Club Shay Shay - Club Shay Shay - Scarface Part 1

Episode Date: August 13, 2025

Scarface — the legendary rapper and Geto Boys icon — sits down with Shannon Sharpe at Club Shay Shay for an unfiltered conversation packed with raw stories, hip hop history, and unforgettable celebrity moments. Face takes the stage in New Balance shoes, jokes about “jonesing” Shannon, and sips award-winning Shay by Le Portier VSOP cognac. He reveals that he often plays golf with Shannon’s brother, Sterling Sharpe, calling him a scratch golfer still showing off his strength. Born Brad Jordan in Houston, Scarface grew up with his grandmother, surrounded by his uncles’ music, a “crazy” grandfather, and the streets that shaped him. He recalls playing football like Walter Payton and Earl Campbell, ducking death during a store robbery, and surviving a shooting and open-heart surgery that stunned doctors. Face opens up about losing his biological father in a tragic shooting, his stepdad “standing in the gap,” and the sayings from his grandmother that still guide him. Scarface reveals that Ice Cube, Ice-T, LL Cool J, and Will Smith inspired his storytelling style, and he names Big Daddy Kane, Rakim, KRS-One, Nas, Jay-Z, Q-Tip, T.I., and Lil Wayne among the greatest lyricists ever. He remembers beating Jay-Z, Eminem, and Prodigy for top lyricist honors in 2001, and says Chuck D, Big Daddy Kane, Ice Cube, and LL Cool J were his biggest influences. He talks about Black history being erased like old-school rappers being forgotten. Face shares how Tupac became his “partner,” the wild stories from touring together, and the possibility they recorded Pac’s final song. He recalls being in the studio with Jay-Z as he freestyled verses without writing, and how Jay and DJ Khaled gave him lifelines when he was battling COVID and kidney failure like HOV did for Lil Wayne, DMX, 21 Savage. Scarface opens up about his own son ultimately donating a kidney to save his life. He talks about working with Kanye West, calling him a “cold” producer with beats for days, and having unreleased music together. Scarface also remembers discovering Ludacris as head of Def Jam South and learning from his mentor Ice Cube. He weighs in on Jim Jones’ comments about influencing Nas, Drake’s claim that UK rappers are better than American rappers (“like saying Kobe is better than Jordan”), and ghostwriting in hip hop. He says Kendrick Lamar, Drake, Beyoncé, and Taylor Swift-caliber artists are the only ones making money from streaming, while calling for others to take their work off streaming platforms. The conversation spans politics, fatherhood, and sports — from running for council to his love for the Houston Rockets, Kevin Durant, Jalen Green, the Texans, C.J. Stroud, and DeMeco Ryans, to respect for the young OKC Thunder. The episode closes with Scarface performing some of his biggest hits, breaking down their stories, and talking about making music with Mike Dean. This is Scarface — from the streets of Houston to the studio with Tupac, Jay-Z, Kanye West, and beyond — telling the stories only he can.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an I-Heart podcast. Get fired up, y'all. Season two of Good Game with Sarah Spain is underway. We just welcomed one of my favorite people, an incomparable soccer icon, Megan Rapino, to the show. And we had a blast. Take a listen. Sue and I were, like, riding the lime bikes the other day. And we're like, we're like, we!

People ride bikes because it's fun. We got more incredible guests like Megan in store, plus news of the day and more. So make sure you listen to Good Game with Sarah Spain on the IHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Brought to you by Novartis, founding partner of IHeart Women's Sports Network. I'm Jake Hofer, and this is Back 40, a limited series show on Wire to Hunt, part of Meat Eat Eaters podcast network. Each episode, I'll be asking eight white-tail hunting pros, a focused, thought-provoking question about hunting and land management. How do I hunt the best part of the farm with less than ideal access? Should you? That's what the real question is.

Stand without good access is not a good stand. Listen to Back 40 on IHeartRadio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcast. I think Pock may have been the first artist to beat up an engineer. I could be wrong. But I remember sitting in the studio writing it and recording it, man. That's what Pock told the engineer. Man, you ain't got too many more my bag. All my life.

They're grinding all my life. Sacrifice. Hustle paid the price. slice, got the roll of dice, that's why, all my life, I've been grinding on my life, yeah, all my life, been grinding all my life, sacrifice, hustle paid the price, want to slice, got the bowl of dice, that's why all my life, I've been grinding on my life. Welcome to another episode of Club Shet-Shay. I am your host, Shannon Sharp, I'm also the were proud of Club Shet-Shay. Stopping by for conversation on the drink today is a living legend.

He's an icon, a pioneer from the South. He's been in the music industry of over 35 years, one of the most influential rappers in history, one of the top lyricists of all time, a member of one of the most successful rap roots ever. The Ghetto Boys, a beloved Houstonian, platinum-selling hip-hop artists, a celebrated record producer, gifted storyteller,

respected label executive. He was president of Def Jam South, breaking an artist like ludicrous. He's on everybody's top five rapper list, your favorite rapper's favorite rapper some refer to him as the king of the south here you is ladies and gentlemen good friend of mine terrible golfer

Scarface Faith what it do I had to get that one you know I'm going to get that end you know I'm going to get that in you know I'm going to get that in I feel bad man because I'm getting ready to go on stage and I got on my concert kit like this is what I call a concert kit like normally everybody be having their suits on

when they come on your show man they'd be looking on fly but this I'd be looking when I go on stage so if you see me on stage then you probably see me and then he'd be like, damn. You're going on the stage with them new ballets? I'm good, man. Don't do it. I'm good at this.

We ain't had no toys growing up either, all we did was talked about each other. But yeah, this is how it goes down. Every time we go to the fold, we got a, we got a Jones. We got to, man. How you mean, bro? I've been great, man.

Thank you for taking time. I know you're busy. You got a concert in a few hours. And taking time out of your day, went through a sound check. Can't wait to people see the couple of songs that you perform for us and tell us what was going through your mind

at the time of a performer. But this is my Cognac. This is Shea by LaPorteier. It's a premium VSOP. You understand anything you know by Cognette? Yeah, man. You know BSOP stand for, right? No.

Very special O'Pail. That means... You know what I heard? And you tell me if there's any truth to this. So the Hennessy guy and Heinz, were they locked up in prison together? I don't know about that. So I want people to look into this.

So Hennessy, the maker of Hennessy on somebody... That's the family. They were locked up Hines, H-I-N-E-S, that's like a cognate. Okay. It's like the upper echelons of cognac, man. So I heard this story, man. I want to get some validity to it and just, just see. But

yeah, cognac makers, man. Is this that kind of cognate? This is a premium V-S-O-P. We've won 13 awards since this inception in 2021. We won the SIP Award. The SIP Award is a blind taste test. It's the only one that the fans get to decide. Everything else is judges that have been sipping cognac

in a spirit business. But what they do in the simple ward is that they put all the cognates on the table. And then people come by and taste them and they say, well, I like Cup 8. Okay, so I always thought that V-S-O-P meant for very serious old people. No, very special O'Pel.

And then you got X-O, which is extra old. And then you got X-XO, which is extra-extual. So... Let me now. Yes. Boy, you learn something new every day. And this is a great. People don't realize this, but this come from a great. I was as an unibon-blanc grate and a petite champagne

nuzzle it this man we're straight to it I know what the to do it's a conjection yeah why are you talking

to be like this man I know what to do God damn that ain't that he doesn't say how Sterling doing man

man he's good he good yeah this ain't no grape here junior onion blonde grape

and a petite champagne and in order for it to a cognate. Hey, man. It has to start, originate in cognac for two years. The first two years has to start there. Hey, man, it's mean right here. For sure. We got you covered. We got you covered. Oh, no. Oh, it ain't got no bite. None. Oh. You got to be careful. Yeah, let me move this back over there. Boy, you be on you build stage slurring. For real. I'm not

I'm gonna drink no more. There ain't nobody got no water. We get some. Man, why are you trying to get me drunk for my show? No, no, no, no, no. But I just wanted you to taste it, but. It's amazing. It's crazy.

Yeah. But we got you covered. We got you covered. Yeah, man. Send me, send me a... Tell me where I can buy some, man. Yeah, I'm gonna sing you some, but I'm gonna tell you what you want. It's like that, for real, though.

For real. Man, face, it is an honor to have you on the show. It's always great to have people that you You're my from a distance, you know, getting to know you over the last couple of years. You and my brother play a lot of golf together. I sent word. I told him what you told me to tell him. I was on the phone with you and I told you.

No. You told me to tell him you could get him. No, no, I didn't. No, I didn't. No, I ain't saying that, man. Don't say that, man. Well, I told him. You shouldn't have.

And he said word back to me. He said something. Hey, he said, hey, he said a picture back. He did. He said, show face this. Yeah, no. Hey, Sterling, I'm going to leave you alone. If you go out there messing with that man, y'all better lay that man alone.

They play golf together. Every celebrity golf tournament, they can attend. Yeah. Face is going to be out there. My brother will be out there with him. And the man is a scratch golfer, man. Unbelievable. He play all the time.

But he played from the back, though. Yeah, he played from the team. I play all the time too. I ain't going to go back there. I mean, I ain't got nothing to prove, man. That's for people that's trying to show up that they still strong, man. man. I don't know. I don't want to be strong, man. Yeah. Let's get into it, face.

Talk to me. From Houston, Texas. What was it like growing up in Houston, Texas for a young Scarface? So, growing up in Houston as a young Brad. Yeah, that's a real, that's a government name, Brad. You know what we say Brad? As a young Brad Jordan, my mother had me so young. I'm an old man baby for real I spent a lot of time my grandmother's house

Okay My grandmother had nine children And I always tell I always tell people that I feel like I'm my grandmother's tenth child Right Because she also You spent so much time with

So much time with her My mom would I always want to go to my grandma house You know I go over my mom and my aunt lived together for a long time Right. And I didn't want to be over there because it was boring.

Right. But going over there at my grandma's man, my uncle was smoked and jammed and, you know, they had the bands going. And my grandfather was crazy as hell. My grandmother was sweet as pie. You know, just all, you know, the neighborhood raised me, man. You know what I mean? I'm like one of those kids that the neighborhood raised for real. But that wasn't what it was like.

It was a sense of community. And somebody down to school. could correct you. If you were wrong, they would say, Brad, I'm going to tell your mom. And I say, tell her, I don't give a fuck. For real. Like, people can vouch for me. Like, I was a nut growing up, and I would cuss. Yeah. My uncle would call me when I was, so I was in the kindergarten and my uncle Rodney was in the sixth grade. So that's the only time we ever went to school together. Right. And he would call me from out of the house to come and curse his friends at for him.

And you like doing that too? Oh, I, that was, it was second nature to me. You don't better ride grown folks so much and heard them. I don't know, man. I think this is genetics. You know how people play football? Yeah, they're good at you. Yeah, I was in my, my grandfather is a, as a professional.

Cursor. Oh, my goodness. Oh, yeah. What did you find his memories of growing up as a child? I think that, um, sitting in the room. I don't want to really in this shit, man. There were some tough times? No, it was some great times.

Um, sitting in, jamming with my uncles in the room, smoking cigarettes and shit. How were you smoking cigarettes? Four or five. In their room, when they put the cigarette in the ass tray? You grabbed. I grabbed it. Those are those memories, man, that make you think about the entire situation. You know, you're in the room with your uncle, Eric and Eddie.

My grandmother beating on the do-tale as to turn it down. My grandfather in the room cussing up the storm. We're just making music, bro. I remember that shit. But it's so emotional going back to... growing up. I don't know if it touch other people like that, but it's with me because I feel like I didn't get a chance

to be a kid. I feel like I was always grown. Like, you know, I didn't realize that I was homeless until like now. Really? Yeah. When I left my grandmother's house, how were you?

Left my mom, my grandmother, I was probably 12, 13. Went to go live with Warren. His mom and Nell and my sister Tanya, we all, but she was always gone. So it was kind of like we raised ourselves. You know what I mean? I got like 15, 16 years old.

My mother rented an apartment. mother ran in an apartment in her name for me to go live in. Like you're living in an apartment by yourself. Let's just call my mom, dog.

Let's just do that. Because I don't want nobody to think I'm full of shit. Pause. Hey. I didn't know you all these years. I bet thought that. I didn't, I didn't, I didn't, hey, did you tell that? Hey, Warren Lee, I need a plug for my phone.

All right. What the fuck? Hey, Mama. Yeah. So I'm here on Club Shaysay with Shannon Sharp. Uh-huh. How old was I when you rented that apartment for me? Well, I think he was either 15 or 16.

Hmm. That's my mama. Yep. And you stayed by yourself and did very well. And have I been back? home yet? No, but I wish he would. Come just check on your old. Yeah, I was... I'm 54 years old, bro, I ain't going back home. Mom, I love you to death. I just wanted

to clear that up, man. And I know for a fact that I was smoking cigarettes. Did you know, mom, did you know he was... Listen to listen to my mama. This is my mama. You're doing everything you wanted to do. All I can tell you is that you was, you had luck on your hand. You was charmed. You were a charmed. You were a charmed. young men. Because people loved you, and they didn't even know why they loved you. That was that.

Charmed. Yeah. He kind of had that, he kind of had that impact on people. I don't know why me and him friends either. Oh, I tell you, everybody loves them. Everybody. Yeah. I even had people to walk up to me and say, you have such a fine, uh, respectful young

man. I'm thinking, really? Really? Really? Too funny. Even when he'd go buy houses and things, people would just say, oh, that's your son. He's just so mannerable. He's just got the best manners.

Oh, Lord. What have you told these people? You know, I'll tell them anything, Mom. I love you to death. I'll call you later, okay? Okay, yeah. I love you too. All right, baby.

I told you. I can't make this shit up. Did you play sports? I did. I was a running bat. Okay. You, Sequan, you Derek Henry, you Josh Jacobs, you, I mean, who are you? I was Sweetness.

You was Walter Payton. I was Sweetness and Earl Campbell mixed in one. Because if you were standing there. Oh, you're going to run up. Put that motherfucker helmet in your windpipe and keep going. Keep going. I play with Alan. Alan Aldridge's former teammate of mine.

We won a championship together. I was in there and got there 90. He came in 94. Rest in peace. passed away a year or two ago, so. I went to school with Al. Yeah. Love that kid.

You wrote your autobiography. My daddy was dead. My mama didn't want me. I didn't really get along with my stepdad and my grandmother already had nine kids of her own. That's the truth. So there really wasn't a place from me at her house either. We got very similar stories because my grandmother had nine kids of her own.

She raised her nine and took my mom's three. Damn. Cold good. Your grandmother had nine kids and then you have brother and sisters. Yeah. But my grandmother didn't have to raise my brother. Well, she raised my sister. Right.

But she took on everybody else's children in the neighborhood. You know what I mean? Yeah. Like everybody else, that was their mama too. Right. You know. So, yeah, my grandmother was a cold piece of work, man. She never learned to drive.

No, my grandmother didn't learn to drive either. That's crazy. Quick to go get on the passenger side. She'll go get in the passenger side and tell you how to drive. Slow down. You ain't got to drive. no license. And then my mother would always

tell her mother, how many steering wheels on this car? Yeah, my mama was cold blood. So I'm looking at, so we're 21 years apart in all of those stages. Right. So I'm 21 years younger than my mother. My mother's 21 years younger than my grandmother.

Wow. Yeah. So I can see my life 21 years from now. Wow. And 21 years from that, right? Right. You know what I mean? Right. And that shit always makes me think about the end, Shannon. That shit makes me think about the end.

I can't focus on living. Are you afraid of dying? I'm not. But I'm just saying, I ain't got no time. I run out of fucking time. I run out of fucking time. Like that fucking clock. man and I don't want to waste my time but they can't waste my time that's my

biggest fear because I can't get it back no time is the most valuable currency thank because once it's gone it's gone it can never be white back get your money back get your house back get your all that shit back get your friends back can get time back I see him to get his money back yes but I ain't never seen nobody get his time back and all I can think of shit I'm I got a 54 I got a bad ticker son kidney and I'm like wow would you think about the 54 the 54 great years yes you had open heart I saw the scar yes you have your son's kidney I saw the scar but 54 years think about how pause Go ahead.

There you go. No, because I don't want to... Those niggins be like, yeah, they was in there in the room with puffing them. Like, no, we weren't. But think about the 54 great years. Yeah, but I ain't trying to cut the... Oh, man. Shannon, come on.

You afraid? I'm not scared. I know that that's the inevitable, man. Yeah. I don't want to run out of time right now. No, you're not. Why are you thinking about that? You're thinking about dying.

You ain't thinking about living. And that's my problem. I can't get past it. I played with that shit so much growing up until I'm like, shit. I cheated it when I was a year, when I was five, when I was seven, when I was nine, when I was...

What year was that? We went in that store, man, and people came in there and robbed that goddamn store. Probably 15, 16, 17, 17. We were just leaving the Fresh Fest con. I said, man. And I seen, I seen, it was, it was, it was some Hispanic cats. They survived. They were out of gas crazy. Yeah, they came in there, man. I seen, I say, bruh, I say, dude got a, dude got a big ass gun on him.

Let's go. Let's go. Ain't that what I said? Yeah, let's go. Got out of that, man, next morning that shit on the news. They shot it up. Kill that man. Duck in death. Wow. Duck in death. So, man, you know, from being shot, You know, being in places I shouldn't have been. Mm-hmm. Being in places I was in, shit just happened.

And I'm looking at how death is just saying, okay, you, come here. You, come on. I'm sitting there like, damn, damn. Okay, now you. It's touching people around you, but it happens. I mean super close. when I was in surgery my brother my manager was in there while he was in and it was like

he realized it was taking long and it was supposed to take and then when the doctor finally came out when the surgeon finally came out which is a friend of mine it came out and he told him man I know that y'all probably hear this all the time but I don't know how he's still here

damn you know I don't know bro it's a blessing but I don't want God to be mad at me just keep me here and everybody be dead like all y'all be dead and I'm doing this by myself or I just go fast like I don't I have you been able to appreciate the No, no. I have not. I have not. I have not been able to, and that sounds ungrateful as fuck. I just grew up too fast, bro. And I feel like everything that I was working for, I was working to get to. You know what I mean? I feel like I accomplished everything that I set out to accomplish at a young age. My grandmother would always say when she would talk to her friends at the church or on the phone or whatever, that you can never underestimate what a child is saying. Because I remember telling my grandmother and my grandfather that I was going to be a big rock and roll star. And I was going to buy my grandfather a big-ass boat so we can go fishing and I was going to get my grandma a new house.

I said this out of my mouth, all right? this is what I said out of my mouth. And my grandmother, after all of this stuff started happening, she was saying you can never underestimate what comes out of a child's mouth, man, because that's what happened. And it happened so fast. By the time from, well, but I started when I was 14. Right.

Okay, I started, you know, trying to rap at 14. You know, trying to DJ. I start off as a DJ at 14 years old. That's what I wanted to do. Were you any good at it? I was focused on it. I was all right. I was good enough to make it.

What you mean? God, damn. You made money. You DJ at middle school parties. I did. I mean, you okay. I mean, they didn't want to pay no money. They probably played you.

They didn't have to pay me no money. I already had a little money. What are you doing something? Shady. What's Shady? You know what Shady is? No clue. You shady, right?

I think, you have to, you got to do what the Times called for. Right. You see what I'm saying? Mm-hmm. But yeah, I do what the Times called for. And if it, you know, if Carl came from throwing newspapers, shit, I threw the newspaper. Hey, does anybody have some toilet paper, napkin, anything? We got it right here.

Okay, cool. One second. The coldest thing about it's saying is when, I'll pause this right quick, because this gonna sound terrible mute this shit nothing up because I ask niggins oh big nose good thing you ain't have no habit I can't say that ah damn face and you still got money I ain't got no money I don't want no money Look how this nigg was looking at me. I only got no money.

I don't want no money. I don't want no money. Okay. Hell no. You know how when you got money? Every motherfucker else wants your money. I want no money. Your dad passed away.

How old were you when your dad passed? Am I biological? Yes. Maybe seven or eight? do you remember I don't know him oh I didn't never know him um but I know how he died because I have the newspaper articles on how my biological father died he died in a woman's house because her husband a boyfriend shot him through the door um it's arguing by the woman there you all in by the woman and when he came to the door

the man shot it through the dog and killed him and um yeah that's why when chicks be like I'm man I'd be like shit you're good I'm good go ahead but yeah my dad now

my dad he just passed mm-hmm yeah they taught me He taught me the game, man. He taught me the real live game, the real live hustle game. My dad was the weed, man.

Mm-hmm. And he would have stalks of weed drying in the closet. And I would go in there, and I would take the little, remember the brown? You don't know nothing about this, but they had the brown bags. Get fired up, y'all. Season two of Good Game with Sarah Spain is. underway. We just welcomed one of my favorite people and an incomparable

soccer icon, Megan Rapino to the show, and we had a blast. We talked about her recent 40th birthday celebrations, co-hosting a podcast with her fiancé Sue Bird, watching former teammates retire and more. Never a dull moment with Pino. Take a listen. What do you miss the most

about being a pro athlete? The final. The final. And the locker room. I really, really, like, you just, you can't replicate, you can't get back. showing up to locker room every morning just to shi-talk. We've got more incredible guests like the legendary Candace Parker and college superstar A.Z. Fudd. I mean, seriously, y'all, the guest list is absolutely stacked for season two. And, you know, we're always going to keep you up to speed on all the news and happenings around the women's sports world as well.

So make sure you listen to Good Game with Sarah Spain on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Presented by Capital One, founding partner of IHeart Women's Sports. I'm Jake Hofer, and this is Back 40, a limited series show on Wire to Hunt, part of Meat Eat Eaters podcast network. Each episode, I'll be asking eight wide-tail hunting pros, a focused, thought-provoking question about hunting and land management. How do I hunt the best part of the farm with less than ideal access? Should you, that's what the real question is. Stand without good access is not a good stand. Listen to Back 40 on iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcast.

Yeah, yeah, a little nickel bag. Yeah, there wasn't a nickel, it was a nick. Okay, my bad. They came with that later. It wasn't no nick when you was growing up. What I was growing up, it was a nickel bag. I was a nick. It's still a nickel bag?

No, Shannon, I'm not going to ride with this. It's a nick. Okay, go ahead. So I put it, you make you a nick. Yeah. And then you can make you a big darn. Okay. Okay. Okay. So we had this parsley seed. You had parsley in the, and they got my cousin right there. We had parsley in the, in the kitchen. Right. Right. So I didn't want my daddy to know I was stealing this weed. So I'd pop off some of that bud that was dried off real good. And I get enough and I just step on it a little bit with some parsley seeds. Now how in the hell did I know to do that? I don't know. But I did it. You've been shady for a minute.

I've been shady for a minute, man. But I can honestly say my stepdad, man, taught me responsibility, man. He taught me how to be a man, bro. And you know what? Staring that, he stood in the gap, bro. My cousin, Verdes, always say, man, you got to love him, man. He stood in the gap, man, because he didn't have to do that. Right.

You know what I mean? He didn't have to do that, man. He's not easy being a step-parent. That man didn't call me step. You call your son. That's it, period. Did you always have a great relationship with it? No.

I didn't have a great relationship with my stepdad until I understood, you know, until I grew up. You know what I mean? Yeah. I'm like, damn. Bray ain't trying to move me out the way. He's trying to give me some game. And I think from the time when I was, when I started going back to visit, you know, I started getting little jewels and.

stuff from and I never will forget I was coming back from out of town and I had some stuff with me that came from my job and I gave it to my daddy to hold it for me and then I gave him the money and I came back and got all my supplies that I went to work with and my money too and it was years and years and years and years and years and years down the line and I brought it up to him and he said yeah I say my mama say what he still had it no he he never told my mama about it wow you know what I mean and that just let me know that even more so how how solid and how how he stood on business man sometimes we don't appreciate stuff no I appreciate him never because he taught me how to be responsible right and I would always say

that when I would fuck up, I say, man, I don't even want to talk to my daddy about it. Because he's always drilling my head about being responsible, man. Be responsible. This is you. You know, and I got a lot, a lot, a lot of respect for that man.

Rest in peace to Willie Terry, because he was a hell of a dude, bro. I read that you used to write down all the sayings. I lived with my grandmother and I can recite all the sayings, her and my grandpa. say why did you do that I don't know man um you didn't you know what you you don't

realize how smart a person was until you don't have them around or or you you you take that that phrase you don't get old being no fool for granted growing up but when you think about it hell my grandmother was 93 94 years old when she got out of here. So I know she wasn't no damn food. And she had plenty since, man. And it's not like to education, because a lot of these people, they quit school in second, third grade. Yeah. I'm

one of the people that quit. Don't laugh. Hold on. I'm trying to. Hold on. Time about. Time about. Let me get me. We got to go back. You just said that Skyline, right? Willer Ridge. Willer Ridge. They're having a class reunion, 35 year. Yeah. How you get to

go? I was now. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. You quit before they got there. No, I was there. No, just because you started that class, you got to finish. Oh, no, I was way gone. You know, when you don't get to go to the reunion? Well, they were telling them that, man, because they're calling me.

I've been to every last reunion. I've been to all of them. How do you get to go to the reunion, Fais? Am I missing something? I had an impact on my class, man. Face, what grade did you go to? Ninth and a half You don't go on that far

Why you couldn't finish the other two or the half? For what? And I don't want to say that I don't want nobody to hear me say that But for what? Because I can count I can read

I can multiply Yeah You cheat like a mom No, no, no, no See, actually you're supposed to put a drop in there And it opens up the body Let's see No, you got to put a job

You're up in there. Open up a button. I'm like, I got a concert tonight, bro. I do. Yeah, they let me, well, so you made, so you went to the five year, the 10 year, the 15, to 20, 20, 25, 30? Yeah, I go to two class reunions.

How? Because I was in both classes. I kind of did what the fuck I wanted to do in all. That's a parent, for real. Considered you going to class reunion that you ain't graduate. I had a math teacher, y'all. that would sit my desk out in the hall

every time I came to her class. She knew that I was coming and she'd have a desk in the hall for me. Because you want some bulljide. No, I wasn't on a bull job there. I forgot. You're going to curse. So I ain't going to curse in the mall. He don't like that shit.

So, I mean, because when I finished with my work, I'm gone. Right. I couldn't sit still, man. You know? Yeah. My mind would always say, what's going on in here?

What is going on in here? No, mama. She said, well, I don't want you driving no more because you're not focused. She would always say that she don't want me driving. She wants somebody else to drive for me because I have too much going on in my head.

And Margo, riding the hill always be laughing at me, you know, because I'd be on the phone talking, I'll be looking at the back seat and driving. Yeah. Yeah. So every child, Did you feel different?

Did you think you were different? Because you had all these thoughts in your head? Did you talk to any of your friends? Like, man, I'd be thinking this. You know, I went to, you know, they put me in an institution for this. You know that, right? That's in my book, right? Yeah.

Yeah, they put me in the, um, I spent a, I spent some time in one of those things, man, because of, um. They put you in the 51-50 hole. That's a psych hole. Yeah. I was on the hold, and I was in there, and I spent a lot of, I stayed out a long-ass time. Do you remember how old you were? I mean, because you, I mean, I was pre-ad, so it had to be 11, 12 years old. Mm-hmm.

So I wasn't quite an adolescent yet. Were you, were you doing things? I mean, what were you doing that they thought that this would be, this would benefit you? What was I doing? Yeah. They said that I was manic-depressive and, with suicidal, uh, uh, uh, with suicidal, uh, uh, tendencies they thought that I was going to kill myself and I never said I was going to kill myself I did cut my wrist a couple of times I did overdose a couple of times but I

realize now you know that being older that if you really wanted to just die you would just die were you looking for attention so maybe I was seeking some attention from some attention that wasn't there that has a never ever been there. You know what I mean? And I'm going to say it. I say it a thousand times, but I wasn't, I wasn't, I wasn't, I wasn't controlled. I didn't have parents that'll, you know, stop me from the end. You didn't have guard rails. I didn't have no guard rails. I didn't have no boundaries. You know, my uncles were already grown. Mm-hmm. And you're doing what they do. And I'm doing what they're doing. I'm smoking cigarettes. I'm smoking weed. I got, I got Indian charges. You know what? I smoke crack for the first time in 1983 when the shit was cool. That's like the height of the epidemic. In the 80s, in the beginning.

No, no. That was the cool part in the 80s. Because you had functioning, uh, uh, functioning, um, fiends. You can't say addicts, man. That's not the proper. They, they weren't fiends. They just, they just were users. Right.

But you do realize like the 80s, that ushered in the crap. No, no, it ushered it in. But back in the early 80s. it was cool trust me and now in the 80 now when I got a hold to the shit it started it got one cool no more right that's when the shit started not getting cool but so that before they started stealing TVs and yeah that's when they started pawning shit that's that's when my game switched right so I never got hooked on dope but you know my uncle would come in from the construction another thing too

like it was all black construction concrete workers and flagged me on the side of the road right when we were growing up um and then it changed and i would get back to that but um my uncle will come in man he have an eight ball man i learned how to cook he put that shit in the beaker and he'd uh hit him with the uh the torch and put water in there and burn it until it turned into a long little thing he in the fallout And I hit it one time. There it is. But I wasn't but 11, 12 years old.

When you say you never got a chance to be a kid, you never got a chance to be a kid. I never got a chance to be a kid. You also, how were you when you said living is hard, dying is the easy part? I was this year, I was this, I was this, I was this many years old. Well, it was, it was now. It was an adult. Like, Dine is the easy part. And that's what I said again, man.

I was probably trying to get some attention from, some, some, some, some, some, seeking attention from people that pay no attention to nothing. You're, you're, your biological father? You don't know my biology. You didn't know my father at all. At all. But I do know the side of my biological family. And I met my cousin in Chicago when we were adults.

Wow. Uh-huh. And he said my daddy name. And I say, yeah, this is I know something. Because don't nobody know his name. You know what I mean? And then we've been super dupe. tight. And I got a couple of other cousins that I met over the, over the, that span, too.

But I didn't know my dad, my biological at all. How do you learn to deal with those demons? Because you said there are things going in your head, you know, cut yourself and you tried some other things. Have you learned? Because I think, and we're going to get to this, I think that's a lot of where your creativity. Man, are you a psychiatrist or something, bro? Did you go to school for this shit? I took a couple of classes. Yeah, okay, go ahead. You're trying to dig this shit out?

Well, how did you feel when you were seven and you're... But I'm just saying because, I mean, listening at your raps and seeing a man die, see a man crying, the way you rap and the creativity. I don't know if you know this guy. There's a poet, William Cullen Bryant, and he wrote a lot about death. Fantopsis is his famous.

It's his famous poem. I'm going to go into this. But, you know, I regret. writing about death you know writing so much or the state of being you know

I regret writing about that shit because now it's it's it's so close man have you always thought about dying or you got to your 40s or 50s

I have no I've always thought about dying like I'm always wanted to see how it felt just die and then like come back and tell them like brother you don't want to do that no you won't go in there but no in the cool man I always felt like like um did you ever did you did you did and a lot of my songs no I'm saying I had nobody to talk to oh okay you know what I mean so I talked through my my pen I didn't have nobody to talk to my pen I didn't have nobody to talk to. And I feel like, I feel like, um, if I told somebody how I felt or told somebody, you know,

what I was thinking, they probably think I was crazy. Yeah, you, we're going to say that. Yeah. So, a man face, a brag get a check. Yeah. And, and now at this age, I don't care what they think. You know, I've already been through it. Right. I'm, I'm, I'm coming out of the storm. So your friends didn't know? Or did they? I didn't have any friends. Damn. I don't think I had,

I had people I hung out with sometimes, but I don't really have no friends. Right. I didn't really, you know, that's crazy, though. You know how you got a whole lot of friends you grew up with and they were your friends, and y'all was friends,

but I didn't really got no whole lot of friends like that. I think it was probably because I lived in two different. two different households, you know. When I was with my grandmother, my uncles was my friends. And their friends was my friends, you know. So you've always had an old soul, because that's all you've ever been around. You've never been around really anybody, your age. You know, my oldest friend that I've known in my life, my oldest friend that I met probably

when I was one or two or three years old, died the other day from a massive heart attack. And I'm thinking to myself, like, wow. Here we go. Calling everybody except Brad. Yeah. And, and, and. Why mean? You said you dropped out of school in the ninth grade.

Ninth and a half. So you was almost a sophomore? Almost. When you told you, did you tell your mom that you was dropping, you tell your grandma, what did they say? Or you just didn't go to school one day? I didn't live with them, bro. I was gone.

So they didn't know if you was going to school or not anyway. Who cared? I was already gone. My mama got me an apartment, man. She just said it. She said it. She got me an apartment. And you did quite well.

Yeah. If you had to live with your mom, you live with your grandma. Do you believe you to quit school? Yeah. Maybe. No, you know what? I would have quit school. You know why?

Why? Because no parents. No pass, no play came into it. Well, damn, face? Yeah. And I was smart as you could imagine, but it was just boring to me. You know, and when they implemented the no pass, no play. Like, I was a football player, man.

Right. I wanted to play football. And when they said no more football, I didn't want to go to school. So what am I going to school for? Because I'm really just going to school. Yeah, man. I can add some track, reading, right? But I want to play.

I want to play. Mm-hmm. You know? I want to play football. Is it true you beat up the principal? I did. Why you beat the principal? That man old.

He wasn't old. He wasn't old back then. He was old. He had to be in his 30s. That wasn't old. You was 14, 15. I wasn't that old. Well, damn, how old were you when you beat the principal?

I was in like the 6th or 7 grade. Damn. I had a fight with somebody in the commons. locker area and his brother came by to the fight. So I gave him the business. I gave his brother the business. And then one of the principals came by was trying to pull me, but they weren't pulling them. So I gave them the business. And then the other principal, Ms. Kyle, She came, but I gave her the business. Yeah, you had to go to school. You weren't going to be able to go back to that school. You might have went to school somewhere else in another district,

but you weren't going back there, no more face. If I would have really wanted to go back to that school, I couldn't went back to that school. Not that you don't beat up the whole damn school. It didn't matter. If I was determined to go back, as a matter of fact, I think all I had to do was like two or three months in in school.

No, in alternative school. And I didn't do that. I didn't do it. Why were you acting out? I don't think it was acting out. I just didn't want to be facked with. You know what I mean? Like, I'm cool as hell, man, until you push that button.

But you're effing with people. No, I'm not. I'm not. I'm cool as hell, man. Just don't fuck with me. Don't, don't push him out because he'll come. You know what I mean? I've been keeping him nice in here.

So he's passed for these years, these years. And they brought something out of you that day. My God, you don't want to see him. I don't want to see him no more. I don't want to see him. Remember when we were sitting there and I said, man, I ain't got no whole lot of people I ride around. I don't ride around with nobody. I can ride around with a pistol because I know what I'm going to do.

Right. I know what I'm going to do. Don't make me make that, don't make me make that decision. Can we lead a pistol hard when I come to Houston? No. Oh, Lord. I'm just going to meet you there. I'm just going to meet you at the spot.

Yeah, I'm going to meet you at this point. Yeah, I'm going to meet you at this. Yeah, you can meet me here. Are you not coming to Houston? I am coming to Houston. I am coming to Houston. I'm not going to call when I come to get you. I almost moved to Houston.

That had been a disaster. Came close. It came out to Vegas in Houston. Ain't too late. The team be wanting to move to Houston so bad. They want to go? Yes. Shit.

Me and you could beat neighbors, possibly. No. Hell no. Hell no. along with your apartment. Because, like, when you're on your own, you can do a lot of stuff. So you got an apartment

and you start selling... No. You were selling before then? Way before then. I worked at a movie theater. I sell it what? Drug. No, man.

I ain't never sold no drugs, man. I had a job. So when you stealing your stepfather's weed, you were just smoking it, you and the boys were smoking it. Are you just smoking it? I was stealing weed and putting parsley seeds with the weed.

But what were you doing with it? You weren't just depicting. People don't just steal just to steal. That's the part I'm trying to get to. Well, I would roll up $2 squares. And if anybody wanted to buy squares. So you were selling drugs? I wasn't selling drugs.

That's weed. Okay. You were selling weed. But I was like seven, eight years old. Oh, Lord. I wasn't just Nino Brown. No. But Nina Brown didn't start up in New Brow.

But this is my personal. Right. You know, I'm just not going to give it away. If you wanted you, that's $2 square. And if I had a Nick, a Nick on me? Yes. And my Knicks never was real Knicks, though. So, no, they were never real Knicks, man.

Because I'd roll me a couple of squares out of Nick, and I'd sell them so it'd be a couple of squares short. Yeah. A Nick, how many square could you get out of Nick back in the game? By three? Three. By three and four? So y'all know they weren't cutting but two out of money.

But the thing is, you probably, they're homegrown, so they were bumped to begin with. That homegrown? You ever had some homegrown? Jolly. That is the most terrible week ever, man. You know when that day comes from grass and let it dry? No, man, no, no.

That homegrown, it just gives you an eye high. Yeah. Like your eyes just be high. You don't really be high, though. But I never, I had a job, and I worked at the movie theater. But before the movie theater, I had another job. I had a hustle. Yeah.

So I was hustled. Do you let your homies in the movie theater free? Or you let them cut, hey, give me a dollar, I'll let you in. No, I just let them in. Matter of fact, I didn't really have no homies, man. That would come by there like that. Right. You know what I mean?

And this was, and I was too young to be working anyway. Right. It wasn't too long back then, because they put your ass to work. No, bro. You had to be. You were supposed to be. Right. Excuse me.

And these were white people. Right. worked in Bel Air at a movie theater. Right. You had to work like eight hours a day sometimes. And me being 16 years old, you know, they're wondering why I ain't in school. So I told them that I was 18 years old, right? So I can keep that job.

But I filled out an application at this hypermark called Oshund. Okay. They had just built the biggest, it's big like Walmart, like Sam. or something big big big and I worked as a stock boy at night and uh overnight and I worked a few days man and they wrote that I had a check man that check was 400 some dollars that was a lot of money back that was a lot of money for a couple of days of work right yeah so I I never got my check and I never went back to work well damn did you do you want another check I invested in my in your other business in my business mm-hmm yeah

um best I invested huh I invested Yeah. And then when I started making music, I had a lot to talk about. I had a lot to talk about. Right. Because I knew several businesses. You had a, as they say, you had life experience. You lived life more by the time you was 16, 17, and most people lived.

For sure. No question about it. Yeah. For sure. I remember we was eight years old, and we used to wear these medallions that we got from the game room down the street, and they would ask us, no, the guy would swear us in, we take an oath. You know, I solemnly swear to protect the weak, and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, right? So, guy walks into this place called you told him, we was kids, man, and we were hiding in there, and they were hiding in there, and they really. robbed that place and they shot that clerk man they will forget that you were there yeah being a couple of men men another couple of buddies in mind we were there i was um this lady had

got uh shot in our apartment complex and it's the first time that i ever seen like blood like that and it was thick like i can't even describe how thick it was but it was so thick man and that lady was dead her husband killed her and that lady was dead and that lady was dead and that blood was thick bro it was so thick yeah yeah as a kid man's traumatized, man, by just different stuff I've seen over the years, you know, the first starting of my career, you know, every concert we had, somebody would get killed, you know, two girls and I don't know if that was San Diego or somewhere we was at. San Diego? So we was in San Diego, and we finished a concert and got ready to leave with two girls,

laying out on the side of a Volkswagen bug dead like all the shows man somebody got shot somebody got this somebody got that every neighborhood that we lived in somebody was man I mean we used to have parties in the house parties man and we would go in that house party even go to the great stake skate we're going out to fight man and and all I always had a pistol on me. I always had a pistol. Your uncle stole from you and your grand... I think it was in your book where you said your uncle stole for

and your grandfather shot at you. Yeah. Your uncle stole money. What did he steal from you? Some material that I have to use to go to work with. It was like, always look like, like a monkey wrenches, like a monkey wrenching. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Get fired up, y'all.

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Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, you're for my job. Yeah, yeah, yeah, you're for my job. Yeah, yeah, how you're going to do your job? If I don't have my, my, my, my, my job with you. So we had a fight. How did you know he stole it? Because then nobody else in no way? it was.

So you fought your uncle? Yeah. You get it back? No. You beat your uncle up? I did. Did you apologize to him? I do.

You didn't at the time, but you do now. Yeah. Why your grandfather shoot at you? Because you cut that, you got to keep him in there, man. You got to keep him in there because you let him out, bro. Yeah. That shit is bad, bad.

Right. So he shot at me, and I heard him. He's so right, bro. Yeah. The tools that you needed to go to work with, did you ever use any of those tools? I did. Did you get? hooked? I didn't get hooked. I didn't get, I didn't get addicted, but I used it before.

Yeah. You have to, you have to, you have to make sure that the frame that you build, you don't make sure it's okay. He's right. Yeah, you want to, you don't want the ceiling to fall in when you start walking on the roof, do you? You tried to rob, so who tries to rob, so what What was your thought process in that? What? You robbing the bank. I ain't never tried to rob no bank. You were unsuccessful?

No, I don't know if I want to rob no bank. That's what the money had. Me? Yeah. Rob a bank? No, bro. My name Brad, not Rob. When did you say, you know what?

Enough of all this other stuff that I got going on, I'm going to the rap game. You didn't make it, it didn't happen like that. No. So how did you start rapping? How'd I start rapping? Yeah. It was a cool-ass pastime in junior high school and high school. Okay.

Right? Rapping. You was only there for a year and a half in high school, so it wasn't that cool. It was cool. Okay. Because everybody went from one school to the next, so we all knew each other. So it kind of feel like I did graduate, you know. Kind of feel like I was still in school with everybody.

Okay. To this day, we're still together. Um, I feel like, When I first started growing a passion in rapping, for for rapping, you know, I was listening to everybody. And then when I heard KRS 1, I think that's when I really wanted to start to be a rapper. When I heard Ice T, I really wanted to be a rapper. When I heard Ice Cube, I really wanted to be a rapper. Now, listening to L.L. Cool J. and Big Daddy Kane, let me know that I couldn't be a rapper.

You know, because they were just so immaculately skilled. Not that none of the other artists that I mentioned aren't, but it was just, when I heard that, I was like, you know what, I want to do this. Yeah. All right. So I ended up making a couple of records with a guy in Houston. And I made a song called Scarface, and it came out, it was the first one that we, that's the first one that we probably heard yet. But a buddy of mine, Chris Barry, rest in peace, they called him three, two, had we were, we were together. and he made a record

I don't remember the name of it but it was more of a radio-friendly record and the record label wanted to go with that because it was more user-friendly right? And on the other side of town there was another kid

that wanted to put me that liked what I was saying and wanted to put me you know in a group Now, mind you about three or four months before that, I had rode the bus over to the car lot to play some songs for him. And one of the cats was like, that's not what we're looking for. And then, like, a few weeks, a few months later, you know, Steve Farnier played a record for a little Jay at the rhinestone ring of the parking lot. And shit, dude was at my house.

And I was like, man, how you find me? Just like that? Yeah. You mentioned KRS1, known as a lyricist. Big Daddy Kane, larisys. Rock him, laris. People put you in that. And you are a storyteller.

And that company, people that, you know what I noticed? And I'm a storyteller because I've hung around. hung around a lot of old people and old people told stories, you know, go get your hair cut in the barbers and they play in checkers and they're telling old men telling stories. Yeah.

You're a storyteller. Is that how you thought your rap career did it? So what were you hoping to be as a rapper? What was going to be? I didn't know. I knew that at ICE told a cold-ass story,

you know, six in the morning police at my door. Fresh of a kiddie of this screen. That's fucking bad. So, you know, it's clicking now, Ice Cube, Once Upon the Time in the Projects, yo. So we can't just say that my storytelling is all that, you know. What about Will Smith's storytelling? You know, like Will Smith had some cold-ass stories, man.

Have you ever in your life experienced a day when nothing at all seems to go your way? Like, Dana Dane. Yeah. Hell of a storytellers, man. I grew up in the era of hip hop where it was a force to be reckoned with, man. They had some nice, you love to hear the story again and again, how it all got started way back when. Like those are immaculate cum lines, man.

Those are beautiful openings to a book. Bruh, you have to have that in order to be a cold-blooded lyricist, storyteller, and they had that. And it just, it just came through me, too. Do we have that now? In some cases, yeah. You got some cool, some nice-ass storytellers in rap right now. If I, if I would ask you, give me your top five lyricist of all time.

All times? All time. Top five. I don't have a top five like that. some greats i'll give you some names of some greats came is a great rakeem is a great um chris is a great car is one yeah um that's a l l l yeah you didn't i did not know you didn't ls are great uh great lyricists naz is a great yeah j z is a great i mean i don't have a top five right you know like my my top five are going to the top thousands you know i think i think that pop i think

that cube i think that uh shan and and who am i missing like i can't i can't because i'll miss everybody yeah q-tip is great yeah you know ti is a great wayne is it great You were named Lyruses a year in 2001 You beat Hove, B, M, Prodigy to leave Cooley Who? You beat a Hove M prodigy

You surprised? Damn, I mean, damn No, I'm just maddened. No, I mean, I'm honored to be among the greats, you know? How does that make you feel? When people talk about lyricists, when they mention the

K-R-F-1s. When they mentioned the BDK, Big Daddy Kane, when they mentioned rock him. That's in a selected few conversations, man, that my name pops up. I'm not, I'm not mad or I don't feel nothing. You know, I think that everybody's entitled to their opinion, though, you feel me? Like, it's people that people think, just like the best rappers in the world, and I don't even, I don't even see them. You know what I mean? Oh, man, he's back, nah. Nah, nah.

Chris Rock said you won to the top three all time. Nah. No. No, top three of all times is... If somebody had to say, okay, for your life, we're going to add 10 extra years to your life. Give me your top four wrappers all time. Four? Four.

Give me your top four. We're going to add 10 years to your life because we know you ain't trying to go see different. I just say, fuck it. Take 10 up. Real, man. Real, man. You ain't tried to go like that? I don't care, man.

I don't have a top four, man. Like, I would say my top four influences then. Can I say that? Yeah, go ahead. Okay, well, I'm going to say Chuck. Chuck D. I'm going to say Big Daddy Kane. Yeah.

I'm going to say Ice Cube. Shootie, man. I gotta, I gotta say cool J because it was just, it was just music that dude put out that really inspired me to want to be this man. I saw all those guys, the concerts, I saw LL, the Fad Boys. I was there, that's what I was talking about. Run DMC, Houdini, I was there.

The Fresh Fest. I saw all them in concert one year, I think it was like 1986. Yeah, that's the year. That's the year. That's the concert we were coming from when a dude robbed that store and killed the clerk. Yeah, wow. That's the concert we were coming from. It was called the Fresh Fest.

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I don't think they give that generation the credit that they deserve. Because now, face it, it feels like if they didn't hear, If they didn't see it, it didn't happen on the internet yesterday, it didn't happen. Does that frustrate you? I think it's, you know, as shameful as it is, man, I can understand that, because look what they're doing with black history. Yeah. Okay?

You see what I'm saying? Like, it's, it's, black history is becoming extinct. Mm-hmm. And, you know, the more, the more and more, we try to talk about it and bring it to the forefront, the more the more they try to hide it okay so I understand and I would yeah if I was trying to brainwash people man I would do it exactly like that I would first take the history away and then I would poison their music that's exactly that's exactly what I would do because you it's it's really like I remember back in the gap man it was all fire

And one or two, you know, it fell, that slipped through the crack. Right. But now it's one or two fires and everything slipped through the crack. It's my opinion, oh, shit. And, you know, I'm different. I'm cut different. I'm a little older, and I know what it's supposed to sound like. You know, I know the elements of hip-hop.

I was blessed enough to come up in an era where... It came up in the golden era. The Golden Arrow, yeah, and I can actually go and thank my, the ones that came before me, I can thank them for what, for the ground that they laid for me to stand on, man. Like I see, I see Kane, you know, and I see Elle all the time, man, and I thank them. Even Red Alert and Kid Capri, I thank them for letting me, you know, be a part of this. But I had the opportunity to sit down with DJ Kass, Castanova Fly.

I'm the C-A-N, the O-D-A-N, the M-E-A-N-F-L-Y. He stole the man whole rap. That was Big Bang. Hey, you wasn't casting overfly. But I heard the story. So it's Kumo D, Cassanova Fly, and Fab Five Freddy, having a talk, man, about hip-hop, man. And I have never felt so unworthy. to be in a room

in my life, bro. Like, I don't feel worthy to be in there with that because when they talk about it from the beginning, like it gives what Sharon said. You love to hear the story again and again

and how it all got started way back when it gave it a whole new meaning when you sit and you listen to them talk about hip-hop from the conception of it. All right? The 50 years at the beginning. Yeah, man. It was unbelievable, man.

And I was a fly on the wall in that room listening to those voices, tell that story, man. And I was like, wow, I'm not worthy. Storytelling. How did that become a part of, because that's who you are? You're a storyteller. You know, I think it was in my English class. It must be early. Yeah, it was early.

Okay. You tried to be funny. get your ass back on it all the time you be popping on the yeah I'll be popping on saying an ass hard man you see I ain't I ain't fires you up on camera but I'm not gonna do it okay I appreciate me okay I teach you in that you got but I already know you got something to borrow you

I got some shit now so my English teacher when I was probably in the third grade used to always tell me about writing man writing your story had to have a it had to have a beginning it had to have a

a body, a climax, and then an ending. So I always trying to write my records like that. Okay. You know, to drag you into the story, man, to give you the to grab me and put you in that motherfucker, oh shit, I'm in. You know, and then take you to the climax of it and then end it. Yeah. So that's, so it's just some old English. I don't Was it Englishman or was it a reading class or writing class?

I don't know. Right. But whatever class it was, it gave me that. Yeah. Because every story has to have a start, it has to have a middle, it has to have an end. Yeah. And that's what he said, a beginning, a body, a climax, and an ending. Yeah.

So I took something from school. Right. You were featured on Biggie Posthumusat. Did you meet? Did you ever meet? I met Biggie. I did. I met him in Louisville, Kentucky. Okay. I met him there. Yeah, cool dude, man. I never spent a lot of time with Biggie. Right. But I did have the honor of being on one of the records from the Biggie duets. Right. So I'm on that. Yeah. Pop. Spent a lot of time with Tupac. Because we were discussing that Smile might have been the last studio thing he recorded. I can't say that.

Because he was always in the studio. I probably left the studio and he did 35 more records that night. Maybe. You know, he was a workaholic, man. But probably, though, we'd have heard about it. True. What was he like? Park was wild.

he had a zero to 100 I have never seen him on zero though always seen him on 100 I've always seen him on 100 and yeah I ain't never seen him down

it was always he was always on fire I remember one time true story where's Warren so pocket came to my room and I hate when Warren bring people to my room

so my brother brought Tupac to my room we staying in the in the L.A. And Warren, I hate this man, but he knocked on my door I opened the door and it's Tupac and Warren

Warren. Warren left Tupac come in the room, man. And this is the first time we started smoking the weed from California. Uh-oh. So I was really, really, really, really, really, really high. Yeah. And I had a, I had a suite, and it had two beds, right?

So I'm high. I'm watching TV, man. And Pock come in there with all that loud-ass shit, man. And I grabbed a remote control. And I just handed it. He was in a, yeah, man, we're going to so on something with this, we'll be there, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. He sat there on the bed for a minute, man, flipping through the channels. He walked to the, to the patio door, looked out, and he seen Shug in a red Mercedes Benz.

And he left. I don't think that. Pock was that cool with Shug back then. Right. Because he did leave. And I don't know they could have been the best of friends, but I know that he was gone. And we ended up getting out and going out somewhere,

and I didn't see Pock no more. But me and Puck been on tours together. You know, we've been in Atlanta together. That's my partner, man. Like I would talk to Tupac on the phone before he was Um, um, me against the world, not me against the world, but, uh, what's the, what's the other album? All right. I talked to Tupac before he was all eyes on me, all right. Me and Pock been down since Tupacel is now Pock. You know what I mean? That's the Puck. I know the, uh, this

is for my next Puck. Wow. Yeah. I know that Pock. How is his stuff different? writing style different than yours. I don't know. You never seen him write anything. No, but I can tell you that I was his favorite rapper, and he was mine. So I leave that, I'll leave that way it said.

So maybe we did have similar writing style, but we never wrote together. As a matter of fact, you would always be mad at me because it took me so long to write records. You know, he pissed at me, man. Every time he comes to the studio, yeah, man, let's get up.

We're going to go here, we're going to go. No. I'm not going to go here. Right. I'm not going anywhere with Park to begin with because he doesn't have a driver's license. Now, well, back then he may have got one, you know, later. He didn't have no driver. But he drive with no license.

Yeah, for sure. Yeah. And he couldn't drive, man. And people was, he tried to get me to roll that Hummer one time. And somebody had a picture of that Hummer on the internet, man. And I was like, damn, man, that shot me back. but um he can't he couldn't drive man and he was wild and he'd be drinking and he'd be smoking weed and shit no man i'm not gonna ride with him so he ain't got the lies he's drinking smoking weed

he's not a very good driver no that's a recipe for disaster man and to prevent shit is always better than trying to cure it so no pot no sir you told the story about j z and and how you know you were in the studio and he's like yeah i like i like this one he gets up goes into the booth Ain't write nothing down. Oh, no. And, all right. Dap you up and gone. And peace out.

Let me like, damn, I'm sitting in front of the board. Stuck. He's already wrapped. But he's sitting that little corner, maybe. I know you're probably seen on the timbre. But they're dutch your shoulders out of here, the beat. And he's rocking and sitting.

All of a sudden, he's going to take the vocal. You know, explain, tell the story of how you said Jay-Z helped you when you were at your worst. We've heard stories about him, what he did for Little Wayne. We heard what he did, you know, Wayne had some tax trouble, J-ZA, clear. He let DMX leave, was in debt, let him leave. I think 21 Savage helped him get an immigration lawyer. So we've heard these great stories, no matter what people try to say bad about him, negative about him, but we hear more positive great stories tell your story so you remember when i caught the

covid and kidney failure and all that yeah yeah yeah j z chunk me a lifeline and you know when i had the kidney and the kidney and the kidney yeah dj call it chunked me a lifeline yeah so can't nobody tell me shit about j z and dj call it wow because they chunk me a lifeline and and uh You know, I got a, I'm thankful. Yeah. You know what I mean? Because I was, I didn't, I wouldn't work here. Right.

But yeah. So shout out the whole man, DJ Calut. You know, I always, I always talk to, when I talk to Jay Zee, call him the keeper. Get fired up, y'all. Season two of Good Game with Sarah Spain is underway. We just welcomed one of my favorite people and an incomparable soccer icon, Megan Rapino to the show, and we had a blast. We talked about her recent 40th birthday celebrations, co-hosting a podcast with her fiancé Sue Bird, watching former teammates retire and more.

Never a dull moment with Pino. Take a listen. What do you miss the most about being a pro athlete? The final. The final. And the locker room. I really, really, like, you just, you can't replicate, you can't get back. Showing up to locker room every morning just to shit talk.

We've got more incredible guests like the legendary Candice Parker. and college superstar A.Z. Fudd. I mean, seriously, y'all. The guest list is absolutely stacked for season two. And, you know, we're always going to keep you up to speed on all the news and happenings around the women's sports world as well. So make sure you listen to Good Game with Sarah Spain on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

Presented by Capital One, founding partner of IHeart Women's Sports. I'm Jake Hofer, and this is Back 40, a limited series show on Wire to Hunt, part of Meat Eaters Podcast Network. each episode, I'll be asking eight wide-tail hunting pros, a focused, thought-provoking question about hunting and land management. How do I hunt the best part of the farm with less than ideal access?

Should you? That's what the real question is. Stand without good access is not a good stand. Listen to Back 40 on iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcast. But the culture, man, because he do that big brother shit. Yeah. You know?

You think Hover would do another album? For what? Because people say like for him to do something. He's got to, like, it's got to move him. It's like, it's got to be something that like, that calls out to him. It right now ain't nothing calling. Let me tell you something, man. So, let me say this so I won't be misunderstood.

he don't have no reason to rap no more. You know, we rap because we was hungry, man. You know what I mean? Right. Like, we spoke our heart and told our side of the story because we was starving, man. You know, we ain't starving no more.

You know what I mean? Yeah, I do, absolutely. Like, that man not starving no more, man. Not in the least. That man got kids. You see, how he even, you know what I mean? prepping them girls, man. You see that?

It's crazy, ain't it, man? It's unbelievable, man. And I've been knowing that baby since she was a baby baby. And to see her up there with our mama, I'm like, I call him, man. I say, boy.

Wayne, didn't we tell you? That ain't Wayne? I mean, that's Warren. Warren. Warren. He can't help it. He can't help it. He cannot. He cannot help that shit. Man, ever since we was kids, brother, he was always on the phone.

He always on the phone. Always. He on the phone, sleep. He on the phone FaceTime driving and not saying nothing. We got to do better. Like, he just on the, look, his earphones is. He is on the phone. and he ain't talking about shit

because his mouth ain't even moving. Nah, he's just listening. He's just down. He might be listening to a beat. He's not listening to no beat. That nigger can't rap. God damn. Oh, help me understand this.

I know you heard it because he came on Nightcap. Jim Jones and his influence in Nas. You cool with Jim? I love Jim Jones. But he out of his mind, ain't he? I don't know why you I'm not gonna say shit about nothing you okay with beefs you

ever have a rap beef with anybody no I ain't got no I don't want no beef when you when you when you when you when you when you when you were in you never I don't want to beef no what you want to do like like all that talking then what you want to do like all that talk what you want to do they want to talk we I mean I don't want Ain't don't fucking what you want to do. Well, keep my name out your mouth. Punk? Period.

I'm say shit about me. Like, that's how I feel about it. That's how you feel about it. Yeah. So you ain't going to have no beefy. I'm, I'm done now. I'm going to be beefing fun now. Yeah, you know.

What the fuck do you want beef? Oh, you want beef now that I ain't rapping no more? You know, now you want a beef. No, I don't want no, I don't want no smoke from nobody in all honesty, man. Because I can't control what nobody else do. Right. You know what I'm saying? I can't control what nobody else do.

I ain't got nothing to do with it. Right. But I don't have no control over what somebody else do. Right. And back, we took that shit so serious and so personal, man. They take it personal, man. Right. And I don't never want to be involved in that kind of stuff, man.

Right. You have a great relationship with Cube because you've been on a lot of the soundtracks. A mentor. He's a mentor. You know, he's a mentor. We made a song I'll leave that But yeah

He's a mentor You worked with Master P You work with some heavyweight face I did So I was listening to a song I'm gonna go back at the Cube shit So I'm listening to the I listen to a record of me and Cube did

We're sitting in the studio listening together right And I'm listening And he listening And I'm like, and he's like, is that you or me? I say, I don't know. Damn. Because that's how similar our styles and delivery is, you know.

That's how much influence that, an impact that he has had on my career. Right. You know what I mean? Because it's certain shit that we don't know the difference between him. Like, I have songs. you that we don't know we don't know the difference wow who's who you know you can tell in the rap part but you can't tell in certain areas where you're saying shit like who is that that you know that's me no that's me where you're on ghost writing because some people like it's okay

then some people like i mean because nobody nobody now i think now who cares really yeah okay but back then yeah mc life said it the best it's say whoever wrote your rhymes might as well hold your microphone. Damn. But now I don't give a fuck. I'm not in no more. I don't care. Right.

Do you? How do you get out? Like everything has changed, man. They had the no snitch policy in effect. Everything has changed, man. Everybody telling everybody business. Truth? Yeah.

So, no, things have changed, bro. So to write the rhyme policy? Yeah. Whatever. Drake moved Houston. You ain't tell him not to come. Drake don't live in Houston. He got a place in Houston.

He lives in the country. So, I want to live in the country too. Okay, go move to the country. You'll have more fun out there, but you'll have a lot of, well, no, hell no. I know what you're trying to do. Look, just show me around. Just show me where I need to live. Faith.

I'll show you where you need to live. Okay. But after that, that's it. Nah. I'm not going no way with you from. Faith, we feel like, hey, we're going to kick it. I ain't got nobody. I know you

line We go kick it Drake said UK rappers are better than American rappers I don't know a whole lot of UK rappers You know what I don't know any UK rappers

but I don't have nothing against there UK or But just like me saying Colby was better than Jordan Yeah You know you have blueprint to study

right you know what I mean Jordan created the blueprint for you to study so for COVID to be better than him that's a possibility right you know if you study the blueprint

enough you probably you become the blueprint right so if UK rappers are better than the rappers from the United States they had enough to study true okay

and they had enough time to study it all right so no comment I mean that's my comment if you were to get let's say you know what somebody get face to come out who you like to get on the beat with nobody can't nobody get you to come out of retirement i'm done i got on cubes uh uh uh uh uh uh uh ego yeah but that's it that's best you're gonna do yeah ice queue i can come out for ice cube okay i did come up for cube right Houston you got Beyonce you got Beyonce you got Meg, you got Travis Scott, you got Lizzo, you got, bro, you got Bunby, you y'all, what's in Houston? What are we missing about Houston? Hell, the cat out the bag, and everybody moving there.

Got room for one more? Hell no, man. Because you bring company. So, yeah, um, um, we got some dope-ass artists, man. Man, you're missing a lot out of Houston, man. You know, you're missing a lot. You got, you got, you got, Slim's a native, Kiki's a native. Yeah. Paul.

Paul, well, yeah, Paul. Yeah. Little Kiki. Yeah. Sauce. Thomas, yeah. Clay, Kialong. Like, you got some heat coming out of Houston, man.

They can really go. K. Reno is one of the guys that came up a little before. I did, and I think he's the epitome of what Houston rap should have been, you know, or could have been, because he's a lyrical giant in it, you know. Matter of fact, he's on my album, I can't remember the song, but he's on the Emeritus album with the song of Me Slim and K. Reno. But he's a pillar in Houston hip hop, man. And it's a few more.

But we got some smoke out there, man. Yeah, you do. You do. You know? Do you think people start beats now just to get attention? Because I see a lot of people going there somebody. I'm like, I didn't even know they were beefing. When did this happen?

You're asking about rapping, man. I don't know too much about it no more. You know, I always thought that if he had a beef. Well, yeah, all right. The motherfucking went to the clothing. I'm going to get one. I got the edit button. Oh, you got a dang show to do.

When you, when you beefing with somebody, man, somebody actually did something to you back then. Okay. Yeah, for sure. Okay. And when you saw each other, you fought. Mm-hmm. All right.

Perfect example is like Ice Cube and W.A. When Cube left the group, and they both were at the new music seminar in New York. They fought. All right? Yeah. So when you got a beef, man, they fight. You fight.

You just somebody on a record. When you see them, you got to be prepared to do whatever you got to do. Yeah. But now, nowadays, they just talk. They're just talking. Yeah. It's just rapping. Kanye, you work with Kanye.

I did. What's Kanye you like in the studio? When I was working with Kanye, man, Kanye, Kanye is bad one. He's bad, bro. Oh, he got Kanye cold. Conier cold, cold, cold. Yeah. I think sometimes we forget about that face because we see some of the antics that he's got going on now.

Yeah. But you go back and look at college drop-off. Bro, eight o eight o'clock. Bro. Br. When Kanye would come to the studio, see, Kanye was a producer, man, before he started rapping. Correct. Okay? And he always, that's him on the dean.

On the guess who's bizarre? Is that, that's, that's, that's, that's, that's, that's Kanye. Wow. But Kanye, when he, back when he was making beats, man, like, he played beats for days and days and he just sit there and play him and

he'd be like, man. Wow, I got so many beats from Kanye from the fixed album and working on other stuff, but I got a lot of music with Kanye that never that I never put out. Right.

But Kanye was the producer, man. And we had that, we had a tight-ass producer-rapper relationship, man. And that was my friend, too, man. That's my partner. Right. You know? And that fork.

That fork in the road, you know, we all started together. I always feel like me and Jay and Ye. and DMX and Irvin. We were all in the office together. It was all in the office together. And we was leaving, we was riding, we was riding, and then they went here.

And I was like, you know what? I'm trying to go home. I went home, man. And I don't feel bad about going home, bro. I don't feel bad about going home. because i don't ever want to be in the position where i can't enjoy me i just want to enjoy me bro you know enjoy my life enjoy the the the fruits of my labor you know which ain't the whole lot of shit but it's mine and i ain't got to have no 75 traveling with me when i go somewhere

you know what i mean i don't have to hide and shit man i don't want to hide i don't want to run from nobody You know, I just want to wave at a and go on by my business. So I don't want to be too famous, never. Right. Sampling. Where are you on sampling? You let somebody sample some of your stuff? And if they do, do you have to hear it?

I don't care. I don't care about nothing that got anything to do with this no more. Damn. Very, very bitter about it. Why are you so bitter about it? I just. You feel you were wrong, taking advantage of? The music industry within itself is wrong.

Okay. All right. If you look at, I would like to compare contracts. I'd like to compare a Beastie Boys contract to a ghetto boy's contract. Or, you know what I mean? I'd like to see other. Yonra artists. Yeah, I would like to see.

see a amazed contract as opposed to a Van Halen contract. You feel what I know it's a big big difference between the pay skills in those contracts. But yeah, it's not, nah, bro. So I don't care what they do with it. What do you know now, you wish you had known then? I don't want to change nothing about it. You know, I'm right where I want to to be. Really? Yeah, I'm not, I don't, I don't need no whole lot. You know what I mean? Yeah, I don't need a lot. I mean, I don't, you pay it when I come to Houston. Huh? You pay it when I come to Houston. You're paying. You're going to reach in your back pocket, pull out your,

I don't know, maybe you carry a money clip or something, whatever, and you're going to put that down. Oh, what? You know, I like, you know, I like. Oh, you? Yeah. No, bro. Hull of how I'm going to come to Houston and you think I'm going to pay. Bro, I'm in Vegas and I ain't even had lunch yet and it's six o'clock. I haven't even had breakfast. I'm trying to figure out how that get to be my fault. I'm doing club shay-shay. We, you know, tight budget right now.

No bullshit. No bullshit. This concludes the first half of my conversation. Part 2 is also posted, and you can access it to whichever podcast platform you just listen to Part 1 on. Just simply go back to Club Shet Shay Profile, and I'll see you there. Get fired up, y'all. Season 2 of Good Game with Sarah Spain is underway.

We just welcomed one of my favorite people, an incomparable soccer icon, Megan Rapino, to the show, and we had a blast. Take a listen. Sue and I were like riding the lime bikes the other day and we're like, we're like, people ride bikes because it's fun. We got more incredible guests like Megan in store, plus news of the day and more. So make sure you listen to Good Game with Sarah Spain on the IHeartRadio app,

Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Brought to you by Novartis, founding partner of IHeart Women's Sports Network. I'm Jake Hofer, and this is Back 40, a limited series show on Wire to Hunt, part of Meat Eaters Podcast Network. Each episode, I'll be asking eight white-tail hunting pros, a focused, thought-provoking question about hunting and land management. How do I hunt the best part of the farm

with less than ideal access? Should you? That's what the real question is. Stand without good access is not a good stand. Listen to Back 40 on IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcast. This is an IHeart podcast.