April 17, 2024 • 36 mins
Welcome to Unbreakable! A Mental Wealth podcast hosted by Fox NFL Insider Jay Glazer. On today’s episode, rapper & songwriter O.T. Genasis, well known for his songs "CoCo", "Do It" and "Cut It" takes Jay on a trip down memory lane. He reflects on the struggles and challenges he faced, the lessons he learned, and how they helped him become the successful artist he is today!
Follow, rate & review Unbreakable with Jay Glazer here!https://link.chtbl.com/unbreakablewithjayglazer
#fsr
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
This is Unbreakable with Jay Glacier, a mental wealth podcast
build you from the inside out.
Speaker 2 (00:11):
Now here's Jay Glacier.
Speaker 1 (00:14):
Welcome into Unbreakable, a mental Wealth podcast with Jay Glazer.
Speaker 2 (00:18):
I'm so excited about today's guest.
Speaker 1 (00:20):
Well, he's my training partner and Unbreakable, but he's also
a huge performer. We're gonna get to him a little
bit here. He's a huge rapper, huge artist, huge everything.
But if you're like many people, you may be surprised
to learn that one in five adults in this country
experience mental illness last year, yet far too many failua
received the sport they needed.
Speaker 2 (00:37):
Carolyn Behavioral Health is doing something about it.
Speaker 1 (00:40):
They understand that behavioral health is a key part of
whole health, delivering compassionate care that treats physical, mental, emotional,
and social needs and tandem Carolin Behavioral Health raising the
quality of life through empathy and action. Again, Welcome into Unbreakable,
a mental Wealth podcast with Jay Glazier. My guest today.
He has had a hit song and Coco. He's had
(01:01):
a song that Beyonce's used in Coachella. He's had a
song that we'd using an iPhone commercial and usually during
the week you could find him trying to punch me
in the face, the one and only Ot Genesis.
Speaker 2 (01:12):
How we doing, bud?
Speaker 3 (01:13):
Oh, good, brother, I'm good. Good that for an intro
Hell was a great intro am.
Speaker 2 (01:19):
I far off on anything. No, you're good, You're good.
It's pretty cool, you know. You know we've been trained
now to get it for shit? How long? About five years?
Six years? Like six years before COVID, right before COVID,
May before.
Speaker 3 (01:34):
COVID, two years before cold.
Speaker 1 (01:36):
Right by the way, Ot is the only guy that
come to my birthday party with a gift for me
of Don Juliu in nineteen forty two.
Speaker 2 (01:42):
And then drank my entire birthday gifts.
Speaker 3 (01:46):
The greatest rod.
Speaker 2 (01:48):
So don't invite him to your apartments. FA. But man,
we become brothers obviously.
Speaker 1 (01:55):
And you know we've trained all these years. We sweat,
we bleed together.
Speaker 2 (02:00):
But I never asked you, and I don't know why
because I usually get always going through this early. How
you got your start? Where to start?
Speaker 3 (02:08):
It started? It started in Long Beach, come originally from
Loan Beach. But it started off like doing like I was,
like doing talent shows and everything like that.
Speaker 2 (02:17):
What age are we talking here.
Speaker 3 (02:18):
I'm at this point, I'm around fourteen fourteen, But I
always had love for music. And you know, back then,
we used to they used to have music videos. That's
what we always lock intol. We watched music videos before
we go to school. And you always like, I want
to be like that guy. I want to be like
that guy. But in like in my city, like the
man was Snoop, like Snoop who we looked up to.
(02:40):
And so you know, I bought some equipment, had a producer,
bought some equipment. Used to go to high school, you know,
inside the classrooms. I used to always write raps inside
the classrooms. So I'm always getting in trouble. You're always
writing writing wraps inside the classrooms, you know, dischital school,
doing all kinds of stuff like that. I say, at
(03:00):
the age of like fifteen, a year after that of
me like working with you know, pro tools and everything
like that with me and my boy in the garage.
And so now we start making up these songs that
only we like, only we enjoyed, you know, because if
you record it, you're like, have you heard what we
did last night? Even if it was trash, you know,
it's like the fact that we recorded the song was
(03:22):
the dopest thing ever. So I got into this, this
talent show. They should do talent shows out here in
hollyo in Hollywood. Actually it was this guy who his
name was went by. The name was Sean Heay. He
had shows. What they would do was they would get
the artists in order to pack up, like fill the room.
They would have every artist sell ten to twenty tickets
(03:43):
for ten dollars each. So basically you send it, you
sending that to your family members, your friends or whatever,
and then they probably have like twenty artists performing that night.
But then everybody is sending like selling their tickets to
ten or twenty tickets. Now got a pack you know,
pause backed house, and now it was like time for
(04:04):
you to perform, So they give you a slot. You
go perform. I used to crush it even though without
you know, without everybody even knowing my song, you know,
And it was just like I was always great at performing.
It went from there to me staying at it a
few years later then, but so.
Speaker 1 (04:20):
So how many years So this is like how many
years of you just doing this? This is like working
at your craft for no one's watching that's what people
don't get.
Speaker 2 (04:29):
They think there's an overnight sensations.
Speaker 3 (04:33):
Yeah, before I would say like that was like seven
seven eight years seven, eight years yeah, yeah, like you know,
perfecting my craft. And then my mom told me one time,
she was like, yo, what, like why are you doing this?
You're living in a fantasy world. You know, your cousins
want to rap, everybody want to become rappers. You guys
got your pants hanging off your ass.
Speaker 2 (04:55):
So my mom was not going for none of it,
and she wasn't wrong.
Speaker 3 (05:00):
She wasn't.
Speaker 2 (05:01):
She was like, now, why you.
Speaker 3 (05:02):
Just don't go to school? Cause my mom has her
master's So why you why you just don't go to school?
Why you just can't be Why you just can't be
like like your like your like like her brother's kids.
She always like, why do you guys to get da
da da da? You always want to rap and everything.
I'm like, yeah, I'm like, man, no, you don't know
how good I am. But she wasn't worried about knowing
how good I am because she you know, she even
like really messed with that, you know, and I'm just
(05:24):
like all right, whatever. So it's maybe like eight years later,
seven eight years later, I'm doing another like talent show.
It wasn't the talent show. It was a club. Actually
is it?
Speaker 2 (05:36):
Is it like open mic night type of text?
Speaker 3 (05:38):
Yeah? Yeah yeah. So I'm performing and some guy talked
to me after. He said, Hey, who you signed to.
I'm like, I'm not. I'm not you know, I'm not
signing nobody anything like that, like a can I have
your number? I'm like, yeah, no problem. So he was like, yeah,
I may got something like you have a manager. I'm like, no,
I have a manager either. He's like okay. So I
get a call like two weeks later, and it was
(06:02):
like my manager at the time. His name was Dino,
and he's like, hey, I really like this song that
you got. H We're gonna try to work something out,
like let's talk about management. I'm like, okay, no problem.
But I didn't really care about I didn't really know
what a manager was. I just thought that somebody that
was trying to take your money. I didn't know what
it was, you know, I just know I was rapping,
That's all I knew. I'm helping my friend move, and
(06:25):
I'm helping him I'm moving to helping move his stuff
out of his apartment. He's about to get a new place.
So it's like a Saturday helping him move. My phone
is going off the hook. My phone going off the hook,
going off the hook. I don't know why, but I'm
like I'll get to that later. We still got stuff
in the truck and we moved, got the frigerator, picking
up the frigerator, my phone is just really or whatever.
So I pick up the phone and then uh Dino course,
(06:47):
he's like, yo, fifty want to get on the phone show.
I'm like fifty fifty, you're talking about fifty. I'm like
fifty cent. Yeah, he's going to get a phone with you.
I'm like hell nah, you know. So he's like no,
because I'm like I'm blowing help. I'm moving refrigerators right now.
So he said, yeah, give me a minute. So you're
(07:10):
on the three way. He has like assistant. He's like, yeah, hey,
are you doing ot?
Speaker 1 (07:14):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (07:15):
Go you and fifty assistant.
Speaker 3 (07:17):
So it's me my manager at the time, fifties assistant,
and the fifty assistant about about to put fifty on
the phone. So he's like, yeah, this got really interesting.
Fifty said hold on one second. I'm like all right,
He's like, yo, I'm like and if you know fifty
and you well, you know you're familiar with the news,
You're like, oh, that's fifty on the phone. So now
(07:41):
me and fifties talking and he cracking jokes the whole time.
He's like, look, I'm gonna sign you to a deal. Ye,
I'm gonna sign you to a single deal and see
how that goes. And at the point at that time,
I didn't even know what this single deal meant either.
But basically, if you don't know what the single deal is, like,
I'm signing you to one song right here, like, you know,
for for a single, not an album, not a couple
of years, not about one song. And we see how
(08:02):
this is going, you know whatever. So now I'm happy.
He's like, I know what you're gonna don't go back
to your hood telling everybody you're super rich, because I
know that's what she's gonna do.
Speaker 2 (08:13):
And I just started laughing.
Speaker 3 (08:14):
He was like, he was like, you know what, I'm
gonna come to La. I'm gonna come see you. I
have a mixture meeting with Part one or six and
everything like that, so I'm gonna come see you. Just
pull up to the meeting in Santa Monica. I was like, okay, cool,
so we do that. We get to the deal finalized,
shoot some videos, go out there, run around with him
and Floyd. That's when him and Floyd maybe it was
like super super tight and fly out there, run around,
(08:38):
do a couple of shows everything.
Speaker 2 (08:39):
So what was the song?
Speaker 3 (08:41):
It was a song called the song was called Jackie
Jackie Chan at the time, right, I was basically saying like,
like we all used to say that we stunt, but
it was another way of saying, you know, we fly.
You got the flys cars. I would saying I stunt,
and I was like, I stunt Jackie Chan. But yeah, anyway,
so that happened. And then and you know, he was
doing his sk headphones and everything like that, and so
(09:04):
I was like, you know, he was real busy. So
the song didn't really do what it was supposed to do.
Speaker 1 (09:08):
Wait, waita back up before you even like, this is
what I want people to understand too.
Speaker 2 (09:13):
I want to know. I want to get educated. You
have fifty seven coming out to do a deal with you.
How do you go learn how to do a deal
with fifty cent?
Speaker 3 (09:22):
Yeah? Well, obviously from the my manager at the time,
and my lawyer.
Speaker 2 (09:27):
It was just like, you got a lawyer, you got it,
You went and got someone.
Speaker 3 (09:31):
Yeah, did you.
Speaker 2 (09:32):
Have a lawyer? And tell me you like, oh shit,
I gotta do something. Fifty cents, I got to go
hire a lawyer.
Speaker 3 (09:36):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (09:37):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (09:37):
I was like, you know what I'm going, I gotta
go give you a lawyer because I don't know how this,
you know, I don't know the verbiage or anything. So
I got a lawyer. Obviously helped my My manager helped me,
you know, find the right lawyer, found a lawyer, and
then you know, he explained to me what everything meant.
And I still didn't know to what everything meant, but
I kind of had a clue and I was okay
(09:59):
with it. It was just like, after the deal was
done and the song was out, it did what it
what it done, I'm kind of like, what's next, what
we're doing? You know. But but at that point, me
and him just had a real good friendship, you know,
at that point, so it was just like, okay, cool,
it was just a single deal. So that's twenty eleven.
(10:21):
So I just stayed hustling and stay grinding.
Speaker 1 (10:24):
So wait, so it didn't do what you were hoping
it did. Tell me, like, how did you coach yourself
up through that? Cause that's in a way it's heartbreaking,
right you think here's my big break, and man, it's
still not there.
Speaker 2 (10:36):
And I just said, look, I've had it.
Speaker 1 (10:38):
It took me eleven years to get my first full
time job covering the NFL. And every time I thought
I had something, I think the year five, I gotta
hire brother the New York Post.
Speaker 2 (10:47):
I'm like, here we are, here's my full time job.
Speaker 3 (10:49):
Man.
Speaker 2 (10:49):
I got nine grand a year for the New York
Post's all. I got nine thousand a year. And the
editor is like, where else you gonna go? You got
no experience, No one else is gonna.
Speaker 1 (10:58):
Hire you where everybody else is in eighty nine, year
one hundred, we're giving your ninth outs two hundred fifty
bucks a story for whatever. However many stories that was
nine thousand dollars. And I had a lot of those
moments I thought I made my big break and I
hadn't yet.
Speaker 2 (11:11):
So how did you get yourself through that? The break,
but the disappointment, not not no, not not being what
you thought it was gonna be.
Speaker 3 (11:18):
Yeah, that's the that's one of the that's one of
the scariest things because you're like, you're super excited thinking
life is going to go one way, and you're actually
thinking it's going to go one way because you're like,
this is something that you've never experienced and it's something
that you dreamt of and it's happening. So for it
(11:38):
to be happening but still not happen is like it's
so tough to deal with, you know. So it was
times when I was like, dang, like they don't mess
with me like that, like, well we could do this,
and I'm always questioning myself. I had the question I
was questioning myself like was I good enough? And I
was like when I sat back and I was like,
you know what, I'm good. This is this is what
(11:59):
it is is, and I just gotta keep I gotta
keep going at it, keep working, gotta keep working.
Speaker 2 (12:04):
You got to build yourself up.
Speaker 1 (12:06):
Well, your dreams are kind of yeah, tinkering back and forth,
which is a lot of guys they.
Speaker 2 (12:11):
Just wouldn't walk away from that.
Speaker 1 (12:13):
Yeah, And that's how I think separates people like you
from all those cats that don't make it.
Speaker 3 (12:16):
Yeah. Yeah, it's tough, you know, but you really, you
really really got to fight to get what you want.
This is one guy a long time ago. I'll never
forget it. This was a time when they had like
MySpace out and everything like that, and I wanted to
do music and I used to see him hanging with
all the celebrities and everybody. But I knew him, you know,
(12:37):
and I'm like, how can I get there? And he
told me. He told me something very simple. He said,
just keep working. And I never knew. It just sounded
so cliche to me, so I was like, like, that's
all you're gonna tell me is keep working. But it's
the truth. It really is the truth. How like how
simple and cliche that sounds. It's like, no, keep working,
(13:00):
you know, it just sounds like, you know, it's like
I'm looking for Like I don't know what I expected him, right,
but that is you.
Speaker 1 (13:08):
And I've talked about I tell people all the time, Lick,
if you want to be the best, find out who
the best is and do more than them.
Speaker 2 (13:14):
That's it.
Speaker 1 (13:15):
That's the big secret, right, There's nothing else. Find out
what they do and do more than them. And people
look at me. Our football players are coming all the
top and I'll find it right, and I'll just say
that my finding who the best is your position and
do more, And they're like same thing, Like that's where
you can tell me, Yeah, you want to be great quarterback,
Let's find out what Tom Brady does and do more
than them. Yeah, right, the best defensive end, do more
(13:36):
than them, best linebacker do more than them. And the
number of people to that have said to me, I
can't do that, Well, there's your answer right there.
Speaker 3 (13:45):
Yeah. Yeah, you gotta lock in. You gotta lock in.
And so I'm just saying consistently, I'm just working, working,
twelve come by, thirteen, comes by. When it gets to
like twenty fourteen, and I'm in the club like hammered wasted,
And I had a song called Touchdown at the time
(14:08):
and it was really like big regionally, especially around like
La and everything like that. And so that's when I
ran into Bus Rounds at the time, and he was
telling me he wanted to do a deal with me,
and I was like, all right, so you know, let's go,
you know, let's go talk. So we went to the studio,
we talked about it, and we did a deal with Atlantic.
(14:31):
So I got him a label deal over there. He
got a label deal through me Atlantic Records, and so
we did that deal way back.
Speaker 2 (14:40):
I want to I don't want to just bloss silver.
Speaker 1 (14:42):
That's what you're looking for, right, that's like, oh my god,
that's that's not one song deal.
Speaker 3 (14:45):
This is uh yeah, yeah, yeah that's it.
Speaker 2 (14:47):
You talk about a touchdown escort it, you know, touchdown
Yeah yeah yeah, take you behind your eyes of like,
oh my god, it worked so hard. You kept working
and now you got tell.
Speaker 3 (15:01):
Me what they felt like it felt. Really, I was like, damn,
I'm like, it's happening again.
Speaker 2 (15:08):
You know, I don't trust it.
Speaker 3 (15:09):
Yeah, yeah, like damn, it's happening again. Okay, So but
I was. I was so excited because I'm you know,
I walked in and I was. I walked in the
label meeting and it was like there's so many producers
and artists and DJs, A and r's presidents that I
(15:30):
that I've done research on just from me being an
artist and trying to figure out who's who to get
my music to who to And I'm seeing all these
people in one room and they're all like, yo, we
think he's so dope. So this is the top of fourteen. Now,
this is what happens. So they gave me some money.
(15:51):
They gave me some money. Jay, when I tell you,
I was going crazy. I'm I'm over there getting champagne
over here, getting this over there, doing that to where
I'm not even working. You know, it's kind of like
I lost I lost myself, you know. I you know,
I touched some money that I never touched in my life.
(16:12):
And I'm like, I'm just having fun with that.
Speaker 2 (16:16):
You're like, I made it.
Speaker 3 (16:17):
I made it.
Speaker 2 (16:18):
I made it.
Speaker 3 (16:19):
But I'm like, I know I made it, but I'm like, damn,
I'm not working. So these are there's there's months going by,
months going by, months going by. From January it got
to maybe it got to maybe September. From from January
to September, I didn't drop nothing. And so my A
and R gets on the phone and he spoke to
(16:42):
my manager, and I want to know what the conversation
is about. My manager was like, look, basically, what they're
saying is in December, they're gonna drop you. I was like,
they're gonna drop me. It was like, yeah, you ain't
put out no music, you know what I mean. You
ain't put in no music or nothing, like they're gonna
drop you. And I'm like, damn, okay, I got to
tighten up. So I type up, I lock in. I say,
you know what, I gotta, I gotta, I gotta chill,
(17:02):
gotta chill. I'm recording, and uh I recorded Coco this
one night, and so I recorded. I'm like, oh, that's
the one that's hard, right, And so now I have
another song. And this is why a lot of the time,
I say, you gotta trust your gut. You know, you
can't really let people think for you. If I take
(17:24):
an l I'm okay taking the al that I wanted
to take rather than somebody put me in that position.
And I took a So now I have another I
recorded Coco, But then I have another song, this is September,
and have the other song that they were really interested,
like the label was interested in. They was like, you
know what, We're gonna shoot this video. I said, you
know what, all right? Cool? Shoot the video big, like
(17:47):
a huge production, you know, like huge. They had to
spend at at least like three hundred thousand this video, right,
the video is crazy, And I'm like, damn, this is
like a I look like, I'm an artis now I
know now I look like I'm an artist, you know,
so I'm super excited the video comes out. I hated it.
(18:10):
I was like, what what happened to this? What happened
to that? What happened to this? Well happened to that part?
And that's when I started learning greatively, like the editor
is just important as a director, you know, and how
you edit your shots, because there were so many dope
shots that I saw and I was like, why is
that not in there? Why is that not in there?
And it was a thing where the director was sending
(18:32):
to the editor, and so the editors, you know, right
now I feel strongly, like I feel strongly about it's
his vision instead of yours exactly, and he wasn't even
here now, he's just getting something and just putting something together.
I hated they was like, and then Bussell was like,
what do you mean, Like, Yo, this is correct? I'm
looking really crazy right now to even He's kind of like,
(18:53):
you don't even have no room to say you hate it?
What do you mean you hate it? And so I'm like,
I don't like it. What do you want to do?
Because I got something else that I recorded the other night,
and he was like he was he looked at so sick.
I'm like, yeah, man, I got something else. So we
go and go to the projects and go shoot the
(19:17):
Coco video.
Speaker 2 (19:18):
Did they have to drop another three hunderground for that?
Speaker 3 (19:20):
No? No, no, that was free. That was look. We
go shoot that video and the second I put it out,
it changed my life instantly. Boom just spread like wildfire.
I mean, I would say, Jay in two and a
(19:44):
half weeks, I was already doing shows everywhere in two
and a half weeks. I went in two and a
half weeks. I started off in New York and I
saw so many people there, but I only got one song.
You know, I saw so many people there and it's
like it's sold out all of them. They're like all
the shows in New York showed out because we got
(20:07):
to see that guy. So most of the times you'll
go people will have like a long run with a
hit record, that have a long run in the US,
and then they go overseas. I was going overseas before
I was finishing my US run, so overseas they were
grabbing me over there, and like when as far as
to book me, you would have to book me three
months in advance. Wow, that's how much I was booked.
(20:30):
And I was booked every single day. And so there
will be times where I'll go to that not not
there like all the time. Actually, I'll go to a
city and say, if I go to Miami. When I
go there, you know, some people are like, well, you
can't perform at this potder, you can't perform at this
powder whatever. You know, when I get there, I'm performing
at every single spot. I don't care if I was
(20:52):
across the street last night, I'm across the street tomorrow
because they knew that I wasn't coming back. You know, like,
once he performs here, he's gone. So if he's coming
the way that the way the routing is set up
is if he's coming to Miami, he probably won't be
in Miami again for a long time because he suck
because everybody wants it.
Speaker 1 (21:12):
You're there because you're famous because the one song. But
are you then doing other songs?
Speaker 3 (21:16):
All the songs? Yeah, I would do. I would do
other songs that people you know, don't know, not familiar with,
you know, and then they'd be like, yeah, they'll look
at me like this, and then that comes on boom boom.
Are you see is cell phones? People everybody giving over there?
I performing like five times in a row, you know
what I mean, like and get the same response. So yeah,
(21:38):
so that was that was it. That was wow.
Speaker 1 (21:40):
Youve make advice to young rappers performers who was in
your position when you got first got signed by Fitty
or and got this deal and you said, you went
out and spent all that money and just went after me.
Speaker 2 (21:53):
If what you now know.
Speaker 1 (21:56):
Could tell the ot genesis advice when you got signed
actually by Buster Rhymes, and you just went out and
spend all that money instead of working your ass off,
what would you tell that yellow tea?
Speaker 3 (22:06):
It would be like a everything would be all right, man,
you know what I mean, everything everything to be all right.
You know, I'm we tend to always uh be you know,
getting nervous and scared obviously, like we're like sometimes I
gotta calm myself down because I'm like, when you're in
the know and you don't know what's going to happen next,
(22:27):
that's when we get really you know, we're getting nerved.
Speaker 2 (22:30):
Living in question sucks. That's anxiety.
Speaker 1 (22:32):
Yeah, yeah, you know what I mean, Like.
Speaker 3 (22:34):
That part right there sucks, especially if you know it
already sucks. But it really sucks when you feel like
I'm doing everything right, or you feel at least you
feel that you're doing everything right, it kind of sucks
because you're like, damn, I just I just hope this happens,
you know. But yeah, so I.
Speaker 2 (22:51):
Want to go back.
Speaker 1 (22:52):
Also, when you get time by Fiddy, do you get
money upfront or is it based on sales of what
he does?
Speaker 3 (22:59):
I would get get money up front. It wouldn't be
that much. That much.
Speaker 1 (23:02):
Now go back to the hood telling everybody wretch, no, no,
is there a lot of money when you first signed
that big record deal when you signed with Buster or
does it come?
Speaker 3 (23:13):
That was a lot of money right there? It was.
But then but then what you don't know, what people
don't know is you have to pay that back. You know,
oh you do oh show it's an advance in advance. Yeah,
it's an advance, like you know what this is your
this budget, this is it. But you know you pay
it back through your sales, you know what I mean?
And everything like that.
Speaker 1 (23:32):
But if they cut you though, like you said, they
were almost going to cut you if you didn't start
coming out with stuff.
Speaker 2 (23:37):
You still gotta pay that back.
Speaker 3 (23:38):
Or I wouldn't have to pay it. I would have
just been But I wish they would have cut me
because if they if they would have cut me right
then and there, then all that money, one hundred percent
of everything would have been mine.
Speaker 2 (23:49):
Yeah, but you wouldn't have had Cocoa out there. Video
Yeah no.
Speaker 3 (23:53):
But but but the thing is when it happened, it
just it just happened, like I just put it up
on YouTube and it just went so that they didn't
even work it at radio. Yet, they didn't work it
at any It just went oh okay.
Speaker 2 (24:06):
I didn't realize that part.
Speaker 3 (24:07):
Oh So that's what That was the craziest thing about
that record, because that record just shot like wildfire after that.
Speaker 1 (24:16):
Again, you have a little success there, but a lot
of success with Coco. What was the thing that your
next step? I guess where you're like, oh man, no, okay,
I'm stringing some things together here.
Speaker 2 (24:25):
I'm kind of a big dealer out here.
Speaker 3 (24:27):
Yeah. I was always thinking that, you know, I was like,
you know what, I'm a big deal. But everybody kept saying, Yo,
what's next, What's next? What's next? Just you do what
They're like, oh, yeah, did you hear the one hit
wonder things? You heard all day? So you know, I
just buckled down. And then I had a song called
cut It right after that and I dropped it when
double plattinum right out the gate really yeah, So so
(24:51):
I just know I was on fire then. You know,
it was like that can't stop me. Now.
Speaker 2 (24:56):
So when you when when you're hearing the one hit
wonder stuff, is that scary you more? Is it motivated more?
Speaker 3 (25:02):
It's motivating in a way, but then it's kind of
it's kind of scary because you kind of like you
you don't know what somebody else is going to think
about your music. You know, you know, I know that
this song doesn't sound like this song. This song mean
I sound like this song and this song mean I
sound like this song. So you're you're you're you're really
you're really like it is motivating, but it's like, uh,
maybe this can go wrong because it's not full control exactly.
(25:27):
You know.
Speaker 1 (25:28):
Yeah, the really days of my career, I would think
I couldn't understand why someone went like it was eleven
years of getting turned down and rejected, and I'm like,
so I knew.
Speaker 2 (25:39):
I knew I built a better mousetrap than everybody else.
Speaker 1 (25:42):
Yeah, I learned just because you build a better mousetrap
doesn't mean everybody wants to buy it.
Speaker 3 (25:46):
That was hard for me, right right right. It's kind
of like, oh if if somebody says said that to me,
and I was a basketball player, I'm like, Okay, I
can't wait to get the ball, right, you know what
I mean. You're in full control of that, yes, But
in here it's like it's like, oh wow, we have
to you know, we got we got to hear it.
If we like it, we like it, we don't, we don't.
Speaker 2 (26:08):
What's the coolest thing that's happened to you on your
journey in your career.
Speaker 3 (26:12):
I would say the coolest thing that happened to me
would be like me performing and watching people like cry.
I ain't seen nobody cryins Michael Jackson. No. I was
in I had a show and uh it was in
uh in Taiwan, and I'm seeing men and then crying,
(26:32):
you know what I mean, Like, oh my god, you
know what I mean. You when I get off the plane,
they're like, oh wow, you know what I mean? And
that that part right, there is like it's super super
dope because you're looking at yourself and you're like, damn,
I work so hard. But then I'm I mean so
much to somebody who I don't even know.
Speaker 2 (26:48):
That's cool.
Speaker 1 (26:49):
That's that's yeah, that's that's you lifting people up and
being of service now, but just doing something you love
that's the ultimate prize.
Speaker 3 (26:57):
Yeah. Absolutely, that's pretty samn cool.
Speaker 1 (27:00):
What's the biggest thing that's happened, Like a celebrity that's
recognized you I'm a big fan and you're like, oh
my god, this just happened.
Speaker 3 (27:07):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, my mine. Uh, it would have to
be well, of course, of course Beyonce. But as far
as like sports, I would have to be. I would
have to say he came, he came to me in
the club. He was like, yo, you to go. I
was like what you gotta know what that felt like
(27:29):
to You're like, what are you talking about? You know?
I'm like, Yo, this is the dude that crossed mic
you know what I mean telling me I'm the go.
So yeah, like, as far as like sports would have
to be, you have to be him, Like I'm cool
with you know, with Lebron and all the guys too,
But the one that came like for somebody to come
(27:50):
up to me and be like, yo, you the go bro,
you just don't know you just I'm telling you right now,
you that I like having that full conversation with me
for like thirty minutes.
Speaker 2 (28:00):
It was like a I, how did it come that?
Beyonce use your song? Like how's that for? How does
that go down? And yeah, this.
Speaker 3 (28:07):
Is crazy because I had a show in North Carolina.
I'll never forget I had a show in North Carolina
and then I had an after party appearance and so
I did the show, I had an after party appearance.
When I was driving to the after party was like
an hour out and so I'm in them. I'm going
(28:27):
in the car and my phone is going crazy, but
I keep once again it's like I'm just ignoring everybody.
So I'm ignoring everybody because I'm on my phone is
on the ox scord when I'm playing music, So I'm
just ending everybody. Who's you know what I mean, who's
calling im? I got a long drive. I'm trying to
you know, trying to stay you know what i mean,
turned up. So I'm in the person, in person and
(28:49):
in person in. I keep us in And then my
brother had text me. When my brother text me like, yo,
you see Beyonce, I was like, what are you talking about?
TEXTINGIM like, what are you talking about? She's like, sho
in the Coachella stage right now. When I looked at
my phone, my phone was crazy. My Instagram was crazy.
It was bumble bees everywhere. Everybody put this whole beatiping
(29:09):
was bumble bees everywhere, all over my phone, all over
my taste. Everybody has seen me. I'm then I I
look at the I go look at the show. I
was like, never, it looked just so crazy, bro, I
couldn't even believe it.
Speaker 2 (29:22):
So you didn't know going into it she was gonna
use your song. I didn't notice at all. I didn't
know back it up, you hal fiance does one of
your songs? You have no idea doing that?
Speaker 3 (29:33):
No, I didn't know at all. I didn't know at all.
So that was the thing. And then later she reached
out to management and asked can they use it throughout
the tour and we was like, hell, yeah, you can't.
Speaker 2 (29:45):
Even did you ever talk to her about it?
Speaker 3 (29:51):
I know, I didn't. I didn't. I didn't. I didn't
talk to her about it still this day.
Speaker 1 (29:55):
No, still to this day, you kidding reach out to
o T You gotta be kidd really.
Speaker 3 (30:01):
Yeah, I performed at her her show, but DJ Kelly
brought me out LA they had to on a run tour.
I performed at twice I think twice on her tour,
but I still haven't met her yet.
Speaker 2 (30:12):
That's unbelievable, man, unbelievable.
Speaker 1 (30:16):
So what do you again, I don't know your business.
Do you get paid when she sings your song? It's
just like, hey, more people know who I am, so
I can pay it that way.
Speaker 3 (30:24):
It was she she would raise the streams up and
everything like that. So yeah, I do get paid because
she's awareness, you.
Speaker 2 (30:30):
Know, she raised the streams.
Speaker 3 (30:32):
It was a crazy so because when I dropped the song.
When I dropped that song, everybody mad. I dropped it,
but it sounded totally different from like the regular club
song that I would do. But I thought I always
thought it was dope. So when I dropped it, all
the DJs were like fronting on it, like, oh, but
that don't sound like the regular old TV you know.
Two months later, Beyonce does this wow, you know, and
(30:53):
then it just goes everywhere.
Speaker 2 (30:54):
That's unbelievable. Dude. That's a cool story.
Speaker 1 (30:58):
Hey, when we're training and you better come with some
better material like stories like this, you gotta chime in
into your part. Believe I've been friends you for six years.
Speaker 2 (31:08):
I ever do this. That's unbelievable. Again.
Speaker 1 (31:12):
You and I are man brothers for training partners. We
hit each other in the head quite a bit, but
we open up to each other a lot. And that's
what's great about our place. Unbreakable. That's what's great about
having a fight team and a team is like man,
you you just lean into your brothers and hard times
and you and I bride each other pretty much, you know,
And that's just beautiful about what we have.
Speaker 2 (31:34):
Over there and unbreakable.
Speaker 1 (31:35):
Tell me just you know, I was talking about mental
this mental wealth, but kind of you know, going and
building your mental health or your physical health leads more
to mental wealth. What's the since we started training together?
What's training done for you? Mostly physically?
Speaker 2 (31:50):
Everything?
Speaker 3 (31:51):
I love. I love the training. I love the training.
It's so so important to me. It's so important that
even when I I'll fly do a show and lie
in and fly in, get off the plane, drop my
bags off, brush my teeth, and then go train. You know,
it's it's so addicting, but it's it clears my mind,
super clears my mind. I'm always I'm always ready for
(32:13):
the next step after I train helps me so much emotionally. Obviously,
everybody in there are like great people. You know, I
haven't I haven't been inside the gym where you meet
somebody and you go, damn, that person's asshole. It's me.
That's what that's what the sparn is for. And so
(32:38):
and man, it's just great people. Man, good energy, good
vibes and physically man. Always I'm always right, like I
go to certain places to go damn. We know you
were kind of jacked up like that.
Speaker 2 (32:52):
I'm like, yeah, man, what you like.
Speaker 3 (32:56):
Some of the some of the football players that come
in don't break it with like, damn team mane you
could have been a runner back if you did. I'm like, man,
I just you know, I just you know, I always
I'm addicted to it.
Speaker 2 (33:06):
You know, people don't know.
Speaker 1 (33:08):
I do have ot train with our football player when
they're in. I have him wrestled with them. I have
n't go like's far with that, Like he's part of it.
He's part of the team.
Speaker 3 (33:16):
Man.
Speaker 1 (33:16):
It's and guys. And again that's the thing. It's like
you lift them up, they left you up. That's the
whole part of having a team.
Speaker 3 (33:23):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, And I and I really get them going.
And I go, I look at them and I'll be like, hey,
don't have a don't have a rapper out work you bro?
You want to really get to him, You want to
really get to him.
Speaker 2 (33:38):
Don't have a don't have a rapper out work you bro?
You do though, you you out work pretty much everybody
in there. Right.
Speaker 1 (33:44):
So here, here's my last question, your brother. I ask
all my guests, give me your unbreakable moment. What I
mean by that, give me the moment that could have
broken you, should have broken you and then't and as
a result, you came through the other side of that
tunnel stronger and a breakable.
Speaker 3 (34:01):
For m I would say it would probably have to
be like going back and forth to like jail, you know,
like going back and forth doing jail time, trying to
figure things out, having a dream, not having a dream,
but still being a product of your environment. But you
(34:22):
still but you still want this dream. So you know
you're trying to survive where you're coming from and still
get what you need to get done, you know. And
so it's like, how can I how can I go
back somewhere so dangerous, but I'm trying to be so
positive and oftentimes I say, like, you know, it's places
(34:45):
that like where I come from, you know, in my
or my old neighborhoods, where it's like it kind of
like forces the forces you to become a monster in
some certain type of way. I don't want to promote that,
but it's like force you to be a monster in
some type of way because kind of you know, you're
trying to survive. You're not trying to, you're trying to
It's like you rather be a shark than be fooled,
(35:05):
you know. But while you're doing that, is there's consequences
for that. So there's consequences for that. But you're like, damn,
Like that's why that was the whole thing where we
say in our neighborhood, like I would rather be judged
by twelve than carried by six. You know. That's that's
where all that that's where all that comes from. I stayed,
(35:27):
of course, man, and at most times I go you
know what, let's go this way, or sometimes I'm like,
you know, I'm gonna be on this side of town
right now, I'm gonna sure my cousins on this side
of town. I'm gonna you know, I'm gonna lock in
and make sure I go do this and finess to
figure my way into just being on the right path
and not having to put myself around too much of
(35:47):
the you know, danger or anything that will make you
do something, you know what I mean, out of your
character and I just I just stayed the task, man,
and I kept it going. And that's what I think
I'm probably most proud of. Man.
Speaker 2 (36:00):
I'm proud too, Man.
Speaker 1 (36:01):
I am proud to call your teammate, proud to call
your brother, and I am proud to call you unbreakable.
Speaker 3 (36:05):
Thank you, brother, Thank you brother.
Speaker 1 (36:07):
Oh T Genesis, thanks for joining us here on the
Unbreakable Metal Wealth Podcast
This is Unbreakable with Jay Glacier, a mental wealth podcast
build you from the inside out.
Speaker 2 (00:11):
Now here's Jay Glacier.
Speaker 1 (00:14):
Welcome into Unbreakable, a mental Wealth podcast with Jay Glazer.
Speaker 2 (00:18):
I'm so excited about today's guest.
Speaker 1 (00:20):
Well, he's my training partner and Unbreakable, but he's also
a huge performer. We're gonna get to him a little
bit here. He's a huge rapper, huge artist, huge everything.
But if you're like many people, you may be surprised
to learn that one in five adults in this country
experience mental illness last year, yet far too many failua
received the sport they needed.
Speaker 2 (00:37):
Carolyn Behavioral Health is doing something about it.
Speaker 1 (00:40):
They understand that behavioral health is a key part of
whole health, delivering compassionate care that treats physical, mental, emotional,
and social needs and tandem Carolin Behavioral Health raising the
quality of life through empathy and action. Again, Welcome into Unbreakable,
a mental Wealth podcast with Jay Glazier. My guest today.
He has had a hit song and Coco. He's had
(01:01):
a song that Beyonce's used in Coachella. He's had a
song that we'd using an iPhone commercial and usually during
the week you could find him trying to punch me
in the face, the one and only Ot Genesis.
Speaker 2 (01:12):
How we doing, bud?
Speaker 3 (01:13):
Oh, good, brother, I'm good. Good that for an intro
Hell was a great intro am.
Speaker 2 (01:19):
I far off on anything. No, you're good, You're good.
It's pretty cool, you know. You know we've been trained
now to get it for shit? How long? About five years?
Six years? Like six years before COVID, right before COVID,
May before.
Speaker 3 (01:34):
COVID, two years before cold.
Speaker 1 (01:36):
Right by the way, Ot is the only guy that
come to my birthday party with a gift for me
of Don Juliu in nineteen forty two.
Speaker 2 (01:42):
And then drank my entire birthday gifts.
Speaker 3 (01:46):
The greatest rod.
Speaker 2 (01:48):
So don't invite him to your apartments. FA. But man,
we become brothers obviously.
Speaker 1 (01:55):
And you know we've trained all these years. We sweat,
we bleed together.
Speaker 2 (02:00):
But I never asked you, and I don't know why
because I usually get always going through this early. How
you got your start? Where to start?
Speaker 3 (02:08):
It started? It started in Long Beach, come originally from
Loan Beach. But it started off like doing like I was,
like doing talent shows and everything like that.
Speaker 2 (02:17):
What age are we talking here.
Speaker 3 (02:18):
I'm at this point, I'm around fourteen fourteen, But I
always had love for music. And you know, back then,
we used to they used to have music videos. That's
what we always lock intol. We watched music videos before
we go to school. And you always like, I want
to be like that guy. I want to be like
that guy. But in like in my city, like the
man was Snoop, like Snoop who we looked up to.
(02:40):
And so you know, I bought some equipment, had a producer,
bought some equipment. Used to go to high school, you know,
inside the classrooms. I used to always write raps inside
the classrooms. So I'm always getting in trouble. You're always
writing writing wraps inside the classrooms, you know, dischital school,
doing all kinds of stuff like that. I say, at
(03:00):
the age of like fifteen, a year after that of
me like working with you know, pro tools and everything
like that with me and my boy in the garage.
And so now we start making up these songs that
only we like, only we enjoyed, you know, because if
you record it, you're like, have you heard what we
did last night? Even if it was trash, you know,
it's like the fact that we recorded the song was
(03:22):
the dopest thing ever. So I got into this, this
talent show. They should do talent shows out here in
hollyo in Hollywood. Actually it was this guy who his
name was went by. The name was Sean Heay. He
had shows. What they would do was they would get
the artists in order to pack up, like fill the room.
They would have every artist sell ten to twenty tickets
(03:43):
for ten dollars each. So basically you send it, you
sending that to your family members, your friends or whatever,
and then they probably have like twenty artists performing that night.
But then everybody is sending like selling their tickets to
ten or twenty tickets. Now got a pack you know,
pause backed house, and now it was like time for
(04:04):
you to perform, So they give you a slot. You
go perform. I used to crush it even though without
you know, without everybody even knowing my song, you know,
And it was just like I was always great at performing.
It went from there to me staying at it a
few years later then, but so.
Speaker 1 (04:20):
So how many years So this is like how many
years of you just doing this? This is like working
at your craft for no one's watching that's what people
don't get.
Speaker 2 (04:29):
They think there's an overnight sensations.
Speaker 3 (04:33):
Yeah, before I would say like that was like seven
seven eight years seven, eight years yeah, yeah, like you know,
perfecting my craft. And then my mom told me one time,
she was like, yo, what, like why are you doing this?
You're living in a fantasy world. You know, your cousins
want to rap, everybody want to become rappers. You guys
got your pants hanging off your ass.
Speaker 2 (04:55):
So my mom was not going for none of it,
and she wasn't wrong.
Speaker 3 (05:00):
She wasn't.
Speaker 2 (05:01):
She was like, now, why you.
Speaker 3 (05:02):
Just don't go to school? Cause my mom has her
master's So why you why you just don't go to school?
Why you just can't be Why you just can't be
like like your like your like like her brother's kids.
She always like, why do you guys to get da
da da da? You always want to rap and everything.
I'm like, yeah, I'm like, man, no, you don't know
how good I am. But she wasn't worried about knowing
how good I am because she you know, she even
like really messed with that, you know, and I'm just
(05:24):
like all right, whatever. So it's maybe like eight years later,
seven eight years later, I'm doing another like talent show.
It wasn't the talent show. It was a club. Actually
is it?
Speaker 2 (05:36):
Is it like open mic night type of text?
Speaker 3 (05:38):
Yeah? Yeah yeah. So I'm performing and some guy talked
to me after. He said, Hey, who you signed to.
I'm like, I'm not. I'm not you know, I'm not
signing nobody anything like that, like a can I have
your number? I'm like, yeah, no problem. So he was like, yeah,
I may got something like you have a manager. I'm like, no,
I have a manager either. He's like okay. So I
get a call like two weeks later, and it was
(06:02):
like my manager at the time. His name was Dino,
and he's like, hey, I really like this song that
you got. H We're gonna try to work something out,
like let's talk about management. I'm like, okay, no problem.
But I didn't really care about I didn't really know
what a manager was. I just thought that somebody that
was trying to take your money. I didn't know what
it was, you know, I just know I was rapping,
That's all I knew. I'm helping my friend move, and
(06:25):
I'm helping him I'm moving to helping move his stuff
out of his apartment. He's about to get a new place.
So it's like a Saturday helping him move. My phone
is going off the hook. My phone going off the hook,
going off the hook. I don't know why, but I'm
like I'll get to that later. We still got stuff
in the truck and we moved, got the frigerator, picking
up the frigerator, my phone is just really or whatever.
So I pick up the phone and then uh Dino course,
(06:47):
he's like, yo, fifty want to get on the phone show.
I'm like fifty fifty, you're talking about fifty. I'm like
fifty cent. Yeah, he's going to get a phone with you.
I'm like hell nah, you know. So he's like no,
because I'm like I'm blowing help. I'm moving refrigerators right now.
So he said, yeah, give me a minute. So you're
(07:10):
on the three way. He has like assistant. He's like, yeah, hey,
are you doing ot?
Speaker 1 (07:14):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (07:15):
Go you and fifty assistant.
Speaker 3 (07:17):
So it's me my manager at the time, fifties assistant,
and the fifty assistant about about to put fifty on
the phone. So he's like, yeah, this got really interesting.
Fifty said hold on one second. I'm like all right,
He's like, yo, I'm like and if you know fifty
and you well, you know you're familiar with the news,
You're like, oh, that's fifty on the phone. So now
(07:41):
me and fifties talking and he cracking jokes the whole time.
He's like, look, I'm gonna sign you to a deal. Ye,
I'm gonna sign you to a single deal and see
how that goes. And at the point at that time,
I didn't even know what this single deal meant either.
But basically, if you don't know what the single deal is, like,
I'm signing you to one song right here, like, you know,
for for a single, not an album, not a couple
of years, not about one song. And we see how
(08:02):
this is going, you know whatever. So now I'm happy.
He's like, I know what you're gonna don't go back
to your hood telling everybody you're super rich, because I
know that's what she's gonna do.
Speaker 2 (08:13):
And I just started laughing.
Speaker 3 (08:14):
He was like, he was like, you know what, I'm
gonna come to La. I'm gonna come see you. I
have a mixture meeting with Part one or six and
everything like that, so I'm gonna come see you. Just
pull up to the meeting in Santa Monica. I was like, okay, cool,
so we do that. We get to the deal finalized,
shoot some videos, go out there, run around with him
and Floyd. That's when him and Floyd maybe it was
like super super tight and fly out there, run around,
(08:38):
do a couple of shows everything.
Speaker 2 (08:39):
So what was the song?
Speaker 3 (08:41):
It was a song called the song was called Jackie
Jackie Chan at the time, right, I was basically saying like,
like we all used to say that we stunt, but
it was another way of saying, you know, we fly.
You got the flys cars. I would saying I stunt,
and I was like, I stunt Jackie Chan. But yeah, anyway,
so that happened. And then and you know, he was
doing his sk headphones and everything like that, and so
(09:04):
I was like, you know, he was real busy. So
the song didn't really do what it was supposed to do.
Speaker 1 (09:08):
Wait, waita back up before you even like, this is
what I want people to understand too.
Speaker 2 (09:13):
I want to know. I want to get educated. You
have fifty seven coming out to do a deal with you.
How do you go learn how to do a deal
with fifty cent?
Speaker 3 (09:22):
Yeah? Well, obviously from the my manager at the time,
and my lawyer.
Speaker 2 (09:27):
It was just like, you got a lawyer, you got it,
You went and got someone.
Speaker 3 (09:31):
Yeah, did you.
Speaker 2 (09:32):
Have a lawyer? And tell me you like, oh shit,
I gotta do something. Fifty cents, I got to go
hire a lawyer.
Speaker 3 (09:36):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (09:37):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (09:37):
I was like, you know what I'm going, I gotta
go give you a lawyer because I don't know how this,
you know, I don't know the verbiage or anything. So
I got a lawyer. Obviously helped my My manager helped me,
you know, find the right lawyer, found a lawyer, and
then you know, he explained to me what everything meant.
And I still didn't know to what everything meant, but
I kind of had a clue and I was okay
(09:59):
with it. It was just like, after the deal was
done and the song was out, it did what it
what it done, I'm kind of like, what's next, what
we're doing? You know. But but at that point, me
and him just had a real good friendship, you know,
at that point, so it was just like, okay, cool,
it was just a single deal. So that's twenty eleven.
(10:21):
So I just stayed hustling and stay grinding.
Speaker 1 (10:24):
So wait, so it didn't do what you were hoping
it did. Tell me, like, how did you coach yourself
up through that? Cause that's in a way it's heartbreaking,
right you think here's my big break, and man, it's
still not there.
Speaker 2 (10:36):
And I just said, look, I've had it.
Speaker 1 (10:38):
It took me eleven years to get my first full
time job covering the NFL. And every time I thought
I had something, I think the year five, I gotta
hire brother the New York Post.
Speaker 2 (10:47):
I'm like, here we are, here's my full time job.
Speaker 3 (10:49):
Man.
Speaker 2 (10:49):
I got nine grand a year for the New York
Post's all. I got nine thousand a year. And the
editor is like, where else you gonna go? You got
no experience, No one else is gonna.
Speaker 1 (10:58):
Hire you where everybody else is in eighty nine, year
one hundred, we're giving your ninth outs two hundred fifty
bucks a story for whatever. However many stories that was
nine thousand dollars. And I had a lot of those
moments I thought I made my big break and I
hadn't yet.
Speaker 2 (11:11):
So how did you get yourself through that? The break,
but the disappointment, not not no, not not being what
you thought it was gonna be.
Speaker 3 (11:18):
Yeah, that's the that's one of the that's one of
the scariest things because you're like, you're super excited thinking
life is going to go one way, and you're actually
thinking it's going to go one way because you're like,
this is something that you've never experienced and it's something
that you dreamt of and it's happening. So for it
(11:38):
to be happening but still not happen is like it's
so tough to deal with, you know. So it was
times when I was like, dang, like they don't mess
with me like that, like, well we could do this,
and I'm always questioning myself. I had the question I
was questioning myself like was I good enough? And I
was like when I sat back and I was like,
you know what, I'm good. This is this is what
(11:59):
it is is, and I just gotta keep I gotta
keep going at it, keep working, gotta keep working.
Speaker 2 (12:04):
You got to build yourself up.
Speaker 1 (12:06):
Well, your dreams are kind of yeah, tinkering back and forth,
which is a lot of guys they.
Speaker 2 (12:11):
Just wouldn't walk away from that.
Speaker 1 (12:13):
Yeah, And that's how I think separates people like you
from all those cats that don't make it.
Speaker 3 (12:16):
Yeah. Yeah, it's tough, you know, but you really, you
really really got to fight to get what you want.
This is one guy a long time ago. I'll never
forget it. This was a time when they had like
MySpace out and everything like that, and I wanted to
do music and I used to see him hanging with
all the celebrities and everybody. But I knew him, you know,
(12:37):
and I'm like, how can I get there? And he
told me. He told me something very simple. He said,
just keep working. And I never knew. It just sounded
so cliche to me, so I was like, like, that's
all you're gonna tell me is keep working. But it's
the truth. It really is the truth. How like how
simple and cliche that sounds. It's like, no, keep working,
(13:00):
you know, it just sounds like, you know, it's like
I'm looking for Like I don't know what I expected him, right,
but that is you.
Speaker 1 (13:08):
And I've talked about I tell people all the time, Lick,
if you want to be the best, find out who
the best is and do more than them.
Speaker 2 (13:14):
That's it.
Speaker 1 (13:15):
That's the big secret, right, There's nothing else. Find out
what they do and do more than them. And people
look at me. Our football players are coming all the
top and I'll find it right, and I'll just say
that my finding who the best is your position and
do more, And they're like same thing, Like that's where
you can tell me, Yeah, you want to be great quarterback,
Let's find out what Tom Brady does and do more
than them. Yeah, right, the best defensive end, do more
(13:36):
than them, best linebacker do more than them. And the
number of people to that have said to me, I
can't do that, Well, there's your answer right there.
Speaker 3 (13:45):
Yeah. Yeah, you gotta lock in. You gotta lock in.
And so I'm just saying consistently, I'm just working, working,
twelve come by, thirteen, comes by. When it gets to
like twenty fourteen, and I'm in the club like hammered wasted,
And I had a song called Touchdown at the time
(14:08):
and it was really like big regionally, especially around like
La and everything like that. And so that's when I
ran into Bus Rounds at the time, and he was
telling me he wanted to do a deal with me,
and I was like, all right, so you know, let's go,
you know, let's go talk. So we went to the studio,
we talked about it, and we did a deal with Atlantic.
(14:31):
So I got him a label deal over there. He
got a label deal through me Atlantic Records, and so
we did that deal way back.
Speaker 2 (14:40):
I want to I don't want to just bloss silver.
Speaker 1 (14:42):
That's what you're looking for, right, that's like, oh my god,
that's that's not one song deal.
Speaker 3 (14:45):
This is uh yeah, yeah, yeah that's it.
Speaker 2 (14:47):
You talk about a touchdown escort it, you know, touchdown
Yeah yeah yeah, take you behind your eyes of like,
oh my god, it worked so hard. You kept working
and now you got tell.
Speaker 3 (15:01):
Me what they felt like it felt. Really, I was like, damn,
I'm like, it's happening again.
Speaker 2 (15:08):
You know, I don't trust it.
Speaker 3 (15:09):
Yeah, yeah, like damn, it's happening again. Okay, So but
I was. I was so excited because I'm you know,
I walked in and I was. I walked in the
label meeting and it was like there's so many producers
and artists and DJs, A and r's presidents that I
(15:30):
that I've done research on just from me being an
artist and trying to figure out who's who to get
my music to who to And I'm seeing all these
people in one room and they're all like, yo, we
think he's so dope. So this is the top of fourteen. Now,
this is what happens. So they gave me some money.
(15:51):
They gave me some money. Jay, when I tell you,
I was going crazy. I'm I'm over there getting champagne
over here, getting this over there, doing that to where
I'm not even working. You know, it's kind of like
I lost I lost myself, you know. I you know,
I touched some money that I never touched in my life.
(16:12):
And I'm like, I'm just having fun with that.
Speaker 2 (16:16):
You're like, I made it.
Speaker 3 (16:17):
I made it.
Speaker 2 (16:18):
I made it.
Speaker 3 (16:19):
But I'm like, I know I made it, but I'm like, damn,
I'm not working. So these are there's there's months going by,
months going by, months going by. From January it got
to maybe it got to maybe September. From from January
to September, I didn't drop nothing. And so my A
and R gets on the phone and he spoke to
(16:42):
my manager, and I want to know what the conversation
is about. My manager was like, look, basically, what they're
saying is in December, they're gonna drop you. I was like,
they're gonna drop me. It was like, yeah, you ain't
put out no music, you know what I mean. You
ain't put in no music or nothing, like they're gonna
drop you. And I'm like, damn, okay, I got to
tighten up. So I type up, I lock in. I say,
you know what, I gotta, I gotta, I gotta chill,
(17:02):
gotta chill. I'm recording, and uh I recorded Coco this
one night, and so I recorded. I'm like, oh, that's
the one that's hard, right, And so now I have
another song. And this is why a lot of the time,
I say, you gotta trust your gut. You know, you
can't really let people think for you. If I take
(17:24):
an l I'm okay taking the al that I wanted
to take rather than somebody put me in that position.
And I took a So now I have another I
recorded Coco, But then I have another song, this is September,
and have the other song that they were really interested,
like the label was interested in. They was like, you
know what, We're gonna shoot this video. I said, you
know what, all right? Cool? Shoot the video big, like
(17:47):
a huge production, you know, like huge. They had to
spend at at least like three hundred thousand this video, right,
the video is crazy, And I'm like, damn, this is
like a I look like, I'm an artis now I
know now I look like I'm an artist, you know,
so I'm super excited the video comes out. I hated it.
(18:10):
I was like, what what happened to this? What happened
to that? What happened to this? Well happened to that part?
And that's when I started learning greatively, like the editor
is just important as a director, you know, and how
you edit your shots, because there were so many dope
shots that I saw and I was like, why is
that not in there? Why is that not in there?
And it was a thing where the director was sending
(18:32):
to the editor, and so the editors, you know, right
now I feel strongly, like I feel strongly about it's
his vision instead of yours exactly, and he wasn't even
here now, he's just getting something and just putting something together.
I hated they was like, and then Bussell was like,
what do you mean, Like, Yo, this is correct? I'm
looking really crazy right now to even He's kind of like,
(18:53):
you don't even have no room to say you hate it?
What do you mean you hate it? And so I'm like,
I don't like it. What do you want to do?
Because I got something else that I recorded the other night,
and he was like he was he looked at so sick.
I'm like, yeah, man, I got something else. So we
go and go to the projects and go shoot the
(19:17):
Coco video.
Speaker 2 (19:18):
Did they have to drop another three hunderground for that?
Speaker 3 (19:20):
No? No, no, that was free. That was look. We
go shoot that video and the second I put it out,
it changed my life instantly. Boom just spread like wildfire.
I mean, I would say, Jay in two and a
(19:44):
half weeks, I was already doing shows everywhere in two
and a half weeks. I went in two and a
half weeks. I started off in New York and I
saw so many people there, but I only got one song.
You know, I saw so many people there and it's
like it's sold out all of them. They're like all
the shows in New York showed out because we got
(20:07):
to see that guy. So most of the times you'll
go people will have like a long run with a
hit record, that have a long run in the US,
and then they go overseas. I was going overseas before
I was finishing my US run, so overseas they were
grabbing me over there, and like when as far as
to book me, you would have to book me three
months in advance. Wow, that's how much I was booked.
(20:30):
And I was booked every single day. And so there
will be times where I'll go to that not not
there like all the time. Actually, I'll go to a
city and say, if I go to Miami. When I
go there, you know, some people are like, well, you
can't perform at this potder, you can't perform at this
powder whatever. You know, when I get there, I'm performing
at every single spot. I don't care if I was
(20:52):
across the street last night, I'm across the street tomorrow
because they knew that I wasn't coming back. You know, like,
once he performs here, he's gone. So if he's coming
the way that the way the routing is set up
is if he's coming to Miami, he probably won't be
in Miami again for a long time because he suck
because everybody wants it.
Speaker 1 (21:12):
You're there because you're famous because the one song. But
are you then doing other songs?
Speaker 3 (21:16):
All the songs? Yeah, I would do. I would do
other songs that people you know, don't know, not familiar with,
you know, and then they'd be like, yeah, they'll look
at me like this, and then that comes on boom boom.
Are you see is cell phones? People everybody giving over there?
I performing like five times in a row, you know
what I mean, like and get the same response. So yeah,
(21:38):
so that was that was it. That was wow.
Speaker 1 (21:40):
Youve make advice to young rappers performers who was in
your position when you got first got signed by Fitty
or and got this deal and you said, you went
out and spent all that money and just went after me.
Speaker 2 (21:53):
If what you now know.
Speaker 1 (21:56):
Could tell the ot genesis advice when you got signed
actually by Buster Rhymes, and you just went out and
spend all that money instead of working your ass off,
what would you tell that yellow tea?
Speaker 3 (22:06):
It would be like a everything would be all right, man,
you know what I mean, everything everything to be all right.
You know, I'm we tend to always uh be you know,
getting nervous and scared obviously, like we're like sometimes I
gotta calm myself down because I'm like, when you're in
the know and you don't know what's going to happen next,
(22:27):
that's when we get really you know, we're getting nerved.
Speaker 2 (22:30):
Living in question sucks. That's anxiety.
Speaker 1 (22:32):
Yeah, yeah, you know what I mean, Like.
Speaker 3 (22:34):
That part right there sucks, especially if you know it
already sucks. But it really sucks when you feel like
I'm doing everything right, or you feel at least you
feel that you're doing everything right, it kind of sucks
because you're like, damn, I just I just hope this happens,
you know. But yeah, so I.
Speaker 2 (22:51):
Want to go back.
Speaker 1 (22:52):
Also, when you get time by Fiddy, do you get
money upfront or is it based on sales of what
he does?
Speaker 3 (22:59):
I would get get money up front. It wouldn't be
that much. That much.
Speaker 1 (23:02):
Now go back to the hood telling everybody wretch, no, no,
is there a lot of money when you first signed
that big record deal when you signed with Buster or
does it come?
Speaker 3 (23:13):
That was a lot of money right there? It was.
But then but then what you don't know, what people
don't know is you have to pay that back. You know,
oh you do oh show it's an advance in advance. Yeah,
it's an advance, like you know what this is your
this budget, this is it. But you know you pay
it back through your sales, you know what I mean?
And everything like that.
Speaker 1 (23:32):
But if they cut you though, like you said, they
were almost going to cut you if you didn't start
coming out with stuff.
Speaker 2 (23:37):
You still gotta pay that back.
Speaker 3 (23:38):
Or I wouldn't have to pay it. I would have
just been But I wish they would have cut me
because if they if they would have cut me right
then and there, then all that money, one hundred percent
of everything would have been mine.
Speaker 2 (23:49):
Yeah, but you wouldn't have had Cocoa out there. Video
Yeah no.
Speaker 3 (23:53):
But but but the thing is when it happened, it
just it just happened, like I just put it up
on YouTube and it just went so that they didn't
even work it at radio. Yet, they didn't work it
at any It just went oh okay.
Speaker 2 (24:06):
I didn't realize that part.
Speaker 3 (24:07):
Oh So that's what That was the craziest thing about
that record, because that record just shot like wildfire after that.
Speaker 1 (24:16):
Again, you have a little success there, but a lot
of success with Coco. What was the thing that your
next step? I guess where you're like, oh man, no, okay,
I'm stringing some things together here.
Speaker 2 (24:25):
I'm kind of a big dealer out here.
Speaker 3 (24:27):
Yeah. I was always thinking that, you know, I was like,
you know what, I'm a big deal. But everybody kept saying, Yo,
what's next, What's next? What's next? Just you do what
They're like, oh, yeah, did you hear the one hit
wonder things? You heard all day? So you know, I
just buckled down. And then I had a song called
cut It right after that and I dropped it when
double plattinum right out the gate really yeah, So so
(24:51):
I just know I was on fire then. You know,
it was like that can't stop me. Now.
Speaker 2 (24:56):
So when you when when you're hearing the one hit
wonder stuff, is that scary you more? Is it motivated more?
Speaker 3 (25:02):
It's motivating in a way, but then it's kind of
it's kind of scary because you kind of like you
you don't know what somebody else is going to think
about your music. You know, you know, I know that
this song doesn't sound like this song. This song mean
I sound like this song and this song mean I
sound like this song. So you're you're you're you're really
you're really like it is motivating, but it's like, uh,
maybe this can go wrong because it's not full control exactly.
(25:27):
You know.
Speaker 1 (25:28):
Yeah, the really days of my career, I would think
I couldn't understand why someone went like it was eleven
years of getting turned down and rejected, and I'm like,
so I knew.
Speaker 2 (25:39):
I knew I built a better mousetrap than everybody else.
Speaker 1 (25:42):
Yeah, I learned just because you build a better mousetrap
doesn't mean everybody wants to buy it.
Speaker 3 (25:46):
That was hard for me, right right right. It's kind
of like, oh if if somebody says said that to me,
and I was a basketball player, I'm like, Okay, I
can't wait to get the ball, right, you know what
I mean. You're in full control of that, yes, But
in here it's like it's like, oh wow, we have
to you know, we got we got to hear it.
If we like it, we like it, we don't, we don't.
Speaker 2 (26:08):
What's the coolest thing that's happened to you on your
journey in your career.
Speaker 3 (26:12):
I would say the coolest thing that happened to me
would be like me performing and watching people like cry.
I ain't seen nobody cryins Michael Jackson. No. I was
in I had a show and uh it was in
uh in Taiwan, and I'm seeing men and then crying,
(26:32):
you know what I mean, Like, oh my god, you
know what I mean. You when I get off the plane,
they're like, oh wow, you know what I mean? And
that that part right, there is like it's super super
dope because you're looking at yourself and you're like, damn,
I work so hard. But then I'm I mean so
much to somebody who I don't even know.
Speaker 2 (26:48):
That's cool.
Speaker 1 (26:49):
That's that's yeah, that's that's you lifting people up and
being of service now, but just doing something you love
that's the ultimate prize.
Speaker 3 (26:57):
Yeah. Absolutely, that's pretty samn cool.
Speaker 1 (27:00):
What's the biggest thing that's happened, Like a celebrity that's
recognized you I'm a big fan and you're like, oh
my god, this just happened.
Speaker 3 (27:07):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, my mine. Uh, it would have to
be well, of course, of course Beyonce. But as far
as like sports, I would have to be. I would
have to say he came, he came to me in
the club. He was like, yo, you to go. I
was like what you gotta know what that felt like
(27:29):
to You're like, what are you talking about? You know?
I'm like, Yo, this is the dude that crossed mic
you know what I mean telling me I'm the go.
So yeah, like, as far as like sports would have
to be, you have to be him, Like I'm cool
with you know, with Lebron and all the guys too,
But the one that came like for somebody to come
(27:50):
up to me and be like, yo, you the go bro,
you just don't know you just I'm telling you right now,
you that I like having that full conversation with me
for like thirty minutes.
Speaker 2 (28:00):
It was like a I, how did it come that?
Beyonce use your song? Like how's that for? How does
that go down? And yeah, this.
Speaker 3 (28:07):
Is crazy because I had a show in North Carolina.
I'll never forget I had a show in North Carolina
and then I had an after party appearance and so
I did the show, I had an after party appearance.
When I was driving to the after party was like
an hour out and so I'm in them. I'm going
(28:27):
in the car and my phone is going crazy, but
I keep once again it's like I'm just ignoring everybody.
So I'm ignoring everybody because I'm on my phone is
on the ox scord when I'm playing music, So I'm
just ending everybody. Who's you know what I mean, who's
calling im? I got a long drive. I'm trying to
you know, trying to stay you know what i mean,
turned up. So I'm in the person, in person and
(28:49):
in person in. I keep us in And then my
brother had text me. When my brother text me like, yo,
you see Beyonce, I was like, what are you talking about?
TEXTINGIM like, what are you talking about? She's like, sho
in the Coachella stage right now. When I looked at
my phone, my phone was crazy. My Instagram was crazy.
It was bumble bees everywhere. Everybody put this whole beatiping
(29:09):
was bumble bees everywhere, all over my phone, all over
my taste. Everybody has seen me. I'm then I I
look at the I go look at the show. I
was like, never, it looked just so crazy, bro, I
couldn't even believe it.
Speaker 2 (29:22):
So you didn't know going into it she was gonna
use your song. I didn't notice at all. I didn't
know back it up, you hal fiance does one of
your songs? You have no idea doing that?
Speaker 3 (29:33):
No, I didn't know at all. I didn't know at all.
So that was the thing. And then later she reached
out to management and asked can they use it throughout
the tour and we was like, hell, yeah, you can't.
Speaker 2 (29:45):
Even did you ever talk to her about it?
Speaker 3 (29:51):
I know, I didn't. I didn't. I didn't. I didn't
talk to her about it still this day.
Speaker 1 (29:55):
No, still to this day, you kidding reach out to
o T You gotta be kidd really.
Speaker 3 (30:01):
Yeah, I performed at her her show, but DJ Kelly
brought me out LA they had to on a run tour.
I performed at twice I think twice on her tour,
but I still haven't met her yet.
Speaker 2 (30:12):
That's unbelievable, man, unbelievable.
Speaker 1 (30:16):
So what do you again, I don't know your business.
Do you get paid when she sings your song? It's
just like, hey, more people know who I am, so
I can pay it that way.
Speaker 3 (30:24):
It was she she would raise the streams up and
everything like that. So yeah, I do get paid because
she's awareness, you.
Speaker 2 (30:30):
Know, she raised the streams.
Speaker 3 (30:32):
It was a crazy so because when I dropped the song.
When I dropped that song, everybody mad. I dropped it,
but it sounded totally different from like the regular club
song that I would do. But I thought I always
thought it was dope. So when I dropped it, all
the DJs were like fronting on it, like, oh, but
that don't sound like the regular old TV you know.
Two months later, Beyonce does this wow, you know, and
(30:53):
then it just goes everywhere.
Speaker 2 (30:54):
That's unbelievable. Dude. That's a cool story.
Speaker 1 (30:58):
Hey, when we're training and you better come with some
better material like stories like this, you gotta chime in
into your part. Believe I've been friends you for six years.
Speaker 2 (31:08):
I ever do this. That's unbelievable. Again.
Speaker 1 (31:12):
You and I are man brothers for training partners. We
hit each other in the head quite a bit, but
we open up to each other a lot. And that's
what's great about our place. Unbreakable. That's what's great about
having a fight team and a team is like man,
you you just lean into your brothers and hard times
and you and I bride each other pretty much, you know,
And that's just beautiful about what we have.
Speaker 2 (31:34):
Over there and unbreakable.
Speaker 1 (31:35):
Tell me just you know, I was talking about mental
this mental wealth, but kind of you know, going and
building your mental health or your physical health leads more
to mental wealth. What's the since we started training together?
What's training done for you? Mostly physically?
Speaker 2 (31:50):
Everything?
Speaker 3 (31:51):
I love. I love the training. I love the training.
It's so so important to me. It's so important that
even when I I'll fly do a show and lie
in and fly in, get off the plane, drop my
bags off, brush my teeth, and then go train. You know,
it's it's so addicting, but it's it clears my mind,
super clears my mind. I'm always I'm always ready for
(32:13):
the next step after I train helps me so much emotionally. Obviously,
everybody in there are like great people. You know, I
haven't I haven't been inside the gym where you meet
somebody and you go, damn, that person's asshole. It's me.
That's what that's what the sparn is for. And so
(32:38):
and man, it's just great people. Man, good energy, good
vibes and physically man. Always I'm always right, like I
go to certain places to go damn. We know you
were kind of jacked up like that.
Speaker 2 (32:52):
I'm like, yeah, man, what you like.
Speaker 3 (32:56):
Some of the some of the football players that come
in don't break it with like, damn team mane you
could have been a runner back if you did. I'm like, man,
I just you know, I just you know, I always
I'm addicted to it.
Speaker 2 (33:06):
You know, people don't know.
Speaker 1 (33:08):
I do have ot train with our football player when
they're in. I have him wrestled with them. I have
n't go like's far with that, Like he's part of it.
He's part of the team.
Speaker 3 (33:16):
Man.
Speaker 1 (33:16):
It's and guys. And again that's the thing. It's like
you lift them up, they left you up. That's the
whole part of having a team.
Speaker 3 (33:23):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, And I and I really get them going.
And I go, I look at them and I'll be like, hey,
don't have a don't have a rapper out work you bro?
You want to really get to him, You want to
really get to him.
Speaker 2 (33:38):
Don't have a don't have a rapper out work you bro?
You do though, you you out work pretty much everybody
in there. Right.
Speaker 1 (33:44):
So here, here's my last question, your brother. I ask
all my guests, give me your unbreakable moment. What I
mean by that, give me the moment that could have
broken you, should have broken you and then't and as
a result, you came through the other side of that
tunnel stronger and a breakable.
Speaker 3 (34:01):
For m I would say it would probably have to
be like going back and forth to like jail, you know,
like going back and forth doing jail time, trying to
figure things out, having a dream, not having a dream,
but still being a product of your environment. But you
(34:22):
still but you still want this dream. So you know
you're trying to survive where you're coming from and still
get what you need to get done, you know. And
so it's like, how can I how can I go
back somewhere so dangerous, but I'm trying to be so
positive and oftentimes I say, like, you know, it's places
(34:45):
that like where I come from, you know, in my
or my old neighborhoods, where it's like it kind of
like forces the forces you to become a monster in
some certain type of way. I don't want to promote that,
but it's like force you to be a monster in
some type of way because kind of you know, you're
trying to survive. You're not trying to, you're trying to
It's like you rather be a shark than be fooled,
(35:05):
you know. But while you're doing that, is there's consequences
for that. So there's consequences for that. But you're like, damn,
Like that's why that was the whole thing where we
say in our neighborhood, like I would rather be judged
by twelve than carried by six. You know. That's that's
where all that that's where all that comes from. I stayed,
(35:27):
of course, man, and at most times I go you
know what, let's go this way, or sometimes I'm like,
you know, I'm gonna be on this side of town
right now, I'm gonna sure my cousins on this side
of town. I'm gonna you know, I'm gonna lock in
and make sure I go do this and finess to
figure my way into just being on the right path
and not having to put myself around too much of
(35:47):
the you know, danger or anything that will make you
do something, you know what I mean, out of your
character and I just I just stayed the task, man,
and I kept it going. And that's what I think
I'm probably most proud of. Man.
Speaker 2 (36:00):
I'm proud too, Man.
Speaker 1 (36:01):
I am proud to call your teammate, proud to call
your brother, and I am proud to call you unbreakable.
Speaker 3 (36:05):
Thank you, brother, Thank you brother.
Speaker 1 (36:07):
Oh T Genesis, thanks for joining us here on the
Unbreakable Metal Wealth Podcast
Fox Sports Radio News
Popular Podcasts
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations.
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
The Nikki Glaser Podcast
Every week comedian and infamous roaster Nikki Glaser provides a fun, fast-paced, and brutally honest look into current pop-culture and her own personal life.