EP.100 | 🍦4Korners🍦 - In The Cut

Episode Transcript
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(00:00):
The old man. Hey everyone,this is Yo. It's your boy,
Funky, the coolest teen rapper online. What's up? It's me Alfie.
You're listening to the Cool Table witha listening to You're listening to the Cool
Table. You're listening to the CoolTable. And I'm not sure if you
know this, but right now you'rein the cut with my man, Adriel
Smile. Good morning, good afternoon, good evening, and good night.

(00:25):
My name is Adril Smiley aka Adrielsmileydot com aka Adriel Smiley Official aka the
Godfather. Now Here in the cut, we challenge our guess to finish a
cup of ice cream before the endof the conversation. The day, we
are joined by an NBA champion,someone who has been to many corners of
the earth, living legend. Ifeel comfortable saying that four corners, what

(00:49):
is five been? I don't haveas many aka's of you, not yet,
but I am going to get startedon the ice cream right away because
I've been I've been waiting for this. Yeah, So tell us about the
the thing that you chose, theyou chose, and is this flavor that
you would normally choose or is thislike you saw it there, like,
I gotta get that well one.You gave me some options from this incredible

(01:10):
I'm assuming incredible brand. Yes,we'll find out. And from the options,
I love strawberry, I love cheesecake. And I saw that it was
between this and Tear Me Sue.And I've had teer Me Sue recently,
so I was like, let mego go with it. I kind of
flipped the coin too. If thecoin didn't go the way I would want
it, I would flipped it again. But I'm for your own luck.
Yeah. Absolutely, I write mystory, but it looks amazing. I

(01:34):
already see the cheesecake. So I'mstarting from now. Are you a sweet
tooth type of guy? Because youtalked about your love for cheesecake, love
for tear missus. Are you someonewho has like a big sweet tooth normally?
I just realized it's gonna be difficultto talk while doing this. That's
the whole point I've been set up. Not really, I'm definitely more of

(01:57):
a savory guy, but in recentyears I've developed the sweet tooths out of
nowhere. I don't know what's goingon. I'm the same way honestly,
whenever I'm high that's when the sweettooth comes out the most. And it's
just like this, keep me awayfrom anything around that. I used to
be a big Krispy Kreme person.Oh, krispy Kreme is a problem.

(02:17):
No. And when I lived inToronto, i lived right across from the
Krispy Kreme, And I said,how do you expect me to wear all
the same clothes? How do youswepe? He's gonna live? Wait?
Did you know, though, theone Krispy Kreme donut is the equivalent in
the calories to a Big Mac.Don't even tell me that because you've sat

(02:38):
down and ate six Big Macs ina sitting and you didn't even know it
six thirty. I don't know ifI've ever bought one Kristyreme donut? Wow,
Like, no, no, no, why that's that's ludicrous? Who
does that? A light day forme would be four Like I would go
in and get the box of sixand say, if y'all want, you
could grab some. But if youdon't, this is definitely gonna get fin
Any person who has ever purchased onechris Y Cream donut, we can't be

(03:02):
friends. Serial killer shite is psycho. Psycho, you said, this would
be the name of your autobiography,the Great Finesse. I thought that is
an I said that those are thewords out of your mouth, and that
do you I will say, doyou still stand by that? Would you
still call your autobo absolutely? Youknow what? Because I say all the

(03:23):
time, I feel like I've finessedmy way through life. As as I'm
growing, I'm gaining more perspective,And I guess it's not exactly that much
of a finesse. It's just theresult of the choices that I've made.
Yes, But I like the wordfinesse just because I've made choices to design
the life that i want. Yes, just because I want it knowing that

(03:47):
it's not the way that we're taughtthat it's supposed to go. So I
feel like I've always just been figuringout and coloring outside the lines and going
where I want to do, togo, doing what I want to do.
No, not disrespectfully, not steppingon anybody's toes. I don't believe
in stepping on people to get ahead. I just feel like the rules that
are been set up, why whyand by who? And why do I

(04:13):
why do we need to follow them? We should be able to live the
life that we want as long asyou're walking good, not you know,
not hurting anybody. If you're bringingjoy to people's lives, that can't be
wrong. You know, if you'reinspiring people to also follow their whatever it
is that that drives them find theirpassion, Like, what's wrong with all

(04:34):
of this stuff? Yeah, followingthe fun, following the fund I definitely
have said that, you know,one hundred percent, these are all quotes
that you cannot use at the end. So all these things you said before,
we need something brand new for thisone. I got you. I
like what you say about following thefun in like your finess of doing things
you wanted to do, because Ido think, especially in some Korean Caribbean

(04:55):
households, you're kind of taught that. So Korean exactly can't forget them in
that Caribbean not that different. You'rekind of taught like that's not a chance.
You know, It's like you doingwhat you want and you love is
not the way it goes. Youknow what. I can speak directly to
that based on some conversations I've hadwith my parents. The reason why,

(05:16):
at least they've told me why theywere so worried about me going into a
creative field, more my mom thanmy dad, because my dad was actually
a musician before he became a chef, which is also a creative field,
but it's a stable one. Yes, my mom was a you go to
school, you get a job,you'll be able to support yourself. And
I understand that sentiment coming from youknow, parents immigrating from Trinidad to Canada

(05:43):
to expand the possibilities of life.And they were young. I'm only in
recent years of understanding how young myparents were when they had me and when
they were moving and why they didn'thave life figured out because they were like
twenty right, but to me thesuperheroes. But like now that I'm an
adult thinking about it's like, yo, they were like twenty twenty one to
twenty two. They were still goingto the club sometimes, right, and

(06:05):
like they're still trying to like understandlive, understand life and also raise me.
But they were essentially in survival modewhere their decisions were based largely on
fear of the consequence of it notgoing well. Yes, so the safest

(06:26):
road is the best road. Onehundred. However, them coming and bringing
me here to live and creating adifferent life with more possibilities. I get
to reap the benefits of that inmy generation. Now I can make the
choice to do something that's not thesafe path. And that's scary for them,

(06:46):
but it wasn't scary for me.Yeah, because you didn't grow up
with the idea of this is whatit has to be. Because I think
about my dad. I say thisto my little brother all the time.
I said, my grandfather and mydad's dad didn't know how to read,
couldn't read, couldn't write, Andhe talks about how smart he thought his
father was and he was one ofthe smartest people. He could talk to
anybody. And my dad dropped outof school when he was eight to become

(07:08):
a tailor and then a pastor.And then I think about the education that
I have where I graduated from Sanaca, ann from Ryerson, and I think
it's like, this is kind ofwhat you're saying of like it goes one
generation, then the next, thenthe next, and it's like that's just
in you when your parents, butthat's what it's supposed to be. Yeah,
that's what their plan was and evenmoving around. Yeah, but yeah,

(07:30):
we have more options. So withmore options. You can now expand
your mind and think, well,what do I actually want to do?
They didn't have the luxury of thinkingabout what do I actually wanted a little
bit. Yeah, as I said, my dad was in a band.
He was a musician, He wasa guitarist. He was a wicked man
too. Like he was touring.He was doing sessions with some really big
artists that I found out after thefact that he dine sessions with Parliament and

(07:53):
George Clinton, with big time RickJames, like he was doing it.
But his was like, this isfun. But you know what, I
man, like, what are youactually going to do with your life though?
Because you need to be able tosupport yourself. And he made and
he always told me, He's like, I don't regret my choice at all.

(08:13):
But I made the choices based onthe information I had at the time
and what was best for me andmy family exactly. So now I'm here
in this situation and I'm looking atmy daughter now like, yo, you
can literally do whatever you want becauseof the four fathers and mothers that have
put us in position, I'm nowfree, which makes her even more free.

(08:39):
That was gonna be my next questionbecause I see it with kids whose
parents are actors athletes. You seethem follow this, follow the same path,
whether it's Will and Jada and theirkids or all all these NBA players
with their kids are in the NBAnow. And have you seen anything in
your daughter that you can kind ofsee that freedom of choice just from having
you as a father. Definitely,she's not a musician at all, but

(09:03):
she is definitely understands that I've madeher her mom and I have made it
very clear her mom is definitely waymore studious. Yes, yes, for
lack of a better term, butwe've made it very clear to her that
she can choose her own adventure andfigure out what she wants to do and
well support her. She just hasto actually put in work and do it.

(09:24):
Yeah. Just do it though,Yeah, just do it because none
of this is easy, especially ifyou don't put your all into it.
Yeah. Yeah, there's no whatI do or the things that I do.
There's no school that you can goto and get a piece of paper
that says you're now qualified to dothis thing and you will get a job
and be successful. It doesn't workthat way. Most creative feels don't.
And we just like instill that inher, and I hope she gets it.

(09:48):
I think she does. I thinkbecause I always say this and I
don't have kids, but it's somethingI truly believe is kids don't always do
what you say, but they dowhat you do. And the example that
you set from just being sometimes isthe greatest lessons that you can teach exactly.
So I think about that a lotbecause I have an entrepreneur entrepreneurial spirit.

(10:09):
I you know, have a fewbusinesses, and my mom has a
few businesses. And she didn't speciallytell me, Okay, don't work for
nobody this, you know, ButI think when we're younger, she still
say, why do you have thatman's name across your chest? You don't
know, you don't know the Nikeman? Why why you wear? Why
why you dying to wear the Nikes? Hey? Where are your parents from?
Jamaica? I was gonna say thatsounds well Caribbean right, no one
under? And you don't know whata Nike man? You nim not friend

(10:33):
like? And you think about itgrowing up, it's like that's a part
of you know how I move now, even though it wasn't explicitly told to
me. To do a certain thing, and we still don't know the Nike
man. So now you've don't knowthat wrong now even a little bit.
Okay, let's let's go back.There's one thing that I saw while doing
some research for this that you didn'tproperly answer, and I guess no one

(10:54):
properly asked you. But you talkedabout your background playing instruments, and you
would always just say playing instruments.I'm like, what are these miscellaneous instruments
you were playing? Answer that,but I didn't say anyone actually ask you
what instruments you were playing at yourbackground with that, so bring us to
your start with playing instruments obviously beforegetting into DJing. Yeah, I started
with piano. I played piano fromages around seven till twelve. Okay,

(11:18):
like competitively. I was in RoyalConservatory, I was doing competition. I
was as well, I'm familiar.Yeah, so you understand it was fun.
I remember this one thing was calledfun Fest. It was not fun,
but I did it and I lovedit. But I didn't love everything

(11:39):
like I loved playing. Yeah,I didn't love practicing that much. I
was. I didn't love going totheory class that much and I didn't love
that. My classes were on Saturdaymornings at I want to say it was
like ten am when the good cartoonswere on. Yes, that was painful.
I'm leaving to go to and itwas like I had piano for an
hour and then for an hour.So I ten to eleven, eleven to

(12:01):
twelve, and then I come home. By the time you come on,
the cartoons are done. Cartoons aredone. My friends are all outside of
Eve know where they are anymore.It was like we didn't have cell phones.
They're like, yeah, where areyou guys. It was just the
day was done. And I convincedmy parents after a few years to let
me not do it anymore because andthey were like, all right, fine,
Willow, you did it for fiveyears. Yeah, you can decide

(12:24):
if you like it still. SoI did that, but I never really
lost it, okay, And wealways had a piano in the house.
So you're still good with the keys. I am. I'm not as good
as I'm not competition level anymore.I'm not going to level. I'm not
going to drum legend anybody on stageright now. But I'm proficient and it's
helped me with production, which isamazing. That's what I'm saying. Okay,
okay, the theory part two.But then yeah, from there and

(12:46):
during this and in elementary school,I played the baritone. Not by choice.
It was drawing out of a hat. There's only so many instruments in
band I really want. I reallywanted drums. My second choice was saxophone.
I did not get those. Igot bottom of the barrel baritone.
Thing was bigger than me. Ihad to carry it home. It was

(13:07):
the worst, but I played youknow you feel me? Yeah, you
know I'm with you on this.I'm walking step my step with you all
the way right, mind you?Yes, high school, I was elementary
school. I was like, arewe smaller? Not as strong? And
carrying this thing? A baritone isnot quite as big as a tube.
But before yeah, and then inhigh school I was like absolutely not.

(13:31):
So again I did not win thedraw, but I got clarinet, which
was manageable because at least I couldslide that in my backpack and it was
close to the saxophone. Yeah right, But in that I played keys,
I played brass, I played woodwind. I always played drums on the side.
I never formally played drums, butI've always like dabbled. Yeah,

(13:52):
and my dad because my dad playedguitar and bass. There was those were
in the house and we would jama little together. He showed me like
a one two that I don't understandthe threat. I have a guitar on
the bass his bass, and Ibought a guitar and I have them in
my house, and I want toget good. I really really want to

(14:13):
be able to play guitar on stageat some point, but I'm far from
being there, so I got workto do. We're speaking, we're speaking
into existence. Okay, we're speakinginto existence. See you playing guitar on
stage? Oh I will, Iabsolutely will. I think that that guitar
to me is if I choose oneinserdents to play like. I'm a drummer,
drummers like I played keys at first, and I was more into jazz
and classical, and so I wouldClassical was what we did for the actual

(14:37):
competitions, but I was only practicingthe jazz when it came time to go
to class It's like that didn't havejazz as an option. I only did
classical, classical and like a onetwo pop that they would give us,
like I remember I had the MichaelJackson thriller Okay that I could learn how
to play Billy Jane and such,but like all, the competition was always
back in mostart, yeah, andI was I was not into that.

(15:00):
I liked it. I want Iwanted jazz, and I think, I
said, I think that's why Iended up quitting, and then I ended
up playing the drums. Drums isprobably still my instrument of choice. But
I have a cousin from Jamaica wholearned how to play guitar when he came
here, and I'm always so proudof seeing him because now he plays in
church and you would never guess thathe just learned, Like how long did
it take him to get like likea year in a bit what? Yeah,

(15:24):
Like he was like and he neverpicked up a guitar but never.
And the crazy part is because heused to jam. I played drums,
so he's like, Okay, you'replaying drums, let me try and jam
with you. And he just pickedup the guitar with confidence. I love
it, and I said, I'venever seen this for so, Yeah,
guitar is the thing for me thatif if if I really could, I
would want that guitar is kind ofcool, very cool, step to the

(15:46):
front of stage and shred. It'slike we were talking about Prince earlier.
Prince is a guy. Well,he's real, he's real, and to
be able to get up there andbecause it's such a like you can't move
around with the drums, Yeah,you can't really move around and lets you
have a guitar, you can't.We move around with keys, but drum.
With the guitar you can. Youcan own the stage and your center
stage too. Yeah yeah, yeah, Na. Guitar is I think is

(16:10):
the coolest instrument. I think youcan get that same reaction on the keys,
like if John Legend was a guitarplayer instead of a keyboard player.
Different vibe, different vibe, verydifferent vibe, like all of me with
the Ladies though, Ladies of theKeys. Yeah, my little brother is
learning keys, and I made surethe first song he knew how to play
was di'angelo untitled. I said,this is where you got to start it,

(16:33):
this is where you got to start. Yes, yeah, So I
thought that was very important. Solet's let's go for a little bit into
you actually getting this job with theRaptors. You were at the Root Store
getting to pop in. What whatwas DJing at the Root store like in
those days? Like what what kindof songs were you playing? What was

(16:53):
it set? Like? This isearly two thousands, right, so what
what was your what we were sayinglike, this is a different musical client
it was, and you know whatit was for first and foremost, it
was great training for me because itwas the beginning of my DJ career.
I was mainly DJing in my parents'basement, so this was an opportunity to

(17:15):
play in front of people. Wasn'ta party, Yeah, and DJing in
retail was not a thing yet.No, Yeah, this is earlier,
Like I'm the first retail story DJthat I know of. I'm not saying
I'm the first ever. I don'tknow, but as to my knowledge,
I hadn't never heard of it before. Yeah, but yeah, I was
doing it. I got to Iwas playing five hours a day every Saturday

(17:36):
and Sunday, so ten hours perweekend. And I looked at it as
you know, I get to practicefor ten hours every weekend in front of
people versus just at home by myself, which was more enjoyable. I can
interact. I started to realize likeI'm looking at the staff and seeing what
they're vibing to and starting to understandhow to read a crowd, not a

(17:57):
party crowd, but still crowd people. You know. I see people walk
in, I see people walking by, and like you can tell when somebody
walks by and then they're like hmand they come in. I'm like,
okay, sick, I'm doing something. Yeah, And then they would tell
me too that like sales are up, things are going well, and they're
happy about it. So it wasa really great experience. And musically I

(18:18):
was experimenting. I was just tryingthings out and understanding. It was my
first time understanding Okay, well Ihave to keep it clean, no swears,
but also I have to try tomaintain a upbeat vibe. I can't
literally just play whatever I want.I have to there are parameters like people
yeah, and like what we're tryingto do here, And it was really

(18:42):
really helpful. But I would sayI was mostly playing like oldies and like
R and B and reggae and socaand like mixing it up just because that's
who I am as a person,but also like with a vibe in mind.
So it was really really good trainingto understand number one, how to

(19:03):
curate a specific vibe, but alsohow to read reactions of people and further
react to that of like, ohyou're feeling that, let me go more
in that direction, or I wasgoing to do this, but I see
this going on, so let meswitch gears. Yes, like I learned
a lot of that there before Ireally got experienced in the clubs. Yeah
you got, you got kind oflike your early ten thousand hours Yeah,
oh yeah, absolutely, and thenyour first season with the Raps. I

(19:27):
think everyone knows the story by nowof how you got with the Raps and
kind of the connections you made gettingthat card from that MLS REP. But
your first season with the Raps,we were a different team back then.
Okay, I know a lot ofyoung people, y'all only know the Kyle
and Damar era. This was adifferent time. So what was that first
season like DJing for the team,because of course it was basically knew back

(19:49):
then. I think it was djIri who was the first. Iri was
the first one that I knew ofand also the first one that they knew
of. Yeah, so yeah,it was something brand new. This was
the Chris Chris Bosh era, andthings were optimistic, but we were nowhere
near being a championship caliber team.No, we lost a lot of games.

(20:11):
What I'm trying to say, yeahnicely, which made it even more
important for my presence at that time, me and my partner at the time,
because we were an added element tobring the vibes and energy up and
help people have fun. So obviouslywhen your team's losing, not that fun,
but when there's things going on andit's a good show and there's ways

(20:34):
for people to have a great timeand leave having had a good experience,
despite the fact that the team didnot win, and we had to figure
that out because it had not beenwe'd not done it before, they had
not done anything like that before,and we essentially built the role in the
fire figuring it out. What works? That was horrible? Will never do

(20:56):
that again. Oh that was amazing. Let's continue to build on that and
figure it all out. And evendown to where the DJ booth was located.
He was part of that because likestarted off a folding table in like
the corner by the tunnel where theplayers come out, Oh my god,
and it turned into the massive stadiumyou know stage that I have now with

(21:18):
the led panel and all that,it was a process. I would say
that was the era where I wentto the most games in my life and
I probably saw the new Jersey netsthe Raptors by four points. It felt
like a hundred times. Are youbringing a bullshit? Bro? No?
It was. It was a horrible, horrible time. Was always the win

(21:38):
song. It's let me clear mythroat? Right? Is a winning song?
Was that really? Was? Itwas the song? Back then?
You have a different winning song.No, there's been different ones over the
years. Okay, to become ofmy Throat has been it for a while.
Whomp there it is. Was itfor a while before that? Yeah?
Before that? Honestly, I don'tremember, okay, And I feel
like there's one thing that changed withthat era to this era is I think

(21:59):
that was the beginning of people goingto the games, whether we win or
lose, is like a game isfun. I think now that's like a
normal thing in almost all big sportsof like, you don't have to be
a fan, you can still goto a game and enjoy it. Yeah,
but I think at least in Toronto, that was the start of that
era of that being a thing.Did you see that in the arena arena,
did you see that firsthand of likepeople are enjoying themselves whether we win

(22:22):
or lose. Absolutely, it's it'sbecause I've been to a bunch of games
before working with her. I've beengoing to RAPTS games since I was a
kid. Yeah, it used tobe even like when I first started,
I had a gang of tickets togive away because the arena was not full
and because people were like all therafters suck yep and we used to have

(22:44):
two for one. They would justgive me a stack of tickets at the
beginning of the year and be like, Yo, just give them to your
friends, family, whoever you want. I couldn't give these things away.
That's crazy. I'm like, yo, you want tickets. The questions like
who we playing, damn, becausethey more interested in seeing the other team
than our team. But then westarted winning and that changed because the culture

(23:07):
and the vibe and this things reallychange when the Kyle and Damar era started,
when Drake partnered with the team,and then we've had the Ovo brand
and stuff, and he was onthe rise at that time too, So
like it was an exciting time andwith what I was doing in the role
that they were building with me,and then some other elements that they've added

(23:30):
really started making the entertainment the starbecause they realized, you know what,
we're not winning. We got todo something to fill these seats. So
we really focus on making the show. And then the team started to get
better and everything started going up atthe same time. But huge difference.
When I started to I'd say likemaybe three four years in, after we

(23:53):
had honed in on how to makethis a show, it started to feel
different and the seats started to getmore full, despite the fact that we
still weren't a very good team.Yeah, it became more worth going.
Like I think about some of thecase I've been to with the group,
it's like half the people with usare not basketball fans, and they're still

(24:17):
justice. But it's a good thingto do. Yeah, Justice juice and
it wasn't that expensive. Those arethe days. Those were the days Bite
Zone and all that. Yeah,that's not a thing anymore. I think
it's isn't. Next year is goingto be your twentieth year with the Raps.
Okay, so we're celebrating twenty twentyyears. Is there anything you have
planned for the twenty years. Maybethey have surprise for you you don't know

(24:37):
about yet, but anything you haveplanning, particularly for twenty years, because
I think listen, having any jobfor twenty years is impressive putting in perspective
like that, absolutely and still likingit fat fact, being happy about being
there for twenty years. Yeah,I have some stuff planned where we're working
out some stuff to make it anoccasion. It's also going to be the
Raptors thirty year and oh yeah,yeah, yeah, damn thirty years.

(25:03):
Thirty years since we've had an NBAfranchise. There are grown ass people that
don't know that we didn't always havean NBA team. Crazy, I mean,
because I'm talking about this. Yesterday, we were watching a game and
talking about the commentation for the Raptors, and I said, I think people
forget that when the Raptors came here, they had to explain basketball to people.

(25:25):
Like think about the first couple ofyears of the commenting like you're if
you hear those games, now youhear them explaining this is intentional foul,
so basic, and it's like,I'm sure many teams didn't have to go
through that because they either have acollege team already there or they have a
basketball history, where in Toronto ourhistory has mainly been hockey. And yes,
of course we have college university sports, but not on that level,

(25:48):
not on that level. And soit's like this is such a rare thing
where we have a pro team explainingto their fans what the sport even is.
Yeah. So yeah, it's crazyto see where we've come, crazy
to see what it's a staple thateverybody knows, especially after winning the hip,
Like we got so many badwagon additions. So many people that were not
into basketball at all got into basketballduring that twenty nineteen run and now are

(26:12):
still at least casual offens. Yeah, I want to talk quickly about that
run. Of course, congratulations onyour championship. But my favorite thing about
that championship was the streets and wedo and I do. I try and
explain it because I have a friendfrom the UK who he became a fan,
like when Kawhi was here and hewas actually here for the championship.

(26:33):
He went back nice, but hewas up at whatever time watching all the
games, seeing all the wins.I would try and FaceTime him, show
him the streets and something people don'tunderstand is the streets would fill after everywhere
every day like basically and after lossestoo. And this is when I knew
it was about to be game over. Was I think it was the Bucks
series We lost their game winner gametwo and we watched it that the Joey's

(26:56):
on young and done. That's overthere and paid for our bill, all
about to okay, pay for realquick, what's get out out of here.
The game is not done yet.There's probably still at left in the
game. The streets are already fulland we've lost. Yeah, And I
said, okay, you were stilloutside. I'm like, hey, y'all
are for real. Yeah, sotalk about that because that must be start
experience to being in the arena forsome of these games and then go outside

(27:17):
and see this madness. It wasawesome. Tell people all the time it's
like what we would do. Wewould enjoy the game and then we go
outside. So whatever hour. Yeah, it was like Carabina every three times
a week literally for two months.That's a good one. And I loved
it. And the thing that Ilove the most about it is it felt

(27:41):
so it was such a unity vibe. It was so like peaceful and happy
and upbeat and everybody's just like vibingwith each other, zero hostility, and
it's rare to see that many peopletogether outside in a big city like Toronto
with that kind of energy so consistently. Yeah, for months, like it

(28:03):
was. The only other experience I'vehad like that in my life was the
Vancouver Olympics in twenty ten. Thatwas the first time I experienced. I
was like, Yo, there's peoplefrom all over the world here. The
streets are jammed every day, andeverybody's so happy and like it felt like
there was no racism right for thattime. For that time, it felt

(28:26):
like everybody was like we're just one, We're together and it's a vibe and
I'm like, Yo, imagine itcould just be like this. The magic
could just be like that, Likewe don't have to be in the streets
like this every day, but imaginethe vibe, the sentiment could be like
this, so like, Yo,hey, you're a human, I'm a
human. We're good wicked Yeah,because you're right. It was such a
big unity vibe during that run,and I think that there was this I

(28:49):
think there was kind of almost abigger Toronto pride than it ever been before.
And am I breaking a record rightnow? Big time, big,
big time. I'm like halfway throughmy questions and this guy is show the
camera quickly this boxed off. Yeah, a menace, an absolute psychopath.

(29:10):
Yeah yeah, a big time record, multi talented, we'll call it.
But to see the unity we hadin Toronto at that time, I we
never we've never seen anything like that. No, and then let's let's go
to the parade, because the paradeis a day that I will never ever.
Where were you? I walked thewhole thing. I started where it
started and stayed with them to thewhole Oh yeah right, I was not

(29:34):
I was not playing What were youdoing? I was djingt at City Hall.
So you were at the end.I was at the end the whole
day. I was there from Marning. So how was that? Because I
think we like with us following it, we didn't realize that, like behind
schedule and all the video stuff,we didn't see all those memes until afterwards.
We're just in the in the mix. Now. I was supposed to

(29:56):
DJ for two hours, like theparade was supposed to be two hours.
They started at the scene the endreach in two hours and then do the
thing and then that would be it. But I ended up spending for like
six hours because the buses couldn't getthrough the massive amounts of people and it
was like super hot. There arepeople overheating. I had to like they

(30:18):
asked me to stop the music acouple of times because people were like jimming
too hard and like over there werelike yeah, it was like a Michael
Jackson concert. Bro, They're pullingpeople out, throwing water in. It
was crazy. It was wild,and I worked at a real station at
the time. I think I wasthe music director there and I had i'd
worked that day, but through thewhole playoffs, everyone knew how aig a

(30:40):
big a fan I was, andit was kind of like any time there
was a game, it was likeAdriel may Or may not leave. It's
like he's supposed to close the station, but he just made may Or may
not. We may need to figureout something else. So the day of
the parade, it was definitely likeI don't know who went to work that
day. It was it was callingthe Day of the Century y and I
actually still ended up going to work. I was not crispy, not my

(31:03):
best work, but so you madeit something compelled me. I was like,
you know what, let's let's goin. Let's go in. But
I just love how it was justknown. It was like, listen,
Adriel has a good chance with nothe might not even call us, he
might just not be here, andwe're cool with it, and you know
where he is and it's fine.Yeah, exactly, thing, It's fine,
exactly now that that was a hugemoment. I think that's something I'll

(31:23):
never forget because it really was caravanon steroids in terms of the streets being
filled. And I thought about thissince the pandemic because you know, that's
like when you watch those videos nowof the parade, it's a whole different
experience. It's real because the pandemichas just had us like I think we're

(31:44):
closer to normal now, of course, but just being mammy people that close.
Yo. Do you ever see thecontrasting photos of the parade route during
the pandemic versus during the parade.No, it's probably crazy. It looks
like night and day. It lookslike post apocalyptic. I'm it's wild,
but we're past it, thankfully,we're past it. No, No,

(32:04):
it was. It was. Itwas very exciting and my favorite thing was
seeing all the kids, people bringingtheir strollers and their babies. I'm like,
this kid is not going to rememberthis at all, but you know
what they'll be able to be youknow what I told me. I was
there, Yeah, hundred percent,So no, I I love I just
love that we all had to sharethat moment, like whether whether you know
someone or not, Like you're fromToronto, well you know you remember what

(32:28):
you were doing that. Yeah,And there's very few days this in general
where you like, I love isone of them. Yea. This is
a positive one, yea. Andwhere do we get a positive one?
I love that. I want totalk about you producing because of course you're
really like putting your foot into themusic game over the past two years.
And I think you said you startedwith Ableton and then Logic is your yeah

(32:51):
choice. Talk about making that switchbecause I think as a producer, a
lot of people have trouble making aswitch to a different program because they're taught
on one and it's like, Okay, this is how I'm taught, this
is what I'm going to stay.So talk about making that switch. I
mean I actually started on fruity Loopsfell out, okay, But because I
just I got a crack version,and I just started, you know,
programming beats and trying to figure itout, trying to pot pull samples in

(33:13):
and chop things up. I didlike one really shitty Ussher You Remind Me
remix that I thought was awesome atthe time, but I listened to now
I'm like that, bro, butyou got you gotta go through that,
Yeah. And then I ended upusing I found fl kind of like limiting
earlier version. It's much more advancednow. And then I linked up with

(33:37):
a bridge of mind that was producedin dance music and he was using Ableton,
So I got into some sessions withhim and tried to learn while we
were making some stuff. Because Iplayed keys, I could play MIDI,
I did some vocal so but heengineered everything because I didn't understand it.
I'm I'm looking at the screen tryingto figure out what's going on, and

(33:58):
like, what about the this ismusic? Like nothing here looks like music
to me. It was like Englishspeaking looking at Chinese. Literally, I'm
like, I don't get it.It does not make sense for my brain.
I don't understand what's happening. Themusic we were doing sounded you know,
it was coming out as speakers ofmusic, but like, I just
didn't get it, couldn't wrap mybrain around it. And then I got

(34:20):
put onto logic. And then Iended up going to school at the Harris
Institute, which is a music schoolhere in Toronto, and they taught logic,
so I got even deeper into itthere, and it just it's linear
as a musician, and I wastold later on musicians tend to gravitate towards

(34:43):
logic because of the way that thelayout is. The uyux is just like
it's linear. It looks more likemusic, similar to sheet music. Right.
It made sense to my brain andI haven't looked back since. But
I don't knock anybody who uses anydaw because I understand that it's just a
tool. Doesn't really matter. Andthe best example I ever heard of it

(35:04):
was like nobody ever has been ina club or at a concert or anything
and said, this sounds like itwas made an ableton, Like we don't
know what I mean. Most peopledon't even know what the hell these things
are, so like, doesn't matter. I just like logic because of how
it works. I have a goodworkflow with it. But I'm still open
to new things all the time.You said there's some songs you took down.

(35:24):
You mentioned all the songs you tookdown. Have any of them made
their way into getting back up afterAbsolutely not. No, there's only two
songs that I took down. Theusher thing was just like some early thing
that I made. I might haveput it on style Cloud, but yeah,
I just had it for like myDJ sets, and I was trying
to figure out how to do stuff. The two songs that I took down,

(35:45):
one was they were both electronic.One was kind of like trap electronic.
The other one was like a straightEDM type record. The second one
was not bad, Okay, Ijust I made them both around the same
time, and I just decided,you know what, I'm going to wipe
the stay clean because I'm working onsome stuff now that I feel much better
about and I want to come outwith this new stuff and like just leave

(36:07):
that behind. That was learning Curvetimes, but more specifically the first song
it was a song called I'll evensay I don't care if you find it.
It's probably on the nernet somewhere,definitely on the internet somewhere. It
was called told Me Shake It andit was mad, misogynistic sound like I
had a rap I had like alittle eight bar rap verse in it where

(36:28):
I was like, I'm not madat my delivery, or like, you
know what I mean. I experimented. I do stuff. I still do
vocals. But what I was talkingabout I realized after the fact I was
making even sonically, I was makingmusic the way I thought I was supposed
to make music to what I thoughtpeople would want to hear. I wasn't

(36:51):
making music from my ID. Iwas making taking information from the world and
be like, yeah, that's howlet's do that. Let's do what they're
doing. And that's the real reasonI took it down. It's like I
don't want to I don't want thatto represent me. Number one, the
misogyny I don't rock with, butnumber two because it's never been me.

(37:13):
But like I thought, that's whatI had to do. Yeah, But
then the second part is, andprobably a more important part is just like
I was not making music from mysoul. I was making music for other
people, and that ain't it forme. I don't want you to name
names, but have you had amoment where you've connected with someone making a
track and meeting them working with them, You're like, this is so different

(37:35):
from what I thought, Like I'vehad that moment where maybe someone who has
misogynistic lyrics or they're a super playerand this and they show up with a
girlfriend they've had for twelve years.Because have you had any moments like back
where it's like I see you oneway online, Now that I've met you,
it's very different, you know what. I haven't had any specific moments
that I can speak of like that, but I can definitely speak to the
fact that who you see online,who you see maybe on TV. Even

(38:00):
if you go to a show andyou see somebody on stage, that does
not necessarily mean that that's who theyare as a person. This is show
business, this is performance, andit's the same thing, although it's presented
in a different way. It isnot that unlike going and watching a movie
and seeing whoever your favorite actor isand then meeting them in person and they're

(38:22):
not like the character and you're like, wait a minute, like no,
because that's the show. That isthe show, and that's who they are
as a person. And they evenmyself, I consider myself, I introduce
myself as Kirk. I consider fourCorners an exaggerated version of Kirk. So
I'm still myself very much. I'mlike two, I'm too unapologetically myself for

(38:49):
me to be any other kind ofway exact. But I definitely ham it
up when I'm on stage because Idon't walk around life jumping around, climbing
shit, you know what I mean. I don't CrowdSurf at the grid grocery
store. Like that is a differentversion of me. So when people encounter
artists or creative people and are like, as long as they're not rude,

(39:10):
like being a bad person, asseparate, they get together, but like
not being the exact same person youexpected, Like that's on you? Why
do you why would you expect thatto be who they are all the time?
Yeah? I work at tiff aswell. Yeah, and someone who
I met last year with Higo Mortensen, super super nice guy and seeing him
like interact with everyone, I waslike, he's probably never playing this nice

(39:34):
guy in anything, right, Soit's like people are seeing him, they're
thinking of like all that stuff heplays and seeing how he how he behaved
with everyone. I was kind oflike, this is not how people want
to see even though I think thisperson is probably cooler than the people he
plays exacting. It's exactly what you'resaying of like, what are people expecting
when he comes in because he hada moment where he had come to the
back of course, like we don'twant to be a big stir Yeah,

(39:55):
and he's in the back talking toall the staff for like twenty minutes and
like the movie's playing if you wantto go watch it, and he's just
chopping it up. And it's likeI love that though, but it's like
it's so funny because that's almost disappointingfor some people because they wanted they wanted
to, you know, and it'slike this, this guy's actually cooler.
Yeah, you know, who isexactly who you think he is that I've

(40:16):
worked with our music Idris Elba.Really he is literally who you think he
is. He's not Stringer Bell whoyou think he is. As far as
how he carries himself, how hespeaks, how he's actually a dope human
kind to people. All that,he's exactly that. That's good to hear.

(40:37):
I was very very happy to meethim and like catch that vibe.
Yeah, I was like, yo, he's he's exactly what I thought he
would be if not better, andthat's rare. So when you do someone
like that, you're like, Okay, I like this, Like it is
big up yourself iddress every time,big up indress. I want you talk
briefly about this because we skipped pastit, and of all the things that

(40:57):
you've done, you being a caddieback in the day, I want to
hear a little bit about this islike a Nard War moment. When did
I mention that I mentioned it onsomething? I guess, but you did.
Wow, I was a golf caddieat twelve, is what you said?
Yeah, like eleven, twelve yearsold something like that. Okay,
what's your question about me? Justtell us about it. Like listen,

(41:20):
we see you with the ice creamand know you're multi talented, but this
is the time I'm sure people didn'tknow that you had. I definitely would
not consider it a talent, butI'll tell you about it. Where I
grew up at Jane and Shepherd,there's a golf course right there, and
when I was a ute, Iwas looking about how I can make some
money to be able to buy thethings that I want because you know,
my parents being you know, immigratedfrom Trinidad to Toronto. We had I

(41:44):
had everything that I needed, andI want to be very clear about that.
My parents did a great job andlike provided and I was I had
everything that I needed, but Icouldn't have everything that I wanted, not
the extras. Can you get theextras? So man wanted. I wanted
certain you know, sneakers or whatever, and my parents were like, yo,
if you want those, you're gonnahave to figure out how to pay

(42:05):
for them yourself. We'll buy yoursneakers, but not those ones. Yes,
yes, but I was like,wow, those ones so okay?
Cool bom I got to figure outhow to make some money. One of
my boys had a paper route.I was like, no that, I
don't like that one. Okay okay. But then another one of my friends
was like, yo, we cango and caddy at the place. It
just like takes like an hour anda half whatever. They give you thirty

(42:25):
bucks and you can do like maybethree four rounds in a day. Okay.
I was like, yo, Ican make Jordan money in a date.
All right. I'm with that.Let's go Saturday morning. So this
is like after I quit piano,from piano to caddy, right, I'm
following, but I would go.I was too small to carry the bags,

(42:49):
so they had carts, so wewould pull the carts. And there
was like different levels. I learnedall of this when I got there.
There's levels to this shit as faras like caddy. Some of them knew
about golf and could like to givetips and all that. Some of them,
like some of them, some ofus didn't know anything. We just
for the for the golfers who didn'twant to get a cart, they wanted
to walk, they don't want topull their own bag, that you can

(43:13):
hire a caddy, just like it'sjust a bunch of and the way it
would work, we would go thereand sit in the caddy shack and it's
just like, in hindsight, asI'm saying right now, it doesn't feel
good. I never thought about thatuntil this moment. That doesn't doesn't feel
that good. But yeah, theywould come and just be like, uh,
you And my dad was so againstit, and I understand why.

(43:37):
But at the time, I waslike, paper bro, I'm gonna make
some Are you biting me Jordan's?You said no, I want to get
some J's, so reluctantly let medo it. I didn't do it that
for that long. I would sayprobably like half a summer. Yeah,
yeah, got my Jordan money anddipped. But it was interesting. It

(44:01):
was an interesting experience. Yeah.I think that's a fun one because I
feel like the early jobs you haveat that time, you can go in
so many directions. Oh yeah,I've had a lot of jobs. Bro
one thing that I did a lotof that because my dad was a chef.
He wherever he worked, I worked. Also, you were in I
was in the kitchen on washing pods, washing dishes, stalking the fridge,

(44:24):
cleaning, like whatever entry level jobhe could just because he could just give
it to me, just like yo, my son's working here and it's done,
damn. So I did all thosethings. Have you seen The Bear?
The show The Bear? I haven't, Okay, so you have to
watch it. Basically it's about arestaurant, but it gives the vibe of
a restaurant like I worked in arestaurant as well, And when you watch

(44:46):
it, it brings you back toIt's like the work in a restaurant.
So everyone who's working in a restaurant, bartender's, kitchen staff, you really
feel it. It's it's almost likePTSD install at the same time. Yeah,
I don't. I don't think Ihave PTSD from it because I it
was like a kid, yea,So it wasn't really it was. These
were all jobs that were just likeso I could make my own money to

(45:06):
buy frivolous things. This wasn't likeme supporting myself. I was still a
kid live my parents' home. Everythingwas handled, but I did all those
things. My first job that Idid that was like an actual job that
I'm like, yo, I'm gonnago get This job was Canada's Wonderlandland too.
Did you where'd you work at ExtremeSkyflyer? I worked at dragonflyre w

(45:29):
Why did they ever have a realquestion that I often asked myself, Why
did they let children run these rideslike these giant apparatus that were children like?
I did not care. I couldpromise you I did not care.
The craziest thing so Extreme Skyflyer wewere like the exception to the really to
be eighteen to Extreme sky Flyer,which is like, what's the difference.

(45:51):
Yeah, And we used to party, I'm telling you, yo, we
had I remember I used to bringmy uh my iPad and the headphones,
like the regular like over your headphones, press them up against the microphone that
you're supposed to used to talk topeople and play tune. Oh hey yeah,
my time too. It's crazy tothink about it because it's like,

(46:15):
this is really three hundred kids runningthe running this, running this massive.
No, it's not a good idea, No it is. It's crazy.
So when I've gone back, like, look, everything's so different. Oh
yeah, I'm look at it.Who's where the adults? Who's working this
ride? Can I go on thisride right now? Do I have to
come back? Because I'm not lettingthis seventy year old be in charge of
my sixty No the behemoth, NoNo. And the managers were twenty two

(46:40):
like yeah, like yeah, it'sfunny because when you're a teenager, you
know, sixteen to nineteen. Sosomeone who's someone who's twenty four miles,
we'll be forty four. Yeah.And looking back back at it now,
I said this twenty three year oldran this whole section, like yeah,
insane, it's not it's not donewell, but hey we made it out.
No, no, honey, hundredpercent made it out. Now.

(47:02):
You talked a bit about the labelsystem in Canada and I knowed it.
Let's go. Yeah, you know, I want to get into it because
I obviously work with a lot ofartists, talk to a lot of artists,
and a lot of time asking foradvice. My usual advice is,
unless you have something good set up, stay independent. That's usually my advice
I And my reason for that is, I say, a lot of artists

(47:23):
were on labels, whether it's somethingbigger like Universal or a smaller label,
or your album comes out and youdo maybe ten thousand streams, and you
know, because you're on a label, that ten thousand streams is basically making
you zero dollars essentially, And soit's like, if we're gonna do ten
thousand streams, at least do yourown ten thousand streams and you make make

(47:44):
money bucks, yeah, you know, and keep your gas money. But
you said something about we're still waitingfor it to see someone succeed from the
Canadian label system, and that's somethingthat I've said independently as well. So
where do you stand on that now? And do you have anyone in mind
who do you think could be thatperson. I don't think that it's a
matter of who it would be becauseanybody who could be that person could do

(48:08):
it independently as well. It's like, will the label system here in this
market, which as large a countryas Canada is, it's a small market
relatively as far as population, Sothat has been the barrier that holds us
back. Most, if not alllabel signed artists in Canada that have really

(48:30):
blown up internationally, there's some kindof partnership label deal with a different territory
that allows access to more human beings, and that can be circumvented using the
Internet because independent artists like myself andmany that I know, we use the
Internet in such a way that we'reable to reach more people. I think

(48:54):
that the thing that holds it backis and it's not the fault specifically of
the label system. It's any bigcompany. There are a lot of meetings
and conversations that have to be hadfor decisions to be made, and that
takes time, and especially the waythat information travels so fast now and things

(49:16):
are changing and you throw AI intothe mix and all this stuff. It's
like culture moves faster than traditional business, and I think that that's the problem
because the labels are not moving atthe speed of culture and it leaves us
artists looking at them and looking atthe alternative, which is, well,

(49:36):
if I do it myself, Ican do things faster. If I just
hire the people that I need andlet them know what I need done,
we can do it now versus havingto have a lot of meetings to decide
if we're going to do it inthree months and approved. Yeah, I
mean, I think that's the barrier. Whereas in larger markets, where there's
just so much more going on,they are still reactive, but they can

(50:00):
move quicker because they can see tangibleevidence that you know what, if we
do this, we're going to getthis many eyes, We're going to get
this many ears, We're going tobe able to make this kind of impact
next week. Yes, yes,versus well, it's difficult to gauge when
we're trying to reach segmented people acrossthis large land mass with people only along
the bottom rim and this much peoplehere, which is very heavy in Toronto

(50:22):
and then montrealand and Vancouver's way overthere, and then you're trying to talk
about the rest of the world andhow to translate that, and I don't
know, I feel like a lotof large companies have not figured out how
to leverage the internet well enough quicklyenough. Yeah, haven't figured out how
to leverage it. And I thinkthis is something that I've thought about the

(50:43):
Toronto music industry as well. IsI think that the our industry almost closes
in on itself because our industry isso large. In terms of how I
explained it is, you and meetsomeone who maybe they do nails, and
then you find out, oh,they produce and they you know, and
they and they and they shoot peopleas well. So everyone is kind of
in the industry in some type ofway that a lot of people have like

(51:06):
a hand in it. And Ithink that it's almost two parts of in
the industry. Someone can be superpopular. So there's people who we know
as to us, they're a bigdeal. I haven't thought about when you
talked about Zach Zoya an interview andlove Zach Zoya, I think I think
he's like he's one people I thinklike should be a bigger artist. Yeah,
you know, will be, willbe, I say, will be.

(51:28):
But there's people who are not inthe industry who yeah, never heard
of him, But to us inthe industry, he is almost like a
bigger and that's a lot of Torontoand Canada where to us in the industry,
someone's a big deal. And Ithink in America what is different,
especially is there's regions where you cango to, like you know, a
certain state where this rapper is theman in that state and he can maybe

(51:49):
go to the surrounding states but younever heard of him, but he can
do shows. But population he cando shows. Yeah, that part,
Yeah, like you can only doso many shows, Zach's from Montreal,
if you only do so many showsin Quebec. Yeah, and to make
that like your whole brand, it'slike, Okay, once I've done every
show in Montreal, we're gonna haveto write. But if you live in
Texas, you can live in Texasand tour Texas forever, yeah, and

(52:15):
have a fantastic career because there's justso many people. Yeah, And that's
when we're not going to change.We're not going to be so for Canadian
artists who definitely still need to movearound physically. But again, I think
that the main roadblock with the labelsystem is just speed and understand it.
Yeah, I agree with that.I think there's almost still an old way

(52:37):
of thinking. Yeah, because yousaid this well, things move slower before
because everything was different TV radio,yeah, press pressing vinyl, like there's
all that lead time that is requiredfor the physical products. We don't have
that anymore. Why are we stillmoving like we do? The crazy thing
is I did a story on thehistory of Candia and hip hop, and
one thing that was brought up somuch in talking to all these legends was

(53:00):
the old way that they did pressand they're just saying like casually because this
is really what happened. And onethat it was I heard often was about
like the in store or the mall, like meet up. I feel like,
oh I met my store at themall. It's like, no one
would do that. Now there's almostI remember even Drake used to do like
Drake did HMV I remember that.So it's like even something like that that

(53:21):
it's like mall still exists. Butthink of how crazy it would sound for
someone and be like, Okay,I'm coming on a Friday, I'll be
at the mall on Saturday. Butyou know, how how effective would that
be though that because it's not thenorm anymore, because like YouTubers and and
they do like meetups and stuff,and the shit can go crazy, Like,
imagine that would be live. Imagineif Olivia Rodrigo did a mall tour,

(53:45):
it would shut down the mall inevery city and that would be so
much press and it would be like, oh, there's motion, this artist
is killing it. That That's whatI think is is my I guess issue
because I think that everything is kewyounger because of the Internet, and it's
like if it didn't happen, Internetdidn't happen, And I think that there's
that's kind of the feeling we havewhen I'm like, there are in person,

(54:07):
real world but like real my man. My take on the use of
the Internet. Number one, socialmedia is a conversation, not a billboard.
Number two, do shit in thereal world and display it on the
Internet. That's the clip right there, Let's cut it. Like why we

(54:28):
live in on the internet in sucha way that we're creating things only for
to live on the Internet. There'sa whole world out there, and it's
the people that you want to reachare real people. And to me,
I think that's the difference in likea bigger artist and smaller artist. Is
the artist who you think is biggerbecause you like their Internet presence the artist
who's doing the shows and actually outsidethey have the real motion. Yep,

(54:51):
you know. And I've seen someclips like during the pandemic it was rough,
but there was an influencer who hada million and a half follow as
long as you saw this, andshe did a meet and greet and no
one should it up and it wasa huge story because she's popping all his
platforms. He will know this iscoming for months and it's like you think,
now, it's like, how isthat possible? You have a million
very possible. It can and shouldtranslate, but you have to do it

(55:13):
right and have to do it right. You have to be a person not
just a product. And you haveto form a real connection with a conversation,
not just showing stuff. That's whyI mean when I say it's a
conversation, not a billboard. I'monline talking to you. I'm not online
showing off and for you to lookat me exactly. And if I'm having

(55:35):
a direct conversation with you and Imake you feel like we have some sort
of relationship as you know, asdistance that it may be. Now,
if I say, hey, I'mcoming to your city, I'm going to
be at this venue performing or I'mgoing to be I want to show up.
You know what I mean, you'llbe more inclined to show up.
I learned this so long ago froman artist by the name of Rian Leslie.
Yeah, I think of Brian Leslie. I met him when he came

(55:57):
to Toronto with Cassie to shoot theMe and You video with director Acts that
they never ended up using, bythe way, But I got a chance
to sit down with him and hewas He had his camcorder, this is
like pre good iPhone, and hewas blogging and I asked him why because
I had already watched a bunch ofhis blogs. I watched some of his
videos of him building beats in thestudio, a legendary those are things of

(56:21):
legend at this point. And Iasked him. I was like, yo,
what's the reason you do this?Because nobody does this? Why do
you do this? And he brokeit down to me of what it is
that I'm talking about now and whatwill live forever. He's like, yo,
look, there are thousands of artistsout here making music. There are
new songs coming out every day,and back then it was much less than
there is now. But even thenhe was saying this, It's like,
Yo, songs come out all thetime. If I can create a situation

(56:45):
where you feel like you kind ofknow me now, now I'm your guy.
I'm your boy. When you're goingto the store to buy a CD,
you're gonna buy some random or you'regonna buy your boys thing. I
mean, if you like what Ido, you're gonna watch enough. If
you watch enough, you're gonna startto feel like you know me. And
even mid conversations like Yo, we'rejust meeting today, do you feel like

(57:06):
you know me? And I waslike, shit, I do, because
that's why I've watched so many videos. But when you walked in here,
I felt like, ah my god, I haven't seen you in a minute.
It's like I've never seen your facein real life ever until now.
But I felt so comfortable with himand speaking to him, and it felt
like we already knew each other.That resonated with me and that sticks with
me forever. That socials it's awindow, it's a it's a it's a

(57:31):
conduit, it's a conversation. Ithink about it a lot with this whole
rap Be's going on. Kendrick Drakeand Cole and all these people in the
comments defending Drake. I saw Metrosaid, why are you guys defending him?
You don't even know him, AndI said, but they feel like
they know, but they feel likethey do. He's done a great job
of sharing enough of himself and he'snot here's an overshare. If you like,

(57:54):
you look at his real if it'ssocials, he has professional photos only
yep, in his story he'll likepost A one two. But like,
he gives you enough. He didn'teven do a lot of interviews, but
he's a master at the Internet,and he gives you enough to make you
feel like you know who he isas a person. You know him.
A lot of people feel like they'vegrown up with him, and therefore you

(58:16):
they ride for him. And alsohe planted his flag and be like,
yo, Toronto and Canada, weare together. We're one, yes,
and that means something to people,especially from here like Toronto. People ride
for Drake in a different way thanpeople anywhere else anywhere else in the world.
Do he's used the Internet? Well, no, no, And I
think about that all the time becausethat's what ties you to an artist,

(58:39):
a celebrity, even like Okay,I feel like I kind of know that
because I think about it when someone'seither about to get canceled or they're in
the news, and some of thetime them will say what four corners meant
to say was right, and it'slike, you don't know, don't know,
but like you feel like you know. I'm big on that, and
I was mentioned it to you before. I'm actually starting a pod that I

(59:00):
started recording episodes already. It's goingto be dropping this month in April,
and it's part of that conversation.I feel like in socials with short form,
I don't have enough time to havethe conversation that I want to have
with people that rock with me andshow more to people that maybe don't know

(59:21):
or they maybe they know me fromthe Raptors or maybe they know my music,
but like don't actually know me.Like I'm looking at this opportunity to
be able to share more as wellas have the conversations that I'm already having
in the real world, but justput them in a place where other people
can see and maybe gain some insightand some inspiration and be entertained, but
also so I can watch them back, you know what I mean. Like

(59:45):
everything that I do on the Internet, I always think about legacy as well,
and I'm like, I want mydaughter to be able to watch this.
I want my daughter's kids or whoeveryou know, to be able to
see that. I want when I'mno longer in this plane of existence,
for all of these things to exist. That is like straight from my mouth,

(01:00:05):
no interpretation, no no one.You said it yourself. I said
it myself. And also you knowwhat I mean. You can see video
music that I've made, like thingsthat I've created. I do all of
this because I love it. Ican feel compelled to do it because I
have things to say, and Ido think about legacy, like when I'm
not here, this stuff will behere. We were speaking about Prince and

(01:00:27):
Michael earlier. I listened to PrinceMichael Jackson almost every day. I think
about these guys whenever I'm creating something, because they're like their aura still here,
such iconic people that I was muchmore of a Michael fan growing up.
But I appreciate Prints so much morenow that I do what I do
because he was so hands on witheverything, playing every instrument, doing all

(01:00:51):
these things, and the legacy isso strong that's something I do think about
with my content because it's so popularnow to be negative on the Internet.
That's just the way things go withit. And I have a friend who
said to me, is like,I hate when people really like something,
And I said, this is whythe Internet is the way it is.
It's a weird sentence. And it'slike, if you love something too much,

(01:01:14):
it kind of like makes him notwant to like it. And that's
something I try to hurt you,bro, Where does that go right?
And that's something I think about,is like, I you know, I
want my content going forward to beknown for being positive. Like I don't
want something, I'll say it,but I think a lot of the content
people look at now, it's likeyou can go someone's whole page and it's

(01:01:35):
like, Okay, I hate thisrapper, I hate this person, and
this person's trying, this person's tryingnot into complain pages. I don't watch,
I don't follow complain accounts. Yeah, it's it's bad. And the
crazy thing is you even see itwhere something where you may see something negative
goes way more pop in than somethingyou say that's nice. Like we just
did our Beyonce review for her albumI gave it a seven and a half.

(01:01:55):
My co host gave it eight anda half. If you look at
our comments, you think we bothgave it one. Because the behive riots
for Beyonce, and it's that partof it where it's like they feel more
compelled to share their negative comments thensay well, I agree with you with
this, or I agree with youwith this, or why wouldn't they come
from the position of like, yo, what about this? You don't like
this? This is so amazing,Like given another listen, Nah, they're

(01:02:19):
just gonna hate on you. Andit's like that's and it's almost become a
reactionary where I think where of theage we're before the Internet, where we
know there's a different style, butI think people are growing up with the
Internet. It's becoming a part oftheir behavior where it's like, Okay,
if I have reaction negative right away, I don't want I don't live in
that world. I don't even knowwhy. I'm with you on the positivity

(01:02:39):
and you're not for the sake ofbeing positive, but like just for finding
a perspective that breeds a better outcome, because no good comes from I mean,
and if you're going to be givennegative comments like okay, cool,
what's the solution? What are wedoing with that? Like? What are
we doing with it? If youdon't like something that's fair right now?

(01:03:02):
Yeah, where do you go fromthat? Where do we go from me?
Or are we just going to talkabout how much we don't like stuff?
Like I'm not here for that kind. I want to when I open
my phone or my laptop, Iwant to be entertained. I want to
be inspired. I want to learnsomething. I want to grow. I
want to leave feeling better than Idid when I started. I don't want

(01:03:23):
to believe feeling worse. Yeah,And I actually love TikTok and I think
you too. You've talked about howyou're growing more TikTok and like trying to
jump in over these past few years. That's something I'm so weary of.
If someone sends me a TikTok andit's not what I wanted my algorithm,
I'm like, I'm not I'm notgonna like this. If I noticed right
away, I don't want this.I'm not gonna watch the whole thing.

(01:03:43):
Because TikTok is algorithm is very finetoo, and it will send you more.
And I like the picture of abird, a parent talking to its
owner, and like the next dayfair bird content. Yeah, no,
it's real like that, And soI try and do that purpose feel the
other way or I see something that'sfunny, or I'm looking like give me
more, share share, share share. So I'm with you, like,

(01:04:06):
I really want my content to atleast be positive, and I want to
see positive things as well. Thisone. I'm excited to see what you
had to say about this question becausethis is kind of a tell. I
think for a lot of people now, they say the top five people in
your life help make you who youare. Your five can be a two
or it can be a ten,But who are the people in your life

(01:04:27):
who help make you? Number onefor sure is my daughter. I consider
her my boss. She's the reasonwhy I do for everything, because I
want to make sure that she's goodand I want her to be to look
to me as somebody that she canlook up to and be proud of and
be inspired by. And what wewere speaking about before, it is like

(01:04:48):
with each generation we're supposed to bemoving forward, I want her to be
able to like stand on what Ibuild and keep going from there. So
super important and ending it right there. That's whole five. Is this your
daughter? No? No, that'sokay, okay, that's a great five.
I mean literally the most important.Yeah, I would, I would

(01:05:12):
say my mom, My dad's nothere anymore, but he's I'm you know
what, I'm putting him in.My dad. He's my musical inspiration and
taught me everything about being a man. And I think about him every day
and in most things that I do, I feel him moving through me.
And I know that he was likemy biggest fan also, so like I

(01:05:34):
know that everything. Every time Ido anything awesome, I'm like, you
said that, right, I feellike, go go, go, go
go hear. I mean, sothere, there's that. My mom,
who's the sweetest, most supportive,didn't get it at first, but is
like my biggest cheerleader. Now,remember when I told her I posted.

(01:05:56):
Actually, when I told her Igot nominated for a Juno Award, I
didn't think she even knew what itwas. And she was more excited than
I was. Oh wow, Sothat and she's always telling me, you
know, with any celebrity that I'maround or whatever, she's like, you'll
bring them to the house, I'llcook I was like, my mom lives
in Oshawa. I'm not bringing themto the house down, but thank you.
I appreciate the sentiment. Yes,yeah, who else would I say,

(01:06:24):
Like, I would say beyond that, I would put together, I
would say my team, not aperson. It's like a collective of people
and they help make everything that's inmy brain and then my heart materialize into
the real world. And that issuper important and humbling to me that they

(01:06:47):
spend their time and their energy,because time is the most important resource we
have. You can't buy time.Richest people in the world cannot buy time,
and they choose to spend their timeworking with me on my dreams because
they believe in me and what itis that we can create together, and
that is incredible to me. Yeah, that's priceless. Yeah, priceless.

(01:07:10):
It's so important to have good peoplearound and you know, there's there's been
people that have come in and outof the fold, but like the foundation
is there and it's strong and Ilove them like family. Yeah. I
always liked this question because because thatquote that says you want to change your
habits, change your habitat, andthis is I think is an example of

(01:07:31):
that. When you think about thefriends who are around you. I thought
about my about myself, and Isaid, my friend is always broken,
I'm always broke. What are wedoing? You know what I mean?
And I think about this group offriends and that they always got money.
So it is like the people aroundyou are going to impact you absolutely regard.
They say that you're the the averageof the five people that you spend

(01:07:56):
the most time with. Yeah,yeah, And so that I've always thought,
because I think that not everyone hasa good five and sometimes you may
only have two people who you feellike that's okay. And if that's the
case, link with those two,Yeah, pour into them and let them
pour into you, just like andgrow, grow exactly, move in the
right direction. And I found thatwe talked about motion before, found that

(01:08:17):
when you have motion, people willcome around one percent. So you just
have to get good at understanding people'sintentions and seeing who's there for the right
reasons, and do your best tofigure out who will still be there if
the motion is not what it isright now one hundred percent. I think

(01:08:40):
that for some people that's hard todecipher. It is, but it takes
time, and some people are verygood at pretending I'm not gonna name names,
but it happens. But you knowwhat I mean. As as the
great Nipsey Hustle said, it's amarathon, so I said that too.
Actually me and kind of Price haveit's not called marathon. Yes, it's
a marathon, it's not one hundredmeters. You gotta look at things long

(01:09:03):
term and understand that something not goingwell in the short term does not change
the course. Yeah. I thinkas well that the idea of comparison is
something that really really, yeah,it really really hurts people. And I
looked at this one of my oldjournals, because I'm a big journal at
big meditator. I looked at someof my old journals and all the things

(01:09:26):
that I wanted, and I hada list of things maybe not in an
attend the things I had done beautiful, And the next journal entry was me
saying all the things that I wantedand at the time those things seem so
far and I could tell by readingback my journal, like Angel, how
are you gonna accomplish this? Andthen reading it now as I've done those
things, I said, it's crazy. I think that you thought that you

(01:09:48):
couldn't do right what you did youshould always understand that you can do anything.
It's just going to take the workthat it takes to get there one
percent. But also I want toask you this to that because I journal
as well. How are there thingsthat you wrote down that you wanted that
you look at now and you'll belike, yo, I don't even want
that anymore. I'm a different person. I'm a different version. I almost

(01:10:08):
hate you asked me this because theanswer to that is some of the women
that I wanted, Yeah, that'sactually the answersolutely of me drilling about a
certain woman and being like I wasI wanted her bad? Yeah that was,
or a certain type of woman,or just certain things for me.
That that's a big one because Icontinue to evolve and I'm like intentionally working,

(01:10:30):
you know, therapy, all thesethings too. Better I call it
better me. I always want tobe a better me. And I look
back, even like a year ortwo years, and I'm like, yo,
what I thought was important, whatI wanted, what I spent my
energy on. Now, I'm like, I'm not even interested in those things
anymore. Like what was I thinking? That version of me is gone.

(01:10:53):
I'm here now, and I understandthat even when I'm here like a few
years from now. There's probably thingsthat right now I hold high in regard
that I'm like, I'm not goingto be into anymore and as it should
be. And it's like, youknow, being proud of yourself in a
sense of that progress that you've made. Absolutely Listen, I didn't want to
ask you about therapy because I likesthat you have talked so openly about it.

(01:11:15):
Is it going to be coming upto close to two years now?
It's just past two years. Twoyears was two years in December. Congrats
rest on two years. This quotethat I think if you said this,
you and the person versus a problem, not versus each other. Yes,
talk talk about that because I thinkthat's something that people have heard before but
don't remember enough. Well, here'swhat I've learned as far as this is
regarding conflict. Yes, One,I don't argue with anybody anymore. Ever,

(01:11:43):
there's no there's no argument, there'sno arguments, there's no We can
have disagreements, but that's because wewere going to have difference of opinion with
different humans. But an argument isa fight, it's a battle. I'm
not battling anybody on anything. No, it's either I care about you,
so we're going to talk this out, and it's you and me versus the
problem, Like, it's not we'renot against each other. It's like,

(01:12:05):
what is the problem that we haveright now? All right, let's work
together to solve that problem. Yeahversus I'm trying to win or you're trying
to win. There's no winners inthat. Yeah, right, And if
I don't, if you're not somebodythat I hold dear, then we don't
even need to have a conversation.It's already done. Yeah, it's washed.

(01:12:25):
It's wash. So that's what Imean when I say no arguments,
and like you and me versus theproblem is if I hold you as somebody
deer and I want you around inmy life, you're my bedroom, you're
my significant other, you're a familymember, whatever, and I like,
I care, why am I fightingyou anyway? No point? Why would
I ever want to fight you.It's like, nah, we have some
kind of disagreement, all right,what's the disagreement. Let's both look at

(01:12:47):
the disagreement and figure out how wecan fix that. That's how we can
solve that, how we can movepast it. Even if it is on
some agree to disagree and just likeput it to rest, we'll never agree,
but we're still going to be coolbecause I care about our relationship more
than I care about winning. That'sI Have you mentioned that, because that's
one thing I think that when wetalked about the top five people in your

(01:13:10):
life, that's a sign when someonemight not be right for you, is
they're trying to win an argument orwin whenever. I've had that and people
who breed conflict. I don't needthose people around. I don't want conflict.
I want harmony. I don't wantI want peace. I don't want
problem please problems always, violence always. What would you say is a thing

(01:13:34):
that you'll always take with you fromyour time in therapy, Like is there
something that kind of stands out thatyou're like, Thank God, I went
to therapy and learned this thing,the number one thing, and it was
something that my therapist showed me aflex of very early on. And I
think it's the basis of everything that'sbeen helpful in therapy that I've been able
to take into the world. Bekind to yourself. Oh I like that?

(01:13:57):
Like that, Like it sounds simple, but when you think about it.
Most of us are so hard onourselves, you know the negative talk
to yourself, your inner voice,you know what you're saying before, How
am I gonna? I can't dothose things, like even down to simply
checking in with yourself on a constantbasis throughout a day. Yo, what

(01:14:17):
do I need right now? AmI thirsty? Am I hungry? Like?
Am I tired? All of thosethings? It's just like, at
the core, being kind to myselfand like being mindful of that has allowed
me to number one, live betterbecause I'm taken care of by the person
who should be taking care of meis me. Nobody owes me anything,

(01:14:41):
It's on me, So I'm takingcare of me. And number two,
it's also made me, by default, much more empathetic because I'm more in
tune with who I am as aperson and why I am who I am.
And therefore, when I interact withpeople and I see people move,
I immediately think, I wonder whythey're like that, I wonder what happened.

(01:15:04):
I wonder if they're having a badday, or if they've had some
trauma or like, Because how youact and react to something generally has not
a lot to do with me ifany at all. You know, if
I choose you somehow and you gooff and I'm like, what happened?

(01:15:24):
That is something that you're bringing withyou that it caused you to be triggered
by something that I said or didthat has made you blow your top,
right, And it's not my responsibilityto fix that for you. But I
can be empathetic and you know,do my best to understand. And that's
why when people are explaining to eachother you're my triggers, it's like I

(01:15:45):
can be I can do my bestto not do the things that I know
set you off because you have somekind of trauma that is connected to that
that you're working on. If you'reworking, I hope you're working on it
exactly, or I mean, ifyou're not working on it, I'm not.
I've by default, also become alot of people's therapists, which I
don't like because I'm not qualified.Yeah, nor do I get paid to

(01:16:06):
do right. But like I heardsomebody say recently, it's like I go
to therapy to be able to dealwith people who don't go to therapy.
I was like, shit, that'sme, Yeah, living it, that's
me. But yeah, it's bekind to yourself. Man, So in

(01:16:27):
every sense, you can't use thatone for Wednesday with Zone. Okay,
but I like to be kind toyourself the most because I think that that's
something that you put on the backburner. We do, and so it's
like we shouldn't most of the time. You have, Hey, be kind
to others, do this, dothis, and be kind to yourself,
as like wave below, when ifyou do that first, it's easy to
do the rest. Well, youknow on the airplanes, when they're like,

(01:16:47):
yo, put on your mask beforeyou help anybody else, it's like
you're of no service to anybody ifyou're not at your best. It's the
basis of what he showed me.It's like, you got to be good
to be able to be of serviceto others. If you're not good,
how can you help anybody? HadI had an eye opening moment with that.
I was hanging with one of myexes and some of her friends,

(01:17:09):
and I'm a super congress people haveknown me for like decades. I've never
seen you raise my voice, LikeI just don't believe in raising my voice.
So they were like, does Angelget mean or angry? Do you
ever piss him off, and shegoes he really only gets mad at Adria,
and I was like, and shewas right, but I was kind
of like, I don't really lovethat. Oh no, no, And

(01:17:30):
so it's like I'm being nice toall y'all at your own expense essentially,
you know. So that was amoment when I was like, Okay,
I gotta value address that. Yeah, so I know that can be like
be kind yourself. It's like somethingyou have to have to do, not
in a selfish way, it's justin a it's in a better way,
like how can you be any goodto anybody else if you're not good yourself?

(01:17:51):
One? So this question is somethingthat I feel like is imperative to
this show. Now, when someonegot one hundred million dollars, they get
an exotic animal. I don't makethe rules. This is just what happens.
Michael Jackson with his monkey, MikeTyson with his tiger, Justin Beeper
with his monkey. So when youget to that one hundred million dollar level,

(01:18:14):
what animal you're bringing into your life? Well I won't be doing that,
but hypothetically, for this sake ofthis question, I would get It's
gonna sound basic I'm okay with itbecause I've always loved these way before the
movies and the character a black panther, Okay, I would love I've always

(01:18:36):
been obsessed with panthers. I lovebig cats. I don't like cats cats,
but big cats. I've always beenobsessed with leopards and lions and tigers.
Tigers are incredible to Tigers are dope. But like just the sleekness of
a black panther, just like creepingjust has always been like, yo,
that is so what a big onethat I could like ride. It would

(01:19:00):
be sick, would be crazy,Like you know, you're like he man,
Yeah, okay, like put oursaddle on a black pants that's an
album cover. A giant imagine agiant black panther, big as big as
like a horse, yeah, likebig enough to ride, yeah yeah,
and I just have like your silversaddle. I feel like I'm describing like
some kind of reverse bizarro Beyonce rightnow, Cowboy corners. But like that

(01:19:29):
would be incredible to me. Yeah, I don't want it if it's not
big enough that I can't ride it, Like I don't need to just be
like look at my panther. Ineed to be able to like interact,
saddle up and ride out. Yeah, I pull up on people, be
like, yeah, I'll be therein five minutes, and pull up on
a panther. Picturing that actually sucha big vibe. And it's because one
hundred million dollars you got all thespace in the world. You know.

(01:19:49):
It's this this animal is not captivein the traditional sense. No, you
have a whole bunch of acres.They can run free. And picturing you
on the panther just riding around,and I would have like a whistle on
my chain that I was like,only this is how we communicate. Only
only he can hear it. Ijust be like, oh my god,

(01:20:09):
given tiger king. He pulls upand I because my house is gonna be
amazing. I'm gonna like press thebutton the wall opens. I'm just gonna
fall backwards, flip and land onthe tiger. Tiger. I said,
tiger, sorry, panther, panther. I was talked about tigers before.
I love tigers to his friends willbe tigers, but the panther. And
then we ride out. Yeah,And next time I come to the podcast,

(01:20:30):
I'm coming on my panther and you'rein your bat from your Batman house.
Yeah, exactly. The something opensand it's just me pulling out,
Yeah, riding I Chris, don'tknow if you remember this, but I
think Omegan Mighty said a black pantheras well familiar. Yeah, amazing.
So I think this is some synergythere. Did you wish she's gonna be
like no, no, no,she's just there for the vibes. Okay,

(01:20:53):
you're the one who's really taking onthe world like Tarzan style. I'm
on tour with the panther, justcoming on the jet every take. I'm
yeah, you're putting fiends of people'shearts. Yeah I'm not. I'm not
traveling by any means that my panther'snot involved. Oh my goodness, police
escorts for the panthers. Exactly.Absolutely, you see me, you see

(01:21:13):
him. That's it. That's us, right, just as famous as you
are, like like a dog hadthis on Instagram? Yeah, oh yeah,
hell yeah, Oh my god,like TikTok everything, YouTube channel.
Oh my goodness, goodness. Okay, now we've given you all of your
own quotes that you cannot use forthis one. Okay. We have this
segment on the radio show called WednesdayWisdom looking for a motivational quote or saying

(01:21:33):
that either you remind yourself of orthe people around it. So what's that
one for you? I got agood one and I have a tattered on
my knuckles. Live loud, Oh, I like that. You see that
Live loud, live unapologetically, beyou all the way, all the time,
never dim yourself for other people.I think this is a great way

(01:21:56):
to end Episode one hundred, Episodeone Yes, Episode one hundred. I
think Live Loud is basically a themeof this podcast, a theme of this
show. I always encourage people tolove themselves as much as they have ever
loved anybody else. And how Isay it is this is like if there
was a scale of love, youshould always be at the top. You

(01:22:18):
should always be kind to yourself.It's all the same thing, bro,
it is. And I think LiveLoud as an extension of that because I
think that there's a lot of judgingyou do to yourself that prevents you from
living loud before you even get there, and fear of judgment from others.
And it's like, like my brotherhas some things that he said to me

(01:22:40):
that he's worried about because he's tryingto get more into hosting our Instagram and
everything. And I said, hasanyone ever said this to you before?
And he's like no. I waslike, So, you're worried about something
you've never heard anyone say that.You think they're going to say that.
You won't know if they say becauseyou don't know that person. And even
if they did say it, whatchanges in your life? Who cares?
So? I love that we're endingwith Live loud one last time before we

(01:23:03):
go out here, Please show thepeople the ice cream that you finished.
Oh yeah, I finished just likeforty minutes ago. Yeah. This is
a this is a this is likea season three record done and it was
delicious, by the way. Bigup Eva, Yeah, big up EVAs
on Blower Street. All my peoplein Toronto, please check out Eva's original
chimneys. Of course you made tothe end of the podcast, you know
what to do. Leave us arating and a review five stars, not

(01:23:25):
a single star less of course,find us on Instagram at the Cool Table
Live, on YouTube at the CoolTable Live, and you can listen to
the radio show every Wednesday at elevenam on CJTM MET Radio in Toronto.
And until next time, know yourself, Know you're worth

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