The Questlove Show - QLS Classic: Prodigy

Episode Date: November 9, 2020

One half of the legendary group Mobb Deep, Prodigy, talks about his early jazz roots, his infamous Def Jam incident and how his new cookbook came to be with co-writer Kathy Landoli. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an I-heart podcast. Guaranteed human. A win is a win. A win is a win. I don't care what you're saying. Yep, that's me. Clifford Taylor the 4th. You might have seen the skits,

my basketball and college football journey, or my career in sports media. Well, now I'm bringing all of that excitement to my brand new podcast, the Clifford Show. This is a place for raw, unfills of conversations with athletes, creators, and voices that not only deserve to be heard, but celebrated.

So let's get to it. Listen to the Clifford show on the IHeard Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. And for more behind the scenes, follow at Clifford and at TikTok podcast network on TikTok. This week on the Sports Slice podcast, it's all about the NFL draft. And we've got a special guest. The director of the NFL's East West Shrine Bowl, Eric Galco, joins the Sports Slice podcast to break down what really matters when evaluating draft prospects. From hidden traits teams look for to the biggest mistakes franchises make to the players flying under the radar. This is the insight you won't hear anywhere else. If you want to understand

the draft like an insider, you don't want to miss this episode. Listen to the Sports Slice podcast on the Iheart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, for wherever you get your podcast. And for more, follow Timbo Slical Life 12 and TikTok podcast network on TikTok. I'm Daniel Alarcon. And this is my friend, is much more famous than I am. I wouldn't go that far. But I'm John Green, co-hosted the podcast The Away End with my old friend Daniel. On our podcast, The Away End, we'll share with you the magic of international football, all leading up to the 2026 World Cup. Together, we'll find out why, of all the unimportant things, football, soccer, is the most important.

Listen to The Away End with Daniel Auerkone and John Green on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Questlove Supreme is a production of IHeart Radio. This classic episode was produced by the team at Pandora. Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to QLS Classic Episode 27 with Mob Deep founder, Prodigy, May 2017. We were fortunate to have an amazing conversation with Albert Johnson, aka Queensbridge's finest prodigy from the infamous Mob Deep while he was still with us on this earthly plane. He passed away a month after this episode first debuted. He's promoting his commissary kitchen prison cookbook at the time, but we also got to chop it up about his life growing up as a doo-op kid.

do our parents, his grandmother's dance school, choreographer Michael Peters, Queensbridge in the 80s fights, beef and beats, a life of diamond and guns and wake-up calls. And yeah, that's summer jam screamed. A special encore presentation of QLS Classic with rapper Prodigy and his co-author, Kathy Eondoli. A Suprema Roll! Suprema Roll! This is Questlove. Yeah.

La da da da da da da da. Yeah. La da la da. Yeah. Suprema. I have nothing. Role call. Suprema.

Suprema. Suprema roll call. Fonte's in the building. Yeah. Check out my rhymes. Yeah. Q L.S family. Yeah.

Your beef is mine. Ro call. Supreme. I hate you. Suprema. Suprema. Suprima roll call. Supremma.

Subm. Subrema, roll call. My name is Sugar. Yeah. Sugar Steve. Yeah. I need a sugar-free. Yeah.

Commissary. Roll call. Supreme. Supreme. Roll call. Supremma. Submina. So, Supremma, roll call.

My name's boss Bill. Yeah. Winter despising. Yeah. But it's spring again now. Yeah. Temperatures rising. Ro call.

Supima. Submina. Subm. I'm unpaid bill. Yeah. Rap-rappity raps. Yeah. I hope you can hear me.

Yeah. Through these wiretaps. Roll call. Suprema. Suprema, Supremea, Ro call. Supremma,

So it's like in ya. Yeah. I'm a little shook. Yeah. My verse will be better Yeah. If I read more books. Roll call.

Suprema. Suprema. Subrema. Rocared, Supremma, So, Supremia Roll Call My name is Kathy Yeah

I'll write those books Yeah Laia can read them Yeah I've gotten them Roca Supriva Roca

Supriva Roll Call Supra Supraima Roca They call me P Yeah

HN IC Yeah We on this show Yeah Let's mother go Supraima roll call Suprema Subra

Subra Roca Supremea Subrama Subra Roca Call Suprema Subima That was not bad

I'm not That wasn't bad That wasn't bad That wasn't bad Damn Cabby came through Ladies and gentlemen Welcome to

Another edition Of Questlove Supreme Is this our first double kind of our first double guest Pete Rock and Smoke Dizzy Okay He didn't talk much smoked dizzas, so

Yeah, it is And there was also the episode Where DeAngelo came in and was like, It was funky It's more R&B It's more R&B, that's right That's it Well, ladies and gentlemen

This is a special episode Well, I feel like every episode Of Quest Love Supremes is a special episode So I don't want to make it like The Meredith Baxter-Bernie episode A special Meredith Baxter Bernie episode of Quest Love Supreme. We have, though, like one of my freaking heroes. Like, one of my rhyming heroes, a cultural icon in the world of music, not, I mean, above hip hop, above, I mean, music.

Just for me, like, one of the illest writers, poets, emcees. As an emcee, to me, he has the best opening lines in rap. Yes.

We'll talk more about it. We will. Yeah. Like, I tell emcees all the time, you have like four bars to get my attention, but he kind of made it even worse

because it's like, comes in the door. Yeah, you only got one bar. So, right. You know what I mean? So, yeah. Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome,

Prodigy of my people. Yo, yo, yo, yo, yo, yo. What up, though. In addition, we have his co-conspirator. Now, what makes it great is that our special guest, Kathy's kind of family to some of us, Questlove supremers, that have started on the OK player boards. She's my favorite Lauren Hill stand of all time.

Right off the game. Well, I mean, that's how you came to my attention. I was like, who, I mean, before the day of social media, I mean, OK Player was like the original Twitter. That was the original. That shit was gladiated school, man. It was. It was. It was gladiated school.

I feel like we pioneered the social media game before social media was a thing. Not for real. And I just knew that this person was standing, taking Lauren Hill stands to the next level. That's how you got my attention. But, I mean, you've blossomed to your own as a writer. I mean, you've written for a lot of periodicals and from BT.com to, I mean, all the way to pitchfork, billboard, Rolling Stone, pitchfork, etc. The P word, pitchfork.

Yeah. Wow. But you've also collaborated with Prodigy on his book. Yes, yes. The proper title is... Commissary Kitchen, my infamous prison cookbook. Is this the first book you worked on or...? No, but legally I can say this is the first book I've worked on.

Ghost Rider. I see. Well, welcome both of you to Quest Love's the Queen. I got to say Prodigy vet. I'm really not big on hip-hop autobiographies. Actually, haven't read one myself. I mean, there's a lot of books that have been written by hip hop luminaries. But I got to say none.

You said you're not a fan of hip-hop autobiographies yet you wrote one. No, I know that. But I'm just saying that it's usually for me, like, most people that are in the genre really don't open up as much. It's almost like a moment of their childhood and then they came to music and then we got here. Right. It really doesn't really doesn't let you like inside of... like the mechanics of what makes them work as a person. Like, you know them as a personality.

Like, there's really not much you learn from the DMX book or this Snoop book or like those things. So, but I'm just saying that, or even the Ghostface book, you know what I'm saying? Which, exactly,

like, this is more of a comedy book to you than like a life story book. But, um, I guess, that's, I read it like three years ago. Like,

it's, it's a gripping-ass story, man. We listen to the audio book on tour. Like, We ran, we had to do like a long tour run and we had the audio book and that got us through the whole tour.

That's what I'm crazy. That's what up, man. Yeah, so, Prodigy. I'm not going to say, let's start for the beginning. Please do. I'm like all up in this. You know, I'm... But actually, this is a rarity. Yeah. My favorite part of Prodigy story

is actually his beginnings. I know we all like to, you know, get to the good part. But, I mean, you come from, a lineage that I didn't know. We have something in common. We're both products of Duwop. I don't say a dynasty, but, I mean, you know,

you grew up actually with two Duop parents. My mother and my father, yeah. Yeah. Who was your father? Bud Johnson. He, you know, my grandfather's named Bud Johnson also, but my father's Bud Johnson. He was in a group called De Chantis.

Now, your grandfather was a jazz musician. Yeah, yeah, that Bud Johnson, senior, he was a big into jazz and like a big band him and Quincy started a big band together with Dizzy Gillespie and a bunch of different people man like my grandfather used to have all these jazz O. Gs coming to the crib when I was a little kid so I used to be in the crib and Dizzy used to make his

face puffy for me and all that like that was crazy growing up around all that because I didn't realize what was happening until I got older and think back about it like oh wow that's I was a my grandfather had me around jazz greats like you know what I mean but I ain't really get to appreciate his style of music until I got older you know what I mean it wasn't I just didn't get it when I was a kid

like you know what point of your life did it click like I was around I think no one ever gets it when like your parents music when you're a kid and only when you're older but right but is a high school is it like I'm not even understand until I'm probably like probably like yeah in high school when I first started making beats, then I understood the power of my grandfather's music

because we would sample a lot of jazz records, you know what I mean? And he left me, like, his collection, his jazz record collection, and we made a lot of the first album, infamous. And Juvenile Hell, the songs that we did produce. Yeah, from my grandfather's records. Shookones was made, actually. Yeah, I was going to say that Herbie Hancock Records. That was my grandfather's record.

Yeah, that's crazy. So it was like, once we got to that point, we was like actually researching the records and like using certain samples and we was like, oh, I understood the power of the jazz music and I started listening to it like more in depth and paying attention to it, then I started to, you know, appreciate what he did. Did he take you seeing any of his shows when you were younger? Hell yeah, man, I remember being at so many shows. But once, one in particular that stand out of

a lot is at the Blue Note. My grandfather used to perform there. And I used to sit at the ball with my pops. And I used to think I was drinking. You know what I mean? My pops would be ordering a real drink, and he would order me like a seven-up with the cherry syrup. You know what I'm saying?

Same thing. I'd be sitting at the ball drinking like, little kid, like, you know what I mean, at the ball. So I got memories like that and my grandfather performing while me and my pop sitting at the ball watching him. And yeah, you know, just different shows and whatnot. And yeah, man, I was definitely feel blessed.

I got a chance to see him before him, you know what I mean? I remember that clearly too. That even makes it more special because I know earlier, you told me that you're about to do a residency at Blue Note. Yeah, yeah, it's crazy. It's crazy. It's crazy being in there. We did the first show last month.

Okay. And it's crazy being in there because I just, it places like, it feels small. Because you know when you're a little kid, everything's seeing bigger. You know what I mean? So now I'm in there. I'm like, damn.

It's smaller than my memories, but it's like, it's so surreal being in there and performing in it because I just remember my grandfather doing it. So it's crazy how, you know, things turn around, you know, come full circle. Was he a horn player? Yeah, clarinet and tenor saxophone. Okay. And even before that, I think your great-grandfather started Morehouse? Yeah, my great, I think he was like three times great, great-great-great-grandfather.

You know how lucky you are to even know. know firsthand. Man, like, I just found out who my grades were like two weeks ago. Seriously. My mom's, man. But, like, the fact that you know the history of your great, great, great. My mother, she did the genealogy. Okay. And, you know, she researched.

And we got some other family members that did the same thing and research. And we found our whole family. Like, you know what I mean? Plus, we got a lot. My grandmother on my mother's side, she keeps a lot of family photos and just history and stuff. So we were able to, like, put pieces together and connect dots, like, you know what I mean?

So it was pretty interesting, man. I learned a lot about my family while I was locked up. My mom used to write me and tell me, use this in your book, put this in your book, this is important. You know what I mean? Right. All right. So, and your mother was a member of the crystals.

Yeah. Yep. My mom was, like, walking down the street somewhere. I don't know if it was Queens or whatever, wherever she was at. And somebody stopped her and was like, hey, can you sing? And she was like, no. Really? And they was like, you sure we need an extra member for this group?

Because one of the members had dropped out. Right. So they convinced her to do it. She was only 18. They convinced her to do it. And she became a part of the group and went right on tour. You know what I mean? So it was kind of crazy how she got involved with that.

So in the mid-60s, she was a, wow. Yeah. It was just like random. Like somebody just, she just so happened to be walking down the street. And they stopped her like, because I guess, you know, my mother, she was very pretty, like, with light eyes. So they had the look. Yeah. So they stopped her like, yo, can you sing?

We need you in this group. Come on. And are y'all like a generational New York family? Like, is that real people? My whole family's from Southside Jamaica, Queens. And before that, they come from, like, Texas and Virginia. You know what I mean? Yeah.

Yeah, the crystals are for, like, our listeners. I would always say that Like I grew up in an oldies duop family But similar to like parents today Like I'll say like Kamal From the roots my keyboard player Triced his kids into thinking like Michael Jackson was brand new

You know as a parent You'd be trying to trick your kids into like You know like Or even like my production manager Like his sons think that like Eric B and Rakim is new even Kirk, my guitar player, would play Slick Rick so much for his son

that his son actually, like the first time he ever had to reprimand his son about a school project and I heard these words, he's like, son, you can't bite someone else's rhymes. I guess in kindergarten, some was supposed to do a writing assignment. You said Slickriggickrish, I thought that was going to go somewhere. Oh, exactly. I thought you were about to tell him, lick the balls.

Right, right. Something crazy. No, no. He said that he took, like, plagiarized, like, some of a children's story. It made it, like, it was his own joint. But, like, just, I'm just fascinated at how parents will trick you into thinking that that's your contemporary music. So I grew up just with, you know, an oldie's duop dad that would always play, like the crystals, harvey in the moon glows, like, all those groups.

like, you know, I grew up thinking like he's a rebel was like some new shit when I came. Like I had the 45 at home. That's real. Yeah. I was surprised to find that out. So like in the beginning, did you have any designs of being an entertainer? Were you just like observing it and just like, oh, that's their shit? Yeah.

Nah, in the beginning, I really didn't know what I wanted to do until I turned like, man, maybe like 12, 13. and I first heard, I think it was when I first heard, you know, L.L. Cool J and run DMC, the suck MCs and rock the bells. When I heard those songs, that just changed everything in my life. You know what I mean? That made me, I was like, all right, this is what I want to do. This is what I like. I used to play the songs for my mother.

Like, yo, Mom, check this out. You know what I mean? I used to play, you know, the paid-it-full. Matter of fact, I used to say Rock King's rhymes to act like I wrote it. And she'd be like, oh Did you always have this deep, deadpan voice as a kid? It's like, you are a rock Kim's like vocal vocal gang. I don't know.

That's just, that's just my voice, yeah. Hell yeah. So I used to say rockin'rana. My mom's like, she used to be like, oh, my God, you're really good. And I used to be like, yeah, yeah, I ain't say nothing to her. I just been like, yeah, yeah, I'm rap, mom, I'm a rap. But I first got turned on the hip-hop music when I was like 12, 13. And before that, you know, like you said, it was a lot of do-op in the crib, like, you know, soul music, you know what I'm saying?

A lot of church, church music, you know what I mean? You were born in, was it, were you born in Long Island? I was born in Hempstead, yeah, Long Island. I know that Chuck D and Flavre always talk about Hempstead. They Chuck D and Flavis from the town right next to me in Roosevelt. Roosevelt, okay. You know what I mean? That's right next to Hempstead.

So we all like Was Hempted EPMD? I know that someone rhymes about Hempstead. EPMD was Brentwood. It was from Brentwood. Hempstead, you remember Son of Berserk? Yes. Yeah, wow.

Son of Berserk was from Hempstead. Yes. Wait, I love that you just brought up. Like for me, son of berserk, I feel like I'm the only person that got that record and worship the shit out of it. Like I used to see, I used to go outside to the store and Son of Berserk be outside.

Word. He's like, yo, shit. What up, Chad? With that old man voice. Yeah, you know what I'm saying? Because we was like the little dudes using the studio. There's a famous studio in Hempstead

that Public Enemy started in, Sun of the Reserve. Yeah, they would do their pre-production out there. It was called 5'10. Yeah, yeah. So that's where we all started. Buster would be out there sometimes? Yeah.

So that's what we all started. So everybody used to be over there, like, and we used to see everybody over there. But yeah, man. Like, Hempstead, I think Method Man from Hempstead. He's from Terrace. Terraz Ave. You know what I mean?

I'm trying to think of who else from out there. Rock Marcy. Okay. From Hempstead, you know. Those are the few that I can remember. Okay. So, like, what eventually brought you to the city? To Queens.

When I turned, like, 11, 12, my mom's moved to Lefrak. She moved to Lefrak City. Her and my pops said split up. Because my pop said, did some crazy shit. My pops was wild, man. He had kidnapped me, took me to Detroit. We was living in Detroit for a minute, bawling out of control.

He was working in stock market. Oh, wow. Doing some crazy shit. And, um... When did you live in Detroit? Man, this is like early 80s. When Scarfeet... What year the Scarface came out?

83. Yeah, because my pops took me to the... Why do we... What was the family few? 83. My pops took me to the movies in Detroit when, at the premiere, when Scarface first came out.

So that's when I was out there in 18. When you were nine? I was nine, yeah. So the lyric, your pop, talked you out of shooting you with seven. That was real. Oh, yeah, my pop, man. He was off the hook, man. That boy is something else.

He was something else, man. Was he a musician as well? Yeah, he was a singer. You know what I mean? Like I said, he had that group, the chancers, du rock group. They had a couple of dope songs, you know what I mean? But my father's things was computers, like from the early 80s.

I remember being like probably five, six years old. My father was working on Macintosh writing programs, you know what I'm saying? Really? He was really, really dope with it. I think it's a school called TCI. I think it's called TCI. My father went there and he actually got so good he became like a professor there. He started teaching.

He was into commercials and all that, like after a while. He got really nice with it. And, you know, that's what he was into. Computers. heroin, alcohol, karate. My father had a dojo on Jamaica Avenue. You know what I mean? So he used to teach karate.

You just said that combo. You did heroin. Can we back that up? He's off. He's off the hook. Karate and computer. It's crazy. Professor Pip, you know what I'm saying?

All that. It's very crazy, man. My pop's life was wow. It was wild. That was his thing. He loved. He loved computers and he loved fighting and just doing wild shit. He was crazy, man.

And I know that you have a closeness with your grandmother as well. She was in the arts. Yeah, my grandmother was Elle. She was one of the first cotton club dances when they first opened a cotton club way back. And, you know, she was friends with Lena Horn. Lina Horn used to dance there early before she became famous. You know, and that's how my grandmother met my grandfather, Because my grandfather used to play in the band at the cotton club.

So that's how they met. And, you know, my grandmother started a dance school business in the basement of her crib on the Guy Brewer. And she started with like five students. You know what I mean? And it just grew and grew over the years until the point where she started renting the building. And then it grew to a point where she actually bought her own commercial building in Queens. She was like the first black woman to own a commercial space in Queens. So, you know, it was a dance school business.

Right. You know what I mean? She was, that was her thing, dancing. So a lot of her students, man, she had some famous students that she, that she raised, like, Benverein is one of, she raised. Oh, shit. Like, you know what I mean? Okay. And he used to, you know, be at the house all the time.

Like, you know what I mean? And anytime he had something going on, we used to watch it in the crib. I didn't see roots thousands of times. Like, you know what I'm saying? Yeah. You know what I mean? That's like, everybody get together. Watch Ben.

Ben is on, you know, Michael Peters. He was a famous choreographer. Michael Jackson's, um, choreographer. Yes. Michael Peters was, that was one of my grandma's students. Shut up. Damn, he did so much shit. He did beat it.

He did dancing on the film. Yeah, he did all the, so like, that was like, event, same thing. Like, with Ben, Marine. Matter of fact, Michael Peters is the knife battle. He's the one in all right. He's the one that got their hands tied up. They're fighting with the night.

When I was six, my dad introduced me. me to him and I was like, but you can't dance better than Michael Jackson. He walked away with me with so much attitude. Like, I remember when I was a little kid, like, we used to fly to Cali because a lot of her students live in Cali and whatnot. So we used to fly to Cali and visit them and she used to take care of some business. And Michael Peters used to take me into Universal Studios all the time. That was my favorite place when I was a little kid.

I used to be like, let's go again. Let's go again. I was going to go again. I've been in like a hundred times when I was a kid. That was my favorite shit. Like, you know what I mean? But yeah, so this is my grandma, this is like my grandmother's life. She, you know, this is her thing in the dance world.

And she got a lot of choreographers, and she helped out a lot of people as far as that, in that world. So I grew up a lot around her concerts. She would do these concerts every year at Lincoln Center at the Apollo, at Carnegie Hall. You know, every year she would do like a big concert. And, um, so you were a backstage kid. Yeah, me and my cousins would be backstage, wow, and looking at the girls getting dressed in a bit. You know what I'm saying?

That's different than my backstage. I just watch old, old-ass dudes, you know, smoke reefer in the... Whoa, yo. But, you had a better backstage experience. Yeah, especially at my grandma was dance school. Like, hundreds. You all the joins be there? Hundreds of girls from Queens.

Like, that was like, that was, man, I used to love that place. when I was a little kid, man. We had so much fun running around Jamaica Avenue. And, you know, just having fun, man. All the girls did. It was crazy, crazy growing up. Like, you know what I mean? So when did you officially, you moved to Queens?

So I moved to Queens. Well, after Detroit or? Yeah, it had to be like 84. Okay. 84, 85. I moved a left rack with my mom. She got divorced from my pops after he kidnapped me. And she was tight.

She was like, man, I ain't doing this shit no more, man. Wait, how does she find you? See, my pops had actually took me on a robbery where he went and robbed a jury store I was in the car. You know what I'm saying? Wait a minute. I need a sign for that shit.

And that shit pissed my mom's off because, you know what I mean? We got into a high-speed chase. No way. Nassau County Police is chasing us and he finally pulls over because he realized, you know, I'm in the car. He jumps in the car and throws a big ass back

a jury in my hand. I'm like, this whole nose jury and shit. And he's flying through Hempstead. Like, it was out in Long Island. And, you know, finally he pulls over, you know, I remember the cop put me in the back. My pop's hands was locked up behind his back. I remember holding my pop's hand while his hand. Yeah, they had me in the back seat with him. I ain't know what was going. I'm like, I was too young to even compute. What the fuck was happening? Get to the precinct. Police gave me a soda. I remember sitting there drinking the soda. My mom's came to get me.

And I remember her arguing my pops flipping on him. And then my pop's kidnapped me right after that. You know what I mean? Because she was like, I can't be with you no more. So he took me to Detroit. And my mom found out where I was at. She threatened to have, you know, call the cops on him. So he sent me back or whatever with my mom.

Then we moved to Lefrak. And then I went to school and Lefrak. I went to junior high school. And Lefrake said he went to Halsey, right across the street from Long Island. You know, very close to you from the LIE. You got to cross the LIE to get over to the high school. I'll say that the picture that I always think of when I think of Queens is more or less the picture that you guys painted on the infamous.

But was it always like that? Like when you first got to Queens, was it that? Because you paint a dark ass. What was Queens like? I mean, that... This is when crack first came out. When I'm over the left rack, crack just hit the street.

It was brand new, you know what I'm saying? I'm in junior high school. I'm 12 years old. All the little kids my age was selling crack in the neighborhood. You know what I'm saying? I used to go to school and she's little niggas with rope chains and levers and air max.

I'm like, what the fuck is these niggas doing? Like, you know what I'm saying? Like, these little kids, like, you know what I'm saying? with big jewelry on, looking like Eric B. and Rockin on the cover of their album, you know what I'm saying? And then, you know, I started getting cool with people out there, and they started telling me what they're doing. You know what I mean?

And Lefrak was big time for, like, selling crack. Like, it's well known that Lefrak City was like big, big, big time crack neighborhood. Like, you know what I mean? And Lefrak is his proper name? Left rack, yeah. Okay. Because I always, I think when tragedy were, right? Yeah.

Like, I thought that was a title. out there. You know what I mean? They called left rack Iraq. That's what you say. Left rack is Iraq. Queens, bridges, Kuwait. You know what I'm saying?

Okay, okay. But, yeah, so left rack, that's how it was out there. This is when crack first hit. So, you know, all my friends I'm going to junior high school, they selling crack. And, you know, once I got cool with them,

and they told me what they was doing. I was like, man, you know, let me try my hand at that. I want some on a chain, too. You know what I'm saying? I'm like, I want to look fly like y'all need. Right.

So I hooked up with one of my homies from school. He gave me a few vows. He was like, I start with this. You know what I'm saying? If you could do this off, you could come back, I gave you some more. Like, you know what I mean? So I went out. I'm 12 years old.

I'm looking like I'm eight. When I was 12, I looked like I was eight, you know? Yeah, you definitely found the founding of youth, man. I wonder if you're in your 30s or 40s now. I go outside with the little cracks on me and whatnot, and I'm super paranoid. I never sold a crack in my life. You know what I'm saying?

So I'm like, I'm looking around. I'm nervous. My motherfuckers walking up to me. Like, yo, you guys? I'm like, I don't know. It's like that scene from paid and full. Right. Everyone was fucking,

he was like scared when he first sold his crazy. Just like that. I was fucking paranoid, yo. So anyway, I think I saw one vow and the police ran up for me. You know what I'm saying? First time? Damn. Police ran up on me.

Grab me. Yo, fuck you doing out here. I found the cracks. They was like, how old are you? I'm like, you're like, what the fuck? You look like a little kid. Like, do you look like a real little kid? Like, go home, man.

Fuck you're doing out of here. And he just took the crack and sent me on. So now I got a spleen to this nigga what happened with the cracks. Ah, crap. You know what I'm saying? He's like, yo, what happened? I'm like, yo, police just took it

and they let me go. He's like, yeah, now you got to give me that bread, son. So we have a scrap. You know what I'm saying? At school, he won't a scrap. I lost. You know what I'm taking my jacket off. He snuffed me.

I'm like, oh shit. So these girls break it up. Some girls I knew from the hood broke it up. Like, leave him alone. Leave him alone, you know what I'm saying? So anyway, I ain't fuck with the cracks anymore. Wise decision. For a minute, for a minute.

And, you know, I just was just cool with everybody after that, you know what I'm saying? I wasn't trying to, you know, really sell no drugs and get caught. That was too much for me. Like, you know what I'm saying? And then once I went to high school and I met Hay. So, yeah, had brought me out to Queensbridge when I first, you know, went to high school when I first met him. And he introduced me to that whole world.

It's just different. Now, mind you, when I was a kid, my mother, you know, my mother, her whole life, she worked for the housing authority. So she worked in all the projects in New York, Brooklyn, Harlem, and, you know what I mean, Queens. And Queensbridge was one of the projects that she worked in. Her job was she would get people approved for their apartments. You know what I mean?

So they come to her to apply for her. She worked in the office on the hill on Queensbridge, and people got to come to her. She decided whether. Assigned them. You know what I'm saying? If they make enough money to live in the projects or subsidized rent or whatever, how that works.

Everybody wanted to be her friend. Yeah. So she worked in Queensbridge when I was a little kid. You know what I'm saying? And I used to go with her to work in the summertime. This is before I met having all that. And I went to Reese Day Camp. Like when my mom was at work,

she would drop me at day camp on the hill, called Reese. So I was already out there for a few years when I was a little kid. I met a bunch of people. And it just so happened years later, you know, once I moved to Lefrey, went to high school in the city,

met half. Now I'm back in Queensbridge. I'm older now. And I'm seeing people I remember when I was a kid from day camp and all that. Right. But it was just being back out there and just seeing, you know,

how Queensbridge was like just a whole other world, like the fashion, the slang. Like, you know, just everything is just different. Okay, can you explain something to our listeners? And by our listeners, me, right. By our listeners, I mean, me. What is the done language and what is the genesis of the done language? What's that like done-dunny?

So the done language, that's like saying. Like, I know cats in Sweden that talk the done, like after MobbDee shit came up, yo, what up, done? And I was like, what are y'all talking about? It's a TH, too. One of our homies from Queensbridge, his name is Bumpy. He got like a speech impediment. He speak with like a lisp a little bit, you know what I'm saying?

So, you know, we call each of a son. Everybody would be like, yo, what up, son, what up son? And when Bumpy say it, he'd be like, what I thunt? What I thought? You know what I'm saying? Yo. We have Bumpy to think. Finally.

After 25 years, I've been wondering. So it's THU-N. Yeah, yeah, it's T-A-G-U-N. But I had short, when I write my rhymes, I try to write shorthand. I try to write short as possible. So I used to write D-U-N just to write it real quick

and get it out the way, you know what I'm saying? So it's like two different spellings when I do it. But whatever, that's where it started, with Bumpy, you know what I'm saying? And we just started calling it. Shout out the Bumpy. He created the Dunn Language. That's what we can, you know what I?

We thank you. Yeah, shout out the bump, man. But, yeah, once I got out there, and I've just seen how that world was in Queensbridge. And I remember being out there as a kid. When I was out there, it was like super early 80s. Like, probably the juice crew was popping, like, back then. I didn't even know.

I was too young. I was too young back in the days, you know what I'm saying? When I was in day camp, but I remember how they used to dress. They used to have the shelters out. They used to have the Puma's with the, you know, the Tar 1 suits, the Cango. I remember seeing people dress like that when I was a kid. So I know that was like probably that juice crew era. And then when I came back out there later on, you know, it was new things happening.

You know what I'm saying? It was like their era was starting to change. You know what I'm saying? Things were starting to change. And, you know, I was like right smack dab in the middle of it, man. And, you know, it was just interesting to see being from Hempstead and going to school in Manhattan, you know, where I'm in a had. We went to high school with everybody from New York, different boroughs, Brooklyn, the Bronx, you know, Manhattan, Queens.

They was from everywhere in our school, art and design. You know what I mean? So we had friends with people from all over, East Borough. So we used to hang out, you know, we used to party in the Bronx, up by Yankee Stadium and Sheridan. We used to, you know, hang out in Brooklyn and Bestie, Marcy, Tompkins, Sumner. You know what I mean? We used to, we was out there, you know what I'm saying?

So was that ever any hesitation whatsoever? Because I know if you go to a different part of town, that you're not necessarily from. It could be a caution thing, like, you know. Yeah, I mean, you got to be careful, man. I mean, look, growing up, you know what I'm saying? This is where things change for me a little bit, all right? My first year of high school, there was this gang called the Decepticons.

You know what I'm saying? And I used to come to school in the morning. And I used to see people coming to school. My friends coming to school with big. guy's cuts going across their face, their arms, hands, like buck 50s, their faces spliced open. Like, you know what I'm saying? I'm like, what the fuck happened to you, son? You're like, yo, the Decepticon just caught us in the train station, you know what I'm like?

I'm like, well, I'm like, yo, the niggas ain't cutting me like that, dog. I'm buying a gun right now because I dare a nigger try to cut me like that. Like, these niggas just twisted, you know what I'm saying? Right. So that kind of, it kind of forced me into position where I was like, I'm defending. protect myself. Like, you know what I'm saying? Right.

So that's when I bought my first gun because of that, you know what I'm saying? Because I wasn't gonna let them why he cut me in the face like that. You know what I'm saying? And they was running around doing this on a daily, like this is what they was doing. Like, they was from Brooklyn, like, you know what I mean? It was just a gang. They was called Decepticons. They had a female version called Deceptan Nets.

They had another game called the Low Lives. They had another gang called, uh, I can't think of it right now. But, um, yeah, there was like this gang culture from Brooklyn. You know what I'm saying? And we had to deal with that. You know, because after school, they would come up to different schools and terrorized motherfuckers, robbing motherfuckers. You know what I'm saying?

So it forced me and my little tight friends to be on some bullshit. It forced us to be on some bullshit. You know what I'm saying? And that's where the bullshit started a little bit. Like, you know what I'm saying? That's like freshly. You got to protect your stuff. You know what I'm saying?

And then, you know, also just growing up in Hampstead. you know, that's like, it's a hood. That's a hood out there. Like, you know what I'm saying? It's a residential area. They got houses. It looked nice. But that's the hood out of it.

So, Hempstead wasn't the, the cozy part of Long Island that. Nah, Hempstead is definitely not. Because when I think of Long Island, I think of like, oh, that's a vacation spot or. Yeah, nah, nah, you were. Bill's lab at surprise. Where'd you grow up? You grew up in Hempstead, Bill? No, I grew up a few miles north of Hempstead.

Okay. It's a little different realm of them. Yeah, this is a part where you cross the track. As soon as you cross the track, you call it track side. Right. As soon as you cross that track, it's over. Oh. You're in the hood.

I think Serge explained that on his episode that, yeah, it was... You know, I had a lot of friends out there. We did a lot of things, and, you know, it put me on some shit mentally. You know what I'm saying? And my pops already had me on some shit mentally. But then going to school in Manhattan, you know, that really kind of changed me because I started hanging out and all the different boroughs. I had friends from different boroughs, and we used to deal with this type of shit.

What school did you go to? Art and Design in Manhattan. The Fame School? Yeah, that's what. That's, all right. No, that's, that's, that's, uh... LaGuardia. LaGuardia.

Yeah. So there's another art and design? My mother went to that school. She graduated first. Oh, okay. Yeah. So what did you and Havik both go to the school for? So Hav was a grade ahead of me.

He was there for architecture. He was dope. He used to build, like, scale models or like, you know, apartment complexes or whatever building. Like, you know what I mean? He could do that shit nice. I went to school there because most of my friends

was from Lefrak. You know, we used to sit around in the summertime. Where are you going to high school, son? He said, oh, we're going to Edison. Oh, I'm going to this one. And most of my friends was like, we're going to on design.

So I was like, fine, I'm going there too then. I'm going wherever y'all niggas is going. Right. So that's the only reason I wanted to go there. You know what I'm saying? I didn't really have, I didn't think that I had any art skills. Like, you know what I'm saying?

I had to take a test to get into school. That's what I thought. We had to bring a portfolio up. So I was like, I'm going to do. How am I going to get in school? I'm going to get into school. I'm a guy.

I got work my way in the school somehow. I'm a, there's this group called the shirt kings. They like clothing designers in. Oh, the airbrushing. Yeah, and air brushing in the Coliseum in Queens. So, you know, I grew up with them,

like, I grew up with a little kid on Jamaica Avenue. Like, you know what I'm saying? So they know me all my life. Like, you know what I mean? So I was like, light bulb. I'm going to just copy. I'm going to bite the shirt kings. I'm sure these motherfuckers in art design.

They never seen no shit like. that before, you know what I'm saying? Right. So I just got me some shirts. I got me some markers, some paint, whatever, and I just drew some graffiti on the shit. And I made a portfolio, brought up to school. And they was like, oh, they got into school with that shit.

I was shocked. I was like, oh, shit, that shit worked. You know what I'm saying? Word. This is crazy hearing this. That's your story. No, it's Tariq's story. Right.

Oh, where it's saying. Because Tariq was art design student. So he used to make, like, crazy medallions and those, Yo baby, yo Mickey Mouse T-shirts. Yeah, hell yeah, man. Shit like that. Mad creative, yeah. But, you know, I guess, you know, I got a love for being creative by being at that school.

Like, you know what I'm saying? I got a love for photography. Because we had photography class there. A love for, you know, just designing and shit and seeing what have you should do with the architecture. It's just, you know, open my mind to something new, you know. So how did you guys meet? you met in high school yeah we met my first year of high school my photography class was a kid named black from the Bronx

and we got real cool kicking it every day in class and one day he was like yo man he was like I used to wear mad jury like I used to have crap I thought I was slick Rick dog you know what I'm saying I used to have hands full of rings mad chains and shit I was too I was a retarding when I was in school like that's another reason why I bought a gun too because I'm like I'm a target with all this shit on you know what I'm You didn't feel like, dispenseless. I was, I was bugged out as a kid, yo. You know what I'm saying?

I didn't really care too much. So, you know, when I met Havre, it was because of my man Black from the Bronx photography class. He was like, yo, man, you know, you should meet one of my friends, the name Havik. They're both rap.

Y'all both about the same height. You know, I'm going to introduce you to him at the school. So little did I know that these nings were setting me up to rob me. Oh. Wait, what?

Havoc. Wait, this is an arranged marriage that was arranged robbery? Yeah. Wow. Yo, this is the greatest story I've heard. Like the greatest life ever. They were setting me up that day. It was like a whole setup.

They was going to rob me. You know what I'm saying? And whatever. I ain't find this out till later. You know what I'm saying? Like later when you were. you're on a proposal, but like, oh, yo, you remember when we first met? Yeah, maybe like a year or two later.

They came. They was like, yo, remember that time? He was like, yo, we was going to rob you that day, son. But, you know, you was cool, so we was like, nah, I don't rob him. That's our story, Steve. Lord, that's real shit, too, man, you know what I'm saying? Wait a minute, wait a minute, wait. You're listening to Questlove Supreme.

Our guests this week are Prodigy of Mobb Deep and Kathy Yondali, the journalist and co-author of Prodigy's latest book, Commissary Kitchen, my infamous prison cookbook. And we got some messages from our sponsors. A win is a win. A win is a win. I don't care what you're saying. Yep, that's me, Cliver Taylor the 4th.

You might have seen the skits, the reactions, my journey from basketball to college football, or my career in sports media. Well, somewhere along the way, this platform became bigger than I ever imagined. And now I'm bringing all of that excitement to my brand new podcast, the Clifford Show. This is a place for raw, unfiltered conversations with some of your favorite athletes, creators, and voices that not only deserve to be heard, but celebrated. One week, I'll take you behind the scenes of the biggest moments in sports and entertainment, and the next

we'll talk about life, mental health, purpose, and even music. The Clifford Show isn't just a podcast, it's a space for honest conversations, stories that don't always get told, and for people who are chasing something bigger. So, if you've ever supported me, or you're just chasing down a dream, This is right where you need to be. Listen to The Clifford show on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. And for more behind the scenes, follow at Clifford and at TikTok Podcast Network on TikTok.

There's two golden rules that any man should live by. Rule one, never mess with a country girl. You play stupid games, you get stupid prizes. And rule two, never mess with her friends either. We always say that trust your girlfriends. I'm Anna Sinfield, and in this new season of The Girlfriends, Oh my God, this is the same man. A group of women discover they've all dated the same prolific con artist.

I felt like I got hit by a truck. I thought, how could this happen to me? The cops didn't seem to care. So they take matters into their own hands. I said, oh, hell no. I vowed. I will be his last target. He's going to get what he deserves. Listen to the Girlfriends.

Trust me, babe. on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. This week on the Sports Slice podcast, it's all about the NFL draft, and we've got a special guest. The director of the NFL's East West Shrine Bowl, Eric Galko, joins the Sports Slice podcast to break down what really matters when evaluating draft prospects. From hidden traits teams look for to the biggest mistakes franchises make to the players flying under the radar. This is the insight you won't hear anywhere else. If you want to understand the draft like an insider, you don't want to miss this episode.

Listen to the Sports Slice Podcast on the Iheart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. And for more, follow Timbo Slica Life 12 and TikTok Podcast Network on TikTok. All right, so when you, you're telling me that initially your meeting was a setup.

You came in the name of, oh, we should be in a group together. Yeah, I was like, I'm cool, black, we cool. He seemed like a cool dude. He said he wanted to introduce me to somebody that rap too. He about the same height. He was like, yo, y'all should make a group.

I'm going to introduce you to him after school. I'm like, I bet. So after school, you go outside and there's a fight right in front of the school. So I'm like, we're looking at the fight and my man Black is like, that's havoc right there, fighting. He's fighting that kid.

So I seen that, he was fighting some kid. Kid actually tried to stab him. He just like leather jacket and like, motherfucker's dropping, niggas, like, got the knife out of his hand, had beat him up, and everybody lifted half up in the air. Like, he just, like, he just, like,

the after touchdown. Like, he just hit the winning game touchdown. Havik, boom, my, me. They was jumping with him in the air like this, I swear to go. All the way to the train station after the fight. Damn. He was calling him Kiwi,

because I was, like, his name, like, his name is Ki-Wan. Right. So his, like, nickname in school, like, Kiwi. They used to call him Kiwi. And they used to call him Kiwi. You know what I'm saying?

Because I was mad small. Like, you know what I'm saying? That would have been a better group name, Kiwi and Kiwi. So, you know, we follow into the train station. I'm like, this is crazy. Like, all right. So after they put them down, we get on the train, we meet each other. So I'm like, yo, where are we going?

Like, we're going to Ravenswood. I'm like, Ravenswood. I'm like, my grandmother from Ravenswood. My mother's mother. Right. You know what I mean? She had moved from South Jamaica Projects to Ravenswood, like, some time ago. he was like a word

he's like my grandmother were from Ravenswood so both our grandma was lived in Ravenswood so right there that was like we had a connection like you know what I'm saying

right so we went to his you know his crib in Ravenswood then we chilled and we went to Queens Bridge walking around chilling and that was it

we just got cool that day you know what I'm saying and we started making songs immediately and we just clicked immediately we just clicked you know what I mean we became really close friends

and getting in the mad trouble together and just doing all this dope music and everything was just like happening fast. You knew how to make beats immediately or? Nah, nah, I actually taught how to make beats, how to sample. Wait, you were the initial beat person? What were you using? EPS 16 plus. Task cam.

Four track. A set. Four track shit, recorded shit. Like, you know what I'm saying? Let the little mix board. Yeah, so. after I met half, you know what I mean, and we started getting real cool,

and we started being like, all right, this is, we got something. You know what I'm saying? We kind of look good together. We're the same height. We got the same style. Like, you know what I mean? And it's like, we're making these dope. We made like 50 songs immediately.

We made like 50 songs when we first met. In a week or in a month? Yeah, about a couple weeks. You know what I'm saying? Okay. And, you know, right after that, you know, we just realized like, damn, we got something here, you know what I'm saying?

And we just started pushing forward with it. Like, man, you know what? Fuck school. Let's do this. Was that before you did the Two Young record? Nah, this is after I did that. So I did the two young record while I was in junior high school.

Oh, wow. Wait, on the boys in the hood sounds right? The high five joint. That was him. As time passes. Wait, wait. Wait. I go with the swift this, gee.

This is why I wrote a boat. There's so much shit from different angles. Yeah, that was it. But the EPA won't listen to what I have to say. Wait, what? These two of the biggest R&B heads of all times in the fact that... When I was living in Lefrak,

I had made a... I had a solo career. I was like trying to be, you know, a solo artist. My name was the Golden Child. My name was Lord T. the Golden. Chab, you know what I'm saying? Because my family, they call me Chaka, you know what I'm saying, with a T, but the T is silent, you know what I mean?

The T come from Chaka, you know what I'm saying? Lord T, the Golden Chow. I thought I was the Golden Chow. That was my, like, my favorite movie, you know, I was looking. So anyway, I had Lord Tee, the Golden Child. One of my homies from Left Rack, you know, we used to make some music together, whatever, but he used to send me some beats, and I used to go record him. And I used to shop around, because my mom's was like, yo, shop your demo around.

She was like, write your lyrics out, mailing to yourself. That's the cheap man copyright. That's the copyright. You know what I'm doing? The poor man copyright. Like, I was doing, my mom's was teaching me what to do. She was like, do this, do that. Take your shit around.

You know what I mean? So we got my music to Jive somehow. I don't even remember how. But Jive gave me a demo deal. And a demo deal is they said... Who's the A&R there? Do you remember? Nah, I don't even remember who was the A&R at that time.

And this is 1990, correct? Nah, this is like 88, 89. Okay. You know what I'm saying? So I'm in job working in Battery Studio. You know, they got their own studio. Yeah. So they gave me a studio.

They was like, all right, let's see what you could do. You by yourself? That's what the demo deal is. Right. They put you in a studio. All right, let's see what you could. If you could come up with something dope, within the next couple of months,

we'll sign you to a real deal. You know what I'm saying? So that's the kind of deal I had. So you by yourself? Me by myself. With the drum scene and you writing your rhymes doing your own music? No, I wasn't making beats at that point. Okay.

I was getting beats from people and, you know what I mean? Just trying whatever I could do. So while I'm there, I used to flirt with the girls at the front desk. Like, you know what I mean? A couple of girls worked at the front desk. You know, they was cool with me. So one day I'll go to a job to go to the studio and a girl at the front desk. My name was Kim.

I remember her name because she hooked it out for me. She was like, y'all, I want to bring me to the back. You need to meet somebody. They're working on the soundtrack. I'm going to get you on this soundtrack. Come on. So she brought me in the back office. She was like, yo, this is Lord T, whatever, da, da, la.

He rap. You should get him on this song. So they was like, all right, go ahead. You know, write some balls. Let's see what you could come up with. And I wrote that too young. You know what I mean? And they put me on the song.

So crazy. I was just thinking about that. I was literally thinking about that song last week. All the stuff about Trump. I'm defunding the EPA and all that. Right, right. That lyric kept coming in my head. That was crazy.

I never knew that. Then, you know, my first year of high school, Met Havre still working at that battery at this time. So I used to bring Hav with me. I was like, yo, I got a studio we could work at. So I used to bring Hav with me the battery. We used to get beat. We used to, like, use recording pause on the tape day.

Pause tapes. And make our own beats. And that's, we made a lot of beats like that. And, um... Were y'all going by the poetical profits at this time? Yeah, we still didn't figure out a name yet at this time. You know what I'm saying? But, you know, Jove gave me that studio.

They know, I'm not supposed to be having other people in there. Yo, does this story sound familiar? Very familiar. This is the black version of the MS-the-Surch right here. This is how third base got started. So take this out. So now, you know, Java's like, all right, we want to sign you after the boys in the hood and shit and all that. And I was like, look, I got a partner in there.

I was like, if you want to sign me, you got signed him. And they was like, oh, nah, we just want you. You know what I mean? We don't want your partner. And I was like, all right, well, I'll see you later. You walked away from that? Damn. That's loyal.

Hey, I was like, man, listen. Because what we were doing, it was just a vibe. You could just feel it. You know what I mean? You could feel the power of what. And we just, like, met and just started. and through our conversations and just hanging out and the music we was doing,

you could just feel like this is what it's supposed to be. You know, I'm not supposed to be a solo artist. You know what I'm saying? Right. The having noted you walked away? Yeah, yeah, you know that, because I was trying to get both of us on the job, you know what I'm saying? But they was like, nah.

So did, like, I mean, by this time, there were other groups that were of your age. I mean, y'all look mad young, at least on the juvenile hell record. Y'all looked young and shit. So I thought y'all were in the kids' group. realm. Right. So were they trying to mold y'all into that ABC,

criss-cross kind of bandwaggot? Like, were they trying to make y'all kids' group? The ill part about it is we never had anybody telling us to do anything. No A&R, no... Ever. Like I said, they put me in that room, like, I let me see what you can do. That's crazy. So nobody ever told me... No artist development, no.

Nobody ever said, do this. Do that. Nobody ever told us what to do. So you have to teach yourself all the... We just did it. Like, you know what I'm saying? We just did it. And, you know, after job was like, nah, I was like, all right, we're out of here.

And we just continue to make songs and shop our demo around and, you know, try to get on. You know what I'm saying? And that's when we met Q-Tip after a while, you know what I'm saying? All right. I'm sure you told this story a gazillion times. Yeah. But can you please tell you? that death jam's story

please so for our listeners you've not heard this is the illest story ever ever yeah man

and then let me say something real quick okay let me just something clear real quick a lot of

motherfuckers they read my book or they hear these stories they're like oh this nigga dry snitching

and let me tell you something right there's nobody being convicted arrested or anything

for what I'm saying I'm saying shit with a I'm saying shit with a What do you call it? Statue of limitations.

It's done already. Right. So it's like, this is our life. Like, this is shit that happened in our life. And it's a blessing that we're able to talk about it right now. And that we made it out of certain shit. True indeed. You know what I mean?

So when you hear people saying all this, they don't know what the fuck they talk about, dog. Like, that shit really pisses me off. But anyway, I'm going to tell you this story. Thank you. So after the job shit, me and I started making mad songs, and then we took our new demo around. And what we used to do is look on the back of albums,

to our favorite labels. So our favorite label, of course, was Def Jam at that time. So we used to be like, all right, where's Def Jam? All right, here's the address. All right, come on, let's cut out of school. Let's take the train, go down to Def Jam. So we used to go down to Def Jam with the headphones, walk in, and we used to just stand outside the door like this

and wait for the rappers to come out, you know what I mean, or whoever to come out. And we've seen, you know, a bunch of different rappers come out. We said, like, yo, listen to our demo tape. And he was like, no, man, I got time for this shit. Watch out, Shorty. Who were fron in your? Who's the mirror? Who's the mirror of the story?

I just furrow her on three cats last week. Now I feel bad. I'm like, yo, they're going to be biggest shit. Like, we was outside of 30 Rock rating for you. I'm going to tell you it was. I remember clearly who it was. We'll see. But I don't got no personal shit against them.

I don't care about that shit. This is like, but it definitely was the aphros. Remember the aphros? Kicking that from listening. Damn hurricane. You could have had, Momty. Hurricane was like, what? Come on, watch out, shorty.

You ain't got time for this shit. So I'm like, ah, where it, aye, aye, aye, whatever. So we wait outside. We wait outside. We see people coming out. Nobody will give us a listen. The Q-Tip came out the building. And, you know, they was on fire at that time.

That was, you know, trial called Quest to shit. We're like, oh, shit. It's a tip right here. Yo, could you listen to our demo, son? like check us out son we from queens da da da da da da he's like well work check your shit out put on listen

playing him a couple songs he took it off he was like come on come inside the office with me damn wrote us in the office introduce us to Chris Lighty introduce us to it was called

Russ Associated labels at that time you know what I mean it was like a management management thing and plus the associated label thing and you know introduce us to people in the office

and TIP was like yo these dudes are dope help them you know what I'm saying he was like help them get them do something with them so he's like the first to really yeah he's like yo set up he's telling Chris he's telling everybody in office you know with Russell set up a meeting with you get them you know I mean get these kids music heard they dope you know so after that you know we we had a meeting with uh they set up a meeting for us with Russell Simmons so we go to the office to have a meeting with Russell and uh it's supposed to be a at Russell Cribb, which was around the corner on Broadway, Rob McDonald's, somewhere down

that area. So we get to Russell Cribb. Matter of fact, I had the gun on me. You know what I mean? One shot, Derring I had bought at school, you know what I mean? So I wasn't trying to get cut. I had left it in the Dev Jam office because I ain't want to bring a gun in Russell house.

Right. You know what I mean? I was like, I don't bring a weapon in his crib. I was told him, man, the office is a hold us in the drawer for me. until we get back from the meeting. So he's like, all right, put in the drawer, walked around the corner, I went to Russell Crabb. Russell was a no-show.

They're like, oh, Russell got caught up. Y'all going to meet with Leor instead in the office. Everyone has a Leor story. So we're like, I bet. So we go back to Def Jam. We meet with Leor. We play Lear music. He's listening.

Then he stops the music. He's like, I can't do nothing with y'all. He's like, why? He's like, how old is he? So we're like 15, 16 at this time. He's like, y'all, first of all, y'all look like y'all nine years old or something. Y'all cursing like sellers. Y'all talking about criminal crazy shit.

He said, I'm going to get sued. They're going to sue death jam for putting this on the radio and doing all this and the third. Like, there's no way I can get this played on the radio. There's no way I can get this. They're going to ban y'all. That's what he basically told us. Like, he was like, I can't do nothing with y'all. I'm sorry.

And we like. That's crazy. We like, what? We was like, what the fuck is wrong with this dude? Like, he didn't understand the music. He didn't, I don't know, he didn't get it. He didn't like it. That's his choice or whatever.

So we was like, all right, fuck it. We wasn't mad at anything. We was a little upset like, oh, fuck this nigga. He don't know, but we didn't give a fuck. We was like, all right, on to the next label. We're going to go to it. We're going to finally find someplace. So we go downstairs.

And before we leave, you know, they had all these posters hanging up in the office. in R.R.L. They had like the Great Adventures of Slick Rick framed. They had like Big Daddy Cane shit. Everybody's shit framed in it. And De Lae had just dropped De La Sol is Dead. Right. So I wanted one of those posters. They had the ill, De La Sol's Dead post. I wanted hanging up in my room. You know, that was dead back in the day shit. Hanging shit up in your room and whatnot. So I told my man that held the gun for me in the

drawer. I was like, yo, get us some posters for we bounce. You know what I'm saying? He said, oh, I'm going to hook y'all up. So he went, got her some posters. So me and Hav is at his desk. So I'm like, oh, shit, the gun is in the drawer, son. So Hav, get the gun out of the drill. They points it at me. I'm like, yo, chill, son. That shit got, you know what I mean?

That shit got a bulletin. He's like, I'm just playing with you, my nigga. He's like, I'm just playing. Calm down. I'm like, chill, don't point guns at people. My nigga, chill. So did my man come back with all the posters. He's like, yo, here.

He put the posters down. Then Hav pointed the gun at him. Like, yo, give me them posters, nigger. Bam By mistake They got to go You know what I'm saying They got to go

They got to go Yo You think My nigga My nigga Everything went in slow motion After that Literally

Literally Get these niggies niggas Everything turned misty And went slow motion I remember Literally I don't know why that happens But I guess in the heat of

moments like that, shit just slows time, you know? Right. So, have drops his gun. Like, we both like, oh, shit, what the fuck? Like, we're in shock. You know what I mean? Had boats out the door running downstairs. Like, oh, shit, I'm out.

So I'm like, oh, you're not leaving me in here. I started chasing behind him, like. In the office. Wait, my dumb man just wanted to know, did you least take the poster? Because that day I sold poster was rare and shit. Nah. Man, she's not a poster. I wasn't even thinking about no-move fucking poxin at that point.

I'm like, you know how hard that this shit on eBay right now? It was like, nothing. We were trying to get low. He's trying to get the fuck out of it at that point. So, had ran out the door. Knocked DMC down. The DMC ain't running. It was coming in the building.

Knocked them, one of them niggas fell on the floor. I don't remember who was going. Because he busted. He, like, ran out and busted through the door. So one of them fell down. We ran up, we running up the block. And I hit some mic. That's a crazy way to meet Run DMC, by the door.

I hear somebody screaming behind me. Stop them kids. You stop them kids. So I'm like, I look and it's fucking Ali Shahi is chasing us. Oh, God. So he's chasing us, though. Oh, he keeps chasing us. I'm like, yo, this is my own fucking is chasing us.

So we get down the house then, right? We get down the house and have stop, half his while. Like, yo, son, it was a mistake. I didn't mean to do that. It was a mistake. I'm like, you, calm down, calm down, my nigga. Everything will be all right. It's chill, relax.

He's whaling, though. He's like hysterical because he didn't mean to do that shit. Like, you know what I'm saying? So he's whaling. I'm trying to get him to calm down. And I see a D. I see a D. I see a detective car pull up, a Mark car. You know, we know what the D's look like.

So I seen the D's, I said, oh, I said, oh, I said, you have, chill, chill, chill, chill, chill, the D's there. Because Hav is screaming, like, I ain't mean to shoot him. I ain't mean to shoot him. No, it's a mistake. So they go, chill, chill, chill, chill, chill, my nigga. So they see him bugging. So they stop the car.

They get out. They're like, yo, what's going on? He's like, yo, I didn't mean to do it. I didn't mean to do it. I'm like, oh, my God. Here come Ali Shahid. Yo, get the... They put the handcuffs on half.

Because half is sitting and basically confessing. He's like, I didn't mean to do it. It was a mistake. They're like, oh, no, it's going to be all right. Put your hands by it back. Oh, Lord. I'm like, oh, my God. Oh, man.

So they let me and my man Prince AD. That was our DJ at the time. They let us go. Took half. I go home, go to sleep, right? Wake up the next morning and go to school. My mom's always got WBLS playing on a clock radio in the morning. So I hear on the radio, they're like,

yesterday there was a shooting in Def Jam office over contracts. The artists, some artists, they wouldn't sign the artist, so the artist shot somebody in the office. That's what they said on the radio. So I'm sitting there, listen to it. I didn't even tell my mom's happening. Is she not putting two or two together? No, she don't even know what's going on.

So when I heard that, I was like, oh, my God. So now, like, reality is hitting me, because I'm just waking up. And I'm like, it's a new day. Right. Now I'm like, reality's hitting me, what just happened yesterday. So now my brain kicks into how we're going to get out of this mode.

You know what I'm saying? And I'm like, all right. And right away, I just came up with a story. All right, we thought it was a lighter. No. Because you know how in the village, downtown, they got the little lighters at the smoke shops, little gun lighters. Razzell used to care of that shit.

So I'm like, yo, in my mind, I'm like, all right, we got to think of something quick. So right away, I'm like, yo, we thought we found it outside. We thought it was a lighter. We was playing with it and it and shit went off. You know what I'm saying? So, you know, I had to go to the hospital, kick it with the homie. They got hit and, you know, let them know. Listen, man, you know that was an accident, man.

You know what I'm saying? You got to stick to this story. You know what I'm saying? Otherwise, it's going to be bad for have. He was like, he was like, I. You know what I'm saying? He looked out. You know what I'm saying?

Because, you know, it was a terrible mistake. Where did a bullet go? Man, his stomach. Oh. Man. So, yeah, that craziness happened. So y'all did not get signed to Def Jam, I'm presumed. Nah, then, uh...

Like, have you talked to Run DMZ or Ali about this, like, later? Now, but Nikki D. Remember everything Because she was there. She used to work in the office, right? Yeah. And after that, she would always remind me but she would always remind me

about that day every time I seen after that. She'd be like, yo, y'all y'all y'all y'all y'all was wrong with y'all? The cat got shot, he survived. Like, he's cool. Yeah, he was good, man. You know, fortunately, you know, everything worked out.

And, um, that's a crazy story he'll tell for the rest of his life. It's definitely a crazy story, though, man. After that, Def Jam has security. You couldn't even walk in the building anymore. I was going to say, because when I went to Def Jam, it was like freaking, whatnot. Yeah, exactly. So how long is it until Fourth and Broadway comes in the, uh, the picture? Fourth and Broadway is a company or is a record company on Island Def Jam, you know.

Eric B and Raq. Yeah, it used to be Eric B and Rock Kim's label. So right after that, we, uh, You know, after everything with that death jam shit, we, you know, we continue to make demos and just Q-Tip had brought us, like, into the industry. So we started meeting different people and finding out. We started finding out about industry parties. You know what I'm saying? Because they would tell us, oh, there's a party over here tonight, party of here tonight.

So we started being in the loop of all the industry parties at that point. talent shows Kid Capri would do these talent shows or whoever got the best verse or song you get $100 we won one of those one night

we were just going around different functions New York City talent shows different party industry parties our homie from high school Derek that put us together that kid that was in my photography class his mom used to work for WBLS

and she was like cool with Puff so he arranged a meeting with us in Puff. So we got real cool Puff right away. And Puff would invite us to all his parties. That's when he was a club promoter at that time, heavy doing club promotion. And we used to go to all the Puff parties, you know what I mean,

at the building, the Red Zone. So we started really being at all the functions and hanging out and people started knowing us, you know what I mean? and Maddie C got a whole of our demo. Maddie C from the source. Yeah. He got a whole of our demo and he put us in the unsigned hype column that he did. And because of the unsigned hype column and Maddie C's other homeboy, Bones Malone,

they found interest in us from that and they was like, yo, we want to have a meeting with y'all. Bones brought us up there, Maddie and we met Cookie Gonzalez and, uh, We met Chris Blackwell, you know what I mean? Ah. So they brought us in to meet Chris. We sat down with Chris. Chris was an interesting dude. Yeah, what was that like?

Because Chris is like... That was very interesting. He was sitting there rolling up some hash. And I never seen hash before. Right. He had a big, like, roll of black hash. I'm like, yo, what is that? You know, it's hash.

You smoke it. So I'm like, he's like, you want to try? I'm like, hell, yeah. So we smoke a half. Has with Chris Blackwood in the office. He's like, yo, I really like y'all, man. I want to sign y'all. You know what I mean?

Do a deal with you. Did he ever interject? I've never met Chris Blackwell without at least him interjecting a Bob Marley story. I'm sure he did. Of his glory, yeah. I'm sure he did, especially when we were smoking. You know what I mean? He probably said something like that.

But at this time, you know, they had Rakim, Eric B, and Rakim. Not at this time, but they had in the past Eric Beard Rakim. And the newer, more updated all the new, artist on Forth and Bro. They have X-Clan? Was MOP. They had a song called The Hill that's real.

And how about some hardcore? That was on Ford from Bro. At this time when Chris is signing us. So he offered us a deal. He was like, hell yeah. We want that. We're taking it. You know what I mean?

So we did the deal with Island. And basically it was the same thing. He ain't tried to tell us what to do. They basically just... No N-R, no... I mean, cookie and bones was like, you know, but bones. That's dope. No us.

Bones know us. Like, he started hanging out with us and seeing how we are. So he's like, just leave, let them niggas do them. They know what they're doing. And they know what they want. Like, you know what I mean? How old are you then at this point? We like 16.

So you still in school still? Are you going to school still? Yeah, we're in high school. But now I'm, one day I'm like sleeping in the crib. My mom's wake me up like, come on you're going to be late for school. I woke up. I said, Mom, I'm not going to school no more. And how did she take that?

She was like, oh, what? She was like, okay. What? And then she left and went to work. Where's that, my dad? And then when she came back from work and she thought about it, she said, son, are you going to pay some rent? She was just like, okay.

Because I guess she's seen what I was doing, like, with my career. You know what I mean? She was helping me, like, do it. You don't have any resistance in your family. Nah, not with, like, you know, I come from an entertainment family, so they, like, they was encouraging me. And the family trade. Right, but it's still hip hop, so, you.

You know, it's so different. It's definitely different. So my mom's was scared. She was, like, apprehensive when Chris wanted to sign us. And he actually did some kind of thing where we didn't need our parents' consent. Wow. That pissed my mom's off. She was like, well, that, he's a piece of shit.

He didn't say went around our backs. And sign y'all without our consent. But we was like, ma'all chill, man. You know what I'm saying? So the new edition story ain't happening, y'all. My mom used to manage us, too. Okay. You know what I'm saying?

And then how do they dig him behind her? That's crazy. At this time, she was managing us for a minute, and then we fired her. How do you fight your mind, man? Your hardcore. Because she was like, we did the talent show, right? Right before we got signed the fourth and roll, we did a talent show. It was like a New York City, some talent show in New York used to do all the time.

And we had to, like, auditions, rehearsals or whatever it is, and we'd go into our song. And our song got curses in it. The chorus of the song go, oh, shit. here we go yo oh shit here we go that's the whole chorus you know what I'm saying so we put it on we like doing our shit and they're like

oh stop the music stop the music they was like yo you can't curse in this talent show we're like what they're like you can't curse you have to change the curses or doing a new song we're like what we're not changing nothing man we're not doing this man fuck your show

and we walked up my mom was like what's wrong with y'all so she sat us down like right after that She was like, you can't do that. You can't disrespect people like that. You just take the curses out. We was like, you know, listen, we're going to stick to what we do.

You know what I mean? We don't want nobody trying to change us. We was hard-headed. Like, you know what I mean? Havoc. Havoc. Pryds. I got to say three times I've heard you easily walk away from some shit that could sort of maybe sort of change your life.

I've never heard nealism to this level where it's just like, I'm out I can walk away What is it in you Like what's in your head That just be like All right I walk away

I think we just We believed in what we were doing So much Like I said It was like the vibe that we had We could just feel it It was gonna work And nothing was gonna stop it

It was just a feeling You know what I'm saying Like we was like Oh we got some shit He don't know it She don't know it None of these people Don't know what they talk about

You know what I'm saying We got some shit Because usually people By this point, people will either have a side meeting. Okay, maybe we can meet him at the 50-yard line. Let's compromise a little Brit. You know, we're going to one thing more. And then, you know, we were really hard-headed.

You were just like, oh. We were really, um, we were really just stuck on what we were doing. With tunnel vision, we wasn't trying to hear nobody. We, we had something that didn't really exist. Like, you know what I'm saying? It was like the vibe that we had, you know, just the, the, the, energy and the words and the style, the slang, everything was just, it wasn't nothing like that. You know what I'm saying?

And it was just like a changing of the guard at that time almost because, you know, it was like you had the rock hymns and the Big Daddy Cains and, you know, the symphonies. Like when the symphony came out, like that was what was popping when we was learning how to do rap. And then once we started getting in the studio, we started catching on how this shit works. And we was like, oh, we got this shit. Like, we know how to do this shit, right? thought we did, you know what I'm saying? But it just made our minds like, oh, this is, we're on

some new shit. We're a new generation. These motherfuckers don't know what they talk about. We got some shit. We're not trying to hear nobody, you know. No clean versions. Ever. There was a fucked up attitude to have, but I don't know what it was. You stick to your guns. You know what I'm saying. My mom's like, yo, you can't do that. So we was like, you're

not going to follow what we're saying and believe in us to the maximum and fuck everybody else, then we can't work with you no more. Wow. What's that? To the mom. And you're 16. She was like, all right.

She was like, all right, cool. I'll see you when I get home. She was like, that's a very bad attitude to have. You know what I mean? That's a very bad attitude to have. You're not going to get far in life with that attitude. She gave me the whole spiel or that whole thing, but we wasn't trying to hear it. So it's like when you fire your moms, what happens when you get home?

Like, is it just normal? like dinner time. All right, so what's for dinner, a mac and cheese? Now, you may get home with them. I mean, at that time, I wasn't, I was kind of, I wasn't going home anymore.

I was kind of at the, out the house already. Okay. You know what I'm saying? I would stay at half crib or I would stay at my grandmother's crib. I would pop up my mom's crib sometimes. Like, we were just bouncing everywhere. I was staying in the Bronx with my homie from school,

staying in Brooklyn with my homie, I'm from school. You know what I mean? We were just everywhere, man. was young, active, trying to get on. Like, you know what I mean? I wasn't thinking about I didn't want to be in the house. We're with my mom's like, you know what I'm saying?

I'm out of here. We're going to Coney Island. We're popping. We stay in the weekend. We just having fun and doing what we doing and creating ourselves. A win is a win. A win is a win. I don't care what I'm saying.

Yep, that's me, Cliver Taylor the 4th. You might have seen the skits, the reactions, my journey from basketball to college football, or my career in sports media. Well, somewhere along the way. this platform became bigger than I ever imagined. And now I'm bringing all of that excitement to my brand new podcast, The Clifford Show. This is a place for raw, unfiltered conversations

with some of your favorite athletes, creators, and voices that not only deserve to be heard, but celebrated. One week I'll take you behind the scenes of the biggest moments in sports and entertainment, and the next we'll talk about life, mental health, purpose, and even music. The Clifford Show isn't just a podcast. It's a space for honest conversations, stories that don't always get told,

and for people who are chasing something bigger. So if you've ever supported me or you're just chasing down a dream, this is right where you need to be. Listen to the Clifford show on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. And for more behind the scenes, follow at Clifford and at TikTok Podcast Network on TikTok.

There's two golden rules that any man should live by. Rule one, never mess with a country girl. You play stupid games, you get stupid prizes. And rule two, never mess with her friends either. We always say that, trust your girlfriends. I'm Anna Sinfield, and in this new season of the girlfriends, Oh my God, this is the same man.

A group of women discover they've all dated the same prolific con artist. I felt like I got hit by a truck. I thought, how could this happen to me? The cops didn't seem to care, so they take matters into their own hands. I said, oh, hell no. I vowed. I will be his last target. He's going to get what he deserves. Listen to the girlfriends.

Trust me, babe. On the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. This week on the Sports Slice podcast, it's all about the NFL draft. And we've got a special guest. The director of the NFL's East West Shrine Bowl, Eric Galco, joins the Sports Slice podcast to break down what really matters when evaluating draft prospects. From hidden traits teams look for to the biggest mistakes franchises make to the players flying under the radar.

This is the insight you won't hear anywhere else. If you want to understand the draft like an insider, you don't want to miss this episode. Listen to the Sports Slice podcast on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. And for more, follow Timbo Slica Life 12 and TikTok podcast network on TikTok. So even though juvenile hell didn't necessarily do the numbers,

I mean, it did get you guys. notice amongst industry people. So check this out. Our arrogant asshole attitude, right? That's why that album came out

and underperformed and it was like not really we didn't put our heart and soul, we didn't put our, we didn't understand that this shit is not a joke.

Like you can't just do whatever and people are supposed to kiss your ass and like it. You got to make timeless, you got to make some shit that's standing tested time. And we didn't understand that. We was very arrogant.

We was very, you know, cocky on some bullshit. And that's why that product came out. And then a couple months later, Nause dropped Illmatic. And that brought us down to reality. You know what I'm saying? Now, have you met Niz before? Oh, yeah.

We all in the block together. We all trying to get on at the same time. You know what I mean? We all. trying to get on. Nas had live at the barbecue. He had the song on the zebra soundtrack, the halftime. So this is all at the same time while we doing Juvenile Hell.

Nas had the Zebra, halftime shit. And, you know what I mean? And then we go off on a little promo run. And we're doing an in-store one day in D.C. We're doing an in-store for Juvenile Hell. And we walk into the in-store, and Il-Matic is playing. We never heard it before. So we're sitting there like this.

We may have, look at each other like, You hear this shit? We're like, oh, shit, yo. Packed this shit up. We was like, yo, pack this shit up, man. We went about this all wrong. You know what I'm saying? And that brought us down to reality, basically.

That gave us, that was a reality check. Yeah, that was a reality check for me. You call your mother? You know what I mean? But, you guessed it. You know, right then. We've seen it before we even got dropped. We already knew, oh, all right, we fucked up.

You know what I'm saying? Because we could hear the difference. We could hear it. It was a big difference between the, you know, the thought that was put into making the music. You know what I'm saying? The thought that was put into writing the lyrics, making the beats, he put some serious thought into that.

And we didn't. We were just fucking around being little dumb-ass kids. Like, you know what I'm saying? Like, feeling ourselves, yeah, we got a rap deal. Yeah, I got a gold tooth. Yeah, like, you know? You know what I'm saying? So how far, like, when did it suddenly become, like, okay, this series business?

So we got dropped. Because a lot of people still feel as though that's your first record. When we got dropped, that's when we heard the Illmatic album and then we got dropped, maybe a couple weeks later or whatever, whatever, we were just, like, in the sunken place. We was like, we got to get the fuck out of here. Yo, we got to, we was like, no, no, this can't happen, you know. So you made a second album and then write the wrong and, yo, our hearts was broken, you know what I'm saying?

Because we was like, yo, this is what we want to do with our life. Right. We're not playing with this shit. We just went about it the wrong way. We had the wrong attitude. You know what I'm saying? So we was like, hold on, hello, hello, hello, hello, no. Like, we was like, we was like, no.

You know what I'm saying? Like, we got to show people who we are. We got to tell our story the right way. We got to put, like I said, put thought in and put meaning, put your soul, put your heart into the music. Like, you know what I mean? Tell your story, man. Like, you know what I'm saying? So we went in and we had that attitude like, yo, listen, this is what we want to do for the rest of our life.

We just got dropped. We feel like the biggest losers ever. We go into the hood. Everybody laughing on us on the lower. Nause just dropped, I'm mad at him. He's just some corny. Nah's looking at us like You know what I'm saying

They laughing at us on the low So we we like went in and regroup And we had the attitude Like you know we're not we're not going to This ain't going to happen again You know what I'm saying 1,000% For sure

This is never going to happen again You know what I'm saying And so did you have the The Well I know that at that point Matt started working at loud Correct Yeah

Right of right of right Around that time, Matt got a job at Loud. Loud, they were just like a cubicle inside the RCA office. Right, okay. They had PMD, I think his first solo album. Yeah, the first one, yeah. They had the alcoholics, and they had just signed Wooten. Wutang.

You know what I'm saying? So we regrouped after that with that mentality. We was like, oh, hell no. That's when we really started going in, making our own beats. That's when I was teaching half, you know what I mean? During that time, the juvenile house, and transitioning over to making this new demo, I was teaching Halv how to do the beats and shit,

and he was getting nice with it. So at first it was like, I would make a bass line or some of some drums or something and then have a come, add some shit to it, you know what I mean? I'd be like, yo, yo, let me add something, let me change something. They'd be like, oh, yeah, all right, let me ask. So that's how it was at first. After a while, I started listening and looking,

Hav started looking possessed, my nigga. Like, you could just see it. he was fucking possessed. You know what I'm saying? And you can hear it. So I'm like, after a while I was like, I don't even want to bother him. You know what I'm saying?

Like, I didn't want to be like, yo, let me add because he was in his groove. Like, you know what I'm saying? Right, like, let me just let him work. You know what I'm saying? And I'll just sit here and write the run. You know what I'm saying? So it got like that.

Plus he was hogging it a little something too. He was definitely hogging the machine. You know what I'm saying? Right. He was like, hold a, hold up. Hold on up. Like, yo, come on me, hey. Hold on, hold on, hold on.

After a while, I'm like, all right, you got that, man. I'm gonna go to store and get a 40. I'll be right back. Come back, the beat is done. Then I just write around to it. But then I also seen that have. I seen havoc become havoc. I've seen it.

You know what I mean? I've seen it in his face. I heard it in the music. I just seen the look in his face. When he was sitting there making the beats, I was like, wow, he's really tapped in right now. Like, you know what I'm saying? So that's how that happened.

And, you know, Maddie brought us over to Steve. You heard our demos. He was like, yo, that motherfuckers, I got some shit in there. I got a new job over here. I'm going to bring you up to the office. Meet Steve Rifkin, blah, boom. Steve, he played music for Steve. Steve was like, yo, I love it.

He's like, I want to sign y'all. You know what I'm saying? But at the same time, we're hanging out with Puff every day. So Puff is telling us about this new company that he wants to start called Bad Boy. And he's like, yo, I want you all to be the first artist. I want to sign y'all, the bad boy, da-da-da-da. Whoa. So we, like, we're hanging with Puff every night.

You know what I'm saying, at the clubs? He, like, he want to sign us. Steve want to sign us. So we're now, now we're telling them, all right, let's get some paperwork. That's why he's in the videos. I was wondering why he was in those videos in the beginning. Oh, yeah. Okay, I get it.

It's all up in the video. Dance. So basically, the deal that Steve offered us basically was more money. And that's the only reason why. We took the steep. But what was the trade-off? Because usually with those things, more money, but less control power and something. Nah, it was, it was, it wasn't, it wasn't, it wasn't, it wasn't, it wasn't, it was actually any trade-off.

I guess, there's a bit more. The trade-off was, they probably got to keep the publisher. Right, that's how I'm asking. They got to keep their publishing. Maybe the trade-off was also, we didn't have to do all the glossy of a shit. Like, you know what I'm saying? That was one good trade-off, like, you know what I mean? But Puff had a vision.

He had a vision for this company, and he wanted us to be the first artist on Bad Boy. But Steve just so happened to offer us maybe like $10,000 more than what his puff was offering. So we just went with the Steve deal. Plus, Steve was talking like, yo, listen, I'll give you y'all this deal, you'll just do what y'all want. It sounds like you already got your game mastered.

Just do what y'all do. You know what I'm saying? So we took this loud deal, and, you know, we started working on the infamination. album you know what I'm saying and uh you know shout to Maddie C you know shout out to Bones Malone you know Cookie Gonzalez and you know Chris Blackwell and everybody that helped us out in the beginning and got us to that point you know what I mean with Steve Richman wanted to sign us how did Q-Tip come back into

the full working working with y'all on the infamous um so after we uh you know it was like 80% probably done maybe 60% done maybe with the album we was like yo let's call tip we want some beats We want some beats from Tip. So we reached out the tip. He came and picked us up, and he brought us his cribble in Linden. And he basically just played us mad records. He was like, tell me when you hear something you like. You know what I mean?

So he would play us mad, Patrice Russian. He would play his all kind of shit that we ain't. So I think it was the Patrice Russian one with the L.L. The L.L. did the song, Pink Cookies in the Plastic Bag. Oh, that's. Esther Williams. Esther Williams. It's all right with me.

Yeah. So he plays us that record. And right away, I recognized it from L.L. song. But in my mind, I was like, yo, let's make a new, let's make a different version. Let's use that beat and make a different version. And use it the right way. You know what I'm saying? So, yeah, we picked a bunch of beats from him and we did some songs.

And basically, we finished the album up. And when the album was done, we brought Q-Tip back in the studio to tweak up the mixes. Like, you know what I'm saying? Like, she was nice with that. Like, you know what I'm saying? Fix the sounds here and there. Do little things here and there. Touch the knobs and shit.

You know what I'm saying? And he basically, like, took what we did and, like, made it sound good. Like, you know what I'm saying? Hooked us up with the good mix engine is. You know what I'm saying? So that was really good that we was able to work with him at that point. You know what I'm saying? You're listening to Questlove Supreme.

We're here with Prodigy of Mob Deep and Kathy Eondalee. Journalist and co-author of Prodigies, book, Commissary Kitchen, my infamous prison cookbook. Okay, I have to say that, you know, the glory of hip-hop and being

alive doing the classic, doing the Renaissance and the classic period and all the periods of hip-hop is, you know, when a song stops you in your tracks. Sick ones is definitely... Yo, I will say,

and the thing is, I don't think anyone is really properly put in context why shook ones is so culturally important all right take for someone's shelter someone sheltered like me

that like just listen to hip hop to really find out what's going out there you know what I'm saying like I'm one of the dudes that the marketing people of Def Jam would have loved

because like when Onyx came out I was like yo this is real hardcore or like when Niggas for Life came out that was like, yo, you were NWA saying this? But I didn't realize that it was so over the top hardcore. It was cartoonish, yeah. It was cartoonish.

And when I heard Shook ones, they did, I feel like if Robert De Niro and Al Pacino were making hip-hop. That's what it would be. Well, because the glory and Robert DeNiro on Al Pacino's work is the fact that they're so dead. Subtalety, yeah. Yeah, it's deadpan. You're more scared of someone that's silent and just deadpan as opposed to, like, someone's cartooning over the top. Then I don't take him serious.

I'm like, oh, your bark's worse than your bite. You're just being a cartoon. But the fact that they were saying the shit they were saying and so deadpan about it. And too, it was the visuals, too. Like the visual, like that video. See, I don't see the video until later. So I heard the song. It was just like, yo, how are they?

For what we saw the video first. I saw the video first. And so for us, it was seeing the video and literally probably about a month after the video came out, I remember kids in my school, come my homies had the Hennessy jerseys. Straight up.

But yeah, it was just something that came through in that video that was like, I mean, being in the South, even though y'all were New York guys, there was just something, I don't know, that was just a level of authenticity. That was new, but that was more New York to me than,

any Wu-Tang product, any, like to me, even, even on New York, New York, where, like, if you listen to the very, the first 20 seconds with Dog Pounds, New York, New York, I mean, they're basically mocking. Right. Yo, what up, done? You know, what up, you know, like, so.

Like, so, for me, that's like lightning in a bottle you can't even capture. Like, I guess the theme of Quest Love Supreme is that whenever like these, these monumental hip-hop moments happen, it's always an afterthought. Like, yeah, we made that shit in like five minutes. What was the process behind shook ones? Or at that, part two. Yeah, because it was part one. First had the magic single with part one on it.

Yeah. Like, why wasn't that push? And I don't know. It just happened the way it happened. I don't even know, man. We made part one. I think we might have made both of them around the same time, and then we put the part one out first, put the second one out.

And, yeah, it just happened like that, man. Were you shocked that at, it's the reception? You know, every time we would make songs, this is how we would test our music, we'd be outside on the block for everybody. You know what I'm saying? Queensbridge is, like I said, $96 billion, it's big.

It's a big project. It's a lot of people outside. We got a lot of friends. Like, you know what I mean? You know, Brooklyn, hanging out in Brooklyn in the Bronx. Same thing, we would hang out with all our friends and we would play our music and we want to see how people react to it.

Like, you know what I'm saying? So, you know what I'm saying? And we got, you know, our peers, people like Nause, spitting crazy, you know what I mean? People like Cormega was spitting crazy. Like, it was a lot of people that was dope. The whole Juice Crew thing, the symphony. Like, that was like shit that was around us.

So it was like, you know, we was trying to spit that level of shit. These are the people that we had to deal with. These are people that are going to laugh with us if we make some bullshit. Right. You know what I mean? If we're talking some bullshit, if we talk of some shit, that's not true. Like, you know what I'm saying? If we, like, we had to deal with people.

Like, you know what I'm saying? And so that's how we would test a lot of our music. We would play it outside on the block, see how people react to it. And we would see how our friends would be like, yo, shit, it's fire. you bring that shit back, you'll bring that shit back. And we would walk around different blocks in the hood

and just like I said, take it to Brooklyn, take it here, take it dead, see how everybody's feeling it and that's how we would know or we got something. You know what I'm saying? If motherfuckers didn't react

and we'd like, we can't fuck with that. But if they reacted, we knew we had something. So we did the same thing. We shook ones. You know, most of the songs was like that.

You know what I mean? We would test it out on the block and see how people would react and then we were like, all right, we got one, put that out. You know what I'm saying? I think another part

the formula that really made that album work is the fact that the musical backdrop wasn't as hardcore like up north trip like I remember my uncle used to always that came from a Spinner's record

Spinner's 8 so he used to always play the Spinner's I'm tired of living on his 8 track right so that's how I always remembered it but now it's like I meant even though the subject matter of that song was more like a

it's kind of like a fuck my friends like I can only trust me sort of thing but like I always had happy memories of being in my uncle Junie's car listening to that song but then like y'all just took it

and just made it into like yeah it was like a disposition of like smooth like soothing sounds and then like the most murderous shit on top of it like lyrically even like we drink away the pain I reckon like drink away the pain

like that's like a happy ass headhunter song but then right Then y'all slow it down and like spit that shit over it. Yeah, man. We caught our drift. We caught a drift. We was on it.

Like, you know what I mean? And once we locked in, that was it. We wasn't, we was like, all right, we got it. We got it. Let's go. And like, you know what I'm saying? We get in the reaction that we want from people now. So what is life like now that the album is taking off?

I mean, y'all got four and a half mics in the stores. I'm one of those people that actually believe that four and a half mics is better than a five. Because when you, I mean, yeah, you, you can have a five, but then it becomes a burden. Like, I feel like for Nas, that five is a burden on him. Because it's like everybody's always going to say, well, in the beginning in 1994, this is when, you know, they kind of, I feel like four and a half is like the highest accolade you can get where you don't get that much jealousy or, or scrutiny from your peers or whatever. I see, I definitely see what you mean. Did you feel some sort of way? Do you feel like, oh, man, we don't.

We should have got a five like I'matic. At that time, we didn't really care. Like, the sauce was, the source was deaf. Don't get me wrong. That was like the Bible, hip-hop Bible. Like, you know what I'm saying? Like, that's how we got our break was from the source, like unsigned hype. But, you know, what we were making, you know, we knew the power of what we was making.

Like, we felt it, we seen it, we heard it, like, we seen how people were reacting to it. So we didn't really, once we got in that zone, it was just go time. We didn't really care, you know what I mean, too much about, or they gave us four mics or whatever, because we still had the attitude a little bit in us. Like, you know, fuck these niggins. They don't know what they talk about. Like, you know what I mean?

But it was a little bit more polished. The attitude was a little bit more polished, but it was still there. You know what I'm saying? It was still there. So we didn't really care too much about anything. Once we got our shit off and running, shook one, survival of the fittest.

It was like, we out of here. Fuck everybody now. Let's just do what we do. stick to what we do stay in the studio stay working just keep dropping these fucking albums

keep dropping his music and it was just like that was it it was over so now that it's more active for you as far as the reception and I'm sure

the touring is ramped up and just the overall activity how are you able to deal with your health issues and still maintain a busy like itinerary

promoting and I was fucking up bad. I didn't even realize what I was doing to myself because I didn't learn about health and diet until like my mid-20s. Like, you know what I'm saying? My little mid to early to mid-20s, like, you know what I mean? So I was like, I didn't even realize what I'm doing. So there wouldn't be times where like right before show you might have an attack or it's like, what do I do? It was plenty of those times because I didn't, I didn't realize that I was making

myself sick. Like, we would get up in the morning and have E&J for breakfast. Like, you know. Oh, shit. Like literally every day. Like, you know what I'm saying? And have shaydads for breakfast. Like, that was our thing. You know what I'm saying? You know what I'm saying? Like, it's crazy as it sound.

That's what we were doing. And why was that? Because a lot of people don't really understand sickle cell like that. So why was that, like, so bad for you? Because I learned later, I didn't know it this time, but I learned later that alcohol, dehydrates, you know what I mean? Your blood, it takes all the oxygen out your blood. It dries up your blood cells.

So when oxygen is missing out of my blood, that's what triggers the sicker cell crisis. You know what I'm saying? You were having a lot back then, didn't even know. I didn't even realize that I'm doing it to myself. I'm thinking because the doctor always told me on my life, you got sicker cells. Nothing you can do about it.

You're not going to live past 40. You know what I'm saying? That's what they told me all my life. You know what I'm saying? There's nothing you can do about it. There's no cure. That's it. You got to deal with this shit.

So do you think a part of the neolist kind of, I don't give a fuck attitude, was just the fact that inside you felt maybe, well, shit, by the time I'm 40, I'm not even going to be here anyway, so let's just... It wasn't so much, I mean, maybe subconsciously that, but I never thought, like, I'm going to die when I'm 40 because that's what they said.

But I used to hear that all the time. So maybe subconsciously, yeah, you know what I mean? But definitely the pain that I was going through made me off a little bit. You know what I'm saying? A little bit. What is the actual pain? Is it a stomach pain?

Well, no, it's like pain in the blood. It starts like, you know, blood cells around. You know what I mean? It look like a lifesaver or whatever. And when my blood is missing oxygen, when there's not enough oxygen in my blood, my blood cells change shape. And it's turning like crescent moon shapes, sickle shapes. And they start interlocking with each other like this.

And it causes like chain reaction. And when they start interlocking with each other, it just builds up. and I guess creates pressure or I don't really... Seems like a headache or... I mean, we're not a... It's like... It's like somebody took a hammer or a sledgehammer and just like, boom! Like, you know what I mean?

Whatever the pain is at, that's what I feel like. It's like crippling. Like, you know what I mean? I can't even walk. I can't move. Sometimes my friends have to carry me to the hospital. Like, it gets crazy. Like, so, you know what I mean?

I've been, I can remember being a little baby laying in the hospital, looking up and my family looking down at me. I don't even, I probably was like three years old. You know what I'm saying? And I remember those memories just laying in the hospital looking up in my family, being sick in the hospital. I ain't understand what was going on. I just know I'm in pain.

I don't know. What the fuck is happening? So it's pain being with me on my life. And it definitely, you know, had an effect on, you know, my mentality and made me angry. I ain't believe in God, you know what I mean? Because I used to pray to God. Why would you suffer? Make the pain go away.

and it's not going away. So I was like, oh, it ain't no goddamn. You know what I'm saying? Here's a, this might be a dumb non-celebrity question, but did you ever, were you ever in the same room with, like, T, boss? Because I feel like y'all would have some of the same issues since y'all both were on tour a lot,

and she seemed like she really went through it a lot. Yeah, we had a conversation. We were going to do a song on my H&C album, but she said her label wouldn't let her do a song. Did you never feel my pain joint? Yeah, she was supposed to get on that with me. I had made that song for me and her. And I went down,

I flew down in Atlanta, and for her to hear it, she came to the studio, and she liked it. She was like, my label's not going to let me do it because they're not going to let me get on a hardcore rap song. I don't know what I mean. But, yeah, the sick of cell was a crazy thing to grow up with, and, you know, it definitely made me angry. You know what I mean? I was an angry, pissed off kid.

And then my father, you know, he didn't help all the shit. He was teaching me. You know what I'm saying? So, you know, by the time I got to high school and they had, I was a little bit of, I was, I was insane. I was an insane kid. Like, you know what I'm saying? I was very fucking insane, man. And, you know, going on tour, I didn't realize I was killing myself.

Like, we would get off the plane, I'm sick. I got to go right to the hospital. You can't even do it. Got to cancel the show. I have got to perform by itself. This is when Infamous, you know what I mean? When Infamous came out, we was, like, touring overseas immediately when shook ones and all that. And, you know, I had got sick in Paris.

I had to go to hospital in Paris. I had to go, you know, different places overseas. And, you know, I just thought it was normal because this is what I did all my life. You know what I mean? Get sick, go to the hospital, get better. After a couple weeks, come out. But when it started affecting the shows

and started affecting the money and people booking us, you know what I mean? Did that affect your relationship with havoc? Nah, not where you'd be like... Nah. Like, would he be on you like, yo, man, like, you know if you do this, da-da-da-da-da-da. That's going to mess up the money or, you know? Yeah, he didn't know.

We just thought, you know, I got sick of sale. I get sick. Okay. We didn't, I didn't realize. You didn't connect. It was because of my diet and all this drinking, all this smoking, all this. We didn't know that. You know what I mean?

So we just think I'm, P gets sick all the time. Okay. I hope he doesn't get sick tonight. I hope he doesn't get sick. You know what I mean? So after a while, the money getting fucked up and promoter skis. to book us. That started making me think different.

Like, all, hold up. This is fucking up. The business. I keep getting sick. What's going on? So, you know, I started doing research, and I started finding out there, like, you know, you could control the sick of cell

just, you know, from having a proper diet. It's all about diet and what you put into your body. And also, also your, like, your spirit and mentality, like, because once you change your mind and your spirit, It kind of has a domino effect. Everything has a domino effect. Once you start making change in your life, little things, whether it's diet or whether it's spirituality.

Once you start making changes, everything else, you start looking at other things. Hold up. All right, well, I eat clean now. I eat vegetables. All right, so what else are I need to clean up in my life? Like, you know what I mean? Oh, I need to stop this.

Or I need to stop hanging out with these people. You know what I get me in trouble. I need to stop thinking like this. I need to start having negative thoughts. So it's like a domino effect. Is it easy to do that? I mean, well, we didn't even get into how you guys went from political profits to Mobb D. But even the first time I met y'all, I don't know if you remember, like, you guys did an in-store, or maybe y'all were just there, I don't know, when, do you want more?

Our second album came out in Philadelphia, at Tower Records. We did an in-store, like, played inside of that store, and you guys were there. And I was kind of shocked. I was like, because, you know, even then for us, I guess people sort of looked at it as like alternative rap. Outside is kind of there. They kind of didn't accept us into the fold until like way later. But I was shocked.

I was like, damn, mom, deep's here? Like, damn, okay, maybe we're doing good. Like, I know that you guys were in town at night to do Power 99 the night before. But I also noticed y'all rolled humongous, like big. Like how do you, if you decide, okay, maybe I need to break away, like, how do you separate yourself from church and state, if you will? I mean, you know, it's very tricky, man. It's very tricky navigating through that whole lifestyle and do that whole, like, you know what I mean, communities that we grew up in. Like, you know what I mean?

It's not easy, man. You know what I'm saying? Like on an average tour, how many people. are rolling with y'all um now or back then? No back then back then if we was in the states maybe like 15 20 maybe it could be more sometimes if sometimes we would drive to like Connecticut or drive to Boston or something and we had like 15 cars with us. Ain't that expensive? So I got to ask. So I got to ask. Not because we're driving like you know what mean so it's nothing really close. So I got to ask because eight of us sleeping in the room like you

You know what I'm saying? So when Drop a Jim Oneom came out, and I first heard that On a Mix tape, I mean, that was like at the, not even at the hype, but at the beginning of what would soon become a very unnecessary, you know,

fable talking about East-West rivalry thing, which you guys were like caught dead in the middle. What was your reaction because I know I mean in hindsight I know that Tupac was just basically like just calling out any and every name I mean even de la Sol and the Fuji's got I was like what do they what they do about right exactly so I know they were just calling out he was just calling out any and everyone but when you first heard when you first heard him up like what was your reaction you're feeling like did y'all ever have a relationship

with Tupac before? Nah, we never met Pock. We've been in the same room a few times, but we didn't have any connection. We didn't know each other. Like, you know what I'm saying? Yeah, so when the hit him up, shit came out,

we was like, oh shit, a word. So immediately, you know, I'm already thinking like, oh, he's standing up for Snoop. Because we just made a song going back at Snoop. And Pock is the brand new, on deaf row. Oh, I forgot about New York. Okay.

You know what I'm saying? I get it. I get it. Pock is the brand new artist on death row. So he feel like, let me show you out what I'm, I'm deaf row now. Watch out, Snoop.

You know what I'm saying? Like, I'll handle these niggas for you. Right. I'm the new artist, let me, it's my job to do this. You know what I'm saying? So that's how Park mentality was, I think. You know what I mean?

He was like, fuck that. He got a show and prove to death row. He's going to hold it down. You know what I'm saying? So he went at us for Snoop. That's what I think. You know what I mean? And also, a lot of people say that on an album on survival,

one of our homies, Havvy's cousin, he says in the chorus, Thug Life, we still living it. Thug Life, we still living it on the chorus. We wasn't dissing Pock. That was just like a slang in the street. Like, the thug, like, you know, Pop probably coined the phrase. Right. But it was a slang.

You were adapting it, yeah, yeah. So this is how we was talking, like, you know what I mean? So I heard that Pock took offense to that, you know what I mean? Because we were saying, Thug Life, you still living it. You know what I mean? Not knowing you just adapting what he pioneered. We wasn't even taking no shots. Right.

So with Jopper Jim on him, it's like, you know, for most East Coast rappers, going to L.A. is like, yo, that's some fun shit. I mean, at least for now, now that the smoke is cleared. You know what I mean? But not back then. Yeah, like how, I mean, just to be caught up in that shit, were you guys, like, very cautious and coming to Los Angeles for fear of, like, some shit might go down, or was it just like? When the L.A. L.A. in New York, New York came out, and then Pock dropped, hit him up. I saw him L.A. was number one on L.A. radio.

You know what I'm saying? For whatever reason. We had a big fan base in Cali. early you know what I'm saying so we had fans out there and the song became number one in L.A. radio and they was requesting for us to fly out there and perform it

so we were flying to L.A. We would bring like all our boys with us you know what I'm saying and we would go perform this song and we had the mentality like you know yeah we war ready we're gonna bring our niggas with us something pop off we're gonna pop off like you know what I'm saying that was our mentality like you know what I'm saying and we was out there

performing that shit. You know what I mean? In the middle of all that. Damn. I'm glad nothing escalated. Yeah, because, you know, it can get bad anyway. L.A.'s bad. New York is bad. Everybody's bad. Like, you know what I mean? So it could have got nasty. You know what I mean? But, you know, it is what it is, man. Like, that's, I'm just saying how it went down. Like, you know what I mean? We were performing out there, the L.A. L.A. record. And it felt weird, but we did it. It felt like, yeah, we was in danger. But we didn't give a fuck because we were in danger back home. too. You know what I mean? When we hang out with the clubs, we're hanging in the hood.

Our friends are getting shot. So what's the difference? Right. That was our attitude. Like, you know what I mean? What's the difference? I'm give a fuck. Let's go perform. Like, I happen to read the source article for your solo project when you were explaining that, you know, the whole Snoop crossed the buildings line or whatever. I mean, I got the perspective you were coming from saying, like, basically, like, we out here on the front lines, you know, we're out here

reping where we came from and that sort of thing. So it's just the whole takeover situation like in hindsight I mean how do you feel like have you guys spoken since or is it just like

is it water under the bridge now or? Yeah, it's basically you know water under the bridge of course we still we still got that little you know competition and I was like you still be looking at it like in You know, Jay don't really fuck with nobody. He don't do songs with nobody, like, barely.

I was surprised when Jay did the joint with Fabulous. I was like, oh, shit, he did the joint with Fab, yo. That's dope, you know what I'm saying? I was happy for Fab when that happened, but, you know, Jay don't do songs with nobody. So it was like... Well, I know that him and Nas sort of, you know, people basically see take over as a Nas JZ situation.

So let me start from the top, right? Right. I was already thinking when I first heard Jay said that line, I was in the club in Queens. And I was all my boys, and I heard the song, Money Cash Hose playing in the club. I was, oh, it's dope. That beat is crazy.

With the piano shit, right? Right. So I heard the line, I was like, because, you know, we listen to, we, like, really be scrutinizing rap. Yeah, you know what? Yeah. You know what I mean?

What he just said? You know what I mean? We'd be over-analizing shit. Like, so when I heard that shit, I was like, huh? I caught that shit right away. I was like, New York and Snoop ever since Snoop came through and crap, I was like, what's these fuckers he talking about?

So, you know, the thought just went past my head. So I ain't think nothing of it really after that. And I was in the office one day at Loud. And Pund was there, Fat Joe was there. And I was just kicking in the office chilling. And I overheard Fat Joe said, yo, you heard that line? He was talking to somebody.

You heard that line? Jay said, New York been surfing. I was like, words, son. I feel the same way, my nigga. I was like, I was like, I was. I was like, yo, that's crazy. You said that, son. I feel the same way.

He's like, word, that's kind of crazy. He said that. So, you know, when we're doing the source, I did the source interview, and I was like, man, Jay Zee a bitch-ass nigga for saying that. Like, how are you going to say that? Like, how are you going to say that? Like, come on, man. Cut it out, man.

Like, we was holding it down. We was out there performing. We were risking our life. Like, it was serious. Like, you know what I'm saying? And now you come years later saying some shit. Like, shut the fuck up. Like, you know what I'm saying?

Just rap, nigger. Why are you talking? I'm talking about that. That has nothing to do with you. Like, you know what I'm saying? Just rap, nigga. So I was pissed. And, you know, I was on my bullshit.

You know what I'm saying? When I was young, I was on my bullshit. I feel. So I said something. I was like, he a bitch-ass nigger for saying that. You know what I mean? And, you know, he, I got the word back from Dame Das. You know, Jay was, you know, Jay said, you know,

he wish you just would have reached out and spoke to him instead of saying it in the magazine. I'm like, man, whatever, man. You know what I'm saying? So then I actually had a conversation with Nause, right? Right before this article, I had a conversation with Nause. And because, me, me, what's his nigga name? Memphis Bleak.

Memphis Bleak was taking shots at Nause. You know what I'm saying? Right. He was... If you fall, I can help you out. He was just saying little slick shit here and there. It's a line on. He was like your life was written.

Who you kidding? Some shit like that, whatever. So, you know, I'll talk. took offense to that. Anybody talking about Nass, I'm taking offense to it. You know what I'm saying? Like, anybody,

you know, Queensbridge is like, that's the crew. That's our crew. Right. So I'll talk to Nause one day. I was like, yo, son,

I was like, you heard, you heard, you hear these niggis? And he was like, yeah, yeah, he's like, I ain't worry about that shit

though. I was like, your son, man, fuck that. Let's go at these niggas, son. He's like, nah,

he like, nah, he's like, nah, fuck the niggas be, You don't go out them niggas, man. Fuck them. Fuck them.

I'm like, yo son, fuck that. Let's go at these niggas, trying to pop shit, son. You hear this shit? They pop a mad shit. He's like, man, fuck that shit, man. That shit ain't about nothing. So I'm like, I'm gonna-

So you're egging and more? I'm gonna just do it by myself then. Fuck it. He was like, all right. So then, right. No, that's when I did the article shit, said the shit about him, blah, blah, blah.

And then he'd do the summer jam shit. You know what I'm saying? He, uh, so how that happened? is Erv Gotti is cool with, you know, with Jay. Right. And Ashati used to go to my grandma's dance school. You know what I'm saying? Aha, okay.

And at the time, we had did a song with Vita called Byrne. You know, we was like, that was my shit. Yeah, we got that with me. We was like, one of my favorite mom, D-J-J. We was going out of it with Jay, like, we was going. at it. Like, you know what I'm saying? Right.

I was going at it with Jay. Like, little shit on mixtapes. I wasn't taking it as serious. I wasn't like being like a rapper, like being like, I got to write some bars. Like, right. I was on some writing like, nigga, when we see you, we're going to beat you all. We're going to, I'm going to shoot you in your foot, nigga. You know what I don't remember that shit?

Like, you know what I'm saying? Like, that was my mentality. I'm not even thinking like, I got to write immaculate balls. I got to make a ill. I don't rap. Like, I'm not even thinking like that at all. I'm just thinking like... Niggily, we're going to fuck you up.

Yeah, that's all that's on my mind. Like, yo, nigga, I'm just writing like, nigga, I'm angry writing like, you know, we're going to fuck. You don't we see this nigga? So, fucking, you know what I'm saying? So, um, we did a song with Vita called Byrne. Right. And Vita signed, you know, to Ergardi.

So it's time to shoot the video for Byrne. And, you know, Byrne is getting a lot of play. Flex is playing the shit out of this record. It becomes a hit. And we tie to shoot the video. We holl out and we get a word from Vita that she can't do the video. So I called her because I was like, me and Vita was kicking it.

You know what I'm saying? So I had a number. I'm called her. I'm like, yo, what's going on? She's like, yo, P. Let me tell you. She was like, Irv told me I can't do the video because Jay, you know, was like, yo, don't let her do that.

I was like, what? He was like, yeah, they hating on you over there right now. And I'm just that and the third. She was like, I'm sorry, I can't do the video. I'm like, word, they really did that? She was like, yeah. She was like, they over there, like, you know what I'm saying? Jay, like, don't let her do it.

So I'm like, all right, it's cool. I understand. You know what I'm saying? Whatever. So Vita never got in a video with us because of that. Right. So then the whole summer jam shit happened. And he puts this picture up, me dressed like Michael Jackson.

You know, I thought I was Michael Jackson when I was looking. little kid. Who didn't? Right, I was like, we all did. We all thought we did. So right away, I knew where it came from right away. You know, put two and two together. Immediately.

I was like, oh, wow, he did some real ill of a shit. Like, he went and got a picture. He lied on the picture said it was Prodigy 1989 or some shit. Like, you know what I mean? He lied about the year. So whatever. I thought it was funny. You know what I'm saying?

Like, my nigger was in the audience in Summer Jam. My man, L.O.G. He called me like, yo, P. You know, I told you that picture was going to come back to haunt you. Gee had seen the picture years ago and shit when he was, like, working on music. He was looking through the books. He was like, oh, shit, look at this shit.

So whatever, he's like, yo, I told you that picture would come back to haunt you. I was like, what you're talking about? He said, yo, son, Jay just put your picture up in summer jam. I'm like, what? So now we're dying laughing on the phone, right? So now I'm like, wow, that's crazy. So I'm like, all right, that's what stuff.

He got jokes. He got jokes. All right, cool. It's funny. You know what I'm saying? And that was that. And then he made, you know, he was going at Nause and me.

He was like, ass Nause. You don't want any with a whole. So basically he's talking to me. You know what I'm saying? Like, as Nause. You don't want it with a hell. This is that. I got money stacks bigger than you and all this shit.

He talked about me the whole song. You know what I'm saying? Right. He took a little jab at Nause, but he's talking about me to a whole song. So now I'm like, I, this is it. Fuck that.

It's war. It's on. Right. You know what I'm saying? Fuck this shit. Fuck this nigga. Fuck everybody they down with. So, you know, I was on my shit.

And, um, Nause dropped Eater. You know what I'm saying? And it just, I was like, whoa, he took it serious. He took the beef and, you know what I'm saying? To the next level. Yeah, I was like, oh, I wouldn't have wrote no shit like that. I was too angry. I was just mad.

I wanted to catch this nigga and do something to him. Like, you know what I'm saying? Did you ever talk to Nas after he did either about that? Because, like, he changed his mind. And then he changed his mind to a major extent. So what was he thinking? Was it that he got mad for the attack on you or the mad for the attack on him? I think Nas did either.

Well, you also had to defend his title. Yeah, yeah. I think Nas did either and the song called Build and Destroy. Number one, because Jay mentioned his name. So he's like, all right, now fuck that. And plus me and Nause was already talking about. I was like, yo, let's go at these niggies. Like, you know what I'm saying?

But now I guess he heard that. song and that drew the line. He was like, man, fuck that. So he made a song called Build and Destroy also at that same time. He shited on me. Talking about, yo, pod did you get robbed and all this? He was talking about... Nives were saying to some things that he doesn't have no idea what really happened. He thinks

he knows, but he really doesn't know. So he was something I got robbed, just standing third and da-da-da-da. And at the end of the song, he apologized to me. At the end of the song? Yo, P, I love you, man. Just get away from them fake-ass niggas. That's what he's saying on the song. Like, you know what I'm saying? After he just shit it on me, the whole fucking person.

You know what I'm like, yo, where did this come from? Oh, he didn't hit you like, yo, I got this joint, Bill and Destroyer. I was just in the studio with him. I was mad that they was rapping about Nas. I'm like, yo, yo, fuck that, let's go at these niggas. They're rapping about you, son. You know what I'm saying? And now he had a song dissing me.

I'm like, where did this come from? I don't have no beef with Nas? I hate to ask this. What album is that on? No, it was on, was it Stillmatic? I think, I think Bill & Stroh was on Stillmatic. Really? I think.

I got to re-listen. So then I had to read it up. I found out that Nause was mad at me because I did a song with CoreMega, right? And I didn't, when I did the song with Mega. Which is one of my favorite fucking Mobb Deep songs. On murder music, right? Did you know? No, no, no, no, no.

It was one of Mega songs. Oh, okay. When I did the song with CoreMega, he didn't have a verse on it. It was just a beat. I went, wrote my verse to it. I left. When he puts the song out, he writes his whole verse, dis and Nas. Oh.

So I didn't know that, yeah. Kind of a 4, 3, 2, 1, 6. You know what I didn't know that. So then I found out later, that's why Niz, I guess he thought my verse was about him, because he heard, that's far from the truth. You know what I'm saying? I didn't, I never, had no problem with Nye's.

So did Nyes eventually find out that, I guess, from- Making changes verse without you even knowing? I guess a years later after me being vocal about it and talking about it. Y'all are bad communicators. That's why I wrote, that's why I wrote the book, because the story is so much complex pieces to everything.

I want people to understand, how everything transpired and how it went down. Without communicating. That was one of the main reasons I wrote that book. And plus, I looked at it like, this is my youth.

I'm a grown man now. That book is my youth. That's my youth. That's me growing up. Right. I'm a grown man now. I'm not like that no more. You know what I was very hard-headed

and ignorant and all my bullshit. And I grew up. So I was like, you know what? I'm going to write a book. And I'm just like, you know, I'm going to explain how. I grew up and I'm explaining certain situations for people so they can understand why this happened.

How did that happen? How did you, you know what I'm saying? It was so many questions. I'm sure the fans want to know why is y'all beefing. Why did this? How did this start with? That was the main reason I wrote this book because I want people to have a clear picture of how actually went down.

Do y'all pick up phones now? Oh, yeah. I see Nise everyone again. I was just seen them recently at New York Fashion Week. We kicked it like, you know what I'm saying? And we were talking about doing some new music together. So we're cool. I don't got no problem with Nas.

We never really had a problem. I was going to say, how come, like, a Queensbridge, like, just Summit meeting album never went down? Like, in my head, it's too many. It's too many. It's too many. Yeah, it's too many egos.

There's too many people. Just thinking, like, Mobb Deep, Nas, like, Nari. Like, I. Like, I would. Yeah, like, eight. Some of the most incredible ass. Emcees. Yo, one day, I was on the phone with Farrell.

And Farrell was like, our first conversation never. No, actually, our second conversation. He was on the phone. And he was like, yo, I got to ask you something. He was like, what's wrong with y'all? Queensbridge, niggas, so? Why don't I try to fucking stick together and just do music? My nigga, what's wrong with you, y'nigas, though?

Like, I'm like, yo, son, it is what it is. My nigga is just hood shit. Like, that's what happens, man. everybody don't get along. I mean, I'm sure everybody wants to be lovey-dovey and picture perfect, but it's not like that, you know what I'm saying? What's the deal now with, I'm thinking about other Queensburg Cats, like mega, nature, Littles, bars and hooks, like what's the stats draw them now?

They're all doing their thing, you know what I'm doing their thing, and, you know, we doing our thing, and that's, it just is what it is. Everybody is doing their own separate thing, like, you know what I'm saying? Yeah. I mean, especially for me, I look at it, I went through a lot of shit, you know what I mean, just like being out there because I'm, like an outside out there, you know what I'm saying? So a lot of people treated me like that.

They were like, he ain't from the hood. I always had to deal with that attitude a little bit. A lot of people might have been scared to say it or they didn't want to say it, but I could just feel it, you know what I mean? And a lot of people did say it. So it kind of turned me off a little bit and made me really want to just do my own thing. Like, I never said I was from Queensbridge. Always said I'm from Hempstead.

Like, you know what I'm saying? And these, a lot of different people from Queensbridge would like to, would like to have you think that I'm a fake queen like I say I'm from Queensbridge like P ain't rarely from the hood like I never said I was

you just want people to think that like you know what I'm saying stop putting that in people's minds like you know what I'm saying so I had to deal with that attitude all the time with a lot of rappers a lot of regular people in the hood or whatever whatever so it kind of turned me off

and made me just like you know what I kind of see I'll just do my own shit because I got to show it made me like I have to show you now that I don't care about none of this. I'm my own person.

I'm my own entity. Y'all don't control anything I do. Y'all don't scare me. I don't give a fuck if some Brooklyn, the Bronx, Queensbridge, Jamaica, Queens, L.A. I don't give a fuck where you from. This is my life.

Everybody lived their life, and I don't live my life in fear. You know what I'm saying? So it made me back up over everybody. It made me back up over everybody and just want to do my own thing. Man, that's what I started doing, you know, my own shit, man,

Because I started dealing with a lot of that, a lot of that, you know, just, just weird shit. People are like, he's not from out here. You know what I'm saying? Don't you think it's ironic that, like, amongst that, all those emcees who look at you like that in that way. It's like, now they're raising children and they're bringing them up in a way that you were brought up in your childhood, like culturally and all this stuff. And I even thought that now with looking at the video, are you doing ballet? I'm like, now that we have the context of where that come from, it adds to the dopeness of who you are. Right.

And now I look at even a blue ivy, and I'm like, that's her. That's her. She's growing up in that environment. So do you see that now as clearly? I just think that, you know, it's not everybody. Everybody's not a bad person. Like, everybody didn't have that attitude. It was only certain particular people.

And, yeah, I mean, it just is what it is, man. I'm me, man, you know what I'm saying? And I'm the type of person. I was trying to get everybody together. And, you know, I'm that type of person. I'm like, yo, come on, you're going to rap. We made no. and twin and everybody rap.

Like, you know what I'm saying? We was like, now, you're going to rap, nigger. And, No, I don't want to sell drugs. I don't want to rap. You know what I'm saying? Like, no, come to the studio with us. Come on, you're going to rap, son. You know what I'm saying?

I used to help Nooy write this shit, you know what I'm saying? And we used to all help each other. You know what I'm saying? And then it was just like, you know what I'm saying? I'm that type of person to try to, you know, keep the team strong and keep everybody together. I shot a movie for Queensbridge. You know what I mean?

Called Murder Music. I put everybody's in the movie. Nah, everybody's in that motherfucker. Like, you know what I'm saying? That's the type of person I am. You know what I'm saying? Like, I'll try to do shit the right way, get it together.

And then you got niggas that's haters. They don't want to see that. P ain't even from out here. Why is Pee doing that? I should be doing that. They shouldn't matter. You know what I'm saying? All right, so you listen to the Questlove Supreme.

We're into our last hour, Prodigy of Mob Deep, and Kathy Yondali, journalist and co-author of Prodigy's latest book, Commissary Kitchen, my infamous prison cookbook. And we'll be right. back after a quick message from our sponsor. A win is a win.

A win is a win. I don't care what I'm saying. Yep, that's me, Clifford Taylor the 4th. You might have seen the skits, the reactions, my journey from basketball to college football, or my career in sports media. Well, somewhere along the way, this platform became bigger than I ever imagined. And now I'm bringing all of that excitement to my brand new podcast, The Clifford Show. This is a place for raw, unfiltered conversations with some of your favorite athletes, creators and voices that not only deserve to be heard, but celebrated.

One week I'll take you behind the scenes of the biggest moments in sports and entertainment, and the next we'll talk about life, mental health, purpose, and even music. The Clivert Show isn't just a podcast, it's a space for honest conversations, stories that don't always get told, and for people who are chasing something bigger. So if you've ever supported me, or you're just chasing down a dream, this is right where you need to be. Listen to the Cliverts Show on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcast, or we're wherever you get your podcast.

And for more behind the scenes, follow at Clifford and at TikTok Podcast Network on TikTok. There's two golden rules that any man should live by. Rule one, never mess with a country girl. You play stupid games,

you get stupid prizes. And rule two, never mess with her friends either. We always say that trust your girlfriends. I'm Anna Sinfield. And in this new season of the girlfriends,

oh my God, this is the same man. A group of women discover they've all dated the same prolific con artist. I felt like I got hit by a truck. I thought, how could this happen to me? The cops didn't seem to care. So they take matters into their own hands. I said, oh, hell no. I vowed.

I will be his last target. He's going to get what he deserves. Listen to the girlfriends. Trust me, babe. On the Iheart radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. This week on the Sports Slice, podcast, it's all about the NFL draft, and we've got a special guest. The director of the NFL's East West Shrine Bowl, Eric Galco, joins the Sports

Slice podcast to break down what really matters when evaluating draft prospects. From hidden traits teams look for to the biggest mistakes franchises make to the players flying under the radar, this is the insight you won't hear anywhere else. If you want to understand the draft like an insider, you don't want to miss this episode. Listen to the Sports Slice podcast on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. And for more, follow Timbo Slice of Life 12

and TikTok podcast network on TikTok. So I feel like your journey is probably you of anyone has had a kind of a parallel journey to that of like Malcolm X where like you had your Detroit Red experience. Literally. Detroit Red.

Right. Oh, damn. That's right. It didn't even hit me. Yeah. Yeah, like you, you, you, you, you had your, your Malcolm Little Detroit Red experience. And then in 2008, when you had to do your bid, you know, you said that that really changed you. Yeah, that's just saved my life.

Explain that. Because what I want to know, and I'm trying to ask in a way, because I know a lot of people have a tendency, especially in the press, they have a tendency to, like, fetish size. Jail. Yeah, like, or just like people that had that experience. So tell me what it was like or whatever. But I'm personally curious, like, to be a celebrity going into that environment, like, what is it, what is your first day like when you're going there? All right, let me just back up a little bit and say, because I always think of,

I always think about people comments when they, you know what I mean, hear the podcast or, like, what they say. And a lot of people like to say, like, Why is he talking about all this? It's over. It's in the past. Like, why you keep your saying, like, because this is the questions I'm being asked.

So I have to answer these questions. You can preface it, all right. You know what I'm saying? No, I just want to make that clear real quick for the listeners to shut all that comment shit down. Like, I'm being asked questions. That's why I'm talking about this. Like, you know what I'm saying?

And, you know, I wrote a book about my life and my youth. I wrote a book about my youth. In my book, it talks about all these things. And, you know what I mean? That's my past. I'm a grown man now. You know what I'm saying? So I put my youth out there for the people

so they could see all the fucked up shit. Now I grew up in all the fucked up shit that I did and been through and you know what I mean? All the good shit and what got me to this point. So that's why I did this book. That's why I do these interviews and talk about past things a lot because these are questions that people ask and they want to know the answers to.

So when I got locked up, it was the best thing that happened to me happened to me because at this time I was dealing with a lot of hatred coming from people, certain people from Queensbridge. You know what I mean? Certain people from, you know, wherever, wherever, but mostly from Queensbridge. A couple of individuals that have a few problems with that they just didn't like me. Wait, can I ask a quick question?

So after the infamous, are you still living in the Queensbridge area or did you like, we move out of? We probably moved like around right after Infamous. came out. You know, I mean, I was living with having Queensbid for like two years when we was working on the infamous, you know what I'm saying? Right. We would stay at his crib or we would take the equipment back to Long Island, Hempstead, changed the scenery for a little while, then we'd go back to

Queensbridge, like, you know what I'm saying? So after the infamous job and we was doing tours and shit, we kind of like, but we would still go back all the time because our people's was on the block. You know what I mean? And we grew up with the the mentality you don't shit on your people. Okay. You always take care of your people. Like, you know what I mean?

You don't run the wall. from problems. You don't run away from anything. You deal with it. You face it. You know what I mean? And you deal with the shit. That's how we grew up.

So that's why I was still there in these communities dealing with my peoples that I grew up with, my peers, because I'm not the type of person that's going to run away from shit that got to deal with. Like, you know what I'm saying?

Right. We were just learning how to navigate being celebrity and all that shit. So it's never awkward going back there, even though you're obviously established as a celebrity rapper. Nah, because that was just like home base. That was like the block.

You know what I'm saying? We go to the block, have fun, like drink all night. I just fall asleep on the bench. Wake up in the morning, little kids going to school. You know what I'm saying? Like, I'm bent waking up. Like, oh, shit. Like, you know what I mean?

So it's just like that was the block. That's why our friends is that we made something monumental from this block. We created infamous Marl Deep. We created all this shit. So this is our shit. This is our people. Like, this is our home team.

So that's how mentality was. But, you know, after a while, you know, we deal with a lot of jealousy. People would be like, you know, Pete coming around in with a jury on. You name from my head. Right. A little nigger rapping about my life. Why are you rapping about my life? Like, that's what they like to say.

Like, you know what I'm saying? You're rapping by my life. Everybody likes to say that. That's so crazy. But anyway, I was dealing with people that didn't grow up with me. have it grew up with all these people you know all I've been annoyed twin they grew up with all these niggins I didn't grow up

with these people you know what I'm saying so they don't know me I don't really know them we're figuring out each other I'm seeing who scared who not who's putting pressure on people who doing this I'm like oh word that's how these niggas get down I'm like word that's how this is out here in the world like you know what I'm saying I'm learning

I'm kids still like I'm learning as I go and you know we got to the point where we was just dealing with a lot of jealousy and we had to click up, we had to strap up, like, you know what I mean? It's on, like, we had to strap up. Like, we got beef with niggas that shoot people. You know what I'm saying? Like, these niggas shoot people.

Like, and that's it. So they cut people, shoot people. Like, that's what we was dealing with. So I'm protecting myself. You know what I mean? I would carry a hammer. I'm not out doing the harm to nobody. You know what I mean?

At this point in my life, I'm just protecting myself. So, you know, it just, It just got bad, man. It got to the point where, you know, I started just losing it, man. Like, you know what I'm saying? So much negative thoughts, so much all the time, just ready to shoot somebody. Every time I get out my car and walk into my crib or whatever, I'm like, alright, is somebody going to try to run up on my car or, like, be in the bushes or, I'm on point, like, you know what

I'm saying? Like, certain shit that we used to do the people back in the days, we was bad kids, like, we He was bad growing up in high school. You feel like karma would come back. Yeah, we was foul niggas. We was doing foul shit to people. We were robbing people doing foul, you know, young shit. Right.

So I got the mentality already, like, that's how niggas get down. And I'm not going to let that happen to me. So I'm like, you know, carrying guns. I'm dealing with this mentality all the time. And that shit rots. Your fucking brain and your spirit. That shit rots. You keep thinking like that and keep living like that.

and moving like that, it just takes away from your spirit, man. It just makes you a foul person after a while. Like, you know what I mean? Because you dealing with all this negativity and people saying they're going to do this to me when they see me and making threats. And then I got to stand up for myself. Like, you ain't doing nothing when you see me.

Like, you know what I'm saying? And that's just what it was. So unfortunately, this is the crazy life that I was growing up living and the shit that I had to deal with. And it got to the point. where, you know, I was just out of control, man, smoke a mad weed, just drinking heavily. Like, I already learned that shit fucks up my sicker cell when I do that. But I was so angry and just wanting to hurt somebody.

Just always, like, trigger finger, itchy, like, ready to show a nigga, like, don't play with me. Like, I'm just trying, I'm going about my business, doing my music, I'm making my money, don't come over here playing with my life. You know what I'm saying? Because you're going to find out. What happens? So this is my mentality every day. And that's just started to, like I said, it started to rot away in my spirit, my brain,

and everything was just like, ugh, it felt disgusting. And I didn't realize how disgusting it was until I got caught with the gun in my car and got locked up and I just started thinking about everything. Like, damn, just living that life and just not thinking and being young minded. It was just bad. It wasn't good, man. It was, I was going to eventually get killed or so. or I was going to kill somebody or hurt out and I would have went to jail.

One of the other was definitely going to happen. That was definitely for sure 1,000% going to happen. If I didn't go to jail, you know what I'm saying? It was like serious. And it's sad to say, it's like that. You know what I mean? I know a lot of people will listen to this interview. Like I said on the album, like, you know what I, Pete think he tough.

Pete talking tough. Nah, you're real. I don't think it's tough. No, but I like to address the people that think that so they can hear me say that. So save your little P's think he tough comment Because I'm already ahead of you, dog I know that's what you're thinking I doubt our nerd-ass listeners will be

We have a bunch of nerds Some people, they hear that and they be like Oh, this guy thinks he's talking tough He's trying to make his, he's trying to portray his life There's something that's not, I'm just being honest With you, this is what it was I'm really thanking for this Because the thing is that hip hop really doesn't allow

For its figures to come in a kind of a three-dimensional flesh and blood tone. Like this is the first time I'm really hearing your story. Like I've known of you for 20 plus years as an artist and I've read lots of articles but

you know, I've never ever known about your life or your experiences. Like this is the first time I'm really, really, really hearing you as a human being. Even speak in complete sentences. So no, no, no. I'm And I think the contrary, I think, if anything, you know, it's more you really showing a human side to your life journey and your experiences, you know. I was going down a bad road, man, because it was just like shit was escalating. The drama was escalating.

The threats. People were making threats to us. Right. It was escalating. Like, it was getting really crazy. Especially we had the G-U-Nit deal and the money got even big. bigger. A lot of people was like, oh, these niggas is stupid. Why they sign the 50? Now they're looking at us like we're stupid. They don't even understand that we got a relationship with 50.

Like, you know what I'm saying? 50 from Southside. It's like my family. Like, you know what I'm saying? Like, we got friends in common. You know what I mean? Like, me and 50 got friends in common. Like, you know what I'm saying? And it was just meant to be. You know what I'm saying? He got in a position where he was able to reach back into some of his favorite artists or whatever. And he was like, Mar Dee. Come on. You come on. You coming with me. You know what I'm saying? Come on. We was like, hold up.

You know what I'm saying? Like, we're going to get out of this. You know what I mean? He was like, you're going to get this. You're going to get this? We was like, where do we sign up? You know what I'm saying? Like, we was like, where do we sign up?

It's a Queens thing. I was one of the people, it's funny. I was one of people like years ago that I wrote a review. It wasn't even a review. I was just on our little website. And I was talking about the album. I know. I know.

I know. I know. I know exactly. You know what you said. Which one? It was, okay, I was on the lawn. It was like just the just thing. Right.

But then the lawn? The lawn? The lawn. But then it went to okay player. Okay. And so, and then, you were up for the lawn? No, I was just, dude, I'm on my message, but we're just talking whatever. I'm like, man, ain't nobody going to read this shit. It's like 30 people here, whatever.

Then the shit goes okay player. Then, like, two, three days later is XXL. Fonte, this is mob. They was like, what the fuck? Are you serious? So then, like, a couple years later, it was, I guess it was right. right before you went in. And, like, he wrote a blog.

He was like, you know what I'm saying? He was, like, dissing me back. I was like, okay, well, that's fucking. I never knew you on that. Yeah, he didn't know what's going on. So, so, that's like four guests in a row. I was like so much. So, I mean, it's a long.

Dude, it was, he goes to. Don't get in the elevator with it. So, so, and being you, this is our first time, like, really talking, talking. Like, we've met. Like once, I met you once at Al's crib like years ago. But, yeah, but we was, this is the first time we really talked. And so afterwards, the joint came out and then you did the blog and then you went on your bid. So then Al was on tour with us for a minute.

We was touring, it was L.B. Little brother and Evidence was with us and he bought Al with him. And so being Al on the bus, like, we just chopping it up about everything. We just talking whatever. And he was, he asked me, like, yo, the album, like, yo, why are you going to? I was like, dog, it wasn't that, I said, first of all, I did, you know, they'll listen back to it like at that point. I said it was better, much like phonology.

I think it aged better than it was, than it did. If I could critique the album myself, you know what I'm saying? When I read what you had said, it made me think. That shit hit me. I was like, he said, we got rich and stopped trying. Damn, Fonte. You know, so wait, when I suggested, yesterday, when I suggested, oh, you're going to be on the show, your first start was,

I was like, I was like, I was like, okay. But I knew it wasn't going to be nothing. He usually prep as if it's real beef. Yeah, I didn't know. No, come on. But the thing was, I was just like, no. It's not like my beef for cutie. Right, it ain't like that.

That could have been real. But when you said, look, when you said that, it made me think, like, and being, being locked up. That shit just made me think about everything. It made me think about life and decisions that we would make in. Just everything. Because, you know, I'm sitting there without nothing else to do. But think. So I'm not just thinking about my own life and decisions we made, business decisions.

And then I read that and I would listen to the album and hear other people talk about it. It was mad we signed a G unit. But you were coming from a different perspective. There was other people that was like just mad we signed a G union. They're like, y'all mom, I was on 8th Street one day. And this old black lady, she had that. to be like 70 years old. She's seen me.

She was like, prodigy? No. I was like, yeah. She was like, yo, why the fuck y'all sign a G-unner? I said, oh, shit.

That shit shocked the hell out of me. I was like, yo, she was like, y'all mob deep. Y'all supposed to be just mobbed deep. You don't sign to nobody else. I'm like, yo, it's just a business move. Like, 50-year homie, like it's a queen's thing. She was like, nah, nah.

She was upset about that shit. I was shocked. I thought it made sense. I thought it made sense. For me, because I thought he was from Queens, they from Queens, he's looking out. I got that. I guess just for me at that time as a family grand, this is 10 years ago. You know, I mean, we all have grown and whatever since then.

But my thing was because I was coming off the free agents joint. And that was my shit. I was like, yo. Actually, we was coming off America's Nightmare. Yeah, was it. Yeah, it was right. It was a job. That's right.

It was. Because we went from jobs to Jew and it. The science joint. Yeah. You got a twisted joint. And so with that, I was just like, I mean, the stuff that you're, I was doing with Alchemists, particularly, like, you and Alchemists, just the chemistry, y'all have, and still have, like, with Return of the Mac and shit. I was like, yo, they just do that.

I'm like, man, so them, so for me, just coming from that perspective, why I said the Got Rich Stop Trying, I was just like, man, like, to me, it just felt like, like, I understood on paper and, like, business-wise, why I worked. Right. But just to me, just as a true hardcore fan, I was just like, man, I think they could have just did them. When I thought about it, I was like, you was right. Wow. Because I'm sitting there listening to, you know, I examined that album that G-United album, we did so much. And what I got out of it is when I was in jail, when I was just like listening to it and listening to it and trying to figure out why people were saying things that they were saying. And I was like, I was like, okay.

The first thing that I noticed that it was too much G-Unit on the album. They was on almost every song. I didn't realize that while we're making it. We were just having fun. Like, oh, yeah, come on. Do this. Oh, come on, Buck. Get on this song.

You know what I'm saying? You know what I'm saying? We're not even thinking like, we're just like having fun moving. So but, you know, being in jail sitting there with nothing to do, I'm just like listening, analyzing the album, I'm like, oh, okay, it's too, they own too many songs.

Not only that, but it was too many, like, beats from, like, outsiders that wasn't really like more deep-sounding beats, and I mean? But we didn't realize that while we sitting there making it. We was, like, so caught up on the, G5 going on toe

with M, we were just living a high life like, you know what I'm saying? Like, we was already used to, you know,

having fun living that life on the road but now it was just like living that life on steroids. Like, you know what I'm saying with the inner school money now and the big budget

and the private jets and the arenas every night. Like, you know what I mean? So, we was just lost, man. Like, we was lost at that point.

Like, you know what I mean? And I was officially lost because I'm already, I already got to the attitude, like, I've got to defend myself. Like, it's mad threats going on.

So the threats is even higher now because they know we got bread. They know we, you know, 50. I bought a bulletproof truck. I'm like, these niggas, you know what I'm saying? I'm like 50 moving right. I'm about to do the same thing because we're getting threats like that.

And we kind of got beef with like the same niggas almost. Like, you know what I mean? So it was like, you know, I just wasn't living right. So not living right. Plus access to all of that, you know, money and high life, it was just like a recipe for disaster. You know what I'm saying? I was gone.

I was gone, dog. You know what I mean? Like, I was gone. So I had to get locked up. That first week or the first day, like, is the goal just to be under the radar and do your time or, like, for people that are notable and doing time? Is there a thing where the judge is like,

okay, I know, I know in Tupac's case, they gladly threw him in Jim Pop. Like, all right, you go to Jim Pop. No protection. You know what I'm saying? So is it a thing where, like, what is your goal or what is your thought mentality that first week there?

Especially with your condition, which leads to the book, which... When I got locked up, when I realized I had to go to jail and served, you know, three and a half years, and I got locked up, I was like, all right. let me deal with this. I got to do this time. You know what I'm saying?

And I went in there with the attitude, like, you know, I don't want to make friends. Like you said, fly under the radar, do my time, get the fuck out of there, get my shit. I went in there with the mentality to get my shit together because I already knew what my problem was. I already knew what the downfall was as far as, like, streets that I was going through

and my health and just my spirituality. My spirit wasn't right. You know what I mean? So I went in there with the plans to get my spirit together, get my body together, get my health in order, and try to come out a better person. So I'm really going in and went to school. I went to school to learn myself. How much time did you have to prepare from the time that you're sentenced to the time that you're going in? Because I know that you have a family take care of and that sort of thing.

It was about maybe a few months, like three, four months maybe. Okay. You know what I mean? And, yeah, I went in there with the attitude like I'm going in here to get my shit together. I'm going in here to get my shit together. I'm going to learn. I'm going to discipline myself as far as diet, as far as, you know, just spirituality, my thoughts. You know what I mean? I started reading a lot of books on, you know, your thought patterns. And, you know, if you have negative thoughts, it change it immediately into something positive. And when you practice that, it becomes normal. You know what I'm sorry? You know what I'm saying? When you practice, getting rid of negative thoughts as soon as you think it, it becomes normal. And just, you know, everything, man, just getting better with myself and just trying to become

a better person. And like I said, I was listening to the albums and seeing what we did wrong, what we were doing right. I was just analyzing everything. Like, and it took me some time to adjust because I was writing blogs and, you know what I mean, still popping shit and talking crazy shit. But then after a while I started being like, oh, okay, I'm going about this all wrong. You know what I'm saying?

I got to be more, you know, I got to be more humble, humbling. Like, you know what I'm saying? Humbled myself and calm down. You know what I'm saying? I was sitting in the day room one of my young homies in there. His name was Fresh. And we were watching BET and somebody video came on. I was, man, that shit is garbage.

You like this shit? He was like, yo, P, why do you say everything is garbage when you hear? Like, give people a chance, son? He's like, why you don't give nobody a chance? Like, when he said, he said he was dead serious. and said it just like that. Now, he made me look at myself. I never thought about that.

I was like, I was like, damn, you right. Like, I never like, I was like, you right. He was like, yo, the dude just trying to get his money, my nigga. Like, everybody, you know, not the same. Everybody got different tastes. Just let that man get his money. Like, stop shitting on everybody. Like, you know what I'm saying?

And it made me, that shit made me, that shit changed me. I was like, oh, I was like, I never thought of it like that. Somebody, nobody ever said that to me before. You know what I'm saying? they were just letting me be me No one challenged you Right they never said yo what's wrong with you shit like why you shut the fuck up like you know what I'm saying Let that man get his money like you know what I'm saying

And I made me look at myself I felt stupid when he said that You know what I mean I was like damn I had the whole wrong attitude this whole time You know what I'm saying Now how does someone How does someone survive in that system With dietary restrictions

Like is it possible to be a vegan in jail or a vegetarian? And does the private prison complex even allow for those types of foods for you to even have access to that? Or do they care? Every prison is different. Every prison allow different things in. Every prison won't allow certain things in. So every prison is different.

One will let, you know, a whole chicken in. They won't let you let it in. You know what I mean? It's just so specific. It depends on what you have. Yeah, like the packaging, the way it's packaged, the way it's sealed, the color on the packaging, like, every gel is different. It's real specific.

You know what I mean? For each individual jail. Some jails you can have CDs. Other jails, you can't have CDs. You only have cassettes. Some jails, you know what I mean? Cassettes? Yeah, they still got cassettes.

Yeah. They still got cassettes in certain jails. You can only have cassettes because they... What facility... You can break a CD. I was in misstate. Okay. I was in misstate.

How far is that from... It's like four hours from here. Okay. Jobing up. You know what I mean? And yeah, so every prison is different, the food that they serve. You know what I'm saying? And what they allow in the package from your family.

It's all different. So, you know, they have a special diet in prison for, like, kosher. kosher diet or halal diet, you know what I mean? You got to prove that, you know, that's your religion and you got to have a special diet. Sugar, sugar, too? Because one of my prisoner friends asked me were you going to do a book for the folks,

I mean, for the non-sugar? Yeah, I mean, I don't really know too much about that. Side note, for the very few people in this room that know my day manager, Zara, she loves the shit out of this boy. Oh, right? Because her diet is that fucked up. Oh, wow.

She's like, she's like, ramen noodles. I like this. Like, she saw it as like college survival food. I'm like, not quite. Oh, somebody ain't not forced to eat the shit. Okay. Oh, it's like hipster. That's cute.

No, I mean, she's the type of person that actually, yes. She looked at it and was like, I'll take this. Oh, this is so cute. Exactly. It's from prison, though. But, yeah. So, and bringing Kathy into this, how are you? Hey.

I'm glad you here. I forgot she was here. Thanks, Bill. So what is the research process in trying these recipes out that you made in the book in, and I guess the trial and error of it all? Like how do you even, I guess, with very little instruments or tools, you know, it becomes, you know, creative, creativity is your best instrument. So how do you test these things out to see what works and what doesn't work?

Well, there's two, like, completely different parts of the cookbook. There's the stuff that P.O. is cooked. And then there's the stuff that most people in prison cook. So, you know. So were you loud special? No, he just chose. Like, see, the thing that's kind of, the thing that's kind of, the, that's pretty interesting about the commissary kitchen cookbook is everything that was cooked

was what you could purchase in commissary but you know pee had been through what was it five different prisons in three years because he always had to have an infirmary like nearby so you know he was moved but i think you spent the longest at midstate right so in doing that research i went through the commissary that was available at midstate to know what some of those items were and then So what's a typical meal? What's a typical breakfast? Well, a typical breakfast at Chow is different from, see, because, you know, they would give, breakfast would be at six, right? Lunch would be at 10.

6.8. Yeah. So you got to wake up at 5. What was it like, like quarter to 6? 6.30. 6.30. Breakfast and they go to y'all. They're like 7.

Yeah, lunch would be at 10. 4 o'clock was dinner and you were done. So when you had Jesus Christ Yeah so when it came to the commissary That was the thing that people used to fill To fill them up for the rest of the day So if your family doesn't have a lot of money

To fill the commissary That's where you get those traditional prison meals Like mashing up Cheetos and pouring chili on them Because those are the cheapest things in commissary Okay And also there's a pound limitation To what like family could mail you as well And P would make most of that

Those deliveries of nothing but canned vegetables, but because they're in a can, they weigh more. So it wasn't like he was able to get, like, tons of spinach, you know, because he would mostly get spinach delivered like that, but it's by can. Cans are allowed? Yeah. You can have cans. Even though, I mean, the potential of that being a weapon?

Yeah, you could use the top as a razor. Yeah, as a knife, too. No. But you can get it taken away. It's so stupid. They won't allow CDs, but you can have a can. Okay. Yeah, so, you know, in going through this book, you know, when we were going through some of the recipes that P actually made, there was just this whole other part that, you know, I feel is like this, this voyeurst culture of people wanting to know about those kinds of traditional prison meals and in doing that research and seeing some of those things.

And the thing that I thought was really important about putting it in the book was, you know, on P's first day, he had food poisoning because one of the inmates wanted to make him a welcome meal, which was one of those traditional. prison dishes, but peace stomach obviously wasn't trained to that. It's like going to Mexico and drinking the water, you know? What meal was it for our listeners out there? Prison Surprise, which is Jack Mack mashed up Cheetos to make a cheese sauce poured over like ramen, right? It was something like that. And by the end of the night, he had an IV in his arm.

So because, you know, he wasn't used to eating. And I mean, the thing is... I woke up sweating bullets throwing up. It's fucked me up, yeah. Yeah. And you learn. about certain things in doing this research where, like for example,

they only give you fruit punch and iced tea, but if you want water, they give you an empty jug and you have to go get it. So it's like, if you want to lead a healthy lifestyle, you have to actively pursue it in prison. So there's also, you know, there's this, there's prison

tea that a lot of inmates drink which is just simply a ramen packet in water, and the average ramen packet has like 7,500 milligrams of sodium. So you're drinking that. Boyan salt water. Yeah. That's prison tea.

It's called prison tea. And how are you able to cook the food on your own in your cell? Like, are you allowed? No, there's a common area where there's a microwave and a toaster oven, which is, that's why so many of these meals are so simple, which is why so many people in dorms would gravitate toward it because of just the availability of those just two devices and a couple of other things. So, you know, but in doing the research, you really learn.

the way the prison system kind of controls the situation. And, you know, for me, the reason why I even, you know, I was part of this project was over, over like, you know, the 10, 15 years that I've been a rap journalist, I've had this kind of like unique privilege of speaking to a lot of artists right when they get out of prison. And I spoke with P. Like, right when he got out.

But I also spoke with Bussie. And come to find out. Boosie diabetic, right? Yeah, but he had also cancer. Oh, shit. So I believe it was kidney cancer. So, and they blamed it on the lean, but I started to like, you know, you start putting two and two together how people can enter somewhat healthy and leave like completely a mess. And, you know, in talking with Pia about it, like literally when he got out and he was just telling me these stories and I'll never forget, it was one of your guys gave me one of the cassettes that were.

available in prison. It was Jada Kiss, the last kiss, and like a prison catalog. And he's like, yeah, this is what's available. So, you know, I was just, like, going through what was available. And I'm like, how can anyone survive on this stuff? So, you know, we were putting this together and you just look at the nutritional information. And then I started to dig even deeper. And you look at what was available in, like, the U.K. in the 50s.

A typical prison meal was, like, prime rib and, like, mashed potatoes. glazed carrots. That was like a typical prison meal. I'm not even eating that good now. Yeah. And you start to, you see what happens over the years and especially as it made its way, you know, to this country and like what was available. I mean, even in the past, what was available here was so fundamentally different than what's available now. And, you know, when we were touring this book, the biggest prison strike in history was happening. So it was kind of like this perfect storm, but it was also pretty funny because some of the stuff that we were discussing, like we didn't make it too politically heavy,

but if you start to read about some of these recipes and what's available and all this other stuff, you can kind of put two and two together and be like, oh, you know, trying to kill you in there, you know. Well, the book did get banned in some prisons. We got banned in California because... Oh, shit. Yeah, but they said it was because there was a hooch recipe. Like, who doesn't know how to make hooch at this point?

But, you know, and I think there's also parts, you know, especially when it comes to pop culture, the way people like glamorize prison, especially because of Orange is the New Black, and just make it seem like this, like, cool place for camaraderie. And there is some of that in the book, you know, because some of that is true. But there's also something real. I mean, there's an episode of Orange's the New Black where they use the prison packets for currency so that they could season their food. But it's like, yeah, but the sodium. Like, you know, or there's a joke that one of the inmates pretends to be.

Jewish she converts. So she can have a kosher meal. But like because the kosher meal is the only meal that actually has fresh vegetables in it. So, you know, there's there's things that they put in there that I think are, it's pretty cool. But if you don't do your research on why those things are even incorporated into those episodes or whatever, you know, you don't, you don't really understand what's going on. So, yeah, I mean, the kosher meals are like amazing in prison. And the only fresh thing that, that in peace was, you know, that in peace with, you know, is. facility you were allowed to have was an apple.

Damn. Some celery sticks. Yeah. Carrot sticks. Until the day that you raided Little Puns' cabinet. We rated the CEO, the correction officer's refrigerator. Little Pund?

Yeah. He used to call him Little Pung because he looked like big pun, the little guy. Little Purn. But he would eat the inmates' food. Like he would come in there and he would eat their meals. Like why? He would eat the T. So is there someone to...

Be an advocate for better health. There's some chefs that I know in California that are now leaving their respective. I mean, these are like Michelin level chefs, James Beard chefs that, you know, kind of felt in a moral way. It was immoral for them to, you know, learn fine cuisine and then charge people $2,000 to eat it. And so they're going the opposite. They're going to the hoods. They're going in, like South Central, opening up healthy versions of fast food spots.

And even Magic Johnson said the reason why he, you know, open up Fridays was because, you know, that's one of the few places where you can get a garden salad or that sort of thing. Don't nobody get a garden salad. I'm going to Fridays for the salad. Right. Not to Johnny Walker.

At least it's an option. Three for all or not. No, but a woman approached magic and said, yo, I hope this is like when he opened up his movie theater. She's like, yo, I really hope you open a restaurant and bring it to the hood so we can have fresh salads because you'll be shocked at the fact that you cannot find, I mean, now that most hood spots are being gentrified.

I mean, even with the locks, they opened up a juice bar in yonkers. Yeah, styles. You know, giving people their first taste of healthy options. So it's like, you know, for a lot of people, especially like, I mean, even the idea of soul food is inaccessible now. Like, you go to find southern cuisine spots, at least in the Northeast. Okay. Not in North Carolina. I'm not saying that's no shortage of that shit.

No, but I mean, soul food right now and most hoods are take out Chinese food. Like, when people had the experience of like, oh, collard greens and chicken and grits for dinner, like in the 60s and 70s. Now it's gravy white, yeah, rice and wings for under five bucks. Pink lemonade, Icy mix. So it's like, do you... Margaret. Sorry. You were a place in an order.

Jumbo, cheeseburger special. So after you experience... Four and fries, salt, pepper ketchup and hot sauce. All right, motherfucker. I'm not, he's hungry. It's hungry. It's about me lunchtime. I'm just asking, do you feel that it's almost necessary that someone...

advocates or speaks on the behalf of of getting better conditions. Because I often hear of the conditions in prison being horrible and, you know, substandard. And of course, you know, you'll hear these, these, you know, right-wing Republicans just being like, you know. It's prison. That's what they deserve. But, you know, it's still like, you still got to treat a person human. And so. like is there any is is it is there any step or do you realistically see reality where that could be changed

i think it's getting i think it's getting everyone on board but having you know their own reasons for it like um a lot of a lot of right wing republicans have you know hit me in my dms along with um crazed mob deep fans but you know kind of trying to challenge me in this discussion and you know

well they're prisoners like you know they can eat whatever whatever and even if you take away like the humane aspect of it right someone enters prison healthy

they leave with diabetes hypertension you know poor liver functions everything right when they get sick they go to the ER you pay for the ER.

So if you want to get your pocket one way or another. If you don't want to even look at it for anything other than selfish financial like reasons, look at that. Look at that at the heart of it. That it's ultimately costing you money for people to get better essentially. So, you know, which it's a horrible reason to have to, it's a horrible argument to even present. Yeah. But there are some people that just truly...

Yeah. Yeah. Well, people don't also realize, you know, when you hear people arguing against the idea of private prison industry complex, people don't know that if you're one of the commissary owners, there was a website, there was an article I was reading about. I guess one of the CEOs of Bon Ton is a thing here. It's in Pennsylvania. It's real big. It's like Little Debbie's. Bon Ton. It's like these local snack companies.

But they are making a killing. Being the exclusive provider of all these high-end snacks. And it's almost like I feel, I mean, not even I feel. I almost know that it's like the cheapest high sodium, high sugar amount, which keeps you almost... And what's funny is even when you go visit, I just, y'all just made me think about something because I've been to way too many prisons in Jersey. Even when you go to visit, they don't even provide, like, the snacks are the same

for the visit. Like, say you're there and it's families, it's kids, and they want to eat something while they're there. You better go to the vending machine and get you a piece of chocolate or something. Not even, like, a trail mix, nothing in that area. Is it, Kathy, is there not one prison that's worth working on their dietary situation?

You know, I think... I know that Martha Stewart changed her spot. In West Virginia. And she's still... Yeah, she's still, but hers is like a minimum security prison. It's a federal women's prison. I think it was Morgan. That's not Morgan Town, West Virginia.

I do know that she's still actively sends them fresh vestibals and fruit. And. You know what's going to ultimately happen, in my opinion? I mean, I'm seeing some of it that they're talking about doing it in New York. It's going to take someone trying to do it in such a kitschy way because that's what's going to It's going to become trendy to do it because I was reading some articles and they're like, check out the farm to table, prison, whatever. And it becomes, it's going to have to take that shape.

Rebranding. Yeah, like rebranding. We need a hipster to hit. Yeah, it's going to have to be that unfortunately. In the same way that you got to like change the argument for Republicans on the whole prison system in general. But it's going to have to be something cutesy for them to. When their kids are doing it, it's like, wait a minute. Right.

Right. Kind of like the way heroin got rebranded. Yeah. Opioes. But, you know, the jump from Oz to Orange is the New Black, how one, you know, what took off by making it like, hey, what happens when you put, you know, like that kind of. Yeah. Right. So I think, I think that's going to be the thing that will have to do it.

You know, it's not similar, but, you know, when people started to advocate for better snacks and offices and schools and all these other, all these other things where. those things had to change, but it had to be a slow build. It's a harder argument in prisons. Oh, Kathy, are you saying Michelle Obama missed out on that one? Because I just, ooh, like she was supposed to cover that. Are you fucking shot? No, I love parents. All praise due to the queen, but the clue just went off in my head.

Right. She did schools. She did a neighbor. What about? Well, you know, the thing that Michelle Obama did that I think was wonderful too was, you know, there's a school in particular. I forget the name. You know, my mom had consulted.

for them in Norik, they had a garden on the roof. And the kids would grow the vegetables. They would pull down the vegetables and they would cook with the vegetables for their lunches. So she did some amazing things, but that kind of stuff doesn't translate into prison. You know, I mean, I think the initiative that she did was it was making nutrition fun because that was the problem. Kids weren't having fun with nutrition. Your Brussels are gross, like, you know, dip them in chocolate, like whenever. Like that, you're making, you're making nutrition fun.

But convincing inmates whose families are maybe putting $5 into their commissary and they finish eating at 4 p.m. And they're starving by 8 o'clock and they're hanging out in the common area. And all they have is like enough in their commissary for ramen noodles. Convince them that nutrition is fun. Because what happens is it's not the commissary necessarily that's the problem. It's the quality of the food that they're eating in chow too. I mean, the sodium levels of some of those things, but also it's expired food sometimes. You know, they'll leave cans for however long.

I mean, there's rat poisoning in certain prisons in some of the food. They found glass, pubic hair. I mean, these are things, like, these are real issues that just the quality of the food alone, and what will end up happening is a lot of the inmates just don't want to eat the food. You know, who's going to want to eat that? So it becomes a matter of, all right, well, I'll just eat some chips. There's a lot of artists that I've spoken to who, when they got out of prison, And even before meeting P and hearing that story, I would say, what did you eat?

And I got, you know, most of the time just some chips. Like living off, like, free dose. You know? And then I remember, I forget the artist. Was it Thurston Hale III who did the prison cooking shows? And he would do this, like, show where he would, like, you know, mash up all, like, the food. And he would, like, make these prison dishes. And I was just so fascinated.

I'm just like, yeah, I get it. Because if, like, if someone said to you, okay, every day, all you can eat, the bag of Cheetos, a bag of Doritos, one of those packets of chili and a pack of ramen noodles. Of course, by week three. You're going to find a way to remix that shit. Yeah. You're trying to deep fry your ramen noodles in the toaster and you're trying to make a burger out of the chili paddy. Like, you're going to try to get creative. So, and that chapter that we put in the book, I remember talking to Pia about it and he's like, you know, some of the things we were,

going over and he's like, oh, it's fucking disgusting. Because, like, you know, he, he was, like, he just made a concerted effort to not touch any of that stuff. Because for him, it was, like, it could, it's life, you know, there, he can't eat that stuff. Right. So, I mean, I remember when, you know, there was, like, a lot of the guys would go and they would cook together.

And I remember, you know, asking P, like, what was the main thing? And he's like, no, I would just have spinach. Like, if I didn't, if there was, if I didn't want to cook, I would just keep. eating canned spinach. But you'd even have to wash that off. It's like packed with sodium. So there's like really no way out if you don't sit and think about it, which is why we put this book together because it's like, listen, I get it.

You know, maybe your commissary is lower than the next guy. But there's ways around what you're choosing to buy and how you're choosing to prepare it, you know? Can I ask, what was the first thing you ate when you got out? I went to this Korean barbecue spot called Woolay Oak. Okay. Downtown and Soho. Korean barbecue.

It was really good, man. I thought about it the whole big. That's the shit. Every time I sat down to A.C. I was like, yo, man, if I was home right now, I'll be eating Korean barbecue. Everybody was like, what the fuck is that? That's the ultimate. You make it yourself.

I'm like, you know what's up? Trust me. Trust me. So as soon as I got out, we drove straight to the restaurant. I couldn't wait to eat some more of that good food. What's your diet and stuff like on the day-to-day now? You know, I just try to, my favorite thing to eat it, I try to, like, grilled chicken. Like Kathy said, a lot of green vegetables, a lot of water, brown rice.

You know, I try to just eliminate fried foods and red meats. You know, it takes time to get to that point, a lot of time and discipline. Some people don't like water. You know what I mean? It took me about a year or two to really get used to like I could just guzzle water and I love how it tastes. Before that, I was always craving for a juice or, you know what I'm saying? The soda, it takes time to develop and discipline your body and your mind and your taste buzz to, you know, to do the right thing.

So, you know, after a while, you know, even before I went to jail, I was already learning that stuff in my 20s. Like, you know what I'm saying? And, you know, just being locked up, it made me like, all right, I want to see what happens if I'm also military. discipline shit. I want to see what happens, how my body is going to react, how my mind, how things are going to be different if I, like, on some military discipline, straight water every day, green vestibular, I wanted to see the outcome of that. So I did it, you know what I mean?

Because of doing that, I was able to work out. Like, you know, they tell, doctors told me on my life, I can't work out. I can't do any physical contact or strenuous exercise because it trigger your sick of And it's true, like certain things I do, like, if I'm running around too much and my heart rate start going too fast, I get too high, my adrenaline start pumping, it triggered my sicker cell. It can trigger my sicker cell. So, you know, once I cleaned out, changed my diet and was very, very, very strict with it, with the water, very strict with the vegetables and everything, I noticed that I wasn't getting sick. I didn't feel sick at all. I was able to work out and not feel sick. Like, you know what I mean? I was able to get strong. And it felt great.

It felt great. I was like, wow, this is ill. Like, you know what I'm saying? Because I was already doing it in the streets. Like I said, I learned how to do that in my 20s. I kind of fell off. You know what I mean? Right before I went to jail, I started going a little downward spiral,

going through some bullshit in my life. But, you know, I was already with that discipline. I had already changed my life for five, six years straight. No smoking. This is, this is, from 2000. I mean, excuse me, from 98, 97, 98 to like 2002, something like that. You know what I'm saying? Maybe 2003.

You know, I was on some strict diet shit. I was like learning how to heal myself through diet and spirituality. So I did that already and I felt the effects of it. And then I kind of, like I said, I kind of went on a Daryl spiral right before I got locked up. So when I got locked up, I was like, you know what? I want to try what I did. I want to do it to the maximum now. I want to really do this shit now.

Like I said, straight military discipline with it. So with spirituality, do you mean like meditating, deep breathing? I mean like just the power of your thoughts. Affirmations, yeah, affirmations. Yeah, like just the power of your thoughts.

You know what I'm saying? Negative thoughts. Like if somebody, like, especially being in jail, everybody got bad attitude. Nobody wants to be there. Everybody's upset. They in jail. Like, everybody wakes up in the morning,

pissed off. Nobody went, even the seat, even the correction officers are pissed off. They got to work there. You know what I'm saying? So everybody got an attitude in that motherfucker. And especially correction officers, they talk to you like, they shut the fuck up. Go do this. Go do this.

Go wash the toilets. Go do this. Like, they bossy you around. Like, they fuck with you. Especially when they first meeting you and getting to know who you are. They fuck with you. They try to press your buttons and see how you react. So I use that as, all right, this is going to be my training.

I'm gonna control my thoughts As soon as he Or anybody gives me a bad attitude Instead of me saying In my mind My first thought in my mind Used to be gonna fuck this nigga Like you know what I'm saying

Piece of shit But then now I started Practicing As soon as that thought pops in my head Change it But like you know what I'll pray for him You know what I'm saying

Hopefully he'll get his thing together You know what I mean He don't know what he's doing Like you know what I'm saying He's just angry He got work here So I'll pray for this person And I'll change my thought to that.

So I started practicing that in there. And that was like the perfect place to practice that. You know what I'm saying? Because you're dealing with all this tension and foul shit every day. So I would practice that every day, every day. Practice changing my thoughts immediately. As soon as the thought popping my head, I changed it to something else. And then when I kept doing it, it just happened naturally.

You know what I have to think about it no more. And through eating right and, you know, thinking different. Like spirituality, that changes. your spirit. Once you start thinking different, you know, you're more at peace. Right. You're more at peace with everybody else and yourself. You know what I'm saying? You walk peacefully. Like, you carry yourself peacefully.

You know what I'm saying? At the same time, you know, I'm who I am. I grew up how I grew up. So it's not like I turn into some soft sucker motherfucker. I just know how to control my thoughts now. You're in

you're in evolved to be. I was going to say. I was going to too, man, I hear that in the new record, too. I listen to it on the plane on the way over here. Thanks, and shit is dope, man. I can hear, like, just the, the, I don't want to misquote the lick, but there was one joint in particular you were talking about, you know, it ain't about black and they don't care if you white, you know, it ain't about your religion.

You would just, you know, just kind of speaking to. Tyranny, yeah, tyranny, yeah. And you were saying, I just tyranny, you know, you fuck about none of that. You know what I'm saying? Race don't matter. Right, yeah, that was it. Your faith don't matter. The enemy is government tyranny.

all that other shit don't matter. Like, you know what I'm saying? You rich don't matter. You broke don't matter. The enemy, they threaten our liberties. All that other shit don't matter. Like, you know what I'm trying to get... Because they try to, like,

divert our attention with, like, a lot of racial issues. Now, don't get me wrong. There's a lot of racial issues with this country, like, for a long time. But they magnify that shit on the news, and they magnify it so much to the point where we think it's more than,

what it really is. You know what I'm saying? Like, and if people only know, we all have a common enemy that's really trying to destroy our spirit and our soul and control our life. We actually have a common enemy.

You know what I'm saying? That's what I was trying to get across, the point I was trying to get across on that song. So, yeah, you know, I would practice that in jail and it just, it changed me, man.

That shit felt great. I was like, oh shit, this is ill. I was like, this is a great way to think. Like, I'm glad I was, doing this. I was like, man, this is great, man.

Street meditation. Well, I was like, I told you on this shit. You know what I mean? It just made me feel better. I felt better every day as a person. Like, you know what I mean? Well, Prior to G, we are going to have to close the show. Unfortunately, we could talk to you forever. I do have one last question. What up, though?

Are we going to get one more reunion album out of you and havoc? Me and and have, like, crack things when it come to hip-hop. It's like we... That's good shit to know.

Like, you know how I rock Kim, but like, I'm a fiend. So you're about to do some... I know that you're going to do... You're doing a few projects with live musicians. You're doing your residency at Blue Note. Yeah. That's every month? Yeah, we do it once a month there.

So how can people find out, like, news about upcoming dates with you and that sort of thing? I always tell people like, you know, you can always Google. You know what I mean? Hit up Google, like, yo. Are you on Twitter? What's part of you doing? Yeah, yeah. I'm on Twitter, Prodigy Mobb Deep.

Okay, cool. Instagram, Prodigy Mobb Deep. But, yeah, I forget sometimes myself. If you want to know what any of your favorite artists is performing or when they new album is dropping, you could go right on Google and just be like, yo, Mobb Deep new album or Prodigy New Concert. You know what I'm saying? And it'll all pop up. Like, you know what I'm saying?

Magic. Well, you, you, I guess, cleverly released the Higelian dialectic. on January 20th. Which was, yeah, I was going to say. And I was planned out. We did that on board. I figured as much. Oh, and Laia's birthday. And your birthday.

Well, yeah, but it's all about you, Laya's Supreme. Well, Kathy and Prajee, I thank you very much for... Thank you. Yeah, thank you. I don't even think I'll go through the customary what we learned thing because I think we learned everything at the... the same time. Yeah man, shout out to everybody too, man. I always got to do this man. Shout

to Jay-Z. Shout out to Nass. Shout to all my niggies, man. You know what I'm saying? So a love. You know, I fuck with y'gots, man. This is like, man, I'm a fan of Jay-Z, you know what I'm saying? We went through our shit. I'm a fan. I love son. He's one of the illers. I learned so much from watching him do

business, how he carry yourself. You know what I'm saying? I learned so much for how he write his songs and make his music like, you know what I'm saying? It ain't no beef. There ain't no that shit, man. We are now evolved. You know what I'm saying?

Yo, but you got to get out the comments. Don't read them comments no more. They get to you. No more comments. I love reading the comments. The comments be better than the articles in time. I love reading the comments. Not when they're taking him down too much.

No more comments, man. You don't remember the positive. You don't remember the negative. But so, the listeners out there, man, you know what I mean? Anybody could go to jail. I was locked up with a lot of characters from different walks of life. You hear that, Bill? Anybody could get locked up.

You on Sesame Street. You two can go to jail, Bill. I was in there with judges, DAs, detectives. My prisoner friend just said that the other day. He in there with engineers, farmers. I was in there with billionaires. Engineers? Anybody can get locked up.

Mistakes happen. You know what I mean? You could make a mistake, a fatal mistake, and end up going to jail. And from any walk of life, look at Martha Stewart. So what I'm saying that is just, you know, stay out of jail, man. So you ain't got to eat that crap, man. You know what I'm saying? No real.

Out the corner store. Stay out the corner store. Man, stay your ass in the street, man. Do the right thing. And on that note, on behalf of Prodigy, Kathy, yonderly. There it is. I got it, finally. Sugar Steve.

Sugar Steve, damn. Sugar Steve, we didn't even bring up your sugars. Yeah. Your sugars. You're not with all the sugar-free cookbook. Steve. Exactly. You go to prison and get diabetes, or you can just hang out with you and get diabetes.

No, no, whatever, whatever. Unpaid bill, boss bill, Fonciglo, and Marmese. Margaret, how many prisons you've been to in Jersey? Like five. Margaret has been everywhere. You've been on prison, too. Wrong way. This is Questlove, Quest Love Supreme.

We will see you on the next round. Thank you very much. Yep. See you later. Quest Love Supreme is a production of Iheart Radio. This classic episode was produced by the team at Pandora. For more podcasts from IHeart Radio, visit the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts,

or wherever you listen to your favorite shows. A win is a win. A win is a win. I don't care what you're saying. Yep, that's me. Clifford Taylor the 4th. You might have seen the skits, my basketball and college football journey,

or my career in sports media. Well, now I'm bringing all of that excitement to my brand new podcast, The Clifers Show. This is a place for raw, unfilled of conversations with athletes, creators, and voices that not only deserve to be heard, but celebrated. So let's get to it.

Listen to The Clivert Show on the IHeard Radio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcast. And for more behind the scenes, Follow at Clifford and at TikTok podcast network on TikTok. This week on the Sports Slice podcast, it's all about the NFL draft. And we've got a special guest. The director of the NFL's East West Shrine Bowl, Eric Galko,

joins the Sports Slice podcast to break down what really matters when evaluating draft prospects. From hidden traits teams look for to the biggest mistakes franchises make, to the players flying under the radar. This is the insight you won't hear anywhere else. If you want to understand the draft like an insider, you don't want to miss this episode. Listen to the Sports Slice Podcast on the Iheart Radio app, Apple Podcasts,

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