No Jumper - Grand Nationxl on Thizzler, bipping & surviving the hoods of Richmond & Oakland

Episode Date: November 23, 2022

Grand Nationxl speak on their rise, early days, the Bay Area, battle rap, BET, and more! ------ 00:00 Intro 2:20 Kevin Allen speaks on being independent but still asking for help 4:30 Grand Nationxl speak on the important roles of everyone in the group 13:45 Having some of the biggest records in the Bay Area 15:20 Grand Nationxl speak on dropping diss records 17:55 Grand Nationxl speak on people biting the Bay Area sound too much 18:30 Kevin Allen on changing his name from “Erk the Jerk” 20:25 Deuce speaks on Grand Nationxl taking him to the next level in his career 23:50 Deuce speaks on how he got his name and how he A&R’s records 26:25 Deuce speaks on what it’s like coming out of Brookfield Village in Oakland  29:00 Mani Draper on joining Grand Nationxl 31:30 Grand Nationxl reminisce on growing up around Hilltop Mall in Richmond  35:45 Lush speaks on how he judges rap battles and creating memorable moments  41:00 Pass speaks on losing $100,000 in a battle rap  46:15 Grand Nationxl speak on the BET list of “Best Battle Rappers of All Time” 47:55 Getting love after being on “Bars on I-95” 48:45 Grand Nationxl share “Tour Stories” 51:30 Grand Nationxl speak on “trickin” on strippers  54:07 Grand Nationxl speak on “Bay Area Business”  55:30 Grand Nationxl talk about the time they hit a bear on the road 58:45 Grand Nationxl speak on the “Bipping Epidemic” in The Bay Area and losing hard drives with unreleased music 1:01:13 Grand Nationxl on Thizzler, No Jumper, and Hip-Hop media outlets 1:06:40 Grand Nationxl talk about their new project “Season 2” --- 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

Look at that. We live, we live, we live. You know what I'm saying? Everybody stand back. Lush, you know, win the function with Grand Nash, baby. Come on. Oh, man. What's that in Lutch? You know what the fuck going on?

It's juice to, I'm juiced to have all of y'all simultaneously, you know. This is, and I know you all are in the midst of this super crazy tour right now with the Rex Life Raj. Indeed, straight up. I'm honored that y'all chose to make this little excursion, a little detour in the midst of such a prestigious tour to pop up on the gang. We appreciate you. The big dogs say slide, we slide, bro. Easy call.

Easy call. Yeah, nice. So, you know, Hardy had pass on the show. Yeah. He mentioned this group and, you know, I've been homies with Pass for several years. And when I saw like this conglomerate of just diverse talent from the Eastern Bay, area, region come together, I was like, yes, this is a perfect ideal home for him. And then, like, I saw the way all y'all vibe off of each other. And it's just, it's been incredible. Like,

can y'all break down the origins of Grand National and what it means you all? Shit, man, you want me to, all right? So, um, the origins is like, we were sitting around feeling like the narrative is Bay Area people don't work together. And I'm like, that's not true. I work with a lot of people every day. So we jump, on the phone, make some phone calls. We made music together and it was like, you know what, this should be something. Let's make it something real.

Let's put a brand behind it. And we just put all the pieces together to say, like, we can kind of band together and do this shit together. We don't gotta be out there alone, trying to figure this shit out how to market yourself and design your own websites and shit. Like, everybody banded together.

And that shit came together, dope. Why do you feel like that narrative exists, especially considering back in the day there was, all the Bay area, every single album that came out the Bay, you would see the list of features, and it'd be like 15 different artists. It'd be featuring Richy Rich, be legit, you know, like Mac Mall,

RBL Posse, it'd be this list of all the different artists. When do you feel like that changed, and why does that narrative exist now? Somewhere along the way there was like an independent surge to say that we were independent, but like to a fault, like we just start kind of wearing it as a badge of honor or show. Like, you know what I mean? Like, hey, yeah, we're independent,

but nobody has ever done anything by themselves. That was fun, you know what I mean, in my opinion. Keeping a PG till the five-minute mark. Yeah, you know what I'm saying? That thing already over. It's out the window. Right, right. But now, I just think we're independent to a fault.

Like, we love, we love saying we got it out of the mud. We love seeing we did it by herself. We love seeing shit like that. But it ain't true. It ain't true. Mm-hmm. So you think the independence, the definition of that got skewed from,

without label support to at a certain point being like without any support it's all on me. And so what was it like had you worked with these guys before? I always wanted to make music a pass. So this is like the plan I devised so I could just get songs with this boy. You know what I mean? But like I worked with money before me and Duce had history like years and years ago when we were like kids. But not really, not really like most of the people that were in. involved in the first project.

I never really worked with them. I wanted to work with them closer. So it was like, yo, just pull up to the lab. Like, everybody come bring music, bring your rap, bring whatever you're doing, and kind of like, let's help each other. So if you need people to show up to a video shoot, you now have a network of 10, 15 people to show up

for you. You need somebody to do photography. Now you have three or four photographers that show at your fingertips at all times to kind of like just build a network for it. So before this, no. After this, yeah, like now we're making all kind of music, like every day. It's what we do.

So there's Grand National, the art collective, and now there's Grand National, the group as well? Or is it still just an art collective of different artists that come together and collaborate in different capacities? Definitely, definitely. We're all like, without paperwork, we're signing the Grand National as

is what we believe in. It's like, it's the foundation of what we're trying to build. But now we're not a group. He's solo, I'm solo. But we make you just together, you know? And there's a lot more of y'all than just this, correct? Like... No. This is where it stands now. Yes, where it stands now.

It reminds me, back in the day, Pass is familiar. We had a group of delinquent monastery, Delmont Crew, and it started in a very similar fashion. There was like, it was more than just a group. It was a community. We was all like a squad, and it was like 25, 30 people deep. Like, somebody, maybe someone just sold weed or maybe someone just stomp people out, whatever.

But it was still, right. You got to have that imperative. You got to have a guy that's going to say. stomp somebody up. Impaired. You got to, don't be afraid to get a little bit

of plasma on your uptown. No, really don't. Occasionally, plasma? Yeah. That's a part of blood, right? When it separates from the blood, you know, Dr. Charles Drew.

If you, if you stomp fast enough, you can separate the blood from the plasma. Allegedly. The plasma on the wall. There we go. There you go.

Oh, my bad. I'm going to go. I got a counter on you on how many bars are going to get in the episode of each. Joe Jop episode. Yeah.

And Mike, you know what? There's no limit to it. Nah. You didn't like that 20, 25, like, especially if it's like a two and a half hour pack. Oh, yeah, yeah. You're going to take it there. Yeah, yeah.

Bars per minute. Yeah, that's the BPM. You did? There we go. Yeah. That's your show. There go. Oh, okay.

Okay. I owe you 0.37%. No, no. It's not. It's not. It's not. It's not just hired Grand National. See, we just hire us pull up.

You know what I mean? You see, this is the way the collaborative effort works. Actually, though. When we do, like, if it's your album, it's all of our album. We're going to pull up our best ideas. I had a beat last night. I was saving for myself. I was like, nah.

That's going on the tape. And I was like, that's what we talk about, you know. That's, you know, that's love. At a certain point, like, if you looking bad, we looking bad. And I like that because a lot of people, I would say, are more hesitant to link up in a group context because it sacrifices paper. It's like, hey, we're on the bill with another artist

and that, you know, the promoter only has a certain amount of budget. So we're getting paid as a four-man group, essentially the same as this dude's getting paid, but we have to split the money. See, the thing is we're not worried about none of that right now. Okay. The money go back in the pot. Like this ain't, this money generated ain't our money.

This is for the company, it's for the business. You know what I'm saying? So all that conversation, yeah, you don't spend the real. The conversation is already dead before it starts. You know who gets what, like we'll figure that out when their big bread comes. We're not about to fight over no pennies. Like, oh, me, three hundred dollars? Like, nah, we're good.

It would be a right. What $300? Catch amnesia, get that pay for catching amnesia. Man, that's for the gas tank, man. That's for the, you know what? That's for the, well, we're not about to. seller short-sighted too. Like absolutely, you know what I'm saying?

Zero percent of a hundred, you know what I'm saying? Zero of a hundred is zero, you feel me? So it's like the more work, the more rooms we could be in like, they drove the first leg to the net because we had work we needed to do before we got on the road. Yeah. You feel me? So it's like I couldn't be on the road if I hadn't put that bag, you feel me? So they picked it up and then we met them out the way and then just took it on one from there,

but absolutely needed to do it. It was with me and bro was talking about. He's like, bro, let's figure it out. just figure it out. So just since it's easier to do it that way, you know what I mean? Is it kind of crazy that none of y'all grew up together, but do you all kind of feel like you've known each other your whole lives at this point? Yeah, once you spend like with six weeks on the road with some men, you're like, my brother for real. Like how do y'all avoid? Because, you know, it's inevitable. It's not if you're going

to get into arguments on the road. It's when. No arguments, bro. No argument. No argument. We really had no arguments. We really had no arguments though. These fucking men, bro. Like, it's not, you're not no kids that's just hell of selfish and childish. Like, we have a mission to do. We could have stayed at home and fucked off. You feel me?

Like, you got a kid, family and shit to get back to, but this was business for us. So it's like, people call it, like, man, you're having the time of your life. It's like, yeah, we haven't, like, we're present and we're taking in the journey or whatever, but we got work to do. We got mission. We set goals and metrics and shit to hit. So it's like, we're no plan. With no plan.

That's crazy. Deuce is kind of quiet, though. I don't know. I don't know. I feel the same way. Yeah, just get down the business. Always business first, you know. That's what we've been on for the whole time.

It's just focusing on making sure that we show up for each other, you know, as wellness first, you know, we over eye. Now, the Bay Area has always had a really unique sonic palette, like the way the music sounds. increasingly more so it's become like a very very specific regional sound which y'all don't subscribe to I feel like

what's the influence and behind y'all's sonic aesthetic and the way that you're kind of a false narrative though okay I think we subscribe to you're calling him a liar so you're a liar that's why I said a false narrative

because I'm not saying he's wrong I'm just saying like I think we subscribe to everything I think we are, you know, multidisciplinary. I think we are multifaceted and we can do whatever is in front of us, you know, and we just basically saying we can make a clap. Right. We make hit records. We students do this shit.

So we really do what's necessary. Like what's required of us, we can do it. But I'm just saying that's the specific base heavy, post-hyfi, neo-mob, shit-talking You know, mobs. Come on, you heard him say that? You heard him say neomob before? Never in my life, never ever ever. Dead homies.

That's a thing. That's a thing. That's a thing. I think I know what you mean though because we, uh... I'll say that because... We can do everything, but we go beyond just what like the, quote-unquote, like, what somebody from other parts of the country, they might hear, like, Bay Area, or rap, whatever, and they have like a sound in their mind.

And we go a step beyond, like, we do everything. We don't just, we're not just limited to like a quote-unquote, like, a quote-unquote like regional sound. He said some hella important, no, post-hifi. Yeah. I think what really gets lost, they just did a hyphy documentary and it was, it's cool, but I feel like they should have talked to Mike Mosley and people like that, that Raphael and everybody that kind of set the tone, Aunt Banks and everybody, that mob music

and then. Kyrie, all that. You feel me? Like, they skipped a whole area of mob music that hella influenced the hyphae, that, you know, mustard and everybody. able to take everything on one after that, but it starts. It's like 80, 88, 89, you know what I'm saying? Like, even KOC and all the No Limit shit that they got from Richmond specifically.

A hundred percent. Yeah. Like, we gotta have a whole different conversation about sounds when you start to talk about us. Like, that's what raises. And so not trying to separate the two. We make, we, you look at the room, you look at who in the writer's rooms for some of the hits, like hit making them room.

It's a lot of bait niggas on that list, you feel me? Always. Always. Don't ever, don't ever not. associate us with making what the like dictating the sound for real and I mean shameless plug but post hyphy was myself Jack ROD come on there was only a few people getting played back home on the radio's typey 2009 2010 facts and we were in that we were in that circle so my music was both it was deep shit

it was radio shit it was both and we all do that we all make like phenomenal battle rapper but songs he can make songs No, 1,000% And I think a big The reason why I say Neo mob Is because the tempo Is kind of switched back Like at the end of the day

Mob music, one of the signatures Of this sound was It's slow trunk rattling Music Very suited for shit talking And drop in game And with Hefe And I think a large part of this

Had to do with You know The substances that people were ingesting at the time the tempo got a lot quicker. You know, it was off the thizz and all that and then made the fun times. Fun times. Absolutely good.

But if you don't have your hi-fi insurance, the aftermath might not be so fun. They get well out. And then, yeah, now it's kind of a resurgence of that tempo that we grew up with, not quite as slow, but way more closer to that. And yeah, it's interesting because I obviously was a fan of you back in the day.

when you had the irk the jerk moniker. And first of all, can we just go on record? Like, right here, right here is one of the dopest Bay Area records of all time. Come on. Come on. It's crazy. One of the biggest, the, lot of activity. And it's crazy because I didn't even know prior to that, I had heard your music,

but I didn't know that you had the vocals like that. You feel, me? Like, you listen. La, nah, nah, nah, nah. I'll do some shab. I ain't going. LA Kev is definitely not R&B.

I know there's a story. It's like Ray Day and then me. That's what I was thinking. I was thinking. There's got to be a story to the creation of that song. Like, was there someone, was there a young female

that you just had to just get right there in public? Are you an exhibitionist? It was a culmination. Okay. Of understanding the psyche. I don't know. Now, really, I was just

making like making music, me and tracks a million actually made that together. Tracks, tracks. Tracks. That's some piece. Yeah, we, I just took the beat to him and I was like, bro, like this song, like, I feel like it's gonna be dope, but I don't have any lyrics. And he was like, just say whatever the fuck. And we just kind of freestowed it and he sang harmony on it later.

And then yeah, that was it. Like, we start playing it, but people, we put it on Twitter and Twitter was like, we fuck with this. And then radio picked it up and then, you know what I mean? But it was really simple, like really like a very quick process. This just feels right, you know me. Right, no, absolutely. Changes the fuck to love and then get them cleaning.

I just want to love you right here. I'm classically trained. I'm classically trained. Big fan. Gina in the building. Gina, you know, you have this shit lit. No, dump her been cracking since Gina and Lushin. Hey, man, stop talking to my girl, bro.

Fall back. Out of pocket. You know, we're from their bay. Yeah, exactly. Exactly. We're going to let her choose. Shut up. And then I think another, obviously, seminal irk the jerk record

was, like, how I would define as like the apex of the post-hyphy era. You had a song pretty much, which was indirect, is it fair to say, direct opposition to the hype? That's a real one for drop home. That's crazy. I just posted that yesterday for the first time. Did you? It was a disc record. What was it called?

It was called, like, it was something dumb, right? I'm so dumb. I'm so dumb. Right. Right, right. And, I mean, were you just kind of sick of seeing all these kids thizzing out being ignorant and the sound getting watered down and repetitive? I just felt like a battle rapper at heart.

I always felt like if rap is a sport competition, then I got a whole lot of shit to say about men taking sex drugs together. I feel attacked. No, no, no, no, no. So it just was an opposing thought, you know what I mean? saying, okay, that's one side of the coin, but what's the other side of that coin? Who's braiding your hair? Shut up.

No, I'm saying, that was just the questions I had at the time. Not as an adult. I was a kid. Right, right. You know what I mean? Those are wild thoughts, brother. But I just felt like there was an apex, like, irk the jerking, kicked a sneak. Like, I got my name from that movement, but it was a different culture at the time.

Right. So when it became, like, comical, it kind of made me feel away, because I'm like, what about the legends? There's legends there that kind of honed a hyphy sound that kind of get pushed to the background. And everybody had a yellow bus.

Everybody had a gas brake dip. So it was like, man, like this feel weird. Because some people was backpack rapping before this, and then y'all jumped on the train and switched your whole style up. So I was like, yo, I'm going to talk to them real quick. And then that became like, you know, like, oh, he's dishing high. But I just, I guess I assume somebody would diss me back

so we can get into like a sparring situation, but it never happened. Yeah. It was just like, okay. I guess they figured they can just ignore it and then it would go away. No, but like to me, I remember hearing it. I was like, whoa, what a poignant, astute observation of what's going on at the time because I think that we probably would have seen the Haifie movement, which I hate that term, by the way.

I think we would have just seen that era last a lot longer. if people weren't so derivative, because it's like people, like you said, everyone was saying gas break, dip. Everybody was literally the same terminology being- Just don't treat it like a let. Like this is like our real culture for real. Don't treat it like a lick.

You know what I mean? Don't treat it like you're just trying to bust a move and oh now I'm hyping now, okay no, I'm not hyping no, like stick with it. Like you know what I mean? The people that really birthed that shit, stick with that shit.

Like we, I'm really from there. So those legends are really important to me. Don't tarnish the longevity of that, by busing a quick move. Like, that ain't it. And you would never hear, like, San Quinn do some shit like that. You know what I mean? Yeah, it's going to go that way.

You know what I mean? So, no, it's dope. And so when you did the, at what point were you like, I'm going to change my name? And do you feel like when you did that, it kind of made it difficult as far as your momentum for a little while because everyone was still searching up, irk the jerk, what happened to irk the jerk?

They're not aware of this new monocet the jerk. they're not aware of this new moniker yet. I was just willing to try something different, to give it up. Like, it wasn't important to me. Like, my music didn't really start from me trying to be famous. It was like, I just like making music. So once the Bay, like, gave me some recognition,

it was like, cool, cool, cool, but that doesn't come with long lasting fame. Or it's temporary. So I figured, like, a lot of brands switch their moniker, like, at some point. no different. I'm growing, I'm changing. Let's just switch it up, see what happened. I can maybe make more fans as Kevin Island than, like, the jerk, if I work hard. That's just kind of how I figured at the time. So it wasn't a hard break. It just took a while because of a brand, you know what I mean? When right here was blowing up, did you feel pressure to follow that up,

like, as far as on a radio level? I'm sure you had a lot of people trying to get involved and, like, ride the coattails. Like, what did that feel like? It was pretty crazy. But, um, We dropped hands up after that. And then that was also doing well. So it was like two singles kind of running at the same time. Right. Back-to-back years. So it wasn't really a lot of pressure.

Like, I just didn't fuck on a nigga. Like, I just don't put myself in a situation where somebody can like, you know. Mm-hmm. You know, that paperwork and all that weird ass shit. Like, I'm just, you know what I mean? That ain't my thing. I respect it. Wild times, brother.

Now, now, Deuce, you. You have, like, you've put out a lot of projects over the years. A plethora. A plethora. But at what point were you like, okay, I'm going to take this to the next level? And do you feel like it was through this collaboration with Grand Nash that, like, took you to the next level? Taking me to the next level? Yeah, the collaboration with Grand National, but probably maybe about four years before when me and Dame started front page music.

He had been in the league for about four or five years, and we were like, let's start. Let the people know, okay, as far as, which Dame are we referring to? Oh, Dame Lillard. Who is your... It's my little cousin. Okay. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. NBA star and I want to say the best rapping hoopster, possibly of all time,

or since Alan Iverson got canceled under the Jewel's moniker back in the day. I'll put Shaq on that list. Shack, Shaq had some fucking hits, Doc. Jack is definitely there, but all time. Shaq got a big figure. It's not even. Shaq can't have bars like name, Dalai.

No, not at all. It's not even, it's not even, it's not even, it's not even, it's not even a possibly to me. It's not close at all. Yeah. No, of all time. By far. Yeah, but no, we started Front Page Music.

We started for Four Bar Friday. We set out to be a community-based label that helped artists across the country, across the world, really. And yeah, like I really started getting my feet with meeting a lot of people. people. It kind of told me that once I got into it, that maybe being an R was more of my bag than fully focusing on rap. So I started transferring into that realm. And now I'm A&R front page.

So I ANR All the Ames music. And I just kind of brought all of that knowledge and that Rolodex to Grand National. And that we just run it up in that same process. It's like, let's build this from the ground up. Let's start tapping into all our relationships. Because that's really what it is. It's like how many relationships you got. You know what I mean? So that's really, that was really the goal is to establish those relationships, to continue to build on them,

and then pass it to the homies, you know, and really move forward. But I think when I got better musically is when I started trusting. Okay. Somebody else's opinion. Instead of saying I could do it all about myself back to the whole Bay independent to a false situation, it's like, niggas don't be wanting to listen, you know?

And that was one of the bigger things for me was like being able to listen and be culturalable and have somebody say, you know what, that was whack, do it over. Maybe that beat is cool, but try this beat instead. You know, maybe this beat works better. You know, drop this out right here. Or can you say this line a little bit better?

It's a line specifically that Ked was like, you gotta ask a question right there as opposed to saying it on this song I got called Rearview Thoughts. And we've been doing it on tour. And every time I say it in that same way, the crowd is like immediately react, because it's like, oh shit, he's talking to me.

I know a line you're talking about. Yeah. And it's like, you don't go rap or not? Yeah, it's one of those things where it's like, sometimes you've got the right words, but you ain't saying it right. And it takes somebody else to be like, I felt that because I care about you,

but I need you to say it like this because they don't care about you yet. And if you say it like this, they will care about you. So being able to be in those rooms where you can receive that coaching is like the key. You know what I mean? So when I did,

that when I allow myself to be cultural. That's when it starts jumping up. Interesting. Do you find now thinking about music from an A&R perspective and wearing so many different hats, is it difficult to find the balance between being an artist and doing all these other? Not really. I mean, turn the beat on and let's rap. Okay.

And then when the song go off, let's figure out how to bust a move with it. So it's just, every day it's just a new challenge. new challenge you know now your name um has the you know your moniker comes from the neighborhood you grew up in of absolutely and that neighborhood you know deep east Oakland in the nine over there like that that holds a lot of weight like what made you choose to like carry the neighborhood on your back and just make that a part of your name i mean at first it was just some basketball shit it was like a few people that was named duster area and it was like you know you know duce that'd be hooping. It was like, what deuce? It was like

Brookfield deuce. Okay. So then it kind of stuck. And I just care more about the front of the jersey than the back of the jersey. It's like it's front page, it's Grand National, is Brookfield, is East Oakland. And that come before I say deuce.

Everywhere I go. All of that come before I say deuce. So for me it's like, care about the squad. And if you care about the squad, the squad of care about you, which is basically our this is literally how we move. this wolf mentality and it's like stick with the pack and you can go further if you go together you know but i just wanted to speak for my hood because i knew there was a lot of people in my hood that didn't

have a voice to speak for themselves so really being in a space where i could tell all of our stories and move forward in in the educational part you know like really giving information because people don't be knowing you know and it's like now we for sure one of the most legendary hoods in all of the Bay area Not just Oakland, you know what I mean? But in it hold a level of pride, you know, like being able to say I'm from Brookfield is different. I'm sure they feel the same way about being from North Richmond. Right.

You know, but it's like being from Brookfield is super different. Like going outside of the state, outside of the country, and you say Brookfield and they'd be like, oh, that's a, they're like, yeah. You know, so I just got a responsibility to make sure that I don't let my hood down, that I don't let my seat. city down, you know, so that's really what it is. I wanted to make sure that the front of the jersey was in front. And for those that don't really know much about it, how would you describe Brookfield Village? Man, it's one of those places that kind of started during World War II. It was a lot of whites there. They were presenting it as a spot where they were integrating black people in the area, and then the white people got mad left. And then they

they kind of moved to like the seminary area and it just left all the underprivileged people in Brookfield. But just ever since then it's been one of those places that people just hold real prideful. It's like right by the airport, it's right by the Coliseum. It's surrounded by all this money. If you go up to hill, you got Bishop Laudal High School. You know, it's like you got golf winks and it's like all these different places where it's surrounded by money but Brookfield is the trenches, you know, and it's in the area in East Oakland that they call the kill zone. So it's like a lot of people are getting robbed, a lot of people are getting murdered. And but the people there are just heller rooted in being from there and caring about each other, you know.

It's definitely one of those places that's real gravitational. I think people really overlook the community and village aspect of neighborhoods like that and how it's like people really, you know, everyone's grown up with each other and everyone knows everyone's mom and grandma and all that. And it's like one big family. And people, if you're not from there, you might be intimidated by the reputation. But if you're from there, it feels like the safest place you could ever be. And your name is really the currency. It's like, oh, it's like Game of Thrones there. Like your last name is important, you know, like what house you come from.

Yeah. So it's super important. A lot of people that aren't up on it might have seen the cocaine Cowboys Part 2 move. Charles Crosby is from that neighborhood Exactly And so, you know Grizilda Blanco

Do a little bit of research And all that I'm sure you might Could have had some You know knowledge of that growing up Even just a little bit Yeah, a little something It gets crazy

It get crazy Yeah It get too deep for the camera But yeah I'm tipped up I'm sitting up We can talk off line We can talk off line

Yeah Okay, let me know. Now, Moni, you were the one that I was the least familiar with prior to Grand Nash, but that's just because I was sleep, because when I, like, became privy to what you bring to the table, I was like, this dude's a straight animal, like, right here. Thank you, man. For those that don't know, why don't you break down, like, some of your origins in the game and all that?

You don't be, don't feel away. I'm new. I'm the guy here for real. Like, I got with them. Got hella lucky and was able to take you home. He's capping right now, huh? You hear this man, cap? Yeah.

They do this, I hate, they do this shit all the time, and it's really the truth. It's pretty amazing. We'll be with, um, first time he took me to meet short, and I was like, froze, bro, like, I didn't know what to do. He was like, man, you ain't ever met him before. He just said this so. He's like, no, bray, never done none of this before. This is all brand new.

Same thing, Aunt Banks the other day at the, uh, my Westmore show. Like, all of this shit is just like, just taking it in feel me so it's like he's a legend in the city though let me tell you yeah you know man I ain't go let him play yourself like that he do a lot of shit for a lot of people

and like really one of the most giving individuals I've ever met on this planet but he had animal he could wrap his ass off produce but in the real way like produce shows produce content curate like curate exactly like you know what I mean he does a lot of shit for people

like outside of music and music in the game for real. But he's not going to say it, though. So this, you know what I mean? Humble beast. Yeah, we're going to make sure we take sure. Sure. Like, period. You're from the rich as well, correct? Did y'all grow up together? Nah, you're from the south side. Okay. Okay. No, not far at all, but his, uh, um, Callie Finn, his group, my partner, shout out dame, uh, even with all the crazy shit, I love that nigga to death. But in bio class, He played me their album and was like, oh no, my brother, fuck with it for real.

Were you in Kennedy or one of them? No, Pano. Pano. Sue, Pilo, everybody, Bari. Like, it's real legends out of art school specifically. Whenever I hear Pinault, I always think of Coach Carter. Pino! No, that's really how it was, though, too.

Like, the hell of kids from the rich ended up there, hella kids from the town from Berkeley, randomly, some Laleo niggas ended up there, too. And so it was just big melting pot. of rappers and producers that all came out of that school, and it was fucking crazy. Like, but that whole family tree of the invasions of HBK really start with CaliFam and the shit,

like the shit they was doing in Damon's in basement for real. So Jayant, Sue, like, all them niggas learn how to make beats and shit in the rooms. Crazy. And then look where shit ended up. And so that's my crew. Like, I grew up with them, was in a group with, in Kingstow with, aka Frank, Jayant,

and Dan, like, started early. Like, niggas would be on the phone, like, we're going to practice in their rap and shit somebody play a beat. Like, that's how early it started. But it was all that same family tree. But we never crossed paths ever, though. Do y'all miss Hilltop Mall?

Mm-hmm. Yes. Yes, yes, yes. I go on record. I'll say, yes. This for the red. Is this camera on me? Yeah, yeah.

I miss at Hilltop Mall. We miss you. Hilly, RIP, Hilly. RIP, Hilly. You know what I'm saying? The Hill. It depends, man. I got Keek, I got the Pink Panther shit there.

So it's like, maybe because of that and my first kiss. But definitely. You got your first kiss at Hilltop? Oh, you ratchet. The dollar movie. Come on, man. Shut up. That's the movie.

That makes sense. Definitely seen the first thing to get shot at that month, too. So I'm like, I don't know. I used to love the jersey shop there. Now it's, brother. Cherit. Yep, Cheritke with all the throwbacks. Like, that spot was fired.

Got our dream, too. Dream, the graffiti artist of Mary used to work there. Wow. TDK Dream. Oh, Dan, TDK Dream. That was my homeboy, and I was a young nigga. Used to teach me art and shit like that. Wow.

RIP Mike Dream. I think I knew that, bro. That's made me. Yeah, for real. Hilltop Mall is legendary. I had about nine jobs in that motherfucker. Hilly go crazy. I mean, people don't realize anywhere in the flatlands of Richmond is, you know, you got to be

on your P's and Q's. I don't care if it's Central Ridge, South Ridge. But being from North Rich, like, man, that's like, that holds a whole other, you know, Like, anytime I cross, was it, rum real? That street over that, I'd be like, what you were doing over there, slide over there? Come on, bro. Sure, right.

Slide around. Yeah, it's. No, it's crazy. I mean, similar to Brookfield, it's like, it's those, like, kind of almost one way in, one way out. There's literally two ways in and out. You know what I mean? North Ridge, yeah.

But also, I did feel that community, like, you didn't know that you were in that shit until you got older. Like, as a kid, it was community, it was family. It was, like, popped a garage. open and barbecue and kick it and all the type of shit. It was real shit going on,

but you kind of fall into that when you get older. It's not, you know what I mean? I grew up in the 80s. I was just like, you know what I mean? It was shit. Rock cocaine was a rich man kind of high. It was a definitely. I like how you.

Full circle. That was from before the camera was rolling. But you know what? It's interesting, though, because like, Brookfield, you're near still other neighborhoods. You're right near San Leandro. You're 10 minutes away from San Leandro. The Hunters is right there.

Like he said, you got the hills up there. North Rich, though, is so isolated. An incorporated. Narf Rich. Y'all got your own accents that you've heard nowhere else in the world. New Orleans is like from New Orleans. Yeah. That lineage from there.

Right, right. Yeah, direct, though. That's just crazy. It was different. It was different. I also grew up in Oakland. I went to school in Hayward. I just have a Bay Area, like, you know what I mean,

where it's like North Richmond is definitely off to the side and kind of forgot about. So that's another reason why to me, like, this shit is big, like being able to come around and talk to people about Richmond and put on for the Bay like that. It's really crazy. And there's some, like, you know, lyrical legends from there. You got Lock Smith off the door.

I mean, RIP, Johnny Cash. Like, that was one of my favorite Bay Area rappers. And he was dead nice. And a lot of people didn't, don't really, darn up on just how crazy he got. That's really crazy, man. Your R-R-P, bro. And Jack was sliding around

in the rich, too. Come on. Come on. Come on. Yeah, we got some people. We got some people on our roster. You remember that, what was a dude's name?

Harm back in the day? Yeah, yeah. You're fucking around. Come on, bro. Can't leave left out. No, no. Oh, yeah, left, left. Yeah, definitely came.

Frontline, for real. Yeah, sure. I said I left. I definitely tried to press the niggies at Hilltop. Like, listen to my music. Listen, this shit tight. This nigga is crazy, bro.

I actually got Locke coming on this Monday. Let's go. That's awesome. His new shit sounds crazy, too. Oh, yeah, Locke on, going stupid. Speaking to someone, speaking to Locksmith,

someone that battled Locksmith back in the day. Oh, did you? He absolutely did. Let's get into you. You got smoked or did you do some smoking? I did some, come on, man. Let's talk about it.

Let's talk about it. Lush, how are you with the battles? Like, how much? But how many watches to you make your final decision on who won that shit? Okay, that's a good question. Because I feel like there's in the building and then you have to examine the... That counts still, right? It does.

Okay. That's the real... I think so. That's the real genuine response because back in the day, there was no tape. It was whoever captures the moment. And that's why I always say the most important aspect of a battle rapper is not just your bars, your delivery, any of these other intangibles, it's your ability to create moments.

And like, no matter what era of battle rap you're in, I'm talking going back to the busy B and Cool MoD era, to the freestyle scene, to the smack DVDs, the fight club, to early grind time, to now transcending any era is your ability to create a moment. And if you create a moment that's bigger than the battle that everyone remembers, you win. That's it.

That's it. I don't disagree with that. I mean, I think it could be argued, though, like, when you think about Jordan, he was playing plumbers. Mm-hmm. So you watched a replay. You watched the replay, and he was playing electricians, bro. Yeah. He was playing plumbers.

So it was like, you watch LeBron, and he'd be doing stuff that you just can't imagine. You see Dames shooting from 35 feet. They wasn't doing that back then. They wasn't doing that. So you're saying that era was trash, essentially. I mean, not necessarily trash, but like, I think... Plumbers. I think, yeah.

Plumbers. But I'm saying, but I'm saying then Jordan was creating moments. Right. But today you got to see the replay to see what a nigga on the floor. Yeah, I was going to say it is kind of different now. You see John Morant go to the basket like that. You got to see the replay to really appreciate what actually happened. Absolutely.

You know what I mean? So I think the replay is important now. It's a few historical battles where it's like in real time, everybody's like, yeah, like, We just watched the We always referenced the Mook and in just serious Jones And it's like

It's because of the room Be like damn Did Mook win bro, you watch that tape Sirius smoked that nigga bro Like it's not even close And it'd be like that But at the end of the day

Even Loaded Lux versus Calico Everybody Like Loaded Lux won that battle On the strength of his third round And the moment that he created

But if you break down The technical aspects of the battle Cal easily got to of those rounds. Lux choked in one of his rounds. I don't know about that. Lux didn't choke in one of I know about that. You see, that's why the replay is important. Yeah. Because we couldn't have this conversation if we just went based on the moment. So that's why I'm like, yeah, what you're saying is true, but Jordan was playing plumbers. That's a haymaker though. That Lutz moment is a haymaker.

It is. And it shifted culture. Yes. Fuck them, not for Calico, but fuck them rounds. Yeah. That was a haymaker. That was a, I got knocked down. down twice, but I really, I really slept you in that third round. Exactly. I've never seen nothing like it before. It's a knockout punch. And back in, and I know y'all remember, like, battling back in the day, it would end at a certain point.

And whoever, even if, like, it's an uneven amount of rounds, if you go so crazy, they don't even want to hear what the op has to say. If you get crossed and you fall. Yeah. It's over. It's over. It's a wrap. It doesn't matter.

It doesn't matter. Pick up the wrench. Go back to you feel me? Like, yeah. When it's, hey, when the season over, they see. still working. These players ain't, all they do is hoop now. Right. They've been hooping high school, AAU, 24-7. All they do, all they do is hoop for real now. So it's like, it's just different. It ain't no shade to the OGs that hooped. They ain't no shade to

join. A little bit of shit. You know what I mean? Why are we opposed to that though? Like in rap and in like sport, like predominantly where you see black people like getting their shit off. There's this weird like pressure to hold on to the past as opposed to be like, The whole point was for the next wave to be better. Exactly. I mean, you want the real answer. You know what I'm saying? Think.

Think, my brother. Use your common sense. There's oppression. We are made to believe we're not even going to live past 25, brother. We got to get it now. Today, tomorrow is it prompt. Think. You know the fucking answer.

You know what I mean? But now, I believe that, though. No, it's the... That's a true. That's a drill spill. I got to keep it funky. Yeah. Now, speaking of which past, last time we had you on here, was before the King of the Dot finals and all that.

I got a question. I got a question. It's back to the replay situation. How the fuck? Oh, we're about to be about to do. We could really. I want to dissect this. We could really argue that Bill won.

It's not an argument, bro. You get what I'm saying? Especially if you watched the replay, because I think they had equal amount of moments. live and then when you watched your replay what is there to talk about? So with that being said, passed previously to last time we had you on was previous

to, you battled for a hundred thousand dollars, you versus bill collector, you had to do what six battles to get to that point? Yeah. Was that it? Six or seven battles? Yeah, easy work. In like a five month period or something like that.

Yeah, yeah. to get to that point. You were undefeated. You get to the finals and had a very close, debatable, allegedly debatable battle that people,

that they wound up giving to your opponent, Bill Collector. How did that feel? Do you agree with the decision? And fuck being political. It don't even matter at this point. Just keep it funky.

You want no jumper. I mean, I will say, he wouldn't do you any favor. Yeah, well, I mean, that's cool. He's a classic guy. I don't do what I do based on what somebody else might do anyway. But I would say whatever I got to say about it, it wouldn't be political, but I also

would never want to, like, downplay somebody else. Like, Bill did amazing, and he had an amazing run. And the whole time, me and him basically knew it was going to be me and him at the end. Like, a lot of us had talked about it. Right. He was like, probably going to be me and you, especially after a certain point. But do I... I called it before the season once I was something.

all you are in different brackets. Yeah, yeah. And after I did the first one, I was like, I'm making it to the finals. Yeah. You know, I said that shit. You media train, my boy? Y'all doing media training behind my back? I mean, these guys, y'all clearly feel like he took that bro.

I mean, but I do think that Bill went crazy. Yeah. That's the thing. Yeah, we're not, we're not biased in that way. Like, it's the homie, but it was close, but it was not a clear. It was not a clear bill won that, not especially on a replay, not on a replay for sure. Right. Yeah, I mean, he's a nice guy.

I think, I think that was probably like, that might have been my craziest performance, the most precise and most, like, you know what I mean, on point. And I think I really took it there. Afterwards, I pretty much was feeling like I don't even care what the decision is because I feel really, really good about what I just did. what I just did. Every feeling of like anticipation or like oh my God who's going to

win was like gone. After I did it I was like I don't even care. I just went fucking crazy. Like you know what I'm saying? I just had like a maniacas performance. Do I agree with the judge's decision and this might say I'm stupid or media train but that is actually a kind of a complicated question because I don't

even agree with and I will say this I don't even agree necessarily with the judges who like being who they were being judges, you know what I'm saying? And so it was like, whatever they have. Of course they would say, whatever they're going to say, because they don't know really what the fuck they're talking about.

Like, then people are bloggers and people that, like, whatever, you know what I'm saying? Like, to me, that's not a controversial thing to say because it's just obvious. You know what I mean? Like, them people shouldn't be judging shit. So it's like, whatever. I don't give a fuck what they got to say. Because I just went crazy.

Now, previous to the, actually, you know, last time he was on here, Bill told us that y'all had made an arrangement to split the money. So you didn't go home empty-handed. You had a- Definitely did not go home empty-handed. But not, so you didn't, just in case it swung the other way, but he didn't.

Yeah, it wasn't, yeah, exactly. That's what a lot of people, like, hold on. That's what a lot of people think of stuff. And I definitely seen it, like, you know, Twitter and all sorts of shit. Like, people being like, there was like a whole conversation. And when nobody knew anything, before Bill had come and said anything, there was all sorts of like, well, I hope they split it.

And the people were like, no, Bill don't have to, you know, give them anything if, like, nobody was giving anybody anything. Like, we did make an arrangement prior that was like, listen, we don't know how this shit is going to go. We both also knew these judges were on some bullshit. You know what I'm saying? And we talked about that way. And the whole time, everybody knew. Like, it wasn't, you know, a secret.

And so we were just like, we're going to walk away empty handed for real. Like, if we did all this shit and then get to second place, like, that's crazy. And we both knew we were both going to go crazy and try to really take each other head off. And so... Smart business. So we, you know, we was like... And it was like a difficult decision.

Like, honestly, I was like about to damn you're not do it. I was like, man, I'm about to cook this. You know what I mean? Like, I don't... Fuck that. But then, you know, I was like, okay, that would feel really, really crazy if I got to it and then I had my craziest performance ever

and then the judges didn't go in my favor. I would feel crazy. Not-ass-freekeball. I wish you knew how funny that was in the context of this tour, but I can't. That's a whole other story. No, I want to get into the tour in a second. There's a lot of tours.

There's some tour story. I want to get into that actually real quick. But before we do, one final question about battle rap. Yesterday, BET put out a list of their top 50, battle rappers of all time. Let's go. Justin Hunt, great journalists, if you're not familiar with him. Justin

Honey used to be was Hip Hop DX. You said that. You said that. You said the difference. Yeah, so that's the same. Okay, yes, yes, yes. He's called The Company Man. Yes. Really, one of my favorite journalists in all of hip hop. And he had you on the list as a

top 50 battle rapper of all time. Did you take a look at the list? How do you feel about it? the list is cool I kind of it's definitely like an honor and a privilege and it truly is humbling

to be like considered all something like that like it's really awesome like it's fucking you know BETT like what the fuck it's awesome

entertainment television you know what I mean so it's a big deal to be like a corporation of Viacom not just right but that though

you know what I'm saying like at the end of the day it's a list like I could have just just as easily not been on it, whatever, and I would have just been like, okay, cool, whatever. Like, and these lists shouldn't be, like, discouraging to people. Like, it really doesn't mean shit. Like, at the end of the day.

It's really beautiful. It's awesome. And it's, like, a great, like, thing to be acknowledged, like I said, on that level. But it's just a list. Like, you know what I mean? People just, like, have opinions and shit. Like, it don't matter. There's people that probably should have been on there that wasn't on there.

You know what I'm saying? Yeah. Now on y'all tour, y'all stopped through bars on I-95 and merch shop. Have y'all got a lot of feedback from that? Because that's like a pretty big platform as far as just lyricists and all that. Like, how did it feel getting acknowledged? You feel like that opened y'all up to a new fan base and a bunch of years that weren't privy to y'all before? I believe so.

Definitely. I definitely think so. I think they just show so much love up there. Like, shout out A, A, B, and then, brother. Yeah. like, see, and they're just, like, at home. Like, they really, you know what I mean? Like, we go out of state and get a lot of love.

So off top, open up to new eyes. It's like, that's what they do. That's what it's there for, skilled over politics and all that shit. Like, they really mean that shit, and they show hell of love. So, yeah, everybody over there. That's fire. Yeah. I'm gonna need some tour stories.

Like, temp. Well, y'all laws on the rise, jealous niggas out of the spot. Look in my eyes. You're trading tour stories. Come on. Come on. Shout out Park, all right, people. Yep.

Oh, no. And then Sol's a Mischiff got the Tor Story song, too. Man. I know y'all got something. I told you. I was in encyclopedia. So, no. Just jump straight into the shits.

Nah. Come on, man. The streets need this. Yeah, the streets need it. All right, boom. All right, boom. So look, check it out, right. Monty, a little too quiet, bro.

Damn, like. There's one he doesn't want to say that he doesn't want to say. Because we don't know what we have to say. Because the police might. That's what I'm saying. Yeah, I mean, you can't just... I think y'all are... I mean, yeah, we don't want to incriminate nobody, but...

Yeah, because something, you know what I mean? He got a rap career ahead of this, though. We ain't trying to derail that one, no, no. Oh, no, I can tell us. 10 to 20. We get accosted at the door of Blue Flame. Okay, that's a good one. Let's start with that.

And to the point... In Atlanta. Listen, I start with this. And A, to the point where you like, I'll go home. That was a little too much. Like, what kind of gun do you think I can get in here with joggers on my boy? Like, this is crazy. Like, this is wild.

Man, walk through the door. The first person I see is fucking Pastor Troy. Wow. Feel me? Feel me? Wow. Like, I did that. And he, I think he didn't want to, like, leave me hanging.

So he, like, met me with the same energy. And I was like, bro, you really had the big turn, like Richmond specifically, bro. Like, come on to the bar, man. Like, it was like that. So it was. Shout out Pastor Troy. Yeah, shout out of Troy. Yeah, that was he like, was he like, Rick Ross.

I fucking love him. I think that it was, too. He never had thought. Like, when I walked in, all I saw was him and Pastor Troy dapping it up. And I was like, wait, this nigga knows Pastor Troy, boy. Amazing. Who was he? Blue flame was a movie though.

No, I'm not going back. I'm not going back. No way you need to get searched like this. I mean, look, it'd be going up in them spots over there and they like I can. Man, look, I feel you. But we got on sweatpants. You gotta chill out, my boy. No, you didn't see what happened last.

Yeah, that was crazy. I don't even want to. They didn't offer you a cigarette afterwards. I'm like, I thought they were stripping. Like, what's your food? And by the way, y'all think y'all slick going to the damn strip club wearing motherfucking sweats.

We know what y'all are up to. We were on tour. Hey, listen. Come on. We did not know. We had no idea. Had no idea of the sound check. It was no way.

Nah, we was literally getting food five minutes before. That's slides on. We got slides on. That's my move. I used to wear the velour pants. Oh, you're going there in your creep shit. Yeah. The fuck you thought.

Trying to put it in your waistband. The fuck you thought. You know, I'll see you. And I've been talking. Come on, come on. I'm one of them. I'm one of them. Nud-ass freak bull.

Yes, sir. And what's, I've been talking about this a lot recently. And, you know, I love Southern, culture. I love Atlanta in particular, one of my favorite cities. It's very different from, as a sharp contrast to where we're from, and especially the

Bay Area in the aspect of tricking is a big part of the culture in Atlanta, which definitely doesn't, you know, y'all probably it's difficult for y'all to even part with like ones in the strip club. No, really though. It's like as a kid you lose that balloon.

I'll never, I don't forget myself. It's like that. It's like, wait, what? I got to pay you to do what? Dance. Dancing is free. The Bay don't even want to have fun in the strip club. I had that mentality for a while, and now I'm just like, fuck it. You feel me?

Pay your rent. I just stand next to niggas like you at the strip club. I just stand next to a nigga like, you're like, yeah, I'm with him. But the way they do it in the A, it's so egregious to the point where I don't, as much as I love the women of Atlanta strip clubs. Everything else. And the doctors that provide them with the physique. that is so enticing. Hey, that shit might have been real, my boy.

It's difficult for me. To me, it's more about the tricks showing off than it is actual females. So now we're back to this shit. Which is kind of lame. Like, I don't luck with that. Like, none of it makes sense. Yeah.

But it's the rap game. It's entertainment. And it's WWF. Like, you know what I mean? Like, you got to understand that. If you're playing the game, you play the game. Like, I don't, like, I don't care about Koo Kudder

in the corner fucking making it rain 30 racks. Like, I'm trying to see fucking Hennessy and Delicious. And you feel like, what the fuck? Like, Koo Kutter, Hennessy, and that's pretty accurate, right? No, that's pretty accurate. You know I've been to these places. I thought you were going to say Kuku Kow. Yeah, yeah.

And I was like, oh, shit. Did y'all see the Kuku Kow documentary? Yes, right. Yes, that's just a thing. Heartbreaking, bro. No, I didn't watch it. This is based on a true story. Absolutely.

Amazon. It actually does have a cool ending, though, which I respect. Yeah, that's crazy. Watch that. Shout out Cuckoo Cowell. I definitely had the Bay turned up. Man, big shouts to Cougou Cal. Big shouts, big shots.

So tour stories, we got that. I want to talk to y'all about some Bay Area business. No, no, no, no. There's more? There's more? Bay Area business. Bay Area business. You sure?

You sure. Look, man, it's just a lot of police. A lot of motherfucking animals and shit in the road. It's a lot of, you know what I mean? It's a lot of people saying weird shit. That was the worst. You know, yada, yada, yada, perform sound check. Hurry up and wait.

Do it again. Yeah, do it again, wake up, do it. You know what I'm saying old shit, though. Roadkill? I mean, look, man. RIP, man. Oh. Y'all catching bodies.

Y'all catching bodies out here. Big bodies. Big bodies. Big bodies. So clearly. Count of my ends, plotting revenge. I've seen Bambi I've seen Bambi before

No we didn't see Bambi Yeah it wasn't Bambi We seen him We seen Yogi, we see Yogi Hold on not Let's stop being so cryptic Let's stop being so cryptic Now we're from California

We gotta we gotta preserve The wildlife I mean this is the mascot You know what I mean Like Birkman and shit Y'all wasn't even in California though Was you? Yeah, we were

A border We just crossed the border Every time we crossed the border Something crazy happened So, like, when you get into a new state, just be prepared for, like, fuckery. We kind of got used to that. I don't know, man. There's going to be something going on.

So y'all had hit a bear? How did, like, what? You keep saying, y'all, like, we was all driving at the same time. So, one. I can't even wrap my head around past having a license, bro. Oh, my God. This is crazy. You too?

Wait, I know y'all didn't put your life in this man's hand. Hey, yo. Wow. No, no, look, look. It was an adventure. Wow. I don't care how gray his beard is. That's a little, bro, as far as I'm concerned.

Hold on, no. When the tour started, we was like, wait, pass, you got a license? Yeah. He was like, yeah, I drive all the time. It was like, when? When do you drive? Oh, shit. No, he's on the barred, bro.

Fuck that. Hell, no. Wait, you didn't drive on tour, though, did you? Yeah, of course. Drive all the time. Of course. Hey, I stay back. Check this out.

Hey, relax. Y'all are tripping. No. He's definitely tripping. He's like, make it right. He's like, go straight. He like, nah, make her right. He like, nah.

He's like, nah. I was the opposite. It was the opposite. Yeah, that's what I was. So you clearly killed a bear. No, no, it wasn't. Hey, listen. Nope.

We not saying. Who committed to murder? He took it in the fifth. He came in the fifth. Bro, the bear was fine. Let's not say who was driving. My name ain't been and I ain't been in it. Okay.

The bear came out the cuts. Somebody in some van somewhere. It was a big. bear and a little bear. The big bear faster than the little bear. Agile. Agile. They're like, ooh.

The little beer was like, oh, no. The big beer was at the combine. Yeah. Damn. Allegedly it was either us or the bear, though. That's the copal. Yeah, we would have ran into a dish. You know what's crazy, though? It's like,

it's so rare. I've been all through these damn forests and all that shit on the road and all that. I can't I don't think I ever seen one in the wild, like maybe once or twice in my life. We've seen two that night. I've never seen a bear in real life. Yeah, I'd be shook. Outside of the zoo.

Outside of the, I don't go to the zoo no one because that's animal jail. But like, you know, free of the homies. But like, yeah. Free to homies. But like, God. Not the beautiful Oakland Zoo even with all the. What? That's big jail right there.

Yeah, bro. Yeah. That's super max. Yeah, super max. Level five. True program, man. But now, I just, I'd never seen a bear in real life, bro. Yeah, same.

And that bear was so fast, like, super fast. One of them was, bro. I was fair to say, it wasn't fast. Yeah, yeah, Yogi wasn't as fast, but you, bro. Yogi Jr. Smokey went across that highway quickly. I think the bear is all right, though. We don't know what happened.

You keep telling yourself that, bro. It makes you feel better. Because the cameras is on the shit. So we're just making this story up. Don't nobody come. This is a joke trying to, like, say. She just killed the bed. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Like, we just was playing. We love Peter. Clearly, clearly. Hey, no, you know, these things tend to happen, you know. It just, that's wild. When the killer behind the will, definitely. Like, she's going to be driving. This don't happen when we drive, man.

Damn sociopaths, I swear. I'm looking at a pass, but I don't know, Duce. I don't know. Look. I have nothing to. They got a guess in the comments, man. Yeah, yeah. Who killed the bear?

You're going to build a bear? We're trying to find out who killed the bear. Now, as far as a Bay Area business, the bipping epidemic. Oh, man. I'm sitting all the time high. Yeah, it's getting worse and worse and worse. Car burglaries. It started out as a San Francisco phenomenon mainly, right?

Like, I mean, but now it's Baywide. Is that safe to say? sure where this shit started. It's countrywide. It's happening in Atlanta. It's happening in Portland. It's happening in L.A. It's all over.

I mean. But not like you. Not like in the Bay. Not like at home. Like I'm leaving my windows open. No, it's a career. Yeah. No, it's an actual,

people are fucking in. Definitely. I mean, Bipping. Start at 80. Yeah. I mean, Bipping in the Bay, single-handedly redid coordinates,

redid Communion 1, and redid Communion 2. just in our circle, you know. People got in, Bib to Whip and stole music out of the? Our drives and. Wow. Wow.

So we lost a lot of music due to bivin, but I think our ability to pivot and be agile is, you know, our superpower, and we were able to just kind of turn that into a positive and make what people are being able to listen to on our streaming platforms right now in your phone. Go get it.

Okay, I see what you did. They got to flip the thing. You got to flip the bill. You got to flip the bib. Flip the bib. Yeah, man. Flipa da bipper. Right.

Is that count as a bar? That's a bar. That's a bar. That's a negative into a positive. That reminds me of, you know, Wutang, when Riza had the flood in his apartment when he was working on the Inspector Deck album and all that. It's like an orchestra.

That's, that's, that's, honestly, though, of all the things to get taken, that's got to be the most frustrating. Yeah, it is. Yeah. But, you know, it hasn't, the good thing is it hasn't stopped the influx of fire music that y'all are unleashing on the game regardless. No, I can't stop. And now. Those is cat burglar. Yeah, man.

J-cats. Jay-cat burglargless. In addition to, you know, what are y'all thoughts about platforms like Thizzler, being the primary voice of what people's perception and mold people's perception of the Bay Area. You know what helped for me to fuck with Dizzler? Was no jumper. Like, it's removed, right? So we're in the Bay.

Mostly it was covering L.A. shit initially. And then you would see all the backlash initially early. Like, just why is it this, why is it this rapper? Why is it this sound cloud rapper or whatever? But then you go, damn, it's an alternate sort of space to what. what already exists, you feel me? And so Dizzler, it's like, shit, we're gonna cover this. But soon as certain people got inside the building,

they started expanding who they covered and who they tapped in with you, you feel me? So it's just like, it's easy to demonize some shit because somebody's doing something consistently and trying to get people a space and put people on. And shit, if this is the demo that's tapping in, if this is what they get a response from, we're gonna run with it.

Until y'all started engaging it. So it's like this weird kind of separation where certain people don't fuck with Dizzler because they don't have the type of rap that they want to see. But y'all don't engage with shit, so we're going to post this other shit. Like it just, it just makes, it works that way. So it's just like this, it's this convenient thing to kind of demonize Dizzler, but I'll fuck with them. And their attempt to scale and like be a little bit more inclusive and go find other rappers like this shit that they just put out.

That had DiMajay and Overcast and like NIMS, like the rappers, we really fuck with you feel me? Even had pass on a list. You know, like it's, he made the list. Like it was, it all, you know what I'm saying? Like they're doing, they're attempting to. So you're like, we're looking for Grace's artists to really take shit on one. We got to offer the platforms in the publication.

You shout out the journalists. It's like the journalists is what kept us with at home. Shout out Allen, Alid, Aligh, like really, like really started covering everything, G. N. Penn Darvis. Like, there's some people at home that are doing the job that the source would have done

and the writers that the source did in the early days. Brandon Peters. Shout out. B. D Scott Miller? D Scott for sure. Ryan at the Crimson. So y'all are media darlings essentially

No, that's the thing. It's you. It's you now. It's like people that have taken a chance on what we're doing because a lot of people don't know who we are, but that's the point. That's the point of the platform. If you want to watch people you already know, then go watch older interviews. But to get put on the new shit, you've got to introduce

new people. So if that's your job and you're doing your job, the complaining is it feels unnecessary. Right. It's like if you don't want to watch it, don't watch it. No, 1,000% and I want to circle back. And I kind of agree with what y'all were saying earlier about how the bay. It's never really just had one sound.

Ever. Because even back in the day, during the mob music era, when it was, you feel me, Richie Rich, when it was the clique, when it was the Loonies, when it was all this shit popping up, you still had the coop, you still had digital underground. You still had hieroglyphics, Dell, all the, you know. And vote, Tony, Tony, Tony, Tony, Tony. me. Exactly. Then you had, you know, R&B that was with a very specific, they would call the Oakland Swing, you feel me back in the day. So, and y'all kind of are embodiment of that same energy of a lot of

these, the alternative artists that were shining in the Bay Area, but in a new, in a new realm. But I also feel like the word alternative is kind of limiting to a degree, and I wouldn't want to put that jacket on y'all because it's so it's so much both I think I think what happened was during the pandemic when we like built it it was very it was driven in community and artists banding together in that time we made music reflecting what it felt like to us but that was just a capsule so we're still embodied by my music we're still embodied by street music by real instrumentation like and banks and all these different things but it's It's everything, like just from the Bay Area.

The soil is in every piece of our music, how we talk, how we dress, how we think. But I think we got kind of put into a, y'all, arrested development. You know what I'm saying? And then for us, it's like, damn, like, what we're actually saying is maybe closer to like where maybe outcast meets too short. Right. You know what I'm saying? Somewhere in there, like, you know what I mean?

It's somewhere in that vein from what we're inspired by. I love it. That's an incredible, incredible comparison. And just, if I had never heard y'all and I saw some more Outcast meets too short, like I'd be like, sign me up, ASAP. Like, yeah. Yeah, right.

It was naked girls on the Outcast album. Exactly. The first two albums. Yeah, you know what I mean? There was a sense of like Big Boy was talking street shit. Yep. The duality. Yeah, the duality is there.

So we all, we feel like every human has duality at the Bear, at the Bear. at the bear minimum, so yeah, let's do that. Oh, man, too soon. Not the bear minimum. Whoa, oh, you mean like somebody got naked? Y'all just took it there? No, we're talking about the bear that y'all killed.

Oh, oh, gosh. Oh, gosh. Oh, wow. Oh, okay. The bear necessities. The bear necessities, man. Yeah, the jungle books. Man, for real.

R.P. Yogi. The jungle book, man. Shout out to Ray Ryder, man. Man. Man. The animal lover. Dirty Macon. So what's next?

What can we look forward to? Season two. Fuck out of here. Straight up, man. Season two on the way, man. We put some shit together. Like the tour was really a play to get, you know, get outside and let people know that we're coming. And to that point, like, season one had a sound and had a feel for a reason.

Like, we couldn't tour none of the shit. And we didn't do so many shows since then. So the energy and just being outside is informing the music. So this next wave of shit, man, buckle the fuck up for real. Man, I need like, y'all are like the long lost cousins of the dungeon family like Goody mob and cast like from the Bay Area. I love it. I love what y'all are doing.

I'm geeked for whatever y'all put out. Y'all always got a home over here as long as I'm a no jumper. Y'all in the motherfucking punch. I appreciate you. No, I appreciate you. Thank you. Any parting words for the people before we sky up out here? Um, passed one-n-n-that battle.

But he too nice to say it. Monty B turning shit up, you know what I'm saying? Oh. Stop snitching, man. Stop snitching. Time of his first 48 with Grand National. That's crazy. He didn't even get like an ultimate visa in that thing.

Damn. Nah, no, no. We stand with the Alive Garden. No, no. Tuscano soup, please. I would like strawberry lemonade. If you had known how Mace felt, you know, how the bear felt.

Can I get a, ooh, no. Are we about this biotch? Yeah. Oh, this biotch.