The Digression Sessions - Ep. 167 - DDM! (aka Unkle Lulu of Bond St. District)

Episode Date: October 5, 2015

Hola DigHeads! This week Josh and Mike are joined by Baltimore rapper, DDM! DDM is one of the area’s most beloved hip hop artists, who worked his way through the ranks of competitive street battles to become a staple performer of the rap scene on both a local and national level. Check out his new group, Bond St. District! DDM does not hold back or mince words as he schools the boys on the perfectionism and discipline it takes to make a solid act in the competitive world of MCing. He tells us what he hates and what he loves with very little in between and articulates the backlash he has had to endure among people he considered his own. And he handles all of that while avoiding being pigeon holed as only a "gay rapper." You’re going to enjoy this one Dig Heads, it is seriously one interesting listen! Thanks for all the support we have been getting lately, please keep those 5 star reviews on iTunes and comments on our FB page a-comin! We love you! Say hello on the internet - @JoshKuderna - Twitter & Instagram @MikeMoranWould - Twitter @DigSeshPod - Twitter

hey everybody i'm josh kaderna and i'm mike moran and you're listening to the digression sessions podcast a baltimore-based comedy talk show hosted by two young, handsome stand-up comedians slash improvisers. Join us every week as we journey through the world of comedy and the bizarreness of existence. As we interview local and non-local comedians, writers, musicians, and anyone else we find creative and interesting. Yes. Who's the guest this week ddm is the guest on this week's podcast michael and everyone else listening uh he's uh he's a rapper he's a part of this group called the bond street district or just bond street district without the you know if you're nasty is that what he prefers i believe so i. I believe so. And Bond Street District is DDM, a.k.a. Uncle Lulu, as he likes to be called, a.k.a. Young Hormel.

I think that's my rapper name now. And yeah, so it's him and Paul Hudson, I'm pretty sure is how you say it. And they are Bond Street District, and they're really good uh rap group based here in baltimore and i did a show with ddm a while ago and uh i was really impressed with his performance and uh they've been blowing up ever since so it was cool to finally get him on the podcast yeah and uh yeah he had some just really interesting insights about performing in general and then navigating being uh a gay rapper and not being pigeonholed in that box, which I thought was really interesting.

Yeah, it was a great interview. It was a lot of fun. Yeah, it was just really cool. It was pretty inspiring, too. It's like, I'm not just, yes, I'm a gay guy and I'm a rapper, but it doesn't mean that that's all that I do. So he was really cool. He's a rapper who is gay.

Exactly. The rapper comes before the gay. Beyond that, he's a person. Yes. And a goddamn good one. But that is gay. Exactly. The rapper comes before the gay. Beyond that, he's a person, you know? Yes. And a goddamn good one. But that comes third. Yeah.

But no, he was awesome. So this episode was a lot of fun. So check out bondstreetdistrict.com. And they have an EP out right now called Everybody's So Sleepy. And then they'll have a new album coming out in the spring, I believe. So now let's promote some things of our own, Michael. Listen to all of our episodes if you want. From one till now.

Yeah. Digressionsessions.com or check out Thundergrunt.com. Rate and review us on iTunes and Stitcher. We would really appreciate it. And follow us on Twitter. I am at Josh Coderna. And I am at Mike Moran Wood. That's W-O-U-L-D.

Yeah. And I'm on Instagram under the same name. The podcast is at digsashpod on Twitter. And we'll be doing some shows this week if you guys want to come out to those. I will be at the Virginia Beach Funny Bone on Tuesday at 8 o'clock. Wednesday

I'll be in Baltimore at the Auto Bar for Chuckle Storm. That's the talk show that I co-host. We're going to have stand-ups and sketch and all kinds of live interviews and stuff. I think Matt Galler from WTMD is going to be on it. I'm going to challenge a fella to a beatboxing contest.

Oh yeah? And I think he's really good. So he's going to destroy me. But it'll be a fun bit. I think. So come out to that. And then I'm very excited to announce that I will be in New Orleans Thursday through Saturday for Hell Yes Fest. And I'll be doing a few shows, bouncing around. And if you go to digressionsessions.com slash calendar, that has the locations and ticket info and times and all that stuff. So come on out to that if you're in New Orleans.

Very excited. And say hello. Yeah. Let's see. I'll be at the Camden Pub on the 8th. I believe that's a 9 o'clock show. Doing improv with Population 6 on the 15th at the Mercury. Be doing stand-up at that art center downtown.

What's that called? Don't know. The Platform Art Center. Oh, I haven't heard of it. Yeah. I'll be there the 16th. And also look for my book review in the upcoming issue of The Skeptical Inquirer. I'll be reviewing Damien Echol's Life After Death.

Interesting. Hell yeah. Alright, well check out all that stuff. Thank you guys for listening. Rambling intro is over. Let's talk to DDM. How you doing? Which high school did you go to? I went to Merrillville. Merrillville, of course, is on the northeast side. I grew up on the northwest side. Gotcha. you go to gotcha

months a key move girl nice didn't a kid from there like drown in It's a little different looking at it. Excuse me, baby. Monta, can you move, girl? I graduated in 2002. Nice. Didn't a kid from there drown in that little water treatment plant across the street? Really? That's what somebody told me. Yeah, you know anything about that? Nothing. No, nothing at all?

That's why you're here. No? You have an alibi for that day? Yeah, where were you? I know. I would love to that's when he reaches for the for the umbrella sword i have no no i don't i have no idea no but it's a lot of like old wives tales just in general i thought you put that thing like right up here i

thought you were gonna say somebody drowned at the pool in the because you said well they still do have a pool in my row but it was closed off. Wow. Swim team and all that. Yeah, I went during the Reconstruction. I call it the Reconstruction era, though. So a lot of those amenities, my era, didn't really get the experience. We didn't have, really, we didn't have pet rallies no band geez the choir was dismantled like maybe two years after i got there oh man um why i don't know it was just they were doing a lot of construction

no one's allowed to sing then dismantle the choir look down yeah it's already a shop school so i i'm guessing here maybe all the funding was already allocated to the trades gotcha so you know our football team i play a short stint on the football team uh-huh everyone was assigned a number instead of a name yeah it's like very you know but now like, you know, the sculptures in front. The football field looks really nice. Like, our generation definitely paid for it. Because really the only thing I really learned from River is how to play spades. So they didn't break up the spades team. That's good.

No, it's so funny because, like, I can honestly say in my time going there, they didn't really do much for us. I mean, our trade, we didn't like really learn the trade. What was your trade? Commercial baking. So everything, all of the hard work was already done when we got there. So basically you just have kids in overpriced white uniforms, like, frying donuts and, like, putting cookies in the oven. Like, we didn't really, like, all of the, like, real stuff, like, when customers would come, like, outside of the school, off the street to buy cakes. We didn't make them fucking cakes.

Really? Our teacher made those fucking cakes. You know what I'm saying? But you guys looked the part. Yeah, we looked great. You know? We looked great, but we didn't really do anything. You're a clean name for the liquor board.

Right. You know, pretty much. So my teacher is this older Italian lady, Miss Conigliero. She knew what she was doing. She was really good at it. But I think she was just like over it. And then our teacher's assistant at the time, I think our husband was passing and she was going through a lot so our education we we we did busy work right all four years yeah damn yeah and did you

learn any baking like anything that you can still do i i as a i can honestly say as a person whose trade was commercial baking i still go to the store and buy the cookies in the pack and put them in the oven. I make box cakes. So you just gave up on it after a while? It just wasn't, I think it's in my opinion, it's very unfair to ask a child

at 12 what do they want to do for the rest of their life. Some children do know that answer. I would have signed up for comic book artist if that was a possibility. What do you say to- Then again, I am kind of doing everything that I wanted to do when I was 12 now, so. Now, but it's not fair.

Like, I didn't really know what I wanted to- I knew I always wanted to be in entertainment, but I didn't really know how I was going to actively pursue that. Like, I auditioned for School of the Arts, and they told me no. And in retrospect, I'm kind of glad because a lot of those kids end up just working for people right which that's not a bad thing because you're with a traveling company and you're getting a check but it doesn't they teach you how to be proficient and this is my opinion right they teach you how to be proficient in working in the industry

not creating the industry. Right, right. Not really carving out your own path. Right. So like here are the lanes that are already there. We'll plug you in and you can be like a studio musician or something like that. Yeah. Exactly.

Plus Tupac went to the Baltimore School of the Art and he's dead now. Right. Could end up like this. See? That's how that goes. I'm going to miss that bullet. So you used to drive by this neighborhood on your way to school? Yeah, I used to catch the number 22.

It's still the same bus. Number 22, I'm on a diamond and then going to school, the 22 Highland Town. And we used to ride past here all the time. And you were like, one day I'm going to podcast in a basement. I'm going to make it there someday. And you made it. Congratulations, DDM. Yeah. You ain't never going to make it to the digression you made it. Congratulations, DDM. Yeah.

You ain't never going to make it to the digression sessions. That's what they all said to you. Yep. You're too short. You're not going to have any good stories about baking. You're never going to make it down there. At all. You know, here we are.

I'll show you. I'll show all of you. Yeah. Exactly. So congratulations. Thank you. No, thanks for coming through man we uh we met a while ago at peter moose house the hamden mansion brandon weatherby's show oh yeah that

was a really cool place yeah yeah it's it's awesome it's uh yeah it's it's a beautiful house that actually has a real stage and like super nice but uh yeah i think uh yeah we met there and i was like hey you should do the podcast. You're like, hit me up. And then months go by and I was like, yeah, I meant to hit this guy up. But yeah, dude, you've been blowing up ever since. It's cool to see you're on the Windjammer Festival here. Oh, yeah. The Vice article.

Yeah. Yeah. And then being a part of Artscape and the Windjammer Fest here for people listening that may not know, all the huge Baltimore bands were on there, like Future Islands, Dan Deacon, Beach House, and it was really cool that you guys were on there. Yeah, it was a lot of fun. It's definitely one of those opportunities that you kind of take advantage of a lot. I was not kind to people during that show as far as on my end, as far as getting the show together, of course, to the people.

Only because when you get that opportunity, you have to be ready to work. Everybody wants the opportunity until the opportunity shows itself. And then when the opportunity shows itself, everybody doesn't know what to do. It's like everything you learned in the manual is gone. Yeah. I was hard on the dancers. I was hard on, you know, my drummer. My drummer rose to the occasion.

Everybody rose to the occasion. But, you know, I've been working just in this city for a good period of time now. So when you get those opportunities, especially, you know, Dan invited us to that show personally. That's so cool. So it was like one of those things I've built a friendship with him over the years so when he's saying okay you know come and do the show because i opened for him before i started working uh with paul on barnstreet district at the howard theater like maybe a year and some change ago and uh you know he asked he had suggested me actually he's i'm like you know it's so crazy like with dan like

we're just starting to get to know each other but the times that he's helped me like it's not like i've been like in his face or like you know like hey we should hang out i've never been that type of person yeah you know it'd be weird to get something from that anyway it just feels gross you know it's not i don't think like, hard work doesn't always pay off. But at the same token, if you just focus on doing good work, you know, some opportunities will come your way. Now, of course, you're going to have to do some politics. And that's just the way it works. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.

You know, but I was very intense about that show for everything. Because even though you're opening, you want people to come back. You want the people that are there to say oh i want to see these guys again i want to follow them i want to buy some merchandise i want to you know you know like i feel like a lot of artists like we live in a time to me where artists feel like it's the audience's privilege to see them and that's not the case yeah right right it's so many like you look on spotify it like it's almost to the point now where you have so many selections you just don't pick anything

yeah it's an overwhelming or you just listen to the stuff you've listened to already for the time like i know what this is i don't know what the rest of that is and plus like everybody's performing these days that's like the only way to make money so like everybody's figuring out a way to everybody's you know throwing a show not everybody is performing oh throwing it down there throwing throwing the gauntlet down and he looked right at you mike you gotta step your rap game up you understand get your dancers don't make me challenge you to a bake-off you probably gonna win who's gonna buy the best donut? Yeah, I saw you posting stuff on Facebook about that. Like, hey, I'm sorry I've been a dick.

I just want this show to be good. Basically, it's like I've been riding everybody. But I think it's really cool that you got a drummer in the mix, too. Because that adds so much to the live element. Especially with rap and stuff. Because it sounds great when you're listening to it in headphones. But live, it's kind of a bummer when somebody just like clicks play on the laptop and people don't pay for that like i look at it like this you know especially in the times we're living in people paying good money i mean it's not like it's not 80s or 90s and 70s music money

but it's good money that people are paying to come see you so when people come to see you you know it's an expectation there especially when you're unknown you know people be like oh well you're so popular i'm popular here okay i'm not popular in la i'm not popular in new york i'm popular in baltimore in the surrounding area and i just happen to get press on a national level every now and then you know i think the biggest thing that has helped me is knowing where i stand on the chessboard and i think a lot of people are not realistic right you know um especially when it comes to their performance you have to be really honest with yourself you know i was watching you know footage from the afro punk festival and you know uh they have all of these acts

that are like internet sensations. Right, right. And I find it so funny that the person that got the most press out of that show was the 67-year-old lady who hula hooped for 20 minutes, Grace Jones. Everybody was talking about Grace Jones' performance. And she doesn't have a new project out.

She's not, you know, doesn't have the hit single right now. But doesn't have a new project out she's not you know doesn't have the hit single right now but when you have a hit show people remember that and when you go on a festival stages i think a lot of a lot of the artists now used to performing in these small venues these clubs because that's kind of the name of the game yeah you know outside of like the taylor swiss the beyonce's the rihanna's nobody really can do arenas by themselves with sets and lighting and you know the whole shebang like back in the day where a lot more people had the opportunity so they're used to doing those smaller venues which does not require you to scale up as much yeah so when you get on a stage that's big like afro punk

you're kind of bewildered because a nine times out of ten you haven't studied the great performers so you just think you're cool and that you and the dj in the back and a few smoke machines don't do the job we'll figure this out you know whereas though if you had did your homework because i i firmly believe that there is no new artist throughout history there you are just adding another fixture to something that someone else has already designed you know no you're not unique you're just cold play with 2015 production okay right sorry yeah you are not unique you are shaw day smoking weed okay you know like i i you know that's my thing like you like everything has been done so then who would you say you are like if you were to i am a mixture of shaw day smoking weed maybe

role play when i'm crying in my room okay Okay. At night because I want to be famous. And Mrs. Perfect Liano from Merbo. Right. No, but I think, honestly, I think I get a lot of people when they come to our shows now, they be like, oh, it's so funny. I try to make it so interactive and so personal. I want the people to feel like I'm thankful that you came. I'm really thankful when people come to the show.

Yeah. It's really like I'll be mean to everybody else, but the people that's in front of the show, they deserve that attention because they paid their money to come see your tight ass on stage. So a lot of times, like I've learned how to talk to crowds when I first started. I didn't really talk to crowds. I just would go through the songs and leave. And I started to try to understand when I did my homework, because you got to do your ass in seat time. I'd say my friend Maxie says ass in seat time,

meaning you have to sit and study. You have to sit and understand what it is that you're doing and what you are trying to do. And I've studied a lot of stand-up comedians, a lot of, because I think stand-up comedians are so interesting in that andrew dice clay you know kevin hart you know all these guys eddie murphy they can sell out madison square garden and the only thing on stage is them in a leather outfit with a bottle of water a towel a stool and a mic yeah yeah where's you know someone like the

leather suit has to be part of it put the leather on everybody has leather it's in the contract bright red if possible it's like you see those and they can do that with just that whereas yeah when you go to see like a janet or tina or madonna they have a circus with them those road changes in the same venue yeah you know so it's it's something to be said about your personality being able to transition and transcend and reach people so i study a lot of stand-up comedians a lot of drag queens drag queens teach you how to deal with hecklers they are the best at dealing with hecklers so i feel like that is a lot of trash talk yeah they're the best so heckler is your best're the best. So a heckler is your best friend.

I'll be right back. A heckler is your best friend because a heckler can take a good show and make it a great show. Because now what they've helped you do is personalize that experience. So when the people that came to that show, they're going to remember that moment. And it's like, oh, this boy tried D.D.R. and he shut it down. That's not a part of the show. Right. So that's a special moment just for that crowd.

You know what I'm saying? But I study a lot of them. Of course, like when I started, you know, trying to rap, you know, I love Lil Cam. I love Biggie. So that aggression is a part of who I am. I like big sounds. I don't like that ambient shit. I'm not trying to put nobody to

sleep sure i want big horns i want loud drums i want you to know that the champ is here okay bomb squad right i don't want no bullshit you know what i'm saying we're gonna have a cute moment but it's gonna be a cute moment do you do you go back and forth at all like between the the big uh like faster paced boom bastic sounds and like do like a little slow one oh yeah you gotta do that Do you go back and forth at all between the big faster-paced, boom-bastic sounds and do a little slow one in between? Oh, yeah. You got to do that because I'm fat and I need time to breathe after I done did all that.

So we definitely going to have that moment. Can you tell the audience that? I do. We're going to do a slow one. It's a way that you are candid with your audience while still giving them an allure. Oh, yeah, yeah. Because sometimes you can be-

They like to see the wall come down a little bit. You can be a little too frank, and sometimes you can be a little too polished. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. You know, and it's like a fine line that you have to tell. And I think stand-up comedians and drag queens help me a lot with that. As far as, like, my performance style, I'm not going to lie to you. I love Tina Turner. So a lot of times when it's time to dance, when it's time to, you know, even the way that she enters and exits a stage, that's designed.

When the iCats leave the stage, they leave the stage a certain kind of way. You know, so like when I look at all those things, I look at even people like Grace Jones as far as how she visually presents how you pace your show, your timing, how Freddie Mercury talks to a crowd. And he has a crowd during his ad libs. There's no music playing. He's at Live Aid with a sea of people. And he's going, hey-o. And the whole city, hey-o. And they love it.

He was so good. He's probably one of the best front men ever. Yeah. They crushed that show. Everybody knows that. They try it. But when you die, your legend gets a time stamp unless you like somebody like Marilyn Monroe where your legend is a business. So that business is going to keep generating revenue for that image.

Whoever owns that image, who is getting all this money from Marilyn Monroe? That's a good point. I guess, does she have family members? Does she? I think she was married and unmarried a couple times, right? Didn't she marry Joe DiMaggio or something? Did she have children? I don't know.

I don't think so. I don't think so. She died pretty young without kids. We should look into this. Who's getting the money? There might be some Marilyn Monroe money on the table that we're not getting. There's a chance we're in line for it. Yeah.

I've bought in girls' calendars of Marilyn Monroe before. I think I should get a cut of that. It is weird that people love her. It's like, hey, she banged a president and died early and was a drug addict. She's great. Right. Yeah, I don't really understand that whole world, but it does kind of seem like she

was the first supermodel, right? Yeah. I mean, I guess. She was attractive. She was crossing over. I hate the term branding, but when did you start thinking about this stuff versus like, I'm going to go do shows, let the music speak for itself.

And now do you actively try to cultivate that? Like, oh, this is the DDM brand or Bond Street District. See, the thing is with branding, everybody's so into branding right now. Everybody's calling their fans some kind of name. Right. Shout out to the D-Heads. Yeah. You know, everybody's calling their fan so kind of name everything that i study and everything that i do

that's basic performance technique and i find it so funny because you're not the first person to say that yeah that thinks that's branded no that's called doing your job you know yeah it should be i think yeah it should be something that uh happens naturally because it's like no you're just doing what you want to do it's not like oh yeah these shoes are on my brand you know like just just do whatever like when even when i go to pick what i'm gonna wear for a show i don't pick what is the hot brand i pick what a is gonna fit b what's gonna look nice what's gonna hide the fat what's gonna breathe nicely what's gonna look good in a photo i don't care who made it i don't care who it's by i care that i look good in it you know so if it's by some you know off-brand hell if it's by pro wings but it works you know we can throw some

swarovski crystals on it and nobody will know the goddamn what is pro wings just some generic like oh you don't know pro wing i know nothing about fashion this is as fashionable as i've ever been it's not fashion that was like what you got from like pick and pay and pay less and like you know like i've got plenty of stuff with the uh what is it like marova or something from target yeah marona yeah yeah that's my brand i got a lot of that stuff yeah i was told once uh i uh i was at a training for work and i was sitting next to a girl and she's like i like your style and i was like i don't really have a style i'm pretty plain like i just had i had jeans and i think like a like a zip-up hoodie it's like it's pretty plain she's like yeah it's plain but it's like edgy plain it's like normal but uh it's like you're right. It's like normal, but...

It's like you're right on the precipice of being interesting. You're coming right up to it. You probably own at least one Blink-182 album. Yeah, yeah. I'm a little edgy. I'm a little edgy. I'll put the windows down, you know?

Let people hear my Blink-182 music. But not too loud. I don't want to inconvenience somebody. You turn the treble all the way up I'm a bad boy I'm a bad bad boy here the high notes like yeah all right well let's let's let's talk about how you got started when did you start rapping I started rapping I want to say Okay so the first rap song That I ever like Learned

Was like a Lil' Kim record I think it was Queen Bitch Or something And I used to I learned it like quietly Like we dubbed the tape Because I was in like Middle school

Late elementary Early middle school And we dubbed the tape And I like snuck it in the house And I was listening to it In my Walkman And I learned late elementary early middle school and we dubbed the tape and i like snuck it in the house and i was listening to it in my walk man and uh i learned i learned that record and um i wrote my first rap i think freshman or sophomore year high school so you're just walking around the house like whispering the lyrics to queen bitch well in my room because my mother wouldn't let me uh listen to any type

of rap right because of the language none at all man so you can even sneak a little young mc in there only only mc hammer but she didn't like if you like mc hammer as a rapper it was like it's mc hammer my dad liked mc hammer right you know it's not the same yeah so what are the what's the hook to queen bitch it's's no hook. It's scratching. It's like, Rich, I'm going to stay that, stay that, stay that, stay that. It's like a lot of scratching. It's the hardest

Kim record ever. The way it come off. It's no hook. I think that's the crazy part. That's one of her signature records and it really does not have a hook. Interesting. I was just curious because I think it's so funny just for a little kid to be like i'm a queen bitch like you cleaning room yeah i'm a queen bitch you said i'm a clean bitch yeah so that was like the first record and then i wrote uh rap in

yeah freshman sophomore year uh-huh and then uh what was your first rap about i can't even remember it was something stupid it was totally stupid like they were it was just dumb um in uh i'm king bitch right i'll show these guys it's so like it's like so funny to me because like i wrote my first rap um and i want to say late yeah freshman year high school freshman sophomore year at that time uh it was a snow storm around that time it wasn't like heavy but um remember when in columbia house you know don't see me for this but remember when they used to have it where you mark off the six free cds for like a penny yeah and they ship them to your house i know you know could you imagine spending that much money on music today a whole penny in the days of spotify so we um so what i did um what

we used to do then we would like cross it off mail it out and i it's amazing that those cards actually made it to columbia did you tape the penny on there no we didn't put the video in there we sent them out yeah i never knew if you were supposed to actually put the penny on there i don't know through the postal system like a card with a penny it actually made it and so like we had the same mailman we lived in an apartment complex. And what we would do, me and my friends, we would have the CDs mailed to an abandoned house or empty apartment next door to us. Because we thought we were going to get locked up or something. And be executed.

Bad boys. It's like a sting operation. Cops are waiting out there. SWAT team sends on you. A helicopter comes down. And that's why we were so stupid. Like, it's like a sting operation. Cops are waiting out there. They sent the CDs. SWAT team sends on you, a helicopter comes down. And that's why we were so stupid. Like, it's so dumb. So I had the CDs sent to you at the apartment store. And I had disinitiated the quest love of anybody.

But at the time, I didn't even know what a Roots was. But the cover looked cool. You thought it was a soundtrack to the TV movie. Right. So I just checked it off. And they sent it it and i think i had like 112 and they're like a few other you know popular people at the time and um in the middle of a snowstorm in my room i put on things fall apart and by the roots and uh that was the album that made me understand what it is to be an artist. What do you mean?

Because that album, as far as hip-hop albums are concerned, is just so well crafted. It's just so well from start to finish. The Mo' Better Blues intro and the words are so poignant in that between you know denzel and wesley and uh just from start to finish the record had a soul to it had it had a soul to it and then the closing uh poem uh by ursula rucker at the end which that was cutting edge and that was that was really cool because you couldn't well maybe you can't do that today but even even in 1998, 1999, there still was room for a gray area when it comes to hip-hop music. So you could be mainstream and do that. Right.

You know, there was still, plus the money that was being generated, it was more money so that you can do things like that. Sure. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And I listened to that project and i can honestly say you know everybody says this corny ass shit but it changed my life yeah it did it really i wanted to be signed to mca you know mca no longer exists but i wanted to be signed to mca and you know i wanted to be this type of person and that type of person. And it just, the thing is, a lot of times when people come to the shows to see us, they like that it's entertainment,

but there's always a message and always content when I talk to people because that is very necessary, especially in the times that we live in. I think everybody is kind of in vogue also as well to be aware and i just don't i don't want to beat you in the head with awareness i want you to feel like you're talking to a friend i want you to feel like you came to this big john lennon-esque you know moment and it's like a whole thing no we know what's going on but we're gonna have fun but i'm not gonna have you leave and feeling like a fucking dummy sure Sure, sure.

You know. So what would you say, what's your take on like conscious rap versus, you know, more mainstream rap? I think nothing is new. It just takes different forms. I don't think that it's really much of a difference, you know now that is it like i remember when uh you know dmx and all i was out that was commercial rap and you know people like you know black star not black star gang star you know um dead prez that was like the real hip-hop you know like you know and now it's so funny to hear people now say yo dmx that was real hip-hop but i i was there right they was like oh x hard but that's like street music and like it's so funny now to have like yeah as soon as one generation passed right

it's like you can say like oh that's the old that's the real you know that was real hip-hop and like now you have like all these acts you know your young thugs your young jeezies your young rich homies uh fetty wap young wanny right you have all these just make up like anything right you know and the thing that's so crazy to me is like young hormel we can do this for an hour man sorry it's so crazy that's the podcast he's saying something poignant we're like young um every time he starts to talk we interrupt him with another one feel free to write these down if you want an alias these are probably storms off and we're still doing it for another half an hour before we realize he's gone y'all are funny no but i think um like it's so funny how things change um and sometimes you're like oh like you know what are you gonna do but i keep i feel like

i'm old sometimes because of the type of music that i listen to but then i'll be like bitch snap out of it like you're 20 something like wake up i mean you're 20s you're not old you know so i think that um i think that it's different like i i what is bizarre to me now is that it's very in vogue to look dirty really like everybody looks like a junkie and like that's like in rap like they look like junkies you know like bleach dreads and stuff like dirty. Y'all look like fiends. And I'm from Baltimore City. We do that naturally here. You know what I'm saying?

I know what a junkie looks like. And it's like, they look dirty. The show is very unfinished. Do you think it's like an intentional kind of low, like a kind of a punk rock? Oh, most definitely. It's definitely given that. But you don't get mad when the only thing you're doing is small venues or you're opening or you have to put together. But I thought NWA was pretty revolutionary for doing that.

When everybody else was really glittery and sparkly and dancing and stuff, they had the balls to just be wearing black clothes, black hats, and doing really small production. Yeah, it was. That's true. yeah it was that's true but it was still just like uh i don't know i feel like sometimes there's there's room for it to like kind of go punk rock like that you know to like no all about the thing i think that there's one for everyone um i really do but you cannot get upset with yourself or blame it on someone when what you're doing does not translate to when it's time to do the amas or the vmas and you're reduced to doing the stage outside and taylor swift and nikki minaj they're doing the big stage why because their show translates to everyone yeah

I'm sorry I didn't sign up to be a niche artist I didn't sign up to be just a gay artist I didn't sign up just to be a rapper I didn't sign up for that so if you signed up to look like a junkie then you have to accept everything that goes with that the same way you sign up just to be a gay rapper do not get upset when you only get booked for those type of venues right i signed up i want to play this i say this all the time soccer moms kensieras bar mitzvahs graduations you know basement parties in kansas yeah everything you know like i i didn't sign up to be a niche superstar i signed up to be a superstar right right i'm picturing career day for the rapper thing like every booth it's like sign up here to be a gay artist would you like

to sign here to be i think there's a cat upstairs and that's what she's freaking out about um oh okay never mind uh but yeah no that that is the thing i even there's parallels to that in comedy too like certain things you're not going to get booked for if like you're you're kind of dirty or you're just like an asshole you know what i mean like it's whatever your aesthetic is and whatever you put out you are going to get that back so you can't be like well no they'll come to me it's like i don't think so and in some cases that does happen like I'm a really, really big Millie Jackson fan. Okay.

I love to listen to her records because, once again, she's another person that teaches me how to talk to my audiences. Gotcha. Because that's her show. Millie Jackson's show is pretty much a one-woman cabaret show. Uh-huh. When you listen to Live and Uncensored, which is my favorite album by her, Live and Uncensored, the things that she talks about is just hilarious. And while some of it is dated because people, you know,

the soap opera she's talking about don't exist anymore, you can still take those theories and get it. You know what I'm saying? So for each his own, I just feel like everything is like now, like with rap music, I feel like there are some good records being made. But everybody's so interested in their realness and their cause. And, you know, this is Trill and I don't give a fuck. Well, you did sound like to be a performer like why are you lighting bad your cars ain't got nothing to do with your bad sound yeah

like the cars ain't got nothing to do with that right right right why your mic distorting why you out of breath yeah like those are things that that is just basic no matter what you do focus on that shit you know right freddie mercury still did a damn sound check you know what i'm saying y'all just show up in the shit and then you wonder why you know it's not a fight you're only scanning this many albums because you know hey people aren't buying his music as much but you can still pack vengues if you had a good show a good show will sell and that's why i do the show that i do because nobody's doing that type of show right now so now when people see this show they're like oh my god that was so good no in 2000 this was like the standard right

this is like regular you know but i'm glad that you think it's something super special yeah and these times because i guess you're used to getting a short 30 minute set of bullshit and i'm leaving early and the mic sounding bad and maybe you get a flash and light or like a a visual backdrop and then gone wearing the same clothes that you wore, only it's by, like, super pricey designers that you just spent your whole Burger King check trying to get a belt for. Dummy. I like my belts, all right?

Right. Sorry, I'm sorry. You know, it's the only thing your belt costs more than your thrift store jeans and everything, and you're walking around, and you're asking me for money for a Chipotle bowl, and I don't think that's cute. Yeah, no, it's such a smart idea, especially when doing bigger shows, to actually have something that's fun to look at.

Like having dancers, it fills out the stage because it's so big. So you got to actually think about that stuff. So it's cool to hear you say that you do research. I care. about that stuff so it's cool to like hear you say that you do like research i care like like i feel like it's like so in vogue to not give a shit about the work that you're doing yeah like they get like the sound quality i'll give you this the actual sound quality of the music in the studio the internet presentation is stellar these days the videos are great but when people see that video online or they hear that recording when they go to see you they want to see that and if you can't deliver

that yeah it's like and that's why it's such a high turnover rate like out of like a lot of these records now i tell people i say i tell my brother i said in five years you're going to listen to some of these artists and you're not going to know which artists made which record yeah because they all sound the same yeah i i don't listen to as much hip-hop as i used to but it seems like when i put on like the radio or something everybody kind of has that same cadence now that I hear. Turn up. Hit it. Hit it. Hit it. Hit it. And now everybody's like a singer. And I'm not going to lie. Yeah. Me trying to be like, ooh, I want to be cutting edge.

Like, we started working on some records like that. And I was like, really? I can write those records all day because I'm a songwriter. Gotcha. But do they work with who I am as a person? Is that shit believable right coming from me no people gonna laugh at me they'll be like what the hell is this shit you know what i'm saying i can write it but is it believable coming from me yeah it's not but that's all this

development though which a lot of people don't have no shame but yeah if your heart's not in it that it's not going to translate at all so let's uh, so you said you didn't sign up to be a gay rapper. No. But I'll take the prize. Yeah, right. So when did you come out? Officially in 2011. I'm not going to bullshit you.

I do it for the prize. Really? You know, at that time, I was in a transitionary period in life right you know i was not as super comfortable with the person that i am and a lot of times in you know i was i'm reading grace jones's book now she shows so much shade in that book i love it um and i understand what she says about how you dress up to hide yourself. Interesting. And at that time, I was going through my Gaga phase, so I had all these different looks, you know. And that's where I learned art direction and things like that.

And each day, I feel like in my journey, I've studied certain things for a period of time that's helped me put the total piece together. I feel like the total piece of who ddm is it's just starting to come together because i've studied in all these different arenas right so when i came out in 2011 um it was for the cover of the gay life magazine here and like you know we being the diva that i am uh we planned a special photo shoot for that mind you at that time and this is crazy And you know They may feel some kind of way about this

But I'm going to keep it 100% I had to fight with Gay Life to get that cover Really? Why? I had to fight This is the thing People think Especially when you're

At that time Now Everybody's looking for a gay rapper None of them cross over Because a lot of them aren't good. No shit. Well, I don't give a shit. A lot of them not good.

They don't study the theory and what it takes to really be an MC. And I had to fight with them on that cover. And people, they always are like, oh, my God, really? People do not understand. When I came out, I had more problems from the gay community than i did with the straight community really because i had to fight for covers i had to fight to get shows to play at pride i don't understand why because there's other were you no they don't gay people are very self-hating people sometimes you know that's just being honest so they're like they think you're going to be not good

they'll book a drag queen all day they'll just assume that you're not they think you're gonna be not good they'll book a drag queen all day they'll just assume that you're not good because you're gay like they'll think that when it comes to like rapping like you're like like standard like a gimmick right they're like oh this is gonna be whatever or even they'll put you in some shitty ass time slot right you know but they'll go dig up some retired ass disco lady yeah that is like on a last leg with no teeth they'll pay her but they don't pay and I'm really big on that I do not

people ask me all the time why haven't you done any prides I'm never doing any prides until I'm getting paid to do it I did one pride that was in 2012 and they put me on a shitty time slot because they thought I wasn't going to be good

even after I did all these battles in the regular if I was battling on Poplar grove emerson avenue in the middle of gunfire okay this is no exaggeration yeah no i was reading up on you know what i'm saying and it was so disrespectful to me as a artist how i got current i didn't get paid for that show but i said i'm gonna do this show and i'm gonna do it for a reason so we have 2012 baltimore pride in the middle of mount vernon see a people out there like 5 000 folks great crowd so they stick me on the shitty time slot i get 10 minutes 10 minutes jesus 10 minutes god damn how many songs is that too if you do it right you can do it medley. Right. I get 10 minutes. I come out there.

The music drops. Kill it. They looking at me. Oh, my God. We had no idea. That's because you was too busy researching Electric Red. They not even out no goddamn more. You know what I'm saying?

Yeah. You could have thrown me $ me 200 and i could have rocked this motherfucker and it would have been a whole thing and i would have gave you a performance right you know but i people are so surprised by that with the gay life article me max mo we did i did the art direction on that as far as coming up with my look that beatles inspired look max shot it mo did all of the graphic work and artwork on it and placing it and everything. We delivered them an entire photo shoot. Jesus. Okay?

Just for that. Because it's not about them liking you. It's about getting awareness to your artistry and you as a performer. We sent it over. We had to fight with them on the pictures. We had to fight. We were like, this is the cover. This should be the cover. Because I'm not going to lie. we sent it over we had to fight with them on on the pictures we had to fight with we're like this is the cover this should be the cover because i'm not gonna lie for that to be a bunch of gay

people working in that publication the art direction at that time now it's better but at that time was terrible and i'm like i'm embarrassed because y'all supposed to be the kids and y'all shit's supposed to be shitting on everybody right and it just wasn't it was very generic so mind you the guy that did the photo shoot the photo shoot graphics and everything for that is a micah graduate is a working artist that does graphic work paintings you're getting that service for your publication for free and they gave us such a hard way to go i I'm like, okay. The article was fluff. I get it. But we need their awareness.

So that comes out. You know, I go and for about two to three years, I want to say, I did some really strong active engaging in trying to galvanize the gay community. But what I started to realize was that I don't have a six pack. I don't do drag and I'm not showing my ass. So if you're not doing those things, and especially as a man of color, and I hate to say that,

but it's the damn truth. If you're not doing that, and that's in the black gay community, white, well, white gay is a little different with me because of my personality, but especially in the black gay community white well white gay is a little different with me because of my personality but especially in the black gay community it hurt my feelings so bad that i had to fight with them so much about stuff so after that i said you know what fuck it

i'm not doing it anymore and i just started doing regular shows i started going in the arts district micah kids crown kids back into the standard hip-hop shows you know yeah do those shows and when i started ignoring the gay community and just not even acknowledging them and well you should do this event now what's your budget now i do a free show for the Micah kids because they done paid for a lot of shit 10 times over. I'm not doing no free shows for y'all. Wow. And I'm never doing anything free unless y'all going to treat people. And I do that because they do that to a lot of the gay rappers, performers, singers, artists.

You don't want to support the people when they come out but you will try your best to drag somebody who don't want to be bothered out of the closet sure you will try to find every sex tape every new picture every suspect thing but you got somebody that's actually good that actually don't have a problem representing your stupid ass and y'all give them a hard way to go so i said fuck it this could go on the record i'm not doing any type of events like that unless you're going to treat the artist your own people nicely that's all can i have some water after the show absolutely can i get of water? Do you think I can get a towel? Maybe.

You think possibly I just need a line check. Not even a full sound check. We gave you 10 minutes. Right. Can we just check the line? When Deborah Cox, one of them old ass bitches,

shout out to Deborah Cox, no shade. When she shows up for the goddamn show, you know what I'm saying? Yeah. It's lights, camera, action. And she on stage

for all the 20 goddamn minutes her voice ain't what it used to be and y'all just yeah yeah yeah

yeah go on bitch that's all they do you know like I don't wanna hear that shit I don't give a fuck about her pride I got pride

in my goddamn self yeah that's cool man yeah that's great that makes sense I mean I I hate to hear that they're it sounds like they're like well you should want to do our show you know like you should be a part and

i should want to get a check yeah exactly exactly so if they're making money and they're like well you should do it for free it's like hey man they don't even give you know what they don't even give the artist you know i'll go to do like these like art house shows or like these like bullshit like bullshit ass like small like hole in the wall shows because i'm not above doing a performance because it's all about creating awareness yes if you want a certain type of show for me you had to pay for that because i have to pay for these dances i gotta pay for this drama because they not doing this for me for free. They don't just love the art that damn much.

But if you, if I treat it like church, I minister to any goddamn body. Mm-hmm. You know? But if you, I've done shows like that where they're like,

you know, DDM, we can't necessarily pay you, but can you come and do a song? And they'll have like, you know, some craft or some kind of like we appreciate you being here right or if i don't get paid i'll make a good amount of money off of

merch yeah you know but it's something that says we appreciate what you do we're upstart we don't have it but the thing that grinds my gear about the community is that the gays be having money they don't even want to get your goddamn fruit platter and they act like it's a privilege for you to be right i don't give a fuck that's i mean i think that in the long run that's better i hate to see artists like comedians uh musicians or just people in general like no this is what i like i'm a gay artist it's like shouldn't you just be an artist first like you're limiting yourself and what you can do it's weird to like self like kind of segregate in that way it's like no i'm this it's like well shouldn't you be kind of like you're saying like for everybody right you know what i mean like why would you try to cut yourself off

at the knees and you know what's so crazy like i do shows and i don't hide who i am you know what it is when you see me but i love that i do shows and people don't hide who i am you know what it is when you see me but i love that i do shows and people don't really care because it's a good show yeah exactly you know that's that's what should be cared and that's what it's about like i'm not selling anything like people like it's so funny like um every now and then it shows like you'll come across a gig promoter and we get on pretty nicely it's a little shady fest because i'm like bitch you're trying and i'm gonna try it with you uh-huh and they always ask me it's like because i got some pretty nice looking fellas you know you know paul is a handsome young man you know matt is a nice looking

young man and um you know they uh they always they ask sometimes it's like so uh you know none of these guys are gay i'm'm like, unfortunately not. The gay people that I do have on staff with me sometimes just do too much, and it's only run for one queen in this castle, okay? And I ain't got time to cater to you and go up on stage for 40 minutes and do sound and make sure that my team is together. And, you know, they ask me, and I was like, you know,

no, don't nobody want to fuck you, man. Like, fuck out of here. Right. Did you get any blowback, like, coming out? Like, from, like, because it seems like if you're listening to Lil' Kim's Queen Bitch in your room, you know, in, like, sixth grade or whatever, I think it's kind of clear what's going on.

So were people like, really? Oh, my God. It was not easy for me. Now, you know, it's easy for some folks now because gay culture has become so mainstream in this decade. Yeah. So it's easier for a lot of folks. But at the time, I did it because of the background in hip hop that I came from.

I come from battling from some really rough spots. And I got bottles thrown at me in clubs. Really? I've had cars ride up on me. Wow. Jesus Christ. You know, I've had some incidents. Because you never hit anything even

when you're battling well when i first started i didn't make it about my sexuality i didn't even know i was gay like i knew i was like different but i didn't acknowledge that i was a virgin until i was 22 years old just shared a little too bit there but um you know so it wasn't about that for me my life was eating ice cream listening to music and watching roll rolls i don't you know what i'm saying so like a lot of a lot of the time like um i didn't i didn't care but then i started losing like i've i had lost a lot of weight now i'm fat again but i had lost a good amount of weight. I, you know, I was looking good, you know.

And, you know, that's when it was like, oh, something's wrong here. You're 22 and you're not having sex. And you say it like that to yourself. What's going on here? Why are you toss glitter in there? Why are you such a lack of pussy? And it's so funny because at that time I was so uncomfortable and I had met my first and only boyfriend.

You're still with him? No, my dad crashed and burned after a year. You said first and only though. Yeah, first and only. DBM is a lone ship. Yeah, um yeah it was mjm yeah you know i've always been that way and i think it's because um hey i'm a lot to deal with i tell people all the time it's like look you know i'm not the easiest person to get along with i have very big personality but sometimes i can be very quiet and like meek yeah which is

a side that a lot of people paul sees that side because we work together but a lot of people don't see that side of me i do have very insecure moments i think most artists do like people think oh you're always on you're always having a good time especially like comedy it's like no no there's uh there's big stretches where i'm very quiet right i'm pretty much just on for one of them i have to save like every ounce of happiness and joy that i have to like squeeze on the stage yeah exactly i'm gonna stay in bed for 12 hours and that'll foster 15 minutes of energy right exactly yeah it's it's way different like and so um you know i tell people all the time like and then i think some some guys are corny you know, I tell people all the time, like, and then I think some guys are corny. You know what I'm saying?

Like, I'm not asking you. Like, I'd rather date somebody who, like, works at Transamerica, who has, like, his life is, like, fucking going to the movies on the weekend. Yeah. But at least he's him. Right. You know what I'm saying? Be yourself. I'm not looking to date somebody who's whack and corny yeah you know

what i'm saying like even like i get a lot of flack because i do have an affinity for white men um and i do have an affinity for you know asian men you know i love black men too you know i actually really love black men but for some reason um we just don't seem to click as well it just it's been in my time and i don't know if maybe it's because of my interest and things like that but i just seem to get along really well with white guys and you know that's caused some static you know in life sometimes because you know especially we're living it's so weird because i'm talking to white guys right now it's like so you know because everything going on with like you know i've been white for a long time i just transitioned so be a little easier yeah yeah so like like

especially now because um there's a lot of racial tension um in america in general right now but specifically in baltimore you think um i think it's a lot in baltimore i have my own opinions on that but i just do not want to go through that shit storm right now okay um it's you know i'm very candid but when it comes to that i'm just like niece but because it's a lot it's's a lot going on. Um, you know, it can be seen as tense, but like a lot of times, like a lot of the shows that I do, it's very mixed.

Um, a lot of the promoters that book me are white. Um, but I'm still me. That's the thing that I always have. I think people book me because I'm me, but I'm also one of those people that are very both sides of the coin. I'm not a flip I'm also one of those people that are very both sides of the coin. I'm not a flip-flopper by far,

but I understand different points of view because I was always a misunderstood person. Gotcha. So when you're misunderstood a lot, you can understand where different people come. It doesn't mean that I agree with you. Right. But I am human enough to understand

where you're coming from. Yeah. You know what I'm saying? Yeah. I don't necessarily think you're right. I don't necessarily think you're wrong but if you feel that way i could see that like i was uh you know out and like i made this comment i was like oh my god i hate working with women sometimes because they can be catty you know sorry ladies but i hate working

sometimes in environments where it's female concentration because they don't understand it as a person. Like when I work jobs, I worked a lot of warehouse jobs in those jobs, predominantly men working those jobs. And I just noticed the difference when I went from that to working at a job where it's a lot of females. The contrast in the work environment with men you know where you're staying it is what it is i don't really like you you don't really like me okay yeah moving on i'll do my job you do yours right you know over there yeah working with women and they be nice nasty to each other like they be frenemies yeah you know what i'm saying like and they can keep that shit and that shit is taxing i don't understand how you can function

and like i said that and she's like well i'm a woman and you know i'm like i wasn't talking like you just took it out of context like women do sometimes you know like it's so funny because i feel like you know while i very much like men i'm attracted to men i feel like i feel like sometimes i feel like now that i've come full circle as a person now that i'm like not super concentrated on gay and i'm not super concentrated on this and super concentrated on that i'm able to really enjoy being a human being. And as a human being, sometimes, bitches, it's just too much. It's like, girl, this is why he is cheating on your ass now. You know what I'm saying? Like, you are just too much. I cannot

take it. Oh, yeah. Me and Josh has date women, so just imagine that. You know, like, it's just, it's like, it's like, God bless you. You know's just it's like it's like god bless you you know we're doing the lord's work over here all right you are and you're hanging out with beautiful white men right i don't want to do that you know it's the reason why there's not a lot of bisexual men as there are women because like if you were a man who's bisexual there'd be no contest you just go with the men yeah and come on yeah that can be difficult though sometimes because like dating men i don't do a lot of dating but dating men can be difficult because you're both men and like because my voice is a little high-pitched um you know sometimes i think that

the men that i talk to you forget that i'm a man. And then DBM leaves and Tyrone shows up. Because you're trying it. And then, because I'm a very nurturing person. Like, I know some of the shit that I say is just raw and it's unfiltered. And it's like, ooh. But I'm actually a very nurturing person. Like, I'm very much at home in my Hello Kitty slippers watching netflix you know i'm that guy but don't try it you know what i'm saying i think that sometimes people take my kindness for weakness and then i just like because i don't have a great aria

i'm very artistic like an artist in that way there's no gray it's only black and white either i like you or i don't right either i like you or i don't either if i love you i love you to death if i don't like you girl get out my face you know it's no gray area with me like that and i think that's something that has helped and hurt me in my life it's hurt me because sometimes you gotta be phony with people i think that that's necessary and people gonna be like oh bitch what the fuck hold up no sometimes you need to be phony in business and in life uh you need to be phony phoniness is not always bad because phoniness i help you get to the real shit sometimes whereas me i can't be phony and i like, I know you got a lot of money, but I think that you're a fucking idiot.

So do you think that's like works to your detriment in business sometimes? I'm learning to just shut the fuck up sometimes. Right. You know, I'm a very opinionated person. So instead of me just saying anything, I would just not say nothing. Right. So if I don't say nothing then you know something is up yeah if i'm going off like yes i love him yes he goes off he is everything then you know i really

like the person if i'm not saying anything that means a even i'm on the fence which means i don't like you or i think you full of shit but because i know that i can't tell you that yet i'm just gonna shut the fuck up yeah because i don't want to fuck it's like when i was just it was just me by myself i just be like oh fuck that we out of here now that you're working with other people you have other people on this journey with you you have to kind of be able to you know let's reel it in you know you have to reel it in and like sometimes especially working with paul because paul is the yang to me you know he's very reserved he's very crazy he's such a nice person i'm so not you know and uh a lot of times like when we first started as a group, like, we had an incident with a sound person.

And I felt, because sound people can be very dismissive of rappers. Really? They're very dismissive of us. And I wasn't trying. I'm like, bitch, we can't be on this main stage. This shit need to be the gala. And I felt like he was brushing me off. And he's like, you know know we had words yeah you know

we got kicked out the big game damn that's happened to me so artists do not feel bad if that happens it's not the end of the world just fix it the next time there's always a new promoter there's always a venue opening and closing it's not forever unless it's like madison square um and so he was really upset at me about that and I was just I didn't understand cause I'm like no fuck that cause he tried it but then I had to really

come to grips and say you know what it's not even so much about him being right or wrong it's about representing yourself and the people that you're with in a fashion that is always classy and first class right you know um so i i i learned a lesson from that you know i've had moments you know i've had brief relapses sure where somebody has tried it over something really stupid uh and

i'm like you're trying it you know you know try to, I really, really do make an effort now in understanding that. And like sometimes people like, oh, well, I don't know if he's being difficult or not. No, I'm not being difficult. I just want you to do your job. Right. Because guess what? When I get up on the stage and the mics is fucking up or the people can't hear me or the light is bad. They're not going to say the light was bad. The mics was fucking up or the people can't hear me or the lightness bad they're not gonna say the light

was bad the mics was fucking up they're gonna say ddm was bad girl he sucked yeah he was terrible you know like oh i didn't stop squealing into the microphone you know what i'm saying the public does not understand the the elements yeah that's a good point that is a good point like they just see that's When you go see the show, they say, oh, that was a good show or it was a bad show. They don't give a fuck that you was under the gun and that the sound man was drunk that damn day. They don't really give a shit

because they paid their money. Your monitors are fucked up. You can't hear yourself. People don't understand that. Just do a good job. I'm big on that. When we go to Vingie's, even if it's the hole in the wall, even if you got an amp and a PA, bitch, you better know how to work this motherfucker

because I need them to hear me because that's what they're coming for. They didn't come to hear Static. They could have stayed at home. All right. As we're wrapping up here uh plan intended well well i think it could work subconsciously as we're rapping here you know just a couple guys going back and forth uh what is that you call that a rap yeah yeah yeah we're hipping and hopping

uh so like you said you're you're big in the baltimore area and kind of like surrounding areas um are you trying to get to new york are you trying to put together tours now like like kind of like two week stretches or something well now what's the plan we're working on next record okay um because the next record has some good interest in it we have some some great things happening with this yeah i really like the ep that you guys put out that's like kind of a commercial for us right kind of like yeah it's cool it's like like three or four songs where it's like this is what we can do it's kind of like a preview it's like a trailer to the movie five five yeah five track you know you know nicely put together and

that five tracks done took us a long way because i'm big on quality over quantity. Give them five good ones, and you can do it for a year and some change. But we're working on this next record. It's going to be a gorgeous record. Cool, man. Best one yet, you think? I don't know yet. I don't want to put myself under that gun. It's public in here, and it'd be like, ew.

Yeah. Artists always public hand and be like, ew. Yeah. Yeah. Artists always do that too. It's like their ninth record. They're like, it's our best one yet. And it's like, yeah. You know, this is going to be everything. No, I don't know.

I just know that I'm just getting over a real bad case of writer's block, which I've never experienced in my life. And now it's gone and now i understand what i want to say oh good that's cool and i understand how i want to see it and i got some great songs and now i'm excited about it fucking amen um and that's hard like people like you know they're like oh we were trying to rush a single to have out in august and it just wasn't there and like i didn't tell him you guys are actually the first person i didn't even tell paul i had writer's block yeah i just was kind of like even though i would write every day it wasn't good you didn't like it no yeah and i knew it was writer's block and i didn't say anything to anybody because a i could hide behind we have 800

shows or you know but i'm just getting over that um so now I'm super excited. I'm super, you know, I'm inspired. I'm listening to a lot of, well, I love Stereo Lab. I always listen to Stereo Lab, but a lot of like Heat Wave,

early raw temperament production. Always listen to disco. A lot of Millie Jackson, a lot of Diana Ross, a lot of Millie Jackson, a lot of Diana Ross, a lot of early Motown, and a lot of British New Wave for some reason because I like the production. I'm listening to a lot of Grace Jones records

because they're actually fucking good. I think I was always like, ooh, Grace Jones is the image, and I was listening to the records. Is she Aretha Franklin? Hell no. But the records, her musicianstha franklin how now but the records like her musicians like crush it oh my god like amazing like she has this one song called

living my life that's totally a punk record it's so fucking the way it hits is just oh god amazing that's great dude so when is uh when's the next uh album probably come out? Probably, I want to say March, April. Okay. Because, you know, of course you have to do the visuals for it. It's tentatively titled Happy Accidents, but, you know, things change. I feel really, really good about it. I feel good with where i'm going i feel really good in me and paul's partnership musically as far as getting to know each other like it's that's so important when you're doing a group any type of

collaboration um is communication and really really getting to know each other right right um it's so important um and we have our times you know you know it's it's great overall but we have moments because we're two guys from two different walks of life uh-huh we're also roommates oh really okay so and you're working together so right it's like you're married basically and then going to your job together yeah um so like you you learn a lot of things but um it's really hard to find someone that's going to deal with my mouth and understand where i'm going because i could be because i've made so many mistakes with my solo shit i've made so many mistakes so many bad decisions really so many well let's just learn from them right which is why now i'm like don't do

that that's don't don't limit yourself don't do that that's hell no yeah like i finally learned how to say no to shit right like even though i'll perform for you it's certain shit that gotta be together yeah for me to do this now yeah it's got to make sense, but I've really learned you got to say no to certain things. You can't always say yes to everything and everybody. Yeah, you're going to spread yourself thin. You're going to be doing shitty shows. It's not good. Can't do that.

Yeah, yeah. Absolutely, man. Well, yeah, thank you for doing the show, man. Of course. Thanks so much. Is there anything you want to... Oh, I want to say too, the Terror Era video and song is so good. Oh, you like that? I loved it, dude.

Oh, my goodness. I thought you crushed it. We found that in our living room. And I appreciate the shout out to the corner store in Remington. Oh, Condor. I used to live. I was like, I recognize that store. I used to live in this building in BFF.

It was all like me. My current drummer, Matt, used to live in this building in bff it was uh all like me my current drummer matt uh used to be my roommate and um we uh we shot that video that video so interested in my friend uh dear friend and visual collaborator uh funds funsy toe we shot that video for 300 we rigged the camera on a baby stroller video for come through yeah it had some cool effects in that like that was all very subtle like i was like wait is that like the eyes is that an effect or like is it does this guy have some sort of deformity or all posts i always i'm a firm believer in you don't have to have the best you just got to be the best at working at what you

have yeah and if you like i knew that's where the learning the art direction came into play because i'm like okay let's scout this location we don't need a lot of lights because it's daylight it's already a set you do some color treatment you're great you know what i'm saying you pick this hair and this outfit you pick these people for these things get you two fat bitches great you know you pick this hair and this outfit you pick these people for these things get you two fat bitches and you know you got an element and then go and post it you know yeah cool yeah no it's a it's a really good video people should check it out it's cool because it is when you say aesthetic like it was just what it's like an ad for like pepsi bottles and stuff like on the side of like a corner store but it's a lot of color in there like it's like an ad for like pepsi bottles and stuff like on the side of like a corner store but it's

a lot of color in there like it's actually like striking to see because people don't do that yeah normally like no no we can't shoot in front of an ad for pepsi we stole all that stuff like we we just like i went in the corner store and we just like stood on the side of the corner store the store owner had no idea right we really it was like all right i had the phone in my members only jacket coat pocket so i could hear the song and it was like all of those everything you saw that was like two takes damn wow that's awesome that's great dude uh so where where can people find you on the on the internet on the internet www.bondbond asO-N-D as in Deborah, S-T as in Tom, district. So that's bondstreetdistrict.com.

Also, you can find us on Instagram at bondstreetdistrict. My personal Instagram is at G-O-D-D-M. Also, you can find us on YouTube, www.youtube.com, backwards slash bondstreetdistrict. Everybody write that down. Yeah. We do the same thing on this show where I feel like it's like, and we're on Instagram at this and digressionsessions.com.

But you got to do that shit. But it does feel so lame. Be like, I'm on all platforms. Just find us anywhere and like us, please. Please fill the hole in our heart. Please. Facebook.com slash Bond Street District. So yeah, definitely check out all that stuff.

And for us, check out all that stuff and for us check out any other episodes of digression sessions dot com follow us on twitter i'm at josh kaderna michael i am at mike

moran wood w o u l b yeah and then the podcast is at dig sesh pod and we're on instagram and all that stuff as well i'm at josh kaderna on there and then you

started an instagram didn't you mike uh yeah i don't really have it going quite yet, though. It's coming. It's coming. There was a soft open. Just relax.

It will be here shortly. You'll get your filtered picture soon enough. I haven't done the grand opening of it quite yet. Exactly. I technically own the domain. Got it. But I haven't done these. All right.

Well, thank you to everybody that's listening. And DDM, thank you again for being on the show, man. Thank you for having me. And we'll talk to you guys soon. Bye-bye. Bye. Love you. Good luck.

Good, man. Thank you, man. Thank you. Dick Russian Sessions, coming to an end. Thank you. you you you you you you you you you you you