KFC Radio - Behind The Blog: Adam Ferrone

Episode Date: April 30, 2018

We grabbed Rone and tried to hit up a bar and chat over some beers. When that didn't work, we picked up some brown bags, and hit Madison Square Park to talk his journey from cutting roast beef in a deli to 2x rap battle champion and Barstool Star.You can find every episode of this show on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or YouTube. Prime Members can listen ad-free on Amazon Music. For more, visit barstool.link/kfcr

Hey, KFC Radio listeners, you can find every episode of KFC Radio on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or YouTube. Prime members can listen ad-free on Amazon Music. It's your boy KFC. This is another edition of Out of Office featuring the one and only Adam Ferron. Ferron, what's poppin', baby? Hey, man, I'm happy to be here. What a blessing, what a beautiful day, and what a great program. We went to the Smith across the street from the office. We were gonna just do a little, you know little KC Radio at the bar sort of thing. They counseled that real quick.

Well, it's not like you just went in there blind. You were told that it was going to work. Office manager Brett kind of gave me what seemed to be like a green light. As soon as we show up, for sure not. Damn. So blessing in disguise, like you said, though, because now we're outside of Madison Square Park on a beautiful day. And I thought to myself, I got my buddy here.

He just dropped a new rap record. What better way to celebrate that than grab a couple 22s, grab some brown bags, and hit the park. Cheers, my man. Hey, cheers, man. This is a classic way to do it. Right? This should be the new thing. Brown bagging in the park is the way we're going to just do our jobs forever.

Yo, my first rap battle was supposed to be in a park, an outdoor park in New York. Really? Before there were venues, before we had it all sorted out, we were supposed to just go. It was Washington Square Park. Yep. And we were just supposed to rap battle. Under the arch? Yeah, by the Washington Square arch.

Yeah. The car alarm is beautiful. That's a nice little seasoning. Yeah, it's a little gritty. It makes it real. If you didn't believe that we were outside. No, we piped that in, too. So did you do it?

So the guy didn't show up. The dude bitched out. The only thing worse than just getting smoked in a rap battle is not even showing up. It was my 21st birthday, too. It was April 25th, 2009. And I was supposed to be on a rap battle against this guy, and he didn't show up. Were you on the inside a little like,

all right, now I don't have to? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Oh, my God, right away. Every single rap battle, it's always been like, dude, I kind of hope this guy doesn't show up. I want to say this shit, but not that bad, bro. I'm not trying to potentially embarrass myself or forget what I'm about to say. I always wanted them not't show up. I want to say this shit, but not that bad, bro. I'm not trying to potentially embarrass myself or forget what I'm about to say. I always wanted them not to show up.

On a very small level, I remember playing Little League and being like, oh, it's raining today. Game's going to get canceled. Like, nice. It's a relief. Video games, I can do whatever. It's a relief. It is.

No pressure. No one's looking at you to make sure you don't strike out or some shit. Especially, though, with the rap battle. I mean, talk about pressure. For me, it's just like ultimately I'd rather always do nothing than do something. Yeah, it's way better, way less. I mean, there's no eyes on you. And I was, I mean, it was the night

after my 24, I had just turned 21, so I was hungover, like my mind was beaten into like a fucking oblivion. You probably would have lost that battle, bro. I might have. You know, and then who knows? If you lose your first battle, the course of history has changed. Yeah, I might not even. The butterfly effect on that. Holy shit. Thank God that guy didn't show up.

Right? Whoever you are, whoever that guy is who pussied out at Washington Square Park, thank you because I would not be sitting here with Roan drinking beer in the park with a colleague who kills it on the blog, who kills it with the mic, who just dropped a new EP. Yo, for real. Stake is out. Stake is out.

Stake is on iTunes. It is on iTunes. It's on Spotify. It's on Apple Music. It's everywhere you can get that shit. And it did pretty well yesterday. I saw it. It was on the chart, which is like cool. Where we hit? I saw it. It was like six. Six is what it went up to on the hip-hop chart. Next to like Eminem and Migos and some fucking heavy

names. Right, like Kendrick and like the new J. Cole and like fucking, I mean, it's very humbling to just go down that list and see my name. And it's probably only for a day, but like, hey, it's cool for a day, buddy. Hey, man. That's one day more than basically 99.999% of the world can say. Bro, for sure. It was exciting.

I wasn't doing it to try and get on any charts. I was just like, I was sitting on this project and I was like, you know what? Like, what the fuck am I sitting on music for? Let me just put this shit out. And what better time than on your 30th birthday? Right. Just beg people to listen to it. You get a free pass on your birthday. Exactly. It really worked out well.

You want me to get a gift for you? No. Just download the album. Just be nice to me. Just say something nice to me. That's all I want from you. Just boost my ego just for one day. Just one time. Just let me get back to normal tomorrow. I just need a small ego boost so here we are we'll back it up though because there's been a lot went into

getting here to getting to this ep to getting on the charts you wrote a blog the other day on your 20s my 20s which was a great blog and i think a blog that we need oh you know what let me back it up even further back it up uh when we first got to New York, I said I want to do something called Behind the Blog, which is basically what we're doing right now. Kind of a one-on-one interview with the Barstool personalities to tell the world your story. Because people love that shit. And I remember thinking, I've got to find the right person to start it with. You don't want to lead off with

like El Prez. You should probably be like the last one. Right, right. You also want to lead off with somebody who's going to, you know, move the needle. And you were my choice back then. Hey! So now it's coming to fruition in a different way. Brown bagging it out of office. Cheers. But we are here. So you were my choice for a very specific reason. And that is because I think you are the most talented person at this company. Oh, you're the man for saying that. You are. There are a lot of very, very talented people at this company. You know what?

There aren't. There really aren't. There's not. The T word gets thrown around very often. I don't think I'm talented. I think that I just shoot the shit and have conversations, and I hope that people like it. I don't even put any work into this.

I just show up and put the mic on and just start talking. You do something that requires deep creative thought and commitment and time and balls and energy. Let me tell you why you are talented, though. Yeah, you know what? Please do. Please do. You know what I mean? First of all, you're a very talented self-deprecator because you just tore yourself a fucking new one. But second of all, you're a very talented self-deprecator because you just tore yourself a fucking new one.

But second of all, you're talented. Talent isn't just like the thing you sit down and write and get to the end of, which is like a different type of creation. But like talent is being able to talk to people. Talent is being able to communicate with human beings. I mean, you sat down and wrote a fucking rap song from front to back. You know what I mean? You did it again against fucking Rappaport and you fucking bodied it. front to back you know i feel that you did it again against fucking rap report and you fucking body back to back my guy you have talent and it's just about uh finding ways to unleash it and uh i mean kfc radio is a great way to unleash it you're a very talented

radio host so bro i don't want to hear this i don't have talent bullshit because i i frankly don't buy it well you know what thank you very much that was kFC fishing. But what you just said is the second reason why I wanted to have you on, and you just alluded to it, when I made second round TKO, and then when we did fire rap, I want to be a rapper, and you are one. Dude, who doesn't want to be a rapper? Yeah, right? But, like, that's so true, but you are. No, I'm just living out the fantasy.

I'm like the 45-year-old dude who goes to like philly's fantasy camp and pays 15 000 to go down to florida i'm just more invested in the fucking fantasy that guy is like like a delusional loser you just are a rapper some would say i'm a delusional loser no way man you are a two-time battle rap champion of the world. That is true. You know that you can flow. You know every diss week you put out, this EP you put out, it's always good feedback. People love what you do. You're a good rapper, and you know it. What's funny, though, as I went through the battle rap world,

like at the beginning, I felt like I was pretty well-liked and very novel because I am unabashedly white, and I own where I came from. But by the end of when I was leaving battle Rap, people had very much soured on it. And they're like, this guy fucking sucks. Yeah, well, guess what, bro? That's because you were at the top. It's the cycle of life.

Yeah, man. And I'd prefer that than someone being indifferent about me. Absolutely. I'd prefer someone getting pissed off. Yeah, listen, I would prefer to be the two-time champion who people hate than to be the nobody. Yes, I agree with that. They turn on you, though. The people turn on you.

No, I mean, as soon as you get a little bit of success, man, there will be haters all over. Bro, you know that. You know that for a fact. Very much so. You know that. Very much so. Through personal experience.

But I feel like at Barstool, you are one of the most well-liked guys. Bro, I appreciate that. Try to keep it that way. I appreciate that. I just try to like the that way i appreciate that yeah just i mean i just try to uh like the people that are all around me and i genuinely do like everyone that i work with i don't know why i feel that way i don't know why that's my disposition i think my dad's a lot like that he just like likes people he just genuine genuinely like enjoys other humans company and like i can spot spot

people's flaws i don't know if that's like a battle rap thing but like i know where people like are fucking up but i i find the ability know if that's like a battle rap thing, but like I know where people like are fucking up, but I find the ability to separate that and like I can still like get along. So when you meet someone or, you know, not necessarily meet for the first time, but just say you spend a weekend with them or whatever, you start to get to know somebody.

You're sizing them up. You're like, all right, this guy is clearly like a little bit insecure about his looks. So this guy, you know, you just, you're picking out their weaknesses. Like if I need to absolutely murder you verbally, I could do it.

I feel like it's even before that. It's like it's on site. Is it? I'm looking at these people walking past us and I'm like, flaw, flaw, flaw, flaw. And even if someone's perfect, I'm like, oh, look how fucking perfect you are. Yeah, you're probably insecure about how I look. Go jerk off in the mirror, fucking. That is what's funny about you, though, is that you are a really nice dude,

but you watch some of those battle raps, particularly the one with the fat guy. Really mean stuff that I said to him. It couldn't have really been meaner. Really mean. And people are like, yo, how do you even hang around fat people or whatever? And the answer is I don't. I cut fat people out of my life. I just don't. I just cut fat people out of my life. I just don't act.

No, I mean, I just find the ability to separate people's bad flaws from who they are because I just find people interesting. I just find all kinds of human beings interesting, and I don't know. I think I do a form of separation with that as well. To me, it's like I think people think that i am a uh like unhappy grumpy person because my takes on things are always negative or combative or whatever and it's really like if you hang out with me in my personal life i'm like really laid back and easygoing i don't really care about much and like pretty generally positive yeah that's like yeah that's what i mean you're just like a really generally positive person when new people come through the door, I'm trying

to encourage them and I can help them. Like, even a Bobby Fox or some shit like that. A young guy, even me, when I came in, you were just so eager to offer text help or this is good positive reinforcement feedback. I feel like you do that with everybody, but it's just like...

But when I give my rant or my take, it's always like fuck that. Nah, that guy sucks. Because I don't know. That's just where my opinions lie. But I'm able to separate the two. You can separate that from who you are as a person. You're not walking around wearing all black and fucking cutting your wrist vertically. The same way you could be like, I'm going to fucking emasculate this guy in front of the world.

But if you were to meet him in different circumstances, you'd be like, what's up, man? Tell me about your life. How are you? What are you doing? Right. Immediately, I pal around with these guys afterwards there's like a bond you get with guys it's like after a battle it's yeah it's like you fight someone and then you hug them it's like you you like have a bond and like a lot of them i'll go outside like smoke a joint with them you know what i mean like pal it up like oh i was i was gonna say this but i didn't say that like or when you said this like that was fucking crazy but you

it is genuine because it's like you went through something together yeah something about battle rap too that that people on the outside don't know like a classic like you're you want to you don't want to fucking kill the guy so bad you don't want them to fuck up because then people won't watch it back you want him to do well and you want you to do well so it's like an epic fight that everybody always wants to watch back again so you're kind of rooting for them to do well against you. You still want to win, but you want them to do well enough that people watch it. You want a seven game series. You don't want to sweep. It's not fun. You want

classics. Classic is the name of the game in Battle Rap. So my thought about Battle Raps has always been when you are not rapping, when it's his turn or her turn. You ever battle a chick? There's some. I battled a transgendered. I battled a dude who was born a dude and like claims to be a chick uh did you just crush her i did it was it was like a halloween battle so i was like bruce jenner and he was caitlyn jenner

and so like i like that though that's for the performance that's for the audience yeah it was a wrinkle but i could have gone way harder and that person went against someone like who did take the gloves off this guy pat stay was just like you are clearly a man to this fucking transgender i was shocked i was so taken aback are so are there lines you won't cross uh i guess probably circumstantially whoever the person beforehand like is there anything you don't want to say yeah but if they're like take the gloves off i've never had someone say like don't fucking don't say something specific or like i've had people be like don't talk about my family like don't talk about like i prefer if you just kept this shit out of it and you always listen i honored that have you ever not have you ever been like nah man i don't really like you and i'm gonna

fucking go in uh well i wouldn't even ask them beforehand if it was some shit like that i would just like take the gloves off and but like i mean I've said some crazy shit in battles like I said I was battling a Norwegian dude after like the fucking after the Norway tragedy when like 80 kids got shot I was like first off like to start the battle I said first off

respect to all the kids from your country that died everyone's like oh that's nice and I was like but second of all fuck all the kids from your country that died

and everyone was like oh my god they were taking it back but I mean it set the tone. You were like, that was like a time in battle rap you had to be like savage. It's a battle.

I mean, it's fucking war. You have to be savage. Like even Francis yesterday on the, when I was like helping him write some of those jokes and like,

so we, like the Syria joke or whatever, like I like kind of helped him along and that's like the gassing kids in Syria joke. It's like,

he's like wanting to go savage. So like we we kind of wrote a really, really savage joke. And when you talk about kids dying, it's like you're going there. I respect the hell out of that. I mean, there's not many people left who will say these things. I actually think that I've said, like, I think the Internet is just going to pass me by at one point, or I'm going to pass the Internet by however you want to view it like i don't think i can curtail myself or change what i do to fit the new world like i already have in a way like i used to make a lot more racist jokes yeah i used to say a lot more sexist jokes talk a different way and i've catered a little bit but i don't think i can

do much more and i think we're just only going to get more and more soft and pc or however you want to call it you don't think there's going to be a time where it tips the other way where it's just like some like i feel like there has to be like a wave of people that shock people to just like shock them i don't know i thought we i can't remember what it was there was an incident of some sort that i said you know what i think the pendulum might be swinging back because people's first reaction was like, we're being ridiculous. And I thought, you know what, I think we're gaining a little bit of steam in that direction. I think as long as Trump's around

and the world is this politicized and shit, it's got to at least be after he's out. I don't think anyone's going to be like, yeah, let's fucking go and say whatever we want because then you come off sounding like Trump and no one wants to be Trump. Right, exactly. We need someone who can just, maybe just people who can make fun of themselves. Who aren't going to be offended by every small thing.

Yeah, maybe, you know, if you can just go savage on yourself. That's the only place you can be savage, right? Exactly. It's a tough position to be in out here for us savages. Right? We're fucking willing to rip a blind Ola Honduran, fucking any of these pussies out here. Baseball Twitter. These little bitches out here that fucking can't handle the fucking heat.

I would love to get savage right now. Lord knows the world is being savage towards me, and there's just some things I can't go savage with yet. I got you, bro. I got you, man. Blighting my tongue is something I'm not very good at. Hey, man. All right, back to you, though.

So the blog you wrote about your 20s was the type of blog i think we need more of on the site i remember when i was 27 and i had my quarter life crisis awesome blog bro i i've gone back to that i was just a fan at the time of barstool and i fucking read that it was like it's awesome hit home i thought i was just my crazy self and then the reaction that i got from people there was so many people that were like oh i'm going through exactly that that i still think that i'm like more of that what do people do like what do human beings do you do like what do you do after work what what what are you doing like what is your thing that you do like am i supposed to take a painting class what do i do

go to a museum was what my friend said i don't fucking go to a museum that's why i mean i think you drink and i think you chase girls or guys like that's what you do yeah hobbies i don't know you rap maybe yeah you just need something to like to light a fire under you like i mean are people get into gambling like i can't like get mad at someone for fucking gambling you need advice you need advice at some point in your life addiction a vice uh something to take the that edge out yeah because i mean fucking like what are you gonna do like i was watching 600 pound life last night and this fucking 600 pound woman and her 600 pound daughter were fucking furious at their fucking stepdad because he went to the casino with a hundred dollars and was gambling so what

the fuck do you want this dude to do you want want him to sit at home with fucking your 1,200 pounds of fucking ass and fucking just marinate around in your fucking inability to change your lives? Like, let him go to the casino and lose his hundred in fucking peace, please. Yo, if you are 600 pounds, beggars cannot be choosers. The fact that you have a husband is bananas. They're, like, telling him to, like, man up. Like, bitch, woman up. Fucking, like, give him an environment that is suitable for him to live in as well.

Woman down. Right. Woman down a few hundred pounds. Yeah, woman down 800 pounds between the two of you. Jesus Christ, man. Still be big ladies. I love 600 pound life, though. What a guilty pleasure.

That is. Because you know what? You feel so much better about yourself afterwards. Hell yeah, bro. I'm fucking crushing dominoes while I'm feeling slim. I got plenty of pounds to go, baby. Wait a second. I got room in this body. So the blog you wrote was just your 20s,

and it captured everything from the first battle you were talking about through becoming a champion and, you know, your life. And you've lived a – I don't know if people can relate to that specifically because ain't nobody else out there a battle rap champion, but they are in their own right of something. You know, then I got a job as a lawyer, and I made it to the top of the firm, or whatever it may be. You have your thing that you can relate to for that.

The decade of your 20s, I think, is the most important decade of your life. Very formative. They're very formative. Everything else before that, you're a kid, and you're in school. And you make no choices. Right. Your choices are made for you. It's the first time you're doing what you want to do.

And it's like, I could do this, and my life will go this direction. Like, I can pursue rap, and my life will go this direction, or I can fucking reply at JG Wentworth again and try and get that fucking 1-800-I-NEED-CASH-NOW fucking money and just, like, sit in an office. What would you have done? What would my job have been? I mean, what did you do before Barstool and before, you know,

you make money, but it's not a career. Not a great amount of money. I mean, like, by the time I got into where I was at, I was making, like, $3,000 a battle or something like that. It's a nice little chunk of change, but you're not living off that. Yeah, exactly. Unless you, can you live off that? Like, could you battle, like, fucking a hundred times a year?

Yeah, like, I would, like, battle, like, do a battle a month or some shit like that and, like, do a couple other things, like that. I would like battle like, do a battle a month or some shit like that and like do a couple other things like make some money off music, like make some money here and there like doing like smaller gigs and like cobble together a low level salary.

Right. There's like doing all that shit to put together to be like working like, you're getting McDonald's money. And that's a grind, man. It's not sweet. It's a fucking grind.

It's your passion and you love it but you don't want to do it like that. Yeah, I was like, I was cutting roast beef for a living that that was fucking slicing up roast beef for like three years bro it was like a roast beef restaurant it was like we were like the center of this restaurant it was working there with two of my friends and we were just it's like outside of philly in a place called ye old ale house in lafayette hill okay just working with two of my best friends and we were just going and have so much fucking fun at work. I was going to say, that sounds like a very nice, peaceful, enjoyable life.

It was like workaholics, if they had been working at a roast beef restaurant. We were whooping it up. One guy came up to us as he was leaving the restaurant one time, and he was like, I wrote a book, and it's called On, and it's about being on every single day. And no one has embodied this more than the three of you that I just watched behind this counter. And he signed the book for us, and we, like, put it up behind the counter. We just gave him hearty handshakes and had a big smile. But, like, I just enjoyed the shit out of life when I was working fucking making $10 an hour fucking running roast beef.

Yo, there's something about, like, a peaceful, simple life that is very appealing to me right now. Like, this shit, what we do is weird. It's very strange. I never in a million years ever thought I would be, have any sort of public life. It's crazy. There's so much scrutiny that comes with it. Yeah. Like, if you are, like, I, you know, you're a stud Yeah. If you are like, you know you're a stud athlete,

and you're like, I might make it one day, and I'm going to be famous. Or you know you can sing your dick off, and you're like, I'm going to be famous. So you start to prepare for it. You want it. I never thought it was going to happen, and I definitely didn't want it. I still don't want it. And so when you have it, it's awkward. Right.

And people are like, oh, you have a dream job. How could you get nervous about your work? How could you get the Sunday scaries? It's like, this is a crazy high-pressure environment where people rip you apart, and for whatever psychological reason, every little thing that you read about you that's negative resonates way more than any of the big things that are positive.

So it's mentally so exhausting to have to try and please everybody at all times. And I'm happy that I had life in the cube before it because I honestly, that's my bulletin board material of like, you're not in the cube and you don't ever want to go back to the cube. It's like jail for me. It's like live the straight and narrow so you don't go back to jail. I don't ever want to go back, and I got a taste of how mundane and monotonous it could be.

So I'm happy to put up with all that shit but yeah it's like you know i don't have sunday scaries like i can't go into that place but i have sunday sunday scaries like i got three podcasts and like david fucking ripped me apart because of this and i need to figure out how i'm gonna and especially with all my personal shit now it's like i wish i could snap my fingers and just become completely anonymous but there's a simplicity to the roast beef cutter life where it's just like fuck like you're just working in a restaurant trying to make this next meal and like you're not worried about anything other than getting the fucking cheese melted right it's like you man it's like my man bi said no money no problems you're not lying bro you're not lying it's crazy how uh that there's some truth to that man there's some fucking truth to that that line as

as obnoxious as it sounds because once you're making millions like who cares but things get so much more complicated when you just don't live that simple life but you went from cutting the roast beef which is all well and good you're for a reason. You obviously are chasing this for a reason. So you had a moment where you were like, fuck it. I got an interview on Static Select on his show on SiriusXM. And I only found out about it that day. So I told my boss, like, I have to go to New York for this thing. And I didn't make it back in time for my shift that night.

And I got fired from the beef cutting job. Wow. And I was like, you know what? Dude dude that's fuck it i'm out i'm out of the beef cutting sometimes you need that like yeah like i like i think sometimes getting fired can be the best thing for you like sometimes life makes the decision for you yeah that you might be too scared or too lazy to make on your own but it's like all right well that yeah the die has been cast like i'm fucking about like all right i'm doing it now and it's not like that day i was like rich off of it like and i did have like other ways like other shitty jobs that i did to make money but like that was the last time i was like just like clocking it at something that like didn't inspire

me you know i i worked at a company before right before barstool called uji wuji it was like a fucking news like website where i like i where I would just write articles online. It was some shit like that. It was a pretty shitty, stupid fucking job, but you know what I mean? It was a gig that got me into Barstool. Yeah, I'm such a firm believer now in that everything you do builds for a reason. I did a stint at WFUV, the radio station at Fordham.

Really? I did probably two and a half years. That's a healthy stint. What kind of shit were you doing there? It was sports radio. How long were your shows? It wasn't like that because I was so low level.

They do a Saturday show called One on One, which is like a Mike Francesco type of show. I got to host that one time only, because that was for the top dogs. And that was like a big moment. This is where Tommy Smokes works now. WFUV is like a major college station, because they get credentials for all the local teams.

So you're a college kid, but you're on the Giants beat, the Yankees beat, the Mets beat. You're in the locker room. That's fire. Yeah. So I made a couple small little vignettes, But you're on the Giants beat, the Yankees beat, the Mets beat. You're in the locker room. That's fire. Yeah. So I made a couple small little vignettes, little pieces. I covered a minor league team.

I covered the Staten Island Yankees and the Brooklyn Cyclones, the Mets team. And I would make this a weekly feature called Life in the Minors. So that week I would go and I'd interview all the players about, what's your favorite superstition? What's your biggest superstition? And then that week I would cut the audio and the music and put it all together. You cut it? Very low level.

Right, right. But I had someone who knew what they were doing more so do those things. But then basically I was making no money and I was staring down the barrel of like, in radio you make like $25,000 a year until maybe you hit and you get big. And if you get a job you make $25,000 a year until you, maybe you hit and you get big. And if you get a job, you make $25,000 a year.

It's like so many people don't even fucking get that job. Like they don't even get that first gig. It's crazy. And also I learned real quick, I didn't like mixing business with pleasure. So I met, I interviewed Mike Piazza in spring training one year and he like totally shut me down and shit on me.

Really? It ruined Mike Piazza for you? Yeah, kind of in a way. I asked him at the time the Mets had just gotten, I think they just hired Willie Randolph it was. So I was like, you know, new manager in the building, like what's different now? Compare and contrast art house style with Willie Randolph style.

And he was like, what kind of question is that? That's a great question, actually. The fuck do you mean? And I'm 20, dickhead. Like, fuck off. Yeah, and I think his point was like, you're asking me to basically like bash my old manager. But I didn't. You could have answered it any way you wanted.

I thought that was a valid question. Maybe it is, maybe it isn't. Maybe it's a big thing. One's more hands-on, one's more analytics-based. For sure, yeah. Like, fucking give me an answer. Like, are you really going to fucking shit on me? But I think I was the 20-year-old kid, and I think I was kind of milling around the locker room.

I looked out of place, and he just shit on me. And I also remember one game the Mets had a go-ahead grand slam in the late innings, and I was in the press box, and I cheered, and everyone kind of looked at me like, and I was like, you know what? I'm out. Fuck all you. So I had the same reaction around journalism people.

I fucking worked at the Daily Collegian, my college newspaper, writing there for two years at Penn State. And I felt so out of place in that newsroom, bro. All these people were just serious, but they're fucking nerds, bro. I couldn't enjoy myself among any of them. They took themselves way too seriously. And that's when it becomes a job. That's when you do get the Sunday scaries. You guys suck.

Yes. You guys suck. Like, I'm not trying to be among you. But my point was that, like, then all of a sudden, 10 years later, I'm at Barstool, and we're talking about trying to make a storyboards podcast where it's like a documentary. And all of a sudden, I was like, wait a minute. I got a little bit of experience. Yeah. So, like, you do these jobs at Oogie Woogie or whatever it may be.

And at the time, you think, like, I'm never going to use this. bit of experience yeah so like you do these jobs at oogie woogie or whatever whatever may be and at the time you think like i'm never going to use this and all of a sudden you know you find yourself like oh wait a minute i know i have experience in this already i wrote my first blog post for barstool from my desk at oogie woogie right you know what i mean like i was like still working there and i was like on company time there yeah right in for bar i mean i know that game well the doy thing was like i was basically able to pay the bills while I did my, you know,

tried to pursue my dream job and if I didn't have that job, who knows if I would have. So like, even when you're doing something you fucking hate, you recognize that there might be value in it that you can't even see yet.

You don't even understand it yet. And keep on, find the shit that you like to do and just like, be doing that like, for you on the side, no matter what. You don't have to immediately turn it into something huge, but it's like, if you like writing about and just like be doing that like for you on the side no matter what you don't have to immediately turn it into something huge but it's like if you like writing about sports or like

you want to interview someone like fucking a microphone costs like 19 you know what i mean in 2018 there are no excuses which is scary for some people because it's like you say this is your dream and you love doing it well then how come you're not doing it right like if you truly love it right you're writing for nobody you're singing songs that nobody's listening to you're just doing for yourself right so you people who say this is like oh this is all i want to do it's like are you saying that or are you about that and the best person the best person almost never rises to the top like the person that does it like the most often has the most reps doing it and puts himself out there the most oh yeah person that fucking gets the top.

I mean, to go back to the earlier part of the conversation about talent, I look at Dan, who just has a natural comedic presence. You look at Francis, who's like, this guy, he can sing, he can perform. That ain't me, but I'm going to do seven podcasts a week. I'm going to be live on the radio, and I'm going to do like seven podcasts a week right i'm going to be live on the radio i'm gonna write i mean when i used to i don't write much anymore but i would write 24 7 i would write all the time early on on the weekends like i'm gonna outgrind it yes as much as i talk about mail time and being lazy it's like it you just have you grind it if you don't like yeah you mail in the things that don't matter and you fucking grind on the things that matter to you. Exactly. Work smarter, not harder.

100%. So you're at Oogie Woogie. How does the Smitty connection barstool arrive for you? I met Smitty like two years before when Mo left and I was trying to get in that position. I was like, oh, there's an opening? Let me fucking slide in here. And you had just been reading as a fan. You just knew.

You picked up Barstool like everybody else did. It's crazy that we're even recording this today because the first sample blog I wrote was after the Eagles draft that year. I don't even remember who their first round pick is. I remember they drafted Bo Allen, and I fucking wrote eight sample blogs a day on this shitty website, like a fucking fake Tumblr burner account that I was trying to get into smitty and i met him even later that summer but like i was a little bit buzzed when i met him and i thought it was going to be like the meeting i thought it was going to make everything official and like even as i walked up to him like he like uh someone was

trying to take a picture with him so they gave me the phone they're like take a picture or whatever and i flipped the camera around and i took about 20 pictures of myself because i was fucked up and i gave it back to them and i think smitty didn't like me right away and so i think that i burned the bridge like immediately and like i was an asshole and then uh like so so two years went by they hired jordy instead of me they were like it's down to you or one other guy and it wound up being two extra years of rome but he decided to be a dick with the cell phone i was a fucking dickhead at like the white briar and avalon or some shit like that happy hour it's a good little tidbit hey incredible tidbit i was a fucking smacked ass i was immediately regretful i was like oh my god i'm a fuck why if i'm trying to get a job like why would i not just

take a picture of the dude who's fucking could hire me like i'm a fucking moron but uh i was trying to get in so i like, like, took this other job. It looked like it wasn't going to happen at Barstool. But then, honestly, the door reopened when I heard that Chernin bought Barstool. And it was like, oh, shit, like, they're about to get a fucking little boost of spending. And then that summer...

Yeah, it was like cash to float around. Yeah, and I was like, I hit up Smitty. I was like, I saw that they didn't... While you were at Oogie Woogie stuff? I was still at... I was at Oogie Woogie just for, like, a year. It was, like, a pretty short thing. This rapper named Danny Chung, who I name drop on this fucking, on this record.

It's like I did work with Danny Chung. And what's crazy about that is like I later went on to write for the show, Drop the Mic, where I wrote for this actor who was on the show Veep. And he played a character named Danny Chung. It was a self-fulfilling prophecy. I worked for this guy named Danny Chung, who we fucking did a bunch of drugs at the office with. He snorted his annex off the fucking desk. And we just fucked around for a year at Uji Wujie because they had a fucking investor.

It looked like Uji Wujie was going to close. I was like, let me try and get this Sixers writing job at Barstool. And I sent some sample blogs over. I sent a big, long sample blog over to Smitty the year that they drafted. I think it was a Ben Simmons draft. Yeah, the Ben Simmons they took first overall. Yeah, because he got hurt that second year. And they put that on the site.

He was like, this is good, man. This is damn good. He remembered it. And I kind of got a foot in the door, beat the drum that summer. I was so nervous to come to Barstool. site he was like this is good man this is damn good like he he like remembered it and uh i kind of got a foot in the door like beat the drum that summer like i was so nervous to come to barstool i was so nervous to like put out content because like i can't if i were you man after being a fucking world champion battle rapper i don't think i'd be nervous about anything ever again bro but so the first like one of the first blogs i put up on barstool was like an old video i'd done

in college where I did a man on the street interviewing people pretending to be from Ohio State while I was at Penn State, just making fun of Penn State fans. And the comment section killed me. And I put so much weight in that at the time. And they're like, look at this fucking faggot. But at the time, it's like, oh, this is the first thing I put up, and everyone hates it. And so it intimidated me.

It scared me from like, I was just like, I'm worried about, like, fucking, like, just getting fucking slammed out here. And, like, I even said that to Smitty, and he was like, to his credit, he was like, bro, I get worried every day, but I'm, like, nervous about it every day, and I just fucking get over that shit and put it out. Anybody who says that they don't read, and this is in any line of work, you don't read the comments the twitter feedback you don't care what your your co-workers say whatever your form of feedback is anybody who says they don't pay attention is a liar right anybody who says i don't care is also a liar you you just have to have a level of not caring like i know that i get crushed i know everyone's gonna make fun of me now for the rest of my life with all my shit you just can't let it affect what you do right right right like let it in it's almost like in batman when he's like let the fear in

and handle it like that's what you have to do it's like let the haters in acknowledge it but understand that you just can't define like let it define what you do i like to also consider what the haters might be might be up to like in their lives maybe it's like his birthday he's desperate to get a joke off and he hasn't no one's laughed at his jokes in so long and so this is his joke that he's getting off and like all right i'll let you have that one bro like you got your joke bro it's probably your birthday bro let's get you guys you got your joke bro enjoy yourself man it's gotta be your birthday concocting these personalities maybe he's got cancer and like you just need to i feel bad for him bro you know what those those things that you concoct in your head probably are true half the time with a lot of the fucking malpractice.

Oh, my God. I clicked on the fucking IP address shit for the first time. We can, like, on our back end, we can look at the people's IP addresses. Like, every negative comment has, like, 18 other accounts where they only post negative comments. I had no idea. It's, like, fucking shocking. The comment burners. Y'all are talking to yourselves out here?

Yep. They really are, man. They really are are i was shocked when i saw that times especially recently i'll see someone like i'll roast somebody like quote tweet them so everyone sees it then all of a sudden i see like a like a fake account pop up like kfc cheated and then i see that person like retweeting that new account i'm like i wonder who that is It's very easy to connect the dots on the haters. And I honestly wish I was at a point where I did that. I don't even see those. I don't even, it doesn't even affect me.

But like I'm saying, I'm being honest that like you do see those things. You do say, fuck you, but you just don't, I'm not going to stop doing what I do. You want to do a good job at your job. Like you want to do like, you want to please the people. We're in the entertainment business. Like there is like a, are you not entertained like aspect of what the what we're doing like it's not like we're just like fucking crunching numbers in a vacuum there is like something we're doing it for people you say i don't care it's like yeah you are literally performing for other people you absolutely care you wouldn't be on the stage if you didn't care

exactly it's like okay but like let's let's not lie to ourselves let's not lie to one another yeah so so you write this and i remember seeing seeing your blog pop up and there's always a level because things are so toxic and because dave has created this uh this fucked up world of like competition and like and rivalries i remember being like what's this roan roan what does not even mean like we got a rags and her rigs like we got a roan now who is this guy one syllable r words out of here but but i you know i read and i realize you know what you're talking about with with uh the sixers and then someone's like oh he's a battle rapper i'm like what does that mean battle rapper like you're fucking sitting in your frat basement and then i look you up and i was like oh he's a battle rapper oh i. Oh, I get it. And that's when I wanted to become Roan.

That's when I wanted to, like, I want to be Roan when I grow up. It is funny when someone new comes in that there is, like, a layer of just, like, guarding the, like, shield type shit where it's like, man, like, you think you're about to come in here and just, like, seamlessly integrate yourself with everything we've been doing. Like, even, like, I look back on my first interview that when Yp came on like dave's old show his old podcast like and he was like i watched it with yp before he was like

you were kind of like cold towards me during this shit i was like bro another fucking rapper coming in here like what am i about to hire my replacement yeah you got it yeah you can't like you can't let yourself get wally pipped you gotta like you know keep your own hold your own exactly keep all the talent out of barstool i mean i don't need people to keep on saying I'm talented. I'm not trying to hire someone who's better than me. No, hell no. I mean, I wish it was a kumbaya atmosphere, but it fucking ain't. That's for certain.

But I feel like you've just fully established yourself at this point, man. I could not believe when you just told me that you started on the Ben Simmons draft, because I thought it has been much longer than that. I feel like you're already a part of the fabric of everything so much that I can't believe it's only been a couple years.

Yeah, I definitely tried to come in. It was also important to me when I came to Barstool to come in pretty quiet or just personally quiet. I feel like any time you're in a new scenario and you start trying to be making jokes with people or create relationships that aren't there or inserting yourself into humor inorganically, I feel like that shit rings so false. And I feel like people can sense that. So I just wanted to build relationships on personal levels with people and then wisely make my way through. It's such a fine line because you want to make a name for yourself. You want to be known.

You want to be liked and, you know, be successful. But especially here where you're in a fishbowl, you're under the magnifying glass, and if anybody gets the sense that you're faking it or forcing it. Obnoxious or over the top. Yeah. You're fucked. And that's like you have to wear that. It's a scarlet letter that will fucking sit on your chest until you can fucking shake it. So, and then, you know, you write the Sixers blog, and then along comes Caleb, and you link up with him.

Yeah, I got here, I got, it's my first day, or I came to Barstool. You came along. Caleb was, who was first? Caleb was working at Barstool, but when I got to Barstool, I was, I, like, interviewed for, like, three days. I, like, came up for a week i shot a pilot in in california uh for an mtv show uh and it was like a show where we were supposed to like wrap the news and it was like really well done pilot like beautiful like studio and everything like that but the show just wasn't that good and i knew then that it wasn't going to work and that next week i had uh i had this bar stool like I like a week I was supposed to

come up here for like three days or something like that and so I came up like wrote some sample articles wrote some sample blogs or whatever uh wrote a rap about Dave's eyes were fucked at the time remember that one and then so he hired me uh and I came in on uh the 31st of October that year on Halloween was my first day uh and, and Caleb was away at that time. He was still on his college tour. So like my first like month or so, I was just like a little free agent, like bouncing around the office, uh, just trying to make a video here or there. I did the election video, which was like my second week. And that kind of like put me on the map. Like, and everyone was like, once Caleb comes back, he'll work well with him. He came back,

we started doing B-boy stance. Was there, was there any, was that, once Caleb comes back, he'll work well with him. He came back. We started doing B-boy stance. Was there any, was that seamless? Because, like, me and, like, everybody does seem to kind of buddy up and pair off, and that's when people really seem to thrive is when you have a partner in crime. Right. Like, but me and Fights really, like, was so organic. Yeah. Dan and PFT kind of had their connection outside of work, and then they were like, let's do this together.

But you guys, it was kind of like you said people almost telling you this guy Caleb, not like you have to work with him but you guys are going to work well and it just did? or did you find yourself being like I have to make this work? one of the first things I did with Barstool before I got hired into the New York office

Caleb had me on his podcast and he interviewed me and so he and I talked for like we did an hour long an hour-long interview. He just asked about, like, battle rap and, like, very general stuff, like, a long time ago. He's a music connection there. Right, right. He's the guy you are, yeah.

Exactly. So we, he and I, I knew him. I had, like, talked to him. Like, I'd never talked to anyone in Barstool for an hour. So I talked to him more than I had talked to anybody else when I first got hired. But then it was just, like, I guess like i have like i don't know if i have like a really bizarre sense of humor but like i can like play ball with like his really bizarre sense of humor right and so like i i could like i could like i could do the same like shit as him

like i could speak that language right and so like it kind of made sense for him pretty rare that he meets someone who's kind of like i bet you know he said some weird shit and when you came right back at him he was probably like like we're talking weird shit huh yeah and so yeah this is this is gonna work it's like when you click with a girl it's like oh okay yeah this is gonna this is gonna be just fine exactly yeah it was it was almost the same thing with like buddha ben like buddha ben got hired at the same time and like me and him will just like smoke backwards every day it was just like oh like this kind of kind of makes sense like it's just like this puzzle piece fits right exactly so then yeah you got your you got your crew and that develops uh into young and happy and then young and happy kind of spirals into

fifth year right fifth year and that was i mean that was a wild one that was a hell of an experience the age of fucking like 29 that's one thing when're 21. I can't believe you were doing that at 29. Man, was I fucking jealous. Bro, no, I couldn't believe it either. It was like, I mean, you'd think that we were just like fucking raging every single night. But by the end of the night, almost every single Saturday night, we were back in our hotel room at like 930 just being like, I'm washed. I definitely feel that. But even just getting to be at some of the games at some of the

tailgates oh that's cool if you wanted to fucking cut loose and turn up you could if you wanted to lay low you're fine but just the opportunity

to do all that I mean the reason I always knew I would fit at Barstool just apropos of nothing else is that I like really am a sports fan

like I really like sports like so being able to go to these games and shit like that and like the fact that like we can like kind of call and like get go to these games and shit like that, and the fact that we can kind of call and get tickets to any sporting event. I could have gone to the Super Bowl if I really begged to go, or the NCAA championship if I really wanted to.

That shit is still really cool to me. That shit is like I'm still charmed by that kind of thing. And so going out to all these college football campuses is very bucket list. No, I feel that. But I remember I had a conversation with you at one point, and I said, I know you want to probably spread your wings. I know you want to get into more sports, and you want to do other things. But you are a world-class rapper.

So fucking rap. You did tell me that. You definitely did. And it's very interesting that you just said a minute ago that you were on a show, a failed show, but it was about wrapping the news for that week. Right. And lo and behold, bingo bango, like I said, sometimes things come full circle. This week comes out. Right, right, right.

And you were definitely a proponent of this week just being like, yo, you have to fucking. You have to wrap. If I were you, I would never stop wrapping. Even like the Santa Claus diss or whatever. Like fucking dissing Dave's eyes. Did a million views in like a heartbeat. Yeah, there was a lot of stuff. You definitely like encouraged me to do all that kind of shit.

Dave a couple times brought it up as well. He'll tell you that. It's a differentiator, man. It's like, you know, a lot of us can crack jokes or talk sports, but you can do something that literally nobody else in the world can do. Yeah, no, it's a very, it's a useful skill for me just to be able to write a punchline and make something rhyme with it. But it definitely has served me really well.

And I don't put out this week every week because I do worry that it could get corny or you're listening to the same thing every time or I'm making another Donald Trump joke or some shit like that. I'm trying to keep it different than just the monologue that you see at the beginning of your late night show every time or like i'm making what another donald trump joke or some shit like that like i'm trying to keep it different than just like the monologue that you see at the beginning of your late night show every time yeah yeah but so like when the news is worthy of it and also i mean rapaport pops off when every every time anytime that which is almost this is almost a testament to how often i'm out of the office but every time i've been in the office for like five straight

days like i'll fucking do it this week yeah you're always on the go man yeah i'm fucking i do travel a lot we're working on this uh this travel show right now uh we're about to go out to to nevada to to shoot an episode it's going to be interesting man dude i barely i get off the couch i go in the office i go back you guys all over the world it's unbelievable how you can do barstool in different ways though you know what i mean it's like for sure i can just be locked in that studio seven days a week you can be flying all over someone tell me because he's still getting pissed at me for like not sitting next to him blogging every day he's like you're not working because you haven't there's no there's no pleasing nate bro but he is the the enforcer he is i've talked to caleb about that he's like he's like talking about like just showing up in

the office so like he doesn't get in trouble with people like who are you talking about just like with me like i'm not trying to get fucking... You get spider monkey, bro. Body by Nate. Tell me I don't work hard because you haven't seen every bit of work that I've done. It's unbelievable. He's like a math teacher. Show your work and shit.

And then somewhere in between, you work out your own personal music and drop an EP. It's unreal. How long have you been working on Stake? I actually recorded Stake the week before I got hired for Barstool. Wow. So you did sit on it for a while. I sat. Those were done?

Completed? It was like, I mean, we remastered a bunch of songs. Right, right. Some of the stuff sounded differently, but from my vocal performance aspect, it was completely done, ready to go then. But I mean, my following and everything has grown so much that it's like, oh, why not put that shit out now when all these other people can see it? You know what I mean? than but i mean my like following and everything has grown so much that it's like oh why not put that shit out now and all these other people can can see it you know what i mean it's grown

like fivefold you know fourfold it's very very cool man it's very impressive and like i said i think you're the most talented guy here so bro you're the man you're the man and hey you're pretty talented yourself just keep rapping man all right i want to be a rapper so fucking bad i won't cut it out when i did when i did those two songs what two song and i wrote a verse you know i remember just being like i was like this is so cool this is so fun satisfies like a part of like your body that wants to be creative like you just like when you create something i didn't even know i could do i'm like wow i can like i can do this like one percent one percent of what rome can do i can do and that's like oh shit how good does it feel to like say something that you're like oh like that yeah

when i when i put out the uh the battle rap with dave like just enough people being like yo this this is pretty fire i remember mo at the time he was like yo you can kind of like spit bars i was like i don't know about that but that reaction is incredible good bro yeah because you still don't know there's always like a seed is incredible. Feels good, bro. Because you still don't know. There's always a seed of self-doubt in everyone and me, especially. You put out a song when you don't... I don't write. I don't do music, so I put out a song. I was like,

I do a podcast every day of my life, and I get worried about what the reaction to a podcast is going to be. I do a song all of a sudden. I was like, this could go one way or the other. I was definitely a little nervous to put this out to the Barstool audience because it's a humor-based brand, Barstool, obviously. And this shit is not necessarily funny.

No, it's not a little dicky. It's not like humor rap. It's like a real fucking rap song. Yeah, it's talking about some real shit. I was definitely nervous to put that in front of people, but I'm lucky that I put it out on my birthday. No one could say a bad word about it. Very nice.

Nah, man, that shit, you can put that out on any day. People are going to call a fire. It's very well done. And all the work you've been doing here is very good, so keep it up. Hey, appreciate you, bro. Likewise, man. Keep this shit up, man. Who are you going to have on here next?

I don't know. There's, you know, a severe drop-off from talent. Stop. Nah, we'll see who's next. Maybe I'll just make fun of Francis for an hour. We'll see. That's not bad, man. He's got a hell of a story. Everybody's got stories here. That's the thing. Everybody's got – in their own way. Like, how'll see who's next. Maybe I'll just make fun of Francis for an hour. We'll see. That's not bad, man. He's got a hell of a story.

Everybody's got stories here. That's the thing. Everybody's got in their own way. Like, how'd you get here? No one's born on the blog except for, like, 15-year-old Steve. And even that story. Like, what'd you do? I don't know.

Even Robbie Fox has a million pictures, stories, and shit that he did before. Some way that you end up here. So I'm looking forward to your blog, My 30s, in 10 years. So we'll do this again in 10 years, bro. Hell yeah. Thanks, man. Thanks for having me. Happy birthday.

Yep.