Drink Champs - Episode 515 w/ Mecc Rashawn, Doggie Diamonds, Miss Jones, and Dave Mays

Episode Date: September 18, 2026

N.O.R.E. & DJ EFN are the Drink Champs. In this episode we chop it up with the legends Mecc Rashawn, Doggie Diamonds, Miss Jones and Dave Mays!The culture is in the building! Drink Champs brings together four influential voices in hip-hop media and journalism as Mecc Rashawn, Doggie Diamonds, Miss Jones, and Dave Mays pull up for a legendary conversation about the past, present, and future of the culture.From the golden era of hip-hop media to the rise of digital platforms, this crew has witnessed the evolution of the industry from the inside. Mecc Rashawn, Doggie Diamonds, Miss Jones, and Dave Mays share stories, opinions, and firsthand experiences from their respective journeys through music, radio, journalism, and hip-hop culture.The Champs get into the importance of documenting hip-hop history, the impact of media on artists and the culture, and how the relationship between artists, journalists, radio personalities, and fans has changed over the years. They also reflect on some of the unforgettable moments and personalities that helped shape hip-hop into the global phenomenon it is today.Expect candid conversations, classic stories, industry insight, and plenty of moments that only happen when real ones get together over drinks. This is hip-hop history, media, and culture from four people who have been in the mix—so pull up, pour up, and press play!Make some noise for Mecc Rashawn, Doggie Diamonds, Miss Jones and Dave Mays!!! 💐💐💐🏆🏆🏆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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You never seen Italy so quiet as when the Pope gets up to wink on Halloween. Listen to Artists on Artists on Artists every Thursday on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hey, it's Alec Baldwin. This season on my podcast, Here's the Thing, I talk to actor Stephen Root. I'm a people watcher. You see that guy going down the dream, go, yeah, I can use that. And Open Igloo co-founder, Alia Mohamed. I love staying on top of what is going on in our city, what is on renter's minds,

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Listen to the Black Mother Woon podcast from the Black Effect Podcast Network on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcast, and wherever you get your podcast. Is there an epidemic against literature? More specifically, Black Literature. I'm Jack Quist-Peace Thomas, and on this season of the Black Litts podcast, we're outside asking why. They don't want a whole bunch of little Ella Bakers, Michael Maxes and Martin with the Kings running around. And when you look at a lot of different cultures, they're like, we need to know where you came from. And considering this is Black Reading Month, the only real question is, what are you reading next?

Listen to Black Lit from the Black Effect Podcast Network on our iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcast. What up, y'all. This your main man, Memphis Bleak right here. Host of that Rock Solid podcast. And each week, we bring in you exclusive looks inside music. Everything happening inside the culture. Some of the best conversations were the biggest names in the game.

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Make some Lord! 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 is DJEFN? 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 dream chest, motherfuckin fucking podcast. Every day is New Year's Eve. It's time for drink champs. Drink up, motherfucker. Would it be hoping to when to see me this your boy, N-A-O-L-A. What up is DJ EFN? This is Minnesota. And this is a middle of crazy raw.

Drink champs, Javier. Make some love. Yes, that's right. Who we got here? Hey, Jonesy. For years, I can regretfully say I fell out of love with hip-hop. Like what was going on, the things that was transitioning, whether it be the business, whether it be the artistry,

whether it be that monkey see, monkey do with Mr. Me Too. Like, and every, like, everyone's just doing the same. I kind of felt out of love with hip-hop. And this is my love, right? So when you say you fall out of love, it's like, and then recently, I have been,

I fell back. Like, I fell back. It's like, I don't know if it's because I'm in the studio a little bit here and there, or if it's because, you know, one of my, one of my, One of my mentors, and I probably say he's one of my mentor because I don't see, you know, color anyway. It's Leo Combs, right?

And Leo Colms said to me, he's like, a lot of people are avoiding the game. He said, but this is the best time to get in the game. I'm looking at at Leo, like, oh, you're trying to, like, give me an invest or something? Because, like, where are you getting at here? And he's like, because right now you don't have to market and promote. You don't have to press up CDs. You don't have to pay for certain artwork. You don't have to, you can really go straight to consume.

It hit me for a while, but it's like, all right, cool. But with all the things happening in hip hop, I was like, yo, you know what? I'm going to go, I'm going back to my first love, and I want to like, so this is the reason why I hits the panel was like I wanted to sit down and just talk with people that I respect the, you know, opinions. And I know I'm not the only motherfucker that fell out of love with hip hop. I've seen all of y'all face when I said that.

Y'all all looked at me in a disappointment, but you might have not called it every one of y'all. to you, Dave. But, but, no, no, no, no. But you had to be disappointed. So maybe, maybe I'm wording it falling out or falling out of love, but maybe what I'm saying, maybe the correct word is disappointed. So I want to open up the panel and say that has anybody ever had an experience of being

disappointed in a hip-in? Well, let them introduce themselves. That's right. That's right. That's right. That's right. My bad. Let's do yourself.

I'm so hype. I'm so hype. I'm on coffee. Macra Sean. Pleasure to meet. I'm doggy diamonds. Yeah, yeah, yeah. They've made.

God damn it. Okay, and Joseph's what us this all called co-hosts. She don't need another history. That's why, okay, she got it. So has there ever been a time that you fell out with hip-hop? Not the culture, no. Oh, okay. I've been disappointed with, um, I've been let,

down by artists. By industry? Never with the industry. No, one or two artists have put out an album that I was like, oh man, that really wasn't what I wanted to hear from that guy at that specific time. But I've always kind of chalked that up. When you work at the Source magazine, and you have access to a full catalog and a full history of,

of hip-hop. You've seen the ebbs and flows. Right. I've seen where the trendy guy came in for a second and made a little bit of noise, but there's never been a time in hip-hop with a guy who wasn't barred up, wasn't at the top. Right. Right. So I've never fell out of love

is too strong a term. I've been disappointed for sure. Okay. The industry has never let me down. It's always been exactly what it is. Business-wise. Business If you study the business, rock went through it

pop went through it you hear everybody complain about it is ebbs and flows where the quality takes a back seat to the cash that's able to be brought in right and that's the artistry is always going to suffer when people who don't love the art

are in charge of it when they just want to capitalize on what we're making of course who cares if the person can actually sing if we can make some money for it for profit right right she can sing

but let's get somebody who we don't have to pay as much who we can just chop up and get out. Oh, that, don't get me start. Was it the time it wasn't like that, though, Mecca? Did you have to have skills to have a deal? Yeah, yeah. I don't remember those things.

No, it was, I think, you know, not to cut you off, though, bro, but I always felt like it's always been cookie-cutter shit amongst a good shit. That's what made the good shit good. Because you had. I agree with you. You had bad groups that made the better groups. We didn't like Rico Suave. We didn't like shit like that. Right, but the cookie cutter wasn't respected the way that the real was.

It made money. This is what I'm saying. You brought up the capital. It always been what could make money. The culture is about the love. That's why when he said let down, it comes across. Like the industry colors the culture. Right, right.

That's why when you say, have you ever been let down and fell out of love? No, the business is going to business. My artist's dark are going to art. Shout out the five dog, rest in peace. I never let a statue tell me how nice I am. I can say I've been let the fuck down and disappointed by it. The reason why is because my upbringing, I didn't know I could make money. I just knew I loved it.

And I got a kid named Fat Chris that lived two blocks away from me. Is that Biggie Small? Yeah, Biggie Small. Yeah, make some more. What's your name? We're going to bring you in a little later. Come here. Come in.

Come here. I want him to have the whole segment. Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's my, no. That's my bro. He got to go. Yeah. Yeah.

Let's go have you had your own segment later. This is, this right here. Miami. I've been in Miami. Man. Thanks. Love. Bang.

Your blessings, King. This is my bro right here. Through your mom. From the neighbor. These neighborhood shit. This is, this is gang shit before music shit. Gang shit. What was, what was he called?

What was he called? These babies, he's called Raiders. Oh, aren't you. The baby Raiders. The baby raiders. Right, right. Right. Right.

Right. Right. Right. Right. I got it. That's all that. You know what I'm saying? So I have a guy named Fat Chris.

I got Banga. I ain't going to say his real name. Him and his cousin. You know what I'm saying? That went, started going by Blake C. I got Kim. I got Wani. Y'all know him as Little Seas.

Across Atlantic, we got Inga. That's Little Kim. No, no, Inga is Foxx. I mean, Foxy. Oh, shit. You can't let you get away with that. The table's fault. We got meat.

We'll have beat for that. And then, when you go to Atlantic Terminals, you got Jojo. Right. That's Ray. I love a tone. Okay, wow. So we all...

Wait, trackmasters? Yeah, that's what I'm doing. It's Jojo? I didn't get Jojo from Tone. That nigger's different. He's different. So look, so this is the culture. There's no money.

There's no money. It's just everybody, and I'm starting as a DJ. I started on turntables. David would tell you that when I went... That's another story, you know what I'm saying? So I didn't know that. We didn't know we could make money. We just in the house parties,

block parties and all of that. and then one day Big was coming to the crib and he was like, yo, I want to put season them on. Rest of piece to Chico, too. I got to say that. Recipe's the Cheek Delvec. Yeah. Rest of peace to Cheapac del Vecke. From the Junior Mafia.

And when he was coming to the crib, this is around the time I got my studio. And you know who hooked my studio up? Polk from Trackmaster. Wow. Dominican. Yeah, Polk. You know what I'm saying? Polk is Haitian.

No, he's Dominican. Dominican. People like Polk, Hey, Fonda. I said that in Iran. Haitian. His name is John Claude Oliver. Oh, he told me. Dominican in my studio sent you.

And now he said, Gene, so you know I got him like that. Right? So this is what I'm saying. So as big is doing, as big is working on ready to die. One day he said, hooked the microphone up. He gives me a beat. It's warning.

Easymoe B made warning for him. I tracked it for him. He picked up the mic and he says, who the hell is this? Paging me a five. He kicked warning. I recorded it in my credit. Wow. I was 15.

You know what I'm saying? Wow. So that's what I love because it was just, we, we don't know we're going to get no fucking right. Right. Right. So to see where the culture is now where it's all about money. Right. It's disheartening because when you do anything for money, you're a hoe.

So all I see is ho-ass rappers, whole-ass podcasters, whole-ass media people because they'll do anything for money. If you really- And fame, though. Fame might be worse than money right now. Yeah. Yeah, fame is the currency. Fame is the currency. You know what I'm saying?

Attention to touch for that. Because you're dealing with energy now. All right. You understand what I'm saying? Right. So fame is money because motherfuckers be famous and broke. Yep. You know what I'm saying?

Yep. So we didn't know he was going to get no bread. So now when you see where it's at, it became all about money. So now you have people doing things that they shouldn't be doing, didn't want to do because it's a bag in it. Right. We was doing it when it wasn't no bag. Miss Jones, you probably singing in the mirror

singing Patty LaBelle singing all that hoping your goal was probably I could get to Apollo maybe I just wanted to sing I wanted to sing talent shows talent shows

Yeah We come from that We come from talent shows We come from community centers And I fell out of love with it Because I was like Yo when this niggas start rapping Right

Who fuck is this nigga Yeah when this nigga Start making beats I got an SP to 100 in my crib It's 33 years old My drum machine is 33 years old My drum machine is 33 years old. The only person... Older to some of y'all.

Yeah. Only people who have to have been through the drum machine was Easy Mobee Hagelaw. You understand? That's crazy Ragelaw? Yes. He used to come to my crib every day. Easy Moeby. Come to my crib every day. Tech. You know, because on the Brownsville side, you had Dior period in Brooklyn. Yeah. Big of

Dior period. I was on the best side side. So we was like the only ones at the studio. The difference was I was I was 15. You know what I'm saying? So we had like both sides, but I'm going to pass it the day, but I think that shit is essential that when I was doing this shit, I didn't know I could make money.

I was doing house parties. Nigger might give me $25 in a bottle with Cisco. I was good. Cisco was the shit. Yeah, this one I'm, yo, give it up for Cisco. Dave, I'm going to switch it up a little bit, and I want to publicly say this to you to your face on behalf of all of hip-hop. We all owe the source of apology.

We all, I mean, as far as artists, like right now, if a label was to come to me and say, yo, how do I market my artist? I might not know. But now if a label came to me, when the source was about,

immediately make a great album, make sure the source is going to give it four mics. That was the, initially, if you had four mics, you were gold! I'm sorry, I'm yelling at this coffee. Sorry.

You were automatically gold. Like right now, I wouldn't be able to, if Leo or Kevin Lai or Tar Mascarist or Jimmy I.V. said, no, I need you to lay out. My first thing would say, have to make a dope album so the source can cover it.

Yeah, make sure you make a dope album. You don't pay them these four mics. Yes. No, no, no. I said, make a dope album. What EFN is saying is real, because now you can pay for the money. Right, right.

So that's why you put that. I said make. Yeah, yeah. I said make. But see, even now, even if they don't make nothing. Right, yeah. Right. Yeah.

Right. Right. Even if they don't make nothing dope. They just pay for it. Let me just tell you, Dave. But he had it to where it was a system. Let me just tell you, Dave, even, like, after you guys, or knew you guys started with Hip-Pock Weekly,

I still didn't understand the emergency of not having the source. Like, I'm not, it being, I still didn't understand the emergency. You guys are doing fine. You had hip-hop week. I did not see how much of the source was needed in this. Like, it's like, I don't want to say we have gatekeepers, but the people, they're not covering hip-hop.

That's why, this is the reason why, hence, you have so many podcasters, and I'm not dissing, and I'm not claiming, but some of these guys

should not be doing this shit. Thank you. Just because you have Wi-Fi and the phone. There's not a great podcast to me. Some of these guys, I'm looking like, man, they don't even know to talk.

Right. Agreed. So I wanted to say, because the source was so needed, man, like I look at award shows right now. I didn't even realize that I have one of the summer

on the best award show. And TV shows. We were spoiled. Like three TV shows. Yes. But you got to realize, we thought that was going to be there forever. We were spoiled.

We didn't think magazines would go away. We didn't think that. Like, imagine if hip hop actually appreciated that. Now, let me ask you that question. I know we started with the disappointed question. But did you as being the head of it, did you feel hip hop appreciated you at that time? Well,

First of all, let me just say it's an honor, pleasure to be here with you guys. It's an honor that happens. This is amazing. I feel like I'm made the big time. Under the lights and this drink champs. And, you know, you guys have done incredible stuff with this. You guys pioneered this whole podcasting, you know, business and game that's going crazy right now. You guys was way ahead of your time.

Thank you. You know, and you built a super amazing platform and brand and business and, you know, what you guys own and control. Yes. And, you know, given that, you know, when you talk about hip hop, you know, this is hip hop right here. Like, so we can't say like, yeah, there's a lot of things that have changed and there's a lot of, you know, reasons for that. And we'll talk more about all that stuff. But like at the same time now is a. a time. So, you know, as you guys know, I recently started Breakbeat media, or not even recently

for almost five years. You got Mani Fresh. Mani Fresh and Juvenile podcast right now, still 400. So we started that on Breakbeat, but I started Funny Markle's podcast. I started Don't Call Me White Girls podcast. Okay, yeah, we spoke about her earlier. That's crazy. Yep. She's now, you know, co-hosting on Joe Budden. So it's a good look for her. You know, I created a collect call with Shug Night podcast. Oh, wow.

That was groundbreaking, too. Thank you. Because that was the first time we heard some candid shit. Wow. Yeah, that was groundbreaking. And I wanted to commend you on one of the first ones that was innovating with the AI visuals, too. Right. Because when I saw that podcast, yeah.

I'm really curious your opinion. Did you feel the source was appreciated when y'all was at your height? do you feel like hip hop because we don't like we love living color but once the living color came on TV we fucking flipped out like what the fuck? They're gonna take that off like we wanted to watch the wee piece

or two part did you appreciate your position in hip hop at that time? Good question. Definitely, definitely appreciated it. I mean, you know when I fell in love, really fell in love with hip hop was at the kind of emergence of the golden era of hip hop so in 1986. I grew up in Washington

in D.C. I grew up much more on go-go music, you know, than hip-hop, but you know, a little bit of rap music that made it onto a radio in DC. But when I went to Harvard in 1986, which is right outside Boston, you know, I started a radio show there playing hip-hop and go-go music on a radio late night on Friday nights. But they didn't fuck with go-go up there. Nobody wanted to hear it. I was pushing it. I loved it. I had on my tapes and stuff like that. But anyway, long story short, I came. I fell in love with hip hop. This is the birth of the golden age of hip hop. This is, you know, Rakim, Eric B is president. This is BDP. This is, you know,

NWA. LL. King. Coming into Public Enemy, EPMD. This is, so I fell in love with it. And, you know, just as a culture or a movement, as what it stood for in all all respects. And, you know, and I came up with the source. So let's talk about that just so we can address that. I am the creator of the Source magazine. Right.

Right. Also the creator of the Source Awards. You know, that's a lot of somewhat misinformation that floats around these days and social media and stuff like that. Thank you. And source all access. And source all access. We have a new series. Well, yes, we have Lisa Ray and Trech, if y'all remember that show.

How many shows did you have with the source, though? Source Awards. No, TV shows. It was like two. Source All access, source sound lab. Right, right. Yeah, and Source Awards was really the TV. And that was Channel 4, New York, right?

It was UPN network. Like 11 or 9. Yeah, UPN. Right. I don't know what it was, I think it was 9. That's 9. That's 9. That's 9.

Yeah, yeah. They've changed so many. The answer is no, they didn't appreciate it. Right, right. They didn't appreciate it the way. should have. I remember seeing some of the questions that, again, when I interned

at the source, bro. I remember answering the phones. I remember answering some of those emails. No, they didn't appreciate it at all. Who's saying the people? I'm saying between rappers, executives, and some of the... They didn't appreciate

the source? No, not like they should have. Not properly, yes. Because the feeling really was that was never going to go away. Yes. Nobody looked ahead. It was going to be here forever. It did.

Nobody looked ahead and sat with the alternative with me. That's something maybe you look back at now. Yeah. Like you said, you appreciate what. But Matt, was that based off a sense of entitlement? No, no. I think it was a lack of forethought. Okay.

More than anything else. Same day, thought, this is forever. Remember Saturday morning cartoons? Absolutely. Remember how we felt about Saturday morning cartoons? Remember what happened the day you woke up and realized they weren't coming back? Right. He was pissed.

You were pissed. But at the time, you could sit there and go, this cartoon. This cartoon is corny. This is wag. Early as fuck, even though we might take it for great. No, it was tradition. The source was a tradition.

Right. It was just there. The Hebrew Bible. You picked it up and you started reading. You went and put it down. However, you thought it was always going to be there. You didn't need. Nobody ever thought that it was going to be.

And listen, for someone like me in Miami, it was harder to get the source. And when we got it, it meant so much more. to us. Bro, I went, I went, he may or may not know this. I got sent, I was interning in the one department, another department would send me to Milwaukee

right, because it was a possible advertiser that they wanted me to talk to of all people. Don't know why, but sure. Bro, I sat in a radio station in Milwaukee where a girl was reading the hip-hop report. She pulled up the latest issue of the source, opened it up, and

started reading the news, and that was the news, the hip-hop news. All of Milwaukee, wherever that station went to, that was it. They have no idea unless they got the source. That's what I'm saying. This pre-internet, pre-this, pre-that. She literally just opened it up and started reading. And that was like the news, the hip-hop news for all of Milwaukee.

No, they didn't appreciate it the way they should have. Absolutely not. There's no shortcut for saving time. But saving money is simple. Just combine your car and home insurance with Bel Air Direct and save. Get a quote at fellar direct.com. Hi, this is Kylie Breakman. Angel Geratana.

Jeremy Colhain. Patrick McDonald. And we're the hosts of the Artists on Artists on Artists Podcast. The Improvised Character Comedy Podcast where each week a new panel of artists discuss their craft. Join us for a panel of wellness influencers. What I try to do is faux journal. I don't know. Have you guys heard of faux journaling?

Yeah, it's reading. It's called reading. So we don't like to use that word anymore. Okay. A panel of New York. I'm working cartoonists. Have you guys done Terry Gross's Peloton class? No!

I've been dying, too. I'm so sorry. I'm seeing a reading of Sadako and the Thousand Paper Cranes by Audra McDonald's at the Wonderland Bookstore on 14th. That's crazy. I went to the Wonderland Bookstore yesterday, and I heard Nora Jones do a reading of Zero Dark 30. No way. You have to come to the last bookstore, though. Kim Cottrell is reading the guitar tabs of yesterday.

A panel of Eurovision participants. And we do a little Halloween sometimes. Does the Pope dress up? He winks on Halloween. He gets right up next to the microphone. I hear you can almost hear the eyelashes hit each other. You never seen Italy so quiet as when the Pope gets up to wink on Halloween. Listen to Artists on Artists on Artists on Artists on the IHard Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

What up y'all. This is your main man, Memphis Bleak right here. Host of that rock solid podcast. And each week, we bring in you. exclusive looks inside music, everything happening inside the culture. Some of the best conversations were the biggest names in the game. You had a little bit more pressure to be good. And they didn't care if you was a girl.

Like, you wasn't getting no points because you was a girl. If you're not trash, you better be not just good. You better be great. On rock silent, we talk in the rap legends, hit-making producers, rising stars from the golden era to the future of this hip-hop game, where we keep it 100% unfiltered and keep it new. Nothing but Rock Solid. Yeah.

The thing about Jay, my opinion, is he's been so great at being seen but mysterious. You know what I'm saying? He don't got to come talk about anything. Nothing. You figure it out. So it's always a mystique and mysteriousness behind them, but it ain't like you don't see him. Listen to Rock Solid on Black Effect Podcast Network, Iheart Radio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you streamed podcast. Welcome aboard season six of The Girlfriends, Flight or Fight, which takes place 30,000 feet in the sky.

There's great food, comfortable chairs, and attentive stewardesses. The stewardesses were so beautiful. But in reality, the stewardess job is far less glamorous than it appears. It was the most sexist job I think you could have. In this era, the era, the era. The airlines told these stewardesses, they have to be single. They had no good excuse for why they wouldn't let women be married. They have to be skinny.

We were starving ourselves. And they have to be young. You would retire at age 32. But one day, a group of stewardesses said, This has got to stop. They risked it all, turning a fight for fairness into a revolution. Listen to The Girlfriends, Flight or Fight, on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Is there an epidemic against literature?

More specifically, black literature. Our books are being banned, scanned by AI, and destroyed. I'm Jack Weiss Peace Thomas, and on this season of the Blacklit podcast, we're outside asking some of the custodians of our stories, teachers, and our modern day. writers why? They don't want a whole bunch of little Ella bakers, Michael Maxes and Martin Luther Kings running around. They want to build children who have no empathy. That's really the ultimate goal. We want books that don't make white kids feel bad. So is the war on literacy and information or our ability to connect? We want people to know how sexy reading is and how fun they could be and not always associated with education. It could be an escape. It could be entertainment. And that is

the beauty of reading. It can be all of those things. And considering this is Black Reading Month, the only real question is, what are you reading next? Listen to Black Lit from the Black Effect Podcast Network on our iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. Hi, it's Alec Baldwin this season on my podcast. Here's the thing I'm speaking with more artists, policymakers, and performers like actor Stephen Root. I think for me to be any good or for any character act to be any good. You've got to put enough of yourself and your empathy for people in it. I'm a people watcher. You see that guy going down the dream and go, yeah, I can use that. Open Igloo co-founder, Alia Mohamed. I love staying on top of what is going on in our city,

what is going on in city politics, what is on renter's minds, and taking all of that knowledge to build a platform that hopefully is going to make New York City better in the long run. And actress and singer Melissa Eriko. took on a whole other meaning when I started making my own work. It's like you with a great actress or actor. It was best to come out of your trailer, full of life, and just face another person who's full of life and don't talk. Listen to Here's the Thing on the IHeart Radio app Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your

podcasts. This is Jay Valentine. I've spent my career on the executive side of this industry, multi-platinum songs, building artists and building business. And alongside my brother Tank, the superstar R&B singer, songwriter and producer, we've created something special, the R&B Money podcast. This is not just a podcast. It's a safe space where artists, executives, and fans of R&B music come to reminisce. Pull back the curtain and tell the stories that shape this culture.

The real history behind the hits. That was Hood famous. Yeah. And then Real Love came out and it blew up. We lived in a project. And they're seeing all the success. They're hearing the music and we had nothing. We're covering the entire spectrum from Smokey Robinson, Alicia Keys, B2K, Mary J. Blige, legends, current stars, and everyone who's contributed to the sound of R&B.

You come out the gate with a hit. And it's not Michael Jackson out of number one. Come on, man. I was like, hold on. I'm not like an MJ out of the number one spot. If you're a super dedicated R&B fan who wants the real discovery, the real stories, this is your podcast. This is the R&B Money podcast. Listen to R&B Money from the Black Effect Podcast Network

on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. What I would ask Dave is that when did you know, oh shit, this is humongous. Like, this is a big magazine. When did you know? Because, you know, when we checking out, we see the Sun magazine, we see the Inquirer.

That source was right there, too. When did you say, oh, shit? Well, let me, I'll go back and finish what story of how I started. and clear up a lot of that stuff as well. So I'm doing my radio show. It's on a Harvard radio station. That's in Boston, right? Yeah, yeah.

Right outside Boston. So the source I started two years later between my sophomore and my junior year as a newsletter for listeners to the radio show to give out news and information on hip hop. I sold some ads on the backside of the news letter. Jive Records bought an ad on the first one page, News.

And it's called the source then? Called a source. Okay. That's my name. I created the name. It comes from Boogie Down Productions album. The song, You're Slipping, which was out. Go back and do your research.

In the spring of 1988, I started the source in August of 1988. Okay. And so the spring in 1988, I was riding around in my Red Jetta up in Boston, listening to the new BDP album, listen to that song. If you go maybe about two-thirds in the song, you want to hear a fresh rhyme, you come to the source. It's a chorus. It's a lyric. Stuck right at my head.

I'm like, that's the name because I was trying to come up with the name for the newsletter. As soon as I started the newsletter, I read about Rolling Stone Magazine and learned how they had started as a newspaper back in the late 60s for rock and roll fans and how it grew into becoming, you know, the biggest magazine still around today, Rolling Stone Magazine. Started by this dude, Jan. winter and I said, bam, that's it. I'm going to do that for hip hop and create the rolling stone for the hip hop generation. So immediately, you know, from one page, it went six pages, 16 pages. I was doing it out of my dorm for two years, built it up, started building up the distribution for the magazine. This is the other boom. Move to New York in 1990 when I graduated, opened up the first source office. I think you came probably 594 Broadway. That was a very first. Not that one.

I probably came from Park Avenue. Yeah, yeah, yep, yeah. But 594 Broadway, Soho. I remember that near Stepson Records. Yeah, exactly. Bill Stephanie, shout out. Hank Laudey and Bill Stephanie. They had the office in that building.

Like, where's a good place to come? They turn me on to the building there. We got a little room. Started at one room there. And, but when I knew, I mean, you know, I've had, from then on, I have, honestly, even to this day, I have the same pursuit, the same vision of the power of hip hop to change the world,

to bring us together, create a platform that kind of has some kind of, you know, controlled over the culture and everything like we were talking about because we had that kind of, you know, respect and authority, but that wasn't taken for granted. And that wasn't something that just came by happenstance. That came because of the way that we ran the publication, the way that, you know, we went about things to earn that kind of authenticity and respect. And then again, like I said, take that responsibility, you know, to heart and carefully. So, but probably by like, I mean, the first source awards was 1994 at Madison Square.

95. Is that which she'll grab the mic or the second source of war? That was the second one. Okay. And the first one, though, that was, Pac was there. That's when Paco Quest. Tribe World Quest. That situation happened.

Wu Tang performed. That shit was crazy. There's just not a lot of footage, unfortunately. That shit was fucking nuts. You know, y'all was wonderful time, man. Before their time. It was five thousand people there. Wow.

You know, everybody from Queen Latifah was there. Russell Simmons was there. I mean, you know, I got everybody. That was me. Like, I'm the person with all the relationships of all the labor. all the different people. Hey, we got to get together. We got to do our own award show

because these Grammys and these other motherfuckers ain't fucking with us. There's some bullshit. Like, let's do our own shit. We can all get together and do it here. Boom, boom, boom. Got everybody on board. Man, that shit was magical that night.

You know, had a feeling that was there that night. And then that led to the next year, which was televised. So this is around the time. Like, I don't know. I mean, the source, it just kept growing and growing. and every time it grew, it's like my vision got bigger and bigger. It went from Rolling Stone. I want to create the time owner of hip hop,

and that's when I get into television shows and things of that nature. So anyway, to cut back to the point about the founding. So for people that want to understand the situation with Benzino, you got your friends. Yeah, yeah, yeah. He's my friend. He's mad at me right now, but he's still my friend. He's still my friend.

Every other month, this happens to me. You know, we were friends. for a long time. When I started the source, he didn't have anything to do with the source. You know, so he's not a founder of the source. He didn't come up with or create the source awards. Those are my ideas, my creations. I guided them for 18 years from 1988 to 2006. He was my friend. I believed in his music. I helped them get some record deals in the beginning, the Almighty RSO. And eventually there came a point in time in the 90s after I had a situation with some of my partners from Harvard that kind of turned on me,

that's when I asked him, you know, to come and become a part of the source, you know, maybe move down, you know, from Boston to New York. I was helping me with things because, you know, I always thought he was a sharp dude and, you know, thought he could add a lot of value, you know, to the business. And that was my man, you know. We was always friends from when we first met when I was doing a radio show on a Harvard Station and he was doing his thing in Boston.

You know, I went out and found them because, you know, I wanted to meet them. I had heard about this. You said they didn't go by RSO? RISO, yeah, because shout out to all the original RISO, man. Jeff, Jeff, Jeff, two times. Marco, yeah. You know, Tony Rome. Tony Rohn, Tony Rhea, you know, all the ones, all other ones that also will be lost.

So, but yeah, man. So that's how, that's how that went. And, you know, we haven't, we haven't been really in touch for the past 10 years or so. It's been 10 years? Yeah. Yeah. I didn't even see that, bro. I moved from Atlanta in 2016 out to Chicago.

You know, that's been my home for pretty much the last 10 years and become a second home to me. I got married to a woman from Chicago. Got it to my wife, Brad Jolet, amazing, amazing woman. changed my life forever, forever, thankful, and just an amazing, beautiful woman. You'll meet her for one of these days. He's usually with me, couldn't make this trip. But anyway, been in Chicago and just, you know,

doing my thing and came up with the whole breakbeat concept. You know, I want to talk more about that if we have some time. Hold me, the picture. Hold on, one thing to add to the sauce, the sauce tore. Source tour. Now on the source tour And the source albums too. The source tour is big because this had

Bismarkey was the DJ, rest in peace. Oh, wow. MC Search was the MC for the tour. Remember that? Shout out, search. Lord Finesse was there. Buck Wilde was there. Pete Nice.

Buck Wilde, the producer or the No, Pete Nice didn't come. Oh, he wasn't on the tour? He didn't come there, no. Oh, okay. Almighty RSO, Power Rule, the 18, Flytie, the owner of four children, rest of the feast. Rockshanthi and a group of kids named the Little Bastards.

That was me. The doggy diamond, remember it. That was mad sharp. I didn't know that. I didn't know that. I didn't know that. The thing is brain is so sharp. Roxanne and Charte, listen.

So this guy. So this guy. So this guy. There's a midget. In the corner. O.C is on this tour. and all the dots confusions, Farrow, March, and Post.

O.C. It's just on the song Fuzzpuzz. He wasn't in DITC yet. Wow. He became a member of DITC from touring with Buckwild and orphaness. That's nuts. We was all on tour together.

There's so much. There's so much history. You got to do this. There's so much history with Block within the source and all that people and the tentacles. So this tour is my first tour. I'm 15 years old. Dave,

y'all bought me BB guns, man. I shot this. I shot that. I shot that. Statute of limitations. Statue of limitations. No, you were. I think the BB guns is going to be.

So look, it's a story. I don't know if search go like this story. We'll know in 10 minutes. Okay. Emce search. RISO performs. Now, Dave could tell you, is Ray,

is a Tony Rome and it was another MC. You say you raised some of Benzino, right? Benzino, because I call him. Yeah, E. Devis. His name was Ray Dog back then. Okay. You had Jeff two times on the turntables.

They had three niggas on stage that just stood there. And they had three dancers. Hers. Beef. Yeah. MC search is the fucking emcee for the tour. He gets off, RSO gets off stage. You're saying MC, that's hosting?

He's hosting. He's hosting. For nowadays, yeah. For nowadays, yeah. This do cert say, don't one of them niggas look like the dude from humpty hump that don't do shit but search he said nigger though he didn't say nigga i said nigger I said nigger

no I know what now you know the general public don't really know benzino they see this guy benzino is active oh yeah right yo they rush the stage and rush search

Right. I was like, oh, I think it was a... R-O? R-N-S-O. Oh, it was a joke. They rushed. Oh, wow. Benzino made the nigger apologize, but I was like, oh, shit, but then I like that.

He apologized to World Star back then? No, he had to apologize. He had to apologize. He had to apologize on the stage. He said it after the show. Oh, right? It was in Virginia. It was in Virginia.

The first, the first stop. Oh, who else was there? Um, Pokey from Trackmasters. Okay. In tone was it. Okay. You know, in the A team. That was Chub Rock.

It was a hot dog. You know the dude in, um, in the cute dog videos. Yeah. That's what they shot up the car with the car with the fish marquees. He's in the back trunk. Yo, just, I'm telling you. This is so crazy because in North Carolina, you know, uh, Lord Finesse, how he rap.

The niggins in North Carolina ain't like that shit. Because he's too small. OJ was there too. OJ was there too. Oh, Jay went low. Your Lord J is too smart. He makes you feel dumb. Yo, but they shot up the car.

Oh, you know what else was there too? the dude with the African-American remember the sweaters, the dude who had the sweats Chris Latimer. Chris Latimore. He was here as well. And somebody stole his sweaters too. It wasn't me.

Jesus. He wasn't sweater. Yeah, they stole his sweaters. They stole his sweaters. So, you know, we went to 30 cities and I always thank Dave and I thank Benzino because after the bus, after the car got shot up,

Benzino, I was 15. Right. He took me and my group was like, yo, y'all on the bus with us. All right. Y'all little niggas, y'all can't be over there. So we was on the bus with Dr. R.S.O had got the bus for Marky Marky Mark, though. Put the bad boys? No, Mark Wahlberg.

Marky Morgan. Mark and the Funkie Ballberg. You don't know what that's right? Yeah, no, no, no, I don't know. So Marky Marky Mark decided to wear the Boston Bruins. Mark Wahlberg. Mark Wahlberg. Yeah.

You know him as Mark Morgan. Marky Mark and the funky. We get that. Yeah. You know, he got me going on. You know what he went, right? I mean, but that's what he was. But he made a good vibration.

He didn't hear with a sparky mark for him. He was a lot. Good boy, Ray. Yeah. Goodbye, Ray. Yeah. No, that's all right.

You're doing some crazy. Yeah. I'm trying to bust me out. Yeah. Mark Farnberg wears the Boston Bruins. Yes. On Arsenio. Benzino was like, why he do that?

So they're ready. You know, he's from Boston, too. Wait, I don't understand. Wouldn't he like that? No. RSO was in colors, bro. That was their look. And the jersey thing.

The jersey. The Gita. He's stealing. They couldn't have wearing. And was going on our city. He was trying to make it national. And that just wasn't a good idea. Oh, shit.

So to keep the piece, they gave RSO Tobus. Dick Scott was Mark Wahlberg's manager. That's a Dick Scott. Yes, right. His name was their name. Dick Scott. Yeah. Right, but he gave him a tour bus.

Because, like I said, RSO was active. And Mark Warburg was going to have a problem for wearing that shit on Arsenio Hall. So to keep the peace, David tell you, they gave RSO the tour bus. God damn. So he don't get fucked up. That's a lot of peace. To come on the source tour. And that was the...

It was like a champagne bus. Yeah, it was like a champagne bus. Yeah, it was like a champagne bus. And Marky Mark was on the tour? No, no. No, he just gave a bus. He's shaking his ass for. Okay.

We don't want no problems. Take his bus. Yeah, because he wore the boss. It's a piece bus. So if you like, if you think about the first song that, one of the first early songs the RSO had was like the bad boys. We like the bad boys. Yeah. Yeah.

They were managed by flavor unit, right? Yeah. Yeah. So, like I said, I know, um, I was actually in a sauce magazine, too. You know what I'm saying? Um, like I said, I always salute him and him. And then I grew to have a relationship with Benzino. because even when Benzino used to come to Brooklyn,

was you there in Bushwick that time? He had a video shoot. I don't know. That's my cousin over there gunning in the videos. That's our gun and bullets and shit. You know what I respect? So when Benzino used to come to Brooklyn, he's like, yo, we got to go hold Benzino down.

But I was like 16 years old and shit, you know what I'm saying? But he was like, yo, Benzino, I had, fuck that. We're going to go. Like, you know, when you come in the town, I'm like, you know, Norway, I'm in Lefrak. Put somebody around them. You know what I'm saying? Because we don't check in.

We tap in with each other. yo, I mean, you're part of time. You know what I'm saying? So even with that hip-hop shit, we're checking in, that fuck shit up, too. You know, let me rewind a little bit because we had did an episode earlier, and me and Jonesy on EFN was talking about how we, because we've seen this 50 cent and Ebro, right, going back and forth, playing around about what messed up in New York, right?

And I know what they're playing, but to a certain extent, their jokes are like they dead ass, right? So I don't see it like that at all When I've seen the separation of New York And this is me personally From my person who is Power 105 and Hot 97 Because for a long time It was like if you think about it

Crips, you only could join the Crips Because that was their only choice. Once Bloods became involved Then people made a decision to join the Bloods If you know the history. That's pretty much what Hot 97 is And I feel like it's the same when it comes to media Because of a source

A lot of people who was at the time the source, whether they got let go or they thought they were bigger than the thing. They went and they went to XXL. And for the most part, we looked at their rating system the same because it was like X, X, X, or X, L. And we're like, okay, it's not the five. Because five bikes just town was better. No, bro, we didn't look at that shit the same. Let's get it.

No, no, no, no, no. You know what you want to make an album. Me, if I were going to get an XXL, I just said. He just wanted the same. Yeah, I wanted that thing. But that five mics. I was getting my four mics at the source, so all good. The five mics is revealed to me.

That's legendary shit. No, no, no, no, no. That's the first. It's original. It even sounds better. I mean, XXXL, honestly, to keep it 100, I mean, XXL was pretty much nothing until 2000, three, four, five. Once things started.

Elliot Wilson went over there? He had been over there. Once the whole situation with M&M. The source of Eminem and Interscope and the whole industry out of the lining behind them. that gave them a window. And they gave them, okay, they gave them like the Dr. Dre, M&M 50 Cent cover. Okay, I'm exclusive.

Because before that, like, the source for years, you know this is like the cover of the source. That was the biggest thing possible. It's like a label holding artist hostage to radio stations. Like for their summer generation, I won't give you this artist. If you don't do this, they're doing that with the magazines. I've been brought off from media. So it came a point where Enoscope, which was the biggest thing in town at a point,

just wasn't fucking with y'all. Yeah. And when they went over there, that big deal. Well, they was always over there, I mean, they were always under that universal system. Wow. But in the beginning, this was not a good idea. Oh, really?

But in the beginning, I just, I mean, I was an outsider looking in. XXL was always. No, I'm talking about going against Interscope, that part, I'm saying. No, what I'm asking is that when the M&M thing took place, the hottest thing in town is M&M, then he brings 50. We know 50 from the town. Yeah. And then with this Jimmy Iveen and this Dr. Dre behind us,

if they're not fucking with him and they big up over here, that's like the hottest producer. They're funneling everything. Yeah, so they're going to. They're going to be great. You know what I'm saying? You know. Did you have a chance that you know?

I'm sorry. You know, I'd be one in the back. Did they come to you? Because sometimes they come or they summon someone and have a conversation and let you know. This is what we're thinking of doing because we don't have this. And when you say today, you talk about the Nescope? You mean the label.

You mean the label. Did they, no heads of, I mean, it was a whole, I mean, it was a whole thing going on that, that, you know, started from, you know, Alton, M&M or the mixtape. Okay. So, now, okay. Start putting out these disc records. It came from there. Then, you know, when it kind of escalated, was when the tapes showed.

Foolish pride. Foolish pride. Yeah, did a press crowd a bunch of a bunch of song, not just that song, but there was a bunch of song that was brought to us that, you know, we were, we were going to publish. And then they sued us and, you know, became a whole, you know, a bigger, bigger situation then. Such a bad idea. Yeah, like, you know, when we had those tapes, they did come and they were like, hey, we don't want you to put them out. You know, we want to give you a deal.

You want to do this. You want to do that. Boom, boom, boom. But in the end, it was decided that, you know, we have a journalist. obligation to talk about this music that was discovered. And it's real. I mean, you know, nobody knew

shit about it until we came out and they, you know, they did what they did. A shout out to all of those people, you know. What's under the point where he said, double Xcel, double Xcel, yeah, maybe your magazine to sell. He was dissoning them in one for a little, right? Oh, yeah, yes. Because that's not

forgetting the source of discovered him and now. Let me give you a magazine some help. We all here, double Xcel, X, L, maybe now your records don't have a problem. We can't sit here. He should not remember unsigned hype. Unsigned hype. Yes, I remember.

You and your brother. That was a kingmaker. You know, unsigned hype. Eminem was an unsigned hype. Before he got signed. Is this the outsiders Eminem? You're right after. Right after.

Right after. But he was a solo artist? He was a solo artist. He was a solo artist. He got unsigned hype as a solo artist. Okay, that's how I was asking. Along with, as we know, DMX, Biggie. Yeah.

Common, Mobb D, Capone, Noriega, and then, Joel Santana, J. Electronica, Pitbull, shout out Pitbull here. You had Eminem, the outsiders. When was the Eminem duck down thing? Around the same time. You know Eminem was supposed to sign the duck down. I don't remember hearing that.

Did we get some hip-hop shit, right? Was it around the hip-hop Olympic things that he was going to do? Yeah, he was running a battle circuit, and it came between he was already a member. I could see that. I didn't know that, but he's sort of. The source showed Eminem Mad Love for years from when he came out to when he free. He was the first white person ever on the cover of the Source magazine, is Eminem. You know, he won a Source Award for Lerner's sister of a year out in L.A., you know, very early on his career.

That was a huge, you know, look for him at the time. And so, you know, we had a lot of respect and a lot to do with helping Eminem in the early stage of his career. And, you know, things, you know, ended up, you know. But the betrayal, like, did you. Did you, artists didn't have a lot of say back then, maybe. Did you ever consider where the betrayal came from or could have been thwarted or? Which betrayal? I'm going to say, who you think betrayed who?

Well, who do you think betrayed? Do you think there was betrayal? Because if you created, if you helped launch. Yeah, yeah. If you help launch and help me be seen, my first, I don't care who my new friends are. Because they came after you made me shine like a star. like why am I not loyal to you? Well, I think he was loyal

because he shouted out the source lots of times. But then when the whole situation started with him and Benzino and who was a beef. It was a bit. He got this by Ray. He got this by Ray. And as a result.

Yeah, he got By Benzino. And Benzino don't stop. Everybody else on him going on the morning. He got dissed by Benzino and as a result, he went to the other only game in town. And he put them on the mat and turned him into a superpower.

That cover changed everything. So, like, Nause, when he couldn't have Hot 97, he went to power. Same thing. He went to power. Same thing. It took, like, two years. You know, it was a long process.

It started for one small thing. Yeah, we're condensing something that dragged out. Because I remember the question. You had to go through every step. You was there, Mecca. Yeah, I was there when the first disc record happened. I saw the shit blow up. When did, because the source was everything.

I mean, they try Blaze. They try King. I was in Blaze. They try these magazines. Rapages, stress. Remember stress? Rapages, wait a stress. Larry Flynn.

It didn't matter. I wanted to go from you, Dave. When did the source become Frankenstein to you? What you mean? Like put together? No, he's Dr. Frankenstein. Like out of his control?

Yes. Okay. I mean, it came to end. The day I got fucking. and escorted out of my office after losing, you know, the company and... No, no, all right, that's the end result.

Yeah. What led to... What the... Was it a point where you came in the office one day and say, yo, what the fuck is going on? When the train come off the rails? Yeah, exactly. Like, because if Norrie and EFN came in here one day...

Was it a room with, like, the boycotting you guys or something like that? Who's that? Boycott. That letter? That letter. That was earlier. That was years earlier. That was 1994.

Because as a creator, when was it no longer your brainchild and your creation? I mean, I was fighting until the very last one second till I got escorted out the door. It was mine. I'm fighting for that motherfucker the whole way. So I never, you know, I never looked at it like that. I was, you know, still trying to save it. You ain't shoot nobody? No.

I had a shot somebody. Did you have a thing to... You definitely lost the record. No, we shot. My things have gone differently if you had separated. yourself from Benzino? I don't know. I mean, there was a lot of, you know,

a lot of things, you know, that led to the, ultimately to the downfall. And, uh, but that, did you tell him when he did that record? Like, what are you doing? You put in the whole company at, it's bigger than you. I mean, at the time, it didn't seem like that

because it, like I said, it started very small, like a small thing. And then it just, you know, took on a life of its own. Guys probably didn't realize. Highside it's 2020, man. That dude was like, that's like,

Emin out, yeah. You know. Is it, but see, is it Elvis or was just the fact that he just was a money generator? Do you know, do you know, that's the same thing?

As being right and being wrong at the same time? No, reason why I don't want to call him Elvis. Yeah. Elvis was full of shit. He was a, he stole all of that music. He stole that. He couldn't see the rhythm. Yeah, yeah.

No, he stole the songs. Okay, wow. I didn't know. Yeah. Hound dog, that's not a clue. Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. Elvis was a product of his time. Back then, everybody was swapping songs in and out,

and people were stealing other people's music, etc. Man, hold on. So you're trying to, you try to excuse that. You got to let me finish the sentence. What I'm saying is Elvis was a product of his time. That's what everybody was doing. However, when the comparison between point A and point B, Eminem and Elvis, Elvis wasn't just doing what everybody was doing.

Like Elvis took the whole rock and roll created by black. people. And it was also a product of his time. Nobody thinks has anything to do with black people. Being a product of your time. This is what I'm telling you to ever switch. Yes, no, dog. There was never a time in the 90s where if you weren't writing your own shit,

you weren't immediately escorted out the door. Like he was, M was a product of his time too. He was freestyle battling people on, on camera. But it's the difference between being a thief and a phony and somebody. that's Eminem was orthodox. I think what they mean is when they say Elvis, the size and the magnitude. Yeah, that's not I mean.

The image, my bad. That was a vehicle that they used. Right. I meant the image. My bad. Because it wasn't even him. It's the same thing as Eminem. It's bigger than him.

It's the music industry. The corporations, they want to control the music. And this becomes a way that they take control of the music. Because what I'm saying about even somebody like Eminem, if Eminem didn't get with Dr. Dre and Jimmy I. Revene, respectfully, he'd be Sean Price. I can see. I can understand the way you're looking at.

He'd be Sean. He'd be underground. Because he would have been with the outsiders. Exactly. What's the piece of my bro, Sean Price. Infinite album. He didn't go anywhere, but it's a classic. He's nice.

He still would have been a white guy that wraps incredibly well. We wouldn't accept that. I think the ill comparison is Red Man. Like, he would be like on a Red Man. When I said Sean Price, I mean, underground, I think of that correct. That's respected. That's highly respected.

That's right. That's right. The third page is highly respected. That's right. Roebone had some respect to a degree. Yeah. You're saying people that are fucking low. You're talking about the marketing, the marketing arm of Def Jam back then versus the marketing arm of Enterscope at the time that Eminem was discovered.

Those are two different. Right. For sure. Right. I mean, one of them had way more. Dr. Dre, that power over there, way more reached than Def Jam was able to do with third base at that. We're talking about third base was what? The 88?

Yeah. And they had already kind of created the model for Interscope to be able to say, we see what they did with third base. Yeah. Can't forget, Beast. You know what I say? When I say, Jonesy, the first person through the door gets shot. And then everybody else knows how not to go through the door. That's right.

We just had Bubba Sparks on here. And Bubba said to, uh, that Eminem said this to him. It was like, man, like, you know, I don't know if you would have made it. If I wouldn't have made it, but you would deserve to make it. Okay, that's fair.

You know how they say that? You know, I had to ask Bobba. I was like, yo, do you think there's only one white rapper that could exist at a time? You know how they say there's only one black actor? A comedian. That's what I'm going to say. Yes, yeah.

I got you. I'm having a hard. I'm going to be mad at Kevin. You're going to be mad at Hart, Kevin. You know what I'm saying? You know what I mean? An ass pay face. and face as straight.

You know what I'm saying? And do you think it was like that, though, that we only accepted M&M and that was it? You know what's funny? I like the guy by the name of Crustified Dibbs, aka R.A. the Rugged Man. Well, there's a lot of dumb artists. White artists that were underbrow.

A lot of them. He had to saw with Biggie. Remember Biggie was real explicit in his raps? He was on Jive Records. His name was Crustified Dibs. He had a song, bloodshed. Ooh, I was, it was, he's a whole different rapper.

But yeah, he's, he was like one of the first white rappers. You know what I'm saying? So to the point, right? Russ is my favorite. That machine, yeah. That Interscope machine. I like was. Yeah, it was a time where it wasn't, I mean, Interscope was under Universal.

And between Universal, they controlled over 70, 80% of the entire hip-hop music market. That's all radio. That's all, you know, video on B, T, MTV, everything. all that's, you know, all that's under them at times. So, you know, they would. And if you think about it, it's, it's, it's even more than that because you got the subseverary, um, companies, the rockabler. All that.

You fuck that word up. I know, you need, but everybody here. Yeah, yeah, yeah. We got you got you. Yeah, I'm fucking y'all. That was, that was an orian. Translated. That was, that was a noreno.

We know. We got a new thing. We got a new thing. We got a new thing. We got a new thing. Oh, yeah. We missed ain't. That's in Nore.

You know, we've got the Rockefellers. You got all that shit under there, you know what I mean? Now, we speak about the major independent. That's one of our shit. To me, these kids don't need the majors at all. Like, right now, I remember us going to the record label, us getting our record to a certain extent, and then the budget will actually open.

Right. Right now, these kids are getting. the budget open on their own. They are recording their self, they're producing their self, they're taking their own pictures. This is what selfies is about. And they put out their own product. They are successful. But

it's always that bag, right? There's no shortcut for saving time, but saving money is simple. Just combine your car and home insurance with Bel Air Direct and save. Get a quote at Tyler Direct.com. Hi, this is Kylie Brakeman. Angel Geratana.

Jeremy Colhain. Patrick McDonald. And we're the hosts of the Artists on Artists on Artists Podcast. The Improvised Character Comedy Podcast where each week a new panel of artists discuss their craft. Join us for a panel of wellness influencers. What I try to do is faux journal. I don't know. Have you guys heard of faux journaling?

Yeah, it's reading. It's called reading. So we don't like to use that word anymore. Okay. A panel of New Yorker cartoonists. Have you guys done Terry Gross's Peloton class? No! I've been dying, too.

I'm so sorry. I'm seeing a reading of Sadako and the Thousand Paper Cranes by Audra McDonald's at the Wonderland Bookstore on 14th. That's crazy. I went to the Wonderland Bookstore yesterday, and I heard Nora Jones do a reading of Zero Dark 30. No way. You have to come to the last bookstore, though. Kim Cottrell is reading the guitar tabs of yesterday. A panel of Eurovision participants.

And we do a little Halloween. Sometimes. Does the Pope dress up? He winks on Halloween. He gets right up next to the microphone. I hear you can almost hear the eyelashes hit each other. You never seen Italy so quiet as when the Pope gets up to wink on Halloween. Listen to artists on artists on artists on artists on the IHeard Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. What up y'all. Y'all, this your main man, Memphis Bleak right here.

Host of that rock solid podcast. And each week, we bring in you exclusive looks inside music. Everything happening inside the culture. Some of the best conversations were the biggest names in the game. You had a little bit more pressure to be good. And they didn't care if you was a girl. Like, you wasn't getting no points because you were a girl. If you're not trash, you better be not just good. You better be great.

On rock solid, we're talking to rap legends, hit-making producers, rising stars from the golden era to the future of this hip-hop game, where we keep it 100% unfiltered and keep it nothing but rock-solid. The thing about Jay, my opinion, is he's been so great at being seen but mysterious. You know what I'm saying? He don't got to come talk about nothing. You figure it out. So it's always a mystique and mysteriousness behind them, but it ain't like you don't see him.

Listen to Rock Solid on Black Effect Podcast Network, iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you string podcast. Welcome aboard season six of The Girlfriends, Flight or Fight, which takes place 30,000 feet in the sky. There's great food, comfortable chairs, and attentive stewardesses. The stewardesses were so beautiful. But in reality, the stewardess job is far less glamorous than it appears. It was the most sexist job I think you could have. In this era,

the airlines told these stewardesses, they have to be single. They had no good excuse for why they wouldn't let women be married. They have to be skinny. We were starving ourselves. And they have to be young. You would retire at age 32. But one day, a group of stewardesses said, This has got to stop.

They risked it all, turning a fight for fairness into a revolution. Listen to The Girlfriends, Flight or Fight, on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Is there an epidemic against literature? More specifically, black literature. Our books are being banned, scanned by AI, and destroyed. I'm Jack Weiss Peace Thomas, and on this season of the Blacklit podcast, we're outside asking some of the custodians of our stories, teachers, and our modern day

writers. Why? They don't want a whole bunch of little Elebakers, Michael Maxes, and Martin Luther King's running around. They want to build children who have no empathy. That's really the ultimate goal. We want books that don't make white kids feel bad. So is the war on literacy and information or our ability to connect? We want people to know how sexy reading is and how fun they could be and not always associated with education. It could be an escape. It could be entertainment. And that is the beauty of

It can be all of those things. And considering this is Black Reading Month, the only real question is, what are you reading next? Listen to Black Lit from the Black Effect Podcast Network on our iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. Hi, it's Alec Baldwin. This season on my podcast,

here's the thing I'm speaking with more artists, policymakers, and performers like actor Stephen Root. I think for me to be any good for any character act to be any good. You've got to put enough of yourself and your empathy for people in it. I'm a people watcher. You see that guy going down the dream and go,

yeah, I can use that. Open Igloo co-founder, Alia Muhammad. I love staying on top of what is going on in our city, what is going on in city politics, what is on renter's minds, and taking all of that knowledge to build a platform that hopefully is going to make New York City better in the long run. And actress and singer Melissa Eriko.

Partnership took on a whole other meaning when I started making my own work. It's like you with a great actress or actor. It was best to come out of your trailer, full of life, and just face another person who's full of life and don't talk. Listen to Here's the Thing on the IHeart Radio app Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. This is Jay Valentine. I've spent my career on the executive side of this industry, multi-platinum songs, building artists and building business. And alongside my brother Tank, the superstar R&B singer, songwriter and producer, we've created something special, the R&B Money podcast.

This is not just a podcast. It's a safe space where artists, executives, and fans of R&B music come to reminisce, pull back the curtain and tell the stories that shape this culture, the real history behind the hits. That was Hood famous. Yeah. And then Real Love came out and it blew up. We lived in a project. And they're seeing all the success.

They're hearing the music and we had nothing. We're covering the entire spectrum from Smokey Robinson, Alicia Keys, B2K, Mary J. Blige, legends, current stars, and everyone who's contributed to the sound of R&B. You come out the gate with a hit. And it knocked Michael Jackson out of number one. Come on, man. I was like, hold on. I'm not going to MJ out of the number one spot.

If you're a super dedicated R&B fan who wants the real discovery, the real stories, this is your podcast. This is the R&B Money podcast. Listen to R&B money from the Black Effect Podcast Network on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. Do you think these artists should, that grow up like this, because it's a lot of these artists, like, I will self-admittedly say that I don't know a NBA young boy song.

That is no disrespect. Because I also self-admittedly know that he is the hottest motherfucker. though. On this fucking planet. You know, he's an anomaly, right? Because you got supporters and you got followers. Yeah.

You want to know when you got supporters? He got... Sell something. Yeah. Because you got followers. Nickers are following. They want to look at you. Yeah.

They might want to look at you fail, too. That's when you know you got supporters. So I don't look at these bullshit as... That's great differentiation. I don't know these numbers. He has supporters. He has supporters. Look at all of our legacy acts.

Yeah. That got a group together. in hip hop and the tour still getting canceled because they got followers not supporters

right it's a difference so even with the young dudes you could book some of these young dudes you could have them

come on the podcast they ain't gonna get no fucking numbers like I see I ain't gonna lie um a little dirt

he got some supporters out there too why don't because because they like right right listen don't trial from murder

no no this is what I'm saying bro like Like, think about... But what you said that day? I saw the Dirk's on trial for murder. Oh, yeah, yeah.

But look at like how long Gucci was in the game. Yeah. The minute Gucci down something, that's when they started fucking with them. All right. See, hip-hop, and I'm going to blame the fans for some shit, too. Yeah. Because the hip-hop, if you Rick Ross and you're a former CEO, you fake. All right.

But if you Bobby Smurter and get locked up in the Rico, you're stupid. So which one do you want? the real nigga or you want the person that's real, but then you're going to call them stupid. Right. None of that says nothing to do with music. And that's what happened with hip-hop. We became, we'll be looking at people and we don't know NBA. When you're born was important, though, about putting the music out, they don't need people.

But you've got to ask yourself, why does every artist still with a major label today? I'll be honest with you to tell you the truth. And me and EFN, we argue about this all the time. I'm not arguing. We have a disagreement about it all the time. there's nothing on this planet like being platinum on a major label in the 90s

right? It's a big difference. God damn it didn't even late in the 90s it's true you got a five mic classic though you know we went back and changed your rating from four and a half to five

you never knew that? You never knew that? You never knew that? I'm going to send you the article. In 2002, I think it was 2002, we did a whole feature. We went back and re-rated albums that had gotten a four or four and a half. That should have gotten a five. So you got outcast of five.

You should. No, Outcast of Quimini had the five, but we gave Alcast Southern Playlists. The correct five is the four and a half that they got. Did everybody lose the same? No, we didn't do that. Yeah, but let me, let me, let me, let me just. But CNN, I think, I think, I think, you can. CNN went from four and a half to five mics.

And let me say this, I currently own the Five Mike's trademark. Oh, wow. That is the one piece of intellectual property that I created while I was at the source that I've been able to recover ownership of in the past couple years. I'm getting ready to launch a Five Mike's podcast. Oh, okay. I'm announcing that here. No, first time.

Now, okay, I want to be able to talk to you to a little bit about being involved, okay, because this is something big for the culture what y'all were talking about. There isn't that kind of respect. There isn't that kind of platform. You know, but it's going to be a platform where we're going to be able to rate the new NBA Young Boy album and we're going to be able to rate, you know, anything else.

Check new album, whoever. Yes, that comes out. So do you bring Youngblood in to do that now? That's what I wanted to ask. How do we do that? Who's going to be the judge? I'm putting the formula together right now. All the because I was going to say,

EF. And when he said to Norrie in the 90s, sometimes I ask people, and no nothing against you, I ask people, yo, what year is this to you? Because you know, some niggas still think it's 1997, right?

But let me read the way, what I was trying to say. Yeah, yeah. But let me read it. And I think that's part of what fucked up the game. Right, right, right. To this day, right now, when you look at a future,

who is on a major, right. Future has never been independent. Yes, he was. meathead was. Yeah, I don't know him. I know I know meathead was that. I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm a judge family. Yes, yes. I know that. What I'm saying is like at that major, I can guarantee you without me having that

experience still to this day with a major behind you and you go on platinum, there's no, there's no fame in the world that can help that. This, what I'm trying to tell you is being platinum on a major label is equivalent to being the heavyweight champion of the world. You know how the dude could be from Brooklyn. I got a dope segue for this, bro. He could be just from Brooklyn and you think that he just, you just know him in Brooklyn. He's just know him in best eye.

He's the world heavyweight champion. No, they know him in Ghana. Look, they know him in Dutham. Let me tell you. The baddest man on the plane. I'm going to tell you. Look, I got a dope segue for this and I wore this shirt on purpose. I don't believe in none of this, right?

Holy shit. But I wore this on purpose. Without this on here, this is a black hoodie. Yep. We so caught up in labels that the name mean more, the, the hoodie. Yes, sir. You understand what I'm saying?

Yeah. So it only means something if it got a label on it. Independence will always be better than a label because of your ownership and what you could do. You understand what I'm saying? So I wore this. I was like, yo, I'm going to wear this and people might think, this thing got crosses. They ain't got nothing to do with it. We so caught up in labels that we forget that it wasn't even about no label.

A shirt is a shirt until you put a name on it. But you have to have people to subscribe to that, right? And if the masses are so used to... The masses asses. Well, that is true. And we control the narrative, though. This is what I'm saying. This is what we got to start.

You got to get back in control of the narrative. This is why we hear. Yeah. You know what's crazy? But Ye is fucking up your narrative because Jay just sold out everything and it's not a logo on that motherfucker. No, that's not a logo. He's proving my point.

Yeah, that's a great point. See, we got so. caught up in these titles, right? We got so caught up in these titles, we forgot that it's still a fucking t-shirt. Yep. Yes. You understand what I'm saying? So we're looking at the value and then we'll look at something less like a fubel.

We all love Fat Albin and the Cosby kids. Absolutely. But if you rock a fubul with fat Albert on, the niggas old, niggas got on that old ass fubo. But polo never get old. Certain things never get old. Tommy. If it's black owned or something that hours, the label will say it's old. It's played out.

You understand what I'm saying? So that's why when I look at hip hop and people do shit without the label and the label give people validation. Because it was like, oh, you wasn't good enough to get on Def Jam. I was. You understand what I'm saying? Yeah. Yo, I got the label, the labels. And I want y'all if y'all could, give me five record labels right now.

But hold on. Let me. Let me. I will. Same. But let me just say you something. Universal. His was crazy about that.

Independent artist. who has a hit record and don't have the fame, that shit is so bad. Meaning, when your record is bigger than you, you know, there's certain people's records that is bigger than them. The only thing to balance that is that machine. But it goes back to a inception of hip-hop.

It never was about fame. It was about the art. Okay, wait, wait. Remember, hip-up was against being commercialized. Right. Artists didn't want to be on the radio. Oh, we went to go up with all-day- brothers. Like, it was all...

We had a long-go over those days, brother. Maybe we need to kind of go back mentally to those days. Well, no, some of us... Some of us have... These young is one to pop some. It really depends... It really depends on what kind of career you want. We're conflating a bunch of issues.

We're throwing a bunch of things in the same part, but these don't all equal out. What kind of career do you want? A lot of artists that we're talking about right now want to be famous more than they want to be good. That's a huge separator between point A and point B. can be on a label if you want to be famous. Hold on a second. You cannot be known and still be good. You know what I mean? Like, so what do you want? And then there's the cross-reference. There's the people who are on a label who are really good.

And then there are people who are not on a label who are trapped. But they're indie. We give them all this love of it. So what kind of career? Whenever I'm consulting with an artist, my first question is, what kind of career do you want? Tell me what you want this to look like in five years. Do you want to be here for a good time or a long time? The reason why labels have the power that they do is because they have access. I've watched independent artists spend money in places they think will get them access.

You spend the money with the wrong person. Why? Because they're on the labels tab. The label has this guy on, they have an account with this dude. Like, you think you're buying your way into X, Y, have the keys to all. And it's all smoking merits.

So what do you want? Like, if you want to be rich and famous or if you want to be famous and you want a long career, you're going to need access to this other stuff. And if you don't have the bread, and that's what I have.

Nine times out of ten some of the biggest independent artists we have right now, people who are once signed to a label, they know exactly who to pay, they know exactly who to go get, they take all the money that they made, they put their own team together

with this person from the label, this person from the label, that person from the label, the marketing guy from the label, the brand thing guy from the label. The bottom line is... Let me say, let me say, I promise I'll give it right.

I'll give you an example, right? At one point, I had a record, Oymi Kondo. Borikwa, more than that record is bigger than me. Right. It was a person literally in the club that was beefing with me singing my own record. Like, I'm like, I'm like, idiot.

I like you're beefing with me because you're helping me out. What I'm saying is in order to stabilize that, Def Jam had to know that. So they had to put me on Telemundo. They had to put me on Univision. They had to actually connect that Latin audience with the half Latin black guy. You know what I'm saying?

Right. So, like, had that been independent, I wouldn't have been able to master it. somebody had to think of that. A guy in marketing has to. You don't really need them to do all that. You know what we need to do in Norway right now? I'm saying, this is back there.

Let's put one. XYZ, A, B, and C, and connect them to this Latin audience. And convince the check writers that to spend the money that way. And hold on really, I'm going to put something on a table. One thing we're definitely talking about, we've got to make clear. We're talking about the music, the rap music of hip-hop. Because I hate when we keep saying hip-hop, hip-hip-hop, and we're just talking about the rap music. We're just talking about rap.

Throwing through the industry. Right, right, right. That is not hip-hop. in its totality. Right, sir. So we're just got to make sure that's clear. You are correct. We're like the culture, the culture.

No, we're talking about rap music. But let me tell you what's, let me tell you what's fucked up about that. You know what's crazy? I can ask everybody right here right now. Do you know who Al Heyman is? Yes. Why do you know Al Heyman?

Because he was the biggest promoter in, to me, in the 80. And boxing. But no one even knows how this guy looks. So my point, I don't even want to remember if I've seen before. But what I'm trying to say is, like, his name supersedes that. So when you think of boxing, you think of Al-Haman, but Al-Haman is all business.

He's all business. He's all business. He doesn't have love for, like, I don't know for a fact Russell Simmons has love for hip-hop still. I don't know for a fact Rick Rubin still has love for hip-hop, but they're known for that. So that's what I'm trying to say to you

is like, that's outside of it. Like, the business part of hip-hop is involved with it, whether we like it or not. But this is what I want to ask to y'all. Wait, real quick. Didn't he also do the Budweweiser? a Superfest. Yeah.

What I'm saying to you did everything. That's how you got into it. Yeah. As a promoter. One of the biggest of all times. There's probably three pictures of this guy. So this is an important conversation for the audience. The elders and the young.

Who are these fucking labels that everybody keeps saying? Because there is, who runs death jam? Okay, okay. Because we know Universal. I know. Dave, you said. Universal. Universal.

Republic, and it's going to be the same labels. Capital is the label. I'm talking about. Damn, capital is the local. Because this is the thing. We're not going to sit there. Who's the people up there? No, who are these labels that assign the people?

Because I see a lot of artists be like, the labels, the labels. I mean, like, you know, you've never even been in a record label. But y'all keep acting like it's an unseen hand, these labels. So who run deaf jam right now? I don't know. See? You don't think that's a problem in hip-hop? Why is that a problem?

Because Def Jam is one of the original hip-hop labels, and everybody keeps talking about labels, and we don't know who are dead jam. But they all are consolidated. There's like two entities that are all the labels. So you just made, that's what I was trying to get to. Everybody keeps saying these labels. Those are just brands now.

And there's no labels. I want to keep it back on your point, which is about, you know, independence and ownership and the power, because that's what people need to keep in mind. We still have the power. This technology is the leveling of the playing field, okay? You know, it allows everybody to compete. There isn't no, like, you had to have $300 million to have a cable television channel back in degree.

I don't want to cut you up, but to a degree because the new label is the tech, is the, is the, is the Spotify's, is the metas, is all of it. That's the new, freaking label, kind of controlling things. If they pull us off the platform, they demonetize us, we don't have that free. So what I was saying was that when you're asking yourself, why everybody is still signed? to a label. And I said the bottom line is they figured out how to take a system of technology, of digital transmissions, of music, whatever, and figured out how to monopolize it and kind of keep it controlled in a way over these past, you know, 20-some odd years or whatever to where, you know, they, you know, everybody still needs them, even though the technology exists to where

you don't think you should, you know, you shouldn't have to need it to do any of, any of this. No why? But it's still there. And that's really what I'm also working on with breakbeat is a technology. Because of the label. What I said to you earlier,

the title of these labels, these names is bigger than the culture. People look at, yo, I got it on a polo. It ain't Ralph, though. You understand what I'm saying? I'm saying to this route.

Yeah. So you understand what I'm saying? You got a deep program. You got a deep program from these labels. But how is it, where is it, like, where's it going to start? because no one wants to take the L, no one wants to go without, no one wants to lose that chance to get signed to the label.

So when we look at people like that came in a culture, like Griselda, 30-E-Spec and all of these people who was independent who got more money than your favorite rappers, and they did it all their self. And then the label said, yo, damn, I got a partner with you. Like, I need to get some of that money you getting. They say, all right, we'll do a one-off with you. We'll do a situation.

You understand what I'm saying? Like when y'all went back to Tommy Boy and did you, didn't have to do that. You could put it out yourself. You understand what I'm saying? So they don't need the label. The label needs them. Say that. They don't need the label. The label need them. They wanted

the label. But let me tell you about that. They signed. They wanted the look. They wanted the prestige. They wanted to everybody. Everybody said it gives you a label. It gives you validation of the label. It also gives you resources,

access, direction, marketing, like there's a lot behind. And it's psychological. Everybody grew up saying, I want to be signed to a label. And let's just say something. Doggy, let me just say something. You come from a special cloth because most people, yes. Most people are like you, like I'm saying, yes, I want the money.

But a lot of people, man, let me just tell you something, man. If you walk into a club, man, and that famous major rapper is sitting next to you and you got a hotter record than him and he's leaving with the business, trust me. You're going to go back. Go back to what Mecca said that. How do we get on this major again? Go back to what Mecca said, though.

Go back to what Mecca said when you ask. Some people who take the money way faster than fame. What do you want from this? Because I know independent dudes who got mantis and mad cars. You're like, how to talk you get? And what they're building with strange music. You understand what I'm saying? But tech is happy without the fame that his talent.

He doesn't need any fame that's not provided by his talent. I've interviewed tech, great guys, super talented artists. I've seen the warehouse. I've worked with them very closely. tattoos of people getting his lyrics and Angelic and all that stuff, all the tattoos and collection. The fandom is crazy. The support is crazy.

Imagine him having that in his own system. He will tell you. He's been signed to a major before. It didn't work. It's just a matter. It's just a matter of the access and what you want out of it. I completely agree with doggy. It's 100% true.

We're not, no one here is saying anything false. We're just conflict. I've told artists a label will jump you to the head of. of the line. Yes. That's what it's true. You can 100% be just as famous as anybody you see independent. It's going to take you as long as you's priority at the label.

Right. Many people that have been signed the labels. But you can get to the Griselda point where they partner with you and then you can do some that's the best scenario. However, Griselda didn't happen just when you saw them. No. These dudes are doing their one, two, for decades. Right, right, right.

What do you want? If you want, it's, it's, pick your poison. Right. That takes maturity and it takes discipline also, right? And you got to have a love for it. Well, I'm telling you, besides Josie, and they don't even know who they are. Let me just say you something in.

Besides Josie here, listen, we want the bread. All the bread. But we don't want to wait in line and Mr. Chiles neither, man. We don't want to walk in. And Shirk night and just walk in like, this niggas a CEO.

Fuck him. But you know what, though? You know what you know what that is? You know what that is? But you know what that is? He ain't even, he's wearing slippers, y'all. And you're going to let Rick Ruben and don't want me? That's ego, though.

That's all ego. Oh, let me tell you something. In case you don't know, that's where all artists suffer for. It's all dirty. And all of us, all of us have that. You know, no, it's a necessary evil in art. In all work. You can fight you that ego.

I can tell. I can tell. But you are abnormal. You're not normal. You're not the normal person. You got to trust me. That's more. Trust me. Trust me.

If you at TGI Fridays and Blueface walk in, and you're like, I've been doing this shit for 27 years, and you don't get Blueface the crab meat first. You know what you're going to be with Blueface. You got to beat what you've done it like. I'm going to tell you some real shit, and it's all about child bringing. And then your children, who's the generation that is all hinged on. My mom ain't shit.

What did they watch? What did they watch mom go through? His mom in there took them off fucking bitches Can't sing and away at my home And not at the Grammys You know Without programming them, they're seeing that And I'm telling you some of those dudes

That have hit records, right? That's independent And when they start performing it I guarantee you there's people that say Oh, that's the dude that sing that record That's not a good feeling If you have that feeling With you that man

It got to resonate both sides So that's the reason why listen Me and him we have this argument all the time I'm always on the major label and he's always on the independent, but then we make a sacrifice. We say being independent on a major. Right.

Yeah, like, yeah, yeah, yeah. That's all that's a, yeah, yeah, yeah. Because that's what Penalty Records was. Penalty Records was an independent label that was signed to Tommy Boy, which was signed to Warner Brothers, which we were, so we got the penny of the penny of the penny of the penny.

It's about building up your leverage so when you go into that major and machine, what Mecca said is really key, because what do you want? from it, right? Because what you eat, I don't give a fuck about what you think. That's just me. It's like a big of you shit.

Right. And certain of us always had popularity in our hood. Like, we've already been hood stars. Right. So I always want an anonymity. That's why it took me like 10, 15 years to even get on camera. Right. I don't want to be going and talking some,

yo, this is not. I don't like this shit. Writing for the source, my byline was all anybody ever saw. Right. It wasn't until I had to get in front of camera. It was like, wait, that's. the guy that's right. That's what I'm saying.

DJ EFN. You don't need to know who I. Right. So when you're already lit, you already live. Like we get so much love in our community. That's all we need. And then you get in ones in the community and everybody know who you are.

So I'd rather be, have the bread. Yeah. It's a popular nobody. But in a world where attention is the new currency, that is not applicable to the mass. But I'm not from this. Thank you, man.

I'm telling you. I'm not from this. Yeah. No, but we live in this era, though. We live in this era. We live in this era. Two of the two have that in common. Right.

I'm not because of that either. Right. Especially now that even infamy is a level of thing. They don't even care how they're known. As long as they're known. Infamy is so dope because you got to do who's famous for creating a lightball. The infamous dude took the light ball. broke it and stabbed the famous

duel who created the light bar and the eye ate his eye. Who do you think people are going on to watch? Do they like Batman or do they like Bain? I'm mad he pointed at me during that whole. I can't get the hour. I just saying, where this is a good segue

for hip-hop because this would be the founder of the hip-hop Bible, right? I would be one of the founders of DVD, moving until the internet. You worked with him. You would be one of the early podcasts

on video. You've been a DJ for forever. Miss Jones is Miss Jones. You know, we remember her before she wanted us to remember her. That's in stone. Like, Ms. Jones. All of us have something that we can say,

I did this and can't nobody deny it. Right. Who is qualified to talk about hip-hop in his day and times? You mean besides us? Like a newer generation? Just us.

No, we all are. This is so we, we established it. I'll say a Rob Markman. He's a first. Shaheen Reed. He's one of us. He's one of us. Rob Markman was me at double XL.

Okay. Literally. That's what I mentioned. We have parallel. So, Andre G. Man, is a cool. So when you see Rob Markman. One of the best out there.

What's my man name? Um, he's the manager Davey's Rayno. Wayne. Will catch him. If we're just going to start talking about. writers. Like, there's a ton of writers out there, but people don't read. So the point I'm making is that are we doing the culture of disservice when we see Rob Markman being disrespected and we don't say, now, you can't do that.

The Rob, he's a OG. Yes. Are we doing a disservice? Yes. Absolutely. So why are we speaking? Unbiased hip-hop journalist. Right.

Or even the founders of certain genres because I respect anybody that go back to print. Right. I wasn't typing shit. You go back to a word processor, salute to you. Yes. I wasn't fucking one of the word processors on those tightroids. Freshment year in colleges when one processes began. He said he started with a newsletter.

We started that. That's the inception of loving the culture. So when we see somebody who does a stream now and they disrespecting a writer of the culture, wait, that happened? Yeah, it happened in a real time. Because it's the fastest way, it's one of the fastest ways to be famous is to tear down somebody who's established, to tear down somebody with some kind of stripes, or go at something. somebody who sets a bar that you can't reach.

Right. We need platform. We need platform. With no substantiated. With no substantiation reasons. Just that's irrelevant. But listen, though, this is what happened with hip-pop, right? If Nause dropped a video right now.

Can I have another one? Right? Ginger beer. Yeah. If Nodz drop a video right now and 6-9 drop a video, who will have more comments? Six-nine. You don't think that's a problem? But what's the quality of the-

the audience. It don't matter. It does. It does. It's an A's thing and they, we raised them for, did we? Nause and Buster? Noz and Buster. Dr. Buster and Wain have a video right now. It's the quality of the audience. You can't, you can't, there's no, there's no getting around that, right? Shout out to Jazz Fly, rest in peace. You used to say all the time, there's always a club ready to let in a D-List celebrity. Damn. You have to just be cool with the idea that these folks,

Now, that's all you. These folks are going to have their audience. There's a lot of these students who are going to love what they love. And that's fine. I got into it with a couple of the dudes, again, my consultant, a couple of the dudes. Meg, how come you don't like none of the new stuff? First of all, don't talk in absolutes. I like a lot of the new stuff.

I just don't like everything y'all like. Well, why not? When I was a kid, Burger King was a reward. Right. If I did good in school, my mother would offer you. for to take me to Burger King. That was a reward for me. I got a little older.

I discovered Red Lobster. I'm not going to Burger King anymore. Right. I can't get girls going to Burger King. Great analogy. I got to go to Red Lobster now. I got a little older. Somebody put me on that restaurants actually have stars.

Oh, wait a minute. Hold on. How many is this? How many is that? Now I'm going over there. Now I'm a grown-ass man. Your taste has elevated. The places I go to, you need reservations.

You got to dress a certain way. my taste of elevated. You can't convince me that McDonald's is where I'm supposed to be right at this very second. That's what I mean you hate McDonald's. Never mad at McDonald's. I never hating on it. But fella, just my man, young boy, hold on a second. Of course you love McDonald's.

Had a time when I loved McDonald's too. But my taste grew. Yeah. I can't go backwards. And if they can respect that, if they would learn to respect that and not call him washed or, oh, you're old head, or you're irrelevant. But this is the problem You're going to hog and d'clock

Once you go to people But Joneses We're going to I'm still going to Get up There's This is one of the problems Right

This is one of the problems In hip hop right We're judged by what Numbers Yeah But we put that On ourselves too a lot We started that

We started that I think Tupac started that No We all We all jumped in We all jump in Tupac Yo we're

We selling more records Than them niggas That's when he's like Oh shit I would bet the labels were pushing that to... Right, right, right.

He was a... He was vocal with it. It was a marketing narrative. So, so we got caught up in numbers, not even knowing sometimes. It was fluffed. People don't know. YouTube did bullshit to certain of us. You understand what I'm saying?

These niggas be botting this a lot of shit, but there's no crying in hip-hop. We can't complain. And then there's that. There's no crying in hip-hop because now you're mad. Now you bitter. You're a hater. You're a hater. And I'd be like, yo, how can the nigger call me bitter?

I drive a foreign car. a nigga with no fucking high school diploma. I'm a dropout. You understand what I'm saying? I live in a dope crib. So it's like you got to brag and show people shit. Now you're not bitter no more. But when you talk about the culture,

no matter how successful you are, if you don't show your success, going back to the labels, they will say you're mad and you're bitter. So now we're looking at this person has this much subscribers. He got this amount of followers. He got this amount of

followers. He got this he's successful because we've based successful for materialism. You understand what I'm saying? So if drink champs, I think Kanye would have been your highest viewed interview of your left. Right. Yep. Taking that down, right?

You might have, you might have lost $300,000 off. You understand what I'm saying? Probably more than that. Right. So now that's your bragging rights, because you got these numbers. So now they're looking to say, oh shit, drink temps fell off. Such a search passed them.

That's fucked up because look at what y'all started in the inception issue. Right, so that's about consistency. But see, what haven't you been consistent? We're back to the original, we're back to the original, one of the original points is the quality of the audience. Who do you want watching? Whose respect do you want? You can have the respect of the industry. It's not a game of respect, though.

No, no, no. Hold, let me finish. You can have the respect of the industry or you can have the respect of the culture. What you have to understand is those are two different. different things and not everybody gets both. There are plenty of people who are respect. This man, this man, this woman, this platform is respected by the culture.

Yep. It's not necessarily a matter of. I don't have a Grammy. But I do have flowers, drink champs, flowers, wet my name on them. Come on. I get a fucking flower. I got my mom, bro.

I don't have it. I don't have it. I don't have an American Music Award, but Lenny S. Let me sit on the gold couch and took my picture for his book. You see what I'm saying? Like, there things. So, again, what kind of career do you want? I'm having the kind of career that I want.

I walk in the rooms, I'm respected by the people who I've looked up to my whole run. I ain't off a Buster Rums. I give that the Q-Tip when he sees me. You think what I'm saying? Like, what do you want? I appreciate this conversation. I don't mean to cut you off because they're watching now. and someone is recalibrating their think process.

Right. Success doesn't look the same for everybody. And again, back to what Joan said earlier, if we learn to respect it. Because you got so many people who just want to be famous. They're not even good. They're just rich and famous. Yeah.

Trash. Shout out to prodigy, rest in peace. You rap niggas make me laugh, y'all crazy ass, and I don't give a fuck what you sold. That shit is trash. So let's say. You know, that's why you get the money. Shout out, rest in peace.

You know, you know, that's why I said. I started a conversation off where I, um, I felt I love. I love that. Right. But, and, and, you know, my Brooklyn dudes are here. So I hate to have to get us to Brooklyn. Oh, shit.

I hate it. Come on. No, I know, I hate it. I love it. I love it. But I haven't been doing shows at all. I've been comfortable chilling in my podcast, so I probably did like three shows, right?

But the shows that I did prior to that, Rakim was on there, Kane was on there, Buster was on there, L.L was on there. I believe one of the shows I did was for ICT, and then one of the shows I did was from LL. So this is actually them calling me direct. So this is not promoters. I haven't been doing anything.

But then I got a show in Brooklyn. I'm on Brooklyn. Yes. And this was Norrie's show. Right. See, all the other shows that I went out, this was, I'm sharing the crowd with LL. I'm sharing the crowd with EPMD.

So I didn't get the buck back. I came outside and they're like, you know, Norrie's the, the cousin was with me. The homie right there, he was with me. Both of them. Both of my cousins, yeah. Both of my cousins. Because when Norrie comes to Brooklyn,

I text them, I said, yo, I tell him he comes to. I text them, I say, yo, are you going to be in Brooklyn? You don't need it. But I'm going to put some niggas around you. That's from the bar. That's a tissue tissue And nine times out of ten

They know everybody And we know everybody in Brooklyn And I get Let me tell the audience Who I get mad at him This nigga did Some of the most classic hooks In hip hopist's

Yeah, yeah You always tell me that And I always say I need them hooks man Yeah but hold on Let me just Let me just give Brooklyn this crop So I'm looking out

And you know Butchrod We have this process Of we look at the crowd Right And we say okay This is the breakfast You're gonna do

You're gonna do Reggae throwing Latino You're going to do some of that Spanish shit. You're going to do, you're going to do, and he, this is one of the beautifulest times. He looked up and said, we could do everything. And I was like, what? He was like, we are unlimited. You want to do R&B record?

What we're going to go up with you? You want to do your record with your record waiting one day and fucking Lexus, the Brooklyn artists and they were there for you. And they were there for me. It's my first. So this is, although I'm talking about me, let me make this story make sense. This is how I fell back in love with hip-hop.

And injected something back in the point. No, right before. So what happened was we were hired by Monster, big up to Monster. You know, we have a great relationship. Eiffin has his own relationship. I have my own relationship. And then we have a drink-chance relationship.

So Monster rung me to Brooklyn. So what happened is they had other acts come up before me. People had not known this. Buckshot came on that stage right before me. I had never seen Fung Shott's you already perform before in my life My dad If you call him Shorty

That's the only That's how she know Yeah No no No no No BDI For sure

For sure Me You know what I apologize To the camera That's my camera No shit No shit

But I had never My friends They were looking at me Like no one could talk to me bro Like I was like Yo love I was like

You can't go downstairs The promoter's like Norrie you're the fucking headliner The fuck you mean? I was like, I want to be in the front of the fucking stage while this motherfucker's performing. And everybody's looking at me like, you're going to blow up the whole, bro. I stood there.

I made him get me a chair. I stood there. I watched. I sung every fucking word of buckshot. And I was like, that was the moment. You need those moments to remember. I needed that one with your mind. Not only performing.

Notice how. Oh, because I tore that stage down, by the way. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

But right to that, that wasn't what made me fall back in love. It was seeing someone else because I'm looking at Buck. I mean, I say that, Shorty Park. I'm looking at Buck, and he's still having that same amount of fun that I've seen from no records when I was in Sparford and watching it on Ralph McDaniels. And I'm looking and I'm like, damn, he might have something that I don't have, meaning, meaning like his level of hip-hop, he's never fell out.

Like, he's been there and he's happy, and I'm sitting there. And I'm like, holy shit. I was like, I was so, I fell right back in love with hip hopper at that very moment. Like, this is recently. Yeah, this is a few months ago. And there was one other moment that led me up to that before that. I'm sorry, I'm long winning because I know I'll cut you off. I want to give it back to you.

There's no shortcut for saving time. But saving money is simple. Just combine your car and home insurance with Bel Air Direct and save. Get a quote at bellair direct.com. Hi, this is Kylie Breakman. Angel Geratana Jeremy Colhane Patrick McDonald

And we're the hosts of the Artists on Artists on Artists on Artists Podcast The Improvised Character Comedy Podcast Where each week a new panel of artists discuss their craft Join us for a panel of Wellness influencers

What I try to do is faux journal I don't know Have you guys heard of faux journaling? Yeah it's reading It's called reading So you're so we don't like to use that word anymore Okay

A panel of New Yorker cartoonists Have you guys done Terry Gross's Peloton class? No! I've been dying too. I'm so sorry. I'm seeing a reading of Sadako and the Thousand Paper Cranes by Audra McDonald's at the Wonderland Bookstore on 14th. That's crazy. I went to the Wonderland Bookstore yesterday and I heard Nora Jones do a reading of Zero Dark 30.

No way. You have to come to the last bookstore though. Kim Cottrell is reading the guitar tabs of yesterday. A panel of Eurovision participants. And we do a little Halloween sometimes. Does the Pope dress up? He winks. on Halloween.

It's right up next to the microphone. I hear you can almost hear the eyelashes hit each other. You never seen Italy so quiet as when the Pope gets up to wink on Halloween. Listen to artists on artists on artists on artists on the IHeard radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. What up y'all, this your main man, Memphis Bleak right here. Host of that rock solid podcast. And each week we bring in you exclusive looks inside music.

Everything happening inside the culture. Some of the best conversations were the biggest names in the game. You had a little bit more pressure to be good. And they didn't care if you was a girl. Like, you wasn't getting no points because you were the girl. If you're not trash, you better be not just good. You better be great. On rock solid, we're talking to rap legends, hit-making producers,

rising stars from the golden era to the future of this hip-hop game, where we keep it 100% unfiltered and keep it nothing but rock-solid. The thing about Jay, my opinion, is he's been so great at being seen but mysterious. You know what I'm saying? He don't got to come talk about anything. Nothing. You figure it out. So it's always a mystique and mysteriousness behind them, but it ain't like you don't see him.

Listen to Rock Solid on Black Effect Podcast Network, I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you streamed podcast. Welcome aboard season six of The Girlfriends, Flight or Fight, which takes place 30,000 feet in the sky. There's great food, comfortable chairs, and attentive stewardesses. The stewardesses were so beautiful. But in reality, the stewardess job is far less glamorous than it appears. It was the most sexist job I think you could have. In this era, the airlines told these stewardesses they have to be single.

They had no good excuse for why they wouldn't let women be married. They have to be skinny. We were starving ourselves. And they have to be young. You would retire at age 32. But one day, a group of stewardesses said, This has got to stop. They risked it all,

turning a fight for fairness into a revolution, Listen to The Girlfriends, Flight or Fight, on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Is there an epidemic against literature? More specifically, black literature. Our books are being banned, scanned by AI, and destroyed. I'm Jack Weiss Peace Thomas, and on this season of the Blacklit podcast, we're outside asking some of the custodians of our stories, teachers, and our modern. They don't want a whole bunch of little elevators, Michael Maxes and Martin Luther King's running around. They want to build children who have no empathy. That's really the ultimate goal. We want books that don't make white kids feel bad.

So is the war on literacy and information or our ability to connect? We want people to know how sexy reading is and how fun they could be and not always associated with education. It could be an escape. It could be entertainment. And that is the beauty of reading. It can be all of those things. And considering this is Black Reading Month, the only real question is,

what are you reading next? Listen to Black Lit from the Black Effect Podcast Network on our iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. Hi, it's Alec Baldwin. This season on my podcast, here's the thing I'm speaking with more artists, policymakers, and performers like actor Stephen Root.

I think for me to be any good or for any character act to be any good, you've got to put enough of yourself and your empathy for people in it. I'm a people watcher. You see that guy going down the dream and go, yeah, I can use that. Open Igloo co-founder, Alia Mohamed. I love staying on top of what is going on in our city, what is going on in city politics, what is on renter's minds, and taking all of that knowledge to build a platform that hopefully is going to make New York City better in the long run. And actress and singer Melissa Eriko. Partnership took on a whole other meaning when I started making my own work. It's like you with a great actress or actor.

It was best to come out of your trailer, full of life, and just face another person who's full of life. And don't talk. Listen to Here's the Thing on the IHeart Radio app Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. This is Jay Valentine. I've spent my career on the executive side of this industry. multi-platinum songs, building artists and building business. And alongside my brother Tank, the superstar R&B singer, songwriter, and producer, we've created something special, the R&B Money Podcast.

This is not just a podcast. It's a safe space where artists, executives, and fans of R&B music come to reminisce. Pull back the curtain and tell the stories that shape this culture. The real history behind the hits. That was Hood Famous. Yeah. And then Real Love came out and it blew up. We lived in a project.

Yeah, and they've seen all the success. They're hearing the music and we had nothing. We're covering the entire spectrum from Smokey Robinson, Alicia Keys, B2K, Mary J. Blige, legends, current stars, and everyone who's contributed to the sound of R&B. You come out the gate with a hit. And then not Michael Jackson out of number one. Come on, I was like, hold on. I'm not going to MJ out of the number one spot.

If you're a super dedicated R&B fan who wants the real discovery, the real stories, this is your podcast. This is the R&B Money Podcast. Listen to R&B Money from the Black Effect Podcast Network on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. So, Nas, we had Master Pill one night, I'm dropping the album, and Nas just leans over it to me. And he goes, you know, Eric B and Rock Kim got their first show that they put back together. Do you think we're supposed to go? So I just looked at the floor.

So I'm like, I know what I'm about to say. So I'm like, I'm saying to myself, I'm talking to myself. This is Nas now. You can't just say, hell, you didn't dick, no. He's a very smooth nigga. He's a very smooth and everything. So I said, Nah, that be, if anything else we do in life, we have to go. Shut up.

Eric B. And Rock Kim show, like the first time we got together. Reunion show. So they get out. And me and Nisville, Naz is. But they're like, yo, you don't want to come to the dressing room. I'm like, yo, I don't want to go. to the dressing room.

And Nas is like, he wasn't going to the dressing room. But then now I'm looking at Nas and I'm saying, I'm seeing his moment. Right. I forgot this is his OG. Like, Brock Kim.

I'm like, I'll be late because Brooklyn, Long Island and Queens. We're all like related. Queens. He's one of my fucking favorite artists. But I'm looking and I'm like, and I'm seeing Nas become a fan. I forgot he's still a fan.

So he's sitting there. And Rock Kim comes out, because, no, Eric B comes out first, and Eric B is playing these records. And these are records I've never heard before. So I'm looking at Nas. Nas knows every single word. And I'm saying, this is the underground student. I'm looking, because I don't want to be staring at the living.

So I'm looking, and I'm like, and, like, I saw, I got to see him sing every single word of Rock Kim's lyrics. And then we watched the, we watched him. whole show. Then we did go backstage at the end. And it was crazy because Nause was still Nause. He didn't be like, yo, what's up? King? He was still like, yo, what's up? And I was like, I was like,

you're like, but he was smooth. You got to maintain that fan of the man. That left for hip-hop. Or you know you're not going to love it. You know you love the music where you respect and expect that from other people. Like when I saw a buckshot, like I realized I didn't see him perform since video.

music box and I saw that shit on a TV. So I never actually got to, I never got to smell his muslimoial. I never got to see, like, and I'm still a fan. Like, I'm still a fan. It took you back. It transported into that air when you were young. You were like, yo, I love this culture. Money.

That feeling that gave you. Like, you just wanted to be involved. Even, even, even after, it was two, it was two times. And I'm going to say this. I went on the Buster, excuse me, I went on the Wu-Tang and Nas tour. Mm-hmm. And Steve Riffkin said, you coming in the back, you're going on stage.

And I was like, no. I like, you know what? I would love to be on this stage. But the fan nigga in me. Wants to watch. Who wants to watch? I'm going to go right here. And I did not go on stage.

So you back in the studio or what? No, no, I am a little bit. But let me just finish my point. And then I went to see Buster and 50 Cent in Nice, France. I was out there doing some other shit. And Buster never screamed on me like this in my life. Because he was like, he was like, you're coming on stage and I was like, yo,

Luster man, I really like, I want to see you in Spiff tear this shit up in France. Like, I want to be able to have that right. So that's what's making me fall back in love. You come to stage. I don't want to hear that shit. I had to avoid him. I had to get him.

I really feel like like, like, that's the key to this shit. How are you staying in that moment, though? I don't know. That's just, that's a conversation. know what's the crazy shit is? I think, I think, I think, uh, it's going to lead up to our forefathers, right?

Uh, and for lack of a better term, I would like to say, nah, as it's one of them. I like to say Jay is one of them. Yeah. Uh, uh, uh, I like to say yay. I guess. I mean, you know, well, not with those two. Not with those. Not with those too.

But in that, in that, in that, in that, in that, in that, because we have errors. Yeah. I'm saying, you agree. because, I don't know. Because he would be 2000s. He's definitely fathered a lot. Everybody he's mentioned

has a lot of DNA in the game. Little Wayne, Kanye, they have a lot of, they're a lot of Yeah, interesting. But we could admit the four fathers that created everything would be the

Rakim, King, GRA. Don't we go before that? The Mel-Mouth? We still got the Kaz's Yeah, Grandmaster Cass. The Grandmaster Flash is the... I agree with that. Mellie Mell's... That's when it all started.

Yeah. That's when everything changed. Not Cass, and Mellie Mell didn't write the message. I don't know if y'all know that. He didn't write it, you're saying? No. I see Melly Mellie with a girl the other night. He looked happy.

A dude about a name... Old ladies out here still fucking. What's up? A dude got a name of Duke Booney. Oh, I should have said that. pause on the name. Yeah. He's too.

I mean, that's one of the greatest. Yeah. It is what the point. With the point I'm making when when hip hop really got the cameras and they took from the hustlers, that's the rock him and cane. That was the idea.

The niggins are the tasks. There's the error that you're describing. Those are the forefathers. The most influential level. But we still need the historical context to everything from the beginning as far back as we can before we lose. completely.

And it can't just all be East Coast. We'll be talking about the No, you're right. But see, well, we'll be talking about the jubileers and people like that because I could go show you hip-hop from the 19-30s. You know what I'm saying?

As far as we know, like the Bronx the beginning, late 60s, 30, 70s, I don't even agree with that, though. As far as I don't agree with that. I don't agree with that. That's all right. That's all right. No, I don't know what you take on it.

Because that's a same hip-hop started on this date, right? that's the commercializing. Well, a lot of people have said that they don't... So how can hip hop start on a day and hip hop has four or five pillars? All of that shit did not take place in one part. No, it's the day...

It's all kind of loosely agreed on the day. It's the day we celebrated, not necessarily the day that it was... That's the fact of the day that. Yeah, it's the day we celebrate it, but it's not... You know, Christmas is the 25th of December. He was making money off that, you said? No, this is what they're doing now. They're commercializing the day with it.

Who hurt? No, not Cool Hurk, but you had Disco King Mario before Cool Herk. You know what Disco King Mario is? No, Grand Master Flowers is? Yeah. From Brooklyn. Yeah, flowers. That's before Cool Herk.

That's before Bambada. But again, they have to, what you're saying about the commercialization. Did they have, before Bronx River? But you see, that's why we need to go back and talk to all, it's many of us guys. To get all of this figured out to do. Because it was when the commercialization started, people get elected as the representatives or something. Yep.

And wasn't even outside. It's like the bike. It's like the bike. It's like the Bible. No. Hell no. How could it be from Jamaica? What do you mean?

What do you think of that? That. That's no reason. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Was hip hop here?

Before Jamaican was here? Was hip hop here? Wait. What? Was hip hop here before Jamaica? No. No. Jamaicans lived in the United States before hip-

No. He came to New York. He came from Jamaica. Okay. Hip hop was already here. How old was it when he came here? It don't matter. Did Gibrales go back to 1930s, bro?

Here come the judge. You know who picking him? We're getting supertext. We're talking about hip-hop. They also went. Hip-hop isn't just rap. Like, you're giving me the rappers, which I completely gave him out. Hip-hop wasn't just rap.

There was also breakdancing graffiti. If we're going to get in. Where does her fit in? But listen, but this is why you just made my point for me. Thank you. That's why hip hop couldn't start in the party because it wasn't breakers, graffiti. No, we know. I think I'm on that.

We all the way on that. Right. So if Kirk was just a DJ, how did he start hip hop? I mean, I'm not fighting her. If it's just hip-hop. If it's just hip-hop. Crazy legs, this fake dancing was there. They was dancing when he was.

I forgot who was it. I can show you the brakes. That is not the hill on down on. I can show you. Listen, I could show you footage of them dancing in the 1940s and doing the crazy legs. Yeah, this is a lot of things you could. You understand what I'm saying? It was similar things.

So when we came together as an art form and a movement and a movement and a model from everything. Right. The point I'm making is that when you say this is the founder. Yeah. That's this cat. I don't think it should ever be saying founder theory. Godfather. I mean, I would call him the godfather.

Equated hip hop to a few different sources. Founding found. Because I wasn't even calling it hip hop. Right. That's the point. But if the mass majority gives it the cool. If the math jarring. So we can't do that.

There's a lot of, I mean, you shout out. Yeah. No, we're giving that shit to home. Disco King Mario. Disco King Mario. What about Ben Bobby?

You can't take away from their contributions. Regardless of anything. Flash is after Disco King Mario. That is the commercialization of it. Disco King Mario from Bronx Dale Project, free date all of them. But Hurt didn't even benefit from any other commercialization. You said who?

Who Herc didn't not benefit from any other commercialization of him? So I think that the reason why we all. He was in B Street? But, but. he the kids don't he never got he never made any money off

or something that he came up because he never made a record billion dollar industry around the world but this is what because he never made a record yeah but his influence

Bam got the recognition because he made Soul Sonic Force and he made that Planet Rock shit but where was that inspiration from

like I may not from James Brown maybe it's no maybe it's no maybe listen I can show you all videos of Herc saying when he came here

what was the break beat? It was James Brown. Yeah, I mean, yeah. That's still Black Soul music. Right, but it wasn't hip hop. James Brown wasn't hip-hop. He was a foundation of hip-hop. So if that's what created hip-hop. If that's what created hip-up. All right, so how could somebody who was looping

the brakes say he founded something that came from somebody else? What is he saying it? I think we have begun saying it because he needs something. He deserves something. No, I'm going to say he's one of the James Brown isn't hip-hop. You can't say James Brown was hip-hop. But what's more hip-hop than James Brown?

I mean, Grandmaster, Blatt. Ultimately, come up. Ultimately, not like, you're a bro. He's a super... But I mean, you're going to look at it. It's like every sample that's ever been sampled saying now that's all hip-hop. Yeah. No, no.

I'm just saying the do right now. It's doing the whole reggae don't. But what we do, what we did with the Nautilus was hip-hop. Like, the James Brown was not a hip-hop artist. What we did with James Brown... Brown made hip-hop music. No, but that's only DJing, no. But DJing is one of the cornerstones of what we're talking about.

It's the cornerstones. It's the original cornerstone. Oklahoma was on a mic with her. That was a, you know. But what I'm saying is that. But they borrowed that from some place. I get what you said. They got it from Disco King Mario.

I'm not anti anything that's being said. What I am saying is when you unite this, this, this, this, and this under one banner, it's hip-hop now. And I love. And I love your recall and all the history. Yeah, yeah. Because we're using even, so saying, his memory got to be in a museum.

Oh, yeah. The breakbeat is a cornerstone of DJ. The breakbeat would be the cornerstone of DJ. Because when you say hip hop, it's too many pillars to say that's hip-hop. Well, it's four. It's four. Well, I think Bamboater added knowledge.

That's not a pillar. It's got to be a pillar. It's not. It's because knowledge, knowledge, graffiti art, dance, breakdancing. Knowledge encompasses every, DJ and rapping. But knowledge is what?

Why we love Raq him? No, but knowledge doesn't exist in artists where they're not kicking any of that and we still love them just the same. But the inception, they once, though. No, I'm not arguing the inception. I'm not arguing the inception. I'm arguing the pillars. Okay.

There's four pillars. They're agreed upon ones. Right, right. Yeah, they're definitely four. Definitely four. And anything you start throwing in after those four, we can debate about, it's subjective. But there are four pillars. DJing is the most, I'm pointing at the DJ who's in the room.

DJing is the most important. DJing is the most important cornerstone when it comes to hip-hop, period. It's what the breakdances danced over. It's what the MC was doing this thing over, period. It's what was in the background when people was throwing up tags. It's the corner. Speaking of DJing, right, when I was on the source tour, I was Roxanne-S-Sante DJ. I was Roxanne's

You know what, since we're throwing around Source knowledge. How about I'll give you what nobody thought of. Okay. The Boondocks. Right. Okay. They came from the source magazine.

Yeah, man. Thanks to me. Thank you. Thank you. Yeah. You know that. We didn't know that. How did that?

Tell us about that day. I discovered Aaron McGoole. Oh, yeah. Harry. Thank you, Matt. Thank you, thank you. Thank you. The Boondocks.

The Boondocks started in the University of Maryland college newspaper. Remember I said, I'm from D.C. So I went home for like a holiday. My mom worked at the University of Maryland. He had the newspaper at the crib. I'm looking through it. There's the Boondocks cartoon in there.

I'm like, oh, shit, this is fucking dope. I got in touch with him and put him in the Source magazine. That's how the Boondocks went national. It was in the source magazine. As a comic strip for a couple of years. Was it in the back of the fake jury? No, I wasn't in the back. It was in the front of the street.

Star Wars is the front there too, right? Star in Bookwild. Shout out, shout out to Caesar, the character in the boondocks with the dreadlocks who never made it to the cartoon, but he was from Brooklyn. Shout out to Cesar. Wow.

Shout out to Brooklyn. I love your memory recall, too. I don't smoke either. I don't smoke. I want to ask Ms. Jones a question. Because you might be one of the founders of singing these choruses for rappers. The R&B.

R&B, R&B. Yeah, the R&B. Yeah, we brought that up. And then you seeing something, did you know you were singing Sugar Free, though? Um, I did, but I don't think, I don't know if AZ knew.

Yeah, because that's Sugar Free's a song called Sugar Free. I know. She passed away. Her brother is an instrumentalist and plays with my, one of my friends that went to the fame high school with me. We're all musicians. Did you, do you remember when Grand Day and you,

rest of the piece? Did you? You remember that. You had a song called Sugar-Free. That's what she said. I remember. You know, Great Age is my favorite artist. My reference came from growing up with my sister Audrey with all her.

She'd get paid from H.O. Green and go by a bunch of records. Right. And play them while we were cleaning the house. And, of course, if you hear it over and over, it's catchy, you sing. So now when I sing Sugar Hill, when they hire me and A.Z's not there. I sing it on the. the da da da da da da da da da da da da da da that the original

yeah that's sugar free that's my way of paying it to the legends that came before me and people and you were all beat over there so you're trying to draw in a little conversation and you're on beat so the question that I was asking

Ms. Jones when you do this at that particular time and then you see because it always was rapping as singers if we go back to the Force MCs We go back to, no, Force MCs Oh, okay, I thought you meant to Force MDs.

You're young, Force MCs. I am. No, that was the Force MCs before they was a Force MCs. I got you, can't. I got you. The Cold Crush, you know what I'm saying? They always were singing now, because they used to harmonize a lot back then.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Even you're walking down the street with your boxing your hand and you're playing the music of the poison clencher. I don't know none about that. That's that part, right? Why? It's not too. That was Mr. Magic.

Late late night. So now you're coming in and you're doing this, singing this. Then when you see, is that your brainchild? It is. Damn. So you don't get the credit for being the... Don't get me triggered again. No, no, no.

Let me tell you why, because this is a place where you get your followers, right? Yes, right? And reason why that's important because I'm, I'm not going to mention nobody name, but it's always people who get credited for it, right? But, I mean, we might be able to say Kane doing, feel like another one with Patty LaBelle, but those are the big singers. We didn't know who the hell you was. We just knew where I want to be boy and all that.

And then you sing on this classic fucking record that's my favorite AZ record ever. Mine too. Ever. You know, and that's saying something because AZ got joints. Right. And I didn't really realize. I was like, yo, she was the first one to do that shit. And damn, like.

Thank you. And her origins was Ron G. And her origins was Ron G. And that. Right, Ron G. and the mixtap. We didn't know what we were doing. Right.

Like, Charg. We took a child. DJ Ronji. And let me tell you something. Well, we did where I want to be. Boy, after we did the mixtapes and stuff. We were like, all right, we got something here. Ron had a four track.

Mm-hmm. I had to sing where I want to be boy perfectly from beginning to end. Wasn't no. There was no copy and pasting. There was no copy and pacing. There was no pun. None of that. If I didn't get a perfect take.

Yeah, the task hand 488. We didn't get it. Probably. Task 10 488. Yeah. I don't know what the shit was. I was just over there like, breathe, right? Remember your words and breathe and sing and hold that note.

I had to do a perfect from beginning to end. Take. And we got a classic from it. Oh, thank you. No, we got to. Thank you. Why I don't fuck with AI. So when you

did this, when did you, when you see this shit sparking out, because everybody needs a girl singing out, right? You predate

one of my favorite singers on records and people don't really give her a lot of credit little more. I think she sung a lot of classic shit. You know what I'm

saying, do you look at them like a proud mama? All respect. You know, we'd all do respect, though. I could. Okay. But I feel like Little Mo, she put her twist on it, right? We all know where it came. Those of us that was outside, we know where it came from.

But I'm just like, go run, child. But I don't think the general public know where it come from. Is that important? Whose fault is that, though? Does Little Moe know where it came from? Right. There you go. This is why this my nigga.

Get help one here. I don't think so Because people might credit Mary. No, no, that's what we were talking about earlier. Earlier that. I don't want to fuck y'all interview, but yeah, yeah. We did that because, like, Puff actually went to see Ron, Ron G. And, like, you know, at the time, like, Ron G didn't really know what was going on.

And he basically dumped his hard drive. No, he was trying to get his label started. Okay, okay, yeah. He basically jumped up. So Puff ganged y'all. He asked Ron for my stuff. He was like, oh, he asked Ron for my stuff. Mary's album was already done.

Okay. Ron said, no, I have a new artist, Ms. Jones. This is her style. This is her sound. No one's doing it. We created this. And he said, just come to my office and drop off your mixtapes. And the next thing we knew, there was a remix album.

The first remix album ever done. And then it became Uptown Records to remake. And all my shit, all the our concept. I won't say songs. Like, she wrote different songs, but all the. She didn't write that one. The mashups, whoever. Yeah.

It wasn't, I won't say credit for her writing, but the mashup, and I said, The birth of hip hop aren't made. Ron, take this beat and I'm going to sing this melody. Like when I sing and where I want to be, boy, I want to be what you want, when you want, and whenever you need me, that's Aretha Franklin in daydreamer and I'm thinking of you. That's all I ever did was listen to the old song. Because with you was growing up, you found a way in flipping and bounce it. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

So. You know who else took that? 50 sing. Mm. When he did his reps, he would take people's songs and redo it and change it. Fifth, do you know that you, no. And it's good. Like, you know, I can't claim that because.

Because that's a major integral part of hip hop because you needed that for a hit record after a while. They would try to get, oh, we do this. We need Kelly Rowland and all that. We'll go get a Sean T. Right, right, right, right. So, damn, I didn't even. No, that's major. Thinking about it right now.

I'm like, damn, Ms. Jones was first. Because I go from when I first saw you I was like, damn, shoddy got a bubble. That was what I first thought. Hey. I was like, yo, you had a black pants and on the white shirt, remember? I was like, yo, shoddy got a bubble. I didn't even, I didn't even, I didn't even, I'm just saying.

Because remember, listen, you got to remember we young. Right. All we got is Ralph McDaniels. Right. Yeah. We can't afford cable. So we got the U-HF 31 with the school driver in there. McDaniel was better than cable.

Right. So then when we're seeing... We didn't complain about cable. Now we're seeing Stepson records. Yeah. Then we're seeing all these sub-labels that we didn't know exist. And then we're starting to find out what majors. Because this is our inception to hip-hop.

Yeah. Like, we didn't know what penalty was. We just Tommy Boy. And Stepson was under Tommy Boy. See? So when I want a B-Boy took off, they pushed that nigger to the side and said, we got it from here because you about to fuck this one up. Now, guess what?

Wow. I was on a label called Living Large. a rest of peace to fly tie it's under Tommy Boy Yeah Roxanne Chantay big mama Was under was on living laws

Under Tommy Boy So we all was on Tommy Boy Yeah That's not makes a noise For Tommy Boy Yeah God You're

Mott's a Tommy Boy Monica Lynch And Tom Silverman You know what I'm saying Because Because now when we're thinking about hip hop Tommy Boy

And the inception Because we talk about The Inception What's bigger than somebody who might be arguably the queen of hip hop and R&B, but she doesn't get the title. That's crazy.

And then when I say it, they be in the comments. Like, Mary got a lot cold. What I said to you earlier. They be in the comments. When you speak your truth. Now you bet. You want. I didn't have said too.

Old bitch. Nobody know you. Oh, oh. You just can't meet the marketing. You can't meet the marketing. What you're fighting is marketing. And recently, Jimmy Love from Uptown records who was a man he said we used to i'll say allegedly because he might deny it now but he said

every time you had a record we would put money for your record not to play what wow then who asked we got a who he said they're all dead now i mean jimmy but he said that he was like oh yeah he said we used to watch a video and then like i don't like nobody who block people blessings man yeah man was was meant for you was meant for you was meant for you With the higher power got for you, no means to stand in front of that. Welcome to the culture of business versus the culture of art. Because niggas don't get their ass who up no one.

Well, that's the whole different culture. Let me tell you something. If you did certain shit and you know you was going to go outside and get hit in the head with the back, you wouldn't do that shit. No, bro. That's the original gatekeeping. You're preaching to the choir. I've more consultant shit.

Sitting there talking a young artist, I remind them that what happens in the business world is not personal. You always have to remember that these people are doing the best deal they can for them. Right, right. Blocking this talent and this thing happening right here is what was best for them. It wasn't cool. Artistically, it's not cool. Morally, it's not cool. If you have integrity, if you're a man, if you got any kind of morals, if you're a human being, of course, that's not a cool thing to do.

But in the business world, I'm doing the best deal I can't for me. I didn't get to sign up. hip-hop. So now I got to get her out the paint. And my first album never came out as a result. Yeah, I got that in my notes from earlier. Your first album never came out. I was selling it on eBay for a thousand bucks, the little CD, because no one's ever heard it.

Because I'm like, I could never recreate what she already, she took it there, right? So now I'm trying to find something new for myself, and it just never, it was never. So you asked the question that you started with. When did you fall out of love with hip-hop? Or did you? Or did you? Um. I fall out of love.

Yeah, I'm still out of love with it. Because of the situation? Yeah. Is it more towards the business? It's definitely the business. I know you'd be singing around the house and shit. No, I said, I had a, I've done new music that got nominated for a Grammy two years ago. That's right, got nominated for a Grammy.

Yeah, two years ago. Wow. Like, thank you. But no one knows. Eddie F presents Ms. Jones calling all ladies with Lady in the Tram. Great song. I perform it now, but it's still. You're calling all ladies.

I got that at my nose. Yeah, but. Yeah. Thank you, lady. They provide me. They believe, right? Our peers. But I can't hold this or else I become the old lady in the shoe.

You can't. Okay, stop, stop. You cannot, you cannot regulate your art and your life based on the whims and actions of people who could not hold your microphone with a suitcase. I need you to stop. considering what they think and how they feel when you start making your moves. Stop, stop worrying about the backlash from people who are in the back, in the back seat. Like, these are not, remember what we saw earlier about audiences?

These are not the people you need to be considering when you start thinking about what you want to do next. First of all, you can't turn it off. You can't turn it off. It's a rap. If you were thinking about hanging it up, forget that. It's never going away. All the greats died.

You do it. to death. It's true. You do it to death. Charlie Parker died on his couch writing sheet music. James Brown died on a flight out to Las Vegas to do a joint. Jay Dilla died getting ready for an album. Mike died getting ready for a tour.

Prince died in an elevator. Scoop died on stage. Right. St. C died coming from a show. There is never a time where you're going to be able to turn it off. So with that in mind, I need you to not consider the voices of people who don't deserve to speak. They're not your audience.

And you know why too? We're your audience. And you know why too? We want to hear you do this shit that we know you can. Hold on one more thing. You're depriving the world if you don't do it. It's not your job. It's not up to you to take this into the ground with you.

That's not how this is ever supposed to go. Even deep. God gave it to you. That's all we're going with it. You're doing a disservice to God. Taking his gift and running that shit into the ground. How does it deserve it to go? How dare you?

How dare you look to take that? How dare you look to take that thing that you were blessed with, that gift that you were blessed with and bury it in the ground with you? How dare you? It's not up to you. It wasn't up to. As soon as you got it, the goal was to give it away. Right.

So please stop listening to these motherfuckers. Please. I don't want to hear you talk no more about old wash. You're grown. You are grown and you are seasoned. You know how to do it. not sports. We're not

fucking joints. Your knees. We can't do it anymore. You are a master. Over 10,000 hours. You are a master. How dare you keep that to yourself? And you sat at the feet.

Stop. Elders. I want to hear that. Let me bounce around because. I just want to say one more thing. I just want to say one more thing, because what happens is this, right? There's a little girl somewhere.

Mm-hmm. Just like you. Yep. that you're there Patty. You're there. Anita. Aretha Franklin. You're that.

And their mother might have said, oh, you don't know none about Ms. Jones. They might play your music every day. And you don't know that. So the fact that we don't hear the praises, all we hear is the bulls. Yeah, man. You got to drown the bulls out.

You understand what I'm saying? That's why I look in this critic camera. I don't give a fuck with nobody. I don't give a fuck what nobody say about me. Because like Pock said, they're going to hate you for whatever you do. It's nothing you can do. If somebody hate you, they already predetermined that they hate you. It's nothing that you can do about that.

So you go with the love. If you show more love to what you hate, then what do you really love? If you pay more attention to haters, what about the people who tell you how much they love you? But you'll answer that negative comment and scroll right past the person that said, Ms. Jones, I love you. Yeah. Consider the source. Shout out to David.

Always got to consider the source. You know what you're hearing? Thank you. Always got to consider the source. And he's 100% right because it is, it does boil down to an audience thing. And we all got caught up in this audience shit. And that's why I asked you earlier, EFN, who is really qualified right now to speak on it? Because it's a billion platforms, right?

But how many platforms have the credibility because of the 10,000 hours to speak on hip-hop? And some of the people who have the biggest platforms, in my opinion, are not qualified. But they got the numbers. Yeah, but you can buy followers. Absolutely. You can buy everything. But even if you can't,

the thing is that we're conflating a true hip-hop audience for just a general audience. Supporters and followers, like I said earlier. And that person will be like, I'm the biggest hip-hop media, and there's nothing hip-hop about them and their audience. There's a difference between consumers and connoisseurs. Right.

Everybody sitting at this table is a connoisseur. Right. You have to understand that consumers can be fooled by a commercial. That's all it really takes. You want deeper. At one point, respectfully, grown-ups with the mental capacity of children will call consumers at one point. Look it up. Did you know that?

Now they're called individuals. Wow. But, you know, they have homes for grown-ups with the mental capacity of children. They will call consumers. That's wild. That's exactly where it comes from. That's where it comes from. Which is why if I show you a couple of people.

a car with a girl sitting on the hood and a beach sunset in L.A., you think, I got to have that car. Meanwhile, a connoisseur is the one telling you, dude, there's a lawnmower engine like that hood. Like, you're bugging, do not buy this. It's the difference between who's,

which is why you have to consider the source, consider the audience. When connoisseurs are saying, we want Ms. Jones and consumers are the ones yakking? Fuck them consumers. And he's said something that's essential earlier.

See, this industry ages us out. Yeah. It's there to push us out because although the Willie Lynch thing might be mythos, right? It might not be a real thing. But the concept is real. It's the young

against the old, the man against the woman. We're seeing all of that in a culture that was just meant for us to have fun. Where are we sitting with a white guy? We're sitting with a black man. We sitting with a half a nigger. We're sitting with a Cuban. We're sitting with a female. Just look

at, just look at you understand what I'm saying? Just look, this is a conglomerate of different races and nationality sitting together talking about hip-hop. Talking about hip-hop. The most purest part of hip-hop. Some things we don't agree on, but we

agree to respect each other opinion about hip-hop. Because we all know where we're coming from. Right. Everybody had a piece. Everybody had their own experience. Everybody had their own impact. Or hip-hop. Whatever I wanted. Yeah.

Okay. Hold on. Hold on. We'll get to flowers. I want to get to this first. I really want to know everybody's opinion. One of the hardest subjects on online right now is for us, from my algorithms. Because, you know, once I start talking about something, my algorithms follow with.

If I start talking about watches, if I look at a stripper, then all strippers come up. Like, if I look at something, well, my algorithms will not stop. DirtyE smash. FJ. to kiss, right? Now, although it seems like the beef is dying down, the conversation is still there. The conversation is still there. Like, I believe the people, the bloodthirsty fans want to see blood.

Of course they do. What is your opinion? Me? I think I kind of started that shit, man. Damn. Let's blame it on you. I started to upstate because I'm going to be real with you. And the five boroughs, I think the five boroughs lost their identity. At one point, yeah, we were going to drill.

We were making strip club music because we had two, three strip clubs. And I put a narrative out there that I felt the kids from upstate was keeping it boom back. I remember me saying that. Yeah, boomed back 90s hip hop. And I got a credit, Griselda. I got a credit. They did a great job. Rochester, 38 special.

Yep. and they were just, they made me still love hip hop. I didn't want to hear in the club with the waters. I didn't want to hear that. You understand what I'm saying? I just didn't want to hear that shit. Because that's not hip hop. That's a part of hip hop, but this is what they started making it.

And then when drill hit, I was like, that shit ain't what we do in the town. Right. You understand what I'm saying? So I kind of embrace all the upstate guys. I was the first person to interview Benny. You know what I'm saying? Because I was like, damn. Like, I miss this boom bap.

I miss that CNN sound. I missed that fucking Marg Deep sound. Y'all giving me that. That's where I come from. I don't know about trap music. Right. Because we would say the spot. Right.

We never said the band, though. So when the New York slings started changing and they was keeping it more New York than the five boroughs, I went upstate. Now, I'm going to say, Jadicus is my bro. Right. You understand what I'm saying? I love both of them. But let me say something because, but. And I'm not saying like the caliber MC, right?

Because if you technically think about it, like when Nelly went at KRS 1, right? It's not a caliber MC. The thing is you're sitting to win at K.S 1. Right. KS1 deserve that non-confrontation. Like when he was saying number one, he was talking about the records and you were talking about number one Air Force 1, I believe. No, you just said I am number one.

Yeah, number one or whatever. He sold 10 million after time. You don't think Jada Kis, and I'm just being devil's advocate. You don't think Jada Kis deserve that right for like, even if a person misunderstood you You see me last. Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's different.

I'm going to say, because I went on the record. And I'm asking, I'm asking, but that's what I think. And I went on the record and I said, no, you don't deserve that because you can't say you're something if you're not going to defend that title. Right? You don't live emeritus as this. I'm just this.

Because at one particular point, like I said earlier, we had Caz. Then we stopped talking about Caz. We had this. Then we stopped talking about this. So when Mayweather was saying this, that, and the third, when somebody said, I'll fuck you up. And he didn't fight him.

We say Mayweather was a duck. So we give a respect. Jada kiss is Jada kiss. We're not taking that away. But when you got a young, hungry lion, you don't get to run the pride forever, man. There's a young hungry lion coming that's coming to take this pride. And you got to kick him right in his ass and say, regardless of what you think, you can't never fuck with me. I agree.

Wow. I agree and disagree. It's not personal. It's hip-hop. That's not personal. That's hip-hop. Hip-hop is just the same way when when a Busy B got jumped on the side of the stage by Coomodee.

He didn't know Coomodee was like, yo, that bond did it bother, dang the lane, dang shit. Cool MoD. just ambush him the same way. Craig G. Ambushed Supernatural. You understand what I'm saying? It's always going to be somebody that if you say, I got the number one podcast,

it's going to be somebody to say, no, the fuck you don't. And you can say, well, we did this and we did that. Yeah, but it's new niggas in town. But doesn't it became a game of whack-a-mole at a point? That's how about them. Doesn't stop.

But what I'm saying, that's the culture because the old gets replaced. Right, right. So you can't say, I'm this if you're not outside. Niggas is outside. You got to wrap the rest of your life to get that kind of respect. That's what's nice.

So let's keep it real, and don't cut this out here. When you say top five debtor alive, right? That's what you say? When you say it or would you say? No, that's what Jada Kisses is market. Top five. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay.

There's no shortcut for saving time, but saving money is simple. Just combine your car and home insurance with Bel Air Direct and save. Get a quote at bellairdirect.com. Hi, this is Kylie Breakman. Angel Geratana. Jeremy Colhane, Patrick McDonald. And we're the hosts of the Artists on Artists on Artists on Artists Podcast. The Improvised Character Comedy Podcast where each week a new panel of artists discuss their craft.

Join us for a panel of wellness influencers. What I try to do is faux journal. I don't know. Have you guys heard of faux journaling? Yeah, it's reading. It's called reading. So we don't like to use that word anymore. A panel of New Yorker cartoonists.

Have you guys done Terry Gross's Peloton class? No! I've been dying too. I'm so sorry. I'm seeing a reading of Sadako and the Thousand Paper Cranes by Audra McDonald's at the Wonderland Bookstore on 14th. That's crazy. I went to the Wonderland Bookstore yesterday and I heard Nora Jones do a reading of Zero Dark 30. No way. You have to come to the last bookstore though. Kim Cottrell is reading the guitar tabs of yesterday. A panel of Eurovision participants.

And we do a little Halloween sometimes. Does the Pope dress up? He winks on Halloween. He gets right up next to him. I hear you can almost hear the eyelashes hit each other. You never seen Italy so quiet as when the Pope gets up to wink on Halloween. Listen to artists on artists on artists on artists on the IHeard radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. What up y'all. This is your main man Memphis Bleak right here.

Host of that rock solid podcast. And each week we bring in you exclusive looks inside music. Everything happening inside the culture. Some of the best conversations were the biggest names in the game. You had a little bit more pressure to be good. And they didn't care if you was a girl. Like, you wasn't getting no points because you were the girl. If you're not trash, you better be not just good. You better be great. On rock solid, we're talking to rap legends, hit-making producers,

rising stars from the golden era to the future of this hip-hop game, where we keep it 100% unfiltered and keep it nothing but rock-solid. The thing about Jay, my opinion, is he's been so great at, being seen but mysterious. You know what I'm saying? He don't got to come talk about anything. You figure it out. So it's always a mystique and mysteriousness behind them,

but it ain't like you don't see him. Listen to Rock Solid on Black Effect Podcast Network, iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you string podcasts. Welcome aboard season six of The Girlfriends, Flight or Fight, which takes place 30,000 feet in the sky. There's great food, comfortable chairs, and attentive stewardesses. The stewardesses were so beautiful. But in reality, the stewardess job is far less glamorous than it appears.

It was the most sexist job I think you could have. In this era, the airlines told these stewardesses, they have to be single. They had no good excuse for why they wouldn't let women be married. They have to be skinny. We were starving ourselves. And they have to be young. You would retire at age 32. But one day, a group of stewardesses said,

This has got to stop. They risked it all, turning a fight for fairness into a revolution. Listen to The Girlfriends, Flight or Fight, on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Is there an epidemic against literature? More specifically, black literature. Our books are being banned, scanned by AI, and destroyed. I'm Jack Quee's Peace Thomas, and on this season of the Blacklit podcast, we're outside asking some of the custodians of our stories, teachers, and our modern day writers.

Why? They don't want a whole bunch of little elevators, Michael Maxes and Martin Luther King running around. They want to build children who have no empathy. That's really the ultimate goal. books that don't make white kids feel bad. So is the war on literacy and information or our ability to connect? You want people to know how sexy reading is and how fun they could be and not always associated with education.

It could be an escape. It could be entertainment. And that is the beauty of reading. It can be all of those things. And considering this is Black Reading Month, the only real question is, what are you reading next? Listen to Black Lit from the Black Effect Podcast Network on our iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. Hi, it's Alec Baldwin.

This season on my podcast, here's the thing I'm speaking with more artists, policymakers, and performers like actor Stephen Root. I think for me to be any good or for any character actor to be any good, you've got to put enough of yourself and your empathy for people in it. I'm a people watcher. You see that guy going down the room and go, Yeah, I can use that. Open Igloo co-founder, Alia Muhammad.

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This is Jay Valentine. I've spent my career on the executive side of this industry, multi-platinum songs, building artists, and building business. And alongside my brother, Tank, the superstar R&B singer, songwriter and producer, we've created something special, the R&B Money Podcast. This is not just a podcast. It's a safe space where artists, executives, and fans of R&B music come to reminisce.

Pull back the curtain and tell the stories that shape this culture. The real history behind the hits. That was Hood famous. And then Real Love came out and it blew up. We lived in the project. And they're seeing all the success. They're hearing the music and we had nothing.

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I was like, hold on. I'm not going to MJ out of the number one spot. If you're a super dedicated R&B fan who wants the real discovery, the real stories, this is your podcast. This is the R&B Money Podcast. Listen to R&B Money from the Black Effect Podcast Network on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcast,

or wherever you get your podcast. Top 5.0. So that's saying he's better than Nas. He's better than Jay-Z. He's better than Tupac. He's better than Big and he's better than punt. He's saying that? T.5 dead alive is better than him.

I mean, look, look, I don't know what the beef really started over. I've just been following a little bit of. I fought with 38 special. He's done. Top five that are alive. Kiss is one of the greatest. He's one of the greatest. Jay Z, Naz, Tupac, Tupac.

And big, that is five. And he's top five. Who are you moving out of that five? But that's your own opinion. Everybody got their only thing. You ain't even in the show. So if that's, if that might be the consistency of the top five, who's moving out in that top five?

Who would you move out of that top five? There's a whole new question. I think that's a whole new show. That is a whole new show. But, you know, that was a good segue. But that was a good segue. I was saying, I mean, Kiss is one of the greatest, you know, whether you consider him top five or not,

Kisses in an incredible number six, one of the best we've ever had. Yeah, he deserves a certain amount of respect. I don't know the particulars of what happened with him especially. You guys probably know more than me, like why that beef started or whatever, you know, to defend whether it was the right thing to do or not. But 38 special is dope as fuck. And what him and Griselda and all those guys from,

Upstate have done, you know, they've done incredible, made incredible music and kept aspects of the culture alive, you know, so they deserve respect for that. So I just feel, I feel like to a certain extent, right? It's like, you know, I used to watch old mafia movies, right? And you get to a certain extent where you didn't tell nobody, you didn't send anybody to jail, your name was. honorable and I forget what movie it was and a guy he asks to get out the game and he goes um i just want to get out the game i said honorable all your secrets are safe with me and then they say okay so what are you going to do he said well i'll open up a coffee shop in a story to get away from my wife every day and they praise him no one says nothing like no one says nothing about him

he lives on to you know higher powers he goes to his coffee shop it's done At what point does a rapper deserve that? Like Biggie, like Biggie was a lot of. Badling is at the essence of hip-hop. So we got it, we can't overlook that regardless of anything. Let's suppose Biggie, Biggie is like survived all this, right? And Biggie's here at this time. And then young, young Shorty Ace, a spade from Brownsville wants to go at Big.

Big has to go at him after all that he's been. through? Yes. He does. No. Jones, Jones, would you like to go before you hear? Listen, what I'm saying what I'm saying to y'all is this. It's a social media world we're living into right now. Like I said, Cool Mo D ambush Busy B.

Right. Yep. Cool Mo D ambush Busy B. So, Busy B. That's what opened the door for that. He should have stepped down to do it. The Illis MC because he could just go in there, but he was to throw your hands in the air, dude. Cool Mo D came with lyrics. Right.

So you don't get to live Emeritus forever, bro. You don't get this. Listen. I understand what you're saying. If you, if you, if we're going to crown you that, you got to say I'm, I'm. Kiss hasn't responded.

He hasn't died. No. He just got to. He said two lines. Yeah. Look, your jersey's in the, look, if this is the case, we can't talk about LeBron and MJ. Right.

You know what's the crazy shit is? We had Ray Daniels on here. Ray Daniels said that, uh, like, that 38 special, one because people are not to speak about them. In my opinion, they both want because I have never seen the internet that to keep going. Obviously, you know, on X at least, which is my most ignorant of social media platform. I haven't been seeing you post. I love it.

I love it. I love it. I love to get fired. Black titter? Black Twitter. Black Twitter. I go to black Twitter. Yeah.

It's a whole other section. It's a whole other sector, man. It's a black sitter. I love it. I love that. Sure, why not? But this shit is on there,

so I feel like they both kind of won, and I feel like they both are like, are like, are sitting back and like kind of like in the cut because even like 38 special, his record kind of almost seemed more about Jim Jones than it was. That was after.

And I believe that that's the thing. And I, you know, I didn't, I don't run him and Jim Jones because, like, that's, it seemed like it's, and this was coming from a place of sportsmanship. I know Jada Kiss. I know Jada Kiss. I know Jada Kiss very well.

Yeah. He, everything in life, he relates to sports. Right. You can be like, yo, man, we're going to go to Prime 112. You're like, yeah, man, I'm going to remember a coo coach. You know, you're like, what the fuck? You just say, Jada? He's like, I remember the cool coach past the border of Jordan.

You know what I'm saying? Niggas, you had that same salad. You're like, yo, you know, kids were talking about food. What? He's an analytical sports. But that's a perfect thing because we've seen MJ come in and Dr. Jay on his way out. Right. Then we seen Kobe coming and MJ on his way out.

Then we see LeBron coming and Kobe on his way out. Aye, I, I, I. When, if you're going to do sports, when is, if Kiss is not active. I'm saying the mentality, I'm not saying if Kiss is not, his knees are not buckled. EFN? His knees are not buckled. He can still spar with the best of them. Oh, he can.

I want to get flowers. Fuck this. Hold on. And I think, and I think, and I'm not. I'm past. I think. I think. I think they respectfully being respectful.

I think both of them are respectfully being respectful. Neither one of them has said anything to each other that's like. Disrespectful. Yeah, you're doing. No. Like, there is a whole bunch of like room for them to be like, yo, good one. Like, you know what I mean? That's hip-hop, though.

Yeah, that's hip-hop. Say when. Okay, I'm right. I'm ready. We are, come on. Let's do it, guys. We are now. This is a new segment called.

Maca's answer. He's going to close. We got more. Let's go. Shout out to Bagfuel for breaking the interview. I'm 38. And 38 said. And Esso.

And Spaceco. Shout out to the other. That's my bro. All right. If we are to believe everything that 38 said was the truth, what happened was he had the better verse on a record. Sunday school with him and Bendy. It was acknowledged by

Jada's son and it was acknowledged by Jada in an interview. Shout out to oh shit. Shout out to Elliot Wilson. BDOT. Shout out to BD. If we believe that what 38 said is the truth, the fact is when you are an MC and you have a better verse than somebody, we're not calling a

career into question. We're calling a bar in the question. So I think what we need in hip hop is to get to a point where we respect callouts and don't call them disses. We respect competition and don't call it beef. If I have the better verse

and I say, come get your lick back. I got the better verse than you. Come get your lick back. You think you better, come show me. And I invite you on a track and you don't do it. And then it devolves after that

because it gets petty. We start taking little shots at each other. But where it started, was 38 saying, I got the better verse. If you think that you have the, if you think you can do better than me, come show me. You don't get to wear the crown and go unchallenged. That's the point of a crown. Somebody eventually is going to want to come for it.

And you have to defend it. There is no time in hip-hop. We just got to finish saying you got to do it to death. There is no time when you get to retire. If you are active, I understand. How unfair is that? It's not because we're talking about a verse. When a box are retired, if they have the belt,

This ain't sports. They get to leave with them belts. Now those belts are. This ain't sports. We just got finished saying. It's ain't about the knees buckling or your hands getting sore. Your reflex is getting sharp. We're talking about 10,000 hours.

The longer you win, the better you get. So if you're a master. And again, the only reason why, in my opinion, this call out is warranted is because 38 had the better verse and that was acknowledged by everybody. If that hadn't taken place, I'd be saying this is just out of nowhere. I didn't hear that record that I don't know. that for a fact, but I know that Jada didn't deny that. Jada's son said it on Twitter.

Oh, I didn't. I didn't. And then B. Dot said he did an interview with Jada and Jada admitted that he had the better verse. Then there's the rest of the story where 38 says, and this is, I'm not being chatty-patti, but I'm repeating what I In the club? When they're seen in the club? It was in the club. Jada says, fuck it. You had

the better verse. Take my info. Let's do five more. We make it an EP. You're laughing because you know that's a club. That's a club promise. You know what I said that you do a nigga. That's the spin right in right. Yeah, yeah. I get spent all the time, dog.

You just see what the need is been telling me. But if you're 38, you're not used to that. Yeah, you're not, you're not seasoned as far as that. If 30, and I'm cool with 30 and I got respect for both gentlemen. I actually talked to, if I had been consulting 38 at the time, I would have told him, don't get excited about that. Right. Don't leave that.

I understand he said it. I understand it sounds good. And I understand that somebody in 38's position, one of the four-fifference. fathers of your lane just said he's going to do an EP with you. Bro, when you're an independent artist, we just got finished talking about that. The whole fame thing, me as an independent artist,

I have a record with, if I got a record with Buster Rhimes, and he says we're going to do a video, bro, I'm planning my whole year around that. That's a big deal. An EP with fucking Jadakis, are you out of your mind, five tracks? That he might produce super specimens.

With that? You get to produce. Yes. The joints, that guy, top five, dead or alive, missed the locks himself. I believe that would happen. I believe that would happen. But when the calls ain't being answered because it was a club promise, when the back and forth ain't really happening because it's a club promise,

when you offered money and the money is turned down because there wasn't really a lot of energy behind it. And 38 isn't used to. He could have been patient. He could have waited. Maybe it wasn't a club promise. Maybe he just jumped. But 38 is already done records with Buster. He's done records with.

There's an album with Cool G rap called Sonny G rap. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But my point is, he has records with people in Jada's same field, same, same time frame, same error. So he's not used to, we say we're going to do it, and it don't automatically happen. So he reacted wrong. I don't think he, I don't think he took it the way he should have.

However, I think I'm with doggy on this. All crowns can be challenged. Of being on top is you could change your fucking mind, bro. Okay. Like, yo, let me take you something. There's people that I've met and said, no, yeah, I love you. We're going to do something. I believe them at that moment.

Yeah. But I know once that alcohol, we're off, that motherfucker, that motherfucker was spinning me like a mother. And now, this is happening. Right. Right. It's like, cool. You can take it back. And now this is, this is how I'm reacting to you deciding that we're not doing this anymore.

And I'm not saying it's cool. No, I mean. I get it. Now, Mecca, this is... Industry standard. Thank you. Industry standard. But this is what Mecca is saying.

Also, everybody has the thought of themselves, one of the most oxymoronic shit you could say, that you are a street nigger. That shit is stupid, right? Let's just say being a street nigger is stupid. When you think you're talking to another street nigger and a street nigger make you a promise, your word is your barn, right?

In the club, in the promise. No, this is the deal because you thinking this is the realest, Kiss is the realest nigger. And I'm not saying kids did anything wrong. No. Because the spin happens, right? But you thinking, yo, because think about this, you Noriega, you meet G-Rat for the first time.

He said, I like you, I want to do a record with you. You're going home, you're telling, you telling your pop, you telling everybody. Young Norrie. Young, no. Young, no. Your husband. Maybe pay his ass too. I didn't remember a GERGRAF.

But I'm just saying, what if he spent you, though, balance. I know if he spent you and you told everybody he was doing it, you'd be like, fuck that nigga G-Rap. You are absolutely correct. But the problem is, I think I think I reset it earlier.

I think that 38 isn't that special as, I'm seasoned as far as the industry. Like, you can meet somebody today, doggy. And they say, man, yo man, I love what you doing, man. I'm going to have you on my network tomorrow. And you know that 50% of this dude might be pork sausage.

You know what? I'm gonna say this on camera. I don't listen. It's no good. I don't listen to me. No, I don't listen to niggins. Yeah, yeah, yeah. No, I'm saying, it's just being real. Right, right, right, right, right.

I keep having this conversation. 38 is a grown-ass man, but I keep telling everybody, as far as the industry is concerned, he's a baby. He just got him. Nothing wrong with that. He doesn't, he doesn't, he doesn't know industry promises. He doesn't know the independent rob, but he doesn't know the artist to artists. He knows what they were.

business. He knows the business. The industry is different. I love Joe's my close friend. You know, I went to Fadjoe party the other day, man, if you were to see how many promises was made, man. Like, like, I'm talking about what dude will come on to another

dude because he's an industry dude. He's inviting all these industry dudes. So one dude has to see another dude, and I'm sitting there and I'm just listening. We got to work together. We got it. You know, you remember Julie? Yeah, man.

Julie's over here and I'm sitting there and I'm just listening to all this shit because I know they're all bullshit. That the control of this music and this culture has put us against each other. Like that's what I see. That's all that is. Motherfuckers who are super smart,

super talented that's doing their own thing, but still somehow can't get outside of the control of these major labor. They'll squash this. 38 and Jada will eventually put this away. I believe they will do something together eventually.

Because it's not that serious. No one's crossed the line. Yeah, it's not that serious. Nothing's happened to the point where that you can't walk it back. It's not that deep. It's an industry promise that got out of control. If what 38 said is true.

Right. If he's telling the truth and it happened that way, then I understand why he's upset. I think he reacted to it wrong, but I'm industry savvy. He's in, we understand that there's a nuance to it. this. Okay, okay. That means he's interested, but he could have

went home, looked at his calendar, and said, I got no time for this. Yeah, you're allowed to change your mind. But you know what else? With the winner? You should have communicated. Yeah, but you know what else was the winner in this situation? So you had a lot of brothers from the Fiburro that was like, we're holding down kids. Yeah, I know. Then you had a lot of dudes from the upstate.

That was like, fuck y'all New York City niggas. But they'd be willing to say that. Yeah, but no, but then we started getting. I love them all. We started getting raps again. We started getting competitors. We started and hip-hop. And that is the inception. The music was more important

than the blogs and the interview. The one L that we took. The blogs is funny though, too. The blogs is funny, too. But the one L that we keep taking in all these, I just want the records. I don't want to, y'all can argue all day. Y'all can beat with each other.

Y'all can beat. You call each other with everyone. Please give me the beats in the round. All right, cool. You kind of established that earlier. But what is in it? Listen, if Kissed through those two little bars got all this attention,

why? If I'm kissed, Like, he didn't jump off the fence with me. Why am I even initiating this? Get on a track and go. I'm on the 16th. You watch me and Jerry Seinfeld at the same time. Let me tell you why.

Like, why? I'm going to only see half the show. I'm going to tell you why. I'm going to tell you why. We got to move off from the time. I'm going to tell you why. Because even the great JZ responded to everybody in a freestyle. Yeah, he did.

So why can't kiss with him? I didn't go lie. I thought Jaguar White was safe. Yeah, yeah. You thought Jay-G was bigger than the program. KRS did not have to respond to Shan. Right. Shan did not have to respond to KERS-1, but he did in the spirit of hip-hop.

I want to ask EFN something. Being the DJ and that's, you know, your inception to the culture, how do you feel about people with the name DJ in front of their name and you never seen them in terms of those? That's terrible. That's terrible because you know how many. any crates I had to carry, turntables I had to carry. The wires, bro.

Remember the wires? Yeah, absolutely, man. The fucking wires. I started before I could have even before a turntables. I'm doing last take. Before I could have a little turntables. So to see that, to me, hip-hop is the experience. Right.

Is a big part of it. You didn't have that. That's why I don't think we're ever going to be able to have the hip-hop that we understand. I think we are. Nah, I don't think that it's just because of technology, the way it is, Now, it'll never go back to that experience. We don't really interact with each other. No.

We had to go out to look for hip hop. We had to go to, you know, warehouse parties, park jams. And somebody had to tell you where it was. From across town. It was hip hop was a group of kids in a whole city that knew we was all going to this. Yeah. And now hip hop is for everybody. Well, I think one of the things right now is that I think we had stopped curating each other's content.

we came into the thing of competition. Right. Too much. To where, yo, I could watch drink champs and watch Joe and Jada. Yeah.

And watch Bagfield and watch Meck and Gat. Shout out to Gat Taylor. You understand what I'm saying? I think the way we started going at each other that the fans get divided of, well, if I fuck with him, I can't fuck with him.

Yeah, they do. They do. They do. Kendrick and Drake is the most gang. affiliated shit. Ever. Like, you literally, because I can literally say right now

on, on, what I call it? Twitter? I call it, I call it Black Twitter. All right. So I can literally say, you know, Drake New Song is the shit. Kendrick fans is like, man, what's you just playing? What's you just a plan? Kate Dot the other day?

Like, wait a minute. I got a, I like salt and pepper. Yeah. Like, I got, I got, I got to just have pepper. But they lack understanding. And us being some of the elder statesmen of the culture, we got to keep this conversation.

going until it's repetitions and beating their head. Right. Like our parents did to us go. Because you learn the ABCs how. Competition. A, B, C, D, D, D. We can't stop at this conversation. Competition without malice is the key.

Competition without malice. Right. Knowing that we all care about the same thing. That's it. We all want the same thing. Competition. We can compete as an MC if you think you better show me. But hold up. Flowers.

Let's please. Go ahead. Take control. Listen. Yes. See, now you're not ready? This show's about giving flowers. We really appreciate you guys coming here.

Josie, she's got her flowers. I got mine. Thank you. And we enter St. M. That's it. Everybody makes it. Oh, shit.

Again and again. Yo. I appreciate it. A second. Yo. Yo, I got my fucking flowers. God damn. Y'all can't fuck with me.

Please understand. All that shit, y'all talk. You can't fuck. You can't fuck. You're about to run on a memory cards. Just right here. Let me say something real quick, because this is one subject that I'm going to bring up.

I think everybody on this table will say yes. Buster Rhymes is the greatest hip-hop performer of all time. No. You're just a hater, doggy. I don't hate it. You know, because it's different. Who's better than Buster is hip-hop? He might be the most animated, but I've seen niggas like K-R-S-1.

That shit. Damn! Yeah, I see. seen KRS one give a speech. Did you? And I didn't even realize I was in the speech. DMX? Yes, DMX. So we got, we got DMX.

I see Slippel star turn Buster down without a microphone. Let me tell you something. And bust it went down. We got robbed of Biggie and Tupop. We got robbed of that shit. Imagine Biggie doing hypnotize in the garden. You know Biggie was nice. It was one of the greatest.

Because when you threw the water bottle at Big Cap, you know what I mean? Like that's how you know like that's that breath control. When he threw that water, that big cap, I felt it. I was like, whole thing. And one of the greatest performers, fucking Big Daddy Kane, man. I was going to say Kane.

Yo, I just wanted to say one thing about hip hop. He's still be trying to dance. One of my moments. Don't tell that man. You should. My favorite record of all time is Ain't No Habstabbing. He said, stop. Is that said it again?

Ain't no half stepping is my favorite record of all the time. I was at the China Club. I probably was like 16 years old. I didn't know he was. on the bill. All I heard was, mm, mm, mm, that was my moment where I was like, this is Brooklyn. Right, right. I was like, yo, that's Big Daddy Kane and shit. So I still, and I tell the audience, I'm still a supporter. Right. As well as a fan of people who predate me, because if it wasn't for them, I wouldn't be able to

get this. That's a fact. I wouldn't be able to get this. I was running in the crib. Ralph McDaniels, me and my cousin Ted, we used to us how fucking niggas up. video music box coming on yo we fuck y'all niggies up later let's go to be and beat you understand what I'm saying so this this right here is because of Ralph McDaniel it's because of Lionel Martin

it's because of Ed Lover and Dr. Dre it's because of them is why I'm able why we're able to even do media because they predated us you know what I'm saying because of Dave like I said this dude was typing shit I ain't ever typing nothing

I don't even like typing anything you get what I'm saying So we got to respect the architects. And when we don't show them love, that's why the youth don't get to fuck about them. Rest in peace, Combat Jack. Absolutely. So let me ask y'all a biggie question, but let me ask y'all this with a twist.

Oh, Buster Rhimes is the greatest hip-hop performer. Yes, he is the greatest hip-hop performer in my opinion. Mind you. Let me use biggie words. But I'm going to start with you, Dave. Did you ever think podcasts were golden as far? Well, you did. We know that.

You did. We know that. Not where it's at. Like, I'm not going to lie to you. But I want you to answer this question. But when we first did the pod shit, all right, Combat Jack was in this space. Yeah, absolutely.

Ice-T was the first official. He was doing Internet. radio. Artist. The sport wasn't even podcast. Right. Artist. And people were looking at us like we were nerds. Juan NEPCene, too.

Warren. Okay, yeah. Shout out to Wanda. But they were, um, they were like, oh, man, you guys don't know that nerd shit. You know what I mean? And they were like, damn. And then I realized, you know? Do you know why it's called podcast?

Oh, no. Because it was audio that was originally put into the iPod. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

I'm about to go there. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I thought, I thought you says it. So, so. so. But now, it's like, I'll be lucky if I ask one of the artist friends that I have,

and I say, you think about a 20 podcast? Nine times out of 10, they already said, I got shot 12 episodes. And I'm like, with no guy? I don't like it. Can I say why I don't like it? Because I would consider all the artists podcasts. Let me tell you why. I would consider myself one of the founders of a podcast.

because I was doing DTF radio. Yeah, I was coming here. Shout to the good bell game. That's right. Shout to Young Relie. You know what I'm saying? I came to Brooklyn to come to you. You know what I'm saying?

And the artist used to be mad at me for the interviews. Because this person said this, yo, it's niggas who don't speak to me to this day. Wow. Now I see them sitting in this fucking space and niggas get mad at them. I'll be like, that's good for that, you. I'm glad that you filled the backlash that you get. me because sitting in the seat

in front of the camera has never been easy having an opinion has never been easy so now they're sitting here and Ms. Jones come from radio how many people didn't like some people didn't get five mics how many people don't like dating

so now people are trying to recreate some of the shit that we started the inception on and I'd be laughing when they have podcast beef I didn't look at these niggas they really rappers right they're really rappers they really fucking rappers

who only podcasts because it's a bag in it. They don't love podcasts. Welcome to the art of people who want to be famous, and they want to be good. We just did a full 360 and came back around because you literally just described nine times out of ten. Podcasting reminded me when I first started getting, you know, hip to it five, six, seven years ago

and started thinking about creating breakbeat reminds me of hip-hop in the early days. Yeah, me too. It's a place where voices, perspectives can be heard that aren't, you know, being broadcast through the mainstream. Whether they're qualified or not. What have you. But it created, it was a space that allowed these voices to get out there and to fertilize and get together and create. Whether you're qualified or not.

The next greatest media platforms that's there. Podcasting is just really arriving now. I mean, the Coca-Cola. of the world. They weren't messing with podcasting even a couple years ago. And now, so, you know, it's, we're now creating a new form of mainstream

media. And, yeah, it's like anything else. It's commercialized. I think it's, it's reaching over saturation. Because think about it. It's rap, bro. Listen, but it's some dudes, this is important, right? It's some dudes we never heard speak,

right? We know them for being incredible rappers. When we hear these niggie talk, be like, yo, this a fucking stupid. That's right. Or it can be the exact opposite. For me, for me, for me, for me, I knew Fabulous was a funny motherfucker. I didn't want to say Fadden.

That's Brooklyn. No, no, no. I know FABILUS is a funny motherfucker. Like, if you ever like FAB, Texas and rhyme, like everything about him is like a funny, like, but the average fan wouldn't know that. But the average fan didn't know. So me personally, when I seen him step in front

that mic on a podcast, I would finally like, yo, because a lot of people don't even know, like, even when he had beat with Ray J. Fab was ranking on him. That shit was funny. That's funny. Like, Fab had twin fingers way before Mick Mill. Like, you know what I'm saying? Like, so he was bodying Ray J and Ray J couldn't get the joke.

Remember, that's what this all happened about. Ray Jets had some wild shit, too. No, no, no, I was on a radio station. Yeah, but about Fab was killing with these. And I'm just sitting back. I'm like, they were, the world was, was finally getting to see Fav's person. personality. Because a lot of times, and I'm saying this in all respect,

I remember there was a rumor at one point. There was like, Fab act like Hove, and Hove don't act like that. But, but, but, but. Oh, no, you didn't hear what I just said. They're asking what I just said. Fab be acting like he Hove, but hopefully but act like that. Is it because it's rappers, we're calling it hip-hop podcast? I think that's a mistake.

Because they don't talk about hip-hop. No. Because I love Jim Jones and mental dynamic. That shit's hilarious. Uncle murder. That's my bro right. That's my bro right. That's uncle murder since he was 12 years old.

I love him and Yeo arguing. His original name was Baby Taz too. Oh shit. We're throwing that up. He's my artist. Okay. Shout out to Uncle Murt. So him and, like, some of the dynamics is so dope.

Right. Even the way Joe and Jada came up with the flag and all that, that shit is dope. But I just think we keep calling the hip hop because we're seeing rappers. Right. That's some mistakes. like the music, how anybody could do it because it's inexpensive to record. So you have people who weren't necessarily emcees

jumping into the fray. That's what's happening about it. Look at Joe. He's covering true crime America now. You know why? Yeah, as he should. That's the biggest genre. I know that. You know that. You know that.

The biggest genre. Yeah, I know. You know that. Wild. He wants to say that. He raised that. Yeah, yeah. No, no. If you look at on Netflix, that's what would pop up. But we ain't trying to get a sauce away.

Yeah, I know. I ain't going to lie. I've been born up a couple of times. Watching them true crime. Watching them two crimes. Yeah, I was happy because I know his space of journalism. So even when y'all said y'all wasn't journalists, remember y'all got a lot of, you put a lot of breath, though, because although you might say you're not a journalist, you have a certain responsibility.

Yes. You did you a job. Media. Yeah. Media, media. Right. It's all going to be media. We need journalists.

and hip, but we have a lack of it right now. A qualified unbiased journalist. We don't have that as much as we had as we had it when we had print magazines. Which is one of the main tenets of journalism is unbiased. The second that's your... Can we be unbiased in his day and time?

Yes. Yes, it's extremely possible, but you have to have... I think relationships ruin that. I think if you... You know why I can't be a buyer? You can be, but it's a choice. No reason why I can't be unbiased. You're going to have to stand on it when it gets rough.

I'm going to tell you why. I can't be bites. Hold on, let me get this. Thanks to this dude, I've had more fist fights in my life. Damn, Dave. Than I probably. You know how many people? When I'm going to lose.

When I'm, what's your record? 20, 27. Excuse me. You got the old? You got to have? Yeah, no, I know. I got, like, no, but I'm talking about, like, fighting, fighting. That's what I'm talking about, like, no.

Well, we talk about. In the street. Oh, you're on the streets? Yes, yes, bro. I've had fights, too. I've. over the sauce. Do you know

enough rappers to know how they feel about those mics? And they got shot fucking with me. You know, no, okay, well, not with me. They would have got shot with me. And I'm sorry high. You know, I'm not to my watch. You got somebody.

No, no. I wasn't music at it. I wasn't music at all your watch. Even a feature. Even a feature to get in the source. I wasn't music getting it on your watch. After, after that, when I became the music edit, these dudes wanted to, yo, bro, whether you are.

You became music editor at the source. After I left. After. Okay. Yeah. I didn't know. Bro, you, these, the, whether you are qualified or not also pertains to whether you can maintain relationships with people. We didn't let our writers get beat up and nothing like that.

That didn't happen. You also, you also couldn't stop it outside of the office if somebody saw you, which is why, like, when they found out who I was, it was a different story. But I say that to say, whether you, whether you are qualified or not, when it comes time to maintain. relationships and being unbiased. You have to be qualified and able to do that. You have to be able to look somebody in the face and go, you're my man, I fuck with you, but this was a bad album. And I have to rate it that way.

But it is what it is. But we're having that regular interview, right? Same thing. No, but if somebody says something, like, I'm very, very triggered by anybody talking about Little Kim. That's my sister, right? That's not journalism. No, so, but listen, but

you, I said Buster's not the own greatest performer, and you got mad. No, no, I didn't get mad. I disagreed with you, but I'm not mad. You probably want to fight outside of something. But, but I'm just saying. But see, and this is, this is one of the merits of journalism, the fact that I can remain unbiased. Okay.

Don't be cool with you. Hear what you had to say. Respect your opinion. Have mine. Respectfully disagree. But I didn't kick his back in, though. So if somebody kick you up. And if you, if you did,

I would know, first of all, if I got triggered by it, this is no longer journalism. You just have to understand, I've lost my, I've lost my objectivity. I gave a norioism. Yeah, norianism bias, right? Yeah, yeah. I lost, once you lose objectivity, you're no longer practicing journalism. So you'll let somebody sit there and kick your man back in in front of you? Who's considered a source?

There's no shortcut for saving time, but saving money is simple. Just combine your car and home insurance with Bel Air Direct and save. Get a quote at fellar direct.com. Hi, this is Kylie Breakman. Angel Geratana. Jeremy Colhain. Patrick McDonald. And we're the hosts of the Artists on Artists on Artists on Artists Podcast.

The Improvised Character Comedy Podcasts where each week a new panel of artists discuss their craft. Join us for a panel of wellness influencers. What I try to do is faux journal. I don't know. Have you guys heard of faux journaling? Yeah, it's reading. It's called reading.

So we don't like to use that word anymore. Okay. A panel of New York. worker cartoonists. Have you guys done Terry Gross's Peloton class? No! I've been dying, too. I'm so sorry. I'm seeing a reading of Sadako and the Thousand Paper Cranes by Audra McDonald's at the Wonderland Bookstore on 14th.

That's crazy. I went to the Wonderland Bookstore yesterday, and I heard Nora Jones do a reading of Zero Dark 30. No way. You have to come to the last bookstore, though. Kim Cottrell is reading the guitar tabs of yesterday. A panel of Eurovision participants. And we do a little Halloween sometimes. Does the Pope dress up? He winks on Halloween.

It's right up next to the microphone. I hear you can almost hear the eyelashes hit each other. You never seen Italy so quiet as when the Pope gets up to wink on Halloween. Listen to Artists on Artists on Artists on Artists on Artists on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. What up y'all, y'all. This your main man, Memphis Bleak right here. Host of that rock solid podcast. And each week, we bring in you, exclusive looks inside music, everything happening inside the culture. Some of the best conversations were the biggest names in the game.

You had a little bit more pressure to be good. And they didn't care if you was a girl. Like, you wasn't getting no points because you were the girl. If you're not trash, you better be not just good. You better be great. On rock silent, we talk in the rap legends, hit-making producers, rising stars from the golden era to the future of this hip-hop game, where we keep it 100% unfiltered and keep it new.

Nothing but Rock Solid, yeah. The thing about Jay, my opinion, is he's been so great at being seen but mysterious. You know what I'm saying? He don't got to come talk about anything. You figure it out. So it's always a mystique and mysteriousness behind them, but it ain't like you don't see him. Listen to Rock Solid on Black Effect Podcast Network, iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you streamed podcast. Welcome aboard season six of The Girlfriends, Flight or Fight, which takes place 30,000 feet in the sky.

There's great food, comfortable chairs, and attentive stewardesses. The stewardesses were so beautiful. But in reality, the stewardess job is far less glamorous than it appears. It was the most sexist job I think you could have. In this era, the era, the era. Caroline told these stewardesses, they have to be single. They had no good excuse for why they wouldn't let women be married. They have to be skinny.

We were starving ourselves. And they have to be young. You would retire at age 32. But one day, a group of stewardesses said, This has got to stop. They risked it all, turning a fight for fairness into a revolution. Listen to The Girlfriends, Flight or Fight, on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

Is there an epidemic against literature? More specifically, black literature. Our books are being banned, scanned by AI, and destroyed. I'm Jack Weiss Peace Thomas, and on this season of the Blacklit podcast, we're outside asking some of the custodians of our stories, teachers, and our modern day writers. Why? They don't want a whole bunch of little elevators. Michael Maxes and Martin Luther King running around. They want to build children who have no empathy. That's really the ultimate goal. We want books that don't make white kids feel bad. So is the war on literacy and information

or our ability to connect? We want people to know how sexy reading is and how fun they could be and not always associated with education. It could be an escape. It could be entertainment. And that is the beauty of reading. It can be all of those things. And considering this is Black Reading Month, the only real question is, what are you reading next? Listen to Black Lit from the Black Effect Podcast Network on our iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. This is Jay Valentine. I've spent my career on the executive side of this industry, multi-platinum songs, building artists, and building business. And alongside my brother, Tank, the superstar R&B singer, songwriter, and producer, we've created something special,

the R&B Money Podcast. This is not just a podcast. It's a safe space where artists, executives, and fans of R&B music come to reminisce, pull back the curtain and tell the stories that shape this culture, the real history behind the hits. That was Hood Famous. Yeah. And then Real Love came out, and it blew up.

We lived in a project. And they're seeing all the success. They're hearing the music, and we had nothing. We're covering the entire spectrum. from Smokey Robinson, Alicia Keys, B2K, Mary J. Blige, legends, current stars, and everyone who's contributed to the sound of R&B. You come out the gate with a hit. And then not Michael Jackson out of number one.

Come on, man. I was like, hold on. I'm not a MJ out of the number one spot. If you're a super dedicated R&B fan who wants the real discovery, the real stories, this is your podcast. This is the R&B Money podcast. Listen to R&B Money from the Black Effect Podcast Network on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. I'm Mimi Brown, and every day on Front Page Podcast, I help you make sense of the stories shaping our world.

Each day, I break down the biggest headlines, provide important contexts, and explain how these stories could impact your life, your family, and your community. My goal is to deliver clear, trustworthy information in a format that fits your schedule. And when a story deserves a deeper conversation, I'll sit down with experts, newsmakers, and thought leaders to help you better understand the headlines. I spoke with Gary Mayer, Eddie Melton, about what's happening on the ground, whether race is playing a role, and what help is available for families who simply can't afford the added cost. Joining us now is Tennessee State Representative Justin J. Pearson. Thank you so much for having me. I appreciate it.

Absolutely. Whether it's a major national story or an issue impacting your country. community, join me on Front Page. Listen to Front Page from the Black Effect Podcast Network on the Iheart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. If it doesn't matter, if you're interviewing somebody, right, because this is what we all have faith. If you're interviewing somebody and they say, Meg, I know you do A&R work for Buster, but come

on, tell that nigger give it up. That shit weak. Yo, matter of fact, fuck that nigga. Do you put that out? Yeah. But I'm also going to put it. out me saying, first of all, you'd never say that to his face.

And second of all, if you don't like it, don't listen. Right, that's true. His fans still pull up, the crowd still goes nuts, and he still tearing shit. No, this, no, these are facts. But it's biased when you defend him. No, everything I just said. You do A&R for Buster? Yeah. Everything I just said is a stone

cold fact. I didn't give you my opinion on anything. What I told you was the fans still show up, the crowd still goes nuts, and he's still doing his one too. If you don't like it, don't listen. My opinion was nowhere in that. You still don't know how I feel about them. That's journalism. It's still subjective, though.

Of course it is. Of course it is. But that's the point of it. I'm not about to argue. First of all, I think it's corny when anybody tries to tell somebody what to like and what not to like. I agree with you. No, I agree with that. You can give your opinion on the music.

You can talk about the merits of it. You can talk about the technique that they used to make it. But me trying to tell you, don't like Kendrick anymore because Drake is better. Don't like Drake anymore because Kendrick is better. I think that should have stretched. I think that should have. super trash. However, nine times out of ten, my opinion in what we're discussing never enters the picture and most people will call me bias not realize that you never heard what I thought of it.

I never told you. You never heard it. You just assumed because I gave you the facts. You assumed that I took aside. All I did was repeat the facts. The second I start showing my opinion, showing my bias, I'm automatically compromised and what you're seeing now. So everything No longer journalism. So everything's a go. As far as what? Content. I mean, for your audience.

So reason why I asked this question, I'll be having some wild content. Here we go. Yo, I'll be having some wild shit. You got the most classic math to be. Yeah, yeah, forever. That's forever. This man was, he was asking permission. He did about to tell you something.

But this, me and Norrie have been friends for a very long time. Norrie, one time, was hit one time on my camera. I didn't think he should have been saying some of that. Right. Right. I discarded the footage. Yep. But in this day and time, I was supposed to have put it out and threw him under the bus. What's the question? What's the question? Is all content of gold?

Yes. Got that responsibility. Remember what I was saying about the source? We took the responsibility seriously. I'll give you a great example, right? At one point, we would. We just lost those values in media. The value is gone. Right, right. Right. Right. Does this further the story? Does this help what you're trying to get across?

That nigga would have went to jet. Yeah, right. Right. There have been tons of stories that I've done. On tons of artists where they said something. All right. That they didn't say this is off the record. And they just said because they were that comfortable.

That's why they got waivers now. But this is my integrity. This is me specifically as a man. This is, this is me. I'm not including that. All the reason about. But let me give you all this. Even in the Max B shit.

Max B, that's edited. Do y'all know that? Oh, no, I did not know that. That's edited. He says some shit in there. Oh, you took out. He said some shit in there. He says some shit in there.

One thing about me personally, no women and children. Right, right, yeah. I'm cutting that out. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But I call, one time I called Benzino one day. And I said, yo, bro, I got this content. The audience know about it a little bit.

They wanted from me. What do I do? And he said something to me. He said, yo, what do you do for a living? I said, I do interviews. He said, so what are you asking me? And I had to say, damn, this is what I do for a living.

Am I not going to put out something because how people might feel? And he said, what does that person do for a living? I said, well, they produce and they rap. He said, well, fuck are you asking me. Your job is to do interviews. But then now we start thinking about integrity and not subjective. Are you a journalist? I think I'm media.

I think I'm all of that. You don't run by a journalist's rules. You're in media. It's different. So everything's a go. You're asking me, it's really up to you. It's really whatever.

You're asking me for your criteria. That's your criteria. Bro, you're asking me for the rules and kickboxing when you're street fighting. All right. All right. Only reason why I ask, because certain shit that I have ain't no turning back. I still work for media companies. For me.

For me. Sure we do. Me and EFN, I was our rule. Like, like we don't edit. We're going to sit down. And then I, you just speak about Buster. Buster was one and only

episode that I believe a hitmaker, right? Right. Well, I won an older episode, but what happened was, I don't know if you heard body in the trunk, but in body the truck, I said, Steph told me Buckum. When I reacted,

Rale told me chill, fuck him. So those were two of my friends. That's the last of my Mohicans. So I had got the word right when I started Buster Rhyms interview that my other friend killed itself. You know what I'm saying? So I'm sitting there.

Yeah. I'm sitting there. Like, I'm looking like I'm doing my notes, but this is the one time I'm not looking at my notes and I'm looking. And Buster, when we finished the interview, Buster calls me the next day. And Buster goes, man, you weren't yourself. Something was wrong about you. And I was like, I was like, how could you know that? Because I didn't tell no one because I knew I would have fucked up the whole atmosphere.

You see how the drinks champs is? This is a vibe. Like we sit around, we smoke after, we drink, we eat some sandwiches, some pizza. You know, like, I knew I would have fucked up the mood. So I wasn't myself. Huh? There sandwiches. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

I mean, in theory. But, you know, so I wanted to protect him. You understand what I'm saying? I was like, because one, like, you react to your crowd. So the fact that I wasn't delivering, he wasn't delivering. Like, you know what I mean?

Like, if you come out saying, throw your hands in the air, and people are going like this. They throw their hands in the air, but they ain't going like this. So I did protect that. And then it was one time we had a hitmaker. I don't want to say what happened.

And boom, boom, boom. And it was like, so I did protect that. I was like, you know what? And by the way, at this time... Hipmaker's Youngberg for me. Yeah, hitmaker's Youngberg. And at this time, we didn't know how to like film something and not use it. You know what I'm saying?

So like, so it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, I, Jamel Hill made me say that I'm not a journalism, journalist. Why is that? Um, there was a certain person that was doing eight rounds. At the time, that person was just in one of my friends. And that was his whole thing. It wasn't like he was promoting, you know, drink champs cup and promoting the Astray.

And by the way, fuck coffee mates. No, his whole campaign was fuck coffee mates. And it's like if I accept this, that I'm also saying fuck coffee mates. So I said, yo, I won't do it. And Jamel Hill said, That's why you're not a real journalist. And I was like, yeah, motherfucker.

Good. She's like, you know, thank you for saying that. I'm not, because I'm not, I'm not, I'm sorry, doggy, but knowing me and your relationship,

mm-hmm. I'm not going to let somebody come and say something about you. That's weird people say I cut people off. You know, very defensive about you. Yeah, yeah, I know what I'm, that's why people say I cut people off.

Like, even with Dave, like, even when Dave earlier, you know, what happened with you and him. And I never asked you what happened with me. Because I've always seen y'all, like, amicable. I always seen y'all cool together. And that's me being naive.

I'd rather keep those images. I'd rather not even ask you or ask him. You know what I'm saying? That's just who I am. Like, I'm still a guy who wants to tell us more to get back together. And Rimmie Mawrude said me, oh, are you dumb? I'm like, damn, Remy J. Like, shit.

But I'm naive because I remember the good days. And if I choose, you know, sometimes a person won't go to the funeral. because a person will say, I don't want to see him like that. I want to remember him. So like that's what I said. Like I said, like I'm, you know, I'm, you know, I haven't been speaking in the last couple of whatever. But even when we spoke about it, like I would be uncomfortable.

So I would change the subject. I never knew what was your problem. I don't know what from your side and I don't know from your side. Because I feel like that was it. What y'all did together when y'all were together was so monumental. I don't even want to hear about the other. shit. Like, that's just me. That's just me.

Like, you know what I'm saying? Like, um, but I, I do respect that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, what's crazy about me, doggy. And we're going to try to wrap this up. But you know what I hate the most? What? Is, let's suppose doggy diamonds says, uh, you, I ain't, I feel what mecca, what mecca does. Everybody who hates mecca is now in your DMs. They got to, giving you information about them.

Same space. Yeah. That shit is the most. It's the most snake is shit. Yeah, whack is flowed. Like, I had said something about Joe and Jeter, right? That was playing around. I was like, you know what I mean?

You know what I was, I was saying, if you know my face, I'm sitting there laughing. But the good part about that was people just think I know Joe and Jada from podcast. They don't know. I got 27 years. But it was great. It was great to see the snakes come out. You drew them out. Yeah, it was great to see.

Because I didn't, I didn't rush to go, hey, I'm sorry. That's not what I meant about. my two brothers. If I get married, today, they'll probably be at my wedding, right? So, but I didn't even rush to say that. I rush to say it to them. They're like, Norm, we know who you are.

We've seen the footage. But that's not what I just got to see, and I got to see how many snakes is in this fucking game. Like, you know what I mean? The same people that's in your corner. Was it artists or was it? Uh-huh.

I don't like that shit. I don't like that shit. Hey, be happy. Uh-huh. Be happy. And by the way, someone of them look careful. Because you can't say direct.

Fuck. even worse that they were careful. Yeah. Fuck it, yo. I got your back. Even saying I got your back, knowing that like this might be a misunderstanding, like, you know what I mean?

That's throwing your hat in the ring. I want to do that recently where, you know, I had a disagreement with somebody and we was able to come to agreement. But I, somebody tried to like interject. Interject, yeah. And be like, I'm like, nigga, I don't fuck with you. I'm mad at him, but I don't fuck with you.

So we're not going to do my enemy, enemy. my friendship. Because if anything, I want to knock your fucking head off. Be grateful. Be grateful. Be grateful. Be grateful when the snakes show you who they are. Be grateful.

Be happy. God blessed you with that situation. Thank you for letting me know that this is how you get down and this is your energy. You know what I don't like? You know what DMX said? DMX said, I trust the people to be who they are. So if a snake is a snake, I'm expecting him to be a snake. For yours.

But dogs and dogs, let me go biblical. Let me go biblical you in a minute. The worst thing. is a motherfucker who whisper. Oh, okay. A whisperer is the worst because in the Bible, it never said a snake, it said a serpent. And he whispered.

You pussy niggins, with a camera. You pussy pillow-talking niggas that want to talk to females about shit and other niggas, you are whisperer. Be a man. Be a man. Talk to men. You know why you ain't going to do that? Because you know you get your ass whip.

So you can huff and puff for all the other motherfuckers and that shit is cool. and make great content. Listen, I make myself available to beat a lot of y'all niggas up. I work out every day to beat niggas up. I don't get a fuck about how I look. I don't get a fuck about none of that.

I want to whoop ass because it was a particular time where you respected niggas that will punch you in your mouth. And now that y'all got the internet, y'all got DMs, y' y' got comments, and y'all got other pussy niggas

that y'all could congregate and be holes together in niggas' comments. That's what it is. Y'all a bunch of whisperers. And y'all niggies is what, ever be on your belly like the serpent in the motherfucking Bible. And on that note, got that. We have to keep your coalition, appreciate, and co-sign that.

I want to thank y'all, man, because, again, I didn't want to fall back in love with hip-pop, knowing that I have another trade, another, this is what I'm doing now, and making music, even me getting in with Dr. J, I'm not flossinging another like that. But I've been in the studio for 26, 27 years. I never thought I could learn something again. Like that man like revamped me. He made me sound clearer.

I didn't even realize like, you know, like, you know, sometimes smoking blunts or sometimes, you know, having a beer in the studio is just not it. Like he, he showed me clarification. I didn't think, I thought that, you know. And then. Annunciation. And he literally said to me, like, this is literally what he said to me. He said, I'm going to put you through torture.

And I said it under my breath. I whispered it. Yeah, yeah. Don't whisper. I actually did that. I said, look, I ran a marathon. This ain't going to break me. Like, fucking, but he made me say a word for three days.

One word. So it was true. No, no, it was one man. I think they under-disaggerated. Right, right. But when I tell you, if I play you in this record, you'd be like, yo, you ain't sound as clear since I'm leaving. You know what I mean? Because there's certain vocal tones that he does.

But what I'm saying is, um, so, That helped me fall back in love. But when I think about that, man, just sitting around and speaking to knowledgeable people like you guys and obviously, I'm Jonesy, and just sitting down and just chopping it because the one thing that I noticed about all of us is we all have love for hip hop.

Right. And would we be doing this if we can get in a dollar? I'm probably not sure of that, but what I know is we still have the same amount of love for me, whether we was getting it or not. And that's what this all starts from. No one starts out being dope. You have to create yourself to be a dope person.

You know what I'm saying? You don't getting out your mother's room with a DJ equipment. You know what I'm saying? You got to learn that DJ equipment. You got to learn how to rap. You got to learn how to put syllables and all this together. So, man, you know, everybody here, we've changed a lot of people with lives. We've done a lot of things, man.

Thank you all for defending the culture too. Yeah, I believe the culture needs to be defended right now. You know what I'm saying? You think it's a coalition I need to get started? I think we should start right now. Us. Like, yeah, man. You know, with the violence, though, I'll be like

a niggas to get fucked up. You don't know what I'm on? You live in a letter now. Even Carus 1 through PM dawn on to stage. Like, yo, that shit is... Your K-R-R-S-1 grader. Reason why I'm saying that, bro, because like I said earlier, we got to defend people, bro.

Like, when we see certain people get an attack and they put in that 10,000 hours, they are a master now. And we don't defend. in the masters, well, what are we? Why are we sitting back? Oh, he went in on them. We got to be like, yo, nah, we said that's not cool for you to do.

Right. Because in any culture, the elders sit, you, sit down, nigga, go sit your ass down. Why are we not sitting niggas down? Why are we not sitting niggas down? Why are we letting niggas run amok? Because they're the ones who's anti what we do. Because we fail to consider the source. We fail to consider.

the source. No longer. Thank you. Much appreciate. Right. Anybody else? Before we get up behind this? I want to say, shout out to World Star Gat and Mecca Show. Yes. Salute to this man.

Shout out to Ms. Jones for all she did because we know from... Yeah, we were able to uncover it today. Yeah, the radio. Shout out the radio, but the artist, Ms. Jones. So America, she was an artist first. There are two games like Pete Kirkland.

Shout out to EFN. I've seen pictures of him. He had fucking hair. That nigga was like 180 pounds. But he was on them turntables, and I know that life. And shout out to you for being humble. And I want to say to the audience, Norie ain't stupid. He just plays stupid sometimes.

He plays one on TV. Right. Because sometimes you got to play a fool to catch a fool. That's right. I want to shout out Banga also from Junior Mafia. Banga. What about it? Banga said?

Oh, okay, okay. Oh, my cousin Tad, my cousin Mooka's over there. You know what I'm saying? And like I said, I appreciate it. I watch all your content. Right. I watch Pink Jams. Right, that's right.

I watched it the other day. And I watched you get interviewed, and I learned some stuff about you recently that I didn't know about it. But he didn't even know you was going to be here. So he stayed here. No, no. Thank you. No, no. I'm saying.

You didn't know she was going to be here. Right, right, right. Right, right, right. Yeah. So, again, man, this is important. Mecca is important. You're important, right? Don't we have to know that we important.

And that gives us a reason to get up tomorrow. Because a lot of people are taking their lives. A lot of people are self-harming. And people die from the lack of appreciation. When you feel like you don't have a purpose, you just wither away. But Ms. Jones going to leave here today, but they said she, I better stop bullshitting

or they're going to kick my ass. You know what I'm saying? So that's a good thing. We want to hear music. You, we need the hooks. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Whatever his next venture is, Funny Marco,

juvenile and Manny Press. That shit is dope. And DJ EFN, the guy who is one of the unsung heroes of podcasting. They'll be straightening your ass out sometimes too. You know, my goal for EFN, is to get him out to bring him back to DJ

because he only wanted to do vinyl. Right. Like, he's way too old school. Shout out the Buster Rhyms and Jay Diller. Dillard. Oh, Jay Dillard. Thank you guys, man.

Thank you. Hey, hold on, let me say one more thing. Let me say one more thing. Because this guy gets caught in this fucking hood politics every album he drops. It seems like the hood politics overcomes and you do not pay attention to his material.

Buster Rye's material is fucking crazy with Jay Diller. But my man, game. The documentary three album is fire. Oh, bro. You're going to love it. Fire. And I'm just so bad that, like, he dropped it and he had an album release party. If someone asked him about Kendrick and Black Towers.

And then it overshadowed. And it's like, damn, like this happens all. the time. Like, you have such a great body at work. Can we just focus on the body at work? Game, you did a great job. I love that album. Ransom. You heard a ransom album? I didn't hear Ransom out. The Price of Clarity and Rome Street.

I'm about the chat. Talk into my pocket. Okay. Okay. I'm going to end with this. Because I've lived, I've lived now abroad outside of New York for quite some time. So there's three records that I want

to name right now. Okay. That no matter where I live. Look, back in a minute. Yeah, I'm going to New York tomorrow. Street records I want to name right now. This is God from the Bronx. I'm going to fuck up your syllables or how you put this together. There he goes, I'm a darn in my city.

You all know what I'm going to be. I don't know what I'm going to be. Man, when I tell you, I don't care where I'm at, my timbrelins come out. I don't even know. Number two, who's that? Who is that? I don't know who they.

On a run, on a run, on a run, on a run. Now, I got put on him, I believe his name is Trust Moola. I got put on to him because I'm through Hocus and through a guy named Smuck. They kept playing his stuff. Shout like to S1, the brother's. Yes, yes. So nowadays. No, those Mendecese's cousins, right?

No, I did not know that. No, no. She's his cousins. Okay, okay. All they're nice name in Harris. Okay. These are New York artists here. Who?

Hassan Harris. Oh, okay. And that's Hocus. Okay, okay, okay. So, okay, my bad. So, no matter where I'm at, that shit makes me feel like New York. And the third record,

I'm not leaving the OGs out of here. Jim Jones did it my way. The New York record. My dude, I'm sure Franks and Nostri people was listening to this shit. Like, the goddamn, you know, he did good. He did good. Because this is a car.

That is so. risky to touch a Frank Sinatra bracket in New York and playing in New York that kill you, man. You know what? Frank is a dude that you say you did it first. Who? Jay Z did it first.

I don't know. I'll do respect to Jay Z. On a blueprint. I like Jim Jones. I did it a little better. No, Jay, that's better. And I'm going to tell you something. Funkflex, DJ Camillo,

DJ, everybody who's on that box. New York is. finally sounding like New York, man. You, yo, Merrill, in the mornings, and I know Charlemagne and I'm from New York, but he's adapted to New York attitude. Like, listen, I haven't lived in New York quite some time.

So when I go to New York, the first thing I do is I cut on both of those stations. I'm sorry. I listen to him from out here, but it's a little weird because then the traffic comes on and then it's Miami traffic. I'm like, what the fuck is going on?

I don't like it this. But when you're in the city, and there was quite some time where, man, we were cut on the radio and Trim Dad James would be on. Yeah. And God damn it, motherfucker, and T.I.'s fifth single.

Yeah. Everybody in the rotation. They ain't even playing that shit in Atlanta. Yeah. But we horse riding in New York. But now... Horse riding. What the fuck?

I ain't want to say y'all are riding, you know what I'm saying? But, and especially since the Knicks, that energy in the city is a, it's a, we are trying to get, so when you say with hip-back, I believe that was you, will hip-hop make that term, can we ever get it back? I believe so, because I had no faith in the Knicks at all. Oh, Jesus. I had no faith. I did not know who Jellian Bronson was a star. I'm happy. I was the hater.

I was the hater. I'm happy. Yeah, I'm happy when he came to team out. Check the hat. Now I got five pictures with a star. pops like this. Definitely bad racket.

All right. Keep them goodbye. That would go. Drink Champs is a Drink Champs LLC production, hosts and executive producers, N-O-R-E, and DJEFN. Listen to Drink Champs on Apple

podcast, Amazon music, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. Thanks for joining us for another episode of Drink Chams, hosted by yours truly DJE. and N-O-R-E. Please make sure to follow us on all our socials.

That's at DrinkChamps across all platforms. At the real Noriega on IG. At Noriega on Twitter. Mine is at Who's Crazy on IG. At DJEFN on Twitter. And most importantly, stay up to date with the latest releases, news, and merch by going to Drinkchamps.com. Hi, this is Kylie Breakman.

Angel Geratana. Jeremy Colhane, Patrick MacDonald. And we're the hosts of the Artists on Artists on Artists Podcast. The Improvised Character Comedy Podcast where each week a new panel of artists discuss their craft. Join us for a panel of Eurovision participants. And we do a little Halloween sometimes.

Does the Pope dress up? He winks on Halloween. He gets right up next to the microphone. I hear you can almost hear the eyelashes hit each other. You never seen Italy so quiet as when the Pope gets up to wink on Halloween. Listen to Artists on Artists on Artists every Thursday on the IHeart Radio app,

podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. Hey, it's Alec Baldwin. This season on my podcast, Here's the Thing, I talk to actor Stephen Root. I'm a people watcher. You see that guy going down to the ring? Yeah, I can use that. And Open Igloo co-founder, Alia Mohamed. I love staying on top of what is going on in our city, what is on renter's minds,

and taking all of that knowledge to build a platform that hopefully is going to make New York City better in the long run. Listen to Here's the Thing on the I-Hartner. Radio app Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Did you think you were the only one? Like no matter what you did, it was never good enough for your mother. I'm Jennifer Arnese, and this is the Black Mother Wound Podcast, where we unpack and heal from the very first relationship that shaped us.

We rush to accommodate other people when we have been hurt, and our hurt has not been healed. Listen to the Black Mother Woon podcast from the Black Effect Podcast Network on the Hi Heart Radio app, Apple Podcast, and wherever you get your podcasts. Is there an epidemic against literature? More specifically, black literature. I'm Jack Quist-Pice Thomas, and on this season of the Black Lit podcast, we're outside asking why. They don't want a whole bunch of little Ella bakers, Malcolm Rex's and Martin with the Kings running around.

And when you look at a lot of different cultures, they're like, we need to know where you came from. And considering this is Black Reading Month, the only real question is, what are you reading next? Listen to Black Lit from the Black Effect Podcast Network on our iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. What up, y'all, this your main man, Memphis Bleak right here, host of that rock solid podcast. And each week, we bring in you exclusive looks inside music, everything happening inside the culture. Some of the best conversations were the biggest names in the game. You had a little bit more pressure to be good. And they didn't care if you was a girl.

Like, you wasn't getting no points. If you're not trash, you better be not just. just good. You better be great. Listen to Rock Solid on Black Effect Podcast Network, iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you streamed podcasts. I'm Mimi Brown, and every day on Front Page Podcasts, I help you make sense of the stories shaping our world. Each day, I break down the biggest headlines.

Canada's trade fight with the U.S. just escalated again, and Americans could fill it in their wallets. And when a story deserves a deeper conversation, I'll sit down with experts, newsmakers, and thought leaders to help you better understand the issue behind the headlines. Listen to Front Page from the Black Effect Podcast Network on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. What up?

This Jay Valentine, co-host of the R&B Money Podcast alongside my brother, R&B legend, tank. Together, we've built a space for artists, executives, and fans of R&B music to reminisce and tell the real stories behind the music. I have no money. I was hood famous. They think you're going to get everybody out. We lived in a project. Real love came out.

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