No Jumper - The Big U Interview: Filmmaking, Early Days of Gangs in LA, Racism, His New Artists & More

Episode Date: April 12, 2021

Big U talks about his eventful career, from the streets to writing scripts, his latest documentary #HipHopUncovered making waves, and presents his latests artists OSBS and Krita Cali. https://www.instagram.com/bigu1/​ https://www.instagram.com/osbshit/​ https://www.instagram.com/osbsmoke/​ https://www.instagram.com/osbfeezy/​ https://www.instagram.com/kritacali/ ----- CHECK OUT OUR NEW SPOTIFY PLAYLIST https://open.spotify.com/playlist/5tesvmDS8h50LkjnSAWMOs?si=j6sJD6DkR4mk5NZZWnlK7g FOLLOW US ON SNAPCHAT FOR THE LATEST NEWS & UPDATES https://www.snapchat.com/discover/No_Jumper/4874336901 CHECK OUT OUR ONLINE STORE!!! http://www.nojumper.com/ SUBSCRIBE for new interviews (and more) weekly: http://bit.ly/nastymondayz Follow us on Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/nojumper iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/no-jumper/id1001659715?mt=2 Follow us on Social Media: https://www.snapchat.com/discover/No_Jumper/4874336901 http://www.twitter.com/nojumper http://www.instagram.com/nojumper https://www.facebook.com/NOJUMPEROFFICIAL 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

No jumper. Coolest podcast on the world. I got the legendary... Huh? If you want. We got the legendary big you in the building. How are you feeling? I'm good.

Blessed. Moving around. Making noise. Yeah, yeah, yeah. The piano is at work. Yesterday, I was really, like, watching the whole hip-hop on cover. I finished the last five episodes because I had only seen the first one. And I'm like, man, this is a good job when I get to watch TV for five hours.

And that's basically what I have to do to get my job done the next day. You just finished it? I had only seen it. the first one or two episodes prior. Everybody's like that. It's weird. Nobody's, and like, they either seen one, two, three, and four.

But a lot of people haven't seen five and six. So they don't see the culmination. They only see the big you in the Jerry Curl. So a lot of people was like, I definitely wrote that down. I was like, man, that was a hell of a Jerry Crow. My sister did a couple of those. For real.

Yeah. There was a lot of maintenance with the Jerry Crow. It backed in. And then there was a lot of maintenance after you went over somebody house and sat on the couch. So it was a double maintenance job. I love the show

just because it's fascinating to me that you've had this transformation throughout your life, but then it's even more fascinating that you were able to find a bunch of other people who all you could basically plot their life stories along like a very similar curve. So that was writing. That was

actually being able to find. That was, that was really Malcolm Spellman and Rascidi Harper along with Obie, I can't say

Obie's last name, but they were, it was like we had a vision and I put it together but they were actually the ones we actually helped go find and must the stories together because I could even put the stories together

right. You know what I'm saying? I knew the stories but to actually like go in and see the correlation between the Long Beach Civic Center and put everybody there at the same time. That was Malcolm Obie and, you know, I want to say our editors, an editor's name wrong. I'm sure I'll understand. Yeah, but that was a great team. So who were you thinking, or like, how did this particular idea come out?

Because you said that when you walk into those meetings that they'll talk to you for five minutes and they'll have like 15 different ideas. Yeah. So Jimmy Chris was the first one that actually came up with the idea to do a show, right? And he said he had one of my help. But he wanted to do a show about managers. And you know Steve Lobel, my partner. So, you know, Steve did a show on managers. It was like people doing stores and managers. Then it was like, let's do one on security and on high security's life and behind the scenes. And so we ended up doing that. But I kind of wanted to just not stay away from that. Because at the time that he came to me, I wasn't really in music. I was, you know, my love and passion has always been filmed. Right. So, I had went to, I called Corrupt. And I was telling Corrupt, bro, I'm going to come to your show, you know what I'm saying? Because I still was managing Corrupt. But I really was managing Veen Raines and Tiny Lister.

That was where I was really doing and doing shows. Which, full disclosure, I just saw Baby Boy for the first time. So he's been ringing in my head ever since I've seen that. And I know that's like criminal to have just seen it, but AD made me. AD got in my ear and something I had. I do. He's seen Vincent. Melvin.

I mean, Melvin. When he's doing the squat thing, fucking, fucking his mom, and he's doing the squat jump across the room. Oh, fire. Yeah, you really just watched it. That's fresh in my mind, yeah. But yeah, I was managing him, though, so I was managing. And where did that come from?

It's crazy how two works with another one. Okay. He was a Nipsey fan. Oh, wow. I actually, actually, he came. through his daughter who grew up with my son and with the Santa Monica High School

my oldest son and she was playing Nipsey and she told Veene about Nipsey Veen reached out to find Nipsey and then from that me and him established a relationship and so when I stopped managing Nipsey

I started managing him and so I was managing him I was booking him with shows so by me putting him in shows they would ask me about Mike Epps they would ask me about all these different people so I was booking them and making money You know, and so I was doing that for like, shit, what, around about 10 years.

Really? So I'm making money off, and you know what kind of money. He was making off Mission Impossible. Oh, wow. So I'm making money off doing the shows with him, and I'm getting credit and writing. So I ended up, one of my biggest writing was force of execution. Right. And it was with Vien Rain, Danny Trao, and Stevens, Seagor.

And it's the first project Stevens to Goal ever played a bad guy in. Oh, wow. And I was shot for like $7 million. And I acted in it. We did the rewrites. I changed Vien's character all the way around to be Big U. He was really like playing like he was me coming from prison versus Steven Seagull in the drug business.

And I kept him alive. They messed up and put his tattoos all in the wrong place. You know, they wanted all this other stuff. You know, it was like, it's cinema. And then they was like, I remember when I was writing it, and it was like, well, well, He doesn't die. I'm like, what?

Am I dead? Yeah. And they're like, well, no, you're not sure. Why should I kill myself? But in these kind of movies, this guy is supposed to die. No, only if you write the black guy did. Right. You know what I mean?

The black guy's not dying in this movie, bro. Okay, I respect that. You know what I mean? Like, we die in every movie, usually in the beginning. And the black guy didn't die in the end. So I fought him on that, and it was like, oh, hey, you're right. You're still here. I'm like, yeah.

So if you see it, Bean doesn't die. Right. He just disappeared. beers and then in my eyes I get beat up. We all get beat up. We got to let the white guys win. Is that how this is? We had to let the white guys win. What, okay, this is what I want to know is what role when you're involved in a film

or a series now, what does your actual role look like? Obviously, you're providing a lot of the inspiration, a lot of the ideas, but like how much do you get wrapped up in the weeds of all the different things that have to happen for this shit to happen? I'm right. I actually, like, it did. depends on what role I come in. Kenya, where is one of my homegirls,

and I've been knowing her since she was a baby going to Westchester High School. She came up, let me show that projects come to me. She came with an idea to do a story on the Crips. This was her idea birthed out of her brain, out of her mind. And she put her own money in and getting the pilot shot, and she got a script written. So she came to me like, bro, help me with this.

And she's always coming to me to help her with certain projects. So now I'm coming in because of my connection and being the fact that I've already done projects to add relationships. So like I got a relationship with Benny Boom. Right. I call Benny. I need you as a director.

Well, and you probably shouldn't make a documentary about the Crips unless you got someone like you involved, right? It makes sense. Yeah, I mean. It makes a lot of sense. It's going to feel kind of bootleg otherwise, right? Like if not you, somebody, someone credible. Exactly.

And I mean, it makes sense. And so, you know, the steps are getting it made. So now we come in, now I'm sitting now with the writers to get certain parts written correctly. And then we're going to go in and get her and get the writers linked up with actual dudes from the east side who really know the story. But I think what people don't really get from me is the fact that I know how to tell a real story. So most of our people think a documentary is like a story. A documentary is only that. It only documents the truth or undocumented facts as we know them.

You know, they can change. it can always change, but in telling a story, you need to be able to bring your characters to life. And a lot of my homeboys don't understand that. They think, I'm just going to do this, I'm going to tell it, but it's not that. It's a little bit more, it's a lot more than that. Like, I've got to be able to bring in this moment

how you are, who your family is, what created you, what you think and how you feel. And I got to do the same thing with me. I got to do that with multiple characters to actually tell a real story. Right. And it's not like telling a documentary. And even in telling a documentary,

documentary. You get to choose how you tell this story with the footage that you have. Exactly. Or you can tell a documentary based off just the footage. You can tell it one documentary off a picture or multiple pictures. That's one thing I wondered to is how involved were you in getting the old video footage and photos and just all these amazing assets that really help tell the story and just, you know, it's such a window into like what LA was like 20, 30 years ago. I mean, you all up in that? I was in it into a certain extent. I was. I was. I was in it into a certain extent. I was only in it really, really I was doing other projects. So as far as I had minds to tell my aesthetics,

to get the statistics from who big you was. I already had film going back to 1984. And you see me playing basketball. So I already was in the mindset of art. I've always wanted to tell stories. Right. So I've always kept footage, pictures and videos. Man, my mother, when I came home,

between my mother and my auntie, man, I had boxes of V-CHA. CR tapes. Out of all of that footage, only two of them last. Really? Holy shit. Two of them. Man, I got guiding light as a world turn. Oprah Winfrey, bro, I almost did end up and looked at these tapes and seen what was taped over. It has the homie's first meeting, a meeting,

sudden says get puts on the hood, all of these tapes that I had. I mean, going back from 1984, 85, with the big Right. Boom, boom camera. When it wasn't easy to just film everything. Man, bro, all of it's taped over. Yeah. And I'm like, is it any way we can, like, go salvage it? Is it a way to go back and read?

And I, but, so I always wanted to tell stories. That's always been like, you know, my, um. Question is how come you decide, like, that's one thing I thought of while watching your shit, is that big you could have easily done a podcast, could have done a YouTube channel, could have really, There's a lot of ways to tell stories, but it's interesting that you've chosen to go in a much higher production value route and to make this content that is, like, presumably going to last a longer test of time

because it is so well made. It was timing. It was, like I said, we started this project four years ago when Jimmy Chris came to me four years ago. So I was working on a lot of other things, and it was pre-COVID. It was before Nipsey got killed. So the timing,

it kind of hit at the same, hit at the right time. Right. We started at two years, and then it just set dormant. In between that time, I'm still working on movies. I'm still writing stuff I'm trying to get produced. I'm still trying to get these short films out. I wanted to do what you're done. And I'm still, at the time, Nipsey called me,

I started working with OSBS. And I was traveling with them, so I signed OSBS. I signed Criticali. So I'm in music when Nipsey calls me to come back. And so right before Nipsey get killed, they called us about the project, Lightbox. And they're like, we want to do this, you want to do that? And I was really reluctant.

At that point I did it, then I was thinking, no, I'm back in music, let me move like this. Then about a week later, Nip gets killed. So that kind of changed my attitude. And about three weeks after that, They start this onslaught of big U.S. and to do with it. So then I'm like, wait a minute.

Let me tell my story. So then it just start growing and growing and growing and growing. That got you on the path of thinking, my story needs to be out there and it needs to be clear because it's obvious how easy it is for motherfuckers to just twist shit up and come up with some crazy-ass narrative, you know? And we signed a deal. We had already shot it.

We signed a deal. Like I said, about, I want to say a month after he passed. We signed a deal, and then he passed maybe two weeks, two weeks, maybe a month. And I felt like, damn, I signed it, you know what I mean? So we went on forward. And I seen the first edit. We did some first edits. We went back and shot some stuff.

And when I seen it, I was like, oh, shit, this is brilliant. I want to do this. So then we step back in, and we have another meeting with Jonathan, the lightbox, and I said, I want to take it in this direction. You know what I mean? but then I was looking at what I was greatly influenced by was how people were being wronged. You know, how stories can get out there

that's so far from the truth on how things happen and they take on lives of their own. And you never really get to see how a person does. Like people thinking, I was somewhere in pain wishing I was in music. You know what I mean? This shit was so far from the truth because I'm making a lot of money doing shows and music, which you knew, you know what I'm saying?

But it would have to be in the hip-hop West Coast scene and know that I'm definitely not trying to get in music. But it's so interesting because on one hand, you're saying that you were perfectly happy just working on the music shit, but then... No, I was only doing concerts. Right. I wasn't doing music. I was only doing, I was doing concerts and shows. Like, I did two concerts a year. I did a development after show, and that was one of my main show.

then I book artists. I would book, I could book Cuevo. These are relationships like I booked Tia. Anytime these guys, certain ones came to the West Coast, they went through me. What kind of discount does an artist have to give up when Big Use the one booking them? I don't give a discount. That's how you don't get a callback. I don't look for discounts.

Only time I look for a discount for artists if I'm giving them cash, that means I might bring them cash off the books. I think most of the artists would be happy about that. What? Why they call me? You know what I mean? Oh, you mean the government? doesn't get to take 50% of this?

So what most people was thinking and saying that I was pressing artists who were getting off the plane is so far from the truth. So it only took an artist to deal with me to realize I'm keeping it 100. But isn't it crazy how you could have this whole career and it's like, especially

with you just because of your history, any little bit of gangster shit will like poison the well and it'll become the narrative and everything that you've done professionally gets kind of erased. All of it. It's crazy how I got to be big you for the rest of my life shit that I was doing

I was 21, 22, 12, 15 but everybody else get to grow up Right Everybody else gets to say I changed my life And I'm changed and I'm missing I'm mad But that's how fascinated people

Are with gangster shit It is You know what I mean And so you can either wallow in it Or do like I did I sat back for two and a half years Watch the internet go two years And watch the internet go crazy

While making my project And it was the fruit for me to make something That was so phenomenal that people couldn't deny it. So in the room, when we putting it together, I'm like, no, this got to be this, this got to be that. So when you asked me how involved I was in, I was very involved. Because I wanted

it to be something that nobody couldn't deny. You know what I mean? I needed it to be a piece of cinema that would talk not only for me, but for Hays and Jack. Talk for Deb. Talk for the people who were basically powerful but voiceless at the same time. You know what I mean? Like...

But there are two such different things of like doing shows or working with younger artists. versus what you're doing when you make a documentary like this that basically takes history and sort of seals it off and says this is what happened. Whereas, in the other hand, when you're working with artists or doing shows, you're kind of making history

or defining what the history will then be. It's such a different attitude. And I'm interested in the fact that you were able to sort of switch between them casually. Well, I mean, you got to understand. Malcolm Spellman is a true filmmaker. And then Rashidi Harper. and then you have me who is the streets, music, hip hop, and entertainment,

who is growing in points in the film industry. So I think together the uniqueness of the team was phenomenal. And then Jimmy Chris coming and bringing in. So it was a team. So you really see the value in just having that team around you. Yeah, yeah, no, I definitely. That's getting you where you're going? Definitely, definitely.

I mean, I had to actually. go through things in life to actually make the story fit. And then me having the footage actually helps it come alive because you get the visual. Once you see Big You just standing tall as fuck, muscular as fuck, Jerry Curl, just, and the way people were talking about you of like, as in you were just mad, aggressive to everybody. And I was like, wow, this dude has gone through a massive transformation throughout his life. Because you do not give out an ounce of like the vibe of like wanting to intimidate somebody. Like you are who you are, but you're not making anybody feel bad or nothing like that, you know?

When I first, when I first ran into you, remember when I ran to you? What happened? Let's do the flashback. You go, I heard you don't like me. And my reaction was something like, I don't know who told you that, but if I did not like you, I don't think I would be telling anybody. If I didn't like you, I would have kept it to myself. And it's crazy because most people think I'm running around on people and I'm like gangstering them. you gotta pay me.

And it was so funny because he was like, you walked in to me and you said, we was at TI's video shoot. And I was with, what was I with Thug? And I was with OSBS. Okay. And we had just got the car. And you walked up to me,

or somebody was with you walking to me and said, Gunna was there too. That was the crazy shit. There was like Gunna just walked by at the same exact moment that I was meeting you. I was like, this is weird. And he was like, I want to interview. I'm like, what's your name?

And you like, I'm Adam. And I'm like, Adam, you were like, I said, men, I heard you don't like me. And he was like, I don't know about that. We could actually play the clip just so that the world can see how awkward it was. Yeah, yeah, that's in this video. No, I got it, yeah. Oh, I don't even know you filmed it. We'll stick it in here so the world can experience it for themselves.

You really filmed it? Yeah, yeah, yeah. I think so. Yeah, Trev filmed it, right? No shit, I got to see that. You want to see it? We'll pull it up. I was like having fun with you.

But, I mean, that's what people don't understand. man, like, I can bag. Like, bro, I used to come up. Also, a lot of my fights in high school was because I can bag. Like, I just didn't, I played a dozen because my mother was so fine, and she was dark, and she looked good to me, so I was like, you ain't going to fine. Nothing wrong with my mama. So you were saying that people, when they would roast you, that would just become the topic

of conversation that your mom looked good? Everybody, bro. No, like, my mom, like, at, she was, like, good looking. Right. So I had to be at a bag, bro. And my mother was a Scorpio. So she made sure we was dressed to the tea Like she had this thing about

Bro, I can love shoes And my mother would not let me wear them Mugs like more than so many So many times I'm like man, I just got them fit right Like so Bagging is what we grew up doing Right

And I mean I have fun I go out, I have fun I do all kind of fun things Nowadays they call it bullying And you're not supposed to do it I'm still gonna do it I mean I'm gonna drop 50 on the motherfucker And when I mean 50 in me

I'm gonna drop 50 in me I'm gonna drop 50 on you. You gotta be, when you, like, if you're at the studio with us, you better be able to get out, like me and smoke. Right. I mean, I ain't gonna get smoke right now. I ain't gonna talk about pale face right now while we on camera because he can't say nothing back. Right. You know what said? But smoke, you know, see, that's the area you come from. But I'm not going to do that. I'm not going to bag on nobody on this camera because, you know, I'm not going to do that. That's bullying, yeah. You know what I'm saying? But, okay, there's a big difference. I feel like the old generation or the old, the new generation is, you're in the studio, everybody's staring at their phone.

The old generation is, we don't got phones, so we're going to fuck with each other, we're going to talk, we're going to mess with each other, we're going to get into all kinds of reindeer games and hijinks, and it's good that you still epitomize that, I think. I do. I mean, I mean, you know, I grew up from the area like, we're going to have fun. Then somebody will call us and tell us something happening on Crenshaw, something happened to something where we put another, we got the guns, we're going to go take care of that. Right.

Then we're coming right back. We're having fun to somebody get called. Right. Now, I mean, that's how we grew up. We really grew up from bagging, in the room, and then, like, we get a phone card page. And now it's on, like, that quick. We go from that quick to that quick and back.

Okay, you as someone who's changed your life so much, you don't talk about that like it's this horrible memory that has scarred you. You seem like you kind of, you appreciate your history, even if you are not living in such a way, right? It was what we grew up doing. And, like, for instance, right, my mother never knew what Crips and Bloods was. she used to buy me blue rags.

She had no clue. Right. My mother's from the south of Mississippi. And so when they moved out here, you know, I was born out here. They had no clue what was about to come. It's this generation that knows what Crips and Bloods is, you know. And my mother them didn't have a clue. I could be sagging and my mother would only see sagging as just like,

why you don't got a belt on? You know what I mean? This generation knows what it is. Right. And it's different, you know, like knowing. But my mom, I don't have no tattoos. I don't smoke. I don't drink.

I really was like a mama's boy. Right. Like my mother said, she didn't want me to get high. I didn't do it. She didn't want me to drink. I didn't do it. And all the peer pressure over the years didn't really do nothing? I love my mother, man.

When it was me and my mother, like, did anyone let you know that, like, drinking and smoking feels good? I did. I did. I got high before. I just didn't really love it. I tried it. But, you know what I'm saying?

Like, my mother was just like a major influence. it's in my brain like, oh, you're a coward, you're going to go out the house and you're going, you're going to let these people tell you what to do. She didn't know nothing about gang bang. So she didn't have this thing about don't gang bang, don't do this. Oh, she didn't tell you don't shoot someone, but she did tell you don't smoke and drink. Hey, look, she didn't know what it was until I was actually in jail fighting so many cases. It was like, you know, and she was like, they're seeing you a monster and I'm like, man, I don't believe none of that. Right. Dude, I mean, I just wonder like how you

perceive all this shit these days just for example the ticket outside of the LA world and shit like in Jacksonville right now there's a couple of rap crews bro there's like 10 plus people dead on each side of it from this like gang war that they got going and it's express

songs too and one of the artists young in A's just put out this song where he's just literally the whole song is making fun of the other side of dead homies and it's like I can't believe it like that this shit is still happening and I just wonder What's your perspective on this kind of shit?

Well, I think certain things shouldn't be said out. You know what I mean? Even when we did this documentary, people try to say that we said, no, we didn't. We talked about things that can't nobody be charged for. We purposely made sure and we looked at things and we didn't say things. But you could get where we're coming from.

Right. We gave you the authenticity of who we were. You know what I mean? But I feel like where we are in hip-hop, I don't down people. I don't want to down our young artists because I think they're hella talented. But it's more serious than it was back then

because it used to be beefs back in the days. You had LL KooJ versus Kumo D, you had this person, and they were fights. But what happens today is because of the drug use and because these dudes are so off the chain, you don't never know what these dudes about to do. I don't even think they know what they're about to do until they wake up in the cell a month,

later. And the drugs it wore off, the psychosis has wore off, and they realize, I did what? Right. Some of them don't even realize they got the damn tattoos they have on their face. So it's kind of hard to, you know what I mean, to realize it, but

you know, I remember I read, I read one time where Russell Simmons said he was high, he was so high, he only even remember 10 years of, he don't even remember the 80s or the 90s. You remember something like that. I mean, all that co-controls.

shit will really do something to you. But these dudes are not just using Coke, man. They're using those opiates. If you want to erase your memory, that'll do it. And so we're in a different place in hip-hop, but I feel like the kids got it, but our generation was more of sellers. This generation is users.

Also, like, you could get into a scrap with someone. You probably have hundreds of fights that, like, four people saw. And now it's like if someone gets beat up, millions of people immediately know. If somebody's gang gets clowns, any kind of disrespect, it's just immediate content. So it's like you can kind of understand why these beefs

just sort of spiral out of control, whereas it might have been more isolated. No, I can't understand it because somebody got to be a man at some point and say they was wrong. Like as far as Cuando Rondo. I was wrong for saying it, but he was wrong for not reaching to his homeboy. And then on the same line that I've reached out to you, you reached back out to me on it.

You know what I'm saying? But I apologize to my home boy, you know what I'm saying? Because that's where it starts and stops. Somebody got to apologize. It was wrong. I was wrong. You know what I'm saying? But I'm a man.

I can admit that I'm wrong. I can say, you know what I'm saying? Like, if I make a mistake, my nigga, I'm going to admit that I made a mistake. I ain't going to carry it past that. But I had to grow to that, though. It was at one point when I was younger, it would have been like, fuck you, so what I said that I did that. You understand what I'm saying?

But I feel like the key. have to get to that. And I don't want to call them kids, because I don't want to call them kids because I don't want nobody feeling like I'm offended them by calling them a kid either. Right. But we have to get to that point

in our existence to realize where we are in hip-hop. You know what I mean? But I want to be an example to hip-hop also. Right. And when I'm wrong, admit that I'm wrong. You know what I mean? Right.

I don't want to be, you know, because I'm a go when I'm supposed to go. Right. It's a beef even to this day of 54, and it's a serious one. I'm going to pull up and I'm going to do what I'm supposed to do. But if I can avoid it, I'm going to be a man and avoid it. You know what I mean? And I thought that situation was pretty interesting just because Quaterano is so young.

And it's like, I don't see you really seeing yourself in the same game that he's in. Like, you've learned all the lessons that he's still going through at this point in his life. But when you're a good kid too. But when you see him, I saw a quote from you where you said, like, this guy's claiming my neighborhood. How much does that make you feel like you owe him a conversation or oh, I'm taking it seriously, when it is such a global thing? I do. Because no matter what, I got to be the older one. So that's why I got to apologize. You know what I'm saying? Because at some point, I got to be the older one. He gets to still be the kid. He still gets to be the young one. But at some point, if I fail to be the older person and the bigger person, then I'm really felling the whole generation. You know what I'm failing? I'm failing myself. I ain't losing no points. I don't feel like I'm losing no points

by showing my little homework or whoever else respect. And then I'm supposed to be able to sit him down and tell him where he's wrong got. You know what I mean? And that's just being a man. Because I got kids. I want my kids to know right from wrong. I'm not going to ride with just anybody

when they just right or wrong. I don't do that. You know what I mean? That would continue a cycle of ignorance. You know what I mean? I tell my homeboys, no, we're going to be right. I want to be right. I'm not riding when they're right or wrong.

Because if I do, and that comes from being on prison yards niggas right around and then you're going to the hole or that comes from you catching a case now you didn't fuck your life off and you knew your home was wrong. Why don't you check him in the beginning? You know what I mean? Or check myself. You know what I mean?

Because I know when it's right and I'm right I'm gonna tear this shit up. Because the people who are the leaders of the community you just can't continue to have that mind state of like, oh, you're my boy so I'm riding with you no matter what. That's not gonna last that long that mentality. Well, it is going to last that long because that's the ignorance we see right now.

And it's not just hip hop. It's in America. It's an American politics. Look at what just happened. Look at just what happened at the U.S. Capitol. You know what I mean? Now you've got all the Republicans trying to justify the biggest wrong in the U.S. history. The biggest wrong in U.S. history.

Right. You know what I mean? Trying to minimize it, make it seem like it wasn't that big a deal like we didn't all live through it. But you got five people die. Yeah. You know what I mean? And who's accountable for that? You got George Floyd being killed publicly on television in camera.

And they're trying to say that the crowd killed him. A crowd made this man do what he did. And so it's not just hip-hop. And when we report on hip-hop, we only tend to report that it's the bad in hip-hop. But it's a lot of great in hip-hop. I do interviews and I try to let people who are interviewing me realize that if we only ask me about

the quando Rondos but not we never talk about the Kendrick Lamar's. We never talk about the OSBSs, the criticality. We never talk about, what's my man Jordan Lucas. We don't never talk about the cast is doing something positive and we only focus on the negative.

That's what we're. hip hop is going to look like. Hip hop is only going to look like it's a negative force, but we don't even talk about the dudes who are great artists, who are going platinum, who are selling and really making

our culture look good. You know what I mean? Like we got a lot of artists, man. We got more artists doing good than we have this doing bad. Right. You know what I mean? Definitely. And so, but we only see interviews on that. That's all we hear about is the

Yeah, I know. A lot of times you'll see an interview and you can just like feel this contentious relationship where the interviewer just wants to only ask about this shit that's going to agitate because they know it's going to get views and you can, the rapper is not so stupid that they don't realize what's happening. They're fucking, they understand and they don't want to do it and it's a terrible way to base a conversation. I love when I do an interview like where I don't know what the fuck to title it because we're just talking about whatever. Right. Yeah. As somebody who lived through the LA riots, how did you feel? No. You weren't around for those. I was gone. You were away from that? I left. I was actually in the county jail that ride the day the ride started,

and I actually went to the hole for a ride that was in the county jail. Oh, wow. So you found out about it after more so? I think R. started before, R. started earlier that day, inside the county jail, and then there started at night. Right. What's your perspective on the most recent protests and at times turned violent last year? Like what was your perspective on that happening and what that meant to the community?

I don't think I was vocal, man. I'm not a marcher. I don't see myself marching. I don't know what it does and what it will do, but I support the people that do march. I just feel like when it's my time, I'm going to go. I'm going to say, where I've been going. So when that call come, fees to be a lot, I'm going to go. And, you know, I'm going to be looking for ways to make my impact.

And hopefully my kids and my people are going to make their impact that what they're supposed to. But I don't see myself marching and letting nobody do nothing to me freely. Do you think we're about to have another round of protests when the George Floyd verdict comes back? No, I don't think so because I think they're going to do the right thing. I mean, if we haven't reached that point in our history with all the things that's happening around in this country,

then shame on us. But I mean, if they don't make the right decision, I don't know. I'm a little worried about what might happen after that. I'm not worried about it. I mean, this country, up until we've seen what just happened at the Capitol, the infrastructure of this country won't be imploded by people of color.

You know what I mean? And the anger of people of color. It's not built like that. The only way this country, in this rock would be changed, it would be from people that look like you or to come from your background because you guys will have to change it.

You would have to change it for the plight of people my color and other people, dark and brown, and you guys will have to change it for us to be really ever become a great nation, fair for everybody else. It can't come from us. It won't come from us. Well, that's a good question.

What makes a good ally in the struggle or in hip-hop or in your world? What makes a good one? Yeah, like what do you expect from a white person that's involved in your culture or community? Or wants to make things better? Man, I mean, just a constant fight. Because, you know, when I wake up every morning, I'm fighting, somebody who understands it, who understand that there is a fight. I could talk to Steve sometime and sometimes Steve getting it, sometimes Steve don't.

You know what I'm saying? You got friends that's black from your side. that feel like you get it sometime and feel like you don't get it sometime. And that's just natural. I studied theology where I was gone. I'm majoring the theology. So I see how cultures change

and I've seen our nations were built and how they topple when the other nations are built, literally on top of other grounds the other nations and cities were built on. But, and it's always people who need another people to make them strong. And so because this is a white nation, you know, it would take a white mindset to actually get it to where it should be fair for other people.

And then you've got the people who are stronger who don't want to see the values of this nation change, who see the value of being a white power and a dominant power in the world. So if you ask somebody to say give that up and become even killed, after they have built something that's considered to be the greatest nation in the world, they're not going to do that easily. No, people don't tend to give up power easily. No, they're not going to do that easily. You know what I mean? I've been other places.

I've been to other countries. I've seen how those countries and how they live and I've come back to this country and I've seen how we live. And so it is a giving a take and it's a hatred when you see how we take. We take so much from other places, but we'd still benefit from it. You know what I mean? I mean, it's pretty crazy.

I remember going to England and just being around all of them and starting to realize, and this is probably 10 years ago, but starting to realize like, wow, they have such different ideas about racism than we do. And actually, I have a friend Gabe Brooks

who actually was murdered a couple years ago and he's a black guy from L.A. and one of my friends from England said to me, he's like, why does Gabe feel like he's had something inherently like bad done to him by his government and I'm like I'm like you know about slavery right

he's like he's like yeah but like he just it made no sense to him that American black people could feel that way and to me it's such a default like of course they feel that way and that just like really kind of open my eyes to like well there are a lot of black people in London but you guys don't even view this shit the same way that we do and that was fascinating because they were removed from it

before we were So their distance is a lot farther than ours. You know what I mean? The 1500s, they started moving away from it. And then they started moving away from the teachings of it. We are so, ours is so rooted in religion that people don't get it. Because we were, slavery in this country was reinforced through religion. And everybody adopted the Christian religion.

and it enforced it. Where in other countries, religion wasn't used as a tool to indoctrine into other countries. So that philosophy trains when you get to this country. And so they don't actually feel it like we feel it, and they don't actually have it rooted in them. You know what I mean?

So they don't actually see, they don't even have almost the same teachings that we have when it comes to religion. Yeah, it makes you realize that, America has like its own very specific racial history to deal with that, you know, but this takes place everywhere around the world when I'm watching documentaries about different countries where there isn't even really that much of like a racial breakdown, like black and white people look very different.

But, you know, I'm watching documentaries about shit that's going on other countries where they got tribes going to war. They look exactly the same, but, you know, they find something to hate each other. They've always been there. Throughout history. And so I talk about, I do a lot of talking because I, um, you know, I, I do a lot of talking because I do the gang intervention. So I speak at a lot of schools

and they talk about the tribalism, the Crips and Blood where there's never been a time in history where man didn't have a conflict. Going back to Adam and Eve. And if you accept that story, you go back to Cain and Able.

If you accept that story to be factual. But there's always been conflict. There's always been conflict between brothers and sisters. And some of those have come to death and led to death, so why wouldn't, We think that two fractions are people would not have a common agreement or have a misunderstanding.

That's unrealistic. But the violence of it doesn't have to reach the level that it is at. So that's the problem. We have let the violence reach too far of a, too high of a level. Right. You know what I mean? And on a lot of things, we celebrate. the violence.

And I tell people all the time when I was young and in even today's time when you talk about gangs, it's almost always the most ignorant person of the gang who's celebrated the most.

The one who, if somebody pulled over the gun they're going to represent the hood or you're going to represent. So it's that. And not the most intelligent person. Right. You know what I mean?

So you have to take years of being successful and weeding through to show your intelligence before people really say oh yeah, we're going to follow him. but other than that they want to follow the brine the gangs in l.A. is inevitable but what you're saying is that

the animosity and the violence doesn't have to be the level that it's at now or that it's been in the past how much do you feel like you're responsible for intervening as much as possible yeah I do a lot of intervening but I feel like our piece of rock that we consider to be Crenshaw was has a lot to do with a lot of it And so when I came out with Nipsey and we came out, I felt like I wanted to be a conduit to giving people a way to get to something positive, ensuring that we can move, be together,

and function together without, you know, hating each other. So the way I moved, and even when I came on in 2004 and establishing a relationship with should, I was, that was my intentions, you know, to show people that we can move together. My relationship with whack and wacko, the show that red and blue doesn't have, have to always, you know, be a beef, be at odds.

I try to show by example, you know what I mean, and dealing with kids and helping kids and helping that. I feel like it's very important for us because of our part of Iraq, Crenshaw. We people look at us differently because of the successes we've had. That is true because there's a lot of hoods in L.A. even that there's never been a big success story from there. So like you as somebody that is seeing all this

and having so much more. I mean, it's easy to take it for granted just haven't seen the world, having met all these important-ass people. You know, it's easy to forget that a lot of people in the neighborhoods ain't been exposed to nothing. Right.

I tell my artist that, I tell my home boys that I try to instillating my sons that it's somebody in Mississippi who would die to me, TIP, who would die to me, Gunner, Luda, and all the different people you have had the pleasure of just knowing and just greeting

and not realizing the situation that I have tried to put you guys in. So sometimes even when you are in our area, because it's so normal, it can hurt a person. It can hurt that drive. You can hurt that drive where they're like, shit, I just did a song with E40. I just did a song with Gunner.

I just did a song with this person. Right. And then you have that person who's coming from an area where they would never meet these people. You know what I mean? and they have more of a fight and more of an energy towards being great.

Definitely. About the gang intervention and shit, how do you balance the fact that the mission that you're on there is really important along with the fact that, you know, you love where you're from, you love the culture that you come from. Have to be, man.

You have to, it's like with gang intervention, how it really works is you have to have a license to operate. You have to be trusted enough to know that you could talk to your home boys, and other dudes can talk to their home boys. It's not a snitching factor because that's not a part of it. It's just about pulling back and letting the homies know. A little holder before we do this.

Or putting it in program. Like, my biggest thing is my sports program through the city. So we set those up to deal with the kids. And shout out of our big Snoop Dog, for that's why I feel. And my brother, why do? You know what I mean? So it's just about really trying to be an outlet. that for kids to have a way to move.

You know what I mean? And being an example. Like, I'm a living example. I'm a living example. And the reason why I didn't change my name and start calling myself Eugene or Hannibal or whatever, and I want to call myself Big You because I wanted young people to understand it wasn't in the name.

It was in the decisions I make. You know what I mean? Like I get up in the morning. My day starts. I get up in the morning, I go work out. If I'm doing martial arts, I'm going with weights and what I'm doing. Then after that, I go and I start reading. And from there, I'm reading and writing.

Then I'm doing whatever, I'm doing whatever business I'm doing, and I get to the kids and I coach. And after the kids, I go back into music. So my music time is really like from 9 p.m. All over to like one or two. And I get home or maybe when I get home, And I'm usually sleeping in the studio why they're making the music.

And I'm waking up. Why? What did you do? And you know what I'm saying? Are they not allowed to splash you with the water like Chief Keep being? Hell no, because I can still,

I mean, listen, I got about 18 more months of this fighting shit. Right. Oh, really? By 18 of a bunch of this over after that. When's the last time you scrapped with somebody? Shit. Three weeks ago, we spar every day.

You know, I spar. Okay, but I mean, like rough somebody in the streets. Yeah, yeah. Fight? Man, man, I don't know. I don't know. I didn't talk about that. You know what I'm saying?

I don't want to fight with nobody, bro. This shit will hurt. You know what I'm saying? If I age, you're like, this shit are hurt. Like, it'll really, like, hurt, like, for months. Bro, that shit blew my mind seeing you just outside the fucking roller rink, and it was just normal that just fades all day.

Oh, yeah, so I used to go. That's crazy. It really used to go like that, though. Like, dudes would come from everywhere. Like, oh, I want to scrub with big you. You know what I mean? For real. And you were just, let's go.

You can't turn the facts. Hey, Dad, he pulled up. Right. You know what I'm saying? You never met anybody that was real competition around that time? Nah, no, not that time. Because, I mean, I was kind of cheating.

How so? Meaning that I trained the fight. Oh, okay. That's cheating. You know, if I'm trained, I ran, I exercise. Right. And my whole family did martial arts. So when we met and got together, it'd be a family thing.

Like, we have our own school. Do you think you would be a UFC fighter if you? I would have definitely been a UFC fighter, a good one. Because I boxed already. I grew up boxing, and I grew up doing more shorts, and I started wrestling at Pomona High School when I went there for one year. That would have been amazing. Yeah, you know what I mean?

But I'm too old. Shout up too many times, knee injuries. Them dudes that kick my ass, you know what I'm. You can't compete against the 20-year-olds these days or whatever. I'm not even going to try. I'm going to turn that fade down. I'd like to see that. Excuse me, big you in the U.S.

Heavyweight Division. You said whack. You want to see whack fight. You already say whack. Would whack me in the heavyweight division? Can we get a wait? I said whack, you want to see what to see what? That's my subconscious mind wants to see him in there too.

Back going to be bad as you. Okay, yeah, one more question, though, about before we bring your artists in, are you, at times it feels like you kind of have like a conflicted relationship with your own identity in the sense that, like, you know, you can, like, the legend of big you. is almost bigger than Big You, the man, and you're able to sometimes go to a club and say, I'm here with Big You, and that just works. Yeah, oh, it works. Oh, real talk.

But when you are doing film, usually it's not about you, but then with, like, this new series, it's like you're talking about your past, you're showing video and photos of your past. Is there part of you that wants to sort of get past your prior identity? Well, here it goes.

Like, okay, I think my wife is more Big You than I am. I mean, your wife is the big you. gangstriard a scene for holding you down in prison when I'm watching that shit. I'm like, how is that even possible, bro? No, my wife is more gay as anybody I know is she really the big you. But to me, I feel like I feel like when you read

and you study and you read as much as I have and study as much as I have, you tend to kind of accept your being. Like, I like the things that I'm not good at. Like I can't spell where for shit. Like, I can't

spill over for shit, and anybody who follows me on Instagram knows that. Right? And I mean, but it's like, it's like when you, when you try to not to take yourself so serious, you know, you can laugh at yourself and you can do certain things. But

I'm still big you, you know what I mean? I'm still like, I'm, I'm, I still want to be able to be like the father, the grandfather, but still you know, let me tell you when I say it's coming, it's coming.

And that should be a man. You know what I mean? Like, I don't got to be Big You every single day. Like, really, like, fuck Big You, like, keep it 100. Like, I'm a man. I'm a man. I pay bills. I got to figure out how to hustle every single day. Like,

my bills monthly amass over almost 30. You know what I mean? Like, these niggas is worried about $5,000, $6,000. Like, what the, like, you know, I'm saying? Like, I got real bills. And then I had to really become a man at some point in my life. And that means leaving this childish thing alone.

And that means going past being this average everyday gangmaker. Like, you know what I mean? Like, you got to be a man. I bought my wife a brand new card. $170,000. You know what I'm saying? We live in houses. I'm buying, I buy property.

I own multiple pieces of property. You know what I mean? So who could be big you? Who can walk around and deal with the foolishness. When people say stuff to me on the internet, social media, I'm thinking like, nigger, you probably don't even have a car. Like, you definitely don't own as many pieces of properties as I do,

because if you did, you wouldn't be sitting on here saying something to a grown-ass man who got more bills than you've ever seen. So I go block. Schiff. Block. And that's about being a man. I talk to young people all the time about responsibilities.

Right. Like, you know what I mean? Like, you know what it feels like. You remember how you started. You remember how you started with an idea to do no jumper. And somebody said this and somebody said this and do this. Then you realize, God damn, I used to be over here paying the bill over here. Now I'm over here paying the bill over here.

Lights, gas, car notes. Some of these dudes don't have none of that. I'm not going to give a nigga who don't got no bills, no energy. I'm not going to do that. Right. You know what I mean? But if the situation amounts itself, I got to. What do I want to build?

I want to make Crenshaw introduced from Crenshaw the number one trending for positive cycle group of men on planet Earth. You know what I'm saying? I'm selfish in that way. I'm selfish in wanting to see all my artists be successful. All my homeboys. Unique music. All money in.

Whatever goes in, I want to see because we're from the, Crenshaw district. Right. And anybody in all over the world, that don't make me hate nobody else. That just make me work harder for our crew. And when I talk to you on something like, look, me, you have an obligation to be great.

Right. Well, it was Nip, working to be great. What am I, working to be great? Oh, you're a part of this. You want to be apart of this. You got to work to be great. We ain't no niggas standing on the corner smoking and drinking and that ain't me.

Right. I'm not going to be on no corner with no eight ball. bro. We're talking about I run the block. Right. I'm going to extend the block. I'm going to extend the block, extend the wealth, create ideas, continue to motivate people to be great,

continue to do documentaries and movies and say, okay, the big homie did that. Now I got to follow it. You know what I mean? That's exactly what we're doing. A lot of times people, by the time they reach your approximate age, they've kind of lost the spark. It feels like yours might be brighter than ever. Like you're more motivated than ever.

Oh, I am. There's no extent to which you're kind of like, well, I feel pretty successful, so I can just relax a little bit. No, I don't got the money yet. I got the, I got, I ain't going to stop anyway. It don't matter. Right, because what else are you going to do? Because I don't mean, what I'm going to do? That's what I'm saying.

I don't have no habits. I don't smoke. I don't drink. I mean, I don't hang out. The only time I go to the club is if I'm like required to go or I don't do that. I pretty much to sit at home and play Call of Duty or

yeah, I'm on the Call of Duty. I just got good at 2K yeah. I'm playing I know you're not saying the smoke.

The filmer seems like he wants to smoke. Yeah. So, you know what I mean? I really just sit at home, bro. Like if I'm not writing, I'm sitting at home. I got two movie projects.

I can't say their names that we're looking at. and one of them I had the write Big You into it, so it's a really good one. And I wrote it, it's like a southern story. It's like the South meets the West and the East, and it's like... But you wrote Big You into it as

and you're going to have somebody to play you or you're going to have a low role? Yeah, no, no, no, I'm not going to be it. Somebody's going to be me. Do you have no interest in being on camera in that regard? Nah, I mean, you know, I do something sneaky in every now and then. Because I had fun...

Bro, one of the best times in my life was acting, was doing that with Vien. Right. Was doing that role. bro, because when you hire up in the script, like you got to be number, I was number nine in the script. So they treated me with the utmost respect.

Right. You know what I'm saying? No, like that. Like, bro, your hand don't even touch a doorknob. Wow, really? They got the car picking you up. They got the food. They're giving you a daily per diem.

And they still giving you a check. Right. No, do you hear what I'm saying? Yeah, yeah. You're getting the daily per diem. Free food. free. No, you're getting food money. You're getting money

for food, but they still feed you. Oh, yeah, yeah, right. The per diem and the buffet. You'll get the buffet, the per diem, hot and food, and you get to sit there and wait. You're in the trailer. You got your own trailer with your name on it with your 13 sets of the same clothes that you were

in that day. But that shit is awesome, man. If you've never acted before, I'm looking at the camera to tell you really want to do it. You want to get high up in there. Right. But is it like you have to leave your house and your family life for like a couple months at times? That sounds pretty wild. Yeah. Like I filmed in New Mexico. We was there for a month. We filmed in the Dominican Republic who was there for a month. It was torturous. Really? Just being away?

You know what I said? But, hey, you know, we we filmed. We filmed in San Diego. I filmed a couple of different places. I like to go away and film. You know what I'm trying to get Vien to get me, since he over there and, you know, film admission impossible, bro, won't give me the ticket, bro. Right. For sure. You know it's, you know,

you know your daily per diem can take care of me. For sure. You probably getting a thousand out of the day to eat. Yeah, bang. Give me out there too. Okay. So when did you, or what is your thought process

on all these artists that you have now that you're working with? And how do you, contribute positively to everything that they have going on. And like, are you in, to some extent, you're still kind of waiting for them to like really make their big premiere? No, to be honest with you, the weight was over once I dropped the documentary.

I kind of like, when I dropped the documentary, our name will be hot again. They'll be fucking with us and let's go. Let's have projects ready. Let's go in. And like I said, I wasn't really in music until Nip called me. Right. So you can see where Nip and OSBS was really viving.

And then I found Critic. I knew Critter before that, when the first time before I got back out of music. And so with Critter and OSBS, then that's WhatsApp Mickey. I got a lot of plans for WhatsApp Mickey because he's a comedian. So I'm centering the whole show around him. And I'm writing it because he's he's hella talented. And he has a bunch of different characters. But like I said, the people I'm dealing with now are really just two.

But I'm starting developing, I mean, I'm starting delist, like bliss entertainment. I'm starting unique music distribution. Right. So with the distribution, we're able to put out all artists. And they're not signing to unique music. It's just a distribution like distro kid, empire. and we actually can do labels, get label imprints to put out their music.

So we're doing that. I'm doing a situation with, no, I better not say, I got a label situation that's happening with, for my company with another label. But it's fun right now. Like right now it's fun. And we got, I dropped two songs.

We got Criticalli as a song with E40. that's actually doing good. You know what I mean? He's going to come on to talk about that. Then I got, we just dropped the song, Free Hood Ridge would be, one of the members of OSBS, that's five. And so that song is really doing good.

So one of them is a Western song, and one of them is, one of them can go in the West, that's the E-40. We're setting up a West Coast radio run, and then the South would be Freehood Ridge with OSBS Freezy. Feese. Feese.

You know what I'm saying? I got you. You know. That's what's up. You're going to like that video. I'm fucking with it already. All right. We're going to get the other mic set up real quick and get these guys on.

All right. So Big U, introduce us to your artist here. Okay. This is Critticalie. What up? What up? The vocals. Okay.

This Fizi, OSB Feezing. This, I mean, this, I mean, it's a. Smoke. He don't know me that well, you feel it? He does rock music now. So how did you guys all end up linking up with this guy? And what was your first impression, I guess?

Crenshaw. We're family, we really all family, but, you know, we're all from Crenshaw. Okay. Well, this is my real blood. Oh, okay. And I'm real close to him, and his oldest son, we all like this. And so it was natural. Okay.

And so what made you think that they had the potential that you wanted to work with? Well, when I started back doing music, when Nip had called me to do music, and then we went to New York, and then we was talking, and he was asking me to come back and manage him. I started looking for other artists, too,

because I pretty much know Nip was already there. It wasn't no refining Nip. It was just waiting to feed the calls, you know, booked the shows, and that was done. So I'm like, shit. I'm in the studio. I went in the studio with Nip, and we were recorded for like five days on his album,

and I was in there recording and fucking with him. And you'll see it when I, when I published, when we was in there, when the Victory Lab was coming out. And so we was in there talking crazy, and I'm talking about, let me give me some new artists. And so that's when I started going, I went to my homewood studio, Vait. He had a studio out in the Valley that was,

where was that street was that studio on? I was on like Saddokore or something like that. Lancashire. Lancashire, because it was in the same alley with Atlantic Studios. And Five started coming up to you.

How did you know I was even doing? I was popping up on all sessions. Just on it. Once you were getting back in music. I'm like, I'm gonna just be around until he realized it's on the shit.

Yeah. Was you out yet? Yeah. I had just got out. He probably just been out two months. Just got out like two months, yeah. Like two months, I just got out. You know, Nip's a song like 15 years ago, like a trash-ass song.

He still showed love. Like, yeah, nigga, you still rap. I'm like, all right, all right. I heard a lot of stories from people basically saying that, like, Nip was supported of my shitty-ass music early in my career. No, real talk, bro. You know, he's going to motivate you for show.

Well, how good when I say the shit be shit, y'all be... Because Nip said a different way. He's got a lot of them. Yeah, yeah. I do it. You're calling bullying. Wait.

Wait. Brother, he's like, man, that's some bullshit. You know, they're going to be like, yeah, yeah, bro. Just, you know, be a little louder. That's something, you know. That's dope. Okay, how did you guys step in? Yeah, like, really uncle's looking for talent.

So one of my people that I know, they was like, you know, hey, big, you looking for talent. And I must have burned, like, Like every CD I can find with every songs I could find. Like, and I went up to the studio when he was looking for the talent and then played the music and he liked the music. And ever since then he's been, you know, mentor and it cultivated me to work on music and make music just like me and five. You know what I mean? He used to let me go to a studio on 43rd, make music, don't charge us.

Like, just really help our music career. So that's how I meant. No, he charged you? He charged you? You know what I mean? But he really motivated us to, like, really do the music. What was your impression to him? Oh, no, he's a spitter.

Really? I couldn't understand the world these niggas are saying. He spits. Like, he really, like... He's lyrical, like, he spits. Like, he can go in the room with a comment. All the motherfuckers who can really, like, rap. That's his style.

He had one song, the old song, and me and hop, like... dedicated to the east. Yeah, so I did a mixday called Crack to the Future. And I did, it was like, I took the Biggie Bean. I was like, if I got to choose the coast, I got to choose the West. I live out there, so you know what I mean?

And flipped it. I really did it before game. I did it with Keisha Cole, but yeah, they liked it. That shit was so hard. So he really spits. Right. And then day style was more like the South, what's out right now.

Right. You know what I mean? So he was more of mine what I was on. Okay. You know what I mean? And then we had put out a couple of projects then Saman got killed

and I was like, I'm through with this music shit. Yeah, the rest of it. You know what I'm saying? Recipe Sam. It kind of like a blow for all of us. Like man, fuck this music shit, man. Yeah, and I backed up. And then like I said, I didn't get back into it

until really till Nip called me. And so then they came out of nowhere. This dude, bumruster studio. So we was actually, I actually was dealing with my little home boy, R.S. And I was from the sign R.S. and his little brother, who's the brother of one of the artists in sync, right? I mean, not in sync, but. That little, I know what you're talking about, that little girl.

Mindless behavior, his brother. And these dudes, I had got a beat from, who that beat came from, Marley Mall. I got a beat that came from Marley Mall. and they made the hook it was, what was the name of that song? Y'all first song. What's the name of that? Bidges. It's something about...

Bidges ain't shit, but... No. Everybody bade mama. That's what it was just sort of... So I go to sleep like I normally do. I'm sleeping in the studio. I wake up, these dudes and done the hook.

Fucking everybody's baby mama. I don't know if you can cuss on here, can you? Go crazy. But it's just. That song was called fucking everybody's baby mama. And so when I woke up, I'm like, damn, that hook is crazy. Right. But it was supposed to be in, they just doing the hook,

and then the feature, and it ended up being like, nah, we're gonna just take RS off of it, because RSD went to jail a week later. And I'm like, y'all just do it. And that's really what started the relationship with me and them. And smoke was really kind of like, The anna went out to the prima don't know what I'm saying? Like, I need a billion dollars to sign.

I respect for spacing that out so much and just assuming we would hang along for it because I was like, is he still talking or did he finish the sentence? That was smoke though, you gotta understand, bro. We ran in my office, this scene was so ominous. He has his other dude with his partner, he's like, What was it doing? No, you don't want to say that same thing.

He's like, yeah. I'm from the cartel family. Oh, my God. You hit him with the cartel talk? All right. I know you went to Chris, but I want the cartel. It's part of it. I'm like, listen, we're in my office.

And I'm like, you didn't want to fuck on my apartment. For real? Like, all right. We're going to work this fast. Like, what the fuck do we do in here, bro? Then, you know, every artist in the world thinks they're going to drop. One single and it's going to go stupid crazy. This is it.

When I drop, I'm going 500 times platinum. I'm the only one like me in the world. Right. And then so that was. It's a little more work than that sometimes. No, not in his brain. Really? He's still convinced this is happening?

I might think. Man, men this do argue about all kinds, all manner of things. Right. Like, all, this dude calls me, he'll just be sitting at home. TV and he'll just have a damn thought. Yeah. Not exaggerating. I respect that he's down to just sort of take up your time like that.

Oh, he'll do a lot. I'm not lying to you, man. He'd be thinking, like, you got to listen to me. See, this is the problem. You don't listen to me. And I'm like, I gave him his time. I'm trying to kill a dude. I'm chasing the McCruller.

The McChololers dying. I'm trying to get the air phone. Maybe he's dying. And he's still talking about... I stutter a little bit. I stutter a little bit. Not when I rap, though. He don't, bro. He do not stutter when he rap.

I swear for God. Okay, how much creative involvement does big you have in the studio? And how much creative involvement do you allow him to have? He don't give a fuck. Oh, okay. He'd be like, he'd be like, he'll wake up and he'd be like, that's how we know he, that's how we know he'd like it. If he wake up and you start seeing that big ass leg move

or that arms start tapping like this, you know, it's hot, you know what I'm saying? I'd be feeling like you might get some money behind your video if you start doing that. You know what I mean? If I'm old, if they can move me and I'm old, then it's something. Right.

You know what I mean? Because they'll make a song, and it's the greatest song ever. I've never seen every song be the greatest song after they finish. Like, this is it. This is it right here. It's always better than the last one. That's how to show.

Bro, and I'm like, I thought the last one was like the one. No, this is it. You need to have that energy for sure. You know, you gotta have that confidence. We got plenty of that. I tell them all the time, it's not gonna be here until the public said. Like, we'll know when people start reposting it who never posted your shit.

You'll know that, like his song, like the song, just dropped it was one of them would you say we unexpected that's on yeah because I mean I gave it to my other folks to hear you know I mean we just dropped it really because we didn't really plan to put the shit out I was just really trying to show him mr. you know Pablo you know he got locked up with the little fed case yeah what's going on with that and how did you guys become boys with him he'd been around since we first got on like he tapped in with the music you know he been messing with unk and all that so uh-huh he just been showing us love we did a gang of songs we supposed to drop a tape you know i've been out there all last summer stayed at his spot

in Atlanta definitely i saw you got that video with him and dub uh yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah my nigga too so it's like we've been fucking with blow and i ain't really heard much on blow since he got locked up anyways i ain't heard i ain't sure i ain't i didn't nobody speaking up from i ain't heard no free blow none of that so you know and We're going to be all in his face. As soon as he comes on, they go all in his face. So I dropped the Free Hood Ridge. You know, like we said, it's been going crazy.

Who is my name, Blu's over? Oh, Hoodish. His name is Blu. Yeah, that's his nickname. Yeah, the team called that and shit. Oh, all right. Yeah, so I dropped the Free Hood, Rich. I'm thinking Blow.

Yeah, so you are not allowed to laugh over there. We're going to have another OT episode right here. Hey, man. You're in the big leagues now. That's dope though Yeah Shout out Chau Pablo

People don't want to give him the credit I mean he influenced So many goddamn people's styles Rapids Yeah that's the crazy Parts that everybody Always be trying to like Underwrite Hoodbridge

Talking about Oh he'd been robbed Oh this is a person That he let in his house And a dude posts something On Instagram a month later You know come on man Like

This dude A1 all the way through You know what I'm saying Hood rich one the most Solid individual I ever met in or outside of music. Very sound solid niggas in the industry. I got to like, you know, for show, like little keys, solid nigger.

Mm-hmm. Whiz. Wids off the top. Yeah. Solid nigga. You know, like you said, we knew to this music shit, bro, so we had to like, you know, really like, see how that fake industry shit go, dealing with niggas and shit. So when we meet real niggas in the industry, you know, you know, we fuck with it.

But now you're associated with big you. Does that create problems for you or does that create just everybody by default just sort of respects you or treat you a little different? I mean, it's a gift and a curse. You feel me? Because you know, some might show love, then some might show a little bit of love. Was they really trying to show love like that? You feel me? You know, it might be just for the look.

You know, you don't never know what's genuine. You know what I'm saying. Niggas be on alert like. That's why I just say, shout with my folks, where's gunner, a little key, dude, you know? All the slides. It goes like when you asked me earlier about, like, connections. I tell them all the time I can get you in the door,

but you got to work the room when you get in the room. You know what I mean? I can get you through there. But it's like, for instance, I can present a bunch of songs to the radio stations, but if it don't work, there's only so much they can do that. I can't go.

I'm not going to go stand on the table. When they say play this, you know, it's only so much you can do it. The shit gotta work for itself. And I tell him all the time, man, you can't stop working. You gotta just keep putting it out until some sticks. When some sticks on the wall, it's gonna be a ride from there. Right. You can't give up, you gotta believe in your purpose.

You know what I mean? So, and then I feel like we went through a rough patch, and it was rough for them. Let me say that. It was rough for them through the past that we was going through with that, all that bullshit. So I think it kind of shitted on them, on people giving them the credit they should have had. And then now you see the same style they were introducing, you see people now on the West doing

it. When they was first coming, people were saying, oh, y'all sound too much like the South, but then now you see everybody on the West trying to do melodic music and stuff. And we was probably one of the first ones that they were. From the West, it's a distinction. They're the first one really like from LA, from a hood set where they was doing that music where people thought they was really from the South. Like we dropped the whole mixtape and everybody thought they was from the South.

Everybody thought we were all from Atlanta. That was my whole point of free hood rich. That's why I wanted to shoot that motherfucker on top of the marathon. So they already know that, we're from Crenshaw. I mean the niggas, the streets know, but you feel me. Shit if they do. All one knows is the homies. Our streets, no.

Our street was lying as to be asking me all the time. I thought that was from, and they're from Krins. And then this is really my blood nephew. Like, you know what I mean? And so it's crazy because he went to Krinshaw, went to Krinshaw, graduated from Krinshaw. Me and Dub.

Oh, you're in high school together? Yeah, me and Dubbed. So we go way back. Damn, that's dope. You got tattoos about Dub too? He got tattoos from Dub. You got Tatman Dub. You know what?

I met him, it was like, yo, we got to introduce you to this lean dealer. He's like a famous lean dealer. He sells lean to all the rappers. That's what they told me before I met him. If you want to juice, you didn't dove all day. Back in the day. Back in the day. Back in the day.

Back in the day. My man got a store now. I did want to bust these out because these came in the mail today, and I felt like it was kind of serendipitous. The blue M&Ms. Shout out to YBN, Not Mere's promo team. Oh, you need to see a cross-shot rolling page. We got the blue M&M's in the building.

I don't know if you guys want to try. We had them in your pocket, hell not. They were in the sweatshirt pocket, and I do think they might have melted a little bit, so I'm glad that you just turned it down. What is it? It's just blue M&M's the YB&M's team sent over. Somebody gave them to you?

Yeah, but Pee-Wy Longway was always the blue M&M. You know, but I guess YBi &M is got it too now. They're half melted, though. They take the clothes. Big you is tempted. Not at all. We got some predos out there and shit. I'm looking at it like, what is it?

I told you earlier, man, my mama told me say no. Say no to candy. I'm the best to say no to anything. I respect that. And then, you know, we grew up in the no pill era. Right, which is now over. Which is now totally. The last city is eradicated.

It's over. Dead and gone. What kind of advice do you give your artist about stuff like drug use moving around in these screets, etc. I'm going to let them tell you. Shit, let me tell you this. When I went to jail, it took me like a week just to actually realize a situation I was in because I was so loaded.

Puffed up on drugs? Just, just is annexing juice, you should be. But all the way, though, to the max. No passes is thick. He's telling the story. He's laughing. This guy's a comedian. You have no idea.

So it took me like a week to really like sober up and realize the little, little situation I was in. And then when I came home, I was still starting to drift towards that a little bit. And I'll tell you, ever since I started messing with Un-I've been completely sober off anything hard for like four years. That's what I look. You feel me? Hell yeah.

Because he's crazy. You would be too if you have to look through this. this every day. No, it's crazy because like, that was like one of the first things he ever told me. He's like, man, if you're going to be involved in that, I'm not fucking with you. Like if you're using it, but selling it, you know what I'm saying? Whatever, I ain't fucking with you. Watching over a dope addict is not fun.

No, it's not. No. It's just really not that you get used to your time. We're in the studio all day. Like, we workers, like we all in a studio, like, Davey and a stew, I be in a studio. too. We try to work on the best music, you know what I mean, to put that music out. So, the streets

ain't, it's the last thing on my mind. We're trying to be in a lab and create that West Coast fire, you know what I mean? So for me, I'm like, I work hard, they work hard, unk put us in those situations to where we can thrive and we're bringing it to the world. You know what I mean? That's what's

up. Oh yeah. Yeah, we all fuck around. Drugs are bad. Yeah, and drugs, no. Say no. Oh, hell no. Yeah, I'm waiting on this one. I'm gonna say something. You're gonna say something. You're gonna say some. Cannabis.

That's my statement. That's all I got to say. Does he let you guys smoke weed in the studio? It's what? Yeah. That's my weed. You might get a contact high. We don't smoke some weed, bro.

You can't start lines in the studio, but you can smoke some weed, though. Hey, I have some rappers coming in here and be doing lines right before the interview, and I'm like, oh. Oh, yeah, you'll get, oh, y'all party. Yeah. You're on that time. Interesting. Oh, no. Hold on now, let's get this straight.

Somebody at this table may not be saying they're square. Who's not the square? Who's the square? I was going to go out with the glasses. It's always square. Yeah, well. Yeah, it ain't me.

You know what I am the square. Right. But some of them, I like, boy, I like, you niggas, he cleaned up. Niggasie got cleaned and he don't do nothing. So you have a parent-teacher conference. You're like, yeah. I'm a good kid.

I'm a good kid. Bro. That Zoom did fuck it up for it. Like, we gotta get our shit together. Like, we have a live, like, we had a teachers conference. Okay, so watch this. Somebody gonna be on this thing saying, he lying? He just got hired.

I just saw that thing. He's lying. He's just shit. Okay, but anyway. Snitching is bad too. That part. I don't get down. Mitchin is wrong.

Exactly. See? Okay, we're getting close. You know what? The day I realized that some rappers aren't telling the truth when they tell you that they don't do drugs was there was a day where like famous Dex like publicly quit lien a few years ago and it happened to be the first day that ever went to the sauce and swapped me guess who was in the parking lot buying some lien i was like oh it's some rappers are liars yeah yeah shout out decks yeah he just shout out five what's your next song

And I wanted to say one thing before we wrap this up or anything, too, is free C-Mack the Loke. Oh, yeah, man. Nightbug. He's just starting to catch a wave, man. How are they going to take them down just like that? You know? I just seen him on the, I just seen him on D. Jack. D. Jack, uh, live lifting weights.

Yeah. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. On the ground. You're doing the burpees. Everything. I love it. Yeah.

Yeah. Get the Popeyes. Five-Fice. Special, kill. I learned how he made his breakfast the other day on Instagram, and it was just like a big thing of oats

and some, like, sweetener. I was pretty hyped on that. Is he invited to the studio? Some who? Yeah, he just had some oats and some sugar. Yeah, he is. But, hold on. Hold on.

Yeah, he invited, but he did what? With some oats and sweetener. It was like he was showing his breakfast routine, and it was just like some oats and some sweetener. And it was just like, it didn't really look like much of a breakfast, but he was saying that that's what he eats for breakfast.

Yeah. That's because Popeyes ain't open yet. That's real. Pardon me? Hey, have his voice, did his voice really like that? I mean, if you watch his Instagram, it's a lot less, it's a lot more like low energy, and then the way he was on here was like mega high energy, but it still kind of felt like a version of the same thing, you know?

That's, what's your name? It's Michelet. Uh-huh. Remember Michelet? Yeah. That was her voice. That sounds like... I think when he get drunker, he should go higher.

Yeah. Oh, you've been around him before? Yeah. He always got the O.E. in hand. He actually inspires me to eat Popeye's, honestly. Like, it seems more tempting because I'm watching him talk about how good it is and it kind of gets into my brain, dude.

He like their number one sells me right now, of Popeye for real. But they passed him out. The Popeye... The sandwiches? Yeah. Yeah. Everybody went crazy over them.

And he told me he'd been there all those times, and he only had the apple pie. He never had the apple pie. I'm like, what? You didn't have apple pie? I had the apple pie. Like, every time I went there, it's a bad habit. It was a lot healthier eating at Popebos before.

Which one was better? McDonald's or Pop-Bos? Oh, man. I probably had the McDonald's one way more. But I kind of like the, I don't know. I got to have them both a few more times. It was too hyped up for me. You know, when I had the sandwich, I was like,

oh, the chicken sandwich? Yeah, it was too hyped up. It was too much hype on it. Yeah, I remember when dudes were coming around trying to sell us, Poppots, Chicken Sandus. It was like two days old for like $20. Nikes were slinging. They had them refrigerated and all that shit. That's a good time.

Good time in history. I got a question. When is your song dropping? I've been working for two years on my solo project. Like Dr. Dr. Drehan. On my solo. I'm looking for two years on it. It's like the detox and then relapse and then one more detox.

You know what I mean? So we're on that stage right now. Two years. Who all you got on your project? I got a Mazi, E40. I got a record out with E40, and that's where my voice is messed up because we were shooting the video. I just assuming you were always like this.

No, we were shooting a video all weekend, and my boy got me yelling. So we just wrapped the video up. I got Mazzie on my album. My boy, Job. I got a song with Ricky P. So, yeah, just working, man. Just trying to just make the best song that I can.

You know what I mean? That's what I said. Unc is the one that really A&R my record. Right. So like they said, I played it for him. He woke up, he woke up, he, in my car. I picked him up, he woke up, he's like, what's that? We was in his front yard for 25 minutes.

He's like, hold on, he's like, hold on, no. You ain't leaving, you know what I mean? So we take it to O.T. Uncle O.T. A&R. They made me a hit. Wow. So that's the story behind my E-40 race. my E-40 record, like, went to the lab,

got us working the record, and the next thing I know, I'm in the video with E-40. Fuck, yeah. That's amazing. In music. And then Fai came to me, and I'm like, Fah, who are you going to get on your project? He said, nobody.

Yeah, I don't really want any one of the kids on my... We got a lot of features already, so it'd be like, you feel me? You get to the point where he just want niggas to hear something of your shit. So make sure everybody stream that. Nothing clear. I hate when I want to go listen to a rapper for the first time

and someone puts on a song with them and four other people. Yeah, man. No project, no guys. There's too much of people on there. I got Wizz on there and Snoop, but that's probably like, that's it. But the rest, I just, and, you know, smoke, but I don't care. The two songs, the three songs we got, what's the name of them? Freehood, Rich, Love Yo Girl, and I did one with Wids artists, Young Dejie,

called Ghost. video for that one too. Oh, crazy. Yeah, you gotta hear these. I got to hear it, yeah. I'm trying to come to the studio. Let's go. Let's go.

I'll pull it with AD. You guys want AD verse? I'm selling them for the low. Oh, for sure. I'm giving him 20% or whatever I get from you, so let's be good. I thought AD was going to be here. No, but we're doing your podcast with him. Okay.

Yeah. That's up. Yeah. I'm for now. I'm for now with some ratchet questions. Ooh, okay. When was the last time you slapped him? fuck you guys in me or him

you I put a guy in a guillotine choke a couple years ago where did the no jumper name come from Gucci bricks Vaughn like an athlete but got no jumper Oh Damn It's a metaphor for

How long have you been white We getting money I'm gonna be white I asked me if I was white or black Which is kind of an honor White black like Oh Define that

When did you cross over Because, see, you understand the culture so well. You're like, well. You're going to regret saying that. You're not against everybody who ever says anything to vanish. You said I understand the culture so fuck you. Yeah. That's all.

We'll uncover that. We don't, we know, we're going to flood out on that. Because I just got to look. I just got to look. I just got to say you are no longer a big you. I'm like from the culture. I got to look from somebody over there. Like, what the fuck are you talking about?

They just looked to me like Laura? Yes Don't put any ideas in his head She looked at me like Don't you ever say that again I don't know how to answer that And how many damn tattoos do you have

A whole bunch I guess I just notice I have one that says No future the other day I'm like damn I forgot I got that like 20 years ago When did you get your first tattoo? 18 Straight-edge tattoo

Basically saying I'm never going to drink or smoke You should get one Oh you should start claiming straight-eds That's a good idea How did that go? What school did you go to? Nashville high school Are you from here?

California? No. New Hampshire. New Hampshire? Yeah. You're from New Hampshire? Yeah. You're from New Hampshire.

What? How the fuck did you get here? It's a very good question. But that's the thing is you're from a place where it matters so much where you're from and I'm from a place nobody's ever even heard of.

Right. It's a weird dynamic. Especially in L.A. It's all about where you're from. I like the initials, though. You're from. In H. No homo.

Yeah, sir. Oh, and, yeah. No homo. No homo. What the fuck, the interview was over, bro. Interviews over. What the fuck? The time is doing that, man.

What the hell? He's up from no homo. Hey, man, what the fuck? No, man. What the fuck? You didn't get the memo? Right. It's the end and age, man.

At least say Nipsey Hustle. Oh, yeah, that's a good one too, yeah. Like, what the hell? Hello. To be fair, I knew about no home way before I knew about neighborhood. He takes back his previous. Again, I inferno action.

So that comment makes sense. Oh, yeah, yeah, your time, you don't have no goddamn coaches. That's the best way I can imagine to end this. He has no coach in the interview was over. It's over with his own. And he pulled up with a red shirt on it in you out there way. Big you, I am not in the gang, so, you know,

I'm very, very diplomatic. I don't know about any of this crazy gang lexicon. It doesn't make sense to me. And the lexicon is dictionary. Dedicting. That's good. Well, I buzzed that out because I know you got a pretty good vocab as well. Yes, yes. Yeah. Wow. I'll be laughing about that for

years. Was that? Just that exchange that we just had? I like the initial. Yeah, it was like, what? You could at least win Nipsey Husser, though. Like, tell him, at least go hustle. Yeah. At least go hustle.

I don't know. He was just about to sit down nowhere. He was just about to get a new ham. He was just about to get a little ham. You were just probably getting accepted. Wait a minute. And bro, right.

Look, he just got a first tattoo at 18. Damn. Like, did you, is that you first time had sex to? No,

I might have about 17 on that one. Proof it, bro. You know, I cut my dick open and count the rings like a tree or something. I don't know how you're going to do it. Maybe you might be heard or do it.

This, nigga. I don't know, bro. You got your first tattoo at 18. You probably only got said first time 18. Is that bad?

17. You got a tattoo before that? You're supposed to get something before that. Oh, yeah, I definitely lost my virginity before I got a tattoo for sure, yeah. Although it might have been kind of close. 14, 15, I think. We're not starting these. What was her name?

I'm not going to air her out. She got a life. But that's what y'all do. Like, on these interviews, y'all air people's shit out. Not the girl. I have sex with a while I was 17. She's 17. You got a whole other girl now, bro.

You're going to give it down by her? Her kids are your. Her kids are your age. You're right. There's probably enough girls in New Hampshire named Melissa that nobody's going to be able to figure out which one it was. Shout out to Melissa. Thank you for ushering me into the age of intercourse. Shout out Melissa.

Hey, look. And every Melissa out there. Biggie who's shouting out the girl. That was solid. On YouTube is going to say Big U.S. Adam the question and Melissa Who's Melissa?

We must find Melissa We're going to talk to her And if there's any girls who had sex with Biggie You in the 80s Who wants to come on here and talk about it That'd be fine as well, yeah

I was knocking them down Or if you got knocked out By the roller rink Slide in my DM I was knocking them down dog I had a Jerry curl I wasn't old in rinked

Right I was knocking them down though Hard And also Big U wants all the kids out there to know that he's going to buy you some Chrome Hearts. What to hell? He's got a scholarship fund to buy Chrome Hearts for kids out there. Yep.

That's why I got mine, huh? Chrome Hearts. Wow. Amazing. For everyone. Thank you guys so much for coming in. For sure, bro, bro. Means a lot.

Thank you. Much respect. Big U. Massive respect. Everybody go watch Hip Hop Uncovered. Is it right? Great way to spend a couple hours. We saw you in Miami.

Oh, yeah, he ran off from it. I wrote it loud and you tip off on this. I don't think I made this motion. I think you thought we were going to rob you or something. You was walking fast. He was walking like a real white man. Yeah? Yeah.

Y'all didn't even let the shout to music out. Y'all want to talk about when Adam ran. Now, they punked me out, yeah. I remember that weekend, though. There was a guy. Hey, this is his thing. Why did Adam run? No, not why did Adam run.

Why did Adam run? I don't really, like, the walking super fast through a crowd thing is more about like I don't want to stop to take photos so I'm gonna just walk so nobody can even talk to me survival mechanism that's like the energy you is getting out of town next time big you is gonna be watching my ass watching

watching not washing not washing back to the hell wrong with it man like man what's the staring you got it come on hey bro we gotta have a joke with Adam who's got him come on Adam

we're gonna go beat my ass in the alley big you and the gang Shout out. NoJumper. Coolest podcast of the world. Check us on YouTube. Say I'm glad iTunes. Like, comments, subscribe. No jumper if you want to support.

Nojumper.com if you want to support. Big you, we got to get you on the Kandama. Yeah. I want to get him started on the Kandam. Every night in the studio. He's going to stop sleeping. All right. He's going to be Kadama and out.

Appreciate you guys.