No Jumper - The Domani Interview: Being T.I.'s Son, Growing Up on TV, Finding Himself & More

Episode Date: October 29, 2021

Domani sits down with Adam to share some much needed wisdom about his life, upbringing, creative process, finding his own path and more! https://www.instagram.com/domani/ https://twitter.com/domani ----- NO JUMPER PATREON http://www.patreon.com/nojumper 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 SPOTIFY: https://open.spotify.com/show/4ENxb4B4klzmoDyLz6v6YM 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 in the world. And today we have a young king in the building. Damani is on the podcast. Thank you. Thank you for that. How are you living? Pretty good, man. I'm just enjoying everything.

Right. That's good to hear, man. I'm a big fan. We met a couple of months ago, probably like a year or so ago. Yeah. And you actually tried to teach me to play Spades. I did. You still don't know how to play?

No. Man, you got to practice. Well, I guess you don't care to learn, huh? I just got to, like, actually put some more effort. into it because I play poker right a lot and so I have it's kind of hard for me to like break up the percentage of my brain that is desiring to play a card game and be like all right I'm going to learn this new one yeah poker is definitely another lane um spades is just a nice friendly game and nice you know I mean whenever you got some people around and y'all want to I just always hear Joe

Budden talk about it and it feels like I think I could get good enough at it that I could be better than him and that's something I would enjoy is just to get better than Joe Budden at something. That what it is. And then you got to find your team. I was just really competitive, you know? That what it is. It's about you and your team.

So whoever is sitting across from the table, y'all is like how well y'all could read each other. Me and you can join together to take on Joe button. Yeah, I can't play you yet. You ain't been practicing, man. We can't be on teams right now. You're starting to make me feel like shit, because I really haven't.

You got to practice. You got to get a couple games in. That's tight though. I feel like you've learned a lot of like cool old school shit like that in your life. Like you got put on to a lot of like OG stuff. Yeah. Yeah.

I was around some OGs, man. I was around some OGs and some young Gs that just was around other OGs. Right. Yeah, man, it's just I keep saying this, but I was just fortunate enough to have the environment that I had, you know. But you kind of seem like the rare example of somebody who was kind of born into that environment and doesn't take it for granted and isn't like a shithead who just sort of. sort of like accepts it and just thinks that, oh, I earned this, I deserve this. Like I was born into it, et cetera. You seem like you have like a more intelligent perspective on it,

which is one thing I find really interesting, watching your interviews and everything. Thank you, yeah, man. Man, I didn't associate myself. I didn't put, you know, a lot of good stuff that was happening just because of who I knew or because of who I was related to. It was hard for me to associate myself with it, you know. So a lot of stuff I didn't really give myself to credit, you know, because, yeah, I just didn't give myself to credit for a lot of stuff.

And I really want to work for my own stuff and create my own, establish my own businesses. But I still, I still, I still ask my dad for a lot of, before I make any decisions, I ask him about anything because he got all the experience. But, yeah, man, I never really felt entitled to, you know, what he did and his success. success or their success. And, you know what I mean? Wasn't entitled. Right. Which I like a lot because, you know, it's kind of like, okay, every young person is sort

of born into this struggle where like they want to be better than their dad or they want to, you know, sort of surpass their dad in some way. But for most of us, our dad is kind of like, you know, off in the background. Like, you know, I interview people all the time talk to them about their family. They give me a vague understanding of, you know, what their parents were like or whatever. A lot of times it's not a good story. It's not like the dad is really that person. present or whatever. It's kind of like an awkward situation in some ways, or at least like a very

unique situation that you are, you know, have had a very public childhood even just by being on TV and stuff. And that, you know, your dad is such an icon that it's like almost impossible for people to, you know, forget about that, you know? It's like such an undertaking, you know? Yeah, man, that was a big deal at one point of my life. That was, I said this before, but it was, It was before I knew. Before I knew who I was and what I wanted to do exactly, I was running from that. I was running from that last name.

I was running from the legacy. I was running from him a lot because I didn't know who I was yet. And until I figured it out, I wanted to do it on my own. I felt like the more stuff I do on my own, the faster I'll find out who I am. So, yeah, I was running from that for a long time. Now I just realized that I'm just do it. I'm just create.

You know, I'm an artist, I'm gonna be creative. I don't know what it is. I don't know what genre. I don't know what I want to do next year. It's just, I'm gonna be creative. And whatever challenges me creatively, that's what I'm gonna do. When did you start feeling that as a kid, though, like that real desire to make music?

Or was it more of like an overall creative desire? Because I watched a full disclosure. I watched like a 45-minute video called The Evolution of you. Man, I hate that. So I got a little crash course in what some chunk of your childhood it would be like, man, uh, I wanted to be a rapper. I wanted to be a rapper at a very young age.

You was on some walk-a-flok of shit. I was on some just anything that I, yeah, walking, not era beats and shit. Yeah, I was, but that was just, that's all that I, that's all that was around me. That was my environment at the time. So that's what I seen on TV. That's what I heard on the radio. That's what the world was pushing to me.

And I was like, I want to be a rapper. And then I put it together. And I said, they're rappers. You know what I mean? So I want to change. I want these nice things. I want to talk like this. I want to rap like this.

But then I started saying, man, this junk don't feel like me. This feels like a character because it didn't feel like me. So then I started realizing I started learning how to kind of tell my story, tell my story in the music. And then from then on, man, I felt like I was on a different path. So it's harder to, it was easy to kind of find. find myself when I'm on a different path because I don't got nobody else. I mean, I'm looking at a,

it was a couple of people like Kendrick, Jay Cole, Jay-Z, business-wise, because his, his business deals and the way he moved, Jay-Z, man, I admire that I learned a lot from, I'm still learning from him, but yeah, man, I just decided this is my own path and stop comparing myself. Definitely. So, well, let me ask you this. Do you remember as a kid the first time you had to have a conversation about being on the show. Like, was it an option, or is it just kind of like, this is just as early as you remember. You were just sort of like having cameramen around the house and shit.

That was a good question. Yeah, it was, um, my dad told us about it. He was like, he asked us, you know, do you want to be on this show? Who was going to be like this? And at the time, I was, I was very excited. I wanted to watch TV. Right. I watched TV.

Exactly. I get to be on TV. But then before that, my little brothers, King and Major, they was already on TV. So everybody knew them, and then we'd go out, we'll be together and they'll be like, hey, you're the kid off who-woo. Then we'll see everybody know them. And, you know, just us being kids and feeling left out, we was like, man, tell them we're your brother, man.

Damn, we want to see what that feel like. Right. So, but then, yeah, that's, that's, I think that's why I was excited. I wanted to see, I wanted to see what that felt like. And I wanted, you know what I mean? Everybody wants people to know them. Right. But then I started realizing that I cared more about how they know me,

you know so it was just time you know just branch out and do my own thing focus more on me and just find a little bit more about who i am definitely but okay just a couple more questions around that era like was it ever like unpleasant having those cameras around and stuff because like from our perspective watching on tv it just kind of looks like the cameras just sort of around and your dad's just doing some random shit and you guys are all hanging out but i assume that like actually living it it might have been more of a negative experience where you just got these random ass camera guys around all the time and shit

it was actually very cool man yeah we was cool with I'm still friends with a lot of the the cameramen a lot of the people that worked on the on the set a lot of the crew it was a lot of good energy man

and it was it was exactly like that like we would just do regular stuff that we would do but the cameras are there and we know like who this is like this clay on the camera so sometimes we would say something about clay and he'd behind the camera. But it was, it was nothing but good vibes, man. We have adventures and then we get to have

fun, but we forget about the cameras. You know, we're kids. We're going on vacation. We don't, I mean, every day is an adventure. When I was watching it last night, it occurred to me that it really isn't that different than what it's like for my kid, because my kid is like, you know, we still are pulling our fucking phones out and filming her all the time. It's just that there isn't like a separate person with a big professional camera filming, you know? It's really, in this day and Like, everything is so over-documented that it doesn't really stand out to me as that different that you had a TV show because now everybody's on their Instagram story or their YouTube channel basically making a fucking TV show about their own life every day, you know?

Exactly. And I don't know why, but it was just easy, at least for me, it was just easy for me to just forget about the cameras, I guess, because we kind of knew everybody and we was having fun, man. So, yeah, that was fun. That's dope. Yeah, when I was watching you perform, as like a really young dude.

Like, you know, like you get an opportunity to like open for your dad and shit. And it was so tight seeing you go out there with just that childlike enthusiasm where you were just like, I got an opportunity. I'm going to do this. Like, would you just, at that time, did you feel super nervous or were you just like, like so young that you didn't even know to feel nervous? Like you were just like, I'm going to do this. Both.

Yeah, I wasn't still a little nervous because I've never done this before. That was like, I think you're talking about my first show. That was my first show. So I was like, you know what I mean? Nerves like that. But I think I'm still a little ignorant to a lot of nerves. But I was nervous because I never done it before. But I was still young.

So I wasn't exposed to more things. If I was exposed to more things, I probably would have been more nervous. Because, you know, as kids, we don't think about it like that. We just think about this is what we do. and boom, I did it. Right. At least that's what I was thinking. It's just on a bigger scale, you know?

Right. I was probably nervous when I was like nine years old when I had to like go in front of like 100 people at a school, assembly or some shit, you know? It's just yours is a couple thousand people, whatever. Exactly. But, yeah, I feel like sometimes ignorance could be bliss, but or it could be the opposite. Right. So I don't know, man.

I was doing so much stuff at such a young age. It was, it was just another thing. It was another thing. But like I said, when I started figuring out myself, man, I started knowing that this is what I wanted to do. Were you kind of like a sponge, like, in terms of just, because I feel like in the lifestyle that you had of so many influential and important people just being around and shit

that you probably, if you were smart, were able to just sit back and just take in so much stuff and just learn so much about how successful people move because you had so many great examples right in front of you. Exactly. That's kids in general. Kids in general are sponges, but imagine being a sponge and being exposed to way more. So I was soaking all of that end, even when I didn't even know it. A lot of times, you know, my parents didn't even know it. My dad said a lot of times he'd tell me stuff and he'd, well, he don't tell me this, but he'd tell other people he told me stuff and he said, I ain't know he was listening and it turns out, he was listening and I'm just proud of them and stuff like that. But yeah, man, it just definitely.

was a spun. I'm still a spun. I'm always going to be a student. I don't want to master anything. A lot of people say they want to master stuff. If you master something, I feel like you stop learning. You know what I mean? It's always better as possible. It's always more you could learn and some other thing you can challenge yourself with. Definitely. I got to ask this. Was it like, describe to me what it was like being young and having your dad sort of go back and forth between prison and then also the dynamic of him basically being famous for having wrapped about all this street shit like as a kid like how did that take shape in your mind because that must have just been such a weird thing to kind of realize as a kid that's a good

question sometime um that's in some of my music but uh he would just tell he would he would ask questions and he would make sure that um talking about the music he would make sure that we understand what he's talking about understand what he's talking about understand where it's coming from, understand what stuff means. You know, he would allow us to ask, I would ask questions. And, um,

but yeah, he would explain a lot. He would take the time to explain. And that's what I feel like. Help me. Because I understood, you know, this is, this is your environment that you were talking about.

And this is, this is how you, this is how you grew up. This is your childhood. And you're basically telling the world your story. I understood that. I, um, but going to prison,

I don't know, man. Sometimes we were so active. They kept us so active. Like I said, we was kids. We were having fun. We was in camp. We was in sports, all type of sports, football, baseball, basketball. A lot of times, man, I was just being a kid and I was just having fun, ready to go to camp, ready to go to sports.

And I didn't even realize he was in jail. A lot of times when I was young, they would say he's going to school. Right. I was going to school. Really? Shoot. Or shit. I guess like it wouldn't be out of the ordinary for him to go on tour for a month.

Exactly. So if he's in prison for however long, it might not necessarily stand out that much, right? Exactly. But this last, I know the last time he went, I think it was the last time. The last time he went, he sat us down and he told us, this is where I'm going. He said school again. But he said, I'm going to school. But we understood a little bit more.

We're a little older. He said, I'm going to school. Boom, I'm not going to be going long. We kind of had a moment. And I think that was the first time we seen like him cry. Really? Yeah, that was the first time we seen him cry. And I think that's when we understood what was going on.

But that was just a time period. I feel like we all figured it out. Like I said, we were still young. We were so active. We were still doing stuff. So it didn't really affect us like how it affects kids, regular kids like right now. Right. You know what I mean?

They're in the house and they realize that their father's not here. we had it we had a little bit better so definitely what like people probably mostly ask you about your dad but like what was your mom like as a parent and how would you describe that you asked some good questions man yeah I do this for a living man we owe there yeah my mom my mom provided me with that perfect balance because um a lot of people don't know my mom a lot of people don't know my real mom but she provided me with that balance because, you know, I go, I go to, um, I go to my pop's house, see this big old house, you know, see all these nice things get, we go out and we go shopping, we go, you know what I mean, we exposed to a lot more. It's a lot different. Then you go to a mom house, um, she, I,

I got that, I would say I got that, um, I don't know, I don't want to say the wrong stuff. but yeah she provided us with that balance you know showing us um we went to school from her house so we was around a lot of a lot of different kids that grew up differently and sometimes we were sometimes i felt out of place you know what i mean because sometimes i didn't feel it didn't feel good talking about what we did you know that weekend when they said when i know they probably didn't they didn't have as much fun as we did or they didn't experience you i mean but um i feel like that was the balance that showed me understanding. It showed me how to relate to people,

how to understand people, how to talk to people. And like I said, more than anything, how to be understanding. And that's that balance, man. Life is all about balance, and that's what she gave me. She showed me, she taught me love, she taught me family. Stuff like that, man.

Your mom, I'm thankful for my mom. You know, call your mom, tell you love her. Definitely. people out there. Love you, Mom. I hope you're watching this. I assume you are. But so, okay, like in terms of your own musical journey, when did you, like, was there a particular moment when you kind of realized, like, that you didn't want to keep rapping the way that you had been as a kid? Because I feel like it's totally natural for a kid to just sort of want to repeat the stuff that they see, you know? That's like the first version of anything.

Like, if you're going to be a painter, you're probably going to sort of just basically try to copy some paintings that you seem to start. And then over time, you can start to develop your own style. Like, when did it start to realize that you wanted to do something deeper and go in your own direction? I think I was like 15 or 16. And that's exactly what it is, too. You said that perfectly.

And 15, 16, when I started finding, when I started finding out how to actually put my real life into music and how it made me feel and how it made other people feel, how they, how they could relate and how it could help some people, that's when I realized this is what I want to do. And then I started combining that with finding ways to challenge myself, how to combine different genres together, just subconsciously and tell stories. I just started having fun with it, man. I just started learning new stuff, learning new ways to say different things.

And just, I'm still doing that now. But I don't know, man. I'm addicted to challenging, challenging myself, whether that's music, or that's just challenging myself with discipline, just crazy workout stuff, just crazy diets. Really? Just, yeah, I don't know, I just, I like challenging myself. And I feel like that's the easiest way I can learn myself before anyone else has to tell me about myself. Right, because, I mean, I feel like it's so easy for rappers these days to sort of just, like, hide behind. established styles of rapping and get on specific types of beats and they all just kind of

rap like a couple of other famous rappers and like when I hear what you're trying to do it's definitely like you're playing the game on expert difficulty level by really trying to carve out your own your own niche of like your own style that is that is very honest to who you are and then that sort of allows you to just have that freedom which a lot of people are so stuck in wanting to be successful that they essentially end up rapping like everybody. else. Yeah, man, that's why I keep saying it's, um, I'm just grateful

enough to be in a position, because I was in a position of where I didn't have to worry about at least too much, not as much as other people, I didn't have to worry about being successful, exactly. I was more concerned with being creative. Am I being the most creative that I can be? Am I being the most, am I being me? Am I being the most creative?

Am I challenging myself? I was focused on stuff like that. I didn't really have to worry about certain shoes. I wear the school. I'd wear some shoes in school. I don't know what it is. Everybody else tell me what these is. You don't know what you got on. I was fortunate enough to be in that position. So I don't think it's me at all. I feel like I just, I didn't have to worry about a lot of stuff that people, other people had to worry about. And I see that. I think that's why I think how I think. Your dad was very into getting you fresh. Yeah, I think, yeah, because, because, you know, that's what he want to do. And he knows.

Well, he's seen how much of a important part of somebody's success that can really be in that world. It's like if you present this image of success, that'll serve you well, I think, you know. Exactly. And, you know, just as parents, I believe you always want to provide your kids with, you know, stuff that you didn't necessarily have when you were young, but you want it. So you just want it. So I think he definitely enjoyed. He applaud us or he pushed us to just find ourselves through fashion,

find ourselves through anything we do. And we figured it out, man. We still figuring it out. But like I said, I can't say this enough. But I was blessed enough to be in a position to not have to worry about a lot of stuff. I went to a babe store the other day with a bunch of my friends. And they're all buying clothes. and I'm not really, I'm just not like,

really like Mr. Buy a bunch of clothes and shit. Right. Now I have a kid, I was buying all kinds of pajamas and shit. Exactly. Because it's just like a very different, you know, she can wear anything and she'll be looking great.

For me, I'm just kind of like, I don't really give a fuck. Right. And I think I'm not a parent at all, but I think as a parent, you want to at least show your kids, you know, what this feels like,

you know, because you don't want them to wonder, you know, what does it feel like? Like, you mean, and they spend their life, you know, trying to get that stuff that's really, you know, if you were to, if you were to held a chain or wore a chain at a younger age, you probably wouldn't care about it when you got a little older. And that's how I feel like I am or how I was. I was always seeing his change. I always seen the jury. I seen, you know, I mean, I understood it. I was used to it.

This is just another accessory. It's another accessory that he paid for It's a lot of money But it doesn't matter It doesn't matter I'm a kid Yeah so when I got older I wasn't really chasing that I'm not chasing that

I already seeing that stuff I see him put him on I see him take it off I see him you know what I mean Passes to someone else And they put it on they take it off It's just you know mean It's just exposed to more

But most importantly is that You probably have seen how it doesn't really Change somebody's like Baseline happy Exactly. So he, we see him put the jury on. We see him take the jury off. He's the same person. Yeah. It don't, it don't make, it don't make or break him. Where a lot of people will be sitting there watching TV for their whole life just thinking like, oh, if I could just have that nice house or if I could have that car, that would be everything. And those people would be in for the same

realization. They would get that car and realize like, oh, you're still the same person you were. Exactly. But they have this thing built into their head. The more money I get, the more I realize that. Like, I'm glad that I have money to the extent. where now I can realize how much of a waste it would have been for me to have spent my whole life hustling, you know? Exactly. And me being exposed to that at a young age showed me. I mean, like I said, man, just being that exposure,

just different perspectives, man. You can't buy that nowhere, you know? So that was a blessing. For sure. Do you, in terms of the kind of honest review that you could expect for your music, What was it like as a kid and what is it like now in terms of the feedback that you'd be able to get from your pops in terms of, you know, if you have something new? Like is he, you know, of course you want to be nice to your kid.

Then also, you know, if you have a rapper, if I have a rapper signed to me, I want to be able to be honest with him and say, like, you got to change this. This isn't good. You got to work on this, et cetera. Like, what's that balance like? I feel like he knew how to tell us what we needed to hear. He knew how to tell us every time. and yeah he would definitely tell he told me from the beginning he said if this is what you want to do

let me tell you who to listen to because the stuff that you listen to right now got you making this type of music and this is not the move he didn't say it like that but he just basically said let me just expose you to more and just listen to this just listen to this

check it out he put me on Tupac Biggie I mean like legends like Outcast UGK stuff like that and from then on I started doing my own own research and I started really figuring out how to tell stories, how to tell my own story, how to be creative. And yeah, he definitely tells us, though, or me, he tells me, you know what I mean, that's good.

It's good that you're doing this, I mean, but keep going, keep going and keep learning. That's dope. Like, I wouldn't have thought about it in that direction, but in large part, I feel like one of the dopest parts of having your dad be your dad is that he's basically like got to ridiculous amount of knowledge about the culture and hip-hop and stuff that that is a big not just like the stuff he's done but the stuff that he knows about because he's been through all this exactly and then it's just people that people that he know that i don't or people that he know people that know people that know him and just got a good relationship with him that i wasn't even

aware of until i run into him and then they they um man just trickle down man it's just you know I mean, I'm just, like, I keep saying it over and over. But just blessed and I'm just grateful that I don't take anything for granted. You're in a relationship right now? It's a great question. I'm figuring it out. I'm definitely figuring it out right now. Right.

You're like a romantic type? You got a, that. I had to learn that. I'm still learning it. Learning different love languages. Because what might be, what might be romantic to me, might not be romantic to hurt. So I'm still learning that right now,

learning different love languages, learning how to express myself, express my emotion. I know exactly how to do it with music and express my emotions onto an instrumental and put it out into the world. I know how to do that. But really doing that in real life,

when it really matters, I'm learning that. That's interesting. Do you feel like you could date like a regular-ass girl Or do you feel like you are too consumed by the idea that they might want something else from you, might have ulterior motives?

Regular, like, not in the spotlight. Like she works at Jamba Juice. Yeah, that's cool. I would like the fact that you work at Jamba Juice. I like Jamba Juice. I got to hookah. I like Jamba Juice. Now we got to hook up at Jambor Jambor Jules.

And the fact that you're doing something. I like that. But you'd be more turned off by somebody who was just like a lazy-ass rich kid that didn't have nothing, no aspirations. that's more of a turnoff? Yeah, that wouldn't challenge me. I like a challenge.

You got to teach me something too. I want to teach you and I want you to teach me. You got to be a balance, a perfect, a good exchange. We got to be growing somehow. I respect that. What's the music you listen to right now that really energizes you and makes you want to record and gets you excited? On the way over here, I've been listening to NBA Young Boy.

I've been listening to NBA Young Boy recently. That man is dope. Shout out of the NBA. But that's, I haven't been recording recently since I dropped this project. I've been like, I have phases, so I live life. And then I talk about what I've experienced, talk about how I felt. I think that, I don't know, man, that energy, that energy just is inspiring. Young boy's energy?

Yeah, that energy that he brings to. Everything sounds life or death with him. It's like very extreme. He's like a very bipolar personality in real life, I think. And I feel like he brings that energy to the music where even the smallest things seem very, very important to him. Every bar is... Yeah, that's an artist. He rarely has like a bar or a verse where it doesn't really feel like he's actually emotionally involved in this song, you know?

Exactly. And I feel like that's... You say it don't feel like he's emotional. No, it feels like he is. It never feels like he's just phoning it in. Exactly. You know? And that's what I mean by that energy that I feel like that will lead to something dope coming from the money

because that definitely was inspiring on the way here listening to that. I agree. Because a big part of why I had to listen to the young boy album a couple of times was because I just realized like, holy fuck, like he's the only artist that could take Drake out the number one spot right now. Like he's so popular. And I really do like him, but I also feel like I'm listening to him to like understand why the fuck he is so popular. Because clearly he's doing something that these kids love, you know? Exactly, man.

And I feel like it's because, I say this all the time, I feel like it's because he doesn't care. He doesn't care about that stuff. And I feel like people always gravitate towards a human being that don't care about. what they care about or don't look for what they're looking for. They're like, they wonder like, why don't you care? Like, you just don't care. I want to know why. Tell me why you don't care.

And it's just intriguing. Yeah, and everybody, like, people want to listen to music from real raw personalities. Exactly. They don't really want to listen to music from somebody who just seems like they're like an expert marketer, which is what a lot of people in the social media age basically are, you know. Everybody want to be the expert. They want to listen to like a real, a person who's speaking from the heart. But a lot of the shit that people have to do now to promote their music sort of like goes against that nature, you know?

Exactly. And the fact that he is not even able to promote right now that, I think he's, I think he's changing something right now. He definitely doing something important right now. But yeah, the thing is, he don't care. He don't care. I believe he just love doing music. And that's the only thing that matters to him. Him not caring is also like why we might not see him for 10 years is because,

Because, like, I feel like he can't control that part of him that wants to run around with guns, which is basically the basis of his case right now. He just can't leave that. That's so who he is. He can't let go of it, you know? That's why that balance, man. That perfect balance is so important. You got some people call artists genius and some people call artists crazy.

Some people, oh, just different people. And that's just, I feel like, just people who found. the balance, people who haven't found the balance, that lean on maybe a little too far left or maybe a little too far right. And that could be all the way good from this perspective or all the way bad from this perspective.

But man, that balance, man, I don't want to get lost in my music. I don't want to get lost in my art because it's about my life, but it's not my life. I'm actually living my life. And my art is me telling people, my life, you know. At that, when I'm actually making music or creating, it's for me, because it's me expressing myself, but me releasing it out to the world, that's for others. That's, you

I mean, I've already lived my life. This is my real life. So I'm not going to get lost. I don't want to get lost in that. It's two such different things, because, like, you know, my kid is very young, but, like, when I think about the idea of, like, I would want to encourage her to make music. Right. But the idea of, like, putting that music out, and marketing it and trying to get plays on it. That's the thing that seems kind of toxic in comparison to like just going in the studio and wrapping over a beat or having somebody play an instrument and you do something with your voice to it. That's amazing.

Exactly. The thing that's kind of sinister is like putting your kid into that position of realizing that what you make, what you do artistically is going to be judged by these numbers and that that is going to then like shift what they're doing to accommodate those numbers. which can a lot of times be like a pretty unhealthy relationship in my opinion. Exactly. I was, my guy Carlos Miller, I was on an 85 South show. Shout to them. Carlos D.C.

He told me something. He just said, he was just, they're so funny. They'd be cracking jokes, but he said something that stuck with me. He said, you haven't been corrupted by the world yet. And I said, you are 100% right. I have not been corrupted yet. And I feel like putting that music out and the fact that, that numbers

um equivalent to or we we think it's the same as a how good it is or how important it is or how much it means. I mean this is numbers you know what I mean it's all the numbers game it's just people do a lot of crazy stuff to promote promote stuff that's probably not even as good as

the underground stuff but it's not just about the music no more just it's about literally just entertaining entertainment I feel like it's wrestling if you if you're looking at it from this perspective is wrestling. But a lot of people choose to participate, people who don't choose to participate. Yeah, I feel like they live a happier life.

Yeah, I mean, and think about the fact that, like, I've seen a million clips on YouTube that are basically people doing things that are likely to get them killed or arrested and thrown in jail basically to promote their music. Right. They want to be a more famous rapper, so they're willing to, like, you know, go to other people's housing projects, yell a bunch of stupid shit in the parking lot. All this crazy shit that it's like, bro, like, it's a sad state of affairs when gangsters feel the need to act like this, bro.

Yeah, man, people got to go out the country. You got to see more. You got to see something other than the neighborhood. Because there's definitely more out here, man. It's not even worth it. I know at that time, you know what I mean? Looking at it from where you're looking at it, it might seem important. But once you see it is more, it's more to see, more to learn, more to do.

It's more out here. It's just more important to just throw your life away, man. It's just for opportunity. It's more opportunities. Yeah. And those guys on the other side of town that you think that you're fucking mortal enemies with basically are the people on earth that you have the most in common with. Because you've got a lot more in common with that guy around the corner than you do with

like some guy in India or some rich dude in D.C. who's in Congress or some shit like that. You know, like that's your people. Right. And that's like the number one thing that society needs to get past if it wants to really progress is just everybody realizing that they should want to be one with their community and not be at war with each other, you know? Right. You say you think the fact that, you say you think your most common, your biggest enemy, y'all have the most in common? Yeah, definitely. I look at L.A., all these gang members and shit, it's like, you know, you guys have mortal beef with dudes that basically, if you, well, we know for a fact because they go to prison and then all of a sudden you're just, you're just, you know, you guys have mortal beef with dudes that basically if you, like, well, we know for a fact because they go to prison and then all of a sudden you're just.

just a black guy and then you have to fight for your race. So it's like, you know, the fact that the beef on the streets is like some life or death shit that people are getting different hoods, whacked out tattoos on them that say they're going to kill these people and shit like that. I mean, in a sane world, you would be looking at those people as like just people that you have a lot in common with that you should care about, that you should want to do well in life. But that's not what people do.

People don't beef with, you know, people beef with the people they're most similar with. Exactly. Yeah, I do agree. I do agree. That might be why people beef, because it's like crabs in a bucket maybe. Definitely. Like, they feel like, you know, I mean, it's not enough room in this town for both of us. You know, you got to go.

Stuff like that. And all the best circumstances in terms of, like, different hip-hop scenes throughout the years or different, you know, cities and etc. It's always the cities that seem to have some degree of unity that they all kind of help each other out that are the ones that do well. You know, when I look at Atlanta in general, that's like, obviously, there's plenty of. a beef in Atlanta with people who don't like each other. But for the most part, them looking out for each other is a big part of why it's such a vibrant energy coming out of there for 10 plus years.

I agree. I was just in an interview. Before I came over here, I was just in an interview and a dude asked me, why do I think Atlanta is so, like, people in Atlanta are so easy. It's easier to work with people in Atlanta. I think that's why, because I feel like Atlanta is very diverse. I feel like it's not, I keep saying Atlanta is the perfect balance. I feel like because it's not, it's not.

not too much this way or too much that way. Like, you can find a rapper, you can find a stylist, you can find everybody's in Atlanta basically. You can do anybody is in Atlanta. And I feel like the fact that it's so diverse like that, and I feel like that's why we could get alone. And it's easier for us to work together, because like you just said, sometimes our enemies

is just because we have so much in common. Like, that's the reason why we're enemies because we're maybe scared of each other. We don't want to, I don't want you to make it out and then I'm left behind. Or, you know, I mean, I don't want you to steal my flow, stuff like that. In Atlanta, it's just more, I feel like, more diverse. So we have, we don't worry about that as much. Yeah, because, like, I feel like the more you know about history, the more you've seen, like, particular situations play out over and over,

the more that you just gain perspective on these things. Like, I watch Hotel Rwand. for the first time a couple of years and months ago. I mean, it's basically about, you know, this absolutely horrible genocide that happened in Rwanda. And I mean, when I'm watching it, I'm thinking, this is not so different than the shit

that I see playing out and rap all the time. You know, all these guys Chicago killing each other. The different tribes in Rwanda that were killing each other, it's like, you know, like, think of, like, who's their enemy? Their enemy is not each other. The enemy is the fucking Dutch colonists who, and we're getting deep here,

but basically the people who colonized their land and completely fucked up there are and turn their people against each other. But, you know, like, that's not really who they turned against. They turned against each other. And, you know, it's like that's such a sad thing that you just see over and over and over, you know. You say it's called Hotel Rwanda? Amazing movie.

One of the best ones. Like, I was so moved by it. One of the best movies of all time. I got to check it out. I thought it was a TV show. I don't like watching TV shows. Nah, that's a movie from early 2000s, I think? Yeah, I got to check that out.

It's a classic one. in terms of what you're i like what you said about how you like to take big chunks of time off between recording to just sort of live your life what what are the life experiences that you find the most rewarding or the things that you find enriches your soul the most at this point i think it's just growth just realizing that um realizing that um not where i was last year or last couple months i see growth and i see i'm headed just uh confirmations that I'm headed in the right direction. Whether that's, I feel good,

or I could provide more, I can teach more because I know more. You know what I mean? Stuff like that. I value that. Growth. I feel like that's my answer, yeah. Growth.

Just growth in general? Yeah. Like just learning. Like, in terms of like what your perfect day might be like, what do you imagine when you sort of throw out there? Okay, let me think of a perfect day. Perfect day. No obligation.

It's just an empty day in the schedule. Any day in the schedule, perfect day. All right. Perfect day. I'm going to the gym in the morning. And I've been going to the gym constantly. So I look in the mirror and I can tell that I see change. I see growth.

Boom. After the gym, I get a call. Boom. The money. Someone just, someone important in the music energy. Just said they love your music. They love what you're doing. They want you to come out

And I don't know Come to the studio That's dope And then Call my family Hey it's Sunday What are we doing We want to go all out

Family dinner Or family game night Just stuff like that man Growth I feel like all of that is growth Whether it's physically Or mentally

personally or it's just growth like building a closer relationship a better bond with your family how is that bond like do you guys go very out of your way to like do things together as a family and shit still definitely i feel like we go more out the way now because a lot of us got our own thing going on and we're all over the place so us coming together it means so much more because we know we we all over the place you know everybody got something that they're doing and they're literally doing that right now so Yeah, I feel like that's, and that's important, too, coming together. The older you get, the more you realize how important it is.

It's just to still have your family around and have them being good health. You've got to just not take that shit for granted, yeah. Exactly. But that's a perfect day in my head, just recognizing a lot of growth. Definitely. Has there been anybody that you've been in the studio with in recent memory who you were inspired by or you felt like you learned something from watching them record? Hmm.

Recently, not recently, because a lot of the music that I, this album, Skydive that I released has been, I've been listening to these songs for years, some of them, like two years, maybe, one or two years, I've just been listening to it. And that's the only thing I've been doing, listen to that, listen to these songs, figuring out how I can make them better, adding instruments, adding background singers, just, so you go back and work on your shit a lot? All the time. All the time.

It's rare that I just record something. and just put it out just right after I record it. I listen to it over and over and over again. And I feel like that's another reason why I don't release a lot of music, at least all at once, because in my head, I already released it. I'm listening to it over and over again. I'm listening, you know what I like my music. So I'm not in a rush to release it until I always want to tell a story

until I know what story I want to tell, and I could really tell that story. Or, but, um. But do you ever drive yourself crazy doing that where you just start to hate the song, even though? You could. Yeah. I have. I have done that.

But, you know, that's why your team is so important because they write that telling you, you know what I mean, man, you're tripping. My people always say, you're tripping. You don't got to like it. It's not about you. You made the music. We like it. You're outnumbered.

We voted. We think that we should put this out. Right. And you got to trust your team. and know when to listen to them. So, yeah, you could definitely drive yourself crazy, though. If I wouldn't have set a date and set a deadline, I probably wouldn't have released it.

I probably wouldn't even release the project, but I'm glad I did. Yeah. Definitely. Yeah, I feel like at the same time, though, like, there's been so many times where I was with somebody in the studio and they recorded a song,

and I thought was the best thing I ever heard because I was really there in the energy of them making it. And then they put that song out six months later, and nobody gave a fuck. And I was like, oh, like, I wasn't being honest with myself. If I had been honest with myself, I would have been able to tell that it wasn't that special of a song,

but I got too caught up in the energy of being there and having fun and shit like that. But that's like a big skill in music, is learning to take your own emotions out of it. Just because you were going through a heartbreak when you made that song and it means the world to you. I mean, that's not going to necessarily translate when the people hear it, you know. Exactly, man. It's all about balance, man.

I feel like if you could find the balance and everything you do, people gonna think you're a superhuman. You find the balance. It's all about balance, man. You can't be, it can't be too much about you. What I like to do is do one thing at a time. So when I make music, it's all about me. Most times it's all about me.

It's about how I feel. It's about my perspective. It's about, you know, I mean, it's about how I felt. And you'll feel it in the music. Or it could be about someone else. It could be solely about, I'm telling this story for them. Anyway, I do it one at a time.

Then when I make the music, then I figure out, okay, how can I make this better creatively? How can I make this more diverse? I want to add a choir. I want to add instruments. I want to make it feel more live, you know? I want to speed up the tempo.

I feel like I want to hear this in the club a little bit more. I'm always, you know, figuring out the direction. I feel like if you know where you want to go with anything, life, you know, you could get there a lot sooner in a better way. So that's why I play my music over and over. Definitely. Do you feel like you have a healthy relationship with alcohol at this point in your life? I know this is like a real henny theme in a lot of your songs.

Healthy relationship. Sometimes it seems like you think you're drinking a little too much in the songs. Yeah, because I don't like doing stuff that I know is not good for me. So I don't drink a lot. but I would love to not drink but not enough to not drink but um yeah man it's not a problem

I drink socially juice I drink juice socially I'm 20 I'm not 21 right but I drink socially man it's all been celebrations and toast and got thing yeah great night good job stuff like that but not like um

I don't rely on it, I feel like. And if it's times where I feel like I do rely on it in this moment, you'll hear it in the music. But I'm good at, like, checking myself and diagnosing myself. I always ask myself questions. When people tell me stuff, I really listen to them, might tell me something about myself. I listen to them, and I go in the mirror,

and I go ask myself, and I try to be honest. But, yeah, I don't feel like it's an unhealthy relationship. I feel like it's been a lot to say. celebrate. So yeah. Definitely. You got a relationship with weed or you never got into that? I don't smoke. Okay. I don't smoke. Um, never was for me. You know, I tried it. I tried. I feel like you got to try it. You mean? Not everything, but. If I was a young person these days and I hadn't at least tried it, I would definitely be wondering why everybody was making songs about it. Right. Right. See, a lot of time, well, I know when I first started finding myself, a lot of people

thought that I was smoking. They say, man, I love your music. I smoked this. I woo-de-woo. I know you be smoking. I say, I don't smoke. He said, what? I don't smoke.

But, no, I tried it. It wasn't for me. I don't like rolling up. I don't like, I've never rolled up before at all. But I don't even like the thought of it. Me having to stop and sit down somewhere and roll something up before I. There's a lot of process, man. I don't know.

And then smoking and now you're closed. smell like smoke. I got locks. My locks might smell like weed. I don't know, man. And I don't like the thought of just burning something and putting it in my body. Yeah. Well, when I... I'm not against it, though. I asked your dad about him

getting mad at your younger brother for smoking weed and his response was basically like, yeah, well, you know, it was my house and he could smoke if he gets his own house and he can smoke weed in his house. But until then, which I actually think is pretty much the best response or best attitude.

because to me, weed is really like, and I would even kind of put drinking in the same category, which you kind of just did, which is kind of like your reward at the end of the thing. Like, I would never want to encourage my kid to fucking smoke weed, but when she's old enough, if she wants to smoke, if you want to smoke at the end of the day after a good day of work? Exactly.

Okay, I get it. That makes sense to me. But in terms of like doing it all, and I say this as somebody who smokes weed all fucking day, like an idiot. But, you know, for a kid, I would say, chill out. Yeah, my thing is don't feel. I wouldn't want to make, don't feel like you need to do it. Don't feel like, you mean, you had this success because you smoke

or because you do, whatever you do. Once you do that, I feel like you're getting lost. You're getting lost. And that's when you need to take a break. But, yeah, man, I'm not against smoking at all. It's just not for me. Just some stuff just don't be for you. I don't even, I don't even feel like taking the time out and smoking

and smelling like weed and having to take a shot. You know what I mean? I'm thinking about stuff like that. Me and a lot of people I know who smoked weed, we've all kind of said to each other at one point, like, yeah, I love smoking weed. But if I had to, like, if I didn't smoke weed right now, I don't know about start because realistically, I spent a lot of money and spent a lot of time. Exactly. I don't know. You might not be got kids.

You might got to be away from your kid because you got to smoke or you feel like you want to smoke. I mean, it's too much going on. You got to step outside. That's why we got the edibles. You got to have that around because smoking a whole blunt all of a sudden when you got a kid to take care of becomes a very different. different idea. Exactly. But yeah, I'm not against it at all.

It just, it wasn't for me. Definitely. A lot of people these days who have music careers, they're also working on, you know, fashion-type stuff or different types of stuff. Do you have any other, like, parallel passions that you're excited about things that you like to work on? Yeah. Before I was focused on music, man, I was all over the place.

And I feel like, once I get to a place where I feel like, uh, you know, you know, I feel like, uh, you I've helped enough people. I've taught enough people. I've learned enough of myself. I understand who I am. I've done what I wanted to do with music. I could look somewhere else. You know what I mean?

I could look somewhere else. My people's still good. I got my own label called Forever Records. You know, I want to sign artists. I want to help artists. Not even sign, but help artists. Once I feel like that's okay and I could, you know, someone else could manage that or run that, then I could look somewhere else and I'm

definitely do every single thing that I was doing before I was doing music. That was painting, just creating just, I was all over the place, man, venting crazy stuff, breaking toys, figuring out how to make them to something else. But you don't feel as motivated to do stuff like painting and stuff? Do you feel like all your creative energy is going right towards music now? Yeah, all of it's going to music. It's just anything related to music. videos I want to direct them

I got treatments for all the videos most videos acting in my videos or at least yeah I'm acting in my video I want to get into film but I just feel like in order for me to give 110% into something I got to really focused on that

I just want to do everything one at a time and then at the end I'll be able to I would understand more how to combine it together and create something someone's never seen before hell yeah That's what's up. Yeah, anything else you want to mention in terms of, like, music stuff coming up and everything like that?

It was definitely a good-ass conversation. A lot of stuff that I was excited to ask you about. Thank you, man. This is the time where I look at the camera and say it. You can just say it to me, or you could look at that camera if you want you. Look at both. Look back and forth. Thank you all for watching.

Thank you for having me on here, man. I go by the name with the money. I just dropped the album called Skydive. when you jump out the plane and you open the parachute that I dropped the album called Skydive it's out on all music platforms I got my merch

Skydive collection the fall collections come soon you can get your merch right now you follow me on social media on all platforms is the money D-O-M-A-N-I

and just yeah check it out if you want to check it out thank you guys for watching Hey my pleasure man It was a great interview I appreciate you and everybody go check his shit out. Go turn them up on Spotify and Apple Music and all that shit.

DeMani, No Jumber, coolest podcast in the world. Check us on YouTube, SoundCloud, iTunes, Patreon, all that shit. Like, comment, subscribe, nojumber.com if you want to support. Appreciate y'all.