Greg Street: Culture, Connection, and the Code of the South

Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
SPEAKER_02 (00:00):
Last week on Unglossy.

SPEAKER_06 (00:02):
There's proximity now for hip hop and RB to not
just be.
I mean, obviously, this givesthem more visit visibility in
the space, right?
Being a part of this magazine,because the rollout for this is
going to be insane.
Who gets the first vibe covers?
That's gotta be the biggestthing they're talking about.

SPEAKER_02 (00:24):
I'm Tom Frank.

SPEAKER_05 (00:25):
I'm Jeffrey Slicks.

SPEAKER_06 (00:26):
And I'm Bud B.
Welcome to Ungloss.

SPEAKER_02 (00:29):
Real stories, unfiltered dialogue, and the
voices moving culture behind thegloss of height and headlines.

SPEAKER_06 (00:34):
So buckle up.
Let's go ahead and get to it,guys.
We're ready to go.
Ready to go.
I hit record just in case.
No worries, no worries.
Let's go ahead and jump into it,Thomas.
Let's get it started.

SPEAKER_01 (00:48):
All right, fellas.
Before algorithms told us whatto like, DJs were the algorithm.
The ones breaking records,shaping taste, deciding what the
culture moved to next.
Then Silicon Valley showed upand tried to automate the vibe.
Today we're talking about howthat shift happened and what we
lost when computers replacedcuration.
We're also diving into howAtlanta didn't just become the

(01:10):
capital of hip hop, it was builtthat way.
From radio to strip clubs,mixtape DJs to indie labels, the
city engineered a system thatturned local hits into global
anthems.
And there's nobody better tobreak that all down than Greg
Street, legendary DJ, radiopersonality, and a man who's
been at the center of it all.

(01:30):
From breaking out cast tohelping define the sound of the
South, Greg's lived the storyfrom the booth to the boardroom.
I'm Tom Frank.
That's Jeffrey Sledge.
This is Bun B, and welcome toour guest, Greg Street.
Thank you.
Thank you for having me.

SPEAKER_05 (01:46):
Thank you for coming on, Greg.
It's an honor.
You've done it, man.
You've done so much.
So much.

SPEAKER_03 (01:53):
Me and Jeff go back way before Atlanta.

SPEAKER_05 (01:55):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
He was in Texas.
Way before that.
Yeah, man.
Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 (02:02):
So another guy that can call you one of his long,
long, longtime friends.

SPEAKER_06 (02:08):
Every friend of Jeffrey Sledge that I know is a
longtime friend.
They're not people he met twoyears ago at All-Star Weekend.
Yeah.
He's been rocking for a while.
Wow.

SPEAKER_03 (02:20):
Hey Thomas, I'm going to make this statement on
the podcast.
When Bear Wise, whatever he didwith Jobs, sold it, whatever he
did with the company, and becamethe chairman and went on that
Sony music.
Jeffrey Slayer should havewalked away with at least five,
$10 million.
Because he was the man that madeeverything happen at Job Records
for a long time, for some years.

SPEAKER_05 (02:41):
Thank you, Greg.
I appreciate that, man.
I'm amazing.
He should have brought you withhim as a partner, too.

SPEAKER_03 (02:47):
Oh, yeah, most definitely.

SPEAKER_06 (02:49):
You know what I'm saying?

SPEAKER_03 (02:50):
Barry Watts, where Don was at?

SPEAKER_06 (02:55):
Greg, let's start with your early days, man, in
Mississippi, man.
How did you find hip-hop inMississippi and what drew you to
it and made you want to be anactive participant in the
culture?

SPEAKER_03 (03:06):
Well, like, right at the beginning of the hip-hop,
I'm the baby of my family, like,like by a lot of years.
I'm the one who like people say,you weren't supposed to be here,
you were an accident.
So my older sisters, they lovemusic.
They bought albums.
So I started DJing when I waslike 16, 17 years old, 15, 16.
And um I bought a realisticmixture.

(03:28):
I bought a turntable.
One of my sisters had a crazysound system, her and her
husband had a stupid soundsystem.
See, I think my nieces andnephews, most of them, are all
like only six years younger thanme.
So I'm talking about they thesethey had families.
So um I would use one of herturntables, use my turntable.
And that before I started DJing,when I was like six, seven years

(03:49):
old, I took guitar lessons.
So I had a Pv212 classic guitaramp, and I used to connect my
turn, my mixer to the guitar ampto DJ.
And that's what I used for myfirst sound system to start
DJing parties.
And then after I started DJingparties, um I came up with this
idea to instead of just beinglike the other DJs making flyers

(04:09):
and making posters.
I said, I want to go to theradio station to put my put my
parties on the radio.
So I started going to the radiostation, and after a couple
times at the radio station,being in Mississippi, you know,
most of those stations in smalltowns, AM stations are daytime.
So in the spring and summermonths, they don't go off till
like eight, nine o'clock.
Right.
So they don't have a big staff.
So most of the people workthere, like whoever the program

(04:30):
director is, they might do twoshifts.
So this guy was like, You'regetting pretty popular.
You ever decide you everconsidered doing radio?
His name was Harvey Knight.
So I said, yeah.
So I started working on theweekends, doing a gospel show,
doing a jazz show, doing an RBshow.
Um, and it just kind of wentfrom there.
And after I worked at thatstation for a while, come to
find out the guy who owned thestation, Vernon Floyd, who was

(04:51):
like the first black man inhistory in like 1969 to build
his own radio station from thefrom the from the foundation of
the concrete all the way to thetower.
And he went to school, he wentto school with my mom in Mobile,
Alabama, at Mobile CountyTraining School.
And uh, after I worked at thatstation for a while, when I
graduated from high school, Iwent to work for a white station
called WHSY.

(05:12):
Uh like a real white AC station,you know, the arrhythmics and
the old Motown and the BGs andthose records.
And um, it's kind of really justintroduced me to a whole nother
lane of radio, you know, readingthe trade magazines and
understanding what really makesradio radio.
And that was really some of thechemistry that has granted me

(05:33):
longevity, really understandingradio.
Like a lot of people listen tothe radio and they think it's
just about new music and aboutthe DJs.
And music is not even what radiois about.
And most people don't evenrealize that radio is not even
really about music.
It's about people, like you justsaid.
It's the first social media.
It's about the connection to thepeople.
Because you have to think aboutit.
You got radio stations now.

(05:54):
If you remember a few years ago,there was a big surge where all
the urban AC stations were hadhigh ratings.

SPEAKER_04 (05:59):
Yes.

SPEAKER_03 (06:00):
Like you remember when BLS in New York was killing
everybody in the ratings?
They weren't playing on newmusic.
So, but a lot of people have amisconception that radio is
about new music, and radio isnot about new music, it's really
about the connection with thepeople.
But what happened is in citieslike New York, they started
putting people on the radio whohad names from the streets.
Like OJ Whitlaw, O.J.

(06:22):
Whitlaw is the reason why FunkFlux got on hot in '97.
OJ was the one that told SteveSmith, you need to put him on
the radio.

SPEAKER_05 (06:28):
I didn't know that.
I didn't know OJ did.
I didn't know that.
I didn't know that.

SPEAKER_03 (06:31):
O.J.
Whitlaw is responsible for thatgoing down.
But after I learned so much onthe white side, how formatics
work, like we would do stufflike my name on the radio, on
the white station was KeithGregory, 7 to midnight on Total
Radio, WHSY.
So, but on the white station,it's like the Paul Harvey news
news feed will come down and youhave to record it.

(06:52):
You can't miss it.
You got to be ready to record iton time.
And then play it back at thetime it comes for the playback.
In the top of the hour, weplayed a goal record coming up
to the top of the hour.
So the goal category was likefour or five hundred records
deep.
Because you got to time it tothe clock.
Because the news is gonna hit atthe 12 at on on the clock is set
to where the clock is gonna hitat 12 o'clock.

(07:13):
That second hand is gonna hit atthe top of the hour, and it's
gotta go into the into the news.
So you have to back time it.
So you got 500 records.
So at the end, you're looking atyour last record, what time it's
gonna end, you gotta look atwhat records you're gonna need
after that, before that lastrecord, the time it's perfect.
So with 500 records, you can goback, you know, deep enough to,
okay, this record's threeminutes, this blah blah blah,

(07:34):
and find one that fits.
So when you hit the top of theRD, bam, the news is gonna come
on.
And and how the move and if youlisten to my show, I don't talk
a lot and the music never stops.
And that's the key because on innighttime radio, when hip-hop
first took off, uh consultantslike Jerry Clifton and people
who really knew the game, theytaught some of us these secrets
from pop radio.

(07:56):
And and pop radio, if you payattention to pop radio, the
music never stops.
You got some pop stations now,they don't even talk going into
the commercial break.
They may say a little somethingin between the songs, but when
they go to commercials, themusic just goes from the music
straight to the commercial.
They don't even talk.

SPEAKER_01 (08:12):
So that was the so to be the best at your practice,
what you're saying is you wouldtime it so that there was never
it was like a perfecttransition.
It has to be a perfecttransition.

SPEAKER_07 (08:21):
Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 (08:22):
In order for the station to sound professional,
it has to have a perfecttransition.
So learning all the stuff abouttiming, how things work, and
then knowing the importance ofbeing in the community is what
was the is the gym.
Because, like you said, we arethe first social media.
You didn't go, you never wentnowhere to go see the news
anchored from TV.
You never went nowhere to go seeum the person who did the

(08:43):
traffic on TV, but you would gosomewhere if a DJ was somewhere
doing a live remote, or if theywere doing a party, or they was
doing something in thecommunity.
Yeah.
You know, it it kind of evolvedthe way TV people start trying
to get involved in thecommunity, especially social
media.
Most of them got pages, they'redancing on social media, they
doing different things, they'rewearing different clothes to get
looks and likes.
But we are the first socialmedia.

(09:04):
We are the we are the algorithm.
And and I try to tell peoplelike when they look at my social
media, I may not have a millionfollowers, but I can't walk
through the city and nobody andI don't see nobody every day, or
somebody who's a part of We Needto Read, or the Boys to Men
Street Academy, uh Lockins, oruh the fishing day, or pep
rallies, or coming to theirbusinesses, or just meeting them

(09:26):
in the streets, tailgates, justbeing out in the community.
So, like, if you really do thisfor real, you don't have to have
a million followers to reallyunderstand the impact of your
what you bring to the tablebecause you see these people
every day.

SPEAKER_06 (09:40):
How old are you when you're learning all of this,
Greg?
Like, like because you'retalking about starting radio at
like 16 years old.

SPEAKER_03 (09:46):
I was like 19, 20.
I got my first, I got my firstfull-time job.
I dropped out of college.
I got my first full-time job.
I was like 20 at uh at uh 93 BLXin Mobile, Alabama.
In Mobile, Alabama was likemarket size 88.

SPEAKER_06 (10:01):
Yeah, BLX.
Um so so how old are you whenyou like you started in
Mississippi and you moved toAlabama?
You have all this knowledge.
And then was it 91?
You end up in in Houston?
90.

SPEAKER_03 (10:13):
90.
1990, I went to Magic.
So that's like, that was likethe industry, like I had I had
the I had the highest ratings inradio across the whole country
at Mobile, Alabama.
And um, that was when TonyBrown, who's our program
director, went to Houston, theybrought me with them.
My name was Gregory KP.
Monty Lane, rest in peace, wasthe guy who actually gave me the

(10:34):
name Street.
He wanted to call me MC Street,but I was like, Monty, I'm not a
rapper, so I don't want to be anMC.
So I just used Greg Street.
My first contract still stillsays MC Street.
Bombi probably remember thosedays.

SPEAKER_05 (10:47):
Hey, Greg.
Greg, I want to ask you aquestion.
Um how do you feel like, becauseyou your your career has always
been in the south, you know,whether it's you know, Texas or
Mississippi or Alabama, how doyou feel that kind of shaped
your your your your your yourvision of radio and stuff like
that as opposed to somebody inthe Midwest or the West Coast or

(11:08):
Northeast?
What do you think is thedifference?

SPEAKER_03 (11:10):
Well, next time we talk about this, I'll pull some
paperwork for you.
Actually, if you know Mike Love,Mike Love tried to hire me at
BLS.
Really?
Yeah, Mike Love wanted to hireme at WBLS in New York.
Um But I was in Dallas at thetime.
And if you know anything aboutradio, um Hyman Childs, who owns
K-104 in Dallas, was really theperson who put black radio on

(11:33):
the map when he gave Tom Jordanall that money.
That was the first, that was thekickoff of it.
And a lot of people don't knowyou gotta think before it was
before the internet.
When I went when I left Houston,my whole thing was I gotta, if I
want to go to K-104 in Dallas, Igotta find out who Tom Jordan's
agent is.
Because when James Alexanderwent there, I sent him a FedEx
package every day.

(11:54):
He called me, finally called meback after I sent him like six
or seven packages.
Man, I already got my lineup,blah, blah, blah.
So I watched the stage for likesix, seven, eight months, and
the numbers went in the toilet.
So I found a guy named SaulFoos.
He was Tom Jordan's agent, alawyer from Chicago.
I wrote him a letter, sent it tohim.
He hit me back and said, Well, Ireally don't, I don't, he didn't

(12:14):
say, I really don't, he said, Idon't represent night jocks
because y'all don't make nomoney.
He said, But it's somethingabout you, I think I'll do this.
He called Hyman Charles, I flewinto Dallas.
Um the the brothers, butBombay's gonna go crazy over
this.
The brothers that own Starter,the company was based in Mobile,

(12:34):
Alabama.
Because when I left Houston, Iwent to Bector Mobile for a few
months.
The company that owned Starterwas based right outside of
Pensacola, Florida.
So I I called K-104, talked tothe lady at the front desk.
She's still the front deskreceptionist to this day.
Wow.
Her name is Tony.
Her name is Tony.
Like that, because that's thekind of loyalty Hyman has to his
people that work for him.

(12:55):
So I called a call the radiostation said, listen, I'm a fan
of the radio station.
Can you send me a bumpersticker?
So she sent me a bumper sticker.
I went to the guy that started,got a starter sweatshirt, and
had them put the K-104 logo onthe sweatshirt.
So when I flew to the interview,I get off the plane, I got the
sweatshirt on.
I'm like, hey, I'm ready to goto work, my boy.
Wow.

SPEAKER_06 (13:17):
Greg, you are amazing.
Very sharp man, bro.
I'm like, hey, man, it all makessense.

SPEAKER_03 (13:26):
What we doing, my boy.
So I'm gonna tell you, so theygave me, they gave me, they gave
me$50,000.
They gave me$50,000 a year whenI went to Houston.
Which wasn't bad back then.
No, sir.
Right.
When I was in mobile, I wasgetting a micro.
Yeah.
And when I was at mobile, I wasin the 90s.
When I was at mobile, I wasgetting 12.

(13:46):
I did the midday mix on myequipment.
I did the midday mix, theafternoon mix, and the mix on my
show.
And I did a four-hour mix onSaturday that they played, and I
did 610, and I had a hot I hadlike 20-some and 30-some shares
at night.
25, 54, 18, 34, and teens.

SPEAKER_05 (14:04):
So 12 grand a year.

SPEAKER_03 (14:06):
And you had to use your own equipment.
So when I go to Houston, when Igo to Houston, I got 19.
I replaced Hurricane Dave.
He was getting like 50.

SPEAKER_06 (14:16):
Hurricane Dave.
They brought in better talentfor the low.
They said so much.

SPEAKER_03 (14:21):
Yeah, they got me for the low, but I didn't even
look, I wasn't even tripping onthe money.
To me, a lot of people think I'mabout money, but it's I'm not
even really about money.
Like when you look at a lot ofstuff on my timeline, most of
the stuff I'm out here doing,I'm not even getting paid for
it.
From clubs to appearances, toall like I did a deal with a
Chevrolet dealership.
And the guy who I did it for isa friend of mine that I like a

(14:43):
lot.
And for the first six months, Iain't make a dollar.
And I took them to the numberone SEA Black Widow Chevy
dealership in the country.
Well, nope, they got adealership in Texas and one in
Rhode Island, and I was beatingtheir numbers by three times.

SPEAKER_06 (14:57):
Wow.

SPEAKER_03 (14:58):
For free.
So it's not really about I knewgoing to Houston.
I'm coming from, I'm coming fromMobile, Alabama, market 88.
I'm going to market size seven.
It might have been 12.
I'm going to, I'm going majormarket.
Like, like this is a blessing.
I ain't tripping on the moneybecause I know what I can do in
the streets.
So I was going to El Campo,Wharton, Texas City, Lamarque,

(15:21):
all the way down to Freeportdoing parties.
I used to take yellow boys toWharton and Hempstead and all
these different places.
I found A Town.
I found H Town at Fondre GatesGrayscate in Missouri City.
Signed them, got Luke to signthem.
I changed their name to AceTown.
No money, no finders' fee, nonever got a dime out to deal.

(15:43):
It was just like, I know whatI'm doing.
I'm building, I'm building, I'mbuilding, and it's not about the
money.
The money's gonna come.
Because I'm making crazy moneyin the streets.
That's where the street machinewas born.
I bought the first streetmachine, the Chevy Astro van,
was bought from um Bill HeardChevrolet in Missouri City in
1990.
Because I didn't like going tothe radio station to get a truck

(16:04):
to go to my appearances becauseit was like it's too much time.
So that was really the birth ofthe truck.
But Jeff Slayer to tell you,like, they would all send me
boxes of CDs and source.
That's when Dave started source.
He would send me boxes of sourcemagazines.
I would give them out in thecommunity.
I would send source magazines toguys in jail who would call into
the radio station, all types ofstuff like that.
And then um then going on inDallas, man, that was uh me and

(16:28):
Breeding uh created.
MC Breed actually first timebeing on the radio was in
Houston on Magic 102.
Darren Gates played me MC Bree,Ain't No Future in Front, at
that restaurant over by Jamaica,Jamaica, by the freeway, right
by 6700.
I know exactly.
What was that, Benegins orsomething?
Bennegan's.
Yep, we was at Benegan.
He played that song.

(16:48):
I was like, bro, this shit isout of here.
When I put this shit on theradio, it's gonna be out of
here.
Because Leroy McMahon and SwampDog, Swamp Dog was from Ohio,
Leo, Leroy was living inAtlanta.
They didn't have a deal.
Darren had the deal.
And he was just my boy.
I just I just played it.
And the rest is history.
But that's where it all startedat Magic 102.

(17:09):
If you see Al Breed, if you seeDJ Flash, if you see any of
those guys, you see Leroy,they'll tell you.
And that right after that blewup, Leroy's wife, Georgette,
brought me Spice One.
And Spice One started.
Spice One started.
Yep.
You remember Jeff?
Chico, yeah.
So you broke Spice One.
Yep.
He made me an intro to thesingle, and it was it.

(17:30):
That was it.
But people don't know Leroy, whohad Bree and Georgette who had
Spice was husband and wife.

SPEAKER_06 (17:36):
I didn't know that myself.
Yep.
So now you, so now you inDallas, you know what I'm
saying?
You're getting more money.
You're leveraging that into moreexposure, more connection with
the community, which is bringingyou even more money on the side.
What did Atlanta do to pull youaway from Dallas?

SPEAKER_01 (17:54):
How'd you get away from Dallas?

SPEAKER_06 (17:56):
Yeah, because you was the king.
He was the king in Atlanta.
He was the king.
I'm in Texas.
I'm in Houston.
I'm touring regularly in Dallas.
I'm listening to the radio.
6 o'clock is not new.
It just transfer.
That's always been his thing.
Kids calling in.

(18:16):
How did Atlanta, because you hada good thing in Dallas.
Great.
How did Atlanta convince you to?

SPEAKER_03 (18:23):
After my first book in Dallas, they told my contract
up and gave, after the 50,000,they told my contract and gave
me a whole new deal.
It was like Easy Street.
I'm going to tell y'all thisstory.
Easy Street was on 100.3.
Mary Catherine Sneed told meit's out of her own mouth.
She was a national PD for MaryCatherine.

SPEAKER_05 (18:44):
I remember her.

SPEAKER_03 (18:44):
She named him Easy Street, just in case I ever
tried to go from Houston toDallas.
So when I got the job in Dallasin the meeting, James Alexander
was like, well, what we gonnacall you?
We can't call you Greg Streetbecause we got E Street called
Street.
I said, listen, show me theout-of-bounds lines.
Tell me what I can and can't do.
And just give me the ball anddon't worry about it.
And Easy Street had crazynumbers.
Easy Street had double-digitnumbers in teens, 1834.

(19:07):
He had crazy numbers.
I beat him in one book.
They told a contract to say,hey, look, whatever you want,
write it on this paper.
You can be called any street youwant to be called.

SPEAKER_05 (19:22):
How are you able to beat him in one book, Greg?

SPEAKER_03 (19:24):
In one book.
In one book.
I went to Dallas and it was Iwent to Dallas in the
wintertime, like beforeChristmas.
And after that, after thatwinter book, when we got time
for spring book, I had alreadybeat him.
And I started with a I startedwith like a seven share.
He had like a 20.

unknown (19:41):
Wow.

SPEAKER_03 (19:41):
He walked him down.
Wow.
But what?
We went straight to the bombfactory.
We went straight to the venue.
I brought in like I used tobring Common for College Night,
Scarface.
I brought the um the whole coldchilling.
Fly Type brought everybody downfor me.
Everybody.
Cool down.
There was an explosion of DeepElm.

SPEAKER_06 (20:03):
The ball and Bomb Factory shows blew up Deep Elm,
which is right now the heart andsoul of culture in Dallas.
The bomb factory was the mainvenue in the heart of it.
And I did the first shows therefor black people.

SPEAKER_03 (20:17):
They never had no black shows.
But boy Jane was.
I got a place we can do acollege night.
It's gonna be crazy.
I started calling people.
I brought, I brought, um, Ibrought, who I'm trying to
remember who was, I bought MC8.
I brought um I did Ice Cube, butIce Cube did, I did him at the
venue in North Dallas.

(20:39):
Um Outcast was the big one.
That's the big out, that's thebig legendary show.
I was playing Outcast in Dallasbefore they was playing Outcast
in Atlanta.
If you see that video that BigGip be posting, like they be
saying, when Greg Street played,he was the first DJ to play
outcast, we all quit our jobs.
I used to talk to Mom Benjamin,Dre's mama, rest in peace, my
Sharon Benjamin, and um Mia Redand Ian Burke was actually

(21:02):
managing Outcast at the time.
I flew Outcast to Dallas out ofmy pocket on Mark Air.
If you remember Mark Air, it wasan airline that would that used
to cut the, it was a cargoairline, but they started they
started flying people.
And but you would get on aplane, they'd be like, Oh, y'all
over here, y'all got to get onthis side.
He strapped you in with thecargo.

(21:25):
I flew out cash to Dallas onMark Air.

SPEAKER_01 (21:28):
Yeah, Mark Air.

SPEAKER_03 (21:29):
I I picked him, I had a 93 Land Cruiser.
The first year when the LandCruiser came out with the bigger
engine and the bigger tires.
Yeah.
I had the big face PioneerRadio.
And Dre fell in love with theLand Cruiser.
When he when he got his moneyfrom Alcat, he's got his first
money.
Yo, I saw him with a green landcruiser in Atlanta.

SPEAKER_05 (21:45):
Yep, I saw him with that land cruiser.
I saw you.

SPEAKER_03 (21:48):
Yeah, so he still got here.
You know, he just parked him inthe backyard and go get
something else.
He still got his first car.

SPEAKER_01 (21:58):
You leave Dallas to go to Atlanta.
You are the king of Dallas.

SPEAKER_03 (22:02):
It was like, I'm gonna give you, I'm gonna tell
you another back up.
Okay, when I went to Houston, Iwent with Tony Brown, who's a PD
of Mobile.
Tony only stayed in Houston forlike six months because Monty
Lane wanted Ron Atkins to be thePD.
Ron Atkins.
And the GM, the GM was David.
He wanted um Tony Brown to bethe PD.

(22:23):
So they hired both of them.
That's kind of bad to hear.
They hired both of them to belike both PDs.
And um, six months after we gotthere, Tony got the call that
Mike Roberts wanted to step downfrom programming, because he was
he was programming and doing themorning show.
Mike wanted to step down fromprogramming just to do the
morning show, so they hiredTony.
So Tony wanted to bring me toAtlanta then when he left

(22:44):
Houston, but Mike Roberts wantedRyan Cameron, and Tony wanted
me.
And they weren't paying no moneyat the time anyway, so Ryan got
the job because Ryan was likeinterning at the station at the
time.

SPEAKER_06 (22:54):
Okay.
This all sounds like DavidLetterman, Jay Leno, uh Johnny
Carson, shit.
Yeah, exactly.
Like who gets well I this guywants it, but now he's not
there.
But we want you, because wedon't want you to leave.

SPEAKER_03 (23:09):
So, so so so years go by.
You gotta think back then in 90,in 91, V had no competition.
So V was urban AC andeverything.
They weren't playing no rapmusic because Mike didn't really
like rap music.
So when hot when when MaryCatherine and Alfreds announced
that they were bringing in ahot, that's when they called me.
So they now got you gotcompetition.

(23:30):
Now you gotta you gotta havesome money.
So we we did the deal.
Um and I left.
Uh they didn't want me to leave.
In fact, I never told nobodythis.
Hyman Charles told me two weeksbefore I left, he said, if you
don't leave, if you don't leave,if you stay and don't leave,
I'll give you a$150,000 bonus if100.3 jam changes formats.

(23:53):
He knew something that I didn'tknow.
He was telling me something, butnot without telling you it.

SPEAKER_07 (23:57):
Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 (23:57):
Because before I even got in my house, I was
still standing in the hotel,100.3 switch formats, like after
about four or five weeks after Imoved.

SPEAKER_06 (24:07):
He already knew about the market.
He already knew.
He was basically giving it.
And everything, right?
He could already tell that wherethe where the audience was
going.

SPEAKER_03 (24:16):
Yeah, he was like, No, he just knew the market.
He just knew what was going onin the marketplace.
And yeah, exactly.
Right, because fast forward andlearning and getting all the
information that I know now, Iknow these people be knowing
things that be moving around andthings that be going on with
these major companies whenthey're gonna switch formats or
when they're gonna shut thisstation down or this station for
sale.
But he told me if you, it waseither 100 or 150,000.
He said, if you don't leave andthey switch formats, I'll give

(24:39):
you a bonus, give you thisbonus.
And I'm I'm in the hotel room,right?
I ain't even got my crib yetbecause I didn't never get an
apartment, I bought a house.
So I'm in the I'm in the hotelroom, about to start crying,
like, oh, I just missed out onthis breed.

SPEAKER_07 (24:56):
Man, I just missed out on this breed.

SPEAKER_05 (24:59):
So what what was the I'm I mean, I was just what was
the reception when you came toAtlanta?
Like you, you, you know, new,new, new DJ and DJ.

SPEAKER_03 (25:06):
Bro, let me tell you something.

SPEAKER_05 (25:07):
I'm gonna tell you I'm gonna tell you something.

SPEAKER_03 (25:08):
See, I under I I understand this game.
Like I told you, working withPete Jarrett at K at um WHY,
WHSY, Pete Jarrett, thelegendary rock and roll DJ from
Philly, he was doing nights atthe at the rock and roll station
right across the hall from mewhen I was doing on the AM
station, doing Seven to Midnighton the Y A C station.

(25:29):
So I'm learning so much aboutthis game at an early age.
So I'm just it's just processingand processing and processing
and going fast.
Like the whole idea for the van,that came from a guy at um at
the station in Law, one of theDJs in Law had his own van.
So that's why I got, you know,you just you just take different
pieces and different things yousee people doing that's work,
that's working that you can haveimpact with.

(25:50):
Like my street machine was thefirst like rap van and hip-hop.
It just had my name on the side,but like that's where it all
started.
Like uh Steve Rifkin, we'retalking about in Dallas.
Steve Rifkin bought the wholeWu-Chan clan in Dallas.
I had the whole Wu-Chang clanback when they was first coming
out, when they was in the vantraveling around, they had their
own mic pack with mics in it,because you know you go to the
club, they only have one mic.

(26:11):
They had a mic pack, they wouldcome in the club and plug up
with all the mics and a rackmount.
So all of them can have theirmicrophones and have their sound
right.
So, like this, it it it's likeGod is so amazing if you really
pay attention to like what begoing on.
Like, I was just telling Bomb Bthe other night at the listening
part, like, bro, we are soblessed.

(26:32):
Like It's crazy.

SPEAKER_06 (26:33):
It's crazy.
The thing from where we started,you know what I'm saying, to
where to getting known in suchsmall spaces, and then figuring
out what works in that smallspace, works in a medium space.
Then you get in the mediumspace, you learn a little, uh
learn a little bit more aboutthe industry.
You learn, you meet differentpeople, you go from the medium
space to the large space, youknow what I'm saying?

(26:54):
But you've earned these spots,you've earned these positions,
and you're it's a calculatedeffort, right?
Like you said, it was neverabout money, it was about
figuring out exactly how to makeyourself indispensable.
Yep.
You make yourself so importantand so so critical to the bottom
line, right?
That becomes a whole thing.

SPEAKER_03 (27:15):
You have to learn how to increase your value.

SPEAKER_06 (27:16):
Greg has navigated that expertly.

SPEAKER_03 (27:19):
You have to you have to learn how to increase your
value, you have to learn how tohow to overdeliver.
The key is understanding thateverything is about one thing,
people.
Everything is about people.
I don't care what you're doing,I don't care what you're
selling, I don't care what kindof service you have, what kind
of business you have, even inyour personal life, everything

(27:39):
is about how you treat peopleand how you navigate.
And it's and and and you can'tdo it out of expectations.
You gotta do it for real.
Like, it can't be everythingcalculated.
If I do this for Bum B, he'sgonna give me a verse.
If I do this for Jeff, he'sgonna give me a deal at Job.
Like, Jeff has been a repforever.

SPEAKER_02 (27:58):
Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 (27:59):
We we it's never been about no money at all.
Never.
Ever, never.
And I man, mystical, too.
I was the guy who told JobRecords that Beware was not the
song.
Here I go was the record.
The hit is on the B side.
It's not Beware, it's Here I Go.
If you remember this, Jeff, wheny'all brought Mystical to

(28:20):
Atlanta for Hot 107, was Hot 975birthday badge, it was the first
or second birthday badge, theybooed Mystical off the stage.
Um Steve Hegwood told Larry CunnI would never play another hit
song on my radio station.
Wow.
Wow, yeah.
If I'm lying, I'm flying.
And but you gotta think, whatSteve wasn't thinking about, you

(28:42):
got Mystical on a show with allthese East Coast artists.

SPEAKER_05 (28:44):
That's true.

SPEAKER_03 (28:45):
So it's like it's not gonna work.
You don't realize how bigMystical is in the Southwest.
Mystical is huge.
He's just not big in Atlantabecause the the foundation of
Atlanta before Dungeon Familyand was boot, it was just booty
shake music and um That's true.
And you gotta think.

SPEAKER_06 (29:02):
And bass music, booty shaking and bass music.

SPEAKER_03 (29:04):
Eric Sherman and all those guys lived in Atlanta.
Red man, those guys used to bethere all the time.
Yeah, it's a good thing.
Atlanta was more on the east,the warehouse and the clubs in
Atlanta was more on the EastCoast vibe.

SPEAKER_05 (29:14):
Warehouse.

SPEAKER_03 (29:15):
But I know how the South works.
So I knew what was gonna happenwhen I got here.
I started going in the streetsand bringing all those songs to
the radio.
Kilo, Raheem the Dream, PastorTroy, all those records.
Archie We Ready started bringingthat stuff to the radio station.
It's like, and just to make adifference, because when you
look at all the other cities,when you look at Houston,

(29:36):
Houston is big underground, butwhen you look at like Miami and
Detroit and Chicago and allthese other cities, they got
Charlie Lowe's, they gotRocco's, they got Futures, they
got franchise Boys, they gotTravis Porters, they got all
these types of artists too, butthey don't get no exposure, so
they don't never get to blow up.
I knew what the city wanted, andI knew what the people wanted

(29:59):
and.
Tony and the programmingdepartment and the general
manager, they trusted me to beable to do it and do it with
integrity and not just be outhere on the bullshit.

unknown (30:08):
Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 (30:09):
Well, see, the thing about you, Greg, is that that
and we talked about it off offair, but like um you always been
so tapped into the community,man.
You said with the people thing,like with the high schools and
all, even with with you broughtup Travis Porter, who I who I
brought over to drive, and Iremember that whole circuit of
those high school dances, thosehigh school parties, and all

(30:29):
those acts that came out ofthat, and it all came through
you again because you're sotapped in to the community and
the high schools and thefootball games and the
basketball games.
Like to me, that's one of yourgeniuses that you're always so
tapped in to the whatevercommunity that you're you're
you're at.
You you know everything from theyou go ahead.

SPEAKER_03 (30:49):
But if but if you go back to the beginning of my
career, that's how it allstarted.
Like when I was in Mississippi,I wasn't just in Hattiesburg, I
was in Laurel, I was inBrookhaven, I was in Waynesboro,
I was in Gulfport Belux, I wasin Wiggins, I was in um
Lumberton, I was in Purvis, Iwas everywhere.
I was in Jackson.
I I DJed Kaziesco High School,high school prom back then.

(31:11):
You you know how far Kaziesco isfrom Hattiesburg?
Yeah.
That's what that's where OprahWinfrey's from.
Oh the party was so lit.
They tried to get me to comework at their radio station way
back there.
Like, bro, I'm not doing noKaziesco.
I don't care who from up here.

SPEAKER_06 (31:29):
That's funny.
But this all lends itself towhat we were talking about,
Thomas, about the humanaspiration of curation, like
under having done so manyparties, having DJ'd so on so
many stations, having talked toon-air personalities and talked
to PDs and talked to ownersabout these things that where

(31:50):
they could trust that Gregunderstood the best connection.
But now we live in a world wherethe human aspect of it is slowly
being taken out of it.
And it's almost like because youguys are, as Thomas said, you
guys are the original algorithm,right?

SPEAKER_03 (32:06):
You know, but you know what, but they can't take
it from us.
It it it appears that way to thedick riders, but to the real
people, they can't take it fromus because you that genuine
connection is priceless.
Like, I'm gonna give you anotherbig example.
My 30th anniversary here inAtlanta View on Three.
I got a proclamation, my firstone, I got proclamations from

(32:29):
East Point, I got proclamationsfrom um Union City, Greg Street
Day in Union City, Greg StreetDay in East Point, Greg Street
Day in Stockbridge, Greg StreetDay in the city of Stonecrest,
like all the cities.
So it's like Greg Street Day inthe city of Atlanta, Greg Street
there in Fulton County.
So what people don't understandis if you out here doing that
work, like you because you gottathink about this.

(32:50):
The biggest and most influentialpeople, most of them not even on
Instagram.
Think about that.
If you prime example, I'm gonnagive you a prime example.
The guy Brett, who Rick Ross hadto deal with Rick Ross and and
and uh Jay-Z had to deal withhad to deal with for the
champagne.
Go see how many followers Brettgot.
Brett is a billionaire.

SPEAKER_01 (33:12):
So do you think then that the power of kind of new
music still is in your hands asa DJ and a radio programmer, or
do you think it has shifted?

SPEAKER_03 (33:24):
No, no, that shifted to a certain extent, but now
they're starting to realize thatthe real money for music is
putting your music on the radio.
Because the streaming money, thelabels getting all the money on
the back end.
That's a good point.
Yeah, you know, that's the rightreason why the streaming numbers
are so low for payout, becausethe the labels are getting a
percentage of the market sharethat the artists don't even know
nothing about.

SPEAKER_06 (33:43):
I try to tell people this.
Greg, I swear to God, I've beentrying to explain people that is
this is why you have to own yourmusic.
This is why they want to buyeverything, because the larger
body of music that they own, thebigger share they get through
all these streaming platforms.
This is the artist.
This is why artists don't get alot of money because the
majority of artists don't owntheir music.

(34:04):
They don't own their own music.
I tell people, if you own yourmusic, them numbers are
different.

SPEAKER_03 (34:09):
Those numbers are different if you own your music.
But the bad part about it is ifyou own your music and that's
the only music you own, thatmeans you don't have a catalog.
So you're not gonna have enoughmarket share to really
participate in that back-endmoney.
Because whoever has the biggestmarket share gets the biggest
percentage.
So the deal is you gotta go intothese labels and make a deal
with them to make themunderstand like I can bring you

(34:29):
this much market share.
That's why Epic gave Rocco somuch money for future, because
future was one of the biggeststreaming artists.
We're gonna give you this 10, 15million.
We're gonna give you the bad.
We're gonna give you a badbecause they're gonna get it
back.

SPEAKER_01 (34:43):
Easy.
Wait a minute.
So back to the radio station,though, part of that.
So you're saying that like atthe end of the day, music needs
to be on the radio.
Radio publishing pays way morethan streaming.

SPEAKER_06 (34:56):
But how do you deal with that?
This is very true.

SPEAKER_01 (34:59):
They're trying to convince us that radio isn't
important.
So that's what we're doing.
No, no, no.
I'm not trying to convince you.
I'm saying, though, that mostlisteners, do you think that
most listeners now, though, arestreaming music rather than
listening to it on the radio?
Yeah, of course they are.
But it doesn't matter.
Hold on.

SPEAKER_03 (35:14):
We're about to show y'all some magic on the podcast
live.

SPEAKER_06 (35:18):
He does all this stuff seamlessly.
Like I used to go and hang outwith him at the radio station.
He'd just go back and forth.
Conversation, and he'd be like,hold on, but he'd say his things
and he'd run the commercials anddo his live drop.
And we'll go right back into itright back into the
conversation.

SPEAKER_03 (35:34):
What's up, Brandy?
What's up, Monica?
Both from the South Side.
It's about to be a movietonight.
Ray J may still be in town, too.
I saw him fish with Boosie onMonday.
So uh, let's get to it.
It's time for Brad Street toRock, 3 o'clock, 4 o'clock, 5
o'clock, 6 o'clock, 6 o'clock ona Friday.
The weather is amazing.
Nelly's birthday is tonight.
Nelly, I'm turning up againtonight, Nelly.

SPEAKER_06 (35:56):
Nelly's birthday parties are legendary now.
Because he does Halloweenbirthday parties.

SPEAKER_05 (36:03):
Yeah, him and JD are like brothers, so I know they're
jading on split off.

SPEAKER_06 (36:06):
It's crazy.
They do it real big.
They do it real.
I don't normally go because Idon't I don't want to commit on
the level that they commit.
Because if they look at thesecelebrity, like I look at Lenny
at Lenny's party every year.
Lenny at the party last night.
Yeah, man.

SPEAKER_05 (36:21):
And they went costume couture, which is crazy.
Yeah, they was on some flatshit.
Yeah, man.

SPEAKER_01 (36:28):
People who are not watching this and listening, we
just went from our show toGreg's show, and now we're back.

SPEAKER_06 (36:34):
So Greg is Greg is one of the hosts tonight for the
Brandy and Monica Tour.
They're stopping in Atlantatonight.
They're performing at performingat State Farm Arena.
So Greg is actually livebroadcasting his radio show
tonight from State Farm Arena.
So it's kind of a two-four.
He gets to do his radio show andhe's promoting the concert and

(36:54):
he's giving Nelly shout outs onthe radio.
You check all the boxes, OG.
You check all the boxes.

SPEAKER_03 (37:00):
And I'm going to Trap City.

SPEAKER_06 (37:02):
Oh, man.
What do you find the time, Greg?
Where do you find the time forall of this?

SPEAKER_03 (37:08):
Hey, man, I got the same 24 hours everybody else
got, man.

SPEAKER_02 (37:12):
And we'll be right back.

SPEAKER_06 (37:14):
Welcome to Merrick Studios, where stories take the
mic and culture comes alive.

SPEAKER_02 (37:18):
We're not just a network.
We're a family.
Bringing you smart, soulful,unjected conversations.

SPEAKER_05 (37:24):
And this season, we're bringing the heat with our
biggest lineup yet.
Whatever you're into, music,sports, business, we got you
covered.
Merrick Studios, where theconversation starts and keeps
going.

SPEAKER_02 (37:35):
Check out our full lineup, including Unglossy with
Bun B, Jeffrey Sledge, andmyself, Tom Frank.
Now streaming atWeRMerrickstudios.com.

SPEAKER_00 (37:44):
Master the art of lyricism with Pendulum Mink, the
first school for rap.
Learn elite techniques throughimmersive lessons, real world
exercises, and guidance from hiphop icons.
This is where MC sharpen theirskills and glow boldly on the
mic.
Ready to level up?
Visit pendulummink.com and startyour journey today.

SPEAKER_02 (38:03):
And now, back to the show.

SPEAKER_05 (38:04):
Hey Greg, you still involved with, I know you just
still got the car show.
I know you were also heavilyinvolved with Harley Davidson.
You still working with them aswell?

SPEAKER_03 (38:11):
Oh, yeah, definitely.
Definitely.
I got a um, we're doing a grandopening for Lucky Peach, Harley
Davidson, not the seventh,eighth, and ninth.
I told him I'm gonna pop intothe dealership because it's
against the rules with HarleyDavidson corporate, they can't
do it.
But I love the people there somuch because they do so much for
me.
Like I got I got four bikes atthe dealership sitting in the
back.
They don't charge me no storagefee.
Wow.

(38:32):
I got one car in store.
That's$400 a month.
So I told my man, I said,listen, on y'all grand opening,
I'm gonna pop into thedealership.
Somebody sitting at the tabledoing a deal, I'm gonna give
them$1,000 on their down paymentout of my pocket.
Like, well, you know, Harleysaid we can't do that.
This ain't got shit to do withHarley.
I'm doing it.
Just my appreciation of you guysfor how y'all look out for me.

SPEAKER_05 (38:53):
Like that little story right there you just told
is exactly what I'm talkingabout.
Man, you just know how to youknow to touch the people and be
part of the community.
Like somebody, some whoever winsthat$1,000 is never gonna forget
that.
Never gonna forget him.

SPEAKER_06 (39:09):
Never gonna drag and those will be the people that'll
be ready to fight somebody whenthey hear somebody saying
something bad about you.
Nah, it's yeah, you better not.

SPEAKER_03 (39:19):
I'm gonna tell y'all how serious this is.
This is this is a classic Dallasstory.
Because y'all see me post thispicture every now and then with
me and Michael Jordan.
If you pay close attention tothat picture, if you really look
close at that picture and Bum B,because I took UGK in the same
spot.
That's the Lexington on TurtleCreek.
Alvin and Jane, Alvin Scott, andJane Price Club.

SPEAKER_07 (39:39):
Oh wow.

SPEAKER_03 (39:40):
I had Sunday nights at the Lexington.
So I had the door every Sunday.
So I was the promoter, the DJ,the MC.
I opened and closed.
Brought the records in, startedat 9 o'clock.
Because you know, the beautifulthing about Dallas that I love,
the club closed at 2.
So we don't even need no openingDJ.
I go in and DJ the whole night.
So I think the Mavericks isplaying the Chicago Bulls on

(40:02):
that Monday.
So I get a call on that Sunday.
Hey man, um we heard you got thebiggest night in the in the city
when it comes to the clubs.
Uh Jordan wants to come through.
Michael Jordan comes to theclub.
If you look close at thatpicture, he's in the DJ booth.
You can see the turn tape.
He's in the booth with me.
I'm DJing.
I just trying to turn my back,but I'm DJing and hosting the

(40:25):
party.

SPEAKER_06 (40:25):
Wow.

SPEAKER_03 (40:26):
Michael Jordan in the club.

SPEAKER_06 (40:30):
Did you have Jordan's on?

SPEAKER_03 (40:32):
Of course.
Yo, wait, wait, let's get out ofhere my Jordan day started in
Mobile.
People be talking about MichaelJordan, this and Michael Jordan
that and his stats and how greatof a player he was, and we're
not taking none of that fromhim.
But I'm gonna tell y'all thegospel truth about them Air
Jordans.
Okay, Eric Wright, Easy Easy Eis the guy who put them Jordans

(40:57):
on the map.
He put them Jordan threes onthat Easy E radio cover, and
they went crazy.
When the people saw that jumpman on that tongue, on that
radio cover, and he had thelittle suit on too.
Boy, I might wear my suit.
I still got my suit.
I might wear it tonight to uh toNelly War.

SPEAKER_05 (41:15):
Wait, so let's let's get into that.
I guess people know about yourlove of sneakers or sneaker
culture.
Everybody knows that.
Let's talk about let's talkabout that, how that started,
and we'll tell us about that.

SPEAKER_03 (41:25):
Yeah, we started we started right at Snickers.
If you remember, if you rememberthe first sneaker craze was Dr.
J.

SPEAKER_06 (41:32):
Yes.

SPEAKER_03 (41:33):
Dr.
J don't get his props.
For for he like and and thecrazy part about Dr.
J was if you remember back inthe day, the Converse, those
shoes weren't sold in the mall.
You had to go to the sportinggoods stores to get those shoes.
Even the regular Chuck Taylors,the clothes, you had to go to

(41:56):
the sporting goods store to getthose shoes.
They weren't in the mall.
In the mall, Tom McGain had theNBAs that would look just like
the All-Stars with all thecolors going around the little
round table.
I don't know why nobody broughtthem MBAs back, but Dr.
J was the man.
But fast forward in the 80s whenme and Skip cheated when we was
in Mobile, Skip liked theflights.
He loved the flight shoes.

SPEAKER_04 (42:16):
Okay.

SPEAKER_03 (42:17):
I always liked the Jordans.
So when them threes came outfrom the threes, fours, fives,
sixes, every week.
Dale, the white boy Dale, whowas crazy big at Foot Locker, he
was the manager of Foot Lockerin Springdale Mall in Mobile,
Alabama.

SPEAKER_04 (42:34):
Okay.

SPEAKER_03 (42:35):
When I moved to Atlanta, he was the Foot Locker,
he was the manager at FootLocker in South Decal Mall.
South Decal Mall was the biggestproducing Foot Locker in the
country.
Really?
South to Care Mall Footlocker,my boy Dell was the manager at
the Foot Locker in South the CatMall.
And that was the biggest revenuegrossing, the biggest grossing
revenue store in the whole FootLocker chain in the country.

SPEAKER_05 (42:58):
I did not know that.

SPEAKER_03 (43:02):
D boys in Atlanta was so serious about it, they
would go to Foot Locker and buya case of F4s one.
Let me get a case for mydaughter.
Let me get a case for East.
A case.
White?
A case.
The white T's, a case.
Let me get they were sellingthat shit out of cases.
Wow.
Two or three pairs.
The cases.

SPEAKER_05 (43:18):
Wow.
So to this day, what's yourfavorite Jordan?
The threes, the fours, thefives?

SPEAKER_03 (43:23):
Threes?

SPEAKER_05 (43:24):
Threes, yeah.
Threes is gonna threes isunbeatable.
The black threes.
Yeah.
The white threes cool too, butthe black is.
Not the black.
The black black cement joint.

SPEAKER_03 (43:33):
The black threes are the goats.
The black cement threes are thegoats.

SPEAKER_05 (43:36):
You still collect a lot now?

SPEAKER_03 (43:38):
The four uh, yeah.
I just um I just bought that umthe 30th anniversary.
Um I posted the one pair thatthey gave me, but I just found
somebody who had the whole packthat would sell it.
So I just bought the um therebox 30th anniversary
playstation pack.
Ah.
And he got all three of theshoes in one box.
It looked like a PlayStationbox.

SPEAKER_01 (43:58):
Yeah.
So how many pairs of shoes doyou have in your collection?

SPEAKER_03 (44:03):
Probably about 17, 1800.
And uh I have a dude that soldme some shoes, uh, showed me his
a few shoes out of hiscollection, and he insisted that
I bought those, and I neverreally liked Bordo's, but I knew
they were one of Bon B'sfavorite shoes, and we were the
same size.
So at his in-store, I gave themto him.
Dead stock original with theoriginal box.
The first Bardo.

SPEAKER_05 (44:24):
Greg, let me ask a question.
So, where do you think Atlanta'sgoing now musically?

SPEAKER_03 (44:30):
I mean, Atlanta's always gonna be boom, boom,
boom, and music.
Yeah, yeah.
What people don't understandabout there's no really no
Atlanta sound.
People try to say it is, butwhen you really think about it,
when you sit back and listen,it's not a Atlanta sound.
Lotto don't sound like Pluto, uhPluto, Lotto don't sound like YK
Neys, uh, uh, or Brie or Naya,and um Future don't sound like

(44:56):
uh J.I.D.
I'll tell about the originalBardo story, Bumbi.
When you came to Atlanta, I gotBardos out of this collection.
I knew Bun were the same size,and I knew Bardo's was his
favorite Jordans.
They were the OG original ones.

SPEAKER_06 (45:09):
The original Bordos.

SPEAKER_03 (45:11):
That was nobody else.

SPEAKER_06 (45:12):
Every time they retro, something's a little off.
Let me tell you, let me tell youmy my crazy Greg Street story.
Greg was like, hey man, send meyour address.
I want to send you something.
Right?
The man sent me UGK promo shirtsthat were at least 20 years old
at the time.
Not one, two.

(45:34):
Two promo shirts that I don'tknow if I ever even fucking
used.

SPEAKER_07 (45:39):
Rad dirty.

SPEAKER_06 (45:40):
Brand new, brand new crisp, rammed in plastic.
Rad dirty dirty from jobs fromJob Records.

SPEAKER_05 (45:50):
I don't have none of that stuff, man.

SPEAKER_06 (45:52):
See, here's the thing that people don't know.
I've had the pleasure toactually be invited to Greg's
house.
Greg doesn't keep a lot ofcompany at his house.
I was invited over to Greg'shouse.
Greg is not just a great sneakercollector, he's a great
collector.
He got all of it.
He has all of the 90s radiopromo when everybody was sending
out something with an artist toget those things spun, whether

(46:15):
it was a little doll or somelighters or whatever it was, a
magic book, whatever it was.
Greg kept them all.
Most of them.

SPEAKER_03 (46:24):
One thing I hate I lost that I had, and I know
exactly when I lost it when Imoved from Houston, when I moved
from Mobile to Houston.
I had the jazz bike hat fromwhen him and Jay-Z did Hawaiian
Sophie.
That was a psycho hat that theyhad.

SPEAKER_06 (46:41):
It was like flip that flip up, right?

SPEAKER_03 (46:43):
I had one and I lost it.

SPEAKER_06 (46:45):
Damn.

SPEAKER_03 (46:45):
You lost it?
But I still got the masterpiececassette with the phone message
on it.
Um the Biz Marquis toilet stool.
I remember that.
The um the Halle Hansen raincoatfrom Live Records, the original
Wu-Tang Dunks, the Def Jam uhS-Doc Carters.

(47:07):
Um I'm about to put I'm about todo a book.
All the No Limit t-shirts.
Every project that Master P putout, he had a t-shirt.
He would send me a box of theshirts.
Every project.
Snoop Dogg, Mean Green, YoungBleed, Silk the Shaka, Sea
Murder, Mia and Young Bleed,too.
Every record had a promot-shirt.

(47:30):
And he would send me a whole boxof them.

SPEAKER_06 (47:32):
Wow.

SPEAKER_03 (47:33):
Master P dolls, all that.

SPEAKER_05 (47:34):
Yeah, I remember them dolls of the I remember
making them say undolls.
I remember the whole thing.

SPEAKER_03 (47:40):
I posted mine yesterday for Throwback
Thursday.
Mine still talked.
I got two, but one of them stilltalked.

SPEAKER_06 (47:44):
Wow.
Greg, in this space, in thisspace, in this radio space, you
seem almost singular.
Is there anybody that you've metin radio that thought
progressively like you did?
That you understood it was aboutthe community and the youth and
not about building, you know,making sure you was cool with
this rapper or that singer.

(48:06):
Is there anybody that movesrelatively similar to how you
move in this game?

SPEAKER_03 (48:11):
Probably Bebe.
Who else?
There's some guys like thislocally in their communities.
Um, Brian Dawson was up inRoddish, North Carolina.
He got off the radio.
He had some health issues and hejust decided to get off the
radio.
But um, there are a few, thereare a few of us out here, maybe
not as intense as I am, becauseI don't have them other bad

(48:32):
habits.

SPEAKER_06 (48:33):
Right.

SPEAKER_03 (48:34):
I'm the guy who never says no.
I'm gonna figure out a way tomake it work.
If you need me to do somethingfor you, like guy hit me today
from the real estate company,they going up they doing a uh a
trick-or-treat today.
And I just have one of myhomegirls that do primary
because she had me go to hissomething they had at the shop
one day at the real estateoffice.
I just went by there just tobecause she asked me to go.
I went by there and me and theguy just started kicking it.

SPEAKER_06 (48:55):
Wow.
I think Bebe is a great examplethough of somebody that built
themselves up directly throughthe community.
Came from a small basicallyreplaced you and that.
I ain't gonna say replaced, butfilled the void that you left.
But build it with a similarmentality.

SPEAKER_05 (49:12):
Absolutely.
Absolutely.

SPEAKER_03 (49:14):
He went there to do weekends first, and then it it
elevated him getting theafternoon show.

unknown (49:19):
Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 (49:19):
But I could see Bebe is taking a lot of um
inspiration from you.
Absolutely.
I could see, I mean, he's hisown man.
He doesn't he's great, but I cansee like he's taking a lot of
lessons from watching you doyour thing.

SPEAKER_06 (49:30):
I can see that.
Bebe's his own person, he's gothe's a personality for sure.
He's a great personality, buthe's it's been very strategic.
That makes sense.
That would make a lot of sensewatching you.
Absolutely.

SPEAKER_05 (49:44):
So what's next, Greg?
What's next for you?

SPEAKER_03 (49:46):
Hey, Brandon Monica's breast cancer
awareness.
I'm doing a free breast cancerchecks.
I got a few more hours.
This year we call it Plan Chess.
You know what I'm talking about?

SPEAKER_05 (49:55):
Yes.
I like that.

SPEAKER_03 (49:58):
After the day I'm going on vacation for a week, I
had a vacation this year.
I'm gonna take a week off.
I get another week in December,maybe another two weeks in
December, but I still got fourweeks.
So uh hold on one second.

SPEAKER_06 (50:10):
Okay.
One more drop.
Because he's always while he'stalking to us, he's aware of
what he's got to do there.
Yep.
But even while he's doing whathe's doing there, there's an
awareness.
Exactly.
There's a whole other show goingon.
Yeah, it's not like we're frozenout.

SPEAKER_05 (50:25):
We like watching a show.

SPEAKER_03 (50:26):
335.
340 is your next chance to getthat 103 hours in gas or
groceries and qualify for the$5,000 on your gas or groceries.
The grand prize winners thisMonday.

SPEAKER_06 (50:36):
I could use$5,000 a grand in gas and groceries for
this holiday for sure.

SPEAKER_03 (50:47):
We don't know what's going on with it.
I'm gonna give you my just mywhole little overview with the
whole food stamp issue.
I'm gonna tell you what's gonnahappen with this food stamp.

SPEAKER_05 (50:53):
It's incredible that he can he does this with no
script.

SPEAKER_03 (50:56):
What's gonna happen with these food stamps is a lot
of people are gonna finallyrealize that a lot of the stuff
that they're eating, they don'tneed to be eating anyway.
They don't need to be eatinganyway.
All that red meat, all thatextra stuff, all that sugar.
I'll give me a can of blackbeans, some, some, some Danes
killer bread.

SPEAKER_06 (51:16):
I'm saying he's clean.
That's why I say he's got he'sbeen able to maneuver a lot
further in this culture thanmost people, because he's a
super clean guy.
Yeah.
So he remembers that he's one ofthose guys that remembers
everybody, mad, remembers names,all of that type of stuff.
And that's stuff, that stuffgets you very far.
It definitely does.
Like he's built a he's built askill set that that primarily

(51:37):
worked for what he's doing as aliving.
But it the way he moves andoperates and thinks, I think a
lot of people could learn a lotfrom Greg Speed.
I don't think people give Idon't think people give someone
that works in radio the idea ofbeing as smart and and and and
culturally conscious at the sametime.
And to know his value and to bein that room of all these

(51:59):
popular people who everybodywants to be in favor with, who
everybody wants to be connectedto, right?
And it's just like, yeah, but Ineed to stay focused on this.
But then because he staysfocused on the community, the
artist that everyone wants to becool with, they reach out to
Greg because you know Greg istouching the people.

SPEAKER_01 (52:17):
So the money comes back anyway.

SPEAKER_06 (52:19):
Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 (52:20):
That's the whole thing.
There's not a lot of Gregstreets though anymore.

unknown (52:24):
No.

SPEAKER_01 (52:24):
You think that less and less?
And again, this gets us back tothe original thought here is
it's just different.
The radio business is verydifferent today.
He somehow has still made itwork and has has come up in it,
and has I just don't know ifthere are other people like Greg
Street anymore, or not as manyof them.

SPEAKER_06 (52:43):
I don't even know if I don't know if the rate the way
radio operates today lendsitself to the creation of
another Greg Street.
I'd love to hear that.
Greg, I'm right back on time.
The the climate in radio and theway that radio is structured
right now, does it allow anentry space for the next Greg
Streets to come in and operate?
Like, is there room for a youngDJ that thinks like you to be

(53:06):
successful in that climate rightnow?
In radio.
Where it's all built aroundplaylists and all that type of
stuff.
Because you still seem tooperate and and and you know,
excel and exceed in the space inspite of it, right?

SPEAKER_03 (53:19):
Well, what it is, what you have to understand is
less is more so the least amountof freedom that you have, and
nobody else has any freedom, itincreases your value even more.
Because, first of all, for me,I'm never playing a record
because somebody wants me toplay the record.
I'm gonna play the recordbecause I know the people want

(53:40):
to hear the record.
Because what people don'tunderstand is one DJ can't
really play a record enoughtimes to break a record.
If if we if the DJs were reallybreaking records the way people
use that phrase, we'd bequadruple millionaires.
If I if you could just bring mea record and I could break your

(54:00):
record, what is that actuallyworth?
But people, the the mind, ourmindset is so caught up, it's
like if you if you took a gallonof gas and poured it on
something and you ain't got nofire to put on it, it ain't
gonna spark.
So you gotta put the gas onsomething that has something

(54:20):
going on with it that's gonnaexplode.
It's not just the DJ.
So I can go find a record fromTikTok.
My intro to my show at threeo'clock now is the miles yachts
when I walk through Greg Street.
When I walk, that was thebiggest song on TikTok two years
ago.
I knew it.
I hit him up.
Hey man, call me up.
Come to find out.
He was right in Atlanta.

(54:41):
Like, look, this is what I wantto do.
Beat me at Stank on here.
We're gonna we're gonna put ittogether.
Put it together, boom.
No other radio station in thecountry playing the song.
But if he would have had a labelto get behind this record and
put this record out, if you goon insta, if you go on on TikTok
or Instagram right now and putin walkthrough and look at how
many streams, how much moneyhe'd have made off that record.

(55:01):
But if that record would havegone to radio and went top ten,
it'd be like, you're saying.
It never did.
Because most of these young guysare caught up into this whole
Jay-Z mentality that they doneput out here, that I want to own
my masters, I want to own all mypublishers.
It ain't worth shit if you ain'tgot the money to invest in.

SPEAKER_05 (55:20):
You own 100% of nothing.

SPEAKER_03 (55:22):
You got 100% of nothing.
But if I say, hey, Barry Wise,hey, Jimmy Iveen, hey, LA Reed,
hey, whoever, Mike Karen,whoever, hey, I got this record,
my shit jumping.
I understand the game on how thestreaming works and how the
radio works.
Let's do a deal.
I'll give you a percentage ofthe publishing, I'll give you a
percentage of the ownership ofthe master.
So you can eat and I can eatbecause you're gonna spend the

(55:44):
bag on the record.
I don't have the bag.
But we think it's a trick.
So what's going on now is labelsare signing some of these
streaming records, but they'renot investing no money in it.
They're just making their littlemoney that they're gonna make
from the streams.

SPEAKER_05 (55:57):
Keep it in the movie.

SPEAKER_03 (55:59):
Because they know these people, they mind ain't
right.
They know they don't understandthe business.
You wanna beat the musicbusiness, but you don't
understand the business.
You gotta understand this gameto the fullest if you're gonna
be able to maximize it.
Like, I learned this whole gameabout radio.
You know, cost per point,shares, how how Q works, how
time spent listening works.
You have to learn everything itis that you do about your

(56:20):
business to really maximize thebusiness.
Because the people that you'redealing with on the other side
of the table, they know thebusiness.
They know it.
But if they know you're anidiot, they're not gonna even
try to present it to you becauseyou think they're trying to get
over on you.
They're not trying to get overon you, they're trying to do a
fair deal.
If you go to any major label,all these people in this
building, where you think theirmoney comes from?

(56:40):
You think this is a nonprofitorganization?
It's two, three hundred peopleworking in here.
You can't hear me?

SPEAKER_01 (56:49):
Bun, we can't hear you, Bun.

SPEAKER_06 (56:50):
We can't hear you, Bon.
Oh, yeah, yeah.
Oh, I'm sorry.
Yeah, I was saying it it onlytakes about five questions to
figure out you don't knownothing.
No.
Exactly.
Right.
So and answers to those fivequestions determine everything
you get out of that situationfrom that point on.
They already know that, okay, hedon't know nothing.
He don't know.

SPEAKER_03 (57:07):
I'm gonna give you a gem that you probably never
heard.
Me and DJ Clark can't rest inpeace, my brother.
We used to talk about this allthe time.
Less than four percent ofartists that are signed to major
labels before social media.
Less than four percent of theartist, Jeff, you probably never
thought about this and you wasat job.
You saw it.
Less than four percent of theartists that y'all signed made

(57:29):
it.
They got a check, they got abudget, they made some records,
they got drugs.

SPEAKER_06 (57:34):
They made a little bread.
They got a little bread.
I won't say made, they got alittle bread.

SPEAKER_03 (57:39):
They got a little bread, but all them other
artists that's making the money,Tribe Call Quest and Too Short
and Sierra and all them, theypaying.
That's why they're gonna be.
They're paying for everythingfor everything.
They paying for it's aportfolio.
This stock gonna hit, this stockgonna hit, this stock gonna hit,
this stock gonna fail.
These other 80% of the stocksare gonna fail.
So I gotta make all my money.
Everybody working in thisbuilding getting paid off the

(58:00):
ones that's winning.
Off that 4%.

SPEAKER_05 (58:03):
Calculated losses.
That's real, though.

SPEAKER_03 (58:05):
Most people don't understand the game.
That's and and they don't try toexplain it to them because
they're not gonna really,they're not not gonna really
understand.
That's why they came up with thepoint system.
They don't come in and tell you,wait, we're gonna we're gonna
give you a 10-point deal.
We're gonna give you, they don'tcome and say we're gonna give
you 10%.
That's really what it is.
The point system makes it soundbetter to an idiot.

(58:26):
I got what I got 12 points.
But they don't know.
If you get 20, if you just sayif you get 20 points on the
deal, right?
If you get 20 points on thedeal, you really 50-50 partner
if they're paying the bills.

SPEAKER_05 (58:37):
That's real.

SPEAKER_03 (58:39):
I tell I I I I was talking to Fly from TIG the
other day.
I told Rocco and a bunch ofother independent label artists
guys this listen, bro, when yousign an artist and you're making
all that bread after the firstcouple projects, give them half
of that shit back and extendyour contract.
Because once they get somemoney, they're gonna try you.

(59:02):
Because in their mind now, I didthis on my own.
Yeah, they're gonna try you.
I witnessed it firsthand when Iwatched the shit go down between
Leroy, Swamp Dog, John Abbey,and MC Breed.
John Abbey basically took MCBreed from them because they was
fighting.
Y'all fighting, all this moneycan be made, but while y'all

(59:23):
fighting at the label itch, wedon't have time for this.
So they just start dealingdirectly with Breed.

SPEAKER_05 (59:29):
Directly.

SPEAKER_03 (59:30):
But if you say, look, okay, Bree, this is what
we're gonna do.
Just say we got 40%.
We're gonna give you 20% backand get your mama 10, your baby
mama 10.
Whoever you want the manager 10.
We gonna get now.
All I gotta do is just walk tothe mailbox and my furry house
shoes and get my check.
Cause now you you you done metJazzy Faye, you done met DOC,
you done met Tupac, you're doingall the work now.

(59:52):
I don't have to do no work.

SPEAKER_05 (59:53):
Yeah.
Just say, just send me my cut.
You set him up.
You set him up.
Yeah, now you good.
Putting them in power, puttingthem in position.

SPEAKER_03 (01:00:02):
We we so greedy and we don't understand that uh a
small percentage of somethingbig is bigger than a uh a big
percentage of something small.

SPEAKER_05 (01:00:10):
That's real, that's real, Greg.
Me and Tom actually have thathad that conversation earlier to
say.
Yeah we're like you and you're100% correct.
So you it'd rather be a uh anokay fish in a big pond and make
some money, we want to be a bigfish or a small pond and you
ain't really nothing there foryou to eat.

SPEAKER_01 (01:00:26):
Because in in a lot of ways, you're validating
exactly what we're doing withpodcasting.
Because it's it's not that faroff from the music industry.
It's not.
Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 (01:00:37):
You're making percentage of the money from
your streams.

SPEAKER_07 (01:00:40):
Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 (01:00:40):
And if you're smart, you get your podcast popped, you
know what your people want.
You sell the product.
We got cock cups, we got, we gotwhatever you like.
We got Stanley Cups, we gott-shirts, we got hoodies,
whatever it is you like, youknow, from from our popular for
what we're doing, because we sotied into the culture of what we
like to do.
Okay, Supreme Bombi, let's do acollab with the podcast.

SPEAKER_07 (01:01:01):
Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_03 (01:01:02):
Okay, undefeated, okay, whoever, let's do it.
Like, it's the shit is so easy.
Like, we make it hard.

SPEAKER_05 (01:01:09):
I might eat to get you on a network with a podcast,
Greg.
You gotta write a book orsomething, Greg.
You got a lot of information.

SPEAKER_03 (01:01:17):
You said you were in the midst of writing a book,
right?
Yeah, I I I actually did a kid'sbook some years ago.
I didn't put it out there.
I did a kid's book like in 2000and 20 in 2005.
I met this homeless guy, BrotherHashin.
Brother Hasheen introduced me tothis homeless guy, bud, in the
West End.
That was an artist named Carter,an artist named Carter J.

(01:01:39):
Dude was crazy.
So I I said, you know what?
I'm gonna make a kid's book.
So he did all the illustrations.
And he took them to the libraryand had them digitized.
And um and that's the book.
He um I paid him, got him a cellphone because he had no cell
phone so we could communicate.
And um I created this book.

(01:02:00):
But my I I I it got kind ofdiscouraging because somebody
tried to do some slick.
I ain't gonna really talk aboutit, but somebody tried to do
something slick.
And um I never did put it out.
But I'm gonna I'm gonna I'mgonna I'm gonna go ahead and put
it out pretty soon.
Good.
Um see if I can find this shit.
That's actually the book.
I got them printed.

(01:02:20):
It's ready to go.
I got them printed andeverything.

SPEAKER_05 (01:02:23):
It's ready to go.
You got the book.

SPEAKER_03 (01:02:25):
You just never put it out yet.
The whole idea was to get likewith Walmart or somebody and
have a section.
So it'd be like Lil Bun, I loveto read, Jeff Sledge I love to
read, Thomas Frank, I love toread.
So when you walk into thesection, you got Barack Obama,
Monica, Brandy, T.I.
Jeezy, whoever, and you can gettheir books.
And I'll pull up a page so youcan see the illustration.
Hold on, hold on one second.

SPEAKER_05 (01:02:44):
Wow.
That's such a good idea.
The dude's full is full of goodideas.
That's such a good ass idea.
Because you can say you walk inand say, oh, this is the books
that Michelle Obama loves toread, or whoever, or whoever,
you know what I'm saying?
There's power in that.

SPEAKER_06 (01:02:57):
For people that do, that are interested in reading.
And they can read the books thatthe people they look up to, you
know what I'm saying, read whilethey were young or whatever.
I read a lot of people who studyit like that.

SPEAKER_05 (01:03:07):
His uh book list every year.
It's power in that.
Like people say, Well, you well,you've been reading and you
know, you get to look and see,pick.
Yeah, that's a really that'sactually a really good idea.

SPEAKER_06 (01:03:16):
I think everything he's been saying on this
podcast, to be fair, has been areally good idea.

SPEAKER_01 (01:03:20):
We need to get into Atlanta to end this thing,
though.
Like I'm I am curious becausepeople say, and I I'm curious
about what you guys have tothink about this too.
Atlanta has become the capitalof hip-hop.
When did that happen?
How did that happen?
Was he a part of that happening?
Was he there before or afterthat happened?

SPEAKER_05 (01:03:39):
Oh, definitely, definitely.
You definitely part of it fromfrom from scratch.
So, Greg, we were just saying,so uh to wrap it up, let's talk
a little bit about a little bitabout Atlanta, how Atlanta has
become such the um the hub forfor hip hip hop.
You know, yeah, you know,obviously you got the West
Coast, you got New York, butlike Atlanta's really been on

(01:04:02):
fire.
And and and talk about how thathappened, because I know you
were intric intricately involvedin in making that happen.

SPEAKER_03 (01:04:08):
Man, Atlanta is a special place.
Um it's a special, specialplace.
And we look at it for hip hop,but you we we we forgot we
forget about Millie Jackson andand and um people like Curtis
Mayfield, James Brown from rightdown the street in in Augusta.

(01:04:31):
Um so many people here frommusic, Bo Hannon, the legendary
Bo Hannon that lived here inAtlanta is from Atlanta.
So like it's so much that's apart of the foundation, but for
most of us in hip hop, we don'tknow the we don't know the
history.
We we we we can't go, we can'tgo.
You got kids right now who don'tknow who Alcaz is.

SPEAKER_05 (01:04:51):
That's real.
That's true.

SPEAKER_03 (01:04:52):
You got you got kids right now who will tell you, um
I like JID better than Jay Z.
I don't even know Jay-Z.
Like that.
Yeah.
You got kids who will tell no,they ain't gonna sit like that.
Don't know him, don't know whoyou're talking about.
So it's like we don't reallyknow the history of the city.
Like this city, the fabric ofthis city is so crazy.

(01:05:14):
It's like Houston.
When you look at Houston, peoplemight look at Houston as it is
not growing, but when you lookat the new underground artists
in Houston that's going crazy,it's still the same blueprint.
It's just in this day and time.
It's in it's in the streamingworld, it's in the social media
content, it's it's in thatspace.

(01:05:36):
So and rap has diversified somuch that we don't pay
attention.
Like little girl Bonabee fromAtlanta from from Thomasville,
she's huge.
Huge, super big.
She can say she's doing a showtomorrow and it's gonna be sold
out.
It's four o'clock on Friday.
She can say, I'm doing a showtomorrow, center stage, it's

(01:05:57):
gonna be sold out completely.

SPEAKER_05 (01:05:59):
Now, why do you think Atlanta has that type of
power to grow artists like this?

SPEAKER_03 (01:06:04):
And how did Atlanta get that power?
It's a lot of cities like that.
New Orleans like that, Memphisis like that, Houston is like
that.
Dallas was on track, and nowit's getting back on track, but
it's a lot of cities like LA islike that.
You don't think Kendrick, uheven one of the underground
artists from LA can say, hey,look, I'm doing a show tomorrow,
5,000 people, they're gonna showup.

(01:06:25):
I think what it is is we like toargue and debate so much we
don't pay attention to thefacts.
Because the the gem in thiswhole thing that people don't
understand is perception isreality.
I don't care how stupid you are,perception is your reality.

SPEAKER_01 (01:06:41):
Absolutely.

SPEAKER_03 (01:06:42):
What you think, it ain't about right and wrong,
it's what you think and how youthink.
Because most of us can't be toldshit.
Especially the ones who on someof these platforms talking who
don't know what they're talkingabout, and they just talking
because they got a lot offollowers and a lot of people
listening to them, but most ofthem don't know what they're
talking about.
And it's sad, but for Atlanta,you'd have to really live here

(01:07:06):
to understand, like in one day,in one day, I can go from a
listening party with Bum B andCorey Mo around the corner, less
than five minutes away, and goin the studio with Mike Will, in
less than three minutes away, goin the studio with Big Boy, in
less than 30 seconds away, go inthe studio with TI.

(01:07:28):
And on and on and on, every day.
This stuff going on every day.
Every day.
So Atlanta, as far as the musicis concerned, it's it's it's
never gonna fall off.
Like people don't even know.
What's the kid's name from uh Ijust talked to um damn what's

(01:07:51):
his name?
He was the I did the thing withDwight Howard at Southwest
Atlanta Christian Academy.
I didn't even know the dude.
He graduated like 2009.
He wrote four or five ofBeyoncé's biggest songs.
He signed The Rock Nation.
What's his name?
Damn, it's on the tip of mytongue.
He wrote Folded for Kalani.
Like, you got people likepeople, like most people

(01:08:14):
watching your podcast don't knowthis.
Kane Brown is signed to Polo theDunn.
Yes.
Polo put him out independent.
He was gonna take him somewhereelse, but he couldn't take him
because he already had a firstright deal with LA Reed at Epic.
Kane Brown is signed to Polo theDunn.
I had no idea.

(01:08:35):
Blanco Brown with the biggestline, biggest country and
western line dance, not no bootson the ground, country and
western, the get up.
It's from Bankhead Courts.

SPEAKER_06 (01:08:48):
Wow.
Well, I mean, even with back inthe day, with what you call it,
uh, cool ace writing a song,Grammy nominated song for Curtis
Maysfield.

SPEAKER_07 (01:08:59):
Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 (01:08:59):
Exactly.

SPEAKER_03 (01:09:00):
That's what I'm saying.
There's a lot of there's a lotof places.
Because Cool Ace and CarlosGlover was real tight.
Carlos Glover was CurtisMayfield's right-hand man.
Carlos Glover was Carlos CarlosGlover is the same guy that
signed Lil John to Itchy Bond.
If it wasn't for Too Short, LilJohn would have still been stuck

(01:09:21):
in the deal.
Too short bought him out of thedeal.
Jeff Sledge.
Too short took Lil John to Jiveand Jive said they didn't get
it.
Yeah, and we passed.
They passed on it.

SPEAKER_05 (01:09:33):
Short brought Lil John to Jive and said, I want
him to produce my whole album.
And we we said no.
Jive said no?
He said no.
Because John John was new.
We didn't know.
Short knew.

SPEAKER_03 (01:09:46):
No, Short, Short wanted to.
If you go back and they did acompilation, there couldn't be a
better player song on it.
Yep.
That was supposed to be thecatalyst to make it to make Jive
want to do the deal.
Carlos owned Lil John's name andeverything.
When he put out the Who You WitGet Crunk and I Like Them Girls.

(01:10:12):
In hopes of taking him to Jive.

SPEAKER_07 (01:10:14):
Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 (01:10:15):
Jive said no.
But what happened in the midstof that was blow the whistle.
Yeah.
Which is probably after being inmusic 20 years, Lil John gives
you your biggest record.
So God don't make no mistakes.

SPEAKER_05 (01:10:29):
Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 (01:10:30):
Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 (01:10:31):
Yeah.
And see, we said no, and thenand then I think first record
they did was uh dun dun dun dundun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun
dun dungeon.
That yeah, yeah, we did then andthen it kept going and they said
they then they got to blow thewhistle, and that record still
plays today like it's thatrecord is it that record that

(01:10:51):
record feels today like it feltthen.

SPEAKER_06 (01:10:54):
Exactly.
And if it if it played in theclub tonight, it'll turn up.
Well, if you play that at Sandyand Monica, it's gonna turn up.
Over.

SPEAKER_05 (01:11:03):
I just made a bun and that's just players' anthem,
same thing.
That's gonna go crazy too.

SPEAKER_06 (01:11:09):
This is fair.
That's that's fair.
I remember when we made thatrecord, I remember Everlast
called me.
Everlast is a good friend ofmine.
Everlast was like, you know, yougot another one now, because
he's like, Big Pimper's gonnaplay forever.
Like, there's no way around it.
That record's gonna playforever.
But that's not your record, butit's you if you're on it.
But now you got one.
Because jump around is gonnaplay forever.

(01:11:30):
We'll all be gone.
We'll all be gone to jump aroundand still be playing at football
and basketball games and shit.
Yes, it will.
Great, man.
We don't want to keep you toolong.
We know your your uh presence isneeded.
You'd have been sharing thescreen here.
You've been, you know, uhpromoting this show on the air
there and getting ready to talkto an arena full of people and

(01:11:52):
guide them through this amazingconcert.
But we we are so glad andthankful that you took the time
out of your literally watchingand listening to your busy
schedule.
Give us some some real wisdom,bro.
Some real wisdom.

SPEAKER_03 (01:12:06):
If they call me and say Bombay needs your left arm,
but you still gonna live.
You're gonna be all right.
Cut it off.

SPEAKER_06 (01:12:13):
So far, so good.
So so you're good for a while.

SPEAKER_01 (01:12:18):
Hey, we'll end it like this technology might have
changed how we find music, butyou will never be able to
replace people like Greg whomake it matter.
Absolutely.

SPEAKER_07 (01:12:26):
Absolutely.

SPEAKER_03 (01:12:28):
The whole technology space, you gotta understand
everything that we do is aboutpeople.
It all goes back to people.
Technology is just only a tool.
You just gotta know how to useit.
Technology is not gonna do thework for you.

unknown (01:12:42):
Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 (01:12:43):
You're right.
That's a great point.
You gotta do the work.
You gotta understand how to usetechnology to benefit you and
your and and what you what yourgoal is.
How can I use this?
How can I use this to make mysituation better?
Because I'm still tripping onthese cars driving around by
themselves.

SPEAKER_05 (01:13:00):
Like I'm scared of them.
I'm scaring them way most, Greg.
I'm scared of Wayne.

SPEAKER_03 (01:13:05):
I drive up beside.
I'm gonna I'm gonna post a videotoday too.
The other night when I left theone music fest going to Lula's
birthday, I'm coming down 14thStreet by Patchwork Bond.
And that little that little uhblock where that little look
like a lighting supply companyis by the by the um by the
church.

SPEAKER_07 (01:13:21):
Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 (01:13:23):
On that whole block was them little them little
carts that feed that they putthe food in to deliver.

SPEAKER_04 (01:13:28):
Oh, to take it.

SPEAKER_03 (01:13:29):
It was about all.

SPEAKER_06 (01:13:30):
I watched it the whole week in Atlanta.
I watched them little thing, Imean a bunch of them.
Yeah.
Everywhere.
I seen one had Uber on it, onehad uh DoorDash or something on
it.
It was crazy.

SPEAKER_03 (01:13:42):
I got them on, I got a video of it from last
Saturday.
I'm like, like this, this isthis is nuts.
But it's like, you got tounderstand, like, that's the
whole, that's the whole new waveof what's going on in our
country.
Like when we went from civilrights and back in the 1600s,
Bacon's Rebellion to slavery tocivil rights to um schools

(01:14:05):
getting integrated, and all it'sjust it's the new, it's the new
wave, you know, the stock marketand all this stuff.
It's just it's this is the newwhole transition, everything
that's going on.
This this is that book, bud.
Your boy did all theseillustrations.
And I I actually have theoriginal pictures.
Wow.
Wow.

SPEAKER_05 (01:14:23):
You gotta use some with that, man.
You gotta use some with that.
That's incredible.
Wow.

SPEAKER_03 (01:14:28):
Well, I hope we'll get a chance to do this again.
Y'all let me know.
Yes.
Queen, I see you in thebackground, Queen.
What's up, girl?
Queen, Queen, I need Queen.
I need them them Trailburgerhats.

SPEAKER_06 (01:14:44):
That's funny.
That's funny.
She said she got you, but shedon't work at Trailburgers.
That's a fair end.

SPEAKER_03 (01:14:54):
She's the CFO of Freeman Incorporated.

SPEAKER_05 (01:14:57):
Well, you better know it.

SPEAKER_03 (01:14:59):
All things Freeman.

SPEAKER_05 (01:15:01):
That's dope, man.
Thank you, Greg.
Really appreciate it, man.
Really do, man.

SPEAKER_01 (01:15:05):
Thank you, all our listeners.
We got we got to learn a lessonfrom him.
Thank you, the listeners.
Be involved.
Thank you.

SPEAKER_03 (01:15:12):
Mama B, L O G, November 7th, the new album on
the way.
Way too true.
Corey Mo.
Y'all scream that thing and turnit up.
Mumbo.

SPEAKER_06 (01:15:22):
Promoting my album more than me on my podcast.
I love it.
I love it.
That's the beauty of GregStreet.
That is the beauty.

SPEAKER_01 (01:15:28):
Until next week, leave us a comment on Instagram
at Unglossy Pod or YouTube atMerrick Studios.
Tell your friends about theshow.
I'm Tom Frank.

SPEAKER_05 (01:15:36):
I'm Jeffrey Split, and I'm Bundy.

SPEAKER_02 (01:15:39):
Unglossy is produced and distributed by Merrick
Studios.

All Episodes

Episode Transcript

Popular Podcasts

Dateline NBC

Are You A Charlotte?

Stuff You Should Know

.css-15opob5{left:0;position:absolute;top:0.8rem;} All Episodes

.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}Greg Street: Culture, Connection, and the Code of the South

Episode Transcript

Popular Podcasts

.css-r6mb8g{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:1;overflow:hidden;}Dateline NBC

Are You A Charlotte?

Stuff You Should Know

All Episodes

Greg Street: Culture, Connection, and the Code of the South

Dateline NBC