September 9, 2022 • 45 mins
N.O.R.E. & DJ EFN are the Drink Champs. In this episode we chop it up with the one and only Black Star!
The legendary group Black Star (Yasiin Bey and Talib Kweli) join us for an incredible episode!
Black Star talks about their new album “No Fear of Time” their hip-hop journey and much more!
Comedy icon, Dave Chappelle also joins the conversation!
Lots of great stories that you don’t want to miss!!
Make some noise!!! 💐💐💐🏆🏆🏆
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:02):
She don't want you to getting your back, staying your back.
She ain't don't want my love. I guess I gotta
move on. Yeah, Yeah, she my love. I guess I
gotta move on. Yeah. Welcome to Drink Champs, the production
(00:32):
of the Black Effect and I Heart Radio and his
Drink Chess, motherfucking podcast. He's a legendary Queen's Wrapper. He's
agree it's your boy here, no R. He's a Miami
(00:54):
hipp hop pioneer, Curt up as d j e f N.
Together they drinking up with some of the biggest players
mean in the most professional unprofessional podcast and number one
sorts for drunk New Year's Time. Trick Up Mother Mother
(01:18):
would good be hoping he would should be point what
U d j e f N And it's drink Chance
tab crazy warp ya will make something? And right now
I'm gonna be honest, man, when we're looking at these
two brothers here, as at one point I never thought
I would see them back together. One brother was in
(01:39):
Africa like an instance. The other brother was in Utica sells.
So then we got another brother will pop into the area.
(02:01):
Now the most legendary but we'll talk about that later.
But let's just get that they had just dropped album
that is just for the fans, and they could have
put it on Spotify, they could have put it on iTunes,
they could have put it on your local Julry. No,
they wanted to put it for their fans, their fans only.
(02:22):
These guys are monkey footing footing and they're still the
most lyrical motherfucker's in the game. And I'm listening to
this album and they're not slipping up even a little bit.
And they got a lot of money. In case you
don't know what I'm talking about, we're talking about the one,
the only motherfucker blackstar. Now, y'all seen bad. I'm gonna
(02:50):
start with you. I don't have a lot of money.
I live on the stipend. Yeah, me too. Do we
have that clip? Now? Let me just tell you something,
y'all seen bay. This is real talk. Whenever I'm down
and I feel like life it's fucked up and I
(03:10):
don't want to keep moving on. Oh, I feel like music,
it's not where I wanted to be. I always go
to this clip and I watched this and this ship
saves my life. This is real talk. Can you play it? Please? Oh?
(03:39):
Like that's the old man. That's not even then. It's
just you know, I'm not it's not. It's all favorable.
Its beautiful. That blazer was gortious. Don't forget to dark
the whole thing. It's a good moment. I'm gonna tell
you why I love that clip the dude rags, if
(04:00):
the door was a good day, the success, the success
of Your Soul, the success of Black Starter, success of
Dave Jappelle's show. Your bars are not supposed to be
like that. Um, yes they are there because what I'm
(04:24):
this is what I'm here to do. This is allows
gift to me right. So you must, you know, put
your crown on many months. You always knew that I was.
I was great at ryman from the mom started I
(04:46):
was nine years old. I was never not good. I
think we should makes no noise of that. You don't
need that confidence. I'm gonna be honest, and I swear
to god I really wasn't because had we just did
this interview would just be just us and not at
the shock. I swear to God, this is something that
really motivates me because I fall out of love of
(05:08):
music a lot like I fall out of love with
the business. Did us a business? I mean, there's nothing.
It's not you know, you should fall out of love.
That means your human being, you know what I mean,
it's not worthy of your love. You understand. This is
not the music, so is another thing altogether. I mean,
(05:29):
the the fence around it called the industry is just
you know, it's just a industrial fence, you know. So
we had Top Level on the show and we actually
asked him, um, well you're a where about said what time?
Because we had he was like, no, man at one point, right,
(05:51):
I'm alive on a planet Earth. My country's Earth. I'm
from a country called Earth like everybody else. So that's
my perspective on life and living in places. Never heard
of this, yeah, because that was the rule. What the
(06:12):
rumor was, you went to Africa and you lost your
passport and then you became a citizen of whatever country.
I'll tell the food story another time, because you know,
that's the whole thing I was. I was living in
South Africa and during my stay there, obtained this secondary
(06:35):
travel document which is well documented the history of it
and the province of it and and the like. And
I obtained one and there was some disagreement between you,
myself and the and the South African government as it
relates to what they qualifies valid travel document. And that
(06:57):
was the older part that I remember, because this is
supposed apoltize, but you know, but it's still apolitize as
many different outfits these days. Uh So I wouldn't classify
so much as that, but it wasn't experienced. I often
invite people to look up the World Passport for themselves
(07:18):
and just take it from there because I'm not here
to make up anybody's mind about anything. But that was
a part of my experience. He said, let me not
get my hopes up. You said the World's passport, the World.
I'm a fellow and I cannot fill out for that, right.
Let's be clear. You have to look at up. But
I'm sure that this is I feel like I'm not
going to be citizen. It's information out about it. Anyone
(07:43):
is invited to check it out from them shoves. I
don't like a community and people need to be part
of I don't want to, you know, shut me down.
You fell it shot the first time I said you
were going to Africa. You said, dude, they got w's
(08:04):
in Africa. Was out a lot, because you know why
they used to lie to me this, to tell me
I had to get vaccines. I had to get shots
that depend on the country going over there. This but
this is this is Africa. Total totality at this time
(08:27):
until I met a con and then a can said
you come out there now, vaccine nothing Like, I don't
know if I believe you anymore. Okay, he just sold
everything to me. He was like, come on, now where
let's just go. I'm just like I get you New
Jersey City is different. Let's just let's just get back
(08:49):
to this album, right you guys? Um, these fans have
been backing for this album for so long. So on
this is like a two part question because on one
part you gave the fans everything they wanted, but then something.
(09:11):
But to this generation, this might be the most laziest
generation I've ever seen. Like they have Google, Yeah they
have Google, and they'll still be like, well how do
I get it? Right? So I remember a friend of
Mines had he threw out a movie and this movie
(09:32):
was so hard to download, like it wasn't in the
so and he was like, yo, how much people not
supporting us? We can't find the ship. You know what
what I'm saying, because so how do y'all, y'all, y'all,
y'all navigate through this the system of you know, these
fans that because it was Luminary Luminary, everyone doesn't notice
(09:54):
a subscription based everyone doesn't notice. How do how do
y'all navigate? This is the first album like music project
on that because the podcast there you go? You knew
we did a podcast to that come off? Because I
(10:15):
mean and listen, I'm not gonna uh differentiate between real
and fake fans because who knows what station people are
in life and with what they are in their life
to even know that we have but we have made
a choice for a lot of valid reasons to be
in control of where and how we just tribute our art.
(10:36):
And I think every artist should have that choice, just
like every human beings. You have a choice where to
so they wears that if they if they got wears
um and so because of that choice to have our
podcast on Luminary, people's parties on Luminary, people who have
been following us, and am I saying real fans, but
people who have come on a journey with us have
(10:58):
been followed what we are seeing bays done with our installations.
Who understand about the albums that he's worked on, who
understand who followed me and styles p Me and dimond
d album, the ones who follow who go to Netflix
and see on Day Chappelle specials. These people was already Onliminary.
They were already listening to Midnight Miracle, you know. And
again I want to stress that's not even a judgment
or nothing. But at this point in our careers and
(11:20):
because of the way the music business, and speaking for myself,
we we have to as as men um and as
artists focus on not trying to cast a wide net
and get everybody. Because even me as a fan, as
a fan of black Star, I want to hear black
Star wherever I feel like hearing it. But me as
as a fan of black Star, also want to trust
(11:41):
black Star, and I also want to follow black Star
lead and it And for us it makes sense not
to cast a wide and try to get everybody. But
for the people who are are following us and people
who are rocking with us, let's get them first. And
you know what, we may have vinyl come out, we
may do other things. I mean, we you know, it's
a supple choice. It's not like there's an effort to
(12:04):
make it unnecessarily inconvenient for people. I mean from from
my point of view, I mean, it seems fairly accessible
and like a reasonable distance for any listener to cover,
you know, with consolidating the experience, you're saying, you don't
have to go to all of these different places, you
could just come right here. And you know, it's it's
(12:24):
a question of value. If you value what we're doing,
and we've explained to you, I mean quite clearly in
in uh, in various formats, the reasons why we why
we've chosen to do this, and the principles behind it,
and what we're trying to establish and what we're trying
to reform in many ways, uh that exists in the system.
(12:46):
Then it's like it's a no brainer. You're supporting the
historical project with an historical approach. So if that's too
cumbersome for you with the like, just stay where you
are to be quite candid, because you know when it's
not We're not here to just bower to make things
like convenient for people per se. You know, we're not
complicating the process in this way. If the machine as
(13:08):
it exists now was more amenable and fair within no problem.
But when they like in a legalized criminal enterprise and
essence and my observation. But then, I mean, like back
in the days, if you want a good you know,
go front, you have to go to out we square more.
But no, no, it's not even that. I mean, it's
(13:29):
not even that. It's like, you know, again, there's a
prevailing metric that exists that does not take the artists
into consideration at all, that really doesn't take humanity into
consideration at all, to be perfectly candid, um, and what
we're doing is a very human thing. So it's we're
(13:51):
not gonna let the machine set the pace for us
when we built the machine. In essence, you know, she
can't do what we do. There's gonna be people that
listening they don't artists that don't know there's creative ways
to release their music and maintain ownership. And without getting
into the details of your business, it seems like what
you did here is to maintain ownership. You know, get
(14:15):
what you're going to get something out of putting it out.
You you could do something else with it down the line.
It is the life of it. I mean, it came
out two weeks ago. You know barely. You know, this
is just the beginning. It's it's not like something that
just came out this week and it's gonna go away,
you know. It's it's it's historically preserved. And that's the difference.
(14:37):
And you have to have the confidence of knowing that
you're in a position to do that and knowing that
your album, like we called a no fair of Time,
will stand the test of time. If you're chasing the moment,
you're chasing cloud and you're chasing something that's not actually real.
It's not a promo room for first quarter or fourth
quarter numbers and like that, right, I just want to
do a shot with you for no reason. It's just
(14:58):
gonna worst. I'm just hosting, okay, alcoholics. So like, let's
(15:21):
crib to this area that we have right now. It's
called the Shock. Let's crib to us this. The Shock
is an old car garage, probably from the nineteen fifties.
I didn't change the outside at all, but inside we
tricked it out. I would drive by and I told
my wife, one day's gonna buy it. We're gonna do
with that shock. I said, don't you worry about what
(15:42):
I'm gonna do with that shock. What I did was
I made this clubhouse. Nothing fancy, but man, this is
like a home for our culture. Means a lot nor
that think you came here the last time I saw DMX.
We had a great night here. All he brought them by.
(16:02):
We've had parties here with common with rhyme and and
freestyle or a chance to wrap. All kinds of people
just fall through and we make we make memories. The
walls in the here splattered with just random night memories.
Photographer Matchi Baton, I think took all these photos with
the exception on the block party post. It's me and
(16:24):
Most a comedy club in London. We had a great
time that night. We ended up watching the super Bowl
and then then halftime called Colin kaebinet because we could
a lot of this, you know, like like this is
(16:48):
a strange place, Ohio, but it's a good place. But
the memories we may hear, our legendary things have happened
in this room, in this town people wouldn't even believe,
and qualities of regularly seen the regularly outum here in
this rage. So can I say something because a lot
of times people move to Miami and say I'm never
(17:09):
coming home. I'm gonna stay here. A lot of policy
pople go to Japan and say I'm never coming home,
I'm staying here. They go to l A. This is
probably the first time a person said I'm going I'm
staying in Ohio. I'm never going back. How did you?
How did you discover this? We don't know if that
needs its own episode. What I mean, we do the thing? Yeah,
(17:36):
home culture, you're here, man chance whatever was complaining about it,
But let me say, let me tell you something, Dave. Um,
I'm sure it was about giving people their flowers and
giving people um their praises. Now and Um, I'm gonna
(17:57):
just tell you something I've seen the likes of I
was too young for Richard Pryor, so I came Eddie Murphy.
I remember when people went to go see Eddie Murphy
movies and they got dipped like like they was taking
pictures for the mo they were in the movie. And
I've seen these comedians run. And I've always seen people
go Hollywood and you know, leave certain people. The thing
(18:19):
that specially about Daves as you always have hip hop
with you. When I did your bell show, and I
wanted to do music I couldn't get. People would come on.
I would reach out the artists and like, like, who
could you remember that? You try to get I'm not
gonna say any names. He's he's a dirty motherfucker's going
(18:46):
just you know what love? And I didn't know what love.
But in their defense or whatever, heard of this show anything,
So so that I come over here to everyone come
away for one second, because this is a funny part.
It is all funny. Um, we know, yeah, yeah, go
over there. We know we need to read the listen
(19:07):
mostly professional. Yeah, see and and and Dave, me and
Tyler has always been great. I felt like after I
had a certain person on my show, we even got
tight up, which is not heard of because when certain
(19:28):
things like that happened, most people you do. I was
with okay when the drink okay. So I called each other, Oh,
I called you, you called me or whatever. We called
each other, and we said we can't let this come
out without telling hold on, hold hold right, without telling
(19:51):
Tyler at first. I telling t first. So I would
like to ask y'all, where was y'all that when y'all
first heard Kanye say this is not the Kennedy's assassination.
First of all, where are you? It was eating Mary's
potatoes when it came across the wire. We were again,
(20:20):
and what happened in different because y'all get high. Look look, no, no,
no no. The only reason we're even smoking and drinking
and entertaining this tom foolery is because going the show
called Drink Chiss right, you mean drink Champs. I'm standing
next to mean drink Chap. Nobody's working with him. So y'all, y'all,
(20:45):
and what happens I don't remember listening to listen. No, no, no, listen.
Pop culture is a desert right now, and your show
is an anomaly. And that Kanye west Uh interview you
did was one of my favorite things that I've seen
(21:07):
in all of pop culture in recent history. I funk
with Kanye, but man, I ain't seen him like that
in a minute. It was funny, it was engaging, and
then this nigger had to go in on Quality's head.
(21:33):
I forgot about. He said something about Quality making baseball
heads paper that I ain't no disrespecting laugh. I would
like to beat you up, Toddler, because honestly, I could
tell the first two days we spoke, you were hot, okay,
I can tell, but you trusted me as a friend, huh.
(21:54):
And I was really respect that because you knew I
see your toler I couldn't stop anything, you know, like
once once the person starts to go and the person
of that kind of but I just like, damn, what
do I do? I can't throw a muzzle on him.
But you could have. You could have took this the
wrong wrong way. You could have you could have called
(22:14):
about no, no, because I killed that mother for that
baseball hat com in. Nobody, nobody hat know what this
thing was. This thing was not hot at all. I
was with him immediately, Yeah he was not. But my
(22:35):
first two calls, I was nervous. But then the third
and fourth and everyone you kind of like just brush
it off. And it was just like, but you said
something to me that was very, very probably the most popular,
probably the most illest things I've ever heard in my life.
You said to me the thing about Kanye, even when
he disses you, he helps you m And you said,
(22:58):
the problem with him he knows that. I do remember
saying that. I agree with that. So I didn't hear this.
I heard of this because I heard I did that
had fun with it. But you know, you think, are
(23:20):
you getting phone calls? How? How is this? How does this?
I mean obviously me and fan called you, but the
episode drops. Are you getting phone calls? How does this
work for you? Oh? Yeah, that was good times. Um,
it was good times. It felt like you know what
it felt like. It felt like having a hit record out.
(23:42):
That's how it felt, the way that I remember like
when get By was out. Just how it just so
it just so, it just you know, it reminded me
of what Kanye meant to the culture. And you know,
the hat ship was funny to me. Um, it was hilarious.
Thought was I lacked? But I didn't even realize with
hats like that. I was like, because you helped me
(24:03):
because y'all put it in two parts, right, so it
was it was a cliffhanger, right, And the first part
he just dissed me, and I didn't see the second part.
The first part I was like, oh, that was weird,
but the second part you was like, yo, but didn't
you just see him? And what she was talking about
was pictures at my Dave Chappelle comedy show, which was
on my birthday, I DJ. I'm DJ, and Dave says,
(24:26):
Kanye gonna show U. Kanye shows up, no security nothing.
I'm like, okay, I'm gonna playing all Kanye set. He
sat next to me. We had a great time. That
was like a month before I saw my drink chairs
at the at the stand, I broke it up. But
now you know, it was my birthday, so I had
all my people with me, a lot of flapush niggas,
a lot of baseball hats. So when Kanye said it's
(24:48):
gonna be twelve niggas with baseball hats, which niggas he
was talking about what I'm saying, and we all had
a group chat. Well you know we you know, you're
a certain age you on the group chat with your
friends who back in the day were on the group
chatters laughing about ship um. But you know, it was
a moment that I had that I had to I
had to have fun with it because I got a
(25:09):
lot of love for Kanye UM, and he seemed there
was there was underlying context behind that. You know, It's
really had nothing to do with bars or common of
baseball hats and none of that, and nothing to do
with that and so for me it was Kanye got
a huge platform, and I care and I you know,
(25:32):
I'm like Marlow from the Ward. My name is my name.
You don't speak my name in no disrepectful way. That's
how I feel. Um. And he got a huge platform,
and I love him any my friend and my brother.
So this was all I loved that about you. Very
conflicting and difficult expressed on drinks before me, and to
be real, me expressing that drink chance is what he
was responded to when he when he said what he
(25:53):
had to say. It was when I saw the documentary
and shout out of cooty because I think he did
a great job. But when I sort of coumentary this
moment in the documentary and me and y'all seen Bay
together with Kanye, and I'll be honest with you, my
life was moving so fast at the time. A lot
of shows, a lot of drinking, a lot of smoking,
a lot of just rather, that's a lot of ship.
(26:16):
I want to I wanted this documentary, and I don't
remember those moments, and so me not remembering those moments,
I had to realize, well, if I don't even remember
those moments, I had to see my film. The people
who wasn't there, they definitely don't know about that, so
they don't have no context. So I have to stop
even be considering the context of people who wasn't there,
(26:38):
you know what I'm saying. Like for the people who
was there, they know you know what I'm saying, And
that's that's that's what that documentary reminded me of. Okay,
very briefly, I spoke to consequence al right. It was
just when the first episode dropped, by the way, with
this thing consequence perfect teeth f me. So someone I
(27:03):
spoke the consequence, So yeah, I see. So when I
supposed a consequence, at first, it seemed like he was,
you know, a little descrunted because people was using footage
of him that UM was from from from early on,
(27:27):
and then later on it seemed like it was like
it was cool. But one of the forties from the
Kanye documentaries you just broke up is you kept saying
this guy is going to be the guy. Yeah. I did,
like very confidently too. Yeah, I mean I think you
ever said you gonna do the whole album together. It's
(27:48):
fairly obvious to men from the from the get go.
Where I was headed where it already was. When you
I don't mean he was amazing producer, Um, he had
all the star quality. He was different, he challenged, in
(28:11):
my opinion, a lot of the macho notion this associated
with hip hop specifically, like he even just said recently,
he said, you won't do U four years in college,
but he's twenty five of Life's disrespect to every gigster
nigger in the world. No one can become quite well.
He said what he said, he said in college. Don't
(28:34):
do four years in college, but you do twenty life.
What he's trying to say, I mean, this is very
hood what I'm doing. It's all good, okay, when we
placed our value yea. And then he also said me
and that has we change? Like it's also like you
this in a million I've never heard this before, but
who is this in a millionaire? Don't want which mann
(28:57):
this All of us took my ship. I'm talking abo
river fishing boats made out of nitrial rubber. I see
(29:25):
what you're saying on the documentary, and I see what
even Dave said. When Dave said, like, you know, he
was watching these clips with Kanye and Kanye but said
I'm dope. What I'm doing dope ship. But what I'm
trying to get from you is what was the actual
thing that you knew that this guy was great? You
listened to the Beach, he did the truth for bet Seagull.
(29:49):
If this guy is fifty is good ms with the beach,
He's gonna n Diamond D. There's another uh MC producer,
hip hop is it is a classic um Pete rock
who he was just kind of like further around it sometimes.
(30:09):
Whatever he would do, it was, it was. It was
a pure thing. I take it is the same way
Dylan is the same way um Um for all. Corye
took it to the fullest, you know extension where he
was like no, I'm and people weren't trying to accept
Connie because he didn't fit into the archetype of what
has been sold as a solo rapper image at that time.
(30:33):
He changed the power aim for it was possible and
in terms of an audience connecting with um with not
just the music, but also an approach him and the
whole thing with the you know, college dropout, with the
mascot all that, it's like it's art. You know what
I'm saying it wasn't about him. You know, I'm on
(30:54):
the block doing this and this and that, but he
and he made songs that the appeal to everybody, no
matter where you were. You know, it was just it
was just good music. I mean, you know, good life
is not about some macho posta. It's just dope, you know.
So that's what I appreciate it about him. And I
(31:17):
saw what Puff was doing with no way out what
I was like, if that's working them, I no, just
pauper Puff is not Broa like Cone Public, not even
Wa like Dr Dre. Dr Dre is going in on
those bards, whether he wrote them or not, he sounds fantastic.
Then I say that Pup doesn't. But it's just, you know,
it's another hemisphere. Kanye was like, and he said that
(31:41):
ain't nobody, don't, don't can help you go and get
Ain't nobody colleges do the rapping attract triple double nor assys.
It's like he's telling you, and when you have that
type of talent musically, but naturally you don't have something
interesting the same and through the wires. It's the most
rocking rooms. Shoupever who does a verse with they your
wife shout after they you know, like and this is
(32:03):
the response to like flying out of the window of
a moving car to their driving like you know, like
you know, in a barely thirty or like in his
early thirties, and so it's like that's a serious thing.
So yeah, it was just always evident to me he
had division after he came out with graduation. Let me
say a story, so graduation hoping I had none of
(32:27):
my teeth because I was going, Um, what kind of
food was you tho? I was very simple, like a
chicken wing and some rice. Um. But thanks for asking
and a recent spaces as an appartify, I have another
one now, um um. So Karne just before graduation and
(32:49):
this is around the time that it was that whole
thing between him and fifty, like who's going to have
the better first year? Was gonna be the king hip
hop of a boom and this is this is fifty
posts give us do try and fifties like, uh, you know,
its presence is up. It's like give us a fine.
It's like, I don't care what you feel about you know,
(33:12):
gang survived or even fifty himself. But that's ship is classic.
I mean that that is a classic record. So, um,
the fifties up and he's loaded up with another one,
and you nobody really knows what it's gonna because people
forget poll the dollar fifty Like with fifty was like
spitting fifty. Yeah, so you know, like fifty was like
(33:34):
never got paid as cool. I'm not, I'm not, I'm not,
just say I feel you. Yeah, he tells me a favorite,
right right, So it was that whole um battle that
(34:00):
they you know that they were very happy to have it. Man,
Kanye had a listening sens and it was in a
movie theater. I never forget it was right over there
by um no it it's like in the back of
the old defam but like in the forties and fifties,
like just off there, like by way cats. The cats
did it as you woke that block over it's like
(34:21):
forty it's not so many students, but it's like it's
like forty nine and now I think it's no, it's
before tests. It's like nine. It's right there in the
corner when the old yeah, the old deaf gym the
university used to say. Anyway, it was a local movie theater.
It was there, and what Kanye did is that you
(34:43):
came into the movie theater. He had programs for like
all of the songs and some of the lyrics and
all that, so so caramel popcorn and edited visuals from
anime movies that he liked and played that in sync
to the music. The moment that he did that and
(35:04):
the moment that I left there that I was like,
Kanye wins, I don't care what fifty sent Guy in
the tank. He is not beating this album at this time.
It's just no way. It was so creative. It was
I mean, good Mornings. Graduation is like it's like a
thriller moment that people actually want to appropriately appropriately appreciate
(35:28):
you for this. I mean, and they tried it. I
always felt like they tried to hate on it because
he really sold a million records in the day. I
don't care what they say. I don't know about the
space program, but he they said he showed his first day.
The first week is the first day, if I'm not mistakes,
the first week and first day was the first day,
(35:50):
uh fifty so seven hundred thousand copies. This is before
Spotify and all of this, like we opened, we got
so call. He sold nine hundred thousand pieces, which means
he sold themis and he don't want to off. It's
just like, let's quit playing games. It kept it kept
(36:11):
the record industry like floating for at least the next
five years with that, and it helped them transition into
this whole stream of model because they was just sitting
on a cash and mean, who who performs like that.
It wasn't cold playing, It wasn't YouTube, it wasn't any
it wasn't any other genre. It was Kanye West with beautifully,
cleanly produced album. There was pure hip hop and Barry
(36:35):
Bards like, what are we even talking about? This ship
is out of control, and yeah, I was like, fifties,
they don't have nothing. In response to that, he I mean,
he's you know, he's he was riding in the tide
that Kanye created. In my opinion and from an observers
point of view, for me, it felt like a referendum
on the on the words I don't know what about,
(36:59):
but just kind of ba've been this whole town. I'd
been like, yeah, I haven't a reverend. It is like,
you know, it's like a vote. It's like it's almost
like a public petition, but it's not exactly a vote,
but it's like something that happens before a vote, but
(37:19):
they have sign of cultural referendums like this side or
this side is going to determine the cultural direction for
this group for at least the next five years, if
not the full generation. And in my opinion, that's what
Kanye West Graduation Album did. It opened up the paradigm
(37:45):
creatively for what could be viewed as uh groundbreaking and
inventive and also having big scale, and there was no
one at that type of pop culture scale who was
being that creative, you know, particularly in hip hop. So
(38:06):
it was a it's a big moment for the culture.
I mean, and and you know this care for Chicago
to everybody stepped on because he was wearing hard bottom
shoes and you know, you know, fucking card agains with
button down shirts. Were not everybody dresses like that, but
at least wants to you know, like you know, you know,
Kanye just stayed shoot to himself. I think this was
(38:27):
the real power. But it's not about following the style
that somebody introduced to you. It's about being you. You know,
and let me ask there was a cover, right, I
believe it was you black thought and fall mons, that's
soce magazine, magazine magazine. This is backpack. I mean, let
(38:55):
me tell you what the outside of us looking at
it saying pack hip hop is at the forefront. Now,
I guess, but you know what I mean. Even um,
but even the backpack coach never accepted that terminology either.
It was like it's something that people came up with
(39:17):
to try to like, you know, I give what people
coming from with it, but it was like it never
stuck because it doesn't have any gravity to it. It's like,
what that's not you know what it is. It's like, Okay,
so I grew up in Flatbush flat Lands area. It's
a two fair zone. And so when we went to
when at that time Greenwich Village, Lower East Side, and
(39:38):
go to parties in the city, we hopp in the turnstyle.
We had backpacks hard and it was a very practical
New York City Thing'd be like a sign of dangerous,
like I do some the trade dude, some of bubble
like a guy. But then you started seeing then you
(40:01):
start seeing in hip hop videos, you start seeing Grand
Puba with the backpack on. Then you have kids from
the suburbs coming and let me tell you wearing back
at the show. Let me tell you we're backpacked. That's
where he came frowned upon backpacks and gangster culture was simultaneously.
At one time we ran in the same It was
(40:23):
one video what they do the roots. It's separated backpack
and gangster. That sounds personal because it did. It did no,
because you know what it did. Everything that represented gangster
the roots had dissed at that moment. Damn, I'm right now.
(40:52):
Let me play some outside baseballs, some outside of baseball.
I'm not a rapper, No guessing because I need to
hear y'all face. After that, here I go, Okay, well
we got the most bitches win. Okay, his head bitches?
(41:16):
What they do? Who do what they do? Love video? Yes,
and it was clever. But there was more bitches at
the biggest show than there was at one more more
more particularly, there's more bitches at the NA show. Okay,
(41:39):
but that but they didn't come yet. What they do
was before tell you something, what they do before you
tell something. I don't know if I remember me at
NAS happened to meet it and him saying that is
about me a meeting about this I'm saying, your b son,
this is not about you at all. But remember when
(42:01):
they're tasting the rapper through where they tasting the rapper
through a Queen's bridge in the projects, not Queen's bridge,
any projects in America, but every project looks the same.
So I remember that that that was the time, this
long rudge that can't believe, I can't believe you still
have trauma over there? What they do video backpack that no, no,
(42:31):
but he sounds like you know, he sound like Memphis
Beleef talking about the nozzle No, because you know what.
You know what it was crazy to me was when
Kanye said that, he said I was faking being a
backpack wrapper and boot Camp. People from boot Camp came
at us and said, yo, we want to respond to Kanye.
And I was like, I don't think they were talking
(42:52):
about you at Yeah, I don't think he was talking.
He was talking about buckshot, buckshots, people who hit us.
And because you want remember who got the prov video
buckshot five foot with the backpacks jumping around and said
(43:12):
that was the first is that considered that he felt
that way. That's why they backed that, That's why they
felt that felt they brought it down. But I didn't
understand that when buck because they had the backpacks, they
(43:33):
got the person Buckshot. Buckshot performs he wears a backpack.
I just did the apolo with care. Was one came
out with the backpacker. You know what, Now I get now,
I get it, not get what he was doing. He
came back, he took he he put the backpack on
the ground and he turned around like this. That's what
(43:53):
he did. Now I understand what he was doing. Buckshot. Yeah,
he was making a statement about backpacks. But kan you
definitely was talking about that. He was talking about the
underground scene, which I was saying because that was the
scene that was supporting him. He's talking about in Puerto
Rican busy. Yeah, so least never died. Man with a moment,
(44:23):
I'm doing the drink Champs and Yellow Springs, Ohio with
most death in time of quality. Nigga, we only need
extra pages in our passports because we are those kinds
of niggas. We need travel this world. One does it
and here we all are in Milan nowhere being us.
(44:46):
It feels good. Man. Listen. The fact that they did
this out on Luminary is a bar. The fact that
I get to test this process like this is an
honor the fact that you are here doing drake Champs.
This is for the culture. Your thanks for joining us
(45:16):
for another episode of Drink Champs hosted by yours truly,
d J e f N and n O r E.
Please make sure to follow us on all our socials.
Let's at drink Champs across all platforms at the Real Noriegon,
I g at Noriega on Twitter, mine is at Who's
Crazy on I g at d J e f N
on Twitter, and most importantly, stay up to date with
(45:36):
the latest releases, news and merged by going to drink
champs dot com. For more podcasts from my Heart Radio,
visit the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you
listen to your favorite shows.
She don't want you to getting your back, staying your back.
She ain't don't want my love. I guess I gotta
move on. Yeah, Yeah, she my love. I guess I
gotta move on. Yeah. Welcome to Drink Champs, the production
(00:32):
of the Black Effect and I Heart Radio and his
Drink Chess, motherfucking podcast. He's a legendary Queen's Wrapper. He's
agree it's your boy here, no R. He's a Miami
(00:54):
hipp hop pioneer, Curt up as d j e f N.
Together they drinking up with some of the biggest players
mean in the most professional unprofessional podcast and number one
sorts for drunk New Year's Time. Trick Up Mother Mother
(01:18):
would good be hoping he would should be point what
U d j e f N And it's drink Chance
tab crazy warp ya will make something? And right now
I'm gonna be honest, man, when we're looking at these
two brothers here, as at one point I never thought
I would see them back together. One brother was in
(01:39):
Africa like an instance. The other brother was in Utica sells.
So then we got another brother will pop into the area.
(02:01):
Now the most legendary but we'll talk about that later.
But let's just get that they had just dropped album
that is just for the fans, and they could have
put it on Spotify, they could have put it on iTunes,
they could have put it on your local Julry. No,
they wanted to put it for their fans, their fans only.
(02:22):
These guys are monkey footing footing and they're still the
most lyrical motherfucker's in the game. And I'm listening to
this album and they're not slipping up even a little bit.
And they got a lot of money. In case you
don't know what I'm talking about, we're talking about the one,
the only motherfucker blackstar. Now, y'all seen bad. I'm gonna
(02:50):
start with you. I don't have a lot of money.
I live on the stipend. Yeah, me too. Do we
have that clip? Now? Let me just tell you something,
y'all seen bay. This is real talk. Whenever I'm down
and I feel like life it's fucked up and I
(03:10):
don't want to keep moving on. Oh, I feel like music,
it's not where I wanted to be. I always go
to this clip and I watched this and this ship
saves my life. This is real talk. Can you play it? Please? Oh?
(03:39):
Like that's the old man. That's not even then. It's
just you know, I'm not it's not. It's all favorable.
Its beautiful. That blazer was gortious. Don't forget to dark
the whole thing. It's a good moment. I'm gonna tell
you why I love that clip the dude rags, if
(04:00):
the door was a good day, the success, the success
of Your Soul, the success of Black Starter, success of
Dave Jappelle's show. Your bars are not supposed to be
like that. Um, yes they are there because what I'm
(04:24):
this is what I'm here to do. This is allows
gift to me right. So you must, you know, put
your crown on many months. You always knew that I was.
I was great at ryman from the mom started I
(04:46):
was nine years old. I was never not good. I
think we should makes no noise of that. You don't
need that confidence. I'm gonna be honest, and I swear
to god I really wasn't because had we just did
this interview would just be just us and not at
the shock. I swear to God, this is something that
really motivates me because I fall out of love of
(05:08):
music a lot like I fall out of love with
the business. Did us a business? I mean, there's nothing.
It's not you know, you should fall out of love.
That means your human being, you know what I mean,
it's not worthy of your love. You understand. This is
not the music, so is another thing altogether. I mean,
(05:29):
the the fence around it called the industry is just
you know, it's just a industrial fence, you know. So
we had Top Level on the show and we actually
asked him, um, well you're a where about said what time?
Because we had he was like, no, man at one point, right,
(05:51):
I'm alive on a planet Earth. My country's Earth. I'm
from a country called Earth like everybody else. So that's
my perspective on life and living in places. Never heard
of this, yeah, because that was the rule. What the
(06:12):
rumor was, you went to Africa and you lost your
passport and then you became a citizen of whatever country.
I'll tell the food story another time, because you know,
that's the whole thing I was. I was living in
South Africa and during my stay there, obtained this secondary
(06:35):
travel document which is well documented the history of it
and the province of it and and the like. And
I obtained one and there was some disagreement between you,
myself and the and the South African government as it
relates to what they qualifies valid travel document. And that
(06:57):
was the older part that I remember, because this is
supposed apoltize, but you know, but it's still apolitize as
many different outfits these days. Uh So I wouldn't classify
so much as that, but it wasn't experienced. I often
invite people to look up the World Passport for themselves
(07:18):
and just take it from there because I'm not here
to make up anybody's mind about anything. But that was
a part of my experience. He said, let me not
get my hopes up. You said the World's passport, the World.
I'm a fellow and I cannot fill out for that, right.
Let's be clear. You have to look at up. But
I'm sure that this is I feel like I'm not
going to be citizen. It's information out about it. Anyone
(07:43):
is invited to check it out from them shoves. I
don't like a community and people need to be part
of I don't want to, you know, shut me down.
You fell it shot the first time I said you
were going to Africa. You said, dude, they got w's
(08:04):
in Africa. Was out a lot, because you know why
they used to lie to me this, to tell me
I had to get vaccines. I had to get shots
that depend on the country going over there. This but
this is this is Africa. Total totality at this time
(08:27):
until I met a con and then a can said
you come out there now, vaccine nothing Like, I don't
know if I believe you anymore. Okay, he just sold
everything to me. He was like, come on, now where
let's just go. I'm just like I get you New
Jersey City is different. Let's just let's just get back
(08:49):
to this album, right you guys? Um, these fans have
been backing for this album for so long. So on
this is like a two part question because on one
part you gave the fans everything they wanted, but then something.
(09:11):
But to this generation, this might be the most laziest
generation I've ever seen. Like they have Google, Yeah they
have Google, and they'll still be like, well how do
I get it? Right? So I remember a friend of
Mines had he threw out a movie and this movie
(09:32):
was so hard to download, like it wasn't in the
so and he was like, yo, how much people not
supporting us? We can't find the ship. You know what
what I'm saying, because so how do y'all, y'all, y'all,
y'all navigate through this the system of you know, these
fans that because it was Luminary Luminary, everyone doesn't notice
(09:54):
a subscription based everyone doesn't notice. How do how do
y'all navigate? This is the first album like music project
on that because the podcast there you go? You knew
we did a podcast to that come off? Because I
(10:15):
mean and listen, I'm not gonna uh differentiate between real
and fake fans because who knows what station people are
in life and with what they are in their life
to even know that we have but we have made
a choice for a lot of valid reasons to be
in control of where and how we just tribute our art.
(10:36):
And I think every artist should have that choice, just
like every human beings. You have a choice where to
so they wears that if they if they got wears
um and so because of that choice to have our
podcast on Luminary, people's parties on Luminary, people who have
been following us, and am I saying real fans, but
people who have come on a journey with us have
(10:58):
been followed what we are seeing bays done with our installations.
Who understand about the albums that he's worked on, who
understand who followed me and styles p Me and dimond
d album, the ones who follow who go to Netflix
and see on Day Chappelle specials. These people was already Onliminary.
They were already listening to Midnight Miracle, you know. And
again I want to stress that's not even a judgment
or nothing. But at this point in our careers and
(11:20):
because of the way the music business, and speaking for myself,
we we have to as as men um and as
artists focus on not trying to cast a wide net
and get everybody. Because even me as a fan, as
a fan of black Star, I want to hear black
Star wherever I feel like hearing it. But me as
as a fan of black Star, also want to trust
(11:41):
black Star, and I also want to follow black Star
lead and it And for us it makes sense not
to cast a wide and try to get everybody. But
for the people who are are following us and people
who are rocking with us, let's get them first. And
you know what, we may have vinyl come out, we
may do other things. I mean, we you know, it's
a supple choice. It's not like there's an effort to
(12:04):
make it unnecessarily inconvenient for people. I mean from from
my point of view, I mean, it seems fairly accessible
and like a reasonable distance for any listener to cover,
you know, with consolidating the experience, you're saying, you don't
have to go to all of these different places, you
could just come right here. And you know, it's it's
(12:24):
a question of value. If you value what we're doing,
and we've explained to you, I mean quite clearly in
in uh, in various formats, the reasons why we why
we've chosen to do this, and the principles behind it,
and what we're trying to establish and what we're trying
to reform in many ways, uh that exists in the system.
(12:46):
Then it's like it's a no brainer. You're supporting the
historical project with an historical approach. So if that's too
cumbersome for you with the like, just stay where you
are to be quite candid, because you know when it's
not We're not here to just bower to make things
like convenient for people per se. You know, we're not
complicating the process in this way. If the machine as
(13:08):
it exists now was more amenable and fair within no problem.
But when they like in a legalized criminal enterprise and
essence and my observation. But then, I mean, like back
in the days, if you want a good you know,
go front, you have to go to out we square more.
But no, no, it's not even that. I mean, it's
(13:29):
not even that. It's like, you know, again, there's a
prevailing metric that exists that does not take the artists
into consideration at all, that really doesn't take humanity into
consideration at all, to be perfectly candid, um, and what
we're doing is a very human thing. So it's we're
(13:51):
not gonna let the machine set the pace for us
when we built the machine. In essence, you know, she
can't do what we do. There's gonna be people that
listening they don't artists that don't know there's creative ways
to release their music and maintain ownership. And without getting
into the details of your business, it seems like what
you did here is to maintain ownership. You know, get
(14:15):
what you're going to get something out of putting it out.
You you could do something else with it down the line.
It is the life of it. I mean, it came
out two weeks ago. You know barely. You know, this
is just the beginning. It's it's not like something that
just came out this week and it's gonna go away,
you know. It's it's it's historically preserved. And that's the difference.
(14:37):
And you have to have the confidence of knowing that
you're in a position to do that and knowing that
your album, like we called a no fair of Time,
will stand the test of time. If you're chasing the moment,
you're chasing cloud and you're chasing something that's not actually real.
It's not a promo room for first quarter or fourth
quarter numbers and like that, right, I just want to
do a shot with you for no reason. It's just
(14:58):
gonna worst. I'm just hosting, okay, alcoholics. So like, let's
(15:21):
crib to this area that we have right now. It's
called the Shock. Let's crib to us this. The Shock
is an old car garage, probably from the nineteen fifties.
I didn't change the outside at all, but inside we
tricked it out. I would drive by and I told
my wife, one day's gonna buy it. We're gonna do
with that shock. I said, don't you worry about what
(15:42):
I'm gonna do with that shock. What I did was
I made this clubhouse. Nothing fancy, but man, this is
like a home for our culture. Means a lot nor
that think you came here the last time I saw DMX.
We had a great night here. All he brought them by.
(16:02):
We've had parties here with common with rhyme and and
freestyle or a chance to wrap. All kinds of people
just fall through and we make we make memories. The
walls in the here splattered with just random night memories.
Photographer Matchi Baton, I think took all these photos with
the exception on the block party post. It's me and
(16:24):
Most a comedy club in London. We had a great
time that night. We ended up watching the super Bowl
and then then halftime called Colin kaebinet because we could
a lot of this, you know, like like this is
(16:48):
a strange place, Ohio, but it's a good place. But
the memories we may hear, our legendary things have happened
in this room, in this town people wouldn't even believe,
and qualities of regularly seen the regularly outum here in
this rage. So can I say something because a lot
of times people move to Miami and say I'm never
(17:09):
coming home. I'm gonna stay here. A lot of policy
pople go to Japan and say I'm never coming home,
I'm staying here. They go to l A. This is
probably the first time a person said I'm going I'm
staying in Ohio. I'm never going back. How did you?
How did you discover this? We don't know if that
needs its own episode. What I mean, we do the thing? Yeah,
(17:36):
home culture, you're here, man chance whatever was complaining about it,
But let me say, let me tell you something, Dave. Um,
I'm sure it was about giving people their flowers and
giving people um their praises. Now and Um, I'm gonna
(17:57):
just tell you something I've seen the likes of I
was too young for Richard Pryor, so I came Eddie Murphy.
I remember when people went to go see Eddie Murphy
movies and they got dipped like like they was taking
pictures for the mo they were in the movie. And
I've seen these comedians run. And I've always seen people
go Hollywood and you know, leave certain people. The thing
(18:19):
that specially about Daves as you always have hip hop
with you. When I did your bell show, and I
wanted to do music I couldn't get. People would come on.
I would reach out the artists and like, like, who
could you remember that? You try to get I'm not
gonna say any names. He's he's a dirty motherfucker's going
(18:46):
just you know what love? And I didn't know what love.
But in their defense or whatever, heard of this show anything,
So so that I come over here to everyone come
away for one second, because this is a funny part.
It is all funny. Um, we know, yeah, yeah, go
over there. We know we need to read the listen
(19:07):
mostly professional. Yeah, see and and and Dave, me and
Tyler has always been great. I felt like after I
had a certain person on my show, we even got
tight up, which is not heard of because when certain
(19:28):
things like that happened, most people you do. I was
with okay when the drink okay. So I called each other, Oh,
I called you, you called me or whatever. We called
each other, and we said we can't let this come
out without telling hold on, hold hold right, without telling
(19:51):
Tyler at first. I telling t first. So I would
like to ask y'all, where was y'all that when y'all
first heard Kanye say this is not the Kennedy's assassination.
First of all, where are you? It was eating Mary's
potatoes when it came across the wire. We were again,
(20:20):
and what happened in different because y'all get high. Look look, no, no,
no no. The only reason we're even smoking and drinking
and entertaining this tom foolery is because going the show
called Drink Chiss right, you mean drink Champs. I'm standing
next to mean drink Chap. Nobody's working with him. So y'all, y'all,
(20:45):
and what happens I don't remember listening to listen. No, no, no, listen.
Pop culture is a desert right now, and your show
is an anomaly. And that Kanye west Uh interview you
did was one of my favorite things that I've seen
(21:07):
in all of pop culture in recent history. I funk
with Kanye, but man, I ain't seen him like that
in a minute. It was funny, it was engaging, and
then this nigger had to go in on Quality's head.
(21:33):
I forgot about. He said something about Quality making baseball
heads paper that I ain't no disrespecting laugh. I would
like to beat you up, Toddler, because honestly, I could
tell the first two days we spoke, you were hot, okay,
I can tell, but you trusted me as a friend, huh.
(21:54):
And I was really respect that because you knew I
see your toler I couldn't stop anything, you know, like
once once the person starts to go and the person
of that kind of but I just like, damn, what
do I do? I can't throw a muzzle on him.
But you could have. You could have took this the
wrong wrong way. You could have you could have called
(22:14):
about no, no, because I killed that mother for that
baseball hat com in. Nobody, nobody hat know what this
thing was. This thing was not hot at all. I
was with him immediately, Yeah he was not. But my
(22:35):
first two calls, I was nervous. But then the third
and fourth and everyone you kind of like just brush
it off. And it was just like, but you said
something to me that was very, very probably the most popular,
probably the most illest things I've ever heard in my life.
You said to me the thing about Kanye, even when
he disses you, he helps you m And you said,
(22:58):
the problem with him he knows that. I do remember
saying that. I agree with that. So I didn't hear this.
I heard of this because I heard I did that
had fun with it. But you know, you think, are
(23:20):
you getting phone calls? How? How is this? How does this?
I mean obviously me and fan called you, but the
episode drops. Are you getting phone calls? How does this
work for you? Oh? Yeah, that was good times. Um,
it was good times. It felt like you know what
it felt like. It felt like having a hit record out.
(23:42):
That's how it felt, the way that I remember like
when get By was out. Just how it just so
it just so, it just you know, it reminded me
of what Kanye meant to the culture. And you know,
the hat ship was funny to me. Um, it was hilarious.
Thought was I lacked? But I didn't even realize with
hats like that. I was like, because you helped me
(24:03):
because y'all put it in two parts, right, so it
was it was a cliffhanger, right, And the first part
he just dissed me, and I didn't see the second part.
The first part I was like, oh, that was weird,
but the second part you was like, yo, but didn't
you just see him? And what she was talking about
was pictures at my Dave Chappelle comedy show, which was
on my birthday, I DJ. I'm DJ, and Dave says,
(24:26):
Kanye gonna show U. Kanye shows up, no security nothing.
I'm like, okay, I'm gonna playing all Kanye set. He
sat next to me. We had a great time. That
was like a month before I saw my drink chairs
at the at the stand, I broke it up. But
now you know, it was my birthday, so I had
all my people with me, a lot of flapush niggas,
a lot of baseball hats. So when Kanye said it's
(24:48):
gonna be twelve niggas with baseball hats, which niggas he
was talking about what I'm saying, and we all had
a group chat. Well you know we you know, you're
a certain age you on the group chat with your
friends who back in the day were on the group
chatters laughing about ship um. But you know, it was
a moment that I had that I had to I
had to have fun with it because I got a
(25:09):
lot of love for Kanye UM, and he seemed there
was there was underlying context behind that. You know, It's
really had nothing to do with bars or common of
baseball hats and none of that, and nothing to do
with that and so for me it was Kanye got
a huge platform, and I care and I you know,
(25:32):
I'm like Marlow from the Ward. My name is my name.
You don't speak my name in no disrepectful way. That's
how I feel. Um. And he got a huge platform,
and I love him any my friend and my brother.
So this was all I loved that about you. Very
conflicting and difficult expressed on drinks before me, and to
be real, me expressing that drink chance is what he
was responded to when he when he said what he
(25:53):
had to say. It was when I saw the documentary
and shout out of cooty because I think he did
a great job. But when I sort of coumentary this
moment in the documentary and me and y'all seen Bay
together with Kanye, and I'll be honest with you, my
life was moving so fast at the time. A lot
of shows, a lot of drinking, a lot of smoking,
a lot of just rather, that's a lot of ship.
(26:16):
I want to I wanted this documentary, and I don't
remember those moments, and so me not remembering those moments,
I had to realize, well, if I don't even remember
those moments, I had to see my film. The people
who wasn't there, they definitely don't know about that, so
they don't have no context. So I have to stop
even be considering the context of people who wasn't there,
(26:38):
you know what I'm saying. Like for the people who
was there, they know you know what I'm saying, And
that's that's that's what that documentary reminded me of. Okay,
very briefly, I spoke to consequence al right. It was
just when the first episode dropped, by the way, with
this thing consequence perfect teeth f me. So someone I
(27:03):
spoke the consequence, So yeah, I see. So when I
supposed a consequence, at first, it seemed like he was,
you know, a little descrunted because people was using footage
of him that UM was from from from early on,
(27:27):
and then later on it seemed like it was like
it was cool. But one of the forties from the
Kanye documentaries you just broke up is you kept saying
this guy is going to be the guy. Yeah. I did,
like very confidently too. Yeah, I mean I think you
ever said you gonna do the whole album together. It's
(27:48):
fairly obvious to men from the from the get go.
Where I was headed where it already was. When you
I don't mean he was amazing producer, Um, he had
all the star quality. He was different, he challenged, in
(28:11):
my opinion, a lot of the macho notion this associated
with hip hop specifically, like he even just said recently,
he said, you won't do U four years in college,
but he's twenty five of Life's disrespect to every gigster
nigger in the world. No one can become quite well.
He said what he said, he said in college. Don't
(28:34):
do four years in college, but you do twenty life.
What he's trying to say, I mean, this is very
hood what I'm doing. It's all good, okay, when we
placed our value yea. And then he also said me
and that has we change? Like it's also like you
this in a million I've never heard this before, but
who is this in a millionaire? Don't want which mann
(28:57):
this All of us took my ship. I'm talking abo
river fishing boats made out of nitrial rubber. I see
(29:25):
what you're saying on the documentary, and I see what
even Dave said. When Dave said, like, you know, he
was watching these clips with Kanye and Kanye but said
I'm dope. What I'm doing dope ship. But what I'm
trying to get from you is what was the actual
thing that you knew that this guy was great? You
listened to the Beach, he did the truth for bet Seagull.
(29:49):
If this guy is fifty is good ms with the beach,
He's gonna n Diamond D. There's another uh MC producer,
hip hop is it is a classic um Pete rock
who he was just kind of like further around it sometimes.
(30:09):
Whatever he would do, it was, it was. It was
a pure thing. I take it is the same way
Dylan is the same way um Um for all. Corye
took it to the fullest, you know extension where he
was like no, I'm and people weren't trying to accept
Connie because he didn't fit into the archetype of what
has been sold as a solo rapper image at that time.
(30:33):
He changed the power aim for it was possible and
in terms of an audience connecting with um with not
just the music, but also an approach him and the
whole thing with the you know, college dropout, with the
mascot all that, it's like it's art. You know what
I'm saying it wasn't about him. You know, I'm on
(30:54):
the block doing this and this and that, but he
and he made songs that the appeal to everybody, no
matter where you were. You know, it was just it
was just good music. I mean, you know, good life
is not about some macho posta. It's just dope, you know.
So that's what I appreciate it about him. And I
(31:17):
saw what Puff was doing with no way out what
I was like, if that's working them, I no, just
pauper Puff is not Broa like Cone Public, not even
Wa like Dr Dre. Dr Dre is going in on
those bards, whether he wrote them or not, he sounds fantastic.
Then I say that Pup doesn't. But it's just, you know,
it's another hemisphere. Kanye was like, and he said that
(31:41):
ain't nobody, don't, don't can help you go and get
Ain't nobody colleges do the rapping attract triple double nor assys.
It's like he's telling you, and when you have that
type of talent musically, but naturally you don't have something
interesting the same and through the wires. It's the most
rocking rooms. Shoupever who does a verse with they your
wife shout after they you know, like and this is
(32:03):
the response to like flying out of the window of
a moving car to their driving like you know, like
you know, in a barely thirty or like in his
early thirties, and so it's like that's a serious thing.
So yeah, it was just always evident to me he
had division after he came out with graduation. Let me
say a story, so graduation hoping I had none of
(32:27):
my teeth because I was going, Um, what kind of
food was you tho? I was very simple, like a
chicken wing and some rice. Um. But thanks for asking
and a recent spaces as an appartify, I have another
one now, um um. So Karne just before graduation and
(32:49):
this is around the time that it was that whole
thing between him and fifty, like who's going to have
the better first year? Was gonna be the king hip
hop of a boom and this is this is fifty
posts give us do try and fifties like, uh, you know,
its presence is up. It's like give us a fine.
It's like, I don't care what you feel about you know,
(33:12):
gang survived or even fifty himself. But that's ship is classic.
I mean that that is a classic record. So, um,
the fifties up and he's loaded up with another one,
and you nobody really knows what it's gonna because people
forget poll the dollar fifty Like with fifty was like
spitting fifty. Yeah, so you know, like fifty was like
(33:34):
never got paid as cool. I'm not, I'm not, I'm not,
just say I feel you. Yeah, he tells me a favorite,
right right, So it was that whole um battle that
(34:00):
they you know that they were very happy to have it. Man,
Kanye had a listening sens and it was in a
movie theater. I never forget it was right over there
by um no it it's like in the back of
the old defam but like in the forties and fifties,
like just off there, like by way cats. The cats
did it as you woke that block over it's like
(34:21):
forty it's not so many students, but it's like it's
like forty nine and now I think it's no, it's
before tests. It's like nine. It's right there in the
corner when the old yeah, the old deaf gym the
university used to say. Anyway, it was a local movie theater.
It was there, and what Kanye did is that you
(34:43):
came into the movie theater. He had programs for like
all of the songs and some of the lyrics and
all that, so so caramel popcorn and edited visuals from
anime movies that he liked and played that in sync
to the music. The moment that he did that and
(35:04):
the moment that I left there that I was like,
Kanye wins, I don't care what fifty sent Guy in
the tank. He is not beating this album at this time.
It's just no way. It was so creative. It was
I mean, good Mornings. Graduation is like it's like a
thriller moment that people actually want to appropriately appropriately appreciate
(35:28):
you for this. I mean, and they tried it. I
always felt like they tried to hate on it because
he really sold a million records in the day. I
don't care what they say. I don't know about the
space program, but he they said he showed his first day.
The first week is the first day, if I'm not mistakes,
the first week and first day was the first day,
(35:50):
uh fifty so seven hundred thousand copies. This is before
Spotify and all of this, like we opened, we got
so call. He sold nine hundred thousand pieces, which means
he sold themis and he don't want to off. It's
just like, let's quit playing games. It kept it kept
(36:11):
the record industry like floating for at least the next
five years with that, and it helped them transition into
this whole stream of model because they was just sitting
on a cash and mean, who who performs like that.
It wasn't cold playing, It wasn't YouTube, it wasn't any
it wasn't any other genre. It was Kanye West with beautifully,
cleanly produced album. There was pure hip hop and Barry
(36:35):
Bards like, what are we even talking about? This ship
is out of control, and yeah, I was like, fifties,
they don't have nothing. In response to that, he I mean,
he's you know, he's he was riding in the tide
that Kanye created. In my opinion and from an observers
point of view, for me, it felt like a referendum
on the on the words I don't know what about,
(36:59):
but just kind of ba've been this whole town. I'd
been like, yeah, I haven't a reverend. It is like,
you know, it's like a vote. It's like it's almost
like a public petition, but it's not exactly a vote,
but it's like something that happens before a vote, but
(37:19):
they have sign of cultural referendums like this side or
this side is going to determine the cultural direction for
this group for at least the next five years, if
not the full generation. And in my opinion, that's what
Kanye West Graduation Album did. It opened up the paradigm
(37:45):
creatively for what could be viewed as uh groundbreaking and
inventive and also having big scale, and there was no
one at that type of pop culture scale who was
being that creative, you know, particularly in hip hop. So
(38:06):
it was a it's a big moment for the culture.
I mean, and and you know this care for Chicago
to everybody stepped on because he was wearing hard bottom
shoes and you know, you know, fucking card agains with
button down shirts. Were not everybody dresses like that, but
at least wants to you know, like you know, you know,
Kanye just stayed shoot to himself. I think this was
(38:27):
the real power. But it's not about following the style
that somebody introduced to you. It's about being you. You know,
and let me ask there was a cover, right, I
believe it was you black thought and fall mons, that's
soce magazine, magazine magazine. This is backpack. I mean, let
(38:55):
me tell you what the outside of us looking at
it saying pack hip hop is at the forefront. Now,
I guess, but you know what I mean. Even um,
but even the backpack coach never accepted that terminology either.
It was like it's something that people came up with
(39:17):
to try to like, you know, I give what people
coming from with it, but it was like it never
stuck because it doesn't have any gravity to it. It's like,
what that's not you know what it is. It's like, Okay,
so I grew up in Flatbush flat Lands area. It's
a two fair zone. And so when we went to
when at that time Greenwich Village, Lower East Side, and
(39:38):
go to parties in the city, we hopp in the turnstyle.
We had backpacks hard and it was a very practical
New York City Thing'd be like a sign of dangerous,
like I do some the trade dude, some of bubble
like a guy. But then you started seeing then you
(40:01):
start seeing in hip hop videos, you start seeing Grand
Puba with the backpack on. Then you have kids from
the suburbs coming and let me tell you wearing back
at the show. Let me tell you we're backpacked. That's
where he came frowned upon backpacks and gangster culture was simultaneously.
At one time we ran in the same It was
(40:23):
one video what they do the roots. It's separated backpack
and gangster. That sounds personal because it did. It did no,
because you know what it did. Everything that represented gangster
the roots had dissed at that moment. Damn, I'm right now.
(40:52):
Let me play some outside baseballs, some outside of baseball.
I'm not a rapper, No guessing because I need to
hear y'all face. After that, here I go, Okay, well
we got the most bitches win. Okay, his head bitches?
(41:16):
What they do? Who do what they do? Love video? Yes,
and it was clever. But there was more bitches at
the biggest show than there was at one more more
more particularly, there's more bitches at the NA show. Okay,
(41:39):
but that but they didn't come yet. What they do
was before tell you something, what they do before you
tell something. I don't know if I remember me at
NAS happened to meet it and him saying that is
about me a meeting about this I'm saying, your b son,
this is not about you at all. But remember when
(42:01):
they're tasting the rapper through where they tasting the rapper
through a Queen's bridge in the projects, not Queen's bridge,
any projects in America, but every project looks the same.
So I remember that that that was the time, this
long rudge that can't believe, I can't believe you still
have trauma over there? What they do video backpack that no, no,
(42:31):
but he sounds like you know, he sound like Memphis
Beleef talking about the nozzle No, because you know what.
You know what it was crazy to me was when
Kanye said that, he said I was faking being a
backpack wrapper and boot Camp. People from boot Camp came
at us and said, yo, we want to respond to Kanye.
And I was like, I don't think they were talking
(42:52):
about you at Yeah, I don't think he was talking.
He was talking about buckshot, buckshots, people who hit us.
And because you want remember who got the prov video
buckshot five foot with the backpacks jumping around and said
(43:12):
that was the first is that considered that he felt
that way. That's why they backed that, That's why they
felt that felt they brought it down. But I didn't
understand that when buck because they had the backpacks, they
(43:33):
got the person Buckshot. Buckshot performs he wears a backpack.
I just did the apolo with care. Was one came
out with the backpacker. You know what, Now I get now,
I get it, not get what he was doing. He
came back, he took he he put the backpack on
the ground and he turned around like this. That's what
(43:53):
he did. Now I understand what he was doing. Buckshot. Yeah,
he was making a statement about backpacks. But kan you
definitely was talking about that. He was talking about the
underground scene, which I was saying because that was the
scene that was supporting him. He's talking about in Puerto
Rican busy. Yeah, so least never died. Man with a moment,
(44:23):
I'm doing the drink Champs and Yellow Springs, Ohio with
most death in time of quality. Nigga, we only need
extra pages in our passports because we are those kinds
of niggas. We need travel this world. One does it
and here we all are in Milan nowhere being us.
(44:46):
It feels good. Man. Listen. The fact that they did
this out on Luminary is a bar. The fact that
I get to test this process like this is an
honor the fact that you are here doing drake Champs.
This is for the culture. Your thanks for joining us
(45:16):
for another episode of Drink Champs hosted by yours truly,
d J e f N and n O r E.
Please make sure to follow us on all our socials.
Let's at drink Champs across all platforms at the Real Noriegon,
I g at Noriega on Twitter, mine is at Who's
Crazy on I g at d J e f N
on Twitter, and most importantly, stay up to date with
(45:36):
the latest releases, news and merged by going to drink
champs dot com. For more podcasts from my Heart Radio,
visit the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you
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