No Jumper - God Tier Podcast #4 - Xzibit Discusses Battle Rap, His Career, & The Future Of The Industry

Episode Date: March 28, 2022

Xzibit shows support to Dizaster and Lush, and stopped by to talk about how the industry changed, the evolution of battle rap, the peak of his career in the 2000s, never compromising his artistic integrity while going mainstream, building several businesses and more. https://www.instagram.com/xzibit/ https://www.instagram.com/mrdizaster/ https://www.instagram.com/lushoneca/ ----- NO JUMPER PATREON http://www.patreon.com/nojumper CHECK OUT OUR NEW SPOTIFY PLAYLIST https://open.spotify.com/playlist/5te... FOLLOW US ON SNAPCHAT FOR THE LATEST NEWS & UPDATES https://www.snapchat.com/discover/No_... CHECK OUT OUR ONLINE STORE!!! http://www.nojumper.com/ SUBSCRIBE for new interviews (and more) weekly: http://bit.ly/nastymondayz  Follow us on SPOTIFY: https://open.spotify.com/show/4ENxb4B... iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/n... Follow us on Social Media: https://www.snapchat.com/discover/No_... http://www.twitter.com/nojumper http://www.instagram.com/nojumper https://www.facebook.com/NOJUMPEROFFI... http://www.reddit.com/r/nojumper JOIN THE DISCORD: https://discord.gg/Q3XPfBm Follow Adam22: https://www.tiktok.com/@adam22 http://www.twitter.com/adam22 http://www.instagram.com/adam22 adam22hoe on Snapchat Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

God tier podcast live on No Jumper, the coolest battle rap podcast in the world with my co-host. Reping the streets with disaster, lush Uno and the X to the Z. Y'all know what it is. Yeah, what up. Be back in a bag. Come on, man.

Man, man. Yeah, congratulations, Diz, man. I appreciate you, bro. Shout out to No Jumper. Adam, you my dog. You know, always good to come and support the platform. And my brother, man. You know what I'm saying?

And you too. And you too. It's love to us. Nah, you know what, man, like you've been real as fuck from day one with this, with this battle shit, with just supporting what we do with knowing, like, you know what I'm saying, how important it is to have that, you know, that iconic, you know, mentorship towards a grassroots movement, kind of like what a lot of our emcees don't really understand. And I feel like you're at the top of the list as those guys that has kept your finger on

the pulse, kept stayed in the mix, and just always just motivated us and shown us love, man. Well, that's what we came from, you know, back in, you know, when I was first coming out before I was a signed artist, you know, I'll come from that. Like, we were, we were battling, you know what I'm saying? Like, it was a different type of thing. Like, we would come with, like, like, writings, and, you know what I'm saying? Like, you would have to go to unity, and, you know what I'm saying? It was like song for song. And then, you know, like, David Faustino used to have a thing back in the day.

So we go up there, and that was, and then it was also, like, we go up to, like, to wake up show and, like, go up there. And that was like, you know, you eat or get eight. You know what I'm saying? Man, you were. That was kind of where we cut our teeth. Yeah, I mean, seeing like, yeah, because you, you were around a lot of the stuff that was going on out here, too. And I'm pretty sure you remember, like, there was the rap Olympics going on probably at the time. And, you know, all that stuff that was going on.

And Keras1 was doing, I think that's what juice and, uh, juice and supernat. And I'm pretty sure you're really like. I'm in the internet was there. You know, yeah. Yeah. Yeah, it was like, and, you know, Rimefest. That was like, that was like, man, we was just talking about Ryan Fest. Yeah.

For sure. Ronfess, who, when he was literally assigned artist by Kanye was writing Jesus Wax, was still battling in Scribble Jam, MC tournaments, and won that shit in 2003. Come on. Now, here's the thing, because you've done a battle, like, you've battled before. Yeah. And people don't know because maybe they've seen you battle in like eight mile before or something like that, but you've actually battled for real.

That was a fucking script. Right? That was a movie. That was a fucking script. Exactly. So, so. Let's keep it a honey. Mike from the character you played, Mike would have stopped a mud hole in B. Rabbit's chest if that was real life.

He's not getting disrespected like that. Yeah, right? No, but what could you tell us about the experiences you had, I guess, just coming up out here, you know what I'm saying? And before it became such a more like mainstream accepted thing to battle, like what kind of run-ins did you have with people, I guess, that battle out here? here, you know I mean? I mean, well, it was just, it was, it was friendly competition, man. It wasn't like, I think the biggest thing was like there was, there was a cultural shift during the time when we were coming out.

There was like the far side was coming out. Freestyle Fellowship was coming out. Shout out to that, man. You know, volume 10 was breaking through, you know what I'm saying? And it was like the good life kind of style. And then there was like the unity type of style. And that was like the biggest kind of thing that was happening. And then, you know what I'm saying, like the way we got together, like me, Rass,

or fear and all these other guys, we were like A-alikes. So, you know, we kind of like went at it like that. And then again, our biggest platform was like going up to like, you know, the wake-up show and Julio G and just like barring out. You know what I'm saying? Has anyone ever challenged you randomly? Like, yo, exhibit battle me type of shit. No, they knew they knew to be careful.

You know what I'm saying? Because it was like, like I said, it was like a, it was like, it was, like a, it was like a field. You know what I'm saying? Like you're going out on the battlefield and, you know, when the mic came on and the beat came on, it was like, nobody liked to challenge you straight up. But it was just like, you know, when somebody was like hitting a certain level, oh, you got to go up.

And then when that level started getting up here, it was just like a whole shit. Yeah, yeah, outdo each other. So before. Y'all take it to a whole other level. Yeah, no. Yo, you, man, when I see you battle, man, it's like, how long do you take? You study these motherfuckers, man. I mean, for the most part, yeah, but I don't have to, but yeah, for the most part, we do.

Do you whiteboard the shit? You know what I said? That's an interesting thing. For the most of my career, I didn't, but sometimes I get so angry and so focused that I will whip out a wall and just like I'll look like one of them like CIA agent, like conspiracy, theory, people like linking up the strings, all that. I see you put it together, man. And then, you know what I'm saying? It's like, you Hulk smash on niggins. And I'm like, okay, yeah, that's my guy right there.

Kind of take that to do that. The thing is with y'all y'all, y'all, I'm gonna let you hold that. But when y'all came in, you kind of, you guys were more of the don't disrespect me type of era. Like the West Coast kind of changed the whole like hippity hip-hop to like this shit can get gangster right now. So people stop. What was you saying? No, I was going to say back in the day, Diz literally had his home screen on his phone. Oh yeah.

I'd have like a picture of like somebody I'm battling with like different like, like I turned him into a road. and I had all these different like uh... sit in them for a rodent and I just had to look at it like that every day because I brainwashed myself into thinking my opponent is a rodent. Okay, got it. It gets deep. It gets deep. So uh...

Yeah, noted. Pretty crazy. Don't be on motherfucking dizzy screen screen. That's what you're getting into if you battle this rule. Yeah, because like it is, it is kind of a, um, it's just like sports, bro, you got to focus and just, you know, whenever your eyes on the prize, I'm, you know, you know, whenever your eyes on the prize, I'm, you know, you know, you know, it's like, it's like, it's like, it's it's it's Like the last week of my battles, bro, like I just kind of, you know, when I'm at my best, I tunnel vision on that person and everything becomes about them. I don't even give a shit.

I start thinking like, what would I do if I was him? Yeah. And like, that's what I do. Like, I become the person I'm battling. Like, you know what I understand that, man. Yeah, that's what it takes to win, I feel. I understand. It's definitely changed.

I think what you guys have done to push the culture and to bring it to what it is. Like a lot is resting on your shoulders, bro. Bro, you know it. So, you know, there's a lot of guys out there that I respect, you know what I'm saying, but I've seen you really take it, you know, to heart and really take it on your shoulders and run forward with it. Yeah, man, I appreciate you because, you know, hearing that from you guys, man, and you're not even guys, your guy, you're exhibit, you know what I'm saying?

Like, you know, when we look at, like, you know how our, how we felt about the West coming up, you know what I'm saying? And, like, now we're more open to all of it, but, you know, coming up, this was our building blocks. Come on, come on. You know, we never, you see what it is. Like, bro, like, you got to understand, like, and as crazy as this sounds, like, you were on my wall when I was younger, bro. Oh, dope, man.

You know what I'm saying? Like, you, Snoop, you know, Drey, like, Busta, Cypress Hill. I had, you guys were on my wall. So to be up here, hearing you tell us that we took the culture forward, it's like, hold up, man. I mean, well, it's all part of it. You know what I'm saying? It's all part of it. As things evolved and as things changed, like, there was people that emerged from that.

And you definitely, like, put that in perspective. You know what I'm saying? Like, I've seen some of your bottles in person. You know what I'm saying? I've seen them online. So, you know, I appreciate that. Yeah, you've pulled up. Yeah, I appreciate the love.

I appreciate, you know, the respect. But, you know, you got to consider yourself part of this movement. It's part of the fabric. You know what I'm saying? And as it grows. And, you know what I'm saying? You probably inspired other people from the West to take it as seriously as you did. And so there will be people that came and come to you one.

day and tell you how you inspired them. You know what I'm saying? Get ready for that. Yeah, no, that's like the grandfather, father, son relationship. Yeah, don't age me, mother. I know, but I mean, I'm, you're aging me because I'm about to be that. You said, grandfather. This niggins sneak this to me.

I'm the grandfather. You're the great, great friend. Don't get on that home screen. Oh, my God. Oh, my God. That's so crazy. But, no, yeah, that's some real shit, man. I really appreciate it.

X, you remember the first time you. saw a disaster battle, like online, like when you first became aware of that? Actually, actually, uh, RAS introduced me to him first. Okay. That's out the Rast, and RAS was like, yo, you heard a disaster. I was like, nah, and then I, then I got, you know, put up on him. So, man. To have one of the craziest lyricists on earth go to exhibit and be like, yo, we, I want

you to check this guy out, you know what I'm saying? Like, it's pretty fucking crazy because Rass Kaus is. Nature of the threat. I mean, he's, in my opinion, like, When it comes to, like, when they talk about lyricists of all time, he's the fucking most underrated. Like, he should be mentioned in every single top three, top five, period. You know what I'm saying?

And, like, you know, they'll mention Andre 3000 and all these guys, but Raz Kaz, it's like, bro, do you guys, you know, I mean, it's crazy. Yeah, I think with Rass and myself and other people to come from the West that, and crooked eye, you know, people that are considered West Coast lyricists, it's different, man. You know, we are in our own category. And so, you know, like when you try to lump it all together, you know what I'm saying that it's kind of a backhanded compliment.

But, I mean, what we do and what we've been able to do with what our talents is remarkable. Because, you know, to try to be put on the back burner and then come to the forefront anyway was an accomplishment for us. So, you know, for us, we never gauged it on record sales. We never gave, even though we were successful, we got plaques, we did all that. You know what I'm saying? Like, we've been on main stages. We've been on big platforms.

I think it was never to a point of we got to compete with other people that are, that are faves from others. You know what I'm saying? Some people like us, some people like them, it's never going to be, you know, like, oh, well, you know, we're not considered greats. You know what I'm saying? Like, in my own mind, like, we came from nothing. So being able to make the accomplishments that we have made, it feels great. I feel like we're right where we're supposed to be. Do you feel like...

You got to have that mind state to be able to focus on yourself and not focus on, oh, what the next man is doing. Like, it don't matter what the... I'm going fun, man. Critics are, you know, it's like an armchair quarterbacks, you know what I'm saying? Yeah, I like that. Yeah, I mean, you can, you can have an opinion, but, you know, get out on the field and take a hit. You know what I'm saying? And hip hop is like that, man. It's like a lot of people feel like, like, like everybody can do it. You know what I'm saying? Until, you know, you get your ass out there. Yeah, until you get your ass up there and you freeze or you get fucking shit it on, you know, it's fun. I mean, yeah, they have no idea. Like when people say they can come up there and just easily do it, you know what I'm saying? It's just like, Okay, okay. It's the same shit when people

be like, you know, oh, he missed that shot, I would have made it watching the TV. It's like, no, you wouldn't have made the shot. You don't know what the hell is going on down there. Suit up and go play professional hockey. Yeah, oh, you're out of it. Yeah, yeah, okay. Yeah, come on, lose some teeth. You know what we deal with that. That's what we do is we're up there losing teeth

and we hear comments from people telling us like, oh, you didn't lose your tooth the right way. Yeah. Like, you come up here. Your old face going to be gone. Yeah, but, you know, cannabis, man, like that. I went to the cannabis balance. Yeah, yeah, that was the first one. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

And I love cannabis, you know what I'm saying? I feel like we talked about this before the battle, too, didn't we? Yeah, we have. Because I didn't just see you there. We were talking before that. No, and I had high expectations for cannabis. Same. You know what I'm saying?

Because he's, you know, he's from my perspective, he's like a really dope lyricist and the way he puts his rhyme schemes together. But when he broke out the notebook, I was, I was baffled. I was a little stressed. I was like, no. you know what I'm saying like and then and then and then you came in and look this is how memorable this was and then you know what I'm saying like and then you said yo it feels like I'm putting down my fucking dog put my dog my fuck come on this what the fuck you don't say that shit in public

I swear yeah shout out to cannabis man he got love cannabis for life yeah he got new music out but that was I swear I was thinking I was thinking what you said like No, please. Actually, if you, if there's a way to pay, like, look at the angles again. If it's catching me, if you pay attention to me right there, I'm like, no, don't do it. I'm actually trying to talk to him under the crowd because he's telling his boy, yo, where is it? Like, he's asking his boy for the notepad. And I'm telling him, don't do it, bro.

Don't, don't. Like, you can see me telling him because I know he doesn't understand how bad. There's a fundamental difference. It's not the industry. Between the battles that we did and the battles that you guys do, it's different, man. It's a whole different delivery. It's a whole different cadence. It's a whole different kind of energy flow.

And so the battles that we were doing, it was kind of like the more unique you can be and the more, you know, whittie you can be and the style out. Yeah, like that was it. You know, it amidst some freestyle parts and connect the rhythms. And then, you know what I'm saying? It comes out like really flame. You know what I'm saying? But the way you guys do it, it's different, man.

It's like you picking it apart. Acapella, no fucking beat behind it. What are you bringing? How entertaining can your rhyme scheme be? How fucking poignant and how, how loud can you drop a bomb in the middle of that motherfucker's face? You know what I'm? Yeah. We're living our truth.

It's what we, how we think. How did you feel when you were like, I could drink a whole Henney C. Fifth. Some call that a problem, but I call it a gift. He said to make the whole continent shift. You're talking about yourself. You're not dissing somebody, but you, how are you feeling yourself from? right there. I was pretty faded. That's how we feel like we into it like you into it.

That was that was not a rhyme. That was a straight fact. I know, but that was speaking my truth. And that's kind of what I'm getting at, like is that we kind of bask in that is that that's how we function is we understand the the precursory point to all this is competition, healthy competition helps us grow. That's hip hop. It's always been that.

It's always been bringing out the best of each other. I could do it better than you. Now, what could you do? No, I could do it better than you. Now, what could you do? And it's always been, we just want to preserve that. It's not so much necessarily

to become a negative thing, which it does. But it is on the constructive side of it. It's destructive as it sounds. You know what I'm saying? No, I think as hip-hop progresses, there should be sub-circles inside of hip-hop. It should be broken down. It's like pop, hip-hop,

and then it's hardcore. and then it should be like, you know what I'm saying? Like underground. Genius. I've thought of this before, but I thought of it, I thought of it on a level as rap and hip hop should be two different genres. A long time ago, I thought about this. I was like, why don't they separate it?

Like, hip hop is a message, right? Rap is fun in fashion and style and in being fun and it's cool to have both of them. We love rap too. No, it's all hip hop. It's all hip hop. You can't separate it. All right, you can't separate it because it's the same true. the same tree, you know what I'm saying, but it's different branches. You know what's

how we kind of, you know, as we, what we have to do on top of that is, you know, we have to take control of the business again, you know what I'm saying? That's happening already. That's what's beautiful as it is happening. I think there's a transfer of power that's happening right now that we all need to be a part of and take it seriously. So it doesn't go from one bad hand to another bad hand. You know, we have to be more, more, um, we need more executives. We don't need. We don't We don't need any more rappers, we don't need any more managers, we need more executives. And what I mean by executives are people that are in positions of power to keep the power within the culture. You know what I'm saying?

So I think that people are used to the old way, we're used to being controlled. You know what I'm saying? We're conditioned to be in control. Conditioned, yeah, I'd say that because we assume that it's going to be taken care of. Correct. And you know, you can't assume that things are going to go your way. So what we have to do is like pass the information down. There's a lot of benefits and a lot of advantages that artists have now that we didn't have.

You know what I'm saying? There's no middleman. I was about to get to it. I don't want to cut off your idea, but do you think this is part of this partially is because of this new shift in the digital age? Absolutely. Okay, Tixie. I felt like you're in tune with this NFT shit. So I would like to know your opinion on that, to be honest with you.

You could go ahead and tell us that. So how do you think the artist? Because the artist is gaining control through this avenue. And you can see as right now looking at Snoop getting control of death row and you see like everybody taking control into their own hands. You see what Crooked and Joel do. You see everybody just like we going to do our shit. We're no longer waiting, right? How does that all help us right now?

I mean, it makes sense. I think that what Snoop is done with, you know, gaining back death row, the brand as well as the catalog was genius. Couldn't be in a better place. you know what was created when Snoop and Dre and Death Row and you know Dazz and Corrupt all these guys were introduced to us Rage Warren G you know what I'm saying

all these people were introduced to us through this platform and so it didn't it didn't make sense when it was getting sold to like Kellogg's or whatever the fuck had it you know what I mean like it makes sense like that yeah yeah but to have it home is really big now going into like NFTs digital you know marketing being able to have access to your fans.

It's how engaged can you be with your platform? How entertaining can you be with your own people coming directly to you? And that's important. That's important. You don't know what I'm saying? Like before you needed a marketing budget, you needed a promotional team. You had a label that was controlling your releases,

controlling your release dates. That's the craziest shit is having someone tell you when your art is going to come out. And we, this is all crossing. This is crossing beautifully. into what's happening with us. Now, I don't know how familiar you are,

so I'm about to put you on to what we've been doing. Me and this amazing guy right here next to me have put in so much work over the last fucking 20 years that we ended up in a situation that was exactly like the artist in the music industry where we didn't own our IP, where the masters, we don't even have any chance of talking about them.

Our content comes out when we're told it's going to come out. No mechanical royalties. None of that. that, right? So at the same time, death row and all this is happening, we rebranded and relaunched our old thing, the grind time thing from back in the day. Dope. Doe. Okay. Took control of it because we believe, just like how Snoop is taking control over death row, we believe in, I've always believed this, that the rapper, the artist, is at the center is the catalyst to everything. The reason why the industry is not working the

way it's supposed to is because the artists aren't the ones that are told, hey, man, we want to listen to you guys. What are your creative minds telling us? We want to know what type of crazy idea you have, not what we think works because this formula works, because formulas work and they get fucking played out. But you cannot create magic from that. Magic comes from what I'm talking about, you know, and this is where we're at right now. We have taken control of it because we no longer are going to have people tell us when shit's going to come out, who's going to own what, how we're going to book these battles. And the West, we've pretty much been a staple in this whole entire culture and bringing it, driving it to where it's at.

So we ain't about to sit back and be those people forever. So we are taking control just like it's a wave. Yeah, congratulations, man. Thank you, man. Congratulations to you on all your shit too, bad. I mean, hey, Nate Palm is, you know, you killing it with this. This is what I wanted to show you guys too, man. I wish we brought the crate with the grenades in it and all that.

But, you know, you know, genius stuff right here, man. This is what I'm talking about. You could, you know, me being, you know, from the Middle East, you know, being Lebanese, you know, I love this right here. It's a rocket, you know, and it has a grinder built into it, you know what I'm saying? And, you know, you can see through it, you know, it's amazing. Like, you know, the warhead has off the chain. The warhead got the butt in it because that's where the bomb is.

You know what I mean? Pull the top wall. And just. And then there's papers inside. You know what I'm saying? And then there's papers in here, man, which is fire. So it's a nice. And he has the grenade, too, which is all shit that would go off in Lebanon, by the way.

But I think what we put inside of it is It's got to be better than the packaging But I wanted to make something Of course That was not disposable It's a keepsake You know, you can reuse it You can put your flour in there

After you get done with it Or go get a refill I mean we want to do things That are different In the cannabis industry Our mission statement Is changing the cannabis industry One category at a time

So we came in with a grenade Which is an 8 gram pre-roll 7 grams of flour or one grandma live resident. Let's go. Some vapes. You know, it's just shit we used to do on the road. Yeah, exactly.

You know what I said? We got a shit ton of weed. We rolled dumb joints. You know, it's not for everybody. You know what I'm saying? But neither are Ferraris. You know what I'm saying? High quality flowers.

Yeah, yeah. Yeah, but our thing is, you know, we started in 2020. You know, my first brand that I created was brass knuckles. Oh, I remember brass knuckles too. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. So I was in the cannabis game before people.

And that was popping, by the way. Yeah, absolutely. You had people trying to bite that in, and, and all that shit. Yeah, yeah, no, I mean, try same shit. They did it. You know, but yeah, it was, that's what you get when you have a successful formula. That's the whole point. But I, I know a lot about marketing. I know a lot about, you know, being able to talk directly to my audience. So what I was able to do with my cannabis brands were, you know, like the same

thing. It's just like writing a song. You come with an idea. It's like alchemy. You turn, you know, nothing thin air into something. Yeah. And so that's what we've been able to do, man. We came in 2020. It was one of the, uh, it was one of the, uh, it was. So you did it. it during the pandemic. Right. It was, we didn't, well, it wasn't planned that way. No, because, like, a lot of us, that's when our ideas, our creative ideas, and we got to, I feel like, look, man, that's why the pandemic was good for a lot of people.

It's all what you made it. Some people, it was a bad year for them. It slowed them down. It slowed me down in the beginning. Yeah, I was scared, though. Yeah. I was like, you know, when we first started, we was going out to a manufacturing plant in Santa Ana.

So I was the only one on the freeway. I was flying. You know what I'm saying? I would get there in 20 minutes. from the valley, like easy. You know what I'm saying? It was, it was, but, you know, it was like, for me, it was crazy

because, you know, as a kid, you know, you always think of, you know, having superpowers. And it felt like, you know, like I was able to freeze the whole world for a second and everybody was stuck in place and I was just able to like get ahead. So, you know.

Yeah, that is kind of what happened for people that were focused on working and they wanted to make their ideas come to life. It's the people that did that during 2020 now their shit coming to fruition because it takes while, you know, You know, it's not an overnight thing. Yeah, for sure.

Yeah, man. I love it, man. You definitely recreating your shit constantly, man. So, you know, what's next for you? Man, shit, you know, I have, you know, so many things on the plate. I am working on a new record. It's called Kingmaker. I believe, you know.

Just you want it? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, for me. And I have, I have like some, you know. Who's making the beat, can we ask? Yeah, I have some ideas about who's going to be done. But the concept of the album is, you know, I think the last thing, that I haven't done in my career is put somebody else in a position of power

with my music. Man, let's go. So I'm calling it Kingmaker because, you know, on face value, people think I'm going to be sitting on a throne or, you know what I'm saying? Or showing some kind of gold or, you know what I'm saying? Yeah, yeah, no.

Like, nah, this is about you're creating kings. This is about passing a torch putting other people in positions of power. So the album will be set up that way and the tone of the album is crazy because we got some songs that, you know, I feel like are really good.

going to push the envelope and really pleased the people who know me from all walks of life from all different platforms I've been on. You know, music is what the nucleus of everything exhibit is. You know what I'm saying? So that's why I got to come back to it and make sure that people understand where I come from. It makes a lot of sense. And the most recent album

you put out before that was the Napalm album, right? It was. 2012 was the last time I put out a record. Wow, it has been... A solo record, but I have put out, you know, serial killer records. With me, Demrick, and Be Real. Oh, you and Demrick, I see. Yeah, yeah, that was fire. Shout out to Demrick, too.

That's the homie right there. I fuck with him. He's nice as hell, by the way. Y'all got to get up on Demerick, man. I've always wanted to be in a group. So, you know, coming out with the serial killer joints has been like a breath of fresh air for me. And, you know, it keeps the pin tight.

You know what I'm saying? I was going to say, man, like you haven't missed the step, man. So I think it's going to be amazing seeing something come from you right now. I think people are going to be looking forward to that project, man. Like the one that you just put out with Dizzy Wright on the DJ, joint like yeah yeah you have bars on that shit yeah hell yeah you you seem surprised hell yeah you know what this is X man not surprised because it's you I love this guy man he's funny as hell man not surprised because it's you and you've never let me down as a lyricist thank you but a lot

of people have so at this day and age like we've seen so many I love it I love what we do man you Here's the thing. And I really want to just drive this point home. We are not athletes. Right. Okay. I see where you're going. Yeah, we are not athletes.

And I'm getting sick of seeing the shit around, like, people like try to be like, oh, you're at this age or this. Listen, bro. The best rappers in the world right now are over 35 years old, all of them. None of them are under 35. Not a single one of the top tens you can make. I got something to say about that. And I think people should really take this into perspective.

Hip hop is not, you know, a very old music genre. You know what I'm saying? It's still fairly young. You know, I think that it's made a lot of progress over the years. But, you know, I think, you know, we're in our first turn, our first generation of people who grew up on hip hop or probably our second turn. You know, it's people in their 50s that have listened and grown up to hip hop. So, you know, when I look at ours, genre. When we look at our

greats, you know, and then I look at other genres, you know what I'm saying? Like, nobody tells the Rolling Stones that they need to stop. You know what I'm like 90 on stage? Nobody tells... We're the only genre that does this. Yeah, yeah. I have a theory about this, but I'm going to let you continue. I'll tell you what my theory is. Yeah, hip hop

eats its young. And but, you know, hip hop also eats its elders. So we got to figure out, you know, like that the respect level. You know what I'm saying? Because there's people that are going to enjoy our music

till the end of time. And music is timeless. So we got to stop aging ourselves. Yes, hip hop is a young man's sport on a certain end. But then, you know what, niggas, you think you're going to be 20 forever, my nigger? Like, you don't know what I'm saying? Pretty soon you're going to be up here with us.

So you know what I'm saying, chill out. And not only the rappers themselves getting older, but the fans. Like those of us that have grown up with the, we might not be wanting to be, wanting to hear the same content that, you know, 17-year-olds are hearing at a certain point. We got different problems. You know what I'm saying? Like, we have mortgages.

Right. We have, you know what I'm saying? Like, we have accounts. This is a real conversation that needs to be had. We have different aspects. And then the fans, like, to your point, they grow up, they grow up and have their own families. They have their own responsibilities. They're not sitting around.

The only weirder motherfucker is sitting around smoking pot still all day. You know what I'm saying? Like, like, you know, I just called it pot. I can't fucking believe it. You know what I'm saying? Reefer Smoking grass Smoking grass

Young man Smoking pot over there Here's my theory Smoking dope Smoking dope Oh man This is bad This is bad

That's that shroom laugh Here's my theory Here's my theory Bus it My theory is this It's about to go Super deep and left Right now

Let's go Turn signal on. Turn them all the way on. Turn on the hazards. And I don't care who the fuck tries to argue this. Here it goes. The white man in the suit has a power on this industry that is kind of invisible and not talked about. One of the things that they have on the people is they have convinced everybody that you are no longer marketable after a certain age.

And it's because they need younger people to mold. Younger people don't ask for masters. They don't ask for their IP. They don't ask for nothing. In fact, they're happy with a chain in a fucking car. So if you are a business, you're a mega business, your corporations, you understand this. You understand you can't have a liability. You understand you can't have somebody busting out on you halfway through the shit.

Like, I want to renegotiate. You want somebody excited. You're going to convince people that this is what's needed right now. And people in like the culture don't necessarily like what they think they like. They're being told what's hot and what's not. The playlists are rigged. They are completely bought. It's a business.

You pay money. Look, I hate to mention 6.9 like this, but he had a point with the Ariano Grande thing that he said. He said, they bought 60,000 downloads in the last minute at 1159 before midnight. 60,000 downloads were bought off six credit cards, right? That type of stuff makes sense to me. You know what I'm saying? Because when you have money, you're going to buy your own shit back, which makes more sense to me that people could always decide with the route of money

to come into this game and be like, I'm going to decide who's the best because I'm going to put enough money behind him to be the best, and we're going to get a young guy that's not going to do all this. But if you think about it, you can still look your best in your 30s. Actually, men in their prime are in this age. This is when you're in your late 30s, 40s. This is your prime. a man, intelligence-wise, what you could teach people.

I don't know about that. I look, to me. I looked better at my 20. Hey, look, man. Hey, you got to work out every day, X. Come on, man. Oh, my God. Look, all right, we look a little bit better when we're younger, but I feel like I've built myself.

Like, I don't, I don't look back. Like, if I was to be on at 24, 25, I wouldn't have wanted that. I wasn't ready. I thought I was. I feel like I'm ready now. I think, check this out. So, just to add to your point, I think we have to get away from people telling us that their money is more valuable than our talent.

You know what I'm saying? I think like it goes back to the conditioning that we were being groomed for and used to. You know, without our talent, their money would sit in those accounts and not move. Thank you. And they can't recreate what we do, but we can actually go get money. You know what I'm saying? Like we, I mean, our culture is known for hustling. You know what I'm saying?

Like, we'll pull up into motherfucking Rose Royce. Give us enough time and enough energy. You know what I'm saying? There's people out there that have that without rapping. You know what I'm saying? So, so imagine if we had the idea, like, taking back the business, what I mean is stop taking investment from people that won't deal fairly with you. You know, like, like, E40 says something.

I'm not below you. I'm not above you. I'm right here. with you. You know what I'm saying? Like, we have to start dealing with each other on that aspect and control the business. Stop taking money from people that you know are good. It's like Lucy with the football. And Charlie Brown kept trying to kick that motherfucker and she moved it every time. You know what I'm saying? Like, I've stopped playing at games, you know, them games, you know, like, so a lot of my records I put out into, I own all of my masters except my first two albums.

you know what I'm saying? And so I want to go back and get those. You know what I'm saying? Because yeah, that catalog was backed by that system. And that's loud those first two albums, right? Loud in Columbia records. You know what I'm saying? Like Sony, basically.

Yeah. Which one was the money you put out under Columbia? That was, that was a... 40 days, 40 nights. Yeah, 40 days, 40 nights was the one. Right, that was the first one from Columbia. Then we did weapons and mass destruction. And then, and then I was like, I got to get out of here.

You know what I'm saying? So, so. Who did you do Restless with? Restless was a straight, loud release. Loud, okay. You know what I'm saying? Loud. And so.

That felt bigger than life when it came out too. Yeah. Yeah. It was, but it was, it was, all the momentum. Right? X was on that, right? The momentum that sped up. It was like coming off the Up and Smoke tour, coming off of, you know, a lot of the stuff,

the bitch please success. Coming off, you know, what's the difference? All that stuff was. What's the difference? You know what? That was big. How did you? How did you manage, and I think this is going to be educational for a lot of artists.

How did you manage to keep your artistic integrity and still like stay motivated by the lyrics while you were getting so big at the same time? But you never compromised lyrically. You still stayed like you still have the bars of an underground. That's a good ass question. You actually kept it raw the whole entire way. How did you manage to do that? Stay in a lot of nose and fuck you. Take notes, motherfuck

So you have the leverage Yeah, no, I mean it's like, look, you know You could Hey, if they ever ask, exhibit what his pronouns are It's no and fuck you Oh my God, I love it But it was it was it was a conscious decision Now that you know, but

But to all jokes aside It was defining what success meant to me And being happy with it because I never looked at another man's grass to tell how green mind should be. And I always, I always was happy with my accomplishments because I was turning negatives to positives. And then my positives turned to accomplishments. You know what I'm saying? And so I was happy with my growth because you have to grow at your own pace.

And because you came from nothing before that. So every step you take, you was already doing better every time. Right, because I was looking at the big picture. And then, you know, I wasn't consumed by. looking at the big picture. I saw, I saw my destination and I looked down at my own two feet and just, and just like dealt with what, dealt with what was right in front of me. So, you know, that's how I did it, man. It's like, I never was like, oh, man, they went quadruple platinum. I got to go to get to go to quadruple platinum. And I'm going to belly dance to do it. You know what I'm going to do

what they're doing. But I feel like, I figured they would have seen just how mass marketable you were and tried to get you to go outside your box. I don't feel like you showed. any form of a sign that you would waver. I don't feel like he was an approachable person. The whole way X went about his shit was not even like, he's not approachable. Like he's not somebody that you could be like, hey man,

so we're thinking of making you wear this in this video clip. I just don't see you as this guy. They are going to be like making a club song or do this. Yeah, or yeah, you're right. They don't do it. They don't position it like that. They position it like if you do this, this opportunity will open for it.

Right. It's like fucking bait. Yes, that's exactly what it is. Oh, my God. They dangle the carrot and some people, you know. Go for the character. Yeah, if you go around the room full of emcees and writers and artists, right? And you ask everybody individually, what are you doing music for?

So you get a thousand different answers. Now, we come from a place like, yo, I love hip-hop. I do it because I fucking love it and I'm good at it. I do this. But some people will be like, yo, I want to buy my mom at my house. Yo, you know what I'm saying? Like my dad. And I really respect that shit.

No, my dad's an asshole. I want to tell them that I fucking hate him. You know what I'm saying? Fuck your dad. That's like some M&M shit. Yeah, yeah. Like I want to, you know what I want a car. You know, I want a gold chain.

You know what I never got no pussy in high school. Yeah, that's like some Chingy shit right there. Yeah. That's Chingy. That's why Chingy got into, you know, we're not dissing right now, but we say, you know what I'm saying? Like you could tell where people's priorities are. Correct.

And where they're not. You know what I got some pussy in high school? Because we really are on that Nipsey. mentality, you know what I'm saying? Just that real estate, that ownership, that just teaching people to just, you know, invest their money. Believe it or not, as sad as that is, that's new. There was only a few people thinking like that in hip-hop,

you know what I'm saying? But now it's like fabric. It's like woven into the culture. You know what I'm saying? Having the business, having revenue streams attached to your talent. You know, that's fucking, that's dope. And that needs to be, that needs to continue, but it also needs to be direct.

You know what I'm saying? It needs to be, you know, like... By the forefathers of the shit, not some guy in a suit. Well, that brings up a really... That's my point. Really good question. A really interesting point. So, like, not to play devil's advocate, but the flip side of, like, you said,

now artists do to digital streaming platforms and things like that, the artists are in position to control more of our destiny. But there's no more artist development. That concept is pretty much like... Yeah. But, you know, that's the cost. That's... Right.

You got a cost that comes with the advantages that the current artists have now. You know what I'm saying? No artist development goes away with the label support. Correct. So now that you have a direct connect to your audience, you have to develop yourself. Right. You know what I'm saying? And that comes with, you know, before money comes, you have to understand who you are,

what you hear for, what you have to say, if anything at all. And then how are you going to present it? And then people are doing that. I physically see it. People do an artist development on themselves on Instagram. You know what I don't have a TikTok. I think that shit is struggling with you know. Yeah, I know it's big, but they keep shadow banning me because all I do is just sit

around and smoke, you know what I'm saying? And have very poor humor. You know what I'm saying? Poor tasting humor. You ban from TikTok? No, no, I just don't have one. You know what I just, you know, be a man. I feel like

I ain't got no TIPA Yo man What's that guy? What's that guy Say that The guy on the internet He was like

Just be a man He says all kinds of weird shit and yeah But No I'm on the same way Matureman Randy Savage Be a man

Yeah Yeah Yeah Like some things Some things that You know You got to leave for them You know what I'm saying

And just stick to them Port Here's what I want to say I feel like As Staples in the culture A lot of us Like in rappers

And people that are not yet I think we should stick together. I think the more we work together because now is the time where all the artists are becoming independent. They got their own companies. They got their own stuff.

I want all the battlers to see this. And people, you know, rappers too, like if you want to build your shit, build it out of people that have talent, people that come from the same mentality as you, people that are trying to get on like you where you can help each other. You know what I'm saying?

You don't always need that dude dangling a carrot above you saying, I got the money. The best look that it looks for you all the time isn't the best look. It's really... Yeah, but easier said than done. Yeah, no, of course.

Because check this out. I think we, as a problem, everybody wants to be the boss. Everybody wants to win the most, right? And so being part of a real team, a structured environment is hard. It's not even hard. It's about being like-minded and being around people who get it, right? So you can't come in a room and expect to get, you know, seven people to agree on something when they all go in different directions, right?

100% of nothing is nothing. Oh, I own this. I own, you know what I own 70,000. Fuck out of here, man. Like, be part of a team. Like, you know what I'm saying? Like, bring everybody in and give everybody opportunities. You know what I'm saying?

And if you're a boss, then you want to see other bosses. Right. So I think our problem is when we try to come together, it's you can't agree upon it because everybody wants more. You know what I'm saying? So create something that everybody gets a piece of. but realize man like when you are in somebody else's work environment unless you want your own you can't come into their environment and expect

to be you know what I'm saying and expect things to be your way or expect you to be you know six months in and then all of a sudden you want equity in the company you know what I'm saying like it doesn't work that way you know what we're aware go to Merrill Lynch and work there six months and ask the motherfucker upstairs if he can have a percentage of Merrill Lynch they're going to be like who the fuck What fuck is this? You know what I'm saying? Like, like, we kind of all that. We have to respect each other on that.

Jimmy from accounting wants his ownership. Yeah. That's hilarious, man. That is so funny. Yeah, yeah. Where's my percentages? Yeah, but it's real. So I think if you come into an environment and you want to learn something,

see the value in having the experience as well. You know what I'm saying? Learn something. Don't, don't be envious of somebody that you work for. This is a main problem that people don't understand that if we all win. get together. You got to be able to be happier for people. The way we're trying to build our platform and how we've been doing our shit is based on

the integrity of just, you know, wanting to help the battle, and it's for a battler. So we want to give rappers and battlers and people that are part of the culture as many positions as we can part of this, you know what I'm saying? And people that we deal with from. Like the NBA does. Like the NFL does. We can take that format because it works. People respect and are more invested in people that they respect.

You know what I'm saying? So if you got people that's coming in there from battle, rap that are owners, that are promoters, that are fabricators, that are people that actually benefit who has pushed the culture forward instead of somebody that hasn't said one bar?

You know what I'm saying? Like that's respectable. We should take notes. But that goes back to controlling the narrative and bringing back and controlling the business. Period. Period. Period. Period. Period. And it's dope to see how you've never wavered on this, considering.

I mean, so the first time I heard you was on the Licks, you feel me, album back in the day. He was on the little interlude on the damn song, which was like, I don't think I was in, I'm not going to age myself. Oh, no, it's okay for me. Come on, how old are you, Lutz? If I aged myself, Lush was already 30 at the time. He was 30.

I was in seventh grade. I was in seventh grade. There it is. There it is. And I heard, I was like, okay, this dude got a cool voice on the damn joint. Wompty and then the first single was paparazzi. To this day, I get the chills thinking about it is. It is.

It's amazing, man. One of the dopest hip-hop records of all time. It's nostalgic for us, too. It just reminds me back of just like being in America for the first year. For the first year, that was my first year in America. Yeah, dope, man. It's so crazy. You know, the crazy thing about that is that was the first record I recorded when I got signed.

The very first thing that I said on the microphone was that song. And that became the barrage. Yeah. The dysfunctional member of the alcoholist family. That was like the first thing I said. I didn't hear it till 99. That's what I got put on. You know, he was in Lebanon.

Yeah, I got put on a 99 to all of it. It was a few years behind with that. But the fact that you're talking about on your first single, you only in the rap game only for the money and the fame. And then it just makes sense that your career trajectory. Damn, damn. You see that, man, that was a full circle right there. That kind of encompassed everything you said right now, bro.

Like, that is what you stand for. When earlier you're like, are you surprised? Like, man, so many of my idols and broke my heart over the years. Yeah, I was up some real shit. But you always been X to the Z from, you know, being in the liquid crew to you feel me doing that three-card Molly with the, with Raz and Severe.

Hey, man, how's Phil the agony doing, man? Man, he looks good, man. But, you know, the people that was around you coming up, you had some serious spitters around you. I remember seeing him at Fat Beats down in the line up. Just rapping out there. He was out there. barring out.

Like, I remember, like, he was on the field. He was out there. Phil's doing good. Crondon is made a great, shouts out the Crondon, too. Filled out of the film and television. That's amazing, man. I mean, like, Chase Infinite has Harun Coffee is down in South Central.

What's up with DeFarai, man? DeFarai is doing really well. He's still dropping music. You know what I'm saying? Like, we're all thriving, man. And everybody is, you know what I can speak for myself. I'm really happy, you know, of where, you know, things have transcended for me.

And I'm happy about the things that didn't, because some of those things didn't pan out to be something I want to be involved in anyway. You know what I'm saying? So I'm really cool with my choices, and I made some really good ones and the poor ones I can live with. All right, so one more thing before we get up out of here,

because I know we almost about the time. Can we talk about the Cassidy battle? You want to talk about the Cassidy battle? I know you got something else. Yeah, I think the cannabis battle pretty summed it up. You know what I'm saying? I want to say, so basically, what I'm really excited about is that we're all on this wave, you know what I'm saying, that we all seem to be synchronized right now in this thing

where there's almost like a full circle coming around. And you know how music is like that too is just like shit just comes back around. We just so all together, I feel like this is going to be a big push for us. I know I'm going to see you around on our new platform. I know you're going to be supporting. In fact, I actually want to say something. This is actually the perfect time to say it, really. So here it comes.

So, you know, when you have a certain product, you know, and this is for everybody that got product out there, you know what I'm saying, they got something that they're pushing out there. You got to look for a targeted demographic. You always got to have your right demographic. In the battle rap scene, we take pride that our demographic is 100% weed smoking, fucking hip-hop consuming demographic. I want to say to the people right here,

I want to show y'all this is how you're supposed to be doing shit. I didn't even bring this up to X, but I'm going to bring it up right now. I'm going to say this to you on the spot. I think because we are such a grassroots thing altogether, part of the same way. No pun intended. With the same vision for this shit,

I think it would be great for people to see that GTF I think would be a great place. You know, we should talk about that Napalm, OG, GTX collaboration. Come on, man. I'm always down for that. And this is what y'all should be doing because we don't want to do shit with anybody but icons.

Yeah. You know what I'm saying? Man, I'm with it, man. You know, we've done some really big collaborations with our brands. So I'm not opposed to that, man. You know, plus you're my dog, man. Like whatever we got to put on the concrete, that's what we're going to put on the concrete.

Yeah, man, I really think it's good, too, because, you know, a lot today, you know, when it comes to like marketing and just like spending money, you could use bills, right? And I want people to hear this. You can use a billboard. You can use an article. You pay a certain amount of money and then your billboard or your articles removed and it's replaced by another person. See, what we here have is growing together in perpetuity.

Yes. We have something where we are going to get married together in a brand, you know what I'm saying, to where after we move on, when we're asleep, when we're doing other things working, the buck goes the long way. You get what I'm saying, dealing with what we're dealing with here. This type of culture is where this product belongs. This is where I want people to know. There's other products that are like that. This is where you get to grow with us. We get millions of views together forever.

We don't ever leave you. There's never going to be a replacement for it. It's something that is in perpetuity. It's unlimited marketing in this game. You know what I'm saying? And, you know, it's the best bang for your buck. I've said this before. You know what I'm saying?

Like, why pay for some fucking ad? let's say if you go and put up some shit, let's say you want to do some shit and you want to advertise your shit on a billboard. You got people driving by. Half of those people are not going to look because they're driving. So now you're banking on the people

that are in the passenger seat. Half of them don't smoke wheat. Then the other half of them got their brand already or their person they pick it up from them. And then you've got this small amount of people that might be like, let me hit that up. But you see, with us. Yeah, it's called, yeah, market penetration.

You're right there. You're talking to your direct audience. Boom. And we're out of here, man. You know, this is God's here. This has been the most amazing fucking podcast We've done, you know what I'm saying? We got business done in this podcast, too. And it's been some historical shit.

Take us out of here, man, my daughter. Y'all know the vibes. We about this, be our child. Peace.