April 26, 2024 • 30 mins
Interview with Rapsody on The Bootleg Kev Podcast.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Yo yo, what's up?
Speaker 2 (00:01):
This is Rap City and check me out on the
Bootleg cav podcast.
Speaker 3 (00:08):
Boutlet Cap show Man special guests in here one of
the greatest MC's on the planet, Rhapsody.
Speaker 1 (00:13):
What's up, brother man?
Speaker 3 (00:14):
I see you.
Speaker 1 (00:15):
I'm happy to be back.
Speaker 3 (00:17):
May seventeen, were finally getting your album?
Speaker 1 (00:19):
Yeah, four and a half years.
Speaker 3 (00:20):
It's it's been it's been four and a half years.
Speaker 1 (00:22):
Yeah, twenty nineteen was my last album.
Speaker 3 (00:24):
And then The L's Wisdom was what twenty seventeen. Yep,
that was a Grammy album. Yeah, who were you nominated
against that year? Because I remember thinking specifically like jay
Z four four.
Speaker 2 (00:34):
Four, Kendrick dam Tyler to creator flower.
Speaker 3 (00:39):
Boy, that was a good year.
Speaker 1 (00:41):
There's one more I'm forgetting.
Speaker 3 (00:42):
That was a good year. Yeah, we ended up winning. Damn.
Speaker 1 (00:44):
Yeah, Kendrick took that. I am never mad.
Speaker 3 (00:47):
You're in a very particular best dance. With everything going
on in the world of hip.
Speaker 1 (00:53):
Hop, it's exciting right now.
Speaker 3 (00:57):
It is, and I you know, obviously there's been some
I'm like extra unnecessary noise.
Speaker 1 (01:03):
And I was just having that conversation.
Speaker 2 (01:05):
It's a lot of noise right now and inserting into
a moment that's.
Speaker 1 (01:10):
Like special and making it corny now, Like.
Speaker 3 (01:13):
Right, I feel like it's gotten really corny this past week.
Speaker 1 (01:15):
Let the main event be the main event, please.
Speaker 3 (01:18):
I agree. But it's interesting because I always like, even
like rewinding a few weeks, you've worked with Cole and
you obviously have worked with Kendrick a bunch. You're you know,
like I remember talking to Punch about this at the
iHeart Awards. I saw him backstage and I was like,
this was before my delete later came out, okay, and
(01:40):
I was like Dreamville Fest was coming that weekend, and
I was like, this feels really weird because like we're
everyone's friends with each other, like TD and Dreamville are
like this, like all the fans are kind of like innerwoven,
like you know, Schoolboy Q and Scissors on dream bill Fest,
like Kendrick and Cole are friends. But it felt great.
(02:01):
I'm just curious, like, how did you feel when you
first heard everything? Being like somebody who's worked with both people,
and like, you know, a lot of people discovered you
from working with Kendrick. You're obviously on the Bemper Butterfly,
Like what was what was your thoughts?
Speaker 2 (02:13):
I was excited. I mean, I thought, this is hip hop.
It was built on competition. Yes, so let's compete. It's
just words. It's just words, you know, if it comes
anything out of that. But I think this is really
in the spirit of hip hop, and it's like, okay, I.
Speaker 1 (02:27):
Respects I equated to basketball.
Speaker 3 (02:29):
Right.
Speaker 2 (02:29):
I was having a conversation with my nephew right, he
was texting me about it. I said, look, man, when
you play your homie one on one on the court,
are you are you trying to look out for him
because you're a homie. No, you're trying to beat that ass.
And afterwards, y'all wap it up and be like good game.
You either run it back or take your l and
go home. So that's just how I looked at it.
I was like, oh, hip hop is exciting, it's a sport. Yeah,
(02:50):
we need it for the culture. So you know, I
just looked at it as like made the best man win.
Speaker 3 (02:55):
What were your thoughts when you saw Cole retract his
his you know, statements and apology. I just wonder because
I actually kind of like, there's no way he actually thought,
like to Pinper, Butterfly wasn't amazing, Like I was like,
he don't even believe what he says, like this is
one of the greatest of hours of all time. But
when he apologized, I was like, you know what, like
I understood where he was coming from because he's been
moving a certain way for so long, you know, But
(03:17):
what were your thoughts.
Speaker 1 (03:21):
I try not to speak on these things the whole
month thoughts myself. I mean, but a he's a man.
He made his decision. He made his decision.
Speaker 2 (03:31):
But I'm if I'm just speaking from me, if I'm
in that position, I love this the spirit of what
this is and the sport of it, and if it's me,
I'm going homie and not like let's go like, you know,
he approached it how he approached it.
Speaker 3 (03:47):
Did you It wasn't funny to you to like hear
people like all of a sudden like you're on to
Pinper Butterfly, which is like, in my opinion, it's.
Speaker 1 (03:55):
One of the greatest albums ever.
Speaker 3 (03:56):
I actually think it's Kendrick's best album.
Speaker 2 (03:58):
Absolutely, it's one of my favorite of all time. Even
taking me off of it, I.
Speaker 3 (04:02):
Feel and it aged in a way that not a
lot of albums of age, like a lot of people
like during like the BLM protests and stuff like, started
to revisit that and we're like, damn. Kendrick was like
kind of talking about a lot of the shit that's
happening right now, you know, But it was just funny
to see like the album trending. And then Punch tweeted
I thought the Tipper Butterfly was actually a pretty good album.
Speaker 1 (04:23):
Yeah, that's I thought about that when when Cole made
his apology, and when he did it, I was like,
I would never approach it when at his discography, but
at the art of Wars, it's just wars war, so
you know.
Speaker 2 (04:37):
But it's it's funny to see the landscape of sheep
to me, right, and it's like, okay, because we're in
this battle and he says it's not good that everybody
like we don't think.
Speaker 1 (04:49):
It's that good.
Speaker 2 (04:50):
Get the fuck out of here. Like granted there's some
people that they generally don't like it. That's okay, that's
fine everything not everybody, but like, it's one of the
greatest albums of all times.
Speaker 3 (05:02):
I think if you're gonna say anything like to me,
Kendrick's got a flawless discography, it'd be like dis an
Outcasts discography.
Speaker 1 (05:08):
Yeah, absolutely got one of the uns.
Speaker 3 (05:11):
That's something you gotta to leave him alone on that.
Speaker 1 (05:13):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (05:13):
To me, it's like, that's why I'm really interested, because
I'm like, Drake, I'm not sure what else you got
besides m being short and maybe he had an unfavorable
deal TV back in the day. Because outside of that,
I mean, you know, it's gotten corny. Though the AI
shit was super corny. I thought that shit was lame
as fuck, and then Kanye doing this interview and I'm
just like, like you said, we're here for the main event,
(05:35):
like all the side characters. I want to like, I'm
waiting for this bomb to drop that Kendrick's cooking, and
I'm tired of people acting like we didn't have to
wait twenty nine days for Drake to reply.
Speaker 2 (05:46):
Yeah, I mean this is the social media. Everybody thinks
that you have to move at their page. Like if
we told about the spirited hip hop I was. I
was thinking of back when NAS and j were in
battle and Jay put out Takeover or September eleventh, on
two thousand and one. Na's responding on December fourth, his birthday,
(06:07):
like three months later. Three months later, so you know,
and I we know Kendrick. He's intentional about everything, so
you know, I love that he's always continuing to do
him and moving at the pace he has, Like let
the noise die down if anything, please.
Speaker 3 (06:22):
Yeah, we waited twenty nine days for Drake to reply.
Just again, twenty nine days. But with that being said,
it is the most excited. Yeah, I'm just excited because
I'm like, yo, one day, like I just want I'm
gonna wake up, and Kendrick's because I know he's about
to come crazy.
Speaker 1 (06:38):
It's exciting. I'm just it's exciting.
Speaker 3 (06:39):
And then Quavo and Chris Brown are going at you
that she's getting a little ugly, but it's just a lot.
I feel like it's like people are seeing how good
it is for business to beef kind of, and they're
all trying to get their little Like.
Speaker 1 (06:51):
Kat Williams said it all, didn't he He.
Speaker 3 (06:53):
Set it off. He kicked the year off with the
craziest interview ever, and people just been moving like that.
Speaker 1 (06:59):
Yeah, I'm like, yeah, it's getting weird out here.
Speaker 3 (07:02):
It's pretty crazy. Talk to me about why it's taken
you four and a half years to drop a new
body of work.
Speaker 2 (07:08):
Yeah, I had a lot to say, and it took
me about four years to get it all out. I
was told, you don't stop recording until you don't have
anything else to say. So I allow myself the grace
and the time to grow in that period, to heal,
in that period, to learn, and you know, to really
figure out all of what I wanted to say and
(07:29):
then what I wanted to share with the world.
Speaker 3 (07:31):
Yeah, that was it, I think too, Like sometimes people
will put out music just because they feel like they
have to or just for the sake of putting out music,
but there's not intention behind it. No, And usually that's
when we get like this microwavable music that people don't
live with, that doesn't age.
Speaker 2 (07:48):
It's there for the moment, and which is okay if
that's what you want to do.
Speaker 1 (07:52):
I'm just not that type of artist, right, you know.
Speaker 2 (07:55):
I want to put out things that will stand and
test the time, that'll be a blueprint for people to
look back to, that will be a soundtrack for this
life and the next.
Speaker 1 (08:04):
You know.
Speaker 3 (08:04):
So what was your like, where did you draw the
most inspiration for this body of work?
Speaker 1 (08:12):
Musically?
Speaker 2 (08:14):
Lauryn Hill's Unplugged The honesty, the wrongness of the best
unplugs ever.
Speaker 1 (08:20):
That you ain't never lied bro a day of your life.
Speaker 2 (08:24):
So that was a big inspiration, probably the biggest, honestly.
That's that's where I really poured from the most. During
the pandemic, I would drive to New York six seven
times and just play that album over and over again.
Other than that, it was just like things I would read.
Untamed by Glennon Dole was a book that I read,
(08:46):
James Allen twenty one books. It just it just really
allowed me to give myself permission to be human, right,
and that's what fed everything else.
Speaker 3 (08:56):
Do you feel like because I always when when you're
brought up, you're always brought up as like one of
the elite MC's period, like, regardless of gender. But since
twenty seventeen, since twenty twenty, you know, there has been
like a huge you know, I feel like we used
to have these female MC conversations and it's now just
turned into like ladies are kind of running hip hop now.
(09:17):
In my opinion, they're I mean, all the big hit
records are yeah, women, They're only the only women who
are making like I feel like the women are actually
putting effort into quote unquote records. Yep, you know, and
I feel like now like it's it's been I mean,
the last time I remember it being like this female
dominated or at least so many options out there was
like when it was Eve the Brad, Little King, Foxy Brown, like,
(09:40):
but it's I feel like it's even bigger than that now. No. Yeah, absolutely,
Like do you feel like we're kind of like in
the middle of like a special moment when it terms
to just females running hip hop?
Speaker 1 (09:50):
I do. I do running it in this way. I
don't think we've I.
Speaker 3 (09:54):
Don't think it's ever happened. No, because even back then
there was jay Z, there was no there was death Row,
there was all.
Speaker 2 (09:58):
That at the same time, and and two it was
uh yeah, this is just.
Speaker 3 (10:04):
Different and everyone's got their own thing, Like it's it
feels good and you know, for the most part, everyone's
working together for.
Speaker 2 (10:10):
The most part, Yeah, which is exciting, and I think
it helps the moment, right, and it's needed. The woman's voice,
her perspective is needed. I love to see in the
mainstream a lot more harmony. But it's it's exciting, you know,
for sure.
Speaker 3 (10:29):
You obviously got Erica and I heard the record on
the way over here. Amazing.
Speaker 1 (10:34):
Yeah, come on, she's she's out here.
Speaker 3 (10:38):
She got her own weeds train now to.
Speaker 2 (10:40):
Yep cookies that and she's got her own perfume that
I think she does. I didn't know about the.
Speaker 3 (10:47):
I want to say it's a candle or about she's
got something that.
Speaker 1 (10:53):
I gotta. I got a box at the house. It
smells amazing, It smells amazing good.
Speaker 3 (10:58):
I was like, damn, was that something that you said
to her? Did you guys actually get in?
Speaker 1 (11:06):
How did I get that?
Speaker 2 (11:08):
She gave it to me as a gift for performing
at her birthday bash fire?
Speaker 1 (11:13):
Yeah, I have two boxes.
Speaker 3 (11:15):
No, no, no, I'm about the record.
Speaker 1 (11:18):
I thought we were still the record. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (11:24):
I was in Dallas, Texas working with s one and
I did uh. I did two verses. The second verse
was different than what we have now. But at the
end I left the hook open because I knew I
wanted a singer.
Speaker 1 (11:35):
And he was like, yo, who you here? Rap? I said,
I only hear bad I'm in Dallas.
Speaker 2 (11:40):
So he reached out because I didn't have a contact
at the time, and she said yes, and you know,
we continue to work on it. For about eight more months,
but it was a beautiful time. We never got in
the studio together, but you know.
Speaker 1 (11:52):
We text.
Speaker 2 (11:53):
She facetimed me and seeing melodies for the hook, she
shared lyrics with me, and it was just a beautiful
process of eating a record and building a friendship. Like
one of the most gifted artists we've ever seen. Creative
style icon but her heart is beautiful, like amazing.
Speaker 3 (12:10):
Who all do you have doing production on the album?
Speaker 2 (12:14):
We have s one who also serves as an executive
producer Black Odyssey. They also serve as an executive producer
Major seven out of Atlanta.
Speaker 3 (12:24):
By the way, people who don't know, there's a guy,
there's a guy in Black Odyssey, not black, Yes, Alejandro Rico. Yeah,
I interviewed that, and I was like, what's it like
being a not black guy in Black Well, because technically
Black Odyssey lead, you know the crew, you.
Speaker 1 (12:41):
Know, we accept him in our delegation.
Speaker 2 (12:45):
Yeah, but they were amazing to work with. Eric g
of the Soul Council soundtrack of the Soul Council hit boy.
Speaker 1 (12:56):
Let me make sure I'm not forgetting anybody. No ninth
beats not on this one.
Speaker 2 (13:00):
Okay, Yeah, we did about two songs. One I had
uh with Mary but I wanted to work on it more.
Speaker 3 (13:11):
And six Mary Mary J Yeah, yeah, yeah, you left
the Marry J. Blain's record off the album.
Speaker 1 (13:18):
We both wanted to work on it more crazy, you
know we put that out. We wanted to feel right
of course. Yeah, I love Mary. Oh.
Speaker 3 (13:26):
I feel like anyone who works with hit boy these
days ends up doing the whole album with him, would you.
I mean, look, we talked about it. I would say
that'd be crazy.
Speaker 2 (13:33):
Yeah, when Astroids drop, we talked about it. I told
him I would love to. He said the same, So
we'll see how it goes, you know time, but I
would love to.
Speaker 3 (13:42):
I just got to thank him for getting NAS in place. Yeah,
I think we've gotten six albums three three Magics, three
Kings Diseases, And then I also think if it weren't
for those six albums, we wouldn't be getting this premiere
NAS album that we're getting on, which is what produced
we've wanted for fucking twenty fucking years years.
Speaker 1 (14:04):
Everything has this time.
Speaker 3 (14:06):
I know when I heard that the song just dropped
last Friday, and then at the end they're like, yeah,
and the albums I.
Speaker 1 (14:10):
Was like, oh my god, Yo, everybody was excited. Is
hip hop is exciting this year?
Speaker 3 (14:17):
It is.
Speaker 2 (14:17):
It's just it feels the energy feels good. It does
like a different good for sure.
Speaker 1 (14:22):
You know.
Speaker 3 (14:22):
I feel like it's like the most. I feel like
last year was kind of like a down year energy
wise for rap. This year, I feel like it's like
because there was like a people questioning, Like I saw
a Carl post something about like the same people who
were saying that hip hop was dying last year need
to give make sure that people know it's alive and
well and running the charts this year.
Speaker 1 (14:41):
Let's talk about it.
Speaker 3 (14:42):
Honey, going nowhere, I'm curious. You're such a hip hop head.
What are your like if you were to go to
an island then you can only take like three or
four albums with you. What are the albums you're taking
that are hip hop?
Speaker 1 (14:54):
Strictly Reasonable Doubt by Jay Z to Butterfly by Kendrick
more strictly hip hop?
Speaker 2 (15:05):
The Score by the fujis yes, ooh.
Speaker 1 (15:10):
And it Illmatic Happy thirty years thirty years Age is
like fine one absolutely.
Speaker 3 (15:17):
Yeah, that's a great four. I think Reasonable that was
Jayz's best album. I'll stand by that forever.
Speaker 2 (15:22):
I go back and forth between it's the top three, Blueprint,
Black and Reasonable, depending on the.
Speaker 1 (15:27):
Day I'll give you.
Speaker 3 (15:27):
Those are my three.
Speaker 1 (15:28):
Those are the three, and I interchange them.
Speaker 3 (15:30):
Like to me, it's like reasonable Doubt is like so
fucking crazy, like friend or foe, like yeah.
Speaker 1 (15:36):
In my life. No, that's the feeling.
Speaker 3 (15:39):
Feeling it, Oh yeah, feeling it, fucking.
Speaker 1 (15:41):
Cap with Biggie the Evils.
Speaker 3 (15:44):
Yes, the Evils is crazy with the Snoop samples. Reasonable
doubts the one for me.
Speaker 1 (15:48):
But twenty two tools, Oh my god, it's.
Speaker 3 (15:51):
He the Blueprint or Black albums. Then you know what
I saw. I hated Old the hov though. To me,
the Black or the Blue Blueprint has one song that
I can I skip. It's O Lajo Vito. I can't,
I can't. I just can't do it. It's the Brave
Heart Party of that album. Do you remember Brave Heart
Party on Stematic? Oh so Stillmatic was a perfect album,
(16:12):
but there was a song called Brave Heart Party with
Mary J. Blige, and it's one of the worst rap
songs ever created. It's so bad that when they reissued
the album they took it off.
Speaker 1 (16:24):
I feel like you always give me a moment where
I'm like.
Speaker 3 (16:27):
No, NAS knows, it's terrible. Listen, if you were to
go to the store right now and buy like a
stealmatic that's been pressed in the last fifteen years, Brave
Heart Party is not on. Do you remember when jay
Z did the Blueprint two point one?
Speaker 4 (16:42):
Yeah, and because the Blueprint too had some shit on it,
but it also had some shit on it so much
so that they were like, let's do the blue point
two point one and just put all the good shit
on one album.
Speaker 3 (16:53):
That's what NAS had to do with Brave Heart Party.
He knows it's a bad song.
Speaker 1 (16:56):
I love you so much.
Speaker 3 (17:01):
Whenever I interviewed Nows, I specifically want to bring that up, Like, hey,
so who I mean interviewed him when I was like
fucking nineteen and I brought him a box of ship
to autograph.
Speaker 1 (17:12):
Was that one of them?
Speaker 4 (17:13):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (17:14):
Fire, that's fire?
Speaker 5 (17:15):
Okay, Yeah, I brought him like I was like I
saw that and I was like, oh, bottom stuff.
Speaker 3 (17:19):
And I was like, hey, dude, like if you could
interview all the sign all this ship, it'd be great.
If you don't want to, I get it, but this
is like the biggest moment of my life.
Speaker 1 (17:29):
That's love.
Speaker 3 (17:30):
You signed it all. I asked him what happened? Do
you know what my main question was because I only
got the interview like ten minutes, but it was like Yo,
Win's Lost Tapes two coming.
Speaker 1 (17:37):
Out and Lost Tapes was a.
Speaker 3 (17:40):
Joint, probably my third favorite NAS album.
Speaker 1 (17:44):
Up there, It's up there.
Speaker 3 (17:45):
Then Lost Tapes two came and it was I should
have stood, stayed, lost shouts and nots. Anyway, who else
is on this album?
Speaker 1 (17:57):
Okay?
Speaker 2 (17:58):
We talked about Eric Abad have Little Wayne, Oh yeah,
Nico brim alex Issley Dixon, Baby Tape, and Banaving hold on.
Let me make sure I'm not forgetting anybody.
Speaker 1 (18:16):
I think I think?
Speaker 2 (18:17):
I said, Oh, kez Namdi Knew an artist from Jamaica, bb.
Speaker 1 (18:22):
Fire, That's it. I got everybody Wayne.
Speaker 2 (18:28):
So I've always been a fan since I was thirteen
during the pandemic. I've been working with bel Air here
and there.
Speaker 1 (18:35):
But you know the Bomboo.
Speaker 2 (18:37):
Yeah, so Brett the guy, Yeah that's Brett good good folk.
But I think Maine or Brett one of them told
me that uh Wayne wanted me to do a song
for Bomboo at the time, and it never materialized, but
I was like, okay, he's tapped in. So when we
started doing the record and I knew I wanted to
(18:58):
do it with him, I I've been talking to Mac
for a little bit, so I just hit Mac.
Speaker 1 (19:03):
I was like, Yo, I got this record.
Speaker 2 (19:04):
I want to see h Wayne, see if he'll get
on it.
Speaker 1 (19:07):
He connected us. Uh, you know, we were texting, playing
the record, send him the record. He did it in
like a week.
Speaker 2 (19:14):
Oh wow, yeah, like fast like so I appreciate his
grace and just extending his services.
Speaker 1 (19:19):
But that was it, you know. And I would tap
in every now and again just to check in. Happy
Father's Day.
Speaker 2 (19:23):
But yeah, yeah, he's been a god send. He made
the business easy song.
Speaker 3 (19:31):
I feel like we underappreciate Little Wayne somehow, now we do.
Speaker 1 (19:34):
He's he's one and two.
Speaker 3 (19:38):
He's one of your one or two.
Speaker 1 (19:39):
Yeah, I mean it's Jay, but he like right there.
Speaker 3 (19:42):
I got him liking around nine. I mean my top
ten is very like it's like super fucking I got
ghost face above a little wad like I'm not I know,
I got like a super like. I always say, like
Kendrick's top five all time because if we if people
put Biggie in their top one or two off of
(20:03):
two albums. Oh yeah, you have to put Kendrick in
your top five off of his discography because his discography is.
Speaker 5 (20:11):
Albums, EPs, impact, mixtapes, all of it. Yeah, and then
like one and two is to me, it's Jay and
and NAS and then I could just like swap shit around.
It just becomes after like one and two are the
only two that like don't move for me. Ever, it's
jay Z, it'sn and it is how you feelings.
Speaker 3 (20:29):
However, I'm feeling it for the day. You know, Kendrick's
up there. I say, if Drake comes away from this
whole thing on top mm hmm. I finally gotta stop
hating on Drake if he can come out of now.
I thought the AI thing was one of the corniest
things I've ever seen a rapper do in my entire life.
(20:50):
You did, I thought it was terrible because I'm sure
Snoop didn't go sign that fucking using Tupac's voice. Come
on anyway, Nonetheless, if he can come out from every
you want diss in it the weekend the biggest artist
in the world on Spotify number If you look at
the ranking of the Weekend is number one. You got
(21:12):
the Weekend dissing you, bro, if you got the twenty
verse one. He posted that ship with a kill bill
and he comes out on top. I gotta, I just gotta.
I hate to say it, but he might be up there, bro,
he might be.
Speaker 1 (21:27):
The I mean, the boy can rap. That's what makes
this so exciting.
Speaker 3 (21:30):
He can wrap his ass off. And he's the biggest,
probably the biggest rapper ever commercially successful. Yeah, especially for
the run. Yeah yeah, yeah, you know, like Wayne had
like that three year run that was fucking crazy. Like uh,
Eminem had like h what probably five or six years
where he was like the biggest shit ever. But Drake's like,
(21:52):
oh nine to now, never seen it. With that being said, he.
Speaker 1 (21:57):
Sings too, though, So he sings too. That's good.
Speaker 3 (22:00):
Yeah, it helps, it helps, It help does help. I
ain't fucking singing, jay Z ain't singing, thank god, I
ain't need but I need Drake to give me a
rewind or a fucking meet the parents, or I need
something like that. We ain't got one of those. But
(22:20):
if it comes out on top, I don't listen to me.
Kendrick Mars Indeed, the boogie man. I think, I think
I just can't wait man shots at k dot. I'm
super biased in this whole thing.
Speaker 1 (22:31):
So likewise, but it is what it is. I mean,
I know the calib of human we talk when.
Speaker 3 (22:36):
You So when you got nominated for like hip Hop
Album of the Year, that was a big deal and
I kind of feel like that kind of kicked off
like a wave of the Grammy is at least semi
getting some of the nominees, right, you know, a few
years later, I know pusha T got nominated and Royster
five nine got nominated. Actually think it was the next year.
Speaker 1 (22:59):
The process was different, right, That was a.
Speaker 3 (23:02):
Year after Right, it was twenty eighteen because Daytona came
out on twenty eighteen.
Speaker 2 (23:05):
So there was a time when the Grammys were trying
to get it right, especially for hip hop. So they
created these committees for all genres. And the way the
Grammys works is you have to be a member of
the voting committee, which means you have to be nominated
and have one pasi bla. Everybody, no matter what genre
(23:25):
you and everybody who's in the voting committee gets to vote.
Speaker 1 (23:29):
Right.
Speaker 2 (23:30):
So a lot of times if you're a country artist
and maybe you're not really into.
Speaker 1 (23:33):
Hip hop, it's gonna vote name recognition.
Speaker 2 (23:35):
Right, So to balance that out, they created these committees
of trusted individuals from each genre and that culture. Country
had theirs, pop had, there's R and B. Hip hop
had it's trusted committee, and you would get the top whatever,
and you would go through the list and if you
felt like there was somebody that needed to be in
there that wasn't represented, you got to go through a
(23:58):
process of listening to that record to get it, going
through it, and voting it in because you were of
the community. So that's how you get a Voice to
five non nomina NATed, That's how you get a nipsy
nominaefraidh exactly. That was the balance in the checks and
balance the system to make sure this is not just
a popularity contest that hip hop.
Speaker 3 (24:18):
That makes sense why I'm saying, I mean shot to
my boy macl my Love, but that would make sense
why he won over Kendrick that year.
Speaker 1 (24:25):
It's just popularity name recogniztion.
Speaker 3 (24:28):
Yeah, because like this year, I feel like they knocked
it out the park with Killer Mike. I'm like, of course,
Killer Mike had the best rap album of the year.
I don't even think it was It wasn't even I
didn't think it was close.
Speaker 1 (24:36):
It wasn't even close.
Speaker 2 (24:37):
It was solid and they got a ride and they
got it right. Yeah, So that's exciting to see one hundred.
I was.
Speaker 3 (24:44):
I was super stoked to see that. But I wonder, like,
when you get a taste of that, are you like,
do you when you create now? Do you create with
the Grammys in mind?
Speaker 1 (24:53):
Are you super? Not anymore? Nothing in mind? No Grammys,
no BT Awards, no.
Speaker 2 (25:01):
Billboard, which I've never really been high on anymore, no
platinum plats.
Speaker 1 (25:05):
This one, I was like, you know, I'm tired of.
Speaker 3 (25:07):
Chasing these accolades.
Speaker 2 (25:09):
Yeah, and these measurements, and sometimes some of it is
real and some oftimes it's not.
Speaker 1 (25:14):
Like you say, something is a popularity.
Speaker 3 (25:15):
So hey, I'm gonna throw you my phone. Yeap, put
it on the white shot. I think this is the
guy who's coming to power wash out signs, hold on,
just just go and put on the white chot. Sorry,
this guy's doing this painting tomorrow.
Speaker 1 (25:32):
Oh yeah, gotta get this wash Yeah you want miss that.
Speaker 3 (25:35):
Tell him if he could come tonight. He needs to
come tonight. So that because I always wonder, like, you know,
like when people I always feel like when people on
the other side of the spectrum, like when people have
like certain commercial success where they feel like they have
to go in and they have to create like a
radio record or like a hit record, it always comes
off like the forest, and I feel like that can
(25:55):
happen on the other side where you're like, we gotta
make this album for the Grammys.
Speaker 2 (26:00):
Yeah, I don't want to do that, but this one
is super intentional. I want to have a connection with people.
I want them to get to know me better. That
was my only only goal. You know, some people can
do that, they they.
Speaker 1 (26:12):
Do it well. Drake does it well for sure.
Speaker 5 (26:14):
You know.
Speaker 1 (26:15):
My space and how I create is different.
Speaker 2 (26:17):
Yeah, you know, if it comes, it comes, but it
has to come naturally, Like I don't want to chase chase.
Speaker 3 (26:23):
It, you know, do you uh? Because somebody like yourself,
I feel like it's like obviously criminally slept on underrated
if you will, when we talk about just like the
upper echelon of hip hop artists in the game, is
that something that bothers you anymore? Being underrated or being
slept on? No? Did it ever it did to you,
(26:44):
It did.
Speaker 1 (26:44):
It did a lot. You know, you you compare yourself,
you use that as a measure of its success. You're like,
what's wrong with me? What am I missing? Where do
I fit in? Why is it? Why aren't I connecting?
And translated? Now it's just like I don't don't really
care anymore.
Speaker 3 (27:01):
It's easy to like look across the way and see
what everyone else is doing and then let let that
kind of affect your energy or let that affect your process.
But I feel like it's like you gotta just kind
of stay stay down, like you do what you do
and like people love you for it.
Speaker 1 (27:16):
Yeah, I'm content with that. My place is my place.
Speaker 3 (27:20):
You know.
Speaker 2 (27:21):
For whatever reason this is, it goes its way from
me inside, it goes I receive it.
Speaker 3 (27:25):
How are you? How hip are you to like, like,
do you still try to like discover new.
Speaker 1 (27:31):
Artists all the time? Yeah, as much as I can.
Speaker 2 (27:35):
You know, when I'm creating, I don't listen to a
lot of music, but if I fall into it, I'm
definitely tapped in all the time.
Speaker 3 (27:41):
Have you heard of this girl famsin that name Sounds.
She's been going super viral with her firstyle, she's crazy.
Speaker 1 (27:48):
What she looked like.
Speaker 3 (27:49):
She's like light skinturly hair.
Speaker 2 (27:52):
She did the Badu flip. She's dope, She's super dope,
super dope. I want to say I follow her.
Speaker 3 (27:58):
She's hardest.
Speaker 1 (27:59):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, she's crazy. Yeah.
Speaker 3 (28:01):
I was like, what I asked you about it?
Speaker 1 (28:03):
I feel like, yeah, I already yeah, already, No, I
saw it. I was like, oh, she cold?
Speaker 3 (28:09):
Are you already? Even like, so album comes out, you
get through the process of working the album. How much
time do you take before you even start thinking about
getting back in.
Speaker 2 (28:19):
Man, everyone is different the other ones. I would take
like two months and I'm right back in. I finished
this album completely in August. I've probably been in the
studio once or twice.
Speaker 3 (28:31):
So for you, it's like, because you know there's some
people who are like, yeo, no matter why I'm recording,
I got thousands of songs for you, it's like, like
you said, it's about intentions. So it's like you get
to the end of that chapter, breathe a little, let's
get the album out. Yeah, time for yourself, get reinspired.
Speaker 1 (28:47):
Yep, that's it.
Speaker 2 (28:48):
I'm just like I've told myself, even though if I'm
not actively in the studio on the mic recording writing.
I'm still creating right the conversations I have, the things
I see, like my brain is all it never turns off.
But I'm just keeping accounting record when the time comes.
It's like I got the spark now, yeah, but I'll
(29:10):
every day every now and again.
Speaker 3 (29:11):
We got to get the sparks. So you and hip
Boy can do au ep.
Speaker 1 (29:14):
Oh No, we're gonna get it. There's a lot I
want to do with a lot of people.
Speaker 3 (29:17):
So I think it's human hip Boy. You gotta do
the hip boy album. That's gonna be crazy. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (29:21):
Yeah, for sure.
Speaker 3 (29:23):
He's got his room and childice. You just go over
there with him, a big hit big he will be
doing push ups in the corner, pull up ball. I
love him anyway. So the album comes out May seventeenth.
What's the name of the album?
Speaker 1 (29:38):
Please Don't Cry?
Speaker 3 (29:39):
Please Don't Cry? Why that title? Are we gonna cry
when we listen?
Speaker 1 (29:43):
You may?
Speaker 2 (29:44):
You know if it touches you, it's really about just
allowing yourself to be human. You know it's ironic and
it's like please don't cry with the whole album is
like yo, no pheel be vulnerable, Be vulnerable. Cry when
you sad, cry when you're mad, cry when you're happy,
Cry because sh it's so fucking funny. Your stomach is
a nuts like just be you know.
Speaker 1 (30:02):
That's what it says.
Speaker 3 (30:03):
The seventeenth go support. Appreciate you coming.
Speaker 1 (30:07):
By, thank you, looking forward to hearing that album.
Speaker 2 (30:10):
See you.
Speaker 1 (30:10):
Yeah, I hope you hope you dig it.
Speaker 3 (30:12):
She likes hey man shout out to Rhapsody. Man, we
like well cooked meals. A DJ heads is on the
West Coast.
Speaker 1 (30:17):
Yeah, her is the full the full plate.
Speaker 3 (30:19):
There it is. I appreciate you for coming through.
Speaker 1 (30:22):
Thank you, Yes Booth, I love you man
Speaker 3 (30:25):
Fire, this is great
Yo yo, what's up?
Speaker 2 (00:01):
This is Rap City and check me out on the
Bootleg cav podcast.
Speaker 3 (00:08):
Boutlet Cap show Man special guests in here one of
the greatest MC's on the planet, Rhapsody.
Speaker 1 (00:13):
What's up, brother man?
Speaker 3 (00:14):
I see you.
Speaker 1 (00:15):
I'm happy to be back.
Speaker 3 (00:17):
May seventeen, were finally getting your album?
Speaker 1 (00:19):
Yeah, four and a half years.
Speaker 3 (00:20):
It's it's been it's been four and a half years.
Speaker 1 (00:22):
Yeah, twenty nineteen was my last album.
Speaker 3 (00:24):
And then The L's Wisdom was what twenty seventeen. Yep,
that was a Grammy album. Yeah, who were you nominated
against that year? Because I remember thinking specifically like jay
Z four four.
Speaker 2 (00:34):
Four, Kendrick dam Tyler to creator flower.
Speaker 3 (00:39):
Boy, that was a good year.
Speaker 1 (00:41):
There's one more I'm forgetting.
Speaker 3 (00:42):
That was a good year. Yeah, we ended up winning. Damn.
Speaker 1 (00:44):
Yeah, Kendrick took that. I am never mad.
Speaker 3 (00:47):
You're in a very particular best dance. With everything going
on in the world of hip.
Speaker 1 (00:53):
Hop, it's exciting right now.
Speaker 3 (00:57):
It is, and I you know, obviously there's been some
I'm like extra unnecessary noise.
Speaker 1 (01:03):
And I was just having that conversation.
Speaker 2 (01:05):
It's a lot of noise right now and inserting into
a moment that's.
Speaker 1 (01:10):
Like special and making it corny now, Like.
Speaker 3 (01:13):
Right, I feel like it's gotten really corny this past week.
Speaker 1 (01:15):
Let the main event be the main event, please.
Speaker 3 (01:18):
I agree. But it's interesting because I always like, even
like rewinding a few weeks, you've worked with Cole and
you obviously have worked with Kendrick a bunch. You're you know,
like I remember talking to Punch about this at the
iHeart Awards. I saw him backstage and I was like,
this was before my delete later came out, okay, and
(01:40):
I was like Dreamville Fest was coming that weekend, and
I was like, this feels really weird because like we're
everyone's friends with each other, like TD and Dreamville are
like this, like all the fans are kind of like innerwoven,
like you know, Schoolboy Q and Scissors on dream bill Fest,
like Kendrick and Cole are friends. But it felt great.
(02:01):
I'm just curious, like, how did you feel when you
first heard everything? Being like somebody who's worked with both people,
and like, you know, a lot of people discovered you
from working with Kendrick. You're obviously on the Bemper Butterfly,
Like what was what was your thoughts?
Speaker 2 (02:13):
I was excited. I mean, I thought, this is hip hop.
It was built on competition. Yes, so let's compete. It's
just words. It's just words, you know, if it comes
anything out of that. But I think this is really
in the spirit of hip hop, and it's like, okay, I.
Speaker 1 (02:27):
Respects I equated to basketball.
Speaker 3 (02:29):
Right.
Speaker 2 (02:29):
I was having a conversation with my nephew right, he
was texting me about it. I said, look, man, when
you play your homie one on one on the court,
are you are you trying to look out for him
because you're a homie. No, you're trying to beat that ass.
And afterwards, y'all wap it up and be like good game.
You either run it back or take your l and
go home. So that's just how I looked at it.
I was like, oh, hip hop is exciting, it's a sport. Yeah,
(02:50):
we need it for the culture. So you know, I
just looked at it as like made the best man win.
Speaker 3 (02:55):
What were your thoughts when you saw Cole retract his
his you know, statements and apology. I just wonder because
I actually kind of like, there's no way he actually thought,
like to Pinper, Butterfly wasn't amazing, Like I was like,
he don't even believe what he says, like this is
one of the greatest of hours of all time. But
when he apologized, I was like, you know what, like
I understood where he was coming from because he's been
moving a certain way for so long, you know, But
(03:17):
what were your thoughts.
Speaker 1 (03:21):
I try not to speak on these things the whole
month thoughts myself. I mean, but a he's a man.
He made his decision. He made his decision.
Speaker 2 (03:31):
But I'm if I'm just speaking from me, if I'm
in that position, I love this the spirit of what
this is and the sport of it, and if it's me,
I'm going homie and not like let's go like, you know,
he approached it how he approached it.
Speaker 3 (03:47):
Did you It wasn't funny to you to like hear
people like all of a sudden like you're on to
Pinper Butterfly, which is like, in my opinion, it's.
Speaker 1 (03:55):
One of the greatest albums ever.
Speaker 3 (03:56):
I actually think it's Kendrick's best album.
Speaker 2 (03:58):
Absolutely, it's one of my favorite of all time. Even
taking me off of it, I.
Speaker 3 (04:02):
Feel and it aged in a way that not a
lot of albums of age, like a lot of people
like during like the BLM protests and stuff like, started
to revisit that and we're like, damn. Kendrick was like
kind of talking about a lot of the shit that's
happening right now, you know, But it was just funny
to see like the album trending. And then Punch tweeted
I thought the Tipper Butterfly was actually a pretty good album.
Speaker 1 (04:23):
Yeah, that's I thought about that when when Cole made
his apology, and when he did it, I was like,
I would never approach it when at his discography, but
at the art of Wars, it's just wars war, so
you know.
Speaker 2 (04:37):
But it's it's funny to see the landscape of sheep
to me, right, and it's like, okay, because we're in
this battle and he says it's not good that everybody
like we don't think.
Speaker 1 (04:49):
It's that good.
Speaker 2 (04:50):
Get the fuck out of here. Like granted there's some
people that they generally don't like it. That's okay, that's
fine everything not everybody, but like, it's one of the
greatest albums of all times.
Speaker 3 (05:02):
I think if you're gonna say anything like to me,
Kendrick's got a flawless discography, it'd be like dis an
Outcasts discography.
Speaker 1 (05:08):
Yeah, absolutely got one of the uns.
Speaker 3 (05:11):
That's something you gotta to leave him alone on that.
Speaker 1 (05:13):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (05:13):
To me, it's like, that's why I'm really interested, because
I'm like, Drake, I'm not sure what else you got
besides m being short and maybe he had an unfavorable
deal TV back in the day. Because outside of that,
I mean, you know, it's gotten corny. Though the AI
shit was super corny. I thought that shit was lame
as fuck, and then Kanye doing this interview and I'm
just like, like you said, we're here for the main event,
(05:35):
like all the side characters. I want to like, I'm
waiting for this bomb to drop that Kendrick's cooking, and
I'm tired of people acting like we didn't have to
wait twenty nine days for Drake to reply.
Speaker 2 (05:46):
Yeah, I mean this is the social media. Everybody thinks
that you have to move at their page. Like if
we told about the spirited hip hop I was. I
was thinking of back when NAS and j were in
battle and Jay put out Takeover or September eleventh, on
two thousand and one. Na's responding on December fourth, his birthday,
(06:07):
like three months later. Three months later, so you know,
and I we know Kendrick. He's intentional about everything, so
you know, I love that he's always continuing to do
him and moving at the pace he has, Like let
the noise die down if anything, please.
Speaker 3 (06:22):
Yeah, we waited twenty nine days for Drake to reply.
Just again, twenty nine days. But with that being said,
it is the most excited. Yeah, I'm just excited because
I'm like, yo, one day, like I just want I'm
gonna wake up, and Kendrick's because I know he's about
to come crazy.
Speaker 1 (06:38):
It's exciting. I'm just it's exciting.
Speaker 3 (06:39):
And then Quavo and Chris Brown are going at you
that she's getting a little ugly, but it's just a lot.
I feel like it's like people are seeing how good
it is for business to beef kind of, and they're
all trying to get their little Like.
Speaker 1 (06:51):
Kat Williams said it all, didn't he He.
Speaker 3 (06:53):
Set it off. He kicked the year off with the
craziest interview ever, and people just been moving like that.
Speaker 1 (06:59):
Yeah, I'm like, yeah, it's getting weird out here.
Speaker 3 (07:02):
It's pretty crazy. Talk to me about why it's taken
you four and a half years to drop a new
body of work.
Speaker 2 (07:08):
Yeah, I had a lot to say, and it took
me about four years to get it all out. I
was told, you don't stop recording until you don't have
anything else to say. So I allow myself the grace
and the time to grow in that period, to heal,
in that period, to learn, and you know, to really
figure out all of what I wanted to say and
(07:29):
then what I wanted to share with the world.
Speaker 3 (07:31):
Yeah, that was it, I think too, Like sometimes people
will put out music just because they feel like they
have to or just for the sake of putting out music,
but there's not intention behind it. No, And usually that's
when we get like this microwavable music that people don't
live with, that doesn't age.
Speaker 2 (07:48):
It's there for the moment, and which is okay if
that's what you want to do.
Speaker 1 (07:52):
I'm just not that type of artist, right, you know.
Speaker 2 (07:55):
I want to put out things that will stand and
test the time, that'll be a blueprint for people to
look back to, that will be a soundtrack for this
life and the next.
Speaker 1 (08:04):
You know.
Speaker 3 (08:04):
So what was your like, where did you draw the
most inspiration for this body of work?
Speaker 1 (08:12):
Musically?
Speaker 2 (08:14):
Lauryn Hill's Unplugged The honesty, the wrongness of the best
unplugs ever.
Speaker 1 (08:20):
That you ain't never lied bro a day of your life.
Speaker 2 (08:24):
So that was a big inspiration, probably the biggest, honestly.
That's that's where I really poured from the most. During
the pandemic, I would drive to New York six seven
times and just play that album over and over again.
Other than that, it was just like things I would read.
Untamed by Glennon Dole was a book that I read,
(08:46):
James Allen twenty one books. It just it just really
allowed me to give myself permission to be human, right,
and that's what fed everything else.
Speaker 3 (08:56):
Do you feel like because I always when when you're
brought up, you're always brought up as like one of
the elite MC's period, like, regardless of gender. But since
twenty seventeen, since twenty twenty, you know, there has been
like a huge you know, I feel like we used
to have these female MC conversations and it's now just
turned into like ladies are kind of running hip hop now.
(09:17):
In my opinion, they're I mean, all the big hit
records are yeah, women, They're only the only women who
are making like I feel like the women are actually
putting effort into quote unquote records. Yep, you know, and
I feel like now like it's it's been I mean,
the last time I remember it being like this female
dominated or at least so many options out there was
like when it was Eve the Brad, Little King, Foxy Brown, like,
(09:40):
but it's I feel like it's even bigger than that now. No. Yeah, absolutely,
Like do you feel like we're kind of like in
the middle of like a special moment when it terms
to just females running hip hop?
Speaker 1 (09:50):
I do. I do running it in this way. I
don't think we've I.
Speaker 3 (09:54):
Don't think it's ever happened. No, because even back then
there was jay Z, there was no there was death Row,
there was all.
Speaker 2 (09:58):
That at the same time, and and two it was
uh yeah, this is just.
Speaker 3 (10:04):
Different and everyone's got their own thing, Like it's it
feels good and you know, for the most part, everyone's
working together for.
Speaker 2 (10:10):
The most part, Yeah, which is exciting, and I think
it helps the moment, right, and it's needed. The woman's voice,
her perspective is needed. I love to see in the
mainstream a lot more harmony. But it's it's exciting, you know,
for sure.
Speaker 3 (10:29):
You obviously got Erica and I heard the record on
the way over here. Amazing.
Speaker 1 (10:34):
Yeah, come on, she's she's out here.
Speaker 3 (10:38):
She got her own weeds train now to.
Speaker 2 (10:40):
Yep cookies that and she's got her own perfume that
I think she does. I didn't know about the.
Speaker 3 (10:47):
I want to say it's a candle or about she's
got something that.
Speaker 1 (10:53):
I gotta. I got a box at the house. It
smells amazing, It smells amazing good.
Speaker 3 (10:58):
I was like, damn, was that something that you said
to her? Did you guys actually get in?
Speaker 1 (11:06):
How did I get that?
Speaker 2 (11:08):
She gave it to me as a gift for performing
at her birthday bash fire?
Speaker 1 (11:13):
Yeah, I have two boxes.
Speaker 3 (11:15):
No, no, no, I'm about the record.
Speaker 1 (11:18):
I thought we were still the record. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (11:24):
I was in Dallas, Texas working with s one and
I did uh. I did two verses. The second verse
was different than what we have now. But at the
end I left the hook open because I knew I
wanted a singer.
Speaker 1 (11:35):
And he was like, yo, who you here? Rap? I said,
I only hear bad I'm in Dallas.
Speaker 2 (11:40):
So he reached out because I didn't have a contact
at the time, and she said yes, and you know,
we continue to work on it. For about eight more months,
but it was a beautiful time. We never got in
the studio together, but you know.
Speaker 1 (11:52):
We text.
Speaker 2 (11:53):
She facetimed me and seeing melodies for the hook, she
shared lyrics with me, and it was just a beautiful
process of eating a record and building a friendship. Like
one of the most gifted artists we've ever seen. Creative
style icon but her heart is beautiful, like amazing.
Speaker 3 (12:10):
Who all do you have doing production on the album?
Speaker 2 (12:14):
We have s one who also serves as an executive
producer Black Odyssey. They also serve as an executive producer
Major seven out of Atlanta.
Speaker 3 (12:24):
By the way, people who don't know, there's a guy,
there's a guy in Black Odyssey, not black, Yes, Alejandro Rico. Yeah,
I interviewed that, and I was like, what's it like
being a not black guy in Black Well, because technically
Black Odyssey lead, you know the crew, you.
Speaker 1 (12:41):
Know, we accept him in our delegation.
Speaker 2 (12:45):
Yeah, but they were amazing to work with. Eric g
of the Soul Council soundtrack of the Soul Council hit boy.
Speaker 1 (12:56):
Let me make sure I'm not forgetting anybody. No ninth
beats not on this one.
Speaker 2 (13:00):
Okay, Yeah, we did about two songs. One I had
uh with Mary but I wanted to work on it more.
Speaker 3 (13:11):
And six Mary Mary J Yeah, yeah, yeah, you left
the Marry J. Blain's record off the album.
Speaker 1 (13:18):
We both wanted to work on it more crazy, you
know we put that out. We wanted to feel right
of course. Yeah, I love Mary. Oh.
Speaker 3 (13:26):
I feel like anyone who works with hit boy these
days ends up doing the whole album with him, would you.
I mean, look, we talked about it. I would say
that'd be crazy.
Speaker 2 (13:33):
Yeah, when Astroids drop, we talked about it. I told
him I would love to. He said the same, So
we'll see how it goes, you know time, but I
would love to.
Speaker 3 (13:42):
I just got to thank him for getting NAS in place. Yeah,
I think we've gotten six albums three three Magics, three
Kings Diseases, And then I also think if it weren't
for those six albums, we wouldn't be getting this premiere
NAS album that we're getting on, which is what produced
we've wanted for fucking twenty fucking years years.
Speaker 1 (14:04):
Everything has this time.
Speaker 3 (14:06):
I know when I heard that the song just dropped
last Friday, and then at the end they're like, yeah,
and the albums I.
Speaker 1 (14:10):
Was like, oh my god, Yo, everybody was excited. Is
hip hop is exciting this year?
Speaker 3 (14:17):
It is.
Speaker 2 (14:17):
It's just it feels the energy feels good. It does
like a different good for sure.
Speaker 1 (14:22):
You know.
Speaker 3 (14:22):
I feel like it's like the most. I feel like
last year was kind of like a down year energy
wise for rap. This year, I feel like it's like
because there was like a people questioning, Like I saw
a Carl post something about like the same people who
were saying that hip hop was dying last year need
to give make sure that people know it's alive and
well and running the charts this year.
Speaker 1 (14:41):
Let's talk about it.
Speaker 3 (14:42):
Honey, going nowhere, I'm curious. You're such a hip hop head.
What are your like if you were to go to
an island then you can only take like three or
four albums with you. What are the albums you're taking
that are hip hop?
Speaker 1 (14:54):
Strictly Reasonable Doubt by Jay Z to Butterfly by Kendrick
more strictly hip hop?
Speaker 2 (15:05):
The Score by the fujis yes, ooh.
Speaker 1 (15:10):
And it Illmatic Happy thirty years thirty years Age is
like fine one absolutely.
Speaker 3 (15:17):
Yeah, that's a great four. I think Reasonable that was
Jayz's best album. I'll stand by that forever.
Speaker 2 (15:22):
I go back and forth between it's the top three, Blueprint,
Black and Reasonable, depending on the.
Speaker 1 (15:27):
Day I'll give you.
Speaker 3 (15:27):
Those are my three.
Speaker 1 (15:28):
Those are the three, and I interchange them.
Speaker 3 (15:30):
Like to me, it's like reasonable Doubt is like so
fucking crazy, like friend or foe, like yeah.
Speaker 1 (15:36):
In my life. No, that's the feeling.
Speaker 3 (15:39):
Feeling it, Oh yeah, feeling it, fucking.
Speaker 1 (15:41):
Cap with Biggie the Evils.
Speaker 3 (15:44):
Yes, the Evils is crazy with the Snoop samples. Reasonable
doubts the one for me.
Speaker 1 (15:48):
But twenty two tools, Oh my god, it's.
Speaker 3 (15:51):
He the Blueprint or Black albums. Then you know what
I saw. I hated Old the hov though. To me,
the Black or the Blue Blueprint has one song that
I can I skip. It's O Lajo Vito. I can't,
I can't. I just can't do it. It's the Brave
Heart Party of that album. Do you remember Brave Heart
Party on Stematic? Oh so Stillmatic was a perfect album,
(16:12):
but there was a song called Brave Heart Party with
Mary J. Blige, and it's one of the worst rap
songs ever created. It's so bad that when they reissued
the album they took it off.
Speaker 1 (16:24):
I feel like you always give me a moment where
I'm like.
Speaker 3 (16:27):
No, NAS knows, it's terrible. Listen, if you were to
go to the store right now and buy like a
stealmatic that's been pressed in the last fifteen years, Brave
Heart Party is not on. Do you remember when jay
Z did the Blueprint two point one?
Speaker 4 (16:42):
Yeah, and because the Blueprint too had some shit on it,
but it also had some shit on it so much
so that they were like, let's do the blue point
two point one and just put all the good shit
on one album.
Speaker 3 (16:53):
That's what NAS had to do with Brave Heart Party.
He knows it's a bad song.
Speaker 1 (16:56):
I love you so much.
Speaker 3 (17:01):
Whenever I interviewed Nows, I specifically want to bring that up, Like, hey,
so who I mean interviewed him when I was like
fucking nineteen and I brought him a box of ship
to autograph.
Speaker 1 (17:12):
Was that one of them?
Speaker 4 (17:13):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (17:14):
Fire, that's fire?
Speaker 5 (17:15):
Okay, Yeah, I brought him like I was like I
saw that and I was like, oh, bottom stuff.
Speaker 3 (17:19):
And I was like, hey, dude, like if you could
interview all the sign all this ship, it'd be great.
If you don't want to, I get it, but this
is like the biggest moment of my life.
Speaker 1 (17:29):
That's love.
Speaker 3 (17:30):
You signed it all. I asked him what happened? Do
you know what my main question was because I only
got the interview like ten minutes, but it was like Yo,
Win's Lost Tapes two coming.
Speaker 1 (17:37):
Out and Lost Tapes was a.
Speaker 3 (17:40):
Joint, probably my third favorite NAS album.
Speaker 1 (17:44):
Up there, It's up there.
Speaker 3 (17:45):
Then Lost Tapes two came and it was I should
have stood, stayed, lost shouts and nots. Anyway, who else
is on this album?
Speaker 1 (17:57):
Okay?
Speaker 2 (17:58):
We talked about Eric Abad have Little Wayne, Oh yeah,
Nico brim alex Issley Dixon, Baby Tape, and Banaving hold on.
Let me make sure I'm not forgetting anybody.
Speaker 1 (18:16):
I think I think?
Speaker 2 (18:17):
I said, Oh, kez Namdi Knew an artist from Jamaica, bb.
Speaker 1 (18:22):
Fire, That's it. I got everybody Wayne.
Speaker 2 (18:28):
So I've always been a fan since I was thirteen
during the pandemic. I've been working with bel Air here
and there.
Speaker 1 (18:35):
But you know the Bomboo.
Speaker 2 (18:37):
Yeah, so Brett the guy, Yeah that's Brett good good folk.
But I think Maine or Brett one of them told
me that uh Wayne wanted me to do a song
for Bomboo at the time, and it never materialized, but
I was like, okay, he's tapped in. So when we
started doing the record and I knew I wanted to
(18:58):
do it with him, I I've been talking to Mac
for a little bit, so I just hit Mac.
Speaker 1 (19:03):
I was like, Yo, I got this record.
Speaker 2 (19:04):
I want to see h Wayne, see if he'll get
on it.
Speaker 1 (19:07):
He connected us. Uh, you know, we were texting, playing
the record, send him the record. He did it in
like a week.
Speaker 2 (19:14):
Oh wow, yeah, like fast like so I appreciate his
grace and just extending his services.
Speaker 1 (19:19):
But that was it, you know. And I would tap
in every now and again just to check in. Happy
Father's Day.
Speaker 2 (19:23):
But yeah, yeah, he's been a god send. He made
the business easy song.
Speaker 3 (19:31):
I feel like we underappreciate Little Wayne somehow, now we do.
Speaker 1 (19:34):
He's he's one and two.
Speaker 3 (19:38):
He's one of your one or two.
Speaker 1 (19:39):
Yeah, I mean it's Jay, but he like right there.
Speaker 3 (19:42):
I got him liking around nine. I mean my top
ten is very like it's like super fucking I got
ghost face above a little wad like I'm not I know,
I got like a super like. I always say, like
Kendrick's top five all time because if we if people
put Biggie in their top one or two off of
(20:03):
two albums. Oh yeah, you have to put Kendrick in
your top five off of his discography because his discography is.
Speaker 5 (20:11):
Albums, EPs, impact, mixtapes, all of it. Yeah, and then
like one and two is to me, it's Jay and
and NAS and then I could just like swap shit around.
It just becomes after like one and two are the
only two that like don't move for me. Ever, it's
jay Z, it'sn and it is how you feelings.
Speaker 3 (20:29):
However, I'm feeling it for the day. You know, Kendrick's
up there. I say, if Drake comes away from this
whole thing on top mm hmm. I finally gotta stop
hating on Drake if he can come out of now.
I thought the AI thing was one of the corniest
things I've ever seen a rapper do in my entire life.
(20:50):
You did, I thought it was terrible because I'm sure
Snoop didn't go sign that fucking using Tupac's voice. Come
on anyway, Nonetheless, if he can come out from every
you want diss in it the weekend the biggest artist
in the world on Spotify number If you look at
the ranking of the Weekend is number one. You got
(21:12):
the Weekend dissing you, bro, if you got the twenty
verse one. He posted that ship with a kill bill
and he comes out on top. I gotta, I just gotta.
I hate to say it, but he might be up there, bro,
he might be.
Speaker 1 (21:27):
The I mean, the boy can rap. That's what makes
this so exciting.
Speaker 3 (21:30):
He can wrap his ass off. And he's the biggest,
probably the biggest rapper ever commercially successful. Yeah, especially for
the run. Yeah yeah, yeah, you know, like Wayne had
like that three year run that was fucking crazy. Like uh,
Eminem had like h what probably five or six years
where he was like the biggest shit ever. But Drake's like,
(21:52):
oh nine to now, never seen it. With that being said, he.
Speaker 1 (21:57):
Sings too, though, So he sings too. That's good.
Speaker 3 (22:00):
Yeah, it helps, it helps, It help does help. I
ain't fucking singing, jay Z ain't singing, thank god, I
ain't need but I need Drake to give me a
rewind or a fucking meet the parents, or I need
something like that. We ain't got one of those. But
(22:20):
if it comes out on top, I don't listen to me.
Kendrick Mars Indeed, the boogie man. I think, I think
I just can't wait man shots at k dot. I'm
super biased in this whole thing.
Speaker 1 (22:31):
So likewise, but it is what it is. I mean,
I know the calib of human we talk when.
Speaker 3 (22:36):
You So when you got nominated for like hip Hop
Album of the Year, that was a big deal and
I kind of feel like that kind of kicked off
like a wave of the Grammy is at least semi
getting some of the nominees, right, you know, a few
years later, I know pusha T got nominated and Royster
five nine got nominated. Actually think it was the next year.
Speaker 1 (22:59):
The process was different, right, That was a.
Speaker 3 (23:02):
Year after Right, it was twenty eighteen because Daytona came
out on twenty eighteen.
Speaker 2 (23:05):
So there was a time when the Grammys were trying
to get it right, especially for hip hop. So they
created these committees for all genres. And the way the
Grammys works is you have to be a member of
the voting committee, which means you have to be nominated
and have one pasi bla. Everybody, no matter what genre
(23:25):
you and everybody who's in the voting committee gets to vote.
Speaker 1 (23:29):
Right.
Speaker 2 (23:30):
So a lot of times if you're a country artist
and maybe you're not really into.
Speaker 1 (23:33):
Hip hop, it's gonna vote name recognition.
Speaker 2 (23:35):
Right, So to balance that out, they created these committees
of trusted individuals from each genre and that culture. Country
had theirs, pop had, there's R and B. Hip hop
had it's trusted committee, and you would get the top whatever,
and you would go through the list and if you
felt like there was somebody that needed to be in
there that wasn't represented, you got to go through a
(23:58):
process of listening to that record to get it, going
through it, and voting it in because you were of
the community. So that's how you get a Voice to
five non nomina NATed, That's how you get a nipsy
nominaefraidh exactly. That was the balance in the checks and
balance the system to make sure this is not just
a popularity contest that hip hop.
Speaker 3 (24:18):
That makes sense why I'm saying, I mean shot to
my boy macl my Love, but that would make sense
why he won over Kendrick that year.
Speaker 1 (24:25):
It's just popularity name recogniztion.
Speaker 3 (24:28):
Yeah, because like this year, I feel like they knocked
it out the park with Killer Mike. I'm like, of course,
Killer Mike had the best rap album of the year.
I don't even think it was It wasn't even I
didn't think it was close.
Speaker 1 (24:36):
It wasn't even close.
Speaker 2 (24:37):
It was solid and they got a ride and they
got it right. Yeah, So that's exciting to see one hundred.
I was.
Speaker 3 (24:44):
I was super stoked to see that. But I wonder, like,
when you get a taste of that, are you like,
do you when you create now? Do you create with
the Grammys in mind?
Speaker 1 (24:53):
Are you super? Not anymore? Nothing in mind? No Grammys,
no BT Awards, no.
Speaker 2 (25:01):
Billboard, which I've never really been high on anymore, no
platinum plats.
Speaker 1 (25:05):
This one, I was like, you know, I'm tired of.
Speaker 3 (25:07):
Chasing these accolades.
Speaker 2 (25:09):
Yeah, and these measurements, and sometimes some of it is
real and some oftimes it's not.
Speaker 1 (25:14):
Like you say, something is a popularity.
Speaker 3 (25:15):
So hey, I'm gonna throw you my phone. Yeap, put
it on the white shot. I think this is the
guy who's coming to power wash out signs, hold on,
just just go and put on the white chot. Sorry,
this guy's doing this painting tomorrow.
Speaker 1 (25:32):
Oh yeah, gotta get this wash Yeah you want miss that.
Speaker 3 (25:35):
Tell him if he could come tonight. He needs to
come tonight. So that because I always wonder, like, you know,
like when people I always feel like when people on
the other side of the spectrum, like when people have
like certain commercial success where they feel like they have
to go in and they have to create like a
radio record or like a hit record, it always comes
off like the forest, and I feel like that can
(25:55):
happen on the other side where you're like, we gotta
make this album for the Grammys.
Speaker 2 (26:00):
Yeah, I don't want to do that, but this one
is super intentional. I want to have a connection with people.
I want them to get to know me better. That
was my only only goal. You know, some people can
do that, they they.
Speaker 1 (26:12):
Do it well. Drake does it well for sure.
Speaker 5 (26:14):
You know.
Speaker 1 (26:15):
My space and how I create is different.
Speaker 2 (26:17):
Yeah, you know, if it comes, it comes, but it
has to come naturally, Like I don't want to chase chase.
Speaker 3 (26:23):
It, you know, do you uh? Because somebody like yourself,
I feel like it's like obviously criminally slept on underrated
if you will, when we talk about just like the
upper echelon of hip hop artists in the game, is
that something that bothers you anymore? Being underrated or being
slept on? No? Did it ever it did to you,
(26:44):
It did.
Speaker 1 (26:44):
It did a lot. You know, you you compare yourself,
you use that as a measure of its success. You're like,
what's wrong with me? What am I missing? Where do
I fit in? Why is it? Why aren't I connecting?
And translated? Now it's just like I don't don't really
care anymore.
Speaker 3 (27:01):
It's easy to like look across the way and see
what everyone else is doing and then let let that
kind of affect your energy or let that affect your process.
But I feel like it's like you gotta just kind
of stay stay down, like you do what you do
and like people love you for it.
Speaker 1 (27:16):
Yeah, I'm content with that. My place is my place.
Speaker 3 (27:20):
You know.
Speaker 2 (27:21):
For whatever reason this is, it goes its way from
me inside, it goes I receive it.
Speaker 3 (27:25):
How are you? How hip are you to like, like,
do you still try to like discover new.
Speaker 1 (27:31):
Artists all the time? Yeah, as much as I can.
Speaker 2 (27:35):
You know, when I'm creating, I don't listen to a
lot of music, but if I fall into it, I'm
definitely tapped in all the time.
Speaker 3 (27:41):
Have you heard of this girl famsin that name Sounds.
She's been going super viral with her firstyle, she's crazy.
Speaker 1 (27:48):
What she looked like.
Speaker 3 (27:49):
She's like light skinturly hair.
Speaker 2 (27:52):
She did the Badu flip. She's dope, She's super dope,
super dope. I want to say I follow her.
Speaker 3 (27:58):
She's hardest.
Speaker 1 (27:59):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, she's crazy. Yeah.
Speaker 3 (28:01):
I was like, what I asked you about it?
Speaker 1 (28:03):
I feel like, yeah, I already yeah, already, No, I
saw it. I was like, oh, she cold?
Speaker 3 (28:09):
Are you already? Even like, so album comes out, you
get through the process of working the album. How much
time do you take before you even start thinking about
getting back in.
Speaker 2 (28:19):
Man, everyone is different the other ones. I would take
like two months and I'm right back in. I finished
this album completely in August. I've probably been in the
studio once or twice.
Speaker 3 (28:31):
So for you, it's like, because you know there's some
people who are like, yeo, no matter why I'm recording,
I got thousands of songs for you, it's like, like
you said, it's about intentions. So it's like you get
to the end of that chapter, breathe a little, let's
get the album out. Yeah, time for yourself, get reinspired.
Speaker 1 (28:47):
Yep, that's it.
Speaker 2 (28:48):
I'm just like I've told myself, even though if I'm
not actively in the studio on the mic recording writing.
I'm still creating right the conversations I have, the things
I see, like my brain is all it never turns off.
But I'm just keeping accounting record when the time comes.
It's like I got the spark now, yeah, but I'll
(29:10):
every day every now and again.
Speaker 3 (29:11):
We got to get the sparks. So you and hip
Boy can do au ep.
Speaker 1 (29:14):
Oh No, we're gonna get it. There's a lot I
want to do with a lot of people.
Speaker 3 (29:17):
So I think it's human hip Boy. You gotta do
the hip boy album. That's gonna be crazy. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (29:21):
Yeah, for sure.
Speaker 3 (29:23):
He's got his room and childice. You just go over
there with him, a big hit big he will be
doing push ups in the corner, pull up ball. I
love him anyway. So the album comes out May seventeenth.
What's the name of the album?
Speaker 1 (29:38):
Please Don't Cry?
Speaker 3 (29:39):
Please Don't Cry? Why that title? Are we gonna cry
when we listen?
Speaker 1 (29:43):
You may?
Speaker 2 (29:44):
You know if it touches you, it's really about just
allowing yourself to be human. You know it's ironic and
it's like please don't cry with the whole album is
like yo, no pheel be vulnerable, Be vulnerable. Cry when
you sad, cry when you're mad, cry when you're happy,
Cry because sh it's so fucking funny. Your stomach is
a nuts like just be you know.
Speaker 1 (30:02):
That's what it says.
Speaker 3 (30:03):
The seventeenth go support. Appreciate you coming.
Speaker 1 (30:07):
By, thank you, looking forward to hearing that album.
Speaker 2 (30:10):
See you.
Speaker 1 (30:10):
Yeah, I hope you hope you dig it.
Speaker 3 (30:12):
She likes hey man shout out to Rhapsody. Man, we
like well cooked meals. A DJ heads is on the
West Coast.
Speaker 1 (30:17):
Yeah, her is the full the full plate.
Speaker 3 (30:19):
There it is. I appreciate you for coming through.
Speaker 1 (30:22):
Thank you, Yes Booth, I love you man
Speaker 3 (30:25):
Fire, this is great
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