The Questlove Show - Vince Staples

Episode Date: September 7, 2026

Vince Staples sits down with Questlove for a rare, unflinching conversation about community, survival, and growing as an artist without losing yourself. Speaking about his latest album, Crybaby, Vince shares hard-earned truths and wisdom from his life, cutting through myth and memory with his trademark clarity and dark humor. The two artists explore happiness, death, faith, hobbies, and the music industry’s shifting gaze on Black artists—while tracing Vince’s journey from riding the bus to Hollywood studios to becoming one of music's sharpest minds.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an I-heart podcast. Guaranteed Human. Behind every night spent making the kids' lunches, there's a lot of suspense. Will they finally eat the veggies? Will the pastos survive the first bite? Will the lunchbox come home empty, half full, or come home at all?

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People wake up and go, oh, damn, wait a hold up. They change all of that? Yes. It's real. This is a wholesale attack. It is targeting black people in every federal agency. It's raw. White folks have never allowed that reckoning to last more than a decade.

Catch Roland Martin's daily commentary on the Black Information Network. And download Roland Martin. unfiltered on the IHart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, wherever you get your podcasts. Welcome to Decoding Women's Health. I'm Dr. Elizabeth Pointer, chair of Women's Health and Gynecology at the Atria Health Institute in New York City. I'll be talking to top researchers and clinicians and bringing vital information about midlife women's health directly to you. A hundred percent of women go through menopause. Even if it's natural, why should we suffer through it? Listen to Decoding Women's Health with Dr. Elizabeth Pointer.

on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hey, it's Alec Baldwin. This season on my podcast, here's the thing. I talk to actor Stephen Root. I'm a people watcher. You see that guy going down the dream and go, yeah, I can use that. And Open Igloo co-founder, Alia Mohamed. I love staying on top of what is going on in our city, what is on renter's minds,

and taking all of that knowledge to build a platform that hopefully is going to make New York City better in the long run. Listen to Here's the Thing on the IHeart Radio app Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. Hey, what's up? I'm Tony Gonzalez. And I'm October Gonzalez. But you can call me Toby. We want you to join us on our new podcast, No Safe Words with October and Tony Gonzalez. We get real about marriage, parenthood, sex, divorce, and all the nitty-gritty stuff we all think about. But just don't say out loud.

You're probably just going to be some rich guy and he's going to whisk you away. This is awkward. Listen to no safe words with October. and Tony Gonzalez on the IHeartRadio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcast. The Questlove Show is a production of IHeart Radio. Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to an episode of the Questlove show. My name is Questlove. I'm going to be very honest with you. Most artists have integrity. Their integrity meter, that sort of flickers. And I feel like our guest today,

sort of pin that meter on full. And I'll be honest with you since day one, I've been a fan of his, but I'll make a confession here on this platform, which is that I was afraid to work with our guest today because I talked myself in my head that I would be the one blemish on what is otherwise probably one of the most exempt.

and this is not brown smoke, you know, hyperbole, but, you know, I feel like his career is really like one of the most exemplary, remarkable runs of artistic growth that an artist can hope for. Like, you've seen artists that will evolve from point A to point B, and then they make this radical record,

and then they make a departure record, then they make a jazz record, then make whatever. But, you know, I've watched him pull off, like, musical, impossibilities like in this entire career. Ten plus projects, be it LPs or EPs or mixtapes or whatever, and somehow he's managed to turn all types of emotions, be it fear, anger, surrealism, into a kind of cathartic

means of expression. And, you know, he's also armed with wit, humor. Really, I mean, his number one weapon, I would probably say. is honesty, and it does it with absolute bull's-eye execution, and manages to sort of speak to every generation from references that only boomers would know, that Gen X would only know, that millennials won't only know, and alphas and whatever, so on, and especially on his latest album, which, you know, one could say his rock-leaning crybaby is no exception.

I didn't bring him here necessarily to figure out, like, what makes him. tick, but I kind of brought him here so I could learn something because I'd need people to follow suit. And I really hate over-praising people in front of them because I think it makes them uncomfortable. But I feel like a genius of his order really needs to be studied and followed. And I don't feel like the world really puts him in the conversation of, you know, artist or, you know, italicized artists. enough. And he kind of makes the rest of us out here feel like we're cosplaying as artists. So I want to welcome someone that I really admire as a fan, Ben Staples.

Thanks, ma'am. I appreciate that. Yeah, I was kind of you. Because I believe that you have not even high standard, just a general standard. And sometimes people say this to me often. Like, they feel like, they'll often say to Roots like, oh, man, like I feel like a fraud in front of you guys. And, you know, and there's, there's always been like an isolation thing. For you, though, do you feel as though you have community support, or is it just like the if you know you know thing that sort of fuels the gas in your car? I think it really depends on what you consider community to be and what you consider support to be. Right. I think aspiring is a strong motivator for a lot of people, even if we

don't notice it. So people can only support you within the boundaries of what they want for themselves. So if people want to get out of the hood and they feel like you've gotten out the hood, then they'll support that. If they support, I guess, your creativity or they support your background. If they support the financial elements of it or whatever they think your politics might be, and they'll support that. So I think that we do have, or I do have a decent amount of support and community, but I think it's scattered because people kind of view me in different, like, You know, it's not like an overall consensus of this is how I feel about this person with me, I feel. I've learned this myself.

I'm definitely in the zone where I'm like all things to all people. And I have first five roots albums only people. I got, I was seven when you guys did that song on your gabba gab of people. I had people that, you know, only saw like my Finding Your Roots episode. I mean, for you, though, there's different ways that we enter you. I know people that just know you just for your Netflix show. I know people that know you because you give one of the greatest interviews ever. So, like, your sizzle reel of just your quotables on your interviews alone is like, yeah, man, he's crazy.

He's funny. He's like, you know, that sort of thing. Does it frustrate you that sometimes they don't look under the hood to see what it is that you really do? When I started making music, it wasn't that many people around. I think that's kind of carried over to today. So when I first started making music as a teenager, I don't want to miss anybody, but there was a guy named DJ that lived near me. His rap name was lavish at the time.

This guy named Chuck Ruben, Ruben's producer name was Chuck Juan. And there was a guy named Emmanuel. and he um he is his i think his rap name was e man and there was a studio on 60th and john across the street from brett hart um local school we recorded there and it was pretty much only us and then after that whether that's working very specifically with uh my g or um sid and matt um that later kind of formed the internet or working with Earl sweatshirt or speaks or kind of these people there were never that many people around so there was never I guess I would say crowdsourcing there was never like a brainstorm like when it came to making music and I think that so you never did like focus groups like

what do you think about this or that yeah never so I think I just was kind of stuck with my own perception of things and the way that I view the world are kind of my own thoughts. And because I was from such a different, I guess, background and everybody else, I didn't have any relatability factor when it came to if people thought it was good or not. So at the beginning, I really didn't have any connection to music because I was just, I was saying the middle part when I got like kind of sitting in them. I just was making whatever kind of fit into their world just because I didn't really have anywhere to go. And I wasn't going to school and stuff like that, to be honest. just like hanging because they had a nice house and shit.

So I was like, I don't want to kind of spoil that because it was cool when their mom cooked. Then there was a bunch of cool stuff going on over there. So I think that was a big part of it. But when it came time to actually make music, I kind of only had my own thoughts. So I never had anyone say this is too darker, this is too much. It was a really weird thing to where anyone that I worked with knew me on an extremely personal level. So it wasn't as bad as it kind of could have been. as dark as it could have been, I guess,

if we want to talk about the darkness of it. But I think that the thoughtfulness that's kind of applied to the music is an entry point thing. So when you think about, just kind of round out what you're saying, the interview shit is like, all right, people kind of get uncomfortable.

When people get uncomfortable, they laugh. Or it's like, oh, I can't believe if he says whatever he wants to say. Yeah. And it's like, that's kind of funny. And then the show's shit is just an easy entry point because when we think about how people digest music, especially hip-hop music,

now was not kind of what it used to be. Like, when I was younger, people would ask me if I was in the music or I listened to a lot of music, I would have said no, just because it meant a much different thing. But now you have people that I listen to thousands of songs, and they don't necessarily covet them as much as I might have coveted the couple songs that I knew, no matter where I got them from. But I think I would probably have more music logic than would be considered typical for someone that makes the music I make within the genres that I make it.

So I think it's just kind of a snowball of just time passing. And I think that I've been dated stylistically or just in the way that I perceive music since I came out. And that's because people kind of knew how I was three or four years after Tyler and Earl and all those people. So I was newer in 2014, 15, 13, but I had been making music. since 2009, if that makes sense. Yeah. Like the way that the whole idea of the concept of like odd future, when it was first presented to me, weird enough, it was presented to me back when the lonely island guys

were still on SNL. And, you know, they would come down and suggest shit and whatever. And they were like, so they were like explaining to me like, yo, there's a new collective out there with all these rappers and everything. And then one night I wanted to go see them perform. And it was just like 30 people. on a New York stage. And then I learned that later, like,

these are different collectives and whatnot. Like, were you ever officially, like, in that circle? Yeah, I just knew them. Yeah, I just knew them. And Sid had a studio in her guest home. Right. And a lot of people recorded there. I just think I'm one of the people that was able to sustain something on my own.

Right. Not on my own as if I didn't have help, but just outside of that collective structure. And I know that's very, very important to hip hop. at least it used to be. So it's like you can't tie, you have to be tied to something, even if it's just like in theory, you know?

Right. Well, I love the idea of a collective. Like, that's what I try to do with Soul Quarians, where it's like, and it was never on purpose. Like, literally the Soul Quarians ended the day we did that vibe shoot. We did, we did a thing. It was like, you know, DeAngelo, me, Erica, most,

like all these suspects. The day we took that photo, immediately, that's when our powers get, like, oh, wait. we're a collective and then that's when it fell apart. But for good four years, it was just you knew that you could use the bathroom at electric lady because the three of us would have all the studios locked down and then you get on keyboards and start jamming the next thing you know the tape is running and then you're making a song.

But I just always like romanticized the idea of a collective. And, you know, I kind of in my mind, and I guess that might be a Gen X thing. I just wanted to see that thing again that I saw Wu-Tang do, and then I saw the native tongues do, and that, you know, so. And I think music translated from it being something that you needed other people to do to kind of something that you were able to do in your bedroom on your own through splice loops and things of that nature and YouTube and social media. So, like, my first projects didn't have like a home.

It was like media firelings and things of that nature that you just put on the Internet. Right. And so as time changes, these things change. But I feel like it's all historical context. Like if we're trying to reference something that happened yesterday or last week or last year or last decade or going to need a name for it, like, it's just a human thing. It's never bothered me. But I've never worked closely with anybody, to be honest. I don't think I've ever worked with anybody for more than like maybe a project and a half, if that.

I can tell that. and the fact that you can make it. Your albums do sound like it was created by one person. You know what I mean? And that's what I admire the most about it. Now that was my pre-questions. My first real question is to you, what is your idea of perfect happiness

and do you believe that it's genuinely obtainable? I think happiness is allowing yourself to be content within your circumstances and, you know, the success and the failures of life and just being content with that. So I do think it's attainable. I think, I don't think a lot of people want it. I feel like, especially within a creative medium, you kind of need a chip on your shoulder or you just need something to kind of propel you forward.

Yeah, the conflict is important. But for me, I'm not like a competitive type person. Like, I've never been that kind of person. So I think it's relatively easy for me to. to find some sort of happiness or peace, you know, in life. Like, I'm very realistic about where I am, like creatively, financially. I've been able to sustain a lifestyle and take care of my family with having music that most people don't know or, you know, being in the face that most people don't know.

More people know me from Abbott Elementary than my, you know, two-decade-long music career. Same. And I don't look at that as if it's a negative thing. I look at it as, oh, I get to go to the grocery store. Or you know what I mean? I get to go to the park or ride a bike or yada yada. So I think that there's a, there's something to look forward to and everything. And I think that's probably just because of my background and things that nature.

So you kind of do certain things and you live certain types of lifestyles. Certain things just kind of be minuscule and like almost silly. So when it comes to like happiness and things of that nature, like if you can be content with who you are and where you are, I think that's a beautiful thing. But also I think it reflects in writing because you're able to kind of stay on, you and your life because that's really what people care about your perspective, but you're able to kind of give a new outlook on it because as you become more content with your surroundings and you're more aware of where you actually are, you're able to kind of have a new outlook on

the same stories. Are you at all concerned about being typecast? I'll give an example. So I know that there's a sect of fans that love the idea of a depressed Mary J. Blige. because she will then express a kind of blue misery that they themselves feel and that they can relate to. And then every two albums, Mary finds happiness and a bright spot. And then the fans are a little like, oh, man, she's happy now. Fuck that. You know, do you ever worry that finding content and happiness might affect the product that is attracting us to you? It starts early, right? Because, for one, you have family.

So being an outlier within your own family, then kind of being an outlier within your community and, like, being an outlier within the kind of micro communities that exist in these communities. And, you know, being the weird dude from the weird gang in the weird city, music is relatively easy. The entire time I've made music, most people haven't liked my music. And I don't think it's because... Really? Yeah, for sure. But I don't think it's because of... So I don't count.

This is what I mean, right? We look at things from a certain vantage point. Okay, he's from California. Okay, he's from Los Angeles. Okay, he's a gang member making gangster rap. They don't look like that. Automatically, people are thrown off since I've started making music. So I think not really necessarily fitting into how people perceive things isn't a me problem.

And it's also not a them problem. And that's just the gaze of how we understand things. So I think proximity and like your reality being defined, like, I don't want to say it in a negative way, but just not being full of shit are important. Because if I know that most people don't understand these street dynamics, I don't know most black people are good and kind and hardworking, God-fearing people that go to church every Sunday and have grandma with the groceries. And I say that in a good way, not to make it sound like a slight people just think I'm always being an asshole nowadays. But it's the comedy shit. But then I don't, it doesn't bother me that people are probably more comfortable seeing this black woman depressed.

They're more comfortable seeing this black man rap about the street or more comfortable seeing. You know what I mean? These kind of, I don't want to say stereotypes, but these kind of tropes that are very real in a lot of our communities and are the easier connection points. So I think that because of the people I started making music with, like, I remember when that stuff started with, you know, Tyler and Tebe and all these guys, most people locally called them weird and didn't support them. And to this day, it's very hard to find local people within our communities that support their music. A lot of people support the success that's being garnered from it.

But people to this day still talk about if Tyler's a real L.A. artist or things like that when he's playing Iranians and it's kind of world renown. It's like, it's silly to me. So I think that I've always noticed that. So when it comes to people wanting things from me, I understand they're wanting something based on their perception of something that they have no idea of for real. Do you have a morning routine and what is it? Like what's the first thing you did in the half hour this morning?

What did you do? Today I flew here when I got here. But you literally landed and shit. Yeah, I appreciate this. No, it's all good, bro. Yeah, usually I wake up like four o'clock, let the dogs outside. There's some stuff around the house, kind of do some family stuff. But I'm relatively simple, bro.

Like, I never thought I would do anything. So I never had like any dream or aspiration or anything like that growing up. So life is pretty simple for me as wild as that might seem. But I think it's important to think and kind of be within your own thoughts. because that's kind of our job. So I just try to have as much clarity as possible. Like, I rarely work. Like, on music, I rarely don't have meetings.

We don't do any of that. Corey pretty much does everything, to be honest. But it's like... Sound to Corey. Hello. Yeah, hello, Corey. Yeah, the people can hear that wave, Corey. Corey Smith. I don't really ask for much, bro,

but I think stillness. is kind of important, quite as important. Because without that, I can't really, like, think. And I'm still in the same place where I grew up. Like, I still know the same people and have the same friends as where I grew up. So my life is, like, extremely simple, bro. Gotcha.

What time do you typically go to sleep? Like, nine something, maybe 10 or something. Somebody call me. Every lyrical genius I know has the same routine. which is they want to be in bed by 8.39 so that they can get up. Tariq might get up at 3.30 a.m. Just so that he can have four to five hours of no kids, no, like he gets the house to himself. And like silence is his favorite thing on earth.

Yeah, and I don't have a lot of music. Like I know, of course, more now, and I try to study as much as I can, learn as much as I can. but my musical knowledge is few and far between. So it's like for me to be able to receive what other people are saying, what other people are trying to push musically, I think I have to know where I am at all times. Because even when it comes to like translation, if I have an idea, I have to go like find the music to explain it to someone.

I don't like have, hey, let's make an album that sounds like this. And I feel like that's very valuable, especially working with producers and things like that. So I just really need the time to figure out what I'm thinking and what I'm trying to not really say but do. I like to eat well. But after work, after errands, after everything else, cooking just doesn't happen. That's why I started using Factor. Factor delivers fresh, never frozen, ready to eat meals. designed by dietitians for balanced nutrition that actually fits my life.

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Behind every night spent making the kids' lunches, there's a lot of suspense. Will they finally eat the veggies? Will the pastos survive the first bite? Will the lunchbox come home empty, half full or come home at all. And will you finish episode 8 before you're done slicing the cucumbers? Get Bell Pure Fiber Internet with Craved Netflix and Disney Plus from $94 a month.

Price guaranteed for two years on internet with a two-year term and auto pay credit. Visit bell.ca for details and to check availability. Bell, connection is everything. On the new podcast Solita, we share the messy reality of traveling alone as a woman. I can wait four hours for the next bus or this random dude is offering me. a ride on his motorcycle. I chose option B. I'm Julie Pinheiro, and I travel by myself because it's a rare space where I can say yes without asking anyone else first. I'm on a mission to reclaim the word solita, trading the pity for possibility. Every time I tried to be alone, I kept meeting people

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Here's what you missed. And the argument is, do you want to win? If you don't win, you have no power. It's real. Those are the very people who I always say vote against their own economic interest, and they complain about the very thing they're receiving. It's raw. I knew that the issue of transgender athletes was not going well with a lot of black men.

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So if you Democrats, you don't wait to 2030, you better be hitting the ground going hard in the South now. And download Roland Martin Unfiltered on the IHart Radio app, Apple Podcasts. Wherever you get your podcasts. What singular event or occurrence that happened in your life was the tipping point? Like what singular event changed your life that brought you kind of here to this day? I think it's going to be hard just because I've kind of been an attentive person for a long time. I always notice like a certain complacency or just like a laziness in my broader family.

And I know I didn't want to do that. And I was going to kind of figure it out. I didn't want to be one of those people that kind of just let life happen to. them. And there have been a lot of things that have happened in my family to my family to where I feel like I would have reacted differently. And I think coming from an immature place being a kid, it was kind of like out of disdain for them. So ever since I was a kid, I kind of didn't relate to my family or like even my friends. I don't want to put it specifically on my family, but I think the people of my environment, I had an understanding of what the environment

was and how the environment got there, I just didn't realize like, like, for example, this is an example. I grew up with no white, white friends or like white people around us, period. So it's like when we got to school, like, it's not that you're not speaking to your teachers. It's just that I'm not speaking to white people because I see no point because you go, you're at home and grandma's talking about the man and crackers and this and that and that. But then it's like, why are y'all speaking to them? like being a child not knowing. Right.

Understanding kind of like the socioeconomic of the fucking world. So it's like I always felt like I was one of those people. That was like if you don't like something like do something about it, like complaining about it, felt weird to me. So like that's just a silly example of like doing things that don't make sense, kind of put you on an island by yourself. So you always felt like the black sheep or the outcast of whatever situation that you were in?

Well, I wouldn't even say that because I don't think I was ever treated poorly for the most part. I think that I just had a different perspective on things. So, like, I didn't really try to find it for a long time, but I never felt, it's kind of hard to explain, but I've never felt like I was working towards something or against something. I was just kind of, like, existing, so to say. So when it came to music and just even other things, but music is the first thing I've ever done.

I've never done anything before music. Anything else is, you know, you play sports and shit like that. a kid but like you don't really care about that you skateboard and things like that when you're just doing child stuff and music is like the first thing i've ever like been like i'm gonna do this and i think i was like 14 15 probably and i still relatively young like in retrospect i'm 33 now so i think like it just never seemed difficult to me because if i'm counting like the amount of people and then i'm counting the like it was microscopic for lack of better words like i don't know a lot about a lot of music but I know you know a lot of blue albums and MERS and things of that nature that were

kind of more local and an area so I was like oh that's that's kind of what not success but that's what practice music and practice looked like to me so that's not hard to just go get up and do to me because I'm like okay if I'm at school and four or five people know who this person is and this person considered to be a success and I just need four or five listeners so to say um so I think There was never like a turning point. It was just like consistent. If I had to pick, it's just to be real. It's just like Corey doing shit.

Because I've never done anything except for like try to get better in making music. Are you saying that like Blue and Exile was sort of like a I'm Not Alone moment or most people have their calling when they hear an album or something like, oh my God, this is me. Like who did you feel was speaking to you? Or did you just listen to hip hop as like a them thing? Like, I listen to NWA as a them thing. Like, this is what they're talking about, even though like. But I think I was too late in the game. Because, like, I explained to Corey one time that he was talking about 50 sitting.

And I was like, I remember get Richard I tried on like I was in the third grade. And that was, um. Oh, God, I'm moving. You get what I'm saying. So I can't say there's ever been a moment where hip hop wasn't. Like, I know rebirth of slick. I know Houdini songs. I know.

You know mad references for the time period that you should not be knowing that shit. And I'm like, who's the older person in your life that's like? Well, I mean, my parents, oh, my parents weren't listening to rap music at all, to be honest. But what I'm saying is, like, I think just the access was different in the timing where I grew up because you have VH1. We didn't have cable. So you go to Grandma's house or Grandmother's house and you're on TV all day. So you got MTV Jams and VH1 and things like that. these things were just playing

all the time, you know what I mean? Right, okay. So I think, like, whether it's Cindy Lopper or, like, or, like, Wham and things like that, it's just, I only know, I only know big music. To you get in? Very small shit. Yeah, because it was just there.

So when I think about, I think Bluin Exile and those kinds of things, I forgot the guy's name, but, like, it was a project named Ghetto Pop Life, atmosphere. These are all things that my friends knew. And that was the first time. that something was brought to me in that kind of transactional kind of situation, I think, in elementary school. And I saw Aaron Liddy and Jackson Deloche in the music that they

listened to. And Kai Burleson knew a lot more of the local L.A. kind of stuff because we have similar backgrounds. Jackson and Aaron had different backgrounds than me and Kai had. But I went to a small school in Compton behind the liquor store from fourth to eighth grade. Steve Lacey went there to, so there weren't that many people that I ran across because I didn't really do that well in school earlier. I got in trouble early and later, but went on to that school. It was fine. It was all black people, one Hispanic kid named Jose, and one white kid named Tristan because mother Thomas, who worked at the front desk, was his grandmother. And other than that, it was only black people from Long Beach, Compton, Gardena,

surrounding areas type of thing. So hip hop being so ingrained in black culture at that time, I don't remember when it wasn't around. I think my earliest hip-hop memories were probably with my father, which would probably be outcast, but he didn't like any other kind of rap music. And then like my sister's husband at the time, had like Spice One and DJ Quick and stuff like that

because he's from Cross Atlantic. he had all the blood music. Right. You know what I mean? So, and he had a bunch of CDs, and he had other stuff too. But so it really was more so the first thing that, I guess, signify my childhood and not something that was passed down. I think in California, at the time I was born and what hip-hop music had became, it was something that was hereditary because culturally, it aligned more so with gang culture. and gang culture is hereditary.

So Snoop and Quick and A, these people's, Mossbird banging on wax, these people, music gets passed down if you're into a certain kind of lifestyle. And I don't think it's on purpose. I don't think it's like some mischievous thing that's happening within the black community.

I just think it's- Creative epigenetics, it just gets passed down. It just is what it is. So I think when it came to blue and MERS and things like that, it was escaping. so to say, just because, and I don't want to make it seem like these people didn't grow where we grew up. Jackson lived in Sunny Cove. He still there to this day and parking the park villages and confident his pops live. Round the corner from a Stevenson Village in Carson and Aaron lived

in Gardino on like 134th or fifth. So these are still people that grew up in the same environments that we grew up in. But they just had a different outlook. And yeah, I remember being handed that, but I'm not making the connection to blue and common, and I'm not making the connection to Snoop and Slick Rick, the same way. A lot of people now don't make the connection to a Drake-O, the ruler, and Earl Sweat shirt, which goes in the MF Doom. Right. So I just think it felt familiar enough, but it felt different enough, and I think that kind opened up my eyes to the way that I viewed music. And, you know, like I said, that's

elementary to middle school, and I started making music. I dropped out high school in a 10th grade, and I started making music in the 10th grade, so it wasn't that far away. I'm glad you explained that to me because, like, I came from a generation where the boomers who raised us were heavy with the kind of desk pounding, no listening to secular music. Like, if you know the story, the Clark sisters, like, they had to sneak to listen to Stevie Wonder. Like, in what life is Stevie Wonder, like, contraband?

You know, so most of my punishments were always music-related. Like, I was listening to Prince at 12. And that was like, hell to pay, if you're caught listening to that, you know, whatever. You know, I was jarred listening to, I have a theory about give Richard Dye trying. I mean, that came out in 2003. I was 32 years old. There's a song in there called Heat. The song, which Dre has the drum store.

I kid you. I ain't playing. You know what I'm saying. Right. So my manager made an observation. My manager Richard Nichols made an observation. he said he played the Trump card. And I was like, what do you mean?

And he predicted. He says, gangster rap is officially over. And I was like, what are you talking about? Rich is one of those guys where, like, his heroes are like Greg Taked, Stanley Crouch, like the first generation of black critical thinkers, Rich will call me a six in the more. Like a lot of my personality is just the accumulated 20-year cycle of Rich calling me between 6 a.m., and 10 a.m. Where we just, for four hours, just this.

But more like, oh. And yo, man, like, the state of jazz is fucked up right now. So he'll go off on a tangent. And, you know, that wears off with you. But he had a theory. And this is around the time in which, let's cut like four or five years later when, you know, there's a point when graduation is about to come out for yay. And the third album from 50.

Curtis yeah Curtis yeah and there's the whole thing like who's gonna win who's gonna so naturally everyone's like had their money on 50 and we and rich is like nope this is gonna be the tortoise and the Harris story and 50 sort of planted his ending without knowing it and I was like how do you figure and he said that the trump card of the song heat the one trump card we never played like the threat the threat of gangsters yeah I'll kill you I'll kill you I I ain't planting my heart bleats for you, nigga. I can't wait to get to you. Right.

And so he said, never on history have we just ever said, nigga, I'll kill you. And his thing was like, basically the Andre 3000, like, don't pull the thing out unless you prevent. Like, if there's no killing that happens, then you're no longer scary. And it's almost after that moment where we stopped being scary, which as a result of now,

where you see, like, the blatant action is like no one's, scared of us anymore as they used to be because I feel like the threat of us was more. Yeah, but that's more M&M. That's not going to undo a 50. Explain. They do this thing, right, where they give you something or they help you with something and then act like it's their ideation, right? So when Q did, I'm going to let you have it and he dissent aid,

talking about how they stumped a homie out and all kind of stuff for early, banging on wag stuff. I can just say California, even kind of some more Texas type stuff or Bay stuff. There was actuality behind things that were happening there. A lot of things that happened with, you know, the original no limit kind of regime in the Bay Area. Like there was a lot of ties to those things, but it only involved us. So it was kind of taboo. They weren't involved. I think that even if you think about the beat to heat in a lot of the perception of kind of popular culture, why America's connectivity with 50 was through their affinity for M&M. And it was like he's with us.

Not that 50 cares about that. And I don't think he would agree with that at all. But I feel like 50s, I wouldn't call it a drop off. But just the way that they kind of moved on to something else happens when it's not in our hands. Because when I was a child. Oh, we're disposable. You know what I mean?

So when I was a child and 50 cent came out and kind of. it came out being a young black child with two hands. It's like we can carry both of these things. We're not ever the ones that sit us down. Like we didn't sit down Michael Jackson. We didn't sit down 50 cents. We don't sit down any of our artists.

Like they sit our artists down. So I think that a big part of that 50 thing was just white people being like, okay, what are we doing next? And A.L. Technology is a thing. So, you know what I mean? I was wondering if you were going to have this eye open a moment. I was waiting for some shit I never thought about.

Yeah, Justin Timberlake. And it's like, it's like white people. Like sometimes they put us down and it's like we never happen. A lot of the time, especially when it comes to the artists and our artists that they have an affinity for, like they feel like they choose when it's sulfur. But it's really, it's really interesting because it's such, it's so much buying power and such a control over kind of the way that we feel. think just based on, you know, institutional racism over hundreds of years that if they put them down, then we'll put them down to. Like, okay, so a person disposable if their market rate is.

So that's what I got to give 50, well, not get 50, but because he doesn't need anything for me. But when it comes to some of our artists, it's like what I saw with that, and I was young, so maybe this was me ignorant. They didn't make an impression on you? Like, what did you think that's a third grader? Well, I just thought, oh, the white people pick Kanye up and they put 50 down. It's like a toy. It's like they want to play with Kanye now.

want to play with 50 anymore. This is our version of a Negro that we like. We don't like the gangster Negro anymore. It's just a little bit much for us. Let's get the nigger in the backpack. It's kind of how I viewed the whole. That's how you viewed it. Yeah, even like the fucking standoff, like they're fighting and stuff like that.

It was very interesting. Slaver. Yeah, very interesting. But I get it. There's a point where, and I say this sort of theoretically, like, in your mind, And is there ever a cosmic shift where, like, we can have four people be at the top or these group of people? I think when it comes to black people, we would prefer for us all to be at the top. We're just aware of the structure in which we have to kind of exist in.

And I feel like a lot of the times when things happen, like black Marxism is still Marxism, which means the white people did it first. And, okay, maybe they won't kill us all for trying this now. So I think that there's a self-awareness of the world that we exist in in America for a lot of black people. And I feel like even like gangster rap is always going to be around. I can play you 10 songs from 10 motherfuckers and I got killed for him. And but if they don't touch it, then it's like it's not real. You get what I'm saying?

So I think it's a very, I just have kind of compassion for the artists or just our people when it comes to certain things because it's like I'm pretty sure if you walked around. Queens at that time, or just New York or California. Because before the game, the game 50 thing played more into how people perceived him where I come from than the Kanye thing. But I'm pretty sure no one was like we want to give up on 50 cent after the massacre came out. That's a pool of funding or a few with the label or the, those are those things. And like I said, those aren't, they aren't necessarily up to us. We just know one day we stopped seeing as much of a person as we did before.

but we're not really pulling those strings ever, you know? Shit. Because gangster rap is bigger than it's ever been, you know, because you can now, because now they like real criminals. So since they like real criminals and like 50 Cent took his upbringing and became a musician from it, 50 Cent is a person that knew Jam Master Jay. It's not like he just popped up out of thin air with a gun. But now you can pop out of thin air with the gun if the YouTube video has enough views.

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So if you Democrats, you don't wait to 2030, you better be hitting the ground. going a heart in the South now. And download Roland Martin unfiltered on the IHart radio app, Apple Podcasts. Or wherever you get your podcasts. Are you, and this is a dark question to ask, are you surprised you're still here? Oh, not at all. So you even pass that?

I'm from a racist place, though. Like, Long Beach is very racially segregated. Like, our gang dynamics are all racial. So I'm it doesn't it wasn't like surprising to me like it's still like that's getting better though But uh so have you envisioned have you dreamt or do you think in terms of like yeah in 2040 i will like for me back in 93 Like 2004 you crazy yeah like i couldn't imagine that well this the thing if you're talking about being alive i don't just it happens like There's somebody catch you, they catch you. And that can be, whether it's a car accident or cancer or things like that,

like anything can happen to anybody. I'm kind of more for that moment. Like, I don't fear those days. But it's very possible. But for me, when I was a kid, I knew, like, you sign your permission slip. You have this Los Angeles kind of perception. And then you get there and you're like, okay, most people out here that are black, people aren't from gangs, don't commit crimes, don't get in trouble.

So if you decide to be that small minority and something happens to you, I think everyone's kind of understanding that what they did. Like, it's not, sometimes you can just wake up and it happens to you, but no, it's pretty thought out. And, you know, you're indoctrinated by the lifestyle before you even do those things. You know, there's days of school and fights before you end up being from a clique and then you end up being from a clique and then before you end up being from a gang. and then you end up getting in 10 fights before you shoot one gun. And you end up shooting 10 guns before you shoot one person. And you shoot five people before you kill one person. And so it's like at any point you can be like, ah, this is a little too much.

Because I have a lot of homies from my neighborhood who like have never shot a gun before, like a lot. And no one thinks less of them, no one, because they're our friends. You know what I mean? But I don't think the outside world knows that if I start calling like my hummies, like from my neighbor specifically, probably eight, out of 10 people are at work right now. And then if I start calling just my overall friends, the numbers are going to increase. You know what I mean?

Of people that are just living regular day to day live, and if something happens, something happens. Are you allowed to get out of it? I've never heard someone speak of... All the shit from colors. I hate... This is when I hate this platform when I get... One of my fears of ever talking to someone

that has a proximity to this, this happened when... Wallow. was on the show and what he told me about what prison is actually like

is not like how it's sold to me on television and the jaw-dropping reality smet like my dad put me through hell to avoid

the Hollywoodization of what it was and you know while was borderline telling me like prison is one of the most serene and calm like

and in my mind And I'm still thinking of like, you know, I was forced to watch Scared Straight first came on. And I was six years old in 1977. Yeah. And so I grew up, you know, with the father that's pointing to. But he was supposed to do that, though. You know what I mean? I don't.

You don't think so? You know what? That's what I'm wrestling right now in my life. It's my friend. He's on a, he's on a, he got 25 years for attempted murder. He's on a level 401.80 yard, which is the higher security prison. You can be on. Look at his book and look at the message underneath it. Am I allowed to read this?

Oh, yeah, you can. All right. The green is you or the... Yeah, the green is me, but read the gray. Okay. So, green says... What's his name? Or are you allowed to... His name is... Let me see. Let me see, let me see. I got you. Yeah, you read your own narrative.

Yeah, I'm like... Okay, yeah, read all the gray. And I'll tell you what he's reading later. Okay. So there's a photo of a bunch of books and he says... One book. Oh, well, it's a big box. So I thought it's a few books. This shit's a great book.

I got to read more classics. I'm 13 chapters in out of 117. He's reading like the oddest here, some shit. Now... You send this to him? No, that's him. That's his life in prison on a 180 yard. So that ties in a little while I was saying.

I've never seen him with a book in my life. But one day you might read the Odyssey. One day somebody might get stabbed to death. But that's life. You know what I mean? That can happen at work or on the bus. What's the pharmaceutical dude that got poked up? Yeah.

It just happens, you know? So, I mean, your dad's kind of right, but I do understand what you're saying. I just think that when it comes to the street shit, I think people, human beings have an issue with accountability. And through the game of telephone, it becomes, and I can only speak for a while from, I don't know what happens in West Virginia or anywhere else, but it's not. I've received the worst version of that narrative, which then thus explains the rigid need for safety in my life because I've been told, like, life was cool up until 11. And then my dad's like, you're a threat, you're a threat, you're a threat.

So suddenly like, I mean, he was raising the Emmettill era. So you get what I'm saying? I can't walk behind white women. I got to run over here. Like I spent my whole life. And so to sort of hear... I mean, just everyone has their different methods. You know, my parents are old.

My mom is 70. My dad is around there a little bit younger. So, and my sister's old enough to be my mother. So... You're the youngest? Yeah, yeah. So I have a... It was just, don't let nothing happen to you, you know, come home.

But that's after a long bout with the reality of your. your current situation. So I think I was brought up in a very realistic situation. Like they knew they're coming from, my mom was born in Compton in the 1950s before a lot of black people start migrating, you know? So my family has been in California for a very long time. So I say that, to say that they had a lot of time to sit with their reality and know the ends and out and every nook and cranny of the community that they were in. And this is when the school country, was out and they was lynching people and saying people on fire and stuff like that. So to see Compton in the 50s and then to see Compton in the 90s and then we moved to Long Beach. Like,

I think they were able to be very honest kind of with me, especially things that kind of happened with my siblings earlier. I'll tell you off camera one day. But they were just a realistic approach to how I went through life and that translated in music. So to this day, like I don't really think about death or anything like that. I don't even think that my music or anything like that is that morbid? I just think it's realistic. But I don't think that a lot of people come from these environments with this sort of critical thought. Because my music is, I mean, there are things in my music that you'll find in Cypress Hill, that you'll find in King Tea, that you'll find in ice tea, whether there's early iced tea or body count and that you'll find

in, you know, a lot of things, you know. Yeah, I'm trying not to, because I also hate that whole, I'm pretty sure it irks you too like when people start the fetidization of like wow here's someone really eloquent that can you know that can be both sides of

and I know that's like well see I don't even get that mad at that because they don't know anyone so if you don't know anybody from these areas that you've only heard these horror stories about then you meet someone then you think that it's either extreme

It's either that they're really smarter, they're really dumb, instead of like this is a community with a diverse range of people that come from it. So I don't really blame them for that. I just think they haven't spent much time or any time in a lot of these areas. Because there are a lot. They're been taught to run away from it. You know what I mean? So I think that, like, that's something that is very, very, I mean,

Corey met a lot of my friends and he was like, yeah, I didn't know that it was like this out here because I think a lot of people put it on because they were working at the end of the day. So if you think that you're selling this within this industry, of course you're going to display whatever you think the best product is based on the perception. I started young enough and I had enough diversity musically and kind of in my friend group that I never, I still don't know what the industry or the music business is like about. I don't dabble. I don't do the parties. out on the other day i did um you think you'll like this we did a grammy museum thing right this guy that works um kCRW or something like that came and did our he was our mediator really really nice guy and

he was like you haven't done any press why and that must be something new for you and i was like yeah i don't like to really do press and i really think i had anything to say that wasn't in the music i think i did a good enough job with the music so i just didn't think we needed to say anything and then he was like well yada yada yada yada certain people might be misunderstand you and my response was why I just think most people aren't familiar with my music and that's okay and then he was like that's impossible because we're here and there's 200 people here and we i went project by project of who's heard this who's heard that and most people in the crowd have only heard probably one or two albums of mine and they stood in line for hours to watch us speak you know what i mean

so i think that there's such a disconnect nowadays between like the actual study of the music and just being able to just blatantly say, I like this, or just having an underlying appreciation for it that I think it's never really bothered me because I always came up in an era where it's been the internet, so more people dislike it than like it. But you see it, it's in your face, but you can survive off of it,

so it's not that much pressure, if that makes sense. Damn, man, you're dropping, I got a lot to think about now. I'm sorry. What is the fear that you've had since childhood that you find hard to let go. I just think being complacent, kind of just letting life happen to you

is something I've kind of seen a lot of my family, as I was saying earlier. Being complacent as in like satisfied? No, just like, like, what's the difference between, like, being, and I don't know they mean the same thing, which is like my viewpoint of, like, being content and, like, being complacent. Like, okay, I think you still have to strive

for something to be content with it. All my family you ever really gave anyone and, like, was, like, you get, like, church. and like Jesus and it's like okay pray and everything will be okay and I was always the dumbest shit in the world to me like it makes no fucking sense to me so I didn't want to be one of those people like I just see uh I saw a lot of people just not try

to do anything I think there's a lot of fear into that yeah for sure but I also think that I don't think people realize like the severity of like California redlining and like the segregation of how the city's built. So like if I got so many homies that have never been to the airport or like never been to unless you like in somebody elsehood

like never been to the valley or never been to. So going to North Hollywood is like an experience for them? Yeah, well they'll never go. Like I had never really been to certain parts of LA until I start making music. And I don't think a lot of people come to Long Beach or like it's like now it's a little bit different because the internet born I was growing up you didn't really venture out. that much into these other places. So I just think it's limited. Like I had, until I was a grown-ass man, like I didn't know where USC, where the UCLA was or any of these

kind of things. So I just think that people, a lot of people that grow up in like these kind of, in these ghettos don't really know where else to go or know how to venture out. Like, and maybe I could be speaking for myself in my limited worldview, but we weren't really intertwined or wherever like museums and live shows. I don't know one friend growing up that had ever been like, I'm going to a concert. I've never heard that in my life. Like, I've never heard of certain things until I started making music.

And I think just being in these bubbles kind of diminish us. I know in my family, that wasn't. Were you an exception to that rule, or you didn't start until you became an artist? Yeah, I never been to a concert before. When's the first time that you were a patron to watch someone perform?

And not like, I'm coming to support and I'm standing backstage with three songs. I'm out. Probably in my mid-20s. Who's the first time? first concert. Does it, no, see, does it count if, like, someone I know has a show and I happen to go? Or, like, you mean, like, actually?

But even then, like, if it's Erica or somebody or Jill, I'm going to watch from backstage because it's like, oh, my peer, I'm going to stop by, you know, I'll come through support. I hate that. I'm coming through support. Correction, I actually sat in the audience and watched Jill as if, like, a real, and watched from soup to nuts the entire show. But for you, like, is there someone that you? were a fan of that you went to go see, like, them perform,

or that part just passed you by? My mom wanted to go see a Mother's Day concert at the Hollywood Bowl. It was like Dana Ross with some shit, and I was like in my mid-20s, and we went there. When I was on tour once with Earl, we were in Vegas, and we went to see, he wanted to see some of Yeezas, so we were there for like five minutes,

because then they wanted to go do something else. He just, like, wanted to stop in really quick. I couldn't understand the hotel that they had the venue at. That might be it until like, I think we recently started watching shows during like festivals and stuff. We watched Tame Impala and LCD sound system at Primavera, I think, 2015, 16. And I had never heard Tame Impala before. So that was like a cool experience.

I know a couple of LCD sound system of songs, but I have. I've never really like been to any concerts like that if it wasn't like for working. But no, like I say, you got to have good people around you. Corey gave me a bunch of CDs to listen to when I was a kid because I had never, I hadn't heard a lot of stuff. So usually like, you know, that's the thing about hip hop is that people share. And like Alchemist is like that too. Like Tyler like that too, they'll give you stuff to listen to or stuff to watch and things like that.

So when it is like when someone tells me to listen to something, your pet, stitches or something, I always go back and research you. But I just, I just wasn't that aware. And I think that's kind of one thing that kind of helped me stay out of trouble was that I used to take the bus and the train to go to L.A. to record, it took like an hour and a half, hour, 45 minutes. And just seeing certain stuff, like being, I had never been Hollywood before in my life. So going there and being older, I was like 16, 17 when I started going a lot, it was like kind of escapism, even though it was close. It was just interesting. Like, it felt like a whole different world because I had never kind of seen those things or been in those areas before.

I used to go on every single, this guy had a studio on Selma that we used to go to, our guy, I think, was on my studio. We used to go to a lot, one of those plays streets. And I've been in every single one of those buildings. I've seen all them little bullshit ass museums and shops and things like that just because I had never experienced anything like that in my life. Once you get immersed inside of the river of the industry, has there been a figure that you allowed yourself to be sort of all struck like holy shit a meeting blah blah blah

i haven't really met that many people because i i kind of just work and go home like i've never really been like the hangout type of person so do you have a hero like sports no but i but i appreciate like kind of what people contribute to the world but like i just don't think that's kind of my personality but i don't think it's because um i think that i'm above it i just think i kind of just appreciate people who they are and what they do because that's very like baseline respect is like extremely important where I come from because it's like it can get you in a pickle so I think I just if you tell me that you a scientist for sure until you until I see that you until I see that you not a scientist

to you that's quest and because it's science that's the humming I do science like you know so person gets one chance to get your respect because you don't really get the lie you You don't get the lie like that because like, look at basic interaction, right? So it's like, say, say, it's going to sound stupid, but just follow me. You meet somebody one day and it's like, my name is whoopty-whoop and I'm from here. If I'm, oh, my name is Quest and I'm from the podcast. And it's like, oh, that's Quest, I'm from the podcast. And we just start hanging out.

And then like, then one day you meet Corey and said, oh, what's up, oh, Corey, you from the podcast? Quest from the podcast too. And then Corey go, I don't know that, nigga. Does this happen a lot? A lot. Then it's like, oh, you're not really from the podcast. You've been hanging out with us this whole time. Is this a California thing?

Like the idea of pulling someone's card. These are subjects that I only hear in California-based things. Well, yeah, but that's because, like, I just think people, but like, people just believe you. You feel me? It's like, if you over here, because it's not, we don't, it's not the best circumstances. A lot of these times these kind of redline under-service community. So it's like, you're just not lying about, oh, what's up?

I'm whoop and I'm going down the wrong path in life. Nice to meet you. It's like, that's not a thing. So what I'm saying is, if you tell me you from XYZ and your name is XYZ, I'm going to believe you until proven otherwise. So taking that same logic to music is like, oh, I'm so-and-so I'm a producer. I'm so-and-so I'm a producer. I'm so-and-so I'm a writer.

I'm so-saw-my-rapper. I'm so-I-n-you-love-it. I like your music or I don't like your music. I don't listen to people music if I meet them. It's like, and then if I meet you, like, you know, I'm not. I'm saying if you meet an artist and they say, tell you artists and, oh, can you play my song? Can you do this? I'm going to do it.

But I'm not going to go back and research and be like, do I think this nigga trash or not? Like, that's just not in my head, you know? I was raising the environment where, like, you kind of had to live in your truth because you didn't want. The alternative could be much worse. So I took that. What's the price of getting found out? Well, I mean, it's something as simple as like, if you say you from somewhere, you're not from there, you might get fucked up. If you say you're not from somewhere, you know, and you are from there, you might get fucked up.

you might get fucked up, somebody might kill you. So it's like at least, like, it's stupid stuff that you stuff. Because pride we used to be important, right? So I talked a lot of my homies and they'll be like telling these kids like, hey, man, if somebody run up on you and asks you where you from and they got a gun, say nowhere. But when I was a kid, it's like, nigga, you're supposed to die. Yeah, but when I was a kid, like, you're supposed to bang the hood and die and blah, blah, blah, blah. Because your pride is all you have.

And I think that now we just have more options. So what I'm saying is I took the, I was trusting in people's stances of who they were when it came to music. And I think that allowed me to meet or like work with some good people. For example, my first song that kind of was of some notoriety. It was a song called Blue Suede. We were in Toronto and we were supposed to do a session with the producer.

And they were like, the guy canceled. And they were like, well, this is another guy named Hagler you can meet with. He's not quite whatever they thought the other guy was. He's like, but he said he got some stuff. I believe that he has something because he said it. And then we got that one beat. But I learned that from just life.

That's not something I picked up in music where you second guess everything and you think everyone's lying. That's what I mean about the industry shit. It's like all smoke and mirrors. But if anyone ever said they wanted to work, I've never said no. It just haven't been that many people that wanted to work, which is fine. But what I'm saying is like, my life experiences of like

come from where I come from like you kind of have to stand on what you believe in and there are a lot of liars and things happen but that teaches you to kind of double down to your reality and kind of who you are I think it served me well and I think a lot of the times when people think about California or Los Angeles

they confuse a business economy with like an actual community of people and I don't think that they intersect that often like I don't think that there are that many California local, especially black people, like hanging out at the Soho House or at the Capitol building or, you know, these other places where people might run into those kind of instances, I think is very, very separated.

Yeah, music has been something that's like, I'd look at it like, it was just my job. Like, it's never, like, been the end-all be-all for me personally. Not a passion? Oh, no. But I appreciate it. Do you have a hobby? Fishing? My, man. Video games?

I just, you know, I do music and then I live life. I think I didn't have the ability to kind of create a routine or habits or thing like that when I was a kid. So I think that's kind of my hobby now, so to say. I like to eat well. But after work, after errands, after everything else, cooking just doesn't happen. That's why I started using Factor. Factor delivers fresh, never frozen, ready to eat meals. Designed by dietitians for balanced nutrition that actually fits my life.

prep, no cleanup, just heat, eat, and move on. And just like that, I get my time back. No dishes, no poor choices, no dinner stress. I don't have to plan. And somehow, I'm still eating meals like grilled salmon, creamy shrimp pasta, and flavorful chicken bowls. Food that tastes like I worked for it, even though, well, I didn't. Factor helps me stay on track. High protein, low carb, no dairy, whatever the goal. Right now, get up to $90 off and free shipping. Hurry, this. Hurry, This offer won't last long. Go to Factor Meals.C.A. and use code easy.

That's up to $90 off and free shipping, but only with the code easy at Factormeals.ca. Factor. Canada's number one meal delivery service. Behind every night spent making the kids' lunches, there's a lot of suspense. Will they finally eat the veggies? Will the pesto survive the first bite?

Will the lunchbox come home empty, half full, or come home at all? And will you finish episode 8 before you're done slicing the cucumbers? Get Bell pure fiber internet with craved Netflix and Disney Plus from $94 a month. Price guaranteed for two years on internet with a two-year term and auto pay credit. Visit bell.com for details and to check availability. Bell, connection is everything.

On the new podcast Solita, we share the messy reality of traveling alone as a woman. I can wait four hours for the next bus or this random dude is offering me a ride on his motorcycle. I chose option B. I'm Julie Pinero. and I travel by myself because it's a rare space where I can say yes without asking anyone else first. I'm on a mission to reclaim the word solita, trading the pity for possibility.

Every time I tried to be alone, I kept meeting people, and they were like, you smiled at us. Not a lot of people smile around here. It's when you're alone that you're most receptive to the world as it is and not the lies you're sold about it. It can be a time where you push your limits, change your mind, or wake up to a new version of yourself. So whether you're a solo travel veteran

or you're too nervous to book your first trip, I hope you listen to Solita on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. When I was 14 years old, I was kidnapped and held captive for nine months. I survived, and I've spent my life exploring how other people survive what should have destroyed them. I'm Elizabeth Smart, and these are the survivors. files. I just remember this low, taunting voice next to my ear saying, shut up, don't say anything.

Every week, I'm with survivors who lived through the unthinkable. I knew if he woke up, without a doubt, he was going to hurt me. I started feeling that there was someone at the end of my bed, and I just started screaming. They are abducted, stalked, controlled, and nearly silenced. But these aren't stories about what's taken from them. There's stories about what it takes to make it out alive. Listen to the Survivor Files with Elizabeth Smart on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Didn't catch the latest Roland Martin unfiltered podcast?

Here's what you missed. And the argument is, do you want to win? If you don't win, you have no power. It's real. Those are the very people who I always always. say vote against their own economic interest and they complain about the very thing to receive. It's raw. I knew that the issue of transgender athletes was not going well with a lot of black men.

Roland Martin unfiltered. I went off. I said, this is exactly what I'm talking about. Y'all going to scream at Chanel, but you don't want to see a black luxury company in the same vein. Catch Roland Martin's daily commentary on the Black Information Network. 12 seats, those are moving south. So if you Democrats, you don't wait to 2030, you better be hitting the ground going hard in the South now.

And download Roland Martin Unfiltered on the IHart Radio app, Apple Podcasts. Wherever you get your podcasts. I definitely want to talk about the series, which is still in my mind a possibility. Like, I refuse to accept, you know, endings. And I'm talking about the Vince Staples show on Netflix. which the hammer came down at the end of season two. I would like to know, okay, so you play a, like, a fictionalized version of yourself

on this show that, you know, is, to me, like, surrealist comedy. Where does the character on that show end, and where does the real Vince Staples begin? Like, when it's cut, do you just go home and it's like, I'm Vin Staples or, like, I mean, I don't think I learned that yet. Like, when it came to the show, I kind of was learning how to do everything on the fly. And I think I had so many different things to do. It was never, like, just doing one thing.

So from learning how to write, to learning how to act, to learn how to produce, I had to, like, kind of learn how to do everything at once. So I didn't really have, I never, like, mentally prepared to do the show. Was it always the intention of the story arc of the show? Like, I will say that season one was very much. surrealist, where season two had this arc of the funeral and the road trip of it all. Benjability. Yeah.

That's a network note. Oh, so their note was instead of... Has cord. Present. He right there. So that was a network note. But the whole season is networked notes. The show...

They told me I couldn't make the show I wanted to make. By the way, when we shockers, you came to game night. That was the most shocking. And this is a night where, like, I mean, Monarch. Michael Lewinsky for the first time and like other people like, holy shit, like weird I was playing with Megan the Stallion. But when you showed up, we all looked at each other like, shit. Like you always struck me as a person that was like, I ain't doing that corny shit.

Yeah, Quint asked me to go. There you go. That's my guy. Thank you, Quinn. So otherwise you would have. Not at all. That's my guy. If you asked me, I ought to go.

But she's one of those. She asked me to go. She would have just send it to me and not like had a conversation I would. wouldn't it showed up. Was it cool? Yeah, it was cool, man. I was real nervous. I was like, oh, man, I hope you don't think I'm cornice.

Nah, I got some ice cream, man. It's all good. Okay. But you told me at Game Night that there was a hidden episode or a lost episode from season one that never made it to the... Yeah, but see, season one is like, it would just... I think that I look at this show like it was a cool experience to kind of learn how to do something, but it was never like as intended.

The whole thing is just me trying to figure it out. Were you satisfied with the... results? No, not at all. Oh, really? It wasn't that good. Oh, damn. It's okay.

Do you think of me less because I love the show? No, not at all. I don't know. So you had a more extreme version of that show. My statement was, correct me if I'm wrong. Look at Corey. The ideas that I had were too esoteric for the audience. And this would be a great show if it was on HBO, but we can.

can't make this at Netflix. Am I right? They have trillions. That's my point. But it's okay. You just add some fried chicken and like some like a mom and a family union and like a big mom. So seriously like all the,

I love the extreme of it. I love the fact that it's. And it like I love surrealism fine too. It's like I don't, I don't feel no way about it. But it's like yeah, it was just, I look at like a learning experience,

you know what I mean? But I think you have to know. to work within the confines of what needs to be created. And I think coming from music, television is so much more specific, especially like streamer television because it's based on certain things. So you just have to find your way to work within the algorithm. And I think that was a very, very important lesson to learn. The original idea was way more of a yet than what it ended up being.

And then we had to kind of find a way to serialize a little bit more because that was a request. And then trying to make something a little bit more. creative, not creative, but just a little bit more. Deep rooted as far as like a camera selection, kind of our literary sources and kind of alluding to certain things and kind of

paying tribute to certain films and books and things like that. And, you know, along the line, we just lost audience. And moving to Canada and things like that, it was a lot that had to happen. It was kind of just fell apart. Damn, I'm disappointed to hear that version of it because for me I thought it was such a step in the right direction because I think that we've been told like our story has to be just base level reality and point A to point B point C like basically the rules of an old model and the reason why I loved the the surrealist

nature of the show because and I'm into this experimental phase where you know we've been taught to survive and hustle so much that we don't allow ourselves to do the opposite of that, which is like dream. And sometimes if you tell a story that even if it's jarring enough to be like, what the hell is going on to here? Like, that's us thinking.

And that puts us in a dream space more than just like... Yeah, and I think it worked a lot. Just having to write so many episodes, like getting so many knows, not really being able to produce. Like, we shot the first season with no playback. Like we had iPhones recording the screen to see what was going on so we can make our

adjustments and things like that. Well, you know, it's different budgets. But, and I think we had a decent budget. You got to figure out how to allocate and then moving to a place with basically with virtually no black people and then only getting two Americans per episode to go up to Canada. You had to learn how to budget correctly and how to kind of just work with what happens. So it was a really, really good learning experience for me, at least. And I learned a lot about overarching.

thing but the truth for the matter is like you know on one hand you want to be able to try to explore these things but on two you know they know it works and what doesn't work because you know 10 that 10 times more people watch nemesis or something like that than my show so you got to know it works has this discouraged you from ever wanting to attempt something of this level again I mean who knows but as it right now I'm not I'm not doing that right now but old schools like I said it was a really glad experience where you met a lot of good people Like, especially season two, we met a lot of good people. Season one as well.

But it was just, it was very, very, very interesting. What secret talent do you have that you're still trying to hone that we don't know about? I don't know how to do anything, bro. Cook? That's a life skill, though. I'll learn that over time. You got to feed it. There's got to be a secret talent, man.

I got secret talent. Corey? That's just slavery though All right man I'm gonna let you have it Now I'm just saying slavery You know That's just they got us for a reason

But yeah Now I'm pretty surface level bro As surprising is in my scene Yeah but I don't I don't narcotic their alcohol So like I gotta dip My memory is getting a little bit worse But I'm working on it

I'm trying to get my shit back Yeah you definitely strike me As a person who never lets The small shit slide Like you I let's so much slide, bro. I don't hold anything against anybody. But I remember, like, random things.

Okay. I'll be like, oh, that was actually Tuesday. I'll remember, like, insignificant shit, but I'm not like, I'm not like a grudgy person. Is there an album that you have listened to, like, more than five times in a 24-hour period? Like, well, probably, yes, when we're working on music, That's all I listen to.

I listen to a couple of things. So you don't allow other music in when you're working on a project? I listen to the same couple songs, bro, for my entire life. It was surprised. I do listen to new music too, but if I'm, like, working on a project and I, like, listen to it, like, all day, every day because I got to figure out how to make it, you know what I mean? Okay.

But I listen to... Oh, shit. I'm trying to think why I was to do a lot. Like, okay, you're in the car and your phones on Bluetooth. What is... I don't listen to me. music in the car. I'm probably like a book, if anything, but usually just quiet. How many audio books do you read? A couple. I read the same things over and over again. What books do you read? Save the Cat. It was

important. Who wrote that? Shit, I don't fucking know. It's a screenwriting book. Okay. Then I have, I'll tell you right now. Hold on. I read this. I was reading like a lot of film stuff. Okay. Just how to learn how to make the show. There's a book that Peeway Herman recommended that he read. That's hilarious. Well, yeah, he... That's funny as hell. No, there's a book that he followed to make Pee Wee's Big Adventure

that is pretty much the Bible for screenwriters right now. Blake Snyder, bro, saved the cat. Then I listened to The Method by Isaac Butler, trying to learn some acting shit, but I never finished it. The other day, Kenny told me to listen to the Miles Davis unabridged. autobiography. I got to that. I got a little bit of John Steinbeck here and there. Okay.

And Razor's Edge. But I kind of, those are the only audiobooks I listen to. The direction of Crybaby is, hats off to it. And you, brother. It's structured like a funkadelic album where George Clinton in one song will have like microcourses, a different bridge. And it's almost like it's seven courses inside of one song. And so, like, can you just talk about the creative process of what led you to want to do this album in this way and how it came on so authentic sounding?

I think, I mean, just from, I guess, life experiences are kind of where I grew up. That music is accessible, I would probably say. Like, I got songs like this on every project. It's just few and far between because no one can play instruments. that was issue that we had with this album knowing knows how to play the instruments so I had to kind of find things that kind of fit

yeah I got something like fire a lot of summertime 06 is pretty drum and bass heavy a couple synthesizers here and there you know it's a Joy Division flip for the album cover FM is a duke flip for the album cover um

hell can wait is a robin in the hood sublime flip for the album cover so it's like I think it's just having enough access in time and kind of cachet for people to make what you ask them to make, to be 100% honest, like, committed. Was it harder to execute this record

than the other projects that came before? Way easier. I mean, I did it by myself. I always make music by myself, but it's harder when it's like work with other people in their schedules and things like that. And I think technology is to pass.

So I was like, hey, send me 90 beats. And then I'll send like one song that I find that's close enough to what I'm trying to do. But, like, I think the familiarity is there just because of how I grew up, you know what I mean? And then timing where I grew up, because when I was in school, I think my first year in high school was 2007. So that's a gym class hero was big, NER&D was big, Farage was always big, Lynn Biscuit was always big. And that's like a rap group to me. Lombie you got enough white people

to where it's like you run across certain things and also the Spanish community is big in the different kinds of music so I just think it was around but to make this I just think it was I never have a reason for anything that I make I know it's going to sound crazy but it's just like

something just pop up in my head and I'm like I want to make this is what this is what all the songs are and this is what it needs to sound like and I kind of have everything done in my head before I start so I don't think that's crazy at all if anything I think this is what leads to the authenticity of it

because I mean nothing about you comes off pretentious or calculating. I mean, I'll be the first to admit with music, I'm so calculating. I will write fake record reviews of what I want my pitchfork rating to be. I will like because, you know, again, I was kind of raised in a people-pleasing environment.

So, of course, I'm like, I got to make a critically claimed record on and you know true artistry is actually just like you know how do I feel today random day whatever September 9th 2028 like how do I feel today and I mean you can clearly feel that when you when you listen to this even before I heard do you even know the devil one of the questions I wanted to ask you initially I was going to ask you were you atheists but I am not an atheist. However, I do not believe in the concept of a devil. I believe like a devil was a spooky figure that was created to keep us.

Before people brush their teeth and shit. Yeah, they didn't know what they were talking about. To keep, right, to keep us in line. What is your spiritual practice like? Do you, are you an atheist? Are you? Nah, I mean, I don't really practice. I want to Catholic school, though.

I don't want to Christian school as a kid for a long time. I want to St. Apotho the Great, you know, in Compton. I want to Our Lady of Victory in Compton. And I want to Opton Christian Academy in Compton, Fourth of the Wave. So I know all of the Jesus shit. And my whole family's inside that shit, it's just never. I mean, I look at it like this. Like, if God is real, I'm going to hell anyway.

And if God not real, then it's like, cool. Either way, either way is like, I don't really have a dog in the fight. But I do, I do appreciate. The buildings. The buildings are nice. I think structurally, certain things are very important to get people through their days. And life is hard. But I feel like it's like, say you don't care about God, right?

And then you go around trying to like, aha, and like this proved that shit. Like, that's some loser shit. Like, if you don't let Granny pray and do her shit, she's going to die. Like, let Granny pray is how I look at it. So is your neelistic approach to this? Do you acknowledge that it's a protective. measure, a self-reservation measure for you? Well, see, I don't really-

Do you believe in anything? No, but I don't think I need to be preserved. Like, who the fuck am I? I'm not special. I think, you see enough shit. It's like, you see somebody, you see somebody check out, right? It's like, I don't know her, bro,

but I know he's not here no more. And most people see people die, like, in the hospital or grandma at the house and everybody holding hands and crying. sees anybody die like behind the target and the fat burger like so it's like it's a different thing when you see i think life and death in certain regards and i think i just have had enough life experiences to where i'm like we don't really know what's happening right now and i think that's okay with me but i also don't feel like i'm like this special divine creature i think we all the same

all right i've been purposely trying to avoid anything that leans towards like again fetishization tell me what it was like in your neighborhood stories. Have you seen someone die before? I've seen a lot of things in this life. How old were you when you first? I don't remember. It was a long time ago. It's just like people die.

You know what I mean? The way I look at it. And I look at it as if it's like a part of life. But all I'm saying is like if the reason I bring that up is because if someone's in their final moments and it's up to it's all that they have to be like I'm holding on to this thing because if I pass it. away right now, I'm going to go to heaven and I'm going to see God and my grandma and my uncle and my best friend. You know how foul of a motherfucker you got to be to be like, that's not true.

It's like, what the fuck are we doing? You know what I mean? Like when everybody died, it's like, I've seen a lot of things, you know, try to wish that way out of it and everybody say, God or Jesus or this or everybody do it. So I'm like. So do you believe that what people believe will wind up being the structure for which their life will go. Like if your grandmom believes in heaven and hell, so go to heaven, I don't believe in that. I believe that we just go to the next world.

I would say I hope that they get whatever they strike for, no matter what that is. I hope if you want to go to heaven, you go to heaven. I hope if you want to go to Temecula, you can go to Temecula. I don't know what's what. I just hope everybody gets what they, what they aspire for, you know? Who's the funniest person that you know?

I don't know, Dave or D-Boy. Yeah, either Dave or D-Boy. You're speaking of Chappelle? Yeah, yeah, for sure. Dave Chappelle or D-Boy, the Hummey, or Black Tee, pretty funny. Okay. It's them three.

What's the fastest way to lose your trust in someone? I don't ever get to that point. So you kind of walk in a situation, knowing that you're probably going to disappoint me, so let me just lower my expectations and not even that it's like your life's not about me right so it's like as crazy as my sound say somebody does something i don't necessarily agree with i try to take into consideration their life for their circumstances or whatever their person going through at a moment and it's not about me and i know i can figure out whatever i have to figure out so i don't really

take i don't really take anything that personal except for like like if you care too much about the situation that's going to irritate me. It's like somebody do some fouls in there. If I keep saying sorry, it's like, leave me along. All right, I'm going to take that person. But other than that, but only because, like, you're irritating me. But other than that, I don't take nothing serious. There's no skin off my back. I like to eat well. But after work, after errands, after everything else, cooking just doesn't happen. That's why I started using Factor. Factor delivers fresh, never frozen, ready to eat meals. Designed by dietitians for balanced nutrition that actually fits my life. No prep, no cleanup. Just heat, eat, and move on. And just like that, I get my time back.

No dishes, no poor choices, no dinner stress. I don't have to plan. And somehow, I'm still eating meals like grilled salmon, creamy shrimp pasta, and flavorful chicken bowls. Food that tastes like I worked for it, even though, well, I didn't. Factor helps me stay on track. High protein, low carb, no dairy, whatever the goal. Right now, get up to $90 off and free shipping. Hurry, this offer won't last long. Go to factormeals.ca and use code easy. That's up to $90 off and free shipping, but only with the code easy at factormeals.ca.

Factor, Canada's number one meal delivery service. Behind every night spent making the kids' lunches, there's a lot of suspense. Will they finally eat the veggies? Will the pesto survive the first bite? Will the lunchbox come home empty, half full, or come home at all? And will you finish episode 8 before you're done slicing the cucumbers?

Get Bell Pure Fiber Internet with Craved Netflix and Disney Plus from $94 a month. Price guaranteed for two years on internet with a two-year term and auto pay credit. Visit bell.za for details and to check availability. Bell, connection is everything. On the new podcast Solita, we share the messy reality of traveling alone as a woman. I can wait four hours for the next bus or this random dude is offering me a ride on his motorcycle. I chose option B. I'm Julie Pinero, and I travel by myself because it's a rare space where I can say yes without asking anyone else first.

I'm on a mission to reclaim the word solita, trading the pity for possibility. Every time I tried to be alone, I kept meeting people, and they were like, you smiled at us. Not a lot of people smile around here. It's when you're alone that you're most receptive to the world as it is and not the lies you're sold about it. It can be a time where you push your limits, change your mind, or wake up to a new version of yourself. So whether you're a solo travel veteran or you're too nervous to book your first trip, I hope you listen to Solita on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. When I was 14 years old, I was kidnapped and held captive for nine months.

I survived, and I've spent my life exploring how other people survive what should have destroyed them. I'm Elizabeth Smart, and these are the Survivor Files. I just remember this low, taunting voice next to my ear saying, shut up, don't say anything. Every week, I'm with survivors who lived through the unthinkable. I knew if he woke up, without a doubt, he was going to hurt me. I started feeling that there was someone at the end of my bed, and I just started screaming. They are abducted. stalked, controlled, and nearly silenced.

But these aren't stories about what's taken from them. There's stories about what it takes to make it out alive. Listen to the Survivor Files with Elizabeth Smart on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Didn't catch the latest Roland Martin unfiltered podcast? Here's what you missed. And the argument is, do you want to win? If you don't win, you have no power.

It's real. Those are the very people who I always say vote against their own economic interest, and they complain about the very thing to receive. It's raw. I knew that the issue of transgender athletes was not going well with a lot of black men. Roland Martin unfiltered. I went off, I said, this is exactly what I'm talking about. Y'all going scream at Chanel, but you don't want to see a black luxury company.

in the same vein. Catch Roland Martin's daily commentary on the Black Information Network. Twelve seats. Those are moving south. So if you Democrats, you don't wait to 2030, you better be hitting the ground going hard in the South now. And download Roland Martin unfiltered on the IHart Radio app, Apple Podcasts.

Wherever you get your podcasts. There's a thing that often happens in your music, which is kind of the, It's not often, but it's, it happens enough that I want to ask about it. It's the idea of, like, the abrupt cutoff. You've had a few songs in which literally... They're just done. Even your Sprite commercial is cut off at the hell.

Is that a... Well, I didn't know how to loop beats for a long time. So... So this is just you, like, it's songs over. Yeah, the song just ended when they ended, trying to do as much as possible. And I think that's just something that people seen It's something that I did So I just wasted 20 minutes of like trying to analyze

Like everywhere you said that just literally abruptly cuts the song on. I mean at a certain point of time You started doing it for a feel But yeah I just didn't have My songs are like 45 seconds But that's that wouldn't feel weird to me Because that's like some old like punk rock

CD they hand out at the liquor store type shit When I was a kid Like Zeds and stuff like that But yeah I think it just kind of tied into something that we A lot of the things that end up happening in my music is because of lack of access. Then they become stylistic, if that makes sense.

It does. What is the pressure of being the chosen one or the family breadwinner? Like, how do you establish boundaries? How comfortable are you with the word no? It's not that bad because my family, like, on some urban diaspora shit, like, don't nobody asks for nothing. You might have to pay for a funeral every once in a month. a while but I don't aspire to live like a white person so like I'm good you know we I don't have any

family members that are like no one's ever can't even like hey can you help me pay for college like that because my family not trying to go to college like this would be real like anybody in my family like that's just not wait man in the last five seconds I went from wait a minute how how did you escape that bullet because the amount of motherfuckers that I have put in college is... Don't nobody want to go to college, man?

Yeah, that's not I mean, that's not our thing. Hey, I need a honey real quick. I pay you back on Thursday. Or I need a lawyer. That's like as far as it go. And then the most money I spend on shit is like a funeral is like $15,000.

And that's every couple years. Like maybe somebody die every what, what, court four or five years? Yeah, it's not like, it's not a lot. So there's no burden of being you and your family structure because

No, not at all. Mm-mm. They leave me along. And are you essentially treated the same? I ain't never been like to fit in. You know what I mean? So I don't think But is that you sort of

I'm trying to figure out if you naturally came this way, or like people that have this outlook to me are in constant it's it's a level fight or flight that's rarely talked about where you know said manager who weird enough one of my last conversations with him was actually about you if you remember the string of chapel shows that he did a radio city my manager rich who's really like the the fifth beetle in the in the root circle you know, he lived the last two years of his life with leukemia, and I would give him an update. So the night that we played with you was the last night that I had a fluid conversation with him before just everything stopped working.

And actually, no, the night before, listeners, Chappelle did, I think, maybe a string of 14 or 15 shows at Radio City. And we sort of had a role in playing behind certain people. So Vince was our next night. And so Rich asked me like, well, who are you backing up? I said, you know, da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da. And he was like, oh, that's what's up. Like, so he was like... That's cool.

That's super cool. Like, literally, like, the last three minutes of our conversation was like, like, for him to like something, he's very much like you. He hates everything. No, I'm not saying you hate everything. I know exactly what you're saying. I know exactly what you're saying. But when he said... He's not excited.

No, no, I fuck with him. And that's... And that's when I was like, okay, I'm gonna... That's tight. That's how I, like, gotten to your, the curiosity of what your world is. What is your most treasured possession? Like a... I'm not going to leave here until I find out you're passionate about something.

You mean like an item or like something like from like life or, you know what I mean? Like physically. Okay, an item. Yeah. Oh, shit. That makes it harder. Okay. Life then.

I mean, I value my family, like my friends. Because that's like a few and far between it. No, it's kind of a lifestyle choice. A lot of people end up dead, so you make it this long. It's like, it's pretty cool. That's pretty much it, though, bro. It's my ability to, like, just live comfortably, like, wake up every day and live comfortably. That's, like, really all I ask for.

Yeah, but that's how I always said, like my family and my friends. I'm pretty not insulated, but like I said, I was still where I grew up at. So I have the same routine and same friend and shit like that since I was in elementary school. So I value that. What's the most difficult part of your life or profession that none of us get to see or none of your circle gets to experience? To be honest, bro, the wildest thing, just hearing people say stupid shit, because none of the things that we, I don't want to say none of, but a lot of the things that we make ourselves become victims to or necessary. And like, I think a lot of it, I'm not to keep doing the same thing, but a lot of it falls on like Corey. Because I've never, like I've never had these worries.

And Corey, we always told the truth. And they're going to sign you, but they don't really want to sign you. So you got to figure this out. Cool. Hey, ain't none of these songs going to work. So we need to go tour. Cool. It's never been like a, I never aspire for nothing but comfort.

And like I said, I'm still where I grew up at. I'm still living in a regular life. And that's enough for me because I grew up with like my mom cashing checks at the liquor store down the street. And when I figured out like we had a kind of sorry mom, I love you. We was moving to my sister moved to Atlanta. She moved my nephew and my niece and small family out there. So I was on. I'm going to take my mom out there.

And we had to call my mom. And we was like, how much money did you make a year trying to try to make? We made some tax you trying to figure out how much we need to make. And it was so small. And I had a really good quality of life as a kid. But the amount of money she made, of course, my dad did what he did when he was around. But my mom, by around, I mean incarcerated, not like absentee father thing. But she made so little money and we had everything that we needed that complaining just seems ridiculous to me.

Like, to me, it's really not that serious. And I think there's a certain level of reality that comes into knowing who you are because if you don't know who you are, you're going to die. Like, and where I come from is how I always looked at him when my parents told me literally growing up. So, like, I was, I was, I'll see my pop's not too long ago. And we talked about, it was my cousin's birthday, and then he made us, he had me go over there with him. And my sister got picked up from school. We used to have to walk. So we would see my pops pick up, my sister, and we walked to school.

And then one of my cousins was like, yeah, you already made us walk home. And we used to see you drive by and they'd be hiding shit. And my dad was like, well, you had to know the people in your neighborhood and around you. because you need these people one day. And- So that's by design? Yeah. Did you buy that?

He's right. Because when Long Beach has racial conflicts, and it's like I know all the Mexican people that live on 7th Street, they're probably not going to shoot me. You get what I'm saying? Or I know certain people that live here, certain people that live here,

and I used to take the bus places and I used to, I've caught the train places, but I've always knew who I was. So if we reverse that into music, right? I'm not the most knowledgeable musically. I'm not the best salesman. I'm not the greatest performer. I'm not the most eccentric personality.

I'm not to write things. I'm like a decent writer. So I know what I am. And then I just try to figure out how to amplify that thing that I'm good at. But by knowing what I'm good at and knowing what viewpoint I have with the world, I also have a realistic understanding

of if that's what the world actually wants. So based on me never kind of being like, nothing about me says I'm going to be this, huge musician that's, you know, touring globally in arenas and stuff like, I never saw that for myself personally. Not saying it can't happen. I'm saying it won't happen, but just that's not something I aspired for. So it's nothing difficult about it because, like, I'm able to provide for my family writing about my perceived reality of a small niche subculture within California within the black community. That's only 13% of the U.S. population. So, because of being,

being able to buy a house or have a car and doing that, in my opinion, just seems fucking ridiculous. So there's no stress. You know what I'm saying? And then people treat you differently when you start acting differently. But do you not believe in growth or? Yeah, I do believe in growth. But like, you have to define growth like per circumstance. Like you can grow past certain people and past certain things. But are you communicating that properly? Because if somebody called me like politics and I'm like hey I'm not fucking around with that right now and they're going to say okay no one's going to be like oh man fuck this nigga yada yada yada but I'll spend enough time where I've grown up at and I know enough people there like I think a lot of the times the unspoken thing is

that people are lying so when it's like when you lie about who you are and you lie about what you've done and you lie about certain shit in the streets you lie about all these other things then people come back and pull your car but you got to think of just to be real I'm I've never had a security guard. I've never gotten assaulted. I've never got in robbed. No one's ever came out in seven staples is not a real gang member. No one's ever came out in seven staples in anything like this or that. But it's not because I'm some super tough persons because I always been nice to people. And I've always been understanding of people and I treat people with respect. So maybe one day, one of the few things I've done, because I ain't done a bunch of shit to a bunch of people. I just

think that would be kind of like self-hate like coon shit. But if something happens because of something I've done in my past, I got to eat that. And it's up for me to put in my work and tell the children, tell our children, tell leave something for my grandchildren to be like, okay, I'm acknowledging my reality of my circumstance. Because when my pops got high and listened to last post on the couch and was like, I hate crackers, he meant that shit. So I don't come from an environment where people lie.

You get what I'm saying? I don't come from it. And like, maybe Corey can even more off-camera context of that. But I think that you in the streets and then you, not to come, not just to round it out, you're in the streets and they give you another name and then you do all this other stuff. And then it's, and then one day you turn 25 or 26 and it's like you're just yourself again because you've lived long enough through the childhood angst to just be exactly who you are. And I think I made music at the exact same time that I was getting in trouble.

And I made music at the exact same time I dropped out of high school. And the exact same time I started getting in the streets and the exact same. same time I grew up. I made music through my kind of prepubescing years into like becoming a mature adult. So music has always been something that I've done and I've never done music for other people. So the people who, my friends who look at me have never looked at me like, as Vincent and he's going to be a rapper now, he's going to do this. It's never changed. I've just done the same thing my entire life, you know? How do your friends adjust to what I will call your integrity code? Like, you strike me as a person that integrity is step one with you.

Do they adjust to you or do they try to pull you out of that? I think that's just where I come from. I think... Are all of them this principle? I think there's a level of intelligence that's not spoken about now as to do with public school systems and raillining and things like that. So you have some people that are smarter than others. I'm not going to pretend that that's not a thing. What I'm saying is if you meet a lot of institutionalized older black men or a lot of people that came from the streets or the people that kind of raised us in these communities, a lot of them.

are well read. A lot of them have principles. A lot of them know the laws. A lot of them know a lot of these things. We just don't highlight those people as much. But I think that you have to kind of have these principles if you're drawing your own rules and your boundaries in a police state that is anti-black and that is hyper-capitalist. Okay. So if not Long Beach where you're very familiar with your environment and whatnot, where is the most ideal place? Assuming that you've least world traveled a few times in your life, where would be the ideal destination of where you would like to die? If not Long Beach? Long Beach is not the option.

Probably like Compton, Seal Beach. Motherfucker, I mean like outside of California. Am I lying? Corey, where would you like him to wind up? In the world? In the world. Corey love Long Beach now. So you lost with that one.

I think this place is in the world that he does love. Like, I think he's found love in Tokyo. Yeah, I like, I like everywhere I've been except for, like, Austria. Australia, we have really good times of Australia as he's coming up. Yeah, Austria was too hot. In the south of France, it flies everywhere. Dog, yeah. And the food is disgusting.

We opened up a Thai dollar sign in the south of France. And it was not ideal? They went on a boat tour, and then he made them, the guy that drove the boat, made them dinner. Okay. So that was cool, but I wasn't fucking around. Wait till you're 40. No, I'm playing with you.

I don't like getting on boats with people from Europe. That's borderline the end of the episode. What do you consider your greatest achievement? Staying grounded. It's extremely kind of hard. I see it being a very difficult thing in this business. So just kind of remaining yourself is something that while still growing, I guess, is interesting to me. now that I'm older and I can kind of see it.

So I think that that's something that I probably had to work very hard at in retrospect. I just haven't got there yet, but I'm pretty sure that's it. Well, because this was such an enlightening conversation, I feel like I knew I wanted a powerful opening one. And now that I'm on my last question, which is number 51, I feel weird asking it. But only because the character of death is so priming. prevalent. And I don't think it's by design, but it's just the way that you refer to death

or the possibility of it happening is so casual. How would you prefer your exodus from this life to be? I mean, look, whatever card is pulled is fine with me. You know, I think that's literally the point of life, you know, that's the jackpot. You die. And then Now you've lived so we can assess it from point A to point B. And yeah, it's just something that happens to everybody. So I think that that's literally why we're alive is to, because we're really not here that long if you really think about it. Yeah.

So yeah, I think the story always rounds itself out. So not to end on a total downer. I will end with what is the greatest love of your life? I would say something simple as like family, but I think it's just, to be honest, it's just the ability to have creativity. Because without that, my perspective on the other things don't matter as much. Because I view life through a creative lens. And if I wasn't able to do that, then it would be miserable for everybody else around me. So that's very important to the people around me and myself.

Without that, I don't know what we have. have what going on. Corey, I highly regret ducking and dodging the responsibility of working with this human. That's funny. Not since the days of DeAngelo

and passing up on brown sugar have I regret it not being a part of the creative story. So we can hopefully fix that. Dude, I really appreciate you giving me a stellar conversation. And I am...

I appreciate you having me. Really a fan of your creativity. And I can't wait to see what's next. And thank you for inspiring. Thank you, man. I appreciate you. Ben Staples, ladies and gentlemen, and we will see you on the next go-round

of the Questlove show. Thank you. The Questlove show is hosted by me. Amir Questlove Thompson. The executive producers are Sean G. Ryan Calhoun and Me. Produced by Brittany Benjamin

and Jake Payne Produced for IHeart by Noel Brown edited by Alex Convoy IHeart video support by Mark

Canton logos graphics and animation by Nick Aloey Additional support by Lance Coleman Special thanks

to Kathy Brom Special thanks to Sugar Steve Mandel Please subscribe, break, review, and share the Questlove show wherever you stream your podcast. Make sure you follow us on socials. That's at QLS. Check out hundreds and hundreds of QLS episodes, including the Questlove Supreme shows in our podcast archives.

The Questlove shows the production of IHeart Radio. Can't catch the latest Roland Martin unfiltered podcast? Here's what you missed. There should not be a single law enforcement agent. It does not have body cameras. It's real. Black farmers have been under attack. This is just the latest example of them just slapping DEI on anything.

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