Drink Champs - Episode 476 w/ Kwame

Episode Date: October 24, 2025

N.O.R.E. & DJ EFN are the Drink Champs. In this episode we chop it up with the legendary, Kwame! Hip-hop legend Kwame pulls up for a raw and introspective sit-down with the champs. Filmed in the trademark unfiltered style, the conversation turns deeply personal as Kwame reflects on his early rise in hip-hop, the business moves he made along the way, and the creative risks that shaped his legacy. He shares never-before-heard stories behind iconic records, his relationships with peers, and the pressures of authenticity in an ever-changing industry. Viewers get a front-row seat to his reflections on loyalty, legacy, and the cost of success.  As the drinks flow, the vibe stays lively yet grounded — moments of humor slide into candid disclosures about growing up in New York, dealing with competition, and navigating the line between staying true to yourself and evolving with the culture.  Whether you’re a longtime fan or new to his work, this episode offers rare insight into the mind of an artist who has always played by his own rules. Tune in for laughter, wisdom, and straight talk — only on Drink Champs.  Make some noise for Kwame! 💐💐💐🏆🏆🏆   Listen and subscribe at https://www.drinkchamps.com Follow: Drink Champs https://www.drinkchamps.com https://www.instagram.com/drinkchamps https://www.twitter.com/drinkchamps https://www.facebook.com/drinkchamps   DJ EFN  https://www.crazyhood.com https://www.instagram.com/whoscrazy https://www.twitter.com/djefn https://www.facebook.com/crazyhoodproductions   N.O.R.E.  https://www.instagram.com/therealnoreaga https://www.twitter.com/noreagaSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an I-Heart podcast. In the heat of battle, your squad relies on you. Don't let them down. Unlock elite gaming tech at Lenovo.com. Dominate every match with next level speed, seamless streaming, and performance that won't quit. So you can push your gameplay beyond performance with Intel Core Ultra processors.

For the next era of gaming, upgrade to smooth, high-quality streaming with Intel Wi-Fi 6E and maximize game performance with enhanced overclocking. Win the tech search. Power up at Lenovo.com. Hello, America's sweetheart Johnny Knoxville here. I want to tell you about my new true crime podcast, Crimeless, Hillbilly Heist, from smartless media, campside media, and big money players. It's a wild tale about a gang of high-functioning nitwits who somehow pulled off America's third

largest cash heist. Kind of like Robin Hood, except for the part where he steals from the rich and gives to the poor. I'm not that generous. It's a damn near inspiring true story for anyone out there who's ever shot for the moon, then just totally muffed up the landing. They stole $17 million and had not bought a ticket to help him escape. So we're saying, like, oh God, what do we do? What do we do? That was dumb.

People do not follow my example. Listen to Crimless, Hillbilly Heist, on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. Chicago, a white woman's murder, a black man behind bars, for a crime he didn't commit. 90 years of killing somebody I have never seen. The Crying Wolf Podcast is the story of a corrupt detective, two men bound by injustice, and the quest for redemption, no matter the price. Listen to the Crying Wolf Podcasts on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Two rich young Americans move to the Costa Rican jungle to start over, but one of them will end up dead, and the other tried for murder three times. It starts with a dream, a nature reserve, and a spectacular new home.

But little by little, they lose it. They actually lose it. They sort of went nuts. Until one night Everything spins out of control Listen to hell in heaven on the IHeart Radio app Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts

You get your podcasts And it's And it's We go And it's drink chess, motherfucking podcast, makes a lot. He's a legendary queen's rapper. Hey, hey, hey, I agree, this is your boy, N-O-R-E. He's a Miami hip-hop pioneer.

What is DJ EFN? Together, they drink it up with some of the biggest players. You know what I mean? In the most professional, unprofessional podcast, and your number one source for drunk facts. This drink chest, motherfuckin' fucking podcast. where every day is New Year's Eve. It's time for drink champs.

Drink up, motherfucker. With a good be, hopefully when it should be. This is your boy, N-A-O-N-A-O-N-A. What up is DJ E-FN. And it's military crazy war, Jackie Yawa. Drink-champs, motherfucking podcast. Make some of them! Now, when we started this podcast, we said that we wanted to give flowers to legends.

We wanted to give people that paved the way. for us. People who have cemented their name in concrete. This brother right here has had hit after hit. He has, when you see leading the culture and people changing the culture and people who shift in the culture, this is a person. He's a fashion

icon. A hit maker, a producer. From the best borough in the world. That's right. In the world. Kendall? He's He's a legend beyond legend

We are going to give him his flowers We're going to let him know That the music business Is a better place When he's involved In case you don't know what we're talking about We're talking about the one and only Motherfurt!

That's right You said it the best borough the best thing You know what I'm saying? I'm watching you right And I'm hearing you speak speak about your youth right yeah and the people that you grew around uh with right because you from 96th street what street 97th yeah between 23rd 24th and 25th avenue and east umhurst queens

you know what street on from where 97 street get out of here i'm from left right now yeah but yeah yes yes yes yes yes yes this is i know you hate when we talk queen i don't hate it but i just but listen listen listen technically if i woke up and And he woke up from 97th Street. And we kind of walked straight, we would meet in the middle. 100%. Yeah, because when I was looking, I'm like, there this guy's from 97th Street. But, so let's describe that, right?

And I would literally walk from my house till that frack, walk to the Queen's Santa Mall. Yeah, yeah, of course. So let's describe that, right? Because I'm, and this is for people that's not privileged who didn't get the chance to do the research and everything and know. So who was the people that you grew up with in Queens? So if you take my block,

97th Street, right? So this is, I'm just going to be on some hip-hop stuff for now. Yes. And I'll go a little bit of history in a minute, but on 97th Street, if you go further up my block, right? Eric B. You have, no, you got one block over, you have Eric B. Okay, okay. Two blocks over, three blocks over, you have Kid from Kid and Play.

Kid Ben. On my block, one block up, the producer, the hitmaker, Ron Amin Mara Lawrence, who did like, Hitman. Yeah, Hitman. Yeah, Hitman. Ron is on my block. you go about four blocks down you have Herbie Lovebug

You have a couple of blocks over You have play from Kid in Play You go a little bit across Northern Boulevard You got Kooji Rap You got Les from the Beat Nuts Is over there That's Corona

Yeah Go further up, I see you You know what I'm saying So that neighborhood If you want to take the neighborhood Is East Elmhurst, Corona DJ Polo KooG Rap and Polo

You take East Emers, Corona, you have your area, left rack, you have flushing. And flush, you got large pro, you got Dres, you know, Royal Flush, Mike Dronimo. So all of us are within a, if you're driving, all of us are within a five-minute. Yeah, that's crazy. Five-minute radius. 15-the-most. The most.

Yeah, yeah, the most. And that's because you're driving slow or something. And I can see, let me, no, now, now, I'm sorry, but this is how I break down Queens, right? I used to always say the buses and the trains. Yes. Right? The buses is like the south side, right? Yep, yep.

That's Lost Boys. That's 50 Cent. Yep. That's Jaru. Run DMC. That's how you get there. You have to get there through buses. Or you have to take a train.

From Parsons Boulevard. Yeah, from Parsons Boulevard, right? And then that's where it starts, right? And then it's the trains. The trains is, even though Parsons Boulevard is technically Jamaica, but that's where it starts where the dollar vans and the buses come. Yeah. Then you have us, I believe we were called the west side of Queens, right?

Elmhurst, Astoria, Raviswood, Queensbridge. Yep. And then, so that's the way, Queens. And Queens is fucking a big-ass borough, bro. Like, I think Queens is the size of Miami, bro. No, how about this? I was arguing with my friend from Philly, and I was like, you know if Queens is bigger than all of Philadelphia. Like, no, they go.

Oh, I know that. We go on on Google. I'm like, I'm telling you, Brooklyn, you put Brooklyn and Queens, which is pretty much together. Yeah, it's on Long Island. Put them two together. That's bigger than most major cities in the whole country. Wow. It's bigger than most major cities.

So it's like, it's like six million people in Brooklyn and Queens alone. Wow. Come on. I love my turn. I love my borough. So one of the craziest things that, you know, me doing your research is when Malcolm X house burnt down. Which is on my block. Which is on your block.

Your family came to his age. Yeah, my grandfather, my grandfather was a, like, a publisher. He had, like, a black-owned newspaper called the New York Voice. And he helped Malcolm publish his thing. So when the fire bomb happened, my grandfather's on 94th. He's on 97th. So you think about it, this bomb happens, and you is you, your wife, and your little kids. So it was like the only person he knew that was in the immediate vicinity is my grandparents.

And you told me, Malcolm, the only person he knew. Yeah, yeah. So you just go around. around the corner and, you know, just give the kids somewhere to sit until they figure it all out. Right. And it's funny. It's like, um, I didn't really know that story until my mom's told me and then I said it recently and I'm like, yo, I didn't even, I never even knew that. And that's the firebombing that's depicted in the movie. Yes. And in the book,

because I, because you remember prior to the movie, I read the book. Yeah. And I believe in the book there was a picture and it said East Elmhurst. Yep. And I knew this, I knew that story has something to do with me, but I didn't know it was coming to me. Yeah, no, it was on, his house is 97th between 23rd and 24th Avenue. And I'm in between 24th and 25th. So, yeah, it's, yeah. And damn, man, that's a beautiful story, man. Yeah, yeah, it's crazy, crazy.

Pick up your family, man, right? Yeah, yeah. So bouncing around, like, we're going to move around, right? Okay. I'm very curious to know. All right. Because you're a producer, too. But one thing about you, you are very, you're a real lyricist.

right i try to be sometimes so let me ask you without without partaking these these these new this new generation of emcees a lot of these new generational emcees are not lyrical right it's all about somewhat the melody and being catchy yeah yeah yeah has it ever been a time where you went in as a producer who these kids don't know they just they're just they're thinking k k w1 millions like they're thinking that yeah and they're not knowing that you made hit records for yourself and produced hit records. Has it, has it, have you ever been, like, with a new generation guy? Yeah, like, say, for example, it not even, it could have been like a new generation

rapper, it could be a new generation singer, or even just like a generation, like, say, before this one, like, for example, I'm working on a Christina Aguilera record, and it's just like some pop, you know, strings and all this other stuff. And she was like, um, I heard you rap. I was like, yeah, you know, I did a little something. Did you ever make a song? You know, I did things, but like even with a younger generation, it'll be like the session will start out cool and we're working and they'll come in like the next day, you, my mom said,

I'm like, oh, yeah. Or the mom will show up and the dad will show up and the kid is looking like, yo, I don't know nothing about this. But so it's cool. That's what I love about producing because it gives me, it takes away that age barrier between somebody new and somebody's season. and it's always been a respecting once they find out it's like what could you tell me that I don't know already and it could be somebody you know that's doing it it doesn't matter it's just like

what have you seen that I haven't seen yet and then I'll be able to impart some knowledge on them and you know it's cool or they'll be like you know like you said how people are more into the lyrics and more into the stuff from back in the days and they you know they'll they'll have that thought of well we don't need to do all

that no more. You know what I'm saying? This is about swag. It's about it's just being swaggy and about the beat. No, no, it's not about the beat. It's like it was more like, y'all had to work harder than we do. We don't have to work as hard as y'all it's fucked up and it's true. Yeah, yeah. It's true to a certain extent. It's like, you have to see, sorry, you ever see like the

old people that'd be like, I used to walk 10 miles to school. And he's like, you know, it's fucked up that you had to do that. We don't got to do that anymore. You know, so it's just a give and take. You know what I'm saying? So let me ask you, right? You know, my partner right here, he comes from the era of vinyl, right? I mean, we come from the era of vinyl. I'm sorry.

You're acting like, you're mad at you. I was trying to make a point, like what I mean, like with you particular, like DJ. I'm sorry, I'm sorry, as a DJ. So, so. And then obviously, you know, going to a party to rock right now, vinyl is probably not the thing you're going to drink. Unless you go to those sexy parties with 45s only and you'll just be playing. Yeah.

I'm saying, yes. So how have you been able to adjust from, you know, the equipment from back then and now, like, this program's like food loops where you don't, you don't even need equipment. You can just do it on your computer. Well, well, that's a two-part answer. Okay. So, like, for example, my DJ, big shout out of DJ Tap Money from Philly, he is strictly

technique, 1,200s vinyl only. And what we've been finding as, as time is going on and we've been doing shows, and you rent these equipment, the promoters like, we're not renting that whole shit? We're not, you know what I'm saying? They're into, like, if it ain't like the rain, you know, or the survival, you know, anything, anything kind of controller

and my DJ's just not with it. He's not, and he over with it. He's just not with it. And, and, um, so sometimes it's a battle with that. And for me, I'm always forward thinking. I'm like,

yo, dude, why you want to carry them big as hard, 10,000 pound turntables? Because he'll bring his own. If they don't have it, he's carrying on the flight cases and he's going on his own. And I'm like, yo, you just keep the old but learn the new at least so you can be adaptable. I feel like every DJ should know how to adapt. Like if you're in a situation and you got to shit somebody put something in front of you,

you're either going to sink or swim. What are you going to do? You're just going to stand in, but I don't know how to control this. Or you're going to know how to adapt and work. So I think there's a thin line. You got to stick. I think you should stick to the things that you do. know and you should always know, like the equipment.

I use a bunch of new stuff, but my drums always come from a Kai SP-2000 XL. MP-N-PC 2000 XL. I'm saying, SP, I'm thinking the SP-12. But the MPC 2000, it's that smoke. You got that smoke, that's right. I'm not even thinking, right. I can't even say the name of that shit. It's got the diamonds, both?

Okay, that's marathons. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, we don't talk about that in a minute. So, so you got, I still use my MPC, and that, that machine is like 25 years old. But I know, I'm a master at that. And I know how to make stuff that don't sound like 25 years ago. It can sound like now, it can sound like then, whatever. And I know how to use that equipment, but I also know how to incorporate all the other things.

And you got to be open-minded to incorporate, because time is going to keep moving, man. And y'all can't, you can't just be stuck in when you was popping and you just keep it at that. Right. You got to be able to at least adjust in some way, shape, or form. Let me remind you, though, unlike your DJ, when we did the tour in Canada and we did the show in Russia, I did have a controller. I didn't take turntables. Oh, I had a tractor controller. Oh, I don't know what that is.

How do you feel about it? I didn't like it. What is that, though? I like the convenience of taking it around. Yeah. But I wasn't like, I wasn't really. I'm just too analog with it Yeah, no, no, I understand, but I...

What is that? It's just a controller. You don't need to take the two turntables, the mixer. It's just that one deck. I'm not using vinyl. I'm not using, you know, the controlling vinyl, so it's just the one thing. But what do you normally use it on your rider? What would you want?

No, it would be a mixer in two techniques. Okay. See, and there's nothing, I think, especially when you scratch it, I wouldn't want to scratch on anything else but techniques. Of course. But for me, I think, like, I've seen so much in so long.

Like, I've seen, I've went from when I first started doing shows, we would have instrumentals. We would have our set up would be two techniques, a tape deck. You can say it. And if we, because if we didn't have the instrumental, I'd have it on tape. You wasn't able to get vinyl, so you're pushing a tape deck, you're doing an instrumental. And then that went to the, to the dat. Like anybody remember a dat?

Yeah, I was that. Yeah, you were playing your dat tapes. And then, and then from the dat tapes, it went to the, and this is when your records was coming out, that, what's that control thing? Instant replay. Instant replay, yes, yeah. You started using instant replay.

I thought that was the best shit in the world. I did too. Yeah, I was like, yo, that thing for shows it was, it was, yeah. But you still had your turntables. Right. And, and now I'm, you know, I've literally seen cats get on stage with an iPhone. Yeah, yeah, that's terrible. And it just be pressing to play.

And not, DJ. Yeah, press and play. I've seen major artists get on stage and have a stand with their computer right. This is my next song. Boom. Yep. You're like, all right.

This is what y'all doing? I hate it. So it's like, you know, you got to, I believe, especially whatever the kind of music that you're doing, whether it's hip hop or anything, the elements that you made the records in should be on stage with you. So if it's turntables, if it's a sample

or if it's whatever, I think you should have those elements on stage and just mix it up. Past, present, future, and keep it keep it rocket. Right. Now, you said that you believe

that artists should never have a publishing there. No. Can you explain that to people who,

explain that to a kid that was right now and Baisley projects. Yeah. You know. Shows to Baisley. Yeah, he's on Section 8.

He has an opportunity. He has, let's just say for seven is my lucky number. So he has 700 grand looking at him in his face. His 700 grand could change his family,

give him out the projects. But then he hears somebody like, Quamei said, who's well experienced and says, I don't believe, sir, you should take that deal. Let me ask you a question. How long has he been in the project with his family?

His whole life. His whole life, right? So check this out. You get a publishing deal. They're going to give you $700,000. They're giving you $700,000 because they think they know you probably can make $1.4 million. So they give you $700,000.

You hype for the $700,000. Right. You take it. But the records that they know you got coming. is going to make that $1.4 million within nine months. You've been in that situation for your whole life. You can't wait nine months? Right.

Now, can you wait nine months? If you can, if you really think about it. Right, you're right. Unless somebody on the eighth floor and somebody on the seventh floor sending missiles down to you and trying to... Right, right. But guess what? You can still move your people out temporarily. You could get an apartment.

You can do whatever you want to do because you're getting your commission for being a producer. or you're getting your album advance or you're getting whatever you're getting. So you still have some kind of bread. The problem is an artist, sometimes new artists think that whatever bread that they're getting up front, they're going to always get.

Whatever bread that they're being offered, they're always going to be offering, and it's going to be more. And that's great thinking. That's very positive thinking. You should think that way. But you should also feel and understand that there's a reality that there's a 1% of artists.

We know who the 1% are. Those people continue to thrive The other 99% of all artists May be good for one album Maybe nowadays it's a single It ain't even an album Yep And I'm sorry to catch you up

Remember your thought I heard Cameron say on his show He's like, yo at least we used to have two months He said yeah you got a week and a half You grab a hot album now And I was like Day sometimes He was like maybe two weeks

He's like, maybe two weeks, but it's really a week. And I'm starting to look, and I'm like, I think he's bugging it. And I'm looking at it. I'm like, he's actually telling the truth. It's actually real. Yeah, so you take this 700 grand. Right. Right.

Now you can take the money and you can run. You can take the 700 grand. We still talk about the kid from Bayesley. Yeah, yeah. You could take that 700. You can invest it. You should invest it. Do not buy the bends.

Don't get the chain. Don't get, invest it in something. Something that will turn your 700 grand over. And it's very hard because. You're sitting up in Basley, nobody's there to teach you who to invest it. And that's the problem with this industry. No OG ever comes back and shows the young kid, yo, don't do that no matter what. Because money is real shiny, man.

It's real shiny when it's up front. So my suggestion is fine. If you get a publishing deal, get something called an admin deal, an administration deal. You take 10% of your money. They find it. They collect it. That's 700 grand. You're going to make it anyway in nine months.

or 1.2 or 2.5 or 7.8, whatever it is, you're going to make it if you have that hit. Now, here goes the crazy gamble, and this is all a gamble. Okay. What if you didn't take the 700 grand and you flopped? You're going to stay in, you know, you're still in, you're still in bathing. That's the gamble.

That's the super gamble. But what is the loss again? Because I don't think we explain, what are they losing when they do? So when you take the 700 gram, the publishing company now owns, whatever the percentage you agreed with let's say it's 50% it don't go lower than 50 so now they own you 50%

almost for life and from there when a movie company's called for that record then it's up to the publishing company and they negotiate whatever they want you're not involved I give you a perfect example usually I get to negotiate my thing

but just this year alone and I'm not nothing against the artist she probably don't even know but Kalani sampled my record only you. I had no idea. Somebody called me.

It was like, yo, you heard that new Kalani album? Like, what do you mean? Track number five. Like, what the hell? And I listen to it. It's, I hear my voice. I hear my record. I'm like, and she's singing the record is dope. It's called eight. And I'm like, y'all, all right? It's about eating ass or whatever, but it's still. Oh, yeah. She showed her other side, right? Yeah. I'm like, all right, this is what we're doing.

So I don't know if I would have approved a record like that on top of my beat, but hey, it is what it is. And, man, you got living a new generation. Yeah, man, it is what it is. Man, gang. Yeah. And so, the record is, the record is what it is, but I'm like,

I didn't know about it, I didn't approve it, but not realizing that my publishing deal from 2003 or whatever gave them the first right to refusal to approve. Okay, okay. As opposed to another thing where there was a chance

I don't remember the name of the production But there was a production where Because I score films So I'm scoring this film Score Fantastic 4 too, right? Yeah, yeah I worked on Fantastic I didn't score the whole thing

But I worked on it But just say let's use Fantastic 4 That's a good chance Let's just make it more issue to the check It was like a great check I'm sorry, man I'm bragging for you, let's go No, no, no, the checks are great

Okay So just say I wanted to use And this is the actual record I wanted to use The record I did for Lloyd Banks On Fire In the record in the film.

And it almost didn't happen because I was like, yeah, let's put this here. Human torch, he gets on fire, boom, on fire up in here. So that's how it went in the movie.

But what people don't know, when they submitted it, Universal was like, we want X amount of dollars or it can't happen, even though I already said yes. But the publishing company was like, nah, you know.

Wait, from Lloyd-Bain's publishing company? No, because I had publishing in the song, my publishing company had to agree. Okay, okay. You know, and they didn't, I said, yeah, but the publishing company I was assigned to did not say you. And that almost blocked a bag because they had this publishing fee. And so it's like, at what point do you want to be free to roam with your music? At what point do you want to be able to make the decisions that you feel all right for your music? You know, and there's times that I had to make a decision.

and make, you know, they always say sometimes act and then apologize later. Don't ask for permission first. You know, so it's like sometimes you got to make those weird moves like that just to be able to keep your shit going. Right. You know.

Well, listen, a new artist. It's up to you. I mean, like you said, it's a gamble. It's a gamble. How much do you want to gamble on yourself? How much do you believe in yourself? How much do you believe in your future? Do you think 700?

If you think somebody's offering you, 700 grand off the rip. That's the thing I'm trying to tell you. You should understand the multiple, but they're not understanding. You're probably worth 1.4. He's correct. You're never going to give them the best price. Right. You're never doing it.

Right. And even if you keep negotiating, whatever price they land at, they still... In the heat of battle, your squad relies on you. Don't let them down. Unlock elite gaming tech at Lenovo.com. Dominate every match with next level speed, seamless streaming, and performance that won't quit. You can push your gameplay beyond performance with Intel Core Ultra processors for the next era of gaming.

Upgrade to smooth high-quality streaming with Intel Wi-Fi 6E and maximize game performance with enhanced overclocking. Win the tech search. Power up at Lenovo.com. In the new podcast, Hell in Heaven, two young Americans moved to the Costa Rica. jungle to start over, but one will end up dead. The other tried for murder. Not once. People went wild. Not twice. Stunned. But three times. John and Anne Bender are rich and attractive and they're devoted to each other. They create a nature reserve and build a spectacular circular home high on the top of a hill but little by little

their dream starts to crumble and our couple retreat from reality they lose it they actually lose it they sort of like nuts until one night everything spins out of control listen to

hell in heaven on the IHeart radio app Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts the crime will podcast is the story of two men, bound by injustice, of a city haunted by its secrets, and the quest for redemption, no matter the price. White victim, female, pretty, wealthy, black defendant. Chicago, a white woman's murder, a black man behind bars, for a crime he didn't commit.

I got 90 years for killing somebody I have never seen. He says the police are his friends, and then that's it. They turn on it. A corrupt detective. How he was interrogated the techniques. That's crazy. A snitch and a life stolen. They got the wrong guy.

But on the inside, Lee Harris finds an ally in his celly, Robert, who swears to tell the truth about what happened to Lee and free his friend. And if you're with me, your goal to, I'll take care of you. I'm going to be with you. You stuck with me for life. Listen to the Crying Wolf podcast, starting on October 22nd, on the. the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. The Big Take podcast from Bloomberg News dives deep into one big global business story every weekday. A shutdown means we don't get the data, but it also means for President Trump that there's

no chance of bad news on the labor market. What does a bacon, egg, and cheese sandwich reveal about the economy? Our breakfast foods are consistent consumer staples, and so they sort of become outsize indicators of inflation. What's behind Elon Musk's trillion dollar payout? There's a sort of concerted effort to message that Musk is coming back. He's putting politics aside. He's left the White House. And what can the PCE tell you that the CPI can't? CPI tries to measure out-of-pocket costs that consumers are paying for things, whereas the PCE index that the Fed targets is a little bit broader of a measure. Listen to the big take from

Bloomberg News every weekday afternoon on the IHeart Radio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. You're never going to out, everybody thinks they outsmarted some evil conglomerate out there that's been slinging records since 1958. They may change

the name or the company, but it's the same thing. Yeah, their math is immaculate. Because you know why I don't comment, it's most of us, right? All of our first deals have always been the horribleest deal, right? Yeah, yeah. And a lot of us, like, I believe from even Nives to Jay to everyone, they would always say that their first deal was bad, right?

So, but a lot of them made it afterwards. So a lot of people think like that. They say, you know what? But they're the one percent. Yeah, I take this fucked up. That's the thing that's not being understood. I'll be 700 grand richer and then I'll make it better. Some people make it better.

Yeah. And then some people stay trapped in that rabbit hole. See, there's never stories about the people that's trapped in the rabbit hole. There's always stories about the people who actually made it. Those are the ones that shine the brightest, though. That's what everybody sees. Yeah, yeah. You know, like, luckily for me, like I was saying,

luckily for me, the money that I took was a good amount of money, right? And then I did a Will Smith record. Switch? Yeah, switch. I did the record switch. And at that time, Will was doing great in films. He was his films were rocking,

but he had no records out at that point. And so when I did the record, first of all, the deal structure he had, they didn't even give me my whole fee for the record. I did a deal. I'll do it for half. Your publishing company

didn't want you to do it, right? They were like, I just did my publishing deal. And they were like, yo, do you think you want to reconsider the Will Smith record? I'm like, why would I want to do that? Like, this is an international superstar.

Why would I want to reconsider this record? Like, well, you know, we don't think the record could do well. We don't know if he's good in the market. You know, this is all, you know, everything is about like 50 cent at the time, Jay at the time. So they're like, you know, I don't know about a Will Smithrick.

And I'm like, well, let's see. And they said, well, we want to renegotiate your deal. Right. Which means either you're going to owe us more money or give us some money back. All right. I'm like, yo, I'm going to give y'all money back. You already got me for money. And I'm supposed to be giving your money back.

I said, let's see what happens. So when the record came out, the record was number one in like 20 countries. And you recouped like that. And I'm super recouped. And then I'm like, yo, was that the real play, was the real play to get me to not take it so that I didn't have to recoup or, you know what I'm saying? So say that slower for the people that.

So the play, what if the play was this? But let's describe it. So he gets a publishing deal. Yeah, I get a publishing deal. I get X amount of dollars. Yeah. I do, the first record I do under the publishing deal is the Will Smith record. I am told that maybe I should reconsider doing this record

because it might not do well and it may look bad on your, And you're a hopper chusa and Will is not really that hot. He's just in a movie. Will is hot as a filmmaker, but he's not, he has no records in the marketplace at the time. Right. So, so, um, so you try to get me to reconsider it or renegotiate my deal that I just did a month ago. Right. For less money and give back the balance or have to owe a lot more.

You understand what I'm saying? Right. And I'm like, nah, chill. So by the time the record comes out, I make all the money they gave me back. Right. But what does not chill mean, though exactly? You say, you just put them on ice and say, we're not going to negotiate at all?

Yeah, I'm not going to negotiate at all. Let the record come out because the record is on its way out. Right, okay. Let the record come out. The record does what is doing what it does. So now they're happy because, like, they got 50% in my pocket. So the record is popping. They're getting 50%, but I also recoup.

Now, the thing is for people that don't understand. What you're being given, they're not giving you money. No record label, no publishing company ever gives you money. They lend you money. Yeah. It's a loan. they lend you your own money with interest right with interest right so this guy so um so then i paid back my loan and now they have to pay me and they don't they expect to give you a high

high yield on it and they expect you to oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh and never have to pay out they don't expect by the next payout right they got to give you a couple of hundred plans right on the first record that's crazy yeah on the first record and you know and and i think as a producer i'm not going to say i've produced on a lot of lot of stuff but i've produced on a lot of quality stuff so like my my resume there's over 40 45 million records sold based on the the artist that i chose to work with and be on it every album was multiple two three four five times platinum so that um that gives that that pushes that money back so now it's like my situation now is just more of an admin deal they just collecting and I don't have to owe them anything but that took years right

to understand and years to realize and so so back to your man in basley he don't have that time to understand that possible future for him you know like we can name way too many artists that got the super popping record the record is popping then the publishing company kicks in and now they want to scrape up the rewards, he would have got those rewards anyway. You know, that's the point. He would have gotten those things anyway. So, like I said, it's crazy, man.

That's a crazy game. I know we spoke about Switch, but I want to know how the record came about. Like, who was the people making the phone calls? I believe Eric Nixper had something to do with that. Eric didn't have anything to do with Switch. So Switch, I guess because of, you know, just my time in the game, I know Will.

So, you know what I'm saying? not like I didn't know him. Right. But, um, parents understand Will. Parents just don't understand, well. Yes. Um, and, and I want to give a shout to Will real quick because throughout my career, it's weird because it's not by design, but Will is always done some sort of a lookout without me knowing

that has helped me. So, for example, when I first came out, Will had this, got his Grammy, he was an 89, he got his Grammy. He had this big old crib in this area called Gladwin, Pennsylvania. And it was a Grammy party. Everybody was there. And Will was like, yo, man, you know, I'm just coming out. He was like, I really like what you're doing. I like your vibe, blah, blah, blah, blah. Some dope stuff. He said, but you got to understand what's ahead of you. And nobody, no, nobody before me ever had this conversation. Any other artists, I knew, we just getting girls. That's what we were doing. He was like, you got to understand what was ahead of you.

And he said, I'm not bragging, but I just need to show you. So we go out into the garage, he shows me all these cars. He was like, each one of these cars come with a car note. You know, it ain't about just because I got money. You got to maintain that. And then looking at the crib and it's like, yo, this crib comes with a mortgage. You know, you got to figure out how are you going to maintain something like this? Because you can get this too.

Then he has his grammy's like, you know, he's like, you know, check it out. And so it's my first time I'm holding a Grammy. y'all this shit is heavy and I'm like he was like you know things come with that so just always be mindful about your business and about your spending because you're able to achieve back you know by the records I see you making I think you can achieve this but just be smart so that was jewel number one then flash forward now I'm fucked up in the game I'm like I don't have my deal records ain't really popping this before you started a producer yeah well I've always been producing. I got produced all my stuff. So before I started, I really, really outside. Yeah, so I'm sitting at home. I'm in Corona looking at the Fresh Prince of Bel Air

and in comes my song, only you. And they have a whole episode. He's answered to it. I'm like, oh, shit, they use my joint. So like that I'm getting these ASCAP checks that I would go. And that was rent, like straight rent being paid. And a couple of Air Force Ones and AMAC 97s. And so I'm getting.

I'm like, all right, good looking out. Because I didn't, you know, I never asked, but he wanted that record in the episode. And then that episode turned into another episode where that record was used. So now I got two episodes of Fresh Prince of Bel Air in syndication handing me checks, literally helping me out.

Shit, you're still probably getting checks from that. Yeah, yeah. So I'm saying, but I was not happening at this point when these episodes was out. So I was like, oh. much needed this is good and then you fast forward to 2004 i think it was where switch um one of the people that works with will um my man omar who used to be will's dancer actually reached out to me he was like yo do you have any beats will's working on a new album and he hadn't had anything out at

the time so i just sent him beats so switch was already tailor made it was the beat the hook I always hand in beats, hooks, and sometimes song ideas like verses or whatever. But this one was just the beat and the hook, fully done. And then it was a couple of other joints. And then Will and Omar called me and was like, yo, we really want this switch record. And so we just started working on it. My man, Kel Spencer from Brooklyn, he came in and helped out with the lyrics. Me Will, Kel wrote the lyrics on it.

And Will was filming the movie Hitch at the time. So he would film Hitch in the morning coming to the story. studio work on the album at night. So this, like, this dude was working hard, and that's how the record came out. Was that the album that he had on the trackmasters, on the Columbia? Trackmasters was the one before that. Oh, that's the one before that. Yeah, yeah.

So this one, I can't remember the name of the album anymore, but, yeah, it was the one after the, it was after the, I think it was like the Giggy with it album. And I think Big Willie style was that album or something. I can't remember. But then it was like a few years later he did this one. Wasn't you getting checks for my eye company that switched the eye lens? So, so that's the thing. That's the thing that helped me recoup. Bosch and Lom had these removable, what do you call them things?

Contact, contact lenses, right. Switch? And yeah, so in all these countries in Europe, it would be the commercial, like, switch. And, yo, they, like, when I tell you, I don't even want to disclose the amount of money. But just that. commercial was the first advance I got from the publishing company. Just that commercial alone.

So that's how I ended up super recouping. And you own 50% of that, correct? 68% of it. God damn. Makes it. So, I don't even know how I remember that number, but it is it. It's that smoke.

That's right. So, yeah, so when those, when that check came in, you know, even though the first, the first check of it, I didn't necessarily see, because it went back to recouping. Yeah, yeah.

But it recouped it. Yeah. Oh, okay. You know, between that and then the world came. Yeah, I was even Stephen at that point. I was like, fine. Dude, I don't, you know, I'm not even going to see the commercial. I live in America.

I'm not going to see this damn commercial, whatever. But then other things started coming along with it. And that showed me the power of trying to broaden your base. Perfect example with you and the reggae tone. Wasn't it a FIFA? It was a FIFA. There was a, um, NBA

thing. And there was some other things and that was just for that particular record. You know what I'm saying? So it taught me a lesson as a producer and as a writer like,

you know, right for the hood for short. Right. But there's hoods everywhere and you got to figure out that frequency that people can tap it to. Like I was saying

with you in the regga tone, like I thought that was a monster move to do that. I was like, you know, it's a whole world out here and people got to understand it's not just the block you want and you got to understand that world that's right yeah let me ask you though although you were producing for yourself when you were you know an emcee putting out records how did you how did you make that transition though to just being a producer and shopping these yourself as a producer so i'm going to give that that's a great question i was always produced like the first record the first thing i ever did as

as a professional was I produced this record for Antoinette rapper out of the Bronx and Antoinette I was maybe 14 when I did this record and oh the record is terrible. I hated that record

man. Oh damn. I'm singing on it the whole it was they spelled my name wrong my name they spelled the Q-U-I-M-I my mother had to come to the studio and blackout on a manager because he was trying to pay me. It was the wildest experience. But watching Herbie Lovebug and watching him

produce Salt and Pepper and Kid and Play in Dana Dane, that's what I learned. What was Salt Pepper first name? Super Nature. Super Nature. Super nature. And I didn't really understand what producing was. So like, it would be like

Herbie would be in there with Salt and Pepper. He was driving out. Orange, 1978. Dotson that was being held together by duct tape like no lot their first album dropped and Herbie disappeared he disappeared for the whole summer and when he came back

mad fatrope a grill he pulled up in a cherry red 190E with Gucci seats I was like you what the hell and he was like I'm a producer I'm like oh that's gonna do that so so so after producer

my own stuff I'm always like trying to produce other people and I think two things that happened. One I want to give a shout to my man Rick, Rick in Philly my man Rick Young. Rick had a tap in at one point

every, well I think it's still like this. Every person who sells hood pharmaceuticals has a crew that can wrap and they're able to... To this day. Yes. They're able to fund projects, fun independent projects and

help get their crew out of the situation they're in. So we had tapped into a bunch of crews in Philly that was doing that. And so that's how I started really starting to make the rent and starting to be able to get on that Peter Pan, beat after beat after beat, crew after crew. Then, you know, rocking with some crews in Harlem. Same thing. Beat after beat after beat. And then, but at the same time, I was still trying to get back on.

So my man Ron Lawrence, I played him some stuff. And he was like, yo, man, that biggie, that bigie line, man, it kind of killed your name. The one who did hypnotize. Yeah, he was like, kind of like softy your name out here, man. I don't know if you could come back out right now, but these beats are nuts. Between Ron Lawrence and I got to give a shout out to the track masters because I'd come up there. They were working on Mary's out.

I'd be playing beats, but I'd be rhyming on them. And they were like, you want to sell the beat? Like, no, no, no, I got to come back out. And everybody, all the major people that I was playing these records for. You on the record. Yeah, but they're asking me to sell the beat. And I'm like, and I didn't know how to take it because on one, I'm like,

yo, am I whack? But then on the other end, I'm like, but the beats is dope. Right, right, right. And I'm in, I'm the kid in Basley at this point. Oh, shit. So I'm like, like, I remember like track masters. I remember like, no, no, it was Ron Larch.

Like, you know, you get 25 grand for this beat right now. I said, but no, but no, but these rhymes is dope. And he's like, and he's looking at. at me like dog you gotta understand where we're at right now in this world and i was like all right let's try it right and i didn't you know he's telling me he can get beats so i'm laying up up in the crib and he gives me a call and he's like we got we got four like what's fucking talk about we got four four placements yeah i'm like what you mean for he said l l just bought three and mary j blase just bought one wow and i'm sitting now i'm in Harlem i'm in a one

One bedroom apartment in Harlem, six-floor walk-up. But Elle don't know who he buying from, and Barry don't know who he buying from. He's like, he said, so who do I make the check to? I said, what do you mean? He said, yo, we just sold four beats. All right. I'm like, work. And so the first thing, because back then, you know, back then the producer had to bring all

their equipment to the studio and read the, make the beat. So, so I'm like, my first night, I've got to go to Sony Studios. I got to work on this. 54th Street on the planet. Okay. Besides Circle House out here, you run into anybody. And so you get, I get there and I'm nervous as shit because it's like, yo, am I back?

And I don't even know it? You know what I'm saying? So I'm like... This is your first placement as a producer. Yeah, period. And you know you mean L.L. right now? Well, I'm not meeting them for the first time. I'm not saying.

You know you're going to lay it down for the tracks down for L. Yeah, and I'm like... So I'm like, I'm starting to get straight nervous. Like I ain't never did this before. And I'm like, you, I had to snap out of it. I go, I'm on the train. I take the A train. I got my MPC and a bag.

You know what I'm saying? They rent to the rest of my stuff. And, and I walk into the studio and I walk in. And as you mentioned, Eric Nix. Shout out to Eric. Eric is Elle's, um, A&R at the time. And, and Elle's there. And I'm sitting and I'm setting my shit up.

And Elle walks in the room. Oh, Quah, what's you doing? That's crazy. Are we in the wrong session? I was like, no, no, it's the right section. He's like, what you doing? I was like, I'm finishing your beat. He was like, wait, what?

He said, Ron didn't make that beat. And it was nothing against Ron. Ron never said he made the beat. But he was like, Ron didn't make the beat? I was like, no, I made it. He was like, yo. He was like, so you want to just get on the hook? Oh, shit.

I was like, sure. You know what I'm saying? So the first record we did was a record on his album called 10. called Throw Your L's Up. So it doesn't say featuring Kwame, but I'm like, yo, shit, I got an LL Cool J. Do it, right? So that's the first being. You know, we worked on another record called 10 million stars, which is probably one of my

favorite records I ever produced. And then we did this children's record called And The Winner is. And it's like a, he did like a Scholastic Children's Book. And it was like a rap record to go with that. So we did those three records in the first. week. And then there was the other surreal moment where I was

doing a show as Quarme, the rapper, on one side of the city. And I had to finish the show early because I had to be in the studio with Mary to do her record. And the whole time I'm on stage, you know, doing 1989 records,

I'm just like, can this shit get over with so I can get into the studio and be the new me? You know what I'm saying? So it was like, I throw off the damn poking i'm going to the studio looking fresh and i'm like yo this is i'm in the new lane now and and i never look back from that point god damn yeah yeah because because i heard you speak about three different um positions right you said uh artists obviously yeah but then DJing right and producing is is when did you become all three or or has that always been you

that was always well see i'm i'm i'm from the area we're all from the area we're all from the When you say you do hip hop, you try to do every damn thing. You try to write, you try to rap, you try to beatbox, you try to DJ, you try to break dance, you do whatever you got. So I still believe that. I cannot say that I'm hip hop without entering one of those chambers at any given time. So if I got a DJ, I'm a DJ. If I got to write something on a wall, I'm going to write something on the wall. If I got to do a beat on a beat box or whatever or rhyme or whatever, it's what.

whatever. I don't know if my head's been now, but you know what I'm saying. It's like, um, so, so I've been DJing as early as I can remember, like stealing my parents' equipment and going, because I used to go, my school was up the block from my house, shallace to St. Gables. I would go up to school and do parties and stuff like that. Is Kenny Anderson go to St. Gaines? You know what? I don't know. I might. Because isn't Kenny from around you? Yeah, yeah, Kenny Smith from around. I think both of them went to St. James, I believe. It's definitely the Catholic school, right? Yeah, yeah, yeah. I know Kenny, Smith might have, because I think he told me that he did.

Okay, yeah. Eddie Giggs went there. Eddie Ging was coming. Oh, yeah, no, no, no, no. I wanted to say for Eddie to come, but he's not here you, but our boy Eddie, he went to with you. Oh, what you said? And your brother, he said your brother.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. My brother was five years behind me. So, yeah. So, so, um, DJing has always been, the first music money I've made was my $15 for DJing, Mary Ann Schillingford's 12th birthday party. I don't know what the hell I'm doing I'm just putting records on but for me

I think you should try to embody all things if you can you know what I'm saying so I don't get mad at and I know let me say this to DJ now even though I have a DJ right in front of me I think

each thing that you claim to be if you're a DJ I think that's a sacred thing I don't think I will never call myself DJ Kame I'll do a party but I'm not going to call myself DJ Kame because that's not what I am. You know what I say? I'll call myself an artist and a producer

way before I select. I'll select records, but I'm not going to call myself a DJ. But I think... The dog has DJ Snoop. That's on him. Snoopedeleck is it? That's on him.

You know what I'm saying? Like, I see it both sides. I mean, for me, it's a sacred title. That's for me. That's how I look at it. When I see DJs and I see real DJs, not Serrado selectors.

I'm talking about real D. That was a good one. Crates at home. Like I was talking to Red Alert the other day. And I was like, I asked him because I thought it was a rumor. I said, is it a rumor that you have an apartment in Harlem with so many records that the floors are buckling? He said, that shit is true. Wow.

He said it's 100% true. It needs to become a museum. Yeah, he said the floors are caving in. So he had to like strategically put the records around. the floor is because it's too much weight. That's a DJ. You know what I'm saying? Where I know DJs that the records,

I'm pretty sure you've been in a DJ's crib where the records is the whole crib. It's just crates everywhere. My records all over. My crib, I got a separate office. I got my records at the crib. Yeah. And it's like, like he told me when I got it. He's like, I wanted to bring one of your old records.

I couldn't find it. That's some DJ shit. And I can't be mad at that because I know what that is. Right. Where it's like, oh, I got everything on my hard drive. All right, cool, that's fine. Right. You know, but do you have, do you have this vinyl at home?

Right. You know, I'm a sorado selector. I select well, but I'm a sorado selector. And I don't even choose a lot of times to DJ. I'd rather produce and perform than. Now, there was a rumor that at your hottest, I'm talking about the hottest, but you were still riding the train. Is that true?

I ride a train every, all the time. All the time. All the time. Come on, man, you're from you. Yeah, I'm asking. No, I'm asking. Because, like, you know, that was the thing. Like, you know.

Yo, I will take the train. Well, not, well, at my hottest, hottest, yeah. Because at my hottest, I'm in high school. So I had to get on the train at time. Because you started at 16. I heard you say 14 earlier. Well, 14, the 14, but by the time that record came out, I'm 16. That's crazy.

That's crazy. Yeah. And at some point, let's be clear. At some point, at my hottest, I did have to have, like, security. Yeah. Which was. whack to me. I thought it was like super whack because I went to

this high school, the main high school I went to was in Manhattan called high school art and design. Art design. I wanted to be a having Pradji went there. Sticky fingers went there. Farramanche went there. Who else? When I heard you all went to school together, I didn't think it was art and design. Yeah, it was art design.

So Prince Poetry from, you know, that group organized confusion. So we all went to school, Cool Kim from UMCs. We're all at one point in time in the same school. But my parents were getting divorced. My pops moved to New Jersey.

Those are all predominantly Queens artists, though, right? Yeah. So how was the other Queens artists that end up in Manhattan? I don't know. We all knew how to draw. And then we ended up. So, but long story short, I ended up in the high school, Forest Hills High School in Queens.

Wow. For my 11th grade. And that's when the album kicked in. So the album kicks in. No, my advance kicks in. The album don't come out yet. Vance kicks in. His band's clear.

Hick'em's stupid qualm. Stupid quam pulls up. Mega truck jewelry. I'm looking like Slick Rick versus Eric B versus Big Daddy came. Then I borrow from Herbie Lovebug. He had this bracelet, but the bracelet came from here to here. The ghost face. He was the first ghost face.

He was the first. So I'm coming to school with this monster bracelet. Cuban links, I had Gucci. I'm looking like a madman. All leather trench coat. You were wilding out. I didn't know nobody. The schemes were happening.

Trust me, the schemes were, I'm looking, I'm sitting in the lunchroom. I'm like, schemes, schemes, skeams, skein. So I'm walking through and I got cool with the security guard. He was like, yo, man, I just need to tell you, they're watching you. I'm like, cool. I know, I know the kids in the school is watching me. He said, no, day watching you. There's a detective undercover in the school watching you.

He thinks you move and wait in the school. I'm a rapper. He said, yeah, nobody going to believe that shit. Wow. And I'm like, for real? He said, yeah, so, you know, you got to chill out with this. You're acting wow right now. And I'm like, and I'm on the train with this, mind you.

I'm looking crazy. I'm crazy. And it's the 80s, too. Yeah, I'm bugging. So when you first back in the. the days when you get an album cover it comes in like this sheet this long sheet it's like a press test pressing

of the album cover yeah I missed that I missed that and I had some cassettes some press it some test cassettes the test album cover and then the vinyl and I went to the principal's office and I was like yo I hear that y'all watching me

and he was like I don't know what you're talking about Mr. Holland I'm like yeah you know it's fine it's cool and I know I need to tone it down and I will because I I don't know what I was thinking and I apologize for that But this is A young age, you used that

Tell us to use that Yeah, because I knew You know, I was always taught You know, you You attract the heat that you get At all times You attract it That's real

So I'm like You know And then, you know And I'm attracting another element Because I know I'm being schemed on So what happens now I got to bring my folks to school You know what I'm saying

And I got to deal with these south side kids And this that and the third It's like I'm a true I'm putting pressure on the school. I'm putting pressure on myself and I'm putting pressure on the kids in school. So it's like, all right, I understand what I'm doing here is wild.

But this is what I do. I'm a rapper. I'm coming out. The album comes out January 31st. This is like pre-Christmas break. So the principal goes, yo, why don't you just don't come back? You're about you about to be a rich rapper, hip-hop man, right?

Why don't you just... You drop out. Wow. I was like, wait, what? This is the principal? Yeah. Now, the principal don't look like me. Of course.

You know what I'm saying? He's about the shade of this candle. Wait, go ahead. So he's telling me to drop out. Forest Hills High School. Yeah. I don't even remember this guy's name. Now, if I would have told my parents, especially my mom, my mom would have spassed.

Right. And now I got kids scheming on me. I got a principal one to be the drop out. I got the DT and now here come my mom. That's worse. and all of them put together. So I'm like, are you sure you want me to do that? He's like, yeah, I think you should drive out.

Wow. I said, I get back to you. So as Christmas break goes, so what we decided to do, anybody in New York will notice in the New York City school system we got a thing called a 600 school. That's right, all boys. Yep, 600 school. I went to there twice.

Which one are you going to? I went to the one in Ridgewood, and I went to the one at Bushwick. I was at Bushwick. So they were like, we're on the same block, same 600 school. So, my management should have known better because there were professional children schools that I could have went to. There was a school in Manhattan called PPAS, and it was strictly for kids that were usually

on Broadway or in TV shows or movies, but they would have taken me. Wow. And I knew some kids, like my little brother, my little brother was heavy into dance, and he had a lot of friends. like Dion Bud from the Cosby Show, he used to go there. McCulley Calkin used to go there. They were friends of my little brother.

So I knew about this school, and I tried to suggest it, but they didn't know how to go to the route there. So they put me in a 600 school. Wow. And it made it seem like, you know, with 600 schools, you're either messing around in school and you bad and they tell you to go to the 600 school or you have an extenuating circumstance.

You got to take care of a parent. You have to work during a day. you're a pregnant teen you're whatever so now i got to go to the 600 school in bushwick you know how it is in bushwick in 1989 i didn't even know it was brooklyn yeah i only knew queens yeah man you buy the train track you go get down there it's like you know where am i at so now i got a pull up and this time i'm out on the train i'm pulling up in a convertible all white convertible no no no i got this this vokes wagon okay mostwagon was the shit Volkswagen Cabaret, I'm pulling up

top down in January Right And still Wilder out In the 600 school And I'm not the tallest dude in the room I'm like 5, 6

And I got this 8 foot tall security dude Next to me And we're walking through the school And everybody's looking at me like The fuck You had a security in the school I had to Oh

I thought you meant The school security No I had to have security in the school. So I'm walking through the school. I'm trying to be everybody's friend. Hey, y'all. And the niggas is looking at me like, yeah.

Yeah, you got a big-ass security going. So I get into the school and they make me sit in a closet for the whole school day. I'm in a, me, big man, a desk, and I'm in the closet doing schoolwork. I can't, they separate, like, like, I'm in PC, but in school. It's school. And I'm like. Because 600 is kind of like jail. Yeah.

So I'm like in this class, I was like, why can't it be around the other kids? And the teacher's like, you cannot be around the other kids. I'm like, they could be my friends. No, they cannot. Like, just do your work. So I'm doing my school work. And the music's out already or no? The music is out.

I'm popping. Yeah. So everybody knows you're in the school. I'm popping. I'm popping. And the lucky thing, the thing that took me out of the 600 school was I did a deal with with them where I can go on tour. Wow. And when I go on tour

They send me the work Like homeschooling Yeah And I do the work And then when I come off a tour I just hand it in It's like hand come in the morning Hand it and get the hell out of out of it

You know But they had to mail you Not email you No Either somebody from my management company Would go and pick up a packet Or say if I'm there Week 1

They'll give me a packet For week two, three and four Oh I'm going to row And so That's privilege That's privilege You call it privilege

everybody getting chicks at the end of the show and I'm sitting there doing math I'm like y'all this is rock like I ain't looking at that you know what I'm saying I'm like you was disciplined but like my godfather was one of my role managers like yeah family there watching over here

my mom's apostles wasn't playing it and the first tour that I was on I'm actually getting a contact high I didn't even I was pretty cool yeah I'm like floating it I mean I never experienced that before but so um So, and that's one of the things with contact highs you don't remember shit.

So the first tour I was on was that NWA. So you ever see the NWA movie? Yeah, of course. That was my first tour. You were on that tour? Yeah. So it was me. The whole leg, the whole shit.

Me, NW. I knew not a picture. Who else? T.T.A. Kirkland? Yeah, he was the host. Okay, okay. So this had a tour. This is how hip hop was back in the day.

This is some real shit. So T.K.K. Kerklin was the host opening host. Oh, he would host throughout the whole thing. Okay. Then the opening act was the DOC. The diggy-dicky talk, yo. And after the DOC was JJ Fad, you know, Drey had to put his axe on. Of course.

Then we had just, like, random acts. There was an group, 783 was one of the groups. From down here, Poison Clan, I think it was all one of you. Like, I didn't know they were on that tour. Maybe this leg when we came here. Okay. Okay. I'm almost certain Poison Clan, because we used to clown the fuck out, and I'm pretty sure it was on that tour. But then it was kid and play.

On the NWA? Yo, this is an ill. No. It gets iller than this. Right. It's too short. Yeah. It's myself.

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And you're what? 18, 19? I'm 17. 17. Jesus Christ. I'm 16 going on 17. Joe, this is wild. So every night we're doing these arenas,

but because of fuck the police, all law enforcement countrywide boycotted the shows. Right. So there was no security in 30,000 seats arenas. We talked about this here before, but there was no violence, right?

We had to talk to the people like, Like, yo, y'all want this show to go on, y'all got to chill. Whatever happens after the show, y'all take that shit outside. It's the only way this show is going to happen. And then the police chief will show up, and they'll come in and they'll have a list. Now, if you say, fuck shit, damn it, if you do any kind of gyrating with your penis or anything like that, immediately arrested. So they would tell us this as we, right before we get on state. So the mandate was, we would all have a meeting.

Everyone would sit there and easy will be like, yo, it ain't about who goes on last or first. This was going to happen. And this meeting was all the happens. Yeah, yeah. So it was like, yo, calm, you get on, you do your thing. As soon as you get on, get off, because you're the clean guy, get off. I'm running on.

I'm going to do my thing. Right? Easy saying. Yeah. Okay, go ahead. I'm going on. And then I'm bringing NWA out. We're going to spazz the fuck out.

Wow. At the last song is fuck the police. As fuck the police is going on, we're going to jump in the crowd, run out the front. Can't play, you get right on stage. So fuck the police gets on. They all, boom. Jet down the middle. Everyone's following up.

Then it is, come on, baby. Clean it comes on. Clean it up. Clean it up. or we would switch out Carmen, you're going last you got to do it tonight you know it would be that switch up

and that's some hip hop shit it wasn't it was free it wasn't had nothing to do with East Coast West Coast anything that was just y'all were just hip-hop and everybody because hip-hop wasn't mainstream and because hip-hop wasn't I feel like it's almost

like I want to I want to liken it to like Latin concerts you know how Latin concerts can do a whole stadiums and aren't aren't on mainstream radio. At least not on mainstream, like, American radio. Yeah, but 200,000 people will be up in those arenas because they know it. And it's a part of the culture.

And that's how hip hop was. It was a part of our culture. And everybody wanted to see it. So how are you going to not pack 30,000 kids? All colors, all races, it wasn't, had nothing to do with nothing. It was just people who love hip. hip hop. And then, you know, that tour morphed into like, then it was like a public enemy

NWA, I mean, EZE tour, and because that NWA tour, that was the only tour. It was a rap after that. So then, you know, I would be on tours, I would be on tours with people from Public Enemy to Teddy Riley and Guy. It doesn't matter. If it was of the time, you were on that kind of tour. And that was

luckily for me and the type of records I made, I was able to get on all those different types of tours. That must be amazing, man. So I, I, I, I, I, I read somewhere that you say that your moms watches everything you do, you do. So, you're going to tell moms to tune out for this part. Yo. Two out, I'll put on headphones or something.

You know, I don't understand, man. Shut up to your mom. My mom's is that label. Let's not watch this part because I got to ask you, you've been on all of these tours. You have the, and this is the definition of groupies. How many groupies you think you smashed in your life? Oh, man. That's it.

He had to do homework. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Homework got finished. Like, I'm not Will Chamberlain because my, you know, like you can see some rappers. They got eight, nine, ten, twelve kids. That's from groupie loving. Now I ain't got that. But, yo, I'm telling you, it'd be like the wildest, like we would have the wildest situations.

Like, we pull up to the, it'll be stuff like the 12 bus will pull up and it'll be a girl outside. I want Carmel. Like, what's Carmel? Carmel, I want Carmel. you don't do it with the dots in the street Carl mill and I'd be like all right

Is she called you caramel? She couldn't say for me ma'amette just called me caramel so so groupy love would happen sometimes before we even checking the hotel

like the bus pull up and they got on and there'll be these girls and you got to watch it because you don't know you don't know what it really is so for example one time I was

I don't remember what state I was in. These girls came in and they had on this short. They all wore polka dot. That's what I know which ones was mine. Okay. They have on. They have one. They have to be able to knocker.

That's yours. Every limit. That's quality. Yeah. Yeah. If they got a ski mask, that's the NWA. Yeah. Okay.

Okay. Raiders. Yeah. Just the truth, though. The NWA girls, the NWA girls will always have a Raiders hat on. They would have body suits. Uh, with holes in it.

So you see, like, half their ads, everything, half day, everything. We know that's easy, these girls, man. Like, you don't mess with them. But then the Quarm girls, they look like, you know, they were the high school chicks with the, you know, the short pleaded skirts, the polka shorts, the polka shorts. Oh, that's what I'm so. Yeah, you know, like the 54-11.

You know what I'm saying? I was like, you know, some teenagers. So we pull up into one city, and these girls are like, poke it out of down and these little tight skirts, the limousine pulls up she takes off a shirt puts them on a glass

I'm like yo I'm 17 I'm like yo and they're writing their name and number and lipstick on the thing and our term I'm not going to give you the term

because we still use the term so and just say for lack of a better term it's like oh we smash it so the show comes and then always there's always the after party

and you always announce people would announce what hotels we were at back in there was safe on stage holiday in on whiskey after party

so the girls would know where to go so now mind you these girls I got to rewind that because one of the girls look like

she was all of 12 years old oh no she was violent the other girls around the book of age. But this one looked like the little sister that got out. Okay. And she was wild.

And so we get to the hotel and there's a knock on my door. And I'm like, who knows my room? I open the doors. And this girl's checked out. She had the doby, weed, bob, or whatever you call it, all made up, super tight skirt on. And she came in. She's like, I'm ready for you. I'm like, you ready for me?

And I'm 17. I'm like, I'm ready for you. And right before it happened, she was like, you don't remember. remember me, do you? I was like, no, who are you? I was the one with the blah, blah, blah. I'm like, the 12-year-old! Yo!

Bounce! You got to bounce. And that, you got to understand that's how ill it was. It was so ill that I've witnessed mothers bring their daughters to the hotel.

Yeah. Like, I've seen it. The mother bring my daughter. Here's my daughter. She's 17. She just wanted to meet. you y'all have fun like what yo what

it's crazy I'm like or or or wild shit like girlfriends or wives coming into the to the lobby and I'm pretty sure you're seeing your shit too but I'm saying girlfriends are wives and it'll be like whoever gets down with the girl

and you walk in them trying to be a gentleman you're walking them into the lobby and they don't tell you they marry they don't tell you they got a girlfriend and here comes the man out of nowhere and swings off knocks the girl out of You know wild stuff You're like, yo It's like this ain't none of your business

I'm like it ain't my business at all You know what I'm saying So at an early age I learned To really Watch What that is I've been in malls Like I've been in malls

And random girls come up to me With like kids And they'd be like Yo you know emce such and such Yeah that's my man Well tell them this his kid This is his kid

I was like, I was right I'm like Oh You need to tell him I don't have you take my number And you tell him He's in Phoenix, Arizona He got a six-year-old son

Look and look just like him, don't it? And I'm like, shh Yeah, it kind of do So you got to really watch that that groupie situation. Luckily I was able to dodge and ended up having

a real good girlfriend that would be on the road with me so I was just like you know I kind of you in check yeah no I ducked it and if my mom was around you know I wasn't

before that he was knocking a lot of things then Shinobi man I'm just I'm I'm doing what I got to do you know no because I always wondered I was always like

do you think Kwame might to fuck one of Biggie's bitches that's the reason why Biggie said that do you think so you think so you think so? It would take the swing

I don't know, man. I think... I'm just playing. I'm just... It's all the jokes. But no, but something like that has happened. Really?

Come on, tell them. I'm working on these J records. When you say J, we talk about JZ? Yeah, I'm working on these records. And I'm in the elevator. It's just me and Dane. Dame looks at me. He's like, you're a cool dude, man.

I don't know, I fuck with you and everything. But at one point in time, I just wanted to fuck you up. I was like, oh, for what? Sam, man, this girl named Kisha, man. I used to love him, man. He was fucking. him and he was messing with my girl and he came coming around the block

knocking it down I wanted her so bad I was like well I ain't that's my fault like don't be mad at me you know what I'm saying charging to the game but I'm saying you know that was like a light lighthearted thing that was that was cool but I don't know I think I think with the big situation

I don't think it was personal at all I don't think it was personal I never looked at it as personal matter of fact we knew way too many of the same people so I knew if there was a personal thing I would have known about it you know from puff on down

like we knew too many same people I think it was a line if you listened to that first album he got lines on damn to everybody from Willis to escape to whatever the song dreams where he's talking about all the army yeah like you know and I know some

R&B artists at that point took offense to that day it was like hot so I don't think it was personal But as I look During the time, it wasn't funny to me But now I look back It's the funniest thing in the world

Because other people outside of me Took it personal And I didn't have a record out And I'm a slick talker man Like I'm, you know, you're gonna get at me I'm gonna find every way Shape of form to get back

So if I do an interview And if I was kick around And I would say something And get on like So you was going that big evening I was saying malicious stuff Oh, shit. So. Oh, wow.

I didn't, I didn't catch that. It was, it was just like random things. Like, you know, do an interview here because I didn't have a thing to... Right, right, right. Come back. So, you know, why, you always come across to me as a person that's not bother. No, I'm not, I'm not. Not petty.

That's what you just said comes shocking to you. Yeah, yeah. And what I was saying was not in petty things. I'm always like tongue-in-cheek. I'm always going to crack a joke about it. I'm never going to come at you from a point of anger at all. But at the same time as hip-hop. So, you know, you got a, like,

Like, you got to still stand up for yourself in some way, shape, or form somebody's asking. But like I said, I never took it personal. It was always like, I'll give you a perfect example. There was a club in New York called Bentley's. Bentley's, I remember. Okay, now it turned into club shadow because it turns to the old school. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. So we would go to Bentley's every Thursday night.

We'd be pulling up in Bentley's. So Biggie came, the album comes out. And I'm sitting and I'm talking to this girl. This is after Biggie said the line? Yeah, yeah. Okay. Or this is like right at the time. Like, just, and I'm talking to this girl.

This girl is bad. I'm trying to bag her. And then they throw on unbelievable. Bump, pump, pump. And everybody's like, oh, yo. And it's like people kind of hearing it for the first time. Oh, shit. And then the line comes on, played out like Kwame in the fucking polka dots.

And then the DJ drops them to music. Shouts to Quarme right there. I'm like, yeah, the shit gets up. No way, no way. And I'm like, word, run it back. So it was always that. It wasn't, and then it was a point where, like, I never ran into big until this one night we did, um, uh, mad Wednesdays.

Okay. Maria Davis. Maria Davis, yes. Was that in Manhattan's S-O-B? No, it was on 702nd Street in Amsterdam. The whole building ain't even there no more. Okay. So we do Mad Wednesdays, and I have a record out at the time.

I had an album that came out maybe a few months after Ready to Die. It's called Incognito. And that album, by the way, the album went triple styrofoam. Right. So I got a black on the wall. Right, right. So I was doing like a play. performance at Mad Wednesday.

So when we walk in, the first person I see at the bar was big. I was like, oh, here we go with this shit. So I don't say nothing. He don't say nothing. We go into the thing. And I do my performance. We rock. You know, we did well.

And so Maria's like, well, you know, we got a little controversy in the building, you know, that Biggie Small says something about you on the record. He's here. You hear. Y'all need to settle this beefo or what y'all want to do. So I had dudes with me This is the funniest shit ever So she means rhyming, obviously

I don't know what she meant She was setting it up for whatever Yeah, it was a whatever situation So Big had his guys with him I had like four Four guys with me Now, y'all know my style I'm not gonna be in the Tim's

and whatever I'm in a hard bottoms In a damn suit And a tie looking like The insurance man Like a zoose suit I was just on my gap or shit looking like, I don't know,

Eddie Murphy and Boomerang or something. So I get off stage and, like I said, I'm five, six, five, six and a half at most. And I just remember big walking up. And him looking like he was 900 feet tall. And he was rolling a blunt like this thick. That's all I remember is the blunt and this mass

coming at me and he was like what the fuck you want to do and I'm like what the fuck you want to do so we just we're talking it was actual smoke

like he was walking up I was and I wasn't he went back and down but all I heard in the back of my mind was Michael Jackson Billy Jean because every dude with me

did the moon walk out the fucking out the club I turned I'm like, are you crazy. I'm like, are you crazy? Now, I want to say, I got to ask C's when that next time I speak to him. You should call C's right now.

I want to ask him if he was the one who stepped in between us. Because I don't remember. He stepped in between. He's the fuck are y'all doing. Y'all bugging, blah, blah, blah, and Biggie was like, yeah, you know, you're right, you right. And I was like, yeah, yeah, yeah. But I was like, I'm not even mad at you.

of them niggins that I came with for skating out. And so, and then it turned into like, y'all aren't going to be fighting up in the club. Yon don't like,

and it's like, nobody's fighting. Like, no, no, no. Big, you leave out the front quarm, you leave out the bat. You know, and so we had to leave the club. And then that was it from there. And I think that was the most that ever anything.

But I just felt like that night was so funny because I just didn't know my boys knew how to do the moonwalk so well. And, and I'd never let them down for that. I'm like, yo, but y'all couldn't fight in your heart bottoms then? What's going on here? Do you feel that that line, that bigie line, kind of like really put a stop to your career in that sense? My about career wasn't happening.

My rap, this is 1994. My last big record was maybe 91. So you felt like it was already winding down. Yeah, like, so it was like a nail in a coffin for that, for that era. And that's, that's, that's, I was actually telling that to people. I was like, I feel like that line was a nail in the coffin to the whole era. Yeah, it was like the silky suit. That whole era was.

now something new. I call it the Grimy 90s. Grimmy 90s are already, we're in here now. And that's moved, early 90s, late 80s stuff. It's a different time. So that's why I said, I don't take it personal. I never took a personal. Like, Unbelievable is one of my favorite records, to be honest.

Shout out of Premier. You know what I'm saying? And I've told Premier many times. But you say, unbelievable? I love that record. Except that line? No, I hate that line. You should have your own version with it.

But also what shows the respect that a lot of DJs had for me because everywhere I went in the country, if that record would play, a lot of DJs were muted if I was there. They would at least be that respectful to do that. Or say a different MC when it comes up. No, they were just spin it back or just mute it or just whatever they would do. And I, you know, I respected that. And I was after a while, I'd be like, look, y'all, you're not bothering me.

They play the damn record. It's not like you're putting, like, you're going at me. so I understood that and I understood what it really was so I never really like I never really took it any kind of way you know and I felt bad you know at his passing I felt bad for his mom and his you know his family and everything like that so I was like nah man I don't I don't hold no kind of maliciousness to anybody I definitely don't think he I mean from my I don't think he did it person to be a personal attack think about this I could have been anybody I think it was a good verse on his part like he just like this is If nobody knew who I was, that line would have been trash. Right. If nobody bought into what I was doing and understood my impact at the time, that line would have made no sense to nobody. Right.

So I always think of things I flip it into the positive first, you know, before, you know, you don't go off the rails. It's first, you know, first one of the 48 laws of power, like you don't, somebody say something negative, whatever, you don't fly off, you know. so um so um you know that's how i always look at it's like it is what it is but um you know as outside of looking in as the inside of us looking out there's two things about the poker that's one do you actually understand the impact of the poker glass because it's a two-part question right one at one point one everyone wore poker that yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah

Poca doth is for everybody, but everybody's not for polka dots. Exactly. Everybody did not know how to pull off the polka ladder, right? So, but the thing was, it was a fad, like no other. Like, I'm telling my son today, like, we're watching your interviews and I'm like, yo, you have no idea. Like, like, and then I can't even use an example. I'm like, yo, I'm trying to say to him, the throwbacks with Jay Z. And then I'm looking at my son.

I'm like, that's not even a good example for him. Yeah. I'm just so confused. Should give him like the push ice thing, man. Yeah, as a person. who lived in that era, did you understand how influential you was with your attire?

Because that's the first time for me. For me, that's the first time I've seen people wanting to dress like a rapper. Yeah, yeah. You know what I'm saying? So, yeah. So for me, it was, everything was by circumstance.

So, for example, with the Pocodots, you take my first album cover, you flip the album cover over. What is it? boy genius, the boy genius. You flip the album cover over, I have on this white shirt with black dots, a black tie with white dots. And if you can see my feet, I had on black socks with white dots, right?

Same outfit went, my first single was a record called The Man We All Know and Love. That same outfit is on the single cover, because I shot it at the same time. Right. My first video, that same outfit I used to look like I had on some pajamas. in the scene. So you take those, and that's because that was my favorite outfit. I didn't have, I ain't really had on money. Like, my advance was

small, like, I spent money on them stupid chains, so that I never ended up wearing as an artist. And so people thought, that's his thing. But it wasn't, you know, I like to dress up. I used to like

to certain ties and, you know, that GQ look, but it wasn't a polka thing. The streak and the hair I just had a regular flat top and six hours before my first video I was like, look, what if my record flops? What if my record don't play?

What if nobody knows who I am? I want people to recognize me. Yo, let's throw a streak in the middle of the moment. So, you know, and cats, you know, I knew cats that had blonde streaks and all this, like village cats and all that kind of stuff. He was doing that stuff.

So I was like, yo, let me throw a streak up in my hair because at least they don't recognize me, if anything. You know, I don't know if I got no saying if the records are hit. right so i show up to the video with that on with the polka thing on and then when it was time to start doing shows every city we would hit it'd be a pocket of kids or the whole audience looking just like that so the first show i did i was like okay somebody's fucking with me somebody played a big plank because all these kids got on dots right right these dudes got streaks up in their

hairs looking crazy i'm like there's no way right but then as we started hitting it wasn't just a a New York thing. It was a Pennsylvania thing. It was a Virginia thing. It was a Maryland game. Yeah, man. Then I was getting pictures and letters from Africa and dudes just in like polka shirts in France and dudes just the first version of Instagram.

Yeah, exactly. I'm like, what? Japanese kids like doing B-boy poses with the polka dots and sending me letters in Japanese. I can't even read it. And I'm like, word. And then another Will Smith moment. Well, shout out to Charlie Mac, who's...

Charlie Mac, yeah. The homie. Charlie called me from Morocco, Africa. He was like, yo, man, we're up in this party. They're banging your records, and all the kids got on polka dots. Oh, shit. I was like, and I'm sitting here in Queens, like, you're calling me from Africa, telling me this? I was like, how much is this call going to call?

This is 1989. Like, yo, this is not an expensive call. So that's when I started. to understand that impact. So I think by the time I put out my second album, A Day in the Life, we incorporated a lot of polka dot stuff. And then it was so funny because there was a record on a day in the life

called It's Okay. And on It's Okay, I literally say, that's it. I'm not doing this no more. No more Pocodai stuff. So back to, let's take it back to the biggie thing. So when he was like, it's played out, I'm like, yeah, it's been playing. I'm like, yeah, you said that.

Yeah, you said this. you this like three years ago like so that's why i'm saying it's not it ain't it ain't what it is just just so you know um let's tell you your impact but we finally locked you in to say that we finally finally got you right and i appreciate y'all for letting me come up and thank you for coming man i set up in the group chat and we all have a group chat and i'll say yo listen everybody go try to get polka dot right so this is how your impact is and i i didn't realize that everywhere we went it was sold out wow we couldn't buy it it had to take two days.

Wow, wow, wow, wow. I just thought about that. It was like, it was a message from God because it's like, it's like almost, now we know you didn't invent polka dots. No, of course not. But in our community, you did. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Like, I didn't invent reggae tone, but I brought it to America, right? So they got to give me that, but in our community. Yep. Of course, there's a polka dots that exists in other genres, but you, and it just made me, it made me turn it all into business

because I was just doing it. We wanted to all be funny, you walk in. Yeah, yeah, you know, y'all would have killed me with that one. Y'all would kill me with that. And I was like, but it was literally like, I kid you not. Like, like, everything was sold out and it was a two-day order. So we would have ordered it, but it came on Thursday. You know what's so crazy.

It's the two levels to it. I wish that I had somebody in my corner when I was 16, 17, that told me, like, take your money. The one good thing I did with my money was buy equipment. I'm saying? Because that turned me into what I ended up being later right. But take your money,

find a way to make your own polka-dye shirts. Even if it would have lasted Oh, your own version. Oh, yeah, you're right. And I would have been literally would have been

buying yours. Yeah, I would have sold it at shows. I would have went up to strawberries or merry-go-round or whatever was selling whatever gap. Gertzmole. Like, yo, Gertzmore,

but like, look, going to, Coliseum, Coliseum, and had my own Center and all. I had a stand. A and S, I know it's not open no more. Yeah. But A&S, that's my era.

Go ahead. No, you know the Coliseum, that whole block is going. The whole area is demolished. It's terrible. Somebody FaceTime me from there. Yeah. I mean, I wasn't physically there and I physically felt hurt. Yeah.

Like, just seeing that. Yeah, man. And, you know, it's surviving the beef, the jerk chicken spot. Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's still standing in this strong. I'm so good about that. But go ahead, continue. But I'm saying I could have had that if I would have

had that business acumen back then. And they could have ended up getting played out. I could have, I could have turned that into something else. You could have been, you know, I could be, I don't know. Played out polka dots. Yeah, whatever. I could have been a major brand right now. If I would have just started with that, you know, like how Fubu started with hats.

And then they turned into a major brand and I could have sold it for several hundred million dollars or whatever. So I wish I would have, that's my only. industry regret. I have no other regrets. With that, I wish I would have been able to figure that part out. So let me ask you again.

So you talked about that one time you met Biggs. Did you ever see Big again after that? Or that was... Yeah, yeah. Like, like, um, just in like parties away. Okay.

Yeah, and there was no smoke after that. Yeah, we just didn't... Yeah. Like I would, you know, I could be there and talking to puffing and Biggie just be standing there giving me the look like, fuck this thing.

Right, right. Now, this is something that I don't, I'm not, I'm not positively sure I'm correct with this information. Okay. But one, I feel like only you was the start of hip hop R&B collapse, right? Uh-huh. I feel like that was one of the originals of hip-hop and R&B, at least from, from my point of view. But I also remember me hearing a whole thing. only you, what a version without you on there. No, there's never a version.

So were they ever playing in the daytime and like trying to cut rap out? Because I remember there was a rap like people said no rap. But I remember hearing that in the daytime with just a hook. If you heard that, I don't know anything about that. Okay, cool. So, so for people that don't know

a lot of radio stations across this country have what they call a no rap work day. Right. From 6 a.m. they call it rap rap rap Yeah, don't we not playing that rap crap. Rap crap. If you don't want to hear that rap crap, yeah, during

work. It's a terrible, terrible stare. Yeah, we are not playing rap. So from six... Don't forget the crap. Yeah, that rap crap. Don't forget the crap. Somebody, grandpops made that one up. So from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. in some

places. 7.30 and. some places and 9 p.m. in the place. You're not hearing no rap. So two things happen with only you. One, I wanted to bag Vanessa Williams. That's right. You want her to be your sugar mama? Yeah, I want her to be my mama, mama, mama.

Yeah, because she was older. I didn't know how I was going to do it, but I was going to try to back Vanessa. And so I wanted to make a record where she sang it and I featured. So I figured the record is hot and I featured. I'd meet her at the video. And then she would say, you don't got to go back to Queens. You can just come back with me. I'll be like, I bet.

Yeah. So that's the mind of a 17-year-old. So I'm making only you for that. I didn't make the album. So I was like, all right, let me just, I'm going to make it for myself. And maybe, just maybe I can get a 6 o'clock in the morning play. I can get that daytime play. Wait, hold on, talking about 6 o'clock in the morning was the shit?

Yeah, because you wake up and people were driving to work, that drive time. Was there morning shows at this time? Not really. Was it? No, not really. No, I don't think about it. No, it was just somebody playing, you know, whoever the DJ was.

Okay. The only people that had morning shows were like the white stations like Don Imison. Yeah, I like Don. And Stern. Howard Stern. You know, things like that. It was never black people.

He's the racist dude, right? Yeah. He's a foul nigga. I don't think he's a male. Yeah, yeah. He's a foul nigga. Yeah, yeah. So, so.

He caught the girls now. You think I don't remember. Yeah. He's a foul leg. We remember. In the heat of battle, your squad relies on you. Don't let them down. Unlock elite gaming tech at Lenovo.com.

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In the new podcast, hell in heaven, two young Americans move to the Costa Rican jungle to start over. But one will end up dead. The other tried for murder. Not once. People went wild. Not twice. Stunned. But three times.

John and Ann Bender are rich and a rich and a woman. attractive, and they're devoted to each other. They create a nature reserve and build a spectacular, circular home, high on the top of a hill. But little by little, their dream starts to crumble, and our couple retreat from reality. They lose it. They actually lose it. They sort of went nuts. Until one night, everything spins out of control. Listen to Hell in Heaven on the I-Heart Radio Hour.

Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. The Crying Wolf Podcast is the story of two men bound by injustice, of a city haunted by its secrets and the quest for redemption no matter the price. White victim, female, pretty, wealthy, black defendant. Chicago, a white woman's murder, a black man behind bars, for a crime he didn't commit. I got 90 years for killing somebody I have never seen. He says the police are his friends, and then that's it. They turn on it.

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And unpack what it means for you. Our breakfast foods are consistent consumer staples, and so they sort of become outsized indicators of inflation. Listen to the big take from Bloomberg News every weekday afternoon on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. We walk around these tight cowboy pants looking crazy. So I wanted to hear my record at 6 o'clock. in the morning like, you know, any other artists would.

And I think at the time, I don't know I'm not going to call myself, I invented it, but I helped push it because you had some heavy D records probably playing some like Salt and Pepper express yourself. Express yourself. Yeah, like those type of records

they might have been playing, but I wanted a record that was equal R&B, equal hip-hop. It could play in the club, it could play in the radio, and people, it's not soft. Like, if you listen to the owning you beat,

that's not a soft beat. You know what I'm saying? Like, I always try to go hard. Like, no matter what I'm, you know, what the beat is, I'm trying to give, you know, give you some grit to it. So, um,

so I was able to achieve all of that. And, but the, the wild thing is, I started to learn that the record labels was in cahoots with the record, the radio stations on some, No rap stuff. Ooh. Because I slid through the cracks with that one,

but then my label, Atlantic Records, started to now separate the rappers. We wasn't just on Atlantic Records no more. They had to put a label on all rap records, and they called it Atlantic Street. Oh, urban, right? No, no, the title of the label was they took all the rap records off of Atlantic and put them on a label called Atlantic.

Street. So this is when they were saying rap was a fad? Yeah. Okay. So they were put these stickers. Sometimes they had soul

like something sold to separate it too. Yeah. So they would put these stickers on the record that said street on it and they would have like

some corny dude doing like some weird break dance move. And so when the program directors would get these records it was the signal I this is what we don't play

during the day we'll just give it to to the mix shows. Right. But I'm like yo, while the labels even down with something like that, y'all are supposed to be trying to push

this thing forward. So, you know, that was just my contribution to try to crack open that door, and which it did. So, you know, I'll give credit to that. Right. So let me ask you a question, right? Right now, they just announced that, you know, Bad Bunny is

hosting or doing the Super Bowl. The Super Bowl commercial. Bad Bunny is this genre of music that comes from reggae. for that portion of it comes from that part of hip-hop even though reggae probably

even lasts as longer to hip-hop or just as long. So I want to ask you a big E-line. Did you ever think that hip-hop would make it this far? Yeah. You had this vision? When I was a kid, I used to tell my friends

we're going to get hip-hop from other countries. We're going to get hip-hop from and some of it hasn't happened yet because I'm still waiting for the hip hop record

that super blows up that's just that everybody knows that isn't in English oh well that's Bad Bunny yeah but but he means like more you mean like more

like hip hop hip hop because Bad Bunny he goes through different genres right right it's Latinx yeah overdraft the hip hop bass like okay

yeah like just imagine a primo beat with somebody rhyming in the Egyptian yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah So, so... That might come from Asia. Yeah, that's what I'm saying.

Because you're doing with K-pop now. Yeah, K-pop is huge. You do a K-pop. You go to a K-pop show, you'll see? Dude, I said I fuck a K-pop. I doubted you. Yeah, you don't remember. You said I did it on a show.

My daughter right now is all on about the K-pop demon hunters. Yeah, yeah, man. It's like, and they get a new act every two days. It's like a big kid cartoon. I thought it was crazy, too. What's going on? You told you, I was like, demon hunters. Yeah, no, no, it's just.

That K-pop, like where I live in California, it sounds weird, but it's predominantly Korean and Chinese in my area. So every mall I go to, and it doesn't have to be my area. Every mall I go to, every, is what they call it. It's a store called K-pop station. And every mall has like three of them joints in there, and they be packed. Like that culture on our culture is real. Like it's some real stuff.

I just feel like they may switch their groups out every of a week. It's like a whole new versus BTS and then it's like, I don't know, X, Y, Z. And I'm like, who are these guys? And they're influenced by us heavily. Yeah, yeah, yeah, no, no, no. If you listen to like K-pop or like the boy band stuff, like it's very Americanized. Yeah, it's very, very 90s, 2000s vibe. And they keep, they know that aesthetic.

They know that similarity and they know that vibe. The dance routines, everything, yeah. There's like this girl, K-K-pop rap. group I'm trying to remember the name but like I see it on TikTok all the time these girls be spitting like straight spitting in English but I don't think they know English that's the weird thing and they got they got it down I'm like yo this I got to find I got to find the name of that group but but I think that it definitely the hip-hop vibe has definitely gone further than what I what I imagine and I

I love the fact that Bad Bunny is doing the Super Bowl, because you think about it, any kind of Latin representation in the Super Bowl has either been J-Lo. Right. Gloria Stefan. Who else? Would you count Shakira?

Yeah, yeah, for sure. So you, that's it. That's all I can remember. Yeah, probably. Unless Manuolo was in the 80s. I don't know if they ever did. They never did that. Super Bowl.

But, correct me if I'm wrong, because I don't watch football. I call it foosball. I don't watch football like that. But correct me if I'm wrong. Every time they've gone on the Super Bowl, maybe minus Gloria's stuff, it's always been like a double up. Like, you've got to bring them out. Or like one comes out and then like J-Lo comes out, but she got to bring out Shapiro. You know, it's like it's never.

But, like, somebody on their own, like, doing the Super Bowl. Kendrick was the only one that I could even remember by himself like that. But did you bring out Dre? Nah. No, Kenji did it by itself? Yeah. Where? Yeah, I don't remember.

Well, Dre brought out Kendry brought out Kendry. Yeah, Dre brought out Kendrick. Kendrick brought out, yeah. Kendrick was by, oh, Sizzle, okay. But they had the record together, so he just did. She just did the hook on the record. But, I mean, yeah, but as its totality, it was, like, basically just. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Yeah, and Samuel Jackson and Serena Williams. But what I'm saying is For Bad Bunny to be able to have it for him Now if he decides to bring people out, that's on him But it's not It's not an advertised, it's advertised It's just him Yeah

And, and people I'm going to just be a little bit Knowledge dropping real quick People have to understand something Let's take it back to slavery is, taking just back to what's supposed to be black and not black and this, that, and the third. When

the enslaved Africans came over here, how about ask you, y'all, how much percent do you think came to the United States area, this part of America? If you could guess, the percentage. Percentage of what? Of total... Enslaved people that came to the United States? 30%. So you say 30?

Take a guess. I don't even want to hear us. I was going to do this. 5%. Wow. Look at it up. 5% of us came here. So the other 95%...

Latin America. Latin America and the Caribbean. Brazil holds the highest amount of numbers of enslaved Africans that come here. So everywhere down, the African-D-N-A-N-A is within. all of us, you know, and then the colonizers of DNA and the native DNA. So I'm never going to look at anybody from this side of the world, funny style, for doing their version of hip hop and taking their version of hip hop to another level because we're all doing what we're that's our generational music. We may not know it. We may not understand it. We may think we're pulling

from this, that, and the third, but we're pulling from a DNA strand that's longer than any of us can think of. And we're all putting our own stamp on it and changing it and adding to it. And whatever else you get from around the world is based on our influence that we have around the world. You know, and so like I said, back to Bad Bunny, I'm like, yo, let's rock. Yeah, I don't care. You from this side of the world and you doing your stuff.

thing and it's based in what we all do in love rock. Get on that stage and kill it. And I love the fact that all of his songs has very little English as possible. Exactly, yeah, yeah. But Apple is introducing their new I like their... Oh, the translation?

The translation, which is genius. Get it translated, motherfucker. But I'm saying it's genius that they're the sponsor and then they're introducing it. He'll still be singing in Spanish. So, wait, wait, wait, wait, how's this going to work? He's going to be on stage. You know, they've got the Google goggles right now.

They got the, where a person can speak to you. Google goggles? I mean, you know, they got the translations. I, what was his name? I show speed. I see him in China. And as the lady was talking to him, he puts on the glasses. Yeah.

And it translates. You know, let me tell you out something. Ladies, I'm going to speak to all the ladies. Y'all get your nails done at the Korean nail spots. And you hear them talking. You want to know what's going on. Just get the glasses. Get the translators.

And just sit, sit back. Oh, listen, bro, it's crazy we're talking about this. Today, a homie and Mike, he called me accidentally on his phone. Yeah. I never even knew that there was an app for this or whatever the fuck he has on his phone. He's mumbling. He's talking, but he's calling by accident. Yeah.

So he's not talking to me. He's talking somewhere. Yeah. And I hear, but how do you're just like, the fuck? I hear him talking in English in the background, and there's a translator talking to me. What the fuck? I come back. I said, yo, you got a transit.

He said, yo, yeah, I have the translator app. When I call Puerto Rico, I don't speak Spanish. So I call it and I use the translator. Yeah, I do it all the time. I even know that shit existed. I do it all the time. My guy that fixes my computers and stuff, he's from China. He don't know no English.

I walk in with Google Translate. I say, I need this hard drive, blah, blah, blah. And I just show them, show them the words. Or sometimes they'll say it. But before I did that, I didn't know. And you know, like, I think especially black people, we think that somebody's always talking about us when he hears something in another language. Oh, they're talking about us.

Yeah, they all sometime sometimes, but they might not be. So I just wanted to test that out. I'm getting my hard drive fix, and the guys from China in there, and they're chopping it up. And I'm like, oh, I know they're talking about me. I put that Google Translate on, and he was like, yeah, my sister's a whore. Oh, shit. I was like, they're like, they're like, I got to talk some personal shit with you, buddy. sister, man, she came in.

Yo, man. He was going in on his sister. The sister came in in in the middle of the night. He knows she was smashing the dude next door. I was like, yeah. So, you know, I think if you don't get the Google glasses or the Apple thing, at least get Google Translate on your phone.

Go into a space that you're not familiar with and just turn it on. You'll be surprised at what you. You might hear somebody going in on you. You might not. We need that for Mr. Lee when he announces things. Right, right, right. Well, let's get sunny and talk.

And the flowers. No, hold on, hold on, hold on. Flowers. Well, you know, our show is about giving people their flowers while they can smell them. Yes. They throw us what they can tell them. They thoughts what they can think them.

And they drinks where they can drink them. And there's smoke while you can choke them. Yes. And the smoke where you can help. That's for you. That's for you. That's for you. Snoop.

Snoop said it's better than the Grammy because it comes for your people. Let me see your watch. That's a beautiful watch. Let me see. Oh, my God. Piano watch. Piano watch.

That's fine. I don't know what time it is. So Paul and Sonny, you're going to be substitute drinkers. Southerty drinkers, yes. Oh, what's happening? We're going to play the drinking game.

Yeah, but they go to be your subject to drinkers. I want to 100% thank y'all for that. I never received the Grammy, so I'm not even chasing it. Come on, come on. But I appreciate this. This is going 100% on the wall. Yeah, why are so close to him like that, man?

Come on there. Yeah, he'll be none. Come on this. Oh, that's out to the book. He's going to be his drinker. Oh, okay. All right. Okay, so we're going to play that game, right?

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yes, yes. Yeah, yeah. Let's go. Let's go. Let's go. Oh, let's go. Oh, yeah. Oh, man.

Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. So that's, that's my boy that, that, that he said he went to, go. Oh, man. Say what up. You can say gage? Oh, snap. I was with your brother.

the name yeah yeah yeah going on saying the government he did well i ain't in the last thing that's good it's good so you're ready explain i don't know i don't know if you know names no longer with us but you know um he passed me yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah did you know that hey yeah i'm explain to him the rules well i mean he's not gonna have to drink so yeah but he that you have to design a drink right this is this is our drinking game we're gonna give you two choices. Yeah. If you pick one, nobody drinks. If you can't pick, like you, you say both, you say neither of them, we all drink. Well, you don't drink your, this is you right there. Sonny. And then, nor is going to, doesn't they drink you over here. But can you

hold it, man, like don't? No. No, no, you get. Yo, but hold on, what are you drinking? Hennessy, okay. You're drinking all the wrong shit. All right, cool, cool, cool. You explain a lot better than I did but the main thing about this game is whatever we're bringing up things that we just want you to bring up any story

anything that you know encourages you to bring up a story or mention something about something you know all right so you ready yeah Nas or LL nothing

nothing nothing against but I got to go with LL for for a lot of reasons Because Nas took the queen shit Yes

Into orbit Or out of orbit But LL put that queen shit into orbit Between L and DMC Yes So I got it always got it Like my first The first time I ever saw LL

I was in high school I was cutting class And my school was around the corner From 5th Avenue And that diamond shop Van Cleef and Arpelles. Like anybody go to Van Cleef and Arpelles, you're spending money.

It ain't, nothing, it ain't Canal Street, diamonds. That's some other shit. So I'm standing... Yep, I'm standing in front of Van Cleef and Arpelles, me and my boys, and his red Audi pulls up, like it was in slow motion, like in a movie.

Then the doors open up, like in a movie. And then all this weed smoke comes out. And then first it was E-Love, Elle's boy that... Oh, okay. He came out one side. I was like, oh, shit, he loved. And then slowly came out to drive and see he comes L, big chains and everything.

And we stand there like kids, like, oh, shit. And, you know, he gives up the like, what up, little dudes? And it just goes into the Vancouver. And I was like, yo, that shit is a rap star. That is a star. This is I need love, L, L. I'm bad L.L. You know, you see that pull up.

You're not going to, you know, Nause is another level, but LL is that first, like, superstar that from Queens? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Wait, wait, wait, you're not supposed to drink. Oh, no, I just, oh, I'm sorry, I just. He made your drink anyways. He volunteered for the job. Anex or Lost Boys? Oh, man.

Queens, Queens, Queens, Queens. So, Fredjo used to be my barber. I heard that. And he had dreads back then. Yep. You're barber when you had the high tall fade? Fredro was my barber. Sticky was in school with me.

Freaky Ty, if I'm not mistaken. Rest of peace. Rest of peace. Live right, because I used to live in South Side, too. Oh, wow. I moved around a lot. Okay. So I think Ty I used to live right behind Baselie.

So I think Tyler close to me, I would see him all the time. Me and Mr. Cheeks have the same birthday. Wow. on the same year so y'all gonna have to drink okay yeah yeah yeah that's fair cheers i knew i knew i knew that i knew that was going i can't i can't do it okay beat nuts or kid and play how are you gonna put them to again they're these guys that make the questions the columbian and uh dominican it's the cocaine section over there well first of all i got it i have to put it to kid and play they're they're like my

my OGs, you know? Like, I meet B-Nuts after the fact. Right. And I love all the B-Nutte-N-N-st stuff, shouts to the last ju-ju. I love their stuff. But if it weren't for Kid and Play, A, I wouldn't have been on that NWA tour because they were on the tour first and it's like, well, you got to bring Quam.

Wow, that's dope. The first film I was in, well, the only film I was in, was this movie called Class Act. Yeah. King and Play was in. Yeah, that's a classic. And I had a, um, I was supposed to be the one of the lead parts in the film, but then I got beat out by this guy, um, by the comedian Dougie D.

Dougie, Dougie Dougie, Doug. But I still, they still, you know, they insisted that I at least have a part in the movie. Right. Um, so I got to give a different play, man. Those are my, those are like my big brothers. Okay. Speak to them almost every day. So it's like, yeah.

Shout out to them, man. Shout out to both. But shout out to be nuts for sure. Yeah, yeah, for sure. Eric B or Coogee or... Eric B and Raq Kim. No, no, no, I want to do DJs first. Oh, my God.

DJ Polo or Eric B? Oh, man. I'm going to give you a story. Yes, please. That's why we do this. DJ Polo knocks on my door. I open the door. He said, I got my friend with me.

We're going to hang out. So in comes and I don't... And we'll see if y'all know who there's going to... guy is. So in comes through my door, Ron Jeremy. Oh, the porn guy? The porn guy? I just saw something about Ghostbusters. He's an extra in it.

So Ron Jeremy walks into my house with DJ Polo. I did not put this together. This is the weird shit. Let's go. And he was like, yo, you want to hang out? And I was like, hang out where? Where are y'all two going? You already knew who Rod Jeremy was? yeah who didn't know ron jerry from the 90s

i mean sunny definitely knew who he was i would have pulled out and he didn't even say like this is ron jane you said i would have pulled out i would have pulled up oh relax where we're wrong going you're pulling out so he and he was like polo was like rest of peace to my bro polo polo was like here's my boy ronie we're about to go out and i'm like all right ronie so we get in the car and we started going to party after party

and every party we went to, it was like the Porno Hall of Fame, man. And I'm just sitting there like, oh, that's home girl, that's home girl. And, like, we was just going to like the wildest. I didn't know him personally. Go ahead, Corey, man. Go ahead.

You blew yourself up. Go ahead. Yeah, we didn't say it. You said, the corner of a home of fame. I didn't catch you. You all knew who Rod Jack. We did. You all know, and if y'all know who, if y'all know who Ron Jeremy was,

you know, you don't know what he did. Yes, yeah. Now you need to look that part up. And y'all still knew who he was. So don't fault me for looking at some poor ladies. Yeah, yeah. Like, hey, ladies, so are you? So then, you know, it was just a wild night.

But Polo was that type of guy that he was just a funny guy, man. He was just a cool guy to hang out. he on the other hand he's just like mad serious man mad serious you don't if you don't know Eric you don't know what you're about to get and the crew around Eric

you know if you don't know these guys it's like you know it might be snakes on a plane you don't know what's going to happen so y'all got to have to take a drink because I ain't know where you're going with it okay now Rock Kim or Kooji Rap

Koojee rap Okay Damn you said that fast Cool G rap Okay why I bet you rock Kim may even say Cool G rap Really?

Pretty sure Okay Pretty sure Because G rap I think Grap is probably If not the greatest rapper I've ever heard One of the top three ever

And super ahead of his time Ever Like ever ever ever ever ever ever. Like I remember, you probably remember United States of America, USA, this roller rink in Queens. And I remember going to, I remember, because he's from around my way. So, you know, we all know the same people and all this stuff. And I remember he was performing. He had a record out. I'm fly and it's a demo. It's a demo. Change my life those two records. So if anybody doesn't know about USA roller rink,

That's where I got my start. Me, Master A's, Father, MC, Super Lover, C. We got our start there, like on rap battles and contests and all this kind of stuff. And where is this in Queens? Queens, yeah. Now it's a from Brooklyn, so I was just wondering. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

So, but every Sunday night, anybody will perform there, like anybody. Run DMC, Madonna, New Edition, cool you rap, DJ Polo, every beat rock him. Every Sunday night, you can. catching somebody if you're able to survive that Sunday night because it was all survival in there you might not make it out a lot of cocaine a lot of bullets a lot of knives

don't let don't let like that crew ball busters crew come through and Zulu be there like there's some other other shit so ball busters crew yeah it was a crew called the ball buster I don't like them I was just playing yeah hey man that was the name and a crew. I don't know. So, back then they wasn't thinking it wasn't on our wavelength.

Yeah, there was no pauses. Before pause. They're coming, we the ball busters. Pause, boy, chill, change the name. Just call yourself buster. They're like, no, we're busting your boss. No, no, no, no, we're buzzing your boss. No, no, no, we're buzzing your boss.

So, so, um, you have, G-Rib gets on stage. Before she gets on stage, all these girls are around. And I remember hearing these girls from around the way, it was like, I don't know who he think he is. He used to call him Abdul back in the next.

I don't know who Abdul think he is. Abdul, right? Yeah, and he ain't, he ain't even that fly. I would never, I don't know. I don't, I ain't fucking with him. So he gets on stage, this dude had on his leather suit. And he starts doing, I'm fly, and he's rhyming. And the girls are just, like, sitting there, like, Abdul?

And he's handing the girls roses while he's rapping. And then he goes into. give a, it's a demo, and he pulls out knots of money, he starts stoning in the crowd. Oh, shit, he made a ring before. He made, I was going, word to say, word. And all I remember is the girls going, oh, I'm going to fuck him.

All right. I'm going to fuck him. I'm like. He's not a dude, no more. Yo, I'm like, G-rap. You know what I'm saying? So that was one of my first entrances of seeing how people act

to somebody who, who's a superstar who's becoming a rap star. And I think G's style, between Rakim, Kane and G-Rowell, I call them the Three Horsemen. Their styles into Wolfe.

And they created what we consider modern lyricist rap. But I know for a fact, talking to Rakim, talking to Kane, I know for a fact that everybody watched G-WRA.

Grap spit a rhyme Somebody's going to be like Oh shit I got to get a better rhyme than that Because Grap just came through You know so And one of the greatest records to me Pull it up is Over the Big Daddy Kane Rawbeat

Is Kane and Grap back to back Just going back to back Probably Grap's rhyme is probably one of the best rhymes Ever You know he goes in So I'm just going to

I'm automatically, and he's from Queens. He's from around my way, so I'm going with you. No disrespect to Rakim because I love Rakim right there next to G-Rap, but I got to go with G-Rap first, but y'all can ring, too. Okay. Run DMC or E-P-M-D? Oh. See, E-PM-D, I love because how Eric was making those.

I love Eric. a producer like I love them as a producer and I love that vibe that they were bringing but I'm always going to give it to run DMC over everybody you could say run DMC and run the MC and it's always going to be run DMC because without run the MC wouldn't we wouldn't never had no MTV play right hip hop wouldn't have been we would have never been outside of new york we would have never had clothing and endorsements. We would have never spent all our monies at Bennies and Coliseum on fat rope chains.

Antif. Yeah, exactly. All that leather jackets. Yeah, we would have, the bubble gooses with the bees, the Adidas, the cangos, the, the, cozzles. Gazelles. They, they took hip hop out of looking like earthwind and fire. Yeah. Think about it.

And there was no dis to melan. Spikes. They had to dress like what they saw. They had activated in the head. Yeah, other artists at the time, like disco artists, funk artists, they figured if we dressed like that, we'll be accepted. We're running the MC with the first people. We don't need to be.

Yeah, we don't need to be accepted. Right. We just need to be respected. You understand what I'm saying? So they came through and they said, you don't got to like us, but give us respect. you know what I'm saying so always run the MC always and I and I'm going to look at any rapper anybody who knows hip hop is about hip hop that won't say run the MC first I'm like I'm looking like I'm looking like you're crazy somebody else could be your favorite group personally

but their favorite group is run the MC but you got to yeah you got to give it I'm talking about to this day to this day I would I wish I I wish you could be on a stage because it's a rare thing now and watch Run and D come out and perform. Like right now, the looks on people's faces from the artist, like every artist on the show will pile up on the side of the stage. Like, shit. You know what I'm saying?

Grown-ups, kids, they'll be in the audience. They're like mega rock stars when they decide to get together and do that once every five years or whatever. They'll do it. And I respect the fact that there's no more run DMC without a Jam Master Jay. Yeah, I like that they don't kind of do shows. At first, I used to hurt me, but, you know, I got to see them like somewhat on a Bronx stadium. I'm going to win in.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. They went together. But I do kind of, like, fill them both where, you know, there's kind of a lot of DJ that can replace Jammaster Jay. Yeah, man. I filled them, but I do want to see them together more out on the stage. Yeah, yeah, yeah, me too. So let's go to the next one. Lars Pro or Q10.

Thank you. Oh. Damn, man, y'all going to have to drink, man. But let me break that down, though. Large pro, especially being from pretty much the neighborhood. I think large pro helped to usher in an era where the beats were like, there was no more water down beats. you know what I'm saying it was like

main source main source was shit you know what I'm saying and then you had you know from from the Nause album to just different things that he was doing

like you had the respect like he was mastering that SP-1200 man and but then I look at TIP what I admire the most about TIP is TIP

was is a master producer, but when he was doing the tribe album, he never made it about him producing the stuff. Right. It always said produced by tribe called Quest. So you didn't think Tip was that master producer. Until he started doing, like, you know.

We thought it was Ali. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. So, yeah, and Ali was doing his thing too, but I'm saying, and Ali still does his thing. You know how much Tip was doing. Yeah, yeah. We definitely didn't.

We thought it was just an MC. Yeah. And so when Tips started doing like Crooklyn Dodgers and Nause and and all that other stuff, you're like, yo, hold up here. And it's just like, I just think both both have a framework that's just amazing. And I can't put one over a lot.

Let's go drink. Drink a drink. Salude. Pete Rock or permit? Oh, y'all want to drink to that one too We'll just get it out the way Because Pete What I love about Pete Rock

First of all, me and him Love comic books So when we talk, we only talk about the whole Yeah, we both collect comic books and toys Yeah, yeah So we collect comic books So we have that in common But

Pete's a master at the soul and the jazz the obscure soul and jazz sample that don't think nobody can duplicate and I can get technical right now the what they call filtering where you filter out the temple

and you just hear the baseline and that was some real like you listen to Troy or like the King of Rock I'm down with the King remix or just certain certain records

his when you live listen to his production, it's like you're looking into the ocean, man. It's like some deep shit. It's like it's layers to it. And I love Pete for that. Primo is the chop king. Yeah.

The king, like, you will never be able to chop like Primo. You won't know where that's it. And, yeah, and like, he finds these chops. And I love Primo for it because that's how, when I was producing my first album, that's what I was doing. Like, nobody was really chopping like that. So, like, records, like, the rhythm and all the records. I was doing the chops, but Primo was taking it, took it to a whole other level

and just took one sound and tuned it and chopped it and made it a thing. Like, what's the, kicking the door, for example? Pump, pump, pump. That joint is, I put a spell on you, and you listen to the record. It's like a nice bounce to it. but the way he took those different stabs, and then it's all about the beats that he programmed under it. And what I loved about Primo is he never let up.

He never conformed to new equipment. Right. He stayed on his MP, stayed on his 950, and that's what gave it the grit. As other, like, new machines started coming out. Prem always stuck to that. So Prime and Pete are apples and oranges. Prime got that grid

He got that depth So I can never put Anything up against each other All right, so drink We did already Oh, okay We did All right, here we did

Analog or digital Analog? Then you switch it to digital Because you think about this You know, for those that don't understand Analog or digital A lot of people from this generation For the last two generations

Only know digital You know a CD if that's the oldest thing you may know is a CD now you know what you hear on your phone and now you got things like Luceless and Atmos and all this other stuff that's supposed to make your stuff sound crispy and nice

but from my era and back then we had to we were recording the tape the tape makes, for lack of a better term the tape makes the sound thicker that 808 is going to punch you in your whole chest

and crack you in half because that analog sound there's a beef to it and like analog equalizers in different controllers there's like a knock that you cannot replace with digital also there's

and I'm getting kind of technical if you play a record and you play a CD playing back to back the record sounds stronger the record sounds thicker there's a depth to it Right. And the CD sounds thin.

Yeah, it's like it's crisp, it's nice, it's like, yeah, think about what a CD is. The CD was created for classical music. The very first CD record was either, it was definitely a classical record. And then the very first pop CD record was like an Elton, a Billy Joel record. And this only sold in Japan because that was their technology. It was never intended for hip hop. at all at first. So you have that,

but the analog, there's a hiss in the analog, there's a noise that most ears will never hear, but it makes it, it gives it a different thing.

So I'm always going to go with analog. And I know I'm getting super technical on everybody. That's all good. No, he's like, this guy will he, hurry up. We got a producer for too many.

Now, what I like to do is I try to do as much analog as I can or as much low-level digital as I can and then transfer it to digital. So at least I have some of that weird in what I'm producing.

We had Quick on the show and he, I don't think he said it on the show, but I've heard him say before that analog absorbs the energy in the room. Yes. And that cannot be replaced with digital. Quick is hands down one of the greatest producers ever. Like I remember being in the studio

back working on something for Jay-Z. and Quick was in there. He was doing, I don't know if this record ever came out, but he redid a Madonna record, Justify My Love. And he did a Jay-Z record called Justify My Thug, I think it's called. I don't know if it ever came out. That wasn't on the black album? It is on the black album?

Okay. So Quick was working on the record at the time, and I was watching him how he was laying down his stuff, and he was laying like three snares at a time, four kicks out of time. I was like, yo, what the hell are you doing? He was like, yo, I got to make it feel like analog. So I got to like double and triple it up so it could just punch people in the face. And I never could.

I know that I mastered a lot of things, but I always a student. So I'll sit back in any producer session and just peep. I'm not going to jack him for their stuff, but I'm going to peep how they get down. And I really admired how Quick was on his game like that. Like he's always on his game. So did we have to drink to that or did we not? No, I said, okay. Mike Geronimo or Warrior Flusch?

Oh, you're killing me. They're going to drink. Because I think they both represent between They both present They represent Flushing Queens. Right. And flushing, when I was growing up, flushing was half black.

No, no, no, no. When I was like when I was a little kid, Flushing was half black, half Italian. Oh, wow. Okay. They call it white flight. Italians moved out. You know, blacks moved in a little bit more.

But then out of. definitely Haitians, we were all in it together. And then you started seeing it in spurts Chinese, Korean. But that wave got bigger and bigger and bigger. So by the time the 90s came

what you thought was a black neighborhood or predominantly black neighborhood, I'm talking about, perfect example, bland projects. That's a bland project. You go up in the Bland Projects in the 80s, it's black. You go there right now? It's mad white people.

All Chinese. Yeah. All, like, you never think you. Main Street period is Chinese. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Main Street, going in from Roosevelt, going into Main Street. The best Chinese food in the world. So, Main Street, goddamn.

And it, and that. Yeah. Yeah. It's kind of nice. They got places that's nice out there. Yeah. They got places in the hood. Well, you have, you have the Blaine.

You have Pamanock. You have, um, what's the question? Street from Parma. I forgot. I forgot. The street projects. Yeah. Pamanock and I forgot the other.

Yeah, but, but when I was a kid, it was predominantly black and now it's predominantly Asian and, and the community is so different. Once that busy B mall came, you know, busy B mall is on Maine. Once that came, you started to see you, it was like a gentrification of a neighborhood. And now you go into the, if I knock everyone of y'all out and I drop you out in the middle of Flushing Queens, you would think you were in Hong Kong somewhere. Like, no lot.

Because every sign is in Chinese. The signs? All the signs, the street signs, every sign, all the stores. No way. The police. Yeah, the police officers, everything. With the officers, Chinese, too.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Because they serve their neighborhood. They serve their neighborhood, yeah. Like, no way. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I don't know if it's racist. I'm not going to say, call it racist. at all. It's just a culture.

It's a different culture. Kind of where they move to. Like, you know what I mean? And then they, so it's like, you always use Haitians. So it's like, just suppose a bunch of Haitians move there. Then they take over. Like a little Haiti there. They originally did. Instead of it being in C-Town

in Cuba, they make Haitian supermarkets. That's why. Yeah, yeah. And it. Yeah, yeah. Is it a racist? Like, meaning you can't go into that part of town? No, no, no. I don't think it's that. Okay. But I believe that.

The Asian culture is very close-knit. I think every ethnic culture at its core is very close-knit. So when you're not from that culture, they're just going to be like, all right, see what he's doing. I watch it. Yeah, and that's it. Yeah, exactly. And then, you know, but anybody from Queens and from that neighborhood, we're in and out of that neighborhood at all time. So it's like, you know, it's just, it's a mixture of cultures.

And I think a lot of people have got to understand that. that, especially food, food brings every culture together. Yes, yes, and music, food and music to me. Food and music, but there's no black neighborhood without Asian food. You know what I'm saying? No, weed don't work. Yeah, you can be the assholes smoke weed. Yeah, yeah, yeah, you get kicked out of some...

Yeah, yeah, yeah, weed. But yeah, I don't weed was universal, it's not. Yeah, we, I mean, food and, food and music brings everybody together, man. It's amazing. In the heat of battle, your squad relies on you. Don't let them down. Unlock Elite Gaming Tech at Lenovo.com. Dominate every match with next-level speed,

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Power up at Lenovo.com. In the new podcast, Hell in Heaven, two young Americans moved to the Costa Rican jungle to start over. But one will end up dead. The other tried for murder. Not once. People went wild. Not twice. Stunned.

But three times. John and Anne Bender are rich and attractive. And they're devoted to each other. They create a nature reserve. and build a spectacular, circular home high on the top of a hill. But little by little, their dream starts to crumble, and our couple retreat from reality.

They lose it. They actually lose it. They sort of went nuts. Until one night, everything spins out of control. Listen to Hell in Heaven on the I-Heart radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. The Crying Wolf Podcast is the story of two men, bound by injustice, of a city haunted by its secrets, and the quest for redemption, no matter the price. White victim, female, pretty, wealthy, black defendant. Chicago, a white woman's murder, a black man behind bars, for a crime he didn't commit.

I got 90 years for killing somebody I have never seen. says the police are his friends, and then that's it. They turn on it. A corrupt detective. How he was interrogated the techniques. That's crazy. A snitch and a life stolen. They got the wrong guy.

But on the inside, Lee Harris finds an ally in his celly, Robert, who swears to tell the truth about what happened to Lee and free his friend. And if you're with me, your goal to, I'll take care of you. I'm going to be with you. You stuck with me for life. Listen to the Crying Wolf podcast. starting on October 22nd on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. The Big Take podcast from Bloomberg News dives deep into one big global business story every weekday.

A shutdown means we don't get the data, but it also means for President Trump that there's no chance of bad news on the labor market. What does a bacon, egg, and cheese sandwich reveal about the economy? Our breakfast foods are consistent consumer staples? and so they sort of become outsides indicators of inflation. What's behind Elon Musk's trillion-dollar payout? There's a sort of concerted effort to message that Musk is coming back. He's putting politics aside. He's left the White House.

And what can the PCE tell you that the CPI can't? CPI tries to measure out-of-pocket costs that consumers are paying for things, whereas the PCE index that the Fed targets is a little bit broader of a measure. Sure. Listen to the big take from Bloomberg News every weekday afternoon on the IHeart radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Okay, MPC 2000XL or the R-C-200XL? R-S-E-C-2-T-E-C-2-T-A-G-I-G-I-G-N-E-N-P-E-C-T.

M-PC-C-T. You said R. I'm like, yeah, I don't you're talking about it. A-R. A-R-S-R-10. N-A-S-R-10. Nah. And I know people like Alchemists and.

and who else does ASR Tim, Timbo does ASR I believe he does ASR Riza, that's ASR, no sorry you're never getting me to go past that MPC 2000 XL Okay

Big Daddy Kane or Jay Z Come on, stop, man I'm picking one, I'm picking Kane because I believe without Kane there might not be

a Jay Z I agree I agree I agree I think even Jay Z was saying that so even though Jay

and Jazzo were running around like at the same time as a cane but Kane correct me if I'm wrong

but I believe Kane gave Jay platform of his own put him on singles you know when the 90s era is rushing in and we're getting away from

the style that he was using with Jazzo it was putting him in a platform and I think I heard Kane say this recently Kane was trying to get him a deal and couldn't get him the deal but I think

Kane allowed people to know and respect Jay at another level and then Jay took it from there So I got to think I was cutting my shit Yeah, I think Kane in general just on What he did for in hip-hop Yeah, you have to give him that

Like Jay might not take it there Like a lot of people might If not, Kane takes it there You can understand the impact of Kane To this day Rappers mentioned Kane That's right Jay's mentioned Kane

people mention Kane to this day. Two rappers that always get mentioned the most to me is like a Kane and a Slick Rick. That's right. Kane, Slick Rick, L.L. Rock Camp. Yeah. Those four get mentioned... Ghosts.

By anybody. And you can say their name and nobody's going to be like, what you talk about? They won't doubt it. Right. You know. So I got to give it to Kane at all times. The big shout out of Jay.

Malcolm X or Marcus Garvey? So you're not supposed to put them two against each other Because what they're supposed to do is be together on And so y'all got a drink on that All right, that's right Illmatic or 36 Chambers Fah That's kind of a drink too

That's going to be a drink Yeah, yeah That was Two No, 36 Chambers came out with the same? Pretty much like a year before. Yeah.

Yeah, but it's the same era. That's why they went on tour together. I mean. Because, yeah. So you got to drink to that, but I'm going to say this. Illmatic showed, because kind of like before Illmatic, artists like myself, we were told that we had to make these radio or watered down records in order to go anywhere.

You were actually told that? Yeah, 100%. Wow. That's right. The label, management, or who? Both. I also 16, 17, 18. Yeah, like, for example,

like, say I use my record, the rhythm. No, don't talk about that yet. I got some of my notes. Okay, okay, okay, okay. All right, but we were told to chill it out. So you got, Elmatic comes out, and it blows. And it's like, yo, we could just be us. It's not a radio-driven, sound it out,

but still, you want to play this on the radio because it's a groundbreaking. El Maddoch just being an emcee, just being him. Right. Yes. So that's groundbreaking into itself, and he's from Queens. Yep. Then you got 36 Chambers.

Yeah. To me, 36 Chambers told me that hip-hop is at a certain place because anything goes now. 36 Chambers, you just got records. You got eight dudes rhyming on a record. You know, there's no real main hook that you just repeating and everything. There's no poppy hook or nothing like that. It's just dudes going in bar for bar for bar and it's working. Let me ask you, though, how does it go backwards in that way?

How does hip hop go back to its essence? Because I think two things happen. It's going to sound weird. But when white kids got into rap, they got into rap. they got into rap at the age of your MTV raps anything before that

then they may know it they may not know it's a toss-up but the white audience really got into it because they watched MTV all day long right

rap hip-hop was rebel music and agriculture yeah and every public animal yeah exactly Animus. Enema is a whole other thing.

You don't remember the movie? Probably animal. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. So, they wanted to rebel against their parents. So the harder the rap record was, that's the record that they were playing. So they started with NWA. Fuck the police, ma. You know, and like, you know, there's like, what are you listening to?

You know, and that's where, you know, I'm. I'm pretty sure Al Gore's wife, Tipper Gore, her kids was playing NWA or Public Enemy or something, and she didn't like it. And so she ushered in that parental advisory care. You know, there was a time, and you had to, you couldn't buy a rap record. You couldn't even pull it off the shelf anymore. You had to ask for it behind the counter at one point. So, flash forward to we got, we have Wu-Tang and acts like that, that's just rebel music. you know, you play and protect your neck

and you're in some suburban household and your mom is listening to Elton John and you start throwing that protect your neck on real loud or M-E-T-H-O-D, man. And the mom's like, what are you doing? I didn't raise you to listen to things like this. And it's like that's, and now you flash forward. Go to a Wu-Tang show.

Tell me what you see in that audience. This is 40, 45-year-old white guys that was like that was Oh, with their kids Yeah, yeah, with their kids Like, they're getting their titty signs still Old bitches Yeah, yeah, it's like

I was there, I was in Paris I was like, oh shit You need to put on some deal over there, girl No, no, it's real And it's worldwide And that's when I understood I think up to this point Hip Hop was trying to find its voice

You know hip hops when it started We were rapping over disco beats Right You know, we were doing our break beats in the park or whatever, but our records have to reflect the popular disco record. And then it was the, you know, electro records. And then, you know...

The house records. Yeah. But then, but run back to run the MC, they told us now, we can be... We can be us, but then they did Errol Smith, the rock records. Because I think that hip-hop and like punk rock were in the same thing, you know? But I'm saying, we

were also, we also thought that we had to make a record that, for lack of a better term, that white people would like. Right. So, for example, crossover. Yeah, like, we thought we had to make that.

Some artists went all the way with it. Like, for example, let's take salt and pepper, push it. Push it real good. That was a joke. They wasn't serious about making a record. I just recently saw this. All right. They're in the studio bugging out.

They're bugging out, one, because of Miami base. Yo, yo, yo, that's fact. That's fucked up. Yeah. no no no it's not it's not a clown to my voice no no no but listen listen this is what it was New Yorkers New Yorkers had a chip on their shoulder

we didn't expect anything that wasn't lyrical yeah if it wasn't lyrical wasn't rock him or anything we're not with it and you got to understand like even from when I first started the lyrical content of Miami base there was no like for us it wasn't like we're not trying to rhyme like that you know and I'm going to take it all the way back to early Miami

like I would come down here and I would perform at strawberries I would perform at pack jam The pack jam You brought in the pack jam Yeah so So like Uncle Luke brought me to the pack jam And I would get on stage And I'd be rocking and they would rock with me

But after my show they would be like Bring on to a live crew And I'm thinking and I'm popping You're thinking you ripped it You know and they're there and they poke it and they thought it was cool, but I was always, I come to Miami, I'm the opening act. They ain't know, it's whoever is Shadee, whoever is going on.

Shadi was killing it, man. He's from Atlanta, but killing it. Yeah, like whoever was rocking that base, that was that shit, and you had to respect it. And I think when it came to Salt and Pepper and push it, they didn't get it, and they did a show. And I think it was Shadi, actually, was on the show. And Shadi white the flaw with them.

Like day he came out and there was like yo and so as a joke they were like we can make a record like that and watch us blow up too because it ain't nothing they ain't saying nothing we're going to make a record like that so they may push it but look how funny that look how they work for it yeah and it's how crazy that is and it super blew up and then they so it wasn't necessary clowning it was a it wasn't clowning it almost was a parody but it wasn't but it wasn't but it was a but it wasn't but it was a was also saying, can we do this too? Because we got to understand that there's a whole other wave out here. It is not just about the five boroughs. We go down south. We got to respect this base. We got to respect that shit.

I don't think it was honestly, in that time frame, they were respecting the South at that time. No, they weren't. They weren't. I think it took time to do that. Right, right. You know, like for me, I can say the same thing. Like, when we were on that NWA tour,

and one thing about me like I said I'm always going to be a student so we're like who's on the tour and it was like somebody named too short

the fuck is too short and it was like Poison Klan I'm like who the hell is that so in order so I don't I didn't know Poison Klan was on that tour

that's crazy so for me I'm not gonna I'm not gonna shit on them anyway so what I did is I go to store and I bought Poison Klan records

I bought two short records And I remember that before the tour bus came, we sat up all night and listened to every one of their records. Like, I get it, I don't get it, I get it, I don't get it, but we respect it. They put in records out. Even cats, even from like Detroit area, there's a rapper name Isham from Detroit. And that, he's like the, was the king of Detroit. So we pulled that.

We're going to Detroit. We need to know what Ishaam, Ishaun booming is. We need to know what it is on the West Coast. We need to know what these things are. And I think by my generation, we started to understand that. I think the generation before me, it was just like what these dudes doing down here,

they're not really doing it. So I think it was a learning curve, you know. Now you know, we know what it is now. It's like, can't pull up. You can't pull up down here without, without playing at. There's no, especially what they were doing with, like, those triplets on the 808s and those triplets, you know, they were, that was like a, a revelable.

thing that's incorporated in music now. Like, you can't have half of this stuff you have. You couldn't have trap without. DJ Magic Mike. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Who, for the strip club? Nah, from Tampa. I mean, I don't doubt he was in the strip club,

but yeah, from Tampa. Like, his shit was crazy, man. Yep. Yep. For a short. No. You got it. Producing or rapping?

Is this a drink, still a drink thing? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Oh, you take a drink. Oh, okay, okay, okay, okay. Okay, yeah, remember. Producing for me, it's going to sound weird, might sound corny. I dream about producer. You dreamed about producing?

No, I dream about producing. Like, I have dreams that I produce so-and-so today. I produce such and such. And when I have those dreams, when I think about it, I think about it at all times. I love speaking to other artists. I love being. And I think the most vulnerable, like, personal type settings

when you're with an artist is when they create. You know, you get to know people. And, you know, you might, you know, become friends with people or just know more about them. And the type of producer I am, I'm not the kind of guy that's like send me some beats. I'm kind of, I'm not good at that. But if I hung out with you for a day

and I listen to what you listen to and I listen to your conversation and blah, blah, blah, blah. I'm coming to the studio the next day with a beat. I'm like, yo, remember when you was talking about X, Y, Z? I made a beat. That's a producer. That's a difference between a producer and a person who makes beats. Yeah, but that's the kind of producer I am

and I know that's a rare thing now. Now. But that's how I choose the producer. When everybody, anybody says, you'll send me some beats, I'm like, eh, let me sit with the person if I can. Right. No, that's a real producer. But as an emce, as a writer, as an emce, a lot of times people try to put an age on that.

And they try to say, you can't rap past this point or you shouldn't be rapping past this point. But I always thought an MC is somebody who expresses what they were going through. their experiences, their feelings, their thoughts and they have the talent to write it out, freestyle or whatever it is, they have that talent to spit that out. Those thoughts and those

feelings, those expressions never stop. You know, at any age. So for me, like, you know, whether I put a record out or whether or not, I'm in my studio writing a rhyme, I'm saying a rhyme, I'm doing something. Yeah. Saying something in my mind, whatever.

So, and when I produce a record, 10 times out of 10 I made my own song to that beat that I produced I may be giving you the beat Right, right, right, right But in my mind, this was a Kwame record I heard you say earlier that you give the hooks

So those hooks was really popular I can't make a beat without making a song Or at least making a hook Now I wouldn't give you a hook That I probably would say Because we're two different types of artists So I try to tap into your wavelength Exactly, right.

But at the same time, it's still from that same approach. Like, if I was writing my own record. Okay. You got to drink. Okay, yeah. I think they drank. You owe it a drink. Three times dope or redhead king fin?

Oh, shit. That's a good one, man. Shit, shit, shit. What do you want? Y'all going to have to take a drink. All right, go ahead. But I'm going to tell y'all some stories about Redhead Kingpin and Three Times Dope. Let's go.

So three times dope. I go to Redhead Kingpin first. Okay. When my parents got divorced, my father remarried, and we moved out of East Elmhurst to Englewood, New Jersey. Shout out to Englewood, New Jersey and

Dwightonard High School. I'll tell you, I went to a million high schools. Right. So I'm at Dwight Morrow and all my friends is like you gotta meet our boy Dave you're gonna love Dave I'm like what fuck is Dave like yeah you're gonna love Dave

so we go to Dave's house and Dave got kicked out of the school he was a bad kid Dave is redhead so you know he's the first dude that I hung out with in Jersey when I moved

and I was kind of pissed like you know took me out of my element I'm trying to make an album you know all my people are in Queens and here I'm I am in Inglewood, New Jersey. I don't know nobody, but I meet

Redhead. And me and Red Clayton. That was Dave? That was Dave. Okay, go ahead. And when I tell you, man, like, we were the crew, man. Like, we would just, we would be doing wild shit. Like, we were really wilding out in Jersey, making music.

And the even funnier thing is my boy heard my demo the demo to the song well this might be part of your next question but so stop me if I'm going on that's okay and he was like yo you got to let my mom hear your record

okay and I was like why am I going to let your mom hear my record you said I let my mom hear Dave's record too I'm sorry whatever so I go to his house I pull up at his house it's a straight up mansion

I didn't even know this. I see the Magnum P.I. Ferrari in the front on bricks. Whoa. No ties. No, no. I see a Rolls-Royce.

This is in the neighborhood. In another pocket of the neighborhood. I'm like, yo, what is this? So I open the door, I go to the door, and a butler come out. Butler? Come on in. Mr. Bentley? She, exactly.

And then it was, why, standing stairs and the mom comes downstairs and her like robe and shit. Uh-oh. And I'm like, yo. Body time. Nah, nah. Like some old, you know, extravagant shit. He's in the body thing.

I'm like, that's Sylvia Robinson from Sugar Hill Records. I'm like, yo. If it wasn't for this lady, we wouldn't have no rap records out. At all. Her and her brother. Wow.

So she was like, yeah, I met with your friend, Dave. redhead and you know he got a good record and i heard i heard your record the rhythm and i love that and i'm starting a new label and i want y'all to be on the label so i was like oh where i get to be on the label with my best friend he said yeah and i got this other group new tribe i was like word new tribe y'all look it up a kid named trech viny and k g yeah of course that was not everybody's your original yeah yeah yeah yeah so it was gonna be naughty me and redhead on this new label

called Bonamee Records. And I'm like, wait, that don't even sound hip-hop. Exactly, exactly. Bon-A-mee. Bon-A-mee. No, no, that was boning me. Well, the contract. Right.

So, at that same time, I know I'm going off on a tangent, but you told me to tell the story, so I'm telling the story. And he got the smoke at me, so I'm telling a whole lot of stories. Let's go. So at that same time,

I handed my Dermy, to Herbie Lovebug. And I, my father was like, you should let one of his friends here to demo, his wife, worked at Sony. So literally, Ms. Robertson gives me a contract is literally two pages long. It's like some words in the front

and in the back is the signing page. Then a couple of weeks later, Herbie says, yo, Atlantic wants to sign you of sending you the contract. That's 350 pages long. All right. Then my pop's friend called, me direct and was like,

Sony connect. We're interested in your album. We want to send you a contract. I didn't tell my pops. I didn't tell my pops about none of this. Right. So I'm walking home from school every day with three contracts in my book back.

I'm sitting. That's, ew. Baking on it. I don't even know what to do. But I knew what not to do was the Sylvia Robertson contract because I was like,

two pages. Anything could be changed. And I'm not a lawyer, but I'm like, this don't even look right. All right. I mean, two pages might be easier to litigate, though. It wasn't the only company that was back.

I really think about it. Yeah, but I didn't like the name Bonamy. I didn't think it was going to take off. But they had the wrong. I wanted to. Yeah, but the far already had no tires. So it was on bricks. Oh, they played a game.

So I didn't, I didn't know what to think. I didn't know if that was going to go over well. So then I looked at the legacy of Atlantic records. You know, some of my favorite artists. So I was like, y'all, I think I want to go there. And I know MC Light was there. But I would have been the first rapper signed directly to Atlantic Records. So I was like, yeah, let's do it.

And so. This was you saying this for yourself? Your parents are not involved in this. No, my parents were dead. But they have no, they don't know. A divorce lawyer looked at my record contract. A divorce lawyer. So that shows you what was going on.

It was like, it was still a job. Divorce was, you know, it was like... Well, your parents were getting divorced? My parents had gotten divorced. My dad's just got remarried. But he was like, I know a lawyer. Let's use a divorce lawyer. Let's use Bob that just litigated our divorce.

Yeah, he just did the divorce. And, you know, and the divorce wasn't no ugly thing. So it was like, yeah, let's do that. And my mom's was with it. So they technically had to sign the contract because I was young. I was, you know, 16. Underage. So they had to sign the contract.

But my choice was to go. with Atlantic. A, because it was through Herbie. Herbie was, you know, that was back in Queens. That was my home crew. Then I didn't know what was going to go. What happened with the BonaMee stuff? Dave ended up, Red Hat ended up with Teddy Riley so that he wasn't even going to be. I said, I wasn't even going to be on the label with my boy. And so it was just, it is what is. And I don't know if, I don't know if Bonami ever put out New Tribe. I know New Tribe. I don't know Tribe had an album, but I don't know if it was on that label. I got to

ask KG if that was on that label, but, you know, what they ended up turning into. So clearly, Bonamy didn't turn it into anything. Turned out to be Bono Me. Yeah. But then you got three times dope. Three times those. Yeah. No, they could have put ties. I don't know what they

was doing. They probably changed. It was in the middle of changing. Stop, leave it ties alone, Sonny. Because they, you know, they were, think about. Sugar Hill Records sold a lot of records. So they They had, their paper was right, and they had everybody's publishing. So, but with three times dope, so three times dope, I'm already out. I'm already established, and they're like the first artist that I get real cool with that's not from my area. They're from Philly, right?

They're from Philly. Right. So I would stay at rapper EST, I would stay with him and his mom. Yeah, man. I would stay at E.S. his house, ES would stay at my house, his mom would call me son, my mom would call him son. You know what I'm saying? So it's a different thing between me and them because Redhead is a part of my foundation

and me trying to make it where ES Woody and Chuck, they are a part of like just artists with deals just having fun together. So y'all got a drink. Y'all got a drink. Oh, shit. So, Lloyd Bank or Fowell-March? Farrow-March. Okay.

Because he can't. Or is that a rapper? Oh, what are we talking about? Whatever criteria you want. So I give it to Farrow-March because Farrow-March is probably one of the illest rappers ever. And I think Banks is one of the illest rappers ever. But because me and Munch went to school together,

me and Mancha He was an ill beatboxer Oh yeah He was dope Yeah He's also into the same things I'm into Like collecting toys and all that stuff

So we go to Comic Con together We're always on panels So it's always that That connection Yeah I have never to this day Though we've sold over a million records I've never met Banks

really i've never been in the room with him i've never seen him i've never had any conversations with him so i don't know if he picked the beat i believe shal money excel and fifth picked the beat i can see that and and when they recorded the record they were on the tour so i had to turn everything in i had to go to a studio lay the beat down put it you know in tracks and then send it to London. Oh, wow. Where Banks did his vocals. So I was never, I wasn't able to get, I had something.

I was able to get to London. It was like a session that was going on. They told me go to the studio on Tuesday and we're recording on a Wednesday. I was like, there was no way I was able to get out. So I couldn't really be the producer that I normally, that I normally am. And it's got to be how long ago, this is 2004? So 21 years ago The classic record

I've never met I've never met Banks I would love to you know love to meet them You got 21 questions why you ain't meet Lloyd Banks Yeah there you go Drumline or Coach Carter You worked on both right Yeah I never saw Coach Carter

Drumline For you being a foul Nick You can't Jack, though. I'll tell you that. What is Coach Carter about? About Samuel Baxter being the coach. About Coach Carter? Yeah. Is he like, is he...

In the city coming in and the folds with a young minority group of kids, the lingering, losing season, losing team. And he overcomes them as young, grown men and educated in students and athletes. There you go. He's a phenomenal. You watch it every day. I got to watch that. I've never, I felt like it was like lean on me, but with sports.

Exactly. Yeah, exactly. That's exactly what it is. That's a great analogy. Coliseum or Gertramourge Moore? Coliseum all day more. You can get ballys. You go there for $100 bally.

You can talk them down to $20, $80. Yeah. You get shirt kings. You get your chain. You can get a picture. You and your girlfriend dress the same. Y'all go to take the picture together looking crazy. But bally's, yes.

Okay. New Jack City or juice? Mm. Juice. Aren't you on the soundtrack or one of these? No. No?

I could have swore you on a new Jack City soundtrack. If I am, I don't know it. Okay. But juice, because juice reminded me of people I actually knew in an area in Harlem that I would actually hang out in.

So I feel like it was a connection where Nino Brown we all knew who our neighborhood Nino Browns were, but they weren't like Mino Brown, you know what I'm saying?

It wasn't, it was a, it was like a fantasized. It wasn't like, but it wasn't too far off. Yeah, yeah, but. Yeah, but I was, I'm sure it was a little bit extravagant. It was very, it was very like, you ever used to watch an 80s or 90s movie about rapping, but didn't have no real rappers in it, like, you know what I'm saying? It didn't reflect what was really happening. We could understand it, but.

It wasn't exactly, you know, I'm from an era where you got cats like Prime and Fat Cat and, you know, Paul. All these cats, you know, in Harlem, like we're seeing this in real life. We're seeing that crack era ain't nothing to play with. And when we kids, we're seeing it in real time. And we're seeing something like you come up to Harlem, you go to South Side, you go into Basley, you go different. spots you see some things and you hear about some things that no movie has ever depicted so you

watch nino brown it's like all right this is watered down this is watered down life that we're singing for real for real with something about juice it's like you always everybody got that crew they got that one kid in the crew that's like bishop tupac you know there's that one you know one kid in the crew like Omar Epstein wanted to try to get out of it he was a DJ trying to do his thing

and they reminded me of my friends they reminded my Brooklyn friends reminded me and my Queens friends they reminded me of my Harlem friends and it was like

I can relate to this where just like I couldn't I don't know like for example I can ask a Cali dude was menace society real right

was Boys in the Hood real I can't relate to me it's all of Hollywood thing, but for somebody that was really in that game, I always wondered, like, did y'all look at this? We just had a discussion about Merrick and Me and Blood and Blood and Blood Out. Like, we didn't know which, which is which, so, yeah, I understand.

Well, that was for different reasons, though, why. But this is still the same. We still didn't know which is which, right, right? Yeah. Um, um, um, trackmasters or hit men? I want to say I want to y'all take a drink, but wait. I'll take a drink anyway. Y'all can take a drink.

Okay, all right, good. But this is why. Okay, let's go. Trackmasters, for the most part, first let's go with my man, Red Hot Lover Tone. Red Hot Lover Tone. Trackmaster Tone for those who don't know. Yeah.

He was a blueprint for what I was trying to do at the time. him and Prince Mark E.D. from the Fat Boys were artists that became major producers. Wow. So when I'm in my between period, trying to figure it out, yeah. And he was down here. Yeah, he was in the radio. Miami, yeah, yeah, yeah. You know, super, that's my guy, man.

Yeah, man. So looking at Mark, looking at tone, gave me the battery to say I can do that as well. As well, yes. You know, in fact, I just got to break through the barrier and I can get these records sold and I can do that too. And tone tried to sit me down. Like, yo, man, get off, stop rhyming on those beats.

Take it from me. Sell that shit. That's the second time. Did somebody else say you that? Yeah, no, no, Ron and Tong. They both tell me at the same time. Sell that. So here you got tone telling me.

that's track masters me and poke I'm loving how poke makes his beats poker's a focused dude he's all about his beats super focused then you got the hitman Ron is one of the hitmen

he's telling me the same thing and you're man he's from your area yeah he's from my block and I'm listening to him I know DD dot but at the same time they both were rappers two kings and a cipher

Wait, D-Dot was... Yeah, they went to rap. That's a mad rapper, too. Yeah, he's a mad rapper. But D-D-D-D-D and Ron were in a group called Two Kings and the Cypher. Oh, shit. And it didn't work out the way they wanted it to work out. So they switched gears.

And I remember I would go up to Howard University. I would see D. I would see Ron. And they would have MPs in the, MPCs in the dorm room. They were getting their thing together. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah. That's how far back I go with them guys.

Wow. Wow. So they book, Ron especially and tone especially heavily influenced and Ron being a part of my resurgence into the music industry and tone willing to be a part of my resurgence. I can't put one over the other. I got to, you know, I got to give it to them. And I love, I just loved all their records. There's no records that they made that I didn't, I didn't rock with it. I respect that.

So we're going to do one last more quick time of slime to you jump back into the end. Okay, okay. All right. I was about to give you a warning, but I'm not going to give you a warning. Because he says I lead the witness. Loyalty or respect? Respect. Okay.

Because with respect brings loyalty. And the people that are loyalty will always be disloyalty at some point when they don't get the same respect that you get. Understand that. When the people that are loyal to you don't get the same respect that you get or feel that you're getting more respect to them than them, their loyalty will leave you. So you always got to have respect because with respect, people understand. And it's not wrong with this.

because there's another part to it people understand when you have respect that they should deal with you they don't have to like you they don't have to love you they don't have to be loyal to you but they know it means something to them and it'll do something for them

if they deal with you because they respect you right you understand when they just loyal to you anything would happen I didn't want to tell you your girl's cheating on you because I'm loyal to you

and I like you know I don't want you to kick me out you know something like that You know what I'm saying? You're going to get all that kind of weirdness. But the respect thing is something different. In the heat of battle, your squad relies on you. Don't let them down.

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Lenovo, Lenovo. In the new podcast, Hell in Heaven, two young Americans moved to the Costa Rican jungle to start over. But one will end up dead, the other tried for murder. Not once. People weren't wild. Not twice. Stunned.

But three times. John and Ann Bender are rich and attractive, and they're devoted to each other. They create a nature reserve and build a spectacular circular home high on the top of a hill. But little by little, their dream starts to crumble, and our couple retreat from reality. They lose it. They actually lose it. They sort of went nuts. Until one night, everything spins out of control.

Listen to Hell in Heaven on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. The Crying Wolf Podcast is the story of two men bound by injustice, of a city haunted by its secrets, and the quest for redemption, no matter the price. White victim, female, pretty, wealthy, black defendants. Chicago, a white woman's murder, a black man behind bars, for a crime he didn't commit. I got 90 years for killing somebody I have never seen. He says the police are his friends and then that's it. They turn on it. A corrupt detective.

How he was interrogated the techniques. That's crazy. A snitch and a life stolen. They got the wrong guy. But on the inside, Lee Harris finds an ally in his sally, Robert, who swears to tell the truth about what happened to Lee and free his friend. And if you're with me, your goal to, I'll take care of you. I'm going to be with you. You stuck with me for life.

Listen to the Crying Wolf podcast, starting on October 22nd, on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. The Big Take podcast from Bloomberg News dives deep into one big global business story every weekday. A shutdown means we don't get the data, but it also means for President Trump that there's no chance of bad news on the labor market. What does a bacon, egg, and cheese sandwich reveal about the economy? Our breakfast foods are consistent consumer staples, and so they sort of become outsize indicators of inflation. What's behind Elon Musk's trillion dollar payout? There's a sort of concerted effort to message that Musk is coming back.

He's putting politics aside. He's left the White House. And what can the PCE tell you that the CPI can't? CPI tries to measure out-of-pocket costs that consumers are paying for things, whereas the PCE index that the Fed targets is a little bit broader of a measure. Listen to the big take from Bloomberg News every weekday afternoon on the IHeart radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

Now, what I do believe is, with your respect, I'm about to sound like Little Kim, where respect comes power. With your respect, you bring about a certain level of power and you can bring along the people who are loyal to you and give them ways to come up. Right. Status. Yeah, but you can't do that unless you have the respect. A bunch of loyal people can be a bunch of loyal people in a part.

up in 7A and Basley wishing the day you came out because they're all loyal to each other and they're just sitting around so so you got to have respect first like you can't you can't buy furniture

and you don't have a house okay now let's talk the rhythm because we've been I've been wanting to know how you put this record together forever so okay so so how does this come about so the rhythm

shouts to my boy, Tom Mell. So we were living in this building complex. Anybody in Corona Queens knows this building called Dory Miller. And we lived in Dory Miller. Fun fact, across the street was a building called Meadow Manor and most of main source lived in Metal Manor. So Tom L's father and if I want to figure out what Tomel's father look like,

Does anybody know that show, Family Guy? Yeah, family guy. Okay, the cartoon? Yeah. Okay, yeah. Who's the black guy on the family guy? Black guy. Cleveland Brown.

Tom L's father looked exactly like Cleveland Brown. He looks like him, and he sounds like, yo, exactly. I think somebody took Tom Mills' father and made Cleveland Brown. Right. So when I tell the story, y'all can put Cleveland Brown in your head. Uh-huh. So his dad used to have all these records, all these jazz records. Uh-huh.

all these jazz records, all this different kind of records. And we'd be in there and I'd be looking at his records and he would come in. Every time I would go there, he would be going to work. Okay, Tom L, okay, Kwamey, don't be touching my records. He would leave. And so soon as he closed the door, I'm like, let me see that record. Now I play it. So one record I played, I put it on.

I was like, yo, what is this? He said, yo, my dad just bought, I said, I need that record. He was like, yo, my dad is going to kill. I said, I need that record, man. He said, well, I said, yo, pops just went to work. He don't know what's going to be gone. He said, just wait, just wait. So, flash forward, I knew how I wanted to use that record.

And I did the whole beat in my head. I used a piece of James Brown, funky drummer. I use a piece of the staple singers. He recreated the beat. No, no, no, no, no. I knew I wanted to use that sample I didn't remember the name of the record I knew it was a

Bob James record with a ladybug on the cover that's all I said the ladybug record that's what I called it so I'm gonna get that record so and I didn't remember an artist's name either

I just knew the ladybug so I thought about the rest of the beat I wrote the rhymes and then I called time and I was like yo when your dad going to work because I had studio time Right. But you deal did it to have the record

in your business? No, I said, what time your dad going to work? He's like six. I'm going to be there, 615. I went to his house.

I said, give me that record. I jacked the record. Right. Went to the studio because he worked overnights. I went to the studio,

sampled it, and gave him back the record before before the record, before his pops came home before his pops even knew it. That's how I got, that's how I sampled that record

and made the rhythm. That was genius. I think I gave the record. record back. I think I gave the record. I can't. So if I didn't give a record back, Mr. Williams, I'm sorry. I was hearing you or I was hearing you on a show,

right? And I believe it's something like I wish I would have said, things that I wish I would have said or something like that, right? Or things that, like, right? Is there something that is this something that you wish you would have did? Is it something that

you regret, perhaps? Well, back to back to what we were saying earlier, I wish I had a line of polka-dye clothes. Okay, okay. You know what I'm saying? Yeah, merch. And I wish I would have See, I can't say I wish because I think I could say I wish I had somebody to teach me what I know now. Right. Right. But at the same

time, I don't have any regrets because everything that happened to me good and bad allow me to be at this podcast today. Everything led up to this. And I'm not glazing or nothing. I'm telling y'all the truth. Everything laid up to this because this was a podcast that I've always wanted to be on.

Right. Well, this is your show. Yes, I'll continue, I'm sorry. And I had a list of goals. And this podcast was on the list of goals. Oh, that's what I. It wasn't, and it wasn't like, and it's on my studio wall. I'll DM you a picture.

I'm like, I'm dead-ass-serious. Yeah. And I know that we connected on the toy, toy level thing and everything. We got to speak about the toys. Well, it wasn't no thing where it was like, can I be on your show? Can I be on the show or anything like that?

I wanted to earn a slot. No, we requested you. You didn't have to earn the slot. The stuff was earned already a long time. Yeah, no, but for me. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. And we're going to make it out of events. And you know, like, when we book guests, right,

this has been my most funnest time, right? Like, sometimes I go to the airport, right? And a person will come up to me. One person will know who I am and another person won't, right? And they'll be like, well, the other person will be like, well, who is you? And I'd be like, I can't describe who I am. Like, if you don't know who I am,

then your friends should tell you or whatever. So when I was doing that, and when I was saying, like, you know, up to the weeks of having you book, and when I kept saying that, And whenever a person didn't know, I felt so enjoyed breaking it down. Like, I was like, yo, this is the guy. He had the whole era like, and I was sitting there. And I was like, I felt so good, like, explaining to a person who didn't know.

This is what I'm trying to tell you. But yeah, yeah. So you said you had no regrets. Yeah, so this is no regrets, man, because it's like I believe in, I believe in that universal law. Like, everything happens all at once. And so it's like you've got to, every mistake. mistake, every mistake you make leads to a future success. Right.

Period. Period. You can go outside tomorrow, break your leg, right? I'm not wishing this on you. You're trying to run a marathon. Now you can't run the marathon. Oh, please don't do that. But you found out something crazy happened at the marathon

that helped you, then you couldn't make it. And so, but you was able to do something bigger than that. But you're going to run the marathon and you're going to do it all the way. So, like, I made that. So that's what I believe. I just believe that everything leads to a point, you know, and so I can never, I don't look backwards. The only thing I, the only thing I look back on,

I will say this, I say this regret. I allowed management and record labels to tell me what hip hop was supposed to do and where hip hop was going, and I didn't pay attention to it. So for example. You can listen to yourself. Yeah, I'm not, I'm not listening to myself. So I'll give you a perfect example.

Low-in theory comes out. Oh, Tropo Quest. Yeah. And fellow queens. We're in the studio making an album, and it's, you know, happy dancing type of hip-hop. And then somebody brings in low-end theory. And they play it. I'm like, this shit is the truth.

And then listening to somebody for management, that shit is never going to work. Oh, my God. They're never going to get on the radio with that. Wow. They're never going to go on tour with that. They're never going to get a Grammy with that. They get all.

And in my mind, I'm like, I am going in the wrong direction. I saw it. Right. You know what I'm saying? So I'm literally cutting my own career short for not paying attention. to where hip hop is going I know where it's going

I'm only 19 at the time like I'm not in the clouds I don't see nothing you know I'm still on the train I'm in it I see that people are stopping to wear suit stopping the suits and putting on the Jaboz

and the beef and broccoli and the snow beach or whatever I see it I know what's happening I know low heads and I know what's going on and it could have been an easy transition for me

because I could have implemented my thing in with it because I'm of the age. I'm not an older guy trying to look young. But I'm not paying attention. I'm not listening to myself and I'm listening to people like, you've got to put this singing hook and you got to make people dance and the A&R and all this kind of stuff.

You got to make it happy. And then the same A&R, which is funny, when that album, I'm not going to say it didn't do well. It's my third album called Nasty. It did all right for the time. But it

wasn't no low-end theory. You know what I'm saying? Listen, there's the belligerine on you. Yeah, yeah, exactly. And then on top of that, so Lo and Theory comes out, then Norty comes out, then Illmanic comes out, and then the A&R sit me down, and they're like, hey, I think you should toughen it up a little bit. I'm like, you said, you know, put some braids in that flat top, you know, and you know, put somebody real fake. Yeah, like, no, they literally was telling me this.

you're like, you know... Oh, it's the tough of music started. Yeah, like, start. You know, maybe like, with some Tim's and a baseball bat. Ain't Ben Diesel your cousin? Yeah, yeah. Vin Diesel's your cousin,

you should have brought him on the diesel outside. Yeah, no, exactly. And at that time, he was trying to rap, so we was working on some stuff. But it was weird how the flip-flop of these record labels was. And, you know, You know, very interesting.

So that was probably my regret not listening to myself and not going with my gut. Right. Even though I'm never going to regret a record that I made, I'm going to regret that I didn't pivot when I had a clear lane to pivot. Right, okay. You know, so. So, like, I heard Ghostface say recently, I don't know if it's recently, but he said that, you know, rap should have categories. It shouldn't be just hip-hop. Like, it should be contemporary hip-hop, maybe.

all, you know, classic hip-hop, maybe, you don't know what I mean, new school hip-hop. Do you feel like you created the genre of hip-hop? Because, like, when you look at your music and you look at, of your career, like, it was non-threatening, right? Yeah. Now, you got people like, Farrell, who made a whole career off of, like, kind of, like, being non-threatening. And then there's other people, like, you know, I would like to say Lupe Fiasco, who kind

of, like, made his career, like, being non-threatening, and so on and so forth. there's like a whole new version of native tongue but I feel like it started with you I think I think between me and native tongue so say for example my album came out two months before three free high and rising so 89 you have these two

two groups three free higher wise and that's the Dalai Sol and that really kind of like you know the Jungle Brothers really ushered it in yeah yeah no one first but De La really compelled it. Yeah. And, you know, this is a platinum album. This is an album that's killing it.

And I think with De La, they spoke to a certain audience, you know, like the Afrocentric. You know, just like the audience, the rap audience, that wasn't trying to be status quo, but they weren't trying to be gangsters. They were on their intellectual stuff. They were on their straight hip-hop stuff at the same time. No gimmicks. It was just raw, like just them being them. and I think I

what I represented is more like the nerves and the geeks and and all the dudes that were overdressed in school and you know like and the ones to get girls I was the younger generation because you always had your cane

and you know like an LL they were like the jocks they were the jocks yeah yeah I mean it's high school shit and so you know, I represented that. I represented, you know, the kids that may have loved hip hop

but didn't fit in with that whole gangster shit at all. And I think that DNA spilled into a Kanye, for sure. Like, you'll see footage of 12-year-old Kanye dressed like me. You know what I'm saying? And or Farrell or, you know, Farrell will credit tribe, but I just think that still there's a lot of, things that I've done. Yeah, I can see you in for real.

Like, yeah, yeah. There's a lot of, even, I know this for a fact, a lot of ways that puff would maneuver, like as far as clothing and, and showmanship and stuff like that. I know for a fact he got from what I was doing. All right. And then those artists, that's another generation, they began another generation. So you have rappers out here now that don't understand. that they still carry

my DNA they may think it's from something else but you know that was from so I think somebody by ice goo you were polka dot so yeah yeah yeah so it's like you were like motherfucker I invented that yeah exactly no no trust me there's been a time

there was these kids in New York called the retro kids this is like mid-2000s and they would dress like old school and they would have on polka dats they were the flat tops the whole nine this is like 2005 2006.

That's a number of a million years. Yeah, but. That era, especially. Yeah. And I would walk down the street and I would see him like, yo, that's some dope stuff. It's like, yeah, man, we got this at the vintage store. I was like, where are you all got it from? It's like, yeah, that's a 90, that's the 90 style.

I'm like, word, that's dope. And I was just walked by him and I was like, these fools don't, you know, nothing, nothing against that. But then some of them did know. You know, there was times that one of them were like, wait a minute, wait a minute, wait a minute, you know? So shouts out to those cats, but there was a subculture in New York. Not necessarily like the retro kids.

That was the name of the crew. But there was a subculture of retro kids that just didn't know and they would dress like that and have no idea where they got it from or anything. So I think it's dope. All right.

Well, shit, man. Well, the toys, we got to talk about the toys. Yeah, we got to talk about the toys and the new album. Right. So I want to, you know, I'm a heavy toy collector and everything. Yes. And so I wanted to gift y'all with...

Who's the only black guy in toys? David, Dinah? David. David Bonner. I want to give a shout out to David Varner because the toy industry is... Are you autographed mines too? Yeah, man, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. That's how I'm talking about.

I'm not actually autographed. I see my name. That's right. Yeah, I bring it, I brought it together. Yes. So, so you got, you got, um, Those are both for the addition. Yeah, at least.

Right in the coffee. So, big shout out to Dave. Dave. Yeah. Dave is a pioneer in the toy industry. He's a good friend of mine in my age range. And he's a pioneer. He started out at Marvel Comics.

He went to this toy company called Toy Biz. He's the reason why we have the toy collection called Marvel Legends. Right. And so this is some toy nerd stuff going on. And he moved through ranks and he moved to different toy companies. and now he has his own toy factory. He has his own toy company as well. So he's a real pioneer, and it's something that I always wanted to get into.

Oh, you. So I co-founded a company called LBO, Let's Be Onyx. And, you know, our mission is to create toys, some of them, which are very hip-hop-based. Like, we have this toy line about to come out, and it's very hip-hop based, but it puts people that look like us, all of us, on shelves, just as much as. as we see Captain America and Batman and Superman. So, you know, that's really our mission. And so, like, I'm just real heavy into that space.

And it helps me get away from the stress of music. Oh, yeah. Because once you, you know, when you're doing music, you know everything is a political game. You got to start maneuvering in ways. It's not as pure as it used to be. But you go to a Comic-Con or another kind of toy convention or whatever. ain't nobody think about nothing

but buying the exclusive stuff and seeing what's coming out and it takes me back to that that pure period of time so yeah okay so now you said the new album this is your first album in 26 years show the album please so this is the album

I got like a bag of tricks over there okay holy moly so this is the album called The Different Kids Oh this album's amazing man Now thank you All right and this album Like, if you zoom in on it, it represents a lot of different things. You got 1989 me right there.

I'm going to say different bases of you, right? Yeah, yeah. You got, I don't know, me just trying to be fly online or whatever. It's a pimp right there. You know, me just chilling out, but the producer me and then the current artist's version of me. But the whip that I'm sitting on is the Star Wars Landspreader. People don't understand. Like, I've got to bring that geek culture in here, too.

So shout out to amazing artists in D.C. named Mia Duvall. That she looked like, hey, hey, dude. yeah it is okay so mea duval did this um artwork for the different kids it's out now it just came out in august so um you know and i think i love this album i think a lot of people tell me it's my best work oh wow and i don't think there is not a glaze either i think for the first time since i was 16 i made an album without any expectation and self-produced as well yeah yeah yeah i made it in a small room in my house it wasn't like no glorious studio or anything just a small room in my crib and I put the album together and it's on my own label

distributed through um through virgin records and a label called SRG and you know I have you know I had no expectations about it you know what I'm saying put out some records and see what happens because I like producing I like producing myself I like rapping let's see what happens and I put out two singles at the same time one called Miss Mary Mac and a another single called Hello Anybody. And, you know, like, I'm getting on TV shows. I'm getting on, you know, the news. I'm doing podcast.

I'm doing stuff that I would have never been doing normally. I'm on a promo run. You know what I'm saying? And at the same time, I'm coming from a perspective of where I am now as a person. As a man in his 50s with a family, you know, I'm rhyming from. that perspective. I'm giving stories about... Going with the fans, yeah. Yeah, like I'm growing. I'm not trying to be

16-year-old me. Yeah, but the beats are still slapsed. Yeah, thank you, man. Yeah, thank you, man. And that was the thing about the beats. It was like, nobody has to tell me I need to be on the radio. Nobody needs to, nobody's telling me I got to be in the club. I got to make this

trap beat to fit in. I'm just making beats. And as raw as the beats are, and if, you know how it is, you hear, dope beat, you want to start rhyming. If I'm making a beat and it make me want to start rhyming, that's going to be on the album. And I'm going to rhyme about something. Every record is about something.

And I'm not just going to just be talking about, you know, like, I'm back. You know, I'm not doing none of that. Or I'm, you know, I used to do this. I was the dawn back in the day. Like, it's none of that kind of stuff. So, you know, I really love this album. You know, and I'm going to promote and push the hell out of the album.

You know, like, keep. going. Different kids. Different kids is out now. This is the last question. It's a two-part question.

You got an American music award and you was inducted to the Hip Hop Hall of Fame. Well, I didn't get an American music award.

You didn't get American music award? My record. Switch got an American music award. So I guess I get one by default like that.

But it was. Yeah, that's your shit. But it was. That's your shit. I be claiming it for you. You know, And if I'm not mistaken, Lloyd Banks on fire, either Lloyd Banks or Christina Aguilar, one of them, or both of them got Grammy nominations. So I could claim that if I wanted to.

But then the hip-hop Hall of Fame is a hip-hop museum in Washington, D.C. did an induction ceremony. And I thought it was dope for me because, one, I didn't think I was going to be put up in a museum. Like, I was like King Tut or somebody. But the people that were inducted at the same time was myself. It was getting play. Wow. It was Herbie Love Bug. It was Dana Dane.

And everybody who had something to do with who I am was all there at the same time. I'm talking about down to Ron Lawrence was there. And I had to thank him. I was able to personally thank him for helping me get into a position that I'm in. This guy, my boy named Dana, we call him Dana Dumb. The guy who taught me how to use an MPC was in the audience. And I haven't seen him since the day he taught me how to use the NPC. His name is Dana Duh.

We call him Dana Dumb. Well, he turned out to be dumb. Yeah, no, Dana's super nasty with the Brees. But he taught me how to use it. And I was like, I was able to personally thank him. Wow. You know, I have family did it. I was able to acknowledge.

I haven't seen Herbie Love Bug in, I haven't seen Herbie Love Bug since the 90s. No, 2001. I haven't seen him since. So I was able to see Herbie, you know, his younger brother, Steve, who put me with Herbie, you know, we all went to school together. You know, I'm seeing, I'm literally seeing my neighborhood being inducted into a Hall of Fame at the same time. So it was bigger, for me, it was way bigger than what I was getting. I'm like, yo, we are all here at once. Only people that ain't here with us and they couldn't make it was salt and pepper.

I'm like, dag, that would have been. And the sweet tea was there, Antoinette was there. So the first person I ever even produced was there. Antoinette, that's right. Yeah. So I'm like, yo, this is like the mega full circle moment for me. So it was dope. Oh, you're a super legend, man.

We appreciate you. Thank you, man. Thank you for having me. Man, appreciate it. Thank you. Thank you. Let's take a drink champs LLC production, hosts and executive producers, N-O-R-E and DJ-E-F-N.

Listen to Drink Champs on Apple Podcasts, Amazon Music, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. 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. It's at Drink Champs across all platforms, at the real Noriega on IG, at Noriega on Twitter.

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