Today on The Breakfast Club, Kai Ca$h Talks 'Bars Not Dead.,' Rap Career, Industry Collabs, Signing With DJ Drama, Anxiety, Fasting & Discipline. Listen For More!
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hold up. Every day I wake up. Wake your ass up.
The Breakfast Club. You all finished or you all done? Morning, everybody.
Speaker 2 (00:09):
It's DJ Envy, Just Hilarious, Charlamagne Tha Guy. We are
The Breakfast Club. Lawn LaRose is here as well. We
got a special guest in the building.
Speaker 3 (00:16):
The dopest lyricist in New York City right now. Dopest
young rapper in New York City. Stop playing with him.
Speaker 1 (00:21):
There you go. Podcast. Welcome, brother. How you feeling? Great.
I'm glad to be here. How y'all feeling? Happy that
you here, brother. Thank you for having me. You got
the merch on, Balls Not Dead. Pushing, campaigning. Got to.
Speaker 4 (00:31):
You went to Del State?
Speaker 1 (00:32):
Yeah, I did.
Speaker 4 (00:33):
What year did you go?
Speaker 1 (00:34):
Oh, you were like... What year?
Speaker 5 (00:35):
He didn't go with you?
Speaker 1 (00:36):
I know. I just said you were like... I literally whispered.
Speaker 4 (00:39):
I said you were like younger than me.
Speaker 1 (00:40):
Nah, I went for one year. I went to... I
went 2014 and then I went to Hampton.
Speaker 4 (00:45):
Can you tell them Del State is lit?
Speaker 1 (00:46):
Nah, Del State is lit. Like, they be playing. I
ain't gonna lie. But don't act like... They act like
we don't have nothing.
Speaker 4 (00:53):
Like, Del State is lit.
Speaker 1 (00:55):
So you went to both the alma maters? Yeah, yeah.
That's crazy. Where'd you graduate from? Hempton.
Speaker 4 (00:59):
Hempton.
Speaker 1 (01:00):
All right. Unfortunately. Unfortunately.
Speaker 4 (01:02):
All that extra money for nothing.
Speaker 5 (01:04):
Let's start from the beginning. It's the first time Kyle's
up here.
Speaker 1 (01:06):
Facts.
Speaker 2 (01:06):
Of course, Kyle gets busy with the bars. So let's
talk what got you into rapping.
Speaker 5 (01:10):
I heard a story.
Speaker 1 (01:11):
Okay.
Speaker 5 (01:12):
That when you were five years old.
Speaker 1 (01:13):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (01:15):
I guess in school, everybody said what they want to be.
And kids were like police officers and firemen. And you
said you wanted to be wordy like Lil Wayne.
Speaker 1 (01:23):
I don't know where you heard that story from. Is
that true? I'm going to say fire.
Speaker 4 (01:27):
That's a lot of words.
Speaker 1 (01:27):
No. Who the hell told you that story? Yeah, that's
a crazy story. His pops told me that story. His pops.
I call his pops and say, tell me some questions
about that. You're so old. You call people that? I
don't know. Maybe he remembers better than I do. Really,
it's from the upbringing, for real. Like, as you know,
Pops is just like a behind-the-scenes guy in the industry.
And just coming up and being privy to what the
lifestyle was, for me, that was the eye-opener. Because it's like,
(01:50):
I know y'all got some money, and it's from this thing.
And who doesn't like music? So it's just like, I'm
around it all the time. And I always express myself
through art. Like, I hated sports. I wasn't trying to
be a firefighter or a police officer. I'm not doing
none of that. Like, rap. I always been good with words,
and I just took it there, and I kept going.
(02:13):
And now, I'm here.
Speaker 3 (02:14):
When you call a project bars not dead, are you
defending lyricism? Are you challenging the people who keep saying,
this generation don't care about lyrics anymore?
Speaker 1 (02:24):
I think it's just a bit of both. I'm defending
it because I like to rap a lot. And it's like,
it gets frowned upon sometimes, especially now. It's just like,
I don't want to hear all that rappy rap. It's
just like, damn. Why do people say that? I don't know.
To me, I don't know.
Speaker 3 (02:40):
I look at the last 15 years, the guys who
really thrived are rappity rappers.
Speaker 1 (02:44):
The Kendrick is a rappity rapper. Drake is a rappity rapper.
Even the Legacy X, it's just like they're a lot
more booked than the newcomers. That's right. Because of what
they did. Cole is a rappity rapper. Cole is a
rappity rapper. Yeah. His shows look crazy every night. Yeah.
So it's just like, I don't know. But yeah, it's
a little bit of both. It's like, I want y'all
to stop saying this thing. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. And then I'm
(03:06):
challenging everything else at the same time.
Speaker 2 (03:09):
But you came up in an era where, I hate
to say the rappity rap, but the rappity rap wasn't
necessarily as big as some of the other stuff that
came out.
Speaker 6 (03:16):
You can point to a lot of major, I mean,
besides like a J. Cole, like it was few and
far between.
Speaker 1 (03:20):
But look, this is the thing too, because it wasn't,
but at the same time we had it. And it
still was like something that people look to. Like I
had an argument with one of my peers and he
was just like, In 07, Laffy Taffy was number one.
I'm just like, but T.I. was still. Little Wayne was
(03:41):
just going into the card of three. It was balanced.
Now it's just like there's no balance. Hov was still outside.
Speaker 4 (03:48):
How old was the person you was going back and
forth with?
Speaker 1 (03:50):
We the same age. So in 07, I'm 29. In 07,
I was what? 10? 10?
Speaker 4 (03:56):
Because I feel like it's a taste level.
Speaker 6 (03:58):
Like, there are people that probably were listening to Effie
Taffy that weren't listening to, like... If you did hear T.I.,
it was like, you had to skate and ring.
Speaker 5 (04:05):
Nah, it was a gumbo move.
Speaker 1 (04:06):
But I'm not going to lie.
Speaker 3 (04:07):
T.I.
Speaker 1 (04:07):
Was lit. 100%. Kanye West's graduation was out of no sense.
Speaker 4 (04:12):
Jeezy was lit.
Speaker 5 (04:13):
It's a taste level thing.
Speaker 1 (04:14):
It has to be.
Speaker 4 (04:15):
It has to be.
Speaker 1 (04:15):
But, hey, And that's my whole point. Lupe Fiasco.
Speaker 6 (04:19):
But not everybody listening to Lupe Fiasco and a lot
of people that would listen to Kanye West and would
listen to like a Laffy Taffy. There's a lot, a
little synergy there. But a lot of people, if somebody
said to you, point it to Laffy Taffy first, that's
a whole different, like.
Speaker 1 (04:32):
Mind you, the person I was talking to is a
rappy rapper. Oh, wow. Exactly. Case in point. It's just like,
how do we, okay, let's just bring it back to
a space, a place where everything can coexist. I'm not
trying to say like, Nah, it's over for that. Who
am I to dictate that? It's just like, let's not
shy away from this thing as well because this is
(04:55):
how we got here.
Speaker 2 (04:56):
And what got you into rapping?
Speaker 5 (04:57):
Because you got your degree from Hampton. And what was
your major?
Speaker 1 (05:00):
Business management. To be honest, I went to school because
it just seemed like the right thing to do. I'm
not even going to lie to y'all. If I could
have went to school for hip-hop, I would have went
to school for hip-hop. So you knew this is what
you wanted to do, regardless of you going- Yeah, I
never had a job. This is just my only thing.
It's crazy, because I asked my pops for a job
(05:22):
one summer. He had reopened World on Wheels in LA.
I just wanted to make some bread.
Speaker 4 (05:27):
I used to go there.
Speaker 1 (05:28):
Yeah. And I was just like, yo. I just need
a job. And he was like, you got a job.
Keep doing it. I was like, wow. All right. Wow.
That's great. Yeah, word. I was like, all right. But
that's what you want to do with your kids. All right, bet.
You just like, nah, do this. You got a job.
Speaker 5 (05:42):
Do it.
Speaker 1 (05:42):
You figure out how to make some money. You do
it the right way.
Speaker 5 (05:45):
Now, we're speaking to your pops. Salute to BK Rube, too.
Speaker 6 (05:48):
Salute to BK Rube.
Speaker 4 (05:49):
Yeah, I was going to say, can we talk through, like,
who is that?
Speaker 5 (05:51):
For people who don't know. His dad is BK Rube,
of course. one of Biggie's best friends.
Speaker 1 (05:55):
I'm a pseudo-Nepo, baby. That's right. And there's nothing wrong
with that. At all, no. I used to look at
it like, nah, I don't want, nah. Now it's just like, yeah. Yeah, period.
He was the first person to play me a record.
I am who I am. Long time ago. You see
what I'm saying?
Speaker 6 (06:08):
But also, too, I feel like you, like, When you
say you're a pseudo-Nepo baby, it's like, but I know
because of the type of cloth that that means you
came from that.
Speaker 4 (06:16):
Like, you still worked. Like, you still had to work
for something.
Speaker 5 (06:18):
And you know how to fight.
Speaker 1 (06:18):
I worked for everything, exactly.
Speaker 4 (06:19):
And you know how to fight.
Speaker 1 (06:20):
I worked for everything. Yeah. That's what a lot of
people get confused. Like, I can speak for myself. I
worked for everything. But that's also how I was brought up.
It's like, I'm also a person, I don't like things
handed to me. Just naturally. I don't want you to just.
come with your hand out like oh yeah here's this
thing go do it because it's just like people can
tell like oh he i don't even know who this
(06:41):
kid is where he came from at least now i
got a little bit of a history people can go
back and be like oh he's been doing this for
a little minute and it's just now finally clicking with
people it takes a long time.
Speaker 3 (06:52):
That's how i felt because i didn't know rude was
your pops yeah you know i mean i had heard
your music before but over the holidays you know nala
was just letting.
Speaker 1 (06:59):
Me hear charlamagne was not a fan in the beginning.
Speaker 4 (07:04):
Tell us about it. Everybody has an experience with Sean May.
Speaker 1 (07:07):
I think Nala might have played the last tape and
he was just like, it is what it is.
Speaker 3 (07:12):
But you got to admit, you stepped up literally. I
feel like you was making records that you thought were
going to be, I guess, that radio would want to hear.
I did do a lot of that.
Speaker 1 (07:23):
A lot of conforming. You were dumbing down your pen.
I did a lot of that. Yeah, it's just like,
I've completely stepped out of it. That whole person that
was doing that is gone. I don't even know.
Speaker 2 (07:33):
The first time I think Nala played it, it was
May 2025, right? And I remember listening to it. I
remember hearing, I was like, yo, this kid is dope.
And that's when your pop sent me. It's like, yo,
you know what?
Speaker 1 (07:41):
That's my son.
Speaker 5 (07:42):
That's the kid I've been telling you about.
Speaker 1 (07:43):
That's the soul to the plane with you. May 2025
was lyrical.
Speaker 2 (07:47):
Did your dad want you in the industry, seeing that
everything he's seen through Biggie and Bad Boy, did he
want you in the industry?
Speaker 1 (07:54):
He never told me he didn't. More than anything, he
just like, this is what you asked for. Like when
I call him like, yo, I'm, I'm cooked. I've been
out five days. He's like, and like, yeah, you're going
to be out a lot more days. You keep doing
what you're doing. So my mom's was more so like, Oh,
you don't want to, you don't want to go.
Speaker 5 (08:12):
Get a job.
Speaker 1 (08:14):
You tripping. I got, no, I'm sorry. I don't knock
nobody that has a job. I just, I'm not doing it. Yeah.
I just, yeah, I gotta do it. But pops was
always like, yo, no i see it like you can
do this keep doing it.
Speaker 2 (08:28):
Just go what'd he tell you the most difficult thing
was and the reason i asked is he seemed big
when nobody believed and big had to go to rounds
of rapping outside and freestyle and and to the world
court so what was his advice to you just.
Speaker 1 (08:41):
Keep the most cliche advice it's just like keep keep
going because you just exactly like you see it all
you see from one day it's just like your man's
is just a hustler on the corner and then he's
the biggest thing in the world before he passes away.
And then when he passes away, he's even bigger. It's
just like, I've seen this with my own two eyes.
You can definitely do this. You just keep doing what
(09:02):
you got to do. So I'm just here doing what
I got to do to the best of my abilities.
What made you say, you know what, I'm going to
be a straight lyricist? Because like I said, you weren't whack.
You was just making, like I said, you was dumbing
down your pen. That's how you talk. You wasn't whack.
You wasn't whack.
Speaker 3 (09:16):
You wasn't my cup of tea. You was just dumbing
down your pen. What made you be like, nah, I
got to show these dudes I can really get busy?
Speaker 1 (09:23):
I started just paying attention to how far I've come
by being myself. And more than anything, I think just
being younger, it's just like you get somewhere and you
see so many things happen for other people and how
it worked. And it's just like, maybe if I tried that,
it would work for me this way. And it's just
like most of them people got there just doing what
they was doing. Somebody in the world is going to
(09:44):
like what I'm doing and how I'm doing it. So
it's just like, why not continue to push that forward
rather than trying to figure out, oh, let me jump
on this wave. or do this thing. And then it's
just like when the wave is gone, it's gone. I'm
just somebody that got caught in the wave. Now I'm burnt. cooked.
I'd rather be, if I am going to be burnt
or cooked, I'd rather be burnt and cooked doing what
I was doing.
Speaker 5 (10:04):
What was the ball for you? What was the person
that you said it was like, that's the lane I
want to go through?
Speaker 1 (10:10):
It's always been Jay-Z for me since I was a kid.
I didn't like Nas.
Speaker 5 (10:16):
Damn, tell them how you feel.
Speaker 1 (10:17):
Yeah, that's how biased I was. Jay-Z was just like,
he's the guy. But getting older, it's like Kendrick and Cole.
Kendrick is somebody that I feel like never conformed to nothing.
And he figured it out. It's mad people that don't
like Kendrick. Even before the Drake beef, it's like, we
don't want to listen to that. It's too many words.
I don't know what he's talking about. It's a pimple butterfly.
(10:38):
I don't get it. Whatever the case may be. And
it's just like, look at him. Why not? Just do
what you got to do. Because everybody that's super successful,
even though the legacy acts that we were just talking about,
it's like, they all did their own thing. And that's
why they're still here, 50 years old, selling out of stadiums.
(10:59):
It's like, we got four or five of us my
age that could do that right now. And they being themselves.
So it's just like, all right.
Speaker 3 (11:08):
There's a difference between being able to rap and being
able to make people care that you can rap.
Speaker 1 (11:13):
Yeah. When did you learn that distinction or are you
still learning it? I think I'm still learning it. I
think now I'm more in tune with it than ever
before though. That's why I'm just locked into it. Like, okay,
it's people in the world that do care. Especially when
I see women caring, it's like, oh yeah, nah. Ooh,
this is a bag. Because that's like the you got
(11:34):
to sell it to the women. I found women and
they like, yo, I love this song. I'm just like, what?
Speaker 6 (11:40):
But I feel like most time women with songs with us,
it's like, if you can, if you can talk through it,
like we, we with you, like it's just.
Speaker 1 (11:47):
I've gotten to that point now where I can, I'm,
I'm so good at this thing that I can talk
through it and, affect y'all in a greater way than
I've ever done before.
Speaker 6 (11:57):
That's how I used to, when I used to watch,
or not used to, when I be watching the interviews that, like,
a lot of the, like, OG artists you're talking about, like,
LL Cool J and, like, all these people, they talk
about how when they would get through and break through
with the women and the records there, how that would, like,
take their career to, like, a whole different, like, place.
Speaker 1 (12:13):
Yeah. That's where I'm at. I'm going that way. What
made you a believer?
Speaker 5 (12:21):
What was the moment that you said this could really happen?
What was that moment?
Speaker 1 (12:25):
You want to know what's crazy? I dropped my first
song on like all the DSPs in 2018, right? By
the third song, I went viral. I dropped a song
called The West with King Combs and O3 Greedo. That
went up. That was like it. Because after that, I
(12:45):
got a feature from Chris Brown just because he liked
the song.
Speaker 5 (12:49):
Just out of GP, he just heard it.
Speaker 1 (12:50):
You feel me? Just being around the right people. They're
playing my music. I was in Hampton, stressed. Just like,
oh my gosh. My man Ralph calling me like, yo, CB,
he wants to get on this song. I'm like, stop
calling me about this. Do it. I'm not going to
say no. I don't want a Chris Brown feature. And
it just kept going from there. I got a Pusha
T feature after that. But this is all out of like,
(13:12):
the respect of how I'm operating in this space. Like, okay,
this kid is actually nice. Yeah, we do know who
he is, but that's not everything. That's just extras. So
for me, it's just like, it's always been little points
that I made that just shows me like, all right,
You got something. If you keep doing what you're supposed
to do, whatever's supposed to happen and click is going
(13:35):
to click and you'll be straight.
Speaker 5 (13:36):
Who from Chris Brown's camp called you?
Speaker 1 (13:39):
Somebody called you or did they call you? My man
Ralph is actually from my camp. But he, on some
just L.A. hanging around, he got cool with CB. So
he started hanging with CB's camp. Hanging with CB's camp.
He's playing. Your music. You feel me? He's playing the
back home stuff. And CB is just like, yo, I
already know this nigga. Like, I know him. I know
(13:59):
his pops. I know the whole crew. I like this song.
And CB's one of those people. Like, if he likes
a song, he will get on your song if he
likes it. He did it. And me being in school,
he's like, yo, let's shoot the video next week. I'm like, ah, bro, like.
I got class tomorrow. Class tomorrow.
Speaker 5 (14:17):
And business. Every Thursday, you got to wear the suit
on the top.
Speaker 6 (14:19):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (14:20):
I clashed. And now I look back like, damn, I
should have left. Definitely. You should have left. Like, what?
Speaker 4 (14:25):
I swear there wasn't a video.
Speaker 1 (14:26):
I was following the rules so much. No, there was
no video.
Speaker 4 (14:30):
I thought that there was a something.
Speaker 1 (14:31):
You bugging. But I understand. Yo, I tweaked. You bugging.
You could have said you were sick. I could have
did it. Failing emergency.
Speaker 4 (14:37):
You could have missed a day or two.
Speaker 1 (14:38):
I could have did anything. Yeah. But what was.
Speaker 6 (14:41):
Like, at that point, it's like you knew you had something,
but you didn't know that you had something enough where
you was like, I got to go shoot this video.
Speaker 1 (14:46):
Now, let me tell you what it was. I was
about to graduate. Okay. I'm so close. I'm just like,
if I leave now, I'm never coming back. I think
I respect that.
Speaker 4 (14:53):
I get you.
Speaker 1 (14:54):
That was my logic behind it. You could have took
a day. I'm like, if I leave... No, let me
tell you something. If I left for that day, I
was never going back to school.
Speaker 4 (15:03):
Got you.
Speaker 1 (15:04):
Never going back. And it's just like, I've already wasted
this much money and time. I barely wanted to be here.
I'll be damned if I don't finish and I'm right here.
I respect that. You feel me? So it's just like, that's...
It wasn't a dream deferred, but it was kind of
a dream deferred because once we put it out, it
was just like, well, that's that.
Speaker 6 (15:25):
Did you understand, because you was on a college campus
and it can be such a bubble, did you understand
the virality of the song?
Speaker 4 (15:30):
Did you feel it?
Speaker 1 (15:33):
I dropped the song with CB during COVID, so no.
Speaker 6 (15:36):
Okay, because I remember that was a first. It's crazy
because that song, they would play it a lot in LA.
I was living in LA at the time when y'all
dropped it.
Speaker 1 (15:44):
The Tank song or the West? No, the West. Oh, no,
that song? I experienced that virality.
Speaker 6 (15:50):
That was my first time hearing it, but I didn't
know you were the same person when Nyla started talking
about you.
Speaker 1 (15:54):
This is how crazy it was, right? The song was
so much bigger than me, and I was in school.
I wasn't about to graduate. This was like primetime school.
I would escape every other weekend or so. The song
was so much bigger than me. They would perform it
at Live in my man's V. He used to be
my manager. He's one of my best friends. He would
perform for me because nobody knew what I looked like.
(16:15):
That's crazy. So the people that I would go to
school with, they know it's my song because I go
to school with y'all. But outside in the world, I
would be just outside and people are listening to the song.
Speaker 4 (16:24):
I mean, we would be at hookah bars, everything.
Speaker 1 (16:25):
That song was going crazy. People didn't start recognizing what
I looked like until this year.
Speaker 6 (16:29):
Wow.
Speaker 4 (16:31):
I mean, yeah. Not this year. I forget the first
time I mentioned you and I asked her.
Speaker 6 (16:36):
I literally said to her, I remember being like, is
that the boy that did the song with Christian?
Speaker 1 (16:41):
Is that the boy that did the song? Yeah, because
I didn't know.
Speaker 4 (16:44):
I didn't know that you had this whole lyrical. I
just remember that song.
Speaker 1 (16:48):
I remember the vibe. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It was a
whole collective. Man, it's just a lot. But I witnessed
that virality. Like, I was outside, active. I remember the
day we played it, it might have been like, what's
that club in L.A.? It's like outside, but it's inside. Nah, nah.
It's closed down. I think it might have been a
(17:09):
supper club or something like that.
Speaker 6 (17:10):
They used to do the Toxic Day Party. Y'all wasn't
coming for the Toxic Day Party. That was inside, outside.
Speaker 1 (17:14):
I was outside. I was outside very early. And we
played that song out there, outside, and L.A. just went up.
And from that point, it was just like, oh, okay.
Speaker 4 (17:24):
What club are you talking about? It was a Hollywood?
Speaker 1 (17:26):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (17:27):
On Hollywood Boulevard?
Speaker 1 (17:28):
Yeah. Okay. Yeah.
Speaker 4 (17:30):
But that was a lot of New York people that
went to that club.
Speaker 1 (17:31):
That's a fact. Yeah, and they would play.
Speaker 4 (17:33):
That's what I'm saying.
Speaker 1 (17:33):
They would play the song so much. That's how I
knew it was going to go up. And then by
the time we dropped it, we was on like a
press run. We dropped it. Christian was promoting Love You Better.
This is so crazy. We dropped it, and Bad Boy
had called me, and it was like, yo, we want
to figure out how to get a deal going, so
(17:54):
on and so forth.
Speaker 3 (17:54):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (17:55):
Chris Brown was supposed to post the Love You Better video.
We on a plane, we land. He posts the West video.
I was just like, oh, yeah, we going somewhere with
this one. Christian was tight. He was like, yo, we
just dropped Love You Better. I'm like, hey, word.
Speaker 4 (18:13):
Y'all did have that pocket of a run, though. Now
that I'm thinking about it.
Speaker 1 (18:16):
Nah, for sure.
Speaker 4 (18:16):
Yes, like it was, so y'all shot, there was one
of the videos, what was the group called that y'all had?
Speaker 1 (18:21):
CYN.
Speaker 6 (18:21):
Yes, okay, y'all shot a video in between, it was
in New York, but it was like in between the houses.
Speaker 1 (18:26):
Like it was like, kind of like a- It might
have been paid in full.
Speaker 4 (18:29):
I just remember y'all were running around for some time.
Speaker 1 (18:32):
Nah, we was running around for a minute. And the
music was moving.
Speaker 6 (18:35):
It was like, we were younger, so I don't know
if radio knew it and stuff, but y'all had a wave.
Speaker 1 (18:40):
It was more so, I'm not gonna lie, we was
like the first group of young niggas, I don't know
if I can curse, but we was like the first
group of youngins with the three-letter click. We did the
CYN thing, and then you started seeing the YBNs and
the other Ns, and it's just like, okay, that's... That's
way before the Migos. Migos had the YRN.
Speaker 4 (19:02):
Migos was the Migos, though. They were huge already.
Speaker 1 (19:06):
They was out of here. I'm talking about young. I
felt like I might have found.
Speaker 4 (19:11):
Y'all song maybe on SoundCloud. It was like you had
to really... I thought it was just like.
Speaker 6 (19:14):
We was outside... Christian and his friends just running crazy.
And then the song started getting played places. But do
people not connect you to that time period?
Speaker 1 (19:24):
No, they still do. But respectfully, I'm so far removed
from that time period. You've grown from that, yeah. It's
just like... You got tired of hogging chicken? If it.
Speaker 5 (19:32):
Yeah, I don't really connect them to that.
Speaker 1 (19:34):
You feel me? It's crazy because I would have never.
And I'd be letting it go. Like, you don't connect.
Speaker 4 (19:39):
Cool.
Speaker 1 (19:40):
If you do, we can talk about it, but let's
keep it to a minimum. But I'm so far removed.
Speaker 2 (19:45):
Y'all talk about it now, remember, but I've never, like,
because that was a time when they had fun and
they would do, but I don't remember it like that.
Speaker 4 (19:53):
It'd be like one, two, three, jump.
Speaker 1 (19:55):
Y'all would do the one, two, three, jump. Y'all would
do the one, two, three, jump. We was outside. Y'all
were running through a lot.
Speaker 5 (20:02):
It's like, damn, how come you didn't sign a bad
boy there? Because if they try to do the deal.
Speaker 1 (20:06):
Nah, that was cool. That was cool. It just wasn't
for me. Respectfully, I just was like, nah, I'm cool
on that. And this is the first- And even back-
In my brain, I'm just like, I'd never take the
first deal. That's just in my brain too. I don't
care who it is.
Speaker 2 (20:22):
So what got you to drama generation now?
Speaker 5 (20:24):
Because they are a Southern label.
Speaker 1 (20:27):
Yeah.
Speaker 5 (20:27):
You are East Coast rapper.
Speaker 1 (20:28):
Yeah. What do I mean? So now, look, I ended up,
after I graduated, I was like, I don't really know
what else I can do in New York. I was
born and raised here. It's time for me to spread
my wings and fly. Atlanta was like the next best thing.
I moved to Atlanta December 20th, 2019. I kid you not.
I had a sold-out show at SOB's. Then I drove
(20:53):
down to Atlanta, started working. You know, the studio in
Atlanta is like the stoop in New York. Everybody's here.
You can catch anybody at any studio.
Speaker 4 (21:02):
Hookah, wings, everything.
Speaker 1 (21:03):
Literally. So, you know, me and my manager, we just...
Jigging around Atlanta. We finding studios to record in for free,
just building, doing all that. And by, I say, 2022,
one of my uncles moved around with Lake and him
a lot. And he was just like, yo, I know
y'all looking for like a real rapper. I got to
(21:26):
check out. Like, I got to check out. And even
my pops would double down like, yo. Who's this? 2022, right? 22. Damn,
Jack Harlow, they was looking for a real rapper. That's crazy.
Speaker 5 (21:36):
That's a fact.
Speaker 1 (21:37):
They like, when they don't switch their hats and cosplays.
They was looking for a real rapper.
Speaker 5 (21:46):
And Lake's like, Dan, don't put me in this.
Speaker 1 (21:49):
Nah, yeah, Lake is here right away. Lake told me
to come to the office. And this is how I
knew I was going to Janelle. I went to the office.
I played 15 songs. Have you ever been to a
label meeting, guys? They'll never let you play more than three. Ever.
(22:10):
You never get more than three. I played 15. And
they just locked in. Like, word, okay. And then after
the last song was done, Lake was like, yeah, I
want to sign you. I started recording. And he was like,
the last person you got to get to is Cannon.
Cannon is a tough critic. He doesn't like anything. If
he likes you, we're good. Cannon came to the studio
one day. He was like, yo, what up? Here, this
(22:31):
is a beat. He gave me a beat. It was
like a rendition of Song Cry. I might have did
the whole song in 20 minutes. He was like, oh, nah,
all right. But the craziest thing is, a year before that,
I had DM'd Cannon. Like, yo, I got a song.
He opened the DM. He was like, this shit is trash.
He was on some Charlamagne. He was like, bro, this
is terrible. This is terrible. Nah, it is. It is.
(22:54):
Did you tell him that during that? Yeah. If he
was here, he'd be like, yeah, I did.
Speaker 6 (22:58):
You wouldn't have wanted what you were doing then to be, like,
I think where you are right now and how it's
happening is like, this is you. Like, it's so crazy
putting you with that song, those other songs though.
Speaker 4 (23:09):
You really are like a whole different person now.
Speaker 1 (23:11):
Cause now I remember. I remember.
Speaker 4 (23:15):
I was like, out, like, in L.A., I'm like, it's
so different.
Speaker 1 (23:19):
I never put two and two together, though.
Speaker 4 (23:21):
But it's so, I think, so.
Speaker 6 (23:22):
When you were doing, before you were here, right, where
you're focused on, like, you know, Bar Is Not Dead and, like,
lyricism and finding that, and bridging that gap, did you all,
if you always knew that this was it, why didn't
you just start here?
Speaker 1 (23:34):
You gotta go through the motions. That's what it was
for me. It was just like, I'm young. And like
I said, the person that The other version of me
is so just gone. Like, it was a lot. This
interview would have been hard for me if I'd have
got it in 2019. Yo, I was just such a timid, like, soul. Like,
I just, oh, I'm just to myself. I'm introverted. I
(23:57):
just don't want to, I want to be out the way,
but I want people to know who I am. I
started just, like, just isolating and recognizing what I was
doing wrong for myself.
Speaker 5 (24:08):
You still speaking to Christian and all that?
Speaker 1 (24:09):
Yeah, yeah. I spoke to Christian yesterday. Okay.
Speaker 3 (24:12):
What is something that canon or leg or drama corrected
in you that initially irritated you?
Speaker 1 (24:17):
But you realize like, damn, they right.
Speaker 5 (24:21):
Why the hell is Lake laughing?
Speaker 1 (24:22):
So that must have been more than one. More than anything,
a lot of, because he met the timid soul, the
one that's like, I don't want to do nothing. You
feel me? So a lot of that, I feel like
the grand scheme is artist development. I really wasn't a firm,
I didn't think it existed. But being with them, it's
just like, okay. I could still be developed. I even
(24:44):
thought I was at that. When I dropped all them records,
I'm like, I don't need no coaching, no nothing. I've
been here before. It's like, no, you have not. It's
a lost art. You have not been here.
Speaker 2 (24:55):
But that's what I think Generation Now does so well.
What other labels don't do. You can see the work
they put in Uzi. You can see the work they
put in Harlow. You can see the work that they
put in artists that most people won't do. I think
a lot of it, too, is they are producers and DJs,
so they hear a different sound.
Speaker 1 (25:09):
Exactly. And for me, it's just like, Why not listen?
Because in the beginning, it's just like, nah, I'm not...
I don't even care what they're saying. I might not
have vocalized it, but it's just like, I'm not doing that.
Fuck them country names. I'm not. That's crazy. But now
it's just like, nah, they right. Nah, they are. Nah,
(25:31):
they right.
Speaker 5 (25:31):
They got an ear for it.
Speaker 1 (25:32):
Absolutely. They know what they're doing. They right. No, art
development is a lost art. You know what I mean?
So for your generation, it is a lot of people
who didn't get that. Yeah. You know?
Speaker 3 (25:41):
And I mean, you can see the difference. I mean,
look at Jack Harlow. Look at the Monica album. I
can tell that Generation Now had.
Speaker 1 (25:48):
Nothing to do with that. Okay? All right? None of
them will admit it. But I can just tell. There's
something about that project. I'm like, I don't think that
Generation Now had nothing to do with this one.
Speaker 4 (25:58):
So that R & B rollout wasn't them?
Speaker 1 (25:59):
No, no, no. The hats? I don't think so. I
don't think so.
Speaker 3 (26:01):
But I want to talk to you. I've heard you
talk about dealing with anxiety.
Speaker 1 (26:06):
Yeah. Because you wrote a book called Tranquil. Tranquil. Yeah,
overcoming the experience. While I was at Hampton, I was gone.
through it.
Speaker 5 (26:14):
What was so bad? What was difficult?
Speaker 1 (26:16):
I had went through something before getting there at Dell State.
It was crazy. It was like an experience I never
went through, especially being from Brooklyn to go through something
like that in Delaware. It was just like, this makes
no sense. Something that traumatized you? It wasn't really traumatic.
It was just something that I really never go through.
And it almost got a little bit too real, realer
(26:37):
than I ever would have seen it coming. But in
the moment, it's just like, I'm dealing with it head on. Like,
I'm not... I'm not tucking my tail for nothing.
Speaker 5 (26:44):
What was the moment, if you don't mind?
Speaker 1 (26:45):
I just got into it with a bunch of people
that I didn't even know I was getting into it with.
It's like, it's just coming from angles. And it wasn't
just me. It was just a group of my peers.
And it's just like, people we thought we was cool with,
they did something shady one day. And now we're just
at odds with niggas from Philly, niggas from Delaware. And
it was just like, all right, I don't even know
what's going on. But I do know I'm protecting myself
(27:08):
by any means. So whatever it is, it is.
Speaker 3 (27:10):
Mm-hmm.
Speaker 1 (27:11):
I left, and that's when the anxiety started to crack
for me. And I'm just like, yo, what's going on?
I'm having heart palpitations. Panic attack. I go straight to
the hospital. I'm like, I'm about to die. It's over.
It's over for me. I get to the hospital, and
they're like, you're having an anxiety attack. It's a panic attack.
I'm just like, oh, okay. But it happened after the fact.
(27:33):
So it's just like, okay. I didn't know what was
going on. So I only left Del State because I
initially wanted to go to Hampton. Straight out of high school,
my grades, I just didn't meet it. I didn't meet
the requirements. So I went to Del State first. I
had like a 3-3. Went to Hampton. I got to Hampton.
I'm thinking it's going to be just as like, in
the beginning, I'm like, oh, it's going to be just
as fire as Del State. Because Del State is the ghetto.
(27:56):
I loved it there. I got to Hampton. It's like... yeah,
y'all got to be inside at 11 o'clock. I said, whoa.
Speaker 5 (28:05):
Curfew until homecoming.
Speaker 1 (28:06):
I said, whoa, who did that? Yo, my first roommate
used to have seizures. My RD didn't tell me. It
was just like, I just... You thought he liked your music.
But the craziest thing is... I don't even know if.
Speaker 4 (28:22):
We should laugh at that.
Speaker 1 (28:23):
I'm not even laughing at that.
Speaker 4 (28:25):
Is he okay?
Speaker 2 (28:26):
I don't know.
Speaker 1 (28:26):
He's good. He's good.
Speaker 5 (28:27):
But nobody told me.
Speaker 1 (28:28):
So one day... One day, I'm just chilling in the room.
It might have been the first day. I don't even
know what to do. And I'm not even laughing at it.
I'm laughing at Charlemagne. Charlemagne did this. I don't know
what happened. He started. I'm just like, whoa, no. Hold on.
(28:52):
The R.D. was like, oh, yeah, by the way. I'm like,
by the way? This is not something you by the way.
You're supposed to tell me this. I was like, cool.
I might be able to deal with it. He might
got to like the third, fourth joint. I'm like, all right, bro. Respectfully. Like,
we cool. But I don't know what I'm going through
right now. And I'll be damned if we both in
(29:13):
here and we just bugging out.
Speaker 5 (29:15):
What hall you was in? You was James Hall?
Speaker 1 (29:16):
Harkness.
Speaker 5 (29:17):
Harkness Hall, okay.
Speaker 1 (29:18):
Yeah, cooked. I was cooked. And he was like, nah,
I respected it. I ended up moving downstairs. Everything was,
I wanted to, and in the beginning, I kid you not,
I wanted to transfer the week I got there. I
was like, yo, I got to get out of here.
I feel like I'm in prison. can't, there's no visitation.
I'm like, what is this? I hit Pops, I'm like, yo,
can I go to Clark? He was like, no, you
(29:40):
not leaving. You're going to thug it out. And then
as time progressed, it got better. I think it gets
better once you realize. I did things.
Speaker 4 (29:49):
Discipline just opened up more.
Speaker 5 (29:50):
That's what it is.
Speaker 1 (29:51):
It's about discipline.
Speaker 2 (29:52):
You got to think, when people go to college, a
lot of times they lose themselves because Because they never
had that much freedom.
Speaker 1 (29:57):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (29:57):
So what Hampton does is it guides you to get
to that point.
Speaker 1 (30:00):
But imagine having the freedom.
Speaker 6 (30:02):
Yeah, because at Del State, you just- Del State, I
got my car. You better be smart about life. I'm
in a co-ed dorm.
Speaker 1 (30:07):
My RA is damn near my age, so it's like
I'm not ever listening to you about nothing. And it's
just turned. I get to Hampton, it's like I'm in
an all-boys dorm. Mm-hmm. 11 o'clock. Can't have your car.
Can't have your car. You will get out by five.
And I'm just like, wait a minute. Hold on. It's
a lot. I didn't even have this back home. It
(30:28):
was never this strict. So for me, it's just like
with the anxiety I already had and then just dealing
with that. I went to therapy. That's the first time
I'm going to therapy at Hampton. And it was just like.
That's good. I'm tonight. It wasn't good for me because
I went and I'm just like, miss. I'm bugging out
every day. But that's what, I deal with anxiety too.
(30:48):
Coming to you once a week is not efficient. You
got to go more.
Speaker 3 (30:52):
Because once you realize it's something happening to your mind
and not your body, it's able to put it in
proper perspective.
Speaker 1 (31:00):
And then I just started, like the idle mind is
really the playground of the devil. I started just getting
out more. Like, all right, let me go tap in
with people. Let me go work out. Let me go
to the cafe. Let me just do the student center.
Whatever I can do to just, ease my mind. And
then it helped. And then I ended up writing a book.
So I'm just like, I know it's not going to
(31:21):
only help me or the people that's in school. Everybody
deals with it at some point. That's right. So this
is something that I can just share with the world.
Speaker 2 (31:29):
But you know what? That's what, when I went to Hampton,
that's what put me tight with the locals.
Speaker 1 (31:33):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (31:33):
Because what I would do is, First of all, I
would be out on the weekend, so I would get out.
Speaker 5 (31:38):
Or I would sneak out. And I would walk.
Speaker 2 (31:40):
Down the back by the parking lot behind the cemetery.
Speaker 1 (31:44):
Using Harkness?
Speaker 5 (31:44):
That wasn't James.
Speaker 6 (31:45):
James?
Speaker 1 (31:45):
Okay.
Speaker 5 (31:46):
And I would sneak out.
Speaker 2 (31:46):
But that's what got me cool with the locals, because
you couldn't come after 10. So I'm hanging out with
Pusha T at 10 Montgomery.
Speaker 1 (31:55):
I'm with Allen Iverson. I'm with all the locals there.
You was in the 75.
Speaker 2 (31:59):
I was in the 75. So I knew more people
locally than the actual school.
Speaker 1 (32:03):
Because of all those.
Speaker 4 (32:04):
Because you wanted to be outside.
Speaker 5 (32:06):
I was DJing. I had to pay the bills.
Speaker 1 (32:07):
That's a fact. And me, I also, I was jaded
in a sense. I was like, I got a little
bit of Instagram. I got more followers than everybody here.
I don't care about nothing. Y'all gonna know me. That's
really what my mindset was.
Speaker 2 (32:19):
So what got you to the point where the anxiety
slowed down and you would be able to control.
Speaker 5 (32:23):
It a little more, I should say?
Speaker 1 (32:25):
Just the process of just doing things. Like, I realize,
like what Charlamagne just said, once you realize, it's like, oh,
this is a mind thing. I started doing things and
I started going outside and laughing and having fun and
just chopping it up with joints and all that. It's
just like, it's not even there no more. Then I
go back home and it's just like, oh, back is
against the wall. And I'm just like, oh, okay. This
(32:47):
is a mind thing. I can get over this as
long as I just continue to do what I... And
by the time the next school year, it's just like,
I'm cool right now. I ain't tripping about nothing. You know,
anxiety is largely about uncertainty, right? Yeah.
Speaker 3 (32:59):
But then when you a rapper, you got to have
like this irrational confidence. So how do anxiety and ambition
coexist for you?
Speaker 1 (33:08):
Now, I kid y'all not, I don't be anxious about nothing.
I think that experience allotted me this, to be this person.
So for me, it's just like, I'm overly ambitious now.
I'm super confident because back then, even a part of me,
like when I did drop the West and all that,
like I was not confident and I think a lot
of people seen that and I didn't realize it but
(33:30):
I think that's why a lot of things went over
a lot of people's heads because it's just like I
never really had nobody tell me that I didn't have
it everybody always told me like oh you got it
you got it you nice this that and the third
but it's just like for myself everybody seen the potential
but I didn't it's just like I'm just like I
don't know like I it's a lot it's a lot
(33:50):
of competition out there I don't think I miss whether
it's I knew I could rap Everything else might have
been off for me. So now it's just like, I
got everything. I'm all out in a bag of chips.
Can't nobody can't hold a candle to me. That's really
how I feel about myself. And that's, I think I
just had to grow to that point because like I said, if, if,
if y'all was interviewing me in 2019, this, this shit
(34:14):
would have been over a long time ago. You wouldn't
have nothing to say. I ain't had nothing to say. Yeah.
I'll tell you one thing though. You about to have
a baby.
Speaker 3 (34:22):
That parental paranoia, the anxiety of being a parent, I'm
telling you right now, it's going to come back.
Speaker 6 (34:28):
You already kind of set your boundaries, though, it sounds like,
because I know on a project you talk about, you know,
your kid is about to come, you're not playing with people.
Speaker 5 (34:34):
Congratulations.
Speaker 1 (34:35):
He hit you with the... And I'm having a girl.
All my anxiety right now literally is all... I got
four girls.
Speaker 3 (34:45):
All of my anxiety is rooted in my family and
my kids.
Speaker 1 (34:48):
Everything.
Speaker 2 (34:50):
I be chilling because I keep my family with me.
I'm the one that's like, we will move together. You
know what I mean? My daughter, before she go, we
all on Life 360. I go on vacations with her.
She's 24 now, so we go to the club with
each other.
Speaker 5 (35:02):
We go to the hookah spot. I keep them close
because I am concerned.
Speaker 1 (35:06):
But I'm just telling you right now. It's balanced.
Speaker 4 (35:08):
Yeah, it really is.
Speaker 5 (35:09):
My daughter went to NYU so I can make sure
I can sit there too.
Speaker 1 (35:12):
Oh, yeah. Okay.
Speaker 5 (35:12):
I'm that dad.
Speaker 1 (35:13):
He was dealing with the anxiety. Yeah.
Speaker 5 (35:15):
But the crazy thing is my son went to the
University of Miami. I'm like, all right, my nigga, see
you later, man.
Speaker 1 (35:19):
You feel me? It's so much different. Because I wanted
a boy initially. And when I found out it was
a girl, I was just like, ah, bet. At first,
I was like, oh, all right. But now I'm just like,
I can't wait to meet her because she would have
been right here.
Speaker 5 (35:30):
When's the baby due?
Speaker 1 (35:31):
October. Wow. When you old? Right around the corner.
Speaker 3 (35:34):
If you can hear me, you can hear me.
Speaker 1 (35:39):
I didn't even hear what you said. Were you a
hoe in a past life? I did my, you know.
That's right. I did my dirt on by my lonely.
I don't.
Speaker 3 (35:45):
And that's what the girl is for.
Speaker 1 (35:48):
Who's not? That's right. That's right. Look at me. You
did say journaling helps with your anxiety though. Yeah. Okay.
And I'm a rapper, bro. It's like, why not use
my words? But yeah.
Speaker 2 (36:02):
Now, when Joey Badass was going against everybody, you jumped in,
tagged in.
Speaker 1 (36:07):
Yo, y'all want to know what's so funny? I told
this story before, but I never told it on The
Breakfast Club. So, boom, I got into it with my
now wife, right? She had got me so mad. I
forgot what I was pissed off about. I heard somebody's stomach.
It wasn't mine.
Speaker 4 (36:21):
I ate half my sandwich.
Speaker 1 (36:22):
It was over there. Don't play with me.
Speaker 4 (36:24):
You're only as mean.
Speaker 1 (36:25):
By the way, he's African, too. That doesn't make it
even funnier. Why would you? He's crazy. Why would you
say that?
Speaker 4 (36:35):
Why would you say that?
Speaker 1 (36:36):
Yo, nah, but real quick. So my lady, right, she
got me so mad one day. It was mad to
a point where I wanted to hit something. But I'm
just like, come on, we're not ever doing that. So
we go to sleep. And my whole thing has always
been like, never go to sleep. We never go to
sleep mad. To that day, I didn't care. I was tight.
(36:59):
But it's just like, I got to take this Aang
out somewhere. I kid y'all not, I was drunk in
my bed. She's asleep. I'm up. Lights out. The whole
house just pitch black. I picked up my phone and
I'm just like, somebody's going to get this Aang. I
started writing my Nixon six verse, right? Mm-hmm. This was
before I knew I was about to do this. I
(37:21):
was just prepping myself up because Cannon was already in
my ear like, if you don't do nothing, you not nothing. Like,
you not him. And I'm just like, ah, whatever, bet.
Reason drops the Dead Apple song. I'm just like, I
hear it. I hear a little bit of it. I'm
just like, ooh, that's crazy. He's kind of talking. Crazy
(37:43):
about New York. Somebody needs to say something. And then
I'm just like, somebody.
Speaker 4 (37:48):
Somebody needs to say something.
Speaker 1 (37:49):
I already started writing a verse about this whole thing.
So now it's just all playing into my favor. I
go to the studio the next day. Kid you not.
But I didn't finish the verse. The whole idea is
just in my brain. This is how I knew it
was going to be something. I'm like, I'm going to
rap over Murder Was The Case and Little Ghetto Boy.
(38:09):
It's L.A. I was real strategic. I was like, I
don't know who I'm going to get to make this beat.
I don't know how I'm going to do it, but
I'm going to get this done. I go to the studio.
I call my man Luca to the studio. He pulls up.
We make the beat. Off rip. Time to take the
drums out, all that. My engineer's in there. I go
straight in there. I do the first half before the
Tupac section and before we go into Murder Was the Case.
(38:31):
While he's building Murder Was the Case, I'm right in
the second half. I send it to Cannon. Cannon is like, nah,
this is crazy. We need to drop this. I'm like, yeah,
I'm about to drop. Like, I'm going to do this.
I don't care about no label logistics right now. This
is urgent. J. Juan was about to, me and J.
Juan was already talking. He was like, yo, let me
(38:52):
know when you're about to drop. I'm dropping two today.
I'm about to drop it this time. I was like, ooh,
I got to get out before J.
Speaker 6 (38:57):
Juan.
Speaker 1 (38:57):
I'm sorry. I told Cannon. Cannon was like, yeah, we
got to mix it. I said, bruh, J. Juan is
dropping in 30 minutes. He was like, oh, no, no, no.
Put it out. My cameraman, he came to the studio.
He walks in the studio like, you ain't into the
chat with this? I said, bro, you came in here
thinking you had a good idea. It's done already. You
(39:18):
need to do the cover art. He does the cover art.
First person I text, Wayno. Wayno was on a live stream.
He had 1,300 people in his live. I said, I'm
going to get this to Wayno. If Wayno can play
this right now, we're out of here. I text to Wayno.
Wayno's mid-live. He's like, oh, I just got a joke
from Kai Cash. If y'all don't know who Kai Cash is, da-da-da-da-da.
(39:38):
The whole bio. Press play. I'm watching it real time.
It's gone crazy. I had just met Gina Views and
DJ Head. You named all my folks. It worked out
so perfectly. We had just came off the Cash Rules
press run. Maybe like a week before this. And it
was regular. I went up there and then the drum
was in there and they asked me one question because
(39:58):
drum was there and I'm just like, okay. One day.
Speaker 4 (40:03):
But they got the record.
Speaker 1 (40:04):
One day I'll get my respect. Right. Today's the day.
Today's the day. I sent it to DJ Head and
Gina Views in the Twitter DMs. They posted after Wayno.
Maybe 30 minutes. Flooded. Everything just flooded. Because I'm really
talking crazy. It's from L.A. But I used to be
(40:27):
in L.A. so much. I know so many people from
out there. It's like my whole thing was the only
worthy thing outside of Joey and Ray. Some dude DM'd me. No,
I was playing Twitter games. I'm like, I see people
for Joey follow me. Lloyd Banks follow me. Just mad. Right.
Rappers started following me. I'm like, okay, these are the
(40:48):
guys that I want to rap with. So I just
tweeted like, I ain't going to lie. I got a
song for Joey. Somebody DM'd me. His name is D-Dot.
He DM'd me. He was like, text me.
Speaker 4 (40:59):
Text me the song.
Speaker 1 (41:00):
He said, text me the song. I text him the song.
He was like, Joey said he got one better for you.
He sends me an open. I get the open. I
sent it back in 10 minutes. Joey FaceTimes me. He's like, bro,
I'm not going to lie. I ain't never get a
verse back this good that fast. He's like, but I
was overdoing it. I did like 24 bars, 16 slot.
(41:22):
I'm rapping over hooks, everything. He's like, I need you
to just bring it down a little bit. I brought
it down, and then he dropped Brooklyn's Finest, me, Rome Streets,
CJ Fly, Joey. But yeah, I just... It was like,
I just stepped into this. Like, I'm going to keep
going back to it. If this was five years ago,
I would have not done that. I kid y'all not.
(41:43):
I was not doing it. Now it's just like everything.
I feel like my back is against the wall a
lot now as a grown man too. And I like
being in that space because it's like fueling.
Speaker 2 (41:54):
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1 (41:55):
Okay, now I have a point to prove to myself
more than anybody else. I have a point to prove
to myself and I'm going to get my point across.
Speaker 3 (42:01):
Right, yeah. I saw an interview, man, that you did
from Hampton like a decade ago. And I think you
said that within five years, you wanted to be wealthy,
not just financially, but you wanted to be wealthy in health,
wealthy in the mind, wealthy in the spirit, right?
Speaker 1 (42:15):
So it's been almost 10 years. It grates yourself. Yeah,
I'm getting in there. I'll tell you that much. I'm
probably at like a 97.
Speaker 3 (42:20):
Oh.
Speaker 1 (42:21):
Yeah, yeah, yeah. I'm just waiting for this one record
to crack. Two at 100. And I feel like I'm
on my... We're there. We're... We're at the cusp of it.
I got Lake. I got Lake, so I know we're
at the cusp of it. You feel me?
Speaker 3 (42:41):
The most important thing, I think, is just getting a
handle on everything you were dealing with mentally.
Speaker 1 (42:46):
Yeah, and the craziest thing is, and thank y'all, by
the way, for always supporting. Y'all big me up a
lot over here. I just wanted to say thank y'all.
The Make Them Pay joint. That's when it, when I
got to that point, That's when I really started feeling
like how I feel today. Like, oh, yeah, nah. I'm here. Like,
I don't have no time for no nonsense with nobody. Right.
(43:11):
I'm demanding my respect. I'm going to get it either way.
I'm staying out the way, but I'm also in your face. Mm-hmm.
And that's it. Like, I'm going to get this other 3%
from 97 to 100 by any means.
Speaker 4 (43:23):
That cleared all the road for the rest of the project.
I'm like, oh, okay.
Speaker 6 (43:25):
He letting y'all know, don't even come over here.
Speaker 1 (43:28):
Please don't.
Speaker 3 (43:28):
See, I love when rappers do that. Like, I love
when people start talking about a rapper being a rapper.
And then when you point them to a new record, like, oh,
listen to that Make Them Petty.
Speaker 1 (43:36):
Like, oh, yeah. I hear that. I understand that. I
hear that.
Speaker 4 (43:39):
You feel it.
Speaker 1 (43:39):
I understand that.
Speaker 6 (43:40):
I ain't even know all the things. I'm like, oh, yeah,
but it was some things that he let y'all know.
Speaker 1 (43:44):
Yeah. I knew because literally it was like a whole
Nixon six moment. Again, I wrote it. I did a
three day fast in my third day. I'm just drinking water.
No social media, no nothing. I'm drinking water on my
third day. Iceman might've just dropped two days before. I'm like,
make them pay is so me coded. I need to
rap to this beat. I found the remake. I drove
(44:06):
to the studio at 11 in the morning. Nobody's in there.
So Sunday, I, I, I'm in my brain. I picked
the whole image with him wearing the, with Big's Jesus piece.
Cause I'm like, that's what I feel like. I feel
like Jay-Z wearing Big's chain. And I just dropped it
and I deleted Instagram. Like I posted it. I deleted Instagram.
By the time I was on the way home and
(44:28):
it might've been 20, 30 minutes. My bro V had
hit me and was like, yo, what you on? I'm like,
what are you talking about? He's like, I don't know.
Like you've been just in it. Like I feel that
he was in LA. I'm in Atlanta. He's like, I
feel like you're just in such a different space right now.
And why did you just do this? Cause right now
(44:50):
this freestyle you just dropped is going digital. And by
the time I logged back on Instagram, it's at like,
might've been like a hundred thousand views. Charlamagne is talking
about it. I'm getting repostings in my comments talking about something. Oh,
he's not better than Drake. This, that, and that. I'm
(45:11):
just like, oh yeah, this is great. Because I proved
the point. Y'all are in the comments talking about that.
Or his rollout.
Speaker 4 (45:17):
They're having a conversation about me.
Speaker 1 (45:18):
Oh yeah, yeah, yeah. And then from there, I'm just like,
it's time for me to get back into the groove
and just letting the music fly. The Swap My Remake
was dope too, though. Like, it was the same. I mean,
I don't know who did that beat, but it... Oh,
my guy Harrison Gilbert. Yeah, that's a producer I've been
working closely with. Yeah, they wasn't letting us upload that
version to YouTube.
Speaker 5 (45:37):
I was going to ask, you said you fast. How
often do you fast? And how often do you.
Speaker 1 (45:41):
I'm not going to lie, that was my first time
ever fasting. It was the most difficult thing I ever did.
But the clarity I got from it, it was like
being on drugs.
Speaker 5 (45:49):
What was the most difficult? The eating and food or
the social media delete?
Speaker 1 (45:53):
Hmm. At first, it was social media. At first, I
was like, oh my gosh, I feel like a junkie. Like, bro,
I'm in the crib watching The Sopranos. I binge watched
The Sopranos. I finished all six seasons. By the second day,
I was starving. Hungry as hell. I wanted to do
five initially. I was like, I'm not doing five days
(46:16):
of this. I got to three, and at midnight, on
that third night, I got some soup, and I was
just like, all right, let me ease back into it,
you know? But it was definitely eating. That was the
biggest thing.
Speaker 6 (46:27):
What's some of the things you saw in the clarity? Like,
what was more clear for you? What were you able
to see that you didn't see before?
Speaker 1 (46:35):
A lot of things just be noise. Like, I don't
know if y'all seen F1 with Brad Pitt and Damsom Idris.
Where he was basically telling Damsom, like, put the phone down. Like, bro,
that's noise. Like, good, bad, indifferent. It's just noise. Like,
we came to drive these cars. If we don't drive
these cars well... We're not doing our job. For me,
it's like I used to be so jaded by just
socials and opinions and numbers and analytics. And I'm that
(46:59):
kind of person. Like, I'm checking everything. And then I
just started to realize, like, okay, when I finally got
over it all, how much noise it was. It's just like,
I don't know what's going on in the world. I
feel better about everything not known because everything is everywhere
all at once. And it's just like, now we're just
so desensitized to we see death, we see death. Porn,
(47:22):
we see everybody got money, but nobody's rich. We see
everybody's healthy. AI is just crazy right now. I don't
even know what's real. So when I got off, it's
like it was a whole new world. I'm not answering
my phone for nobody. You can't tap in with me.
I downloaded Substack. I just started writing. And that was
(47:43):
really the most clarifying thing for me. Like, okay, we
succumb to a pitfall when it comes to these phones
and stuff like that. And I'm addicted. I was addicted
to notifications. I would be in a booth checking my
notifications while I'm rapping, just pulling my screen down. Nobody's
texting me nothing. I just keep checking, keep checking. Me
(48:06):
letting go of the phone, that's what really gave me
all the clarity. It's just like, bro, all right, life
is bigger than this. And in order for you to
be who you want to be, you have to realize
you hold that power. You can't let nothing else externally.
Hold the power for you. Which slaves are our smartphones, man? Man, what?
Speaker 3 (48:23):
If you listen to Silicon Valley whistleblowers and then listen
to like tobacco whistleblowers from back in the day, they're
like having the same conversation.
Speaker 1 (48:33):
Preaching the same preach. Just different drug. I still got
my phone, though. I got two of them. Let's get
into the record. Let's get into the record, man. Let's
play Make Them Pay. Let's play the swap out edition, though.
Speaker 3 (48:46):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (48:47):
Let's play this one.
Speaker 5 (48:48):
All right, well, let's get into it right now. Kai Cash,
we appreciate you for doing this.
Speaker 1 (48:51):
Hey, and you know, Kai Cash is one of the
featured artists on Nyla Simone's Honor Roll project. That's coming out, man.
That's right. I have already said it.
Speaker 3 (48:59):
I said that the big three of rap right now,
the new big three to me is- New Generation.
Speaker 1 (49:04):
Ruben Vincent, Marco Plus, Kai Cash. I'm honored to be there.
I'm sorry, Chris Patrick. Because I'm here. I had you
in there, but Kai- He.
Speaker 6 (49:12):
Talks about y'all at least like three times a week.
Speaker 1 (49:14):
Nah, I love it. I'm happy. It's about the bar.
I seen it. He was not, I'm telling you, he
was not a fan.
Speaker 5 (49:22):
Well, it's Kai Cash.
Speaker 1 (49:23):
It's The Breakfast Club.
Speaker 5 (49:24):
Good morning.
Speaker 1 (49:25):
Hold up. Every day I wake up. Wake your ass up.
The Breakfast Club. Y'all finished or y'all done?
Hold up. Every day I wake up. Wake your ass up.
The Breakfast Club. You all finished or you all done? Morning, everybody.
Speaker 2 (00:09):
It's DJ Envy, Just Hilarious, Charlamagne Tha Guy. We are
The Breakfast Club. Lawn LaRose is here as well. We
got a special guest in the building.
Speaker 3 (00:16):
The dopest lyricist in New York City right now. Dopest
young rapper in New York City. Stop playing with him.
Speaker 1 (00:21):
There you go. Podcast. Welcome, brother. How you feeling? Great.
I'm glad to be here. How y'all feeling? Happy that
you here, brother. Thank you for having me. You got
the merch on, Balls Not Dead. Pushing, campaigning. Got to.
Speaker 4 (00:31):
You went to Del State?
Speaker 1 (00:32):
Yeah, I did.
Speaker 4 (00:33):
What year did you go?
Speaker 1 (00:34):
Oh, you were like... What year?
Speaker 5 (00:35):
He didn't go with you?
Speaker 1 (00:36):
I know. I just said you were like... I literally whispered.
Speaker 4 (00:39):
I said you were like younger than me.
Speaker 1 (00:40):
Nah, I went for one year. I went to... I
went 2014 and then I went to Hampton.
Speaker 4 (00:45):
Can you tell them Del State is lit?
Speaker 1 (00:46):
Nah, Del State is lit. Like, they be playing. I
ain't gonna lie. But don't act like... They act like
we don't have nothing.
Speaker 4 (00:53):
Like, Del State is lit.
Speaker 1 (00:55):
So you went to both the alma maters? Yeah, yeah.
That's crazy. Where'd you graduate from? Hempton.
Speaker 4 (00:59):
Hempton.
Speaker 1 (01:00):
All right. Unfortunately. Unfortunately.
Speaker 4 (01:02):
All that extra money for nothing.
Speaker 5 (01:04):
Let's start from the beginning. It's the first time Kyle's
up here.
Speaker 1 (01:06):
Facts.
Speaker 2 (01:06):
Of course, Kyle gets busy with the bars. So let's
talk what got you into rapping.
Speaker 5 (01:10):
I heard a story.
Speaker 1 (01:11):
Okay.
Speaker 5 (01:12):
That when you were five years old.
Speaker 1 (01:13):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (01:15):
I guess in school, everybody said what they want to be.
And kids were like police officers and firemen. And you
said you wanted to be wordy like Lil Wayne.
Speaker 1 (01:23):
I don't know where you heard that story from. Is
that true? I'm going to say fire.
Speaker 4 (01:27):
That's a lot of words.
Speaker 1 (01:27):
No. Who the hell told you that story? Yeah, that's
a crazy story. His pops told me that story. His pops.
I call his pops and say, tell me some questions
about that. You're so old. You call people that? I
don't know. Maybe he remembers better than I do. Really,
it's from the upbringing, for real. Like, as you know,
Pops is just like a behind-the-scenes guy in the industry.
And just coming up and being privy to what the
lifestyle was, for me, that was the eye-opener. Because it's like,
(01:50):
I know y'all got some money, and it's from this thing.
And who doesn't like music? So it's just like, I'm
around it all the time. And I always express myself
through art. Like, I hated sports. I wasn't trying to
be a firefighter or a police officer. I'm not doing
none of that. Like, rap. I always been good with words,
and I just took it there, and I kept going.
(02:13):
And now, I'm here.
Speaker 3 (02:14):
When you call a project bars not dead, are you
defending lyricism? Are you challenging the people who keep saying,
this generation don't care about lyrics anymore?
Speaker 1 (02:24):
I think it's just a bit of both. I'm defending
it because I like to rap a lot. And it's like,
it gets frowned upon sometimes, especially now. It's just like,
I don't want to hear all that rappy rap. It's
just like, damn. Why do people say that? I don't know.
To me, I don't know.
Speaker 3 (02:40):
I look at the last 15 years, the guys who
really thrived are rappity rappers.
Speaker 1 (02:44):
The Kendrick is a rappity rapper. Drake is a rappity rapper.
Even the Legacy X, it's just like they're a lot
more booked than the newcomers. That's right. Because of what
they did. Cole is a rappity rapper. Cole is a
rappity rapper. Yeah. His shows look crazy every night. Yeah.
So it's just like, I don't know. But yeah, it's
a little bit of both. It's like, I want y'all
to stop saying this thing. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. And then I'm
(03:06):
challenging everything else at the same time.
Speaker 2 (03:09):
But you came up in an era where, I hate
to say the rappity rap, but the rappity rap wasn't
necessarily as big as some of the other stuff that
came out.
Speaker 6 (03:16):
You can point to a lot of major, I mean,
besides like a J. Cole, like it was few and
far between.
Speaker 1 (03:20):
But look, this is the thing too, because it wasn't,
but at the same time we had it. And it
still was like something that people look to. Like I
had an argument with one of my peers and he
was just like, In 07, Laffy Taffy was number one.
I'm just like, but T.I. was still. Little Wayne was
(03:41):
just going into the card of three. It was balanced.
Now it's just like there's no balance. Hov was still outside.
Speaker 4 (03:48):
How old was the person you was going back and
forth with?
Speaker 1 (03:50):
We the same age. So in 07, I'm 29. In 07,
I was what? 10? 10?
Speaker 4 (03:56):
Because I feel like it's a taste level.
Speaker 6 (03:58):
Like, there are people that probably were listening to Effie
Taffy that weren't listening to, like... If you did hear T.I.,
it was like, you had to skate and ring.
Speaker 5 (04:05):
Nah, it was a gumbo move.
Speaker 1 (04:06):
But I'm not going to lie.
Speaker 3 (04:07):
T.I.
Speaker 1 (04:07):
Was lit. 100%. Kanye West's graduation was out of no sense.
Speaker 4 (04:12):
Jeezy was lit.
Speaker 5 (04:13):
It's a taste level thing.
Speaker 1 (04:14):
It has to be.
Speaker 4 (04:15):
It has to be.
Speaker 1 (04:15):
But, hey, And that's my whole point. Lupe Fiasco.
Speaker 6 (04:19):
But not everybody listening to Lupe Fiasco and a lot
of people that would listen to Kanye West and would
listen to like a Laffy Taffy. There's a lot, a
little synergy there. But a lot of people, if somebody
said to you, point it to Laffy Taffy first, that's
a whole different, like.
Speaker 1 (04:32):
Mind you, the person I was talking to is a
rappy rapper. Oh, wow. Exactly. Case in point. It's just like,
how do we, okay, let's just bring it back to
a space, a place where everything can coexist. I'm not
trying to say like, Nah, it's over for that. Who
am I to dictate that? It's just like, let's not
shy away from this thing as well because this is
(04:55):
how we got here.
Speaker 2 (04:56):
And what got you into rapping?
Speaker 5 (04:57):
Because you got your degree from Hampton. And what was
your major?
Speaker 1 (05:00):
Business management. To be honest, I went to school because
it just seemed like the right thing to do. I'm
not even going to lie to y'all. If I could
have went to school for hip-hop, I would have went
to school for hip-hop. So you knew this is what
you wanted to do, regardless of you going- Yeah, I
never had a job. This is just my only thing.
It's crazy, because I asked my pops for a job
(05:22):
one summer. He had reopened World on Wheels in LA.
I just wanted to make some bread.
Speaker 4 (05:27):
I used to go there.
Speaker 1 (05:28):
Yeah. And I was just like, yo. I just need
a job. And he was like, you got a job.
Keep doing it. I was like, wow. All right. Wow.
That's great. Yeah, word. I was like, all right. But
that's what you want to do with your kids. All right, bet.
You just like, nah, do this. You got a job.
Speaker 5 (05:42):
Do it.
Speaker 1 (05:42):
You figure out how to make some money. You do
it the right way.
Speaker 5 (05:45):
Now, we're speaking to your pops. Salute to BK Rube, too.
Speaker 6 (05:48):
Salute to BK Rube.
Speaker 4 (05:49):
Yeah, I was going to say, can we talk through, like,
who is that?
Speaker 5 (05:51):
For people who don't know. His dad is BK Rube,
of course. one of Biggie's best friends.
Speaker 1 (05:55):
I'm a pseudo-Nepo, baby. That's right. And there's nothing wrong
with that. At all, no. I used to look at
it like, nah, I don't want, nah. Now it's just like, yeah. Yeah, period.
He was the first person to play me a record.
I am who I am. Long time ago. You see
what I'm saying?
Speaker 6 (06:08):
But also, too, I feel like you, like, When you
say you're a pseudo-Nepo baby, it's like, but I know
because of the type of cloth that that means you
came from that.
Speaker 4 (06:16):
Like, you still worked. Like, you still had to work
for something.
Speaker 5 (06:18):
And you know how to fight.
Speaker 1 (06:18):
I worked for everything, exactly.
Speaker 4 (06:19):
And you know how to fight.
Speaker 1 (06:20):
I worked for everything. Yeah. That's what a lot of
people get confused. Like, I can speak for myself. I
worked for everything. But that's also how I was brought up.
It's like, I'm also a person, I don't like things
handed to me. Just naturally. I don't want you to just.
come with your hand out like oh yeah here's this
thing go do it because it's just like people can
tell like oh he i don't even know who this
(06:41):
kid is where he came from at least now i
got a little bit of a history people can go
back and be like oh he's been doing this for
a little minute and it's just now finally clicking with
people it takes a long time.
Speaker 3 (06:52):
That's how i felt because i didn't know rude was
your pops yeah you know i mean i had heard
your music before but over the holidays you know nala
was just letting.
Speaker 1 (06:59):
Me hear charlamagne was not a fan in the beginning.
Speaker 4 (07:04):
Tell us about it. Everybody has an experience with Sean May.
Speaker 1 (07:07):
I think Nala might have played the last tape and
he was just like, it is what it is.
Speaker 3 (07:12):
But you got to admit, you stepped up literally. I
feel like you was making records that you thought were
going to be, I guess, that radio would want to hear.
I did do a lot of that.
Speaker 1 (07:23):
A lot of conforming. You were dumbing down your pen.
I did a lot of that. Yeah, it's just like,
I've completely stepped out of it. That whole person that
was doing that is gone. I don't even know.
Speaker 2 (07:33):
The first time I think Nala played it, it was
May 2025, right? And I remember listening to it. I
remember hearing, I was like, yo, this kid is dope.
And that's when your pop sent me. It's like, yo,
you know what?
Speaker 1 (07:41):
That's my son.
Speaker 5 (07:42):
That's the kid I've been telling you about.
Speaker 1 (07:43):
That's the soul to the plane with you. May 2025
was lyrical.
Speaker 2 (07:47):
Did your dad want you in the industry, seeing that
everything he's seen through Biggie and Bad Boy, did he
want you in the industry?
Speaker 1 (07:54):
He never told me he didn't. More than anything, he
just like, this is what you asked for. Like when
I call him like, yo, I'm, I'm cooked. I've been
out five days. He's like, and like, yeah, you're going
to be out a lot more days. You keep doing
what you're doing. So my mom's was more so like, Oh,
you don't want to, you don't want to go.
Speaker 5 (08:12):
Get a job.
Speaker 1 (08:14):
You tripping. I got, no, I'm sorry. I don't knock
nobody that has a job. I just, I'm not doing it. Yeah.
I just, yeah, I gotta do it. But pops was
always like, yo, no i see it like you can
do this keep doing it.
Speaker 2 (08:28):
Just go what'd he tell you the most difficult thing
was and the reason i asked is he seemed big
when nobody believed and big had to go to rounds
of rapping outside and freestyle and and to the world
court so what was his advice to you just.
Speaker 1 (08:41):
Keep the most cliche advice it's just like keep keep
going because you just exactly like you see it all
you see from one day it's just like your man's
is just a hustler on the corner and then he's
the biggest thing in the world before he passes away.
And then when he passes away, he's even bigger. It's
just like, I've seen this with my own two eyes.
You can definitely do this. You just keep doing what
(09:02):
you got to do. So I'm just here doing what
I got to do to the best of my abilities.
What made you say, you know what, I'm going to
be a straight lyricist? Because like I said, you weren't whack.
You was just making, like I said, you was dumbing
down your pen. That's how you talk. You wasn't whack.
You wasn't whack.
Speaker 3 (09:16):
You wasn't my cup of tea. You was just dumbing
down your pen. What made you be like, nah, I
got to show these dudes I can really get busy?
Speaker 1 (09:23):
I started just paying attention to how far I've come
by being myself. And more than anything, I think just
being younger, it's just like you get somewhere and you
see so many things happen for other people and how
it worked. And it's just like, maybe if I tried that,
it would work for me this way. And it's just
like most of them people got there just doing what
they was doing. Somebody in the world is going to
(09:44):
like what I'm doing and how I'm doing it. So
it's just like, why not continue to push that forward
rather than trying to figure out, oh, let me jump
on this wave. or do this thing. And then it's
just like when the wave is gone, it's gone. I'm
just somebody that got caught in the wave. Now I'm burnt. cooked.
I'd rather be, if I am going to be burnt
or cooked, I'd rather be burnt and cooked doing what
I was doing.
Speaker 5 (10:04):
What was the ball for you? What was the person
that you said it was like, that's the lane I
want to go through?
Speaker 1 (10:10):
It's always been Jay-Z for me since I was a kid.
I didn't like Nas.
Speaker 5 (10:16):
Damn, tell them how you feel.
Speaker 1 (10:17):
Yeah, that's how biased I was. Jay-Z was just like,
he's the guy. But getting older, it's like Kendrick and Cole.
Kendrick is somebody that I feel like never conformed to nothing.
And he figured it out. It's mad people that don't
like Kendrick. Even before the Drake beef, it's like, we
don't want to listen to that. It's too many words.
I don't know what he's talking about. It's a pimple butterfly.
(10:38):
I don't get it. Whatever the case may be. And
it's just like, look at him. Why not? Just do
what you got to do. Because everybody that's super successful,
even though the legacy acts that we were just talking about,
it's like, they all did their own thing. And that's
why they're still here, 50 years old, selling out of stadiums.
(10:59):
It's like, we got four or five of us my
age that could do that right now. And they being themselves.
So it's just like, all right.
Speaker 3 (11:08):
There's a difference between being able to rap and being
able to make people care that you can rap.
Speaker 1 (11:13):
Yeah. When did you learn that distinction or are you
still learning it? I think I'm still learning it. I
think now I'm more in tune with it than ever
before though. That's why I'm just locked into it. Like, okay,
it's people in the world that do care. Especially when
I see women caring, it's like, oh yeah, nah. Ooh,
this is a bag. Because that's like the you got
(11:34):
to sell it to the women. I found women and
they like, yo, I love this song. I'm just like, what?
Speaker 6 (11:40):
But I feel like most time women with songs with us,
it's like, if you can, if you can talk through it,
like we, we with you, like it's just.
Speaker 1 (11:47):
I've gotten to that point now where I can, I'm,
I'm so good at this thing that I can talk
through it and, affect y'all in a greater way than
I've ever done before.
Speaker 6 (11:57):
That's how I used to, when I used to watch,
or not used to, when I be watching the interviews that, like,
a lot of the, like, OG artists you're talking about, like,
LL Cool J and, like, all these people, they talk
about how when they would get through and break through
with the women and the records there, how that would, like,
take their career to, like, a whole different, like, place.
Speaker 1 (12:13):
Yeah. That's where I'm at. I'm going that way. What
made you a believer?
Speaker 5 (12:21):
What was the moment that you said this could really happen?
What was that moment?
Speaker 1 (12:25):
You want to know what's crazy? I dropped my first
song on like all the DSPs in 2018, right? By
the third song, I went viral. I dropped a song
called The West with King Combs and O3 Greedo. That
went up. That was like it. Because after that, I
(12:45):
got a feature from Chris Brown just because he liked
the song.
Speaker 5 (12:49):
Just out of GP, he just heard it.
Speaker 1 (12:50):
You feel me? Just being around the right people. They're
playing my music. I was in Hampton, stressed. Just like,
oh my gosh. My man Ralph calling me like, yo, CB,
he wants to get on this song. I'm like, stop
calling me about this. Do it. I'm not going to
say no. I don't want a Chris Brown feature. And
it just kept going from there. I got a Pusha
T feature after that. But this is all out of like,
(13:12):
the respect of how I'm operating in this space. Like, okay,
this kid is actually nice. Yeah, we do know who
he is, but that's not everything. That's just extras. So
for me, it's just like, it's always been little points
that I made that just shows me like, all right,
You got something. If you keep doing what you're supposed
to do, whatever's supposed to happen and click is going
(13:35):
to click and you'll be straight.
Speaker 5 (13:36):
Who from Chris Brown's camp called you?
Speaker 1 (13:39):
Somebody called you or did they call you? My man
Ralph is actually from my camp. But he, on some
just L.A. hanging around, he got cool with CB. So
he started hanging with CB's camp. Hanging with CB's camp.
He's playing. Your music. You feel me? He's playing the
back home stuff. And CB is just like, yo, I
already know this nigga. Like, I know him. I know
(13:59):
his pops. I know the whole crew. I like this song.
And CB's one of those people. Like, if he likes
a song, he will get on your song if he
likes it. He did it. And me being in school,
he's like, yo, let's shoot the video next week. I'm like, ah, bro, like.
I got class tomorrow. Class tomorrow.
Speaker 5 (14:17):
And business. Every Thursday, you got to wear the suit
on the top.
Speaker 6 (14:19):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (14:20):
I clashed. And now I look back like, damn, I
should have left. Definitely. You should have left. Like, what?
Speaker 4 (14:25):
I swear there wasn't a video.
Speaker 1 (14:26):
I was following the rules so much. No, there was
no video.
Speaker 4 (14:30):
I thought that there was a something.
Speaker 1 (14:31):
You bugging. But I understand. Yo, I tweaked. You bugging.
You could have said you were sick. I could have
did it. Failing emergency.
Speaker 4 (14:37):
You could have missed a day or two.
Speaker 1 (14:38):
I could have did anything. Yeah. But what was.
Speaker 6 (14:41):
Like, at that point, it's like you knew you had something,
but you didn't know that you had something enough where
you was like, I got to go shoot this video.
Speaker 1 (14:46):
Now, let me tell you what it was. I was
about to graduate. Okay. I'm so close. I'm just like,
if I leave now, I'm never coming back. I think
I respect that.
Speaker 4 (14:53):
I get you.
Speaker 1 (14:54):
That was my logic behind it. You could have took
a day. I'm like, if I leave... No, let me
tell you something. If I left for that day, I
was never going back to school.
Speaker 4 (15:03):
Got you.
Speaker 1 (15:04):
Never going back. And it's just like, I've already wasted
this much money and time. I barely wanted to be here.
I'll be damned if I don't finish and I'm right here.
I respect that. You feel me? So it's just like, that's...
It wasn't a dream deferred, but it was kind of
a dream deferred because once we put it out, it
was just like, well, that's that.
Speaker 6 (15:25):
Did you understand, because you was on a college campus
and it can be such a bubble, did you understand
the virality of the song?
Speaker 4 (15:30):
Did you feel it?
Speaker 1 (15:33):
I dropped the song with CB during COVID, so no.
Speaker 6 (15:36):
Okay, because I remember that was a first. It's crazy
because that song, they would play it a lot in LA.
I was living in LA at the time when y'all
dropped it.
Speaker 1 (15:44):
The Tank song or the West? No, the West. Oh, no,
that song? I experienced that virality.
Speaker 6 (15:50):
That was my first time hearing it, but I didn't
know you were the same person when Nyla started talking
about you.
Speaker 1 (15:54):
This is how crazy it was, right? The song was
so much bigger than me, and I was in school.
I wasn't about to graduate. This was like primetime school.
I would escape every other weekend or so. The song
was so much bigger than me. They would perform it
at Live in my man's V. He used to be
my manager. He's one of my best friends. He would
perform for me because nobody knew what I looked like.
(16:15):
That's crazy. So the people that I would go to
school with, they know it's my song because I go
to school with y'all. But outside in the world, I
would be just outside and people are listening to the song.
Speaker 4 (16:24):
I mean, we would be at hookah bars, everything.
Speaker 1 (16:25):
That song was going crazy. People didn't start recognizing what
I looked like until this year.
Speaker 6 (16:29):
Wow.
Speaker 4 (16:31):
I mean, yeah. Not this year. I forget the first
time I mentioned you and I asked her.
Speaker 6 (16:36):
I literally said to her, I remember being like, is
that the boy that did the song with Christian?
Speaker 1 (16:41):
Is that the boy that did the song? Yeah, because
I didn't know.
Speaker 4 (16:44):
I didn't know that you had this whole lyrical. I
just remember that song.
Speaker 1 (16:48):
I remember the vibe. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It was a
whole collective. Man, it's just a lot. But I witnessed
that virality. Like, I was outside, active. I remember the
day we played it, it might have been like, what's
that club in L.A.? It's like outside, but it's inside. Nah, nah.
It's closed down. I think it might have been a
(17:09):
supper club or something like that.
Speaker 6 (17:10):
They used to do the Toxic Day Party. Y'all wasn't
coming for the Toxic Day Party. That was inside, outside.
Speaker 1 (17:14):
I was outside. I was outside very early. And we
played that song out there, outside, and L.A. just went up.
And from that point, it was just like, oh, okay.
Speaker 4 (17:24):
What club are you talking about? It was a Hollywood?
Speaker 1 (17:26):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (17:27):
On Hollywood Boulevard?
Speaker 1 (17:28):
Yeah. Okay. Yeah.
Speaker 4 (17:30):
But that was a lot of New York people that
went to that club.
Speaker 1 (17:31):
That's a fact. Yeah, and they would play.
Speaker 4 (17:33):
That's what I'm saying.
Speaker 1 (17:33):
They would play the song so much. That's how I
knew it was going to go up. And then by
the time we dropped it, we was on like a
press run. We dropped it. Christian was promoting Love You Better.
This is so crazy. We dropped it, and Bad Boy
had called me, and it was like, yo, we want
to figure out how to get a deal going, so
(17:54):
on and so forth.
Speaker 3 (17:54):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (17:55):
Chris Brown was supposed to post the Love You Better video.
We on a plane, we land. He posts the West video.
I was just like, oh, yeah, we going somewhere with
this one. Christian was tight. He was like, yo, we
just dropped Love You Better. I'm like, hey, word.
Speaker 4 (18:13):
Y'all did have that pocket of a run, though. Now
that I'm thinking about it.
Speaker 1 (18:16):
Nah, for sure.
Speaker 4 (18:16):
Yes, like it was, so y'all shot, there was one
of the videos, what was the group called that y'all had?
Speaker 1 (18:21):
CYN.
Speaker 6 (18:21):
Yes, okay, y'all shot a video in between, it was
in New York, but it was like in between the houses.
Speaker 1 (18:26):
Like it was like, kind of like a- It might
have been paid in full.
Speaker 4 (18:29):
I just remember y'all were running around for some time.
Speaker 1 (18:32):
Nah, we was running around for a minute. And the
music was moving.
Speaker 6 (18:35):
It was like, we were younger, so I don't know
if radio knew it and stuff, but y'all had a wave.
Speaker 1 (18:40):
It was more so, I'm not gonna lie, we was
like the first group of young niggas, I don't know
if I can curse, but we was like the first
group of youngins with the three-letter click. We did the
CYN thing, and then you started seeing the YBNs and
the other Ns, and it's just like, okay, that's... That's
way before the Migos. Migos had the YRN.
Speaker 4 (19:02):
Migos was the Migos, though. They were huge already.
Speaker 1 (19:06):
They was out of here. I'm talking about young. I
felt like I might have found.
Speaker 4 (19:11):
Y'all song maybe on SoundCloud. It was like you had
to really... I thought it was just like.
Speaker 6 (19:14):
We was outside... Christian and his friends just running crazy.
And then the song started getting played places. But do
people not connect you to that time period?
Speaker 1 (19:24):
No, they still do. But respectfully, I'm so far removed
from that time period. You've grown from that, yeah. It's
just like... You got tired of hogging chicken? If it.
Speaker 5 (19:32):
Yeah, I don't really connect them to that.
Speaker 1 (19:34):
You feel me? It's crazy because I would have never.
And I'd be letting it go. Like, you don't connect.
Speaker 4 (19:39):
Cool.
Speaker 1 (19:40):
If you do, we can talk about it, but let's
keep it to a minimum. But I'm so far removed.
Speaker 2 (19:45):
Y'all talk about it now, remember, but I've never, like,
because that was a time when they had fun and
they would do, but I don't remember it like that.
Speaker 4 (19:53):
It'd be like one, two, three, jump.
Speaker 1 (19:55):
Y'all would do the one, two, three, jump. Y'all would
do the one, two, three, jump. We was outside. Y'all
were running through a lot.
Speaker 5 (20:02):
It's like, damn, how come you didn't sign a bad
boy there? Because if they try to do the deal.
Speaker 1 (20:06):
Nah, that was cool. That was cool. It just wasn't
for me. Respectfully, I just was like, nah, I'm cool
on that. And this is the first- And even back-
In my brain, I'm just like, I'd never take the
first deal. That's just in my brain too. I don't
care who it is.
Speaker 2 (20:22):
So what got you to drama generation now?
Speaker 5 (20:24):
Because they are a Southern label.
Speaker 1 (20:27):
Yeah.
Speaker 5 (20:27):
You are East Coast rapper.
Speaker 1 (20:28):
Yeah. What do I mean? So now, look, I ended up,
after I graduated, I was like, I don't really know
what else I can do in New York. I was
born and raised here. It's time for me to spread
my wings and fly. Atlanta was like the next best thing.
I moved to Atlanta December 20th, 2019. I kid you not.
I had a sold-out show at SOB's. Then I drove
(20:53):
down to Atlanta, started working. You know, the studio in
Atlanta is like the stoop in New York. Everybody's here.
You can catch anybody at any studio.
Speaker 4 (21:02):
Hookah, wings, everything.
Speaker 1 (21:03):
Literally. So, you know, me and my manager, we just...
Jigging around Atlanta. We finding studios to record in for free,
just building, doing all that. And by, I say, 2022,
one of my uncles moved around with Lake and him
a lot. And he was just like, yo, I know
y'all looking for like a real rapper. I got to
(21:26):
check out. Like, I got to check out. And even
my pops would double down like, yo. Who's this? 2022, right? 22. Damn,
Jack Harlow, they was looking for a real rapper. That's crazy.
Speaker 5 (21:36):
That's a fact.
Speaker 1 (21:37):
They like, when they don't switch their hats and cosplays.
They was looking for a real rapper.
Speaker 5 (21:46):
And Lake's like, Dan, don't put me in this.
Speaker 1 (21:49):
Nah, yeah, Lake is here right away. Lake told me
to come to the office. And this is how I
knew I was going to Janelle. I went to the office.
I played 15 songs. Have you ever been to a
label meeting, guys? They'll never let you play more than three. Ever.
(22:10):
You never get more than three. I played 15. And
they just locked in. Like, word, okay. And then after
the last song was done, Lake was like, yeah, I
want to sign you. I started recording. And he was like,
the last person you got to get to is Cannon.
Cannon is a tough critic. He doesn't like anything. If
he likes you, we're good. Cannon came to the studio
one day. He was like, yo, what up? Here, this
(22:31):
is a beat. He gave me a beat. It was
like a rendition of Song Cry. I might have did
the whole song in 20 minutes. He was like, oh, nah,
all right. But the craziest thing is, a year before that,
I had DM'd Cannon. Like, yo, I got a song.
He opened the DM. He was like, this shit is trash.
He was on some Charlamagne. He was like, bro, this
is terrible. This is terrible. Nah, it is. It is.
(22:54):
Did you tell him that during that? Yeah. If he
was here, he'd be like, yeah, I did.
Speaker 6 (22:58):
You wouldn't have wanted what you were doing then to be, like,
I think where you are right now and how it's
happening is like, this is you. Like, it's so crazy
putting you with that song, those other songs though.
Speaker 4 (23:09):
You really are like a whole different person now.
Speaker 1 (23:11):
Cause now I remember. I remember.
Speaker 4 (23:15):
I was like, out, like, in L.A., I'm like, it's
so different.
Speaker 1 (23:19):
I never put two and two together, though.
Speaker 4 (23:21):
But it's so, I think, so.
Speaker 6 (23:22):
When you were doing, before you were here, right, where
you're focused on, like, you know, Bar Is Not Dead and, like,
lyricism and finding that, and bridging that gap, did you all,
if you always knew that this was it, why didn't
you just start here?
Speaker 1 (23:34):
You gotta go through the motions. That's what it was
for me. It was just like, I'm young. And like
I said, the person that The other version of me
is so just gone. Like, it was a lot. This
interview would have been hard for me if I'd have
got it in 2019. Yo, I was just such a timid, like, soul. Like,
I just, oh, I'm just to myself. I'm introverted. I
(23:57):
just don't want to, I want to be out the way,
but I want people to know who I am. I
started just, like, just isolating and recognizing what I was
doing wrong for myself.
Speaker 5 (24:08):
You still speaking to Christian and all that?
Speaker 1 (24:09):
Yeah, yeah. I spoke to Christian yesterday. Okay.
Speaker 3 (24:12):
What is something that canon or leg or drama corrected
in you that initially irritated you?
Speaker 1 (24:17):
But you realize like, damn, they right.
Speaker 5 (24:21):
Why the hell is Lake laughing?
Speaker 1 (24:22):
So that must have been more than one. More than anything,
a lot of, because he met the timid soul, the
one that's like, I don't want to do nothing. You
feel me? So a lot of that, I feel like
the grand scheme is artist development. I really wasn't a firm,
I didn't think it existed. But being with them, it's
just like, okay. I could still be developed. I even
(24:44):
thought I was at that. When I dropped all them records,
I'm like, I don't need no coaching, no nothing. I've
been here before. It's like, no, you have not. It's
a lost art. You have not been here.
Speaker 2 (24:55):
But that's what I think Generation Now does so well.
What other labels don't do. You can see the work
they put in Uzi. You can see the work they
put in Harlow. You can see the work that they
put in artists that most people won't do. I think
a lot of it, too, is they are producers and DJs,
so they hear a different sound.
Speaker 1 (25:09):
Exactly. And for me, it's just like, Why not listen?
Because in the beginning, it's just like, nah, I'm not...
I don't even care what they're saying. I might not
have vocalized it, but it's just like, I'm not doing that.
Fuck them country names. I'm not. That's crazy. But now
it's just like, nah, they right. Nah, they are. Nah,
(25:31):
they right.
Speaker 5 (25:31):
They got an ear for it.
Speaker 1 (25:32):
Absolutely. They know what they're doing. They right. No, art
development is a lost art. You know what I mean?
So for your generation, it is a lot of people
who didn't get that. Yeah. You know?
Speaker 3 (25:41):
And I mean, you can see the difference. I mean,
look at Jack Harlow. Look at the Monica album. I
can tell that Generation Now had.
Speaker 1 (25:48):
Nothing to do with that. Okay? All right? None of
them will admit it. But I can just tell. There's
something about that project. I'm like, I don't think that
Generation Now had nothing to do with this one.
Speaker 4 (25:58):
So that R & B rollout wasn't them?
Speaker 1 (25:59):
No, no, no. The hats? I don't think so. I
don't think so.
Speaker 3 (26:01):
But I want to talk to you. I've heard you
talk about dealing with anxiety.
Speaker 1 (26:06):
Yeah. Because you wrote a book called Tranquil. Tranquil. Yeah,
overcoming the experience. While I was at Hampton, I was gone.
through it.
Speaker 5 (26:14):
What was so bad? What was difficult?
Speaker 1 (26:16):
I had went through something before getting there at Dell State.
It was crazy. It was like an experience I never
went through, especially being from Brooklyn to go through something
like that in Delaware. It was just like, this makes
no sense. Something that traumatized you? It wasn't really traumatic.
It was just something that I really never go through.
And it almost got a little bit too real, realer
(26:37):
than I ever would have seen it coming. But in
the moment, it's just like, I'm dealing with it head on. Like,
I'm not... I'm not tucking my tail for nothing.
Speaker 5 (26:44):
What was the moment, if you don't mind?
Speaker 1 (26:45):
I just got into it with a bunch of people
that I didn't even know I was getting into it with.
It's like, it's just coming from angles. And it wasn't
just me. It was just a group of my peers.
And it's just like, people we thought we was cool with,
they did something shady one day. And now we're just
at odds with niggas from Philly, niggas from Delaware. And
it was just like, all right, I don't even know
what's going on. But I do know I'm protecting myself
(27:08):
by any means. So whatever it is, it is.
Speaker 3 (27:10):
Mm-hmm.
Speaker 1 (27:11):
I left, and that's when the anxiety started to crack
for me. And I'm just like, yo, what's going on?
I'm having heart palpitations. Panic attack. I go straight to
the hospital. I'm like, I'm about to die. It's over.
It's over for me. I get to the hospital, and
they're like, you're having an anxiety attack. It's a panic attack.
I'm just like, oh, okay. But it happened after the fact.
(27:33):
So it's just like, okay. I didn't know what was
going on. So I only left Del State because I
initially wanted to go to Hampton. Straight out of high school,
my grades, I just didn't meet it. I didn't meet
the requirements. So I went to Del State first. I
had like a 3-3. Went to Hampton. I got to Hampton.
I'm thinking it's going to be just as like, in
the beginning, I'm like, oh, it's going to be just
as fire as Del State. Because Del State is the ghetto.
(27:56):
I loved it there. I got to Hampton. It's like... yeah,
y'all got to be inside at 11 o'clock. I said, whoa.
Speaker 5 (28:05):
Curfew until homecoming.
Speaker 1 (28:06):
I said, whoa, who did that? Yo, my first roommate
used to have seizures. My RD didn't tell me. It
was just like, I just... You thought he liked your music.
But the craziest thing is... I don't even know if.
Speaker 4 (28:22):
We should laugh at that.
Speaker 1 (28:23):
I'm not even laughing at that.
Speaker 4 (28:25):
Is he okay?
Speaker 2 (28:26):
I don't know.
Speaker 1 (28:26):
He's good. He's good.
Speaker 5 (28:27):
But nobody told me.
Speaker 1 (28:28):
So one day... One day, I'm just chilling in the room.
It might have been the first day. I don't even
know what to do. And I'm not even laughing at it.
I'm laughing at Charlemagne. Charlemagne did this. I don't know
what happened. He started. I'm just like, whoa, no. Hold on.
(28:52):
The R.D. was like, oh, yeah, by the way. I'm like,
by the way? This is not something you by the way.
You're supposed to tell me this. I was like, cool.
I might be able to deal with it. He might
got to like the third, fourth joint. I'm like, all right, bro. Respectfully. Like,
we cool. But I don't know what I'm going through
right now. And I'll be damned if we both in
(29:13):
here and we just bugging out.
Speaker 5 (29:15):
What hall you was in? You was James Hall?
Speaker 1 (29:16):
Harkness.
Speaker 5 (29:17):
Harkness Hall, okay.
Speaker 1 (29:18):
Yeah, cooked. I was cooked. And he was like, nah,
I respected it. I ended up moving downstairs. Everything was,
I wanted to, and in the beginning, I kid you not,
I wanted to transfer the week I got there. I
was like, yo, I got to get out of here.
I feel like I'm in prison. can't, there's no visitation.
I'm like, what is this? I hit Pops, I'm like, yo,
can I go to Clark? He was like, no, you
(29:40):
not leaving. You're going to thug it out. And then
as time progressed, it got better. I think it gets
better once you realize. I did things.
Speaker 4 (29:49):
Discipline just opened up more.
Speaker 5 (29:50):
That's what it is.
Speaker 1 (29:51):
It's about discipline.
Speaker 2 (29:52):
You got to think, when people go to college, a
lot of times they lose themselves because Because they never
had that much freedom.
Speaker 1 (29:57):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (29:57):
So what Hampton does is it guides you to get
to that point.
Speaker 1 (30:00):
But imagine having the freedom.
Speaker 6 (30:02):
Yeah, because at Del State, you just- Del State, I
got my car. You better be smart about life. I'm
in a co-ed dorm.
Speaker 1 (30:07):
My RA is damn near my age, so it's like
I'm not ever listening to you about nothing. And it's
just turned. I get to Hampton, it's like I'm in
an all-boys dorm. Mm-hmm. 11 o'clock. Can't have your car.
Can't have your car. You will get out by five.
And I'm just like, wait a minute. Hold on. It's
a lot. I didn't even have this back home. It
(30:28):
was never this strict. So for me, it's just like
with the anxiety I already had and then just dealing
with that. I went to therapy. That's the first time
I'm going to therapy at Hampton. And it was just like.
That's good. I'm tonight. It wasn't good for me because
I went and I'm just like, miss. I'm bugging out
every day. But that's what, I deal with anxiety too.
(30:48):
Coming to you once a week is not efficient. You
got to go more.
Speaker 3 (30:52):
Because once you realize it's something happening to your mind
and not your body, it's able to put it in
proper perspective.
Speaker 1 (31:00):
And then I just started, like the idle mind is
really the playground of the devil. I started just getting
out more. Like, all right, let me go tap in
with people. Let me go work out. Let me go
to the cafe. Let me just do the student center.
Whatever I can do to just, ease my mind. And
then it helped. And then I ended up writing a book.
So I'm just like, I know it's not going to
(31:21):
only help me or the people that's in school. Everybody
deals with it at some point. That's right. So this
is something that I can just share with the world.
Speaker 2 (31:29):
But you know what? That's what, when I went to Hampton,
that's what put me tight with the locals.
Speaker 1 (31:33):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (31:33):
Because what I would do is, First of all, I
would be out on the weekend, so I would get out.
Speaker 5 (31:38):
Or I would sneak out. And I would walk.
Speaker 2 (31:40):
Down the back by the parking lot behind the cemetery.
Speaker 1 (31:44):
Using Harkness?
Speaker 5 (31:44):
That wasn't James.
Speaker 6 (31:45):
James?
Speaker 1 (31:45):
Okay.
Speaker 5 (31:46):
And I would sneak out.
Speaker 2 (31:46):
But that's what got me cool with the locals, because
you couldn't come after 10. So I'm hanging out with
Pusha T at 10 Montgomery.
Speaker 1 (31:55):
I'm with Allen Iverson. I'm with all the locals there.
You was in the 75.
Speaker 2 (31:59):
I was in the 75. So I knew more people
locally than the actual school.
Speaker 1 (32:03):
Because of all those.
Speaker 4 (32:04):
Because you wanted to be outside.
Speaker 5 (32:06):
I was DJing. I had to pay the bills.
Speaker 1 (32:07):
That's a fact. And me, I also, I was jaded
in a sense. I was like, I got a little
bit of Instagram. I got more followers than everybody here.
I don't care about nothing. Y'all gonna know me. That's
really what my mindset was.
Speaker 2 (32:19):
So what got you to the point where the anxiety
slowed down and you would be able to control.
Speaker 5 (32:23):
It a little more, I should say?
Speaker 1 (32:25):
Just the process of just doing things. Like, I realize,
like what Charlamagne just said, once you realize, it's like, oh,
this is a mind thing. I started doing things and
I started going outside and laughing and having fun and
just chopping it up with joints and all that. It's
just like, it's not even there no more. Then I
go back home and it's just like, oh, back is
against the wall. And I'm just like, oh, okay. This
(32:47):
is a mind thing. I can get over this as
long as I just continue to do what I... And
by the time the next school year, it's just like,
I'm cool right now. I ain't tripping about nothing. You know,
anxiety is largely about uncertainty, right? Yeah.
Speaker 3 (32:59):
But then when you a rapper, you got to have
like this irrational confidence. So how do anxiety and ambition
coexist for you?
Speaker 1 (33:08):
Now, I kid y'all not, I don't be anxious about nothing.
I think that experience allotted me this, to be this person.
So for me, it's just like, I'm overly ambitious now.
I'm super confident because back then, even a part of me,
like when I did drop the West and all that,
like I was not confident and I think a lot
of people seen that and I didn't realize it but
(33:30):
I think that's why a lot of things went over
a lot of people's heads because it's just like I
never really had nobody tell me that I didn't have
it everybody always told me like oh you got it
you got it you nice this that and the third
but it's just like for myself everybody seen the potential
but I didn't it's just like I'm just like I
don't know like I it's a lot it's a lot
(33:50):
of competition out there I don't think I miss whether
it's I knew I could rap Everything else might have
been off for me. So now it's just like, I
got everything. I'm all out in a bag of chips.
Can't nobody can't hold a candle to me. That's really
how I feel about myself. And that's, I think I
just had to grow to that point because like I said, if, if,
if y'all was interviewing me in 2019, this, this shit
(34:14):
would have been over a long time ago. You wouldn't
have nothing to say. I ain't had nothing to say. Yeah.
I'll tell you one thing though. You about to have
a baby.
Speaker 3 (34:22):
That parental paranoia, the anxiety of being a parent, I'm
telling you right now, it's going to come back.
Speaker 6 (34:28):
You already kind of set your boundaries, though, it sounds like,
because I know on a project you talk about, you know,
your kid is about to come, you're not playing with people.
Speaker 5 (34:34):
Congratulations.
Speaker 1 (34:35):
He hit you with the... And I'm having a girl.
All my anxiety right now literally is all... I got
four girls.
Speaker 3 (34:45):
All of my anxiety is rooted in my family and
my kids.
Speaker 1 (34:48):
Everything.
Speaker 2 (34:50):
I be chilling because I keep my family with me.
I'm the one that's like, we will move together. You
know what I mean? My daughter, before she go, we
all on Life 360. I go on vacations with her.
She's 24 now, so we go to the club with
each other.
Speaker 5 (35:02):
We go to the hookah spot. I keep them close
because I am concerned.
Speaker 1 (35:06):
But I'm just telling you right now. It's balanced.
Speaker 4 (35:08):
Yeah, it really is.
Speaker 5 (35:09):
My daughter went to NYU so I can make sure
I can sit there too.
Speaker 1 (35:12):
Oh, yeah. Okay.
Speaker 5 (35:12):
I'm that dad.
Speaker 1 (35:13):
He was dealing with the anxiety. Yeah.
Speaker 5 (35:15):
But the crazy thing is my son went to the
University of Miami. I'm like, all right, my nigga, see
you later, man.
Speaker 1 (35:19):
You feel me? It's so much different. Because I wanted
a boy initially. And when I found out it was
a girl, I was just like, ah, bet. At first,
I was like, oh, all right. But now I'm just like,
I can't wait to meet her because she would have
been right here.
Speaker 5 (35:30):
When's the baby due?
Speaker 1 (35:31):
October. Wow. When you old? Right around the corner.
Speaker 3 (35:34):
If you can hear me, you can hear me.
Speaker 1 (35:39):
I didn't even hear what you said. Were you a
hoe in a past life? I did my, you know.
That's right. I did my dirt on by my lonely.
I don't.
Speaker 3 (35:45):
And that's what the girl is for.
Speaker 1 (35:48):
Who's not? That's right. That's right. Look at me. You
did say journaling helps with your anxiety though. Yeah. Okay.
And I'm a rapper, bro. It's like, why not use
my words? But yeah.
Speaker 2 (36:02):
Now, when Joey Badass was going against everybody, you jumped in,
tagged in.
Speaker 1 (36:07):
Yo, y'all want to know what's so funny? I told
this story before, but I never told it on The
Breakfast Club. So, boom, I got into it with my
now wife, right? She had got me so mad. I
forgot what I was pissed off about. I heard somebody's stomach.
It wasn't mine.
Speaker 4 (36:21):
I ate half my sandwich.
Speaker 1 (36:22):
It was over there. Don't play with me.
Speaker 4 (36:24):
You're only as mean.
Speaker 1 (36:25):
By the way, he's African, too. That doesn't make it
even funnier. Why would you? He's crazy. Why would you
say that?
Speaker 4 (36:35):
Why would you say that?
Speaker 1 (36:36):
Yo, nah, but real quick. So my lady, right, she
got me so mad one day. It was mad to
a point where I wanted to hit something. But I'm
just like, come on, we're not ever doing that. So
we go to sleep. And my whole thing has always
been like, never go to sleep. We never go to
sleep mad. To that day, I didn't care. I was tight.
(36:59):
But it's just like, I got to take this Aang
out somewhere. I kid y'all not, I was drunk in
my bed. She's asleep. I'm up. Lights out. The whole
house just pitch black. I picked up my phone and
I'm just like, somebody's going to get this Aang. I
started writing my Nixon six verse, right? Mm-hmm. This was
before I knew I was about to do this. I
(37:21):
was just prepping myself up because Cannon was already in
my ear like, if you don't do nothing, you not nothing. Like,
you not him. And I'm just like, ah, whatever, bet.
Reason drops the Dead Apple song. I'm just like, I
hear it. I hear a little bit of it. I'm
just like, ooh, that's crazy. He's kind of talking. Crazy
(37:43):
about New York. Somebody needs to say something. And then
I'm just like, somebody.
Speaker 4 (37:48):
Somebody needs to say something.
Speaker 1 (37:49):
I already started writing a verse about this whole thing.
So now it's just all playing into my favor. I
go to the studio the next day. Kid you not.
But I didn't finish the verse. The whole idea is
just in my brain. This is how I knew it
was going to be something. I'm like, I'm going to
rap over Murder Was The Case and Little Ghetto Boy.
(38:09):
It's L.A. I was real strategic. I was like, I
don't know who I'm going to get to make this beat.
I don't know how I'm going to do it, but
I'm going to get this done. I go to the studio.
I call my man Luca to the studio. He pulls up.
We make the beat. Off rip. Time to take the
drums out, all that. My engineer's in there. I go
straight in there. I do the first half before the
Tupac section and before we go into Murder Was the Case.
(38:31):
While he's building Murder Was the Case, I'm right in
the second half. I send it to Cannon. Cannon is like, nah,
this is crazy. We need to drop this. I'm like, yeah,
I'm about to drop. Like, I'm going to do this.
I don't care about no label logistics right now. This
is urgent. J. Juan was about to, me and J.
Juan was already talking. He was like, yo, let me
(38:52):
know when you're about to drop. I'm dropping two today.
I'm about to drop it this time. I was like, ooh,
I got to get out before J.
Speaker 6 (38:57):
Juan.
Speaker 1 (38:57):
I'm sorry. I told Cannon. Cannon was like, yeah, we
got to mix it. I said, bruh, J. Juan is
dropping in 30 minutes. He was like, oh, no, no, no.
Put it out. My cameraman, he came to the studio.
He walks in the studio like, you ain't into the
chat with this? I said, bro, you came in here
thinking you had a good idea. It's done already. You
(39:18):
need to do the cover art. He does the cover art.
First person I text, Wayno. Wayno was on a live stream.
He had 1,300 people in his live. I said, I'm
going to get this to Wayno. If Wayno can play
this right now, we're out of here. I text to Wayno.
Wayno's mid-live. He's like, oh, I just got a joke
from Kai Cash. If y'all don't know who Kai Cash is, da-da-da-da-da.
(39:38):
The whole bio. Press play. I'm watching it real time.
It's gone crazy. I had just met Gina Views and
DJ Head. You named all my folks. It worked out
so perfectly. We had just came off the Cash Rules
press run. Maybe like a week before this. And it
was regular. I went up there and then the drum
was in there and they asked me one question because
(39:58):
drum was there and I'm just like, okay. One day.
Speaker 4 (40:03):
But they got the record.
Speaker 1 (40:04):
One day I'll get my respect. Right. Today's the day.
Today's the day. I sent it to DJ Head and
Gina Views in the Twitter DMs. They posted after Wayno.
Maybe 30 minutes. Flooded. Everything just flooded. Because I'm really
talking crazy. It's from L.A. But I used to be
(40:27):
in L.A. so much. I know so many people from
out there. It's like my whole thing was the only
worthy thing outside of Joey and Ray. Some dude DM'd me. No,
I was playing Twitter games. I'm like, I see people
for Joey follow me. Lloyd Banks follow me. Just mad. Right.
Rappers started following me. I'm like, okay, these are the
(40:48):
guys that I want to rap with. So I just
tweeted like, I ain't going to lie. I got a
song for Joey. Somebody DM'd me. His name is D-Dot.
He DM'd me. He was like, text me.
Speaker 4 (40:59):
Text me the song.
Speaker 1 (41:00):
He said, text me the song. I text him the song.
He was like, Joey said he got one better for you.
He sends me an open. I get the open. I
sent it back in 10 minutes. Joey FaceTimes me. He's like, bro,
I'm not going to lie. I ain't never get a
verse back this good that fast. He's like, but I
was overdoing it. I did like 24 bars, 16 slot.
(41:22):
I'm rapping over hooks, everything. He's like, I need you
to just bring it down a little bit. I brought
it down, and then he dropped Brooklyn's Finest, me, Rome Streets,
CJ Fly, Joey. But yeah, I just... It was like,
I just stepped into this. Like, I'm going to keep
going back to it. If this was five years ago,
I would have not done that. I kid y'all not.
(41:43):
I was not doing it. Now it's just like everything.
I feel like my back is against the wall a
lot now as a grown man too. And I like
being in that space because it's like fueling.
Speaker 2 (41:54):
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1 (41:55):
Okay, now I have a point to prove to myself
more than anybody else. I have a point to prove
to myself and I'm going to get my point across.
Speaker 3 (42:01):
Right, yeah. I saw an interview, man, that you did
from Hampton like a decade ago. And I think you
said that within five years, you wanted to be wealthy,
not just financially, but you wanted to be wealthy in health,
wealthy in the mind, wealthy in the spirit, right?
Speaker 1 (42:15):
So it's been almost 10 years. It grates yourself. Yeah,
I'm getting in there. I'll tell you that much. I'm
probably at like a 97.
Speaker 3 (42:20):
Oh.
Speaker 1 (42:21):
Yeah, yeah, yeah. I'm just waiting for this one record
to crack. Two at 100. And I feel like I'm
on my... We're there. We're... We're at the cusp of it.
I got Lake. I got Lake, so I know we're
at the cusp of it. You feel me?
Speaker 3 (42:41):
The most important thing, I think, is just getting a
handle on everything you were dealing with mentally.
Speaker 1 (42:46):
Yeah, and the craziest thing is, and thank y'all, by
the way, for always supporting. Y'all big me up a
lot over here. I just wanted to say thank y'all.
The Make Them Pay joint. That's when it, when I
got to that point, That's when I really started feeling
like how I feel today. Like, oh, yeah, nah. I'm here. Like,
I don't have no time for no nonsense with nobody. Right.
(43:11):
I'm demanding my respect. I'm going to get it either way.
I'm staying out the way, but I'm also in your face. Mm-hmm.
And that's it. Like, I'm going to get this other 3%
from 97 to 100 by any means.
Speaker 4 (43:23):
That cleared all the road for the rest of the project.
I'm like, oh, okay.
Speaker 6 (43:25):
He letting y'all know, don't even come over here.
Speaker 1 (43:28):
Please don't.
Speaker 3 (43:28):
See, I love when rappers do that. Like, I love
when people start talking about a rapper being a rapper.
And then when you point them to a new record, like, oh,
listen to that Make Them Petty.
Speaker 1 (43:36):
Like, oh, yeah. I hear that. I understand that. I
hear that.
Speaker 4 (43:39):
You feel it.
Speaker 1 (43:39):
I understand that.
Speaker 6 (43:40):
I ain't even know all the things. I'm like, oh, yeah,
but it was some things that he let y'all know.
Speaker 1 (43:44):
Yeah. I knew because literally it was like a whole
Nixon six moment. Again, I wrote it. I did a
three day fast in my third day. I'm just drinking water.
No social media, no nothing. I'm drinking water on my
third day. Iceman might've just dropped two days before. I'm like,
make them pay is so me coded. I need to
rap to this beat. I found the remake. I drove
(44:06):
to the studio at 11 in the morning. Nobody's in there.
So Sunday, I, I, I'm in my brain. I picked
the whole image with him wearing the, with Big's Jesus piece.
Cause I'm like, that's what I feel like. I feel
like Jay-Z wearing Big's chain. And I just dropped it
and I deleted Instagram. Like I posted it. I deleted Instagram.
By the time I was on the way home and
(44:28):
it might've been 20, 30 minutes. My bro V had
hit me and was like, yo, what you on? I'm like,
what are you talking about? He's like, I don't know.
Like you've been just in it. Like I feel that
he was in LA. I'm in Atlanta. He's like, I
feel like you're just in such a different space right now.
And why did you just do this? Cause right now
(44:50):
this freestyle you just dropped is going digital. And by
the time I logged back on Instagram, it's at like,
might've been like a hundred thousand views. Charlamagne is talking
about it. I'm getting repostings in my comments talking about something. Oh,
he's not better than Drake. This, that, and that. I'm
(45:11):
just like, oh yeah, this is great. Because I proved
the point. Y'all are in the comments talking about that.
Or his rollout.
Speaker 4 (45:17):
They're having a conversation about me.
Speaker 1 (45:18):
Oh yeah, yeah, yeah. And then from there, I'm just like,
it's time for me to get back into the groove
and just letting the music fly. The Swap My Remake
was dope too, though. Like, it was the same. I mean,
I don't know who did that beat, but it... Oh,
my guy Harrison Gilbert. Yeah, that's a producer I've been
working closely with. Yeah, they wasn't letting us upload that
version to YouTube.
Speaker 5 (45:37):
I was going to ask, you said you fast. How
often do you fast? And how often do you.
Speaker 1 (45:41):
I'm not going to lie, that was my first time
ever fasting. It was the most difficult thing I ever did.
But the clarity I got from it, it was like
being on drugs.
Speaker 5 (45:49):
What was the most difficult? The eating and food or
the social media delete?
Speaker 1 (45:53):
Hmm. At first, it was social media. At first, I
was like, oh my gosh, I feel like a junkie. Like, bro,
I'm in the crib watching The Sopranos. I binge watched
The Sopranos. I finished all six seasons. By the second day,
I was starving. Hungry as hell. I wanted to do
five initially. I was like, I'm not doing five days
(46:16):
of this. I got to three, and at midnight, on
that third night, I got some soup, and I was
just like, all right, let me ease back into it,
you know? But it was definitely eating. That was the
biggest thing.
Speaker 6 (46:27):
What's some of the things you saw in the clarity? Like,
what was more clear for you? What were you able
to see that you didn't see before?
Speaker 1 (46:35):
A lot of things just be noise. Like, I don't
know if y'all seen F1 with Brad Pitt and Damsom Idris.
Where he was basically telling Damsom, like, put the phone down. Like, bro,
that's noise. Like, good, bad, indifferent. It's just noise. Like,
we came to drive these cars. If we don't drive
these cars well... We're not doing our job. For me,
it's like I used to be so jaded by just
socials and opinions and numbers and analytics. And I'm that
(46:59):
kind of person. Like, I'm checking everything. And then I
just started to realize, like, okay, when I finally got
over it all, how much noise it was. It's just like,
I don't know what's going on in the world. I
feel better about everything not known because everything is everywhere
all at once. And it's just like, now we're just
so desensitized to we see death, we see death. Porn,
(47:22):
we see everybody got money, but nobody's rich. We see
everybody's healthy. AI is just crazy right now. I don't
even know what's real. So when I got off, it's
like it was a whole new world. I'm not answering
my phone for nobody. You can't tap in with me.
I downloaded Substack. I just started writing. And that was
(47:43):
really the most clarifying thing for me. Like, okay, we
succumb to a pitfall when it comes to these phones
and stuff like that. And I'm addicted. I was addicted
to notifications. I would be in a booth checking my
notifications while I'm rapping, just pulling my screen down. Nobody's
texting me nothing. I just keep checking, keep checking. Me
(48:06):
letting go of the phone, that's what really gave me
all the clarity. It's just like, bro, all right, life
is bigger than this. And in order for you to
be who you want to be, you have to realize
you hold that power. You can't let nothing else externally.
Hold the power for you. Which slaves are our smartphones, man? Man, what?
Speaker 3 (48:23):
If you listen to Silicon Valley whistleblowers and then listen
to like tobacco whistleblowers from back in the day, they're
like having the same conversation.
Speaker 1 (48:33):
Preaching the same preach. Just different drug. I still got
my phone, though. I got two of them. Let's get
into the record. Let's get into the record, man. Let's
play Make Them Pay. Let's play the swap out edition, though.
Speaker 3 (48:46):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (48:47):
Let's play this one.
Speaker 5 (48:48):
All right, well, let's get into it right now. Kai Cash,
we appreciate you for doing this.
Speaker 1 (48:51):
Hey, and you know, Kai Cash is one of the
featured artists on Nyla Simone's Honor Roll project. That's coming out, man.
That's right. I have already said it.
Speaker 3 (48:59):
I said that the big three of rap right now,
the new big three to me is- New Generation.
Speaker 1 (49:04):
Ruben Vincent, Marco Plus, Kai Cash. I'm honored to be there.
I'm sorry, Chris Patrick. Because I'm here. I had you
in there, but Kai- He.
Speaker 6 (49:12):
Talks about y'all at least like three times a week.
Speaker 1 (49:14):
Nah, I love it. I'm happy. It's about the bar.
I seen it. He was not, I'm telling you, he
was not a fan.
Speaker 5 (49:22):
Well, it's Kai Cash.
Speaker 1 (49:23):
It's The Breakfast Club.
Speaker 5 (49:24):
Good morning.
Speaker 1 (49:25):
Hold up. Every day I wake up. Wake your ass up.
The Breakfast Club. Y'all finished or y'all done?
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