May 20, 2026 • 47 mins
On this week's In Service Of Rock and Roll Hall of Famer, the iconic Chuck D, of Public Enemy, sits down with host Steve Baltin for a timely and fascinating conversation on music journalism inspired by Chuck's new magazine, 'Rap Central Station.'
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Speaker 1 (00:08):
Hey, to Steve Bolton, to welcome to in Service sub
where this week I am joined by the legendary Chuck
D of Public Enemy. This is one of those ones
where you just sit back and for me shut up
and let him say everything brilliant that he has to
say on everything from basketball to Wrap to his new magazine,
(00:33):
to history, politics and beyond, and as a listener you
just take it all in recognize you are listening to
one of the greats of music, who has done so
much in the last forty years, shaped so much of history,
and as admired by so many great musicians, Chuck D
(00:54):
is one of the smartest people in music, one of
the most fun I hope you enjoyed this interview as
much as I did. It's amazing to sit down with
truck Dig. Why does your summer start May first? How
(01:21):
do you know that it's the official start of summer?
Speaker 2 (01:24):
I don't know.
Speaker 3 (01:25):
But but if you deal worldwide, over one hundred countries,
not only are you're dealing with your time, but you're
dealing in the world's time and the way the world turns,
you got to start to be able to make your
own boundaries and your own placement.
Speaker 2 (01:37):
Markers to tell you when you need to get going.
Speaker 3 (01:40):
And sometimes in the genre that I'm in, you got
to always be, you know, six weeks ahead, because your
genre doesn't get much support, which is the reason I
started my magazine, Rap Central Station, because a lot of
people say that they know about hip hop or rap music,
but they really don't, and it was.
Speaker 2 (01:59):
An opportun unity to seize the narrative.
Speaker 3 (02:02):
I've been in the electronics space with Wrap Station as
a radio app with six twelve stations I've been doing
for sixteen years, and also developing an app called Bring
the Noise, which works like like kind of like like
Threads or some of the tiktoks or whatever, and we're
(02:25):
dedicated to the genre. So to seize the narrative, seize
the time without also knowing that you have corporate backing
as an independent, there's a lot of things you have
to do and you got to be ahead of the game.
Speaker 1 (02:38):
Well, you know, it's interesting. There's a lot of directions
to go.
Speaker 2 (02:40):
On with that.
Speaker 1 (02:41):
And it's funny. I mean, you say people don't know
hip hop, you know, it's funny. I have been doing
a lot of jazz writing for the La Times, and
I'm actually doing a big piece now for Miles centennial.
But it's interesting me. Do you feel like at this point,
I mean, and I find this as a journalist, people
just generally don't music.
Speaker 2 (03:01):
No, they don't.
Speaker 3 (03:02):
Well, once upon a time, Steve, you know that people
used to know music and they were helped along the
way by how they heard their radio stations because those
people were knowledgeable. When they came into less music, I mean,
let's talk more music. Those times in the late eighties
(03:23):
and the nineties, it was the beginning of the end
where it was about numbers, but it wasn't about personality,
and it wasn't about information about the music. If the
information came in, the information was about what was what
they were trying to sell through whatever commercial that was
on or whatever drama happened to be the lowest hanging
(03:44):
fruit that would catch to keep their attention. Fast forward
at where we're at right now. I was saying, Steve,
that's scrolling and reading and texting and writing, and you
can't define hip hop and rap life with a swipe
or ended something that has to slow things down, and
we're not really part of the slow down times. But
(04:06):
we realized that five years ago whether you liked it
or not, Steve, the world slowed down anyway, it's called
the pandemic and post pandemic, people have lost their timing.
Speaker 2 (04:18):
But I will tell you this that things that you
can hold in your hand.
Speaker 3 (04:23):
Are as important as a guide to your life as
much as the people are relying on the GPS. So
in this genre, I felt that seizing the narrative was important.
I think when corporations came in on the rap hip
hop narrative, I think people make a comparison to like
how rock was, and then corporate rock came in, and
(04:44):
then indie rock came up. I think we've gone through
a lot of changes as a hip hop rap genre.
Speaker 2 (04:49):
But it's just like in sports. A lot of.
Speaker 3 (04:51):
People still don't those sports, but they end up watching
something like ESPN, which gives you twenty four to seven
of the hype about sports, maybe not the detail, but
they're more detailed than music because people are named the
stat of a of a of an athlete quicker than
(05:12):
they could name the musician in the band of a
song that they like, or DJ, or vocalists or background vocalist.
We used to know that in music that no longer exists,
the press has been eradicated, the knowledge of who is
who and what is what has been eradicated. So some
of these things people love, but you got to be
(05:35):
able to give it to them out there, unabashedly and
with no fear.
Speaker 1 (05:41):
No, I imagine as well, it's fun for you to
you know, I've talked with so many artists about the
fact that, like you know, artists generally don't look back.
They're always looking forward. But you know, do these articles
where you get to see your friends really reminisce and
think about the things they've done, And you know, I'm
sure it brings up a lot memories for you as
well when you see, you know what the artists in
(06:03):
the magazine talk about, because you were there for so
much of it.
Speaker 3 (06:09):
I don't know about any of that. All I know
is that friendships come based on how you document it.
We're surrounded by everything and everybody you talk about. I
have a I have a saying Steve is called Pacentia.
It's p A S E N T.
Speaker 1 (06:31):
You are e.
Speaker 3 (06:32):
You know what that means? No past president, future is
the same shit. Most of the people I listened to
Steve are dead people. If I'm gonna listen to Oldis Redden,
I'm gonna listen to Jim Morrison. I'm gonna be listening
to James Brown, I'm gonna listen to Rita. That's gonna
(06:54):
be a core of my listening, you know what I'm saying.
And at the end of the day, I'm like, damn,
I'm listening to eighty percent people. People are no longer here,
but they're still here. And Steve, that's the essence of
this music.
Speaker 2 (07:06):
Man.
Speaker 3 (07:06):
Whatever music, if it goes to, whether it's a sample
or whether it's ai right, the thing about it is
that the core of the of the hip hop genre
is the respect and the saluting of musicians and records
and producers. And when you got that respect as a
(07:28):
crate digger and the DJ, you keep the music going on.
The DJs were very important, whether it was on the
radio or whether it was you know, doing mobile things
in the beginning of hip hop in the late seventies.
Speaker 2 (07:41):
In the early eighties.
Speaker 3 (07:42):
And when you take the DJ away, you're taking away
your number one knowledge tank. And that's what made guys
like Hang Shockolie great And as a producer recently informed
I saw the cover with Doctor Dre, and with Dre,
Dre comes from his knowledge of records. That's the thing
that made him great. Now, of course they might say,
(08:05):
what is the manipulation of his equipment. It's not about
the equipment. It's not about how you bought and gangs
to rap and all that.
Speaker 2 (08:12):
That's all the.
Speaker 3 (08:12):
Things that Americana is all on the hype of it.
But to the core, Dre Hank people are really music
gologists and documentarians. That knowledge comes from the respect for
the records and the musicians that made people move. And
that's what and that's what this magazine wants to get at.
(08:35):
This magazine is getting at the core of what it
is that Billboard had the audacity to say, well, we're
not going to have rap music and hip hop and
I'll choice it just doesn't make it.
Speaker 2 (08:47):
There was reasons why I wouldn't make it.
Speaker 3 (08:48):
There's a bunch of fundamental reasons why the music of
today doesn't hit like the music of twenty five years ago.
Speaker 2 (08:56):
It's a little bit more than an audio feed.
Speaker 3 (08:58):
However, and in our world and my world that I
happen to do independently, I've had this app on twelve
stations on Rap Station playing music for the last.
Speaker 2 (09:11):
Sixteen years.
Speaker 3 (09:13):
And I tell you this, it's like if somebody comes
out and they're able to make a record, you know,
if they're able to make a record easy going to
a studio and coming out with an album, as opposed
to all making it in their home, where did they
go with it?
Speaker 2 (09:32):
Steve?
Speaker 3 (09:32):
Where did they go? Where did they go to? They
no longer go to radio stations like they did. There's
a million places out there that says, oh, yeah, we'll
take it, but there's no documentation. And then at the
end of the day, Apple or Spotify say, okay, we
got playlists. The fuck is a playlist because it could
appear and disappear just as quick. So to slow it
(09:53):
down and put some organization to it, those are the
things that I was always about. And so I'm gonna
watch basket ball like I did with the Knicks. The
Knicks are in the playoffs, so it's it systematically was
something that led up to something organized. It's not just
guys playing around on the court. And so watching people
just go around just do music for the fuck of it,
(10:14):
that never turned me on anyway. Let's say that around
a reason to it with are people dancing, where's the party,
where's the show? What's the show doing? What is it conveying?
Even if twenty five people are injecting shit in there
and they're fucking on, at least it's about something that
we put our finger on, you know. So, I think
(10:36):
the scatteredness of hip hop I wanted to bring back
to to a point of.
Speaker 2 (10:43):
Being able to have a narrative in it that that
helps it.
Speaker 1 (10:47):
Yeah, I mean, well, wait, I have to ask you,
as the side, so much fun was it for you
to watch the next game? Last night?
Speaker 2 (10:56):
Crazy fun? I went to Game three in Atlanta and
it was so bad.
Speaker 3 (11:01):
It was a bad ordeal because Knicks didn't look oh
they didn't. We didn't look like it was on the
same page. It looked like there was no connection between
the coach who was kind of like scrambling in the playoffs,
and the captain and Kat called Anthony Towns and then
all the rest of the team. But somehow they turned
(11:24):
it around because people felt a sense of urgency and
felt it was time to wake up. So, I mean, yeah,
I'm a Nick fan for since nineteen sixty seven, same
the same year as I listened to AM radio and
pop songs.
Speaker 2 (11:38):
So I've been a fan a long time and at
the same time.
Speaker 3 (11:41):
Steve, but you know, you feel a little empathy because
these these people young people, these people forty five years
younger than me. Man, So I can't be beaten up
on young people. So yeah, yeah, but my team won.
My team got young people too. But after the game,
you just hope the best for them all and and
(12:02):
that the next advance and hopefully Bill beat the next
coming team the same way. But don't take it that serious.
It's a game, bro, It's a game, I know, but you.
Speaker 1 (12:13):
Know there is a sense of funding it. And it's like,
I mean that is crazy that, you know, largest halftime
lead and like I actually had to get flaff history.
You mean, I think it was the largest playoff lead
in halftime history eight three.
Speaker 3 (12:35):
You know what, man, You know what, at the end
of the day, you you you enjoy it. You don't
let it win get to your head or lost to
your heart. I said that he got game.
Speaker 1 (12:47):
So let's go back to this. I mean, you know,
it's it's interesting on so many levels because in general,
I think what has happened, what I found is like
in music, for example, and you know, and talking to
so many gear companies. What really happened in the last
few years was when they started to be AI and
(13:09):
there started to be so much technology. A lot of
companies like Yamaha, Fender, I deal with all of your companies,
were telling me they were seeing a real return to organics.
People wanted that, and of course, you know, you have
the explosion of vinyl, so it kind of makes sense
that given everything that's happened, people want a return to print.
Speaker 3 (13:31):
Well, well, I see that, but that people, I mean,
there's always been a return, it's never really left. I
think the problem is when you corporations come to the
table and they want to deal with numbers. Look, you're
writing for Forbes, so at the end of the day,
they talk about how much money is made. So you know,
the the thing of name numbers sometimes puts a tarnish on.
Speaker 2 (13:56):
Art.
Speaker 3 (13:57):
It puts a tarnish on the things that make us
feel good. And and trust me, I mean I've independently
let my companies for like forty years, but I would
admit that we do need some help. But not having
corporations dictate the narrative, because every time they dictated dictated
(14:17):
the narrative and rap music and hip hop. They create
their their they're millionaires sometimes billionaires, and the rest atrophies.
That has to change because you when you have a
total environment that's that that works all together, that has
a systematic pecking order that's held solid.
Speaker 2 (14:38):
You have a strong art form and a strong genre.
Speaker 3 (14:40):
It's already worldwide, but can an average person name where
it's been? The average United States of American can't name
more than ten countries, nor do they care. Meanwhile, when
you're in the music you deal with one hundred country countries.
So there's a there's a just this is a disconnect.
My magazine, there's a reason why is based in the UK.
(15:02):
The UK is concentrated there. They're they're more about niche building,
they're clear about what it what they are not as
opposed to what they are. And they deal with the
quality of numbers instead of always a quantity. And I
think that that excesses what what hurts the art form
(15:23):
and the accuracy helps us. I mean rock has an
accuracy when when it comes down to lawyers and accountants
because they make sure that no stone is unturned. You
can't go around and and and and misuse or buddy
Holly or or Elvis or Who or def Leopard or
(15:46):
led Zeppelin. Record and rap music and hip hop is
all throwing the wall. What sticks sticks and then you
name the greats and that and leave the rest alone.
I can no longer happen, let that happen on my watch.
Speaker 1 (16:11):
So for you, I mean, how much do you see
yourself now as kind of a and a curator ambassador
of the music.
Speaker 3 (16:20):
And you know, I've always been at Steve. I've been
as this day one. And you know how I got
to the front of the stage was by default because
we couldn't find anybody as good as me to be
at the front of the stage as opposed to being
the back. I am a better behind the scenes person
than ever and always looking I've always looked for investment,
(16:43):
but they've never trusted the art form. They've always elevated
things that might look like it helps the art form
but ends up hurting everybody else. And I've always tried
to bring a clean glass to a dirty situation.
Speaker 1 (17:00):
But it's interesting. I mean, you know what I have
found from talking to people is as you know, you
get older, it's you're more comfortable, I think, more confident
looking back and also.
Speaker 2 (17:10):
Yeah, I can't. I can't. I don't.
Speaker 3 (17:12):
I can't even relate to those people. I know, those
people ain't even my friends.
Speaker 1 (17:17):
All right, So for you, you've always been comfortable looking back.
You've always like.
Speaker 3 (17:21):
Been Yeah, patentia, patentia, Steve, past, president, future is all
the same.
Speaker 2 (17:27):
Shit.
Speaker 3 (17:28):
We gotta go at each one of these as being important.
We can't say fuck the future. We also can't say
fuck the past, and we damn sure can't say fuck
the present.
Speaker 1 (17:40):
Well, you know it's so interesting too, because I know
you just did the record with Densmore, who's a friend. Yeah,
you know, I.
Speaker 2 (17:48):
Mean, you know there's you know, there's more saying Steve.
Speaker 3 (17:52):
Everybody could get older, but that doesn't mean that they're
they're gonna get elder.
Speaker 2 (17:59):
With Elder and you know, and and doing that.
Speaker 3 (18:01):
Record with Densmore, it's like he's going to bring jewels
to the table that I say, hey, bro, feel free
to to spill your vocals on your beats as well,
and he went into it. You know, with Elder comes knowledge,
wisdom and understanding. When you have knowledge, wisdom and understanding,
it's not it's pretty selfless, and it means that whatever
(18:27):
you bestow can help so many others. You know, It's
like it's like character and character, Steve. You know, you
can be a character when enhancement of yourself, or you
can have character with the enhancement and building of many
And that's what John Densmore brings to the table.
Speaker 1 (18:49):
So for you at this point, do you see yourself
as quote unquote elder dude.
Speaker 3 (18:53):
I'm sixty five, bro, you can't say look at yourself
as being a kid.
Speaker 2 (18:58):
I think this is the first generation.
Speaker 3 (19:00):
Well, the last two generations have puzzled me because they
feel that they're in competition with people, you know, half
their age.
Speaker 2 (19:07):
It's fucking stupid shit. It's like almost like you got.
Speaker 3 (19:12):
To the president is getting a gift from God or
something greater than yourself anyway, So you treat that with.
Speaker 2 (19:20):
Some TLC.
Speaker 3 (19:23):
I think the generations and the digital age, they have
been trained to be so unsure of themselves. It's like
you go to the mirror, why would you go outside
asking somebody how you look? So I think the confidence
(19:43):
has drifted into the screen just a little bit too much.
Speaker 2 (19:47):
Screen ages from.
Speaker 3 (19:49):
Five to ninety five screen ages is what I think,
And I'm not saying I'm part of the digital Feeld.
I've done things in there. Have I been successful more
often not than have, but it's helped my genre, has
helped my music. It's helped a lot of different things. However,
there needs to be something that actually puts a governor
(20:14):
to it, like, Okay, this is where I'm gonna be
digital in the screens, and this is where I'm going
to be organic right in front of a person or
ten people's face. You know, the hardest performance for any
performer is actually getting down in front of three people,
not really getting down in front of ten thousand, where
it could look like a blanket.
Speaker 2 (20:36):
Sometimes three people will be like oh shit. That's why
a lot of.
Speaker 3 (20:40):
People feel like talking in front of audiences is harder
than playing in front of them.
Speaker 1 (20:46):
I was literally just talking about this is a friend
yesterday about that confidence thing because Worts Joni famously said
to you, you know that playing in front of ten
thousand people is much easier than talking to someone one
to one.
Speaker 2 (21:01):
And that's that's becoming even more difficult.
Speaker 3 (21:04):
To the average person because they're there, there's screen ages,
if they're one on one with their device, and you
know what, Steve, it would sound like I'm talking shit.
If everybody didn't have one, we could me and you
could talk in two thousand and six, and it would
be debatable because not everybody had the same device, and
(21:26):
not everybody had a device. Now, the actual facts, Seve
is that they got one or two devices, either Android
or Apple.
Speaker 2 (21:37):
It's not a third.
Speaker 1 (21:38):
It is kind of crazy, right, yeah, you know it's
interesting though, I mean, going back to the idea of
returning a little bit, I do think people are I mean,
for me, for example, right, I was an English major.
I love to read. I feel like I'm so much
stupider now in terms of attention span, So you know,
(22:00):
it's so much harder for me to concentrate on books.
But for you, how important is it to then, you know,
try and instill in this I mean in this younger generation,
not just the idea of you know, the history of
the music and the facts, but the idea of freaking reading.
I mean you and I grew up reading, you know again,
(22:21):
music like I grew up. You know, I interned in
the Village Voice. I was there when Gary Ginnens was there. Well,
I mean an incredible jazz writer.
Speaker 3 (22:32):
My job is not instilled into any younger generation. That's
a parents job, bro. You know what I'm saying. I'm
here to make something, and then the structures make them
accountable to how it's passed across and down right as
like people got their own kids and grandkids to figure
(22:54):
out how to instill the values. All that other ships
better happened afterwards. So my job ain't trying to like
appeal to a thirty year old. No, my job is
maybe appealing to a sixty five year old with some
of the values that they might have before before they
you know, I mean, I'm not saying before they die.
Speaker 2 (23:13):
But you have to deal with time differently.
Speaker 3 (23:17):
Time has to when you're older, you get time has
to be dealt with it with a quality. It's not
done with a quantity when you're younger, and they deal with
a quantity trying to figure it out. An old head
can't be there to try to bust their head open
trying to make young people figure it out. It's gotta
be like, you know what, here's the water. It's gonna
(23:38):
be your world anyway. You know, I'm trying to make
it better by leaving something that you can actually go
to on your time and go to and say, wow,
I went into this situation and I'm better than how
I found it. I think that one of the worst
things is that you spend in these times that like
(23:59):
you gotta have a tear teaching set up structure in
order to teach a blanket of younger generations and things.
Instead of thinking that you're, oh, man, I'm gonna change
the future world.
Speaker 2 (24:09):
No rate.
Speaker 3 (24:11):
Paul ropes and told Harry Belafonte, every generation gotta figure
it out for themselves how to spread and pass the batime. Hey, listen, man,
bro see you ever tried to tell a thirty year
old how to fuck? Good luck with that. They're gonna
they gonna know, they gonna tell you what they do.
(24:33):
Good luck we're trying to teach them anything else about
how to be a young adult and grown you you
gotta set an example and just say, hey, it's gotta
be your choices and try to make the right shore.
I could you know, I can't tell you how to
do that, you grown ass twenty five year old. You
gotta figure that shit out. You know now if you're there,
your child, of course, that you can go a little
(24:54):
bit into the detail of how you're gonna go about it.
Speaker 2 (24:58):
But chances are most likely.
Speaker 3 (25:02):
Younger generations, especially when they turned eighteen bro sometimes sixteen,
they're gonna have their own way trying to figure out
how to go about it. Young artists, they're gonna have
their own language. They they can't be compared to. The
Only thing you can say is like, I hope your
audience hangs on to you. I hope you figure your
(25:24):
audience out. That's all that's most you can say. That's
what the old rockheads said to hip hop, the old
R and B artist We wasn't comparing ourselves the Gladys
Knight and the Pips on the Temptations, or the Four.
Speaker 2 (25:38):
Tops or Earth Wind and Fire.
Speaker 3 (25:41):
No fucking way was the beginning of hip hop comparing
themselves to any of.
Speaker 2 (25:45):
That the beginning of hip hop. Let me tell you
what the deal is, Steve.
Speaker 3 (25:49):
We knew that we was a hybrid between what the
hip DJs were doing and what some of the musicians
who were doing. As far as the best part of
a record, in extending what we thought was a break
a little bit longer than the record allowed, we would
vamp out. So out of that vamping and out of
that what the DJs used to be created an art
(26:09):
form that took the highlight and spread it into being
a genre of its own, you know, as a jazz
a jazz writer and stuff like that.
Speaker 2 (26:17):
You know, and when they.
Speaker 3 (26:18):
Decided to go into the zone, you couldn't describe it
as anything else as them. They're vamping out something what
they thought was hip whatever hip hop electronically and also
musically and also being able to the key aspect is
what the DJ's doing. I come from a time where
the DJs on the radio were magnificent, whether they were
(26:41):
saying pop on AM radio with their fast talking, whether
they was R and b's Soul Radio with their slick talking.
Those DJs and their voices, that there was something with
the chemical residents that they would they were admitting. Rap
took a bit of that and said, oh, it won't
(27:03):
be singing, it won't be talking. It'd be somewhere in
the middle of us and have that ride the music.
Speaker 2 (27:10):
And it's always been here.
Speaker 3 (27:12):
It was just put together differently, but it still had
that whatever it was to drag you into it, and
whether it was rock, whether it was soul, even reggae,
where it had its roots in the beginning.
Speaker 2 (27:25):
That's why they call it dumb plates.
Speaker 3 (27:27):
Dumb plates and roots and reggae comes from like the
toaster coming on top of two turntables, playing instrumental instrumental grooves.
So when you put all this together and you make
it simple, you control the narrative of what it is
and what it ain't, it makes people say, oh I
even dig this shit even a little bit more.
Speaker 2 (27:47):
We're coming in a time.
Speaker 3 (27:48):
If you saw somebody who's fourteen years old and they
you point them to a great guitarist, you don't know
what the fuck that guitar is doing it to your teacher,
Oh this sound is coming out of him doing or
herd doing this.
Speaker 2 (28:03):
Oh shit.
Speaker 3 (28:04):
Really, there's still things out there that will fascinating a
new generation. See you you know what, you know what
what we'll fascinate them?
Speaker 2 (28:15):
What have a chicken layer fucking egg in front of
their face?
Speaker 1 (28:20):
Oh shit?
Speaker 2 (28:22):
What the fuck?
Speaker 3 (28:23):
Oh shit? Whoa right guarantee? You get a chicken in
front of a fourteen year old and how that motherfucker
layer egg, they'll be fucked up, their minds all be blown.
They'll be talking that shit all fucking for.
Speaker 2 (28:38):
A month to their friends.
Speaker 3 (28:53):
So that's that's basic, right, so every generation will be
in awe of something if you present them with it.
Speaker 2 (29:02):
You know.
Speaker 3 (29:03):
Shit, have somebody go and said, look a chicken doesn't
exist in the box, go in the backyard, Twist that
fucking head off that chicken and we'll skin and take
the feathers off and fucking cook it.
Speaker 2 (29:13):
They're like, fuck out of the what.
Speaker 1 (29:16):
For?
Speaker 3 (29:16):
How long has that been going on for fucking thousands
and thousands of years?
Speaker 2 (29:21):
Right? Is it new?
Speaker 3 (29:23):
That's why I say percentire bro past present, fuse to
say shit, man.
Speaker 1 (29:29):
All right, we'll wrap up with the man. I mean,
what do you when people say I mean for people
who've seen the magazine, how has the response been so far?
Speaker 2 (29:36):
You know? And have you been The response has been phenomenal.
Speaker 3 (29:40):
We're on a four week delay, which is what was
on the streets of the UK and Europe. It's been
Phenomenal's on the streets of the United States four weeks later.
Bonds and Noble growing stores in the USA. We would
like to have more subscribers because we're still in an
(30:02):
untrusting genre. Rap music and hip hop traditionally ain't buying
no advanced tickets to ship because while they've been burnt forever.
They've been burnt on merchandise, they've been burnt on recordings,
They've been burnt, burnt, burnt, burnt. So getting people to
subscribe with anything rap and hip hop or whatever is
(30:23):
a is a tough climb, and that's our goal to
be able to get it's four figure subscribers we like
to get and then and that's subscribers is tough and
we want to try to get there.
Speaker 1 (30:39):
All right now, for you taking on the role of publisher,
I gotta ask because I always think about this as
a writer myself. I mean, I talked to everybody, but
of course there's always someone, you know, there's always someone
left to talk to you. Because again you have to
start as a fan. Ye who's the dream artist to
have in there? Who's the artist you must love to?
You know, feature.
Speaker 3 (31:02):
We're gonna get anybody, but you know, sometimes people's schedules
are difficult. The summer issue was gonna have Questlove on
the cover.
Speaker 2 (31:11):
But he has.
Speaker 3 (31:12):
Obligations where he's putting out books and stuff like that,
so a lot of times he can't give the interview.
And sometimes it's best to give an interview when you
have a lot of things going on So lining people
up that way is important. I'm starting this summer with
my weekly show Countdown Show to bring the Noise Countdown
(31:32):
Show on LL cool J, Sirius X, Rock the Bells Radio.
It was also I still do the and You Don't
Stop radio show on PACIFICA. So we're bringing a lot
of artists through. But remember, or I should say, this
is first and foremost like an art magazine is a
combination where you got to think Billboard meets Vibe, spind
(31:58):
meets meets the New Yorker magazine because they've always had
art covers meets Vanity Fair. Those five combinations will make
what Rap Central stations about. So it highlights the art
and artists. And summer issue has George Clinton's art and
(32:20):
also Schoolly D's art.
Speaker 2 (32:23):
I'm also an.
Speaker 3 (32:24):
Illustrator and so yeah, and in the art of Glenn E. Friedman, photographer.
So it's first and foremost art, the music, YadA, YadA,
yadda going down the line. So so yeah, so like
having uncle George in there, it's a big time, you know, his.
Speaker 2 (32:45):
Art in there.
Speaker 1 (32:49):
Absolutely, what are you going to add that we didn't
talk about?
Speaker 3 (32:55):
I'm releasing Ah, So I always have because I'm independent,
always looking for partners.
Speaker 2 (33:03):
I've never had.
Speaker 3 (33:05):
Rich, billionaire millionaire partners and independently, so corporations sometimes a
way to go when you're saying, okay, listen, we're partner
up and.
Speaker 2 (33:16):
Be a curator. One thing I like to say is like.
Speaker 3 (33:20):
Some of the talk that these companies have had towards
corporations is like, oh, we got the ear the streets.
We're a non stop wanner, and I always think that's bullshit.
You can't go on young people's anything, especially under thirty.
Speaker 2 (33:35):
Man, what's what's in one day is gone the next week.
Speaker 3 (33:38):
So when somebody comes and says, oh, well, we got
the ear the streets and some bullshit, to me, we're
very focused. Our age range is thirty five to seventy
five and really giving thirty five to forty a grace period,
so we know pretty much what we're not as opposed
to who we are.
Speaker 1 (33:57):
Well, I mean, it's so interesting that someone like me,
for example, who has been writing for you know, ever
and right, you know.
Speaker 3 (34:05):
And high and high quality, may I add for so
many years across the board, you know, and in magazines
such as this, I'm a I'm a what do you
call a journalistic fan. I started for my fandom of
journal journalists in sports, and then it went across the music.
So I'm always collecting and collecting books and stuff like that.
(34:29):
So I've read you out throughout the years, and and
also the more I started to understand even more than
from a fan point of view, it's a ship that
you probably got to go through, you know, and delivering
your piece and of this, I.
Speaker 1 (34:44):
Mean, it depends on the day. But it's funny because
what I was gonna say is, I mean, you look
at how corporations have you know, they have bucked the
publishing world. Yeah, you know, beyond belief.
Speaker 2 (34:58):
Yep, yep, because because.
Speaker 3 (35:04):
Whenever you go into the game of numbers, meaning quantity
dictates rather than quality, you're going to have diminishing returns anyway.
Speaker 2 (35:14):
And it's where the UK people bust.
Speaker 3 (35:16):
They they bust the United States ass because they understand
the importance of limited editions. They know the importance of
maybe not being repetitive every time they could get that
dollar they space this shit and they know that they
know they have to fuel most of this shit with
(35:38):
with fifty passion as much as fifty percent business got
that passion in it.
Speaker 1 (35:45):
Absolutely. I was gonna say, you know, I mean, I've
written for everybody in the US, said the two contracts
Rolling Stone over six hundred articles. People are always surprised
to find, by far my favorite magazine that I've root for.
What's Mojo?
Speaker 3 (36:01):
Yeah, and and Mojo is not gonna cut you down
a lot. I mean, you're gonna go there, You're gonna
know your word limit, you're gonna deliver, and they're not
gonna really like take the blade to your shit a lot.
Speaker 1 (36:16):
Well, I mean, very simply. It was the knowledge of music.
They're passionate about music. Yeah, you know, so I agree
with you all right on this A side note, since
I did mention I'm doing this Miles Davis piece. Are
you a fan?
Speaker 3 (36:34):
Yes, I'm a fan of Myles esthetically as far as
all the exterior as opposed to telling you the music.
Speaker 2 (36:41):
I grew up liking jazz.
Speaker 3 (36:43):
I tolerated jazz, I never accepted, like, Okay, when you
get older, you know you're gonna get used to jazz
like wine and like that. It was like, so there's
things that moved me in and like I'm more of
a you know, pop music fan from the sixties and
eight and radio where after two minutes and forty five
seconds is done and done. You know, so you got
(37:07):
you know, you know the ministrs loves you know, kind
of blue and stuff like that. You're Miles fan, you know.
I like Miles Davis and all the exterior aesthetics of mouth.
I like the Blue Note album covers all the Prestige
album covers, his style, his way of life. You know,
(37:28):
to watch Miles play for an hour and a half
with that then me probably no, I watched James Brown.
Speaker 1 (37:35):
Well, no, it's interesting. That's what I was going to say.
That's what's been fascinating to you. This piece is you know,
Miles was. He was influential in so many areas, including
is artwork, including his painting, including his style. So you
don't even have to be a fan of the music
to appreciate really huge like cover he casts over music.
Speaker 3 (37:57):
And that's straight up Steve, just to tell your point.
That's what music is today. Music is not just the
audio feed. Music is. For example, I don't know if
you saw a last night's game, so I know you
heard about it. Yeah, but Jalen Brunson goes to the
sidelines and he runs in a little Boosy, right, right,
(38:22):
little Boozy is a rapper, right, and he had a
collision with him, right, So Mike Breen didn't know he was,
but I think Tim Legler was like.
Speaker 2 (38:32):
Oh he ran in a little Boosy.
Speaker 3 (38:33):
Oh no, Richard Jefferson saying, right, then little Boosy got magnitude,
had nothing to do with his music. Most people like
give a fuck about his music. Was like, but little
Boosy has resonance. Oh little Boosy. He got ran over
by Jalen Brunson. That's a part of musicians today. It's
(38:54):
like all this other shit more than the note, you
know what I'm saying. Yeah, a formidable rap, but like
people see Fat Joe all the time, they don't know
a goddamn thing about Fat Joe.
Speaker 1 (39:07):
I mean, it's funny when you put it that way.
In a sense. Then Miles was you know, decades had
of a time by you know, with the cars and
the with the Aaron his son and Vince's nephew, and
then we're talking to about like how people want to
be in with the cars and the watches and all that.
Speaker 3 (39:25):
Yeah, yeah, Miles Davis was bigger than just the note.
I don't want to say bigger than the music, because
you know, I don't think people could be bigger than
the music.
Speaker 2 (39:34):
You're bigger than just the note.
Speaker 3 (39:36):
And music today, and that's also epitomized the magazine to
bring it back to a point, it's site, sound, story,
and style. Those are the things that are music today.
It's not just sound. And so the magazine concentrates on
(39:57):
a three hundred and sixty degree happens dance around a
form of what we call the core of a genre
seventy nine to nineteen ninety four, and the peripheral outsides
are you know twenty nineteen ninety five to twenty fifteen,
and also prelude to the music a genre nineteen sixty
(40:18):
eight to nineteen seventy eight, the songs and the sounds
and the samples and all those things that led up
to the genre. But really our core is seventy nine
to ninety four. We concentrate in there no different than
when shin dig as a magazine who's our publisher, you know,
they concentrate on garage bands that released records in nineteen
sixty seven and they've been running as a magazine for
(40:41):
eighteen years.
Speaker 2 (40:42):
Bro, How do you explain that, Steve.
Speaker 1 (40:46):
I mean just by knowing what you do but also
being passionate about it.
Speaker 3 (40:49):
Yeah, because like look I got you know Venga Drum.
They deal with the fifties uncut like Mojo and you know,
dealing with.
Speaker 2 (40:59):
This sixties and the seventies.
Speaker 3 (41:03):
So it's very important man to be big up to
my man J Quan because summer edition will be And
I'll leave you on this note because I know I've
been long winded. But then reasons for this magazine, for example,
is this is the fortieth year anniversary of what I
call the greatest group in hip hop and rap music
(41:25):
who broke down all the barriers Rundum c.
Speaker 2 (41:30):
Nineteen eighty six.
Speaker 3 (41:32):
They did the Raising Hell record with Rick Rubin, which
also had the seminal record Walked This Way, which filled arenas,
bought Aerosmith another generation of attention and cross genre. And
(41:53):
then they did a tour Raising Hell Tour, which was
groundbreaking in the United States for seventy five dates across
the United States. And you heard nothing, did she about
the forty fair anniversary? Nothing until my man J Kwan.
He also had a book. I had a book and
(42:14):
I picked it up yesterday. And he's a contributor to
the to the UH, He's a contributor to Rap Central
Station magazine and they just released this book, amazing fucking book.
And he actually got together with a with a publisher
(42:35):
to that normally puts out.
Speaker 2 (42:38):
The Rolling Stones.
Speaker 3 (42:41):
Dylan, you know, they put out these these chronicle books,
and I commended them for it yesterday. I said, dude, yeah,
I'm in it. I interviewed for it. But at the
same time, man, this is something I will go to
the store and buy over and over again. And so
this is the only book and the only mention other
(43:03):
than our magazine in the summer that pays homage to
such a groundbreaking, prestigious event.
Speaker 2 (43:09):
What the fuck are people waiting for?
Speaker 3 (43:12):
After a while, you got to say, listen, man, they're
not going to get it, but we have to get it.
We have to control our narrative. We have to say
what's important. And that's what they do in the rock world.
Each one of the legacies, and the states, and the
companies that own the masters or share the Masters, and
the publishing companies all that it behooves them all that
(43:33):
they talk about whatever they're talking about as a business
in the highest regard to keep it going and flowing.
And I know, Steve, you see a fourteen year walking
around with a Rolling Stone's shirt that they brought from Target,
and you're like, what the fuck do you know about that?
Speaker 2 (43:53):
Or what they're willing.
Speaker 3 (43:54):
Metallica or led Zeppelin, you know, and you're like, what
the fuck does a fourteen year old kid know about that?
Speaker 2 (44:02):
They want the shit that looks like it's spread.
Speaker 3 (44:06):
Across time in quantity and quality instead of quantity. And
this is why when you write your when you write
your pieces about your passion and music, Steve, you don't
know who's on the other fucking side. You don't know
that who's reading you. You know, there's a lot of
people that read you, and you're like, how the fuck
do they know me? I'm just writing a piece. Nope,
(44:28):
that's the first thing people look deciding Sometimes with a
beat with a producer, they look at the guy that's writing,
and you might say, oh, that shit is how they
used to look at that back in the day.
Speaker 2 (44:39):
You know, maybe and shit like that.
Speaker 3 (44:42):
Nope, they're looking at you and and it might be
ten people, it might be five, it might be forty,
it might be four hundred you never know. The same
thing went to with DJs too, DJ's and the Bender
on the night playing a record. They don't know who
the We got some callers calling in to give some indication,
(45:03):
but they really don't know what's on the other side
of what they're transmitting.
Speaker 2 (45:10):
So it's a.
Speaker 3 (45:11):
Lot of times when people get locked into their own
little head and the cubicle, they lose sight of that
there's somebody on the other side.
Speaker 1 (45:17):
Always man, absolutely, dude, I'm gonna let you jump. But
always great to talk to you. And you know, it's funny.
I mean when I started off, I was like nervous
to think about people reading on the other side. I
was like, purposely, I would purposely block that out. Now,
I mean you've done forever you're life.
Speaker 2 (45:35):
Yeah, yeah, I mean it's cool for you to block
it out.
Speaker 3 (45:41):
But you always when you're writing a piece, you're probably
going in there and saying, well, how if I if
I'm reading.
Speaker 2 (45:49):
My piece, how would I like it? Right?
Speaker 1 (45:52):
Of course, you got you gotta be the first.
Speaker 2 (45:55):
That's the same thing with the artists.
Speaker 3 (45:56):
Man, I've never made I've never made a song from
my core for somebody else. Fuck that Making a record
for me now, of course all the things that come afterwards,
you know, okay, yeah, no, no, no, okay, Now it's taking
on other aspects of the life. But I'm not trying
to write this fucking song for somebody else.
Speaker 2 (46:18):
Take it you don't.
Speaker 1 (46:21):
If you do, it ends up being a terrible song.
Speaker 2 (46:24):
And even if it's a terrible song, so the fuck what?
Speaker 1 (46:28):
No, But I mean, when you're trying to write for
someone else, when you're writing about an audience you know,
never works. Cool did always great stuff to you. I
appreciate the time, congratulations of the magazine and uh yeah
we'll talk seeing I'm.
Speaker 2 (46:44):
Sure thank you still or respect you highly man of
course you too.
Speaker 1 (46:49):
Thanks Mane. Have a good one.
Hey, to Steve Bolton, to welcome to in Service sub
where this week I am joined by the legendary Chuck
D of Public Enemy. This is one of those ones
where you just sit back and for me shut up
and let him say everything brilliant that he has to
say on everything from basketball to Wrap to his new magazine,
(00:33):
to history, politics and beyond, and as a listener you
just take it all in recognize you are listening to
one of the greats of music, who has done so
much in the last forty years, shaped so much of history,
and as admired by so many great musicians, Chuck D
(00:54):
is one of the smartest people in music, one of
the most fun I hope you enjoyed this interview as
much as I did. It's amazing to sit down with
truck Dig. Why does your summer start May first? How
(01:21):
do you know that it's the official start of summer?
Speaker 2 (01:24):
I don't know.
Speaker 3 (01:25):
But but if you deal worldwide, over one hundred countries,
not only are you're dealing with your time, but you're
dealing in the world's time and the way the world turns,
you got to start to be able to make your
own boundaries and your own placement.
Speaker 2 (01:37):
Markers to tell you when you need to get going.
Speaker 3 (01:40):
And sometimes in the genre that I'm in, you got
to always be, you know, six weeks ahead, because your
genre doesn't get much support, which is the reason I
started my magazine, Rap Central Station, because a lot of
people say that they know about hip hop or rap music,
but they really don't, and it was.
Speaker 2 (01:59):
An opportun unity to seize the narrative.
Speaker 3 (02:02):
I've been in the electronics space with Wrap Station as
a radio app with six twelve stations I've been doing
for sixteen years, and also developing an app called Bring
the Noise, which works like like kind of like like
Threads or some of the tiktoks or whatever, and we're
(02:25):
dedicated to the genre. So to seize the narrative, seize
the time without also knowing that you have corporate backing
as an independent, there's a lot of things you have
to do and you got to be ahead of the game.
Speaker 1 (02:38):
Well, you know, it's interesting. There's a lot of directions
to go.
Speaker 2 (02:40):
On with that.
Speaker 1 (02:41):
And it's funny. I mean, you say people don't know
hip hop, you know, it's funny. I have been doing
a lot of jazz writing for the La Times, and
I'm actually doing a big piece now for Miles centennial.
But it's interesting me. Do you feel like at this point,
I mean, and I find this as a journalist, people
just generally don't music.
Speaker 2 (03:01):
No, they don't.
Speaker 3 (03:02):
Well, once upon a time, Steve, you know that people
used to know music and they were helped along the
way by how they heard their radio stations because those
people were knowledgeable. When they came into less music, I mean,
let's talk more music. Those times in the late eighties
(03:23):
and the nineties, it was the beginning of the end
where it was about numbers, but it wasn't about personality,
and it wasn't about information about the music. If the
information came in, the information was about what was what
they were trying to sell through whatever commercial that was
on or whatever drama happened to be the lowest hanging
(03:44):
fruit that would catch to keep their attention. Fast forward
at where we're at right now. I was saying, Steve,
that's scrolling and reading and texting and writing, and you
can't define hip hop and rap life with a swipe
or ended something that has to slow things down, and
we're not really part of the slow down times. But
(04:06):
we realized that five years ago whether you liked it
or not, Steve, the world slowed down anyway, it's called
the pandemic and post pandemic, people have lost their timing.
Speaker 2 (04:18):
But I will tell you this that things that you
can hold in your hand.
Speaker 3 (04:23):
Are as important as a guide to your life as
much as the people are relying on the GPS. So
in this genre, I felt that seizing the narrative was important.
I think when corporations came in on the rap hip
hop narrative, I think people make a comparison to like
how rock was, and then corporate rock came in, and
(04:44):
then indie rock came up. I think we've gone through
a lot of changes as a hip hop rap genre.
Speaker 2 (04:49):
But it's just like in sports. A lot of.
Speaker 3 (04:51):
People still don't those sports, but they end up watching
something like ESPN, which gives you twenty four to seven
of the hype about sports, maybe not the detail, but
they're more detailed than music because people are named the
stat of a of a of an athlete quicker than
(05:12):
they could name the musician in the band of a
song that they like, or DJ, or vocalists or background vocalist.
We used to know that in music that no longer exists,
the press has been eradicated, the knowledge of who is
who and what is what has been eradicated. So some
of these things people love, but you got to be
(05:35):
able to give it to them out there, unabashedly and
with no fear.
Speaker 1 (05:41):
No, I imagine as well, it's fun for you to
you know, I've talked with so many artists about the
fact that, like you know, artists generally don't look back.
They're always looking forward. But you know, do these articles
where you get to see your friends really reminisce and
think about the things they've done, And you know, I'm
sure it brings up a lot memories for you as
well when you see, you know what the artists in
(06:03):
the magazine talk about, because you were there for so
much of it.
Speaker 3 (06:09):
I don't know about any of that. All I know
is that friendships come based on how you document it.
We're surrounded by everything and everybody you talk about. I
have a I have a saying Steve is called Pacentia.
It's p A S E N T.
Speaker 1 (06:31):
You are e.
Speaker 3 (06:32):
You know what that means? No past president, future is
the same shit. Most of the people I listened to
Steve are dead people. If I'm gonna listen to Oldis Redden,
I'm gonna listen to Jim Morrison. I'm gonna be listening
to James Brown, I'm gonna listen to Rita. That's gonna
(06:54):
be a core of my listening, you know what I'm saying.
And at the end of the day, I'm like, damn,
I'm listening to eighty percent people. People are no longer here,
but they're still here. And Steve, that's the essence of
this music.
Speaker 2 (07:06):
Man.
Speaker 3 (07:06):
Whatever music, if it goes to, whether it's a sample
or whether it's ai right, the thing about it is
that the core of the of the hip hop genre
is the respect and the saluting of musicians and records
and producers. And when you got that respect as a
(07:28):
crate digger and the DJ, you keep the music going on.
The DJs were very important, whether it was on the
radio or whether it was you know, doing mobile things
in the beginning of hip hop in the late seventies.
Speaker 2 (07:41):
In the early eighties.
Speaker 3 (07:42):
And when you take the DJ away, you're taking away
your number one knowledge tank. And that's what made guys
like Hang Shockolie great And as a producer recently informed
I saw the cover with Doctor Dre, and with Dre,
Dre comes from his knowledge of records. That's the thing
that made him great. Now, of course they might say,
(08:05):
what is the manipulation of his equipment. It's not about
the equipment. It's not about how you bought and gangs
to rap and all that.
Speaker 2 (08:12):
That's all the.
Speaker 3 (08:12):
Things that Americana is all on the hype of it.
But to the core, Dre Hank people are really music
gologists and documentarians. That knowledge comes from the respect for
the records and the musicians that made people move. And
that's what and that's what this magazine wants to get at.
(08:35):
This magazine is getting at the core of what it
is that Billboard had the audacity to say, well, we're
not going to have rap music and hip hop and
I'll choice it just doesn't make it.
Speaker 2 (08:47):
There was reasons why I wouldn't make it.
Speaker 3 (08:48):
There's a bunch of fundamental reasons why the music of
today doesn't hit like the music of twenty five years ago.
Speaker 2 (08:56):
It's a little bit more than an audio feed.
Speaker 3 (08:58):
However, and in our world and my world that I
happen to do independently, I've had this app on twelve
stations on Rap Station playing music for the last.
Speaker 2 (09:11):
Sixteen years.
Speaker 3 (09:13):
And I tell you this, it's like if somebody comes
out and they're able to make a record, you know,
if they're able to make a record easy going to
a studio and coming out with an album, as opposed
to all making it in their home, where did they
go with it?
Speaker 2 (09:32):
Steve?
Speaker 3 (09:32):
Where did they go? Where did they go to? They
no longer go to radio stations like they did. There's
a million places out there that says, oh, yeah, we'll
take it, but there's no documentation. And then at the
end of the day, Apple or Spotify say, okay, we
got playlists. The fuck is a playlist because it could
appear and disappear just as quick. So to slow it
(09:53):
down and put some organization to it, those are the
things that I was always about. And so I'm gonna
watch basket ball like I did with the Knicks. The
Knicks are in the playoffs, so it's it systematically was
something that led up to something organized. It's not just
guys playing around on the court. And so watching people
just go around just do music for the fuck of it,
(10:14):
that never turned me on anyway. Let's say that around
a reason to it with are people dancing, where's the party,
where's the show? What's the show doing? What is it conveying?
Even if twenty five people are injecting shit in there
and they're fucking on, at least it's about something that
we put our finger on, you know. So, I think
(10:36):
the scatteredness of hip hop I wanted to bring back
to to a point of.
Speaker 2 (10:43):
Being able to have a narrative in it that that
helps it.
Speaker 1 (10:47):
Yeah, I mean, well, wait, I have to ask you,
as the side, so much fun was it for you
to watch the next game? Last night?
Speaker 2 (10:56):
Crazy fun? I went to Game three in Atlanta and
it was so bad.
Speaker 3 (11:01):
It was a bad ordeal because Knicks didn't look oh
they didn't. We didn't look like it was on the
same page. It looked like there was no connection between
the coach who was kind of like scrambling in the playoffs,
and the captain and Kat called Anthony Towns and then
all the rest of the team. But somehow they turned
(11:24):
it around because people felt a sense of urgency and
felt it was time to wake up. So, I mean, yeah,
I'm a Nick fan for since nineteen sixty seven, same
the same year as I listened to AM radio and
pop songs.
Speaker 2 (11:38):
So I've been a fan a long time and at
the same time.
Speaker 3 (11:41):
Steve, but you know, you feel a little empathy because
these these people young people, these people forty five years
younger than me. Man, So I can't be beaten up
on young people. So yeah, yeah, but my team won.
My team got young people too. But after the game,
you just hope the best for them all and and
(12:02):
that the next advance and hopefully Bill beat the next
coming team the same way. But don't take it that serious.
It's a game, bro, It's a game, I know, but you.
Speaker 1 (12:13):
Know there is a sense of funding it. And it's like,
I mean that is crazy that, you know, largest halftime
lead and like I actually had to get flaff history.
You mean, I think it was the largest playoff lead
in halftime history eight three.
Speaker 3 (12:35):
You know what, man, You know what, at the end
of the day, you you you enjoy it. You don't
let it win get to your head or lost to
your heart. I said that he got game.
Speaker 1 (12:47):
So let's go back to this. I mean, you know,
it's it's interesting on so many levels because in general,
I think what has happened, what I found is like
in music, for example, and you know, and talking to
so many gear companies. What really happened in the last
few years was when they started to be AI and
(13:09):
there started to be so much technology. A lot of
companies like Yamaha, Fender, I deal with all of your companies,
were telling me they were seeing a real return to organics.
People wanted that, and of course, you know, you have
the explosion of vinyl, so it kind of makes sense
that given everything that's happened, people want a return to print.
Speaker 3 (13:31):
Well, well, I see that, but that people, I mean,
there's always been a return, it's never really left. I
think the problem is when you corporations come to the
table and they want to deal with numbers. Look, you're
writing for Forbes, so at the end of the day,
they talk about how much money is made. So you know,
the the thing of name numbers sometimes puts a tarnish on.
Speaker 2 (13:56):
Art.
Speaker 3 (13:57):
It puts a tarnish on the things that make us
feel good. And and trust me, I mean I've independently
let my companies for like forty years, but I would
admit that we do need some help. But not having
corporations dictate the narrative, because every time they dictated dictated
(14:17):
the narrative and rap music and hip hop. They create
their their they're millionaires sometimes billionaires, and the rest atrophies.
That has to change because you when you have a
total environment that's that that works all together, that has
a systematic pecking order that's held solid.
Speaker 2 (14:38):
You have a strong art form and a strong genre.
Speaker 3 (14:40):
It's already worldwide, but can an average person name where
it's been? The average United States of American can't name
more than ten countries, nor do they care. Meanwhile, when
you're in the music you deal with one hundred country countries.
So there's a there's a just this is a disconnect.
My magazine, there's a reason why is based in the UK.
(15:02):
The UK is concentrated there. They're they're more about niche building,
they're clear about what it what they are not as
opposed to what they are. And they deal with the
quality of numbers instead of always a quantity. And I
think that that excesses what what hurts the art form
(15:23):
and the accuracy helps us. I mean rock has an
accuracy when when it comes down to lawyers and accountants
because they make sure that no stone is unturned. You
can't go around and and and and misuse or buddy
Holly or or Elvis or Who or def Leopard or
(15:46):
led Zeppelin. Record and rap music and hip hop is
all throwing the wall. What sticks sticks and then you
name the greats and that and leave the rest alone.
I can no longer happen, let that happen on my watch.
Speaker 1 (16:11):
So for you, I mean, how much do you see
yourself now as kind of a and a curator ambassador
of the music.
Speaker 3 (16:20):
And you know, I've always been at Steve. I've been
as this day one. And you know how I got
to the front of the stage was by default because
we couldn't find anybody as good as me to be
at the front of the stage as opposed to being
the back. I am a better behind the scenes person
than ever and always looking I've always looked for investment,
(16:43):
but they've never trusted the art form. They've always elevated
things that might look like it helps the art form
but ends up hurting everybody else. And I've always tried
to bring a clean glass to a dirty situation.
Speaker 1 (17:00):
But it's interesting. I mean, you know what I have
found from talking to people is as you know, you
get older, it's you're more comfortable, I think, more confident
looking back and also.
Speaker 2 (17:10):
Yeah, I can't. I can't. I don't.
Speaker 3 (17:12):
I can't even relate to those people. I know, those
people ain't even my friends.
Speaker 1 (17:17):
All right, So for you, you've always been comfortable looking back.
You've always like.
Speaker 3 (17:21):
Been Yeah, patentia, patentia, Steve, past, president, future is all
the same.
Speaker 2 (17:27):
Shit.
Speaker 3 (17:28):
We gotta go at each one of these as being important.
We can't say fuck the future. We also can't say
fuck the past, and we damn sure can't say fuck
the present.
Speaker 1 (17:40):
Well, you know it's so interesting too, because I know
you just did the record with Densmore, who's a friend. Yeah,
you know, I.
Speaker 2 (17:48):
Mean, you know there's you know, there's more saying Steve.
Speaker 3 (17:52):
Everybody could get older, but that doesn't mean that they're
they're gonna get elder.
Speaker 2 (17:59):
With Elder and you know, and and doing that.
Speaker 3 (18:01):
Record with Densmore, it's like he's going to bring jewels
to the table that I say, hey, bro, feel free
to to spill your vocals on your beats as well,
and he went into it. You know, with Elder comes knowledge,
wisdom and understanding. When you have knowledge, wisdom and understanding,
it's not it's pretty selfless, and it means that whatever
(18:27):
you bestow can help so many others. You know, It's
like it's like character and character, Steve. You know, you
can be a character when enhancement of yourself, or you
can have character with the enhancement and building of many
And that's what John Densmore brings to the table.
Speaker 1 (18:49):
So for you at this point, do you see yourself
as quote unquote elder dude.
Speaker 3 (18:53):
I'm sixty five, bro, you can't say look at yourself
as being a kid.
Speaker 2 (18:58):
I think this is the first generation.
Speaker 3 (19:00):
Well, the last two generations have puzzled me because they
feel that they're in competition with people, you know, half
their age.
Speaker 2 (19:07):
It's fucking stupid shit. It's like almost like you got.
Speaker 3 (19:12):
To the president is getting a gift from God or
something greater than yourself anyway, So you treat that with.
Speaker 2 (19:20):
Some TLC.
Speaker 3 (19:23):
I think the generations and the digital age, they have
been trained to be so unsure of themselves. It's like
you go to the mirror, why would you go outside
asking somebody how you look? So I think the confidence
(19:43):
has drifted into the screen just a little bit too much.
Speaker 2 (19:47):
Screen ages from.
Speaker 3 (19:49):
Five to ninety five screen ages is what I think,
And I'm not saying I'm part of the digital Feeld.
I've done things in there. Have I been successful more
often not than have, but it's helped my genre, has
helped my music. It's helped a lot of different things. However,
there needs to be something that actually puts a governor
(20:14):
to it, like, Okay, this is where I'm gonna be
digital in the screens, and this is where I'm going
to be organic right in front of a person or
ten people's face. You know, the hardest performance for any
performer is actually getting down in front of three people,
not really getting down in front of ten thousand, where
it could look like a blanket.
Speaker 2 (20:36):
Sometimes three people will be like oh shit. That's why
a lot of.
Speaker 3 (20:40):
People feel like talking in front of audiences is harder
than playing in front of them.
Speaker 1 (20:46):
I was literally just talking about this is a friend
yesterday about that confidence thing because Worts Joni famously said
to you, you know that playing in front of ten
thousand people is much easier than talking to someone one
to one.
Speaker 2 (21:01):
And that's that's becoming even more difficult.
Speaker 3 (21:04):
To the average person because they're there, there's screen ages,
if they're one on one with their device, and you
know what, Steve, it would sound like I'm talking shit.
If everybody didn't have one, we could me and you
could talk in two thousand and six, and it would
be debatable because not everybody had the same device, and
(21:26):
not everybody had a device. Now, the actual facts, Seve
is that they got one or two devices, either Android
or Apple.
Speaker 2 (21:37):
It's not a third.
Speaker 1 (21:38):
It is kind of crazy, right, yeah, you know it's
interesting though, I mean, going back to the idea of
returning a little bit, I do think people are I mean,
for me, for example, right, I was an English major.
I love to read. I feel like I'm so much
stupider now in terms of attention span, So you know,
(22:00):
it's so much harder for me to concentrate on books.
But for you, how important is it to then, you know,
try and instill in this I mean in this younger generation,
not just the idea of you know, the history of
the music and the facts, but the idea of freaking reading.
I mean you and I grew up reading, you know again,
(22:21):
music like I grew up. You know, I interned in
the Village Voice. I was there when Gary Ginnens was there. Well,
I mean an incredible jazz writer.
Speaker 3 (22:32):
My job is not instilled into any younger generation. That's
a parents job, bro. You know what I'm saying. I'm
here to make something, and then the structures make them
accountable to how it's passed across and down right as
like people got their own kids and grandkids to figure
(22:54):
out how to instill the values. All that other ships
better happened afterwards. So my job ain't trying to like
appeal to a thirty year old. No, my job is
maybe appealing to a sixty five year old with some
of the values that they might have before before they
you know, I mean, I'm not saying before they die.
Speaker 2 (23:13):
But you have to deal with time differently.
Speaker 3 (23:17):
Time has to when you're older, you get time has
to be dealt with it with a quality. It's not
done with a quantity when you're younger, and they deal with
a quantity trying to figure it out. An old head
can't be there to try to bust their head open
trying to make young people figure it out. It's gotta
be like, you know what, here's the water. It's gonna
(23:38):
be your world anyway. You know, I'm trying to make
it better by leaving something that you can actually go
to on your time and go to and say, wow,
I went into this situation and I'm better than how
I found it. I think that one of the worst
things is that you spend in these times that like
(23:59):
you gotta have a tear teaching set up structure in
order to teach a blanket of younger generations and things.
Instead of thinking that you're, oh, man, I'm gonna change
the future world.
Speaker 2 (24:09):
No rate.
Speaker 3 (24:11):
Paul ropes and told Harry Belafonte, every generation gotta figure
it out for themselves how to spread and pass the batime. Hey, listen, man,
bro see you ever tried to tell a thirty year
old how to fuck? Good luck with that. They're gonna
they gonna know, they gonna tell you what they do.
(24:33):
Good luck we're trying to teach them anything else about
how to be a young adult and grown you you
gotta set an example and just say, hey, it's gotta
be your choices and try to make the right shore.
I could you know, I can't tell you how to
do that, you grown ass twenty five year old. You
gotta figure that shit out. You know now if you're there,
your child, of course, that you can go a little
(24:54):
bit into the detail of how you're gonna go about it.
Speaker 2 (24:58):
But chances are most likely.
Speaker 3 (25:02):
Younger generations, especially when they turned eighteen bro sometimes sixteen,
they're gonna have their own way trying to figure out
how to go about it. Young artists, they're gonna have
their own language. They they can't be compared to. The
Only thing you can say is like, I hope your
audience hangs on to you. I hope you figure your
(25:24):
audience out. That's all that's most you can say. That's
what the old rockheads said to hip hop, the old
R and B artist We wasn't comparing ourselves the Gladys
Knight and the Pips on the Temptations, or the Four.
Speaker 2 (25:38):
Tops or Earth Wind and Fire.
Speaker 3 (25:41):
No fucking way was the beginning of hip hop comparing
themselves to any of.
Speaker 2 (25:45):
That the beginning of hip hop. Let me tell you
what the deal is, Steve.
Speaker 3 (25:49):
We knew that we was a hybrid between what the
hip DJs were doing and what some of the musicians
who were doing. As far as the best part of
a record, in extending what we thought was a break
a little bit longer than the record allowed, we would
vamp out. So out of that vamping and out of
that what the DJs used to be created an art
(26:09):
form that took the highlight and spread it into being
a genre of its own, you know, as a jazz
a jazz writer and stuff like that.
Speaker 2 (26:17):
You know, and when they.
Speaker 3 (26:18):
Decided to go into the zone, you couldn't describe it
as anything else as them. They're vamping out something what
they thought was hip whatever hip hop electronically and also
musically and also being able to the key aspect is
what the DJ's doing. I come from a time where
the DJs on the radio were magnificent, whether they were
(26:41):
saying pop on AM radio with their fast talking, whether
they was R and b's Soul Radio with their slick talking.
Those DJs and their voices, that there was something with
the chemical residents that they would they were admitting. Rap
took a bit of that and said, oh, it won't
(27:03):
be singing, it won't be talking. It'd be somewhere in
the middle of us and have that ride the music.
Speaker 2 (27:10):
And it's always been here.
Speaker 3 (27:12):
It was just put together differently, but it still had
that whatever it was to drag you into it, and
whether it was rock, whether it was soul, even reggae,
where it had its roots in the beginning.
Speaker 2 (27:25):
That's why they call it dumb plates.
Speaker 3 (27:27):
Dumb plates and roots and reggae comes from like the
toaster coming on top of two turntables, playing instrumental instrumental grooves.
So when you put all this together and you make
it simple, you control the narrative of what it is
and what it ain't, it makes people say, oh I
even dig this shit even a little bit more.
Speaker 2 (27:47):
We're coming in a time.
Speaker 3 (27:48):
If you saw somebody who's fourteen years old and they
you point them to a great guitarist, you don't know
what the fuck that guitar is doing it to your teacher,
Oh this sound is coming out of him doing or
herd doing this.
Speaker 2 (28:03):
Oh shit.
Speaker 3 (28:04):
Really, there's still things out there that will fascinating a
new generation. See you you know what, you know what
what we'll fascinate them?
Speaker 2 (28:15):
What have a chicken layer fucking egg in front of
their face?
Speaker 1 (28:20):
Oh shit?
Speaker 2 (28:22):
What the fuck?
Speaker 3 (28:23):
Oh shit? Whoa right guarantee? You get a chicken in
front of a fourteen year old and how that motherfucker
layer egg, they'll be fucked up, their minds all be blown.
They'll be talking that shit all fucking for.
Speaker 2 (28:38):
A month to their friends.
Speaker 3 (28:53):
So that's that's basic, right, so every generation will be
in awe of something if you present them with it.
Speaker 2 (29:02):
You know.
Speaker 3 (29:03):
Shit, have somebody go and said, look a chicken doesn't
exist in the box, go in the backyard, Twist that
fucking head off that chicken and we'll skin and take
the feathers off and fucking cook it.
Speaker 2 (29:13):
They're like, fuck out of the what.
Speaker 1 (29:16):
For?
Speaker 3 (29:16):
How long has that been going on for fucking thousands
and thousands of years?
Speaker 2 (29:21):
Right? Is it new?
Speaker 3 (29:23):
That's why I say percentire bro past present, fuse to
say shit, man.
Speaker 1 (29:29):
All right, we'll wrap up with the man. I mean,
what do you when people say I mean for people
who've seen the magazine, how has the response been so far?
Speaker 2 (29:36):
You know? And have you been The response has been phenomenal.
Speaker 3 (29:40):
We're on a four week delay, which is what was
on the streets of the UK and Europe. It's been
Phenomenal's on the streets of the United States four weeks later.
Bonds and Noble growing stores in the USA. We would
like to have more subscribers because we're still in an
(30:02):
untrusting genre. Rap music and hip hop traditionally ain't buying
no advanced tickets to ship because while they've been burnt forever.
They've been burnt on merchandise, they've been burnt on recordings,
They've been burnt, burnt, burnt, burnt. So getting people to
subscribe with anything rap and hip hop or whatever is
(30:23):
a is a tough climb, and that's our goal to
be able to get it's four figure subscribers we like
to get and then and that's subscribers is tough and
we want to try to get there.
Speaker 1 (30:39):
All right now, for you taking on the role of publisher,
I gotta ask because I always think about this as
a writer myself. I mean, I talked to everybody, but
of course there's always someone, you know, there's always someone
left to talk to you. Because again you have to
start as a fan. Ye who's the dream artist to
have in there? Who's the artist you must love to?
You know, feature.
Speaker 3 (31:02):
We're gonna get anybody, but you know, sometimes people's schedules
are difficult. The summer issue was gonna have Questlove on
the cover.
Speaker 2 (31:11):
But he has.
Speaker 3 (31:12):
Obligations where he's putting out books and stuff like that,
so a lot of times he can't give the interview.
And sometimes it's best to give an interview when you
have a lot of things going on So lining people
up that way is important. I'm starting this summer with
my weekly show Countdown Show to bring the Noise Countdown
(31:32):
Show on LL cool J, Sirius X, Rock the Bells Radio.
It was also I still do the and You Don't
Stop radio show on PACIFICA. So we're bringing a lot
of artists through. But remember, or I should say, this
is first and foremost like an art magazine is a
combination where you got to think Billboard meets Vibe, spind
(31:58):
meets meets the New Yorker magazine because they've always had
art covers meets Vanity Fair. Those five combinations will make
what Rap Central stations about. So it highlights the art
and artists. And summer issue has George Clinton's art and
(32:20):
also Schoolly D's art.
Speaker 2 (32:23):
I'm also an.
Speaker 3 (32:24):
Illustrator and so yeah, and in the art of Glenn E. Friedman, photographer.
So it's first and foremost art, the music, YadA, YadA,
yadda going down the line. So so yeah, so like
having uncle George in there, it's a big time, you know, his.
Speaker 2 (32:45):
Art in there.
Speaker 1 (32:49):
Absolutely, what are you going to add that we didn't
talk about?
Speaker 3 (32:55):
I'm releasing Ah, So I always have because I'm independent,
always looking for partners.
Speaker 2 (33:03):
I've never had.
Speaker 3 (33:05):
Rich, billionaire millionaire partners and independently, so corporations sometimes a
way to go when you're saying, okay, listen, we're partner
up and.
Speaker 2 (33:16):
Be a curator. One thing I like to say is like.
Speaker 3 (33:20):
Some of the talk that these companies have had towards
corporations is like, oh, we got the ear the streets.
We're a non stop wanner, and I always think that's bullshit.
You can't go on young people's anything, especially under thirty.
Speaker 2 (33:35):
Man, what's what's in one day is gone the next week.
Speaker 3 (33:38):
So when somebody comes and says, oh, well, we got
the ear the streets and some bullshit, to me, we're
very focused. Our age range is thirty five to seventy
five and really giving thirty five to forty a grace period,
so we know pretty much what we're not as opposed
to who we are.
Speaker 1 (33:57):
Well, I mean, it's so interesting that someone like me,
for example, who has been writing for you know, ever
and right, you know.
Speaker 3 (34:05):
And high and high quality, may I add for so
many years across the board, you know, and in magazines
such as this, I'm a I'm a what do you
call a journalistic fan. I started for my fandom of
journal journalists in sports, and then it went across the music.
So I'm always collecting and collecting books and stuff like that.
(34:29):
So I've read you out throughout the years, and and
also the more I started to understand even more than
from a fan point of view, it's a ship that
you probably got to go through, you know, and delivering
your piece and of this, I.
Speaker 1 (34:44):
Mean, it depends on the day. But it's funny because
what I was gonna say is, I mean, you look
at how corporations have you know, they have bucked the
publishing world. Yeah, you know, beyond belief.
Speaker 2 (34:58):
Yep, yep, because because.
Speaker 3 (35:04):
Whenever you go into the game of numbers, meaning quantity
dictates rather than quality, you're going to have diminishing returns anyway.
Speaker 2 (35:14):
And it's where the UK people bust.
Speaker 3 (35:16):
They they bust the United States ass because they understand
the importance of limited editions. They know the importance of
maybe not being repetitive every time they could get that
dollar they space this shit and they know that they
know they have to fuel most of this shit with
(35:38):
with fifty passion as much as fifty percent business got
that passion in it.
Speaker 1 (35:45):
Absolutely. I was gonna say, you know, I mean, I've
written for everybody in the US, said the two contracts
Rolling Stone over six hundred articles. People are always surprised
to find, by far my favorite magazine that I've root for.
What's Mojo?
Speaker 3 (36:01):
Yeah, and and Mojo is not gonna cut you down
a lot. I mean, you're gonna go there, You're gonna
know your word limit, you're gonna deliver, and they're not
gonna really like take the blade to your shit a lot.
Speaker 1 (36:16):
Well, I mean, very simply. It was the knowledge of music.
They're passionate about music. Yeah, you know, so I agree
with you all right on this A side note, since
I did mention I'm doing this Miles Davis piece. Are
you a fan?
Speaker 3 (36:34):
Yes, I'm a fan of Myles esthetically as far as
all the exterior as opposed to telling you the music.
Speaker 2 (36:41):
I grew up liking jazz.
Speaker 3 (36:43):
I tolerated jazz, I never accepted, like, Okay, when you
get older, you know you're gonna get used to jazz
like wine and like that. It was like, so there's
things that moved me in and like I'm more of
a you know, pop music fan from the sixties and
eight and radio where after two minutes and forty five
seconds is done and done. You know, so you got
(37:07):
you know, you know the ministrs loves you know, kind
of blue and stuff like that. You're Miles fan, you know.
I like Miles Davis and all the exterior aesthetics of mouth.
I like the Blue Note album covers all the Prestige
album covers, his style, his way of life. You know,
(37:28):
to watch Miles play for an hour and a half
with that then me probably no, I watched James Brown.
Speaker 1 (37:35):
Well, no, it's interesting. That's what I was going to say.
That's what's been fascinating to you. This piece is you know,
Miles was. He was influential in so many areas, including
is artwork, including his painting, including his style. So you
don't even have to be a fan of the music
to appreciate really huge like cover he casts over music.
Speaker 3 (37:57):
And that's straight up Steve, just to tell your point.
That's what music is today. Music is not just the
audio feed. Music is. For example, I don't know if
you saw a last night's game, so I know you
heard about it. Yeah, but Jalen Brunson goes to the
sidelines and he runs in a little Boosy, right, right,
(38:22):
little Boozy is a rapper, right, and he had a
collision with him, right, So Mike Breen didn't know he was,
but I think Tim Legler was like.
Speaker 2 (38:32):
Oh he ran in a little Boosy.
Speaker 3 (38:33):
Oh no, Richard Jefferson saying, right, then little Boosy got magnitude,
had nothing to do with his music. Most people like
give a fuck about his music. Was like, but little
Boosy has resonance. Oh little Boosy. He got ran over
by Jalen Brunson. That's a part of musicians today. It's
(38:54):
like all this other shit more than the note, you
know what I'm saying. Yeah, a formidable rap, but like
people see Fat Joe all the time, they don't know
a goddamn thing about Fat Joe.
Speaker 1 (39:07):
I mean, it's funny when you put it that way.
In a sense. Then Miles was you know, decades had
of a time by you know, with the cars and
the with the Aaron his son and Vince's nephew, and
then we're talking to about like how people want to
be in with the cars and the watches and all that.
Speaker 3 (39:25):
Yeah, yeah, Miles Davis was bigger than just the note.
I don't want to say bigger than the music, because
you know, I don't think people could be bigger than
the music.
Speaker 2 (39:34):
You're bigger than just the note.
Speaker 3 (39:36):
And music today, and that's also epitomized the magazine to
bring it back to a point, it's site, sound, story,
and style. Those are the things that are music today.
It's not just sound. And so the magazine concentrates on
(39:57):
a three hundred and sixty degree happens dance around a
form of what we call the core of a genre
seventy nine to nineteen ninety four, and the peripheral outsides
are you know twenty nineteen ninety five to twenty fifteen,
and also prelude to the music a genre nineteen sixty
(40:18):
eight to nineteen seventy eight, the songs and the sounds
and the samples and all those things that led up
to the genre. But really our core is seventy nine
to ninety four. We concentrate in there no different than
when shin dig as a magazine who's our publisher, you know,
they concentrate on garage bands that released records in nineteen
sixty seven and they've been running as a magazine for
(40:41):
eighteen years.
Speaker 2 (40:42):
Bro, How do you explain that, Steve.
Speaker 1 (40:46):
I mean just by knowing what you do but also
being passionate about it.
Speaker 3 (40:49):
Yeah, because like look I got you know Venga Drum.
They deal with the fifties uncut like Mojo and you know,
dealing with.
Speaker 2 (40:59):
This sixties and the seventies.
Speaker 3 (41:03):
So it's very important man to be big up to
my man J Quan because summer edition will be And
I'll leave you on this note because I know I've
been long winded. But then reasons for this magazine, for example,
is this is the fortieth year anniversary of what I
call the greatest group in hip hop and rap music
(41:25):
who broke down all the barriers Rundum c.
Speaker 2 (41:30):
Nineteen eighty six.
Speaker 3 (41:32):
They did the Raising Hell record with Rick Rubin, which
also had the seminal record Walked This Way, which filled arenas,
bought Aerosmith another generation of attention and cross genre. And
(41:53):
then they did a tour Raising Hell Tour, which was
groundbreaking in the United States for seventy five dates across
the United States. And you heard nothing, did she about
the forty fair anniversary? Nothing until my man J Kwan.
He also had a book. I had a book and
(42:14):
I picked it up yesterday. And he's a contributor to
the to the UH, He's a contributor to Rap Central
Station magazine and they just released this book, amazing fucking book.
And he actually got together with a with a publisher
(42:35):
to that normally puts out.
Speaker 2 (42:38):
The Rolling Stones.
Speaker 3 (42:41):
Dylan, you know, they put out these these chronicle books,
and I commended them for it yesterday. I said, dude, yeah,
I'm in it. I interviewed for it. But at the
same time, man, this is something I will go to
the store and buy over and over again. And so
this is the only book and the only mention other
(43:03):
than our magazine in the summer that pays homage to
such a groundbreaking, prestigious event.
Speaker 2 (43:09):
What the fuck are people waiting for?
Speaker 3 (43:12):
After a while, you got to say, listen, man, they're
not going to get it, but we have to get it.
We have to control our narrative. We have to say
what's important. And that's what they do in the rock world.
Each one of the legacies, and the states, and the
companies that own the masters or share the Masters, and
the publishing companies all that it behooves them all that
(43:33):
they talk about whatever they're talking about as a business
in the highest regard to keep it going and flowing.
And I know, Steve, you see a fourteen year walking
around with a Rolling Stone's shirt that they brought from Target,
and you're like, what the fuck do you know about that?
Speaker 2 (43:53):
Or what they're willing.
Speaker 3 (43:54):
Metallica or led Zeppelin, you know, and you're like, what
the fuck does a fourteen year old kid know about that?
Speaker 2 (44:02):
They want the shit that looks like it's spread.
Speaker 3 (44:06):
Across time in quantity and quality instead of quantity. And
this is why when you write your when you write
your pieces about your passion and music, Steve, you don't
know who's on the other fucking side. You don't know
that who's reading you. You know, there's a lot of
people that read you, and you're like, how the fuck
do they know me? I'm just writing a piece. Nope,
(44:28):
that's the first thing people look deciding Sometimes with a
beat with a producer, they look at the guy that's writing,
and you might say, oh, that shit is how they
used to look at that back in the day.
Speaker 2 (44:39):
You know, maybe and shit like that.
Speaker 3 (44:42):
Nope, they're looking at you and and it might be
ten people, it might be five, it might be forty,
it might be four hundred you never know. The same
thing went to with DJs too, DJ's and the Bender
on the night playing a record. They don't know who
the We got some callers calling in to give some indication,
(45:03):
but they really don't know what's on the other side
of what they're transmitting.
Speaker 2 (45:10):
So it's a.
Speaker 3 (45:11):
Lot of times when people get locked into their own
little head and the cubicle, they lose sight of that
there's somebody on the other side.
Speaker 1 (45:17):
Always man, absolutely, dude, I'm gonna let you jump. But
always great to talk to you. And you know, it's funny.
I mean when I started off, I was like nervous
to think about people reading on the other side. I
was like, purposely, I would purposely block that out. Now,
I mean you've done forever you're life.
Speaker 2 (45:35):
Yeah, yeah, I mean it's cool for you to block
it out.
Speaker 3 (45:41):
But you always when you're writing a piece, you're probably
going in there and saying, well, how if I if
I'm reading.
Speaker 2 (45:49):
My piece, how would I like it? Right?
Speaker 1 (45:52):
Of course, you got you gotta be the first.
Speaker 2 (45:55):
That's the same thing with the artists.
Speaker 3 (45:56):
Man, I've never made I've never made a song from
my core for somebody else. Fuck that Making a record
for me now, of course all the things that come afterwards,
you know, okay, yeah, no, no, no, okay, Now it's taking
on other aspects of the life. But I'm not trying
to write this fucking song for somebody else.
Speaker 2 (46:18):
Take it you don't.
Speaker 1 (46:21):
If you do, it ends up being a terrible song.
Speaker 2 (46:24):
And even if it's a terrible song, so the fuck what?
Speaker 1 (46:28):
No, But I mean, when you're trying to write for
someone else, when you're writing about an audience you know,
never works. Cool did always great stuff to you. I
appreciate the time, congratulations of the magazine and uh yeah
we'll talk seeing I'm.
Speaker 2 (46:44):
Sure thank you still or respect you highly man of
course you too.
Speaker 1 (46:49):
Thanks Mane. Have a good one.
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