INTERVIEW: Reuben Vincent & 9th Wonder On Preserving Classic Hip Hop, Vocabulary vs Virality, New Album + More

Today on The Breakfast Club, Reuben Vincent & 9th Wonder On Preserving Classic Hip Hop, Vocabulary vs Virality, New Album. Listen For More!

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Don't every day up waiting click up the Breakfast Club,
finish for.

Speaker 2 (00:05):
Y'all done morning.

Speaker 3 (00:07):
Everybody is the j n V Jess hilarious, Charlamagne the
guy we all the Breakfast Club.

Speaker 4 (00:12):
He got some special guest.

Speaker 2 (00:13):
In the belly.

Speaker 3 (00:14):
Indeed got the brother ninth wonder he's back, and Ruben
Vincent back?

Speaker 2 (00:17):
What's up?

Speaker 4 (00:17):
Guys? Are y'all feeling man?

Speaker 2 (00:19):
Every day all as well? Man?

Speaker 1 (00:20):
I love seeing this because I always feel like the young,
younger lyricists need to get with the o G veteran producers,
like somebody like Knife and create magic.

Speaker 5 (00:31):
I don't think that there's and I could.

Speaker 1 (00:33):
Be wrong, but I don't think that there's anybody that can,
you know, do for a Ruben what a Knife could sound?

Speaker 5 (00:38):
Wise what you think Ruby, I agree?

Speaker 6 (00:41):
Just being real, I mean, I don't think it's been
done on this level, you know what I mean. I
feel like, you know, there's been few folks that might
have ded records, but it's either sending the beats off
and then they over there like we really sat in
the studio with each other, you know what I mean?
It was I moved in the studio for six months,
sleeping on the couch. So it was like, you know,
he going to his crib, but I'll wake up, go
to the gym. He pull up at twelve o'clock and

(01:02):
we just really the synergy was there, you know what
I mean.

Speaker 2 (01:05):
So I think this is the first of his conference.

Speaker 4 (01:07):
Sure, what do you have the time?

Speaker 3 (01:10):
Because you're also a professor, Like, when do you have
the time? I've seen ninety so many times and it
really never has to do with music. It's always I'm
not at speaking or something like that.

Speaker 5 (01:18):
Or basketball. Yeah, when do you have the time?

Speaker 4 (01:21):
Bro?

Speaker 5 (01:22):
Man?

Speaker 1 (01:23):
That's the beauty about living in North Carolina, dog Like,
there's no rat race to run, really, and so I
kind of you know, I teach twice a week. I
teach at Duke on Wednesdays and Wake Forest University on Thursdays,
and with outside of that, the rest of the week
is either comprised of doing stuff with basketball or just
making music. And so that's how I deal with it.

(01:43):
But I think the biggest thing between me and him
is well, teaching has helped me do that too. Teaching
has helped me understand the next generation way more than
anybody else. Most people only deal with like seventeen eighteen
with eighteen nineteen twenty year olds.

Speaker 5 (01:57):
That's like family members blah blah blah, and and.

Speaker 1 (02:00):
Use those people to like put a blanket on how
every eighteen year old acts me. I've been looking at
eighteen year olds and twenty two year olds since what
nineteen years now, this is my nineteen year teacher. So
an eighteen year old in two thousand and six, and
an eighteen year old in twenty sixteen, and an eighteen
year old in twenty twenty five, them three different eighteen

(02:20):
year old of course, so I kind of look at
it that way. But the thing about me and him
is a lot of people don't think that these two
generations can't communicate well facts, and that's kind of we
debunked that with this. I mean even when I first
met him. That's how it's been. But we kind of,
you know, getting away to it as far as time. Yeah, man,

(02:42):
I just I'm just real focused, Charlota Magne know, I'm
just real focus on what I do, what I need
to do. I like serving the culture all the time.
And yeah, man, if I'm not helping the culture, then
I'm taking away from it. I feel like with hip
hop though, you know, young men like Ruben are trying
to do y'all already did, so they got to come
to you for that sound.

Speaker 5 (03:02):
You can't treat that.

Speaker 4 (03:03):
Man.

Speaker 1 (03:03):
I want to make an ill madic. I want to
make something that sound like reasonable doubt. I want to
make something that sound like the first Little Brother, Like
you got to come to the people who did that.

Speaker 2 (03:12):
Then.

Speaker 6 (03:12):
Yeah, man, I think it's each one teach one, you
know what I mean. And you know they talk about
you know, the they say it didn't exist, but the
Willie Lynch letter. But you know what I'm saying, it's
real common to what really happens, you know what I'm saying,
from breaking generations apart and you know, separating us.

Speaker 2 (03:28):
But you know, I had my father.

Speaker 6 (03:30):
We didn't live in the same house, but you know,
he always used to pick me up on weekends. So
I know how to take a person's counsel, you know
what I mean. And I also too, is like I'm
a sponge, you know what I mean. So it's like
I'm willing to learn, you know what I mean. Where
I feel like you know, people, some people my age,
they'll be turned off and try to like, you know, cool,
But I think for me, it's just like I want
to know. And then also too, they were our Age

(03:52):
when they were making the ill maadics. They were our
Age when they was making the reasonable.

Speaker 2 (03:56):
Doubts, you know what I mean.

Speaker 6 (03:56):
They make it seem like now me being twenty four
and me being like having debt to my lyrics or
wisdom is.

Speaker 2 (04:02):
Like like whoa, you know what I mean? Like, oh
you you sound like an old nigga. But it's like.

Speaker 6 (04:09):
Right, right, So it's like yo, like it's not uncommon,
you know what I mean, And it's only right that
you know, you go tapping with the pioneers who've been
there before because they the only ones they can.

Speaker 2 (04:19):
Tell you, you know what I mean, You sitting and listen
to somebody who ain't never done it don't make no
sense to me.

Speaker 3 (04:23):
Is there a place for lyricists in this game to
be at the top of the game?

Speaker 5 (04:27):
Right?

Speaker 3 (04:27):
And the reason I say that is you mentioned you
mentioned Jay, you mentioned Nows. You know, you could talk pac,
you can talk big. They were lyricists, but they were
top and people respected them as being the top. You
can look at outcasts and even TI like they were top.

Speaker 4 (04:40):
But now it seems like that lyricists they put in
a box.

Speaker 1 (04:44):
You know, with our casts, man, we have to understand
what our casts. It took a couple of albums for
everybody to truly respect our casts.

Speaker 2 (04:51):
Correct.

Speaker 1 (04:52):
It wasn't from the South, I mean Southern playerlistic, Okay, okay,
you know what, having a source of wars. Then at Aliens,
it wasn't until they got to a Quemini and Stank
Conya that everybody was like, okay.

Speaker 5 (05:04):
You know what I mean.

Speaker 1 (05:05):
But even with Big and Jay, that's kind of where
hip hop was taking a turn.

Speaker 5 (05:10):
You know.

Speaker 1 (05:10):
Before that hip hop wasn't as commercial everywhere, like whatever.
But when Big and J came, especially when Jay came
along them DMX and now we're looking at hip hop more.
People that don't look like us as listening to hip
hop way more than ever, you know what I mean.
So that's kind of what that was. But I think
it's and I'm gonna say this, man, I just love

(05:31):
and I remember, I know we all do. Remember when
the culture was ours. We had our own validation points.
If you were on Rap City, you're on TV raps,
our Senior Hall Show, Soul Train, in the back of
the Jet magazine, the albums, the singles they showed your

(05:55):
house in ebony, if you were on those, the cover,
the sources, Essence magazine, if you were in the hair salons,
the barbershop, the music, if you went outside with your
homies after church and played whatever you was listening to
the car. If you were in all those places one time,
that's validation enough.

Speaker 5 (06:16):
You made it, you know what I mean.

Speaker 1 (06:19):
And it's not trying to say because I'm here. This
is one of the few last rites of patches, passages
for people y'all look like us, you know what I mean,
and you got to come through here to be validated.
We need more of that, you know what I'm saying.
Like so when we say mainstream top of the game,

(06:40):
this is part of the top of the game right
here to me.

Speaker 6 (06:43):
And I also feel like when you talk about lyricists,
I also feel like when you talk about lyricists, you
got to know how to make a song, you know
what I mean. And I think that's the biggest thing
with this album that people want to see from me.
Like we were just talking about it, where it was like,
what was the turning point for you? Where a lot
of people we did listening on Friday, and everybody was like, Yo,
you really like showed your songwriting, you know, on here

(07:06):
and like you have choruses and it's like now you
could tell you a lot of time, it was just
me in the studio, you know what I mean by myself.
So I feel like a lot of the lyricists at
this time is still proving they trying to rap on
their records and they're not giving.

Speaker 2 (07:19):
Nothing that people can relate to or people can feel.

Speaker 6 (07:21):
It's always I'm just trying to show you I can
do this crazy word play, Like now I want to
make records that you're gonna play Monday through Friday, when
you on the way to work, when you on the
way to school, you getting ready, you know what I mean,
or even for the before the party, you know what
I'm saying, or at the party.

Speaker 2 (07:35):
You know what I mean.

Speaker 6 (07:35):
And I think this album that was the example, and
I feel like that's the only way lyricists can really
reach them heights is if they know how to make
a record.

Speaker 4 (07:42):
They gotta be taught, right.

Speaker 3 (07:43):
Yeah, if you watch Nas and Nas and tell you,
I don't know if it's tragedy, but taught them how
to make a song, right, like, this is the components
to make a song. I love Big Biggest, probably my
favorite artist ever, him and Jay, But I don't know.
If Puff wasn't there, I don't know if Big knew
how to make those type of songs and how.

Speaker 5 (07:58):
To break down, that would have been that and it.

Speaker 3 (08:00):
Would have been partying bull. But yeah, Puff taught him like, no,
you need to make a song like this. You need
a hook, you need this, And I feel like that's
what's missing a lot of times in this game.

Speaker 2 (08:09):
Kobe Bryant needed to Phil Jackson, and that's my Phil Jackson.

Speaker 5 (08:12):
Drede Snoop needed dre Facts.

Speaker 7 (08:14):
So what is the creative process, like, you know what.

Speaker 1 (08:18):
Making this project? Making this project? Well, welcome home, Welcome home.
I called Ruben in a special place. Ruben came to
me and said, man, you seen the Lego movie. I said,
I saw one. Farrad said yeah for real one. Yeah,
he said, man, I ain't no. Pharrell was close to
tribe like that that he revered tribe called Quest. I'm like, yeah,

(08:40):
he said, that's who I am. I come from that.
I'm not like yeah, like I knew this whole time.
I'm just letting him realize, like you know, sometimes you
have to step out the way and let you figure
it out on your own. But then while we're recording it,
we're recording with cod when we thought we was done,
Ruben started following for somebody, HM, okay, okay, all right,

(09:02):
And so I'm coming in the studio. I'm coming to
the studio. You always got to catch HI where they are.
I'm coming in the studio. He on the phone.

Speaker 5 (09:10):
He facetied me on the phone.

Speaker 4 (09:12):
You love Jones, yea.

Speaker 1 (09:16):
Coca at work, And I'm like, you know, but I
have to catch him where he is. So now all
my beasts started to turn a certain way for him
to talk about what he wanted to talk about. That
he found somebody, and I thought that was amazing, which
something we talked about. There's nothing wrong with talking about
embracing black women on your projects.

Speaker 2 (09:33):
Yeah, young men. Young men don't do that a lot.

Speaker 6 (09:35):
And I think even the routine again, like right before,
like he said, he let me figure it out on
my own. When I got when I first got my
deal with Rock and I was moving around, I was
in LA and then you know, I started to see
how weird the industry can get and then you know,
a lot of people is in my ear like you
need to make this type of record and this type
of record that don't necessarily fit who I am. So

(09:56):
when I watched the Lego movie, I was like, oh,
this is my tree. I come from the tree of tribe.
I come from the tree of Kanye West in his
early stages. I come from that tree. Okay, let me
navigate that and you know, study and really figure it out.
But then also to my mom and like living in Charlotte.
You know my mom, she's an African mother. You know,
she's from Liberia. So she was always supportive of me.

(10:18):
But the industry started to change, money started to slow
up at a little bit, and she's like, yo, you
either got to go back to school or get a job.
And I was like, I ain't doing none of that,
you know what I mean. So I called Knife, we
talked about it. He was like, YO, just come down
the Raleigh. Sleeping on sleeping on the couch. For six months,
my routine was I wake up, save my prayers, go
to the gym. By the time I get back from
the gym, I take a shower cause we have a
shower at the studio, which is a blessing. Like there's

(10:41):
a lot of artists can't say they have a mentor
who has a whole studio that you don't got to
pay for studio time.

Speaker 2 (10:46):
So I'm gonna take all advantage, you know what I mean.

Speaker 1 (10:48):
You don't know if you don't have to pay for
it yet.

Speaker 6 (10:59):
Coming nah, But then after that, you know, like he'll
probably get to the studio around twelve o'clock and we'll
sit there, we'll discuss talk about, you know, what movies
remind us of home, what music videos that we are
favorite rap music videos.

Speaker 2 (11:15):
Then were going through samples, you know what I mean.

Speaker 6 (11:17):
So the way the studio is set up, Knife got
his beat room, and then we got the recording room,
and then we got the living area where I used
to sleep at.

Speaker 2 (11:24):
But ninth will come in around twelve o'clock.

Speaker 6 (11:27):
We'll sit there, chop it up, maybe watch some basketball,
watch some videos. He finds some samples, he make the beat.
I'm sitting there. He gonna air He's all right, I'm
gonna drop it to the big computer. I'm gonna run
to the other room, accept it on the big computer.
Record then he gonna be in there watching basketball. Thirty
minutes later, I come back around. I think I got something.
I got some Yeah, and then he'd come in there

(11:48):
hear it and then do what he does as a producer.

Speaker 5 (11:51):
And then what made you want to work with him?

Speaker 1 (11:52):
No? Because I mean nine, because I'm sure it's a
million artists that come to you, especially in.

Speaker 2 (11:59):
Name. I don't want to get with you.

Speaker 1 (12:00):
I want to do something with you.

Speaker 5 (12:03):
Okay.

Speaker 1 (12:03):
So I was on tour in Germany and had the
day off and somebody on I was doing to ask
ninth on Twitter and somebody said to me, so, I
ain't got no question.

Speaker 5 (12:15):
It's this kid you need to listen to. I have
no dog in this fight.

Speaker 2 (12:18):
I don't know.

Speaker 1 (12:19):
I don't know this kid. And usually I you know,
I know our goes. Some people want trying to get
their family Mamoizon.

Speaker 5 (12:27):
Exactly. But he did not know the dude was from
Open Yeah.

Speaker 1 (12:32):
I was thirteen at the thirteen and he sent me
the Lincol and I listened to it. I was like, man,
and I think one of the rhymes he said, somethbout
coolgie wrap, and I'm like, hold on, bro, like this
You're thirteen years old. So then I shot him an inbox.
It's on Twitter, and I said, yo is this? He's like, yeah,
how you doing?

Speaker 2 (12:51):
Man?

Speaker 1 (12:51):
And I was like, Hey, what's your parents like? And
so he put his mom on and I was like,
I'll be home in a couple of weeks. I got home,
they showed up with him and his mom showed up
in my studio. I wrapped him up. He's about this
tall and I said, man, you want something to eat?

Speaker 5 (13:10):
What you say?

Speaker 2 (13:11):
I just want some pop tarts, strawberry milk and some pizza.
Thirteen year old diet. Thirteen year old diet literally.

Speaker 1 (13:19):
But it kind of went from there and that. The
first song we did was a song called Extraterrestrial and
I looked at my president Cab, my man Cash, I said,
I said, man, he ain't breathing.

Speaker 5 (13:28):
He's just rapping. He's not breathing. And he did. You
did nine songs that weekend, three days.

Speaker 2 (13:34):
And made it, made it on a machine that I
had never touched before that.

Speaker 5 (13:37):
Yeah, it was different.

Speaker 4 (13:38):
What what what got you in the tribe? Was it
that lego movie?

Speaker 2 (13:43):
No beforehand?

Speaker 4 (13:44):
So what put you on the tribe? And couji rap
in that era of music?

Speaker 1 (13:48):
Because that's to see you playing fight in a biopicure
thought about it.

Speaker 2 (13:53):
I would love to. I would love to.

Speaker 6 (13:55):
So my father, you know again, both my parents are
from West Africa, Iberia, and when.

Speaker 2 (14:01):
He came to the States, he lived in New York
for a little.

Speaker 6 (14:04):
Bit, and he moved to North Carolina and met my mom,
who my mom so to.

Speaker 2 (14:10):
Give a little bit of background, like, Nique, you're talking,
I gotta ask you. Yeah, I'm too.

Speaker 4 (14:17):
I got him.

Speaker 2 (14:17):
Yeah, I probably got to ask him.

Speaker 6 (14:19):
But he went from my My dad experienced the Libry
and Civil War in the nineties, so he was a
refugee came to America still very young, while my mom
she got here when she was sixteen and lived in
the DMV before moving to Charlotte. But her dad fought
in the war, passed away in the war, all of that.
But when he came down a lot of he said,
in Africa, they used to listen to a lot of tupacin.

Speaker 2 (14:40):
Biggie during the war.

Speaker 6 (14:42):
And so when he had when they had me, granted
they had like separated when I was born. They my
dad always used to pick me up on the weekends
and he used to have a blue Cadillac and he
would drive me around playing all lives on Me, Ready
to die, Blueprint, get rich of I trying. So I
that was the way me and my dad bond when
I was four years old. So then by the time

(15:03):
I was able to write. I wrote my first rap
when I was five years old, and so I already
had a little bit of knowledge. And my dad gifted
me late Registration when I was six seven years old.
So when those little moments were like rabbit holes for me,
because then by the time I was like.

Speaker 2 (15:20):
Ten eleven, YouTube was available.

Speaker 6 (15:22):
So now I'm looking up Okay, late registration, Okay, blueprint Okay,
reasonable doubt Okay, then the recommended nas Illmatic. Then it's like, oh,
Coogi rap. Then it's like, oh Tribe call Quest Midnight Marauders.
I just started going down a rabbit hole and just
became like super like just like floored with everything, you
know what I mean. So by the time I met nine,

(15:44):
I was already like so knee deep into like what
I liked. And then also two around the same time
I was eleven twelve years old, Joey Badass started merging
on the scene, you know what I mean, And you
know what he was doing at the time, So you know,
I was just like it was Florida and I just
started to do my d dos.

Speaker 5 (16:00):
I want to ask you.

Speaker 1 (16:01):
What artists I'm glad you said, Joey, because what artists
I guess for you from your generation reminded you.

Speaker 6 (16:06):
Of that obviously, Joey Kendrick, Lamar Cole, Earl Sweatshirt in
the early, in the early times, still to the still
to this time, I was.

Speaker 2 (16:19):
Big on them, like super early, you know what I mean.

Speaker 6 (16:21):
The wallets, like all of them, like that that era,
the blog era was like where like I really dive
deep into like who they were.

Speaker 2 (16:29):
Those are like the ones who raised me outside of
like the nineties.

Speaker 1 (16:31):
So how do you balance being lyrical and cultural in
a time when music rewards virality over vocabulary.

Speaker 6 (16:40):
Well, I know I'm playing a different game. I know
I'm playing a long game. I know that I've seen
in the last three years people.

Speaker 2 (16:49):
Get viral and get lit.

Speaker 6 (16:51):
And then go on the next day, you know, So
I know that there's no foundation of that where like
you know what I'm doing. I know that ten years
from now, I'm gonna be able to stand doing and
be able to like you know, live off of still
because you know I'm taking the route. You know I've
been patient this long. I've been patient since thirteen, you
know what I mean? So why would I stop being
patient now just to go do something that's not gonna

(17:13):
make me fulfilled at the end of the day.

Speaker 1 (17:15):
What do you think?

Speaker 2 (17:16):
Like?

Speaker 1 (17:16):
How do you how do artists? How should artists balance
being a lyrical in a time when it's all about
going viral or actually rapping? I think, first of all,
artists shouldn't be afraid. A lot of artists are afraid
to try. They rather do what they think will work
instead of running a marathon. But I also believe, and
it's come for me teaching. We cannot get lost on

(17:39):
the fact that there is a generation of kids with
young adults. They want to hear that what you're talking about,
they want to hear it. It's out there, like I
see them all the time. I see them on my classes.
And on top of that, it's crazy to say me
and his mother are the same age. So now you're
dealing with Now you're dealing with the generation that's the

(18:01):
offspring of Generation X.

Speaker 5 (18:03):
So now what do we like? You said, what are
we playing in our cars? Right?

Speaker 1 (18:06):
We're playing all of these classic records and they're picking
it up when they're very young and taking it on,
you know what I mean. So we can't assume there's
a generation of kids that don't want to hear it.
It might not be as big as this generation of
kids that want to hear this over here, but it's there.
When Tribe was tribe, you had tribes fan base, but

(18:26):
then you had ice Q's fan base. Not to say
Q was on something way different, but Q was you know,
had a larger fan base. Doesn't mean the Native Tongues
didn't have their own fan base. And you see what
the Native Tongues fan base births rest in pcg Angelo right,
it birthed the entire Q tip has its own family
tree by itself, bro. And so that's what I'm saying, like,

(18:50):
you cannot deny that that it's kids out there that
want to hear and want to hear soulful and feel
good music. Not necessarily preachy all the time, because I
think we needed, we need to separate conscious and feel
good sometimes is not sometime we put conscious and a warm,
feel good beat in the same box. But then you

(19:11):
have slum Village that talked about a threesome. You know
what I mean, Like, you can't do you know what
I'm saying. So we have to kind of get out
of that. Man, it's it's it's younger Dulston. When they
wanted some difference, who's the q tip family tree? I
can't just you gotta teach now, I can't just let
you say that. Who break down q tip family? Oh?

Speaker 2 (19:26):
Man?

Speaker 1 (19:27):
So the q tip family tree. Q Tip was one
of the first ones to not sample funk and soul
only right. Q tip was one of the ones like, oh,
I'm a sample artist by name of Kyle Jader and
my man sample artist by the name of Les McCann
and Freddie Hubber because q tip grew up in the
neighborhood of jazz musicians, got the jazz exactly and so

(19:50):
that euphoric feel. Like I always say, Benita apple Bomb
is like the tree of life for everything after it.
So if Benita apple Bomb is not made, we're not
getting well first not first of all, with our tribe.
We're not getting out casts back right, they said it.
They said it all the you know, all the time.
We're not getting outcasts, We're not getting the roots, We're

(20:12):
not getting Badu. We're not getting jail, We're not getting
a little brother, We're not getting D'Angelo. We're not getting
this thing called neo. So we're not getting We're not
getting Kanye West. We're not getting anything that feels you
for it and feels good. We're not getting that because
chord changes wasn't in hip hop in eighty nine, eighty eight.
We had we used to start about Public Enemy. It

(20:33):
was just.

Speaker 5 (20:36):
You know what I'm saying, what not living base is.

Speaker 1 (20:38):
But Q Tip when he sampled those chord changes and
all of that, that's what. That's what made everybody turn
the corner. And we're still we owe a lot to
that dude for making that turn and making the music
that he did. We're making the music that tribe did.
Why so why I agree with you? But damn, where
did Daylight come into play?

Speaker 5 (20:56):
So Daylight?

Speaker 1 (20:57):
So Daylight was of course Daylight was before that, and
Jungle Brothers before that.

Speaker 5 (21:01):
You know that.

Speaker 1 (21:01):
You know Native Tongue's movie. Also, Queen Latifa was in
that box. You know what I mean, Try was more.
It was a different thing from Daylight. Daylight was way
left the center, right, you know.

Speaker 3 (21:15):
I think, And it's gonna sound crazy because the Daylight
was from Long Island and more screening. Tribe was more
street street because remember tribe is really dire from farmers
from Queen. Yeah, now you go up a little bit,
that's ll Qj's area, left a little bit, that's you know, fifty.

Speaker 4 (21:30):
So they were more street than Daylight.

Speaker 1 (21:33):
I was, and you noticed it because when Daylight Daylight
Tribe kind of dressed the same on their first on
three feet and people's distinctive they trust the same. By
the time Tribe did Low End Theory is baseball jerseys
and hats bro like, they totally just changed everything and
even the production of like I said, Q Tip, he says,

(21:53):
I made Low End Theory drums sound the way they
signed it because I heard n W a second album,
so he he was listening to you know what I mean.
But you got these thunderous drums, but then you got
this weather report sample on top of it, you know
what I'm saying.

Speaker 5 (22:09):
Like it was just it was just a different thing.

Speaker 1 (22:10):
But that feeling has extended itself for now thirty plus
years now, they're.

Speaker 3 (22:15):
Always thinking about you know, you could be a tribe
called quest fan and a coolgie rap fan. Back right,
you'd be a Tribe fan and a Mob fan. It
seems like now they put you in the box where
you can't you know what I'm saying, because back then
you could.

Speaker 4 (22:27):
I could.

Speaker 3 (22:27):
I listened to Tribe growing up, but then I listened
to Mob Deep, but then I listened to Coolie Rap,
but then I listened to kne Now I feel like
it's it's lanes where they try to stick you with,
Like I can only listen to Ruben because I can't
if I listen to but I can't listen to.

Speaker 6 (22:40):
That's that's not even how I was raised, right, So, like,
as much as I'm giving y'all all the influences of
like the outcasts, the tribes and nases and then giving
y'all the blog air, I still went to an HBCU
where I was lit when they played no Hands in
the club, you know what I mean.

Speaker 2 (22:54):
And I was listening to Chief Keith and stuff like that.

Speaker 6 (22:56):
So I feel like that's why I'm able, and that's
I'm glad he said I went to a t Yeah,
so I'm a I'm And that's why even I say
I'm so much Tribe is because yes, I loved everything
not just named. I love art, I love paying Africanism.
Everything on me is designed by African designer, you know

(23:17):
what I mean. This is my man's, my DJs, you
know brand. But after yeah yeah so and then but
at the same time, like you know, I'm not a

(23:39):
I'm not street in the streets at all, but I
had cousins in the streets, you know what I mean.

Speaker 2 (23:42):
Like I grew up around all of it.

Speaker 6 (23:44):
So I embrace it all and you hear it in
my music the things I talk about. I'm not sitting
there like you know, conscious piece b and all of
that stuff. It's like, no, it's no, I ain't burning
no instance, you know what I mean. Like I watched
Friday just as much as I might watch the michaelm
X outo by, you know what I mean.

Speaker 1 (24:00):
So you know it's crazy it coming from the Carolina
and knife No, at least growing up, we didn't have
a There was no Carolina sound. No, we weren't like
Atlanta or New York. We had hip hop that we
could gravitate towards. We listened to everything. The Killer Mike
said the same thing. We had to listen to everything,
and North Carolina is second when it comes to number
HBCUs Alabama's first, North Carolina second. So you got to

(24:22):
think of all the music that's coming from all these places,
that's being playing in the dorms. I remember on my
dorm room hall. I went to North Carolina Central and
I stayed in the hall called Chile Hall. It was
a dude from DC, Detroit, Baltimore. Then it was like
all in the same hall. So you walking down the

(24:44):
hall here in go go Baltimore House.

Speaker 7 (24:47):
DC to go that go go shit down down the street.

Speaker 2 (24:50):
Right.

Speaker 1 (24:51):
But yeah, you know what I'm saying.

Speaker 5 (24:53):
You know what I'm saying. What I'm saying.

Speaker 1 (24:54):
So it's all of that, all of those things and
you hearing everything at one time. And like you said, Yo,
you can tell a lot about people. Man, when you
open they c D booking Dog, you flipped that c
flat when you see that we had I had a
two short album, a Tribe album, that Tony Braxton first album, Souls,

(25:19):
a Mischief album, an ice Cube of the Predator like
all at the same time. I think now, like you said,
I don't think a lot of people are fans of
the culture that just fans of a person. For us,
if we were fans of hip hop. That means we
checking out everybody, but the filter was different. Were not
facing seven hundred thousand new songs a week on streaming either.

(25:41):
We didn't face that. We didn't face that.

Speaker 4 (25:43):
That's the sad thing because you can't hear everything.

Speaker 3 (25:46):
That's the difficultart because it's like, you know, life be
life like before it was like I remember listening to
let's say Norwy's album or Fooji's album. Yeah whatever, it
lasted the summer. It was like four albums that lasted
summer and you rock through. I Drew moved the school
in it. I drove back to school in it. Now,
it's like the way music goes like even with Clips album.
Clips album is one of my favorite albums now, but

(26:07):
I haven't heard Clips album in about a month now
because I'm listening to the news stuff, which is crazy
because there's so many new things that much.

Speaker 1 (26:13):
Yeah, students, and one of my students told me, said,
Professor Knife, you gotta understand, like I got fifteen albums
in the Q I ain't listening to last week, and
I'm like, godly, I think when one of our greatest
release dates was September twenty ninth, nineteen ninety eight.

Speaker 5 (26:27):
That is.

Speaker 1 (26:29):
Okay, Quemini outcasts. All the same day heard Knocked Life,
Knock Life Tribe, the Love movement, and most difficuality of
Black Start. Like all this came brand new, being foundation.
All came out on one day. So we're going to
the store, like I got about fifteen dollars? How much
you got?

Speaker 5 (26:49):
Dog?

Speaker 1 (26:50):
Got about fifteen? You get women, and I I'll get
and so now we got to share it. You know
what I mean, You're forgetting one thing too. Looking at
that source magazine. You got to get a criminal because they.

Speaker 5 (27:01):
Got five, they got five mics.

Speaker 1 (27:02):
You gotta get Jay because that's Jay and he had
just got four and a half.

Speaker 5 (27:05):
That's right, got to get these two. Everybody else I
catch it's different.

Speaker 1 (27:09):
But then but then you heard the most entirely from
somebody else, was like, oh, I gotta go get that right.

Speaker 4 (27:14):
He was on street. We go get the bootleg, We
get all we got.

Speaker 2 (27:20):
Right? Right?

Speaker 5 (27:21):
Who was telling them?

Speaker 2 (27:21):
I don't know? We are African, the Africans are.

Speaker 1 (27:31):
How does the classroom compared to the studio when it
comes to influence.

Speaker 5 (27:36):
It's the same thing.

Speaker 1 (27:37):
For me, the classroom has taught me how to communicate,
dog like it is really taught me how to communicate
and communicate you can't. I can't talk to every artist
the same way. They don't learn the same way. So
in the classroom, I'm standing in front of my my
hip hop class on Wednesday is a Duke Man in
the spring as one hundred and forty kids. So I'm

(27:58):
sitting there looking at one hundred and forty kids, and
I have to get through every kid, whether it be
the black kid, whether it be the white kid. You know,
you can't assume every kid. It takes my class and
want to do this, especially Man and Duke Man. I
got girls. My class is like neurosurgeon whatever. I'm going
to be a neurosurgeon. But I wanted to take your class,

(28:20):
you know what I mean that knows nothing about the
culture at all, and except the one person they listen to.

Speaker 4 (28:25):
And you teach hip hop history for people that don't
know right, right, I.

Speaker 1 (28:27):
Teach three classes that Duke. I teach hip hop history.
I teach Black Cinema of the nineties, where we watched
all the black cinema of the nineties like Love, Jones, Juice,
all that, and the hardest class for to get into
is my hip hop production class. We just straight make
beats and talk about the art of production for a semester,
but it is taught me how to not only communicate
by how the next generation thinks when it comes to

(28:49):
consuming music. What do they think? Our qualifiers ain't the same.
Who we think are great rappers and why? And who
they think are great rappers and why is two different reasons,
and we try to force our reasons on them and
it don't work, like you know what I mean. So
that's truly helped me out a lot. When you work
with people like jay Z on Thread or Eric Abadu

(29:11):
on Honey, how do you stay true? So like that artist?
Is that artist iconic sound, but still staying true to
you as a producer. You know what the turning point
for me, man was when I did Girl by Destiny Child.
That was the one. What I did Girl in the
Sheet the reason. And when I got in the studio

(29:32):
with B, B looked at me and was like, B
was there the night when I played Beats for J
in two thousand and three.

Speaker 5 (29:38):
Wow, she was there.

Speaker 1 (29:40):
And when we got in the studio in two thousand
and four, I was like, what do you want for
I'm thinking, what do you want for me? Cause again
we talked about labels. I looked at us, the backpack
nigga that make stuff excuse me, make stuff on computer?

Speaker 5 (29:53):
You know what I mean.

Speaker 1 (29:54):
That's why I'm looking at looked at and I'm like,
what do you want from me? Because they had Survivor
out and can you pay my bill? I'm like, what
do I fit into this? And she said, I want
you to do you, but I also want you to
think about us as the emotions, the seventies group, the
R and B group, And I was like wow. So
I'm like, well, how can I bring that up to you?

(30:14):
And so if she the reason and girl, I made
them though, I made them records thinking about s wv M.
And so I do that with every artist, and I
did it with him. His album is a combination of
three or four albums in my head together.

Speaker 5 (30:30):
And I can't tell you that.

Speaker 6 (30:33):
We'll tell you off air. We'll tell you off air
stealing the sauce, I can't tell you that.

Speaker 3 (30:37):
And what's the most difficult artist to work with? And
not and when I mean difficult, not as in wild
out and crazy, but just that that artist was two
for now, wanted it done it a particular way.

Speaker 5 (30:49):
You know what.

Speaker 1 (30:50):
Somebody's asked me this question the other day. I've been lucky, man,
I've been very lucky to be in the studio with Jay.
Wasn't tough at all. Jay was the pressure. Cuse man,
I have twenty five I have twenty five minutes to
make that beat. Same thing with Destiny's Child that was
the number one girl group in the world at one point.

Speaker 5 (31:11):
Mary J.

Speaker 1 (31:11):
Blige, same deal, Eric Abaudu, same deal, Kendrick Anderson Pack.
I've been lucky when you're making like great music and
soul music man, and you're working with professionals. But once
I got to like Anderson Pack and Kendrick, now I'm
not the young one in the studio just waiting for
the chance. Now I'm controlling the session. So it's it's been.

(31:33):
It's I've been lucky, man. I've been very, very lucky
when it comes to work with artists. I want to
ask you, Rubn, like in twenty twenty five, what truth
does your music need to tell?

Speaker 2 (31:44):
Right now?

Speaker 5 (31:45):
That's about other issue.

Speaker 1 (31:46):
With a lot of this generation, with everything going on
in the world, I feel like nobody's reflecting that with art.

Speaker 6 (31:54):
I mean, I think the biggest truth is telling the
young black black experience to me, just trying to figure
it out, you know what I mean.

Speaker 2 (32:02):
I'm not sitting on an album like I'm gonna shoot.

Speaker 6 (32:04):
You, or I'm lying like I got a million dollars
in the bank, you know what I mean, Like I'm
telling you exactly what it is. I'm telling you my
real human experience, my real story. And I think that's
why I make so excited for this album to come out,
because I think it's gonna shift music in that way
because I feel like we haven't and excuse me if
I'm wrong, we haven't had somebody from my age group

(32:27):
just talk about their.

Speaker 2 (32:28):
Human experience, you know what I mean.

Speaker 6 (32:30):
And everybody's trying to be a facade and you know,
hold up a mask and you know, try to be
something that they're really not, and everybody's really searching, you
know what I mean. And I feel like with this album,
you know, I talk about, you know, my my upbringing,
you know, with my heritage, you know, talking about being
from West Africa's hearing you know, my uncles talk about
the war. I talk about, you know, my desires and

(32:50):
aspirations me coming from an HBCU. I talk about, you know,
embracing the black women. I talk about my mother, you
know what I mean. I talk about my family heritage,
and I just talk about you know. I have a
song called I'm Good where it's like, you know, when
you people ask you how you doing, you just all
I'm good.

Speaker 2 (33:06):
But in the verses, I'm.

Speaker 6 (33:07):
Like giving details like no, there's stuff wrong, but every
time you ask, I'm good.

Speaker 2 (33:11):
You know what I mean.

Speaker 6 (33:11):
But I feel like that's needed, you know what I mean?
And I feel like that's that's what I want to do.
Just tell like true human experiences, be honest, you know
what I mean, Because I feel like honesty is gonna
take me further than being something I'm not. That's why
I went with my real name for my artist's.

Speaker 5 (33:25):
Name, and it doesn't. And also too, we need everybody's story.
We need his like you know what I'm saying.

Speaker 1 (33:33):
We need your story like NBA young boys story that's
his human experience. In fact, we need that like we
need you know, I don't like when you know, when
people say, oh, we gotta have this and not this
and this and that. We need a balance man like
I can't. I cannot stop a kid from telling that
story or whatever that story is, you know what I mean.
So we need it all. I need his I need

(33:53):
young boys, I need I need it, man, I need it.

Speaker 5 (33:57):
We had it. What's the difference? You know what I'm saying?

Speaker 1 (34:00):
What does black genius look like hip hop today?

Speaker 2 (34:02):
For you?

Speaker 5 (34:02):
Oh God?

Speaker 1 (34:04):
And who's carrying the torture a black genius?

Speaker 8 (34:08):
Shoot?

Speaker 1 (34:09):
I mean, he's one. I think it goes without saying that.
Kendrick is another one, absolutely right. There's a few out there, man,
And I'm trying to get out of the hip hop
boss man. I like black music, y'all.

Speaker 5 (34:26):
You know what I mean. I really like black music.

Speaker 1 (34:28):
I was talking knowledge about we was having a conversation
about this album and that's album. This is it's all
about black music. I think we lost an incredible genius
the other day, man, or last or Tuesday, last Tuesday, Yes, man,
And you know, for me and what he's done, it's him,
Stevie and Prince Like. I don't think anybody could have

(34:52):
seen this man the last thirty years of music. Man,
when it comes to black music's him at the top.
But I mean that that's what it is, man. I
just I just like black.

Speaker 5 (35:00):
Music, man.

Speaker 1 (35:01):
And it's a lot of black geniuses out there that
goes across genre, you know, not just hip hop.

Speaker 5 (35:06):
You know what I mean.

Speaker 1 (35:06):
I want to see more producers speaking of black you
know music. I mean, correct me if I'm wrong. I
want to see more people inspired by what ROBERTA. Flack
and Donnie have the way with talking about. It's the feel.
It's called the feeling, y'all. It's called the feeling. And
that's where we try to do on this album. It's

(35:27):
create a feeling. It's like a lot of a lot
of music lacks that particular euphoric. The thing about D'Angelo
man which a lot of us was raising the church,
that feeling is not in music now, and it doesn't
mean it can't be there. That feeling has been there,
Sis James brown Man, It's been there as temptations, and

(35:47):
it showed up in so many different ways, whether it
be through Ruben, whether it be through a Scissor, whether
it be through Solange, whether it be through Cleosul who
I love, whether you know what I'm saying, like, it's
that feeling is there, and I think hip hop and
the feeling has got separated over time, which it used
to be like this because in the nineties hip hop

(36:08):
has samples in them that was the feeling, no matter
what the subject matter was on the top in fact,
so I think this just has to.

Speaker 5 (36:16):
You know, that's got that feel good, man, Nothing wrong
with that.

Speaker 1 (36:19):
And then it's also how do you keep people's legacies alive?

Speaker 2 (36:22):
Right?

Speaker 1 (36:22):
Because I swear since the Angelo died, you can just
be out and you'll hear somebody humming of the angels.
Like I'm talking about humming. I'm not talking about this,
you're hearing I've been around people and they just.

Speaker 2 (36:34):
Yo.

Speaker 6 (36:34):
Last night, I was at the Odell Show and as
soon as he got off, they played brown shots.

Speaker 5 (36:39):
Said the old deals and yeah, for sure another one.
But my thing is, where is that when these people
are here? Like, how do you keep that alive?

Speaker 1 (36:47):
Is it urban ac radio?

Speaker 2 (36:48):
Like?

Speaker 5 (36:49):
What is it? Yeah, twelve o'clock throwback mixed on you
know what I mean? I mean, you know that's a
that's a corporate conversation.

Speaker 2 (36:54):
Man.

Speaker 5 (36:55):
We can hand out them, but.

Speaker 1 (36:57):
Talk no, I mean I'm saying, man, like we got
to bring oh, DJ Envy, we have to bring DJ's
were the spokesman for the hood man or for black
people on what was good and what was not. Everybody
ain't good, no right, just because you made it, it

(37:18):
ain't good. Everybody's no music is subjective a cool everybody's
DJ's was supposed to be the ones that told us
what was good and what was not.

Speaker 5 (37:28):
We trusted the DJ.

Speaker 1 (37:30):
It's been like that since the beginning of hip hop,
and so that's what we need, man, And we can't.
We can't abandon. We can't get a certain age and
just say, man, I don't want to hear that old
stuff anymore. Other cultures don't do that, bro. No, they
don't take a special ed and throw them to the
back burner. Whoever the country version of Special Led is,

(37:52):
whoever the country version of Big Daddy Cane is, they
don't throw them to the back burner. We need to
make sure our legends are great and revere, just like
they do in the Grand Old Opera in Nashville. On
any other genre, the Rolling Stone still rocking because people
are still going for us. It's out with the old
and with the new. That's a gene. That's the thing

(38:13):
about Black people, because we're so creative. We just we
just onto the next so fast. We cannot abandon who
got us here and who contems to still do music.
It's up to us. We cannot wait on anybody else
to do it but us BRO And they're starting.

Speaker 3 (38:29):
They're starting with the stations because growing up, no matter
what market.

Speaker 4 (38:33):
You and it was always a classic rock station.

Speaker 2 (38:35):
I was always going to have that.

Speaker 3 (38:37):
And we're starting to get that now we are with
you know, eighties and nineties or you know, hip hop
stations and things like that.

Speaker 1 (38:43):
What the reality is all urban adult contemporary stations have
to do is just update the playlist like old school
now is what we came up on in the nineties
and the early two thousands. But they still playing and
they should. But they're playing earth Wind and Fire and
Yeah still.

Speaker 7 (38:57):
That we do on Fridays.

Speaker 4 (38:58):
We do have past to us.

Speaker 7 (39:00):
But because Naola Simona has put me on to you
like that, She's how I found you in O'Dell and
a lot of other artists that she has put me
on with. So DJs definitely, you know you got DJs
with good hears man. That's like, look, you put your
into the music and these are the things that you
feel are like kind of rare. She putting them out
there every Friday. Like I said, she put me on

(39:21):
you and a lot of other people that I listen
to you now, So it's important.

Speaker 2 (39:24):
It's important.

Speaker 6 (39:25):
I even think, like like you just said, I think
you know, y'all do a great job of that just
having her on Friday doing the pasts, and I think
it needs to be more because even like Envy, I
just saw a video where you you were the first
person to play hit them up, you know what I mean,
And I feel like, don't get.

Speaker 9 (39:48):
That nobody else against accepted it to heard And I
tell you I got it from shot money Excel I
used to put you, gave it to me, left to Studyo,
gave it to first.

Speaker 1 (40:00):
Did you get to play on Dirty Harriot?

Speaker 8 (40:05):
That definitely was dirty dirty, but not like real talk
Like I just feel like, you know, you like again,
she doesn't incredibly with past the ox, but I feel like,
you know, we need to honor the young DJs and
you know, allowed them to have that space because you
know they're going to be the ones putting us on
the music now, you know what I mean?

Speaker 6 (40:25):
Just like you were a who kid, you know, clue,
like you know, it's it needs to continue again, each
one teach one.

Speaker 2 (40:31):
You know what I mean.

Speaker 1 (40:32):
So, yeah, it's wild because now when you watch NF
you know NFL games, you watch NBA games, when they
go to commercial, they playing like nothing but a g
thing and award tour. And I remember when Jalen Rose was,
you know, the NBA a commentator.

Speaker 2 (40:47):
Like I was.

Speaker 1 (40:48):
I wonder if Jalen Rose got influence of what they're
playing when they go to commercial, because they played Who
Got the Props?

Speaker 5 (40:52):
One day and I was like, wait a minute, bro,
But it's that's we are.

Speaker 1 (40:56):
I think Jimmy Fallon is a prime example of where
we are in the time continuing because to have the
be the Tonight Show hosts and your band be the
Roots tells you everything. And he always says black Thought's
my favorite rapper, Tyler Qualley is my second favorite rapper,
and these were fifty years old. So I mean, I
think we just need to do more of that.

Speaker 5 (41:17):
Man. We just cannot abandon our classics like that.

Speaker 1 (41:19):
Yeah, I agree. A couple of questions for you, Rubh.
You said knife taught you a lot of discipline. What's
the hardest lesson he gave you that you didn't want
to hear ooh mmm.

Speaker 6 (41:30):
Honestly, man, don't listen to people who ain't never did it,
you know what I mean. And granted, you know I
always took his counsel, gurus, counsel.

Speaker 2 (41:41):
Yeah, our label, president, cash council.

Speaker 6 (41:43):
But I think you know, I had a unique situation
because I met them super early, so I didn't really
put other people's.

Speaker 2 (41:52):
Like opinions and stuff over there.

Speaker 6 (41:53):
Is like I will always go back to them and
be like, yo, such and such said under me what
you think you know what I mean, and they'll be like, man,
But there were certain times where people will try to
get in my ear, you know what I mean, and
be like, oh, don't do this, and don't do that
or move this way, and oh, you don't need to
be making them type of records, you know what I mean.
It's not gonna get you nowhere and stuff like that,
or just trying to tell me stuff. And they ain't

(42:13):
never did it, you know what I mean. You ain't
never been in that position. You ain't never did it
for you to be trying to. And I think you
know that came with age and like you know, growing up,
but you know when you're young, and you know, you
around your friends and you know they trying to you,
trying to feel accepted, you know what I mean, And
then you realize, like I'm sitting in this dorm room
with y'all, y'all trying to tell me when I'm about
to go on the weekend to LA and possibly.

Speaker 2 (42:36):
Be in the studio with Terrence Martin and all of them.
And y'all ain't never been.

Speaker 6 (42:38):
In the studio these folks, you know what I mean.
So I just had to navigate that. But as I
got older, you know, it was off to the races
with that. And then also too, I think another thing
is discipline wise, is you know, just staying true to
who you are. And you know it's gonna take longer,
but if you continue to be yourself and just follow

(43:00):
the course. He said that since the day he's met me,
stay the course. You stayed the course is going to
pay off, you know what I mean. There's been times
where you know, I'm like, man, it's not working out,
you know what I mean, Maybe I just need to quit,
you know, give up. And you know a week later,
Swizz beats hits my phone and stuff like that. You know,
just stuff like that. So I think he's always told
me to stay the course, and it was hard because

(43:21):
you know, you're young and you want it, you see,
and then you see in.

Speaker 2 (43:24):
Your peers like shoot up, you know what I mean.

Speaker 6 (43:26):
And I've seen that a lot, so I think, you know,
staying the course is one of another hard things.

Speaker 1 (43:30):
Swizzbeats at your phone when you were sixteen, Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Speaker 2 (43:34):
Facts.

Speaker 1 (43:34):
And you know, people describe you Ruben as a bridge
between eras. Do you ever feel pressure to carry that
responsibility or do you want to redefine it?

Speaker 2 (43:42):
I want to redefine it.

Speaker 6 (43:44):
I think I think I am a bridge because again,
like you know, I've taken counsel, and I'm not a
person who's stuck up and stubborn and have an ego
where I can't listen to any of y'all in the
room trying to give me some game. You know, I'm
always trying to soak up the game because I know,
so I got years to you know, fulfil still you know,
I know I'm still super young, and i'd rather listen

(44:06):
to somebody who's been around the block and know a
few things, then me go make some mistakes that probably
won't help me in the long run. But I think
I want to redefine it because you know, they have
a stigma on lyrical rappers. You know what I mean,
how we dress, how we move, and stuff like that.
And I think me being young, you know, knowing what's in,

(44:26):
but also still being true to myself. You know, it
shows in my style, It shows in how I dress,
It shows in how I appear. You know what I'm
saying when I come off, And I think, you know,
redefining it for twenty twenty five. I'm not trying to
do what folks did in the nineties, you know what
I mean. I'm trying to give y'all the same feeling
y'all felt when y'all heard at Aliens and an Equimini.
But I'm not trying to recreate that. I'm trying to

(44:47):
make a Ruben Vincent twenty twenty five.

Speaker 2 (44:49):
You know what I mean. Who is considered Marco plus?

Speaker 6 (44:55):
You know, yes, Chris Patrick, cack Cash, Nico brim Soave, Mavi,
he was another one from Charlotte. It's those are a
few people that's my peers, that's up and coming right now,
that's in my class.

Speaker 1 (45:08):
Knife. What lane do you think Reuben owns that none
of them can duplicate. I think it's the way he
talks about black women. I think that's that was a
and no, it's not about recreating the nineties, but I
think that's something that has left you know what I mean,
like just the banter and conversation. Honey, check it out.

(45:31):
You got me made. I want to girl with extensions
in the hair life that like, it's the way he does.

Speaker 2 (45:38):
It, you know what I mean, trying to milk it spoiled.

Speaker 1 (45:40):
Yeah, right, exactly exactly, because we've we've had that conversation
a lot. Man, there's there's this narrative that's going around
that young black not all, not all young brothers. Some
some young brothers only want to be around women when
it's time to get intimate and that's it. They let
you behave women facts, no conversation, no nothing, no none

(46:05):
of that, you know what I mean. In HBCU culture,
we didn't grow up like that. We're trying to go chill,
you know what I mean, and have conversation and blah
blah blah blah.

Speaker 6 (46:13):
I got five sisters, you know, so I feel like
that that influences me.

Speaker 1 (46:16):
Right, So for him it's the way he's to me.
I think he's a if ten Crack Commandments was a thing,
you know for dope dealers that bigger put out. He's
given that his version in like three or four songs
on this album. This is what you need to do,
this is what you need to say. But he's not
telling you. This is what I'm doing. So if I'm

(46:37):
doing it, hopefully it can influence not only a twenty
four year old, but it may be a fifteen year
old to picks up his.

Speaker 5 (46:43):
Album, you know what I mean.

Speaker 1 (46:44):
So I think that the way he approaches it in
a fun, light hearted kount of way and just being
unapologetic about feeling for somebody in a positive light, what's
wrong with that?

Speaker 5 (46:55):
Man like? And that's I think he does that better
than anybody right now.

Speaker 6 (46:59):
Age, what's your favorite dry record the album or just record?
Oh my god, lyrics to go? Yeah, those are too
like the top ones honestly, Midnight even rods from top
to bottom. It's just crazy. But grat record mm hmm,
fast laing with Nas. That's that's my just because I'm

(47:21):
a big NAS fan.

Speaker 2 (47:22):
Yo.

Speaker 6 (47:22):
I got guns, specifically smoke trees, you know what. I
mean like the way he came on there like and
it's just the beat. So those are two are like
my favorite records from them.

Speaker 4 (47:30):
Perform a.

Speaker 5 (47:32):
M no, man, that's the first.

Speaker 4 (47:38):
And I'm gonna come to you knife Okay, now what
you want to see?

Speaker 3 (47:42):
Yeah, yeah, I was about to say, I'm like, you
think about some of them the white people perform, you
have this song.

Speaker 2 (47:47):
That's why?

Speaker 6 (47:48):
Yeah, okay, So this is my this is my opinion listening.

Speaker 5 (47:59):
Nas.

Speaker 2 (48:00):
I think Nas it just depends on his song selection.

Speaker 4 (48:04):
Could he do it?

Speaker 2 (48:04):
Yes and no? Yes, yes, song selection though it got
to be song.

Speaker 1 (48:08):
Selections for me. A song selection. It's a song selection
with any artist, man, that's what it is. If it
was perfect the way Dre did it and had different
if Nas does it in a way, it's songs. But
we're also dealing we have to be realistic. We're dealing
with the Super Bowl, man, and it is a majority

(48:33):
of people that watch it and majority of people that
can even go. Because I think this is what we're
getting lost on this too. I know we're at home
watching it, but you also got to think about the
people that's at the game. He paid that ticket to
get in, so that's what it's going to be. I
think it needs to be not only one halftime show.
I think it needs to be several shows around the

(48:53):
Super Bowl period, maybe before the show, maybe after the show.

Speaker 2 (48:57):
But I think if he places it, he got a
place in the right way.

Speaker 1 (49:01):
It has to be places right shots to Adam Blackstone
because Adam Blackstone's music, the fantastic musical director that did
the Dre show, that did the like, he knows what
he's doing, So if he got with Adam Blackstone, I
think he could also. I love now now that one
of my top five favorite rabbits of all time. But
when I see people say things like if Dre and
Snooke can do it, Like, do y'all realize how big
drians Snoop? Yeah, that's a different conversation talking about that's

(49:23):
a different that's a different that, it's a different kind.

Speaker 4 (49:26):
I do feel like different guys can do one mic.

Speaker 2 (49:29):
I know why I can. In the world is ru
in the world?

Speaker 4 (49:32):
Bring out Lauren Hill?

Speaker 5 (49:33):
This was what I mean?

Speaker 2 (49:35):
Selection what you what you think?

Speaker 1 (49:38):
I think that's a future? I kill him?

Speaker 5 (49:40):
You know what I mean? Are we doing.

Speaker 2 (49:45):
All right?

Speaker 5 (49:46):
Now?

Speaker 2 (49:46):
Let me are y'all letting him. Do you owe me?

Speaker 1 (49:52):
No? No, no.

Speaker 5 (49:57):
Super Bowl one mic.

Speaker 1 (50:01):
Much?

Speaker 2 (50:02):
You don't think how much people.

Speaker 5 (50:06):
Hated you on me.

Speaker 2 (50:08):
I know That's why I'm like, that's terrible.

Speaker 5 (50:11):
Not for it.

Speaker 2 (50:14):
When it came out, y'all don't think they will be
the old white tho being that shot. And then you
bring out one.

Speaker 1 (50:23):
You got a couple more questions if you don't have
to answer this, if you don't want to made the
lord watch. Everybody wanted to know why Knife One didn't
participate in the Little Brother document That's a long story.
I don't think we got that kind of time. But
I will say this, man, you talking about the documentary. Yeah,
that's a long story. But I will say this, and
you do have as much time.

Speaker 5 (50:43):
As you you're not doing that.

Speaker 4 (50:46):
It was up there, we had that conversation that was
doing it.

Speaker 1 (50:50):
I'm gonna say this, And and sometimes people think I
say something for political reasons.

Speaker 5 (50:55):
Y'all watched me for years. Both of y'all have watched
me for years.

Speaker 1 (50:59):
I have never been a person to go online and
in public to try not to say that they did
that to me, but to deface and talk negative about
another man or woman. That's never been my thing, and

(51:20):
that's their feeling. That's how they respect, and you have
to respect how they feel about everything or whatever. But
as far as their success, as far as that we
being a part of each other's history, I cannot change
that at all. We have our own little brother has
our own children, Kendrick Drake, Fact Cole Big Sean, Wilt, Ruben, Vincent.

(51:41):
We got our own children, right. So again it's a
story behind it. But that's I believe in family business, Bro,
That's how this is how I was raised, That's how
I am. And you know we're at the age now
I'm fifty years old. Bro, y'all know how this goes. Man,
those people every day, Bro, we're losing family members. Listen,

(52:03):
God bless them brothers.

Speaker 5 (52:05):
Man.

Speaker 1 (52:05):
Let them keep doing what they're doing. I think they
are on tour right now. They got shows, They're still
doing shows. Fonte is incredibly talented, although we may have
disagreements or whatever, incredibly talented exactly.

Speaker 5 (52:19):
You know what I mean.

Speaker 1 (52:19):
I've seen Poogo from being one artist, one rapper to
another rapper to the level that he is. We've made
magic and without me, they made magic. And I'm leaving
it at that, man, I believe it. Look, bro, I'm
serving something else now. Bro, this is how I am.
What would a little brother mean to you? A little
brother reunion?

Speaker 6 (52:38):
I mean I've seen it. I've seen it. I've seen
it happen. How old was our seventeen? Yeah, when they
came to Durham, I was backstage, you know what I mean? Yeah,
And you know, I think it was dope because it
was something for North Carolina, you know what I mean.
They also raised me just as much as tribe did
Slum Village, Kanye, you know what I mean, like they

(53:02):
they were a part of that.

Speaker 2 (53:04):
You know.

Speaker 6 (53:04):
Again, like he said, I think you know the biggest
thing is, you know, one thing I can say about
Knife and this is not even just because he's sitting
right here. I would have said this if I would
have did this interview alone.

Speaker 2 (53:15):
It's just how.

Speaker 6 (53:18):
Spiritually and how you know he's handled you know, the
situation with Grace, and I think, you know, that's another
thing that I've learned from him. Even with people around me,
you know, you gotta move with Grace. And you know
I would love you know, I'm just me being a fan. Obviously,
I would have loved for you know what I mean.
But we're definitely in a different time now, you know
what I mean. And it's a new time, it's a

(53:40):
new regime, it's a new place, you know what I mean.
And it's just you gotta sometimes the history is supposed
to be where it is and people supposed to move on.

Speaker 2 (53:47):
And that's what it is.

Speaker 1 (53:48):
Without without know without no Fonte Cole made, would not
be a Drake fact Drake Drake completely one thousand percent.
He says it a million times, studied him, revered him,
imitating him. Everything we know about Drake rapping and singing
is Fonte Copin, Buddenden Fonte Copan. But as my man y.

(54:13):
But that again, going back and listen, man like, that's
how it is with me. I got to keep moving, man.
I didn't see the documentary at all. I never watched it.
I've heard about it from everybody. But I got to
keep them moving, man. I cannot stay in that space.
We don't have the time on this earth to stay
in that space. I got work to do. This is

(54:35):
my work now. I got other work to do as
well as my label Jammler.

Speaker 5 (54:40):
That's what it is.

Speaker 1 (54:41):
But again, saluting brothers, man, God, bless them brothers, man.
That's how they feel to have had the right to
express it. I didn't go online and say anything about it.
When it came out, I heard everything about it. Blah
blah blah.

Speaker 5 (54:52):
Difference of opinion, and we move on. My last question.

Speaker 1 (54:55):
If hip hop is a conversation across generations, right, what
message are you you too, trying to send back to
the culture with welcome home? If Papa is a conversation
that the feeling is not lost, you can continue to
give the feeling and there's not a division between the generation.

Speaker 5 (55:17):
There's not a division.

Speaker 6 (55:18):
Man.

Speaker 1 (55:19):
We have more in common than you think, especially if
you're on the same wavelengths. And I really, I really
really want.

Speaker 5 (55:29):
The elders, not old old lands and elders are two
different things.

Speaker 1 (55:35):
Everybody, Yeah, every everybody. Ain't everybody in an elder and
the o g man and sometimes sometimes old niggas want
to talk down to the young ones and try to
give him advice and young they ain't about to take
that from everybody, you know what I mean? Leave them alone,
Leave them alone, bro, Look the young The NBA Young

(55:57):
Boy Concert is coming to Raleigh, North Carolina. Man Old
Niggas stay home where you go out there and get
hurt and get hurt like you know, it's not for
that's not for us, Broun. We don't do a good
job of giving the young ones their space. The VIP
belongs to them now, the streets belong to them. Now

(56:22):
we are on the sidewalk. So I think what I
want to album to do is that you can have
a relationship.

Speaker 5 (56:29):
This can work.

Speaker 1 (56:30):
Whatever this is. We are twenty five years apart. This
can work and music can be made with this. That's
the biggest thing I want to get across, man.

Speaker 6 (56:40):
And I think for me, whether you are a NBA
young boy, whether you are a Ruben Vincent, whether you
are a any other name that I can name right now,
show up as yourself, show up as yourself and perform
at a high level, regardless of who you are, you
know what I mean, regardless of the background, you can
but show up as yourself, and I think we'll welcome home.

Speaker 2 (57:03):
I showed up one hundred percent Ruben.

Speaker 6 (57:06):
Everybody always say, you know Ruben and you have an
old soul and stuff like that, And this is stuff
I've been dealing with since I was a kid.

Speaker 2 (57:12):
You know what I mean.

Speaker 6 (57:12):
I remember being made fun of, you know what I mean,
for like going to my bus stop and I'm like, yo,
have y'all heard Illmatic? And they're like, Bro, we on this,
Chief Keef. I don't know that you're talking about it.
And I embraced Chief Keith too. I still rock listen
to cheek Key to this day. But they you know,
I would get looked at a certain way if I came.
And I'm like, Yo, y'all gotta listen to ill Matic,
y'all gotta listen to reasonable doubt, y'all gotta listen to
not even just those, y'all gotta listen to to Pimple Butterfly.

(57:35):
And they like, I ain't nobody trying to hear that,
but show up as yourself, you know what I mean.
And it's like, Yo, I want to perform at a
high level in rap. I'm not sitting here. I ain't
rapping to just drive a Honda a Cord bro, you
know what I mean. Like, but I'm gonna do it
as myself. I ain't here to compromise none of that.
But I am gonna be one of the greatest of

(57:55):
my generation. I'm gonna say that that's just a favorite,
you know what I mean? And I'm a would be
in one hundred percent, Ruben Vincent. I'm always Rep Africa,
I'm always Rap Charlotte, and I'm always REP showing up
as yourself And that's exactly what this album is about.

Speaker 2 (58:08):
He get it?

Speaker 5 (58:10):
You want to hear right now? Man, we're gonna play.

Speaker 1 (58:11):
Were gonna paydrants?

Speaker 5 (58:12):
Sidney? What's the joint? What's the joint with the what's that?

Speaker 1 (58:14):
That's not the album?

Speaker 2 (58:15):
Sure saying gotta get it?

Speaker 5 (58:16):
Got which one y'all want?

Speaker 4 (58:20):
You pack it?

Speaker 1 (58:21):
Let's do both of them? Yeah, let's get Dreams sent
you fire, but gotta get it ass.

Speaker 4 (58:26):
Ruben Vincent. Ninth Wonder We Appreciate You Brothers album comes
out this Friday. It's The Breakfast Club. Good morning, Yeah,
every day.

Speaker 5 (58:35):
Up Wake click yours up, The Breakfast Club.

Speaker 2 (58:38):
Finish, y'all done