Episode 7 w/ Just Blaze

This week on ROC Solid, we tappin’ in with none other than Just Blaze —  One of the architects behind the Roc-A-Fella sound and a true pioneer in hip-hop production. From shaping classic albums like The Blueprint and The Black Album, to creating anthems with Jay-Z, Cam’ron, Dipset, and beyond, Just Blaze pulls up to share untold stories from his iconic run.

This episode dives into how he first linked with Roc-A-Fella, the friendly beat battles with Kanye, and why his production changed the game in the early 2000s. He also speaks on his relationships with State Property, Dipset, his work with Eminem, and what it really took to make timeless hits.

This ain’t just hip-hop history—it’s family business. Bleek and Just been through it, so this one got a different energy. If you rock with the Roc, if you love them classic joints, or if you just a fan of the culture, you gon’ feel this one heavy.

Salute the legend, and get ready for some real ROC talk.

Tap in - history’s being told by the ones who lived it.

This is ROC Solid. 💎 💯

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
What up, y'all? This is your main manor Memphis Bleak
right here.

Speaker 2 (00:02):
Welcome to Rock Solid, a production of iHeart Radio and
the Black Effect Network in partnership with my guys over
at Drink Champs.

Speaker 1 (00:13):
Big with this year Memphis.

Speaker 3 (00:15):
Come back at it, niggas, notice the difference.

Speaker 1 (00:18):
Just pro president, no Stones.

Speaker 3 (00:21):
What it is your boy Memphis bleak back with a
new episode of Rock Solid. And you know if anybody
on this show, that mean they rock solid and they
my brothers. And I'm happy to announce I got my
real bro just Blaze in the studio being just go
black go back like dou.

Speaker 1 (00:37):
Bag wavecaps Blurd. That's how me and my bro go back.

Speaker 3 (00:42):
I met this guy nineteen ninety nine or ninety eight
going into ninety nine, and it's just been brotherhood since then.
So just appreciate you, my guyoming through.

Speaker 1 (00:52):
You already know what it is. It's just a convo,
my brother. Good seeing you.

Speaker 4 (00:56):
When's the last time you wore due rag wavecap?

Speaker 3 (01:00):
When I retired, when I took there, when that's when
the due rat came off.

Speaker 1 (01:04):
That's why a lot of people don't know. You know,
I'm out.

Speaker 3 (01:08):
I might have time about to drop some music right
And the first call I made, I did a song.

Speaker 1 (01:12):
I called Just. I'm like, Yo, Just. I know you
don't make beats, but I need one. It's like, send
me to joint.

Speaker 3 (01:18):
I sent it to him after you sent it back,
after I heard everything. You know, the name of the
record is due rag Bleek. All, mommy, the name of
that record is called du rat Bleak because I felt that's.

Speaker 1 (01:30):
Where I was when I when I visited, like.

Speaker 3 (01:33):
It was the skills of who I was there, But
the message is who I am now, you know what
I mean. So it's like you hear me, you hear
that young hunger and when you really listen, you're like
damn bleak talking that grown up talk.

Speaker 1 (01:46):
That's why it's like it's due rag Bleak. Word up.
So what you've been up to? Man?

Speaker 4 (01:53):
Man family?

Speaker 1 (01:54):
I know, man fam definitely fan first. Man.

Speaker 3 (01:57):
You got the beautiful kids out there vacation and every
way trying to compete with me, y'all.

Speaker 4 (02:03):
We actually just came from Orlando a lot long ago.
But yeah, nah, just family, you know, uh bruh. My
wife and a couple of partners started uh video gameing
production studio called Grassline entertainment. So I helped with that,
you know, in terms of getting that up off the
ground and you end up and running. It's a beautiful
thing now to see, you know, what they're building, how

(02:27):
they're building it, as diverse as the staff is and
as many of them as their own. Yeah, I can't
wait till we can announce things work further. But it's
been an amazing past couple of years. I mean, you know,
it's that whole story you know, started in my living
room literally right and fast forward three four years later

(02:47):
and everything that you hope and work and dream towards
is now, you know, happening.

Speaker 1 (02:54):
And that's that's the beauty of this business man.

Speaker 3 (02:57):
Watching everything come to fluition that you put down on
paper and watching it grow is like, that's the best.

Speaker 1 (03:03):
It's almost the same as having a child, real talk.

Speaker 4 (03:07):
It's like it's a different form of child because yeah,
you know it all starts from an idea.

Speaker 3 (03:12):
Yes, definitely, and watch it grow. So just man, let's
get into it, y'all. Don't know, my man just is
a tech genius. Just so y'all know as we recording him,
he's recording us just to make sure we ain't fucking up,
y'all know what I'm saying. We got everybody know he
got the l glasses. That's taping everything. So if you

(03:32):
think you're gonna walk by him and think you slipped
on it his property and see him he got it
on tape. He got it on the tape. So out
of the video game stuff you told him. I had
a question, what's your top five video games all time?

Speaker 1 (03:47):
You are mad your game.

Speaker 4 (03:49):
That's a tough one. I would have to you know,
I'm old, right, so I'm gonna go back to the eighties.

Speaker 1 (03:55):
Yeah, yeah, that's how come on, Frogger all that zell Do.
I played all that I want to know.

Speaker 4 (04:00):
Yeah, street Fighter for sure, of course, and Mortal Kombat.

Speaker 1 (04:04):
They kind of almost go hand in there.

Speaker 4 (04:05):
Yeah, Street Fighting, Mortal Kombat, Revenge of Shanobi, not just
for the game, but for the music. The music in
that game is something that inspired me to create.

Speaker 1 (04:21):
That's three I would have. That's three.

Speaker 4 (04:23):
I would have to say call of Duty.

Speaker 1 (04:26):
That's right, pop Gun. I would have to say Call
of Duty.

Speaker 4 (04:30):
Just as a series, there's some.

Speaker 1 (04:32):
That are better than others. Definitely Blacks Black Eyes, It's
the best.

Speaker 4 (04:38):
Okay, okay, and I get one more?

Speaker 1 (04:42):
Uh, whoa last one?

Speaker 4 (04:48):
Hold on, it's gonna come to me. Yeah, I would
have to say, so come, so come, so come.

Speaker 1 (04:56):
That's and that like the big old, biggest open world.

Speaker 4 (05:00):
So come was Oh so com was like the first
online game on a console, first first person shooting on
the console. It's kind of like a I would say,
a predecessor to Call of Duty, but it might, but
it's it was the first game we could get online
and Call of Duty type thing and actually had a
head set. It was August.

Speaker 3 (05:19):
You was the first in baseline with all the games
Xbox PlayStation. You know, me and you never had an
argument in my life.

Speaker 1 (05:26):
You know I had an argument, but you know you
yelled at me one time. What was it one time?

Speaker 4 (05:31):
What was it? You was playing.

Speaker 3 (05:34):
Guru and basketball Xbox and I'm like, yo, just I
need to beat this nigga, Like, hold on one fucking minute,
give me one minute.

Speaker 1 (05:42):
They ain't mine of the game.

Speaker 4 (05:43):
I'm like, god damn like this.

Speaker 1 (05:46):
So I'm like, wait a minute, is that the game?

Speaker 3 (05:50):
They don't know how competitive this guy is when they
come to that game.

Speaker 4 (05:54):
I think it was. That was just baseline in general. Yo,
The only two people that beat me at anything a baseline.
After I beat going the DJ battle which we're talking,
oh yeah, we got to get into that.

Speaker 1 (06:07):
And then then he came back. I forget what we played.

Speaker 4 (06:10):
Man, he got me good and you know I slept
on hole and what.

Speaker 1 (06:16):
The boxing?

Speaker 4 (06:17):
Yeah?

Speaker 1 (06:18):
Nice?

Speaker 4 (06:18):
The boxing, Yo, was nice.

Speaker 1 (06:20):
In the box. Oh my Jesus Christ. He dragged you
to the lakes and totally.

Speaker 4 (06:26):
You know I used to do I used to do
things that baseline, like play with one hand, like all right, no.
So he's like I could play. I'm like yeah, he
got on the sticks and I was like, yo, Like
by the time I figured out that I was being pool.

Speaker 1 (06:41):
Shark, it was too late. It's like that on the
pool table too. You know, is you missed once, you
don't get the get together between him and one. You're
not missed. You missed once, you do not shoot again.
Over rap rap the triangle and rack up that said game.
You know I still got the baseline, No way you

(07:02):
got it.

Speaker 3 (07:03):
You had all the baseline, all the classic memorabilia for
the whole museum.

Speaker 4 (07:08):
Yeah. So now when we did the thing at the
at the museum, I had got a call from Dave Mallikpor,
who was the dude that built the original Baseline. So
we was talking about something else a few days before that.
I forget what it was. It's something for the for
the cover studio. And he called me like two days

(07:29):
later and he was like, yoh, so all the stuff
from Baseline, you know, uh, how much of that do
you have or do you have any of it? I'm like,
I have everything. What do you mean? I'm like, I
literally have everything. Like he's like, you like the keyboards?
I said, I had the board, I had the monitors,
I had the tape machine. I had anything that was

(07:50):
hung up on the walls like Neills like I literally had.
When we shut down Baseline, you know, everything basically just
went into storage, and the most unfortunate part about it
was it was stored for years and then right we

(08:13):
finally sid all right, let's figre out what we're gonna
do with all this. Right, So the first thing we did,
the first way we took out, we got rid of
everything that was trash.

Speaker 1 (08:19):
Yep.

Speaker 4 (08:20):
We had the sow the machine on all this.

Speaker 1 (08:24):
Gotta come.

Speaker 4 (08:25):
I got a couple of dumpsters, got rid of all
of that and just kept the important stuff and we
had the plan to come back to following me to
start figuring out what the important stuff. Yes, and we
caught a flood.

Speaker 1 (08:37):
We had a hurricane twenty twenty.

Speaker 4 (08:41):
Yeah, ended up catching about two and a half three
feet of water.

Speaker 1 (08:45):
Damn.

Speaker 4 (08:46):
So we're just like when Dave called me and I
told her what happened, I said, listen, we've been trying
to figure out what we're going to do because a
lot of stuff got water damage, but we don't know
the extent of it. So the deal I made with him,
you know, he what was going on with the museum. Uh,
And it was wild that dude that originally built it.

Speaker 1 (09:04):
Was the guy run in the museum. That's dope, man.

Speaker 4 (09:07):
I said, listen, I don't want no money out of it.
I don't, you know.

Speaker 1 (09:10):
We don't need to.

Speaker 4 (09:11):
We don't need to worry about finances.

Speaker 1 (09:13):
Just be the rebuild and take care of the stuff exactly.
That's right.

Speaker 4 (09:19):
I can turn anything in work in order or as
much work in order as possible. So that's what we're
working on that after.

Speaker 1 (09:24):
That was the biggest draw at the museum.

Speaker 3 (09:27):
Noticed that right everybody as soon as they saw the
line baseline, everybody was up in there, like, I got
to check it out.

Speaker 1 (09:32):
Man.

Speaker 3 (09:32):
That studio made classics. Man, Like, we got a lot
of history to talk about it. Baseline, you brought it up,
let's get into it.

Speaker 4 (09:40):
But one thing I will say, you know, my wife
was like, you know, you're gonna catch feelings when you
walk in there.

Speaker 1 (09:47):
I'm like, hell yeah yo. But you know what, it
wasn't just the room.

Speaker 4 (09:51):
Reconstructed as well as it was in terms of the accuracy,
was also everybody there being there inside that same space
that we had.

Speaker 2 (09:59):
No.

Speaker 1 (10:00):
I didn't think that myself when I walked into the museum.

Speaker 3 (10:02):
You know, I'm thinking, Okay, they did a you know,
a little exhibit for Jane, let's go check it out.
But then when you actually walked through and seen the history,
and it's like, wait a minute, we were really there
were all of this, We contributed to this. It's like
we this is our exhibit too, you know what I mean.
That's what it made me feel then to be in Brooklyn.
Come on, I walked and rode bikes past that museum

(10:24):
my whole life, right, I have something in there with
my face on.

Speaker 1 (10:27):
It was like, that's a.

Speaker 4 (10:28):
Lesson what kind of bike you wrote.

Speaker 3 (10:30):
Oh, man, I rode everything mongooses GT performers. When they
came out with the roller neck, I thought I was
the nicest dad hit me spin handleballs. You know what
I'm saying. The pegs all that I wasn't too nice.

Speaker 4 (10:42):
But before on your way out, after we do it,
you got swing by the crab real quick, all right,
I got a.

Speaker 1 (10:48):
Of the bikes, yo.

Speaker 3 (10:50):
You ain't playing fucking We got the museum of museums
man like. But Joe, listen, I want to start a
versus right, a DJ battle because a lot of people
don't know you nice on the wheels of stairs. Listen,
I watch my man mat show me what you got beat?
Just off one term, two right right.

Speaker 1 (11:10):
Right, just cutting, cutting and everything live.

Speaker 3 (11:12):
So just off one term, y'all. Producers stop playing, y'all. Y'all,
y'all using all this computerized They do it for you
because I can make a beat now back then I could.

Speaker 1 (11:22):
We gonna get into that.

Speaker 4 (11:23):
Too, But you know what it is for me, And
I always tell people just like me as a producer,
and the way I move as a producer, it's all
dictated by learner.

Speaker 3 (11:33):
I was a DJ from the time I was right, brother,
putting in that work. Shout out DJ in Vegas. You
know what I'm saying, my God, but God.

Speaker 1 (11:44):
For both of us, because you know we both of
us grew up in that era where.

Speaker 4 (11:49):
You didn't just rap, you didn't just make beat, you
didn't just yes, you didn't just be boy. You did
everything right, and then you figure out along your journey,
you figure out what best at what you pursue, you know.
And as nice of a DJ as I am, because
he's a working DJ, that's what he does.

Speaker 1 (12:07):
Yes, he smashes me paused, he gets busy, but yeah,
he buzzy every night.

Speaker 4 (12:14):
I come out on stage occasionally and still you sit
in the studio. But that's what that's that's how he lived.

Speaker 1 (12:20):
That was the first time I seen my male gloul
mad it's died away with my man just blaze and
he asks for the smoke, He acts for the smoke.
That day he was in there getting busy and we
was in there like oh oh good.

Speaker 3 (12:33):
And then just like getting on the stalls, there wasn't
even a battle, no niggas, just was playing. And then
Google got pissed that just like old Lord, go my turntables.
He's just fine, right, you know what's going on?

Speaker 4 (12:49):
And sat down too.

Speaker 3 (12:51):
Yeah, like oh they're getting do in there on they
DJ scratch battery right now.

Speaker 1 (12:55):
Yeah that was ill man that like gurgle get busy
on the DJ.

Speaker 3 (12:59):
But he can fuck with you. I know, I told
him that to his face. He can't fuck when my
man jus on that. But you know, not rocking the
party now, I don't know if you got go on
rocking the party because Goo be out there, Goo be
out there DJ and everywhere. Oh it's smoke see you
see you see y'all DJ versus Swiss high laugh me.

Speaker 1 (13:23):
Google and chess wa. We only need one show, say
you need more time?

Speaker 3 (13:28):
We only need one show. I don't care about no
other than d James. Just these two at one curtain table.
Well heard it out. That's it, yo. But all the
history that we did in baseler, like what's your I'm
gonna ask you it's a two part question because I
gotta know, like besides hole, because we already know, of course,

(13:49):
what's your top? I ain't gonna even say five three
beat you ever? Mean whether for any artist freeway me dipset.

Speaker 4 (13:59):
Uh three is paulst three three is hard. Yeah, you know,
you know because so many classics came out of that space.

Speaker 1 (14:08):
Who was the most fun to work with? Like artists wise,
like because you worked with a lot of artists.

Speaker 3 (14:12):
Man, A lot of people don't know you know what
I mean. You put a lot of work in on
a Bad Boy, like you did a lot of mazing.
You know what I'm saying.

Speaker 4 (14:19):
Now, you know what I'll say overall, if you gotta,
if you look at the story and the history and
how it all happened, I have to put PSL member
list right, oh man, because you know the record happens
so last minute is so unplaned, right, Like we was

(14:42):
mixing this is two thousand and three. What are we mixing?
Was hypnotic?

Speaker 1 (14:50):
Probably?

Speaker 4 (14:51):
I think we were mixing hypnotic around the corner at battery.
Album's done, you know, like I've mentally moved on did
December fourth, and he did the intro. We physically moved on.
The album is already at the plant, like it's already
be a manufactured So why would mixing a hypnotic the

(15:14):
homie my brother Jack comes through with the Little Boy,
Little Boy Blues record, Like you need to listen to
this and At first, I was all right, we'll get
to it because we're lit mix. He's like, yeah, you
need to listen to this, so Jack and Jack don't
talk a lot.

Speaker 1 (15:27):
If he say it twice, you need you know, you
need to check it out, all right.

Speaker 4 (15:32):
So Ken, I want to say, Ken Lewis was the
uh about one of my engineer O G's. He's mixing
and I got the headphones on, head out. George just
hit the floor and I'm like, yo, Ken, stop whatever
you're doing right now, turn this home. So he plays
it on the speeches and I'm like and his face
perks up, like what am I mixing this? And I'm like, bro,

(15:53):
I don't know. I don't even know what's happening, right,
But I make the be right away run around the
corner and we all know that part, you know. Random
Jay at first was like do we need this? And
me and Leon are sitting there like and me lenning
Go was sitting there like what do you.

Speaker 1 (16:05):
Mean doing you need this?

Speaker 4 (16:07):
Right? So he goes and does it. And I told
that story a million times. But going back to what
I was saying about the game studio right where it's
just an idea and it might happen. It might not,
but to watch a country fruition and watch it happen
so quickly and for something that was kind of like,
I don't even want to call it an afterthought because
it just it was just a last minute thing, but

(16:29):
something that we did so quickly to kind of become
one of his.

Speaker 1 (16:32):
Career defining the biggest records.

Speaker 4 (16:36):
Is amazing.

Speaker 1 (16:37):
I remember when I found out that was you on
the intro right.

Speaker 3 (16:40):
I remember when you're talking, like, Yo, who was that
talking at the beginning where you get that sample from
just like and that's.

Speaker 4 (16:45):
Me fell all American.

Speaker 1 (16:47):
I'm like, yo, it's lying. He's like, no, that's me
talking that and.

Speaker 4 (16:50):
A second one.

Speaker 1 (16:51):
Yeah, but you're in.

Speaker 4 (16:53):
I would have to say that. I would have to say,
you don't know, because a lot of the blueprint records
existed like way before, like the records that were I
hadn't already been in the stash, Like everybody knows that

(17:13):
said a zillion times, Girls Girls, Girls was made with goals,
face some money, and me and Hip were holding it
for that for the time we would eventually meet. So
a lot of those records were done. I think you
don't know went through so many almost, and I kept
getting I would. There was only two artists I ever

(17:33):
heard that record aside from Jay was Peen rest in Peace,
Prodigy and Busted right, but they both heard it in
the context whorld like I'm skipping. Remember we used to
have the DAT. Just had to fast forward, so I'm
fast forwarded through the DAT. And they would hear that
be like what's that? And I'm like and it wasn't.
It wasn't that they weren't capable. I just knew that

(17:53):
that record needed to go somewhere super specially needs to
be a moment. And I wasn't necessarily holding it for
Jay because remember at the time when I made to beat,
Jay wasn't recording like the blueprint happened on the whip.
I just walked in like, yo, anybody got some beats?
I just got four from you, right, So when he

(18:16):
walked in unplanned, un announced, like yo, I feel like rapping,
I just felt so definitely that one. I really mean
it was kind of the same way I was.

Speaker 3 (18:29):
Just about to say, bro, listen that record. I hated
all of y'all. I hate it all like you was
part of dimpset during that record. You ain't even know, well,
I remember that that day.

Speaker 4 (18:42):
Funny enough, that day that was the day came was like, yo,
to get your dip set chain. I was like, okay,
I never got it, but yeah, that that was another
beat that was laid around for a while.

Speaker 1 (18:53):
Things.

Speaker 4 (18:53):
I loved it musically, I never liked the way that
it sounded. Oh but when they came in then they
were like, yo, we need something. We need it now.
It's just like, what's the hardest, hardest thing that I
have right now?

Speaker 1 (19:07):
That really meaning you so? And originally they stomped on that,
and it wasn't on it.

Speaker 4 (19:13):
Originally it was just Jim and yeah and then and
then the thing would nas happened and then they they
came right back like the next day. It's like, no,
we focus.

Speaker 1 (19:25):
Yeah, no, they stomped on that as a classic. That's
what I was gonna say. That's one of my favorites.

Speaker 3 (19:30):
And you just even explaining what you said, just even
with that tape, like even knowing this beat needed to
be for a bigger, bigger purpose and all of.

Speaker 4 (19:39):
That, right, it wasn't because it wasn't a bigger artist.

Speaker 1 (19:41):
It was just bigger purpose.

Speaker 3 (19:42):
I tell people all the time, that's the difference between
beat makers and producers. Because a beat maker just giving
you a tape that didn't let you shop through all
the beats. He's supposed to do, right, he's seeing you
twenty seven beats. It's like your family only to wrap
the one or two. You're supposed to pick the best
two and no, it's.

Speaker 4 (20:00):
Also supposed to help with you through the process. That's
a lot of time, a lot of times. You know,
even the records where I didn't do the beat, you
still gave directions. Me and Good produced a lot of
those records, those records that were done that baseline, because
Induce would just dropped the beat off the lead. Yeah,
Me and Good beat the ones like all right, let's

(20:20):
we got these thirty beats from from whatever producer. Let's
take these three focus on. These three are getting the artists.
This is what we're talking about. This is how we're
talking about it, coaching them through the vocal tapes, pulling,
pulling the best of the performance out of them. So
it was really a lot of a lot of times,
either either the artists were producing themselves or Me and
Good were producing those records.

Speaker 1 (20:39):
Yeah, I played a major part. You remember keeping real Wednesday.

Speaker 4 (20:45):
Keeping real.

Speaker 1 (20:46):
I think I still might have one of the t shirts.

Speaker 3 (20:49):
It's still producers to this day that don't like guys,
so this day that like, Yo, you ain't getting no beat,
none of y'all beans.

Speaker 1 (20:56):
Freeway, Jane.

Speaker 3 (20:57):
I don't care what y'all say, how much money, no
beats for y'all.

Speaker 4 (21:05):
So for those who are aware, keep it real Wednesday.

Speaker 1 (21:09):
This is how we was fault and this is how
keep it.

Speaker 4 (21:12):
Keep it real Wednesday originated. I won't say the producer,
but somebody had left the tape. M hmm, we'll hope.
And at the time he loved it. Right. I came
in the next day. I wasn't dead that day. This
was a This was like a whatever day of the
week it was. I come to next.

Speaker 1 (21:29):
I took the day off.

Speaker 4 (21:30):
Coming the next day. He's like, Yo, you might be
finished out of here.

Speaker 3 (21:33):
You know how old it's trying to tell you somebody
else taking your spot, right, So, yeah, you.

Speaker 4 (21:37):
Might be finished out of here. I'm like, wow, He's
like such and such just came through with like twenty
and ain't crazy. The tape was still in the DA
player in my studio, right yeah, So I played the
tape and I'm like, okay, I'm like, this is what
it is doing crazy, But I have voiced my opinion.
I just kept it to myself, but I'm listening to

(21:59):
the tape like that spot, it is fine, exactly right.
So later on that day, either later when that do
the next day, everybody comes in and you play the team,
and all the faces in the room was like what
it was?

Speaker 1 (22:15):
Everything sounds good, loud, that's right, right, and the.

Speaker 4 (22:18):
Beats being all the beats was being played loud and able,
that's right. So that's where, you know, everybody realized that.
So the general consensus was all right, from now on,
when the producer comes through, he got to play his
beats on the bullbox. If they sound good on the.

Speaker 3 (22:34):
Bull box, and they sound good everywhere, everything loud sounds good,
and they could guys you up, you had a.

Speaker 1 (22:39):
Base should be like, oh yeah, it's nit. You like,
it's not that same, it's not the same energy.

Speaker 4 (22:45):
So from there it was all right, you got to
play your beats on the bullbox. And it just so
happened that the first time that came about was on
a Wednesday, and everybody just happened to be in the
lane used to.

Speaker 3 (22:56):
Tell every artist, you call your favorite producers. You call
your producers. Y'all call the producers you're working. When you
call the producers, you're working with fifty different producers in
the in the studio, in the lounge, and everybody had
a shot, yep.

Speaker 4 (23:09):
And so that the outcome was if you played something.

Speaker 1 (23:14):
Great something, he got a T shirt, you got, you
got the T shirt.

Speaker 4 (23:17):
I survived, keep and you might get like the walk,
the Walk of Fame, they show you out.

Speaker 1 (23:24):
Yeah love yo, he got heat.

Speaker 3 (23:27):
But if those who it wasn't no good.

Speaker 4 (23:30):
And see the problem was that I used to try
to stay out the room then only because obviously, you know,
people look at us as the crew, like, so if
I'm in the room, they're looking at me like as
even if I'm not saying nothing, I'm part of the crew. Yeah,
so I'm still getting the side and I'm getting the

(23:51):
extra side out because I'm the producer. I'm the crew producer, right.
So I used to try to stay out the room,
and it was always dam They used to try to
get me to come in the room with what you think,
and I'm like, I'm not a music guy. You're the
music guy.

Speaker 3 (24:04):
What you're thinking, I'm like, I'm not doing it, yo,
dari was yo da See That's why I'm that the
world get.

Speaker 1 (24:10):
To see, you know, this side of the day. They don't
know the side that.

Speaker 3 (24:13):
We know that Dan was a genuine good guy for
the team because for every single person that put that
rocket Fellow chain on their neck, if you walk through
them baseline doors, dang was out there swinging for you.

Speaker 4 (24:30):
No I will I will say, word up. When my
pops died, I didn't come in you know, I didn't
come in the baseline telling any money. But you know,
folks starting to find out just through word of mouth
for whatever day, was the first one to come into
the room and be like good, you know, and being
ready or or willing to talk about it, or wasn't
in the space to really talk about it too much

(24:50):
to talk because it just happened like the day before.
But he was the first person in the room like, yo,
anything you need.

Speaker 1 (24:58):
Was a genuine good He just was. He was just
shopped me. He was the perfect example of what New
York was like. If you like think we grew up
in the worst era.

Speaker 3 (25:09):
I always tell my son and I tried to tell
a lot of kids that I come across, like, y'all
got it good, y'all friends, y'all love each other, y'all, y'all, y'all,
y'all don't diss each other.

Speaker 4 (25:19):
Might support each other.

Speaker 3 (25:20):
Like growing up with my friends, if you came out
on Eastern you didn't have on new clothes eyes, mom's.

Speaker 1 (25:26):
A crack cash Like yo, what no?

Speaker 3 (25:30):
How about I just didn't have money to go shopping
Like that's more important than this.

Speaker 4 (25:37):
But that's that's the difference in I think in the
errors there's a lot more concentration and a lot more
focused on support. Yes, mental health, like there was no
talk about.

Speaker 3 (25:48):
It, No dang dan was that he was that guy
that was on your neck if he wasn't fresh, Yo,
this one mass nigga, he ain't pop tax nig These
dirty ass sneakers telling a lot of dudes today they
would not survive that Rockefeller Wave, that camp that we
had in basedline. It's a lot of people are here
today that if they walk through them doors, they will

(26:10):
leave out with a shell of themselves because it was
getting tested bro from state property now.

Speaker 1 (26:16):
But beans are then put blood on the wall like
they put live in the studio watch like you know
what I'm saying. That's why I can't wait.

Speaker 3 (26:27):
To get beans up here, so we could really get
into those type of stories.

Speaker 4 (26:30):
If you get into those stories, I will come back.
I will come back.

Speaker 3 (26:36):
Niggas put Blood on the Wall and base Lines horror
movies we filmed in based Lines.

Speaker 1 (26:46):
Base Line was a different world.

Speaker 4 (26:48):
It wasn't It really was. But you know, it's so
much history that was made there.

Speaker 1 (26:53):
Yes, man.

Speaker 4 (26:54):
And the thing about it really is, you don't know
that you're making it while you're making it. You don't
know you're in the process exactly what you do. But
if you look at just about every great movement, not
just in hip hop, but just in general, Like Motown had,
hitsvill A, they had their spot, Ye bad Boy had

(27:14):
Daddy's House, you know what I mean.

Speaker 3 (27:17):
In a host of producers they had, they had they
joint m they studio, the crack house.

Speaker 1 (27:24):
Yes, you know the spot right.

Speaker 4 (27:26):
You know, if you look at Chunk King, you go
back to the early eighties, most of the stuff that
was coming through death Chail, you know, we're through rush.
It's all happening at Chunk King.

Speaker 1 (27:36):
Right, Joe, Chunk King damn.

Speaker 3 (27:39):
I remember that almost bought chunk Kin no way when
he was Baseline was still around, but it was too busy.

Speaker 4 (27:48):
And the thing about chunk King John the guy that
owned it, he had the two floors with all the studios.
Then he also had apartments on the same floor. So
the idea was and h would have just moved into
the apartments the studio, you know, didn't happen for a
number of reasons. But Chunking almost became like Baseline too

(28:10):
to it.

Speaker 3 (28:11):
That's crazy, man, chunk King Uh fucking D and D
was a classic.

Speaker 4 (28:16):
Yeah, it's the same thing.

Speaker 1 (28:16):
Even though D and D.

Speaker 4 (28:17):
Was a lot of separate entities, they were all connected
with or another, right, like between premium and dignity and
dignitary crisis on them. So and the beat minus obviously.
So you know, the studio, it's more than just a studio,
it's a it's a creative hub at that point. But
you have all these different energies and all these different
entities rather you know, frequent in the place every day

(28:40):
that a man yeah lived there, Yeah, it became it
becomes a creative hub.

Speaker 1 (28:45):
That's right, I lived there.

Speaker 3 (28:46):
See state property, dip said everybody worked that night. So
I would come to the studio. These guys will still
be on the couch. Dad, I'll be waking everybody up.
Google everybody, Google. Gotta go get his coffee.

Speaker 4 (28:58):
He went out to the deli on the corner.

Speaker 1 (28:59):
Get his call.

Speaker 3 (29:00):
Yeah, go get his coffee, and then we get in
the work. That's one thing I was the daytime morning.
I get to the studio nine o'clock in the morning.

Speaker 1 (29:07):
By five o'clock, I was done.

Speaker 4 (29:09):
Even before that. Like the way I the way for
me was like for us, or rather, when I say
for us, I mean like on the studio side. So Me, Shane, Dave,
we we had to understand and like, all right, bleaks
will show up anywhere between nine and ten. Hole's gonna
show up around two. State property might trickle in throughout

(29:33):
the day because they all move independently. Yeah, Diptt's gonna
show up around eight. Max is gonna call us around
eleven o'clock and say he's on, or ten o'clock and
say he's on his way, show up at three or four.
Ye pass out on the couch, want to wrap at five.
But the wild thing was is he would be playing
to beat on ten and then to Falsburgers. Go to sleep,

(29:54):
right and go to sleep, go to sleep, then wake
up with a run.

Speaker 1 (29:58):
Yep, that's how we did hypnotic Yo. Bro.

Speaker 3 (30:00):
He turned the lights down in the studio. Remember he
turned the lights down in the studio, had inscense burning,
and went to sleep and then woke up and told me, bleek,
I got it.

Speaker 1 (30:10):
Wrecking Hip nodded. I'm like, all right, let me hear it.
I'm like, you do, got it. But he was a
genius at that. I don't know.

Speaker 3 (30:17):
He would dream his verses because he would go to
sleep with the beat playing wake up, I got it right,
which is wild.

Speaker 1 (30:25):
When you really think about it.

Speaker 4 (30:26):
It's like half his brain was sleep. Sometimes we'd be
like yore, Mac, yes, but then wake up with the verse.
Not wake up and say give me half an hour.

Speaker 1 (30:35):
No, wake up with the verse.

Speaker 3 (30:36):
I'm ready, put me in the booth, Like what the
hell out of hell you wrote the verse in your sleep?

Speaker 1 (30:41):
Like okay, beans, we got that talent. See you make me.

Speaker 4 (30:45):
But then it would and then it would just be
a cycle that would start a new right. So like
after Mac finished, maybe six seven in the morning.

Speaker 1 (30:51):
Now here I come right, It's just right earlier in
the morning.

Speaker 4 (30:55):
For years, but it was. And then you know, luckily
Baseline was in the garment district. You could go right downstairs,
right around the corner and get a bunch of white tea's.
It came down to what you eventually put that holiday
in or whatever.

Speaker 1 (31:10):
It was on the corner right.

Speaker 3 (31:13):
We had a nice spot during the day, right but
that night Baseline block became I remember seeing you out there,
all his jewelry, big brakeslet cab yo.

Speaker 1 (31:27):
Just it's three o'clock in the morning. This is when
you earn the saw the crews come out that night.
Can in the car. We didn't going on I was dropping.
It wasn't no, but we didn't.

Speaker 4 (31:35):
Back then, we didn't have ubers or car services like
cabs used.

Speaker 1 (31:38):
To be like where you going, We're not going that way.

Speaker 4 (31:41):
Right exactly, So it was you kind of didn't have
a choice back there. I tell you, I got kidnapped
by a cab trying to get back to the yo
seven in the morning. This is like two thousand and one.
Seven in the morning. I had a studio, like everybody
just happened to leave early on Saturday. Saturday was the

(32:02):
one that you might get a break, right, because people.

Speaker 1 (32:03):
Would go out and yeah, everybody was moving right.

Speaker 4 (32:06):
So Saturday, Saturday night, go to the studio. I mean
Saturday night, take a break, go home. Actually, I'm sorry.
Early Sunday morning, I fell asleep on Saturday because everybody
had left. Yes, Sunday morning, I go go to the
crabs finally to live downtown. Go to the crab shower

(32:26):
change and go back down right. Used to live in
the city, there was always a cab stock jump in
the cab, real quick jump in the cab. And I
always to say the same thing every time I got
in the cab.

Speaker 1 (32:42):
Twenty six and six to the corner twenty six and six.

Speaker 4 (32:47):
Far left hand corner. That was that was my routine.
I gave you the same instruction six. So I get get.

Speaker 1 (32:54):
In the cab.

Speaker 4 (32:55):
Dude pulls over on twenty six and six on the
near right corner. Now that's that's nothing to argue, right,
But I had said to him, I was tiring. I said, oh,
I just said far enough corner. He's like, no, you
said far, He said, you said the right corner. I said,
I'm gonna argue with you. So I go to my
outside pocket all I had, so I wasn't I had to
get money and get cash l on that. All I

(33:15):
had was ten dollars over the cab ride is six
seventy every day. Take out the ten. As I'm taking
it out, my inside pocketed rips. Right. So now this
guy just got to finish argument with me and trying
to start the argument. So I apologize to see my apologies. Well,
you know, Bill Ritt still good, just kind of neat
take it back together. He like, so, yeah, he starts

(33:38):
to beefing about that. He tried he court. He was like,
you have to give me another money, and I don't
have another money. This is all I have.

Speaker 1 (33:45):
But there's a Delli right there.

Speaker 4 (33:47):
There's a Deli right that we need to do. Yeah.

Speaker 1 (33:50):
I'm like, yo, we could just get taped.

Speaker 4 (33:52):
And you know, so my thing was I would have
been like, yo, you can keep the ten, you just
gotta tape it up. I mean to change, but now
that's your being, now that we're having a problem, you know,
that's out the window. So he come, he comes out
to del He says they don't have tape. I said,
I know they have tape. We eat there every day.
They tape our sandwiches shut right, like, we'll take the
package and shut on the sandwige. So he's like, I'm like,

(34:16):
you know what, let's keep this. Oh no, So he said,
you know able to see the police. I said, okay,
remember the precinct was right by the garden, like three
blocks up, four blocks. So we go to the drive.
You to the police shut over the cabin forn of
the precinct. Uh comes out five minutes later. So the

(34:37):
police said they want to see you. I said, the police,
don't saf the police wanted to see.

Speaker 1 (34:42):
Me, they'd be outsome exactly.

Speaker 4 (34:44):
I'm not walking into a police precinct like, hey, somebody
wanted to see me. So he's like, police said, the
would have see I said, bro, I'm knotting out of
this car, like we gotta go back to destination was
twenty six and six.

Speaker 1 (34:57):
That's right now. We're on thirty fourth and eight. You
you wild exactly.

Speaker 4 (35:00):
So then he's like, oh yeah, all right. It just
takes off speeding. Crosstown gets down there, which one of
those up I think first ab goes up. Yes, it's
all the way from eighth down the first and I'm realizing, yo,
like he's not going back to the studio breaks up. First,
ab I have my flip from the flip phone and

(35:23):
I had.

Speaker 3 (35:24):
The no that's where we had the star tak say
it was the star tap.

Speaker 4 (35:29):
So I call uh my partner at the time, and
I'm like yo, and I got one bar, batter you up.
I'm like, yo, I'm being kidnapped by a cab. She's sleep.
She's like what, I'm being kid And I don't want
to call nine one one because I only got one.
I got barely got any bars, like law nine one on.

Speaker 1 (35:49):
Yeah, So she.

Speaker 4 (35:49):
Calls nine one one. I tell him what was happening.
Like They're like, sir, Donald, one is not for jokes.
I said, this is not a joke. I am more.
I was supposed to be taking twenty six and.

Speaker 1 (35:57):
Six first avenue.

Speaker 4 (36:00):
Now I'm off.

Speaker 1 (36:00):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (36:00):
Now this guy's speeding of first Avenue and I'm on
fifty ieth. Now I'm on fifty third. Now I'm on
fifty fifth. So she realizes what it is. So a
couple minutes later, further two minutes later, sirens is now
there's a police blockade like on like seventy seventy something, right,
two cars blocking the street, I'm thinking, all right, I'm good.

(36:27):
It turns out they was blocking for something else. Cab
driver pulls over and the one officer who's clearly in charge,
I'll see him on his radio. He comes over. It
tells me to get out the car.

Speaker 1 (36:39):
You didn't get out, yeah, But.

Speaker 4 (36:40):
I'm like, but but the way he's doing it as
if the criminal right, So I'm now I hear the
cab driver giving a whole full story to the officer.
Two of the cop cars that was coming up behind
they jump out. They start trying to explain to the
main officer he's not going to hear it right, So

(37:03):
cab driver gives him a fake story. They let him go.
Then the officer comes over to the other two officers like, so,
what were are trying to say? They were like, you
just let a kidnapp it go, Like this guy was
the passenger he called on what we've been chasing it,
and you just let the dude go because you ordnatally
just assume the black guy.

Speaker 1 (37:19):
Was the problem.

Speaker 4 (37:21):
So he gets away. Officers super apologetic, but he's doing
what it is so I can't see his bad. The
other two uh, other two officers was like, yo, we
would offer you a ride back, that's all I was
going to work. Specifics they offered. They were like, yo,
you offer you a ride back, you probably want to

(37:41):
show up to work in the back.

Speaker 1 (37:44):
Walk. The officer I got it while.

Speaker 4 (37:48):
Pulled out a Metro card in the twenty and was like, Yo,
this is that cops badge number. This is the taxis
the taxis.

Speaker 1 (37:54):
Uh the medallion?

Speaker 3 (37:56):
Yeah, He's like, find were you I called?

Speaker 4 (38:00):
He said, I follow complaint on both.

Speaker 1 (38:01):
Yo, yo, dressed.

Speaker 3 (38:04):
You have no idea how the cab world played into
the duce life. I remember when I first got put
on with the du say and to go do the
party at Lime Marina up top, and they like, yeah,
go talk to the homie and I'm like, all right, cool,
let's go meet the homie.

Speaker 1 (38:18):
Run Li Marina.

Speaker 3 (38:20):
It's the dude who represents the cab calling shit, who
always hearn the news every time they getting a problem
with a cabby.

Speaker 1 (38:25):
He like, yeah, the cabby is the man more pay
needs security.

Speaker 4 (38:29):
So I'm like night cab union representatives.

Speaker 1 (38:33):
Yeah, I'm like wow, the night club. He got locked
up for scamming too with the club.

Speaker 4 (38:44):
Remember they shut it down and nobody ever it was
real quiet.

Speaker 1 (38:47):
You know, they ain't quiet for him. He got them cuffs.
That's what happened. It was like, Yo, what the hell
is the running the cab? Call is ship and the
night nightclub? He out here getting trip pay ward?

Speaker 3 (39:02):
Like one question that I want to know, But somebody
because I asked him, like, yo, I got just blades
coming through anything people want to know, you know, people
always ask the same normal stuff. Is like one thing
that stood out. Somebody said, Yo, you got to ask
just what happened to the original Ja electronic album that
they said? It was all streaming services and somehow got

(39:24):
picked down.

Speaker 4 (39:25):
It was on streaming for like two days. I don't
know how it ended up there.

Speaker 1 (39:31):
Oh that's what help.

Speaker 4 (39:32):
For like two days it was there and it wasn't
the finished version that I had, because what it was
was like j would cut demos because he worked the
machines himself.

Speaker 3 (39:43):
Right, Jay got one verse on a hundred different records everywhere,
So he would shoot me the demos.

Speaker 1 (39:51):
I would take him and you.

Speaker 4 (39:52):
Know, flesh him out, do overdubs and arrangements, mixing, shoot
it back to chev who was his engineer out in Detroit.
It was like a collaborative process then, but you know
jameson nomad, right, so he'll be in Detroit for X
amount of time, bounce down the n O for X
amount of time, then just disappear and go off grit.

(40:14):
And then one time he did that and he popped
up in London and we all know, you know, you
know what he was doing out in London. So I
go out there, Me and go both go out there,
like all right, this is it. Like we got a
core amount of things done, get all the files together,
and you know, we started like two The idea was

(40:36):
go out there and do like two or three new
ideas just to add on to the homework that was
already there. I would would take back home and and X,
Y and Z, And then you know, Jay moves on
his own time. So he got some work done. It
was time to follow up. Couldn't you know? He could
couldn't couldn't couldn't catch him again. So I think I

(41:00):
might be the only person that had like the fully
sequenced with the orchestra, the strings and the hordes and
everything like all strung together. I think I might be
the only person who has all that. Then you know
he shoulders you now Jess him and him and who
had the conversation which which led to him doing the

(41:21):
joint album. And then shortly after the joint album, all
of a sudden, like the demos of or the original
versions of a bunch of the songs from the original
album popped up on streaming, and I was like, it
had it had the homie uh, Frank shout out to Frank,
it had Frank's artwork. I'm like, yo, it's it might
have been Jay himself, you know. And then somebody got

(41:44):
wind and took it because it was it was literally
there for like two days, so I don't I don't
know how that came about. I was a bit frustrated
because once something is on the internet, yeah, you can
pull it all. You can pull it from Verda Rich
find it exactly so, and it's gonna get, you know,

(42:07):
regurgitated and spread.

Speaker 1 (42:09):
So pardon.

Speaker 4 (42:10):
Even though I don't like not, I don't like having
my work put out there without my consent, without my knowledge,
or without my stamp of saying it's done. Part of
me wishes that it was the version that I had
with the orchestra, just so people could really hear.

Speaker 3 (42:25):
The full finish. Yeah, the finished product. Man, like they
got the half done product. That's whack man, right.

Speaker 4 (42:32):
You know, but it's it's it's that's today and age
were living.

Speaker 1 (42:35):
Yeah, yo.

Speaker 3 (42:36):
Jared Leck is one of my favorite artists. Bro, like
you say, I am from you and Ghoul. Getting that
boy in the studio is like pulling teeth.

Speaker 4 (42:43):
But the thing is is once he gets in, he
go in.

Speaker 1 (42:47):
Yeah, like I remember.

Speaker 4 (42:49):
He and we're about to do this thing with me,
him and Most point And this is like the exhibit
se Era like Cane his last maybe like twenty ten
or eleven. He comes to with Most like it was
for a group. Okay, here's the beats recorded like four
joints in one night. And then I'm like, yo, all right,

(43:11):
so what's the follow up? Like let's get you know,
like and but they're both kind of they're both kind
of the same in that way where they move on
their old time, but you know they move independently with
a free spirit.

Speaker 3 (43:25):
I don't believe they have Most caught up in the
drake drivers.

Speaker 1 (43:31):
They put Most. It's like he never talked how you
pop up in this?

Speaker 4 (43:36):
Yeah that was interesting because he's not normally he's not
one of thessarily by his.

Speaker 1 (43:42):
Tongue and he don't be talking, but he's not one to.

Speaker 4 (43:45):
Buy his tongue, but he's not one that's generally in
the mix, right, So it was just that was I
feel like that was a unicorn inciting, you know, like
just him speaking his mind that freely about another artist's crazy.

Speaker 3 (44:00):
You can't even talk freely today because any any any opinion,
if it's not good, it's hate and that's whack man.

Speaker 4 (44:06):
The The other thing about it is, though, is that
we live in UH a culture now where context as
it relates to journalism is uh, it's kind of dead.
Like what amounts to journalism now is clipt sound bites
and clips right.

Speaker 1 (44:25):
Clip bait, right clickbait. Mate, you're in the trap.

Speaker 3 (44:28):
And then let them let the YouTube was and everybody
go crazy.

Speaker 4 (44:33):
And but what what really bothers me about it is
we know that as a culture. What bothers me is
when UH outlets, actual UH outlets that perpetually actual journalism
or purport to perpetually journalism, feed into that. So they'll
do what sit down it if you with somebody four hour,

(44:54):
but now they're giving it to you in five minute
clips with like a hot take headline and like, and
I don't even like, I hate even a perfect example
that I hate to bring up, but it is the
perfect example. Is there's just one clip and it makes
the rounds every couple of months about how with method
mans saying Kanye West, I've seen him at a party given,

(45:18):
you know, and performing sexual acts.

Speaker 1 (45:20):
Yeah, and it wasn't even the true clip.

Speaker 4 (45:22):
No, what it was the funny but the ironic thing
was is what meth was speaking or was the fact
that he could say something like that and it would
be taken out of context, chopped up and then go viral, right,
And that's exactly what happens. Right, So nowadays every like
I see it like most every month, like every most
every like three months, it does the rounds every time,

(45:44):
you know, and whether it's and it's making the rounds
now because Diddy's in the news. It was making around
a few months back because something that was happening with
Yay the news. But it's like every few months that
gets situated, which is why like I'm hesitant and I
haven't for a long time to even really do much
media because without because I know that it's very easy

(46:04):
for the context to get.

Speaker 3 (46:07):
And they can misconscrew anything. Today people take they want
to make put mean to what you mean? They like, well, no,
you didn't mean that, this is what you mean. It's
like your family. How are you telling me what I meant?

Speaker 4 (46:18):
Right?

Speaker 1 (46:18):
Like? It makes no sense and.

Speaker 4 (46:20):
I feel like, uh, it's I don't want to say
some generational thing. But one thing that I've seen happen
a lot recently is like an artist will talk about
what they meant by a lyric, who meant the meaning
behind the song was, and it will be fans and
so or if people on social media like, nah, you
met this the artist is like I wrote this song

(46:42):
as I was going through x Y and Z it's
about this and you said, x Y.

Speaker 1 (46:47):
You're talking about homie over here there. The game now
is it is very different.

Speaker 4 (46:52):
Everybody has a voice now not everybody. I think everybody
has a voice, right yes, And I hate to say this,
but not everybody needs to.

Speaker 3 (46:59):
Have Some people need to be stripped. That are the voices,
Like you know, some people hurt them.

Speaker 4 (47:05):
It's respectfully of what you're doing and I'm I'm doing
the same, but like some some people need to fill
out an application to buy a podcast kit. Yes, like
you should get proved to have to buy a podcast.

Speaker 3 (47:17):
Kit because they think it's just sit there, ask the
hot topic questions, make the five minute clip, and then
go to the party and take pictures. We hear now
we lit we the popping podcast. We know all the
we got on the team. That's what they call it.

Speaker 1 (47:30):
They drink the tea. I drink water, man, I don't
drink Speaking.

Speaker 4 (47:33):
Of which, that's what I was about to say, Like
the one dude, this is one guy that went on
on the podcast about why we should not drink water.
Only animals drink water. Humans should not drink water.

Speaker 1 (47:43):
We would have said does.

Speaker 4 (47:45):
And then he also was talking about how the at
weight is actually a.

Speaker 1 (47:48):
Frequency that's I seen something about it depolates.

Speaker 4 (47:51):
Humans and they become obsessed with it in the tree
or something that is old. Say he should have had. Yeah.

Speaker 1 (47:57):
Yeah, it's a lot of people don't need to please.

Speaker 4 (48:03):
Wants to buy the road podcast or kid you know,
or the the the who makes the steam deck not
the stream deck Logitech, all these Please just make people
find an application.

Speaker 1 (48:17):
Or charging a monthly subscription. Yes they will do it, Yes,
I bet you no.

Speaker 4 (48:23):
And that's The thing is, it's like you know, the
the don't get me wrong, Ideally, yes, everyone should be
fairly represented to be able to have Yes. The thing is, ultimately.

Speaker 3 (48:32):
What's your message. The message can't just be hate and negativity.
That's the thing. People put in negativity in the world.
Then when something negative happens, they shocked. It's like, yo, bro,
all you do is breathe negative negativity.

Speaker 4 (48:44):
Yes, won't be surprised when that's what permit.

Speaker 3 (48:47):
So exactly, That's why I said this is we don't
this is this conversations.

Speaker 1 (48:51):
I want to bring people into our world. I didn't know, like.

Speaker 3 (48:54):
Like I was going to ask you to like just
watching Yay, come up, man, see where you at like that.

Speaker 1 (49:00):
That's my bro, you know what I'm saying. He from
the bottom with us.

Speaker 3 (49:03):
So sometimes when I see how the media do him,
I feel a little certain way about it, like damn,
why they're doing bro like that? But I know, you
just even seeing him go this far as like damn
and we was in the stud together.

Speaker 4 (49:15):
Like it's you know, it's a hell of a journey
to watch yes, going from you know, him barely being
able to get out of Chicago, like calling me like, yo,
can I crash the crib? Want to see amount of.

Speaker 1 (49:31):
Time while I'm working.

Speaker 4 (49:34):
Trying trying to make this happen, because his thing was
like I got to be nearby, right, the whole thing
would coming to Chicago, go back and forth just wasn't
working and it wasn't you know, but to watch and
go from that to where it is now, it's it's
just controversy and whatnot. Aside, it's very inspirational to see

(49:57):
somebody literally will something in existence.

Speaker 3 (50:00):
And bet at all and that against the system. Like
he went totally against the grain and came out a
win him man like not many people would not even
think of trying.

Speaker 2 (50:11):
No.

Speaker 4 (50:11):
I remember even after he had like proven himself to
the label. I remember even death Shams still fronting on
things and he's.

Speaker 1 (50:18):
Like, yo, what more do I need to do?

Speaker 4 (50:20):
Do I need to do to show you? Like this?
This is this, this is where we're at. I remember
Touch the Sky video. The label wasn't really trying to
pay much. He has some bread, but it wasn't like
it is now. I want to say he spent remember
him telling you something like eight hundred thousand had his
old pocket like like cleaped out like, yo, I believe
in this project in this video that much. If the

(50:43):
label's not gonna.

Speaker 1 (50:44):
Do it, I'm gonna do that's right, you.

Speaker 4 (50:46):
Know, and came out eight hundred reps like we get
to rent the Grand Canyon, you know, get the rocket,
get everything you know, get me along, get Pam and
get everybody.

Speaker 1 (50:56):
You know.

Speaker 4 (50:56):
It was like it takes a lot. It takes a
lot to be able to bet on yourself to that degree, yes,
you know, and go against the system that's ultimately they're
supposed to be there to support you, you know, go
against their wishes or their budget or whatever's come out
of your pocket. And it's very inspirational on the same
the least.

Speaker 1 (51:16):
But well, let's get into the cars man a little bit.

Speaker 3 (51:19):
Let's switch gears for great because my man right here
started out buying cars, decorating the.

Speaker 1 (51:26):
Car and didn't even drive the car.

Speaker 3 (51:29):
And now he got lambows that light up like common
books that everybody tell me.

Speaker 1 (51:34):
You believe, you ain't seen jefs blaze car like you
saw Jets Blade's car. Win drive now Blaine.

Speaker 4 (51:40):
So you know, here's the thing. I'm moved down to
New York at a young age, like I moved to
New York. I must have been seventeen eighteen forty, literally
forty dollars in my pocket came from Jersey. I was seventeen,
so I'm coming at the age most people will start

(52:02):
learning the drive or whatever and getting their license. I'm
living in the city. Now, you don't need to call
or to wing in a prayer a dollar in the dream,
So I'm hitting the cell. And I lived. I was
working at the cutting room or interning, and then eventually
working at the cutting room and living in the village.
You know, I was living in an n YU door
or wasn't an NYU student, so my whole existence was

(52:24):
within four blocks, so it was just studio dorm studio dorms.
And then when I eventually got caught doing the door thing,
they banned me from their YU, which is that's a
whole other story.

Speaker 1 (52:38):
And why are you coming with that degree next week?
Now you going down? And why blades?

Speaker 4 (52:44):
They asked me to speak at YU three times since
they made me every time. Every time I speak it,
I'm like, so technically I can get arrested for being here,
but because yeah, I'm not supposed to be doing one
hundred feet of of anything.

Speaker 1 (52:56):
Wow.

Speaker 4 (52:57):
So I ended up moving downtown Financial District. Before it
was a cool place to live, but now that's just
a six dollar cabro. So I just it wasn't until
I moved, uh, moved out the city.

Speaker 1 (53:11):
Finally, then you started putting.

Speaker 4 (53:13):
Then it was like I gotta get I gotta move around.
So I learned to drive in three cars. I got
a Tesler, like before people really know what Tesla's were.
Of course, a little B M W I three, the
little box joint like a little.

Speaker 1 (53:28):
Electric smog electric joint and lavigating. Yo, you hear.

Speaker 4 (53:34):
That's how I learned to drug.

Speaker 3 (53:36):
And he had an Avalanche brand Avalanche.

Speaker 1 (53:38):
Member, my my mayor, Ralph rest in peace.

Speaker 3 (53:41):
He decorated the coffee because he did my car, and
I was like, yo, but we did your car.

Speaker 1 (53:46):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (53:47):
He had some type of bone marrow cans. Okay he
passed with that. Yeah, and yo, I swear around here,
but no, that was Ralph truck.

Speaker 4 (53:56):
That was Ralph truck.

Speaker 1 (53:58):
Doors going up and your truck after after that? Yeah,
and you never drove it. I probably saw the truck
the day he got it back. Now that was it.
Never saw the truck and.

Speaker 4 (54:07):
You know you know, but you know who used to
who would not remembro had somebody under him pause, Romero
had somebody under him that was doing some driving. I
forget who.

Speaker 3 (54:18):
Yeah he had a little I forgot his name, but
I know you're talking about.

Speaker 1 (54:21):
He was like one of his little students coming back.

Speaker 4 (54:24):
So he was driving me fucking good, like year or two,
but he was. He was whipping my car like it
was a sports car.

Speaker 1 (54:34):
Yeah, you had slats, you had them skinnies on that.

Speaker 4 (54:37):
Yeah, I had like twenty fours or twenty six times.
So eventually I was like, yeah we kick.

Speaker 1 (54:42):
Yes it was you was hurting them. But knew I
was so crazy.

Speaker 4 (54:49):
I remember, I remember the truck we did. It was
you want to cover with us?

Speaker 1 (54:55):
No, we did the magazine that young gun me and
the young Guns.

Speaker 4 (55:00):
I did a different one too. I did him with
Dame I think and kill the rider assumed that my
truck was Dave's and they ran with it.

Speaker 1 (55:09):
You lieing.

Speaker 3 (55:12):
I remember reading the article like you was hurting them, boy,
like yo, this is my yepes was hurting them.

Speaker 1 (55:18):
He like, bleak, I need who did this truck? My truck?
I'm like, yo, my dude's gonna lace you. You had to.

Speaker 3 (55:23):
System light up in the whole back. We used to
put that pressure on these streets.

Speaker 4 (55:28):
Yeah, but no, so like from there like that car
sat forever. We still got it. We use it as
like a work truck.

Speaker 1 (55:33):
Now, no way, man, that's crazy. FO you keep everything.

Speaker 3 (55:37):
Man, Yo, when I want to go down memory lane,
I'm coming to just Craig.

Speaker 4 (55:41):
You know, I still got still throwback Jerseys. I found
him in storage, Like, but I was clearing out storage
for the baseline. Yeah, I finally found the box that
had them all in there. I found the Saint Paul
Jersey a top.

Speaker 1 (55:52):
I was like, Yo, that's crazy man, all of us.
You know what it was?

Speaker 4 (55:59):
I had like seven stories you just around the city.
And then finally but I moved out the city. I
just put everything in one of the year that was
basically the size of an apartment. I ain't going. I
ain't go to it for like six years. I just
kept hate it. I was like, you know what, let's consolidate.
But it's been a while ride through history, Like I've
been finding your masters.

Speaker 3 (56:20):
I know you got so much trying to release music
from everybody, man, all of what we need.

Speaker 1 (56:25):
To do a secret a secret album. Home signed off
on this man like, listen, they're gonna assume me, fuck it,
take me to come because we were Jess.

Speaker 3 (56:35):
We put out this secret album, this secret album.

Speaker 4 (56:39):
All right, but tell them about your not so secret album.
What's the thing you're working on now?

Speaker 1 (56:43):
Oh? Man, just I gotta, I gotta.

Speaker 3 (56:45):
I think I got a classic man like my first
one under my belt. I believe because I'm giving away.
I felt like I wanted.

Speaker 1 (56:53):
To do this.

Speaker 3 (56:53):
My boy Cheech told me, your bleep, you need to
make an album again, and I'm like, if I make
an album, I want.

Speaker 1 (56:59):
To come back against some type of message.

Speaker 3 (57:01):
So I don't want to just give the young guys
like I'm in the club popping bibles, tolding straps and
running around fucking bitches like them, because it's.

Speaker 1 (57:09):
Not the life.

Speaker 3 (57:10):
It's not the life you live, and it's not the
life that's reality.

Speaker 4 (57:13):
And on top of that, I think the way you
would communicate that, just the language and the delivery has
changed so much. There's kids that can say those things
in ways that people will relate to. In terms of language.

Speaker 1 (57:25):
Now, yes, we.

Speaker 4 (57:27):
Would speak, we don't even speak on those terms exactly
it wouldn't go over well. I think, you know, taking
the approach of like this is where I'm at now
as a as a legacy artist, as a veteran artist,
that's kind of the approach, the only approach. You really
can't take it for yourself. It speaks about yourself.

Speaker 3 (57:44):
Because that whole generation has aged with us, that's right,
and we're giving them the mistakes I made.

Speaker 1 (57:49):
Like you know, everything wasn't perfect. No from the Rockefeller Veil.

Speaker 3 (57:52):
Everybody think we all had this marvelous, rich, superstar life.
They don't think read dealt with falls and dings what
we felt like. Damn why us, you know what I'm saying.
So I think on this album, I showed a little
bit more vulnerability on this project, even more than what
I did with my main project.

Speaker 1 (58:12):
Right like, just to have you on their knife, wonder
hit maker.

Speaker 3 (58:17):
Buck Wild sent me a joints little that I'm back
in the nineties.

Speaker 1 (58:21):
Who let smoke with me? Now?

Speaker 3 (58:25):
So I'm ready man, Like it's good man, I'm about
to shoot your video. I hopefully this summer, you know
it's in the streets with that for sure, But like
before we go, I want to let y'all know you
let them know where they could find you. You better
check my man out on fresh pair. He shot his
own pie with the fresh sneaks on y'all headtop your sir,

(58:46):
either j man, he watched some sneakers. He only wore
the carpet. That if they left the carpet he got
to take them off. That's ain't no shit's one hundred thousand.

Speaker 4 (58:55):
You know, we have to show fresh pair of Shout
out to up Rocks and my co host Caddy. Custom
short of it is how you watch a late night
talk show and the host will have Q right and
that that's kind of those few cards the talking points
dictate the flow the conversation. We do the same, but
we build a custom sneaker around the artists journey and

(59:15):
their their career and their life, and all the details
are all the shoe, and we basically just point out
the details on the shoe. You know, sometimes they're blatant,
sometimes they're very subtle, like it might just be a
color rating arrangement. But we use that the shoe as
the basis for a great conversation. And we've been super
fortunate and blessed to have some great artists on there.
Yourself included ice q t I Game, Redman's uh Jabra

(59:44):
has done it LP from one of the Jewels. It's
it's it's been great, you know. Yeah, So we're gearing
up now to really get in the season two. Season
one did very well. Season so now and yeah please
tune it. New episode is dropping every show.

Speaker 3 (01:00:00):
That's right, you already know, man, this has been another
classic episode of rock Solid.

Speaker 1 (01:00:04):
My brother is way more than rock slid. That's my
brother Drud. You see him, you see me, You violate him,
You violate me, and I'm the one. I'm gonna come
looking for you. It's another one. Know what it is
rock Solid.

Speaker 2 (01:00:20):
For more podcasts from iHeart Radio, visit iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts,
or wherever you listen to your favorite shows at And
you can follow me on any social media platform under
the name Memphis Bleach.

Speaker 1 (01:00:32):
You see anybody fraud in, flag him.