October 11, 2024 • 31 mins
Chris Gotti shares Unheard Stories of Murder Inc., What Makes Someone an Outlier & More
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:08):
It's pot on the five point one. Baby, Chris Gott
he's in the building today. You know, it's so crazy.
As I know Chris for many many years. Yes, yes,
you have many many time.
Speaker 2 (00:19):
You've had many titles and endeavors, a lot of endeavors.
Speaker 3 (00:24):
It's like, so I would they gave me this shit?
I was like, this is not even half of it. And
then I was like, I looked.
Speaker 2 (00:28):
At your because you know, when you know people, sometimes
you don't look at their.
Speaker 3 (00:34):
Yeah you're just yet or I'm sure you've never bruggled me.
Speaker 4 (00:39):
No, I never did.
Speaker 5 (00:40):
And you know what's crazy, that's part of my like
something that me personally I'm fifty seven now, Like I
don't never google anyone and everyone.
Speaker 4 (00:48):
Googles each other.
Speaker 5 (00:49):
Yeah, that's part of me being an old school Like
I just never I just take people for who they
they are, and if they, you know, show me something
or someone tells me, then I'm like, oh, let me
go take a look.
Speaker 4 (01:00):
But I never look at someone's uh google. I never
google them and see what they've done.
Speaker 6 (01:04):
You always had the same demeanor, You've always been, like,
I hope that's a good thing.
Speaker 3 (01:10):
You always around, I know, but you've always been like
thorough and the same.
Speaker 2 (01:17):
I've never I've never coming come across you, and you've
been a different person like you always.
Speaker 4 (01:21):
I only know one way.
Speaker 3 (01:23):
Yeah, but you know that's not a small thing.
Speaker 4 (01:25):
No, it's a big thing.
Speaker 5 (01:26):
It's not a small thing because we don't come across
that a lot in this industry, just people in general.
You don't see that a lot of emotions and ups
and downs. I try to say, what's.
Speaker 4 (01:36):
The word.
Speaker 3 (01:40):
That's good?
Speaker 2 (01:42):
By the way, I always thought that you and your
brother were Spanish when I first met you first of all,
dot and you you could pass Puerto Rican, you could pass.
Speaker 5 (01:51):
Put me everywhere on my Wikipedia. I think they have
me as Dominican. No way put it up there. Yeah,
you know again, people could add things in your Wikipedia.
Speaker 4 (01:59):
I leave they have me as a Dominican, and.
Speaker 3 (02:02):
Here it says nationality American.
Speaker 4 (02:04):
Okay, what is an American? I don't know.
Speaker 3 (02:06):
I guess black American? Right are you mixed?
Speaker 4 (02:08):
Your mixed with? It's black?
Speaker 5 (02:10):
And my dad was a Filipino in Trinidadian. He's a
training boy.
Speaker 3 (02:14):
Got I gotta got it.
Speaker 2 (02:15):
So then when you look it up, it's, uh, why
did I go to Earth right away. Higher they have
you as a renowned American record producer and co founder
of Murder Inc.
Speaker 5 (02:27):
If they say, so, where you a co founder again?
You know this is funny. Yeah, with everything going on,
me and Earth had a disagreement about it one time.
Speaker 3 (02:41):
Let's say he got my mom involved.
Speaker 4 (02:45):
Sucker shit.
Speaker 5 (02:46):
Yeah, it was waiting like, wait a minute, man, Mom
is calling me, Like, Chris, why'd you say that?
Speaker 4 (02:51):
Dad?
Speaker 5 (02:52):
Twine was doing an interview with me when I started
Adventure Music, and he wrote co founder of my n
But I didn't tell him that. He googled it just
like you just read it. Yeah, and that's where it
is everywhere. If we went to the history of how
Murder Ink started, you could not help but put me
inside it because I ran Top Dog Productions.
Speaker 4 (03:17):
IRV didn't tell me, Hey, I'm going to start a
record label. Now. I give her all.
Speaker 5 (03:22):
Credit for being the founder of it, but the reality
is he never tells the story of how he became.
IRV just wanted to be the biggest producer in the game.
Speaker 4 (03:30):
I started.
Speaker 5 (03:31):
There was one producer, a little Rob what up Rob?
And he was the one that was our main producer.
But he made quality not quantity. So if he did
four beats, I sold three for sure. But I couldn't
get it, you know, And I was like, IRV, I
need more beats. And all I told IRV was I'm
gonna go get more producers. He was like, I'm not
taking less than five thousand a beat, no problem. And
(03:51):
that's how early he was right. And I took him
from five thousand to fifty thousand to one hundred thousand
and six months, and then I took him to one
hundred to one hundred fifty thousand to two hundred fifty thousand.
Speaker 3 (04:02):
It was selling his beats.
Speaker 5 (04:04):
I was bringing the producers, that was making the co
producing with EARV. I'm selling it to all the artists,
cashing the price up.
Speaker 4 (04:12):
IRV wasn't. That was me. That was my job.
Speaker 5 (04:14):
And because we sold so many beats and so many
hit records, Tom had told the officer of a record deal.
Speaker 3 (04:21):
Got it.
Speaker 5 (04:22):
So that's how it wasn't like he went to Sony
said hey, give me a record deal.
Speaker 3 (04:25):
So when you go through it in there, of course, but.
Speaker 5 (04:29):
I never said listen, I know I'm standing here and
I will sit there and say IRV was a founder, Yeah, right,
and that was it. I never went out and ever
said I'm the co founder of murder Ring. I never
did that. I'm not an eagle guy like you said.
My energy is the same. I never went and tried
to tell you all my accomplishments of what I did
or didn't do inside of that.
Speaker 3 (04:49):
Whole How are you and your brothers so different?
Speaker 5 (04:53):
And I raised them and I raised them, but I'm
gonna tell you the difference to me was we was
basically identical. And then success, money, the industry, he loves that,
he loves the industry has a way.
Speaker 4 (05:07):
Of affecting you. How did you stay grounded?
Speaker 5 (05:11):
It was probably a moment in time you caught that, Angie,
my team is like you know what I'm saying, and
it's that everyone running to you when probably thought at
one time he might have been the alpha and Omega right,
and you know him very well so, but that's part
of a combination of success power, money, street power like
(05:35):
that that that energy and not being able to say
hear no from someone he thought he could control everything
at one point, and you know, there's nothing wrong with that,
Like I understand that it's weird, It's like I get it.
I see it in all these executives, not just artists.
Is artists and an executive, so it's both. Yeah, and
(05:57):
that comes with the territory. I feel from success, you
start feeling there's nothing you can't do.
Speaker 4 (06:02):
You start believing it.
Speaker 5 (06:03):
You know, you know, as human beings, as we evolved,
I'm fifty seven, we evolved with different Now I understand
life totally different, and it's all good.
Speaker 4 (06:12):
It's a blessing. Like I never thought i'd make twenty five.
Speaker 5 (06:15):
So here I'm in fifty seven with grandkids and come on,
I never think new ventures, new ventures. Yeah, blessed, just blessed.
Like again, people always ask me about old energy or beefs.
I said, I don't even have beats because anything I
did back then, I was gonna say.
Speaker 3 (06:29):
That about you.
Speaker 2 (06:30):
I don't even remember you.
Speaker 3 (06:32):
I just feel like it was.
Speaker 4 (06:33):
Even through even well I wasn't, but that's.
Speaker 3 (06:35):
Great from the outside. It was from the outside.
Speaker 5 (06:38):
My whole thing was really I did it as for
my man or my family, which was a really job.
Speaker 4 (06:46):
It wasn't about nothing else.
Speaker 5 (06:47):
So it was like, I have no energy or negative
vibes about it, and I wish everybody the most success.
I'm very different from let's say, you might hear from
an earth like I'm different from that because I don't
think it means anything. And uh, you know, I did
a lot of work. I put a lot of work in,
but it means not. I did it for Jah. Joh,
shout out, y'all rule. That's my that's my brother, just
(07:08):
like IRV is my brother. Jah is my brother. So
in that moment, it is what it is. Right, it
was you know, part of what it was. And you
know in hip hop, you couldn't live it if he
wasn't that, and that's what hip hop was, and that's
it's still you know, that's something that I don't see
as much and they say it.
Speaker 4 (07:27):
But it's a lot of funny stuff going on today.
Speaker 3 (07:30):
It's so weird.
Speaker 2 (07:32):
It's fascinating to it's you know what, it's weird because
a lot of people and I didn't even plan to
talk to you about this, but because you've been here
so long, it's like, I don't know.
Speaker 3 (07:41):
There is so much.
Speaker 2 (07:42):
That it's happened to the culture, and if you love it,
some of it is like, Okay, I get it. Because
times are different and people are paying prices for things.
Maybe they did or didn't do, or just the temperament
of things, but also when you look at the overall culture, like,
to me, it's just sad.
Speaker 4 (08:02):
You should do a documentary. It's you.
Speaker 3 (08:06):
By the way, this is the second time somebody said this.
Speaker 4 (08:08):
And you know, I do movies. I got a movie
coming up.
Speaker 3 (08:12):
Stevenson's already done.
Speaker 5 (08:14):
But at the end of the day, you you interviewed,
you're the voice of all of this, like you're the
post like you cannot that's funny.
Speaker 3 (08:22):
What did IRV used to say? He had a name
for me for that.
Speaker 5 (08:25):
You're the fabric of it, right, because we all had
to go inside and talk to Angie about what we
was doing and like, not me personally, I'm not the artist,
but behind the scenes, like we have to get an
Angie mar teams, That's what I'm telling them.
Speaker 3 (08:37):
Like, so I understand that. And then it just happened.
I don't know how it happened, but you became.
Speaker 5 (08:43):
That and that's something that every artist had to pass
through in that era, even to this day, like you're
still here and they have to come in.
Speaker 3 (08:51):
It's a little different. It's not the it's a little different.
Speaker 2 (08:53):
There's just so many places to do it now, so
I don't you know, it's different.
Speaker 3 (08:56):
I'm totally okay with that, but I don't want to
do them all. But I don't want to do it.
We have a big platform, so a platform.
Speaker 2 (09:02):
I still very much value my voice, my platform, I
you know whatever.
Speaker 5 (09:05):
Respect like you're respected and that meant everything.
Speaker 3 (09:08):
Thank you.
Speaker 2 (09:09):
But in no means am I trying to am my
ever trying to be in that space.
Speaker 3 (09:15):
You know what I'm saying, like own the everybody got
to come here to see me. Yeah, I'm not. I
have no interest in and I did. I did that.
I had that at that moment. I had that moment
that I said, and that comes with that.
Speaker 2 (09:29):
And probably if you asked me, like what am I
most proud of it myself? Is that I didn't lose
it in that moment.
Speaker 4 (09:34):
Yes.
Speaker 3 (09:35):
When I say lose it I mean myself.
Speaker 4 (09:36):
I know exactly what you mean, because.
Speaker 5 (09:40):
It's almost like the reality of that, that that ego
that we all have or not. Like I always tell
people I don't have an ego, so it doesn't matter, But.
Speaker 3 (09:49):
Is that true?
Speaker 4 (09:50):
Yeah? Very true?
Speaker 3 (09:51):
How do you not have an ego?
Speaker 4 (09:52):
You know?
Speaker 5 (09:53):
I'm coming from very humble beginnings, and I never looked
at anyone. I'm the guy that always helped everybody around me.
I built a instruction company, took my whole hood and
had him working for me, did millions of dollars with that,
and I mean so many different businesses. I look at
myself as just a serial entrepreneur. I just chase the
dream and I feel that energy when I do it.
(10:13):
Like just like I'm twenty five again, So.
Speaker 3 (10:16):
You're doing that at twenty five. Then your brother does
this massive thing or murder Inc.
Speaker 2 (10:22):
There was no like and I know you're a part
of it too, but like I built murder Inc.
Speaker 5 (10:27):
Like again, I have no problem with whatever you want
to talk about it because people may not have ever
heard me speak about it.
Speaker 4 (10:33):
But the reality is I built murder Inc.
Speaker 5 (10:34):
Earth couldn't do what he did without me because I
took care of that infrastructure. He's out making the records,
and then I'm supplying all of the artists right and
the music with the producers. So how do you take
that away?
Speaker 3 (10:48):
Does it get so mad when you say that?
Speaker 5 (10:51):
I don't think so. I don't think how could you
be mad at reality? And it's my brother? Like someone
like I say. When I say I raised him, I
don't say that in a respect way. I used to
fight two guys to make Earth watch me.
Speaker 4 (11:03):
That's me. I wouldn't let my.
Speaker 5 (11:05):
Little brother following my footsteps, if that makes sense. I
was doing things in the street I didn't want her
to know about. You know, he doesn't know how I
did a lot of things or how things was there.
But I never told him. I didn't want them to
see me in that light. Like I am my brother's
keeper in every sense of the word. And you know,
one of the crazy things is because I did that.
As we got older, I said, man, you would never
(11:26):
called me to say, hey, we going to the club,
come with me. I would find out and pull up,
but you never called me. So whenever you call me,
it was a problem. It wasn't good.
Speaker 4 (11:36):
It was like, damn, man, you called me, I got
to deal with something, right.
Speaker 5 (11:39):
He's and after the years build up, it's like, because
we're from a big family, you.
Speaker 3 (11:45):
Know that you have a great family.
Speaker 4 (11:47):
Thank you.
Speaker 5 (11:48):
Eight of us, and irbe the last of the eight.
I'm number seven. So me and him were the closest
out of everybody.
Speaker 3 (11:54):
Are you still close now?
Speaker 4 (11:55):
Yeah, of course, that's my brother.
Speaker 3 (11:57):
Some people are brothers are not close.
Speaker 4 (11:59):
You know what I did? Do you know?
Speaker 5 (12:01):
I just as far as business, he went and started
doing movies and stuff.
Speaker 4 (12:04):
And I just told you I do movies too. I
have that.
Speaker 5 (12:08):
And it's because for some reason, whatever he did, everyone
will call me. So when he announces he's doing TV
and movies, I'm getting all these investors, these scripts. And
I didn't ask for that, but when I see it
and I tell herv Hey, but when you start something,
you have your own vision of what you're doing. It's
very hard to put other people in front of your
own vision. So he's working doing what he's doing, and
(12:32):
I'm like, you don't want it, and then I said,
all right, I'll do it.
Speaker 4 (12:35):
And then that's how everything kind of went.
Speaker 5 (12:37):
It's really weird because I didn't plan on it, but
it's just how it works.
Speaker 3 (12:44):
How do you manage when things are not so positive?
Speaker 5 (12:46):
I've always been the cooler head. If you ever watched
The Godfather, they always say there was a lawyer Tom. Yeah, Tom,
you're out Tom, because he was an a war time
can'tist the aary because when you're in war or any
turbulence and that's not just street. I'm talking about even
relationship and things of that nature.
Speaker 4 (13:06):
Business. I looked at it as war.
Speaker 5 (13:09):
You walked in my office, it was signs of raping
pillage on the wall. But it wasn't for me. It
was what I felt deaf jam or universe was trying
to do to us.
Speaker 4 (13:16):
And I had to be mindful of it.
Speaker 5 (13:18):
So mentally, I was always preparing to keep everything that
even keel. So when a job comes in with that energy,
you know, those guys are balls and energy, like ah,
I'm kind of giving them the reality of rationale to
kind of keep it even killed. And I think it
worked for the most part.
Speaker 6 (13:37):
You're still here, man, I'm still here. You're still here
and doing incredible things, doing incredible things. You always got
a new venture. You always got a new something going on,
really fascinating. I mean I've seen it too, you would do.
I remember when you were managing Phil.
Speaker 5 (13:51):
Still that's my gut, Come on, three years, I feel
you know, Phil just had a baby girl. Yeah, poker champion,
he's the best in the poker icon, best poker player
in the world. Anyone disagrees, bring at least a half
a million or better and we can sit and figure
it out.
Speaker 3 (14:10):
Almost beating him in cards one time.
Speaker 5 (14:12):
Yeah, you know that's funny because my mother beat him
and she did. We played like a little house tournament.
Speaker 2 (14:18):
Do you know how how good it fields of saying
I beat phil Ivy and she tells him, don't worry Phil,
I'm not going to tell nobody.
Speaker 4 (14:25):
I was.
Speaker 3 (14:26):
I was there.
Speaker 2 (14:26):
We were playing spades, were playing the way we were
playing spades, and I was like, I was there.
Speaker 3 (14:31):
I was like, I was like eight books up. I
was eight books up. We was on the last hand.
I was like, oh ship, I'm.
Speaker 2 (14:38):
About to tell everybody I beat phil Ivy cards. Phil
Ivy says blind ten. I was like, oh, phil why
does phil Ivy pulls off of blind ten and.
Speaker 4 (14:53):
Beats in spade? It's funny. I think he has a
deal with somebody.
Speaker 3 (14:57):
I don't know what I said, somebody right with you.
That's not possible. But so he took it. He took
that moment away from me in their career.
Speaker 5 (15:04):
Let me ask you questions that you bring Philip, because
I always look at him as different. Do you notice
from an artist's standpoint, their artist street, the way they
move around that they're just not no, more or different
in a great standpoint, like what do you mean better
than someone else? Like greater, like Michael Jordans. He was different,
not just on the court, his air about him, Yes,
(15:27):
you know jay Z different different, Yes, his air a
bottom aside from him being one of the best, if
not the greatest, m C like you understand, phil Ivey.
Speaker 4 (15:38):
A different.
Speaker 3 (15:39):
So you've been.
Speaker 5 (15:39):
Around it, see and I seen it and I identified
and I always look. I always tell people I could
identify outliers. He's an outlier, outliers of people that stand
apart from everybody else. Phil Ivey's absolutely an outlier.
Speaker 3 (15:53):
Who else man.
Speaker 4 (15:56):
Irv Gotti outlier?
Speaker 5 (15:59):
No, No, in THEA people say that's your brother. I
know he's one of one. He's different, And until you
see or have enough people to judge, you can't judge.
Speaker 4 (16:09):
How about that?
Speaker 5 (16:09):
That's why I'm asking you, because you had enough body
of people to say, No, he was different. Kanye West different, outlier,
like unbelievable even if for real, different, absolutely absolutely different outliers.
You know what I'm saying, it's in a I mean,
it's not compared to the amount of people. It's not
(16:30):
like I can name everyone because there I look at
a lot of them and say, regular regular, you know, but.
Speaker 3 (16:37):
Did well, did great, over achieved, hard.
Speaker 5 (16:41):
Work, hard workers, talented, right opportunity, right space, even talented
something talented because to do what they do. But at
the end of the day, regularly, they're normal.
Speaker 4 (16:52):
They're normal. I do, I do.
Speaker 5 (16:54):
I do judge everyone in that space, well, even myself.
Speaker 4 (16:59):
I'm not.
Speaker 5 (17:00):
I'm a different type. I'm not an outliering the sense
of a celebrity. I'm an outlier and sense of ideas
and building, creating. I mean, I don't see anyone when
I get next to these executives.
Speaker 4 (17:14):
That's the other thing.
Speaker 5 (17:15):
I'm gonna shout out every music exec in the industry
because when I changed professions and left that and went
into corporate America, hedge funds, insurance, those executives are far
less aggressive, flexible to change and make a decision on
the fly.
Speaker 4 (17:35):
The speed of what they do.
Speaker 5 (17:36):
I just went through a whole issue before I got
on here, and I'm looking at these guys like, what
are you making a decisions so long?
Speaker 3 (17:43):
Takes so long for push the button. J That's what
I told them.
Speaker 5 (17:51):
And jay Z made a record and he said impossible
to difficult takes a day, impossible takes a week.
Speaker 4 (17:58):
And that's how I felt.
Speaker 5 (17:59):
All of the best music execs operated, we will figure
it out quick quick and really do a great job
at it.
Speaker 4 (18:07):
And I don't see that in many of these exacts.
So to me, that's my advantage.
Speaker 2 (18:11):
I know, But what is the grooming like execs? Where
where are execs coming from?
Speaker 4 (18:16):
And music was.
Speaker 5 (18:17):
Always under pressure on the budgets and timing and dates,
where these corporations have different pressure and the money is
usually a lot more so they don't have that pressure
of that.
Speaker 4 (18:27):
We was pressure like if you don't you won't eat.
You want to we want to eat, you want to
eat better? Get this right?
Speaker 5 (18:32):
So it was from under a different stress or scope.
And there's nothing I feel I can't do. I say,
I mean, I didn't go to but high school and
it took me five years of that because.
Speaker 4 (18:41):
I didn't go to one year, I didn't go a
whole year.
Speaker 3 (18:44):
But how did you learn all this?
Speaker 4 (18:46):
I'm a student. I'm a student of people.
Speaker 3 (18:49):
Who have you learned the most from of all the artists?
Speaker 5 (18:51):
Wow, it's really a culmination of everybody. So it depends
which one from the lower levels. I can say I
learned from like murder Mook from a rapper and what
they needs are. Then you go all the way up
from anywhere in between. Again, a Jaar Rule, who changed
his entire career, was a student. Just think he didn't
start off how he started, I mean where he ended
(19:14):
making those records. Who has his fingerprint on the entire industry.
And I feel they black ball murder in because of
the FED case and everything, But no one could take
us out of history books and what we accomplished. In hindsight,
we know exactly how executives are judged, and if that's
the case, there's no one that should be hired, or
me and my brother for all the people that we
(19:34):
brought in in the lives that we affected inside of
that universal system completely in hindsight, you know, before we
got there, hip hop wasn't played on pop stations. I'll
never forget the day Kevin Lyle shout out. keV runs
in our office.
Speaker 4 (19:52):
They're playing a Jaru record on Z one hundred. We're like,
that's great.
Speaker 5 (19:57):
We're very ignorant, right, we didn't pay for it, we
didn't call to get it played. So Leo comes in next,
we have to hire a whole staff, So just put
it in business. Since now that we are way more
educated than back then, they hired a whole pop division
for a rap label that never was done before.
Speaker 4 (20:21):
What is that worth today?
Speaker 5 (20:23):
Because that's what changed the entire game. And that guy
that was hired is Ken Lane. Shout out Ken Lane.
See I know all of this. You can't deny me
the truth, right, you can't hide from it. Even if
you want to write the books differently, you can't.
Speaker 4 (20:37):
We lived it. What's that worth? Though?
Speaker 5 (20:40):
For deaf jam or Universal? There's a guy, Edgar Brofman Jr.
Who bought Universal. I love these stories because people don't
know them, even yourself, Like Edgar Brofren bought Universal. He's
the reason we got a deal for Murder Inc. Because
Tommy TOLDA had the biggest deal on the table, and
Lee was like, my job is to keep talent at
(21:00):
the lowest cost. I can't match their deal, which is
complete bs. Right, But you know, shout out Lee or
you know he's running his ship. And again I understand
him as a businessman as an executive. Today I didn't
understand it. Then we're like, what mean you can't, right?
So we get a meeting Doug Morris, who is the
(21:21):
chairman of Universal at the time, Uh Leah Cohen, Kevin Lewles,
Edgar Brotherfan Jr. Who just acquired the company. But the
company is plumbing. Universe wasn't doing good, so they didn't
think they was going to be able to get the
money to get us because Tommy put a real number
up there. He meets, IRV calls him a rum runner.
(21:44):
He starts laughing, because that's how seagrums make their money.
He owned Sea Rooms, Jin and all of that tropic canna.
But they bought Universal at the time. But the start,
everything's falling. At the end of the day, what ends
up happening, He says, give her whatever he wants and
they matched the deal.
Speaker 4 (22:04):
They don't beat it.
Speaker 3 (22:05):
They so Edgar Brofford Jr.
Speaker 5 (22:10):
Credits the saving of his family empire at the time
because I forget the number exactly. It was two points something.
He bought it for two point something billion. It was
going down to nothing. And Murder Inc enters the building
brings in Rockefeller Rough Fridays, Murder Inc.
Speaker 4 (22:29):
And everything under.
Speaker 5 (22:30):
Those brands, because that's how executives get credited, right, All
of that's underneath hers and myself's name as executives.
Speaker 4 (22:41):
Takes off Murder Inc.
Speaker 5 (22:42):
Started getting radio everywhere because of the record that I
talked with Ken Lane played everywhere. Those favors, as you
would know, radio, we used to do favors for those
plays to do their shows and things of that nature. Okay, great,
but who got the favor Nelly Ludacris.
Speaker 4 (23:03):
They're taking Ja Rule's favors.
Speaker 5 (23:06):
We were supposed to break Black Child, Caddy Ivida Charlie,
but those favors were being used for radio in airsplay,
which is the absolute way artists was broken at that time.
So imagine that that's what happened. And then they cooperated
with the government against the government, against me and my
brother in Universal Death Jam all of them. See in hindsight,
(23:30):
it's twenty twenty, right, we noticed this isn't a secret anymore.
Speaker 3 (23:34):
They stopped paying us everything. All of this was part
of what.
Speaker 5 (23:37):
We was going through. And as men, we didn't go
out yelling and screaming. We was like, we didn't understand it.
Speaker 4 (23:42):
We find out later that they had problems.
Speaker 2 (23:44):
Is that on the record that they cooperated, is that
like known? Of course, of course it feels like so
long ago, and I was not planning to talk.
Speaker 3 (23:50):
About Well.
Speaker 5 (23:53):
It's I know, but it's so interesting it is, and
it's never really been told that way because it's never
been told according to my way of how I see
it from the business standpoint.
Speaker 3 (24:04):
Yeah, for sure.
Speaker 4 (24:05):
See when you're when you're.
Speaker 5 (24:06):
Inside of it, like an herb or Ja rule, it's
a different you're in the fire, it's different for you.
And that's what I keep telling Nerve, like it was
different the things I went through an experience. I'm watching
how people treated you and you didn't see it, but
I seen it all from the side, and it's just
what it is. It's almost like a bodyguard, right, they
see something transpiring before you actually get to you, and
(24:28):
a real bodyguard makes it go away. I had that
conversation before I said, Irve, you want me to let
it happen or you want me to diffuse it before
it happens.
Speaker 3 (24:37):
You tell me, are you gonna do like a book
or a vibe like a like a doctor.
Speaker 5 (24:41):
You know, I'm gonna keep it all the way one
hundred and you asked me that I would do a book.
I don't want to offend some people. Because I would
offend some people and I really don't care, but I do.
I don't care, and I do care, if that makes sense,
because that's not of my that's not that's not me.
I could have told stories. I've been offers six figure
deals for books and I turned them all down because
(25:04):
I didn't feel like putting people's business on the street.
And I feel that's why these people actually want you
to do it and they trust me because it's not
And then even I'll go even further.
Speaker 4 (25:15):
The Murder Inc.
Speaker 5 (25:16):
Documentary, as much as I liked it, it's so many
things missing, for sure, and no one could tell that
story because I'm the one that did it or was experienced,
that had the absolute one to one knowledge of it,
and it was never told. And when when I seen it,
I was a little disappointed, if that makes sense, because
(25:36):
there's no way I shouldn't have been executive producer or
consultant minimum on the dock of Murder Inc.
Speaker 4 (25:43):
It's like impossible.
Speaker 5 (25:44):
When you talk about the trial, I did the trial
or did not do the trial.
Speaker 4 (25:49):
When I say that he showed up to.
Speaker 5 (25:51):
Court, he did not go to the motion hearings and
all the meetings I went to everyone.
Speaker 4 (25:55):
Why, Because I want to know what's going on. How
can I help my lawyer know what's going on.
Speaker 3 (25:59):
I'm the one that's involved and he doesn't have a clue.
Speaker 4 (26:02):
So I had to be there and I tell anyone
in the trial.
Speaker 5 (26:05):
I hope everyone's listening. I promise you, especially a federal trial,
they're very calculated in how they move. You better be
the one if it's your trial against you to talk
to your lawyer and really trust that lawyer you have
for complete transparency. That's the only way they could protect
you to the letter of the law. If you leave
(26:27):
out anything, you'll get blindsided by it.
Speaker 3 (26:31):
I think you have to do a movie or something
something I would watch. I would go see a guy.
Speaker 4 (26:37):
Yeah, Chris Gott Chris Gotti's version, Chris Spooky.
Speaker 3 (26:42):
I would love that.
Speaker 7 (26:43):
All Right, we're gonna run out of time, and we
didn't get to talk about the important thing.
Speaker 3 (26:47):
We cannot talk about the important thing TV. It's important, man,
this is a new venture that we have again. I've
got street bawl.
Speaker 5 (26:56):
Yes, I've been in street ball culture for well over
man forty plus years.
Speaker 3 (27:02):
Wow.
Speaker 5 (27:03):
Dealing with Rucker Park to Dykeman, I helped Ruck and
Greg God bless the dead. Greg passed away and I
used to help him. Fat Joe my commissioner for Clash TV.
He's part of this with me. Baron Davis Ambassador is
part of it. Kendrick Perkins Ambassador. So I went and
got some really good names that are part of this
(27:24):
streetball culture and I started live streaming across the you
know the country, put it on an app on YouTube.
Speaker 4 (27:33):
You could go see everything.
Speaker 5 (27:34):
And what it does is now give a place for
all these street balls that don't have an opportunity, a
way to actually now be part of something and make money.
So we're starting a pro league. It's called CPL Clash
Pro League. It'll be live streamed on Clash TV and
on our network. And basically what that is is, for
(27:54):
the first time ever, I'm giving money to all.
Speaker 4 (27:57):
The players in streetball. We have a combine.
Speaker 5 (28:01):
I mean, I'm so excited about This is a passion
project because this is something that I loved and helped
for over forty years and did it for no money
and helped parks make millions of dollars over the court
of the years. Dykeman Park Ken Stevens again.
Speaker 4 (28:17):
The number one park in the country.
Speaker 5 (28:19):
I been part of that for well over fifteen years,
helping them develop that and now Clash we live stream
all the best parks across throughout the city and over
into Miami. We do the Miami Pro League, We do
the Drew League, the Crossover League in Seattle. We have
leagues in Houston and then Dallas, Atlanta, Philadelphia. Like it's
(28:41):
bigger than New York. But what I'm doing is I'm
starting a pro league in New York where I'm teaking
taking all of these pool players. If you think of basketball,
they graduate from college and there's nowhere else to go.
Most of them don't get the opportunity to play overseas
or even further the NBA. There's only four hundred and
fifty jobs in the NBA.
Speaker 3 (29:00):
UCIT colleges are crazy.
Speaker 5 (29:02):
So every year there's a pool of players, and there's
a pool of players that have nowhere to go and
talented and super talented, and now they have a place
to go.
Speaker 4 (29:10):
So we're having a combine on the thirteenth.
Speaker 3 (29:14):
You can go right thirteenth October thirteenth, You can.
Speaker 5 (29:17):
Go right to Clash TV sign up, fill out the
form and put in your application to be in this
combine and then there's eight coaches that I have selected
for this already, and then we'll be We're gonna build
this league up and have it in every city or
that I just mentioned and more from LA because there's
(29:37):
a pool of plays. It's simply supplying demand in business, right.
There is a supply of all of these players in
a demand because they need this money. So I need
my sponsors to come in and understand what I'm doing
and show the business model how we all make money,
how we actually transcend from just doing basketball to make
it into really good business from a street ball culture,
(29:58):
hood culture. I like to always call it, this is
hood business that I'm turning into good business, right, And
that's very challenging because you know, they're not used to
corporate America, and I have to go into all of
these places and tell them about a new entity that
they didn't know existed.
Speaker 4 (30:14):
And that's always a challenge.
Speaker 5 (30:16):
But that's the fun part because I'm building it from scratch,
never been done, and that's what.
Speaker 4 (30:20):
Clash Pro League is about. Clash TV is the network
that you'll see it.
Speaker 3 (30:25):
On and it's just starting now, just starting this summer.
Speaker 7 (30:28):
Fresh the press all right, so go to clashtv dot com. No,
just go to clash dot tv, dot TV, Clash dot TV,
clash Instagram.
Speaker 4 (30:39):
All the social media's is clash TV one. That's it.
Speaker 5 (30:43):
You go in there and you'll see exactly what we're doing.
The link is in the bio for the pro league
and you can get everything you need.
Speaker 4 (30:50):
Right.
Speaker 5 (30:51):
Yeah, I'm telling you got to come out. I would
love I would love if Angie Martinez showed up seeing
what's going on and interviewed some of the players like
a sports now it's like, you know.
Speaker 4 (31:01):
An interview.
Speaker 3 (31:02):
We can figure something.
Speaker 4 (31:03):
I would love it.
Speaker 5 (31:03):
On the thirteenth and so on a Sunday. We play
every Sunday, every Sunday, every Sunday. The gym is located
in Harlem. It's four forty one Manhattan Avenue on one
hundred and nineteenth Street, and again every Sunday until December fifteenth. Amazing, right,
well you know where to go. Clash TV one time,
but the amazing Chris Gotti
Speaker 3 (31:26):
Man and Angie thank you for having me anytime.
It's pot on the five point one. Baby, Chris Gott
he's in the building today. You know, it's so crazy.
As I know Chris for many many years. Yes, yes,
you have many many time.
Speaker 2 (00:19):
You've had many titles and endeavors, a lot of endeavors.
Speaker 3 (00:24):
It's like, so I would they gave me this shit?
I was like, this is not even half of it. And
then I was like, I looked.
Speaker 2 (00:28):
At your because you know, when you know people, sometimes
you don't look at their.
Speaker 3 (00:34):
Yeah you're just yet or I'm sure you've never bruggled me.
Speaker 4 (00:39):
No, I never did.
Speaker 5 (00:40):
And you know what's crazy, that's part of my like
something that me personally I'm fifty seven now, Like I
don't never google anyone and everyone.
Speaker 4 (00:48):
Googles each other.
Speaker 5 (00:49):
Yeah, that's part of me being an old school Like
I just never I just take people for who they
they are, and if they, you know, show me something
or someone tells me, then I'm like, oh, let me
go take a look.
Speaker 4 (01:00):
But I never look at someone's uh google. I never
google them and see what they've done.
Speaker 6 (01:04):
You always had the same demeanor, You've always been, like,
I hope that's a good thing.
Speaker 3 (01:10):
You always around, I know, but you've always been like
thorough and the same.
Speaker 2 (01:17):
I've never I've never coming come across you, and you've
been a different person like you always.
Speaker 4 (01:21):
I only know one way.
Speaker 3 (01:23):
Yeah, but you know that's not a small thing.
Speaker 4 (01:25):
No, it's a big thing.
Speaker 5 (01:26):
It's not a small thing because we don't come across
that a lot in this industry, just people in general.
You don't see that a lot of emotions and ups
and downs. I try to say, what's.
Speaker 4 (01:36):
The word.
Speaker 3 (01:40):
That's good?
Speaker 2 (01:42):
By the way, I always thought that you and your
brother were Spanish when I first met you first of all,
dot and you you could pass Puerto Rican, you could pass.
Speaker 5 (01:51):
Put me everywhere on my Wikipedia. I think they have
me as Dominican. No way put it up there. Yeah,
you know again, people could add things in your Wikipedia.
Speaker 4 (01:59):
I leave they have me as a Dominican, and.
Speaker 3 (02:02):
Here it says nationality American.
Speaker 4 (02:04):
Okay, what is an American? I don't know.
Speaker 3 (02:06):
I guess black American? Right are you mixed?
Speaker 4 (02:08):
Your mixed with? It's black?
Speaker 5 (02:10):
And my dad was a Filipino in Trinidadian. He's a
training boy.
Speaker 3 (02:14):
Got I gotta got it.
Speaker 2 (02:15):
So then when you look it up, it's, uh, why
did I go to Earth right away. Higher they have
you as a renowned American record producer and co founder
of Murder Inc.
Speaker 5 (02:27):
If they say, so, where you a co founder again?
You know this is funny. Yeah, with everything going on,
me and Earth had a disagreement about it one time.
Speaker 3 (02:41):
Let's say he got my mom involved.
Speaker 4 (02:45):
Sucker shit.
Speaker 5 (02:46):
Yeah, it was waiting like, wait a minute, man, Mom
is calling me, Like, Chris, why'd you say that?
Speaker 4 (02:51):
Dad?
Speaker 5 (02:52):
Twine was doing an interview with me when I started
Adventure Music, and he wrote co founder of my n
But I didn't tell him that. He googled it just
like you just read it. Yeah, and that's where it
is everywhere. If we went to the history of how
Murder Ink started, you could not help but put me
inside it because I ran Top Dog Productions.
Speaker 4 (03:17):
IRV didn't tell me, Hey, I'm going to start a
record label. Now. I give her all.
Speaker 5 (03:22):
Credit for being the founder of it, but the reality
is he never tells the story of how he became.
IRV just wanted to be the biggest producer in the game.
Speaker 4 (03:30):
I started.
Speaker 5 (03:31):
There was one producer, a little Rob what up Rob?
And he was the one that was our main producer.
But he made quality not quantity. So if he did
four beats, I sold three for sure. But I couldn't
get it, you know, And I was like, IRV, I
need more beats. And all I told IRV was I'm
gonna go get more producers. He was like, I'm not
taking less than five thousand a beat, no problem. And
(03:51):
that's how early he was right. And I took him
from five thousand to fifty thousand to one hundred thousand
and six months, and then I took him to one
hundred to one hundred fifty thousand to two hundred fifty thousand.
Speaker 3 (04:02):
It was selling his beats.
Speaker 5 (04:04):
I was bringing the producers, that was making the co
producing with EARV. I'm selling it to all the artists,
cashing the price up.
Speaker 4 (04:12):
IRV wasn't. That was me. That was my job.
Speaker 5 (04:14):
And because we sold so many beats and so many
hit records, Tom had told the officer of a record deal.
Speaker 3 (04:21):
Got it.
Speaker 5 (04:22):
So that's how it wasn't like he went to Sony
said hey, give me a record deal.
Speaker 3 (04:25):
So when you go through it in there, of course, but.
Speaker 5 (04:29):
I never said listen, I know I'm standing here and
I will sit there and say IRV was a founder, Yeah, right,
and that was it. I never went out and ever
said I'm the co founder of murder Ring. I never
did that. I'm not an eagle guy like you said.
My energy is the same. I never went and tried
to tell you all my accomplishments of what I did
or didn't do inside of that.
Speaker 3 (04:49):
Whole How are you and your brothers so different?
Speaker 5 (04:53):
And I raised them and I raised them, but I'm
gonna tell you the difference to me was we was
basically identical. And then success, money, the industry, he loves that,
he loves the industry has a way.
Speaker 4 (05:07):
Of affecting you. How did you stay grounded?
Speaker 5 (05:11):
It was probably a moment in time you caught that, Angie,
my team is like you know what I'm saying, and
it's that everyone running to you when probably thought at
one time he might have been the alpha and Omega right,
and you know him very well so, but that's part
of a combination of success power, money, street power like
(05:35):
that that that energy and not being able to say
hear no from someone he thought he could control everything
at one point, and you know, there's nothing wrong with that,
Like I understand that it's weird, It's like I get it.
I see it in all these executives, not just artists.
Is artists and an executive, so it's both. Yeah, and
(05:57):
that comes with the territory. I feel from success, you
start feeling there's nothing you can't do.
Speaker 4 (06:02):
You start believing it.
Speaker 5 (06:03):
You know, you know, as human beings, as we evolved,
I'm fifty seven, we evolved with different Now I understand
life totally different, and it's all good.
Speaker 4 (06:12):
It's a blessing. Like I never thought i'd make twenty five.
Speaker 5 (06:15):
So here I'm in fifty seven with grandkids and come on,
I never think new ventures, new ventures. Yeah, blessed, just blessed.
Like again, people always ask me about old energy or beefs.
I said, I don't even have beats because anything I
did back then, I was gonna say.
Speaker 3 (06:29):
That about you.
Speaker 2 (06:30):
I don't even remember you.
Speaker 3 (06:32):
I just feel like it was.
Speaker 4 (06:33):
Even through even well I wasn't, but that's.
Speaker 3 (06:35):
Great from the outside. It was from the outside.
Speaker 5 (06:38):
My whole thing was really I did it as for
my man or my family, which was a really job.
Speaker 4 (06:46):
It wasn't about nothing else.
Speaker 5 (06:47):
So it was like, I have no energy or negative
vibes about it, and I wish everybody the most success.
I'm very different from let's say, you might hear from
an earth like I'm different from that because I don't
think it means anything. And uh, you know, I did
a lot of work. I put a lot of work in,
but it means not. I did it for Jah. Joh,
shout out, y'all rule. That's my that's my brother, just
(07:08):
like IRV is my brother. Jah is my brother. So
in that moment, it is what it is. Right, it
was you know, part of what it was. And you
know in hip hop, you couldn't live it if he
wasn't that, and that's what hip hop was, and that's
it's still you know, that's something that I don't see
as much and they say it.
Speaker 4 (07:27):
But it's a lot of funny stuff going on today.
Speaker 3 (07:30):
It's so weird.
Speaker 2 (07:32):
It's fascinating to it's you know what, it's weird because
a lot of people and I didn't even plan to
talk to you about this, but because you've been here
so long, it's like, I don't know.
Speaker 3 (07:41):
There is so much.
Speaker 2 (07:42):
That it's happened to the culture, and if you love it,
some of it is like, Okay, I get it. Because
times are different and people are paying prices for things.
Maybe they did or didn't do, or just the temperament
of things, but also when you look at the overall culture, like,
to me, it's just sad.
Speaker 4 (08:02):
You should do a documentary. It's you.
Speaker 3 (08:06):
By the way, this is the second time somebody said this.
Speaker 4 (08:08):
And you know, I do movies. I got a movie
coming up.
Speaker 3 (08:12):
Stevenson's already done.
Speaker 5 (08:14):
But at the end of the day, you you interviewed,
you're the voice of all of this, like you're the
post like you cannot that's funny.
Speaker 3 (08:22):
What did IRV used to say? He had a name
for me for that.
Speaker 5 (08:25):
You're the fabric of it, right, because we all had
to go inside and talk to Angie about what we
was doing and like, not me personally, I'm not the artist,
but behind the scenes, like we have to get an
Angie mar teams, That's what I'm telling them.
Speaker 3 (08:37):
Like, so I understand that. And then it just happened.
I don't know how it happened, but you became.
Speaker 5 (08:43):
That and that's something that every artist had to pass
through in that era, even to this day, like you're
still here and they have to come in.
Speaker 3 (08:51):
It's a little different. It's not the it's a little different.
Speaker 2 (08:53):
There's just so many places to do it now, so
I don't you know, it's different.
Speaker 3 (08:56):
I'm totally okay with that, but I don't want to
do them all. But I don't want to do it.
We have a big platform, so a platform.
Speaker 2 (09:02):
I still very much value my voice, my platform, I
you know whatever.
Speaker 5 (09:05):
Respect like you're respected and that meant everything.
Speaker 3 (09:08):
Thank you.
Speaker 2 (09:09):
But in no means am I trying to am my
ever trying to be in that space.
Speaker 3 (09:15):
You know what I'm saying, like own the everybody got
to come here to see me. Yeah, I'm not. I
have no interest in and I did. I did that.
I had that at that moment. I had that moment
that I said, and that comes with that.
Speaker 2 (09:29):
And probably if you asked me, like what am I
most proud of it myself? Is that I didn't lose
it in that moment.
Speaker 4 (09:34):
Yes.
Speaker 3 (09:35):
When I say lose it I mean myself.
Speaker 4 (09:36):
I know exactly what you mean, because.
Speaker 5 (09:40):
It's almost like the reality of that, that that ego
that we all have or not. Like I always tell
people I don't have an ego, so it doesn't matter, But.
Speaker 3 (09:49):
Is that true?
Speaker 4 (09:50):
Yeah? Very true?
Speaker 3 (09:51):
How do you not have an ego?
Speaker 4 (09:52):
You know?
Speaker 5 (09:53):
I'm coming from very humble beginnings, and I never looked
at anyone. I'm the guy that always helped everybody around me.
I built a instruction company, took my whole hood and
had him working for me, did millions of dollars with that,
and I mean so many different businesses. I look at
myself as just a serial entrepreneur. I just chase the
dream and I feel that energy when I do it.
(10:13):
Like just like I'm twenty five again, So.
Speaker 3 (10:16):
You're doing that at twenty five. Then your brother does
this massive thing or murder Inc.
Speaker 2 (10:22):
There was no like and I know you're a part
of it too, but like I built murder Inc.
Speaker 5 (10:27):
Like again, I have no problem with whatever you want
to talk about it because people may not have ever
heard me speak about it.
Speaker 4 (10:33):
But the reality is I built murder Inc.
Speaker 5 (10:34):
Earth couldn't do what he did without me because I
took care of that infrastructure. He's out making the records,
and then I'm supplying all of the artists right and
the music with the producers. So how do you take
that away?
Speaker 3 (10:48):
Does it get so mad when you say that?
Speaker 5 (10:51):
I don't think so. I don't think how could you
be mad at reality? And it's my brother? Like someone
like I say. When I say I raised him, I
don't say that in a respect way. I used to
fight two guys to make Earth watch me.
Speaker 4 (11:03):
That's me. I wouldn't let my.
Speaker 5 (11:05):
Little brother following my footsteps, if that makes sense. I
was doing things in the street I didn't want her
to know about. You know, he doesn't know how I
did a lot of things or how things was there.
But I never told him. I didn't want them to
see me in that light. Like I am my brother's
keeper in every sense of the word. And you know,
one of the crazy things is because I did that.
As we got older, I said, man, you would never
(11:26):
called me to say, hey, we going to the club,
come with me. I would find out and pull up,
but you never called me. So whenever you call me,
it was a problem. It wasn't good.
Speaker 4 (11:36):
It was like, damn, man, you called me, I got
to deal with something, right.
Speaker 5 (11:39):
He's and after the years build up, it's like, because
we're from a big family, you.
Speaker 3 (11:45):
Know that you have a great family.
Speaker 4 (11:47):
Thank you.
Speaker 5 (11:48):
Eight of us, and irbe the last of the eight.
I'm number seven. So me and him were the closest
out of everybody.
Speaker 3 (11:54):
Are you still close now?
Speaker 4 (11:55):
Yeah, of course, that's my brother.
Speaker 3 (11:57):
Some people are brothers are not close.
Speaker 4 (11:59):
You know what I did? Do you know?
Speaker 5 (12:01):
I just as far as business, he went and started
doing movies and stuff.
Speaker 4 (12:04):
And I just told you I do movies too. I
have that.
Speaker 5 (12:08):
And it's because for some reason, whatever he did, everyone
will call me. So when he announces he's doing TV
and movies, I'm getting all these investors, these scripts. And
I didn't ask for that, but when I see it
and I tell herv Hey, but when you start something,
you have your own vision of what you're doing. It's
very hard to put other people in front of your
own vision. So he's working doing what he's doing, and
(12:32):
I'm like, you don't want it, and then I said,
all right, I'll do it.
Speaker 4 (12:35):
And then that's how everything kind of went.
Speaker 5 (12:37):
It's really weird because I didn't plan on it, but
it's just how it works.
Speaker 3 (12:44):
How do you manage when things are not so positive?
Speaker 5 (12:46):
I've always been the cooler head. If you ever watched
The Godfather, they always say there was a lawyer Tom. Yeah, Tom,
you're out Tom, because he was an a war time
can'tist the aary because when you're in war or any
turbulence and that's not just street. I'm talking about even
relationship and things of that nature.
Speaker 4 (13:06):
Business. I looked at it as war.
Speaker 5 (13:09):
You walked in my office, it was signs of raping
pillage on the wall. But it wasn't for me. It
was what I felt deaf jam or universe was trying
to do to us.
Speaker 4 (13:16):
And I had to be mindful of it.
Speaker 5 (13:18):
So mentally, I was always preparing to keep everything that
even keel. So when a job comes in with that energy,
you know, those guys are balls and energy, like ah,
I'm kind of giving them the reality of rationale to
kind of keep it even killed. And I think it
worked for the most part.
Speaker 6 (13:37):
You're still here, man, I'm still here. You're still here
and doing incredible things, doing incredible things. You always got
a new venture. You always got a new something going on,
really fascinating. I mean I've seen it too, you would do.
I remember when you were managing Phil.
Speaker 5 (13:51):
Still that's my gut, Come on, three years, I feel
you know, Phil just had a baby girl. Yeah, poker champion,
he's the best in the poker icon, best poker player
in the world. Anyone disagrees, bring at least a half
a million or better and we can sit and figure
it out.
Speaker 3 (14:10):
Almost beating him in cards one time.
Speaker 5 (14:12):
Yeah, you know that's funny because my mother beat him
and she did. We played like a little house tournament.
Speaker 2 (14:18):
Do you know how how good it fields of saying
I beat phil Ivy and she tells him, don't worry Phil,
I'm not going to tell nobody.
Speaker 4 (14:25):
I was.
Speaker 3 (14:26):
I was there.
Speaker 2 (14:26):
We were playing spades, were playing the way we were
playing spades, and I was like, I was there.
Speaker 3 (14:31):
I was like, I was like eight books up. I
was eight books up. We was on the last hand.
I was like, oh ship, I'm.
Speaker 2 (14:38):
About to tell everybody I beat phil Ivy cards. Phil
Ivy says blind ten. I was like, oh, phil why
does phil Ivy pulls off of blind ten and.
Speaker 4 (14:53):
Beats in spade? It's funny. I think he has a
deal with somebody.
Speaker 3 (14:57):
I don't know what I said, somebody right with you.
That's not possible. But so he took it. He took
that moment away from me in their career.
Speaker 5 (15:04):
Let me ask you questions that you bring Philip, because
I always look at him as different. Do you notice
from an artist's standpoint, their artist street, the way they
move around that they're just not no, more or different
in a great standpoint, like what do you mean better
than someone else? Like greater, like Michael Jordans. He was different,
not just on the court, his air about him, Yes,
(15:27):
you know jay Z different different, Yes, his air a
bottom aside from him being one of the best, if
not the greatest, m C like you understand, phil Ivey.
Speaker 4 (15:38):
A different.
Speaker 3 (15:39):
So you've been.
Speaker 5 (15:39):
Around it, see and I seen it and I identified
and I always look. I always tell people I could
identify outliers. He's an outlier, outliers of people that stand
apart from everybody else. Phil Ivey's absolutely an outlier.
Speaker 3 (15:53):
Who else man.
Speaker 4 (15:56):
Irv Gotti outlier?
Speaker 5 (15:59):
No, No, in THEA people say that's your brother. I
know he's one of one. He's different, And until you
see or have enough people to judge, you can't judge.
Speaker 4 (16:09):
How about that?
Speaker 5 (16:09):
That's why I'm asking you, because you had enough body
of people to say, No, he was different. Kanye West different, outlier,
like unbelievable even if for real, different, absolutely absolutely different outliers.
You know what I'm saying, it's in a I mean,
it's not compared to the amount of people. It's not
(16:30):
like I can name everyone because there I look at
a lot of them and say, regular regular, you know, but.
Speaker 3 (16:37):
Did well, did great, over achieved, hard.
Speaker 5 (16:41):
Work, hard workers, talented, right opportunity, right space, even talented
something talented because to do what they do. But at
the end of the day, regularly, they're normal.
Speaker 4 (16:52):
They're normal. I do, I do.
Speaker 5 (16:54):
I do judge everyone in that space, well, even myself.
Speaker 4 (16:59):
I'm not.
Speaker 5 (17:00):
I'm a different type. I'm not an outliering the sense
of a celebrity. I'm an outlier and sense of ideas
and building, creating. I mean, I don't see anyone when
I get next to these executives.
Speaker 4 (17:14):
That's the other thing.
Speaker 5 (17:15):
I'm gonna shout out every music exec in the industry
because when I changed professions and left that and went
into corporate America, hedge funds, insurance, those executives are far
less aggressive, flexible to change and make a decision on
the fly.
Speaker 4 (17:35):
The speed of what they do.
Speaker 5 (17:36):
I just went through a whole issue before I got
on here, and I'm looking at these guys like, what
are you making a decisions so long?
Speaker 3 (17:43):
Takes so long for push the button. J That's what
I told them.
Speaker 5 (17:51):
And jay Z made a record and he said impossible
to difficult takes a day, impossible takes a week.
Speaker 4 (17:58):
And that's how I felt.
Speaker 5 (17:59):
All of the best music execs operated, we will figure
it out quick quick and really do a great job
at it.
Speaker 4 (18:07):
And I don't see that in many of these exacts.
So to me, that's my advantage.
Speaker 2 (18:11):
I know, But what is the grooming like execs? Where
where are execs coming from?
Speaker 4 (18:16):
And music was.
Speaker 5 (18:17):
Always under pressure on the budgets and timing and dates,
where these corporations have different pressure and the money is
usually a lot more so they don't have that pressure
of that.
Speaker 4 (18:27):
We was pressure like if you don't you won't eat.
You want to we want to eat, you want to
eat better? Get this right?
Speaker 5 (18:32):
So it was from under a different stress or scope.
And there's nothing I feel I can't do. I say,
I mean, I didn't go to but high school and
it took me five years of that because.
Speaker 4 (18:41):
I didn't go to one year, I didn't go a
whole year.
Speaker 3 (18:44):
But how did you learn all this?
Speaker 4 (18:46):
I'm a student. I'm a student of people.
Speaker 3 (18:49):
Who have you learned the most from of all the artists?
Speaker 5 (18:51):
Wow, it's really a culmination of everybody. So it depends
which one from the lower levels. I can say I
learned from like murder Mook from a rapper and what
they needs are. Then you go all the way up
from anywhere in between. Again, a Jaar Rule, who changed
his entire career, was a student. Just think he didn't
start off how he started, I mean where he ended
(19:14):
making those records. Who has his fingerprint on the entire industry.
And I feel they black ball murder in because of
the FED case and everything, But no one could take
us out of history books and what we accomplished. In hindsight,
we know exactly how executives are judged, and if that's
the case, there's no one that should be hired, or
me and my brother for all the people that we
(19:34):
brought in in the lives that we affected inside of
that universal system completely in hindsight, you know, before we
got there, hip hop wasn't played on pop stations. I'll
never forget the day Kevin Lyle shout out. keV runs
in our office.
Speaker 4 (19:52):
They're playing a Jaru record on Z one hundred. We're like,
that's great.
Speaker 5 (19:57):
We're very ignorant, right, we didn't pay for it, we
didn't call to get it played. So Leo comes in next,
we have to hire a whole staff, So just put
it in business. Since now that we are way more
educated than back then, they hired a whole pop division
for a rap label that never was done before.
Speaker 4 (20:21):
What is that worth today?
Speaker 5 (20:23):
Because that's what changed the entire game. And that guy
that was hired is Ken Lane. Shout out Ken Lane.
See I know all of this. You can't deny me
the truth, right, you can't hide from it. Even if
you want to write the books differently, you can't.
Speaker 4 (20:37):
We lived it. What's that worth? Though?
Speaker 5 (20:40):
For deaf jam or Universal? There's a guy, Edgar Brofman Jr.
Who bought Universal. I love these stories because people don't
know them, even yourself, Like Edgar Brofren bought Universal. He's
the reason we got a deal for Murder Inc. Because
Tommy TOLDA had the biggest deal on the table, and
Lee was like, my job is to keep talent at
(21:00):
the lowest cost. I can't match their deal, which is
complete bs. Right, But you know, shout out Lee or
you know he's running his ship. And again I understand
him as a businessman as an executive. Today I didn't
understand it. Then we're like, what mean you can't, right?
So we get a meeting Doug Morris, who is the
(21:21):
chairman of Universal at the time, Uh Leah Cohen, Kevin Lewles,
Edgar Brotherfan Jr. Who just acquired the company. But the
company is plumbing. Universe wasn't doing good, so they didn't
think they was going to be able to get the
money to get us because Tommy put a real number
up there. He meets, IRV calls him a rum runner.
(21:44):
He starts laughing, because that's how seagrums make their money.
He owned Sea Rooms, Jin and all of that tropic canna.
But they bought Universal at the time. But the start,
everything's falling. At the end of the day, what ends
up happening, He says, give her whatever he wants and
they matched the deal.
Speaker 4 (22:04):
They don't beat it.
Speaker 3 (22:05):
They so Edgar Brofford Jr.
Speaker 5 (22:10):
Credits the saving of his family empire at the time
because I forget the number exactly. It was two points something.
He bought it for two point something billion. It was
going down to nothing. And Murder Inc enters the building
brings in Rockefeller Rough Fridays, Murder Inc.
Speaker 4 (22:29):
And everything under.
Speaker 5 (22:30):
Those brands, because that's how executives get credited, right, All
of that's underneath hers and myself's name as executives.
Speaker 4 (22:41):
Takes off Murder Inc.
Speaker 5 (22:42):
Started getting radio everywhere because of the record that I
talked with Ken Lane played everywhere. Those favors, as you
would know, radio, we used to do favors for those
plays to do their shows and things of that nature. Okay, great,
but who got the favor Nelly Ludacris.
Speaker 4 (23:03):
They're taking Ja Rule's favors.
Speaker 5 (23:06):
We were supposed to break Black Child, Caddy Ivida Charlie,
but those favors were being used for radio in airsplay,
which is the absolute way artists was broken at that time.
So imagine that that's what happened. And then they cooperated
with the government against the government, against me and my
brother in Universal Death Jam all of them. See in hindsight,
(23:30):
it's twenty twenty, right, we noticed this isn't a secret anymore.
Speaker 3 (23:34):
They stopped paying us everything. All of this was part
of what.
Speaker 5 (23:37):
We was going through. And as men, we didn't go
out yelling and screaming. We was like, we didn't understand it.
Speaker 4 (23:42):
We find out later that they had problems.
Speaker 2 (23:44):
Is that on the record that they cooperated, is that
like known? Of course, of course it feels like so
long ago, and I was not planning to talk.
Speaker 3 (23:50):
About Well.
Speaker 5 (23:53):
It's I know, but it's so interesting it is, and
it's never really been told that way because it's never
been told according to my way of how I see
it from the business standpoint.
Speaker 3 (24:04):
Yeah, for sure.
Speaker 4 (24:05):
See when you're when you're.
Speaker 5 (24:06):
Inside of it, like an herb or Ja rule, it's
a different you're in the fire, it's different for you.
And that's what I keep telling Nerve, like it was
different the things I went through an experience. I'm watching
how people treated you and you didn't see it, but
I seen it all from the side, and it's just
what it is. It's almost like a bodyguard, right, they
see something transpiring before you actually get to you, and
(24:28):
a real bodyguard makes it go away. I had that
conversation before I said, Irve, you want me to let
it happen or you want me to diffuse it before
it happens.
Speaker 3 (24:37):
You tell me, are you gonna do like a book
or a vibe like a like a doctor.
Speaker 5 (24:41):
You know, I'm gonna keep it all the way one
hundred and you asked me that I would do a book.
I don't want to offend some people. Because I would
offend some people and I really don't care, but I do.
I don't care, and I do care, if that makes sense,
because that's not of my that's not that's not me.
I could have told stories. I've been offers six figure
deals for books and I turned them all down because
(25:04):
I didn't feel like putting people's business on the street.
And I feel that's why these people actually want you
to do it and they trust me because it's not
And then even I'll go even further.
Speaker 4 (25:15):
The Murder Inc.
Speaker 5 (25:16):
Documentary, as much as I liked it, it's so many
things missing, for sure, and no one could tell that
story because I'm the one that did it or was experienced,
that had the absolute one to one knowledge of it,
and it was never told. And when when I seen it,
I was a little disappointed, if that makes sense, because
(25:36):
there's no way I shouldn't have been executive producer or
consultant minimum on the dock of Murder Inc.
Speaker 4 (25:43):
It's like impossible.
Speaker 5 (25:44):
When you talk about the trial, I did the trial
or did not do the trial.
Speaker 4 (25:49):
When I say that he showed up to.
Speaker 5 (25:51):
Court, he did not go to the motion hearings and
all the meetings I went to everyone.
Speaker 4 (25:55):
Why, Because I want to know what's going on. How
can I help my lawyer know what's going on.
Speaker 3 (25:59):
I'm the one that's involved and he doesn't have a clue.
Speaker 4 (26:02):
So I had to be there and I tell anyone
in the trial.
Speaker 5 (26:05):
I hope everyone's listening. I promise you, especially a federal trial,
they're very calculated in how they move. You better be
the one if it's your trial against you to talk
to your lawyer and really trust that lawyer you have
for complete transparency. That's the only way they could protect
you to the letter of the law. If you leave
(26:27):
out anything, you'll get blindsided by it.
Speaker 3 (26:31):
I think you have to do a movie or something
something I would watch. I would go see a guy.
Speaker 4 (26:37):
Yeah, Chris Gott Chris Gotti's version, Chris Spooky.
Speaker 3 (26:42):
I would love that.
Speaker 7 (26:43):
All Right, we're gonna run out of time, and we
didn't get to talk about the important thing.
Speaker 3 (26:47):
We cannot talk about the important thing TV. It's important, man,
this is a new venture that we have again. I've
got street bawl.
Speaker 5 (26:56):
Yes, I've been in street ball culture for well over
man forty plus years.
Speaker 3 (27:02):
Wow.
Speaker 5 (27:03):
Dealing with Rucker Park to Dykeman, I helped Ruck and
Greg God bless the dead. Greg passed away and I
used to help him. Fat Joe my commissioner for Clash TV.
He's part of this with me. Baron Davis Ambassador is
part of it. Kendrick Perkins Ambassador. So I went and
got some really good names that are part of this
(27:24):
streetball culture and I started live streaming across the you
know the country, put it on an app on YouTube.
Speaker 4 (27:33):
You could go see everything.
Speaker 5 (27:34):
And what it does is now give a place for
all these street balls that don't have an opportunity, a
way to actually now be part of something and make money.
So we're starting a pro league. It's called CPL Clash
Pro League. It'll be live streamed on Clash TV and
on our network. And basically what that is is, for
(27:54):
the first time ever, I'm giving money to all.
Speaker 4 (27:57):
The players in streetball. We have a combine.
Speaker 5 (28:01):
I mean, I'm so excited about This is a passion
project because this is something that I loved and helped
for over forty years and did it for no money
and helped parks make millions of dollars over the court
of the years. Dykeman Park Ken Stevens again.
Speaker 4 (28:17):
The number one park in the country.
Speaker 5 (28:19):
I been part of that for well over fifteen years,
helping them develop that and now Clash we live stream
all the best parks across throughout the city and over
into Miami. We do the Miami Pro League, We do
the Drew League, the Crossover League in Seattle. We have
leagues in Houston and then Dallas, Atlanta, Philadelphia. Like it's
(28:41):
bigger than New York. But what I'm doing is I'm
starting a pro league in New York where I'm teaking
taking all of these pool players. If you think of basketball,
they graduate from college and there's nowhere else to go.
Most of them don't get the opportunity to play overseas
or even further the NBA. There's only four hundred and
fifty jobs in the NBA.
Speaker 3 (29:00):
UCIT colleges are crazy.
Speaker 5 (29:02):
So every year there's a pool of players, and there's
a pool of players that have nowhere to go and
talented and super talented, and now they have a place
to go.
Speaker 4 (29:10):
So we're having a combine on the thirteenth.
Speaker 3 (29:14):
You can go right thirteenth October thirteenth, You can.
Speaker 5 (29:17):
Go right to Clash TV sign up, fill out the
form and put in your application to be in this
combine and then there's eight coaches that I have selected
for this already, and then we'll be We're gonna build
this league up and have it in every city or
that I just mentioned and more from LA because there's
(29:37):
a pool of plays. It's simply supplying demand in business, right.
There is a supply of all of these players in
a demand because they need this money. So I need
my sponsors to come in and understand what I'm doing
and show the business model how we all make money,
how we actually transcend from just doing basketball to make
it into really good business from a street ball culture,
(29:58):
hood culture. I like to always call it, this is
hood business that I'm turning into good business, right, And
that's very challenging because you know, they're not used to
corporate America, and I have to go into all of
these places and tell them about a new entity that
they didn't know existed.
Speaker 4 (30:14):
And that's always a challenge.
Speaker 5 (30:16):
But that's the fun part because I'm building it from scratch,
never been done, and that's what.
Speaker 4 (30:20):
Clash Pro League is about. Clash TV is the network
that you'll see it.
Speaker 3 (30:25):
On and it's just starting now, just starting this summer.
Speaker 7 (30:28):
Fresh the press all right, so go to clashtv dot com. No,
just go to clash dot tv, dot TV, Clash dot TV,
clash Instagram.
Speaker 4 (30:39):
All the social media's is clash TV one. That's it.
Speaker 5 (30:43):
You go in there and you'll see exactly what we're doing.
The link is in the bio for the pro league
and you can get everything you need.
Speaker 4 (30:50):
Right.
Speaker 5 (30:51):
Yeah, I'm telling you got to come out. I would
love I would love if Angie Martinez showed up seeing
what's going on and interviewed some of the players like
a sports now it's like, you know.
Speaker 4 (31:01):
An interview.
Speaker 3 (31:02):
We can figure something.
Speaker 4 (31:03):
I would love it.
Speaker 5 (31:03):
On the thirteenth and so on a Sunday. We play
every Sunday, every Sunday, every Sunday. The gym is located
in Harlem. It's four forty one Manhattan Avenue on one
hundred and nineteenth Street, and again every Sunday until December fifteenth. Amazing, right,
well you know where to go. Clash TV one time,
but the amazing Chris Gotti
Speaker 3 (31:26):
Man and Angie thank you for having me anytime.
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