Drink Champs - Episode 510 w/ Dee Dean

Episode Date: August 7, 2026

N.O.R.E. & DJ EFN are the Drink Champs. In this episode we chop it up with the legendary, Dee Dean!The CEO of Ruff Ryders Entertainment, site down with the Champs for an unforgettable conversation. As one of the driving forces behind one of hip hop's most influential labels, Dee Dean shares the untold stories behind Ruff Ryders' rise from a family-run movement to a global powerhouse that helped launch the careers of DMX, Eve, The LOX, Swizz Beatz, and countless others.Throughout the episode, Dee reflects on the business decisions, relationships, and challenges that shaped the Ruff Ryders legacy while offering rare insight into the music industry's evolution. He discusses building an empire, staying authentic in an ever-changing business, and preserving the culture that made Ruff Ryders a household name.As always, N.O.R.E. and DJ EFN keep the drinks flowing and the conversation entertaining, leading to hilarious moments, never-before-heard stories, and plenty of hip hop history. From behind-the-scenes label politics to unforgettable memories with legendary artists, this episode is packed with gems for music fans and aspiring entrepreneurs alike.Raise a glass and tune in for an essential chapter of hip hop history with the man who helped build one of the culture's most iconic brands.Make some noise for Dee Dean!!! 💐💐💐🏆🏆🏆Listen and subscribe at https://www.drinkchamps.comFollow:Drink Champshttps://www.drinkchamps.comhttps://www.instagram.com/drinkchampshttps://www.twitter.com/drinkchampshttps://www.facebook.com/drinkchampsDJ EFNhttps://www.crazyhood.comhttps://www.instagram.com/whoscrazyhttps://www.twitter.com/djefnhttps://www.facebook.com/crazyhoodproductionsN.O.R.E.https://www.instagram.com/therealnoreagahttps://www.twitter.com/noreagaSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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The Dream of the 90s is alive in podcast form. We're launching Podlandia, A.O. Rewatch, our brand new podcast where we revisit every episode of Portlandia together, breaking down sketches, going deep on our iconic characters, and pulling back the curtain on how it all got made. And we'll also be joined by the people who helped bring it all to life. Guest stars, collaborators, and friends, including director Jonathan Chrysell, the mayor himself, Kyle McLaughlin, legendary musician Amy Mann, and many more.

Kyle is going for it here. You fully improvised, not just words, but a song. Well, I thought you were all going to write a song. I remember you thinking that. Listen to Podlandia. A.A.O. Rewatch on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. What's up, fam? I'm sports journalist Ari Chambers.

Hey, what's up, y'all? It's your girl, Sam J. And we're the host of everyone watches women's sports. It's a new podcast from Together in I Heart Women's Sports. We're breaking down the biggest headlines. Naomi Osaka, show it out. Shoutouts to you, Naomi. The viral moments. I've been obsessed with Kashan Rocks, boxing journey.

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And Sean Clements. We host the podcast Hollywood Handbook. Every episode we're trying to help our guests improve their careers by mainly focusing on how they can help us improve our careers. The show's famously super accessible so you can easily jump into any of our 650 episodes and understand what's going on. We recommend some of our recent episodes with Ben Stiller, Danny McBride, Riz Ahmed, and Mary Steenberg. Listen to Hollywood Handbook on the Iheart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. And it's Drake Chess, motherfucker, podcast. Make some laws!

He's a legendary queens rapper. Hey, hang, second. This is your boy, N-O-R-E. He's a Miami hip-hop pioneer. What up is DJ E-FN? Together, they drink it up with some of the biggest players. You know what I mean? In the most professional, unprofessional podcast,

and your number one source for drunk facts. This drink-chats, motherfucking podcast. Every day is New Year's Eve. Let's drink up. Good. You'll be hoping. This is your boy, N-A-O-N-A-A. What up is DJE-F-N.

This is a military-tame-tap-Raw. Yabby-Y-Hawah! J-B-E-Hawah! And right now, we have what we are missing in this industry right now. We have a strong black street CEO, person who changed the game, put brothers together, took him out of the hood

and gave him a chance and made stars. This is the CEO of Rough Riders, and we're going to give him his motherfucking flowers today. In case you don't know what we're talking about. So, D, for the people that don't know, right? How did Rough Riders get started?

How did... We're from the Bronx. That's right. That's right. That's right. That's right. That's right. That's right.

But for people that don't know, but how, how did, because Rough Riders, a lot of people don't understand that Rough Riders is like a motorcycle crew kind of, right? And then it's a record label. So it's like, yeah.

Two and one. Okay. It's more like music and then it's bikes. It's two separate entities. Right. You know what I'm saying? Bikes was in first or music was first? No, the music was first.

Okay. We were doing music way before the bikes. Right. Then we just attached that to the bikes to the music. Right. And that's how the bikes came in to play after the music. So we've been doing music really before bikes. Right, right.

So I love this story about DMX, right? Where Leol comes to see him and Yonkers, I believe. Yeah, WIO. And X joy is Y is shut. Yep, yep, yep. So how, first of all, first of all, how wasn't you, like, nervous to present him to Leo Coles? Because his wire, his jaw is wired. but you knew his talent was that raw

that Leo was going to so describe us what happens okay if Irving isn't involved well what happened was Irv used to be a producer for us in this way before he got a situation that he believed in that because he knew we was working on

developing him through the course of six years or however long it was taken but he was there some of that journey so he witnessed your Irv was getting some of that journey he witnessed that you know the experience to get to experience X to see his talent, he knew he was good.

Going back when he was working with Mike Geronimo and all that. He had Mike Geronimo first before he had Cash Money Click was... Yeah, yeah. They was all connected. Right. So we had him probably even before. We had Irv even before he did that because I think he didn't have nothing at that moment. He wasn't even making a beat. My brother bought him

a drum machine. Wow. He gave him his first drum machine. Wow. And that's when he got into start doing beats. That's crazy. That was the first drum machine. we bought him. Wow. So then, okay, so is it Irv who says I got Leo Colons that's coming, they want to come see him? Oh, okay.

Irv, what happened was, Irv must have got connected with somebody at Def Jam. They gave him a job at Def Jam. Okay. So they told him, um, you know, we need you to do X, Y, and Z. And he's like, no, I don't want to do that. I got someone that I want to work. He was talking about X. Right. And they knew that X, you know, X always barking and doing different things. So that's how he do us when he rhymes and then they say well we can they must have been in a meeting at depth gym he got the job as the um a and all and they was like well i got dmx he's like well we don't they sold him we don't want nobody that balks and we ain't at the dogs and all that we don't want no we don't want to goad food and all that we we just here to sell records so he quit his job

erb quit his job and he quit his job then leo came back and got him and said no no no no come like, we need you, we need you, we need you. So he went back to do his job. He said, only way I'm going to take my job is if you come with me to Yonkers and meet DMX. So that's when they came to the Yonkers and met DMX. How dope is that, though? So, all right, but here's my deal, right?

Because you haven't had an artist at that time, correct? No, we had X. No, no, I'm saying, like, sign. No, no, no, no, it wasn't signed. So, so, so Leog's coming there. What made you have the confidence to say, you know what? I'm going to let him rhyme, even though his, his, His jaw is wired.

Because he already knew he could do it because he was doing the previous, like, little stuff in the studio way before the evening. That deal just came out of nowhere. His jaw was still wired. He wasn't getting around that. Right, right. But he was already rhyming, so I know he could do that. But we wasn't banking on him rhyming at that time. We were just banging on his music playing some of the music.

So, Leior just was like, well, let me hear something. And I was like, come here, X four minutes. But he was talking, he was rhyming like I'm talking. Right. So. Even with his jaw wire. Yeah, but you don't know it's jaw is wired at this time. He's just, as I'm talking, this is how he's rhyming.

Sounded natural. No, it don't sound like nothing is wired, but they don't know his jaw is wired at this time. So I said, all right, come here, right, and he spit a couple of rounds. He said, Leo was like, oh, you know, that's pretty good. And then I was like, nah, come in for a minute. I told him to come a little closer, open your mouth. Just look at his mouth. See, his mouth was shut.

Wow. Okay, that's it. That's what made him get a deal with his doors. He's seen that the jaw was wired. Wow. So you guys didn't have no other deal before that? No, no, no. Because I swore that I had heard X on records way, like, years before that.

Yeah, that was wild. Like anything with Big Beat? Anything like that? That's when he called Beepin K solo, right? Something like that. Yeah, he had a deal way back. But I think that's probably even before us because we put somebody else and then we had got him. Right.

So he, but with us, it was probably that moving forward. But he was already rapping and doing things, but it was kind of difficult with X because, you know, X is different type of artists. Right, right. It worked out for us because we know how to handle him, you know what I'm saying? He wasn't the type of artist where you just say go there and do the song and then you work like that. Right, never, ever. You'd rather be outside flying a goddamn plane or racing cars on the floor. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

So let me ask you. And I just recently, I recently discovered this, right? I was recently just going through tours, and I realized that Rough Rider, cash money tour might be top five of hip-hop's greatest tours of all time. Yeah, that was a good tour. So how did this happen? You and Baby got together?

Yep. You know how it worked out because we was doing well at that time, and they were doing well at that time. So as Baby is slimming as me. and my brother. So, you know, it kind of connected. They're from the streets. We were from the streets. So we came from that side of the program that we was dealing with them. So they was like, okay, so we clicked, and then they had juvenile. I needed to use

juvenile for a song. So I said, let me get juvenile. Once I got juvenile, I put them on one of the compilations that we did. And then we got close, and that's how we connected the tour. And we figured out how to make a tour happen. Because, you know, a lot of us don't know when we make a history, and some of us do. know when we're making history. Some of us, like, you smack that in the middle of him,

like, yo, if this goes correct, right, this is going to be a legendary, it's going to be a historic moment. From the beginning, did you know that about that tour? No, you did? No. We were thinking about history. We were just doing what we loved and just music.

When you love, we got a passion for music, so when you got a passion, you don't be thinking about what you're doing. You're just doing it as a love of the music and the people that you believe in. So that was more for me, like, to be able to because I had kissing them and they all from Yanka's kids They're all from YO

So I had them for years When I was babies I was taking them to school And pick them up And drop them off It's crazy So I got a chance to watch them Develop

You know what I'm saying So You never know Until you get there You know It's not like I could foresee And say This is gonna be big

I got artists that I work with That didn't make it So you know You got to pick and shoes And they just happen Up staying out And pop off So they work

And X is from Yonka and the locks is from Yanke's. So that was something that I dealt with to this day. But hold up, but going back to that tour really quick. Yeah, that's all about. How difficult was that logistically for, did you guys have issues? Because this is two of the hottest labels. Yeah, like, that's what I'm saying.

I'm thinking y'all would have eagles. I'm thinking y'all would be clapping. Like, was it smooth? Yeah. Like, be real about it. The whole time we never had a problem. Not in that one incident. Right.

Because it's easy when you both understand each other. Right. You're from the street. Right. We're from the street. All right. And we never even, I don't even think it was a fight on that whole tour. I don't think we have to have no type because it's the line of respect, you know?

Right. Because you already know where it's going. It ain't no if-ans. It ain't no in between. You ain't going to be a couple of punches in the face. You have to answer to some shit. There's going to be some other type of end situation. So we don't want no problems.

They don't want no problem. And we respect them. So they was young. We was young. Just coming in the game and we just wanted to do what we have to do that make history. Right. So how does that happen? Because you're both hot, right?

There's no way. that you can measure, you know, DMX hotness to Little Wayne hotness or Juvie. Jury was hot. Jury Jury was hot. I don't believe Jury did $3 million that year. I believe X did like $10 million. So how do y'all decide who closes out the show or how did that go? I'm going to tell you a crazy story, not even.

With Denver was easy because we were able to say, you can close, we could close, we I think we were swirping it like that. You close, we close, we close, something like that. So that's like this. You got to know how to pay and out and make it make work. So, but one of the times we had a situation, and this is with Hove. So we was on tour, remember we had the Ruffalo for a Rockefeller-Rocopilist. Okay, yes.

So this is the tour. So we were on tour one time. So we was already debating on X going last. Right. And they was like, no, Hove want to go last. So, you know, they already been going through their little way before they got deals. Right, right, right. So he got an ego, ex got an ego.

than you, you ain't better than me, and we're going through that. So I was like, you know what? We got to a degree, man. We was like, you know what? Go ahead, y'all could go last. So I told, Hove, he could go last. And X said, all right, cool. I talked to him as he's all right, cool.

So maybe like three shows in. So, you know, X is going before a hold. Right. So. Taking a shirt off, praying. It's a whole number of situation going on. So with X is, he got this type of energy that, when he go, if you're going after him, whoever's after him, the crowd probably going to be burnt out after this time.

So, Hove, there wasn't getting the energy from them that he normally would have got. Because he's a smooth guy. He's a smooth guy. Yeah, yeah, ex is jumping in Christ. So they're going on records and when Hove get up there, they ain't got no more energy. He took all the energy.

Yeah, he was like, you know what? So we went back in the room. He was like, this is what we're going to do. Can we work it out like this? y'all can go last and i'll go before x that's how we set it up after three shows though because x was draining the crowd he wasn't getting the response and the energy so we switched it back around yeah nobody can't fuck that let's make sure you're sold eating well shouldn't be complicated but somehow it turns into recipes prep cleanup and half your sunday gone factors solves all that

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Will the lunchbox come home empty, half full, or come home at all? And will you finish episode 8 before you're done slicing the cucumbers? Get Bell Pure Fiber Internet with Craved Netflix and Disney Plus from $94 a month. Price guaranteed for two years on Internet with a two-year term and auto pay credit. Visit bell.com.com for details and to check availability. Bell, connection is everything. Hey, Portlandia fans. Carrie Brownstein and Fred Armisen here.

You know us or rather you know them. Tony and Candace. Nina and Lance, Spike, and yes, The Chicken. We've played a lot of iconic characters over the years, but today we're showing up as ourselves to tell you about Podlandia, AEO rewatch, our brand new podcast. Each week, we'll revisit an episode of Portlandia from the very beginning, breaking down the sketches, exploring the backstories of our most iconic characters, revisiting the Portland locations you know and love, and opening up about our creative process.

How did any of this get made? Why do we think that was a good idea? We're ready to talk about it. And we'll also be joined by the people who helped bring it all to life. Guestrars, collaborators and friends, including director Jonathan Chrysall, the mayor himself, Kyle McLaughlin, legendary musician Amy Mann, and many more. Kyle is going for it here. You fully improvised, not just words, but a song. Well, I thought he was going to write.

I thought you were all going to write a song. I remember you thinking that. Listen to Podlandia. Ayo rewatch on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hey, this is Hayes Davenport. And Sean Clements. We host the podcast, Hollywood Handbook. Every episode we're trying to help our guests improve their careers by mainly focusing on how they can help us improve our careers.

The show is famously super accessible so you can easily jump into any of our 650 episodes and understand what's going on. We recommend some of our recent episodes with Ben Stillard. The definition of what is a movie has kind of changed anywhere too, right? What do you think it is now? It's images and words being spoken, captured by some sort of, uh, technology. Danny McBride. He loves Oh, that's fantastic. And you

make it on, you make your own. That's great. I call him Terro Reed. It's a good name. They're all named after cast members of American Pie. Yeah, I call, I don't, I never looked up if she was in this, but I call him Leachy Sobieski.

I don't think she was an American Pie, but I haven't looked it up, haven't looked it up. She was prominent around the same time. Yeah. Then Mary Steenbergin. Why are you guys talking to me? I'm worried. Why are you talking so down to me that you think I don't understand your little play game? I just really, I get it.

I'm trying to set you up for success here. Listen to Hollywood Handbook on the Iheart radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. So, all right, boom. So y'all first deal, right? Well, Rough Riders. Was the Lox sign first and never signed to Bad Boy? Okay. We was managing them.

We didn't even have them signed. Oh, wow. We just managed them. Because I always thought y'all was production. And I know right recently that y'all was managing them. Yeah, we was managing. Okay, when you broke in the puff, you used the management. Okay, not, not.

100% managing. Okay. So how does that work? We just was managing him. We had X-on, but we was managing him. So, you know, we were going through their little trying to get where X was because X was already who he was and as an artist. And it was just young, up-and-coming artists.

So what I did was We would still learn the game Ourself too at this point So I was like, you know what? Just sign the Puff And I could pretty much learn the game And study the game As I'm managing them

So all I did was When he went to, when it was studio I was go to the studio with Puff and I would see how they would work And see how everything was going Because I ain't know much about music Niva But I learned it from just watching Him doing an album, Biggs album And it was just running back and forth

From this room to that room And I used to be like, damn, why he keep running from room to room? But he was doing two albums, one in this room and one in that room. He was doing Biggs and whose else? He probably was doing Biggs album and Kim's album. Okay, okay, okay. But he's running back and forth from me. Like, you know, I'm new to the game.

So I keep running back and far what are you doing? So he was working on Kim's album and Biggs album. He was working both albums at once. Wow. Wow. Is that where you got the idea to do DMX two albums? No. Okay.

I get a better idea for that. Okay. You talk about that, but. See, see. What they don't know is X used to be with me because I used to be in Baltimore. So I used to be out there. I used to keep him with me.

So I could keep my arms or he don't be getting in trouble. So what happened was one day we was on a block and we was outside. He was like, I asked him something. He had like a selective memory. He had a memory where you couldn't forget if you said it to me.

He had one of those memories. So I was like, how do you remember? He was all, I got a memory where you know if I said it and two, three times, I just can't forget it. So I figured that out, and that was probably years before we got a deal. So I said, okay, I give you $100 for every rhyme you give me. Oh, yeah.

So it was like, all right. So every day you would come to me with two rhymes. And I'd be like, say the rhyme, and I hear it. I'll be like, say it again. You say it again. I'll be like, say it again. You say two times. I know you're never going to forget it because that's how his mind was.

So when they say two hours in one year, I've been had the albums in his head. all I had to do, he never had to write again. I just be like, all I had to do was remember like three bars. Right. And he'd be like, bar, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. You remember the rap? Oh, yeah, I remember. But I go on the move and say the whole song.

That's great. You say the whole rhyme. All right. But I want to go further back because you said that you learned the music business when managing the locks, being around Bad Boy. But where did you guys get the bug to even want to get into the music business at all? Well, the music came from my brother. my father, he was looking at a cowboy movie one time.

And him and my mother was looking at that's where they came with the name, Roughrides. We were probably already doing music. Oh, shit. Dance is from a cowboy. Yeah, damn, I didn't even think of that. Cowboy movies. That's crazy. But we know Chad Elliott and Dr. Seuss.

He was around way back then, too, because, you know, we was connected with him as well. So he played the big part on us, getting focused on it. But we always had doing little music here and there, but then we took it to the next. next level. But how we got that? The Rough Rider music influence is because they was looking at that movie and it was Cowboy, Black Cowboys. We took that name and just called Rough Riders. They was called Rough Riders.

That's how we got the name Rough Riders from the cowboy movie, Rough Riders. And this is before you guys even had any connection, any artist, you just... This is the idea. We're going to go this way. Yeah, we're going to try this and let's give it a shot. And, you know, we just believe And plus we hear people around every day all day all the time. Right. You know, we're in the hood.

Like, we're from the hood. We see that all day. So it was easy for us to connect with the people because we see them every day. Because I read somewhere, I think you did a state bed and did a fair bid. And he said, you said, I got to try something different. You know about that. Yeah. Yeah.

So you said, so you said, I got to try something different. But what made you because at this time, Dee, I had money. This is about, this about. Yeah. But this is about. Out of like 300 people, there's about three, probably two at this time before you, successful black street CEOs. And what I mean by that, there was other black CEOs, but they wasn't for us.

You know what I'm saying? They wasn't, they wasn't. Like, I believe, I believe you, Dame Dash and Irv Gotti kind of changed the game. You know what I mean? In my opinion, like black, strong CEOs. But at that time, that wasn't popular. So this is what I'm trying to ask you, like, what made you invest? And I heard you say

You had to A state bid and a Fed bid But what made you say You know hip hop Because You know what I mean? You know what I wasn't really thinking about it Like that

I just listen to rap You know what I'm saying Everybody know rapper You enjoy you I appreciate rap I love it I love but I didn't know nothing About how to make music

And I wasn't into it like that And my brother And he had He said he ran into heavy D Because where we used to be at In Mount Vernon Heaven is from Mount Vernon So he ran into him

So, look, this is what you could do. We was hustling probably about at that point. He said, you could do this, try this, try some music. That'll help you out. And my brother, I know, was to start going into the music. Then he told me, and I was like, all, let's give it a shot. Wow. So we saw messing with the music like that.

So that was your inspiration at Heavy D? Because Mount Vernon and Yonkers is like, that's like the next borough. Almost like Bronx and Manhattan. Yeah, you go. Yeah. So, um. You're on deck. You're on deck.

Yeah. You're connected. So heavy D because, man. Harry D was the inspiration for all of us But I imagine He inspired a lot of people Yeah He helped a lot of people out too

Yeah so So that was the first inspiration Of you seeing someone successful to come up And able to pull it up Because we used to hustle On third and third Third and third is where all

Everybody's out there Trying to do what they do To get whatever they can make And he pull up every now And then periodically I was good with his brother With his brother His brother's name was Jerry

Okay He passed away God blessed the day And he was the wild boy He was the good kids, so he ran with us, and Jerry used to be with us, and we run everything. So, yeah, we got it from that. We're running through, passing through, and he was big, was, He was big at that time.

He had the big albums. He inspired us to do the right thing. Now, how about Mary J. Blase? Because she's from the Yonkers area. She's from Y'O. She's from Y'O. Ex-Kiss and Mary, they all live in Yio, you know. Right.

So they're from over there. She, I like the marriage music. I love her music. but I never knew her, so she really inspired me. Really? You never knew Mary? I know Mary. I love Mary. Mary's good. She family, but I ain't listened to her, until the album, one of her albums was crazy. Then I knew it in, but I didn't know it before then. Okay. So I'm going to bounce around a little bit.

One of the hottest subjects on the Internet right now is 38 Spatch versus Jada Kiss. No, it ain't Jada Kiss. You know, I got my boy on him, which is the artist. But I'm working with his Jada Kitt's cousin, Brillo. So he's the one going back and forth with him right now. Oh, really? Yeah, we said, let us get this kiss. We take care of him. And we took it in.

Him and 38 is going back and he just sent me some today. Oh, yeah? Yep, he just sent me a joint that he did today. But going back and forth, writing a letter for the 30th especially we wrote a letter to him. Oh, wow. So let me ask you because you've been through this. You've seen Big and Park. You see a kiss and Beanie.

You see Hove and everybody basically, do you think this is good for hip-hop? What? The back and forth. Yeah, I mean, it's good as bad as you make it, you know? Right. It's just a sport, you know. Who can box the best, who can rhyme the best as a sport.

It depends on how you look at it, you know, what you want to turn into. I mean, I don't look at artists as, like, they come in here to be shooters and killers. If that case, they can stay on the block and do that. They don't get in here. The people that surround them, they ain't giving them the right information. Because, see, you got a bunch of kids that come in. I had kissing them when they was kids. I know what to tell them that, though.

You'll go that way because if he was about this life, you would have been over there, not over here. You can't get over here. Then swoop to want to be a drug dealer and a killer. Right. It just don't go. So you stay over there. and continue to move that way. So most people don't got the right people around.

They get money. They get a little money up. They go buy a couple of guns and then they think they kill us. Right. No, we don't need that in hip-hop. No, we definitely don't. But you do like the competitive spirit? Yeah, of course.

Okay. All right. That works. Yeah. I mean, that's what it is. It's like playing basketball. You know, they're competitive. They're going to challenge yourself.

You've got to challenge. That's what makes the sport interesting. Right. But if the two MCs are the athletes, it's the people around those MCs that are not the athletes that becomes the problem. There's never the artists that do it. Right, right. That's the problem.

Because I heard that you've seen Beanie Siegel at a park and you call Jada Kiss. It's a normal phone call, told him to get in the cab. And y'all pulled right up and you squashed it. Yeah, and you got the story right? It was just them too. What happened was Bing is from Philly, but we have. in Harlem. So I'm in Harlem. You know, I'd be in Harlem. So...

Right. What happened was my... They was doing an event for the kids. Giving away stuff and giving them free haircuts and different things. So I'm in the house and my barber called me and was like, he knew that kids and beans had a little situation.

So he called me and said, because they keep telling the story, they smoke so much goddamn weeds and kids, they tell a fucking story. Every time. But this is the story. So what happened was My barber called me Tell me

Beings is in the park So I was like I'll be right there So I'll shoot to the park I go in there I was like all right What we're doing So beans there with a couple of these people

So I was like what we're doing Because we're trying to fix this before It escalates His manager Saddique has manager Saddick Is there? Okay You know you? I like that

I like that So Siddiq was with him So Siddiq was with him And I ran up in the park and I talked to him. And I was like, what are we doing? Because we're trying to fix this before. It escalate because it's going to go where I was going to go.

So he said, you know, no, I'm good. No problem. I'm blah. Boom. I said, all, hold on one second. I walked out. I called kids. Let's see you're jumping in the cab.

Come to the park. So he comes to the park. He comes by itself? Yeah, he came by itself. He came to the park. I met him at the park. He said, come on. Let's go down here and go talk to them so we can figure this out.

So I walk him down to the park. I'll tell him the beans, go over there and talk over there. So I let them go over there and talk. They went over there and talked. They hash it out, whatever it is they did. This is after they made disc records? This is after that? Or this is, this is, it had to be after.

Yeah, it had to be. Yeah, yeah, it had to be after. He's saying after they had already been dissing each other on record. Yeah. This, this was, um. It had to be after. Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's the why they squashed it.

Yeah, but they're going back and forth. Right, yeah. We had to fix it. So it was after, yeah. So they went over there and talked. And see, what happened. is when we get into situations with any of the others or anybody and we got to get involved and you tell me you ain't going to do something

because I could do what I want to you right here because you're in New York. I got more than enough people with me to do what I want to do. But I'm going to tell you, we're good. So meaning you catch him in Philly, you can't do that. You got to honor that. We got to do it. But we ain't do that.

I don't know what we kept what it was and we let it move. So that's all I'm trying to tell you is that. He go over there and y'all catch him over there, it can't be no different. You know, it all worked out. It worked out. Nah, I love that, man. I see them, you know, doing shows together and stuff like that. Yeah, they're good.

Yeah. Imagine you, Dame and Irv at the highlight actually got together and formed something. Like, that would have been, because you know why? Let me just say you something. I believe 90% of the artists listens to you, 95% of the artists listen to you. And the other 5% that I believe Irvin and Dane would have had that. I believe the whole industry would follow, y'all. 100%.

100%. What made y'all not do that, do something like that? Because you're always cool. Yeah, we never really, you know, we never really have problems with people. We're more like, it's all about the youth for us and, you know, trying to help them to be able to be better. them in and make money legally without having to do the things we had to do to get there.

Everybody's not going to make it there. Because that's just the way it go. So it was just something for us to do to help them to point them in the right direction. So they're still around to this day because, you know, you don't do the right, you don't set them up right? They're going to go to crash, go to jail. You know, they get

locked up for little things here and there, maybe get caught with a gun or shit like that. But, you know, they ain't criminals. They're not murderers. or drug do, they just confused kids trying to be something they're not. Right. Well, Irv did try to do something similar. That was what Jay Prince did.

And it should night. Right, right, right. Which was kind of far-fetched because they wanted to build their own distribution now. Yeah, yeah. They was trying to do that. What I'm saying is if Dame Irv and D and Y and why would have got together, that was all New York, right? It would have been a much easier process for it to happen. That's the reason why, you know what I mean?

Right. I always, I always think like that. You know what I mean? And like I said. said, like, all the artists listen to y'all, like, you know what I mean? But before we move on, I want you to know, man, our show is about giving people where they can smell them, they throw us where they can tell them, they drink, where they can tell them, they drink them, they're drinking them.

You want to give you your flowers right deep. You're going to go to the first time, yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, I got my man Lee. And Lee, and Lee, Lee got the original whose product, jersey on, GMX signature on there. Let me know. You better frame that. stop learning at least.

And that shit is mad big on you. He was bigger back there. He was a little bigger back there. I'm over here, making sure Lee over here working out. I don't make sure you anything working out, baby. Nothing else.

So, the first time you ever came across X, what was that experience? That was, first time that X was on 125th Street. And my brother already probably was dealing with him a little bit But I was out of town, so I came back in.

Was Copeland there? On the 125 Copeland? Okay. All right. You know, you know, I'm gonna let you. He's shocked. Do your homework, though. You ain't doing this for nothing.

You're doing your fucking homework. But that's the first time you met him? So where was your eye? What did you're doing? We was there, and I wasn't really into rap and music like that. So, you know, I was like, I'm like, I'll go here. I'm, you know.

So when I first. heard him the first time I heard him and I was like, and then when I heard him I was like, he's special. Right. That was it. I just knew it off the bat. Right. He's special. Right. He's different. It wasn't no,

he's like, he's special. That's all I could say after that. And it was from that point on whenever it had to do something with me with him, I was all the way in. All right. So I want to say something because I watched you on The Real Report

with Uncle Murder and yeah yo and they asked you a question they was like yo the ex really used to have dogs in the studio now he said his first time he met DMX

this is real talk it's the first time I've met DMX we're in Jive what is it battery studios yeah yeah we're in battery studios I believe it was on 23rd Street

downtown yeah downtown right boom so I walk in no one knows no one knows who I am and no one knows who X is but we're coming up we're coming up

He's in one side of the studio We're in the other side of the studio I'm with Jungle X dog comes in Jungle scares him Ha ha ha ha That's dust some shit And the dog runs out

It's not his brother for anybody Who does the dog So the dog runs out The dog went and got X He went and got X Yo Somebody just bark at me

And X walked in I swear to God I swear to God I cannot make this shit up He walked in the studio I was like Y'all don't like dogs and I flipped.

I was like, yo, he told you that? Like, how do you know that? Like, how do you? There was no human being that left the studio. The dog, it was just the dog and the dog. And that's what I said. I said, I said the same shit you said. I said, this guy, I didn't hear him rhyme.

I didn't hear him. I didn't hear him perform. I didn't hear him do nothing but just say, you guys don't like dogs. The dog went and told him. It told him and said, yo, these guys don't like dogs. And X came in. That's my first time ever met.

me here, dear back. That is a real dog right there. That is a real thing. That's the dog. Yes, yes. That's the dog. So, oh, oh, oh, you know, you know, X-Kating in my house, you know, I got a dog this size. There's a T-cup yorky. And X said, you want me to make your dog mean? I said, what do you? How do you can do that?

X, what are you talking about? Like, my dog is this big. And X to start growling at him. I never even knew my dog was tough. My dog's like, ah, he just swore. I said, how the fucking turn my teacupyoke york to a pit bull. Let's make some noise to X. Oh, but, but I, so, so, so,

all right, rough riders. Y'all got one of the illest label deals. For lack of a better term, I believe Jimmy Avine was like the, the streets whisperer. Right. Like, he had Shug Night, he had you. Drake. He had Dr. Tray. He had Dr. Trey.

He had rivals on this. Yeah. You know, like, how, because I mean, for me, y'all being on Def Jam, we're X and then selling, you know, the amount of records that you sold, I believe it's like 10 million or something like that, the first album. And I believe, no, $5 million in the first album and $5 million the second album, right? That's what it makes it 10, right? But now this is like, even though Def Jam is the big league, we all know that under that universal umbrella, in a scope is like the big, big dog. Like, you know what I mean? It's universal.

It's named Universal. Universal had cash money. But when you go to that Interscope building, that budget is wide open. Yeah. So let me ask you because the Interscope deal was a label deal, right? Right. Okay. So because you got Exit Def Jam.

Right. He just did what he did. Now, how does this work? Jimmy Iveen approaches you and say, man, let me take everybody else? He wanted to, um, when we first got with Jimmy. We would have, this is how we got with Jimmy. What happened was, we wasn't even with Jimmy yet. But what happened was he had Eve, Dre had Eve over there.

This aftermath of the, yeah. So they had her. So X came back from Cali and was like, yo, I got this girl, boom, boom, boom, bang. I was like, all right, he sent over here. So he sent her. And we was working with her when I was like, she kind of nice. Right. So we had to go through Jimmy and Avian to get, to get, to get.

or Eve. Right. After the man had it, but they couldn't do nothing with it. But y'all was already

to negotiate in the Interscope deal? Oh, y'all was already It feels like he's saying this is how it leads up to it. Oh, this leads up to it. Okay, okay, okay.

So we met them through that, that situation first, and we got out of that situation. And it really couldn't do nothing with X at that moment. But we went to, the first time we went to Cali, that was secondary,

but the first time went to Cali is that Shug flew us out there to sign X. He went to, sign X. No, I never heard of this story. We sit down, tight. This is before Def Jam then. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay, we got to hear it.

Shug flew a south here. I never heard. I don't even, yeah, he did have Park. Because I remember when in the picture, I seen the picture. Park was in the picture. It was me, Puck, my brother, Shug, and whoever else were we was over there. There's a picture with you guys in I remember X said this. You know that picture?

And Boodoo's in the picture. We got to show the picture. We got to show the picture. I ain't going to lie. I remember X saying this story. slightly on drink camps. But I have it to you. So Shug flew y'all out there. Yep, yep. First time with Benny Kelly, right there.

And then y'all met at Interscope? Or no? We met outside at the La Pocque. Okay. La Pocca Buridian? You know. All right. So hold on.

Hold on, hold on. Okay. How did X? I mean, how did Shug hear about X? He had underground records? Word of mouth. Okay. People talking.

Wow. You know, what happened was, Shug, you know, he's from the street. He's doing it. And I'm so good with Shug. and, you know, some people could throw certain things and do things and, you know, if they can take your people, they'll do it.

But that's clear that that probably not going to be the thing over here. Right. You know, because it ain't know, you know, it's kind of like taking and not doing the right thing with it. So if you ain't going to do the right thing and they don't do nothing. Right. So I ain't going to do the right thing. So you did the right thing, not doing nothing.

Wow. So we're just able to go. go back and we figured out as we go, but he did flies out there the first time to Kelly we'd have to see if he can get him, but it didn't work out, so it was all good. Man, can we imagine that alternative reality, though, or X? Is that Duthoro? Yeah, because I'm asking, that's why I, because what part of Shug is this? Is this, when Aftermath is popping, or?

No, this is Death Row. No, he wasn't a part of aftermath. Remember, after D'Rae leaves Death Row. That's what I'm saying. Didn't he have another label after, aftermap, or he stuck with that pro? Who, Drey? Yeah. No, no, Shug.

No, Shug is just death row and Dre is just aftermath. Okay, all right, right. Remember, Drey left death row created aftermath. Right. And then Shug stayed with it. And that's when Pock went over. Well, Pac went over when, that's when Dre left. Right, right.

It was all in school. That's Jimmy. Yeah, that's all Jimmy. So that's the first time you went to Cali. That's the first time. The second time is when you meet Eve, you said? No, Eve came to New York. Okay.

She was in Cali already with Dre and him, trying to figure out her album and her situation with Dre and him. But X must have went over there and ran into her. He flew back and told us about Eve. Right. And then, so then how do you make this deal happen? Well, what we did was I spoke to Jimmy. We went back and forth.

And he was like, all right, because Drake couldn't do nothing with him. Right. With Eve, he wasn't working out, whatever it was. Right. So he was like, all right, we'll do it. We'll give you a deal and you can work the Eve project. So we took that. Well, I think we had three deals, three.

situations, but she was one of them. Jada was one of them? No, probably was, probably was Eve. Was it a ruff lot of compilation? Compilation, okay. Compilation, something else. But it was the, those are things. But we was able to break

on a compilation, so it's easy to get a compilation. So you can break different artists on it, and whoever, that's who you grab. So you don't got to get a bunch of bunch. You can have one compilation, put everybody on it. Oh, man. Let the start rise out of that. Yeah, that's how.

Whoever rises out of there, that's who you pull. All right. Has there ever been an artist that you worked with that you felt like had all the talent but just didn't have, didn't have, the dots just didn't come across? You know what? I didn't have them, but I had a lot of people, but I didn't sign them, but I had them enough. Because Mace used to be up when I had Mace. Wow.

The Lox. X. Eve. Oh, Swiss. P.K. Greece. So I had all them. So we just, we had a little bit of everybody, but. We didn't have Big Al, but my brother. That would have been crazy.

My brother used to handle him, but we didn't have them personally. I didn't really get a chance to work with Big Al, but he's from Harlem. So all the other ones that have, but Mace is from the same block. Camas from the same block. They all from 40th and 139 in that area. So I run-ins went all of them. And drag on too, right? Drag is from the wrong.

Shout out to drag. Drag. Dragger's from the BX. He's good. All right. So, and who, you guys had a Southern artist. What was,

was it, young one? Young one. No, too. And one was good, too. Yeah. From me from Atlanta.

Yeah. So what happened was, we had them for a little bit. I don't think we really signed him, but he used to be working with us. So what happened was, when time was going on, we had too many artists at the time.

So we couldn't really sign that many more people. We had five already. Right. So what if we had left over. always say here. I gave him to my nephew Swiss, I was like, here, you take him. He take them. He took him. And they went over there and they went to

do the deal somewhere with Clive Davis. Clive Davis. Yep. Yeah. Yeah. Cassidy, too. Let me ask you about that because in 1997, I recorded a record called Band from TV, right? Me,

the locks on, styles and kisses on there. Nature, Cam, and me. right? It's my record, right? Big point, and big point. Right, right.

At the time, we was searching for beats. And I believe Swiss was working with ex, but I believe I was the first person to work outside of Roughriders with Swiss.

Right, right. And I remember, I was like, yo, so what's the producer's name? And they just kept saying, man, it's Dee's nephew. You remember the period

where Swiss didn't even have a name? Yeah, yeah. Dean's nephew and I called him Dee nephew at one point I was like, D nephew, he's like, man my name is Swift. I was like, holy shit. He's nephew. How did you know that you, how did you know that you, because, you know, working with

family is good sometimes and working with family is horrible sometimes? How did you know that your nephew is going to be one of the biggest producers of all time? I didn't know he was going to be big. You did? You can't predict how somebody's going to be big. You know, you know, you can't ever predict somebody going to be big

you just have to believe in them and just keep pushing them until they get big. Some people make it, some people don't. He just happened to make it because, you know, we kept a tight grip on them from a little kid, so he was always here, he knew not smoking, weed, drinking, that ain't. Right. Right. He needs to focus on that, focus on that.

Right. So he used to live with me. He was in Atlanta first. Yep. Then he flew back. Yep. He stayed with me. So I live not too far from the studio, which is probably a couple of, maybe, like four miles away from the house. So I said, I go to the studio.

We had the studio in Yonkers. So he'd go to the studio and every day he would come back the next day and I'd be like, all right, he'll listen to these beats. He had prep, 25 brand new beats. That's not it, that's not it, that's not it. But part, forever, and then after a minute he got it. And if something clicked and he got it.

Yeah. So I started using his beats because he had it. But on the takeover, it took a little bit for him to get it, but he got it eventually. Eating well shouldn't be complicated, but somehow it turns into recipes, prep, clean up, and half your Sunday gone. Factor solves all that. These are fresh, ready-to-eat meals designed by dietitians, delivered to your door, and ready in just minutes.

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Behind every night spent making the kids' lunches There's a lot of suspense. Will they finally eat the veggies? Will the pasto survive the first bite? Will the lunchbox come home empty, half full, or come home at all? And will you finish episode 8 before you're done slicing the cucumbers? Get Bell Pure Fiber Internet with Craved Netflix and Disney Plus from $94 a month.

Price guaranteed for two years on internet with a two-year term and auto pay credit. Visit bell.za for details and to check availability. Bell, connection is everything. Hey, Portlandia fans. Carrie Brownstein and Fred Armisen here. You know us, or rather, you know them. Tony and Candice, Nina and Lance, Spike, and yes, the chicken. We've played a lot of iconic characters over the years,

but today we're showing up as ourselves to tell you about Podlandia, AEO rewatch, our brand new podcast. Each week we'll revisit an episode of Portlandia from the very beginning, breaking down the sketches, exploring the backstories of our most, iconic characters, revisiting the Portland locations you know and love, and opening up about our creative process. How did any of this get made? Why do we think that was a good idea?

We're ready to talk about it. And we'll also be joined by the people who helped bring it all to life. Guest stars, collaborators, and friends, including director Jonathan Chrysler, the mayor himself, Kyle McLaughlin, legendary musician Amy Mann, and many more. Kyle is going for it here. You fully improvised, not just words, but a song. I thought he was going to write. I thought you were all going to write a song.

I remember you thinking that. Listen to Podlandia. Ayo, rewatch on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hey, this is Hayes Davenport. And Sean Clements. We host the podcast, Hollywood Handbook. Every episode we're trying to help our guests improve their careers by mainly focusing on how they can help us improve our careers. The show is famously super accessible so you can easily jump into any of our 650 episodes and understand what's going on.

recommend some of our recent episodes with Ben Stiller. The definition of what is a movie has kind of changed anywhere too, right? What do you think it is now? It's images and words being spoken, captured by some sort of technology. Danny McBride Oh, that's fantastic. And you make it on, you make your

own. That's great. I call him Terro Reed. It's a good name. They're all named after cast members of American Pie. Yeah. I call, I don't, I never looked up if she was in this, but I call him Leachie Sobieski. I don't think she was an American

pie, but I still like that. Haven't looked it up. She was prominent around the same time. Then Mary Steenberg. Why are you guys talking to me? I'm worried. Why are you talking so down to me that you think I don't understand your little play game? I just really

I get it. I'm trying to set you up for success here. Listen to Hollywood Handbook on the I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. You know what other is I said notice about Swiss was the perfect mixture of him. Like he had the Bronx, obviously. There you go.

Then he had Atlanta. But then he had like some dance hall. Like you could tell like he had like some type of Jamaican or some type of Caribbean vibe with him. Like because. Yeah, because he's from the Bronx. You know, he's on Boston Road. There ain't a bunch of Jamaicans over there. I didn't even know that.

It makes more sense. Yeah. So I didn't even know that. I just knew like. From Boston Roe. Because like when I used to work with him early on, like you know, People knew who I was, but people didn't know who I was. So he would, he would, like, grab, like, records and, like,

yo, come to me to the club. And we were sneaking a club. Just me and him. And, like, he would play the record. And no one knows it's us. Right. And he'll play the record. And he'll see how the people will react.

And he'd be like, oh, shit. Like, we just, like, and then we'll go to the club the next day. And then he'd be like, yo, this is. And then he'd like, now we got it, Norrie. And I'm like, I never knew this type of shit. Like, I've never done that with no other producer to this day. I don't even know if a Swiss even knows that. that. Like, he's a miss,

make some noise to sweat. I think what they do on with verses. I think he's like a venture capitalist. He doesn't even show up no more. He got the formula. Once you got the formula, he's pretty good. You'll see it.

No. We're going to play our game. And you'll get a designated drinker if you want. Yes. He liked to drink. Okay. Drink this for me. Put up my chair over there?

Get my chair right here? As a black cowboy from Harlem, God damn. Make some noise. Oh, shit. Okay, hell yeah. Hell yeah. We're going to get into block talk. Hell yeah.

We're going to get into block talk talk. Have more shopups? You can sit right here? I do. I do some. Leave, we don't got a chair? Lee. All right, you got the big boy chair.

All right, we're going to give you guys. We're going to give you, and then you're going to drink with us. We're going to give you two choices. If you pick one, we don't drink. Is you pick the right one? No, it's really whatever up to you, whoever you pick. But if you pick one of the two, we don't drink. But if you say both or neither, like you really don't want to answer.

You like both of them. You don't like both of them. Then we all drink. We drinking, really. He drinks, when he drinks? When you say both or neither? Right. So if you don't pick one, we're drinking.

All right. And this is really just to bring up names and stories. It's not really the pinning against each other. Have fun, yeah. So first one is rest and peace of both, DMX, Biggie. Which one are like the best? Yeah. Your criteria.

Don't talk crazy to me, me. Well, whoever you like better. We need Earl of that. That's like this. That's insane. You think I'm going to say, I'm on, I don't know what God. Look, I stand strong here. No way I can say anybody but X.

Even though Big is good. Yes, my boy is my one. I got to say. And what's the wrong by the sign? How are you going up? Okay. All right, cool. I can never get it.

That's crazy. But, that's, of course. All right. Rest and peace to both. Stiles. By the way, just Mr. Lee who writes the questions. So just in case you want to be mad at anybody where Mr. Lee at. Where he went to get coffee?

That's not, brother. Yeah. He's crazy. He's setting you up all night for this. That's a thing right, dear. He was up all night. All right. Style speed, Stilespeer, Jada kiss.

Ooh. That's nasty. Both. Yeah. Okay, you got the killer. Right on time. Let's get him a shot. Thank you.

Is that the George Clooney shit? He sold it for like 300 mil or something. Some crazy. God. Yeah, oh, God damn it. Thank you. What's you said? Water, the clock.

Okay. Cheers. Sal Lord. There you go, cheers. All right. Go ahead. You got this one. Oh, you got a drink when I say both?

Yeah, we say both. I'm going to have to pick one. I'm going to pick a horse anyway. You're going to ride on a horse anyway. I'm not going on. Hey, that's not going on. That's not drunk driving. The horse is over.

Yeah, the horse is over. I'm going to pick anybody now. Oh, shit. No, he might like that. He might want to do it. All right. Infrared or cross? Infrareda cross?

I would say inf as raping wise. If is more, no, infant, they're both more good. But if is a writer. Cross is a rap. still, you know, Infra's the one that wrote, you know, for Fadjoa. All the way up, right? All the way up.

Yeah. So Memphis, more of a right that music was. All right. Drag on or Memphis bleak? I gotta say drag, man. I never going against nobody. You're wasting any time I can you think of a good with. I love that.

I love that. Rockefeller cash money. Hmm. Oh. Okay. All right. Cheers. Jay Z or Nas?

I got to say both. Imagine just leaving the bottle of anything so he could work. She got it. I mean, she's going to keep coming back before. Get my nigga to bottle. Y'all on vacation anyway. You're on vacation anyway.

Come on, God damn. Whenever you leave New York's vacation, it doesn't matter. You go to Philadelphia. We're on vacation. We're on vacation, man. Once you leave you, New York. Eve or Missy?

Ooh. Eve, I just told you. He's got to talk to Lee. He's right to leave. Lee, you know what they're looking? Lee, you're acting right now like he don't know English right now. He's like, I don't know the English. I'm right.

He said, thought so. This is a good one. Go ahead. Dame Greece or P.K. This is a good one. Dame Greece. Yo, pick up to Dane Greece, man. Listen, man.

You don't get enough props. Man, you are legend. Drink Champs Alumni. Drink Chance Alumni. And also big up to P.K. too, as well, man. Dene Grease is nice. Yes, man.

Like, both of y'all are... But, see, Greece came up with us first. Right. P.K. came in later. So we started off with Dame Greece. Yes. Yeah, vacant lot. Vaking lot.

They're from our block on 2-9. So we started with Dan Grease. So, I got to say, Dan Grease and P.K., but Dan Grease. And I love seeing Grease and French and Max back in the studio together. I love seeing that. man. I love seeing the original, get back to original. Originality. Go ahead. Is dark and hell is hot or flesh of my flesh?

I go with Dark and Hell as High. I did both of them, so I don't... You just said, both. Did you say the same? Because we're going to boy, shot. You said the same. No, it's Dark and Hellas High. Okay. Get an album changed... Yeah. Change life. Dylmatic or ready to die? I'll go a Redis die.

Ready to die. Murder Inc. or Junior Mafia? That's an interesting matchup. Murder Inc. or Junior Mafia? I'm not to go to Murder Inc. I know them. I don't know nobody in any mafia like that. Big L or big pun? Rest of peace.

Both. Salute. They're both dead? Yep. God bless. God bless. God bless. That's why I said both.

Yep. Kooji rap or slick Rick? Koojee rap. For me, right then, it'd be Koojee rap. Koojee rap. I like the Kooji rap. Belly or juice? Belly.

X was in belly? Yeah. Yep. Then you fucking go. In the tunnel. It's funny, when you said that, I could imagine X in juice for some reason when you, you know, he wasn't. But all of a sudden, I could imagine them in juice. Nah.

I could. I could imagine them in juice. Rough riders volume one or Rough riders volume two? I'm probably confusing them. I don't even remember. So that's both? So it's both in these. Either way we're drinking.

I say both. All right. Pull up. Oh, oh. Okay, you ask this one. Swiss beats or Timberlin? Yes. You got to scold Mr. Lee, man.

Yes. Then you know what? That's like me asking you Your mother or your father. I know he is But the orange mother's Look Swiss is my nephew.

Right. Crazy? Right. What are you talking about? The mind not that. Swiss, of course. Timmy's good too, though. Timmy and the chemistry.

That's your blood. I got to go on my blood. You're going to go with your blood, right? That's right. That's right. We're fucking right. Answer that question. That's easy.

Mob Deep or M-O-P? Mob deep. Good. Dre or Rizza? Dre, I did music with Dre. I'm going to people. I work with Dre before he don't, me and Eve, he worked on me with the E project.

I never really work with. I'm only going about what I work with. Not like I music by it, but Dre. Well, what with that? Heavy D or Biz Marquis? I got to go with Heave. I know Heave. Rest and peace to both.

NWA or Wu-Tang Clan? I got to go to Wu-Tang Clan. I know a Wutane, MEP is my man. I just talked to MEPs two days ago. All right, no, we're the last one. And this is the last one. Let me get back into the interview. Loyalty or respect?

I'm going to ask me that. Because I just seen you ask me this. Yeah, this is our last one. For me, for me, the life I live, some people can say loyalty, respect. You can't love. You can't be loyal to something you don't respect. Let's be simple with it. I don't need your loyalty if you don't respect me.

Right. You can respect me. See, if you respect me, you can act like you fucking loyal to me anyway. Right. I agree. I'll take the respect. I just, it's like you being loyal to me, but me telling you, fuck you and talking to you crazy.

Right. I'll take the respect and the loyalty comes with that. Right. I'll make some noise for that. I'll make some noise. more ice. There's more ice. Now, let's talk about, um, um, um, um, block tour.

Most unique kid I've ever seen. You write on the block. Got you. I gave you the joint, bitch. Yeah. You're right on the block. You're kicking it. What made you think of something like that?

And that's, that's officially a podcast, correct? Yep, yep. That's a podcast. And I got like 30 episodes. The dope podcast. Right. And I just, it was a blogger. This is my block I'll be on.

So, you know, I go out there. And I really do it because I get to let the kids come up and see the artists and they can just stand there. Everybody can just come out. Right. See different artists because a lot of people might not have money to go to do shows and go to concerts and stuff. So I bring the artists to the block.

That's fire. So the kids can just sit there, get pictures and take autographs. And that's it. I mean, that's one of the main reasons I do it because it's open to the public. Anybody can come walk up and do whatever they want. Okay. All right. So you received a little black lash, like how we received, right?

I'm going to break it down for you. Whenever all artists come on here, we had Kodak Black, and Kodak, they said that Kodak was a little high, right? They blamed us. We had Kanye come up here. He whiled out, they blamed us. So you had baby come to your show.

And people said that baby was a little high. I'm going to say, I can't say if he was high or not because I wasn't there with him. So I'll say I'm going to give them he was tired Okay, yeah, there you go That's what I'm talking about That's what I talk about Yeah, but

But being on the media side Do you see how crazy that is How a guest could come It has nothing to do with you Something out of your hands It's out of your hands They're there on their own But they blame you for it

Do you see how that shit is? Yeah, they blame you. I don't even know it was blame me And he didn't bring me to my face So I don't know This is gangsta types Yeah, I don't know. I never even seen none.

I don't even pay attention to shit. Right, all right. But he was probably tired, you know, because what happened was, I'm going to say he was tired because they were on tour. He was on tour. So he happened to come to my block because he was doing something in Jersey. He wasn't false. So he was like, yo, I'm going to come over and do the park out. He came over to the block.

And he did it and then he went back to the concert. So he probably was tired. Yeah, yeah. And maybe real like that, too, man. Maybe 100% All these years, 20, 30 years I know always the same, respect it's the same. I'm going to have to say he tired.

I ain't going to say he's the same. Right, yeah, I respect that. Now, being in this game as long as you've been in, like me, I used to say I don't have regrets, but me, I do. I do see that I could have played certain things better. Is there anything that you wish you would have did that you didn't do?

But in the music? Yeah, like, yeah. Probably, you know, I don't think about regrets too tough. Most of the things I did, I was able to pick them. You might regret.

I already had to regret. Okay, maybe not regret. Maybe something you wish you would have done differently. Yeah, you would have done differently. Maybe not have regret, yeah. Yeah, we probably, you know, for me, the main focus was X. I probably would

Hope I could have got him some more help But he was fighting against him So I regret that I wasn't able to do Because he's on control over but I was Not able to weed him in like I were one or two Because you know, I talk to him Most of the time all the way to the day he passed But I regret that he couldn't change his

You know, change his habit or things that he was fighting against his deans I couldn't save him from that You know the last two weeks of X-Life prior to the last two weeks. Huh? Last six weeks, you know, he was living out here.

I was living every day. Like, I'd seen the difference. Like, I would meet him. He would come on time. We had a lot of the show. Yo,

yo, he would come on time. Do you know you got the worst reputation of being late? And he was coming on time. Like, we were like, yo,

yo, this is a, he was totally. And that episode, he was like, that's the best, he looked so healthy and happy. Yeah,

wait on them. Yeah, yeah, weight on them. And, you know, what's crazy was, He had never met Benny the butcher.

So I had just posted a picture with me and X, and Benny the butcher had hit me. And he was like, he was like, yo, I never met X. I did a song with X. You know what I mean? He's like, is it okay that I pull up on y'all? I was like, yeah.

And Benny the butcher pulled up. We all got pictures. We all did that. But then it was crazy because I think of the next week after that, X was like, yo, I'm going to Atlanta. And we was having so much fun. Like Lee said, it was six weeks leading up to that. together every day.

So I was like having so much fun. It's like your friend going, going to summer camp or stuff. I wanted to be like, oh, chill, man. I wanted to be like, nah, man, don't go nowhere. Like, chill. You know, this is a grown man. And then he went to Atlanta, and then that's when he went to New York.

And it was something about him going to New York. So let me flip and bounce it. Yep, he was saying that to me. So let me flip and bounce it, right? Irv, who also passed away, God bless the dead. rest of peace and rest of peace ex as well but it was a time where people where X was in the hospital

right and Irv sends out a tweet or something and there was rumors like all of y'all was mad at him because he had like over-preached his ground you know what I'm talking about? Yeah I think I remember yeah Earpriced spoke

I think he spoke a little bit ahead of the situation that we was going to through it, actually. He probably spoke before we wanted people to know what was going on. Before the family was ready to do. Yeah, yeah. So yeah, I remember that. Right. And you ever got to work that out with, Irv?

Yeah, yeah, that's, you know, you make mistakes you're there. It's not like he's doing it intentionally. Right. Some people just, that's just what they do. You know, he was grieving too as well. You know what I mean? X was close. Right. Just talking about it. How was the dynamic as X as an artist and you guys being the label trying to put out these projects.

Like, I would imagine you guys would clash a lot, or would you not? Clash with who? With X. Like trying to get things done? Every day. So it's like it's hard to understand how y'all even got things done. I'm going to tell you how you got what this done. That's a good question.

This is the trickiest. Remember I told you he had a selective memory. Right. So I paid them for songs. probably four years before we even did music. We didn't even know about music. He didn't even know about music deals and nothing. He was just on the block.

We was out there, Hussein, doing what he would bring me rhymes all the time. And as long as you can remember a bar or two, you can't know the whole song. Just say da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da. You remember that song? You'd be like, yeah, I remember the song. But I said it's the whole song. You say, I'll go in the booth and late. That's how I was getting the songs.

He already had them in his head already. He might write one. the bluer song but most of the rhymes he wouldn't know off top of his head if I just tell him a part of the rhyme he could say the whole rhyme after that so that's how I was able to get two albums in one year

because he had the rhymes over there just said that rhyme right there he just said. Did you ever get to the point where y'all like I can't do this anymore with what? With X like working with them with each other? Never, never I mean X X wasn't no problem for us you know

I'm saying. We just was trying to save him. Like, you know, he had the problem. Yeah, he was the problem. We ain't the problem. We just had to save him. It was complicated. He didn't really worry about it.

He wasn't stuck on material stuff. Right. He ain't, he ain't care about nothing. No, no. He'd be like, oh, we gotta go to Grammys. He's like, yeah, yeah, yeah, I'll talk to them. And he'd be way over there, and you got to find him. He'd probably missed a Grammy.

What, twice? He had MTV awards. I was one of them. I was born of him. I was mad to admit that. And his MTV getting awards, he's out there flying planes. He wasn't that type of person that cared about the fame. I was in the wee spot with him, bro.

I ain't going to lie. Listen, I don't know if I've ever admitted this. He was there, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. He was there, Brady. He was right. He might stay longer with you. He definitely did. He did.

But I went, and I was like, and I was just talking to him, and then I realized, or the TV flashed, and it was like MTV rewards, DMX. And I'm looking like, Like, wait a minute, nigga, you're supposed to be in the MTV awards? He's like, aren't you going to be there? No, nigga, I'm not nominated for shit. They want me in the crowd, like, to be a seat filler.

Like, you're nominated. Like, he didn't give a fuck, bro. He didn't give a fuck. It was a weed spot right around Kay Slay's house, real. I swear to God, spread us all of them. Work it up. 100%. But what, I don't know people don't like to do the what ifs or whatever, but let's just just

for lack of a better term. Do you think X-Kis' vibe in this day and time and this music? In this climate? I mean, he's a true artist, so, you know, these people, most is not true artists. You know, they get a good song and they make it from there. It's not like, you know, he was able to deliver an album. See, he don't got to deliver. We had to give up 15, 16 songs per album and skits.

That's 18 songs. You know, he had to do all that. So he'd probably be able to make it because you, you'd probably be able to make it because you, What you got to deliver for an album right now? Ten songs, eight songs? Yeah. Two-minute, thirty-second songs, too, at that. Yeah, no.

He gets, one album is two albums for us back then. Yeah, yeah. He probably would have just been doing fine, just performing the music that he already had, the catalog, doing festivals. Because his performances were crazy. He was by himself on stage. And that was one of his strongest points

is that his performance, like he said, was he didn't need nobody on the stage with him. It was his energy and his love for him, passion for the music and the crowd. So he just knew how to do that. He mastered that already. Okay. So I'm bouncing around a little bit, right? Again, how much do you think?

Because, like, obviously rough riders, we didn't know that it was a name of the black cowboys, right? We didn't know that, right? We thought it was just, you know, rough, rough people and, you know, riders, like riders, right? But then Eve comes, and it brings like a, I don't want to say. softens y'all up because it doesn't but it brings a different caliber of people because after all she's a pit bull on the skirt but she

is in a skirt and she is a female so it brings a different audience especially with the Grin Stefani kind of like brought that commercial edge to it did the company changed because of that no

no she wasn't she's a girl pit bull on a skirt yeah yeah she's still a dog now. She's one of the boys. She's just a girl. We didn't treat it no different. You know, she's just, some people were able to blend them with the guys and get along with all the guys and they don't really bother. So she was kind of rough. She come from Philly. You know, they kind of

rough over there as well. So she was, she felt in place. She didn't know she was good. I met her early, when she was down with Dre. I did a record with her her name was Eve of Destruction. There you go. It was Eve with Destruction and I did a record for her. I was crazy because now that I just did a record with Dre, I believe one of Dre's people who hit me

and that's where I'm Sadieke and then we connected and I flew the, I'm not flew the Philly, I drove the Philly and I did a record with her book. This before. Eating well shouldn't be complicated, but somehow it turns into recipes, prep, cleanup, and half your Sunday gone.

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Behind every night spent making the kids' lunches, there's a lot of suspense. Will they finally eat the veggies? Will the pastos survive the first bite? Will the lunchbox come home empty, half full, or come home at all? And will you finish episode 8 before you're done slicing the cute? Cucumbers? Get Bell Pure Fiber Internet with Craved Netflix and Disney Plus from $94 a month.

Price guaranteed for two years on internet with a two-year term and auto pay credit. Visit bell.com.com for details and to check availability. Bell, connection is everything. Hey, Portlandia fans. Carrie Brownstein and Fred Armisen here. You know us, or rather you know them. Tony and Candice, Nina and Lance, Spike and yes, the chicken. We've played a lot of iconic characters over the years, but today we're showing up as ourselves to tell you about Podlandia. AEO Rewatch, our brand new podcast. Each week, we'll revisit an episode of Portlandia from the very beginning. Breaking down the sketches, exploring the backstories of our most iconic characters, revisiting the Portland locations you know and love,

and opening up about our creative process. How did any of this get made? Why do we think that was a good idea? We're ready to talk about it. And we'll also be joined by the people who helped bring it all to life. Guest stars, collaborators, and friends, including director Jonathan Chrysler, the mayor himself, Kyle McLaughlin, legendary musician Amy Mann, and many more.

Kyle is going for it here. You fully improvised, not just words, but a song, a melody. I thought he was going to write. I thought you were all going to write a song. I remember you thinking that. Listen to Podlandia. Ayo, rewatch on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

Hey, this is Hayes Davenport. And Sean Clements. We host the podcast, Hollywood Handbook. Every episode we're trying to help our guests improve their careers by mainly focusing on how they can help us improve our careers. The show is famously super accessible so you can easily jump into any of our 650 episodes and understand what's going on. We recommend some of our recent episodes with Ben Stiller. The definition of what is a movie has kind of changed anywhere too, right?

What do you think it is now? It's images and words being spoken, captured by some sort of technology. Danny McBride. He loves that. Oh, that's fantastic. And you make it on, you make your own. That's great. I call him Terro Reed. It's a good name. They're all named after cast members of American Pie. Yeah. I call, I don't, I never looked up if she was in this, but I call him Leachy Sobieski.

Yeah, I don't think she was an American Pie, but I still like that. Haven't looked it up. She was prominent around the same time. Yeah. Then Mary Steenbergin. Why are you guys talking to me? I'm worried. I'm worried.

Why are you talking so down to me that you think I don't understand your little play? Play game. I just really, I get it. I'm trying to set you up for success here. Listen to Hollywood Handbook on the I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. But, all right, boom. We got Scarlet up right now, right? Yeah, we got Scarlet right now.

I'm working on our project now. We're working on putting her album out now. So we're working on Scars, Scars good. She's serious. She, um, she belongs in the 90s so bad, man. Like, yo, when I hear her, I'd be like, yo, she belongs in our era. Like, if you could just rewind time because she's so hard, I'm afraid. She's in 90s, yeah.

She's like, she, like, belonged in our era. Like, you ever got to hear? No. Like, she's like, ball. And she's like, I love it. I love it. Like, I'm just, I'm just, this era is so moist. Right.

And so, so moist and nights. You know what I'm saying? that I don't understand. Like, she's so real. It's like, damn. Like, you know what I mean? Like, she need help. You need more real artists to come out because she's so dope.

But, like, you know what I mean? Like, I just feel like this era is so soft. Like, you know what? Her favorite artist is X. Get out of here. I can tell that, though. If you listen to her, she sounds a pitch off from X. Like her, she has a delivery is her idol artist.

But you're talking about Scarlet. Yeah, Scarlet. I think it's a Scarlet. Of course we've heard of Scarlet, bro. Yeah, Scarlet. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Did you do a monster thing we did? Yeah, yeah, we did the monster thing we did?

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah. Every time he said Scarlet, I thought of Scarlet that you worked with. No, no, no, no, no, scarlet. Yeah, like, yeah. She's dumb. You didn't know she signed to them? No, I do.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. I just talked to her before I got here, I just called her. Yeah, I don't see her as a new, to me, she's already established in my mind, because she's been, she's been doing it. She got the underground. She got the underground. She don't need no help on the underground. You know what I mean? But, you know, that overall, because that's, it's like in these days, like, you know, crazy shit is, like, speaking about X, like, I've never seen X, like, like, do something that didn't look like X. But in this day and time, you have to, like, do something. Like, like, even with the Lox, like, I didn't know the shiny suits was bad. Like, until they, no, I didn't know it. I didn't know. Like, I saw the shiny shoes. I wanted to. sign your suit. That kid, the fuck. I did.

The rest of us, dude, we didn't like it. I didn't, I didn't get one, but I was just saying. I'll take it. I'll take it. Yeah, but,

which I want to get into that campaign about Free the Locks. Like, to me, that's a historic campaign. I know you talked about it a lot, but I mean, I want to just go over it again because I think it's a part of

hip hop history at this point to get them off the label and Bad Boy was a strong label at that time. Puff is a strong force. How did that all? Everybody's run into Bad Boy. They running to get out of bad boy. Like, what happens there?

See, they were signed the bad boys at that time. Right. So they wanted to get out. They didn't want to be there no more, no longer. Did you sign on the bad boy or they were signed a bad boy? They were signed on the bad boys. I had manager, remember? Okay, yeah, yeah, okay, yeah.

So they wound up getting a deal with bad boy. They got to deal with a bad boy. They got to deal with a bad boy. But then they wanted off and Mace wanted to stay, you know, because he's good with the shiny shoes. Right, right. He was good. They didn't, they wasn't comfortable.

Yeah, these guys were called the warlocks. Yeah, we have war. So they wanted out. You know, Puff is pretty firm or not letting nobody out without getting his money or certain things. Right. So, you know, he don't really let too many people out of the contracts. You just sit there and you're just burning. Shelf you, basically.

Yeah, you're going to shelter out, but don't worry about. We'll come back and get you later 10 years from now. Right. But I had a relationship with Puff. And this is with a relationship. So I didn't even know this. So Puff's father and my father were best friends. Get out of here.

So they grew up in Patterson in the Bronx. So they're from Patterson Project. So my pops called me and say, hey, you know, tell Papa, him. I want to sit down and talk to him. Wow. Tell him about his father because his father, I got killed. Right. His father was a street dude.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. His father was a hostel doing him, and they wound up murdering him. And my father told me he wanted to speak to him, that was his friend, son. So I was like, okay, and then me and him got close. After that, and I was, look after Puff, you know, make sure he's good and everything. So Puff is really family technique.

Right. In that way. Didn't you have Mace, and you gave it to Mace, that Puff wanted the Lons, and you said, no, take this artist and then, I mean, DMAX he wanted, looking like that, and Mace, you gave him, Mace? I gave him, you know what? I didn't, I don't even think I had me sign.

I think we just had. had them with us. They all used to be in the studio with us. So we have to influence it, get them signing wherever. We could have signed them. I said, you know what? I don't really know the business like that. We're just trying to figure it out. You know what here? Take them and I'll manage them and then I'll learn the business as I'm going.

So I was able to go on tour, do everything. So when I did get a deal for X, I already knew how to do everything. I ought to took them. I wouldn't have got them as far as Puff got him. But still, staying on that the Lox campaign, you had the relationship with Puff, but that campaign still went down and was saying free the

lock. Yeah. I'm sure Puff didn't like the campaign. I mean, I can't do nice business. Okay. I can't tell them not to do what this is. So they did it up. That was their campaign.

Yeah, yeah. I mean, if that's what they want to do and that's going to help him get it is. See, see, me and Puff is good. Me and Puff business ain't good. Right. We're good. The business is not good because it ain't just him. Like it's just business.

It's not personal. Yeah, some of the people involved. Puff ain't the only one making these decisions. Right. He looked like he is, but there's two, three people over there telling him, do it, do this. And so they got to do what they got to do to get where they got to go. I can't tell him, don't fight back. Right.

My gosh, man, do whatever you got to do. Let's do whatever it's going to take to get them to move and get you off this and get to a better place. That's what we're going to do. So that's, it worked. Got it. Man, that was a, that was a time, boy. That was incredible time. Yeah.

Yeah. And did he actually let them go? Yeah. Like, absolutely. You didn't let him go. without the money. It wasn't pretty clear. You're not walking out the door.

It's not like you're walking out the door, and you're good, no, niggins. I'm going to let him go. So I was like, all right, so you said, yeah, you know what, I'm going to let them go. Then when people say, I'm going to let them go. And then you say, I'm going to let them go. But the butt is what you want to hear.

You don't want to hear the butt. Don't worry about that. You want to hear the butt. Right. But I got to get compensated. So I have to give them $3 million. to get them out. I don't think we knew that part of the story.

No, I didn't know that part of the story. So, damn, and then Jay erased X contract, right? Yep, Jay, Jay did an honorable move. And a lot of these things with his relationship-wise, it wasn't nothing to do with the odds. It was probably the relationship I had with them. Me and Hope was good. We had a good rapport.

Him and X probably never even talked. But me and him had a good rapport. And I asked him, you know, X was up there. he had, remember he was the president at death camp for a little bit. Yeah, I was up there. So he wanted to get out of there. He probably was in the hole for like $8 million or $4 million, whatever it was. But he was in the big hole over there.

So I went up there and I spoke to him one day and I was like, you know, he's just doing me a favor. X don't want to be here no more. He's not comfortable. He preferred to see if he could just go somewhere else. He was like, all right, let me think about it. Coming back another time, he called back. He's like, all right, I don't know what to do. I'm gonna let him go on my way about the whole debt.

He let him go in and have to pay nothing. Wow. That's, that's dope. Yeah, that's dope. Let's make some nice shit. You gotta give Hovish props on that. I don't know nothing else's what Ho's doing, but I know that move right here.

It was a good move that I always respect them for 1,000 percent. Right. Why were you in this subject? I was mentioning earlier. Like, me as a person, you know, I worked with y'all, but I was never like directly under a rough riders or rock a fan. or whatever. But I know that when y'all was in power,

when black CEOs, I would like to say that, I would like to say that, black CEOs, you, Dame, Irv, J. Prince, Shug, like, when y'all was at the forefront, the music business seems a lot better. Right. It seems a lot better when we have our people representing our people.

Why don't know. Because like since the, the, I don't, what is it called? The missing? missing version of, you know, the street CEO. What's my man named? Riggs. Riggs Morales, like Sam Cresco, like certain people, Mike Kaiser even, like, you know what I mean?

Like, all of these CEOs is gone. And now it's like the industry is disposable music. Do you think that was like purposely done? It's like no more hip-hop CEOs. No more hip-hop. Yeah, that's what I'm trying to say, yes. I think when I look at it, because I've seen the transition from here, they're the corporate taking over and not the streets.

Most of the people from the streets that was doing it before. Then they put corporate people to do it. And they don't know nothing about the music or the culture. They're just getting jobs and checks. They're not to work with ours. And so now they're begging on one hit wonder. If they get a lucky song or maybe they, before we had to work this whole project all the way through. From the streets.

Yeah, from the street. So we know where we're going from here to there. We do, we do 15 songs. We pick three singles that we know we can bet our money. on and now you ain't got to do that they're hoping they get one single and they're trying to get more money they're having to spend

because they were spending a lot of money back then but they didn't know recoup because the artists might not sell so they found out a way to get around spending a lot of money that's all it was because I remember like and let's not forget right now also the tech companies

are like the record labels yeah the apps and social media I'm saying like all the social media or the Spotify's It's all social media. Right. At the end of the day, streaming and whether it be Spotify and Instagram,

it's really all the same shit. It's all connected, you know? Right, right. Yeah, that's fucked up. That's fucked up. But do you think getting rid of the black CEO was a purpose thing? I'm sorry to ask you the question in a different way. But you think that was done on purpose or it's just evolution?

They really can't get rid of us. You know, they just make it difficult for you. Yeah. So you can't get to certain ways they put up roadblocks and make it difficult. And, you know, you are who you are. You know, I'm a CEO, I'm going to be that until I say, I don't want to be that. They can't stop me from being that. But they can make it hard for you.

And what they did was just change the games. They started making things difficult for you, the artists and everybody else. And they just knew that they, because they wanted to keep a grip on it. Because before they didn't have a grip because they had to pay us. See, before they had to pay us, we saw XYZ, boom boom, we need 20 minutes. You got to pay you that for the next situation because you understood the business now. So they had to figure out how can we do? So that's when they said, you know what?

You remember what they did this? Because we were from New York and we were selling at the time the most and we was making the most money. They knew that we understood the business after well. So they couldn't give us a check for a million dollars. They know we need $10 million because we know the numbers now. We know the numbers we understand. So they said, you know what? Let's put them on freeze.

Don't give them no work for a minute. They put New York on freeze and we wasn't able to do things. They went to the South and went over there and started bringing in a lot of South artists and different things and making it easier because they was just wanted to get in the game so they can cut them short and give them peanuts instead of giving us. They take that $10 million they were supposed to get us and probably could do half of the South. There wasn't no problem because they wasn't really, they just wanted to get in the game. And that's how they switched it because they, you know, they froze a lot of New York artists for a minute. Makes it a lot of sense. So, okay, what the fuck I'm about to say?

Okay, you got something E? I forgot what I'm about to say. I want to remember it. No, it was it to turn the story about the J story on the fifth? What, the J and DMX battle? No, J, the store, the story. Oh, I know what I was about to say. Hold on, hold on, hold on, hold on.

Remember that, remember that. You was around during the greatest time of hip-hop. And now you, I don't know if you, you cut on your social media. Now when you cut on your social media, you see Dave, this and gay. Like, never in a million years. Like, I still think this is AI.

That's crazy. I still think, like, somebody's going to come out and be like, hey, I was fooling y'all this whole time. Like, I still feel like that because I just can't believe it. Like, and I remember them, like, I remember them three. Bigs. Biggs. Begs.

Biggs, Dave, and and I'm going to tell you something, and I've probably never said this. You know, I asked a couple of times, you know, Biggs, Biggs, Biggs, Man is drink champs, or what I mean? And I've asked Biggs, and I've asked Jay, like a few times that I've been around them

and they have nothing bad to say about Dan. I swear to God. They don't think, they do not say nothing bad about them, bro. I swear to God. But in the million years, did you ever think that you would have to put on your fore and see that Dame Dash is this and Jay? No,

not they remember like you said, they was close. They was in Damon and Biggs and it was, you know, there was a team. So, you know,

people get old, they grow up and, and things happen, you know, so Hove went this way, Dame went that way, Biggs went whatever way he went, but they're still probably good,

but in the eyes of the people with social media. So like you said, they can make a lot of things and say things. I think Damon is doing it for, attention and different things. I don't think he mean.

It's not like I hate you. It's just working for him. People are watching them and he understands how this work now. Right. Because I see you on Queens Flip, I believe. And I believe he asked you the same question or how the problem start. And you alluded, you didn't say definitely,

but you said it might have been Alia? That was something that I had found out way later. He was dating Alia. Dane was dating. Anytime you're doing shit like that, something's going to go wrong. I don't even know why they did that anyway. That's stupid shit.

You know, that's like me dating your girl. Yeah, yeah. And me dating your girl. And I know you. You know, it's because something is bound to go wrong. Right, right. One way or another, I don't care how you do it. It just ain't going, it ain't going to end right. And then you can build up anonymosity, even though I'll fuck with you, but he can't say what he really wants to say because it's going to discredit.

Right. Can't say it. All right. So what is the future of Rough Riders right now? well I let my brother my brother's hand in most of the Rough Rider stuff I'm focusing more on the block talk stuff

and just doing that and working with I'm working a SCAR project me and Swiss is working that project so I'm about to put out our album we just picked out some songs last night I had to pick out about six songs just to give to them to work

but I'm working on the SCAR album right now in the Block Talk interview and whatever else come after that and a series we're getting ready to shoot. So we got a couple of things. A series, like an acting out series? Yeah, yeah. It's a series that I'm shooting just our path

of coming up our lives and stuff. Yeah, y'all definitely need that. Oh, man. You and your brother? Yeah, yeah. Oh, that's, come on. We need that. We need that. Oh, man. I'm already subscribe to it on Netflix. I'm already like, I can already see it on Netflix or Amazon Prime or something. Hell yeah,

that's a mean story to tell. You know what? Because the story for us is that we really lived there. Like a lot of people didn't do it. We didn't do a lot of things to get there and get here and to be able to get there. Like when we did music, we didn't come in the game for money to get, we have money. We came in with money, so we probably spent money just to get in. But it was safer for it and the longevity for us to transition over from the streets to doing something illegal. that's why we're still here right now.

Other than that, we probably be dead or in jail because that's where everybody goes if you don't make that transition. You have to make a transition. You got to know when to say, okay, that's enough. I'm going to have to do something different. We started doing the music, and that's what worked for us. And y'all did it big.

Yes, man. How, yeah. Y'all, I want to say one more thing. I see Twin in here, right? And Twin, his brother had passed away, but before he passed away, It's when a taco spot, right? It's when got hit by a car.

He didn't pass away from this, right? So I'd never go to that taco spot. Right, right. Even though the taco spot got nothing to do with it. And like when I heard that you had your accident, right? On, on, on, what is that? T-Rex. What is that shit?

T-Rex. It's a motorcycle with a, I have never got. A three-wheeler. Three-wheeler. I take it out on all the motherfuckers. I have never gotten one of those. Whenever I see somebody with one of those, I always be like, nah, fuck that. And I always take it out on them because of you.

You know what's so crazy? Because they don't have T-Rexes in New York when they first came out back then. Right. So I was in my, I was here. Oh, wow. They had them here first. I bought them from here. I bought them from Miami.

I still see them all the time in Miami. So I was the first one with them T-Rexes in New York, but I seen them here first. I was doing something here, and I was seen them right now. I went over to the store. I bought about three of them in Flew him to New York. And that's why we got the T-Rexes in New York. That was, like, 15, 20 years ago. Wow.

Yeah. And was that street legal in New York at that time or no? No. Nah. Oh, shit. Oh, shit. I didn't know that. Catch us when you came.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. You know, that's mindset. Yeah. You know, because they was pretty good. They were fast. And they just looked at it. I got them from out here, though. It was from here.

They originally came from here. Wow. I didn't know. I see them all the time. Yeah. People driving normal out here. And I got to thank you. I got to thank you.

I got to thank you. I don't know if you remember this. But before X started going to Arizona, I used to have a lot of shows in Arizona because, you know, I'm half Puerto Rican. So I always, you know, I used to always get like, like, yeah, yeah, Latino shows out there. So one day.

We all Puerto Rican and Black. I'm in Arizona. And the promoter's like, hey, man, like he shorted me on like two grand. It wasn't nothing crazy. And for some reason you called me, right? Or I called you. I don't know.

What was happening? And you was like, you're all right? And I was like, nah, man, this promoter just, like, kind of shorted me. And you were like,

where are you at? And I was like, Arizona, or I believe it's Arizona. It could have been Utah. But I believe it was Arizona. In 10 minutes, you had like 15

from Friday's full of. And on a motorcycle. We got chucked after. And that promoter found that $2,000. Yo, I was like, I mean, we didn't have to say nothing.

Yeah. And that's what I really realized. I really realized I was like, yo, Rough Riders is a fucking big conglomerate. Like this is not no Bronx shit. There's not no youngest shit. This is some crazy shit.

Like, I forget why we was on the phone. But you were like, you heard it in my voice. He was like, man, watch this, Norrie. And so I always want to thank you for that. I appreciate that.

No, MCs are, that's serious business. Yeah, yeah. I mean, the MCs, that's serious business. So, um, So, all right, how about tech? Are you messing with the, what is this, these, these apps and all this crazy shit?

The sound clouds and how do they get music out nowadays? The DSPs, yeah, you got the Spotify's, you got the Empires that do the digital distribution. You got all the, yeah, Amazon music. It's all DSPs. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. I just found out doing $3.9 million a month on Spotify. I ain't seen nothing.

Remember what Snoop says? That's the difference. That's the big difference now. The music is all free. Yeah. You might waste your time right now. I can get it and give it to him. Right.

So it's impossible for you to stop. It's like almost impossible. See, I'm in a seesaw because on one hand, Lear told me he's like, it's the best time to put out music because it's so cheap. like meaning like you could just make this shit in your your house and just throw it out you don't have to really do a photo shoot you don't have to really that part is true yeah that's true yeah so okay so what's the next part what he told you the next part is is what he just said it's just like are we going to like just just just just keep being disposable music or like you know what it is it became disposable that's the problem and then when anybody can make it that means it's oversaturation yes like you said oversaturation because since you know what it is it became disposable because since you know it's before you had to have money to make it back then. You couldn't just

go in your room and rhyme on the mic and then put it out. They can go in their room and tweak and put it out. You didn't have that access before you had to have a budget. You used to have to go through the proper process of getting the budget videos. They can shoot their own videos, make their own music, they can do that in their room. And they have a video of tonight.

Yep. So it's oversaturated. There's too many videos. It's too easy. Don't cost them nothing. See, back then you had to have money. You have to have a budget. Yep. So you ain't putting no album out. You ain't doing no music or anything. Now you can do it in your house and do it and put it out tonight. Yeah.

And you seen what you saw, I don't know if you guys saw what they just came out with a report that, you know the Polly Market shit? Yeah. So motherfuckers were betting on Polly Market about songs hitting the top 10 in Billboard. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. And then they were paying bots on Spotify to spike it. I saw it. I was on Netflix, right? No, no, I just saw a news report about it.

Yeah, so Netflix. And they were paying bots to get it on Billboard. and then they were betting on it on Polly Market. Wow. So it's all rigged in that sense. Right, right. So the thing is, yeah, you want it easy to be a creative, but I think real artists will find the way to get there regardless.

But what you got is a bunch of people who ain't real artists flooding the market. And it's harder to see the real artist. You can't have them because it's nine fake artists and one real artist. Right. So now you can't even tell a difference. So now you got so much fake artists, you start picking fake artists. Right.

He's nice. And the algorithms was telling you, no, this is what's popping, and we just finding out, they rigging that too. They pay in the bots. So, the algorithm maintain you shit. Yeah, that's fucked up. And they line about, they flossing with all this fake shit, like pretending like they're making bread. But they were even betting on Donald Trump speeches. Like, if Donald Trump...

Oh, yeah, that's the polymark. They bet on everything. They've been on everything. So, Dee, Gar comes down, right? And God comes down. Yeah, Gar comes down to speak to you. You ain't got to come down. I'm going to come up.

Yeah, I should. All right. He comes to speak to you, right? And he says, Dee, I want you to make one record for me. Right? I want you to go in. You to pick the producer and you to pick the artist. You pick the producer.

You pick the artist. And it can be a feature artist. And that feature artist can be alive or dead. Who are the two artists you pick him to be on that record? And who is the producer that's going to produce that record? if I had to pick one song that I have to do Yeah you have to do it yep

I'm gonna say Swiss and X Swiss and X Okay I know I know I know I know Swiss is beats And I know how to work X See he don't got to make the hits I make the hits form

I'm gonna know what to tell him to say say this Don't say that Say this Do that So we we kind of like It's a chemistry with music Like he's not an X wasn't a worker You just have to be chemistry with him

You know so I had a good chemistry with him. He trusted you is really the important part. He trusted me and I just knew how to work the project. You got to know how to work a project. It's not just, it's a project now. So you've got to look at it like, you pretty much when you're dealing with the artist,

you've got to get into their world. And now you've got to know who you're dealing with and know the ends in out on who you're working so you can come out with a good album. I don't got to need it. If it's too difficult for me, I say, you know what? Norie, look, do this. I need you just do this.

Give me the beat. That's a good beat. Boom. Put a hook on in here. just rhyme on it, you know? So you give them, sometimes you got to give them a hit. But the beat is basically a hit. The hit is basically the beat in the hook.

What you say after that, you can make it work. But I already got the beat in the hook. I'm 75% good. 24, I just need you to do your part. Now you only got to do eight bars. That's nothing. That's what's what stuff. Who's easier to work with?

Is it guys or girls? Guys. Guys, girls, girls. They don't need no makeup. At least some of them Guys is easier for me Because I work with more guys than girls Like I might go one girl out of ten

So I gotta be easier for me to work with guys Because girls I don't get to work with that many girls If I get one It'll be just one girl With five guys I gotta work with So it's easier for me to work with them Plus I can talk to guys how if I want Right

I got a bend the little Oh you know, I just told you Like how about you do I'm doing So guys I can talk to I want girls I got to curve it a little bit. All right. You ever got to meet Michael Jackson or Prince? No.

Because X told me he met Prince. I think we met Prince. I don't think of a... Mike was... Michael Jackson was in the studio that we was in, which was in Sony, on 50th... 54th.

He was in the room. But, you know, he was in that room. We was in this room, but he was in there, but we didn't really go in there to meet him, but he was in the room. in the same studio, but I didn't talk to him personally. Was anything else? I think you wrap it up, man.

You ain't got a Block Toc shirt? You ain't got a black talk shirt? You ain't got a shirt? I just got to get on the hat, son. Yeah, yeah, yeah, come on. That was dope. That was dope. Take a picture. 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.

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