November 20, 2024 • 33 mins
The Breakfast Club Sits Down With IDK To Discuss His New Album 'BRAVADO INTiMO,' Getting Into Music, Virgil Abloh, DMX, And Billie Eilish. Listen For More!
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Wake that ass up in the morning. The Breakfast Club Morning.
Speaker 2 (00:05):
Everybody is stevej Envy, Jess, Hilarious, Charlamage, the guy we
are the Breakfast Club. We got Lola Rosa feeling in
for Jess and also our nephew was gonna our nephew.
Speaker 1 (00:18):
With us today.
Speaker 3 (00:19):
Wow, shut up? You always gotta fight Dominicans? Why why
do you always gotta fight with a Dominican? That's wow. Wow.
Speaker 4 (00:30):
We got a special guest in the building. We got
I d K. Welcome brother. How you feeling man.
Speaker 1 (00:35):
I'm feeling good man. It's good to be here.
Speaker 5 (00:36):
The first time I came here, I came a little
too late and I wasn't able to do the interview.
Speaker 1 (00:42):
So everything happens for a reason.
Speaker 3 (00:44):
Happy to have you, brother, that's right, hearing your name
for a long, long, long time.
Speaker 6 (00:48):
How was the show with g easy?
Speaker 3 (00:49):
How's the tour going so far?
Speaker 5 (00:51):
So good Man been real cool And he actually brought
me on my first run ever in my life, like
in like twenty fifteen or something like that.
Speaker 1 (01:00):
So it's like full circle, you know.
Speaker 2 (01:03):
So for people that don't know who I DK is,
where you from, this is the first time some people
are hearing you give them a breakdown where you're from,
what your name stands for.
Speaker 4 (01:11):
And all that.
Speaker 5 (01:12):
Oh, yeah, so it's I d K from the d
m v PG county in Maryland. Specifically, you just said you.
Speaker 4 (01:18):
Were from Queens the other day.
Speaker 7 (01:19):
Now and Germany, y'a not going to do this.
Speaker 3 (01:25):
I'm an army.
Speaker 6 (01:26):
My family from Florida.
Speaker 8 (01:27):
I grew up in Maryland. I went to me high school.
I'm from Severn, Maryland, so don't I went to move.
I moved to New York for college. I've been here
eleven years.
Speaker 5 (01:37):
That kind of sounded like me, like I was born
in London, but I came to America when I was
like two years old, so I grew up in the
dmv PG county. I DK stands for ignorantly delivering knowledge.
Speaker 7 (01:48):
I've always liked that acronym because I totally understand what
you mean when you say that, because I always say,
you got to be the perfect balance of ratchetess and
righteously delivering knowledge is like saying I got to put
the medicine in the right.
Speaker 1 (02:00):
Right kind of like that. Yeah, it was.
Speaker 5 (02:03):
I was actually in prison when I came up with
that acronym, and so I was in the state prison
when I was younger, and I came up with the
acronym ignorantly Delivering Knowledge because I wanted people to be like,
what does I d K stand for?
Speaker 1 (02:18):
Like does that mean? I don't know?
Speaker 5 (02:20):
And I always feel like if I prompt somebody to
ask a question and I answer it, you're more likely
to remember it than me just telling you you feel me?
Speaker 4 (02:29):
Why did you get into rap?
Speaker 9 (02:30):
I'm sorry, I was going to say, you went to
you mentioned prison? Yeah there, you went to prison the
same year that you went to college.
Speaker 5 (02:36):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, one of the times I went, because
it was yeah.
Speaker 6 (02:41):
Yeah, So let's talk about the first time.
Speaker 9 (02:43):
And then I want to know how the whole I'm
going to college but then I end up in prison,
Like what's that story?
Speaker 6 (02:47):
How does that try?
Speaker 1 (02:48):
Man?
Speaker 5 (02:48):
First of all, I come from like a West African background,
so my mom, sincerely all, my dad from Ghana. I'm
literally the first person in my family to get locked up.
Speaker 4 (02:59):
But that's not a good thing.
Speaker 5 (03:01):
Yeah, I mean, but also first person prison is not
a good thing. Fair, But you know, I turned it around,
so at the same time, that's true. But yeah, that
kind of was like something like you know, when I
was seventeen, I got jammed up, had some charges, you know,
stuff to do with you know, you know, robberies and
guns and things like that, and then pretty much I
(03:23):
went to prison of jail. But the thing was I
was on I got sentenced to fifteen years suspended the
three and they allowed me to do it on home detention,
but getting in trouble on violations and technical things.
Speaker 1 (03:36):
But you made me, Yeah that's how I When did
you start rapping?
Speaker 4 (03:39):
What made you say?
Speaker 2 (03:39):
You know what, I want to lead the streets alone
and focus on this rap career.
Speaker 5 (03:43):
I mean the first time I got locked up, I
realized it wasn't for me, like right away, like I
was like, no, no, I can't do this.
Speaker 3 (03:49):
So you know you went back through more times.
Speaker 5 (03:52):
Yeah, but it was like violation technical stuff. It was
like I'm not judging coming no, no, no, no, no times
judging technical though. It wasn't like I kept doing things.
It was just violations and stuff like that. But basically
the last time I was in before I went in,
I was listening to like Kendrick Lamar and like Jay Cole,
(04:14):
and you know where I'm from, people don't really listen
to that. But I had a friend that went to
like fam you and he would come back with like
more I would say eclectic rap, and I was like,
oh man, people rap like this, That's that's interesting. So
I remember being in prison. I was a tutor, so
I helped people get their GEDs, and also it was
(04:36):
a barber, and I just remember I would just write
music and everybody would listen, like see me like bobbing
my head right, and they'd be like, yo, spit rap,
like like I ain't know you rapped like and so
one day I just did it, and I was like, man,
if I could make people that's pissed off in prison
like music, maybe maybe it'll work for me when I
get out.
Speaker 3 (04:54):
What lifestyle changes did you make?
Speaker 7 (04:56):
Though, because you know, my dad used to always tell me,
if you don't change your lifestyle, you gonna end up
in jail, dead or.
Speaker 3 (05:00):
Broke, sitting on the tree. What lifestyle changes did you mean?
Speaker 5 (05:04):
I just started feeling like I needed to actually get
a job, So when I first got out, I didn't
care what it was. Actually my first job was McDonald's.
I was proud to go to McDonald's and word up
to be honest, like because I was like, man, I
got a job, I got like, you know, some type
of purpose, like let me try to just turn this around.
Speaker 1 (05:21):
So that was like probably the first big one.
Speaker 5 (05:23):
And then trying to go to school, like I was
going to PG Community College, So getting back in school
was another thing.
Speaker 8 (05:30):
But for the first time that you went to jail,
what would you attribute like the why to Would you
say it was like the internet? Would you say it
was just your environment?
Speaker 1 (05:39):
So it was the want for love.
Speaker 5 (05:42):
Like my parents loved me, but I didn't know how
to comprehend the way they gave me love. Right, So
I never got great grades. I grew up middle class,
but I was surrounded by the hood and I went
to school in the hood, so I identified more with
the people that also didn't get good grades, and that
that comes with a lot of stuff because they coming
(06:03):
from different backgrounds and they doing different things. So I
felt like whenever I would do something bad, they would
show me respect, and that was the love that I wanted.
Speaker 7 (06:13):
I'm glad you got had the explanation quick, because saying
you want to go to jail for love is crazy.
Speaker 5 (06:16):
No, right, I'm glad. I'm glad that like you understand
like this nuance.
Speaker 1 (06:23):
That you know what I mean?
Speaker 2 (06:25):
So I was going to ask, you know, when you
started rapping, what did your family say at first?
Speaker 1 (06:30):
Right?
Speaker 4 (06:30):
Were they behind you the whole way? They was like here, you.
Speaker 1 (06:35):
Know what, No, it wasn't as bad as you would think.
Yeah right, it was like how much worse could this be?
They couldn't get no worse than what I already did.
Speaker 5 (06:44):
So my mom was just happy I was doing something positive,
got you, you know. But she she passed away. She
never she never got to listen. Well, she's got to
listen to my music. She heard it once and she
was like, but she would brag about it, but she
would never listen to like to Like, my mom till
she passed never heard me curse, Like I never said
a curse word around her, But in my music.
Speaker 8 (07:08):
What does it sound sound like at the time, because
you really dibble and dabble in all different genres, all
different sounds.
Speaker 3 (07:14):
So what did she hear?
Speaker 5 (07:17):
A lot of cursing, a lot of bad words, like
a lot of rap like I was just you know,
just rap.
Speaker 1 (07:24):
Yeah for sure.
Speaker 5 (07:25):
Yeah, it depends on how you because like again, the
whole ignorantly delivering all this thing. Depending on how you
first hear me, You'll think I'm one thing and it
might not be that.
Speaker 7 (07:34):
You know, and you're growing in real time, right, cause's
like it's your fifth studio.
Speaker 1 (07:40):
Yeah, this would be my fifth one. Yeah, what's the what's.
Speaker 7 (07:42):
The evolution of id K Ben from that first project
to know?
Speaker 5 (07:46):
It's like just this this idea of like finding like
what I actually want to express sonically. So I feel
like I've always been dibbling, dabbling, dibbling and dabbling in
different types of music, but this now is more like
I'm creating a sound, like a feeling.
Speaker 1 (08:04):
You know.
Speaker 5 (08:05):
It's like taking like a certain melodic like element and
then trying to put like different drums around it, maybe
to switch the genre up, but the feeling is constant, consistent.
That's probably the biggest thing that I've grown into now.
Speaker 4 (08:22):
On is He Here? Is He Real?
Speaker 1 (08:25):
Album?
Speaker 2 (08:25):
Yeah, I'm looking at some of the features on it
that people don't know. You had DMX on that album.
Speaker 5 (08:29):
Yeah, well that was Actually it's so funny because I
have something with him that we're getting ready to put together.
But on that album specifically, it was something that I
sampled a prayer he did but I had to chase
him down like at south By Southwest and pull up
on him to get it clear, like yo, yo, I'm
alrighty K. So I had to find him.
Speaker 4 (08:51):
How was that conversation?
Speaker 1 (08:54):
He know who I was at that time?
Speaker 3 (08:56):
Are you on the Prayer album that they got drop?
Speaker 5 (08:58):
No, I'm not on that? The feature for him after those,
so he got to know who I was after that.
I did a feature for him prior to him passing.
Speaker 4 (09:06):
Did you have a relationship at all?
Speaker 5 (09:08):
Like small, like just kind of through like you know,
people that we knew and things like that.
Speaker 1 (09:12):
But yeah, it was.
Speaker 9 (09:13):
A conversation like when you ran up on him and
it was like, hey, I'm trying to get this cleared.
Speaker 1 (09:16):
He was like it's done, literally just like that, like
you go to the bullshit. He was like, all right,
who I gotta go? Yeah, basically pretty much and he
got it done.
Speaker 7 (09:26):
On the coolest What is I know that I knew?
I was called bravado and in timo, what does timo me?
Speaker 5 (09:32):
It's like, uh, the Italian word for intimate, So bravado
is like kind of like bragged oshs, you know, talking
about stuff. But the intimo part is where it comes
from like like a lot of like why I care,
Like I like, you know, wearing certain things, and I like,
you know, style things like that, And it comes from
the like being made fun of when I was like
(09:54):
in the sixth grade but not having certain things. And
I just remember being like a kid going to school
depressed because I know they're gonna make fun of me.
So I remember ninth grade. That's before I started getting
into trouble and you know, and getting money. I literally
said to myself, I will never be made fun of
for dressing that ever again, for the rest of my life.
(10:16):
And that's that's explains the bravado side, because the bravado
side is you just see it. You just see the
floss and all that. But the intimo side is where
it comes from.
Speaker 3 (10:26):
So and then you get money and realize you don't
even care about clothes.
Speaker 5 (10:29):
Like that, right, that also starts to happen too, you
know what I mean, Like it's like you like stuff,
but like people put me in a fashion world because
I do a lot of stuff in that world, but
it's not by choice, Like I just know people they
like what I do, and you know, and then they
just asked me to do things, but I don't try
to do that get you could just do it, yeah, exactly.
Speaker 6 (10:49):
Now another feature, you had Kanye West on the song
Celena and TRAPPI.
Speaker 5 (10:54):
Well, no, that was another sample situation where pretty much
we got that was a crazy one because it was
a jay Z song initially, so it was everybody had
to kind.
Speaker 9 (11:07):
Of that process, like because Kanye is kind of hard
to it wasn't as fast as the DMX.
Speaker 5 (11:12):
Well maybe, yeah, it took a little while actually, but
I'll be real, like, Yay has reached out to me
and I've I've hung out with him multiple times, like,
so you know, it's not that that one is a
little different that I remember when I dropped is he real?
Speaker 1 (11:30):
I was with eighty eight Keys.
Speaker 5 (11:32):
And uh and and and and eighty eight comes up
to me and passes me the phone from my unknown
number and I answered and it's like Yo, it's Yay
And I'm like oh, and he was just like I've
been hearing about your album. It wasn't out at the time.
He's like, man, at some point today, I'd love to
connect with you. And next thing you know, I was
in Calabasas, uh, just hanging out at the crib you know,
(11:54):
so yeah, yay yay had had shown love and I've
actually like linked up him a.
Speaker 8 (12:00):
Couple of times on a new project. What would you
say is your favorite record?
Speaker 1 (12:06):
Miles Trumpet?
Speaker 5 (12:08):
I like that one a lot because I'm singing, you know,
and I'm like kind of like that's a beat where
I listened to it. I'm like, I hear Griselda on
this beat, so instead of doing what they would do,
let me just sing.
Speaker 6 (12:18):
It seems like a fan favorite too. I really like Check.
I feel like Check.
Speaker 8 (12:23):
It's braggadocious, it's swaggy. Yeah, but on it well, first
of all, actually the music video who came up with
the concept for that? Like why is it just a
girl shaking her ass the whole time? I'm really trying
to like what are you giving?
Speaker 1 (12:37):
Well?
Speaker 5 (12:37):
The great part about that one is like ignorantly delivering.
Now it's just a juxtaposition, like when I hear that
beat in that song, I'm really rapping, so you don't
really see that happening, but there has the I think
the rhythm is what I wanted to articulate by having
her do that. You know, because you listen to it,
you don't think you could do that to that song,
(12:59):
but then when you see it do it, you realize
you can, you know. So that was what that was about.
Speaker 3 (13:04):
Were you a fan of out Davis all your parents.
Speaker 1 (13:06):
Were, Well? Yeah, I mean, like I have, you know,
records from him.
Speaker 5 (13:09):
But I'll say this, I've heard a few different things,
and everything that I've heard from him has made me
feel a certain way. But I do need to dig
more into what he's got going on, because I did
see some stuff from like the documentary and stuff how
he would switch his bands around and all these things that,
you know, I thought that was inspiring. But yeah, I
(13:31):
want to talk about the No Label Academy, Yeah, that
you did at Harvard. Yeah, so Charlamagne loved this too
because you did two lectures on mental health.
Speaker 1 (13:39):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (13:40):
Why did you feel like that was so.
Speaker 1 (13:42):
Important to do? Well?
Speaker 5 (13:43):
So the class is ten day experience that people from
all around the world. Students apply and then we pick
about twenty to twenty five of them, and then I
teach the class and it goes from branding, which I
call story in vision, to financial literacy to team building
(14:04):
and mental health is the last day. And we taught
that at the Medical School at Harvard. I think mental
health is really important because I always say this, like,
as human beings, we've evolved socially a lot of so
many different times since like you know, they say we're
about three hundred thousand seventy five to three hundred thousand
(14:26):
years old, like what we are biologically, we've evolved I
think way too much socially to keep up with where
we are biologically. So when you fame is something we created.
That's not something we were built for or made for.
So like a lot of times people deal with fame
in a way that could be detrimental. And I think
(14:47):
that people don't teach the aspect and the importance of
mental health when they're actually pushing them to be famous,
you know. So for me, this class was supposed to
prepare you from a bi business perspective for what you
or the artist you're working with could be dealing with
once they get in the game. And I think a
lot of the times labels will see like, oh, this
(15:09):
person's hot, they come from this neighborhood and all that.
Yeah that's cool and all that, but like and then
they not ready for corporate the corporate like they're not
understanding what that is. So now you're expecting somebody who's
manager might be like just homeinge to know how to
move within a corporate setting and be successful and then
(15:29):
sustaining that sustain that success. I think that creates a
lot of problems for a lot of different people.
Speaker 2 (15:35):
You know, how has your mental been you know, because
you talked about kids making fun of you back in
the day. Yeah, and now being on social media is
times a thousand is as far as the amount of commons.
Sometimes people just say negative stuff just to try to
get a reaction. So how you deal with social media now?
Speaker 5 (15:51):
I mean, look, I lost my mom. She died from
you know, HIV complications from that, and I didn't know
that until after she passed, so I never had that
closure of being able to talk to her about it.
Speaker 1 (16:05):
Right.
Speaker 5 (16:06):
So when you look at that kind of stuff, and
then you look at like what I've been through with
prison and all this stuff.
Speaker 1 (16:12):
Man, like I'm kind of primed for It's like it
doesn't really get much worse.
Speaker 3 (16:17):
You've been through real shit.
Speaker 5 (16:19):
Yeah, So for me, it's like second nature almost dealing
with some of the stuff that's nothing to me. When
they like COVID, I'm like I was just I was
actually on twenty three lock twenty three hour lockdown at
one point, like this is nothing to me with a book,
you know what I mean?
Speaker 1 (16:37):
So for me, like I love a.
Speaker 10 (16:39):
Good quarantine, yeah right, yeah, so to me, it don't
really get much worse.
Speaker 5 (16:50):
So so you know, I just try to like figure
out how to express that to people who haven't gone
through those things. That's what my class is mainly for
when it comes to that aspect.
Speaker 3 (17:00):
I like what you said too, because I never thought
about it. But it's true.
Speaker 7 (17:03):
Fame is a social construct, and nowadays everybody thinks they're famous.
Speaker 5 (17:08):
Not on need that everybody kind of is because you
got to think about it. If you have social media,
when you post something, even if it's just the local before.
Speaker 1 (17:15):
You, they had to see you do it.
Speaker 5 (17:18):
Right now, you can just be like, yeah, I was,
I went and ate this ice cream at so and so,
and then people comment like, ah, why'd you get that flavor?
Speaker 1 (17:25):
Like that's what everybody.
Speaker 5 (17:26):
Has, some form of fame if you have social media,
And then you think about high schools, like the popular
kid in the high school would be popular when they
walk in school, or maybe certain things happen after school.
But now it's like, oh yeah, he got fifteen hundred
followers and the school was like three thousand people, so
that after school, you know what I mean. Like it's
just like, so everyone's dealing with some form of fame
(17:48):
right now, and I think that that's an issue.
Speaker 7 (17:50):
And I feel sorry for these kids because it makes
them overthink everything. Example you gave is like you shouldn't
be having a question. Nobody should be questioning you about
the flavory ice cream you want, right, you don't want
to get, but every single thing you do is question.
So therefore you're questioning every single thing you do in
your mind, every little mundane thing you do.
Speaker 3 (18:09):
You're overthinking it.
Speaker 1 (18:10):
That's what I mean.
Speaker 5 (18:11):
Like, biologically we haven't evolved, but socially we're constantly evolving,
and we're dealing with AI and all these things starting
to happen. It's just it's only going to get faster
and faster.
Speaker 6 (18:24):
And that class at Harvard, that's the class that Virgil
came to.
Speaker 5 (18:27):
Yes, Virgil before he passed, He's supposed to speak for
thirty minutes.
Speaker 1 (18:31):
He spoke for an hour thirty minutes. Yeah, shut out.
Speaker 9 (18:35):
So you saw the that this happened, like a few
months ago, almost a few months ago, when the Blue
Star Alliance acquire Off Whitey. Yeah, yeah, and so people,
I know you said you don't like being put in
a fashion lane, but I just will love to get
your opinion on that, because people were upset about that
because they felt like it was going to devalue the
brain and what Virgil that worked for.
Speaker 5 (18:54):
How you think about that, Well, you know, whenever, whenever
art meets commerce, it's always going to get watered down.
If I signed to a record label, there's songs that
are better singles than the song that I might believe
because of the range of entry points people could have
to that song. You make that decision once you decide
(19:15):
to do art, because we could do whatever art we
want and be homeless if we okay with that, that's
cool too. I say that to say with that particular
situation one, I don't know the details to it. I
don't know too much of it, but the idea that
something could be watered down, it depends on the details
of the deal and what they got going on and
who controls what. I think that that came from Virgil's
(19:38):
brain at the end of the day, and Virgil is
not here, So there's always going to be some type
of difference, right, But yeah, when art mes commerce, that's
what happens. You know, it's a battles t when I
always look at everything is don't look at it as
an on and off switch, look at it as a percentage.
Speaker 9 (19:55):
Knowing him personally, do you think that Virgil will be
happy with like just where off White is right now today?
That's also been a conversation too. They've had like different
leadership in and out and stuff like that.
Speaker 5 (20:04):
You know, there's people that are friends of mine who
could answer that question far better than I could, because
I don't have enough of it. I didn't have that
relationship with him where I would know what happiness is
actually to him when it comes to that brand.
Speaker 1 (20:19):
How did you meet that? He followed me.
Speaker 5 (20:23):
I did the cover GQ's uh British GQ and it
was a Louis Vuitton exclusive, and so I debuted the
NBA collab that they have and from there he followed me.
And then I got a made back and brought it Virgil. No,
I got one, just regular one, and then he was like,
(20:43):
welcome to the club.
Speaker 1 (20:45):
And then that we started talking.
Speaker 3 (20:46):
From I got to slide out with it was a
pleasure meeting.
Speaker 5 (20:50):
Of course your headlines and maccolate, I appreciate it.
Speaker 1 (20:53):
You to you, to you too a lot of that.
Speaker 2 (21:00):
Man, Now has the industry changed since you first came
out and did your first mixtape?
Speaker 4 (21:05):
How have you seen how things change? Because you know,
usually when.
Speaker 2 (21:08):
Artist first do the mixtape is their core. They only
care about their core. But now it's something different. Now
you're looking for a radio record. Now you're looking for
something that's gonna go on the charts. Now you look
for those things. So how has things changed for you?
Speaker 5 (21:18):
I mean, look that when I first started, like streaming
wasn't really a thing like that, Like it was still
kind of iTunes and people reviewing the song or album
or whatever. Things have changed a lot because people and
the algorithm dictates a lot of what what a lot
(21:38):
of the decisions you could potentially make. So now we're
in a place where we could, like think a song
sounds like a single, but that doesn't matter anymore. Like
you know, I can't rely on like DJs to break
the record the same way as before.
Speaker 1 (21:50):
It's kind of like this is.
Speaker 5 (21:52):
The record based off of the algorithm and streaming and
the fans. So now we push it. You know, I
think in a lot of it's good. In a lot
of ways it's not good.
Speaker 4 (22:02):
That makes it difficult.
Speaker 2 (22:03):
But you know, the DJ now he follows an algorithm,
He follows what people are listening to, what's streaming, instead
of just you know, what somebody's feeling, which makes it difficult.
And being from the DMV area, how difficult is it
for that, especially being a rapper. You don't really see
too many from the DMV rap that a huge, but
there's a lot of talent in the DMV area.
Speaker 1 (22:23):
Yeah, it's funny.
Speaker 5 (22:24):
I think I was just talking to Jaha and No
Idea about this, like they were like, Yo, you know
what's crazy?
Speaker 1 (22:32):
What's your situation?
Speaker 5 (22:33):
One you don't have If you look at rap, there's
a lot of people who have some kind of co
sign by somebody that they're aligned with, especially when you
make the type of rap that I make. And then
another thing is if not that at least they have
like a really big city that they're coming from. That's
huge in music. And right now we're growing obviously in
(22:54):
the DMV, but it isn't like New York or Atlanta
or La Right, So it's like they basically, it's like, yo,
you kind of have to make your own way in
a way that a lot of people don't. Not saying
that people don't make their own way, I'm saying like,
in a way that most people don't. And I thought
about that and I was like, wow, actually there is
(23:15):
you have a point. The good thing I'll say about
where I'm from, though, is when it comes to originality,
there is a lot to pull from.
Speaker 1 (23:23):
There's a huge culture.
Speaker 5 (23:25):
I come from, Go go That's why I started doing music,
Go go bands and.
Speaker 1 (23:28):
Stuff like that.
Speaker 5 (23:29):
So you got a lot to pull from. And when
it does work and when it does break, it's going
to be beautiful. However, you know, you know, you got
to roll up your sleeves. You know, you got to
remain poised.
Speaker 2 (23:41):
Yeah, I feel like the DMV area doesn't get heard
like it should, you know, And I honestly, if I
didn't go to Hampton, I would have never understood the
DMV area.
Speaker 4 (23:50):
Yeah, you know, you.
Speaker 2 (23:51):
See all this like wile that took a long time
to break through, or even push it that took a
long time to break through. It's like it comes so
last with the respect and I think because it's such
a small area but a big area.
Speaker 1 (24:03):
Yeah.
Speaker 5 (24:04):
Man, it's a melting pot of a lot of beautiful things,
you know. And I think that like there is a
certain level of i say, like segregation within the type
of thing that you may do versus the type of
thing this person might do. But I think when we
find when we figure out how to kind of bring
it all together, that is going to also I always
(24:27):
I have this theory we when the Commanders start winning,
we'll start to see our industry.
Speaker 1 (24:34):
Yeah, that's so. I think. I think it's, you know,
around the corner.
Speaker 9 (24:38):
Like that's la like la. Everything is so celebrity. They're
the team, so they celebrity lifestyle.
Speaker 8 (24:45):
So the only reason why I don't think that's going
to be a thing is just because the DMV just
doesn't have the structure for it. Like we don't have
home base for media. I had to go to New
York to do media. We don't have a home base
for artists, like we have recording studios, but industries you
want to make get La Atlanta New York like to
actually be a part of an industry algorithm.
Speaker 5 (25:06):
So I agree with you from that perspective. But the
one thing I will say is that's the industry part
of it, but artistically sound wise, right, that's the first
thing that has to happen regardless, right, And I think
that there are people that are willing to travel to
kind of get those other things done.
Speaker 1 (25:24):
I think that, like, like just.
Speaker 5 (25:26):
Even recently, like they got like El Cousto with the
song and then Earl Sweatshirt was on it and then
it started blowing up and I remember I saw the
Earl part of it and I was like, this sounds
like he like rapping, like he's from the city.
Speaker 1 (25:40):
Like this really sounded like.
Speaker 5 (25:41):
I didn't know that the dude whose song he was
on was from you get what I'm saying. So I
think like that opens people's eyes to the sound. And
I think that or ears and I think.
Speaker 6 (25:54):
It's a good thing.
Speaker 8 (25:54):
Like I think the lack of the industry is a
good thing because it keeps us having a regional sound
or a regional flavor and a lot of cities like
that because they have those outlets.
Speaker 1 (26:05):
Yeah yeah.
Speaker 5 (26:06):
And also look man rappers they saying right now, rapp
is very regional like base, like they've got people in
France that's the superstars now and they ain't looking at
what's happening in New York to see who the superstar
is now, you know, So I think building on that
is probably one of the most important things now.
Speaker 2 (26:25):
Coming up in the d n V area, where those
artists having open arms for you, like like a Wile
or Push.
Speaker 1 (26:31):
Ready to push.
Speaker 5 (26:32):
Yeah, I got like two of Yle brought me out,
Like the first year I started popping, he brought me
out to do his Wile and Friends show. I remember
that he's one of the first to embrace me Push.
Speaker 1 (26:46):
I had to push Push.
Speaker 5 (26:48):
I feel like follow me on a gram and we
just kind of was chopping it up and asked him
for a record and he's like, I got you and
he sent it through. I got definitely got embraced. I
think that the thing is that, like again, it's kind
of segregated in the sounds, so certain people only listen
to this sound and then certain people are more open
to other sounds. I think as we start to progress
(27:10):
that that'll change, hopefully, But that's that's what i'd say.
Speaker 8 (27:14):
Yeah, absolutely, you sit on this project. Once you turn forty,
you retire, and you disappearing Like is that really the angle?
Speaker 1 (27:23):
I don't know. If I'll disappear.
Speaker 5 (27:24):
But I think that while I retire, people think I
mean like stop rapping, and I don't know if I
mean that. I mean right now, I'm constantly competing with
myself to do better every time, like to the point where, like,
you know, family may get neglected.
Speaker 1 (27:40):
I don't, you know. I talk to my family on.
Speaker 5 (27:42):
Like like like the holidays and stuff I don't like
my Grandma wants to hear from me more and things
like that.
Speaker 6 (27:48):
Oh my god, every day, Nah, not every day.
Speaker 5 (27:52):
Like I'm not even in the mental space with how
I view success to be able to tap into that
every day every day? Is what can I do to
make sure that when I'm forty my family. I don't
have kids or anything yet, and I'm not in a relationship.
Speaker 8 (28:08):
But in Billy, everybody thinks, y'all dating?
Speaker 1 (28:12):
What dating Billy? No people. I did see something one
time about that, but I don't that was like a
while back.
Speaker 5 (28:20):
Okay, nah, yeah, she's an amazing, amazing artist. But yeah,
like when I get.
Speaker 6 (28:30):
Uh, you already talked about this, so you knew people thought.
Speaker 1 (28:35):
That I said that said people said it.
Speaker 9 (28:37):
Yeah, sure, But I guess it's because they were trying
to piece together like photos and I guess the way,
which was crazy.
Speaker 5 (28:43):
I'm like, it's not my house, girl in my house.
I don't know what they talk about. Yeah, I think
she posted stuff you know me and things like that,
and I'm just one relationships to that's interesting too, like
but no, I'm just trying to make sure that when
I am forty and I decided to it's like everything
is structured and laid out for me in a way
(29:05):
where I can actually do that comfortably.
Speaker 4 (29:07):
So until then, you know, I mean Billy Alice's single though.
Speaker 6 (29:11):
Imouna say now I'm going down this rabo is she?
Speaker 8 (29:14):
I will say time waits for no man when it
comes to like, yes, your career, but also your famiily
so definitely caught your grandma.
Speaker 5 (29:21):
No for sure, No, I know I'm not saying I
just set the picture in the west sapp like right
before we go.
Speaker 6 (29:28):
Contacts. Yeah, like not talking to your Grand'm like, dang.
Speaker 5 (29:33):
I don't talk to my grandmother. I probably talked to
her like a week ago, two weeks ago or something
like that, Like I talked to her every so often.
I have a big family too, so when I talk
to my Grandma. Now everybody, I.
Speaker 1 (29:45):
Gotta last on, so it'd be like a three hour thing,
you know what.
Speaker 8 (29:49):
I mean, Like I understand.
Speaker 2 (29:51):
Yeah, we appreciate you for joining us today. The new
album Bravado is out right now.
Speaker 4 (29:56):
Thank you so much. And I know last time, I
know you came late, but we were glad you.
Speaker 1 (29:59):
Came so much.
Speaker 4 (30:01):
We can talk to your brother.
Speaker 1 (30:02):
We came early this time around.
Speaker 6 (30:06):
How do you carry down this rabbit hole of the
photos and all that?
Speaker 1 (30:10):
She said?
Speaker 4 (30:10):
You over Billy honis right now, it's just like a press.
Speaker 1 (30:13):
Outlet, is what's going on?
Speaker 6 (30:14):
What am I reading?
Speaker 9 (30:15):
Propty x? But if you just google you and herds,
it's a few outlets. But really, yeah, you thought I
made that. He's like nobody, No, but really offensively because
of the age thing, because you has said, like yo,
she was like seventeen.
Speaker 6 (30:29):
I was.
Speaker 1 (30:30):
It was like I have a lot to do with it,
you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 9 (30:35):
I mean, yeah, I mean because the way you responded
was like her, but I mean the aging of course.
But then it's like y'all just really homies in real life?
Speaker 6 (30:42):
Like is it really not?
Speaker 4 (30:43):
Yeah?
Speaker 5 (30:43):
Like she you know, she she pressed me out about
something the other day was being funny about you. I
didn't do nothing. She thought something happened, but like a
song leak or something like that, and she's like, who
did that? But it was a funny press. It wasn't
a real press. It ain't like not full crowd half.
Speaker 9 (31:00):
So you're gonna retire at forty, right, And this is
nothing to do with BILLI olish. Okay, you're going to
retire at forty. At forty, then you're going to start
reconnecting more with your family for sure.
Speaker 6 (31:09):
Then you're going to have it. You want to you
want to have a family as well.
Speaker 1 (31:11):
Yeah, I would love to know how old are you now?
Thirty thirty two?
Speaker 6 (31:15):
Thirty two?
Speaker 9 (31:16):
So are you like taking are you dating somebody? Are
you in a relationship?
Speaker 1 (31:20):
Right? Not in a relationship?
Speaker 6 (31:21):
But what age is that coming?
Speaker 1 (31:23):
That's not an age, it's a feeling thing.
Speaker 9 (31:25):
It can happen, right, because you got to age for
your retirement. You got to age for when you plan
on like doing more. Did you drop in the photos?
And what's that Tanana?
Speaker 1 (31:32):
Okay?
Speaker 6 (31:32):
So I'm just trying to see if there's like a
timeline here.
Speaker 5 (31:34):
Definitely not a timeline on something like love and connecting
with the right person. It could happen right now.
Speaker 4 (31:40):
Asking the same question now, okay, yeah, question.
Speaker 6 (31:42):
Right back at you, which was I actually coming stage?
Oh it's my age. I'm actively, you know, trying to
figure it out right now?
Speaker 2 (31:49):
Okay, So you don't have nobody, Like, just like you
asked them, what age? Are you looking to find somebody
to settle down?
Speaker 6 (31:54):
I ain't got no BILLI elish on my line.
Speaker 1 (31:58):
Now.
Speaker 9 (32:00):
I mean, I got no name where it's nothing worth
bringing up. I'm asking you because you know that's a name.
Speaker 1 (32:04):
You know, man, you can get me in trouble, man,
I do.
Speaker 8 (32:08):
Before we wrap, I kind of want to talk about
super Nova with the artist.
Speaker 1 (32:11):
Okay.
Speaker 6 (32:12):
The artist is so fire.
Speaker 8 (32:13):
I'm glad that you guys collapse because you guys both
are like very talented.
Speaker 6 (32:18):
Talk to me about just shooting super nova.
Speaker 5 (32:20):
What's so so funny with her? A friend of mine
was like, I was like, I want a girl on
this song. I just feel like he was like, yeah,
you should check this person out.
Speaker 1 (32:29):
And I checked her on and she was fire, buddy, Yeah,
she's new.
Speaker 5 (32:33):
Yeah, And I was like, y'all hit her up. She's
like excited. She sent me the verse like probably in
three days. And then I was just like, Wow, she
like really killed this. So for me, that was like
a risky song because I don't really go all the way.
I don't know if that's R and B.
Speaker 4 (32:49):
I guess it is R and B.
Speaker 8 (32:50):
And I was going to say, like, do you see
yourself leaning more into that now?
Speaker 1 (32:54):
I like stuff like that.
Speaker 5 (32:55):
Man, I like stuff I could play with, like a
woman that i'm with for something like that, And it's
not it doesn't have to be negative because I think
like I would always do this thing where I would
start saying nice things and then be like but and
I was like, nah, I'm not doing it.
Speaker 1 (33:10):
I'm going all the way. Like I'm going all the way. Like,
So that was what that was about.
Speaker 6 (33:15):
Nice. I think you should lean into that.
Speaker 1 (33:17):
Okay, Yeah, I'll take your advice.
Speaker 4 (33:19):
Well, thank you brother for joining us this morning. Breakfast Club.
Speaker 1 (33:25):
Wake that answer up in the morning. The Breakfast Club
Wake that ass up in the morning. The Breakfast Club Morning.
Speaker 2 (00:05):
Everybody is stevej Envy, Jess, Hilarious, Charlamage, the guy we
are the Breakfast Club. We got Lola Rosa feeling in
for Jess and also our nephew was gonna our nephew.
Speaker 1 (00:18):
With us today.
Speaker 3 (00:19):
Wow, shut up? You always gotta fight Dominicans? Why why
do you always gotta fight with a Dominican? That's wow. Wow.
Speaker 4 (00:30):
We got a special guest in the building. We got
I d K. Welcome brother. How you feeling man.
Speaker 1 (00:35):
I'm feeling good man. It's good to be here.
Speaker 5 (00:36):
The first time I came here, I came a little
too late and I wasn't able to do the interview.
Speaker 1 (00:42):
So everything happens for a reason.
Speaker 3 (00:44):
Happy to have you, brother, that's right, hearing your name
for a long, long, long time.
Speaker 6 (00:48):
How was the show with g easy?
Speaker 3 (00:49):
How's the tour going so far?
Speaker 5 (00:51):
So good Man been real cool And he actually brought
me on my first run ever in my life, like
in like twenty fifteen or something like that.
Speaker 1 (01:00):
So it's like full circle, you know.
Speaker 2 (01:03):
So for people that don't know who I DK is,
where you from, this is the first time some people
are hearing you give them a breakdown where you're from,
what your name stands for.
Speaker 4 (01:11):
And all that.
Speaker 5 (01:12):
Oh, yeah, so it's I d K from the d
m v PG county in Maryland. Specifically, you just said you.
Speaker 4 (01:18):
Were from Queens the other day.
Speaker 7 (01:19):
Now and Germany, y'a not going to do this.
Speaker 3 (01:25):
I'm an army.
Speaker 6 (01:26):
My family from Florida.
Speaker 8 (01:27):
I grew up in Maryland. I went to me high school.
I'm from Severn, Maryland, so don't I went to move.
I moved to New York for college. I've been here
eleven years.
Speaker 5 (01:37):
That kind of sounded like me, like I was born
in London, but I came to America when I was
like two years old, so I grew up in the
dmv PG county. I DK stands for ignorantly delivering knowledge.
Speaker 7 (01:48):
I've always liked that acronym because I totally understand what
you mean when you say that, because I always say,
you got to be the perfect balance of ratchetess and
righteously delivering knowledge is like saying I got to put
the medicine in the right.
Speaker 1 (02:00):
Right kind of like that. Yeah, it was.
Speaker 5 (02:03):
I was actually in prison when I came up with
that acronym, and so I was in the state prison
when I was younger, and I came up with the
acronym ignorantly Delivering Knowledge because I wanted people to be like,
what does I d K stand for?
Speaker 1 (02:18):
Like does that mean? I don't know?
Speaker 5 (02:20):
And I always feel like if I prompt somebody to
ask a question and I answer it, you're more likely
to remember it than me just telling you you feel me?
Speaker 4 (02:29):
Why did you get into rap?
Speaker 9 (02:30):
I'm sorry, I was going to say, you went to
you mentioned prison? Yeah there, you went to prison the
same year that you went to college.
Speaker 5 (02:36):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, one of the times I went, because
it was yeah.
Speaker 6 (02:41):
Yeah, So let's talk about the first time.
Speaker 9 (02:43):
And then I want to know how the whole I'm
going to college but then I end up in prison,
Like what's that story?
Speaker 6 (02:47):
How does that try?
Speaker 1 (02:48):
Man?
Speaker 5 (02:48):
First of all, I come from like a West African background,
so my mom, sincerely all, my dad from Ghana. I'm
literally the first person in my family to get locked up.
Speaker 4 (02:59):
But that's not a good thing.
Speaker 5 (03:01):
Yeah, I mean, but also first person prison is not
a good thing. Fair, But you know, I turned it around,
so at the same time, that's true. But yeah, that
kind of was like something like you know, when I
was seventeen, I got jammed up, had some charges, you know,
stuff to do with you know, you know, robberies and
guns and things like that, and then pretty much I
(03:23):
went to prison of jail. But the thing was I
was on I got sentenced to fifteen years suspended the
three and they allowed me to do it on home detention,
but getting in trouble on violations and technical things.
Speaker 1 (03:36):
But you made me, Yeah that's how I When did
you start rapping?
Speaker 4 (03:39):
What made you say?
Speaker 2 (03:39):
You know what, I want to lead the streets alone
and focus on this rap career.
Speaker 5 (03:43):
I mean the first time I got locked up, I
realized it wasn't for me, like right away, like I
was like, no, no, I can't do this.
Speaker 3 (03:49):
So you know you went back through more times.
Speaker 5 (03:52):
Yeah, but it was like violation technical stuff. It was
like I'm not judging coming no, no, no, no, no times
judging technical though. It wasn't like I kept doing things.
It was just violations and stuff like that. But basically
the last time I was in before I went in,
I was listening to like Kendrick Lamar and like Jay Cole,
(04:14):
and you know where I'm from, people don't really listen
to that. But I had a friend that went to
like fam you and he would come back with like
more I would say eclectic rap, and I was like,
oh man, people rap like this, That's that's interesting. So
I remember being in prison. I was a tutor, so
I helped people get their GEDs, and also it was
(04:36):
a barber, and I just remember I would just write
music and everybody would listen, like see me like bobbing
my head right, and they'd be like, yo, spit rap,
like like I ain't know you rapped like and so
one day I just did it, and I was like, man,
if I could make people that's pissed off in prison
like music, maybe maybe it'll work for me when I
get out.
Speaker 3 (04:54):
What lifestyle changes did you make?
Speaker 7 (04:56):
Though, because you know, my dad used to always tell me,
if you don't change your lifestyle, you gonna end up
in jail, dead or.
Speaker 3 (05:00):
Broke, sitting on the tree. What lifestyle changes did you mean?
Speaker 5 (05:04):
I just started feeling like I needed to actually get
a job, So when I first got out, I didn't
care what it was. Actually my first job was McDonald's.
I was proud to go to McDonald's and word up
to be honest, like because I was like, man, I
got a job, I got like, you know, some type
of purpose, like let me try to just turn this around.
Speaker 1 (05:21):
So that was like probably the first big one.
Speaker 5 (05:23):
And then trying to go to school, like I was
going to PG Community College, So getting back in school
was another thing.
Speaker 8 (05:30):
But for the first time that you went to jail,
what would you attribute like the why to Would you
say it was like the internet? Would you say it
was just your environment?
Speaker 1 (05:39):
So it was the want for love.
Speaker 5 (05:42):
Like my parents loved me, but I didn't know how
to comprehend the way they gave me love. Right, So
I never got great grades. I grew up middle class,
but I was surrounded by the hood and I went
to school in the hood, so I identified more with
the people that also didn't get good grades, and that
that comes with a lot of stuff because they coming
(06:03):
from different backgrounds and they doing different things. So I
felt like whenever I would do something bad, they would
show me respect, and that was the love that I wanted.
Speaker 7 (06:13):
I'm glad you got had the explanation quick, because saying
you want to go to jail for love is crazy.
Speaker 5 (06:16):
No, right, I'm glad. I'm glad that like you understand
like this nuance.
Speaker 1 (06:23):
That you know what I mean?
Speaker 2 (06:25):
So I was going to ask, you know, when you
started rapping, what did your family say at first?
Speaker 1 (06:30):
Right?
Speaker 4 (06:30):
Were they behind you the whole way? They was like here, you.
Speaker 1 (06:35):
Know what, No, it wasn't as bad as you would think.
Yeah right, it was like how much worse could this be?
They couldn't get no worse than what I already did.
Speaker 5 (06:44):
So my mom was just happy I was doing something positive,
got you, you know. But she she passed away. She
never she never got to listen. Well, she's got to
listen to my music. She heard it once and she
was like, but she would brag about it, but she
would never listen to like to Like, my mom till
she passed never heard me curse, Like I never said
a curse word around her, But in my music.
Speaker 8 (07:08):
What does it sound sound like at the time, because
you really dibble and dabble in all different genres, all
different sounds.
Speaker 3 (07:14):
So what did she hear?
Speaker 5 (07:17):
A lot of cursing, a lot of bad words, like
a lot of rap like I was just you know,
just rap.
Speaker 1 (07:24):
Yeah for sure.
Speaker 5 (07:25):
Yeah, it depends on how you because like again, the
whole ignorantly delivering all this thing. Depending on how you
first hear me, You'll think I'm one thing and it
might not be that.
Speaker 7 (07:34):
You know, and you're growing in real time, right, cause's
like it's your fifth studio.
Speaker 1 (07:40):
Yeah, this would be my fifth one. Yeah, what's the what's.
Speaker 7 (07:42):
The evolution of id K Ben from that first project
to know?
Speaker 5 (07:46):
It's like just this this idea of like finding like
what I actually want to express sonically. So I feel
like I've always been dibbling, dabbling, dibbling and dabbling in
different types of music, but this now is more like
I'm creating a sound, like a feeling.
Speaker 1 (08:04):
You know.
Speaker 5 (08:05):
It's like taking like a certain melodic like element and
then trying to put like different drums around it, maybe
to switch the genre up, but the feeling is constant, consistent.
That's probably the biggest thing that I've grown into now.
Speaker 4 (08:22):
On is He Here? Is He Real?
Speaker 1 (08:25):
Album?
Speaker 2 (08:25):
Yeah, I'm looking at some of the features on it
that people don't know. You had DMX on that album.
Speaker 5 (08:29):
Yeah, well that was Actually it's so funny because I
have something with him that we're getting ready to put together.
But on that album specifically, it was something that I
sampled a prayer he did but I had to chase
him down like at south By Southwest and pull up
on him to get it clear, like yo, yo, I'm
alrighty K. So I had to find him.
Speaker 4 (08:51):
How was that conversation?
Speaker 1 (08:54):
He know who I was at that time?
Speaker 3 (08:56):
Are you on the Prayer album that they got drop?
Speaker 5 (08:58):
No, I'm not on that? The feature for him after those,
so he got to know who I was after that.
I did a feature for him prior to him passing.
Speaker 4 (09:06):
Did you have a relationship at all?
Speaker 5 (09:08):
Like small, like just kind of through like you know,
people that we knew and things like that.
Speaker 1 (09:12):
But yeah, it was.
Speaker 9 (09:13):
A conversation like when you ran up on him and
it was like, hey, I'm trying to get this cleared.
Speaker 1 (09:16):
He was like it's done, literally just like that, like
you go to the bullshit. He was like, all right,
who I gotta go? Yeah, basically pretty much and he
got it done.
Speaker 7 (09:26):
On the coolest What is I know that I knew?
I was called bravado and in timo, what does timo me?
Speaker 5 (09:32):
It's like, uh, the Italian word for intimate, So bravado
is like kind of like bragged oshs, you know, talking
about stuff. But the intimo part is where it comes
from like like a lot of like why I care,
Like I like, you know, wearing certain things, and I like,
you know, style things like that, And it comes from
the like being made fun of when I was like
(09:54):
in the sixth grade but not having certain things. And
I just remember being like a kid going to school
depressed because I know they're gonna make fun of me.
So I remember ninth grade. That's before I started getting
into trouble and you know, and getting money. I literally
said to myself, I will never be made fun of
for dressing that ever again, for the rest of my life.
(10:16):
And that's that's explains the bravado side, because the bravado
side is you just see it. You just see the
floss and all that. But the intimo side is where
it comes from.
Speaker 3 (10:26):
So and then you get money and realize you don't
even care about clothes.
Speaker 5 (10:29):
Like that, right, that also starts to happen too, you
know what I mean, Like it's like you like stuff,
but like people put me in a fashion world because
I do a lot of stuff in that world, but
it's not by choice, Like I just know people they
like what I do, and you know, and then they
just asked me to do things, but I don't try
to do that get you could just do it, yeah, exactly.
Speaker 6 (10:49):
Now another feature, you had Kanye West on the song
Celena and TRAPPI.
Speaker 5 (10:54):
Well, no, that was another sample situation where pretty much
we got that was a crazy one because it was
a jay Z song initially, so it was everybody had
to kind.
Speaker 9 (11:07):
Of that process, like because Kanye is kind of hard
to it wasn't as fast as the DMX.
Speaker 5 (11:12):
Well maybe, yeah, it took a little while actually, but
I'll be real, like, Yay has reached out to me
and I've I've hung out with him multiple times, like,
so you know, it's not that that one is a
little different that I remember when I dropped is he real?
Speaker 1 (11:30):
I was with eighty eight Keys.
Speaker 5 (11:32):
And uh and and and and eighty eight comes up
to me and passes me the phone from my unknown
number and I answered and it's like Yo, it's Yay
And I'm like oh, and he was just like I've
been hearing about your album. It wasn't out at the time.
He's like, man, at some point today, I'd love to
connect with you. And next thing you know, I was
in Calabasas, uh, just hanging out at the crib you know,
(11:54):
so yeah, yay yay had had shown love and I've
actually like linked up him a.
Speaker 8 (12:00):
Couple of times on a new project. What would you
say is your favorite record?
Speaker 1 (12:06):
Miles Trumpet?
Speaker 5 (12:08):
I like that one a lot because I'm singing, you know,
and I'm like kind of like that's a beat where
I listened to it. I'm like, I hear Griselda on
this beat, so instead of doing what they would do,
let me just sing.
Speaker 6 (12:18):
It seems like a fan favorite too. I really like Check.
I feel like Check.
Speaker 8 (12:23):
It's braggadocious, it's swaggy. Yeah, but on it well, first
of all, actually the music video who came up with
the concept for that? Like why is it just a
girl shaking her ass the whole time? I'm really trying
to like what are you giving?
Speaker 1 (12:37):
Well?
Speaker 5 (12:37):
The great part about that one is like ignorantly delivering.
Now it's just a juxtaposition, like when I hear that
beat in that song, I'm really rapping, so you don't
really see that happening, but there has the I think
the rhythm is what I wanted to articulate by having
her do that. You know, because you listen to it,
you don't think you could do that to that song,
(12:59):
but then when you see it do it, you realize
you can, you know. So that was what that was about.
Speaker 3 (13:04):
Were you a fan of out Davis all your parents.
Speaker 1 (13:06):
Were, Well? Yeah, I mean, like I have, you know,
records from him.
Speaker 5 (13:09):
But I'll say this, I've heard a few different things,
and everything that I've heard from him has made me
feel a certain way. But I do need to dig
more into what he's got going on, because I did
see some stuff from like the documentary and stuff how
he would switch his bands around and all these things that,
you know, I thought that was inspiring. But yeah, I
(13:31):
want to talk about the No Label Academy, Yeah, that
you did at Harvard. Yeah, so Charlamagne loved this too
because you did two lectures on mental health.
Speaker 1 (13:39):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (13:40):
Why did you feel like that was so.
Speaker 1 (13:42):
Important to do? Well?
Speaker 5 (13:43):
So the class is ten day experience that people from
all around the world. Students apply and then we pick
about twenty to twenty five of them, and then I
teach the class and it goes from branding, which I
call story in vision, to financial literacy to team building
(14:04):
and mental health is the last day. And we taught
that at the Medical School at Harvard. I think mental
health is really important because I always say this, like,
as human beings, we've evolved socially a lot of so
many different times since like you know, they say we're
about three hundred thousand seventy five to three hundred thousand
(14:26):
years old, like what we are biologically, we've evolved I
think way too much socially to keep up with where
we are biologically. So when you fame is something we created.
That's not something we were built for or made for.
So like a lot of times people deal with fame
in a way that could be detrimental. And I think
(14:47):
that people don't teach the aspect and the importance of
mental health when they're actually pushing them to be famous,
you know. So for me, this class was supposed to
prepare you from a bi business perspective for what you
or the artist you're working with could be dealing with
once they get in the game. And I think a
lot of the times labels will see like, oh, this
(15:09):
person's hot, they come from this neighborhood and all that.
Yeah that's cool and all that, but like and then
they not ready for corporate the corporate like they're not
understanding what that is. So now you're expecting somebody who's
manager might be like just homeinge to know how to
move within a corporate setting and be successful and then
(15:29):
sustaining that sustain that success. I think that creates a
lot of problems for a lot of different people.
Speaker 2 (15:35):
You know, how has your mental been you know, because
you talked about kids making fun of you back in
the day. Yeah, and now being on social media is
times a thousand is as far as the amount of commons.
Sometimes people just say negative stuff just to try to
get a reaction. So how you deal with social media now?
Speaker 5 (15:51):
I mean, look, I lost my mom. She died from
you know, HIV complications from that, and I didn't know
that until after she passed, so I never had that
closure of being able to talk to her about it.
Speaker 1 (16:05):
Right.
Speaker 5 (16:06):
So when you look at that kind of stuff, and
then you look at like what I've been through with
prison and all this stuff.
Speaker 1 (16:12):
Man, like I'm kind of primed for It's like it
doesn't really get much worse.
Speaker 3 (16:17):
You've been through real shit.
Speaker 5 (16:19):
Yeah, So for me, it's like second nature almost dealing
with some of the stuff that's nothing to me. When
they like COVID, I'm like I was just I was
actually on twenty three lock twenty three hour lockdown at
one point, like this is nothing to me with a book,
you know what I mean?
Speaker 1 (16:37):
So for me, like I love a.
Speaker 10 (16:39):
Good quarantine, yeah right, yeah, so to me, it don't
really get much worse.
Speaker 5 (16:50):
So so you know, I just try to like figure
out how to express that to people who haven't gone
through those things. That's what my class is mainly for
when it comes to that aspect.
Speaker 3 (17:00):
I like what you said too, because I never thought
about it. But it's true.
Speaker 7 (17:03):
Fame is a social construct, and nowadays everybody thinks they're famous.
Speaker 5 (17:08):
Not on need that everybody kind of is because you
got to think about it. If you have social media,
when you post something, even if it's just the local before.
Speaker 1 (17:15):
You, they had to see you do it.
Speaker 5 (17:18):
Right now, you can just be like, yeah, I was,
I went and ate this ice cream at so and so,
and then people comment like, ah, why'd you get that flavor?
Speaker 1 (17:25):
Like that's what everybody.
Speaker 5 (17:26):
Has, some form of fame if you have social media,
And then you think about high schools, like the popular
kid in the high school would be popular when they
walk in school, or maybe certain things happen after school.
But now it's like, oh yeah, he got fifteen hundred
followers and the school was like three thousand people, so
that after school, you know what I mean. Like it's
just like, so everyone's dealing with some form of fame
(17:48):
right now, and I think that that's an issue.
Speaker 7 (17:50):
And I feel sorry for these kids because it makes
them overthink everything. Example you gave is like you shouldn't
be having a question. Nobody should be questioning you about
the flavory ice cream you want, right, you don't want
to get, but every single thing you do is question.
So therefore you're questioning every single thing you do in
your mind, every little mundane thing you do.
Speaker 3 (18:09):
You're overthinking it.
Speaker 1 (18:10):
That's what I mean.
Speaker 5 (18:11):
Like, biologically we haven't evolved, but socially we're constantly evolving,
and we're dealing with AI and all these things starting
to happen. It's just it's only going to get faster
and faster.
Speaker 6 (18:24):
And that class at Harvard, that's the class that Virgil
came to.
Speaker 5 (18:27):
Yes, Virgil before he passed, He's supposed to speak for
thirty minutes.
Speaker 1 (18:31):
He spoke for an hour thirty minutes. Yeah, shut out.
Speaker 9 (18:35):
So you saw the that this happened, like a few
months ago, almost a few months ago, when the Blue
Star Alliance acquire Off Whitey. Yeah, yeah, and so people,
I know you said you don't like being put in
a fashion lane, but I just will love to get
your opinion on that, because people were upset about that
because they felt like it was going to devalue the
brain and what Virgil that worked for.
Speaker 5 (18:54):
How you think about that, Well, you know, whenever, whenever
art meets commerce, it's always going to get watered down.
If I signed to a record label, there's songs that
are better singles than the song that I might believe
because of the range of entry points people could have
to that song. You make that decision once you decide
(19:15):
to do art, because we could do whatever art we
want and be homeless if we okay with that, that's
cool too. I say that to say with that particular
situation one, I don't know the details to it. I
don't know too much of it, but the idea that
something could be watered down, it depends on the details
of the deal and what they got going on and
who controls what. I think that that came from Virgil's
(19:38):
brain at the end of the day, and Virgil is
not here, So there's always going to be some type
of difference, right, But yeah, when art mes commerce, that's
what happens. You know, it's a battles t when I
always look at everything is don't look at it as
an on and off switch, look at it as a percentage.
Speaker 9 (19:55):
Knowing him personally, do you think that Virgil will be
happy with like just where off White is right now today?
That's also been a conversation too. They've had like different
leadership in and out and stuff like that.
Speaker 5 (20:04):
You know, there's people that are friends of mine who
could answer that question far better than I could, because
I don't have enough of it. I didn't have that
relationship with him where I would know what happiness is
actually to him when it comes to that brand.
Speaker 1 (20:19):
How did you meet that? He followed me.
Speaker 5 (20:23):
I did the cover GQ's uh British GQ and it
was a Louis Vuitton exclusive, and so I debuted the
NBA collab that they have and from there he followed me.
And then I got a made back and brought it Virgil. No,
I got one, just regular one, and then he was like,
(20:43):
welcome to the club.
Speaker 1 (20:45):
And then that we started talking.
Speaker 3 (20:46):
From I got to slide out with it was a
pleasure meeting.
Speaker 5 (20:50):
Of course your headlines and maccolate, I appreciate it.
Speaker 1 (20:53):
You to you, to you too a lot of that.
Speaker 2 (21:00):
Man, Now has the industry changed since you first came
out and did your first mixtape?
Speaker 4 (21:05):
How have you seen how things change? Because you know,
usually when.
Speaker 2 (21:08):
Artist first do the mixtape is their core. They only
care about their core. But now it's something different. Now
you're looking for a radio record. Now you're looking for
something that's gonna go on the charts. Now you look
for those things. So how has things changed for you?
Speaker 5 (21:18):
I mean, look that when I first started, like streaming
wasn't really a thing like that, Like it was still
kind of iTunes and people reviewing the song or album
or whatever. Things have changed a lot because people and
the algorithm dictates a lot of what what a lot
(21:38):
of the decisions you could potentially make. So now we're
in a place where we could, like think a song
sounds like a single, but that doesn't matter anymore. Like
you know, I can't rely on like DJs to break
the record the same way as before.
Speaker 1 (21:50):
It's kind of like this is.
Speaker 5 (21:52):
The record based off of the algorithm and streaming and
the fans. So now we push it. You know, I
think in a lot of it's good. In a lot
of ways it's not good.
Speaker 4 (22:02):
That makes it difficult.
Speaker 2 (22:03):
But you know, the DJ now he follows an algorithm,
He follows what people are listening to, what's streaming, instead
of just you know, what somebody's feeling, which makes it difficult.
And being from the DMV area, how difficult is it
for that, especially being a rapper. You don't really see
too many from the DMV rap that a huge, but
there's a lot of talent in the DMV area.
Speaker 1 (22:23):
Yeah, it's funny.
Speaker 5 (22:24):
I think I was just talking to Jaha and No
Idea about this, like they were like, Yo, you know
what's crazy?
Speaker 1 (22:32):
What's your situation?
Speaker 5 (22:33):
One you don't have If you look at rap, there's
a lot of people who have some kind of co
sign by somebody that they're aligned with, especially when you
make the type of rap that I make. And then
another thing is if not that at least they have
like a really big city that they're coming from. That's
huge in music. And right now we're growing obviously in
(22:54):
the DMV, but it isn't like New York or Atlanta
or La Right, So it's like they basically, it's like, yo,
you kind of have to make your own way in
a way that a lot of people don't. Not saying
that people don't make their own way, I'm saying like,
in a way that most people don't. And I thought
about that and I was like, wow, actually there is
(23:15):
you have a point. The good thing I'll say about
where I'm from, though, is when it comes to originality,
there is a lot to pull from.
Speaker 1 (23:23):
There's a huge culture.
Speaker 5 (23:25):
I come from, Go go That's why I started doing music,
Go go bands and.
Speaker 1 (23:28):
Stuff like that.
Speaker 5 (23:29):
So you got a lot to pull from. And when
it does work and when it does break, it's going
to be beautiful. However, you know, you know, you got
to roll up your sleeves. You know, you got to
remain poised.
Speaker 2 (23:41):
Yeah, I feel like the DMV area doesn't get heard
like it should, you know, And I honestly, if I
didn't go to Hampton, I would have never understood the
DMV area.
Speaker 4 (23:50):
Yeah, you know, you.
Speaker 2 (23:51):
See all this like wile that took a long time
to break through, or even push it that took a
long time to break through. It's like it comes so
last with the respect and I think because it's such
a small area but a big area.
Speaker 1 (24:03):
Yeah.
Speaker 5 (24:04):
Man, it's a melting pot of a lot of beautiful things,
you know. And I think that like there is a
certain level of i say, like segregation within the type
of thing that you may do versus the type of
thing this person might do. But I think when we
find when we figure out how to kind of bring
it all together, that is going to also I always
(24:27):
I have this theory we when the Commanders start winning,
we'll start to see our industry.
Speaker 1 (24:34):
Yeah, that's so. I think. I think it's, you know,
around the corner.
Speaker 9 (24:38):
Like that's la like la. Everything is so celebrity. They're
the team, so they celebrity lifestyle.
Speaker 8 (24:45):
So the only reason why I don't think that's going
to be a thing is just because the DMV just
doesn't have the structure for it. Like we don't have
home base for media. I had to go to New
York to do media. We don't have a home base
for artists, like we have recording studios, but industries you
want to make get La Atlanta New York like to
actually be a part of an industry algorithm.
Speaker 5 (25:06):
So I agree with you from that perspective. But the
one thing I will say is that's the industry part
of it, but artistically sound wise, right, that's the first
thing that has to happen regardless, right, And I think
that there are people that are willing to travel to
kind of get those other things done.
Speaker 1 (25:24):
I think that, like, like just.
Speaker 5 (25:26):
Even recently, like they got like El Cousto with the
song and then Earl Sweatshirt was on it and then
it started blowing up and I remember I saw the
Earl part of it and I was like, this sounds
like he like rapping, like he's from the city.
Speaker 1 (25:40):
Like this really sounded like.
Speaker 5 (25:41):
I didn't know that the dude whose song he was
on was from you get what I'm saying. So I
think like that opens people's eyes to the sound. And
I think that or ears and I think.
Speaker 6 (25:54):
It's a good thing.
Speaker 8 (25:54):
Like I think the lack of the industry is a
good thing because it keeps us having a regional sound
or a regional flavor and a lot of cities like
that because they have those outlets.
Speaker 1 (26:05):
Yeah yeah.
Speaker 5 (26:06):
And also look man rappers they saying right now, rapp
is very regional like base, like they've got people in
France that's the superstars now and they ain't looking at
what's happening in New York to see who the superstar
is now, you know, So I think building on that
is probably one of the most important things now.
Speaker 2 (26:25):
Coming up in the d n V area, where those
artists having open arms for you, like like a Wile
or Push.
Speaker 1 (26:31):
Ready to push.
Speaker 5 (26:32):
Yeah, I got like two of Yle brought me out,
Like the first year I started popping, he brought me
out to do his Wile and Friends show. I remember
that he's one of the first to embrace me Push.
Speaker 1 (26:46):
I had to push Push.
Speaker 5 (26:48):
I feel like follow me on a gram and we
just kind of was chopping it up and asked him
for a record and he's like, I got you and
he sent it through. I got definitely got embraced. I
think that the thing is that, like again, it's kind
of segregated in the sounds, so certain people only listen
to this sound and then certain people are more open
to other sounds. I think as we start to progress
(27:10):
that that'll change, hopefully, But that's that's what i'd say.
Speaker 8 (27:14):
Yeah, absolutely, you sit on this project. Once you turn forty,
you retire, and you disappearing Like is that really the angle?
Speaker 1 (27:23):
I don't know. If I'll disappear.
Speaker 5 (27:24):
But I think that while I retire, people think I
mean like stop rapping, and I don't know if I
mean that. I mean right now, I'm constantly competing with
myself to do better every time, like to the point where, like,
you know, family may get neglected.
Speaker 1 (27:40):
I don't, you know. I talk to my family on.
Speaker 5 (27:42):
Like like like the holidays and stuff I don't like
my Grandma wants to hear from me more and things
like that.
Speaker 6 (27:48):
Oh my god, every day, Nah, not every day.
Speaker 5 (27:52):
Like I'm not even in the mental space with how
I view success to be able to tap into that
every day every day? Is what can I do to
make sure that when I'm forty my family. I don't
have kids or anything yet, and I'm not in a relationship.
Speaker 8 (28:08):
But in Billy, everybody thinks, y'all dating?
Speaker 1 (28:12):
What dating Billy? No people. I did see something one
time about that, but I don't that was like a
while back.
Speaker 5 (28:20):
Okay, nah, yeah, she's an amazing, amazing artist. But yeah,
like when I get.
Speaker 6 (28:30):
Uh, you already talked about this, so you knew people thought.
Speaker 1 (28:35):
That I said that said people said it.
Speaker 9 (28:37):
Yeah, sure, But I guess it's because they were trying
to piece together like photos and I guess the way,
which was crazy.
Speaker 5 (28:43):
I'm like, it's not my house, girl in my house.
I don't know what they talk about. Yeah, I think
she posted stuff you know me and things like that,
and I'm just one relationships to that's interesting too, like
but no, I'm just trying to make sure that when
I am forty and I decided to it's like everything
is structured and laid out for me in a way
(29:05):
where I can actually do that comfortably.
Speaker 4 (29:07):
So until then, you know, I mean Billy Alice's single though.
Speaker 6 (29:11):
Imouna say now I'm going down this rabo is she?
Speaker 8 (29:14):
I will say time waits for no man when it
comes to like, yes, your career, but also your famiily
so definitely caught your grandma.
Speaker 5 (29:21):
No for sure, No, I know I'm not saying I
just set the picture in the west sapp like right
before we go.
Speaker 6 (29:28):
Contacts. Yeah, like not talking to your Grand'm like, dang.
Speaker 5 (29:33):
I don't talk to my grandmother. I probably talked to
her like a week ago, two weeks ago or something
like that, Like I talked to her every so often.
I have a big family too, so when I talk
to my Grandma. Now everybody, I.
Speaker 1 (29:45):
Gotta last on, so it'd be like a three hour thing,
you know what.
Speaker 8 (29:49):
I mean, Like I understand.
Speaker 2 (29:51):
Yeah, we appreciate you for joining us today. The new
album Bravado is out right now.
Speaker 4 (29:56):
Thank you so much. And I know last time, I
know you came late, but we were glad you.
Speaker 1 (29:59):
Came so much.
Speaker 4 (30:01):
We can talk to your brother.
Speaker 1 (30:02):
We came early this time around.
Speaker 6 (30:06):
How do you carry down this rabbit hole of the
photos and all that?
Speaker 1 (30:10):
She said?
Speaker 4 (30:10):
You over Billy honis right now, it's just like a press.
Speaker 1 (30:13):
Outlet, is what's going on?
Speaker 6 (30:14):
What am I reading?
Speaker 9 (30:15):
Propty x? But if you just google you and herds,
it's a few outlets. But really, yeah, you thought I
made that. He's like nobody, No, but really offensively because
of the age thing, because you has said, like yo,
she was like seventeen.
Speaker 6 (30:29):
I was.
Speaker 1 (30:30):
It was like I have a lot to do with it,
you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 9 (30:35):
I mean, yeah, I mean because the way you responded
was like her, but I mean the aging of course.
But then it's like y'all just really homies in real life?
Speaker 6 (30:42):
Like is it really not?
Speaker 4 (30:43):
Yeah?
Speaker 5 (30:43):
Like she you know, she she pressed me out about
something the other day was being funny about you. I
didn't do nothing. She thought something happened, but like a
song leak or something like that, and she's like, who
did that? But it was a funny press. It wasn't
a real press. It ain't like not full crowd half.
Speaker 9 (31:00):
So you're gonna retire at forty, right, And this is
nothing to do with BILLI olish. Okay, you're going to
retire at forty. At forty, then you're going to start
reconnecting more with your family for sure.
Speaker 6 (31:09):
Then you're going to have it. You want to you
want to have a family as well.
Speaker 1 (31:11):
Yeah, I would love to know how old are you now?
Thirty thirty two?
Speaker 6 (31:15):
Thirty two?
Speaker 9 (31:16):
So are you like taking are you dating somebody? Are
you in a relationship?
Speaker 1 (31:20):
Right? Not in a relationship?
Speaker 6 (31:21):
But what age is that coming?
Speaker 1 (31:23):
That's not an age, it's a feeling thing.
Speaker 9 (31:25):
It can happen, right, because you got to age for
your retirement. You got to age for when you plan
on like doing more. Did you drop in the photos?
And what's that Tanana?
Speaker 1 (31:32):
Okay?
Speaker 6 (31:32):
So I'm just trying to see if there's like a
timeline here.
Speaker 5 (31:34):
Definitely not a timeline on something like love and connecting
with the right person. It could happen right now.
Speaker 4 (31:40):
Asking the same question now, okay, yeah, question.
Speaker 6 (31:42):
Right back at you, which was I actually coming stage?
Oh it's my age. I'm actively, you know, trying to
figure it out right now?
Speaker 2 (31:49):
Okay, So you don't have nobody, Like, just like you
asked them, what age? Are you looking to find somebody
to settle down?
Speaker 6 (31:54):
I ain't got no BILLI elish on my line.
Speaker 1 (31:58):
Now.
Speaker 9 (32:00):
I mean, I got no name where it's nothing worth
bringing up. I'm asking you because you know that's a name.
Speaker 1 (32:04):
You know, man, you can get me in trouble, man,
I do.
Speaker 8 (32:08):
Before we wrap, I kind of want to talk about
super Nova with the artist.
Speaker 1 (32:11):
Okay.
Speaker 6 (32:12):
The artist is so fire.
Speaker 8 (32:13):
I'm glad that you guys collapse because you guys both
are like very talented.
Speaker 6 (32:18):
Talk to me about just shooting super nova.
Speaker 5 (32:20):
What's so so funny with her? A friend of mine
was like, I was like, I want a girl on
this song. I just feel like he was like, yeah,
you should check this person out.
Speaker 1 (32:29):
And I checked her on and she was fire, buddy, Yeah,
she's new.
Speaker 5 (32:33):
Yeah, And I was like, y'all hit her up. She's
like excited. She sent me the verse like probably in
three days. And then I was just like, Wow, she
like really killed this. So for me, that was like
a risky song because I don't really go all the way.
I don't know if that's R and B.
Speaker 4 (32:49):
I guess it is R and B.
Speaker 8 (32:50):
And I was going to say, like, do you see
yourself leaning more into that now?
Speaker 1 (32:54):
I like stuff like that.
Speaker 5 (32:55):
Man, I like stuff I could play with, like a
woman that i'm with for something like that, And it's
not it doesn't have to be negative because I think
like I would always do this thing where I would
start saying nice things and then be like but and
I was like, nah, I'm not doing it.
Speaker 1 (33:10):
I'm going all the way. Like I'm going all the way. Like,
So that was what that was about.
Speaker 6 (33:15):
Nice. I think you should lean into that.
Speaker 1 (33:17):
Okay, Yeah, I'll take your advice.
Speaker 4 (33:19):
Well, thank you brother for joining us this morning. Breakfast Club.
Speaker 1 (33:25):
Wake that answer up in the morning. The Breakfast Club
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