Akon & Sheesh: From Jail to Country Hits, Akon’s Hard Lessons, Akon City Controversy + More

Akon & Sheesh: From Jail to Country Hits, Akon’s Hard Lessons, Akon City Controversy + More

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:02):
What's up is Way Up with Angela Yee and this
is exciting for the first time on Way Up with
Angela Yee.

Speaker 2 (00:09):
I know this man a long time, but he's finally
on Way Up.

Speaker 3 (00:12):
I was trying to be the first guest.

Speaker 1 (00:13):
No, you were, you know, you're all over the world,
but a kN is here and you have a group
that is now signed a convent culture we got sheesh.

Speaker 4 (00:22):
Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Speaker 2 (00:24):
And you guys are brothers.

Speaker 1 (00:25):
Yeah, all right, and so Lex So you guys are
from Chicago, but you kind of grew up.

Speaker 5 (00:30):
No, not kind of. We grew up in Elkhart, Indiana. Okay,
so what but we was born in Chicago.

Speaker 2 (00:35):
Okay, So did you spend time there?

Speaker 4 (00:37):
Yeah, a little bit?

Speaker 5 (00:38):
Sixcept we moved when we was young, about seven eight
years old to Indiana. Elcart, Indiana, and we grew up there.

Speaker 2 (00:44):
That's the place I've never been to.

Speaker 1 (00:46):
Okay, if you have to describe it, I mean I've
seen the video, so I get a bit of a fiel.
Was that your first time going there? Okay, so tell
me about Elkhart and what's that? What's that like?

Speaker 5 (00:56):
I mean, it's like a little small melting pot. It's
only fifty thous some people. But you know it's people.

Speaker 4 (01:02):
From Chicago, Gary, Detroit, you know what I mean. It's
like a small mountain pot.

Speaker 5 (01:07):
You know, it ain't that big, but it's a little
bit of everybody there, you know what I mean, from
the Midwest.

Speaker 3 (01:14):
It's a small big town.

Speaker 4 (01:16):
Yeah. But you know, we just we just we're putting
on for it, you know what I mean.

Speaker 5 (01:21):
It never really got put on on the map in
a major way, you know what I mean, because it's
so small, and we were the first to do that.

Speaker 2 (01:28):
Only person that the city out.

Speaker 5 (01:30):
Oh yeah, and we ain't make no announcement. They just
we couldn't do it, couldn't.

Speaker 3 (01:38):
The cameras.

Speaker 1 (01:39):
Yeah, you know, it's always fascinating to me to see
how groups get discovered, right and so akon how did
you find she?

Speaker 2 (01:47):
Like, how did they come to your attention?

Speaker 3 (01:49):
Yeah? Well she was word of mouth. You know.

Speaker 6 (01:51):
I had a few guys that I was working with
the industry, working on you know, copyright songwriters. Good friend
of mine at the time, Bow who's doing and off fours,
was like like, Yo, you got to meet these kids,
super dope writers, super artists, and they produced they three
sixty as soon as I heard directors, I was.

Speaker 1 (02:07):
Like, she.

Speaker 2 (02:09):
Three sixty has a bad name.

Speaker 3 (02:11):
Yeah, I'm talking about creating.

Speaker 6 (02:13):
Yeah yeah, I was like, they do it all And
I love that because you know when that's the first
thing I look for is hard workers and how much
of their own stuff that they actually do. I prefer
one hundred percent. But if they could do half, I
can get them the other half. But for the most part,
they was able to do it all.

Speaker 3 (02:28):
So it was perfect.

Speaker 2 (02:29):
The art of A and Ring is so different now.

Speaker 1 (02:31):
I feel like then how it used to be, like
when you first got in the game, if you had
to think about how you had to find an artist,
But now you know, it's just so it's so much
easier than have Eventually you.

Speaker 2 (02:42):
Do have to fly out and you have to meet
in person.

Speaker 6 (02:44):
Yeah, you got like and art. I don't think the
process of it has changed. The dynamics change because now
everyone's searching for numbers. They're just looking to see who's online,
who's streaming, who's popping right now, who's going viral.

Speaker 3 (02:54):
But to me, that's just a moment right now.

Speaker 6 (02:57):
The artist itself is that artist worth anything that's going
to be sustainable for the rest of their career or
something that's gonna be around long enough to even get
your investment back. And that's what I look for. I
think the virality aspect, that's just a matter of being consistent.
Eventually you're gonna go viral. If you get the right
talent to go viral, then it was all worth it.

Speaker 1 (03:15):
The song Ghetto Living, that's also it is your song
remade remix. And I know you had said you were
redoing your older catalogs as well. You have all your
masters right, and so you were able to get a
great situation. So tell me how how does this work?
So is this a She's song or is it an
ACN song featuring She?

Speaker 3 (03:34):
Yeah, it's a it's a she and a console.

Speaker 6 (03:36):
But interesting enough, Illness is the producer of this track,
and he decided because they was looking for samples to actually,
you know, figure out, and he thought about it.

Speaker 2 (03:45):
He's like, man, listen, I can get this clear.

Speaker 3 (03:47):
They really surprised me. They surprised me heard. I was like,
oh shit, nobody's flipped ghetto yet.

Speaker 1 (03:55):
It sounds good and the lyrics are amazing. I had
actually before you guys got here, a mana was here earlier.
He's good, but I was playing and he didn't know
what it was. I was watching the video and he
was like, ooh, that's hard. Hold on and he had
to turn everything down just to hear what you guys
are talking about on that particular song that dope.

Speaker 7 (04:13):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (04:14):
Love, And so your story is also interesting as brothers.
You guys ended up being locked up together. Yeah, and
while you were there though it didn't waste any time,
it actually worked. So just talk to me about that
period of time and bigskey, I got to ask you
to s pitch a gum out because I know I
wouldn't be me.

Speaker 4 (04:32):
He used to wake me up when I was sleep
and be like, let's write. Let's right, let's write.

Speaker 5 (04:37):
You know what I'm saying. And I was learning how
to write. He had already had his neck and you know,
his schemes and how he wrote it was already formed
and stuff like that. But I was still being talked.
But yeah, you know, he was bunkies in the joint
for what like almost a year. Yeah, and this is
at a time when we had like it was at
the beginning of our bit, so we had eight more

(04:57):
years to go. But just to you know speak on
what he was saying, Like I used to wake him up,
he'll be dead, sleep like sleep, and we got all
this time left wake him up. We'll fight all that,
you know what I mean, Because I'm just not for real,
because I'm like, bro, We're not going to be locked
up forever, right, you know what I mean.

Speaker 4 (05:14):
We got outdates.

Speaker 5 (05:16):
This is our dream. This is what we got to
hone our skills while we ain't here.

Speaker 4 (05:19):
You know what I mean.

Speaker 5 (05:20):
We've been rapids since we was kids. I talked hibou
the right when we was kids. But it's just a
matter of having faith. Like a lot of people talk
about the talent, but you gotta have faith. Like it
was a lot of crazy stuff going on while we
was locked up, a lot of heartbreak, a lot of pain,
a lot of struggle with our mama, and you know
what I mean, But you just got to be able.

Speaker 4 (05:38):
To have faith and see past that and see your future.
And now we're here.

Speaker 2 (05:42):
You know, I know, your job, your mother crazy during that.

Speaker 4 (05:45):
Time, a lot of heartbreak. We broke our heart, you
know what I mean.

Speaker 1 (05:48):
But we learned from it though, so so talk to
me about what happened.

Speaker 2 (05:51):
You didn't go in at the same time. It was
two different.

Speaker 4 (05:53):
Nah, we got locked up together.

Speaker 1 (05:54):
Oh together, okay, And so we was kids, just young
and dumb, right, young and dumb, just doing you know
what I mean.

Speaker 5 (06:02):
And that's why I can't like a lot of times,
like when they be asking how did it get started.

Speaker 4 (06:08):
And how did it form? I can't answer that.

Speaker 5 (06:09):
I always let him answer because I this last time,
they had already had their relationship and I was still
in the joint, you know what I'm saying. So you
know what I'm saying. He was out here making noise
while I was in the joint. And then when I got.

Speaker 4 (06:21):
Out, I had to do the halfway house.

Speaker 5 (06:23):
I had to do house arrests and then probation and
then fly to Atlanta, and then you know what I'm saying.

Speaker 4 (06:29):
It was a little It was a little what I
had some ways to go before, you know what I'm saying.

Speaker 5 (06:33):
She was even thought of, But we was always like,
when you get out, this is what we're.

Speaker 4 (06:38):
On, you know what I'm saying. And it worked out.

Speaker 1 (06:41):
Why the name she sh I mean, he named that.
What were y'all playing with before that? We didn't have
a name.

Speaker 4 (06:51):
As a duo.

Speaker 5 (06:53):
We didn't have a name. It's just Ellens biscuit. This
is my little brother moved down here with me, you
know what I mean. We just got the grinding. And
when I introduced my brother to him, he literally was like,
y'all name sheesh. You know, hearing the music, he always
reacted to like that, to like sheesh, Like I'm saying.

Speaker 4 (07:12):
That's real.

Speaker 5 (07:12):
And then it's like, you know a lot of people
hear the music and react the same way. So it
just he was just like, yeah, this is it.

Speaker 1 (07:19):
It's probably got a better situation to be in because
a Kin, You've worked with so many different artists and
helped guide the careers of so many people. I feel
like I've always felt like you had an amazing story,
not even just in the music business, but outside of
it as well, just as an entrepreneur in general. How
important is it for artists to be entrepreneurs also because
sometimes people just want to create music and focus on that.
But I feel like in this day and age, you

(07:40):
can't just do that.

Speaker 3 (07:41):
No, it's impossible.

Speaker 6 (07:42):
You know, the most successful artists and the ones that
have a sustainable career are the ones that understand the
business of it, you know, like I tell him all.

Speaker 3 (07:48):
The time, this is the music business.

Speaker 6 (07:50):
The moment you exclude the business and it just become
all about the music, you're going to be the discroller rapper.
Talk about this dude stole my publisher and I ain't
got no money. So you don't want to be that guy.
You want to be in a position to know that
it's only gonna last, but for so long. So you
got a small window to take what you invested. I mean,
take what you made and invest it in something that's
gonna last a long time, or build some kind of
value within that finance that you made to create income

(08:12):
for yourself even when you decide no more that you're
gonna be doing music anymore. So that's very, very important.
So we talk about that all the time.

Speaker 1 (08:19):
How was your deal structure so you were able to
have your masters and everything, because that's not something I
feel like back then.

Speaker 6 (08:25):
No, it was impossible back then, and to me, it
was just a matter of time, you know, renegotiating, finding leverage,
slowly but surely pulling one percent back until I was
able to get it back.

Speaker 3 (08:37):
You know what I'm saying.

Speaker 6 (08:38):
There's no difference from when Jay got to death. Jam
and they really wanted him to get that job, and
he's like, well, this is an open window for me
to get my master's back.

Speaker 3 (08:45):
I'll take it, but I need my masters. That's part
of negotiation.

Speaker 6 (08:48):
So you find always find those little pockets where you
can have that little extra edge to them, you know,
just you know, to leverage to get whatever it is
that you own that they've been you know, utilizing to
make money forever on you.

Speaker 1 (09:00):
When you guys were figuring out what your partnership was
gonna be, like, were there other people coming to you
like are the labels already? Because you know clearly y'all
were buzzing already.

Speaker 4 (09:10):
I mean it's a.

Speaker 5 (09:11):
Couple people that was very interested, you know what I mean.
But this we connected on a on a on a
on a lot of different levels to where like he
really feel like a big like a blood big brother,
like his big brother, Like this is I could talk
to him about anything, you know what I mean.

Speaker 4 (09:30):
And it's just it was deeper than the music and
deeper than business, you know what I mean.

Speaker 1 (09:35):
How are the lines though with being because some people
will say, like you have to understand and labels, it's
business too.

Speaker 2 (09:41):
Right at the end of the day, and some artists or.

Speaker 1 (09:43):
Some people that run labels don't like to have like
a business conversation.

Speaker 5 (09:48):
He teaches though, like I'm gonna I'm gonna keep it
a bean, like a completely hunted like he keep us.
I mean, he keep us on point. We keep ourselves
on point too. But he won't have take to give
us the gang. They give us the gang.

Speaker 6 (10:03):
You know, they have to know that, you know what
I mean, because if they don't have no information, then
they won't understand what I'm doing for them. And oftentimes
when you're lost, like prime example, I think the one
mistake that Baby probably made with little Wayne was that
Wayne didn't have enough information on the music business, because
had he been taught the business of it, they probably
still be together. Because what happens is when you don't

(10:24):
have all the information, you got other people giving you information,
or you start seeking for other people to give you information,
and those people start, you know, kind of putting that
virus in your mind. They give information within that ad
on other things that may be even more detrimental to
what you already build. And everybody's giving you that green
of grass that they're offering you on the other side.
But if you know the business, you already know the

(10:46):
color of the grass. Now does no matter who's going
to be my lawnmower to help me maintain that grass?

Speaker 1 (10:50):
You know, sometimes I think, but like I was saying earlier,
some artists just want to like I've you know, worked
in the music business on the label side of things,
on the management side of things. There are some artists
that are like, I don't even I just want to
do what I have to do. And that's just always chess.
That's never a good thing.

Speaker 6 (11:06):
It's like that's when you're successful and you become lazy
and all that. But it's when you're doing great, it
don't really matter because you're making more money than you
can count. But it's when that money start to wear
that's when that problem. That's when you're gonna be like, damn,
I should have paid more attention. Oh man, I hired
this person. I shouldn't. If I should have been paying

(11:26):
more attention to my numbers over here, I should have
registered this I was. So then that's when it all
caught comes caving in. When you're in a position where
you start to.

Speaker 1 (11:33):
Need it, and you know, you guys being brothers and
obviously you and your brother Boo have worked together extensively.
I guess y'all do have like a lot of things
in common. You can relate a lot, like you said
to their story.

Speaker 6 (11:42):
Yeah, Actually one of the main reasons why men L
got close was I saw his relationship with his family.
And I mean, like we we I mean, as an African,
we come up under a family structure, you know, like
the older brother is always doing that guys their younger
brother and gives them the information to and protect him
in the whole process. Like even with Boo, I was
always there to make sure that every situation he was
in was the right situation to excel him because him

(12:05):
being where he's a also protects me right. So but
how you see, you know L With Ski, it's the
same dynamic, like I'm always like I don't be ear hustling,
but I'm always hearing L, you know, giving Ski some
game like no, watch this, look out for this matter
of factlet's do it this way a little bro like.
So it was always it was that dynamic that actually
gave me like I understood who he was as a person,

(12:26):
and then I seen in his relationship with his mother
and his kids and everything else.

Speaker 3 (12:30):
I was like, yeah, me and him wanted to say.

Speaker 1 (12:33):
In retrospect, when you think about the guy, the time
that you guys spent together actually working, you know, maybe
there's a reason. You know, they always say there's a
reason that things happen. Yeah, and who knows, if maybe
that wouldn't happen at that time, you wouldn't even be
one hundred.

Speaker 2 (12:50):
Sometimes you might not even be alive.

Speaker 6 (12:52):
I told him, I said, Yo, the time that y'all
put it, God was preserving y'all, because had y'all been
out you probably even want to make you probably won't
even made it.

Speaker 5 (13:00):
No, man, that that we needed that like that changed
our life for the better for sure.

Speaker 6 (13:06):
And then me visiting our court and seeing that area,
I was like, oh, yeah, God, because that it's different.

Speaker 3 (13:14):
It's different.

Speaker 1 (13:15):
It's different, I guess a very just from looking at
the video, it feels very mixed, like all different.

Speaker 4 (13:19):
Yeah, I was just saying that it is.

Speaker 5 (13:22):
It is very It's it's like you find a little
bit of everybody there, even though it's so small, you
know what I mean. But like I said, we needed that.
I became a better writer in there, you know what
I mean? I left for almost a thousand songs, but
damn they I wrote.

Speaker 4 (13:41):
All like that.

Speaker 1 (13:44):
Thousands. It feels like a movie or something like that.
Have you thought about writing for other people or would
you want to do that? Oh?

Speaker 6 (13:55):
Yeah, that's that. That was the way that I mean,
that's honestly. I set them up as writers first, and
then when I realized, okay, they got enough copyright, Okay,
now let's put out your own record, and then all
we need now is that one hit and all that
stuff is gonna make sense because one thing, you know,
how the game is, once you got a hit record,
everybody come calling, everybody and now you got they got
a box full of records, just dishing ouse.

Speaker 3 (14:16):
That's what I did.

Speaker 6 (14:17):
That's why nobody couldn't catch up, because by the time
I had that one hit record and everybody kept coming,
I had enough to supply.

Speaker 3 (14:24):
Just keep coming.

Speaker 6 (14:25):
They just I mean I had lines outside of the studio
with brown paper bags.

Speaker 3 (14:29):
It was like it was it was that time. So
you gotta be you gotta be ready, you know.

Speaker 1 (14:32):
Being forward thinking. I know you're also planning to do
this country right album, and you do have a song
out now with a country artists.

Speaker 6 (14:39):
Yeah, you know Gary Levox, he's he's the lead singer
of one of the biggest bands on country bands called
Rascal Flats. So yeah, me and him came together. He's
actually executive producing my re release country album for all
my classics, so I brought him on board, so he's
connected me with all the who's who's in Nashville. I
want to do it right, though, I say, that's like

(15:01):
a country artist and you don't do a hip hop album.

Speaker 3 (15:03):
Man, he got to come through the trenches and do
it right, you know what I'm saying.

Speaker 2 (15:05):
So what country artists could do a hip hop album?

Speaker 7 (15:07):
Though?

Speaker 4 (15:08):
I think boozy?

Speaker 1 (15:09):
Yeah, So talk to me about I do want to
hear a little bit more about this country album because
I know it's something that you've said you've been working
on for a while, but now it feels like we're
on this country wave.

Speaker 6 (15:21):
Yeah, And it's crazy because I kind of feel guilty
that I'm in a position now to do it when
the wave is there, because I always wanted to do
it before, like I like, but I was going through
a lot as far as kind of rediscovering my my
legacy too, because you know, I stopped doing music in
twenty ten when I went to Africa to do to

(15:44):
guest hosts for the World Cup and host that, I
ended up not coming home for a while because I
end up going straight to Nigeria and that's where we
start developing the whole afrobeadings, you know, doing the sign
A whiz Kid and Peace Square and developing that whole
movement too. It kind of took years because then from
there I was also developing the African I mean the
Acon Lighting Africa project with all Electricity, So that business

(16:06):
side took took up so many years of music that
by the time I came back on the side to
get remotivated, I was like, man, I'm gonna do what
I want.

Speaker 3 (16:13):
So I started doing Latin albums. I was doing.

Speaker 7 (16:19):
Dad Man, I was everything, trying to take.

Speaker 6 (16:23):
That genre I haven't touched. I've touched literally, and I
got to hit record.

Speaker 3 (16:27):
In every genre literally, what about jazz? Jazz? I don't
like jazz, that's the one.

Speaker 2 (16:31):
Really I'm surprised at that.

Speaker 6 (16:32):
I hate jazz mainly because my dad was a jazz musician.
Het me under it, so he used to force me
to go with him to all the shows studios, so.

Speaker 2 (16:40):
He has like trauma from that, I think as a kid.

Speaker 3 (16:45):
No kid likes jazz, right, so when you're forced to
love it.

Speaker 6 (16:48):
And then it was interesting because later in my years
when Quincy Jones became more like a mentor for me
as a producer, and he's a jazz guy.

Speaker 3 (16:57):
You know, he's a jazz guys, right.

Speaker 6 (16:58):
So he introduced me to a another side of jazz
that I didn't even know existed. So I kind of
slowly liked that side a little bit because it's more musical,
it's more relaxed. Because the jazz part I was in
it was like world Saxophone Quartet, where everybody did what
they wanted to do.

Speaker 3 (17:12):
That was no structure, like it was crazy like.

Speaker 6 (17:17):
So I came from that side of it and I
just couldn't understand the organization in it. But then that
was that's when they were saying that jazz, that type
of jazz is freestyle where anybody just does whatever they
do and that's the art of it. But I like
organized music. I like to hear chords, strings, you know.
So then Quincy kind of brought me to that side,
so I understood a little better. But then there they

(17:38):
don't respect you if you don't read music, and you
didn't come up under no, you know, Yale or some
kind of you know, Berkeley University. You have to have
an accolade to be respected in that side of jazz.
So that ain't really was you know. But yeah, for
the most part, I've touched really literally every genre.

Speaker 1 (17:53):
You know since you brought up spending time in Africa,
and I know, and I do want to adjust the headline.
I don't want to hear your side of things because
that so they put out this whole thing with the
city and Senegal and how now that didn't happen.

Speaker 2 (18:05):
It was a huge undertaking. No, it's happening, okay, So.

Speaker 6 (18:09):
Just to be very clear, Acon City is under attack.
The concept of what this dream means to Africa is
so big that it's shaking up a lot of agendas
in Africa because a lot of people don't know that
Africa creates more millionaires than anywhere in the world. The
only thing that's stopping in Africa from developing on the
level that it needs to develop to compete with the

(18:31):
international world is unity and confidence. Right the younger generation.
Right now, seventy five percent of Africa is under twenty
one so our youth future and what Africa is to
become in the future based on the elements that we
actually literally control today.

Speaker 3 (18:48):
Africa is the future.

Speaker 6 (18:50):
The only thing that can keep Africa under captive in
the Western world to continue to rape Africa the way
it is is for people like me with dreams like
this not existing because it motivates us to do the
same thing in different countries and not on that, but
it also motivated us to all come together and actually
bring about change of this magnitude. Right, So, anyone that's

(19:11):
in construction or anyone that just used basic common sense
knows that it takes twelve months to maybe fifteen months
to build a normal house.

Speaker 3 (19:19):
We're talking about god.

Speaker 6 (19:20):
A city with high end high rises, major structures. I mean,
it's just the studies alone took two and a half
years before construction even began.

Speaker 3 (19:31):
Right, So there's a lot that's happening within it.

Speaker 6 (19:34):
But I'm realizing there's a lot of agendas also that's benefit.
If this project don't happen, they can't physically stop it
because they have to go to Africa to stop it,
which they can't stop an existing ongoing project, but the
way they can damage it is through media excyber warfare,
because these are things that the average person don't go
physically to go see what's happening. So they're utilizing all

(19:55):
this media to try to discredit the project and make
it seem smaller than it actually is, to kind of
just take some of the power off of it. Because
I'm telling you if this, if this project or I
live to see it finish, Africa's gonna be changed forever.

Speaker 7 (20:08):
Right.

Speaker 1 (20:09):
I do feel like now you see so many more
people traveling there and wanting to go different places, people
talking about investing in real.

Speaker 6 (20:15):
Li and this is all due to the things that
we've done, all the way down to creating festivals and
African Americans going back to Ghana for the year return.
This is all things we develop. So they're seeing that
we're now coming together in uniting. This is the world's
worst fear because the moment Africa come together, our people,
African Americans, a diaspa come together, the game is over.

(20:36):
Like we literally become the superpower of the universe.

Speaker 1 (20:38):
So you still have that land because I know in
the article it was like, oh, we took the land.

Speaker 3 (20:42):
I can't take what they don't own. That's my land.
How you gonna take my land?

Speaker 2 (20:46):
You know what I'm like, that hasn't happened in the past.

Speaker 7 (20:50):
That can happen.

Speaker 6 (20:50):
But Africa, when you own it, you own it from
the tutor to the Buddha. Like even if I struck
oil in my land in Africa, that's mine. In America,
after three feet under the great six feet on the ground,
you don't want it no more. The government takes it
so that sam.

Speaker 7 (21:03):
Yes, it's secretly it's a lot.

Speaker 3 (21:05):
As I'm saying, it's a lot. It's a lot to it.

Speaker 6 (21:07):
But for the most part, Acon City is a dream
that nobody you can't kill a dream and a process.
This now, this is the part where the people have
to realize what's real and what's not. Because if you
see three thousand negative ads and not one positive one,
you got to know that there's an agenda going on somewhere,
you know, all.

Speaker 1 (21:26):
Right, well good, I just wanted to clear that out.
I don't like to bring no negativity.

Speaker 6 (21:29):
But I was no, no, but yeah, actually negative because
it's not negative though it's actually positive the way I
look at it. It just continues to market it because
when it actually goes up and people are invited and
I start hosting people, all those ads are gonna look crazy, right,
So I don't worry about I'm more focused on the
end product versus what's happening today.

Speaker 1 (21:48):
We're going to everybody, well as far as have you
all traveled yet.

Speaker 2 (21:55):
To Senegal, to Africa, anywhere I have it?

Speaker 4 (21:59):
Okay, it was beautiful, did you he was still? He
was still? I was still locked up. I went to
Senegague and he just led the way, you know what
I mean.

Speaker 2 (22:08):
I was just what was that like for you?

Speaker 5 (22:10):
It was beautiful though it was a lot of uh,
a lot of I just seen how people lied about Africa,
like you know what I mean.

Speaker 2 (22:23):
And you're like, well damn, they got way more.

Speaker 4 (22:26):
No, I'm gonna tell you something that shocked me. It
was the cars.

Speaker 5 (22:31):
Like you know, it's messed up cars everywhere America, El
Card here, whatever. But like I seen like a lot
of nice foreign cards, like you know what I mean,
A lot of like Benzes, Beamers, you know what I mean, and.

Speaker 4 (22:44):
Stuff like that. And I was just like, Okay, well
they riding clean too, you know what I mean?

Speaker 7 (22:49):
Like you know that.

Speaker 5 (22:50):
That's That's what messed me up a lot, you know,
what I mean just saying, you know, it was what.

Speaker 2 (22:54):
You saw painted to be.

Speaker 4 (22:57):
Yeah, it's just it was. It was. It was beautiful though.

Speaker 2 (23:00):
And so how much longer were you locked up while
he was home?

Speaker 5 (23:07):
I think I did, like maybe like a year a year,
some change more than you the first time. All right,
So he we were locked up, I did six years,
he did seven years.

Speaker 4 (23:17):
He got out in twenty fifteen. Yeah, and I went back.
He went back for a violence. I went back for
a violation. It was there two years, two years. So
then he got out in twenty twenty two to two.

Speaker 5 (23:30):
And then he did a year on house arrest and
then probation, and then I moved him down there with me.
So he's technical from his second stint. He only been
out for a couple of years.

Speaker 2 (23:40):
OK.

Speaker 4 (23:41):
Yeah, literally like two years and some change.

Speaker 5 (23:44):
But when I got out, I like, as soon as
I got out, he moved his studio up to Indiana
because he picked me up from the joint. So I
recorded like that first little mixtape, because I got out
with two mixtapes, So I recorded one like as soon
like while he was up there for like a weekend
or three days or something like that.

Speaker 4 (24:03):
So as soon as I.

Speaker 5 (24:04):
Got out, I got to work, but I was on
house arrest, so I just had to you know, thug
it out to let me go.

Speaker 2 (24:09):
How is your patience during that time and.

Speaker 5 (24:12):
What it was like? You know, really it was like
I knew it was crunch time. You know what I'm saying.
I had to we gotta make this happen, you know,
no more messing around, you know what I'm saying, playing games.

Speaker 4 (24:23):
You know what I'm saying. Out here in these.

Speaker 5 (24:25):
Streets or whatever whatever it was. I was all over
the place, you know, at first. So you know what
I'm saying, I'm glad we're here now.

Speaker 7 (24:36):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (24:36):
No, it's a blessing, major blessing.

Speaker 1 (24:38):
Like to have the opportunity and know you cannot like
you said, you can't play around.

Speaker 4 (24:42):
Yeah.

Speaker 5 (24:43):
I used to tell him, like when I moved him
down here, I just looked at him like, you know,
I got kid.

Speaker 4 (24:49):
He just had just had.

Speaker 2 (24:50):
His first Yeah, congratulations.

Speaker 5 (24:57):
Found motivation for him because I have had to get
him on some big brother like look, I'm grinding, you
know what I mean, But like you gotta we got
we both got a mama that need us, you know
what I mean.

Speaker 4 (25:10):
Not just me, I got one, you know what I mean, right,
we both.

Speaker 5 (25:13):
You need to be matched my energy, you need to
you know what I mean. And when I moved him
down to Atlanta, like he got straight to meet he
just listened and just he zoned out.

Speaker 1 (25:23):
You know, I'm glad you just said grinding because it
made me think of the grinding freestyle.

Speaker 4 (25:27):
Oh yeah, guys did.

Speaker 1 (25:29):
And and you know, was there any influence on you
guys because being brothers and the Clips just put.

Speaker 2 (25:34):
Out a great new album.

Speaker 1 (25:35):
Yeah, of course, you know as well. So I thought
that was cool that y'all did that.

Speaker 6 (25:39):
Yeah, man, push you actually flew back together from France.
We was out there for the for the fashion week,
and we flew back out. He was telling me the
project was just dropping and he was heading back to
promote it.

Speaker 5 (25:50):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (25:51):
One thing he don't do is hold his tongue about anything. Yeah,
if something happened, he was gonna tell it.

Speaker 4 (26:00):
Yeah.

Speaker 7 (26:00):
We grew up.

Speaker 4 (26:01):
We grew up listening to the Clips, you know what
I mean.

Speaker 5 (26:03):
We get the comparison all the time, and I mean
we cool with it, you know what I mean. We
just we're here to raise the bardo, you know what
I mean, right, we was getting those comparisons before we
was even a group.

Speaker 4 (26:14):
Yeah, that's a fact.

Speaker 2 (26:15):
That's funny.

Speaker 5 (26:16):
For we've even been getting it all out, Like you
know what I mean, it's a bunch of similar.

Speaker 6 (26:22):
I should see two brothers actually equally dope, Yeah, exact
and actually together. Yeah, moving on the same path like
most brothers always compete.

Speaker 2 (26:30):
Yeah, listen, y'all ain't have that problem.

Speaker 1 (26:32):
You guys sometimes are interchangeable in the situation.

Speaker 2 (26:35):
I mean, you go do the thing for me.

Speaker 3 (26:37):
It's all leadership. It's all leadership. It's definitely leadership, you know,
because right now Bo is an executive. You try to
be a better executive. Meet.

Speaker 1 (26:46):
Listen, I ran into bool working with Kanye, and I
know that was stressful, but but you.

Speaker 6 (26:51):
See it now, you know. I mean it was things
that me and him used to debate about all the time.
And now you're like, damn, bro, you was right.

Speaker 7 (26:56):
You know what.

Speaker 6 (26:57):
Damn, I see what you mean now. But that's why
I love that experience to be. You know, once you
once you get the experience, then all your lessons actually
you feel good knowing that they're actually now soaking in
because oftentimes your parents will tell you or you won't
understand what I'm doing until you start having kids. Yeah,
when you have kids, you understand why because oftentimes you
be thinking your parents are tripping.

Speaker 7 (27:16):
Yeah, no, you're right, you know, and your kids.

Speaker 3 (27:19):
Like, damn, I get it. You got a whole nother
respect for your parents at that point.

Speaker 1 (27:23):
Yeah, because I feel like a lot of people was
giving Kanye's team a hard time and being like, oh,
why his team ain't but to understand that, like, sometimes
it's just nothing you could do, Like what am I
You know, he's a grown man.

Speaker 7 (27:36):
How can I do?

Speaker 2 (27:37):
Yeah?

Speaker 6 (27:39):
You know, you can only do it with things that
you can control. You can't control another man's brain.

Speaker 1 (27:43):
And it's crazy to be so talented but then just
have so many different things, oh man, you know happening,
and it makes people, you know, at the end of
the day, like it could turnish somebody's legacy to have
done so much and lay down the groundwork and had
so many classics, and then later on in life it's
just some than to think about, like how do you
want to be remembered?

Speaker 6 (28:02):
That's the key, and I think we should always remember
that even moving in because oftentimes, like especially now, is
the most dangerous time for legacies, for future legacies because
a lot of these people that's out here, most most
of the younger generation disease. I think they're doing so
much just for views, or they're doing so much to
go viral, not realizing what you're building today, that what

(28:26):
you're doing right now is going to be what destroys
or make you in twenty five years when you're trying
to build that legacy.

Speaker 2 (28:32):
You right about that.

Speaker 1 (28:33):
When I go talk to kids in school, one thing
I always tell them, I'm like this social media. You
know how they bring up the old tweets man of
you talking crazy. We just seen that happen on Love Island, right,
you know. And you know, sometimes that's why I always
feel like people act like I don't like social media
because you destroy yourself what you write on there.

Speaker 2 (28:53):
You don't have to put everything on there.

Speaker 1 (28:55):
Something feel like maybe I shouldn't do this, then don't
period if you have to think about it.

Speaker 6 (29:00):
First thing is if you feel like you have to
race it or you go back to you there, it's
worse because it shows that you raced it, because.

Speaker 1 (29:07):
That's the first the deleted it.

Speaker 3 (29:10):
But this is what they deleted and You're like, but.

Speaker 1 (29:16):
I'm talking about It's like, I know you're not talking
about me.

Speaker 3 (29:25):
It's very crazy.

Speaker 2 (29:26):
This is like a moment I know you don't even
touch nothing.

Speaker 4 (29:28):
Talking to you.

Speaker 3 (29:32):
I don't understand crazy.

Speaker 1 (29:34):
So what do you see happening for Shesh in the future?
What's the what's the plan?

Speaker 4 (29:38):
Things?

Speaker 5 (29:39):
Yeah, go ahead, amazing things like I mean, I feel
like all the doors is opening up. Just do off
the hard work that we put in, you know what
I'm saying, a lot of times, just going to sleep
in the morning time when it's when it's when the
birds is chirping, you ain't been sleep yet, just perfecting something,

(29:59):
you know what I'm saying. I just know I feel
in my spirit that is good, good things to come
for Sheesh. I don't really know any you know what
I'm saying, crazy like things into the future. I just
know that we dropping tapes every two months or something
around that area.

Speaker 4 (30:13):
You know what I'm saying.

Speaker 5 (30:13):
We giving the best content, you know what I'm saying,
And we're gonna give y'all our best.

Speaker 1 (30:19):
When you guys think about all the music that you
did before, like you said, you had like a thousand songs.
What type of you know, if you have to think
about some of the themes and things that were going
on when you were writing, what is it that you
would say that music was like for you, I.

Speaker 5 (30:33):
Was just writing from a place of like hunger and determination,
like right, so I didn't like sing so much in prison,
you know what I mean?

Speaker 4 (30:44):
Being involved, you know what I mean, just.

Speaker 5 (30:45):
Just surviving and just going through what I was going
through as a kid becoming a man in there, Like
I just knew that I can't this ain't it.

Speaker 4 (30:54):
I can't do this for the restaurant.

Speaker 5 (30:56):
Then just us breaking our mom my heart like you know,
we love you know what I mean, Like we Mama's boys,
low key, you know what I mean.

Speaker 4 (31:03):
And it's like.

Speaker 5 (31:06):
Just from I just knew that life this can't be life,
Like it gotta be more to life than this, you
know what I mean. And I knew that I wasn't
gonna feel I knew. I was like you know how
fifty had get rich of doatrone, Like it was like
that's literally like I will wake him up, like hey,
I don't give that. We got seven years and six
days and thirty two hours, Like okay, we can write

(31:26):
for another hour.

Speaker 4 (31:28):
Kill another hour off that time, you know what I mean.

Speaker 5 (31:30):
Like, that's what literally what type of time I was on,
and I just knew that we I'm not gonna fall,
I'm not gonna feel you need that type of reality,
like and you know what I mean, even though that
was my reality, My real reality was in my mind,
I seen myself on stage. I seen me and my
brother being successful, buying on my house, you know what
I mean. And you just gotta make that your reality,

(31:52):
not them closing the gate talking about some or opening
the gate talking about some child, you.

Speaker 4 (31:57):
Know what I mean.

Speaker 5 (31:58):
And you gotta sacrifice a lot, you know, just know
that come with it. You just got to sacrifice, you
know what I'm saying. I don't want to say you
got to lose something, but just know you got to sacrifice,
whether it's time and time energy, you know you know
what relationships.

Speaker 2 (32:13):
Relationship definitely one man.

Speaker 6 (32:15):
I tell everybody the hardest part of success is managing people.

Speaker 1 (32:19):
Yeah, because you can't control what anybody else does. And
then sometimes it's hard because you have a sense of loyalty.
You feel like you're a bad person if you're not loyal,
But sometimes you loyal, you know, for the wrong reasons.
It can't be so loyal to somebody else that you're
not loyal to yourself. Where you put somebody else above you,
or they keep on proving you know how bad and

(32:40):
toxic they can be for you, and you feel like, well,
I don't want to be that person that let me
give them another chance.

Speaker 2 (32:46):
And you make excuses, you know, for other people.

Speaker 5 (32:49):
I've read somewhere said, you know, you pick the wrong person.
You know that could set you back for out of
ten years. Yeah, you know, if you mess around with
just the wrong person is wrong.

Speaker 4 (32:58):
You know what I'm saying.

Speaker 1 (32:59):
Yeah, we got some brothers here, man, I got.

Speaker 4 (33:08):
I got him forever.

Speaker 5 (33:09):
This's my you know what I mean, it's my heart,
you know what I mean. So we we we ain't
gonna we know we got each other. I think that's
like an advantage, like when you're working with somebody, it
could be your best friend. But like and not to
say brothers don't beef or none of that. Yeah, but
I'm saying a lot if you if y'all really locked
in and really got that I want the best for him.

Speaker 4 (33:32):
I know he want the best for me. It's seamless.

Speaker 5 (33:35):
It's like well, you know what I mean, we were
gonna always move the right way.

Speaker 2 (33:38):
How did you tell your mom you guys were getting
a deal.

Speaker 4 (33:42):
How did I tell my mama? Uh? I think I
think it was on FaceTime?

Speaker 5 (33:47):
Yeah, I think I facetimed because she wasn't moving, she
wasn't living down there. She lived with us, now, you
know what I mean? Well with me and uh, I
just she just was excited. But she she real spiritual,
so she always knew we was gonna like do something and.

Speaker 4 (34:03):
With music and make it in music.

Speaker 5 (34:05):
She always shout out to my mom and popped out
and being spiritual.

Speaker 1 (34:09):
I will say the music has a bit of a
gospel type of yeah.

Speaker 6 (34:14):
Yeah, man, Like when you hear that album tho, Yeah,
it's gonna touch you. It's gonna touch that was done.

Speaker 4 (34:20):
Yeah, it was done. It's gonna make people cry.

Speaker 3 (34:24):
Yeah for sure.

Speaker 6 (34:24):
It's the records that's gonna make you remember why music
was so impactful in people's lives.

Speaker 3 (34:29):
Yeah, we need that, that's what we need.

Speaker 7 (34:31):
Yeah, we need that.

Speaker 5 (34:32):
And we ain't just got the bars the melodies on there,
you know what I mean, Like it's real melodic to
with the bars, you know what I mean?

Speaker 1 (34:38):
It's the three sixty without a three sixties.

Speaker 4 (34:45):
You're gonna know why we do it too.

Speaker 5 (34:46):
All the reasons why we do it is on the album,
my kids, his son, you know what I mean.

Speaker 4 (34:51):
Like, you know we real you were transparent, you know
what I mean.

Speaker 5 (34:56):
You're gonna be able to hear and feel everything and
it's real related, you know what I mean.

Speaker 2 (35:01):
Yeah, put on the map.

Speaker 5 (35:02):
Yeah, in a major way, in a major way. We're
putting on for LCRD for sure.

Speaker 1 (35:07):
Well, congratulations on this. I cannot wait to hear the project.

Speaker 6 (35:10):
Is there a date or well, I'm gonna be announcing
the date soon.

Speaker 7 (35:14):
Okay.

Speaker 6 (35:14):
I wanted to drop the single first and see the reaction,
see where we was going, because I like, now I'm
utilizing the data to my advantage.

Speaker 2 (35:21):
Of course, you are one thing.

Speaker 3 (35:28):
Like nothing about one more week.

Speaker 6 (35:29):
I have enough data to be able to say, Katy,
we're dropping on this day, going on tour.

Speaker 3 (35:33):
There we go.

Speaker 2 (35:36):
You know, cities are responding in this way.

Speaker 1 (35:39):
I saw you're talking to TMZ about AI, which is
such a touchy subject for people.

Speaker 3 (35:43):
You know.

Speaker 1 (35:43):
Timberland had to kind of like and I've seen labels
sign an AI artist and then change their mind and
backtrack because people are nervous about technology.

Speaker 2 (35:51):
But like you said, but you.

Speaker 3 (35:52):
Gotta embrace it.

Speaker 6 (35:53):
Yeah, you gotta embrace the technology like because either you're
gonna roll with it, it's gonna roll over you because
technologies it's coming.

Speaker 2 (36:02):
Yeah and a I's been here for a while.

Speaker 1 (36:03):
It's just now people are figuring out different ways to
use it. It's getting more widespread. So I know you
have plans already. What you have no idea you make
more money from music or other like other ventures.

Speaker 6 (36:19):
Music is just a vehicle to get to the money.
I use music to promote the things I'm making money on.

Speaker 1 (36:24):
Okay, yeah, all right, well listen, keep that business savvy
about you because I feel the same rate. It's my
day job. But we got to use this to get Yeah,
you'll be driving to get to the cast.

Speaker 7 (36:36):
You get it, all right?

Speaker 1 (36:38):
Well, thank you guys so much. I appreciate y'all for
joining me. You know, it's been a long time coming.
But I love to see it and the song is
absolutely amazing. So for people if you haven't had a
chance to go watch the video and listen to it,
I told you, like I said, I put it on
MAINL had no idea what I was listening to.

Speaker 2 (36:53):
He was like, Oh, what's that like?

Speaker 7 (36:55):
Turn that out?

Speaker 4 (36:55):
So it follow.

Speaker 1 (36:59):
Me?

Speaker 5 (36:59):
Yeah, please follow me at a big underscore ski a
O N s k I b I G s k I,
and then follow me at l N S Underscore A
O N and follow our group page at Underscore Convict
so s H E E s H Underscore Convict with

(37:21):
a K.

Speaker 6 (37:21):
Right, and if you forget all of that, just go
with acon dot com or at acon on any platform
wherever you see me and she doing anything, video or whatever,
just tag that.

Speaker 3 (37:31):
You'll see I tag them and you can follow them
from there.

Speaker 2 (37:33):
Yes, sir, All right, well thank you so much. Again.

Speaker 1 (37:36):
Are you gonna do? People were asking, are you going
to do smack that as a country song?

Speaker 6 (37:39):
Oh yeah, got to hear what that sounded like.

Speaker 3 (37:47):
Listen.

Speaker 6 (37:48):
Why I'm so excited is because, see, a lot of
people don't know that my first album was all done
with a country state of mind. Okay, before before I
was gonna R and B, I was gonna go country.

Speaker 3 (37:59):
Wow, like because in Africa, country is huge.

Speaker 2 (38:01):
Okay I didn't know that.

Speaker 6 (38:02):
Yeah, So a lot of my music was written with
a country mindset. Just I just put hip hop beats
on them. So now when we take them same lyrics
and put them behind country music, it fits, really fits
like a glove, like this record I just did with
with with Ross uh.

Speaker 3 (38:20):
Josh, Josh. Okay, so we redid right now now now right,
you gotta.

Speaker 2 (38:25):
Change right now.

Speaker 7 (38:27):
Okay. But you said I was just fit. You couldn't
even tell just fit right in.

Speaker 2 (38:32):
It just seems I can't wait to hear smack.

Speaker 3 (38:35):
That so crazy, you got to hear it. I can't
wait to drop that one.

Speaker 7 (38:38):
All right, Well, thank you again.

Speaker 1 (38:40):
I appreciate you absolutely. Next time, Okay, we like that