No Jumper - The Kamaiyah Interview: Growing up in Oakland, Leaving Her Label, Double Standard in Rap & More

Episode Date: January 4, 2021

Kamaiyah brings her fresh outlook in this new interview with Adam! She talks about her come up, her work ethic, being wise beyond her age, being surrounded by a solid foundations from her brothers to her OGs, studying the game closely and following the footsteps of the greats. ----- 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: http://www.twitter.com/adam22 http://www.instagram.com/adam22 and adam22hoe on Snapchat Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

No Jumper, coolest podcast in the world. We are here today with Kamaya. Yes, yes. Wait, so how do you know AD? Some rapper shit, you know how it is. That's what I was thinking. These rappers, they all got to know each other. West Coast rappers, they got it. Hell yeah, so small out here. He's supposed to be here right as we're getting done. I told him,

I'm like, pull up early so you can see her. That's my nigga. You guys are friends or something. Yeah. That's great. Dude, you know, what was my experience in getting ready for this interview was I watched that Vlad interview? that was a really, really, really good interview. Yeah, Valia, you know, he get like a bad red,

but to me personally, I didn't feel like I was getting crucified for real. No, like, I don't, I think he gets a bad rap for some stuff that isn't really real. Niggas's be telling on himself talking too much. I feel like it's like our prerogative if we want to answer the question or not, right? Right. People won't answer the question and go beyond the question to make their self look at this. They're more solidified and gangster. Then they should be on an interview because if that's really your life,

you shouldn't want them people to know all that. me and AD were having that conversation. I was like, bro, if you went on Vlad and you confessed to some shit that got you in trouble, I would be looking at you. Like, you're a dumb motherfucker. Why'd you do that? I wouldn't be looking at Vlad.

Like, there's only so many questions he could ask. He's not going to ask like, did you kill someone? Right. But if he says, what was your upbringing like and you just mentioned that you killed someone? I mean, you know? He's not the fed. But, you know, these kids are different on the internet,

especially in the comments. Because it's like, the people who are actually commenting, they're not even a part of that type of culture or a lifestyle for you to even be worried about that, but it's on you when you take that stance and that narrative on an interview because now you're putting people in your business because if the laws wasn't penitent to you, now they are.

They own you. One of the things I saw him get all that shit for was the Casanova interview because I guess it was mentioned in his federal thing or whatever. But if you actually look at the shit that Casanova talked about in there, the only things that he talked about that were bad at all was like he talked about robin the liquor store,

but that's literally why he already went to jail. Yeah. So I'm like, that's not anything. That's my nigger, man. Freecast. Yeah, free cast, I know. Good people. That's a terrible situation. You know him too?

Yeah, it's my good people's. You're mega tapped in, I forget. You know what? I just don't be like all in the mix, but like I've been here for like four or five years. So it's not like I, anybody who you should know, damn there, I already met them. Right. Yeah. And I noticed you have a deep roller decks of people you can call to get on songs and shit like that.

That's interesting though that they just like have, you've just made a little, like, because you say you're not in the mix. But you seem like you have a lot of really good connections. be in the house, but it's like when I'm outside, the people that I'm supposed to know, you got to think about it. When you move a certain type of way and you come from a certain type of lifestyle, we all going to be in alignment, but it's not like I'm about to just be bragging, like, oh, I met such and such. Like, I didn't met some of the biggest stars in the world that people fall out for, and I never

took a picture. Really? Because I feel like that memory is more important to me, or the game you got me, gave me, I can live with that forever. This picture don't really mean shit. That shit means something to everybody else on Instagram, but I don't know what I'm going to fuck about Instagram. And you on a personal level, if you're meeting someone and kicking it with somebody

on some real shit and then they just decide they want to take a picture like on one hand you you realize like it makes sense this is how people are these days you take a picture with somebody that you like or respect or whatever but doesn't that kind of shift it to feeling like a little bit less like you're not on the same playing field in a way when one person has a little bit of like a fan thing going for the other person yeah i mean i feel like it depends on like how it comes about if it's organic definitely yeah i'm not going to be tripping but if it's like hey take the picture as soon as we like with up with it. I'm be like, nigga, you on some extra shit. Like, I'm trying to have a conversation. We conversing. And the first thing you do, like, take this picture real quick. And then you're

photographer right there and it's just a click. Like, just what you came here for to take pictures with everybody. And sometimes I think that the photo thing is like a modern clout type thing. Absolutely. But then when you go hang out with your parents or some shit or like any like normal people, you realize like everybody is taking pictures of each other like on the iPhone and stuff now. Like if I go to eat with my girls' parents or and they're asking the waitress to like take a picture of us and shit. And I remember like, oh, this is just kind of how people are these days. Yeah, definitely.

That iPhone shit is tricky. Yeah, it is. That's a weird world we live in. How online were you, like, when did you first get on the computer and start to, like, take it in the world around you from that perspective? When I was like, fucking four or five, remember back in the days in elementary, they had that little game when you delivered the pieces. Oh, yes.

But what was the game called? Fuck. I remember that shit, but I used to play that shit out of ice. I swear to got ice, but I can't win. Wait to go to fucking latch key to play this piece of shit. Wow. I hated that solitary shit. I never liked it.

You never got a solitaire. I hated that shit. But that little piece of nigger with the bike, that was my shit. Wow. I was a mind sweeper God. Did you ever play that? I never know how to play that shit either. I hear that from people so much.

And I was like that for like 10 years. And then finally one day I Googled how to play it and got so obsessed with it for like a year that I was practically like fucking failing out of my college classes and stuff because I was playing it so much, which is really kind of pathetic. Yeah, now that shit was hard. That piece of shit, I got jicky with that. And then I remember we used to get the AOL disc When you get the free online shit

I used to go to like Little badwow dot com and shit You know we used to have a fan club And you could just go in there and chat with other people I used to do shit like that Wow that's so informative of like who you are as a person That you were that interested in like musicians Like subc cultures and shit

I'm going to TLCFanmail dot com and shit like that Because that's what it was made for I guess You know saying especially when you was a kid Like that was our shit I remember the whole website for So So Def with the Afro and Black or White All the shit I used to really be on there Damn, that's hard.

Using my free disc. That's sick. I was going through people with mail trying to steal there so I get back online. Yes, definitely. Remember they had the dial-up shit? What was it called? Net, what was it?

Some shit. Oh, God, you heard. Net zero was one of them? And you had a little keyboarder had came with his own little shit. My grandpa had that shit. I used to all his shit. Right. Okay, so, but like early part of your life,

what music were you listening to? And like, what had the biggest effect on you and stuff? Because that's one of the main things I keep coming back to as I listen to your music is that sonically, you just seem, you're in a totally different direction. I want to know what the fucking influences are and what you consider important. So it's like a lot of that influence comes from

the vibrations that was around me. Obviously it's oldies because they're older. And then he got a little bit of hip hop because my granny is a little ratchet. So you feel me, she'll have a Tupac CD or whoever is around that's popping. I remember Big Pond. That was her favorite CD. You could catch me in this every video at 150. She planted every day.

My granny is. So it's like I was tapped in the music very, very alone. Yeah. That's interesting. I've been thinking about that with my kid too. Like should I just be playing music that I like around them to help educate them, or should I be playing them like Sesame Street music and shit? I feel like to me personally, it's interesting where we're going as we involve

musically because it's like technically this shit is going to be the oldies. So it's like, do you really want your kids? These holes ain't loyal in 20 years at a fucking barbecue. So that's the part that gets tricky because it's like, damn, this is going to be the oldies to them, how we felt about like the other shit. So it's like, I don't know about that one. No, yeah. And I wonder like, what am I doing to my kid if I'm playing? Like, we were playing like the Frank Sinatra Christmas album. I'm thinking, like, that shit was already old to me when I was a child. Think about how old that shit is going to seem to her at some point.

But I feel like this is your window to educate them. Like, my kid when she's seven or eight, might not have, like, the attention span to appreciate, like, some old tribe called Quest record that I'm going to be trying to tell her why it's dope. Yeah, you got to get them early. Because from, like, fucking, four to, like, 10, you're the most impressionable. So if you want them to have a certain musical taste, you've got to influence it very. early on and then it gives them this well-roundedness when it comes to music like me personally I'm still like into pop music and shit right because you know why we all grew up on Disney

channel so when you're looking at this channel what the fuck is on there like in sync and shit you know me was it mandy more and shit like that so you grew up and you listen to that I never lost that essence that's why my music's very melodic because I grew up watching Disney movies and seeing fucking what's that shit high school musical and shit even though we're urban you know we come from like the straight hood nigga I still fucked with brittany spirits Christina all in because this is what was on Disney that's super dope up to here honestly just like that that pop influence like it's not like you're going to be able to escape that just because you were coming up in a certain environment i thought people try to now they

try to like make their kids super duggish ruggish listen to that da da da da but i feel like that's what made us have the duality is because we would watch nicolodian which was obviously black as fucking in the 90s songs you got tlc you got 702 doing cousin skater it was real urban back then and that's when when people are mad at me like why is a white guy doing fucking hip hop content. I'm just like, bro, I was indoctrinated by all that. Exactly. By all this other shit. I'm sorry that this was just what was being shown to me. Yeah, no, that shit was dope, man. But the thing is, is that I feel like if you get your kids

listening to like Migos early on, that that shit is like fucking fentanyl. Like, it's just, they're not going to be able to get used to the slow pace of the shit that we grew up on. Like, it would be weird to show a kid like the chronic. And I mean, obviously, I'm not, I'm going to skip the skits. But that's still good music, right? Because if you think about anything from like 89 to probably like 98 it had a lot of samples which is the undertone of good music so it felt good to you because the familiarness of the fucking sample definitely so that I feel like all that music is actually great fucking music for kids to listen to and you notice labels do that is that when they're really trying to make a song find a song to really pop off they go back to that still so much

of like let's use an old classic sample that everybody recognizes and that way it'll make your sounds feel a little more familiar you're like it's very enchanted antenna. It's like, this shit, I don't know what it is, but it just feel good. Like, you don't even gotta really know what it is. It just feel good to you. Definitely. Yeah, there's like, anything familiar musically. Like, do, okay, and that's an interesting question that somebody was just talking to me about. They're like, what's on your shower playlist? And I'm like, the fuck you mean. Like, and they're like, oh, like, your shower playlist is the music that you love so much that you're willing to listen to it on a super consistent basis. And I'm just like, man,

my playlist changes so much that I don't think I could even, like, if I had 10 songs that I really genuinely love right now that I just listed off two weeks from now I'm just not going to be able to listen to that like it's not like I can never come back to it but it's not going to have that same resonance to me that at the moment like I hear a song four or five times it kind of starts to become like a song that I'm just not as interested in at least for now but that's because our attention span has grew so short because the hip box ability to fucking create so rapidly now back in the days you had to sit with a fucking hit record for like fucking six to fucking 12 months nowadays a hit record time span is damn near three months and after that somebody else has a hit you kind of over it so it's like when the artist is creating fucking 50 plus songs a year how can you divulge your one record and just sit on it even 50 might be a light for a lot of them too like 50 might be what you get to see but realistically they might have made many many hundreds which is kind of scary yeah that's that's the climate we live in

now i get kind of freaked out just like when i realized once i first started like really be in the music business and i realized that a lot of my peers on a thursday night or whenever it used to come out like that's their life. All the new albums, they have to consume them right then. They got to listen to it right away, get super knowledgeable about it. I'm like, I've never had that experience my whole life. I was never like lining up to, like, there were definitely albums that I made sure I got the first day or two they dropped, but I was never like having to listen to it the first night

because it's like, I have plenty of time. Not only that, you want to be in the right space because you can listen to an album in one setting and you're not fuck with it, but then you could be somewhere completely different and it hit you in a different tone and you're like, this shit actually slap. So you want to give it time, you feel to actually be seasoned to where you feel it in the right aspect. Exactly. Like, I don't want to listen to anything

that I think I'm going to like when I'm in a bad mood. Exactly. At all. And then you don't want to listen to the sootry sad shit when you're in a great mood because it's like, I don't want to hear that shit right now. So it's like you got to find that fine balance when to play a certain album.

But do you have a sad playlist? I used to do shit like that when I was younger. Like, you know, being in a love, bad relationship. If you wouldn't listen to all the sad shit because your heart broke. But I'm like, really you're pulling out of emotion and making it darker than it should be. Play some hats. Happy shit when you say.

You know what I started kind of doing as I get older. Like if I'm not in a good mood, I know if I turn on some records, it alighten my mood. And that's what I want to do. I don't want to be sitting in a dark place. That's kind of awkward, right?

Right. I feel like we promote this darkness and this sadness and to keep perpetuating it. But I don't want to fuel that energy when it's another energy, which makes me feel good. I'd rather do that. Like, I could be sad,

but I'm not going to want to put on music to make me more sad. I used to do shit like that. I promise you. I'll be like, why am I sitting here crying, listen to this sad. shit. And I had to stop doing it.

I'm going to stop this shit. This is some suck of shit. I have so many of my friends that are super into R&B and shit that it kind of makes me feel like there's something wrong with my brain that I just don't really like have a moment in my day or my week where I want to listen to some super slow, sexy music talking about

eating pussy and all this shit. It just don't really like I've been listening to like mostly rap music or at least like aggressive music for most of my life. And I just never really got into that groove of like wanting to listen to that kind of stuff. I love R&V. I believe you.

Yeah, I like that side. I told you, I like that. I'm very multifaccent when it comes to music. I don't get fuck. If that shit, country, if it's rock, if it's acid, whatever fuck it is. If that shit slap, I'm going to listen to it. I don't give a fuck. This shit slap.

Interesting. Did you, uh, do you remember as a kid, like, making any sort of effort to educate yourself about the music that came before you? Was that, like, anything you were even concerned about? Because sometimes I think about that with kids, like, do kids even bother to ever, like, go back and find the stuff that I was listening to as a kid. I still do that. I study music because I feel like it's just,

I just love everything about music. Like literally three weeks ago, me and my brother was up to like five in the morning just watching old soul train episodes. Because it's just fucking crazy. Like, thinking about how that evolved into the culture and what it created for black people. It's just like shit like that.

I think that's like very important. Like I wasn't familiar about James Brown or who he was. I watched the damn movie they made about him. Then I went back and watched his performances to understand like why was he so impactful to those people at that time. I'm like, this nigga on stage getting fucking jingy. Like, have you ever wouldn't actually watch this motherfucker?

No, totally. Putting up the leg. And he just, that nigga would be cutting the fuck up. And at that time, that was crazy. And I do that for like multiple genres because I'll go back and watch like, I've gone and watched like, oh, Marvin Gay and Aretha Franklin. Because you heard those songs five million times, but without the visual. Whereas now.

That movie made me go back and listen to them because I wasn't well versed on them. And I went back. I'm like, oh, who is Freddie Mercury? Who are these people? and I went back to the only. I'm like, oh, y'all made all this shit. I never knew y'all made this shit. That's dope to me to do that.

Songs that you heard a hundred times in your life. A million fucking times. Never know who the fuck. They're like, we were rocky. We all know that record because of growing up watching baseball, etc. You know the record. You didn't know it was this fool with a mustache and some aviator glasses and shit. Name queen, which he was.

Yeah. Like, he was openly to the queen. So it's like, I fucked with that. But like, there's Marvin Gay songs or Temptation songs, whatever that I heard five billion times in my life. But I never seen the, like, a visual. I never watched Marvin Gay perform one of these songs, even though I heard it a million times in my life, which is very different because a lot of people,

their biggest memory of Kamaya is going to be a Kamaya music video. More people are going to, that's going to stand out to them than a single project or whatever, which is kind of crazy. Like, in the modern age, people are so much more likely to have your music be directly tied to your image and your art that you're putting out there. I think the radio is going to die very soon.

Yeah. I feel like it's too many other ways to consume music, which is taken from that aspect of what you're saying. Like, do you see individuals first because nobody's actually in the car hearing the record first? But now with the radio, they've basically accepted that they're just appealing to the super tiny sliver

of the market, which is like the people who are driving to and from work and aren't savvy enough to like realize that if you want to listen to rap music, you'd probably be better off going on Spotify and listen to a playlist. Yeah. Definitely middle America for sure. Yeah. Like those country people who just don't even really have

fucking car radio jet and shit like that, Like that's who probably still listens to the radio. That's like the same reason why like Eminem will always like crush the album sales of the year chart or whatever. It's because he has the kind of fan base that will actually walk into the Walmart and buy your album. And that counts for way more than everybody else who streams it a few times. I feel like it's only two urban acts that can get that. Who actually have captivated their audience, which is Tiger and Travis. It's very, very hard to get Middle America.

And probably Uzi because he has the younger version of that audience. Interesting. Because it's like Middle America is very. very hard to get that audience. Especially being urban. When you get through motherfuckers, you ain't going to never not ever be able to sell the album or sell out of fucking show.

Right. That's just period. Interesting. Yeah, it's weird to see that like Travis Scott has somehow just become like the coolest young dude ever that all these kids just sort of gravitate towards. I fucking get it. At first, I didn't quite understand him until I went to the studio with him and I recorded with him.

And I remember he was like, do the hook, do the hook. And I couldn't catch him like, nigga, I can't do this shit. You can't be like, I don't know how to do this shit. I'm not feeling it. He went and he did it. And I'm watching him. I'm like, where the fuck this nigga gonna go with this shit? Then when he did it, I said,

nigga now I get you. I'm motherfucking get it now. I see why people fuck with you. You are a fucking genius. Really? He's very talented, extremely fucking talented. But this was like crazy early that you worked with him too. Yeah, it was like literally the first year in my career.

What year? 2016, I think. Uh-huh. Yeah. How'd you guys happen? That nigga summoned me. Really? I'm like,

I love that Kamai gets summoned. That's what I called it because I was like literally on set of a video and then my manager, he like ran upstairs. He's like, Travis Scott wants you to come in. come to the studio. And mind you, like, when my brother died in the beginning of my career, I'm not really realizing, like, how big all these moments were, you feel me? It's like, now I look back and be like, damn, you did all that, like, so quick, and it just didn't feel like it because I was going through the grieving process. But he's supposed to show something

in me. He was like, hey, pull up. And I remember getting there and being at Kanye studio in there, like, oh, you got to sign this and the paper had, like, what's your mom's address and all the type of crazy shit? I'm like, I'm not signing this shit. It was like a whole process. But then when I got in there, I swear it was so full of love and there's so much respect. Even if I see Travis's people now without him, we all still got that same type of bond. That's amazing. Okay, but when you talk about the grieving process,

was it like a very specific time period in your life? It was like a two, three years span that I feel like I didn't feel shit and even realize it, like literally. But you had lost people in your life prior to this. It just wasn't, it was. It's like imagine being with somebody every day of your life or every other day and they just die. But then your life is changing and you're just going up, up, up, up, up, up, up, up, up.

And you've got to deal with all. all this shit, but then you're dealing with this. So it was like, it was just like, oh no, I can't even describe it. When I actually finally sat with my emotions and realized what I was going through, I was like, damn, you got to let that shit out because it's like if you don't let it out, you're going to keep fucking up because I felt like I was fucking up. I wasn't really all the way there mentally. I was letting people get away with shit.

I would have never fucking let slide if I was in my right mind state. I was just completely gone. So I was like, once I got back down the earth and back to normal, the old me was back and motherfuckers was like, damn. They do, they saw it. It was like, fuck this bitch back. She's about to be on some shit. Do you think you made decisions that you regret ultimately in regards to like how you

treated your career and stuff because you weren't in the right state of mind? I don't regret anything, right? Because I feel like it was supposed to happen. I feel like God, for some reason with me specifically, I went through all the fuck shit you're supposed to go through in the industry, right? You're all I say, you're going to lose friends. You're going to lose family members. You're going to have people still from.

You're going to have friends. I went through every single thing before I got to a multi-million. their status. Like, I didn't went platinum. I didn't win gold. I didn't make millions of dollars. But I didn't get to that level where it's like I'm all over the media and middle America knows me. I'm on fucking Vanity Fair. I'm on Vogue. So it's like I feel like he wanted me to experience that. So the next go around, when he does bless me, whatever I'm supposed to be blessed with, I know how to fucking manage it. Secondly, maintain who I am. You know what I'm saying? Because it's like I was going through so much. I don't feel like I would have been able to maintain

that shit if he would have gave me that. And I feel like it was people around that God didn't want to be around when he gave me whatever he wants to give me. And I understand that. So it's like I take everything as a learning experience. I don't take nothing like personal. It's like shit, that's like I had to go through that. Right. No, totally.

I mean, yeah, like there are so many things that you have to go through in order to get even past that first part of your come up, you know, like in terms of just, you know, like we all know people who just get, who haven't been humbled yet. You see them on the rise and everything's going great for them and stuff. and you very much can kind of just see that they still have a lot to learn. You still have to get fucked in this business before you're going to understand what it is to actually be a person in this business. Because a lot of times people, they get really into playing the game of just sort of

like social climbing and work about all these different people and stuff. And the numbers just keep going up and it's hard for them to imagine when the shit starts to go down. And when the shit starts to go down, keeping it together is the worst. And not losing yourself in that process. process is that's like one of the best biggest challenges that you're going to end up facing. I feel like all the greats, the people who actually have longevity careers went through shit very simonic to mine. You got to go through some fucked up shit in the beginning to understand how to maintain

when you get the real big blessing. You know what I'm saying? When you look at your 50 cents, your MC Hammer's, your fucking ditties, everybody, the people who actually stayed at the top, they didn't actually win from their first situation. It was the bounce back because it's like, nigga, I got to make sure I maintain this this time or it ain't going to ever happen for me. So I feel like that's how I kind of look at it. It's like the people who actually maintain this shit

didn't blow up overnight. And I'll consider myself a very popular underground artist because I ain't never really been mainstream. But everybody kind of knows me. You know what I'm saying? It's like I ain't never had no real big hit record, but you know who the fuck I am. So it's like I'm still underground very much so.

I just had a lot of mainstream looks that make people be like, when's you're going to go? But were those looks something that you were going out courting and really trying to get? No, it happened to me naturally. So it's like it's not like I was vetting these opportunities, people just saw something from, and in me early on, that they felt like I'm going to be,

whatever it is I'm destined to be. And when I go back and watch your like super early videos, it's just like, wow, like, as somebody who wasn't completely tapped in extremely early on, there is such a level of charm to that early shit in particular, just because you could very much tell, like, when we're sitting here talking right now, it's like I can tell that you've been through a lot in the game

and really learned your way around it. and stuff. There was something like very, very pure about a lot of your early videos and stuff where you could tell like, this is really a girl from the hood that is really like talented and just doing it and she might not know exactly what she's doing, but she's like it was just so earnest and so

honest and it was just, I don't know, I can very much understand why there was such like a rush to support you and shit early on in your career. Then that's the thing about me. People think I don't know what I'm doing but I actually studied the game for so long that I'm extremely calculated. You just don't know what the fuck.

I believe you for sure. That's what we're the part where people would be thinking I'm like, nigga, I'm not one of them people with everything. You could ask her right here, she would tell you, from the fucking artwork

to the videos to me sitting there actually constructing the records, I have very hands on everything I do because the people I study was like this. So it's like nothing that I do

that's not like from the fucking way I'm wear my hair. Everything is fucking premeditated because that's what superstars do. Right. Well, that's kind of the irony of you getting caught up.

It's no more media training. What's that shit called artist development? There's no more of that. Right. So it's like, in the essence, I had to develop myself. I'm still developing myself, but it's like I get that process. Right.

Like right now, I feel like my state's performance can be better. I get that. So before the world opens back up, I want to manifest that and make sure that I make sure that that's the best thing I can do. Like, how do I fucking master being a better performer before we fucking open this world back up? Right. My titty's hell of big. Maybe I should get a reduction because I can't breathe like everybody else. I can't jump.

Like, it's like shit like that I think about because I'm like that. fucking matters. The booze make it hard to breathe. I didn't know that. Because it's like, if you look at my chest, my chest is very busty. A few videos I saw of you, I noticed that. Yeah, so I'm busty. So it's like if I got five to 10 pounds, that's just me guessing randomly, just hitting me against my chest as I'm running back and forth. How you think that's going to win me? But whose energy would you aspire to sort of have in terms of your performance? Because a lot of people suck. Like really amazing rappers, some of the greatest rap performance of all time in terms of like going on stage and performing, not really.

that impressive. It's like I want to have a fine line between performing and captivating the crowd. Like I don't want to always be up here doing renditions because this is hip hop. You I'm saying? So it doesn't have to be all dancing. Somebody who I look at a lot is Tupac's because I feel like he didn't actually fucking dancing shit all the time. But the way he performed, even Travis, he just gets your a fucking tension. Travis is one of the most phenomenal performers of this fucking generation. I fucking love watching Travis live because it's like this, this nigger was performing like this when it was only 10 people in the room. That's how much he loved performing.

But once you go on tour and you actually, like even from me going out and doing the little DJ thing, go out and like run back and forth and get everybody hyped up and stuff, you start to realize like there's a version of that, there's a version of your set that expends like all of your energy and completely, you just leave everything on the stage and you can do that or you can go out there and do like a very much more like middle of the road type of performance where maybe you'll still have some energy to be able to, like, you know, do stuff for the rest of the night. And, I mean, that's kind of the crazy thing when you see somebody who's mega successful. I remember watching Drake perform a stable center.

That was one of the things I was really taken back by is like, this motherfucker is an athlete. Because he was running back and forth performing the fuck out of those songs all night. And that is really amazing to me. That's like some real athlete shit. And, like, if you pay attention, the crowd feeds off your energy. That's another thing I learned watching Travis. If you literally sit there and watch, you'll see. When he goes to a certain point, they go to a fucking certain point.

And I'm talking about they go to fuck there to the point where people is carrying them to fuck out. So it's like it's just what you put on that stage is what you're going to get from the audience. Now, if you're getting booed, it's because you're probably not giving them something. They fucking are feeling. Very interesting. Does that hurt at all that you haven't been able to perform in so long? A little bit because I feel like we all need those human interactions. because it's like during this period of my life specifically,

I put out more music than I ever put out being on the label. Notice that, yeah. And it's like, I can't feel what the world is feeling because I'm not able to go on performing and see how y'all reacting to it. So it does affect me because it's like I like to see that. Like when I first drop got it made, when I got out the deal, I had a show in Oakland and I saw all right,

as soon as I came out, these motherfuckers is moving to this record. I don't even think y'all would know the words to this, but now I know y'all fuck with this. Right. Now I can't do that because it's like, damn. The whole world closed. Because sometimes you see artists who come out and they start playing big ass venues and stuff and you see how their music kind of changes relatively quickly because they realize that the

sort of low-fi slow shit doesn't necessarily do that well on stage. And that if you really like, if you're chasing that live reaction, then your music is going to go in a specific direction. I find that to be, it's like perspective. Because I've been to shows where artists aren't as turned up, but their crowd comes out and they are those type of people. Like, if you're making lax music, obviously your crowd's going to be more of a weed smoking crowd.

So the people who make certain type of music, a lot of their fans are like, you know, laxed people. You were never a weed smoker? I smoked like, the first time I smoked was when my brother, I was like 12, 11, and I smoked for a little while. Then we started making me paranoid, so I just went off it. Really? I always felt like my ancestors have a higher calling for me

because I can't fuck with no drug. Really? No. After a while, I just like, I started feeling like paranoid. And I'm like, they do that. So I don't keep going. Because they're like, if you keep going, bitch, you're choosing to be a tweaker at this point because you're scared.

So I feel like they do that to me because it's like this is not what you're meant to do like me. I don't even drink like that. Really? No, when I drink, if you catch me with anything, it's probably an angry orchard at this point of my life. An angry orchard. Bitch beer, that's what I call it.

Wow. I've never would have expected you to go craft beer on. I used to drink, Hennessy, all that shit. But I'm telling you, I feel like it's like a block in my mind to where I don't even think about it. But the songs about drinking, like on your earlier work, that's when you work. I was fucked up. Right.

Out of the butter, I was literally drinking fucking fifths. I was fucked. But then I realized why I was doing it. My brother died numbing the shit. Now, do you realize that? No, that's how I gained weight. I was small as fuck if you look back. But I was drinking and eating every day.

Drinking and eating every day. And I looked up, I gained 50 pounds. And I, like, kick back and thought about it. I assessed the situation. I'm like, yo, you're not an alcoholic, but you're on the cuss, bitch. Cut that shit out. Like anything, I'm like a real analyst when it comes to me. If it's something that I can fix him,

myself, I'm gonna sit there and write a checklist, check that shit off and fix it. Right. Because I don't want to be in my 30s trying to correct some shit I could have fixed in my 20s. Wow. I have a lot of respect for that. Thank you. That's a really good outlook. Yeah.

No, hell yeah. Like, I'm like, and it's so easy to do, but people care too much about what others think about them. You got to worry about what's best for you and your life and what's going to keep you here. I don't go to fuck if it's from you stopping the gang banging and changing friends to you eating better, whatever it is that's going to keep you on this earth as long as possible. Make those adjustments because a lot of things. because a lot of times people early demise

be the decisions we make. And it's like if I can fix something because at the end of day, I don't know when God going to call me home. But if I feel like it's something that could prolong that process, my nigger, I'm going to do that because it's like I'm not ready to be out the game yet. I got shit to do.

I was talking about my manager yesterday. I'm like, nigga, do y'all ever think I was talking to him on justice sitting over there? I was like, do you ever think about dying and shit? They're like, yeah, I'm like, nigga, I'd be hell of mad if I die right now. I got so much shit I want to do. And they said the same shit

because, you know, this year has been rough for a lot of people. We've lost lots of fucking people. Like, my grandmother just passed. So it was just like, on top of that, I lost hell of friends, just randomly dying. Right. Like, one of my friends died in a fucking freak accident. And she was pregnant.

Her son was in the car to, like, exploded and went viral. I'm seeing the video and didn't know it was about her until later that day. Oh, my God. Like, it was crazy shit like that happened this year. So it just made me think about life completely different because it's like, this shit ain't promised for nobody. Wow. No, that shit was crazy.

I'm like, Somebody was like, her son died. So I called to make sure she was okay because of the son. And when I called to figure that out, they're like, no, she died. Her girlfriend died. The dog died. The baby in her stomach died. Everybody died.

It was a video going around. You probably seen it. The car exploded. All type of shit. What the fuck. That's terrible. And I seen the shit. I was like, oh, my God.

Because it was like the other car like completely crushed her car. So it's like I was like sad for it. And I tell myself like you got like three days to be sad after that. You can't bring them back. That's how I started looking at the morning process, right? Celebrate the memories and don't feel the pain from missing them. Because you're going to always miss them, but they're just not in the flesh. They're still there.

But do you ever feel like you end up sort of like racing through the grieving process at this point? Because I just feel like I've seen so many people die through this line of work even over the past few years that sometimes I feel like my brain just aggressively sort of pushes the feeling of mourning down and like away because it's hard to like be productive and to like fight through. the fact that you're sad when you lose somebody, but sometimes I feel like that's really unhealthy. Like I have friends who passed that, you know, we mourned them and stuff,

but I don't feel like I necessarily did enough sometimes. Or like, given how important they were to me, you know? I celebrate my niggas. Really? Because I feel like it's a homegoing process, right? That's why they say that. That's what a funeral is, a homegoing process. So celebrate them for what they were on this earth

and keep them alive. Like, you know, in my house you come to house, I got ancestor tables. Like, I worship them because at the end of the day, those are the only people I know for sure that can make something happen from me from the other side. So I'm going to worship you just like I will worship you in the flesh. So I love the fuck out of them

and realize that it's nothing I can do to bring them back. So don't disappoint them by sitting around being depressed because at the end of the day, I feel like that hurts them more than you sitting around fucking getting up and doing something. You know what I'm saying? Because this is your bloodline. This is your lineage.

If you sit around crying all day, how is that conducive to fucking healing everybody? You're making it worse for everybody. If you're the one motherfuckers is rooting for You're sitting here drunk high crying That ain't gonna help the family be blessed So I'm like I'm not about to do that Like how is like how is you being sad as fucking

Unable to get out of bed for a week? Like how is that really honoring them Or making this situation better? Like I understand that that is how some people handle it And there have been people that died in my life Where I didn't want to leave the house for a few days or whatever But I think that is kind of like an American assumption That we that is not necessarily the same

In a lot of cultures where they don't necessarily treat death as something where you need to be sitting on. They celebrate the fuck out the dead. Right. Every, from Africa to Haiti, you go to motherfucking. And what's that shit called? Mexico, Puerto Rico. They celebrate the dead.

Right. They got Diaz, Delamotes, all that shit. They celebrate the dead. It's only in America where we will get depressed and damn near borderline kill ourselves because someone passed away. And when I start realizing that, I was like, I'm not about to keep doing that shit. Like, you know, when I watch Coco, I feel like everybody should watch Coco. That's a woke-ass shit.

Really? It breaks down the whole process. the Ville, what happens on fucking Halloween and how to celebrate the dead. Wow. It's like a woke-ass cartoon. I got to watch that. Go watch that shit. Yeah, definitely.

No, that's just like, it's a weird thing to think that, like, you have to. When you think about what a funeral is like in America versus, like, the types of cultures that you're talking about. When you go to Louisiana, it was called the Frontline, First Line, they fucking have the marching bands. They walk down the street, they dance, and they send them home in style. Like, they're not grieving. And I feel like that's when I start to realize like, all right, death should be looked at differently when I actually like assess different variations

of how people celebrate fucking death. I'm like, we'd be on some other tricky shit. But then when you look at it, it's like most people are doing things to celebrate the dead and don't even realize. Like, you ever notice when somebody dies, the first thing we do, we have the candlelight and you got the candles all lit in the bottle.

Most people pour out our leave drinks and candles for their ancestors if you go to the other cultures. But we're doing it instinctively because it's in our lineage in our DNA, but we don't know why we're doing it. Like, in the hood, I start thinking about that, like, damn, we'd be, like, pour out some drink for the damn home.

Do you not realize what you're really doing? Yeah. Like, when I start actually, like, educating myself on certain things, I'm like, damn, we'd be doing shit just naturally based on just being in your genetics. Right. And don't even realize that's the reason you doing that shit. That's crazy. It's deep.

Do you ever have people tell you that you're a little bit of old soul? Hell, fuck, yeah. I was really surprised to realize you were only 10 years younger than me. Yeah, I'm young as fuck. People would be thinking I'm old. I always get that. Especially because my hair. everything. I'm like, naga, I'm 27, 28 years old. Y'all think I'm in my 30th or type of shit.

I'm so young. It's just that I grew up with older people. And like I said, I feel like my assisters touched on me young. So it just made me have a different type of level of insight. You're not used to meeting somebody who's as young as you that seems to like know themselves so well and have that sort of confidence and stuff. Like we have, we assume that like a large percentage of young women are going to be kind of insecure. You got always remember two, I'm from Oakland. So Oakland women are a little bit different. Don't forget, our language is just based on the Panthers itself just gives us a. different type of form of education.

Really? Of your own self. But what was your knowledge of that as a child? My uncle was woke as fuck. I used to hate going to his house, but now I respect what he did for me. I'm talking about incense in the morning, Coupion, praying every fucking two, three hours type, nigga.

Really? Yes, my uncle was different. I couldn't listen to certain shit. Like, I'm talking about he wake up, you only hear Erica Badoo. You only can't watch Black Panther. You can only watch like such shit. So it's like he taught me

essence of things that I didn't understand at that age until I became a young lady. Wow. I'm like, oh, nigga, you was making me game-up early on. That's why I'm right here, Woody, because you was on my ass because he used to be like, you can't wear this. You can't talk like that. Young lady sit like this. So it just instinctively made me have certain characteristics early on.

That's interesting. But you got that from him, but that wasn't necessarily the education you were getting from your parents. My parents, no disrespect to my parents, I don't feel like neither one of them taught me anything of what I am today. Really? No, my father's been in and out of my life on drugs, all the shit, my whole life. And my mom, I lived with her to a certain degree to a certain age. Then I was in foster care. Then my grandmother raised me.

Then I got back with her. And I was like 15, 16. By that age, right, I'm already setting my ways of who I'm going to develop to become. So it's like, that's why I feel like we bumped heads at a lot until I became successful. Because she kicked me out because it's like the vision of what she wanted for my life is not what I wanted for my life. And you can't make me be something when you weren't here to mold me to be who I am. So it's like, we always had odds on that degree. It's like I'm not about to be on that type of time

That's a huge thing for me But I respect my mother She knows that that's why I said With all respect before I made that statement If you have a kid and they're different Like I was different as a kid Like I was like an artist I was really into painting

And drawing and writing and stuff But I couldn't I couldn't fit in in school and stuff And then like my parents didn't understand that They don't understand that Right I tell my cousins now right Because I'm very like I told you earlier I'm very family oriented

So I spend most of my time on FaceTime With like six of my cousins We don't group FaceTime They all have kids So sometimes I see certain characteristics and certain kids. I would like, hey, put them in gymnastics, put them in this type of schooling because I don't know what side of the brain is left and right

and what characteristics it develops, but I know one side makes you more artistic and one side makes you more like literal. And I'm like, they need to open schools based upon that. Like take the assessment test and see, is this child a left-brained child or a right-brain child? And then put them in rooms that manifest that. You know what I'm saying?

Develop that because they don't do that. They just throw you in the classroom and they be like, ah, you ain't sent still. you got ADHD, you got this, you got that. Let's put them on drugs. Yeah, like, no, they just learn differently. Did you, like, do you ever think about what would have been different if you had been, like, exposed to learning instruments at a young age and stuff?

I'd be fucking with it right now. I'd be on some her shit, some Alicia Key shit. Because it's like, I know. It could only help, like, make your musical journey better if you did have that knowledge, right? That should be crazy because I can make beats, right? Or start the beat for the producer, because a lot of times people don't know, I start beats for my producers, but I can't all the way through. You don't want to do every last detail.

Yeah, so if I could fuck with it on the keys, I'd be out here doing some shit, but I can't fuck with it like that. Right. I want to teach myself, though, because I felt like I was just in a group on clubhouse. I've been in and a clubhouse. Oh, so you're on the clubhouse wave, okay. Yes, not really. I pop in and out because I don't like.

What kind of rooms are you in? The Oakland room? The intellect rooms. Like, I click in. I used to be on there, you know, talk to 21, certain people. But then I started realizing, like, I don't like how sexualizes becoming. Everything's about, oh, who you fuck with, who that? Nah.

So I pop in if somebody talking about something That's actually gonna educate me Right And then I remember in one room that's talking about like I'm left-handed which automatically lets you know Like you are intellect if you're working with this hand They like force yourself to write with the right hand And it's gonna unlock the other part of your brain

So it's like now I'm gonna try to develop that Because I'm like I want to know some truth to that That's interesting. I don't know it makes you Open up something different to you Because you're forcing the other side of your body to be unlocked Right I'm like shit let me figure that shit out then shit in it And sit down everyone get fuck about writing the A B, C, D

whatever. I'm just keep trying to do it. So the clubhouse rooms that you were in were too thoughty for your taste? I don't like that. Really? No, because I'm not that type of time. I'm more of a like, I respect myself. I respect my temple. If I'm dating somebody on monogamist, I'm not into the flirty, sexualized, extrad out of that shit

that people are like trying to like perpetuate women these days. I'm like, if that's a woman's narrative, that's her stance. But a lot of times I feel like that is just a form of them wanting attention, you know what I'm saying? To some degree or some facet in your life, you're not getting the attention you want. But you know, do this, it's going to get you a certain level of attention.

I'm not into that. Right. I know who I am. I'm very aware, so it's like I don't want to be on that type of time. Yeah, I was having a conversation with somebody about you this morning. I was like, come I have more than any other female artists I can really think of. It just doesn't seem like she's ever really used her sexuality or like sexualized herself as a way to get ahead. And was that something that was always obvious to you and your career? I have all brothers. I couldn't be a whole before this.

Right. Yeah, beat my ass. Like, it's just me real. I remember I told my brother when I was like 13, E40, he had a song called, uh, did she go sliding down the pole and I said, I'm going to be a stripper. My brother said, bitch, I go in there and start shooting.

Pop, pop, pop, pop, pop, get that bitch off the stage. From that moment on, I never even played them type of games. I had one boyfriend that is what it is. I'm not playing around. When I started dating women, it's one woman, whatever. Never been the type to just juggle and just be a, I don't do that. I don't even want to play with nobody else feelings. I want that on my conscience.

Just because your brother said he would shoot up a strip club. My brothers are very, very, like, important to me. I never wanted to disappoint them. I always idolize them growing up. So it's like, why would you want to do something that would make them feel some type of way as a man? I don't even want to put my... And another part was I didn't want to put my brothers

in a compromises position to shorten their lives because something dumb I fucking did. Like, I'm out here fucking with different niggas or a certain type of caliber of niggas. And now you're in harm's way because you're trying to defend me when really I'm in the fucking wrong for even doing something.

And he's mad about it, but you're just like, I'm your sister. So you're trying to, you know, I never wanted to do that with my brothers. Like, I'm not doing that. That's interesting. Hell no. How do your brothers feel about your success and where you've made it to and shit? My niggas love me.

Oh, I bet. The niggas love me. Right. But what is it like? How much do you talk to him? What are the conversations like? We don't talk every day. One of my brothers is in the military.

You know, he's already crazy. He's in the military. So one's in the military, major pain. That's what got that nigga. He's in the other. And the other one, he just lives life. But we don't talk all the time. But, you know, we love you.

We love each other. Right. You know, that is what it is. When we were talking about your earlier, too, we were saying it's like, you know, it's kind of crazy that Kamai didn't become like a Bay Area slash Sack gangster rapper writing disc tracks about motherfuckers and like have that be your bread and butter. You know that's like a subgenre of like Bay hip hop is like motherfuckers basically banging on each other on tracks getting millions of views doing that.

I'm not that type person though. I don't care about Cloud. If you won't pay attention, that one give me the man. That shit ain't going to give me no good karma. I don't believe in that shit. I think you'd be really good at it, though. I know for a fact because people don't understand that I've been writing music since I was 8, 9 years old. I can rap.

You ever write a disc track? Yes, but have you ever heard it? No. Right. I'm an artist. I feel like I can really rap, but I feel like what's important is making a great song. So I'm a phenomenal songwriter. Really?

That rap shit doesn't fucking matter. Who put you onto the songwriting hustle or like the idea of prizing yourself as that? I taught myself. When I saw a bow I rap and I wanted to do it, so I sat at a table and forced myself. to read the dictionary to learn word. That's if you can tell, my vocabulary is hella extensive. I read the dictionary and learned hella words and just sat there and figured out how to make shit wrong at the age of eight, nine years old.

So now my game is fucking impeccable. Like my literacy, et cetera, is just out of here, out of his world. Did you go to college or you finished high school? No. No. I dropped down because I felt like I didn't need it. I was already smartening to my teachers. I said hate that shit.

Like, you're trying to teach me about some shit I know more than you about, even when I went to college because, you know, in the bay or, you're, you know, in the bay or However, if you drop out of high school and you don't have a diploma, you have to take an interest exam to get in college, right, to get the FASPA, the financial aid. I took the interest exam and passed, so I got in college that way, because I dropped out of high school. All my friends was going to college.

So I was like, damn, I want to go. They got in because they got the diplomas. I had to take the interest exam. So I got in on that form. I went for a while, and I just realized, like, I love music more. And I'm like, if music didn't work out, I can always go back to school, right? Because I'm an intellect, I'm a scholar.

So I'm like, my plan B was to be a student. psychologist. I'm like, all I'm gonna go figure this out. If you don't work, I'm gonna go back and be a psychologist. The shit fucking works. It was like, nigga, you know what you're doing. Like, you don't gotta go to school. That's interesting. Psychologists, what? You, do you feel like you would be very good at helping people in that regard? Because I was in foster care. I always wanted to be like a social worker or a psychologist. And people call me all day, talk about their fucking problems anyway. So what's the difference? Really? Yeah, you got to think about it. If you talk to the homies and she's complaining about her man or your friend, that's a guy, he's complaining about what he's at in life.

He wants to better himself. That's the same thing as being a psychologist. That's the same thing as being a psychology, you're just sitting on the couch getting paid for it. Right. Maybe I don't feel that I'm a good listener because I would be so shocked if one of my friends hit me up complaining about their girl, like hit me on FaceTime to talk about problems with their girl. It happens once in a while, but I just, I feel

like they seem to understand that about me that maybe I'm not the best sounding board for this topic. I feel like, man, you guys don't express your emotions. The culture doesn't promote men being emotional. And I feel like that's why you guys have the hardest time in life and the most drug addictions because you're trying to

numb some shit that you can't even express. Yeah, it might be some truth to that. That's a hell of truth to that. Men numb the fuck out their emotions. Right. Especially men who go through a lot of trauma. The first thing they do is start smoking weed and they feel like it's not an addiction. You're smoking every day talking about I can't function without smoking, but you don't

feel like it's an addiction. You're addicted to that because it's something that's bothering you that if you don't smoke, you're going to think about it. A lot of people say, I smoke so I don't think about such and such. That's a problem. Figure out why you don't want to think about such and such. I would hear somebody say that and I'll be like, that's not why I smoke weed, but that also sounds like not a very good reason for smoking weed.

Like if you have trauma on the horizon, you definitely want to deal with that shit before it builds up into something that consumes you. Yeah, a lot of people are like that. You got to give everybody their own time to develop and grow. You know, we're all on our own journeys. Yeah. No, that's definitely true. I mean, there's just so many people in hip-hop or people I talk to on hearing stuff

who have been through so much trauma, but the language that they've been born with doesn't really allow them to process, like, seeing 10 of your friends die through high school. school. Like it doesn't really, they don't process it the same way, whereas you'll hear somebody else, like sometimes, I was listening to a fucking interview God, I can't remember who it was, but it was some like white woman in her 30s. And she was talking

about her friend dying when she was 16, and the way she was talking about it was actually probably the appropriate response that you should have to your friend dying when you're 16 and it made me realize, listening to her that I'm so numb to that because I know so many people that die when

they're in their teens or in their early 20s that it's kind of become normalized to me. And a lot of people I interview, it's 10 times worse. Like, AD was saying that the other day. I'm like, bro, you know how many people I've seen die from this? He's like, I'm from Compton. He's like, by the time I graduated high school, I had like a dozen friends I knew who had been shot and killed. I knew more.

Yeah. Like, way more than that by the time I was fucking 18. Right. It was one point in my life where every week I was going to a funeral. And my mom and my friends was like, you need to focus on music and stay your ass out of there. I remember I snuck to a funeral. It was like a girl I went to middle school with it. And she was like, my auntie, basically my auntie's neighbor, like the little girl that grew up next to my auntie, that was her best friend.

And then we all ended up going to middle school together. And she got killed in like a drive-by with her cousin. So it was like a double funeral. I'm on the news. I didn't even know I was on the news. I'm giving the speech about, you know, how we need to, you know, support each other. And we ain't making it. So we need to focus on whatever it is we want to do and better ourselves because we ain't survive.

We like, 15. I get home, the shit's on the news. My mom said, didn't I tell you not to go to the funeral? I was like, fuck, I was not supposed to be there. but I had this fucking prolific-ass speech. They put the shit on the nose. Wow. I was hell of mad.

A lot of kids would be terrified if they were told that they had to speak at a funeral. They didn't even tell me to. They was like, anybody want to speak and I just spoke? I'm like, yo, look around. Like, you see, like, all y'all, we went to school together. Like, we ain't surviving. Like, that's a problem. Right.

That's all it was. How does your brain process that? Like, what needs to change in order for less people to get killed these young ages? Or do you even think that there's something that realistically could be done to combat this? For me, I was more strategic about how I was moving because, my arm, I'll show you my arm. So this, Neney's world, she died very similar to her.

She was in a car with somebody else, and she died like that. So that was one thing to me, even to this day, I don't know if you're a multi-billionaire rapper, right? If I know you got something going on, I'm not getting in your fucking car. Because if I know your car,

the people who probably don't like you so much probably know your car. I dated, I had a boyfriend. He had a fucking 745 on 26-lan's rooms. I did not want to get in his car because I learned early on like people die this way. It's just being in the car with the wrong people.

So I started assessing life and going to places in different manners. Like if I'm not supposed to be here because certain things keep happening there, don't go there. Like, don't put yourself in certain situations so you could survive. Yeah, I mean, I very much like grew up not that scared of dying. Like, I feel like it took a while for that to sort of set in in my head that like, no, you need to like avoid dangerous situations. Like all these rappers dudes are always like, oh, I can't believe you came to the hood and did this video or whatever. I'm like, that just doesn't seem like the chance of somebody

pulling up and shooting us right now is very high. It's so fucking high. Right. Well, yeah, maybe. But, I mean, I'm assuming that you guys are looking out for me, right? Like, I just assume that nothing's going to go wrong. I just have kind of like this overly. Natives be trying to look hard for y'all.

Some people be trying to look hard for y'all take you out of the hood. And there's a lot of shit going on. You don't even know about. Yeah, it's definitely probably been the case before that they're painting a nicer picture for me of how it is. That's all I only play them type of games. I'm like, when I met it to 20 and I like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm alive. I was like, damn, I could live.

because I kept seeing so many people died before 20, I didn't even know if I was going to make it to 19. So when I made it to 20, I was like, damn, you could live. You can literally survive. So it was like, I had a different perspective on life after that. And that's why I got my second win and start taking life more seriously and focusing on music and shit.

You were just telling me that you live in the general Southern California area. I won't go to specifics. Northern. Southern California now. Right now I live, yeah. But when did you decide to get up out of there and was self-preservation part of that idea that you just felt like if you stayed up there, that eventually you'd just get wrapped up

in some bad shit? I just feel like artistically before Empire was created it wasn't really any great places to go to do music. It didn't exist. Right. So I felt like for me to have a fighting chance to actually maintain

my status as an individual in the music industry, I had to move out of there for sure. And at the time being, my label was central here, so that's why I moved here. Right. Yeah. I could have stayed there, right? Because I got a profitable bag when I signed my deal. But it was like, I don't think I want to stay here.

Right. I want to change my whole life. And then my brother was dying. So it was like, I'm definitely not going to be here. It just felt weird after that because it's like that was like our end all be all. Every day at the end of the day, we're there. So it's like, once that happened. Do you agree with the idea that like the Bay Area?

I mean, like clearly it's true to a certain extent. But in the Bay Area, like there tends to be a lot of popular artists and they become really popular in that area. But then they have a hard time sort of appealing to a broader fan base. Do you agree with that? Do you think that's changing? Do you feel you suffer from that at all? I don't feel like I suffered that from that at all, right?

I'm the only female hip-hop artist. You don't sound that regional. To get a record with Drake, right? Let's be real here. Pop my own shit. So I don't think... That is true? Yeah, very true.

So it's like I don't feel like I've ever suffered... That's strange. Suffered from people not appealing to my music. I just feel like I was in a very, very bad situation for years. And I'm just now... It hasn't even barely been a year yet that I put out music. So it's like, I feel like people just have to get used to seeing me consistently. Because if you read all my...

you see people say great things right they say like she's the best female rapper she's this i feel like she's great i feel like she should be here people understand that it's not like it's not conceptualized i just feel like it has to actually develop to the point where it's like the whole world knows like y'all can't fuck with her right no definitely i mean one thing that guys consistently say and i wonder if you're ever cognizant of this is this cross your mind is that like guys will be like yo like such and such girl is like hard-ass rapper but then like they just won't really like drive around they'll be like oh she's dope but i can't drive around listening to her she's talking about popping her pussy and all this shit i'm gonna tell you that now like if you look at 90% of the videos i post on my story is not

women and i learned that early on i remember my friend his name he a rapper uh back in the bay named d and i mike one of my first big records in the bay he was like your voice different he's like i didn't know if you was a girl or boy but your voice is hella clean. He was like, it make niggas not feel weird about listening to you. And then I met with Maraicari Carey, because I was kind of insecure when I first came out with Good Night and Get-O, right? Because all the reviews and shit, people

was like, I love her music, but she sounds like different. Like her voice sound like a dude, or she sounds like this. And Maraicari told me, she was like, it's something about your voice that makes people want to listen. Don't change that. Mind you, she didn't know I was battling with this issue. But when she said that, I'm like, bitch, you are one of the greatest vocalist of all time. For you to tell

me that my voice is great, I'm not changing. How did you end up in the same? as her talking about such things. YG had a song with her. Oh, okay. And I was like, she don't know this. She probably still didn't know this to this day, because I never told her.

Mariah Carey was the first video I ever saw in my life to always be my baby. So from that moment on, I loved her. Still to this day, dearly, I kicked somebody ass on Mara Carey. She didn't know that. I'm just over there just kicking it, but the whole time it's like, you're my nigga.

Didn't you say you started rapping because you saw Eminem rap and you were like, I could do this? No, it's bow wow. Oh, bow. That's what started it. But my first, actual experience that I vividly remember when I was like three, four.

I remember her being on that swing with that hair, curly hair. Like, I can remember it like it was yesterday. I was laying on the carpet. I remember the pink carpet, how my arm had the, you know, you lay on something, the dent sitting in it. I remember how it smelled. That's how much I love music. Like, I remember seeing that video, like everything about that moment.

And I loved her forever since then. What was her energy like in real life? Was she very much what you expected? Shoot, I promise you, she made me. love music even more because it's like you were everything I thought you should have been when I met you. You know, some people would be like, oh, you meet this person, a bitch, heard of that? She was the furthest thing from that.

She was so sweet. That's amazing. Fucking, what? Just because she so doesn't have to be cool. She could do whatever the fuck she wants. She was so amazing. That shit made me so happy. She don't know how much she inspired me just from meeting her.

That's a beautiful thing. Just being in her house because I felt like my little apartment was like everything because I just moved from Oakland to this nice apartment. Then I go over here. It's like, bitch, you're poor. Yeah. Her backyard got her backyard. Like you got, it's levels together.

You get in the music business and you start to realize like, oh, shit, there's levels to this. There's levels of like, and then you understand why Kanye and Drake were beefing over who had the better pool. Exactly. Exactly. And that's how I felt in her backyard, literally. It was like, bitch, you got a cliff on the end of your fucking pool.

There's some different shit. When I first, I remember when that happening and like kind of not understanding, like, they're really beefing over that. And then when you start to understand, they're like, no, they like live down the street from each other. So whoever has the bigger pool, it's like a pretty obvious thing. And that nigga, too. It's just like a status quo lifestyle symbol.

I wonder how the pool wars are going now because they said that Kanye was building a very, very large pool, potentially bigger than Drake's pool, like in response to that whole thing, which is kind of hard to imagine. I can imagine it. That nigga would go for it. He'd go for Brokford to prove, you know, the Dick War. How tuned in are you to watching what's going on in hip-hop? Like, are you very much like paying attention to a lot of the-

I feel like everybody, if they say they don't know what's going on, And it's like cap right because it's like we're all on our phones to extend every day. Right. And the things that are the issues you're going to see the most because everybody's picking it up. So yeah, I'll be knowing what's going on. I feel like I would expect you to have some level of distance from knowing about every little thing going on hip-hop just because you seem like stylistically, musically, etc. You seem like you're just very much in your own world. I do be in my own world.

That's why I'm being in no shit. But I do know the shit that is going on. Right. Like I see everything. Yeah. Did you watch the two short E-40 battle? Yeah, absolutely. I was in here the whole time.

How was that? It was like watching my uncles. Two drunk uncles having fucking fun at a cookout or something. I didn't even see any yet. I got to admit. But how did you expect it to go and how did it go? It went exactly how the fuck I expected to go with them too, niggas. Really?

Yeah, I got a hell of respect for both of them. Right. Who would you say one? Both. Were you thinking of it like that? I would never go against one or the other because it's like the respect is there. And I'm known short for a certain amount of time. E40 has always been nothing but kind to me.

So I would never want to say something and get it. got out of context. I respect the fuck out of it. Oh yeah, that would be a good headline, you're right. Right, Kamaya says too short, whooped E40's ass. Nah, I feel like they both set the blueprint for how I navigate my music career. That's dope. Yeah, because it's like my dad grew up playing E40 and too short, so it's like a level of a game I have in me from what the fuck they were saying in their music and just the way they hustled their music, right? They kept all their fucking masters, et cetera.

I did the same. A lot of people don't know that. I owned my first project, even though I was on the label. And then now I'm indie, so now I own everything. So that's very important to you. Hell of important. What? How to fuck?

My kids going to eat 10, 15 years from now if I don't own my shit that I put out. I mean, the irony of you being caught up in legal label limbo, which is very great alliteration that I just delivered, but being caught up in that limbo for all those years is that it just feels like you're the kind of like artists that, like the last kind of artist that should have ended up in that situation. I was being loyal, though, to the person I was signed to. That's all it was. It was me just trying to be loyal, like trying to build something into fruition for their brand.

That's what I said. When I woke up out that slumber, it's like, no, you need to be selfish and stop being selfless for other people. I was sacrificing myself for the benefit of others. And it's like, be selfish with your time. Be selfish with your career. But what did he want you to be that you weren't capable of being? To hell if I'm fucking, no, I still don't know to this day. But that's not up for me to decide.

What was up to me to decide was, this is my career. I'm only going to be able to do this once. You're going to age out this shit eventually. We all do. So while the getting is good, go get it. The fuck. When you put all that shit on Front Street in the Vlad interview, did anybody reach out? Was there any conversation after that?

It still hasn't been any conversation, but I don't expect it to be. You know what I'm saying? It's just like people are who they are and today mature. They're going to be who they are. And I'm not taking it personal. You know, it's all. I want everybody to prosper. Is that a challenge at all, though?

I feel like there's probably. I feel like... There's got to have been anger at some point, right? No, it's pain. It's hurt because I feel like I consider you family and for you not to even look at me in a certain like how I looked at you and I sacrificed so much. many years and hours of time to develop something for you and not even be, you know, respected enough for a conversation after the fact.

Right. You know, it is, but it is what it is. You live and you learn. Would you be receptive to that conversation at this point, or is it? I will only speak to other people if they reach out to me because I'm not going out my way because I've done nothing wrong. Right. Yeah.

Definitely. Is there anything you're missing right now in the COVID thing? I was going to say this like a long time ago in this conversation, but I was watching a video of a dude going to Ghana for the first. first time and like just showing like what it was like being there and stuff and I've actually felt for the first time in a long time wow it would be so cool to get on a plane and go somewhere well I it's been a while I probably shouldn't say this on camera because I probably shouldn't be in there I'd have been a hell of places door closed it I don't want to Haiti all type of shit

door COVID with a Haiti yeah I went to fucking Haiti yeah time my fucking life I was at you quarantine or anything no I was having fun and hell of shit I was at fucking festivals and all type of shit fireworks going off niggas fucking eating fire just all type of shit right But what's your perspective on COVID though? Or you just feel like fuck it I'm young, I'm healthy, I'm just going to go for it I'm not going to go see my grandma after. I don't really care about it.

I mean, I just feel like, you know, I'm a conspiracy theorist. I don't trust the government. So it's like I'm going to live my life. If I'm meant to die, God just calling me to the upper room. I just got to go up there. It's my time in that appointment. So shit.

That's like not considered like a healthier safe attitude. Like even like people in my family, I've said. I take the precautions. You know, I wear my mask, sanitize my hands, etc. but I'm not going to stop living my life because this person says you got to sit in the house. I'm not going to accomplish nothing sitting in the house.

I'm going to be depressed sitting in the house. I've got people be very upset with me for basically saying that same thing. If I'm going to die, I'm going to die. And they're just like, oh, like you can. That's the most selfish perspective in the world because I guess I get it. Like, okay, if you are reckless, then you can potentially get other people sick who are not, their immune system is not as good as yours. They're not as young as you, whatever.

But I mean, I've been saying that kind of shit my whole life. If I die, I die, it is what it is. Take the safety precautions. I'll tell anybody that, but don't stop living your life because I feel like that's the problem with COVID and that's why suicide rates are the highest they've ever been. Because as humans, we all vibrate.

Naturally, your body has vibrations. That's why when you kick it with somebody, you say you're vibing, right? If I can't go kick it with somebody and have that energy, which creates the synergy of us all being together, then it's creating a depression because I'm in the house by myself all day. So I feel like that's why kids, like I feel so bad for them.

Like I see my little cousins and she and it's like, I don't want to be on this computer. I see my little other boy cousin. My nieces, they don't want to be on a computer because they're supposed to interact with other kids at that age. They're not supposed to just be sitting in the house on a fucking computer. Because that would have been my advice to any kid or like any parents raising kids. Like, don't have the kids sitting on the fucking computer or watching TV all day.

They need to be out running around being with other kids. Now they're forced to not be children. I feel like the suicide rates are going to be higher than they ever been for whatever. I don't know if it's millennial ex what the fuck they are. I feel like it's going to go up because right now when they do become of age, They're going to have all these issues because they have social issues now. Right. Because they're going to, who's the same when they're going to be able to go back outside?

Yeah. So that's going to fuck with them because they're not growing in certain aspects. Because I feel like school is supposed to teach you like social skills, right? It teaches you how to interact with certain people from different demographics that you would interact with normally on your day-to-day life. That's the thing I didn't understand about school that I wish I understood at that time is that this is one of the only times in your life in which you and every other kid, your age in your town or your city or whatever. are all going to be put together. And a lot of these people, you're just not going to run into in your life after this. Like the fucking rich girls on the other side of town, you're just not going to be in the same

environment as them after school. And that's kind of the beauty of it. And I mean, part of it is, like, that's the horrible part of it is that, you know, you could get bullied by some kid that has nothing to do with you. It teaches social skills to so many different facets because it's people, if I didn't go to school, right, because I went to school in Oakland and I went to school in Hayward. And Hayward, obviously, it's more in multi-class. culture, right? So I wouldn't know how to interact with the nerd Asian in the corner if I didn't

go to, you know that's working for fucking Google. If I didn't go to school, what a motherfucker that was similar to you, you feel me? I can interact with anybody because I went to the certain school and I'm going to naturally fuck with everybody. Even though I'm like coming from the hood, I'm urban, I'm very personable. So it's like anybody from the nerds to the squares to the players. I was bouncing the fuck around fucking with everybody. And it taught me to respect everybody's different lifestyle, whether you're poor, rich, whatever, we all fucking human. If you're a good person, that's all that fucking matters. At the core, are you a good person?

You have morals, values, respect, love, integrity, that type of shit. That's all I give a fuck about, even in the entertainment industry. What is your actual moral code? Where's your integrity? What are you willing to die and live for? That's what's going to tell me if you're a good motherfucker or if I need to stay away from you. I got to fuck how many records you say on that shit don't mean nothing. Who do you actually spend your time with in your personal life?

Family. But your family lives around you at this time? No, I can fly to them, no. 30, 45 minute flight. I got cousins in Arizona. I got cousins in Dallas. Some of my family's still in the base. So it's like if I want to have that time, that went on time,

I go fuck with my real people and my best friends. They moved down here. So it's like I could drive their house. They live in an I. I just drive to their house if I want to, you know, because at the end of the day when you're artists, right, you uproot yourself and move away from everybody. But the people that are still near and dear to me,

they are here. So I can, you know, kick it with them. Right. Other than that, like, I'll just be to the neck. I'd be in the house drinking tea on some player shit. Reading. Yeah, I read. What do you read a lot?

whatever fuck catches my attention really yeah favorite genres or types of books anything particularly it don't really matter because I might read a life book today science fiction tomorrow or some fucking ghetto ass urban fiction it just depends on what the fuck I'm into at the point wow if it catches my attention I'm gonna read it

you walking around town though do you attract a lot of attention you got a lot of people who know you are and like is a thing I'm not in a rapper road I'm in the body and a hood on mask on you don't fucking see me I'm just in and out so quick it's blur I don't care about this stuffy stuff That's like you take your superhero costume off. Yeah, like, I'm telling you right now, when I go home, I'm going to be a makeup

on. I'm going to have my fucking bra off through all that shit, big t-shirt panties. That's it. Right. Are you in a relationship? No, not right now currently. Really? Yeah.

Are you okay with that? How is it being single? I feel like I need to be single. I was in a relationship for a while, and I don't feel like it ended on bad terms. I just feel like that person needed to grow and learn themselves and mature in certain ways. And my people feel like I need to focus more on this. Really? You know?

what's your team like there's two ladies with you right now but is that the majority of like who's helping you make these decisions? That's my makeup artist that's my A&R slash part time management sometimes I got another manager name Jessica

Brandon used to be management now he's more of my partner because obviously I'm indie so we started the label side and then I got you know my friends I feel like that's what keep you ground there you always got to keep people around you from your day to day life

before this so you don't become a dickhead right because who's going to tell you you're being a fucking bitch who's going to tell you being a hater, who's going to tell you you shouldn't have did that if you don't got somebody. So I keep certain people around me that I've known my whole life so that I can stay humble. Right.

And modest. But some of those people that you tried to elevate with you that it didn't work out, right? Like some people. I feel like you outgrow people. Yeah. And I respect everybody. When I see them is no different. You wouldn't even know that we don't talk every day.

But my lifestyle's different, right? I have to be around people who are more in the likeness of the business I'm doing. I don't want to hang with somebody who shooting dice all day. Right. What do we have in common? Yeah, what do you have in common after a while? That's how I don't get when people would be like, I'm keeping the real going back to the hood.

What are you having common with them at this one? You're just trying to prove you're from there. My niggas from my hood, I don't talk to me every day. But if I'm in Oakland and be like, bitch tell us when you hear so we can protect you. That's what they're supposed to do. But do you see value in pulling up to like the hood or like? Yeah, I go to my hood all the time.

She'll tell you I'll be in the hood. I'll be in the house kicking, cooking, barbecue and house party. I just don't fucking flex that type of shit. Because I'm really from there. Like, you know, I feel like when people are all. overly trying to prove something. It's like,

if you're trying to prove it to us or yourself. But do you feel like the label, is that part of what they wanted from you? Label's going to make nobody do shit. But did they want you to be mega-gangster? No. No, okay. That person, probably.

I don't fucking, like I said, I don't know. Because it's like, I have nothing to prove, right? I've been to jail in the airport for not taking off my bond. It don't get more gangster than that. I went to jail because my gun accidentally went off in the theater in my building. It don't get no more against it.

It's obviously facets to me that are gangster. Right. But I don't glorify those aspects because I'm not out here trying to be Miss Gangsta Supreme. I'm just coming from a situation where I'm, you know, I had to defend myself in urban communities, obviously, and I'm going to always take those safety precautions. But I'm not out here like disrespecting the motherfucker at any given time trying to whip some ass just to prove that I can do that. Who's on that for real when you're grown? Let me ask you a simple question. I'm a fucking business.

I'm a brand. Should more women carry guns? Yes. I think any woman should want to protect herself. Adam, if we weren't here right now and you caught me in the alley and you wanted to knock my ass out and rape me, how could I physically protect myself? Right. That's the whole reason why I think this is an important conversation to have. Like we seem to understand that men, it's like a very rational, reasonable decision for guys, at least in Los Angeles to carry a gun.

You don't see any sort of like normalization of women doing the same thing, even though that's probably the number one thing that a woman could. do to to level the dynamic of... What the fuck is some pep... Like, if a motherfucker really wants you some pepper that's what they tell girls, right?

Oh, get you some pepper spray. Get a teasing. It's motherfuckers out here right now. High awesome shit. I can shoot you with a bullet that probably still want to stop you from getting the pussy if you want to rape me.

So it's like, people got to understand that with women. Like, you have to protect yourself. And I come from a background. Like I said, I have all brothers. I have male cousins. They want me to protect myself.

I drive around by myself all day. One hundred and $1.000 worth of $1,000 worth of Jury and I'll just listen to my music with the fucking top off. Do you think I don't have a gun on me? You crazy as fucking hill. Right.

Yeah. Because, I mean, like, I was watching this documentary about, like, this serial killer who was, like, basically just killing tons of women all over England in the 80s. And it was, like, this awful thing where the whole area was just terrified. It was on Netflix.

The Ripper. What's the one with the guy who was doing it online? And he killed the kids. Don't fuck with the cats. Oh, yes. That was crazy. That was a big part of COVID for everybody. You're a nigga, that shit, like that type of, and I used to watch shit like that growing up

because I used to watch Lifetime. Right. So I watched, you ever seen my, I know my first name of Stephen? Oh, yeah. It was based on the true story from a nigga from up there while I'm from. He got kidnapped. So I was always scared to get kidnapped. Right.

So that's why I'm always on my toes. I used to watch that shit. And then my ex used to always watch like forensic files and shit because this motherfucker would be like, I want to know how people think. Because it's people who don't think as normal as you do. Right. And just knowing that it's a motherfucker out there that acts and functions like me and you that's probably gone tonight to go.

killer like he could be not saying he is he could be a killer by the end of tonight going to kill somebody we've talked about him many times we have our doubts no but i mean that that's kind okay when i'm watching that documentary at one point they basically like the police chief was telling cities and towns like women should not be out after dark that that was their solution to there being one killer on the loose and i'm just like how is it not even and this is england they don't really have guns like that or whatever but how like how is it not part of the conversation that even if it was just pepper spray or a blade or something like that.

It's like you need to like reach a point where a woman can level the playing field, right? That's just like telling the motherfucker. Where a mask? You won't get COVID when there's people getting COVID with masks, right? That's the equivalent to that. It's nothing you can do to stop a fucking killer from killing you, even if you're in your house. This motherfucker fucking want to climb through the window. Guess what?

He's climbed to your fucking window. So it's like, what's the relevancy to that. That's why I never understood that. They never teach us safety precautions to protect ourselves. They teach us how to just maintain being cute. Because that's some cute shit. Pepper spray is a, let's be real. That's some cute shit.

Get your little pink shit with a little flashlight on it. Like, I don't want that shit. Yeah. I want some shit that if a motherfucker try to kill me and take me from my family, I'm going to end you and you're not going home to yours. That's what I want. Right. I don't want to fucking just be old.

But you still punch me in the eye or fucked up my face forever because you still got to me. Like, no, you need to be stopped in your fucking tracks. Right. I was talking to Rio the Young O.G. And they told me that women like, like, they're terrified of women these days because so many women have guns. And they're like really not scared to use them these days. So apparently what I'm suggesting is already happening to understand.

No, I definitely feel like, it's sad to say this, but I feel like men are way more feminine and emotional than women now, right? We are more emasculated than they are sometimes to a degree. So it's like if you have, like I just literally, I promise you the guy, you can Google it right now. Read a story last night. A man in Sacramento killed his wife. He shot her, like just on some emo shit.

Why did you shoot your wife with her kids in the house? That's some emotional-ass shit. You're not knowing how to channel your energy in the right manner. Like, that's emotions. I can't even begin to imagine what the fuck is going on. It is that 26, 27, you just shot this girl. And it's like, that's that emotional shit. Like, men are hella emotional for nothing.

They're not rational. They're hell irrational. Because that's irrational thinking. That's you instinctively doing what first comes to your mind because you're so emotional. And errat at that point. I'm so errat. I just got to do something.

And it's like, nigga, you could have did anything. You could have threw this bitch across the room. How are your coping mechanisms in life so bad that, like, something happens to you that you don't like, and so your solution is to, like, kill the woman. Emotions, man. It's just scary. Pumple with hormones and all the type of shit.

Women are way more against than men these days. Like women will tell a man out, fuck you now. Right. Which is nice. Women can say fuck you to a man, but I mean, the guy's got to handle it. Like, you've got to be able to deal with it like an adult. It's a different type of time we live in there. One of my employees is, dude, Jason, he had a really good question here.

He said, ask her her thoughts on Kamala Harris being from Oakland, but also having a long history of locking up young black men. Man, I don't fuck of blood at all because of that. Yeah. I feel like people want me to root for her because she's from wherever the fuck she said she's from. I don't even know the fuck she's from. But from my understanding and people that I know back home, she didn't lock up a whole lot of niggas for a whole lot of shit they didn't do.

So until we rectify that, how can I promote you in an office? Because now you got way more power to fuck up more niggas that look like us. Right. I don't fuck with that. But I think that because that was her doing the job of a prosecutor. Now we're going to get to see her be a vice president. That's the diabolicalness of it.

Exactly. Bitch, you could press any type of button now. But she's not going to ever really be held accountable because she's not going to be forced to be making those kind of decisions. And let's be real, like, at the time that she was making those decisions was when being tough on crime or whatever was, like more frowning smiled upon, you know? Like I said, it's always a duality, good and the bad. If you're doing something like that, that's because that was in you. You wanted to do that. I wouldn't do that to nobody.

Right. I know right from wrong. You knew what she was doing. That's a weird conflicted one because you see like a lot of like people hyping it up. Like, oh, imagine how all the young black girls feel all over. America. I don't fool shit, but I'm listening. And that's the thing that I hate

when women, they feel like every, not even just women in America, they try to preach this narrative that just because somebody's black, they're right when you're black. Nigger, no. I'm probably the first person to vocalize this. I don't feel like that's important and they should not perpetuate that. Because it's like,

that's the stigma in our community that when you go against that fucking statement that you're wrong. You're not wrong for having your own opinion, especially when it's validated with facts. It is hard. facts saying this person is not good for you or your people. Read into that. Don't go with the narrative because somebody looks like you that that's right. No, hell no. It's like me saying my nigga,

he killed six people. And you come up to me like, hey, he killed my mama. I'm like, oh, well, that's my nigga. He's a killer. Right. The fuck that nigga wrong. He took your mom from you. Could you respect somebody who looks like you and comes from where you're from, but thinks that Donald Trump was a good president or wanted to support him? Yes, because that's their prerogative. Who am I to tell you how to think? That's your life. That's your feelings. If you can validate to me why you feel like that, I have to respect your opinion. I have to disrespect you. Everybody's entitled to their own opinion. I just like Trump so much that it is kind of hard for me to wrap my head around how somebody could support him. But at the same time, I really hate the idea.

I think he's remarkably humorous. Humorous? He's remarkably humorous. Well, that I could definitely get behind that. But I just hate the idea that like people are supposed to, you know, like that you should be able to look at somebody's skin color and know exactly how they feel politically. That's such like a sinister idea. But that's how they pry on your emotions to get the vote, right? That's how they get you, especially my people specifically, I feel like we don't never, the average person is not even reading the bills that's being passed. They're not really paying the attention to what they voting for. They're just voting for the person that they feel like is for this. And that's the smoking and mirrors that they get you with. We're going to do this for your people. Yeah, 80 or 90% of people

are probably basing their vote more on who they feel looks like them slash would be somebody that they can imagine themselves going to the bar or what somebody is painting to you that they're going to do for you. That's how they dangle shit in front of us. For your community, I'm going to give you this. I'm going to pass this bill. Do this for your rights. And then people believe that shit.

And then five years, four years later, when the presidency up and they didn't do that, they didn't realize that you passed that bill to let them in office and you're not fighting for the next term for the person to, you know, perpetuate what this person said they was going to do in the first place. It's like, that's the part. That's why I'm going to get into politics. I told you I'm just not on that type of time because it's like, I read a lot.

So it's like, I feel like, bread is some bullshit. All this shit constitutionally is wrong. But do you feel like that's kind of the boxes that the label or whatever, like sort of wanted you to be in? Like, you were either going to be a super gangster or super activist? Like those are the two slots that they could put you in? I feel like niggas, no, you can't put me in no type of box. I'm too much of a free thinker. Right.

And I'm just going to be me today. I might be Eric if I do tomorrow. You might very much so get a little left. thigh. So it's just like, depends on what time you catch me. You know, you're going get what you're going to get and I'm okay with that. For sure. Yeah. Do you feel free as a bird musically at this point?

Just like being able to, you put out three projects this year after not driving a project for all those years. Like, does it feel like you're a musician again? Like you were a musician for all these years, but you were playing shows and shit. You weren't putting out new projects online or whatever. I feel like it's a gift and a curse because I feel like a good night and ghetto was so good and it

sat for so long that it's seasoned that a lot of people wanted again. because you aged well. They're like, I need another good night. I'm like, no, bitch, you only want that because you had it for four years and nothing else. So it's like,

that's the part that kind of like irritates me sometimes. They'd be like, give me another good night. I'm like, no, you had it for four years. You know how fucking annoying it was to perform that shit over and over and over and over and over. You get sick of performing the same old songs?

Oh my God. I had the same 30 minutes set because I only have fucking, what, 10, 13 songs out? So it's like, fuck. What else can I do? You made hundreds of songs behind the scenes, but you can't really perform them when they don't know. It's like I couldn't put the shit out. Like I was sitting on hell of songs.

It's still songs that I'm sitting on. That you'll probably never hear that I just could not put out. So but are these new albums that have been put out over the past year? Are those like the best songs from all these years? Or is that like what you were doing? It's new shit. Literally new shit. Like I'm recording some shit right now.

Like I record so quick. That shit don't make no fucking sense. I'll make a whole album tonight. I heard you said that you said you made like 10 songs on a night. Yeah, that's how I got the deal. Right. They're like, who the fuck is this bitch? Where does she come from?

Do they try to have you writing for people and shit too? Yeah, I don't like that shit though. You're not into it. Not giving you my sauce. Really? No, let me get my shit off first. But isn't the bag pretty good? That's what people say, but I'm not, I told you I'm not like driven about that type of stuff.

You aren't. You don't. You don't fuck about that shit. Money going to come to me regardless. I got a good heart. You say a lot of stuff like that, though, that just like, I believe in my talent enough that I could say fuck you on this or this. Yeah.

I respect that. Yeah, no, a lot of people don't stand on it. That's why I liked the 90s era because niggas stood on what they fucking interrogating morals was. They didn't waver because a nigga is telling you if you don't do this, then it's never going to happen. Bitch, you ain't got.

That's how I look at it. Like, the only person who could stop me from getting any fucking thing that I want to obtain is the Lord himself. It may take a little longer, but guess what? What's for me is still for me. Definitely.

I don't rush nothing because if you rush it and you get it, you're probably going to lose it quicker. Right. While you were kind of locked up in the label shit, though, basically like the whole genre of women rapping kind of blew up to a level that hadn't really been for years and years. How do you feel about that? And was that, did that make it kind of hard to watch all these girls getting put on and getting to have their moments and stuff? And then meanwhile, you're just sort of stuck. Fuck yeah. I always tell people it felt like I was in a glass house watching everybody outside playing.

It's like I could see y'all. everything but I can't touch feel, nothing like you feel me? It's like fuck I want to come out of side to play remember that episode of SpongeBob when the niggas

was watching him and Patrick outside playing Squidward that's how I fucking felt the whole time I'm like these bitches going up and I support it I respect it but it's just like damn I want to do me because it's like I'm never doing something

from a perspective but I'm hating on anyone because I admire a lot of female artists because just to be a woman in hip hop and wake up and do you it's hard enough it's unrealistic standard set on women

Hell of unrealistic standards than are women that is not on men. So if you can be an alpha woman in this business and make multi-means of dollars and a big-ass brand, I respect that. Right. It feels like people are very quick. I mean, people are very quick to turn on male rappers

as well, I feel like. But with women rappers in particular, it feels like the audience is kind of like looking for any little thing. Like, I felt like I saw that with Meg, with Doja Cat, with everybody. Literally, last week I had an interview with, I don't even know who the fuck it was in the magazine. And I told them, I'm like, y'all put these unrealistic standards on women, right?

Well, y'all try to force us to fucking kumbaya, y'all hold hands and turn in fucking circles. Y'all not telling all the men that they got to form fucking brother circles. They all hate each other. Why the fuck the women got to have fucking sister circles? We all not going to like each other. And that's just realistic, you feel me? And then you get the people who are going to pretend like they like people because they feel like that's what they have to do. Right.

I don't never want to be that type of person because I feel like if I don't fucking like you, I don't fucking like you. And that's why I told them because it's like, y'all can't keep forcing that on women. That's why they want to break it because everyone's trying to prove the theory wrong. Like, all y'all really don't get along. That's what it is. They're trying to prove that theory wrong because they force this narrative. Like, that's so many females now. I just love the unity and the sisterhood. It's not realistic. A lot of people don't like each other, but they're not going to come out and be like, I don't fuck with her. Because if they say they don't fuck with her, guess what? Now she's a hater. Now she's this. Now she's fucking up the unity amongst

everybody. They just be on some bullshit, man. But there's an extent to which people can watch men beef in rap and just sit back and enjoy it. They encourage that. And not really lose respect for either person. But then women beefing with each other, it's like, why are women have to tear each other down? Why do women have to fucking? But that's why I'm telling you why they're saying that to turn them down because they

felt like you're fucking up the unity of your sisterhood. Don't tear your sister down. We're supposed to be kumbai y'i and a hoo girl. And man, that shit is fake. That shit is fake. My favorite thing is how people are like, oh, like, you know, everybody needs to be more like the rappers in Atlanta who support each other and stuff. It's like that.

They be beefing too. That's such a surface level of understanding of what's going on in Atlanta. And I can actually point out for you a bunch of Atlanta rappers who have shot at each other. People who have died, people who clearly like, what about this huge rapper from Atlanta and this huge rapper from Atlanta that you've never seen on a song together? I wonder why. They're never going to debunk all these theories, right? Because that's not their job to debunk it. Their job is to build you up and break you the fuck down.

So you have to walk a fine line because everybody wants to break you down, particularly women. specifically black women. They ain't fucking trying to break down Taylor Swift. They're going to break down motherfucking Megan Estallion before they break down Taylor Swift real quick. You get what I'm saying? So it's like you got to walk that fine line in this entertainment business. That's why I don't let people in

my life a lot because it's like once I let you you in, you know how I think, you know how I move, you know anything about me, you know how to break me. Especially the media because they can't wait. Is there any of the new female artists that you've been particularly impressed by? I fuck with everybody. Like literally, I never had no issue with nobody. You know what I'm saying? We are

meat, we cool. I'm not going to push that kumbaya shit. Like, we best friends. We go eat sushi all the time. Like, there ain't none of that shit. But as far as me, meeting everybody, I feel like I fuck with Flo Mili right now. I feel like she came out of nowhere and she kind of like postering. So I fuck with that. And I feel

like she's doing something different. So it's like, I've been paying attention. I keep my eye on certain shit to a degree, but I don't overly step my boundaries. Flo Milly was one artist I heard who was kind of like, you know, she's sort got a little bit of that like young chief keef type energy where she was just like real aggressive and shit which is not something that I feel like a lot of times people are ready to accept

from a female artist but she like managed to like pull it off in a way where I was like yo I actually fuck with this and I can imagine like girls fucking with this in a way that it's very different you know I fuck with sweetie because I feel like sweetie from day one she's always been an advocate of me and I fuck with that besides Cardi sweetie the only other person who ever acknowledged me I feel like a lot of people try to act like I don't exist to make me go away you can't act like I don't exist and think that's going to make me go away. It's going to make me go harder. No, they should tap in, for sure.

People know exactly who the fuck I mean. I just feel like to a degree people feel like if I act like she's not there, she won't blow. Bitch, please. Like, you know? So it's like that type of thing you deal with this entertainment industry, you know? Like a motherfucker that I know you there. They know you dope.

They see it. They're actually a fan of you. How do you feel about the moral panic relating to Wop? A lot of people seem to think that this is like maybe the end of the, at the end of hip-hop or the world, maybe. You had Uncle Lou talking about Ami so horny The fuck out of here

See that bitch with the Daisy You know Duke song Hucci Mama all type of Ronchy shit Too short is from Oakland I literally grew up Hearing a man called Bitches bitches all day I call bitches bitches

All day because a nigga that I listen to You think I give a fuck about Wap being a fucking Mascogicistic record as they call it I gotta fuck That's her pussy her choice But you don't like over sexualizing your stuff

Or you don't seem like If you actually listen to my music You'll hear that I do talk about my pussy But not all day Not a ton right yeah Yeah, yeah, yeah. I noticed that. I'm like, like, the one bar that I noticed that you, like, talking about riding dick or some shit, I'm like, wow.

Oh, no, she didn't. Yeah, I was like, oh, man, I didn't expect that after, like, this whole album not really being on that tip. Yeah. Which is good, though. They got to make that stand out. It means more. No, man, that's how I feel like when women, man, that's what how they, this is a industry where you can become a multi-millionaire quicker than any other fucking industry. So if that's how you're going to feed your family, pop that puts it to the flow and scrub it on the ground.

I don't give a fuck. Scrub it. That's a mental image right there. That's your pussy, your choice. You feel me? I feel me? I'm polite. The people,

niggas just be hating because they can't do that. That's what it really be. You can't rap about your funky-ass dick and make no money, but she can work about her pussy and get rich as fuck. Tiger's the only one. Tiger's the only one who can talk about fucking on the track and everybody just goes for it.

A little way in the Tiger. The only two I know who talked about their dicks and made a hell of a lot of fucking money from it. Very, very true. Oh, man. All right. So you have plans for new projects coming out in the near future? Honestly, I'm probably shouldn't even say this,

but I'm probably on dropping in January again. Really? Yeah, I don't get to fuck I'm independent. I can wake up and drop a whole album tomorrow any day I feel like it. You know, why not take advantage of that? I don't feel like, I feel like people nowadays put so much pressure on themselves musically when we're living in the time where a motherfucker could pick up their phone and stream your music.

Like you know what I'm saying? You know how many times I told my manager like, now I'm getting to the point where I'm about to start doing it? Rappers, we record so many records that never come out and don't release them. That is fucking dumb. Just because you don't think it's a hit. Put that shit out. Why? Because it's a stream

and it makes you fucking money. Right. Like, I feel like, why aren't we there yet? Like, I get what Master P was doing now. I'm like, nigga, he was dropping 30 albums a month

because he fucking could. It was no standard on it. He made the most fucking money he could make. He's still rich as fuck because it was unorthodox. I want to be unorthodox. I don't want to be in a fucking box.

Right. But there's got to be people on your team that are pushing you to try to make like one big cohesive project. All my projects are cohesives. They don't give a fuck. Really. They know anything I do

it's going to be fucking sonically, you turn it in a like my album, you can literally listen to the bottom to the top because I studied the game. I know what an album's supposed to sound like. I sit with the producers. I conducibly make sure that shit's flowing.

Like, people don't do that. They don't structure shit. Shit don't be mixed. Motherfuckers sound like they're recording the bathroom over there underneath the sink right there. Like, I'm not doing that. I'm actually sitting there, flushing out the shit and making sure it sounds good.

And I'm putting out high quality music rapidly. That's what I'm on. Fuck that. You're going to get the, you're going to catch these. vibes. You build up that back catalog. I'm telling a lot of rappers now. I'm selling. I know what I'm doing. I'm setting myself up

to be a fucking eight, nine figure woman. People may not get it now, but then they're going to come back fucking five years from now. Look at this no jumper interview. Like that bitch, this day she was going to do that because they don't understand what I'm doing. And it's hell of unorthodox from all women. So it's like, I was thinking

like that's very much appreciate that because I just feel like there's going to be people looking at this interview in 10 years and being like, damn, like she kind of told us what she was planning. I promise you, it's going to be people looking back. Like, she said she was going to do that because it's too easy not to. Why the fuck would I not if I can? That's fucking dumb.

This is the music business. Put out the fucking music. And nowadays it's all about getting like one song to really get traction and blow up. So why not drop 100 before you get the 1 so the 100 can stream later? And now you're fucking multimillionaire off the 100 you did before the 1. But could you never sign to a label again? I was signed to a label again, absolutely with my own terms. Right.

Only with my own terms. I'm not opposed to it. I just got tied into a machine that wasn't the one that worked for me. Does that mean all machines are bad? No, that was just the wrong washing machine to get washed in shit. But it is what it is. You know what I'm saying? I'm not opposed to that.

But I just know me personally, I want my catalog to proceed me before I do get in that type of situation. Because once you get the hit record, like I said, if you got 100 songs, the people are going to consume those last projects. The baby probably had 10 fucking projects before we knew who he was. And you sit there and wonder why he's fucking getting 17 cards for his birthday. He's one artist. I went back. I listened to all the shit

before he got popping and I was like, wow, like you can just so hear that he just kept getting better and better. It's the same shit over and over to the cohesive method structure until it got bigger and better, even little baby.

You go back, little baby was putting out six fucking projects a year before he got to where he is. And then people ask why he's the number one rapper in the world. This motherfucker put out fucking 150 songs

before you fucking probably ever heard him. And you wonder why he's that rich. These are two people I can say that about. was getting so much better as the time went by. That's always best. Making music over and over and over is the only way that you're going to get better at making music. And I feel like you should always kind of like not listen to other people so you keep your own sound. I feel like when you start listening to other people shit, you start diving into their shit.

Now you sound like this, nigga. Like I always tell people like, if you want to make the best music, listen to oldies or something else to get a feeling. Don't listen to another rapper because then you're going to become that rapper. That's my least favorite thing in the world is when a rapper has a bar that is like, I'm blank like blank and it's literally like the first blank is a poppin song right now and then the other blank is the artist

who performed that song and I'm like could you do anything to make it more obvious that you have no fucking reference base that you're pulling from? I would way rather you use some weird reference from the 90s or some movie that I've never seen or some shit that at least sounds like you've got something interesting going on in your head. It's very

very interesting especially now because it's like a motherfucker will take such and such a style run with it and blow up and not even care. You know, back in the day, you would get your ass with for that hip hop. It's like it's no real rules to that. Like, I'm just going to dye my hair

fucking fuchsia orange. And yours is this color and I'm going to make your song and just like, y'all niggas don't care. It's just different. One day we're going to have a conversation about ad lib theft. There's been a whole lot of that. Big ad lib theft. It's just, that's the air we live in there.

It's definitely a different type of time. That's why I feel like the most unique thing I tell any artist is to work on your voice Because a motherfucker could never steal that from you Yeah They can never steal your voice If your voice is the instrument how the fucking they duplicate it Yeah, no for sure

Um, okay Kamaya, appreciate you coming through For real side, we in the house Real house conversation man you and AD are covered in the same cloth He always saying west side to me West side in the house West side Don't give us enough love

We out here show the thugs some love The West is out here Game the fuck up Comey I appreciate it it. Appreciate you too. Thank you so much. This is a great conversation. Kamaya, No Jumber, coolest podcast in the world. Check us on YouTube, SoundCloud, iTunes, like, comment, subscribe, nojumber.com if you want to support. Appreciate y'all. Happy holidays.