Drink Champs - Episode 229 w/ James Cruz, Eric Nicks & Maricarmen Lopez (Pt. 1)

Episode Date: October 2, 2020

N.O.R.E. & DJ EFN are the Drink Champs. On today’s episode The Champs chop it up with legendary music executives James Cruz and Eric Nicks. The guys celebrate the life of the legendary Chris Lightly telling classic stories of their days at Violator and learning the music business through Chris. Sharing great stories of LL Cool J, DMX, Ja Rule and more. Eric shares how he helped LL Cool J earn his first #1 Record and James shares how he helped lock in 50 Cent's iconic business venture with Vitamin Water that shook the game up. Joined by special guest and television producer Maricarmen Lopez, we debate the perception of the hit television show "Love & Hip-Hop" and much more! This episode is filled with lots of behind the scenes stories of the music industry that you don't want to miss! Listen and subscribe at http://www.drinkchamps.comFollow:Drink Champshttp://www.drinkchamps.comhttp://www.instagram.com/drinkchampshttp://www.twitter.com/drinkchampshttp://www.facebook.com/drinkchampsDJ EFNhttp://www.crazyhood.comhttp://www.instagram.com/whoscrazyhttp://www.twitter.com/djefnhttp://www.facebook.com/crazyhoodproductionsN.O.R.E.http://www.instagram.com/therealnoreagahttp://www.twitter.com/noreaga--- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/drinkchamps/support Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an iHeart Podcast. the science and what your gut bacteria are really doing behind the scenes. From drinks and gummies to probiotic pillows. Yes, really probiotic pillows. We're breaking down what's legit and what's just brilliant marketing. With expert insight from gastroenterologist Dr. Roshi Raj. Listen to Dope Labs on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. And it's going to take us to heal us it's mental health awareness month and on a recent episode of just heal with dr j the incomparable taraji p henson stopped by to discuss how she's discovered peace on her journey i never let that

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asked all the time, have you ever had to shoot your gun? Sometimes the answer is yes. But there's a company dedicated to a future where the answer will always be no. This is Absolute Season 1, Taser Incorporated. I get right back there and it's bad. Listen to Absolute Season 1, Taser Incorporated on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. And it's Drink ChFN. Together, they drink it up with some of the biggest players. In the most professional, unprofessional podcast. And your number one source for drunk facts.

This is Drink Champs motherfucking podcast, where every day is New Year's Eve. It's time for Drink Champs. Drink up, motherfuckers. What it good be? Hopefully, it's what it should be. This your boy, N-O-R-E. What up?

It's DJ E-F-N. And this motherfucking drink champs, Yappy Hour. Make some noise! Now, I said this before on the show, on the podcast, is how much I love and how much love that I want to give

to the people that make you great. The more that you go in life, you realize you never got there by yourself. Right. Especially if you're doing great shit. If you're doing mediocre shit, you probably got there by yourself. But if you're doing something great,

you have somebody behind yourself that didn't want to be on the camera. You have somebody... I think we spoke about this the other day, when you ask somebody to be your manager, you actually asking them to put your life in front of them. Because there's going to come a time they're going to have to pick between their daughter,

you, their son's graduation, you at Summer Jam, and all this type of crazy shit, and management runs the world. They are the real people that's behind the scenes, they're people that's making the calls, the people that's making... And it's bigger than just management.

So a lot of times when I do these episodes, when we do these episodes, excuse me, I give an intro. I don't want to miss anything that these brothers ever did. So I want them to... I want to do something different this time. I want these two brothers... These are the two brothers that I've chose to pick

for the management segment, but I want them to introduce themselves because I don't want to miss a title from you because you've got so many titles. And then I'm going to take it from there. Bring down the mic, sorry. I don't even know how to do that. My name is

Eric Nix. Let's make some noise for Eric Nix. Yeah! Janitor. I say that too. I say that too, guys. I say maintenance, but... I learned from... I was fortunate enough to learn from the best, Chris Lighty, and he said,

if you've seen a piece of paper on the floor, you pick it up, or if you have to be the one on a private jet, you do that too, so everything in between. And that's my title. God damn. James Cruz. James Cruz. I guess the best way to say it is birthed by Lighty and raised by Puff.

God damn it. Makes no sense. I think that's a good one. Hold on, hold on, hold on, hold on. This drink chance, right? Yes, this drink chance. I'm drinking some Moet. And before we drink chance, right? Yes, this drink chance. I'm drinking some more wet. And before we move on, right?

And I don't drink, but we have to. We have to take a shot for the guy who is responsible for all three of us. Chris Leidy? Chris Leidy. Goddamn it. We will. We will. We will.

Rest in peace, Chris. Rest in peace, Chris. And you know, I'm going to get a little bit weird with it. Because I look at Rock Nation. And for lack of a better word, I'll come up with a better term later. But it looks like a direct interpretation. Or I don't want to say copy, but it looks like something that was motivated solely from what Violator did.

You know what I'm saying? From what Violator had. Violator was a blueprint. You know, but you got to start with Flavor Unit. I was going to say Rush Management. You got to start Rush Management. What came first? What came first?

What came first? Rush Management, Flavor Unit, Violator, Roc Nation. It was called an evolution. Just like hip hop evolved, the management business evolved. I like that Rock Nation. That's real. It was called an evolution. Just like hip hop evolved, the management business evolved. I like that James. James, James, James. You know what I'm saying?

Like you never know where you're going. That's what I'm thinking. James, James, James, James. But remember, who came from Rush Management? Chris. Chris, yeah. You know what I'm saying? So give it up to baby Chris because he took it to the next level.

And we the last of the Mohicans right here. We the last of that fingerprint of true management. I don't see many managers traveling with their artists. You know what I'm saying? I don't see many managers taking their artists to the radio station, you know what I'm saying? When they artists don't like showing up. So is that something that you guys take pride in?

Is that, like you said, it's the evolution? I mean, you have to give credit to the ancestors that came before you in life and in business. Of course, we take pride in the fact that we're keeping his reputation,

we're keeping his vibe alive. You know? Chris ain't here no more. We're blessed to be here. You know? So we got to keep that alive and it's our job to pay it forward

to the next generation. Because if we don't, then what are we here for? Yeah, what's the legacy? What legacy do you leave? And further, let's go E. What legacy do you need? What are we here for? And further... Let's go, E. So when it was Violator, and I started at Violator Def Jam,

when we was in 160 Varick Street... Okay, let me just describe this to the people that you just described. Okay, 160 Varick, for the people that's been down with Drink Champs, this is the office where you used to go get your hair cut, you could roll dice, buy marijuana, and get a check from Todd Moskowitz. We used to go get your haircut Buy marijuana And so at 160 Varick Street the culture was to make that shit happen No matter what we don't care who what you got matter what. We don't care who, what you got to do. We don't accept excuses.

Right. It's make it happen. Right. So, when you say we travel with our artists, we go to the studio with our artists,

we making sure that, you know, we go into the, to the artist's girlfriend's crib to make, you know, like the shit that I,

the shit that I ran around and did with Foxy, the shit that I ran around and did with Busta. the shit that I ran around and did with Buster. You know what you guys were more like? We had to do it. It was like y'all was our management label. Of course. Like, it was like y'all was our management,

but y'all had different labels. I got to be honest with you. I got to be honest with you. I can't even remember going too many times in penalty records and having, we did that shit. You know, no disrespect to Neil. Shout out to Neil Levine. Right, right. That's my man. He knows. But we did that shit no disrespect to Neil right shout out to Neil Levine right man he knows but we did that shit you don't say we give a fuck about who wanted nori to do we made that shit happen that don't understand what will in my career. In my career, I actually got an opportunity to do a record on the Firm album.

That's why this Nas album that just came out, this Firm record, it means the world to me. I've been speaking to everybody on the Firm except for AZ. I haven't spoken to AZ yet. I don't know what's going on with him, man. I can do it too. We need a mic. We need a mic. Do you want to do the show?

AZ, every time I see him, no, AZ always shining. I don do two. We need a more different show. We need a more different show. AZ, every time I see him, no, AZ, always shining. I don't give a fuck. When I see him in the streets, and he just shine his ass on a drink check.

That nigga always, that nigga always shine. It's a phone call. You want me to hit him right now? You know, I'm looking at this, and I'm like, I'm just reminiscing

of how, you know, life was. Like, this was, this was, for lack of a better, this was like the one-stop shop. Like, when you went to Violator, like, you could speak to people from Coca-Cola.

Damn right. You could speak to people from FUBU. You just go there and just re-bop, and then it's just like... But you ain't finished. How did you get to Locally? Okay, yeah, this is what I'm saying, I got the body. This is 100% real story.

After the Firm album, I was hot, but I didn't know what hot meant. I didn't know that people is getting my two-way number and I never gave them my two-way number. That means that you're hot, you know what I'm saying? Like, you know, people'm saying? People are like, Steve Rifkin is like, hey, how you doing? Who is this?

Steve Rifkin. Who's Steve Rifkin? That's the nigga that owned Loud. No answer. And to reel it back, because CNN was hot, but as a group, now I'm Leaving comes out

as a solo artist, now you're hot. That's why you're a great partner. Because CNN was hot. I didn't have management to put me into those markets to capitalize off of CNN being hot. What happened was, Nas was on the CNN original hot. Right. I didn't have management to put me into those markets to capitalize off of CNN being hot.

Right. What happened was Nas was on the CNN original album. He didn't clear the record. The record didn't get cleared, so he paid me back and put me on the Firm album. From the Firm album, our record went so fucking crazy. I remember Busta Rhymes saying, yo, he needs to be on Violator. That's like Joe Chris. Yo, yo, you're ignoring me. You need to be on Violator. I was like, yo, Chris. Yo, yo, you're ignoring me.

You need to be on Violator. And I was walking through like, because Busta always had, he always had a big voice. So I was like, oh, okay, this is how it works. And then I was like, all right, cool. And I had a meeting. And this was the crazy thing.

We was in Penalty Records and Steve Stout came, Mark Pitts came, whole bunch of other people came. And Chris was the only one who stayed. And when he couldn't stay, he had left Dave Lighty there. And from that moment, I said, I'm fucking with y'all. But I did not know. I didn't know what management was because, you know, God bless,

I was coming from homeboy management. I was coming from hood management. So I always thought, yo, we figured this out together. I didn't know there was experts. I didn't know there was people that were professionals. There was teams. No, nobody. We don't just go do a tour we get sponsors and I'm like what we just we don't and so this was my first encounter with a professional

management company I had been around Rush I had never obviously you know I was a little bit too young um and I wasn't on when I was there. But Violet was the first professional thing that you had a position to do, you had a position to do, these people had a position to do. What was the meetings like when you guys got together? I mean, the first part of the meeting was very clear. When you got to the table, the plan was take the table. It wasn't just have the meeting and come up with the marketing plan and just turn it over to the record label. Because basically, Eric and I would sit in meetings with Chris in the table. It wasn't just have the meeting and come up with the marketing plan and just turn it over

to the record label, because basically Eric and I would sit in meetings with Chris in the office, we're going to do this, we're going to do this, we're going to do that. Eric gave his input on the records and the producers, I gave my input on the brands and the marketing and the positioning and the street team, and Chris said okay, and then we go into the meeting

with a strategy, to the point where Chris and I would actually have codes in the meetings. When Chris wanted me to shut up, Chris would go like this. Like he would literally like, yo, cut it out. You know what I'm saying? Or like the pitchers, like the batters in the run-ins. Yeah, yeah, like a baseball game. Or when I disagree with something, I just go,

when I hit the table like that, Chris knew I disagreed. So we had a strategy. But the meetings were so like, we had respect for one another. Wasn't nobody looking over how much money you making, what car you driving, what kind of what. No, it was like we in this together. And we in it with our artists.

The manager, Chris, and the label that jams. We're with our artists. You know what I'm saying? It wasn't, and we had them all. We had everybody, cause let me be clear. It's not that easy to juggle you and Busta and Missy and Tom. Listen, they had Daru and 56 at the same time. That's insanity. I was like, yo, you got two butts with this. I, they had Ja Rule at 56. At the same time.

That's insanity. I was like, yo, you got too much with this. I don't know what's going to stay. We're going to leave Hot Nights at the top. You know, Ja Rule is on the Violated Compilation first album. Yes, yes. Him and Missy Elliott. Yes.

Rapping about ecstasy. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Goddamn. You know, we was all on a plane together going down to Hot Night Jamaica. Remember that? Mm-hmm.

You know, playing basketball. together going down to Hot Night Jamaica. Remember that? You know, playing basketball. By the way, Hot Night Jamaica was one of my first times ever saying I love hip-hop. Like, I love the fraternity of hip-hop. I know we don't have a fraternity. But, like, when I see Angie Martinez waking up in the morning, and I see, like, you know, 112, even though I threw their football out. With the basketball. With the basketball.

I was a foul guy but when I see it's a camaraderie and like the fact is we are a fraternity like you know what I'm saying if I see Curious George I don't know if I've met Curious George right I don't think so

I don't remember I might have not been famous when I met him but the fact is he was one of the first Puerto Ricans. I'm going to bow to him, you know what I'm saying? Like, if I see, you know, X-Clan and things like that, even though I've never met X-Clan, I will go to them. And it's because

even though I don't know them physically, I don't know them... I think I know them in my mind. Right. Because of the contributions they did to hip-hop. And I feel like we're all... That night, that time in High Night Jamaica, that made me feel like a family in hip-hop. And I feel like we're all, that night, that time in Hot Night Jamaica, that made me feel like a family in hip-hop.

Like, I was like, finally, like, I was like, not making money. Isn't that fucked up? Like, you and Dick making money, but I'm here. At the Roach Motel. At the Roach Motel in Jamaica. The shit was sweating.

It was like, yo, it was like, yo, like, oh, shit, Jay-Z, it was Jay-Z birthday, he landed on Crystal, Crystal, I didn't get no Crystal. Red Stripe. Nigga, Red Stripe, yo. I'm getting Red Stri-Z birthday, he landed on Crystal, Crystal, I didn't get no Crystal. Red Strap. Nigga, Red Strap.

And Detroit. And Detroit. This is like, and that was my first time like, you know what? I could really be a part of this because I used to come into this game, yo, everybody's fake,

everybody, you know, I thought I was like a tough guy and I was an idiot until I started to realize. Like right now, if I had to call 20 people like of people that are had to call 20 people, like people that are close to me or people that I can trust,

at least 10 of them would be from the industry. Wow. When I started out, none of them. Not at all. But at least 10. And if you count Fat Joe

and like a boss. So let me ask you a question. If you wasn't hot, how many of them could you call? I can't lie. There's a lot of people who held me down when I wasn't hot. When I wasn't hot. Shout out to that.

Yeah, shout out to that. Because real support. Like, I ain't going to lie. If you ever fucked up in a game, or you ever need inspiration, and you ever need somebody to tell you to get out the fuck of your ass, call Busta Rhymes. Busta Rhymes. I promise you, bro.

He will not let you leave. I'm not understanding why You ain't making the move because you know, gone. I don't give a fuck. Since I've met this guy, Busta Rhymes. You can't give him a sad story. Since I've met this guy, Busta Rhymes, once a week,

no matter what, this nigga will pick up the phone and check me. Yo, where you at god you good all right come through and see like for no reason but we don't even have to be getting no money no nothing that shit is genuine yeah that guy he's right that guy is the most genuine artist him and LL Koojay are two of the most genuine artists that I have had big parts in their career. And they've had so much of my life. And Bust is just always there, no matter what.

Well, you got to understand, man. I heard you say Todd. And it's always interesting to me. Because me, I grew up in Queens. I grew up on 97-357 Avenue. I can never call him Todd. I can never call him Tom. You can never call him James. I get it, but

me growing up, he's always LL. I consider him one of my closest friends, and I still call him L. I say L. I can't do it. I currently manage his daughter right now. And I still call him L I call it in his

refrigerator but there's a reason for that there's a resorting family to do you gotta understand two weeks into the job and violator I had to tell LL his record was not working at Def Jam. Okay, tell him. Tell him. All right, how do you do that? Oh, yeah, exactly. How do you tell the biggest story on the face of the earth? Hold on, hold on a second. You said he's just coming to Violator? No, no, no. Two weeks into my job.

He's been to Violator. You're coming to Violator. I'm coming to Violator. You know what I'm saying? So it was all right, James. I forgot the record on Def Jam. Who gives you this job? Who gives you this job? Wait, wait, wait. So Chris set me up.

You know what I'm saying? Let's keep going with it. Chris was the king of the setup. The king of the setup. He was like, yo, you read the BDS? Did you look at the sound? You know what I'm saying? And you remember, Chris's office was in the back corner.

He was in the middle, and I was next door to Mona. So it was a keynote. And this was on 25th Street? No. No. No. This was on Lexington Ave. This was on Lexington Ave.

OK, all right. Cool, cool, cool. And Chris was like, yo, we're going to have to switch up. No. No, no, no. This is our Lexington app. This is our Lexington app. Lexington app. And Chris was like, yo, you know, we're going to have to switch up. I was like, okay, cool. I let him know. You know, I was with Puff. There was no gray area with Puff. It is what it is. And Puff respected that.

If I said, yo, this forever I'll be working, be Christina Aguilera, just kicked our ass. And although Puff would feel a certain way, he understood the business side. So I'm thinking, let me go over here and do them the same way you better learn management boy you ain't a promo man no more and i sold todd the record ain't working and that's and that's and that's around the time when chris was like all right eric um i don't want just nobody but bimmy's not making his music anymore you're making his yes and that's when i started and i got in touch. I'm actually the first person to ever give LL a number one single

So else had big records with boys to, a lot of different artists even doing it, but his first number one single, Hot 100, number one single in the country was Love You Better. And the second one I also did too, which was Headsprung. Remember, Lighty managed them every other record. You know what's fucked up, I'm about to say that. Because L's career is one shit is platinum, then one is gold, then one is platinum, and then platinum and one is gold it's true and we should do the

math let's see who was managing at the time they was black that you know what else I was doing a dog when you was planning on it let's keep running then every other right now you know that he said he said he said on drink chance when we asked him I said yo cuz you said he said it humbled me Nori mmm so it's like everything like every album did what I was expected in the next album did great But it just wasn't expected and they humbled him and he went back in and it's like that's that's because you still winning That's crazy. I give him credit for trying to do things You know I'm saying like he made the first love song ballad rap record and then he won

He got gold paint on him in a video like he tried to push the push the boundaries I said LL wouldn't last in the versus battle. How do you feel about? He texted me. That's KRS's cousin. Yo, he texted me. Better watch out. He's going to fight you over this KRS. Yo, this nigga texted me. Yo, I felt kind of disrespected that day, too. I'll keep it real, too. He texted me. He was like, yo, what you think about LL Cool J and KRS 1? And I put LOL, no competition, right?

Because I don't think KRS, I mean, no disrespect to KRS-One, you can't fuck with LL, bro. Not wrecking for wrecking. You're fucking crazy. Who's being disrespectful? He is or he is? No, Eric's being disrespectful.

Eric's being disrespectful. I think it would be a different kind of versus. It wouldn't be like the ones we've been having. You know why? I'm going to be honest. Come on, bro. LL?

When Fab winning his girl records against Jada, it almost lost the crowd because Jada took over the room with his energy, baby. He was going like this. So I don't think LL will lose his energy. No.

I don't think so. Did you see him? Did you see him? Did you see him robbing or anything? Yeah, yeah, yeah. I'm't think so. Did you see him? Did you see him? Did you see him? Did you see him? Did you see him? Did you see him?

Did you see him? Did you see him? Did you see him? Did you see him? Did you see him? Did you see him? Did you see him? Did you see him?

Did you see him? Did you see him? Did you see him? Did you see him? Did you see him? Did you see him? Did you see him? Did you see him? Did you see him? Did you see him? Did you see him? Did you see him? I wasn't there, but I was around when the cannabis shit happened. Right. Like, I don't want to get smart.

Is that a mic on your arm? Like, listen to me, listen to me. Cannabis was the most lyrical, That's it and he took the challenge like he left the dude on his record and distable in his record That is some that's like your eye. I'm a leave Drake on my record right now, and I'm like you like That's the era he came from yeah, what I'm saying is that's still a risk Like I don't know nobody who were putting Nas on a record and then dis Nas on a record. That's what that, that's because at that point we didn't know cannabis was going to go down. We didn't know who was going to sign the white clef and it was going to be over after that.

We didn't know that. Jesus. Damn, that was a Christmas. Let me know what you want. I'm talking about. Drop like that. No, you didn't tell the truth. You didn't tell the truth.

You didn't tell the truth. I love cannabis. I love it. This is how I shot you. Go listen to this verse and I shot you. This is what I'm trying to say. This is what I'm trying to say. But L took that challenge on.

This is the young boy. This is the young lion. Most people run away from the young lion and want to get down with him. And he wanted to get down with him. But once he took a shot at L, because you know L,

the story is L said, change that line. And he didn't change the line. Nah. That's not the story? Nah. Oh, I made that part up. I think I might have made that part up.

We didn't think I would make that part up. We didn't. Come on, Eric. That's not the story? Nah. Oh, I made that part up. I think I might have made that part up. We in the old hip factory. The old hip factory. And the nigga Cannabis just was like, yo, that fucking tattoo is crazy. Yo, you mind if I get that same tattoo? And nigga L was like, and nigga L was like, all right, shorty. He was like, all right, shorty. And what people don't understand is LL Cool J is always writing.

And just to jump from song to song, when you listen to I Shot Ya, he take a stab at Fox, like female rappers can get it. I don't give a I Shot Ya, he take a stab at Fox. Female rappers can get it. I don't give a fuck, boo. He took a shot at Fox. He's always that guy. That's why I didn't do too many records with you, LL. I knew you was going to be signing me, too.

But he was the king of that subliminal. Come on, anybody remember the Gap commercial? And so he was all over the floor having a Gap commercial running on regular TV. Like, I was sitting there. My mouth was watering as a marketer, like, oh, my God. But you still didn't answer. Does he want that smoke with KRS-One?

He would destroy KRS-One, and I would say that because it was a different time. I don't know about destroy. He got too many records. There's just too many records. He's going to win. Come on, come on, Nori. Stop playing.

Stop playing. Yo, Nori, stop. Stop doing that. Nory, stop, stop doing that. I'll stop. No, Todd is a different animal. All right, LL Cool J is a different animal. The man comes with a different claw. He got mustard. There's only one female in the room.

So we're going to ask the one female in the room, who are you going with, KRS or LL? Ladies love Cool James. It's not close. I'm not going to ask any guy in the room because there's way too many of us. It's not even close. Just remember his DNA. LL's DNA is different. No I'm not going to lie. Did you not see the guy, I forgot my man from the Vibe magazine. He was interviewing LL after, well I forgot his name. That's kind of whack that I forgot his name. But he was interviewing LL

and he's like, yo, you know, so KRS said that you couldn't survive and you just seen LL put his head down. And like, as a person that loves competition, when you put your head down, that's like, don't go crazy. Don't wake the sleeping giant. Don't go crazy, say something, but calm down. Don't wake to sleep in China. Go crazy say something but

He was like No disrespect to care is that guy bridges over how'd you feel with the bridges me that guy alone? How did you feel? How did you feel there nori how did you feel when the bronx came listen i'm still mad at the bridge to the south bronx the bridge is open criminal minded like this he made killers. Okay, moving on. There's this discrepancy that happens where this guy DMX

and DMX is something and something happened with Violator. Was it Dave or him and Chris? I was there at the time. I was there. That's before me. I was still that He was there. That's before me. I was still that bad boy.

Shiny suiting it out. Shout out to Jazz Young. Jazz Young was DMX's marketing person. And Dave Lighty was in Jazz Young's office. And that's in Jive. No. That's 160 Varick Street. Okay.

That's my favorite place. Def Jam. Chung King. Right. And so Dave Lighty said, so I wasn't there for this part, so I can't really quote what he said. I'm just going to be fair to Dave. Right. But as the story goes, Dave Lighty said something referring to DMX drug habits.

Right. Right? When DMX gets there and he gets the word, all DMX heard was Lighty. He didn't hear Dave Lighty. He didn't hear anything. So Chris now is in Def Jam, walks around the building like we always do,

and he sees DMX and he goes just like, yo, what up? And DMX just, bop, just snuffed him. Chris, Chris, blindsided. Chris has no idea. He's blindsided. He DMX just, just snuffed him. Chris, Chris, blindsided. Chris has no idea.

He don't understand. He just hit him. Nah, he don't get it. If he knows it's coming, it's not going to happen. Nah, not baby Chris. Chris is not a sucker. No, he's not a sucker.

Please, please. And so he punched him in his face. Right. I can tell you that that night, after Chris went to the dentist, after Lior took him to the dentist to get his grill fixed, because...

Because that lawsuit is on them now. Yeah. If Chris wanted to do that. Yeah. So they got to make a right. We spent the rest of that night running around New York City looking for DMX. Wow. Like, it was deep.

That's what I heard. It was like tip, Q-tip, can't, all violets. Because people don't know Q-tip ain't a psycho. Q-tip is thorough. It was like tip q-tip can't all violet Q tip is thorough people And so and so yeah It eventually got talked everybody got talked off the ledge and cooler cooler hells prevail

but that was a true story it was and it was and I and the part that I didn't respect and me and DMX

is cool but the part that I didn't respect was it was a sucker punch he didn't see it coming he didn't see he got that one Chris got a lot of paper

off that shit too he got a lot of paper but that was a sucker punch real tough so moving on what was what was an artist that like

that you maybe didn't believe in and it just took off and was like, wow. Is there anybody that you was hesitant on believing in and the artist just take off? I think I've been blessed in my career to choose wisely. Were? And I've never thoroughly believed or not believed, you know what I'm saying, because I had great guidance.

When you got A&R over here and you got Chris over there, like, there was never anybody we doubted. We never passed on somebody? We on Drink Chef, right? We keep it real. We keep it real on Drink Chef. Not me. We keep it real on Drink Chef.

Now, hold up. We keep it real on Drink Chef, right? We keep it real on Drink Chef. I'm the only one in the building that believed in 50 Cent. OK, you saying a lot right now. You know what? You came ready. You came ready. saying a lot right now. You know what? You came ready. You came ready.

Come on, come on. Come on. I ain't hear anybody clap. I don't care. Nah, I can't. You know what? I love you and I respect you. I can't agree.

I can't agree. You was the only one because I'll never forget. I'll never forget when Gabi and Nelson had him before we touched him. There's two different 50 Cents. There's the one before he got shot.

I'm talking about. Hold on, hold on. I'm talking about. I don't know if he was there yet. How the Rob. I don't know if he was there yet. How the Rob. Hold on, hold on.

I don't know if he was there. So how the Rob came and then 50 cent got hit up. Yeah. He got dropped from the count. I'll tell you a story about how 50 cent got to Violator. Right. Let me just tell you a story. I don't know. Andeta. Right? I'm just going to tell you a story. I don't know.

And you're going to appreciate the story too. And I don't think you know the whole story. So I'm in the front end. I'm getting a little bit of money, but I'm not really getting money. Me and you both had convertible Lex Coupes. The blue one. Throw me out.

The blue one. Throw me out with the white one. With the chain in Syria. I had the white one. With the chain in Syria. You said you had that. You ain't getting one. You ain't getting one. Sit down with that they get asked all the time.

Have you ever had to shoot your gun? Sometimes the answer is yes. But there's a company dedicated to a future where the answer will always be no. Across the country, cops called this taser the revolution. But not everyone was convinced it was that simple. Cops believed everything that taser told them. From Lava for Good and the team that brought you Bone Valley comes a story about what happened

when a multi-billion dollar company dedicated itself to one visionary mission. This is Absolute Season 1. Taser Incorporated. I get right back there and it's bad. It's really, really, really bad. Listen to new episodes of Absolute Season 1. Taser Incorporated on the iHeartRadio app, It's really, really, really bad. Plus on Apple Podcasts. The American West with Dan Flores is the latest show from the Meat Eater Podcast Network,

hosted by me, writer and historian Dan Flores, and brought to you by Velvet Buck. This podcast looks at a West available nowhere else. Each episode, I'll be diving into some of the lesser-known histories of the West. I'll then be joined in conversation by guests such as Western historian Dr. Randall Williams and best-selling author and Meat Eater founder Stephen Ranella. I'll correct my kids now and then where they'll say when cave people were here. And I'll say, it seems like the Ice Age people that were here didn't have a real affinity for caves. So join me starting Tuesday, May 6th, where we'll delve into stories of the West and come to understand how it helps inform the ways in which we experience the region today.

Listen to The American West with Dan Flores on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. And it's going to take us to heal us. It's Mental Health Awareness Month. And on a recent episode of Just Heal with Dr. J, the incomparable Taraji P. Henson stopped by to discuss how she's discovered peace on her journey. So what I'm hearing you saying is healing is a part of us also reconnecting to our childhood in some sort. You said I look how youthful I look because I never let that little girl inside of me die. I go outside and run outside with the dogs. I still play like a kid. I laugh.

You know, I love jokes. I love funny. I love laughing. I laugh at myself. I don't take myself too seriously. That's the stuff that keeps you young and stops you from being so hard. To hear this and more things on the journey of healing, you can listen to Just Heal with Dr. J from the Black Effect Podcast Network on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. AT&T, connecting changes everything.

Your gut microbiome and those healthy bacteria can actually have positive effects throughout your body, not just your gut, but your mental health, your metabolism, your immunity, your risk of cancer, heart disease, almost any disease under the sun. Yep, you heard right. Probiotics might actually impact everything from your brain to your heart. So what's science and what's just really good marketing? On this episode of Dope Labs, me and Zakiya cut through the hype and get into the real deal behind probiotics with help from gastroenterologist Dr. Roshi Raj. So yes, bacteria is definitely having a moment and I'm very excited about that. From probiotic drinks and gummies to face creams and pillows. Yep, we said pillows.

The probiotic boom is everywhere. But how much of it actually works? And what does it all mean for your gut, your skin, and even your mood? Join us on Dope Labs where we break it all down in the lab like only we can. Listen to Dope Labs on iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Like only we can. Her name is Beth Isaac, right? And I was buying some shit I couldn't even afford. What year is this? You know what? It was like either 99 or 2000, right?

No, no, no. It's got to be before that because you're talking about he got hit, what is that, 98, 99? And then he disappeared for a while. Nobody couldn't get in touch with him. It was a polka notice. And so I go into the jewelry store to buy some diamond earrings from Beth, right? And she had this diamond cross in the window. And I'm like, yo, Beth, what the fuck is that?

And she was like, you can't buy that. I was like, why not? She was like, because that's 50 cent. Fuck the earrings now. Fuck the chain. I need 50 cent. She's like, he ain't fucking with nobody. I was like, no, Beth, listen to me.

That's my guy from studios when he used to write for Sweet Tea when she was making a comeback. And he was like, he was doing the ghetto karate. Like, 50 is my dude. Please have him call me. She was like, I was like, yo, listen, all you got to do is tell him E-Nick's trying to get in touch with him. Don't do nothing else, right? You don't have to set up no meetings, no anything. Just say E-Nick said, give him a call.

So three weeks go by. Shy Money called my office. He was like, yo, E, what's up? And I was like, yo, I want to sign 50 Cent. He was like, and now 50 didn't give a fuck about nobody. He didn't know who to trust. He was like, and now 50 didn't give a fuck about nobody. He didn't know who to trust. He was like, he's off Columbia? He dropped from Columbia.

He got hit up, and now he's in recovery, hiding out somewhere, not knowing who to trust because there's real niggas in the street trying to kill him. So he's like, I'm not fucking with nobody. And I was like, listen, this is what y'all do. Pop up to the office any time y'all do Pop up to the office Anytime y'all want Wasn't the rumor that Chris got him a publishing deal? No No I know where you're going with the contract

So I said, tell you and Fifth Come to Violator Anytime y'all want Don't call me, don't let me know you're coming Just say you're outside And I will drop whatever I'm doing, and I'll come and deal with you. I'm going to paint the picture for you.

Fifth shows up to Violator on Lexington Ave. The nigga had a, nobody was getting no money. Well, he wasn't getting no money. Him and Shaw was fucked up, broke. The nigga had on a snorkel, right? Some, ran over Tim's. I'm painting a picture. This is not 50 Cent. We know now, multi-millionaire. He was fucked Some, ran over Tim's. I'm painting a picture. This is not 50 Cent,

we know now, multi-millionaire. He was fucked up. Ran over Tim's, bulletproof vest, two bangers in his waist, and looking like he was ready for war.

Like, looking like he was standing on a corner ready for war. With the burgundy caravan sitting outside. And I'm trying to tell him, yo,

my nigga, your story is solidified now. Everybody in the street knows what's going on. Everybody around the world knows what happened to you. Bro, all we got to do is now go make the records. That's what I did. Let's go make the records. I go to Chris.

Chris is like, nah, I ain't fucking with that. Why would I do that? Irving them niggas. And at the time, Murder, Inc. had the game in a fucking show call. Like, I'm going to shout to you. They had the game in a chokehold. Am I lying? I don't think I've never been this quiet on Jake Champs. Murder, Inc.

had the game in a chokehold. Absolutely. But my job as an A&R at Violator is I wanted to compete. When we was in 160 Varick Street, Irv Gotti himself told me, my nigga, always keep the energy in your office.

Always have the shit popping. Irv was always a good dude with me until after I signed 50 Cent. Then we wasn't cool no more. I'm keeping it a buck. Right when he's up. No, Chris Gotti kept it real with me. He said, yo, E, you know why? Chris Gotti said,

yo, E, you know why I fuck with you? Because you wasn't trying to get into the beef. You was just trying to do business. So we can leave you out of that. You wasn't trying to enter the beef. You saw an opportunity to sign a hot nigga, and you signed him. And that's what I did. That was my job.

I wasn't trying to strap up and put on a bulletproof vest and get out on the street and bang it out with niggas. That's not who I was. So I'm keeping it a G. So I went to Chris three different times. And it wasn't until Chris realized how his mixtape was heating up in the street that Chris said, all right, fuck it. You got it. Let's do it. And we signed 50 Cent to Violator Records.

Violator Records. Records. No. Violator Records. SRC, no. Violator Records. S.R.C. Columbia. Let me throw a curve ball in that. Let me throw a curve ball in that.

Steve didn't even say this on drink show. Let's throw a curve ball in that. It was also A.M.G. Michael Ovitz. The agent from Hollywood. So there was this whole ecosystem yeah going on now, so I didn't understand cuz Chris was making moves into Hollywood that nobody We gonna get to that So he was signed SRC, you know, he's on a violated SRC Columbia back at Sony.

But through Violator, through our deal with SRC. And SRC had the Columbia deal. Yes. And so we start to make the records. 50 Cent and Shaw hop on a plane. Eminem gets a hold of this hot ass mixtape in the street. This mixtape was killing the street. Eminem gets a hold of it. Shaw and 50 cent hop on a plane this is gonna bug you out you ain't know this story definitely don't want a store jump on a

plane and agree to sign to aftermath but after they signed there was already in a deal there was a J Records element to this. I don't remember. There was a J Records. J Records or J MSC? There was a J Records. J Records. Clive Davis. Clive Davis.

There was a J Records element with Todd. With Todd. When they came back from the trip, because Marshall listened to it on the set of the movie. They went to LA, got that M. They caught that ticket to sign the deal. They came back. We was on 25th Street now. They came back and they went in Todd's office.

Nope. They went in Todd's office. That was at Lexington. That was at Lexington when you went to Todd's office? When I left Violator, we were still on Lexington. Okay. So they came back from the deal. Uh-huh.

He said, 50 cents shot money sitting in my office, in the middle of the office. But did they get money from this Violator deal? No, they got money for the deal. He said, 50 cents shot of money sitting in my office, in the middle of the office. But did they get money from this violin? No, not yet. No, they got money for the deal. Oh, they got events and everything. It was signed, sealed, delivered. That's crazy.

That's why I don't know that. Hold on. You had an open budget going to the studio. Wow. No, no, no. But you got to understand something. He only had a mixtape in the street.

He wasn't 50 cent hot. Right? It wasn't, it wasn't, you know, Go? It wasn't it wasn't you know, go short He's a bro. No, I wasn't that he was 50 cents a future right? Right so comes back and goes yo Eric. We gotta go to Chris guy get off this deal Going to top Moscow is now had left Def Jam and became general manager of Violator. It was Tony Yeo. This is going to fuck you up.

This is going to fuck you up. You ain't going nowhere. This is going to fuck you up. Oh, yeah. Going to Yeo, Fifth, Shaw, me, Chris, Todd. We in the office. Yo, we got to get out this deal because Emin Emily don't want to sign us to aftermath Todd looks and goes I don't give a fuck that's not happening right Chris is like laughing like yeah yo let's go bug you out

I'll swear to God nigga yeah you're puts it on the table he puts his gun on the table it was like Matt pointed at him puts his gun on the table and says yo We gotta get out this deal the nigga Todd Moscow is runs out of the office down Leaves the office Todd is my guy. I'm not trying to play you Todd the fact that Todd has an office I don't I don't come to I don't come to the studio. I don't come to work for guys to be pulling guns at on me. No, Jewish guy, Jewish lawyer.

He ain't about that life, right? Pulls a gun out. The nigga Chris is, me and Chris in there, rolling, laughing our asses off, right? And Chris is so G, and this is why I have so much respect for Chris, because Chris saw the bigger picture. He wasn't being selfish.

He saw the bigger picture like, yo, go blow up with Dr. Dre, but the only way I'm letting you out to deal is if I manage you. And that's how he became, from Violator Records, SRC, what's his name, to Violator Management. And then Chris started managing him. But how do you get out of that deal, though? I mean, there's ways around things. You know what I'm saying?

But the management side. I mean, we was in control of our situation. Yeah, Chris ran everything. But it was a split. It was through your record, SRC, then Columbia, right? And the split management was Shaw Money. Right. Because that's where a lot of people forget, you know,

Shaw as a music guy was also his manager and also managed the unit. Shaw Money. So I'm saying, so it came like a whole package deal. Because I remember, back to you in the belief of 50, 50 was writing for Puff. It was a daddy's house. I'm the vice president of promotions at Bad Boy. Is that why 50 be going at Puff. It was a daddy's house. I'm the vice president of promotions at Bad Boy. Is that why 50 be going to that Puff right now?

I mean, I think there's a lot of different reasons, you know what I'm saying? But 50's just, you know what I'm saying? It's awesome. It's entertaining. I love it. You know what I'm saying? Just to give you the psyche of 50 Cent, 50 Cent thinks he's doing you a favor when he goes at you. He's not looking at it like I'm dissing you to punk you.

He's looking at you like, stupid, take advantage of it because all the'm dissing you to punk you. He's looking at you like, stupid, take advantage of it because all the eyes are going to be on you and now I'm giving you a platform, asshole. Take advantage. He's not looking at it like I'm trying to play you. You right, I got you. That's his psyche. So some people-

I'm putting it back and I don't need that type of promotion though. I'm sure y'all all saw the Instagram going back and forth with Busta and Fit. I'm not going to lie. I'm not going to lie. I'm not going to lie. I'm not going to lie. I'm not going to lie. I'm not going to lie.

I'm not going to lie. I'm not going to lie. I'm not going to lie. I'm not Like, okay, I'm sure y'all all saw the Instagram going back and forth with Busta and Phipp. That's where I heard it. I heard, yeah. Phipp ain't looking at Busta like I'm disrespecting you. But you know this Busta got in the gym though after that.

Look at Busta now. It worked. It worked. Let me tell you something. Buster ain't had this confidence. He ain't had this glow. This album is something else. This album. He didn't have, listen, listen. And this is my friend.

And he loves to tell me when I'm fucking up so I can't wait to tell him. I can't wait. He's really my friend. But right now, not only he's not fucking up, he has a certain glow to him. He has a certain friend. I really like him. But right now, not only he's not fucking up, he has a certain glow to him. He has a certain presence.

When I heard the Chris Rock, You can't fuck with Busta Rhymes. You can't fuck with the God Busta Rhymes. You can't fuck with the God Busta Rhymes. I got Busta's number. I wanted to be like, oh, I'm scared. Like, I was literally scared. Like, yo, this album is crazy.

I didn't even hear the rest. I just did that. You came up with Busta Rhymes. When Chris Rock was doing that, that shit is just an energy. And then I see them with Blac Chyna, and I don't know what they did. It was a TikTok. It was a TikTok. But even that, I looked at my friend's confidence, and I was like, he's there.

That's the Busta Rhymes I know. That's the motherfucker put your hands where our eyes can see Busta right there. And I'm telling you, bro. I'm telling you, I can't wait. And tonight is a great night. Tonight Jay-Z is dropping again.

Nas album is dropping. What do we feel about this, fellas? This is like the third time Nas is dropping something what do we feel about this, fellas? This is like the third time. Now's the night. Now's when he's dropping something. And then the big homie drops right after. Does anybody see a coincidence here?

Or am I pulling the curtain too much? Am I pulling the curtain too much? No industry answers. And you haven't took a sip of your drink either. What you asked for, you got to go in. Salud. When Ali and Frazier fight, Ali and Frazier fight. Let it be a great fight.

You're a Brooklyn dude, so I gotta let you ask your Brooklyn side of you. And you're a Brooklyn dude too. I totally forgot. There's very few Puerto Ricans out of Brooklyn. But you know, we there. Jay-Z is a chess player, man. Absolutely. And to say that he's totally oblivious and this is a coincidence i would say bullshit i call bullshit on that

okay like i just me personally okay um just you know there's a saying in the music industry the more albums come out it's not that people are gonna buy one from the other. It's more traffic in the stores. So when we literally were selling CDs, it wasn't a bad thing that you dropped the same day as your competition. Oh, you ain't 50. Because now your fan base is in the stores. They're in the store and they're comfortable. And the traffic is just heavier.

And they got to go get both albums. Some people only got enough for one album, so they got to choose. But the traffic is there and everybody's going to do well. Some people only got enough for one album, so they gotta choose, but the traffic is there, and everybody's gonna do well. So that was their mindset behind it, but Hov is always going to let everybody know who the fuck he is for the rest of his life.

Clapform. Now? No, Clapform. Anybody listen to the record Clapform? Have you heard of Clapform? Of course. Have y'all listened to the lyrics of Clapform? Do you really understand what he's saying?

No, no, no. Yeah, yeah. Clapform. I'll pass the baton. Hov is a genius. Hov is strategic. And Hov just sons of niggas. It's a brand lift. It's a brand lift. Do you think it's like deliberate?

He did answer the question. He did. He answered it. It's called the brand lift. Okay, I don't know be exclusives on title There'll be a lot of track. Let me finish. There'll be a lot of traffic. There'll be a lot of visuals This is a part of the trail and jay-z. I'm dropping a single and Nas is dropping a whole out. Yes wise quote If you go back to traffic, you're setting doing this shit from reasonable doubts to it was written Like I remember being in studio studio with Trackmasters and Steve Stout. And when Hov dropped Reasonable Doubts, Stout and them didn't really... I'm a Brooklyn nigga, again.

Stout and them did not really know who Hov was at that point. Patrick Moxley did. In terms of his talent. I'm going to be honest. Patrick Moxley did. Reasonable Doubt, and this is going to make me sound crazy, was Ho's intro into the game. At the time, I'm going to be honest with you,

if you were getting money and you was understanding what he was talking about, you got into that album. I wasn't getting money at Reasonable Doubt. I didn't get into Ho. What's the next album after that? In My Lifetime. In My Lifetime. My Lifetime. My Lifetime. My Lifetime. My Lifetime. My Lifetime. My Lifetime. My Lifetime. My Lifetime. money at reasonable doubt i didn't get into hope what's the next album after that um um in my lifetime in my lifetime my lifetime my lifetime i started getting a little money i went back to reasonable doubt i said oh shit i slept oh shit i slept you couldn't get into reasonable doubt i didn't understand a lot of that money but if you're gonna be honest bro, I don't know super cocaine. But if you knew real hustlers.

I'm talking about when he was getting into that coke talk and certain shit. Sippin' Ma-Tai with Ma-Tai, Sippin' Rick-Side. I didn't know what Ma-Tai was. I didn't know what Cristal was. I went to the, I bought Cristal. Cristal. You bought the Colombian Cristal. It was IYM.

It was IYM, dude. It was IYM, dude. I'll put it this way, if you not getting money and you listen to Dead Presidents, you like, man, fuck this nigga. Like, you like, fuck him. I don't know, I don't see that. I don't see that. You know what, FN, I'll give you that, because you know what, if you really knew getting money cats back in those days like we did, it was the soundtrack to their life. The real getting money cats. The cats from Brooklyn, the Kendus, the Phils, the Knicks.

You know what I'm saying? The cats uptown, the Lenny's. You know what I'm saying? Like, you know what I mean? The wild cowboys. It was a soundtrack to their life.

But there was two types of hood niggas though. There was niggas that wanted, didn't want. I'm talking about the getting money cats. I get you. But there's niggas in the hood

that will never want to sell drugs. Like in my hood, there was niggas that never wanted to sell drugs. They just wanted to stick niggas up. And then there's niggas who... That's Brooklyn.

Brooklyn keeps on taking it. Who never wanted to... Who never wanted to rob niggas and steal niggas. They'd rather stand on a corner and pitch rocks. And so, the niggas on the corner

that pitched rocks, Jay-Z was their favorite. The niggas that was hooded up, going out, you know, going to Midtown to dig pockets,

like, those niggas didn't give a fuck about... You you know, going to Midtown to dig pockets, like, those niggas. No, no, no. You said the dudes was on the corners. Dudes that had the dudes on the corners. Yeah. The real gang. The dudes that had the dudes on the corners.

And I'm going to be honest. I was my own worker. Like, I didn't have workers. Like, so I couldn't relate to, like, niggas talking about pie, putting them on, just. Like, just listen. Recently. Right. A couple years ago.

Is that your limitations of Nori? No, no, it's a record called Niggas in Pies, son. I love the record. But a friend of mine, he balls a couple little hundred dollars for me before we get in the club. I give him the money. This nigga's in the club. What's 50 grand to a nigga like me? Can you please

don't buy me? I'm like, it's a lot to you. Stop playing. Stop playing. This thing is in the club That's the reason why I didn't want to be that guy. I wanted to... If I fuck with your lyrics... For instance, it's not that I love Nas more than Jay-Z or anything like that. But I do love Illmatic more than Reasonable Doubt. But when Nas spoke to me, Illmatic, I felt like he was still from Queensbury. Right. When Jay spoke to me, I felt like he was from Beverly Hills, that first album, because he was talking about Four Seasons brunch and shit like that. I didn't know what the Four Seasons is. He was telling his true life story. I didn't know what brunch first album because he was on my four seasons brunch and shit like that I didn't know what the But there was a whole team of cats that could you don't say look what it's for look at block royal. You don't say look at me

Come on, okay go my Yeah, you super late girl How are you? All right, okay. What were we talking about James? Can you keep going baby? We were talking about you know, he's small look what he's formed Look at Jay was talking about he gave cats getting money a blueprint to get out and do music He gave cats getting money the license to use that in another way because yeah this is our life he told you his life you couldn't relate but you got interested yeah you couldn't relate but you wanted to hear more you couldn't relate but you know what he did and props to jay and props to juan and all them cats

over at the rock you know what he did uh gave us an aspiration yeah i want to know what am i tired what's my time i want to know what the four seasons is yeah you know what i'm saying i want to know what the you know like this shit was definitely cold something. You know, it was definitely so foul. They don't even got a program So you just stay there you'll get no points One of my first nice nice cars was the GS Lexus remember those yes come on because you have a couple of you have a great so again I wasn't getting that much money so I had to 300 right so when Jay Z said oh yeah the six I had to take my shit back and just spend a little bit extra just to like shit that I could like the whole culture followed that the whole aspirational that's what I knew. 4.0. It's a 4.6.

I definitely knew how powerful Jay-Z is. There's two incidents when he started wearing platinum, made everybody wear platinum. He started wearing football jerseys. Football jerseys. He stopped wearing jerseys and started wearing button-ups. Number 30, button-up. And then I forget what else. He made a record called Change Clothes and the whole culture started wearing button-ups including me killed auto-tune

He stopped T pain the T pain ain't touch the sense But let's be honest, you know what Jay did on Reasonable Doubt? He gave you aspiration. Like you said with 50. When 50 would come to the office, I'm going to sell water. I'm going to sell sneakers. I'm going to do movies.

I'm going to do video games. He spoke it into existence. Fifth was a genius. You had Banks sitting over there falling asleep because Banks don't talk. You had Yeo sitting there being the hype man. You had 50 telling you everything he was going to do. And then you had Eric doing the records and Dre doing it. And then then you had chris saying all right let's go get this table we're

gonna take every every dime we could get like you don't say they're just certain cats that just have this innate like a masterpiece like a cashman same aspirations you know i remember when baby first walked in universal people don't people look at me rebar violate a bad boy now i was at universal too and baby walked in there with two Rolexes on. A gold one and a platinum one. And signed a deal right at the table. They had a movement. They spoke things into existence.

These are our heroes in hip hop. People aren't giving them enough credit for the aspirational talk. Giving you an opportunity. Like, nah, I ain't got to be a hand-in-hand cat. I ain't got to be on the corner. I can go invest in this. I can go do that. I can do this.

I can do that. And then vulnerability. Vulnerability, guys. That's the truest form of artistry. Because when you're vulnerable, people can relate to you. That's where we tend to forget that vulnerability as an artist. Yo, Nori, with the manager, Chris, and the label, the Jams. All right?

You were vulnerable. You gave it up to your manager if it wasn't for him. That's why people connect. So when Jay came with that, a lot of cats ain't notice. I knew all the big street cats. I knew every one of them from Brooklyn to the Bronx because I played ball, so I was lucky. I wasn't in the street.

But when Jay came, he gave them a blueprint. Did you play handball? Nah, baby. I got signed at 16. You better stop that. I'm Puerto Rican. I know how they get thrownball so we this is what we did you know these are two brothers that, you know, behind the scenes that make the artist, and I wanted to introduce you as well.

And I wanted... Usually on Dream Chances, I give people an introduction, but today because I wanted people to know like places to go and how to go about it. So, I want you to give your own introductions. Just let the people know of certain things you did and been a part of.

Oh, Jesus. Well, I started in miami so i'm a miami i was born in jersey but i am a miami native i started at slip and slide records as an intern well even before that intern as an intern even before that i think a lot of the miami people know me as a when i was in college waitressing and working at a comedy club so i got a lot of my connections. The BBs, the Brian McKinneys, all those guys know me from 18, 19 years old when I was doing that. But got into Slip and Slide with Ted Lucas and elevated from there. Ted Lucas.

And yo, honey, Ted Lucas. My guy, man. Freaking legend. And from there, I went into management with the label Boss Man Management when he signed Jagged Edge to an overall deal. And then from there, just skyrocketed. I ended up meeting Mona.

You know, by chance, Mona Scott Young. Make some noise for Mona Scott Young. Yes, Mona Scott Young. And then from there, transitioned from music into television. And I've been a part of the Love & Hip Hop brand since its inception, pretty much. Now, I'm sorry. And she works with Slick Rig too, man. That always gets me hyped.

Of course! I always hear about Slick Rig. Yes, and I've been with Slick Rig for the last 10 years. And make some noise for the rulers! Yes! Yes! Now, a lot of people don't know, I really love Love & Hip Hop.

Everyone laughs at me. I love Love & Hip Hop. I love Maris Bootcamp. But I love all that. I watch it all. I watch it all. I watch it all. But here's the thing that I've never seen. I've never seen a star blow up like Cardi B.

Like, as opposed to everyone else, like people kind of like, when you do love a hip hop, they kind of look at you like you're in a graveyard, like you're a person who had a career. You understand what I'm saying? And now this is your way of like, like boosting it back up. Right. But Cardi B was like a person who had a career you understand what I'm saying and now this is your way of like like boosting it back up right but Cardi B was like a person that that came was coming up was known like like like the strip clubs or whatever but then took it to a level

that no did you think that she was could be where she's at right now I mean Cardi had a huge following before we even got her on the show she She was almost at a million followers on Instagram. But I think Love & Hip Hop helped transition her social media fame to music. Because we were there in the beginning and documenting her studio stuff. One of her first videos was at her cafe. We really were there to help showcase that transition into music. And she had a real specific goal. She knew she wanted to come in, do what she had to do, and go on to the next thing in her life.

I think some people in reality, not just love and hip-hop, stay stuck because the fame and the notoriety and walking around and the money you get quickly from being on reality, people get really stuck in that. So you have to understand- The problems go up. Yeah, you have to understand you have a goal that you need to have when you come into this. I'm coming in, I have this in mind, I'm going to do this for this amount of time and I'm going to go on to the next thing. And I think Cardi had a great plan of attack when it came to jumping on Love and Hip Hop. So this is like Vuma sometimes where you got to sign people for eight year contracts. That couldn't have been true.

I mean, everybody's negotiations are different with the networks. You know, the networks are the direct relationship when it comes to negotiating and stuff like that. So everybody's is different. You know, and that goes... It's not directly through the production company? The production company, you know,

the network is the client. So we're producing the show for them. So once it's time to do the show, then the networks have to come in and make those agreements happen. Nori, you secretly work for Love & Hip Hop. As much as you talk about it. No, I really do.

Listen, Nori. Nori, first off, I will say I commit. You see how interesting he is? I love it. This is love. Strike out right now. This is magic.

No, listen. No, because I feel like the show, I feel like the show gets a wrong, a wrong interpretation. What I mean by that is, don't, don't, don't, don't. We have no argument. We have this back and forth all the time. Let me finish. This is a wrong interpretation. What I mean by that is... Don't... Let me finish. We have this backwards for all time.

Let me finish, I'm going to tell you why. People come on Drink Champs and they blame me. They'll be like, you got me drunk. There's no way I can get you drunk. There's no way that I don't smoke weed. You can't get second hand weed. I'm just telling you.

I've never... That second hand weed shit I'm just throwing that out there. I've never... That secondhand weed shit, I've never really believed it. Light as a gong. But, a lot of people will sit down and they'll say to me, yo, like I've seen... I've seen artists say...

I've seen Marlon Wayans, Irv Gotti and people say, yo, you was on that show where you smoke. And then they'll be like, what? They made me smoke. Oh, they really... And it's like, it's not... That's not really the truth

I the smoke is available I got the boss like y'all But we set up man, but wait wait, but see Marty and I have this thing, okay You gotta you gotta say Marty because you say Molly When I say that way because she's gonna we've had this conversation we had this conversation recently Yeah, so what do you feel about love and hip-hop? I love going to sky love Mona me I love love a hip-hop. I love that. I know everybody on the show What I don't love is when I walk into that corporate boardroom at Google I walk into that corporate boardroom at Nike or Reebok and they think that's all of us Because we're portraying a certain way of being on the show itself. So let's take this back.

We're going to have it. I love this song. Let's sit here and talk about reality television and displaying the reality of someone's life when you guys, because you guys are older than me, let's just be clear, you guys had pushed the envelope of rap for all these years. So the realities of the rappers that come in and talk about the drugs talking about slob on my

Dom and fucking bitches getting money all this shit was the reality of rappers is the reality show without the visuals So what love and hip-hop and on to the reality shows come in and did is that they give you a visual representation? And it took the woman out of the shadows of a man that's been there for all these years. I'm good. I'm good. I'm good. I'm good. I'm good. I'm good. I'm good.

I'm good. I'm good. I'm good. I'm good. I'm good. I'm good. I'm good. I'm good.

I'm good. I'm good. I'm good. I'm good. I'm good. I'm good. I'm good. I'm good. I'm good. I'm good. I'm good. You know how we took accountability? By going in those boardrooms and closing those deals and saying no, we are educated,

we are professional managers. But you have to speak. Wait, wait, wait, let me finish, I'll let you speak. I'll let you speak, I'll let you speak. I'll let you know, hold on, I'll let you speak. We did take accountability because we showed to those corporate boardrooms and closed the types of deals which planted the seeds to allow for other things to

come out like love and hip-hop so we were learning as we went along we made mistakes it was we didn't have a blueprint nobody gave us a book this is how you go do this but we went out and did it and we did it with integrity and accountability in all reality they had that opinion of us way before love and hip-hop. I agree But but but the people the people in the courtroom Ain't nobody signing You run around the Aussies to cigar cases. Yes, I do. Yes, I do. You're going to do it. You're going to do it. Do it the right way. You're going to do it.

All right? You're going to do it. You're talking to me. I'm sorry. Who kind of watches that? They had, they've always had that opinion of us

from the 80s, right? And you can't single-handedly blame it on love and hip-hop. No, nobody's doing that. I think that, I don't think that love and hip-hop portrays our culture properly and I think that a lot of it is exaggerated for the drama of TV which makes it even worse agreed right but I understand it because the drama is

actually taking these kids that were done finished nobody cared about him I don't know about and I get that but this they took okay let's take not scrappy but let's take Stevie J right he was done okay nobody gave him nobody was paying attention to Stevie nobody I wasn't calling Stevie J like Like let me get a track. Okay, I respect that But there's also the cases that you can't look over like a Pat Pooce and Remy Ma where it's not only on the show They're making the show look good I was a love my wife more. I was like, hold up. Hold up. Hold up. Hold up. Hold up. Hold up. I was a much more romantic nigga in the world.

Let me ask you a question. Let me ask you a question. I'm not in love with her. I'm not in love with her. Let me ask you a question. Everybody loves the train wreck. Yeah. Everybody.

And you cannot turn away from the train wreck. So call it love and train wreck. No disrespect. No. I'm just saying. I have some. I mean, I just. No, no, no.

No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No mean, I just- No, no, no, no, no, no, no. Ask the woman. Ask the woman. Ask the woman in this. The only woman.

Not the woman in this room. Am I the only one in this room? Shout out to Angie Martinez. Another matchup. We need a champion. We need a champion. We need a champion. No, that's what happened.

We need Angie Martinez. No, that's my champion. Yeah, yeah, yeah. We need a champion. We need a champion. We need a champion. We need a champion. We need a champion.

We need a champion. We need a champion. We need a champion. We need a champion. We need. That's Lloyd in the game. Wait, wait, wait. You call me Lloyd? Let me say something. One thing. I'll let everybody say something. No, one thing. Wait, Jay, Jay, Jay. So this is my only thing.

This is what I said before on the show. It's called love and hip hop. Now, everybody here is industry, and they represent MCs and artists. Right. That's only one element of hip hop. So when I go, I travel around the world, and I'm talking to people. They're like, I thought hip hop was this culture with turntablist and b-boys and graffiti writers and knowledge of self and all of this,

and this is what you guys are saying is hip hop now? It's, that's what I feel is like disrespectful to the culture in that sense. Not as a show, it's an amazing show. That's why I'm saying, if you call it love and hip hop, that's where I kind of drew the line. Call it love and drama, you know? It's just, when you look at all the reality drama. When you look at all the reality TV,

when you look at all the reality TV, like if you take American Idol, and you take the other one where they spin their chair around, like you take all of them, it's not about breaking the artist. It's about ratings for the show. It's about the person. Okay, so the shows like Love and Hip Hop,

Basketball Wives, Marriage, Boot Camp, all these different type of shows is the personal slice of people's lives behind the mic. That's what it's about. It's a very segmented audience. Now, you said something that I disagree with. You said that these stories are not real. Any of us that have been in this industry

for this amount of time know someone personally or have been a part, these four men in the table, of situations like a Love & Hip Hop throughout the 10 years. When I say real... Hold on, hold on. Stop.

Stop. When I say it's not real, when I say it's not real, if I don't fuck with you, right? And I do. But if I don't fuck with you, I'm not meeting up with you at some fly restaurant

to talk to you about our problems. I just don't fuck with you. Well, this is the thing is that the show... That's the not real part of it. People don't have... There's no secrets when you get casted. You know the people in your cast. Of course.

So it's up to you to decide on whether you want to deal. The show is about this specific world, these specific people dealing in this specific space. Have you ever had two artists that particularly didn't fuck with each other and you guys knew that and still booked both of them? Absolutely. There's a casting process. Okay. We absolutely there's a casting process So Mona Scott happens to be a really good friend of mine and I've helped her Put certain certain people on the show right and I've sat in the producer grilling meetings with not Mona, but the producers are trying to find out where the dirt is so that they can get the ratings up.

Right. So it's instantly thought of like, if you come in and you just squeaky clean and you don't have no problems, you have no beef with nobody, get along with everybody. You're not a good cast member. But don't we do that in hip-hop and now... Oh, thank you Nori, I was going to say because... But don't we do that in hip-hop... Marketing schemes of beefs that have been caused i.e. our conversations from a few days... But I...

Because we was just going through that with the 50 Cent thing, right. You guys said that she was cool with Irv and all that and then you said when 50... After 50 got shot but maybe it wasn't marketing the tool for you guys, but when 50 wanted to market that his album cover was nine shots, I'm sure none of you guys said no.

No, that's not true. So, again, if you rewind back, you have a relationship with 50, right? Yeah, I do. Okay, when you speak to him, he will tell you how long. Oh, I don't speak to him. I got a relationship. Okay. The next time you run into him.

I like to keep it real. I mean he will tell you how long I will speak to him. I got a relationship. Okay How long I fucked with him before I actually got a chance to So what I'm saying to you is that for me I don't give a fuck if this The story is a train wreck or the story is chance to wrap up I just want to know that the artist is talented and he can articulate his story properly on beat. But have you ever seen 24 Hour or All Access? The thing is, whoever Floyd fights, let's suppose this guy is a burglar.

Let's suppose this guy is the real deal truth. The thing about it is, you have to describe that opponent to be qualified to fight Floyd that night. Don't we do that in hip-hop? The thing about it is this, I learned from a real person, he said, I don't want my enemy to ever be a sucker. That shit fucked me up. Because he said... Damn. You see how he just got me. You see how he just got guy. Chop the 50. You see how you trust the guy.

I was like this. But think about it. If your enemy is a sucker, it also takes away from you. Right. Like, I don't want anybody I ever had beef with, I want them to stay up. I've been looking at their Instagram, like, stay up, man. Don't fall down, buddy. Be a good competitor.

Like, especially if I won. Right. Like, so isn't that somewhat what we do in hip hop? Hip hop is competition. That's how we've all thrived since it started. Absolutely. It was built on competition. Right. So, isn't that somewhat what we do in hip hop? Hip hop is competition. That's how we've all thrived since it started. Absolutely. It was built on competition. Competition.

But let's digress for one second, please. Okay. I have a real issue with the fact that what you just said was so important. If you're a nobody, if you're from Mars, if you're an alien and you watch that show. Right. There's a perception that comes along with that. If you watch Cartel Crew, there's a perception that comes along with that. If you watch Cartel Crew, there's a perception that comes along with that about the Latin States.

If you watch My Wives, there's a perception that's being portrayed in the environment that's allowing people to perceive that that's how they all are. So you know what? It's entertainment. Yes, we know it's entertainment. There are social issues that we've grown up with

that we identify with on those shows. But not every bad Latin girl is a stripper. Not every, wait, let me finish. Not every Spanish dude, excuse me, not every Spanish dude in the game is a drug dealer. You know what I'm saying? But all the content that's being put forth that's representing our culture,

most of it has to do with the negative sides of our culture and glorifying it. And raising a generation of individuals growing up on it. I believe, first off, I believe for these past two years, hip-hop has embraced relationships and embraced love. And I think that's reflected on the show. I agree with that. Past these days, I've loved hip-hop.

There was relationship problems in every single way, and only one had to deal with infidelity. But the reality is that it's still... But, Mami, shouldn't all of hip-hop be represented then on but the reality is is that it's still but my Represented then on the show MC's or rappers James James your issue is how they perceive us, but that's their problem. That's the Hold that's their lack of ignorance. Right? Hold on. There's no such thing as all right

You're Hispanic I'm not gonna consider all Hispanics just like you right, right? I'm not gonna consider all women just like her. Mmm, right going to consider all black dudes just like me. That's because I'm intelligent. And we live in a culture now, and we live in a world especially with this election coming up, where a lot of people are concerned with all. They have this perception of

all black people are this way, or all white people are this way. And I know white people who say black lives matter. And I know white people who say black lives matter. And I know white people who don't understand why we have to say black lives matter. So it's their ignorance that we can't we can't cater to. Nobody's catering to it. I'll give it up to you on that. But let's be real.

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Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. When I'm in those meetings and they want to talk about what's going on with love and hip hop and they want to talk about

what's going on TMZ, what's going on Vlad TV, what's going on with all the social media stuff, that's a perception they have that we have an uphill battle to change. You know what I'm saying? When you got to look at, you go on Netflix right now, show me one Puerto Rican, one Dominican, or one Cuban TV show.

You can't. Nicky Jambs. Wait, that's a documentary and it's a scripted documentary by Jesse Torero. By Jesse Torero. I won't call it a documentary. I'll call it a scripted series. A scripted series, sorry. A scripted series. A scripted series.

But wait, but how long did it take to get there? I'm going to be honest, you are correct. You're naming one? You're naming one. How many Mexican drug dealer cartel shows are there? Eskimos. 50,000 eskimos shows. 100,000 tabloids.

I can't watch a number one. I'm sick. And drug aid. And drug aid. And scripted shows. Scripted shows are all Mexican. That goes back to when everybody was making Minister of Society and Boys in the Hood and every...

You know what I think is missing? I love this talk. No, no, no. This is... No, no, no. Listen, I think what's missing that's been missing forever in hip-hop is just the balance.

Yes. There's a lack the balance. Yes. There's a lack of balance. We had one- So he wants a Hispanic angel. He wants a Hispanic angel. I get it. No, I don't want a Hispanic angel.

You know what I'm saying? Now stop, E. What I'm saying is this. Let's be clear. Don't change my- I want a Hispanic angel. Don't switch me up. No. I don't want that.

You know what I want? No shots. You know what I want? I want us- We don't take shots. Wait. I want us as Latinos to stop acting like guests in our own house. Absolutely. We're not guests in hip hop.

There's a guy named Charlie Chase. There's a guy named Crazy Legs. There's a guy named Sean Petras. There's a guy named Rene McLean. There's a lot of individuals. There's an Angie Martinez. There's a DJ Enough. There's a DJ Camilo.

You know what I'm saying? Why do you feel like you're a guest though? No, what I'm saying is- Why do you feel like you're a guest though? We are guessing hip-hop because the perception is we put Latin in front of everything. Latin rapper, Latin ex, Latin this.

I think Punxsutawney They just started taking away urban they now is a movement to take away urban from black music or black music department how do you identify Spanish music now on Billboard chart I don't know tropical it no it's it's and now and now and now the last exactly exactly so there's a change what I'm saying is when we have this conversation when we say when we talk about hip-hop, there are so many different

influences that have been here that the perception is that it belongs here in those markets, in those meetings, in those executive rooms because I'm in those executive rooms every day and I've got to hear what the perception is about our community. I've got to hear what the perception is when you listen

to a record and who said what and Cardi did this and oh, this one says, swallow my kids in a record who said what and Cardi did this and oh this one says swallow my kids in A two-seat, but Cardi talking about wow has anybody listened to music over the last three years? That's the thing about wow Hold on hold on hold on guys stop stop stop stop You you can never stop artists from being who they are I support wow I support I support women talking about they wet ass pussy because if that's me that's who she is But but that don't mean every that doesn't mean that money's gonna sing that no

What I'm saying is that we get caught up in the Definitions that are given to us based on our knowledge Listen to me for a second. We don't get caught up in it the ignorant people who don't understand how culture gets caught up in it We have to change the perception so we get caught up in it. We get caught up in it. That's how they identify us. Do you understand what I mean by caught up? Do you understand what I mean? We know the difference. No, we have to change the perception, so we get caught up in it by changing it. Why? Why do we got to change our perception? Why?

Because we better than what people think. I don't give a fuck what they think. That's why your way you're at, in your great music side, and I'm at, in my part, because I do care. I don't give a fuck.

I do care. I do care. I don't give a fuck what they think. I'm not here. Listen, because you know why you're in that room? You're in that room because they need something from you. They need you. That's true. You're not in that room because they want you in that room.

They're not in that room because they're trying to get something from you. You know why I'm in that room? So when you go in that room and you want to win. And that's how come I always fuck with Russell Simmons. He said, I'm walking in that room with a hoodie and my Adidas on and I don't give a fuck. I'm never putting on a suit and tie to appease your motherfuckers because this is who I am.

And you wanna be a part of my culture, I don't give a fuck about being a part of your culture. But wait a second, you know why? And you gotta respect that. But you know why I'm in the room? Why? Because I'm an owner. Of course.

I'm an owner. I am an owner. I'm not working for them. And they want something from you. No, no, no, no, no, no. Okay. What come owner? Oh, I am an owner Okay, why can we get money I want to know and how to maximize it's called culture evolution We evolved the hip-hop culture by trial and error Nobody tell me a room that you've ever been in your life that you didn't deserve to be in. Nobody said that. I deserve to be in every room. I'm not saying that. No, no, no.

No, that you did not earn to be in. Listen to me. In hip-hop, in the culture of music, if you don't have a reason to be in that room, you don't get your phone call return. Hold on. This is real. Let's be real about this. We live in, even amongst our friends and the people who will be hot they tell us they love us right You don't have a reason for them to call they don't need you at that fucking moment

You know who got caught five times to get your phone call return. Those are only person gonna answer polar bear toes I'm cold as a mother fucker. You cold as a mother fucker. I'm cold as a mother fucker. I'm ice cold. So let me be clear about something. When you're in the rooms, when you're in the rooms, it's because you deserve, you've earned to be in that room. You have a commodity that they're trying to be in business with

to help market their shit. Other than that, you're not in this room. I think you're living, I think you're speaking about a time that has already passed. When I'm, okay, let's talk about Violet in a minute. No, no, no, let's not talk about Violet. I'm going to toss it to you.

I'm going to toss it to you. I'm going to toss it to you. I'm going to toss it to you. I'm going to toss it to you. I'm going to toss it to you. I'm going to toss it to you. I'm going to toss it to you. I'm going to toss it to you.

I'm going to toss it to you. I'm going to toss it to you. Shout out baby Chris. Shout out baby Chris. Shout out baby Chris. Baby Chris. Baby Chris. Hit me for a second.

I'm going to toss it back to you. You're going to love this, right? When you did Vitamin Water, shout out to Jack Cruz for being the orchestrator behind 50 Cent and Violet and Chris Jackson. The only multi-million dollar, 100, 200, 300 million,

whatever the fuck y'all niggas got for that shit. He was the reason. He was one of the reasons behind it. When you negotiated that deal and you brought vitamin water in, if you don't have red hot 50 Cent and you don't have a reason for them to come and fuck with you,

you don't sit in that room. It's my point, brother. But you know what? I got to stop you there. I got to stop you there. Because that's not what happened. I need to understand. That's not what happened.

Because we've never heard... Let me tell you something. I got to stop you there. Okay. Because that's not what happened. I need to understand. That's not what happened. Because we've never heard, let me tell you something. We've heard 50 Cent's story, and I hope this is drink chance. I hope you understand. Keeps it real. That we want the whole story. I'm going to give you the whole story

because that's who I am. So we've heard 50 Cent talk about it. We've even heard Chris Lighty do interviews about it. Not an interview like this, obviously. But we've never heard James Cruz, James Cruz. We from the industry, I've got to consider myself a person in the industry and people outside of the industry, this is the first time I've heard people

saying, they know your name and they know it was a discrepancy that happened and that's where I feel like, but I want you to say you're part of the story. I want you to say exactly how vitamin water came in because I'm gonna be honest we in the hood didn't even know what fucking vitamin water in my house. I didn't know. I had no idea. The same like when I brought Sir Rocks. He brought me Sir Rocks.

I was like, what? I can tell you Sir Rocks. Hold on, hold on. But here. This is the list, James. This is very powerful. This is a drink challenge. Very powerful moment.

Yes, and this is a drink challenge. We're in Hamburg, Germany. Right here. Hamburg, Germany. On tour. Did you just leave Dusseldorf? No, I was going to do a Frankfurt tour. Very powerful moment. Yes, in this drink chat. We're in Hamburg, Germany. Hamburg, Germany. On tour. Did you just leave Dusseldorf?

No, it was Frankfurt. Frankfurt, Hamburg. Come on, we've been on tour. We've been around the world a few times. Yes, we have. We're Frankfurt, Germany. Me and Young Buck have a fight. Straight up fight.

Fist fight. James Cruz quit. Fist fight? Yes. You and Young Buck? Me and Young Buck. Young Buck. Me and Young Buck. All right. We have a different argument. fight hold this but James Cruz quit this fight yes you and you and you know it being young but young but me your bar Chris flies out strain it all out 50 says oh this is a fly see here the fly You know, yeah? Me and Young Buck. Me and Young Buck, all right? Me and Young Buck. Okay. Chris flies out, straightened it all out.

50 says... Hold on, this is fly shit. He had to fly from New York to Germany? Yes. That's hard. I respect that. That's a lot of money back there. My brother. My fucking brother. Chris Lighty got a call, chicken little off the ledge, because I'm quitting. I can't take it. Okay. 50 says, yo,

I want to sell 50-cent waters. You know how they sell quarter waters in the hood? I want to sell it. 50 says, yo, I want to sell 50 cent waters. You know how they sell quarter waters in the hood? I want to sell it for 50 cent. Let's find a company to do the quarter water deal and do 50 cent the bigger ones. Because you know you have the quarters. After the fight? He came up with this after the fight?

Wait a minute, this is 50 just talking. I said the man's a genius. He spoke everything into existence. I want to sell 50 cent waters. Chris says, all right. Chris goes back and does the research. Finds a company called Glaciao. It was right next to Shea Stadium in Queens.

Has a meeting with Rohan. Rohan says, okay, let's go. Let's talk to them. Let's have a conversation. Rohan used to be the head of Coca-Cola. Can you come from the movie Zohan? He could. He could.

There's a man behind Pop Chips and Vita Coco. This is a man that he's on Shark Tank. All right. That Rohan. All right. So Rohan. All right. So Rohan comes in to do a presentation. They bring about

30 bottles of water all different colors. He says, well, this is what we got, guys. 50 gold vitamins. Y'all want the urban market? Where's the grape?

All right. Ding, ding, ding, ding, ding. They didn't have grape. So now, there's an opportunity to do business. 50 Cent didn't take no money. 50 they didn't have grape. So now, there's an opportunity to do business. 50 Cent didn't take no money. 50 Cent didn't take a sponsorship. 50 doubled down

and said, 50,000. Here you go, I'm investing in my own water. I want 10% of my water. 50 Cent said this. He only wanted 10%, though? He wanted skin in the game. He wanted a 50 Cent investment in Glasshead on 10% of his water. That was the deal on the team. But why only 10%? I'm not understanding. Because Glasshead was already a public company. Oh, Glashow you're saying? No, no, no, it's 10% of his brand, his water.

Which was the great one? His water. Formula 50. Oh, just the great one. Formula 50, just the great one. Where's the great? Okay. Put it down.

All right. He put skin in the game. He bet on himself, like Khaled says. Okay. Don't use the term skin because we have dumb fans. Are we pausing right now? Are we pausing on skin? He bet on himself, like Khaled says. Okay. Don't use the term skin because we have dumb fans. Are we pausing on that?

Are we pausing on skin? No, no. Just as far as the skin, we don't. You're talking to a corporate guy right now. I'm sorry. There's money in the game. So he put money in the game. Okay, wow.

And he owned his own company. He owned his own business. But take the table, James. We're doing the marketing for it. We're going to do the grassroots, the street teams, the van raft, the marketing for it. We're going to do the grassroots, the street teams, the van raft, the Pied Agua trucks. We're going to do the commercial. We're going to do the photo shoots.

We're going to hire Jesse Torreira to do this. We're going to hire Anthony Mandler to do that. We're going to take the table. So now we have an artist with money in the game. We had a marketing deal, but we had to sign a deal before a certain amount of time we lost the opportunity. Now you want the Drink Champs story. Chris is locked up.

Chris is in jail. We need to sign the contract by midnight. We're at Summer Jam. Theo Sottlemeyer can't get in because they're not giving us no extra passes. They don't know who we bringing in there. This was real time during that beef. You got 20 passes.

That's it. Ain't no more. Ebro running around. Everybody going crazy. Theo Sotomayor stands in the parking lot with the contract. Hands it to me. I run in. 50 signs it.

Run it back. We get it in by 12 o'clock. We got it. This is the vitamin water contract. It's Glaciao Vitamin Water. Glaciao. Glaciao is the name of the company. Okay.

You guys know it's vitamin water country. It's Glaciao Vitamin Water. Glaciao. Glaciao is the name of the company. Okay. You guys know it's vitamin water. And he took that brand, and we put it in every video, we put it in every Reebok commercial. We basically did the Beats by Dre initiative before there was a Beats by Dre. Shout to Chris and shout to Phif. They're the first ones that placed up. We had a three-minute commercial running on MTV 12 times a day.

That we had Reebok sneakers. We had vitamin water glassy-out. We had G-Unit clothing. We used their platforms to maintain and sell our products. And then Coca-Cola said, okay, guys, let's buy it. Now let's pay you for this. So Coca-Cola came and bought glassy-out. Yes. So for four millions, came and bought glass. Yeah. Yes

Yes shares Basically is because want drink champs and rather than confuse people he had shares which roughly equated to 10% of his own brand Okay, you get it only his own brand or he didn't have nothing in glassy. I his own brain just his own brand his own But they were by everything. Yes, everything Still equated to you know, nine figures. It's still equated to numbers that we can't fathom because it's still going People are still buying vitamin water people still buying Smart Water. Somebody's still sending me vitamins. I don't know where it's coming from. I don't have the intimate details of the deal. However, 50 at Chris were geniuses, and there's still money being made through a deal that was astronomical from an equity standpoint

because we were endorsers. It wasn't cool to be endorsed. Popcorn Chicken, when MC Hammond did Popcorn Chicken, everybody was shitting on him. Mary J. Blige. Mary J. Blige. Mary J. Blige, yeah. Nobody, it wasn't cool, he was a sellout.

I don't know any marketing strategy after 2001 that did not have a corporate brand structure involved with it. It didn't exist beforehand. Shout to Chris Lighty, shout to Busta Rhymes Mountain Dew, shout to Missy Elliott Adidas, shout to all the things that the seeds were planted by Violator, because it didn't exist. It wasn't all right

But let's just take it. Let's just stay on this drill for a second So and I'm I'm going with a pure rumor not the fact that I know you and I See you my family and I consider you my friend. I consider everything Everybody involved with this my family and friend, but there was rumors that this deal went down, and the person that was sour was... Yeah, I got fucked. I got screwed. You know why? They didn't have paperwork.

So every artist that's out there... You signed all the paperwork when you came in? Yeah, I signed your paperwork. But you know what? But you know what? You know what? God is great. But what you mean by that?

It wasn't my time. But what you mean by that? It wasn't my time. But what you mean by that? I didn't get none of the money. I didn't get none of the money on the sale. But that's okay. Okay, but no, no, no. Because this is because... Hold on, tell me.

You're the guy who founded Germany Goose, right? No, no, Chris founded it. Chris founded it. We executed the deal and executed the promotion and marketing of the brand initiative. That's what we did. I didn't deserve it. I thought I had too much equity. At that time, I didn't deserve what I thought I deserved,

then because I didn't put in the work that I thought I put in. My perception was different. Is that a political answer? No, that's me. You know why? It feels political. Nah, it's not political.

Hey, I like Violated because I didn't get what I deserved. You know what I'm saying? Okay, that isn't so political. Me neither. That wasn't political. Nah, he's straightforward with it right now. I created the Violated compilation albums. He did. It was my idea. And I'll co-sign it. You know what I was it right now. I created the Violator compilation albums. He did.

It was my idea. And I'll co-sign it. You know what I was about to say? I'll co-sign it. Hold on, hold on, hold on, hold on. Because I want to get back, when I get back, because Debbie come back, let me come back to you. Sure.

When I get back, I want to say how music, the music, the music, right, when I get back. But I just want to get this out of you. Yeah, I was salty. Huh? Yeah, I was salty. Okay, that's what I mean. Can I be very honest? Yes.

My mind was fucked up. 100%. I was on drugs. I was a straight Okay, that's what I mean. Can I be very honest? Yes. My mind was fucked up. 100%. I was on drugs. I was a straight alcoholic. What drugs? Let's keep it 100. What drugs you was on? Yo, man, I sniffed houses.

Childhood sobriety. Childhood sobriety. I sniffed houses. We celebrate sobriety. We celebrate sobriety, but let's be clear. We love cocaine stories. I got a lot of those. I got a lot of those. I got a lot of those.

Listen, 100, yes, I was in the wrong place of mind. I was in the wrong spirit. I was all over the place. Because I heard this about you one time, but I'm going to be honest, James, and I'm not saying this because you're in my face trying to make you feel better. I've never seen you in that type of state.

So, huh? So, when, like, when like I want to say that I did it well okay I knew it okay I want to play one take we flying to LA just randomly ran into it and I was like Dan and James fucked up yeah like but I knew it but he hit it well it wasn't like you know you want you you want to dig you know you want to dig no no no let's dig let's dig there was a lot going on during that time that some of us didn't have the emotional tools to deal with talking about shootouts talking about life threats you talk about FBI vans sitting on your block at your crib you gotta talk about niggas following your wife home. Come on, man. Like, no, it wasn't, you know, and I'm not using that as an excuse to crutch.

That's real. I wasn't emotionally ready to deal with that. You know what? I got to eat that one. But thank God, by the grace of God and Los Santos, I'm here. You know what I'm saying? But I just want, I don't want you to describe this deal. I only want you to describe this deal because I want somebody else

who can be in your position that can say, you know what, what did you feel like you could have did better in that deal? Because sign the paperwork. That's the only thing. Wasn't the paperwork offered to you? Never.

Never? I never asked for it. That's not how we rocked at Violator. Right, it was a handshake. Like how we rocked at Violator, we just got in when we fit in and we just always knew that Chris... It's a company movement on the flip side of it right chris took care of us all crazy right even like chris paid us well when we didn't deserve to be paid well chris paid us when

he didn't have money and he was going to keep the lights 100 like ch hundred percent. Like Chris literally was like, yo, I remember one time he walked into my office and he was like Black Hawk down. And I knew what that meant. Like shit is fucked up. But you would never know it because we always got our paychecks.

We always kept this shit moving. The lights was on. Shit was moving. It was Violator. But there was a period of time at Violator when all the artists on the label

Busta Rhymes LL Cool J a three year period when nobody was touring so that means no guac was coming in oh I remember you remember

Mike Lighty Mike Lighty had a move there was no paper coming in but he still kept shelling it out but I'm going to tell you

something I'm sorry no that's fine sorry to change up the subject. I, the other day, came across some transcripts. Somebody sends me some shit about a case in hip hop,

and then when I look at this one case in hip hop, it transfers to three and six, seven other cases. So it brings me to this case about Jimmy Henchman. I remember we had an office. I say we because I'm violated. And then Jimmy Henchman had an office across the street. 40-40.

I was going by that. 40-40 was down the block. 25th Street. 25th Street. 25th Street. So, I'm reading this thing, and I felt terrible. Because at the time, I didn't know how serious this was. No, it was real. Let me explain.

Somebody don't want me to talk? Yo, what in the fuck? That might be a sign not to go down that road. Yeah, that might be a sign not to go down that road. Thank you, Chris. Thank you, Chris. Now, I just want to say thank you, Chris, because we ain't going anywhere. Because you don't want to.

You, Nori, you do not want to go to cases. Nori, you do not want to go to cases. Nori, you do not want to go to cases. He said he have to. All right, Bob Cleen ain't here no more. No, I know. He can't. All right, Nori. I'll be honest.

I didn't understand what I was involved. Like, clear me out. I'm just being honest. It's all seven years. It's all... This is 20... We're talking about 15 years ago, right? But I didn't understand because

and I'm going to be honest with you, this is one million percent. For lack of a better term, every time Jimmy and them see me they act like they didn't even know I was violated, bro. They would be like, what's up buddy. Same with me.

I kid you not. They would be like, what's up buddy. And I'm looking like, I'm expecting this energy. So I'm on guard and they're peeping that I'm on guard and they're making me

feel more comfortable. And I'm talking about, this would be literally me walking from Violator to 4040. And they're meeting me in the middle because it was in the middle

across the street. And they would just walk off knowing I'm coming from Violator. So when people told me it was friction and shit like that I ain't gonna lie I'm so sorry I thought it was exaggerate I was like niggas I try living in a minute try living in the middle of that tornado for five years I did five years ready listen to this grass group I actually did another oh shit I was totally wrong but I actually didn't know. I was like, oh, shit. I was totally wrong.

But, Eno, but you can't... The part that I felt bad was that... The part that I felt bad was that, obviously, I'm violated for life. Right. But I understood Jimmy. Love. Love.

But I understood Jimmy. Okay. Yeah, but, Norm, you got to understand. It wasn't just that. Let's not focus on Jimmy. It was all angles of all over the place. Yeah, Jimmy was that case you talk about, but there was over here and there was over there and you ain't know if I'm over here.

So anybody with any sense of semblance in the street would be like, oh, here's an opportunity for me to get in because they don't know where it's coming from. Let's be real. Let's go back to the street. I'm going to be honest, James. Let me just tell you something. Violator is my hangout.

I love going to Violator. James. Let me just tell you something. Violator was my hangout. Yeah. I loved going to Violator. That brown weed used to smoke. It would. Dirty-ass weed. It was the shit. Dirty-ass weed you had. It was the shit.

And there was a time with Missy. And Missy was the shit. And you knew where Missy was at. This is Missy's month. Relax. Yes. Calm. You just see the weed man relax.

It's Missy's mark there's a time where there's busters busters month l l month but there was a difference when 50 came 50 had six months at a time yeah yeah he had a year at a time a year at a time no it was he was like and that's what kind of changed my life because a lot of people say it was the shootout. Not the shootout, or the shooting on 25th Street.

Which one? The one on 25th Street. Which one? You ran into the office and shot him in the belly. Which one? I thought... There was multiple.

Oh, shit. All right. But they wasn't really... I mean, but they... No, there was... Hold on, hold on. But they wasn't trying to hit nobody.

It was just like... They were trying to scare you up. It was windows. It was cars. Window car. Buster told me it was his car. It was his Rolls-Royce Yeah, Buster told me it was his Phantom. One of the first Phantoms on the street at that. Jesus, yeah, Buster been getting a lot of money Yeah, Buster been getting a lot of money. Yo, Buster's the car man. Yo, we're not giving up on Buster. He had the two Lamborghinis, Sunset and Peppermint He had the Hummel before it came out. He had the Sanford and Son truck. He yo this man had cars Shout to Will Castro and unique auto will Castro change the game the first original original TV I get a sprint up for you right now

But we what why do we all get on buses one time? Let's keep 100 buster. Yes bus I'ma say bus has spent a million dollars to win the Funk Flex car show. Bought six cars to go up there to win the Funk Flex car show. 100%. And we got there, and baby had every red car in the game. And then Wyclef comes with the McLaren and the Bigfoot truck. I ain't never seen Buster field him. That face.

You know? But that was the game back then. The jewelry and the cars. Buster might have spent the most money I've ever seen on a video shoot. Any video shoot. Danny Jackson? I didn't go to this Vantage Vaxxin video shoot. But, you know, my taste buds was there

in my mind because I was just looking. The highlight video. Yeah. The highlight video. I was just looking. I was like, hey, wrong. Every shot was a video. I was like, that's a little grand right there.

But keep it real with you. Janet Jackson video was dope because Janet Jackson was on set. But put your hands where your eyes can see. Yeah, that was it. That was it. That was monster. Yo, let me keep it 100. Put your hands where your eyes can see. That's a monster. Yo, let me keep it 100. Put your hands where my eyes can see is my wedding song. Yeah.

That's my WeWall video. That video, that would change everything. That was 1998. It was just Buss and his whole creative mind and coming to America and that whole shit. To be on set and to see Hype shoot that shit, he was like, this is some other shit. But you remember, Noy, the budgets was crazy then. You had Victory.

Puff was, listen, man. Listen, listen. Puff had it. Don't forget the compilation album. He was going to go back to the compilation album. We come back to the compilation album. Puff had it on live. He just threw it to Puff.

He just threw it to Puff. So now, I have to ask, because you brought up the stories. So did you start doing cocaine around? My man, listen, I've been doing cocaine since I was About nobody ain't nobody's ever story nor we're not going there Situations that we might not want to speak on it. No, I just want to speak on it. I want to talk about it. I want to talk about it. I want to talk about it. I want to talk about it. I want to talk about it.

I want to talk about it. I want to talk about it. I want to talk about it. I want to talk about it. I want to talk about it. I want to talk about it. I want to talk about it. I want to talk about it.

I want to talk about it. I want to talk about it. I want to talk about it. I want to talk about it. I want to talk about it. I want to talk about it. I want to talk about it. I want to talk about it.

I want to talk about it. I want to talk about it. I want to talk about it. I want to talk about it. I want to him to. Remember. Wait, wait, wait. Wait, time out. Wait, let's remember whose records got played on Hot 97. Let's remember whose records got back on Hot 97. Yeah, yeah, and they banned me. This is very true. We're going to that as well, James. No, we're not.

We're going to that as well. We're not going to. You don't want that one. We're going to go to the nice version of it. Oh, okay. Oh, all right. I thought it was Drink Champs. Yeah, we're going to Drink Champs.

So, the nice version. Yeah, the nice version of the Drink Champs. Not the Drink Champs. It's still a Drink Champ. Oh, okay. But, but so it wasn't like a that environment cuz I'm just trying to figure it out I heard you say the shiny suit thing earlier. Um Shiny suit met success in dancing and being who we were we were cocaine No, it's not there was no drugs involved during that time You know why because the high was them record sales You saw you debut and staying at number, when you had five records in the top

ten from one record label, when you had Puff on fire. Was you there when the lots wanted to go? No, I had left already. I was at Violator by that time. You left at Violator? I was at Violator by that time. How did you feel about that situation? I mean, I really didn't care.

I was so focused on, I had this, I had baby Chris next to me. I mean, I was birthed by Puff, raised by Lighty, groomed by the gang. Like I'm not looking bad. When you're racing, when you're a horse, you got blinders on. I'm not looking side to side, my nigga. I'm looking straightforward. Let's go get this bread. Let's take the table.

And the company was definitely, I remember the day James started. The company had different energy when James started. And what year did you come to Violator? Oh, God. I started at Violator, so I came with Fox and Brown. started. It was a different- And what year did you come to Violator? Oh, God. I started at Violator, so I came with Fox and Brown. Yeah, he was an original- Child of the Fox. Yeah, I came with Fox and Brown.

That's the 90s, that news, no? 97. 97, damn. I came to Violator in 97. I came in 98. I know I don't look that old. No, no. I came here.

I came in 98, so you was there before me. Yeah. What year you came? I got there in 99, late 99. Oh, so I was a year there before you. Oh, okay. You were there before me. Yeah, I got there. I, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, forget the day who kid and pun I don't know why you want to go there I'm going there I'm going there because I'm giving my man props you want to talk about a mediator you want to talk about somebody that can make things smooth over you

want to talk I sat there and I'm fresh at violator we just left Jimmy's Bronx cafe and I've got the champagne bottle upside the head. Two weeks in the game. When I saw Eric Nix sit there and handle that like a true, like a clam, like an Avon. He should be Eric Nix Avon. Let's take it there. I need another shot. Let's go.

I had an intern. Bless you. I had an intern who was hustling in my office, right? And not like drugs, but not drugs Again, I've got he always told me Every got in Leo always told me to keep a hot no matter what you do Every time I walk into your office Eric. This came Lior, you better have a hot record in your hand. I don't give a fuck. So my job is always to keep a hot record.

Fast forward to Lexington Avenue. I had, and God bless the day, this intern is not alive anymore. an exclusive that I think it was pun and Buster was on that That my intern took from my desk in case you want to get loose I was a little yeah and gave it and gave it and sold it to who kid For like a hundred dollars and stuff like that because you know at the time When all all the mixtape DJs like there, their survival was, I have a record that Flex, Clue, Capri, none of them have. I have this record on my mixtape that nobody has. So he sold it and Who Kid, and I'm going to keep it real with you, and I almost got into beef

with Fat Joe and him about this, but Who Kid. Happy birthday to Joe. Happy birthday, come on. Happy birthday, Fat Joe.. Awesome. Happy birthday to Joe. Happy birthday, Fat Joe. Salud. Happy birthday, Joe. Take a shot. Take a shot. You got to take a shot.

Come on. Come on. This is for Chris. This is for Chris. So, that's watermelon. Ain't that nice? Yeah, that's just great. Ain't that nice?

Watermelon's a rock. It's the best vodka on the earth. Come on, everybody. Yeah. You didn't want to take it when I would give it to you. You got some vitamin water? No, that's regular.

Vitamin water? We don't got no vitamin water. No, we didn't. Vitamin water is about that's both of you. Let's go. Okay, I'm sorry. Let's go.

So, Who Kid says, you know, Fat Joe and punting him catch Who Kid in Miami and Macho Macho him who kid up. And that was the start of the 50 Cent Fat Joe

like kind of like controversy. I'm going to stop you there. OK. You're wrong. OK. That was at my video shoot. Yes, it was at your video shoot. Where was that at?

In the van. In Miami? In the van. In Miami. Yeah. Right. That's what I'm saying. All right, Nori, you're wrong. It was in Miami. I was in Miami. I'm so sorry. That's what I'm saying. All right, Nori. It's in Miami.

I'm sorry. You're not wrong. Okay. We just forgot a part of it. Your video shoot. It was crazy. It was crazy. Macho Sma-

Hey, hey, hey. We're great people over here, man. We love who cares. Who cares my guy. Who cares my guy. Listen. I seen who care E Pork one day and I've walked in a hook a Room like you and a guard wise from he said well, I said I said you in pork. He said yo, I'm from Haiti

I eat dogs. I said holy moly We have this document Listen, this is what Hookie said. This shit is shit right now. This is what Hookie said. They're going to put some voodoo on your ass. He said it. He said it. He said it. He said it on Drink Champs. No, no, not on Drink Champs. We're going to confirm it right now, just in case he pick up.

Who you going to call? We're going to call him, because you know. Let's see. If Eves answers that phone, I'll be shocked. Look, Hookie, you call. Listen, I have a segment in this show called, Who Can You Call? Listen, I'm starting out with Hook kids not very heavy, but this is

But he's in he's in white America he's you know Like the new Benny Hill like my man Diego he's like Billy Hill, you know, they be finger-popping I said that loud? I shouldn't have said that, right? I should have, like, cut you off. All right, who can answer this? Let's get to it. So, back to... Back to this time in hip-hop

when it was from all angles. It was beef everywhere. Yes. You didn't know where it was coming from. Yes. Eric's, that side manner, pause, handling shit. Chris running, getting... You know, there's this quote in hip hop that I can't stand.

It's called, get the bag. What is that? Who wants a bag? You know what I like? Beep, beep, beep. Back that Brinks truck into my... All this get the bag. Yeah, we'll get the bag.

You can have the bag. Let's go get the Brinks truck. That was Chris's concept. Chris's concept, 360. First 360 deal, anybody know who that was? His name was Notorious B.I.G. Oh, way.

Production, management. Label. Merchant, merchandising. Label. Publishing. Publishing. James Cooley's got to be careful with what you say.

No, no, no. I'm saying this. Production, label, management. But also publishing and merchandising. That's how I can saying this. Production, label, management. But also publishing and merchandise. That's how I can't tell. That would be the 360. That's a 580. No, no.

But, Matthew, you're fooling us. But let's go. But what am I getting at? But wait, but what am I getting at? You just said the other two things. But what am I getting at? The three biggest parts of just... Three biggest parts of the income revenue for an artist is merchandising, touring, and publishing.

So now, what am I getting at? Chris Genius, managers, we own the game. We walked into the labels and said, yo, we need X amount, and we're doing the independent marketing, and on top of that, you're handing us the budget, and we're going to make the album. No doubt. And while we're at it, we're going to hire the video directors, and we're doing the independent marketing and on top of that, you're handing us the budget. We're going to make the album. No doubt. And while we're at it, we're going to hire the video directors. Have you ever managed an artist

after you left Puff with Puff? Yes, yes. I mean, I'm going to tell you a story. I'm the president of SRC. I'm the president of SRC at the time with Steve Rifkin running a marketing company. Gabi's the president of the record label. Shout out to Gabi Acevedo. Shout out to Gabi. You know what I'm saying? Puff calls me up and says,

yo, James, let's start a management company. I go, huh? He goes, yeah. I said, nah, I'm good over here with Steve. Nah, nah. Well, all right, Puff, who's the clients? Me, Cassie. I'm all right over here, Puff.

Nah, nah, nah, nah, nah, nah. Rick Ross and Nicki Minaj. That was the start. I remember that. That was the start. Oh, I remember that. That was the start of I remember that. That was the start. Oh, I remember that. That was the start of Bad Boy Management.

Let's keep it real. Well, Nicki did not fire me as per se. She fired the management company. Okay, and what was that? So it wasn't anything personal. It was Bad Boy Management. That was hard.

I would love to be surrounded by Nicki Minaj like that. I would love my management to be like, Nicki, that's hard. Put that shit in my bio. Link to my bio, nigga.

That's all. But wait, but wait. But then there were conversations. Let's describe that. But there were conversations. There was this guy named Abel that, shout to Sal, that we were going to work on together. There's another dude named Travis Scott

that was writing for Puff that we were going to work with. There was a couple of producers. It was really building a management company. Difference was, Puff needs a company behind him. Okay? Let's be real. And on top of that, at that time,

Chris was my arch nemesis. After you left Chris. After I left Chris. He was my arch nemesis. After the vitamin water. Yeah, because we were managing Puff. We were co-managing Puff. Remember, Puff was Violator.

How much did you technically get off the vitamin water deal? You don't want to... I mean, I don't... I'd have to... I don't want to say the wrong thing. Like, it's Drink Challenge. You got to keep it 100.

I don't want to say the wrong numbers. but it wasn't like 40 million, right? It was it was a six-figure deal Four five no No, I, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, I thought it was obvious already. Why do you think he left? I don't know. Why you did? Why you did? I didn't know it was a secret. I'm sorry. I apologize.

Okay, my bad. I promise. I didn't know this though. That's why I don't know. Does that answer your question how much money he got? No, it doesn't, but it doesn't seem good. But wait,

it was management as well as having our own equity as well as having the marketing. So we're adding things together. Right. So now, me and Chris can't talk. We can't be in the same room together.

My 40th birthday comes up. What does my wife do? Love you, Lee Marie. Sends a blast to everybody on my email list. Chris gets a blast to come to my 40th birthday. up. What does my wife do? Love you, Lee Marie. Sends a blast to everybody on my email list. Chris gets a blast to come to my 40th birthday. Wow. God's plan.

God's plan. You know what Chris says to me at that party? Yo, James, let's put Batman and Robin back together. You know what I say to Chris? This time I'm Batman and you're Robin. Can I clap for that? Chris says, let's do it. Clap for Chris.

OK. Because he was willing to allow the master, allow the student to take the lead at that point. That's called leadership. That's called being a real executive, that you're not afraid to let your student become the master. That's the beauty of Chris. Why did you feel that?

Why did you want that? You know, I wanted that because I knew that for my own personal egotistical issues that I needed to be that. You know what we got to do? We got to pay it forward. Listen, I can't tell you. I got every Rolex. I traveled around the world seven times. I've been everywhere.

Drove every car you can imagine. But I got to pay it forward to the next generation. I got to give it to the next generation. Make the mistake. It's okay. Learn from my mistake. I fucked up. I fucked up, y'all.

James did that, so hopefully you don't have. It's okay, learn from my mistake. I fucked up, I fucked up, y'all. James did that, so hopefully you don't have to go through that. Learn from my mistake. But that's the beauty, because Chris learned from the mistake. Because when D-Nice, shout out to D-Nice, man. Big up on brother D-Nice. D-Nice sat me down, had a cigar with me, and said before Chris passed, he said one of his biggest

mistakes in this game was letting me go. I see that. That's Chris's words. I'm quoting D-Nice. But that's not about me. That's about the student becoming the master. Eric was a student. Eric became the master.

He made records that nobody else could make. LL's number one. Put that on my resume. You know what I'm saying? LL number one. But at the time, it was so crazy. Let's talk, you know what I'm saying?

What's happening now in hip hop, it was real. This wasn't a WWF when it was so crazy. Let's talk, you know what I'm saying? Like, what's happening now in hip-hop, it was real. This wasn't a WWF when we was in there. It became a WWF after. It was real. But we have to pay it forward to our next generation so they don't make the same mistakes. Because we assimilated ourselves to a certain extent, but now we're owners, and we're in those rooms for a reason. Come on, Norby, look at your deals.

CBS. Yeah, uh-huh. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Oh, now you don't want to talk about it, but you want to talk about cocaine shit. Uh-huh, yeah, yeah, yeah. All right, let's go. Let's get to it.

Hold on. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So now, I left Violator for similar reasons. Like, I created Violator 1, multi-platinum. OK, now, let's start it. The compilations, yeah. OK. You're sitting around you're looking at all the artists you have you said why the fuck we don't have

a chronic that's what it was exactly that was exactly what I did flex mixtape that was exactly it was like it wasn't chronic but it was like so okay we bought I was more violated records That's all then I was violated management, right? And I saw every time I caught you you knew every producer in the world I was like I was like, I'll just be testing everything you understand a DJ So you know I fucked up with you too. I ain't a lot of you because the bone with you for I know so that cuz you know why he didn't let me hear. I had a lot of DMX. DMX had a similar problem with me too because when I got DMX on a Busta Rhymes record

and then Jay-Z laid his verse after DMX, X wasn't happy about that. Yeah, you're supposed to tell me, bro. He wasn't happy about that. And that's the crazy shit. A lot of people don't know what come through. Let me just describe this shit. Every nigga said to me, because listen,

that nigga said to me, he's always been like A and R. He's always been like the music guy. When it's music, so I go to the joint, he got a check from me. I'm like, what? How do you get checks from Violator? Not from my own man. He's like, no, no, this is good. Just take this.

And I lay the joint. That beat was hard, too. That beat was hard.. Just take this. And I laid a joint. That beat was hard, too. That beat was hard. That beat is crazy. Self-service. Self-service. That beat was crazy. But I'm thinking like, yo, I'm coming back. But he's like, no, no, no, no.

Just take this. I'm like, yo, let me finish the joint. He's like, no, no, no. He had a different vision. But it was his vision. So he put Styles on there. And this is another funny shit that I probably you all remember. I go to Violator office today.

This is the day I think this is on Sony. So Styles didn't want, he didn't want his money. He wanted his flat screen TV. Yo, yo, yo. He wanted his flat screen TV. I want to see this. I walked into the office. This nigga got two. This is the flat screen TV's first day

in town! Yo, these was 30 grand a set! Off your budget? Off your budget? No, no, no, I was not in the budget. But I'm like, I could've did that! I was like, this nigga, yo, yo, yo, yo, yo, I was so much problems with Violet, but Sal's is there, I'm like, I can't do this in problems with volleyball, but Sal's is there. I'm like, I can't do it in front of the family. This is the way this nigga leaving.

He won't want to leave. He just sat there. He just smoking. But that was the first time I ever seen a flat screen. He tried to get away with paying taxes. Damn, I love what you're doing. He tried to get away with paying for taxes. He didn't want it.

But Chris was like, I'll have him sign a letter of direction and you still have to pay for the fucking check. And that's because Chris was on Sony. It was the whole Sony shit. And I had no idea. Listen to me. I went home and I was like, yo, I got to do another verse.

For somebody, this is my new shit. This is my new shit. I'm not telling them to give me a check. I'm just telling them to cop me something And then I thought I was avoiding taxes too I was also wrong Yes I paid for that as well

I paid for that as well But holy moly guacamole Man let's make some noise for us man Yo but I ain't got a lot of you Yo one of the biggest mistakes I've made was not making that shit a single. What? Come through. Yo, you would've still been torn up for that record.

Yeah, man. That was a fucking record. I'm going to be honest. Let me tell you something. That was a fucking... Yo, let me tell you something about that record. Hold on. Eat this for good, nigga. Let me tell you something about that record.

Me and Styles to this day, like I'm talking about this is like two, three, four years ago, we have shows together. He'll come out to that record That's crazy. I don't even have the instrument to that Snuff styles He's like you know, we just text me I'll see you the instrument to and I've never had the instrument to in my life Oh, that's my life and And I ain't going to lie, that record right there made me in styles like this. And we didn't lay it together. Remember, I laid it with you.

I left, and you had a crazy mind. But I was late for the studio, which is why you said that in the chorus. E-Nyx, where you at? Where you at? That's right, that's right, that's right. I ain't going to lie. I'm going to keep it with you for a moment. When it came time from NRE to Melvin Flint to all these people,

I remember it was Missy. I remember even me hitting Chris Lighty and saying, yo, I want to do Missy. And Chris saying to me, yo, you know, Missy is all about whatever, whatever. And you was the one who called Mona. I don't know if you remember this. I remember. You called Mona and then hooked me up with Missy is all about whatever, whatever. And you was the one who called Mona. I don't know if you remember this. I remember. You called Mona and then hooked me up with Missy. But every time it was something music related.

And then you moved on to Trackmasters. Or do I have it backwards? Was you with Trackmasters prior to that? No. So I went to Trackmasters after I left Violator. Okay, that's what I mean. I went to Trackmasters after I left Violator. I left Violator for a simple reason that when I created the first Violator compilation album, it went platinum.

Chris did a huge deal with Sony SRC and then turned around and did a deal with AMG for Wild Bread and bought me an 18-karat gold on a... I still have this watch. I never wore this watch in my life. It sits in my safe and I can't wear it. He bought me a watch, an 18-karat gold

Rolex Daytona on a leather band, crocodile leather band. Shit is crazy. Let's talk about this watch later. Yeah, we'll talk about the watch later, but I felt like I deserved more because he got $5 million from AMG and like $4 million from Sony. And he bought me a watch. And I felt like if I didn't put that album together, we wouldn't have got either one of those deals.

On top of what really made me leave. And I ain't gonna lie to you. I tried to leave with 50 Cent too, and it didn't work. I left with LL though. But when I left, when at the time, Troy Carter,

shout out to Troy Carter. Spotify. Troy Carter was super hot with Eve. He was only managing Eve. He wasn't this Lady Gaga, big guy right now. But he was only managing Eve, and Eve was hot.

And Chris brought him in and gave him equity in the company, and that was it for me. I said, I'm out. Because someone new got equity? Because somebody who didn't put in the work that I did from the beginning, Foxy Brown, Busta Rhymes, LL Cool J, Violet Accommodation album, all of this shit is on my resume, that I was still getting a check and somebody got equity in the company and only two people that had equity in the company was Mona and Chris and I felt like

I was next in line and then James right and I didn't get it and I was like Marty Marty you next in line that had that equity and that love of history has it um she has equity in something else yeah those one thing I'm so you know again I'm a generation under you guys not to keep But I will say that the impact that violator had in the culture is like I can never match because I mean technically Love a hip-hop have been the great producers behind Love & Hip Hop. You guys really helped produce Love & Hip Hop. Really, back in the day. All due respect to Mona.

All due respect to Mona. Mona Scott always had the plan to be in TV. That was her vision. That was her vision from day one. Can never take that away from that. Why she knew that's where she wanted to go. She was going there. And she got it.

From Lexington Avenue. Mona even moved to 25th Street. For the last, I want to say, three years of Mona being at Violator, all she thought about was being in TV. She's absolutely an innovator. She knew exactly what she was doing. And when she said TV, you ain't think about her being on TV. No.

She knew where her next step was. That's the one thing about Mona. Mona was always, Mona was the visionary of the company. Mona created the slogans

for the company. You know what I'm saying? Like, the Violator first album was called Hits Not Hype. Mona came up with that. Mona was the one

who was the visionary and saw where we were going as a company. And she saw where she was going in terms of TV and film. So when Love & Hip Hop came, I was like, that was, of course we knew that was going to happen

because Mona always knew she was going that way. She always had this strategy. Remember, Violator was a rite of passage. From an artist's standpoint, you came through Violator at some point. We managed almost everybody. 56 was on Violator. Nas was on Violator. Violator was the rucker.

Jay, Jay. He was the rucker to me. Jay wasn't on Violator, but he did his business. Did said was on violin. You know, I was on violin violator was the rucka James Violator did he was on by the Pastor Snoop Dogg and puff daddy on tour in Europe in 2003 That was a violated tour Chris left me a harpy out by ourselves You know I'm saying like you have this it was a right of past like the rucka was every NBA star after

college or when they got drafted had to play the rucka every artist had to come through violet some executives we had troy carter we had John monopoly we had even Davila we had you know it was like like you know it was it was almost like you had to come through there because you had to get that feeling Claudine is doing a thing Claudine for the executive that she's morphed into, and the individual that she's morphed into, she was Chris's assistant. She was Chris's assistant.

Chris's assistant. Or is it an intern? I'm sorry. She's running shit now. Akina Rahman. Akina, yeah. Akina, like, you have to understand, what was the tall girl? Laura. Laura.

Laura. Laura. Laura. Laura. Laura. Laura. Laura. Laura.

Laura. Laura. Laura. Laura. Laura. Laura. Laura. Laura.

Laura. You have to, like, those days, Chris, you know one thing that Chris never did and Mona never did neither and the hell nothing back Yeah, a lot of people can they always let us do I think They always let us do our thing You go say something real quick No just even before the love and hip-hop stuff like I when working at slip and slide and Ted wanting to Reinvigorate the management side of the label which was was Bossman Management that originally was brought in by Red,

who managed Trina and Trick. He wanted to bring it back because Violator was what they were doing in the corporate space and everything. Like, we literally, Byron tries to manage Plies at one point, and I wanted to start the company and wanted to be the Violator of the South.

That was our goal because of what you guys brought together. So kudos to Violator. Hold on, hold on, hold on. So kudos to a lot of you. I think we're having a drink chance all moment. One, two, three. Let me ask you something. A lot of the story that you had, you had

homeboy management and then you ended up with it was a constant mob deep. A lot of people was like that. When you start out the game, you get hot and you realize wait, that when you start out the game you get hot and you realize like wait this is another

level of the game that my homeboy who's running his management company out of his car can't handle but what made Violet a unique

was it was a dude who looked like your homeboy exactly he looked just like your homeboy but his collar was a little bit better

like his collar was now Chris he was he was he was he was he was he was he was he was he was he was he was he was he was he was he was he was he was he was he was he was he was he was he was he was little bit better. Nah, Chris had his. He was wearing tight shit before. Instead of a black nap hat, Chris had a Gucci one. You know what I'm saying? He had the Gucci hat. So that's actually what it is.

It was the first, like, facilitator because a lot of people don't know how important labels and management offices was. Relationships. No, no, no. Not even relationships offices was because you know what happened is there's no financial i'm now me speaking from the artist point of view i'm from lack of wherever i'm from i'm from left rack i got i make three thousand dollars a fucking year and now i'm making, my first contract is $400,000 or whatever, whatever, right?

My first solo, my first solo was like $800,000, $750,000. But there's no person to teach me how to maintain that money. And so all you think is just, I go from here, I go over there. The label, the management company was that middle ground.

Where you go, you sit down and this Method man sitting there getting a haircut like, yo man, I just fucked up on this investment. And you listen to him waiting to get a cut from Chris and you're like, oh shit. And then you're listening to the next guy and that's how you kind of

learn financial statement. There was no artist development. There still isn't. No doubt. There still isn't. No doubt. Like, I wish, like, I wish I could have smoked pop smoke. Like, I wish I could have

told them, like, don't stay in Hollywood Hills. Me too. That's not where they could be. Me too. Like, you know what I'm saying? That's where they all look. Like, there's places in Miami

that I don't give a fuck what artist you is. I don't give a fuck if you want to stay at Satai. I don't care if you want to stay at the St. Regis. I don't care if you want to stay at the W. Listen, when you post that picture, I know the room you in, bro.

No doubt. Me, the y'all. No doubt. I've been out here 14 years. No doubt. Unless you're going to Star Island and spending 20 million a night, then I can't identify where you at. No doubt. But if you're spending some y'all in the night, I know when you post that, y'all, you at. No doubt. But if you spending some y'all in the night,

I know when you post that, y'all, 738. The W, South Beach. You at the satire, 2221. Because I stated everywhere. So you got to relax and listen to your OG. Paying it forward. We just discussed that. We got to pay it forward.

That's our responsibility. A lot of the young, a lot of the, like the new school artists. Tabaz of the lot of the lot of like to my school Instagram pages, you know, if you don't if you if you don't listen, I'll tell people right now if you don't listen to up Shabazz The OG Instagram page. I don't like you If you don't if you don't know about them like I got like you don't have to follow them Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, I said Apple Watch. I didn't say President. Don't look at my watch. No, Apple Watch is good enough. Apple Watch is good enough. I just want to make sure. I just want to make sure. You know, can I know he left that watch at home he was talking about on President's Day?

I've been in the watch game for a very long time. I know his watch game. I looked up to him for his watch game. I almost missed it. I'm keeping it all the way G with you. I almost missed my flight this morning and walked out, left out with bracelet, watch, everything. No, it's okay. It's all good. Whatever. And you own like a couple of what is the shit mom so i invested in some jersey mics

yeah franchises so i could get free jersey mics i ain't gonna lie i'm not i'm not one of those guys i just want a discount no you can have free you can have a free so wait a minute that's that's subways little man no it Subway's big homie. I had it confused. Can you hear me now? I thought Jersey Mike's. No, it's like an upscale Starbucks. Because I stay in this place, like when I go to L.A. when I'm on a low,

I stay in this place in Westwood, and in the building, I stare, it says Jersey Mike's right under there. And this is when I was trying to build my low-cost shit. Oh, now I know that building shit. I would get the whole sandwich, no bread. Then I'd go back and be like, I wasn't satisfied. Let me get the bread. I'd be fucking up. But for real, so

how did this happen? I realized that I got tired of chasing 16 year olds around the country. That sounds a little crazy. Let's just clarify that. To catch a predator. No, just clarify that. Yes, yes. You don't want to be able to catch a predator. All right, F. Steve. Relax, man.

No, no, no. What I mean, so I started managing this young kid who, like, when I started managing, he had 1.7 million followers. No deal, no record in the street, no nothing. Because it was just a beep. Right. And I got offered, like, $4 million to do this deal. Universal Republic was in for like $5 million. And the kid was like, nah, I want to do no deal.

And then there was promoters from around the country who I was reaching out to. Like, yo, I got this kid. He was offering like, you know, do $10,000. He was like, nah, I want 20,000. And I realized like all of this money is slowing up because he keeps saying no. And I just got tired of being dependent on making money from other people. And, you know, I have a 10,000 square foot house

that I have to maintain. You know what I'm saying? I have- Wait, tell them all. I'm sorry. What? Let's get back to the square footage. The square footage?

Yeah, square footage. I have, my daughter's tuition is $47,000 a year for high school. Let's make some noise. You feel me? So,

and I'm keeping it, and so I got to pay that bill every month. I got to wake up and pay that bill. And if this kid says no, I don't want to do something that takes from my bottom line. So I had to start investing in other shit that would secure that bottom line. So my transition, I'm still managing artists, right? But my transition

is I want to manage products instead of managing people because products don't talk back. Thanks for joining us for another episode of Drink Champs, hosted by yours truly, DJ EFN and NORE. Please make sure to follow us on all our socials. That's at Drink Champs across all platforms, at TheRealNoriega on IG, at Noriega on Twitter. Mine is at Who's Crazy on IG,

at DJ EFN on Twitter. And most importantly, stay up to date with the latest releases, news, and merch by going to drinkchamps.com. Your gut microbiome and those healthy bacteria can actually have positive effects. Your mental health, your immunity, your risk of cancer, almost any disease under the sun. This week on Dope Labs, Titi and I dive into the world of probiotics, the hype, the science, and what your gut bacteria are really doing behind

the scenes. From drinks and gummies to probiotic pillows. Yes, really, probiotic pillows. We're breaking down what's legit and what's just brilliant marketing. With expert insight from gastroenterologist, Dr. Roshi Raj. Listen to Dope Labs on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. And it's going to take us to heal us.

It's Mental Health Awareness Month, and on a recent episode of Just Heal with Dr. J, the incomparable Taraji P. Henson stopped by to discuss how she's discovered peace on her journey. I never let that little girl inside of me die. To hear this and more things on the journey of healing, you can listen to Just Heal with Dr. J from the Black Effect Podcast Network on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. AT&T, connecting changes everything. I know a lot of cops. They get asked all the time, have you ever had to shoot your gun? Sometimes the answer is yes, but there's a company dedicated to a future where the answer will always be no. This is Absolute Season 1, Taser Incorporated. I get right back there and it's bad. Listen to Absolute Season

1, Taser Incorporated on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Why is a soap opera Western like Yellowstone so wildly successful? The American West with Dan Flores is the latest show from the Meat Eater Podcast Network. So join me starting Tuesday, May 6th, where we'll delve into stories of the West and come to understand how it helps inform the ways in which we experience the region today. Listen to The American West with Dan Flores on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. This is an iHeart Podcast.