80 Empire

In this episode we talk to 80 Empire that consist of the Rezza Brothers, Adrian (Sir Analog) and Lucas (Sir Digital). 80 Empire are multi platinum, Universal published, Juno nominated, singers, songwriters, producers, and artists who thrive on their versatile and diverse love of music and music making. The Rezza Brothers own and run their own label called Gladiator records. They are both married, fathers, and live in Niagara on the Lakes, in Canada.

We chat about their newest album "legacy", their Italian heritage, working together as siblings, their creative process, their hobbies, parenting and what is means to be unapologetically hip hop.

You can find them here:
www.gladiatorent.com/80-empire
www.instagram.com/80empire
www.facebook.com/80Empire/ 
https://youtu.be/Bqd2RItEB4U
Spotify
Apple Music 
 

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Episode Transcript

Unknown (00:00):
The world right now is just with the political unrest
with the corona, it's like we'reliving in like a movie, man. The
zombies are coming next guys.
No, no, it's aliens. The aliensdisappointed us, I thought for
sure December 31. But they letus down, they let us down.
Welcome to Souls of Hip Hop, apodcast for hip hop heads that

(00:22):
aims to bring inspiring peopletogether to share their wisdom,
passion and unique stories.
My name is Candy, and I'm DJRazor Cut. And together we are
Soulidarity, connecting soulsorganically.

(00:47):
What's up, fam? Thanks fortuning in.
I'm Bert and Ernie. And we liveon Sesame Street.
He's the rubber ducky.
No, just kidding. I'm AdrianRezza, the older and better
looking brother and hairierbrother. I don't know about
that, though. I'm Lucas, theyounger brother. I think the
probably the smarter one or two.
But we were 80 Empire andGladiator records.

(01:11):
How would your parents describewhat you do?
Our parents are kind of one ofthe biggest inspirations for us
to do music. They always as kidspushed us positively to do
music, not where became like,I'm the keyboard like I'm the
producer, physical producer. Soall the gear back here keyboards
and stuff, all the productionstuff that you see, it's all
physically me doing it. Adrian'sthe lyric guy, the writer, the

(01:33):
singer, and he might notphysically play something, but
he can hear something in hishead and go, can you try this?
You know, and do something likethat. So they always pushed us
to pursue our passion. But to berealistic about it, you know, to
know when we're not good enoughyet, like you got it. You know,
you're good guys. But you got tokeep you got to keep hustling.
But I think got to keep workingat it. I think that also say

(01:54):
that though, what we're doing isdirect correlation to how they
brought us up because theyexposed us to music and culture
from a very early age. So Ithink they would say, well, it's
no, it's no mystery that ourkids are doing this. We're not
because we showed them hip hopand James Brown and brought them
to concerts. It makes sense thatthis is the the lane they

(02:16):
decided to sneak in and drive.
And speaking of James Brown andyour dope shirt, one of our
first concerts are a funkconference was our parents took
us to see James Brown. I musthave been in grade. You know, I
must have been where I knewexactly who I was. No, no, no,
we were a little early. We wentto a lot more concerts before
that. But I was in the 11thgrade. You were in the ninth
grade? Because I was 13 Yeah,because I had a an English exam

(02:37):
The next day, but my parents arelike, if it was math, you're
stupid. But they didn't saystupid. I'm saying that. They're
like math. You're so so English.
You're good. bullshitter. So wecould go to the concert, you
could still get an A in theEnglish exam and do all right.
Yeah, it was a Sunday concertwith Toronto. And one of the the
interviews that we were readingin preparation, you said, the

(03:00):
hip hop you're putting out justfeels right to you that you've
always been unapologetically hiphop. What does that mean to you
what is unapologetically hiphop, I'll use the example of our
publishing deal. You know, whenyou get a publishing deal, we
have one with universal. Andmany times, they'll set you up
in a group in a room withwriters or someone comes from
LA, Hey, man, so and so's intown, they're gonna come to your

(03:22):
studio. And my brother and I arechameleons we could fit in, but
in a way we didn't fit in.
Because we're unapologeticallyhip hop, like, it's very
difficult for us to go. Okay,guys, we're feeling Britney
Spears. And we're feeling youknow, in the chorus.
And, of course, Taylor Swift.
And now we want you to do this.
And now you want and obviously,you know, so we're

(03:45):
unapologetically hip hop. Andthat's why we've gone back to
our roots. Like, I think eventhe way we raise our children is
his hip hop, like, it'sattitude, but it's empathy. And
it's authentic. I think mybrother and I really are
authentic, what you see is whatyou get, the way we're speaking
to you guys is the way we speakto people that we've known for
four years of people we've justmet, you know, within 5 - 10

(04:06):
minutes, this is who we are. Andwe never fit into those molds
when you see a pop song and notto knock it because there's some
great songs out there. But whenyou see certain songs, and
there's like 12 writers on asong that maybe has 14 words in
the whole song, you know, youkind of go what was really going
on in that session. How is thatyou know, it's fast food and we
want to be fast and how wecontinue to put out music to

(04:28):
hopefully inspire people to makepeople feel when they feel sad
or good or strong or they wantto punch somebody out with you
know, a song that we put out. Wewant to create that authenticity
that in our music and that'swhere I think it's unapologetic.
Whether you like us or not, thisis this is us. We're not faking
the funk. We're not putting somesheep's clothing or some you
know, smoke and mirrors and wenever tried to be what we're not

(04:49):
like, No, we work on music witha lot of people. And Lucas and I
never like to front. You know,we never bullshit where we're
from. Yeah, we never say we'refrom the streets. Now. We know a
lot of streets characters. We'veknown a lot of street characters
for a long time. When you domusic, it's inevitable. But we
never say like, I'm not, youknow, you might use a metaphor
or analogy, but we always liketo also use like, when you look

(05:12):
at Martin Scorsese, you know,he's directs a lot of mafia
movies. He's not mafioso, he'sItalian. He understands it,
because that's one very smallaspect, especially of North
American Italian culture, thatpeople you know, they think,
hey, Oh, forget about it. I'mfrom New York, Frankie, you
know, so we're doing the samething with our music. Like,
we've always understood streetculture, known dudes from the

(05:32):
street. We never once likerappers sad or say we're from a
gang or say that, because that'dbe bullshit. If someone jumps on
a record and speaks about that.
We're not going to stop themfrom spitting their truth on a
verse on one of our tunes.
I definitely feel that in yourmusic, you can sense the passion
behind the music. That'ssomething that I really
appreciated when I was listeningto your music

(05:53):
Thank you, I appreciate that.
And that's the thing. We want tocreate that feeling have people
express their emotions, and likeyou said, I think music never
died. But I think it wenthidden. You know, the media
wanted to push that narrative onmusic, and it's happened, you
know, for decades, and Okay,we're getting sick of this
gangster rap stuff from the westcoast, the NWA is in the let's
start pushing this real pop rappush that shit to the side. So

(06:14):
it's always happening. But Ithink it's changing and where
How can you not have a voice towhat's going on in the world
right now. And you could haveclub tracks and fun tracks. You
also gotta have some shit thatout some purpose, have some
meaning. And like, black men?
Yeah.
Black man is a record on thealbum. And that wasn't planned
for the album. But, you know,listen, the killing of innocent

(06:37):
black males in the United Stateswas horrendous. Again, when
Corona hit, everybody was forcedto pay attention because no
one's at work. So we were justlike enough's enough. It's sad
to say four people were killedon like the storming of Capitol
Hill. But so it just shows youthe white privilege is really
well and alive. So again, whenwe did to kill a black man,

(06:57):
we're like, Listen, we have tosay something. And I think it's
important for white voices, eventhough we're Mediterranean. And
we identify with hip hopculture. And when we identify
with many different cultures, atthe end of the day, if people
have to put you in a Venndiagram, they're gonna put us in
the white category. And so wefelt it's really our job to just
sit back and be lovers of hiphop and benefit off the culture

(07:21):
and just sit on the sidelinesand not say shit, that would
have been extremelyirresponsible. But at the same
time, we wouldn't have call someof our homeys from the state and
have experience are of color whoare black, Latino, who really
experienced shit from the copsand racism and systemic racism.
So I did my verse, I did thecourse got some of our homies to
jump on, but we're like, I thinkit's really important. Now

(07:41):
people should be responsible.
Not everyone's gonna bepolitical, but have a little bit
of a little bit of a message.
And that's where, again, back toyour question about unapologetic
what it means right there. It'slike we're unapologetic. That's
how we feel we're pro choice.
We're pro whatever culturewhatever you you decide to how
you live your life where theyear you identify as he or she
or non binary. You judge peopleon their character, not on what

(08:02):
they choose and how they chooseto live their life. And if
people don't like the way wefeel, you know what I mean? It's
that's the unapologetic side ofhip hop. Because hip hop has
always been Yo, this is what I'mspitting if you don't like it,
fuck you. We've lost friends andpeople off sweet media,
especially with the killer blindbang actually gained the loss.
losing them was a game. Yeah.
Because the people that I kindof knew were bigots. The

(08:24):
wonderful click of unfollow man.
It's been a great cathartic kindof going.
That felt good. And I didn'thave to say anything. So
anyways, I think hip hop hasalways been political, I think,
yeah, that's artists, thatthere's always that border of
whether that's going to hurtyour artistry, as creatives and

(08:45):
as producers and as artists, youdecided to create a track to
express what you feel intosupport. Is this always been
sort of your vibe, where do youget that from? I think we get it
from our parents. Growing up inToronto. We grew up in a suburb
of Toronto, like 20-30 minutesaway from downtown Toronto, and
a predominantly Italianneighborhood. But my parents,

(09:05):
although they're born in Italy,my dad came to Canada with 16
mom came and she was a couple ofmonths old. My parents always
grew up just a little bit moredifferent than the rest of the
relatives. They grew up reallyappreciating black music and
culture. So when they had us,they brought us to concerts.
They were Toronto has got a bigCaribbean festival called
caribana. We were probably theonly Italian kids that went and

(09:28):
so our parents just, like raisedus to be empathetic and to not
judge people. But ourgrandparents were the same way
especially my mom said there wasnever talk of color. You know,
again, my wife's haveTrinidadian like my wife, for
lack of a better description. Mywife is a visible minority. And
my parents never once said, Howcan you for lack of a better
description, dating a mixed girlthey love my wife, man, I've

(09:50):
been married. It's gonna be 18years guys this summer. And my
parents love my wife. They lovemy brother's wife. And it was
never like you're dating anAsian girl. You're dating a
mixed girl. LikeNah like they love the people
who we chose to make our lifewhen you look at when you look
at the similarities of culture Imean, it's so similar people
like to divide all the time withthis shit. It's, you go to
Italian house first thing yourmother asked you what have you

(10:11):
eaten? Are you going to eat?
You're going to eat any Europeanfamily who's going to tell you
that you can eat you can eat.
You go to a Chinese house, mybeautiful mother in law. She
doesn't say hi. First. It'slike, gee, you can eat in a tiny
house dropping pasta, Chinesehouse or having rice. I mean,
it's the same shit. It's carbs.
And that's what it comes downto. It's carbs. That's all it

(10:33):
matters. You see.
Talking about your Italianheritage. What is your favorite
Italian dish and who of the twoof you is the better cook?
I'm the better cook. I'm thebetter I haven't cooked in a
while but you know, I used tocook it wasn't that it was 1987
and they didn't last now. I'mthe better cook mind you our
wives do 99.9999999% of thecooking. I do make a wicked

(10:55):
homemade fixer cine which hasbeen approved by a few Italian
chefs IE my dad my mom, if theyapprove it, then you know you're
straight. I think I really likepasta carbonara. But I've had it
here at restaurants in NorthAmerica. It's not the same. And
you have that in Italy, becauseit's not all the preservatives.
So I envy you guys living inEurope. I love Europe. That's a

(11:16):
place where I'm basically sayingif you have an extra room, he's
coming and I'm coming once COVIDis over. My dream is to go
across Europe with a van andjust go and buy vintage and
antique things. That's what Iwant to do. What kind of vintage
and antique things you know, Ilike a little bit of everything
like I like a lot of tins to goback to the gladiator like at
Empire it's eight zero Empireobviously Empire. There's the

(11:37):
whole again Roman mythology,Roman history. In our in our
blood, we have Roman blood, ourmom's my mom's from Rome, but
the eight like we spell it atbecause we grew up in the 80s in
the 90s. So eight zero, but it'sreally also a D. You know, like
for historical. So I'm analog.
I'm more than analog character.
I love history. Lucas, the D,the digital guy, because he's

(11:59):
working all the equipment. Justto add to that. An example was a
few days ago, Adrian had to do azoom. And he called me in the
morning it's like was eight inthe morning. It's all working.
They live literally like a twominute drive. So I literally
walked in and went click Okay,you're good. And I literally
laughed like I was in my pajamasand shit. It depicts our name
from 80 Empire to a tee. Youknow what I love about antiques

(12:21):
and stuff rather than like thewhole digital world. And again,
I I collect a little bit ofeverything like I love old
signs. I love busts, like Ilove. I've always loved heads,
like even in art school, likedrawing heads and necks and
things I love about antiques.
And I even tell my kids this isthat, you know, it's not so much
about the object, but it's aboutthe memory in Rome, there's
Partha Cortez, one of the oldestflea markets going there and

(12:45):
some of the things that I boughtfrom Puerto fortezza. I remember
like the day hanging out with myolder cousin. Now with what's
going on in the world. I'm like,man, I hope I can have that
experience Him with him again. Icall it a pinball machine. It's
really a game of chance from the1930s Lucky Strike. It's a
pinball machine. I bought thatwhen my daughter was my oldest
was two. Well, no, my daughter's14. So I've had it for 12 years.

(13:07):
But again, my daughter and Isharing that experience that
because she was cutie patootieshe's two years old. He gave it
to us for a cheaper price. Andso we'll always have that
experience. So it's memories.
It's memories, it more so thanthe object itself. Instead of
going to those little shops andbuying souvenirs that are like

(13:28):
whatever you're going to antiqueshops and flea markets and
antiques. And now those are yoursouvenirs, remember? Yeah, it's
already memories in it right?
Because somebody else hadmemories with them. Why I always
bust his chops because my wifeand I are big horror bands that
love horror films. And I'm like,you know, you're gonna buy one
of those antiques one day,that's some evil spirits gonna
come home. My wife we alwaysjoke because when we watch these
movies like that with the youknow, the house Stetson, we're

(13:50):
like, our movie would beliterally five minutes long.
Like that's our movie be like,honey, we got a new house. I
just heard something. Okay,let's get the fuck out. credits.
There's like four names,credits.
I'll speak on this because mybrother hates horror films. My
son is seven. So I loveHalloween. So I have like all
the masks like Michael Meyer,like all the different maps this

(14:13):
year, you look at my personalInstagram. Every year. We do
like a couple of like Halloweenvideos. So this year, I was
penny wise. And our kids playedthe role of two kids looking out
our back window and I'm doingthe whole way with with the
balloon and all that shit. ChildServices are coming. Yeah. You
know, many, many years ago, youknow, My son was getting really,

(14:34):
really scared of the masks. AndI said, Look, it's only adults
fear. Kids don't have thesefears. We put it into them to be
afraid of this shit. So I wouldliterally take the mask off,
show my face, put it back on.
And I take his hand and go feelit like it's not real. It's just
a mask. It's not scary. He lovesit now, so his kids don't care
too much. But I think it's true.

(14:56):
It's a different dichotomy, likeyeah, a male with a male like a
son and a father.
There's a girl yeah, we'recompetitive with each other but
my oldest daughter is like lovesports, love soccer and wasn't
able to play this year and sheplays against boys like some kid
in her inner school one saidsomething to her like oh, we're

(15:16):
gonna beat you this weekend shegoes out she said something like
he'll Shut your mouth and hegoes all your dad church at the
silence She goes, at least mydad watches the game your mom
sits and flirts with all thewith all the father. I said you

say that she goes (15:28):
I did that's that hip hop battle
mentalityto bring it back on focus she's
unapologetically hip hopso we've been talking about the
legacy album which just came outJanuary 1 thanks to Adrian and
Lucas providing us thepermission we're gonna listen

(15:52):
into the title song of the albumlegacy which features Conway the
machine and ballistic menCan you tell us about the time

(18:58):
that you were nominated for aJuno Award?
Like couple years ago, we werenominated for the equivalent of
a Grammy and Canada's called thejunos. So it's the Canadian
version. And we were nominatedfor a project that we executive
produced and produced, I thinknine out of the 15 tracks that
were there. There's this littletown and one of the provinces

(19:19):
called Saskatoon, it's like youdon't go to Saskatoon on a train
or not on your bucket list of 10on your bucket list, right? And
we were like, Hey, you know, wewere nominated as executive
producers for the whole project.
You know, maybe we go cuz it'sthe junos. It's, so we started
looking at prices for like,literally two nights in some
flights. It was like 3500 bucks.
We said, Are you out of yourmind? For what? And we weren't,

(19:40):
we didn't wait anyway, so wedodged that bullet.
One thing I like about Europetoo, is that there's so many
practitioners of the culture ofhip hop here. That's kind of one
thing I'm bummed about COVIDright now is I was really
looking forward to getting toknow the community and getting
toknow like even us, I mean that
you know howSee the silver lining was we
were able to put out legacy andconnect with people just because

(20:03):
everybody's glued to theirdevices right now. But the con
was you know, we were supposedto do a video for dedicated BG
knockout easy's protege we'regoing out of content and do what
we're supposed to do a videowith Bishop Lamont for fitted
and get actual footage out therebecause Laz, who's a doctor on
the front lines, who's also anMC is in Vegas, so we could have

(20:24):
gotten Vegas, and then we wouldhave went to Carson, California
crooked I shout out to crooked ICLB. We were going to shoot take
it back and we have some otherstuff that we're working on with
crooked AI. So being able to getin the studio physically is far
better than the texts, the DMS,then phone call isn't. So a feed
off of people energy. And so,you know, this whole year, you

(20:47):
know, we haven't had thatexperience of being face to face
with people because there'snothing like that human contact.
You know, when you guys worktogether, can you give me a
little picture of like what isneeded to create? We come from
again, like you said, like youguys are performers. You're
You're a B girl raiser, you're aDJ. So you guys have had that
experience with an audience withthe crowd. And a lot of the new

(21:10):
new generation don't have thatexperience. It's all like fruity
loops and on their phone on anapp. So we come from that. So
even though we don't have thatexperience of being out because
of what's going on in theuniverse right now. We still
come from that. Okay, you haveto make shit up on the spot.
Yeah, I was gonna use the wordimprov you guys are from whether
you're dancing, you're DJing noteverything is planned. You know,

(21:31):
you're you're DJing and all of asudden you see something like,
Okay, I gotta flip these songsand get into this house music
now or, or switch back to theyou know, how would you guys
know? So with us, it's that'show we do I love the pressure.
Like, I'll give you an example.
We're working on our secondproject was swifty. So we put
out our first project back inJuly and swifty was in D 12. d

(21:54):
Yeah. So if you McVeighlegendary Detroit legend from D
12. And we're working on oursecond project together. And he
called me up and he went, yo,loop man and I need like a kind
of an up tempo, fucking rapbattle song like, like something
that I could just, you know,rather than edit the debt of the
better, you know, and he goes,I'm just hearing like a
baseline. And did you knowprayers are hopeless? My prayers

(22:16):
are hopeless. And I went, I knowexactly what you want. I hear it
in my head. So Adrian wasactually driving in Toronto. He
was coming back from something.
And I called my brother and Isaid, This is what he's looking
for. And he was like, well, youdon't give me that. You know,
that kind of baseline that notto toot my own horn. Oh, no.
I knew what he wanted. In a halfan hour. I sent him over a PT

(22:39):
go. Yo, he goes that shiftsfast. Okay, I'm gonna listen to
it. He called me back fiveminutes anyway, like, You nailed
exactly what I wanted. We feedoff like, I don't need to. I
don't need to go to the beach toget inspired to do a tropical
song. If somebody goes, Yo, Iwant like an afro house beat.
Alright, let's thinking of them.
Austin. Yeah, speaking ofBoston, you guys know slain, you
know, big Boston guy. He posteda quote from Stephen King,

(23:03):
saying that I don't need to getinspired to work on the music.
Like, obviously, we're inspiredwere artists. But for us also,
it's that Gladiator mentality,like, shit, sometimes we all
wake up and work with what'sgoing on in the world. It's
bloody depressing. But we'relike, yo, we could just gotta
get I mean, the moment I come upwith a concept, or Lucas shows a
feat. If there's a little bit ofthat like Pablo Picasso blue

(23:25):
period, feeling down, we knockout of it's like, boom, the
booth is right there, that whitedoor. So I'll just like, Yo, I'm
not even gonna write this shit.
Just go in there. I'm gonnastart singing shedder thing, and
then we'll chop it up, or I'llgo back and refine it. Or
sometimes it's good enough thatwe'll keep it and it's like,
okay, yo, maybe this one littlenote, I'm off key because I

(23:47):
didn't know where I was gonnago. Let me just go and sing that
little thing. But that's how weattack it. And that's how we've
been attacking legacy. Likereally with the whole album. We
really wanted to bring that oldschool human touch to it where
you feel the sincerity. Wereally wanted to put the right
chess pieces, the chess piecesbeing the MCs, you said like a&r

(24:07):
at like really an art, like anold school album, like, you
know, and again, you guys weretalking about Switzerland and in
Europe in general, they'repurveyors of hip hop culture.
That's why we call on some ofour Italian homies. Like the
record with JD kiss. We gotcheckout on there and while Lino
while llenos was from like alegendary crew called poo tribe,
and then they morphed into thebody jungle brothers, where my

(24:29):
brother and I've done a bunch ofshit for the body jungle
brothers. I was at the studiotwo summers ago and hung out
with them and was in the videosof in Italy in southern Italy.
purulia you know, maksimalNanos, another dude, we have
another record, preys on Molly'sanother young young dude, we
have on another record so youknow, like with the next project
shit like we might like razorman have you do some cuts or

(24:51):
something like, and I thinkthat's what hip hop is. Its
community and a lot of peopleforget that. I always say this a
lot and a lot when people askme, hip hop unfortunate
Really is the only genre ofmusic that shits on the the
originators yo G's, not all ofthem right? Because you have
like the Kendrick Kendrick isnot even 21 anymore he's not 25
he's in his 30s a lot of thoseguys like that that are maybe

(25:14):
newer or and Kendricks beenaround for a minute. You know
the newer guys like the little Idon't know, I won't say little
Visser little that. But when youhave a little bit at the
beginning of your name and yourtrap artists, a lot of them shit
on the pioneers. You never getthat in rock. If a young rock
group could do a song withMetallica, it'd be like if
you're a Robert Plant from LedZeppelin, yeah, you know or

(25:34):
anything like that. If you're areggae taught artist and you get
to work with a Daddy Yankee. Andsome of the ones that have been
around for condado and you know,some of these
you're like, going Fuck, I'mworking with royalty. Whether
it's hip hop, little pump isgoing off at m&m lately. Yeah,
like saying mmm is old. Are you?
Are you kidding me? Yeah, sowhat so Eminem is 50 years old.
So you're telling me that youcan't continue to be an artist

(25:57):
past a certain age, but MickJagger can be pushing at still
struggling as shit on stage likean O g. That's the one thing I
hate about hip hop is that thisyoung generation shit on that
and listen, you wouldn't bedoing this shit and doing it
satisfactory. If I'd be honestwith you doing it. We don't
mediocrity. We almost have tochange the term old school to
just classic. Yeah, it's classicmaterial. It's not old school.

(26:20):
It's just classic because well,school kind of insinuates, man.
You an old head man. You Oh,dog. It's very old school.
Because aging, you're a picker.
It's vintage.
Vintage. Oh my gosh, our teamcame to us and they're like
parents. Do you guys have anyvintage clothes that I can

(26:40):
borrow? I was like by vintage.
What do you mean the clothes wewear every day? Yeah.
Go ahead. Check it out. Listen,I had a small fortune that I got
rid of foolishly we both did.
Like you know when your Tim'sgot scuffed up and you got rid
of them what a mistake what Imissed. I had rocker wear
jackets and shit like when youcould go to Marshalls TJ Maxx
you like oh, that guy Rocco wearjacket for only $85.

(27:05):
And you go to school, I got therocket ship, white up dance. It
sure like that singing Annie uppunching people.
That's the cool thing with hiphop in the universe. I mean, not
that song. But like a big songfor us in early 2000 2001,
whatever, was never scared thatRussia oh four. And that was

(27:26):
four or five. That was such abig big tune. And then we become
good friends of bonecrusher. Wehave songs with him. Like he's
not on the legacy project. Butwe've done music with him over
the years. He's got an album,he's coming back out with stuff.
We've got one of the mainsingles, and then we got a
record with him. CeeLo Green andmusic soulchild we're praying

(27:47):
comes out this year, too. Butit's just again, like, you know,
you listen to someone, and youbecome friends with them. That's
like, the beauty of doing music.
Yeah. And again, silver liningto COVID. Like we've connected
with people that maybe wouldn'thave been been able to connect
with before because they're noton tour. They're not so busy.
You know, they're at home going.
Alright, I might as well checkmy DMs. Oh, who's that? And
we're at home or twos? Yeah. Sowhen all of a sudden they're

(28:09):
checking DMs, and they're like,and they get a million DMs, but
when you hit them with like,Hey, man, we'd love to connect
and do some work. And they'relike, Oh, shit, you know,
they've worked with people, theyhave a track record themselves.
All right, let's do some work.
That's been cool. And, like Isaid, putting it into existence.
We put out an album back inMarch with a friend of ours from
Buffalo. The same day, a rappercalled graph from New York
dropped his album. And I'm like,man, I'd love to do some join

(28:32):
for graph because graph is superdope with his flows and shit.
New Year's Day graph is like,Yo, I got my verse, I just sent
it to you. So you throw it intoexistence man, like john Connor
loved them from his SOS stuff.
And then you know, obviously onthe content soundtrack that he
was on, John's on the firstsingle outside of legacy that's

(28:53):
coming out in February will bejohn Connor, you gotta wish it
man, we I think we failed morethan we've succeeded. But it's
those failures that have allowedus to continue and we try to
tell younger artists, whetherthey're working with us under
Gladiator or just as features oryou know, one off projects,
you've got to be consistentdon't bitch a year later that
you haven't made it yet. Andyou've only been working on this

(29:13):
for a few years now. We've beendoing this a long time. Even the
biggest of artists when youthink it's overnight success,
it's not now you don't see theall the roads and the battles
and stuff. You gotta hustle yourown shit because nobody's gonna
hustle as much as you are foryour own shit. You know,
unapologetically of hip hop. Youtouched on the legacy album you
really as an artist and pickedout the artists you wanted to

(29:38):
collaborate with and have onthere and you have such a
impressive and long list ofpeople you know, from Conway
from grizelda over Jadakiss youhave Crooked I, Masta Ace, Fred
the godson and so many more. Canyou tell us a bit what your
thought process was when youwere mapping out your vision for
the album? I think with us againLike, we're like

(30:00):
unapologetically hip hop, wewere like, We want to get the
elite. Like when we have thislegacy in mind, we're like, who
are people that are eitheralready have carved out
legacies, or who are alreadywell on their way to that upper
echelon. And it's not even anelitist thing, because we've got
just a wide variety of differentpeople, you know, but we're

(30:20):
like, Yo, man, we just want toget people who are me mean,
lyrically bars. Because, youknow, again, we're all about
bars and beats, but because I'ma singer, as well, we have that
melody. And then a lot of catslike guys like Conway, they
don't have a lot of melody inthe record, like the Derringer
production, and that stuff of alot of like, the grizelda stuff.
It's not. So we're like, it'skind of cool to take people who

(30:43):
we respect, we know the worldthey come from, but they might
not necessarily be in thatmelodic world that we also
understand, growing up with allthe r&b and the funk in the soul
of the James Brown that ourparents exposed us to. So we're
like, wouldn't it be cool, ifyou're getting like, we are on
borrowed time, but then you'relike, Yo, I do this shift for my
legacy, like Conway jumping in.

(31:05):
So we're like, yo, if we cannail these different worlds
together, and it took a littlebit to get started, but once we
started getting people to buyin, and we just like a domino
effect, and we're like, Yo, man,this is beautiful, you know, and
it's unfortunate for Fred withwith Fred, I'll let you speak on
that real briefly. Uh, Fred.
Fred was a sad one because I wehad connected with Fred in the

(31:26):
summer prior. So not this pastCOVID summer but when the world
was alright, and he heard fit init was like, Yo, I love this
record. I want to jump on it. Sowe kind of stayed in contact
here and there and back inMarch. I said, you know a friend
we want to put this this recordout now fit in just a little
quick backstory, because we'relike, Lucas was like, right now
the world's kind of strugglingto fit in to fit in, in this new

(31:49):
world. unraveled in front of uslike that, like, we're walking
around, hanging out at clubs,cafes, discos, three weeks
later, we're, you know, we'reall messed up like this. And
it's just like, yo, we're tryingto fit in now. Yeah. So we
started talking. And then he waslike, yo, you know what, let's
put this out. And then let's do,Fred, the godson at Empire EP,
joint project together. So wewere like, We were talking, we

(32:12):
were texting back and forth. AndI remember this, my last text
was on a Friday, like, Hey, yougot everything. We're good to
go, Yo, I'm ready to go. Nextweek. I'm going to start. And
then Monday, he put a picture upof him with a ventilator,
saying, you know, I got hit withthis COVID. And then two and a
half weeks later, he passesaway. Yeah, and and, you know,
my brother and I, again, beingwe're not cloud chaser, not
cloud chaser, contacted hismanager, and I contacted his

(32:34):
wife. And I said, we still wantto put this out. I was speaking
with Fred. But I don't want tobe one of these import tastes
like now that he's dead. Oh,everybody's gonna put up their
verse with Fred to God's Son, Isaid, I don't want to be that
person. And whether we make $5or $500 or $5,000, I want all
the money that from that song togo to your family, to go to the
Fred the godson Foundation, orpersonally to your family,

(32:57):
because, you know, being afather, all of us here being
parents, Fred leaves behind twodaughters. And in my kids age
group, like I think they were,you know, 10 in eight. I can't
imagine, you know, you losingyour parent at 38 years old, and
Fred was 38. And it's awful, youknow, so we've actually
connected really close with hisbrother. Ross, shout out to

(33:20):
Russ. And I think you know, atsome point we're going to make
that that EP still with Fredbrothers like Fred's got a lot
of acapellas that need you know,at Empire to be out in the world
to be out in the world and hegoes, I want to for Fred's
legacy, because Fred's coming upwith a with an album this year.
That was this was Fred's here2020 with Fred's year to to kind

(33:40):
of take it further godson isyour favorite rappers favorite
rapper? That's who Fred wasalways respected by Fat Joe and
all these guys that is super suNAS, Nas everybody knows but now
like he was bubbling and workingon some things, but you know,
it's it's Yeah, it'sunfortunately like, the only
predictable thing in life isunpredictable. So yeah, but

(34:01):
raise as you were saying, youknow, who would think to get
Fred and then get Bishop Lamontfrom Carson California and then
get a rapper from Italy and thenget this very folk, you know,
singer from our neighborhood tojump on a tour you know, with
Adrian on the hook, and then getDr. Lies and we got last last
had a verse already. He hadn'trecorded yet and then Fred had

(34:23):
passed and COVID hit and Lazaruslike I have to change my verse
because I'm also doctor in inAsia doctor in Las Vegas at like
in the emergency room. Yes, Labsis actually Dr. Khan in real
life. And so it just kind of hetalking about COVID in that
record, and even some of thewords that Fred is saying is
kind of like purely Fred andfitting goes a thank God that

(34:44):
I'm here now and all of mymetaphors yaka here now I really
blended in but it's just like,when we heard that he passed
away, we're like, you'll fuckman. It's like you almost he's
now like in the heavens withGod. Looking down and my legacy.
My musics gonna be heard, like,by the masses, and I'm not being
arrogant and sing our song, justhis whole catalogue. You know,

(35:04):
we're a very small speck of sandin Fred's discography you know
what I mean? But it's just whenyou hear that it like, to be
honest, man, we got choked up,like, already loved what he did,
but then him passing and hearingwhat he wrote was like, Man,
it's like, it gives you shivers,you know, legacy gave us goosies
I appreciate the comments likethat make it feel like what

(35:26):
we're doing has a purpose, youknow, whether two people or
$2,000 for the art and less yet,we all want it, you know, we all
post statistics and things onInstagram or an Instagram
stories, because it's a way ofpushing the brand forward, in
order to keep the lights on, youknow, when other companies
whether it's a larger recordcompany or distribution company,
whether it's a branding company,you need to do that to keep this

(35:49):
machine going. But at the end ofthe day, we're real artists, and
really, the legacy of the musicis our children seeing that look
at our fathers never quit,whether they're, we're making a
million dollars, or 10 cents offof this shit. And that's what we
put our kids on family love.
It's like, the legacy is,whatever you do in life, not

(36:11):
every success can be measured inmonetary success. To me, success
is in the execution. You guysare doing a podcast, it's
successful. Because you executeit. You're taking time out of
your day to meet with two bumsfrom Canada and do a podcast
wait the one one bum bum No. Butthere's I'm joking. But their

(36:32):
success that to me, success isexecuting something that was an
idea or something written on apaper and you're doing it you
guys as a as a unit, as asignificant other said, yo, we
love the culture. Let's do apodcast, you're doing it. And
you know whether 10 millionpeople bazillion people are
listening, or whether 5000people are listening, whether

(36:53):
it's 5000 or 5 million. It's asuccess. Because you took an
idea when a lot of people say YoI could do that I could do a pot
and then you could do a podcastsmartass go and do it you can
make an album smart ass go doit. You could be a graphic
designers and artists do it. Allthe talkers that say they can do
it. They're the trolls who sitbehind their keyboard and do
nothing. So to me success is inthe execution regardless of the

(37:16):
monetary I've always said Icould do a six pack but that's
the one thing I can never put alegacy on is a
saying that I would finally getdown to my Marvel Italians man
when you go to Italy ways theItalians in Europe are often
Luke and I go there we look likewhen we want. We're like Oh
shit, like they're looking at uslike, oh god, there's Italian

(37:36):
Canadians. They call us how manygone? No, but Okay, here's a
funny story. So I was actually alot heavier. I was 40 pounds
heavier. And I last put a fewpounds back because like
everybody because of COVID. Butwhen we went to Italy with our
like a family trip with ourfolk, this was seven years ago,
we were both at our heaviest.
And we roll into Italy and youknow in Europe is fine. But in

(37:56):
Italy, the men are thinner thanthe women. And that's saying a
lot because women are thin andage and I'm like holy shit. Like
I think WWF probably thinks twobeached whales landed on the
shores. And they're gonna throwus back in the water. Like if we
went to the ocean, that'd bethat'd be fucking Greenpeace but
even even by going I literally Iwas like, holy crap like you and
me are the fattest know, when wewent giants in this shitshow

(38:19):
years ago, we sawmany moons ago, our manager with
Chris wave, we were signed atone point to Chris Smith
management he managed NellyFurtado still does. He has
Alicia Carra. And we signed adeal with universal and Hammond
that Interscope was going to beinvolved and we were going to
sing in Italian yada yada. Andnever we sat around for three,
four years, which happens with alot of people.

(38:44):
But you grow from thatexperience. But we went to
Milano to do a showcase for thepresident of universal Italy and
they loved it. They're justlike, you know some of the
colloquialisms same with yourazor like you know if you grew
up in Switzerland, some of thecolloquialisms are off. When we
go to Milano, and again, Lukeand I were the biggest dudes, in
Milano, and I remember our nonNah, no, not grandmother and
Italian. She's like, oh God, butyou're going into to a trip or

(39:07):
you're gonna suffer. You're notgoing to eat. We're like none.
No, we're going to thebirthplace of the motherland.
We're going to your motherland,man. We're going to Italy, but
we were the fattest dudes inMilano, literally, like I
remember like walking off theairport with
Timberlands, walking on thestreet. People are moving on the
other side of the street. Likewho are these two like?
We looked we looked like we'regonna wrong.

(39:31):
Everybody's in their Ardilessweaters. Alora andiamo.
Bella, everybody wearing likerolled up khakis and shit. Like
the guys were with fucking Tim'slike we say going back to ante
up. We're doing this shit like,took us to a Corp I think it was
called club Hollywood, inMilano. And that was like when
Leanback came out. Nobody knewhow to dance. like everyone's
dancing like this. Like, andthen my brother and I, like,

(39:55):
lean back. like everyone'slooking at us like
Who are these guys?
Unfortunately, you can see theirdance moves on the podcast. But
instead we're going to bring youanother song called cusano from
their legacy albumYou guys are dancers?

(42:38):
I mean, I did win back in, backin hold on, back in grade six, I
won the Best breakdancecompetition of my town. Hey,
we've got rid of it. You know, Imean, you're not gonna you're
not gonna want us on your team.
Like we can't we can't dance. Wecan dance but we're not dancers.
No, we're not like, there's arapper from Canada called

(42:58):
Maestro fresh woods. And he waslike, Canada's version of Big
Daddy Kane rockin I gotta find asample was the Godfather. And he
came to like one of our parentshad a cottage years ago. And we
went and our cousin was hangingout with us. And we're doing a
lot of music with my stroke. Andour cousin thought it was so
cool because like in elementaryschool, Maestro was the man. Now
we're here in our 20s whatever.

(43:22):
Third what however old we were,and we're chilling with my soul,
but still rockin CDs in the carback then my brother puts that
on. And we would end up my shoesin the front with my brother, my
cousin, I are like this. And Ijust remembered this beach
community. It's like NorthernOntario. It's like, wherever
like going north and Boston tolike more of the beach. Like
kind of cottagey place. And likeLuke and I and Maestro, my

(43:44):
cousin is like, Yo, this is socool. We're listening to any up
with the Canadian godfather ofhip hop. And like we're scaring
the shit out of people becausewe're all like this driving up
and down the strip. Likeyou know,
another another sample? Writedown if you haven't heard it.
Have you heard of Herb Albert?
is famous. Yeah, musician. Yeah,but it doesn't track the track

(44:08):
rises where Biggie gotvictorious. I remember playing
it for a young artist we wereworking with. Obviously, they
knew Biggie Smalls and thehypnotize record. And I played
this one that could they go, Oh,it's kind of sounds like and I'm
like, wait, you get into likethree minutes or so. And then
all of a sudden that johnbut that going back to hip hop,

(44:31):
there was an art to samplingthere was a creative geniusness
of you know, even Kanye his oldstuff before he went nuts
marrying a Kardashian. Now,which I think they're over or
something's going on in thatworld. Who knows? But there was
an art to taking a sample and reand breathing new life to it.

(44:52):
You know, where you know, andI'm not going to be that older
statesman that shits on becauseit's
dope new production from some ofthese young guys, but when
people are celebrating, you knowmediocrity when it's like, it's
literally just throwing in aneight await some 64 notes. And

(45:13):
they pop in like, oh, okay, Ipopped in the key I the chords
for me. Like learn, fuckinglearn how to play the piano,
learn how to play. I'm notsaying you got to be the next
Herbie Hancock, you know what Imean, but like learn your craft
like a DJ like, I spin, but I'mlike, when we do our parties, I
can really mix records becauseI'm used to mixing stuff as the

(45:35):
producer asked me to scratchForget it. I'm not gonna try I
do a little bit. But it's likethe old school shit when you're
first learning. I don't attemptto. But if you want to be that,
learn it, like fucking learn howto do it. Learn how to do it. So
if they take your laptop away,and your program, you could sit
there with a guitar keyboard,well, you know what I can

(45:55):
recreate? I can play this shit.
I can play a version of it. As aproducer, you got to be like
that, like, because when theworld changes again, and trap
music is not cool anymore, whicheventually it'll, it's already
it's already drilled more thanYeah, it's already morphing
again, what do you got? You gotto be able to, to reinvent

(46:15):
yourself and, and move like, Ilove scores. Like, where he has
like to teach. I love scoreslike in the car, I probably
listen to more music scoremusic, you know, like the guy
who does the Mandalorian he isabsolutely incredible. He has
taken what we all know as StarWars as john Williams score,
taken it and completely removedjohn Williams out of the

(46:36):
equation. And you don't watch itgoing. I missed that classic.
Yeah. And when when, you know,spoiler alert when Luke came
around with the seat, you know,and he threw in that little john
Williams, he did it in his way.
And it was fucking brilliant. SoI like I listen to that. And
that goes into our productionwith Adrian's choruses being

(46:56):
like big and like heavy stringsin different parts into these
choruses, like you're gonna hearwith our, our new swifty album
where the verse is straight,straight, dirty, grungy hip hop.
But then the chorus goes into awhole other world where Adrian's
able to really showcase youknow, swift he said, or he goes,

(47:17):
I'm a battle rapper, man.
Everything I always wrapped thebonus battle, but you and your
brother really been able to getmy story out and you know, when
you're in a group of 12, you'reprobably not able to fully get
your personal story out and allthe shit that swift has gone
through, you know, in hischildhood and growing up in
Detroit. So it's it's an honorto be working with him and
helping to tell the story. Theguy who scored his name is

(47:38):
Ludwig Brinson. I wasn't sure ifyou if he was Swedish or
Switzerland wasn'ttalking about the Mandalorian,
you score TV shows, right?
Yeah, yeah, we did. We coproduced and co wrote the theme
song for The Real Housewives ofMiami. So we did that. We did

(47:58):
some music. Thandie Newton wasin a show called rogue on
DirecTV. So we did actuallyfunny enough they needed like
James Brown for this Russianmafia scene. So we did some
music for that there's aCanadian TV show called Kim's
corner store about Korean familyowns a convenience store. We did
music for that short films.
We've scored short films like,you know the show on top boy.
It's about like drug culture inEast London, like drug dealers

(48:22):
and stuff. So there's a guyshowing Romulus on the show, he
plays dreads. He did a shortshort film called three roads.
And it's actually on AmazonPrime in the UK. About half an
hour. We did all of the music.
So it's it's like mixture, r&bmusic, actually, there's no hip
hop. Funny enough. It's all r&b.
It's house music. It's somethinglike pop r&b. But we did the

(48:45):
whole thing and then funnyenough with him. Now, through
our independent label, we putout his first single called
starting. So it's so funny like,here's again a dude I want. I'm
watching top Boy, that's a thingthat I like more than Lucas. I
like a lot of the gangster showsand the drug dealer shows and
stuff like I love a lot offoreign films, like trapped is

(49:06):
it's got nothing to do withdrugs. But trapped is a show
that takes place in Iceland. Youknow, they're speaking in
Icelandic. Luke doesn't have thestomach to sit through that. I
love that shit. I love foreignfilms. The Norwegian one. Oh,
the guy from Sopranos. Steve VanZandt, right. Yeah, exactly.
Lillehammer so Lily had a reallyhammer Lillehammer? Yeah, that

(49:26):
was so good. I liked all of thatstuff. Because in many ways, I
think I'm a bit of a we're bothgregarious, but out of the two
loops, probably a little bitmore social. He could be a
hermit.
hermit. I haven't shaved in awhile. I look like Gandalf. I
just Gandalfactually looked more like Hagrid
from Harry Potter. Thanks a lot.

(49:48):
Hello, good. I mean, I'm surebeing siblings knowing each
other your entire lives. Howdoes that translate to like the
business aspect? How do you guysmanage to continue to work with
each otherYeah, what? So we have a great
partner will Manziel Nova MusicGroup management but he's in his
full family family. His wife,Joanna, who also is with Nova
music is they run a managementfirm, and he's with us with

(50:11):
Gladiator. And he's a commonfactor. But with us being
brothers, like when somethinggoes wrong, we know we can't
tell everybody to go fuck off.
So we can tell each otherbecause at least we can kind of
get it out. But a lot of times,you know, like, Adrian is a
hawk. Something's wrong online.
If there's a dot that's missing,if there's a number that's not

(50:32):
there, if it's missing a featureon Spotify forgot to put
somebody named three differentpositions at different time. And
what pisses me off Lucas, hetexted me or WhatsApp me the
other morning. I looked at himlike Fuck, I'm gonna look at it
what I really wake up. And hewas like, alarmed about
something. I'm like blue. It'slike a minor thing, man, we'll
just change this or not. Butthen something else that I

(50:52):
overreacted, but he might belike, you'll just chill. So
that's why it's like good copand bad. We can tell each other
to eff off. And oftentimes, whenwe fight, the result is
something better than weinitially that then we
apologize, we, we hug. We takeour rubber ducky, we take a nice
hot bath, and then we chill backfantasies you got.

(51:17):
But I think that's a part oflike a it's a part of being an
artist. And it's in our culturehaving Italian Latin blood.
There's passion there, likeeverything we do. And that's why
Italians and hip hop go well,together. You taught we talk
with our hands like look, wespeak loud, like ever, not even
mad. And sometimes, like mydaughter's like, it's so loud.
I'm like, okay, yelling all thetime. Because it's just like

(51:39):
every question you've given uswere yelling it and every
question his response with thelong versions of the Lord of the
Rings trilogy. I love it. I lovegetting to know you guys. I feel
like white versus vice versa.
Man. Listen, when the world andI mean this sincerely, man,
because, again, we love people.
And that's what I hate aboutCOVID I hate the fact that we
can't go out and do this tosomeone and do this to someone.

(52:01):
And we also had a lot of filmprojects on the goal that we
just being an independentcompany. We don't have the money
of a Netflix or an HBO. Youknow, we don't want to go film
something and then someone gotsick, or possibly died with
COVID under our watch, you know,in the hip hop community in the
arts community going man COVIDcrazy, man. Yeah, it's nuts. And
then in the same breath,Instagram, there's like eight

(52:23):
guys in the studio, or sharingone bottle of any
or all smoking one. That's theone join you're going guys. And
then the one thing that COVIDtwice. You know what it is?
We're all parents, right? All ofus. We've got a lot more to lose
than people who don't. And thenthere are people who have kids
and just don't give a shit. Butit's just like, you know, we're

(52:43):
trying to hold shit together,man. So we can go to Europe
again. Like we're dying to go toEurope again, man for the music
for family of people don'trealize that even if you don't
have kids, if you have parents,that's the thing like Oh, Mom
and Dad, you want to come overfor a cup of coffee or Hey, I
brought you your mail. Threedays later. Oh, mom's not
feeling good. Why? Because yourstupid ass couldn't just stay

(53:06):
the fuck home. Talking aboutbeing fathers. You know, you're
both fathers, your husbands? Howdo you balance the grind and the
hustle of making music with yourfamily lives? I think because
we've made them part of theprocess. So they know the good,
the bad, and the ugly. You know,we'll keep some things from
them. But like they they kind ofsee and it's like, we don't want

(53:28):
to shelter them. Our kids know,like, I had a conversation with
me, like, you know, like, life'sunpredictable. We have to try to
adapt, but like that's why weput them on the album. And I
think we just we've had the bestrole models in our lives man not
to be corny, but our parents.
You know, our parents weremultitaskers our grandfather was
a multitasker. The mastermultitasker so we're able to
touch on would balance a lot ofthings and I think still be good

(53:51):
fathers and hopefully to ourwives be good hands. I think
also like having the studiohere. This is my house.
Obviously the studio is herebecause I you know, run all the
equipment. It's a raisedbungalow. So it's a nice like,
the kids are literally out thatdoor. There's a little TV area
where the kids often watch theirstuff like that. And so at least

(54:12):
you know, Adrian's only a minuteaway. Oftentimes, if we're
recording and it's not like alate night, he'll bring the
girls his girls over and they'llplay for hours while our wives
get to go shopping and go doingthings and hang out. When we got
our publishing deal withuniversal This was probably
like, you know, seven, eightyears ago now. You know, we got
an advance from Universal and wewe could have said Okay, you

(54:36):
know what the two of us we gotenough money to go to LA for a
year and just grind it out. Butyou know, last night was my
daughter's 11th birthday and shewas holding me with Oliver That
to me is worth more than goldthen losing these important
years for the kids might take usa little extra to get to exactly
where we feel we've we need tobe or where we do

(55:00):
We are where we deserve to be.
But I'd rather know that whatwe're building is on the we
didn't sacrifice our integrity.
That's what it is. Yeah. Icouldn't live with myself if we
don't have kids, if knowing thatif our kids thought we were
deadbeat dads and shitbags anddidn't care for them, because
our whole thing is family, youknow what I mean? Like, the
other day, my daughter washaving difficulty in math, and

(55:21):
she came down, and she wascrying because the all of the
kids do really well in school.
But it was so fast, you know, inthis remote learning, and you're
learning about percents andinterest rates, and I grabbed
her, I'm like, Don't worry, I'mgonna help you do it. And I did
her work. I showed her. I'mlike, I'll do it with you.
Because some other person mightsay, Oh, you got to do it on
yourself. But like, how can Ijust my baby's crying like even
today? I gave her a kiss on thecheek. I'm like, Bella, don't

(55:44):
worry. Her name is Julia. Butyou know, Italians you call your
daughter's Bella. I'm like,Bella, like, Don't worry, they
will get through it. And liketoday, she was like that I did
it. We did the math. Family forus is everything. And that's why
like, even on the legacy album,there's an interlude called
tomiko interlude. Those are ournephews rapping. That's a family
affair. Our kids are all on thefamily. But But, but if Jay Z

(56:05):
wanted to work with us, I mightsay kids, you're just gonna have
to, you're just gonna have towait. The funny thing about this
too, is like because ourdaughters see all this, you
know, and now like it's reallykicked in, especially guys like
Conway because the gazelle doesthe talk around town right now.
So we have another record withBenny the butcher on another
album that came out March weproduced it's called Welcome to

(56:26):
the 716 and so it's reallykicked in for our kids now. But
like my oldest daughter wasstill like, if I'm on my phone,
I'm like that she's like, Daddy,who you texting Snoop Dogg. And
then but then two years ago, weopened up for Snoop in a town
called Suburbans at a hockeyarena. It was like capacities
5000 people the whole friggintown it's a mining town in

(56:47):
northern Ontario the wholefriggin town chemo so I again my
daughter joking around but she'slike, oh my god Daddy, like like
I'm joking with you but you cioto an Italian like you know
Spanish deal, you know, to cioopen up. It was funny cuz I went
to my daughter's school thatweek when we got back from the
concert, and she was tellingkids in her class to my dad

(57:09):
opened up Snoop Dogg, and theteachers like whose real life
live rant like real straight, heopened up for who? And then this
kid in her class, he looked atme like, but as his dad opened
up for Snoop Doggto die, he was in grade three at
the time. That's the sad thing.
Like the guy who put on thetour, shout out to Robbie G.

(57:31):
We've done music with him overthe years, we've got a bunch
more music coming out. Thisyear. He does a lot of these
tours. We did a song with him.
It was him and his managerscompany. So they're like, Yo,
man, I'm opening up for Snoop.
Do you guys want to come in toour records together? And so
we're like, yo, hell yeah, man.
So it's sad for like, again, thesmaller promotional companies
because they're not rock nationor Live Nation that they've got

(57:52):
money in the pot like these guysare just like the independence
or the independence or like alot of free live musicians are
suffering and other people thatbread and butter is to perform.
You know, whether you're a coverband, whether you're DJing every
you know, Thursday, FridaySaturdays and they're the ones
that I'm I feel for right nowbecause there's no curbside
pickup when you're a musician.

(58:13):
It's tough it's tough right nowyou know? Yeah. And then you get
social media companies that aretrying to shut people down like
Facebook and shit. You're notgetting you know paid for but at
least you can spin for an hourand put some smiles on people's
faces and shit. Or you get adistro kid and Spotify last week
they ripped down 750,000 songssaying that it was illegal

(58:35):
downloads and stuff. Yeah,distro kid is, if you don't know
what it is, it's gonna uploadyou know, independently and for
whatever reason, Spotify deleted750,000 people's Albums Singles,
for no reason. Spotify has ashare in distro kid. Yeah, and
Spotify is actually saying itwas distro kid. So there's all
this thing, but imagine you putyour blood sweat and tears at a
project. And they're sending youa bullshit email. Like it's fake

(58:57):
streaming, you're like, no, Iworked for those 20,000 streams
or I worked through those100,000 streams or a million
streams or 10 fucking streams.
They just pulled it down. It'slike you're scratching your
head, right? It's like trying tokick the little people down,
right? But then Justin Biebercan go Hey, guys, keep streaming
my song 24 hours and using VPN.

(59:18):
So that was it. Because youknow, you go on Twitter and
you're looking at some of thedocumentation or people or
resharing emails that districtkid would send them and that was
one of the things Please tellyour friends not to replay
songs. How are you going to tellsomeone nuts? There's times when
I love that song. Like I loveJames Brown pay the cost to beat
a boss. Oh, Luke that shit.

(59:38):
But a lot of people were likenow you're gonna rip down. James
Brown paid a cost to be the bosson Spotify because I listened to
it 400 times in a day and a lotof art. Yeah, a lot of a lot of
faith. A lot of fans playpeople's music constantly. All
day the same song they love it.
Actually, teenagers. Exactly.
All day long for my toddler shethat's her jam. Banana foam and
Rafi. He's got some bars though.

(01:00:00):
Yo, yo, no listen not eventhough
he's got a new song came out acouple years ago. It's called
tweet me right? Oh yeah, he'sCanadian, actually but he was
born in Egypt but like tweet meright it's got and it's got an
Egyptian kind of be tweet meright Really? Yeah and he's like
what's lol OMG tweet me right?
Luna Noda me? I thought that wasa silk song tweet me baby. Oh

(01:00:24):
yeah, I wanted to beat you upand down I you know what I was
always happy that my kids neverlike Baby Shark thank the
fucking LordI got to hear that Baby Shark
shit one more time but Rafi youknow man his melodies like even
though it's kids music themelodies like Thanks a lot.
Thanks Susan Nananana nee Yay.

(01:00:50):
The melodies are justincredible, even though it's
like children's music, a melodyis a good melody. What advice
would you give your teenageself? I think right off the bat,
I'd say just to you, man, don'tworry about what other people
think. Because at the end of theday, you've got to live with
yourself, do you, you'll getthere eventually, like everyone
is supposed to get to wherethey're supposed to get to when

(01:01:11):
they're meant to get there.
Don't stress out about therejust to you. And for me, stay
focused, stay focused. And ifyou have a hunch on on doing
that particular thing like thatgenre or that stick to that
stick to what you like your gut,your gut is always is always
right. Now that I have brothers,what would you tell your
brother's younger self? to Luke?
I would say Shut the fuck up.
No, no, no, I would say listen,your production is great. You

(01:01:34):
know what I mean? And don'tworry about what other people
say, Man, just, yaknow, I'm smiling.
Yeah, like your productionsdope. I would say the same thing
you're singing. I think we kindof have the same thing. Like,

(01:01:55):
again, going back to some of theNo, you would say don't make fun
of my weight. Because as I'vegotten older, I'm the fatter one
now. So he'd say, you betterwatch it because karma is a
bitch. It's a glandular problem.
No, I think he's right. I thinknot the weight thing. I think
he's right to like, you know, asyou grow like Adrian, I doubt
yourself when you're young thatyou doubt yourself. And we've

(01:02:16):
had people tell us that I hadone guy and I will I will not
name his name because he's awaste of space. But he told me
that I'd never be able to makehip hop beats and, and and told
Adrian one girl who's neversigned an important act in her
entire recording career, as ana&r said that you shouldn't try
to sound like Prince because whyare you so long? You use so many

(01:02:38):
words in your shit catchy words,it ate us up as teenagers,
right? Of course, cuz you'reyounger. Now that we're older, I
just say fuck yourself, like, yaknow, and those people are still
doing the same shit. Some peopleare just out there to spread
negative energy. People justwant Listen, life is a jungle.
And there's animals in thejungle, they want to be the
predator they want to be thealpha female or male. They feel

(01:02:59):
threatened by you. By puttingsomeone down verbally, sometimes
it's even worse than a physicalyou know, just like with with a
relationship, you know,sometimes you might not even
strike someone but your words,you know, we I grew up with a
girl in in elementary schoolman, like people were really
mean to her. And she ended upwriting a book about a
postpartum depression. But likeI didn't even realize to the

(01:03:20):
degree that much on how I mean,some of the girls we grew up
with how mean they really workedor so it just like I think two
kids like just stay the courseand gives a shit about other
people. I tell my kids that domen, do you enjoy the
friendship? I don't want my kidsto grow up cynical and to be
suspicious and to be that oldschool Italian like, yo, watch

(01:03:40):
that person, like have a chip onyour shoulder, but like don't
depend on people because that'sanother thing. We've depended on
people our whole career brandname managers, big record
companies, smaller companies.
We're doing more at a later timein our career independent
because independently, we'redepending on us and our partner
will our Swasey east fromSwaziland, South Africa. We call
them our art Swasey Italianbrother, like the three of us

(01:04:03):
are, and with his beautifulwife, Joanna, we're
accomplishing more than three,four of us. And like other
people will do a thing herethere for us. But all in all,
it's like us doing almost 90% ofeverything, from the business
side to everything, coming upwith concepts for videos,
editing shit, shout out to therebe monsters who does a lot of
our artwork, but like we do,we're starting to do a lot of

(01:04:24):
our things to our own thingsbecause again, with with the
world, you can't get out andmaneuver as much. We're just
trying to learn as many skillsas we can, I think with the
world is so we've lost touch ofhumanity. Like technology's
great because look, we wouldhave never been able to reach
out to each other unless we grewup in Boston or Florida or

(01:04:45):
Germany or Switzerland orToronto, whatever. But look,
there's this link. So when theworld does, like you guys have
friends now Niagara on the lake,and in Toronto, I know that we
have friends in Switzerland. Soand that's the beauty about
music.
And art, like artists, we haveto stick together man. And
that's the thing we love aboutmusic. We love knowing we can go

(01:05:05):
to body in Italy, we got homeysseparate from our, like our
blood family, we got homeys tokick it with, we can go to
Atlanta, we got homeless, we cango to the Bronx, we got homeys
we can go to California. Andthat's the beauty about this,
you know, hip hop family, rightof getting no people. So it's
like, I'm looking forward towhen the world opens up, and we
go to Italy, and then we'relike, Hey, guys, we're in Italy.

(01:05:26):
Like, we're gonna step inSwitzerland for like, two days.
Are you guys free? We meet up ata cafe and we start punching.
But you know, he's a rapper.
He's Italian, but he lives inSwitzerland. Get the can yo. Oh,
yeah, no, but can you? Um, hisDJ JK was my mentor. Okay, wow,
JK taught me like all thefundamentals. And now he toured

(01:05:49):
with Kenya for a long time.
Like, Kenya does a lot of trapstuff. But like he still does
some of the old school stuff.
You know, certain goals in thenew year, like, because we work
with a lot of Italian artists,but we're like, Yo, man, we'd
like to get that that real bigItalian artist. He's a guy like
or like I like jack jakelafouda. Nc is dope. Ms. killer is
dope. veto shade could reallyrap like, but those guys are

(01:06:14):
like some older statesman, whoare still respected in the youth
like the gay Pat Daniels since asmall world man. Yeah, what is
hip hop to you? hip hop is whatwe just spoke about, man. It's
crossing barriers crossingoceans, crossing invisible
borders, in languages. It's it'scommunal, it's love. It's
empathy. It's understanding itsart, its legacy. That's legacy.

(01:06:36):
That's hip hop. I keep that yousaid it perfectly.
Thank you so much to our guests80 Empire for taking the time
and being so open with sharingyour perspective with us. Some
of the gems we took away fromthis interview were:

(01:06:56):
Creating a legacy is about whatyou add to the people's lives
you connect with and what youleave behind for the next
generation. It is the impactthat transcends our lives and
the story that will beremembered.
Being unapologetic means thatyou refuse to transform and
compromise who you are simply toconform. It's standing firm in

(01:07:18):
the knowledge that you are awork in progress with infinite
potential.
Sibling relationships arevaluable not only in childhood,
but over the course of alifetime. Some of the benefits
of working with your family orshared core values, trust and
having fun.
Our theme music was beatboxed byDenis the Menace and produced by

(01:07:40):
Zede, a big shout out to thebrothers from Switzerland. The
background music was produced byTaki Brano. A big thank you to
our broski from Providence.
Much love to our loyal listenersin Renens, Switzerland. Merc
beaucoup pour votre soutin. Our podcast basically
uns on coffee. To keep or show running, you can suppor
us by buying us a coffee througthe link in our show notes

(01:08:04):
A huge thank you to Aaron Myersor supporting us with the 2021
offee connect, you are the best.
We would love to get yourfeedback, questions and an
suggestions you might have. Yocan reach out to us o
Instagram, Twitter or Faceboo@SoulidarityLLC or via email
[e-mail] you like today's show, please

(01:08:27):
tell a friend about our podcast.

Or as Phife Dawg would say (01:08:31):
Tell your mother, your father, send a
telegram.
In our next episode we haveJamar Hopkins aka Townshipsol.
Jamar is an extraordinarydancer, visual artists, actor,
entertainer, educator and mentorfrom Oakland, California. You
represents Beatz and pieces aswell as the Floor Lords crew.

(01:08:54):
Don't forget to subscribe to theshow and leave a rating and
review. See you on our nextepisode. Thank you for listening
to our podcast. No seriouslythough. Thank you. I am Candy.
I'm DJ Razor Cut. And this isSouls of hip hop.