Geto Boys Reloaded: Straight To The Point feat. Dee - 1

Willie D sits down with the incomparable Dee-1 to discuss his early beginnings, spotlighting the contradictions of our culture and what artist must do to change narratives that are influencing the community, the difference between an "OG" and a "DG" and much more. Tune in and join the conversation in the socials below.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
Yet you know boys is back and redod it all
in your mind. Yeah, now, deep throating. This is for
the streets, the real the reilroading, the distenfranchise, the truth, escapegoating.

Speaker 2 (00:12):
And they ain't know when we speak the truth, so
they ain't quoted because we wrote it. The North South
East coaches, the ge be not for keeping your head bobbing.
It ain't no stopping and once to be drop said
by and then the system is so corrupt they threw the.

Speaker 3 (00:27):
Rock out their heads and then blame it on us.

Speaker 1 (00:31):
Don't get it twisted on coding. We danced it. Put
no butterment biscuits. It's Willie d y'all, Ghetto Boys in
the House back with another episode of information and instructions
to help you navigate through this wild, crazy, beautiful world
in the studio. D one one the number one, y'all.

(00:55):
It's a special significance to that. I think I know
what it is, but I'd rather have you explain.

Speaker 4 (01:01):
That, of course, brother. Yeah, man, I got my name
in college. I went to a Division I school, LSU
dand Ruge, Louisiana. And you know, if you play college ball,
you know D one is like significant because it's like, oh, yes,
you top not you know what I mean. But not
only that, my birth name is David. My Mama named
me David. And when I started to get into the

(01:23):
REP game, I felt like I was the one that
was chosen to be in this thing. And I felt
like God shows me like, man, you in a group
with twenty other people, but you the one, you know
what I mean. So instead of V one, I took
the d from David. I said, I'm d one.

Speaker 1 (01:38):
That's dope. That's dope. And that's how you came up
with David and Galaid. That album that you put out,
yeah that was that was dope.

Speaker 4 (01:46):
There you go. That was my first album.

Speaker 1 (01:48):
Yeah that was your debut debut album. Man, you know
you made a lot of noise really fast, really fast,
and then it was like you just stopped. Did that
happen like intentionally? Do you switch gears?

Speaker 4 (02:03):
Nah? I don't think I stopped. I think I'm richer,
I'm I'm more well known now.

Speaker 1 (02:09):
What I'm saying. What I'm saying is that like you're moving,
You're you're still doing stuff, but I haven't seen you
doing like like the what would they say the mainstream
the mainstream stuff. Okay. Yeah.

Speaker 4 (02:24):
So when I first jumped into the game, I was independent.
I was fresh out of college. I got a job
as a middle school teacher, so I got a nine
to five bag and band ruge. I'm teaching and one
of my math teaching Math, yeah, math teacher, and I
taught life skills too. I can't leave that when I
taught a subject called life skills. So I'm teaching math

(02:46):
and life skills. And while I'm teaching, I do a
song called j fifty and Wheezy where I'm calling out
jay Z, fifty cent and Lil Wayne. I'm not dissing them,
but I'm holding them accountable for their lyrics and for
the message they sending because I'm seeing how the impact
of they lyrics is affecting my students. One of my
students came in class one day and had a tattoo

(03:07):
that said MOB on it. You know, MOB stand for
money over right. I asked him. I said, man, you
know what that tattoo mean? He was like no, sir.
He looked at me and I said, well, why did
you get it? Because his favorite rapper, Lil Wayne, has
it tattooed on her. And when I realized how powerful
these Brothers lyrics were. I said, I I could choose

(03:28):
to remain a teacher or I could get into the
rap game to be a teacher. So I'm still a
teacher at heart, but instead of mister Augustine, I'm d
one now. And because I'm in the rap game, I'm
able to reach way more people. That music video went
viral for j fifty and Weasy. At the time, MTV
Jams was like the Holy grail. If you could get
a video on MTV Jams, it was like, man, you

(03:50):
made it, you know, bro As an independent artist, as
a middle school teacher, I'm looking and I got a
song that's on the top twenty on MTV Jams and
on BT and all this stuff, and people looking like, man,
how you doing this? So I'm getting mainstream looks, but
I'm still an independent all this with a job, you
know what I mean. So then after that that led
to like a little situation where different labels wanted to

(04:12):
sign me. So cash Money ironically was one of the
labels that wanted to sign me. So I mean talks
with burrow Man and Slim, they flying me out to Miami.
I never forget this meeting I had with Slim at
the Rich Carlton Hotel and he talking to me. And
I grew up on these dudes, you know, so at
the time I'm looking at Slim something.

Speaker 1 (04:32):
Don't talk Slim.

Speaker 4 (04:33):
It's not perfectly man Slim. You know, he talked real slow,
you could tell his words are real calculated. And he
said he liked me. Man. He said he liked my
my authenticity, you know, he liked he liked it. I'm
not trying to be somebody. I'm not, so they wanted
to bring me over there. But in the back of
my mind, I was always like, man, I just did
a song that got real popular. Well it's calling out

(04:56):
jay Z, fifty cent and Lil Wayne, Like how that's
gonna work, you know. And the whole time that they
would courting me and talking to me, I never met
Wayne in person, right, So I was like, this don't
feel right, man, you know what I mean, Like I
didn't I didn't been around the block enough, you know. Yeah,
I'm like I could be getting set up to get shelved,

(05:17):
you know. So, so I didn't end up signing that deal.
Long story show, I didn't end up signing that deal
because I really knew what my purpose was in this game.
If your name is Cash Money Records, what you think
you in this game to do primarily make money? Right,
I'm in this game to be a teacher. I'm gonna
make money. But after I get to teach, so it's

(05:38):
impact over income for me. If it's income, and then
if we make a little impact for you, then we're
not in the game for the same purpose. I recognized that, Bro,
you got two types of artists in this game. You
got the hustlers and you got the teachers. Some people
get into the game like, man, I'm just trying to
make some bread. I'm a hustler. I'm gonna figure out
how to use the rap game to make money. What

(05:59):
you don't read as a rapper, you're automatically a teacher though,
because hip hop is so digestible, it's so much information
inside of your lyrics. Then it rhymes, then it's repetition.
What does that equal? That equals retention? So people are
memorizing these lyrics. I guarantee you, me and you both.
We could wrap the lyrics to songs that we liked

(06:20):
over twenty years ago, but we could still wrap the
lyrics word for word. That's because of the higher retention
rate of hip hop. So if you're a hustler primarily
getting into the rap gam you're gonna end up being
a hustler primarily, then a teacher, and then you're gonna
entertain people in the process. Right, If you're a teacher
getting into the rap game, then you're trying to teach.

(06:41):
You're gonna make some money if you're successful. You can't
not make money in the rap game if you're successful,
and you're gonna entertain people in the process. I learned
early on, I'm a teacher that's getting into the rap
gam to teach. I've made money by the grace of God,
you know what I mean, in a cool position. And
of course I entertain people. I got hundreds of thousands

(07:01):
of fans all over the world, like that's great, probably millions.
But I'm not a hustler that's just trying to get
into this game to figure out how I could just
make money by any means, And unfortunately a lot of
people are yeah, and and that you're always gonna clash.
So I didn't sign with cash.

Speaker 1 (07:18):
Money and that was did you ever meet Wayne?

Speaker 4 (07:21):
No? You want to know something crazy bro, I was out.
Wayne had a concert out here last night. I was
on the tour bus. Still didn't meet Wayne.

Speaker 1 (07:31):
You was on his tour bus.

Speaker 4 (07:33):
Wayne got it. We ain't got two tour buses. He
got his tour bus. He got a tour bus for
all his clique, his crew. Right, So they all know me.
We got songs together, like we is New Orleans. We're small, bro,
we all know each other. I'm friends with I'm cool
with all these dudes. They see me, they embrace me,
They dap me off, gutta gutta macmain. You know all
these people. Yeah, Wayne is on the other tour bus, right,

(07:53):
all these dudes know me. I'm thinking that was Wayne
to a bus. So I'm thinking I'm about to meet him.
We about to after all these years, we about to
be able to you know, chop it up. It's gonna
be cool because I got no hate towards this brother,
you know, nothing like that. I'm just in the game
to be a teacher, and Lil Wayne was one of
my teachers, whether he knows it or not, because I
grew up listening to so much of his lyrics. Come

(08:14):
to find out, he wasn't on that bus. He was
on the first bus. Bro, We always right. When I
realized that, and I got off one bus to walk
to the other, I saw this big circle of people
walking towards the entrance at the House of Blues that
was Wayne, and all them just missed them. Not that
I'm like like searching out to like, oh I gotta
meet Wayne, but we always just barely miss each other.

(08:35):
You heard me, So I did all that, Bro. So
to answer your question, yeah, I got some mainstream looks
before I ever signed. Then I did sign with RCA.
RCA Records signed a major record deal with them. Of
course they helped get me some big looks, you know.
So if you see me on TV, if you see
me on a lot of award shows, performing BT hip

(08:57):
Hop Awards, all this type of stuff, that's when I was.
But I can't even say that it was because of
the label. It was really because of my hustle. It
was really because of my hustle.

Speaker 1 (09:07):
Bro.

Speaker 4 (09:08):
I didn't have music videos go viral. I did a
song about paying my student loans off called Sally May Back, and.

Speaker 1 (09:14):
Then you use the proceeds to pay off your student.

Speaker 4 (09:18):
I used the proceed I used the proceeds from my
record deal to pay off my student loans. Bro, And
that song got so popular and when so viral that
people looked up and they saw d one on the
Real the daytime talk show. Right, it was either the
Real or Wendy Williams. I had a choice to go
on either one. I went on the reel, performed, got
interviewed like this, millions of people around the country seeing me, right,

(09:40):
they see me on ESPN, ESPN doing an interview with
me right, national television.

Speaker 1 (09:46):
Man.

Speaker 4 (09:46):
That wasn't the regular label. That was my hustle, And
that was my anointing from God to be honest with you,
because I realized that even hustle ain't enough to open
doors that God just don't want to open for you.
So this game for a reason, Bro, I've been knowing
that for a while.

Speaker 1 (10:04):
Why did you choose the Reel over Wendy Williams.

Speaker 4 (10:06):
Why Because Wendy Williams. When I think of her name,
I instantly think a mess. That's why your reputation is
so important in this game. When I thought of the Real,
I was like, okay, you think of them, you think
of something like bright and more positive, a friendly atmosphere
with Wendy Williams. It seems like if you ain't got

(10:27):
no drama or no gossip, like you're not really gonna
click too well with her. And I never met her
in person, but from a distance, you know the energy
that's given off, you know.

Speaker 1 (10:38):
Well, the real To be fair, they've had their fast
share of gossip and mess, you know, drama. What do
you think about First of all, that's been an uptick
of teacher student fight videos the internet. Fair, there's a

(10:59):
myriad of them out there if you look on the internet.
What do you think about this volatile situation we find
ourselves in with teachers and students in the classroom.

Speaker 4 (11:10):
Yeah, I think the part that you're leaving out is
the role that parents play, because if your parenting your
child properly at home, there's no way in the world
that they would have the audacity to go to school
and talk about wanting to fight their teacher. Students going
to school nowadays thinking oh, it's cool to threaten my teacher,
it's cool to call my teacher's hands because it's gonna

(11:32):
make my classmates laugh. And that's because of bad parenting.

Speaker 1 (11:37):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (11:38):
Man, at the end of the day, I had one
student I had one student who, no matter how hard
I tried, this dude did not like me at all
at all. And I knew at the end of the day,
I knew that if he had the opportunity, that he
would have fought me. And because I knew that, I
also had the maturity as a man to say I'm

(11:59):
not going to do anything. Ain't to take it to
that level. So that was a time where I literally
had to sit in front of the door. I sat
in the desk in front of the door, blocking the
door so he couldn't get out of the classroom. Because
I was like, brother, I said, we're gonna set the
list right here, right now. And that don't mean I'm
calling your hands. That mean we're gonna sit down as men,
or as a man and a young man, and we're

(12:21):
gonna talk through this, bro, because you don't like me,
and you don't have to like me, but we're gonna
get to the bottom of why you don't like.

Speaker 1 (12:26):
Me, and we get to the bottom.

Speaker 4 (12:28):
Yeah, we got to the bottom.

Speaker 1 (12:30):
And what was the bottom the bottom he.

Speaker 4 (12:32):
Was going through head at home. Man, it had nothing
to do with me. This brother broke down crying by
the end of our session. We're sitting there talking. He
having daddy issues. So when he comes in the classroom
and he see another black man, me trying to exert
some level of authority over him, it just automatically wasn't
making him feel like he wanted to respect or listen

(12:54):
to anything. I had to say this dude, daddy had
him out here trying to sell dope. And this man
was a middle school student. This man was all messed
up in the head in terms of like who to
really look up to. And that's why mentorship is so important, really,
Like it's so important whether you're a parent or whether
you're a rapper.

Speaker 2 (13:14):
Bro.

Speaker 4 (13:14):
In the rap game, we got all these people that
we call OG's, but I feel like we got we
got horrible, horrible examples oftentimes of people who are just
super irresponsible. Man, just because you're an elder statesman in
the game, don't mean you're a real o G. You're
probably a DG. That means you're a disappointing, grown up,

(13:36):
straight up bro. You can't just call somebody an OG
just because they're old. You're a DG man, straight up.

Speaker 1 (13:47):
Good boys. Reloaded podcasts will be right back after the
squat Man, let's go back to on Monastery School.

Speaker 4 (14:02):
Well, you did your research.

Speaker 1 (14:04):
Let's go back, man, let's go back. These are your
formidable years. What do you remember about walking the hallways
of Audibond Man?

Speaker 4 (14:13):
First of all, I grew up on the East side.
I grew up in the Ninth Wall in New Orleans, right, Yeah,
So where I grew up at it's a lot of
poverty and you know, you see a lot of violence.
That's the known for us, right all black. I remember
going all the way across town, like forty minutes, you know,
to get to the other side of town to go
to Auduburn that's near Tulane University. And by the time

(14:34):
I catched the Lake Forest bus to the street called
Canal Street and finally get there, I'm like, man, I
didn't have to walk past million dollar houses on Saint
Charles to get to school. I didn't have to see
all these luxury calls in order to get to school.
It showed me that there's more to life than just
my hood. That was big for me because I was like, man,

(14:56):
I am not just a product of my environment. My
environment can become a product of me if I apply
myself right in school, So, man, when I was at
that school, I was around white students, I was around
Asian students, I was around black students. And it showed
me that just because your parents might make more money
than mine, you're not any better than me. Because I'm

(15:16):
in the gifted classes, y'all, not even in gifted classes.
I'm smarter than you, and you got ten times the
money I got power. That's when I was like, oh,
this's a weapon right here my brain. Oh man, that's
that's gonna be my ticket out straight up. And I
knew that from an early age. Bro, Like shout out
to my daddy. Man, my daddy had to camp out

(15:36):
to get me in that school. Bro, it's a public
school in New Orleans. You know, you ain't got to
pay a dime to go there. But it's so like
sought after for people to go to this type of
school back then that my pops had to camp out
just to get me a spot in line to be
in a lottery to potentially be able to get into
this school. So he camped out in a tent overnight

(15:56):
on the street corner in New Orleans. Because they said
the first one hundred people had an opportunity to get
into the lottery.

Speaker 1 (16:02):
Well, first of all, I don't even believe because black
men don't take care of their kids like that. We
we abandoned our kids. We ain't. We ain't. We're not that.

Speaker 3 (16:09):
We're not, we're not, we're not present. False, We're not
that false. Your daddy did that for really false? Man,
My daddy did that.

Speaker 1 (16:16):
Man.

Speaker 4 (16:16):
They need to stop acting like black men don't take
care of their kids. Bro, you take care of yours,
damn skippy. Then you go, look, he's so cont only
somebody from Texas and City.

Speaker 1 (16:27):
Let me tell you. Let me tell you something, bro. Uh,
I don't even understand how a man could have a
child born into this world and not be there for
the arrival of that baby. I can get it if
there's some type of circumstances that that are beyond your control,
But you know a child, your child is being born

(16:50):
to see that you planted in this woman and it's
this baby is coming into the world, and you know
it's going down, and your silly ass is sitting at
home watching the game, or you at the bar, kicking
it on the streets or whatever you're doing. To me,
that is the most uncivilized thing it's amongst the most

(17:15):
uncivilized thing that a person can do. Like you're talking
about bringing a human being into the world, and you're
responsible for their development, and it's that what you produce
gets to go out into the world and reproduce, you know,
and to just act like you ain't did nothing, like

(17:37):
you ain't had no parts in it. That right there, bro.

Speaker 4 (17:40):
Bro Bro. So, I knew from early on that I
was different because I not only did I have my pops,
but I had my grandpa, you know, and my grandpa
is currently ninety three years old. That's my hero right there,
that's my main man. Like people who follow me on
social media, they feel like he's their grandpa because I
post him a lot on my social media and they

(18:00):
just like, oh, man, I wish he was my papa,
you know, they yeah, bro, And I I realized that
that wasn't the norm for my friends. Like a lot
of my friends, I look around and they ain't had
their daddy. They ain't had their daddy and their grandpa.
And I had both of them. So you know what
that meant, I had no excuse. I know what it's
like to respect a woman. Bro. I see my daddy

(18:21):
do it with my mama every day. Grandpa and Grandma
married sixty six years before she passed away recently. I
saw this. So because of that, I understand the importance
of mentorship and leadership. So when I get into the
rap game, I knew off top man, I got a
responsibility to my audience. I'm not just here to entertain.

Speaker 1 (18:41):
You heard me. You know, even if you had an excuse,
you wouldn't use an excuse if you wanted to better yourself.

Speaker 4 (18:49):
That's a good point. You know.

Speaker 1 (18:51):
I wasn't raised with my father. I probably saw my
father every other year or so. Sometimes, you know, when
he was closer to where I lived, I may see
him multiple times in one year, but very seldom. I mean,
he definitely did not play a role in my development
as far as a man. I never had a heart

(19:14):
to heart with him until he was on his deathbed. Basically,
so everything that I picked up was trial and error.
It was through watching other men who I admired, you know,
and some other man that I admired were unlearned, right,

(19:36):
so I could have easily said, well, I'm this way
because my daddy was this way. You know, I behave
this way. I'm gonna do this because my daddy did it,
but I wanted better, so I never used the excuse. Like,
at the end of the day, your excuses ain't gonna

(19:58):
matter if you walk into If you then let's say,
sell some dope and you end up in a court room,
the judge's gonna be like, you think the judge's gonna say, hey,
not bring him over here, a young man.

Speaker 4 (20:12):
Tell me, how did you have it?

Speaker 1 (20:14):
How hard life was you know when your father wasn't there?
And I can understand, So you know what, I'm gonna
let you get back out there and try it again.
You know, good luck, son. The judge's gonna be like,
I got me another one. Here's another one. Yeah, five years,
ten years, twenty years, thirty years, seventy years, eighty years,

(20:34):
hundred years. They don't give a damn. And because you're
going into a courtroom and you're asking for mercy from
people who were hired to show you no mercy.

Speaker 4 (20:46):
They were hired to show you no mercy, and you're
asking you asking for mercy. Yeah, that's man, that's messed up.
Was even more messed up, is well? We make music
that glorifies this type of behavior. Yeah, We make the
soundtrack for the lifestyle that someone would want to live.
When they say, Okay, I want to sell Dobe, we

(21:09):
make music that makes it sound appealing. We got all
these gray hair clouds, chasers, you know what I'm saying,
People with gray hairs, but they still chasing cloud because
they're still like, I want to be relevant with the
young boys, you know, I want to make music that
the teenager is gonna feel. You're not supposed to be
making music that the teenagers gonna feel, you know what
I mean. You're not supposed to be trying to fit

(21:30):
in with them. You're supposed to be setting an example
for them. And when I hear these people that have
been rapping about selling cocaine, you know, we could call
them out by name if we wanted to bro and
go viral right quick. But they know who they are,
and the fans listening to this know who they are.
Like you and your thirties, your faulties, your fifties, if
you still rapping about cocaine or killing people, even if

(21:52):
you sold that, even if you shot somebody before, there's
a difference between narration and glorification. And I just feel
like in the rap game, it's too much glorification of
things that's gonna get us locked up or get us
six feet underground.

Speaker 1 (22:09):
I'm glad you. I'm glad you clarified that, you know, narration, glorification,
because that has always been my.

Speaker 4 (22:22):
M O.

Speaker 1 (22:23):
You know, not to glorify, you know, but to narrate,
and sometimes not to glorify but horrify. At the end
of the day, we're gonna speak about it, but I'm
gonna tell you I can. We can talk about that
chop in the trunk, but let me tell you also
about what's gonna happen if you get caught with that
chop in the trunk, you see, And that's that's what

(22:44):
that's what a lot of us fail to do. Like
at the end of the day, like we're we got
to have all hands on deck, like we're in a
crisis situation. And I personally, when it comes to music,
I personally don't try to like I wouldn't try to
police what a person says because I know, especially the youngsters,

(23:05):
because I know at the end of the day, they're
not going to be the same person tomorrow as they
are today. Like I grew you know, like even when
I was writing music. When I was considering myself painting
the narrative, I still wasn't as sharp as I am today.
And I know now that some of this stuff need

(23:25):
to be even clarified even more, because some people only
hear one thing and they take a lot of people
have cognitive dissonance. They hear that one thing that they
want to hear, and that's it. For example, I wrote
in the verse my mind and the Mind Playing Tricks verse,
I said, I make big money. I drive big cars.

(23:48):
Everybody know me. It's like I'm a movie star. But
late at night, something ain't right. They didn't hear it.
They didn't catch that part at all. They just I
make big money, I drive That's all they heard. They
didn't hear the whole piece. While I said, but late
at night, something ain't right. I'm paranoid out here in

(24:09):
these streets. I'm busting left in the pop pies and
bell dot quit, you know, and I'm thinking this is killers.
And they jump out this three blind, crippling, crazy senior citizens.
You see what I'm saying. They missed that part. And
I'm telling you that happened for real, Like it wasn't
a situation where three blind, crippling, craziest, three senior citizens

(24:32):
hopped out the car. But it was a situation where
a little five year old kid came around that corner
and I thought it was a shooter and he almost
got clapped, you know. So that that's that paranoia, and
it's it's that, it's that that constant, that constant sense
of being on the edge. You can't live like that, bro,

(24:56):
That ain't no where to live.

Speaker 4 (24:57):
Man, Bro, you said cognitive dissonance. I want you all
to go. If you watching this, go look that up.
I did a song about cognitive dissonance and I didn't
use I didn't use that vocabulary. I just called it.
People don't want the real, you know what I mean?
I say people don't want that real? They just say
that they do. Now. People don't want that real. And

(25:18):
I'm one of them too. I'm so easily entertained by
ratchet activity. Violent negative imagery always seem to interest me.
I tell myself, no more music glorifying evil, selling drugs, womanizing,
killing our people. Then I hear a song with a
tight beat and can't deny it. The hook is catching,
so I subconsciously memorize it. Next thing, you know, I'm

(25:39):
reciting all the lyrics, and my day don't feel complete
unless I hear it inviting darkness in my spirit. This
can't be light. I'm craving what I'm supposed to be fighting.
This can't be right. I must be blind to the effects.
This can't be sight. Death is in the power of
the tongue, and this can't be life. Be careful what
you get involved with. You can't support a cause but

(26:01):
then hate the effects that it causes. When we listen
to this and we would say I make big money,
I drive a big cause. Everybody, if that's all we
want here and that's all we want to focus on,
then we can't get mad when the stuff we got
to do to make that big money and the stuff
we got to do to drive them big cause backfire

(26:22):
is on us and we're like, dang, I had to
do some illegal stuff to make this big money. So
what happened when you do illegal things that judge be like,
come here, yong man.

Speaker 1 (26:32):
It's that simple certain time. It's the same thing I
remember growing up. Man. People used to say, you can
be whatever you want to be. Just go to school,
make good grades, listen to your parents. You can't even
be president of the United States. But they didn't tell
me I couldn't be beating up my classmates and okay,

(26:52):
I couldn't still out the store. They didn't tell me
that part. They just told me, just go to school.
I did. Went to school. I made some good grades,
you know, to my parents sometimes, but I like I
like options. I like to have options. I don't like
to have my options limited. And if somebody would have
told me you can't be beating up your classmates and stuff,

(27:16):
and you can't be stealing out the store, I probably
would not have stolen out the store or something. Because
I like my options. I would have been like, you
know what, I probably wouldn't be able to bounce back
from this if I get caught up, So let me
not do this. You know I was. I was that
intentional growing up as a kid. I was like, Wow,
I wanted to do something, and I put my mind

(27:39):
to do it. I did it good or bad. I
would do it. And so for you, you grew up
in the household with your mom and your dad, and
who who who was the disciplinary in your family?

Speaker 4 (27:57):
Your dad the disciplinarian was my mo Mama. They used
to call my mama the exorcist?

Speaker 1 (28:02):
Yeah, yeah, who was.

Speaker 4 (28:05):
My friends used to ca Yeah, my friends used to
call my mom the exorcist because that's the type of
energy she gave off when she got mad. It's like
you was scared that, like, oh, David, mama is possessed
straight up. So she was the person who I feared
getting her mad at me. Man, my pops, bro, My

(28:26):
pops only got two switches. It's either zero or a hundred.
So I only seen my daddy get mad at me
one time in life. And I'm still scared to this
day thinking about when he got mad and when he
looked at me and pointed at me and told me,
and it was it was basically me not not coming
home on time because what was I doing? I was

(28:48):
doing something I wasn't supposed to be doing.

Speaker 1 (28:49):
How old are you not? Fourteen fifteen?

Speaker 4 (28:51):
Yes, that's exactly I tell you, all right, man, And
you know, I don't know if my people going to
watch this or not, so I'm like, I don't know
if I should say what I was doing, but I
was definitely doing something I wasn't supposed to be.

Speaker 1 (29:04):
Man.

Speaker 4 (29:04):
When I finally got home, my pops looked at me,
that look in his eyes, him pointing at me, and
him like I never forget him banging his fists on
that table and sit you get here, when you get
here after school? When when I when I tell you too,
or when you're supposed to. Man, when he did that, bro,
his hands hitting on that table like literally made my

(29:25):
heart go, you know what I mean, And that feel
made me say, Man, these people do too much for me.
They too, They too cool for me to be bringing
out this other side, you know what I mean. I
never wanted to see that side of my daddy again,
my mama. That's a little more of like all right,
mom's mom's, mom's always gonna find some reason to get

(29:45):
mad at me. I think that's just that. But overall,
it wasn't me being afraid of them as much as
me not wanting to make them look stupid. Man, these
people people sacrifice so much for me, Bro, They got
they got so many stories. Yeah stuff I haven't even
talked about publicly yet of what my parents have done
for me that definitely changed the entire course of my life.

(30:07):
And I you know, I'll speak on that stuff one day.
But why would I want to make them look bad,
they didn't did so much.

Speaker 1 (30:14):
Dude, you just blew my mind with that statement, because
I didn't feel that I had to make my mother
proud because she was abusive towards me. So I didn't
care what she thought if I go out into the
streets and I did wild, reckless things, because you know,

(30:36):
I probably get an ass whooping anyway for something that
I didn't do. I didn't you know, she thought that
I did or whatever. Right, So, when you have when
you when you have parents that you feel that truly

(30:58):
have your best interest at heart, and they love you,
and they're showing you examples daily, they're showing you examples
of their love daily, you're less likely. I'm not saying
you won't do it, but you're less likely to do
things to embarrass your family, to do things to disappoint them.
You know less, you're less like. And I'm gonna go

(31:21):
ahead and say this. I might get in trouble for this,
probably gonna get in trouble for this right here. But
this is why when I date women, I date women
who have good relationships with their mothers and fathers. M
women who have good relationships with their mothers and fathers,

(31:42):
and they come from good stock. They typically are not
going to go out and do something to embarrass themselves,
are you? If they get into it with you and
y'all have a problem, it's gonna be private. It's gonna
be a private matter. They're not going to the internet
and harry you out. They're not gonna go write a
tale all book then doing that type of stuff. But
a woman who just comes from a family where you know,

(32:05):
anything goes and you know, just do you and whatever
and not be concerned about how it affects others, they're
capable of doing anything in same way with mad. But
that's the way I That's the reason why I move
the where I moved.

Speaker 4 (32:21):
When it comes to dating, they call crash dumbies, that's
what we call them where I'm from. Like, you're not
a crash dummy when you know you got something to lose,
But you're a crash dumby wheen you just like, oh word,
I ain't get my way today, or you made me
mad today. Oh I'm about to air everything out. I'm
about to just who knows what's gonna happen, But it
don't even matter what happened, because I'm just gone. I'm

(32:41):
just going to the internet with everything. I'm just I'm
just I'm willing to do anything. Males off females. Bro,
you want to avoid crash dumbies in life, you want
to that could be. That's why one of my nicknames
coming up was the one Man on Me, d One,
the one man on Me, cause I was just like, man,
I can't have people rolling with me and I'm responsible
for if they do something when we out of town

(33:04):
at a show or something like that. If they do something,
it's gonna come back to Oh that was d One's people,
you know what I mean. And unfortunately you got a
lot of crash dumbis who they don't think about it
like that. They think about it like, man, I'm grown.
I never forget being in a car getting pulled over
late at night, coming from a show I had in

(33:25):
Saint Louis, Missouri, and getting back to New Orleans and
we get pulled over and my partner and I'm still
cool with him to this day, but it's just like
the energy he had from the passenger side of the
seat for the policeman, you know what I'm saying, was
just something that it's like you about to mess it up.
For both of us. Bro, I'm the driver and I'm

(33:48):
the public figure right now, you know what I mean.
And I also know how to defuse this situation. Did
I run the red light? I did? I really did.
Am I mad that I got caught? Yeah, I'm mad
I got caught. But when these brothers come up to
the car, I'm not going to be an antagonist, and
I'm not going like, oh, try to you know, go

(34:09):
above and beyond. But when you are passenger's side antagonist,
it's like that could be dangerous for all of us.
And lessons like that just taught me, Like, at the
end of the day, I can't tell another grown man
what to sell or what to do. People going to
be themselves at the end of the day, but I
can determine who I'm going to have in that closer
proximity to me.

Speaker 1 (34:29):
Absolutely, you feel me. Just mentioned when you was fourteen
fifteen years old, you came in the house late, and
I told you, I'm gonna tell you how I knew
you was around that age. Typically for young men, when
they're about fourteen fifteen, it's when they try their father
or that mother for the first time, but especially their

(34:49):
father because they are now in the high school range.
And when you're in high school, you are around boys
who are often your father's size. Some of those seniors
and juniors are as big as your daddy, and you're
sizing them up. You're competing against them for girls. You're

(35:11):
competing against them for a spot on the basketball team,
the football team, the wrestling team. You have to be physical,
and you feel like oftentimes if you can take them,
perhaps you can take dad. Bro.

Speaker 4 (35:25):
You just spoke my life, bro, Yes, you just spoke
my life.

Speaker 1 (35:29):
Bro.

Speaker 4 (35:29):
I got into I got into it with Johnny James.
He was a senior. I was a freshman in high school.
On the basketball court, it's the big center. I'm the
little point guard, you know what I mean. But when
I got into it with him, and I came out
and my nose wasn't bloody, and I was like, man,
I held my own against Johnny James, like just not
in a fight. I'm looking at it. He's six ' five,

(35:49):
My daddy only sixty three, you know what I'm saying, right,
And so yeah, I think I got a little a
little outside my top And at that time.

Speaker 1 (35:58):
You're right, Yeah, my step daddy used to kind it
smelling your piss.

Speaker 4 (36:04):
That's funny.

Speaker 1 (36:06):
Are you still a Catholic?

Speaker 4 (36:08):
I'm Christian?

Speaker 1 (36:09):
Okay, you switched it up.

Speaker 4 (36:10):
I'm Christian.

Speaker 1 (36:11):
Yeah, yeah.

Speaker 4 (36:12):
When I got to college. When I got to college,
that's when I went from just going to church because
my parents told me this the church we go to,
and this's what we believe in and that's what we do,
to being like I got to form my own relationship
with God. For those who don't know, my freshman year
was one for the books.

Speaker 3 (36:29):
Bro.

Speaker 4 (36:30):
My freshman year in college, one of my best friends
got murdered back in New Orleans. My roommate in college
started selling dope. You heard me, My girlfriend in college
cheated on me with a football player on LSU's team,
and I got cut from LSU's basketball team. All in
one year. All this stuff happened to me. So a
lot that I was building my identity on and a

(36:53):
lot of stuff that was giving me my confidence at
the time. That stuff all got taken away from it rapidly.
So that's when I had to lean on God in
a way, not just like, oh, God is just some
random phrase that we just named. I had to really
form a relationship with God and have an understanding of
who God was, why God chose to create me, and

(37:13):
what God put me here to do. All that stuff
happened that year, bro. So that's when I was like
I found Christianity and not just saying oh, I'm just
Catholic because that's just what my family is.

Speaker 1 (37:23):
Yeah, girdle boys revoted podcasts when we right back after
this sport. So you jump out, you start rapping in college.
That's a late start, very rapper, very late college. But

(37:46):
you find success relatively early, like, and so you start,
you start to rapping. What happens when the people around
you who've been knowing you for a long time finds
out you're rapping. You're in college to go out and
take over the world, do something great, add to humanity sometimes.

Speaker 4 (38:05):
But what were you majoring in business marketing?

Speaker 1 (38:09):
Okay?

Speaker 4 (38:10):
Yeah?

Speaker 1 (38:11):
What do your parents say when you decide, Hey, Dad,
I think I'm gonna rap. I'm going to do this
rap thing.

Speaker 4 (38:19):
There you go. I didn't do the a mom, Dad,
I'm about to wrap. I didn't tell him at first.
I didn't tell him. So I was like living a
double life with my parents because they're like, all right,
how your grade's going and how your class is gone,
and I'm thinking, how this mixtape going that I just dropped,
you know what I'm saying, And they don't have any idea.
One of my mama's co workers, her son went to

(38:39):
high school with me, and he found out that I wrapped,
and he gave his mom my mixtape that I dropped,
my first mixtape when I was in college. She must
have went back to my mama at the job and said, oh,
I ain't no, David was wrapping. Now, Oh that's interesting.
Like my son gave me his mixtape and gave it
to my mama. And when my mama showed me the

(38:59):
mix tape that I had dropped that I didn't tell
them anything about. That's how they found out I was rapping.

Speaker 1 (39:05):
But by this time, they're not tripping because you're still
in college. Like you dropped out of college to rap.

Speaker 4 (39:10):
Still in college, still in college?

Speaker 1 (39:13):
And did you you didn't get your degree? Right?

Speaker 4 (39:16):
I did? I graduate?

Speaker 1 (39:17):
Bro?

Speaker 4 (39:17):
I don't know if you know right now, but you
know I'm teaching at Harvard University right now. Yeah, yeah,
Like I like, so I got my degree a long
time ago. And when people on the internet here that
I'm at Harvard right now, Like, I'm up there teaching
courses on hip hop. Man, I'm doing a fellowship at Harvard,
a hip hop fellowship that literally like has me at
an Ivy League school representing hip hop. So I got

(39:40):
my bachelor's degree a while ago.

Speaker 1 (39:42):
You know, right, what is the ex girlfriend who left
you for the football player doing? And also what is
this guy who was your roommate that was selling dope?
What happened then?

Speaker 4 (39:56):
Yeah, so he got kicked out of school, he got
kicked off campus, he had to do some jail time,
all that type of stuff. He didn't end up dying, thankfully,
nothing crazy like that. Last time my song was a
few years ago in New Orleans and he was balltending somewhere.
So I was in me and my home and went
in a spot to watch the game playoff game or something,
and I turned around and the dude who was taking

(40:18):
our food order was my boy. I was like, wow,
So yeah, we just made a small talk. We ain't
have no big huge like, oh my goodness, Bro's been
up all these years. It was just kind of like work,
I ain't. I'm glad to see he's still alive.

Speaker 1 (40:34):
You know what, I mean, and what about the ex girlfriend?

Speaker 4 (40:37):
So that's another story. Brother. So with her, I.

Speaker 1 (40:41):
Learned her married.

Speaker 2 (40:43):
Bro.

Speaker 4 (40:44):
After that, I was not. I learned like I learned
that man. That level of heartbreak made me realize that
if I'm doing my best, because oh my goodness, I
was doing my best, bro, that was my first love.
If I'm doing my best, say my best ain't enough
for a woman that ain't the woman for me. I'm
not gonna keep pursuing that man. And I learned that

(41:07):
at an early age when that happened to me in college,
when I got cheated on and it wasn't even a
star football player she cheated on me with He was
like a fourth string, like bench walmer, you know what
I mean. So I was just like, whatever it is
you saw and this dude, if me giving my all
to you ain't enough cool, So it's no beef because

(41:27):
it's because of her that I started rapping. Like I
wouldn't even be rapping, you know. I went to I
went to college to make good grades, playball, and figure
out what kind of career I was gonna have. I
got a late start with rapping, but it came after
she cheated on me and you know, you don't go
to therapy when you're a college student, and especially back then,

(41:47):
therapy wasn't like this buzzword like it is now. So
my therapy was, Man, I gotta be able to talk
to these beats. I gotta be able to talk to
these instrumentals and just get all these you know, all
this hurt and all this paying out.

Speaker 1 (42:00):
That's the name of the song you wrote about her.

Speaker 4 (42:01):
It was called Wanna Be Good to You. That's what
it's called. It was called Wanna be Good to You
because and you know, I didn't have original beats at
the time, so it was definitely like instrumentals. It was
an old Kanye West instrumental that I wrapped over and
it was basically saying how she cheated on me, she
messed over me, broke my heart. But then she tried

(42:24):
to double back and she realized like, oh I made
a mistake, Like that was a good dude right there,
and she wanted to try to come back. And also,
I want to be good to you, David, you know
what I mean, And so the song was about that.
But it was just saying like now it ain't no beef,
you know, but I'm good on you, because this is
what you did. This what you put me through. And
you know what, in the weirdest way possible, thank you

(42:45):
for putting me through that. Because since you put me
through that, I didnet tapped into a whole nother side
of myself that I ain't know existed. I got some
real grit, now, you know I got. I got, I
got the ability to use this gift of hip hop
that really I started using because I was heartbroken. But
now I see how this gift could change people's lives.
And that literally was the birth of d one.

Speaker 1 (43:08):
When you taught math, you taught for what two years?

Speaker 4 (43:12):
I taught two years?

Speaker 1 (43:12):
Okay, and then you quit? Did you quit to pursue
your rap career?

Speaker 4 (43:16):
Absolutely? That's when the fifteen Weezy video went viral?

Speaker 1 (43:20):
Right? Was there any trepidation about quitting the teaching profession
because you know, we always say we need good teachers,
and then we got one. Yeah, and now he's talking
about going to rap.

Speaker 4 (43:30):
Talking about want to be a rapper. Yep. So I
made a promise to my students. I said, listen, y'all,
mister Augustine, gonna stop teaching at the end of this year.
I'm gonna go out here and pursue my career as
a rapper. I said, I've never made any money off
of rapping before, but people are starting to know my name.
I'm buzzing in New Orleans. I'm buzzing in the streets
of bad and rouge. I said. One thing I promise

(43:51):
y'all is that if I'm gonna make it in the
rap game, I'm not going to compromise the stuff I
stand for.

Speaker 3 (43:56):
So my motto is three is up. And I know
you know that, I know it, know you three. Let
me get it, let me get what you got. Be real,
be righteous, be relevant.

Speaker 4 (44:05):
That's it, my writer, I got you what. That's it.
You know what my hood is and everything right out. Yeah, Like,
I appreciate you on. You're a OG, bro, You're not
a DG. You're a OG. You ain't one of them dgs.
So I told my students, if I make it in
the rap game, I guarantee you I'm gonna be the
same dude that's in here as y'all teacher. But I'm
just gonna have a bigger platform because I'm d one

(44:27):
instead of mister Augustine. So all these years later, yeah, bro,
I've been successful for a long time in rap. I
don't brag, I don't boasts, you know about what I
have and what i've a master or you know all
this time you kind of threw me a curve ball
when we started the interview when you ask me about
like what happened as if like I'm one of them

(44:48):
stories of a dude who got on and then fell off. Bro, Like,
I'm in such a great position right now and I'm
talking about I'm sitting here about I just performed at
the New Orleans Jazz Fest. I'm sitting here looking at
fifteen toy days we got coming up over the summer.
I'm teaching at Harvard University. You hear men getting paid
to be up there teaching on hip hop and doing

(45:10):
a fellowship at Harvard University. Like I'm at conferences speaking
on financial literacy, speaking on empowerment with doctor Boyce Watkins,
and you know that's our partner and all that. Like,
I just realized that some people, not you, but some
people their lens of what they deemed successful is who's

(45:30):
on the radio when I turn on ninety seven point
nine in the box every day, whoever I hear on
there that's who's popular. You know what I'm saying, Oh,
that's what's popping. And it's like, you want to talk
about who wealthy. You want to talk about who got
peace of mind and could walk around without security. You
want to talk about who really is making an impact
in their community to where people's lives are better because

(45:51):
of their music and because of their partnerships with different programs.
When I partner with Sally May, we gave away three
hundred thousand dollars over the course of our partnership to
get other to black and brown students were and some
white students too, but just students in general who wanted
college scholarships. Like I want us to start redefining what
success looks like in the rap gam because if more

(46:12):
people were like That's why I loved that, I got
three hundred thousand followers, four hundred thousand followers online, that
type of stuff. I love that, not because that matters
to me, but because when I go and speak in
a middle school or a high school, them kids look
and they see that blue check, and this ain't the
blue check I gotta pay for her, This ain't the
fifteen dollars a month of verification that anybody could buy.

(46:33):
Now this is like I had this for years, that
stuff don't matter to me. But that's how they determine
what success is. So what this is my goal that
is very important. I've wanted to be the person in
the rap game that confuses people when it comes to
what success looks like. Because on one hand, you look online,
D one is always booked. I know, he getting paid

(46:55):
to do all these shows, speak at all these colleges,
do all this stuff. So D one is always busy.
He got a lot of followers. But on the other hand,
D one drives a hind of a cord. D one
don't wear no big expensive jewelry. D one that's not
on here stunting and flashing with his material possessions. So
is he successful because success don't normally look like driving

(47:17):
a hind of a cord. But I look online and success
definitely look like all these numbers and all these views
and followers and all this getting booked all over and
I want people to see that, like, yes, success doesn't
have to look like this narrow definition of what one
percent of the music industry shows us, which is iced
out everything and pull up in the maybag. Pull up

(47:38):
in the Bugatti that don't have to be what success
just looks like.

Speaker 1 (47:41):
Well, you know, I already know you're successful. I know
you personally, so I already know you're a good business man.
And what's going on with the watches?

Speaker 4 (47:48):
Oh yeah, that's I man having to go to court
right now? What you want to know? The truth? Unfortunately
with look, bro, just because everybody your skin folk, don't
mean they your kinfolk, bro. And you know I wasn't
in that en devil by myself, you know what I'm saying. Unfortunately, Yeah, Bro,
that that's something that went left field. And I'm I am.

(48:10):
I don't even know what I should or shouldn't speak
on because it's literally a legal situation. But man, just
know that I got messed over bad, bad by a partner, bad,
really bad. And I see how, Bro, I see how
some people when they get messed over on a certain level.
I see how some people end up making a mistake

(48:31):
that lands them in jail or something like that because
they put hands on somebody, because they physically I see it.
But thankfully I'm in a position where it's like, oh, yeah,
you really messed over me. But I'm really blessed like
like so blessed overall in so many ways that the
ways in which you messed over me financially, the ways
in which you yeah, messed over me legally, like all

(48:53):
this stuff. That's what they got lawyers for, you hear me.
And I got lawyer money, you hear me. So that's
going to handle itself. Just take a long time when
you go to that route. But I get it how
our people in the streets who it's like, man, this
was my lifeline. This is all I had gone for myself,
and now you done stole this and you done did
this and you didn't maneuver it like that. I see

(49:13):
how people be like, man, we're finna go put that
black mask on the night and we finnah go. You
know what I mean, catch us when I get it now, bro,
because that stuff didn't happen between that and me being
in the music industry for all these years with all
these people who try to steal from you and record
labels and what they do in terms of like playing
with your creativity, playing with your manhood. You know, I

(49:34):
don't have people in the music industry before like males
like tell me like if I if I perform sexual
favors for them that you know they'll put me on
Like that really happened, Bro, I got a song about
the car.

Speaker 1 (49:47):
You gotta call them out. Man. You got names, Bro,
we gotta get We gotta get names to help the
next generation.

Speaker 4 (49:56):
To help the well. The good thing is this dude
ain't relevant, no, Bro, he was relevant when I was
first first getting out of college, saying.

Speaker 1 (50:06):
In his heart then, man, he already down. Let's kick
him whley down. What's his name?

Speaker 4 (50:10):
Man, I ain't gonna call his name out. He ain't
even worth the he gonna get popular of he's gonna
get relevant again off of that, Like, I ain't gonna
do it. I almost want to call out the names
of these these all this tool bro who just like
they just intentionally ignorant. Bro, it's not unintentional ignorance. It's
intentional ignorance.

Speaker 2 (50:30):
Bro.

Speaker 4 (50:30):
And I promise you, I'm just like, oh, you wanna
go viral right quickly? He called his name out, call
his name out like I said, I called him gray
hair clout chasers because you're literally so old that you
got gray hair now, bro, but you're still clout chasing
or you sitting here like one thing I didn't enjoy
was Joe Budden when NBA young boy who's from my state,

(50:52):
did an interview on Billboard. I don't know if you
saw it. He was like, man, he was almost in
tears in the interview. Man, I realize how many people
I led astray with my music, and I really want
to do better. You know what I'm saying. This is
what he's saying in the interview. He's shaking in the interview,
his voice trembling, and everything he talked about all I
heard he experienced coming up and he want to do

(51:12):
better now. Me as a teacher, I'm looking at it
like that's how a student looks when they are having
a vulnerable moment and when they're scared and they terrified.
Y'all just so happen. They had the cameras rolling and
catch that. But this is when mentors need to come
to be next to a person like this and to
be able to like nurture that energy and help, you know,

(51:33):
help that be something that they continue to move in
that type of direction. I saw Joe Budden come out, man,
being a young boy lying to y'all. Man, he's just
trying to go viral. Man, He faking man, like he
ain't finna do that. Da da da da da. And
I'm just like as messed up.

Speaker 1 (51:46):
Bro.

Speaker 4 (51:47):
You know, I was a Joe Budden fan when he
was a rapper. He rap about being in group homes,
He rap about all the emotional distress he went through
as a kid coming up, all that type of stuff.
What if people gave up on him like that? You
know what I'm saying.

Speaker 1 (52:00):
I know how long ago was this interview?

Speaker 4 (52:03):
Oh, this was a few months ago. I've taught on
this in my in my classes up at Harvard. Bro,
Like I showed this interview. I want to say. It
came out in January on Billboard. I sent it to
your phone. Yeah, oh bro, when you see this interview,
We're gonna watch it right after this interview, and I
want to know your thoughts on it, Like cause, Bro,
I'm from the streets. Bro, you know what I'm saying.

(52:24):
I'm not no dude that was participating, but I'm from
that element, so I know. Also when somebody is just
stunting for the camera or they trying to play a role,
you know what I'm saying, versus like, man, he having
a real moment right now. You know what I'm saying.
I didn't really taught to students who I'm on the
phone yesterday with my former student, you know, Fredo Bang.

Speaker 1 (52:45):
Absolutely what fred that's my.

Speaker 4 (52:47):
Student, bro, Yeah, that was my student. That was my
middle school student.

Speaker 1 (52:50):
That's my dude.

Speaker 3 (52:51):
Man.

Speaker 4 (52:52):
Man, I'm on FaceTime with him yesterday talking brother. Me
and fred are talking about financial literacy, were talking about investments,
were talking about paying up, paying taxes, were talking about
payroll and staff and team and just grown man stuff. Bro,
you know what I mean, grown man business. Like It's
amazing for me to see that and to understand that,

(53:13):
like this brother trust me, This brother trust me.

Speaker 1 (53:16):
I got it.

Speaker 4 (53:17):
So even when he make mistakes or do things that
I disagree with, just like sometimes you might be like,
oh Diadan jumped out there on Instagram and said this
or say this about this issue. You might not agree
with everything I do, but it's still important that you know, man,
D got a good heart. So I ain't gonna just
denounce everything D stand for, cancel D because I disagree
with one thing he done did with Fredile, I see

(53:38):
that this man trust me, This man, you know, is
willing to be open with me and vulnerable. The worst
thing I could ever do is to be like just
so I could go viral right right quick, is to
try to talk down on somebody like that.

Speaker 1 (53:51):
You know.

Speaker 4 (53:51):
So when I saw Joe Budden doing that with the
NBA young boy and stuff, I ain't respect that at all.
I ain't respect that at all.

Speaker 1 (53:58):
Yeah, do you ever feel like doing Christian rap holds
you back?

Speaker 4 (54:04):
You think I'm a Christian rapper?

Speaker 1 (54:07):
Are you a Christian rapper? You're a Christian? You rap?

Speaker 4 (54:10):
That makes me a Christian rapper?

Speaker 1 (54:11):
I mean, if you're a Christian and you rap, you're
not a Christian rapper.

Speaker 4 (54:13):
I don't know. Man, if you're if you're a Muslim
and you wrap.

Speaker 1 (54:21):
Yeah, that's what I'm saying. Educate, educating.

Speaker 4 (54:23):
I'm a priority rapper. I rap about it.

Speaker 1 (54:28):
Putsairs on that one.

Speaker 4 (54:33):
I'm a priority rap. I rap about what my priorities
on life. God is my top priority in life. God
gave me life, God created me. What's not my priorities
is my jewelry, my cause, and my clothes. Man, that
ain't high priorities. So you ain't gonna hit me rapping
about that too much? Well, I mentioned it, sure because
I got all all of the above, but God is

(54:53):
my top priority. Love relationships, you know what I mean.
Understanding women, Understanding how to make an impact on the youth,
understanding that prioritizing black love the black community. That's my priorities.
I'm a priority rapper, bro. You feel me, but.

Speaker 1 (55:09):
I love it. But I love it.

Speaker 4 (55:12):
I never tell somebody don't call me whatever they view
my art to be, you know, based on listening to it.
I say, I said, what's the point of writing all
of these lyrics if I'm rapping to an audience that
ain't trying to hear it. They rather me blow a
bag than rap about building wealth. They rather me get
some brain than rap about mental health. Don't censor me, eventually,

(55:35):
try to make sense of me. I don't need your dollars.
I need you to think sensibly you feel good now
that you're vegan, or that's funny if you're still supporting garbage,
you just a healthy dummy. My city don't even love me.
I'm calling it how it is. I'm a threat to
the power structure that's brainwashing our kids. I'm fracturing all
the egos of illegitimate heroes. I only look up to

(55:59):
one man because he died, then he rolls. I keep
it too real because life don't last too long. If
everybody likes me, I'm doing something too wrong. Maybe in
time they'll appreciate my words like nipsy till then I'm
gonna see how far keeping it real gives me. That's
my mindset, Oh man, that's how That's how I approach you.

(56:19):
So if people hear all that and they see the
moves I'm making, and they see me he at Harvard
and he performing in colleges, clubs and churches and all that.
And but because he reped God, he a Christian rapper,
I am what you perceive me to be.

Speaker 1 (56:34):
Your independent grind is unmatched. I was looking at some
of the things that you was doing, and you know, uh,
some of the people that you've worked with, like you
work with like so many damn artists, Like I mean,
you work with Drake and you tour it, you toured
with who was that? I saw it. I saw you

(56:57):
did a song with Juvenile YEA. I saw this stuff
with Manny Fresh.

Speaker 2 (57:01):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (57:02):
You've worked with Acon.

Speaker 4 (57:04):
Yeah, Loop and Fia School, you create.

Speaker 1 (57:08):
And you yeah, Bigret. In fact, Joe, you and you
and you and uh loope, y'all really cool.

Speaker 4 (57:14):
Huh real cool. Yeah, that's my briter right there. Yeah,
that's my britter right there.

Speaker 1 (57:20):
So I can see that, y'all be imagining with you know.

Speaker 4 (57:23):
Yeah, So you know, I'm at Harvard right now. He's
at mi T that's ten minutes away from Harvard University.
So we both up there in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and he
teaching that MI I T. And I'm doing my program
and teaching at Harvard.

Speaker 1 (57:35):
Bro. Too cool, crazy.

Speaker 4 (57:37):
Crazy bro. And we don't toured the country together. We
went on tour together. We got music together. So now
for us to be up there, it's powerful and it
shows the possibilities of rap in academia. You know, rap
turned how old ffty this year, right, hip hop turned
fifty years old this year. We just getting started, baby,
were just getting started. We're in Ivy League schools right now. Man,

(57:59):
I just was teaching last week on how hip hop
took over the world and what lessons it has taught
the black community on Harvard University's campus. Man, when the
people seeing and when I go to Harvard, I'm the
same dude you're seeing right now. Well, I'm not going
there like, Hi, guys, my names are d David Augustine
and I'd like to but I'm me. I get to

(58:20):
be authentically myself.

Speaker 2 (58:22):
Bro.

Speaker 4 (58:22):
That is powerful, and we don't celebrate that in hip
hop thor if I say, like, man, I'm a top
tier rapper and I'm also at Harvard University right now.
Not there's no student, no disrespect to the students. That's amazing,
but I'm up there doing a fellowship. I'm up there
teaching and doing research on hip hop. In hip hop,

(58:45):
we don't look at that like that's a flex, like
oh oh, you're doing that. But if it's like, man,
that boy D one was in what's one of your
strip clubs? Y'all got out here? What's the name? I know,
you know what's one of the names. He gonna act
like him.

Speaker 1 (59:00):
Don't go to him. I don't do strict, but I
do know the names.

Speaker 4 (59:03):
All right. One was still the boy D one was
in IX last night will Willie d them boys threw
fifty rags of people with.

Speaker 1 (59:14):
Somebody else.

Speaker 4 (59:15):
Man was not with me.

Speaker 1 (59:16):
But see that if I did see you flexing, uh yo,
bro hold on, man, hold on, because you're o g
like saying man, you know we can do with that money, man.

Speaker 4 (59:26):
Because you're o g It takes courage, It takes really
I don't want to call his name, bro, but a dude.
I grew up listening to looked up to him.

Speaker 1 (59:34):
Man.

Speaker 4 (59:34):
I'll never forget being in the studio with him and
we have an intelligent conversation just like this. He's older
than me, he around your age and definitely where I'm from.
I mean, you know, he's a legend and I don't
even I think we need to use a different word
other than legend nowadays too, because everybody we call a
legend ain't a legend. But we're in the studio having

(59:56):
a talk like this, and his engineer was like, I
have such a such a I got to be pulled up,
you know, going there, you can spit your verse. We
go from having this type of talk about fatherhood and
black love and the community and financial literacy. As soon
as he go get in that boot, man, he won't
spit the most ignorant I'm gonna kill you and y'all y'all,

(01:00:18):
and all your home is and da da da, and
I got kilos of cocaine and da da da da da,
And I'm a big like just that quick, bro, Bro,
I witnessed this stuff. I can't make these stories up.
So when I witness this type of stuff, I'm just
I'm not numb to it. I'm like, oh something man,
right about this? Bro? Like, people are getting in character

(01:00:41):
when they are rappers. Meanwhile, as a real man, you
totally different And that's not cool, Bro, I just want
to be the same dude on and off the mic.

Speaker 1 (01:00:51):
Well, yeah, it's a lot of dudes that are like that.

Speaker 4 (01:00:54):
Man.

Speaker 1 (01:00:54):
You know some of the biggest artists out there who
these people respect, they have no eyes idea that you know,
dude ain't who they think he is, you know what
I'm talking about. Like so, but the thing is, because
here is the deal, bro, Like, if if you really

(01:01:15):
that you all of that, and a street cat with
credentials want to check, what's the first thing you're gonna do.
He gonna call your hometown and he's gonna ask somebody
on the ground about you. And that person on the
ground that he asked gonna give him the real So
everybody else, you know, they get the uh, they get

(01:01:39):
the you know what they call it, the reperence, the reference,
the representative representative. Yeah, you know. But the people that know, yeah,
they get the real They really know, Bro, they really know.
And the people that know the one really know the

(01:02:01):
real people know you know, David Augustine, you know what
I'm talking about. We know you real, but we know
you solid and we really do appreciate what you bring
to the table. And you know absolutely you know, no
disrespect whatsoever when it comes to uh, you know, your

(01:02:23):
contributions to this game. You know what I'm saying. You're
one of those guys that when the people your I
always say, like, when your peers respect you, you're doing
something wrong. Your peers respect you. Thank you, man, Thank you,
thank you. It's been an honor man to sit down

(01:02:44):
and have a conversation with you.

Speaker 4 (01:02:45):
I waited a year for this, bro. I know you
know I appreciate that.

Speaker 1 (01:02:50):
And what's up with that gear? Man? Like you cold
blooded with the gear on the gear game? What's up
with that?

Speaker 4 (01:02:54):
Because you make way more money on merch than you
do on streams. It's like if you're independent. But it's
like me, you gotta know, man, like it's a lifestyle
that you gotta be pushing the people. The music is
the soundtrack, but you got to head a gift for people.
So Mission Visionlifestyle dot Com is my website. I got
a whole store there, man, And you see me rocking
Mission Vision right here. That's my movement. That's also my ratulation,

(01:03:18):
Mission Vision Music, Mission Vision Music. That's the label baby.
So yeah. So if people want socks, they want sweatpants,
they want hoodies, they want T shirts, tank tops, we
got all that, and we actually got much more on
the weast. So thank you for allowing me to give
that plug Mission Visionlifestyle dot Com. Willie d actually be
wearing my merch. I got pictures of him, y'all, and

(01:03:38):
I'm gonna post them. Just if y'all think I'm lying.

Speaker 1 (01:03:40):
Post the man post it. Put it in their face.

Speaker 4 (01:03:43):
That's it, brother, Thank you man.

Speaker 1 (01:03:45):
No more talk.

Speaker 4 (01:03:48):
This episode was produced by A King and brought to
you by

Speaker 1 (01:03:51):
The Black Effect Podcast Network at iHeartRadio