December 27, 2024 • 53 mins
On this week's episode of Eating While Broke, Coline sits down with Independent Artist and Business Genius: LaRUSSELL. They will discuss the difference between record deals and partnerships, the reason why he has been turning the game upside down and taking the term "consumer investment" to a whole new level. As he prepares to drop his 22nd album, you might catch this young Legend in the making slapping wristbands on fans, for an impromptu pop-up show, in his mama's back yard. LaRussell and Co will discuss his futuristic business concepts and philosophies, how fans have the opportunity to have shares of his pie aka the music they've participated in blowing up– in perpetuity...Listen and Enjoy LaRussell on The Eating While Broke Podcast.
Connect: @wittcoline @LaRussell
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to another episode of Eating While Broke. I'm your host,
Colleen Witz, and today we have in the building music artists,
philosopher entrepreneur Larussell, and I am truly excited. Nothing made
my day more than like what two days ago when
your crew I think his crew confirmed like two or
(00:22):
three days ago, and it literally they were like, holy
why are you so silent? You're supposed to be happy?
And I was like, well, I'm just making sure you
tell me the date because if you tell me a
month from now, I'm not getting excited, because just in
case something happens. And she was like, so you're happy,
I said, what's the date two days from now? I said, hell, yeah,
I'm happy. Girl Danks shout outs and Nicole from the
Black Effect for booking you. Super happy to have you.
(00:44):
I love the name of your company and I love
what you're about. I'm the name of his company is
called Good Come Penny as in Points, which I was like,
ooh ooh, that's different, I said, Man, Larussell's hitting us
with so much integ do you remind me of a
cross between jay Z and Drake and anyone that has
not heard your music or kind of even try to
(01:06):
cyberspy on you. It was like really missing out, like
on some good stuff. But since I have you in
my kitchen, the eating while broke kitchen, I have to
know what were you eating when you were broke?
Speaker 2 (01:18):
Man.
Speaker 3 (01:19):
Today I'm going to be making an egg sandwich. This
was a classic. My mama taught me how to make
eggs when I was like five, and I used to
wake up every morning and make eggs and that was
the only thing I knew how to make. So we
taking it back to the basics. We got some eggs,
we got some salt and pepper. Today we're gonna be
doing it on garlic bread. Yeah, because I usually use
(01:40):
regular bread and we just throw it in a toaster.
But my boy Austin was like, you gotta do garlic bread,
so I figured we just spice it up today.
Speaker 1 (02:10):
Yeah, we had a whole discussion about the whole garlic bread,
you and I because I've actually never even thought of
garlic bread. Actually, the first time I ever had garlic
bread for real, for real was the Texas toast in
the box. And now if you go into a store,
it is sold out, like you can't get it. It's
a miracle. If you find one maybe on eBay, but
(02:31):
I don't know the pandemic. Just like said, take away
the best bread on earth. But I'm excited to eat
with you, so let's get it cracking. Oh my gosh,
egg let's get it cracked, all right. I listened to
rap music so much that my girlfriend and I shout
(02:53):
out to a lap behind the mirror over there. I
listened to rap soap music so much that I actually
speak in metaphors and sometimes people have to stop me
and say, coly, we get it. You know you don't
have to. You don't have to rebreak it down in
puzzle times.
Speaker 3 (03:09):
You know, I'm a metaphor speakers. Can I move this
so I can crack some eggs?
Speaker 1 (03:12):
Here?
Speaker 3 (03:14):
Slide over to my side the greatest?
Speaker 2 (03:18):
Are you eating one too?
Speaker 1 (03:19):
So I should make all you have to cook for
both of us because if it's trash, we can both
discover that garlic bread egg sandwiches is just.
Speaker 3 (03:27):
Not I'm finna drop some butter up in here, because
my mom would be like, use some pam so you
don't leave eggs stained all over there.
Speaker 1 (03:35):
Now, are you one of those people that are really
going to use metal on a Yes?
Speaker 3 (03:40):
Yeah, yeah, I do. Use.
Speaker 2 (03:43):
We're not supposed to do that.
Speaker 1 (03:44):
Even every listener is hearing that scratching is like, what
is he doing?
Speaker 3 (03:48):
That's crazy?
Speaker 1 (03:49):
What is he doing? His mama couldn't have ever let
him do that.
Speaker 3 (03:52):
Man, she did. You wouldn't believe how much stuff my
mom let me dot. I don't think we had teflon
back then. Maybe I don't remember.
Speaker 1 (04:05):
You're right then it was like a luxury. I'm sure. Yeah, yeah,
back then I think it was. You're right, you just
had to butter everything down. Otherwise it's stuck.
Speaker 3 (04:13):
Or you get that good old pam spray and you
in it. Oh I'm getting it all over there?
Speaker 1 (04:18):
Yeah, I'm not. I'm not a you know, So tell
me a little bit about what was going on. I
know this is like the first dish that you ever cooked,
but tell me what was going on during the time of.
Speaker 3 (04:33):
Also, I usually add bacon, beet bacon bits, and chaddar cheese.
But I heard y'all broke, so it wasn't a here,
So we're gonna go pepper. I don't see salt over here.
There's lors y'all struggling.
Speaker 1 (04:48):
Hey, yo, so much fun of us over here yet?
You're not even gonna use lorries because.
Speaker 3 (04:57):
Now I'm not gonna use Larry. I've never done that.
I'm trying to keep it authentic.
Speaker 1 (05:01):
Wow, okay, okay, I respect it to be honest. I
don't use lowries. Well I just started to recently, but
it's only because I married a black man from Detroit
who believes.
Speaker 3 (05:13):
Lawry's is everything seasoning. Yeah, yes, yes, beautiful.
Speaker 1 (05:20):
So what was going on growing up? Like around when
you were making egg sandwiches? I know you started at five,
you know, making these, but like kind of tell me
a little bit of your background growing up, Like were
you middle class?
Speaker 3 (05:36):
I thought I was middle class until I got older
and realized we're definitely lower middle class. But my pops
was a hustler, so we were like we had enough
money to be like the richest niggas in the broke
neighborhood type shit you feel me, but definitely, uh, lower class,
just regular neighborhood. Hard to describe when people ask that
(06:01):
question because you got to kind of grow up in
it to be familiar.
Speaker 1 (06:05):
Did you grow up in a two parent household?
Speaker 3 (06:07):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (06:07):
Definitely.
Speaker 1 (06:08):
Wow, Okay, Okay. A lot of people on the show,
they haven't I'm going in that's good. So when did
you transition to music.
Speaker 3 (06:21):
I've been writing since I was like seven, whether through
like writing poems or just journaling, drawing, just I've just
always used kind of writing and art as like an
artistic expression and form. So yeah, since I was seven,
and it's kind of just cultivated. Me and my sister
(06:43):
had this boom box and we used to download instrumentals
from LimeWire and burn them on the cdy the instrumentals
on the boom box and wrap over it. And I
remember we had a wrapped over knock if you buck
and I was going crazy, but my sister was better
than me at the time, so I just had to
keep working.
Speaker 1 (07:02):
Your sister was rapping too.
Speaker 3 (07:03):
Yeah, my sister was rapping too.
Speaker 1 (07:06):
So does she still rap?
Speaker 3 (07:07):
No, she doesn't.
Speaker 1 (07:09):
So you surpassed her in the rap skills and then
she was like, I'm good. Is that what happened?
Speaker 3 (07:13):
I don't think she ever had a passion for it.
It was just something we like to play around and do,
and I just kind of stuck with it.
Speaker 1 (07:21):
Okay, okay, okay, that's pretty cool. So you is it
that you like Drake because it like from what I've
researched on you. Is that you from other articles and
you could correct me if I'm wrong, But your goal
was to be on the level I want to say,
(07:42):
and on the I don't know, like numbers level, because
obviously talent wise, you're on the same level as Drake,
but I'm saying numbers wise, you want to be on
the same level, but independently. Yeah, is that correct?
Speaker 3 (07:58):
Not necessarily numbers wise, but impacting notoriety wise. You know,
I want people to respect me as such, and partially
the way to do that is to put up the numbers. Right,
If you're not scoring as well as Jordan, people don't
expect you respect you like a Jordan, right, And yeah,
to do that independently and just show people that it's
(08:18):
possible to be the greatest at something without having to
utilize someone else's infrastructure that they tell you got to
go through and you got to use these methods and
you got to sell away your ownership, you know, like
everyone knows early on Drake didn't have his masters and
had a horrible deal. I want to show people that
you can get to that level without having to go
(08:39):
through that.
Speaker 2 (08:39):
Right.
Speaker 1 (08:41):
When you say just want to rewind. You said it
was important for you to have impact and notoriety, Like why,
what does that even mean to me?
Speaker 3 (08:52):
It just it enables you to to It enables you
to make change, like right now, feed the whole hood
where I'm from. You know, from now to the end
of the year, I've been feeding the hood out of
my own pocket. And I've only been able to do
that because of my impact and my notoriety. I've become
so great that I make enough money to where I
(09:12):
could take care of the place that birthed me right,
And a lot of people don't get to do that
because they don't have either the talent level or the
resource to do it. I've been able to do it independently.
I'm Finnah. Drop this garlic bread on this joint.
Speaker 1 (09:26):
It's already, it's already done, already toasted it.
Speaker 3 (09:29):
Oh that's crazy.
Speaker 1 (09:31):
Yeah, I try to cheat it because I wanted to
get all up in your kool aid. Wow, So I
put the temple because you can't find that anywhere intriguing.
Let's try it. Let's be a team here. Dang, why
do we have to break from your story? Though?
Speaker 3 (09:49):
Right?
Speaker 1 (09:50):
Is this not the hardest interview? Process.
Speaker 3 (09:53):
This is great, This is great. I'm a multitasker.
Speaker 1 (09:56):
I'm going to try this too. All right, so we
get the bread everyone, we're getting the garlic bread situation
together and we're putting eggs in it.
Speaker 3 (10:05):
Yeah, this is new. I've never had this. Shout out
Austin off the store. Ye let me get right on there.
Speaker 1 (10:13):
Berthie was talking is mess about us being broke.
Speaker 3 (10:16):
Now, well, I was going to put garlic bread on there,
but you know, you guys did it, so okay, I
completely forgot you were.
Speaker 1 (10:23):
Going to actually make it. You don't even know how
to make garlic bread, do you.
Speaker 3 (10:26):
I mean, I use Texas toes, so I was just
going to throw it up on that joint and then
it does what it does and you're good after.
Speaker 1 (10:34):
Let's trying. Okay, let's go back to notoriety and impact
and you feeding your community. Okay, stealing all your eggs, buddy,
All right, here we go. Do you want to sample
it first before we get into the nuts and bolts.
Speaker 4 (10:57):
Sure, all right, let's try and see here we good?
Speaker 3 (11:08):
It did. It's a lot of bread.
Speaker 1 (11:11):
I think Texas garlic.
Speaker 3 (11:14):
It Texas.
Speaker 1 (11:16):
At least we now know we actually now know how
to do it in the future. But there's way too
much bread.
Speaker 2 (11:24):
On this one, way too much bread.
Speaker 3 (11:26):
It's like a bread with a side of eggs. It's
actually garlic, a garlic bread sandwich.
Speaker 1 (11:35):
Would you ever serve the in almost mm hmmm. That
could be an idea, but withinner bread, right, yeah, look
at me? Do I Can we call it the eating
whall Brooks? No, that would probably be horrible. Hunts to
name it the eating whall broke sandwich while you're at
a pay pay as you go? Is it pay as
you go or pay what you want, pay what you want?
Speaker 3 (11:55):
Proud to pay?
Speaker 1 (11:56):
Will come sit with me so I can get all
up in your I know he jumped off camera on
that one, right, fine, real life, real life. So let's
go into Momoss Cafe for a second. What inspired all
of that? Mm hmmm, or at least a partner.
Speaker 3 (12:23):
Just seeing the need. There's a lot of homeless in
Balayale and just people who don't get to eat. And
I'm always outside, so I always see it. I'm always
giving someone money or taking care of someone, whether my
mom gonna drop off boxes of merch to the homeless
community out there, to different encampments, and I'm just always
(12:46):
trying to help, right, and this is the way that
we can help now that I'm in a grander position.
I've done a few of these prior this year, but
just for a day. And when you do it today,
it's like everybody don't get a chance to eat. So
this time it was like, let's make sure everybody gets
a chance to eat.
Speaker 1 (13:03):
Yeah, So I think what you're doing is great. I'm
gonna circle back to your music again. So you're a
talented artist again. For anyone that hasn't heard your music,
I definitely would say you're in the same lay as
jay Z and Drake, which, by the way, I'm a
hardcore jay Z fan. Everyone that listens to this show
(13:24):
knows this. I have a huge five foot painting that's
literally the only one in the world that was custom
made of jay Z like hanging out and from projects.
I'm from Brooklyn.
Speaker 2 (13:35):
There it goes.
Speaker 1 (13:36):
But I will say this in all truest form. Currently,
over the last couple of years, I listen to Drake
more and I feel guilty. I feel like I'm cheating,
like for real, Like I don't let nobody know that,
Like nobody knows that. This is the first time I've
said it out loud, but in my heart, I'm like, Yo,
just listen to jay Z today, don't You don't have
(13:58):
to always pick Drake, but I listened to your lyrics.
I'm just wondering, like, what did? Have you ever been signed?
Speaker 3 (14:07):
Not in the capacity that artists get signed, like, I've
never been signed to a major deal. All of my
deals have.
Speaker 1 (14:14):
Been partnerships, like distribution deals.
Speaker 3 (14:17):
No, I've done like record deals, but in partnership form
like fifty to fifty profit shares, like I don't belong
to anyone on my own entity and we just split
profit versus when a record label usually signed to you,
you're in like a royalty deal and they own your shit.
And if they don't own your shit, they likense it
for twenty years and they have power and rule over
when you release and how you release to any of that. So,
(14:39):
I've never been in a major deal. All of my
deals have been partnerships.
Speaker 1 (14:44):
Currently, are you in a partnership deal or are you independent?
Speaker 3 (14:47):
I've been independent the entire time, So all of these
partnerships are completely like me and my team do everything.
Speaker 1 (14:53):
You see, you're controlling all the marketing everything. So and
they're controlling because nowadays it's a little confusing what record
label is really bringing to the table at this point.
It depends now I mean with I mean if oh
my gosh, why am I spacing when it comes to
who is Draked in Lil Wayne? And what's their name
(15:13):
of their young Money is it? No, it's not young Money,
it's Ovo but no, no, no, he was signed to Lil Wayne,
who was the cash So they're so from what I
know of the history of uh, the music industry, Birdman
(15:33):
had the best deal in the industry. So young money,
cash Money has literally the best deals on the table.
Cash money, cash money. So if cash Money calls you
up right now, I'm just playing it. It was advocate with
no to see.
Speaker 3 (15:52):
There's a cash Money had the best deal in terms
of their deal with Republic, not in the deals that
they gave artists.
Speaker 1 (16:02):
Really, you don't think they gave artists really good deals?
Speaker 3 (16:04):
No, because they Drake didn't have his masters. He just
got him. He was in a royalty deal. Lil Wayne
had to take him to court to get his money.
How could they be in a great deal? Tiger has
been complaining for years, how could they be in a
great deal that doesn't make any sense.
Speaker 1 (16:19):
Yeah, I didn't know that.
Speaker 3 (16:21):
Yeah, but yeah, cash Money had a substantial deal.
Speaker 1 (16:25):
You know.
Speaker 3 (16:25):
Wen dy Day was a part of helping put that
together with Republic. They really broke the bank.
Speaker 1 (16:30):
When did you? So you're a music artist? What is
intriguing about you is, for instance, today we gave you
a release, Clarence, and you sat there quietly and read it.
You're a businessman all the way through. So were you
do you think you're an entrepreneur before you were an artist?
Speaker 3 (16:50):
Definitely? Definitely. Before I was releasing art, I was selling beats,
I was making like album covers for people and selling
I've been I used to sell swishers. One of your parents, Yeah,
my pops was a hustler. He sold everything under the
sun except drugs, like everything.
Speaker 1 (17:10):
It's gonna be my next question because when I hear hustler, I'm.
Speaker 2 (17:12):
Like, what was he saying there?
Speaker 3 (17:14):
Everything exactly?
Speaker 1 (17:16):
So you got your entrepreneur spirit from him, and then
your talent girls kind of came from you and your sister,
like in this boombox.
Speaker 3 (17:25):
Kind of my pops as well. He's very creatively inclined, right,
and he's a problem solver, right, And I feel like
a part of my talent and just my skill, my
business acumen is because I'm a problem solver. My favorite
thing to say is I'll figure it out, and I will.
Speaker 1 (17:41):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, spoken like a true entrepreneur. You know
how to pivot, RIGHTVT. Yeah, that's whenever I see a problem,
I'm always like, it's not a problem, it's a challenge, right.
Speaker 3 (17:50):
What I was I was walking to get my daughter
the other day and I was talking with my brother
and I was like, Man, are you looking for problems
or are you looking for loosening? You usually find whatever
you're looking for.
Speaker 1 (18:04):
I like that, you know what you say? How I think.
I think that's why I like you so much. I genuinely,
I genuinely fuck with you hard. Do I say fuck
on the show ever? Really, I genuinely mess with you.
I was just like, yo, is he as dope? So
what I've learned being a Christian and just living in
(18:26):
the world is like, there's so many dope people that
are doing great things externally. But now that I'm old, older,
I've grown enough, wasn't to ask myself, well, if they're
externally have all this integrity I just wonder, like if
I was a fly on their wall at home, you know,
do they carry that same level of integrity. When I
(18:48):
listen to some of your rap lyrics, I'm like, Okay,
they're great, And then there's some that teeter into like
how you enjoy women in the past. I don't know
if it it's current. I don't know. You know, it's
hard being a man. I'm not a man, So I
just wondering, like, I think, if.
Speaker 3 (19:08):
You are a fly on the wall in my house,
you'd see a human and supreme form right in every
aspect on their roller coaster and on their journey. I
think there's everyone around me could speak to my heart
and my greatness and my moral and my character. But
I also have issues as a human as well that
I have to develop from and that I've had to
(19:30):
grow from just through a journey. Right, Like you you
learn self respect and you learn value, and you learn
respecting other people throughout your journey, depending on your experience
and you're surrounding and what you witness. Right, most of
us just replicate whatever we see. If you don't see
anybody in like loving and nurturing situations and providing that
(19:52):
you don't often replicate it, right, because that's not something
you're familiar with. So just through that process. Of course,
I'm a human, but I think for the most part,
what you see externally of me is what you see
and when you meet me, I'm the exact same person.
Speaker 1 (20:07):
Right when I hear your lyrics, you're I feel like
you're vulnerable, You're you're honest with yourself, and I think
for a lot of men, I don't want to say
a lot of men, for humans, I think we we
tend to either tell ourselves the truth or we tell
ourselves a lie, and it's the battle of you know,
(20:30):
but the only way to grow is to tell yourself
the truth. So there's a lot of vulnerability in your lyrics,
and I love it like I love it well, the
same reason why I love a lot of y'all. You know,
you are my top three, you know, come, so now
I do do snooping. Obviously I had to cyberstock the
hell out of you, but I noticed you were like,
(20:53):
if you're a fan of mine, you come directly to me, Like,
how did you even conceive that concept of like you
want to come to my show? You buy the tickets
for me? No, ticket mass and no middle man, Like
where did that come from?
Speaker 2 (21:09):
Life?
Speaker 3 (21:09):
That's always been the process, you know, Like I've watched
my dad hustle, and everyone who bought product from him
pulled up on him or he pulled up on them.
If you want something from Larussell, you have to go
communicate with Larussell. When you start adding third parties, you
could either miss opportunity or something get misplaced. Like I
used to do booking for a theater and I was
(21:30):
trying to book certain artists and I'd have to go
through their agents and It'll be like a caaw whatever.
Speaker 1 (21:37):
Sometimes they shut you down, get to it, and then
when I meet them later, I'm like, bro, I was trying.
Speaker 3 (21:41):
To get you for it would have been dope because
I was building this thing. And they're like, man, I
didn't even know right, And that's because and they ain't
hollering at you. And then as the more middleman you have,
the more pie that's getting dipped into. And I'm a
firm believer in if I'm splitting pie, it needs to
be with people who helped me bake the pie, not
someone one who's just there. Because the end of this
(22:03):
is a standard. You need to have a business manager.
You need to have this that like, we're not going
to do that. You got to actually provide something. If
you didn't bring no ingredients or help bake this, you
shouldn't get a slice of it.
Speaker 1 (22:14):
Now, you do have a team, because to get to you,
I tried emailing. Okay, I was like, this is the email,
this is how I gets hel But you do have
a team. Do you have a role amongst your team
that they don't get to say no, that you have
to at least they have to at least present the
opportunity to you. Because that's a valid point that happens
in the industry.
Speaker 3 (22:34):
Just about everything comes to me. And I may have
seen this, I was telling Austin. No, I'm for sure
I have. I was telling Austin when it first came,
I had seen the show similar and I was like,
I don't know because I seen the time the eating
while broke thing, and I feel like a lot of
people play on like poor people and shit, and I didn't.
I didn't like it. So I was just like, ah,
(22:56):
I'm not gonna deal with that right now. Let me
see as it cultivates. So I've seen it. There's not
too much that come through the email that I don't see,
and if I don't see it, my two right hands
always see it and it still makes its way to me.
So with the eating when I broke, that was one
of the reasons. I was like, ah, the title, don't
I don't like when people play on the on poverty,
(23:17):
and like, it's just.
Speaker 1 (23:18):
Like when I created Eating While Broke, I I was like,
I just I have so many dope, successful friends that
are like millionaires, influence celebrities, entrepreneurs, and they always have
these crazy stories like they were in jail, or they
were male escorts or just crazy ass stories, and I
(23:39):
love them. I lived for them. We go on to hiking,
like tell me more, what else did you do? You're
a hooker? Okay, let's there, you know, And so I
just love the journey. I actually don't even I do
enjoy the solutions, but I love the journey. I love
the storytelling. I love the hero's journey. And so when
I came up with Eating While Broke, I was like, well,
we got to start it at the route you know
that everyone can relate to, like, you know, people that
(24:01):
are aspiring rappers that are literally only have two pennies
to rub together, and I named it Eating while Broke.
But then I realized, damn, every time I pitched the show,
I have to say, hey, I have this great opportunity
for you. It's ignore the name, let me tell you
what it is. And I always have to say, ignore
the name, and then I tell them, you know, the
(24:21):
show is about inspiring people and just kind of leveling
with them and inspiring them that they can do exactly
what you did, or they should believe in themselves no
matter what their environment is in. But I always have
to do this, dang explain her on eating wall Sometimes.
Speaker 3 (24:35):
That's why, like certain things would get to me through email,
but since it doesn't have full context, it's like I
can't tend to it right because it doesn't resonate. But
that's why I'm always somebody. I'm so open. If you
see me anywhere, you can come to me and address me.
And once I meet you and feel your energy, it's like, oh, okay,
that makes sense, right, But emails have no context, like
(24:55):
that's just you gotta take it for whatever you want.
Speaker 1 (24:59):
I'm uh. Pippole told me this once. He said, if
they locked the door, you're climbing through the window. I
was like, oh, he didn't respond. He Nicole, better use
that my heart email drop this Charlottemade you know it's
(25:22):
running this show, and uh, you know, get his attention.
And not only did I do that, but I liked
you so much. I literally was like Earner Leisure should
have him, Charlemagne should have him, all these people should
have him, and she was like, I think they already did.
Like I was like the last ones at the table,
like these are the shows he should be on. I
don't even I don't even never had an opportunity meet
(25:44):
with you, but I was like, dam all your publicists
over there, like this is who I want. Love it
and and that's you know why we named the show,
you know, at the end of the day, eating while broke.
But I get it because I literally every time I
sell someone on the idea, I'm like, just ignore the name,
ignore the name. But I'm glad that you take time
to come and sit with me and super excited. I
(26:07):
love literally everything you're about. And sorry, one of the
things that kind of surprised me is the entrepreneur in
you and like, also, like, why did you name your
company the Good Company?
Speaker 2 (26:29):
Right?
Speaker 3 (26:30):
Well, I mean good company just because there's a quote.
Let's say your mama say you just by the company
you keep, right, So I feel like good company is
encompassing of just I like to have good people around me,
and we build great energy when we go into places.
We're a good company to have, right, Just that name
is welcoming. And then I use pennies because I feel
like pennies are undervalued and overlooked. Right. If you see
(26:52):
a penny on the ground, you usually don't stop and
pick it up. But imagine if you stopped and picked
up every penny you walk past throughout your whole life,
have more money than a lot of the people besides you.
Even though it's a penny. There's a multitude of them,
like we passed them up all the time everywhere, and
no one really cares. Right, But it exists for a reason.
Speaker 1 (27:12):
I sometimes think pennies exist to go in my daughter's mouth. Right,
that's a terrible joke. I'm a new mom. I'm a
brand new mom. I spend most of my days trying
to convince my daughter not to try a new way
to commit suicide. Right right now, now you see why
our parents are like tired by eight o'clock because they
(27:32):
like spent the entire day, like what do you have
to do next? But what can people expect from you
in the future music wise?
Speaker 2 (27:45):
A ton of it, A whole lot of it.
Speaker 3 (27:48):
You know. I'm someone I live by this theory of
like leaving empty. I don't want to leave with nothing
on my plate and all the music I have I
intend to release and get out. I don't want to
sit on things for years. I'm currently building crazy infrastructure
at home. I keep saying I'm building Disneyland because we're
building something like that completely laterally. But really, I don't know.
(28:13):
I don't have any expectation of myself. So I think
people shouldn't. They should just enjoy the journey. Like how
you say you've been spying, Like I hope when you
spy you're smiling because it's just it's a hell of
a show to watch, you know, it's a beautiful shavn't
got to see too many artists actually make it in
front of us, right, Like we see the resulting that
the label post and share, but we don't see like
(28:35):
them going city to city. Hey yo, I'm gonna do
a pop up, you know, Like we don't get to
see that part of the journey, and I'm showing all
of it. I'm showing us running merch for filming out
of my house. My mom is dropping them, dropping them off,
like I'm showing the entire process, and we're sharing the
gyms along. So I think people should just stay tuned
and this We got enough sequels to beat the Fast
(28:56):
and Furious series, you know, like we're coming.
Speaker 1 (28:59):
Like that when you do your pop YouTube pop up shows, right.
Speaker 3 (29:03):
We're doing one tonight. I just I just got off
a plane and I was like, man, I want to
do a show. So we announced it and now the
show tickets have been selling tonight. It's going to be
at where going to be? This is This one's gonna
be special because it's an unplugged version and it's like
live Q and A like.
Speaker 1 (29:23):
People, I'm not gonna lie like I would love to go.
Speaker 3 (29:32):
Please. What's dope about our shows is like this one
is a bit different, but generally with our shows, like
I use the second half of my set to just
let the fans choose the songs they want to hear,
and I rap whatever they say they want to hear. Right,
So it's like a really interactive show. We did one
(29:53):
in New York and Brooklyn. When we went out there,
it sold out in six hours, five hundred tickets. So
now I've just kind of been in this wave where
it's like I just be like, I feel like doing it,
and we do it and it usually goes well.
Speaker 1 (30:06):
And then who kind of does the logistics?
Speaker 3 (30:09):
So myself for Nadi, he's a member of my team.
He helps with booking, Tiata helps with logistics. Milli is
on my team. So anytime we go to a tour
route and she kind of.
Speaker 1 (30:20):
Plans and give a guy and girl team you yeah, yeah, okay,
I like that because sometimes you work with people and
they like Slayholder, like Charlemagne's company is pretty much ran
by women black women, which is amazing by the way
he treat the man.
Speaker 3 (30:36):
I wouldn't be where I am without women. I have
a team of like the most incredible creative intuit in
women when it comes to just business and everything.
Speaker 1 (30:45):
Now, one of the things I did see, and I
could be wrong, maybe lack of research, but I feel
like on one of the things you have posted was
like if people buy your records, they have like some
kind of ownership in it.
Speaker 2 (30:59):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (31:00):
Yeah, So not necessarily if you buy it some people.
So on Usually on projects, I'll sell my album before
it comes to streaming, and anyone who buys that project
is up for selection to receive a royalty. So I
usually go through the list of buyers and I'll pick
like fifty to one hundred people, sometimes one hundred and
fifty if I'm feeling good, sometimes two hundred, and I'll
(31:20):
give them a percentage of royalty in different songs from
that album. You can also buy royalties, like you could
make an offer to purchase a share. So if you
have a favorite song you like, I love this song,
I know it's gonna be big, or just I love
this song, I just want to have a stake in it,
you can make an offer to me and say I
want five percent of the revenue from this song. I'm
willing to give you a thousand dollars five hundred dollars,
(31:42):
and I'll hit you and negotiate and say I'm willing
to take this or I'm not, and then I send
you a percentage to the distro you collect every month
into perpetuity for the rest of your life.
Speaker 1 (31:52):
Yeah, I've never heard of someone do that, Brover, I've
never heard a song. I was like, did he do
what I think he did?
Speaker 2 (31:57):
Yeah?
Speaker 3 (31:59):
How do you right?
Speaker 1 (32:01):
How did you come up with that?
Speaker 2 (32:02):
Though?
Speaker 3 (32:02):
Like how it was just a late night thought of
Like I've always been split in revenue with my team.
Everyone who helped, producers, engineers, they all get a percent.
So one day it was just like we should give
the fans some They listened to this shit every day.
Imagine if your favorite jay Z song, I Man, you
listen to it every day, but you don't want to
percent it. My fans, like bagas Claim blew up. Some
(32:24):
of my fans had equity in that song when it
first dropped, a year before it even took off.
Speaker 2 (32:29):
So they for the rest of their.
Speaker 3 (32:31):
Life they're going to be getting money off bagas Claim
because they just made the right call. They enjoyed the song.
Speaker 2 (32:36):
So and then, but.
Speaker 1 (32:40):
They reached out to you, or how did you even
announce that?
Speaker 3 (32:43):
I made this big announcement and Tieta on my team.
She created this form for people to go fill out
and you put all your information, you put your offer amount,
how much you want. It comes to a database. I
look at all the offers, I'll email you and say yeh,
I send your offer. I liked it, I accept you
email me. I go through every offered personal badass even
through email, like when we do bookings and shit like,
(33:05):
people are always surprised that they're talking to me. It's like,
it's my business. Of course you're talking to me.
Speaker 1 (33:11):
It makes sense, right. Most of my companies, for some
reason cannot get them past a certain threshold. I don't
know if it's like my whatever, but so most of
my companies are smaller. So I'll email, but I email
under an alias. It'll be like Samantha, and it'll be
like Samantha's so crazy.
Speaker 3 (33:29):
When I used to send out emails to get booked,
to go to venues and try to book them, I
used to act like I was my own manager, and
then eventually it's like, bro, it's me.
Speaker 2 (33:39):
I am l Russell. I'm gonna DIVI vinue. This is
what I want to do right.
Speaker 3 (33:43):
And I've gotten so much more rapport and response because
it's like, of course people want to talk to you
like I'm doing it right.
Speaker 1 (33:50):
You didn't feel at some point it hinders how much
more you can get because like I'll give it pretty
v uh. I emailed her and I'm like okay, you know,
she responded, and then like it was her, and then
she got on the phone with me. She like just
(34:11):
called me, and then I hear the Jamaican accent. I'm like,
wait a minute, I said, and we ended up vibing
on the phone like for forty five minutes. And but
it was it was the first time that I cold
called emailed somebody and not only did they respond in
record speed, but I mean, first of all, that girl
is as humble as a yet, right, but that was
the first time that I've ever seen like someone on
(34:33):
that level just be like, what's up, what's up? Let's
do it. She was like, what do you want me
to cook? I got beans and that. I was like,
what are you doing? You're dope. I was just like
you do you know, and it was past, no team,
no nothing. And you know, I didn't even know it
was her until she called me, and I was like, oh,
it's you. You know, that's like if jay Z calls
me after an email and be like.
Speaker 3 (34:53):
Right, people usually get that same shock, but it just
builds a different relationship, right. You respect what someone is
building a lot more when you know they're working it, right,
It's hard to fuck someone over when it's like oh
it's you. Yeah, yeah, yeah, they're right, builds a different
rapport you have to do.
Speaker 1 (35:10):
You have an internal rule about letting new people into
your camp, because it seems like you have a very
large camp.
Speaker 3 (35:18):
It is kind kind of yeah, even my immediate group
is pretty large. There's not really a rule, just an energy, right,
if I know who I like and who I don't like,
and who fits and who doesn't. Sometimes we'll trial people
out and it's like ah, that didn't really work, and
we kind of maneuver forward. But it's not really any rule,
just your energy, how you feel, how everyone feels about you,
(35:41):
how you feel about everyone, and we could usually get
a sense of that really fast. I also have like
I like to work with people who work hard, like
the best. You know, I don't want to It's like, bro,
I'm playing at a high level at all times. If
you can't keep up, you need to go on the
other court and play with the little kids for a
bit to your game get up.
Speaker 1 (36:02):
Have you experienced failure or let me just rephrase that,
have you experienced perceived failure?
Speaker 3 (36:08):
I hate the word, of course, yeah, of course me about.
Speaker 1 (36:12):
Like perceived failure, and like what the experience was.
Speaker 3 (36:15):
Man, I've had shows where there was five people in
the crowd and I had to pay for a venue.
I rented a sprinter van to get my team there.
We brought the equipment, We brought a ton of merch
that we didn't sell because there wasn't no one to
sell it to. And I was a tough ride home.
You know, I was silent. I'm usually the allowing and
talking and childing, but I was silent, right. And I've
(36:36):
had several of those moments of perceive failure even beyond that,
just sometimes releasing merch and putting all your money into
it and it doesn't go that people don't react. Early on,
I had a lot of albums. I dropped twenty two albums.
I've had a lot of albums early on where I
was like, this is gonna be Yeah, we've been we've
been overlow. We didn't blow nothing. Albums is a lot, yeah,
(36:59):
way more.
Speaker 1 (37:00):
Two hours, not even twenty two singles.
Speaker 3 (37:03):
No, And that's just my catalog. I've written other EP
single albums for a bunch of other people, so, but
just in my own album, it's twenty two.
Speaker 1 (37:12):
When you experience perceived failure. Can you walk me through
your thoughts?
Speaker 3 (37:22):
Usually is negative first, right, It's all like I look
for all the problems, what I didn't do, how I
didn't do it while I could have done it better,
And then eventually it just becomes like analytical solution based,
like I always want to I always want to prove
me wrong or anybody wrong. I'm like, well, I'm finna
(37:43):
next time. I'm gonna do it triple besides, and it's
gonna be a success. But yeah, it's usually just that
immersed emotional turmoil that comes with it first, where you know,
you feel that dark cloud over you and sometimes you
gotta cry or you gotta sit in that and kind
of be in that space until you could work through it.
Speaker 1 (38:02):
I'm surprised that you didn't just say, well, maybe this
is a question. But in that negative space, have you
questioned your worth? Like whether you know, like, oh, well
five people. I get the logistics because I as an entrepreneur,
I get like what did we do? What could we
have done differently? But in that negative space, can you say,
(38:24):
and you are prolific for sure, but have you questioned your.
Speaker 3 (38:29):
Own not in music, like anytime I failed in music.
It wasn't a question of my own worth. It was
just like, they don't see it. Right, I knew, I
knew I was it. I'm just like they don't see it.
I haven't done enough work for them to see it.
They don't see it. So I've never questioned my worth
in that aspect. If I'm questioning my worth, it's usually
(38:50):
through some life shit, like me doing something against my
own morals or against my own code, or just I
let somebody down and that's dear to me. Those are
moments I questioned my worth when I can't show up
for my daughter in a way that I felt like
I should. Things like that, but not music, And I put.
Speaker 1 (39:10):
My hour career wise.
Speaker 3 (39:12):
No, yeah, no, not career wise at all. I know
what I'm worth in my career. I know what I deliver,
I know what I bring forth, and even even through life,
like I'm getting to a point where I know my
impact and how significant I am to you know, the
life around me and the world. I'm feeding a community.
Speaker 1 (39:33):
A community. So there's a book I just recently checked out.
I don't know if you ever heard of it. It's
called Mail Versus Man. Dedre Whitfield shout outs to him.
I picked up the book. I thought it was for men,
but so I got it from my my friend and
but I ended up reading it because I like to
(39:53):
read to get to a book. I'm literally in a
book head that I am obsessed with books. But I
read the book and one of the things he pointed
out in the book, which I will gift you the
book now that I have, I think I have your
address on them. I'll get to information. Yes, But anyways,
one of the things he talked about was like the
(40:15):
male versus man. You know, the male is self seeking
and the man is of service, which is different problem.
I never thought of that, Like, so when a guy
takes me on a date, I'm like, are you trying
to give me? Are you trying to serve me? Now,
at first I was like, oh, that's messed up to
like seek service, But as a female, it's actually not,
because you know, we seek protection and we seek Some
(40:38):
of us do need help providing and some of us
need of course, everyone wants to be professed. Marry me,
the announce the world. I'm the one. I also in
my hip hop head and after reading that book lately,
it's like every song on the radio is like shout
out to my sneaky link er or yeah, I'm having
(40:59):
sex with him my side chick raw. But I'm never
gonna leave you. I'm never gonna leave my family for you.
And and I'm like, yo, did he really just say
he's having sex with his side chick raw and that's
why she's attached? And some of these lyrics are so
terrible to women. I'm like, at what point? And who
is responsible? And this is just an honest like friend
(41:22):
or you know you you you have responsibilities as a
philosopher and entrepreneur and a leader and being a vulnerable
man yourself, Like, who do you think is responsible? Is
it the art form, is it the male energy, or
is it us women?
Speaker 2 (41:39):
Uh?
Speaker 3 (41:42):
I don't think anyone's responsible, but I think everyone is accountable.
I hear the same music coming from females as well.
I agree.
Speaker 1 (41:50):
I went into an ail salon, I saw nothing but
strippers all then.
Speaker 3 (41:54):
I don't think there's a responsibility, but there's an accountability.
And uh, I think that's one of those things that
it's hard to ever be what you never see, right.
A lot of these men that make it in hip
hop and music, they haven't had great examples of leadership
or of men that have that in them to not
(42:14):
fall to desire, or that are disciplined or impeccable in
their soul or fulfilled to where they don't need to
seek or go get extra and the same with women.
So I think that's just we often act these artists
to build things that they don't have the tools to build, right. Yeah,
Like if you go look in their toolbox, it's it's
(42:39):
like you want to build a house with guys.
Speaker 1 (42:41):
Feel like jay Z kind of touched on that in
I want to say four for four or one of
the hourists like where he was the first one to.
Speaker 3 (42:47):
Be where we've seen that, Oh wow, you've upgraded your toolbox, right,
But a lot of artists don't have that. We're coming
out of environments that don't nurture that type of behavior
or system. Like when I was coming up, the older
men around me was like players too, Like, bro, what
you feel me? So you grow up embracing that and
(43:07):
wanting to be like that. That's what you replicate, That's
what you know. You don't see anyone I've I don't
think I've ever seen a man that was just so
in love and revere their family so much and treated
they women so well, like they meant the world to me.
For me to be like, man, that's what I want right.
Very seldom do you witness that and experience that. But
(43:30):
yet you expect someone to conduct themselves in that manner.
That's what's not gonna happen.
Speaker 1 (43:37):
That's interesting. So when it comes to accountability in your
personal life, who holds you accountable? Is it? I don't
want to answer the questions.
Speaker 3 (43:47):
Everyone around me in a sense holds me accountable in
some way, but ultimately me like I have to be.
I have to be the one that wants to get
up every day and put in work and be better
and want to drop my daughter off and pick her
up and do work and things like that. But everyone
around me, from myself, my mom, my dad, my daughter,
(44:08):
her mother, tieda Millie testing everyone are fani. Just all
of my friends hold me accountable in some aspect. They're
always in my you know, I can only stoop so
low sometimes before someone's like, hey, brouh, what we doing?
Speaker 1 (44:23):
Oh? I like that? I like that? Okay? Is there
anything that your fans are me don't know about you?
Speaker 3 (44:35):
I mean everything, I mean, I guess you only.
Speaker 1 (44:40):
Know the music well because you kind of signed a
camera on your entrepreneurship. You also do all these little
I don't want to say little, but these gems on
social media. So when I say is there anything we
don't know about you? I feel like you're it's like
you learn a lesson. You're like, let's put it out there.
You learn that lesson?
Speaker 3 (45:00):
What about there really else today?
Speaker 2 (45:15):
So I battle that.
Speaker 1 (45:16):
I like, I don't know if I want to get personal, man, real.
Speaker 3 (45:21):
No such thing. I've had the really reals, and I
shared there's no such thing. Because there's a billion people
in the world, and someone's been through exactly what you've
been through, and they may need your help, right, but
you're refusing to hell, you have all the tools and
all the means to help them, but you're refusing to
do it because of your own fear, right, And like,
I don't want to deny nobody of that tool. Like
(45:42):
I want people to be able to grow. If that's
going to be through me just sharing what I felt
or experienced, that's an easy call.
Speaker 2 (45:49):
Right do you do.
Speaker 1 (45:54):
The The world is always a sensitive around this topic,
but I'm gonna go ahead and throw it out there.
But do you believe in therapy? Do you do therapy?
Speaker 3 (46:02):
So I recently started therapy, probably a few months back,
and I had a few sessions and it's cool. I'm
not consistent with it because I don't feel like I'm
gaining much from it. But I also had like an
expectation of what I was supposed to get from it,
like I'm supposed to be here, like I have a
new sessions. It's like, man, I'm a gold new Man, right,
(46:24):
And that's not how it happens. And for me, I
just I just realized that it was work that I
need to do. Right. I don't need anyone's help to
be a better human. I just need to choose to
be a better human and commit to that. That's not
something I need to talk to someone about if you
want to, yes, But for me personally, it's like I
built an entire empire. I could definitely build myself as
(46:47):
a man, right. I don't need anyone's assistant to do that,
But I chose. I've chosen not to, right, I've chosen
not to allocate my energy towards that, which is the
only reason I haven't grown in any way that I
wish to.
Speaker 1 (46:59):
It's funny you say that because I recently full vulnerability here.
I recently did try therapy, and I kind of felt like,
oh man, this is gonna sound really shitty for all
those people that give.
Speaker 2 (47:13):
It to them.
Speaker 1 (47:13):
But I felt like, yeah, I wasn't getting the response
in that I needed, the in the record speed that
I needed and it was like I knew the answers,
but I just wasn't choosing to make the choice that
I needed to make. And in therapy it takes so
much uprooting of your childhood to get to the root
that I was like, yo, I'm not trying to relive
(47:33):
the thing that I ran from, like trying to give
me PTSD. Like, no, I'm good, but I do agree
with you, and I'm glad you were honest about that
because people say therapy therapy, therapy, and I actually thought
you weren't gonna say that you do therapy because I
low key feel like your vulnerability and your lyrics is
a form of therapy.
Speaker 3 (47:54):
Definitely. Definitely, that's where I get to get all of
that from.
Speaker 1 (47:58):
And someone gets you, man, And like, because I feel
like Drake, every time.
Speaker 3 (48:04):
Writing and talking really helps and that's the thing about
the past, like you're saying, and that shows you how
much you're how deep your trauma is because you think
like speaking about it is reliving it. You can't relive
the past, right, it's already been lived, it's gone. It
only exists in your memory. You can't relive it. But
we when trauma hits in a certain way, it makes
(48:25):
you feel like you're going through that experience again, but
it's not, and you really have to work through that
to get You got to go through it to get
through it, right.
Speaker 1 (48:33):
Yeah, Or you can try.
Speaker 2 (48:39):
I don't.
Speaker 1 (48:39):
I tried my hardest to I believe. I tell myself this,
every storm. At the end of every storm is a rainbow.
So the faster I don't cope through it or the
more I do not cope and numb, the faster I
get through the storm. So like if I were to
numb something, drink, get high, have sex, or do whatever
(49:00):
it is, go go to the mall, look pretty, whatever
I gotta do, go to the clubs. If I cope
through it, then it's gonna take me longer to heal.
So if I go through it and like blow up
my girlfriends, then to strangers and seven elevens. You know whatever,
I'm gonna get through it faster, even though it's gonna hurt,
Like you know what I'm saying, right.
Speaker 3 (49:21):
So definitely, you definitely prolong the healing process as you
as you act right, every every twinkie you eat just
makes you closer to the opposite end of where you
want to be, right, like exactly, And that that's how
it is with everything. Every time you do another act
that goes against what you want to be, you're just
adding it. Because the thing with with how the human
(49:43):
system work is the more you do something, the better
you get at it, right, So the more you live found,
the better you get at it. Some people are phenomenal cheaters,
and it's because they do it a whole lot. Yeah, right,
So every time you do it, you're getting better at it,
which means it's going to take a lot.
Speaker 2 (49:59):
Longer to get better.
Speaker 3 (50:01):
And the other direction, because you're so exceptional at what
you do. If you lie a lot, you're exceptional, it's
gonna take you a lot to become someone who tells
the truth exceptionally.
Speaker 2 (50:10):
Right.
Speaker 1 (50:10):
Yeah, that's that's deep, that's deep. But I think at
the end of the day, I mean I personally give
people a lot of grace. I'm one of those people
that you could literally push me off my seat and
be like, I was just angry my bagm. So I'd
be like, no, it's okay. But now I'm at the
place where it's like I get it, you're anger. I
just don't want to sit next to you anymore. Like
(50:32):
take your anger out on the flowers over there, you know.
But it's a pleasure to have you. I know, we
kind of we're all over this space. I really would
like to go to your show tonight. I know, yes,
I do have some plans, but I'm a pivot and
and I'm a mother now, so trust me, everything is
like a babysitter, babysitter, nanny, babysitter is like any amount
of freedom cost.
Speaker 3 (50:52):
You have to come. This is going to be special.
Speaker 1 (50:55):
I'm definitely gonna come. I am a true fan. I
have so much admir generation for the way you run
your businesses, how everyone gets a buy and how everyone
gets an option to invest in how you partner and
do this restaurant where it's like pay what you what
you want, which is brilliant, and it's just something that
(51:16):
a lot of artists aren't doing right, you know, and
I love the vulnerability and your lyrics. So I'm truly
thankful that we finally got you on the show. Thank
you all listeners for checking out another episode of Eating
While Broke. I'm your host, Colleen Witt, and today we
have Larussell in the building. Where can they find your
(51:36):
Like your Instagram handle? What's your Instagram?
Speaker 2 (51:38):
I'm at l Russell on everything.
Speaker 1 (51:40):
L A.
Speaker 2 (51:40):
R us has EOL.
Speaker 3 (51:42):
You can find me on social media on DSPs. At
home in Valleo, walking around.
Speaker 1 (51:49):
So oh, you stay in the bay.
Speaker 3 (51:51):
I stay home. I live where I'm from and I'm
there every day. I'm taking my daughter to school, I'm
picking it up momos, checking it on people. I'm around.
I'm at home.
Speaker 1 (52:03):
They when they told me that I got you, it
was like I had like two days to notice, like
you know or whatever. And I was like negotiating with
the team everyone's schedule. There's like four people that have
to all align schedules, and there was a hiccup and
I'm like going back and forth, like yo, do you
think we can push back? And We're all like no,
(52:25):
it's not worth it. And we got an hour let's
take it. But thank you and thanks for feeding me.
You and I both agree, you know, moving forward, we
could do eggs, but maybe on a dinner garlic bread.
Speaker 2 (52:39):
Yeah, beautiful.
Speaker 1 (53:05):
For more eating while broke from iHeartRadio and The Black Effect,
visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you listen
to your favorite shows.
Welcome to another episode of Eating While Broke. I'm your host,
Colleen Witz, and today we have in the building music artists,
philosopher entrepreneur Larussell, and I am truly excited. Nothing made
my day more than like what two days ago when
your crew I think his crew confirmed like two or
(00:22):
three days ago, and it literally they were like, holy
why are you so silent? You're supposed to be happy?
And I was like, well, I'm just making sure you
tell me the date because if you tell me a
month from now, I'm not getting excited, because just in
case something happens. And she was like, so you're happy,
I said, what's the date two days from now? I said, hell, yeah,
I'm happy. Girl Danks shout outs and Nicole from the
Black Effect for booking you. Super happy to have you.
(00:44):
I love the name of your company and I love
what you're about. I'm the name of his company is
called Good Come Penny as in Points, which I was like,
ooh ooh, that's different, I said, Man, Larussell's hitting us
with so much integ do you remind me of a
cross between jay Z and Drake and anyone that has
not heard your music or kind of even try to
(01:06):
cyberspy on you. It was like really missing out, like
on some good stuff. But since I have you in
my kitchen, the eating while broke kitchen, I have to
know what were you eating when you were broke?
Speaker 2 (01:18):
Man.
Speaker 3 (01:19):
Today I'm going to be making an egg sandwich. This
was a classic. My mama taught me how to make
eggs when I was like five, and I used to
wake up every morning and make eggs and that was
the only thing I knew how to make. So we
taking it back to the basics. We got some eggs,
we got some salt and pepper. Today we're gonna be
doing it on garlic bread. Yeah, because I usually use
(01:40):
regular bread and we just throw it in a toaster.
But my boy Austin was like, you gotta do garlic bread,
so I figured we just spice it up today.
Speaker 1 (02:10):
Yeah, we had a whole discussion about the whole garlic bread,
you and I because I've actually never even thought of
garlic bread. Actually, the first time I ever had garlic
bread for real, for real was the Texas toast in
the box. And now if you go into a store,
it is sold out, like you can't get it. It's
a miracle. If you find one maybe on eBay, but
(02:31):
I don't know the pandemic. Just like said, take away
the best bread on earth. But I'm excited to eat
with you, so let's get it cracking. Oh my gosh,
egg let's get it cracked, all right. I listened to
rap music so much that my girlfriend and I shout
(02:53):
out to a lap behind the mirror over there. I
listened to rap soap music so much that I actually
speak in metaphors and sometimes people have to stop me
and say, coly, we get it. You know you don't
have to. You don't have to rebreak it down in
puzzle times.
Speaker 3 (03:09):
You know, I'm a metaphor speakers. Can I move this
so I can crack some eggs?
Speaker 1 (03:12):
Here?
Speaker 3 (03:14):
Slide over to my side the greatest?
Speaker 2 (03:18):
Are you eating one too?
Speaker 1 (03:19):
So I should make all you have to cook for
both of us because if it's trash, we can both
discover that garlic bread egg sandwiches is just.
Speaker 3 (03:27):
Not I'm finna drop some butter up in here, because
my mom would be like, use some pam so you
don't leave eggs stained all over there.
Speaker 1 (03:35):
Now, are you one of those people that are really
going to use metal on a Yes?
Speaker 3 (03:40):
Yeah, yeah, I do. Use.
Speaker 2 (03:43):
We're not supposed to do that.
Speaker 1 (03:44):
Even every listener is hearing that scratching is like, what
is he doing?
Speaker 3 (03:48):
That's crazy?
Speaker 1 (03:49):
What is he doing? His mama couldn't have ever let
him do that.
Speaker 3 (03:52):
Man, she did. You wouldn't believe how much stuff my
mom let me dot. I don't think we had teflon
back then. Maybe I don't remember.
Speaker 1 (04:05):
You're right then it was like a luxury. I'm sure. Yeah, yeah,
back then I think it was. You're right, you just
had to butter everything down. Otherwise it's stuck.
Speaker 3 (04:13):
Or you get that good old pam spray and you
in it. Oh I'm getting it all over there?
Speaker 1 (04:18):
Yeah, I'm not. I'm not a you know, So tell
me a little bit about what was going on. I
know this is like the first dish that you ever cooked,
but tell me what was going on during the time of.
Speaker 3 (04:33):
Also, I usually add bacon, beet bacon bits, and chaddar cheese.
But I heard y'all broke, so it wasn't a here,
So we're gonna go pepper. I don't see salt over here.
There's lors y'all struggling.
Speaker 1 (04:48):
Hey, yo, so much fun of us over here yet?
You're not even gonna use lorries because.
Speaker 3 (04:57):
Now I'm not gonna use Larry. I've never done that.
I'm trying to keep it authentic.
Speaker 1 (05:01):
Wow, okay, okay, I respect it to be honest. I
don't use lowries. Well I just started to recently, but
it's only because I married a black man from Detroit
who believes.
Speaker 3 (05:13):
Lawry's is everything seasoning. Yeah, yes, yes, beautiful.
Speaker 1 (05:20):
So what was going on growing up? Like around when
you were making egg sandwiches? I know you started at five,
you know, making these, but like kind of tell me
a little bit of your background growing up, Like were
you middle class?
Speaker 3 (05:36):
I thought I was middle class until I got older
and realized we're definitely lower middle class. But my pops
was a hustler, so we were like we had enough
money to be like the richest niggas in the broke
neighborhood type shit you feel me, but definitely, uh, lower class,
just regular neighborhood. Hard to describe when people ask that
(06:01):
question because you got to kind of grow up in
it to be familiar.
Speaker 1 (06:05):
Did you grow up in a two parent household?
Speaker 3 (06:07):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (06:07):
Definitely.
Speaker 1 (06:08):
Wow, Okay, Okay. A lot of people on the show,
they haven't I'm going in that's good. So when did
you transition to music.
Speaker 3 (06:21):
I've been writing since I was like seven, whether through
like writing poems or just journaling, drawing, just I've just
always used kind of writing and art as like an
artistic expression and form. So yeah, since I was seven,
and it's kind of just cultivated. Me and my sister
(06:43):
had this boom box and we used to download instrumentals
from LimeWire and burn them on the cdy the instrumentals
on the boom box and wrap over it. And I
remember we had a wrapped over knock if you buck
and I was going crazy, but my sister was better
than me at the time, so I just had to
keep working.
Speaker 1 (07:02):
Your sister was rapping too.
Speaker 3 (07:03):
Yeah, my sister was rapping too.
Speaker 1 (07:06):
So does she still rap?
Speaker 3 (07:07):
No, she doesn't.
Speaker 1 (07:09):
So you surpassed her in the rap skills and then
she was like, I'm good. Is that what happened?
Speaker 3 (07:13):
I don't think she ever had a passion for it.
It was just something we like to play around and do,
and I just kind of stuck with it.
Speaker 1 (07:21):
Okay, okay, okay, that's pretty cool. So you is it
that you like Drake because it like from what I've
researched on you. Is that you from other articles and
you could correct me if I'm wrong, But your goal
was to be on the level I want to say,
(07:42):
and on the I don't know, like numbers level, because
obviously talent wise, you're on the same level as Drake,
but I'm saying numbers wise, you want to be on
the same level, but independently. Yeah, is that correct?
Speaker 3 (07:58):
Not necessarily numbers wise, but impacting notoriety wise. You know,
I want people to respect me as such, and partially
the way to do that is to put up the numbers. Right,
If you're not scoring as well as Jordan, people don't
expect you respect you like a Jordan, right, And yeah,
to do that independently and just show people that it's
(08:18):
possible to be the greatest at something without having to
utilize someone else's infrastructure that they tell you got to
go through and you got to use these methods and
you got to sell away your ownership, you know, like
everyone knows early on Drake didn't have his masters and
had a horrible deal. I want to show people that
you can get to that level without having to go
(08:39):
through that.
Speaker 2 (08:39):
Right.
Speaker 1 (08:41):
When you say just want to rewind. You said it
was important for you to have impact and notoriety, Like why,
what does that even mean to me?
Speaker 3 (08:52):
It just it enables you to to It enables you
to make change, like right now, feed the whole hood
where I'm from. You know, from now to the end
of the year, I've been feeding the hood out of
my own pocket. And I've only been able to do
that because of my impact and my notoriety. I've become
so great that I make enough money to where I
(09:12):
could take care of the place that birthed me right,
And a lot of people don't get to do that
because they don't have either the talent level or the
resource to do it. I've been able to do it independently.
I'm Finnah. Drop this garlic bread on this joint.
Speaker 1 (09:26):
It's already, it's already done, already toasted it.
Speaker 3 (09:29):
Oh that's crazy.
Speaker 1 (09:31):
Yeah, I try to cheat it because I wanted to
get all up in your kool aid. Wow, So I
put the temple because you can't find that anywhere intriguing.
Let's try it. Let's be a team here. Dang, why
do we have to break from your story? Though?
Speaker 3 (09:49):
Right?
Speaker 1 (09:50):
Is this not the hardest interview? Process.
Speaker 3 (09:53):
This is great, This is great. I'm a multitasker.
Speaker 1 (09:56):
I'm going to try this too. All right, so we
get the bread everyone, we're getting the garlic bread situation
together and we're putting eggs in it.
Speaker 3 (10:05):
Yeah, this is new. I've never had this. Shout out
Austin off the store. Ye let me get right on there.
Speaker 1 (10:13):
Berthie was talking is mess about us being broke.
Speaker 3 (10:16):
Now, well, I was going to put garlic bread on there,
but you know, you guys did it, so okay, I
completely forgot you were.
Speaker 1 (10:23):
Going to actually make it. You don't even know how
to make garlic bread, do you.
Speaker 3 (10:26):
I mean, I use Texas toes, so I was just
going to throw it up on that joint and then
it does what it does and you're good after.
Speaker 1 (10:34):
Let's trying. Okay, let's go back to notoriety and impact
and you feeding your community. Okay, stealing all your eggs, buddy,
All right, here we go. Do you want to sample
it first before we get into the nuts and bolts.
Speaker 4 (10:57):
Sure, all right, let's try and see here we good?
Speaker 3 (11:08):
It did. It's a lot of bread.
Speaker 1 (11:11):
I think Texas garlic.
Speaker 3 (11:14):
It Texas.
Speaker 1 (11:16):
At least we now know we actually now know how
to do it in the future. But there's way too
much bread.
Speaker 2 (11:24):
On this one, way too much bread.
Speaker 3 (11:26):
It's like a bread with a side of eggs. It's
actually garlic, a garlic bread sandwich.
Speaker 1 (11:35):
Would you ever serve the in almost mm hmmm. That
could be an idea, but withinner bread, right, yeah, look
at me? Do I Can we call it the eating
whall Brooks? No, that would probably be horrible. Hunts to
name it the eating whall broke sandwich while you're at
a pay pay as you go? Is it pay as
you go or pay what you want, pay what you want?
Speaker 3 (11:55):
Proud to pay?
Speaker 1 (11:56):
Will come sit with me so I can get all
up in your I know he jumped off camera on
that one, right, fine, real life, real life. So let's
go into Momoss Cafe for a second. What inspired all
of that? Mm hmmm, or at least a partner.
Speaker 3 (12:23):
Just seeing the need. There's a lot of homeless in
Balayale and just people who don't get to eat. And
I'm always outside, so I always see it. I'm always
giving someone money or taking care of someone, whether my
mom gonna drop off boxes of merch to the homeless
community out there, to different encampments, and I'm just always
(12:46):
trying to help, right, and this is the way that
we can help now that I'm in a grander position.
I've done a few of these prior this year, but
just for a day. And when you do it today,
it's like everybody don't get a chance to eat. So
this time it was like, let's make sure everybody gets
a chance to eat.
Speaker 1 (13:03):
Yeah, So I think what you're doing is great. I'm
gonna circle back to your music again. So you're a
talented artist again. For anyone that hasn't heard your music,
I definitely would say you're in the same lay as
jay Z and Drake, which, by the way, I'm a
hardcore jay Z fan. Everyone that listens to this show
(13:24):
knows this. I have a huge five foot painting that's
literally the only one in the world that was custom
made of jay Z like hanging out and from projects.
I'm from Brooklyn.
Speaker 2 (13:35):
There it goes.
Speaker 1 (13:36):
But I will say this in all truest form. Currently,
over the last couple of years, I listen to Drake
more and I feel guilty. I feel like I'm cheating,
like for real, Like I don't let nobody know that,
Like nobody knows that. This is the first time I've
said it out loud, but in my heart, I'm like, Yo,
just listen to jay Z today, don't You don't have
(13:58):
to always pick Drake, but I listened to your lyrics.
I'm just wondering, like, what did? Have you ever been signed?
Speaker 3 (14:07):
Not in the capacity that artists get signed, like, I've
never been signed to a major deal. All of my
deals have.
Speaker 1 (14:14):
Been partnerships, like distribution deals.
Speaker 3 (14:17):
No, I've done like record deals, but in partnership form
like fifty to fifty profit shares, like I don't belong
to anyone on my own entity and we just split
profit versus when a record label usually signed to you,
you're in like a royalty deal and they own your shit.
And if they don't own your shit, they likense it
for twenty years and they have power and rule over
when you release and how you release to any of that. So,
(14:39):
I've never been in a major deal. All of my
deals have been partnerships.
Speaker 1 (14:44):
Currently, are you in a partnership deal or are you independent?
Speaker 3 (14:47):
I've been independent the entire time, So all of these
partnerships are completely like me and my team do everything.
Speaker 1 (14:53):
You see, you're controlling all the marketing everything. So and
they're controlling because nowadays it's a little confusing what record
label is really bringing to the table at this point.
It depends now I mean with I mean if oh
my gosh, why am I spacing when it comes to
who is Draked in Lil Wayne? And what's their name
(15:13):
of their young Money is it? No, it's not young Money,
it's Ovo but no, no, no, he was signed to Lil Wayne,
who was the cash So they're so from what I
know of the history of uh, the music industry, Birdman
(15:33):
had the best deal in the industry. So young money,
cash Money has literally the best deals on the table.
Cash money, cash money. So if cash Money calls you
up right now, I'm just playing it. It was advocate with
no to see.
Speaker 3 (15:52):
There's a cash Money had the best deal in terms
of their deal with Republic, not in the deals that
they gave artists.
Speaker 1 (16:02):
Really, you don't think they gave artists really good deals?
Speaker 3 (16:04):
No, because they Drake didn't have his masters. He just
got him. He was in a royalty deal. Lil Wayne
had to take him to court to get his money.
How could they be in a great deal? Tiger has
been complaining for years, how could they be in a
great deal that doesn't make any sense.
Speaker 1 (16:19):
Yeah, I didn't know that.
Speaker 3 (16:21):
Yeah, but yeah, cash Money had a substantial deal.
Speaker 1 (16:25):
You know.
Speaker 3 (16:25):
Wen dy Day was a part of helping put that
together with Republic. They really broke the bank.
Speaker 1 (16:30):
When did you? So you're a music artist? What is
intriguing about you is, for instance, today we gave you
a release, Clarence, and you sat there quietly and read it.
You're a businessman all the way through. So were you
do you think you're an entrepreneur before you were an artist?
Speaker 3 (16:50):
Definitely? Definitely. Before I was releasing art, I was selling beats,
I was making like album covers for people and selling
I've been I used to sell swishers. One of your parents, Yeah,
my pops was a hustler. He sold everything under the
sun except drugs, like everything.
Speaker 1 (17:10):
It's gonna be my next question because when I hear hustler, I'm.
Speaker 2 (17:12):
Like, what was he saying there?
Speaker 3 (17:14):
Everything exactly?
Speaker 1 (17:16):
So you got your entrepreneur spirit from him, and then
your talent girls kind of came from you and your sister,
like in this boombox.
Speaker 3 (17:25):
Kind of my pops as well. He's very creatively inclined, right,
and he's a problem solver, right, And I feel like
a part of my talent and just my skill, my
business acumen is because I'm a problem solver. My favorite
thing to say is I'll figure it out, and I will.
Speaker 1 (17:41):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, spoken like a true entrepreneur. You know
how to pivot, RIGHTVT. Yeah, that's whenever I see a problem,
I'm always like, it's not a problem, it's a challenge, right.
Speaker 3 (17:50):
What I was I was walking to get my daughter
the other day and I was talking with my brother
and I was like, Man, are you looking for problems
or are you looking for loosening? You usually find whatever
you're looking for.
Speaker 1 (18:04):
I like that, you know what you say? How I think.
I think that's why I like you so much. I genuinely,
I genuinely fuck with you hard. Do I say fuck
on the show ever? Really, I genuinely mess with you.
I was just like, yo, is he as dope? So
what I've learned being a Christian and just living in
(18:26):
the world is like, there's so many dope people that
are doing great things externally. But now that I'm old, older,
I've grown enough, wasn't to ask myself, well, if they're
externally have all this integrity I just wonder, like if
I was a fly on their wall at home, you know,
do they carry that same level of integrity. When I
(18:48):
listen to some of your rap lyrics, I'm like, Okay,
they're great, And then there's some that teeter into like
how you enjoy women in the past. I don't know
if it it's current. I don't know. You know, it's
hard being a man. I'm not a man, So I
just wondering, like, I think, if.
Speaker 3 (19:08):
You are a fly on the wall in my house,
you'd see a human and supreme form right in every
aspect on their roller coaster and on their journey. I
think there's everyone around me could speak to my heart
and my greatness and my moral and my character. But
I also have issues as a human as well that
I have to develop from and that I've had to
(19:30):
grow from just through a journey. Right, Like you you
learn self respect and you learn value, and you learn
respecting other people throughout your journey, depending on your experience
and you're surrounding and what you witness. Right, most of
us just replicate whatever we see. If you don't see
anybody in like loving and nurturing situations and providing that
(19:52):
you don't often replicate it, right, because that's not something
you're familiar with. So just through that process. Of course,
I'm a human, but I think for the most part,
what you see externally of me is what you see
and when you meet me, I'm the exact same person.
Speaker 1 (20:07):
Right when I hear your lyrics, you're I feel like
you're vulnerable, You're you're honest with yourself, and I think
for a lot of men, I don't want to say
a lot of men, for humans, I think we we
tend to either tell ourselves the truth or we tell
ourselves a lie, and it's the battle of you know,
(20:30):
but the only way to grow is to tell yourself
the truth. So there's a lot of vulnerability in your lyrics,
and I love it like I love it well, the
same reason why I love a lot of y'all. You know,
you are my top three, you know, come, so now
I do do snooping. Obviously I had to cyberstock the
hell out of you, but I noticed you were like,
(20:53):
if you're a fan of mine, you come directly to me, Like,
how did you even conceive that concept of like you
want to come to my show? You buy the tickets
for me? No, ticket mass and no middle man, Like
where did that come from?
Speaker 2 (21:09):
Life?
Speaker 3 (21:09):
That's always been the process, you know, Like I've watched
my dad hustle, and everyone who bought product from him
pulled up on him or he pulled up on them.
If you want something from Larussell, you have to go
communicate with Larussell. When you start adding third parties, you
could either miss opportunity or something get misplaced. Like I
used to do booking for a theater and I was
(21:30):
trying to book certain artists and I'd have to go
through their agents and It'll be like a caaw whatever.
Speaker 1 (21:37):
Sometimes they shut you down, get to it, and then
when I meet them later, I'm like, bro, I was trying.
Speaker 3 (21:41):
To get you for it would have been dope because
I was building this thing. And they're like, man, I
didn't even know right, And that's because and they ain't
hollering at you. And then as the more middleman you have,
the more pie that's getting dipped into. And I'm a
firm believer in if I'm splitting pie, it needs to
be with people who helped me bake the pie, not
someone one who's just there. Because the end of this
(22:03):
is a standard. You need to have a business manager.
You need to have this that like, we're not going
to do that. You got to actually provide something. If
you didn't bring no ingredients or help bake this, you
shouldn't get a slice of it.
Speaker 1 (22:14):
Now, you do have a team, because to get to you,
I tried emailing. Okay, I was like, this is the email,
this is how I gets hel But you do have
a team. Do you have a role amongst your team
that they don't get to say no, that you have
to at least they have to at least present the
opportunity to you. Because that's a valid point that happens
in the industry.
Speaker 3 (22:34):
Just about everything comes to me. And I may have
seen this, I was telling Austin. No, I'm for sure
I have. I was telling Austin when it first came,
I had seen the show similar and I was like,
I don't know because I seen the time the eating
while broke thing, and I feel like a lot of
people play on like poor people and shit, and I didn't.
I didn't like it. So I was just like, ah,
(22:56):
I'm not gonna deal with that right now. Let me
see as it cultivates. So I've seen it. There's not
too much that come through the email that I don't see,
and if I don't see it, my two right hands
always see it and it still makes its way to me.
So with the eating when I broke, that was one
of the reasons. I was like, ah, the title, don't
I don't like when people play on the on poverty,
(23:17):
and like, it's just.
Speaker 1 (23:18):
Like when I created Eating While Broke, I I was like,
I just I have so many dope, successful friends that
are like millionaires, influence celebrities, entrepreneurs, and they always have
these crazy stories like they were in jail, or they
were male escorts or just crazy ass stories, and I
(23:39):
love them. I lived for them. We go on to hiking,
like tell me more, what else did you do? You're
a hooker? Okay, let's there, you know, And so I
just love the journey. I actually don't even I do
enjoy the solutions, but I love the journey. I love
the storytelling. I love the hero's journey. And so when
I came up with Eating While Broke, I was like, well,
we got to start it at the route you know
that everyone can relate to, like, you know, people that
(24:01):
are aspiring rappers that are literally only have two pennies
to rub together, and I named it Eating while Broke.
But then I realized, damn, every time I pitched the show,
I have to say, hey, I have this great opportunity
for you. It's ignore the name, let me tell you
what it is. And I always have to say, ignore
the name, and then I tell them, you know, the
(24:21):
show is about inspiring people and just kind of leveling
with them and inspiring them that they can do exactly
what you did, or they should believe in themselves no
matter what their environment is in. But I always have
to do this, dang explain her on eating wall Sometimes.
Speaker 3 (24:35):
That's why, like certain things would get to me through email,
but since it doesn't have full context, it's like I
can't tend to it right because it doesn't resonate. But
that's why I'm always somebody. I'm so open. If you
see me anywhere, you can come to me and address me.
And once I meet you and feel your energy, it's like, oh, okay,
that makes sense, right, But emails have no context, like
(24:55):
that's just you gotta take it for whatever you want.
Speaker 1 (24:59):
I'm uh. Pippole told me this once. He said, if
they locked the door, you're climbing through the window. I
was like, oh, he didn't respond. He Nicole, better use
that my heart email drop this Charlottemade you know it's
(25:22):
running this show, and uh, you know, get his attention.
And not only did I do that, but I liked
you so much. I literally was like Earner Leisure should
have him, Charlemagne should have him, all these people should
have him, and she was like, I think they already did.
Like I was like the last ones at the table,
like these are the shows he should be on. I
don't even I don't even never had an opportunity meet
(25:44):
with you, but I was like, dam all your publicists
over there, like this is who I want. Love it
and and that's you know why we named the show,
you know, at the end of the day, eating while broke.
But I get it because I literally every time I
sell someone on the idea, I'm like, just ignore the name,
ignore the name. But I'm glad that you take time
to come and sit with me and super excited. I
(26:07):
love literally everything you're about. And sorry, one of the
things that kind of surprised me is the entrepreneur in
you and like, also, like, why did you name your
company the Good Company?
Speaker 2 (26:29):
Right?
Speaker 3 (26:30):
Well, I mean good company just because there's a quote.
Let's say your mama say you just by the company
you keep, right, So I feel like good company is
encompassing of just I like to have good people around me,
and we build great energy when we go into places.
We're a good company to have, right, Just that name
is welcoming. And then I use pennies because I feel
like pennies are undervalued and overlooked. Right. If you see
(26:52):
a penny on the ground, you usually don't stop and
pick it up. But imagine if you stopped and picked
up every penny you walk past throughout your whole life,
have more money than a lot of the people besides you.
Even though it's a penny. There's a multitude of them,
like we passed them up all the time everywhere, and
no one really cares. Right, But it exists for a reason.
Speaker 1 (27:12):
I sometimes think pennies exist to go in my daughter's mouth. Right,
that's a terrible joke. I'm a new mom. I'm a
brand new mom. I spend most of my days trying
to convince my daughter not to try a new way
to commit suicide. Right right now, now you see why
our parents are like tired by eight o'clock because they
(27:32):
like spent the entire day, like what do you have
to do next? But what can people expect from you
in the future music wise?
Speaker 2 (27:45):
A ton of it, A whole lot of it.
Speaker 3 (27:48):
You know. I'm someone I live by this theory of
like leaving empty. I don't want to leave with nothing
on my plate and all the music I have I
intend to release and get out. I don't want to
sit on things for years. I'm currently building crazy infrastructure
at home. I keep saying I'm building Disneyland because we're
building something like that completely laterally. But really, I don't know.
(28:13):
I don't have any expectation of myself. So I think
people shouldn't. They should just enjoy the journey. Like how
you say you've been spying, Like I hope when you
spy you're smiling because it's just it's a hell of
a show to watch, you know, it's a beautiful shavn't
got to see too many artists actually make it in
front of us, right, Like we see the resulting that
the label post and share, but we don't see like
(28:35):
them going city to city. Hey yo, I'm gonna do
a pop up, you know, Like we don't get to
see that part of the journey, and I'm showing all
of it. I'm showing us running merch for filming out
of my house. My mom is dropping them, dropping them off,
like I'm showing the entire process, and we're sharing the
gyms along. So I think people should just stay tuned
and this We got enough sequels to beat the Fast
(28:56):
and Furious series, you know, like we're coming.
Speaker 1 (28:59):
Like that when you do your pop YouTube pop up shows, right.
Speaker 3 (29:03):
We're doing one tonight. I just I just got off
a plane and I was like, man, I want to
do a show. So we announced it and now the
show tickets have been selling tonight. It's going to be
at where going to be? This is This one's gonna
be special because it's an unplugged version and it's like
live Q and A like.
Speaker 1 (29:23):
People, I'm not gonna lie like I would love to go.
Speaker 3 (29:32):
Please. What's dope about our shows is like this one
is a bit different, but generally with our shows, like
I use the second half of my set to just
let the fans choose the songs they want to hear,
and I rap whatever they say they want to hear. Right,
So it's like a really interactive show. We did one
(29:53):
in New York and Brooklyn. When we went out there,
it sold out in six hours, five hundred tickets. So
now I've just kind of been in this wave where
it's like I just be like, I feel like doing it,
and we do it and it usually goes well.
Speaker 1 (30:06):
And then who kind of does the logistics?
Speaker 3 (30:09):
So myself for Nadi, he's a member of my team.
He helps with booking, Tiata helps with logistics. Milli is
on my team. So anytime we go to a tour
route and she kind of.
Speaker 1 (30:20):
Plans and give a guy and girl team you yeah, yeah, okay,
I like that because sometimes you work with people and
they like Slayholder, like Charlemagne's company is pretty much ran
by women black women, which is amazing by the way
he treat the man.
Speaker 3 (30:36):
I wouldn't be where I am without women. I have
a team of like the most incredible creative intuit in
women when it comes to just business and everything.
Speaker 1 (30:45):
Now, one of the things I did see, and I
could be wrong, maybe lack of research, but I feel
like on one of the things you have posted was
like if people buy your records, they have like some
kind of ownership in it.
Speaker 2 (30:59):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (31:00):
Yeah, So not necessarily if you buy it some people.
So on Usually on projects, I'll sell my album before
it comes to streaming, and anyone who buys that project
is up for selection to receive a royalty. So I
usually go through the list of buyers and I'll pick
like fifty to one hundred people, sometimes one hundred and
fifty if I'm feeling good, sometimes two hundred, and I'll
(31:20):
give them a percentage of royalty in different songs from
that album. You can also buy royalties, like you could
make an offer to purchase a share. So if you
have a favorite song you like, I love this song,
I know it's gonna be big, or just I love
this song, I just want to have a stake in it,
you can make an offer to me and say I
want five percent of the revenue from this song. I'm
willing to give you a thousand dollars five hundred dollars,
(31:42):
and I'll hit you and negotiate and say I'm willing
to take this or I'm not, and then I send
you a percentage to the distro you collect every month
into perpetuity for the rest of your life.
Speaker 1 (31:52):
Yeah, I've never heard of someone do that, Brover, I've
never heard a song. I was like, did he do
what I think he did?
Speaker 2 (31:57):
Yeah?
Speaker 3 (31:59):
How do you right?
Speaker 1 (32:01):
How did you come up with that?
Speaker 2 (32:02):
Though?
Speaker 3 (32:02):
Like how it was just a late night thought of
Like I've always been split in revenue with my team.
Everyone who helped, producers, engineers, they all get a percent.
So one day it was just like we should give
the fans some They listened to this shit every day.
Imagine if your favorite jay Z song, I Man, you
listen to it every day, but you don't want to
percent it. My fans, like bagas Claim blew up. Some
(32:24):
of my fans had equity in that song when it
first dropped, a year before it even took off.
Speaker 2 (32:29):
So they for the rest of their.
Speaker 3 (32:31):
Life they're going to be getting money off bagas Claim
because they just made the right call. They enjoyed the song.
Speaker 2 (32:36):
So and then, but.
Speaker 1 (32:40):
They reached out to you, or how did you even
announce that?
Speaker 3 (32:43):
I made this big announcement and Tieta on my team.
She created this form for people to go fill out
and you put all your information, you put your offer amount,
how much you want. It comes to a database. I
look at all the offers, I'll email you and say yeh,
I send your offer. I liked it, I accept you
email me. I go through every offered personal badass even
through email, like when we do bookings and shit like,
(33:05):
people are always surprised that they're talking to me. It's like,
it's my business. Of course you're talking to me.
Speaker 1 (33:11):
It makes sense, right. Most of my companies, for some
reason cannot get them past a certain threshold. I don't
know if it's like my whatever, but so most of
my companies are smaller. So I'll email, but I email
under an alias. It'll be like Samantha, and it'll be
like Samantha's so crazy.
Speaker 3 (33:29):
When I used to send out emails to get booked,
to go to venues and try to book them, I
used to act like I was my own manager, and
then eventually it's like, bro, it's me.
Speaker 2 (33:39):
I am l Russell. I'm gonna DIVI vinue. This is
what I want to do right.
Speaker 3 (33:43):
And I've gotten so much more rapport and response because
it's like, of course people want to talk to you
like I'm doing it right.
Speaker 1 (33:50):
You didn't feel at some point it hinders how much
more you can get because like I'll give it pretty
v uh. I emailed her and I'm like okay, you know,
she responded, and then like it was her, and then
she got on the phone with me. She like just
(34:11):
called me, and then I hear the Jamaican accent. I'm like,
wait a minute, I said, and we ended up vibing
on the phone like for forty five minutes. And but
it was it was the first time that I cold
called emailed somebody and not only did they respond in
record speed, but I mean, first of all, that girl
is as humble as a yet, right, but that was
the first time that I've ever seen like someone on
(34:33):
that level just be like, what's up, what's up? Let's
do it. She was like, what do you want me
to cook? I got beans and that. I was like,
what are you doing? You're dope. I was just like
you do you know, and it was past, no team,
no nothing. And you know, I didn't even know it
was her until she called me, and I was like, oh,
it's you. You know, that's like if jay Z calls
me after an email and be like.
Speaker 3 (34:53):
Right, people usually get that same shock, but it just
builds a different relationship, right. You respect what someone is
building a lot more when you know they're working it, right,
It's hard to fuck someone over when it's like oh
it's you. Yeah, yeah, yeah, they're right, builds a different
rapport you have to do.
Speaker 1 (35:10):
You have an internal rule about letting new people into
your camp, because it seems like you have a very
large camp.
Speaker 3 (35:18):
It is kind kind of yeah, even my immediate group
is pretty large. There's not really a rule, just an energy, right,
if I know who I like and who I don't like,
and who fits and who doesn't. Sometimes we'll trial people
out and it's like ah, that didn't really work, and
we kind of maneuver forward. But it's not really any rule,
just your energy, how you feel, how everyone feels about you,
(35:41):
how you feel about everyone, and we could usually get
a sense of that really fast. I also have like
I like to work with people who work hard, like
the best. You know, I don't want to It's like, bro,
I'm playing at a high level at all times. If
you can't keep up, you need to go on the
other court and play with the little kids for a
bit to your game get up.
Speaker 1 (36:02):
Have you experienced failure or let me just rephrase that,
have you experienced perceived failure?
Speaker 3 (36:08):
I hate the word, of course, yeah, of course me about.
Speaker 1 (36:12):
Like perceived failure, and like what the experience was.
Speaker 3 (36:15):
Man, I've had shows where there was five people in
the crowd and I had to pay for a venue.
I rented a sprinter van to get my team there.
We brought the equipment, We brought a ton of merch
that we didn't sell because there wasn't no one to
sell it to. And I was a tough ride home.
You know, I was silent. I'm usually the allowing and
talking and childing, but I was silent, right. And I've
(36:36):
had several of those moments of perceive failure even beyond that,
just sometimes releasing merch and putting all your money into
it and it doesn't go that people don't react. Early on,
I had a lot of albums. I dropped twenty two albums.
I've had a lot of albums early on where I
was like, this is gonna be Yeah, we've been we've
been overlow. We didn't blow nothing. Albums is a lot, yeah,
(36:59):
way more.
Speaker 1 (37:00):
Two hours, not even twenty two singles.
Speaker 3 (37:03):
No, And that's just my catalog. I've written other EP
single albums for a bunch of other people, so, but
just in my own album, it's twenty two.
Speaker 1 (37:12):
When you experience perceived failure. Can you walk me through
your thoughts?
Speaker 3 (37:22):
Usually is negative first, right, It's all like I look
for all the problems, what I didn't do, how I
didn't do it while I could have done it better,
And then eventually it just becomes like analytical solution based,
like I always want to I always want to prove
me wrong or anybody wrong. I'm like, well, I'm finna
(37:43):
next time. I'm gonna do it triple besides, and it's
gonna be a success. But yeah, it's usually just that
immersed emotional turmoil that comes with it first, where you know,
you feel that dark cloud over you and sometimes you
gotta cry or you gotta sit in that and kind
of be in that space until you could work through it.
Speaker 1 (38:02):
I'm surprised that you didn't just say, well, maybe this
is a question. But in that negative space, have you
questioned your worth? Like whether you know, like, oh, well
five people. I get the logistics because I as an entrepreneur,
I get like what did we do? What could we
have done differently? But in that negative space, can you say,
(38:24):
and you are prolific for sure, but have you questioned your.
Speaker 3 (38:29):
Own not in music, like anytime I failed in music.
It wasn't a question of my own worth. It was
just like, they don't see it. Right, I knew, I
knew I was it. I'm just like they don't see it.
I haven't done enough work for them to see it.
They don't see it. So I've never questioned my worth
in that aspect. If I'm questioning my worth, it's usually
(38:50):
through some life shit, like me doing something against my
own morals or against my own code, or just I
let somebody down and that's dear to me. Those are
moments I questioned my worth when I can't show up
for my daughter in a way that I felt like
I should. Things like that, but not music, And I put.
Speaker 1 (39:10):
My hour career wise.
Speaker 3 (39:12):
No, yeah, no, not career wise at all. I know
what I'm worth in my career. I know what I deliver,
I know what I bring forth, and even even through life,
like I'm getting to a point where I know my
impact and how significant I am to you know, the
life around me and the world. I'm feeding a community.
Speaker 1 (39:33):
A community. So there's a book I just recently checked out.
I don't know if you ever heard of it. It's
called Mail Versus Man. Dedre Whitfield shout outs to him.
I picked up the book. I thought it was for men,
but so I got it from my my friend and
but I ended up reading it because I like to
(39:53):
read to get to a book. I'm literally in a
book head that I am obsessed with books. But I
read the book and one of the things he pointed
out in the book, which I will gift you the
book now that I have, I think I have your
address on them. I'll get to information. Yes, But anyways,
one of the things he talked about was like the
(40:15):
male versus man. You know, the male is self seeking
and the man is of service, which is different problem.
I never thought of that, Like, so when a guy
takes me on a date, I'm like, are you trying
to give me? Are you trying to serve me? Now,
at first I was like, oh, that's messed up to
like seek service, But as a female, it's actually not,
because you know, we seek protection and we seek Some
(40:38):
of us do need help providing and some of us
need of course, everyone wants to be professed. Marry me,
the announce the world. I'm the one. I also in
my hip hop head and after reading that book lately,
it's like every song on the radio is like shout
out to my sneaky link er or yeah, I'm having
(40:59):
sex with him my side chick raw. But I'm never
gonna leave you. I'm never gonna leave my family for you.
And and I'm like, yo, did he really just say
he's having sex with his side chick raw and that's
why she's attached? And some of these lyrics are so
terrible to women. I'm like, at what point? And who
is responsible? And this is just an honest like friend
(41:22):
or you know you you you have responsibilities as a
philosopher and entrepreneur and a leader and being a vulnerable
man yourself, Like, who do you think is responsible? Is
it the art form, is it the male energy, or
is it us women?
Speaker 2 (41:39):
Uh?
Speaker 3 (41:42):
I don't think anyone's responsible, but I think everyone is accountable.
I hear the same music coming from females as well.
I agree.
Speaker 1 (41:50):
I went into an ail salon, I saw nothing but
strippers all then.
Speaker 3 (41:54):
I don't think there's a responsibility, but there's an accountability.
And uh, I think that's one of those things that
it's hard to ever be what you never see, right.
A lot of these men that make it in hip
hop and music, they haven't had great examples of leadership
or of men that have that in them to not
(42:14):
fall to desire, or that are disciplined or impeccable in
their soul or fulfilled to where they don't need to
seek or go get extra and the same with women.
So I think that's just we often act these artists
to build things that they don't have the tools to build, right. Yeah,
Like if you go look in their toolbox, it's it's
(42:39):
like you want to build a house with guys.
Speaker 1 (42:41):
Feel like jay Z kind of touched on that in
I want to say four for four or one of
the hourists like where he was the first one to.
Speaker 3 (42:47):
Be where we've seen that, Oh wow, you've upgraded your toolbox, right,
But a lot of artists don't have that. We're coming
out of environments that don't nurture that type of behavior
or system. Like when I was coming up, the older
men around me was like players too, Like, bro, what
you feel me? So you grow up embracing that and
(43:07):
wanting to be like that. That's what you replicate, That's
what you know. You don't see anyone I've I don't
think I've ever seen a man that was just so
in love and revere their family so much and treated
they women so well, like they meant the world to me.
For me to be like, man, that's what I want right.
Very seldom do you witness that and experience that. But
(43:30):
yet you expect someone to conduct themselves in that manner.
That's what's not gonna happen.
Speaker 1 (43:37):
That's interesting. So when it comes to accountability in your
personal life, who holds you accountable? Is it? I don't
want to answer the questions.
Speaker 3 (43:47):
Everyone around me in a sense holds me accountable in
some way, but ultimately me like I have to be.
I have to be the one that wants to get
up every day and put in work and be better
and want to drop my daughter off and pick her
up and do work and things like that. But everyone
around me, from myself, my mom, my dad, my daughter,
(44:08):
her mother, tieda Millie testing everyone are fani. Just all
of my friends hold me accountable in some aspect. They're
always in my you know, I can only stoop so
low sometimes before someone's like, hey, brouh, what we doing?
Speaker 1 (44:23):
Oh? I like that? I like that? Okay? Is there
anything that your fans are me don't know about you?
Speaker 3 (44:35):
I mean everything, I mean, I guess you only.
Speaker 1 (44:40):
Know the music well because you kind of signed a
camera on your entrepreneurship. You also do all these little
I don't want to say little, but these gems on
social media. So when I say is there anything we
don't know about you? I feel like you're it's like
you learn a lesson. You're like, let's put it out there.
You learn that lesson?
Speaker 3 (45:00):
What about there really else today?
Speaker 2 (45:15):
So I battle that.
Speaker 1 (45:16):
I like, I don't know if I want to get personal, man, real.
Speaker 3 (45:21):
No such thing. I've had the really reals, and I
shared there's no such thing. Because there's a billion people
in the world, and someone's been through exactly what you've
been through, and they may need your help, right, but
you're refusing to hell, you have all the tools and
all the means to help them, but you're refusing to
do it because of your own fear, right, And like,
I don't want to deny nobody of that tool. Like
(45:42):
I want people to be able to grow. If that's
going to be through me just sharing what I felt
or experienced, that's an easy call.
Speaker 2 (45:49):
Right do you do.
Speaker 1 (45:54):
The The world is always a sensitive around this topic,
but I'm gonna go ahead and throw it out there.
But do you believe in therapy? Do you do therapy?
Speaker 3 (46:02):
So I recently started therapy, probably a few months back,
and I had a few sessions and it's cool. I'm
not consistent with it because I don't feel like I'm
gaining much from it. But I also had like an
expectation of what I was supposed to get from it,
like I'm supposed to be here, like I have a
new sessions. It's like, man, I'm a gold new Man, right,
(46:24):
And that's not how it happens. And for me, I
just I just realized that it was work that I
need to do. Right. I don't need anyone's help to
be a better human. I just need to choose to
be a better human and commit to that. That's not
something I need to talk to someone about if you
want to, yes, But for me personally, it's like I
built an entire empire. I could definitely build myself as
(46:47):
a man, right. I don't need anyone's assistant to do that,
But I chose. I've chosen not to, right, I've chosen
not to allocate my energy towards that, which is the
only reason I haven't grown in any way that I
wish to.
Speaker 1 (46:59):
It's funny you say that because I recently full vulnerability here.
I recently did try therapy, and I kind of felt like,
oh man, this is gonna sound really shitty for all
those people that give.
Speaker 2 (47:13):
It to them.
Speaker 1 (47:13):
But I felt like, yeah, I wasn't getting the response
in that I needed, the in the record speed that
I needed and it was like I knew the answers,
but I just wasn't choosing to make the choice that
I needed to make. And in therapy it takes so
much uprooting of your childhood to get to the root
that I was like, yo, I'm not trying to relive
(47:33):
the thing that I ran from, like trying to give
me PTSD. Like, no, I'm good, but I do agree
with you, and I'm glad you were honest about that
because people say therapy therapy, therapy, and I actually thought
you weren't gonna say that you do therapy because I
low key feel like your vulnerability and your lyrics is
a form of therapy.
Speaker 3 (47:54):
Definitely. Definitely, that's where I get to get all of
that from.
Speaker 1 (47:58):
And someone gets you, man, And like, because I feel
like Drake, every time.
Speaker 3 (48:04):
Writing and talking really helps and that's the thing about
the past, like you're saying, and that shows you how
much you're how deep your trauma is because you think
like speaking about it is reliving it. You can't relive
the past, right, it's already been lived, it's gone. It
only exists in your memory. You can't relive it. But
we when trauma hits in a certain way, it makes
(48:25):
you feel like you're going through that experience again, but
it's not, and you really have to work through that
to get You got to go through it to get
through it, right.
Speaker 1 (48:33):
Yeah, Or you can try.
Speaker 2 (48:39):
I don't.
Speaker 1 (48:39):
I tried my hardest to I believe. I tell myself this,
every storm. At the end of every storm is a rainbow.
So the faster I don't cope through it or the
more I do not cope and numb, the faster I
get through the storm. So like if I were to
numb something, drink, get high, have sex, or do whatever
(49:00):
it is, go go to the mall, look pretty, whatever
I gotta do, go to the clubs. If I cope
through it, then it's gonna take me longer to heal.
So if I go through it and like blow up
my girlfriends, then to strangers and seven elevens. You know whatever,
I'm gonna get through it faster, even though it's gonna hurt,
Like you know what I'm saying, right.
Speaker 3 (49:21):
So definitely, you definitely prolong the healing process as you
as you act right, every every twinkie you eat just
makes you closer to the opposite end of where you
want to be, right, like exactly, And that that's how
it is with everything. Every time you do another act
that goes against what you want to be, you're just
adding it. Because the thing with with how the human
(49:43):
system work is the more you do something, the better
you get at it, right, So the more you live found,
the better you get at it. Some people are phenomenal cheaters,
and it's because they do it a whole lot. Yeah, right,
So every time you do it, you're getting better at it,
which means it's going to take a lot.
Speaker 2 (49:59):
Longer to get better.
Speaker 3 (50:01):
And the other direction, because you're so exceptional at what
you do. If you lie a lot, you're exceptional, it's
gonna take you a lot to become someone who tells
the truth exceptionally.
Speaker 2 (50:10):
Right.
Speaker 1 (50:10):
Yeah, that's that's deep, that's deep. But I think at
the end of the day, I mean I personally give
people a lot of grace. I'm one of those people
that you could literally push me off my seat and
be like, I was just angry my bagm. So I'd
be like, no, it's okay. But now I'm at the
place where it's like I get it, you're anger. I
just don't want to sit next to you anymore. Like
(50:32):
take your anger out on the flowers over there, you know.
But it's a pleasure to have you. I know, we
kind of we're all over this space. I really would
like to go to your show tonight. I know, yes,
I do have some plans, but I'm a pivot and
and I'm a mother now, so trust me, everything is
like a babysitter, babysitter, nanny, babysitter is like any amount
of freedom cost.
Speaker 3 (50:52):
You have to come. This is going to be special.
Speaker 1 (50:55):
I'm definitely gonna come. I am a true fan. I
have so much admir generation for the way you run
your businesses, how everyone gets a buy and how everyone
gets an option to invest in how you partner and
do this restaurant where it's like pay what you what
you want, which is brilliant, and it's just something that
(51:16):
a lot of artists aren't doing right, you know, and
I love the vulnerability and your lyrics. So I'm truly
thankful that we finally got you on the show. Thank
you all listeners for checking out another episode of Eating
While Broke. I'm your host, Colleen Witt, and today we
have Larussell in the building. Where can they find your
(51:36):
Like your Instagram handle? What's your Instagram?
Speaker 2 (51:38):
I'm at l Russell on everything.
Speaker 1 (51:40):
L A.
Speaker 2 (51:40):
R us has EOL.
Speaker 3 (51:42):
You can find me on social media on DSPs. At
home in Valleo, walking around.
Speaker 1 (51:49):
So oh, you stay in the bay.
Speaker 3 (51:51):
I stay home. I live where I'm from and I'm
there every day. I'm taking my daughter to school, I'm
picking it up momos, checking it on people. I'm around.
I'm at home.
Speaker 1 (52:03):
They when they told me that I got you, it
was like I had like two days to notice, like
you know or whatever. And I was like negotiating with
the team everyone's schedule. There's like four people that have
to all align schedules, and there was a hiccup and
I'm like going back and forth, like yo, do you
think we can push back? And We're all like no,
(52:25):
it's not worth it. And we got an hour let's
take it. But thank you and thanks for feeding me.
You and I both agree, you know, moving forward, we
could do eggs, but maybe on a dinner garlic bread.
Speaker 2 (52:39):
Yeah, beautiful.
Speaker 1 (53:05):
For more eating while broke from iHeartRadio and The Black Effect,
visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you listen
to your favorite shows.
Host
Coline Witt
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