Dissect - Isaiah Rashad Dissects 'IT'S BEEN AWFUL'

Episode Date: July 16, 2026

Isaiah Rashad joins Dissect to break down his new album 'IT'S BEEN AWFUL' in intimate detail. Host: Cole Cuchna Guest: Isaiah Rashad Engineer: Sarah Reddy Editor: Iulia Ciobanu Producer: Justin Sayles Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

I didn't want to have a lot of B words. Now you want to say bitch a lot. I got so many women in my family. Me and my brothers are like the only men in our family. After a while and with different events of my life made me kind of reflect on my own perspective. And I'm like, okay, I can still be successful without like being a pig. Sometimes it's easy though to lean on that as a writer, especially as a dude to be like, fuck a bitch. Yeah.

And that shit didn't make sense. It's like, it made me feel weak after a while, like, even listening to that kind of shit. Yeah. It's like, that's coming from a lack of self-love. This episode is presented by Sierra Nevada. Life's about embracing the haze. What does that mean? Living in the moment.

Seeing where the night takes you. Being up for the adventure. And there's no better way to embrace it than with hazy little thing by Sierra Nevada. Hasey, citrusy, smooth. Juicy, but not sweet. Hoppy, but not big. bitter. America's best-selling hazy IPA for good reason. Hazy little thing. Enjoy responsibly. Welcome for everyone to a very special episode of Dissect. I'm your host Cole Kushna. Today we're

honored to have Isaiah Rashad here to dissect his brand new album. It's been awful. Thank you for having me. Yeah, thanks for coming on, man. Congratulations on a very fantastic body of work. Thank you. How's it feel? No, that's out. It's, it's relief, I guess. You can say, I'm always looking forward. Where I used to be kind of amped about dropping it, I'm like, how can I make sure I keep promoting this? So people, you know, outside of the cult, it gets attached to it. Yeah.

Well, hopefully today's conversation helps. I got a thousand questions about the album. I had a thousand answers. I got a lot of lyrics and themes and stuff I want to talk to you about. But I like to start my conversations off with getting to know your relationship with music a little bit more. Yeah. Question I like to ask artists is, you know, there's a moment in our lives in which music is something that we hear just kind of in the background. And at some point, it transforms into something that we have a real deep, meaningful relationship with.

I'm wondering when that happened for you and if there was like an artist or album or a song even that made that transformation possible. I'd say, it's this guy in Chattanooga, Tennessee. Mr. Bell, he was my high school band instructor. So around middle school, high school, when I was playing a clarinet and all that, I got into a garage band, and that's what really convinced me. And it got me into, like, the act of love of, like, making music. Just getting garage band. But the artists, specifically, I'm from Chattanooga.

So the first artist, like, they really did that for me was Usher. Oh, really? man yeah amazing do you remember like a song or an album specifically US H-E-R which one is that one I should notice I'm such a

it's one of the it's on the My Way album it was the My Way album that really did it for me okay yeah all right but especially around 8701 that was like 2002 maybe something like that my aunt gave me that and I was convinced at that moment

that I couldn't like be a singer for real It could not be a singer? Could not be a singer because I can't do that. But I definitely was like, man, it got me in a songwriting. Plus, you know, lyric books and stuff. They used to be in the back of CDs. Right, yeah, yeah. I've always been, like, in the literature, so.

Yeah, yeah. Kind of went hand in hand. But definitely middle school. Mr. Bell. Shout out. Yeah, shout out, Mr. Bill. So you're into, what kind of literature were you into? Originally, my mom just had me into a lot of, like, you know, black autobiographical,

name of civil rights icon or a staple and she had me reading that oh that's cool punishment she just had me reading and writing a dictionary just for and eventually it became practice and stuff

that's I've got kids that's actually a really good idea or something to write do you remember like the first song you wrote or the first rap man I might have it I might be able to have somebody actually saying it to me

I would love that it was like the nine the 10th grade, we were recording on those MacBook pros. Is it pro? The laptop or the huge? With the colorful.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. But they were like, when they first got flat. Oh, right, right, yeah, yeah. It was like those where they were like, that shit was tight. You know what I'm saying?

But they had like a mic at the top. So you go in garage band, you upload your beat or whatever. And we were going to in a tech lab when nobody was there, like probably during lunch or whatever and just flow. So I was about the flunk.

Like ninth grade? Because I was spending my first half of my first half of school trying to get the whatever rap I can get in You know what I'm saying? That type of shit Do you remember any like lyrics specifically? No, I was corny though. It was like some machismo.

Yeah. Macho, macho, I'm the shit. Of course. Yeah. My mama told me not to listen to them bitches no more and never since I'm riding in my Honda solo. A photo, it's kind of busted. And get me to my girlfriend house

so I can bust it. How's your relationship with music? change since it's become your career? I look for days where it's like, let me quit cold with you. I look for days where it's not work. Like yesterday it was work. And I knew when I walked into it, I wouldn't go in to do it. But other days is like, what flow can I catch?

More or less, how can I impress myself like on an artistic level? Yeah. Like that's really what keeping going. Right. Just entertainment. Yeah. Yeah. So it does feel like work sometimes, but still at its best.

You still have like the pure connection to it. When I'm not in a good headspace or in the headspace that I want to be in is work. It's because I haven't done anything, like probably their day. Like if I get up, go to the gym, have a little salad, then go, that's literally in my routine sometimes. And then go straight to the studio without stopping in like the Lachma or taking a walk somewhere. then yeah, because I haven't stimulated my mind. So it's like work mode. Right.

Okay. Is music for you like a reflection of your life or is it a way to change your life? Do you find like you are able to change yourself through your music or is it more like a reflection or maybe both? Maybe both. Yeah. Because I definitely will go back and listen to stuff that I wrote before and I'll be like, man, why was I thinking like that? Or, you know. Yeah.

It'll be something. not too proud of, more or less. So it'll go from there. And I guess you could say it's a reflection or review for me. I'm reviewing. Right. Or reviewing my thoughts, gathering them. And I guess like trying to make a comprehensive or an easy-to-under-story out of it.

Yeah. Well, I wanted to get into the album. But before we get to the music, I wanted to acknowledge the roll out, which I thought was really cool. Thank you. So for those that don't know, there was like a four episode. I think you called it the Sunny Roshi TV episodes. Is that right? It's your DJ, DJ Sunny Roshi coming to you live on WWUR worldwide underground radio.

The People's Radio. So for those that weren't familiar with it, how would you describe the kind of the story that these episodes? episodes tell. I guess to sum it up, WWUR World Wide Underground Radio. Yeah. Also, yeah. DJ Sunny Roshi is your character, I would say, right? It's one of my aliases, one of my few alices, yeah. But it was, I guess like a visualization of how I kind of was going about, well, you can say there's an analogy about hallucinations and psychosis with drugs in there. Right. Because I'm just...

Like the day, the road trip. I'm talking to myself. All these people, all these characters in it are just in my head. Nobody's there. Right. Except, you know, maybe like gas station clerk or a waitress. Waitress. Yeah.

But outside of that, nobody's there. It's really just me dealing. It's like a visualization of me dealing with myself. Or the uncomfortableness that sometimes people have or sometimes I've had being alone. you know, yeah, when, when being alone feels dangerous.

In the early episodes, so you're broadcasting your music, and we see like schoolboy Q trying to tune into the radio station, then the next, then Siza tries to do the same thing, but the reception's going in and out. Yeah.

I think it's the beginning of the same shit music video. There's a distorted connection. So there's this, you can kind of take that, you can kind of take even, even that is like a, a representation of a desire to directly connect with people. That's how I.

Especially through music and from either from artist to artists or just to the fan base. Like, I hate calling it that, but the technical turn for it. Because they just, they support, man. I guess that is what a fan is, though. It just feels like pedestally sitting on one. It's community. Yeah, this is community, like an active community.

You know what I mean? Yeah. So it's like my desire to give. them an unfiltered version of what might be going through my head. Because a lot of times I can get overly poetic and just kind of mask whatever I'm actually feeling behind a bunch of stuff. Right. But you have to dig through dissect to get it.

Yeah. Well, I mean, we'll talk about it when we get to the music, but I mean, you seem to be more transparent on this album. I think I've read somewhere, was it for this album where you said, like Kendrick was an inspiration in terms of someone saying like... He had told me the last album, but it had a... apply heavier on this one. Because every time I put something out, I'm trying to figure out.

From an artistic standpoint, how can I do better? And while allowing myself just to make whatever I'm feeling like making at that time. And then from a technical aspect, I'm trying to figure out how could I? Because at the end of the day, I'm an entertainer. And you want to reach as many people as possible. So I'm like, what could I do to tweak this to get me closer to the championship per se? Okay. Well, let's talk about the women because they're super fascinating to me.

in the story. So you're driving on this road trip. You see two women on the side of the road. They ask where you're going. You're saying, I don't have a destination. They end up getting in the car with you. And they're always hungry, which is, I thought was really clever. Insatiable appetites.

Which leads me to, I think, what they symbolize, or at least one of them is. So there's the last episode, you guys are sitting down at a diner. Yeah. And one orders scrambled eggs. one orders over easy over easy and it I think in least it seems pretty clear that that's a kind of a symbol of what they represent you have scrambled so what is I say about you it's messy it's in pieces but it's still together and then we have that over easy over that runny premature I think you say about the over easy runny

running eggs, you say escapeism, flip it how you want to flip it, but eventually it comes running out. So what were these women representing in the rollout? Man, okay, I guess it's going to sound odd, but kind of me, like, to an extent. And I don't like to beat it over the head, but it was like the duality, not even a duality, but like the exploration of like, I might not have been able to get it out as thoroughly as I wanted to, there was an exploration between my relationship with women and then my relationship with gender roles and then my relationship with the drugs all kind of wrapped up into like one package right yeah yeah i got i think i definitely got like i took the hunger aspect of it as like

yeah insatiable a craving for escapeism escapeism but um overindulgence too right you know i mean just a craving for more without while at on this figurative road trip, trying to figure out why sometimes I'm not just satisfied with myself. Right. Well, escapism feels like it's a pretty heavy theme on the album. I don't know if you're intentionally doing this, but it seems like naturally maybe from your life experiences. Yeah, man, running. Yeah, right. I've always found myself running. Which is the runny eggs, right? Yeah. Well, and a lot of the imagery in the music videos, it's same shit too where you end up like running, right? Yeah. Which is, I mean, what are you running from exactly?

Myself. Even if you go to the end of the video, like, where I catch myself. Right. You know what I mean? Yeah. It's more that, you know, the biggest obstacle itself. Yeah. At least that's my opinion.

Right. Besides the government. Well, we'll talk about that because that comes up a bunch too. Actually, so there is a very specific question. I like to geek out on details if you haven't figured that out already. I like it. So your album ends with the 719 freestyle. And then in the diner scene, episode four, when it does the jump cut, I think, yeah, the fast forward where it says seven hours and 19 minutes later.

What the fuck does 719 meet? I've been trying to figure what this meet because it's seven hours and 19 minutes later and the 719 freestyle. It's, okay, I name the titles to my songs either based on what I was doing when I did. it. Okay. Or something that kind of to me sums up what the song means to me in like one word and I literally made it on July 19th. Oh shit. Okay. Nothing deep about it. I made it July 19 like last year year. Okay. All right. It could be deeper than that though. I was looking up area codes and like I fucked that up. I should have I should have just bullshit it. No, it's good. I like the honesty. We need that. Okay, but so album title.

be closer to the music. It's been awful. I feel like the first time I heard this title, I'm not alone in this either because what I've read online and stuff. Like, it just was like, someone like captured it. Like it just resonated so much with the moment. Yeah.

And I know you're talking about your personal life, but there was something about just a lot of it though. A lot of a lot of when I come up with titles, it's to be kind of broad, like for person to person. I like that. That's why like I like, I like to think of them as like book titles, you know,

take it how you want to take it. Right. So it's definitely like a part of it is a representation of my life, but it's definitely like just how everything felt. Like what you said. Yeah, I think, and you addressed that on the album too. I mean, obviously it's very personal, but there are moments where you like directly address government

and like the bullshit that they're feeding us and like just kind of capturing the kind of universal experience that then like compounds the personal experience, right? Like, especially in these times. Well, but you had the original title of All My Heroes or Junkies, right? Yeah, it was a spin on an Ed Brubaker book that I love. Yeah. That has the same title?

All my heroes have been junkies. Was his book title? And it's like a murder mystery. And I feel like I was kind of making somewhat of a, uh, this chapter, a little story of my life or whatever been going on. So I thought that had been a cool, like, homage, especially because I'm such a huge, just literature fan, period. Yeah. But then I was like, with more respect to just being an art, then maybe I should just come up with something original.

Where did, so when, do you remember when you came up with, it's been awful? If it was Mama, it's been awful. And then I thought, this is too specific. Because especially, the battle was the how I was going to spell Mama. Was it M-O-A, M-M-M-M-M-M-A, or M-A-M-A, and even in that. I was like, I don't want to use this. It's too much. Yeah. I'm like, people identify with things in a different kind of.

Yeah. I don't know. And so I just cut it down. It's been awful. Well, Mama, I mean, I have a question about that later because your mom comes up on like over half the songs, I feel like. Yeah. And I'll save that question until we get there. But I did want to ask you about the album art, too. Because I think I saw it on Instagram. it revealed that it was shot at the Chattanooga Public Library Auditorium. Yeah.

So is there any significance to that location, do you? Because Chattanooga, for those that don't know, is your home? I'm from Chattanooga, Tennessee, and when I was a kid, I spent a lot of time in the library. Okay. A lot of time in the computer labs and the kids level. My mom was pursuing being a teacher at the time until she pivoted into being a hairstyle again full time. but we spent a lot of time there

me, my little brothers, my brother that helped me produce this album, we spent a gang of time there and I just like, I like to timepiece things that are important to me, maybe, and I'd be hoping that it's important to other people from even like the Shot You Down video. The Shot You Down video

is at a project building like complex that was about to be torn down and I kind of want to commemorate the memory of that And I do that with a lot of stuff, like with certain lyrics that I might put in songs. It's just a commemoration of things that I held kind of dear to myself as a child. It looks good, too. Yeah, the red. Yeah, like so Stanley Kubrick thing, kind of type of vibes.

Yeah, no, for sure. Okay, so let's get into, I guess, into the music itself. The first question I have is about the, well, it seems like you're a world builder pretty intentionally. the rollout is exemplary of building a world and then the music to me especially on this album I think any fan of you understands like you have a very distinct idiosyncratic sound from you know starting from the very first projects but this one to me stood out in that it feels like the most cohesive sonic piece you have from start to finish in terms of production where everything there's sonic variety. Thank you. But it all feels of the same world. I'm wondering how you went about crafting

that because it feels like more than beat selection. It feels like intentional choices with mixing or like the effects on your voice. Like how deliberate were you in like building the consistency of that? I wanted to take the best parts. Thank you for saying it too. That was a nice, very nice compliment. I wanted to take what I viewed as much. some of my more favorite parts of my styles, the different styles that I implement, and kind of put them in one place. But without the roughness of it going from every different world,

I kind of wanted to, like you said, I wanted to be in one world. Yeah. But I wanted to hit like the alternative inflections of like the nothing to hides and the straight forward storytelling of act normal or the slippery, like type of just woozy shit of how new sublime confessional kind of shit yeah those are like some of my favorite parts of all kinds of music like so

mostly I wanted to be something that you could dance to or like ride to or cry to those are like the yeah the main three yeah try to hit like in terms of like just the sonics of it though intention though yeah are you but about how like like are you part of the mixing process? Because it feels... Oh, yeah. Yeah, yeah. Like, are you kind of directing

like how things should just sound? I'm now more than I used to... I used to be so hands-on that I would fuck the mixer. Because I don't know what the fuck I'm talking about. Like, I know how I wanted the sound, but I'm not thinking about a lot of times how it's translating from this area,

like planting in here, or planting in, like, a bucket, or playing in a really new car or playing it on a boat or wherever playing in the alley. So I definitely have sonically how I want it to feel textually. Like on a texture,

on a texture, textually is the word, is it? I mean, that's a great word for what the album experiences though. It's very textual. Whatever. If that's a word, I get it. I want it to like, because if you listen to it in headphones, you can hear all these different voices that we put into it that, depending

on, if you listen to how you're speaker in your car's tune, you're not going to hear that. Yeah. Like, but I definitely wanted to like put you in a world, bro. No, no, I'm glad you pointed that out because there are, you'll hear something new on every single song with every single listen, whether it's a background vocal or just like a little production thing that comes in and out. But the thing is why I'm trying to get at here is like, even though all that you have all

these layers and things, it still doesn't, it never sounds like, like dynamically, it never gets to like a 10. I'm doing my best impression of like what not for, they're going to misquote me for over like how George Clinton shit would be or the super eclectic outcast songs like heavy stacked layer. Yeah. Like I always like that kind of stuff and I always got. I understood even though I didn't always like.

And shout out to what I'm about to who I'm about to say like Rick Ross and currency and Even like early, between 2000 and 2006, rappers used to stack their verses super, super, in a way that I understood it, but I never liked it. So like, but it was emulating this force that you get the same way you get from all those heavily stacks, from those, that type of stuff. Right.

So like, at the end of the day, though, it was like, your ears just reacting to like, you know, those layers. Yeah. It's being tickled by it. It likes it. So I try to incorporate that. Yeah. But what's cool about it, though,

Like usually when you're stacking stuff, it brings the dynamic up, right? Yeah. For yours, it's like, it's dense, where it's like the volume doesn't increase, but the density does. Yeah. That's how you maintain the kind of more understated sound. That's what I think is so brilliant about the album, is that it does have all these details, but it still sounds very, bare bones is the wrong word. No, minimal though.

Yeah, yeah. We try and, we, I would try to have a lot of those. type of like details for enthusiasts damn near yeah i understand not everybody's looking for there's people like it yeah but i like having everything yeah like i'm trying to put six guitars and i'm like and i'm like but we can't make it clash right we can't i'm trying to do everything we can't yeah you know yeah um one of the details i love about this record sonically is the horns yeah was there a intention i was talking to your brother before this before we're band boys man we come from playing in the band okay okay and we play clarinet

i didn't know that's cool yeah play clarinet and my brother played the trombone oh cool my other brother play i think the tuba soundplay but um yeah and we're constantly listening to just whatever jazz is on the radio yeah you know i mean that's the channel that i usually have it on yeah i love the especially like the middle part of the album it feels like the horns are more present but i love how it's like they make sense on all the songs even though I want to build it up especially like how we were once we realized how we were gonna place the album

and how I was gonna have it set up trackless-wise I'm like okay so the singles or the front I'm not always a fan of that I kind of like have them in the middle in the back whatever yeah but cameras cameras comes pretty late not a single yet oh I assumed it's gonna be though

tell maybe but I'm glad you have a respect for it like yeah that's fire yeah but definitely like wanted to get wanted to progressively get more musical. Okay. And then kind of end back on a really basic level, or if you want to call a 719 basic, but like a

here's rap. That's kind of what I. Yeah, yeah. You know what I mean? Yeah, kind of shit. Okay, so I do have some specific questions. I tried to pick like a handful of songs that I think could represent like larger themes and kind of consistent motifs that are the album addresses. So I'll start with the,

new sublime. I'm cut from a sinful nation. I feel afflicted falling over. Ask me who I'm fucking I've been fucking up. Since they sent my sister back to jail back when we will pop us in. If I romanticize them purses, I might relapse again. Give it up. One of my favorite tracks on the album.

Thank you. So the opening line is so good, dude. And it's so immediate. Like you get this little just like two or three. second little production introduction, and then it's like you get your first verse right away. And the opening line, I'm cut from a sinful nature and I feel afflicted. Did you, when you're writing this verse and that line, did you know it was going to be the album opener? After I made this song, I was hoping it was the intro for a couple weeks.

And then I was like, this is too heavy and too direct. I need like, you know, I have like these different ideas strategically how I went to do the track list. At first it was like to not be so direct with and not so personal and it'd just be all music no, not music, no message, but mostly just music. Okay. And then message towards the end, you know, or reflection towards the end of the album. Yeah. But then it just seemed to make sense to get it out the way.

That, in a respectful kind of way. That, I mean, I think like, this might be my brain, but I think of like Adam and Eve when I hear that line. Like the original sin. I'm cut from the sinful nature, which I was thinking about my lineage. Right. I was like the men that raised me and the men that didn't raise me who I didn't know in my family. Like, I remember my granddad and, you know, you go off the stories of all these type of people. And I'm like, am I like cursed, you know, type of shit?

I understand specific to your story, but I feel like that is the story of man. You know what I mean? And that's why I love it as an album opener because it balances the line, at least to my ears, of like personal and universal. As an artist man, like, as a writer, like, the best compliment I could have is when somebody takes my music is personal to their life. Like, more, sometimes even more personal than I take it. Like, if you feel like this is you, you know what I mean? I think all honest music, everyone relates to honest music. You can tell when someone's being 100% themselves.

I think there's moments on this album where you're doing exactly that. And I think the specifics at that point don't matter. It's the universal, you're capturing something about the human experience that is everyone connects to when you're being this honest, I think. I feel that way about Bill Wethers, a lot of his music. Yeah. I think all the great artists had it. That's the connection. Yeah, that's the connection between all of them.

So there's not a ton of like rapidy rap, for lack of a better word on the album in terms of like, what's rabiddy rap? Like on tondra, like layered stuff and like, oh yeah. That's never really been my style. Never really been your, but there is a moment here on the opening, on the opening verse where you say, giving up my home, I've been the Clarkist Kent at my lowest, which has. this play on Lois, but also Lois as in Superman's girlfriend. And it seems like this idea of like Superman and Superpowers is one of the more consistent

thematic things going on across the entire record. So it's established here in the very first eight bar verse of the album. I'm wondering when you say I've been at my clock. Marcus Kent. Obviously there's idea of like- I be trying to save people before I save myself, trying to help people when I'm not either mentally fit to be doing that or at times financially fit to be doing that. And I'm like everybody, you know what I'm saying?

May be able to relate to that. But it's definitely understanding through experience, mom, that I do have a mortality. I can't, you know what I'm saying? and that but then i guess the superman aspect of it too and the flip is like hope it's don't sound crazy but like on one side is understanding my mortality but then on the other side is understanding like my infinite lifespan that i'll have from the music so that's what comes like that's where the enjoying it and being intentional about it a little more than i was like i'd say on my last round

i love the house is burning too but just like being more intentional about intentional about what i'm actually saying I'm like oh this gonna live forever I'm gonna live forever yeah yeah well there's also it seems like there's also like a because that later on the album you say you'd be fucking anybody on that powder makes you feel invincible yeah on the same song you say superpowers superman don't overuse them the penultimate second the last song on the album is literally called superpowers yeah so it seems my reading of that the album kind of the arc of it is like doing drugs and feeling invincible, but then trying to find the real superpowers, which I assume is like who you really are. There's a certain reward and value in yourself.

The escapeism through drugs, alcohol, sex, whatever, you can't really get. It's a certain amount of peace you get from patients. And it sucks sometimes. I was having this conversation with my daughter about to again go on to to to stay on the superhero type of thing about the character beast from X-Men and about she was like he's scary and he because he's like a blue monster and I'm like well we got a lesson for you his she's like what I'm like he's like he's like that because he experimented with himself instead of accepting himself at first he was just a he was a mutant and he had huge hands he had huge feet but he had all these abilities he could do he was so smart that he thought he could think his way out of the way God made him or

you know whatever you assign your creation to you know I'm saying but I was talking to my kid so yeah it was like that yeah yeah yeah I'm like yeah I'm like so it just it it took his inside reflection and made it who he was on the outside yeah yeah yeah there's lessons in that yeah um inside representation not reflection so on the the third verse um you say something that also reoccur is you say it's profit over love again you say the same thing on happy hour it's profit over love you uh seems that's what we're sick about so what does that what profit over love mean it's private over love again seem like this what we sing about i promise you the new sublime i promise you the truth is i promise not to lose myself i promise not

to shame my god priority of getting money over um you know intimate moments. Yeah, I feel like a lot of people on the go, which is the reflection of, you know, where we at in the world? If you're in America or whatever, everybody got to work, man. You know, and as an artist, you know, you sacrifice birthdays. You sacrifice just intimate moments that you wouldn't at another space even realizing, you know what I'm saying?

I don't get to do this. So I miss this. I miss that. And in those moments, this profit over loving. And I guess it was kind of off the cuff of. me somewhat being like fuck it this is what it is you know but then on the other end depending on how i'm saying it's like a sad fuck like damn it's profit over loving yeah i promise you the new sublime well that was my next question what is the new sublime so the new sublime is

my promise to my supporters my fans myself my family of a new experience anytime i hop on a mic Like, anytime I deliver a new project, no matter if it's a grandiose concept thing or just a mixtape, it's going to carry that feeling. Okay. You know, a new euphoria. I promise you a change. A new sublime, too, a new change, not just that old feeling that we had. Yeah. Yeah, the whole third verse is beautiful.

I promise you, the new sublime, I promise you the truest art. I promise not to lose myself. I promise not to shame my God. Yeah. Are you talking to someone specific? Are you just talking to yourself? I was talking to anybody that care about me. You know?

Yeah. Anybody from view of you give a fuck about me. But it's like I understand. You know, the albums have always been like, it's always had some type of story attached to my personal life. But I wanted to post this to just be able to give you, music and to be able to like shit's say

shit's great. She's been cool. I've been, you know, I've been able to take advantage of all the opportunities that have been put in front of me and all the love that I receive and instead of just being holed up in the house

or hold up wherever not being present in that and looking for something that I'll never find, you know. For people that find success, you know, I always wonder, I imagine, sometimes I have felt this way, even with the little success I've had with this show, it's like you receive positivity and love from strangers essentially. Yeah. That feels very genuine.

But then it can, sometimes you can feel like unworthy of it or like you're not deserving of that. An imposter syndrome. Yeah. Yeah. I don't have you ever felt like that? Yeah. Oh, yeah. Hell yeah.

It's so real. It's okay. It's because sometimes I feel like I'm in this, in this fantasy by myself to where I've used all this brain power to manifest. And I can say that, that me as a nine-year-old

was reading a Jet magazine looking at MasterPie on the front, and I said, I'm going to do this. And me at 12 years old writing poetry and watching 106 in Park and I'm looking at my mom and I'm writing this rap and I'm like, I'm writing this rap

and I'm like, I'm gonna do this. And when I'm 14 and that computer lab and we're all, it's like 10 of us doing these verses going back and forth and I hear mine back and I'm like, damn, I'm gonna do this. You know? Yeah. So when you do it to an extent,

after you get there, it's like, it's this battle of like now. What's God? What's you? even in that's like a weird you know or what is god allowing me to do how much power do i actually have right in my manifestation and what in what i say yeah you know it's like then it's like so if i believe it now if i doubt it can i not do it no more i'm having a bad day right so is it all gone yeah you know are just a one am i one trick pony or am i just here to be the example for the kid from my town that's actually going to do it and then that's like part of the

that is like kind of cool but then a part of it is like I want that fucking grammy too you know I want you know yeah it might be arbitrary other people but you know I want yeah I want things I want tourists I want this yeah I want it okay so the 144 the final chorus of the new sublime I get tears every time I hear this part where the drums drop out and the strings come in I wish Julian was here for this dude is that who wrote that the strings on that? It's how we arranged it. We put that drop there. Shout to Julian, man.

And my mix engineer, James Hunt. But me and Julian mapped out the whole thing. I'm very proud of the part I plan producing my own tracks. It's me getting the beat. Yeah, I mean, this moment transcends. I mean, it's what I love about music the most. You know, like where you're singing

somebody pray for me, I'm going crazy. and I mean it sounds like the new sublime to me thank you but I rarely every time I hear it I think of this word medicinal like there's a when I'm hearing it it feels like healing

like the feeling you get when you listen to gospel music like that's that moment that final stretch of the song is so good it's so beautiful I pick up for me I'm crazy somebody pick off from my sister she's going to create I'll be crazy

Somebody pray for me. I'll go crazy. I'd be trying to, I have this love-hate relationship with going to church. Okay. It's like I love... And I'm... I probably have a problem with being present, too,

because my patience in certain places. Right. Like, I love the music. I want to hear the message. Or I love a message. I want to hear the music. Like, one of the two is taking it too long. You know what I'm saying?

Yeah, yeah. But I've always, like, been fascinated with faith and people's connection to it. And I've had this respect. It was, you know, everybody goes through this. Maybe not everybody, but a lot of people go through this. I went to church a whole bunch. Now I don't like church. Right now.

But then it's like, it's a fuck church phase. And now it's like a, I kind of want to go to church. Or I kind of, I want to talk to somebody about my faith. And no matter what this faith is. Like, I want to talk to somebody about my appreciation or my, the battles that I feel that the universe is throwing at me and I'm trying to make sense of it. Yeah. And sometimes with music, I feel like I hit a little part of like gospel that I can fuck with.

Yeah. And when I do that, like, I'll fuck with it. No, I mean, to me, it's like the, it's exactly what we're talking about earlier, which is like outside of lyrics and themes and that stuff, like music just as an art form, as a this thing you can't touch or see or is it yeah at it at its highest at its like most powerful it is i think touching the divine like you capture whatever that thing is yeah the intangible yeah and like a moment like this like congratulations because no thank you man that's a really crazy compliment uh okay so man on the mission this is what this is what i'm talking about like

sonic variety. So you come off of this gorgeous, spiritual, like, string-led thing. And then you get to Man on the Mission, which is like more upbeat, but it still feels in the same universe. It doesn't feel like a big jump. Oh, and then you say it, well, okay, when you do the outcast, are you not out? Is it break or pray? Break.

Oh, it's break. Okay. I thought you said. I should have said it, pray. That's what I was, because you, okay, yeah, maybe. Let me, let me, let me, let me, let me, uh, executive. Yeah, but you should have said it pre. Because I thought it was like, that's a cool twist on. Yeah. Edit that out. Yeah.

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Embrace the haze with Sierra Nevada hazy little thing. Enjoy responsibly. Okay, but man on the mission, great track, upbeat track. Natural question is, what's the mission?

What's taking you back and forth? The mission, basic as fuck. Get some money. Get some money. They've made this into a capitalist capital is fucking supremely about money. Everything's about money type of thing.

So I'd be, you know what I'm saying? Remiston, I be thinking about money when I wake up in the morning. Yeah. I got out of his family. But the taking me back and forth is the why. Why am I doing this? Yeah. Why am I, you know, trying to respect the art and not making it be work. Right.

That'll run me up a wall, you know, sometimes. Because depending on the mind frame that you are, and not all these songs, usually these songs are get out anyway, but depending on the mind frame I'm having, I'll find myself writing some shit that I don't feel, like, connected to. And then I have to reflect and be like, damn, why did I write this? Why did I just try to make something for people to like,

instead of making something that sounded good, and I hope it connects for somebody. Yeah. Because I feel like that's when I'm in my purist, when I'm just like, oh, this sounds great. Not This is free Then in fucking Ohio

I'm making it specifically for these kids Like It don't be honest Did those any of those songs make it on the album? Hell no, they never do They never make it I can be proud to say that That's awesome yeah

But then also just the The addictions were taking me back and forth As a man on a miss you know Fucking my reward systems Fuck You know You know You know, so just the back and forth, from sanity to sobriety.

Yeah. You know, superhumanisms. The three S's. Yeah. Really great opening lines on this, too. There's like this double rhyme scheme happening. My mama don't want no drugs up in this house. Hide the dust.

I'm levitating off this love. And when you doubt, it's like you flushed it. That baby don't know the price to hit these heights. Don't you touch it. My mind was screaming jump, jump, jump, jump. So in my reading of these lines, it's like, heights. You have the drug high, levitating off a love high.

And baby don't know the price to hit these heights, I'm assuming might be like success. Yeah. And then you say my mind was screaming jump, jump, jump, jump. Yeah. Is that? My mom was screaming, get out of here. Your mom was? My mind.

Oh, your mind. My mind was screaming jump. Right. Jump. Yeah, right. Like, you know, when you're on the edge. Yeah. Like, fuck it.

Just go. Just do it. Like, fuck this shit. Like, fuck this. Go make some raps in a garage. Fuck all this pressure. You know what I'm saying? I took a darker reading to jump, jump, jump.

Don't kill yourself? Yeah. After all these. Yeah. Fortunately for this album, I wasn't really suicidal. Okay. I've been suicidal in my life. And I haven't felt those feelings like for about like six years. That's good.

About five, six years. I've been better on myself. So, you know, people do get past it. Kids. Right. Yeah. Yeah. But yeah, definitely like, it was more like quit. My mom was screaming, quit, quit, quit, quit.

Quit drugs? Quit everything. What's everything? What's everything? quicks, quit rapping, quit. Or professionally rapping. Oh, really? Yeah, it's like just the factors.

To me, I'm all about having fun. And when business supersedes it being fun, I just want to have fun. So the back and forth is like, well, you want to, you better pay your fucking bills, you know? Yeah. That's the back and forth. Yeah. I never quit making music, though. Well, yeah.

Well, I wanted to talk to you about your mom because she does come up on this song right away. I mean, I just wrote down a few examples, but there's a ton. My, on superficially say, my mama intervening. I want to see a cleaner or see you cleaner. Happy, I already say hurt my mama cry, but that's not enough to bring me home. Yeah. So what is, she seems like the voice of reason. My mom is a huge character.

She's my mom. Yeah, right. In my life, yeah. She's one of my best friends. Yeah. If not, the best friend. Is she that voice of reason most of the time? She's definitely, I hear in my head sometimes being like, don't do that, motherfucker.

That's five of tears. Wow, that's interesting that she's almost in the title of the album, too. Yeah. But she's on the cover, though, the alternative cover in front of the trailer. This is me and my mom. Okay. Yeah. So why did the title, I guess, have her in it?

Why mama, it's been awful? I think she's who opinion matters the most of me. Yeah. Like, at the end of, you know, this whole project was like, if in another, in an alternative universe, the alternative universe, somewhere in the last couple of years, my career completely went.

And I couldn't put out an album. In another universe. This album is the album I made in that universe when I couldn't make nothing else. When it was like, all right, I'll just make it. I'm making it because I love making music. And I'm back in Chattanooga. Yeah.

And, you know, if something comes with this, something comes on me. But if nothing happens, I need to get out this fix I have in my chest to fucking record something. Yeah. That's this album? Yeah. Okay.

You made it in Chattanooga? No, no. In my mind, though. Okay. Right. Yeah. In my mind. No, I made this shit in Studio City.

Okay. Yeah. Okay. So verse two of this song is when we get a little bit more of the societal stuff that we're talking about earlier. Yeah. So comes up in verse one. You say, can you spot a lie when the government tied to it.

But then verse two, you kind of really get into, you know, Dylan digging through the cell phone records, everything for sale, even hell. Soon they'll be trying to sell the air. Yeah. This one, I think, really resonates to. Paid my bills and it still don't work. Yeah. And then ask my dog if we're still on Earth.

Eli ain't through the cell phone records. Everything for sale. Even hell, my nigga. Pay my bills and it still don't work. As my dog, we still on earth. What are those lines saying? Well, I guess with everything, well, I guess I got a question. I don't be guessing.

With everything that's going on, you know, like, shit, it's a, it's a, it's a, it's a, Data Center heat wave going on on the East Coast. Right. It's a lot of shit. Not to give, like, Elon Musk or anybody too much, like, airtime, but it's a lot of stuff that's going on in Tennessee that I'm aware of as far as infrastructure that they're getting to, you know what I'm saying, with a lot of places, they're getting to go over city councils and over just votes to just put stuff in people's neighborhoods.

Right. And that shit was in my mind. It's a factor in me wanting to move. to LA, I mean, moved to back to Tennessee or to the south because, you know, California costs a lot, but you gotta pay for your freedom. Yeah.

You pay for your freedom here. You don't really pay, you pay, but you don't really get the freedom in a lot of other places, but that type of stuff. So, yeah, I mean, I have such a strong opinion

of the government and stuff like that that damn they're like, don't even like sharing it. Now that makes me curious what it is. It's just we're fucked. Yeah. More or less, we're fucked. I'll be like, go get some money. bro get some money find some where you should go go find a community where like maybe y'all could

have a say something like what's going on in the city but and a lot of major places you're trying to go it's kind of it's not going to happen unless you go pay somebody some back door shit right yeah it's uh well that i think this idea not to be a dumer either no but it's true like the profit over love it says so much like in terms of like how you gotta go to work man well even like the way money funnels in the exchange between money and government is just like sickening at this point. It's like they're not even trying to hide it these days.

Yeah. It's about profit. It's about the gain. The margins, like human life. Yeah. It isn't important to a lot of people unless it's like directly in front of them. And then even in, somebody might walk over your body. Yeah.

Yeah. All right. Same shit. There's some debate online about this song, about the cadence of this song, and where it comes from. I'm saying pocket full of knots, too. Not nuts.

I keep hearing that, and it's like, it's a pocket full of knots. You heard it here first. Yeah. The closest reference I thought I heard was DeBlow by Little John. Was that the reference point of the song? It was a reference to him and, yeah, gangster boom on the same song. Was it the beat inspired that reference? Like, what about this song made you think of that song?

It might have been the beat. I have like, maybe other artists have it too. When I hear a beat, flow kind of just hit me immediately. Yeah. Like my brain does this process of elimination of finding the best one. And it's like, okay, this is the one. When it happens fast, does that mean it's a good sign that this is probably something?

Yeah. Do you ever have to, like, struggle to find it and you're happy with it? Or is it usually the ones that come? If I struggle to have to find it, I usually don't even like it after it. Like, unless I just love that beat and I need to get off something on it. But then if it becomes more about conquering a beat versus it is about just being free-flowing, a lot of times the result is kind of. Yeah.

You know what I mean? So a lot of songs that you've heard, it's like first 10 minutes, 15 minutes, as soon as I heard it. Is that same with the lyrics too? Yeah. They kind of come, or at least the severity of how for real I want to be. about on the song kind of comes like am I talking about my life right or if I'm am I just are we just bullshit and we smoking and bullshit and I kind of get that is that the end like just

whatever energy yeah the beat and the flow come together and give me I'm like okay this is my responsibility to this as an artist right this is what is telling me to do yeah I think a lot of artists have that experience where it's like at a certain point you're just serving you're in service of something that you're just like you're finding something that art yeah I mean, being a conduit. You feel like that? Yeah. Yeah.

All the time, we're just like the best moments. The best moments. The other time is work. I'm working to feel like that. Right. You know what I mean? Even if it's like having this, I need to write something. I got, I got this creative energy in my head and I need to get it out.

And then after I've gotten out this song that I hate, that I hate it while I was writing it. but I had to do it. Yeah. Then some easy comes. It's like, oh, shit. All of a sudden, the homies send me two beats instead of 10. Instead of 10 just really cool beats, he sent me two, five. Boom.

It's the universe is rewarded. And it just, yeah, yeah, you feel me? Yeah. That's how it works, I feel like. You got to earn, you have to earn the good luck. Yeah. You know, or at least put yourself in the position. Yeah, be in tune, be ready for it.

Yeah. Okay, so one of the things I think really, works on the album is like, obviously it's dealing with a lot of like heavy topics, but you do find like levity and like there's a lot of positive self-talk on the album. Yeah. I feel like same shit is like a good example of that because the chorus starts with like this kind of laundry list of drug references, but by the end of the chorus you're talking about focusing on your meals, your plates, your estates, grass, fam, you know, healthier things.

Was that an intentional kind of balance you're trying to find? With all of it. This whole album was definitely, I'm like, I can't just be Dumer Boy. My life sucks. It's like, it's been awful, but it'll be all right. If there was a full title, it's been awful, but it gets better. Yeah.

You know, the type of shit. Yeah. So it was definitely, especially with certain artists that I like listening to from Larry June to Mexico Drow to, I don't know, even like Earl, like type of stuff. there's like an intentional self-awareness of like, life's okay, man. Right. You know? And I like, I wanted to incorporate that into my music moving forward.

Yeah. I don't feel like I've been a dumer, but I've been good at like laughing through the pain versus just being like, here's the pain. And here I am. Yeah. You know, and we are not the same. Okay. So boy in red with Siza.

I saw this, you said somewhere. that this was inspired by Girl in Red, I Want to Be Your Girlfriend, and Princes... Sonically. Sonically. Yeah, I want to be your girlfriend. Like the whimsicalness,

when I heard the beat, it reminded me of that. Oh, okay. Princes, if I was your girlfriend, and Kanye West's streetlights, are kind of a song full of the same lyric over and over and over it. Okay. You know?

Yeah. Like, very minimal lyrics, but and they do they're doing two totally different things. Street lights and the father's your girlfriend doing too totally. But it's the simplicity of it. Yeah.

I was like, okay, I don't really need to fucking write a gang of shit to make this. As soon as I heard, I'm like, oh, this is one of them. This is like an eight. It's eight words. It's like, you know what I? It's like eight lines. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And that's it. Because you know,

I'm not trying to make you feel anything except like the the easiness of it. Right. You know what I mean? I didn't want it. I didn't want it to feel like I was trying to write my ass off. Well, I mean, there's still some really beautiful stuff.

Like, I don't know. That too. I don't know, no pain. I'm here kissing Nirvana. Like, it's beautiful. Yeah, see, I guess what I meant, like, I guess what I mean is for the dissection is fucking value in my skill set that I've had over the years to where I don't have to make myself right a triple entendre for it to be effective.

And that was, I guess, more so, I mean, respecting that. Mm, okay. I worked actually in the car. Oh, really? You're on the way to the studio. With the beat playing? Yeah. Yeah.

No. What happened was I left the studio. My brother uploaded the beat onto his untitled, and I heard it. Because I was leaving a studio from a day of trying and not really getting what I wanted to get off. Yeah. And I heard that shit. And I was like, skirk, skirk. I had to turn around.

Oh, so knock this shit down here. Oh, damn. That's cool. Well, then so what made Cisdard? is the voice for this, like what she had to be. Yeah, I mean, it's perfect pairing. As soon as I heard it, I was like, well, she got to be on the song or I'm not putting the song out or it's just going to be like a skit, like type of whatever interlude.

I'm just making an interlude. If she's not on it, I'm like, it sounds like me and her song. Yeah, I mean, what, so you, this is, for my count, this is your seventh collaboration with Siza. Shout out to that. And you guys got... Is that a record? I don't know. It's actually, it's eight if you count happy birthday by Childish Major, which you got to

count that too. Okay, so you eight. It was supposed to be, happy birthday, Childish gave me that song, and then I won't name names, but they were like, this isn't good enough for Sylvia demo. And I was like, okay. So is your song originally? Yeah, for you. No, it was his.

Then I asked for it. He gave it to me. And then I put Sizz on it and all those other stuff. And then we gave it back because we couldn't, they weren't going to put on my album. And then so I appreciate that. I mean, you and Sizza were signed to TDE. I think it was same, yeah, triple months apart. Or the same day, a week apart or something.

Oh, really? Okay. How is it seeing her, her growth? Her ascension as an artist, obviously popularity, but as an artist, I think. Yeah. You know what's crazy? I just think of her growth. Lutin allergy.

Because I think of somebody, somebody who is so, who did so much and was going through so much with her health really early on and not to like speak for her. And but you know, like just the internet and how people judge, especially the scrutiny on women. It's crazy to see like what was more so motivating to see the intention and the dedication she took to herself pan out on all fronts from the not beauty stuff

to everything outside of it to the van stuff and her creativity being recognized and her style because she has this specific she has like she got a lot of shit she put on

but she has like for me like these three or four like distinctive styles and she has like the dressy sexy dressy or like the

Letterman, Timberland, New York, East Coast type of shit. You know, whatever, you know, you know,

it's that type of shit. So it's cool to see her be able to get, you know what I mean, all that, everything that she dreamed about, everything she talked about, you know, those type of conversations we have as artists. Her, maybe you can, but she's always, artistically, she's always been this person. Yeah. She's just gotten better at, she's gotten better at it.

She has more access to producers. She's not hunting as much as being hunted. Right, right, right. There's advantage of that. I'm not surprised by anything after the day after she put out control. I'm not surprised by anything she's accomplished. I think control was my last time being surprised by her.

Yeah, okay, that makes sense. I always say she reminds me of a jazz horn player because the way her melodies, her melodies are just some of the craziest shit you'll ever hear in terms of like, even on this song, like, there's a part. So, wait. So, tell me up.

What's that? So, okay, it's weird. I'll pause it too hard, look. I think she's like a rapper, because rappers to me are like jazz like jazz players like like rapping is like scatting and all that kind of shit yeah so definitely yeah yeah she has a technical form of a jazz player or rapper or however you want to put it yeah yeah that makes sense i mean i've read that she improvs a lot of her melodies freestyle yeah yeah yeah that's i mean that's jazz and rap improv but i feel like once you have a skill that's when you learn to do stuff with it right you know

a lot of people will be trying to play when they haven't mastered the skills. She can sing her ass off. So after that, it's just figuring out how she wanted to. Yeah. Okay, so I think this is... And the right and superb.

Yeah, lyrics are, I mean, everything. The writing's, yeah. So this song, I think, exemplifies a lot of the love-centered songs on the record, which is like very pure. Every time you're speaking about love, it's like a contrast to everything, to the substances. to all the escapism stuff,

you have, it's almost like you're chasing the purity of love on this album and all the love-centered songs feel very authentic. Was that a deliberate, like there's no like, misogynistic,

over the sexual stuff on the record. That's the one part I could say it was deliberate. Okay. I didn't want to have a lot of B words. Now you want to say bitch a lot? And one, because of my kid, my daughter's getting older. And just the way I, and just, I got so many women in my family. Like, me and my brothers are, like, the only men in our family.

So after a while, and with different, you know, events of my life made me kind of reflect on my own perspective. And I'm like, okay, I can still be successful without, like, being a pig. Right. For the sake of, especially when I'm not, like, in that place in my life. life where I'm just partying doing like a bunch of you know just promiscuous shit. Sometimes it's easy though to lean on that as a writer, especially as a dude to be like, fuck a bitch. Yeah.

And that shit didn't make sense. It's like it made me feel a week after a while like even listening to that kind of shit. Yeah. It's like that's coming from a place of a lack of self-love because how can you look at women like that, you know? Yeah. Yeah, that's very insightful. Raised by women, got my style from women,

everything that I love about most things a woman taught me or showed me. Well, that, I mean, that feels like genuine growth. And I think that my next kind of songs that I feel like are two sides of the same coin are, do I look high and act normal? Yeah. Where it's like you, a lot of music is about, describing the manifestations of trauma and it's rare to address the events themselves underneath the manifestations and I feel like both of these songs particularly act normal

but even do I look high get to are trying to get to like what's underneath and I think the connection I'm trying to make there with the growth of your respect for women you know and these two songs you're talking about being exposed to pornography at a very early age and then trying to draw connections between those experiences and how you viewed sex later in your life, particularly when you found some success. Are songs like this honest harder to write or easier to write? It's sick because it's like easier. That's what I figured.

Yeah. Because it feels like it would be there waiting for you when you're ready to. Yeah. Yeah. Like when I heard those, again, going back to like, you know, the spiritual aspect and the connection to all that. When I heard the beats, it was like, well, I got this responsibility to get this all, especially act normal. Do I look how it's like, how can I make this look cool with what I have to say? And when I mean look cool, I just mean like how I'm going to deliver it.

Okay. Orly how am I going to deliver it? Well, in the first verse, do you like pitch up? your voice and you're talking in third person which feels like a character yeah love yourself love yourself but don't do too much you be fucking anybody when you own it powder make you feel invincible it never made sis trying to live shit sensible since bars watching too much porn to even though lovey like plus the uf was that a correct reading of that or yeah definitely okay it's come it allows me to

distance myself from the things and to and to talk about myself it's kind of hard for me to write a story about you and that's the one thing that like on kendrick and uh nize or or any of those kind of like of that level of storyteller like they are good at writing the story about first person but from your first person i'm not okay i'm not i'm not i couldn't like i don't have I have a lot of, like, empathy for situations. I never act like I understand what it's like to be you. Or I can imagine. I don't have that, I don't think I have, like,

that emotional depth for other people. Okay, I get what you're saying. So, but to talk about my shit, sometimes easier. Like, I can talk to myself. Like, I can talk about myself. Yeah. And in third person and be able to give you, or at least give myself clarity on what I mean.

You know, it's like talking. in a mirror. Yeah. But like, the other reflection is just there and there looking at you while you are you. Well, there's some of that, I think it's in this music video too.

There's some of that reflection stuff. Or maybe it's in same shit. Same shit. Yeah. But one cool scene from this music video is the right side of the screen where you see you from the child's point of view. Like this child is like following in you and watching you, which in my mind connected.

to the line in the second verse where you say, I'm starting to be a better pure example for my sons. Was the idea of that, like, you have. Definitely from a child's perspective. Yeah. Yeah. One of my favorite lines is, I miss my tender, sorry, I miss my tender innocence,

writing poems for the girl in my chemistry class. It was simple then. And then there's another kind of similar moment in my mind in the second verse where you say, I'm a specialist, I made this especially for us to commemorate the aisle, Wilde. Today I had Riders Block, which I love that. For whatever reason, I really love that moment when you say, today I have Riders Block. It doesn't rhyme with anything. It's like, it feels intentional

like, it's like I'm, I'm gonna get this shit off regardless. Like you're earning it or something. Yeah, it's like I'm, yeah, like the line before, I'm a specialist. I made this especially for us to commemorate the Idol Wild today I had Riders Block. It's like, it don't matter that today I had writer's block I had to had to get this off yeah you know and that was like when I wrote that it was like that was kind of kind of cool on the nose because I was that song is me having writers block that those two verses are from like four months apart okay it was just a beat that I really loved that I wanted to tackle and I knew I had to had to be how it sounded in my head okay I'd be a better pure example for my sons finding a healthy way to express

myself like testaments of love I'm a specialist I mean, this is a special it for us to commemorate the idle while. Today I had right this block. I hope somebody doing better than they was last time that I seen on. I hope you still dreaming. I have one question about when you say, since boys watching too much porn to even know what we like, plus the UFOs.

What's the plus? Oh, you know, like conspiracy theories. Okay. Is there a connection? The boys, you know, we get into stuff too early. We get, like, it connects to that, getting into, okay. From porn, they're getting to drugs, getting into just whatever distraction that we all, we've, we've all individually experienced. Those were mine.

But like the UFOs thing is like, you know, to the misinformation. Okay. So, you know what I'm saying? And being too young to really understand. They even know what's real from fake. Yeah. Plus the UFOs. Yeah.

Okay. I don't believe UFOs are real. I don't believe that there is. a advanced alien race that's taking this time out of its own life to come see what we talking about. I feel like that's from a place of, I don't know, is censorism a word? Maybe. Is that a word?

I know what you mean. But like when you, I don't know, I'm making up shit. Like that is like when, I think it's just human flaw to think that we're that important. Right, right, right. Do you believe in that the. there's other life aside from us though somewhere. Yeah, hell of far. But just not, they haven't been here.

Like, you know, the creator, guy, howard, well, my guy, however, like, huge galaxies, man. Yeah. I believe in science, too. I'm like, there's nobody out there. Not close. And if they did, if they had the technology to come here,

why the fuck would they come here? Yeah. Maybe just curiosity? I don't know. If they have the technology, they ain't curious. They know what's going on here. That's true.

If they flying through space and we're not flying through space, they have this technology, we don't. Yeah. Yeah, I'm like, what? Okay, well, let's get into act normal. Rear transition, right? Because, I mean, this is like, you know, I think maybe among your most honest songs.

I mean, I'm just curious about the title. The title comes in the hook where you say, war is living yet at war with yourself. is love when I don't trust a boy or girl, act normal. So I guess what does act normal in this context refer to? Act, depending on, oh, act heterosexual. Okay. That's one.

Yeah. Or act sober. Act, whatever you perceive normality is, you know, act like a dude. Right. You know, even back then it was like, as a kid, it was like, Like, don't be a fucking nerd in front of people, at least from where I was, I was coming up at. Because you like books and stuff like that. Oh, yeah.

Don't be that. Because we were all pretending to be like tough guys though. Yeah. You know what I mean? Middle school, we're all emulating like the toughest dudes in our lives. So don't be, you know, smart. Yeah. You know, that's a threat to our system.

Right. That type of shit. Okay. So porn comes up again here. pretty clearly, but then you kind of link it to your dad at the time, finding his stash, and then you kind of pretty much explicitly say, like, my whole family are sex addicts. Yeah, not the entirety, but they're a handful that I can point out. That are what?

That could point out. Oh, okay. I thought he said acting porn out. Oh, acting maybe. That works too, I think. It works too. Powerful line when he say, don't view too much or your eyes get desensitized, poor babies whose elders informed it was normal, you'll grow older, run trains, and remain here.

Maybe it was love, then sex, then sadism. So what's the kind of progressive timeline of love, sex, sadism? So what's that kind of progressive timeline of love, sex, sadism? What is that? For me personally, yeah. College, Sylvia,

the house is burning. Okay. Yeah, those would be the three stages where that became that. Where, yeah. Is that the line blurring between love,

sex and sadism and like, or the evolution or the evolution? The blurring of it from love, from it being love, an expression of love to just being sex, to it being like, you know, a self-inflicting wound of seeking destroy through other people. That sounds crazy.

No, it sounds honest. I mean, that's all crazy. No, it does. It really doesn't because I think you're speaking to, you're not alone in that experience. I appreciate it. And I think being so honest about trying to figure out, did this come from my earlier, you know, exposure to pornography? Yeah.

Where this thing was kind of normalized from an age that was, entirely too young to be seeing and consuming this. Yeah. I mean, I think we're maybe similar in age. And it was like, yeah, we were, we experienced the internet. I'm worried. I mean, it's, dude, I mean, you'd find just anything. And it was like, I'm worried, bear shares.

She was crazy. Google just popped up. Yeah. Curious minds, Google anything. Yeah. Crazy. And then parents didn't really understand what it was. They weren't supervisor.

Yeah. It's kind of like what we're. Either I feel like you were experiencing like the super helicopter parent. or not at all. Right. Well, it's interesting. Then you, in verse 2, you flash forward. I was 18 fucking for sport running from love.

So direct connection between all these things. Good. You know. And then one of my favorite moments on the album is the second verse. I mean, the whole thing I have highlighted here, but World Tour, the rapper is a porn star. Some girls come with the dick. Some with the child support. Souls collide and combine to dust.

It's a bomb when you line it up. That whole thing. It's like, well, maybe unpacked souls collide and combine to dust. Oh, that was like a cocaine reference, though. Like poor, poor, it was like a triple type of time. It was like a triple type of when you line it up. Oh, when you line it up. Yeah, it's a bond when you line it up.

Lock jaw, man. It must be something in the water. It was like a molly water, cocaine thing at the end of that. What does souls collide, though? Conflict. Conflict in relationships. Two people come together and either you have something really sweet or you both absorb each other's terrible habits and have a terrible time together.

And, you know, combining us and then lining it up. Yeah, the way that your brain links these things is so fascinating to me. Just like some poetic writing. Because to make that link is kind of like, I mean, it's really different, you know? The idea of souls colliding and then directly linking it to cocaine. Yeah. Which is like unhappiness. I always always like what I call hook rhymes.

And I practiced that. It kind of helped me write loose stories when I was younger. Like, that's how I got kind of into my ability to write stories. Because, like I said, I've always looked at from people like Cole to Kendrick, Lupe Fiasco, Nause, shit, even Jay-Z, like very amazing storytellers. I do not feel cool saying you, you. you when I'm writing something or he or they I don't like doing that okay like so it only makes sense if I can make it applicable seemingly from my perspective okay because I feel like that's the

character like if you pick up my my shit you come in even if you take it me as being a fictional person it's like you escaping into this character like you are me at that moment right uh well that whole I mean the whole song is really powerful um was there any trepidation like releasing a song like that? Nah. I would, not really. I was more so like, I hope, I didn't expect to have this type of conversation,

but I was like, you know, I hope somebody like fucks with it and appreciates. Yeah. You know, like the effort, it's not like I was like, you know, building a fucking house, but it's like, you know, I hope somebody appreciate the effort

that I'm trying to get into like, hey, bro, I see you. Yeah. I hope you see me. I see you. Yeah. Type of shit, you know. I mean, even I just have to get it,

the post-mortem deep end, that we enjoyed the fall so much, unable to walk. So just call us on holograms. Faking appearance ain't as deep as it feel as we evading the fear in this coffin. Yeah. It's like just beautiful writing, man. It's just like really good. Faking the feel in the holograms.

That was like the whole, you know, like you're not really there. Right. You know, on holograms, faking the feel. Like the two women in the... On holograms, faking appearances, I think that's what I said. Oh, great. And what is it? Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Yeah. So like, you're not even really there. When you're trying to act normal? Yeah, you're not even really even, you know what I'm saying? Really present. Yeah. You might as well be a holograph. Yeah.

Okay, so I want to jump to Superpowers because I don't know if you're intentional with the track listing, but thematically... Everything's intentional. Yeah. Superpowers seems like the resolution to the album to me. Definitely wanted it to be... I didn't want to do this whole thing and then end it with nothing like well we're

hit us back next time to find out of if he's all right next episode on Dragon Ball and yeah fucking no I wanted to reiterate that I recognize who I am like yo like these are

my troubles and this is my reality right once you get the superpower this is my reality Yeah. This is... It feels like the chorus feels like a mantra. I got real superpowers. I got real superpowers.

I got real. You know, you're kind of like repeating, I got real superpower. Definitely affirmations up in here. Yeah. But that's, again, with other parts that you said of the album that you mentioned, like, definitely intentional affirmations. Because I got to listen to this shit. You got to perform. And I got to...

Yeah. That was a main thing. I got to perform it. And I hate being up there after having so many songs where I was just being, because people say like, this is the most vulnerable thing. And I'm like, well, no, I've been on stage hearing myself say some crazy shit. Like, whether it be some crazy explicit shit or just some crazy vulnerable shit where I was like, I don't like how I said that.

Yeah. So this was kind of my way of doing, every album is like adding a 15 minutes to your set. Right. You know, maybe like adding a new 15 minutes of material taken or maybe 20 minutes. material and taking away. So I was looking for ways just to make the entire set feel a little more positive. Yeah. Are you perform

this live, you think, this song? That shit fun. I've done it at some of the pop-ups that we did. Okay. Yeah. Yeah, and then you... So, actually, no, I've got to call this out, because I don't think I've ever heard anyone say Terraformed in the song before. And I'm still in a while. I telephoned that again,

I'm alive. I'm on the road with the kids on the dial. Slow down, baby. Which is really sick. I had to look up the definition of that. But do you remember where you learned that word? I think on some science shit. Yeah.

Yeah. It's like making a inhabitable planet. Yeah. But I've never heard anyone say it in reference to themselves. Yeah. It's really cool. I've terraformed that again. I'm alive.

Like where I'd be going to desolate places and making it livable, at least like experiences. Experiences, I feel like I put myself in where, you know, you'll get to. you know, a dead place. And by the grace of God, by the grace of God of my abilities and the people around me, like, you know, we managed to take this erred, fucking lifeless experience and turn it into something that you could grow from.

Yeah. Very literally. Well, I was going to ask you what the, the one thing, if someone finishes this album, what do you think or what you hope would stay with them? Is it something along those lines? Man, this boy can write good. That's all.

I'm like, if you don't get nothing else, man, I want, I want you to be on your little Spotify and going on the little lyrics. I always should be like, man. Yeah. I didn't even hear that. Wait a minute. He said that. Yeah. That's type of shit.

There's a ton of those moments. I try to highlight some here. But, I mean, is there anything like thematically that you would want them to think about? Yeah, as an artist, man. the last thing is I just don't want you to think it was whack I think that's it like I don't have like once I've done it or once you put it I don't think I have like a mission statement or what I want you to take from it like yeah that's too preachy for me like

I'd hope that you feel seen if you experience anything and that that can carry you through your day but as an artist I hope you make you want to make some music yeah like if you're artists I hope it makes you want to make some music But if you're just a fan and appreciator of Southern alternative blends of music, because I feel like that's the, you know, the baton that I'm picking up is the responsibility of amalgamizing. Is that another word? We need a word counter of words that I made up today.

I think you just got to be confident because, why not? You know, but you know, I struggle. But, you know, it's an amalgamation. amalgamization. We got it. That was a real one. Basically, yeah, like, I have this baton of blending music

that I hold really dear to myself. And maybe that hasn't been physically passed down to me from, you know what I'm saying, the people I looked up to, but I feel like in my generation I have this baton and I may share it with other people

of blending the southern with some of the West Coast. synths and blending it with some folk music, then blending it with a little bit of rock, and then blending it with, you know, some fucking Juno emo shit. You know. Yeah.

And then bringing it back to just trunk rattling and shit. Like it's like, but then making sure it all lives in one world. Yeah. I'm like, if I could do anything, if you walked away from the album, I hope you appreciate and want to go listen to other shit. I hope I'm a good part of your track listing for the day. Yeah.

Well, then I got to ask you, so after 719 freestyle, we hear the album ends with a car door closing. Yeah. What's that about? I make all the music in the car. Okay. Like, I'm right majority, unless I'm freestyling, like, freestyling or doing, like, if you was at the studio and it was like, yo, we got his producers to come in. and he writes songs too, you want to, you might want to try to shoot some hooks off with him.

We might do that. But usually if I write, man, I don't, the performing aspect of being in the room with people, if I'm with you, I'm going to write pretty quick. But if I'm by myself, I'm going to sit in my car, smoke like two, three L's, and I'm going to write like four verses. And I'm going to record all of them and pick one, pick two.

Yeah. Yeah. I just be fucking around. What about in the car is, like, comforting, I guess? It reminds me of being broke. Okay. And it also reminds, and it also is really good acoustics for, like, how I want to a rap to sound.

Which remind me of, I mean, how I've always done it. Every album I've always, I'm kind of always broken my head. There's always like, you know, this is my comfort. This is my alone space. Yeah, yeah. Especially with how I will write a rap. Like, I'm writing and I'm yelling. And that shit sounds cool, but, you know, I still like my,

privacy in my lyrics when I come up with them. Okay, so what's next? Do you have anything like any music plan? I'm back working. What's that? I'm back working. I was at the studio yesterday. Oh, sick. Working. You feel like it's going to be another five years before you get a full project?

Hopefully not. I don't think so. I don't think so. You seem like in a great your energy is great. It seems like you're in a great space. I don't want to assume. Maybe you're acting normal. No, I'm cool. I'm pure. It's pure, pure, pure, music right now.

Yeah. So I'm just having fun and trying to impress myself more than anything, like kind of like do better in a technical aspect. Like there's certain kinds of songs that I want to write. Like, and so I'm kind of on that, like challenges that I haven't been able to get off. Like example, man, I have to play for you. Okay. I mean, did you feel like, is it, I feel like it was some artists, like especially an album

as maybe heavy as this one. Was there a sense of relief after you've completed it and maybe you feel like you can now do some other things musically, artistically? Yeah, I feel like it was like a responsibility I had artistically that I had to get off in order to do whatever else I'm supposed to do. Yeah.

And then I feel like my album's kind of do a light to heavy thing. I feel like Sylvia was pretty light. And though some people took things from it. I mean, the second project, since I rate kind of delves into a lot of shit then the house is burning. It's kind of light. And this was kind of...

Yeah. So, who knows? The next one might be, like, a combo. Okay. I don't have, like, any, like, therapists work to work out on a record, like, too heavy. Right. Or maybe I will, though.

Yeah. Maybe it's something else will come to me in that I need to fucking regurgent. Yeah. All right. Well, expunge from my soul. You're going on tour soon. August 13th. Yeah.

Atlanta. Alameda, right? Yeah. Shout to Alameda. She's really good. It's like great art. I feel like she's right. Like stardom's here and she's like just like something it's going to like

person like that always takes is one song. Yeah. She's right like right there. I can feel it. Yeah. She's great. So cool. All right man.

Well, thanks for for doing this. Appreciate it. Great album. Beautiful work. Yeah. Thanks for making it for us. Thank you. Thank you.

Yeah.