#574 - Joey Bada$$ on ‘Lonely At The Top’, TDE Ties, West Coast ‘Beef’, Ab-Soul, & Capital Steez

https://youtu.be/ikRULQ1TDak

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
I know when I talked to Ray, he was saying
he was by Kendrick was hearing stuff before it was
coming out, like he would like float it over to him.
I saw that, which is interesting.

Speaker 2 (00:10):
Very interesting.

Speaker 1 (00:11):
Any dialogue or anything between you and Kado during this entire.

Speaker 3 (00:16):
Not direct, like I said, like, it's love and it's
always been love and yeah.

Speaker 2 (00:21):
You know we show our people that this is this
is how it was done.

Speaker 4 (00:25):
Yo.

Speaker 1 (00:25):
Before we get into the interview, man, I want to
give a shout to all my radio stations all across
the country who have the Bootleg keV Show as an
official affiliate. Man, we're on the radio in about one
hundred cities nationwide every day. Want to give a shout
out to Real ninety two three in La Shout out
to the Beat in Miami, Shout out to Wild ninety
four one in Tampa, shout out to Hot ninety eight three,
and Tucson Power ninety eight three in Phoenix. We are

(00:49):
one or two nine. Importantly, we're all over the country,
so you could tap in with that radio show. If
you want to know for on in your city, just
go to Bootleg cav dot com. The fullest of cities
is there you might hear. Let's get into the interview.
All right, man, boutleg here podcast. We are here with
my dog Joey Badass.

Speaker 2 (01:10):
Yes, sure you are.

Speaker 1 (01:12):
You are currently man. First of all, I gotta say
dog like, you know, when we have these conversations, There's
been a lot of conversations about New York Top fifty
and you know, just I feel like the conversations recently
about hip hop, I feel like have been in the
right space, people debating about who's the great. But I

(01:34):
gotta give your flowers off the writ man. I feel
like when we talk about like the last fifteen years,
because twenty twelve was thirteen years ago. Yeah, you are
one of the ghosts. Brother, appreciate that, Yes, sir, Man, Yes, sir.

Speaker 2 (01:52):
Yeah, you know people don't know man, I know you
for a long time.

Speaker 1 (01:55):
Yeah. You could go on YouTube and you can see
me on the bus when him and ABSO was on tour,
and I remember that was in Phoenix and then in
Tampa and I'll be pulling out. I remember listening to
Before the Money, like fuck a year before it came out,
some of those records, like you know.

Speaker 2 (02:10):
What's the great thing about that? If you missed when
me as show was on tour, like if you missed it,
if you wasn't able to attend back in twenty thirteen,
We're going back on tour this year, so stay tuned
for that. I love that.

Speaker 1 (02:24):
So, yeah, can you give me because you guys obviously
have such a long relationship, long friendship and one of
the purest, dopest moments in recent memory. I think about
Jada kissing the verses and then fast forward. I got
that same feeling as a fan when you Big Sean

(02:45):
and absoluted the Red Bull cipher. Yet, what was the
communication like with you in Seoul when you were like, yo,
you know, we gotta do something Like what was that?
What was that like?

Speaker 3 (02:55):
First of all, man shout out to my soul brother,
you know what I mean, Like me and so go
way back, and it's really deeper than rap with us,
you know what I mean. Like I met I met
so Kendrick q Jay rock Oland when I was like sixteen,
you know, because when they used to come out to

(03:16):
New York, they used to mess.

Speaker 2 (03:18):
With my manager, Like my manager would hold them down.

Speaker 3 (03:21):
Johnny Ships, who's my manager at the time, He used
to hold them down. So I remember literally like it
was one day after school. He's like, yo, pull it
to the studio and we was already tapped in with them.
And it's interesting because as so was my entry to TD.
I remember the first thing that I saw was to
turn me up song and video. It's future in ketchick Lamar.

Speaker 2 (03:44):
Actually yeah. And I remember seeing av Soul and just
being like, damn, like I ain't never seen nothing like
this in this modern time, like a rapper like him.

Speaker 3 (03:55):
Like the swag that he had, the wittiness, the cleverness,
and I would just I was just like really into it,
you know what I mean. I thought I thought at
this time, I thought Kendrick was cool, but I thought
Ad was like the star, you know what I'm saying.

Speaker 2 (04:09):
And then uh, you.

Speaker 3 (04:10):
Know, one thing led to another and then you know,
me going down that wrap a hole listening to as
So he had more songs with Kendrick, and then I
got into Kendrick and Kendrick got me into Q and
I saw they had the Black Kapy joint. So the
fast forward back the I want to say this was
twenty eleven. You know, my manager at the time, Shipes
told us to come to the studio and it's funny

(04:31):
because you know, solely even said it on the post
battle record and he dropped and it was like, yeah,
these little niggas on skateboards.

Speaker 2 (04:39):
I'm like, fast, that's how we met, you know what
I'm saying. We came through that business. It was singing.

Speaker 3 (04:43):
We all had our boards on us, and we just
sat there and just was kind of observing the process
and you know, long behold like we was definitely soaking
up game for sure, you know what I mean. And
fast forward a couple more years later, you know, we
did the tour together and the Bonds and you know,
everything strengthened the sea.

Speaker 2 (05:04):
Yeah, Smokers Club. But before that, we got in the studio.

Speaker 3 (05:06):
We did Into the Void yep and all that, and
that was like the first time that we really hung out.

Speaker 2 (05:11):
Like you know, when I met them.

Speaker 3 (05:12):
At first, it was just kind of like, all right,
we flies on the wall, they doing they thing.

Speaker 2 (05:17):
But then Sola and I got in the studio.

Speaker 3 (05:20):
We did the End of the Void joint from twenty twelve,
and then after that, like you know, we was just
pretty much locked in and a lot of the ideologies
and the mindset was the same, you know what I mean,
so we we connected and Sole even mestige before he passed.
And then you know after that, like Sol got the
forty seven tattered. So best friend and brother Doe Burger,

(05:45):
who was on the tour with us too, at twenty thirteen,
they both got the full seventh tattered. So you know,
this brotherhood runs deep. It runs way deeper than people
may know or people made think. Shit, this is a
video of me and so back at twenty thirty team
on the internet of us getting arrested together at Saint Louis.

Speaker 2 (06:04):
And miss on the tour.

Speaker 1 (06:06):
Yeah, that's crazy.

Speaker 2 (06:06):
Here Doe broke in the back like, hey, free, soul
free Joe.

Speaker 1 (06:10):
Hey scary, scary random city to get arrested.

Speaker 2 (06:12):
To nah for sure because this is like right after
the Michael Brown shit happen.

Speaker 3 (06:16):
Yeah, it's crazy because in the video it's like, yeah,
I can say this now, but I was I was
off shrooms, so it's like I'm getting they putting the
handcuffs on me, and I just think it's the funniest
shit ever. And I'm talking to the comp like, yo,
have you figured out why I'm in these handcuffs?

Speaker 1 (06:31):
Why were you bro?

Speaker 3 (06:33):
Because we were walking around the hotel that that we
rented out while black.

Speaker 2 (06:38):
That was it.

Speaker 3 (06:39):
You know, somebody tipped off the police that I guess
they throw some suspicious dudes was walking around the hotel.

Speaker 2 (06:46):
And like, bro, it wasn't even like it was a
fucking four seasons. It was like a best lestern. It's like,
what the fuck we going? You know what I'm saying.
Cos pulled up and he was just mad.

Speaker 3 (06:55):
He had the KNA in the back and he was like, hey,
you see that k y'all literally was to cut.

Speaker 2 (07:00):
I'm like, yo, man, like you need a hug because
you was just so mad.

Speaker 4 (07:05):
I'm like, yo.

Speaker 2 (07:06):
Monument and that was the shooms though.

Speaker 3 (07:08):
Yeah, and then you're like trying to like, but yo,
go beat that video though it's a classic. Every now
and again, I always go back and watch it. It's
just it's just such a funny moment to me, you
know what I'm saying. And so just over there like Joey,
shut up the chill.

Speaker 1 (07:24):
So what's your guys' discussion with each other going into this.

Speaker 4 (07:28):
Ready for.

Speaker 2 (07:31):
Yeah? So okay, so we got the so so Red
Bull reached out to.

Speaker 3 (07:38):
Me and it was kind of like, you know, on
me to pick who I wanted to you know, do
the cipher with or whatever. So you know, so came
to my mind verse and then were trying to find
the third person and then somebody said big Sean like, yeah,
perfect so that you know, so hit my line like
right away, like you know, we was both He's like, yo,

(07:59):
you know, we gotta make a movie out of this joint.
This at a third and you know, we went back
and forth like a couple of ideas that were just
gonna do, and he was like, Yo, we should kind
of just.

Speaker 2 (08:09):
Like all like battle with each other in.

Speaker 3 (08:12):
A way like you know what I'm saying, like on
some own friendly, fading type of joint.

Speaker 2 (08:16):
I'm like, yo, I love that. That's genius.

Speaker 3 (08:19):
So when I heard soul verse, I was like, oh, okay,
you know what, I'm glad he took that approach because
you know, he mentioned Ray, he mentioned Day, and I'm like,
I hadn't give it a direct response, had to talk.
So I'm like, you know what, this is the perfect
opportunity to kind of speak on it, like Soula's head.
And then we just kind of went in it with that,

(08:39):
and then you know, Sean did his thing as well,
and you know, I got I gotta I gotta give
a lot of credit to so for it because he
kind of masterminded it in a way, you know what
I mean, where.

Speaker 2 (08:50):
He was just like, Yo, this is the move, Like
trust me, we should do it like this boy boy.

Speaker 3 (08:54):
And I was just like, you know, I even hesitate,
like I just I just kind of followed this leader.
And I'm glad we did because you know, look at
the outcome, and I think it was beautiful to just
kind of showcase that we could we could have a
moment like that in twenty twenty five, like this is
hip hop and that's the type of shit, like even
at being decipher, you know what I'm saying that you
got these three prolific artists here and showcasing something that

(09:19):
is the true essence of what hip hop is. It's
like we get in there and we all trying to
whip each other's as well. We all trying to you know, compete,
We all trying to say the slickest shit.

Speaker 2 (09:30):
It was just beautiful. Man.

Speaker 3 (09:32):
Shout out the shoul shout out the Big Sean, shout
out the redel, shout the hip hop.

Speaker 1 (09:35):
I'm assuming you didn't have any sort of heads up
on any like you heard his ship for the first time,
and when when you guys recorded it, his his his
Like did you did you.

Speaker 2 (09:47):
Guys this out now? No?

Speaker 3 (09:49):
I didn't hear shit for the first time recorded it,
and he didn't hit my ship for the first time
when we recorded it neither, the big shofe.

Speaker 2 (09:55):
Right, So the night before, you know, there was like
this world read that you.

Speaker 3 (10:00):
Know, maybe we wouldn't you know, maybe maybe maybe somebody
would have been able to memorize their line. So we
went to Sean Cribb and we recorded it as a
track first, just to kind of like go over like,
you know, just kind of saying to you when he
got there.

Speaker 2 (10:17):
Yeah, yeah, you know that makes sense. But at that
moment we did that, I was like, the other guys
that's going here?

Speaker 1 (10:24):
Yeah yeah, yeah, yeah, for sure.

Speaker 2 (10:25):
You know, and we'll get to that. But I'm like,
you know, the other guys that's going here. Because we
recorded that in March, it ain't come out to what
was that late main early May or something like that,
So I'm.

Speaker 1 (10:36):
Like, that's kind of do I mean, yeah, I mean
that it took two months to drop and it didn't
get out.

Speaker 2 (10:42):
There so yeah, I mean, it adn't get out there
to the public.

Speaker 1 (10:45):
But everybody kind of knew what was coming here.

Speaker 3 (10:47):
Yeah, they heard what was said, you know what I'm
saying and anything. So I already knew. I smelled the lineup.
I was like, all right, if I'm them and I
and I got this intel and I heard the ship.
What Joey said before to me, I'm gonna be ready
as soon as the ship dropped and so and sure enough,
that's what it was.

Speaker 1 (11:08):
So it's it's funny too because I think about kind
of like the timeline because you had originally said the
line that got everybody's tannies in a bunch on the
West coast, and was it January?

Speaker 2 (11:22):
Yep, Genuary first to be exact. Uh so top of
the year shooting and their for New Year's right.

Speaker 1 (11:29):
And so you know that's a yeah. Everybody from La
you know, kind of took that as a nice opportunity
to get, you know, to get their ship off.

Speaker 4 (11:39):
You know.

Speaker 1 (11:39):
Uh, it brought a lot of eyes to a lot
of dope people like my, my, my, my bros. The
Coyotes did their freestyle. I don't know if you've seen
the Mexican Brothers, Coyote from La they did their ship
towards you, but they're they're fucking incredibly they actually worked.

Speaker 2 (11:52):
With shipes but seeing but it was so many people.

Speaker 1 (11:56):
But anybody who's like a hip hop fan knows that
that's a og Hove line, right right. And so it did.
I mean, it made I mean, I guess when you
put that into that record and you kind of you
had any idea that, yeah, I'm paying I'm paying how
much to hope, but I also know this is gonna
this might ruffle uh.

Speaker 2 (12:20):
Like, I didn't think that it was gonna ruffle feathers
to the degree of which you're roughly feathers, you know.

Speaker 3 (12:27):
I was really more honed than on the fact that like, yeah,
you know what, maybe some people be confused, but I
expected that if they did, they researched and they would know,
you know, what my tide to the West was and
be able to be like, okay, yeah, like you.

Speaker 1 (12:43):
Give people a lot of credit pe point nah, No,
for sure.

Speaker 2 (12:46):
And I said it.

Speaker 3 (12:47):
I said it, you know, like, you know, maybe that
was a misstep on my part, was thinking that, you know,
people wouldn't get offended by that, because truthfully, I didn't
think it would be to that degree, So I admit
if that was a miss step, but just for me
from an attention standpoint, like it was very playful, right,
But I think the main point was that my understanding

(13:09):
is when it comes to the West Coast and my
ties to the West Coast, we just talked about it
like this is ten years d you know what I'm saying.
So if anybody been supporting and rocking with the West
and what we just saw from the West, it's been
Joe from day zero, you know what I mean. So

(13:33):
a lot of the referring to the too much West
Coast dicklicking is all the new fucking band wagoners.

Speaker 2 (13:40):
What the fuck was y'all at?

Speaker 3 (13:41):
Because I've been here and I'm seeing a lot of
people now jump shit and now all of a sudden
is oh, it's this, But I've been here.

Speaker 2 (13:50):
Though, you know. And on top of that point, it's
like I think.

Speaker 3 (13:54):
It was a lot of sensitivity because I'm a New
York nigga, Yeah, Brooklyn nigga, And that's just how we talk.
We'll say that about our own man's, like we'll walk
away from my man's having a moment because we feel
like niggas is dick riding and you can say whatever
you want to say about this. That's not saying personally
y'all do right right now. Yeah, it's just the nature
of like East Coast New York niggas. You know what
I'm saying, Like niggas dick ridding. You know what I'm saying, Like,

(14:16):
but it's not like us hating. It's just like I'm
not going to participating to dick riding. It's just I
ain't doing that, you know what I mean. But the
main point is that though it's like, Yo, who the
fuck is y'all niggas? This ship been going down for
a long time.

Speaker 1 (14:32):
It's crazy to hear. The main intent of that line
was to kind of the opposite of how people took it,
like yo, y'all dick riding the West Coast. But I've
been supporting this shit ain't new And it's like, walcome
to the party.

Speaker 3 (14:47):
Almost record is there? Yeah, I just ain't just talking
on my ass. It's like you could you could go
do the research. It's only look at me, and I'm
so getting the rested. In twenty thirteen, Yeah.

Speaker 1 (14:58):
You know, I feel like people there's a lot of
like surface level new fans of hip hop that don't
understand the really like the roots of you know, Schoolboy
Q and Asam Rocky and Macniller and you and ab
Soul and just that that synergy that's always been there
between TDE and New York. It's always been.

Speaker 2 (15:21):
Bro you know.

Speaker 3 (15:22):
And I think I can't remember who said it. I
think it was Kendrick when he had linked up with Ferg.
Shout out to Ferg, it's my brother. But there was
a video they was having a dialogue and he was
telling Ferg. He's like, yeah, like you know, back in
the day, we had to come to New York and
a lot of people thought that we was from New York.

(15:43):
This is what Kendrick was saying, Like they thought that
they was from New York because you know.

Speaker 2 (15:46):
The sound and.

Speaker 3 (15:48):
Everything, and I mean they weren't being as embraced back home.

Speaker 1 (15:52):
For sure.

Speaker 3 (15:53):
It was this side who was embracing the movement one
hundred percent, you know what I'm saying. So yeah, you
know it was it was a little refusing to me
to see people, you know, take it like that. But
like I said, man, I'm free game, I'm a public
figure and I think it was an opportunity for people,
and if I was on that side, I'd see that.
I'd see it as an opportunity as well, and I

(16:14):
would take it. And I think it was It was
good at the end of the day for the culture.

Speaker 1 (16:19):
Yeah, I think you know what came out of that
cipher was obviously kind of straighted all back up, and
we got like two weeks straight up, just like I mean,
you were fucking dropping dog like and the knickxer and
in playoff and you know, uh, you know, shout out
to Rayvaughn for for stepping up to the you know,

(16:39):
stepping up to the moment and and being on top
of them in daylight everybody. Yeah. I had to show
Rayvon when we were walking into the studio because you know,
on one of his dishes he said that you ain't
got no plan. So when we walked in, I said,
I gotta devastated plaque in my hallway. I said, hey, hey,
ray you see what that is? I said, Joey badass plaque.
It says platinum, that is man.

Speaker 3 (17:00):
Yeah, you know, And it's funny too because that was
like probably one of the reoccurring lines that he was
using and I was like.

Speaker 2 (17:09):
Should I readbut this?

Speaker 3 (17:10):
Like I'm literally sitting in my studio recording the shit
and this blacks all on the wall, you know what
I mean. But I'm like, uh, I feel like if
I rebuttle this, it's like it's like it affected me
or something like that, you know what I mean.

Speaker 2 (17:23):
So I was just like, whatever, you know, your friend?

Speaker 1 (17:27):
Are you with that? You you? The funniest thing that
I think came out of this was the td East
website and you trademarking TD east.

Speaker 2 (17:38):
The top though.

Speaker 1 (17:39):
Obviously, yeah, what so does Top reach out to you?
Do you give it? Like like because obviously you guys
have a relationship absolutely And it was funny and you
had to go get the record on go to TDS
dot com and it's right there. What was the thought
process with that? And was there any like recon to
make sure like, hey, are we good?

Speaker 2 (17:59):
Right?

Speaker 1 (17:59):
We're good?

Speaker 2 (18:01):
Yeah?

Speaker 3 (18:02):
It definitely was, you know what I mean. Like Top
definitely hit me after the td S thing and he
was just like, Yo, that is hilarious.

Speaker 2 (18:10):
That is genius.

Speaker 3 (18:11):
I'm like that shit kind of got a ring to it, right,
and he like, yeah, really do I'm like we might
have to have a conversation for real, but not at
a point in the beginning. It was definitely like because
after I dropped the rulers back and I've seen the response,
Like I definitely hit a few of my people over
on that side, like I hit Soul, I hit top.

Speaker 2 (18:30):
I'm like, yo, like, how y'all feeling you know what
I'm saying. I have to just check the temperature real quick.

Speaker 3 (18:36):
And everybody was like nah, like you know, we know
where you're coming from, Like we always love this that
and the I'm like, okay, cool, because that's what I assume.
But you know, there's people who don't know that, or
who don't know the synergy that exists between us, who
you know, was taking it a whole different way.

Speaker 1 (18:51):
Hey, we gotta wrap up this interview another one presented
by hard Dann. Baby you already know what it is.
Shout out to Hardin for presenting another episode of the
book Kept podcast. Don't forget when you're in Vegas, you're
getting that tax, you getting that uber say, take me
to Hardean, the number one cannabis dispensary in the world.
Premium selection of the craziest gas you could ever ask
for and then they break down all what all the

(19:13):
terps mean. It's incredible. Go to Harden Underscore Las Vegas.
Shoot them a follow and when you're in Las Vegas
and make sure you shoot them a visit. Hey, don't
forget to go to bootleg keV dot com. You know,
we had to celebrate the two year anniversary of the
most viral interview of all time. Throw the shirt up
so you could see it. I turned it down. Shout
out to that boy, Big Boogie, a big college in Jacksonville,
and we just threw these on sale half off for

(19:35):
the five hundred episode t Bootleg keV dot com. Go
get you a shirt. Let's get back to the interview.
I know when I talked to Ray, he was saying
he was like Kendrick was hearing stuff before it was
coming out. He would like float it over to him.
I saw that, which is interesting.

Speaker 2 (19:51):
You know, very interesting.

Speaker 1 (19:54):
Any dialogue or anything between you and Kado during this entire.

Speaker 3 (19:59):
Not direct, but so did tell me that, you know,
he salute and you know he loved what I was
doing and all that show told me that when you
ran into Kendrick at the at the show, God told
him to tell me.

Speaker 2 (20:10):
That that stuff.

Speaker 3 (20:11):
So yeah, you know it's it's like I said, like,
it's love and it's always been love, and yeah, you.

Speaker 2 (20:17):
Know we're showing people that this is this is how
it was done.

Speaker 1 (20:21):
Yeah, you know, I think that there's there's like this
gross like misunderstanding of hip hop history when people say
shit about your career and I'm like, hey, like, I
don't think you understand, Like, first of all, this is
somebody who came out of the blog era, you know
what I'm saying, somebody who really laid the foundation for

(20:43):
so much Like you know what I'm saying, Like, I
feel like you kind of you made it. You brought
like the shit we love to like a demographic that
didn't know that they loved it yet when you were
seventeen years old dropping nineteen ninety nine, you know what
I'm saying, it was like it was it was one
of those real pivotal moments and hip hop Like. But yeah,
it's interesting because you know, I think that the one

(21:04):
thing with this Kendrick and Drake thing is that you know,
how do you feel about the results and and uh,
you know how it went down. It felt like there
was a bit of a page turning in the Book
of Hip Hop where people were paying attention to the
right ship again. And by that I mean like breaking
down records and like dissecting lyrics.

Speaker 3 (21:26):
Oh yeah, and uh, the lyrics have a have a
new found not a new found, but lyrics are like
important again.

Speaker 1 (21:36):
Yeah, Like I'd rather watch some random YouTuber breakdown you
and Ray Vaughn's bars or Kendrick's euphoria. Then I'd rather,
you know, watch a fucking some somebody breaking down what
happened with Julio Fulio and fucking Young and Ace. You know,
but do you like like that's my thing? Man? Is

(21:57):
is you know? You are very I always say this.
I say, you can't make timeless music unless you take
your time on it. And you are somebody who's always
taking your time when it comes to putting out music.
You're super intentional with it. Are like, are you inspired
right now? Because you are? You are in your bag.

Speaker 2 (22:17):
I am so inspired.

Speaker 3 (22:19):
I'm so inspired, And I'm glad you asked that question
because I always look at inspiration like this metaphorical bucket
that you always got, and it's not always full.

Speaker 2 (22:31):
You know what I'm saying.

Speaker 3 (22:31):
Sometimes you run and lost. Sometimes it's just a drop
in there, and it's like kind of gotta wait and
let life happen and see, you know where you could
fill the bucket up at. And you know, right now
I gotta says minus minus Overflund, like I am so energized,
so inspired, so charged up.

Speaker 2 (22:53):
You know, got this new album and I'm about to drop,
and I.

Speaker 3 (22:57):
Got a lot of new music, a lot of new
music that I'm excited to share. And I just think that,
you know, even which is transpired, I feel like it
kind of opened up a new door for me where
I feel like my whole career I kind of had
people trying to box me and you know, tell me

(23:18):
what I couldn't do and set these parameters around my sound.
And I feel like now that Kate is open and
it's like, oh no, Like we actually want to see Joey.

Speaker 2 (23:31):
Experiment right now. We want to see what else Joey
could do.

Speaker 3 (23:34):
Because Joey has made his point of how well he
can rap. What else did joe get? Yeah, it's like,
you know, like we want to see Joey progress to
a new level. And I feel like I was kind
of it's the word I was like almost not allowed
to make certain sounds or to have certain attempts or

(24:00):
you know, go in certain directions because people just felt
like my sound should have been this one thing.

Speaker 1 (24:06):
It's funny because I feel like I remember people not
loving Devastating. People had to Devastation, Like you're like, because
it wasn't but it's fucking and like what are we
talking about?

Speaker 3 (24:17):
And you know what's funny? You know what Devastated taught me?
Because Devastated taught me the power of polarity. M Because
as much as people hated it, like you know, my Nichse,
my fan base, my core, there was a whole other
side that loved it, which was you know, more of
the casual listener, more the people who wasn't familiar familiar.

Speaker 1 (24:37):
With me, and you gained new fans off that record.

Speaker 2 (24:39):
Right.

Speaker 3 (24:39):
So, now when I'm faced with those type of records
that are polarizing, because you know, I have this really
clear process of how I share my music with, like
my trusted friends and individuals who airs our trust.

Speaker 2 (24:55):
And now once I see that polarity on certain records,
I'm like.

Speaker 5 (24:59):
That's the one. M hm, that's the one, you know.
So I'm excited. We are shooting outside in New Jersey.
So the bugs are bugging, you know what I'm saying.
But it's it's beautiful.

Speaker 2 (25:08):
I'm not I'm not just glitching.

Speaker 1 (25:10):
No, no, no, there's some there are. Let's be clear,
We're going to have a couple of I mean, yeah, there's.

Speaker 2 (25:16):
Yeah, let's not wash it upon ourselves. For sure. The
bugs is bugging, for sure.

Speaker 1 (25:20):
Yo. I do want to touch on a record that
I think encapsulates a time period of hip hop that
you know, I have two eras that I was like
alive and like you know, I'm thirty eight, so I
was born in eighty seven, right, so you know I
remember I was a type of kid who would get

(25:43):
the source magazines and then go back and buy all
the five mic albums, you know what I mean, because
you know a lot of that ship I was five
six for you know, style was the first rap I
really fell in love with as like little ass kid,
but you know, as like a like a dude. It
was the fifty cent gu in the era and then
this this blog era that was so special and one

(26:05):
Train is a record then I listened to so much
for as old as it is, and it's it's you know,
I think for my money is the best posse felt
in the last you know, fifteen years or so. A
lot of people saying it's like the Black Hippy Shittle.
I think that record is just different.

Speaker 4 (26:22):
Man.

Speaker 6 (26:23):
Can you just kind of tell me, like, did you
ever go back and listen and and and just from
your memory, just how that record came about? Did you
hear anyone's versus? And you know, I do feel like
it's one of those time stamps in hip hop or if.

Speaker 1 (26:40):
You want to know what it was like for an
era of dudes and everybody was on there.

Speaker 2 (26:47):
Yeah, man, shout out to that, shout out to flock on.

Speaker 3 (26:52):
I remember how it happened, and I was, you know,
me and Rockey we used to work out of the
same studio and Quad studios. Well, he will work on
QUI like like that building had a punch of different
right hands on the ask, you know. So he will
work for Quad on what was at the tenth Ward
and I will be in the mail with Sixth for
a while.

Speaker 2 (27:12):
So I remember one day, you know, I was there
and he came down.

Speaker 3 (27:17):
And I even know he was upstairs, but he came
down because he heard I was down there, and he
was like yo, I got this record.

Speaker 2 (27:23):
You know. Obviously at the time he's on fire. I'm
on fire.

Speaker 3 (27:26):
So he's like, yeah, I got this record for you,
and I play for you. I'm like, I bet you know,
say less. So you know, I went upstairs.

Speaker 2 (27:35):
And I can't remember if Kendrick was on it at
that time or not. That I can't remember, but.

Speaker 3 (27:45):
I do feel like it was it was definitely his verse,
and I want to say it maybe somebody else verse.

Speaker 2 (27:50):
I can't remember that somebody.

Speaker 3 (27:52):
Else was Kendrick than that, but either way, once he
played that for me and he told me what the
objective was, I was like, say Less, what did he say?
Attracted was that he was gonna get it all all
these differently, you know what I'm saying. And I was like, oh, Like,
first of all, I thought it was dope. I thought
that was a super dope. But I did, you know,
because I was doing postive cuts at the time, but
with my crew, right, you know, so I thought it

(28:13):
was it was tight that he was putting together this
posse cut with everybody from that generation, all of the
like we was all the newcomers at the times.

Speaker 2 (28:22):
Me it was it was flock old.

Speaker 3 (28:23):
It's Dot, there was Yellow Yellow, Woe bron that Bronson,
Danny Brown like it was. It was a crazy, crazy lineup.
But I just remember being like, man, say, let's like,
I'm gonna go hard on this.

Speaker 1 (28:37):
Ship, yo'. It's crazy too, because you know, I feel
like you're one of the few artists that you know,
we've actually watched you grow up in real time coming
to the game, you know, as a kid, and and
you know, you never you never came off like a
kid though musically interview wise, if you meet you know,

(28:57):
anytime anybody would ever talk to When I first met you,
we always hear like, there's the gift in the curse
of being that young and getting a certain amount of fame,
a certain amount of money, a certain amount of notoriety.
But you seem to have, you know, really navigated that spectacularly.

(29:19):
Was it tough though? Was it ever tough like going
through being who you were, being a kid while also being.

Speaker 2 (29:28):
Joey Bad. Yeah? Absolutely, you know, there was a few
things that was tough for me, right.

Speaker 3 (29:38):
I think one what I was dealing with heavily at
the time, and I didn't I didn't even know I
was dealing with it with Survivor's Guild.

Speaker 4 (29:46):
Mmmm.

Speaker 3 (29:46):
That was making me overcompensate so much, like trying to
do the most for the people to around me who
were seeing the same successesly, you know, because like I
could feel the energy, but then I'd feel a little
bit insecure about own success because I'm like, you know,
it's so many opportunities back in that time that I

(30:06):
passed up on, well not that I passed up on,
but that I had I had to pass up on
because my mentality was like, yo, if we can't all go,
we don't go, you know.

Speaker 2 (30:18):
So it was a lot of rooms.

Speaker 1 (30:20):
And stuff, like a lot of hotel rooms, a lot
of travel, a lot of.

Speaker 3 (30:23):
Now hotel rooms like rooms, I mean like literal like
you know, the rooms that you could be in, rooms
that I could be in, tables that I could sit at,
right that I didn't go into because the invite was
for me, and I didn't really understand that at the time.
And you know, in hindsight, I realized, you know, how
much of a misstep that was for me, you know,

(30:44):
because it's like the the incline could have been way
much faster for me.

Speaker 2 (30:48):
But there was a lot of times where I deliberately
got in the way or I slowed down the process
because one I was trying to bring anybody with.

Speaker 3 (30:57):
Me, and then two I just wasn't sure that I
actually wanted that life, you know what I'm saying, Like
I think I was a little bit afraid of it,
where it's just like, yo, what is it gonna do
to me? You know, because I was so young, and
it's like in a lot of ways, I was very
impressionable still, Yeah, and I was a little bit fearful
of what it would turn me into if I moved

(31:20):
too fast into it.

Speaker 2 (31:21):
And it's like, you know, we're just growing up here,
and all types of shit about the industry, like you
know what I mean, people selling these souls, this, that
and the third.

Speaker 1 (31:29):
So hey, real quick, we want to tell you about
our sponsors at odds Socks. That's our day one family.
Make sure you follow them at odd Socks Official. I
just got to run in a five k with them
and Bert Kreischer. You see the Happy Gilmore socks. You know,
part two's coming soon. They got the socks, they got
the draws, the most comfortable socks in the entire world,
plus the underwear, all of it. Get twenty percent off

(31:50):
go to odd socksofficial dot com. Use that promo code
bootleg right now or bootleg keV. I forget which one
it is. I think it's both. I think both work. Anyway,
let's get back to the interview of that.

Speaker 3 (32:00):
Kind of manifested into my trajectory, because there was a
lot of hesitation in the beginning that I purposely made
just out of really like, like I remember it was
one day and I was just sitting in a car,
and I'm like, yo, like for some reason.

Speaker 4 (32:16):
I couldn't let go the idea of.

Speaker 3 (32:21):
Walking, of having to leave behind the idea of walking
down to New.

Speaker 4 (32:26):
York City street. That was that was so hard for
me to like face.

Speaker 1 (32:32):
Like almost like if I lean into fame, if I
lean into this too much, I don't want.

Speaker 3 (32:38):
To lose that, right, Like that's a free you know,
being a New York City kid. That's that's just a
part of my identity is navigating the streets.

Speaker 1 (32:49):
Like yeah, you know, how not how I've always been
like if you want to what walk down and get
a bacon egg and cheese. I want to go get
a bacon egg and Jus, I don't want to have
to get a I gotta get scary to get insistent exactly.
You said that that was a mistake maybe in highsight,
but you're still like fully intact energy. Why like, could

(33:12):
the trade off have been a faster incline but at
the expensive of yourself maybe, right, you know what I'm saying.

Speaker 3 (33:21):
Yeah, No, you know, listen, man, One thing I've come
to learn is that things happen the way that.

Speaker 4 (33:28):
They're supposed to do. They're supposed to.

Speaker 3 (33:30):
Happen, you know, like God has a plan, and I
think that this is all part of what his plan
was for me, you know. And I think that whatever
I was feeling at the time when I was younger,
I was telling me, whoa slow down or be cautious,
I think that was intuition and that that that intuition

(33:50):
was was was a godly element that was warning me
of something, and you know, which ultimately led me to
take the power that I took, whether it be to
you know, not into rooms so soon or whatever. You know,
I think that it all played a part on in
the man that you see today. And it's like, you know,

(34:12):
at the end of the day, I'm grateful, you know,
I'm grateful. I feel like throughout every point in my
career is always felt like I'm at a new beginning,
and I think that's not something that everyone always experiences, So,
you know, for that alone, I'm like, even right now,
it's like, man, I'm so excited to.

Speaker 4 (34:33):
Share this new body of work and.

Speaker 3 (34:37):
You know, tour again and collaborate and yeah, like I'm
just pumped this new album.

Speaker 1 (34:46):
Talk to me about it because right now, you know,
like you said, the inspiration is overflowing. Yeah, the appetite
I feel like for Joey's for lyrics, for Joey Badass,
for this ship is is. I also feel like the
fan base wants it, you know, for you like what

(35:07):
like give me you say you're taking Are you taking
some risks on this album sonically? Are you? Because you say,
are you trying new ship?

Speaker 3 (35:13):
Like yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, definitely definitely taking some calculated risks,
you know, trying new ship.

Speaker 1 (35:20):
I heard her boy Static's got some beats on there,
which is very because I think he's my favorite producer
you work with. When you guys work together, it's like butter.

Speaker 3 (35:27):
Static always gonna have some beats on my ship. Man,
you know that's shout out the static. It's my big bro.
But yeah, man, listen, I'm excited about this joint.

Speaker 4 (35:37):
The joint. The album is called Lonely at the Top.

Speaker 1 (35:39):
I love it.

Speaker 3 (35:41):
Yeah, it got you know, we got some good features
on there.

Speaker 4 (35:44):
Uh we got.

Speaker 3 (35:46):
It's just it's just a great body of work. And
you know, I feel like it doesn't overstay. Its welcome.
It's a good like thirty five minutes, you know, and
it does everything that it needs to do. And then
by the time you're fucking fully emerging and joining it,
this is over running back.

Speaker 1 (36:02):
We always have to we do have to wait some
years between projects with you it. Uh are you battery
in your back? Because you have so much that you do.
Obviously you're an actor, You're very successful actor, You're a model,
you know. I remember I was going to the mall
one day and I saw it. I don't even I
don't remember. It was a Colonne or something. I was like,

(36:23):
whatever it was, I was like, this is fucking crazy.
But but you have so much happening, so much going on.
But like you know, you got I feel like right
now is you know, like you said, you gotta do
something with that inspiration that's overflowing. It is it is
this like a taste or and then we got to
wait a while? Or are you fully d you know,

(36:46):
are you already planning out the next thing? Are you
living in the moment? Like, Yeah, we got some some serious.

Speaker 4 (36:56):
Serious outdoor like it's a lot.

Speaker 1 (36:57):
Yeah, we're outside, it's a bugs.

Speaker 2 (36:59):
Like.

Speaker 3 (37:04):
I'm being very careful with what I'm saying because what
I don't want to do, what I've done in the.

Speaker 1 (37:09):
Past is rile the vans up, create false expectations, create
false expect expectations.

Speaker 4 (37:15):
But I can't confidently say that.

Speaker 3 (37:20):
There will not be another year's long gap from this
joint in the next joint.

Speaker 4 (37:27):
Like, what I can say is that I have a
lot of music, and.

Speaker 3 (37:32):
I'll even go as far as say that, you know,
before everything that transpired this year, there was another project
that was being worked on. So what you're about to
hear with Lonely at the top is what I've made
in like the last month. Oh so while you're in
this pocket, yeah, and when I'm in this pocket using
this energy, this inspiration, I've been just locked in, you

(37:54):
know what I mean. So I felt like, because the
direction that I'm going after this is much needed and
that's more of a conceptual piece of work. But this
is more like I understand my signment right now.

Speaker 1 (38:13):
You understand your signment right now. You understand what the
people are looking for you to do at this moment, at.

Speaker 3 (38:17):
This moment, and that's what Lonely at the Top is
so but follow.

Speaker 1 (38:22):
The conceptual album is there, it's been worked on.

Speaker 4 (38:27):
But it's all I'm gonna say is a lot of music.

Speaker 3 (38:31):
A lot already said too much, But there's a lot
of music, and I'm excited, you know, like, without a
doubt there won't be another year.

Speaker 1 (38:39):
As long as I like to hear that, I always wonder, man.
You know, I recently dealt with my boy art the
Beasts passing away. It was a really good friend of
mine and and and fucked me up for a while,
you know, all this time after Capital Steeze is passing, like,
you know, I feel like he was one of them
guys in pro era who you know, he had the

(39:02):
biggest footprint on nineteen ninety nine and he was such
a talented guy.

Speaker 4 (39:07):
Man.

Speaker 1 (39:08):
You know, is there is there anything about Steves that
you know, maybe people didn't know about you know that, Yeah,
I feel like we didn't really get to like really
enjoy him as fans as long as as as you know,
he wasn't here that long.

Speaker 4 (39:22):
Listen man, Steez.

Speaker 3 (39:24):
To this day, I haven't met a person like Steve.
He was really a one of a kind individual. And
it's just crazy when I think about it, because I'm like, man,
you know they say that that that that that's saying
the good die young, and it's just like it's a
it's a trippy thing to acknowledge because I'm like, yo,

(39:49):
my man was really exceptional as just a human being,
and I don't even think that words can do justice
up to like just who he was and the man
he was and the influence that he had in his
short time here, And like I still look up to him,
and I realized that that was a nineteen version, nineteen

(40:10):
year old version of him. So I'm still looking up
to a nineteen year old Like I'm thirty.

Speaker 4 (40:15):
Now right, you know what I mean?

Speaker 1 (40:17):
You just made me feel so old.

Speaker 4 (40:20):
It's wow as wow, you know that that idea I
hear that.

Speaker 3 (40:26):
I hear that in my mind a lot, like I
faced that a lot where it's it's like, dang, like
Steevez was nineteen and I'm thirty and I'm still like
being like, man, how could I be more like Steve's
you know what I'm saying, And that's a nineteen year
old kid.

Speaker 1 (40:43):
It's so crazy.

Speaker 4 (40:45):
That's like me and a nineteen year old kid today
and being like.

Speaker 1 (40:47):
Dang, Like you know, it's a wild concept to think.
It's like, like you said, the good guy. It's like,
I don't think people understand like how young Tupac was
when he passed away in Look and you know Xxxi,
Oh my gosh, a perfect exact another kid who I met.
You worked with him?

Speaker 2 (41:04):
Yeah, yeah, and he had a he had a great
He left a great impression on me as well, because
he kind of reminded me of my brother Steves in
a way, but more in the competitive nature, Like you
see everything that just happened that was x ye.

Speaker 3 (41:18):
Like when we was in that studio, me and him
is having a conversation like like like he's he's looking
at me and he's like, yeah, I'm about to body
you on this. I'm like, okay, okay, little bro, you
know what I'm saying. Like, but it's like that at
that time, I haven't felt that feeling in so long,
like since things was here, right, and I love that

(41:39):
X had that in him, you know. And then when
we made the Infinity Record, and yeah, you know he
came with the energy man. So you know, just when
it comes to that competition, I think it's always been
an important thing for me as an artist.

Speaker 4 (41:53):
Because that's how I came up.

Speaker 3 (41:55):
Like with pro Era, we would have ciphers in the
whole way and school, or we meet up in the studio,
and it was always about trying to show up with
the best verse.

Speaker 4 (42:06):
And we love each other, were brothers, right, but we.

Speaker 2 (42:09):
Want to have the best.

Speaker 3 (42:11):
You know what I'm saying, We want we want the
best lyrics. You know what I'm saying That Steve's was
big bro in that regard, Like.

Speaker 1 (42:18):
Hey, gotta stop the interview. You want to give a
shout out?

Speaker 4 (42:20):
Man?

Speaker 1 (42:20):
The only thing we smoke, ladies and gentlemen is slap woods.
That's right. Make sure you follow them at slap woods.
And you know the reason why we smoked flat woods.
It's literally because they slap You can't smoke a slapoos.
What the fuck are you doing?

Speaker 4 (42:35):
Hey?

Speaker 1 (42:35):
Want to give a shout out to our newest sponsor.
You know, I don't like to vape unless it is
pure solventless. Rosin want to give a shout out to
Brokencannabis dot Com. Go give them a follow. It's nothing
but that good guess. Check them out at your local dispensary.
Brokencannabis dot Com tolute to them. Let's get back to
the interview. I always wonder, you know, like I've he

(42:57):
wouldn't mind be saying this. We've talked about it on video,
but like you know, the homie Conway, it really bothers
him that people don't put him in certain discussions because
he is He's fucking Conway. But it really pisces him off.
Like the ship that we see, like the beat out

(43:18):
lists and and just the conversations it it really fucks
like it pisces him off because he puts so much
into his pen. You have like like I feel like
at certain times I'm like, does Joe give a fuck
about music anymore? I don't know, you know what I'm saying,
And then and then this run happens and I'm like, oh,
this is this is what this is amazing? But like,
does does that ship even like does it like the

(43:42):
competition ship, there's the public sentiment ship there's these conversations
that we all always have about who's the greatest, who's this,
who's that? Does that? Does that get to you? Do
you care about that?

Speaker 4 (43:53):
Ship?

Speaker 3 (43:55):
I mean, I'm an artist who wants to compete and
who is competing? So I think a part of it,
Like it'd be a lie if I said I didn't
care about that to a degree, Like of course, you know,
I don't want to be left out the conversation. That
was the whole sentiment of rulers back every time they

(44:15):
left me out the conversation, like because how dare you?

Speaker 4 (44:20):
You know?

Speaker 3 (44:20):
So I feel Conway in his sentiment too, and his
pen is incredible.

Speaker 4 (44:25):
And he deserves.

Speaker 3 (44:28):
That acknowledgement, just like I feel like I deserve that acknowledgement,
you know.

Speaker 4 (44:33):
Because we care about this shit.

Speaker 3 (44:35):
There's a lot of people who don't care about it,
who you know, be put in conversation but you know.

Speaker 1 (44:43):
For sure, but you're right, but you're right. It's like
the passion, you know, this thing has become with social media,
which is like the current like hip hop media landscape.
But just what labels were signing for a good amount
of years, label just signing just the cloud chasing antics
on Instagram.

Speaker 4 (45:04):
But you know what too, it's lanes Man's it.

Speaker 1 (45:06):
Was all yeah. But I even feel like back like
when I was coming up, you know, even when you
were active, like we would look at Waka Flocka and
be like, yo, flock of shit is ignorant, turn up shit,
but Flocker gave a fuck. You know what I'm saying, Like,
I feel like some of the shit nowadays, it's like, yeah,
I got something.

Speaker 4 (45:26):
Now, they're not trying that at all. They're not trying.
We live in like the punching.

Speaker 3 (45:29):
Like like Floka was writing his lyrics, the punching era
is fucked. Yeah, the punching rors little fucked because you know,
it encourages way too many people. The punching error is
fucked because it makes rap look like it's this thing
that's just so easy that anybody could do.

Speaker 4 (45:45):
And you know what part of that is true in
twenty twenty.

Speaker 1 (45:48):
Five, it's like Serrato when Serado came for DJs, right,
it's like, now anybody could do it. Yeah, for people
to I mean, there's don't.

Speaker 3 (45:57):
Know exactly what you mean because you know, stack select
is my big bro, so I get that Sentimce.

Speaker 1 (46:01):
So, like, you know, for people who don't know a
lot of artists these days, most of the new artists,
they don't write anything. They'll punch in line by line,
And I've been in a lot of these sessions and
you're like, there's not a lot of thought going into
these line.

Speaker 4 (46:15):
Then it's like the beat is carrying. Yeah, it's like
the beat is the vibe.

Speaker 1 (46:20):
It's all about the vibe, and maybe it's a harmony,
maybe it's it's a melody.

Speaker 3 (46:25):
But it's like, don't get me wrong, I'm not shooting
that lane down at all, because there's a lot of
shit from those type of artists that I like sometimes
when I come across it, you know what I mean.
So I think it's a lane for everybody. But I
just think that for whatever reason, this mega genre of
hip hop has not been properly managed in a way

(46:47):
where you know, like I said it before, it's like
when you think of rock and roll, it breaks down
a heavy metal, crash, soft rock alternative, and it's like
all of these different genres get their respective subgenres rock, right,

(47:07):
you go to the Grammys, and it's like soft rock
and heavy metal. It's like all these different categories for
rock and roll, but when it comes to hip hop,
they try to put everything under one umbrella.

Speaker 1 (47:19):
Yeah, Like it's almost like and it's like we're twenty
well could you imagine like you know, like when you
turn on the radio, there's a soft rock station, there's
an alternative rock station, there's an active rock station. Imagine
if there if you turn on the radio and it's
the biggest genre in the world, right, and there was
a trap station trap hip hop only yo, the best
you know there's they're doing it with the old school ship.

(47:40):
Like there's a lot of old school stations popping up.

Speaker 3 (47:41):
But now I wouldn't even call it the trap no
more because even the traps, Yeah, for sure. It's like
now there's subgenres that came from the traps. Drill, you know,
a drill fucking you got the Emos ship, they got
fucking it's so many things, and it's like it's really beautiful.

(48:02):
But what gets in the way and what causes so
much discourse is that it hasn't been properly like organized.

Speaker 1 (48:10):
Yeah, the duality too. You know, I wanted to I
want to reverse a sect because I do think that
you know, there was you know, X. The duality of
X was crazy because I was super surprised when yeah,
at the time, I'm just listening to to look at
Me and it's overmodulated and unmixed and mastered and it's

(48:31):
but then he's why I see Joey Badass on the
track list, I'm like, oh what, oh shit, Oh this
dude's nice for real? Did he reach out to you?

Speaker 4 (48:41):
Like what? Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, he reached out
to me.

Speaker 3 (48:43):
And you know, X was a huge, huge fan of
mine and Steve's and pro Era. You know, X was
one of those kids who you know, was listening to
pro Era come up. Like we inspired a lot of people,
a lot of people that you see today. Like I
remember the first time I met lil Uzi Vert and
I was CJ, and he came up to both of us, like, yo,
when I saw hard Knock come on Sucker Free Countdown,

(49:06):
Like it was y'all who showed me.

Speaker 4 (49:08):
That I could do this shit. Yeah, that's what Ouzie
said to me, verbatim. I'll never forget it, you know
what I mean?

Speaker 3 (49:12):
Shit, CARDI same thing, you know what I mean, Like
all of these guys, they because we were kids at
the time, so you know, almost like what our future
did for me is what like I did for what
we what we did for you know, a lot of
these new generation guys.

Speaker 7 (49:28):
I think, just that whole Beast Coast, even if their
sound is not what our sound is, they were still
inspired by the fact that they saw somebody who was
more closer.

Speaker 4 (49:38):
To them making the dream happen. Right, That was the
inspiration for them. It's like we were seventeen.

Speaker 1 (49:45):
Right, Yeah, there was. There was the Beast Coast movement
that was so like so fire, you know what I'm saying.
It was pro era, you know what I'm saying. It
was shout to Flatbush Zombie still going crazy.

Speaker 4 (49:55):
Zombies under the Chief Underachievers man.

Speaker 1 (49:58):
It was, it was, it was. It was such a
just a amazing moment in uh in hip hop and
obviously East Coast hip hop, New York hip hop and
all that shit. So on this new album, is there,
uh An? I mean, I have an idea. I think
I know a couple of features that we won't say
out loud, but I know You've got some features on
this project. Is there is there still a record with

(50:23):
somebody who you have yet to do to work with,
to meet you. I feel like you keep your ear
to the street. What is the feature that is just
for whatever reason, not happened or something. It could even
be somebody knew that you just you're just a fan
of that you wouldn't mind working with.

Speaker 3 (50:42):
There's a new kid from Harlem coming out right now.
His name is Lem Okay, I just got put on him,
so he's like at the top of my mind right
now when you ask me that question.

Speaker 4 (50:52):
But I think he's dope. I think he's incredibly talented.
I would love to work with him. But I think
for me right now, like like I'm always I love
samarasan Shout Tomorrow.

Speaker 1 (51:03):
She's amazing.

Speaker 4 (51:04):
Oh that's what you say. I love Samarasin. I think
her whole vibe is dope. I like Overcast.

Speaker 1 (51:10):
Overcast is dope too.

Speaker 4 (51:12):
I like Marco Plus from Atlanta. He's a he's a
crazy spinner. It's a it's it's a few cats, man,
It's a few cats.

Speaker 3 (51:21):
And then start walking around with the list because I
really be wanting to give motherfuckers some light, you know
what I mean. I like Wrong Streets. Wrong Streets is
on the album I Love Uh. I heard him for
the first time in the whole back and forth with
the West Coast Cat Cash.

Speaker 4 (51:39):
He's on the album Dope. You know what I mean? Yeah, yeah,
I really I really want.

Speaker 3 (51:46):
To be an example, especially as the Liverpool MC of
like being able to shine light or not only of
course lyrical MC's, but just also those.

Speaker 4 (52:01):
New generation artists on the come up. You know what
I'm saying.

Speaker 3 (52:04):
I want to be somebody who's recognized for collaborating with artists.

Speaker 4 (52:09):
On the ros.

Speaker 3 (52:10):
You know what I'm saying, Like my uh, I'm not
all about just doing the big shit, you know what
I mean?

Speaker 4 (52:16):
Like I like like when I come across artists who.

Speaker 3 (52:19):
I really love and who really resonate with me and
who are smaller, is like I just kind of have
like a instinct nature to like shit, I I'd love
to help them in any way, but also collaborate too,
you know what I'm saying. So yeah, I told the
new artists on to come up man, and shit I
got I got, I got so many stories Like you know,

(52:39):
I'm I'm I'm very cool like that when you wanted
to meet in real life.

Speaker 2 (52:43):
You know what I'm saying.

Speaker 3 (52:44):
I'm a very like just easy cat, like you know,
we have a conversation. I I I like listening to
people music, right, you know, Like I was at a
dinner when I got put onto the Lean Kid and
some kid was just talking about it, some dude who
work with him, and he was kind of doing a terrible.

Speaker 4 (52:58):
Job at explaining.

Speaker 3 (53:00):
I'm like, bro, you selling your man terribly, and he
was like, yo, I mean honestly, the musical talk for itself.
And then I happened to have my headphones and I
put him on. I was like, okay, yeah, I get it. Yeah, yeah, okay, man,
I see why. Okay, yeah, you know. So it's dope.

Speaker 1 (53:15):
Man.

Speaker 3 (53:15):
You know, I just want to be a beacon for
artists one to come up, because I feel like I'm
kind of like a young og at this point. I
mean like I'm like big bro and this shit, like
I donet been through.

Speaker 4 (53:25):
I didn't been down all of these different roads.

Speaker 3 (53:27):
And I could tell motherfuckers, yo, that rod got a
big ass pothole right there. Go around that shit, or
take it two miles five when you hit this corner,
you know what I'm saying. So, and I love giving
game like that because I didn't have.

Speaker 4 (53:40):
Nobody doing that for me.

Speaker 3 (53:42):
And you know it would have been nice to have,
but I think that it's also a beautiful thing that
I could be that person for somebody else.

Speaker 1 (53:51):
You said, you know, I watched the interview just with
the gillion wallow, and you know, I think you made
an important point that like labels these days aren't fucking
with anybody who already don't got shit going right, like
you gotta have they you gotta they gotta be able
to jump onto the train while it's already that that's
just what they're looking for, right you, Like you said,

(54:13):
we're thirteen years into you being a thing where people
know you in this music industry. You've been through different management,
different situations. If a young independent artist is watching this
and they're getting the major label interest, would what what
would be your advice to them? Let's say they let's

(54:36):
say they got one hundred thousand monthly listeners on Spotify.
Let's say they you know, they're they're able to pay
their bills barely, but they're able to pay their bills
on this rap shit. Everybody's starting to call you know
what I'm saying, Like you do you go to major
route and I know that that's not a one, one
size fits all question. But like based on just your perspectives.

Speaker 2 (54:57):
Well.

Speaker 3 (54:59):
Important that you with the most important thing you just
said just now. It's not a one size office question
for sure, right, So it's not always going to apply
to everybody the same way. Correct, No one person like
like everybody's not going to have the same path. So
just because it worked out for Chuck this way, don't
mean it's gonna work out for Phiel the same way.

Speaker 4 (55:19):
But what I will say is if it's not.

Speaker 3 (55:22):
A matter of you needing money to literally get by
in your life or to survive, if you can at
least sustain where you are, then I would say to
hold off on taking the big bag, taking the advance
taking because you know that advance is just buying into.

Speaker 4 (55:46):
Your stock as a as what is essentially a company,
as an artist, you know what I mean, Building.

Speaker 1 (55:52):
Your IP, keep building your If you don't need the money,
just keep building it.

Speaker 3 (55:55):
If you don't need the money, keep building it, you
know what I mean, Because the pay off when when
those checks are showing straight up to where you live,
it's a different ball game for sure, where they don't
got to go through somebody, and you know you gotta
get it every quarter of the year or every half
of the year.

Speaker 4 (56:14):
It's a different ball game when they coming straight.

Speaker 3 (56:16):
To you, and that is going to have a bigger
payoff in the long run than the.

Speaker 1 (56:23):
Check up front that quick bag, because then you'll hear.

Speaker 3 (56:26):
Because you get that quick bag. But then now there's
no bags until you recoop. Whereas you just begin in
this steady flow of income with what you got and
just keep building it. And it's like in the long
term you make more money that it makes sense, like
you might have more money now off the events.

Speaker 4 (56:44):
And that's how they get us. That's how they get us.
It's a trickery game.

Speaker 1 (56:47):
No, you take the upfront bag even though you know, hey,
if you just this music over two or three years
is going to make you more money than that.

Speaker 3 (56:54):
And you know what, it's fucked up because you gotta
really think about it, right, Why they offering me this money.

Speaker 1 (57:00):
Because they think it's it's a good business move exactly.
They would have been offering you a million dollar advance
for an album.

Speaker 4 (57:07):
And you always I think about it, they offering you
a million.

Speaker 3 (57:11):
Then remember they're always trying to make a deal, right,
They always trying to like you know, if you study stocks,
you don't buy stocks.

Speaker 4 (57:20):
Unless you're getting for twenty percent off.

Speaker 1 (57:22):
Right, Yeah, it's okay, it's a good day to day
went down.

Speaker 4 (57:27):
Everybody these labels is approaching you. They like they're trying
to get you for the low.

Speaker 3 (57:31):
So but they know that you ain't never seen no
money like this before. So while they know what's the
low for you was a high and you know we
fall into it. It's like, oh shit, a million dollars
I ain't never seen. A lot of us is coming
from a scarcity. Be mindset. So we think that because
the million dollars is here today, we need to take
it or else we ain't never gonna see it again.

Speaker 4 (57:52):
This would be our only chance to be a millionaire.

Speaker 7 (57:55):
And it's really like they use that, they take advantage
of you because they know that if somebody's given you
a million dollars, it's because they think they can make
five for you.

Speaker 4 (58:07):
Don't forget that. Don't look that go over your head.

Speaker 1 (58:10):
You know you mentioned stocks. I wonder this is just
a random You know, nas has been in the news
a lot lately, but I just saw something so crazy.
He's a part owner of a casino in Queens.

Speaker 3 (58:22):
Yeah, shout to Nas man. That's that's really my big bro.
You know what I mean, a lot of shout to
Nas man.

Speaker 1 (58:28):
I just wonder, like, what is what is your entrepreneur
like when you see ship like that, because Nas is
to me, he's my favorite MC ever the Goat but
mass appeals crazy, battle shouts, Master Peel slick rickuds crazy.
But when you see like like somebody like Nas doing
all this entrepreneurial ship, does that does that inspire you?
Are you? Are you doing anything? Like are you I

(58:50):
know you talked about wanting to do a production company obviously.

Speaker 4 (58:52):
Oh yeah, yeah, I started off production coming for sure.

Speaker 1 (58:54):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (58:54):
Man, you know, Nas is very is very inspiring to
see where he come and it gives me a lot
of hope because I feel very aligned to Nas yes
as far as an artists and like my career trajectory
and all of that. So it gives me hope. Like okay, yeah,
you know what I'm saying.

Speaker 1 (59:10):
Like, don't make a lot of noise behind the scenes,
like you just hear about it, Like, wait, Nad's bought
in the ring camera right what I mean?

Speaker 4 (59:16):
Right?

Speaker 3 (59:17):
You know, just making you know, smart plays behind the scenes.
But It's funny because you know, yesterday I was driving.

Speaker 4 (59:22):
The car my wife and.

Speaker 3 (59:25):
Whole book of OJ came on MM and in the
verse he was like, you know, I could have bought
that house in Dumbo for two million, twenty uh whatever
X amount of years later now is going for twenty
five million.

Speaker 4 (59:38):
How I'm feeling Dumbo? Yeah, And I was.

Speaker 3 (59:40):
Having a conversation with my wife, like, Yo, isn't it
crazy that as successful as Jay is, he's still having
the same type of sentiments that I'm having.

Speaker 4 (59:47):
Yeah, you know what I mean, because.

Speaker 3 (59:49):
For me, just the other day, I was like, damn,
I could have bought bitcoin at eight thousand. Yeah, And
back then I'm like, that's an expensive stock.

Speaker 4 (59:57):
Yeah, but this shit is worth one hundred fucking thousand now.

Speaker 1 (01:00:00):
It's funny because when COVID happened, it dipped down to
like fifty five hundred. And I remember sitting in a
car in East la waiting to meet my boy bidas One,
looking at it and being like, man, I don't know
where the world's finna go.

Speaker 3 (01:00:14):
Right, Fuck that scarcity month, oh man, god.

Speaker 4 (01:00:18):
Scarious city Mond.

Speaker 3 (01:00:19):
Well, Really, how we're supposed to be looking at it
is how much of a percentage?

Speaker 4 (01:00:24):
Am I getting this stock off?

Speaker 2 (01:00:26):
Right?

Speaker 1 (01:00:26):
It's on sale? Hey, it's on sell, Like yo, if
the video goes on sale, buy it, buy that shit?

Speaker 3 (01:00:32):
Yeah, no, shit, even if it don't go on sell
by one at least, because it's looking like it's going up.
So if you get in now, I think it's at
like one forty right now. Shit, who knows where it's going?
Like we think that shit going up.

Speaker 8 (01:00:47):
Are you able to be in your actor bag and
your music bag at the same time or do you
have to kind of mentally put one or the other
aside so you can like focus if you're playing a
part or you're working on an Now, are you able
to kind of.

Speaker 3 (01:01:04):
I think that to do it at a high level,
I have to give each the respective focus it deserves, right,
Like there's no way I could be on set and.

Speaker 1 (01:01:16):
Have a studio session later that night.

Speaker 4 (01:01:18):
Yes, probably not wise?

Speaker 2 (01:01:20):
You know what day?

Speaker 3 (01:01:22):
Yeah, you know what I'm saying. And sleep is a
very big important part of things as long. I mean,
you know, maybe I can make it work, like depending
on who's the studio session with, you know what I mean,
Like we're gonna work with for real, you make exceptions. Yeah,
we can make exceptions, you know, smart ones. But I
think just the short answer to your question is each
deserves its own respective focus. Like right now, I've been

(01:01:44):
super focused on music, and there's there's a few, oh,
there's a few conversations that I've been putting off as
far as you know, things going on TV film side.
But I'm like, yo, yo, let me look, I'm just
I need two more days. I'm about to hand in
my master's boom boom, and then.

Speaker 4 (01:01:58):
We could talk that top of next week, you know
what I'm saying.

Speaker 3 (01:02:01):
So yeah, I think that I think I do a
good job banishing it overall, but for the most part,
each thing has to get separate.

Speaker 4 (01:02:11):
Time for folk.

Speaker 9 (01:02:13):
Like I wonder, like, do you ever go back because
you know, they always say that Tupac was capable of
being like the greatest actor on the planet if he
had stayed alive, because if you go back and watch
like him acts, he was incredible.

Speaker 1 (01:02:27):
Do you ever go back and watch pac and like
some of it? Because if you watch some of his movies,
even the ones that weren't great, like obviously that he's
got some classics. Grid Iron, there's the one you're you're
telling Gridlocked, Goodlock, Gridlocked. You know, it's like it wasn't
the greatest movie, but you saw like, oh, this mother
saw his potential. This guy is amazing.

Speaker 4 (01:02:46):
Yeah, he was a natural. He was a natural.

Speaker 1 (01:02:48):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (01:02:48):
You know, Pac is one of the people who definitely
showed me that I could do this thing, you know
what I mean. And he's He's definitely somewhat of like
the north Star for me when.

Speaker 4 (01:02:59):
It comes to just the balancing of both things.

Speaker 3 (01:03:03):
You know this quote, you chase two rabbits, you wanna
catch either one or jack of all trades, mess that none.
And I keep those things in mind because I'm like,
I want.

Speaker 4 (01:03:15):
To disprove those, to disprove those.

Speaker 3 (01:03:18):
You know, I think that I have already showcase doing
both things at a high level, and I will continue
to showcase that. Like you know, people ask me all
the time, like what was what did you rather this
or that? And I'm like, why do I have to rather?
Why do I have to choose? I'm in love with both,
you know what I mean. And I think what people
fail to realize is that this is all arts.

Speaker 4 (01:03:41):
I am an artist.

Speaker 1 (01:03:42):
It's all in the art world.

Speaker 3 (01:03:44):
Yeah, Like, like I'm really doing one thing.

Speaker 4 (01:03:48):
I'm an artist, you know what I mean.

Speaker 3 (01:03:49):
So whether you rather you see me on the silver
screen or you hear me on records, it's.

Speaker 4 (01:03:54):
All art at the end of the day.

Speaker 3 (01:03:56):
So I'm already choosing one thing. But I don't have
to choose one way in which I showcase my artistry.

Speaker 1 (01:04:06):
So I love that. Man. Well album is coming really sooner,
really soon, sooner and soon, sooner than soon. There's some
sample stuff that as with any Joey.

Speaker 3 (01:04:16):
Album, as with anybody's out nowadays. But I'll tell you what, look,
my shit coming sooner than some.

Speaker 4 (01:04:21):
People, some motherfuckers. I heard album coming for a long time.
I ain't gonna say no names, but I should coming soon.
Be my shit ready. Do you want to hear it?

Speaker 2 (01:04:31):
Yeah?

Speaker 4 (01:04:31):
Do you want to hear it all?

Speaker 1 (01:04:32):
I definitely want to hear it? And yeah, man, thank
you for you know, fucking just being yourself man, and
and and you know, bringing excitement the last few months
into this ship.

Speaker 3 (01:04:42):
You like you, man, Listen important I want to say,
just to close it out, man, Hip hop is a
competitive sport. I love to compete. I absolutely love to compete,
you know. Shout out to everybody on the West Coast.
Shot to everybody on East Coast, Shout to everybody everywhere
who's putting off for the culture.

Speaker 1 (01:05:01):
Did you, by the way, just random tidbit about that.
Did you hear why G say Joey bad ass? Gonna
hate this?

Speaker 2 (01:05:07):
Text him, I'm I'm like, you're wrong. I love it.
You're wrong. I love it, you know what I mean.
So we had we had a cool little laugh about
that ship, you know what I mean.

Speaker 1 (01:05:19):
But and then you and Absloult going on tour, me
and ashle Is going on tour finish with Are you're
about to say something?

Speaker 3 (01:05:25):
No, just gonna say I'm flattered, you know, to hear
why G say that ship? Like, I can't wait to
be in the club somewhere and that shit. Come on,
let's be hitting my ship. Joey, Hey, yeah, world up.
So I love it, man, I love it, you.

Speaker 1 (01:05:39):
Know, absolut Joey Tour on the Way, album on the Way.
I'm sure you got projects in the can where you're
gonna be on the screen.

Speaker 2 (01:05:48):
Oh yeah, absolutely, few.

Speaker 1 (01:05:50):
Yeah. I feel like that's one cool thing about acting
is you could get some ship and be like, Yo,
this is gonna come out over the next two years,
so I kind.

Speaker 7 (01:05:56):
Of act the exact chill out, Yeah for sure.

Speaker 4 (01:06:00):
Jau too.

Speaker 1 (01:06:00):
There it is, mh.