Drink Champs - Episode 487 w/ Maino

Episode Date: January 23, 2026

N.O.R.E. & DJ EFN are the Drink Champs. In this episode we chop it up with the legend, Maino! Maino pulls up to Drink Champs for a raw, real, and unapologetic conversation that’s straight Brooklyn energy. From the jump, the NY heavyweight sits down with N.O.R.E. and DJ EFN to break down his journey from the streets to the spotlight, sharing stories that shaped both the man and the music. Maino speaks candidly about his early struggles, doing time, and how those experiences fueled his hunger to succeed in hip hop without compromising who he is. The episode dives deep into his rise in the late 2000s, the impact of records like “All the Above,” and what it was like navigating the industry as an artist who came in with real-life scars and hard-earned wisdom. Maino also reflects on Brooklyn’s legacy, giving flowers to the legends that inspired him while explaining how he carved out his own lane in a competitive era.  As always, the drinks are flowing and the stories get even more honest, touching on loyalty, growth, and the importance of staying solid in an industry that often tests your character. This Drink Champs episode is equal parts motivation and reflection—an unfiltered look at Maino’s life, legacy, and why his voice still matters in hip hop today. Make some noise for Maino! 💐💐💐🏆🏆🏆   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. Guaranteed Human. Drink a chess, motherfucking podcast. Make some Lord! He's a legendary Queen's rapper. Hey, hang, say, great, this is your boy in O'R. 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 in your number one source for drunk facts. It's drink chance, motherfuckin' pocket. Where every day is New Year's Eve. It's time for drink champs. Drink up, motherfuck.

What it could be, hopefully sweet to be. This is your boy, N-A-O-N-A-A-A-A-W-W-O-N-A. What up is DJE-FN. And this is Military-Tac-M Crazy War. Yappy hour makes a-old. Now, now, I can't, I couldn't wait to get this brother his flowers. Not only is he a rapper. Now only is an archipanour nor.

Not only, even a reality star, new podcaster, a father, a soon-to-be husband we heard. You know what I mean? This man, this man has got hits after hits. I'm looking and I'm like, wow, I want to see him on verses. We're going to give him his flowers today In case you don't know who the fuck we talk about One only

Motherfucking man Who's that? You got a lot of hit records, bro Underrated, though. Yo, no. Oh, so did you, who would you want to battle in versus? I kept saying I wanted to battle with your button.

Oh, sure. No, that's uneven. That's uneven? Yeah. You know what it was? We had an issue on Clubhouse. You had an issue with a lot of people. No, it was on Clubhouse.

It was a play issue. Like, like, we, was battling songs on clubhouse. Remember, we was on quarantine. We didn't have nothing to do it. Oh, back. Okay. Yeah, it was back then.

We was just having fun. Okay. You know what I mean? And I was playing my songs. And then he kind of snuck up on me because I, I wasn't counting my songs. So I saved my best for last, but I went over. Wow. We was doing 10 in 10.

Wow. So I had a thing for like, yo, listen, we're going to do a real one. Right. A real version is you and your butt. Yeah. I don't think your butt's going to come out. No. I don't think he's going to come out.

for that. That's my god, though. That's my god too. That's my mom. So listen, let's get into the beginning, right? Because going through your records, it said on, I believe, remember me that you wasn't rapping until you went to jail. So how does that happen? I never rap, bro. Okay. I never rap. I never had no aspirations, no dreams about being a rapper. I mean, as a kid, you know, we, we're growing up in a time. We, we fans, the Big Daddy came, Rock came, and all that. We, we from that era. But I wasn't sitting around like, yo, I want to be a rapper. Right. So when I went to prison, I was, it didn't dawn on me, right, to ever start rapping. You know, I was getting a lot of trouble all the time, right? Always in the box. Right.

Always having issues and stuff like that. And I'm always having conflict with other young black men. So in the box. That's when you started right. 23 hours a day. Right. At that time, I think I was doing a year. A year straight in the box?

A year straight, yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah, straight in the box, right? And it was a Friday night. I heard niggas on the gate. you know rapping you know how niggas be on the gate they was getting it in like one niggas pinging on the balls another niggas rapping and I was like laying on my bed like

damn this shit sound crazy and I said to myself when I get up in the morning I'm gonna write me a rhyme and I wrote my first rhyme that Saturday morning. You remember your first rhyme? It was some stressed out like I'm sitting in itself

living in hell like it was something to that it was definitely some it was heavily He influenced by Pock, definitely. To me, at that time, he was speaking that black male experience like no other. You know what's funny?

My first... I was rapping before, yeah, right? But when I... I bit the Malcolm X shit, but Malcolm X said that he used to read with the light through the cell. Like, at nighttime, I used to write rhymes, but I used to never want people to know that, right?

So, you know, people used to come up myself and be like, what are you doing on the floor? Like, you know what I'm saying? Like, I was like, And my first battle was against, I don't know this dude hates this story every time I bring it up. We're in the yard and this guy named B-Wise. He was named Wyes. And all of the Bronx dudes was with him and all of the Brooklyn dudes were with me.

And it was called B-house. So it was only Brooklyn and Bronx dudes. I don't know how a queen's nigga was in there. I don't know why. But in my first rhyme, I remember it. I was like, I don't give a fuck. When I was six, I did a stick up in a Tonka truck. And the whole yard went to crazy.

And from that moment, from that moment, I was like, like I'm gonna be a rap. You know what I knew at that point? Yeah, I knew that I was addicted to the crowd, like getting that attention. Right. So when was- You gotta remind us what your rap name was. Oh yeah, no, no, no, no, that wasn't my rap name then.

That was my very first rap name. He made always laugh at my very, MC Yahoo with the ball to me. That's another thing. So when it was it because, you know, everybody who write a rhyme ain't going to become a rap? When was it, we used like, yo, I'm going to go home and I'm going to take this serious? Was it in the case? Or wasn't when you got in. So when I was in the camp, when I first started doing it, you got into, I understand, I'm still in the box.

Uh-huh. Right. And I'm, at that point, it was just like something to pass the time. Right. You know, because what you're doing in the box? You work. You do push-ups. You sit up. You're sleeping. You're writing a letter. Like, you ain't doing much. You know, sleeping half your day. So I was like, if I get up and write a rhyme, by the end of the day, like, it's going to take some of the day away. Right. So I started thinking about it like, man, maybe I'm. could go home and be a rapper.

Right. And then I would, at the same time I would say that, I was like, hell, no, I ain't no rapper. Right. I was so insecure about that because nobody, nobody knew me for that. You understand? People had already had their perception of who I was. I was a little popular back then, right? And now that I'm saying that I'm a rapper, and this is a time when niggas,

niggas like, you ain't no rapper, nigga. Right. Like, rappers want to be like us. Yeah, yeah, yeah. You understand? I remember those days. I didn't, I didn't build up that confidence into some years later. Because I was afraid to tell people

So if I was Five, six, seven years in at this point If a nigga would have asked me what I was doing When I came home and I would have said I'm going to come home and be a rapper And they would have said, Nicker what? I would have never done it.

Y'all don't ever met me. Because that's how insecure I was about it because I would have, anybody that respected me would have told me, man, you ain't no rapper. Right. I would have said, you know what, you're right. I'm not.

Fuck am I doing? Right. So I kept it to myself I kept it to myself until I get there How old were you around that time? 1920. Wow. I'm young and I'm picking it up.

Right. You know? But I didn't think that this was a long shot. I think this wasn't coming home becoming rappers. Right, right. That wasn't a thing yet. Right. You know?

Right. So we're going through a... So how did you get that for... Was it Atlantic Records your first? Nah, okay. My first major label deal was with Universal through Motown, Sylvia Rohn. Oh, wow. Tone from Trackmaster's song.

Wow. Yeah, so I had the song, Rumors. I don't know if you remember. Of course. That was a song that put me in a game. Right. Right. That was my hit in that era because when I came out, I jumped into the DVD era, right?

That was the mixtape DVD time, right? And it was just like, the mixtapes was the thing, because I was, up north and I was like listening to everybody that was on the clues. I was hearing all y'all, right? And I'm like, damn, if I could just make it to the clues, I'm lit. I made it. Because I felt like everybody that was on a clue tape made it. Yeah. Me too.

I didn't know he was a star. Right. You have to be a star. He's got to be rich. You know what I'm saying? So I, um, when I got out, I was just like, you know, jumping right into that, into that error right there. And, and

that's, that's kind of like how I kind of got it started right there. And then the universal sign me first, though. Universal sign you first. Yeah. So how did you get to Atlanta? Was that through Tia? No, I got dropped.

Get that out of here. I got drop. Okay. Yeah, yeah. You got to go through it. But you got a bag, though, right? Yeah, they paid me out because you know, pay the play. Okay.

Okay. That's the thing. Right? That's not really, you know. That's an experience. Yeah. You know what I mean? It can hurt your confidence.

So what happened was I was around Kim and her. Okay. Kim was, you know, opened up her doors for me. I was coming around and, you know, I was starting to, you know, get a real peek at what being a superstar artist is. Right. And then I made the song rumors. I got signed a university. Now I'm thinking in that era, my understanding of what the game is, is like, once you get signed, the label just going to make you this big star.

Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. I didn't know that. Nobody came to me and said, listen, this is the time when you need to work even harder. Hardness, right? Oh, yeah. So I'm just like waiting for it to kick in. I'm like, where's 106 and pop?

Yeah. Like, where's the MTV? Like, where's these big records? And I'm sitting there waiting. I'm still doing me. But I don't think that I had the mind state to understand that I should have been working. Working harder. Even harder.

And one day, my lawyer called me and was just like, hey, they said they good on you. Like that, he said basically. Now, he ain't said like that, but they want to let you go. Right. And something in me was just like, word, all right, fuck it, cool. I was in Atlanta. I was just like, I got that news. He said, listen, but I got a check for you.

Right. So I went, you know, got my check. I told Tone about it. Tone was like, no, I'm going on. I was like, no, I'm good. Don't worry about it. I'm good because at this point, I'm signed like two years, a year and a half, at least. Nothing really happened for me.

You know, they dropped me. I'm back in the hood. I'm at Ryo House on Monroe. All right. Doing records again. I'm in the hood. No more budget. No more Sony.

No more, no more interns running. Right. Yeah. Yeah. So I had to dig back in and, and work my, you know,

work it back. Ooh. How you didn't get discouraged? That's a good question. I kind of felt like it did bother me, though, bro. Okay. If I sat up and say you that

I wasn't bothered it because it bothers your spirit. because you feel like you made it. And this is a time when I was attributing getting a record deal, like, I just went to the NBA. Yeah, that's the end or be all. You got a record deal. You got a record deal. I made it. Only the best niggas get a real record deal.

I had been out for 18 months. Wow. After doing 10 years and got my first record deal. That's crazy. Wow. So it hurt me It hurt me a little bit But I knew that I had to figure it out

Wow You know I want to I'll show you a story This is real funny Because I had already Kind of like Had Platinum records But I'm moving out

The Dev Jam So we moved in a deaf jam And Irv Gotti is downstairs In the lobby Irv Gotti looks at me And goes Don't think you made it And I look at him

Like you're a hater Right But he was like yo He was giving me the game I didn't know At the time He was like Yo don't drop your guard

because you got depth jam. So is that, would you say, like... That's 100%. Yeah, yeah. Because you, listen, I'm sitting in the day room. Imagining what it felt like to be a nigger shooting these videos. You remember, it was a... What did you give me water?

What is this? A prank joke? For videos back then. Yeah, budgets were crazy. Mr. Lee, they gave me water? This is a prank joke? Why did they give me water? My bad, I have to stop.

Wait a minute. What is going on? They're trying to tell me what the hell's going on? I want you to slow down. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But take your time. My bad, okay, have what you said? So I'm looking at these videos.

I'm looking at 106 and Paul. We're looking at Rap City, and I'm just like, that's the life. I want, I want to get away from this shit. I want to get out of these streets and get away from this jail. Shit, I want to be one of them niggas. So you think that you associate success with the glitz of it, the love, the like, the books, the outfits, the jury.

You know what I mean? So when I got out and I got my first record deal, I'm like, I made it. If somebody would have said to me what Herb said to you, I would have snapped out of it. Even though I knew I was working, I still was working, but I would have went at it. The mind state would have been a lot better. Plus the label politics too. Definitely. Once you learn that, once you learn that you got to really like there's camps in there,

there's artists. It's all this camps. Then you got to have like somebody really. like a bodyguard. You got to have somebody really pushing for you. Executive in the... Right. That's really going,

now, he's a guy. And really, every day, because they got to roster up different artists. They don't always have the answers. They don't really know what to do. And the times was changing. So it was just like,

did I make it? Right. So when you get dropped, you're like, you start to doubt yourself. Am I really that good? Right. Back in the hood. Right.

You know? Real? Now, I'm going to bounce around a little bit. Go ahead. Because you just recently went to St. Thomas and... St. Thomas, St. Croix. And you got family out there.

Yeah, yeah. Now, St. Quorae got a little bit of Puerto Ricans out there. They do, absolutely. Yeah, yeah. You're Puerto Rican to them? No, my family is from St. Thomas and St. Croix. But listen, listen, I spent the whole summer in St. Croix when I was a kid. Okay.

So my mother, my mother's mother and my father are both from the Virgin Islands. Wow. Now, what's funny is that my grandmother had Puerto Rican relatives. Like, I do have Puerto Rican relatives. See it in your head a little bit. Yeah, yeah. I can see it. I do.

I never talk about it, but I absolutely do. We're going to start claiming you, Maineo. Come on, let's do it, man. I got, I got cousins named Felix and shit. Oh, yeah, 100%. I know Felix. I know him. Yeah, yeah.

So how was that experience? Because that was your first time going back as Maino now. Now you Mayno. Yeah, yeah. And then I found one of my uncles. Okay, thank you. I found one of my uncles. Like randomly or?

So I knew my grandfather. had like 20 kids. That's something like that. Yeah, exactly. My grandfather wasn't nothing to be played with. Yeah. At least, I think 20, they got it around like 17, 18. My grandfather was the same way.

Right there. So, but I knew the name. My mother's maiden name was Engerman. So that was my grandfather's name. So when I went out at the same time, I was like asking around about Engerman. And everybody was telling me about this John Engelman. And I was like, he got to be related to me.

Yeah. So I got in contact with him. I was like, I think I'm your relative. And he asked me who my mother was. And I was like, my grandfather was, you know, or was Joseph Ingeman. And he said, man, that was my father. I'm your uncle. Mm, sure.

So I found my mother brother. Online? No, over text. Oh, okay, okay, okay, okay. Yeah, when I got to St. Thomas earlier last year. Okay. You know, so I actually found him. And then we met up and everything.

I met some of my relatives. This is my mother's brother, who she never met. 100% Yeah Oh man And I'm gonna bounce about a little bit Go ahead Would you ever do love of hip hop again?

I mean it's all business though bro Right so everything is about business If the business was right Then I would consider any I would consider it You know I would do it in the heart of the time The heart of the dime

I loved it You love it You love it? You love it? Executive produces the way he promotes it I didn't have that same experience I only did it one time And I felt like they felt like I stuck them up

I feel like they didn't follow that Yeah, but I felt like They didn't, they was like Well, we wasn't getting nothing from you And I was kind of Yeah, I wasn't getting I was like Yeah, you wasn't fighting

Yeah, I'm not with all that They thought they were signing Mano Smack DVD Mando DVD Mendo Yeah, yeah I wasn't going to go on TV And act like a monkey Like that wasn't going to be

That, you know what I mean? So I was like trying to control everything I was like, nah She's not gonna be in that scene Mm-hmm Who's she filming with? Nah, they ain't gonna go Who you got me feeling with?

Nah, I don't be filming with these nigs So they was, I was trying to micromanage everything. So I ended up only maybe on like seven episodes out of that season. Yeah, that's kind of, because it's pretty like 14, yeah, 14 years. Seven is there. So what you said you would never, I'm not saying I wouldn't. I'm saying if the business was right, they got at least start me higher than they started

me before. Of course. Every season, every season it goes up. So now we got to be, you know, in another space. Yeah. You know, because I had them at a good place the first time. Right. You know, and they felt like I robbed them.

I think they said the same thing to me. One time for a good robbery. How many people ask you for a million bucks after you drop that Swiss record? How many what? How many people ask you for a million bucks? All the time. I'm like, this thing had to be acting.

100%. To the day. Diggas have dropped more money. You still giving away a million dollars. Yeah, we print it up. Yeah, we printed up. We printed up. Like $100 bills with my face on it.

Yeah. And then we go to the shows and, like, throw it out. People thought it was real money. 100%. That was bad. They was taking the money and going to take it to the street. Yeah, I got cursed out for that many times. Like, you're throwing money and got your face on it, nigga.

Like, we thought it was real money. You know how people are. They want real money. Yeah, of course. For real. But I was like, damn, that was mad pressure. That must have been mad pressure. Yeah.

And especially your family members. You're giving around a million bucks and you ain't going to give it to your family? I always felt like then. Maybe we should have changed that I feel like a a million bucks. I think I feel like a million bucks. Like maybe we should change that. I think,

I think that even if you would have changed it, they still would have said the same shit. Like, you're giving out a million bucks, buddy. Yeah. Damn. So, um, do you still love, do you love this game?

The game, I don't love, I don't absolutely love the business of the game. I love the art of it. I love to, to create something. you know, to see something that you created,

then let it have a little impact and then perform it and just the love for the game in that way. The business of it is disheartening. Yeah. You know what I mean? It takes the fun out of it. It takes the fight out of you.

Like, God damn, all this. All this? Because we understand, like, the general public don't understand that, you know, when you put out a record, that there's so much that has to go into it to make that record a hit. Right?

So they say that records are not made. They manufacture it. You know, it's like they promote it, they market it, right? It's a budget. It's people. It's a plan. So they think that you just throwing out does. They don't understand that that $250,000 to go behind it is just not there.

Yeah. You know? And you still got to recoup that $250. But nowadays, they don't even, they're not even, if you're not in that top, Algorithms? No, top 10% of artists, like, like a Drake or Nicky, like, or Carrey. You can't pay for that $2.50 no more?

They're not even, they're not even doing that. Wow. They're not putting out, they're not getting behind a rap record with that type of money no more. It's crazy that when they say that rap wasn't in the top billboard this year. I've been seeing that.

Like, how does that happen? And when we are the most influential, but I feel like we influence the world. Right. And everybody took pieces of hip hop. And then certain genres might be even more bigger. I think Afro beats is like world music, like Dembo, re-at-tone.

The Latin scene is huge. You know what I'm saying? But I feel like all those have ingredients and elements of hip-hop. But it's also what you're saying, though. If the labels ain't pushing it, you're not going to see them in the Billboard church. It doesn't mean the music isn't out there. It doesn't mean the artists aren't making great music. What it is is, is just,

to me, I think the labels just got lazy, and they want the artists that's already lit. 100%. They're looking for people that's, like, already got this. They're not developing artists no more. They're not hate orange shit no more. Development. Development and all that is over. Because you know what? All of the departments that they had to develop an artist, like, let's just say like media

training. Right. They're not doing that. Artist development. No more. Artist development. None of that. Right.

So it's just like, you got to come as is. Yep. Because it's about the algorithm. So if you don't have the numbers to match what you're doing, we're not. We ain't fucking with it. And you might pass up on an artist that really got it. Because before it was about your talent. Yeah.

It was like, damn, this is the next such and such. This is the first such and such. This guy is it. Whether that was Rambi, whether that was rap, female rappers, young rapper, it didn't matter. If you had it, they was willing to invest in it and kind of make you a start. They're not making out, they're not making new stars among. No.

At all. Because they stupid. I'm sorry, record. Loved. Sorry, but they kind of, they're kind of dumb. Like you said, they want turnkey artists. They already got to build the audience, but you don't write that. It's about the money, though.

It's easier for them to get behind something than it is to spend, you know, a million and a half per artist just to build them up. And you know what's crazy when Leo, I spoke to Lear the other day, and Lear said, this is still, this is still the easiest game to get in, right, hip-hop, because he said, right now, you used to have to pay. for the album covers. Like right now, we could just take a picture. We don't even have to press up the album cover. You remember how much that used to cause to press a fucking CD up?

Yeah, yeah. Like, your budget was done before your shit even dropped. You was already in the red. Right. So right now. As soon as you sign you're right. If you got direct to consume one, like if you got and you could just hit that button and it's direct, that's what Leo is saying.

He's like, yo, for a seasoned artist, he's like, it's the best time for us. That's the best thing to do right now. And I was just having that conversation the other day, direct consumer because if you built up a base, if you got 100 people that love you, 100 times 10, talk to them. Keep going.

Yeah, keep to them. Give it to them. You understand? Because the days of them nurturing artists and making them, you know, Marrije Blodges and Alicia Keys, I don't know if we're seeing that no more.

You know what was the ill shit about doing this podcast is we can actually see the algorithms. Remember back in the days, sorry it sounded like the old guy. Remember the back of the day, sorry, sound like that dude, but hey, it is what it is. And then we're lucky to be able to. Remember, we used to go on a tour, and when we go on tour, they were sending you on like

32 states. Uh-huh. 15 of them states didn't matter. 15 of them states didn't matter. What were you doing in Kentucky? When you ain't selling not one unit in Kentucky, and you can stick with your, you have to stick with your, no disrespect or no beef to that. your algorithms, you can stick with.

New York is my market, Philly's my market, Delaware's my market, Connecticut, and so on and so forth. That's the good thing about... I think that's an advantage if you know how to do that. Right, right. The metrics. Right. Because the metrics show us that exactly where, you know,

you may have some impact, right? It also shows you your age, range, you know, what, what, what, what, Janir, you know what gender, right? So it shows you a little bit of everything. So now you're able to, to kind of like go right directly there. Yeah, I love that. I love that.

You still out partying? Yeah. You used to be out every night. I'm still, I'm still, I'm still, I'm still, I haven't retired. Okay. I haven't retired. I'm still, you know, I still like a good time. Okay.

You know, we're not partying aimlessly, though. We're not, oh man, last time Me and you was here in Miami, I think I told you this story. Me and you, we went to, um, prom 112. Okay, okay. We had dinner. Okay.

And I was here. I think that was like a Friday night. All right. And I was doing shit that night had no business. Okay, okay. I had nothing to do with this. You had nothing to do with this. You know?

But I was on one that night. I think I smoked weed with you. Okay. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. With success. Yeah, yeah, exactly. And then I, you know, I was playing around with Molly. This is the Molly era back then. I'm just playing around. I love a good Molly story.

Let's go. Doing shit I ain't had no business doing, ended up in booby trap. Oh, yeah. On Molly? On bolley? Oh, man, you were tough. Woke up the next morning, the Roli was gone. Oh, God.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Holy shit, Miami. Real talk. Real talk. Real talk. That was the mall. That's great. I always know the interview, how it's going to go by what they order and if they, and if they come late.

But soon as I've seen you on the balcony, I said, this man is coming late. You feel in Miami, right? You're feeling it. I love Miami, man. Okay. I was only 10 minutes. Okay, yeah, yeah, yeah. I'm usually the only time.

We judge people by that. Yeah, people do. Now that I'm not a artist, no, I'm like, oh, I judge artists. I'm like, uh-uh, uh-uh. You know, I'm real serious about time. So if I'm late, it's because something kind of got in my way a little bit. Because I measure time really good. And it's important for me.

Like I tell my son all the time, like, you have to be always on time. Don't let nobody use that as an excuse. Right. So let me, like I said, I'm bouncing around a little bit. Like a year and a half ago, right, I had said that I wouldn't interview somebody, right? Right. Because of my relationship with a certain other artists. And I said, I said, I just couldn't do it.

I had to look at this man and dinner at times. Why would I go interview his enemy, right? Jamel Hill tweeted me and said, I thought me and Jamel Hill was cool, but she tweeted me and she was like, this is why you're not really a journalist. And at first I took it wrong. I wanted to get back and be like, motherfucker, but then I thought about it.

I was like, you're right. I do have a certain type of loyalty that prevents me from being a full-fledged journalist. Is that something you feel like? I ain't no journalist. Yeah. At all. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I am not a journalist. Right.

I am not one. Right. Right. And I don't even want to confuse that. Just because somebody speaks on the mic and may, you know, do a podcast, you know, may even affiliated with himself with the radio. That doesn't mean or make you an absolute journalist. I think that's a, for the real journalist out there.

That's a profession. That's a profession. They went to school and ain't, you know, and they really living that life. Right. That's for them. That ain't that. Right.

Like, they always give me an example. They say, uh, well, like, Mori Povich than them, they interviewed the Ku Klux Klan. And I was just like, you know, like, they'll give me examples like that. They weren't journalists either. I don't want to interview no rapists.

Like, I don't want to, like, I'm sorry. Like, I got this brought in line. Like, if I know there's certain things that, that's, mm-mm. So you're saying, like, a real true journalist, when it comes to journalism, and they don't, they don't draw no line.

Yeah. Like, you can interview, if you're white, you can interview Farrakhan. Right. If you're black, you could interview David Dukes or the Ku Klux. So you're saying as a, as a, as Norrie, you draw the line with certain things. I do. I have to, man, because I'm not mad at you. I have to.

Like, like, like, I would be, I would feel bad that someone is sitting in front of me, knowing to me and you got a great relationship, and then they're shitting on you. And then me even trying to stop them. Because at times, like, And you're going to learn more. Because you've been in the media for some time since Kitchen Talk. You've been doing this. So I know you've been learning more, but sometimes you are guilty by association.

And it's nothing wrong with that. I feel like that because we pick our size, bro. It is what it is. Like, let me tell you something. If me and you getting money, our families know each other, you have my, you pull up to my crib on Thanksgiving. You know, we busting bags together. We have business relationship as well as a working one. it's in me to honor that.

Yeah. It ain't in me to with that type of relationship to congregate with anybody that you feel like you got a problem with. That's just not in me. That doesn't make me have a problem with the other person automatically.

Right, right, right. I understand. But I don't want to congregate with the people that you don't fuck with because I want to honor that relationship. Right. I think it should be more of that. Like, let's join, like, niggies like, I don't pick size. What are you talking about?

When you don't pick size, the size can pick for you. Yeah. And if you're supposed to be my man and you under some dude's comments, liking his shit, yeah, I'm judging you, bro. What the fuck? Why would you be liking? Listen, that's only really started really with some internet shit. And I like to always attribute things to the street

because I didn't been many places since then. But like, if you beefing with a nigga and he's a serious guy, right? he's already saying it's self yeah, normally be with Mano every day so when I see Mano's up with him too Yep The side get picked for you Yeah, you're right

Nobody's saying maybe he don't got Nothing do with it People already associate you You guilty by the association But you gotta If that's the person you fuck with Own it Yeah

Own it. I fuck with this person Good, bad, indifferent It is what it is Okay switching up a little bit you know, you're on a national radio station with Angela, right? And she lives by those rules.

She's a journalist. She can be taken as a journalist. Would there ever be a time where she's interviewing somebody and you're there? Would you not show up or how would you handle it? If it was somebody, I ain't fuck with it? You ain't fuck with it or somebody, one of your people who's ain't fuck with. Yeah, I just want to go.

Yeah. I think that's the right choice. But she, me and her, have had conversations where she wouldn't do certain interviews with certain people if she really fucked with the person. Wow.

Like, she honors her friendships. Right. You know what I mean? And it all depends on the people and it kind of depends on the problem too. Yeah, that's what I'm about to say. It depends on the problem. If you're telling me, like,

I'm saying, Norrie, what's up, bro? Like, you're going to, you know, you're going dead this. You're like, nah, man, I'm not deadening it. Right. It is what it is. I'm not pursuing it neither. Right.

But I don't fuck with that. person. And me and you like that, I'm gonna let you have that. Like, you can see when it's real and you can see when it's not real. Right. You know what I'm saying? Like, I attribute that to, like, you know, like, when I see Buster, like, going at 50

a little bit, like, you can tell that's a friendship thing right there. So it's something totally different. But moving on, okay. Let's give flowers. Yeah, let's give me our flowers. I show us about giving people with their flowers. Really? I know that. We're going to get your flowers. Man and man. Tell you how proud we are.

Oh, wow. Man, this is nice. I like this. Wow, thank you. Yes, absolutely, absolutely. So what's your favorite? Performing or making the record? Making it.

Making the record? Yeah. I thought you said performing. Performing it. You know what? Making it is fun because coming up with it. Performing it is just like seeing that have some impact and then people seeing your words, you know,

You know, I mean, it's no greater hide in that. It's no greater high than, you know what I mean? Only above. You know what I mean? You got huge records. It's no greater feeling than that, you know. But when I was making it, I always seemed like, damn, I remember sitting back coming up with these words. You know what I mean?

The feeling of doing that and those words becoming something is like, I mean. It was even a better feeling when you go out and perform that record, like your new record and it don't work for the first time. But you know you've got to build it. And six months later, you go back to that same venue. And you perform that shit. You know, that shit happened to be in Philadelphia one night. You know, I did Super Top. They just looked at me.

It was crickets. It was crickets. What were they telling me you, your record is number one. And I'm like, it's no way. You doubted it too? Of course. No one noticed it. Six months later, I came back to that same stage.

Boy, was I so happy. It's a different feeling when everybody know your words. Yes. 100%. And you got, all right. all the above, for lack of a better term, there's people who listen to that record who probably don't listen to hip hop.

That's transcendent. Let me tell you, it's people that listen to that really don't even listen to me. Wow. You know what I'm saying? Hell, yeah. Take a shot to that? I don't know.

You ain't got a good. They didn't get me again. I just got some water. Okay, yeah, they got me. They got me. They got me. They got me. They got me.

They got me. Yeah, they're good. Yeah, let's go. Oh, we're going straight to shots. Okay. Wow. Oh, wow. So, but go ahead.

Let's go out. So there's people that listen to that record that go on. While you don't even listen to me. Right. Because it kind of crossed the street. Right. You know what I mean? So it was like, if all your songs don't cross the street,

then are they really going on? He's like, I got a couple of records that it's like a lot of Asians and white people. They're like, yeah, man, you know, that fucking all right above and remember my name, yeah. You know, when I was in high. Yeah. When I was in high school. like that was our song right there so it's just like man that feels good

I performed that at bar mitzvizvus bot mitzvus you said bar mitzvahs what you said bar mitzvus and bot minstvus what's a bot minstvents one of them is for a female oh shit so one of them is for the male

I think I think don't quote me if I'm wrong I'm more I think the bar mitzvah is for the young boy yeah I think the bot mitzvah is for the young girl um Weddings. I'm talking about Islamic weddings.

Wow. Wow. You know, Muslim weddings. Crazy because it was across the street over there. Wow. Yeah. Ooh. Jesus.

We got quick time? Oh, yeah. I'm in. I'm in. Let's do this. Okay. You ready, Lee? Yeah, yeah.

My bad. It's all right. This is our drinking game, man. Drinking game. We'll give you two choices. Pick one we're not drinking. If I don't pick it, then we drink it. If you don't pick it, we drink it.

Or if you say both. Okay. Like, you really don't want to answer. Okay. I'm going to switch up to the first one. Go ahead. Uh-huh. I'll switch up the first one.

Jay-Z or Nas? Jay-Z. Damn, I shouldn't have switched that. I'm trying to get you. Go back to the original one. Yeah. Go back. Okay.

Jay Z or Kane? Damn. Kane kind of. gave us J-Z. But I'm a say from the legacy, Jay-Z. Okay. Naz or L-L?

Because you didn't like that light-skinned category, too. I'm brown, no-rich. I'm brown. Your waves, your waves make you light-skinned. Yeah. Naz. Okay. Let's go.

Uncle murder or yeah, yo? Uncle murder. Okay. to just blaze. Yeah. Damn, those both of my guys gave me hits.

Take a shot? I'm gonna take a shot on that. Mm-hmm. Ooh, I like this one. M-O-P-D. Hands-down Mab-D. And I'm from Brooklyn. I love my huge...

Yeah, I didn't expect that. Yeah, I'm a huge M-P guy. Especially how you were like that. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, no. And they're my guys. Yeah. That's my guys, too. Those my guys.

M-O-P's my guys. Like, but the mob? Yeah. Come on, man. You know what's crazy? And let me just say this real quick, because I know it's going to sound like a little curveballish. And I know it's going to sound a little curveballish.

But I recently started to know how dope MabD is. I was been in their algorithm so long. That's because of proximity. Yeah, proximity. You know what I'm saying? You can't appreciate it. You can't appreciate it. Yeah.

I'm a huge Mab D fan. I got to, and I'm grateful that I got a chance to tell Pradesh. that I don't know if you really understood that though like I'm really a huge mob deep fan like that infamous album man that was a whole other level right there

I felt like they was really they made me really take a peek inside of Queensbridge you know what I mean yeah yeah like that was a time yeah rest and peace prodigy definitely podcast shit Joe and Jada or a million dollars worth of games Joe and Jada

okay Joe and Jada definitely got last year's rookie of the year, and I believe y'all got this year coming up. I'm going to give you. Absolutely. Absolutely. I'm going to go ahead and say that. Y'all mad, funny, Fabb. I knew how funny you are. I'm so glad that the world

to see how funny Fabb is. Like, Fabb been funny. Yeah, Fav's funny. You got a sense of humor. And at first, I'm going to be honest with you. Because Fav is like one of them JZ type of dudes that we don't know nothing about because he's like, he says mystique. So I was scared at first. So I was like, because, you know,

And then I was like, damn, he's doing it right. He's showing his personality. He's laughing. It wasn't to work with nobody else. It had to work with somebody that he was super comfortable with, like a real relationship with. Yes. We're going to get into that. We're going to finish quick time of slow.

Young thug or little baby? Oh, man. Thug. Thug? Okay. Vado or Dave East? Mr. David. Okay.

Fab or Jada kiss? I'm a home team player, my boy. She played up. So no shot. No, fad. Okay, fad. That's what I'm saying. Yeah.

Cam or Mace? I always, I always like Cam a little more, was more gritty. He was more for me. Yeah, definitely. Locks or clips? Lox. Universal or Atlantic? Atlantic, baby.

Atlantic, you guys. Atlantic, you guys. Atlantic, yeah. All right. Universal, man. Okay. Irv Gidey or Chris Lighty. Yeah, they both legends.

Rest in peace. Rest in peace. I'm going to drink the both of them. Okay, let's go. Let's go. We're going to drink the both for them. That's probably they both passed away. Absolutely.

Rest in peace, man. Biggie or Big punt? Big. You ever met Big? Years ago. He wasn't big. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. Um. Hmm. Tupac or EZE? Pock? I'm going to say that? Easy, that was, yeah. This is one of my favorite questions.

Yeah, Finn always douse me on it. Boutang or NWA? Let's drink that out. All right, let's do it. You know what? Because I'm influenced by both. I'm influenced by both. Yeah, let's, yeah.

And they influence two coats separately. This is what I'm saying. Do we got to do the whole shot? You don't have to. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I'm going to sit here. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, that'll go slow.

I like how you kept it real. T.I. or Luda? Tip. You're not going to stop, are you? This is frightening right here. This is wild. Chains or Gucci Man? I'm going to get at the Gucci.

Okay. Yeah, it's the influence. Okay. Lino Brown or Frank White? Nino was a rat. Yeah, he became a rat. Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's all it is.

He wasn't throughout the whole movie Throughout the whole movie. You love the Throughout the whole movie To the end. Yeah, he fucked up. He fucked up. He fucked the movie up.

Yeah, he fucked the movie up. Yeah, I wasn't born with a spool in my mouth, Miss Hawkins. Right, right, right. Okay. Premier Pete Rock. Premier. Sean Pete or ODB?

ODB. ODB was the man. Your MTV raps or video music box? Video music box. Hands down. Yeah. This is our last question before you get back into the interview. I'm not going to lead the witness.

I'm not going to lead the witness. Loyalty or respect. You can't have loyalty if you don't have respect. I always say that. There's no, like, who are you going to be loyal to if you don't respect it? Let's take a shot for that. It's impossible. So respect is the foundation of everything.

Mm-hmm. I got a lot of inside questions. This is dangerous in the middle of the day. What is that? No, this is a zoo. Oh. Oh, yeah, you requested that. A little saucy over here, for real.

And then you're in Miami, so you know you don't go home. You got a problem. Yeah, it's it. Yeah, it's it. Yeah, I did. 8.30 in the morning. Now, you're supposed to be making a Soka album? Not an album.

But you know what? I feel like Norrie playing with her. Wrigato? Reagan tone. I was very proud. I heard when I heard that, I was like, okay. You know what? I went to St. Thomas and I was riding on the float.

You got turned out. Say Thomas to turn your off. Yeah. And something you got him. If you do a Soka album? Yeah. So what happened was, the guy on the mic was, it was like, it was like so many people, there's thousands of people outside.

You've ever been to carnival. It's great. Yeah. Thousands of people outside. And the guy's like, let the ambulance do. Back up. Give it space. give it spas.

I was like, that should sound like a hook. I was like, I want to go to studio. And I was like, give it space. Give it spas. I made a solo record, man.

Shout out the Féan. Yo, yo, man. Shout out the Fé Ann and Bungie Garlane, man. I'm gonna tell you something. I think Regé Dome

saved my life. It saved my mentality. I was used to the tunnel and club speed and people who... Now you see it. And there's no... Everyone is partying.

Yeah. They dancing all night. Like recently I just went to, uh, Brett Christner's, um, comedian party. And I forgot how it feels to be in a party without ice grails. Like nobody was ice gruel. And I was like, nobody's in here, man.

Yeah, I don't like them. Like, nobody's mad. I like the parties and everybody's happy. Yeah, that's what I'm saying. I like those parties. Like, there was nobody. Oh, man, I was like, yo. I was like, yo, I was like,

your hip hop has ruined me, bro. Like, hip hop has ruined me. Like, I'm used to walking in a, A club? If it's a club setting, I'm used to like someone like, something happening. Something happening. And I didn't experience that. So is that what you're going to do with the Soca? I like, I like soca because it's vibes. I like, but you know what, though, as a hip-hop artist, we tap into everything. You know, Spanish market. Like, I've made songs while I'm rapping in Spanish. Right? You know, like, it's just culture, but like, you know, I've worked with diamond,

Platinum's, you know, from Tanzania, you know. He's one of the biggest artists coming out of Africa. So it's just like, I just think that we could do whatever we want to do. Absolutely. Right. Did you ever think Afro Beets would be here? Like, I never knew what it was until I heard it. Because you're from Brooklyn, and Brooklyn is heavily reggae.

He's the Parkway Day Parade. You guys are all, everybody's like automatically a Jamaican if you're from Brooklyn. Damn. He's Indian. You West Indian. Yeah. West Indian. You something.

You trinidadian. You, you, you know, you're from somewhere. You know, you Jamaican. You know, you know, you Beijing, you Haitian, you something. Right. You know. But, no, I mean, I think we influenced by the hip-hop was influence. They say, cool hurt was what, Jamaican?

Yeah, yeah. That's his background. There you go. Jamaica. Yeah. Cool hurt, man. Wherever you're at. We want to give you a flower.

We need cool hurt. I want to, yeah, I want to apologize to cool hurt. Wow. Why what happened? Oh. I just, I just want to apologize. the crew hurt, man. I want to do this here because I talked about it on my podcast, but I didn't say the name of who I was talking about. Okay. What was you saying in the reference to? I didn't say anything to him. Okay. I never disrespected this man, but I did disrespect him. Okay. And I want to admit this right here on Drink Champs of how I... I knocked his scooter down.

What? I knocked his scooter down. His scooter? That he was riding. I backed into it. Oh, like by mistake? By mistake. Oh, okay. The scooter. It's not like you just ran up on cool hook. No, knock it now.

But I was so fried that I couldn't pick it up. Oh. And I left it there. He don't know it's you to right now. No, he didn't know it was me. Oh, okay. How did you know it was him? People told me it was something.

Oh, man. Yeah, it was just, yeah. So I apologize. By the way. Back into the school, it's crazy, man. In the belly of that. You just crazy. I didn't know where you was going on.

Yeah, it's crazy. I'm sorry, man. Nothing. I know we got to follow hip-hop, man. Yes. I know we spoke about a briefie, but let's rap about it.

Let's rap about it. Before we get there, I forgot you had a podcast called Kitchen Talk. No, also, you got to remember, you was coaching me years ago on a podcast. Yes, yes. You know? So how is it?

Because Kitchen Talk was really mainly you, the main store, but you really, let's rap about it. You guys are like really like the A team. Yeah, yeah. Avengers. Avengers. Yeah, yeah.

So one, how did y'all put that together? And two, how do y'all avoid not clashing egos? That's the thing. Okay. In order to have a team effort, you got to lead the ego at home. And we, as rappers and as black men, we all have that. Because when we ain't have nothing else, all we had was our pride. All we had was our ego.

You know what I mean? No money, no nothing in our pocket. I'm that nigger. Right, right. You know, you feel that, right? So I think when you mature enough to say, look, I could still be me and still support you. Yeah. Still going to be able to support you.

It don't diminish me. But that comes with maturity, though. That comes with time. And I think that we got to a space where we built our relationship over years. You know, us working out together, hanging out together, like really trying to really kind of getting to know each other. Being comfortable with each. Right. Outside of just music, you develop a relationship, but also it's respect. Remember, I told you, respect is the foundation of everything.

Yeah. So I don't want to disrespect you, my nigga. You know, you're my guys. I don't want to disrespect you. So the thing is, that's the only way to kind of diminish the ego is to have that level of respect to understand that you. By supporting you, your nigger, it doesn't diminish you. It might be a Jim Jones show. It ain't my show. I'm going to come to support.

Everything ain't got to be about me. And then when I got something going on, then the guys will pull up and support it. Right. So it's a give-and-take, though, and I think we're stronger together. And for the first time, it felt like New York unity, man. Yeah.

Like the one thing that, you know, me as a, you know, I live in Miami, but my heart is in New York. I'm always going to be in New York. And I love to see us work together. Like, sometimes I love to see us even beefing together. As long as we, like, as long as we do something together.

Fuck you, bingers. Yeah, yeah. Buff you too. Yeah, yeah. As long as, you know, because the one thing for sure to you for certain is, and, you know, I love Jim and I love Cam, right? Yeah. And I know that's going to sound crazy, too.

But if they were to say to me or to anybody, yo, we set this up. Right. It feels like it. Because you, like, Wednesday, beefing, you can't go on Instagram. They own Instagram, both for them. Right. They own Instagram. You don't ever see that?

No, and I'm like, if they actually thought this out, even though I'm sure it's not. It's not. I know, but what is it? As fans of them and fans of the music and fans of their movement. Their legacy. Yeah. The legacy of what they did. Yeah, I love.

We would want them to be like, damn, this is all out. You're just playing. You're just playing. You're just playing. You know, but nah. Yeah. It's real. Yeah, man.

And I love both sides. I love both sides. Yeah, I get it. I get it. I got to go on tour with them. Yeah, yeah. I got to, I didn't realize that I knew Cam before him and Jim linked. He said that he had put it on his freestyle.

Yeah. Freestyle with Clue, ironically. We just speaking about a clue earlier. And then, so yeah, man, I hope I hope, I wish him brothers are the best. Yeah, yeah. What are you doing something like that? Because do you get involved? Do you just, you let nature take it towards?

You can't do nothing about that. You got to respect that, you know, relationships are redefined every day. Right. You see what I'm saying? You may start off as a potential opt with a nigger and end up as an ally. Right, like you're doing almost. 100%. Right.

And then we watch brothers kind of have relationships that deteriorate. Yeah. And then we don't like to see that because we understand how, how important brotherhood is, you know? But when that is happening, you just got to just step back and just let that be, you know what I mean? Because I'm cool with Cam, you know? And, you know, but first time ever heard Cam, he was like, when it comes to being shot, when it comes to me and Jimmy, I'm like, me too.

Mm-hmm. Oh, yeah. You see what I'm saying? Like, they was brothers. Mm-hmm. Yeah. I remember that, man. I remember those days.

Yeah. I remember. I would never, I would have never, if you would have asked me, I would have never thought this. Me, who, I don't think, I don't, I don't, from a hip-hop standpoint, and in us being from New York, mm-hmm. I don't think anybody would have foreseen something like that.

Mm-hmm. Well, because it's like, for me, I didn't know how to handle it when Capone and Trage were going through their shit. You know what I'm saying? Like, me and Trash had went through our shit. Yeah, yeah, I was dissing each other. Yeah, we did one. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

We did disc records against each other. Yeah, you call him a crackhead. Yeah, definitely did. Yes, definitely. But we squashed it. And when we squashed it, him and Pone had their shit, but they had it, like,

it was, like, between us. So really, I understood how bad it could have been if one of them were the public. You understand what I'm trying to say? Like, because, because, yeah. Public makes it worse. Public makes it worse. It makes it worse because now we plan it out

in front of the world to see, You know, and everybody. And it, and it, I feel like it's pressure. Right. More people are you here. If we beefing with each other in, in public, now I got to deal with, especially now. Right. I got to, because now we get to hear what people thinking and see what they talk about.

Now I got to deal with the pressure of somebody saying, yo, you know what FN said about, man? Yo, you, you're going to say something back? Mm-hmm. You all are here looking soft, nigga. Mm-hmm. And I feel like a lot of people would be succumbing to that. Absolutely. They do.

Right. They might not admit it, but they do. Comments get on your ass. Right. I got to stay out the motherfucking comments. Yeah. Is that a pause? What's that pause?

No, cause. And I don't do pause, man. I can't. It ain't going to work for me. So, what was you, when was you, you eating pickle juice? What? When? When you opened up the, uh...

Oh, that was jar of relish. That was a jar of relish. Yeah, I love relish, man. All right, that's weird. Just so you look, I put relish. You put relish in the tunefish? But, no. Yeah.

But this is why I was like, Like, I think Mano's crazy because in the marathon, they give you pickle juice. Is relish in pickles cousins? Yes. They're cousins, right? Basically, it's made out of pickles. It's chopped up, diced up, really small pieces of pickle. Okay, well, that's the cheat code to run more.

I was like, this motherfucker's genius. What is that? Huh? I have no idea. I didn't have any of sodium. Pickle juice is a cheat code. The pickle juice is a cheat code. Like, I'm the 21st mile from a marathon.

Yeah, I guess. I don't know. I just didn't question the guy. The guy gave me a pickle juice. I was trolling. I was, because I had called academics a jar relish. Oh, I didn't know that. I said he built like a jar relish.

Yeah, I wasn't ready. Yeah. I wasn't ready. You built like a jar relish. You motherfucking jar relish. You know, so I was just trolling, so I had a jaw relish. Oh, I didn't catch that caught that. They knew what it was.

They knew what it was. I went right to the marathon. I should read it with my head. I was like, oh, man. He's like, he's running. He's running. I was like, oh, that's a secret. Yeah.

So now I guess when you see me with the jaw relish, now I'm running now. Yeah, yeah, yeah, you know what I'm man? Why, like, man, you know, you've been through, you survived the streets. Yeah. Survived the toughest part. Yeah. And when I hear you see something like that, like you say academics. Yeah.

Why do you indulge back? Sometimes. If I indulge with you, it's because I feel like. You worth it. You're worth it. Okay. That's real. I'm going to be honest.

Right? It's, if I don't say nothing back to you, it's like, it's you a piece of shit. Right. And it's like, it can't be me versus a piece of shit

because no matter how you still a piece of shit. Yeah. Right. Period. It's just me versus a piece of shit. Right. That's not going to happen.

Right. But, yeah, with him, he just was saying some things and I said something back and, you know, it is what it is. It's the algorithm, right? Right. Because I'm the biggest Floyd May Weather fan, right?

And sometimes I get mad like when Floyd take these exhibitions because no matter what, on that night, no matter who you fight, y'all on that same level. You know what I mean? It doesn't matter if you're 10 times above. You're right about that. But I feel like a lot of times with the Internet, we see in a different time right now, right?

With the things that go on on YouTube. Streaming. And we see like these guys building pages. and I ain't talking about academics, I'm just saying in general. Building pages, and their whole theme is to just go at artists and go at rapists and go at notable people and tear them down, right? And it doesn't matter if what they're saying is factual or anything. It's clickbait.

We want to build our pages. We want to monetize. It's content. You see what I'm saying? So sometimes you're like, man, I got to say something back. I got to think that's part of the strategy that you're falling into their clickbait? No, because now when you have to be, you have to say, have your own, when you got your own programming platform, now we, it's mine.

That's real. Now you got to reverse it like that. Now it's my. Fucking, fuck it. Because now, what I'm going to do? Because I can't beat you a truth. Because the lie's more entertaining. Right.

I can't beat it with your hands. Can't, no. How? Yeah. Like, fighting against ghosts, nigga, like who? Like who? And then we can't beat them with integrity because integrity doesn't matter on the internet. Right.

truth and integrity does not matter. You know what I mean? It's all about what's entertaining and, you know, what makes people laugh and what, if, I could be saying a realest shit to you, but if your jokes is funny about me,

you got it. Right, right. Oh, yeah. You know? And you recently went back to Rikers Island to talk to the kids. What was that like? I tried to do shit on Rikers Island as much as possible. They actually gave me my own program. I got a six-week

program. That's dope. I haven't implemented it yet because I'm trying to figure out exactly what I want to do. But my heart will always be for them young boys. Right. Because I was that. Right. I was the young nigga.

Is this young C-74? C-74. C-74. Okay. C-74. Yeah, that's the youngest. Yes. Let me tell you.

100%. Let me tell you, I was, I went back to C-74. To your same cell, right? Why I turn 18 at? It's crazy. Wow. In the Bing. That's crazy, yo.

I was so emotional. I almost let one go. I was like, damn. Like, it was because when I turned 18, I was in solitary confinement. And for those who do, no, he's not, he's not glorifying it. He's just saying he's going for him where he's at right now in life. This is why I came from. I want that to be clear.

I turn 18 years old. On Wriga Island. On Rikers Island. On Rikers Island in a Bing, in a cell. In 23-hour lockdown, August, 30. I'm like, man. I want, it's just, yo, the universe. Yeah, the universe is wild because that cell happened to be unoccupied.

Wow. And I walked in there and I just was like trying to just feel what I felt. Right. Like, just trying to remember what it felt like to be here, to live here, and can't get out and not know what to do with my rage and nothing to do with all this energy. I don't know what to do with it. All right. You see?

But, yeah, it's, so I try to get them, I try to talk to him as much as possible. I try to do as much as I can when it come to, you know, what they call at-risk youth and shit like that because we was young niggas going to spa for shit like that. You see what I'm saying? Yeah, 100%, yeah. Is there any different in the mentality that you see now with the youth than when you was in there?

Yes. I'm trying to say this in the right way. Like when I look at a lot of the young niggas because I feel like they influenced by so many other things that we wasn't, our influence was the need to get money by any means. If we got to shoot the shit out of somebody, we get it. We're going to do it. We're going to respect.

We're going to die for it. A lot of what they're doing is based around drug use and shit like that, getting high and peeled up and K2ed up. And, you know, in jail smoking K2. It's just, it's more of like a not conscious of what your full activity really is. It's like, I didn't really commit to these streets. I just was influenced by them. I did shit not because I felt like doing it or I meant to do it. everything I said I did, everything I did in my life, I meant to do it.

I wasn't influenced by drugs. I wasn't influenced by alcohol. I did what I felt like I had to do. What I see from them is I feel like the influence is like drugs, alcohol, you know, peer pressure, you know, being in gangs and shit like that. I don't feel like that's a real commitment. Right. I don't feel like it's a real commitment to streets. Right.

Because if I say, if I put this shit on my back and say, I'm going to beat this snobre. I'm going to be it. And I'm going to take everything that they come with. So when I see them, it's just like, it's like a look in their eyes that I don't remember seeing when I was a young nigga in that same thing. You don't see yourself in these kids? I see myself as far as, like, going through the experience.

I feel like when we was there, we were more determined on trying to get something. And then I was in Rikers Island when the phones was free. Oh, yeah. You know, you could wear clothes. You had jewels. And you had to defend for yourself. You couldn't hide behind no gang. Yeah, yeah.

You had to be who you said you was, right? You had to actually perform. You couldn't have been just a, you know what I'm saying? If you was a prison and jail revealed who you really are. Mm-hmm. You could have been to shoot them up gang bang, nigger. And in jail, you saw. In jail, you just, you saw.

You saw. So now we're going to see who you. Taking your hydrox. Taking your hot drops. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Taking your cheese. Look at that. Look at that.

Only jail niggas. Look at that. Only jail niggas. You understood what I was saying. Yeah, exactly. What's next for me? Everything, man. Okay.

I know you was acting. Acting is cool. You know what? I like to act, but I like to act in something that I'm producing even more. You see? Like, doing that as a. But just like being hired just to act, I don't like that hustle. Because I heard you say one time that you was looking to play a police officer.

Yeah, I want to be a... You want to do a teacher. No, yeah, yeah, I want to, I want to play a priest in a horror movie. Oh, shit. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, no, no, definitely. I want to be a fucking priest in the horror movie. Like, like, like, coming here, what they call me. when they're giving exorcism.

Yeah, like she's possessing. And I got to come in there with my shit on. You had a hat? You were Catholic priest? Yeah. Them the only niggins are getting exorcism. Them the only niggins. I got to be,

what do we do, father? Hold on, I got you. Hold on. Let me just tell you how everything is meant to be. So iced tea. He texted me this morning today. Yeah. And he texts me a song that he made a new song.

Guess what the name of his song? What? Hustle hard. Really? Hustle hard. Wow. Shout off the ice thing. Shout out of the ice team.

Shout out of the ice team, man. Super, super duble legend. Yeah, yeah, yeah. How is the Hustle Hard movie? Were you, we still hustling hard? Of course. Hustle Hard is more, it's not, to me and it, it's just really like what we do when we get up in the morning, all? Mm-hmm.

but you hustle all. And don't stop. You haven't lost a step yet. I've lost a couple steps, but it's okay. I'm outside, I'm outside, though. You're making it look good. You're going to look good. You stumble a little bit.

You get right back to it, though. Right? You don't just fucking... I miss a couple of later. I mean, listen, that comes with the journey. Yes, yeah, yeah. Come with a journey. You know what I mean?

What's the game if you don't miss a couple of shots? Right. But the thing is, you got to stay in the game, though. Stay in the game. That's the thing. And keep that smile. That smile. You got to keep smiling.

It's a million dollar, man. You got to keep smiling. Now, I also read one way. This was, this one made me nervous one time. Yeah. Where you was like, man, every time I get something new, I'll go to the hood. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I was like, damn, that was, because I understood where that was leading.

Yeah. But I didn't know if you would have respected my word. Tell me what your word. No, I would have been like, you know, that's not the right thing to do. Understood. Understood. Did you learn that's not the right thing to do? Or you still do that?

No, I don't do that no more. Okay, okay. Because it's no, it's no, you can't please, niggas, like, when you too accessible, they say, oh, here ain't nobody, that's just me, we're always on Gates of having here, there's nothing, you know, but when I got things new, my first Bentley, the first Bentley, the first, goddam, God damn,

this is the, look, let's the, first Bentley I ever had was a black coop. Ooh. So the first thing I did driving from, you know, Long Island was go straight to the hood. It's crazy. Wanted niggas to see me in it.

Not because I wanted to show off, because I felt, I thought that this was like motivation. I thought that, yeah, that happens. And I thought that I was like, I don't know, I always looked at myself as like. Motivation. Like, I come from y'all. Yeah, yeah, yeah, I come from the people,

so I am the people. I always looked at myself as that. Like, I'm not above, y'all. Like, y'all watch me out here suffering and struggling with y'all. Y'all, y'all know my story. I know I was in jail going through it. Y'all know I was in, you know, been through all this shit. So I was like, the first time I got that, it was just like a, let me go right to the hood.

Like you're saying, this is what we could do. Yeah, like, you want people to be happy for you. Yeah, but I don't know if that always translates. It doesn't. It doesn't. Yeah, it doesn't. I had to learn that. Yeah.

Because I didn't actually have people that, that I might have. I've respected, really giving me no real game in the game. Or people would experience. People would experience. You need experience to you. Because the nigga in the street, they didn't amount to anything. Can't really tell you. Right?

Because you're like, I ain't respected shit from you. So nobody really kind of gave me no real, real game. And now I understood. I had to learn the hallway about a lot of shit. It's funny because even the crackhead in the hood has great advice. It's just that he's a crack hand. You just don't want to listen to. They do.

You just sit back. You know how we look at him? Yeah. As something that we don't want to be. We don't want to be, but he'll still say you some shit like. He has wisdom, though. Yeah, he'll tell you some shit back, man. He's got the ultimate experience.

Yeah, he got to wait for them streets and be on them corners. You're like, what? They got to be poetic with that. That's a fact. That's a fact. we all come into this with a facade that this guy is this person, this guy is this person, and when we get to meet, like, I don't want to meet my heroes no more. I heard that.

I don't want to meet my heroes no more, bro. Like, I'm so scared to meet Larry David because if he disappoints me, this is one of my guys, man. Love Larry David. Was there ever a time you wanted to meet somebody and just was like, oh. I think that happens often. Yeah? I think we see people from afar, and then we have this kind of illusion of who we think they are.

The idea of who, and then we're seeing them, it's like, man, he's not who I think he was. But the real shit is that, the real shit is that in the reverse, that's you too. Yeah. Yep. People meet you and be like, yo, I thought you was just like this angry guy, like this fucking, just wild. Oh, God, it's like, you're really cool, like you're funny. Like, I would have never known. All right.

You see what I'm saying? So it kind of works in reverse, you know, but I don't have high expectations of people, though. I did. I did. I did. I did. He started laughing. Like, I know what you're talking about?

I know just who the fuck he's talking about. You're high expectations for niggas. Then you met him and be like, this niggas are fucking. I'm so, but I got years of experience, though. My shit is not just like 10 years. I got like 25 years of like, yo, me being skeptical to meet people. Right. And not only meet them.

What the fuck, man. Because you could keep up with an act for a certain time, but that act is going to run out. Like, for instance, Dr. Dre is exactly who I thought he was. Like, he's exactly like, I got to spend a whole day with him, go to his house. That's a milestone, man. His neighborhood, and like, he was exactly, and this is, and this is a guy. That's a god.

That's a god. So, like, as a guard, you, like, you don't want, you don't want to be let down on the road. I came late a little bit on purpose. Just to see, on purpose. Yeah, just, just for me to be like, you know, you, you that nigga too. You know, you're saying.

You know, imagine he would have told you, I judge people by how. I would have been like, my bad. I'd have been like, my bad. Anybody, yeah, any, any, any, any, any, any, any, any, Did Norrie ever tell you how I snuck the gun in the house In the club for me

Yeah, I was one doing the court that night Yeah I know that's true I snuck the gun in the car It wasn't just norris It was all right collectively No Nah

I'm saying Mayno was still fresh On the street Let me take it in the story You tell me for a role Mayno was still fresh up the streets And I'm like nah We're deep in there and we good

He's like yo Norrie I don't go in nowhere Without the hammer And security We got a mission You're coming in, no problem. I was like, I'll hold it for you. I was like, I'll hold it for you. I'm sitting in, I'm sitting in a truck.

I'm like, nah, my nigga, I ain't going in. I remember that day like it was yesterday. That's a bad. Noor said, give it to me. I got it. I hold it. Yes. Took the grip in there for me, man.

That's crazy. And then it's like, make you feel safe. Like, yeah, you want to love, and we're really safe. I understand. I understand that New York mentality, bro. As a back. That's a bad. It was all loving that club.

It was all good. Yeah, definitely. But you know, you know, you know, You understand the mentality, right? I asked this question the other day. I was just like, is the streets, is it a physical place or is it a mentality? What are they calling it now? They said the streets is what?

So I'm asking, is it, is the streets a physical place or is it a mentality? Oh, I think it's both, man. I think we got to take a shot to that. Yeah. We do. Yeah, I think it's both. Yeah, I think it's both. It's both, okay.

But if they gentrify it. that same neighborhood, then what? Oh, then, then you win on that. Then it becomes a mentality because it can move anywhere. Yes. And that's the thing. Yes, that's real. That's deep.

I'm from Bestai, right? And that's like the, like a heavily gentrified neighborhood. Yeah, you got Starbucks now. The theater! Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. No, they got even more than that. Yeah, you got cappuccinos and all. Cabachinos, white ladies, walking with dogs.

You got Dumbo House? Yeah, that's down in Williamsburg. Yeah, yeah, yeah. This is the next door neighbor. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But yeah, it's real. Yeah. We got...

But you can still go to Fort Green and get robbed. Absolutely. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And even in best side, you can't. Yeah, of course. Walking the same block. Yes, yes. But you got the ladies walking around with their poodles and fucking shit suit dogs and they, they, they, they did, what's those?

There's little sand in Burkin, the burkin starts. We still don't know if it's good or bad, though, right? Because the crime. She's trying to understand. Yeah. Economically is bad if the ownership does. Right. Economically.

We should understand. Don't benefit for it. But it's good for the, I guess, the crime maybe, right? but then we shan understand what. what's happening here because it's like we used to hang out there. So they took the same corners. Did you have a little aquarium at one point?

It was a little aquarium, fish aquarium. Yeah, in Best Side. Yeah, in Best Side. Didn't it? No, who's on? They ran it over. Yeah. There was no fucking aquarium. Yeah. There was no fucking aquarium.

Yeah, it was like, it was like made. It was like made. Yeah. Oh, oh, yeah. The personal maid that is like family to me. Okay, yeah, so I'm trying to say. I'm on who it was. It explains all of them.

It was. It was on Jefferson. Jefferson and Tompkins. It was a, you know what the Johnny pump is. We called the hydrant. The fire hydrant. He made like a little... That attached to it?

Yeah, no. No, in the water, he made like this, this contraption where it was like real fish in there. Yeah, it was the most creative shit I've ever seen. The most creative shit ever. Like, and this guy's like family with me. Like, he made this and it's, it was really nice. It was, they said Jada kids came down and see it. Yeah, they're flying in from all over,

Over the world. It was real small, but it was, it was dope. It had like goldfish in there. You understand? Goldfish on the sidewalk. I was mad as a motherfucker. They wrecked it. I was like, damn, we can't have nothing.

Shout out the hogs, man. And I didn't even know you knew him yet. Yeah, I didn't even know you knew him. Send it? Let me want to say that. Yeah, look at that. Yeah, like real goldfish. That's great.

And like, the little Nemo fishes. Do you think you're Brooklyn? your old school Brooklyn, did you ever think that this Brooklyn would ever exist? I didn't even think I would make it to this Brooklyn. Wow. I'm going to be honest with you.

I never looked. I never thought like, I'm going to live to be. I never thought in terms of that. Right. But just being a hundred with you. That's dope. That's dope, right?

Yeah, yeah, yeah. And you even got a Maineo day. A Mayno day, yeah. A main old day. In my neighborhood that I grew up. That's fucking something like... Yeah, it's major. Okay, so how did that come about?

So I was doing things from my neighborhood without so-called broadcasting and I was like always doing like coat drives and coming to the neighborhood. Yeah, with Macy's or something like that, right? Yeah, so Macy's used to give me like $60,000 worth of coats. Maybe like 40, between $40,000 and $60,000 worth of a coast every year. And I would take those coasts.

They was brand new coast, but it was like the inventory. And I shout out the bless, because he don't want to patch me in with that. And what happened was I would take those coats and bring them to my neighborhoods. There was, there was like females, young kids, and women's coats. And I would give them out mostly like every year. And then I would like try to do as much as I could for my, for my neighborhood. And then I got approached about having a day in my name.

It's like, that was, that was different. Because I only thought, niggas, you had to die to get a day. Yeah, or your name on the streets. Yeah, yeah. You got to be gone to get that. Yeah, yeah. So what does Mano Day consist of? So when I asked him, I said, listen, you're going to give me this day?

It's going to be like, what is it? Okay. I was trying to understand. It was like the Brooklyn Borough President. We're going to give this day the Meno, and it's going to be this day of service, and I'm listening to him talk, and I'm just like, all right, I know what to do. First thing first, I want to make the day my mother's birthday. Oh.

Okay. May she rest in peace. I want to have it. I want to celebrate her birthday at the same time, but I want to do something for the, that wasn't done for us. Let me block off two city blocks. Can I do that?

I had this vision. I was like, I want to block off two city blocks. And I want to, on one end, I want to have a stage for the local artists. On the other end, I want to have all these functions for kids, rides, bouncy houses, trucks. ice cream, food, and all that.

And in the middle, I wanted to be festival style like with vendors, giving away things. I don't want to sell nothing to the hood. Right? And my vision, we did that.

Two years in a row, right? Two years in a row. We did that. No violence. It's lit. I'm talking about, it's huge. Like, I was watching,

I was like going around looking at what Spike Lee been doing, because Spike Lee does something in Bedstart, too. Every year, a big block party. Oh, wow. For, I'll do the right thing.

So I was, like, looking at what he was doing. I was like, I see what. So I got two city blocks. Mm-hmm. I'm going for three this year. Right. Right. My permit.

And really make this, it's a festival style. I had mothers come to me and say, thank you because I couldn't afford to take my kid to an amusement park. Yeah, yep. All right. Raid Adventures and shit like that. Rob Playland. And you out here bringing rides.

Right. Plately land to the hood. You out here doing that. So thank you. You know, and we're giving away book bags, sneakers, shirts. I got health care out there. Shout out the Metro Plus coming out there, signing people up for health care. You know, I'm just trying to, like, give back at the same time, you know what I mean?

Right. Word. You ever thought you would have a Maine all day? Fucking no. Man, damn. And definitely not a lie. Okay. Let's keep the real.

Okay, so we got things for the kids. We got things for the... Local artists, things for families. But then where's the after party at? Scarletts. Possibly. Possibly. Starless, possibly.

Starless, all right. My bad. Scarlest is out here. I'm bucking. I'm sorry. Starless. I'll be in New York in a minute. Listen, my back.

It's always, I mean, I like to have a good time. Yeah, you like strip clubs. A lot. A lot. Told you I lost the rolling. Oh, yeah, it says. Right. I was how.

Don't do Molly's when you. I was, I was, it was, hob, two Mollies. Two, you said, you ain't saying two. I was half a lot. You do the extra one in there, real quick. It was a mission in there that night. Oh, I know about the midget. Yeah, I know about the midget.

I wanted that midget that night. Oh, you, you were different. That Molly had me different. I was like, yo, no, but I lost it on the comeback. Like, I woke up that was gone. Like, the girl that was in the room with me. Right. She was gone?

Yeah, she was gone. The watch was gone. You know, I learned my lesson, though. Yeah, you got, listen, sometimes you take bumps and bruises on the journey. For sure. You know, we still here, though. Say what? Linda.

No, she was gone, nigga. Out of there. Gone. I woke up. Yeah, gone. 132 in the morning. I'm gone. I'm gone.

We've seen you on love of hip-hop. Are you actually, because we heard you say you getting married on the radio. is this actually... I want to get married, man. I believe you. It's going to happen. I believe you. It's going to happen.

I'm going to set the date first, though. Oh, shit, you ain't even set the date. My information is wrong. So last year, last year, you got to understand what's happening. Okay. Understand me? Okay, I'm here. Last year I set a date.

Oh, you did set a date? For July 26. Mm. Okay? I went to Robbie suits and picked out a tuxedo. Okay. I went and sat with a wedding planner. Okay.

I went to Maza and picked out a ring. Okay. I did all this before I even had a wedding, like a, like a, like a, like a, like a, like a, like a, like a, like a, like a, like a, like a, like a, yeah, I did that first. And that's how I'm going to do it. I'm a, I'm going to, I'm going to, I'm going to set up the party and then bring, I'm going to set it up. And then all she got to do is show up. Yeah.

I'm going to make, I'm going to make my life. Not just anybody, man. I'm going to make my life easier. And if need be, I'll have The bridesmaids are ready there for you You need be You got pre-picked brides Yeah, I've never heard of my home girls

This might be the most genius shit I've ever heard I'm trying to keep it a hunch Yeah, yeah This is a reality show already itself He sounds Nothing is impossible, my brother Believe that Trust me

Sonny could be the person that marries you guys You're a preacher? No So we're going to get reverber one to do it. Who else is a preacher? You get everyone to do it? Who else? I feel like Ray J is a preacher too. Mace. Mace. Mace.

Mace can do it. Mace. Mace is a preacher. Definitely. Mace can do it. And we got one more. Daddy Yankee, I think. Oh, yeah, Daddy Yankee. I don't think he's a preacher. I just think he's Christian. Let's just roll with it, man. Just roll with it. If you're a Christian, you're a preacher. Just roll with it. Christian, preacher. You can do it.

You got the good. book, you can do it. Straight up. If you believe, you can do it. So, who? Oh, malice. That's who I was looking for. Malice.

Malice. Yeah, he's a preacher. Yes. If you believe in the Lord, you can preach. He married a preacher. No, he married, Pushcher.

He didn't marry Puscher. He got, he. Oh, he married. I got you. That's just sounding crazy. Yeah, yeah. We're sounding all, Fuchs. At my wedding,

my preacher is going to fly down. Oh, like, like, like, Like, like, you got Metstyman? Like, Druski, I had Juski did it. Like, Betty man? Like, you see how Drewski did it? Oh, you got to have Druski in character doing it. Right, you're going to fly down with Louis Vuitton on and all that.

Okay. I need one of them, niggas. So you really got a wedding plan. I'm going to re-plan it because I didn't make it to July 26. That was last year. Right. So I'm going to announce a new date for this year. But you have a woman, correct?

No. No. I don't got no. He's announcing the show without the supporting acts. There's no woman. Okay. So, because I heard they say, like, that's what they say. And that's why they say at the weddings and this woman,

because it could be anybody, like, or they say this is a loyal and graphic man because they have the tuxedos. Right. So anybody can go in there. Like, I've never heard of this. Like, how you. Yeah, this is different. It's different.

This is different. Who would be your best man at your wedding? I'll have a couple. Okay. A few best men. We have some rappers and regulars. Let's name who. We got to do shit out of the box, bro.

Okay. They can't do the same. same thing over and over again. So I have a two, a couple homies, lobby boys. Yeah, lobby boys.

I like that. I like that. Let's drink to that. Let's drink to that. Okay. Definitely fucking lobby. So it would be, it would be,

Fab. Okay. Jim. Okay. Dave. Okay. Yep. Why not?

Do my guys? What, what Uncle Murder make your wedding party? Uncle murder. I love Uncle Murder. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. I love Uncle Murder, man. I love Uncle Murder.

That's my brother. I love Uncle Murder. We started this shit together. I respect that. We started this shit together. Like, it's Maine on Uncle Murder records that go all the way back to 2005. Wow. It was Maineo, Uncle Murder, Coppone in Noriega.

Yep. On the dog pound. Yellow tape is classic. You know what I mean? But I just think, you know, circumstances and time. I don't want to say it redefine our relationship because I still feel like, because me and that,

we never even had an argument ever. I still feel like the respect is there, but, you know, he with 50. And you understand when being with 50, he requires loyalty. He requires a, like the sense of loyalty, like, nigga, you better not, you know, he's different.

Which is real. At this point right now, I don't think what we got with 50 is serious. I think that that's just for him is definitely, I think he's somewhere like laughing at the same time. Oh, 50. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, I see that.

When he's like throwing low shots at niggins or whatever. But I think for murder, his, this is what changed his life. And that has to be respected. So it is what it is. Yeah. You know? I respect that. I hope y'all get it together too.

No, but who? You're a murder, yeah. No, we don't have no. No, I'm just saying. I love y'all together. Like, if there's another album that could be made. Yeah, yeah. Yeah.

Yeah, I would like to hear it, bro. But I don't know if that, I don't know in the climate if that could actually happen. Okay. You know what I mean? We talked about loyalty. Yeah. And we talked about picking our sides. Mm-hmm.

And it's understandable when you're, size I pick. I don't have no problem with a nigga that picket size. I understand it. I respect it. You see what I'm saying? Right. And I had a relationship with 50. We were super cool. Because he has something to do with putting you on as well, right?

Absolutely. Absolutely. I was signed on line. I was signed a universal. We talked about that. We talked about that. Universal dropped me. I was back in the hood. I was at Ryo House on Monroe.

between No shit and Marcy in his basement recording records in the hood. I'm trying to figure it out. 50 at that point had a relationship with my brother 80. 80 called me and said, look, I'm up here with, I'm in 50 office with him right now. We're kicking it. Next thing you know, but then the hour, I'm getting phone calls from Atlanta. Yo, you got a meeting. Craig, how many?

Yeah, they call me from Atlantic. Got a meeting. They want me up at Atlantic. What happened was, Fiddi asked them and said, yo, what y'all doing? Like, you know what I mean? He's like, you know, we're talking to Atlantic

because I had, at that point, once I got dropped to Universal, we was in talks with Atlantic. Oh, you know how they're talking. Yeah. But you know how them talks are. And let me ask you, what regime is that in Atlanta?

Is that Craig Calman? Is that Julie Greenwald? Yeah. Mike Kaiser in them? Or that's just Craig Calman. It's Craig Calman, but all those people together. Okay, they're together. Okay.

So that's the old death jam coming over. Yeah. Okay. Oh, seven. Okay. 50 said to my brother 80, yo, you want me to call over there?

Mm-hmm. Yeah, they're talking, but they act like they want to do something. They didn't do it yet. What's up? He called over there and tell him, yo,

let me speak to Craig. Get Craig on the phone. Yo, look, you, what you're doing with me now? Yeah, you know, we're talking. Listen, if you, if I could do it, I would do it. They got their movement.

Yeah. That's some niggas. Hung that phone up, they was on my line. By the time they hung that phone up, I was getting called into a meeting. That's how powerful he was, and influential he was. So for me, I always had a,

when it came to that, that's real. Right. I'm a nigga that, I don't never forget that type of shit. Now, mind you, right? I got people upset about the relationship that me and him building. At that time.

At that time. My son, his mother, right? His mother is upset about that because her brother is the person that they blame for shooting him. Wow. Okay, so when he talk about Hamo, that's my son's uncle. my son is named Zane Darrell Coleman Darrell was his name

I never met him though so I didn't feel the like a like a connection to that like I just felt like that was the circumstances and you know and out of respect I get it

that that's the family you know what I mean but the relationship that me and him was building, you know, I was, it was like, what, like, nigga, you helped me. Right. So I never, I never forgot that. Right.

You see what I'm saying? Like, that was something that I always kept with me, like, this thing, and I never, and that's all you got to do for a nigga like me. You mean, I'm not, I'm not asking for no song. I'm not asking for nothing else. That you did enough, you know? But, yeah. So, and even still, with the relationship that me and him was building at that time,

I still was hearing shit like, oh, how could you, you know, be it, you know, fuck with somebody that, you know, your son's family. And I didn't understand, you know, I didn't get it. But, you know, it was what it was. Wow. That's a crazy connection, man. Right. And then what did T.I. have to do? I know we spoke about it earlier.

What did T.I. have to do with the beginning of your career? Was that, did he come in? in Atlantic? Tip, yeah. Tip was definitely helpful. Tip wanted to sign me to Grand Hustle. That didn't actually work out. So I never fully signed the Grand Hustle.

That was the time they had the big dude. Well, who was? Country Cane? Yeah, country, yeah. Shout to Country King. Country King, yeah. Yeah. Yeah, I never signed to Grand Hustle.

We talked about it. We was trying to figure out what that was because what happened was Atlantic was signing me direct. You know? And sometimes I think like maybe... Like if you would have did it through T.I. Didn't it would have to be through him and you're saying...

Right, right. They were signing me direct. Yeah, it was a better bag for you. Yes. Yeah. He said it was a better back. I'm trying to say. Like, it's not...

It's not... It's not... It's not... Yeah. It was no cut. It was no cutting. It was hustle hard directly with Alani. Right.

Now, you recently... I had a picture with Jay, right? Yeah, yeah. And it looked like you was relieved, like for some reason. Like, it looked like you was like, yo, man, I finally, I felt like, now, this is me speculating. I felt like you had to tell him something at that very moment. And after that moment was the picture.

Now, I'm speculating. He told me he watched the show. This is when the kitchen talk was out. This is my kitchen talk. Yeah, okay, okay. I was surprised about that. Right, right. He watches everything.

I was super surprised. So that's what that moment was. Like he was telling me, oh man, I watched the show. Like, I'm like, what? Yeah. You watch everything. You watch me, nigga? You know?

I mean, this is hole. You know, we look at Holt with a certain lens, you know? But what happened? Why was it even in a discrepancy? Did you, it wasn't intense rumors. What did you say about Hull? You got to know that when I came in a game, I came in a game with a lot of,

Like, yeah, like, it's the woo lines. Like, you want somebody to say woo. Yeah, like talking crazy, you know, saying shit that not having somebody school me to the game. You see, the thing is, my perception of the game was, at that point was getting out of prison, I'm telling my niggas, yo, we really, who we say we are. Right. We really involved with the shit that we're involved with. these niggas is just acting we can be that

we can we can show the world and I had this perception of like we're gonna show them we're gonna out tough these niggas and out reel them right like show the world like they not who they are and we're the genuine article and that was

that was the most primitive thought ever right because it's really dumb do you think if that line wouldn't it came out you guys would Embrace each other. Which line? Like I'm saying you're like taking a shot at Jay or whatever.

Because I said mad shit. Okay. Earlier on. I said shit about Jim Jones. The whole song, Woolworth was like, her Jay was a scary dude and all this shit. Like I'm talking about like, I literally went to Marcy and shit. They was like, yo, he don't come to Marcy. And I'm listening to this dumb shit.

He don't come to Marcy. Why? Well, you know, you know. What we say that's equivalent to 50s how to rock? Yes. Yes. Which kind of inspired me. Right.

Of course. Let's keep it real. And which is inspired by Biggie, he's fucking an R&B bitch. Absolutely. But he was just talking about R&B. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And I'm just talking about the room and the energy. It's the same format, though.

Yeah, all three is the same format. Yeah. So, so I'm saying shit, I'm shooting videos because what? What are we trying to do? We're trying to get attention. Right. Right? Right?

Right. Right? Yeah. I seen the niggas say, you know, you came in a game trolling. Why are you mad at me? Who's somebody else? Yes. I said, you're right.

Or somebody else trolling you. Yeah, too much all that makes. So I'll. But you admit it to it? Right, yeah. You got to be out of it. Because you know what? Because when you feel like there's no other options, you do what you feel like.

You have a survival. Can I admit one thing? Yeah, yeah. My very first record, L.A.A. That's arguably one of the biggest trolls. L.A. L.A. L.A. That's true. Damn.

You're supposed to agree. Like that age. It's true. It's true. Yeah. But arguably one of the very first troll records because we had never even been to L.A. Like, we ain't leave Jamaica Avenue, let alone Jamaica. Like, we were, like, we didn't even know what L.A. smelled like.

Been on a planet for 25 years and still, the world is burned. Oh, my God. So we made L.A.A. What? And we never even knew what kind of like we were talking about. And I tell you this. I tell you this. But you didn't go hard.

We didn't because... That's the thing. It's the hook mainly. But I'm agreeing with him. I'm saying like that was that attention like real quick. And we got it real quick. And then New York big had our back. Right.

When you feel like you ain't got no other options? Well, hold up. Sorry to cut you, but Tim Dogg's the first. Fuck Compton. Oh, shit. That's the first of that. Yeah. That's a good one.

Shout to Tim Dog. Yeah. Shout Tim Dog. Rest and piece of Tim. Yeah. He died? Yeah. Tim Dog died?

Didn't he? No, Tim Dogg isn't. I just heard rest of peace coming off. No, he didn't. Y'all got to stop the shit y'all going back here. Got to be honest with you. Paul, did he pass? You just...

No, why not? Is Tim Dogg? No, I think, yeah, no. Tim Dog died? Oh, shit. See, this is how fucked up our world is. Someone throws a fact out. I agree with the fact.

Then someone said, no, that's not a fact. And we all fucked us. Like, AI in real life. What's really fucked up is that we didn't know he passed 10 over 10 years ago. I remember when he back. God bless him though, man. Yeah, real, peace.

What's crazy as I was doing mad research on you, right? And I went online, I seen an interview from you from six years ago. Yeah. The interview for you six years ago, it was, Envy was, y'all was playing around, but it was like, you kind of kept bringing up, like, street shit, street shit,

but I'm not gonna say to that part. The part that intrigued me was, like you start talking about Nipsey Hustle. Yeah. And I believe your words was, man, if that shit could happen to Nipsey Hustle, yeah. It can happen, you know.

Do you think that was a mistake for Nipsey going back to the hood? Was it a mistake for him to be back? I mean, for him to be invested in the hood like that. Not invested. Like you just said, right? You said you gave coats back to the hood. You got this main old day. And I still go do things, though.

Yeah, I know. I'm asking this particular, because, you know, we actually got to run with Nipsey Hustle brother, Black Sam, the Marathon. We're doing it February 21st in L.A. You know what I'm saying? And this is something I'm asking you as an East Coast as a federal legend. Do you think that that was a mistake for Nipsey invested into the hood? What I mean by it invested?

I mean his time and I mean the actual store, like having it there. We only will say that in hindsight. Mm-hmm. Right. Mm-hmm. We only will say that because of what happened. Mm-hmm. If had that not happened, we would be like, yo, he's a real nigger.

We would salute him for what he's doing. We would commend him for that. You know, we would be like, yo, he's, he's in the community. He's giving back to the community. He cares about the community. So I can't say that that was a mistake. I feel like that that was an incident that reminds you that what could happen. When you're so accessible.

Right. When you're so accessible. and the mentality of the hood. Can you blame the community straight up? I think that that could possibly happen if he invested somewhere else. The hood will follow you anywhere. You can't blame the community, especially

because generally speaking, he was loved. Right. Right. Generally speaking, I'm loved in my community. Right. So. The issue could go anywhere. But you have.

You got that one person. You got those one, those two people that so upset with their lives, so upset with what they see in the mirror that they hate you more than they hate their situation. Right. Yeah. They would spend more time plotting on how to knock you off

than put energy into fixing their situation. But my question is this, had he done the same thing in Santa Monica and people knew he was there daily, right. Might not the same thing eventually happen there? Right, right. What you're saying is right.

Anything that happened anywhere. Right. Yeah. You can't blanket blame their community as a whole. Right. Because when you... It goes back to what we said earlier. Sorry, we cut you off.

But the streets is a... It's a mentality. It's a mentality. It's a mentality. Because most... Let's think about the streets. Let's think about our ghettos. Right.

The majority of our ghettos are filled with... Working-class families. that don't adhere to street roofs. Right. Those mothers, those fathers that get up. You are so right. You're right, bro. And go to work, get on a train, get on the bus, to go to work. Right.

They got kids. They're not part of the streets. The streets is a small community of people that come from there, right, that kind of delve into a certain lifestyle. Everybody that's from your projects or your block wasn't, incident shit that you was doing. It was a small portion of people when you think about the largest scheme of things.

Everybody is not like, come on, think about your building. How many people in your building really was selling drugs? Not even half. How many people in your building was really shooting shit? Not even half. Not even half.

You know, drugs affected a lot of our families, but everybody didn't fall victim. And that's the thing. You get older. you start to understand that it's a little of the mentality. When I was young, I used to go to church

in 40 projects, right? And I used to meet with these women. I mean, like, you know, and the church woman, the church woman. And they used to go back to 40 projects. They never knew they lived in the hood at all. Right. To the little, the hood was saying,

people were still carrying their bags. Like, you know, their grocery bags. So these ladies was like, they never looked at it like they were in. I understand it because when you don't have anything to measure it against, you don't have nothing to compare it to. If you lived in dark all this time and never seen light, you would figure out how to make the best of the dark. You wouldn't have nothing to compare it to. You wouldn't be like, oh, my God, it's light.

You don't know light. All you know is the dark. So the pain that comes from being in an impoverished neighborhood doesn't start to feel like pain. unless you have something to compare it to. Mm. Mm. Let's go to a couple of your records. Let's go through some more.

Damn, that aquarium did look good, bro. That aquarium was in. That should look crazy. I pictured some little-ass things. It was cute. Yeah. Yeah, I was happy. People were flying in for all over.

Yeah, that was like a... So, wait, so how did it get destroyed? I think someone backed up into it like Maine OJ did with Ku Herks from Kuda. Oh, my God. Don't get that. Yeah. I mean, that was a... I admit it something and I never admit it.

You had to take that. You do me to all of you? What do you do me to all of you, man? I hope you have to work on drink chance, and I hope you come. Yeah. And I'll punch out of the first. Yeah, we got to get him a new school and all that.

Yeah. You're going to have a half, man. That's real. Um, okay. You're going to remember my name. Yeah. Gotta be one of your hardest, hardest. Yeah.

I've had, like, fighters that come out to that. You don't remember my name. Damn, I ain't even think of that. That is a fighting song. Yeah. Oh, we got to put that on the run camps. Oh, shit. Damn.

Yeah. Oh, yeah. Yeah, inspiration. So where was you at, man? Mentally. First album, man. Mm-hmm. You know, I'm not glazing you, but let me let's let you know how hard your first album is.

I was hired when I downloaded it. I downloaded the clean version. And never knew. Like, just kept. playing the shit. And then I played it at a barbecue somewhere and it's like, yo, you know, you've got the clean version. I was like, I didn't even know.

That's how hard. I was so satisfied for the music. I was very, very, very seeing for where you come and like, and then listening to that. That's one of a perfect album. That first album was really. They say you spend your lifetime making your first album. As they say, because you talk about

your truth, your energy, your life and all that. Your childhood, you know, turn it into an adult, whatever you've been through in that time, and then you make your first album. And after that, everything else after that, you're trying to figure it out. Like a crackhead getting their first high.

Yeah. They keep chasing that thing high. Absolutely. Yeah. So remember my name. Where's your mentality? Where you at? What studio are you at?

I'm in Blast off studio. That sounds like a pause. Yeah, it doesn't dust. It's with a pause. Yeah, it sounds like a pause. And I don't even play pause, but it sounds like that. Blast off studio. Wow.

If it pauses you, then pause. Yeah, sure. I don't even want to ask where that's at. Yeah, yeah. And time square. You know, and, you know, at that point, like, I felt like I had a point to pool musically. Like, I'm trying to come with the street shit and energy, just pains, you know what I mean? And, but trying to paint a picture, you know?

Mm-hmm. Lord. Uh, now, in the Tupac movie. Tupac movie. You play the niggas that's kidding Tupac. Yeah. Is that weird? Like, when you go on the West Coast?

Like, because... You know how many people said that I don't fuck with you because you shot Tupac? I'm like, nigga, it's a movie. Yeah, no, no, no, no. You know how many people was mad at me behind that? I ain't a lie. Yeah. You don't, you don't...

Like, I really did it? Yeah. But did you shoot them or you laid them down. I didn't fucking shot them. I did that, though. What the way? That's how crazy. That's crazy.

I did shoot them. Okay. In the movie, though. In the movie. Yeah, I shot Tupac. Yeah. So, okay. In the movie.

Yeah. In the movie. I shot Tupac. Come on, guys. Come on, man. People clips shit up crazy now. I shot Tupac. Yeah, it's just.

In the movie. In the movie. Yeah, but your pause is wild right now. Your pause is very endable. All right. Hold on. I shot Tupac. I shot Tupac.

in the movie I shot Tupac in the movie Yeah you got it Yeah Yeah It was acting It was acting Only the movie though

I didn't realize I always wanted to ask you that Because Like Pock is not a regular A dude Like No not at all If you're a Pock fan

You're like a Trump supporter Nothing Yeah It's get you away from that shit Yeah Die hard Yes Fanatic

Niggas in my comments Listen I start I start fucking with you ever since I've seen you shoot Tupac. What? You said, what? You can't even be mad at that, though.

It's like, for this fans. You do know. You do know. It was just a movie. And then when I, you couldn't pop. When the movie came out, you know I just had a little part. Right? Yeah.

You think this is a rap video? Yeah. You think this is a rap video we told you, nigga, to lay it down. Right. Right? I rented a whole movie theater. Oh, I did the same thing. whole theater, like the whole room, like 7,200, whatever the seats was, rented it out.

You know what I mean? Just for that part, you know, had the whole boss set up. Like, it was crazy. You know, we got overdo it. Congratulations. So the problem with that, that's not a problem with that scene, but that scene is, it's real, Brooklyn dudes, it's Brooklyn dudes in there. Yeah.

Was you ever skeptical? Oh, this is a Quad Studio shooting that's depicting. No, what's, what's you? You thought it was. No, no, no. He was in Vegas. For a second, I was in Vegas. He was in Vegas?

In my mind right now. They never depicted that. Right, right, right, right. They never depicted what that looked like. Right. So, all right, because obviously Benny Boom is the director. Yeah, shout out to Benny Boom.

Benny Boom is actually a New York director. Absolutely. He receives slack off top from from everyone who's saying, oh, man. Right, a New York nigga's time of the story. Yeah, I think he's from Brooklyn, right? Is he in Brooklyn? I believe he is.

And then he actually hires real Brooklyn dudes to play the bad Brooklyn guy role. Yeah. Like, did you read that and be like, wait a minute? Yeah. How does this happen? Listen, I was in a zone. I was in a zone so hard that the nigger that looked like the nigger that played pop. Yeah.

I was asking him, was he okay? Okay. Am I hurting you, my nigga? No. Because Boone told me to just be your natural self. Expense out. If you was in that position. And I was losing it, the shit that I'm saying.

If you go back and listen to that movie, everything that I'm saying in that movie, none of it was in the script. Oh, it shouldn't be. He went in. I'm sorry. You think this is a rap video, nigger? You know what happened to rapists that think this is a fucking video? Oh. Yeah, I was, it was crazy.

Yeah, it was crazy. I was somewhere else. Mm-hmm. And I remember like, like, you okay, bro? Because I felt like I was a method actor. I was on. Yeah, I was to ask you. You're method acting.

I was on the set with the grip the whole time. You was ready. For those of that they don't know what the method actor is, is a person who stays in character the whole time. They go on the set. They do not break character. Yeah. They tell you if his name was Matt Choi,

they say, you got to call him Matt Choi. You got to call them the character. All me the character. That's what a method Eric. Yeah. Method. Method, yeah. For those that don't know.

And so now, you went to movie theater that this comes out. Yeah. What is the reaction besides these guys on Twitter? Like, is this like... I mean, your people are going to look. Soon my park comes. Like, oh! Yeah, yeah.

My mom's ready. She's resting in a picture sitting right next to me. She's, oh, my God. My son is in the front of the movie. Even though this is ultraviolet. You know what I mean? your mom's going to root for you regardless. I brought my mom to the movie theater when I was smashing in the movie.

I forgot. Jesus Christmas. I was mad. I was mad on the country. Was that state property? Yeah. I was like, I forgot. I got this part.

And I'm looking at my mom's way. I was like, what the fuck? Cover her eyes. I read the whole movie theater. For real. I know we spoke about it earlier with the acting, but is that something? And I know you said you like producing more. Yeah.

But is that something you, You would like to pursue acting or? They want to produce. Yeah, yeah. We know about the priest. We know about you with the priest. Definitely, right? Because I want to step outside of what.

You as a priest. As a priest. You step outside of what people think they generally know about me, think, you know, this goon or like the gangster role. You know? The acting is like it's a lot of work. And it takes up a lot of time. So it's like, I want to be involved with the think tank.

Let's figure out this movie. Let's sit down. Let's write it out. Let's figure out how to produce it. Let's figure out how to get it funded. I'm more or less in that space than it is to me just pursuing acting, me getting an Asian and just going to read for roles. I don't want to just do that.

Okay. Asian. I thought you were Asian. It feels like you're going to get an Asian for that. I wouldn't get Asian for that. Not for that. Definitely not for that. Agent. Didn't you have a show called Star Tenders or Bar?

I did a documentary. Like a porn? No, it's like about the bar. You got something against porn, nigga? You got something against porn? No, no, no. It's like about the bartenders. No, no, for real.

That's a real question. You don't like porn? No, I'm good. Okay, good. We're in the Point Capital of the World. All right, cool. Miami. Yeah, they block you porn.

Everybody here. He can't work for a porn company at one point in the way. Or at least for only fans. Yeah, yeah. So, the documentary? So I did a documentary. It's called a doll out of time. A dollar at a time.

And it's about the strip club culture in New York City. Or how people come to the strip clubs in New York City, they ain't coming to see the dance. They come to see the bartender. That's a little secret, though. Yeah. So it's about that. I'll show you the trailer.

It's about how, like, I produced that. Okay. Shout out to my man, Jay, Jay Rodriguez, because he's, you know, mastermind that with me. People come to the strip club in New York to see the popping star tender or bartender or whatever. Our city is a little bit different. They're not coming really so much for the dancers. It's about that lit bartender.

What makes her lit, though? her following I'm saying Is it the drinks Is it her look No no no no it's her It's her It's her

It's her It's You got lit bar centers In New York City That people They have a certain aura about themselves That's crazy

That people Yeah it's a real thing Right It's a real thing When you think about Starlets Starlets is a Is a pretty

well-known strip club Worldwide You got You got people That come to Starlets From across the world They come to New York

And they say Oh we want to To see Tom Square And you know what else we want to see Starlets. Damn. And you know what made Starless Popman? It's not the dancer.

It was always the bartender. It was always and only about the bartenders when it came to that. So that was what the documentary was about is about that culture. It's different than Miami. Don't give a fuck about the bartender up there. Of course, but it's New York. They're going straight to the ass shaking. They go away.

Nowhere else on this planet is a bartender that revered. Wow, I didn't notice that. No, well, that is, that is strictly and specifically a New York thing. I wonder how that employment works, like how they trade off those contracts. Oh, look at that bag girls. Yeah, that was, I shot that in Detroit. Let me see? The bag girls, yeah.

So, all right, who got the better strip clubs, Miami or New York? with that information you just delivered. Like Miami, you're seeing pussy. Like, really. I wasn't ready. Like, you did. Why'd you get shot away from it? Hey, butt-ass naked.

He said, don't know of pussy. Don't talk about that. I forgot that part. Pussy is dead. Like, you're singing like, it's real. You can't really compare it. I think, I think New York. You think that's why the bartenders are more famous?

And we got great partenders down here, too, bro. What are y'all talking about, man? I'm not sure of that. I think the New York thing. I think the New York thing, I think it's the mystique of them. I think it's the law of them. I think it's the fantasy of them

because you see them on Instagram. Of the bartenders. You think of like a Bernice Burgos. You heard of her? Yeah. She used to make like a million almost a year. Where does she come from? She come from Starlets.

Damn, I ain't know that. That's how you know her. Yeah. She created a brand that started in Starlets, and then she was smart enough to build on that brand, but she worked in Starless for, I think, two years. Mm.

and made a name for herself. That's how popular these girls get in New York City. Strip club bartenders. All right, so a person coming to New York. So I'm just saying, they kind of like strippers too in a sense. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. They got pretty much the same outfit. They look like strippers.

That's what I mean. Yeah. So if a person just coming to New York and they want to have a good time, what strip clubs are they frequent? Starlets, we already know that. We already know Starless, but they're quietly the best strip club in New York. Is Suez Rondea booster open? No, damn. You got to come home.

My bad. My bad. You got to come home. Su's ain't been around for 15 years. Yeah, my bad. What the hell? I've been out of the game for a long time. Check this out.

Riverierrez. Riverierrez. It's quietly been the best strip club this whole time. They don't do no promotions. They don't do no artists. They don't get to fuck who you is. You ain't coming. You got to take your hat off.

Quietly. They've been the best. And it's late night. It probably don't close about nine. nine o'clock in the morning. Of course it's Queens. I wanted you to say that. Yeah, every day.

Steinway, baby. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Shout out for Stoneway. I wanted you to say, you know, all the 15th of Queens, man. Yeah. I don't know how we came to the club capital. Definitely. So, absolutely.

Okay. Every ever. Yeah. Let's name the top five. We got starlets. Yeah. Yeah. Name three more.

Sugar daddies. I ain't been a sugar daddy. I don't know. Where is that is? Queens. Everything is queen. Dream. That's Jamaica, right?

No. No, where's that? A Steinway, too? That's all in, like, everything is in an LIC, a story area. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, I ain't been to that one. You know what I mean? Everything is kind of like in that area. Okay, you know.

And what else? I want to say dream. Okay, dream, I am. So on Queens Boulevard. Okay, yeah, yeah, yeah, okay. Perfection. Which one of you niggas said that? Which one?

You said perfection? Perfection? Perfection ain't been, my nigger. Yeah. Perfection? Damn, man. You're out of the loop. You niggas ain't been in New York since, what, the 80s?

You niggas ain't been in New York since the 80s. I see. This is crazy, man. Miami living is good. What was that strip club that was next to the block, Mike Booth? Go on, no, not go to lady. Go to Lady. I went to Go the Lady with Kay Slay.

Yeah, that was on a hundred ten. deep record. You got to talk about that. But no, I'm talking about the, um, on the same block. It was on the, on a,

on a, like, not, since city, they have something looking for. I'm out of the loops. So this, because the Bronx used to be the king

of the strip clubs when I, yeah, and like, uh, that's where Seuss was. Suez was up there. Like,

yeah, yeah, yeah, but that was a different time. That's a different time. That was before the influence of the South. Okay. And with the influence of the South,

but the music, the culture changed. So the strip clubs that we got now is not like those. Okay. It's different. Even though we have our own version of it, it's not like that.

It's not like Golden Lady or Cincinnati and that. It's like bartender driven. Right. You know, it's heavy, you know, heavy BBL. Right. Okay. And it's, you know, it's heavy queens. All right.

That means, BBL means like buttlip. You know what fucking BBL is. Come on, stop the shit. I'm out of the gig. What's 17 years? No, no, no, no, no. No, no, no. Let's take a shot.

Yeah, take a shot. Let me take a shot. I'm gonna take a shot. Oh, yeah. Ooh, okay. Okay. Not to killer. But I, I,

let's talk about you drinking tequila. Are you a tequila drinker? Is that your go-to drink? Like, you're going to Starlist? It's that night of Riviera. You're going to order tequila? Tequila? Because tequila, they said to kill you. Yeah, I think tequila is the hot drink.

Yeah, it's very healthy, just as you know. Yeah, I feel like it's the hot drink. Everybody's doing it. Like, you're on 1942, Don Julio Revisato or Classy Azul. Like, it's the thing to do. I think it's, it's like a fad. It's cool, you know? So, yeah.

Because it's 100% agave? That's what they'd be saying. Why? Yeah, they say it's agave. Is that what? I didn't know. I didn't know it had health benefits. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Well, no tequila is no alcohol. I drink it straight, though. Okay, yeah, that's what I'm saying.

I don't see no chaser. Yeah. So they say no alcohol is good, but if the clean, the cleanest alcohol is tequila. Really? Yes, what they say, yeah. Oh, I thought it was vodka. No, no, vodka's number three. They said that. They used to say that. I believe it's two. I believe red wine. Really?

So the number one is tequila? That's what they're. Are we sure about this? Yeah. Is this a fun bat? I'm a professional. No, that's the new fact. Yeah, no.

You know how it's been changing. It'd be changed. Because I heard back in the first. No, vodka's like number three. Trust me. That was my drink of choice. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Wow.

So you're not on that. Oh, organic shit. Organic what? Like organic. Like organic? Not because people would be like, I'm organic. Just like that too. Organic liquor?

Yeah, you don't know. That's a new thing. I didn't even know. I didn't even know. Miami shit. Even though They're saying I don't know

I went to L.A. recently. Dan, who the hell was with me? Oh, shit. They had a whole what? They had a whole

side of a place we went to with non-al alcohol alcohol. Mocktails. You said, you was coming at me when I said that. No,

because they wasn't calling that mocktail. Okay, no, no, no. What's your drink of choice? Mine? Yeah. Right now I'm on that,

I'm on that wine, Julio. Wine, Julio. Wine, I'm on that wine, Julio. I'm on that wine, Julio, but I'm a Habiki drinker.

A Habiki? What's that? Yeah, that's the Japanese whiskey. It's for the, you know. Yeah. If you want more hair on your chest, this is what we go with, right? Got it. But then, and I like champagne, Champagne. You know, Aces Spade is the best, you know.

In the case we didn't get to that. You know, we drink Aces Wade over here. The best Champagne in the world, Champagne. Parganet. Who is your favorite new artist? New artists. Uh, I like, who's a new artist right now? We got a bunch of them in new.

Who? Uh, um, what's my man, Cash Cobain? Mm-hmm. Uh. Who else? Who? Is Lohimmy still new? Okay.

Who else? Yeah, it changed every day, man. Right. What's considered new? Is he been in a game a year or less? A year, I would say. Or maybe like, yeah. Damn.

Busting out my sock? Anybody said that? Nobody gave permission for that. You think I... You did? Yeah. I was talking wine, brother. Nah, I'm good.

I'm good, I'm good. Go ahead. I don't know. I like... I fuck with the music that I'm just like. I'm a big young blue fan. And every time I say that, people would be like, what? I love Young Blue.

Young Blue? Yeah. Yeah, Young Blue. I got a track. with this nigga, right? I called him. Yeah, I just called him blue. You didn't know his fucking name? Yeah, no, I thought it's blue. Let's do a shot to that, though. Yeah, let's do a job. Fuck. We didn't know his name, real. And we love young good. He killed it too. Yeah, yeah, yeah. For real, that was crazy, though. Cheers. Okay. God comes down on earth. Binga. He go see you,

and he say, Mayno. You get to make one track. And you get to make one track. And you get any feature in the world. And you get any producer in the world to produce that beat. Who is main, and this is a two-part question. Generalized. Because we know you're going to go big. Is it from Brooklyn? So we could do one dead and then one-

a lot. Yeah. Shit, Lori. You got to stop with these fucking questions. Yeah, you got a two-part question. So it's two-part. One is we could go with the dead and then the other is the alive feature.

If I go dead, then I need Pock and Big. Damn, I never heard nobody say that. That was a slick one. I'm going to take a shot for that. Let's do that. You got me on that one. Now, people who are alive? And the producer.

And who's producing the Pock in a big record? And the producer could be dead, too. I'm sorry. You just changed it all the fucking. No, there ain't that many dead producers. It is. No, it ain't. Producers don't die.

Not hip-hop. Not hip-hop. Don't die. You're right. This is don't die. Damn. And if they do die, it's not by gun violence. Yeah, they are immortal.

Yeah. They are immortal. Yeah, they live for us. All right. So who's producing that? Just Blaze. I like that. All right.

Now, a live feature. A live feature. But this is one a little bit different. God is asking you saying, okay, alive, alive. But he's saying, this record is going to change humanity. Jesus Christ. Manity. Yeah.

He's going to change humanity. He's put a lot of these shoulders right now. Turn your mad into what? We already fucked up. Yeah, to the better place, to a better place. Bruno Mars. Oh, that's your feature? Yeah.

Now, who produces that? Who produces that? They got to be like, what's his name? Doctor. Who? Not, Doc. That would be a good one. But Quincy Jones, man.

They can't be leading the witness, man. Quincy Jones left us. Ray, rest of peace. So these people that's alive. Yeah. Yeah. Who? Ferrell would be good.

Ferrell would be good. That's what I thought. I like Ferrell. I like Ferrell. Bruno Mars. I like that. Out the box. I like that.

I like that. I like that. Have you ever worked with Ferrell? Never. Okay. Unfortunately, I wasn't that lucky. Okay. Not that fortunate.

Yeah. No, no. It would happen. No, I hope so. Pray to pray to the heavens. So one night I hear, Nause is hanging out. He went to Havoc Party.

And I hear that you see Niles. Yeah. And you say, I apologize for my brother Jim Jones. No, no. And everyone laughed. It was recent, too. Like, because.

Nah, I was like, yeah, I got something for your man, Jones. Oh, he said that. Oh, okay, all right. And then we laugh and he was like, I'm just fucking with you. It's all good. Yeah. You know, Nyes is a good sport.

Like, he can get it. He was all love. You know what happened was I told Nas. I said, listen, a really close friend of mine is in love with you, like this female who's- Oh shit, I didn't know where this is going. No, no, no, no, listen. She was, you know, shout to Rose.

She is in love with Nas and she met Nas before. But she was just too afraid to tell him how she felt. So she always bugging me about, hey man, can you introduce me to Nause? Like I just want Nause. I'm like, Nause don't want you. Right. Not bad. Right?

But then it's like, why would I say that? That's bad for me to do. I'm blocking her blessings. I'm blocking her blessings. So one day she called me and talking this N'Rs shit. And she says, I really want to speak to him. I say, yo, I'm going to put you on the phone with Nause. And after this, don't fuck ask me for shit.

Okay? So one day she called me and I like, yo, I got Nyes on a line. Okay? She's like, for real? Like, for real? I say, yeah. For real. She don't know that I called my homie and was like,

listen, I need you to play like now. Oh, wow. That's a lot. I didn't know where this was going. You know the lyrics and everything. I said, I need you to act like Nyes. Okay? Just, you know, say certain shit that Nause would say,

like, you know, my black queen. Yeah, yeah. You can say my black. Yeah, just say some shit that did it. You know. Forgive me. You know, Nause is an analogy of God. You know, he just nods.

And, you know, he said, all right, I got it. And he didn't get the assignment the right way. Who, your homie? My homeboy. He gets on the phone, and the first thing he says is what, my black queen, my black queen. He said, yeah, my black queen, my black queen. He said, yeah, manor told me.

Because I jumped on the line, I'm like, yo, Nas. Remember I was telling you about, my girl Rose and me, I was telling you that she in love with you, she's just afraid to you, nigga, she don't know what to say to you. And he's, he getting on lines like, yeah, my black queen, my black queen, my black queen. He was supposed to be like, yeah, yeah, yeah.

That's how he's going to start to come. So, after he said my black queen about 16 times. Right. Right, because. She caught on? Right, no, she, she was just like, hey, like, hey, like. He was like, yeah, you know, I ain't got that much time. and shit like that, but, you know, I'm going to get your number from Maine.

Oh, wow. She's been waiting for him to call. I'm going to get your number from Maine, though, and, you know what I mean? And, you know, so I love my Black Queen. And she's just like, okay. I'm going to, I say, yeah, I'm going to give you a number, man, like, for real, just, you know, give a call every now and then, you know what I mean? Whatever. He hangs up.

I'm going to play this shit for you. Okay. Right? Because I haven't recorded. Okay. And she calls me back and was like, you know, I recorded that. That wasn't the house. I said, they fucking was.

You are grateful. That was fucking Niles. When I seen Niles that day, I told him. I said, listen, I... You told him the whole story? Yeah, don't be mad at me. It was a short version. I said, listen, I set somebody up

and I played like it was you. He said, yo, you're crazy. You got your fucking mind. You know what I'm saying? To this day, I've never admitted that it wasn't Niz. Make some noise for this shit, you know?

Make some noise, well, fuck that they admit you. So let me ask. I think I know the answer, but I'm just going to ask because I can see people in the comment session saying something. What's the difference between you hanging with Nas if you wouldn't hang with Max? Good question. One is considered to be a real problem. Oh, yeah. Okay.

And one is just some competitive, viral. I feel how I feel. because I feel like I'm that, I'm that nigger. You know what I'm saying? You think, you know, Jim Jones seeing the eyes, it's not a problem. Yeah. You know what the funny is shit? I got in trouble because of Jim Jones.

Wow. I need to call Jim because I got in the breakfast club and I was like, yo, I see where Jim is coming from. And the whole Queensbridge was like, yo. What are you doing? You think he better than I? You think he better than I. That's not what I said.

I just said, I see where he's coming from. Like, I just say he's better than Nas, but I see, like, that confidence. Sometimes you got to wake up in the morning and feel like that person, to be that person. Pop your shit, nigger. So when I tell you, boy, oh, my God, I got in Queensbridge's trouble, bro. I was like, this, man. I was thinking, I was in punishment for a week. You know, you know, you know, Naz is a rap god.

Yes. He's one of our rap. Not him. He laughed. He laughed. He laughed. He laughed. He laughed.

He laughed. Yes. Yes. He laughed at all. He like, yo, you know, I got something for you man, John. Ha. You know what I mean? It ain't nothing that's all love, right?

So the competitive nature of hip hop, right? For a nigga like Jim, he's popping his shit. He feels like he's the most improved, nigga, he's rapping his shit. You know, he's doing what he do, right? Is it really a disrespect? No. But for the fans, they're like, how dare you? Right, right, right, right.

How dare you? Knaz is a rap guard. You could never compare. But at the end of the day, he understands the hour rhythm. he's saying some shit that's going to have everybody talking and it worked. When do you think it turns into disrespect? Like what makes it difference? It didn't.

I love that. I love that. I'm not asking about that specific. Okay, all right. I'm asking in general. Well, he asked me about the difference between the non-s situation and the MaxB situation. And the Max B situation, there's a situation where there was a real discrepancy, you know, and who am I to say what's serious and what is not?

I'm from the thought of if nobody got dropped, nobody got shot, nobody got hurt, then it ain't really that serious. But that's just who I am. I can't project that on somebody else because a certain level of disrespect could be that serious. It could be lifetime serious.

You know what I'm saying? So, you know, I think that's what the difference is, you know? I felt like I was watching y'all show once and you had asked Jim and I believe Jim was like, no. And I believe y'all never spoke about it again. No, we have. Oh, okay, off there?

Yeah. Okay, okay, okay. Yeah. Again, this is something that I wish, like, you know, hip hop, certain things we would get over. We, we, I wrote him a long text one day. Okay. Talking about it. Because I felt like you were trying to fix it.

Absolutely. Do, do, do, and this is me just spitballing because I don't, I don't know, right? Like I said, man, Jim is my man. Like, I love Jim Jones, man. Like, you know, I got to see him in the beginning. And I also got to see Cameron. But let's speak about, do you think that could, him and Max?

What do you think could be fixed more? Him and Max or him and can? I personally wish we could get to a space that we all sitting in the room together. That's why. Yeah. I respect that. That's what I personally wish. Like, Jim, Cam.

I wrote him a long text one day. Jim. Yeah. Right. It was just on my mind. Right. Just as a, because I'm, you know, I'm a nigga that understands what it is that have lifetime problems with niggas. It's just certain niggas that I can never fix it with.

But from my perspective, I was like, you know, is this something that could be, you know, rectified? And I sent them a text and I expressed him how I felt. Right. And at the same time, I was just like, yo, if I'm stepping over boundaries, just to understand that this is, As a brother, this is just how I feel. Like... You're trying to do the right thing. Right.

And, you know, I was just basically like, yo, you know, this is something that I feel like will look better if we all kind of embrace the, you know, a different level of maturity. You know what I'm saying? But he let me know like, yo, this... I respect where you coming from. Right. And I love you, my nigga, as a brother, but this is something else for me. And I got to respect that.

Because there was rumors at one point when Max came home that there was going to be an interview with Max and Jen. Right. Just them too? I believe on Jim's show, artist to artists, right? I never heard that.

It's a rumor I heard to a couple of camera guys that I know. I think that that would be dope. I think that that would be awesome. And just them too? That would like some Oprah shit. They don't need nobody else. You see what I'm saying? Because I know Max.

I had a relationship with Max. You knew. Max before I actually knew Max. Because I seen him shot you out. Right, right. I knew Max when he first came home, right? When he first came home, he used to come to Brooklyn. He used to come, you know, my man, GQ Beach Studio.

The first time, not now. First time, right. So what happened was he was coming home. He was coming to Brooklyn. You know, one of my homies had knew him from prison. Beestrow, you said? No, one of my homies. Okay.

He had knew him from prison. Okay. I knew Max's brother. You know, Mike Murder. We was in the four building together and Catsack and all that together, right? Right. When Max came home, my man was like,

yo, my little man just came home. He's nice. And he named Max Beard and all. He from Harlem. So Max used to actually come from Harlem to Brooklyn to record in the studio that we was all working in. You see what I'm saying? He used to scream, hustle hard and all that, like, you know.

But their relationship was more defined that I was just meeting them. Right. They had the relationship. So there was always respect between us, right? But our relationship was never in the space of me and the Jim Jones. It never got to that. You see what I'm saying? So me feeling how I felt as far as definitely don't have an issue with Max B, I don't have that.

I don't have no issue with him at all. but I was just saying that as a friend and we talked about that earlier and we get money together we got business together our families know each other I just wanted to respect that

in that moment because sometimes you know us us both man living in this industry sometimes there's real beef and then sometimes there's rap beef and sometimes there's just like in between, right?

Like, we got to, like, have those measures. When do you think a beef goes too far? I'm not talking about Jim and Max or Jim and Cam. I'm talking about for you, what do you think a line is drawn? You've been, you know what I mean? I feel like when certain things are said that we just can't take back,

it's certain people that I just could never, you know. naming the people. Can you give me a example of what that looks like? You don't have to name the people. When you make me feel like when I see you. It's on site, yeah. I need to get with you. Then, you know, but you got to understand. Everything that happens on the internet is not made for a violent outcome.

Like, I ran into Troiaf. Mm-hmm. He was at a fight. I was at the fight. I was seen him. He had his baby in his hand. Vegas, right? Vegas.

Right. Did you see the footage? Yes, I did. I didn't want no smoke. Right. That's real. I don't want no smoke. That's real.

And we got to understand what real beef is and what, like, having a discrepancy is. Me and him had a, what I felt like is a discrepancy. I'm not looking for you, my nigga. In fact, I don't even, I'm trying to find a way to say this without feeling like it's disrespectful. If I'm beefing with a nigger and I see how far he willing to take it, I don't want no smoke with him.

If I'm beefing with a nigger, any nigger, and I understand that he's willing to get on the stand and point on a nigger and demonstrate on a nigger, he's a stronger man than me. I don't want to smoke with him. because where we come from, if we call the nigger rat, either we're gonna do what? We can only two things with them. Either you want to do something about them or you're gonna leave them alone.

So in that instance, I want no smoke with you, brother. Live your life. You got a beautiful family. Do your thing. Let me be devil's advocate a little bit. Then P. Long Jee, about the gunner situation.

What about it? Do you think that was like crossing the line? In which way? When he wouldn't understand and said, Oh, yeah. I think Gunna, and I don't know. But I think Gunna actually felt like he was tricked. I think he was told, I think he was told,

hey, this is not ratting. You're not telling on nobody. You just got to admit to these things and they're going to give you a plea. and you're going to go home to your family. I think that he thought that he was doing the right thing. I don't think that he had the intentions of telling. That's what I think that he thought.

I don't know. That's what I believe. He didn't understand that what he was saying was in 100% contradiction of what the defense is saying. We're saying, we're a rap label. We're not a gang. Right. you was told to say that it is a gang.

And that you witnessed crime. And you was a part of it as well, right? So that's the, that's the, that's the, that's the, that's the, that's the, that's the, that's the, that's the, that's the, that's the line was wrong. But the thing is this. Intent is very, very, very, very important when you come, when you, when you, when you, when you, when you, when you understand what snitching is. Explain that, please. If I get caught with two or three guns. and to get out of my sentence. Or to, no, to get out of the prosecution's way

of these two or three guns, I go and say, yo, Norrie did this. No, no, monster cans. Use the monster cans. Not norris. You're not norris. He used the monster can. Monster did it.

He used anybody doing with Norrie. If I intentionally... If I intentionally... Understandably say, yo, it was the monster, not nor anything, but monster that did it, right? That did whatever. Because I'm trying to get out of what happened to me. I got caught with two or three guns. Like, I'm trying to get out of that.

So I don't want to deal with that. I don't want what comes with that. So I'm trying to find an easy way out. So that intent is possible. That intent is what it is. So in a case with a gunner, I don't know if his intent was the same. you see what I'm saying sometimes you fall this like if a nigger

if a n if if somebody did something and that she was around and the police could ask you yo who was there you say yeah it was it was me and monster

we was together they used that to incriminate incriminate the other person all you really telling, I wasn't intended. You could be like, I wasn't intended to tell them.

They just asked me who was there. And then I was saying that it was me and monster. You see what I'm saying? Something that might have been obvious. So intent is definitely important. Do the streets understand incent? Nah. It's hard to even figure that out.

No, no, no. People don't understand intent. People understand intent. I think once you get to a level of maturity, you understand intent. Because they, you know, the thing is we ain't, we ain't supposed to to be talking regardless. Right. It always won't come back to that,

niggas, you ain't supposed to be saying nothing. So there's no room for no slip-ups when you don't say nothing, you know? But in his case, I just think that I don't know if he was intending on doing that. It came out bad, and then we heard what thug had to say about it. And it is what it is, I guess.

That's sort of kind of like, I wanted to ask you, too, because now we also have footage of a young thug. They say it's AI. We don't know. It's not AI. It's not AI. I don't think nobody said that.

Oh, I thought someone did say it. Nobody said that, Nari. Okay, where her? She's not. Nobody, nobody said that. Nobody said that. Nobody said that. About the young dog footage, right?

About him in the precinct. In the precinct. Right. So, what people are saying is that, like, he was throwing the police off. I think, I, and again, like I just said, I felt like, Yeah. I felt like Gunna felt like he was, he was tricked into that. On the flip side, I feel like Doug thought that he was finessing.

I feel like he thought that he was in there finessing him. Yeah, shoddy, give me your number, man. Like, you know what I mean, you want to know something. Like, I felt like that was what his mentality was. I don't, I don't know. I could be wrong. Right. But I think that looking at what he was saying and looking at what he said after that

and what was going on and the fact that he didn't actually specifically tell on somebody I think that he thought that he had the answers but the issue is this though ain't no finesse in the police man they don't finesse in the law we think we could do that it's always going to come back and bite us

every time years ago right there was something that was said probably by all of us and we were like we was trying to explain to people like the rap gang, maybe the most dangerous job on the planet, right? And I'm not, there's no disrespect to like, you know, military workers or whatever, but most of the time we don't know how our enemies look.

No, because if more people know who you are, then you know them, then you had a disadvantage. Yeah. You understand? Do you feel, do you feel like rapping is one of the most dangerous jobs? Yes. Yeah, I do too. Listen, I talked about being in the day. looking at you, looking at Kim, looking at Hove, looking at all these artists coming out

to the city and saying, damn, I want to do that. Because what it looked like for me was that rap was a way out. I'm coming from violence. I'm coming from the street. I'm coming from prison. I'm coming from having a plethora of enemies. I want to get out of this. I'm thinking as soon as I get into the rap game, we made it.

Nah, I thought wrong. in fact getting into the game kind of intensifies that it kind of magnifies that in a negative way because now you're more of a target

you more of a symbol of hope that sometimes people just can't get out their own way so they hate you more you're a mark fuck all these rappers is dying I ain't think you could die once you become a rapper

I thought that insulated you this is what I listen good point me 1997 somewhere War Report Mm-hmm Hove

Nas listening in this shit I'm thinking this is well I want to do this Right Because this is going to allow me to escape This shit

Right we never thought That niggas was really going to be dying And all this Like yeah It turned into something totally different Like I didn't think rapists could die

You know, it was crazy. I remember at the time, I used to if I ever got pulled over and I said I was a rapper, like the police would just let me go. Like right now, if I get pulled over, I want to say, I'm a drug dealer. Like, I don't know.

I'm a rapper. Like, that's worse. Like, you're like, oh, yeah. But you got to say you're American citizen. Right, yeah, yeah. I'm playing, but I'm not playing. The thing is, being a rap is not special no more. It's not.

It's not. Being famous is not special no more. Being famous. can still have, depending on your level of fame, is this you? Oh, yeah, you ain't, you ain't checking me out? I didn't know that. He's famous, man. This is real fame right here.

So. That was bad funny. Yeah. So it's in CBS right now, guys. Go off in and pick it up your own box. Yes, yeah, yeah. CBS right now. I'm about to go buy it and not use it.

Available, yeah. Buy it and not use it. Okay. Yeah. Being a rapper is not as prestigious as special as it used to be. Because being a rapper felt like there was a rites to passage. It was like it was a level of getting it. Only the best had record deals.

And only the best was on BET and MTV. Only those special ones. Now it's like everybody could be it. You don't think that's your own house. But wait, wait. You don't think that's the, magic word the best. I feel like the best has dwindled down to,

you don't have to be good at all. You don't have to be anything because the technology has allowed us to, or allow anybody to be a rapper or be an artist. To enter the game. Right. So it's like, okay, pro tools, we could set pro tools up anywhere,

bathroom, hotel, bus, car, anywhere. We can set up pro twos. Or fruity loops. Fruitie loop, all that. You could do a whole recording on your phone. right now. Yeah. Anywhere.

You can record, right? Because the technology allowed us to do that. Bob's Cartel made a whole hit from prison. So now,

because of that, anybody can just be an artist. That's, music is the only sport where you can just be it. You got to go to school to be a lawyer. Yeah, that's real.

You got to go through training in amateurs to be a professional boxer. You can't just be a professional fucking baseball player or basketball player. You can't just

just be it. Music, you could just be it. Rapper, you could just be it. Music and rapper, but I think we should be different than hip hop. Maybe that's not even me. No, it's not. But it's too late for that, though,

because anybody can just do it. It doesn't matter. You know how many girls? I've seen that started to garner a certain level of Instagram notoriety, turn around and say to me, I'm going to be a rapper.

I'm going to make a record. Because it's like, still, rap still comes, with a certain level of coolness, right? And I'm like, yo, you just, it don't work like that. You just, like, it's dudes you got to pay. It's a standard that you got to sit on top of. But no, you don't.

You don't have to reach a certain level of a standard. You don't have to reach a certain level of capability. You don't have to get to these places, you know, because before it was like if you get a record deal, you don't need a record deal. No, you don't. You get a major record deal. You was like looked at as, wow, this nigga signed a Sony.

He signed a Def Jam. He signed to a Latin. Automatic uplift. He signed a Warner. Automatically just by having that because that showed. You could have been the wackest person in the world. You got a deal. That made you automatically, you got to be something for somebody to do that.

Now it's not that. No. Anybody can do it. Anybody. So because now it's like, I don't even want to be called a rapper. It's like, don't call, like, it's just not the same. It's called disposable music. It's all watered down, if anything.

Labels don't feel the same. The listener is not the same. The genre, the energy, the culture is not the same, right? It's just not special. It's just like, everybody is a rapper now. How many times we've been somewhere, we've been some places, and you were like, yo, you know who that is? I'm like, no, I don't know who the fuck that is.

Well, that's such and such. You're a rapper? I didn't. But we shouldn't accept them as rappers. I'm saying like, damn. Everybody can't be a rapper. They can all be rappers,

but should not be accepted. What's the standard? As MCs. What's the measuring? And the same thing with DJs. Absolutely. There's a lot of DJs. They DJs.

Before y'all, before y'all try me, I'll be calling them DJs. This is why I think what Nause and Mass Appeals doing is super important. I love what they're doing. Because they're paying homage to the culture of it. Yeah.

Understood. So, but that's, they can't. And it also makes business sense, too, as well. It does make business sense. Because we're all being nostalgic saying that shit was dope back then. This is why we like it now. And you got that building fan base.

Go ahead. I'm sorry. When you say the date, we shouldn't accept them as rapists. So what's the standard? I mean, you're asking me to make the standard? Yes, what's the standard?

At least they make a sentence that rhymes. It's many people that can make a sentence. I mean, that can't be the standard because that's the bar is low then. Like, look, this is the thing. Let's talk about emceeing historically. Like, let's go back to Cold Crush and how it keeps going up. Nah, that's too far. No, no, no, no.

I'm going to bring you up. I'm going to bring you up to date. Yeah. Let's go Ice Cube. Let's go NW. Let's go Public Enemy. Let's go Nas. As it keeps going up, it gets more lyrical, more intelligent.

How the fuck does it go down this way? Yeah. How do we go from down here, up here, and then slope down? That doesn't make sense, man. But listen. That's devolution. Drugs. So I'm not.

So I'm asking you this, though. Because any person with, you know, mind and bodies should be able to be able to make a sentence rhyme. Right. What would be, in your mind, what would be the standard that people would have to live up to to be able to say I'm a rapper? No, MC or rapper? Well, no. To be an MC is one thing. To be a rapper, anybody could be a rapper.

Anybody could be a rapper. Anybody could be a rapper. To be an emce, then. To be an emce, you have to be prolific in your lyrics. It has to rhyme. It has to make sense. But who's at the gate making show that people? There is no gate.

The audience needs to be the gate. No, it's not going to work then. No, that's the way. The audience don't care. No, but that's the problem. The audience is one a good time. When the audience stops caring, it's not just the audience's fault. I mean, it is the audience's fault.

It is. Because people party. People like the party. And they're at a club and understanding the texture of the music. And if a niggas, like, cat, rat, bet, bet, fat, fat, rat. And if it sound good, And it's a vibe and it's a bounce. But wait.

We're going with it. But let's go back. Go on all about my language. Let's go back to what you said about. That was not the best miracle. Why, I love that shit. You're trying to have J's go on in the club. Hold on.

One second. Yeah, yeah. One second. I'm, please don't be bad at me. No, no, no. I want you to use the bathroom. Yeah, yeah. I'm going to get it right after you here.

We got in the deep conversation. Damn. You're fucking out my deep, right now, may know? This is the deep call. I was ready to go debate club on you. And I've never debated my life. Yeah. I like the debate.

No, we were trying to talk about the standard. The standard, yeah, yeah, yeah. So what would be the standard of the MC? Like, because the general public, the general public... I remember what I was going to do. The general public doesn't have that standard. Right. The average person is just looking for something that makes them feel like they're having a good time,

especially when you talk about clubs. Right. So my point with the... the general public not having the standard was this. You yourself remembered, you said the label, when you got signed, the label needed to put all this money to make this record a hit and do all this stuff. We all could agree. The record label doesn't give a fuck about hip hop. They give a fuck about profit.

Right. So they will make hits that doesn't necessarily benefit hip hop benefits their pockets, benefits the corporate structure. So the hits that they're going to keep pushing Are not going to be beneficial To hip hop growing Being smarter Be more prolific Be more social

So they're going to just keep pushing these hit records With all this money That eventually the whole audience today After the fact They don't give a fuck They don't give a fuck about emcees Rappers, hip hop The Elements of Hip Hop

It's all that doesn't matter to them It's just a music give me a fucking hit record. I don't get fuck as one leg up, two leg, those one of my ears in my face. I'm this, I'm that. They don't give a fuck what it is. Just give me a catchy tune.

And then the idea of hip hop that we all grew up on, that's it. I agree with that. I agree with the fact that nobody really cares. Right. And I think that's the problem. So basically, so that can't change then.

I think it can. What? How, though? That's what I'm trying to get you. I think it can change because No one cares? Because I think hip hop is still a unified group of people, even though we might have

different intentions, different ideas, we all still identify under the banner of hip hop. But once it became corporate, it was out of our hands. But right now we've all understood that well, we believe corporate is kind of out of with major labels. Corporate is still the social media companies are corporate.

That's still another record label. What happened? What happened? What happened? They're saying that this bitch is a capital. that's running that whole out of the state regime. Capitalism runs everything we do. Right, absolutely. We're all capitalists.

I'm not mad at being a capitalist. I'm not mad at that neither, but I don't think it can change back. No, you're right. Raw hip-hop. It's a raw. Not the raw hip-hop.

I mean, you can never go because just of the idea of the time frame that it was in. Just that standard of what we felt like hip-hop was. I don't feel like it could change back to that, though.

You know what I'm saying? I don't think that it could change back to what it used to be. I don't think it could change back, but I don't think we have to say because it can't change back, we can't keep the essence of it. But who's going to keep it? We right here and drink champs alone are trying to keep the answer to hip-hop. Your shot at. Your shot at the drink champs keeping the essence alive. But do you do understand at 2.30, 3 in the morning in a club and any various.

city of your choice. Right. Alcohol, drugs, music. Absolutely. Nobody is, is, yeah, nobody's thinking about keeping the essence of hip-hop. But you do understand that.

You do understand that not everybody lives at 2.30 in the morning on drugs and alcohol in a club in America. You know what? Come on. You know why? Sometimes we forget that. I ain't going to lie.

I ain't gonna lie. That's the one thing. Thank you for pointing that. That's the one thing I love about our OGs, though. Like, when you see Kane, if you follow Kane. I saw Kane another day. Yeah, yeah. Yo, yo, Kane stays on the road.

Yes, absolutely. When I see that shit, I see, like, you know, um, Jazzy Jeff, all these people staying on the road. And it's like, yo, you know. We just had Jazzy Jeff kill Crazy Hood Day. Like, he killed it. Yeah. He shut the death.

Yeah, man. I love that. I love the scene. And it was a packed house. Yes. You know, hip hop is the only. genre of music that people kind of shame you for getting older. Yeah, for getting older.

Like, why? Nah, we got to change that. And I think, yeah. That too. I changed it with my white beard. That's, that should be a part of the agenda. And rock and roll, you could talk for, you could be a hundred.

Absolutely. McJack is, 9,000 years old. 100%. Yeah. Come on. He's definitely from. Like, come on. Yeah, he's, yeah. He's, he's different. He's a vampire. But hip-hop is the only genre that you know, you get to your

40s and plus then it's like oh you old nigger you need a chair and it's like this shouldn't be that because every other music you can it doesn't it's no age ceiling you can be whatever yep right Ozzie Osborne went all the way to the to death and he had fans Torring though right before he passed to the death to the death and as an artist this is not a physical sport, right? You understand, like basketball, you can't blow out. You need, get bad, your anger, you know what I mean? You got bad ACF.

It's as physical as we wanted to be. Right, but it's not, it's mental. You're an insane clown posse. Maybe you got to retire early. You might not be able to jump around on stage no more, but they're understanding that the music is still music. No, no, no. I'm going to cut you off.

Did you see Kane do his last? I saw that. I talked to him about that. That's old footage, though. That is old footage. That is old footage. It's just resurfaced. I asked him about that last, the other day.

He got me. A-I. That's not even A-I. That's real. But you said, he fucked up the first one. He said, the dude's again. Do it again. That shit.

Kane's a man. Nah, we should be doing this shit for the rest of all fucking life. If you want to. So they got this thing where they say, yo. So it's like, they got this thing where they be like, yo, these niggas are teen your citizens. Right? And it's like.

Yeah. Tell me. Y'all? Yeah, tell me. I don't know. I've never heard this. This is a car odd. Teen-year citizen.

It started as like a, I don't know, I guess, niggas was trying to, like, go at Jim Jones and say, oh, he's a, he's a, he's a teenist citizen. Oh, he's the youngest OG we know. Like, I don't think nothing wrong with that, right? Because age is about energy. We only hear one time, bro. That we know of.

That we know of. That we know of, right? That we know of, right? That's what we know. Why not live to the fullest and you do what make you happy, my nigga? Like, if your perception is me is a teen citizen, then let me live my life the way I want to live it. My nigga, let me live my days the way I fucking want to do it. Because guess what?

It's people that you know. The name of the album? No. That's a good name, though. It kind of is. It's kind of a lot. It's people in the world. It's people that we both know, and everybody here know that.

that didn't have the chance to live the way they want to live. Right. And do the things that they want to do. Right. We're still here with the blessings from... We're lucky. You know, from the universe, like, that we're able to still be here. Like, so if I want to still pull up to the club,

uh-huh. If I got on a sweatsuit and jewels on, I'm not trying to be a little nigger. I'm not trying to be a Y-in, but I'm, this is hip-hop. I'm, it's the energy. And you're being you, that you've always been. That's it.

You're not being anybody different. You're being who you've always been. People set these invisible boundaries and these standards on you and say that when you get to a certain age that you should be dressing a certain way or doing a certain thing or you should just automatically turn this old man. I don't believe in that. I don't believe, why?

Why? Why? Like, like, she would, We stop wearing baseball hats? Yeah. Should we stop wearing Thames? They hating on my hair. They'd be out there.

I'll see you. They hate on your hair. I hate on my hair. The fact that you, yeah. I got that too. Definitely. But y'all painting in this shit. Right.

You definitely paint. They're very different. Little pain. Little pain. Little pain. Little pain. Little pain. Yeah.

Yeah. Little pain. Yeah. Six seven. You know. But. I thought you know we're father. But he should be, he should be able to do what the fuck he want to do.

Exactly. Bottom line. Bottom line, he should be able to do what he wants to do. Let's take a sip for that. Let's do it. Yeah, definitely. I didn't plan out to be this drunk. Mm-hmm. We planned out for you to be this drunk. You planned that. Okay, got it. Got it. Got it. We've been through it. I'm going to just be honest with you, man. I'm very proud of you, man. I appreciate that. Continue to do the thing. Continue to smile, man. Absolutely. Especially when you get new tea. If you paid for.

God, God. God. God, man. We can tell. Let's got it. Yeah, yeah, man. But, man, like, you know, everything you've been through, everything you, and to be here and just to still be that guy, man, to still be holding it down and still be able to smile. You know what I'm saying? Because I'm going to tell you something, as a person, I lived every form of rap game.

I don't know how hard this shit is. Yeah. Like, even when we at the best of our best, that shit is still hard because we can never, it's not, we can never turn. in our uniform. No. The uniform is 24 hours.

Because that's how people see you. That's how people see you. And you can never live that down. You can never live that down. So, you know, to continue to be successful, continue to be out there, continue to smile,

continue to work, continue to do that. Like, I just want to let you know, like, we admire you, we respect you, and we want, that's why we wanted to give you a flower. I appreciate that.

I appreciate that. I appreciate that. And especially, and especially, like, being a street person. So like when I like kind of like, to, you know, me, I was researching you and I kept going back like six years ago. I see how many people were like baiting you like.

Yeah, yeah. What I mean by baiting you was like, they're like, yo, man, you know, it's known for this, known for this. So then what I did was I went and I pulled up, you on like white people's shows. Yeah. And I said, this thing is smart. Yeah. Because it's like, all right, cool. I've seen with like envy.

Like, let's my man. Amy's my man. Like, certainly, like, when I was watching your interviews, then I watched Vlad, then I watched. And I was, you know, I'm trying to be official, you know what I'm saying? But when I see you and I'm like, yo, you know how to do that. Right.

Think about this is your gift, my brother, just in case you don't know. You know how to move in difference. 100%. Audiences. 100%. You know how to move a different algorithm. That's a real gift, bro.

Yeah. Like, don't. Don't downplay that. No. Don't ever like acknowledge that. Like I was watching you. Yeah. Because I want to do my job.

But I'm like, I'm looking at it. I'm like, that's not something. Like, you had to teach that to yourself. Right. That comes from. Yeah, my bad. That's a false sense of learning. Right?

So it's like I adapt to every room that I'm in. Right? No matter what room that I'm in, prison allowed us the time to read things, study things and stuff like that. So it's like, if I'm in a peaceful room, I'm peaceful. Right.

If I'm in the room on some bullshit, then I'm with that too. Good, right. If I'm in a room that's, if I'm in a room that's about progression, then that's what we're talking about. That's what we're on. Adeptation.

Abaptation, right? Being able to adapt. That's the way you step. here. We ain't always going to be hot, nigga. Niggas gonna be like, oh, you washed up, you old, nigger, you ain't who you used to be. But that don't define you. You still gotta be able to be able to be able to adapt to the times, to be able to adapt to climate, to be able to adapt to the rooms that we in.

Right. Nah, nigger, that's me. But, I mean, that's not normal. Like, you're a genius, man. Like, trust me, like, I was taking a jog this morning. from my boy Henry and I was watching all your interviews watching it all. And I was like, yo, this dude is mad, smart. Like, and it made me mad that six years ago

people were, that's all they were saying, oh, you're a street dude, you're a thug dude, and I'm looking at your progress to where you're at. I'm like, no, man, you're a smart dude, bro. Me being a street nigger is a footnote in my life, bro.

That's a little. That's a small part in my life. You know what I'm saying? That ain't that ain't going to ever be something that I deny. That ain't ever going to be something that I'm ashamed of. What I come from, what I come from, what I've been through, the issues that I had.

Yeah. But that also helped define you. Yes. Right? Because what you've been through helped shopping you in a certain way to make you who you are, right? Whatever it's meant to be will be. So it's like, yeah, I've been through prisons.

I've been through wars. I've been through... I've been through extreme violent situations, right? L.L. told me this... L.L. told me, said, yo, don't let your past failure is handcuffed you. I said, what you mean? He said, you might drop a white album.

It won't sell. But the fuck that. Keep going. Niggie, act like you did... Nick, act like you just went platinum. Don't let your past failures. And that's attributed to every angle of life. If you've been in prison, you've been in the streetlight.

Just because you started one way, it doesn't determine how you finish. So what? We've been involved in this. That don't mean that we can't put our suits on and sit in these rooms and talk to these people about life and build on some progress. It don't mean that. It don't mean that at all, my nigger. You know? Man, I can't thank you enough, man.

I thank you, man. Wanted to give you your flowers, man. Thank you for giving me my motherfucking flowers, my brother. I never had too many flowers before. Yeah, come on. That's good. Good. And I'm a frog, I want to put you on something because I'm here. I'm down here for the weekend because a friend of mine just opened up a restaurant in Miami.

And it is probably going to be the top restaurant in the city. Let's talk about it. It's called Nuvo. Shout out to my people, Ebony Akira. Shout out to Raub. Shout out to Yandy, because she's involved with that. The Yandhi's there? Yes, big grand opening last night.

And this is why I'm down here. We out here celebrating that. You see what I'm saying? Where's it at? It's in Winwood. Okay. So it's right here. It's right here.

In the area. Right here. It's newvo. When I'm telling you, the food is good. You like, y'all, come on, I've been at dinner. Let's go right now. Yeah, we can do that. Absolutely.

Right now, let's go. We can do that. All right. Hey, we can do that. Hey, you know, we can do that. Let's go. Absolutely. Am I going to hire Big Bang.

Yeah. Take it the picture. Let's go. All right. Let's take a flick and do some shout out. Drink Champs is a Drink Champs LLC production, hosts and executive producers. N-O-R-E and DJEFN.

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 DJEFN and N-O-R-E. Please make sure to follow us on all our socials. That's at Drink Champs across all platforms. At the real Noriega on IG. At Noriega on Twitter. Mine is at Who's Crazy on IG. At DJEFN on Twitter.

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