June 25, 2025 • 54 mins
Become a Relative & send some love
L Marquee, producer, engineer, and self-proclaimed "Unashamed Christ Follower," brings his unique perspective to the podcast, exploring how faith and music production intertwine in today's complex industry landscape. From the first moment I met him in 2017, his charisma and positive energy have been undeniable constants in his approach to both life and music.
The conversation dives deep into the technical aspects of music production as L Marquee breaks down his favorite tools—UAD plugins, Logic Pro, Kontakt libraries, and more. But beyond the gear talk, we explore something more profound: the struggle to maintain quality and purpose in an era where streaming has fundamentally changed how music is valued. "When you pay for the cost of one album, you get every song ever, from Mozart to Migos," L Marquee observes, identifying how this economic shift has lowered the stakes for both listeners and creators.
What truly sets this discussion apart is the candid examination of faith's role in creative pursuits. Having grown up in the church, L Marquee shares how surrendering his musical ambitions to God transformed his approach from self-serving to service-oriented. This perspective allows him to work with both secular and Christian artists without compromising his values or authenticity. "I'm not necessarily beating people over the head with Christianity," he explains, "but whenever I'm in the studio, that's still what I'm on."
The conversation culminates with L Marquee offering two invaluable gems: find fulfillment through serving others with your talents, but establish clear boundaries to prevent being taken advantage of. His balanced approach demonstrates the wisdom gained from twelve years navigating an industry that often pushes artists toward conformity.
Whether you're a producer seeking technical insights, an artist exploring how to integrate personal values into your work, or simply someone interested in authentic conversation about creativity and purpose, this episode delivers wisdom that transcends the studio. Subscribe now and join us for more discussions that prove relationships truly are worth more than money.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
All right, what we got, what we got, Live, we live.
I'm back at it, man.
It's been a minute because Ihaven't done a podcast in like
almost a month.
Man, it's been a minute.
First off, man, I just want tointroduce everybody to you, but
to them, as this kid, I remembermeeting you back in 2017.
(00:24):
Yep, and like the charismaalways up here, high at a high
level, right, but it was greatman.
It was always positive energyProducer, engineer, what you
call yourself the UnashamedChrist, Unashamed Christ
follower, Unashamed Christfollower man, and I always love
(00:46):
that slogan that you always saidwhen you call yourself the
Unashamed Christ, UnashamedChrist follower, Unashamed
Christ follower man, and Ialways love that slogan that you
always said when you introducedyourself and you were the first
person that I knew that was onto Reels, like putting Reels
together, putting contenttogether, Without further ado.
Man, everybody, this is ElMarquis, El Marquis Productions.
What's up, man?
How you?
Speaker 2 (01:04):
been Doing well, living life, just blessed to be
here, blessed to be alive.
Yeah, got a summer finally,yeah.
Speaker 1 (01:10):
Blessed overall For real man.
Speaker 2 (01:16):
It's summertime now, finally Hot summer.
It was hotter though today.
Hot man Coming out from thePhil Day Festival yeah, Out
there in Fairfax Burning hot,but great vibes, great energy,
great music, great food.
Speaker 1 (01:28):
I figured that it was going to be hot because all
that rain man, it's been superrainy for the past two months.
But other than that, man,what's been going on with you,
man, because I ain't talked toyou in a while.
We might run into each other ata jojo party or jojo event or
something like that, but what'sgoing on with you?
(01:48):
I know you was going to schoolfor engineering yeah, I mean
right now, just locked in.
Speaker 2 (01:52):
I got a handful artists I'm working with, um,
this year I've been doing a lotof engineering, a lot of mixing.
Yeah, um, still doingproduction, of course, um, I'm
for my, for myself.
I'm trying to put out more likejust instrumental music, just
just just because, um, because Imostly work with hip-hop
artists, but I love differentstyles of music, like I grew up
listening to rock music and Ilike pop music and different
(02:13):
genres like that, and now I justwant to, just every now and
then I'll make an instrumentalthat doesn't really fit within
the stuff I post online yeah, soI just I want.
I wanted to live somewhere, soI'll just drop them on spotify,
okay, okay, but but yeah, mainlyjust logging in, just producing
and engineering for artistsyeah, just really.
I want to just be creative andjust explore all the creative
(02:36):
avenues that I'm passionateabout, whether it's working with
artists, creating content whichactually I enjoy not really
normal for musicians, right.
Yeah, just trying to beconsistent and just keep
elevating what?
Speaker 1 (02:48):
what is?
What is something that you feellike?
Speaker 2 (02:50):
uh, you learn from being for how to be patient with
people, and especially withcreatives in particular, but
just being being patient withpeople and learning how to
really focus on getting theirvision across versus only my own
yeah, um.
So when you hear like a lot ofproducers talk in particular
(03:13):
producers and engineers when youhear them talk like they really
are focused on getting their,their sound and their style
across, but not all of themlisten to the artists and like
listen to what they're saying,yeah, no, especially when I'm
working with like people inperson or just people who I'm
closer with and just being ableto get that feedback in real
time, um, it's just reallyhelpful to get their feedback
(03:35):
and know, like, how I can bestserve them and then also just
making sure I'm just listeningto whose name is actually on the
record yeah, what's your?
Speaker 1 (03:42):
what's your go-to plug like engineering uad um
whenever I'm tracking.
Speaker 2 (03:48):
I'm always tracking through the um, uad, knee type
1073 and the la2a.
Yeah, um, but I'm actuallymixing, mixing vocals still
heavy on uad um, a handful ofwaves, plug plugins, what else?
Speaker 1 (04:04):
Guitars, auto-tune yeah, melodyne Vocaline iZotope,
you know, shout out to all ofthem UAD, waves, guitars,
melodyne, all of them.
But I've been playing aroundwith the Auto-Tunes, the
different ones, the Waves,real-tune, the what's the other
(04:26):
one?
Speaker 2 (04:26):
The FabFilter.
Speaker 1 (04:29):
Not the FabFilter one , the one is Slate, Digital
Slate yeah, yeah, theirauto-tune and then, of course,
anterra's.
But I've just been dabbing intoeach one just for different
feels, because when I feel likewhen I'm working with somebody
that's more Uzi vibes, I thinkthe Waze Real Tune can hit the
(04:51):
tune that you want.
All of them, man, I love.
But Anteris is always crashingman.
Oh, really Always, man, it'salways crashing.
I got the Apollo, so the Apollo, I don't have no issue.
Uad, I don't have no issue.
But something with Anteris andPro Tools, it just never works
(05:12):
man, I've never had an issuewith it Because you use Logic,
yep, you big Logic, big Logic,yeah, logic.
Shout out to Logic man Because,like I always tell people,
people are like what you use andI'll be like.
I use all of them except forAbleton.
I haven't touched, I haven'tlike dove into Ableton, but I've
worked with a couple of myhomies that I collab with like
Crazy Fingers.
He's heavy on Ableton, you knowwhat I'm saying.
(05:35):
So it's like Logic Pro Tools,fl Machine.
You know what I mean?
Machine.
Speaker 2 (05:42):
So on Machine too.
Speaker 1 (05:45):
Machine Machine too.
Machine Machine.
I'm thinking about upgradingand getting the MK3 just for the
features that you can do whenyou like away.
You can just be mobile with it.
And they just came out with anew update too.
That's super dope.
Speaker 2 (05:58):
I got it and it's cool.
Honestly, there's features init that I think they should have
been in there for like fouryears.
Yeah, like yeah the craziestone is that you can finally
export mp3s for right machine 3,which is that should have been.
Speaker 1 (06:11):
That should have been from the jump.
Speaker 2 (06:13):
Yeah, like why was that?
Why we wait 13 years or so?
That's insane.
But even the other featuresthey you, um, they added stem
splitting in there, which iscool, but I already have that in
logic.
Yeah, they added stem splittingin there, which is cool, but I
already have that in Logic.
Speaker 1 (06:27):
Got that in FL.
Native Instruments is my, Iwould say, one of the most
innovative out of all of Nativeand Logic, because Logic is like
man Logic, just keep gettingbetter and better and better.
But of course FL is innovativetoo.
But when I say, like yourplug-ins, like your stock
(06:50):
plug-ins, man Logic is unmatched.
Speaker 2 (06:55):
I'm putting Logic number one.
Speaker 1 (06:57):
Logic and damn you know, machine Contact, because
Contact is king bro, contact isfire.
Because you get so manydifferent plugins, instrumentals
and plugins to add into thecontact.
That just makes it even morelike superior to any other sound
library that I've ever likeworked with.
That sound library would if ithas a contact sound library to
(07:19):
it it's a rap man like what's uh?
What is it Orchestra?
What is it Sound?
What is it Orchestra sound?
I'm trying to figure out.
Speaker 2 (07:26):
I know what you're talking about Orchestral
something.
Speaker 1 (07:28):
Project Sound.
That's the creators.
Oh, okay, yeah, yeah, man, theorchestral essentials.
Everything they got, that'sfrom them fire.
Speaker 2 (07:39):
I just picked it up, I think last week.
Speaker 1 (07:45):
I'm playing with it right now and it's crazy.
It's fire man, just the sounds,just you can make a whole
cinematic movie off that jointman.
Speaker 2 (07:49):
It's crazy.
Speaker 1 (07:50):
And that's my thing, man, and that's why I wanted to
get you on here, man, because Iain't really diving to the nerd
side of being a music creator.
You know what I'm saying,because when we produced, you
know, we collabed a couple timeswhen I lived in manassas and um
, just watching you and I seeyou and I'm like man when I know
I need some questions on logic,you and shot of the two people
(08:11):
I go to man because, like youknow for sure, like how to do
something, but it's like man,them, them plugins, like what's,
what's your go-to plugins?
Speaker 2 (08:21):
go to contact absolutely, um, especially for
anything that just needs to feelreal, whether it's like pianos
or strings or orchestralinstruments.
Contact, without a doubt, right.
Um, I'm in a sphere and I'mstill on the sphere.
Um, for more electronics ofserum.
Serum just came with a freeupdate, serum too, they just
came out with that.
So anything like any like popstuff that I'm doing like serum
(08:42):
is my go to Serto serums firetoo.
Speaker 1 (08:44):
I like Sam, because you can't.
You can really.
You got to know what you'redoing, because it looks crazy
when you open it up.
But you gotta, like serum, gotsome, some gems in there too.
Speaker 2 (08:56):
I'm just a preset guy , like I'm not sound design at
all.
I'm just I know how to do likethe attack, delay, delay, decay,
release or whatever sustained.
Other Other than that ask me todesign a sound from scratch.
I'm not.
Speaker 1 (09:06):
I've been trying to man.
But my boy Crazy Finger, he'snasty with sound design and
Ableton he be doing some crazystuff.
He has sent me some packs.
Shout out to Crazy Finger.
He has sent me some packs.
I've done two beat packs.
I've made my own drums andstuff, snares and things of that
(09:28):
nature.
I got like what I got someshakers over there, you know
what I mean A few instrumentsthat I made from scratch, just
recording my own or just bangingon the desk or something like
that.
Speaker 2 (09:41):
But man, it's hard, it's hard, but when you dive
into it, man, it's not that badthat's one of the things where,
like I want to get into it oneday, my main priority for skills
I want to build up is just morelike musicality.
So like I want to get better atplaying piano, better playing
guitar.
Um, that for me is my priorityover sound design, just because,
like, sound design is good toknow but I can pick up a preset
(10:04):
like a preset pack, piano orguitar.
I can't, I can.
Obviously I can hire like asession player if I need it, but
like I want to be the thefeeling though you want to get
that right feeling.
Speaker 1 (10:13):
And that's how I am too, man, I told myself this
year for my birthday I'm gonnago give myself a piano lesson.
You, you know what I mean,because I want to know how to
play the piano.
Once I learn the piano, I feellike learning the guitar is
going to be easier.
You know what I mean Learninghow to play the guitar.
I got a pocket trumpet overthere in that case, because I
always wanted to be a trumpetplayer growing up.
(10:35):
You know what I mean, but I wasa drummer.
But yeah, man, I'm trying toget real, like focused on the
musicality too.
Yeah, you know what I'm saying,because this is most to me if,
if, you can create your own likesoundtrack.
Yeah, like, to me, that's likethe most fire thing you can do,
(10:56):
the dopest you can do, becausethen now, like you said, you
still create like.
I thought I was gonna stopmaking instrumentals.
I was like why?
Speaker 2 (11:04):
Yeah, because if you love it, then why?
Speaker 1 (11:05):
stop it, yeah.
And then it's like you can makesomething Like I made that
Michael Jackson joint in 2017.
And I was like I like it, but Ican do so much better with it.
Like let me resample what Isampled, or let me just go back
and resample that same where youare from Michael Jackson and
Jackson 5, and then justfine-tune it to what I feel like
(11:30):
it is now.
But that was like me, on mylike jazzy fade-ish, because you
know, I got so manyinspirations from producers.
You know what I mean.
It's like I always try to soundlike somebody or try to mimic
somebody, but I still focused onlike on me just creating my own
sound.
So, with that being said, who'syour top five producers?
Speaker 2 (11:54):
Or let's go 10 if you want to go 10.
That's tough.
There's a lot of differentsounds.
I'm inspired by Top 10 off thetop.
Dre's.
A big influence Facts.
I love still just like 2001.
Mixes on that album are crazy.
I love how the drums hit onthat album.
Right Um Em was and still is myfavorite rapper growing up.
(12:14):
So like hearing his productionon like Em's stuff also was a
big influence.
Metro, because that's more likethat's.
When I was in high school, likethat's.
Um, his production was all overeverywhere, yeah, everywhere,
yeah, everywhere.
Future Shabba Scott yeah, migosSan Holo was.
He was like an EDM dude.
Yeah, I was big into like EDMstuff.
(12:36):
Like in high school as well.
Listened to like future bassmusic.
So I love like his production.
Speaker 1 (12:42):
I still love what he's doing.
Now His name's San Holo.
San Holo.
I gotta check him out.
I never heard of him.
Speaker 2 (12:46):
He's um, have you ever heard of Monster Cat, this
EDM record label?
So he was.
I don't think he still is, buthe was on that label at one
point.
I'm pretty sure that's how itgot introduced to him.
And then, just I don't know, Ijust started listening to him
more like something because hehe'll mix like organic
instruments like guitar andeverything with Electronic music
(13:07):
.
So, like it, it's like a reallygood blend of electronic and
organic.
So we just connect you withthat.
Um, so, said Dre.
Kanye West outside of like himas a, as a person, him sonically
, he always listen to albumslike dark, a beautiful, dark,
twisted fantasy.
Listen to albums like dark uh,beautiful, dark twisted fantasy.
(13:28):
Um, graduation, like thosealbums, in particular, just
hearing how like he made hip-hopso a sound and feel so dynamic,
yeah like that, that was them,two was for sure.
Speaker 1 (13:34):
Like I mean, you got college dropout yeah, but when
they went to graduation.
And then my twisted, darkfantasies it was yeah, it was
like.
It was like unbelievable man,like the sounds that he was
creating.
You know what I mean?
Speaker 2 (13:46):
Kanye as a rapper college dropout might be my
favorite, for just what he wassaying on that record Sonically
is between Twisted Fantasy andGraduation.
Yeah, that's four.
Who's at number five On aneducational side of things?
I'll say Curtis King, curtisKing.
Speaker 1 (14:05):
Curtis King is five.
Speaker 2 (14:06):
I like his music too, but in particular, when I
started watching his content,that helped me start learning
how to sell beats.
He did a tutorial on everythingthat you would need how to sell
beats, how to market your music, how to make beats.
Speaker 1 (14:20):
Shout out to Curtis King too.
He's definitely one of themfirst content creators.
I definitely watched.
I think I probably got him fromyou.
Speaker 2 (14:29):
I know I started sharing him around.
I think I found him around 2016.
Yeah, and there was stuff goingon where just finding him at
that specific time was justreally helpful.
I even did a mentorship programwith him and some other
producers.
I don't remember what year itwas, maybe like 2017 or 18.
But yeah, I always gotta puthim in there from both.
I mean, his music is obviouslyfire too, but also just on the
(14:51):
educational side of things likecan't, can't go without
mentioning him yeah, all right,that's five, and that you won't
stop at five.
Speaker 1 (14:58):
I'm stopping five for right.
All right, stop at five I can.
Speaker 2 (15:01):
I can probably think of more, but yeah, man, because
it is hard man.
Speaker 1 (15:03):
It's like when people ask me that too, it's like my
eyes change and it's not likethere is no number one.
All of them to me is number one.
Yeah, like man, of course.
Dr Dre, you know what I mean.
You got Jermaine Dupri Yep.
You got Kanye.
You got Just Blaze.
You know what I mean, got justblaze.
(15:27):
You know what I mean.
Yeah, metro.
You got uh, um, what's my man?
Other dude from memphis, uh,drummer boy.
Yeah, I mean you got one of mydetroit favorites and he to me
is like without him there is nodetroit.
Sound, hell of a.
You know what?
I'm saying but then you go tothe west coast.
You got sound wave, you knowwhat I mean.
You got, uh, what's, what's?
My man from Jersey Party Hat.
You know, what I mean.
It's so many of them, man, likefor real.
(15:49):
I could just keep going andgoing and going.
So it's like for me, it's likeevery producer that I've
listened to musically in my 39years of living so far is like
fire Hit boy.
Speaker 2 (16:01):
I got to throw him in there, hit boy.
I love the stuff he did withNas.
Speaker 1 (16:04):
Man, that whole run that he had and it was like the
chemistry you know what I'msaying and just watching him
just create right then and therehe just creating, cooking up
beats, sending them to Nas, andit made me love Nas more too,
because I used to always sayNas' production to me didn't hit
me like I ain't disrespectingthe producers, it just ain't hit
(16:26):
me like you know what I'msaying like yo, this joint fire,
he had a few on his albums,don't get me wrong, but when
they got to like hit boy and youknow I mean he started working
with other producers and I'mjust like all right, yeah, I
love I'll.
Speaker 2 (16:39):
I still go back to like all those projects now like
I'll work out to them.
I'll listen to him in the car,like that's like to your point.
Yeah, a lot of his now as alyricist.
Obviously he's one of the bestto ever do it one of the
production wise, like that'swhere I think jay-z, in my
opinion, gets him like yeah, youcan argue over like who's a
better rapper, but productionwise it's not even a question.
Overall, jay-z's got it, yeah,but with the stuff that like uh,
(16:59):
that now he's been doing withhit-Boy Fire.
Speaker 1 (17:01):
You know what I'm saying.
It's kind of like it was kindof like Jay and Ye and Hit-Boy
and Nas.
You know what I mean?
Yeah, yeah, because Hit-Boy gotsome hits and people don't
understand that.
You know what I'm saying.
Same thing with Boy Wonder.
You know what I'm saying.
And Wonder Girl, her drums arecrazy.
It's man, certain drums arecrazy.
There's so many man, there's somany Like I can just go from
(17:24):
states and just name all thedope producers that like inspire
me Street runners.
You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 2 (17:30):
I can even go to people like outside of even
hip-hop, like Jerry Finn he dida lot of stuff for like punk
bands Like Bling 182 is myfavorite band of all time.
Jerry Finn produced them.
I think he did.
I might be wrong.
I think he might have done somerecords with Alkaline Trio.
He's done records with a lot offamous punk bands.
He even can go there.
Speaker 1 (17:50):
I think too, with me traveling around the world from
being in the military, it openedup my ears.
My ears was turned up justbecause I would hear Jamaican
Caribbean music.
I would hear West Coast music.
I would hear down SouthCaribbean music.
I would hear West Coast music,I would hear down south music.
You know me, being from Detroit, like I'm hearing all of these
songs and it's like man likethis is fire David Banner, like
(18:12):
you know what I'm saying.
Like all of these guys and womenlike are fire when it comes to
production.
So it's like for me, yeah, it'shard to like put five, it's
hard to narrow it down, it'shard to put ten.
You know what I mean, thosepeople right now I think I can
put it as in decades or fiveyear spans.
(18:32):
This five year, run these myfive.
This five year, run these myfive.
Because if you think about it,you gotta throw DJ Mustard.
Speaker 2 (18:42):
You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 1 (18:44):
This dynamic album he just got produced on with
Kendrick.
You know what?
Speaker 2 (18:48):
I'm saying, and he saw that run.
I don't remember what year itwas like mid-2010s where, like
every other song on the radiowas, it was him.
Speaker 1 (18:55):
Yeah, it was him.
If it was R&B, if it waship-hop, he had a smash.
And that's the thing.
I like him too, because he beton himself a lot.
People are like oh he not inright now.
Ain't nobody rocking with him?
What you think for youproducing how many years it's
been so far?
I?
Speaker 2 (19:14):
started in 2013, so this is year 12.
Year 12.
So in your year 12, how do youfeel about the state of hip hop
right now?
Mix, for sure.
I do like that lyricism seemsto be coming back a little bit
when we've seen, like, howexcited people were over the
battle between kendrick anddrake, yeah, and even now with
(19:34):
joey versus the west coast.
Um, so seeing stuff like that Ithink is cool overall, with
that, I guess, more mainstreamstuff, the quality music it
definitely has, like it's amixed bag, like it seems like
there's some people who are likeappreciating lyricism again and
also the masses are stillappreciating all like the trash
(19:55):
stuff that's out right now.
Speaker 1 (19:57):
Man, I'm glad you said that, because you're way
younger than me.
Speaker 2 (20:00):
Yeah, because the thing is like people like it
seems like artists who arecloser to my age, they just
don't care about it anymore.
Speaker 1 (20:06):
They don't care about the artistry.
Speaker 2 (20:09):
No, like they get like a cheap microphone, they go
rip beats off of YouTube andthen they just spit nonsense on
a microphone and then they justupload it.
You know, and it's like it hasno meaning.
Speaker 1 (20:19):
Yeah, it's like.
What does it mean?
Like, mean, like I get it.
Like certain, certain young, asthough that's that's coming up,
are dope.
But like I go every friday man,I tell people this every friday
I go look at the releases, yep,and I scroll and I'll be like
who's this, who's this, who'sthis, who's this?
And I try to listen to them.
Speaker 2 (20:37):
I'd be like I can't I'll try and then like after
like song three, I'm like yeah Ican't, man, like I can't.
Speaker 1 (20:43):
I'm actually looking forward to the clips album.
Speaker 2 (20:45):
Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1 (20:45):
I love them.
Speaker 2 (20:47):
Did you the two records they have right right
now?
Speaker 1 (20:49):
so be it.
And what was the?
Something trumpet right, butyeah, those two, both, both the
records are hard both of themrecords tough.
Oh yeah, the first trumpet atrumpet, a trumpet, a trumpet,
and so be it, though my onlything is Both of them records
tough.
Ace Trumpet, ace Trumpet is sobig Dope.
My only thing is, we'll get adope album like that and then
(21:13):
we'll get a massive rap and somany other words.
It's like yo man, what is goingon?
What are the labels doing?
Other words, but it's like yoman, like what is going on, like
what is, what are the labelsdoing, because I have a theory
behind it.
Speaker 2 (21:29):
What's your theory?
What's your theory?
My theory is that Part of ithas to do with the economy
within the music industry.
I think it's one of the biggestparts.
The economy like with howstreaming like 20, 30 years ago,
when you had people who wouldalways go out and buy records.
Now I feel like on the consumerend, since people aren't buying
(21:51):
music now one your artists aregetting paid less by streaming.
But then also I feel like justlisteners don't care about music
the same way that they used toBecause, if you think about it,
before the barrier to entry toget a new record was you had to
go outside, you had to go to arecord shop, you had to wait in
line and you had to spend moneyper album.
Now you pay for the cost of onealbum.
(22:14):
You get every song ever, fromMozart to Migos, and I feel like
that, on top of even like Ithink that's one part of it just
people not the listener notvaluing music the way that they
used to.
And then, on the creator sideof things, I feel like a lot of
people like realize that too,whether it's subconscious or not
.
So, especially for like youngerartists, I feel like they,
(22:40):
since they know like the stakesare low in terms of like people,
don't really care.
It's also cheaper to make musicbecause you don't have to go to
a, you don't have to go to abig studio, you can literally
there are people making recordson their iphone, right, you know
, which isn't like bad if you'remaking good art with it, but
would they even even with itbeing more accessible?
I feel like when people are,when art some artists are
recording.
Now the stakes are lower.
If you're not paying a crazyamount of money for studio time,
(23:03):
just doing something at home,you have more freedom to just
not take it as seriously.
So I think some of thoseelements combined together I
think, just make artists notreally care as much about the
quality that they're putting out, the listeners.
They move on so quick anyways.
Even the listener will consumea two-minute song, then they're
(23:25):
on to the next one.
There's a lot, I think it'sjust a mixture of people in
general not appreciating musicthe same way that they did
before, and then just artistsjust not really wanting to give
it their all.
Speaker 1 (23:38):
Okay, I can see where .
Yeah, I can definitely seewhere that comes from.
But me I agree they're nottaking it serious and the way
the economy is in the musicindustry, they're trying to trap
the younger kids so they canget them in a messed up deal,
from what I'm seeing, and theolder ones are educating the
(24:01):
younger ones to hey, don't fallfor this here, do it this way,
go independent.
But my only theory to yours isif they are doing this, how are
they getting into these rollinglouds?
You know what I'm?
Speaker 2 (24:15):
saying they're still getting.
Speaker 1 (24:16):
They're getting.
Well, I take it back.
They're getting the rollinglouds.
You know what I'm saying?
Like they still getting.
They're getting.
Well, I take it, I take it back.
They're getting the rollinglouds, but their own shows, like
, for instance, what's my manfrom the Bay?
The Russell, the Russell, theRussell.
Yeah, the Russell is doing itthe way I feel like every artist
should.
Take it in your own hands, takeit in your own hands, Create
(24:36):
your own stage, right, yeah,create your own stage and create
your own sound and bring itback.
Bring it to the masses, go andtake it to the masses.
And his content team isphenomenal.
You know what I mean.
His team is phenomenal, the waythey move, they move and he's
(24:57):
rapping positivity.
I'm not going to lie, I'm fromthe streets.
I get it, but nobody wants tohear that all the time.
Just tell me the true rap.
Give me some true rap.
Give me some stories.
Tell me about some chicks.
Tell me about cars, tell meabout parties.
Just tell me about life.
I think a lot of times to yourtheory they're rapping about
(25:21):
something that's not them.
Yeah, they might have seen itand I get that.
If you can put that in words, Icommend you.
You can put that in your ownwords and talk about somebody's
story cool, but be honest withit.
You know what I mean.
It's like hey, this ain't mylife, this is what I've seen
growing up, Because they'll talkabout it in like the
first-person perspective butit's not.
(25:41):
He didn't experience it in thefirst person, and then when you
see him in person, like he ain'teven like that, like you know
what I mean.
But for the ones that are, youknow man, doing what they do to
hustle and ends meet.
If you rap about that, cool,I'm with that.
Just have some nice beatsbehind it and have a nice
content team.
(26:01):
But I get it.
A lot of these people come fromwhere I come from.
They don't know how to marketthemselves.
Speaker 2 (26:08):
And me, being a marketing guy, you know what I'm
saying, going to school formarketing.
Speaker 1 (26:12):
It's like I see it all the time and I'm like, bro,
I can help this person, I canhelp this person, I can help
this person, maybe if he didthat, maybe if he did that.
But I see it too, man, it'slike they don't care.
Speaker 2 (26:21):
It's not even as much as like what they're saying in
terms of like the actual likecontent, cause you can make good
art about any perspective, likewhether it's like street stuff,
whether it's love songs,whether it's like whatever it it
is like you can, you can makedope art about any subject.
It's just there is just acertain quality to the writing
(26:42):
that's like missing from certainartists, like everything
doesn't need to be on like ajay-z or nas level, you know
like everything doesn't need tobe lyrical miracle stuff, but
when, when you go on a playlistor when you go on the radio and
everything is just like the samething that's.
Speaker 1 (26:56):
That's what I was like.
It's like man, what are wedoing?
Yeah, and shout out to thewomen.
I'm never going to knock women.
I like what they're doing.
If it's selling and it's catchy, cool, I'm with it.
You know what I mean.
But sometimes I be like dang.
I got daughters Like is this?
Like they hear this, they knowthis, and it's like I, I don't
(27:18):
shy away from it because it'slike you can't, you can't hide
it.
Back in the day, when we weregrowing up, you could hide
certain songs and stuff likethat, like you don't have to
listen to this radio station,you don't have to watch this tv
channel.
Yep now let's put the child'sblog on yeah, now it's
everywhere.
You know what I mean.
They got cell phones, they gotipads, they got youtube.
They got cell phones, they gotiPads, they got YouTube, they
got everything.
Yeah, and it's like how much doyou want to censor your kid?
Speaker 2 (27:42):
Yeah, because it's like the thing about it too is
like I mean I don't have kids,so I can't really speak to it
like the same way like a parentcould, but like there's a degree
where, like you, I would assumeyou would want them to
experience real life.
You don't want to like overlyshelter them but, also, you
don't want to throw them too far.
Speaker 1 (27:58):
You don't want to throw them all the way out there
, but you want to have them in alittle happy zone.
Speaker 2 (28:06):
You want to know what real life is.
Real life isn't the DisneyChannel.
But also you don't want to putthem all the way on BET uncut.
Speaker 1 (28:11):
Right.
Shout out to BET uncut boy.
Yeah, hey, man, bet Uncut man,listen to me.
I was up a lot of nights, man,a lot of nights, loved it, man,
tip drill.
It's crazy, man.
Because I heard you say thatthey got a song out that was on
(28:32):
BET Uncut.
I ain't got no panties on, anda homegirl of mine that I grew
up with was in that video andthey just, I don't know how
somebody brought it back out andI heard my daughter singing it
and I'm like you, what, like huh, and I wasn't mad, I was just
(28:54):
like where you hear that from,because you know what I'm saying
.
Like it's everything TikTok,everything is you hear it on
somewhere.
Speaker 2 (29:00):
So I'm just like Especially with TikTok, Like I
don't know if there's like achild lock equivalent on TikTok.
But, like that's the thing.
Like you can, it's everywhere.
Yeah, you can block channels onTV.
I think you can do so.
Like they'll scroll through andthen it's just going to, it's
popping like, or whatevertrending, like it's going to,
they're going to scroll on it atsome point.
Speaker 1 (29:20):
Yeah, yeah, they definitely are.
So I look at it, man, I justsay you know what it is, what it
is, I ain't knocking it.
Just don't be singing that inthose schools or nothing like
that, or in public with people.
Speaker 2 (29:33):
Just doing the time and the place.
Yeah, there are certain thingswhere maybe you might do them in
the comfort of your house, butyou shouldn't do them in public.
Speaker 1 (29:40):
Yeah, what was your first album you ever bought?
Speaker 2 (29:46):
Rebirth by Lil Wayne Rebirth, rebirth.
It was crazy.
So first when I was gettinginto music, I was heavily into
rock music and then I startedgetting into rap and then my mom
actually put me on Lil Wayne,which is hilarious.
Prom Queen had come out at thattime and she called me in the
room and was like, hey, there'sthis rapper who is doing rock
(30:08):
stuff.
It sounds like something youwould like.
So then I went in and listenedto Prom Queen.
I was like, okay, this isinteresting.
So going back to the album LikeI haven't listened To that
album several years Going backto it now, I probably wouldn't
like it the way that I did backthen.
But that was what gravitated meTowards that album Specifically
was how he was combining genres.
It was mostly rock, but likeyou could still hear, obviously
(30:30):
you could hear the rap influencein it.
Speaker 1 (30:31):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (30:32):
To this day.
Like I love genre.
Genre f.
Speaker 1 (30:35):
Genre bending, genre fusion.
With that being said, have youlistened to the Carter 6?
Speaker 2 (30:44):
Wish I didn't.
I'm not going to lie.
The Carter 6 let me down a lotHurt my heart.
I feel a way about that album.
Speaker 1 (30:51):
And I always tell people I give everybody a fair
shake.
I listen to it three times inthree locations.
So when it first come outmidnight I'm listening to it.
So now that's nighttime I'mlistening to it.
Then I go to sleep, wake up,listen to it again in the
morning, fresh, I'm, fresh in mymind.
Everything's fresh, right, yeah.
(31:11):
Then I give it another listenaround midday, going until, like
you know, 4 or 5 o'clock aroundmidday, going into, like you
know, 4 or 5 o'clock and I saidwhy did you call this the Carter
6?
You should have called it theRebirth 2.
Because I feel like it's moregenre fusion in there, you know
what.
I'm saying Okay, yeah, okay.
(31:31):
To me that's not a diss, it'sjust that you should have called
it Rebirth 2, because I feellike that's more of a.
You had some of your artists onthere from the new Young Money
and I feel like it was more ofthat vibe.
Speaker 2 (31:46):
That or I'm not a human being.
Speaker 1 (31:49):
Yeah, that, or I'm not a human being.
If you would have put it to oneof those Volume 2 or whatever,
I would have been like okay,this makes sense.
But for Carter being the Carter, one, two, three, four, five,
now six, and you had everybodyhyped for this and I'm a huge
Lil Wayne fan.
(32:09):
You know what I'm saying.
Yeah, from Block, it's Hot toBack that Ass Up, to Squad Up,
like all the mixtape Wayne,dedication 3, dedication 2,
dedication.
I'm still a Wayne fan.
Speaker 2 (32:26):
Yeah, of course.
Speaker 1 (32:27):
But that album.
Speaker 2 (32:29):
We know Wayne's one of the GOATs.
That doesn't mean he's immuneto putting on a bad album.
Speaker 1 (32:34):
Yeah, he's not immune .
But I think to me for himwaiting so long, you think that
tarnished, not, he's not immune.
But I think to me, like for himwaiting so long, you think that
tarnished, like not tarnishedit, but you think it harmed his
release, not who he is.
Do you just think like it, likehim taking too long, messed up
the album, I think.
Speaker 2 (32:52):
More specifically.
I don't know about the generalconsensus.
For me it was like he wasreally upset about not getting
the Super Bowl.
So I was thinking, okay, maybethis is going to put something
in him to really give ussomething special.
So he was bad about the SuperBowl.
He was crashing out over that.
Then he announced the Carter 6.
So now I'm thinking this isabout how crazy it's going to be
(33:12):
.
Insane album Might be some ofhis best music.
In years he's been killing thefeatures.
He always killed the features.
Speaker 1 (33:18):
The features is easy for him, yeah.
Speaker 2 (33:20):
So then Carter Six comes out and is like there were
like a handful of songs I likedbut a lot of.
What I just don't like about itis just how redundant it all
feels, yeah, like nothing feelsnew, yeah, it's like we already
to me like it's not like we'reexpecting Wayne to be the
deepest artist ever, but at thesame time he never really
switched up his subject matterat all.
Speaker 1 (33:41):
No.
Speaker 2 (33:41):
He doesn't switch up the subject matter, he doesn't
comment a lot on stuff that'sgoing on in real time.
So to me it just felt like whywould I want to listen to the
Cardi 6 when I can listen toSharper the Weight and it's a
better?
Speaker 1 (33:53):
version of what he's doing right now.
And on top of that, this iswhen I'd be like man, like what
am I doing wrong as a producer,to where I can get into these
rooms and create albums withthese artists, because that's my
goal, like I know, that's yourgoal too.
Like you know, you want tocreate albums.
Me now is like more, I justwant to do sync licensing, I
(34:14):
just want to focus on synclicensing and try to still like
work with artists here and there.
But it's like what, what am Idoing wrong?
Because, like, I go and listento a sample off of um splice
that I took and then I hear iton the actual song.
Somebody, like a known artist,is on that same type of sample.
They just, you know, made it,bumped it up five semitones or
(34:36):
whatever, and I'm like, okay,I'm in the ballpark.
If he got it and I'm using it,I'm in the right ballpark, yeah.
But then it's like I hear thatand it's like man, what are we?
What are we?
Speaker 2 (34:47):
doing.
I've gone to that.
That same type of emotion as afeelings to like there was on
one of juice rose possum hisalbums, like he had a sample on
there to that like gotten itfrom Splice and used it a long
time ago.
I heard the exact same sampleon one of his albums.
I was like You're in a ballpark.
Speaker 1 (35:05):
When you're doing stuff like that, that means your
sound, your ear, is in the samerealm.
That needs to be placed onradio.
So we just got to connect thatdot because we're so close,
we're all like, it's like rightthere it's like right there, man
, and it's like what do I gottado?
What or what am I doing, notdoing to get to this point b and
(35:29):
I'm point a is right here, yeah, and it's just one little
intersection in between what Ihave to do to cross, like you
know.
Speaker 2 (35:36):
I saying I'm still trying to figure that out in
real time too.
My main focus has never beentrying to get in the same room
as bigger artists.
I've always even just growingup, I've always loved just the
independent scene, but at thesame time it would be cool just
to even if it was just a creditor just something just to build
up my reputation.
Speaker 1 (35:54):
Yeah, just building a resume.
Yeah, building a resume yeah, Idon't mind working with art.
No-name artists.
No-name artists to me listen,yeah, you know, I mean they
listen more, but you also gotthem.
No-name artists that just thinkthey they think that they're.
They think they're up there, butthey have, like you know, like
two listeners on spotify yeah,and they're not there and you're
trying to tell them like, lookman, this I'm trying to kind of
show you.
Hey, this is how you can getbetter.
(36:15):
This is this.
But you know, to each his ownpeople gotta they just gotta
bump their head, you know so.
But yeah, man, it's like man,we right there, like I be
hearing.
I hear a lot of beats that Iuse, like from splice or
whatever.
Like you know, I mean any otherum sound pack I use, or
something.
I'm like yo, I, yo, I know that808.
(36:39):
Yep, I like the way he did that.
I know that sound.
You know what I mean.
Or I know that's from myatmosphere.
Yeah, I know that flute, youknow what I mean, I know.
But to me, man, I think wegoing to get there, man.
(36:59):
But on another note, we well,you always said that you are the
unashamed Christ Father.
How long have you been?
You know what I mean, in havingGod in your life?
Speaker 2 (37:11):
I'd say honestly, for most of my life I grew up in
the church.
My parents always had me inchurch when I was younger and
then, more more specifically, Igot more into my faith around
like middle school, like maybe12 or 13, however old I was in
like seventh grade, um, so I wasreally heavily involved in my
youth group.
Then I remember there was aretreat that I that, uh, that I
(37:32):
went on where, like, they wereasking like what was?
They were asking like if I likewhat's the one thing you
haven't fully surrendered overto God, and I was trying to
figure that out for myself.
And that's when I figured out,that's when I first really
wanted to start doing music, butI didn't.
It was more for selfish purposesat that point.
So then at that point I waslike, okay, I told God that I'm
(37:52):
going to give everything to him,including the music.
And then that just put me onthe path of just like wanting to
use it to serve people.
Yeah, you know, just like so,and everything I'm doing in life
, whether it's like music orjust stuff completely not
related to it, I want to be ofservice to people.
But yeah, like there wasn'treally like a like I don't have
like a crazy story for like howI got into faith or anything
(38:14):
Like it really was, just like Iwas put in the church as a kid.
Speaker 1 (38:19):
Born and raised in it .
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (38:20):
Then, as I got older, of course, like I started just
using my mind to criticallythink and then, like I was still
even just like researchingother stuff and researching
other ways that people view theworld, like Christianity and
Jesus makes the most sense to me.
He feels real, I feel like I'veexperienced him.
So that's what I roll with,that's always what I'm going to
be rolling with.
Speaker 1 (38:43):
Since I've known you, it's always been what's up?
El Marquis, the Unashamed PriceFollower, you say it so fast.
And I remember I asked, I saidwhat you say, you the what the
Unashamed Christ follower?
Yeah, and I think to me, man,that's super, super cool, super
dope, that you put it in a waythat kids can understand it and
(39:04):
adults can understand it.
So it's like hey, I'm notshying away from what I do.
I do music.
There's nothing wrong withmusic.
You know what I mean.
But I'm just letting you know,hey, I'm a, I'm a real christ
follower.
I follow god.
Like you know, I mean jesuschrist.
So, um, with that man, have youever had any pushback from
anybody, like knocking you forfor being like into church?
Speaker 2 (39:29):
um, no, no, no one.
People like in school justbeing stupid, yeah, not.
Like I've never run into aproblem with an artist saying
like, oh, you're a Christian,okay, well, I can't work with
you, right.
Or you know, on the other sideof things, we're like I put this
like a Christian artist like,oh, you also work with secular
artists, okay, I can't work withyou.
Like, never like that.
It's more were like well, youcan't combine Christianity and
(39:57):
rap.
Just being stupid.
Other than that, unlike theactual business side of things,
it's never been an issue Now.
Speaker 1 (40:00):
look at Christian rap and how big it is.
It's crazy, right they're doingtheir festivals.
Speaker 2 (40:05):
now the actual music itself is the best it's ever
been.
Speaker 1 (40:09):
Yeah, 1k Few Fire.
Speaker 2 (40:11):
Yeah, I got a record with him actually Really.
Yeah, it's out.
I didn't directly work with him.
He featured on the record butyeah, I got a record with him on
it.
That's dope yeah.
Speaker 1 (40:19):
That's super dope, huge moment.
Yeah, that's what I'm saying,man.
It's like you look at it now.
It's like they have we havewell, everybody it.
You know what I mean?
That just don't want to rapabout secular things, they want
to rap about Christian thingsand they make it sound so good,
(40:41):
like if it was just regular.
You know secular music, butit's so dope that you can
actually hear it and it's likethe evolution of it, the
evolution of Christian rap towhere it was and where it is now
.
I think that's huge for notonly the community, it's just
huge to show people.
(41:02):
Hey, you don't always have tolisten to the secular side, you
can listen to this side and thebeat's the same, if not better,
if not better.
I done heard some fire.
I'm like and shout out toMarcus Allen If not better, if
not better, right, yeah, becauseI done heard some fire.
You know what I mean.
I'm like and shout out toMarcus Allen too.
So, marcus Allen, me and him,we had well, he did my intro for
(41:26):
my podcast, relationships WorthMore Than Money, which we own
right now, by the way.
But yes, like me and him, wealways work and I've always been
in his corner Because me.
I look at it as the reason why Iasked you that question about
have you had anybody talk bad ortry to shame you for what
(41:47):
you're doing?
Because he had an issue.
I thought it was lame.
Don't matter what you got goingon in your life, if that man
want to go follow God.
I thought it was lame.
Like don't matter what you gotgoing on in your life, you know
what I'm saying.
Like if that man want to gofollow God, let that man go
follow God.
Right, you know what I'm saying.
He has to figure out his ownway.
He's an adult.
You know what I mean.
He's a man.
Speaker 2 (42:05):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (42:12):
And I respected him for that and I told him I
followed God.
I got baptized last year.
You know what I'm saying?
Yes, I appreciate it.
And my thing was to me it waslike man, I was doing everything
on my own for so long, yeah,and my cousin was like yo, why
you getting baptized?
I'm like dog, I just been doingthings on my own and I'm not
(42:34):
getting.
I'm starting to get insanitynow.
You know what I mean.
I'm not getting.
I'm starting to get insanitynow.
I'm doing the same things overand over again and getting the
same results.
So let me go talk to the manupstairs because I know he's
been with me.
That was my thing.
That's why my cousin asked.
He said, cuz he always beenwith you?
Look where you are now?
I said, yeah, but he's beenwith me on the outside.
He's never been with me rightnext to me and me knowing
(42:55):
exactly who he is like.
You know what I mean, Right,and what he can do for me.
So I always made sure, man, likeeven when I was in Iraq, I
prayed.
You know what I mean.
But I still didn't have thatfull relationship with him.
So when I, you know, gotbaptized you know what I mean.
I got more into church andtrying to, you know, volunteer,
do things.
Like I've been volunteercoaching for the last three,
(43:17):
four years you know what I'msaying, right, and it's been a
blessing, like because it's likeI found my purpose through
coaching.
Because I always used to askGod like what is my purpose?
Like you know, I got twodaughters.
Like what is my purpose?
Like this music stuff is goingto always be here, but what is
my actual?
Speaker 2 (43:36):
purpose.
What's the real reason that he?
Speaker 1 (43:38):
has us here.
Yeah, why am I here?
What's my purpose?
It's to educate man, educatethese girls, Educate anybody.
Serve anybody I'm serving.
I'm serving these girls as theycope, serving artists that I
work with as their producer, astheir engineer, whatever they
need me to be.
I'm serving people for content,like they want content for
(44:01):
podcasting.
I'm telling my truth.
You know what I mean and I'mbeing straight up with people.
You know what I mean and that'swhen I figured it out and it
got better, it gets better.
You know what I mean.
It's getting better, it'sgetting better.
But, yeah, that's why I asked.
And Marcus Allen man, seeinghim and seeing the growth that
he has with you know him beingmarried and you know sticking to
(44:23):
the path, man, the right path,staying the course.
Staying the course.
Speaker 2 (44:29):
Yeah, and when I do say it too, like I'm not perfect
.
You know, if anyone's around melong enough, you know they'll
see me stumble and fall likeevery other human does.
But, like I always say, becausegod's my, god's my foundation,
at the end of the day, I andalways, I always try to be up
service to people.
You know, like some people, theywant to produce and they only
want to.
They only want to want for themoney, or they wanted to look
cool or want to make them lookcool.
(44:50):
Right for me is like yeah, Imean, of course, obviously I
need income in order to do it,but I want to make sure that I'm
actually like serving people,making the artist's vision come
to life, making sure that,making sure that their sound is
being presented the best waypossible, making sure I'm doing
it in a timely manner, because Ithink that's also a way to just
show you know, be of service.
(45:11):
You know, like I'm notnecessarily beating people over
the head with Christianity.
I'm not necessarily beatingpeople over the head with
Christianity.
I'm not necessarily evenexclusively working with
faith-based artists, butwhenever I'm in the studio, like
that's still what I'm on, I'mstill going to be me and
authentically me, and you knowthat's how it is.
Speaker 1 (45:25):
You do what you do.
I'm going to do what I doExactly.
You know what I mean, unless Ifeel ain't the area I need to be
in.
Yeah, let me remove myself.
And that's how people.
Yeah, like you say, man, peoplejust take, like you know what I
mean.
It's, it's nothing wrong to bea Christian.
You know what I mean and Idon't knock you for whatever you
got going on.
I ain't judging you.
Your thing, brother, sister,like, do your thing, I ain't
(45:55):
going to push.
I'm not going to push it, likeI don't push it on the girls,
but I always like for me beingin sports all my life.
Coach Coker, rest in peace.
We always did the Lord's Prayer.
You know what I'm saying and Igave it to week.
You memorized it.
(46:16):
I'm like okay, but I'm notgoing to push it on him.
You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 2 (46:21):
It's good to encourage rather than push.
Right right Because at the endof the day, it is supposed to be
a relationship.
Yeah it's a relationship whensome people are born into it.
For some people I can tell it'sforced or maybe they don't
really believe it.
But when you really believe itfor yourself and when you have
an authentic relationship,that's a lot stronger than just
having the head knowledge of oh,I'm not supposed to do X, y, z,
(46:45):
it's one thing, just to.
It's not like that's not thepurpose of Christianity.
The purpose of it is to have arelationship with God, not just
to follow X amount of rules.
Obviously there are things thatwe are and are not supposed to
do, but at the same time it'snot like this.
Christianity in the Bible isn'tlike a rule book of hey, just
don't do this, don't do that.
It's hey, I don't want you todo this because I know more than
(47:07):
you do and I don't want to seeyou hurt.
And hey, you know more than Ido.
I'm going to trust you Prettymuch that's what it is.
Speaker 1 (47:18):
Like I said, people will love it, will not
understand it.
But again, I'm not going tojudge, we not?
Speaker 2 (47:27):
going to judge.
You know what?
Speaker 1 (47:28):
I'm saying we not going to judge man, but I
appreciate that you are who youare.
You always been you.
You ain't never changed man,never.
I appreciate that you are whoyou are, you've always been you.
You ain't never changed man,never.
You always happy, you alwayswilling to help something, you
always willing to collabwhatever.
You know what I'm saying.
I hit you.
I said yo, man, I need you onthe pod.
You was like man, let me know.
Speaker 2 (47:50):
Whatever, I'm here just getting day and time we was
at JoJo's party.
Speaker 1 (47:53):
He was I'm here just to get a day in time.
We was at JoJo party.
He was like let me know,whatever, I'm here, and that's
how you know what I mean.
I get it.
Everybody can't be like you,but if everybody was like you in
this world, man, this would bea better place.
Man.
I'm telling you, man, becauseit's it's the energy, the
positive energy that you bring,man, I've never seen you on a
bad day, ever, ever.
(48:14):
You know what I'm saying.
It is great, man, when I seeyou and I'm like yo, what's up,
yo, what's up.
You're like what's up, what'sup, what's up.
Speaker 2 (48:22):
But, um, life is short.
I want to like.
I mean, I'll have days when I'mdown here and there, because
I'm human, but I always just try.
I always want to be the bestversion of myself, whether it's
on a personal level, whetherit's with fitness, whether it's
with music, like whatever it is.
I just want to do the best thatI can, you know, because, like,
(48:43):
if I find out like tomorrow ismy last day, then like, I still
want to like.
You know, I want to go out withmy legacy being like you know
what he tried to be the best ateverything that he put his mind
to.
So, whether it's serving people,whether it's doing the music,
whatever it is, you know, alwaystrying to be the best.
Speaker 1 (49:00):
The best version of myself, and that's the thing,
man.
But before we get out of here,we got this thing I call gym
class G-E-M, not G-Y-M Gyms Gymswe always want to teach, right,
right, you want to give theserelatives of mine a gem or two
of what you feel like, you know,like that you keep in your
(49:21):
toolbox that you want to give tothe people, to the masses.
What's some gems that you cangive to the people?
Speaker 2 (49:29):
Always being of service to people.
In terms of like, a lot ofpeople can live for themselves,
live just to serve themselves,but like to like an emptiness it
leads to like some.
Some people maybe can find somesense of fulfillment in that.
I think, deep down, likethere's, I don't think that it
works for everyone to only beself-serving and trying and only
(49:50):
trying to live for yourself.
So, um, if you can findsomething where there's a skill
or a passion and you can use itto help someone else out,
whether it's like it could besomething small, it could be
something where, like like musicfor example, you don't need it,
you don't like need it, justlike survive, but it's still a
good way to for people toexpress themselves or even just
have a sense of escape in ahealthy way you
(50:11):
know like, or some people.
They fight in the military andobviously they're protecting
their you know their family'slives, their country's lives,
you know, like that's obviouslytwo completely different scales,
but they're serving people.
You know what I mean.
Doing that, serving others, butalso just knowing not how to,
(50:32):
also knowing not to be takenadvantage of.
Because on the other end ofthat too, like you, there is a
level where and I've experiencedit too where, like you, can be
too nice and then people willjust take advantage of you or
walk over your things like that.
Like there's obviously there'sa fine line between the two.
But just once you're able todefine that, I think that's
where, like you, get into like agood happy spot of like, of
(50:52):
having fulfillment and also justhaving a really strong self, uh
, sense of purpose.
Speaker 1 (50:57):
Okay all right, that's good man.
Them are two.
Two good ones, man, havinghaving be able to serve and
being be able to serve and notbe taking advantage yeah, that's
a.
Speaker 2 (51:08):
That's a big one that I've had to learn the hard way
several times.
But yeah, just being being ableto learn that but then still
having the heart to be able toserve people, like that's.
It's not it wasn't always easyto get there, but, you know,
once I did like that's where Ijust like I really felt like I
locked in.
Speaker 1 (51:23):
Yeah and I feel you on that, man, because sometimes
you're absolutely right likepeople will try to take
advantage, yeah, purpose onpurpose, like not not just like
by mistake, purposely, purposely, they will try.
I just tell people that's whatI tell them.
Hey, I need mines up front.
Yep, I don't need.
Nah, you can't get me afterthis and after that.
(51:46):
Nope, 50% up front Always.
Always and when the sessionstarts, I need the rest.
Always, I need the other 50.
At all times.
Speaker 2 (51:54):
There's always something that's going to come
up.
Oh my bad, my rent's due.
Oh my bad, my tire just gotflat right now.
Speaker 1 (51:59):
That has nothing to do with me.
You set up something with meand the deposit is nonrefundable
.
Speaker 2 (52:07):
Yep.
Speaker 1 (52:08):
I had to learn that the hard way when I was first
engineering.
Speaker 2 (52:10):
I learned that the hard way multiple times.
Speaker 1 (52:15):
It is.
I learned that hardly multipletimes.
It's non-refundable.
Non-refundable, dog, becauseyou got to understand.
Like I'm welcoming you into myspace and you late.
On top of that, I might haveanother session after this.
Yep, you late.
Yeah, whatever you late, we canknock out this other 30 minutes
you got left, or you canreschedule, make another time,
(52:37):
but that deposit isnonrefundable.
You're going to have toredeposit something.
You know what I mean.
You're going to put anotherdeposit down.
Speaker 2 (52:45):
That's how other businesses operate outside of
music.
So like why can't we do thesame?
Speaker 1 (52:48):
Yeah, Because you know what I'm saying.
Like you don't show, no call,no show.
You fired.
You know what I'm saying nocall, no show.
Oh, you on my list.
Speaker 2 (52:59):
Like this is obviously like this is fun and
stuff like that.
But you know, but you stillhave to treat it seriously.
Yeah, you got to.
You're on people's time.
You're using their electricity,everything, their equipment.
Speaker 1 (53:08):
Their equipment, their knowledge.
Speaker 2 (53:10):
Yeah, yeah, you know what I mean.
They're late nights figuringout how to record, how to EQ or
how to play whatever man what?
Speaker 1 (53:25):
That's why I tell people like, look, man, if I
give you a discount, don't tryto go get another discount If I
give you a discount, but youknow yesterday's price ain't
today's price, amen to that.
You know what I mean, amen tothat.
I always tell people that man,we can't, we can't, but L?
L.
I appreciate you, man, forcoming.
Thank you for having me Torelationships worth more than
money.
This is L Marquis, theunashamed Christ follower, the
(53:46):
producer, the engineer man, theservant himself, and I'm Tweezy
man Like that.
We gone Peace.
All right, what we got, what we got, Live, we live.
I'm back at it, man.
It's been a minute because Ihaven't done a podcast in like
almost a month.
Man, it's been a minute.
First off, man, I just want tointroduce everybody to you, but
to them, as this kid, I remembermeeting you back in 2017.
(00:24):
Yep, and like the charismaalways up here, high at a high
level, right, but it was greatman.
It was always positive energyProducer, engineer, what you
call yourself the UnashamedChrist, Unashamed Christ
follower, Unashamed Christfollower man, and I always love
(00:46):
that slogan that you always saidwhen you call yourself the
Unashamed Christ, UnashamedChrist follower, Unashamed
Christ follower man, and Ialways love that slogan that you
always said when you introducedyourself and you were the first
person that I knew that was onto Reels, like putting Reels
together, putting contenttogether, Without further ado.
Man, everybody, this is ElMarquis, El Marquis Productions.
What's up, man?
How you?
Speaker 2 (01:04):
been Doing well, living life, just blessed to be
here, blessed to be alive.
Yeah, got a summer finally,yeah.
Speaker 1 (01:10):
Blessed overall For real man.
Speaker 2 (01:16):
It's summertime now, finally Hot summer.
It was hotter though today.
Hot man Coming out from thePhil Day Festival yeah, Out
there in Fairfax Burning hot,but great vibes, great energy,
great music, great food.
Speaker 1 (01:28):
I figured that it was going to be hot because all
that rain man, it's been superrainy for the past two months.
But other than that, man,what's been going on with you,
man, because I ain't talked toyou in a while.
We might run into each other ata jojo party or jojo event or
something like that, but what'sgoing on with you?
(01:48):
I know you was going to schoolfor engineering yeah, I mean
right now, just locked in.
Speaker 2 (01:52):
I got a handful artists I'm working with, um,
this year I've been doing a lotof engineering, a lot of mixing.
Yeah, um, still doingproduction, of course, um, I'm
for my, for myself.
I'm trying to put out more likejust instrumental music, just
just just because, um, because Imostly work with hip-hop
artists, but I love differentstyles of music, like I grew up
listening to rock music and Ilike pop music and different
(02:13):
genres like that, and now I justwant to, just every now and
then I'll make an instrumentalthat doesn't really fit within
the stuff I post online yeah, soI just I want.
I wanted to live somewhere, soI'll just drop them on spotify,
okay, okay, but but yeah, mainlyjust logging in, just producing
and engineering for artistsyeah, just really.
I want to just be creative andjust explore all the creative
(02:36):
avenues that I'm passionateabout, whether it's working with
artists, creating content whichactually I enjoy not really
normal for musicians, right.
Yeah, just trying to beconsistent and just keep
elevating what?
Speaker 1 (02:48):
what is?
What is something that you feellike?
Speaker 2 (02:50):
uh, you learn from being for how to be patient with
people, and especially withcreatives in particular, but
just being being patient withpeople and learning how to
really focus on getting theirvision across versus only my own
yeah, um.
So when you hear like a lot ofproducers talk in particular
(03:13):
producers and engineers when youhear them talk like they really
are focused on getting their,their sound and their style
across, but not all of themlisten to the artists and like
listen to what they're saying,yeah, no, especially when I'm
working with like people inperson or just people who I'm
closer with and just being ableto get that feedback in real
time, um, it's just reallyhelpful to get their feedback
(03:35):
and know, like, how I can bestserve them and then also just
making sure I'm just listeningto whose name is actually on the
record yeah, what's your?
Speaker 1 (03:42):
what's your go-to plug like engineering uad um
whenever I'm tracking.
Speaker 2 (03:48):
I'm always tracking through the um, uad, knee type
1073 and the la2a.
Yeah, um, but I'm actuallymixing, mixing vocals still
heavy on uad um, a handful ofwaves, plug plugins, what else?
Speaker 1 (04:04):
Guitars, auto-tune yeah, melodyne Vocaline iZotope,
you know, shout out to all ofthem UAD, waves, guitars,
melodyne, all of them.
But I've been playing aroundwith the Auto-Tunes, the
different ones, the Waves,real-tune, the what's the other
(04:26):
one?
Speaker 2 (04:26):
The FabFilter.
Speaker 1 (04:29):
Not the FabFilter one , the one is Slate, Digital
Slate yeah, yeah, theirauto-tune and then, of course,
anterra's.
But I've just been dabbing intoeach one just for different
feels, because when I feel likewhen I'm working with somebody
that's more Uzi vibes, I thinkthe Waze Real Tune can hit the
(04:51):
tune that you want.
All of them, man, I love.
But Anteris is always crashingman.
Oh, really Always, man, it'salways crashing.
I got the Apollo, so the Apollo, I don't have no issue.
Uad, I don't have no issue.
But something with Anteris andPro Tools, it just never works
(05:12):
man, I've never had an issuewith it Because you use Logic,
yep, you big Logic, big Logic,yeah, logic.
Shout out to Logic man Because,like I always tell people,
people are like what you use andI'll be like.
I use all of them except forAbleton.
I haven't touched, I haven'tlike dove into Ableton, but I've
worked with a couple of myhomies that I collab with like
Crazy Fingers.
He's heavy on Ableton, you knowwhat I'm saying.
(05:35):
So it's like Logic Pro Tools,fl Machine.
You know what I mean?
Machine.
Speaker 2 (05:42):
So on Machine too.
Speaker 1 (05:45):
Machine Machine too.
Machine Machine.
I'm thinking about upgradingand getting the MK3 just for the
features that you can do whenyou like away.
You can just be mobile with it.
And they just came out with anew update too.
That's super dope.
Speaker 2 (05:58):
I got it and it's cool.
Honestly, there's features init that I think they should have
been in there for like fouryears.
Yeah, like yeah the craziestone is that you can finally
export mp3s for right machine 3,which is that should have been.
Speaker 1 (06:11):
That should have been from the jump.
Speaker 2 (06:13):
Yeah, like why was that?
Why we wait 13 years or so?
That's insane.
But even the other featuresthey you, um, they added stem
splitting in there, which iscool, but I already have that in
logic.
Yeah, they added stem splittingin there, which is cool, but I
already have that in Logic.
Speaker 1 (06:27):
Got that in FL.
Native Instruments is my, Iwould say, one of the most
innovative out of all of Nativeand Logic, because Logic is like
man Logic, just keep gettingbetter and better and better.
But of course FL is innovativetoo.
But when I say, like yourplug-ins, like your stock
(06:50):
plug-ins, man Logic is unmatched.
Speaker 2 (06:55):
I'm putting Logic number one.
Speaker 1 (06:57):
Logic and damn you know, machine Contact, because
Contact is king bro, contact isfire.
Because you get so manydifferent plugins, instrumentals
and plugins to add into thecontact.
That just makes it even morelike superior to any other sound
library that I've ever likeworked with.
That sound library would if ithas a contact sound library to
(07:19):
it it's a rap man like what's uh?
What is it Orchestra?
What is it Sound?
What is it Orchestra sound?
I'm trying to figure out.
Speaker 2 (07:26):
I know what you're talking about Orchestral
something.
Speaker 1 (07:28):
Project Sound.
That's the creators.
Oh, okay, yeah, yeah, man, theorchestral essentials.
Everything they got, that'sfrom them fire.
Speaker 2 (07:39):
I just picked it up, I think last week.
Speaker 1 (07:45):
I'm playing with it right now and it's crazy.
It's fire man, just the sounds,just you can make a whole
cinematic movie off that jointman.
Speaker 2 (07:49):
It's crazy.
Speaker 1 (07:50):
And that's my thing, man, and that's why I wanted to
get you on here, man, because Iain't really diving to the nerd
side of being a music creator.
You know what I'm saying,because when we produced, you
know, we collabed a couple timeswhen I lived in manassas and um
, just watching you and I seeyou and I'm like man when I know
I need some questions on logic,you and shot of the two people
(08:11):
I go to man because, like youknow for sure, like how to do
something, but it's like man,them, them plugins, like what's,
what's your go-to plugins?
Speaker 2 (08:21):
go to contact absolutely, um, especially for
anything that just needs to feelreal, whether it's like pianos
or strings or orchestralinstruments.
Contact, without a doubt, right.
Um, I'm in a sphere and I'mstill on the sphere.
Um, for more electronics ofserum.
Serum just came with a freeupdate, serum too, they just
came out with that.
So anything like any like popstuff that I'm doing like serum
(08:42):
is my go to Serto serums firetoo.
Speaker 1 (08:44):
I like Sam, because you can't.
You can really.
You got to know what you'redoing, because it looks crazy
when you open it up.
But you gotta, like serum, gotsome, some gems in there too.
Speaker 2 (08:56):
I'm just a preset guy , like I'm not sound design at
all.
I'm just I know how to do likethe attack, delay, delay, decay,
release or whatever sustained.
Other Other than that ask me todesign a sound from scratch.
I'm not.
Speaker 1 (09:06):
I've been trying to man.
But my boy Crazy Finger, he'snasty with sound design and
Ableton he be doing some crazystuff.
He has sent me some packs.
Shout out to Crazy Finger.
He has sent me some packs.
I've done two beat packs.
I've made my own drums andstuff, snares and things of that
(09:28):
nature.
I got like what I got someshakers over there, you know
what I mean A few instrumentsthat I made from scratch, just
recording my own or just bangingon the desk or something like
that.
Speaker 2 (09:41):
But man, it's hard, it's hard, but when you dive
into it, man, it's not that badthat's one of the things where,
like I want to get into it oneday, my main priority for skills
I want to build up is just morelike musicality.
So like I want to get better atplaying piano, better playing
guitar.
Um, that for me is my priorityover sound design, just because,
like, sound design is good toknow but I can pick up a preset
(10:04):
like a preset pack, piano orguitar.
I can't, I can.
Obviously I can hire like asession player if I need it, but
like I want to be the thefeeling though you want to get
that right feeling.
Speaker 1 (10:13):
And that's how I am too, man, I told myself this
year for my birthday I'm gonnago give myself a piano lesson.
You, you know what I mean,because I want to know how to
play the piano.
Once I learn the piano, I feellike learning the guitar is
going to be easier.
You know what I mean Learninghow to play the guitar.
I got a pocket trumpet overthere in that case, because I
always wanted to be a trumpetplayer growing up.
(10:35):
You know what I mean, but I wasa drummer.
But yeah, man, I'm trying toget real, like focused on the
musicality too.
Yeah, you know what I'm saying,because this is most to me if,
if, you can create your own likesoundtrack.
Yeah, like, to me, that's likethe most fire thing you can do,
(10:56):
the dopest you can do, becausethen now, like you said, you
still create like.
I thought I was gonna stopmaking instrumentals.
I was like why?
Speaker 2 (11:04):
Yeah, because if you love it, then why?
Speaker 1 (11:05):
stop it, yeah.
And then it's like you can makesomething Like I made that
Michael Jackson joint in 2017.
And I was like I like it, but Ican do so much better with it.
Like let me resample what Isampled, or let me just go back
and resample that same where youare from Michael Jackson and
Jackson 5, and then justfine-tune it to what I feel like
(11:30):
it is now.
But that was like me, on mylike jazzy fade-ish, because you
know, I got so manyinspirations from producers.
You know what I mean.
It's like I always try to soundlike somebody or try to mimic
somebody, but I still focused onlike on me just creating my own
sound.
So, with that being said, who'syour top five producers?
Speaker 2 (11:54):
Or let's go 10 if you want to go 10.
That's tough.
There's a lot of differentsounds.
I'm inspired by Top 10 off thetop.
Dre's.
A big influence Facts.
I love still just like 2001.
Mixes on that album are crazy.
I love how the drums hit onthat album.
Right Um Em was and still is myfavorite rapper growing up.
(12:14):
So like hearing his productionon like Em's stuff also was a
big influence.
Metro, because that's more likethat's.
When I was in high school, likethat's.
Um, his production was all overeverywhere, yeah, everywhere,
yeah, everywhere.
Future Shabba Scott yeah, migosSan Holo was.
He was like an EDM dude.
Yeah, I was big into like EDMstuff.
(12:36):
Like in high school as well.
Listened to like future bassmusic.
So I love like his production.
Speaker 1 (12:42):
I still love what he's doing.
Now His name's San Holo.
San Holo.
I gotta check him out.
I never heard of him.
Speaker 2 (12:46):
He's um, have you ever heard of Monster Cat, this
EDM record label?
So he was.
I don't think he still is, buthe was on that label at one
point.
I'm pretty sure that's how itgot introduced to him.
And then, just I don't know, Ijust started listening to him
more like something because hehe'll mix like organic
instruments like guitar andeverything with Electronic music
(13:07):
.
So, like it, it's like a reallygood blend of electronic and
organic.
So we just connect you withthat.
Um, so, said Dre.
Kanye West outside of like himas a, as a person, him sonically
, he always listen to albumslike dark, a beautiful, dark,
twisted fantasy.
Listen to albums like dark uh,beautiful, dark twisted fantasy.
(13:28):
Um, graduation, like thosealbums, in particular, just
hearing how like he made hip-hopso a sound and feel so dynamic,
yeah like that, that was them,two was for sure.
Speaker 1 (13:34):
Like I mean, you got college dropout yeah, but when
they went to graduation.
And then my twisted, darkfantasies it was yeah, it was
like.
It was like unbelievable man,like the sounds that he was
creating.
You know what I mean?
Speaker 2 (13:46):
Kanye as a rapper college dropout might be my
favorite, for just what he wassaying on that record Sonically
is between Twisted Fantasy andGraduation.
Yeah, that's four.
Who's at number five On aneducational side of things?
I'll say Curtis King, curtisKing.
Speaker 1 (14:05):
Curtis King is five.
Speaker 2 (14:06):
I like his music too, but in particular, when I
started watching his content,that helped me start learning
how to sell beats.
He did a tutorial on everythingthat you would need how to sell
beats, how to market your music, how to make beats.
Speaker 1 (14:20):
Shout out to Curtis King too.
He's definitely one of themfirst content creators.
I definitely watched.
I think I probably got him fromyou.
Speaker 2 (14:29):
I know I started sharing him around.
I think I found him around 2016.
Yeah, and there was stuff goingon where just finding him at
that specific time was justreally helpful.
I even did a mentorship programwith him and some other
producers.
I don't remember what year itwas, maybe like 2017 or 18.
But yeah, I always gotta puthim in there from both.
I mean, his music is obviouslyfire too, but also just on the
(14:51):
educational side of things likecan't, can't go without
mentioning him yeah, all right,that's five, and that you won't
stop at five.
Speaker 1 (14:58):
I'm stopping five for right.
All right, stop at five I can.
Speaker 2 (15:01):
I can probably think of more, but yeah, man, because
it is hard man.
Speaker 1 (15:03):
It's like when people ask me that too, it's like my
eyes change and it's not likethere is no number one.
All of them to me is number one.
Yeah, like man, of course.
Dr Dre, you know what I mean.
You got Jermaine Dupri Yep.
You got Kanye.
You got Just Blaze.
You know what I mean, got justblaze.
(15:27):
You know what I mean.
Yeah, metro.
You got uh, um, what's my man?
Other dude from memphis, uh,drummer boy.
Yeah, I mean you got one of mydetroit favorites and he to me
is like without him there is nodetroit.
Sound, hell of a.
You know what?
I'm saying but then you go tothe west coast.
You got sound wave, you knowwhat I mean.
You got, uh, what's, what's?
My man from Jersey Party Hat.
You know, what I mean.
It's so many of them, man, likefor real.
(15:49):
I could just keep going andgoing and going.
So it's like for me, it's likeevery producer that I've
listened to musically in my 39years of living so far is like
fire Hit boy.
Speaker 2 (16:01):
I got to throw him in there, hit boy.
I love the stuff he did withNas.
Speaker 1 (16:04):
Man, that whole run that he had and it was like the
chemistry you know what I'msaying and just watching him
just create right then and therehe just creating, cooking up
beats, sending them to Nas, andit made me love Nas more too,
because I used to always sayNas' production to me didn't hit
me like I ain't disrespectingthe producers, it just ain't hit
(16:26):
me like you know what I'msaying like yo, this joint fire,
he had a few on his albums,don't get me wrong, but when
they got to like hit boy and youknow I mean he started working
with other producers and I'mjust like all right, yeah, I
love I'll.
Speaker 2 (16:39):
I still go back to like all those projects now like
I'll work out to them.
I'll listen to him in the car,like that's like to your point.
Yeah, a lot of his now as alyricist.
Obviously he's one of the bestto ever do it one of the
production wise, like that'swhere I think jay-z, in my
opinion, gets him like yeah, youcan argue over like who's a
better rapper, but productionwise it's not even a question.
Overall, jay-z's got it, yeah,but with the stuff that like uh,
(16:59):
that now he's been doing withhit-Boy Fire.
Speaker 1 (17:01):
You know what I'm saying.
It's kind of like it was kindof like Jay and Ye and Hit-Boy
and Nas.
You know what I mean?
Yeah, yeah, because Hit-Boy gotsome hits and people don't
understand that.
You know what I'm saying.
Same thing with Boy Wonder.
You know what I'm saying.
And Wonder Girl, her drums arecrazy.
It's man, certain drums arecrazy.
There's so many man, there's somany Like I can just go from
(17:24):
states and just name all thedope producers that like inspire
me Street runners.
You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 2 (17:30):
I can even go to people like outside of even
hip-hop, like Jerry Finn he dida lot of stuff for like punk
bands Like Bling 182 is myfavorite band of all time.
Jerry Finn produced them.
I think he did.
I might be wrong.
I think he might have done somerecords with Alkaline Trio.
He's done records with a lot offamous punk bands.
He even can go there.
Speaker 1 (17:50):
I think too, with me traveling around the world from
being in the military, it openedup my ears.
My ears was turned up justbecause I would hear Jamaican
Caribbean music.
I would hear West Coast music.
I would hear down SouthCaribbean music.
I would hear West Coast music,I would hear down south music.
You know me, being from Detroit, like I'm hearing all of these
songs and it's like man likethis is fire David Banner, like
(18:12):
you know what I'm saying.
Like all of these guys and womenlike are fire when it comes to
production.
So it's like for me, yeah, it'shard to like put five, it's
hard to narrow it down, it'shard to put ten.
You know what I mean, thosepeople right now I think I can
put it as in decades or fiveyear spans.
(18:32):
This five year, run these myfive.
This five year, run these myfive.
Because if you think about it,you gotta throw DJ Mustard.
Speaker 2 (18:42):
You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 1 (18:44):
This dynamic album he just got produced on with
Kendrick.
You know what?
Speaker 2 (18:48):
I'm saying, and he saw that run.
I don't remember what year itwas like mid-2010s where, like
every other song on the radiowas, it was him.
Speaker 1 (18:55):
Yeah, it was him.
If it was R&B, if it waship-hop, he had a smash.
And that's the thing.
I like him too, because he beton himself a lot.
People are like oh he not inright now.
Ain't nobody rocking with him?
What you think for youproducing how many years it's
been so far?
I?
Speaker 2 (19:14):
started in 2013, so this is year 12.
Year 12.
So in your year 12, how do youfeel about the state of hip hop
right now?
Mix, for sure.
I do like that lyricism seemsto be coming back a little bit
when we've seen, like, howexcited people were over the
battle between kendrick anddrake, yeah, and even now with
(19:34):
joey versus the west coast.
Um, so seeing stuff like that Ithink is cool overall, with
that, I guess, more mainstreamstuff, the quality music it
definitely has, like it's amixed bag, like it seems like
there's some people who are likeappreciating lyricism again and
also the masses are stillappreciating all like the trash
(19:55):
stuff that's out right now.
Speaker 1 (19:57):
Man, I'm glad you said that, because you're way
younger than me.
Speaker 2 (20:00):
Yeah, because the thing is like people like it
seems like artists who arecloser to my age, they just
don't care about it anymore.
Speaker 1 (20:06):
They don't care about the artistry.
Speaker 2 (20:09):
No, like they get like a cheap microphone, they go
rip beats off of YouTube andthen they just spit nonsense on
a microphone and then they justupload it.
You know, and it's like it hasno meaning.
Speaker 1 (20:19):
Yeah, it's like.
What does it mean?
Like, mean, like I get it.
Like certain, certain young, asthough that's that's coming up,
are dope.
But like I go every friday man,I tell people this every friday
I go look at the releases, yep,and I scroll and I'll be like
who's this, who's this, who'sthis, who's this?
And I try to listen to them.
Speaker 2 (20:37):
I'd be like I can't I'll try and then like after
like song three, I'm like yeah Ican't, man, like I can't.
Speaker 1 (20:43):
I'm actually looking forward to the clips album.
Speaker 2 (20:45):
Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1 (20:45):
I love them.
Speaker 2 (20:47):
Did you the two records they have right right
now?
Speaker 1 (20:49):
so be it.
And what was the?
Something trumpet right, butyeah, those two, both, both the
records are hard both of themrecords tough.
Oh yeah, the first trumpet atrumpet, a trumpet, a trumpet,
and so be it, though my onlything is Both of them records
tough.
Ace Trumpet, ace Trumpet is sobig Dope.
My only thing is, we'll get adope album like that and then
(21:13):
we'll get a massive rap and somany other words.
It's like yo man, what is goingon?
What are the labels doing?
Other words, but it's like yoman, like what is going on, like
what is, what are the labelsdoing, because I have a theory
behind it.
Speaker 2 (21:29):
What's your theory?
What's your theory?
My theory is that Part of ithas to do with the economy
within the music industry.
I think it's one of the biggestparts.
The economy like with howstreaming like 20, 30 years ago,
when you had people who wouldalways go out and buy records.
Now I feel like on the consumerend, since people aren't buying
(21:51):
music now one your artists aregetting paid less by streaming.
But then also I feel like justlisteners don't care about music
the same way that they used toBecause, if you think about it,
before the barrier to entry toget a new record was you had to
go outside, you had to go to arecord shop, you had to wait in
line and you had to spend moneyper album.
Now you pay for the cost of onealbum.
(22:14):
You get every song ever, fromMozart to Migos, and I feel like
that, on top of even like Ithink that's one part of it just
people not the listener notvaluing music the way that they
used to.
And then, on the creator sideof things, I feel like a lot of
people like realize that too,whether it's subconscious or not
.
So, especially for like youngerartists, I feel like they,
(22:40):
since they know like the stakesare low in terms of like people,
don't really care.
It's also cheaper to make musicbecause you don't have to go to
a, you don't have to go to abig studio, you can literally
there are people making recordson their iphone, right, you know
, which isn't like bad if you'remaking good art with it, but
would they even even with itbeing more accessible?
I feel like when people are,when art some artists are
recording.
Now the stakes are lower.
If you're not paying a crazyamount of money for studio time,
(23:03):
just doing something at home,you have more freedom to just
not take it as seriously.
So I think some of thoseelements combined together I
think, just make artists notreally care as much about the
quality that they're putting out, the listeners.
They move on so quick anyways.
Even the listener will consumea two-minute song, then they're
(23:25):
on to the next one.
There's a lot, I think it'sjust a mixture of people in
general not appreciating musicthe same way that they did
before, and then just artistsjust not really wanting to give
it their all.
Speaker 1 (23:38):
Okay, I can see where .
Yeah, I can definitely seewhere that comes from.
But me I agree they're nottaking it serious and the way
the economy is in the musicindustry, they're trying to trap
the younger kids so they canget them in a messed up deal,
from what I'm seeing, and theolder ones are educating the
(24:01):
younger ones to hey, don't fallfor this here, do it this way,
go independent.
But my only theory to yours isif they are doing this, how are
they getting into these rollinglouds?
You know what I'm?
Speaker 2 (24:15):
saying they're still getting.
Speaker 1 (24:16):
They're getting.
Well, I take it back.
They're getting the rollinglouds.
You know what I'm saying?
Like they still getting.
They're getting.
Well, I take it, I take it back.
They're getting the rollinglouds, but their own shows, like
, for instance, what's my manfrom the Bay?
The Russell, the Russell, theRussell.
Yeah, the Russell is doing itthe way I feel like every artist
should.
Take it in your own hands, takeit in your own hands, Create
(24:36):
your own stage, right, yeah,create your own stage and create
your own sound and bring itback.
Bring it to the masses, go andtake it to the masses.
And his content team isphenomenal.
You know what I mean.
His team is phenomenal, the waythey move, they move and he's
(24:57):
rapping positivity.
I'm not going to lie, I'm fromthe streets.
I get it, but nobody wants tohear that all the time.
Just tell me the true rap.
Give me some true rap.
Give me some stories.
Tell me about some chicks.
Tell me about cars, tell meabout parties.
Just tell me about life.
I think a lot of times to yourtheory they're rapping about
(25:21):
something that's not them.
Yeah, they might have seen itand I get that.
If you can put that in words, Icommend you.
You can put that in your ownwords and talk about somebody's
story cool, but be honest withit.
You know what I mean.
It's like hey, this ain't mylife, this is what I've seen
growing up, Because they'll talkabout it in like the
first-person perspective butit's not.
(25:41):
He didn't experience it in thefirst person, and then when you
see him in person, like he ain'teven like that, like you know
what I mean.
But for the ones that are, youknow man, doing what they do to
hustle and ends meet.
If you rap about that, cool,I'm with that.
Just have some nice beatsbehind it and have a nice
content team.
(26:01):
But I get it.
A lot of these people come fromwhere I come from.
They don't know how to marketthemselves.
Speaker 2 (26:08):
And me, being a marketing guy, you know what I'm
saying, going to school formarketing.
Speaker 1 (26:12):
It's like I see it all the time and I'm like, bro,
I can help this person, I canhelp this person, I can help
this person, maybe if he didthat, maybe if he did that.
But I see it too, man, it'slike they don't care.
Speaker 2 (26:21):
It's not even as much as like what they're saying in
terms of like the actual likecontent, cause you can make good
art about any perspective, likewhether it's like street stuff,
whether it's love songs,whether it's like whatever it it
is like you can, you can makedope art about any subject.
It's just there is just acertain quality to the writing
(26:42):
that's like missing from certainartists, like everything
doesn't need to be on like ajay-z or nas level, you know
like everything doesn't need tobe lyrical miracle stuff, but
when, when you go on a playlistor when you go on the radio and
everything is just like the samething that's.
Speaker 1 (26:56):
That's what I was like.
It's like man, what are wedoing?
Yeah, and shout out to thewomen.
I'm never going to knock women.
I like what they're doing.
If it's selling and it's catchy, cool, I'm with it.
You know what I mean.
But sometimes I be like dang.
I got daughters Like is this?
Like they hear this, they knowthis, and it's like I, I don't
(27:18):
shy away from it because it'slike you can't, you can't hide
it.
Back in the day, when we weregrowing up, you could hide
certain songs and stuff likethat, like you don't have to
listen to this radio station,you don't have to watch this tv
channel.
Yep now let's put the child'sblog on yeah, now it's
everywhere.
You know what I mean.
They got cell phones, they gotipads, they got youtube.
They got cell phones, they gotiPads, they got YouTube, they
got everything.
Yeah, and it's like how much doyou want to censor your kid?
Speaker 2 (27:42):
Yeah, because it's like the thing about it too is
like I mean I don't have kids,so I can't really speak to it
like the same way like a parentcould, but like there's a degree
where, like you, I would assumeyou would want them to
experience real life.
You don't want to like overlyshelter them but, also, you
don't want to throw them too far.
Speaker 1 (27:58):
You don't want to throw them all the way out there
, but you want to have them in alittle happy zone.
Speaker 2 (28:06):
You want to know what real life is.
Real life isn't the DisneyChannel.
But also you don't want to putthem all the way on BET uncut.
Speaker 1 (28:11):
Right.
Shout out to BET uncut boy.
Yeah, hey, man, bet Uncut man,listen to me.
I was up a lot of nights, man,a lot of nights, loved it, man,
tip drill.
It's crazy, man.
Because I heard you say thatthey got a song out that was on
(28:32):
BET Uncut.
I ain't got no panties on, anda homegirl of mine that I grew
up with was in that video andthey just, I don't know how
somebody brought it back out andI heard my daughter singing it
and I'm like you, what, like huh, and I wasn't mad, I was just
(28:54):
like where you hear that from,because you know what I'm saying
.
Like it's everything TikTok,everything is you hear it on
somewhere.
Speaker 2 (29:00):
So I'm just like Especially with TikTok, Like I
don't know if there's like achild lock equivalent on TikTok.
But, like that's the thing.
Like you can, it's everywhere.
Yeah, you can block channels onTV.
I think you can do so.
Like they'll scroll through andthen it's just going to, it's
popping like, or whatevertrending, like it's going to,
they're going to scroll on it atsome point.
Speaker 1 (29:20):
Yeah, yeah, they definitely are.
So I look at it, man, I justsay you know what it is, what it
is, I ain't knocking it.
Just don't be singing that inthose schools or nothing like
that, or in public with people.
Speaker 2 (29:33):
Just doing the time and the place.
Yeah, there are certain thingswhere maybe you might do them in
the comfort of your house, butyou shouldn't do them in public.
Speaker 1 (29:40):
Yeah, what was your first album you ever bought?
Speaker 2 (29:46):
Rebirth by Lil Wayne Rebirth, rebirth.
It was crazy.
So first when I was gettinginto music, I was heavily into
rock music and then I startedgetting into rap and then my mom
actually put me on Lil Wayne,which is hilarious.
Prom Queen had come out at thattime and she called me in the
room and was like, hey, there'sthis rapper who is doing rock
(30:08):
stuff.
It sounds like something youwould like.
So then I went in and listenedto Prom Queen.
I was like, okay, this isinteresting.
So going back to the album LikeI haven't listened To that
album several years Going backto it now, I probably wouldn't
like it the way that I did backthen.
But that was what gravitated meTowards that album Specifically
was how he was combining genres.
It was mostly rock, but likeyou could still hear, obviously
(30:30):
you could hear the rap influencein it.
Speaker 1 (30:31):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (30:32):
To this day.
Like I love genre.
Genre f.
Speaker 1 (30:35):
Genre bending, genre fusion.
With that being said, have youlistened to the Carter 6?
Speaker 2 (30:44):
Wish I didn't.
I'm not going to lie.
The Carter 6 let me down a lotHurt my heart.
I feel a way about that album.
Speaker 1 (30:51):
And I always tell people I give everybody a fair
shake.
I listen to it three times inthree locations.
So when it first come outmidnight I'm listening to it.
So now that's nighttime I'mlistening to it.
Then I go to sleep, wake up,listen to it again in the
morning, fresh, I'm, fresh in mymind.
Everything's fresh, right, yeah.
(31:11):
Then I give it another listenaround midday, going until, like
you know, 4 or 5 o'clock aroundmidday, going into, like you
know, 4 or 5 o'clock and I saidwhy did you call this the Carter
6?
You should have called it theRebirth 2.
Because I feel like it's moregenre fusion in there, you know
what.
I'm saying Okay, yeah, okay.
(31:31):
To me that's not a diss, it'sjust that you should have called
it Rebirth 2, because I feellike that's more of a.
You had some of your artists onthere from the new Young Money
and I feel like it was more ofthat vibe.
Speaker 2 (31:46):
That or I'm not a human being.
Speaker 1 (31:49):
Yeah, that, or I'm not a human being.
If you would have put it to oneof those Volume 2 or whatever,
I would have been like okay,this makes sense.
But for Carter being the Carter, one, two, three, four, five,
now six, and you had everybodyhyped for this and I'm a huge
Lil Wayne fan.
(32:09):
You know what I'm saying.
Yeah, from Block, it's Hot toBack that Ass Up, to Squad Up,
like all the mixtape Wayne,dedication 3, dedication 2,
dedication.
I'm still a Wayne fan.
Speaker 2 (32:26):
Yeah, of course.
Speaker 1 (32:27):
But that album.
Speaker 2 (32:29):
We know Wayne's one of the GOATs.
That doesn't mean he's immuneto putting on a bad album.
Speaker 1 (32:34):
Yeah, he's not immune .
But I think to me for himwaiting so long, you think that
tarnished, not, he's not immune.
But I think to me, like for himwaiting so long, you think that
tarnished, like not tarnishedit, but you think it harmed his
release, not who he is.
Do you just think like it, likehim taking too long, messed up
the album, I think.
Speaker 2 (32:52):
More specifically.
I don't know about the generalconsensus.
For me it was like he wasreally upset about not getting
the Super Bowl.
So I was thinking, okay, maybethis is going to put something
in him to really give ussomething special.
So he was bad about the SuperBowl.
He was crashing out over that.
Then he announced the Carter 6.
So now I'm thinking this isabout how crazy it's going to be
(33:12):
.
Insane album Might be some ofhis best music.
In years he's been killing thefeatures.
He always killed the features.
Speaker 1 (33:18):
The features is easy for him, yeah.
Speaker 2 (33:20):
So then Carter Six comes out and is like there were
like a handful of songs I likedbut a lot of.
What I just don't like about itis just how redundant it all
feels, yeah, like nothing feelsnew, yeah, it's like we already
to me like it's not like we'reexpecting Wayne to be the
deepest artist ever, but at thesame time he never really
switched up his subject matterat all.
Speaker 1 (33:41):
No.
Speaker 2 (33:41):
He doesn't switch up the subject matter, he doesn't
comment a lot on stuff that'sgoing on in real time.
So to me it just felt like whywould I want to listen to the
Cardi 6 when I can listen toSharper the Weight and it's a
better?
Speaker 1 (33:53):
version of what he's doing right now.
And on top of that, this iswhen I'd be like man, like what
am I doing wrong as a producer,to where I can get into these
rooms and create albums withthese artists, because that's my
goal, like I know, that's yourgoal too.
Like you know, you want tocreate albums.
Me now is like more, I justwant to do sync licensing, I
(34:14):
just want to focus on synclicensing and try to still like
work with artists here and there.
But it's like what, what am Idoing wrong?
Because, like, I go and listento a sample off of um splice
that I took and then I hear iton the actual song.
Somebody, like a known artist,is on that same type of sample.
They just, you know, made it,bumped it up five semitones or
(34:36):
whatever, and I'm like, okay,I'm in the ballpark.
If he got it and I'm using it,I'm in the right ballpark, yeah.
But then it's like I hear thatand it's like man, what are we?
What are we?
Speaker 2 (34:47):
doing.
I've gone to that.
That same type of emotion as afeelings to like there was on
one of juice rose possum hisalbums, like he had a sample on
there to that like gotten itfrom Splice and used it a long
time ago.
I heard the exact same sampleon one of his albums.
I was like You're in a ballpark.
Speaker 1 (35:05):
When you're doing stuff like that, that means your
sound, your ear, is in the samerealm.
That needs to be placed onradio.
So we just got to connect thatdot because we're so close,
we're all like, it's like rightthere it's like right there, man
, and it's like what do I gottado?
What or what am I doing, notdoing to get to this point b and
(35:29):
I'm point a is right here, yeah, and it's just one little
intersection in between what Ihave to do to cross, like you
know.
Speaker 2 (35:36):
I saying I'm still trying to figure that out in
real time too.
My main focus has never beentrying to get in the same room
as bigger artists.
I've always even just growingup, I've always loved just the
independent scene, but at thesame time it would be cool just
to even if it was just a creditor just something just to build
up my reputation.
Speaker 1 (35:54):
Yeah, just building a resume.
Yeah, building a resume yeah, Idon't mind working with art.
No-name artists.
No-name artists to me listen,yeah, you know, I mean they
listen more, but you also gotthem.
No-name artists that just thinkthey they think that they're.
They think they're up there, butthey have, like you know, like
two listeners on spotify yeah,and they're not there and you're
trying to tell them like, lookman, this I'm trying to kind of
show you.
Hey, this is how you can getbetter.
(36:15):
This is this.
But you know, to each his ownpeople gotta they just gotta
bump their head, you know so.
But yeah, man, it's like man,we right there, like I be
hearing.
I hear a lot of beats that Iuse, like from splice or
whatever.
Like you know, I mean any otherum sound pack I use, or
something.
I'm like yo, I, yo, I know that808.
(36:39):
Yep, I like the way he did that.
I know that sound.
You know what I mean.
Or I know that's from myatmosphere.
Yeah, I know that flute, youknow what I mean, I know.
But to me, man, I think wegoing to get there, man.
(36:59):
But on another note, we well,you always said that you are the
unashamed Christ Father.
How long have you been?
You know what I mean, in havingGod in your life?
Speaker 2 (37:11):
I'd say honestly, for most of my life I grew up in
the church.
My parents always had me inchurch when I was younger and
then, more more specifically, Igot more into my faith around
like middle school, like maybe12 or 13, however old I was in
like seventh grade, um, so I wasreally heavily involved in my
youth group.
Then I remember there was aretreat that I that, uh, that I
(37:32):
went on where, like, they wereasking like what was?
They were asking like if I likewhat's the one thing you
haven't fully surrendered overto God, and I was trying to
figure that out for myself.
And that's when I figured out,that's when I first really
wanted to start doing music, butI didn't.
It was more for selfish purposesat that point.
So then at that point I waslike, okay, I told God that I'm
(37:52):
going to give everything to him,including the music.
And then that just put me onthe path of just like wanting to
use it to serve people.
Yeah, you know, just like so,and everything I'm doing in life
, whether it's like music orjust stuff completely not
related to it, I want to be ofservice to people.
But yeah, like there wasn'treally like a like I don't have
like a crazy story for like howI got into faith or anything
(38:14):
Like it really was, just like Iwas put in the church as a kid.
Speaker 1 (38:19):
Born and raised in it .
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (38:20):
Then, as I got older, of course, like I started just
using my mind to criticallythink and then, like I was still
even just like researchingother stuff and researching
other ways that people view theworld, like Christianity and
Jesus makes the most sense to me.
He feels real, I feel like I'veexperienced him.
So that's what I roll with,that's always what I'm going to
be rolling with.
Speaker 1 (38:43):
Since I've known you, it's always been what's up?
El Marquis, the Unashamed PriceFollower, you say it so fast.
And I remember I asked, I saidwhat you say, you the what the
Unashamed Christ follower?
Yeah, and I think to me, man,that's super, super cool, super
dope, that you put it in a waythat kids can understand it and
(39:04):
adults can understand it.
So it's like hey, I'm notshying away from what I do.
I do music.
There's nothing wrong withmusic.
You know what I mean.
But I'm just letting you know,hey, I'm a, I'm a real christ
follower.
I follow god.
Like you know, I mean jesuschrist.
So, um, with that man, have youever had any pushback from
anybody, like knocking you forfor being like into church?
Speaker 2 (39:29):
um, no, no, no one.
People like in school justbeing stupid, yeah, not.
Like I've never run into aproblem with an artist saying
like, oh, you're a Christian,okay, well, I can't work with
you, right.
Or you know, on the other sideof things, we're like I put this
like a Christian artist like,oh, you also work with secular
artists, okay, I can't work withyou.
Like, never like that.
It's more were like well, youcan't combine Christianity and
(39:57):
rap.
Just being stupid.
Other than that, unlike theactual business side of things,
it's never been an issue Now.
Speaker 1 (40:00):
look at Christian rap and how big it is.
It's crazy, right they're doingtheir festivals.
Speaker 2 (40:05):
now the actual music itself is the best it's ever
been.
Speaker 1 (40:09):
Yeah, 1k Few Fire.
Speaker 2 (40:11):
Yeah, I got a record with him actually Really.
Yeah, it's out.
I didn't directly work with him.
He featured on the record butyeah, I got a record with him on
it.
That's dope yeah.
Speaker 1 (40:19):
That's super dope, huge moment.
Yeah, that's what I'm saying,man.
It's like you look at it now.
It's like they have we havewell, everybody it.
You know what I mean?
That just don't want to rapabout secular things, they want
to rap about Christian thingsand they make it sound so good,
(40:41):
like if it was just regular.
You know secular music, butit's so dope that you can
actually hear it and it's likethe evolution of it, the
evolution of Christian rap towhere it was and where it is now
.
I think that's huge for notonly the community, it's just
huge to show people.
(41:02):
Hey, you don't always have tolisten to the secular side, you
can listen to this side and thebeat's the same, if not better,
if not better.
I done heard some fire.
I'm like and shout out toMarcus Allen If not better, if
not better, right, yeah, becauseI done heard some fire.
You know what I mean.
I'm like and shout out toMarcus Allen too.
So, marcus Allen, me and him,we had well, he did my intro for
(41:26):
my podcast, relationships WorthMore Than Money, which we own
right now, by the way.
But yes, like me and him, wealways work and I've always been
in his corner Because me.
I look at it as the reason why Iasked you that question about
have you had anybody talk bad ortry to shame you for what
(41:47):
you're doing?
Because he had an issue.
I thought it was lame.
Don't matter what you got goingon in your life, if that man
want to go follow God.
I thought it was lame.
Like don't matter what you gotgoing on in your life, you know
what I'm saying.
Like if that man want to gofollow God, let that man go
follow God.
Right, you know what I'm saying.
He has to figure out his ownway.
He's an adult.
You know what I mean.
He's a man.
Speaker 2 (42:05):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (42:12):
And I respected him for that and I told him I
followed God.
I got baptized last year.
You know what I'm saying?
Yes, I appreciate it.
And my thing was to me it waslike man, I was doing everything
on my own for so long, yeah,and my cousin was like yo, why
you getting baptized?
I'm like dog, I just been doingthings on my own and I'm not
(42:34):
getting.
I'm starting to get insanitynow.
You know what I mean.
I'm not getting.
I'm starting to get insanitynow.
I'm doing the same things overand over again and getting the
same results.
So let me go talk to the manupstairs because I know he's
been with me.
That was my thing.
That's why my cousin asked.
He said, cuz he always beenwith you?
Look where you are now?
I said, yeah, but he's beenwith me on the outside.
He's never been with me rightnext to me and me knowing
(42:55):
exactly who he is like.
You know what I mean, Right,and what he can do for me.
So I always made sure, man, likeeven when I was in Iraq, I
prayed.
You know what I mean.
But I still didn't have thatfull relationship with him.
So when I, you know, gotbaptized you know what I mean.
I got more into church andtrying to, you know, volunteer,
do things.
Like I've been volunteercoaching for the last three,
(43:17):
four years you know what I'msaying, right, and it's been a
blessing, like because it's likeI found my purpose through
coaching.
Because I always used to askGod like what is my purpose?
Like you know, I got twodaughters.
Like what is my purpose?
Like this music stuff is goingto always be here, but what is
my actual?
Speaker 2 (43:36):
purpose.
What's the real reason that he?
Speaker 1 (43:38):
has us here.
Yeah, why am I here?
What's my purpose?
It's to educate man, educatethese girls, Educate anybody.
Serve anybody I'm serving.
I'm serving these girls as theycope, serving artists that I
work with as their producer, astheir engineer, whatever they
need me to be.
I'm serving people for content,like they want content for
(44:01):
podcasting.
I'm telling my truth.
You know what I mean and I'mbeing straight up with people.
You know what I mean and that'swhen I figured it out and it
got better, it gets better.
You know what I mean.
It's getting better, it'sgetting better.
But, yeah, that's why I asked.
And Marcus Allen man, seeinghim and seeing the growth that
he has with you know him beingmarried and you know sticking to
(44:23):
the path, man, the right path,staying the course.
Staying the course.
Speaker 2 (44:29):
Yeah, and when I do say it too, like I'm not perfect
.
You know, if anyone's around melong enough, you know they'll
see me stumble and fall likeevery other human does.
But, like I always say, becausegod's my, god's my foundation,
at the end of the day, I andalways, I always try to be up
service to people.
You know, like some people, theywant to produce and they only
want to.
They only want to want for themoney, or they wanted to look
cool or want to make them lookcool.
(44:50):
Right for me is like yeah, Imean, of course, obviously I
need income in order to do it,but I want to make sure that I'm
actually like serving people,making the artist's vision come
to life, making sure that,making sure that their sound is
being presented the best waypossible, making sure I'm doing
it in a timely manner, because Ithink that's also a way to just
show you know, be of service.
(45:11):
You know, like I'm notnecessarily beating people over
the head with Christianity.
I'm not necessarily beatingpeople over the head with
Christianity.
I'm not necessarily evenexclusively working with
faith-based artists, butwhenever I'm in the studio, like
that's still what I'm on, I'mstill going to be me and
authentically me, and you knowthat's how it is.
Speaker 1 (45:25):
You do what you do.
I'm going to do what I doExactly.
You know what I mean, unless Ifeel ain't the area I need to be
in.
Yeah, let me remove myself.
And that's how people.
Yeah, like you say, man, peoplejust take, like you know what I
mean.
It's, it's nothing wrong to bea Christian.
You know what I mean and Idon't knock you for whatever you
got going on.
I ain't judging you.
Your thing, brother, sister,like, do your thing, I ain't
(45:55):
going to push.
I'm not going to push it, likeI don't push it on the girls,
but I always like for me beingin sports all my life.
Coach Coker, rest in peace.
We always did the Lord's Prayer.
You know what I'm saying and Igave it to week.
You memorized it.
(46:16):
I'm like okay, but I'm notgoing to push it on him.
You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 2 (46:21):
It's good to encourage rather than push.
Right right Because at the endof the day, it is supposed to be
a relationship.
Yeah it's a relationship whensome people are born into it.
For some people I can tell it'sforced or maybe they don't
really believe it.
But when you really believe itfor yourself and when you have
an authentic relationship,that's a lot stronger than just
having the head knowledge of oh,I'm not supposed to do X, y, z,
(46:45):
it's one thing, just to.
It's not like that's not thepurpose of Christianity.
The purpose of it is to have arelationship with God, not just
to follow X amount of rules.
Obviously there are things thatwe are and are not supposed to
do, but at the same time it'snot like this.
Christianity in the Bible isn'tlike a rule book of hey, just
don't do this, don't do that.
It's hey, I don't want you todo this because I know more than
(47:07):
you do and I don't want to seeyou hurt.
And hey, you know more than Ido.
I'm going to trust you Prettymuch that's what it is.
Speaker 1 (47:18):
Like I said, people will love it, will not
understand it.
But again, I'm not going tojudge, we not?
Speaker 2 (47:27):
going to judge.
You know what?
Speaker 1 (47:28):
I'm saying we not going to judge man, but I
appreciate that you are who youare.
You always been you.
You ain't never changed man,never.
I appreciate that you are whoyou are, you've always been you.
You ain't never changed man,never.
You always happy, you alwayswilling to help something, you
always willing to collabwhatever.
You know what I'm saying.
I hit you.
I said yo, man, I need you onthe pod.
You was like man, let me know.
Speaker 2 (47:50):
Whatever, I'm here just getting day and time we was
at JoJo's party.
Speaker 1 (47:53):
He was I'm here just to get a day in time.
We was at JoJo party.
He was like let me know,whatever, I'm here, and that's
how you know what I mean.
I get it.
Everybody can't be like you,but if everybody was like you in
this world, man, this would bea better place.
Man.
I'm telling you, man, becauseit's it's the energy, the
positive energy that you bring,man, I've never seen you on a
bad day, ever, ever.
(48:14):
You know what I'm saying.
It is great, man, when I seeyou and I'm like yo, what's up,
yo, what's up.
You're like what's up, what'sup, what's up.
Speaker 2 (48:22):
But, um, life is short.
I want to like.
I mean, I'll have days when I'mdown here and there, because
I'm human, but I always just try.
I always want to be the bestversion of myself, whether it's
on a personal level, whetherit's with fitness, whether it's
with music, like whatever it is.
I just want to do the best thatI can, you know, because, like,
(48:43):
if I find out like tomorrow ismy last day, then like, I still
want to like.
You know, I want to go out withmy legacy being like you know
what he tried to be the best ateverything that he put his mind
to.
So, whether it's serving people,whether it's doing the music,
whatever it is, you know, alwaystrying to be the best.
Speaker 1 (49:00):
The best version of myself, and that's the thing,
man.
But before we get out of here,we got this thing I call gym
class G-E-M, not G-Y-M Gyms Gymswe always want to teach, right,
right, you want to give theserelatives of mine a gem or two
of what you feel like, you know,like that you keep in your
(49:21):
toolbox that you want to give tothe people, to the masses.
What's some gems that you cangive to the people?
Speaker 2 (49:29):
Always being of service to people.
In terms of like, a lot ofpeople can live for themselves,
live just to serve themselves,but like to like an emptiness it
leads to like some.
Some people maybe can find somesense of fulfillment in that.
I think, deep down, likethere's, I don't think that it
works for everyone to only beself-serving and trying and only
(49:50):
trying to live for yourself.
So, um, if you can findsomething where there's a skill
or a passion and you can use itto help someone else out,
whether it's like it could besomething small, it could be
something where, like like musicfor example, you don't need it,
you don't like need it, justlike survive, but it's still a
good way to for people toexpress themselves or even just
have a sense of escape in ahealthy way you
(50:11):
know like, or some people.
They fight in the military andobviously they're protecting
their you know their family'slives, their country's lives,
you know, like that's obviouslytwo completely different scales,
but they're serving people.
You know what I mean.
Doing that, serving others, butalso just knowing not how to,
(50:32):
also knowing not to be takenadvantage of.
Because on the other end ofthat too, like you, there is a
level where and I've experiencedit too where, like you, can be
too nice and then people willjust take advantage of you or
walk over your things like that.
Like there's obviously there'sa fine line between the two.
But just once you're able todefine that, I think that's
where, like you, get into like agood happy spot of like, of
(50:52):
having fulfillment and also justhaving a really strong self, uh
, sense of purpose.
Speaker 1 (50:57):
Okay all right, that's good man.
Them are two.
Two good ones, man, havinghaving be able to serve and
being be able to serve and notbe taking advantage yeah, that's
a.
Speaker 2 (51:08):
That's a big one that I've had to learn the hard way
several times.
But yeah, just being being ableto learn that but then still
having the heart to be able toserve people, like that's.
It's not it wasn't always easyto get there, but, you know,
once I did like that's where Ijust like I really felt like I
locked in.
Speaker 1 (51:23):
Yeah and I feel you on that, man, because sometimes
you're absolutely right likepeople will try to take
advantage, yeah, purpose onpurpose, like not not just like
by mistake, purposely, purposely, they will try.
I just tell people that's whatI tell them.
Hey, I need mines up front.
Yep, I don't need.
Nah, you can't get me afterthis and after that.
(51:46):
Nope, 50% up front Always.
Always and when the sessionstarts, I need the rest.
Always, I need the other 50.
At all times.
Speaker 2 (51:54):
There's always something that's going to come
up.
Oh my bad, my rent's due.
Oh my bad, my tire just gotflat right now.
Speaker 1 (51:59):
That has nothing to do with me.
You set up something with meand the deposit is nonrefundable
.
Speaker 2 (52:07):
Yep.
Speaker 1 (52:08):
I had to learn that the hard way when I was first
engineering.
Speaker 2 (52:10):
I learned that the hard way multiple times.
Speaker 1 (52:15):
It is.
I learned that hardly multipletimes.
It's non-refundable.
Non-refundable, dog, becauseyou got to understand.
Like I'm welcoming you into myspace and you late.
On top of that, I might haveanother session after this.
Yep, you late.
Yeah, whatever you late, we canknock out this other 30 minutes
you got left, or you canreschedule, make another time,
(52:37):
but that deposit isnonrefundable.
You're going to have toredeposit something.
You know what I mean.
You're going to put anotherdeposit down.
Speaker 2 (52:45):
That's how other businesses operate outside of
music.
So like why can't we do thesame?
Speaker 1 (52:48):
Yeah, Because you know what I'm saying.
Like you don't show, no call,no show.
You fired.
You know what I'm saying nocall, no show.
Oh, you on my list.
Speaker 2 (52:59):
Like this is obviously like this is fun and
stuff like that.
But you know, but you stillhave to treat it seriously.
Yeah, you got to.
You're on people's time.
You're using their electricity,everything, their equipment.
Speaker 1 (53:08):
Their equipment, their knowledge.
Speaker 2 (53:10):
Yeah, yeah, you know what I mean.
They're late nights figuringout how to record, how to EQ or
how to play whatever man what?
Speaker 1 (53:25):
That's why I tell people like, look, man, if I
give you a discount, don't tryto go get another discount If I
give you a discount, but youknow yesterday's price ain't
today's price, amen to that.
You know what I mean, amen tothat.
I always tell people that man,we can't, we can't, but L?
L.
I appreciate you, man, forcoming.
Thank you for having me Torelationships worth more than
money.
This is L Marquis, theunashamed Christ follower, the
(53:46):
producer, the engineer man, theservant himself, and I'm Tweezy
man Like that.
We gone Peace.
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