DJ EFN

In this episode we interview DJ EFN aka the mixtape king of Miami. EFN is also the founder and co-host of several radio shows and podcasts, such as “Drink Champs” and “Father Hoods”, as well as a filmmaker, clothing retailer, A&R, and marketing specialist of Crazy Hood Productions. EFN is married and has two children.

We chat about producing mixtapes & albums, founding the show Drink Champs with N.O.R.E., the challenges of parenting, producing the film series called Coming Home, managing the band Mayday, balancing health and entrepreneurship in the hip hop industry.

You can find EFN here: 
www.crazyhood.com 
www.drinkchamps.com 
www.instagram.com/whoscrazy 
www.instagram.com/drinkchamps 
www.instagram.com/fatherhoodspod 
www.twitter.com/djEFN
www.facebook.com/DJEFN

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Episode Transcript

Unknown (00:00):
All good. I got, if you hear, for some reason there's a
rooster that is outside rightnow you know it's Miami. It's
just cockadoodle-doing like amotherfucker right now and then
we got a storm coming throughalso, so hopefully the power
stays on.
Welcome to souls of hip hop,a podcast for hip hop heads that

(00:20):
aims to bring inspiring peopletogether to share their wisdom,
passion, and unique stories.
My name is candy.
I'm DJ Razor Cut.
And together we are Soulidarity- connecting souls organically.

(00:47):
What's up fam thanks for tuningin. On today's show, we welcome
DJ EFN.
He is known as the mixtape kingof Miami. EFN is also the
founder and co host of manyradio shows and podcasts, such
as drink champs and fatherhoods, as well as a filmmaker,
clothing retailer, A&R andmarketing specialist. EFN is

(01:09):
married and has two kids.
Welcome to show.
How would your parents describewhat you do?
Wow, no one's ever asked me aquestion. I guess you could say
both my parents, I was raised bymainly my mother, a single
parent, but my dad is stillalive. And you know, from time
to time, we might see each otheror communicate. I don't know how

(01:31):
they describe it. I guess ifthey were gonna describe it to
somebody else. They just saythat I was in the entertainment
business. And you know, and thenif they someone said, well
explain more. Maybe before Istarted doing films, they might
have just said, Oh, hip hop. Losrapperos. You know that that
stuff. But uh, when I starteddoing films, it made it easier

(01:51):
for them to say, Oh, he's like adocumentarian now, you know,
like he makes documentary films.
Can you give us a little pictureabout how Miami was during the
golden era, because many timeswith hip hop, people talk about
the golden era hip hop. And Ifeel like Miami also had
something going on at that timeas well.
Just to be fair, I think thatgolden era is all depending on

(02:13):
your age and generation, becauseI feel like every generation has
a golden era, but specific tomine. And what I consider like
the Miami golden era, or likethe era that raised me in Miami,
and inspired me, it probably belike, early 90s, like late 80s,
but like 90 to like 95. Andthere was just a lot of activity
in the Miami hip hop scene in atime where Miami, you know,

(02:37):
wasn't being looked at for hiphop, the mainstream hip hop
scene at the time, which wasn'tthat mainstream yet. But for hip
hop was basically made, youknow, out in New York, and they
kind of like look down on Miamiand on the south. So Miami had
like a little bit of an identitycrisis, where a lot of people
Miami rep New York, they eventried to emulate being from New
York a lot. But there was a lotof people, including my crew and

(03:00):
myself, that we're starting, butthey were they're really before
us that were starting torepresent Miami. And one of the
things that I was looking for asa young hip hop head was, you
know, just like everything, allthe elements I wanted to, for
people to be lyrical, but likerepresent Miami for people to be
turntablists and kill it andrepresent Miami for people to be
it'll be boys and representMiami and be girls graffiti

(03:21):
artists and represent Miami butbe like the top, you know, like
I wanted us to kill it and gothat much harder. Because Miami,
people didn't really looktowards us for hip hop. And in
that era, I feel like we werebreaking that shell. And we were
doing that. And we had dopeartists like mother's superior
that people used at that timecalled her the female NAS. And
she was like one of the first atthat time to get a major record

(03:43):
deal. We had world renowned Bboys and B girls. We had DJ
Craze, I'm saying Omer and thenjust you know, the list goes on
and, and I just feel like thatera was just special. Because
also at that time to be a hiphop head wasn't just like a term
you just threw out there. Like,I always tell people and I don't
know if people get me when I saythis, but in school to be a hip

(04:05):
hop, it was almost to be a gothkid. There was the goth kids
that you knew who they were,there was that group right
there. And then the hip hopkids, those kids right there,
and then the jocks and this andthat. Yeah, and that's how it
wasn't the city. Like, I couldtell you, there was only a
couple thousand of us that werelegit hip hop heads in the city.
And we would all kind of we maynot have known each other

(04:26):
personally, but we knew eachother because we were always
going to the same jams andevents or whatever. And I
thought that was super dope,because these are diehard, you
know, authentically genuine hiphop heads at that time, and I
think that's what makes it thegolden era. And that sense
because when hip hop went supermainstream, then you would say
people be like, yeah, I'm a hiphop head, but they you know,
they weren't necessarily a hiphop head, like so. So yeah,

(04:49):
that's the error and that's kindof more or less how was
Do you remember Hot Wheels?
Of course, I mean, this is mypart of town and Kendall. Yeah,
wheels was part of myinspiration. Being a DJ was
going as a kid to hot wheels andseeing the DJ in the DJ booth.
That's where anybody that wasdone with hip hop would go.
Yeah. And that's where we usedto battle all the time out

(05:11):
there. SoHot Wheels was super dope. I saw
a lot of my first hip hop showsthe Hot Wheels, heard a lot of
my first hip hop songs, youknow, like, like, like, just a
lot of first time that I heard asong or an artist was in Hot
Wheels itself. So yeah, thoughHot Wheels is definitely a
landmark and Kendall, SouthMiami, for sure.
So talking about Kendall, thereare a number of artists that

(05:32):
have come from Kendall that havereally made an impact. And
there's like a certain vibe tokindle. Like what makes Kindle
so special?
That's a good question. And Icouldn't tell you what makes it
so special. Because probably ifyou ask most people in Miami,
they'd be like, Kendall ain'tshit, you know, like, it ain't
nothing. My opinion. Kendall waslike this. Suppose it's suburb

(05:54):
that people that were escapingother other cities and areas of
you know, the United States,when they were trying to like do
have a better life for theirfamilies. They ended up like in
Kendall. So kendal's, like lowerto upper middle class had had a
little bit lower than that insome places, but but for the
most part, lower and uppermiddle class. And then you have
people from all walks of lifefrom all over the country, from

(06:17):
all over the world, you know, alot of Caribbean out here to
Jamaicans and Haitians andBahamians, and, and then you had
Colombians and Cubans, and justso so many people in this one
area, but like I said, a lot oftheir families were coming from
other places. So there's a lotof influences. Like I have
friends that are from Boston, Ihave friends from New York, from
New Jersey, from the west coast,all over the place. And so I

(06:39):
feel like that kind of like whatinspired the musical landscape
of hip hop and what made it Imean, you know, local hip hop
and Kendall what made it specialto me, you had all these
different people from all walksof life, adding to the gumbo of
the scene, and everybody waskind of like amped to to rep,
not Kendall rep period, I wantto put a stamp on my crew we

(07:00):
were I think I think the firstofficial people to really rep
Kendall because people weren'tsure about you know,
representing this suburb inMiami at the time and I was
like, Hey, this is where welive. Let's just rep it but uh,
but you know, we had Craze fromKendall the last straws and plan
beats and just so many crews andnot just rappers but b boys and
B girls and graffiti artistsSTVs and all these guys and and

(07:24):
Kendall was just amazing to be ahip hop head and growing up
here.
So making it a bit more specificto you. What were your
inspirations and like what wasthe first mixtape you heard that
got you into wanting to createmixtapes?
The first mixtape was probablyhard to pinpoint. I could tell

(07:44):
you I used to record a lot offthe radio like the mix shows or
any mixes that I heard and youknow a lot of pirate radio or
college radio or even PublicRadio, but I remember getting my
hands on this tape that Ihaven't been able to verify and
I asked Craze one time and itwas like a tape that I swore it
was Craze practicing and I'm notgonna say is the first mixtape I

(08:04):
heard but I just remember aswell favorite tapes that I had
it wasn't an official mixtape.
It was just someone mixing thatit was recording it That was one
of my favorite ones but asidefrom that, like the average one
was like a Tony Touch or SNS ora Ron G or even Kid Capri tapes,
which were recorded from liveparties, which are the original
mixtapes live jams like Parkjams, all of those things were

(08:26):
my favorite but you know whatinspired me to start doing
mixtapes as much as I love thosemixtapes none of those mixtapes
represented Miami or spoke to usand I wanted to do that for
Miami and kind of like give thesame you know quality and
consistency of these mixtapesthat were coming from out of
town but sprinkle in some Miamiflavor in there so that we had
you know have some pridewell you became famous as the

(08:48):
mixtape king of Miami, but thenlater on you also made your own
album called another time. Whatwas your blueprint to produce
another time? And like how isthat different for you than the
process of creating a mixtape?
I tried to approach it the sameway I approached making a

(09:09):
mixtape like I would tell peoplethat making a mixtape was almost
like putting together an albumevery time at least in my mind
and releasing I took that muchtime and effort and making a
mixtape Now the difference hereis every song on this album is
being produced in house and andI'm putting it together you know
one by one and I think anymixtape DJ that's something that

(09:29):
they all aspire to want to do isput together a compilation album
like this, but it's difficult todo and so for me it was it
wasn't any different. I alwayswanted to do it and I just was
like I don't know this seemedlike such an undertaking to try
to do whether it be you know, Ididn't know if how much it was
going to cost to do it. Or if Icould get all the people I
wanted on it you know I didn'twant to do it if I couldn't get

(09:50):
the right people on the on therecords. But luckily it you
know, with time, I found myselfin a place that I felt like
okay, I feel like it's the timeto do it. And whatever What had
worked for me is that buildingthe relationships I have built
up to that point, set the stagefor me to be able to not only
afford to do it, because most ofthe tracks are with people that
I'm friends with, that I haverelationships with. And then,

(10:14):
you know, I could actually puttogether records that I really
curated and produce myselfrather than just, you know, I'll
get this guy because he's kindof known and I can get him or
no, I put together reallymeticulously these records. The
process was I picked out beats,I named the beats a song title
to stand in for the moment, Ienvisioned who I wanted, that

(10:36):
was possible that I knew that Icould reach you know, either I
knew them personally, or I knewsomeone that knew them. And I
started to write down thistracklisting and put all these
these names featuring thisperson featuring this person,
and this is before, you know, westarted tackling it. And I
actually have it right outsidethis office. I have the board
still because it's so amazing tome. Because I came, I would say

(10:57):
I came maybe 90% to the originaltracklisting that I put together
before I started. Yeah, I endedup with I think 55 artists on
that album. And it's it reallyis a pride and joy of mine and
shout out to everybody, my teamthat was a part of it. And my
boy kether who helped a&r itwith me and my boys that are
producers and everybody that wasinvolved. You know, it was a

(11:18):
team effort, for sure. It wascrazy head effort as well.
Where did the crazy hood namecome from?
Kid in high school thinking,Okay, I want to do a career in
hip hop now, you know, all theway up into that point. I was
like, I just want to be a fan ofthe music, the ultimate fan. Now
graduating high school, I'm notreally looking at college. Like
nothing was calling me and I'mnot a book, dude. I was like, I

(11:40):
want to pursue music. I want topursue, you know, lane in hip
hop music, specifically, as acareer. So then I'm like,
Alright, let's let me puttogether you know, writing some
names down and crazy hood isvery, it's a dated name. Like
it's from that time period inthe 90s. You know, but uh, but
it was it described everythingperfectly because I personally

(12:00):
felt a little bit psycho alittle bit crazy, a little bit
mentally unstable all throughoutmy young life. You know, for
various reasons. My parentsdivorcing moving around from LA
to Miami. Like, you know, justlife you know, as a kid. I was a
little nuts. So I was I youknow, crazy. And then hood. A
lot of people think meansneighborhood. But I tell people

(12:21):
it's no it means hoodie, becausealthough it's hot in Miami, when
you go to school early in themorning, the average hip hop kid
at the time, their uniform was ahoodie, because it was cold in
school. You know, when you go toschool in the morning, you know,
it's a big time AC in Miami, soit's cold enough to wear
hoodies. And that was like theaverage uniform for any hip hop
head was like a champion hoodie.
So we will call ourselves hoodslike hoodlum as well. So crazy

(12:43):
hood. And then to soundprofessional came the
productions crazy hoodproductions.
I mean, you have thisentrepreneurship spirit, since
you're 17. Where did you getthat?
Yeah, I don't know what I mean,Well, okay, I'm not gonna, I
always tend to like front on mydad, but my dad is an
entrepreneur as well. And it wasall his whole life. He just

(13:03):
wasn't around as much. So I tendto like negate his influence.
But as a little kid, even notgrowing up with my dad, I still
loved and look to my dad, evenin the distance that he was. And
he was always like, openingbusinesses. And I mean, he was
wild with it, because the erathat he came from, and he was a
Vietnam vet marine is a Vietnamvet Marine, and which is part of

(13:23):
the issues that happened in myfamily. But he came back and
went to school and became andgot like an accounting degree.
So he was able to manipulate,like, the banking systems, with
that knowledge of theaccounting, and he would open up
businesses, and then he'd gobankrupt, and then lose it all.
And then boom, he bounced back,and he opened up a bunch of
other business, and I'd be like,yeah, this dude is wild. So it

(13:45):
was kind of inspiring to see mydad do that. And even when he
wasn't opening up businesses, hewas running companies for other
people, and climbing up theladder to become presidents of
these companies. And although hewasn't around and we didn't have
a great relationship, it wasstill I guess from a distance
inspiring and I guess that wasthe bug. I felt like it was a
part of my you know, bloodlineto be an entrepreneur in a

(14:06):
sense. And then just hip hopalso just reading about Ruthless
Records and Luke records and andrap a lot records and all these
these indie record labels andhow they were doing it and, and
selling out the trunk of theircars. So I kind of like that
inspired me as well andmasterpiece, and, you know, with
with all these crazy likearmies, that they would come out
in the streets and street teamstuff and sounds like alright,

(14:28):
you know, and that was like theblueprint in hip hop to do
certain things. And I just tookall this knowledge from reading
magazines, and just kind ofseeing from a distance what my
dad was doing, and I was like,I'll try to go in this like,
entrepreneurial direction.
And over the decades, you've hadso many experiences, you know,
from hustling your mixtapes, toselling clothing, to doing radio

(14:49):
shows, managing record labels,having your own Film Academy,
etc, etc. What piece of advicewould you give your teenage self
now looking back,I probably would Said stay in
college like I started my twoyears in my community college
Miami Dade. And I ended up noteven finishing it. But I went
back later and did it. But Iwould have told myself actually
go to school, but go and seekthe courses and the degree of I

(15:11):
would have done more business,more finance, to learn all that
stuff from an academicstandpoint, and then apply it in
the real world, I think thatwould have been real helpful for
me to not have to go throughcertain, you know, pitfalls,
even if it wasn't to go tocollege specifically, there's
still you can take courses thatare not, you know, you don't

(15:32):
have to go to full on college tolearn these things. And I would
have done more of that. But youknow, as a young dude, just want
And another thing too, goingback to the entrepreneurial
stuff, I also just didn't wantto work for anybody, I've never
really worked for anybody. So itmight also have been me being a
jerk in that sense that I'mlike, I don't work for nobody,
I'm the boss here, you know,also being lazy, I don't want
you to tell me when I have tocome in and wake up and do this,

(15:54):
I just want to work for myselfand do whatever I want, which at
first might have say seemed likejust a teenage kid just not
wanting to be responsible. But Itook it serious to say, Well, if
I'm going to go out on a limb, Ibetter be able to, you know, eat
off of this stuff that I'm doingand carve a living for myself.
Something about that time in hiphop to at least when I started.

(16:15):
And when you started, we eachhad like mentors, and which is
something that we've noticingnow with new technology, many
kids are getting into theculture in different ways. And
so was there a particularmentor? Did you have any mentors
growing up?
I did have kind of a mentor,there was this dude, Alfonso,
that he had this record label,they had a group called moody

(16:37):
dialect. And at the time, whenI'm looking around, you know,
locally, who's putting outrecords, just to put out a vinyl
at that time was a big deal topeople like whoa, you went
through the whole process, youwere just to get in the studio
was a big deal, little less totake that record in the studio
and press it up and then releaseit. That's mind blowing. So this

(16:57):
dude, Alfonso in his groupMonday dialect, they did that.
And I was just amazed by it. AndI remember, I don't think I
don't even know how I met them.
I remember now, but I stepped tothem. And I was like, Look, let
me just like Shadow you guys,and basically like intern, and
just learn, and I'll you know,I'll do whatever, you know,
whatever you need me to do. AndI did that. And I was around
them for maybe a year, I wouldlike intro them at shows when

(17:19):
they were performing. And Iwould do it, you know, run some
errands if they needed it. And Iwas just always with them. I was
like just one of their dudes,they're learning from them, I
met other producers and otherpeople I ended up working with
down the line. So I would saythat's probably the closest
thing to a mentor that I had.
And outside of that it was justme reading as much as I could

(17:39):
about all these other companiesand labels and artists that I
was inspired by and trying tofind out their stories.
How have you been able to findand keep the happy medium
between hip hop culture and hiphop as a business.
It's real tough. I'm not a fanof the industry, per se. But I'm
heavily involved in it. To adegree, what I've just done is
just try to stay true to myself,my music and industry morals

(18:03):
that I have are my morals ingeneral. And I just stick to my
guns on that stuff. And if Idon't feel something, I don't do
it, it really has to come fromthe heart from the gut, you
know, every so often you do findyourself compromising for
business things. But as long asit is with a balance in that it
makes sense. And that there'smore positive than anything
negative that can come out ofit. I've just never been the
type to make moves based onmoney, like jerk somebody else

(18:27):
to get ahead of them early on,like, I might have been one of
the people that would keepcontacts and certain knowledge
to myself. But then there was atime period where I don't know,
I learned I just matured andsaid, you know, if I have
information that could help thenext man, like, I'm not going to
keep it next woman, I'm gonnagive it up. Because it's just no
point and just just hoardinginformation or hoarding context.

(18:48):
So if it makes sense, you know,I'll pass it on, or I'll make a
connection and, and do that. Andthat's something that I
originally I wasn't like that.
But then eventually, you know, Iopened up to that, because I
just, you know, just karma Ibelieve in karma. So I guess
that that boils down toeverything, I believe in karma.
One of your great projects oryour film series, right, coming
home. And in your very firstone, you can explore your roots

(19:11):
in Cuba. And the filmillustrates how hip hop is
giving Cubans an avenue toexpress their pain, their
struggles and their dreams. Thatthe end of the film you state
that you've had a very positiveexperience on that trip
documenting that movie, in spiteof people criticizing that you
didn't see the full picture.
Have you been back to Cubasince? And has your perception
changed any In the meantime?

(19:36):
doing that film allowed me totake a trip with my mom back to
Cuba, where she hadn't been backthere in 45, 50 plus years. And
she would have never done thatbefore. That wouldn't even been
a thought for her. But doing thefilm, her meeting some people
from the film that came overfrom Cuba to Miami, and then

(19:57):
just convincing her that youknow, everything was going to
All right, and that the thingis, I try to be very respectful
of, of the older Cuban communitythat feels very passionate about
it, because I didn't live whatthey lived. Luckily, because of
them, I was born in the States.
And so I'm very careful what Isay. But I'm also trying to
explain to them that, you know,things have to change. And the
people on the island aresuffering, well, politics are

(20:20):
being played, and we ourselvesand them, including the old
generation, you're beingpoliticized and used as in that
game as well. So I would justsay like, I tell anybody, go and
check it out for yourself, youcan come back and have be like,
no, yeah, this is crap. And I'mgonna fight it, and this
communism, or whatever, youknow, I mean, but I went
specifically on like a culturalexchange vibe. I wasn't trying

(20:41):
to look for political stuff. Um,and on that tip, it was a
beautiful thing. And they mademe just say, hey, from people to
people, you know, if we'reCubans here, and there's Cubans
there, if we want to make thingseven more free, the best thing
to do is communicate, talk,exchange. And that's the way
that will change things. But Butclosing things off, you know, so

(21:02):
no, my, my perspective hasn'tchanged in that sense. But I'm
always careful and sensitive toolder people that have a
different point of view. And Idon't really want to fight them
and engage them because I didn'tlive what they lived through. So
it's not fair for me to fightand engage them. I'm just trying
to just tell them what myexperience was. And that's it.
That's all I can do.

(21:23):
Now, going back to the last timewe saw you was at the Mayday
show in Miami. And it was duringthat show that they announced
that Fidel Castro passed away.
And I went to Little Havanaright after that,
how did you experience thathistoric night and how did his
death affect you and yourfamily?
I mean, my family's superemotional, it affected me

(21:44):
because Cuban Americans arekids, you know, born here of
Cuban parents, we are raised asif we were raised in Cuba with
the same you know, ideology,like I was a young republican
kid growing up, you know,thinking, you know, the same way
that all the older peoplethought and until I got older,
and I started to have my ownthoughts and look at history a
little bit differently. Butnonetheless, it was still

(22:07):
emotional for me, but not asemotional as it was for my
family. But I'm really big intohistory. So I was like, this is
a historic time I want to go toa Little Havana, I want to be
there and celebrate with thepeople and for anybody that
suffered, which people didsuffer at the hands of Fidel
Castro, you know, celebratingwith you, for this have happened
because I know it's making youfeel better. It's making it's

(22:29):
taking a load off of your back.
And that's all I could take itas but no always do. I have the
same feelings that my mom has,or my aunts or my uncles or any
of the older people, they,they're overjoyed, but then they
cry, thinking about what they'velost. And that's the thing at
the end of the day, you know,when you have family, a whole
group of people that felt thatthey needed to move in, they
just left everything behind awhole language and culture and

(22:51):
everything and had to relocatetheir families. You can't You
can't put into words what, whatthey went through. And so for
them, I was happy, but Icouldn't relate to them in the
sense of how they felt versushow I felt, you know,
in one of the last drink champsepisodes, Busta Rhymes called
you to Steve Irwin, or theCrocodile Hunter of hip hop.

(23:17):
I think he was or at least Ihope he was trying to say
Anthony Bourdain - that's whathe was trying to say.
I think he called you theCrocodile Hunter.
He did. He said the guy that gotstung with the Stingray. Yeah,
but I'm like, I'm reallythinking that you're confusing
Anthony Bourdain. And that dude,but okay.
I think his point was where youtake on the risk in order to

(23:39):
show a culture, right, thatyou're willing to put yourself
out there. I think that's whatSteve Irwin was trying to do,
too, right. You know, wrestlewith crocodiles, whatever for
the entertainment value, but butalso to show like, Hey, you
don't have to be afraid of theseanimals. These are actually
really beautiful creatures,right?
He was he was a conservationistreally is what he was.

(24:01):
I think it's a good analogy foryou, too, because I feel you're
doing the same thing in theprojects. You're not ever
worried.
Yeah. I mean, I try not to thinkof it in that way. Because then
if I overthink it, then I mightget more worried. And now I have
children where in the firstfilms, I didn't have children.
So it's a little different.
Something happens to me now, youknow, I have to make sure my
children are taken care of. ButI don't I don't know. I don't

(24:23):
want to look at the places I goas these dangerous places where
I got to worry about these wildnatives like no fucking humans
and other people. And they'rejust like us. And if they love
hip hop, then I don't know. Ifeel like I'm even more safe
than any anywhere else. Becausewe're all this unifying culture
that are, you know, united bythe common language that is hip
hop. And you know, we've been tosome of the craziest places in
the world, and I plan on goingto more, and I've never really

(24:46):
felt completely in danger. Now,I think I've been more nervous
prior to it, the going tosomewhere but once I'm there in
the moment, I'm telling youlike, it sounds corny but hip
hop protects us. And I'm hopingthat I never did someone ever
places because it didn't. Like,oh, it didn't protect you that

(25:08):
time, buddy. I mean, look,anything is possible. We're not
naive. The world there's abigger world than hip hop. You
know, there's a lot of stuffgoing on in these places. But
you know, we're, we're careful.
But at the same time, I dobelieve that hip hop is taking
care of us,is coming home a film project
that you produce together withGarcia?
Well, no, Garcia was a part hewas a part of the first three

(25:30):
films, but it was really becausethe films were like my idea and
my passion and Garcia you know,he's definitely got a bunch of
other things that he's into. Sowe kind of split ways on doing
the films like I continued thefilms, he's doing music, video
directing, and stuff like that.
But yeah, we're I'm still doingthem. We're in post production
for our sixth one, which is inSouth Africa that we took
recognize with us. And thatone's amazing and the reason

(25:53):
it's being held up is the wholeCOVID messed everything up and
slow down production, but I planon doing these as long as I can
do them and I'm looking I'mcurrently in conversations with
a lot of interesting people tomake them bigger and better
because we do them veryindependently. And to answer
your question No, it wasn'tpassion of mine originally was
to do film but hip hop is mypassion and experiencing places
is my passion. So filming is apart of the entertainment and

(26:16):
industry side of it that I knowthat I can utilize to monetize
and continue to do these. So Imade it my passion.
How did you know you come upwith drink champs?
I'll try to give you a condensedstory of a very long story. So
there's two parallel storiesthat create drink champs first
is well you know me and Noremade long time ago I'll fast

(26:37):
forward that story. We stayfriends we and he ends up moving
to Miami ends up moving toKendall ends up working out of
my studio here and Kendall forthat whole time he's here and he
was like in my studio every day.
He's working out of the studioin and around that time period
at crazy hood. We were justalways big drinkers. Bunch of
you know, Caribbean Latinos, youknow, rum and vodka, whatever,
we're just big drinkers. Sothere would be this if you

(26:58):
couldn't handle your liquor,we'd be like you're not a drink
champ. And it became a term inour offices in our in our
studios. And I always thoughtthat was a cool term like drink
champs. We would you know say itall the time and then I just
said let me see if anybody hasthe the.com of drink champs calm
and nobody had Oh, cool. Wellgrab that. Grab the Instagram,
grab the Twitter, hold on to it.

(27:19):
Don't know what it's gonna be.
Love the name. Maybe it'll be awebsite. Maybe it'll be a bar
one day who knows? parallel tothat, while noise at the studio.
We start doing a show on SiriusXM one XM before they merged.
And then Sirius XM after theymerged. And that show was called
millet tainment crazy raw radio,which is a name that Nore gave
the show. He wanted to puteverybody's name in the title.

(27:41):
That show is the precursor todrink chance because there's
some old clips on YouTube. Itlooks and sounds like drink
champs. We're drinking theantics. We're joking. We're
drinking Tiger bone. Weintroduce ourselves the same way
we just had less guests at thetime. Because who's coming to
Kendall not nobody's coming toKendall to see us at the time.
And we did that show for likethree years. We didn't make a

(28:03):
penny of that show. We just didit for fun. And it was on
several different network likechannels on Sirius XM was on hip
hop nation on backspin on 66 rawon a different bunch of
different stations. We stoppeddoing the show Nore went on tour
and went to Europe with CNN withCapone. I was getting busy with
Mayday. We went on tour withTech N9ne. We stopped doing the
show. I wanted to do somethinglike it but we just didn't have

(28:25):
the time. We couldn't deliver ashow every week for Sirius XM.
So my boy Godfrey, he was localand Kendall at the time. He had
a podcast called gamertag radio.
He had been podcasting and doinginternet radio for years. He's
in the podcast Hall of Fame. Hewas always advocating to me and
to everybody to podcast. He'slike, oh, that thing used to do

(28:45):
it. No, you should do it as apodcast. So long story short,
kind of I ended up trying toconvince Nore about doing a
podcast. He didn't know what apodcast was. Not many people in
hip hop at the time knew what apodcast was. There was maybe a
couple of podcasts that were hiphop related at the time, but it
wasn't popular. wasn't cool. Sothat took a couple years to get
Nore on board at least threeyears before Nore finally

(29:08):
decided and kind of saw thelight on Okay, let's try this
podcasting. Luckily my boyGodfrey had just got his podcast
signed to CBS Radio, he made ameeting for us and we did a deal
with them. I tell Nore, I gotdrink champs ready to go this
name is perfect. Because like Iwhatever drink champs it is and
Drink Champs is bornas awesome you have a gut
feeling that the concept wouldwork and you just secure the

(29:31):
handle like what would you tellsomebody that they think they
have a good idea.
Think of it like this for everyone good idea that I might have
that might be seen. I have 1000ideas that didn't go anywhere.
And that's the way I operate. Ifeel that I feel that all of
them are good, the thousand thatdidn't go anywhere, they still
have a chance somewhere in life.
So that's just the way I operateand especially when it comes to

(29:52):
like digital stuff. It's so mucheasier to be an entrepreneur in
this digital age, utilizing allthese tools. Grabbing a .com
doesn't cost you anything. It'slike It's like cheap real
estate, you know, it's like,what do you what can you think
of, you know, ketchup calm or Ilove ketchup, like whatever you
want, just go buy it if youthink it's cool, and you think
it's amazing and figure out whatyou want to do with that later.

(30:12):
And that's, that's what I do,you know, at least when it comes
to this kind of stuff. I wasdoing that all the time. I mean,
I have so many.com so manyhandles so many podcasts ideas,
I even do podcast just to likekind of like go through the
motions of a concept and kind ofhave like a demo of it or like a
pilot episode, just to have itthere as a placeholder and say,
Okay, this is what this is, thisis what this is. And yeah, I've

(30:33):
always done that I do have a lotof things. My brain doesn't stop
thinking, sometimes I can'tsleep because I'm thinking of
ideas. I used to wake up andjust write things down. Don't
forget this because I have alsoterrible memory. I'm like, add
and I'm dyslexic, and all thisstuff. It's the part of being an
artist, I think that you'realways constantly creating and
you just got to make sure yousometimes you organize these

(30:55):
thoughts and put them somewhereso you can utilize them.
Drink champs definitely took offand you have a bunch of fun on
every episode. Like you canreally tell it's a fun vibe,
with the show growing like that.
Do you ever feel like there'smore pressure added on to you in
terms of like selecting guestsor keeping it a certain format?

(31:18):
Yeah, there's been pressuredapplied to us from our different
partners that we've had wantingus to maybe have like, you know,
younger artist or you know, whatthey deem to be more relevant
artists. The thing is, is thatso me and Nore are two
different, we're Ying and Yang.
So Nore early on, he had said onthe show, that we're only for
legends, and we're 10 years oryou know more. That's it, I
would have never put that outthere. Because although my

(31:40):
feeling is we're the home to whoyou consider legends to pioneers
were the home to them. It wouldbe I think, ignorant to negate
any newer artists because theway I look at it is if we have
whatever the newest youngestartists is, although the
conversation is going to bedifferent because we don't know
much about them. But let's justsay we bring some new artists in
that's really popular. And hebrings all this new fans, you

(32:02):
know, new eyeballs on the show.
And then the next week we haveKool Herc, who benefits from
that cool work benefits fromthat. And that's what I consider
to be you know, the balance,where sometimes we'll have
people who people want is not alegend, or that's not a pioneer.
That's not even a hip hopartist. My thing is bring more
people into the fray and thenwhen you bring a cool work when

(32:25):
you bring a Grandmaster Flashwhen you bring a Crazy Legs,
then that there's gonna be neweyeballs and new people
discovering them. And that'swhere we're I think what we're
good at what we need to be doingwhat I think the the mission
statement of drink champs reallyis.
Well, congratulations on makinghistory with drink champs and
thank you three differentplatforms is pretty awesome. I

(32:46):
always wanted to if you haveever had, you know, guests on
your show that you were sort oflike starstruck about
Yeah, a lot. I mean, one of therappers at least or MCs that I
really loved growing up was whylook, NWA and then Ice Cube out
of NWA is my favorite. So whenwe had ice cube on the show,
which wasn't the most idealsituation, he was on a promo

(33:07):
run, we were in Atlanta, and wedid like a, it wasn't like a
full on to me a full on drinkchamps, but that I was
starstruck that was the onlytime I've ever like, because
that was my favorite rapper ofall time. And next to him, and
he just tweeted was Chuck D, andPublic Enemy and he just tweeted
about us which I had to postthis tweet because I got so
amped and hyped, you know, andI've been trying to get Chuck to

(33:27):
do the show, and Chuck andflavor would be amazing
together. But I'll take Chuck byhimself as well. So if he comes
on the show, I'll be starstruckagain. But anytime we have,
honestly the keris ones or theDJ Premier's, or the Pete
Rock's, that's when I'm thehappiest and more into and, and
not to, I don't want to dissanybody because there's been
artists that I thought I wasn'tgoing to be into that I wasn't

(33:49):
into like regularly. And theysat down and their demeanor and
their personality. And theirhumility made me a fan instantly
on the show, we had probably themost fun on some of those shows
as well. So it really boils downto how the person is when you
sit down with them. Well, youmade a good point. Also with
like the difference in drinkchamps you're not part of this
press run. We're just trying topromote an album. And at one

(34:09):
point you mentioned the showlove and hip hop should really
be called Love and rap music.
Yeah.
Why do you think that out of allthe elements MC and gets so much
attention? Why is there likesuch a big gap not to have B
boys or writers or DJs on thesekind of platforms? You know,

(34:31):
I don't know why because ifanything has been proven to be
boy community, the graphcommunity have created their own
community, their own lanes ofrevenue. They're hugely popular
around the world. And so I don'tknow why but it just I think it
boils down to at the end of theday how the MC even came to be
in the first place because itwas the DJ wasn't the MC the MC

(34:53):
was just big enough to DJ andthen the MC is like, hold up. I
got the mic and I'm in front ofthe stage. That's it, bro. I'm
taking over and That's what eversince then, that hasn't stopped,
you know, and since they havethe power of being on the radio,
and they have the power to bethe music video, that's all
people have been programmed tothink is hip hop, because
they're the ones saying, and themore as the years keep going,

(35:15):
and newer and newer, MCs, youknow, are aspiring to be really
they want to be, you know,entertainers, not necessarily
MCs, the further away from thebeginning of what the culture is
in the knowledge of the cultureis they get, so it's like not
even their fault at a point, youknow, that they don't know what
really hip hop culture is, like,I don't even blame some of the
younger I actually say on theshow, I blame my generation, not

(35:38):
me, but my generation, becauseour generation was the first one
to make a lot of money in hiphop. So what happened is, once
we started making a lot ofmoney, at least the rappers did,
they were like, hold up, we wantthis to continue forever. So
we're not going to do what theother guys did before us, just
passing down the knowledge ofthe history of the hip of the
culture. It's just about us, me,me, me, me, me, me, for the most

(36:00):
part, not everybody, but for themost part. And so so I think
that's where the disconnectcame. And now hip hop, you know,
there was like, I used to tellpeople all the time in the radio
in Miami, they used to play hiphop. But you know, being down
south, the station's the newunderstanding, you know, what
hip hop was, again, they thoughtit was like this New York thing.
So they would just play like,you know, in their mind, they're
playing rap music in the mix.
And mind you, the regular persondoesn't know all these details

(36:23):
in like the industry side. Butwhen these radio stations were
being bought up, and put underone umbrella, like a national
umbrella, then they all startedto adopt the same call signs
that they would see like in NewYork, or hip hop lives. So it
wasn't till that started goingon all the radio stations around
the country, that people startedsaying, Oh, this is hip hop,
because the radio station saidwhere hip hop lives. So

(36:44):
obviously, the music they'replaying is hip hop. So now
they're associating just themusic with hip hop. And nobody's
telling them anything furtherthan that. That's just that's
where it ends. And that's wherethe disconnect starts to happen.
And it keeps going and going andI mean, you've always been well
connected with all the elementsgoing.
Miami, I remember you crazy hoodsponsoring the Pro Am back in

(37:05):
the day. Mm hmm. And is thereany projects or things that
you're thinking about of beingable because you're you're very
much culturalist, and wanting topreserve anything in the works,
where you want to kind ofincorporate those aspects of
other elements within a biggerplatform.
So you have, I do, but I find itdifficult to be honest with you,

(37:28):
because the elements have taken,like I said, they're their own
thing now. And they have theirown leaders, and the people who
have dedicated their lives to,so I feel it's unfair for
someone like me to say, well,just because I'm a coach for
this, right, and I believe inthis, I'm gonna put together
this event, I'd have to reallyinclude all these leaders, I'd
have to you know, I don't, Idon't feel like I'm that

(37:49):
embedded in every part of theyou know, every one of those
elements, to be able to reallydo something responsibly and
properly, you know, all I coulddo is maybe continue to speak on
it and teach on it. So that ifyou don't know, at least you
know, these things, you know,and then if you leave, maybe
your young kid that's like, oh,hip hop is all these, you know,
all these elements. And thenthey see a B boy or B girl that

(38:11):
I liked, then maybe they go inthat direction, because they
heard someone like me talk aboutor they go to the graffiti
direction. But I would like todo stuff. And I'm always going
to include the elements likeanything that I do, I just want
it to be known that when I sayhip hop, it means all of hip
hop.
One thing that I think isamazing, which you do is really
being a connector betweendifferent people, between the

(38:32):
elements between differentplatforms. How important do you
think it is, knowing a skillversus knowing the right people,
I don't think you necessarilyneed to know people. To
accomplish that. You just needto expose yourself to the
people, expose yourself to thedifferent works that are

(38:52):
inspiring to what you want todo. And then as you do it, you
will create relationships withinthat. And you know, obviously,
you nurture those relationships,you create a network, and you
know, each one teach one typething. But you really don't as
an artist, I believe you can beyou know, you don't need
anybody, you just create, youknow, if you're a creator, you
create from within you do yourown thing. But there's nothing

(39:14):
wrong with learning and lookingat other people being inspired
by other people. Taking a littlebit from everybody and creating
your own. That's a part of thecreation process.
I'm going to go back to Miami,Mayday, Jazid days and kind of
working with Mayday and signingthem with Strange Music. Can you
tell me a bit about that wholerelationship?

(39:36):
there's a cool story that goesback with Mayday to the first
thing that I ever did as crazyhood in like 1994. The first
thing that I could possibly doas crazy hood productions was to
do a jam, which in those days,jams were important because
there wasn't like clubs youcould go to hip hop wasn't a
thing you'd go to every week orevery day of the week. So these

(39:58):
parties and jams that werehappening. Local spots in Miami
were huge to connecting thescene and for people to be able
to hear and experience hip hop.
So I threw a jam was the firstthing we did. It was a in a
warehouse not too far from whereI'm at right now. And it was
important to me at that point,you know, to put on for the
scene. And at this jam, I wantedto have a local group perform as
part of you know, the night andthere was a friend of mine that

(40:22):
went to junior high with me toour Vita junior high, his name
is Tori. And he, he went toKilleen at the time, another
high school, and he had a groupcalled all the king's men, when
that group was Plex and Bernie,na that I had not met yet. And
they perform that night. And itwas dope. And I remember that
night I taped the you know, theDJ, my boy spinning and then

(40:43):
performing and that tape, Iremember used to get goosebumps
hearing that tape from thatnight it was you know, nothing
was better than like a, like abeat up, you know, sounding tape
from a live event that happenedin that area, you know? And fast
forward you know, and then Madybecomes a group and, and then
Rick separately is doing hissolo thing and I'm making
mixtapes and so I'm connectingwith them at this point in the

(41:06):
underground Miami hip hop scene,and they're getting on my
mixtapes little, I didn't knowthey were the same guys. At
first, I forget how we figuredit out. But eventually, we
figured out that they were thesame guys. And I thought that
was crazy, you know that theywere the same guys from 1994.
Bernie and play, you know, Rickwas too young at the time. So
then, fast forward, they end upgetting a deal with South beat

(41:28):
records. And I ended up gettinga gig working the marketing, I
was the marketing director or VPof marketing or something. And
I'm working with Mayday and I'mworking with Rick, I already
know them from the scene, we'realready close at that point, me
in the label part ways, becauseI didn't like the way the label
was operating. It was like somedudes that had money. And they
just weren't, the culture wasn'tthe thing for them, you know,

(41:49):
they just wanted to do music. SoI left there, and they ended up
bringing wreck into Mayday. Andthen Mayday, which was a two man
group, rap group, hip hop groupturns into a band. at this same
time, I'm being disillusioned bythe hip hop scene. This is when
hip hop music and industry is ina place where I'm just not that
pleased. At the time. I'm notthat inspired. I'm working. I

(42:11):
have a marketing company thatI'm I'm working. And I'm just
like, uh, you know, that thingsinspire me anymore. And I
remember the guys telling me,hey, look, Rick joined Mayday.
We're a band now come check usout. And when I went, I was so
hyped, you know, it was sodifferent. It was so dope. You
know, it was like, before that,you know, the only hip hop band

(42:31):
had ever experienced was theroots, and the brand new heavies
kind of in a sense. So I wasjust like, Yo, this is so dope,
so refreshing. It was like, Iwas thinking I want to be a part
of it, which I already was, butthen now you know, fast for a
little bit. And so I come in aspart of management, a boy kether
that I'd mentioned to you guys,as a part of my album, we meet
at Selby records. And so hecomes into management and then

(42:54):
Dre she's a part of managementalready, we become the trifecta
management team, we startworking and long story short, my
boy kether actually had aconnect a neighbor that was
connected to tech nine and thento the label to strange music
past basically the demo over,they liked it and they wanted to
see if tech would be interested.
So they were like Yo, he's gonnabe touring in order to actually

(43:16):
protect to see them live. Techwas blown away. And a couple
other things happen behind thescenes, but just based off of
that they got the deal and itwas just an amazing ride and it
was so dope for me because I hadan opportunity to again start
something fresh and like go topeople who were like not used to
seeing like a hip hop band, likemade it It looked and sounded

(43:38):
like maybe which if you guysthen they probably won't even
want to be called a hip hop bankand it just felt so creative but
I would tell people this is thedoesn't get more hip hop than
this these two MCs right herecould out MC you're better you
know some of the the mainstreamguys that are killing it right
now. Like these dudes are illand the production was fucking
crazy. So it was it was apleasure to me every day to like

(44:00):
make people believers whichended up being an album in a
song put make people believersof Mayday and it was such a dope
ride to you know, go through allthat with them.
Yeah, that song is dope to Bythe way, last that believe or
song?
Yeah,I think I'm a big fan of Mayday
and I seen them early. Theseguys, you should just sit in

(44:21):
their MC cipher in the parkinglot. And so it was really dope
to see that the evolution. Ijust felt the sound was so
Miami. It waseverything was just so dope
about them. So different. Andanother little fun fact, the
dude that was managing wreckwhen he won the cipher on MTV,
and he got signed to sell therecords was the dude that I told

(44:44):
you that I kind of like internand was kinda like my mentor,
which is all Alfonso. He alsowasn't manager. Love. People
can't live the manager forsmiles in South star out of
Orlando.
Oh,yeah. And anonymous is also just
incredibly Oh my God, he's outof control.
also as a dancer, too. Yeah, no.

(45:05):
Yeah. I mean, everything. supercreative and talented dude.
Well, the next big topic that Ipersonally am a huge fan. Make
sure you check it out thefatherhood podcast, candy, put
me on to the podcast. We're liketwo years ago,
right before we were having ababy. Yeah,
yeah. And I've been one of youravid listeners, and what I

(45:27):
really love about father hoods.
For one, obviously, that youtalk about the importance of
fatherhood with differentartists, listening to your show
really makes you feel likeyou're sitting at the table
kicking it with you guys. So Ijust kind of wanted to dig a
little deeper and find out like,how did you get to know KGB and
Manny? And how did you guys comeup with the idea for father
hoods?

(45:49):
So KGB is kether that I've beentalking about? The guy who
helped me with my album who Imet at Saudi records with Mayday
and went on to manage matey withme. So that's kether is that's
the king KGB. That's actuallyhis initials for real KGB. And
then Manny, I met throughkether. They were in um, almost
a Yama man fraternity. Is it afraternity guys? Any Yeah.

(46:10):
So that's how they knew eachother because man, he's a little
bit younger than us. So I wasin, you know, I instantly hit it
off with Manny. So we got cool.
He has, you know, he has threekids together had a kid before
me. So they had kids already. Sowhen I was about to have my
daughter, I was always callingthem. Plus my friends and crazy
hood. They've had kids wereteenagers, there's like, like,
20 Kids amongst a group of 10 ofus, which is crazy. And two of

(46:31):
them have five each. So imagine.
So yeah, it's out of control.
But, but I would find myselfcalling all my friends with kids
just to get differentperspectives and advice. And I
was doing it often with Kay andwith and with Manny. And again,
we're always putting on like,you know, just our
entrepreneurial hats on howcould we it's always about doing

(46:52):
something, you know, creating alane, but something that's that
we feel is like positive andthat speaks to who we are
actually. And fatherhood, to mewas that next evolution. For
myself, it was always importantfor me to be a good father based
on the relationship I have withmy father. And that's why I
actually took so long to becomea father. I was being careful.
And so I remember us talkingwe're like, what, you know, what

(47:15):
can we we all Me and my friendswere always talking about what
things can we do togethercollaborations together, not
just them, but my all the motherfriends and crazy as well. And
that was one of the things thatcame up was, hey, let's do this
fatherhood podcast. And we feelthat this is a topic in hip hop
that isn't spoken about enough.
And hip hop heads, you know,fathers at least get a bad rap

(47:36):
and hip hop, you know, and solet's try to, you know, do our
little bit to change that. Andthat's where fatherhood was
born.
Well, you guys are alwaysextremely open on the show, you
know, you talk about yourdecision of circumcising your
son or not.
We get pretty personal.
For the jealousy of yourdaughter. Has that openness ever

(48:00):
backfired? on any of you like inthe relationship with your
wives? Ah,no. Has it? Not too much? No.
What is funny about us and maybeme and K, and you might not
think this about me is we'reactually very personal people.
Like I don't like talking muchabout my family and anything.
I'm very personal. Like, I don'tpost much about my family and
Kay, that's why he likes a kgv.

(48:24):
And if you if you ever watch ifwe ever put clips, because it's
just audio, but we put clips ofthe video, he's always hiding
behind the mic like, so hedoesn't even have any social
media himself. So for uspersonally, it's it's tough to
be that open. But that's thething. The cool thing about
doing stuff with people you'reclose with it just you forget

(48:44):
that you're being recorded, andyou're just talking very frankly
with each other. And that's whatwe do, but hasn't backfired with
I'm sure there's something thatthey're not happy about. They
just haven't told us I think mygirl This is every Tuesday she
listens because she's waiting tohear something that be pissed
about and I'm pretty sure she'stold me in the past like Why did
you say that? Or you know whatyou know, because I'm always

(49:04):
complaining about you know, hergetting not wanting letting me
do some work or whatever. So shegets a little bit pissed about
it hasn't been too bad yethasn't been too bad.
How has becoming a fatherchanged you as a person and
influenced your philosophy onlife.
I don't think it's changed myphilosophy much just how I
operate in life in general. Theyare the priority in my life,

(49:26):
they are everything they are thefirst thing I think about when I
wake up and the last thing Ithink about when I go to sleep
and probably dream about them.
And so everything I'm doing Ialways think about legacy and
how it affects them and how ithelps them and in positive ways
so you know the only thing itdoes is like for example like a
coming home series now I'm and Idon't want to think like this

(49:46):
because I feel like when yousecond guess yourself you could
get yourself in trouble. But nowgoing to some places. I might
you know second guess it becauseall What if something happens to
me and then my kids suffer Forthat, you know, so. So those are
the type of things you thinkWell, I think that's normal. And
you know, and really, that's,there's the, and I'm struggling
with it, and you'll hear it outand you hear it on fatherhood, I

(50:08):
struggle, I haven't learned todeal with the balance of work
and family life. And I give myall to my kids as much as I can.
And I'm with them as much as CanI loading them, but it's it's a
struggle to get things donenowadays, for sure. Yes. On
fatherhood, sometimes mydaughter will barge into the
room. It's, it's mad funny.

(50:30):
Like, right now I'm in aseparate coming office. It's not
at home. But even coming here isdifficult, because, you know, I
tried to do it where it's like,you do it in little like you
could run off and do some stuffand then go back to and they're
at the age now, you know,they're at an age and because of
COVID, because of quarantining,you're more hands on and then
they get used to the hands onalso. So it's difficult to like,

(50:52):
you know, change that.
One less thing too. Was thatbecause of the hoods. You
mentioned this book, one of theI know you mentioned the books,
we talked about it. Maybe Yeah,yeah. He mentioned he's like on
there, and he literally the sameday, ordered it on Amazon had
this book, hadn't he read thebook, and worked. I mean, a
month into the baby being bornand she was like four weeks old.

(51:14):
I'm like she's making this sortof sound is like at sound. And
I'm like, I think she needs togo because she she went to
sleep. She woke up dry, which iswhat I said in the book. So we
put her over the sink and shedoes her thing. And we were
freaking out or I was crazy. Sookay, let's, let's do it. And
now she's 16 months, and shestill goes now to the party.

(51:39):
Well, kgv saved you man. Likebecause I give him crap, because
I don't believe it. I'm like, Idon't know, man. You must have a
super kid.
Try with your son.
I should I think I'm too latealready. I think we screwed that
up already.
No, there's too late.
No, okay.
I'm gonna get I'm gonna give ita shot.
Because of COVID we were aroundher all the time. And so we

(52:01):
could take her like we werenoticing the sounds and I think
what I mean yeah, it's a plusthey were saving money on
diapers. But I think the coolestthing was, was that we were
actually bonding with her likeknowing her different sounds and
instead of months went by thesound would change or something.
It was like a different motion.
And we're like, oh, she's doingsomething different now she's
letting us know in a differentway. And I don't know we've just

(52:22):
made us feel really connected toher outside of the fact that yet
super cool that she's go andeveryone all our family things
were freaks.
Okay, on the podcast,my mom is like Duncan sets out
the echo. bp. Mom, zoom, calmbirthday calls. Like,

(52:47):
let me let me ask you those. Sowhen you saying you see motions
are here, that's how you knowshe has to go to bathroom. But
what are you staring at thebaby? 24 seven to wait for those
things? Or do you know a timeperiod that you should be paying
attention?
There's definitely a time periodand obviously changes over time.
So it's kind of tricky, and it'snot 100% like, we still have

(53:10):
dirty diapers. Yeah, but likenow she'll come and she'll like
grab a diaper and walked us withthe diaper
literally with the diapers likehello. Like, I'm going like,
come on. The thing is I have abackground in early childhood
education. So back in the day,that's what I used to do. I used
to teach it the kindercare andKendall I was cool. I love kids

(53:32):
and they're like a science tome. I'm like, just checking them
out.
The covid actually helped inthat sense a lot where we were
both at home you know, almostall the time. I couldn't imagine
if we had both been workingregularly full time. There's no
chance Yeah, yeah,well we have friends and I have
friends and Russia and likedifferent countries like in

(53:55):
China and they have their babiesand baby natives leave them
without diapers like all day.
Yeah my baby girl and she wasbattling at the rebel bc one and
you see the baby in thebackground naked laying down and
she's like doing the onlinebattles and shit and she's like
battling with the baby backthere. Just doing his thing.

(54:16):
That's life right now. You know?
Well that we're actually doingthat with my daughter now where
sometimes we just leave herwithout a diaper because she's
she she regressed she started todo really well with potty
training and then she likeregressed? Like she's regressed
a lot with the the new babiesbeing born like she's jealous.
So she's like, regressing andcrying for no reason because she
sees that baby cries we go tobaby. So so she regressed and we

(54:39):
just leave her without diapers.
And that makes she knows like,I'm not gonna, you know, piss
myself, you know? And so shegoes to the potty.
I think when they walk around,they're free and they figure it
out that they don't want to doit or they'll just do like a
little dog and you'll see it.
When she's playing. Sometimesshe's having too much fun. Oh,

(54:59):
and I We're having a tough timefiguring out if it's terrible
twos. I mean, I'm sure it's acombination of both. But it's
like making it horrible twos.
Yes. Like, she, she's wild. Shewent from like this nice little
girl. And then baby born and shebecame like Chucky.

(55:19):
Gosh, yeah, there's a bookcalled 123 magic. And Sasha was
like, two, three years oldactually tell she went to like,
terrible threes. And I thought Iwas gonna throw Sasha out the
window, like, cry like, No, shecan talk pretty well. So it was
people thought I was beating herI would never, I never. I never
beat my child. So lock likeeverything, okay. 123 magic. And

(55:45):
I read and it was a really goodbook. And I basically helps you
help your child to understandtheir emotions at a young age.
And it stops up not justbehavior. That's really when
that time comes up. And I stilldo it to this day where I just
say, Sasha, that's one. And thenshe's like, okay, mom, fine.
Still work. So this day, andmainly is just, you don't

(56:08):
explain anything while they'rehaving their tantrums. Because
they don't hear don't do that.
They just hear the don't climb,climb. They don't hear the don't
part. I think the first chapterwas, as a parent, you cannot
take anything personal. I waslike, What? I had to read this
chapter. Again, I didn't read itlike three, four times before I
passed it, because I was like,let me get this, right. I can't

(56:30):
take anything personal aboutanything that this baby's gonna
do. And you just say their name.
So I say, Sasha, that's one andthe baby's like, Sasha, that's
two. And then they're like,Sasha, that's three. And it's

(56:51):
sort of like a timeout, but youdon't say timeout, you say, take
a break, and you put them in thesame spot. And you say, take a
break. And then you get a timer,it has to be kind of big. I got
a big clock for them to see,depending on how old they are.
So she's to be two minutes, andyou show her two minutes to see
this. And they're like, What'sgoing on here? And they look at

(57:13):
the timer. And so the timer doesnot start until they stop
crying. So it's gonna take somework the first time like Sasha,
get up and run. Yeah, I wasabout to say free, it's already
three. We don't say at whateveryou're doing this bad. Nothing.
You just pick them up, sit themdown, pick them up. And, and
it's the first of them somework. But once they're there,

(57:35):
they know they're okay. Put thetimer. They watch the timer. I
took a while, but I never getpast one or two. Until next now.
There's session talking aboutwe're talking about the the
numbers. One, when I washit, that's one.

(57:59):
It still works. And they thinkI'm doing Voodoo on them. It's
called on to the magic. Theythink you put a spell on your
kids.
You think I need the book or youthink well, you just told me it
seems easy enough? Or do I needto read the entire book.
You can give me a call. I cantell you the whole book. But you
can try like that. The mainthing is that you can't take
things for someone when it comesto when they're like right. And

(58:21):
then after the two minutes it'sdone. It's a clean slate. Come
here. I love you if you can seeif they understand that you
shouldn't have thrown that thisis you we picked this out we put
it away. Whatever.
Let me find out we did anepisode of this one's called
parenthood'sI'll send you the soundbite

(58:47):
I love talking about this stuff.
Because I have a lot ofexperience with it.
though. Yeah, well, anyway,let's get back to
you really appreciate fatherhoods. Big ups for you doing
that. Thank you, man. And you'vebeen you know, doing radio and
podcasting, the majority of yourcareer and our real veteran.

(59:10):
What advice would you givesomeone like us that is starting
out a new podcast,I would say just give yourself
enough time to get the resultsthat you're looking for to
continue doing it. And everybodyhas a different measure of
success. It doesn't look thesame for everybody, maybe for
you guys is just getting thetype of guests that you want to
get or getting a certain amountof listeners, maybe it's not a

(59:32):
hundreds of thousands, maybe youjust want 10,000 maybe you just
want 5000 whatever, whateversuccess means to you. Just so I
would say as always giveyourself the time to get to that
point and evaluate. Okay, youknow, we've done it for six
months, a year, two years,whatever. Do we still enjoy
doing it? Are we getting what wewant out of it? Is it successful
to us in that aspect? And that'swhat I would tell anybody

(59:55):
because oftentimes people lookto the biggest, you know, Let's
just say in podcasts, they'lllook at the biggest podcast or
they'll look at Joe Rogan, ohman, I gotta get to Joe Rogan
status, you know, and and thenif I didn't I'm not successful
that's that's not the way to doit you know just whatever
success means to you and itcould mean different things.
Yeah, I also think people don'trecognize, you know, Joe Rogan
has been doing it for 11 years,you know, it's your overnight

(01:00:18):
successes, he said, Right,right. And nobody and you never
know anybody's True story. LikeJoe Rogan could have been doing
it for 11 years, and that it was11 years, five of those years
was just him doing as a hobbyand didn't make a dime doing it.
And nobody knows, you know, youdon't know any better than that.
But then he had his other jobsand you know, TV gigs, and MMA
or whatever, that were payingthe bills, so, but he loved

(01:00:42):
doing the podcast. So he did itconsistently. And he did it for
as long as he felt he wanted todo it for him to the point where
it became his main thing. Soit's, that whole thing is being
consistent and being persistent,and enjoying the journey of
doing whatever you're doing.

(01:01:02):
Good. I think we have thatCheck, check, check, check. I'm
like, you're saying that I'mlike, we got that check. That
sounds like that sounds like us.
So you run multiple podcasts andmarketing firm, you produce
films or raising two babies,managing a marriage, and you
find the time to jump on ourshow. How do you balance it all?

(01:01:23):
Ah,I mean, it's not easy to balance
it. All. Right, now I have thisweird schedule that I've created
for myself. So you see, thetimeframe that we're doing it
in, my daughter is asleep rightnow. And I have a few hours and
my girls with the baby. And Itry to schedule things within
those two hours, and I cram itwith as much stuff as I can.
Usually on the weekends, I don'tcram it. So we're good today.

(01:01:46):
But I usually cram it with a lotof stuff. So that's what I've
been doing and hasn't fixed, youknow, all my, you know, task of
finishing type deal. But, uh,but you know, it's, it's how I'm
balancing it right now. And, andI know that at the end of the
day, you know, with the kids aregonna grow up, you know, the
schedules are gonna change,they're gonna eventually have,

(01:02:08):
you know, preschool andkindergarten and all that stuff.
And the schedules will changearound and I'm really just
taking it day by day.
How do you take care of yourhealth physically and mentally,
that's been tough for two aswell. I do work out actually, I
wouldn't call myself acrossfitter. Because that's not

(01:02:29):
fair to crossfitters. But I goto a CrossFit gym. And what it's
really allowed me to do is arelease a lot of stress, and
just get my body moving, and Itry to go at least four or five
times a week, it's proven a lotmore difficult because of what I
just said, you know, with theschedule with the kids and all
that, and also it um, it digsinto my work little time. But

(01:02:54):
it's really important for me, Ifeel in terms of stress and, and
just health, I'm always tryingto do better with health because
even with like, you know, doinglike a show, like drink champs,
I'm very conscious of what thatdoes to my health, because we
really do drink, we really getwasted. And some of these
episodes lately have been goingfive hours long, four and a
half, five hours long. Andthat's four and a four and a

(01:03:15):
five hours long of drinking. Andas you start to age, you know,
your body takes liquordifferently. You know, I was in
my 20s and early 30s isdifferent, you know, now I'm in
my early to mid 40s. So it'slike, yeah, it's not it's not
the same, but uh, as long as I'mconscious of it, and I'm trying,
you know, like to navigate that.
I'm all right, but I'm alwaysI'm always working at it. Like I
said, working out is importantfor me. Even though I know I'm

(01:03:37):
not a peak athlete. I just go inthere and, and sweat and then
trying to eat decent. I'm not100% the best, healthiest eater
for lack of better words, but Itry to not eat the worst things
in the world. I'm pescatarian soI don't know sounds healthy. And
yeah, so that's all I tried todo and meant it to me actually.
Mental health is probably one ofthe most important things and

(01:04:00):
that's why I think the gym helpsme with stress release on
releasing those endorphins andwhen I come out of there, my
mental health feels like it gotto work out so that to me is
keenly important and gettingregular checkups at the doctor
to make sure that I'm good myliver is good and overall health
is good.
It's like a regiment like afterdrink champs I do drink because

(01:04:23):
we had a rest and peace with Rayhe had like a mantra that he
would have like a water waterlike a water thing
at all I've done it all over theyears. I've changed it
constantly what happens is thatyou have a regiment until you're
too drunk to have a regiment youknow? Yeah, so the regimen only
lasts the first hour of drinkchamps and but I drink a lot of

(01:04:45):
water regularly. I drink try todrink water Drink Drink champs,
and then in the morning I havelike this whole like ginger shot
and tumeric shots and all thisother stuff. I don't know if
it's working. Butit's good though.
No, no, it's all good, but it'sall mental. To I don't know if
my whole thing, it's all mentalat the end of the day, as long
as my brain thinks it's working,then it's working.

(01:05:08):
Earlier this year talking abouthealth, you had COVID, right?
Yeah, I did. And candy is justgetting over COVID. She just two
weeks ago, it was terrible. Thesymptoms were terrible for two
weeks, Ithink I went through three days
where I could barely breathe.
The other things I was feelinglike, in my joints, I kind of

(01:05:30):
nagging headache, basicallyevery symptom that
was, like three out of, I don'tknow, it was like five or six
symptoms. Yeah, the one that Iknew I didn't get checked until
I couldn't smell the dirtydiapers. Oh, yeah, I couldn't
smell because I would just holdup the baby. And so we got to
change the baby, you know, whenI couldn't smell that anymore.
And it says, you lose your smelland taste. That's when I went

(01:05:52):
and checked, and then I came uppositive.
Yeah, I didn't have any tastefor a few days. Yeah, it was
terrible.
Luckily, it didn't hit me toocrazy. Um, it was more of a
stress because of the family.
And you know, people were like,Oh, so are you quarantining from
the family? Like, no, I have anewborn at the time. And yeah,
there's no in a toddler. Andthen we also take care of my

(01:06:16):
girls, grandma at the crib, whohas like the first beginning
onset of dementia. So there's nomean not being around in that
environment. So my worries, youknow, were the math around most
of the time, we had the handsanitizer all day long. And I
was just hoping that nobody elsecaught especially the grandma,
that that would be, you know,terrible and deadly for her if

(01:06:36):
she got it. But uh, we checked,everybody checked out, nobody
caught it, I was the only one, Ihad maybe three or four days of
feeling kind of crappy. Andthen, you know, quickly got out
of that. Yeah, but I'll tell youthis. And this is what's
starting to worry me. I've beenreading a lot about the
lingering effects, and the aftereffects of people who were even

(01:06:59):
asymptomatic. And they're sayingthere's stuff with the lungs,
with the liver with the brain,that people should be worried
about. And I don't know if it'smy brain playing tricks on me,
but I'm feeling things that Ididn't feel before COVID. And
I'm wondering if it's because ofCOVID. So just stuff for us to
think about, especially when wego to the doctor, like I'm

(01:07:19):
planning on goes for my regularannual checkup, and I'm gonna,
you know, really ask all thosequestions,
what gives you hope during thesetimes,
I mean, I would say the onlything that gives me hope is,
it's like forcing myself to havehope, because of the kids. And
just, you know, being a creativeperson, or, you know,
everybody's a creative person,just so you tap into it, that

(01:07:42):
always gives me hope to be ableto create things and do things
and, and express myself indifferent ways like that. And so
that always keeps me hopeful, nomatter what's going on, you
know, the creative process, buteasy to get down in these times.
But I'm also a big student ofhistory, and history is full of
crap. So it's like, you know,you could look at it as the, you

(01:08:05):
know, the glass half full glasshalf empty, it's really
throughout history, things havebeen worse, you know, so. So
that also gives me a glimmer ofhope. And at the end of the day,
I try try to look at thepositive and, and humanity
versus the negative. And thetraveling helps me because I've
seen so much positive and, andtraveling to different countries

(01:08:25):
and and meeting different peopleand just in being welcomed by
people and, and seeing joy whereyou would work. Most people
would be like, how can you behappy in this situation and
people are happy. So that givesme hope. So we want to roll out
the red carpet for you too. Canyou let people know how they can
support you and where they canfind what you're doing? Sure.

(01:08:47):
I mean, the best place to go isto crazyhood.com as well as
drinkchamps.com and then mysocials is @whoscrazy on
Instagram, @DJEFN on Twitter andFacebook. And yeah, that's
pretty much everything, and@crazyhood as well on both.
What is hip hop to you?
hip hop to me, is a way of lifeand a way of expressing

(01:09:10):
yourself.
Thank you so much to our guestDJ EFN for taking the time and
being so open while sharing yourperspective with us
some of the gems we took awayfrom this interview were
In order to avoid going throughpitfalls, you can seek knowledge

(01:09:33):
through specific courses andapply it to your real world
situations. It is never too lateto educate yourself.
When investing in your ideas.
You may not see a return oninvestment right away. First, it
is important to prove yourconcept through a prototype or
pilot. Then a consistent andpersistent work ethic will
enable your success but mostimportantly, you must enjoy the

(01:09:54):
journey.
Be someone who nurtures andbuilds. Each relationship tends
to a strength and weaknesswithin you.
Our theme music was beatbox byDenis the Menace and produced by
Zede. A big shout out to thebrothers from Switzerland.
The background music wasproduced by Taki Brano. A big

(01:10:15):
thank you to our broski fromProvidence.
Also a big shout out to theFather Hoods podcast. Thanks for
the mention on last week's showand providing a space for hip
hop dads.
Our podcast basically runs oncoffee to keep our show running
you can support by buying us acoffee through the link in our
show notes. Much love toVernessa: Thank you for

(01:10:36):
listening and for all your greatfeedback.
We would love to get yourfeedback questions and any
suggestions you might have. Youcan reach out to us on
Instagram, Twitter or Facebook@SoulidarityLLC or via email s
[e-mail] you like today's show, please
tell a friend about our podcast.

Or as Phife Dawg would say (01:10:59):
tell your mother, tell your father,
send a telegram.
In our next episode, we welcomeNatalia Pitti, better known as
y Verse.
She is a rapper, songwriter,poet, MC and humanitarian best
known for being a battle rapperin the Smack / URL circuit,
a member of the Rock Steady Crw and for being a contestant in

(01:11:21):
So you want to wild out" on MTVand VH
Don't forget to subscribe to theshow and leave a rating and
review.
See you on our next episode.
Thank you for listening to ourpodcast.
No seriously though. Thank you.
I am candy.
I'm DJ Razor Cut. And this issouls of hip hop.