#577 - Don Trip & Starlito Talk Step Brothers 4, “Letter To My Son”, Representing Memphis/Nashville

https://youtu.be/1yROScdVnUk

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Yo.

Speaker 2 (00:00):
Before we get into the interview, man, I want to
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(00:24):
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interview boutlet CAV podcast.

Speaker 3 (00:40):
Man.

Speaker 2 (00:41):
We got special guests in here, a couple of Tennessee boys,
one from Memphis, one from Nashville. Don Trip Starledo, Welcome,
what's had to Step Brothers? Step Brothers are here, man,
all live, Yes, sir, you guys just drop the deluxe Yeah,
yeah yeah, step Brothers four and a half. It's crazy

(01:01):
because you guys have put together this like series of
projects over the last I mean, when was the first one.
It's been at least what like nine ten years long?

Speaker 4 (01:09):
Twenty eleven Brothers.

Speaker 2 (01:11):
One damn July Agent. I feel aged. I just watched
the Letter to my Son video and I just saw
how young you looked in that video, and I realized
how long ago.

Speaker 1 (01:23):
Yeah, well, I definitely had fewer grades.

Speaker 2 (01:25):
Yeah for sure, but you embraced the grades on the
new music too, which I appreciate.

Speaker 1 (01:29):
You got man. Yeah, Man's life, you know, running from
it would would resolve nothing.

Speaker 2 (01:35):
Man, I wonder man for y'all, Like, you guys have
always kind of been this underrated force in music, and
when you guys get together, there's just something special about
when you guys put these step Brothers projects together, or
when you guys get on each other's records. When was
the initial because you guys say that the music guys
two hundred miles away from each other. What's the initial

(01:55):
link up? What's the initial genesis of this relationship? And
I guess this crazy synergy you guys have.

Speaker 1 (02:02):
Creatively, You mean, like where it started? Yeah?

Speaker 2 (02:05):
Where did it all start at? Between y'all? Two it started.
I was on the road with Yo Gotti mixtape Gotti.

Speaker 1 (02:14):
I don't know if he was working on mixtapes.

Speaker 2 (02:16):
Like TV T Gott.

Speaker 3 (02:16):
He probably after that. It was around the time probably
cocaine music.

Speaker 1 (02:24):
Between four and he better with the timeline than me.

Speaker 4 (02:27):
Yeah, I was there, it wasn't there.

Speaker 1 (02:29):
Yeah I was. I was there and still wasn't.

Speaker 4 (02:33):
So he's never yeah, never all the way there.

Speaker 1 (02:36):
Yeah, I guess you could say that.

Speaker 4 (02:39):
Well yeah, yeah, yeah, early.

Speaker 1 (02:44):
Yeah, yeah yeah. So he made uh, he made a
stop in Nashville. He went to do whatever it is
he wanted to do. I ain't really I don't like uh, well,
I guess you, I don't like pocket watching. So he
was doing what he was doing. You know. We kind
of veered off to do other things and we ended

(03:06):
up making a stop over at a Star spot and
that was my first time meeting Star and from there
we kind of just you know, long story short. The
relationship kind of grew from there and went from I
guess me meeting him and being able to appreciate the
way you work and the drive he got and the
love he guy for what he do. And I would

(03:29):
like to say he saw the same you know, we
saw it in comparison to each other, and it went
from one record. As a matter of fact, I think
the first record might have been like a mixtape record
or something I can't really remember, but you know, we
went from one record to you know, here we are
stepbrothers for life, and you know, I don't even know

(03:50):
how many records we got together since then.

Speaker 4 (03:53):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (03:53):
No, it's dope too because I feel like each each
project has like a timestamp of where you guys are.
And you know what I'm saying, because you guys take
your time with these projects is that you know what
I mean? So for you guys, like if you know,
I think I look at like the victory that Clips
just put on the wall with being guys who are
you know, either over fifty or knocking on their fifties

(04:14):
and push his case and just grow man rap like
real dope music kind of like finding a place in
the commercial landscape to be successful. YEA, how do you
guys kind of feel like because you guys are are
are very much like like I said earlier, you guys
are like independent powerhouses at this point, you know what
I'm saying, Like you guys have managed to kind of

(04:35):
navigate this weird space of hip hop where the major
labels are really kind of not looking for the most
highest integrity artists as much as you know, maybe in
two thousand nine, twenty ten, but you guys have been
able to put together this string of victories between the
both of y'alls catalogs at this point for the last
fifteen years or so. What do y'all feel like the

(04:55):
music game is now? And is it easier to fit
in with what y'all are doing? You feel like, I
think just the opposite.

Speaker 4 (05:04):
We don't.

Speaker 3 (05:05):
We don't aim to fit in, and that's part of
the sweet spot we existing. Like you mentioned the Clips
album and all of the stigma, the stigmadel like age
ageism and otherwise like to see that not matter as
much and just the crane rises to the top, as
they say. But I think not fitting in is what

(05:27):
works for us, one in the sense that I think
it stands out as something unique, something true, something inspired,
but also that us not being so trendy doesn't limit
us in terms of like shelf life and appeal, because
it just it works for who it works for, and
we're just kind of zeroed in on that. And if

(05:48):
that so happens to fit in you know, so be it.

Speaker 4 (05:56):
But yeah, it just works. Man.

Speaker 3 (05:58):
Like you said, we've tried to grow with our music
with our audience, and no one stays the same age
just stays in the science space for right.

Speaker 2 (06:06):
Don I know you had like your run with the
major label stuff start, I'm not familiar. Did you have
that like a spurt where you had any sort of
situation where you're dealing with a major Yeah, it was
before mine.

Speaker 4 (06:17):
Yeah, Yeah.

Speaker 3 (06:17):
I signed with Cash Money in Universal Motown like two
thousand and five through y'all Gotti.

Speaker 4 (06:23):
That's where the connection kinds.

Speaker 3 (06:25):
I haven't working with y'all gotta about for about five
years at the time when they were in talks around
each other, and that's what actually placed us.

Speaker 4 (06:34):
Around each other.

Speaker 2 (06:34):
It's crazy.

Speaker 3 (06:35):
I had I signed a deal and I was like
nineteen twenty years old with Gotti through Yeah, through Gotti,
when like a production deal with Universal Motown and Cash Money.

Speaker 2 (06:47):
So I wonder too, because you guys obviously have seen
too many different areas of Tennessee hip hop kind of
you know, Nashville is one place. Memphis is you know,
Memphis kind of ran rap I would say the last
few years. If you look at some of the big
artist that came out, what is like your perspective, I
want to know your got on two artists. Obviously, we
just talked about Gotti to just see like what CMG

(07:09):
has become, how he's grown as an executives. It's pretty crazy. Yes,
it's impressive. Yeah, what about another person, you guys work
with a ton, somebody who is from your hometown, starts
like Jelly Row who's obviously started as a underground hip
hop artist and is now about to wrestle at SummerSlam
and American Idol Man.

Speaker 3 (07:34):
That's that's just as impressive, not more impressive. We go
back twenty plus years, we're right around the same age.
We kind of had our start at the same time,
so we've always kind of kept tabs on one another.

Speaker 2 (07:48):
And you guys have a ton of music together.

Speaker 3 (07:50):
Yeah, we've done some music over the years and plan
to do some more here pretty soon. I think it's
just it's amazing to see him like fine and find
an audience and it be outside of the I guess
comfort zone or range, right like I saw.

Speaker 4 (08:08):
Him battle rapping.

Speaker 3 (08:09):
Yeah, around the time I graduated high school, early early
two thousands and to see him transcend rap. He's just
a star. I think he's just a star at large, Like, yes,
his music is at the centerpiece of it. But knowing them,
I feel like this is really cool that he's being himself.
And I think his personality shines through the music and

(08:30):
just presence and appeal seeing him on Super Bowl commercials and.

Speaker 2 (08:35):
Just the saying on FaceTime with my daughter, it's the
same guy. I alway would tell him that I liked.
All you gotta do is get in front of the
world and they're gonna love you. Like everybody else who
knows you let you for sure. It's crazy. Don now
that your kids are grown right, like I saw the cover,
you have some older kids right right, right right? Do
you're like, I wonder how do your how does your
son take letters? Now that he unders stands and can

(09:00):
hear him like that? That has to be like a
crazy Yeah.

Speaker 1 (09:04):
We had a conversation maybe like middle last year. I
would like to say, I try to I try to
make my kids comfortable enough to talk to me about
any and everything. And I can't remember how the song
came up, but he was sitting we was in the kitchen,

(09:25):
when when when the topic a role arrived, and you know,
it became like an awkward moment for everybody that was present,
y'all kind of you know, got quiet. And I looked
at him and I asked him, like, well, you know,
this is the first time we've ever had the conversation,

(09:46):
so you know, what do you feel about it or
how do you feel about it? And he told me
that of course, for his first time hearing it, or
up until that point, he had only felt, uh, felt
offended by He said, you know, it was pretty much

(10:08):
a dish to my mama.

Speaker 2 (10:09):
I mean, yeah, I mean it was an anthem for
people who were going through that specific I agree.

Speaker 1 (10:14):
But I explained to him, you know, I explained to
him what was going on in that moment, right, and
you know, for the most part, he understood. He's familiar
with how things kind of played out. So from that conversation,
he's like, you know, he understands where I was coming from,

(10:36):
and he understands the amount of anger and turmoil I
had to have felt to be you know, to to
be restricted from being able to be a father. And
he asked me if I would have made that same
song today, and I told him, knowing what I know,

(10:57):
I would have still. You know, I would have still
made the same song. I just wouldn't have called it
out a name. For the sake of you, I said.
Other than that, I didn't lie in the song. None
of it was fictitious, I said, I didn't make it up.
So you know, if telling the truth ruffle feathers, then
so be it. But you know, look at where we
were and look at where we are now. Yeah, and

(11:18):
you know, even now in my music, I can't help
but be honest that, you know, in most cases, that's
my therapy. I was fortunate enough to find a lane
or find a career path that could assist when it
comes to my therapy. But even if rapped and paid,

(11:39):
it still would be my outlet because that's what it was. Then,
you know, if you go back, like you know we
were speaking, before we started running the original Letter to
my Son record, I had no idea that it would
become what it became.

Speaker 2 (11:51):
Yeah, I mean the label kind of jumped onto it
because it went crazy, right, But and then they put
see Though on.

Speaker 1 (11:57):
It, right, But it already had a life of its own.

Speaker 2 (11:59):
It was its own thing.

Speaker 1 (12:00):
And you know, if you go back and watch that
YouTube video. You know, there was no Craig like to say,
I ain't putting nothing on it. You know, it wasn't
dressed up in no manner. That was me pouring my
heart out because at that moment that's what I needed
to do. It was either that or you know, the
pressure was gone, made me crack and it was gone.

(12:21):
Now I don't know where it would have went if
I didn't have music as an outlet.

Speaker 2 (12:27):
Do you guys, Because I feel like, what what your
superpower is? Obviously you guys have such a great chemistry together,
but you guys are also like, besides being the lead MC's,
I appreciate it, you guys are very very like. You
guys are't afraid to be vulnerable on records.

Speaker 4 (12:42):
You know.

Speaker 2 (12:43):
That's I feel like a lot of artists these days,
like the younger generation at least, might be a little
more hesitant to be vulnerable because they're worried about people,
what people think about them. You know what I'm saying.
I feel like you guys, that's what that's where you
guys thrive. It's like being vulnerable and talking about shit
that like grown motherfuckers can relate to you know what
I'm saying, Like, how you guys have to I can

(13:04):
imagine between the two of you guys, when your fans
come up to you, it's like the conversation's got to
be different when someone says, like, Yo, you got me
through this or this.

Speaker 4 (13:12):
Verse, no doubt.

Speaker 3 (13:13):
And I think that's the driving force, is the reaction
that people have to it as much as is therapy,
as much as it I think helps us as individuals,
as artists to just express ourselves.

Speaker 4 (13:30):
The fact that it has their reach or that appeal.

Speaker 3 (13:32):
That affect on people, because at meeting greets and passing
in traffic, like you'd be surprised the things that people
share in terms of their experiences or the impact of
something in the music right and to us it may
have just been something to express in that moment, But
I mean I had people explain that how the music
saved their life or they went through some extremely trying times.

(13:55):
I had people going through like being hospitalized, dealing with
cancer treatments. Listen to your music and every chemo treatment
until it improved. And that was the only thing that
gave me like some sense of like piece or solid otherwise.
And that's deep because I always ask like what song
was and what were you listening to, just because it's
almost always surprising, you know, it's just something there. But

(14:17):
as far as vulnerability, I think that's something that rap
especially is very very shy of. And that's like humanity,
Like everyone is so like charged up, so super powered,
that we don't get the human condition. We don't get,
you know, reality, a certain sense of gravity in the music.

(14:37):
And I don't mean in a sense of just making
sad music. I just mean for making real music. Sure,
there's a lot of times like life, life is real,
you know, and I think a lot of us have
more in common than we have, like different differences.

Speaker 2 (14:49):
We always focus on the differences. That's always getting pushed
in front of our faces.

Speaker 4 (14:52):
I got this and you don't have this.

Speaker 2 (14:54):
I'm doing turn on the news, they're gonna talk about
what why you should hate your neighbor as opposed to
what y'all agree on, you know what I'm saying.

Speaker 3 (15:01):
Sure, and so I think it's like bringing it close
to the home in that sense. But we're humans and
we made records collectively that brought us to tears, and
that's just I mean, I think that's necessary. You need
the clings, You need that purerge. Like we just walked
around like everything was all right all the time. Eventually
we did implode.

Speaker 2 (15:21):
Or you know, I can imagine when you have those
interactions with people too. It just it just has to
put like gas in the tank to be like, Yo,
we got this, this this thing, this is like, this
is touching people's lives.

Speaker 3 (15:31):
It's worth It reminds me that's worth doing, yes, regardless of.

Speaker 2 (15:35):
Like because at this point in time, I feel like
you guys could invest in real estate. I mean, I'm
not saying you guys aren't doing whatever y'all doing on
the side, but at this point in time, it's like
you you're doing this shit to feed your flock. You
have a fan base that is very much like depending
on y'all's music. Like people like I know, anytime I
post like a best of list or some ship, because
I always wuld apply to beat outs list. Man, every year,

(15:57):
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(16:38):
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get you a shirt. Let's get back to the interview.
You guys, your approach to visuals, specifically with this new
project has been super aggressive and it reminds me like

(16:59):
very much alike just O g Era blog era shit,
where you might get five six videos off of an album.
You guys have such great visuals in general. I know
you got the Michaelangel and Bugs record, which is like
a Tooby movie record, right, Would you guys ever do
like a comedy, like a buddy comedy for Tube self funded?

Speaker 3 (17:17):
I mean, I think that's that was in the subtitle there.
I think that was.

Speaker 1 (17:21):
I don't think you mean for that song.

Speaker 2 (17:24):
Would y'all do a real movie? I feel like y'all
could do like a low budget Tooby movie crack.

Speaker 3 (17:29):
That particular song was written by design to be converted
to the too Be format and that's in the works.
But as far as just laying into the there was
an undertone on one of the other videos, a shot
and floid that.

Speaker 4 (17:43):
We wanted to borrow elements of the movie Life.

Speaker 2 (17:45):
Which got great murat that might be the most slept
on Eddie Murphy movie.

Speaker 3 (17:49):
Honestly, the Step Brothers brand and large from bud.

Speaker 2 (17:54):
This is very much the wedding Crashers vibe with the artwork.

Speaker 3 (17:57):
Yeah, we have a we have a song called Wear
and Crashes on the Deluxe, but it was that was
the cover was actually from the job interview seeing and
Step Brothers when they were whiting in the lobby, and
it was just like why you were in tuxedo was
to a job interview kind of thing. But yeah, I
mean we just leaning into the the whole tandem vibe

(18:19):
and even with this one, we were just influences of
even the Hoop Dreams record on the deluxe is you know,
two lead characters, two main characters, Like you said, a
buddy film, if you will. We went through listing all
of our favorite buddy moves Leatha, Weapon, rush Hour, et cetera,

(18:39):
just in a brainstorm and thing.

Speaker 1 (18:41):
Like so, yeah, that's that's dope. But yeah, for sure, Yeah,
I don't know. Acting is tricky. I think if I think,
if if we ever truly entertained the idea, I would
want to do it right. I'm not not as far
as it being I think I think at the anything

(19:04):
you going into, you're supposed to get it. Thing you got,
So if I was to, you know, ever step into
that space, I would have to get an acting coach.
I would want to do.

Speaker 2 (19:13):
It right right. You want to give that art form
to respect the desert.

Speaker 1 (19:16):
Right exactly exactly, no matter what platform, it will wind
up being restricted, because that's really what tubit is. But
besides that, I would want to like truly dedicate time
and effort to it. I sure, you know, I would
want to give it the grace of deserve. Yeah.

Speaker 2 (19:31):
I just talk with I just tervijoyed Badass last week
and we're talking about and I was like, yo, is
it possible for you to be in acting mode and
rapper mote at the same time. He's like, man, I
think so. He was saying that. He said that he
has so much respect for both art forms, so when
he does both, he's like, I have to like something's compromised,
even if it's ten compromise, because because I'm putting so

(19:54):
much into the hip hop that I can't then go
put that much into being on set one.

Speaker 4 (20:00):
Of the other. You gotta respect the art, you know.

Speaker 3 (20:03):
I think I like the idea leaning into it with
the music, like doing like musical style for sure, like
the I.

Speaker 4 (20:10):
Think Carmen was one, Yeah, what's that?

Speaker 3 (20:14):
Yeah, I believe so the one with it was like
Othello adaptation did have some music to it, but regardless,
like making it.

Speaker 2 (20:25):
Making it kind of like a music, like if you
guys were to do it, make kind of the music
the the base like the movie.

Speaker 4 (20:31):
The dialogue musical Yeah, something to that effect.

Speaker 3 (20:35):
I mean, I feel like effect the music videos do
do that in the way, like one of our biggest
record season, Brutus, we were acting out what we're rapping,
and I think that presentation like kind of covers both ends.
But like you said, I mean, well, we're not professional actors,
but we are very descriptive in these lyrics and we

(20:55):
bring that to lif. We have the good Hot bad
Hot record, which is very cinematic, and we've been intentional
about that on this project as well. The shot and
Florida where we're in character for the sec of the
video and it's not ourselves.

Speaker 2 (21:08):
You guys, we got the whole ring and everything for
the World Rumble video. You guys like wrestling fans.

Speaker 4 (21:14):
But we had a common that we grew up as wrestling.

Speaker 2 (21:17):
There's a whole match behind.

Speaker 1 (21:19):
You grew up wrestling.

Speaker 2 (21:20):
You guys are o g wrestling?

Speaker 3 (21:22):
Yeah?

Speaker 2 (21:22):
Yeah? Are you? Are you hip to the new stuff
at all? So like what y'all's era, My ever is
nineties probably like Attitude of Air, Stone Cold and before.

Speaker 1 (21:38):
So my well, I guess I got into it like
during the Monday Night Wars.

Speaker 2 (21:45):
Yeah, that shi was great.

Speaker 1 (21:48):
Yeah, you click on the w C wall tell you
everything that's gonna happen on Yeah, it was just crazy
looking back at it, that even though he told told
us what was going to happen, who was gonna win,
still wanted to go watch, still switch the channel to
watch it. You know.

Speaker 2 (22:07):
It's funny because when they started to get come back
a little, the WWF is win d X pulled up
to the Monday night tro outside you remember that in
the tank. That is when it felt like the tide started.
You're like, oh, these fools put up on them and
stood up.

Speaker 1 (22:22):
Ones and then and then that that last realm evinciful
man stepped on them and say, yeah, you know I'm
here because I bought it. Yes, it's different just entertainment,
no more some of it. Some of this is for real,
you know, maybe maybe not the finishing moves. But you know,
he stepped on them when he said that, So you know,

(22:43):
but that's more I error than it than than now.

Speaker 4 (22:47):
What's going on now? For me, it started prior to that, like.

Speaker 3 (22:52):
Nineteen ninety is I remember having a Royal Rumble on
HS tape.

Speaker 2 (22:57):
And probably cog days World Water Ultimate Warrior.

Speaker 3 (23:01):
Yeah, and my granddad used to collect wrestling figures. Oh,
so that was kind of my introduction to it. He
was like that was his gift. He had like a
bookshelf full of wrestling figures.

Speaker 2 (23:13):
Then I got Georgs at my house.

Speaker 3 (23:15):
None of the kids could touch, and so he would,
you know, he would give us our own.

Speaker 4 (23:18):
But that was kind of up right.

Speaker 2 (23:21):
What happened to the figures I got?

Speaker 1 (23:22):
I got actually.

Speaker 4 (23:23):
Figured I got a few.

Speaker 3 (23:24):
I have a few of them that he gave me
from back then and I kept over the years.

Speaker 2 (23:27):
Yeah, I just I got break waret autographed. There he
passed away, but at the crib, I got a bunch.

Speaker 1 (23:33):
I know that I'm familiar with him, but not to
I played the I played.

Speaker 2 (23:38):
The game so much fun, the game so much fun.

Speaker 1 (23:40):
I'm familiar with. Yeah, yeah, he had your sting and
you andret and holding.

Speaker 2 (23:48):
Yeah, I'm a wrestling guy. I mean, that's why I'm excited,
because I'm going to Summerslane to watch my friend wrestle
our buddy. He's about to have a fifteen minute match wrestling.

Speaker 4 (23:57):
He wrestling.

Speaker 2 (23:58):
He's having a tag team at him and Randy Orton
versus Drew McIntyre and Logan Paul.

Speaker 1 (24:04):
One of the brother Logan Paul is one of them. Uh,
that's not the one that fall Tyson. Which one faul
Ja Wait no, no, lo wait who fought Tyson? Jacob
Ja Logan fought Floyd. Oh that was two different people.

Speaker 2 (24:21):
Yeah, both whites with blonde hair for sure, but they
got the same They have very similar names similar.

Speaker 1 (24:27):
That si one fault Tyson and fault uh Floyd.

Speaker 2 (24:31):
The Little brother fought Tyson and then the Big brother
fought Floyd vice versus the Little Brother's actual guy who
like takes boxing series right. And then Logan has He's
been like on ww TV for like two years now.
He's like a real wrestler, Like, h that's crazy, but yeah,
Jelly rose about to wrestle.

Speaker 1 (24:49):
I thought that was the same person almost like super multitask.

Speaker 2 (24:53):
He just choke slammed Logan Paul into the desk on
Jimmy Kimmel Live Jelly Roll. Jelly Roll chokes. He's doing
all the side quests, definitely the side quest God, it's
like him and Snoop. Right now, for you guys, talk

(25:15):
to me about the business model being an independent artists
and what you guys have been able to learn and
advice you would give two artists who are independent who
want to go that route, who maybe have a following
you know that they're that they're building that. You know,
maybe the major label thing doesn't make sense because you
guys have had so much success just putting numbers on

(25:35):
the board of the catalog game. You know what I'm saying.
Do you guys have any advice for anybody who wants
to be independent?

Speaker 1 (25:42):
Well, I would say, I mean, one, I wouldn't call
it advice because the way I went about it ain't
the only way to go about it, So I wouldn't.

Speaker 2 (25:52):
Yeah, not every every shoot don't fit everybody ship.

Speaker 1 (25:55):
Definitely, But one thing I will say that that you
can't do this with out. You got to have a
business mind state. I think you gotta. You have to
understand that you are a brand, and if you don't
approach it like that, then I don't think you in
the right right space for this. You got it because
you got to invest. And in most cases, even when

(26:18):
you get up the louder and you got you know,
great situations, it's still mainly depends on you putting everything
you got into it. And you gotta be willing to
put everything you got into it. And that's you know,
that's time, that's money, that's I mean you know nothing.
I don't think nothing worth having comes without sacrifice. But

(26:40):
if if you your own boss in this, you gotta
understand that you know it's your fault if you fail,
and when you win, it don't really feel like a whining,
don't feel like achievement, if that makes any sense. It
feels more like it feels more more like more like

(27:06):
a landmark, like you kind of gotta treated like like football.
You ain't so much paying attention to the touchdowns because
you know that's end all, be all, But you're trying
to get first down. So just about every achievement in
this is you making it to the first down.

Speaker 2 (27:24):
And that's a good way to put us.

Speaker 1 (27:26):
Yeah, and you know, and I think I think that's
the best way for me to describe it. Like everything
everything we do, we you know, we're fighting and hustling
to get to first down. Once we make first down,
then you know we got three more downs to get
another first down.

Speaker 2 (27:44):
Not everything has to be a touchdown.

Speaker 1 (27:46):
Right, Well, you know it take a while for us
to touch down.

Speaker 2 (27:49):
Is it might be a ten minute drive as opposed
to like a you know, one hundred and ten yard
bomb from the back of the endact.

Speaker 1 (27:57):
Those are are few and far between. The you know,
the the ninety nine yard Russias and shit, you don't
much get those. I think in this you kind of
gotta be prepared for that. Now, for some of us,
it happens, you know, you you know, sometimes it lined.

Speaker 2 (28:12):
Up like like sometimes you do.

Speaker 1 (28:14):
Yeah, sometimes you get it from there. But I think
if you're gonna be independent, you gotta be prepared for
the loan, you know, the long road. It ain't you know,
this don't happen overnight. It and sometimes it get discouraging.
I think for me and him, we just happen to
be the kind of people who aren't easily discouraged. Like

(28:35):
I I know, well I can, I can. I can
say for both of us, I've seen you know, I've
seen them in that mode. Right, But like you know,
if you tell me I can't do it, I got
a point to prove now. And Craig worked the same way,
like you know, if if you know, if if it
seems impossible, that's only impossible to to the person that

(28:56):
said it. For us, it's a challenge, all right, Well
you say I can't, let's see, let see how we
make this shape and when it don't work out, we
don't fall apart. I don't mean like as a as
a as a group, I mean as.

Speaker 2 (29:08):
People as people. Yeah, because when things don't work out,
a lot of people they get down.

Speaker 1 (29:12):
There and that be it. That you know, that that
that be the end of the run. But for us,
you know, I think the adversity is part of what
what makes you and part of what makes it worth it.

Speaker 2 (29:23):
For you, guys, what would you say throughout this musical
journey was the closest you had been to be pitting
rock bottom and being like the hardest maybe the hardest
low point to come back from.

Speaker 3 (29:37):
Yeah, I mentioned it at a time before, but I
think grief and compartmentalizing like life things was a tough
hurdle a few different times from losing some close friends,

(29:59):
people around you that may have been part of just
your life and your day to day operations. But namely
one time pronounced because I was already on account of
a hiatus, if you will, after I got a six
year old daughter, So about a year or so after
she was born, I kind of stepped away just to prioritize.

Speaker 2 (30:17):
You know, around the tavy drop maternity, to leave around
the same.

Speaker 4 (30:21):
Appreciate it. Yeah, yeah you are.

Speaker 2 (30:26):
You might be on that as well.

Speaker 3 (30:28):
But she was like one year everything for sure. She
was like one years old then. And around that time,
I just took took a step away. And about two
years or so later, when a young Dolph passed, it
was deflating. And as a peer, as a comrade, as
a collaborator, et cetera, just homie, it just it took

(30:51):
the fight out on me a lot. As you know,
I guess take an inventory of where I was career
wise and life wise, and I just was it was
difficult to find a value of all of this at
large because to watch someone from relative unknown to go
to like superstar status, and but for the way everything happened,
I just was like.

Speaker 2 (31:10):
I got Dolph on the I got a mirror Dolph
on the wall outside. That was my guy, good guy
that suck the room, like the life. Had a lot
of people who are close to him because it just
I feel like it was so unexpected.

Speaker 4 (31:21):
Yeah yeah, and that was that was definitely like a
low point in terms of I just.

Speaker 3 (31:26):
Didn't really care about like rap overall, because I mean,
rap brought us into each other's lives and so many
other people on my peers. I've been rapping professionally my
entire door life, so I am tethered to a lot
of the experiences and relationships that have come with it,
and that was I would say that was a low point.

(31:47):
And I mentioned on this album it was just kind
of echoed in my head some of those conversations we
had along the way, even early on, and I let
the same thing that was deflating and discouraging like empowered
me just the same because I value like legacy so much, right,
And I wouldn't want my story to end on a
low point or on a like a tapping out kind

(32:08):
of thing, because one, I've already grossly overachieved what I
set out for myself and going on this journey, and
I still feel like.

Speaker 4 (32:17):
We got so much left to contribute.

Speaker 3 (32:21):
And so I mean, it's that's also a joy, is
working out of those low points, because everything's ebbs and flows,
and there's been tons of things individually collective of course
for us. But when you, I mean, for the sake
of the question, that was that was a spot for me?

Speaker 2 (32:36):
What about you done for me?

Speaker 1 (32:40):
It would have to be, It had to It wasn't grief. Well,
I guess grief was kind of blended in it at
some point. I want to say, maybe like twenty into
twenty nineteen. I'd like to say, I think that is
when so right, So I guess it was mostly grief.

(33:02):
But I lost my I lost my brother, and I
think that was that was, like he said, grief. I
guess that was the probably the lowest for me because
for the first time in a very long time, music didn't.

Speaker 2 (33:20):
Help the therapeutic part of your outlet.

Speaker 1 (33:24):
Yeah. Yeah, I don't know. I couldn't. I couldn't get
it to work right then, So I don't want to
get emotional, so, you know, just a lot of a
lot of what I experienced during that time. No, I
don't know. I think I think I was dealing with

(33:46):
so much pain from you know, from from from that
moment in time, with that incident that I lost my
brother too, that I ain't really have room for I
ain't have room for tolerance with people and people's behavior.

(34:08):
So I cut a lot of people out of my
life around that time. And it was a lot going
on around that time, so it was expensive for me too,
and the combination of both one I couldn't you know,
I couldn't release music. Well, I couldn't record music, you know,
that's step one, and can't release it if I never,

(34:29):
you know, if I never don't have a song, right.
But it was becoming expensive, all the you know, all
the shit I had to deal with, you know, just
no death is on time. But it couldn't have happened
at the worst time financially. And my brother was in
the mix, so he ain't have no life insurance or

(34:50):
nothing short, so just about everything I ain't I'm not
complaining about having to cover it. I you know, I
feel like it's at least I could do. You know,
it's not like he asked me to do it or
begged me to do it. That was I mean, it
was I mean, you know, it was the only way
I could pay my respects. You know, I wouldn't want

(35:12):
him to go out any other way. But either way,
you know that that point in time, that moment in
time was was the toughest for me, and and it
took a lot for me to shake back from it.
I don't know what it was. I don't know what
what what gave me the you know, the the push

(35:32):
to turn the corner. Maybe you know, maybe it was
just the time of the timing of me not really
meeting but I already knew it. But it might have
been the timing of my relationship with my wife. It
could have been that, It could have could have been
a number of things. I can't really say. I never
really sat and evaluated, but that was a space I

(35:57):
never want to return to.

Speaker 2 (36:00):
Do you feel like you were able to heal it
all by putting out like the projects with your brother
on them, paying homage.

Speaker 1 (36:07):
To him, Well, you said, he'll at all he'll like.

Speaker 2 (36:11):
Hell like he'll at all? Like what was it was it?
Did he give you some sort of peace to be
able to like his gift with the world, to and
pay homage with him with the project?

Speaker 1 (36:19):
Definitely it was. It was relieving. I wouldn't say you
know that it cured degree of course, of course, right,
but it definitely was a great it was it was
neo sporing, definitely, because one, you know, it was one

(36:40):
thing to create the music because he recorded very Pitt
was ridiculous, man go and record. He didn't care if
the mic was too too hot. He just was recorded.
He didn't carry that he had seven people in the
booth with him. He ain't cared if he didn't own
that beat, like he just didn't carry just was recording.

(37:01):
So fast forward when it's time to well, when it
came time for me to try to put it together
and create well, you know, create music from it, I
had a lot of swording out and cleaning up to
clean the vocals, right, clean up agreements so because you know,
those didn't exist for him at least, But either way

(37:23):
from doing that, that was you know, that was one thing,
but the way it was received was that it ain't
never really I won't say if anything helped. That's what helped, Yeah,
to see how to see people really tuned in and
like you know, I started to see so many people

(37:44):
say how much they wish they could have got a
PIF project from Piff when he was here, right, and
you know I wish the same thing. I just I
ain't a big if person. I think if it's the
biggest word in the dictionary. And we Creig no Piff
well enough to know that if he was alive, it

(38:05):
would have been harder for me to create these projects.
Because Piff was my older brother. He was a year older,
but he had like a big brother complex. So the
last person he's gonna listen to.

Speaker 2 (38:18):
You because he knows better right right, and every big better.

Speaker 1 (38:24):
It dot matter how far I've made it, and this
he knows better than me. So me saying, hey, MANOK,
we've had this conversation. Hey brother, you know, maybe you
should record with not so many people in the booth
so when it's time to make your vocals, we can
hear you. He said, all right, I hear you. And
then here we are, got this song and I don't
know who's rapping because it's so people having a conversation.

(38:48):
It ain't even in the backgroun like they. I felt
like he might have been in the conversation because it's
too close. I'm like, man, I don't know what y'all
was doing, but that's not how you record. But he
knew better, he knew how to record. It just didn't care.
But I think for him it was more like I
don't know if it was therapy or now. We never
really had that conversation, right, but I feel like it

(39:09):
maybe that was the case. Maybe he was recording to
get you know, or maybe to scratch his creative itch.

Speaker 2 (39:16):
Yeah, maybe it wasn't about the music as much as
it was about, like you said, the process, right, the
therapeutic guys.

Speaker 1 (39:22):
But the trigger pod always came from the shows.

Speaker 4 (39:26):
You know.

Speaker 1 (39:27):
Pele would come with me. Pe was like the ultimate
hype man, right, and when we go and perform, well,
before we perform, p would count my back end six
hundred times and I'll say, man, you can you know
you can get show money. Yeah, let's just do step
one first. We get that together, we can move forward.

(39:47):
We could get to that, and Pete just wouldn't listen.
He was like, man, you know whatever. You know, he'd
be on board and the next day we talking about
getting the studio. Can't find him, right, And you know
I said that to say even though it was you know,
it was relieving it and you know, people wanted to
hear a full project from Piff. I can't really say

(40:08):
if he was president, we would have been able. It
would have been possible, right, And I hate that's the
you know, I hate that one is the outcome of
the other. But I can do about it right, true
to true. Definitely the civil line.

Speaker 2 (40:20):
Hey, you gotta stop the interview. You want to give
a shout out?

Speaker 1 (40:22):
Man?

Speaker 2 (40:22):
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 flap woods,
it's literally because they slap You ain't smoke a slap woods.
What the fuck are you doing?

Speaker 4 (40:37):
Get back to you.

Speaker 2 (40:39):
Last year you went on a pretty prolific run of
dropping projects. Well it was it was really like yeah,
twenty twenty four or twenty twenty three, twenty twenty four,
it was very much like it.

Speaker 1 (40:50):
Was a tape?

Speaker 2 (40:50):
Was it every month?

Speaker 4 (40:51):
Yeah?

Speaker 1 (40:51):
Yeah, twenty four tapes secutively.

Speaker 2 (40:54):
You know, like that is something that is for anybody,
just the process of going to the studio, song structure,
having that much inspiration to write beat clearances, the agreements,
Socide agreement. I mean, my goodness, bro.

Speaker 1 (41:11):
It was a lot of work. It was definitely a
lot of work, but it was it was it was invigorating.
It was almost like I need to like you know
some people. He wanted the people now wake up really shit,
to go run right, even when you don't feel like
going to run right.

Speaker 2 (41:30):
It was like that for me, like that was instead
of exercise, and you were like I gotta.

Speaker 1 (41:34):
Yeah, well I was it was still I was. It
was what jay Z called it, a lyrical exercise. Okay, yeah,
So for me, I don't I don't record the way
I used to record when I was younger. We used
to record hundreds of songs, and then you got a
hard drive, got a hundred songs on it, and when
it's time to put a mixtape out, I go in
and record thirty songs. Pick fifteen of those songs. Now

(41:56):
I got one hundred and fifteen songs on the hard drive.
So at some point when I just said, fuck that,
I can't really rock with this. I can't keep doing this.
And after fifth passed my I don't know, my head
was all over the place. So I sat down one
day and when I started it was in January. As
a matter of fact, when I started recording, I I

(42:19):
called myself trying to like format the song, and I
was like, all right, okay, I know I got what
I want to say in the verse, how I want
to do that hook? And I was just like, man,
fucking pif didn't care. He a you know, I ain't
care about if it had a hook or what. He
just me he was in there with other people in
the booth with him. So I'm like, you know, maybe

(42:42):
maybe me thinking this hard about it, I ain't as
constructive as I as I once thought it was. So
I just went in and just you know, it was
free flowing. And from that, since I don't record every
day like I used to, I was January days, January
thirty one.

Speaker 2 (43:02):
I was born in January, so I should now well
the tape.

Speaker 1 (43:05):
Whatever day the tape came out, I want to say
it was the last Friday of January is when the
first tape was released, and all the records were recorded
that same week. Every recorded a couple of days before.

Speaker 2 (43:17):
It was like a kind of like a real time thing,
every table, every twenty four times.

Speaker 4 (43:22):
He's a cycle man.

Speaker 1 (43:23):
We was. I was in New York when he fit
when he discovered this. I was in New York. It
was October. As a matter of fact, I want to
say one in October. Yeah, I'm in New York. It's October.
And he hit me. He was like, man, you know,
what's the end goal? What's the plan when you do

(43:43):
your December tape? Because it was the first three right right?
Initially our come you know, we we intended to do
Step Brothers four, right, right after the.

Speaker 2 (43:56):
Three yeah.

Speaker 1 (43:59):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, but see after the twelfth tape, I
don't know. Well, part of why I went for twelve
more is a comment I kept seeing. It was recurring.
You know, you would get one person or a few
people would praise me for having twelve consecutive tapes, and
then you got the people that they got to come

(44:20):
and say that currency did it, and Pat Poos did.
I said, you know what, I'm sick of it, and
I'm you know, I'm I'm aware enough to understand that
a lot of the times they just be baiting you,
because what people wanted was for me to be like,
well fuck currency, it ain't about currency, but that all

(44:42):
that does is create a riff between me and currency
because they had nothing to do with so sad. All right,
you know what, Let's see if you can still say
that after I do it twelve more times. And while
we was having this conversation, Craig said, okay, you know,
at the end of that conversation, I was telling them
I gotta get our engineer on the phone because I
can't get this equipment to work. This is like, this

(45:05):
is last week of October. Well, you know, the last
week with a Friday. So he was like, what it
how much you got I was like nothing. He was
like what I said, I don't have a single song.
You can't be serious.

Speaker 2 (45:19):
I'm like, man, Friday, it's like Tuesday. Wait, so it's
Tuesday and you were playing on dropping an album that
doesn't it hasn't even been recorded.

Speaker 3 (45:28):
He's telling me, you know a verse for me. I'm like, cool,
how much you got done? And he's like nothing, I
don't have to.

Speaker 1 (45:36):
I didn't have a song. How's your distributor? Connect Connect
Music Group? Okay, so what that's right? Connect Music Group?

Speaker 4 (45:45):
Right?

Speaker 1 (45:48):
Okay, it's just Connect.

Speaker 2 (45:49):
Connect Music to you, guys, this is crazy. So you
record this October album and two days, three days?

Speaker 1 (45:57):
Two or three days? Well about two days because it's
gotta be turned in Thursday morning.

Speaker 2 (46:01):
You yourself at the very least to make your life easier. Okay,
thank god, Well it does.

Speaker 1 (46:07):
That does not make my life easier because I'm recording
at home with eight kids, so not so much.

Speaker 2 (46:18):
Trust me. I recorded my radio show at home. Sometimes
I'll be in my fucking office and the kids got
the dogs going crazy in the living.

Speaker 1 (46:24):
Room, and I'm like, well, you got shut the fuck up. Well,
for me, what I did was was what Piff would
have did. Some of my songs got your kids, you
hear my kids. I respect it. But I sat down
with my uh, with my distributor for the first tape,
and I told him I had a plan to do
like twelve straight and they said with anybody would have

(46:47):
said it was like okay, yeah, yeah. That's then three
tapes in and it was like okay, all right, all right,
and then we got to like take five or six
and it's like, okay, it's time to sit down. We
got let's let's figure with music. Is because you did
a serious and you know, they they they really helped
become a partner in that to help me, you know,

(47:09):
streamlining along because me being able to record it is
just one part us being able to come up with
a game plan immediately after it's recorded or sometimes while
it's being recorded. That was the contributing factor because you know,
it's a two part thing, you know, me recording and
it being released there you know, it being released it

(47:29):
is the most important part of this. So with that,
like I said, you know, I recorded every tape the
same way. I didn't do it on purpose. You know
in real time, I spent you know, the first three
weeks I spent with my family and.

Speaker 2 (47:43):
Then the last week the last week him. So in
the fourth quarter, you start from scratch.

Speaker 1 (47:49):
Yeah. Every time my enginet uh said I should name
my record label Last Minute Records. But you know, my
my guy hit me and he was like, man, you
know how looking well, you know we no no no
for for for he's wild connect so yeah, he ma
and he ask you know how we're looking, uh, you know,

(48:12):
trying to upload this might be Monday when he asked this,
and I give him the same dope boy lie every
time he got him like yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, Uh,
it's getting mixed and mastered right now. Meanwhile, there's nothing,
there's nothing there. It's invisible. It don't even exist. But
by the time, you know, once I get it wrapped,
that's the other thing I got it. I don't know

(48:33):
if they you know, you never really know when people
are tuned in. But for that's Cavin Zula Yela. I
hope I say your name right no you forever, but
no one you can't say it right. So Cavin Zula
Yella was my mixing engineer. He's been my engineer since
twenty teams recorded every record I've done or you know,
recorded and mixed except for you know, the records I've

(48:55):
done recorded myself. But he had to mix all those
two and Kevin Knicks, Kevin Knicks stood in and mixed
twenty four projects straight, I mean mastered twenty four projects straight.
And you know, like I said, that was like it
was a true team effort.

Speaker 3 (49:11):
You know.

Speaker 1 (49:12):
I get through dropping vocals and I sent it to
my mixing engineer. He sent it back to me. We approve,
and then we sent it to mastering and then from
there we get it to distribution.

Speaker 3 (49:24):
So then to cut you off though with that whole
process when we were talking about downtimes, down period, that process,
like witnessing that was like ultimately inspiring.

Speaker 2 (49:39):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (49:40):
I was in that same time when he said when
his distributor started to take it seriously, like all right,
let's get some structure to this and see, you know,
take it further. Simultaneously, I was going through like the
worst writers block. I wanted to snap out of it
and get back in the mix. And we had conversations
like I just asked, like, how are you doing this?
I think I may have made released five or six

(50:01):
projects in the calendar year, and now it's still impressive,
living and breathing rap music. So I'm like, monthly, this
is this is crazy and how are you able to
do this? I can't put four bars together right now.
He's like, you're thinking too hard. Some of the same
things he said. But but when you asked earlier about
the independent thing, I would share that as an ND

(50:21):
you have to be willing to work and do the work.
But there's no shortcut, there's no side stepping because it's
only your primarily that that's what you're asking for, is
what you're signing up for to do that willingly. And two,
you have to have a plan. It has to be
about executing the planing. So to here on the front end,
I'm doing I'm gonna do this. The main ingredient was

(50:42):
he put the work execution, if it was two or
three days at a time. It was just like seeing
that and you know, that candid conversation we had in
the first you know, early on in this process helped
get me out of that that rut. I wrote a
song called Writer's Blood on the back end of us
having that conversation, I'm like, man, I'm having writers. Well,

(51:04):
he was like, I think your audience would like to
hear you talk about that. You should write a song
about having writers. Sure, And I was like wow.

Speaker 2 (51:11):
It was just like y'all so transparent with your lives. Man,
that's sort They ended up being an intro to my
next solo project. Like you said, toward the end of
the year, I'm like, all right, I'm dropping in December,
and now number twelve, let's lock in on Step Brothers four.

Speaker 3 (51:27):
And he was like, oh, yeah, I'm about to do
it again. I'm about to do thirteen through twenty.

Speaker 2 (51:31):
He's like, I have to prove these comments wrong, and yeah.

Speaker 3 (51:34):
OK, so for everybody out there, he technically he do
one of those years of the delay Step Brothers three
and four, But that was a blessing.

Speaker 2 (51:46):
So my question for you don because like, I feel
like there's got to be a gift in the curse
to releasing so much music, because do you feel like
some music doesn't get worked a proper way? Do you
feel like it doesn't give your fans time to really
just these albums.

Speaker 1 (51:57):
Or you're just like I used to look at it
like that. I used to not did notice this twenty
four takes. I used to look at music like that,
and then I started seeing I think Craig called him something.
I liked legacy artists. I started seeing legacy artists stepped
backwards and shoot videos to the songs that was twenty

(52:22):
five years old.

Speaker 2 (52:23):
Yeah, Juvenile shot that four hundred right.

Speaker 1 (52:25):
Project Pat did it. I can't remember what.

Speaker 2 (52:27):
I't remember that he did.

Speaker 1 (52:29):
I can't remember what record that was, but Project Pat
did it. When he did it, I said wow. And
then Juvenile did it, I was like, oh, okay, and
then I saw what's my guy? I saw shock Glizzity
put out a video to a song.

Speaker 4 (52:44):
It was a white girl, yeah right.

Speaker 1 (52:46):
I think it was like ten years old when he
put a video to it. And then on on the
highest level, I watched that uh Chris Brown record.

Speaker 2 (52:55):
Pop Yeah, And the Chris Brown record was from like
it was like three or four years old. I remember
the radio guy and I remember seeing that the song
on the chart and I was like, yo, that can't
be the same song from Mike.

Speaker 1 (53:07):
Well, see, I ain't in tune. So I'm round with
my wife. Well in the rare occasion that she drives,
so she's driving.

Speaker 2 (53:15):
That's that statement. Because the same thing goes for my
fucking wife.

Speaker 1 (53:18):
Yeah, she's a attitude, yeah, Bud, her ass cheeks are
engraved in the seat. But either way, man, she was
playing that the she was playing the Chris Brown record.
I'm like, you know, I've been seeing a lot of
that on the internet, and I was like, damn, you
know that it's cool to see, you know, to see
artists maintain a longevity. And I was like, you know,

(53:42):
that's cool. I saw somewhere that the video was coming
and she was like, yeah, that song came out three
years ago. It was like three years ago. She was,
you know, she was saying it almost like you know,
she want to hear new music now. I'm thinking like
this nigga pulled a video out from a song he
released three years ago. It's okay, well, ship, if Chris

(54:03):
Brown can reach back and pull a record out, and
you know, cause a game and whatever traction in the game,
it gained it three years later for sure, somebody. Man,
I couldn't help but look at my music the same way.
So with twenty four projects, it's like three hundred plus songs,
and with that I kind of view it. I kind
of view it like a show on Netflix.

Speaker 2 (54:24):
You can be and people can go back and rewatch right.

Speaker 1 (54:27):
You ain't caught up the season seven years.

Speaker 2 (54:29):
I didn't watch Breaking Bad when it came out.

Speaker 1 (54:31):
I didn't either. I won't hire to go back exactly.
But that's that's how I look at it. I look
at like, all right, you know, you might have called
on Lake and if you call it on late go
dive in, you welcome the goal, go binge watch and
you know what being's listen right, it's more there and
it gives you the space to to live with some

(54:52):
of it. If you know, you go back twenty four tapes,
let's say five or six tapes in, it's a song
that that you living through right there, right in that moment,
and that's the one that speaks to you. And all
you've heard is that you know, you've been playing that song.
That's part of the soundtrack to your life. Now that's fine,
you you know, when you get to the rest of
the records, then so be it. But if one of

(55:14):
those records out of three hundred some records, and one
of them became the soundtrack to your life, then I
did something right.

Speaker 2 (55:21):
That's amazing. So you guys, get through the twenty four albums, right,
and then you finally have his attention?

Speaker 4 (55:28):
Yeah? Right?

Speaker 2 (55:30):
Could you finally have attention to work on Step Brothers fourth?

Speaker 1 (55:34):
Right? What for you guys like it?

Speaker 2 (55:38):
Like we talked about the intent earlier on you guys
kind of meeting up and going through some of your
favorite buddy cop movies and all. I mean, I feel
like the intent was was it comes through the music.
But just break down to me what it was like
to finally like lock in. Cause twenty seventeen was Step
Brothers three, So that's seven years later. You guys have
each been through a ton eight years later.

Speaker 1 (56:00):
I take the last year it was my fut.

Speaker 2 (56:04):
What what is like? How does it feel to get
back in and just be super locked in with intent,
with purpose to do this album?

Speaker 4 (56:11):
It felt it felt great. Honestly, it felt nostalgic.

Speaker 3 (56:17):
I think it is one way of viewing it because,
like we said, we go back to twenty eleven with
this collective brand and working in tandem and getting back
in to like make this project. The focus and the
priority was just it was a breath of fresh air.

(56:37):
Because I say it all the time, it lightens the load,
you know, in a sense, of I don't have to
do half the work, I don't have to split half
the balls, and my counterpart is prolific. So on one end,
I got like all the confidence in the world that

(56:58):
you know, he's gonna fill in the blanks or whatever
is there. And then also it gives me it sets
the bar so high that it's not really possible to
like half step, you know, with what I bring into
the fold.

Speaker 2 (57:14):
So that's that's like.

Speaker 3 (57:17):
A cool feeling of like still sharp and still as
they say. And also it was almost effortless, you know,
we felt like listening to the music, it feels like
y'all were just in there. Yeah, we recorded seventeen songs
to deliver the sixteen records that were Step Brothers for
Life originally and for the deluxe the eight new records

(57:39):
that we just dropped and added to the album.

Speaker 4 (57:41):
We recorded eight songs and you got eight of them.

Speaker 3 (57:44):
So it's not it's not just like throwing, you know,
painting at the walls, they say, or just doing a
lot and picking the best of it.

Speaker 4 (57:52):
What you got is is what we came up with.
And all those other than origins, all those are new record.

Speaker 3 (58:00):
Origins was recorded almost immediately after Step Brothers three and
as they say, the truth doesn't change.

Speaker 4 (58:05):
We're telling our origin story and that's just.

Speaker 3 (58:07):
What it was.

Speaker 2 (58:09):
I feel like more artists need to do that where
they're like, I feel like so many people going to
the studio with a half assed approach and then picked
through a bunch of half assed records.

Speaker 3 (58:17):
And most deluxeies are the leftovers a correct and so
we were intentional of like not one, to just give you.

Speaker 4 (58:27):
One. There was only one song that didn't make it,
but also.

Speaker 1 (58:32):
Didn't make for I mean, which is great.

Speaker 2 (58:35):
If it didn' make the original, shouldn't make it.

Speaker 3 (58:37):
And that's how we we agreed on that as artists,
and not to mention, we put the project out as
being well received. We immediately got on the road start
touring off of it. We added six of the records
to our live show, and it's like, man, people are
really feeling this. We kind of made it our duty
or almost felt and dead it like we need to
give them more, Like this is working, it's just text.

Speaker 1 (59:00):
Now.

Speaker 3 (59:00):
Yeah's take that energy and double down on it. And
that's why I was four and a half, like truly
like its own thing or supplement to what we are
presenting because after all, people wait to eight years, so
it only had to wait two months.

Speaker 2 (59:13):
Even like a call back to like clips earlier, they
said the same thing. They said there was nothing to recorded,
didn't make the album. What you heard was the album,
and that's how we recorded it. There was not like
fat that we had to cut in the process. How
many records on it's twelve or thirteen, okay, but it's like,
you know, it's like when you go into the studio

(59:33):
and you actually take time and intent with your with
your music. It's sure it's gonna take you longer.

Speaker 3 (59:39):
But I think that's a different that's a difference in
synergy as well, Like we we get along where we
have a camaraderie that extends past beats and bars and
making music. So making the music together is the second
nightra thing, like I was in his wedding, Like we
around the family functions.

Speaker 2 (01:00:00):
You guys got the kids on the cover.

Speaker 1 (01:00:01):
Yeah, sure it was.

Speaker 3 (01:00:02):
Intentionally a family portrait because that's the bond we forged
over time. That is not it's not an aesthetic, it's
not something that we're presenting. So even in those eight years,
we spent more time together and had more experiences than
between two and three, not just because it's more time,
just we just grew closer. And so that's what I

(01:00:24):
heard from the Clips album is just the it seems.
It appears as though I imagine so. But they like
making music together. They seem to be in a good space,
you know, even presenting the album on the marketing then
and as on a fan level, like think about how
many collaborative projects we've seen in the last I guess
ten years or so, where that's all you got from

(01:00:46):
those two artists.

Speaker 4 (01:00:47):
They did that at each.

Speaker 2 (01:00:51):
Other, collaborative, mutually beneficial, primary artist see him right, And
a lot of times they do those albums and then
they fuck with each other when the album's coming zactly
like there's a money Bag, you know, and Be a
Young Boy tape that came out. And by the time
the tape came out and Be a Young Boy was
like I with this album.

Speaker 1 (01:01:09):
But it's like it's interesting because I'm maybe what you
what you're talking about. I never quite understood that. You know,
I don't know either of them, so I don't know
they the dynamic of it. But I agree a lot
of the a lot of the tandem projects. You here
don't have an actual camaraderie.

Speaker 2 (01:01:29):
You said, synergy, it's just the cash.

Speaker 4 (01:01:31):
I like working with people that like one I'm fans of,
or that you know, I like them as people. That
makes it a whole lot easier.

Speaker 2 (01:01:40):
I mean, because if this works out, we're gonna maybe
going the road together, We're gonna.

Speaker 4 (01:01:44):
Have to be money in scenario. But if it's just
the business in front of it, it's kind of like.

Speaker 2 (01:01:51):
I wonder if you done, what are your thoughts on
on just Memphis in general right now? Because I believe
it was Steven Ace s Myth who came out and
said that there's players who don't want to get drafted
to the Grizzlies because of maybe some of the negative
connotations about Memphis. It feels like, you know, like I

(01:02:12):
said on the hip hop side, Memphis has had.

Speaker 1 (01:02:13):
Such a huge stephen A.

Speaker 2 (01:02:15):
Smith is he wasn't for He's allowed.

Speaker 1 (01:02:20):
It's definitely can't be fad stephen A.

Speaker 2 (01:02:24):
Smith from ESPN. Okay, so they're talking about a draft
and he was saying how certain players don't want to
go to the Grizzlies because of how dangerous Memphis. But
I wonder for you man like obviously Memphis has became
like a you know, we were coming up, it was
like Atlanta, New York, LA, and then the rest of

(01:02:45):
the country. But now Memphis is one of those cities
as og from Memphis, like, what is your kind of
perspective of where Memphis hip hop is?

Speaker 1 (01:02:54):
And just like the city in general well as far
as music, I think Memphis has come along way. I
think we should have got some ways to go. A
lot of Memphis artists aspire to have the kind of
the kind of what's the word they always use. Unity.

(01:03:14):
They have the kind of same kind of unity that
they have in Atlanta. And I think part of why
we don't really have the unity they have in Atlanta
is because in Atlanta when artists don't really at least
when I was coming up, when artists didn't get along
in Atlanta, Atlanta's the only people that knew it. We

(01:03:36):
never knew.

Speaker 2 (01:03:38):
Yeah, there wasn't like YouTube documentaries, right, you got a.

Speaker 1 (01:03:42):
Little tricky when they had like real, real thick beef,
you know, like you know, we just about knew everybody
Gucci Man was beefing with.

Speaker 2 (01:03:50):
But of course, of course, yeah, but you.

Speaker 1 (01:03:52):
Know, past that, the people that just didn't get along.
We didn't hear about it. We didn't know about it.
And in some cases they would have like a mutual
friend or something, so they end up on the same
records even though they don't rock with each other. And
in Memphis it is a little different, and it's like
I would like to say, it's kind of the same

(01:04:13):
way everywhere with the gang coaches. You know, we grew
up it was you know, it was designated sets. It
was like, you know, it was bloods, it was crips,
vice lords and gd's, and now they got like hybrid gangs.
So the hybrid game might have all of those blood
crip and GD and when certain people in that game

(01:04:35):
stopped getting along, a branch out and spawned a new
hybrid gang. And for you know what, the city is
filled with hybrid gangs. And now when with music, now
everybody's record labels really the name of their gang.

Speaker 2 (01:04:51):
I mean yeah, I mean we've seen it over and
over with the way the ricos are working on the
speculated records that are coming in.

Speaker 1 (01:04:57):
But see what I think that's part of by musically
the unit is not present. I think, you know, like
I said, I think we got some ways to go
before we get to that space. I don't really have
a stake in any of that. I always I never
really been into being the other people's business, right, And
for me, I think the respect that that that I

(01:05:20):
do receive from Memphis artists old and young, it's at
a level where they understand that whatever they got going
on don't got nothing to do with me. I ain't
picking the side of nothing that that didn't involve me
as far as Memphis as a whole or as a culture.

Speaker 2 (01:05:36):
Like for what just just say Steve Stephen Smith when
he was saying that certain players wouldn't sign there or
don't want to be drafted there because of the perception
of how dangerous city, I don't think.

Speaker 1 (01:05:50):
I don't think they play a factor. I think it's
dangerous everywhere. I mean, you know that that just is
what it is, the same way you know you got
crime and Memphis you got it, everybody in l A.

Speaker 2 (01:06:00):
You got it in the Bay, you got it, in
Nashville got it.

Speaker 1 (01:06:05):
It's there's people getting killed in Nebraska. So I think
I think that was I think that might have been
an ignorant statement to make. Probably I don't think that
he got a lot of help for it. Okay, well
he deserved it if that was your statement, because I
mean again, you know you got you got some fucked

(01:06:28):
up places in America, for sure.

Speaker 2 (01:06:31):
They Gary Indiana exists.

Speaker 1 (01:06:34):
Michael Jordan played for Chicago right right in Chicago. Ain't
you know? It ain't sucking? It ain't it ain't what
was Mayberry for sure. So I don't know the.

Speaker 3 (01:06:48):
Job.

Speaker 2 (01:06:49):
You said that when you said that earlier about the
Atlantic guys being on I think back to the remember
the Young Buck songs stomp. Yeah, it was talking about
and then and t I on the on the same record,
and then the album version came out and they replaced.
I forget who got replaced with the game. I think
it relaced with the Game.

Speaker 3 (01:07:06):
Yeah, I was in the studio when when Buck got
the Ludacris verse. I was actually there when he first
heard through.

Speaker 2 (01:07:13):
What was what was his reaction?

Speaker 3 (01:07:17):
Well, I heard the t I versus the studio and
I'm miss telling I'm telling the story wrong. I heard
the t I verse with Young Buck in the studio
like before I ever dropped the project. Yeah, and I
was in the club with a bunch of the BMF
guys in two thousand and four, I was at the
After I Was club in Atlanta. I think Atrian was

(01:07:38):
in the name of it. I was Jesus flew me
to Atlanta trying to signon the CT at the time,
and I'm in after I was third club we went
to that night and the DJ played the Ludacris verse
in the club and one of the BMF guys, I
want to say, got like a thousand dollars for the.

Speaker 4 (01:07:53):
CD because this was not you weren't sending files.

Speaker 3 (01:07:57):
Right, But they played it a bunch of times, and
I remember I had heard the Tiavars it was unreleased.
I heard that maybe six months prior, and I knew
he kind of di Ludacris on there. And I played
this in the club, like I said, four in the morning,
and I was like, I was like, man, that's a
missy shit right.

Speaker 4 (01:08:14):
Then you got two people on the sun so on
this and each other. But like you said, they came
out differently than that.

Speaker 2 (01:08:19):
But they should have put that out because it was
out of the mixtape scene for so long, and then
when the album came out, you're like, ah, come on.

Speaker 1 (01:08:26):
Well yeah, it was like the Southern verb not to
the same extent, but like the southern version of full
three to two one.

Speaker 2 (01:08:35):
Right, yeah, the cannabis ll shit, yeah that's fair. Hey,
we gott to wrap up this interview, another one presented
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salute to them. Let's get back to the interview. What
about you start legal Because I feel like Nashville has
kind of been a city that's always had like an
interesting you know, there's been successful artists out of Nashville, yourself,
we mentioned Young Buck. I'm glad you guys squashed your

(01:09:38):
issues too. But uh, then there's like a guy like
Jelly Roll who and Struggle, and you know there's kind
of like the kind of that white boy like side
of the Nashville hip hop scene. There was a Haystack
was from Nashville, you know what I'm saying. But for you, like,
you know, Nashville is very much like countries like so

(01:09:59):
big right now, and so as a city like Nashville
is probably bigger than it's ever been in terms of
like people coming there, writers coming there for obviously that genre.
But on the hip hop side, where do you kind
of see Nashville right now? And is there any up
and cooming artists that you think are dope that maybe
have a.

Speaker 4 (01:10:14):
Chance to Yeah, there's there's a bunch of them. That's several.

Speaker 3 (01:10:18):
I think we're right at that on the cusp of
blossoming and creating more of a presence overall, hopefully in
the hip hop space.

Speaker 4 (01:10:27):
I mean, obviously that's what my roots are. Like you said,
the scale of music.

Speaker 3 (01:10:31):
Business in Nashville's I hope all my peers and comrades
that are working just keep working because I think genres
are starting to overlap more than anything. Shaboozi record is
a rap record reworked in the country.

Speaker 2 (01:10:44):
He reworked.

Speaker 4 (01:10:47):
What his name Shaboozi the artists.

Speaker 2 (01:10:51):
By the way, this is the number one most successful
Billboard song ever. It's spout more weeks in number one
than any song.

Speaker 1 (01:10:56):
And it's around is Shaboozi.

Speaker 4 (01:10:58):
Yes, it's a wrap. Yeah, he's a loose that's.

Speaker 1 (01:11:05):
Completely not I heard the country version of Tipsy. I just.

Speaker 3 (01:11:11):
And to see a rap song being reworked reformatic for
country and having that kind of success, I think it's
very much an indicative of how close music is music.

Speaker 4 (01:11:23):
And so, like I said to.

Speaker 2 (01:11:27):
Don't, I don't believe I think it's I think he's
from Virginia.

Speaker 4 (01:11:31):
Yeah, I don't think he's from Nasville.

Speaker 2 (01:11:33):
But I don't mean to cut you off, but he's
been in Nashville for a while.

Speaker 1 (01:11:37):
But yeah, okay, he was making me.

Speaker 3 (01:11:41):
Country music is the lifeline of music business in nash
like people come there to establish themselves in that genre.

Speaker 4 (01:11:49):
I think we got some rich history as far as
rap goes. You mentioned some of it. There's quantity cash pistol.

Speaker 3 (01:11:57):
Artists that early on for me, even before I was rapping,
that I saw have presence, you know, get the surface level.
And even now there's a ton of artists that I
feel like, all right there. It's Tim Jent. I think
he's promising. Got a lot of talent from the area.
The producer band play as you know, multi platinum producer

(01:12:20):
and all over the place. We're working on an album
together to tell a different story in Nashville musically, and
then tends to have some of the mash up and
overlap from genres because.

Speaker 4 (01:12:33):
We're piers with neighbors.

Speaker 3 (01:12:34):
I mean, for a long time, I just started like
really getting my foot in the door on music Row
is where a lot of the studios.

Speaker 2 (01:12:43):
Man like you just go in there and jump in
any of those writer rooms.

Speaker 3 (01:12:46):
And I've been doing it recently, and I challenged those
around me. I see some of my peers, some of
my buddies like Little Vags, Sweet Poison. These are some
Nashville based artists that I feel like doing the footwork
and trying to rap hustle, which is something that our
champion and admire. Like I said, I mean there's too

(01:13:09):
many tonight, but uh, Big Top and Trapping Man del
that both artists on my label ground hard that that
are right there. And you know, I just think, like
I said, you just got to put the work in
or figure out how to make yourself stand out amongst
what's going.

Speaker 4 (01:13:28):
On, you know, globally or everywhere.

Speaker 3 (01:13:31):
But I think with Nashville is like the fastest growing city.
It's been the fastest growing city in the Middle State.

Speaker 2 (01:13:38):
Tax got to Tennessee. Yeah, I got it figured out
out there rough out here. It's fucked out here, but.

Speaker 3 (01:13:45):
But yes, I mean, like I said, is we're right there,
you know, on the cusp of emerging and breaking through
that has been you mentioned some of the artists and
it's like a cultural divide. I just think we got
a rise above all those like labels and stig model
and just just do the work and if we get

(01:14:06):
like behind each other. There's a big record out of
Nashville from Black Wizzle called Cashville Be Balling, and I've
seen it this summer, like in his own way, unite
people and create a sense of unity and pride, and
that was it was refreshing that it almost felt like
throwback to just see people.

Speaker 4 (01:14:28):
Where I'm from get excited about something. Musically.

Speaker 3 (01:14:32):
Me and Jelov had some conversations about that record specifically,
just he told me it was like, it's two things
he's been waiting on, and it's for me to want
to put myself back out there in the whole mix
of everything with my music. And he was like, he's
been waiting on someone from Nashville to make a hit.
And he was like, man, both of those things that
happened simultaneously with me working the album with Don Tripp

(01:14:55):
and also with Black Wizzles Records. So it's a lot
to look out for. I just I just think we
just gotta keep working like and creating. I mean, I've
seen other cities of the markets like blossom, like Detroit
is going to Texas, you know.

Speaker 2 (01:15:14):
Obviously, yeah, Dallas is doing this. The big action is
going crazy. You talk about the genre stuff, he's doing
country stuff, right. I do think it's interesting too, because
it's like, you know, Nashville literally is one of the
biggest music I mean, it's where the entire country industry exists. Like,
if you want to sign a country record deal, you
ain't coming to LA You ain't going to New York, right,
you got to go to the office in Nashville. So

(01:15:36):
it's such a big music city. But on the hip
hop side, it's always been like I feel like far
and few between in terms of like the artists that like,
you know, I'm from Phoenix, lived in Vegas, lived in Florida.
That I like, it started with Young Buck obviously Nashville's
cash feel as a kid, you know what I'm saying.
But I think it's you know, it's been dope to
see like some of the energy, like you said, like yo,

(01:16:00):
the genre shit like you said, it's like, Yo, if
you're a talented writer and you live in Nashville, you
could be a rapper. But if you got a pain,
like you could go get a pub bag.

Speaker 3 (01:16:10):
Yeah yeah, I mean as a kid, a little bree
from there that's doing some interesting overlap things. My buddy
Broadway Bow actually just play NFL football. It's definitely like
being super experimental, like he's got a dope pin and
trying to like take it there. In terms of the

(01:16:32):
genre bending, meltwy things and you know, working amongst all that,
Like you said, it's right there. It's had a finger
to I do think one thing, with the Internet and
how small makes the world, I think we got to
erase those geographical boundaries and whatnot kind of.

Speaker 2 (01:16:49):
I mean, they've kind of been a race, to be fair,
But you gotta put yourself.

Speaker 3 (01:16:52):
Out there, like when you mentioned young Bug, even for myself,
even for Jelly, Like I think our ability to navigate
the music realm and business outside of just what was
contained in Nashville, it rights our selling and our growth potential. Like,
you got to put yourself out there. You got to
get uncomfortable. I'm two thousand miles away from home sitting

(01:17:15):
there talking to you. That's a part of the process.
Like I know, the difference in just putting the music
in the marketplace and thinking it's gonna push yourself. Sure
I have a core audience and following, but you gotta
do the work. You got to introduce yourself and try
to grow audience.

Speaker 4 (01:17:28):
That's the name of it.

Speaker 3 (01:17:29):
And I play on my feet in Memphis, Tennessee, and
I've lived in Atlanta at different times, even early in
my career. Just for the second networking because Nashville didn't
have an urban music scene like that.

Speaker 4 (01:17:41):
But some of these other places have.

Speaker 2 (01:17:44):
You had to go. I mean you said you were
hanging out with BMF at the Strip Woman in Atlanta
probably two thousand and four.

Speaker 3 (01:17:48):
Yeah, yeah, it was about virtual, just trying to see
something else. I was down in New Orleans for the
Essence Festival that same summer, you know, rubbing shutters and
cash money, and which led to that deal.

Speaker 2 (01:18:00):
We're going to one of these crazy bingth parties we
hear about that was the Tis.

Speaker 4 (01:18:05):
It was in that same time.

Speaker 3 (01:18:06):
I mean, they had like millions of dollars worth of
cars parked out front when we left.

Speaker 2 (01:18:12):
Just always hear about the wild Animals, which is like,
you know.

Speaker 4 (01:18:15):
Yeah, I think that was somebody's birthday party.

Speaker 2 (01:18:17):
So yeah, but I do.

Speaker 4 (01:18:18):
I can't say I was around enough to see that
a lot of that was was real, But that's to
my point. I was able to see that the.

Speaker 3 (01:18:25):
World was bigger than what I knew in Easter Nashville,
and so we thought we were bowling. We were young,
getting some money and putting on locally when I went
down there, and I'll never forget this. My manager at
the time shout out to Linel Matthews works with Juvenile.
He's Junile court clerk and you know, doing great things.

(01:18:45):
But at this time we're traveling with down there and
like I said, third club, like, uh, drinking a bottle
of champagne some like PJ is period aro. I'd never
seen this kind of champagne before. It was probably five
was a bottle on the club. Somebody with them gives
me a bottle. I'm I'm drunk, I'm exhausted, I'm tired

(01:19:05):
of partying. By this time, I passed him a bottle
and somebody taps me on the shoulders like, hey, you
was such and such like yeah, hands men know the
bottles like man, we don't even shut cigarettes and just
walks off.

Speaker 4 (01:19:16):
I don't know who this was, and at that time
it was like, yeah, he's just stunning on me. But
it also gave me something to aspis to him, like
now we're not really doing it big.

Speaker 2 (01:19:25):
Yeah. I always tell people, because you know, I'm from
Phoenix and so like I always tell whether it's a
you know, DJ or artist, I'm like, yo, get out,
you got to see the world because perspectives everything right
right right, it's real easy to get wrapped up in
your local hip hop politics. I'm like, funk all that,
get out right, shake hands, see the world, see the country,

(01:19:46):
and understand that it's bigger than just your shitty and
just the same.

Speaker 3 (01:19:49):
I got around artists in different pockets, different spaces and
saw that they were working. They were working harder than
me and my peers were at that time, Like we
we wanted it and we were we were at it.
But to see people like living and breathing and ship
it was like, Okay, this is why they are where
they are. That was the main thing I took from
my time of cash money like it was an operation,

(01:20:11):
like it was.

Speaker 4 (01:20:12):
It wasn't just.

Speaker 3 (01:20:15):
Basking in it. And they were who they were when
I met them, but they were working like they weren't.

Speaker 2 (01:20:20):
Sure, like they weren't already you know. Yeah, it was
a compound. And I took that with me, like yeah,
you gotta got I mean that was around.

Speaker 4 (01:20:30):
That was around Card one was.

Speaker 3 (01:20:34):
The around of time I drove the Essence Festival listening
to a bootleg version of the Card One and we
got there. That gave us advanced copies of it, and
I had to act like I hadn't heard it already.

Speaker 4 (01:20:48):
You know.

Speaker 2 (01:20:49):
That's honestly, I still think Carter to me. I know
a lot of people say Card three, I'm a Carter
one of Carter two guy, depending on the day. Card
one was Burman Junior. We're talking about that, that Burman Jr.

Speaker 4 (01:21:04):
Oh my god, shout out the t mix they produced it.

Speaker 2 (01:21:13):
Don When you guys, when the label decides to get
behind a letter to my son, was there an artist
that was in consideration besides Celo or was it just
like hey Selo? Like like like, because I know how
the major labels work sometimes they're like, what name can
we get on this song to take it to the
next level?

Speaker 1 (01:21:28):
Yeah, they should marry j Blige.

Speaker 2 (01:21:31):
Mm hmm.

Speaker 1 (01:21:32):
And that said no, see the whole, the whole. Uh.
Everything about the release of that song was tricky because
in real time, that song's never been added to radio.
It seems like it was, but it never really was.

(01:21:52):
Around this time, Cool and Dre going to the to
the office to you know, to network politics, and I'm
a firm believer of your United Front, even though we
weren't on the same page, you know, individually. Yeah, I
didn't want to go in and be pressing for one
thing and they're pressing for the opposite thing, because then

(01:22:13):
we look foolish. So, you know, I'm under the impression
that they're going in and they fighting for you know,
this situation. Later I find out they weren't. So I
don't really know what if anything they told me was true.
But at that point in time, they told me that
jim Iveen requested that we put a hook on the

(01:22:35):
Letter to My Son record, and I'm asking why, and
they like, you know, you can't go to radio without
a hook. So we battled with that for a second,
and I explained to him, you know, the record is
too I'm too connected to this record for me.

Speaker 5 (01:22:53):
To change it, right, Yeah, you know, if it's got
to be the way I hate the Sea Low version
I love No, I love I Love Good, the same
way I felt.

Speaker 2 (01:23:06):
Listen to that song.

Speaker 1 (01:23:08):
Yeah, well see, because I love the original alone and
that that that that was a fight that I just
had to bow out on because they was expressing it
as if Jimmy and I been made this call, and
I'm like, you know, that's who beat the money on it.
And we're having the conversations and I'm like, man, maybe
I need to speak to Jimmy. And of course, you know,

(01:23:29):
everybody voted against such. But we sat down. It was like,
you got to have a hook, and I'm like, man,
I don't even know how you split this song up
into three verses. You know, I'm like, there's no ain't
no stopping points in that.

Speaker 2 (01:23:41):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (01:23:42):
Yeah, So you know, they came with a few versions.
I picked the best one of the you know how
the man it was that they played for me, and they,
you know, it's like, we need a hook, and I'm like,
I can't think of a hook. I can't. You know
this is you gotta keep in mind, I'm living this
song like it's my real life. They wanted a letter

(01:24:03):
to some part two, so even that was out the
question for me.

Speaker 2 (01:24:07):
I'm like, man, you know, I would have even preferred
you named the version of Celo part two.

Speaker 1 (01:24:12):
That probably would have been, but that would have been
a nice alternative, you know, compromise. But they were like,
you had to have a hook. I couldn't really agree.
And one day I was on Twitter and I didn't know,
you know, I had no idea that they had reached
out to people. So I don't really know how it
got to to you know, to her desk, but esther

(01:24:33):
Dean hit me on Twitter and she was like, I
sent you a surprise, and I'm like, okay, I don't know.

Speaker 2 (01:24:39):
What about the time she had she had a big record, well,
she was pumping, she was she had a huge record.

Speaker 1 (01:24:44):
She had a lot of ship going. So I was
already familiar with her and familiar with most of the
you know, the projects she worked on. So when she
sent me this, I was confused. I was like, maybe
she like, you know, tweeted me on accident. And then
shortly after I want to say, Dre hit me and
he was like, you know, we got the hook back.

(01:25:05):
I want to play the hook for you. So they
played over the phone, so you know it's Esterdean who
really wrote the hook. So I heard them like, okay,
I can I can fuck with that. You know, I
don't think that's a bad contribution to it. I mean,
since you know I'm forced to.

Speaker 2 (01:25:20):
You're gonna have to do it.

Speaker 1 (01:25:21):
Yeah, right, I'm forced to format it somebody, all right,
so be it. And it was like we Rea reaching
out or reached out, I'm not sure which one, but
they you know, they had Mary J. Blige in mind,
and I said, no, I don't think that works because
it's a letter to my son, and the perspective that's
always been missing when it comes to single parenting is

(01:25:44):
the father's perspective. So it's like, nah, I don't I
don't think that fits. And I love Mary J. Blige.
I just felt like that didn't make much sense sonically,
so I told him I used the example. I was like, man,
it's a record from a BMJ G it's called paid Dues,
like the way see Low sings on that. That's part
of the reason why I loved this record. I feel

(01:26:04):
it like it give me chills and like, if anything,
it should be something like this. I played the record
for him and you know, uh, not too long after
Dre hit me again. It was like, man, we got
the word back. Uh, I want you to hear this,
So you know, he played play it over the phone
like this last one and it's see Low singing it.

(01:26:24):
And later he told me, you know, part of how
they got it connected him knowing, uh, was Dre was
close with Gip and somehow you know, they lined it up. Yeah,
definitely shout out the big Gip GIPB. I always hold
me down. But they they know. They worked it out
and ended up being see low on the record, and

(01:26:46):
we put we put the move in place, and we
had to do we didn't have to do. I thought
we had to do. Well, had to shoot the video.
And right before we shot the video, I had to
sign the agreement to you know that for Sea Loo
to be a part of it. And I'll never forget that.
We paid pay Selo one hundred for the vocals, a

(01:27:12):
hundred to do the video. And in the contract it
says that he's not obligated to perform in any medium,
you know, after he do the video. I mean yeah,
after you do the video, he not obligated to be
present for any performance of the song. So we paid
him two hundred and then paid another hundred to get
the video filmed, and then it was in limbo. Every

(01:27:36):
every other day they tell me we're going for an
AD date and they gonna be this day and they
gonna be that day, and it never got an ad date.
So after a year of them doing that, doing like
for for a whole year, they was coming back to
me saying they gonna be this day that day. So uh,
not a calendar year not January to December, you know,

(01:27:57):
whatever month we was on it made it way back around.
I picked that in my email. You know that. I'm
reading the email and I just happened to tap the
button to see what the original email. I'm like, man,
it's been a year, not a year to that day,
but a year to the month. So if it happened,

(01:28:17):
if this conversation started in October, here we are a
year later in October and you're telling me we're gonna
go for an ad date. So that was the conversation
or the email they let me know that one old
salvage and the record or the record deal, Oh the deal, okay, right,
because I can't see that. You mean you told me

(01:28:38):
it came from Jimmy. If it came from Jimmy, then
it's supposed to been urgent. I can't see something being
urgent and taking twelve months to be accomplished. And I'm
watching people get ad dates a lot sooner. I was
signing at the same time as Kenjrew Lamar and Mindless Behavior.
Kenj youw Lamar had a record before that, Swimming Pool's record.

Speaker 2 (01:28:56):
Yeah, he had.

Speaker 1 (01:28:59):
He had the name of it.

Speaker 2 (01:29:01):
What was the original single? It was on the recipe.

Speaker 1 (01:29:04):
No, no, they started with records with with Dre. But
either way, I watched songs that weren't.

Speaker 2 (01:29:11):
Even created yet. You're talking about going to radio, right,
That's what I mean.

Speaker 1 (01:29:15):
I said.

Speaker 2 (01:29:16):
I was in the studio with Dre White was recording
one you you were signed to and Dre to their
production cover.

Speaker 3 (01:29:22):
Right.

Speaker 1 (01:29:23):
But I'm telling about doctor Dre. I was in the
studio with doctor Dre when he was recording one of
the records that kenchy Lamar ended up being on. So
I watched the record that can't that was recorded after me, right,
come out and be worked to radio right, well after me?
And now I understand it's doctor Dre. But I've seen
it a few times. I saw Mindless Behavior record the
same thing, and a few other people that wanted to

(01:29:45):
in the scope. So I gathered then that maybe this
is not in the scopes doing. Maybe what I've been
told ain't legit. Maybe all of this was a play.
And then you know, it's a few people in in
the scope.

Speaker 2 (01:29:57):
I got to know Mark Brown and Mail Carter first
Peace Tomorrow we're.

Speaker 1 (01:30:02):
Both when it both passed. I don't know, but yeah,
those were two of the people who helped me navigate
through through the whole situation. I ended up getting out
of the situation and not owing anything. Especially you know,
we spent three hundred grand on it.

Speaker 2 (01:30:16):
That's a lot of Mila went ready. But you never
like that's like what that's in twenty twenty, like, yeah,
that's crazy, it's like eleven Yeah, yeah, but that was wild.

Speaker 1 (01:30:26):
But from that so the letter to my son record
this gout. You know, it always has had a different,
uh effect on me.

Speaker 2 (01:30:37):
Then then you went through so much of it.

Speaker 1 (01:30:39):
Yeah, I went through quite a bit. I was going
through it in real life and I went through it
in business.

Speaker 2 (01:30:44):
Both sides. I was played. I've had a because I
had my show in Vegas at KVG. I did the
night show, but then I had Sunday nights from ten
to two to twelve. Yeah, that night I was playing
the original. But I had like a I was all,
you know, every weekend we'd get together, me and my
dask and we would and we would no no. But
I wasn't playing I wasn't playing the Sea Loo. I

(01:31:05):
mean we played the Selo version when it came out.
We're playing the original version just self edits like we
were a blog era. So you get the z fire share. Yeah,
and then you hit you dope boys, you'd hit not right,
you'd hit you know whatever, and then you download ship.
What are we cleaning this week?

Speaker 4 (01:31:19):
Oh?

Speaker 2 (01:31:19):
We got down Trip, We got fucking mac Miller. You
know what I'm saying. Definitely such a great era, all
time great era. Man, we'll listen the new album, uh
and the deluxe are out?

Speaker 4 (01:31:30):
You guys?

Speaker 2 (01:31:30):
Are you guys? Are you guys? You know you're talking
about torn Is it any more tour dates coming? Is
there any more hitting the road or Yeah?

Speaker 3 (01:31:36):
We're going on a couple of days going through the Midwest, Indianapolis, Cincinnati.
So let's coming to Kentucky, Columbus, Ohio, and we're in Omaha.
You just mentioned Nebraska there next week.

Speaker 2 (01:31:48):
And Omaha just thinking the guy in Nelly or in
Belly eating the banana.

Speaker 4 (01:31:53):
Yeah, he gonna be there.

Speaker 3 (01:31:57):
Yeah, Atlanta, we got Atlanta coming up, bar Man, I'm
Alabama and Jackson, Mississippi, Mobile Alabama.

Speaker 2 (01:32:03):
So do you guys do vinyls for this album?

Speaker 4 (01:32:05):
We got one on the way to you.

Speaker 2 (01:32:10):
Know what's crazy? So I was just talking with the Alchemist,
me and him hung out the other night for hours
just smoking waiting for Freddy Gibbs. Won's the most tardy motherfuckerlive.
But anyway, so him and I we're just talking because
Alchemist is really like his business model's insane. So what
he does is he's got his distro deal and then
he presses all his vinyl on his own. And what

(01:32:33):
he does is and it's very smart because you guys
have some diehard fans. So he does three or four
tiers of vinyl releases, so they all come out on
the same day. But there's like the normal black version,
which you could just order whenever. But then he'll have
like a tier where it's like a splatter white and

(01:32:55):
red copy that's numbered and those are one hundred of pop.
But when they're gone, they're gone forever, so maybe there's
like five hundred of those. So then he has another
one that's also limited, but it's not as limited. It's
like maybe it's a thousand copies instead of five hundred,
and he'll sell that one for like seventy nine ninety nine.
You bitches sell out by this. But then he's got

(01:33:16):
the normal black, normal vinyl that you knows mass produced,
but man, it gives you. And then now you have
like fans who are like collecting. They're like collect you
guys are gonna have fans will buy all three. It's
just a way to like, you know, give your fans
like items that they can like cherish and also ultra
monetize the music.

Speaker 3 (01:33:37):
You know.

Speaker 2 (01:33:38):
But listen, man, the album is out. It's incredible body
of work. You guys are legends.

Speaker 1 (01:33:42):
Appreciate it.

Speaker 2 (01:33:42):
Appreciate you guys hanging out. We're gonna have you guys
freestyle two sat of we separate YouTube video. I'm assuming
just are you are? I mean, you guys are probably
never not working. Are you guys working on new solo stuff?
I know that we don't have to. Yes, there might
be an album coming out that to drop.

Speaker 4 (01:34:02):
Who knows, But yeah, we're working.

Speaker 1 (01:34:04):
Yeah, it's got to be of course.

Speaker 4 (01:34:07):
Yeah, we're working. We're working on some things. We're still
working collectively as well.

Speaker 2 (01:34:12):
Like I think we're not gonna wait eight years for them.

Speaker 1 (01:34:15):
No no, no, no no, no, We're gonna make you
way fade.

Speaker 3 (01:34:19):
I mean, it's fun, man, We're back to the roots
of it all, just enjoying it. I think it would
be a disservice to our to our brand and to
our audience to not keep moving on it and moving
with the energy of it. But even individually, I think
I was sitting in the studio with him this past

(01:34:39):
week while he's working on some solid stuff, there's still
that's value to our input, right because we almost the
fact like an rs for each other, because he ain't
gonna listen to too many people.

Speaker 4 (01:34:53):
And we work kind of and quiet. You know, he's
always said, don't.

Speaker 3 (01:34:59):
Get a will he never played well with others and whatnot,
and just like I'm the only child, so I'm it's
kind of second night, You're to just go in and work.

Speaker 4 (01:35:08):
But I really do.

Speaker 3 (01:35:09):
Cherish and value like collaboration with Like we said on Engineer,
we share the science mixing Engineer and.

Speaker 2 (01:35:16):
You guys both, did you move to Nashville or you
guys were you guys still spread out across the state.

Speaker 3 (01:35:22):
Okay, we just commute like it's down the street or
something like, y'all be there, or we meet somewhere else.
Even with this project, we'll meet somewhere, you know, neutral
I guess.

Speaker 1 (01:35:32):
You could say land at the same time. You know,
sometimes sometimes it's what's needed because at home, he's got responsibilities.
You can't escape in same for me, and you know,
if I'm out of pocket, then I got to.

Speaker 2 (01:35:45):
Know if you're listen, if you're in town, your wife's
gonna make your driver places if you if you're out
of town, she's just gonna have to just this all
the time.

Speaker 3 (01:35:58):
Give me a.

Speaker 2 (01:36:00):
Yeah, Well, appreciate you guys. Pull it up, man, we're
gonna have you all'll do what you do best.

Speaker 3 (01:36:04):
Man.

Speaker 2 (01:36:04):
The new album is out, the deluxe just dropped, and
uh so many videos off the project too. So go
support star a Liedo, Don Tripp boom

Speaker 3 (01:36:16):
H