December 14, 2024 • 37 mins
In this episode of the I Hate This Industry podcast, hosts Steven Almeida and Darryl Reese Jr. discuss various topics ranging from personal updates and film production insights to the dynamics of the music industry, particularly focusing on Drake's recent lawsuit and the cultural impact of artists like Kendrick Lamar. They also delve into the importance of sharing knowledge in the filmmaking process and the future of content creation, especially in relation to platforms like TikTok.
Takeaways
- The importance of maintaining audio quality in film production.
- Editing audio requires a professional standard for best results.
- Filmmaking is a challenging process that requires patience and skill.
- Sharing knowledge and experiences can help aspiring filmmakers.
- Drake's lawsuit raises questions about the music industry's dynamics.
- Cultural relevance is crucial for artists in today's industry.
- Kendrick Lamar's new album showcases his storytelling ability.
- The future of TikTok is secure despite regulatory challenges.
- Superstardom can create a disconnect from cultural relevance.
- Behind-the-scenes insights are valuable for understanding the filmmaking process.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Alright, quiet on the set.
(00:06):
Camera speed, sound production, take one.
I just say that to say, for people to understand what a brand is, to understand what this all is,
it's not only giving you great art, giving you great storytelling, showing you the things that come out of our brains and our minds
and trying to tell you, show you the world our perspective is also showing you how to do it for yourself
(00:32):
and giving you a step by step process of how you can do it for yourself or do it for a company or go and become a contractor or something.
That's the go print, that's the game you're getting.
Action!
Welcome, welcome, welcome to another episode of the I Hate This Industry podcast.
I am your humble and handsome host, Stephen Almeida. This is my good brother, the architect of the go print, the motherfucking master, Daryl Reese Jr.
(01:00):
What's good brother?
Yes indeed, yes indeed. What's good with you man? How you feeling? How you feeler?
I'm good bro, I'm good. It's Sunday morning, ready to go to church. I need Jesus in my life.
Oh yeah, I got my thoughts on that.
That's right. I'm on some, uh, Selyeus also need an ad in Brandio.
The amount of Celsius I drink, Jesus Christ, it's like they sponsored me already.
(01:21):
I'm gonna be right there with your money and it's game.
I'm down 20 pounds bro since like, since-
Oh thank you, congratulations man.
Thank you, congratulations.
And that's just from cutting diet, you know, like cutting certain things out of the diet.
But yeah man, I'm ready man, I'm good.
It's a talk, I know you said you recovering.
Yeah man, this, we wrapped up filming a few weeks ago.
(01:44):
Well, the locations that we was doing, we done filming at those locations.
We still have 20, roughly 15 to 20 percent of the film left to do.
Yeah.
And so I knew this was gonna be like a long drawn out process.
I knew I wanted to handle all this more so in the fourth quarter and things like that.
Like we can jump into pre-production, we can, well we can jump into post-production and things like that.
(02:08):
But we still have roughly three scenes left, but nothing major.
Not any major scenes, none of them require dialogue.
Nice.
So we on the ship with it as far as we can jump into pre-production.
Like I can start editing now.
I just man, like I'm looking at these files, there's over 100 audio files, there's over 100 video files.
(02:30):
And I'm just like, okay.
I mentally had to prepare myself to lock in with this.
And I still might go to like a third party or something like that.
But at the same time, I'm gonna see what I can do, I'm gonna see how I can mold it because I know I got a vision for it.
How I want it to look, things like that.
I know you're gonna help me with the sound.
I got, yeah sure.
I got the other guy that was, well two other guys that was helping with the film.
(02:54):
We gonna just try to tackle things together and see how we can place the sound together and see how it bowls.
Because everything looks good.
It looks amazing.
It looks amazing.
It looks amazing.
Oh really?
It looks amazing, the video, the film itself looks amazing.
It sounds amazing.
It's just the audio just needs some tuning.
Yeah, I listened to some of it and yeah, I agree.
(03:16):
I think it needs some tuning, but nothing, the audio is good in the sense of like you captured.
Right.
Yeah, it just needs to be turned up.
Because I was listening to it.
It's crazy because the quality of that microphone is industry standard.
So like I knew what I was gonna get with the Sennheiser.
I knew what I was gonna get.
It was just the environment around us.
(03:37):
Like okay, I talked to the guy that I got it from.
He was like this kind of standard that the mic is gonna pick up outside noise things like this.
So I had to turn the gain and the volume down on the mic.
Yeah.
Then I played it on a computer.
I was like, okay, it needs to be turned up.
But then I played it on the recorder, the headphone.
Yeah.
(03:58):
And then I was just like, damn, like it sounds amazing.
So like where it's gonna be edited, like edited is gonna be vital because I can see it already.
Like most likely it's gonna go through audition, but it's gonna, we're gonna, I'm gonna need some type of professional headphones or something like that.
And then play it over some speakers.
It's gonna be like just like the visual testing.
(04:19):
Like I'm gonna do visual testing on the phone, iPad, and the TV.
Same is gonna be done on the audio testing.
Okay.
Yeah, yeah.
And you get different feedback on all different devices.
Yep.
And that's why, that's why it's important to like edit when it comes to audio.
It's important to edit to a certain standard as far as the decibels you're editing at all of these things.
(04:43):
There's a whole, I don't want to say industry, but there's a professional level where audio like for podcasting should be at this level.
Audio for this should be.
They have all of that because as it plays on these different devices and all that, if you keep it at that like level, you're gonna get, well, more so you won't get any like peaking or cackling or things like that.
(05:07):
You're getting the most performance out of the level.
You know what I mean?
As far as when it comes to the mix, that's a whole different beast.
But even with the mix, this, you gotta, and this is, I learned this through the science of engineering, right?
I've been reading books on it, learning, learning more about it as throughout my career.
And it was like, as you mix, as you mix, you gotta be at these certain, you gotta mix at these certain levels.
(05:32):
Like your lows should be at some point, your mids should be at some point, your highs should be at some point.
It shouldn't pass a certain decibel.
It shouldn't go below a certain decibel.
And when you do all of that, it more so gives you a higher percentage of it being the best quality mix and the best sounding mix.
Because you see it a lot with music, you see a lot with podcasting even.
The mixing is trash or the audio just doesn't sound, doesn't sound good.
(05:56):
We go through it with this podcast, even more as I deal with the levels and all that, as I learn more about it.
Now I have a certain, like a certain vocal chain, so to say, how does it say, in music.
I have a vocal chain of all these presets of the standards are supposed to be at for podcasting and all that.
Then what I do is get creative with the mixing.
(06:17):
But it's always trying to get the best sound possible.
And even that's hard when you're just using like the mics that we're using.
Or if you have compressors, if you have all of these things in place, you get an even better sound.
But I'm excited to start working on it, man.
I'm excited for it because I've never actually, well, I have, I can't say never, but I like a challenge.
(06:38):
Like this is going to be something for me where it's like getting this to like TV, TV level or movie level.
You know what I mean?
Like those reaching those standards and hitting those, those markers.
So it's like I've been doing a lot of research on audio mixing for this project.
I mean, yeah, the biggest challenge for me right now is when I get ready to tackle the film in about a week and a half is just matching and syncing up the audio with the visuals.
(07:05):
Like we did certain things on set with the clapper.
We did certain things on set with to match things.
So I have to go by individually with the video and try to see, okay, is it around this mark with the audio?
So I'm trying to figure out how I want to approach that.
But once I've mapped out, okay, this is how I want to do it and we have the video matched with the audio, then we should be smooth sailing from there.
(07:30):
That's my biggest, that's been my biggest worry altogether because I have so many files.
I have so many audio files and video files and I can look at them all day and say it looks good.
I'm just like, okay, when I tackle that, then okay, I know we ready.
We cooking with grease right there.
Because like that was a whole part of me that's on the quarterly side.
(07:54):
But you know how I am with it.
And that was a whole part of me.
The first time around when I was shopping for audio equipment and things like that,
like I settled for certain things.
But then I was just like, this is my first big one.
This is my first big film with a set with crew with all these professional equipment.
And I was just like, okay, I have to, I have to reach for the stars on this one.
(08:20):
I don't need to break the bank or anything, but I have to shoot for some type of industry standard quality, especially when it comes to sound to do that.
And so I did that. I made that trip to New Orleans and shout out to this company called Sound Heart.
And they provided us with the necessary equipment to get the job done from the Sennheiser mic, from the boom pole, from the C-Stand, from the XLR cables and things like this.
(08:47):
So they provided the necessary items for us to create a high quality film when it comes to audio.
And man, like I sent you what you already got it.
You got all the audio files. Yeah.
Things like that. And I might play around with it again soon.
But as far as the way it's sounding, just the raw files itself, I know once it's enhanced and things like that, I know it's going to sound amazing.
(09:09):
I know that. Yeah. So yeah, it's basically like it's for a quarter.
This is as far as scheduling wise, this is where I wanted things to be as far as this whole process.
And I know I still got what two or three voiceovers to do.
I still have scenes to do, but none of them require a full cast and major dialogue in scenes.
(09:33):
So we don't have to get these equipments again and things like this.
So that's going to be smooth selling. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
So yeah, we are in post-production. Like right now I'm editing the BTS series.
So like I'm going to edit the BTS series first before I start editing the film.
I want to get the BTS series out the way first. And with the BTS series that is laying the foundation, the making of a short film,
(09:58):
it is basically just a detailed interview process, a detailed podcast and audio series,
just like chronicling the events that led up to the foundation is showing the behind the scenes and things like that of the making of the film.
And the cast and crew and the location and things like that. Just me talking about the process, me talking about the script,
(10:21):
me talking about the editing process and what led up to the ideas that was displayed.
It's just really going in detail of everything. Like it's going to be me doing a sit down interview.
It's going to be me and you talking about it via audio, via podcast.
Just talking about the whole situation and the ups and downs and what to do and what not to do. Just giving advice to first time filmmakers and things like that.
(10:45):
They want to tackle things like this and understand that it's not going to be easy.
Like nobody, I'm sure nobody has said it's going to be easy. Yeah.
Even if you're doing it just in one crew situation, it was just you filming it and things like that.
So it's never going to be easy. And from my standpoint, I can speak from me being the director, me being the actor also,
(11:07):
and have to worry about certain things other than my role. So that weighed on me. That took a toll on me.
So I will talk about how I adapted to that, how I maneuvered through that, things like that.
And I will start rolling that series out in the first quarter of next year.
Pulling the J. Cole, the J. Cole flashback. I think that's the right on brand for how you operate and everything you do.
(11:33):
Everything we do. Just being the independent creator that also shows you, like showing the blueprint as we go.
You know, the gold print. Showing the gold print as we go, how we do it, the pitfalls, the trials and tribulations.
Because the point is always to not just show you the work and show you what's going on, give you an end product,
(11:57):
but also show you the game and give you the game of how we do it.
Because none of y'all motherfuckers going to have the luxury of having an excuse that nobody ever told you how to do it.
Nobody told you, nobody showed you how. I hate that. And this generation don't even have that excuse, man, of creators.
But even more so, you know who you guys are. Nobody showed me, nobody helped me.
(12:23):
Yet there's companies out there like Oprah Media who offer you everything in a package deal to get to where you got to go.
Not only do they do that, they also show you how to do it on your own.
I just say that to say for people to understand what the brand is, to understand what this all is.
(12:46):
It's not only giving you great art, giving you great storytelling, showing you the things that come out of our brains and our minds
and trying to show you the world our perspective. It's also showing you how to do it for yourself
and giving you a step by step process of how you could do it for yourself or do it for a company or go and become a contractor or something.
(13:09):
That's the go print. That's the game you're getting.
Absolutely.
I think that's right on brand and I love it. What I was saying before is I love Sisai. Drake did it with 100 gigs and I thought I was fly.
I'm a big fan because I was doing it myself with Autumn House. I'm a big fan of recording the behind the scenes process.
I'm a big fan of that. We took of them turning it into something documentary style or something to show you, give you insight.
(13:35):
I love that. I love when Drake did it. I love that Cole did it. I love that Cole's doing a podcast where he's kind of breaking it down. That's pretty dope.
Yeah. I mean, yeah, we're Cole. I remember listening to The Warm Up in high school, bro.
Like early high school, bro. I remember live mix tapes and spin roller and all that. Just listening to it and downloading it.
(13:59):
And I was just like, man, I will always listen to it on YouTube or SoundCloud recently. But then he put it on streaming service and man, I thought that was beautiful.
I had the physical bootleg from Chinatown, man. I remember that vividly when it came out.
Yeah, Cole, man, I think Cole's doing the right thing, man. Cole using nostalgia to come back. Cole getting back into the graces of the people after he gracefully bowed out.
(14:24):
I think he took his time. He had a few misfires and now he's slowly coming back into the graces of the audience, of the people.
I think that's dope. Something that Drake should have done. And now we got to deal with the light skinned queen filing lawsuits.
Yo, he make light skinned brothers look bad, man. I am. I used to do that. I love Drake.
And I feel like we ever since he became Dominican, he's been wilding out. He should have remained Canadian. And you make Dominican men look bad.
(14:52):
I've never seen somebody do this in the culture. If you don't know what I'm talking about, Drake filed a lawsuit or has launched a petition to file a lawsuit against UMG.
And I feel like I get it. There's two sides of this coin, right? There's the side where you go.
This is going to shake up the music industry and maybe in a way where it exposes a lot of things that the major labels do.
(15:18):
And that's interesting and that's cool. So there's that aspect of it. And maybe two things could be true. That could be happening as well.
But culturally, he's lost the people. Culturally, he's lost it. I just don't see. He looks bad. It looks like he's down bad.
And instead of climbing back up to greatness, he's just taking the Karen route.
(15:40):
I don't know, man. I could see it from both perspectives. But it's like to attack the same system that you benefited from your entire career because you lost the battle.
And I hate when people go, he's not it's not against Kendrick. If he didn't lose that battle, would he be doing this? If he had that that that had the cultural impact that Not Like Us did and they pushed it the same way, would he be reacting like this?
(16:09):
Tootsie Slide, I'm sure, got the same fucking promotion. Tootsie Slide sucked. That was a terrible record. But it still was number one. From who? I've never played that record in my damn life.
I've played Not Like Us about a thousand times. Never played Tootsie Slide one. You see you four is my second most played song this year.
We're talking cultural impact versus manufacturing hits, right? Cultural hits versus manufactured hits. Tootsie Slide is a manufactured hit. It was not good.
(16:37):
They got the same. I'm sure it got the same push. They got the same power behind it, the same money behind it, the same type of support behind it.
Not like I don't even believe Not Like Us needed that. You know what I mean? Because it was so impactful. Absolutely.
Every major label has relationships with radio. Every major label has relationships with other corporations. That's the game.
When you have a joint that goes and is going to create you more money or more cultural relevance, you're gonna put money behind it and resources behind it.
(17:08):
Bottom line, Drake got a shot bitching, man. Rapping won't even help you no more. Yeah. I mean it hurts. It hurts, man.
I ain't gonna lie to you because growing up high school, college, Drake, Kanye was up here. Kanye is still up here for me.
I've heard every song from high school to college to now. His last few albums I didn't really hear like that.
But I know every Drake song, every moment, every video, all of it. The only thing I haven't done was been to a concert.
(17:36):
Just looking at the situation and looking at what's going on and how it can affect the industry.
I think early on people was thinking like, okay, y'all don't really understand. Y'all LLC niggas. Y'all should be creating up Drake.
Y'all should be fighting the system. I'm like, is he? Is he? Or is he just whining? Is he just like, okay, we see what they're doing with Not Like Us.
(18:01):
We've seen the word that was used. We've seen this to jeopardize his likeness, his image and things like that.
So from Drake's standpoint and from his account, they may think they're doing the right thing.
And from our standpoint, people like me and you, we can say, okay, he's crying and moaning, but then something like this will change the system.
(18:24):
Somebody like Drake and what makes him different from people that go against the system, they're doing it.
The people that's going against the system, like a Prince, like a Michael Jackson, they're doing it to change not only themselves, but those that come after them.
So it's bigger than just Prince. It's bigger than just Michael Jackson. It's bigger than just a Malcolm X or a Martin Luther King.
(18:46):
And they do it with integrity.
Absolutely.
That's the key point here is integrity.
I feel the route Aubrey has taken has no integrity because it, I mean, it's your label.
He was Lucien Grange's golden boy. They pumped the billions into it and they did this.
And I was listening to Ian Dunlap from EYL. Yeah, he was talking about, like, once we start talking about UMG, people have to understand.
(19:13):
I understand the people talking about it on the surface level, on social media and crying and talking about this, about Drake and he doing this.
But once you're talking about UMG, you're talking about Chinese investors.
You're talking about people from British. You're talking about these type of investors that have spit millions on Drake and spit millions on Scorpion.
When Scorpion came out, it was on every, I think it was on a gospel playlist.
(19:37):
I covered things like this. It was like on all these playlists. It was all over these billboards and things like that.
So Drake has been spoiled, spoiled, which he has his entire life.
He's been manufactured. They done sculpted his abs. They done done all types of crazy. He's a Ken Guk.
So then it has pumped billions into him. And then you have this Marcus Garvey individual, this Malcolm X individual.
(20:02):
You have an individual that has culture. Yep.
Like you heard where Jay-Z said, you reposted the video. We are culture. We are culture.
Nothing moves without us. Kendrick had the euphoria. Kendrick had to not like us and things like that.
And same with, I can have this Nicki Minaj type of situation. She was so on top. She was at the top of the totem pole.
(20:27):
But then you have a Cardi B come in. Then you have another option. People are going to gravitate to that other option.
Especially when you squirt who's in touch. Because success, the higher you climb on the ladder of success,
I feel like you separate from the ground floor. You separate from the people.
So it's superstardom. Because you can be successful and all that and still have a grounding.
(20:50):
We see it with J. Cole in a bit. Even though J. Cole has set himself, he has been out of touch with it.
And Kendrick comes out whenever he comes out and then goes back in.
But their level of superstardom, Drake, let's be real, Drake's level of superstardom probably will never happen again with another artist.
And that level of superstardom makes you kind of oblivious to what actually happens on the ground floor.
(21:17):
And the higher you climb up, the further you get from that relevancy and that connectivity to the people.
And people love success and they love to see you win. But they love even more to see you burn.
They love, they rather watch a train wreck than to go in the fire and help you out.
You might be going 150 miles an hour and people are like, damn, that's fast. But they hoping you crash.
(21:42):
So that could be like, you see, you know, they could look and point because that's just part of a myth.
I don't want to say it's the world, but America loves entertainment. We love to be entertained.
So we love tragedy. We love success. We love comedy.
And when you, Drake is in that, you know, Drake is in that. But also did he ever have culture?
Was he ever actually culturally connected?
(22:05):
Not at all. Because you had guys in the barbershop, you had guys talk about this singing guy, this rapping guy.
Like, okay, is he a singer? Is he a rapper? Is he a pop artist? This and that.
And like I was saying about Kendrick, like you have this cultured guy that is from L.A.
You have this guy that when he produces and when he does Not Like Us, UMG didn't have to push the button for that.
(22:31):
Not Like Us was a cultural moment in history that will live forever.
So like that was something that Drake couldn't, he couldn't stop.
That's why that was the last record of the entire beef. And it basically stamped like, okay, this is where we are in this moment.
I'm here. So UMG being UMG, a billion dollar corporation, of course we're going to put money behind our main product.
(22:55):
The same we have done for you, Drake, for the past 10 years. So yeah, he just, it's just a jealous, a jealous millionaire.
Yeah, so yeah, so like.
That's why it's kind of, it's kind of lame.
And the thing also, Not Like Us didn't have to be the last record. Drake tapped out.
The Hard Part 6 was disgusting. That was a disgusting record. I didn't like that. I saw people say that was a good record.
(23:20):
The hard part was part 6. The hard part 6, that record he put out after Not Like Us.
Oh, you're talking about what Drake did?
Yeah, yeah, not the room of war.
I mean, it was bad. It was just not a good record. That was with him saying, basically like backtracking everything.
And again, that felt like a label move. That felt like somebody told you, yo, you got to go like say something about these allegations and say something about all of this.
(23:46):
And what I was going to say about UMG, when you bring up a good point about the Chinese investors, it's not only just Chinese investors.
UMG has their hands in so many different things. They like mass produce water in a country somewhere.
It's more than just entertainment. To add to that, it's with UMG, you've got to also realize there are some people in the UMG boardrooms.
And stockholders and major stockholders. I'm not talking about the people who own little pieces.
(24:11):
I'm talking about the major stockholders, those investors, all that.
Certain people in that company who don't give a fuck about Drake, their concern is in, you know, Drake is just one piece of this giant machine that works.
So it's like if he's costing you money and making you look bad, yo, fuck that guy. To them, he's not even that relevant.
(24:38):
He's just one, I'm not saying he's not relevant, but Drake is only relevant entertainment wise.
You know what I mean? Drake is not like a humanitarian.
You know, when you think of like these bigger businesses that kind of add to the capitalism of the world and add to the structure of society, Drake is not one of those guys.
(25:01):
And in comparison to like Jeff Bezos or Elon Musk, who have those stakes in the ground that affect the world, kind of, you know what I mean?
And how real and how the overall culture shifts.
I don't even know if Kendrick has that for hip hop, but Kendrick is a moving cog in that machine of how culture shifts.
(25:22):
Or if nothing else, he is a representative of the culture.
And I don't think we get that with Drake, and I feel like we're seeing a product malfunction.
So are we seeing the downfall of Drake?
I think we're seeing the cultural exposure of Drake.
I think an act like Drake can't fall, but you're just too successful and you have too much in the bank and not financially.
(25:47):
I mean, you got too much work you've done, too much stakes in the ground.
He is a legend, whether people like him or not.
I don't agree with this. I don't discredit his entire career because I respect the career.
The career is one that's never been.
It's just there's no career like it, and I don't see there ever being another career like it.
(26:09):
I think he's a shooting star in this industry.
Same way, I mean, shit is next album, I think it's going to do like roughly.
I think we're going to do good.
I think I'm so, I just so satisficate that he's still the most streamed artist every month this year.
So it's like, I don't think that's why this is crazy, because you're not really losing.
(26:30):
You know, they have the perception, he cares about the public perception. He cares about that.
He's not really losing. He's still on top. He's still the guy.
People still love Drake. It's not like, yo, you got a little chink in the armor. That's fine.
Like, that's cool. It comes with the game. Like, whole jig. It shoulder played off.
Yeah. Well, I feel like he did that. Yeah.
(26:52):
You know, I feel like he did that. That pedophile shit could have been here and gone, you know.
And I don't know, my whole perception of that battle was crazy, because now when I look at it,
I look at all the things of Kendrick telling you, yo, don't say lies about me and I won't say truth.
Don't miss them. Yo, don't go matching my family. Like, we can keep it friendly.
(27:13):
I see all that. And then I see Drake. Then you now you can really look at and go, oh, this he's just an eagle mania.
It's just I think I'm the guy. I'm thinking then you get chinchacked. And that's what happened.
And you're going to take a blow because the one thing you could I mean, you might not like Kendrick
because his music is kind of a certain type of music, but he is he is one of us.
(27:37):
He is the people, you know, whether you like it or not, he has always stood for he has been an artistic figure.
Like as far as like a like a like a like a moving piece of art. Right.
His his cultural relevance and stance has always been impactful and been respected and been like, OK,
this is a guy that we put on those pedestals. This is the guy who represents that.
(28:00):
He's the guy who's keeping the actual art form of this alive from the storytelling, from the conceptual albums,
from the from the the releases, from all of the from the processes.
He's always been that guy and he's been surgical when he's been on the attack mode.
You know what I mean? Like he's always every time he's kind of throwing a shot.
And he's been the guy letting you know, I'm that dude. I'm number one.
(28:24):
He did it on the control verse. He did like he's always thrown those things out into the universe.
It's other people who have said these guys are Drake is the goal is like.
But Kendrick has always stood on that stance. So it's like that wasn't nothing else.
It was just like you won't reach out. I think he just got offended.
You won't reach out to do this damn song. I fuck you. You know, I don't like you.
(28:47):
What was it? The B.T. Seyfried shit.
He's like, I took the sensitive rapper back in his pajama clothes.
A year later, it stands. That stands true.
That's crazy, bro. Like I thought I hold grudges with such a booper.
Damn, that was like 2011, 12. Yeah.
But I think Kendrick saw it back then. I think a lot of people saw it.
I think if you're in the industry and you as you build your career and you add those levels,
(29:12):
you see the type of career routes that these artists take where Drake took the manufactured route.
There's nothing wrong with that. I'm a fan of it. I'm a fan of acts.
If you're a good act, I'm a fan because I love entertainment. I love music. I love it.
So it's like I love a good show. I love a good production. I love a good act.
(29:34):
Drake is one of the greatest acts of the music industry, of the entertainment industry.
I respect his decisions of how he chose to go about his career. I get it.
He took the money like when it came. He took the big checks. He took the easy records.
He took the pop records. You know, he did everything to be the best manufactured product in the market.
And I love that.
And then I think somebody like Kendrick sees that while he's choosing the grassroots route in his career.
(30:00):
And he looks at that and he goes, oh, but you know, that's the same way they look at Vlad.
It's like, oh, you taking, you just using our culture. Ain't not only that, ain't you trans Dominican?
So it's like you're not even you. You're not even like the Canadian Jewish guy.
You like, you trying to be like, you trying to convert into something in front of us.
He's like Kim Kardashian, you know.
(30:22):
It's like you go from one person to the next person before our eyes and we're just supposed to eat that shit up.
Now, Kim, I mean, the Kardashians are a certain type of people.
People just respect it, but we all know what the fuck goes on in the Kardashian.
Don't know that you don't, Darryl, you don't watch the Kardashians.
You don't sit there. You go, this is entertainment.
This is because you know what? I'm just saying when you we all watch this shit and it's crazy.
(30:48):
Now we got to watch a Jewish black man turn into a Dominican and we got to be like, it's OK.
And on top of him, exploiting black culture, on top of him, exploiting hip hop culture is that we live in a crazy world.
That's crazy. I mean, it's sad to see.
As far as what I remember Drake as far as so far gone comeback season, that's the Drake that I remember.
(31:09):
Even the grass, I think the grass is the first time I've seen him and then I see him transform into a comeback.
He's a Dominican man.
So far gone, things like that. And we've seen him with the braids, the fro, low cut, the fly.
I'm saying he stole Sauce Walker's whole style, man.
People don't even say that because Sauce Walker is a little not underground.
(31:31):
I love Sauce Walker.
Shout out to Texas. Sauce Walker is one of my favorite artists, honestly, out of Texas in hip hop.
But he took his whole style with the braids and the beads and all that shit.
And it's like, and because he lives in, you know, he stays in town.
It's like, bro, you stealing a man's whole identity who kind of he kind of cemented it.
That was like his thing.
And it's just weird when I see that.
(31:53):
And I say that to say that's the thing Kendrick was pointing out.
When you say you go to you run to Atlanta to get gain from you to lingo and all that.
You ran to Texas and stole Sauce Walker's whole style.
That's crazy.
And to tag along with you saying is like when you see Degrassi, you don't see that fat Drake.
You see a kid who's, you know, earning his career where now you see a guy who's, oh, let me take what's
(32:17):
you take what the people love and the people don't love it from you.
They just like it from you because you make it relevant and cool and you and you you put it in the eyes of everybody.
As opposed to it being just an original thing on your end, as far as being like a tastemaker and being somebody who
curates these things.
He curates, he curates what's already popular amongst the culture and he just puts it on that main stage.
(32:42):
And it is what it is.
We've seen it happen.
It's going to be interesting to see the lawsuit.
I know it's some dates I think next week or something like that that's circling and we'll see how they go.
And the fight with Drake and UMG, I don't know what he's looking for.
I don't know if he's looking to become a satan.
I don't look at I don't know if he's looking to change the industry.
I don't know.
(33:03):
But if secrets do come out and say anything, UMG is going to say Drake, same thing we did for Kendra.
We've been doing for you for 10 years.
Even if you do not know it, no matter how big of an act you are, Joe Biden talks about this all the time.
No matter how big of an act you are as far as inside their system, you will never know the true analytics.
(33:26):
You will never know the true day to day and what goes on in your Spotify office and the UMG office and the Tiktok audience.
I mean, office and things like that.
You will never know because you're not truly a part of that company.
Yes, you're a product within that company that you're literally a Coke bottle in the factory that gets manufactured with the rest of the Coke bottles.
(33:47):
And they have placed you in line in order for you to design what you need to do, which is quench the thirst of the customer.
That is basically what these acts are in this environment and Drake, Taylor Swift, and even some sort of Kendra.
They are all just Coke bottles in this factory.
So, yeah, it's going to be interesting to see how this plays out.
(34:09):
Kendrick is part of that. Kendrick is just he just has a different superpower.
He just has a different. It's like how they make the toys and the toys come with like accessories, you know, like wrestling comes to the championship belt.
If they're known for talking on a microphone, they have a microphone.
Kendrick comes packaged the same way. He just has culture with him.
Right. And he has the people with him.
(34:30):
And okay, what did you think of G&X?
Yeah, so I was finna leave to go to New Orleans when that album dropped and I was working at the time.
I was just like, Kendrick just dropped a video.
Like, what the hell? So I'm listening to it, Whacked Out Mirrors first record.
I'm like, oh, shit, this shit slap. This hard.
It's to the rest of it. I'm like, sizzle on it. Sizzle on it.
So I just dove into it. And man, that is.
(34:53):
It's a good album, man.
It's a good album.
Like it's one of them that'll make you want to crit walk in which we knew that's the direction he was going to go with this whole moment.
So he was just like, okay, let me captivate the culture even more and produce a full album off this.
Yeah.
So yeah, I thought it was a beautiful album, man. I still listen to it today from Pickle Boo, Squabble Up, Whacked Out Mirrors.
Leave it off.
Like TV off.
(35:15):
That's my shit, bro. In the morning.
All of it. So yeah, I'm gonna jump in the gym tomorrow.
But yeah, that is a beautiful piece of work, man.
Drizzy Drake, man, you got your TV turned the fuck off. That's just the reality of it.
No, man. Reincarnation. The storytelling on that song is incredible.
Oh, yeah, man. He challenged Paco on that one.
Yeah, yeah.
(35:37):
Kendrick, I mean, it's the perfect. It's the perfect.
It's the perfect setup to what's coming for the Super Bowl, for the tour, the SZA tour.
And he got the South Park show collaboration with the South Park creators.
I think Kendrick about to go on the victory lap for real, man.
TikTok is for sale. We noticed it's been for sale for years.
(35:59):
It's always go up for sale. China's stealing our fucking information.
Yet y'all still use this motherfucker doing dances, looking stupid, looking crazy.
It is what it is. It's not for me. I don't give a fuck.
I'm not the guy who consumes the content. I don't make the TikTok.
I'm not the TikTok guy. I don't watch it. I don't do none of that.
My family does. My nieces love that shit.
TikTok is stealing your information, bro.
We'll touch on it more if I know of a deeper conversation.
(36:22):
We'll touch on it more.
They're gonna get sold, for sure. They're selling to a US company.
There's no way TikTok is not going to continue on with its operations.
That's the gist of that.
To get into the actual shit that goes on in TikTok is that's a whole episode.
That's a whole 32-hour conversation.
Because there's a lot that goes on on TikTok from licensing, from the content.
(36:45):
But if you think TikTok is going to be banned and not exist anymore, get that out of your mind.
TikTok will absolutely sell to a US company.
If not, what they're going to do is partner with a US company and those guys are probably going to form a corporation just to buy TikTok.
We know how the business can go.
The guys who own TikTok are going to sit on the board of the American company, probably as unnamed board members or whatever.
(37:13):
They're going to buy it up and we're going to see the same play rant from America.
They're just going to steal your information over here.
Yeah, you're still going to be using TikTok in the next six months.
Yeah, for sure. 100%.
That shit is not going nowhere. It is not.
And they just cut a deal with UMG.
This has been another episode.
Thank you for having us, goodbye, I guess.
Yo, I am your host, Stephen Almeida, man.
(37:35):
That's my co-host, Darryl Rees Jr.
Thank y'all for tuning in.
We'll see you next episode, y'all. Peace.
Yes, indeed.
OK, that's a wrap.
Alright, quiet on the set.
(00:06):
Camera speed, sound production, take one.
I just say that to say, for people to understand what a brand is, to understand what this all is,
it's not only giving you great art, giving you great storytelling, showing you the things that come out of our brains and our minds
and trying to tell you, show you the world our perspective is also showing you how to do it for yourself
(00:32):
and giving you a step by step process of how you can do it for yourself or do it for a company or go and become a contractor or something.
That's the go print, that's the game you're getting.
Action!
Welcome, welcome, welcome to another episode of the I Hate This Industry podcast.
I am your humble and handsome host, Stephen Almeida. This is my good brother, the architect of the go print, the motherfucking master, Daryl Reese Jr.
(01:00):
What's good brother?
Yes indeed, yes indeed. What's good with you man? How you feeling? How you feeler?
I'm good bro, I'm good. It's Sunday morning, ready to go to church. I need Jesus in my life.
Oh yeah, I got my thoughts on that.
That's right. I'm on some, uh, Selyeus also need an ad in Brandio.
The amount of Celsius I drink, Jesus Christ, it's like they sponsored me already.
(01:21):
I'm gonna be right there with your money and it's game.
I'm down 20 pounds bro since like, since-
Oh thank you, congratulations man.
Thank you, congratulations.
And that's just from cutting diet, you know, like cutting certain things out of the diet.
But yeah man, I'm ready man, I'm good.
It's a talk, I know you said you recovering.
Yeah man, this, we wrapped up filming a few weeks ago.
(01:44):
Well, the locations that we was doing, we done filming at those locations.
We still have 20, roughly 15 to 20 percent of the film left to do.
Yeah.
And so I knew this was gonna be like a long drawn out process.
I knew I wanted to handle all this more so in the fourth quarter and things like that.
Like we can jump into pre-production, we can, well we can jump into post-production and things like that.
(02:08):
But we still have roughly three scenes left, but nothing major.
Not any major scenes, none of them require dialogue.
Nice.
So we on the ship with it as far as we can jump into pre-production.
Like I can start editing now.
I just man, like I'm looking at these files, there's over 100 audio files, there's over 100 video files.
(02:30):
And I'm just like, okay.
I mentally had to prepare myself to lock in with this.
And I still might go to like a third party or something like that.
But at the same time, I'm gonna see what I can do, I'm gonna see how I can mold it because I know I got a vision for it.
How I want it to look, things like that.
I know you're gonna help me with the sound.
I got, yeah sure.
I got the other guy that was, well two other guys that was helping with the film.
(02:54):
We gonna just try to tackle things together and see how we can place the sound together and see how it bowls.
Because everything looks good.
It looks amazing.
It looks amazing.
It looks amazing.
Oh really?
It looks amazing, the video, the film itself looks amazing.
It sounds amazing.
It's just the audio just needs some tuning.
Yeah, I listened to some of it and yeah, I agree.
(03:16):
I think it needs some tuning, but nothing, the audio is good in the sense of like you captured.
Right.
Yeah, it just needs to be turned up.
Because I was listening to it.
It's crazy because the quality of that microphone is industry standard.
So like I knew what I was gonna get with the Sennheiser.
I knew what I was gonna get.
It was just the environment around us.
(03:37):
Like okay, I talked to the guy that I got it from.
He was like this kind of standard that the mic is gonna pick up outside noise things like this.
So I had to turn the gain and the volume down on the mic.
Yeah.
Then I played it on a computer.
I was like, okay, it needs to be turned up.
But then I played it on the recorder, the headphone.
Yeah.
(03:58):
And then I was just like, damn, like it sounds amazing.
So like where it's gonna be edited, like edited is gonna be vital because I can see it already.
Like most likely it's gonna go through audition, but it's gonna, we're gonna, I'm gonna need some type of professional headphones or something like that.
And then play it over some speakers.
It's gonna be like just like the visual testing.
(04:19):
Like I'm gonna do visual testing on the phone, iPad, and the TV.
Same is gonna be done on the audio testing.
Okay.
Yeah, yeah.
And you get different feedback on all different devices.
Yep.
And that's why, that's why it's important to like edit when it comes to audio.
It's important to edit to a certain standard as far as the decibels you're editing at all of these things.
(04:43):
There's a whole, I don't want to say industry, but there's a professional level where audio like for podcasting should be at this level.
Audio for this should be.
They have all of that because as it plays on these different devices and all that, if you keep it at that like level, you're gonna get, well, more so you won't get any like peaking or cackling or things like that.
(05:07):
You're getting the most performance out of the level.
You know what I mean?
As far as when it comes to the mix, that's a whole different beast.
But even with the mix, this, you gotta, and this is, I learned this through the science of engineering, right?
I've been reading books on it, learning, learning more about it as throughout my career.
And it was like, as you mix, as you mix, you gotta be at these certain, you gotta mix at these certain levels.
(05:32):
Like your lows should be at some point, your mids should be at some point, your highs should be at some point.
It shouldn't pass a certain decibel.
It shouldn't go below a certain decibel.
And when you do all of that, it more so gives you a higher percentage of it being the best quality mix and the best sounding mix.
Because you see it a lot with music, you see a lot with podcasting even.
The mixing is trash or the audio just doesn't sound, doesn't sound good.
(05:56):
We go through it with this podcast, even more as I deal with the levels and all that, as I learn more about it.
Now I have a certain, like a certain vocal chain, so to say, how does it say, in music.
I have a vocal chain of all these presets of the standards are supposed to be at for podcasting and all that.
Then what I do is get creative with the mixing.
(06:17):
But it's always trying to get the best sound possible.
And even that's hard when you're just using like the mics that we're using.
Or if you have compressors, if you have all of these things in place, you get an even better sound.
But I'm excited to start working on it, man.
I'm excited for it because I've never actually, well, I have, I can't say never, but I like a challenge.
(06:38):
Like this is going to be something for me where it's like getting this to like TV, TV level or movie level.
You know what I mean?
Like those reaching those standards and hitting those, those markers.
So it's like I've been doing a lot of research on audio mixing for this project.
I mean, yeah, the biggest challenge for me right now is when I get ready to tackle the film in about a week and a half is just matching and syncing up the audio with the visuals.
(07:05):
Like we did certain things on set with the clapper.
We did certain things on set with to match things.
So I have to go by individually with the video and try to see, okay, is it around this mark with the audio?
So I'm trying to figure out how I want to approach that.
But once I've mapped out, okay, this is how I want to do it and we have the video matched with the audio, then we should be smooth sailing from there.
(07:30):
That's my biggest, that's been my biggest worry altogether because I have so many files.
I have so many audio files and video files and I can look at them all day and say it looks good.
I'm just like, okay, when I tackle that, then okay, I know we ready.
We cooking with grease right there.
Because like that was a whole part of me that's on the quarterly side.
(07:54):
But you know how I am with it.
And that was a whole part of me.
The first time around when I was shopping for audio equipment and things like that,
like I settled for certain things.
But then I was just like, this is my first big one.
This is my first big film with a set with crew with all these professional equipment.
And I was just like, okay, I have to, I have to reach for the stars on this one.
(08:20):
I don't need to break the bank or anything, but I have to shoot for some type of industry standard quality, especially when it comes to sound to do that.
And so I did that. I made that trip to New Orleans and shout out to this company called Sound Heart.
And they provided us with the necessary equipment to get the job done from the Sennheiser mic, from the boom pole, from the C-Stand, from the XLR cables and things like this.
(08:47):
So they provided the necessary items for us to create a high quality film when it comes to audio.
And man, like I sent you what you already got it.
You got all the audio files. Yeah.
Things like that. And I might play around with it again soon.
But as far as the way it's sounding, just the raw files itself, I know once it's enhanced and things like that, I know it's going to sound amazing.
(09:09):
I know that. Yeah. So yeah, it's basically like it's for a quarter.
This is as far as scheduling wise, this is where I wanted things to be as far as this whole process.
And I know I still got what two or three voiceovers to do.
I still have scenes to do, but none of them require a full cast and major dialogue in scenes.
(09:33):
So we don't have to get these equipments again and things like this.
So that's going to be smooth selling. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
So yeah, we are in post-production. Like right now I'm editing the BTS series.
So like I'm going to edit the BTS series first before I start editing the film.
I want to get the BTS series out the way first. And with the BTS series that is laying the foundation, the making of a short film,
(09:58):
it is basically just a detailed interview process, a detailed podcast and audio series,
just like chronicling the events that led up to the foundation is showing the behind the scenes and things like that of the making of the film.
And the cast and crew and the location and things like that. Just me talking about the process, me talking about the script,
(10:21):
me talking about the editing process and what led up to the ideas that was displayed.
It's just really going in detail of everything. Like it's going to be me doing a sit down interview.
It's going to be me and you talking about it via audio, via podcast.
Just talking about the whole situation and the ups and downs and what to do and what not to do. Just giving advice to first time filmmakers and things like that.
(10:45):
They want to tackle things like this and understand that it's not going to be easy.
Like nobody, I'm sure nobody has said it's going to be easy. Yeah.
Even if you're doing it just in one crew situation, it was just you filming it and things like that.
So it's never going to be easy. And from my standpoint, I can speak from me being the director, me being the actor also,
(11:07):
and have to worry about certain things other than my role. So that weighed on me. That took a toll on me.
So I will talk about how I adapted to that, how I maneuvered through that, things like that.
And I will start rolling that series out in the first quarter of next year.
Pulling the J. Cole, the J. Cole flashback. I think that's the right on brand for how you operate and everything you do.
(11:33):
Everything we do. Just being the independent creator that also shows you, like showing the blueprint as we go.
You know, the gold print. Showing the gold print as we go, how we do it, the pitfalls, the trials and tribulations.
Because the point is always to not just show you the work and show you what's going on, give you an end product,
(11:57):
but also show you the game and give you the game of how we do it.
Because none of y'all motherfuckers going to have the luxury of having an excuse that nobody ever told you how to do it.
Nobody told you, nobody showed you how. I hate that. And this generation don't even have that excuse, man, of creators.
But even more so, you know who you guys are. Nobody showed me, nobody helped me.
(12:23):
Yet there's companies out there like Oprah Media who offer you everything in a package deal to get to where you got to go.
Not only do they do that, they also show you how to do it on your own.
I just say that to say for people to understand what the brand is, to understand what this all is.
(12:46):
It's not only giving you great art, giving you great storytelling, showing you the things that come out of our brains and our minds
and trying to show you the world our perspective. It's also showing you how to do it for yourself
and giving you a step by step process of how you could do it for yourself or do it for a company or go and become a contractor or something.
(13:09):
That's the go print. That's the game you're getting.
Absolutely.
I think that's right on brand and I love it. What I was saying before is I love Sisai. Drake did it with 100 gigs and I thought I was fly.
I'm a big fan because I was doing it myself with Autumn House. I'm a big fan of recording the behind the scenes process.
I'm a big fan of that. We took of them turning it into something documentary style or something to show you, give you insight.
(13:35):
I love that. I love when Drake did it. I love that Cole did it. I love that Cole's doing a podcast where he's kind of breaking it down. That's pretty dope.
Yeah. I mean, yeah, we're Cole. I remember listening to The Warm Up in high school, bro.
Like early high school, bro. I remember live mix tapes and spin roller and all that. Just listening to it and downloading it.
(13:59):
And I was just like, man, I will always listen to it on YouTube or SoundCloud recently. But then he put it on streaming service and man, I thought that was beautiful.
I had the physical bootleg from Chinatown, man. I remember that vividly when it came out.
Yeah, Cole, man, I think Cole's doing the right thing, man. Cole using nostalgia to come back. Cole getting back into the graces of the people after he gracefully bowed out.
(14:24):
I think he took his time. He had a few misfires and now he's slowly coming back into the graces of the audience, of the people.
I think that's dope. Something that Drake should have done. And now we got to deal with the light skinned queen filing lawsuits.
Yo, he make light skinned brothers look bad, man. I am. I used to do that. I love Drake.
And I feel like we ever since he became Dominican, he's been wilding out. He should have remained Canadian. And you make Dominican men look bad.
(14:52):
I've never seen somebody do this in the culture. If you don't know what I'm talking about, Drake filed a lawsuit or has launched a petition to file a lawsuit against UMG.
And I feel like I get it. There's two sides of this coin, right? There's the side where you go.
This is going to shake up the music industry and maybe in a way where it exposes a lot of things that the major labels do.
(15:18):
And that's interesting and that's cool. So there's that aspect of it. And maybe two things could be true. That could be happening as well.
But culturally, he's lost the people. Culturally, he's lost it. I just don't see. He looks bad. It looks like he's down bad.
And instead of climbing back up to greatness, he's just taking the Karen route.
(15:40):
I don't know, man. I could see it from both perspectives. But it's like to attack the same system that you benefited from your entire career because you lost the battle.
And I hate when people go, he's not it's not against Kendrick. If he didn't lose that battle, would he be doing this? If he had that that that had the cultural impact that Not Like Us did and they pushed it the same way, would he be reacting like this?
(16:09):
Tootsie Slide, I'm sure, got the same fucking promotion. Tootsie Slide sucked. That was a terrible record. But it still was number one. From who? I've never played that record in my damn life.
I've played Not Like Us about a thousand times. Never played Tootsie Slide one. You see you four is my second most played song this year.
We're talking cultural impact versus manufacturing hits, right? Cultural hits versus manufactured hits. Tootsie Slide is a manufactured hit. It was not good.
(16:37):
They got the same. I'm sure it got the same push. They got the same power behind it, the same money behind it, the same type of support behind it.
Not like I don't even believe Not Like Us needed that. You know what I mean? Because it was so impactful. Absolutely.
Every major label has relationships with radio. Every major label has relationships with other corporations. That's the game.
When you have a joint that goes and is going to create you more money or more cultural relevance, you're gonna put money behind it and resources behind it.
(17:08):
Bottom line, Drake got a shot bitching, man. Rapping won't even help you no more. Yeah. I mean it hurts. It hurts, man.
I ain't gonna lie to you because growing up high school, college, Drake, Kanye was up here. Kanye is still up here for me.
I've heard every song from high school to college to now. His last few albums I didn't really hear like that.
But I know every Drake song, every moment, every video, all of it. The only thing I haven't done was been to a concert.
(17:36):
Just looking at the situation and looking at what's going on and how it can affect the industry.
I think early on people was thinking like, okay, y'all don't really understand. Y'all LLC niggas. Y'all should be creating up Drake.
Y'all should be fighting the system. I'm like, is he? Is he? Or is he just whining? Is he just like, okay, we see what they're doing with Not Like Us.
(18:01):
We've seen the word that was used. We've seen this to jeopardize his likeness, his image and things like that.
So from Drake's standpoint and from his account, they may think they're doing the right thing.
And from our standpoint, people like me and you, we can say, okay, he's crying and moaning, but then something like this will change the system.
(18:24):
Somebody like Drake and what makes him different from people that go against the system, they're doing it.
The people that's going against the system, like a Prince, like a Michael Jackson, they're doing it to change not only themselves, but those that come after them.
So it's bigger than just Prince. It's bigger than just Michael Jackson. It's bigger than just a Malcolm X or a Martin Luther King.
(18:46):
And they do it with integrity.
Absolutely.
That's the key point here is integrity.
I feel the route Aubrey has taken has no integrity because it, I mean, it's your label.
He was Lucien Grange's golden boy. They pumped the billions into it and they did this.
And I was listening to Ian Dunlap from EYL. Yeah, he was talking about, like, once we start talking about UMG, people have to understand.
(19:13):
I understand the people talking about it on the surface level, on social media and crying and talking about this, about Drake and he doing this.
But once you're talking about UMG, you're talking about Chinese investors.
You're talking about people from British. You're talking about these type of investors that have spit millions on Drake and spit millions on Scorpion.
When Scorpion came out, it was on every, I think it was on a gospel playlist.
(19:37):
I covered things like this. It was like on all these playlists. It was all over these billboards and things like that.
So Drake has been spoiled, spoiled, which he has his entire life.
He's been manufactured. They done sculpted his abs. They done done all types of crazy. He's a Ken Guk.
So then it has pumped billions into him. And then you have this Marcus Garvey individual, this Malcolm X individual.
(20:02):
You have an individual that has culture. Yep.
Like you heard where Jay-Z said, you reposted the video. We are culture. We are culture.
Nothing moves without us. Kendrick had the euphoria. Kendrick had to not like us and things like that.
And same with, I can have this Nicki Minaj type of situation. She was so on top. She was at the top of the totem pole.
(20:27):
But then you have a Cardi B come in. Then you have another option. People are going to gravitate to that other option.
Especially when you squirt who's in touch. Because success, the higher you climb on the ladder of success,
I feel like you separate from the ground floor. You separate from the people.
So it's superstardom. Because you can be successful and all that and still have a grounding.
(20:50):
We see it with J. Cole in a bit. Even though J. Cole has set himself, he has been out of touch with it.
And Kendrick comes out whenever he comes out and then goes back in.
But their level of superstardom, Drake, let's be real, Drake's level of superstardom probably will never happen again with another artist.
And that level of superstardom makes you kind of oblivious to what actually happens on the ground floor.
(21:17):
And the higher you climb up, the further you get from that relevancy and that connectivity to the people.
And people love success and they love to see you win. But they love even more to see you burn.
They love, they rather watch a train wreck than to go in the fire and help you out.
You might be going 150 miles an hour and people are like, damn, that's fast. But they hoping you crash.
(21:42):
So that could be like, you see, you know, they could look and point because that's just part of a myth.
I don't want to say it's the world, but America loves entertainment. We love to be entertained.
So we love tragedy. We love success. We love comedy.
And when you, Drake is in that, you know, Drake is in that. But also did he ever have culture?
Was he ever actually culturally connected?
(22:05):
Not at all. Because you had guys in the barbershop, you had guys talk about this singing guy, this rapping guy.
Like, okay, is he a singer? Is he a rapper? Is he a pop artist? This and that.
And like I was saying about Kendrick, like you have this cultured guy that is from L.A.
You have this guy that when he produces and when he does Not Like Us, UMG didn't have to push the button for that.
(22:31):
Not Like Us was a cultural moment in history that will live forever.
So like that was something that Drake couldn't, he couldn't stop.
That's why that was the last record of the entire beef. And it basically stamped like, okay, this is where we are in this moment.
I'm here. So UMG being UMG, a billion dollar corporation, of course we're going to put money behind our main product.
(22:55):
The same we have done for you, Drake, for the past 10 years. So yeah, he just, it's just a jealous, a jealous millionaire.
Yeah, so yeah, so like.
That's why it's kind of, it's kind of lame.
And the thing also, Not Like Us didn't have to be the last record. Drake tapped out.
The Hard Part 6 was disgusting. That was a disgusting record. I didn't like that. I saw people say that was a good record.
(23:20):
The hard part was part 6. The hard part 6, that record he put out after Not Like Us.
Oh, you're talking about what Drake did?
Yeah, yeah, not the room of war.
I mean, it was bad. It was just not a good record. That was with him saying, basically like backtracking everything.
And again, that felt like a label move. That felt like somebody told you, yo, you got to go like say something about these allegations and say something about all of this.
(23:46):
And what I was going to say about UMG, when you bring up a good point about the Chinese investors, it's not only just Chinese investors.
UMG has their hands in so many different things. They like mass produce water in a country somewhere.
It's more than just entertainment. To add to that, it's with UMG, you've got to also realize there are some people in the UMG boardrooms.
And stockholders and major stockholders. I'm not talking about the people who own little pieces.
(24:11):
I'm talking about the major stockholders, those investors, all that.
Certain people in that company who don't give a fuck about Drake, their concern is in, you know, Drake is just one piece of this giant machine that works.
So it's like if he's costing you money and making you look bad, yo, fuck that guy. To them, he's not even that relevant.
(24:38):
He's just one, I'm not saying he's not relevant, but Drake is only relevant entertainment wise.
You know what I mean? Drake is not like a humanitarian.
You know, when you think of like these bigger businesses that kind of add to the capitalism of the world and add to the structure of society, Drake is not one of those guys.
(25:01):
And in comparison to like Jeff Bezos or Elon Musk, who have those stakes in the ground that affect the world, kind of, you know what I mean?
And how real and how the overall culture shifts.
I don't even know if Kendrick has that for hip hop, but Kendrick is a moving cog in that machine of how culture shifts.
(25:22):
Or if nothing else, he is a representative of the culture.
And I don't think we get that with Drake, and I feel like we're seeing a product malfunction.
So are we seeing the downfall of Drake?
I think we're seeing the cultural exposure of Drake.
I think an act like Drake can't fall, but you're just too successful and you have too much in the bank and not financially.
(25:47):
I mean, you got too much work you've done, too much stakes in the ground.
He is a legend, whether people like him or not.
I don't agree with this. I don't discredit his entire career because I respect the career.
The career is one that's never been.
It's just there's no career like it, and I don't see there ever being another career like it.
(26:09):
I think he's a shooting star in this industry.
Same way, I mean, shit is next album, I think it's going to do like roughly.
I think we're going to do good.
I think I'm so, I just so satisficate that he's still the most streamed artist every month this year.
So it's like, I don't think that's why this is crazy, because you're not really losing.
(26:30):
You know, they have the perception, he cares about the public perception. He cares about that.
He's not really losing. He's still on top. He's still the guy.
People still love Drake. It's not like, yo, you got a little chink in the armor. That's fine.
Like, that's cool. It comes with the game. Like, whole jig. It shoulder played off.
Yeah. Well, I feel like he did that. Yeah.
(26:52):
You know, I feel like he did that. That pedophile shit could have been here and gone, you know.
And I don't know, my whole perception of that battle was crazy, because now when I look at it,
I look at all the things of Kendrick telling you, yo, don't say lies about me and I won't say truth.
Don't miss them. Yo, don't go matching my family. Like, we can keep it friendly.
(27:13):
I see all that. And then I see Drake. Then you now you can really look at and go, oh, this he's just an eagle mania.
It's just I think I'm the guy. I'm thinking then you get chinchacked. And that's what happened.
And you're going to take a blow because the one thing you could I mean, you might not like Kendrick
because his music is kind of a certain type of music, but he is he is one of us.
(27:37):
He is the people, you know, whether you like it or not, he has always stood for he has been an artistic figure.
Like as far as like a like a like a like a moving piece of art. Right.
His his cultural relevance and stance has always been impactful and been respected and been like, OK,
this is a guy that we put on those pedestals. This is the guy who represents that.
(28:00):
He's the guy who's keeping the actual art form of this alive from the storytelling, from the conceptual albums,
from the from the the releases, from all of the from the processes.
He's always been that guy and he's been surgical when he's been on the attack mode.
You know what I mean? Like he's always every time he's kind of throwing a shot.
And he's been the guy letting you know, I'm that dude. I'm number one.
(28:24):
He did it on the control verse. He did like he's always thrown those things out into the universe.
It's other people who have said these guys are Drake is the goal is like.
But Kendrick has always stood on that stance. So it's like that wasn't nothing else.
It was just like you won't reach out. I think he just got offended.
You won't reach out to do this damn song. I fuck you. You know, I don't like you.
(28:47):
What was it? The B.T. Seyfried shit.
He's like, I took the sensitive rapper back in his pajama clothes.
A year later, it stands. That stands true.
That's crazy, bro. Like I thought I hold grudges with such a booper.
Damn, that was like 2011, 12. Yeah.
But I think Kendrick saw it back then. I think a lot of people saw it.
I think if you're in the industry and you as you build your career and you add those levels,
(29:12):
you see the type of career routes that these artists take where Drake took the manufactured route.
There's nothing wrong with that. I'm a fan of it. I'm a fan of acts.
If you're a good act, I'm a fan because I love entertainment. I love music. I love it.
So it's like I love a good show. I love a good production. I love a good act.
(29:34):
Drake is one of the greatest acts of the music industry, of the entertainment industry.
I respect his decisions of how he chose to go about his career. I get it.
He took the money like when it came. He took the big checks. He took the easy records.
He took the pop records. You know, he did everything to be the best manufactured product in the market.
And I love that.
And then I think somebody like Kendrick sees that while he's choosing the grassroots route in his career.
(30:00):
And he looks at that and he goes, oh, but you know, that's the same way they look at Vlad.
It's like, oh, you taking, you just using our culture. Ain't not only that, ain't you trans Dominican?
So it's like you're not even you. You're not even like the Canadian Jewish guy.
You like, you trying to be like, you trying to convert into something in front of us.
He's like Kim Kardashian, you know.
(30:22):
It's like you go from one person to the next person before our eyes and we're just supposed to eat that shit up.
Now, Kim, I mean, the Kardashians are a certain type of people.
People just respect it, but we all know what the fuck goes on in the Kardashian.
Don't know that you don't, Darryl, you don't watch the Kardashians.
You don't sit there. You go, this is entertainment.
This is because you know what? I'm just saying when you we all watch this shit and it's crazy.
(30:48):
Now we got to watch a Jewish black man turn into a Dominican and we got to be like, it's OK.
And on top of him, exploiting black culture, on top of him, exploiting hip hop culture is that we live in a crazy world.
That's crazy. I mean, it's sad to see.
As far as what I remember Drake as far as so far gone comeback season, that's the Drake that I remember.
(31:09):
Even the grass, I think the grass is the first time I've seen him and then I see him transform into a comeback.
He's a Dominican man.
So far gone, things like that. And we've seen him with the braids, the fro, low cut, the fly.
I'm saying he stole Sauce Walker's whole style, man.
People don't even say that because Sauce Walker is a little not underground.
(31:31):
I love Sauce Walker.
Shout out to Texas. Sauce Walker is one of my favorite artists, honestly, out of Texas in hip hop.
But he took his whole style with the braids and the beads and all that shit.
And it's like, and because he lives in, you know, he stays in town.
It's like, bro, you stealing a man's whole identity who kind of he kind of cemented it.
That was like his thing.
And it's just weird when I see that.
(31:53):
And I say that to say that's the thing Kendrick was pointing out.
When you say you go to you run to Atlanta to get gain from you to lingo and all that.
You ran to Texas and stole Sauce Walker's whole style.
That's crazy.
And to tag along with you saying is like when you see Degrassi, you don't see that fat Drake.
You see a kid who's, you know, earning his career where now you see a guy who's, oh, let me take what's
(32:17):
you take what the people love and the people don't love it from you.
They just like it from you because you make it relevant and cool and you and you you put it in the eyes of everybody.
As opposed to it being just an original thing on your end, as far as being like a tastemaker and being somebody who
curates these things.
He curates, he curates what's already popular amongst the culture and he just puts it on that main stage.
(32:42):
And it is what it is.
We've seen it happen.
It's going to be interesting to see the lawsuit.
I know it's some dates I think next week or something like that that's circling and we'll see how they go.
And the fight with Drake and UMG, I don't know what he's looking for.
I don't know if he's looking to become a satan.
I don't look at I don't know if he's looking to change the industry.
I don't know.
(33:03):
But if secrets do come out and say anything, UMG is going to say Drake, same thing we did for Kendra.
We've been doing for you for 10 years.
Even if you do not know it, no matter how big of an act you are, Joe Biden talks about this all the time.
No matter how big of an act you are as far as inside their system, you will never know the true analytics.
(33:26):
You will never know the true day to day and what goes on in your Spotify office and the UMG office and the Tiktok audience.
I mean, office and things like that.
You will never know because you're not truly a part of that company.
Yes, you're a product within that company that you're literally a Coke bottle in the factory that gets manufactured with the rest of the Coke bottles.
(33:47):
And they have placed you in line in order for you to design what you need to do, which is quench the thirst of the customer.
That is basically what these acts are in this environment and Drake, Taylor Swift, and even some sort of Kendra.
They are all just Coke bottles in this factory.
So, yeah, it's going to be interesting to see how this plays out.
(34:09):
Kendrick is part of that. Kendrick is just he just has a different superpower.
He just has a different. It's like how they make the toys and the toys come with like accessories, you know, like wrestling comes to the championship belt.
If they're known for talking on a microphone, they have a microphone.
Kendrick comes packaged the same way. He just has culture with him.
Right. And he has the people with him.
(34:30):
And okay, what did you think of G&X?
Yeah, so I was finna leave to go to New Orleans when that album dropped and I was working at the time.
I was just like, Kendrick just dropped a video.
Like, what the hell? So I'm listening to it, Whacked Out Mirrors first record.
I'm like, oh, shit, this shit slap. This hard.
It's to the rest of it. I'm like, sizzle on it. Sizzle on it.
So I just dove into it. And man, that is.
(34:53):
It's a good album, man.
It's a good album.
Like it's one of them that'll make you want to crit walk in which we knew that's the direction he was going to go with this whole moment.
So he was just like, okay, let me captivate the culture even more and produce a full album off this.
Yeah.
So yeah, I thought it was a beautiful album, man. I still listen to it today from Pickle Boo, Squabble Up, Whacked Out Mirrors.
Leave it off.
Like TV off.
(35:15):
That's my shit, bro. In the morning.
All of it. So yeah, I'm gonna jump in the gym tomorrow.
But yeah, that is a beautiful piece of work, man.
Drizzy Drake, man, you got your TV turned the fuck off. That's just the reality of it.
No, man. Reincarnation. The storytelling on that song is incredible.
Oh, yeah, man. He challenged Paco on that one.
Yeah, yeah.
(35:37):
Kendrick, I mean, it's the perfect. It's the perfect.
It's the perfect setup to what's coming for the Super Bowl, for the tour, the SZA tour.
And he got the South Park show collaboration with the South Park creators.
I think Kendrick about to go on the victory lap for real, man.
TikTok is for sale. We noticed it's been for sale for years.
(35:59):
It's always go up for sale. China's stealing our fucking information.
Yet y'all still use this motherfucker doing dances, looking stupid, looking crazy.
It is what it is. It's not for me. I don't give a fuck.
I'm not the guy who consumes the content. I don't make the TikTok.
I'm not the TikTok guy. I don't watch it. I don't do none of that.
My family does. My nieces love that shit.
TikTok is stealing your information, bro.
We'll touch on it more if I know of a deeper conversation.
(36:22):
We'll touch on it more.
They're gonna get sold, for sure. They're selling to a US company.
There's no way TikTok is not going to continue on with its operations.
That's the gist of that.
To get into the actual shit that goes on in TikTok is that's a whole episode.
That's a whole 32-hour conversation.
Because there's a lot that goes on on TikTok from licensing, from the content.
(36:45):
But if you think TikTok is going to be banned and not exist anymore, get that out of your mind.
TikTok will absolutely sell to a US company.
If not, what they're going to do is partner with a US company and those guys are probably going to form a corporation just to buy TikTok.
We know how the business can go.
The guys who own TikTok are going to sit on the board of the American company, probably as unnamed board members or whatever.
(37:13):
They're going to buy it up and we're going to see the same play rant from America.
They're just going to steal your information over here.
Yeah, you're still going to be using TikTok in the next six months.
Yeah, for sure. 100%.
That shit is not going nowhere. It is not.
And they just cut a deal with UMG.
This has been another episode.
Thank you for having us, goodbye, I guess.
Yo, I am your host, Stephen Almeida, man.
(37:35):
That's my co-host, Darryl Rees Jr.
Thank y'all for tuning in.
We'll see you next episode, y'all. Peace.
Yes, indeed.
OK, that's a wrap.
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