INTERVIEW: Lil Jon Opens Up About Mental & Physical Transformation, Origins Of Crunk, Meditation Album + More

Today on The Breakfast Club, Lil Jon Opens Up About Mental & Physical Transformation, Origins Of Crunk, Meditation Album. Listen For More!

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
Every day up we click up the Breakfast Club.

Speaker 2 (00:05):
Finish y'all done morning, everybody is the j n V.
Just hilarious, Charlamagne to gud we are the Breakfast Club.
Law La Rosa is here as well, and we got
a special guest in the.

Speaker 1 (00:16):
Building, a motherfucking icon.

Speaker 3 (00:19):
I thought he was up here, this is his first time. Yeah,
that's that's what I seen you on the road.

Speaker 2 (00:25):
I know, but I thought you've been up here.

Speaker 3 (00:26):
Ladies and gentlemen, Hey many, thank y'all for having me.
Good morning, it's about time.

Speaker 4 (00:35):
And everybody, we don't say good morning enough to our
fellow brothers and sisters.

Speaker 3 (00:40):
That's right.

Speaker 4 (00:41):
I was a victim of that until I started to
change my mindset. Sometimes I would come down, get in
the car going, you know, on the road, I didn't
say good morning. And once I started to change my mindset,
I realized that's a good way to start your day.
In a gesture to someone whoever you're riding with, you know,
the driver, whoever, that's.

Speaker 1 (00:59):
How they feeling, and then that's how they're feeling.

Speaker 3 (01:02):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (01:03):
Yeah, sometimes that's also the case. Sometimes just say how
is your day gone?

Speaker 3 (01:08):
You know?

Speaker 4 (01:10):
I found myself sometimes I'm a I'm a I'm really
in tune to my spiritual side.

Speaker 3 (01:15):
I've been for a long time.

Speaker 4 (01:16):
Sometimes I might just be I remember being in the
club and I might walk by a random person and
I can feel that energy and.

Speaker 3 (01:23):
I'd be like, let me just give you a hug,
And sometimes that just changes somebody's life absolutely.

Speaker 1 (01:30):
What about that?

Speaker 5 (01:31):
What about when you were the person that might have
been creating energy though, Like if you felt like some
aggressive angriness from this person, but it was your fault
because it was.

Speaker 4 (01:39):
Well, you know, I'm gonna tell you. One time I
was in South Carolina, a and a Hole in the
Wall club way back in the day, and it was
supposed to be a night where cash money was supposed
to be there, and they called me because cash money
couldn't come. So these folks in South Carolina was mad
than a motherfucker was not cash money. Little johnn Eastside

(02:01):
Boys show up and so I understand it's a hostile situation,
but I said, I looked out on that crowd and
I said, the biggest dude in this crowd, I'm about
to make him my best friend.

Speaker 3 (02:12):
And I made him my best friend during the show,
like playing to.

Speaker 4 (02:16):
Him, giving him drinks and hyping them up, and then
he turned.

Speaker 3 (02:21):
Like it turned the whole crowd around, and then they
were fans of us after that.

Speaker 4 (02:25):
But it was it was a way you can always
change the energy of a situation if you approach with
a calm manner. That's why good security don't go and
try to fight somebody. They try to defuse the situation.
That's the first rule is diffuse it, not be the aggressor.
Lok John, I want to go back.

Speaker 5 (02:41):
So this is your first time, real quick, what is
a little John morning routine?

Speaker 4 (02:45):
Like I knew you were going to ask me that morning,
So this morning I woke up, had a little water
because you know, I do my I do this Korean
facial stuff, so I do skin.

Speaker 3 (03:00):
You know my skin is very important to my skin.

Speaker 4 (03:02):
Look, ladies, one rule for that is positivity, positive energy,
positive thoughts, because if you're a negative person in all
this negativity, it's gonna wear the flesh down. So get
up in the morning and do my skincare routine, burst
my teeth, all that good stuff. And then since I'm
on the road, a nice healthy breakfast for me was
two hard boiled eggs, some yogurt, some berries and a grapefruit. Wow,

(03:30):
that's simple, easy and start with a positive mindset. It's
gonna be a great day. I'm always in my mind
saying affirmations for the day, even before I go to bed,
in my dreams, Like last night, I was like, it's
gonna be a great interview. This is I look at
this as one of the biggest interviews I've ever done

(03:50):
in my life because it's like, it's some fifty minutes,
forty five minutes, fifty minutes a long interview. It's a
lot to talk about. Charlot Man, you see me grow from.
I think we one time we taught you were like
you came to the radio station and in South Carolina
one time that was early on.

Speaker 3 (04:06):
He wasn't even on air yet, right.

Speaker 5 (04:09):
I think it was a phone or you called in.
You had just put out I think you had just
put out be a beer.

Speaker 3 (04:15):
Wow. So twenty years ago.

Speaker 5 (04:17):
Yeah, So we were talking about you having the Confederate
flag in the in the video.

Speaker 3 (04:21):
And I don't care about that. So that's what you know.

Speaker 4 (04:23):
You've seen the growth, and it's I think it's important
because yeah, you've seen the growth. You've seen it from
a different angle. You've seen it from a different angle.
You've seen it from a different angle, and you know,
you guys moved the needle of culture and you had
everybody and their grandmama on this show. So I think
it's one of the most important and you know, best

(04:44):
interviews I think I'm going to have because because of
all of that.

Speaker 1 (04:47):
Let's claim it. Let's claim it.

Speaker 3 (04:49):
I want to go back.

Speaker 2 (04:49):
I want to start from the beginning of these are
the interviews I love because for some reason I thought
you've been up here before. So I want to start
when you first got into the music industry, right, let's
start with you started working with your main Dupris yep
ninety three. Let's start from there. So how did you
hook up a Jamain dupri and what did you do
for Jamaine Duprix.

Speaker 4 (05:05):
So I used to be in Atlanta in the nineties.
I was like the hottest DJ in the city.

Speaker 3 (05:10):
I was the demand.

Speaker 4 (05:11):
I did all the parties and I would see Jermaine
all the time at the clubs. And then I did
this one club called the Phoenix night Club, which was
the hottest nightclub in Atlanta at the time.

Speaker 3 (05:23):
We brought Biggie we brought Biggie.

Speaker 4 (05:26):
I got Biggie and Craig Mac together when they did
the Big Mac Tour, so I got them.

Speaker 3 (05:32):
That's an interesting story because we.

Speaker 4 (05:35):
Got we we I worked on the radio station, but
I wasn't the PD. And you know how back then
you had to go through the PD because you wanted
to get the spins for your artists. So Diddy, you know,
he let us get Biggie and Craig because he thought
I was like the PD. And he get there and
the club is slammed like a million people and he's like, Yo,

(05:58):
what the heck, Yo, we need some more money because
this thing is packed. And then he found out that
I wasn't the PD, and so he was extra pist.
And then he even tried to get the rep that
worked for BMG at the time fired because she got
because we got Craig and Biggie for free.

Speaker 3 (06:14):
Wow.

Speaker 1 (06:15):
So yeah, that was normal back then when artists are
on promo.

Speaker 3 (06:18):
Tall like, yeah, but you had you wanted to go
through the station so you can make sure.

Speaker 4 (06:22):
You get to spend get your look. And we wasn't that,
but we were high promoters. So I was doing all
the hot parties and I would just see Jamaine all
the time. But like even if I wasn't DJing, I
was everywhere, Like I had a thing where I was
I wanted to be from.

Speaker 3 (06:37):
I called it from Bankhead to Buckhead.

Speaker 4 (06:39):
That was from the boogie spots to the the most
hood you can get in Atlanta.

Speaker 3 (06:44):
So I was literally everywhere. And Jermaine came to me.

Speaker 4 (06:47):
Well, for one thing, people don't really know, Dallas Austin's
brother came to me first, so his name was Claude Austin.
He passed away, but Claude Austin came to me first
and wanted me to work for Rowley. But then Jamaine
came to me around the same time, and Claude ended
up passing and so and Jamaine came because I was

(07:09):
just everywhere, and he was like, I need you, someone
like you to represent, you know, my label, because you everywhere.

Speaker 3 (07:15):
So he hired me.

Speaker 4 (07:16):
In nineteen ninety three, I started working at Social Death
and I was hired to do A and R and
street promotions because I was everywhere, right, so he wanted
he wanted someone that had respecting the city, that could
go anywhere, and someone like me that I was always out,
so that was represent Social Death from Bankhead.

Speaker 3 (07:34):
Like I said to Buckheat.

Speaker 2 (07:35):
And what artist did you have being in a and
off for Social Death at that time.

Speaker 4 (07:38):
I had I put together all of the Social Death
based all stars and at night.

Speaker 3 (07:44):
I think yeah. And that changed.

Speaker 4 (07:49):
That changed music too, like it gave us a whole
genre that had never been created, like had never been
done before. And that all started because in Atlanta we
used to do like it was DJ Jelly shout Out,
DJ Jelly shout Out Uh, the j Team, DJ Smurf
and all of those guys.

Speaker 3 (08:08):
They would take.

Speaker 4 (08:11):
Like slow jam acapellas, like say, one famous mix was
U can You Stand the Rain? New Edition and put
it over a base beat. So they used to do
all of these mixes like that. They would just do
a whole mixtape. It'll be all bass beats and then
these R and B A cappellas, and so I was like,
we love this so much in the city, let's take

(08:32):
that and make a record from that.

Speaker 3 (08:34):
Nobody made an actual song.

Speaker 4 (08:36):
So I came up with that concept and I went
to my boy DJ Cool Collie aka Rodney, and then
at the same time I met carlmo Uh. He used
to call the phone that Social Death and play his
tracks on the phone. Interesting story about that. So one
day I'm like, these tracks are dope. So I called

(08:57):
him to the to the office and he comes up
there with a freaking keyboard and plays the keyboard like
just playing the keyboard, not like no CDs, no cassette tape,
just playing the keyboard. And I'm like, this is crazy.
So I ended up using him and we did my
Boo and so yeah, I did all of the Soco
Death Base All Stars, and then out of that we

(09:19):
had play a Pancho.

Speaker 3 (09:20):
He got signed and we did a couple of records
with Player Pancho.

Speaker 4 (09:23):
And Player Pancho is actually how I met the East
Side Boys, Wow, Because Player Pancho would always when he
would go out, he would have a whole like.

Speaker 3 (09:31):
Twenty ten twenty guys with him, and.

Speaker 4 (09:34):
The East Side Boys was always with him, even if
it was just like two or three guys. And so
I was always with Pancho because he was my artist,
you know. And so me and the East Side Boys
just one day we were in the club and I
think we were in the club five five nine, and
we just start chatting this.

Speaker 3 (09:53):
Chant who who you with? Get with and then everybody in.

Speaker 4 (09:57):
The club start chatting and then I look at Big Sam.
I'm like, we need to turn this into a song.
And so I know I have access to people with
labels and stuff, so I called somebody I knew. Actually
I called kol Ace. Uh, this guy named kol Ace
and kol A's connected me with this guy named Carlos
Glover and we ended up going in the studio and
we made the song who You With? And that started

(10:19):
everything for a little John as an artist.

Speaker 2 (10:21):
When did you start producing? When did did the production
bug coming?

Speaker 3 (10:25):
Uh? Probably like ninety two.

Speaker 2 (10:28):
And you never you never made beats at that time.
You just bought a machine and said I'm on.

Speaker 3 (10:32):
No.

Speaker 4 (10:32):
It started off where me and my partner I used
to do a show in Atlanta called Reggae Jammin on
the like main station in Atlanta, B one O three and.

Speaker 3 (10:44):
Me and Paul I was in.

Speaker 4 (10:45):
The sound system with Paul Lewis called four Seasons. So
I was like a selector like the Jamaican sound did.

Speaker 2 (10:51):
Jamaican music did every time of gen music.

Speaker 4 (10:55):
We had a we had a dance hall, We had
a reggae show on Friday nights on the station, and
what we would do is I would take hip hop
a cappellas and put them over dance all beats and
dance all a cappellas, put them over hip hop beats.
Through that, we got linked up with Signette Records and
we got we convinced them to give us the Cableton
Tour a cappella. That's how I got to do the

(11:16):
Cableton Tour remix. Like when I did Verses, I remember
playing it and people were like, you ain't do that,
like and I remember, like in real time, DJ Scratch
pulled the vinyl out and he put in the chat
like I'm looking at the credits.

Speaker 3 (11:29):
He actually did produce it.

Speaker 4 (11:30):
So what we did at that time we would kind
of tell somebody how we wanted to produce the records,
and later on we bought a drum machine. I learned
how to produce by the time we got to Who
You Wit, which was ninety five ninety six, But before
that we kind of just told somebody like, yo, chop this,
chop that, do this da da.

Speaker 3 (11:47):
Da d d yo.

Speaker 1 (11:48):
Did you have product your credits on my boot as well?

Speaker 3 (11:50):
I did not.

Speaker 4 (11:51):
I should have gotten some because I really co produced
the song with them. But I thought, as part of
my descript job description as an RS, the first project
I'm doing that that was just part of the job.
But I was really there every step of the way
of inception of putting that song together.

Speaker 5 (12:08):
I'm glad you mentioned Sam and Bolt too, because people
always seem to forget about the East Side Boys.

Speaker 1 (12:13):
What did they bring to the table?

Speaker 5 (12:15):
What made Little John and the East Side Boys such
an amazing group?

Speaker 4 (12:18):
We were just like because we were We were the
sound of the rowdy guys in the back of the club.

Speaker 3 (12:26):
That's where we were.

Speaker 4 (12:27):
We were them niggas that were turned up in the
back that you just be looking back like, make sure
they ain't coming over here with that.

Speaker 3 (12:36):
So we were that.

Speaker 4 (12:37):
And what people don't understand about krunk music. I know
some people are like, why was it? Why did it
do what it do? Why did it spread? Why did
it become big? Because it was an outlet of energy.

Speaker 3 (12:48):
For black youth. Yes, when you.

Speaker 4 (12:50):
Went to the club, you had a hard ass week,
you had a hard life, whatever the fuck was going
on in your life. You hear that fucking krunk music
and you get in that damn mind and you let
all of that out and you feel amazing, you know
what I mean. So that's why krunk music was able
to reach so many people.

Speaker 3 (13:10):
That's why I still like going.

Speaker 4 (13:11):
Like I see you talking of all the time about
knuck as you Buckets the Negro, and it is like
it touches your soul in a certain way.

Speaker 3 (13:20):
And I think we do. And and like krunk.

Speaker 4 (13:23):
Music tap into music to their ancestors because they were
channing and so on and so forth.

Speaker 2 (13:29):
What did you do when you were a band from clubs?
I remember in college there was some clubs that like,
you cannot play none of that in this club, put
your hood.

Speaker 3 (13:37):
Up and all that stuff.

Speaker 4 (13:39):
We just kept going because when you when you tell
somebody can't have it, they wanted more, you know. But
it was crazy that the music got people so rowdy
that they were like losing.

Speaker 3 (13:52):
I've seen people.

Speaker 4 (13:53):
I was in Louisiana one time we did a show
and it got so turned up they start fighting the
police in the club.

Speaker 3 (14:02):
Yeah, it was crazy.

Speaker 4 (14:04):
I want to just talk about one thing real quick
that it's been going viral. It's the video of the
two dollars bill concert that we did in Atlanta. It's
a viral video of be performing Get Crunk and that
whole concert, and you can see the energy on each
and if y'all look at the video, each and everybody

(14:27):
in there's face is turned up. It ain't nobody, not
one fucking cell phone in the air. Everybody's enjoying the moment.
Everybody is energized. And even you can see that the
ground was shaking because the camera when it's.

Speaker 3 (14:42):
Steady, it is like moving.

Speaker 4 (14:45):
That's how much energy was in that place. And I
think it's just a testament.

Speaker 3 (14:50):
To like.

Speaker 4 (14:52):
We just brought something different, you know, And like the
kids now think they are turning up, but they have
no idea what a real hurnt up time was from
the two thousand.

Speaker 5 (15:03):
And get crunked with such a great record, because I
didn't think you could get crunker than Kings of Crunk,
you know, I didn't think you could get.

Speaker 1 (15:10):
Crunkd in that. But as soon as you hear who
in my Beohagen being me? Motherfuck you?

Speaker 3 (15:15):
Like God killed that salute Bohagen out there?

Speaker 5 (15:18):
How did you how did you even have the mindset
to take that to another level? How did you take
that energy to another level?

Speaker 4 (15:24):
That beat was produced by Little j who produced Knock
If You Buck. So it was time to you know,
come and work on the album, and you know, everybody
down with be and me. Of course people that don't
know Crime Mob. Part of that was through being me,
so we are part of putting them out there. So
of course I called all of the squad, you know,

(15:44):
Trillville helped me write some of the songs, and yeah,
Little Jay sent me. I think he sent me some
beats and that was one of the beats and I
was like, this is insane.

Speaker 3 (15:54):
I thought it was one of the crukest beats ever too.

Speaker 4 (15:57):
I think my favorite beats that I've produced are co
produced are been on this get crunk and what You're
Gonna Do and what You're Gonna Do is unique. I
was in New York when I did that beat. I
remember I was on TVT and Steve Gottlieb and shout
out to Brian Leach, my boy, Brian Leach. She was

(16:19):
the an R at the time. He was like Brian Leach.
Brian Leash was like, Yo, you gotta go in and
knock out this song for this. I think it was
like a Christmas album or some Christmas crunk album that
Steve Gottlie wanted to put out and I'm like, he
can't put no fucking album out called Crump without me,
So like, fuck this guy. And so I was in
the New I was in New York and Brian was like,

(16:40):
you gotta go in and record this song. So I
was angry when I made that beat. I'm never mad
when I make tracks, but that's one of the only
beats I've ever made when I was angry, And that's
why it sounds so aggressive, because I was mad that
I had to go in the studio and record this.
I wanted to just go out like I was like,
I'm going on to the club. He was like, no,

(17:01):
you gotta go and do this song. And so that's
my anger coming out through the drummers.

Speaker 1 (17:05):
Did you have a trademark the word crunk?

Speaker 3 (17:09):
I can't remember. Probably did all my ad libs.

Speaker 1 (17:12):
I know that because you're the face of crunk.

Speaker 5 (17:14):
But to me, I would have to give I would
take three six Mafia probably the.

Speaker 4 (17:19):
So that's another argument going around. It's an argument that
says Memphis started crunk. Here's here's my Here's what I
will say. We in Atlanta. You couldn't be Atlanta in
the nineties and not be listening to eight ball MJG.
You couldn't be riding around not listening to master P.

Speaker 3 (17:39):
Master P.

Speaker 4 (17:40):
Master P changed the landscape of the South, the South period.
He was the first one that really got us rowdy.
I would say it was master P, but we was
listening to Balling G. And of course three six Mafia
came around that.

Speaker 1 (17:54):
Do you think he got us roody before three to six?

Speaker 3 (17:56):
I think about it, about.

Speaker 1 (17:58):
It, about it, yeah, but the club Up.

Speaker 3 (18:02):
Club was ninety seven? What yet about about it come out?

Speaker 2 (18:06):
I was in college.

Speaker 4 (18:08):
I think it was like ninety five. I remember what
happened was in the club in Atlanta. It was playing
bass music and then when master P came that was.

Speaker 2 (18:16):
Over about about that was ninety five, definitely. That was
a freshman of college.

Speaker 3 (18:19):
That was the record.

Speaker 4 (18:20):
Motherfuckers in the hood was getting no limit tattoos.

Speaker 3 (18:25):
Exactly.

Speaker 4 (18:26):
That's what changes for us. So I will say Memphis
is part of the influence, but our sound is different.
Memphis was getting Bucks.

Speaker 1 (18:35):
It was ninety seven. That's even late though.

Speaker 4 (18:36):
No, No, when we got when we got Terry Club
was when they redid it.

Speaker 3 (18:43):
That was ninety seven.

Speaker 4 (18:44):
Because I remember it says on the Vinyl Tarrtor Club
up ninety seven. So but it started for us with
Master p Master about it about it.

Speaker 3 (18:53):
Ship just changed it.

Speaker 4 (18:54):
But we are influenced. But it's all different sounds, but
it all intertwined and works together.

Speaker 1 (19:01):
So what would you call what three six was doing?

Speaker 3 (19:05):
They called it in Memphis Memphis buck, but three six
was doing it even we weuldn't even buck music.

Speaker 4 (19:10):
I think it was just three six created the three
six created their own lane of Memphis music, and then
they changed the landscape of what Memphis music is. So
salute Paul Juicy and the whole squad. That's family too.

Speaker 2 (19:25):
You know, you know what the word ask too when
you made when you were making these tracks, did you
try to make it your business not to sound the same,
because you know, when you look at your desiography to
see some of the records that you did, like, I'm
so amazed because they don't sound the same. Right, you
can go to the window, to the wall, you could
blow your whistle over here and then you can like
the ship is amazing.

Speaker 4 (19:46):
Yeah, Well it depends, well a lot of it. So
so let's talk Get Low. Interesting story of Get Low
get Load became because I was trying to make Party Up.
I was inspired by part I love dmxa's Party Up
so much.

Speaker 3 (20:04):
I was like, I want to make something like that.

Speaker 4 (20:06):
Let me go in the studio. This was like ninety nine,
and so I go in and I come out with
get Low. If you listen to it, it's got the
whistle like Party Up. It's some similarities. I'm inspired by it.
But I sat on the beat. I couldn't really.

Speaker 3 (20:20):
Come up with nothing.

Speaker 4 (20:20):
And then I had a session with Yin Yang and
I pulled that beat out and we may get Low.
So it comes out like that just came like I said,
because I was trying to do something different, but it
turned from like a rowdy party up type song to
a tork song.

Speaker 3 (20:34):
But then like say tell me when to go E forty.

Speaker 4 (20:37):
We were in the studio together, and that's the energy
of what he's giving me and his squad is giving me, and.

Speaker 3 (20:43):
It comes out into the drummer shot.

Speaker 4 (20:45):
So every time I make the best stuff when I'm
in the studio, young bloods.

Speaker 3 (20:50):
Damn.

Speaker 4 (20:50):
We were in the studio together and it took two
days for us to get that song done. Like I
did the beat the first day. We had the verses
the first day, but we did not have the hook.
And then the second day we just threw a party
in the studio and then Bohagen again shout out Bohagen.
He was like everybody was throwing hooks out and then.

Speaker 3 (21:10):
He was just kind of mumbling something.

Speaker 4 (21:12):
I was like, what you got, because I'm shooting everybody
shit down like that shits trash, and then he's just
mumbling son.

Speaker 3 (21:17):
I was like, what's that? That?

Speaker 4 (21:20):
That's it, that's it, go lay that and then I
got the second part, you know, And sometimes that's how
some of the records happened to, like you just stumble
onto it. The whistle blow the whistle. I did that
bat that. I did that beat the same week that
I did tell me when to go Damn.

Speaker 3 (21:38):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (21:38):
So I was working on E forty's album and I
think we had done muscle Cars that day. So too Short,
Too Short had came to the studio a couple of
days after that.

Speaker 3 (21:51):
So before, like earlier in the.

Speaker 4 (21:54):
Week, I was making beats and I was going through
sounds and I found that sound and I was like, ooh,
this sounded like can tails baseline, Like this is a
base like that. I was like, let me make some
with that, and I don't know what made me instead
of making it slow, make it fast.

Speaker 3 (22:08):
Because I like to do stuff different.

Speaker 4 (22:10):
I don't like to be expected, so I was like,
let me make it one hundred whatever bpms. So I
put it to the side, and when too Short came
to the studio a couple of days later, I was like,
here you go. You know I got something for you,
But first forty turned it down to forty Forty had
to remind me of this the other day. He was like,
you know, you gave me that beat first, and I

(22:32):
was like, this sounded like Todd, so give it to Todd.

Speaker 3 (22:34):
So that's what happened.

Speaker 1 (22:36):
Basically, he should get corproduction credits.

Speaker 3 (22:43):
You didn't want it.

Speaker 5 (22:44):
What moment made you realize Crump had officially crossed from
suvering energy to a global.

Speaker 3 (22:49):
Move coming up doing MTV.

Speaker 4 (22:53):
They let me get in Times Square on a double
deckord bus with a little scrappy on tr doing what
you gonna do?

Speaker 3 (23:03):
Bruh MTV.

Speaker 5 (23:06):
I was gonna say MTV too, because I remember watching
the Video Music Awards.

Speaker 1 (23:09):
I forgot what year it was.

Speaker 5 (23:11):
They played get Low going in the commercial break and
the audience went crazy, and Justin Timberlake was wilent and
I just remember thinking to myself, Oh, get Lowers out
of here.

Speaker 4 (23:22):
Yeah, and then we end up performing get Low at
the MTV Video Music Awards.

Speaker 3 (23:27):
Get Low, Yeah, Lean Back.

Speaker 4 (23:31):
And what else we did that year, I can't remember,
but that was that was a big time and Dave
Chappelle was the host, So that was pretty insane.

Speaker 3 (23:38):
That was a pretty insane year for me.

Speaker 2 (23:39):
And when when you touched when you started doing R
and B, did you think you could do R and B?
Or was one of the things. How did you get
introduced to say, let me try to make R and
B records for doing all already doing them with the also.

Speaker 3 (23:50):
Well that was different. So here's what happened.

Speaker 4 (23:53):
So Sean Garrett shout out Sean Garrett, incredible songwriter. He
reached out to I guess he was trying to get
in touch with me and he couldn't get in touch
with me, so he knew somebody that worked with me.

Speaker 3 (24:04):
Her name was Delicia.

Speaker 4 (24:06):
Delicia had all my beats, so she gave him a
beat CD and that's how he got the beat Basically,
the freaka Eite beat.

Speaker 3 (24:15):
Which turned into yeah, So she gave him the beat.

Speaker 4 (24:17):
So thank you Delicia forgiving Sean those beats, and Sean
wrote yeah to.

Speaker 3 (24:25):
That Freakaak beat. So crazy thing about that is that
beat was for mystical. Freaka League's beat was for mystical.
So I did though.

Speaker 4 (24:34):
I used to like have labels booked me in Circle
House shout out be bat Circle House in Miami, and
I like, take a week and I just go and
do as many beasts as possible, and the label could
take all the beats put them on whatever artists they want.
So these particular sessions was for mystical.

Speaker 3 (24:49):
That beat was in there.

Speaker 4 (24:51):
He passed on it, and so I think CEO shout
out Coo. He got the beat and he wrote freakalyk
my I don't even know, but he wrote that and
submitted it to the label Pete Pablo. He ended up recording.
But I don't even know this. So Sean Garrett has
the beat. He writes, yeah, Usher don't want to record

(25:14):
no more songs. He done with the damn out. He's like,
I'm good, I got burned, I got all these other songs.

Speaker 3 (25:19):
I'm good, We're good.

Speaker 4 (25:21):
LA reads like no go record the damn song. So
he goes to record the song and.

Speaker 3 (25:28):
We come out with it.

Speaker 4 (25:30):
I remember going into doing the session too, like we
I think we recording La and we were like, this
is a smash, right, and so the song is in
the can and then I remember it was around Christmas
time the album was done. La Reid is in Miami
and he calls JD going insane, and JD called me

(25:51):
on three Way and La Reid is like.

Speaker 3 (25:53):
Why am I hearing this Usher record on the.

Speaker 4 (25:55):
Radio And basically it was the freakingly instrumental plan as
a bed. They had released the song as a single,
Freaka Leak, and we didn't even know.

Speaker 3 (26:07):
I didn't even know they had used to beat.

Speaker 4 (26:09):
So La Red is going crazy and then we're like,
all right, we're just gonna go in and do a
new beat.

Speaker 3 (26:15):
Thank god we.

Speaker 4 (26:16):
Did, because yeah over Freaka Leak is not as good
as yeah as Yeah.

Speaker 3 (26:21):
Now that's how God worked.

Speaker 4 (26:24):
And crazy story is when I went into the studio
to like redo the beat, I'm like, how that Pete Poplo.

Speaker 3 (26:30):
Record ain't gonna be that big. Just take all the
keys off, let's just play a new STI because it's Usher.

Speaker 4 (26:39):
You know what I mean, and I don't, you know,
I just didn't think it was gonna be that big.
It could have been a cool record, but I didn't
think it was gonna be a number one song.

Speaker 3 (26:48):
Like it was.

Speaker 4 (26:49):
So that's why the beats sound similar, is because I
just used the same exact drums, but I played a
different synth line. So well, it got my boy a rock.
My boy Rock played the scynth line, so we just
played a new synth line and here we are with
two monsters.

Speaker 3 (27:06):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (27:06):
It probably helped frequently though, because.

Speaker 3 (27:08):
Yeah, make them together lover and friends, so that I was.

Speaker 6 (27:15):
Going to get to that that origin story tell them.

Speaker 3 (27:18):
So when we when I can't.

Speaker 4 (27:21):
We were working on my album Crunk Juice, right, So uh,
instead of going with another up tempo I like to
be different. I could have certainly went to Usher, John
and Luda with another fast song. I said, let's do
something different. And at at in Atlanta, we go to
Strip club for everything, so we always in you know.
I was in the Strip club one day and the

(27:43):
DJ played the Michael Sterling Lovers.

Speaker 3 (27:46):
And Friends, and I was like, huh, that.

Speaker 4 (27:50):
Could be pretty cool for Usher to do. So let's
let's back up. So this is before Usher's album is done.
I give Usher the Michael STERR on the City, like
check this out. We should do this over this nigga
don't listen to it.

Speaker 3 (28:03):
He don't listen to it. So we on my album.
So I'm like, I'm gonna take that Lovers and Friends
I did and do it from my album.

Speaker 4 (28:12):
So I do the beat over and I let Usher
know yo, I got this joint for us, like, come
you know.

Speaker 3 (28:18):
Let's do it.

Speaker 4 (28:18):
So he flies in, he records it and he's out
and after he does his part, so I'm just like, wow,
this is a smash.

Speaker 3 (28:25):
So I called Luda.

Speaker 4 (28:26):
I'm like, bro, we got another one, like I need
you on his asap, saying it to Luda. He did
his part and then I go in last because I'm
not the rapper, and so I was like, I need
to take my time to make sure my verse is
as catchy as possible because I can't compete against Luda Chris.
And then it's Usher like come on. So I was like,

(28:48):
let me take something from this record. We had a
record called It's a record we did with Ubi.

Speaker 3 (28:56):
I forgot the name of it.

Speaker 1 (28:57):
Nothing Free, Nothing Free, you forget that that's a classic.

Speaker 3 (29:00):
Nothing's free.

Speaker 4 (29:01):
So we did nothing free like in the nineties, and
so I was like, that shady part was really catchy
on that song, but it was regional. Nobody really heard
it out of the South. So it's like, let me
take that same little thing and put that in Lovers
and Friends, and that will be the little catch for
my verse to make it catchier and a little Did
I know that that was gonna be.

Speaker 3 (29:22):
Like people's favorite verses because it's so simple.

Speaker 4 (29:26):
It's so simple and it's catchy, and yeah, that's one
of That song went number one without.

Speaker 3 (29:31):
A video.

Speaker 4 (29:33):
Because it was the labels and Superstartists and Superstar.

Speaker 3 (29:37):
Ad and Da Da Da Da Da.

Speaker 4 (29:38):
But number one song rap song of the year without
a video in the two thousands is impossible.

Speaker 5 (29:47):
You got three of and you made me think of
it when you said nothing for You got three artists
that I feel like should have been way yeah, China White, yeah,
Oubie and Bull Hagen Yeah what you What do you think?

Speaker 1 (29:59):
Was why did I didn't connect?

Speaker 4 (30:01):
We worked hard, like UBI was with me for a
long time. We did a lot of records, but we
just never got the right one. Just how It just
happens like that sometimes with artists. Uh, China went to
jail right when we shot the video for Bea Bea
and me and my boy Rob Mac left the video
at the end of the video shoot.

Speaker 3 (30:21):
We drove her to prison after the video shoot, all
the way in Louisiana. So she did. I don't remember
how much time it was. It was at least five years.

Speaker 1 (30:30):
That sound mixed deliriously.

Speaker 3 (30:38):
She went to fan time for gun Running Damn yeah.

Speaker 4 (30:41):
So she she didn't even get to perform the song
at his peak at all, so that that messed her
window up. And then bo Haggen the same thing. We
were just trying to get the records. We just never
got the records.

Speaker 3 (30:53):
You know.

Speaker 4 (30:54):
We said, I set them up nicely and get crunk
and you know he did the hook on Dan, but
we just never.

Speaker 3 (30:59):
Was able to translate.

Speaker 4 (31:01):
Those are things that you know, hurt me to this
day because those were people that.

Speaker 3 (31:05):
Are down with me for a long time and I.

Speaker 4 (31:08):
Was pushing, pushing, pushing and working they make the record,
but sometimes they just it just don't come out.

Speaker 6 (31:13):
You know.

Speaker 7 (31:15):
I was going to say with the Lovers and Friends
video when I when I watched you tell the story
you talked about. I know you mentioned labels loosely, but
you said that the labels didn't look at you as
a comparable artist too. Yeah, which when I heard, like,
I just I mean, I don't know, it made me
upset when I heard you say.

Speaker 4 (31:31):
Well, you gotta think Ludacris is a rapper death Jam.
In the two thousands, Usher is fucking Usher at Monster,
biggest guy in R and B. And I'm this guy
doing krunk music. You got it.

Speaker 3 (31:46):
It's not the time, it's not the same times.

Speaker 4 (31:48):
Now as I'm I'm known, I'm established, I've proven myself
over and over again. But early in those in those days,
it hadn't happened yet.

Speaker 5 (31:57):
So really, yeah, they feel like you helped the I
ain't that whole sound of the early.

Speaker 4 (32:01):
Dude, but they didn't. I don't feel like, you know,
death jam, you know what I mean? Oh sure, I
don't think nobody got it back then. No, Yeah, lou
John was it was.

Speaker 2 (32:12):
He wasn't looked at as an artist per se like
Luda or exactly Usher. He was a host, DJ production.

Speaker 3 (32:19):
Yeah that's what it was, hype man, producer. Yeah, you know,
that's the.

Speaker 5 (32:23):
Clubs without you know, what was.

Speaker 1 (32:28):
The clubs without crunk music? Little John back then like no.

Speaker 3 (32:32):
A lot less energy.

Speaker 2 (32:34):
Was it ever a low period for Little John?

Speaker 3 (32:36):
Yeah?

Speaker 4 (32:37):
I got burnt out probably after after the forties album,
and I think I tried, we tried to do a
second Trillville and Scrappy album, and I just was.

Speaker 3 (32:47):
Fried from all.

Speaker 4 (32:49):
You know, you got to think about I was going
since the nineties, ninety three, you know, producing to was
that two thousand and eight or nine two thousand and eight,
and I'm I'm just depleted. I have no creative juices left.
I go in the studio, I'm trying to produce and
trying to make stuff. I think, yet nothing's coming out.

(33:10):
I think that's also what happened with two of those
artists too, because I might have gotten to the point
where I was.

Speaker 3 (33:15):
Just had nothing left. I couldn't I couldn't create it.

Speaker 4 (33:20):
And then so what I started to do was just
go back to the foundation DJ, go back to the clubs.
And what happened was Reggie Bush invited me out to
the first game in the super Dome after Katrina.

Speaker 3 (33:34):
So I went there and that night he had an
after party.

Speaker 4 (33:38):
Went to the after party and it was a DJ
DJ and I was just like, this dude is freaking dope.
So I met the dude and he was cool and
so the next day his.

Speaker 3 (33:51):
Name is DJ Spider.

Speaker 4 (33:52):
So the next day we were I was in the
airport and this nerdy white dude come up to me like,
hey remember me? Like who the He was like, oh, Spider,
I was DJing last night. I was like, oh shit,
So what happened was he really inspired me to get
back into DJing by the way he was mixing. So
me and Spider linked up. He like got me on Serado,

(34:13):
he started like gave me, helped me get my music
library up, and we started DJing together. So I started
to kind of get back into DJing. And so DJing
brought my producer creative energy back.

Speaker 1 (34:25):
Is that when the records like Shot Shot Shots and
all that stuff came.

Speaker 4 (34:28):
That came just by me being out and meeting people
and and you know learning this you know, Open Format
World and EDM World, and yeah, I ended up meeting lmfao.
I was kind of following their story and uh a
mutual friend of ours named Eric Deluxe who kind of
he wrote shots too. U. He reached out to me

(34:49):
and sent me to record. I was like, this record
is a smash. But around that time, I think I
first met them when we did a pit Bull video.
We were on like I think it was crazy. I
think they were in that video. So I was kind of.

Speaker 3 (35:01):
Working with Pittbull because we did the anthem we did Crazy.

Speaker 4 (35:05):
Then Yeah shots came so I was still I started
to move into another world because I saw that EDM world.
I kind of jumped in right at just starting to
get crazy, and I ended up getting a DJ residency
in eight in Vegas. So I've been in Vegas doing
a DJ residency since eight and I'm still there now.

(35:27):
So that was a place where I could really, you know,
learn a different style, this open format world, and just
get my energy back from just being in the midst
of the people and understanding what makes people move and
groove again.

Speaker 3 (35:42):
Because DJing is the foundation of my production.

Speaker 4 (35:45):
Like I think I started playing the drums when I
was in elementary school, So drums and DJing are the
two key elements to my production style. That's why it's
more beat driven, and that's why they're all club records.

Speaker 5 (36:00):
DJ side when you choose the pivot because you know
you've pivoted a lot. When you choose the pivot, is
it because of where music is going or where you're
going as a person?

Speaker 3 (36:07):
Where my spirit leaves me? My spirit?

Speaker 4 (36:10):
You know, when I started to get back into djaying,
God put these people in my path to say, okay,
you should now start moving over here. And I remember
like telling my manager and my lawyer, I want to
go over here and do this DJ stuff. They like, bro,
you making one hundred grand or beat? What the hell
is wrong with you? I was like, I can't do
it no more.

Speaker 3 (36:31):
But I saw the future and I just trust. I
always trust my spirit.

Speaker 4 (36:36):
Ladies and gentlemen, don't listen to your mind, listen to
your spirit. And you got to learn the difference between
the two. And when you learn the difference, your spirit
is never gonna lead you wrong. Trust it and it's
gonna be fine. And that's what I've been doing, you know,
pretty much my whole life, and everything's been okay, you

(36:57):
know what I mean. Like I've been able to now
have a number one dium song, hip hop song, R
and B song, AC song. How many people you know
had a hit song in every in four decades?

Speaker 3 (37:09):
Right? You know?

Speaker 4 (37:11):
We had a hit with even the usher Glue song.
I think it was an AC hit number one, I
take it. And then I had a song with Pitt
Bull that came out two years ago called Jumping that
was like number one on some Charge. So yeah, since
the nineties, I've been doing this and I'm just thankful
every day to wake up and to still be able

(37:33):
to do this, and to also like, right now is
the time where the two thousands is on fire? Yeah, Like, yes,
it's on Like I'm doing so many shows that and
and for crowds that I haven't seen and you know,
or maybe not have done.

Speaker 3 (37:49):
It's a headline.

Speaker 4 (37:50):
I have never headlined for ten thousand people until like
the last couple of years Tackles. Yeah, So it's like,
it's amazing that that people the memories that people have
from that era, the fun time they had. It's making
this music you know now come back and it's in
a major.

Speaker 6 (38:10):
Way made you what made you do the meditation?

Speaker 2 (38:15):
So that's totally far the other end of the spectrum.

Speaker 4 (38:19):
Yeah, turning fifty, turn fifty, a lot of things started
to happen in my life. First thing I it hit
me was like I asked myself what makes you happy?

Speaker 3 (38:33):
And I said, damn, only.

Speaker 4 (38:37):
Making sure everybody else good, but that's not what makes me.

Speaker 3 (38:41):
Like what makes me happy?

Speaker 4 (38:43):
I couldn't really tell myself, and so I was like,
you know what, I need to kind of put myself first.

Speaker 3 (38:50):
Like I'm not happy in this marriage. Like, so I said,
I want to do divorce.

Speaker 4 (38:57):
And I was around the same time, me and my
my good friend Doug Davis. We talked like every year
because he calls and gives me shit because he's he's
like a couple months younger than me, so he's like, oh,
you're old man.

Speaker 3 (39:10):
So we're talking and.

Speaker 4 (39:12):
He was telling me he wanted to introduce me to
somebody that was in this space and I was like, oh,
that's interesting because I've been listening to like all of this.

Speaker 3 (39:22):
Like by neural beats to sleep.

Speaker 4 (39:25):
And relax and ocean and rain and all of this
type of stuff. So me and this guy kuld Bear,
his name is caber Sego, we connected. And so I'm
going through the divorce and like I didn't like where
my mental state was at because I'm angry. I'm like, ah,
why can't she just do this and that? And so

(39:48):
I'm like mad, and I don't like, that's not me.
I'm a positive at all times person. I don't think negatively.
So I'm like, I started to like meditate. I started
to say affirmations every day, and it helped me to
be in a better mental state, as well as having

(40:08):
good people in my corner, like my queen.

Speaker 3 (40:11):
Her name is Jamila. She was there for me at
that time, and she would give me.

Speaker 4 (40:14):
Like also like just positive. She would just keep me,
try to keep me in a positive mindset. And she
had been through a rough divorce too, so she can
give me some insight and just you know, help me
keep my head up. So the affirmations every day, I
would literally get a cup of tea and I had
a copper pyramid on my deck. I'll drink, get my tea,

(40:35):
go sit in this copper pyramid and meditate and just
say these affirmations. I'm happy, I'm healthy, I'm at peace
every single day and throughout the day. And so all
of this happened at the same time I meet Caber
and me and Caber are talking. He's like, let's do
we should do meditation. I was like, yeah, let's do that.

Speaker 3 (40:56):
I'm down with that.

Speaker 4 (40:56):
I think that's great. Because I was saying these affirmations
I meditated. So we went in, we recorded a bunch
of stuff. But yeah, it was because I needed it
was time for a change in my life. I needed
to be in more positive mindset. One thing that I
also did was I was like, I would say, affirmations
of negativity can live inside of me.

Speaker 3 (41:19):
I like, I don't. I try to get rid of
all negative thoughts.

Speaker 4 (41:25):
And when I did that, when I really got rid
of the negative thoughts, I ain't not even saying the
word hate, I didn't even use that word. So I'm
always trying to change anything that happens to me. In
any negative situation, it's some positivity you can pull out
of that you focus on that. So I would always

(41:45):
pull that positivity out. And I've learned if you pull
that out, pull pull a positivity out of any negative situation,
and you let God drive, don't try to drive and
trust God, everything ain't gonna always be all right. And
so we went in, we recorded these albums, and you know,

(42:07):
this time of my life is feeling like I'm doing
what God intended me to do. But what's amazing is
everything that got me here. I was supposed to do.

Speaker 3 (42:17):
And even like all of the music that I've.

Speaker 4 (42:20):
Given people gave people positivity. So it's always been positivity,
but it's meaning more now when someone tells me I
never meditated, you helped me meditate. I was having trouble
getting over this grief of losing someone.

Speaker 3 (42:35):
Your meditation about grief helped me. I'm inspired to do.

Speaker 4 (42:39):
You know how many people have called me about getting
in the gym. It's insane, Like celebrities, all kind of
people are like, you inspired me to get healthy. So
I feel now like I'm doing what God intended me
to do. It took me a long time to get here,
but this is the time it's supposed to be and crazy.

(43:00):
I was thinking about this the other day. I met
mister Farrakhan at the Source Awards and he basically told me,
he said, you got power, you got a voice, and
he basically was kind of trying to tell me, like
use it and that like that stuck with me, Like
I'm like, okay, but now I'm using my voice and

(43:23):
my power in a good way to push positivity into
the world.

Speaker 6 (43:27):
So that is what makes you happy.

Speaker 4 (43:29):
That's what that's what you know. Yeah, it makes me
happy that just to be just to do good, you know,
just to do good because all that comes back.

Speaker 3 (43:43):
And when you.

Speaker 4 (43:46):
Like, a guy came to me, I did the col
of Guard thing, right, A guy came to me in
the club one night in the club and was like,
I did that col of Guard test because of you,
and it came back positive, and he did he didn't
have hold and cancer, but he had polyps. So just
stuff like that, it just makes me feel like I'm
doing good in the workpirate people and being a good

(44:10):
role model to my son.

Speaker 3 (44:12):
I have a daughter now, you know, she's ten months old. Congratulation.

Speaker 4 (44:17):
I look at life like with health like I got
to be here for her, you know what I'm saying.
I gotta be here for her first day of school.
I gotta be here for high school graduation, walk her
down the aisle. So health is even more important than me.
It was something I was doing to just you know,
live a long, full life. But even more so now

(44:37):
I have even more motivation because of my daughter.

Speaker 3 (44:39):
And her mother. I got to be here for them,
you know what I'm saying.

Speaker 5 (44:42):
So it's crazy to see you cry because a lot
of people who never even thought you had ice.

Speaker 3 (44:46):
No, you know what, black man, we need to cry.

Speaker 1 (44:49):
So we need to cry.

Speaker 4 (44:51):
When you get more in tune to your higher self
and you stop vibrating at these low frequencies, you can.

Speaker 3 (44:57):
Let yourself, let the energy flow. We should. We don't
have to be tough all the time. And you're an.

Speaker 4 (45:04):
Advocate for therapy. I push all brothers. We don't have
to suffer in silence. We suffer in freaking silence. Call
your homie sometime to just be like, my nigga, you good?

Speaker 3 (45:14):
How you doing? Not just period, but how you mentally doing? Bro,
Because that one.

Speaker 4 (45:19):
Little conversation could make him not go do some stupid
shit or take his life or whatever.

Speaker 3 (45:24):
You know.

Speaker 4 (45:25):
So I started doing therapy. I push anything, any knowledge
that I got, I try to share with everybody because
we got to help each other.

Speaker 1 (45:34):
We all we got what's the gym? What's the gymy?

Speaker 4 (45:39):
This is a trying, This is positivity abundance and it's
also my daughter's birthstone.

Speaker 3 (45:48):
Yeah.

Speaker 5 (45:49):
I want to ask you a question about about marriage.
Like you never hear men say they were tired of
the marriage, like they wanted to walk away.

Speaker 4 (45:56):
What happens is when you start to walk on those eggshells.
It's just not it's just not a positive environment. And
then when you get to the point where a lot
of times in marriage, we're just there making sure everything's good,
and who the hell checking on us, who's making sure
we okay? Who's making who's coming to us and saying

(46:16):
what do you need today?

Speaker 3 (46:17):
What can I do for you to make you happy?
You know? I know we're the providers and all of that,
but we need that love too. We need that assurance.

Speaker 4 (46:26):
Sometimes women go to your men and just make them
feel like, appreciate it because to live in today's society,
to go out and make that money and all of
the things a husband and a father has to worry
about every single day, Like I said, suffering in silence
that y'all have no clue about. Just be that positive light,

(46:49):
make that house a home, make it radiate positivity.

Speaker 3 (46:52):
You know. So yeah, man, y'all got me up here crime.

Speaker 6 (47:01):
You might have needed to release you know.

Speaker 2 (47:03):
You know what I wanted to know when when Dave
Chappelle was doing the skits at first, did you take
it as disrespectful? Did you always was like, oh this
is great?

Speaker 4 (47:10):
No, A cipher sounds called me and he was like
when he did the first one, and he was like, Yo, Dave.

Speaker 3 (47:15):
Chappelle did this skit on you, Bro, It's crazy, it's hilarious.
I was like, on me, I'm like, why are you
doing sketch on me? Like I ain't nobody.

Speaker 4 (47:24):
And he's like, bro, trust me. And so when I
saw it, I was like, that's really me.

Speaker 3 (47:31):
That is really me.

Speaker 4 (47:33):
And I got on this show because I went one
day to just tell Dave thank you for doing the sketches,
because we have a mutual a friend's named Corey Smith,
and Cory is the reason Dave is part of the
reason Dave does the sketch too, because I think they
might have heard this song, like what song was it?

Speaker 3 (47:52):
I don't give Yeah, I don't give him. He might
have heard it, and he probably was like this would
be interesting if that's all he says. But he's actually intelligent.

Speaker 4 (48:00):
And then Corey was like, yeah, John, Corey thought I
went to morehouse. I just was always hanging out in
the AUC because back in the nineties, if you're from Atlanta,
you went to the AUC, Clark, all of that to
just get girls, you know what I mean. So you
just used to go holler at the girls. So I
used to be always up there. So Corey was like, no,

(48:20):
he's smart, he come from this and that. So Dave
ran with it, and so I went to the show
to thank Dave and Day was like, man, hang out,
I want you to.

Speaker 3 (48:29):
Let's do a sketch.

Speaker 4 (48:30):
Like he didn't even have it, he didn't even know
I was coming, and so we was just we did
one sketch and then he had an idea to do
another one, so he just had me on camera and
he was off camera, and we was improving back and forth,
and that's how.

Speaker 3 (48:43):
We got the Little John and Little John sketch.

Speaker 4 (48:46):
And to think that I was able to improv with
one of the greatest comedians of our time. How many
people get to do that? Not many, you know, So
that was that was amazing. And Dave took me places
that music would never ever be able to take me.

Speaker 1 (49:03):
How did that change everything for you? Just that sketch.

Speaker 4 (49:06):
It just opened me up to more people that didn't
get it or didn't would have never listened to the music.
I remember just being in the airport and like all
kinds of white people coming to me, like the whole
families and all just all types of people because he
was moving the needle at that time for the culture.
So and it just yeah, it just opened up a

(49:27):
lot more doors.

Speaker 6 (49:28):
And that's when they started putting the t's in the name.

Speaker 3 (49:30):
Little John.

Speaker 4 (49:32):
That yeah so and shout out to Cat Williams too,
because he he co signed me too when he did
his Pimp Chronicles.

Speaker 3 (49:40):
I think that's his greatest special to. I'm going on
record saying that.

Speaker 4 (49:44):
And you know, we he brought me out and let
me do my catchphrases and we ended up going in
the studio working on some songs together. He come by
the house, shout out the cat. I need to get
you in the gym with me. Cat, you can go
work out, you can run, but can you push them
wight up?

Speaker 3 (50:02):
Yeah? Do that to do?

Speaker 2 (50:04):
People come up to you all the time like come
on one time, Oh.

Speaker 3 (50:07):
My god, could be yeah. Man, they don't do it
as much as they used to.

Speaker 4 (50:12):
But like people that used to hang out with me,
like say too early two thousands are you know twenty
tens used to be like, bro, you don't get tired
of that?

Speaker 3 (50:22):
And I'm like I don't even hear it no more.

Speaker 4 (50:24):
I zone them people out but like, yeah, I used
to be a like TSA a grocery store exactly, and
they do it, so they they expect me to do it,
so they keep doing it and I might just.

Speaker 1 (50:34):
Be like, what's up, bro, meditation album?

Speaker 7 (50:39):
You do it's a soft yeah, but you yeah, yeah.

Speaker 4 (50:43):
So that's the new the new meditation album. So when
we did the first, we recorded a bunch of stuff.

Speaker 3 (50:51):
When we you know, early too well. Sorry.

Speaker 4 (50:54):
When I did the first meditation album, I recorded a
couple other projects. So one of the projects was something
that my my god, Doug Davis came up with. He
was like, you should take your songs and remix them
into meditations, and I was like okay, So we recorded it,
but I was like, this don't need to come out
first because nobody's gonna take me serious.

Speaker 3 (51:15):
So I'm gonna like, yeah, get low and ground, you know.

Speaker 4 (51:22):
So I was like, we're not gonna do that first,
So now the time we're gonna drop that. I think
it's a fun project, but it's real meditations, but it's
just a playoff of the songs that you know and love.

Speaker 5 (51:34):
I just got a couple of questions, you know, the
industry rewards constant energy, right, like you gotta always be on.
How did you learn the difference between performance energy and
just personal peace?

Speaker 4 (51:45):
I just in myself it's spiritual again, Like I'm just
I just know when to be crazy little John, I know,
be going to be.

Speaker 3 (51:53):
Just cool, chill.

Speaker 1 (51:54):
It's just just.

Speaker 3 (51:55):
Let my spirit got me everywhere, you know what I'm saying.

Speaker 5 (51:58):
So and you talking about the meditation and the mindful
this like what I would ask when you at the
height of crump. Did you even have the language for
like stress and anxiety and burnout back then?

Speaker 3 (52:08):
No, I didn't.

Speaker 4 (52:09):
I was just go go go go, go, go, go, go, go,
go go go. It was all just cause I don't
I don't know where the peak is, you know what
I mean? And I don't even expect to get where
I got, you know, because I just started off me
and the East Side Boys. We did that first song
who You With, just to make something for the clubs
of Atlanta, and then that turned into Okay, now you

(52:30):
gotta do an album, and then that turned into being
on Anger Management tour with Eminem and fifty cent, and
then fifty cent even took me to Australia.

Speaker 3 (52:38):
I went on tour with fifty in Australia, you know
what I'm saying. So it's like I'm just happy to
be here.

Speaker 4 (52:43):
I'm just gonna keep going because and that's how I am, Like,
I just I gotta work. I gotta keep working, you know,
because these are opportunities that are coming to me. So
I don't want to you know, somebody sitting at home
right now wishing they could be out or somebody else
could take this opportunity and use it if I don't
use it.

Speaker 3 (53:00):
So I'm gonna take advantage of all of that.

Speaker 4 (53:02):
Now.

Speaker 2 (53:02):
You are a big drink at one time and totally
stopped Yes, yeah, what made you stop that drinking?

Speaker 3 (53:08):
Turning fifty.

Speaker 2 (53:10):
To fifty to stop drinking?

Speaker 5 (53:12):
Ye, judge, judgment, you still.

Speaker 1 (53:17):
Damn.

Speaker 4 (53:18):
So I turned fifty and for a while, like a
year or two, I had this constant like discomfort, excuse me,
discomfort in my side and I didn't know what it was.

Speaker 3 (53:28):
So fifty like I.

Speaker 4 (53:30):
Need to go get a I need to go to
a doctor, right, So I went to the doctor and
the doctor is like, okay, for one is I thought
it was my liver because I'm like, I drink too much.
It's got to be my liver, and I'm scared. So
he's like, your liver's on the other side.

Speaker 3 (53:44):
It's not your li.

Speaker 4 (53:47):
And then he's like, it's probably inflammation in your gut.
He's like, you're you're fifty years old. You need a
colonoscopy anyway to check for polyps. So when I'm in there,
I can check. I can do an endoscopy and check
your gut. So comes back and I have inflammation in

(54:08):
my gut. So I had stopped drinking because I was
scared of deliver. So I had already stopped. So by
the time I had the colonoscoy, it had been like
six months, and I was like, I'm good, I'm just.

Speaker 3 (54:20):
Gonna not drink no more. So I think I was
going like three months and I was like six months.
I was like nah.

Speaker 4 (54:25):
Then I was like maybe I go nine months. Then
I went to a year, and I was like when
I got to the year mark, I was like, I'm good,
I don't even need to drink no more, you know.
And I think one thing that kind of that that
like brought some insight to me, like health has been
like important me for a while because I knew like
a guy that had a triple bypass.

Speaker 3 (54:47):
He was like thirty five.

Speaker 4 (54:49):
So that started me first on my like I need
to start correcting stuff with myself before it's too late,
because the older you get, the harder it is to
reverse what's going on. So that's that started. And then
when I was dating my partner Jamila, she really pushed
me into I think she saved my life because she
pushed me into getting my blood work done and getting

(55:12):
lab work done.

Speaker 3 (55:14):
I found out I had inflammation in my gut.

Speaker 4 (55:17):
Like I knew I had inflammation in my gut, but
I candida gut is the key to a lot of
problems in your body, so you got to get the
I saw the rock talking and he said his gut
was messed up too, So no healthy bacteria in my gut,
Candida inflammation. And then I found other markers in my
blood work that I was like, oh, I gotta change
this or take this out of my diet. So all

(55:39):
of that helped me to like hone in on exactly
what I needed to do also to get my health
like more.

Speaker 3 (55:50):
Tuned tuned in too.

Speaker 6 (55:51):
I saw you say it was like it came out
of a like a a haze.

Speaker 4 (55:56):
Stop drinking because if you think about it, I was
drinking every weekend, so I never fully got over the drinking.

Speaker 3 (56:03):
Like I would drink a bottle of forty two a night, Jesus, Jesus,
Like so Friday, Saturday a bottle of forty two.

Speaker 7 (56:11):
Acoholic drinking, but all the lights, a whole bottle every.

Speaker 3 (56:17):
Because I'm doing shots.

Speaker 6 (56:20):
We might do a couple of shots, but we ain't
doing a whole bottle.

Speaker 3 (56:23):
I'm the party guy.

Speaker 4 (56:24):
We don't want to drink with me, and I got
to drink with everybody. When I turned down the shot,
they were like, bro, come on, man, yeah, so I
gotta damn near a bottle of night.

Speaker 3 (56:35):
So I'm always constantly.

Speaker 4 (56:37):
Getting over the hangover or the getting My body is
still trying to recover, so I never am recovering. So
when you lay off the alcohol, you come out of
that fog and it's like it's like everything is clearer, everything,
you know. So I just I like the way that felt.
And then you know, when I started working out, it's

(56:59):
like I can work out like you can't work out
when you hungover. And then you put an alcohol in
your body. That's sugar, that's that's not gonna help you
get the goals.

Speaker 5 (57:08):
So if you write a book, you know it should
be to have a chapter turned down for what and
you talk about exactly all the reasons why you ask
you turn down.

Speaker 4 (57:14):
Yeah, especially especially when you get in your up there
in the years, you know, because right I'm fifty three,
I'm going down the hill, you know what I mean.
I want to have That's another thing. At my fifties,
I was like, I'm over that top. I don't know
how much time I got. I want to enjoy my life.
I want to enjoy my life. I want to do
stuff that makes me happy.

Speaker 5 (57:34):
Do you think people truly understand the loneliness that can
come with success and entertainment.

Speaker 4 (57:40):
No, because they just see the private jets and the
trips and all that.

Speaker 3 (57:46):
They don't realize.

Speaker 4 (57:47):
You know, sometimes you can't go nowhere because people bugging you.
You can't spend time with your loved ones without people
bugging you, or the the I gotta make another hit record,
you know what I mean. Like or even when you
start to go down, you're not as hot as you were,
people not picking up the phone and all that.

Speaker 3 (58:07):
Yeah, it's a.

Speaker 4 (58:08):
Lot of most people couldn't deal with this life. It
could not deal with it because it's too much pressure.
Then people on the internet with all their opinions and
all of this and that, and it's a lot of
pressure that you cannot be built weak to be in
entertainment industry.

Speaker 5 (58:24):
So yes, sir, when you my last question, when you
think about legacy, now, how much of it is about
peace and purpose.

Speaker 1 (58:31):
Rather than I guess the plaques and the parties and
all that.

Speaker 4 (58:34):
I think my legacy is going to be all about
positivity because every step of the way it's been crunk
was positive. It was a positive release. Then EDM stuff
was positive, positive part It was all partying based initially.
But it wasn't like I was saying go do a
drive by on the ops, you know what I mean.

(58:56):
It was just like, hey go release, turn up, you know.
And then you know, now in my latter years, it's meditation, mindfulness,
get therapy, fellas I'm gonna tell everybody out there, get therapy,
get a therapy. If it's going through it. You should

(59:17):
not be left to your own devices to deal with
some serious issues. Sometimes you need to talk to someone
that's a qualified person. And I did em dr.

Speaker 3 (59:25):
Did you ever do Mdr?

Speaker 4 (59:28):
EMDR is amazing because it taps into your subconscious. When
I did em DR, stuff came out that I didn't
even really didn't know what's there. So it can tap
to the it can find the root of why you
got that trauma.

Speaker 3 (59:41):
And then like, so, yeah, I have not done any
of that yet.

Speaker 4 (59:45):
I don't want to do it. I'm thinking about it,
but I don't want to. I don't want it to
change me. It won't because I just feel like I'm
already at a certain place. But I do want to
go tap into those things that I have locked deep
deep depail.

Speaker 5 (01:00:00):
A lot of people who've done D and MAR tell
me that the experience is pretty similar because it's just
everything that is in your subconscious that you suppressed.

Speaker 1 (01:00:08):
God is like, no, look at it. Yeah, it's all
on the table.

Speaker 6 (01:00:10):
A scary feeling that stuff.

Speaker 3 (01:00:13):
No, it's just it's profound.

Speaker 4 (01:00:15):
Em DR is profound because it's like that's why I
act like that, or that's why my mother treated me
that way, or this is why that happened. It helps
you and then like em DR, like when I did
it recently, I was able to go to my childhood
self and say it's okay, I'm here, it's fine, You're

(01:00:36):
you're loved, you're appreciated, you know, all of that, and
it helped me to get.

Speaker 3 (01:00:42):
Past whatever that was.

Speaker 4 (01:00:44):
So that's why I like it, because it's stuff that,
you know, because I was kind of not forced, but
I was like, someone was like, you should, you know, go,
you should try it, you know, because it helped them.

Speaker 3 (01:00:57):
And I did it and I was like, man, I'm good.

Speaker 1 (01:01:01):
I don't need this.

Speaker 3 (01:01:01):
And then I was like, damn, it's like I did
not know that.

Speaker 4 (01:01:07):
And the more you do it, the more stuff comes
to you and you just realize this is.

Speaker 3 (01:01:11):
Why I'm the way I am.

Speaker 4 (01:01:14):
I can now get past this and I can change
these habits, you know, and I.

Speaker 3 (01:01:19):
Can be living more. I can live a better life. Wow.

Speaker 5 (01:01:23):
Man, little John, you are an icon, living living and
one of the greatest producers of all time.

Speaker 1 (01:01:28):
You bought people so much joy.

Speaker 5 (01:01:30):
In this next chapter of your life where you are
helping people heal, I think it's gonna be your best
work yet.

Speaker 3 (01:01:34):
But brother, I do too. I do to.

Speaker 4 (01:01:37):
It feels so good when people come to me and
say you help me, you know, without me even directly
doing anything for them, I'm helping so many people and
inspiring people like with the with the fitness journey, with
the you know, the bodybuilding thing, coming in third in
this competition. I it was just it was hard, hard

(01:02:00):
to just do it period. It was hard to just
even get there. And I was just happy to be
a part of it. And I just want to inspire
people to say that that say I can't work out,
I don't have time. I'm on the road, i'm a
new father, I'm in the studio, I'm doing a million things,
and I'm able to go to the gym and transform

(01:02:21):
my body, eat right, do all these things.

Speaker 3 (01:02:23):
So you can do it too.

Speaker 1 (01:02:25):
Blanks Man, you can do.

Speaker 5 (01:02:27):
You can training hit training with It's your music playlist,
all the crunk music going body by John.

Speaker 3 (01:02:36):
I love it, Okay, help me out with it. Solon
Man happy though, Oh no, I love it. Inspire. There
you go.

Speaker 2 (01:02:45):
Well, Little John, we appreciate you for joining us. And
also December eighteenth, you're performing for our sister station.

Speaker 3 (01:02:52):
Shingle jingle Ball.

Speaker 2 (01:02:54):
So what what should the people expect for Little John
and that show Crunk period? They want it because it
says Little John in Friends, It's.

Speaker 3 (01:03:02):
Krunk, Crunk and Friends.

Speaker 4 (01:03:07):
Crunk, crunk, you know, commercial just it's Atlanta and I
gotta hit them hard, you know, Jermaine talking crap like
but Jamaine my best family. Jermaine actually called me, was like,
who you're bringing out?

Speaker 2 (01:03:19):
So I'm gonna I got friends friends.

Speaker 4 (01:03:23):
So but I'm just gonna bring the crunk. That's what
That's what they want. That's what I'm gona give them.
That's what they ain't seen in the whild So that's
what I'm giving them. I ain't trying to do nothing
crazy crunk excited.

Speaker 5 (01:03:34):
Could that error ever come back? Like the way metro
Booman just did futuristic someer? Could that crunk era ever
come back?

Speaker 3 (01:03:39):
If it did, it'll I don't know if people can
handle it.

Speaker 1 (01:03:42):
I think we need like grown people who don't get
the release.

Speaker 3 (01:03:45):
You know what I'm saying.

Speaker 1 (01:03:46):
Maybe you have something you put everybody. Everybody put their
phones up, but.

Speaker 2 (01:03:49):
You don't heal the same way.

Speaker 3 (01:03:50):
You can't bebody.

Speaker 7 (01:03:54):
And I don't know how to sprinkle down to the yns,
Like how would they don't need sprinkle. I don't think
that krunk could be recreated, but I'm glad that we
do have these crunk classics.

Speaker 6 (01:04:04):
That will never die.

Speaker 3 (01:04:06):
So I don't think it could come back.

Speaker 4 (01:04:07):
Maybe I do something next year, Maybe I do, Like
why not you know Metro did?

Speaker 3 (01:04:11):
Maybe why not? I was talking about it. But it's
got to be the right Everything with me is the
right time.

Speaker 4 (01:04:17):
You know, when the universe tell me it's time for it,
that's when it happens.

Speaker 2 (01:04:21):
All right, Well ninety six point one, get your tickets.
He will be performing at the Atlanti's Jingle Ball. Can't
wait to see you guys. It's the Breakfast Club. Good morning.

Speaker 3 (01:04:29):
Every day. I waiting up the Breakfast Club. Finish, y'all
done