December 15, 2020 • 51 mins
In this episode we interview Natalia Pitti aka MyVerse. She is a songwriter, poet, emcee, and humanitarian, best known for being a battle rapper in the SMACK/URL circuit. She was also a contestant in the improv comedy show Wild 'N Out on MTV and VH1.
We chat about her upbringing in Orlando, transitioning from poetry to battle rap, the science behind writing bars, collaborating with Wayne Brady and Monie Love, giving back to the community, directing videos and much more.
You can find MyVerse here:
https://myversewashere.com/
https://www.youtube.com/c/NATALIAdidthat
https://www.facebook.com/MyVerse/
https://twitter.com/myverse
https://www.instagram.com/myverse/
https://soundcloud.com/myverse
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Unknown (00:00):
It's so nostalgic. You don't realize those very simple
(00:04):
moments. Were just a randomperson comes and like, Hey, I
brought you a coconut. Do youwant some to drink from the
coconut? You know what I mean?
Like you go, like, that waslike, Oh wait, I gotta sanitize
this. I gotta make sure I sticka stick up your nose and make
sure you ain't got no shit.
Okay, you good.
(00:28):
Welcome to Souls of Hip Hop. Apodcast for hip hop heads that
aims to bring inspiring peopletogether to share their wisdom,
passion, and unique stories.
My name is candy. I'm DJ RazorCut. And together we are
Soulidarity - connecting soulsorganic.
(00:57):
What's up you guys? MyVerse,Rock Steady crew, poet, emcee,
battle rapper, comedian,humanitarian and best friend.
Welcome to the show. How wouldyour parents describe what you
do?
My mom would say that. I look atmy daughter. No, just kidding. I
(01:21):
mean, I mean, my mom, she wouldbe like, My daughter is a
rapper. She's a rapper, andshe's a poet. And she'll always
showShall we show my my song, the
100% remix that I did a punch.
She loves watching that. Andshe's like, I watch it every
day. So yeah, she'll say, I'm arapper. That's what she'll say.
(01:42):
She said my daughter that she'sa musician. She does music. And
then my father, my father, Lokiwants to be my manager.
Because when we went to Panama,he went to the DJ, and he was
like, my daughter's a rapper,and she does music. Get her on
the microphone right now. And hegot me to rap at a club out
there in Panama. So he was sohappy for me. But yeah, they'll
(02:06):
they'll say I'm a rapper. So myMC that'd be bodying these
holes.
So you just touched on Panama,you have Panamanian and Puerto
Rican roots. Tell us more aboutyour background. Yeah,
absolutely. My mom's from PuertoRico. And my father's from
(02:26):
Panama. My mom came to Americato you know, just better her
life. And she came with my mylittle brother. And then she met
my father in Orlando, who hecame from actually my father
lived in New York and then movedto because our family was in New
York, and then he moved toOrlando. Yeah, from there, he
(02:46):
met my mom at church, and hekept going to church because of
my mom. That's what he says. Soyeah, my background is very,
very much church oriented,because my mom had me definitely
going to church every Wednesday,Friday and Sunday. You know,
that's very much established asfar as like, spirituality. You
know what I mean? I wouldn't sayI'm a religious person, but I'm
(03:08):
very spiritual person. That's afoundation of of me. You know
what I mean? And so, my fatherended up living in Ocala, you
know, they separated because myfather, he's a very, he's a
very, how do I say this? He is avery,
he is he loves to party. Okay.
He's a good he's a party goer,you know what I mean? And then
(03:30):
my mom is very, about herchurch. That's what she's about.
So sometimes people areunequally yoked. So but my
father ended up living in Ocala.
And all this a lot of fields alot of horses and stuff. So he
would train a lot of horses forlike the Kentucky Derby or for
like, different like horseraces. And so that and he would,
(03:50):
and he will also breed and helpgive birth to two horses, cuz
like horse racing and all thatis like, in panamas, like super
big, you know what I mean? Like,it's, you know, they have a lot
of branches out, they werehorses, those he took that what
he was doing in Panama, andbrought it to Florida and then
well, New York and in Florida.
So I used to go to Puerto Rico alot. And I used to go to Ocala a
(04:13):
lot. And just so it's like, I'ma city slash country, girl.
Almost, you know what I mean? Soyeah, my background is very
culture culturally aware,because my mother, she always
made sure that me and my brotherwere exposed to like ballets and
like, Flamingo and like, ifthere's something that I like to
do, she would always cultivatethat, you know, like fashion.
(04:35):
She took me to a fashion schoolbecause, you know, I told her,
that's what I wanted to do. Iwanted to be a fashion designer.
Yeah, my mother she was she wasone of those moms that was like,
Oh, you you like fashion, okay,we're going to a fashion school.
We're gonna go get us all mushy.
And we're gonna you know what Imean? I'll be like, I like I
want to learn how to danceoutside. All you want to do
(04:56):
sighs Okay, we're gonna take youto satisfy heat.
We're gonna take you to anymusical that has it, you know
what I mean? So, yeah, I got twovery loving parents. They were
very loving parents and theywere able to co parent without
having to be together. So it wascool. Like I had, like, my mom
always respected my pops eventhough he was he was out here,
(05:17):
you know, saying below that nowhe's better. You know what I
mean? My father knows betterthan my father that was you
know, he's married and he goesto church, and like he like
stopped drinking. Stop smoking.
He sobbed like he's completelydifferent, like completely
changed man and I got my twolittle sisters. It's good it's
good right now you know? Sothat's a little bit about me a
(05:38):
little bit about my backgroundas far as like my mom my pops. I
mean, I can understand the enemyinside I'm half kind of me too.
And in Orlando you're at thecity but then you're surrounded
by all this farmland outsideOrlando's all that what we call
red area. Right? I mean, reallysaw you know what I mean?
clearly saw the difference.
(06:01):
Florida's hilarious Tell meabout what it was like growing
up in Orlando. You know, Orlandois such a like mesh, I was
raised around a lot moreboutique was, you know what I
mean? Especially like, what hegoes from New York, and like,
from the island to the peoplethat are from the island, we're
went to my church, and the NewYorkers and the New York, Puerto
(06:22):
us were in my school, you know,you have that appreciation of
being from Puerto Rico. And thenseeing the difference between
Puerto Ricans from New York andPuerto Ricans from Puerto Rico,
you know what I mean? Growing upin in Orlando, you, there's a
lot of that. And Jamaicanculture, like Caribbean culture
is like very strong out here. Sothere's an essence of like hip
(06:44):
hop out here in Orlando. That isvery true, from the elements to
like, MC freestyling. Like we'vewe really like pride ourselves
in that every Monday you go toAustin's coffee, or you went to
the hush show, growing up inOrlando, it was you know, it was
hip hop, you know what I mean?
It was hip hop, and like,there's an essence out here that
(07:05):
it's not like any other place,you know what I mean? Because a
lot of people from New York,come here, a lot of people from
New York, relocate here. So it'slike, you have that that ism of
the culture. And then on top ofthat, you got Caribbean, it's
very Caribbean out here. So yougot a mix of like, you know,
could I get on reggae, and someway super hip hop heads, you
know, gangster We out here?
(07:29):
gangster like, these are? Theseare things that like, you know,
there's an appreciation of theelements, the four elements out
here in in Orlando, you got yourtags, you got to be boys, you
get the DJs you got your MCs,you know what I mean? And people
pride themselves in being thebest at it. My mom, we lived in
the hood, you know, when welived in like, Oak Ridge area,
(07:51):
you know what I mean? And if youfrom Orlando, you know, that Oak
Ridge area, Lancaster area thatthat areas kind of hood. And so
then my mom ended up working twojobs and getting this added
there. And, you know, we livedin a one bedroom apartment. And
we lived in a little bit more ofa conservative area a little
bit, you know what I mean?
better schools, you know, andso, you know, I lived in that
(08:11):
area for until I was like inseventh grade. And then we and
my mom ended up being able tobuy a house, but she had to move
back to the hood. So instead ofmoving back to her, because that
was what she could afford buyinga house, but she always
instilled like, invest in realestate investing, you know, get
a house for yourself, you knowwhat I mean? I'm doing this so I
can pass this on to you. Youknow what I mean? She's like, we
(08:33):
moved back to that. And thenfrom there, I started learning
of like, what B boys and B girlswere, you know what I mean?
Because it was the area we werein was heavy. Like Bodie was
from New York, or LSA, justboutique was, but like, just the
culture of New York was an areathat I was living in, you know
what I mean? And then my mombought a crib and so from their
(08:54):
influence, a lot of like, megetting into breaking like I
loved breaking breaking was myfirst introduction to like, hip
hop and how dope it is. and notknowing what it was. I didn't
know what it was. I was like,What are these people? spitting
on? This guy just landed on hiswrist? How did he do that? This
guy's crazy. How is he flippingout of that position into
(09:16):
another because like it was itjust boggled my mind. And so
like, you know, you got yourdifferent areas in in Orlando,
you know what I mean? Like, yougot your New York side and then
you got your like Little Haitiand then you got like little
Jamaica here. You know what Imean? And so there's just a,
it's like a melting pot here,you know. And then on top of
(09:36):
that, Disney Disney was likegrowing up Disney was just kind
of like the supermarket like youjust saw there every day. Yeah,
like Disney Central Florida.
That whole beach vibe here too.
You know what I mean? We madeour own entertainment. You know
what I mean? That's what wereally did. We really try to
create outside of just not justDisney, you know what I mean?
(09:57):
Like we you know, thechose those events you know what
I mean the grind time events youknow Ryan time which is the
battle rap channel that kind ofcreated the format that we have
today and battle rap started inOrlando you know growing up in
in Orlando that like I saidbattle rap and like freestyling
is a very is very prominent outhere and it's always been a part
(10:19):
of the fabric of growing up inOrlando. You know, we was we was
out here Yo, who's out hererapid? Yeah, trying to put our
poems to beat flow to that youalways rep in Orlando hard.
Great because in your battles,people go for that as a disk and
you go and you flip it on themlike hard. It's great. I like
(10:43):
especially being someone that'sfrom Orlando. I'm like this girl
dude. Right? You know, we got arep not every that's the problem
is that everybody thinkseverybody in Florida is the same
and it's like clearly even youcould see in this election, you
know, Miami Tampa, Orlando morethan Metropolitan places, you
know, I'm saying where there'smore people that are a little
bit more educated. There you youknow what I mean? You could see
(11:06):
that like, there's a bigdifference from like, the
weirdos that be out. Like, inthe outskirts. It's like the
Hills Have Eyes and shit.
Don't go, don't go doit's scary. It's a stigma and it
sucks because there's a stigmafor Florida that like that
people are wild out here, whichI'm not gonna deny there are
(11:28):
crazies out here. But there'scrazies everywhere. You know
what I mean? But there's peoplethat'd be given us a bad rap and
I'm like, yo, listen, y'allhaven't gotten to where like
Orlando and like the roots ofOrlando and Tampa and Miami and
Jacksonville all these placeslike I said that are very well
educated. Tallahassee they gotfam you over there. They also
have very, they're very bunch ofdeep rooted outs on hip hop
(11:51):
culture. There's a lot ofhistorically legendary people
that came out of Florida and inin Orlando, you know, and they
continue to build and and yousee that impact in the culture
everywhere that you go, you seethe people that have created
especially with UCF jams back inthe day with Bieber jam, or you
(12:11):
know, breaking events and Butlet's get back to you. Uh huh.
Well, I love that you weretouching on that though, because
Florida in general like westarted the bass music the booty
music You know, they're theMiami was big on that. You know
what I mean? Miami Magic Mikecame out of Florida, you know,
Diplo is out of Orlando. Solike, there's a lot of very
(12:35):
powerful people that have thathave affected the culture or
that have affected us adifferent part of probably
culturally but like, yeah, Imean, like you grab on his
joint. But like, for example,having like Tony touch always
out there and legs is always wasout in Orlando, he was always
supporting things, just just somany instances. nathi dj Khalid,
(12:55):
you had all these from Miamirecruiting. I mean, there's just
there's so much going on. I metCraig two weekends ago, and
we're doing a record together.
And it's so funny, like, he wastalking about Miami hip hop, you
know what I mean, in Miami sceneand how it was and like, there
(13:18):
was kind of like a one pointthere was like a stillness and
then eventually, like, came backand it was like calot and Rick
Ross and then and then robbanks. All these like Miami
artists kind of brought backlife. Like back to Florida
music. You know what I mean? OrMiami music? Don't put us in the
in the category of all that areweirdos out here in Florida.
(13:38):
Okay. Not just Baskin. Yeah,dagli Oh, my God, for perfect
example.
My gosh, so you get introducedto breaking in your hood. But
then how did you transition intobecoming a poet and then
transition into battle rap? Idid actually, when I was living
(14:01):
in that nice area, I starteddoing like poetry. And that's
where I started doing poetry,right. But all of my poetry
would rhyme. And I was it wouldalready like it was already
bars, you know what I mean? Andso then, when I moved, my mom
moved, you know, and bought thehouse. And it was more of like,
the people that I went to schoolwith, there was more MCs, there
(14:23):
was more MCs, there's more beboys, or breakers. There was
more hip hop enthusiasts, therewas it was there, you know, it's
being surrounded by that andthat, I never realized that me
the poems I was writing, wereactually like wraps. And so
then, from there, I just keptwriting poems. It was easy for
me to write, you know, I gotinto a group of friends of like
(14:43):
rappers. And, you know, I wouldwrite stuff to in a way, like,
be like, yo, look, look at mynew look at what I wrote. Now,
look at my new poem. You knowwhat I mean? And they would be
like, Oh, that's fine. That'scool. To the point where I would
have home girls be like, yo, canyou write a poem about this boy
like, and I would write a poem.
Send get my poems to the littleboyfriends or whatever. Yeah,
(15:03):
like it poetry was justsomething that, that I love to
do. In fact, for wrote poetry, Iused to write stories. as a
little kid, I used to writestories about this character
named Stacy. And then fromthere, like, I started writing
poems. And then I startedwriting poems, stories being
surrounded by MCs, you know, Iwould try to show off my poems,
(15:24):
and I would give my props, youknow, and so these MCs would
battle freestyle battle. And Ilove seeing that I was just in
awe of like, people that couldfreestyle off the top like that,
to me was just like, wow, like,how do you do that with nothing,
that was something that alwaysthat was so intriguing to me.
And so I would get on theinternet and I would look up
(15:46):
freestyle battles. And I cameacross this documentary called
ciphers and supranet battleJews. And they showed Medusa
from the west coast and likethat whole scene, and that was
like, wow, this is a whole like,freestyle MCs. You know what I
mean? Like, this is so cool. Youknow, at that time, though, I
was, you know, I would rap withmy friends, but I was strictly
(16:07):
poetry, like, it was juststrictly poetry that rhymes. And
I wouldn't even do it on a beat.
Like, I would tell them don'tturn off the music for
everything off complete silence.
Let me do this poem. You knowwhat I mean? I didn't even want
to do it on a beat. I remember Iwas I was doing poetry like in
high school, and then college, Imet Matt ILS. And Matt ILS was
like, yo, you should go to thisevent. It's called
(16:29):
vocalizations. And it was onMonday nights with so little
acquista sounds and from theirs.
That was the first time that Iremember I went on stage. And I
did my poem. And I remember suamand all them like suam. Alex,
like, they was like, yo, you'redope. Yes. Keep doing it. You
know what I mean? And they Ilove them because I was so like,
I didn't want to do it on abeat. I remember they were like,
(16:51):
Nah, you gotta do it on a beatyou guys, do you bomb on a beat?
I was like, no.
And then they and I did it. Andbut I didn't do it. Like on beat
like in the pocket. It was justlike a poem. Yeah, I remember
from there. Like, there was apoint. I went through this, like
self reflection that I juststopped doing poetry. I stopped
(17:13):
writing, I stopped everything.
You know, like, as far as like,creating whatever, because I was
like, yo, am I really doingthis? Because I want to do it,
or am I doing this? Because Iwant to be cool. You know what I
mean? Like, am I doing this justso I could fit in with people?
And maybe I was doubting myselfor something. But I was just
like, I don't want to do this.
I'm just gonna do real estate.
You know, I mean, I'm gonna selltimeshares is all I'm gonna do
you know what I mean? And then Iremember, I was upset about
(17:36):
something. And I was just like,I'm just gonna write, I just
want to write, I did the poetryto express myself because I was
feeling like, I feel like am Idoing these poems just just for
show? Or am I doing this toreally express myself and
express and that's why i say i'mnot going to write anything
until it's something that is megiving myself and being
vulnerable. And this beingsomething that this is the true
(17:57):
mean, this is the truth to me.
This is the true this is thetruth that I'm living right now.
And this is the most honest,she's like flow it just flowed
it came it was just, it was likeyou don't like when you like
have so much bottled up insideand then it's just like
literally me of like getting youto exit exercises just like that
(18:21):
rejected. But it was just a flowjust like every like all the
pain all the down all theregret, or all the whatever. It
was just like, flow flow. Andthen like, I came to a
realization was like, I fuckinglove this shit. What is wrong
with me? Why would I not dothis? This is so great. I'm not
be a poet. So then. So then Iwas just like, you know what,
(18:44):
let me let me do an open mic.
Let me have a place where I canjust release, you know what I
mean? And I did these open micscalled prolific Mondays. And I
remember you start a very smallstartup that would play guitar
and then a guy on that got homeand then blue box would come
out. From there, I startedpracticing putting my poems on a
beat. And like really try tolike rap, you know what I mean?
(19:05):
Like really actually put in mypoetry to bars and like
learning, flow, learning thestructure of a verse, learning
the structure of when a hookcomes in and, and flow going
from poet to emcee. It's easy torhyme. But when now you have to
come up with a cadence it's verydifferent now you're an
instrument. Now your your voicean instrument. So you know those
(19:26):
open mics really got mecomfortable being on stage and
weekly, like getting on the micand creating in some of my
greatest poems came from thoseprolific Monday nights. And then
throughout that whole time,grind, time is happening. These
battles are happening, andthey're asking me Oh, when are
you going again? You shouldbattle you should battle and I'm
(19:46):
like, Nah, man, I'm straightpoetry. You know what I'm
saying? I'm straight. Like,let's uplift our sisters. Like
this is where I'm at. I'm nottrying to. I'm not you know, I'm
not out here trying to like,write about
How should a person is I want towrite to heal people. I did
that. And then I got into music.
I was like, you know what I'drather use. I'd rather do music.
I rather use my time to music.
(20:10):
And then eventually I ended upgetting signed with grind time
as an artist, I was granted asan artist. So I was going to use
the battle rap platform to sharemy music and to be an emcee,
because there just really atthat time was in a lot of female
representation. The first time Iwrapped a poem on a beat was at
this place called tengo. res.
No, I think it was on Sundaynight, they would have like a
(20:31):
band play. And I remember I waslike, for the first time, my job
in front of all of my peers thatknow me as a poet. And I
remember, I was like, I'm gonnado this poem, and I did it. But
I did it like on a be like, Iwas emceeing and people were
like, I remember Am I am wasthere. I always remember my
mom's reaction because Am I amwas the first one I got up he
was like, yo, you're rad. Like,yeah,
(20:59):
fucking rapper. Yeah, no rapper.
I'ma rapper. And then that's what I
started my prolific Mondays andthat was when I was like, Okay,
let me start putting my posts tobe in learning flow. How did you
get the name my verse, My verse,so you know what? I used to be
called diverse but then therewas there was an MC quote
diverse so like now I can't youknow, I'm saying about the fight
(21:22):
nobody for that name. So then,Matt ILS had something called
the written battles where itwasn't a freestyle battle. It
was written battles. This wasbefore grind time. This was
probably like lounge battles.
Remember, we used to have thesethings called lounge battles. So
manual said, yo, there's awritten battles you want to
enter. And I'm like, All right,I'll get it. I'll get in the
(21:45):
battle. So I was like, Okay, sothis isn't a freestyle battle. I
can write these bars down and Ican go up there and wrap them
right and it was funny becausethis is the format that it is
today. Now every l The battle isall written. Now. You know what
I mean? You know, you're gonnabattle when you're right for
them, right. But I wanted tothis battle, this type of
battle, I went in with universalbars that oh, this somebody you
(22:06):
know what I mean? And it wasn'ton a beat, it was all acapella.
I remember, I answered it. Andbefore I entered it, I was like,
I have to have a name. I can'tenter this battle without a
name. So I picked a name that ifthey were to use my name, it
would be dissing them. If theywere trying to diss my name,
they would diss their name, theywould just themselves. So if
they were like, yo, my versustrash, I'll be like, you're
(22:27):
right. You're versus trash. Andif they're like my versus ill,
I'll be I add that, my verse L.
That was why I picked the name,my verse, what's your science
behind writing bars, I canreally be inspired by anything.
I could hear a word and I'mlike, Oh, I could do something
on that. Writing a battle,writing music and writing poetry
are like two different or threedifferent parts of your head
(22:50):
that you're using to come upwith bars for a song depends on
the concept, how you're going toconceptualize this song, when it
comes to a person that I'mbattling. You know, I think
about, okay, this person thatI'm battling, I can really talk
crazy to them, you know what Imean? I can get super personal
if I wanted to, but I'm more ofthe type that I like to strictly
(23:11):
make bars and I like it to bebar heavy. I'd like to talk to
you as a person and like, tellyou how you can be better, but
like, you know, depending on howI feel like sometimes I feel
like I want to do morehyperboles you know, I got money
so totally reaches to the sky orreaches a cloud hyperbole is
where you kind of exaggeratewhat you're saying. Sometimes I
want to be lyrical miracle.
(23:33):
Sometimes I don't want to belike, metaphorical or vulgar.
Bring them borders or borders onhow to forward nocona corporate
poses. I'm sure you're gonna belike, I feel like I want to do
that. It's all about youropponent. I'm pretty sure candy
knows when it comes to battling.
Like, whatever they got tostrengthen. I'm going to show
how I can do that better. Oh,you do that good. Well, I love
what I do. I since I've gottento battling it has helped me so
much with creating songs. It'shelped me so much with even
(23:56):
poetry. I never realized that mypoems like the bars and my poems
would have been great bars forbattles. So because I was doing
poetry slams to I justeverywhere rapping, right is how
do you prepare yourself likementally for these battles?
Because it's brutal. Like, ifanybody would say that to me, I
would be really either reallyupset or just want to cry, like
(24:17):
how do you prepare mentally andemotionally? Like mentally to
prepare for a battle? You got tosay, fuck what they're gonna say
to me. I got to focus on thisperson. Some people approach it
like be rabbit ish. Remember howB rabbit in a while he was like,
you're going to talk about this?
(24:38):
You're going to talk about that.
You know, you can do that. Butto me, I don't want to waste my
time. Like I want to talkdirectly to you. Let me tell
you, it could drive you crazy.
Thinking of what ifs? What ifthis What if this person does
that? What if this you know whatI mean? You can be mentally, you
know, sometimes you have tovision how you want your battle
to turn out like I'm going tovisit
(25:00):
That I'm going to go second inthis battle me person I
freestyle. You know, like Isaid, Orlando We out here
freestyling. So like you can saywhatever you want to me. And if
it's strong enough, I will do arebuttal it going into a battle
you have to obviously prepareyourself for what you think your
opponent is going to say. Find away that you could still diss
them, but still defend yourselfat the same time. Yeah, going
(25:22):
into a battle mentally you justyou just have to get some thick
skin straight up. You got tohave some thick skin because
people are gonna say some crazyshit to you that you're just
like, who raised youraised you? Yeah, I'm gonna be
honest with you. I like crudehumor and battle rap isn't for
everybody. Just like comedyrows. They're not for everybody.
(25:42):
Some people are veryhypersensitive, and they don't
see it as just battle, right?
They're like, Oh, those arefighting words. But it's almost
like a boxer. You know, youcan't get mad that someone
punched you in the face. That'syour job. You just got to really
love it. And there's people thatfight with honor and there's
people that just they get theirrocks off of having a cheap shot
(26:03):
or taking low blows. You know,just depending on what kind of
battler you to me. I'd like tofight with honor still son you
and still keep my dignity andRabb better than you to me. I'm
like, I want to show that I canrap better than you. I want to
show that you as a person y'allbelieve in this person this
much. But really they're notthat great. That's kind of like
my mentality when I go into thisbattle even if they're my
(26:27):
friend, you are my enemy fortoday. I love you but I ain't
about to be out here taking ELSHell no. You touched on it
earlier like how you knowwriting this is very different
from writing a song from a poem.
Why do you think that it'sfairly rare for very successful
battle rappers to cross overinto being successful recording
(26:50):
artists? I don't know there's astigma that battle rappers can't
make music and I think we'regetting out of that element
right now especially in 2020because Jay Z was about a rapper
big he was about a rapper. Thething is people don't be
claiming they battle rap side.
They don't want to claim it. Weout here making good music
(27:11):
battle rappers do make goodmusic. Shout out to ruin your
day mixtape. There's a mixtapethat is out. It's already on
volume four. And it pretty muchputs all battle rappers music. I
think the problem the reason whyyou don't see many battle
rappers being like, supersuccessful as far as I can music
(27:32):
is because they don't realizethe marketing behind it. This
thing, battle rappers, theyunfortunately don't realize that
they have a platform to pushtheir music. And a lot of them
don't push their music enough.
You literally have a millionpeople subscribe to this channel
that you're on. The first thingin all of my battles, you're
(27:53):
going to see my music, you'regoing to hear my song, you're
going to know that my verse hasmusic because I'm not just going
to stand up here and let youcall me a bitch and whatever
name in the book for nothing.
Okay, I'm going to get someresiduals off this at the end of
the day someone's going to goand doubt you don't say
streaming music or buy a T shirtor something. You have to be
(28:13):
able to brand that's the problemis that battle rappers just want
a bad rap. So now it's likethey're not realizing like their
fullest potential which I'mgoing to be honest there's there
is battle rappers that that arerealizing it now. For example, k
shine, k shine. He's like amajor label behind him. k shine
is like one of the top battlerappers right now. He's doing
(28:34):
exactly what he's supposed todo, which is battle rap and push
your music. Because you've gotto understand people think just
because our song isn't on theradio doesn't mean we're not
successful. There's a lot of MCsthat you don't that are super
successful that their song isn'ton the radio and they don't it's
not like they don't havestardom. We need to get
millionaire we need to get somemillionaire battle rappers you
(28:55):
know what I mean? We some battlerappers that are gonna be
millionaires off of their battleraps one and their music. I just
can't say that the betterrappers don't make good music
because I've met many like NewJersey twerk that's a crazy
name. I know. But that's hisname. And he makes really good
music. Two L's recognize,recognize I was just on the
(29:15):
phone with him today. I lovethat you said that. Yes.
Recognize that's another one. Hebecame pretty successful. Like,
I mean, he wasn't like Jay Zfamous. But for the most part.
Yeah. I'll tell you one thingthough. All your favorite
rappers watch battle rap. All ofthem. And a lot of them now
nowadays are getting their barsfrom battle rappers. So in a
(29:36):
way, we do make good music,because our bars are in those
songs.
Our bars are in those hits. Soyeah, I really love seeing you
on Nick Cannon show. Because youyou're super funny every time. I
mean, you know we're friends. Sowe do spend a lot of time having
fun and it's always somethingcoming up on the fly.
(30:00):
Little Mermaid in the pool.
Yeah, see you up there and doingthese things, you know, how did
you feel? It was an amazingopportunity to really help
spring a lot of things as far aslike people seeing me learning
me the first experience ofbattling Nick Cannon you know
live I think the impact of thatwas because of the fact that it
(30:22):
was live there's no edits it wasstraight up live on national TV
you know what I mean live thathad such an impact on as far as
like even our battle rapculture, you know what I mean?
salute to Nick Cannon because hewas always given a stage for
battle rappers. What yourchoices to do after it is
completely up to you you knowwhat I mean? Are you going to
(30:44):
capitalize off of it? Or are youjust going to be like Hey, cool.
I was on TV salute to NickCannon for giving us that
opportunity. It's I'm gonna tellyou is probably one of the
funnest jobs to have fun is jobsto be a cast member of wiling
out. And yeah, it made meactually dig into different
parts of my artistry as far aslike improv. I started taking
(31:05):
improv classes because of wilingout and, man if Have you ever
done improv? Yeah.
You got to do it. You want to doit. It is so much fun. It's so
funny. It's so creative. It letsyou use your imagination. It
(31:26):
helps you with critical thinkinglike it's such an awesome thing
to do. In fact, I think just tothrow this out there, I think it
would be really cool if youimplemented a little bit of
improv classes into childhoodthis culture. Oh, yeah, word. I
appreciate wiling out for thatexperience. Because learning
about improv, like, improv is sogreat for kids. Because like,
(31:50):
especially kids that are beingbullied, that like, they may not
know what to do you know what Imean? When kids roasting them,
they don't know what to dobecause they like they like a
deer in the headlights. They'relike, Oh my God. But improv
helps you like kind of maneuverout of a situation or maneuver a
situation to be in your favor.
Shout out to wallet up for thatexperience. Because I was able
to dabble into improv. It got meinto dabbling into comedy, like
(32:12):
actually writing jokes and likescripts for like comedy. And I'm
happy that you know, it was itwas you grow from Orlando, just
a little girl from Orlando. Youknows a little TVs? TV's
MTV. So it was cool. I think inthe website, they even have you
like that you beat him. Yeah, myverse bodies in Yeah, great. It
(32:36):
was. It was great. I do thinkit's really cool. How improv or
the comedic element is veryentertaining. One of my favorite
shows as a kid was like, WhoseLine Is It Anyway? Yes, I
remember that. That's funny. Yousay that. I'm literally doing a
record with Wayne Brady. Like weactually did a record together.
(32:57):
He's so talented. Oh, my gosh,just chirps from him. Talent is
just like, spewed singer dancerwas on a singing show where he
was dressed like I think a foxor something. Yeah, he was
a singer. Yeah. Oh my god, thatwas amazing. He won. This is
something about you that Ialways think is super cool. It's
(33:20):
like, Oh, yeah, I just did athing with crazy Oh, I just was
with Wayne Brady. Oh, I'm justyou know, want to MTV or taboo.
I was just in welding now. Andyou just you're so humble way?
How do you maintain thatbalance? And I keep my friends
around that have been aroundfrom the beginning to stay
grounded, you know. And I keepin mind that this isn't, I still
(33:43):
have so much more to do. I can'tjust like I'm so proud of like,
the accomplishments that I'vehad. And I'm like, so I'm like,
Man, I'm so grateful for likethese once in a lifetime
opportunities that I've beengiven. I just want to I keep
going. I just keep going. Like,I just want to keep going and
maintain being humble. Becausewhat you do know is you know,
(34:03):
nothing at all. And if you keepthat hunger of wanting to
constantly learn, legs told methis perfectly, he says, think
like a vet, but keep the hungerof a rookie. That's what I
always want to maintain is notbe complacent with like, okay,
yes, yo, you've done all thisstuff. But I just feel like
there's so much more for me totackle and so competition to, to
(34:27):
actually discover of myself asan artist. I really truly try to
like just keep like the peoplethat have always had a pure
intention around me. That's whylike, Can I don't I don't even
like I'll be sitting on my fans.
I'll talk to the people thatsupport me. You know what I'm
saying? Like I really, when Isay people are my tribe, like I
call like the people thatsupport me, I called my tribe. I
(34:48):
really believe that like we area tribe. That can never be where
I'm at if it wasn't for thepeople that shared my stuff. If
it wasn't for the people thatare sharing their platform with
me to like, like you guys.
you sharing your platform withme like, I appreciate that. And
so like, I'm just I justmaintain gratitude. Like, that's
what I want to always keepgratitude, just like being
(35:09):
grateful. You had your own showtoo called this and that. Yes,
this and that shout out to QueenJolie and shout out to be girl
Genesis. Those are my sisters.
You know, this year, we kind ofhad to take a hiatus on it
because of the whole, you know,pandemic, you know, I can't miss
them so much. But shout out toGenesis because she'd be holding
these little jam sessions I'llbe seen, like, they want to go
(35:31):
and I go, but I'll be so in myin me creating cuz now I'm
catching up with things thatlike I haven't been able to
finish because I'm always beenon the road. But yes, this and
that. That is a podcast that westarted 2019 we Yeah, we have
this year, we just kind of we Ithink we did one in January. And
then from there, you know, I hadto travel and then, you know, we
(35:54):
want to we want to get it offoff the ground again. Because we
had some really good you know,it was really cool to have like
female perspective in theculture. salutes and my sisters,
I love them so much. I mean, youdo a lot of giving back. And we
we've done a lot of things whichare this culture with us. And
during the pendant mega saw youwere so in mass, what gives you
(36:15):
hope during this time? Yeah, Imean, I was doing I was, and I'm
actually it's funny, I literallyjust got an email because I have
to donate 50 more. We donated25,000 masks to essential
workers. And that's with so forlives, salutes Sofer lives, they
pretty much rounded up a bunchof people that know how to sew,
and have the make face masks forfrom post office workers to
(36:40):
nurses, to people that aredelivering food. You know, these
are essential workers, people atthe grocery store, these are
essential workers. And so it'sbeen an honor to be able to be
part of something like that. Iknow my grandmother is going to
be very proud of me because youknow, she showed me how to sew
in you know, I've been holdingthe data while I've been holding
it down. So for lives, that'swhat I've been doing on my
(37:02):
pastime, it's inspired me toactually make masks of my own
for my page, like fashion wise,you know, the best that I make
to donate are more like theylook like medical ones. And the
ones that I have on my sitearen't they're more fashionable,
but they're still medicallyapproved because I put a
propylene in the middle and Iput a little wiring at the top
so we can like pinch on yournose. And it's a little baby
plug in there. You also shootand direct your own videos
(37:25):
recently, I caught you and youwere shooting a video in a
furniture store. Can you tell usmore about that? Oh, thank you.
Okay, so let me tell you, let metalk to you. So if you want to
know what I've been doing tostay busy, you know, I've been
creating songs, I do this thingcalled the department store. And
this was going to help me getinto how I made that music
video. So department stores is Igo into random stores, and I'll
(37:46):
just, you know, I'll make barsoff of whatever's around me and
I'll do it in a form that's likebattle rappy you know, say like,
it's like a battle rap cadence.
Because that's my style. Youknow, like my style of filming.
Like I do guerilla style, likeAustralia just pull up and be
like pulled camera. Let's go. Sofor that video, I was like, Yo,
(38:07):
I really means I need to find aplace that has a bookshelf. You
know, I need an office becausethe concept that I had was like
I want this to be like an officeand I'm like don't call your own
mafia style whatever. I was likedamn, where could I find a place
that I could do this? So thenI'm like well I'm thinking I'm
thinking I'm thinking I'm likefuck let's go to a furniture
store. So I'm like I go to afriend cuz your furniture stores
(38:30):
we have in the whole thing setup lighting everything you know,
I mean it's a whole like movieset right there for you. So
yeah, that video was shot at inCaine's furniture shout out to
them I straight up we pulled uplike I had I had already done
you know you got to do locationscouting so I look I found the
location I was like okay, thisis spot went there the next day
(38:52):
I'm dressed up Matt you know I'msaying when my blazer ready. And
shout out to my boy trust. Heyou don't say he filled the
whole day. We straight up usedcanes furniture and it was right
in the coat. Yo was so perfect.
When I'm looking at the video. Iwere like cracking up because
you're like Yo, we had to movethe middle of the price tag off.
(39:13):
Yo, I had left one though.
There's one there's a price tagin there that nobody has done. I
don't think anybody cut it.
video now they can pick it upbut saying you're resourceful. I
always use you as an example forentrepreneurs and the type of
energy and the type of like youYou come up and again with the
(39:34):
idea of critical thinking andproblem solving and figuring out
okay, I make this video I don'tmake this video look good. How
am I gonna do it? And here weare. Yeah, I Loki want to find
another couch and be like,Alright, we're gonna do some
here, you know, said maybe I actlike it's a club or something.
We'll get some girls with likesparklers. I don't know. gave it
(39:56):
to them. Kick me the fuck out.
But that would be that would befunny. Yes.
Are you gonna buy any of this?
And you're like, yeah, I'm justlooking Yo, like three times I
was like, Yes. I just want tosee if this is good. Okay. Ask
you funny. How are you? Okay?
(40:17):
Let me see this chair fields.
I don't know,the concepts of the videos that
I make. I'm actually it's sofunny that you mentioned that
shout out to the official Latinofilm and art festival or art
awards. I'm actually nominatedthe video that I did in Chicago.
It's for alopecia, I directed itI edited, you know, pretty much
(40:37):
curiosity. And yeah, it gotnominated. I love film and I
love music videos and stuff likethat and I'm all about
production value. And like Isaid, Caine's furniture has
amazing production value, forgreat production value.
For sure that people have torealize like you were in a day
(40:58):
and age that like everything istangible if you want it to be if
you want to make your own musicvideo, you can make it you know
what I mean? You can you can doit. You got to find like minded
people that are willing to helpyou and like hold the camera and
want to see you when, you know,talking about entrepreneurial
endeavors. What's the deal withyou getting certified to grow
(41:19):
weed or sell weed? I amcertified. Bud tender. Yeah, I
am a certified bud tender. Thankyou to learn CTV University.
Yeah, I think is a joke. This isdead. As we out here in Orlando,
we got a school called learn totiba and I learned how to do
hydroponics pretty much learninghow to grow weed without being
(41:43):
outside. just pretty muchlearning for making it a seed. I
mean, have I been able to use itnow? No, I just go and like buy
from a regular guy. But like,yeah, like I have an actual
certification of being able togrow trees. You know?
It's like do I want to show youI have aquaponics they taught us
aquaponics where you put fishit's like you use like the water
(42:06):
jugs a big water jug. And thenyou put water in it you put fish
in it right and then the fishpoop helps fertilize the the
trees, like your your whatever,you know your tomatoes. It's
great skills to learn.
Especially like let's say azombie apocalypse happens. Hey,
you know, I know how to growtomatoes.
(42:32):
Especially tomatoes. I'm in mygardener candy now out here.
Yeah, you got the green thumb. Igot it. Yeah, I got it. Making
some set. No, I mean eatinglettuce all summer. Oh, that is
so cool. Oh, that's what I wantto do. That's amazing. You'll
How long did it take you to likesoil? And probably when we
(42:55):
started actually getting somelettuce grown pretty fast within
a month. I would say within sixweeks we're getting the lettuce
kale to probably I will give ittwo months. So I we got here in
the beginning of June by likemiddle June. Yeah, by middle
July, we're already makinglittle salad packs. Like you
know, you get the little saladeffects with the whatever it is
(43:16):
I was getting them and thenherbs too. It's dope. So I can I
can see that. You know, you knowhow to grow some tomatoes, and
some addsome tomatoes. It's the same
one. Yeah, there was like yo,say it's a safe tomato.
(43:37):
Marriage alone.
But yeah, where do you get thisentrepreneurial spirit? Because
like, you're like, Girl, I canbrain. You know, I'm going
rollerblades and playbasketball, you have all these
different skills. But where doyou get that from? You know, I
don't know. Maybe my father, myfather is a very hard my mom's a
(43:58):
hard worker too. You know, likeI said, My mom was a type person
she was she very muchcultivated, like anything that I
wanted to do. And so that wassomething that was always
instilled in me. Like, if thisis something that I like to do,
then you know, I'm going tocultivate it like I'm going to
make, you know what I mean, I'mgoing to learn about this. I
don't believe me as a person.
I'm just one labeled one thing,you know what I mean? I believe
(44:19):
even as humans, we're socomplex, especially the time the
day and age when it's like wehave we have the opportunity to
have so much to learn. There'sso much information out there
for us to learn from. So when Isaid I want to learn how to make
tomatoes.
When I want to learn how to maketomatoes, you know what I'm
saying? I want to learn how togrow wheat. It was presented to
(44:41):
me my boy was like, Yo, I'm inthe school for wheat. I'm like,
No, you're not and he's like,yes I am. I said let me see. I
want to learn if there'ssomething that you want to
learn, do it breaking. I said Iwant to learn how to break I'm
gonna learn Okay, and I'm gonnalearn from from the great I'm
gonna learn from Candy Candy wasone that told me yo learn how to
get downOn the floor that's what you
need to practice practice how toget down on the floor that was
(45:02):
one of those gems and I stillcarry that with me. I wanted to
learn like i like i said i'm anempty vessel that just wants to
fill itself with knowledge andjust be a well versed person
bars.
You did a project with Moni loveHow did that come about? Yes,
(45:22):
with Modi love I did a record weactually actually had an album
together me her dealer rule andKarolina dirty she got four MCs
like this was something thatModi loved curated along with J.
Ross. J. Ross is actually theproducer that he produced on
black stars album, my one of myfavorite Black Star songs is
(45:44):
brown skin lady way go and yo heproduced that and so he ended up
I guess linking with with money,love money, love ended up
getting me Carolina dirty anddealer row and we formed a group
called heresy. And we released aproject. It's an album so make
sure you guys go look it upheresy. Yeah, we did a record we
(46:07):
did like five records on there.
And then I think a sixth one,the sixth one was kind of like a
promo record. mony love is sodope. She's just so dope. She's
such a good human. You know whatI mean? Like, just in general,
she, she always encouraged me.
She always said, you know, myverse. I'm doing this because I
want you to etch your name inthe tree of hip hop. That's what
(46:28):
I want you to do. I want you toetch your name. And she's like,
you've already etched your name,but I want you to just etch it a
little bit deeper. That metaphoralways like stuck with me. You
know what I mean? Yeah, did youknow what I'm doing? I did a
project with Loni love Yes. Yes,I did.
About more incredibleachievements. You also took over
(46:51):
as the host of quitter RockSteady after blu ray passed away
Yes. honored honored, saluteddestroyed for co hosting with
me. We did the damn thing youknow, we did the damn thing and
in remembrance of Voodoo Raythose those are big shoes to
fill. Especially like just hisenergy the way he'd like. Put a
(47:13):
rock steady was Voodoo Ray, youknew that when you went to
Puerto Rocksteady. You weregoing to have the most warm,
most warmest welcome from him.
And so that energy is somethingthat I carried with me. You
know, when he gave me the honorof being a host I said, you
know, that's what I want to do.
I want to just every you knowwhat I mean? If I see someone
just standing still, I'll belike, Nah, you gotta dance.
(47:34):
Let's go Let's go you know whatI mean? Because that was the
energy that Ray always had hisenergy was always to uplift and
just that transfer that energyand just make you laugh and
still keep it hip hop and stillkeep it Latino and still honor
the earth. You know, he wasalways about that life and so
like I did in remembrance and inreverence to my late bro Voodoo
(47:57):
Ray Yeah, I was looking forwardto doing it again this year. You
know, maybe next year you know,we'll make it happen I really
want to bring battle rap tobecause I know we were doing
freestyle battles, but I reallywant to bring like actual like
battles to pull the rock steadybecause like the anniversaries
they used to have battle eventslike battle rap, pussy. So is
there anything that you wantanything that we left? I didn't
(48:19):
want to share anything. You um,I guess you know, subscribe to
my verse on YouTube. Make sureyou guys go to my vs here.com
get some merch if you want tofollow me on Instagram, my verse
on Spotify, iTunes, Amazon,whatever. Look up my verse one
(48:40):
word, everything is one word, myverse one word. And you know, I
got new music. Always got musicdropping, I just literally
dropped the record today. It'sactually a song I'm featured on
but still, you know, I getresiduals from it. So make sure
you go stream that two that iscalled on tour. And, yeah,
we always end up our interviewswith what is hip hop to you?
(49:03):
Hip Hop to me, is community.
That's what hip hop is to me.
tribe. That's what hip hop is tome is tribe is a tribe in
itself. it's it's a it's a talk,the way you dress. You know what
I mean? It's tribe, you knowwhat tribe you're from when just
by like how you carry yourselftribe. That's what hip hop is,
(49:25):
is community.
Thank you so much to our guest MVerse for taking the time and be
ng so open while sharing your pespective with us. Some of the ge
s we took away from this inerview where
old ways won't open new doorsmake a habit of trying and
(49:46):
learning new things. improvtraining embraces other people's
ideas and responses, which canrapidly diffuse the anxiety of
the unknown. There is a greatjoy in doing what you do well
when it gives back to yourcommunity.
Our theme music was beat boxedby Denis the Menace and
roduced by Zede. A big shout outo the brothers fro
(50:08):
Switzerland. The backgrounmusic was produced by Tak
Brano. A big thank you to ourbrosky from Providence.
Happy holidays from our familyto yours.
Much love to Afrobeta foruying us coffee. Gracias. We lov
your new album illusion motel.
Our podcast basically runs ocoffee to keep our show runnin
. You can support by buyingus a coffee through the link i
(50:30):
our show notes. Andwe would love to get your
feedback questions and anysuggestions you might have. You
can reach out to us on InstagramTwitter or Facebook @S
ulidarityLLC or via email sulidarityllc@gmail.com if you li
e today's show, please tell a frend about our podcasts or as
Phife Dawg would say (50:54):
tell y ur mother, tell your father,
sent a telegram.
In our next episode we welcomemarried couple Honey Rockwell
and Orko. Honey is a legendaryB-girl from the South Bronx. She
created the first film dedicatedto B-girls in the 90s. Orko is a
legendary B boy from California.
He is also a marine veteran.
(51:15):
Honey and Orko have performedaround the world on Broadway
movies and television. Theycurrently own the Rockwell Dance
Academy and are proud parents offour children.
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. Now Seriouslythough, thank you.
(51:37):
I am candy. I'm DJ razor cut.
And this is Souls of hip hop
It's so nostalgic. You don't realize those very simple
(00:04):
moments. Were just a randomperson comes and like, Hey, I
brought you a coconut. Do youwant some to drink from the
coconut? You know what I mean?
Like you go, like, that waslike, Oh wait, I gotta sanitize
this. I gotta make sure I sticka stick up your nose and make
sure you ain't got no shit.
Okay, you good.
(00:28):
Welcome to Souls of Hip Hop. Apodcast for hip hop heads that
aims to bring inspiring peopletogether to share their wisdom,
passion, and unique stories.
My name is candy. I'm DJ RazorCut. And together we are
Soulidarity - connecting soulsorganic.
(00:57):
What's up you guys? MyVerse,Rock Steady crew, poet, emcee,
battle rapper, comedian,humanitarian and best friend.
Welcome to the show. How wouldyour parents describe what you
do?
My mom would say that. I look atmy daughter. No, just kidding. I
(01:21):
mean, I mean, my mom, she wouldbe like, My daughter is a
rapper. She's a rapper, andshe's a poet. And she'll always
showShall we show my my song, the
100% remix that I did a punch.
She loves watching that. Andshe's like, I watch it every
day. So yeah, she'll say, I'm arapper. That's what she'll say.
(01:42):
She said my daughter that she'sa musician. She does music. And
then my father, my father, Lokiwants to be my manager.
Because when we went to Panama,he went to the DJ, and he was
like, my daughter's a rapper,and she does music. Get her on
the microphone right now. And hegot me to rap at a club out
there in Panama. So he was sohappy for me. But yeah, they'll
(02:06):
they'll say I'm a rapper. So myMC that'd be bodying these
holes.
So you just touched on Panama,you have Panamanian and Puerto
Rican roots. Tell us more aboutyour background. Yeah,
absolutely. My mom's from PuertoRico. And my father's from
(02:26):
Panama. My mom came to Americato you know, just better her
life. And she came with my mylittle brother. And then she met
my father in Orlando, who hecame from actually my father
lived in New York and then movedto because our family was in New
York, and then he moved toOrlando. Yeah, from there, he
(02:46):
met my mom at church, and hekept going to church because of
my mom. That's what he says. Soyeah, my background is very,
very much church oriented,because my mom had me definitely
going to church every Wednesday,Friday and Sunday. You know,
that's very much established asfar as like, spirituality. You
know what I mean? I wouldn't sayI'm a religious person, but I'm
(03:08):
very spiritual person. That's afoundation of of me. You know
what I mean? And so, my fatherended up living in Ocala, you
know, they separated because myfather, he's a very, he's a
very, how do I say this? He is avery,
he is he loves to party. Okay.
He's a good he's a party goer,you know what I mean? And then
(03:30):
my mom is very, about herchurch. That's what she's about.
So sometimes people areunequally yoked. So but my
father ended up living in Ocala.
And all this a lot of fields alot of horses and stuff. So he
would train a lot of horses forlike the Kentucky Derby or for
like, different like horseraces. And so that and he would,
(03:50):
and he will also breed and helpgive birth to two horses, cuz
like horse racing and all thatis like, in panamas, like super
big, you know what I mean? Like,it's, you know, they have a lot
of branches out, they werehorses, those he took that what
he was doing in Panama, andbrought it to Florida and then
well, New York and in Florida.
So I used to go to Puerto Rico alot. And I used to go to Ocala a
(04:13):
lot. And just so it's like, I'ma city slash country, girl.
Almost, you know what I mean? Soyeah, my background is very
culture culturally aware,because my mother, she always
made sure that me and my brotherwere exposed to like ballets and
like, Flamingo and like, ifthere's something that I like to
do, she would always cultivatethat, you know, like fashion.
(04:35):
She took me to a fashion schoolbecause, you know, I told her,
that's what I wanted to do. Iwanted to be a fashion designer.
Yeah, my mother she was she wasone of those moms that was like,
Oh, you you like fashion, okay,we're going to a fashion school.
We're gonna go get us all mushy.
And we're gonna you know what Imean? I'll be like, I like I
want to learn how to danceoutside. All you want to do
(04:56):
sighs Okay, we're gonna take youto satisfy heat.
We're gonna take you to anymusical that has it, you know
what I mean? So, yeah, I got twovery loving parents. They were
very loving parents and theywere able to co parent without
having to be together. So it wascool. Like I had, like, my mom
always respected my pops eventhough he was he was out here,
(05:17):
you know, saying below that nowhe's better. You know what I
mean? My father knows betterthan my father that was you
know, he's married and he goesto church, and like he like
stopped drinking. Stop smoking.
He sobbed like he's completelydifferent, like completely
changed man and I got my twolittle sisters. It's good it's
good right now you know? Sothat's a little bit about me a
(05:38):
little bit about my backgroundas far as like my mom my pops. I
mean, I can understand the enemyinside I'm half kind of me too.
And in Orlando you're at thecity but then you're surrounded
by all this farmland outsideOrlando's all that what we call
red area. Right? I mean, reallysaw you know what I mean?
clearly saw the difference.
(06:01):
Florida's hilarious Tell meabout what it was like growing
up in Orlando. You know, Orlandois such a like mesh, I was
raised around a lot moreboutique was, you know what I
mean? Especially like, what hegoes from New York, and like,
from the island to the peoplethat are from the island, we're
went to my church, and the NewYorkers and the New York, Puerto
(06:22):
us were in my school, you know,you have that appreciation of
being from Puerto Rico. And thenseeing the difference between
Puerto Ricans from New York andPuerto Ricans from Puerto Rico,
you know what I mean? Growing upin in Orlando, you, there's a
lot of that. And Jamaicanculture, like Caribbean culture
is like very strong out here. Sothere's an essence of like hip
(06:44):
hop out here in Orlando. That isvery true, from the elements to
like, MC freestyling. Like we'vewe really like pride ourselves
in that every Monday you go toAustin's coffee, or you went to
the hush show, growing up inOrlando, it was you know, it was
hip hop, you know what I mean?
It was hip hop, and like,there's an essence out here that
(07:05):
it's not like any other place,you know what I mean? Because a
lot of people from New York,come here, a lot of people from
New York, relocate here. So it'slike, you have that that ism of
the culture. And then on top ofthat, you got Caribbean, it's
very Caribbean out here. So yougot a mix of like, you know,
could I get on reggae, and someway super hip hop heads, you
know, gangster We out here?
(07:29):
gangster like, these are? Theseare things that like, you know,
there's an appreciation of theelements, the four elements out
here in in Orlando, you got yourtags, you got to be boys, you
get the DJs you got your MCs,you know what I mean? And people
pride themselves in being thebest at it. My mom, we lived in
the hood, you know, when welived in like, Oak Ridge area,
(07:51):
you know what I mean? And if youfrom Orlando, you know, that Oak
Ridge area, Lancaster area thatthat areas kind of hood. And so
then my mom ended up working twojobs and getting this added
there. And, you know, we livedin a one bedroom apartment. And
we lived in a little bit more ofa conservative area a little
bit, you know what I mean?
better schools, you know, andso, you know, I lived in that
(08:11):
area for until I was like inseventh grade. And then we and
my mom ended up being able tobuy a house, but she had to move
back to the hood. So instead ofmoving back to her, because that
was what she could afford buyinga house, but she always
instilled like, invest in realestate investing, you know, get
a house for yourself, you knowwhat I mean? I'm doing this so I
can pass this on to you. Youknow what I mean? She's like, we
(08:33):
moved back to that. And thenfrom there, I started learning
of like, what B boys and B girlswere, you know what I mean?
Because it was the area we werein was heavy. Like Bodie was
from New York, or LSA, justboutique was, but like, just the
culture of New York was an areathat I was living in, you know
what I mean? And then my mombought a crib and so from their
(08:54):
influence, a lot of like, megetting into breaking like I
loved breaking breaking was myfirst introduction to like, hip
hop and how dope it is. and notknowing what it was. I didn't
know what it was. I was like,What are these people? spitting
on? This guy just landed on hiswrist? How did he do that? This
guy's crazy. How is he flippingout of that position into
(09:16):
another because like it was itjust boggled my mind. And so
like, you know, you got yourdifferent areas in in Orlando,
you know what I mean? Like, yougot your New York side and then
you got your like Little Haitiand then you got like little
Jamaica here. You know what Imean? And so there's just a,
it's like a melting pot here,you know. And then on top of
(09:36):
that, Disney Disney was likegrowing up Disney was just kind
of like the supermarket like youjust saw there every day. Yeah,
like Disney Central Florida.
That whole beach vibe here too.
You know what I mean? We madeour own entertainment. You know
what I mean? That's what wereally did. We really try to
create outside of just not justDisney, you know what I mean?
(09:57):
Like we you know, thechose those events you know what
I mean the grind time events youknow Ryan time which is the
battle rap channel that kind ofcreated the format that we have
today and battle rap started inOrlando you know growing up in
in Orlando that like I saidbattle rap and like freestyling
is a very is very prominent outhere and it's always been a part
(10:19):
of the fabric of growing up inOrlando. You know, we was we was
out here Yo, who's out hererapid? Yeah, trying to put our
poems to beat flow to that youalways rep in Orlando hard.
Great because in your battles,people go for that as a disk and
you go and you flip it on themlike hard. It's great. I like
(10:43):
especially being someone that'sfrom Orlando. I'm like this girl
dude. Right? You know, we got arep not every that's the problem
is that everybody thinkseverybody in Florida is the same
and it's like clearly even youcould see in this election, you
know, Miami Tampa, Orlando morethan Metropolitan places, you
know, I'm saying where there'smore people that are a little
bit more educated. There you youknow what I mean? You could see
(11:06):
that like, there's a bigdifference from like, the
weirdos that be out. Like, inthe outskirts. It's like the
Hills Have Eyes and shit.
Don't go, don't go doit's scary. It's a stigma and it
sucks because there's a stigmafor Florida that like that
people are wild out here, whichI'm not gonna deny there are
(11:28):
crazies out here. But there'scrazies everywhere. You know
what I mean? But there's peoplethat'd be given us a bad rap and
I'm like, yo, listen, y'allhaven't gotten to where like
Orlando and like the roots ofOrlando and Tampa and Miami and
Jacksonville all these placeslike I said that are very well
educated. Tallahassee they gotfam you over there. They also
have very, they're very bunch ofdeep rooted outs on hip hop
(11:51):
culture. There's a lot ofhistorically legendary people
that came out of Florida and inin Orlando, you know, and they
continue to build and and yousee that impact in the culture
everywhere that you go, you seethe people that have created
especially with UCF jams back inthe day with Bieber jam, or you
(12:11):
know, breaking events and Butlet's get back to you. Uh huh.
Well, I love that you weretouching on that though, because
Florida in general like westarted the bass music the booty
music You know, they're theMiami was big on that. You know
what I mean? Miami Magic Mikecame out of Florida, you know,
Diplo is out of Orlando. Solike, there's a lot of very
(12:35):
powerful people that have thathave affected the culture or
that have affected us adifferent part of probably
culturally but like, yeah, Imean, like you grab on his
joint. But like, for example,having like Tony touch always
out there and legs is always wasout in Orlando, he was always
supporting things, just just somany instances. nathi dj Khalid,
(12:55):
you had all these from Miamirecruiting. I mean, there's just
there's so much going on. I metCraig two weekends ago, and
we're doing a record together.
And it's so funny, like, he wastalking about Miami hip hop, you
know what I mean, in Miami sceneand how it was and like, there
(13:18):
was kind of like a one pointthere was like a stillness and
then eventually, like, came backand it was like calot and Rick
Ross and then and then robbanks. All these like Miami
artists kind of brought backlife. Like back to Florida
music. You know what I mean? OrMiami music? Don't put us in the
in the category of all that areweirdos out here in Florida.
(13:38):
Okay. Not just Baskin. Yeah,dagli Oh, my God, for perfect
example.
My gosh, so you get introducedto breaking in your hood. But
then how did you transition intobecoming a poet and then
transition into battle rap? Idid actually, when I was living
(14:01):
in that nice area, I starteddoing like poetry. And that's
where I started doing poetry,right. But all of my poetry
would rhyme. And I was it wouldalready like it was already
bars, you know what I mean? Andso then, when I moved, my mom
moved, you know, and bought thehouse. And it was more of like,
the people that I went to schoolwith, there was more MCs, there
(14:23):
was more MCs, there's more beboys, or breakers. There was
more hip hop enthusiasts, therewas it was there, you know, it's
being surrounded by that andthat, I never realized that me
the poems I was writing, wereactually like wraps. And so
then, from there, I just keptwriting poems. It was easy for
me to write, you know, I gotinto a group of friends of like
(14:43):
rappers. And, you know, I wouldwrite stuff to in a way, like,
be like, yo, look, look at mynew look at what I wrote. Now,
look at my new poem. You knowwhat I mean? And they would be
like, Oh, that's fine. That'scool. To the point where I would
have home girls be like, yo, canyou write a poem about this boy
like, and I would write a poem.
Send get my poems to the littleboyfriends or whatever. Yeah,
(15:03):
like it poetry was justsomething that, that I love to
do. In fact, for wrote poetry, Iused to write stories. as a
little kid, I used to writestories about this character
named Stacy. And then fromthere, like, I started writing
poems. And then I startedwriting poems, stories being
surrounded by MCs, you know, Iwould try to show off my poems,
(15:24):
and I would give my props, youknow, and so these MCs would
battle freestyle battle. And Ilove seeing that I was just in
awe of like, people that couldfreestyle off the top like that,
to me was just like, wow, like,how do you do that with nothing,
that was something that alwaysthat was so intriguing to me.
And so I would get on theinternet and I would look up
(15:46):
freestyle battles. And I cameacross this documentary called
ciphers and supranet battleJews. And they showed Medusa
from the west coast and likethat whole scene, and that was
like, wow, this is a whole like,freestyle MCs. You know what I
mean? Like, this is so cool. Youknow, at that time, though, I
was, you know, I would rap withmy friends, but I was strictly
(16:07):
poetry, like, it was juststrictly poetry that rhymes. And
I wouldn't even do it on a beat.
Like, I would tell them don'tturn off the music for
everything off complete silence.
Let me do this poem. You knowwhat I mean? I didn't even want
to do it on a beat. I remember Iwas I was doing poetry like in
high school, and then college, Imet Matt ILS. And Matt ILS was
like, yo, you should go to thisevent. It's called
(16:29):
vocalizations. And it was onMonday nights with so little
acquista sounds and from theirs.
That was the first time that Iremember I went on stage. And I
did my poem. And I remember suamand all them like suam. Alex,
like, they was like, yo, you'redope. Yes. Keep doing it. You
know what I mean? And they Ilove them because I was so like,
I didn't want to do it on abeat. I remember they were like,
(16:51):
Nah, you gotta do it on a beatyou guys, do you bomb on a beat?
I was like, no.
And then they and I did it. Andbut I didn't do it. Like on beat
like in the pocket. It was justlike a poem. Yeah, I remember
from there. Like, there was apoint. I went through this, like
self reflection that I juststopped doing poetry. I stopped
(17:13):
writing, I stopped everything.
You know, like, as far as like,creating whatever, because I was
like, yo, am I really doingthis? Because I want to do it,
or am I doing this? Because Iwant to be cool. You know what I
mean? Like, am I doing this justso I could fit in with people?
And maybe I was doubting myselfor something. But I was just
like, I don't want to do this.
I'm just gonna do real estate.
You know, I mean, I'm gonna selltimeshares is all I'm gonna do
you know what I mean? And then Iremember, I was upset about
(17:36):
something. And I was just like,I'm just gonna write, I just
want to write, I did the poetryto express myself because I was
feeling like, I feel like am Idoing these poems just just for
show? Or am I doing this toreally express myself and
express and that's why i say i'mnot going to write anything
until it's something that is megiving myself and being
vulnerable. And this beingsomething that this is the true
(17:57):
mean, this is the truth to me.
This is the true this is thetruth that I'm living right now.
And this is the most honest,she's like flow it just flowed
it came it was just, it was likeyou don't like when you like
have so much bottled up insideand then it's just like
literally me of like getting youto exit exercises just like that
(18:21):
rejected. But it was just a flowjust like every like all the
pain all the down all theregret, or all the whatever. It
was just like, flow flow. Andthen like, I came to a
realization was like, I fuckinglove this shit. What is wrong
with me? Why would I not dothis? This is so great. I'm not
be a poet. So then. So then Iwas just like, you know what,
(18:44):
let me let me do an open mic.
Let me have a place where I canjust release, you know what I
mean? And I did these open micscalled prolific Mondays. And I
remember you start a very smallstartup that would play guitar
and then a guy on that got homeand then blue box would come
out. From there, I startedpracticing putting my poems on a
beat. And like really try tolike rap, you know what I mean?
(19:05):
Like really actually put in mypoetry to bars and like
learning, flow, learning thestructure of a verse, learning
the structure of when a hookcomes in and, and flow going
from poet to emcee. It's easy torhyme. But when now you have to
come up with a cadence it's verydifferent now you're an
instrument. Now your your voicean instrument. So you know those
(19:26):
open mics really got mecomfortable being on stage and
weekly, like getting on the micand creating in some of my
greatest poems came from thoseprolific Monday nights. And then
throughout that whole time,grind, time is happening. These
battles are happening, andthey're asking me Oh, when are
you going again? You shouldbattle you should battle and I'm
(19:46):
like, Nah, man, I'm straightpoetry. You know what I'm
saying? I'm straight. Like,let's uplift our sisters. Like
this is where I'm at. I'm nottrying to. I'm not you know, I'm
not out here trying to like,write about
How should a person is I want towrite to heal people. I did
that. And then I got into music.
I was like, you know what I'drather use. I'd rather do music.
I rather use my time to music.
(20:10):
And then eventually I ended upgetting signed with grind time
as an artist, I was granted asan artist. So I was going to use
the battle rap platform to sharemy music and to be an emcee,
because there just really atthat time was in a lot of female
representation. The first time Iwrapped a poem on a beat was at
this place called tengo. res.
No, I think it was on Sundaynight, they would have like a
(20:31):
band play. And I remember I waslike, for the first time, my job
in front of all of my peers thatknow me as a poet. And I
remember, I was like, I'm gonnado this poem, and I did it. But
I did it like on a be like, Iwas emceeing and people were
like, I remember Am I am wasthere. I always remember my
mom's reaction because Am I amwas the first one I got up he
was like, yo, you're rad. Like,yeah,
(20:59):
fucking rapper. Yeah, no rapper.
I'ma rapper. And then that's what I
started my prolific Mondays andthat was when I was like, Okay,
let me start putting my posts tobe in learning flow. How did you
get the name my verse, My verse,so you know what? I used to be
called diverse but then therewas there was an MC quote
diverse so like now I can't youknow, I'm saying about the fight
(21:22):
nobody for that name. So then,Matt ILS had something called
the written battles where itwasn't a freestyle battle. It
was written battles. This wasbefore grind time. This was
probably like lounge battles.
Remember, we used to have thesethings called lounge battles. So
manual said, yo, there's awritten battles you want to
enter. And I'm like, All right,I'll get it. I'll get in the
(21:45):
battle. So I was like, Okay, sothis isn't a freestyle battle. I
can write these bars down and Ican go up there and wrap them
right and it was funny becausethis is the format that it is
today. Now every l The battle isall written. Now. You know what
I mean? You know, you're gonnabattle when you're right for
them, right. But I wanted tothis battle, this type of
battle, I went in with universalbars that oh, this somebody you
(22:06):
know what I mean? And it wasn'ton a beat, it was all acapella.
I remember, I answered it. Andbefore I entered it, I was like,
I have to have a name. I can'tenter this battle without a
name. So I picked a name that ifthey were to use my name, it
would be dissing them. If theywere trying to diss my name,
they would diss their name, theywould just themselves. So if
they were like, yo, my versustrash, I'll be like, you're
(22:27):
right. You're versus trash. Andif they're like my versus ill,
I'll be I add that, my verse L.
That was why I picked the name,my verse, what's your science
behind writing bars, I canreally be inspired by anything.
I could hear a word and I'mlike, Oh, I could do something
on that. Writing a battle,writing music and writing poetry
are like two different or threedifferent parts of your head
(22:50):
that you're using to come upwith bars for a song depends on
the concept, how you're going toconceptualize this song, when it
comes to a person that I'mbattling. You know, I think
about, okay, this person thatI'm battling, I can really talk
crazy to them, you know what Imean? I can get super personal
if I wanted to, but I'm more ofthe type that I like to strictly
(23:11):
make bars and I like it to bebar heavy. I'd like to talk to
you as a person and like, tellyou how you can be better, but
like, you know, depending on howI feel like sometimes I feel
like I want to do morehyperboles you know, I got money
so totally reaches to the sky orreaches a cloud hyperbole is
where you kind of exaggeratewhat you're saying. Sometimes I
want to be lyrical miracle.
(23:33):
Sometimes I don't want to belike, metaphorical or vulgar.
Bring them borders or borders onhow to forward nocona corporate
poses. I'm sure you're gonna belike, I feel like I want to do
that. It's all about youropponent. I'm pretty sure candy
knows when it comes to battling.
Like, whatever they got tostrengthen. I'm going to show
how I can do that better. Oh,you do that good. Well, I love
what I do. I since I've gottento battling it has helped me so
much with creating songs. It'shelped me so much with even
(23:56):
poetry. I never realized that mypoems like the bars and my poems
would have been great bars forbattles. So because I was doing
poetry slams to I justeverywhere rapping, right is how
do you prepare yourself likementally for these battles?
Because it's brutal. Like, ifanybody would say that to me, I
would be really either reallyupset or just want to cry, like
(24:17):
how do you prepare mentally andemotionally? Like mentally to
prepare for a battle? You got tosay, fuck what they're gonna say
to me. I got to focus on thisperson. Some people approach it
like be rabbit ish. Remember howB rabbit in a while he was like,
you're going to talk about this?
(24:38):
You're going to talk about that.
You know, you can do that. Butto me, I don't want to waste my
time. Like I want to talkdirectly to you. Let me tell
you, it could drive you crazy.
Thinking of what ifs? What ifthis What if this person does
that? What if this you know whatI mean? You can be mentally, you
know, sometimes you have tovision how you want your battle
to turn out like I'm going tovisit
(25:00):
That I'm going to go second inthis battle me person I
freestyle. You know, like Isaid, Orlando We out here
freestyling. So like you can saywhatever you want to me. And if
it's strong enough, I will do arebuttal it going into a battle
you have to obviously prepareyourself for what you think your
opponent is going to say. Find away that you could still diss
them, but still defend yourselfat the same time. Yeah, going
(25:22):
into a battle mentally you justyou just have to get some thick
skin straight up. You got tohave some thick skin because
people are gonna say some crazyshit to you that you're just
like, who raised youraised you? Yeah, I'm gonna be
honest with you. I like crudehumor and battle rap isn't for
everybody. Just like comedyrows. They're not for everybody.
(25:42):
Some people are veryhypersensitive, and they don't
see it as just battle, right?
They're like, Oh, those arefighting words. But it's almost
like a boxer. You know, youcan't get mad that someone
punched you in the face. That'syour job. You just got to really
love it. And there's people thatfight with honor and there's
people that just they get theirrocks off of having a cheap shot
(26:03):
or taking low blows. You know,just depending on what kind of
battler you to me. I'd like tofight with honor still son you
and still keep my dignity andRabb better than you to me. I'm
like, I want to show that I canrap better than you. I want to
show that you as a person y'allbelieve in this person this
much. But really they're notthat great. That's kind of like
my mentality when I go into thisbattle even if they're my
(26:27):
friend, you are my enemy fortoday. I love you but I ain't
about to be out here taking ELSHell no. You touched on it
earlier like how you knowwriting this is very different
from writing a song from a poem.
Why do you think that it'sfairly rare for very successful
battle rappers to cross overinto being successful recording
(26:50):
artists? I don't know there's astigma that battle rappers can't
make music and I think we'regetting out of that element
right now especially in 2020because Jay Z was about a rapper
big he was about a rapper. Thething is people don't be
claiming they battle rap side.
They don't want to claim it. Weout here making good music
(27:11):
battle rappers do make goodmusic. Shout out to ruin your
day mixtape. There's a mixtapethat is out. It's already on
volume four. And it pretty muchputs all battle rappers music. I
think the problem the reason whyyou don't see many battle
rappers being like, supersuccessful as far as I can music
(27:32):
is because they don't realizethe marketing behind it. This
thing, battle rappers, theyunfortunately don't realize that
they have a platform to pushtheir music. And a lot of them
don't push their music enough.
You literally have a millionpeople subscribe to this channel
that you're on. The first thingin all of my battles, you're
(27:53):
going to see my music, you'regoing to hear my song, you're
going to know that my verse hasmusic because I'm not just going
to stand up here and let youcall me a bitch and whatever
name in the book for nothing.
Okay, I'm going to get someresiduals off this at the end of
the day someone's going to goand doubt you don't say
streaming music or buy a T shirtor something. You have to be
(28:13):
able to brand that's the problemis that battle rappers just want
a bad rap. So now it's likethey're not realizing like their
fullest potential which I'mgoing to be honest there's there
is battle rappers that that arerealizing it now. For example, k
shine, k shine. He's like amajor label behind him. k shine
is like one of the top battlerappers right now. He's doing
(28:34):
exactly what he's supposed todo, which is battle rap and push
your music. Because you've gotto understand people think just
because our song isn't on theradio doesn't mean we're not
successful. There's a lot of MCsthat you don't that are super
successful that their song isn'ton the radio and they don't it's
not like they don't havestardom. We need to get
millionaire we need to get somemillionaire battle rappers you
(28:55):
know what I mean? We some battlerappers that are gonna be
millionaires off of their battleraps one and their music. I just
can't say that the betterrappers don't make good music
because I've met many like NewJersey twerk that's a crazy
name. I know. But that's hisname. And he makes really good
music. Two L's recognize,recognize I was just on the
(29:15):
phone with him today. I lovethat you said that. Yes.
Recognize that's another one. Hebecame pretty successful. Like,
I mean, he wasn't like Jay Zfamous. But for the most part.
Yeah. I'll tell you one thingthough. All your favorite
rappers watch battle rap. All ofthem. And a lot of them now
nowadays are getting their barsfrom battle rappers. So in a
(29:36):
way, we do make good music,because our bars are in those
songs.
Our bars are in those hits. Soyeah, I really love seeing you
on Nick Cannon show. Because youyou're super funny every time. I
mean, you know we're friends. Sowe do spend a lot of time having
fun and it's always somethingcoming up on the fly.
(30:00):
Little Mermaid in the pool.
Yeah, see you up there and doingthese things, you know, how did
you feel? It was an amazingopportunity to really help
spring a lot of things as far aslike people seeing me learning
me the first experience ofbattling Nick Cannon you know
live I think the impact of thatwas because of the fact that it
(30:22):
was live there's no edits it wasstraight up live on national TV
you know what I mean live thathad such an impact on as far as
like even our battle rapculture, you know what I mean?
salute to Nick Cannon because hewas always given a stage for
battle rappers. What yourchoices to do after it is
completely up to you you knowwhat I mean? Are you going to
(30:44):
capitalize off of it? Or are youjust going to be like Hey, cool.
I was on TV salute to NickCannon for giving us that
opportunity. It's I'm gonna tellyou is probably one of the
funnest jobs to have fun is jobsto be a cast member of wiling
out. And yeah, it made meactually dig into different
parts of my artistry as far aslike improv. I started taking
(31:05):
improv classes because of wilingout and, man if Have you ever
done improv? Yeah.
You got to do it. You want to doit. It is so much fun. It's so
funny. It's so creative. It letsyou use your imagination. It
(31:26):
helps you with critical thinkinglike it's such an awesome thing
to do. In fact, I think just tothrow this out there, I think it
would be really cool if youimplemented a little bit of
improv classes into childhoodthis culture. Oh, yeah, word. I
appreciate wiling out for thatexperience. Because learning
about improv, like, improv is sogreat for kids. Because like,
(31:50):
especially kids that are beingbullied, that like, they may not
know what to do you know what Imean? When kids roasting them,
they don't know what to dobecause they like they like a
deer in the headlights. They'relike, Oh my God. But improv
helps you like kind of maneuverout of a situation or maneuver a
situation to be in your favor.
Shout out to wallet up for thatexperience. Because I was able
to dabble into improv. It got meinto dabbling into comedy, like
(32:12):
actually writing jokes and likescripts for like comedy. And I'm
happy that you know, it was itwas you grow from Orlando, just
a little girl from Orlando. Youknows a little TVs? TV's
MTV. So it was cool. I think inthe website, they even have you
like that you beat him. Yeah, myverse bodies in Yeah, great. It
(32:36):
was. It was great. I do thinkit's really cool. How improv or
the comedic element is veryentertaining. One of my favorite
shows as a kid was like, WhoseLine Is It Anyway? Yes, I
remember that. That's funny. Yousay that. I'm literally doing a
record with Wayne Brady. Like weactually did a record together.
(32:57):
He's so talented. Oh, my gosh,just chirps from him. Talent is
just like, spewed singer dancerwas on a singing show where he
was dressed like I think a foxor something. Yeah, he was
a singer. Yeah. Oh my god, thatwas amazing. He won. This is
something about you that Ialways think is super cool. It's
(33:20):
like, Oh, yeah, I just did athing with crazy Oh, I just was
with Wayne Brady. Oh, I'm justyou know, want to MTV or taboo.
I was just in welding now. Andyou just you're so humble way?
How do you maintain thatbalance? And I keep my friends
around that have been aroundfrom the beginning to stay
grounded, you know. And I keepin mind that this isn't, I still
(33:43):
have so much more to do. I can'tjust like I'm so proud of like,
the accomplishments that I'vehad. And I'm like, so I'm like,
Man, I'm so grateful for likethese once in a lifetime
opportunities that I've beengiven. I just want to I keep
going. I just keep going. Like,I just want to keep going and
maintain being humble. Becausewhat you do know is you know,
(34:03):
nothing at all. And if you keepthat hunger of wanting to
constantly learn, legs told methis perfectly, he says, think
like a vet, but keep the hungerof a rookie. That's what I
always want to maintain is notbe complacent with like, okay,
yes, yo, you've done all thisstuff. But I just feel like
there's so much more for me totackle and so competition to, to
(34:27):
actually discover of myself asan artist. I really truly try to
like just keep like the peoplethat have always had a pure
intention around me. That's whylike, Can I don't I don't even
like I'll be sitting on my fans.
I'll talk to the people thatsupport me. You know what I'm
saying? Like I really, when Isay people are my tribe, like I
call like the people thatsupport me, I called my tribe. I
(34:48):
really believe that like we area tribe. That can never be where
I'm at if it wasn't for thepeople that shared my stuff. If
it wasn't for the people thatare sharing their platform with
me to like, like you guys.
you sharing your platform withme like, I appreciate that. And
so like, I'm just I justmaintain gratitude. Like, that's
what I want to always keepgratitude, just like being
(35:09):
grateful. You had your own showtoo called this and that. Yes,
this and that shout out to QueenJolie and shout out to be girl
Genesis. Those are my sisters.
You know, this year, we kind ofhad to take a hiatus on it
because of the whole, you know,pandemic, you know, I can't miss
them so much. But shout out toGenesis because she'd be holding
these little jam sessions I'llbe seen, like, they want to go
(35:31):
and I go, but I'll be so in myin me creating cuz now I'm
catching up with things thatlike I haven't been able to
finish because I'm always beenon the road. But yes, this and
that. That is a podcast that westarted 2019 we Yeah, we have
this year, we just kind of we Ithink we did one in January. And
then from there, you know, I hadto travel and then, you know, we
(35:54):
want to we want to get it offoff the ground again. Because we
had some really good you know,it was really cool to have like
female perspective in theculture. salutes and my sisters,
I love them so much. I mean, youdo a lot of giving back. And we
we've done a lot of things whichare this culture with us. And
during the pendant mega saw youwere so in mass, what gives you
(36:15):
hope during this time? Yeah, Imean, I was doing I was, and I'm
actually it's funny, I literallyjust got an email because I have
to donate 50 more. We donated25,000 masks to essential
workers. And that's with so forlives, salutes Sofer lives, they
pretty much rounded up a bunchof people that know how to sew,
and have the make face masks forfrom post office workers to
(36:40):
nurses, to people that aredelivering food. You know, these
are essential workers, people atthe grocery store, these are
essential workers. And so it'sbeen an honor to be able to be
part of something like that. Iknow my grandmother is going to
be very proud of me because youknow, she showed me how to sew
in you know, I've been holdingthe data while I've been holding
it down. So for lives, that'swhat I've been doing on my
(37:02):
pastime, it's inspired me toactually make masks of my own
for my page, like fashion wise,you know, the best that I make
to donate are more like theylook like medical ones. And the
ones that I have on my sitearen't they're more fashionable,
but they're still medicallyapproved because I put a
propylene in the middle and Iput a little wiring at the top
so we can like pinch on yournose. And it's a little baby
plug in there. You also shootand direct your own videos
(37:25):
recently, I caught you and youwere shooting a video in a
furniture store. Can you tell usmore about that? Oh, thank you.
Okay, so let me tell you, let metalk to you. So if you want to
know what I've been doing tostay busy, you know, I've been
creating songs, I do this thingcalled the department store. And
this was going to help me getinto how I made that music
video. So department stores is Igo into random stores, and I'll
(37:46):
just, you know, I'll make barsoff of whatever's around me and
I'll do it in a form that's likebattle rappy you know, say like,
it's like a battle rap cadence.
Because that's my style. Youknow, like my style of filming.
Like I do guerilla style, likeAustralia just pull up and be
like pulled camera. Let's go. Sofor that video, I was like, Yo,
(38:07):
I really means I need to find aplace that has a bookshelf. You
know, I need an office becausethe concept that I had was like
I want this to be like an officeand I'm like don't call your own
mafia style whatever. I was likedamn, where could I find a place
that I could do this? So thenI'm like well I'm thinking I'm
thinking I'm thinking I'm likefuck let's go to a furniture
store. So I'm like I go to afriend cuz your furniture stores
(38:30):
we have in the whole thing setup lighting everything you know,
I mean it's a whole like movieset right there for you. So
yeah, that video was shot at inCaine's furniture shout out to
them I straight up we pulled uplike I had I had already done
you know you got to do locationscouting so I look I found the
location I was like okay, thisis spot went there the next day
(38:52):
I'm dressed up Matt you know I'msaying when my blazer ready. And
shout out to my boy trust. Heyou don't say he filled the
whole day. We straight up usedcanes furniture and it was right
in the coat. Yo was so perfect.
When I'm looking at the video. Iwere like cracking up because
you're like Yo, we had to movethe middle of the price tag off.
(39:13):
Yo, I had left one though.
There's one there's a price tagin there that nobody has done. I
don't think anybody cut it.
video now they can pick it upbut saying you're resourceful. I
always use you as an example forentrepreneurs and the type of
energy and the type of like youYou come up and again with the
(39:34):
idea of critical thinking andproblem solving and figuring out
okay, I make this video I don'tmake this video look good. How
am I gonna do it? And here weare. Yeah, I Loki want to find
another couch and be like,Alright, we're gonna do some
here, you know, said maybe I actlike it's a club or something.
We'll get some girls with likesparklers. I don't know. gave it
(39:56):
to them. Kick me the fuck out.
But that would be that would befunny. Yes.
Are you gonna buy any of this?
And you're like, yeah, I'm justlooking Yo, like three times I
was like, Yes. I just want tosee if this is good. Okay. Ask
you funny. How are you? Okay?
(40:17):
Let me see this chair fields.
I don't know,the concepts of the videos that
I make. I'm actually it's sofunny that you mentioned that
shout out to the official Latinofilm and art festival or art
awards. I'm actually nominatedthe video that I did in Chicago.
It's for alopecia, I directed itI edited, you know, pretty much
(40:37):
curiosity. And yeah, it gotnominated. I love film and I
love music videos and stuff likethat and I'm all about
production value. And like Isaid, Caine's furniture has
amazing production value, forgreat production value.
For sure that people have torealize like you were in a day
(40:58):
and age that like everything istangible if you want it to be if
you want to make your own musicvideo, you can make it you know
what I mean? You can you can doit. You got to find like minded
people that are willing to helpyou and like hold the camera and
want to see you when, you know,talking about entrepreneurial
endeavors. What's the deal withyou getting certified to grow
(41:19):
weed or sell weed? I amcertified. Bud tender. Yeah, I
am a certified bud tender. Thankyou to learn CTV University.
Yeah, I think is a joke. This isdead. As we out here in Orlando,
we got a school called learn totiba and I learned how to do
hydroponics pretty much learninghow to grow weed without being
(41:43):
outside. just pretty muchlearning for making it a seed. I
mean, have I been able to use itnow? No, I just go and like buy
from a regular guy. But like,yeah, like I have an actual
certification of being able togrow trees. You know?
It's like do I want to show youI have aquaponics they taught us
aquaponics where you put fishit's like you use like the water
(42:06):
jugs a big water jug. And thenyou put water in it you put fish
in it right and then the fishpoop helps fertilize the the
trees, like your your whatever,you know your tomatoes. It's
great skills to learn.
Especially like let's say azombie apocalypse happens. Hey,
you know, I know how to growtomatoes.
(42:32):
Especially tomatoes. I'm in mygardener candy now out here.
Yeah, you got the green thumb. Igot it. Yeah, I got it. Making
some set. No, I mean eatinglettuce all summer. Oh, that is
so cool. Oh, that's what I wantto do. That's amazing. You'll
How long did it take you to likesoil? And probably when we
(42:55):
started actually getting somelettuce grown pretty fast within
a month. I would say within sixweeks we're getting the lettuce
kale to probably I will give ittwo months. So I we got here in
the beginning of June by likemiddle June. Yeah, by middle
July, we're already makinglittle salad packs. Like you
know, you get the little saladeffects with the whatever it is
(43:16):
I was getting them and thenherbs too. It's dope. So I can I
can see that. You know, you knowhow to grow some tomatoes, and
some addsome tomatoes. It's the same
one. Yeah, there was like yo,say it's a safe tomato.
(43:37):
Marriage alone.
But yeah, where do you get thisentrepreneurial spirit? Because
like, you're like, Girl, I canbrain. You know, I'm going
rollerblades and playbasketball, you have all these
different skills. But where doyou get that from? You know, I
don't know. Maybe my father, myfather is a very hard my mom's a
(43:58):
hard worker too. You know, likeI said, My mom was a type person
she was she very muchcultivated, like anything that I
wanted to do. And so that wassomething that was always
instilled in me. Like, if thisis something that I like to do,
then you know, I'm going tocultivate it like I'm going to
make, you know what I mean, I'mgoing to learn about this. I
don't believe me as a person.
I'm just one labeled one thing,you know what I mean? I believe
(44:19):
even as humans, we're socomplex, especially the time the
day and age when it's like wehave we have the opportunity to
have so much to learn. There'sso much information out there
for us to learn from. So when Isaid I want to learn how to make
tomatoes.
When I want to learn how to maketomatoes, you know what I'm
saying? I want to learn how togrow wheat. It was presented to
(44:41):
me my boy was like, Yo, I'm inthe school for wheat. I'm like,
No, you're not and he's like,yes I am. I said let me see. I
want to learn if there'ssomething that you want to
learn, do it breaking. I said Iwant to learn how to break I'm
gonna learn Okay, and I'm gonnalearn from from the great I'm
gonna learn from Candy Candy wasone that told me yo learn how to
get downOn the floor that's what you
need to practice practice how toget down on the floor that was
(45:02):
one of those gems and I stillcarry that with me. I wanted to
learn like i like i said i'm anempty vessel that just wants to
fill itself with knowledge andjust be a well versed person
bars.
You did a project with Moni loveHow did that come about? Yes,
(45:22):
with Modi love I did a record weactually actually had an album
together me her dealer rule andKarolina dirty she got four MCs
like this was something thatModi loved curated along with J.
Ross. J. Ross is actually theproducer that he produced on
black stars album, my one of myfavorite Black Star songs is
(45:44):
brown skin lady way go and yo heproduced that and so he ended up
I guess linking with with money,love money, love ended up
getting me Carolina dirty anddealer row and we formed a group
called heresy. And we released aproject. It's an album so make
sure you guys go look it upheresy. Yeah, we did a record we
(46:07):
did like five records on there.
And then I think a sixth one,the sixth one was kind of like a
promo record. mony love is sodope. She's just so dope. She's
such a good human. You know whatI mean? Like, just in general,
she, she always encouraged me.
She always said, you know, myverse. I'm doing this because I
want you to etch your name inthe tree of hip hop. That's what
(46:28):
I want you to do. I want you toetch your name. And she's like,
you've already etched your name,but I want you to just etch it a
little bit deeper. That metaphoralways like stuck with me. You
know what I mean? Yeah, did youknow what I'm doing? I did a
project with Loni love Yes. Yes,I did.
About more incredibleachievements. You also took over
(46:51):
as the host of quitter RockSteady after blu ray passed away
Yes. honored honored, saluteddestroyed for co hosting with
me. We did the damn thing youknow, we did the damn thing and
in remembrance of Voodoo Raythose those are big shoes to
fill. Especially like just hisenergy the way he'd like. Put a
(47:13):
rock steady was Voodoo Ray, youknew that when you went to
Puerto Rocksteady. You weregoing to have the most warm,
most warmest welcome from him.
And so that energy is somethingthat I carried with me. You
know, when he gave me the honorof being a host I said, you
know, that's what I want to do.
I want to just every you knowwhat I mean? If I see someone
just standing still, I'll belike, Nah, you gotta dance.
(47:34):
Let's go Let's go you know whatI mean? Because that was the
energy that Ray always had hisenergy was always to uplift and
just that transfer that energyand just make you laugh and
still keep it hip hop and stillkeep it Latino and still honor
the earth. You know, he wasalways about that life and so
like I did in remembrance and inreverence to my late bro Voodoo
(47:57):
Ray Yeah, I was looking forwardto doing it again this year. You
know, maybe next year you know,we'll make it happen I really
want to bring battle rap tobecause I know we were doing
freestyle battles, but I reallywant to bring like actual like
battles to pull the rock steadybecause like the anniversaries
they used to have battle eventslike battle rap, pussy. So is
there anything that you wantanything that we left? I didn't
(48:19):
want to share anything. You um,I guess you know, subscribe to
my verse on YouTube. Make sureyou guys go to my vs here.com
get some merch if you want tofollow me on Instagram, my verse
on Spotify, iTunes, Amazon,whatever. Look up my verse one
(48:40):
word, everything is one word, myverse one word. And you know, I
got new music. Always got musicdropping, I just literally
dropped the record today. It'sactually a song I'm featured on
but still, you know, I getresiduals from it. So make sure
you go stream that two that iscalled on tour. And, yeah,
we always end up our interviewswith what is hip hop to you?
(49:03):
Hip Hop to me, is community.
That's what hip hop is to me.
tribe. That's what hip hop is tome is tribe is a tribe in
itself. it's it's a it's a talk,the way you dress. You know what
I mean? It's tribe, you knowwhat tribe you're from when just
by like how you carry yourselftribe. That's what hip hop is,
(49:25):
is community.
Thank you so much to our guest MVerse for taking the time and be
ng so open while sharing your pespective with us. Some of the ge
s we took away from this inerview where
old ways won't open new doorsmake a habit of trying and
(49:46):
learning new things. improvtraining embraces other people's
ideas and responses, which canrapidly diffuse the anxiety of
the unknown. There is a greatjoy in doing what you do well
when it gives back to yourcommunity.
Our theme music was beat boxedby Denis the Menace and
roduced by Zede. A big shout outo the brothers fro
(50:08):
Switzerland. The backgrounmusic was produced by Tak
Brano. A big thank you to ourbrosky from Providence.
Happy holidays from our familyto yours.
Much love to Afrobeta foruying us coffee. Gracias. We lov
your new album illusion motel.
Our podcast basically runs ocoffee to keep our show runnin
. You can support by buyingus a coffee through the link i
(50:30):
our show notes. Andwe would love to get your
feedback questions and anysuggestions you might have. You
can reach out to us on InstagramTwitter or Facebook @S
ulidarityLLC or via email sulidarityllc@gmail.com if you li
e today's show, please tell a frend about our podcasts or as
Phife Dawg would say (50:54):
tell y ur mother, tell your father,
sent a telegram.
In our next episode we welcomemarried couple Honey Rockwell
and Orko. Honey is a legendaryB-girl from the South Bronx. She
created the first film dedicatedto B-girls in the 90s. Orko is a
legendary B boy from California.
He is also a marine veteran.
(51:15):
Honey and Orko have performedaround the world on Broadway
movies and television. Theycurrently own the Rockwell Dance
Academy and are proud parents offour children.
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. Now Seriouslythough, thank you.
(51:37):
I am candy. I'm DJ razor cut.
And this is Souls of hip hop
Popular Podcasts
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
24/7 News: The Latest
The latest news in 4 minutes updated every hour, every day.
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.