me look like a rapper now. And like just
the living expenses on top of it. I'm like, yea,
you have no idea how much money I don't have
as opposed to whatever that number was you've just seen
on that press release.

Speaker 6 (41:28):
Like cuz you guys.

Speaker 3 (41:30):
Both well, ARMANI you were talking about resistance or Darren
you were too with the working out, but I was curious.
We've had a previous guest on named Steven Pressfield. He
wrote the book The War of Art, and the whole
book is about resistance and how resistance gets in the
way of our creativity. So for both of you, because
you guys both write music. How do you deal with

(41:52):
resistance when it shows up as like writer's block or
you know, wanting to put pen to paper and you're
just like not coming up with anything.

Speaker 5 (41:59):
It's like, for me, what I learned, for the most
part when I'm having writer's block is really just a
a lack of experience.

Speaker 6 (42:06):
That's for the most part.

Speaker 5 (42:08):
And like sometimes it's maybe something different, but a lot
of times it's like I don't know what to write
about in this environment or with this particular song because I'm.

Speaker 6 (42:18):
Not living it.

Speaker 5 (42:18):
I have to sometimes a lot of times I have
to just go outside, you know, I have to go
outside and like breathe air. Especially if like I'm writing
a record that's like relative to I want people to
enjoy themselves, have fun, I have to go outside, have
fun and just like and you know, and just because nowadays,
when we're writing music, we're not writing something that's abstract
art anymore. We're writing something that's relative to people. We're

(42:39):
writing something that's the soundtrack to people's everyday lives, and
we're writing something that's just like relative, it's relatable, you know,
So we have to like we almost have to go
out and be the person that we want to put
in this song so that the person we want to
hear this song can feel like they know that person,
you know.

Speaker 2 (42:55):
Yeah, I feel like for me, it's like not trying
to put like a certain timetable on a project or
an idea, but allowing the idea itself to dictate when
it's done, not have to rush to a result or
rush to put something out to please somebody or to
or to get that that clap or that ovation. But
it's really just like keeping in mind as much as

(43:17):
possible that I love the creation aspect of this, so
I'm going to pour into that as much as possible,
And whenever I try to force something on the record,
it ain't going like's not they won't be a line
on the paper, you know. But I feel like some
of the best things are so simple and they come
naturally and they just flow out of us because it's
like that was meant to be for that moment, And

(43:40):
sometimes that idea can come out instantly, sometimes it may
take months. But being okay with however long that process is,
and not trying to force my will or my desires
or any type agreed I may have in my heart
into the music. But just keeping the process as pure
as possible.

Speaker 5 (43:56):
I'd say, mm hmm, absolutely, And I think I think
that's like, you know, and it's funny that like for me,
you know, you I walk into this building and then
the question is, you know, how do you how do
you write?

Speaker 6 (44:06):
How do you make music? Like what's your creative process?

Speaker 5 (44:08):
And I'm like, I like the I like the kind
of mad scientists like I like to just you know,
like we may make a beat in the studio together,
I may come up with an idea whatever, but when
it's time to make the song, I want to be
by myself. I want to be able to just like
completely just free flow just thoughts like let him let
everything out and just you know, like brainstorm with it
and a lot of times because the industry is in

(44:29):
such a microwave society thing now, like now it's just like, nah,
just come down to the studio and just make a
song on the spot. And I'm like, wait what, you know,
like it's like I'm not doing that. If you ask
the producer to do it, he's not doing that. Like
you know, like they come in with like five to
ten beats that they all just made. They didn't make
any of these beats on the spot. Why do I
got to make something on the spot? Like you know?

Speaker 6 (44:49):
So, like I agreed exactly what you're saying.

Speaker 3 (44:52):
Man, I'm I'm sensing or I'm my intuition is feeling
a little collab between you two.

Speaker 6 (44:58):
Nobody.

Speaker 3 (44:59):
I don't know if you've heard any of Darren Darren's music.
Darren humble to a fault, but he is crazy talented.
I was just playing his music for some of my
girlfriend's friends and to Loom this last weekend. And anybody
that I play his music to, they're just like blown away.
You know, they're probably expecting something and then what they
get with the creativity and.

Speaker 4 (45:20):
Trash. Let's let's let's not expect something.

Speaker 3 (45:24):
Another another athlete trying to wrap. But yeah, man, it's
uh yeah, super talented.

Speaker 5 (45:30):
The both of you are absolutely, I definitely you know,
like I'm I'm I'm definitely in a collaborative world right now.
So and and if if this is as fire as
you're saying, you're making to Loom music, then yeah, we
definitely got some music.

Speaker 3 (45:44):
His music isn't a tu Loom vibe, but I could
see I could see I could see.

Speaker 6 (45:48):
Some loom to loom vibes.

Speaker 2 (45:51):
Hey, wherever it's meant to go, it's meant to go. Yes, well, man, appreciate,
appreciate you coming on here today, man, and and just
being so open about your story and your journey and
just sharing wisdom and experience and strength with the people.

Speaker 3 (46:04):
Man.

Speaker 4 (46:04):
And it's it's awesome to get them to see this.

Speaker 2 (46:07):
Side of you because they see the turn side, they
see all the different records that you put out, but
to see your human being and a great human being
at that. Man, it's been a blessing to talk to you, brother.

Speaker 4 (46:16):
Man.

Speaker 6 (46:17):
It's been a blessing to be on the platform. I
appreciate y'all both having me on it. Yeah, man, thank you.

Speaker 3 (46:21):
There's nothing greater for me to sit and sit back
and observe. You know, you got an athlete, NFL football
player and a rapper and we're talking. We're not talking
really about those things. We're talking about the real stuff,
mental health, you know, taking care of ourselves, protecting our energy,
and that's everything to me. So thanks for showing up
and being real today.

Speaker 4 (46:42):
Nah.

Speaker 5 (46:42):
I appreciate y'all. I had I want to even I
even add on to saying that I had a guy.
I was doing a session in California, like around the
time when my father passed, and he was we were
just kind of like, like I was telling them, I
just took a break from music. He was like, I
just took a break for the same thing. You know,
I had my girlfriend just broke up with me. So
I was kind of, you know, just really depressed in

(47:04):
my world them whatever whatever. And I was like, oh man,
you know, I hope, like, you know, you kind of
come out of it. He said, well, what's what's going
on with you? And I was like, well, you know,
my father passed and I kind of just had to
get away from the city. And he was like, oh wait, no,
like what I'm going through is nothing on what.

Speaker 6 (47:20):
You got going on. But I told him, in that moment,
I realized, We're dealing with the same volume of emotions.

Speaker 5 (47:28):
It's just two completely different you know, stories, two completely
different reasons, two completely different you know, backgrounds, but the
thing that we're feeling is the same.

Speaker 6 (47:38):
Well, you know, what we're going through kind of binds
us and puts us all in the same box.

Speaker 5 (47:42):
So like, I think, you know, this is this was
really beneficial and helpful for me just to like, you know,
kind of create that coalition and so like, yeo, whatever
it is that I may have been dealing with, whatever
it is that you you have been dealing with in
the past, or what deal with in the future.

Speaker 6 (47:56):
Like, we're not that far apart from each other that
we all go through things and we all just you know,
have our comeback stories and get back on top.

Speaker 4 (48:04):
Again.

Speaker 2 (48:04):
Thank you, appreciate everybody joining us and listening to another
episode of Comeback Stories. Hope you guys keep coming back.
You know how we do comebacks in our DNA. Check
us out anywhere if you download podcasts, subscribe, leave a review,
and check us out on the Inflection Network on YouTube
as well, and we'll catch you guys next week.

Speaker 1 (48:26):
Comeback Stories is a production of Inflection Network and iHeartRadio.
For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts,
or wherever you get your podcasts.