Toronto Mike'd: The Official Toronto Mike Podcast - D-Sisive: Toronto Mike'd #1034

Episode Date: April 15, 2022

In this 1034th episode of Toronto Mike'd, Mike is joined by rapper / producer D-Sisive a.k.a. Derek Christoff as he shares his story of musical success, working with Stu Stone, Rollin' with Saget, getting sued for Nobody With a Notepad, the opioid addiction that almost killed him, and his comeback. Toronto Mike'd is proudly brought to you by Great Lakes Brewery, Palma Pasta, Canna Cabana, StickerYou, Ridley Funeral Home and Patrons like you.

Welcome to episode 1034 of Toronto Mic'd. Proudly brought to you by Great Lakes Brewery. A fiercely independent craft brewery who believes in supporting communities, good times, and brewing amazing beer. Order online for free local home delivery in the GTA. online for free local home delivery in the GTA sticker. You.com create custom stickers, labels, tattoos,

and decals for your home and your business. Alma pasta. Enjoy the taste of fresh homemade Italian pasta and entrees from Palma pasta in Mississauga and Oakville Ridley funeral home pillars of the community since 1921. And Canna Cabana, the lowest prices on cannabis, guaranteed over 100 stores across the country. Learn more at cannacabana.com. joining me this week. Finally making his Toronto Mike debut is the artist. Sometimes known as decisive Derek Christophe.

Welcome. What do you want me to call you? Derek or decisive? Derek. Derek is always. Derek is the, the name. Okay.

Derek, what a pleasure to meet you. As I joked when I met you outside, I said it only took you seven years to get here. Like, no joke. We had it locked and loaded. Didn't we have it in the calendar seven years ago? It's very possible. But seven years ago was not the best time for me.

Yeah, those were some dark times. Well, hold on to that. It's too early. We just met met each other you can't open up your heart to me quite yet but i want to ask you do you recognize the uh the voice or the production of the uh opening theme song to this podcast okay i don't want to be wrong but i'm going to be honest i was half focusing like listening to your read and i was half listening to the theme because I know that sample. Well, let's hear it again. Hold on. I know.

Scam? Did Scam produce this? That's not Concrete Mob? No. I'm embarrassed. That's okay. No shame. I know how to jog your memory on this, okay?

So listen closely to this here. So I'm going to play something from your past. Ill Vibe. Correct. Ill Vibe. There he is. He did the theme for you? Yes.

Ill Vibe produced the opening theme song of Toronto Mike. Amazing. Yeah, I remember this. This is going way back. You know what? It still sounds great, but how long ago was this collab with Illy? Way back. It might be safe to say like six, seven years ago.

No more than that i think okay yeah i was being He ain't fucking up my morning, no sir Time to butter me some toast, no bread Need to cop a new loaf, no bread Fuck, shit, Tourette's Wondering what being broke will serve next My boy owes dough but won't return a text Blackberry cut off, ain't worth a word, sin Well, you know there's blackberry drops, so that's, uh, it's ten years ago. Ten?

What are we at now? 2022? That was 12? Yeah. It's 10 years ago. 10? What are we at now? 2022? That was 12? Yeah. That makes sense because I had my first hiatus starting at around 95, and then I released the book in either 2009 or 2010, and I know this is around the book Let the Children Die Time just because my voice is so slow

and that's when I was going so... Well, here, let me hear a bit more. Hold on. He always sounds good. You know, listeners of this podcast have heard him, you know, a thousand times. You know what I mean? He opens sounds good. You know, listeners of this podcast have heard him, you know, a thousand times. You know what I mean? He opens every episode.

So, you know, whenever I can work some Illy in the mix. But Illy's a good buddy. And he produced that theme for the first episode of Toronto Mike, which was 2012. And this jam, he sent me this jam. Sent me a bunch of stuff. But you were on this thing decisive with ill vibe how to make it in toronto and again going back at least a decade do you do you know the you get the connection right yeah that was an amazing television show did you watch that show

no how to make it in was it america well i know i've heard the yeah i've heard the uh the original if you will. No, not the sample. Okay, do you know the title? How to Make It? Tell me. I don't know. Okay, so there was an HBO show that came out around that time called How to Make It in... Shit, is it...

I can swear? I'm sorry. You can fucking swear on this program. Okay, we're letting it all out today. But there was an HBO show called How to Make It, I'm going to say America. I don't think it was a city, but this original song by Aloe Blacc

was the theme song for the TV show. That's right. How to Make It in America. Yeah, and to be honest, it was an amazing show, and I think it only lasted one season, and they canceled it, and it was about a group of guys trying to start a jeans

company like denim and that was the concept and I loved that show and that's Ill Vibe being the clever Ill Vibe he is. How to make it in Toronto. So he just reached out to you because you're a great rapper and he wanted to collaborate with you? How did that work? I won't say

great but yeah that's essentially it. He reached out to do... Some artists do that. They'll hit me up to do features and that's how that happened. And then we became friends off that because he was also making music videos at the time. I don't think he does it anymore. I think he does lyric videos, I feel. Yeah, and he's killing it. The last time, we don't think he does it anymore. I think he does like lyric videos.

Yeah. And he's killing it. Like the last time, we haven't spoken a few years. We, yeah, our friendship has had some ups and downs, which I will take accountability for. And it was one of those moments I had to like, you know, I have a bunch of messes I've had to clean up from seven years ago. Well, do you want to get right into this? Because, you know, we have a bunch of messes I've had to clean up from seven years ago.

Well, do you want to get right into this? Because, you know, we have some mutual friends, so I'm not, you know, being blindsided here or anything. Stu, Stuart. We'll get to that for sure. Yeah, I want to know the Stu connection, though. Do you want to do this? I was going to save the Stu segment.

Just, I have my reasons, I'll explain later, but I was going to save the Stu segment. But there will be plenty of Stu Stone in this episode. I have my reasons. I'll explain later. But I was going to save the stew segment. But there will be plenty of stew stone in this episode. I can talk for hours about stew stone. We go back a very long time. You know what? Fuck it.

Let's do the stew right now. Okay. I'm always down to do the stew. So where to begin? First of all, I have a bunch of notes from stew. So stew stone. He gave you notes. Yeah.

Well, stew is here. He's here on Thursday. So the next He gave you notes. Well, Stu is here. He's here on Thursday. So the next Thursday night at the same time, same channel, Stu Stone and Cam Gordon are here for another episode of Toast. Stu has been on almost exactly I would say 82 or 83 episodes

of Toronto Mic'd, our Stu Stone episodes. 82. Yeah. During the pandemic he was here every, he was on every week for 76 weeks in a row for Pandemic Fridays. And now we do Toast once a month and he's on every month. Stu is an extremely large part of the

this program, Toronto Mic'd. Stu Stone. That I didn't know. That's amazing. We're here to educate you, Derek. Listen. I'm here to educate on cancelled HBO television shows and you teach me about Stu. We will exchange amazing we're here to educate you derek listen uh this i'm here to educate on on canceled hbo television shows and you teach me about stew we will exchange knowledge okay so let me run down the stew notes and then i want to hear all the stew stories but sure here's a fun fact from stew stone about me or just oh about you no no stew facts can wait till next thursday but that's my

new podcast episode one all about. That's a good one. Fun fact. Okay, so he says, Decisive is one of the stars of Scarecrows. Yep. Truth. How did that come to be? He, like I said, Stu and I go back. How far back?

To be honest, I think we go back to... No, lie to me. I have an irritating habit of saying to be me. I have an irritating habit of saying to be honest. I know, and I have an irritating habit of saying no lie to me. Listen, everything's got to be honest. I don't want to even in this basement if you're not going to be honest with me. Well, this will be interesting because the listeners will not know what's true and what is a lie. Stu will let me know.

Yeah, Scarecrow. So, okay, Stu and I go back probably to 2001, 2002. And we met at an EMI. I had a publishing deal back then with EMI Music Publishing Canada. And they, I don't know if they still do. I've been kind of away from the scene for a while. But they would have these legendary uh canadian or north by northeast parties and the president at the time his name was michael mccarty he's now the president of socan

he i i was just uh freshly signed to the company and he had met stew i i can't remember how he was introduced to stew and he mccarty, like, these two guys have to meet. Like, you can't get a better connection than this. And Stu had just got here. He was living in L.A. forever. And he came back for a while. And they introduced us. I kind of want to throw in a, but I don't want to embarrass him.

But at the time, he's pretty open about everything, right? I kind of want to throw in a, but I don't want to embarrass him. But at the time, he's pretty open about everything, right? Stu's an open book. You can't embarrass him. Okay, so the biggest trip of meeting Stu was, so Michael McCarty introduces us. I was, and to be honest, I was already pretty like starstruck being at this party. Like you look around and it's everyone, you know, Canadian royalty. Can you name drop? I actually am curious. Like's canadian royalty with buffy saint marie there

is gordon lifewood there uh joey jeremiah i mean that could pat mastriani that's possible but like like at the time it was like artists like a on fire, some 41. Like, okay. Not like, you know, Leonard Cohen wasn't there. Avril Lavigne might've been there. It's very possible. That is a big deal. She could have been at one. Like those parties were like pretty heavy.

Yeah. And so I'm already, I, and I just felt like a combination of cool and overwhelmed just being, being at the party. So I meet Stu, but it wasn't meeting Stu that blew my mind. What blew my mind was his date at the time was someone named Kendra Jade. Do you know that name? Is this a porno actress? Yes, it is a porno actress. And the listeners are going gonna think i'm lying

about this i didn't recognize her from pornography i recognized her because i'm a massive like howard stern fan like huge yeah and he held a contest kind of around that time maybe a year or two before and it was like a listener is going to lose their virginity contest and it was to kendra jade so here's mike mccarty introducing me to stew stone and i'm fucking dates kendra jade and i'm staring at kendra jade like holy shit uh i have to cross examine i'm gonna have questions through it i love this by the way derrick this is already the greatest okay so i have a lot of useless info. Hold on, I'm being filmed, right?

Am I being filmed? Yeah, actually, you know what? I never did check the camera, though, because I do too many. It's really an audio presentation. Just in case I don't pick my nose. No, you look good. Okay. I like your setup here.

Hold on. Before we move forward, I want to compliment you. Oh, thank you. I've been wanting to start a podcast for a long time, and this is like, I love what you've got here. This is amazing. Listen, okay, not only did I start a podcast here, Derek, but this is like i love what you've got here this is amazing listen okay not only did i start a podcast here but i made the front page of the channel apparently you're the talk of the town hey there's more okay i'm the master in the mic yeah is that is that the

star or this is the toronto star yeah it's the together section of a sunday star well congratulations thank you that's amazing it is amazing i have to do a little bragging there, Derek. You have to. Kendra Jade, though. Stu Stone is very kind of famous for the fact that he was in wrestling on the West Coast and he was kind of a wrestling manager. He's very big on shtick and

performance art, almost. You never know with Stu Stone. I've got pretty close to him spending 85 days with him or whatever. But you never know what's a work and what's a shoot to borrow his wrestling terminology. I never know with Stu

what's real and what's a bit. Yeah. Kendra Jade was not his real date, right? This was like some performance. Kendra Jade was there with him. And, but I think, I think what makes Stu magical and I hope I'm not like, No, we all think he's magical. No, I think he makes Stu magical and I hope I'm not like

no we all think he's magical I think he's one of the most well one he's the funniest guy one of the funniest guys I've ever known I'll take George the Animal Steel that's a gift from Stu Stone to me I was praying you were going to say a gift to me George the Animal Steel right here

I have gifts for you but in a moment but what's amazing about Stu is all those things that you think are potentially shoots they're real like the guy is he's one of the most interesting people he's done like the like if he sits here and like lists off his accomplishments or which he does every week yeah it's it'll blow your fucking mind like it's just like yeah dude and i wasn't even starting back from my pet monster, dude. Right, my pet monster.

Dude, Donnie Darko. The Edison twins. And he's the Hulkster in Donnie Darko and the Halloween party. That's right. That's exactly right. It's crazy. It is crazy. I think, no, I'm all in on Stu Stone.

And we will get to the Stu Stone movement. No, the Stone movement. Yeah, Stone movement. We have a lot to cover here, but you met Stu at this party. His date is, uh, Kendra Jade, porno star,

you know, from Howard Stern. That's amazing. Yeah. So it fucking blew my mind. And I'm just like staring at her. Like I, she's the one I have all the questions for.

Get her on the show. And, but you know, Stu and I got talking, we got sliders and we just exchanged phone numbers, and that was it. And we clicked pretty heavy. And we were relatively inseparable for a good amount of time. And then he came to me out of the blue.

I don't know. I'm wondering if I'm jumping into a major plot. Well, I guess there's nothing really in between. So he's just like, yeah, let's work on stuff stuff and he's a guy like me like a million ideas like every day there's like two or three new things and then he hits me up one day yeah and he's like I got a project and I need you and so at the time I was starting to learn how to produce music I was um my number one focus was just rapping and writing. And through my deal at EMI, actually, they saw that I had a bit of musical talent.

Sure. And they thought, you know, maybe this guy could be a good producer. So the company actually got me a piece of equipment called an MPC-2000XL. And it's a tool a lot of hip-hop producers use now i'm sure like pop producers everyone uses it but at the time it was predominantly hip-hop so they were like here we're gonna get you this machine you're gonna learn you know at first i was going to the emi offices and even that was a bit of a that's a sitcom in itself like you never know who's gonna walk in um on those days so well Norrie from Trouble Charger.

I showed up at a session with Snow once. Darren O'Brien. Darren O'Brien. He talks like that. Lickety boom boom boom damn. Unbelievable. Every 11th word is lickety boom boom. Unbelievable. I'm learning how to produce and And then I tell Stu that. And he's like, look, I got this show that's possibly happening. And I need some help. And so at the time, we were kind of working on music.

And he became a fan of the stuff I was working at the time. And he's like, I got a crazy job for you. And I'm like, I'm here for you, Stu. And he goes, so. And this is when, like, the insanity just kind of opens up. Like, and he's just like, so I'm doing a television with Jamie Kennedy. And I'm just like, whoa, whoa, whoa. Wait, what?

Back the fuck up. Yeah, like, and he's just going on, like, I should just be like, mm-hmm. No, I'm just like, wait, like, Jamie Kennedy experiment? Right. And I was a massive, massive fan of that show. Like, huge. And he's like oh yeah jamie's a friend of mine like uh we go back so we're doing a television show with mtv and and i'm like wait what you know everything was just a what and he's like so it's this it's you know a reality show

called blowing up about jamie and i becoming rappers yeah And we want you to produce a song or two for the show. And I'm like, I would love to, dude. And he's like, okay, perfect. He goes, so one of the episodes, it's about us hanging out with Bob Saget. And so I need you to produce a song about us hanging out with Bob Saget. And Bob Saget's going to rap.

And I'm just like, what is happening here? First of all, that sounds surreal. That's like an acid trip or something to hear that sentence. But let's play this, and let's talk about it. Oh, you got it ready to go. Toronto Mike is ready to go. Do you know where you are? All right.

Bob Saget Dang Bob Saget Have you ever had one of those nights That started off so damn good No fights, no fuss It's understood that when you go to the bar Man, we ain't even to those girls in the car Well, this night started off just like that

Except Jamie's in the driver's seat Saget's in the back We rollin' on 20s to the club Pull up front Saget's in the backseat Rollin' up front Galley opens up the door To park the car The bouncer at the front Don't wanna let us in the bar Smoking a blunt. Co-clock deck them.

Radio edit. Oh, my bad. You're rolling with Sagitt. So, for obvious reasons, we've been spinning this a lot on the program because Bob Saget died so suddenly earlier this year. But I need the story because I did get, of course, Stu sent me notes, as you know. And one of the notes is that you did the beat for Rollin' with Saget. I did this beat. Not my finest work, but I will say this was me learning how to do it.

It sounds great. Yeah, I wish I could have done something better. But I not only... Okay, I'm going to give you... And you wrote the best lines in the song, right? I wasn't going to say that. I got them in my notes. But I have a story for you.

Can I call you Toronto Mike? Is that fine? That's my name. I have a story for you. Can I call you Toronto Mike? Is that fine? That's my name. I have a story for you, Toronto Mike. I'm ready. Okay, so I produced the beat. I wrote the song. And I was actually, ever since Bob died, the song's been kind of everywhere.

And Stu sends me a video of John Stamos, you know, driving around and bumping it. And so, yeah, they wanted. I just heard the boing, boing, boing. I had no idea. I'm so disappointed with myself. I got the radio edit. What the fuck is that about? Well, we just heard the boing.

The boing is pretty amazing. So I produced the song and I even came up with the opening. You're now about... Right, the NWA. And that gun you're hearing, that was actually... I think I sampled it from an Eminem song. It was just like a clean gunshot. Even the snare, the snare drum in the song,

that's from if you go listen to Eminem's Haley song. I'm just setting myself for a lawsuit here no i love it i mean but i'm gonna give you i'm gonna give you a listen to this program he does actually he texted me while i was on the bus lethal does but that's another story okay well even that was another part of the story that was crazy he's like yeah dj lethal's gonna mix i'm like what like and this is before I even went, because I went to LA for about a month and a half and stayed with Stu. And what are we in? Is this like 08?

Whereabouts are we? No, this is like 05, maybe 04. I'm not amazing with years. Well, the way you said no, I thought you were going to say I was off by like 10 years. But I'm only off by a few fucking years. Holy smoke. No, 2008? No way, man. I thought you were going to say I was off by like 10 years, but I'm only off by a few fucking years. Holy smoke.

No, 2008? No way, man. It was 2005. Years are specific when I'm on the show. Keep going with your story, and I'll find out the year that was dropped here. Are you kidding me? Love rolling with Saget, by the way.

So I'm going to give you a hot take here that I don't even know if. It was 06. I said 08. You went, no, Mike. That's the worst fucking guess I ever heard. you yeah a hot take here that i don't even know it was oh six i said oh eight you went no mike that's the worst fucking guess i ever heard two years off holy shit how was i said oh i said oh six right but i said oh eight and that reaction wasn't sufficient for two years off i'm okay all right come on okay i'm gonna give you i'm gonna give you a i'm gonna give you a good story here all right i love it um okay and and and i think the story is extra edgier for 2022 so i make the beat and i write a version of the song um totally expecting for them to like cut a lot out or add stuff in that's fine so they did use a lot of what i wrote but there was one part of the song and this is why i've been meaning to message to

to get it i wonder if he still has a copy because there is a version that exists of me rapping the entire thing just so they have a reference to it like you know like this is how the lines are supposed to go and that that that happens a lot in like songwriting whatever like when songwriters will just record reference tracks tracks so one does exist now i don't know if someone still has it maybe i have it on a hard drive i don't know well stew would know yeah so i wrote there's one part and when they sent me back the version i was so stoked like just to hear bob Saget and Jamie Kennedy, you know, and especially, like, I fucking wrote, I got a cock like a donkey. Like, you know, and I grew up watching Full House. So, like, watching Danny Tanner say, I've got a cock like a donkey.

And I wrote, I've got a cock. The whole thing was just a trip. But there was one part that got scratched. And I'm going to be honest with you, Toronto Mike. The whole thing was just a trip. But there was one part that got scratched. And I'm going to be honest with you, Toronto Mike. It bummed me out because I thought it was fucking hilarious. Stu thought it was hilarious. But I understand. At the time, Jay-Z's song, 99 Problems, was big.

And that song is iconic. Jay-Z is like one of my heroes. Sure. So I lifted a part. There's a part in the song. They get pulled over by the cops. So it's fucking insane. I don't know the law, but I didn't pass the bar, but I know a little bit this part.

So you know that part, right? Yeah, of course. So I thought it would be the most mind-blowing thing to hear Bob Saget. So this is the part where the cop pulls him over and the cop pulls over to the side of the car and says, Bob, do you know why I'm stopping you for? And Bob Saget was supposed to go,

because I'm young and I'm black and my hat's real low. Do I look like a mind reader, sir? I don't know. So I thought that was it. It's going to be massive. So I get the track, and I call Stu, and I'm like, one, this is fucking amazing. Two, where's the young and the black line?

And Stu just laughed, and he goes, MTV heard that? And they were like, nope. That's a bridge too far. That is gone. Now imagine if that was today. It would be like... So there is no audio of Bob doing that line. Like it never got to his line.

No, I don't think so. Okay, well, let's do that too. It's possible Stu played them or whoever was in charge of the reference. And they were like, no. Can I be real with you? I feel like now we're buds. I can be completely real with you. We're best friends, actually. i have sources that tell me it's

possible you thought this would be a bigger deal than it was and that you might have been disappointed it wasn't the worldwide massive hit it should have been me no i don't know what was your expectation for rolling with saget like did you figure okay this is an mtv jam jamie kennedy's on it. This is going to be fucking, it's going to be blowing up. Well, I thought there would be, well, there was success to it.

I wasn't disappointed by, if Stu's telling you stuff like that. Oh, I didn't say Stu. I have many sources. Stu, okay. Stu is lying if you told you that. No, no, I didn't say, I have many sources.

No, that's, or Phil Vibe's telling you that. It's not true. Shut up, Ilyas. Ilyas, I don't know. Do you consumebe's telling you that. It's not true. Do you consume cannabis? No, I don't. Have you ever? Illy might be the greatest customer Canna Cabana ever had.

I have never been in Illy's... He's chronic. It's like Snoop Dogg over here. Always high. He smokes a lot. He smokes a lot. I don't think I've ever been with him when he wasn't smoking. But this is my way of just telling Anthony, or Ill Vibe if you will, canacabana.com, join the cabana club,

and they'll never be undersold on cannabis or cannabis accessories. And this is a quick gift for you. I have many gifts for you throughout this conversation. But Derek, there's a toque for you courtesy of Canacabana. Oh, this is a quick gift for you. I have many gifts for you throughout this conversation. But Derek, there's a toque for you courtesy of Canna Cabana. Oh, this is amazing. Thank you, Canna Cabana. Only because I think of ill vibe, I think of weed. And when I think of weed,

I think of Canna Cabana. I'm going to switch hats. Switch hats there, brother. And while I'm doing this quickly, there's a Toronto Mike sticker for you, courtesy of stickeru.com. That I love. And since I'm in the mode here, Ridley Funeral Home. Shout out to Ridley Funeral Home. We lost Bob

Saget far too soon, but you never know when you got to measure. You're on the go and you got to measure something. For a casket. You never know, man. For a casket. You never know when you have to measure a corpse for a casket. There you go. That's a measuring tape. Just handy to have it on you. Thank you, Ridley Funeral Home. So shout out to Ridley Funeral Home. There's a new episode of Life's Undertaking.

Subscribe to Life's Undertaking. It's Brad Jones' new podcast. Okay, so this is amazing. Somebody on the live stream had a good line. Let me see if I can steal it. Wait, so yeah, so that's not true that I was disappointed about the success.

Okay, good, good. Because I thought it did pretty good. But one thing I will say, had that song come out even like five or six, seven years ago, you know, when the YouTube age

got huge, I feel like it would have been massive. Okay, here's what I sense from Stu. Having many conversations with him about the Jamie Kennedy years,

you know, doing these great, kind of like novelty rap songs, if you will. Why couldn't Stu Stone and Jamie Kennedy have been the lonely island?

I don't know. I wish I had the answer to that. I do think that that show didn't... Well, I don't know. I'm not in the States, but maybe it didn't... Maybe it didn't receive the push that it

deserved um i i've heard jamie talk about it a few times uh i listened to his podcast and he he's mentioned it a few times and he's told stories about mtv promising them certain you know promotional moves like the cover of rolling stone and shit like that and just none of it materialized and i don't know and then they also i'm sure i'm not telling you something you don't know about the the the episode the lost episode tell me well spill the beans derrick i don't really fuck out well i guess i'm sure Stu has talked about it, but there's an episode which features 3-6 Mafia, and they open for 3-6 Mafia, and... Oh, yes.

Okay, keep going, but I do know this story. I don't feel comfortable talking about... Can I ask you this? They dress up in a costume. Is it cultural appropriation? Yeah, I don't know. But like, I don't want to say the wrong thing. Is there any blackface involved?

Yeah. I've heard the story. Well, yeah, I don't know. But, you know, the intent was not malicious. You know, it was to trick an audience. I don't know. And even the song they're performing, if I remember it correctly, it was just supposed to be. I don't know. And even the song they're performing, if I remember it correctly, it was just supposed to be, I don't know.

I don't want to say the wrong thing. And you're well aware, which is true, which is that every word we utter right now will be heard by Stu Stone. It's very public forum. Now, in fairness, I can understand MTV being uncomfortable with it. I will say that. But on the flip side i also know stewart and there's nothing there's not a negative slash like racist there's no racial there's no

zero i will speak for the man as well there's no racial intent on the half behalf he doesn't have a racist bone in his body no no i'm gonna have to charge you for those mics if you keep slamming them but uh okay you're switching back hats just because it's tight and I have a giant fat head. And these hats usually go through a 48-hour stretch. Right. No, I hear you. You got to stick it on a basketball when you sleep. I'm not even joking.

Your old baseball glove, you used to sleep, put it under the mattress. Did you ever do that? You kind of oil it up and put the ball in the palm and get that thing just perfect there. Okay. He also tells me that there's a cover of shoop out there yes you and stew stone it is it actually if i wish i could find that i looked for it i couldn't find it well it's a i think that it was the very first song you heard it actually is the very first thing you hear on episode one of blowing up now i'm not sure if i think i'm right

like the show credits and then it opens with jamie and stew driving and they're playing that and uh i the reference for that exists as well and it was i think it was me and stew and then jamie ended up doing the parts that i did and i and and you listen carefully, you can hear my voice too. Like Jamie and I are very close in cadence. Okay. So you can hear, but he's much louder and doing the part. But yeah, that was actually, might've been the first thing we did together.

That's the first thing. We were at the EMI offices. I had my MPC and I made that beat. And we made Shoop. Stu came up that beat. And we made Shoop. Stu came up with that idea and we made Shoop. To introduce my very good friend He has a wonderful smile Please welcome from Toronto How could I not smile Like Brian Wilson on powder The sound of my laughs getting louder

Like Jack Nicholson smashing mirrors Fuck my appearance Remove the bandages Look at the man who just single-handedly manhandled your whole clan Like Banner has Banner feeling anger A temper tantrum Track to samples Pen for the masses to snap No! No! No!

No! No! No! No! No! No! No! No!

No! No! No! No! No! No! No! No!

No! No! No! No! No! No! No! No!

No! No! No! No! No! No! No! No!

No! No! No! No! No! No! No! No!

No! No! No! No! No! No! No! No!

No! No! No! No! No! No! No! No!

No! No! No! No! No! No! No! No! No! No! No! No! No! No! No! No! No! No! No! No! No! No! No! No! No! No! No! No! No! No! No! No! No! No! No! No! No! No! No! No! No! No! No! No! No! No! No! No! No!! No! No! No! No! No! No How could I not say my style sounds so great? Y'all sound retarded like Bobcat Goldway. A bunch of hobos attracting no chance. Cancel alert. You regret those R words, eh? Oh, yes. We just dropped them everywhere back in the day. Yeah.

I tried to explain. I have a 20-year-old and a 17-year-old, and I tried to explain that, oh, yeah, we use the R word and the, well, not the F word, but the G-A-Y. I guess you can say gay. Okay. So we would use gay. I'm like not the F word, but the G-A-Y. I guess you can say gay. Okay. So we would use gay. I'm like, the G word. We used to use gay and the R word just like in casual convo, man.

Yeah. Different times. Different times. Okay. So what are we listening to here? This is 216s. I haven't heard this in forever. In fact, I forgot that this was even a thing.

But DJ Lethal produced this, I believe. Think about that. Just stop down for a minute and forever. In fact, I forgot that this was even a thing. But DJ Lethal produced this, I believe. Think about that. Just stop down for a minute and think. DJ Lethal's producing Stu Stone and You Decisive. This was like the comeback album, right? This is the Stu Stone movement. The Stone movement comeback album. Is this out? Is this on iTunes?

Yeah, it's on an album. Oh, Stu owes me some money. I gotta call Stu after this. We're going to have to talk to Stu. Yeah, Stu owes me some money for this one. Look, we're going to get you paid here. So he's going to be like, Mike, that episode cost me a fucking fortune. That episode cost me $80.

So that's the case. Is that the last thing you did with Stu Stone? Yeah. Okay. But that was during my uh that was i i refer to it as the last weekend when though it wasn't really a last weekend it was like a month and a half my father passed away and i just took off like things kind of started to get heavy here and i just went are you ready to get heavy because uh i do have some older songs of yours i just kind

of like playing them a bit and chatting with you about them but i we do need to get heavy as well because my whole thing is heavy i'm always ready for well no i'm ready i'm ready but just you drop I just kind of like playing them a bit and chatting with you about them. But we do need to get heavy as well. My whole thing is heavy. I'm always ready for heavy. Well, no, I'm ready. I'm ready. But you dropped the name Brian Wilson in that rhyme. And I think that song was years before this song. But this was the song that put me on the map.

Or, yeah. Yeah. Put me on the map. Or, yeah. I wonder if I still have the voice. Slow. Wouldn't it be nice? Wouldn't it be nice if I were younger?

A little bit. I'm going to wind a couple years and find hunger. I'm growing out of it. Now you stick another candle in the cave. We're going to listen a little bit here,'m growing out of it. We're going to listen a little bit here, but you sound fucking great. I just want you to know that. Thank you very much. Here it comes. Here it comes.

Listen. Twelve songs could have me on the road And one hit could have me going gold Trust me, they had me on the road Dad yelling, Los Angeles is on the phone Whatever happened to the music was the song They thought would get me on a rolling stone A rant over Luke Green Day guitars And all they needed were eleven more But I was bored, this shit was too easy I'm the motherfucking man is what I believed That's a good line.

She's like a fucking lollipop. I like her though. Brian, chill, son. I'll finish it tomorrow. I'm tired. Time to go to bed, Brian Wilson. Well, it's about people who don't want to express themselves to other people. They should keep their own self.

Dr. Landy, tell me it's not just the demogod. You know, he's an FOTM like yourself, Stephen Page. So shout out to all the Brian Wilson performers. But okay, so this is Brian Wilson. A what? An FOTM? FOTM means friend of Toronto Mike Oh okay. Forever this is going to follow you to your final days

shout out to Ridley Funeral Home. He's an FOTM? Steven Page? Steven Page is an FOTM So how are you going to hook me up? I've been wanting to work with him forever Well I'm not a magic man but I can introduce you guys because you're both FOTMs. Like, this is how

the community works, man. You're just now. It took you seven fucking years. We're gonna get into that, but you were invited. You live so far away. So far away. You live so far away.

Why does everybody stay in one place? Is Steven listening? Where's Steven? He's in upstate New York, actually. Oh, that's where he lives now, right? Yeah, he got married to an American, I think,

and he lives in upstate New York. I love him so much and I don't want to say this because I can't do it anymore but I used to do a spot on Stephen Page impression like nah it won't be good. Drove downtown in the rain

9.30 on a Tuesday night. Such a young boy. Such a pretty boy When I was born They looked at me and said I think, do you know Toronto Sun Sports columnist Steve Simmons? I know the name, yeah.

Steve Simmons, I believe, is Stephen Page's cousin. Oh, really? Just because their names are Steve, Mike? Come on. Are you and Mike Tyson cousins as well? Oh, a great t-shirt. We took our pick. I don't know if it got on the pick, but it was a great Iron Mike. Okay, good. Come on. Are you and Mike Tyson cousins as well? Oh, a great t-shirt. Did we get, and we took our pick. I don't know if it got on the pick,

but it was a great Iron Mike. Okay, good. I'm recording this video. I'm wearing Toronto Mike's cousin on my shirt right here. Anyway, shout out to Steven Page. But here, hold on. I love Steven Page. I love him.

There it is. The song that caught me soothed. Oh, we're going to talk about that right now. And then we'll get heavy soon. I have a good take. Okay, good. About that too. So let's soak this in.

Ba-bong. This is Nobody With A Notepad. I'm sleeping in the moons with my head on a pillowcase. Retinus to the ceiling. John Lennon dreaming. John Lennon jealous of the dreamers that achieved it. I'm better off. John Lennon better sleeping. I'm John Lennon bedding sleeping. If Kanye said it or Rhymefest wrote it or whoever gets the credit.

Nobody walked for me except my dad and my mama's legs. And both of them are missing from my holidays. Pardon my front say, pumpkin pie. All I need is a notepad open wide and a sharpened pencil for my thoughts to jot you a letter from my heart. Signed a nobody with a notepad i'm just a nobody with a notepad forever standing okay so this fucking jam firstly before we talk about the lawsuit and all that jazz

because we're going to dive into that i have another song pulled but there's um this jam actually can i just play the other one and then we can talk about it play it all play it all so everybody you just heard nobody with a notepad by decisive the legend the man himself he's here right now making his toronto mic debut yep himself. He's here right now making his Toronto Mike debut. Yep. I know very well. There's no like PTSD when you hear this. A little bit. A little bit? Okay, I feel bad if I'm bad. No, no, no.

Alright, let me know if I have to bring it down. I don't want you to freak out. The gift and the curse. Peddling music on the side Peddling music on the side Peddling music on the side Peddling music on the side Such a good song. Am I allowed to say that? Because it's fucking funky as all hell.

It sounds amazing. I'd be lying if I said I disagree. I stole the whole fucking thing. Obviously, I like it. Okay, so what we're listening to now, this is pedal and music on the side from the early 70s. It's Lamont Dozier.

Is that how you say this guy's name? Dozier. Dozier. See, I tried to French it up it's Lamont Dozier. Is that how you say this guy's name? Dozier. Dozier. See, I tried to French it up a bit here. Dozier. Lamont Dozier. Apparently a legendary songwriter. Like, not a name that I know that well, but this jam does kill.

But, okay, so confess. What's your take? I'll bring it down. What's going on, man? Yeah, he's responsible for a number of Motown hits. Yeah. I love this part. This part I love.

That little music is a mighty tough game. Don't wanna be no prince of found. Just want a decent life for the love I find. I feel like I'm on the song. We stole so much of it.

Sometimes I forget it's not actually mine. I'm dying to know the story. Are you just diving through the crates and you find this jam? What's going on here? This song is produced by my collaborator slash best friend Robert Baker, a.k.a. Moonshine. And this album was on my second record called Let the Children Die. And it was, I guess you can say it was the first single.

And he, I remember when we were working on it, well, my first project was called The Book, The Ballad of Orville Knoblick. And I guess to say it as quick as possible, I've been making music since 95, since I was 15 years old. And I released my first project in 98. And I've had different chapters. And my first chapter was essentially like just battle rap intense.

So that's how I got my name when i was much younger and then my father got sick and i just went through a lot of shit the heaviness and that took me out for about six years so your father's death is in 2007 2007 uh that might be wrong i think it's 2006 okay uh i should know that i should know that but uh yeah yeah uh so that that whole experience took me out and it i hit a hard rock bottom and i had issues with family and just everything just got shitty and then i woke up one day and i i had a manager at the time his name is bill sittins and if you google him he was a manager he managed the doors which is crazy and he is there's a whole story there like he was the last person to see morrison's body and there was you know i think he had a major falling out with the band because they didn't believe he was dead.

There's a weird story there, but he was managing me. He was co-managing me at the time when I met Stu. They were L.A.-based, and he was co-managing me with someone named Howard Lapidus, who was a big Canadian comedy manager who managed Mike Bullard, and that's how I met him. So, yeah, it's very interesting so i was going through crazy shit and i was having a conversation with siddons and he was one of the first guys to tell me you know the stuff that you're going through the best way to deal with it

you know you being a writer you being creative is to write about it and i i don't know at the time i thought it was just silly advice because i'm like who the fuck would want to hear about it and i i don't know at the time i thought it was just silly advice because i'm like who the fuck would want to hear about that right time passes and i was like well let me just give it a shot and i the first song i wrote coming back was a song called kneecaps that's on my first record the book ballad i call it the book it's called the ballad of orville nublin and it it's just so specific like tells the story about my parents passing and i just you know i i just got into this major flow state and just started writing like crazy like sit-ins was right and it you know helped me deal with a lot of the shit i was dealing with so i finished the ep well it was basically just the first five or six songs i had finished i was like okay let's put this out i had

a label called herb net who was interested in putting my music out daryl rodway he runs the label we're still really good friends and he was on me for years you know if you ever put out music again it's gonna be me it's gotta be me and so i gave him these six songs and i'm like hey here's this record put it out in the meantime i'm working on you know my masterpiece let the children die right and so let's just get this out but with like honestly zero expectations like just to kind of get it back out there get my name bubbling people are like oh this guy's making music again that's that was the goal oh this guy's making music again you're talking about nobody with a notepad no nobody with a notepad is on let the children

okay okay so so so i'm keeping up here moonshine the producer yeah he sends me this song a little lamont dozier song and he's like i think i found it because peddling music yeah and the song just blew me away and i just you know was feeling what he was talking about the struggle making music trying to fucking make it and i was like yeah let's do it and then he goes okay i'm gonna make a beat out of this and i go let's do it you know he and i i was actually at his house when he was making the beat and but he lifted so much of it and he's like should we use this as a bridge i go fucking right and he's like okay well what about this whole chunk i go use it as an intro like we're just like like you're just

taking chunks of this doge yeah you know and i'll admit it i could sit here and lie and say i had no idea i fully had an idea but also it's not like we were making music to sell millions of albums. You know, we thought we'd sell a couple of hundred CDs and that's it. So we finished the song, and we were so stoked with it. Like, that was the first time, even though on my first record, Brian Wilson, Kneecaps, and another song called Laundry Room, those did very well for me. But when i finished

them i was never like these this is the one but nobody with a notepad we were like this is the fucking one let the children die comes out we had a video for nobody with a notepad and it just on an underground level it fucking popped college radio was all over over it. It is the song that put me where I went. It's so good I'm playing it a second time. That's how good it is. It's great. Because now that we've heard Pedalin on the side, let's come back to Nobody with a Notepad.

Do you know Carl Wilson, the writer? Yeah, of course. I follow him on Twitter too. Yeah, so he heard nobody with a notepad invited me to one of his he was he had a series of shows at the time it just started to just fucking take on a life of its own and the the actual gift and the curse i get called and told i'm nominated for a so can music award the songwriters prize wow and i'm like holy shit like that it was just and for this song for nobody with a notepad wow and this is 09 right

yes yeah i believe that yeah or early like 10 okay and then i fucking win the so can prize for nobody with a no yeah and i just borrowing rather heavily from peddling music on the side. But you're not, like, you didn't, you have to do, but I don't know how it works. Do you have to give a writing credit or a sample or whatever? If you're doing it for real, like, you know, like, at the time I'm doing it so small on, like, a boutique label, you think you can fly under the radar.

And there are songs, and I won't name names because I'm not a snitch, but there's Canadian rap hits that have uncleared samples. Can you name one? I'd rather not because I know what it feels like to go through it, and if I'm responsible for it. But it's not Maestro, is it? No. I think Maestro cleared his,

these eyes, and, yeah, he sampled Gowan, he's done everyone, eh? No, yeah,

yes, you're right, he does all that. So, you're telling me, if I hear you correctly, nobody with a notepad was like a therapeutic,

cathartic process for you, and it was really, you know, it wasn't meant to be a big deal, so you didn't worry about clearing these samples and stuff, and you're inspired by pedal and music on the side, which a fucking killer jam yeah and from the

early 70s and then it because of like it basically got bigger than you ever intended it to get because of this award it won yep it got noticed yep and that was the worst thing that could have happened to you yes that's fucking think about that you know oh this this jam got really big oh fuck no yeah and i didn't think anything of it like we we rob and i we were just like fucking bathing in the success like we were loving it we were getting invited to do shows uh performing the song on like radio it was just fucking it was amazing and then i woke up one morning and it maybe it was like two weeks after the SoCan. And what was also crazy is not only did I win a pretty decent check for the SoCan award.

What's a decent check? Five grand. Okay. That's good. Okay, yeah. You don't sneeze at that. No, I'll take that now. And part of the prize was you get to perform the song at Roy Thompson Hall at the actual award ceremony.

And that, my friend, was music royalty. That was fucking Tom Cochran and Brian Adams. Was Bruce Colburn there? Cockburn could have been there. I was talking to Bernie today because Cockburn's coming to town. I wanted an hour with Cockburn, but he's too busy for me. But anyway, that just happened today. Bruce can come.

Well, it's all coming through. Yeah, Bruce would do it, I bet. But Bernie's the gatekeeper. Who's Bernie? His manager? Bernie Finkelstein manages all the aspects of Bruce. Finkelstein. Yeah, you know this name, Bernie?

Yeah. But you know what? I'm not trashing Bernie because he's a great FOTM and a great supporter of the program. So I don't want to make it sound like I'm trashing Bernie, but Bernie did give me a polite no today, but we'll do it one day. But okay, back to you. Come on, Colburn.

So you're at the Roy Thompson Hall to perform Nobody With A Notepad. And here's a good story. So we perform it, and even SoCan gave me a bit of a budget because I don't think they really wanted me to just go out there with a turntable and rap to the instrumentals. So I hired a background singer, a cello player.

We put on a bit of a fucking show. Wow. And it was just... Was Stu Stone there? No, Stu wasn't there. Because the who's who in Canadian music, I think of Stu. I still remember, too, performing it. And thankfully, I'd performed the song a you know, a hundred times by then.

So it was muscle memory. So like through my mouth, the lyrics were coming, but my eyes are just fixated on these bodies in the sea. Like these are the people I listened to growing up. Because my whole childhood was just raised off of much music. So I was just obsessed with all these people. So we perform it. I'm backstage. I'm just fucking loving life and then we go into a hallway and who's walking towards me stomping tom connor

whoa and i'm just like holy shit and the craziest part this is like my fucking number one moment of life is he saw me and came over to me and shook my hand and like i don't know that's how you know you made it man he must have been mid 80s at this time and his handshake was so tight like a man that's because from tilsonburg yeah but just a man shake right and he looked at me and i'll never forget this and he goes that was an amazing number son keep it up and I was like fucking that's it that's praise from Caesar

and it made me sad too because my dad was a huge stomping Tom Connors fan right so if he was alive to know that happened so yeah so we're loving life and then two weeks later oh we're doing it stomping Tom's cosigning then two weeks later highest of highs oh we're doing it stomping tom's co-signing me and

yeah two weeks later i wake up to a phone call from daryl rodway from urbanet and he's like yeah check your email oh my god and then i go to my computer and check my email and there is the letter threatening lawsuit and they were asking for three hundred thousand oh my god and you you made 5k on this thing yeah well i almost like i i'm not even trying to be funny i almost fucking threw up i feel like i got a flip in my stomach just because i didn't know what number you were going to drop but you've already told me basically the song didn't you didn't sell this song basically this song made you five thousand dollars is that what it cost you money because you had to hire the band and stuff, right?

Yeah, yeah. Well, here's the part I can laugh at now. Okay, let's hear it. And people laugh when I tell them it, and I wasn't laughing then. So they send this letter, 300 grand. You have to reply to it. I wanted to just ignore it and let it go away.

I hear you. So we, HerbNet responded on my behalf, and we offered, I'll never forget this as long as I live. What did you counter with? I counted $180. Because you can't ignore it, so you have to counter with something. Yeah, yeah. Well, this is what I got.

And they, yeah, they replied back with, yeah, no, though. And yeah, it was just a long, hellacious process. But what do they base that on? They must look at what that song was like, what the value of that song was to you. What I was told was they don't know much about Canada. They don't know what's happening here. So when they see that at the time,

I think I had like two Juno nominations. I won the SoCan Award. They assume it's generating cash because a song that is a minor hit like that I can't even say hit a song that is done kind of well in the states

but you'd generate probably like there's hip hop artists underground hip hop artists that have reached my level of success in the states and they're worth 100-200 thousand dollars they don't they don't appreciate this canadian star system which basically has you taking the bus to my place yes exactly to chat with me in my fucking basement so it's like yeah yeah so they thought you might be the m&m of canada but you're gonna be on the uh the bus and yeah i'm still i'm the m&m when after after the battle in eight mile going back to

the factory to work with his clothes in a garbage bag do you uh this is gonna sound like a question at a left field but do you eat meat are you a carnivore are you are you a vegan what's the deal here it sounds like it's at a left field but it makes sense in like one minute you eat meat okay can i send you because i i feel bad now, that's the fourth time someone's asked me that today. Can I send you home with a large frozen meat lasagna from Palma Pasta? You are, yes, you are. It'll feed you for multiple days. It's a lot of food.

I have one in the freezer. So this is an empty box, but I will fill it before you depart here today. Palma Pasta wants you to eat, man. Do you want to know what makes me happy about this? Tell me. I am the only meat eater in my house. My wife is a vegetarian. She's trying to raise my kids vegetarian.

It's tough. So this is mine. Okay, it's all yours. And I'm going to make it tonight. Yeah, well, I always... I'll just tell you my move. It's going to be frozen solid. I leave it in the fridge for 24 hours before I cook it up. Yeah, well, I always I'll just tell you my move because it's going to be frozen solid. I leave it

in the fridge for 24 hours before I cook it up. So you might, I don't know, you might want to eat it tomorrow night. But I just want to say thank you to Palma Pasta for their support. And I encourage everyone who loves the taste of authentic Italian food, go to palmapasta.com. They have retail stores in

Mississauga and Oakville and Decisive here is going to have a several meals because he's the only one who's going to be eating this meat lasagna i will say i've been screwing up lately because they always send over the meat lasagna because i say send meat and then i had mike wilner in the back year to set us up for the 2022 blue jays season i see you rocking the blue jays jacket right there you got to listen to the 2022 Primer with Mike Wilner on Toronto Mike down in the backyard last week. But I fucked up because Wilner doesn't eat meat.

So what I'm doing there is I'm going to get a vegetarian lasagna from Palmapaz and I'm going to bike it to Wilner so he gets his vegetarian lasagna. But you're taking home the meat. Good stuff. Okay. Thank you, Palmapaz. Okay. I love taking home the meat. Let the... Speaking of Kendra Jade, okay.

Nice. Nice. Meow, meow, meow. Let the children die. There's a segue for you. Let the children die. That gets you nominated for a Polaris Music Prize. That's fucking awesome.

And Juno. Did you win any Junos? Nope. How many nominations? Susan Lucci of the Junos how many nominations? that's amazing so a few rapid fire questions here working with Buck 65

any comments on that? it was amazing while it lasted I reached out to him he was fully down During that time I was killing it Are we still in 09?

Is this the apex? This was Let the Children Die I believe Super Bowl is over He heard the book He was all over it I love Buck I think his music is great

The song We Have Together, he kills it. Like, I remember getting that verse, and I was just like, oh, shit. This is going to sound a bit cocky, but I'm fine with it. I feel that the Canadian rappers that I work with, especially the ones who are a bit more on the popular side, they tend to step up their game when they work with me and i i'm not going to name names because it can sound insulting but i feel like the guys that i have tracks with they deliver their best technically okay sound verses and buck 65 just fucking brought it on

that song and yeah okay but so we worked yeah so we did that song together it was a monster then he hit me up and was like let's do an album together i have a concept and i go i would love to do that with you and we met up uh discussed it was gonna be called the uh shit i haven't thought of this in a long time 100-story building or something like that. But his name's obviously Rich Turfright. Yeah, he's on CBC Music, I guess they call that now. Yeah, and my name's Derek Kristoff. So we were going to be the Ricardo Kristoff Apparatus.

And yeah, we came up with this amazing concept of people just emailing us their stories and we were going to turn them into songs, which is ironically a project I'm working on now too, which I'd like to give a little plug to at the end. I don't know if that's on your list. Plug like crazy. I do have a new jam. It's not,

I'm not going to just play the old stuff, but I will just tell you before this. You have something new? Yeah. I was going to save it because I was going to get heavy first and then I was going to come back with this jam. So I don't want to just play the old stuff I will just tell you You have something new? Yeah I was going to save it because I was going to get heavy first and then I was going to come back with this jam so I don't want to play it again

Let's save it I do have a new jam We met We even took photos together If you Google it something will come up and we announced the album We set up an email

People replied We got a lot of stories sent in I still have people today asking me about it and then he just disappeared Like I just did, right? We set up an email. People replied. We got a lot of stories sent in. I still have people today asking me about it. And then he just disappeared. Like I just did right now. I have people who... I'm just going to make a horrible joke there. I'm just going to kill it before it dies.

Yeah, and then he just disappeared. You know, when you got that lawyer letter or whatever about the song you stole, you should have countered with $1.65. That should have been the counter. Nice. Okay, I'm full of them. Want to know another cool take about the Dozier? Yeah.

So we end up settling $10,000 US. Oh, wow. We pay it. Time passes. I am, I remember I was on my way to a studio. I was working on Jonestown 2 because that, I remember the studio I worked at, it was off of Bloor, it was off of Bloor and George Street. Okay. And I was looking at my phone, just some news site,

and out of the blue, I find a link, a story about Lamont Dozier. And the story is saying that he was, at the time, number 13, the 13th biggest tax delinquent in California. So that makes my head explode. I sent it to my... That's why he needed your money. But dude, so I end up doing a little bit of investigating because I had some mutual friends, whatever.

And I found out that at the time, I was one of around 100 lawsuits. He was trying to... What's the word? He was litigious. Yes. And now it's extra funny to think that there were a ton of producers

just not clearing Lamont Dozier samples. But he was going... I heard he was going after like 3-6 Mafia, Lupe Fiasco, The Alchemist. It was crazy times. But then you find out Lamont needed the money. Okay, now, Decisive, I know that we're about to get very heavy here.

That was a good story. You just kind of brushed that off. Only because something's happening that I think is going to be very exciting to you. Okay. We're being joined. Listen, I know somebody from your past is on the line. Please, mystery guest

Speak to Decisive Derek Kristoff I mean Decisive is a legend I'm so excited that he's on this show I once went to the land of antelopes And giraffes Oh my god oh that song Many many moons ago

I have shooped with him And now I'm so excited to listen to him spill his guts, his proverbial guts, all over Toronto, Mike. And he's got a lot to share. He's a great storyteller and a great guy. I'm so excited that you're on the show. I have to call in and show my support. This is amazing.

Yeah, I'm so stoked to be here. Derek, how long has it been since you spoke of Stew Stone? A long time? A few weeks, maybe. That's the wrong answer, okay? This to be here. Derek, how long has it been since you spoke of Stu Stone? A long time? A few weeks, maybe. That's the wrong answer, okay? This is TV here. Come on, that's not a worker's sheet. No, okay, voice to voice, maybe a long time.

Yeah, voice to voice, I mean. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay. I haven't heard his voice in maybe... Stu, we spent some time talking about your history with Derek, and Derek says you might owe him some money for two sixteens. Can you cut him a check? Oh, that's funny. Yeah.

I didn't know that was even released. So that's funny. I'll tell you something really from my, from my perspective, when I first, I was in Toronto, this might've, must've been 2001 and there was this guy called, I don't know if Derek already told this story, but there was a guy named Mike McCarthy, who was like the head of EMI Music Canada. McCarty, McCarty. I was rapping at that point and he was like meeting with me a bunch and he was like, listen, you know what you got to do? You got to get in with this guy. He's a genius and his name is decisive. And he showed me this picture that was like Derek doing like a bad boy,

like Sean Puffy Combs. Do you know what I'm talking about, Derek? No. It was like a mixtape you had or something. Oh, and I'm like leaning like this, like this? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, exactly. No. It's like, I was like a mixtape you had or something. Oh, and I'm like leaning like this, like this? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, exactly. Oh, yeah. Yeah.

And so I'm like, yeah, sure. So I got in the studio with him and instantly, instantly when we met, I saw his genius right in front of me. I mean, he was making like banging beats within like a minute. We were off. We were like two kindred souls connecting uh over uh over a drum machine so we we we uh toronto mike and i spoke about this earlier it was shoop the first thing we made i think it was yeah we did shoop and then we did that then we did like three or four other songs but and i think i've also appeared on you had a like a you did like a we are the world kind of

song with a bunch of canadian rappers i was on that one do you remember what our group name was no no what was it you don't remember i don't let's hear it what was it lou diamond phillips remember that's amazing. But there was someone else and like you were going to be Lou. I was going to be diamond and someone else was going to be Phillips. Yes. Yes.

I totally remember that now. We can still do that. That's a good, it's still a good group name. Even now we just need to find a Phillips and we're in, he's sitting right in front of me right now. Toronto Mike is Phillips. Don't change the subject, Mike. Don't do this. You're in. He's sitting right in front of me right now. Toronto Mike is Phillips. Don't change the subject, Mike.

Don't do this. You're Phillips. I'll be Phillips. That's fine. That was my pediatrician's name, Dr. Phillips. No joke. That was my pediatrician. Okay.

Stu, Derek's been spilling lots of fucking tea all over my console here. And he talks about this hot date you had named Kendra Jade. Boy, thanks for doing that, Derek. I didn't know. and he talks about this hot date you had named Kendra Jade. Oh, boy. Thanks for doing that, Derek. I didn't know. I'm here, man. I'm here. Toronto, I can't let Toronto Mike down.

What say you, buddy? You've never talked about it. You've been on here 87 times and you haven't talked about Kendra Jade on Toronto Mike? No. I spilled that too. Yeah, you spilled that. You're going to need a paper towel to clean that mess up. Wait until Cam Gordon hears this episode.

No, you know, listen, we all had wild times when we were younger, and those were those days that you're describing. But was it a work or a shoot? Like, was this shtick? That was a work. No, no, no, sorry, sorry sorry sorry that was not a work that was a shoot brother that was a shoot so that means real right okay yeah i get them back that was real yeah that was okay you know when you're here next week because you're exactly one week from today you're in this basement taking derrick spot yes for toast we will have to discuss at some point Kendra Jade. No, I don't think we need to, but I will say this.

Derek's music before, I mean, now everybody's all emo and shit, but Derek was doing maybe, you know, 15 years ago, this guy was doing a type of hip hop that was so honest lyrically and the kind of stories he was telling was unlike anything anyone else was doing that i had heard you know and i think he's just got this brilliant a brilliant mind for for painting these sort of pictures for people using his lyrics that really it's emotional stuff man he's he's got really, really great music and I think he deserves all the recognition in the world

for what he has done, especially in Canada, but all over the world. I mean, he is as good as anybody, but in Canada, we should be celebrating guys like Derek and putting them up on a pedestal and I'm happy that he's getting a chance to shine.

I'm so excited that he's back and he's recording music again and man, I'm just looking forward he's back and he's recording music again. And man, I'm just looking forward to hearing more new stuff from him. Thank you for calling in, Stu, because you were a big part of this episode and it was great to finally get you on and you can cut that

check. He needs the money because he had to pay $10,000 for the notepad jam, so it cost him $10,000. I'm still recouping that. But we talked about... Listen, we can take him from nobody with a notepad to somebody with a notepad by this appearance.

Nice, nice. Stu fucking Stone, man. You know what I think of you. You're the legend. And I'm hitting it off with Derek. So I do think Lou Diamond Phillips is going to happen. Maybe Lou Diamond Phillips can perform live at one of your TMLX events.

Oh my god. And you know he's Filipino. You know this, right? I did not know that. I'm not Filipino. Lou Diamond fucking Phillips. What do you mean? Derek's looking at me with these blue eyes or whatever. I'm not Filipino.

I'm looking at you with my Filipino eyes. Are you talking about Lou Diamond Filipino? Is he Filipino? Nice. Nice. Listen, I'm married to a Filipina and I know everyone of Filipino descent. Like, I know them all. Okay, Lou Diamond Phillips is Filipino. So wait, isn't that kind

of weird that they got him to play the Mexican? Richie Valens. Yes, it is weird. I don't think you'd do that today. But like we discussed. Different times. Because Derek's dropping the R word all over his rap song. I wouldn't say all over. We heard an R word and he wouldn't do that today.

All I can say is Richie. That's the best. Oh my gosh. It's always about Richie. What about Bob, man? What about Bob? He's Bugs Bunny, man. He's Bugs Bunny.

This is the fucking greatest movie ever made. I really did like it. I did. I loved it. We should do an episode, the three of us. Louise Guzman's in that movie, right? Or is it somebody who just looks like him? Oh my God, talk about us.

Mike, come on. I thought Louise Guzman was in it, but no. He might? No. Joe Pantoliano's in it. Do you know Joe Pantoliano? Joey Pants. Joey Pants. He's the record producer who tells him he has to change his name.

What a movie, man. That's the day that music died, brother. Stu fucking Stone. When Richie Valance changed his name. So when people watch La Bamba, they should watch Scarecrows also and make it a double feature. We talked about that. Lots of untimely deaths in both films. get a double feature. We talked about that. Oh, before you depart, Stu, can you just give us a vibe?

How was Derek Kristoff on the set of Scarecrows? How was his performance? We didn't get a lot of detail on that. Next question. He's like Derek Crispin Glover.

I could do this all night. You know, fuck Cam Gordon. We don't need him anymore. We got a new toast lineup right here, buddy. That was my inspiration. That was my inspiration for the role.

Derek is brilliant no matter what he does. So I think that, you know, he just needs to get, he just needed to light a fire under that ass of his again, and now it's lit. And now I just think the world is going to get some, probably his best stuff is going to come now. Okay, so we should make another movie together, is what you're saying.

Yeah. No? We'll get Mike to pay for it. Let's do it. I'll make some calls, David Kynes. I have some people I can call. Hey, Stu. Congratulations.

See you next Thursday. Thanks for jumping in here. No problem. Love to both of you guys. And decisive, man. Big fan. Big fan. I love you forever.

Later, buddy. Bye, baby. He didn't say it back he said peace it's in i gotta go now okay so that let's that this is great you know here we are uh at the hour hour and a bit here and now i'm actually gonna get serious for a minute before we play your new jam okay this is serious time okay, your mother passes away in 2001. No. Who's doing my Wikipedia page? 97.

She died. Yeah, you know what? I'm going to have to get Rosie Gray TO to fix this. Like, we do that. On the show, things are revealed that are false on Wikipedia

and then Rosie Gray TO, a listener, goes in and makes the edits and fixes things. Yeah, we'll get that fixed. Tell her to hit me up i like it i like that shout out to rosie gray to you okay so your mother passes away in 1997 yep and what's your reaction to that like what happens to derek kristoff following the demise of your mother it was it was you know bad but like um what what made it i guess uh i'm just gonna find the right word like what made it i don't mean this word but i guess what

kind of made it a bit easier to cope with was you know i was in high school at the time. I had a huge group of friends and I had my father and my father was a major support system for me, which was weird. Well, it's kind of, you know, it's, we could sit here and talk for hours about this, but when my, him and I didn't really have a relationship until my mom passed away. And it's funny, like throughout the episode, I've, you know, made jokes about the gift and the curse. I have so many of those in my life, whereas like a shitty thing happens, but a good thing comes from it, you know. So my father, he, and I don't even have a negative thing to say about my dad. He was just a workhorse. He was a truck driver.

He was barely home. When he was home, he was sleeping. But it was just strictly to take care of my mom and me. So my mom and I were tight, like inseparable. She was like a mother figure to a lot of my friends. Like there were times where I would come home from school or I was working at McDonald's and friends would be there just hanging out with her that I didn't know were there.

So, you know, she was just an incredible fucking person. But so when my mom passes, my dad and I are now in this situation where we have to now get to know each other. You know, we have,

we, we have no choice but to, you know, develop some sort of relationship. And that being said, it wasn't the easiest situation because even down to like going out, you know, I'm young and my mom will say, be home at midnight. You know, I'm just saying an example. My dad didn't really tell me anything to do.

So, you know, it was all just kind of learning everything from the beginning. But so we kind, I always say we kind of jumped in just as friends. You know, it wasn't even, now the father and son element was still there, but we were just pals, you know, and it was fucking awesome. And he was there for me in ways that i know was very complicated for him like he wasn't an emotional person really like well he didn't wear it you know you would never know the day i saw my dad cry the first time was like fucking next level to me like it's something i think about like that stuff never really leaves you right uh but it just so my mom passing it fucked me up but i guess not as bad as it would have had i didn't have him around and you said in 2006 your father passes away yeah and that was a slow process

because he well my father died from my father was an alcoholic and he died of cirrhosis of the liver, but my mom was the love of his life. Like to a point where I didn't really understand it, you know, until I've met mine, you know, so my current wife, Mel. um so but i didn't get it and so my mom dies so before my dad met my mom my dad was a fuck up you know just like a disaster fucking been in and out of jail drinking uh just nuts but met my mom my mom you know saw the diamond in the rough and fucking took him in and completely changed him he got a job they bought a house like just fucking total change so when he lost her you know that was in a way his you know reason for living and that that was his fucking angel so he just didn't know

how to deal with it and just fell into alcohol. And it was just such a, like my dad drank my entire life, but it was always just like beer. And like, you know, he'd get hammered on Saturdays watching hockey night in Canada, but then it just became a build. You know, we saw more and more alcohol coming in and I was basically taking care of him myself. So that was the hardest part for me. and the last two years of his life got pretty rough which is which sucked because i was going on tour a lot with i don't know if you know a rapper named abdominal and i tour was touring uk and europe with him and dj format and my dad was like very sick at the time so i'm trying to pursue this music career but i'm also trying to make sure he's taken care

of and trying not to turn down opportunities and yeah it was all just a fucking crazy time so so what happens to you derek when your father does pass away in uh oh six i tried to keep it together but it what it wasn't just him passing away It was other things like I had to deal with. I have siblings, and we weren't very close. And I was the only one basically taking care of my father. And I don't think they would be too insulted hearing that. But when he passed away, everyone comes out of the woodwork. You know, my dad was a fucking truck driver who didn't work the last,

he got laid off the last year of his life, right? But for some reason, people think that there's this fortune hidden. So, like, I had to actually deal with like siblings my sister trying to sue me and shit like that like trying to find out where all the money is and it was just fucking so that like fucked me up and i had a girlfriend at the time but we weren't like that close it was kind of ending and i just i kind of just lost it and but is this prior because you know we talked about the highs before you got the dossier. He has all the money, by the way.

But the dossier letter, you're on a winning streak. Let's call it a winning streak. That came much later. That's 09. Yeah. It's 10. Okay, 10. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

So my dad died in 06. Right. So that whole four-year period. Gotcha. And the two years before that i was taking care of him so i wasn't right that's why if you read there's i'm sure there's articles about me from back then that are like he took a six-year hiatus so that's how that i i'm now i'm wondering since you're being so honest which i really appreciate by the way uh like where the hell you've been the

last several years like it feels like if i remember didn again, you and I just met for the first time today. Sure. But I was reaching out to you, literally, if I do the math on that, it was like six, seven, eight years ago. And we had a date, you know, Derek Kristoff, because I was a big, am a big decisive fan. Just think you're great. And way before I met Stu Stone, I should point out.

And now, not so much. No, I'm just kidding but uh but like uh it seems to me like you disappeared where have you been the last several years life happened once again like um so uh during that time when my father passed away i fell into a bit of a addiction addiction toiates. And it's crazy because, like I said, my father was an alcoholic my whole life. It just wasn't as severe until my older years. And I never drank. I think I had my first drink when I was like 34 years old. But that's because you saw what it did to your dad. I didn't do it on purpose.

I guess maybe that's why I just wasn't interested in it. Right. And I, you know, I smoked weed maybe a few times in high school, and it just didn't really sit with me. So around 2005, I got sick, and I got hit with mono. And they say, you know, the older you are when you get it, the more severe it is. And it just fucking destroyed me. Like to the point where I couldn't even like swallow

saliva. Like it's felt like glass. So I, my doctor at the time sent me to Mount Sinai. He, he also worked out of Mount Sinai hospital. He actually delivered me there and sent me there. And I'll never forget what he said. He looked at my throat. He calls his partner in to even look at it. And he's just like, both of them are like, yikes. So when you're watching doctors looking at you and react that way, you're like, okay, something's not right. You know, you're supposed to see this all the time. So he makes a phone call and he says i'm sending over a patient i'm sending over a patient of mine and this kid needs relief and those are the words like they were they hit me then i you know but i had no idea that my life was fucking changing at that moment so so they say

i hop in a cab i go to mount sinai hospital, and I get there and I tell them who I am. They just walk me through like I'm getting rock star fucking treatment. Right, front of the line. Yeah, and they had a bed waiting for me, and I just got on the bed and they hooked me up to morphine. And at that time, I'd never done anything more than fucking Advil. Right. And it just, oh shit.

It was the craziest feeling. Anyone out there who has done it knows what the feeling is so i must have been on for like six hours seven hours just in charge of the button and uh so i'm done a doctor comes in and is like okay look uh we're letting you go uh and i felt fucking great like i'd net i hadn't felt that good for the past like five weeks right and he gives me a prescription and it was for about 120 percocet and i knew nothing about that world i knew nothing about painkillers and so i get home and the weird thing about mono is it well my experience is it fucks you up for so long and then you just like wake up and it's gone like I can oddly I can

still remember the exact moment when it was just done I swallowed like and it felt like I'd swallowed like something you know big and then it's like I swallowed the mono away like it sounds ridiculous and I know how insane it sounds

and then I was just kind of standing there like, oh shit, it's gone. You know, it's so bizarre. Like Kaiser Soze. Yeah. I don't mean to make light of this moment. No, no, no. I do all the time. And so then that.

This is how I deal with serious things. I'm sorry. Keep going. So maybe two or three days later, I was hanging out with a girlfriend. I drive her home. I come home, and I still remember it so vividly, and I was just bored. And my dad was in the basement, and I'm just like, I wonder what it would be like if I fucking ate one of those Percocets.

And you don't, like, I take accountability for everything I've done. I'm not the kind of person that blames other people. But when it's given to you by a doctor, there's just that... Yeah, it's not heroin under a bridge, right? Yes, exactly. It's like prescription drugs with your name on the label. Yeah, so I feel like these are mine, whatever. And I tried it, and to this day, I wish I never did.

And then that just opened up. Then I started discovering all to this day, I wish I never did. And then that just opened up. Then I started discovering all kinds of shit, like family members of mine who had been hooked on it. I'm not going to air them out here, but it just, it, it, it got to a point where,

and again, I preface it with, I take full accountability, but I kind of didn't have a chance, you know, like I had full on access to it. It was, I found out addictive and it sounds

and if i again i i've only read this but uh you don't really know if you're susceptible till you are prescribed it and then it this is no fault of your own you get addicted that's a mental health crisis that's a mental health issue but you were addicted to opiates yeah 100 and yeah i just and i had the the addict gene you know handed to me from my dad and this was i guess my alcohol and i just started fucking popping them like crazy i became dependent very fast and i was hooked on them for a very long time and then i had i had something happen to me where i was that's fucking i was living in parkdale with a friend of mine and uh i he was hanging out with with a couple of friends and they were doing coke and i'd never seen cocaine and it's funny like here i am fucking crushing fucking oxys like crazy but but I see coke, you know, I'm like, oh my God.

That's an illegal drug. But meanwhile, like I'm at, it's not like I'm still on the same doctor prescribed bottle. I'm fucking copping fucking oxys like crazy. And I'm like, cocaine, oh my God. Like, what are you guys doing? And, you know, when anyone who hasn't tried it, people always say it feels like you're on top of the world. Now, you don't know what that really means.

And then I said, okay, fuck, let me try it. And that's, you couldn't, you can't find a better description. And then, so. Wait, is this an ad for Coke? Because I'm looking for a line right now. Well, I'm selling. Shout out to Peter Gross. coke because i'm looking for a line right yeah well i'm selling shout out to peter gross i uh so anyways i i end up because my i have that fucking gene right i end up buying an eight ball

off the person that was there and you know it kind of fucks me up ah to talk about it but there i am in my room like snorting coke and oxys and I'm essentially doing fucking speedballs you know like the shit that killed Belushi and I have no idea so my body reacts and I thought I was overdosing so I I'm watching The Wire on a 13

inch VHS television and I'm freaking out and I call an ambulance there it is holy shit amazing my favorite show of all time i used to have this box set and i sold it well now it's streaming in hd on crave i know well i still sopranos is my favorite show and i still that's my second favorite show yeah it's wires my second that's funny yeah so uh i don't have the wire box i have the sopranos box set but yeah so there i am doing that i call i spend a night in saint

joseph's hospital and just the whole experience fucked me up like i was uh one thing i'll never forget you want to get heavy no i get heavy man this is a cautionary tale yes yes and um i remember being in the in the ambulance and the paramedic she looked just like my sister like very so close so that made it extra crazy and my sister and i were not on good terms then we are not now but and i remember telling my i was just having a fucking meltdown because i think i'm overdosing i'm scared i'm gonna get arrested because you know this is happening illegal fucking narcotics right and i i'll never forget the paramedic you know doing hooking those things on my fingers and then turning around and i saw a teardrop fall from her eye wow and i was just like okay i have a serious fucking problem and

now this was a long time ago so i'll cut them some slack but um like maybe before the opiate epidemic really started, but the hospital treated me like shit and they fucking, we're not trying to hide any of it to the point where I thought that was okay. You know, I'm like, I've done this to myself. So I wake up in the morning and I leave against their, I go against their advice. And I just say, I'm fucking out of here i go home i flush all the coke i have i get rid of the pills cold turkey it was like the roughest fucking wow month of my life i was you know a month later i'm still suffering from the withdrawal right but i got off and you know years go by i make these albums you know this is before the book let the children die i meet my wife and i'm not fucking with any of it and life things just start to happen you know and uh

again i take full accountability and i'm not going to get into that shit but life happened and i had no friends to fucking fall back on. I didn't have any family support system. So then I was just like, you know what? Fuck, I'm going to go grab a couple of perks. You know? Where did you say that? And that just fucked.

Because that was, you know, and it's cliche because I'm just repeating my father's history. You know? Like it's the same fucking thing, just a different place. But all because you're not using doesn't mean you're not an addict no you're an addict who's not using yeah but you're still an addict well that yeah that's what they say right like you're forever an addict even yeah so then i went and i got like 30 because you know you know dealers and that was just it you know like and it all and then it's a relapse escalated and it went to fucking serious rock bottom like to the okay because rock bottom to me is crystal meth did it get to that wrong bottom it didn't get

to crystal mess okay so yeah another rock bottom you got to heroin but it didn't that's that's pretty low okay but that wasn't it wasn't a lot when i when i did that i was like okay there was a few instances that happened that like made me go into i went to a program at uh saint michael's hospital the rapid access clinic and i was i went through a fucking three hour assessment i had to be dope sick because you can't go in there buzzing right and i met dr alex cotterilla so i always stress that and he's like one of the top addiction specialists in canada he's fucking unbelievable and i credit him my wife and my daughter ava for saving my life and when i mentioned my daughter ava it's not one of those like i mean it's literal like literally something that she did saved my fucking life like there were two incidents incidences specifically that honestly and i always

feel weird i'm sorry if i get fucking emotional saying this but like i should not be alive and it's such a crazy thing to fucking say it might be weird hearing but like i dodged a bullet twice and each time was because of my kid you know and then once i got in the program that was it well they're fucking i'm fucking glad you're alive like this i'm telling you thank you so there's two and i that's two you can add to the list of people who are glad you're fucking alive. And even like during the scarecrow time, right? Like you mentioned Stu. I was not, I was in the fucking midst of this. So I went into rehab in 2017.

Okay. October 24th. So I've been clean now over four years. But so any time before 2017 for about three years, not good. So when you do your time. Let's explain some of the exchanges we had. Yes. And your lack of dependability, if I may say that.

It was hideous. Okay. And a year of that, too, I was living in Barrie with my brother. And that was a fucking disaster. So my wife and I were separated for a bit okay and um i thought that that was the best move and that just made shit worse and that's a fucking movie in itself but yeah stew will make that movie next okay so he owes me out of the 216 royalties so i gotta find out how many units he moved of that comeback album. Okay. Because I think

the big one with Jamie Kennedy, 300,000 units, I think, sold. At least that's what he mentioned to me one day. What album? The big one with Jamie Kennedy blowing up. Yeah. The blowing up album with Roland Wolf Sagan on it. Yeah. 300,000. Have you heard that number? Well, I'm going to send it to my lawyer.

I'm texting it to my lawyer right now. Oh, this is the episode. Stu's never going to forgive me for this episode. I'm texting it to my lawyer right now. Stu's never going to forgive me for this episode. But so four years sober. Yeah. Is it difficult? Like, do you ever have moments where you're tempted to score more perks or something to get through anything or how are you doing these last four

years? I don't really, to be honest, I don't feel that at all. Because I was a, well, I was able to, uh, how do I say this? Like I figured out that I have a lot to live for, you know, and my, uh, I talked to Alex Cottarella often and he's kind of my guy. If I, you know, my, I'm ever feeling anything kind of like that. I have full on access to him

all the time. And he always like, he, he always says that I'm not good at taking, you know, compliments or anything like that. And what I've been able to accomplish is, you know, thing like that and what i've been able to accomplish is you know i sound so douchey saying it but like it's commendable and i should be proud of what i did um but he i think the main reason for that is because he was able to help me you know realize my reasons for living and one thing i used to always say to him, cause he would be like, what do you want? Like, what is it do you want? And at the time when I went into the program, my wife and I, we were not on speaking terms. Like we were, we were just kind of co-parenting, but I don't even deserve that title. She was taking care of the kid. Like

she's a fucking superhero and that's you know and she i know i'm being fucking scatterbrained right now but she my mom's name was joe nan so she was like my joe nan when i met her i got it you know it still made me sad but i understood what my dad felt and so she was a fucking superhero throughout this whole time and at the time if you would have ever told me that we were going to even get back together it would be a fucking joke like i'd laugh she'd laugh and i remember being with dr cotterilla for the first time and you know it's like i just want my family back i want to be able to like kiss my daughter you know whenever i want you know i just want like i want that and then so anytime i'm having like my last this is gonna sound insane

but i have this like addiction to swimming right like obsessed that's a healthy addiction though i got the same thing of cycling by the way exact same thing and i considered it pretty much an addiction because i have to do it every day. Yeah, that's how I am. There's a bag of wet shorts right there. By the way, as vices go, as addictions go, that's one of the better ones. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. Well, yeah. And anytime I'm kind of like being a bit of a fucking dick, my wife will always just be like, go swimming.

So my last, you know, one of my last kind of freak outs which i know i wasn't alone but it was like at the beginning of the pandemic and to find out that like pools were shutting down and shit so i'm calling my doctor and i'm freaking the fuck out you can't get your medicine now and even then he's just like well you know we don't think this is gonna last that long you know which is hilarious in hindsight right but you know then always just say, go home, just kiss your daughter. There's a lake at the end of the street. Well, I started investigating that at one point.

Say hi to Ben Rayner when you see him swimming in that lake there. Ben's a laker? He does that? Ben's a good FOTM. There's a beach in Ontario Place. If you're going to Ontario Place, and you have that... I don't know how well you know Ontario Place, but there's a beach in Ontario Place. Like if you go down, you know, going to Ontario Place and you have that, I don't know how well you know Ontario Place, but there's a beach there.

Him and his daughter are there quite a bit since Ben left the Toronto Star especially. And Ben loves swimming in that lake. Wow. He was a huge supporter of mine. You know, he's got good taste. Yeah, he does. He's got good taste. And he knows a good act.

And I know you said you don't handle praise well but uh this must have been a tough 90 minutes so far because i've been heaping a lot of praise on you because i think you're fucking good and this four years sobriety congrats again thank you and you know keep on keeping on as kim clark champ this one said to me keep on keeping on but uh and i'm gonna talk to you now about your return to music yeah but um just don't call it a comeback ll cool j i think i quoted him twice today but so glad you're still here now you're back to music like what happened you just realized like now that you've you got clean and sober it's time to get back to your art because what i'm trying to say here is i'm rambling more than you are is you can channel all of this.

This is all part of your fucking journey. You did come out the other side, right? This is like Shawshank Redemption, man. You came out the other side, and you came out clean the other side, right? And now you can put that into your art, man. You can put this into your poetry. You can put this into your music. Well, again, the gift and the fucking curse, man.

I hate that I had to go through this but where i stand right now i've got days of material like non-stop and you know not it's not even i like obviously you know we'll talk about the music but i also want to kind of put out there maybe take this opportunity to put out in the universe one of my goals, and I'm actually starting it right now with, you know, Rob Baker, uh, moonshine. Well, tragically hip. Yeah. He's my Rob Baker.

No, yeah, no, not the hip, not the hip. He's the, he's the rap Rob Baker, uh, moonshine who, you know, my, my co, uh, how do you word that? Conspirator? Collaborator? We got sued. We got sued together. Defendant?

Yeah. So I'm starting an organization. I'm slowly starting it, but it's been on my mind for the past four years called 4,000 Halos. And I'm being raw about it. I'm just going to try and do my best to try and help as many people going through with what I'm being raw about it. I'm just going to try and do my best to try and help as many people

going through with what I'm going through. I'm not sitting here with we're going to do this. It's just something we're just going to start grassroots. Even if it's as it's just something as people reaching out to me.

Now the music, we're not trying to make smash hits i'm basically using my music to tell my story and like you said earlier cautionary tale i don't want people to well one of the you know one of the i've heard so many times from fotms i'm thinking of like uh you know ken daniels or uh joe tilly uh or david shull oh no not david shows i'm going to take that one aside. That was something else. But bottom line, I've heard from FOTMs who talk about their sons getting addicted to

opiates and then fentanyl overdoses where their hearts literally stop and they're in their early 20s and they're dead because of the accidental fentanyl overdose because of their opiate addictions. I almost went out like that. Oh, fuck. Yeah, it's an epidemic it's yeah that was and that was because i was thinking my boy like he's 20 and i just think like yeah like yeah yeah so thank you for this uh endeavor yeah so yeah we're gonna yeah we're gonna try and then it's nuts because there isn't really a lot of things like that out there.

And something that's so heavy is this, and we're losing a lot of people every day. And this is not like, I apologize if this is insulting to anyone, but it's not like a lower class problem. Not that that would matter, but the point I'm trying to make is it's in. Yes, it's everywhere now. And years ago when i first started doing it it wasn't as you know this is a corny word to use but it wasn't a mainstream thing right so it's easy for people to be like so just quit you know like you know like you don't you unless you've been through it or have

been impacted connected with someone who has you don't get it like that was one of the things my wife she would just be like why don't you just fucking quit just stop taking the pills right like you don't understand man being dope sick is like fucking next level and well i've seen train spotting yes yeah so you were you were late in the other side right yeah but you like you'll do anything like things, that was one of the things my doctor said to me. And what I love about Alex is he's so fucking honest. So I go in there and I'm like, I'm sorry if you want to like wrap up soon. No, I don't want to. No, no, no.

Keep going, please. Yeah. But he was just like, you know, I'm just like, I'm done. I'm never touching it again. And he's like, well, it's very possible you will touch it again. I go, not me. I'm fucking, it's never going to happen. He's like, yeah, but it could happen.

you will touch it again i go not me i'm fucking it's never gonna happen he's like yeah but it could happen and he told me that uh you your first year is the hardest because you're you're on this like sober high for a year you're i related to like learning how to walk again because you spent so much time um relying and depending on this fucking drug to help you escape from bullshit you now have to deal with emotions on your own you have to figure out ways to deal with it yourself so you're learning this and it's and as you the more successful you are the more you have a momentum but then when you hit a year you know it kind of it becomes your norm again and you and are now you have to come to terms with a lot of the shit you did like stuff that i did when i was fucking desperate it makes me sick right it's not it's shit i would never do

now ever even down to turning my back on my fucking wife and my kid right i would have never done that but now here you are in a clear head and you're dealing with these memories and messes you've made. And you have to face them because if you value the relationships, you want to clean it up. And so there's been people I've had to call and been like, dude, I'm sorry. I can imagine. It's hard to deal with, but yeah. I don't know. Listen, man.

Okay, so I'm going to play a little music here because then I want to talk about what you're up to these days. So let's listen to this. Say something nice about me. I like your style. That's my baby. My style of what? Shirts.

My shirts. I like that you have a face on your shirt whenever you wake up. You always wake up and then got a face on your shirt like right now. What are you talking about? Every day you have someone's face on your shirt whenever you wake up. You always wake up and then got a face on your shirt like right now. What are you talking about? Every day you have someone's face on your shirt. Yeah. Waving to the reaper in my rear view. Later, right here's where I leave you.

Where my legacies remember him. And the majority answering aren't remembering. It's sad to admit, but I'm not even a has been. I'm borderline and never been. I swore to God, John, not a lie. I'm the motherfucking goat. Decisive records will forever spin. But my vinyl went back in its sleeve.

Frisbee'd in a storage bin, then locked up in a storage unit. When I hit rock bottom without a parachute. Bonjour to opiates or of water music. Then came the cold summers and hot winters. I went from a dreamer to the strut sinner. From a top tier lyricist slash performer to a shoplifter. Ponding stolen shit for my Rolodex of ox dealers. I yams what I yams.

A pocket full of 80 milli ox was my jar of spinach. And I was one fentanyl laced pill away from being the raisin. You pour a bottle of malt liquor out on the pavement I slept on a slum dog staring up at the stars wishing I could go back before the perk script when all I wanted to be was John Lennon and Bob Dylan now I look up at my demons an army of killers the size of large bodybuilders like Arnold, Ronnie Coleman, and Brock Lesnar. And I'm Davis Spade, face below their waist, marble in a slingshot, aiming at the face, fueled by the streams of teardrops on my Ava's face. Her father's all that she wants, like Ace of Base, and there I

was renting the basement of Satan's place. I gave him my soul in exchange for the high, so he doesn't mind if I pay it late. He's the one who gave me two to escape the pain and pushed until two became 28 a day then I'm lining crushed oxys with a razor blade to inhale it's a miracle I'm awake today I say goodbye and I choke I stumble when I try to walk away like Macy Gray but this is it adios sayonara I gotta live for my wife and my daughter and never do to them what my father did to me. The cycle can't continue any longer. Waving to the Reaper in my rear view. Right here is where I leave you. Bye. that's what i'm talking about derek that's exactly what i'm talking about it's intense channel it in there man that's autobiographical that's uh that's you sharing your story man so don't shut up about this you keep you keep sharing you keep uh you know doing

your part 4 000 angels000 angels, man. You keep doing it, man. You're an FOTM now. I fucking love this. I'm so glad you came over. We could have this chat, buddy. Yeah, I'm very happy about this. It only took seven years.

It was fucking worth it. I'm actually, it's worth it. Worth the fucking weight. We had a lot to talk about. But I'm coming back. I love you. No, like, but since, like, make it sound sincere. I love you. That's, I don since, like, make it sound sincere.

I love you. That's, I don't know, it's a little too whispery. I love you. Say I love you, Dad, so they know. I love you, Dad. And that's what you got to live for, buddy. That's it right there. I'm going to cry right now.

Where the fuck are my tissues? Fuck, man, he is kind of making me feel it too. Of all the shit we talked about. Well, listen, tell us like, tell us how we can follow you. Like, where can we find your new music? Like just promote the shit out of yourself on the way out here, man.

I'm on, I'm on Instagram at, at Derek Christoph, D E R E K C H R I S T O F F. And that's my Twitter handle as well. Um, Facebook, I don't know.

YouTube. I'm there. You'll find it. If you go on my Instagram, that's the number one. But, yeah, I got to come back. We got a lot. We got to talk Cypher. I have this vision.

I have this idea. You, me, and Stu do an episode together. Let's do it. I don't live far from here. We're going to make this happen. Yeah. We're going to make this fucking happen. together i would let's do it i'll be i don't live far from here it would be different yeah we're gonna make this fucking happen but i feel like i gotta i forgot to talk about my uh i can i control the show the only thing after this is kissing the kids you're giving me the music man i'm getting the oscar music what did you because i don't want you to be like on your uh bus ride

home thinking oh fuck i really wanted to mention x this is your chance I want to promote a show that I've been working on the past two or three years called Cypher and it is the brainchild of the amazing Ken Galloway and he came up with the concept with his partner Rusebay and he

it's funded by Telus Fund shout out to Bannister Bergen and it shines a light And he, it's, it's funded by Telus Fund. Shout out to Bannister Bergen. And it shines a light on caregivers. And the concept of the show is to show the stories of caregivers, then to take their story and turn them into songs. We had, we just wrapped, I believe the third season. Well, it was not the third season it's kind of a spin-off it's it's it's it's molded into two different things the first season was

fucking heavy we did eight episodes we had biff naked we had classified we had fred penner i'm wearing this is fred penner oh i was trying to figure that out yeah okay see that's another but i didn't even know you were going to mention Fred Penner. I'm wearing my Fred Penner t-shirt because I'm a Fred head. Yeah, we got to talk Penner. I got Penner stories. Penner, yeah, Penner's the man. He's been over here twice.

Fucking love that guy. Yeah, he's the best. I had no idea you were going to name drop fucking Fred. Of all the names you were going to drop in this episode, Derek, I did not think Fred Penner was going to be one of them. And I will say, Biffnake is a neighbor. She's a mimico, but she's just a

fucking lovely woman. Is she a FO? Multiple visits. I had her and Mishy Mee on together. Oh, we worked with Mishy. Season 2, we worked with Mishy Mee. What other FO teams are you hanging with here? Biff is the best. Classified, because he's never been on the fucking show.

I love classified. I can make that happen. That's very easy. Okay, let's do that. But Biff, I can't say. I can't talk. It's just, look at me now. I'm at a loss for words.

She is the greatest. One of the best things to happen to me over the past like three years. We met doing this show and we just clicked. I consider her like a sister. I love her so much. And Snake's pretty fucking cool too. Snake is cool as shit. I love Snake and his

kiss tattoos. Yep. Kiss everything. He loves kiss. But yeah, but Cypher, so we've been doing that now for a couple of years and Ken has turned it into this beautiful monster. I'm stuck on the Fred Penner shirt. Like I have a fucking hundred t-shirts. I don't know when the last time I threw on the Fred Penner,

but something made me throw it on today. I have a song with Fred Penner called We Climb. It's from the show. Ken came up with the concept. I wrote the song. And that was one of the best days of my life, working with Fred Penner. And the footage exists.

It obviously didn't make it to the final cut. It's not connected to the show. But he was so in love with the song that I wrote. In fact, his appearance on the show relied on the song. So he's like, I'm not giving you a yes. I'm not giving you a no. I've got to hear the song. If I like the song, I'll do it.

And he said, I don't normally sing other people's material. Right. So I, me, and it's on camera, him gushing about the song. I almost fucking cried when he said it, that was a trip.

That was like another stomping Tom moment. Wow. And, uh, but yeah, but I want to, I want to make sure I've been music supervising. I've been an on air personality on the show.

It's hosted by Asante hotten who's fucking amazing um yeah but ken he's just created something amazing his company saucy momo i work with a lot where do we see this youtube youtube yeah store if you look up tell us fun stories for caregivers but the show's called cypher and now cypher that's what the c yes c-y-p-h-e-r not all fotms are as bright as you and i and we're about to drop we just wrapped a new season called cypher letters for letters from caregivers and that it's it's a fun i've obviously i have the hookup i've seen the cuts and it's fucking beautiful. We got Biff naked. Shout out to Biff.

Biff's a huge part of the show. We have an artist named I, you spell his name, A-H-I. Okay. He's incredible. We got Carl Wolf, the Wolfman.

Wolfman. Carl. Ow. Yeah. It's just, it's just amazing thing Wolfman Carl. Ow! Yeah, it's just an amazing thing to be a part of, and I would be bummed if I didn't bring it up today. Well, Decisive, you're an amazing thing. You are an amazing thing. You're going to make me cry again, buddy.

We're going to kiss again. It's going to happen. I can't believe the guy from Tragically Hip is Moonshine. That's fucking a mind blow right there. And that brings us to the end of our 1034th show. I did an episode earlier this week of Peter Gross, and in the middle of the conversation, Peter Gross is a fucking legend, okay? In the middle of the convo,

he gets a text from his agent that he's fucking missed his audition. He needs to land this gig, this commercial work he needs to do. He fucked up the times and he's like, Mike, we have to stop this recording. I have to do an audition.

I'm like, well, okay, what do you need to do? And he's like, I got to get on Zoom right now. So I put him on Zoom, but I'm recording the whole fucking time. He does the audition in the middle of this fucking recording. He lands the gig. It's such a bizarre, amazing moment in podcast history.

And I thought, oh, that kind of shit never happens. That was fucking amazing. Two days later, it's happening again, brother. You brought it today. Shout out to Stu Stone who joined us. Fucking amazing. That brings us to the end of our 1034th show. If you'll excuse me, I'm going to go measure some corpses.

That's where I'm going right now. I'm going to eat lasagna, frozen, solid lasagna. Don't leave without that fucking lasagna. I'm not. That's why I brought it

up. You can follow me on Twitter. I'm at Toronto Mike. You mentioned you were at Derek Kristoff. Yeah. Okay.

Our friends at Great Lakes Brewery are at Great Lakes Beer. Palma Pasta is at Palma Pasta. Sticker U is at Sticker U. Ridley Funeral Home is at Ridley FH and Canna Cabana,

they're at Canna Cabana underscore. See you all next week. And your smile is fine And it's just like mine And it won't go away Cause everything is rosy and green Well, I've been told that there's a sucker born every day But I wonder who

Yeah, I wonder who Maybe the one who doesn't realize There's a thousand shades of green Cause I know that's true.