The Breakfast Club - INTERVIEW: Dee-1 Talks New Album, Rap Life, Teaching Students, Working With Jimmy Hensman, The Game + More

Episode Date: March 1, 2024

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Wake that ass up in the morning. The Breakfast Club. Morning, everybody. It's DJ Envy, Jess Hilarious, Charlamagne Tha Guy We are The Breakfast Club, we got a special guest in the building Got the brother D1, welcome brother Yes indeed Man, thank y'all for having me man I didn't know this was your first time up here I thought for sure you was up here, but D1 was up here before You serious bro?

I honestly did Man, well, hey, that's a good thing That's a good thing, that means my presence must be getting felt, you heard me, even if I wasn't here You know, because you run into D1 so much So many times back in the day i used to run into d1 a lot you know anyone just be you know you'd be out yeah there you go touching the people that's that's always been the goal i've been to your book signings before you heard me in south carolina i just sent you backstage at a3c yeah i really working because i i never had anything given to me in this industry so when i stopped being a middle school teacher back in louisiana i was like damn i'm about to be a rapper now it was

important for me to go out there and make it happen so how you make it happen you form organic connections yeah i saw uh you know you showed me the tweet i saw you when you posted it earlier this week but uh when he did decipher back in 2014 yes sir i just tweeted d1 spit yep because he was so it's good to see you still 10 years later bro yeah organic bro uh longevity is so hard to accomplish in this industry so that's one thing i pride myself on is i i remember when i was a teacher in louisiana um i used to be fredo bangs middle school teacher you heard me like primarily and i remember before i told my class like look i'm about to stop teaching after this year to be a rapper i was like dang is there gonna be longevity in the music industry the way there

is if i was to stay being a teacher and all these years later i'm still here and still ascending you heard me so that's god bro that's why i know my path is divine nobody could say well d you had this person that put you on god orchestrated, bro, to where nobody could get the credit except for him from me. You afraid of bangs? I was going to say that. I was going to ask you. You said you afraid of bangs teacher.

Did you know when you were teaching him that he was going to be a rapper, he was going to be a star? Not at all. No. No, I just knew he was a funny little dude. He was cool. He had a sense of humor,

and he was smart. You know what I mean? And he was not to be played with. He was serious. You know, he was serious about just demanding his respect, but he was just a cool dude i just did a uh i did a video with him um because he put out an album called yes i'm sad and like you know i did a video with him encouraging him to go to go to therapy and then i can actually connected him with a therapist that's

that's coming out soon he actually sat down with a real therapist i mean i i don't suggest people broadcast it but if they want to i'm not mad at it what if people broadcast going to therapy yeah i mean i don't know sitting down like the actual session like oh the actual session i think they're doing the actual session i'm not sure i'm not really yeah i think i did that once for vh1 and i'll never do no shit like that yeah bro because it's hard to be transparent that's right you know i'm saying super hard to be i went to therapy actually right after that bt cypher i started going to therapy bro i was signed to rca at the time right and you know you're on the bt cypher you thinking your life about to change after this night like that's what i was thinking and nothing changed after that night you know i mean nothing changed after that night so i was

like dang man and i was feeling like i know i'm the underdog in this industry because you know i'm on some i'm on some righteous stuff i'm on some put golf first stuff i come from new orleans like after that i felt like i blew my shot and it it started messing with me with me mentally to where i was like dang i kind of don't even want to be here no more not in the industry but on this earth and when I started realizing like that I'm having suicidal thoughts behind feeling like I'm professionally a failure I realized I couldn't separate David from D1 at that point and that was unhealthy you know I mean and for the first time in life I went to therapy because I was like

talking to my friends that ain't getting it at this point talking to my grandma rest in peace that ain't cutting it at this point so therapy really did help me but ultimately what helped me even more than therapy was understanding my god-given purpose for like man i know who my creator is i know why i was put here and i was put here to glorify him so who am i to think that my whole life is a failure because one moment didn't elevate me professionally yeah i wonder about that um because you know you went, you went to LSU, right? Yeah, I graduated from LSU. You got kicked off the basketball team.

Yeah. So you didn't have those thoughts then? Man, no. My freshman year, first, before I got kicked off the basketball team, my girlfriend cheated on me with a couple football players. Lord have mercy. Oh, stop, man. He said a couple, not even one.

Jesus. Yeah, you feel that pain. Yeah. my heart just jumped when i said it actually man that stuff that happened freshman year then i got cut from the basketball team then my roommate started selling drugs you heard me when we got to lsu he we shared a dorm room then one of my best friends in new orleans murdered. So I got that. I got the text message when I was in English class. I looked down at my phone and my homegirl told me that my boy Ryan had just got murdered. Right. All this happened freshman year.

So that was the first life changing, like rock altering moment that I had. And during that time, I could have found the streets. I could have found a lot of stuff. I found God in a real way, in a real way. Not in just like are we from the south so we all believe in God but like no like I get it like I submit everything to you God from this day moving forward my only role model I'm trying to be like is Jesus you heard me yeah that and and I started living like that and I started rapping rapping was my therapy at that time so when I started rapping I had a lot to talk about and I was like why would I glorify murder when my best friend just got murdered?

Why would I glorify smashing your girl when a couple of football players just smashed my girl? You know what I'm saying? Why would I glorify a whole bunch of money that I know I ain't got? You feel me? That ain't just how I'm living. So from day one, rap was an outlet for me to be able to spit reality. But you got to make that reality charismatic and entertaining. So I just had to get real good at spitting reality.

You from Baton Rouge, right? No, I'm from New Orleans. I went to college in Baton Rouge and I taught in Baton Rouge. OK, let me ask you a question. You know, they consider you a Christian rapper, right? I don't know. I don't know if they do or not, you know, because the reason is, is I feel like they put you in a box. But there's a lot of rappers that preach positivity and don't preach gang, don't preach guns, don't know if they do or not, you know? Because the reason is, I feel like they put you in a box, but there's a lot of rappers that preach positivity and don't preach gang,

don't preach guns, don't preach violence, and they're not putting that same box, but they seem to put you in that box. You know why? It's because they smart. The other rappers, they crafty. I ain't going to say it's smart. They crafty, though. They'll have a positive message, but then they'll sprinkle in some,

but I'll smash your girl you know i mean or like my partners will come spin the bin and and and and and and murky you know i mean they'll they'll slide a little bit of that in there put the medicine in the candy there you go but i don't think that's uh i don't think wait you mean put the candy in the medicine no put the medicine in the candy put the medicine in the candy yeah so that's what he and i i don't think that that's i don't think that that's uh wise because i it's just like that kind of comes across lukewarm you know i mean so with me it's one of the things where i was like if i gotta sacrifice a little bit of professional like growth in order to say i'm gonna be uncompromising about my message i'm down for it because wherever i get that's where I was meant to be in God's eyes. You know, a lot of people got selfish ambition and that's different from godly

ambition. What godly ambition is God. I just want to make you proud. And wherever that lamb yet, I'm content. Selfish ambition is the world telling me to chase being a billionaire. The world telling me this, the newest car to get the world telling me that this, the brands I need to be rocking that selfish ambition to have you chasing or moving target for your whole life and i never fell victim to that because around the time i was starting to get materialistic i went to ghana when i was 13 years old i saw real poverty i thought i grew up in the hood till i went to ghana you feel me i came back man i'm not tripping on wearing jebo jeans no more i'm not tripping on you know having a yeah have this jewelry and be like the hot boys or whatever man i just seen people who their joy is their on you know having a yeah have this jewelry and be like the hot boys

or whatever man i just seen people who they joy is their weapon you know i mean i don't need to carry no gun my joy is my weapon moving forward i want my smile to light the room up when i come in there that's what i've been on for a long time so you apply that to the rap game and people gonna be like oh he different and because he different and he he loved god he a christian rapper you know i mean if that's what people call me cool but a lot of people they just like nah bro he's a college professor he's a harvard university fellow he's a dope rapper he's an activist he's you know he's a bunch of things he's an author this is my children's book i just wrote david found his slingshot yeah so that i wrote that at harvard last year and it's uh it's based on

you being bullied While growing up right Man I used to get bullied when I was in kindergarten You know like a lot of people And when I was bullied At the time I didn't know how to You know I didn't know how to get over that So this is an anti-bullying hip hop children's book Because uh

Yeah bro just like the story of David and Goliath David was able to defeat Goliath When he found his slingshot. You feel me? David didn't use nobody else's weapons when it was like, hey, take this shield, take this sword. He was like, now I'm good on it. I know what my gift is. My gift is using this slingshot. The way I overcame my bully is I found my slingshot. And, you know, when you read the book, you realize what my slingshot is. But you realize that we all got a slingshot. And when you find your slingshot in life and you use it for the purpose god designed it for you're going to defeat the goliaths in your world too i love that you know you know when biggie

said i'm black and ugly as ever however i always say that all of us have a however all of us got a however all of us got a however thank you bro and that's i just want hip-hop to start being like hip-hop is my slingshot clearly bro rapping is what got me here i'm on the breakfast club right now bro like this is huge like i don't want to act like this is just normal to me i know every thought i've been here you know i'm saying bro there's still a big deal to me bro and a lot of people are cheering for me right now a lot of people who've been a part of my whole journey but i just want us to like look at hip-hop as being a tool that we could use in a more healthy way to to to help us reach our goals in life bro if you

listening to music and if you making music it shouldn't have to glorify murder it shouldn't have to glorify drug dealing it shouldn't have to do that she go it shouldn't you know it shouldn't have to do all that stuff in order to get us where we're going in life, man. And I'm just trying to show people that I'm a success story. So if I could do it, why other people can't do it? Do you want to just hilarious? Just like I have a hug. Now you got a book for you. Oh, I know.

That's right. Yeah. I saw this before you came here. OK, this is. Yeah. Now you are very vocal about rappers using their platform. You spoke about, of course, Meek and Jim Jones and Rick Ross. And you were upset with, you felt like the music that they put out was hurting the youth opposed to helping.

Yeah. Now break that down a little bit. Yeah. Because all those brothers in their music have uplifting songs and positive songs. It's not just all about bang, bang, shoot them up, F your girl. Right. You felt like the singles that they put out were. Well, I just feel like we got a lot of selective outrage in the black community in general

a lot of selective outrage if a white person say the n-word one time all it take is one time for them to say it we at their top we on their head oh no you said damn world we trying to cancel you we'll never let you forget that but if artists if it's like yo when they rap about murdering people you know in 50 of their songs but in the other 50 or 80 of their songs but 20 they rap about economic empowerment and and and some positive stuff like shouldn't that be okay we're content with a state of lukewarmness you know i'm saying that's something that i'm just like yo that's confusing that's confusing to these kids i'm with the kids on a daily basis you feel me i'm a college professor currently in addition to being a rapper like i'm seeing that these kids who ain't from the trenches at all now their identity is

rooted in like well if i'm black i gotta be able to relate to this type of music to even feel like i'm authentically black and that's because that's what's getting pushed and i'm just telling the artists like bro we know like we made it from that we shouldn't have to be glorifying that stuff there's a difference between narration and glorification you feel me when you're narrating something man i came from this hood i came from the east side night water new orleans i seen this my best friend got killed glorification is look i'm gonna be the one to come when i get off breakfast club and come work something i'm gonna be the one to come when i get off breakfast club and come work something i'm gonna be the one to come slide on my apps i'm gonna i'm gonna give my young boy a bag

to go and and get you dead you know i'm saying we are content with the glorification of drug dealing and murdering and disrespecting our women and that's a problem bro what if we uh is it not what if it's definitely a problem what if we uh is it not what it is it's definitely a problem what if we switched our our our mindset about how we look at the music like is there a way to look at the music is just entertainment the same way we look at movies you tv shows you being serious right now or you just playing devil's advocate because none of these people all these people are in character it's not like they're saying hey my name is such and such they're all in character we do it in movies and tv shows we know it's not real and they glorify it even worse probably than the music

i think i yeah i don't you playing thank you thank you jess get your boy but i also feel like what charlamagne says not to say it and i get what you're saying it's an influence but we know these are rappers ain't killing nobody no we don't know that we can't say we know they're not running around shoot Nobody majority of them, bro. Are you serious? They are every day. Listen Bro, I just watched y'all show the other day bro. I'm a fan of the show First of all, I just watched the show when y'all had my brother French Montana up here Yeah, the young brother with me did not nothing not the young queen up here the young brother with french not not the young queen but the young brother with french he was like yo you was like yo french smash another uh rapper's wives

french was like nah that's rap cap i'm just saying that yeah uh the young brother was like man i make drill rap like what you mean if we ain't living it like shoot that's lame we gotta be living it right show them man they're telling you that bro they're telling you like no this ain't just uh fiction rap like this is non-fiction rap is implied that it's autobiographical and you telling your real story you hear me d1 is just a stage name it's not a character it's an extension of who david augustine is that's what rap is bro i can remember my favorite rap lyrics from the hot boys from 20 years ago i can't i don't I don't walk around quoting my favorite movies from 20 years ago, line for line, from the whole movie. But I can rap you any Lil Wayne lyrics from 20 years ago. I definitely got me a 38 snub nose because of Tupac and Juice.

But that was a movie, though. That's what I'm saying. I've definitely been influenced. I can't sit here and act like I haven't been influenced by movies. You've been more. We are way more influenced by music than, than we are movies, bro.

And at the same time, when the last time you seen these, these actors from movies out here getting killed and getting a Rico charges and getting put in jail. I agree. Thank you. So since we agree with that, it's, it's clear that like music has this pull on us,

but we content with this state of lukewarmness so i'm telling y'all and all i'm saying is we are massively successful who's sitting here right now all of us massively successful with our platform like i feel called to not make the next generation feel content with uh with saying yeah like let's glorify this stuff but not let's just not go do it in real life i wonder if you can narrate without glorifying i don't think you can though because even somebody like i think about a jay-z jay-z has always been a narrator he's always told you the good the bad the ugly the consequences everything that don't mean you still won't go out there and experience it for

yourself now because a lot of time but now it's the same way you think that's glorified i mean he narrates it you know like i can't it's just to me it's kind of Nas talks about a lot of his I'm not Nas talks about a lot of the life that he lived in Queens and a lot of it was the stuff that we're talking about drugs and guns you know and all that other stuff but Nas also has a lot of records that's positivity uplifting to you oh no I'm saying I'm saying Nas is Nas my favorite rapper I'm saying like now's inspired me to be like oh this is a sophisticated hood dude same as me like i can relate to that like he clearly smart but he's seen a lot of stuff he's been through a lot of stuff glorifying something is just simply

saying bro how many records that are either getting played on the radio or that's at the top of these playlists nowadays how many records are glorifying i'm i'm gonna spin on my ops i'm i'm spinning the bin i'm sliding on you i'm finna bust your head like a lot of them come on thank you that's glorification bro narration is saying yo i seen this stuff in my past this happened to my best friend man one of my students murdered another one of my students who i used to teach this is real life if i'm narrating that i'm still talking about murder but i'm not glorifying it like that's to be uh uh replicated and duplicated you feel me i wonder about uh people's environments too though because i feel like the environment you

come up in influences you way more than music would i just think the problem sometimes is that people provide soundtracks for the environment okay okay so that's where as ogs in hip-hop and as success stories we should be able to yo to the youngins coming up let me show you how you can take that environment and make your environment be a product of you because you was chosen you heard me if you're an artist and you got a huge platform you know what our responsibility is is to make the revolution irresistible that's a famous quote the role of the artist is to make the revolution irresistible that means you can take something you could take concrete and you could be that rose that grew from it and have everybody looking like how did you do that and it's like i'm gonna show y'all i'm gonna give y'all a blueprint

we chosen yo you know how many people rap in this world? But they're not here right now. Like, I clearly was chosen. It's bigger than me. I can spit with the best of them. I'm better than 95% of the rappers in this world. I know that. You know what I'm saying?

But with that being said, it still take more than just talent. So I was chosen. So it's like, dang, since I made it, what's my responsibility? It's not to keep feeding lies to people I didn't have rappers had these type of convos with me outside the booth and then the engineer be like all right the beat is ready and they they leave from their chair they go hop in the boot and they go kill 40 people in that song but some of your favorite rappers do the same like you talked about Lil Wayne Lil Wayne has said it Jay has said it no that's not that's what there's also a lot of rappers that are doing it on the positive side you got

your chance to rap it you got your jay coles you got your kendrick even the new ones i love la russell you got la russell i love rhapsody you got kendrick i love cole i get what you said i feel like the last 10 years of hip-hop at least the guys that were really really on top right with the exception of maybe future they're nothing like the artists we grew up on like j cole kendrick right they're nothing right like we grew up on some cb4 the envy was putting guns in his manolo blahniks because rappers was talking about it you had to be hardcore you had to be gangster just to survive facts you know well think about it like this we can name all of the artists who y'all saying got a message in their music probably on

two hands meanwhile there's whole genres of rap trap rap drill rap a genre consists of like hundreds of artists they got whole genres that's dedicated to the murder music at this point they got whole genres that's dedicated to the negativity being glorified you know i mean unfortunately with our young queens our women what's being rapped about vagina booty you know i'm saying just the power of what's between your legs okay people say booty like how we say it's like we say bunkie though yeah but how do you change that because i you know how do you change that because Because, you know, how do you change that? Because I heard you said in the interview is like, you know, a lot of these rappers you feel are serving two masters, right? Yeah.

The man upstairs and then or the man or woman upstairs and then also the money. Yeah. So how do you change that? You got to pick one. And who created you? Did money create you or did God create you? God created you. So that's who you're supposed to be serving.

Don't become a slave to a green piece of paper. Shout out to my brother Styles P. Man, that's a song of his. I live my whole life for a green piece of paper shout out to my brother styles p man that's a song of his i live my whole life for a green piece of paper you know i mean i'm like dang that song hit me back when i was in school because i was like dang i don't want to live my whole life for a green piece of paper that could be torn up and then once you tear it up it has no value i don't want to do that man you know people have to evolve they have to they have to see it in themselves like we seen jay evolve we seen styles p evolve yeah some of these people styles was stabbing for your styles was like jesus i'm saying no no no i mean no but i always tell d block that i love d block i love their growth and evolution but growing up when i

used to listen to d block music i used to want to stab somebody with something sharp there you go hold on you you just said it i don't disagree this man had queensbridge on the side of his head when he had hair oh wow oh wow i want you to know i don't disagree with nothing you're saying okay the only thing i want is that um i don't like when you say what you say and then people take it away and then they want to get violent i'm like yo how can we just have the conversation right oh you know what i'm saying like i want people to hear you yeah but you're not wrong not wrong at all saying yeah and i don't have any beef with any artists by the way like i'm full of love i hope y'all could feel that radiating from me i'm also knowing that like

man time is ticking man we all got an expiration date and we don't know when it is when i was in college you heard me and i had three dudes walk up on me out the blue i was playing one-on-one basketball with my boy and these dudes walked up they thought we had broken their homeboy's car you heard me so they was like man y'all broken our partner car we was like nah not at all it was like man y'all lying one of the dudes pull a gun out dude got a gun right here on my temple you know i'm saying real quick i got my hands up like this i'm like damn bro i never thought i died the same way my best friend just got killed a couple years ago i thought my life

was over right there by the grace of god a girl was walking to her apartment she looked down at the basketball court she was like like oh my god you know i mean and they looked up and they got spooked so they put the gun up they ran right in that moment i was like oh shoot i'm choosing impact over income you know i'm saying like because if i had died in that moment all the money that i had that money couldn't have did nothing but the impact that i left in this world that impact would be here forever even after my life was gone so that's when i was like i'm not gonna be i was a business major you feel me i used to intern for jimmy henchman up here in new york when i was in college i was gonna work in corporate america man i was like forget that i'm gonna be a teacher i became a middle school teacher when i was a middle school teacher

one of my students came in class one day with mob tatted on his arm the sandwich shoulder man had qb tatted on his head right my student came in with mob on his arm i said bro what made you get that tattoo you know what that stands for right money over he was like no sir i don't know what that mean and i was like then why did you get it because his favorite rapper lil wayne has it tattooed on his chest the influence when i saw huh wayne probably got wayne probably got that from pop bro that made me want to be a rapper and i was like i want to be a rapper because of the influence right that i see that rappers are having man that's it bro so been in this game just dropped my 11th album you heard from the hood to harvard from the hood to harvard talk to me about uh working with jimmy henson i was gonna ask you about that like just walk walk me through that experience what was that

like well i needed to graduate i was a marketing major so i had to have an internship under my belt and at the time i was like dang he was managing the game i feel like he had uh rick ross he had a gucci man you know i'm saying he had uh brandy he had a few different people and i was like dang this is crazy it'd be amazing to work for him bro i just called the number to his office and shout out to my uh my sis lashana you heard me she was working the front desk at the time she answered the phone and she was like, hey, how you doing? I was like, look, I'm a college student trying to get an internship. And I sent my resume over. They hired me just like that. I didn't get paid. I didn't get paid. But I was up here in New York. I was living in the Bronx that summer and intern with him. I was on the game street team.

So years later, the game was on my last album I just dropped a few months ago. So to go from interning and working on the game street team to him being a collaborator on my album that's like a full circle moment bro but it showed me that summer it showed me that i don't want to be in this industry unless i could be an artist because i've seen a lot of people who was pushing music that after they finished promoting the music they would look at me and say man i don't even want my own kids listening to that music but this is just my job i was like oh i wouldn't want to have to live my life like that you got to push something that you don't even really stand behind because it's your job i was like the only way i'd be in this game is if i could be an artist because i could control my

narrative how many times you got called poppy in the bronx i know they confused you for spanish man they did yeah and i was like bro i'm bro. I'm from New Orleans. You heard me? As soon as I said you heard me, they was like, oh, he ain't from here. He not from here? He ain't from here. When did you first realize

you were using your gif? Hey guys, I'm Kate Max. You might know me from my popular online series, The Running Interview Show, where I run with celebrities,

athletes, entrepreneurs, and more. After those runs, the conversations keep going. That's what my podcast Post Run High is all about. It's a chance to sit down with my guests and dive even deeper into their stories, their journeys, and the thoughts that arise once we've

hit the pavement together. You know that rush of endorphins you feel after a great workout? Well, that's when the real magic happens. So if you love hearing real, inspiring stories from the people you know, follow, and admire, join me every week for Post Run High. It's where we take the conversation beyond the run and get into the heart of it all. It's lighthearted, pretty crazy, and very fun. Listen to Post Run High on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. What's up, y'all?

This is Questlove, and I'm here to tell you about a new podcast I've been working on with the Story Pirates and John Glickman called Historical Records. It's a family-friendly podcast. Yeah, you heard that right. A podcast for all ages. One you can listen to and enjoy with your kids starting on September 27th. I'm going to toss it over to the host of Historical Records, Nim podcast for kids and families called Historical Records. Historical Records brings history to life through hip-hop. Each episode is about a different inspiring figure from history. Like this one about Claudette Colvin, a 15-year-old girl in Alabama who refused to give up her seat on the city bus nine whole months before Rosa Parks did the same thing.

Check it. Get the kids in your life excited about history by tuning in to Historical Records. Because in order to make history, you have to make some noise. Listen to Historical Records on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. For their intended purpose. Well, the first time I did a show, it was a talent show at LSU. And Miss Afeni Shakur was at my school, right? Tupac's mom.

And when I got off stage, I didn't win first place, second place, or third place in that talent show. But when I got off stage, she was like, young brother, your passion on that microphone when i see you perform reminds me of my son and when she told me that i was like oh i got something special like even if people not recognizing it in the moment i got something special tupac mama just told me this you feel me and at that point i was like all right i know if i use this for the purpose it was designed for it could be life-changing bro i got letters in my pocket bro from students who like when i visit these middle schools and these high schools they write me letters about like how much my music has inspired them and they wanting to be like me they writing raps and they giving this to me when i come to their school like i see this you know i'm speaking

at a school by the time i get off uh off the little girl didn't like draw a picture of me. You know what I'm saying? Like this powerful, yo, like this is organic stuff that I experienced on a daily basis. So I'm like, who would I, who would I be to,

to have a watered down message when I know that this message could be life changing for people in a good or bad way. And you're a professor, right? Yeah. At Tufts university. And you teach students about the intersection of hip hop and social social change yes sir break that down yeah so my course that I designed it's all about how hip-hop has been used to make social change in the past and how we can use it

to make social change moving forward because unfortunately it's kind of veered in the direction of yo um I'm just trying to get the bag I ain't even a rapper i'm just a game spitter i'm just a hustler you know it's kind of veered in that direction so people now focused on making change via hip-hop right and i'm just saying yo as a class we're going to learn how different artists have been able to use their platform to really make real change i was on tour with macklemore when the thrift shop song came out doing a nationwide tour with him i saw the change that they were making even in the lgbtq community when they had the same love song i saw all of the legislation that they were a part of and how they had people getting married at the shows and all

this i'm like i'm seeing real social change be made via hip-hop i didn't see um the impact that air force ones didn't had on the whole, you know, a whole country. Make people want. So we just study about this stuff in my class, bro. And I'm empowering my class to want to make music, but also consume music. There's going to make change because why are you consuming music? There's glorified like one assignment I had for my class was to write Kodak Black a letter while he was in jail just now. Kodak just got out last week. Wow.

And me and Kodak are cool. So we were DMing yesterday and Kodak hit me like, yo, I got all them letters from you and your class. He was like, that stuff really inspired me. Thank you, bro. Y'all snapped. I want to come and visit your class. Kodak is a perfect example. I was going to ask you, too, what strategies do you use?

I want to get back to Kodak. But other than writing letters to Kodak, what other things have you done yeah so my class is actually creating an album you know i mean my class is creating an album because i want to show them how hard it is to create hip-hop and actually make it make social change because nowadays if you want to have a message in your music you automatically the underdog but i love that my students could be like wait professor d1 is dropping music is on the freaking breakfast club like it's possible you know i'm saying totally independent 100 independent they see that it's possible but i want them to see the things that they didn't see

which is me and you connecting 10 years ago me and you connecting almost 10 years ago y'all seeing me grinding i'm making my class do this as they create an album because making the music is the easy part but make the music connect with people you know i mean so i'm showing them with a little a little uh tough love you know that like we're gonna learn about artists who have done it successfully we're gonna learn about artists who were on the right path but then they let the bag get in their way and they change their message uh along the way and then we're gonna learn how to do it as an artist can't you be multifaceted though can't you be can't you glorify killing and want to save the world no or no but maybe can you be a social justice advocate and just be a street rapper from

philly talking about your experiences you can definitely be and by the way bro i hope that you know i hope that it's not still out in the in the air that uh d1 has an issue with meek mill j Jim Jones, and Rick Ross. I hope that's not... Well, you were specific. That was the other thing, too. I think that if you weren't specific and you just were talking generally, I think the message would have been

received a little bit better. Because whenever you address somebody as an individual, they're going to take it personal. Gotcha. They just are. And that wasn't my intention for anybody to take that personal. Because I literally, literally like i love all the brothers in a real sincere way bro to say just know oh i'm just saying that no in a real way but when you use examples to make your point if somebody said man people in the nba need to uh conduct themselves better off the court that's super vague when you say man john morant need to stop uh you know flashing guns in his videos

oh that's a real example all right cool have you spoke to those brothers after man me and jim have text each other and it was all love via text um i hope to link up with jim while i'm out here in new york in person like that'll be love that's gonna be the next out of that conversation happened on text um did you hit him he hit you no a mutual contact uh my brother antonio and my brother shabazz uh the og they um they they linked us via text right and then uh i sent him a video one day man i woke up one day and i was like man all of this middleman and stuff and group text i sent him a personal video speaking from the heart for a minute jim this d1 brother da da da this is my heart this is my intentions this is my background da da da put that out there to him that brother hit me back in five minutes i appreciate you reaching out uh

this means a lot i respect what you stand for you know we should have a conversation he said because i realized sometimes in life people are trying to get to the same destination but they're just taking two different routes i respect the heck out of that so we haven't met in person yet we haven't verbally talked but we text with meek and ross um i haven't communicated with them directly i know people who know all of them you know so i would love for the link to be made uh just so they know like bro this ain't no i just want us to be the best version of ourselves man because it confuses the kids if we are giving turkeys away giving toys away giving shoes away, advocating for, for social justice reform,

but then glorifying the opposite type of message in our music. And that's all I'm saying. You know, is it ever appropriate to use unconventional means to achieve righteous, righteous ends? Um, it depends on what those unconventional means are, bro.

That's it. Like I wouldn't get up here right now and disrespect any of y'all physically or verbally to say hey the goal was to go viral some niggas will a lot of them will to go viral yes yes yes nah like i i don't think that that's that's just not how i'm cut i'm not that thirsty for validation or for fame like i i actually been famous for a long time you know i mean uh i haven't i haven't taught since i was freddo's teacher you know i'm saying that's like over a decade ago brother like like i'm good i'm in a great space mentally physically financially all that stuff so for me it's like the slow grind to continue rising might not come along with the antics but it comes along

with integrity it's making god proud it's making my grandparents my parents proud and it's giving people a blueprint you know that that viral stuff man you'll be here today and gone tomorrow can you talk about uh being in this world but not of this world i know on the song line drawn on on the intro you say that yeah so lines drawn is me saying like yo this whole industry has become content with a state of lukewarmness, bro. Like we cool with this song. We pop in my list. We pop in pills.

We selling dope. This song, we doing something positive and we cool with consuming it all. That's why other communities don't take us serious. You can't play with gay people like that. You can't play with Jews like that because they don't play with themselves like that. But when they see us disrespecting ourselves they like man the black people they're not tripping man like it is what it is they glorify killing themselves who cares if we disrespect them you know with uh with that being said does everybody in here believe in god

100 and we all can say that then that should make it way easier to understand my why why i do what i do is because i don't serve my fans i don't serve the industry i don't serve instagram i serve god and i'm simply using my music as a vehicle to reach people but i'm not serving the people so if we all look at what our slingshot is and what our gifts are and say how can i use this gift to be of service to god automatically it'll be like oh there's no way that i can justify glorifying killing and glorifying just a bunch of negativity um to say that well i'm trying to make money so that's going to justify it at the end of the day there's no way so i said i'm drawing lines and i'm saying what side of the line are you on do you want to represent righteousness or you want to represent evil and drawing that line in the sand that's made a lot

of people in hip-hop uncomfortable because now it's like oh i gotta pick a side i was comfortable in the middle i ain't gonna have to pick a side we was all comfortable in the middle actually man i'm just drawing a line that's all and that's why i put that song out that's the first song on my album and that song's shaking things up you me? How often do you get a student that still just goes against the grain? You know what I mean? Like, you know, because everybody's not going to go. Everybody's not going to do the same thing. You know, I know you help a lot of students.

I can definitely tell that you help a lot of kids. But, like, how many, how often do you get the ones that is like, nah. Every day I got students in the graveyard right now who ain't wanna listen they resting in peace like literally literally man that stuff tough man one of my students g money he was a popular rapper in ban rouge you know he got murdered a few years ago that was fredo bang's rapping partner they was in a group together man he got murdered man i was talking to him two days before he got murdered he was involved in some beef down there in louisiana and i wanted him to come with me to a show i had in memphis at

the time but he ain't asked his phone when i hit him up and i ain't wanna seem like i was bothering him right but i was like man get out the city man come with me for the weekend let me just pour into you bro and he ain't come with me to that show he got murdered before i could make it back home you know i mean but i knew that it's like you're involved in this beef but it's because you're getting caught up in wanting to play this role of who g money is instead of the young brother that i know garrett burton is you know and i just seen hip-hop make people do that man like i got adrenaline running through me right now man i'm on the breakfast club it's hop make people do that, man. Like I got adrenaline running through me right now, man. I'm on a breakfast club. It's going to make people like want to amplify something inside of them.

Thankfully, though, because I know I'm serving God. I'm like amplify the righteousness in you, D. Like don't amplify because I got darkness in me, too. I got wretchedness. I got craziness. I got evil in me as well. We all do. But I don't want to amplify that part.

I try to suppress that part as much as possible. But, man, I see people make the wrong decisions every day. And I just try to still be here for them. We got to still have grace with people. You feel me? And what could you tell, like, my black son? He's 11 years old, right? And what I noticed about him is, you know, he lives between me, my mother, and his father.

So that's three different households, you know, because what I do and what his dad does, you know, I'm always on the road. I live in New Jersey now. He's between here and Baltimore. And then his dad, total different household. He has siblings there. I don't have other children yet. I'm pregnant right now. But it's a different it's different household. So it's different things that I don't allow him to do that his dad may allow him to do that my mom don't. So he's he's listening in the gospel when he he would hurt but down when he that's not what he want to listen to he's listening to and be a young boy in school and stuff like that and not

notice a mood change you know not to you know shit on and be a young boy or anything like that because he has things that he's going through as well and he makes that very known but my son's mood will change he'll he'll get like down a little bit you know what i'm saying but he loves to listen to him right now i listen to all types of things i'll have him listen to my son know marvin gaye songs come on he knows anita baker like he knows so many different because it's different i listen to rap i listen from everything to rap rhythm and blues rock all of that right but i notice how it's a change it is it's a mood and and influence from music is very impactful because my son just goes into a different mood when he listens to like um uh juice world and and mba

young boy and i'm like why are you listening to that come on he's like i like it i'm like can you understand what they're saying no not like that not like that but he understands some of that stuff and he puts them in a different mood you get what i'm saying it literally changes your mood you know it's life and death in the power of the tongue that's proverbs 18 and 21 like it don't say life and death in the power of the beat you hear me the beat could change your mood or your frequency but life and death is in the power of those lyrics so that's why beat could change your mood or your frequency but life and death is in the power of those lyrics so that's why it's like we all say we believe in god so we can't ignore that scripture that's real so that's why i'm like bro i don't even want to play about something that could have life and death implications you feel me and that's just real

yo so now it's like instead of just being the person that's anti this anti that i gotta be just as dope but in a different lane so that's why i gotta be able to counteract the murder music with stuff like i don't care if you know me you about to respect how i step why would you think i'd ever fear you i don't even fear death a scary boy need a gun like bad breath need a gum yeah your teeth clean but i know the power of the tongue i'm a man of god i. I ain't superstitious. From New Orleans, where Birdman quotes get treated like Bible scriptures. But me, I ain't the type

to brag about what I done bought. I make silent moves, but I get loud results. If D1 talk about his pain, you gonna really relate. D1 talk about his paper, you gonna know that he straight. D1 rap on top of your beat,

you gonna know that he ate. D1 rap on top of your beat, you gonna know that he ate. You bragging about what you done been through partner we survivors too and you calling boys your brothers but which one's gonna rhyme for you ain't no g code no more boy the streets didn't lie to you that's why i be in my bag but i be in my bible too they don't like me but they know they can't deny me man i'm a real gangster and they know right where to find me. G-A-N-G-S-T-A. Do not try me. Growing and nurturing gifts, serving the almighty. Keep up.

A lot of people feel how I be feeling, but don't speak up. I'll be out at Harvard in my office with my feet up. God, why are you so good to me? I need answers. Slaves built this school. Now I own real estate on campus. That's how I got to come, bro. I dare you say that.

And I really own real estate. Charlemagne, I dare come and i really already said and i'm a man i dare you say that ain't it bro i dare you say that when it is what it is you don't gotta say nothing but of course that was dope that's right what would you do on uh land on harvard yeah yeah how much yeah i own i own so it's this huge, huge multipurpose facility that's being built. It's going to be office buildings is going to be mixed income housing and it's going to be a student academic center that's being built. We just broke ground on it. What? That was December 1st. So I'm part of a team. It take a team to make something big like that happen. And thankfully, I was connected to brilliant black minds that were like, yo, man, we got an opportunity to own real estate on Harvard's campus when our ancestors built this school.

Man, we got to do that. And I was like, bet. That's what I'm using my money on. I don't need the newest car. I drive a Honda Accord proudly. I don't need a Bugatti. I can have that. I can have a Lambo at this point. I don't need none of that, man. that real estate on harvard's campus you know well there you have you know i got a couple more questions for d1 because you've you've been propositioned to compromise yourself at different points in this industry right i know what you're talking about i don't want if you're not gonna say i'm not gonna say no let's say it okay yeah say it since i mean is it true that you were pressured to participate in homosexual acts for a major is it true that you were pressured to participate In homosexual acts for a major Is it true that you were pressured to participate In homosexual acts for

Where did you get that I didn't see that on this No it's very true No it's very true I don't know how you heard that Maybe you heard another interview or something It's very true brother That's when I was That's when I was a local rapper Trying to get on and when people see

That you are vulnerable, cause they know they got the leverage. There's certain people in this industry who will be like, Oh, I think he'll be willing to do something strange for a piece of change. I mean, and I had somebody, I was trying to get somebody to manage me at the time.

And the person I was trying to get to manage me, I drove out of town. I went to a video shoot that they were a part of. And during the video shoot, we were, we were going to have a meeting and talk about that. And yeah, that person kind of,

you know, implied to me like, yo, like I manage you. You just got to do something for me. Yeah. Yikes. Yeah.

And you see them managing artists. Now you like, man, that, so actually that person is Christ. Yeah, bro. No,

this is a real thing, dog. This ain't no, I'm surprised y'all don't know most stories like that. I do. No, we do. We know a lot of them.

So it's not about you. Oh yeah. But it's's a so it's a real thing that i know and unfortunately people so that person they not like some big mogul nowadays whatever trajectory they were on like they they fell off i say that but i want people to know that story because i could have said yes and i could have i could have had something to this day that's a huge skeleton in my closet that I'm like damn bro like I'm traumatized behind that and I had to do that to get on all I had to do to get on was be real be righteous and be relevant you heard me keep going first man absolutely and um I want to ask one last thing about imposter syndrome because you got a record called imposter syndrome and you're clearly at a place of worthy right now so when did you get to that place of worthy right now so when did you get

to that place of worthy and was able to say you know what i know who i am man anytime i'm entering a space where i feel like i'm being tolerated and not celebrated shout out to you for that i got that from you i still feel a sense of imposter syndrome in the music industry for the most part i feel like they tolerate me but they don't celebrate me right my fans man my fans want me to win so bad that's why my fans like we'll name our own price d we'll pay for your album we we'll go stream it too but we'll pay up to a thousand dollars for your album i got fans that love me but the industry bro i still feel like they're like dang, you got so many followers. He making so much noise. We got to let him on this. So we got to open this door for him.

But they just tolerate me. They don't necessarily celebrate me. So I still feel imposter syndrome a lot of times when I'm in industry spaces, because you can kind of tell when people are like you too big and too powerful at this point to not have you here. But we ain't necessarily like championing you. Like you can see the industry pushing some people to the forefront. You know what I'm saying? So it keeps me humble. It keeps me with a chip on my shoulder.

It keeps me feeling like I'm that underdog from New Orleans. I'm David with more Goliaths to have to fight. You think it's more like Sharif in minutes though? It's like, Oh, here come D one again. He bought the priestess and tell us, put the weed down and put the liquor down. Man. I i don't bro because i because i never get that from people

they're like man you come across preachy or anything like that i'm passionate but that's why i'm able to be on the phone with a boost on the phone with a kodak black you know i mean kicking it with manny fresh juvenile like all these like man i'm just a regular dude bro i'm really just a regular dude who is simply not a slave to money and i know who i serve who is who we say we all serve which is god so because of that cool man i can't be content with things that's not glorifying god that's happening on my watch and in my space while i'm in this industry man i gotta uh bro i'm on a breakfast club right now man i gotta say some stuff that's gonna impact people even after we long gone and we're not on this earth no more.

I understand it because the negative is definitely amplified. So when people say things like, man, how come D1 just don't reach out to some of these people personally? I mean, you got to say what you're saying about the positive and you got to amplify that too, right? Like that got to be said publicly if the negative is public thank you bro thank you listen man public actions deserve public responses we have an industry that is putting this music out publicly every day if i go on every playlist in the world right now it's being curated with murder music with music that's disrespecting our women that's glorifying drug dealing with that being said man it's got to be addressed publicly.

It can't be like, why y'all hit all these individual artists up behind the scenes? And I'm not interested in, let me go at the industry. Who is the industry? I don't know who the industry is. Y'all had, uh,

Leo Cohen on here talking about, Hey, them people got to, Hey, I got miles to feed too. You know what I'm saying, man? Listen,

America doesn't want to, uh, heal your trauma.'t want to uh heal your trauma america wants to monetize your trauma this industry don't want to heal your trauma they want to monetize your trauma so i'm like let me empower the artists and the fans to simply be smarter and say let's continue to make hip-hop let's continue to listen to hip-hop but let's make a healthier version of it that's gonna be better for all of us you know i'm saying that's about the platinum pledge for you get out the platinum pledge oh man before you before you go into that you know i want to ask you you mentioned um the game yes now how do you decide who you're working with right because the game has been a rapper who's been one of those

rappers he's been on both sides right he's positive songs he uplifts but he's been a shooter too yeah so how do you decide who d1 is working with because somebody might say that you work with the game and the game is he's on that line he ain't a thousand percent so the game is a sinner right d1 is a sinner too there's nobody on the face of this earth that i won't sit down with that i won't work with you hear me the book that i add here to the bible in mark chapter 2 verse 17 i believe it says healthy people don't need a doctor sick people do with that being said what would i look like to say oh man i can't associate with the game or i can't associate with kevin gates these are all this i what you mean they people just like me that's why i've collaborated with them and i collaborate with anybody on the face of this earth

man like we not supposed to sit here and point a finger and judge people man we got stuff me and the gang both lost loved ones to gun violence that's what the song is about me and kevin gates we both come up in southern louisiana man the song is about what we done seen behind people chasing money when we got music together you know i'm saying like this is i got a song coming out with project pat in two weeks i got a song coming out with raheem devon in a week like bro like i'm out here i hadn't collaborated with lupe fiasco big crit you know all kind of people bro like that's what i want to do because i love making people say he belong in his box and i love breaking that box and making a hit and people be like wait what that wasn't supposed to work i was with killer mike two weeks before the Grammy Awards in Atlanta.

That's my big brother. I went on my first tour with Killer Mike. Man, it was so powerful to see that brother win three Grammy Awards, bro. And let me know that a shift is happening right now. This the time right now for all the boxes to be broken. Oh, you too old. Nope. Killer Mike just won a Grammy Award.

Oh, you got a message in your music. People don't want hear that nope killer mike just won three grammy awards we gotta so with that being said it's time for us to all come together man can't nobody say why would you work with this artist or this artist me and fredo bang got a song about to drop you know i'm saying what would i look like to not work with my student just because it's like oh man will you you be rapping about some different stuff than me bro so i can't do that because people would say you know you point a finger at let's say an artist like jim jones would you do a record with jim or you point i already got a record for jim if he if he would be down to hop on it man i got a ton of songs that i'm like jim i think this would be fire for us but if not because people love to call you a clout chaser right you bringing him in your world

probably oh i'm always bringing people into my world if i do a song you know i'm saying yeah like you got to respect my platform i don't curse curse in my music. You know what I'm saying? Hey, if you could respect that, the game hit me and say, guess what, liberal? It's the first song of my whole career. I'm not going to curse on, but I'm going to do that for you. That's a testimony, bro. Yeah, that's powerful. You feel me? So, of course, I'll do a song with Jim Jones, with Meek Mill, with Rick Ross. But if it don't come to that, it's OK, because not about that brother i'm good already like generational wealth has been built already you know i'm saying the impact is being made the calendar is full with speaking engagements

and booking and touring and all that so the platinum pledge all right in the music industry the highest standard of success is gone platinum right so i turn platinum into an acronym it stands for people leading a transformation involving newly unified mindsets that's what platinum stands for the platinum pledge simply says that we are taking a vow that we will not create support or promote music that's glorifying murder glorifying drug dealing glorifying the disrespect of our women and glorifying sexual irresponsibility that's the platinum pledge and i'm unifying people to say yo there's actually more of us who agree with this than don't agree with this but the industry will make you feel like oh man i'm the only one or i'm lame if i don't want to hear murder music you know

what i'm saying so the platinum brother, thousands and thousands and thousands and thousands of people have signed it already, bro. Now I'm on The Breakfast Club talking about it. People can go to my website, d1music.com, D-E-E, the number one, music.com, and go sign the Platinum Pledge. And I'm unifying all these thousands of people together to say, now here is how we create

a healthier hip-hop space for all of us that's what the platinum pledge is bro i would love for y'all to sign it you're definitely gonna sign real top man that's that's bro that is life-changing bro that is life-changing when we see this ain't about canceling nobody this ain't about we don't love this person we want everybody to be a part of this shift but we want to make it together man that's huge bro so that's what the platinum pledge is and i've been doing these meetings going from city to city called rappers only in new orleans i kicked it off in my hometown we had 100 rappers in the same room gangster rappers christian rappers uh backpack rappers uh females all kind of stuff right and we in that rappers only and we talking

about what's the mental side of what goes into why we make the music we make monetarily. Like how important is it to make money off of the music we make? What's the message we want to put out there? It's basically therapy for artists and me doing this and doing these rappers only meetings from city to city. This stuff is making artists feel like, dang, bro, like finally I could express some stuff that I couldn't express to my fan base. Or I couldn't express, like, to other people that don't just get me, man. I'm trying to unify us so we could be better, bro. And not trying. We doing it at this point.

You hear me? Give me your Twitters and Instagrams and all that stuff, D1. All my social media is D1 Music. D-E-E, the number one music. You hear me? All my social media and on streaming platforms is just D1. D-E-E dash the number one. I got me all my social media and on uh streaming platforms it's just d1 dee dash the number one i got 11 albums out and counting y'all go check it out newest album from the hood to harvard please and look i want to bless y'all with these patches limited edition

patches yeah that's real be righteous be relevant that's my collaboration i just did with levi's envy i got you brother thank you bro yeah man so that that's my motto when i did with Levi's Envy I got you brother Thank you brother You hear me Yeah man So that's my motto When I say three is up That's what it mean brother Be real Be righteous Be relevant And hip hop

I know we can do all them things And we gonna win together Congratulations On the collaboration Thank y'all Man I can't wait to see y'all next time bro Cause we gotta keep this journey going You hear me

That's right Well it's D1 It's the Breakfast Club Good morning Wake that ass up In the morning The Breakfast Club. Good morning. Wake that ass up. It's in the morning. The Breakfast Club. Hey, guys.

I'm Kate Max. You might know me from my popular online series, The Running Interview Show, where I run with celebrities, athletes, entrepreneurs, and more. After those runs, the conversations keep going. That's what my podcast Post Run High is all about. It's a chance to sit down with my guests and dive even deeper into their stories, their journeys, and the thoughts that arise once we've hit the pavement together. Listen to Post Run High on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.