Rap Radar: Jeezy

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Yeah, wrapping up podcast, Elliot, will sis just be that
beat out?

Speaker 2 (00:03):
What's up?

Speaker 3 (00:03):
Baby?

Speaker 2 (00:04):
Oh you're back? Huh, I'm back at the back of
the intro.

Speaker 1 (00:07):
Baby, I'm back, man, I'm yeah. I had to pay
that ransom for free you yo, man, I apologize to you,
be that. I apologize to our producer Laura. I apologize
to the super listeners out there. I'm back, man, be
that I had to send me down my little intervention. Man,
I'm a little more focused right now. Man, my body
is strong nowt thanks to beat Out. Thank you be
life after rolland shouldn't be so love?

Speaker 2 (00:29):
Is it wrong for me fifty two to be a
rolling loud beat out? Is it wrong for me to
run down these artists? Is nothing wrong with that?

Speaker 3 (00:35):
Man? Get your role on.

Speaker 1 (00:39):
You know the ageism in hip hop? Man, God damn it, man,
God damn. I'm too old for rap. I'm older than rap.
Fifty a birthday. I'm older than rap.

Speaker 3 (00:51):
Man.

Speaker 2 (00:51):
Man, it's all good. No, you're back, So that's what's
coming back.

Speaker 1 (00:56):
That's all it cows, man. But you know, we got
a lot of releasebout that. I was curious know what
you thought about the new NAS man, Nas and Hippoy.
I know Magic you has said was like one of
your favorite side of the whole Hip Boy Nas collaboration.
I wanted to get your thoughts on Magic Too.

Speaker 2 (01:10):
Yeah, you know what I said, Magic the O G
version is the best NAS album in the last twenty years.
I'm standing by that.

Speaker 1 (01:17):
Oh wow, that's a strong statement.

Speaker 2 (01:20):
I think after God's Son, Yeah, definitely that's the best project.
But wow, as far as Magic Too, it's just I
don't think it's It's not as strong as the first one.
It's not as not bad, but I also think that
maybe NAS should stop with the sequels. I think it's
too much pressure, you know what I mean. It's like
people are having an expectation of the first Magic and

(01:42):
I feel like if you don't deliver that, it kind
of falls short. But overall, I think it's a decent project.
I don't but I don't think it's better than the first.

Speaker 3 (01:48):
What do you think?

Speaker 1 (01:50):
Yeah, I think same thing. I don't think it's as
good as the original, But there's some songs that would
look like a lot like I like the pistols on
your album cover. I like that even when we're fit,
even though if he's not really rapping rapping. I like
that Fifty comes in and pops his ship. Uh, there's
a couple that like a lot.

Speaker 2 (02:05):
Yeah, I like how Fifty doesn't kind of overstay as welcome.
I feel like it's mixed on that verse, but he
just does his thing in and out. You know, I'm
not mad at.

Speaker 1 (02:11):
That, but I like that. But I love the fact that,
like it's just impressing there with now's a hip boy
doing though. I said, they're like the best group of
hip hop. You know, it's not even groups anymore, but
it's like the damn near a group now. All the
projects they put together, it's like it's amazing.

Speaker 2 (02:24):
Yeah, absolutely, but it's another solid effort from hip boy
and so I'm not mad at it too. And then
we had Tramp Scott dropped a new project to Utopia Topia.

Speaker 1 (02:34):
That's a lot to digest on that record going on.
It's a lot going on that I got some favorites
out there though, too, But I don't love it as
much as everybody else's I don't think. But like, at
least the one that saw when it dropped, the overall
Twitter was in a frenzy and you know, it's the
album of the year.

Speaker 3 (02:50):
I wouldn't say that.

Speaker 1 (02:51):
Yeah, I'm not. I'm not there with that yet.

Speaker 3 (02:54):
You know, we disagree.

Speaker 1 (02:55):
I'm still there with I'm team Gunner right now, still
in terms of album.

Speaker 2 (02:57):
But Kevin, Mike gonna come for you, but he's been
coming with me all times, all times. I gotta find
I gotta find it. Does he will rip that? I
put that up the ard times do that. That's classic now.

Speaker 1 (03:09):
I think killing mice in the conversation. Still also, Travis
might make my top ten of the year, but I
don't think it's definitely. I don't think it's top five
right now.

Speaker 2 (03:17):
But you know, I get spins already. But I think
if it makes in my opinion so far, if it
makes a top ten list, it just feels like it's
by default because of the lack of albums. But it
feels it doesn't feel as cohesive as actual World. Yeah,
it just feels like a collection of songs, if that
makes sense. Yeah.

Speaker 1 (03:36):
I see a lot of people compare it to like,
you know, eas this when you know, yeah went real experimental.
So it's almost like yez this sonically with like uh
twisted fantasy guest list of people right because it's like
it's endless with the hidden features.

Speaker 3 (03:48):
Man, it's crazy. It's like a puzzle.

Speaker 2 (03:50):
And speaking of features, I think the person's on the
feature run as our girl Cardy B.

Speaker 1 (03:54):
Man, who she's killing it? Her is savage.

Speaker 3 (03:58):
Man.

Speaker 2 (03:58):
It just I ain't gonna put out album because only
they do is murder everybody else's ship, estaing Cardy B
or killing they killed out of your Cardi's killing it man.

Speaker 3 (04:06):
They gotta respect Cardi.

Speaker 1 (04:07):
Man, and they'll be drawing those on those stage man
with that mic, Man, what is so informed with that?
You're so informed the.

Speaker 3 (04:13):
Way she did that.

Speaker 2 (04:14):
I was like, Yo, I don't know what's up with
throwing things on the stage.

Speaker 3 (04:17):
Man.

Speaker 1 (04:17):
These days, the fans gotta stop that. Man, They gotta
stop that.

Speaker 3 (04:21):
Man.

Speaker 1 (04:21):
You act like you got some sense out of here? Man,
what is the artists gonna pop it in your head.

Speaker 3 (04:25):
Back like this?

Speaker 2 (04:26):
In the nineties man, artist and yo, they showed the
one you remember, the one when fifty jumped in the crowd,
which one not not the bag of smurf, but he
caught the chair.

Speaker 1 (04:38):
I'll send it to you one way. He's in some
clubs early on and he's doing what a gangster and Uh,
they drew something at him. He jumps out. He has
got the white beater on. He jumps out. Everybody's following him.
They beat up whoever does? I think fifty took somebody
took the kid's shirt, put the shirt on, jump back
on stage and started performing of the song.

Speaker 2 (04:54):
That sounds pretty superhero the day.

Speaker 1 (04:59):
You you'll getting loved up out of investing with these artists.

Speaker 3 (05:01):
Man, word up.

Speaker 1 (05:03):
We speaking of tough guys.

Speaker 3 (05:04):
Man.

Speaker 1 (05:04):
But this tough guy, you know, he's he's grown into
a very like a stute, you know, smart businessman.

Speaker 2 (05:09):
I'm talking about I got a snow man. Man, your
jeezy y minus the bullshit, life is great.

Speaker 3 (05:17):
Yo.

Speaker 2 (05:17):
What's the life You said about what he's making for
the rappers back in the day, nigga, Yo, there's no
rapper that hates rappers more than jez Man. He hates rappers.
He wasn't embraced in the beginning. Man, there's no way
that's nobody had a different style. Man, it don't gonna
be Jodie Brees.

Speaker 3 (05:34):
It was.

Speaker 1 (05:34):
It was geez Man.

Speaker 2 (05:35):
That's a fact that it stills jesz Man. You know,
it's crazy twenty years almost and you know he's still
making moves and he got this new book right now
that uh. I think by the time this drops, this
will be out Adversity for sale. And it's a good
it's a page turner. It's a really good book.

Speaker 3 (05:52):
Man.

Speaker 1 (05:52):
I got benjamindals Ingram helped him out with a little bit.
It's a great read.

Speaker 3 (05:56):
Man.

Speaker 1 (05:56):
I read you both read it like the PDFs on
the plane right in Flos, but we're the early copies
of it.

Speaker 2 (06:01):
Yeah, ready in a day, it was. It was a
page turn I couldn't really put it down. It was like, Okay,
this is interesting and you know, just getting his perspective
on life. And it's, like I said, it's like a
self help book slash memoir. So I think people could
definitely benefit from it.

Speaker 3 (06:14):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (06:15):
Still has such a great interview now, man, I think
that's funny because he for many years he didn't talk
and he told me obviously was the statute of limitations?

Speaker 3 (06:21):
Was the fact that right?

Speaker 1 (06:22):
But I remember I sat with him at twenty eleven
with TM one oh three. We did this interview in
a movie theater and I was like, wow, Jesus really
can talk, like who knew? And now like you watch
all his interviews, it's like he's very captivating, you know, speaker,
and like he's got so many incredible stories, Like I mean,
he's lived a life that's insane. You know how many
you know, the obstacles he overcame, and you know he

(06:43):
details it all in his book.

Speaker 3 (06:45):
Man.

Speaker 1 (06:45):
So it's really it's really dope and it's really great
to talk to him.

Speaker 2 (06:48):
And the thing was surprised me the most. I'm like, Damn,
Jesus was really getting a lot of money back in
these days. But I'm glad he made the transition into
rap because you know, there was only two outcomes that
for imprisoning he choked me, right one.

Speaker 1 (07:00):
He definitely chose the right one. It was great talking
with him too, right, we could have did another.

Speaker 2 (07:03):
Hour, so absolutely, but he chose the right podcast to
speak to, man.

Speaker 3 (07:07):
So let's get into.

Speaker 1 (07:08):
You go, Let's get into a mad special conversation with
the one to know.

Speaker 2 (07:12):
The Jerzy on the Rap Raid All Podcasts. Yeah, you
know it's the Rap Raid All podcast. My name is
beat I Elliott Wilson Elliott. It's sunny out here, but
it's a heavy chance of snow right now. Yes, serious, sir, No, Man, Jesu,
what's up brother? How you feeling the grass? He's an author?
Beat out, Yes, sir, a lot of right there, A

(07:33):
long time coming back.

Speaker 1 (07:34):
Yeah, let's say what made you finally finally do it?
You tease it our snowfall to you said, somebody could
I could have.

Speaker 4 (07:39):
A book something I think? I mean, you know, I've
been writing, you know, music for so long. It's just
these are extended stories. So it was the next thing
coming anyway, because it was like, I had to figure
out a way to continue to tell my story, but
do it from a perspective of how can I spread
some knowledge? Because with music, you know, you can kind

(08:02):
of do it, but you got three minutes to make
your point, right, and you could do songs on top
of that, but you still got to talk about the lifestyle,
but you don't really get the depth of how you felt,
what you really went through. So so the book form
was dope to me. It was therapeutic just even writing
it and getting you know what I mean. I needed that.
You know, I'm gonna keep it a buck like because
a lot of this stuff I never dealt with. I

(08:23):
didn't think I had to, you know, until you know,
because the first twenty five years my life was a blur,
right because I put that behind me. And then when
I got into the music music, I had to kind
of put that behind me because there's so much stuff
happened in that. And then when I got into my
you know, my phase while I'm at now, it's just
like a lot of those things you start compounding and

(08:45):
compounding and compounding, and I started to see like it
was a lot of situations I would be in where
in the past where people thought that I was like,
you know, just.

Speaker 1 (08:54):
Staying office, staying in office overthugging that was coming from,
you know, saying what I had put in the back
of my mind.

Speaker 4 (09:02):
It was like, Okay, I'm not gonna deal with it.
But I didn't realize that, you know, this stuff comes
back up.

Speaker 3 (09:07):
So just writing.

Speaker 4 (09:07):
It it just helped me understand like, Okay, yeah, this
did happen, you went through it.

Speaker 3 (09:12):
You can't really fault nobody.

Speaker 4 (09:13):
You got to just deal with what you can't deal
with and just forgive what you can and just keep
it moving, you know, just don't forget though.

Speaker 2 (09:20):
You know, when did you begin the writing process, I
mean book or the book over the Pandemic?

Speaker 3 (09:26):
Yeah, because it was.

Speaker 4 (09:27):
Like it was crazy because and we were just talking
about podcasting. I don't know what made me go on
my Instagram live and it was crazy because I remember
just sitting in the house and I was staying there.
I was staying at my house in LA at the time,
so I was here instead of the East Coast, and
it was like I was just secluded.

Speaker 3 (09:43):
Right And then like my phone would ring.

Speaker 4 (09:45):
It'd be like Kevin Hart DJ Cally but they calling
on FaceTime and they, oh, you know, what's up? And
I'm just like damn. It made me feel like, you know,
I was connected. So then I started doing calls. What
I would call people on FaceTime and just having a
conversation when we drink some wine, smoke a cigar because
you know, you couldn't go see anybody. But that was
the only, you know, type of interaction I had. I'm

(10:06):
just sitting there. I was like, I got a lot
of free time. What can I do now I used
to having And I'm just like so and I was
going on my Instagram and I came up with this
concept for worth the conversation, and what I would do
is just have people I knew get on my live
we'll just talk about, you know, whatever issues and everything
that was going on.

Speaker 3 (10:24):
And I just kind of took a liking to it because.

Speaker 4 (10:26):
I was learning while I was teaching, right, And then
now I'm like, damn, you know, this is going kind
of cool. It wasn't nothing like serious, but it's something
that I would do. I'm like, I need to do
something real? What can I do right now? And that's
when I kind of just put all my energy on
and it's probably be a great time to start writing
this book.

Speaker 1 (10:43):
I know you're super proud of the title Adversity for Sale?
What does that signify to you? The title?

Speaker 4 (10:48):
Because I feel like that's what a true entrepreneur, a
true hustler. He knows it's going to be more pitfalls
than it is trophies all day, right, And I just
feel like I've always learn from hearing about how somebody
else lost.

Speaker 3 (11:04):
Right.

Speaker 4 (11:04):
If I'm going to interview being there, I want to
know or if I'm going to have a conversation, I
don't want to know how you got it. I want
to know how you kept it, what happened in between
that you what what kind of adversity that you had?

Speaker 3 (11:16):
Was it? Family?

Speaker 4 (11:16):
Was that your kids having this type of money, and
you don't want to, you know, give your kids too
much because you know how that goes when you when
you're overdue and you know, your kids get on drugs
and like, what is it that you went through?

Speaker 3 (11:27):
Right?

Speaker 4 (11:28):
And then I can start to understand when I get
to that space, things that I need to be sharp about,
right or be proactive about. And for me, that's what
it meant to ask somebody how they made it, because
I don't want to know your success.

Speaker 3 (11:42):
I want to know your losses.

Speaker 4 (11:43):
That's why adversity for sales, so because that's the that's
the that's them, the gyms.

Speaker 3 (11:47):
You know what I'm saying.

Speaker 2 (11:50):
Yeah, yeah, And I think I always forgotten about how
like you your whole career, Like even with the great success,
it's always was a cloud that could go another way.
There was always drama surrounding you as you became a
bigger and bigger rap star.

Speaker 3 (12:03):
Yeah, I mean, it was always a cloud.

Speaker 4 (12:05):
You know, it's probably just moved a couple of years ago,
you know what I'm saying, not saying that, you know,
I brought it with me myself, but I was loyal
and that's I'm still loyal and that's that's probably one
of my biggest defaults, right because I just didn't know
how to separate real life from what I was trying
to do. So it just was like I was trying

(12:26):
to be at all you know what I'm saying, and
that just doesn't work when you when you got a
vision and you're going somewhere, because it does make it cloudy,
right because now you have all these things that are
going on they have nothing to do with the destination
of the goal because you got other entities involved, and
now you're getting sidetracked and and you're getting all tasks right,

(12:46):
and then that just creates confusion. And now you got
behind the scenes stuff going on while you're trying to
you know, strive every day, just totally throwing you off, right,
And to me, you know, I talk about that lot
in the book because that was the thing, like how
do you navigate this? Because I think even as artists
and his culture, we don't realize like, you know, we

(13:08):
can write it, You can write a song on tomorrow.
We could be bigg as anybody else, right, But then
how do you navigate that? Because it ain't about becoming
who you're gonna be as far as artists. Once you
get there, you gotta stay alive. You gotta watch the taxes,
you got, you gotta watch the lawyers so much. And

(13:31):
if you're not clear minded, something's gonna get you. And
and a lot of these you know guys, I love them.
So when I see him here one day and going tomorrow,
just like you know, of course, something numb to it
because I've been going through my whole life.

Speaker 3 (13:44):
But I'm like, damn, he had.

Speaker 4 (13:45):
A shot, he got a chance, you know what I'm saying,
Like he was so close, and you know, and and
I'm hoping. And the book ain't just for people that
are into you know, our culture or just the music.

Speaker 3 (13:58):
It's life.

Speaker 4 (13:59):
It's like how this applies to you? What can you
get out of it? And the thing is, you know,
I learned a lot.

Speaker 3 (14:07):
Through books, you know what I'm saying. And I was
ashamed to read books, you feel what I'm saying. So
it wasn't like the coolest thing to do.

Speaker 4 (14:16):
So I'm opening up making it kind of cool because
you know, I would sneak away and read books like
somebody gave me think and grow rich.

Speaker 3 (14:23):
And I fell into that book here.

Speaker 4 (14:25):
First, I couldn't believe there was a wealth of Like
I felt like I just hit a gold mine because
it was so much knowledge. And then from there I
started getting other books to start to understand it. I'm like, ma,
this is really helping me with my life because there's
nobody I can call.

Speaker 3 (14:39):
And go, hey, I'm trying to do this, what should
I do?

Speaker 4 (14:41):
All the information is there, right, so I just take
bits and pieces of it, and now when I'm asking
people questions, I at least know what I'm talking about, right.

Speaker 2 (14:48):
Because you broke the book up in three parts and
it feels almost like a self help book slash memoir.

Speaker 4 (14:54):
Yes, that's what it is, a self help memoir. And
I don't think a lot of people realize. You know,
we all entrepreneurs, you know what I'm saying. This is
coming from, you know, things that we love, and we're
making jobs and creating companies and avenues for people to
actually have jobs and eat off of what we're thinking

(15:14):
every day. So there's no right way to do it.
Nobody can tell you how to start something. You know,
you look at some of the biggest record labels in
the game, nobody really talked about to start that.

Speaker 3 (15:24):
They had to go through all the trials.

Speaker 4 (15:26):
And the trills, and you know, when you think about
the murder inks and all that, it's just like you
could be a company and still the fads can come in.

Speaker 3 (15:35):
So it's like it's so much there.

Speaker 4 (15:36):
But you got to know, if you sit down and
talk to ear, we're gonna tell you something that you
want to hear if you're trying to figure this.

Speaker 2 (15:41):
Out right, Yeah, did you have to run any of
these stories about your family in the book because.

Speaker 3 (15:48):
You revealed a lot jeezy?

Speaker 4 (15:49):
Yeah, I think this is this is what I This
is what I and I do feel at some point
there's going to be some pushback from that, but I
kind of feel like in my heart, everybody has their
own own story about how things worked out, and people
might not agree with my perspective, but it's my perspective.
It's my life, right, and I'm not trying to throw
anybody under the bus. These are the things that just

(16:11):
help shape me, so I can't you know. And one
thing I learned about this is because you know, Elliott,
like you used to interview me, I was like, sitting
down talking to the fast, I was like, nope, yep,
I'm saying I ain't saying more than that, right, But
what I started to understand is like transparency is the key.

Speaker 3 (16:29):
Vulnerability is power.

Speaker 4 (16:30):
Like when you're expressing and you sharing yourself, it brings
people closer to you personally and in what we do.
Because a lot of people felt like they didn't even
know me. You know what I'm saying. You just come
out and see me in the club or whatever.

Speaker 3 (16:42):
It's like I might jap you up and he's like, okay, cool,
you know what I mean, But I don't even know
what they like to eat, drink water? Like what does
he do? You know what I mean? So it's like that.

Speaker 4 (16:52):
But when I started like having a conversation with people,
because you know, i'd be like, you know, people be
like you all right, I'm like, yeah, I'm good, because that's what.

Speaker 3 (16:59):
You're supposed to say. Yeah.

Speaker 4 (17:01):
But then it got to the point where I was saying,
be like, actually, man, you know, I'm really trying to
figure this out and telling somebody and they go, oh, well,
you just should talk to such and sulf I put
you guys on the group, text, email, whatever. And I
started to understand that, like you have to be not
with everybody with your with your circle. You have to
be open because that's the only way you're going to

(17:22):
get help, right, That's the only way you're going to
be able process because other than that, you just walking
round by yourself with one thousand pounds on your back,
and you're just trying to deal with this every day,
which is.

Speaker 3 (17:31):
Causing you to be a certain way.

Speaker 4 (17:33):
Right, and now you fucking up your relationships because people
feel like they don't they don't know you. You know what
I mean, They can't get close to you, right, you
know what I'm saying. So now it was like, who
wants to help somebody don't know?

Speaker 2 (17:45):
You felt like a family member reading the book because
you brought us back to Hawkinsville.

Speaker 3 (17:50):
Yes, introduce to your grandmother love and all your crazy cousins.

Speaker 4 (17:56):
Yes, yeah, I already know those.

Speaker 3 (18:02):
I already know. But little sisters said, why are you
telling everything? I said? What you beats my life.

Speaker 4 (18:11):
I don't know what else I'm gonna talk about it.
I don't understand. This is how I saw it, right.

Speaker 2 (18:14):
I thought it was funny when you was talking about
how your cousin you got into trouble and he took
the dog ship.

Speaker 4 (18:21):
Yeah, and threw it on me and beat me up. Yeah,
because that was my you know what's crazy? And that
was my first lesson about loyty. You know what I'm saying,
because what happened and I talk about in the book,
is this my older cousin. He was getting money, loved
and respected him. He's actually the one that taught me
how to love music because he had turntables. He was
always mixing, scratching and I used to watch him and

(18:42):
I try to do it. But anyway, you know, they
was getting money or whatever, and it was like the
big guys in the town. He had a girl he
was dating that was from there, but he had brought
another girl with him, so I didn't I'm a kid,
I don't know, you know what I'm saying. So she
you know, no, I'm a little cussed. She's like, what
are your cousin now? I was like, well, he around
the corner with the other girl, you know. So I
basically told him right. And then when he came and he,

(19:04):
you know, he tried to rough me up. I'm like,
what I do because I didn't understand. I thought I
was supposed to tell the truth, right, And it really
hurt me. Because this is somebody I respect, and I've
never seen that side of him, but you know, and
then you know, my grandmother tried to break it up
as much as she could. So I took off running,
ran through the neighborhood. And the point about it, he
was really fast, and I didn't know where the hell

(19:28):
he learned karate from, because he hit me with like
two of these, and then the roundhouse kicked me, and
then he threw a bunch of dog shit and smug
on me, and Ship and all the homies in the neighborhood.
They were supposed to help me, but they was running too.
And I told my grandma, I was like, he embarrassed
me so much. He's like, baby, keep your mouth shut,
don't be telling on nobody. I was like, I thought

(19:49):
I did. I learned it from there. That was That
was one of the lessons I learned, Like, you don't
tell nobody else business. It's better for you just to
say I don't know, right, And that stuck with me forever.
So even now you can ask me about somebody else
in the interview, that ain't none of my spiritual business.
That's why I speak on nobody up to my interview.
Like what Kanye got doing though? Are you going to

(20:11):
pay for the brother?

Speaker 3 (20:11):
Are you and that cousin in a better space nowadays? Nah?
I mean we know what.

Speaker 4 (20:15):
We haven't seen each other in a long time, you know.
And the thing you got to understand about me, man,
this is all coming from a place of I had
to forgive myself for a lot of the things I
want to do, So I don't got no ill will
like life is so amazing for me right now. I
don't even I ain't you can not like me. I
wouldn't even care, you know what I'm saying. They ain't
even I don't even choose to accept that type of energy, right.

(20:35):
But life takes you through so many twist and turns
that sometimes you're not able to connect and have those
conversations to see where you're at with it. So I
don't even know who we're at, you know what I'm saying.

Speaker 3 (20:46):
All I just know he just beat my ass.

Speaker 4 (20:49):
He apologized, and I was just so we clear now
it wasn't like I was thirteen in that, because you
know that right that'd been a problem. I was like
seven eight, Just so we clear, he was about about thirty.
I want to put that out there.

Speaker 1 (21:02):
But on the music front, I like how you also
you very clear, like you know, we the generation now
where people think, oh the it's gonna get on and
make a big record and be in a mixed You
speak a lot about you know, not being good yet
as a rapper and improving and going through the swarm
process to kind of develop your sound, your voice.

Speaker 3 (21:16):
You had a different type of style.

Speaker 1 (21:18):
And always tell people a lot of times to hip hop,
they think it's gonna be some guy and ends up
being another one. Like I feel like they thought it
was gonna be Jodie Breed. Yeah yeah, yeah, it was
young Jeezy. Yeah yeah, you know what I'm saying. So
can you speak to that a little bit? But I
think what I think is so so determined? Why are
we so determined to Okay?

Speaker 4 (21:31):
Well this this was separated, Like I don't know why
they were doing music, but I was doing music, Beau.
I didn't want go to prison, and that was like
knocking in my doorstep. And I definitely didn't want to
get caught up in what was happening with my homiecause
I was losing homies left and right. It was getting killed.
The fears were picking people up. So for me, it
was like, now we'll never and put everything you got
into this. And it wasn't like I was the best.

(21:52):
I just knew that my stories was real and I
knew how to articulate them in a way that they're
resonated with people right because it felt like something.

Speaker 3 (22:00):
It wasn't just something you listened to.

Speaker 4 (22:02):
And that was a lot that I learned from pop
because when Park was making music, the difference between everything
that was on Death Row was I felt him. I
loved Snoop. You know, Doggie Style is one of the
best albums ever. But you listen to mcavelly all eyes
on Me like Me against the World, like it's something.
It's rebellious music. It's like you're not gonna hold me down,
You're not gonna stop me. Learn Yeah, And that was

(22:25):
like the draw for me because it was like, I'm
just gonna give him everything I got. And by the way,
the reason why I was giving him everything is I
just wanted to be heard. So look at it like this,
I'm thinking, if I can give them the best of
all of me, even if I was to get indicted,
or even if something was to happen to me, this

(22:46):
will be here the musical life, I won't be forgotten
so much so that I remember one time I was
going to New York. This was between T one on
one and The Inspiration and I was working on Inspiration
second album, second album, and the lady who was working
for me at the time was supposed to come to
New York too, right, And this is before I knew

(23:07):
about backing your drives up, and me and her got
into the biggest argument at the airport, like when we
landed in New York, because I was like, yo, you
had to drive on the plane with me. What if
the plane went down, drive on the plane or if
the driving go down together, nobody's going ahead the Inspirations.

Speaker 3 (23:29):
And that's how serious I was.

Speaker 4 (23:30):
I just wanted to be heard and that was and
and to me, like that's that was the fulfillment because
I knew I wasn't a rapper, like I wasn't rapping rhymes,
but I just knew how much I understood music and
how much music helped me live, and how much I
learned from music because when people just listened to it
and bob their head, like I heard the message, I
heard the sermon. You know what I'm saying I winded

(23:52):
back and what he say, Okay, how does that apply
to me?

Speaker 3 (23:55):
Right?

Speaker 4 (23:55):
Even when I started hustling, it was like, you know,
master P and Baby didn't know it, but shit, they
was weren't helping.

Speaker 3 (24:00):
Me work it out.

Speaker 4 (24:03):
I was taking what they were saying and applying it
to what I was doing, right, And that's how I
knew how far to visualize that I can go because
where I was coming from, you know, the cap was
so so low right the ceiling, But listening to those guys,
it was like the sky was the limit because the
things that they were talking about. I was like, yo,

(24:24):
I want that. I can get that. You know, I
had two three rolexes back then. I'm seventeen eighteen, I
had three full lexuses and Benz and BMW's like. But
in my mind, the people where I was coming from
didn't see that type of stuff because they didn't have access.
So the only way I had access to it was
through the music. So that's why I believed it to
be true and to know that this is something that
I could do. Because if I'm watching juvenile them on TV,

(24:46):
they in the hood in a Ferrari, I'm like that's
got to be me next, right, But.

Speaker 2 (24:52):
In the book you said the first songs you wrote,
thousands of them were trash, right, tell me his point, like,
how did you get better as a songwriter?

Speaker 4 (25:00):
I got desperate because I was spending all my money
right because I already was trying to be a CEO.

Speaker 3 (25:05):
That didn't work.

Speaker 4 (25:06):
Some of my artists went to prison, some of the
artists went back to the hood. It was just a mess,
and I was just stuck with the studio, so I
had nothing but time to like just try to keep
figuring out how to do what I'm trying to do.
And it wasn't until again that transparency came that I
found myself because I was just like, why am I
trying to be somebody that I'm not, you know what

(25:27):
I'm saying? Why am I talking about things and trying
to put words together to sound like I'm so talented
and we all know that's not the case, but I'm real,
So why.

Speaker 3 (25:35):
Don't we just talk about that?

Speaker 4 (25:36):
And I got to give it up to Coach Keke
because we like around that time, Coach was like, bro, like,
you really out here doing this shit, you might want
to start talking about it and I was like, yeah,
you're right, but I was scared because I felt like
it was dry snitching. And then also I felt like
I was putting myself in a line of fire. So
that's why I was pressing so hard because I knew
that I only had, you know, a certain amount of

(25:58):
time or a certain window for.

Speaker 3 (26:01):
This to be successful. For it and imploded on me.

Speaker 4 (26:04):
You know what I'm saying, because now I'm telling people
what I'm really doing.

Speaker 3 (26:10):
You have a great story about t. I tell you.

Speaker 1 (26:12):
Can't be doing both things at a certain point. Yeah,
really to see that message at that time.

Speaker 4 (26:16):
Yeah, yeah, te I put up to the studio, and
you got to understand, like Tip was like so big
at the time, like you know he was doing you
had the Beanie Man record and you know it just
Atlanta was all about Tip, right, and I was getting
my foot in the game. And you know, when he
would come around, you know, I would kind of just
kind of watch how he would do things because he
was already an artist. I was trying to be artist, right,

(26:39):
And I remember I told him come through the studio.
He put up on me and we in there. You know,
that was my spot. So basically, like you know, if
this was the building, it was secure, so I would
still be running my plays from the studio, like I
was hustling, right, and still trying to make music because
now I can make music while I'm hustling, and then
you know, kind of stay out of the way. And
that was my thing, like as long as I stay

(26:59):
head or whatever. He came, and he came and saw
the money in the studio in the booth, and he
was just like, yo, let me talk to you.

Speaker 3 (27:05):
Walked outside in the bathroom.

Speaker 4 (27:06):
He's just like, Bro, you said you're gonna make it,
but you can't do both right, And what you were
saying about me being kind of resistant to that in
my mind, you know, because I'm still a street guy.

Speaker 3 (27:18):
I'm thinking he trying to trick me.

Speaker 4 (27:23):
So he can make the play and you competition, right,
And one time I realized that wouldn't to be.

Speaker 3 (27:28):
That wasn't the truth I thought about it.

Speaker 4 (27:30):
I was having a bunch of nightmares at the time,
like real serious nightmares, Like I was really stressing, like
I was drinking, I was smoking, I was like sixty
pounds overweight. I was just like I was depressed and
didn't know it. And I had this flip phone like
the next tail turp, and I just remember waking up
one day just full of sweat, and I was just like, man,
I got I gotta do something, and I went cold turkey.

Speaker 3 (27:50):
So I threw the phone away.

Speaker 4 (27:51):
So by me throwing the phone away, I couldn't contact
the people who owed me money. So I basically left
my money in the streets that people owed me and
they still owe me to this day.

Speaker 3 (28:00):
You know what I'm saying. You know I forgot I
still got some letends somewhere. I know what the hell's
going on.

Speaker 4 (28:06):
And I left the money in the streets because that
was the only because I felt like if I got it,
I would continue to do what I do, right, So
I went cold turkey. And it was the hardest decision
I ever made in my life, man, because I'm gonna
be honest, like I was so scared. Like when when
I say scared, Like because I'm taking care of my
mom and my sister, I'm putt my sisters to school,
I'm taking care of my family, I'm taking care of

(28:27):
my bills. I got a whole cruel people that depend
on me. And now I'm basically saying I'm gonna go
chaste this dream that we all know that it's like
a half a percent chance that you might make it right.
And even if you do make it, how you're going
to sustain that? Because now I'm not even an artist,
So I'm really like, how do I keep writing records?
And I don't think people understood that. The reason why

(28:47):
my albums were so spread out is I had to
go live and then talk about where I was living.
I couldn't just go in the studio and right. I
had to have inspiration. So that's what you know. Took
so long with the records, which was better for me
because every step of life I would learn something and
I would put it into music.

Speaker 3 (29:02):
And that's what happened.

Speaker 4 (29:03):
Around the recession, I like I started to learn more
about what was going on in the world. You're talking
about a person who didn't know what day it was.
I'm not saying dead of the week. I'm saying dead
a month. I could be walking around. I wouldn't even
know because I was just living like I didn't care,
Like I as long as I get up, I gotta
do what I gotta do. I didn't keep up with
anything that was going on in the world. I didn't

(29:24):
know anything. I just knew what was going on in
my bubble, what was going on in the streets, and
what I needed to watch out for, and who was
getting picked up and who was getting let out and
all that's all that mattered to me, because I was
just like really trying to keep up with it because
I didn't want to get caught up, you know what
I'm saying, And you know, shout out the tip because
I don't think I could have accepted that from anybody
else because I because for him to tell me, when

(29:44):
he was where he was in his career that I
got a chance to make it, you know, really made
me consider it right, you know, and and it made
me like think about it, like, Okay, what's what's what's
the chances of you making it?

Speaker 3 (29:55):
Okay?

Speaker 4 (29:56):
So you you got that, But if you don't make
it right and you continue to do what you're gonna do,
what's the chances of that, that's like ninety nine point
nine percent. Like I'm not gonna be able to beat
that system, right, So now I got to lean over this.
And you're going over here with no skill set. You
don't know how to make records, you don't you know.

Speaker 3 (30:15):
What I mean?

Speaker 4 (30:15):
You ain't got no producers, you know. I mean I
had a few people that was around, but God willing,
like I just looked up on like the Justice League
and Don Cannon, Charlie Red and all these people. They
just came at one time and it was just like
I had everything I needed and now it was time
for me to go to work.

Speaker 1 (30:32):
The guy had made that dram left right record about that.

Speaker 3 (30:36):
That was he was on fire. Yeah, so he was
on fire. I can't I can't care he was. He
was the guy.

Speaker 2 (30:42):
It's funny because in the book you overemphasized you said
street money is short money, no matter how much you're
bringing in, right, So I took that away. I was like, Okay,
you really went cold turkey and yeah, invest in your craft.

Speaker 3 (30:53):
Yeah, but that was gonna say.

Speaker 2 (30:55):
But something I also found that was noteworthy is like
how much you spent investing in that spent? I spent millions, bro,
Like how much like before your debut, how did you
think that you invested? Spent about about three and a
half four million. But look at but but look at it,
but can you speak to you know what I'm saying.
But it was like the best for a million dollars,
but it was. But can you speak to that part

(31:17):
of the guard because a lot of rappers, you know,
they just think investing invested in themselves with the money
and spending to.

Speaker 3 (31:23):
Well this is the thing. And again.

Speaker 4 (31:27):
I didn't know that I was investing in myself. I
just know that I didn't want to go get what
people around me thought was the way because I can't
scale that. Like I would hear my cousins them go
get like beauty salons and barbershops and things like that.
But I'm like, that's not gonna change my life. So
what can I do to change my life? I got
one shot. I understand music. You know what I'm saying.

(31:48):
I know how to hear it and know what it is,
so I'm gonna go with that. So I didn't realize
that I was investing in myself until like later on.
But I thought that I was just putting the money
in the place to give me an opportunity to be legitimate,
right because I had houses, I had cars, but all
my calls like my causes, my daddy name, my condo,
penthouse was and some guy that played for the Braves

(32:09):
that I never met that was dealing with this chick
that I knew that I paid her to get him
to sign it.

Speaker 3 (32:13):
So I had nothing that was mine.

Speaker 4 (32:15):
And my goal was how do I legitimize myself and
be able to do these things for myself?

Speaker 3 (32:20):
Right? And that's what I lean more towards.

Speaker 4 (32:23):
But what I will say about street money being short money,
it doesn't go far. It doesn't go past the clubs.
It doesn't go past the strippers, you know what I'm saying.
It doesn't go past the dealerships, it doesn't go past
you know, the credit bureau. Don't give a damn about
how much money you got under your mattress, you know
what I'm saying. And then it's hard to hide it.
It's hard to trust people with it. It's hard to
put it up. I put money in my sister's abboct

(32:45):
no addict, no more so anybody listening.

Speaker 3 (32:47):
There's nothing there.

Speaker 4 (32:49):
And her husband at the time. I put it in
there for like three years. Her husband at the time
figured out a way to get into safe. I don't
know how to hear you figured it out. So when
I go up there, you know, a couple of years later,
when I fall to some hard times to go get
the bread.

Speaker 3 (33:02):
You know it's there. I know it's there. It's not there,
it's not there.

Speaker 4 (33:06):
And and I know my sister would never like this
is my heart. She would never do nothing. So therefore
I knew it had to be him. And I called her.
I was like, wall, yeah, I'm about to park it
right now. I'm about to put him apart. And she said,
she said, I love you, bro. I don't want this
guy to mess up your life because if you do that,
you already know what comes with that. And I said,

(33:27):
what are we gonna do? And the reallyship she ever said,
is I call you back. When she called me back,
she's like, hey, I'm getting a divorce. I just want
you to know. That was the reallyship ever. She had
two kids, you know what I'm saying. So that was like,
that was like the realest ship in the world of me,
because I mean, you know, this is your family, but
he stole from your brother, right And in order for me,

(33:48):
I had to hurt this man.

Speaker 3 (33:49):

Speaker 4 (33:50):
She's making a move to say, we just gonna disassociate
ourselves with So that put me back in the street.
But what I mean by that is ain't no insurance
on that money.

Speaker 3 (34:00):

Speaker 4 (34:00):
If it had been an the count or something, I
could have figured something out. But now it's gone, you
know what I'm saying.

Speaker 3 (34:05):
And what do you do? Now?

Speaker 4 (34:06):
You got to go back out here in the streets
because the rap money ain't coming in.

Speaker 3 (34:09):
And you got to figure it out.

Speaker 4 (34:10):
And I would tell anybody if're getting street money, it's cool,
but just make sure you got some type of plan right,
and put a real timeline on that plan, not a
dollar amount of timeline, because you know, if you're staying
something too long, something's bound to happen, right and God willing,
Like I don't know how I was able to avoid

(34:31):
a lot of things. And that's why I really knew
I had a purpose because I used to pray all
the time, be like why then I get caught up here?

Speaker 3 (34:38):
Why didn't this happen? Why didn't that happen?

Speaker 4 (34:40):
And I'm just like, hold up, I'm supposed to be
here to do this, because now you're wondering why you're
successful in music, right, you know you wasn't rapping before,
you know what I'm saying, But now you got something
to say and you send back and you're going, damn,
I gotta take this. I gotta take this serious, like
I'm in a position of leadership. This is real, right,
And which is why started to turn the wheel on

(35:01):
my message, because all I knew was where I came
from and the struggle and the gangsters, you know, and
all that.

Speaker 3 (35:07):
And now I'm like, hold.

Speaker 4 (35:08):
Up, like I can lead us out of here, why
would I turn around and take us back into what
we're coming out of. Let's let's figure out a way
to get out of here. And that's when the message
started to change, and that's when the movement started to change.
And a lot of people just wasn't with that because
they was comfortable with where we was.

Speaker 3 (35:23):
Going because that suited them.

Speaker 4 (35:25):
But it didn't suit me because I knew that I
had a bigger vision, right, and the vision wasn't not
to be in the penitentiary or get caught up and
some ship that you know, I couldn't get out of,
and that was what I was trying to do.

Speaker 2 (35:36):
One of the big visions was you and this guy
DJ Drama revolutionizing the mixtape game, an investment like beat
I was saying, like, you know, you're giving this tape
these tapes out for free, yes, and that impact on
the world hundreds of thousands, that's unprecedented.

Speaker 4 (35:48):
Right streets is watching. I did two hundred thousand and trampade.
I pressed up five hundred thousand CDs and I gave
them out for free everywhere I went. But I remember
tricked that in and Jazzy fabying like, why would you
ever do that? And I'm just like man because like
and by and in that point, I just wanted to

(36:11):
be heard, right, So I was willing to take that
risk of giving it away because the money that was
to be made wasn't on the front end, it was
on the back end.

Speaker 3 (36:22):
I just need the people to hear my music.

Speaker 4 (36:24):
And then, by the way, to hit me with DJ
Drama because at the time he was the biggest thing movie.

Speaker 3 (36:30):
You know what I'm saying. You know, I had to
kind of bait him in. He was a little he was.

Speaker 4 (36:33):
Fron he said it wasn't but he was frightened.

Speaker 3 (36:43):
Let me tell you ye, he's run. He's different.

Speaker 1 (36:45):
Got But even now to this day, like when dramas
Uh does this thing with Todd the Creator and he
wins a Grammy, do you do you still feel connected
to that the gates and grills, and I.

Speaker 3 (36:53):
Don't know about that. I ain't get no grammy man,
I said.

Speaker 4 (36:57):
You know, when I saw that ship, I was like,
you know, and to be honest, like, I'm really proud
of drummer Man because I know where he came from.

Speaker 3 (37:03):
I know what we've been through.

Speaker 4 (37:04):
But like he's making some different types of strides, like
you know, Grabby off of mixed tape. He got a
successful label. I mean, it just says a lot about him,
you know what I mean. But and shout out to
Tyler too, because I mean, I'm like, damn, I did
millions of exta grills. I ain't never get no grammy,
So I got to figure out one out.

Speaker 2 (37:25):
But like you said earlier, you know your cousin was
a DJ and you tried to handle DJ.

Speaker 3 (37:29):
Yes, why did like pursue that I love music? You know,
I was.

Speaker 4 (37:33):
I hustled up because I used to go and my
cousin lived in Decatur in Atlanta on the East Side,
and uh, you know, they was getting real money, so
they brought their mom a big mansion. You know, that
was like the biggest house in the family. So we
all would go to their house on the weekends. Sometimes
he would just be in there going crazy on the turntable.
This is what I learned about AMG, DJ Quick Planet Rock.

(37:55):
You know, I never knew about it with Jay mixtapes
and all that stuff until I was watching with was doing.
And they always had like the Flyers cars in their garage,
and I was just always go look at the leather,
look at the car, and then he would be on
the turntables. He'd be like, you want to try, and
I'd be like yeah, So I just started trying. I
was fell in love with it and going through the
records when he's like mixing. I picked the records for
him and he'd be like, Yo, get me this, and

(38:16):
I'll go through and get it.

Speaker 3 (38:17):
And I just loved it.

Speaker 4 (38:18):
And I hustled up some money to go get my
own set, and my grandmother let me put it on
the dresser in the in the in the room me
and my cousin was on So I had my two
turntable cases, my turntables in there and my mix in
the middle. Then I had like this like raggedy stereo
speaker that I had bought from radio Shack and then
and what I would do was I was so into

(38:40):
what I was doing, but I was still hustling. I
would come in at night and just take my money
out of my pocket and put it in the case
under the case, right because who's going to look under there?

Speaker 3 (38:50):
And that was my thing.

Speaker 4 (38:51):
And I was just like I would get up sometime
before school mix and then for a while, they would
like throw parties in the hood and I would be
the DJ. Wow you yeah cool video that DJ. Yeah,
no bullshit. I'll get on somebody's front pords. He'll plug
them like little speakers up and I'll sit there and

(39:11):
I'll DJ. And it was like that was like my thing. Bro,
I did that, and I wasn't getting no money, you
know what I'm saying. But I was just like I
loved it.

Speaker 3 (39:18):
But you didn't want to pursue it further, like as a.

Speaker 4 (39:20):
Well, I just I'm gonna be honest, Like the DJ part,
like I love for music, but the DJ part was,
you know, and no disrespect the DJs.

Speaker 3 (39:29):
I didn't.

Speaker 4 (39:29):
I just didn't see no future in the money of that,
you know what I'm saying. Yeah, especially then it wasn't
no DJ dramas, DJ kells and none of that you
know what I'm saying.

Speaker 3 (39:36):
It was just DJ's.

Speaker 4 (39:37):
There were DJ and in the local club and they
probably get a couple of hundred dollars. And to me,
like that just wasn't what I was trying to, you know,
trying to do. I saw the bigger picture. I saw
what like what Baby then was doing and what jay
Z and them was doing.

Speaker 3 (39:49):
That's what fascinated me. Can you still DJ? Yeah? Yeah,
you doing parties?

Speaker 4 (39:55):
I mean, listen to the money right, the money right
forty birthday. But the crazy thing is like you see
what like Shack and Snoop is doing, you know what
I'm saying. And that's all because of their love for music.
You know, Shack ain't got a DJ, Snoop and got
a DJ, but they love it. You know, you're gonna
hear a Snoop Dogg. Shit, you're gonna hear he's a

(40:15):
music connoisseur. You're gonna hear what he loves.

Speaker 1 (40:17):
They said, Shack be doing it, he be doing by
he go in the room DJ and yeah was the
show going on?

Speaker 3 (40:22):
Yeah, No, Shack is Shack is crazy.

Speaker 4 (40:25):
Yeah, and he's like you know he's big in that
that ed M stuff and It's just like, because he
called me when they was in LA It's like, come
to one of my parties, and I went, and I
was just like, damn, you know what I mean. But
at the same time, it's just like, you just know
he loves music, but I don't know, like I feel
like I can throw a couple gangster parties.

Speaker 3 (40:41):
So if you need me, you know what I'm saying,
let me know, letting me know that's what's uping.

Speaker 2 (40:49):
You know, you mentioned some of the guys early, like
Cash Money and Trick Daddy and UGK and all those guys.
How meaningful was it to have those people on your
debut album?

Speaker 3 (40:58):
A lot? I mean shout out to Bun.

Speaker 4 (41:00):
He was probably one of the first features I had,
and I got hooked up through the streets from my
guy west Side Blue, the New d Money, the New Bun.
I was like always big fans of Bun and Pimp.
And that's why I learned that from my cousin because
he came through. He had this rental car and you know,
and he was playing front back inside the side. It
was that and that's how I kind of got into UGK,

(41:20):
just listening to what they was doing and like the
whole cash Money era.

Speaker 3 (41:26):
You know, it was just.

Speaker 4 (41:28):
I don't know what it was with what they was doing,
but it just intrigued me. Right, it was so fascinating,
you know what I mean to see and that's what
made me just have a love for it. So like
when I did, like who do I get on the
first day?

Speaker 3 (41:41):
One man.

Speaker 4 (41:44):
Trick Daddy right on there and then jay Z right, yeah,
that was big.

Speaker 3 (41:49):
Why you had the best jay Z collapse? I know.

Speaker 4 (41:53):
Because he had to come with it. You know, if
I was a Brooklyn guy, I would have been from
Marsie too.

Speaker 3 (41:57):
I'm just put it out there crazy to seeing it
all go crazy crazy? Yeah, yeah, that's my guy. I
think I got him on see it All.

Speaker 4 (42:06):
I'm just gonna keep it at start.

Speaker 3 (42:10):
Ship you how I got him seeing it all?

Speaker 2 (42:14):
I think I got him ship I rememther you had
that lyrics said I got more records with JA.

Speaker 4 (42:19):
Yeah, yeah, I think I got him. He was either
seeing it all I got him all or realistic want
to do I got one.

Speaker 3 (42:25):
Realist guests my that's very undertrad.

Speaker 1 (42:28):
Yeah yeah, but I was the BT Awards right open
the show, open the show, that's seen it all no,
it was no wheels and guests.

Speaker 3 (42:38):
I thought, no, we didn't see it all in Atlanta.

Speaker 4 (42:42):
He came and then the thing was like, you know,
I was listening to Jade, and when I was like
I was listening to Ain't No Nigga and all that ship,
I was like bagging up and getting money. So it
was so far fetched to think that you would be
in a position to even do records with him. And
it's like I grew up listening to the Little Wayne,
you know what I'm saying. Like, so it was just
so far fetched. You know, I talk about it in

(43:03):
the book. But when I when I first when uh
Boo and Gotti first brought me around, baby, I ran
to the crib, got my pours, you know what I mean,
through my fake uh I threw all my diamonds on,
you know what I mean. I came to the studio
and I'm like, this is my chance. And as soon
as I started talking to this nigga, baby, my grill
fell out.

Speaker 2 (43:23):
It's like, you look like, who the fuck is this clowny?
This is something I didn't know. I was surprised to
learn that Little Wayne inspired your name.

Speaker 3 (43:31):
Yes, yeah, I didn't know that either Yeah, it seemed
like you would be, but it wasn't obvious at all.

Speaker 4 (43:35):
It was their whole movement because you know when they
had like BG and they call him begs G. Yeah, Wayne,
they call him Weezy, and it was like a thing
that was going on at the time. And I was
just like people used to kind of call me that
back in the day because my voice was so raspy
in school. So I was just like, yo, I'm just
gonna go with this. And then I remember calling my man.
I was like yo, because Little j was like with

(43:57):
my grandmother called me right. So that was only nickname
I really had in the neighborhood. And all my homies
used to call me dog. I don't know where that
came from. And then down in a Lot of Deal
because I was down in a lot of Deal hustling,
they used to call me bling because I used to
be the guy coming down with the diamonds and the cars,
and that's just what they knew me by because I
didn't want them to know my real name just in case,

(44:20):
so that was my street name. When I told my
guy was like, you know, it's going to be young jeez.
He was like, yeah, I like that.

Speaker 3 (44:24):
I like that it took him getting used to though, Yeah,
it took them getting used to.

Speaker 1 (44:28):
I remember itself had the site going on, and I
think Sycamore Roll to Colin was like the rap games
now run by Yeezy, Wheezy and Jeezy.

Speaker 3 (44:34):
Yeah, yeah, that's.

Speaker 4 (44:37):
Time and even you know, even like doing records. But
like Kanye, it was just like you know, because when
he came over to the label, it's just like everything
was about Kanye. But for him to respect my musical ear,
you know what I'm saying, was dope. And if you
really think about Jeff Jam as a whole, in my era,
there was nobody I didn't co sign, from Rihanna to

(44:57):
Christina Million to anybody that was on Death Jam. I
did record with him, from Kanye to Neo to whoever.
You know what I'm saying, you get a dream like
everybody was on there some Yeah, But I loved it though,
because when I came, like you know and shout out
to La Reid, he was running the most legitimate, legit

(45:17):
mob I've ever seen.

Speaker 3 (45:18):
That's what he had. A mob.

Speaker 4 (45:20):
He had all these different entities out doing their thing,
but he was able to get us to come together
and like stand as a front, right and to keep
each other hot.

Speaker 3 (45:29):
You know what I mean.

Speaker 4 (45:30):
I think that's what the game is missing now because
when you have that, you're able to build because you're
able to keep You know, if my stuff is slowing down,
me hopping on a song, Rihanna's gonna help me, you
know what I'm saying. If Kanye is slowing down, him
coming to do put On with me is gonna help.
And he just ran it like that. And one thing
about La Reid, I'm going ahead and put it out there.

(45:50):
He paid his superstars like superstar.

Speaker 3 (45:54):
Yeah. One thing about that guy, he's not holding that money.
He not holding that money. Man. He like whatever you
in a great exact side and be che up a
little bit.

Speaker 1 (46:07):
Man talking about shaking the book man, Yeah, yeah, you
said one thing about about him. You said something like,
if you have one more thing to say about listening
and learning or loving and learning or something you say
to him.

Speaker 3 (46:18):
Well, I was. I was saying that I would and
long lived shake.

Speaker 4 (46:23):
I was saying that, and I learned that on this
half of my life now before then, because it's black men,
we just feel like we could take on the world
and were so were so tough and we're so good
that we don't talk to each other about what we're
going through. And I didn't know he was going through something.
So if I could do something again, I would have
took the time to take the time to like, you know,

(46:44):
be there with him and get in there with him
and understand and like talk to him and really like
ask real questions instead of like just the mediacre stuff
we asked you good. It's just like, you know, I'm
seeing you moving different, bro, Like are you really okay?
Like are you really all right? And I ain't get
a chance to do that. And even when I got
the call, like it was, it was so surreal because
in the back of my mind, I'm like he was

(47:06):
acting different, right, but not enough for me to like,
I think it was that level right right, And.

Speaker 3 (47:13):
You know, it's just beautiful soul. Man.

Speaker 4 (47:16):
Shake lit up every shake lit up every room. Everybody
loved him. He was always happy, he was always smiling,
he always had jokes. And what that just taught me
is you just never know what somebody's going through, man,
So you have to see people.

Speaker 3 (47:28):
You have to see him.

Speaker 4 (47:29):
And I make that a point, like even when I'm
out and I'm running into people. Used to be like
I might dad, somebody up and keep it moving. No,
actually that mother and hey, man, what's going on? Good?

Speaker 3 (47:39):
His family? Wife, good, because his kids good? How you
feeling okay? What's new?

Speaker 4 (47:43):
And just you know, see them because a lot of
times people aren't seen, you know they can be. And
I've been one of those. I've been everywhere with a
hundred people and still alone, you know what i mean,
still lonely, still in my head about things that I
know I can't talk to nobody around me about because
considered weak.

Speaker 3 (48:01):
You know what I'm saying, You can't.

Speaker 4 (48:02):
Talk to the wolves about you know what I'm saying,
like it doesn't work right what Shalla Bay said, the
wolves don't make great house pets.

Speaker 2 (48:12):
I can tell you're so effected by his passion because
like a snowfall on King's crowme, you said, you call
his phone.

Speaker 3 (48:17):
Just like yeah, and I go, you know it's even sadder,
bro like.

Speaker 4 (48:21):
And I say this because I go through my phone
sometimes and like be looking for somebody number, put like
an s or this or that it didn't happened with
my mom the other day.

Speaker 3 (48:29):
It's just like it's so many people.

Speaker 4 (48:31):
And I don't want to erase the numbers because I
don't want to forget these people that I love.

Speaker 3 (48:34):
But I've lost so many people. Man, It's it's so crazy.

Speaker 4 (48:38):
When you just go through my phone and just look
at all the people that are going you just be
like damn, like you know, even like Nip, like Nip
text me before it happened, I ain't even I didn't
even get a chance to hit him back, you know
what I'm saying.

Speaker 3 (48:49):
Like it was just sometimes you got to slow down
and take time to take care of people.

Speaker 2 (48:54):
Man.

Speaker 3 (48:55):
It just can't be all about you and what you
got going on.

Speaker 4 (48:58):
And I promised myself every album or anything musically I
do from that point on, that Shake would be the
executive to do something. You know what I'm saying, because
he changed my life. He saved my life. He was
the one that convinced la Reading him to sign me.
If he didn't sign me, I would have been in prison.
This is one thousand. That's a no brainer. It was happening.

(49:19):
It was going down in real time, you know what
I'm saying. When people start getting indicted. The only thing
that I had was music, right, and now I got
a label behind me and they're pushing it, and now
I'm becoming this superstar.

Speaker 3 (49:30):
That was all because of Shake. That wasn't He ain't
had nothing to do with me. You know.

Speaker 4 (49:34):
He was the one that was in the streets. He
saw me, and he saw what I was doing, and
by the time I got up to the label, it
was already understood. It wouldn't a whole lot of conversation.
It was like he was the vice president at the time,
something like that, getting onto it. He was LA's right
hand man. So he really made my deal happen. It
was like that, I went up there and I came home.

Speaker 3 (49:54):
I had a deal. I bought my mom my house,
and the rest was his. You know what I'm saying.

Speaker 2 (50:00):
You had mentioned just Nipsey on DJ Drama's album on
the song Raised Different. Yeah, you said it was hard
to do this song. Yeah, yeah, really one of the
best versus this year.

Speaker 4 (50:10):
Yeah. I kind of felt like I just don't want
to normalize just having to to praise our brothers from
the other side, you know what I'm saying, because all
these guys are good guys. Man, Nipsy Dobe, you know,

(50:32):
Vaughn h take Off. I mean, you know, especially him,
he wouldn't it just you know, it's just like damn,
like so young, too soon, and I would rather be
talking and nip than doing a record and him not
being here no more, you feel what I'm saying. Same
thing like with bank Roll Fresh, It's like I'd rather

(50:54):
have that conversation than the record. And it was like,
I remember when I did that record, was the same
day there was Bearing Takeoff, and that's why I said
that on the record. I'm like, yo, they buryed take
Off today. Let me pay my respect, you know what
I'm saying. And the crazy thing is, you know, I
don't really I know that people had to pick side
when everything was going on. So it was one point

(51:17):
where I was really kind of cool with them, and
then it just started to get kind of blurred and
weird because they had to stand where they had to stand,
which I understand. But I always had genuine love for
those guys, you know what I'm saying, Like, I love
what they did, I love what they brought from the city,
but I wasn't able to get as close to them
as I wanted, right because I think that you know,
despite of the politics, you know, I would have been

(51:40):
the one that would have been offering advice on how
they was moving right, because to me, what happened with
Takeoff doesn't make sense, right. It doesn't that you're the
biggest group in the world, like you're the Black Beatles, Like,
let's let's talk about how they move right. Not that
you got to take my advice, but I at least
want to put that out there.

Speaker 3 (51:59):
So it was, it was, it was. It was a
deep blow for that.

Speaker 4 (52:02):
And even when me and Boosy did the Rocketman remix,
you know what I'm saying, it was just like damn,
Like what can I say on my part because it's like, damn,
I'm tired of like rapping about my brothers, my people,
you know what I'm saying, and them not being here
no more. And that's what the book is really about,
Like you got to navigate through this stuff, bro, Like

(52:24):
you got to make it, like cause if you don't
make it, you didn't win the game, you know what
I'm saying. So you have to make it, and you
have to know what you're up against, and you have
to understand that we are not exempt from anything because
we've made names for ourselves like you actually become a
bigger target. Right, so you're not exempt. You're not gonna
go nowhere. Nobody ain't gonna you know, try you or

(52:45):
do something because you you don't work like that.

Speaker 3 (52:48):
You know what I'm saying. It's like it's egos involved
and these people have no conflict resolution.

Speaker 4 (52:55):
Conflict means that one of us got to go, you
know what I'm saying, And that's it shouldn't be that way,
but that's the way the game is, right because music
is the new streets.

Speaker 3 (53:06):
It is.

Speaker 4 (53:07):
It ain't no streets, no more, nobody standing on no corners,
ain't nobody no trap houses. Everybody moving around the world,
plenty money, plenty of power, and you know, you're getting
into things that you're dealing with people who are just
as aggressive as you, you know what I'm saying, just
as resourceful as you. And that's what that's when you
get the egos gliding because it's a lot of power.
It's almost like the rock going to somebody else's country

(53:29):
and them getting into a you know, verbal altercation.

Speaker 3 (53:32):
It got to have some type of.

Speaker 4 (53:36):
Understanding to it that you can have a conversation without
it coming to a right you know what, I'm saying
to a head and you know, and I just see
them in the same thing. When I think about Nip,
I'm like, man like, Nick was a good dude. And
I remember that I was home in La when that happened.
I've never seen La so dark. When Kobe died and

(53:58):
Nip died. You felt it everywhere in the grocery store
to the corner store.

Speaker 3 (54:04):
You know what I'm saying. The doorman at the house, we.

Speaker 1 (54:06):
Feel because we have these great interviews with him, so
when people see us, you carry that weight.

Speaker 3 (54:11):
Yeah, it's real.

Speaker 4 (54:12):
And even when I went to his funeral, man, yeah,
house like wow, bro like, and I hate to see that.
It takes you not to be here no more for
people to see how great you are, you know what
I'm saying. Because people felt his greatness like you felt
the people that was with him, Like the way that
people stood outside is hurst rolled through the way, the

(54:35):
whole arena was full, a staple center was just it
was like you felt them in there. Bro, you know
what I'm saying. And it's just like I don't I
don't know, my god, he got Stevie wanted to come
out and sing in his funeral. Like, that's that's that's legendary,
you know what I'm saying, But I hate it has
to happen that way.

Speaker 2 (54:50):
It was sobering in the book when you said, like
when you watch the Air Force ones video but air.

Speaker 3 (54:55):
Force excuse me video, you said that most of the
people in the video are dead, Yeah, or was incarcerated
the time. Yeah, Well, you know what it is. It's
like a man, it's like, we all sign on for
what we signed on for.

Speaker 4 (55:10):
It's like going to Vietnam or going to Iraq to
fight for something that you believe to be right.

Speaker 3 (55:15):
You're going to be casualties, you know what I'm saying.

Speaker 4 (55:18):
And the consequences, the consequences of it, and it's just like,
you know, you got to imagine how much PSD postraumatic
stress they're coming back with. So imagine how much postraumatic
stress we have, right because these are people you love too,
this is your brothers, and by some type of circumstances,
they're no longer with us, so they're no longer free,

(55:38):
and you just got to be like damn. But then
you got to keep going, right because you can't stop.
If you stop, then it was all in vain for you,
because everybody had their own mission and their own goals
and their own vision. Mine was to become what I'm becoming,
and to be able to lead by example and be
able to pour.

Speaker 3 (55:55):
Back and lean into my people, right.

Speaker 4 (55:58):
And I couldn't let that throw me off because we
all sign up for that because it could have been me. Right,
So you just stay prayed up, and you just stay
moving on your path and just hoping that you know,
you don't get caught up in some things.

Speaker 3 (56:11):
But it was.

Speaker 4 (56:13):
It's crazy now even still. And by the way, I
don't really even watch a lot of my old videos
because of that type of stuff. Like it's hard for
me to watch Go get a and see Secure stand
at the table with his feed up.

Speaker 3 (56:22):
You know what I'm saying. It's like, you know, it's
those moments for me. You know what I'm saying. A
video did watch before you came? Was over here? Okay?

Speaker 2 (56:30):
That song to me has like a real significance to
your career, as with a bum bee. Yeah, And it's
like initially that song didn't go over as well as
you intended, but eventually it did. You know, these days
people kind of abandoned the record that they feel it
doesn't work, you know, it's not getting traction.

Speaker 3 (56:46):
Can you speak to that, like sticking to a song
that you believe in and it eventually came on. So
let me tell you it wasn't me. Rest in Peace.

Speaker 4 (56:56):
DJ Fernando, which was the Magic City Monday's DJ, broke
really all my music in Magic City. He was the
one that was like, I'm gonna break this record and
he never let up and he played over here. And
when we used to play it, I used to get
to the back of the club because I was like embarrassed,
anxious and everything because it was like, I'm this dude
to just get money and I'm trying to wrap you know.

(57:18):
It kind of feels corny. And I was shy, not
in the street syst but like the music says, I
was shy, you know what I mean. And I always
like play the back and he would always be like,
I'm telling you what's gonna happen. And I remember walking
in there one night and it was going up. The
dancers was dancing and he was playing. He was bringing
it back. He was like Jesus walked in the building.

(57:40):
He needed fifty thousand. I'm like, oh wait, wait, wait,
so it brought me fifty thousand, I throw the money
and mess it all up, and then that was our thing.

Speaker 3 (57:48):
I was just coming to club like Jesus here need
eighty thousand. I'm like, that was our thing. We just
go spend, you know.

Speaker 4 (57:54):
I was just going there and spend ten, twenty thirty,
forty fifty thousand dollars every time I popped in.

Speaker 3 (57:59):
And that was like the marketing. And he believed in it.

Speaker 4 (58:01):
He kept pushing the record, pressing the record, pressing the
record until it just worked. And when one thing about Atlanta,
if it work in Magic City, is gonna work everywhere.
And he did that like I didn't know how to
break a record. I just knew how to make the tapes.
But he was the one that was focusing on the record.
But what I will say is if you believe in something,
you know what I'm saying, you just got to try

(58:22):
every different way until you exhaust all avenues, because if
you walk away from it, you could be, you know,
one week away from having a hit, you know what
I'm saying, And you just got to believe in it, right,
And I learned that two of my career because it
would be like I would put a project out if
it didn't move fast, I'll get discouraged, you know what
I'm saying. I kind of and it was like Sean

(58:43):
Pecko's you know Peck's, She's like, yo, man, got to
you gotta keep you know what I'm saying. I'm like, damn, man,
it ain't really working. And then it started working, you
know what I'm saying. So I started to notice, like
there's more after the first initial push, right, and even
when the recessing dropped, it did well. But then I
had my president as black on there, and Brock hadn't
won yet, and when he won, it took this record to.

Speaker 3 (59:04):
A whole other level.

Speaker 4 (59:05):
Right, the couple months in already, yeah, a couple of
months he wasn't even. He wasn't even, he didn't win yet.
But everybody kept trying to tell me to take the
record off, like there's no way for Rockets winning a
presidential election.

Speaker 3 (59:17):
I'm like, he got to win. How is this going
to happen?

Speaker 4 (59:21):
And I did that record and my president's black, and
when he won, I'll never forget it because I had
nads on the record.

Speaker 3 (59:28):
Then your man hit me, yeah, you go do it that,
I like, remix. Baby, let's go.

Speaker 4 (59:36):
So we get to the inauguration and uh, we had
a club loveer. I hadn't heard the verse yet. The
first time you heard the verse, Yeah, wow, you got
the verse and everybody was going crazy.

Speaker 3 (59:48):
I was just like, this is crazy.

Speaker 4 (59:50):
And I'm sitting there back. How you getting Nas on
the record and then get Jay on the remix, and.

Speaker 3 (59:54):
How you get John Lewis in the video.

Speaker 4 (59:56):
John Lewis is the realist bro shout out the gay
who directed the video. He called him, he came Wow, Yeah,
he wanted to be there because I got there late.

Speaker 3 (01:00:04):
He was waiting on me. John was in the middle
of the Hooduito chilling for real.

Speaker 4 (01:00:11):
And then and so much came out of that video
because I remember I used to hear Jay talk about Emory,
but I didn't know what the connection was. And Gabe
was like, Yo, we're gonna we got these signs, these
something free Emory signs, and I'm just like, all right, cool,
And I remember he put the signs in the video.
And this is right before Emery got home, and which
was crazy because I was like, yeah, go ahead and

(01:00:32):
do it. And then when Emory ended up getting out,
we end up connecting and I just was like, oh shit,
and we end up being really cool based on the
fact that I showed him some love there, and which
really made me respect Jay's movement more because now I'm
talking to somebody who was actually a casualty. It's really
just really basically saying, oh yeah, all that happened. So

(01:00:55):
he's basically putting the credibility where we don't see it.
So now I'm standing and going like, oh, you guys
had a real thing going on, and you're really a
solid guy.

Speaker 3 (01:01:04):
You left, you came back. You ain't saying nothing crazy
about this man. Everybody right, you know what I'm saying.

Speaker 4 (01:01:10):
So that made me respect their their movement more. And
then just to see the people that came out to
that video, like to see how excited they was and
how cellibratory there was. It was just like it was
magic Baby and shout out to booth thrmy he came
out there, cause you know, I was like as black
as my nigga boo.

Speaker 2 (01:01:29):
This September acts the fifteenth anniversary of the recession.

Speaker 3 (01:01:32):
Oh really yeah, yeah, I ain't know it's been that long.

Speaker 4 (01:01:35):
Classic album Yeah yeah, to me, my best body of
work I agree. Yeah, my best body of work. I mean,
because of the effort that I put into it. And
it's also the time of the shift in my life
because that's when I was like, you know, I was overweight,
I was drinking water. I wasn't doing it. Like something
just snapped in me around that time. You told me,

(01:01:55):
what time you was just eating sushi? Right, Yeah, Hey,
sushi that's all you would eat.

Speaker 3 (01:01:59):
That's it.

Speaker 4 (01:01:59):
And I started, you know, drinking water and taking care
of myself and getting rest and I dropped like sixty
pounds on my own. I started running, and so when
all start, I just felt better. And that's when I
was going in to write The Recession. I just was
in such a good space because before then, between Trapper
Dye and up into the Recession, I was going through

(01:02:20):
a lot of survivors remorse and I was real depressed,
and I didn't know the word for depression then, you
know what I'm saying. I was real anxious, real paranoid,
and I just had so many things going on with me,
so I wasn't clear on what I was doing. The
Recession was the first time I was clear on gooringing
to write this project. I'm going to do some research.
I'm going to understand it. I know what I want
the album to cover look like. I know I want
the sound to sound like. I want harmonies, I want this,

(01:02:43):
I want midnight black beats. I want DJ I mean
druma boy beats. Like I knew all that going in
and the minute I was done, because it only took
me like about four weeks to do it. When the
minute I was done, I knew I was done. I
called my man Cool Boo roll Seen. I was like, yo,
come up. He was in Houston.

Speaker 3 (01:02:57):
He flew up. I played it for him from front
of the back. He was like, you done. I was like,
I know.

Speaker 2 (01:03:02):
I was just I'm still upset that done it All
didn't make the final cut. They done it all, done
it all?

Speaker 4 (01:03:08):
Yeah, okay, So the haull of motes, Uh, they was
taking some time to clear the sample, and I, this
is the crazy thing. I kind of felt like it
didn't belong on that really yeah, because I just it
was it just signed sonically so different.

Speaker 3 (01:03:22):
Wow.

Speaker 4 (01:03:22):
So I put it on the mixtape, right, I think
it was h trapping. Ain't dead trapping. He did them
niggas just scared. I put on the mix and I
went and I went to Detroit one day and some
type of way when DJ played that ship and man.

Speaker 3 (01:03:40):
They love you, they love you, and Detroit it was
real and I was just like yo.

Speaker 4 (01:03:44):
I was like, I was like, yo, can we put
on the album? It was like not on the physical,
but you can put it on the streaming one. And
I was like, yeah, let's do that, you know what
I'm saying. And that's how it got on. And it
was because I went to Detroit and I saw it.
Because I didn't I didn't. I love the record, shout
out to justicleat loved the song, but it didn't sound
like a rap song, you know what I'm saying. It
didn't sound like what we was doing at the time.

(01:04:05):
It sounded like it was, you know, in his own sandbox.
And I was just like, I don't know if it
fits and where would we put it? And then when
I saw it in Detroit, I was like, man, we
got to figure out something, you know what I'm saying.

Speaker 3 (01:04:16):
So we put it on the end of the record.

Speaker 4 (01:04:19):
And to me, if you asked me what's the best
record I've ever recorded, I'll tell you it's done.

Speaker 3 (01:04:26):
To me because I felt every bar.

Speaker 2 (01:04:28):
And then I want to ask you about what your
biggest guest appearance the Shorty Low record.

Speaker 1 (01:04:33):
Why do you think that? Why do you think that
records becomes its own life like you do it live shows,
like you own classics. Obviously, but this is a guest
versus know. I just know shut out to Shorty Low
long lived Low.

Speaker 3 (01:04:43):
I know.

Speaker 4 (01:04:44):
I was at Gregg Street show for promoting it might
have been the Recession, and he played it on air
and I just was sitting there.

Speaker 3 (01:04:51):
I was like, who the fuck is that Shorty little
new record?

Speaker 4 (01:04:55):
You heard it? I was like no, And he played
it again for him and I sat there and I
I remember reaching out to Low, like, hey man, I
got a verse for you. Said yeah, I wrote, I
wrote they know?

Speaker 3 (01:05:08):
Hold was it?

Speaker 4 (01:05:09):
Spanky? I wrote, they know? And I'm gonna do me
remix in the same day. I did both of those
at the same time, and then and and then that
came out. But to me the time that I was
in when I did they know? Uh? And just what
I was saying because I didn't write that, I just
went into the studio and just did it. You know
what I'm say Because I was trying to get it

(01:05:30):
back to them. But it's just something about those horns
and when it drops, it just captivates people and even me.

Speaker 3 (01:05:38):
Like, you get me hype every time. You know what
I'm saying. It been like fifteen years. It'd be the
same feeling no matter what.

Speaker 4 (01:05:44):
And when they brought up the BT, I was like, Yo,
I could do one of my records, but I rather
if you guys are gonna celebrate their life of young golf,
let's let's do this as well.

Speaker 3 (01:05:54):
Because this is this is do it for.

Speaker 4 (01:05:56):
Shorty in the City. And I happened to love doing
the song, right, you know what I'm saying. I'm quite
sure everybody appreciate it and shout out to Jesse Collins.

Speaker 3 (01:06:04):
You like, let's do it by doing Yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:06:10):
In the book you said, you know, you wrote how
you Feel one O one on the Can't Coop Flight
infamous Can't Coop Flight with BMF.

Speaker 3 (01:06:16):
Yes.

Speaker 2 (01:06:16):
I was curious, is any other unique locations you wrote
a notable record?

Speaker 4 (01:06:20):
I wrote do the Damn Thing on the in the
b room at Patchworks with a Mosquino T shirt with
a snowman on it, with no socks and shoes on,
with some denim shorts and I was just laying on
the floor and I know, Fabulous was like this nigga
country is head.

Speaker 1 (01:06:39):
I was like, what the fuck?

Speaker 3 (01:06:41):
That was on real talk?

Speaker 4 (01:06:42):
Yes, So I did do the damn thing, and I
couldn't believe he was asking me to get on the song.

Speaker 3 (01:06:48):
And what he did was he's like, yo, I got
this because he had his verse. He's like, I need
to put a hook on it. I was like, I
heard it.

Speaker 4 (01:06:54):
I was like, yeah, I put a hook on there.
But in my mind, I'm looking at my engineer like
I'm going to put a verse on this ship too.
So I was right in the verse in the hook
at the same time, and it was in the book.
I mean, it was like in the control room and
I told my engineer to put on headphones, so he
thought I was just doing the hook. So I went
in there and I did the hook, and you know,
I said, my phone is stepped so my living room.
We can't have the money here. We need a bigger room.

(01:07:15):
And when he heard that, he was like oh, and
everybody in the room was like love it. And that's
how I got on the joint, you know what I'm saying.
And that was like my first like real feature. You
know what I'm saying, because he had came through and
he had played me like breathe and this is before
like Brede came out.

Speaker 3 (01:07:30):
Yeah, you said you want to breathe? Yeah, I want
to He was like nah, He's like nahin this is
my single. I'm like, I know.

Speaker 2 (01:07:41):
But you talk about the other rappers were taxing you
while you were trying to get on past the Troy
Little Flip.

Speaker 3 (01:07:48):
And Little John little Man.

Speaker 4 (01:07:50):
Little John got so many garbage back were brown paper
bags for me, Pretty Keen, Pretty cann shout out the
pretty Ken he got me pastor Troy got something? Uh?

Speaker 3 (01:08:00):
Who else?

Speaker 4 (01:08:00):
Because I was just giving money out in the sense
of I was trying to get on through the people
that were on because there was nothing bigger than Little
John when I came.

Speaker 3 (01:08:11):
Yeah, it was. It was huge.

Speaker 4 (01:08:12):
So it was like I paid Little John for a
joint in the feature between. How much was that probably
by then probably like seventy five thousand? Street money, yeah,
street money, bro all twenties.

Speaker 3 (01:08:24):
I know, I kind of it. I kind of it.

Speaker 4 (01:08:27):
I remember a pretty kid, you know, Pretty Kid wanted
to seventy five too. I was like, man, you're a producer, man,
did me give you photing man?

Speaker 3 (01:08:35):
It is life. Photing Man were working out those shorts.
Those shorts, jeez nah no, no.

Speaker 4 (01:08:39):
They ain't play about that. But it was trying to
all help. But it was like it was it was
evident that I had the money. And it's crazy because
I remember me and Carmelo Anthony having a real talk
at his house and I was like, bro, he was
telling me he was getting the music.

Speaker 3 (01:08:51):
I said, Bro, let me just be honest with you.

Speaker 4 (01:08:52):
Boy, dude, you got to do it through a third
party because if they know that you're involved, they're gonna
suck you dry.

Speaker 3 (01:08:59):

Speaker 4 (01:09:00):
That's what was happening with me because I was just
paying everybody, you know what I'm saying, and nothing was
going anywhere. But they was getting the money, you know
what I'm saying. So it was just like but I
felt like I was making progress, it didn't happen. The
progress didn't happen til I started look inside of myself
and do my best work and I'd try to go
outside and just get people because they had a name.

(01:09:20):
That's when I started to see some momentum because it
was like, now I got my own records, and then
how do I market them? Let me go get with
DJ Drama and put you know, fifteen songs that already
got that I paid for because I was paying like
Jazzy Fading all these guys for beats. Right, So now
they're my songs, and now I put them out right,
and now they're they're circular, circulating with drama on them

(01:09:43):
and you can listen to a whole body of work.

Speaker 3 (01:09:46):
Now.

Speaker 4 (01:09:46):
The thing was that I was giving them away for free,
and that's what everybody had a problem with, like Jazzy
and Trick that it was like dumbest shit ever. I
think to this day, it was the best decision I
ever made.

Speaker 3 (01:09:58):
It was unprecedented.

Speaker 4 (01:09:59):
It was the best decision I ever made, bro because
if I didn't do that, I wouldn't have a base,
I want to call the streets at the time I did,
I wouldn't have been able to go out and do
shows because by the time Trap or Die drop and
we dropped the DVD with that, because a lot of
people didn't even know what I look like, you know
what I'm saying, Like they just knew the music, they
didn't know what I'm looking right. So when they saw
the GVD, they was like, oh, and how I knew

(01:10:21):
it was real? Like I used to kind of be
still running around the street, so I might go my
homiees trap house or whatever on the West side, East Side.
I used to walk in. It'll be ten fifteen. I'm
sitting around watching the DVD.

Speaker 3 (01:10:32):
I'm like, y'all, y'all watching this.

Speaker 4 (01:10:35):
You know it's crazy, bro. So that's how I started
to understand, like, Okay, this is this is different. You know,
like these are your friends that know you. They're actually
supporting what you do as fans now because they're like, wow, bro,
you know, look at you riding around doing this and
then living this and what I did because a lot
of people don't know, I went in and edited all
that stuff, you know what I'm saying. I took it
and took it to the guys and say, okay, we're

(01:10:56):
gonna do this, that and the other, and they just
put it together. And now you're giving away DVD with
a mixtape. And this was back when DVD players was
big for streaming. We might need to stream that though,
stream trapper. I wonder if you could do that. Of
course you can you can? Yeah, we might need to
figure that out. But I also want to do Trappa
Dotta movie as well though. Yeah, I want to do

(01:11:18):
Trapadta movie or either the series, because I don't want
it to be just about me. It's going to be
about just that era and time and everything that was
going on around it and how I played, you know,
my part in it, but other people and other music
played their part as well.

Speaker 3 (01:11:31):
Who just kind of bring back that era? Dope?

Speaker 2 (01:11:33):
Yeah, so I know we got the book now, Okay,
Snowfall was well received last year. Yeah, are we getting
some more music in the future. It's looking like great
question call you First off, snow was really good. Now
I love I love Snowfall man. Shout out to everybody
was a part of it.

Speaker 3 (01:11:52):
It was.

Speaker 4 (01:11:54):
Probably the first time in a long time I was
able to just do something without any expectations, you know
what I'm saying, Like just free, you know what I'm saying.
That's why I enjoyed the process so much, because it
was like I wasn't trying to get no singles and
the reps like this, how I feel.

Speaker 3 (01:12:09):
I want to just put these records together.

Speaker 4 (01:12:10):
Shout out to Don Kennon and DJ Dramma Lake Show
for Show, Superstar Trey and everybody was a part of it,
just as League.

Speaker 3 (01:12:19):
Everybody produced on it.

Speaker 4 (01:12:20):
And it's crazy though, because you would think, and I
wanted to do something nostalgic like that, so that's why
me and Drama talked about it and we did it.
But you would think that after so many years it
wouldn't have the same feeling that it did.

Speaker 3 (01:12:33):
I love that. Yeah, Yeah, you and Drama also had
the B side shows that. Yeah that was fun. It
ain't come to New York jeezy.

Speaker 4 (01:12:40):
Yeah, we dropped the ball on that one. We dropped
the ball on that because I was running around so much.
But we still could do one of New Year. Yeah,
we needed it and we still doing Challenge. Wasn't putting
the setlist together for y'all. It was crazy, Like we
sat and I went over to a studio. We sat
in there for hours and I didn't realize we had
that many songs. Wow, you know what I'm saying. So
was like, and I still don't think we got it

(01:13:02):
all the way right because it was like so many
songs we didn't do.

Speaker 3 (01:13:04):
I was like, damn, we should have. Did you know
what I mean, and it was just like I would
love to you do like fifty sixty songs or something. Yeah. Yeah,
it was a real show. And it was supposed to
be a B side show. Nobody sweats to the B side.
Everybody's cool, you know what I'm saying. But now it
was real. It was real songs and real work. But
the thing I loved about it most is like.

Speaker 4 (01:13:25):
Just doing the songs and seeing how people reacted, you
know what I'm saying, because these were songs that I
never get a chance to do with my real.

Speaker 3 (01:13:31):
Shows because it's so like grassroots, you know, just just
you had to be there to know. So it was.
It was good man. I loved it. I love that.

Speaker 2 (01:13:40):
Is there a song in particular that stands out that
you love to perform that you don't get a chance
to it a regular show.

Speaker 4 (01:13:45):
Definitely, done it all, all, done it all would be
one missus seventeen five.

Speaker 3 (01:13:50):
That's my favorite g Z. Yeah yeah, yeah, miss seventeen five.

Speaker 4 (01:13:52):
Yeah, because you know you can't just do that, And
like I was so happy it right a video like
two years ago.

Speaker 3 (01:14:01):
It's like, finally you put out a seventy five video.

Speaker 4 (01:14:03):
Yeah, but I'm actually thinking about going back and doing
a lot of videos for a lot of my old stuff,
you know what I'm saying, Yeah, just to revamp it,
because it's like then I was running the gun in
so much I didn't really have time to like think
creative and trying to figure out how to put something
together because a lot of our videos are just running shoot,
And I would love to go back and take some
of those classics that I really.

Speaker 3 (01:14:24):
Like and just put a little spin on it. I
see another book in the future too.

Speaker 4 (01:14:28):
Oh yeah, No, this is something that's good for me,
Like I love this, and you know, I want people
to understand, like my purpose in life is to obtain
knowledge and wisdom and to regurgitate it back in the
simplest form to my people and my culture. So you'll
definitely be getting some more motivational inspirational books for me

(01:14:48):
because I happen to like it, like I happen to
like writing, and I happen to like just you know,
just taking some time to just think about some of
the things that I went through and just you know,
recap and just sit back and be like, Okay, how
did that help me? And how can I help someone
else with that? And I think that that's like, you know,

(01:15:09):
south of the music, this is a whole nother outlet
to do what.

Speaker 3 (01:15:12):
I love to do. You know what I'm saying. You
feel the power? The voice is very direct. Yeah.

Speaker 4 (01:15:18):
Yeah, and again any family members out there listening like
that said, y'all chill out.

Speaker 3 (01:15:27):
You know what I'm saying. Listen. So Gez, If adversity
is for sale, how much does it cost everything? Everything?

Speaker 4 (01:15:34):
Yeah, because if you know, they say, the richest place
in the world is the cemetery. That's where you take
all your all, your all, your gifts, all the things
that God gave you. If you don't use them, it's
just like the biggest form is is regret. And I
don't ever want to regret anything, Like I want to
live full and die empty. Like I don't want to

(01:15:54):
wake up one day and say, because you know, as
you growing, like you think you got all your life,
all your life ain't even long no more though, like
you know what I'm saying, Like it's it's it's it's
real out here.

Speaker 3 (01:16:04):
If you ain't eating right, you might not be here.
If you ain't living right, you might not.

Speaker 4 (01:16:07):
Be So it's so much so when I say Adversity
for Sale. I'm saying that these are the things that
I went through. I overcame them, so I'm quite sure
that you can even overcome them even better because now
you got a template or or some type of understanding
of what you might encounter. But this is how I navigated,
so you should put how you want to move to it.
But also the reason why the book is Adversity for Sales,

(01:16:29):
you gotta believe is even though you go through these,
these these setbacks and these these these obstacles in life,
you gotta believe.

Speaker 3 (01:16:39):
Got you gotta believe, or like.

Speaker 4 (01:16:41):
If you don't believe, you're already done. It's like walking
into a fight boxing somebody and you don't believe you're
gonna win. You already know your ass about to be
knocked out, you know what I'm saying.

Speaker 3 (01:16:51):
And that's what just with life.

Speaker 4 (01:16:52):
If you don't walk into life and believe not even
gonna knock you the hell out, it's gonna knock you out.
And every time it knocked me out, I got up
just some myself off and went full speed ahead. And
and it's like everything in this book is the truth
to my to my knowledge, and it's there for you
to take bits and pieces of it out to help
you overcome your adversity and.

Speaker 3 (01:17:14):
You can go sell yours. Pats. Yeah, thank you man,
thank you.

Speaker 4 (01:17:19):
Shout out to my partner right here we was in
college golf tournament. I didn't realize how gangster Elliott was.
I see this dude talking to you, man, what's up?
I like this guy from B MF T hy En.

Speaker 3 (01:17:39):
I love it. I love it radas rap Radar Is.
Interval Presents original production from hyper House, produced by Laura
Wasser Hopet and producers Elliott Wilson and Brian B.

Speaker 2 (01:17:51):
Dot Miller. From Interval Presents executive producers Alan Coy and
Jake Kleinberg, Executive producer Paul Rosenberg. Editing and sound design
by Dylan Alexander Freeman, Recording engineer Jeremy Ogletree. Special thanks
to Charlotte Jenkins, Tammy Kim, and Jasmine Sanchez, Operations Lead
Sarah Yu, business development Lead Cheffie Allen Swig, and Marketing

(01:18:13):
Lead Samara Still. Make sure to follow Raparator or listen
on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, or wherever you get
your podcasts.

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