The Brilliant Idiots - Bridge of Spies (Ft. DJ Vlad)

Episode Date: June 16, 2022

This week Charlamagne and Andrew are back! And they had their friend and first time guest, DJ Vlad stop by who reveals that he is partially Russian, so watch out! Also, Vlad speaks on his come up in the hip hop community and first having the nickname “Butcher”. Vlad also speaks on some of the craziest interviews he may or may not regret and content credibility. ********************************************************** Check out Andrew Schulz www.theandrewschulz.com Stream Charlamagne "Hell of a Week" on Paramount Check out all the podcast on Charlamagne's "Black Effect Network" https://www.blackeffect.com/ Empty Thoughts Podcast https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC-zRsExS9E0VBmwb9Cekdug/featured https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/empty-thoughts-show/id1622292632 Empty Thoughts IG/Tik Tok https://www.instagram.com/emptythoughtsshow/ https://www.tiktok.com/discover/empty-thought-show Check Out "Summer Of 85" on Audible www.audible.com/pd/Summer-of-85-A…areTest=TestShare Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

I love the premise of this show. Smart people talking about dumb shit. I think it's dumb people talking about smart shit. Oh, we go where we're not supposed to go, baby. Yep, Charlemagne the guy. Andrew Shokes. We are the brilliant idiots podcast. Today's episode is brought to you by Squarespace

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Let's start the show. Our guest today is a legendary journalist and media personality. He has interviewed the likes of Boosie, the Little Baby, Nick Cannon to Orlando Brown, D.C. Young Fly to Soldier Boy, he started off his career as a DJ, has directed critically acclaimed documentaries like Ghost Ride the Whip, has appeared on episodes of loving hip-hop New York in Atlanta. and has released the rap phenomenon mixtape series on bladtv.com. He is best known for his interviews on his YouTube channel, VladTV, which is earned over four. Oh, they disrespected you, Vlad. They got a number updated.

I know that's not right. They got one million, well over five million subscribers. Five million. Ladies and gentlemen, DJ Vlad is here. What's up? What's up? What's up? What's happening?

How y'all feeling, man? Well, like we were reuniting for the first time. This is the first time of three of us have been in a room together. Probably like five years. That's so crazy. It don't feel like that. I guess because with modern technology with the Zooms and the phone calls and everything else. Yeah.

I think social media makes you feel closer than you actually are. You know what I'm saying? As long as you like seeing people pop up, you like, okay, they're still alive. Like everything's good. Yeah. Yeah. I don't know. I mean, did we all do a pod before?

I don't even remember that. No. We've never done with you. Yeah, I've done with you individually. Yeah, but I don't think we've all gotten in a room together. I've never been on three idiots? We've never been. No, I've never been.

It's my first time. Wow. Yeah. I've done breakfast club a bunch of times. Yeah. But yeah, first time. Well, happy to have you, man. Thank you for having you.

Happy to have you, man. How was everybody's week? Good. Good. I'm ready to go. I got my honeymoon, bro. Tomorrow, I'm going on. You out.

By the time this comes out, I'm in Italy, baby. Yeah. Yeah. Fingers crossed. By the way, next week we won't be here. Might as well let y'all know that now because Shulta being Italy for his honeymoon. I'll be out of the country as well. Where you going?

I don't like to say, but I'll be out. It's not vacation. I'm going for work. Oh. Yeah, yeah, yeah, it's for work. It's for work. But I'll be, I'll be going for like, I'll be going all next week. Go like this.

I'm probably dirty as fuck, man. Why? I ain't washing like two days. No, let's see. Why not? I took the shower last night. First of all, I would like to say, what's your airline of choice? It's Delta, baby.

I love JetBlue. Delta is my number two. Delta, I say this with the utmost respect because I have two upcoming Delta flights that I know for the rest of the year. Speak on it. You all suck right now. Speak on it. What happened?

Delta is moving like spirit. at airlines. What happened? They are, man. Wait, why? What happened? Because they just cancel your flights for no reason.

Don't give you no explanation whatsoever. So I was in Dallas this weekend. That leg of the trip was fine. Made it to Dallas. Celebrated the 65th birthday of the good brother, Bishop, T.D. Jakes.

Oh, it was phenomenal. So, you know, he had a birthday celebration on Saturday. And we went to church service on Sunday. 4 o'clock he posted fly out of Dallas. Get to the airport. Flight is delayed. Get delayed again.

Then they just canceled it. No reason for the cancellation, no nothing. Was the flight full? This is my little conspiracy theory with flights. I don't know if the flight was full or not. I think they're canceling flights that are empty, so they don't have to pay for the trip. Yeah.

Oh. They told us it was a mechanical issue. They said it was the expedition. Right? And they delayed it twice. Open a window. Then they canceled it. Then they was like, yo, we're going to put you on American because I guess they like

sister airlines or whatever, whatever. So I took an American flight in the Burbank. Got to Burbank, didn't have no luggage. No. So it was just like, didn't have no luggage. But it didn't get the luggage back until last night. He got back to the airport. What were you going to do without the same sweatsuit over and over?

How are you going to manage for multiple days? That's what it was, right? By the way, the only reason I cared because I had to shoot something on Monday. So I have my clothes with me. Ah. And then, you know, they provided some wardrobe. But you're right. I'm wearing the same sweatsuit since Friday.

That's right. You took the red eye to be here now. Yeah. Ah, that's, you know what I mean? Glad? But Delta, step it up, bro. We don't expect that from y'all. Shout out to Delta.

You guys are great. Can we wait to fly with you guys tomorrow? Not right now. They're going through something. They're going to do some challenges. You guys are going to get a great by tomorrow. For my honeymoon. So, just everybody enjoy.

By the way, you better pray. Come on now. Come on now. What are we doing now? You see all those people in Delta getting their flights canceled. It was their birthday weekends and shit like that. But why are we putting this energy out? I'm just saying it's possible.

What are you doing right now? Remember when you had something on your lip and everybody was going to laugh at you? And I said, hey, take that off your lip because I cared about you. And now you're putting all this energy out. Like, I'm going to be fucked up. I just want Delta to do better. That's all. Me too.

Y'all are not Spirit Airlines. Okay. You want to know something wild about airlines? This is, what? This is only wild about airlines And this is coming from me So it's kind of rare But something I think is pretty sexist

Talk to me The flight attendants have to wear heels Really? Isn't that Walking up and down the plane? No, once they're on the plane During service they can switch into like a flat to wall But as part of their job

They have to wear a heel And the whole point of a heel is to like accentuate the muscles in your legs and like stick out your ass and completely sexualize you. I know it's crazy that I'm making this statement about Delta like I, you know, but I just feel like

of all the things we could call sexes and stuff like mandating that your female employees only have to show up in heels, that's not weird? I mean, I didn't know it. That's feeding into the sexy, stewardess stereotype, I guess. That shit is long gone, bro.

Yeah. I, you know, that shit is long gone. I haven't seen a female. stewardess in forever, dude. It's all guys. It is all guys. That's not true. That's not true. Oh, y'all don't fly first class? You all don't fly first class? Y'all don't know.

It usually is all guys. They keep the ladies in the back, bro. The gays are up front, maybe. Not JetBlue. JetBlue got a lot of ladies. I love Jeff Blue. That's my airline choice. JetBlue is the shit. No, it's great. If you got, you know, if you're broke and you're trying to look rich, JetBlue's the shit?

No, you're crazy. JetBlue most shit. I'm a problem of Moseg member. Jeffleman is the best New York to L.A. Right. That's all that's all that's close. It's not even close. The live flat, the food is crazy. Yeah, the live flat, exactly.

Live flat, but also it's the food. They have like legit. Delta might have better food, bro. Not than, in my opinion, not than Jeplu. Okay. Because Jeplu gives you that menu and you think you have all these choices. Yeah, Delta will come to you with a piece of paper. This is what you're eating.

Yeah, they'd be like, we don't have no. more. We only had two of this. And they'd be like, he got the last one. Yeah, he got the last one. And they're like, why you point me out? Like, we didn't want the same fucking thing.

Yeah, they did that. I thought that was weird. So they came to me and my wife. They was like, yeah, we have these two options. Well, actually, we only have one left for this and one left for that. So we was both like, well, we want this. They were like, well, we only have one of this and one of that. You knew how many of us were going to be on this flight?

Yeah, man. Yeah. I just wanted Delta to get it together. That's all I'm saying. That's it. But they will by Wednesday. I pray so. I hope they get it.

I got a fly Delta again next week. Say again? No, because they said it was Americans' fault. That's the other reason. They told me it was American's fault, but I'm like, American didn't cancel the flights. Y'all did. They just shrugged their shoulders like,

that's what, that's the spirit airline. Is it annoying when people just like blame America for everything, you know? Nah, America, they should get a lot of blame. You got a proud Russian right here. Proud Russian? Yeah, I mean. You're not even Russian. You're USSR.

No, he's not from Russia. You're right. You have no connection to Russia whatsoever. Break that down for us. If you were born there, you were not born in Russia. Well, I was born in the Ukraine. I was born in Kiev. At the time, that's what he's saying.

At the time, it was the USSR. It was the capital, right? At one point, yeah, before Moscow. Yeah, Kiev was actually the capital. Moscow is a fake capital. They just invented that shit. He invented this. Yeah.

But back in it, but that's why Ukraine is important, right? Because Kiev is like. It used to be the capital of Russian. Mother Russia. Like that's where at all. So, yeah. When I was born there, it was part of Russia, technically. It was the USSR.

So I've always said I was Russian. Years later became independent. It became Ukraine. But it's like, you know, I never considered myself Ukrainian necessarily because it was part of Russia at the time. Yeah. You're ethnically Russian like most people in Ukraine are. Exactly.

So it's not cool to represent Ukraine or something? I mean, I do represent Ukraine now. There's a Ukrainian flag like in my Twitter bio and stuff like that. I support the war in Ukraine. But at the time, you know, you know what I'm saying? Like, let's just say you've been, you know, American in your whole life. And at one point, whatever. every state you grew up and became part of Jamaica or something.

You know, you still consider yourself American, not Jamaican, even though technically South Carolina was part of Jamaican now. You see what I'm saying? It's kind of like that. It's a weird situation. And you actually lived there, right? I was born. I was five years old when I moved.

Have you been back to the Ukraine? Not to the Ukraine. I've been back to Moscow and St. Petersburg. Oh. Yeah. Probably can't go back anymore. Yeah. Said a few things.

Oh, that. Who probably doesn't like? I had an article in Variety Magazine where they started out with my comments about what I thought about the Ukraine and Russia. So I probably don't want to go back to Russia anytime soon. But what do you think about the Ukraine and Russian war? I mean, is it still a war, right?

I mean, you can't tell because it's the media. The media just... They moved on to something else. Monkeypox. Monkeypox. They moved under like five different things. Yeah. It's fucked up.

It's Russia trying to take back something that isn't theirs anymore. Yeah. And he finally admitted that last week. He was like, you know, it's all about the land. Yeah, of course it is. They're about to come for Sweden, too. They said something about that. You think so?

I don't know. He'd like mention something, right? Well, Sweden joined NATO. Remember they locked Al-up in Sweden for a month? Jesus Christ, Alex. You know, Sweden joined NATO, I think. And that's what the problem. But they're trying to.

They're trying to do with NATO. So that's what Russia doesn't like. You got family that still? Not that I know. All right. Everyone that I knew moved out of Russia eventually or out of Ukraine eventually. You know, some of us moved to America. A few, like my...

My father's sister's family moved to, I think, Germany. And then, like, I don't know anyone who's still there. So you went from Ukraine to Oakland? I went from Ukraine to Massachusetts to the Bay Area. And that's pretty much why I grew up. And then, you know. Bro, you got to go back to the Ukraine, man. When this war is over.

Ukraine is fire. Kiev is. You've been there? Yeah. Oh. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Is fucking dope. Really? One of the coolest cities I've ever been to. Really? Unbelievable. You shouldn't be able to go to war with cool cities. Son, we were there when there was a war. Huh?

There was another war happening like the eastern part of the country. This is back, I think, when they were like annexing maybe Crimea. Yeah, I think so. I think that's, that's what it. And like the people was just, I guess they're accustomed to conflict because people were going out, they're partying, they're eating dinner, a restaurant, something like that. I mean, it was amazing. That was when I went with Jamil, you know, my boy, Jamil.

Yeah. And they thought he was will I am. People was just stopping him in the street. I got the feeling. Tonight going to be a good night. It was amazing. It was amazing, bro. There's no black people there.

And then the one guy shows up. Oh, I've got the feeling. Oh, so there's no black people in Ukraine? Nah. Wow. That's the whole thing of, like, where people, like, when you think of, like, racism, it's like my family came from a place

where there were just no black people. You know what I'm saying? Like, once they got to America, really, but no, like, probably very few Asian people, no Spanish, you know, Hispanic people at all. Like, it was really just all,

just white. You know what I'm saying? So it was a very, you know, different kind of thing, you know, I mean, in terms of like how I grew up.

It wasn't like an American white family. It was like an immigrant, white family. So what did you think when you first saw black people? Well, I was five. So I grew up with,

you know, the first school I went to in Massachusetts. Oh, wow. Okay. So that's like, you know, there's a large black population.

So it was like, boom, like from kindergarten or something. So when did you, let me ask you a question that they asked on Brown Sugar Vlad TV. When did they, when did you first fall in love with hip-hop? Elementary school, fifth grade, break dancing had just become a national phenomenon. You know, the New York City Breakers. The movie started to come out, break in, Beat Street.

And it was just like, you know, you couldn't really buy, there was no hip-hop on the radio. You'd have to go to, like, warehouse records and buy a hip-hop record and hope that it was good. You know what I'm saying? And I just started, you know, I started breakdancing and listen to hip hop at that time and it was like, it was just a ride I never got off. Wait, you can break dance? I mean, before I could. You know, at my current age,

I'd probably hurt myself pretty badly. Can you like, can you pop and lock or anything like that? A little bit. You got to start doing that. You got to start doing that. Whenever they call you a coach and vote, you say you coach your appropriating, say my business is to be kidding. You know, it's all. Hey, hey.

You start popping on him, Blas. Come on, dude. You can't hit a little one right now? Do you want to battle? We can battle. We can battle? I'll battle you right now, you know what I got a feeling. That's the thing, though, but I think that this generation doesn't understand your hip-hop pedigree.

You know what I mean? Like they think you're somebody who just started doing, you know, Vlad TV, and that's where it started for you in this. Yeah. You know what I mean? But I didn't even know about the breakdown. the thing, but I remember back in, like, the early 2000s, some of my first national looks as a personality was on those beef. The beef DVDs you were doing. The mixtapes, essentially.

Yeah, I put you and Buffy the Body arguing with each other on the radio on one of the beef DVDs. And I remember we talked on the phone. Yeah. Because that was big. Like, you know, you had to think that was before the internet. So, you know, you might have had like all hip hop. You might have had like, S-O-H. So DVDs what?

everything, the mix tapes were everything. So to get a prominent look on a national mixtape like that was like huge. You know, and that's when I first started hearing about Vlad TV. Then I, you know, DJ Vlad at the time. Then I started paying attention and it was like, you know, you did the documentaries on Oakland about MacDrey

who I never even, I never even know about MacDrey. Those ride the whip, yeah, the hypefee, the hypeen movement documentary. The day of the American gangster on MacDray, the Rompeon gang. Yep. Yeah. So, I mean, it's stuff like that. that I feel like if people knew they wouldn't criticize you so harshly. Well, and I've always like, and you could talk to anyone about this in our space,

like I've always seen up-and-coming talent and I've always embraced them. You know what I mean? Like I said, like when I heard you, I'm like, oh, Charlemagne's dope. I never heard about him before, but I'm going to put them on this mixtape. Adam 22, academics, Sean Cotton, you know, from Sagey's TV, like all these guys, I reached out to him early, put them on my platform and was like, you know what I mean? because when I was coming up, I just got hated off. Like, you know what I mean?

Source wasn't fucking with me, double X-L, wasn't fucking me hot 97, you know, like none of the radio stations or anything we're trying to really, you know what I mean? What do you mean when you first started doing the mixtapes? Well, just period. You know, whether mixtapes or when I started doing Vlad TV, when Vlad TV started to become a real entity,

I reached out, like, I had meetings of double XL and stuff like that. That went fucking nowhere. You know what I'm saying? Yeah, they didn't believe in it. They didn't believe in it. And they didn't even want to, like, really associate with it.

You know, and they were like, I was like, yo, you guys are really kind of behind the ball here. Like, this print shit is really going away. They're like, oh, no, we don't need your help. We don't we're doing it. Yeah, that's wild that when you think about all of those institutions, none of them evolved into the digital age. Yeah, the source is a rap.

Ozone magazine, rap. Ozone was the one that bothers me the most because, you know, I used to write for ozone with the chin check. Duval used to do something in ozone. I forgot what Duval's segment was called, but they had their fix. to Julia Beverly, she had her fingers on the post of everything that was coming out of the South. South, yeah.

So they could have been the first world star, the first Vlad TV, everything. Yep. Yep. Never transitioned. Why do you think that is? And how did you have the way with all to know this where the game was going? I think that, you know, like before, you know, before Vlad TV and the whole DJ career, I went to school at UC Berkeley. I was a computer science major, and I worked at, like, Intel. I didn't know you went to Berkeley. You're a smart one. You could be a spy.

You could be a spy. You know, you know, they always say the feds? He might not be the feds. He might be working for Putin, bro. I mean, if I was working for Putin, I would put out an article in variety saying he's an asshole. You know what I mean? This guy could be a spy, bro. A Russian spy.

I'm a Russian spy. That's a new one. I haven't heard that one yet. Yeah. That's way better. That's way better. That's better in the fans. Yeah, feds. Everybody's the feds, right?

This is, you know, working for Putin, bro. This is good. We got to push the gas. You got the Trump conspiracy also. You got the P-Takes, Doug. You need to get Trump on Vlad. That would be fucking fired. Hell, yeah.

We'll see. You think you got it? He got to get Trump on. He would, I think Trump would do Vladt TV. Yeah. Because he's all about the numbers. Yeah. He's all about the numbers.

But to answer your question, like, I was a computer programmer for a little bit. And, I mean, but I studied. in school, like I majored in it. So it was like, I approached Vlad TV as much of a technology company as I did a content company. So the back end of, you know, I spent millions of dollars over the years, you know, me and my programmer were building this whole back end of how to, how can we really function and put out a large amount of daily content with a small staff. And that was where the technology in the back end, like me, right now, we put out 10 new clips a day,

plus two flashbacks and full interviews on certain days. Every day? Every day. Damn. 365 days a year, holidays, weekends, birthdays, you know, whatever else. And to create that amount of content requires a system that could facilitate that and where people aren't stepping on each other's toes and uploading the wrong thing and everything else like that.

So approaching it like a dot com you could say, along with the content company, allowed us to sort of grow in ways that I think other similar companies could die. What was your childhood like? A childhood like. Well, you got to understand. First, I was in Massachusetts, Springfield, Massachusetts. I was a little kid. And we were around kind of a Russian community and everything else like that.

My relatives were around and so forth. My parents went and moved to San Mateo, California. Right? They bought a house. their first house and they, you know, this is where they settled. I was down the street from my, you know, elementary school.

But now I'm this kid named Vlad in the 80s with no Russian kids anywhere, no Russian families, no Russian anything. This is like the whole school. And this is the middle of the Cold War. You're the bad guy in every movie. I'm the bad guy in every movie.

And I'm like, right? Like every movie in the 80s. It was a guy named. Red Dawn. Every movie. Yeah. More games. Like whatever.

else. So it's like... You're rooting for and Rocky 4. Rocky. You did? Yeah. Took too long.

Yeah. Took too long to answer that one. Yeah. Took too long to answer. This guy's a fucking spy, dude. You know who you were rude? Chairman Drago killed Apollo Creed? Yeah, that was fucked up. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

I wasn't... Did you turn the movie off then? Were you like, that's the end? The comedy skills have approved, I got to say. He's much sharper. They're much sharper than I remember. Thank you, Vlad. Like, comedy aficionado.

So, yeah, so here I am growing up in this environment where it's always like a level of animosity. You know what I'm saying? And I think that's what initially drew me in hip-hop. Well, against me. Okay, okay. You know what I'm saying?

Like, I remember this one time this kid was like, yeah, I could shoot you and nothing will happen because you're Russian. You know what I mean? Like statements, like really hurtful statements like that when you're like, 10 years old. So people have been threatening to kill you for a while.

Yeah, I'm used to it. Like that's, you think maybe it's you? Maybe. Maybe. I'm the problem. It might be if it started at 10 and it's still going. Americans have smoked for Russians like that, though? Hell yeah. You got to understand, because I'm a little older than you,

there was a time, and this is the time I'm talking about, where a nuclear war was a real conversation. I remember that when McCall was going to stuff. with Reagan and Gorbachev? No, no, before Gorbachev. Like, during the Brezhnerve and stuff like that. Like, there was TV shows called like the day after, which is about what happens

what a nuclear war happens and what you're supposed to do and everything else like that. Hey, there was a real, there was a, you know, these days people don't think that people are going to launch nukes against each other, but in the 80s, that was a real conversation. So I was kind of considered kind of the enemy.

It was before that. It was during like JFK administration. Well, but it kept going, right? Yeah, yeah, yeah. It wasn't until Gorbichie. came in and started to be friendly with America, which ultimately led to the decline of the USSR. Before then, there was always animosity

between America and Russia. 100%. What was the people? I mean, I'm sure. It's always over money and resources, but what was it over? I mean, it was over democracy versus communism. Who's the superpower after World War II?

And who's the superpower after World War II? And, you know, think about all the wars that were being fought in, you know, Vietnam, Afghanistan. This is really Russia and America fighting against each other on other people's turf. Yeah. They basically say the space race was like designed to bankrupt Russia. Yeah. Yeah, I remember when Reagan did this speech and he was talking to Russia and he was like, why are we beefing with each other when there could potentially be a threat from another planet? Yeah, that's, you know what I remember that? Perhaps we need some outside universal threat to make us recognize this common bound. I occasionally

think how quickly our differences worldwide would vanish if we were facing an alien threat from outside this world. That was wow. And like that was a, he said that and it was like, everybody's like, yo, he's right. We should have peace. No, motherfucker. What about the people from the other planet he's talking about? What about them?

Yeah. Yeah. I don't know, man. I don't know. But that's what white people have to do to create unity. I've realized. Like, not like, because like other groups can be like, we can't fight with each other. white people holding us down, but white people don't have that.

So we got to be like, I think there's aliens. I think Danos is on the way. But to answer your question, it was really just the way that I was treated as an outcast that like when hip hop came around, like, you know what I mean? It was like, oh, okay, like I can kind of relate to what's happening. And then like the other black and Hispanic kids that were kind of going through the same kind of racism that I was kind of going through. And in a way, we all sort of started to fuck with each other.

You felt like an outsider. It related to these other people who are outsiders. Exactly. Now, all these people are not necessarily giving you like the easiest pathway to friendship, I imagine, early on. Not really, man. We're all kids. Oh, but so you did feel like you had a community. Before you just said there wasn't like a Russian community.

In fact, in fact, there was a, like someone who I'm really close friends with still to this day, like my oldest friend essentially, this guy named, I'm not going to say his name. But anyways, he was, he was half black, half Russian. You know what I'm saying? So it was this interesting sort of like, you know what I mean? Like me and him started really fuck with each other because he had like a Russian mother and a black father. You know, that type of thing. And it was like me and him just kind of like,

that was the only Russian kid in the school, but he looked black. So he wasn't, and his name was Mike as opposed to Vlad. So he wasn't getting the flak that he was on the Russian side, but he was getting the black racism part. You know what? You're bonded over being outcast basically. Yeah.

And then what, hip hop? Yeah. Okay. Yeah, you know, I was like we had a little break dance crew in elementary school. What was the name of your group? Oh shit, I don't remember. I remember my name I think was kid fresh. We had the, remember like the hats with like the flaps in the back?

Yeah. And you would put your name as the checker, the black and white checkered and you'd have the fans to go with it. And then you'd put like kid fresh, like the red felt letters, you know, from Vlad is way hard and fresh. The name Vlad is way. Yeah, Vlad goes in a little bit. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, Kid Fresh TV just doesn't really have the same.

Nah. Yeah. That's dope. So you're bonded over hip hop. Yeah. And then what about your parents? Like, what's your relationship with them? I mean, my father passed away.

We're talking about back then or now? Back then. Back then, my parents were immigrants. You know, my dad never really spoke English all that well. My mom did a little bit more because she was a bit younger than him. Yeah. They never really integrated into American society all that well. My dad couldn't really keep a job so he had to start his own company.

Like inspected homes. My mom kept like the stable government job. But they never really like we had no American friends. Like like my families, my parents didn't have American friends ever. They had other Russians that they would go. Just common. Associated. Yeah, exactly.

And but like there was always the, but I was American, right? Like culturally, I'm completely American. They don't know. Were they proud of that? Did they not like that? It was just sort of, it always created somewhat of a disconnect between, you know, like me my mother aren't close these days. Were you close with your father?

A little bit closer to him. Were they, was there ever a moment where like they were proud of your success? Did you? They never understand it. They don't understand it. Yeah. They don't really know what I do.

You know what I mean? Like, me, in fact, I remember when there was this point in my life when, you know, the dot-com crash happened. And my business got wiped out

and I'd always wanted to do the DJ thing. And I spent a year trying to do it in the bay. And then I decided I was going to move to New York. Like I, I had the last, few dollars I had. I was, you know, basically went to New York to live on my friend's couch. And my mom took me to the airport. And to the airport, she was describing how I'm wasting my life and throwing my life away and just not, not taking things seriously. You know what I mean?

I'm wasting my time. And I was literally like crying in the car, like hearing my mom say that. Yeah. So it was always like, I, like, I'm going to do this without y'all understanding what I do. And eventually, y'all will see it or you won't, but I'm on my own path with it. I think it's hard for immigrant parents to see their kids take non-traditional paths. Right. Because they're like, yo, we risk so much for you to come to a stable place where you could be a fucking lawyer, a doctor, like some place where you could have security. Yeah. And then you're going on this like artsy dream.

Yeah. And that's probably difficult for the kid because I imagine like all of us, you want your parents to, you know, feel proud of you or validate what you're doing. Right. So at what point do you go, I'm never going to get that from the people that mean the most of it? I just accepted it early on. I'm never going to get it. They're never going to understand. That's tough.

They're never going to understand. They don't listen to American music. Yeah. You know what I'm saying? They don't follow American, you know, non-headline type news. They don't know. They don't have black friends. All my relationships with women have always been black.

You know what I mean? So there's always been the disconnect of like what I am is very different than who they are. And that never changed. What would have made them happen? Like, what could you have done? You'd think would have made them happen? I'm sure if I married a Russian Jewish girl and stayed as a computer programmer, that would be like... I mean, going to Berkeley must have made them proud.

Yeah, I mean, it did. It did. And, you know, but ultimately I became a DJ. So... Right. So I feel like you wasted your education. Yeah. And you know something?

I felt early on that, like, when I was getting to the DJ thing, and I was 29 at the time when I moved to New York, I was like, damn, like, I really wasted all this time in college because all these other DJs are way ahead of me because they've been starting. starting since they were 16, 17. You know what I mean? But now you're using that now? But now it's like, in retrospect, like, wow, that actually helped me out in the future,

not in this particular field, but in what I ended up going into afterwards. So life is a long journey. You know, you have to take it all, you know, with a grain of salt and be appreciative for all the knowledge you got, even though if you don't understand how you're utilizing it at a time. Is that why you called yourself to butcher for a little while? That was just like... Just to make your parents think you had a regular job.

No, that was Is that what you're Ukrainian folks? Son, he's a spy, bro. Vlad the butcher? Don't that sound like something? Sound like a butcher? Nah, that's like an Italian mafia name. But Benny took it, Benny calls himself the butcher now.

I like that. Yeah, Benny the butcher. I like that. Yeah, I know. That's actually, I didn't even, Alchemist pointed that out. He was like, because I remember I hit him up.

When I first heard Benny before he blew out, I'm like, yo, Benny the butcher's. dope. He was like, one butcher to another. And I'm like, oh, shit. Good point. Good point. I named the butcher after the gangs of New York. Yeah. That's what I figured at camper. Yeah. I haven't sampled like the butcher, like,

my mixtapes and stuff like that. I would think if your parents, you know, if you're an immigrant parent, the American dream is the American dream, like, meaning that is broad. Like, it means that you could literally come here and whatever you can conceive in your mind you can achieve. Yeah. Like that's what I would think it is.

Like I think when you just limit it to three or four jobs, it's not really a dream, is it? Again, my mom is an immigrant. So like, and she came here and she kind of lived that dream, right? She did a non-traditional job. So she had a lot of confidence in my ability to do that. But also if your parents come here and they do more of a traditional job so that you can do it, they're going, wow, this is security. Mm-hmm. This is great.

I think parents always want security for their kids. Yeah. So it's not that they don't believe in them. It's more, how am I going to make sure you're okay when I'm gone? That's what I assume it is, you know? I mean, I'm sure you guys feel that way about kids, right? Like, don't you want, like, you probably want your daughters to do whatever they want, but there's a little part of you that's like, well, it'll be nice if you get those degrees,

so you give them someone to fall back on. No, I don't think like that. Really? No, I mean, no, listen, I want, I want them to do whatever it is that makes them happy. I do want them to have stability, but I don't know where that's going to come from. Yeah. I don't think stability necessarily comes from getting a degree.

That's true. You know what I'm saying? But you know that more than most. Yeah. So it's like I could never like, how could I do what I do and then look at them and be like, well, y'all got to get a degree and y'all got, why would I want them to have? I don't want them to have a job.

You know what I mean? I want them to start a business. Ah, I, okay, yeah, yeah, yeah. You do want them to work. Yeah, like my daughter, my daughter loves cheerleading. The thing I'm always thinking about, because I can see that's her passion to say, how can she monetize this?

You know, is it through merchandise? Are you going to own your own cheer gym? Yeah. Like those are the things I'm planting in her head now. That's smart. You know? So.

Yeah, because the career for a cheerleader might be short, but. Oh, there's money in it. Oh, yeah. But not as a cheerleader.

Not as a cheerleader. Right. No, not as a cheerleader. Right. But sometimes we fall in love with shit that's not very lucrative. And that's cool, too. Like,

you look at like ballerinas and stuff like that. Like, most ballerinas aren't making that much money. but they've dedicated their entire life to this performance. It's just the most important thing to them. Absolutely. And then maybe the smart ones have found a way to monetize that outside of that. Like there's, forget her name, Misty Copeland, I think.

She's a ballerina? Yeah. No. Yeah, she's like the first black. She's a gymnast. Ballerina, like premier ballerina. She's built like a gymnast. That's what she's actually very toned.

Yeah, it's like non-traditional ballet built. She's not typical, she's not typically built like a ballerina. Yeah. But she's, you know, doing Amex commercial. She's found a way to, like, monetize that fame outside of it. Yeah, I don't know, Vlad. It's just kind of interesting, like, sometimes you hear someone's story. Like, you hear, like, their childhood and kind of, like, how they, you know, formed into a human being.

And that kind of informs, like, the choices that they make. Like, I don't know, knowing that about you, like, feeling like this kind of outsider. I think you see, like, a white guy in hip-hop, and you don't necessarily put together, like, what your identity was as a kid. Your identity wasn't white kid. Your identity was, I'm fucking rough. and motherfuckers are telling me I'm Russian every day. The white kids aren't going, come hang out with us, white guy.

That's interesting. When's the first time you saw yourself in hip-hop? Like when you saw, who was the person you saw that made you say, oh, I can be in hip-hop. I can be part of the culture. Ooh, that's interesting. Hmm. I mean, early on, I'd probably have to say,

I guess when you saw the Beastie Boys. Yeah, Beast Boys. I mean, Beastie Boys are possibly third base, but I think little more of the Beastie Boys. boys because they were sort of like kind of fast and loose with the you know i mean they're hip hop but also kind of rock and punk you know at the same time and jewish too i think right yeah yeah adam adam horowitz yeah or you know ad rock he's jewish so it's like you sort of see that you know the way they sort of played around with the genres and kind of how dope they were and it was like you

know that first album licensed to ill was just crazy phenomenal it was one of the all-time i think best albums period genre genre you know aside and it was like that like, oh, okay, like these kids is really being authentic in who they are. You know what I mean? Like, third base was more like kind of traditionally black hip hop. You know what I mean? Like search had the high top fade and, you know, the way they style themselves and so forth. I'm like, I don't, I can't really do that.

Yeah. But what the Beastie Boys are doing, like, that's kind of like, yo, like I can kind of relate to that a little bit more. It's so interesting because I don't think the dynamics of black and Jewish, black and Jewish relations and hip hop are disgusted enough. Yeah. Because it's been like that

from the onset. Mm-hmm. We talk, it's Def Jam. People think Def Jam, most iconic hip-hop label level, right? It's Russell Simmons and Rick Rubin. Mm-hmm. It don't happen without it.

You know what I mean? Then eventually it's Leo Cohen comes around. It's just like, it does not happen without that dynamic. Well, it does, but that dynamic is actually cool that now. Mm-hmm. You think it still happens without it? Yeah, of course.

You think Def Jam still becomes Def Jam without like... No, I mean, I mean, like, there's not always Jewish guys involved in every label and stuff like that. She is. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah. I mean, which one? Yeah. Well, I mean, like, who's running capital right now, who's running epic right now?

I mean, now. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Back then, I mean, listen, man, like, you know, you're talking about two groups of people that... Is Jimmy I.V. in Jewish? I don't think. I think he's a Catholic or something. I would think so. Seems Italian.

Yeah, that's what I'm saying. He does seem Italian. I mean, you want to look down it? Yeah. But I think what you're pointing out is there is this like marriage within hip hop and it's been incredibly successful. Absolutely. And like both groups are, you know, playing a major part in this. But it's not really discussed that this love affair of the art has become so successful.

I agree with you. I think that's interesting. And then I need to understand why. and I need to understand why it's understood, because it's not like, yeah, I need, that's, that's, I think that's a cool story to tell. I think so. And I think that, you know, when you tell that story, it shows that it's always been more than one culture involved in making hip hop become what it is. The artists also benefit, you know, long term, like, look at Public Enemy in their touring career. Like, you know what I'm saying? Like, even after their Def Jam days, they continued, you know, Chuck D continues to do very well for himself. You know, one of the great. greatest touring groups, period, international. You see what I'm saying?

So it's like... But you still want your catalog, though. Yeah. You know what I'm saying? You still want to write to your master's. It's like, you probably go out and tell your jokes a million times, but if somebody owned the right to one of your specials, you'd be like, shit. Can I get my special back?

You don't know how right you are. You don't know how right you are. About that, Charlemagne. There is a, there is a, yeah. That's currently happening? No, I bought it back.

I spent, yeah, I spent a ridiculous amount of money to buy it back. Wow. With no plan on how I will monetize it. Wow. Because it's mine, bro. Wow. Because I worked for it and I made it and I want it. Because it's mine is what I made.

Hold on. You're opening up a great conversation right now because it's mine. It's mine. What's the point of this? I don't want to say what's the point of having it back. Yeah. What's the point of having it all back if you don't even know what to do with it? Well, I know what to do with it.

Okay. I need to give it to the people the exact way I want to give it to. Okay. But what if that company you was with had a plan? And y'all were doing it 50-50. Yeah. Or even 64, whatever it is. That's possible.

You know what I mean? Yeah. What if they had a plan on how to distribute it, how to monetize it, how to promote it, market it? Is it worth letting them have part ownership? Charlie, man, we know each other a while. Yeah. I'm a pain in the ass. Okay?

I know how to do things one way. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. My way. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And when it comes to my stand-up, which I love more than anything, obviously when it comes to a collaborative effort like this, you know, it's your way. But when it comes to it. No, it's just doing it.

I'm just joking, I'm just joking. But like when it comes to my art, the thing that I care the most about, it's goofy to call it art, but like my stand-up is I work my whole life for this. So I was in, you know, this situation where I had, you know, the opportunity to buy my special back and put it out the way that I want to put it out with the exact material that I wanted to put it out. And I took advantage of that opportunity. And I worked very hard and I was fortunate enough to save up a bunch of money throughout my career.

and I used it all to buy my special back. Yeah, I know. Did you sell Blad TV, like, if a company came along? I think anyone would sell anything for the right price. Yeah. You know, I mean, apart from... What about throat? Human beings.

Are we getting to that, Blad? Hold on. We're getting to that. Wait, what, what? Vlad had a great post about four hours ago I want to talk about, but go ahead. What, what? But in terms of companies, I think every company is up for sale for the right price. Yeah.

You know, and I've had various conversations with companies over the years that wanted to buy it. But I think the thing for me is that unless the price is astronomical, where it's like, all right, I could sell this and I never have to worry about money. I could maintain my lifestyle. I can expand my lifestyle and never have to worry about money and have it multi-generational. That's cool. But aside from that, it has to be almost like, you know, not just say it's an equivalent company, but, like, for example, like, look at what Disney did with Lucasfilms.

they bought it for a billion dollars and they expanded it they put it on steroids like you know look at all the series on Disney Plus from Andalori to Baba Fett to Obi-Wan Canobi

you know I mean to more more you know to more movies coming out and expanding everything else to having you know Star Wars at Disneyland which I want to go visit and it's crazy they have a fucking Millennium Falcon

life size a life size Millennium Falcon and like one of those Darth Vader joints like So it's like for someone to come in and say, look, like we're going to take Vlad TV and we're going to up the production 10X where, you know, and give you access to to various things that us as a major company have access to and really make this a huge global brand. Then I would consider doing that. But until until that day comes, we've steadily been increasing every year for 15 years. Can it exist without you?

I mean, it already has. I mean, if you look at what's been happening in 2022, I do probably the minority of the interviews. Wow. So, for example, my man, Sean Prez. Who's the Sean Prez? Yeah, shout out to Sean Prez. He's done a lot of epic interviews,

like the young Jock interview that's running right now. I think just finished was one of our big, big interviews. Our little C's interview was phenomenal. Another one of our big interviews. Those are good for Pres because Prez was around. Bad boy. Yeah, exactly. Jock was an artist on Bad Boy.

Of course, Steve's big. Yeah. Shirley Jew, you know, she's like a younger Asian female interviewer that contracts for us. And she brings in a lot of the younger artists. And she connects more with like, you know, sort of like the younger generation. Coach PR, he does a lot of the sports stuff. You know what I mean, I could do the sports stuff, but he's just better at it than me. He's more of a sports guy.

And then we started actually launching podcasts on the network. So some of our regular guests that have done well, so like Rico Reckless and Iwall Samo, they just filmed their second podcast. Ari Spears and his guy Gerard. He has his own podcast on there. So the goal is for me to come in and just do the really, because I still have a really strong passion for interview. You know what I'm saying?

Like I just interviewed Byrman's brother. Oh, I meant to watch. Gangster, Terrance Gangster Williams. So it's like there's a certain thing, you know, or like Sammy the Bull, I just did that interview. So those interviews I still want to do myself because I'm just really, it's a thrill for me to actually sit down and put together this piece.

But by keeping, by, you know, maintaining and growing the number, number of clips that we put out every day, it's going to require a bigger team of interviewers and a bigger type of product, you know, a bigger array of products. So that's the whole thing, like to keep stepping away and kind of like an Oprah. Oprah will come in and still do leaving Neverland or, you know, the Royal, you know, that royal couple, but most of the work is done by people that work for it. Do you regret putting your name on it?

Because I was looking like two days ago. I think it was a couple of days ago and I saw an elite chopper going back and forth with Vlad TVs. Twitter account. And I'm like, I know it's not Vlad Tweet. Well, it was the DJ Vlad Twitter account. So it is and it isn't, right?

Because... That was you tweeting? Well, yes and no. Like, there's a Twitter feed that goes through that account. So every, you know, VladTV, one of our companies is Vladtv.com,

which is the new site. So I don't run that. You know, my man, Evan, is the content manager. He decides what goes on that site, but it goes through my account. So, since I have the biggest Twitter account associated with that TV.

So it goes through there, so it went up, it came up, and it was, you know, Justin Bieber had that situation where his face, yeah, he has his face is paralyzed. Ramsey Heart Syndrome or something? Yeah, Ramsey, Ramsey Heart Syndrome, I think, yeah. And Enel-L-L-Chape said, you know, oh, I'm trying to contact Justin Bieber,

how many as soon as possible, I got some herbs that'll fix all that. So, you know, we weren't trying to clown him or anything. we just, the article went up with that title. Yeah. And other people were reporting on it as well. And then he replied back to me, you know, since I tweeted it, was like, stop posting me, you chump ass. Yeah.

You know what I'm saying? And usually I just ignore shit like that, but I guess today I got time, because. You called him a fraud. You said, you've been out here selling these pills that you can give you a BBL, and cure herpes and call him a snake oil salesman. He was showing his age. That's when I knew,

Vlad's like a Vlad 40 something like me. Snake oil salesman? I mean, am I wrong? I mean, has he cured? I mean, and what I said, right? I don't believe any of that stuff can be cured with a pill. Right.

I mean, you know, he said, you know, the whole thing was like, he was like, you know, when he called me a chump and I'm like, this coming from the chump who says you can cure cancer. And his response was, I did. Oh, he said he did? Yeah.

And I said, And I said, you haven't cured shit. An actual cure requires multiple levels of testing of hundreds of people and peer reviews. You just tweeted about it. Yeah. Yeah. It's lute and L.E. Chappel, but it's been a lot of people trying to kill cancer for a long time. I don't think he can create a pill that can kill cancer.

I'm not the highest grade of weed in the dispensual. I'm not the strongest avenger, but I think I'm pretty safe from saying I don't think he can kill cancer with a bill. I mean, if he could, like, he'd be a billion. Yeah, he wouldn't be rapid. No, actually, he'd be dead. It's facts. Pharmaceutical companies come in. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. Right. It's not resident evil where you could just, you know, when you're sick, you get a plant. Why, if you know that he can't and everybody else knows that he can't, why respond to that? I think the thing was when he said, stop posting. And it's like, you're not going to tell me who to post. But like, I don't know.

Do you care what people think about you? Is that why? Are you motivated? Like, do you think they could, oh, NL.E. Jaba's son, Vlad, or something like. Why the need to react to that? Like, I just, you know, I mean, he's talked shit about him before. He's calling me the police on his Twitter and stuff like that.

Right. But, you know, I mean, telling me not to, I feel like had he said, don't post me, and then for whatever reason we didn't post him, it would look like he's telling us what to do. Yeah, yeah. You know what I mean? Like the outside public. Yeah, the outside public. You know, like, young blue said, you know, stop posting me.

And my response was, nope. Right. Just that. Then he deleted his tweet afterwards. But if, you know. If you did post him. afterwards without saying no, people would know that you're not listening to it. It seems like you're concerned.

Today I had time because, like, you know what I mean? Just that day, he caught me on that one day and I responded. And, you know, I think, I think really, and to me, this is sort of a bigger picture because it's like you have people that are really sick, right, who really are going through serious medical conditions. And if they're spiritual, people like, and. not only chopper will get them to really question their doctors and question actual medicine that has research and history behind working for certain things.

They're going to be like, oh, well, let me stop taking chemotherapy and take these herbs and then end up dying. You see what I'm saying? It creates a level of confusion with people who feel a level of spirituality and feel some sort of connection to herbs and science, you know, and kind of like, you know, African, you know, healing and stuff like that. And I think that there's a lot too and I think that there's certain herbs

that could help that could help ease situations and help ease the pain but you're not going to get a BBL from a fucking plant. That's wild. You know what I'm saying? And then all of a sudden you breast give me

Yeah, you're not going to get bigger tities. You're not going to cure cancer. I mean, he also said he was he was shitting eight times a day. You know, he was going to shit every time you eat. Eight times a day. He was taking a shit.

That's a lot of shit. That's a lot of shit. That's a lot of shit. That's a lot of shit. You can't say he's full of shit. He's not. Yeah. I mean, listen, I don't have anything against anybody being holistic.

I'm just saying go talk to, like, actual people who are into that, in that space in a real way. Right. You know what I mean? But a lot of people say fake things on the Internet. That's the internet. But even with the thing, what you said about going back and forth with N. I almost feel like that's part of it now. Like, if you're a Vlad or academics or, you know, Adam, like, it's like when artists go at you, it don't hurt.

it's really promotion and marketing at this point. It's like, yo, you throw a tweet back to them. Next thing you know it's a story. You know what I mean? It was on air. Like, I didn't think, I just thought it was just no one really noticed. Like I wasn't doing it to try to like, ooh, let me get on the blogs. I don't really care about that.

We're on the blogs essentially every week anyways. You are one of our energy. Yeah. But I'm talking about like the shade room or ball earlier. No jumper. Say geez, whatever, you know, academics. Power 105. Like, you guys cover my shit anyways.

Yeah. So I'm not trying to, to, that's not the goal of what. I do. But like, yeah, I just, I had like, he had like two tweets. I had two tweets and everyone picked it up double excels. Agee. Like, you know what I mean? It was like starting to be everyone. I'm like, okay. It doesn't hurt. It doesn't really hurt. It's great marketing. People love beef. They love fights. They're interested in. It's like, you know, you're in the lunchroom and two people start going at it, right? Everybody looks over. Ooh, what's going on? I just wonder if is there anybody that could say something about you and then you wouldn't respond because it's not

worth your time or you wouldn't care what the people would think if you didn't respond. 99% of the time I don't respond. Gotcha. And I have prominent, you know, major artists or whatever. Talking, you know, yeah, I mean, people are taking shots at me from, you know, from some of the biggest. Does it hurt ever? Like, if you're being honest, like, are you ever just like, fuck, why don't you guys

just accept me? Why can't I be in this? Oh, that's a good question. Yeah, like, if you're being truthful, is there ever a moment where you're just like, Like you want to be accepted by the- I really wish you guys would accept me. Listen, would I love to be nominated at every award show and get access to every large A-list artists

when they go on their promo run and so forth? Sure. Who wouldn't? Who wouldn't want that type of access and love and everything else like that? But at some point, you've got to really realize that you have to be happy with the viewers

as well as you know the business side of things and for me you could check that off a lot like you know what I mean like like we really we do two to three million views a day every day on just the YouTube channel and the Facebook channel sometimes gets a million views

by yourself and then you know what I'm saying it's like and we have a whole membership you know like we launched a membership last year and it's grown into the thousands and thousands of members every every month we get more and more members. Like we have 15 employees. Everyone has health insurance. Like there's so much to be happy for.

There's so much to be grateful for that you can't spend your time crying about how, you know, uh, you know, push your T doesn't, you know, do my show when he's going on his promo run. Like it just is what it is.

Everything you're saying is completely logical. I think that's the right way to do it. And, and to say that, like, I mentioned on Pusher T's album twice. Right. You see what I'm saying?

So whether or not they're coming. in and actually doing it, clearly it's part of the culture. Like, you know, I mean, you're the one that told me, he's like, yo, Push your T's mentioning Vlad on his first song on his new album. Yeah, Pushit mentioned it. He could reference the interview with, um, what's his name? Former manager.

Yeah, GZ. Yeah, GZ Gonzalez, right. And then even the Jay Z, the Jay Z line was about one of our interviews. Yeah, the phase on love interview. You know, two chains of a song called Vlad TV. Like, you know, I mean, so it's sort of like whether I'm given the love or whatever, the impact is there. You're part of the culture.

100%. You're 100% part of the goal. Yeah, like you're validated by the people that are enjoying the content. Right. Right. But we're also like emotional fucking human beings. And we also like admire, you know, people that are in this art form that we love. The same way I feel about stand-up.

I'm sure you feel about hip-hop. Yeah. And it's, for whatever reason, as stupid as it is, it's difficult for us to swallow certain situations where we really admire somebody and they're not, acknowledging the work that we're doing. That's where I'm wondering if you ever, like I love Patrice O'Neill, rest in peace, but if Patrice was like, I don't like this kid,

this guy's sart, that would fucking break my heart. I would have to go, man, but look at all these other people that love my stuff and I'd lean into that. But it would fucking break, it would break my heart, man. Well, the thing is, though, you have to internalize a lot of that, right? So I have to be truthful in terms of my approach, in terms of how I do, how I built the company and how I do my interviews.

You know, if I wanted to, you know, to really have everyone love me and have access to everyone and have everyone shout me out, like, let's say, a Ralph McDaniels, right? Like, like, everyone loves Ralph McDaniels. Like, Gads will sit down on your old. Jay-C. loves Ralph McDaniel. They did the Nog documentary. Everyone stepped in, everything else like that. But, you know, I interviewed Ralph McDaniels, and he was just like, you know, I just

love hip-hop so much. I never want to report on anything negative. I never want to ask anything, any tough questions. I just wanted to just celebrate what they're doing. and that's all I wanted to do, but that also limited the growth of his brand. You see what I'm saying? It did, and you can't deny that.

And with us, I came in with more of a 60 Minutes approach of like, you know something? I'm going to ask the really tough questions that no one's going to ask, and that's going to alienate me from a certain number of people. You see what I'm saying? Because people are scared to do Vlad TV interviews. Like, you know, I remember I saw Saucy Santana,

she tweeted, he tweeted. Like, if VladTV wants me to an interview, I'm scared. with all these R's and Ds and whatever else because people are sometimes scared to sit down just like with you in certain aspects because they know that there's going to be the tough questions, the uncomfortable questions,

the stuff that no one else wants to ask and so forth. And that was the bed that I made and I lie it in that bed and I understand with that comes a level of access that I don't get. I don't get invited to the white parties and, you know, the Rock Nation brunches and stuff like that. But what I've done

has numbers-wise surpassed the people that have played that game and have, you know, kept those relationships and always said nice things about certain people and never, never report on anything negative. You know, we've done way bigger than that numbers wise and so forth and impact wise as well. So to me, that's part of the acceptance of it all. I guess people would want to know, does Vlad TV have a conscience? Like, meaning like, if there's certain things that come across the platform, you're like, no, I'm not going to put that out all the time, every day. Is there anything that you put out that in retrospect you regret

putting out? I mean, Sean Perez did an interview with a guy that said he was the former president of murder, Inc, and that he got in the car with 50, he got shot. We come to find out nothing is true in regards that. It was just a crazy person who sat down and we put it out. Wow. You know, 50 calls us out on it. They said, put a screen capture and said fraud on it.

And I remember calling John. He was in the car with 50? Yeah. And, you know, Sean, like, you know, and it's like, this was Sean's interview. Like my outside interviewers, they book their own interviews. That's what our relationship is like most of the time. So he brought this guy in. He's done other interviews.

Sean is someone who's been in the music industry longer than I have. He was like, this guy's legit. When 50 put up the fraud shit, I remember I called Jarl. And I'm like, do you know what this guy is? I've never fucking seen him for my life. I call Chris Gotti, same thing. And I'm like, fuck, let me take this down. You know, and I addressed it.

I think when I, Math Hoff interviewed me and I was like, we fucked up. Anything specifically you did in an interview that you regret putting out? Not, not really. Because if I put it out, I stand behind it. Fair enough. You thought Tupac is still alive on either?

I never. I never said. Because Charlie, you even said to me, there's things like in retrospect. Like, you, I think you even said, like, what are some things that you're like, you know what? A bunch of stuff, especially when you started seeing climate change, right?

Like when you started seeing the climate of the culture change. Yeah. And you knew, you know what's going to get people fucked up. Yeah. And so it's just like, I'm not going to put that out.

You know what I mean? Like, I'm not going to put that out from this person because I know that this is going to cause this community to do this and this is going to cause him backlash. And sometimes the artists don't even know it. It's like you got to state them from themselves.

Exactly. You know what I'm saying? They're not aware. They grew up in a way where they're not aware that saying certain things could limit opportunities for them in the future. Now, it's not your responsibility to, like, educate these people on that.

But at the same time, if you're aware of the repercussions, you know, I don't know. Maybe you could go, hey, are you sure you want me to put this out like that? I don't know. It's tricky, right? Because I say it all the time. You're not forcing people to say this shit. Exactly.

They're showing up. If they sit down and they give it up and they're telling all of these stories and everything else, whose fault is that? If you're comfortable enough to sit down in front of a camera, hammer and say it, why should I even think twice about putting it up? There's also this kind of false narrative that somehow people I interview, the interviews are used in court cases, which I've never actually heard of happen. Like literally, I've never heard of any of our interviews being used in a court case.

Ours have. Yeah. Breakfast Club has. Yeah. I mean, Nick Cannon, you know, like when Cassanova got his bond, you know, denied, the actual prosecutor was mentioning Nick Cannon's interview with Casanova. Yeah. We actually put out the audio of the actual, you know, meeting with the district attorney and everything else like that.

That's happened to y'all too, though. Mm-mm. Really? No. Oh. There was fake articles about it. Like, I remember, like, there was this fake article about, you know, when I was trending for, like, two days. It was so annoying because there was a fake article that said, Judge personally thanks Vlad TV for helping to convict A.R.

There was a picture of some white judge. A.R. Ave. It was from a news site no one had ever heard of, but, like, you know, all these people, like, Quest Love were like, yeah, I told you all. Like, you know, we're like, they're all trying to cancel me and shit like that over that. And it was like, the shit isn't true. Like, it's simply like ARI himself in interviews since he's been locked up said, Vlad got nothing to do with my shit. Yeah.

I mean, there's, remember there's a rumor that somehow I was involved in Taxstone's situation. Got nothing to do like me and Taxstone still talk. Taxone did an interview saying, Vlad got nothing to do in my case. The fuck, Vlad got to do in my case. Like, you know what I mean? But I think they use a lot of those interviews in discovery, but they don't, like, it don't mean anything. It's not like it's being used. evidence. It's like if you've ever sat down

and had, like, I know plenty of breakfast club interviews have been used in discovery, whatever the fuck that means. I'm not a lawyer. You know what I mean? But it's not in like evidence. It's not like being used as evidence against somebody in a court of law. Right. Because why it's inadmissible or something like that? I think sometimes it's not pertinent information. Right. You know what I mean? So it's just like, oh, what he sat down

with Berkis Club and said X, Y, RZ, but it's not like something that's with the case is just in their discovery. I literally just found that out this morning, by the way. But I mean, I've seen, breakfast club mentioned in court cases. I have it. I'll be honest. I'll be dead honest. Yeah, I'm not making this up. You know what I'm saying? We're going to get a bunch of tweets right now. I'm not going to see him because I don't pay

attention to Twitter. We're going to get a bunch of tweets. People say, no, here's the article. And it's going to be that same article that you just referenced. Yeah, no. I remember like, for example, like a Tasha Kaye did this video where she basically said like, yeah, Vlad is working with the police and he's giving them, you know, interviews directly to them, blah, blah. And our lawyers had to contact her and say, this is a lie. It's actually not true.

What would be the benefit? And she had to remove that part of her interview. Like, you know what I'm saying? She started to argue whatever, and I'm like, we could escalate this because this is actually defamation. Why would you have to work with the police? They could just watch it like everyone else.

I know. It's weird that you would have to work with them. Like, like, everybody, everybody, let's put it like this. Everybody who does a Vlad TV interview is wearing a wire. Including me. They put it on themselves. They put a laugh mic under their shirt

and there's another microphone pointing at them and two to three cameras pointing at them. That's funny. There's no secret recording devices here. There are literally five recording devices pointed at you as you're speaking to me. So whatever you say, you're fully aware that it's going to be released.

Yeah. On the two-chaise-on. The hook of the song is, I watched the man go on Vlad TV and he told on himself that's him. I watched the nigga go on flat TV and told on himself. That's

them. Like you're not making them do any of this. Well, now rappers are telling themselves in the rats. In the music. There's actually a story behind that. What, the Vlad TV song? Yeah. What happened? Do you want to hear it? Yeah. Two Chains. Two Chains kind of touched on this on his drink champs interview. But what it happened was

two chain's guy reached out to me and was like yo we want to sample part of this Benny the butcher interview for two chain's new album

and people approached us about this all the time like you know like why I found Lucci's album had a boozy sample from our interview or you know what I mean like stuff like that

always always seems to happen so I'm like okay cool I'll tell you what how about he does interview with me you know as he's going on his promo run and we'll sign off on this

Bainty the Butcher sample. He was like, cool, no problem. So two chains came in, we all met up at the studio and I hadn't heard or anything else like this, right? So I didn't even know the song was called Black TV or what the chorus was or whatever. So we do the interview and the interview was cool and, you know, but there's still no paperwork or whatever. So I reach out and I'm like, can you send me the,

the song and the sample. So I get the song that's called Vlad TV. And it's about, you know, what you just said. I see you go on Vlad TV telling herself. But then what they did was the sample they wanted to use was my interview with Benny the butcher, but it was mostly me talking. And they chopped it up in a way to make it sound

like I'm somehow trying to like get people caught up. Like they literally chopped the interview up in a way to make a sound derogatory towards me. And once I heard it, I'm like, I hit him up and I'm like I'm not I'm not clearing this like and I understand that the interview is contingent on this so I'm scrapping the interview

you know what I'm saying but but this right here like y'all know what you're doing you know what I'm saying so you had interview two chains yeah which never came out wow so that was like a barter like yeah wow yeah so it never came out and then the album came out and the song was called fly TV which they could legally do like I you know

I'm fine with that but it wasn't my sample and I think that that I would have given it sort of the really nasty stigma that they were probably trying to go for it. But since I wasn't going to okay my voice in that, then they couldn't use that. That's interesting though, because it's a part of me that's like, why not lean into it?

You know, because they're going to say it anyway. They're going to say Officer Vlad, whatever. We might as well just... Yeah, but you want to be represented falsely? Like, if I took one of your interviews on, you know, that we did and chopped it up and made you look like you're saying something you're not saying. Oh, that's been happening to me.

Welcome to the Internet. I don't like it It's one thing to have it on the internet It's another thing to have it Be stamped into history On a major artist's album You see what I'm saying? That's more of a permanent kind of thing

I think the internet is worse It's easier to share a meme Easier to share a clip than is to share a song Not but the song lingers on The meme will go away Yeah Is this feeding into a stereotype That already exists

And at this point I don't think It'll ever change I just think it's like some of us are just the people that people love to hate. You know what I mean? I enjoy Vlad TV interviews because I feel like it's, I like the documentary style that the way the interviews are done. You know what I mean? That's what I'm trying for. Yeah.

That's what I like. Like I learn things when I watch Vlad TV interviews. You know what I mean? Like you go, me personally. That's how I look at it. That's how I look at it. Yeah. Maybe we're infantilizing the people that you're interviewed.

I don't even know what that word means. I don't know either actually. We're treating them like children, right? We're going, hey, you guys aren't responsible enough to worry about what you say. And Vlad, you're supposed to be a dad and tell people what they can and can't say. And maybe that's unfair. Maybe we need to start treating these people you're interviewing like adults, and they should know what they can or can't say in an interview.

But the fact that nothing we've ever done has been used in court cases or whatever else, doesn't that already imply that the way I'm doing it is actually looking out for the people? to make sure, and they're not saying. Because I think people think that, like, you should never talk about a crime. But if you actually, you know, a lot of what we do is in the gangster genre, whether it's the mafia guys or whether it's, you know,

like the Rick Rosses. There's a statue of limitations. The freeway Ricky Rosses or the convertible births or whatever. Like, these guys have done the time for what they got convicted for. So they could talk about the kilos and everything else like that. Sammy the Bull admitted to 19 murders.

Yeah. You know, like I remember there was like this untrue. Twitter, it was going viral. It was like, DJ Vlad would be like, walk me through your first murder. And it was like literally, you had like tens of thousands of fucking retweets. Tens of thousands. Like, it was like, I'm saying that like, it's a great question. That is funny, though.

Right. And I'm like, you know, if they already did the time, I want to know about it. Well, and then my response and I actually responded to it, I was like, Sammy the Bull interview coming soon. He did 19 murders. And actually, my first question is walking through your first one. Yeah. So is it a stereotype if it's true? Yeah, that's what I'm saying.

I think that's you feeding into it. That's dope. But by the way, it's Sammy the fucking bull. Right. He killed 19 people. That's a valid fucking question. We don't got to feel bad for Sammy the Bull. That's a valid question.

Yeah. And I don't know if I don't think any of your critics are worried about you asking Sammy the Bull that. I don't think they care. Do you think if you were black, you'd get any pushback? I mean, Sean Cotton gets pushback. Sean Conn gets called the feds. He was like, even our interview,

that's say, that's say cheese, right? Yeah, he was like, people, he was with some working together. Like, you know what I'm saying? You might get, you might get more pushback if you're black. People call academics, the feds.

Like, you know what I'm saying? Like, you know what I'm saying? What Sean said, which was interesting, was that, like, I'll get certain interviews with both people. Like, like, I interview both Fulio and young and ace. right and he's like yeah

I wouldn't get both of those guys because people think that I'm playing both sides whereas you could kind of sit back and say that you're a journalist and you're just getting both of the stories like you know what I'm saying like he's like me being black I get I would get caught in the middle of that and you know what I mean people would be taking it personally whereas you seem to be getting away with it

and I'm like okay cool so I mean I get certain things but he gets certain things as well that I don't get so it's all I don't sit there and cry about my race or opportunities I don't get or whatever man like you've known me since before Vlad TV. So you saw me get it out the mud. Like you saw me go from being really broke.

And you've been, remember my old, my old apartment in Jersey? Like, I think you've been there before. Way, way, way back in the day. I don't, I don't want to say, because I don't know if he still having that, but I don't. I don't.

I don't know. I think I was in New York. I don't know. I don't know. But anyways, like, I mean, really, I started off, my hip-hop journey started off from me sleeping on couches

with a backpack full of CDs that I would leave on consignment to the Africans on Canal Street. So to go from there to millions of people tuning in every day, it's like, who am I to cry about it and talk about, you know, the lack of opportunities like the fuck? Like I went from, you know, making mixtapes worrying that the feds were going to kick down my door

and sees everything I own like they did to DJ drama. You know, I mean, I went from that to actually having a legitimate business. You know what I mean? With content I legally own. You see what I'm saying? You're not worried about getting arrested or, or, you know, losing everything I ever built myself up for.

What would you say to people who say, oh, well, Vlad just profits off black trauma and black death? Just like every other. Well, number one, I also profit off. Italian, too. Right? That's, I also profit off. Sammy the Bull kill Italians, I think, I would imagine.

I also profit off black accomplishment, black victories. You see what I'm saying? Like, do I, is there any interview? I mean, unless I'm talking about, unless I'm dealing with someone who's like a criminal figure, and that's the central part of their story. Well, Netflix profits off of like serial killer murders. Right.

All that. I get it. I'm not. No, but to answer your question, like, if you look at the majority of my interview is like, sure, the negative gets covered. But then when I sit down with someone for the first time, I talk about all their accomplishments. You drop this album. You drop, you had, this has 30 million views on Spotify.

Like, yo, like this feature was crazy. be like all that gets discussed along the way. Now, those might not be the clips that go super viral. But to say that I sit down with people and all I talk about is negative means that you don't actually watch anything that I do. And that's why the best part about the interviews you do with the, you know, the guys who have done it, you're telling the consequences and the repercussions of those actions. It's not a glorification of all I used to be the biggest drug dealer. I used to kill 90 people. No, you also went to jail for such and such amount of time.

Right. also got mental health issue. Yeah. And the one thing that has been consistent with all the gangster criminal type interviews that I've ever done, and I remember I mentioned this a lot of times, it was always true. There's always a ratio of for every year that you ball out in the street doing illegal shit, you will do about five years in prison for every year. So if you ball out for five years, we prepare to do 25.

Really? And those numbers are so close to reality every time over and over again. And that's what gets discussed at the end. So there's never a like, I want to be the next freeway, Ricky. Like, nah. Because his run was short. His run where he was actually bawling was short. But he went to jail for mad long.

Exactly. No, that's real. Exactly. That's real. It's not a good ratio to be. Does everybody get caught up? Is there anybody who makes it out of the streets, either alive or without going to jail? I mean, I've interviewed.

I mean, like, ever going to jail or ever getting shot? Like, probably not. I mean, those people you probably have never heard of, right? Those stories are not told. Those are people that are in the shadows that, you don't know. They got away clean and they're good. And they're not talking about it. And that's why they got away clean.

Like there's an actual, like, real financier of death row who just got out of prison not too long ago. Ariel? Not Harriot. Not Harriot. There was a guy who put up the money for Harrio. Harrio was almost like the face of the money, but there was a guy that was sort of a bigger D-Boy that was in the mix

who went to jail and got out. And he's not talking to nobody because you see what I'm saying? Like there's there there's much the the you know the people who put themselves out there and so forth are not always the ones that really are doing it at the very highest levels. They're just the ones that happen to get caught. And that's the other reason when it comes to like rappers or artists or anybody when you put them in front of a camera. I don't even believe 90% of the wild shit they say it. So it's like I don't even have the way with all to take that out. it's different now because I'm realizing like,

oh, these motherfuckers really be doing something. Yeah. Yeah. But back then it's just like, oh, he's just talking. You know, how much of your hate do you think comes from financial success? Like, if you fronted like you were broke, I don't know if people are going to hate you, but maybe they see you got the cars, you have watches,

you give him financial advice. They're starting to go, oh, I don't like that this guy's so wealthy. now give me a reason why I should justify it. There's a jealousy that kicks in. 100%. You could always tell when someone has that issue

because they'll bring up your money in a conversation that has nothing to do with it. For example. You just come out of the blue. What the fuck? What does... We're talking about something completely different. Vlad's the police. Also, how many cars is he need?

Right? That's... That's kind of like that. And Ali Chapa said that. What do you say? He says something like, oh, you make all this money out of the black community, you don't really fuck with us. What does that even mean?

Like, I'm not the one claiming acuter cancer for y'all. Like, you know what I'm saying? Yeah. With fake herbs. Like, you know what I mean? Like, you could take that a bunch of different ways. Like, you got to dress like Adam Saling, bro.

Yeah. If you, I mean, like, like, like, Adam Sandler's probably worth a bill. I'm dressed like Adam Sandler and Hidden Gems right now. This is this is. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. No, I'm saying. The actor, like... People might think you're talking about no jump. No, that's Adam Twink. I know they, but they would. People are crazy, man. You're right.

All I'm trying to say is, like, he plays, and that's probably just how he likes to dress. Yeah. But, like, he appeals to the everyday man, even though he's a billionaire because... He's a billionaire? Oh, he's probably worth, like, half, maybe, to a bill. Like, he's, he's, yeah, it's crazy.

So, yeah, I just, I wonder if that reduces any sort of animosity towards Adam's... I'm sure. sure it would to a certain degree. And if you really look like, yeah, I mean, I wear a nice clothes. Well, number one, I don't do very many interviews, right? Yeah. I have to look how I, you know, I have to look nice in the interviews.

Like, you know, I don't dress like this when I'm going to the grocery store. But if you look, if you really pay attention to who I am, you've never seen a picture of my house. Yeah. You've never seen a picture of any of my cars. Yeah. You never see like my watch collection or, you know what I mean? Or all my chains or whatever.

Like, that's actually kept. completely off the record. Yeah. You know what I'm saying? That's kept private. You know, I don't talk about my family or show pictures of my family or whatever else.

It's like, yo, like, you know, whatever you're seeing is just based on assumptions. You know what I mean? Like I don't, you know what I mean? You know, like I remember Game, just did an interview where they were talking about how he posted $13 million in his bank account.

Like, I wouldn't even consider doing that. I wonder if not showing your family hurts you. Maybe. Seeing somebody with a family and children and like in a loving relationship, And again, like, I don't really show that, you know, I don't show my wife really that much. I don't know Charlemagne doesn't really either. But there's, there is something about seeing a human being an incredibly human situation where they're like loving and like vulnerable.

Like, even, sorry to interrupt, but like even gang members see you walking with a kid. And if you're like the ops, they sometimes it's like, yo, you got lucky. No, no. These 2002 game members. You see this new shit? They actually threw a kid in the fucking garbage, bro. The fuck. Fuck those dudes, man.

What do you mean they threw a baby in the garbage? Dude was walking with his kid. Dudes, I think, was it Chicago? I thought it was here. I thought it was, maybe it was New York. Yeah, I don't know, but literally they were trying to get some dude. They couldn't get a hold of him so they threw his fucking... How did they get his baby?

Two-year-old baby in the fucking garbage. He was running with the baby in the stroller. I guess they got him. They got the baby. They killed the guy? No, I don't think they killed. You got to call Putin in. I need nukes now.

I'm serious. The whole block got to call gross. Like, no, man. Come on, man. throw a two-month-old in the bag, the trash game? No, no, no. I think it was not that makes a difference, but it was like maybe three or something like that. Shut up.

A little five or something, right? Like, not is that not a good enough reason to snitch? Yeah, you should snitch. You got to tell on everybody. Yeah. Everybody, especially if you ain't going to do nothing. Yeah. If you personally aren't going to say, you know what, I'm going to handle this myself. Call the police. Yeah. Well, I believe in snitcher. I believe in call the police.

I love the police. I'm happy you're here. I It makes people comfortable. I love it. I love it. I want you to be around this. Let's pay some bills, man. Let's pay some bills and come back

and I want to talk to Vlad about what he posted earlier and I want to ask y'all, what would it take for you to be a prison wife? Salute to BET, man. Beatty's Martin reunion is a screaming. It's screaming exclusively on BETT Plus, man. I cannot wait to watch that.

Martin, the reunion. A BET plus original series for the first time in 30 years. One of the TV's most iconic cast is back together, an event to celebrate a legacy to cherish, a reunion, and remember Martin, Gina, Pam Cole, with a special tribute to the beloved Tommy McKell for, man. God bless the dead. A reunion like any other where they relive all their favorite moments,

share stories, reveal secrets, and celebrate with big laughs. Reminiscence with all your favorite characters, all your favorite catchphrases, all your favorite disses and kisses. They got special guests, musical performances. Martin, man, come on. If you're from a certain era, I shouldn't even have to sell this to you. It's Martin the reunion of BET Plus original special, now screaming exclusively on BET Plus. You want to scream black culture, visit BET.

Dot Plus to learn more. I'm going to be honest with you. Salute to BET Plus. I'm glad BETT Plus is doing this. This should be on every Viacom channel. This shouldn't be something that you've got to watch on the screaming service. It should be something that premieres on linear. Then we can go watch it on the screaming service later.

This is Martin we're talking about. Like they rerun Martin on every freaking Viacom channel there is. And like Martin is just one of those shows where culturally black, white, Puerto Rican, Jewish, it don't matter. If you grew up in a certain era, that's your shit. That's it. We all bond. We can bond over Martin episodes. It was a cool time in content where everybody watched the show at the same time and had the discussion about it the next day at the same time.

Yes. And there were a few shows that made people do that. I think I remember even like back in high school, it was like wrestling that made you do that. Yes. But even that, even that didn't have like the broad, broad audience. Chappelle's show definitely was like.

Chappelle's show 100%. And wrestling had a very large audience though. Yeah. But I don't know if it was as broad as like a Martin. Yeah, Sopranos had that effect. Like there were a few shows. Game of Thrones. Dude, Game of Thrones.

That's the craziest thing about Game of Thrones is even now it has that effect. I never watched it. But I know that it's... I'm jealous that you get to experience it. Right. Me too. Like, I want to experience what you're about to experience. Yeah, I'm not watching. Why not?

I don't got time. I will one day, maybe. Okay. Yeah. Yo, confession. Like, why would you not watch? I'm just so... I love Marvel.

Yeah. I have another confession. Yeah. Never seen the wire, bro. Yo, you cracker. A great one. You crack-ass cracker, bro. How the fuck have you not seen the wire, Doug?

I own the whole box that on DVD and never seen the wire. You have a DVD player? Well, I mean, I had it from back in the day. Yeah, that's why he hasn't seen it. He got to buy a DVD player and see that shit. He's waiting on my DVD player to come around. Yo. They're getting an Xbox one.

You know what I mean? I've never seen the wire. Bro, I'm. How? What do you watch? You watch everything. I know I watched the Oz. I watch True Blood.

I watch The Wild. I don't know why. I have no idea why. I've never watched the Y. Great serious. But I will. Yep. You watch Oz and True Blood.

Huh. Same thing. I'm just saying. Do you think the Yard doesn't have enough, like, gay sex scenes in it or stuff like that? That's not gay enough of childhood? Is that what you're worried about, bro? We got to do the other hat. Not enough gay sex things and Hawaii for me.

I was gay, though. Say what? Wasn't Omar gay? Yeah, that's true. Oh, so there you go. There were no sex themes, though. No, there was one. What the Puerto Rican guy, his boyfriend.

Yeah, right. Who got killed? Come on, man. I'm messing up. Come on now. Remember they go to Puerto Rico and, like, him and his dude? It's been a while. Yeah?

You didn't, you know, sit down with the lotion for that one? No, I didn't. No. Get the lotion in the bathroom. Nice and full. You know what I mean? You can check the level. Season five that heats up.

That's all I'm trying to say about the watch. Okay, listen, guys, this episode is also brought to you by Squarespace. Squarespace is the all in one platform for building your brand and growing your business online. Stand out with a beautiful website. Engage your audience and sell anything. Your products, content you create, and even more. I'm telling you, you do not have a business. If you do not have a website for it,

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And when you're ready to launch, use the offer code, idiot to save 10% off your first purchase of a website or domain. That's Squarespace.com slash idiot with the offer code. Idiot for 10% off your first purchase. Now let's get back to the show. The announcements are very important. part of what we do in church. We got church announcements. Now, Vlad, this is the part of the show where we

shout out anything that we got to promote, market, anything coming up. What you got show? I got an announcement next week. You said that for that three weeks. This is like Charlotte's... Two weeks. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Yeah, this is... What was that book about the mermaid? State of emergency. Temeca Mouth. No, state, yeah, state of emergency. No, and I'll have an announcement when I'm back from... when I'm back from my honeymoon.

We'll definitely have a nice fun announcement when I'm back from my honeymoon. But Alex Media's got a new studio in L.A. That's an announcement. I see WTF has expanded. That's right. Hollywood. In Hollywood, California, WTF,

Weisy and Alex got a new studio out there. So go get that. Thank you, guys. I don't agree with it. Talk to me. You just encouraging more people to do podcasts. They don't need to be doing it. This guy, this guy is unbelievable.

I respect the Andrejave. I love the entrepreneurship. Well, you should have said this. You should have said, you know, we're going out of business. And then Charlotte said, it's because you didn't open up a studio in L.A. That's the real reason why he's going out of business. No, but if you are a podcaster who has a successful podcast and you're looking for a great place to podcast, WTF Media Studios in L.A. is your spot.

If you're a new up-and-coming podcaster who's thinking about starting a podcast, you can't afford them. So that means don't even start the podcast. That's match. Go get a job. Go get a job. Go get a job so you can afford them. Go get a job. Vlad, you got any church announcements?

Well, the Vlad TV YouTube membership, which I think that not everyone's familiar with, but essentially, the way we released our interviews is that we drop in clip by clip, and then at the very end, we drop the full interview. But if you want to skip the line, you get a Vlad TV YouTube membership for $4.99 a month, and you get the full interview ad-free

on the same day as the first clip. Wow. You know what I'm saying? So, like, for example, like, you know, we got, the same of the Bull interview that's going to drop next week. It's like two and a half hours. You know, by the time the full interview comes out, it might be like a month and a half and so forth.

So if you want to watch the whole thing on day one, you know, get a Bled TV, YouTube membership, you know, everyone who gets it says it's the best $499 they've ever spent. So are people subscribing to it? Thousands and thousands and thousands of people. Wow. I mean, I just wonder because, like, when people are used to getting something for free,

you know what I mean? To get them to pay for it is always a challenge. Right, well, a lot of times what I've noticed is that it really depends on the interview itself. So, for example, we just had Tony Ayo. I didn't realize how many G-unit fans there really were in terms of worldwide. So it was like we had our biggest month. I think our membership grew by like 25%. Wow.

This is after being up for a year and having a big membership already grew by 25%. So many people wanted to see the Tony Ayo interview. But we were also running the Montchumpert interview. There was a Bousie interview. T.K. Kirkland. You know, I mean, a lot of, a lot of, you know, Gilbert Arenas, like a lot of the heavy hitters that we have on the show. But yeah, so if you want to, you know,

because that was always a big complaint. It was like, drop the full interview, drop the full interview, drop the full interview, drop the full interview. It's like, here's the full interview. One-99 a month. So. I think enough things people don't realize you, you pay too. Yeah, no, we started, you know, a couple of years ago, we just realized that it was going to be hard to grow the business

based on people doing it for free all the time. Now, certain people, you know what I mean? Like, we're cool with it. But if we wanted certain types of guests, we were going to have to really start cutting checks. And that really changed the whole business model. Suddenly we started having access to people that otherwise we wouldn't have had access to.

Sammy the Bull is not out there doing free interviews. You see what I'm saying? So we had to cut a large check to Sammy the Bull, but we got an interview. And, you know, literally for two years, we've been talking to him about it. And it was like, we wanted to do the interview we wanted to do. He didn't, you know, he didn't really want to do the type of interview,

but it was like, we wanted to the interview we wanted to do, and we finally agreed on a price and a date. to do it. But like, yeah, I mean, all of our regular guests get paid. The people that you see on Vlad TV over and over again, you know what I mean, like, like, whether it's the K. Kirkland, Boosie. The Boosys, especially, you know, whoever,

they are actually getting paid to do interviews every time. And that, to me, I feel sort of changing the space of it. Because, listen, we're all making money out of these interviews. So why would we not share? you know, the interview, you know, share some of that revenue, you know, with the person who's doing it. Now, not everyone's going to get paid. At the end of the day, it's like, you know, if little baby wants to, you know, if little baby wants you to do a verse, are you going to charge them?

You know what I'm saying? I mean, you could technically, but the opportunity of being on a little baby song is that. And so we do not pay for everybody, but for a lot of people we do. Yes, a lot of artists that think Breakfast Club pays for interviews. I don't know where y'all got, I know where y'all got it from. It was one artist in particular who said that happened. But that was a lie. Who said that?

I'm not going to say. How much does the Sammy the Bull interview cost? I'm not going to say. Like, a thousand dollars? A bit more than that. A bit more than that. You paid them in Bitcoin. $100,000?

Not that much. Okay. We have a range. Somewhere between. You have $99,000 to play around with. That's how you find out hold women are. You know what I mean? You want our 100.

Yeah, you look like you're 25. She's like, what? There's no way. You're so adorable. Thanks for saying that. And then you go way high. And then she's like, no way, I'm not at 45. And then boom.

So 50,000 for the same unit of bull. No comment. Hit it. That's a good amount of money. No comment, but it's actually not that amount. Oh, really? Now, do you ask for exclusivity on that person? No, never.

That's a good deal. Never, ever. I mean, sometimes we'll ask like, hey, listen, can you, before doing, you know, let's just say it's a person that's about to do, a lot of interviews, we'll say, you know, especially for if it's a financial transaction, we'll say, hey, listen, can you wait until this interview drops before doing other interviews? Yeah, that's more.

That's more what I meant. Yeah, yeah. But ultimately, they could also say no. And it is what it is. It is what it is. You just got to be confident that your interview is the best. Right. And, like, one thing that, like, you know, sometimes people have come to me, like, you know,

I remember I interviewed, Here's the Christ, he was like this DC drug king. And he was, he hit me up. He was like, hey, can I still do documentaries or movies about my life? life. Like, do you own my life rights? And I'm like, no, not in the least. Jesus Christ. At all. Like, you know what I mean? Like, all I own is what we filmed that day. You could go out and do the same interview 20 more times. Right. If that's what you want. You could do. I mean, I think the Michelle A TV movie was, was based on our interview. Wow. I think that's what she had mentioned to me at one point. So it's like a lot of stuff that what we do in a documentary format, we'll get turned into bigger projects

later on. That's, I want, I want to see China Mac's story turn into a film. We talked about that. Absolutely. We're waiting on you on that. that. He's crushing it right now. Really? China Mac, yeah. He gave him his first interview. Really? His first ever interview out of prison. No, he's crushing it right now. He has this, uh, he has this, like, Mac Eats show. He's doing like a food show. We have a Mac Eats. We have a Mac Eats on TV, which we haven't run yet. Oh, really? But yeah, he's, like,

traveling all around. He's really utilizing YouTube almost as, like, uh, his, his way to interface with fans in general, like putting out a message or put out on YouTube. Usually people use, like, Instagram for that. But he's cultivated, like, a cool audience. was doing show. Yeah, I really like what China Magazine doing because I know when we had him on, he was talking about rapping, but he was like, I also see myself doing other things outside of rap. And

it looks like he's doing it, man. Yeah. Another regular guest on Vlad TV who gets paid to do it. There we go. Like another person that we helped out. And that's the one thing that sort of annoys me sometimes is that people don't mention the people that we've helped out

along the way. Like, for example, you signed the Gangster Chronicles. Yeah. Right? And Slu-Tis-Steil, Norm. Yeah. M-C-A. And Mob James really got to start on Blat TV. That's what led to him actually doing a podcast. Slut to Mob James.

Yeah, you know, and ultimately doing stuff like that. Like, you know, we try to help people's careers and sometimes even jumpstart their careers like a Chinat Mac, you know, or a mob James. Yeah. And, you know, it'd be a nice thing I mentioned every so often, but, yeah, it is what it is. Hey, listen, my church announcement is, Slukech everybody who came out to the Tribeca Film Festival to watch the movie 88 that I executive produced. The Saturday night show was sold out.

But we got to show that, we've got to show that. We recorded this on Tuesdays. We got to show tonight at 9 o'clock. But the next show is Saturday, June 18, 215 p.m. Theater number 6, go to Tribeca Film Festival.com. I think there's still tickets available for that show. This Saturday, June 18th, 215 p. go see the movie 88 that I executive produced stars my man Brandon V. Dixon and Notary Notting.

And yeah, this is a good weekend to go see it. This weekend is going to be, it's going to be what, Black Gay Father's Day? Black Gay Father's Weekend? What? That's a thing? Well, I'm combining it because it's three different holidays and one. So Sunday is June team, right? So it's a celebration of blackness.

Plus it's going to be Father's Day. And it's Pride Month. Why don't we just call it Atlanta Day? Is that a good idea? Black gay father. We just combined all three. I'm not touching that. I'm just saying this is a good weekend.

Completely on your own. Black gay father's day, go see 88. Okay, take your black gay father to go see 88 this weekend at the Tribeca Film Festival. Let's do it. This is a good weekend for Black Gay Fathers, bro. That Sunday? Yes, dude, I've been waiting for this day. I've been waiting for, you know, time.

where we can finally celebrate black gay fathers. There's not enough celebration of black gay fathers. Well, this Sunday is our day. Okay? Now, it's yours. I'm black, bro. But what about the other ones? You're a black father, but you're not gay.

I feel like humans were all encompassing. So I am what you am. I am what he is. I am what Alex is. I am what Taylor is. You know what I mean? You're a little gay. I mean, I think we all are.

You think we're a little gay? Ain't not wrong with being a little gay. Everybody's a little gay. Yeah, you ever jacked off? Yeah. Okay, he didn't. You played with your dick. Yeah, that's true.

Right. Yo, it is interesting, like, your, like, your shit ain't gay. But then there's a limit. Like, jerking off, we've decided that's not gay. But if you, right? Another man, man. But another man.

But, well, it gets crazier. Jerking off is not gay, but if you finger your butthole, that's, you know. Yo. That's that we would think is gay, right? Finger in your own butthole. That being said, jerking off, not gay at all. Straight even.

I don't even want to say that's gay. Who decides? Who decides? I feel like it's something bigger than gay. Go, go, what's beyond gay? I don't know what's beyond gay. What is beyond gay? That's a good question.

I don't know. What is beyond gay? Finger in your butthole. Finger in your butthole. Fing your butthole is beyond gay. Right? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. What is it?

I'm not trying to be on this. That's not even beyond gay. Impossible gay. But jerking yourself off is not gay. What about jerking yourself off and finger in your butthole? At the same time. It kind of screams gay to me. It kind of screams you should be getting paid for that.

Come on. That's an amazing thing to be able to do. Jerk off and thinking of your butthole. See what you admit when Vlad's in the room. You have to have? I'm serious. Core balance. You're not strong your core

has to be. Yeah, to like, to be pulling and, yo, that's one of those things you know who you can't, like, pat your head and rub your stomach?

Yes. If you can finger your butt hole and jerk off, if you can do that email us, man. I did it. I bet you did, Vlad. I bet you did. You say,

I got skills in other areas, too. I'm just saying. You're missing out, I see the road that I'm about to walk down. How did you get that scar on your finger. You're doing some popping in luck.

I can tell you. Wait, wait, wait. Well, I was alluding to the thing we were talking about. Nothing to do with that. Okay. Okay. I'm just you know, you know, the point of finger. The point of finger. You got a good fucking observation. Son, I'm out here. I'm watching the room. You know what I'm saying? I got to make sure he's not, you know,

bugging our phones and shit for fucking Putin. This guy. What's the, what's the story? I remember I mean it was it wasn't a great story I was training to be a boxer not like training to be a boxer but like taking boxing lessons

and I was in my house practicing punches and I ended up punching a doorframe on accident Yeah Cut yourself with a meat cleaver When you were going to A butcher

Vinnie Yeah I'm glad to butcher Almost Nope Okay We're not gonna give We're not gonna give that anything

Boo Yeah Keep digging yo Greg Listen we shoot on this podcast That's a fact. We didn't say we hit. Dem Curry went 0 for nine yesterday. He's still going to win finals MVP.

Wait, did he worry the open? 0 for nine? That three points yesterday. No way. And they still got the dove. Warriors and six, baby. They're cleaning that up. Warriors and six.

Okay, listen, DJ Vlad posted this. For all the young guys out there who think that prison isn't that bad. This is from Aaron Cox. Former 32 months as state property at Pennsylvania Department of Corrections. I guess the question was, what does it like to be turned out in prison? And I'm going to read this whole thing because I need everybody's answer on this. In my mid-20s, I was young and stupid. Thought I was a tough guy and was hustling.

Ended up getting pulled over with a loaded gun and two ounces of powder and got sent to a state prison for 32 months. It's 32 months. So that's like what? Three years almost. Two and a half years, almost, right? In order to survive in there, I basically had to become someone's prison wife, as they call it. I was young, slim, good-looking, and completely inexperienced in doing time. My cellie was solid muscle.

So he started taking advantage of me. What can I say? It was awful in the beginning, but I got used to it. I now noted it could have been a whole lot worse for me, so I'm not bitter. At least he treated me pretty good. Never hit me or nothing like that. And he never shared me with no one. Thankfully, like I seen happen to some of the other guys who got turned out in there.

I am well aware that there's going to be people on here who are going to clown me and point fingers. I don't really give a fuck. What happened to me happens to a lot of men in lockup. I'm just one of the few who has the heart to admit it. They even have a name now for the type of situations like I was in. It's called protective pairing. Like I said, it happens to lots of men. But some of the guys in there who aren't as strong,

becoming a punk is the only way to guarantee your safety. Because in return for giving up the booty, you get protection. I'm now 31 years old, have a beautiful girlfriend and moving on, although my experience in prison will stay with me for the rest of my life. Thoughts. Protective pairing. Protective pairing. I remember a girl responded.

She goes, shit, because of inflation. I'm protective pairing right now. hilarious hilarious. No, that's crazy, man. I don't know about all that. He was just talking about what's gay. That's gay.

That's gay. But is gay for survival? Yeah, but it's just, yeah, I think that's... So is gay a mindset or in action? Well, I don't think he's gay. Well, no, I think he's gay. But... No, is gay a mindset that are in action?

No, gay's a mindset. Like, doing something gay because you have to doesn't make you gay. Right? But he was a rape victim. Yeah. That's what he is. If that happened, I don't believe this to be real at all.

Like that, you don't think so? No, it was Cap. Nobody would ever admit that. No, I have a girlfriend, no, but I'm getting over there. He didn't say his real name. He's the name was Aaron Cox. But he, too. That's fake.

Which he probably got in prison. No. He didn't say his thing. He didn't say it. This is fake, bro. Nobody would admit this. Okay, okay. Let me tell you.

Anonymous Lee. Did you guys? Okay. Joe Rogan played this clip on his show. Yeah. You know I watched it. You know what I was talking about. right.

Rico Reckless. Yeah. For glad to me. I saw that before. And in Cook County jail in Chicago. They spit on your butthole or something? They spit in your,

they knock you out and spit in your butt hole. Okay. You think that's fake? You think both these guys are just making up the story just for fun? Well, no, there's two different things going on here. Like, he's admitting that he was sucking dicks or fucking this guy. They're saying that other people are abusing. I think it's very rare that the victim just comes out and be like,

yo, this is what it was. and actually wasn't that bad. He treated me pretty good. But I think it's a form of therapy. Like, that's something you got to get off your chest. Tell your therapist, bro. Tell your therapist, bro. Don't shout that to Facebook.

But you want to warn people. I think what he's doing, those are the kind of stories that keep people out of jail. Yeah. I really believe that. I mean, I watch American meat. No, seriously.

In high school, I watched American Meals wild. Jail's not for me. That's it. I made a decision for the rest of my life to say, once I saw the rape scene, with the Mexican mafia and the Italian mafia dude,

I said, not for me. Yeah. You know what I mean? Those are beyond scared straight stories. Those are the stories that you tell that really keep kids out of prison. I think so anyway. Yeah.

You know what I mean? Because it's just, I don't know if it's because of social media and you see people in prison and they dance in and they got food and everything looks all beaches and cream. It's like, no, it's prison, bro. It's going down in there.

Like, you're going to have to fight every day of your life to stay alive. Who's that? And this dude only did 32, months. God damn, bro. Think about that.

32 months. One decision cost him 32 months of his freedom and he got violated in prison. He actually needs therapy. This is a cry for help if you ask me. He's helping other people by telling his story, but he actually needs therapy. There's no way in hell he has a healthy relationship

with his girlfriend. Yeah. It's impossible. Yeah, like remember an American meet when he got out and he tried to get with the girl and he was trying to butt fuck her and she was like, ah, you don't remember that part? No. You don't remember that part?

You remember that part, but you don't remember the Omar shit. But that was with a man and a woman. You're talking about with two men. Ah, yeah, I guess. See? See? What did they do after they spit in your butthole? I forgot that part.

Well, what happens is that once you have a human, anything, human saliva or a human bodily fluid inside of you, is considered rape. So then they have to go and administer a rape kid and have to notify your family that you've been raped in prison. Man, no, man. So this is how to rape without raping. Fuck. They're raping without raping, Rapein without raping. Let me tell you this.

When I played this for, you know, you just mentioned China Mac. Jesus. Right? Yeah. Yeah. Well,

because I haven't seen that. But what I did see is like, okay, when dudes in prison, they hide things in their trunk. Yeah. Right. Which is their ass.

But, boofing. Right. So what he has seen is a dude will boof some drugs and word will get out. He's got some drugs in his ass. So he's seen dudes.

You'll knock the guy out. reach in his ass pull out whatever he had in his ass and then go hang out with their friends and smoke open it up and then go smoke or shoot up whatever the hell they just pulled out of this man's ass imagine doing that as a prank and this dude don't got nothing

in that bad just an empty bag that says fuck you what if you don't got nothing and you just keep digging and digging you know you say you got it in here you take it out and the bag is just a paper that goes hey yo Yeah.

Yo, why are you reaching in people's ass and stuff? Dirty, motherfucker. Prison is not. Prison is not where you all want to be here. Pause. That's what it is. God. Damn.

The whole other world. That's what I say. Jesus Christ. Hey, salute the quintinsel gentleman. I'm on. What? Did I not pronounce that right? Oh, I didn't even see the word.

Oh, no. quintessential. Quintessential. This guy is crazy, this guy is... Luta quintessential gentleman. This guy is a multi, multi-millionaire,

business owner, genius communicator, like for a living. But I just can't pronounce it. He's an author, bro. He's an author. Listen, we all fall short,

if there's more than three syllables, it ain't getting that. It's unbelievable. Just a genius. He saw quintessential and didn't even fucking try, bro. He didn't even fucking try. Go, go. No, I just saluted him.

I'm on the cover. He's going to fucking go. The fucking go. It gets better. Wait, it gets better. He's on the cover. I'm on the cover. He's on the cover.

He doesn't know. I can't put. I can't. wait till he's on the cover of Vogue. He's like, I'm on Vogue way. Vow. Vogue you. Don't do Vogue you. Oh, man. Go, go check that out. We're going to go. We're going to the goat. It's the goat. They did the whole photo shoot everything, no clue what the fuck the magazine was. No, I do know the magazine. They did a nice article and it was a nice did they do. You know what's that crazy? That's what when I was in Brooklyn, I was in Brooklyn

shooting that. Yeah. This guy's unbelievable If you look at the pictures Shout out to Quintuplet Shout out to Quincy Jones Shout out to Quincy Jones Shout out to Kuntikinti

Shout out to Shout out to Oh man If you go look at the pictures, right? Yeah, that's what you look at You're definitely not reading the mother The pictures are like modeless Right?

Ooh Right, just the way he had me posing and stuff right that. And that's when I was in Brooklyn and one of them young boys was walking down the street. Nah. Look.

God damn, bro! That's a little too much. Nah, you're looking handsome, dude. That's what I keep hearing. I'm trying to pair up. That's what I keep hearing. But listen, I'm trying to protect the pair.

The dude in Brooklyn, the dude was walking by the dude goes, yo, Charlemagne, word of my debt. You're giving sexy, my boy. I was like, what? The hood's getting progressive, bro. Damn, Charlotte!

This is great, man You're looking real mouse Joe's right now Hey, hey, bro I don't want that to salute the mouse And I'm gonna give myself A yo Word to my day

I got an A yo myself Word to my day I got an Ayo myself Looking sexy my boy Yo, word to my dad You said you're giving sexy You said word to my dad You're giving sexy bro

You're giving sexy You're giving sexy Keep going We got another one God damn, bro You know what? Yeah, it's sad. Yeah, it's Lute the Q magazine

man. You've actually I'm actually. You're for Q gentlemen magazine. Q gentlemen magazine.

I appreciate y'all, man. Thank you, man. I'm done. Thank you. Thank you.

Vlad. Vlad, thank you for coming, man. I appreciate you. Of course. Glad is my guy. You know,

wheezee. Sorry, sorry, sorry, sorry. Why we getting kicked up? Oh. Vlad is my guy, man.

Black is my friend for a long time. We cancels. His birthday is a day before mine. We celebrated many a B-Day party together. And I appreciate Vlad. You got anything? GladTV.com, all that good stuff? Yeah, Vladtv.com.

Check out the membership on YouTube. Yeah, YouTube.com slash VladTV. Live TV on Instagram. And Sammy the Bull come in. What are the other big ones you said, dude, you had? Sammy the Bull. I mean, Warren Sapp is dropping today. Warren.

Michael Franzese is back. He's dropping next week as well. And we're working on some stuff. Okay, cool. I mean, like to announce stuff until I actually film it. But Sammy's been filmed. Michael's been filmed. And we have, I mean, we're actually the first time in our 15-year history,

like, we are so backed up. Like, we literally have clips scheduled into August. Wow. You know what I'm saying? Whereas, like, I'm not interviewing as much as, I usually am because I just need to let these things to kind of clear up a little bit That's great

There's just so much content But yeah, it's a good problem to have It's a great problem to have Shultz, is it? Yes, sir As always, if you listen to this podcast You think we're smart, you think we're intelligent You think we're brilliant, you're absolutely right

But if you think we're just a couple idiots You don't know shit, you're right too It's the brilliant idiotous podcast Thank you for listening Thanks, boom