July 17, 2024 • 32 mins
Initially publicly recognized as the featured singer on Kendrick Lamar's "LOVE", Zacari just dropped his 2024 album Bliss. Nico talks with the Filipino-American singer/songwriter about his 4-5 year journey creating this album.
Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/mexipino-podcast--5243005/support.
Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/mexipino-podcast--5243005/support.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
What's up everybody. I go bythe name of Nico Blitz. Jack Ramirez
is not here today, but whois here is the one and the only
Zakari Man. Zakari's in the freakingbuilding. Yeah. Yeah, happy to
be here. I'm happy to haveyou and finally meet you in real life.
I mean, when was the lastinterview that we did? That was
like it was a while ago?Yeah, that was that was like last
(00:22):
November or something like that. Right, Was it really that long ago?
Yeah? I mean, shoot,we've been tapped in the music sounding great.
Bliss is out right now, dogAnd when I tell you so,
he said, she shot me thepreview like, I don't know a week
or so ago, but I've beenjust so damn busy with like weddings and
hella other shit. And I finallygot a chance to listen to it.
(00:45):
I went to pick up my dogyesterday in Orange County, so it was
at least an hour that way andthen an hour coming back. It's a
fifty minute album, so I'm like, okay, I got like two and
a half listens in literally just yesterdayon the drum. I've another one today
and literally, bro, I've beentelling Jackie, like I love this fucking
(01:07):
album, Like I promise you Ilove this album. Thogh Man, Hell
yeah, that's good to hear.It's a good drive too, a good
time to listen to it, ohbro, A thousand percent. I gotta
say, like my favorite song isFomo. It felt so good. Bro.
That is like a that has beena favorite I've been seeing for sure.
Oh really, that's probably one ofthe more recent ones too. Done
(01:29):
on the project as far as likehow long ago I made it? Whatnot
well to kind of like preface everythingright for people who haven't listened to like
our old interview. A lot ofthese songs you were saying are like what
they're hell old? Right? Yeah, it's it's a pretty large span.
Like the intro is like six yearsold almost, so like there's songs that
(01:51):
old. There's songs I just didlast year too. So it's like it's
like over time three years old,four years old, four years old.
Bro. That's since saying, Imean, how do you not get tired
of a record that has been thatold? That's something I think I struggled
with too, is like having thissong for so long is like hard to
(02:13):
like feel the same way I evendid about him when I first made him.
But to see people react like whenit dropped it it makes it feel
new and fresh again to me,to be honest, And it always felt
like the sound of it was ahead, so I wasn't about like trying to
keep up with any type of soundgoing on, so made it easier.
Yeah, that's true, because Imean, I think you have a lot
(02:36):
of timeless music. And I don'tuse that word very lightly. I promise
you that because you got a recordon there, I want to say it
was give you Up, yeah,and that it literally I was like,
Zakari is really fucking Filipino because thisfeels like a Filipino ballad, but it
sounds like a Filipino karaoke song tothe one you pull up? Yeah,
(02:57):
Bro, it's like that. Thatsong so special to me specifically too,
because as far as the album goes, that's the only one I didn't write
completely. Oh okay, have youheard of Justin Azuka. I've heard of
George and Nazukah Okay, yeah,his brother, Oh okay, okay,
cool cool cool? Yeah. Yeah, they're all artists, but he's an
artist I look to look up togrowing up. Yeah, acoustic guitar players
(03:20):
singer, and he came to LAand he had this song like the hook
and the verses, and he saidI could have the song, so we
like worked on it together, rewrote it. He was there, Well
I cut it too, So yeah, it's pretty crazy because he's always been
one of my favorite writers of alltime. That's dope, man, yeah,
Man, to have a song andhave him be a part of it
in that way, it's cool.He's on the background vocals. Hell yeah,
(03:43):
it's cool being in the R andB space too, because obviously in
hip hop, like you know,you can't be writing other people ship,
right, But for R and Bpeople do it. You know, people
do it. People do it.But like that's why it's so cool to
be in the R and B spacebecause because there's just no denying a really
good song and you know, gettingthat blessing from Justin, ya getting that
(04:06):
blessing from Justin to have that record, like I'm assuming that song must be
super special to you. Yeah,so special man. It isn't even having
him on my project because I hadhim on that EP on that song Blossom
too, so oh yeah, yeahyeah man, just like I remember,
just like learning how to like singand write my own music. I would
(04:26):
cover a lot of his stuff andwatch all his videos like gotcha, gotcha?
So yeah, man, to havea full circle moment like that,
it's so sight. It was cool. Man. I'm assuming you're kind of
like in that YouTube like MySpace era, like you understand that type of music.
Just I mean, the past coupleof weeks, I've been working with
one of my artists homies named Alexis, and we've been working with Andrew Garcia,
(04:50):
who was like super big in likethe YouTube era, kind of like
in that aj Rafael Well and whatnot. And it's just always so cool to
me to just just work with peoplefrom I wouldn't want to say like the
older heads, but you know whatI mean, the people who we like
super listen to growing up. Itfeels very blissful. Yeah, you know
(05:12):
what I mean. It feels veryblissful. It does feel really even to
seem like my parents' reaction too,because they've seen how like I grew up
listening to him, and Justin isnot old by any means, Okay,
okay, which is also pretty cool. Just how long he's been doing this.
Yeah, Yeah, I was watchinghis videos. He was making them
when he was in like college andhigh school. So yeah, man,
it's it's awesome. Its blessing.And if I could recall from our past
(05:36):
interview too, like you had saidwhat like you were very hip to using
a lot of natural sounds when itcomes to your music, like considering like
a lot of this well you know, some of this music was performed and
like produced over the past like fouror five years. Did that make the
(05:56):
cut? Were you still using likenatural sounds from like yeah, sure and
whatnot? Yeah, definitely, Likeambiance is like a huge part of the
music to me, and using myvoice memos a lot too, Like end
of Nocturnal is like this speech mybrother did blacked out on his twenty first
birthday. Oh shit, it's hilarious. So that's the moment. And then
(06:17):
I'm surprised you weren't blacked out duringthat day. He's a lightweight. I
had no music, okay, okay, reverse the song reverse. Yeah.
We we had took we had rentedthis cabin up in near Reno, and
we we got the airbnb right bythe river, and then we like brought
(06:41):
a studio set up and we likeran mics through it. Wow. And
we recorded the guitar like by thewaterfall, so like there's like ambiance in
there too on that reverse guitar part. Hey man, that's some real last
ship. I fucked with that.And I say that because like I do
a lot of my guitar shit onMIDI and I'm like, yeah, that's
cool, that's cool, but liketo have the ambiance of like the river
and whatnot, like, and Ithink that's why, like even when it
(07:04):
came to your previous project, itwas like run Wild, Run Free,
Yeah, bro, Like I wasn'tsure what it was until I actually talked
to you about it, And itreally is those ambient, like natural sounds
that really make it feel like I'min a fucking forest listening to this shit.
Like even the first record, rightit was called a it was like
(07:29):
lonely or like the first record onthe project, oh the Lone Wolf,
Lone Wolf, right, Like immediatelyI'm just I feel like I'm in a
fucking cave or something. I'm like, this shit is fire. But I
did want to ask you about thatbecause bliss obviously just means like supreme,
Like I'm happy, I'm freaking happy. How can you start the project with
(07:50):
I'm feeling lonely or I feel likea lone wolf. So like the actual
like main Reason is titled bliss iseven like follow that theme of ignorance is
bliss. So it's like the wayI see it is if if there's this
like journey we're creating as the wolfand there's a run wild, run free,
(08:11):
and then that was the daytime.This is like more of like eclips,
like when the moon is blocking thesun. That's what I see is
like that blissful area that ignorance youlive in when what's blocking your life,
when you're just having fun and you'recoming out here and you're figuring things out
on your own, and yeah,man, that's the journey of the album
(08:31):
really is moving alone through those throughthose times and coming out of it.
Yeah, Cause you know, Ilike to tell my homies all the time,
whether they're in relationship issues or not. It's like it's kind of like
a situation where I've been in somany relationships, but during those relationships I
wasn't happy on my own, Yeah, and I kind of felt like,
(08:52):
yeah, I could kind of livein this la la land for a second
and feel like everything is perfectly fine, but when in reality, it's like
I kind of had to find peacefor myself first in order to make sure
this relationship. And by relationship,I don't just mean like a relationship with
another person, but like relationship withlike family friends. I kind of had
(09:13):
to step away from that and reallyfigure out like who I am first before
I could continue a relationship with anybody. Yeah, I just feel like it's
not fair. It wouldn't be fairfor me to not give somebody like who
I am and they're you know,they might be half asking it as well.
Yeah, and then it's like it'sit's about when when stepping away from
(09:33):
those people and those loved ones.Yeah, like isolating yourself, how that
can go wrong sometimes as well,where it's like you you isolate yourself too
much and you kind of get lostin it. And that's that's kind of
some moments in the album where it'sthat ignorance takes over. Well, how
do you feel about isolation? Like, because there's days where I enjoy being
by myself, there's other days whereI'm just like, man, I fucking
(09:56):
need somebody next to me, right, Yeah, Yeah, No, man,
I love being alone, to behonest but there are moments where it
can get too far. I feellike, yeah, I feel like you
got to keep some people close forsure. Uh huh. But I think
if you can, if you canfigure out how to be happy on your
own, man, it's it's onlygonna it's only gonna be better when you
when you're with people A thousand percent. Man. I mean I'm the type
(10:18):
of person like, look, yougive me a couple of shrooms. Yeah,
you give me a room, yougive me like video games or some
music. I'm chilling, man,I don't need anybody around that. Bro.
I love the video games for sure. What are you playing right now?
If that I've been playing this gamecalled Dark and Darker, Bro,
It's it's pretty crazy. I justgot a PC, so I've been playing
more games. But yeah, it'scalled Dark and Darker. I've been playing
(10:41):
that game finals, but yeah,not as much as I was last year.
Yeah. I feel that I gothrough seasons where I'll just play a
lot for a couple of months andthen get tired of it and come back
a few months later. Yeah,bro, I mean it's cool to like
exercise like your creativity. Yeah,they're there and whatnot? I mean I
don't know if you know, butlike actually got blitz from Final Fantasy ten.
(11:03):
It was one of the Yeah,yeah, you know what game I'm
talking about. I know Final Fantasy. I played one of them on the
Xbox, but I never played thewhole series. Oh yeah, I mean
shit, I don't think any ofus have time to play the entire series.
There are some people that are likesuper on top of the series.
I don't know which one was thatone. So Final Fantasy ten, yeah,
(11:24):
it was on PlayStation two, Ibelieve, and literally they had this
mini game called blitz Ball, andso blitz Ball was like a combination of
like hell of different sports. Andthen when I wanted to be a rapper
when I was like eleven years old, I was like, oh yeah,
I'm gonna go with blitz because Iwant to be hell a different thing is
a sick name though, thank youbro. Production Wise, what would you
(11:46):
say was the most difficult song toproduce on this album? Ooh, it's
difficult, I think honestly. Imean the one that was the craziest process
to me was that the reverse recordthat we were just talking about, yea
of how far it traveled and likehow it evolved. I wouldn't say it
(12:09):
was hard, but it wasn't.It was like a long process, but
it was fun, so it didn'tseem too bad. But it started with
me and James front Leroy linking upfor the first time. Yeah, And
the way he started the beat washe he goes straight into the booth beat
boxes the tempo. He played allthe chords with his vocals, so he
(12:30):
just laid harmonies to do the chordprogression, and then he played bass guitar
and then he opened up his laptopand started reducing. So that was pretty
crazy to see. But at theend of it, we didn't leave with
like a really like a flesh outidea. It was kind of just like
a jam session of it. Yeahyeah, yeah did so right after that
(12:50):
session, I took everything, allthe strings and vocals and stuff, and
I arranged it all into like asong, and then I had Jay Lewis
come through. He did the eightawaits and drum patterns over the arrangement.
Hell yeah, and then yeah maybethat. We had that version for maybe
like over a year, and thenwe got that cabin. We got that
(13:13):
cabin, I was like, man, I should we should we should redo
that middle section here, so welike cut out that middle section and we
recorded their guitars and all that stuff. That's sick, bro. That one
was a cool process. It's alsosick to know that, Like, I
mean, you were holding on fora record for a while, Like,
you know, I think one thingthat a lot of like musicians really face
is demo witis. And so it'slike when you have something and you play
(13:37):
this song and you're just get soattached to the demo, like like you
gotta you literally had to forfeit aone year old record and just be like,
you know what, I think thisnext move is going to be the
best thing for Reverse specifically. Yeah, definitely we run into that a lot
of me and LUSA. For sure, my manager, I'll send him a
record and be like, yo,man, what happened to the Like,
(14:00):
Bro, that's not even like that'snot even how it was supposed to be
yeaheah, So what Yeah, ithappens, bro, But what even sparked
like inspiration, Like during those cabindays, I feel like we're always referring,
referring back to this cabin. Evenwhen we last spoke, you talked
about this cabin. I did yeah, yeah, yeah, I mean I
(14:20):
don't know, it was just Ithink it's a part of like my connection
of nature to is how we weretalking about. I really loved being outdoors
and being in the sun and beingby water, So I mean that that
was the big thing I like toget out of LA for a little bit.
Sometimes it can get a little repetitiveand a little like crowded here.
M hm. So yeah, I'vealso done that, me and the homie
(14:41):
James Hunt, he's an engineer.We also went to Paris one time and
just got a airbnbat and like setup a studio in there too, so
m hmm. Yeah, man,I think traveling and seeing new things can
be inspiring to the music for sure. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. Environments
for people who don't know born andraised in Baker's Field, went to Alaska
(15:03):
for a bit and you were workingat a it was like you were working
at a cabin there, right,Yeah. But I was working at a
wilderness lodge called Brooks Lodge in CatmiNational Park. So it was like this
this small lodge you fly to ona floatplane and yeah, you're just there.
There's no cities, nothing, soyou go there to work and you're
(15:24):
just there all summer. Yeah,and uh yeah, man, that was
such a great time meet people fromall over the world. We could host
probably like fifty people at a time, maybe, but there'd be day trippers
that would come in. Yeah,and yeah. It was the number one
bear viewing lodge in the world.And I didn't know this at the time.
I just applied to a bunch ofsummer jobs and the only one that
(15:46):
got back to me. So andyou and you encountered a couple of bears,
right, Yeah, I had lotsof bears every day. You're like,
you're like living with them. Ourour living space was just this like
little rope electric fenced off area withthese bunk bed cabins in them. And
okay, so oh, correct meif I'm wrong, because I'll be seeing
just a lot of random videos onYouTube. But when a bear comes,
like do you really gotta you gottaget bigger than the bear, or like
(16:07):
what do you do? I mean, it's it's different depending on where you
are and and the issue. Butwhere I was at was these bears eat
so many fish and they see peoplepretty often. Yeah, they don't really
trip. I think that's more ofif you're alone in the forest and you
just happen to stumble upon a bearand it's like sitting you which is the
(16:29):
thing. But if you're just vocaland you don't surprise them, you kind
of just stand still. They don'tthey don't give a fuck about you at
all. They'll walk right past me. They'll be on all sides of me,
just fishing with me. The timesthat I've had to worry was was
when they see my fish and theywant to take the fish in a couple
(16:49):
of times. And then there wasone time when my parents visited, I
took them off to this this spotthat was more secluded from people. Yeah,
and there's there. Remember there's thismom that was hurt, its cub
with their cubs. She had ahurt leg and she was around the camp
and people been talking about her.But she said, stumbled upon us in
the middle of the day and yeah, uh, ourselves. And that was
(17:11):
kind of true because I have myfamily there with me, and I was
like, that's the injured mom withtheir cubs. You're just like I got
my family, This bear got theirfamily. Like, so, did you
help the cub out or like you, I don't know, not at all.
The reason it's dangerous is because ifif a bear is hurt or or
it's getting surprised, that's when it'smost dangerous. Gotcha, gotcha mode.
(17:33):
So you want to stay far awayfrom them. Okay, now, for
sure I get that. It's like, look, I'm not even gonna pass
you. No fish, I'm justnot gonna fish whatever you need, that's
for you. Rules are just don'tapproach him. If you feel like it's
it's like being aggressive towards you,then that would be the move. Yeah,
yourself big and loud for sure.Still and so you know, your
(17:56):
whole life, it seems like you'vebeen so privy to just traveling. And
I think before the last time wespoke, you were actually going to the
Philippines for the first time for thefirst time. It was crazy, Bro.
We're in Manila for most of thetime. But man, that was
such a beautiful trip. It wasso nice out there. I got to
meet so many cool people. Wentto Boggyao too. Oh yeah, this
(18:18):
mountain town. Yeah, man,it was great. We did some shows.
But man, I really when Igo back, Bro, I really
want to go see the beaches.That was one thing I didn't get to
oh, you didn't get to seeany of the beaches. Man. We're
in the city for most of thetime. So god, I got to
experience Manila for sure. Okay,I'm not gonna lie, bro, Like
my family's my family's like little provinceis right next to a beach, So
(18:44):
I've been spoiled every time I go. I'm just I'm chilling right there.
He tapped in over there, bro, come on, man, and uh
so, first time in Manila,Like, walk me through it, man,
Like what was it like for you? Like the experience like seeing all
these people eating the new food.Oh, man, it it was pretty
incredible and they like the thing istoo is we packed my schedules so tight
(19:07):
here. So yeah, every dayit was either a show. We did
a show, and then we alsodid a riding camp, so I think
okay, I did we like partnerwith Warner and I think that was one
of my highlights was working with likelocal Filipino artists. Yeah, and doing
that because we did a two daycamp out there and yeah, man,
it was sick. We worked withthis hip hop group called mid Nasty.
(19:30):
Yeah I've heard of them. Yeah, yeah, they were sick. What
else did you work with Philippe fromwhat's the group SB SB Okay okay,
yeah, okay, okay SB nineteen. Yeah, bro, he was tied
too. And I didn't really knowabout them until but when they saw us
(19:53):
in the studio there, Hell yeahwere they were? They already hip to
you? Yeah. I guess ifit hurt me just from just based off
damn off. Hell yeah. Man. Food was crazy too, all right?
So I bet Red Horse too,the Red Horse beer. Bro,
I promise you that shit was good. It was good. Bro. Fuck,
(20:14):
we had so many red horses thattrip. It's the best. And
you know what's cool about going tothe Philippines too, is like one US
dollar, Dude, is like fiftyfive over there, so you're not spending
shit, man, Yeah, bro, you can stretch it out for sure.
Bro. Jolly Be over here islike fifteen bugs. Jolly Be over
there is like a dollar, andI'm like, gee, I need to
stay here, man. Yeah,that was better living over there. You
(20:37):
know what's cool about Filipinos is that, like we have this umbrella genre.
It's called oh PM, which reallyjust stands for Original Filipino Music. And
so it's weird because I've spoken toso many Filipinos about what this genre is,
but we don't necessarily have that sound. So for example, like Latin
(21:02):
artists you think of like you know, reggathon or even like Cumbia's or whatnot.
For us, however, we havepeople like yourself obviously, like really
good with the fucking ballads. There'seven an artist over there. Her name
is Ilis Morena, and she's doinglike reggaethon, but she's speaking to Gallag
over the entire song. You havepeople like uh, I think flow G
(21:25):
who's like kind of like on sometrap shit SB nineteen, who's on some
like Filipino pop shit. Yeah,yeah right. So for you, I
mean, you know, you've beenFilipino your entire life, you've been in
Manila for the first time like lastyear. For you, like, do
you have any sort of like ideaof like what original Filipino music like is
(21:48):
for you and what that means toyou. I think you. I think
you said it. You said itjust right now. It is like the
ballads. It feels like like songsthat are filled with like love and emotion
that you can sing along to.To me, that seems like the most
Philippino music. I agree, man, I agree, something you could sing
(22:10):
your heart out to, for sure. It was it was all the karaoke
nights, bro, that it was. Bro. My dad had got one
from Costco. I remember every everyyear we'd have it at our house.
Overall Yell would be was the karaokemaster. He's the one who would wave
ould do all that ship. That'sa hell of lit dog. What was
your like top karaoke song? Ialways go to this, like, uh,
(22:36):
I always go to that Kings ofLeon song. Somebody, yeah,
somebody that one? Okay, okay, yeah yeah. My dad used to
do this song called Feelings though,but he was like that's how he would
see. I don't know the nameof that song, but that was his
go to. That was a classic. Yeah, man, I think one
(23:00):
of my sisters go to song wasis this song called Stupid Love And literally
it just goes like stupid love thewhole time. And I'm like, there's
literally no way I'm ever gonna forgetabout this song, bro. And what
was it like for you? Justlike working with people from literally a different
(23:21):
continent, a different part of theworld, bro, Like, did you
learn anything different about those sessions throughthose sessions? Man? It's just it's
crazy to see, like because grouplike mid Nasty, they're so talented and
they're so hungry and like where they'refrom too. They sell these concerts and
they sell these shows. But it'slike, but yeah, man, it's
(23:42):
like to see their driving shit kindof like made me want to step up
to They're working so hard and theyhave so much to share and speak about
where they're from and their struggles.It's like, yeah, man, it
just set a fire for me tokeep going. Hell yeah, bro,
I love it. How much ofyour rollout was planned out? With literally
(24:08):
everything happening this year? Bro?Yeah, obviously Kendrick took the year.
Yeah, Bro, you know Summer'sKendrick Summer's basically like you know, TD
Kendrick type summer, and then you'reyou obviously came out with your album like
right afterwards. How much of allthis is planned? Bro? None of
(24:29):
that? Yeah, nobody saw thatcoming to be real. Okay, yeah,
okay, So it's really just I'mgonna just you already had your due
date, yeah, I mean we'vebeen moving my do date around just based
on a lot of different things.But my due day also comes because I'm
going on tour. With Sir Okayten days. So we wanted to get
(24:52):
the album out before that because it'sbeen ready for a few months now,
like you had it ready. Butyeah, Bro, Kendrick just just needs
to get that off. Man.That is wild. It just it's still
crazy. It just even to thisday, bro, Like we literally played
like Not Like Us five times overat the wedding for my sister this past
Sunday, and I'm like, Idon't see the song disappearing for a minute.
(25:14):
Number one, number one on thedisc record. I'm still waiting on
Kendrick to like hop on like youralbum. I know, man, that
would be crazy. He's been busythough, Yeah, for sure, for
sure. But I think it wasvery cool to have, you know,
people like Doci on it and alsoIsaiah I guess like the newer members of
Right Right somewhat so so's a OG though absolute Oh for Shure, it's
(25:37):
a black happy member for sure.It was a perfect way to end the
album too, bro, like yougotta guy. I've been living with those
words too for for years now.Yeah, for it to be out and
people to hear it special, man, I think it's a perfect way to
take it out. Were you atthe pop out? Yeah, that show
(25:59):
is nuts. How was it foryou? It was insane? I was
there as a fan, Brohm,Yeah, I was there as a fan.
It was really cool seeing all fourof them up on stage though,
Q Rock and Soul, and thatwas a moment for sure. Yeah,
bro I was literally in a sessionthat day. Jackie ended up going and
then I just watched it on Amazonand I'm shooting myself in the foot.
I'm just like, dog, thatshould have canceled all this shit today.
(26:23):
Yeah. Man, that was amoment for sure. And just how he
brought every LA artist wrapper up onstage with him. Dad, it was
so tired. It felt so cool. I like literally felt like we as
like California specifically, got like sorepresented on that stage at the time.
Like I've been in LA for liketen years now, I felt like I
(26:44):
was from LA watching that shit.I was like, oh, yeah,
this is tight. Yeah, thewhole West Coast is up. He was
fighting for the Bay too. Hebrought up the Bay a lot. Yeah,
bro E forty with the intro andI was like, this is great,
this is great, that's tight.You know there. I would like
to see you on like a lotmore like West Coast type records too.
(27:06):
I know you had that record withBlast a couple of years ago, Like,
do you have anything like that inthe pipeline for the future. I
do have some. I do havesome records like that. I wie would
rock and one Take J I've beensaying, oh, hell yeah, okay,
but it's still different. I'm Istill if I do do that West
Coast bounce that we don't want tofind my own way to do it too.
So yeah, so yeah, it'sinteresting, it's interesting it out.
(27:29):
Yeah, well would you say I'msprinkling it throughout with the Blesser Heart and
the Blast record. I think thoseare good like examples of where if I
had to do it, I wouldtake it in that direction. Yeah.
It'd be also super cool to seethem enter like your world, Yeah,
in some way, because like youknow, I'm just so used to like
hearing like rock or like one takeJ on like West Coast Records, like,
(27:52):
because you had Blasts on your projecttoo, So it's cool to see
him enter your world for a secondtoo. Yeah, man, for sure.
Shout out to Cali too and whythey did the beat on that one.
He's from he's from the Bay too. Hell yeah, shout out cal
a man or you know who's goingcrazy right now too on the production,
like throughout the whole West Coast isPilo. I want to see a crazy
producer, bro. Yeah. Yeah, I've worked with Plow for sure.
(28:15):
We need to get back in thoughZa car on a Pilo beat. Yeah,
that'd be tight. Larry too,I need link up with Larry.
You and Larry would go crazy.We have old songs out, bro,
like early stuff. I had asong with him and g Eazy on there.
There's a song called Sparkling Water outtoo. So I met Larry a
long time ago. Oh so thiswas like before every This was like what
(28:37):
before love and everything? Yeah,even knowing Pilo, I remember before you
even coming around t d E.I just had mat Pelo through my cousin
Aaron Kai. He's a painter.Aaron Kai is your cousin. Yeah,
all these connections are just crazy byconnections, for sure, it's crazy.
(29:00):
My cousin went to Stuff for schooland she met Aaron there and they got
married there. So they've been fora long time. This is wild,
bro, Like my brain is justlike so fried from all of that.
Right now. I'm just like,this ship doesn't make sense, but that's
cool. Yeah, Aaron and Jamieintroduced me to all them early because they
were all friends Calail, Aaron LowYeah, yeah, Yeah, that's dope.
(29:22):
Man ship. I mean, wheredo you see the direction of like
West Coast music going from here onout? Man Up. Kendrick kind of
kind of stamps it, I feellike for the for the West Coast artists
too. He like lit a fireto like just level up. Yeah yeah,
and be consistent and be aggressive withyour sound and like and what you
(29:47):
want to do. So I thinkwe have a lot of eyes on us
right now too. So I knowa lot of West Coast rappers with great
music ready to go. So yeah, bro, yeah, I think it's
cool. Like you know, kindof like going back to like that oh
PM type conversation where like when youthink about West Coast music, you know,
you might think of like G funkor just like straight up club slaps
(30:08):
right now, but your West Coastmusic, Yeah you know what I'm saying.
Like I have a friend. Hername is Tweet, she's West Coast
music. She's from here. Hersizza, like everybody is West Coast music.
And like, at least for me, it's cool to see our side
of the world, like finally getthat recognition. It feels good, that's
(30:30):
all I can say. It justfeels over here for sure. So this
Zacari Blisters out right now. Thevideo with Isaiah Rashad is out right now.
That one's been out for a while, so that that one's been out
for almost two years. But theshort film for Blister just drop. So
we made a whole short film,like okay for the album, and that's
(30:52):
something we've been working on a lotover the past few months. And is
that that one's out right now too? Oh shit? Okay, yeah,
see, I'm sleep and I needto. I'm gonna tell you this.
I'm gonna take some shrooms. I'mgonna put it on my fucking thing.
I'll be good to go. That'sperfect. You have anything else down the
pipeline for the rest of the year, bro man. My biggest focus right
now is been tour. Okay.I want to do more festivals this summer
(31:15):
too. I want to get thelive show and start performing the music and
then yeah, start the next album. Hell yeah, your next date I
believe in la is August eighteen.Yeah, I think you're right. Damn,
I got some good ass. Youknow. I have to pull up
every time. No, I'm notgonna lie. When I pulled up my
Spotify, it said it's at Augusteighteen, I was like, oh,
(31:36):
okay, maybe if I'm free thatday, I'll fucking pull up. Bro.
That's that's type. Man. I'mhappy for you man, I'm so
excited Bro, I'm happy for yoursuccess. I'm happy for Bliss. It's
out right now, running up thosefucking streams, ran up and uh,
you know you represent for the Filipinosman, and I fuck with you all
day. Man. Yeah. Same. My name is Nico Blitz. Shout
out to my boys A Cary,Yes, sir here check out Bliss leter Yo later
What's up everybody. I go bythe name of Nico Blitz. Jack Ramirez
is not here today, but whois here is the one and the only
Zakari Man. Zakari's in the freakingbuilding. Yeah. Yeah, happy to
be here. I'm happy to haveyou and finally meet you in real life.
I mean, when was the lastinterview that we did? That was
like it was a while ago?Yeah, that was that was like last
(00:22):
November or something like that. Right, Was it really that long ago?
Yeah? I mean, shoot,we've been tapped in the music sounding great.
Bliss is out right now, dogAnd when I tell you so,
he said, she shot me thepreview like, I don't know a week
or so ago, but I've beenjust so damn busy with like weddings and
hella other shit. And I finallygot a chance to listen to it.
(00:45):
I went to pick up my dogyesterday in Orange County, so it was
at least an hour that way andthen an hour coming back. It's a
fifty minute album, so I'm like, okay, I got like two and
a half listens in literally just yesterdayon the drum. I've another one today
and literally, bro, I've beentelling Jackie, like I love this fucking
(01:07):
album, Like I promise you Ilove this album. Thogh Man, Hell
yeah, that's good to hear.It's a good drive too, a good
time to listen to it, ohbro, A thousand percent. I gotta
say, like my favorite song isFomo. It felt so good. Bro.
That is like a that has beena favorite I've been seeing for sure.
Oh really, that's probably one ofthe more recent ones too. Done
(01:29):
on the project as far as likehow long ago I made it? Whatnot
well to kind of like preface everythingright for people who haven't listened to like
our old interview. A lot ofthese songs you were saying are like what
they're hell old? Right? Yeah, it's it's a pretty large span.
Like the intro is like six yearsold almost, so like there's songs that
(01:51):
old. There's songs I just didlast year too. So it's like it's
like over time three years old,four years old, four years old.
Bro. That's since saying, Imean, how do you not get tired
of a record that has been thatold? That's something I think I struggled
with too, is like having thissong for so long is like hard to
(02:13):
like feel the same way I evendid about him when I first made him.
But to see people react like whenit dropped it it makes it feel
new and fresh again to me,to be honest, And it always felt
like the sound of it was ahead, so I wasn't about like trying to
keep up with any type of soundgoing on, so made it easier.
Yeah, that's true, because Imean, I think you have a lot
(02:36):
of timeless music. And I don'tuse that word very lightly. I promise
you that because you got a recordon there, I want to say it
was give you Up, yeah,and that it literally I was like,
Zakari is really fucking Filipino because thisfeels like a Filipino ballad, but it
sounds like a Filipino karaoke song tothe one you pull up? Yeah,
(02:57):
Bro, it's like that. Thatsong so special to me specifically too,
because as far as the album goes, that's the only one I didn't write
completely. Oh okay, have youheard of Justin Azuka. I've heard of
George and Nazukah Okay, yeah,his brother, Oh okay, okay,
cool cool cool? Yeah. Yeah, they're all artists, but he's an
artist I look to look up togrowing up. Yeah, acoustic guitar players
(03:20):
singer, and he came to LAand he had this song like the hook
and the verses, and he saidI could have the song, so we
like worked on it together, rewrote it. He was there, Well
I cut it too, So yeah, it's pretty crazy because he's always been
one of my favorite writers of alltime. That's dope, man, yeah,
Man, to have a song andhave him be a part of it
in that way, it's cool.He's on the background vocals. Hell yeah,
(03:43):
it's cool being in the R andB space too, because obviously in
hip hop, like you know,you can't be writing other people ship,
right, But for R and Bpeople do it. You know, people
do it. People do it.But like that's why it's so cool to
be in the R and B spacebecause because there's just no denying a really
good song and you know, gettingthat blessing from Justin, ya getting that
(04:06):
blessing from Justin to have that record, like I'm assuming that song must be
super special to you. Yeah,so special man. It isn't even having
him on my project because I hadhim on that EP on that song Blossom
too, so oh yeah, yeahyeah man, just like I remember,
just like learning how to like singand write my own music. I would
(04:26):
cover a lot of his stuff andwatch all his videos like gotcha, gotcha?
So yeah, man, to havea full circle moment like that,
it's so sight. It was cool. Man. I'm assuming you're kind of
like in that YouTube like MySpace era, like you understand that type of music.
Just I mean, the past coupleof weeks, I've been working with
one of my artists homies named Alexis, and we've been working with Andrew Garcia,
(04:50):
who was like super big in likethe YouTube era, kind of like
in that aj Rafael Well and whatnot. And it's just always so cool to
me to just just work with peoplefrom I wouldn't want to say like the
older heads, but you know whatI mean, the people who we like
super listen to growing up. Itfeels very blissful. Yeah, you know
(05:12):
what I mean. It feels veryblissful. It does feel really even to
seem like my parents' reaction too,because they've seen how like I grew up
listening to him, and Justin isnot old by any means, Okay,
okay, which is also pretty cool. Just how long he's been doing this.
Yeah, Yeah, I was watchinghis videos. He was making them
when he was in like college andhigh school. So yeah, man,
it's it's awesome. Its blessing.And if I could recall from our past
(05:36):
interview too, like you had saidwhat like you were very hip to using
a lot of natural sounds when itcomes to your music, like considering like
a lot of this well you know, some of this music was performed and
like produced over the past like fouror five years. Did that make the
(05:56):
cut? Were you still using likenatural sounds from like yeah, sure and
whatnot? Yeah, definitely, Likeambiance is like a huge part of the
music to me, and using myvoice memos a lot too, Like end
of Nocturnal is like this speech mybrother did blacked out on his twenty first
birthday. Oh shit, it's hilarious. So that's the moment. And then
(06:17):
I'm surprised you weren't blacked out duringthat day. He's a lightweight. I
had no music, okay, okay, reverse the song reverse. Yeah.
We we had took we had rentedthis cabin up in near Reno, and
we we got the airbnb right bythe river, and then we like brought
(06:41):
a studio set up and we likeran mics through it. Wow. And
we recorded the guitar like by thewaterfall, so like there's like ambiance in
there too on that reverse guitar part. Hey man, that's some real last
ship. I fucked with that.And I say that because like I do
a lot of my guitar shit onMIDI and I'm like, yeah, that's
cool, that's cool, but liketo have the ambiance of like the river
and whatnot, like, and Ithink that's why, like even when it
(07:04):
came to your previous project, itwas like run Wild, Run Free,
Yeah, bro, Like I wasn'tsure what it was until I actually talked
to you about it, And itreally is those ambient, like natural sounds
that really make it feel like I'min a fucking forest listening to this shit.
Like even the first record, rightit was called a it was like
(07:29):
lonely or like the first record onthe project, oh the Lone Wolf,
Lone Wolf, right, Like immediatelyI'm just I feel like I'm in a
fucking cave or something. I'm like, this shit is fire. But I
did want to ask you about thatbecause bliss obviously just means like supreme,
Like I'm happy, I'm freaking happy. How can you start the project with
(07:50):
I'm feeling lonely or I feel likea lone wolf. So like the actual
like main Reason is titled bliss iseven like follow that theme of ignorance is
bliss. So it's like the wayI see it is if if there's this
like journey we're creating as the wolfand there's a run wild, run free,
(08:11):
and then that was the daytime.This is like more of like eclips,
like when the moon is blocking thesun. That's what I see is
like that blissful area that ignorance youlive in when what's blocking your life,
when you're just having fun and you'recoming out here and you're figuring things out
on your own, and yeah,man, that's the journey of the album
(08:31):
really is moving alone through those throughthose times and coming out of it.
Yeah, Cause you know, Ilike to tell my homies all the time,
whether they're in relationship issues or not. It's like it's kind of like
a situation where I've been in somany relationships, but during those relationships I
wasn't happy on my own, Yeah, and I kind of felt like,
(08:52):
yeah, I could kind of livein this la la land for a second
and feel like everything is perfectly fine, but when in reality, it's like
I kind of had to find peacefor myself first in order to make sure
this relationship. And by relationship,I don't just mean like a relationship with
another person, but like relationship withlike family friends. I kind of had
(09:13):
to step away from that and reallyfigure out like who I am first before
I could continue a relationship with anybody. Yeah, I just feel like it's
not fair. It wouldn't be fairfor me to not give somebody like who
I am and they're you know,they might be half asking it as well.
Yeah, and then it's like it'sit's about when when stepping away from
(09:33):
those people and those loved ones.Yeah, like isolating yourself, how that
can go wrong sometimes as well,where it's like you you isolate yourself too
much and you kind of get lostin it. And that's that's kind of
some moments in the album where it'sthat ignorance takes over. Well, how
do you feel about isolation? Like, because there's days where I enjoy being
by myself, there's other days whereI'm just like, man, I fucking
(09:56):
need somebody next to me, right, Yeah, Yeah, No, man,
I love being alone, to behonest but there are moments where it
can get too far. I feellike, yeah, I feel like you
got to keep some people close forsure. Uh huh. But I think
if you can, if you canfigure out how to be happy on your
own, man, it's it's onlygonna it's only gonna be better when you
when you're with people A thousand percent. Man. I mean I'm the type
(10:18):
of person like, look, yougive me a couple of shrooms. Yeah,
you give me a room, yougive me like video games or some
music. I'm chilling, man,I don't need anybody around that. Bro.
I love the video games for sure. What are you playing right now?
If that I've been playing this gamecalled Dark and Darker, Bro,
It's it's pretty crazy. I justgot a PC, so I've been playing
more games. But yeah, it'scalled Dark and Darker. I've been playing
(10:41):
that game finals, but yeah,not as much as I was last year.
Yeah. I feel that I gothrough seasons where I'll just play a
lot for a couple of months andthen get tired of it and come back
a few months later. Yeah,bro, I mean it's cool to like
exercise like your creativity. Yeah,they're there and whatnot? I mean I
don't know if you know, butlike actually got blitz from Final Fantasy ten.
(11:03):
It was one of the Yeah,yeah, you know what game I'm
talking about. I know Final Fantasy. I played one of them on the
Xbox, but I never played thewhole series. Oh yeah, I mean
shit, I don't think any ofus have time to play the entire series.
There are some people that are likesuper on top of the series.
I don't know which one was thatone. So Final Fantasy ten, yeah,
(11:24):
it was on PlayStation two, Ibelieve, and literally they had this
mini game called blitz Ball, andso blitz Ball was like a combination of
like hell of different sports. Andthen when I wanted to be a rapper
when I was like eleven years old, I was like, oh yeah,
I'm gonna go with blitz because Iwant to be hell a different thing is
a sick name though, thank youbro. Production Wise, what would you
(11:46):
say was the most difficult song toproduce on this album? Ooh, it's
difficult, I think honestly. Imean the one that was the craziest process
to me was that the reverse recordthat we were just talking about, yea
of how far it traveled and likehow it evolved. I wouldn't say it
(12:09):
was hard, but it wasn't.It was like a long process, but
it was fun, so it didn'tseem too bad. But it started with
me and James front Leroy linking upfor the first time. Yeah, And
the way he started the beat washe he goes straight into the booth beat
boxes the tempo. He played allthe chords with his vocals, so he
(12:30):
just laid harmonies to do the chordprogression, and then he played bass guitar
and then he opened up his laptopand started reducing. So that was pretty
crazy to see. But at theend of it, we didn't leave with
like a really like a flesh outidea. It was kind of just like
a jam session of it. Yeahyeah, yeah did so right after that
(12:50):
session, I took everything, allthe strings and vocals and stuff, and
I arranged it all into like asong, and then I had Jay Lewis
come through. He did the eightawaits and drum patterns over the arrangement.
Hell yeah, and then yeah maybethat. We had that version for maybe
like over a year, and thenwe got that cabin. We got that
(13:13):
cabin, I was like, man, I should we should we should redo
that middle section here, so welike cut out that middle section and we
recorded their guitars and all that stuff. That's sick, bro. That one
was a cool process. It's alsosick to know that, Like, I
mean, you were holding on fora record for a while, Like,
you know, I think one thingthat a lot of like musicians really face
is demo witis. And so it'slike when you have something and you play
(13:37):
this song and you're just get soattached to the demo, like like you
gotta you literally had to forfeit aone year old record and just be like,
you know what, I think thisnext move is going to be the
best thing for Reverse specifically. Yeah, definitely we run into that a lot
of me and LUSA. For sure, my manager, I'll send him a
record and be like, yo,man, what happened to the Like,
(14:00):
Bro, that's not even like that'snot even how it was supposed to be
yeaheah, So what Yeah, ithappens, bro, But what even sparked
like inspiration, Like during those cabindays, I feel like we're always referring,
referring back to this cabin. Evenwhen we last spoke, you talked
about this cabin. I did yeah, yeah, yeah, I mean I
(14:20):
don't know, it was just Ithink it's a part of like my connection
of nature to is how we weretalking about. I really loved being outdoors
and being in the sun and beingby water, So I mean that that
was the big thing I like toget out of LA for a little bit.
Sometimes it can get a little repetitiveand a little like crowded here.
M hm. So yeah, I'vealso done that, me and the homie
(14:41):
James Hunt, he's an engineer.We also went to Paris one time and
just got a airbnbat and like setup a studio in there too, so
m hmm. Yeah, man,I think traveling and seeing new things can
be inspiring to the music for sure. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. Environments
for people who don't know born andraised in Baker's Field, went to Alaska
(15:03):
for a bit and you were workingat a it was like you were working
at a cabin there, right,Yeah. But I was working at a
wilderness lodge called Brooks Lodge in CatmiNational Park. So it was like this
this small lodge you fly to ona floatplane and yeah, you're just there.
There's no cities, nothing, soyou go there to work and you're
(15:24):
just there all summer. Yeah,and uh yeah, man, that was
such a great time meet people fromall over the world. We could host
probably like fifty people at a time, maybe, but there'd be day trippers
that would come in. Yeah,and yeah. It was the number one
bear viewing lodge in the world.And I didn't know this at the time.
I just applied to a bunch ofsummer jobs and the only one that
(15:46):
got back to me. So andyou and you encountered a couple of bears,
right, Yeah, I had lotsof bears every day. You're like,
you're like living with them. Ourour living space was just this like
little rope electric fenced off area withthese bunk bed cabins in them. And
okay, so oh, correct meif I'm wrong, because I'll be seeing
just a lot of random videos onYouTube. But when a bear comes,
like do you really gotta you gottaget bigger than the bear, or like
(16:07):
what do you do? I mean, it's it's different depending on where you
are and and the issue. Butwhere I was at was these bears eat
so many fish and they see peoplepretty often. Yeah, they don't really
trip. I think that's more ofif you're alone in the forest and you
just happen to stumble upon a bearand it's like sitting you which is the
(16:29):
thing. But if you're just vocaland you don't surprise them, you kind
of just stand still. They don'tthey don't give a fuck about you at
all. They'll walk right past me. They'll be on all sides of me,
just fishing with me. The timesthat I've had to worry was was
when they see my fish and theywant to take the fish in a couple
(16:49):
of times. And then there wasone time when my parents visited, I
took them off to this this spotthat was more secluded from people. Yeah,
and there's there. Remember there's thismom that was hurt, its cub
with their cubs. She had ahurt leg and she was around the camp
and people been talking about her.But she said, stumbled upon us in
the middle of the day and yeah, uh, ourselves. And that was
(17:11):
kind of true because I have myfamily there with me, and I was
like, that's the injured mom withtheir cubs. You're just like I got
my family, This bear got theirfamily. Like, so, did you
help the cub out or like you, I don't know, not at all.
The reason it's dangerous is because ifif a bear is hurt or or
it's getting surprised, that's when it'smost dangerous. Gotcha, gotcha mode.
(17:33):
So you want to stay far awayfrom them. Okay, now, for
sure I get that. It's like, look, I'm not even gonna pass
you. No fish, I'm justnot gonna fish whatever you need, that's
for you. Rules are just don'tapproach him. If you feel like it's
it's like being aggressive towards you,then that would be the move. Yeah,
yourself big and loud for sure.Still and so you know, your
(17:56):
whole life, it seems like you'vebeen so privy to just traveling. And
I think before the last time wespoke, you were actually going to the
Philippines for the first time for thefirst time. It was crazy, Bro.
We're in Manila for most of thetime. But man, that was
such a beautiful trip. It wasso nice out there. I got to
meet so many cool people. Wentto Boggyao too. Oh yeah, this
(18:18):
mountain town. Yeah, man,it was great. We did some shows.
But man, I really when Igo back, Bro, I really
want to go see the beaches.That was one thing I didn't get to
oh, you didn't get to seeany of the beaches. Man. We're
in the city for most of thetime. So god, I got to
experience Manila for sure. Okay,I'm not gonna lie, bro, Like
my family's my family's like little provinceis right next to a beach, So
(18:44):
I've been spoiled every time I go. I'm just I'm chilling right there.
He tapped in over there, bro, come on, man, and uh
so, first time in Manila,Like, walk me through it, man,
Like what was it like for you? Like the experience like seeing all
these people eating the new food.Oh, man, it it was pretty
incredible and they like the thing istoo is we packed my schedules so tight
(19:07):
here. So yeah, every dayit was either a show. We did
a show, and then we alsodid a riding camp, so I think
okay, I did we like partnerwith Warner and I think that was one
of my highlights was working with likelocal Filipino artists. Yeah, and doing
that because we did a two daycamp out there and yeah, man,
it was sick. We worked withthis hip hop group called mid Nasty.
(19:30):
Yeah I've heard of them. Yeah, yeah, they were sick. What
else did you work with Philippe fromwhat's the group SB SB Okay okay,
yeah, okay, okay SB nineteen. Yeah, bro, he was tied
too. And I didn't really knowabout them until but when they saw us
(19:53):
in the studio there, Hell yeahwere they were? They already hip to
you? Yeah. I guess ifit hurt me just from just based off
damn off. Hell yeah. Man. Food was crazy too, all right?
So I bet Red Horse too,the Red Horse beer. Bro,
I promise you that shit was good. It was good. Bro. Fuck,
(20:14):
we had so many red horses thattrip. It's the best. And
you know what's cool about going tothe Philippines too, is like one US
dollar, Dude, is like fiftyfive over there, so you're not spending
shit, man, Yeah, bro, you can stretch it out for sure.
Bro. Jolly Be over here islike fifteen bugs. Jolly Be over
there is like a dollar, andI'm like, gee, I need to
stay here, man. Yeah,that was better living over there. You
(20:37):
know what's cool about Filipinos is that, like we have this umbrella genre.
It's called oh PM, which reallyjust stands for Original Filipino Music. And
so it's weird because I've spoken toso many Filipinos about what this genre is,
but we don't necessarily have that sound. So for example, like Latin
(21:02):
artists you think of like you know, reggathon or even like Cumbia's or whatnot.
For us, however, we havepeople like yourself obviously, like really
good with the fucking ballads. There'seven an artist over there. Her name
is Ilis Morena, and she's doinglike reggaethon, but she's speaking to Gallag
over the entire song. You havepeople like uh, I think flow G
(21:25):
who's like kind of like on sometrap shit SB nineteen, who's on some
like Filipino pop shit. Yeah,yeah right. So for you, I
mean, you know, you've beenFilipino your entire life, you've been in
Manila for the first time like lastyear. For you, like, do
you have any sort of like ideaof like what original Filipino music like is
(21:48):
for you and what that means toyou. I think you. I think
you said it. You said itjust right now. It is like the
ballads. It feels like like songsthat are filled with like love and emotion
that you can sing along to.To me, that seems like the most
Philippino music. I agree, man, I agree, something you could sing
(22:10):
your heart out to, for sure. It was it was all the karaoke
nights, bro, that it was. Bro. My dad had got one
from Costco. I remember every everyyear we'd have it at our house.
Overall Yell would be was the karaokemaster. He's the one who would wave
ould do all that ship. That'sa hell of lit dog. What was
your like top karaoke song? Ialways go to this, like, uh,
(22:36):
I always go to that Kings ofLeon song. Somebody, yeah,
somebody that one? Okay, okay, yeah yeah. My dad used to
do this song called Feelings though,but he was like that's how he would
see. I don't know the nameof that song, but that was his
go to. That was a classic. Yeah, man, I think one
(23:00):
of my sisters go to song wasis this song called Stupid Love And literally
it just goes like stupid love thewhole time. And I'm like, there's
literally no way I'm ever gonna forgetabout this song, bro. And what
was it like for you? Justlike working with people from literally a different
(23:21):
continent, a different part of theworld, bro, Like, did you
learn anything different about those sessions throughthose sessions? Man? It's just it's
crazy to see, like because grouplike mid Nasty, they're so talented and
they're so hungry and like where they'refrom too. They sell these concerts and
they sell these shows. But it'slike, but yeah, man, it's
(23:42):
like to see their driving shit kindof like made me want to step up
to They're working so hard and theyhave so much to share and speak about
where they're from and their struggles.It's like, yeah, man, it
just set a fire for me tokeep going. Hell yeah, bro,
I love it. How much ofyour rollout was planned out? With literally
(24:08):
everything happening this year? Bro?Yeah, obviously Kendrick took the year.
Yeah, Bro, you know Summer'sKendrick Summer's basically like you know, TD
Kendrick type summer, and then you'reyou obviously came out with your album like
right afterwards. How much of allthis is planned? Bro? None of
(24:29):
that? Yeah, nobody saw thatcoming to be real. Okay, yeah,
okay, So it's really just I'mgonna just you already had your due
date, yeah, I mean we'vebeen moving my do date around just based
on a lot of different things.But my due day also comes because I'm
going on tour. With Sir Okayten days. So we wanted to get
(24:52):
the album out before that because it'sbeen ready for a few months now,
like you had it ready. Butyeah, Bro, Kendrick just just needs
to get that off. Man.That is wild. It just it's still
crazy. It just even to thisday, bro, Like we literally played
like Not Like Us five times overat the wedding for my sister this past
Sunday, and I'm like, Idon't see the song disappearing for a minute.
(25:14):
Number one, number one on thedisc record. I'm still waiting on
Kendrick to like hop on like youralbum. I know, man, that
would be crazy. He's been busythough, Yeah, for sure, for
sure. But I think it wasvery cool to have, you know,
people like Doci on it and alsoIsaiah I guess like the newer members of
Right Right somewhat so so's a OG though absolute Oh for Shure, it's
(25:37):
a black happy member for sure.It was a perfect way to end the
album too, bro, like yougotta guy. I've been living with those
words too for for years now.Yeah, for it to be out and
people to hear it special, man, I think it's a perfect way to
take it out. Were you atthe pop out? Yeah, that show
(25:59):
is nuts. How was it foryou? It was insane? I was
there as a fan, Brohm,Yeah, I was there as a fan.
It was really cool seeing all fourof them up on stage though,
Q Rock and Soul, and thatwas a moment for sure. Yeah,
bro I was literally in a sessionthat day. Jackie ended up going and
then I just watched it on Amazonand I'm shooting myself in the foot.
I'm just like, dog, thatshould have canceled all this shit today.
(26:23):
Yeah. Man, that was amoment for sure. And just how he
brought every LA artist wrapper up onstage with him. Dad, it was
so tired. It felt so cool. I like literally felt like we as
like California specifically, got like sorepresented on that stage at the time.
Like I've been in LA for liketen years now, I felt like I
(26:44):
was from LA watching that shit.I was like, oh, yeah,
this is tight. Yeah, thewhole West Coast is up. He was
fighting for the Bay too. Hebrought up the Bay a lot. Yeah,
bro E forty with the intro andI was like, this is great,
this is great, that's tight.You know there. I would like
to see you on like a lotmore like West Coast type records too.
(27:06):
I know you had that record withBlast a couple of years ago, Like,
do you have anything like that inthe pipeline for the future. I
do have some. I do havesome records like that. I wie would
rock and one Take J I've beensaying, oh, hell yeah, okay,
but it's still different. I'm Istill if I do do that West
Coast bounce that we don't want tofind my own way to do it too.
So yeah, so yeah, it'sinteresting, it's interesting it out.
(27:29):
Yeah, well would you say I'msprinkling it throughout with the Blesser Heart and
the Blast record. I think thoseare good like examples of where if I
had to do it, I wouldtake it in that direction. Yeah.
It'd be also super cool to seethem enter like your world, Yeah,
in some way, because like youknow, I'm just so used to like
hearing like rock or like one takeJ on like West Coast Records, like,
(27:52):
because you had Blasts on your projecttoo, So it's cool to see
him enter your world for a secondtoo. Yeah, man, for sure.
Shout out to Cali too and whythey did the beat on that one.
He's from he's from the Bay too. Hell yeah, shout out cal
a man or you know who's goingcrazy right now too on the production,
like throughout the whole West Coast isPilo. I want to see a crazy
producer, bro. Yeah. Yeah, I've worked with Plow for sure.
(28:15):
We need to get back in thoughZa car on a Pilo beat. Yeah,
that'd be tight. Larry too,I need link up with Larry.
You and Larry would go crazy.We have old songs out, bro,
like early stuff. I had asong with him and g Eazy on there.
There's a song called Sparkling Water outtoo. So I met Larry a
long time ago. Oh so thiswas like before every This was like what
(28:37):
before love and everything? Yeah,even knowing Pilo, I remember before you
even coming around t d E.I just had mat Pelo through my cousin
Aaron Kai. He's a painter.Aaron Kai is your cousin. Yeah,
all these connections are just crazy byconnections, for sure, it's crazy.
(29:00):
My cousin went to Stuff for schooland she met Aaron there and they got
married there. So they've been fora long time. This is wild,
bro, Like my brain is justlike so fried from all of that.
Right now. I'm just like,this ship doesn't make sense, but that's
cool. Yeah, Aaron and Jamieintroduced me to all them early because they
were all friends Calail, Aaron LowYeah, yeah, Yeah, that's dope.
(29:22):
Man ship. I mean, wheredo you see the direction of like
West Coast music going from here onout? Man Up. Kendrick kind of
kind of stamps it, I feellike for the for the West Coast artists
too. He like lit a fireto like just level up. Yeah yeah,
and be consistent and be aggressive withyour sound and like and what you
(29:47):
want to do. So I thinkwe have a lot of eyes on us
right now too. So I knowa lot of West Coast rappers with great
music ready to go. So yeah, bro, yeah, I think it's
cool. Like you know, kindof like going back to like that oh
PM type conversation where like when youthink about West Coast music, you know,
you might think of like G funkor just like straight up club slaps
(30:08):
right now, but your West Coastmusic, Yeah you know what I'm saying.
Like I have a friend. Hername is Tweet, she's West Coast
music. She's from here. Hersizza, like everybody is West Coast music.
And like, at least for me, it's cool to see our side
of the world, like finally getthat recognition. It feels good, that's
(30:30):
all I can say. It justfeels over here for sure. So this
Zacari Blisters out right now. Thevideo with Isaiah Rashad is out right now.
That one's been out for a while, so that that one's been out
for almost two years. But theshort film for Blister just drop. So
we made a whole short film,like okay for the album, and that's
(30:52):
something we've been working on a lotover the past few months. And is
that that one's out right now too? Oh shit? Okay, yeah,
see, I'm sleep and I needto. I'm gonna tell you this.
I'm gonna take some shrooms. I'mgonna put it on my fucking thing.
I'll be good to go. That'sperfect. You have anything else down the
pipeline for the rest of the year, bro man. My biggest focus right
now is been tour. Okay.I want to do more festivals this summer
(31:15):
too. I want to get thelive show and start performing the music and
then yeah, start the next album. Hell yeah, your next date I
believe in la is August eighteen.Yeah, I think you're right. Damn,
I got some good ass. Youknow. I have to pull up
every time. No, I'm notgonna lie. When I pulled up my
Spotify, it said it's at Augusteighteen, I was like, oh,
(31:36):
okay, maybe if I'm free thatday, I'll fucking pull up. Bro.
That's that's type. Man. I'mhappy for you man, I'm so
excited Bro, I'm happy for yoursuccess. I'm happy for Bliss. It's
out right now, running up thosefucking streams, ran up and uh,
you know you represent for the Filipinosman, and I fuck with you all
day. Man. Yeah. Same. My name is Nico Blitz. Shout
out to my boys A Cary,Yes, sir here check out Bliss leter Yo later
Popular Podcasts
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
I’m Jay Shetty host of On Purpose the worlds #1 Mental Health podcast and I’m so grateful you found us. I started this podcast 5 years ago to invite you into conversations and workshops that are designed to help make you happier, healthier and more healed. I believe that when you (yes you) feel seen, heard and understood you’re able to deal with relationship struggles, work challenges and life’s ups and downs with more ease and grace. I interview experts, celebrities, thought leaders and athletes so that we can grow our mindset, build better habits and uncover a side of them we’ve never seen before. New episodes every Monday and Friday. Your support means the world to me and I don’t take it for granted — click the follow button and leave a review to help us spread the love with On Purpose. I can’t wait for you to listen to your first or 500th episode!
Cardiac Cowboys
The heart was always off-limits to surgeons. Cutting into it spelled instant death for the patient. That is, until a ragtag group of doctors scattered across the Midwest and Texas decided to throw out the rule book. Working in makeshift laboratories and home garages, using medical devices made from scavenged machine parts and beer tubes, these men and women invented the field of open heart surgery. Odds are, someone you know is alive because of them. So why has history left them behind? Presented by Chris Pine, CARDIAC COWBOYS tells the gripping true story behind the birth of heart surgery, and the young, Greatest Generation doctors who made it happen. For years, they competed and feuded, racing to be the first, the best, and the most prolific. Some appeared on the cover of Time Magazine, operated on kings and advised presidents. Others ended up disgraced, penniless, and convicted of felonies. Together, they ignited a revolution in medicine, and changed the world.
Crime Junkie
Does hearing about a true crime case always leave you scouring the internet for the truth behind the story? Dive into your next mystery with Crime Junkie. Every Monday, join your host Ashley Flowers as she unravels all the details of infamous and underreported true crime cases with her best friend Brit Prawat. From cold cases to missing persons and heroes in our community who seek justice, Crime Junkie is your destination for theories and stories you won’t hear anywhere else. Whether you're a seasoned true crime enthusiast or new to the genre, you'll find yourself on the edge of your seat awaiting a new episode every Monday. If you can never get enough true crime... Congratulations, you’ve found your people. Follow to join a community of Crime Junkies! Crime Junkie is presented by audiochuck Media Company.