Toronto Mike'd: The Official Toronto Mike Podcast - iLLvibe KOTJ: Toronto Mike'd #297

Episode Date: December 29, 2017

Mike and iLLvibe catch up before they play and discuss his ten favourite songs.

And right now, right now, right now it's time to... Take out the champs, motherfuckers! I'm in Toronto where you wanna get the city love I'm from Toronto where you wanna get the city love I'm a Toronto Mike, wanna get the city love My city love me back for my city love Welcome to episode 297 of Toronto Mike'd, a weekly podcast about anything and everything. Proudly brought to you by Great Lakes Brewery, a fiercely independent brewery celebrating 30 years in the craft beer business.

Visit GLB at 30 Queen Elizabeth Boulevard for $5 beers. And propertyinthesix.com, Toronto real estate done right. And Paytm, an app designed to manage all of your bills in one spot. Download the app today from paytm.ca. I'm Mike from torontomike.com. And joining me this week to kick out the jams is rapper, producer, and Toronto Mike theme song composer

Ill Vibe yeah Mike what's up unbelievable because this song this is episode 297 this song has opened every episode that's crazy and you put this jam together yeah it's funny because I did it so long

ago I remember doing it of course and you listen to it more than I do these days but it was funny to hear me in the beat I say uh produced by VK VK is a producer from Bristol England I met on my first ever UK tour uh haven't talked to him in a few years but that's funny to hear even his name and his beat and uh takes me back to kind of where I was at when we first linked up back then. Well, okay, if my math is right, I approached you about this in like six years, almost six years ago.

Wow. It explains why my voice has changed. My voice has deepened a lot since then. Yeah, your balls have dropped. From smoking and whiskey also. Oh, yeah. It happened at the same time. That's how it works.

I'm jealous, man. So I almost want to go through that song right off the top because subscribers and frequent go through that song right off the top because like there's subscribers and and frequent listeners know that song because that that means you're in for an episode of toronto mic whether that's good or bad is up to you but you're in for an episode of toronto mic and it's always the same theme song and it so can you just tell me a little bit right off the top like you had you had some beats and then you had an idea for a rhyme and you just cooked this up. What the hell is the process when you put this together?

I remember you hit me up and I said, I kind of got into what you were about. I really dug that it was Toronto-centric. You think six years ago, that was even cooler. Now there's a lot more of that type of stuff. So I really vibed on the Toronto aspect. And so I just looked at what beats I had in my little catalog usually uh a hip-hop artist will have a little bit of production around just from you know producers that they've met up with recently you know little song ideas that are in the works um and so that one just felt like it kind of matched the right type of vibe i know your people aren't all super like super rap heads necessarily so i wanted i wanted something that felt like anybody could kind of kind of vibe to it and then i mean i just say

toronto love over and over so it's pretty simple on the vocal but it was fun and i've tried to replace that theme song a few times and you keep holding on to it so i love it though i love it not because i don't like change man but uh can you can you throw me like a what up mike because that's like that that's what i know i'm about what up mike it's like yeah when i hear that i'm like oh there's illy so it's like you're that's funny because uh you have been on this episode a couple of times on this podcast yeah i think twice but this is how long back we go like your first appearance is episode 13 and now we're 297 297 yeah 13. Congrats in advance on 300 coming up. Thank you, man. I hope I get there.

I'm so close. Let me read the description if people want to... I almost cringe like people might listen to episode 13 because I don't think I was very good. You know what I mean? To a degree, that's how I feel about the song because I know that it has a place in your heart, but it definitely is.

It's six years ago in me vocally. And even, uh, you know, I re I recorded and mixed that song and that was probably in my first six months of mixing songs. So have you ever heard of Ron James? He's like a Canadian standup comic. I have. Yeah. Okay. So Ron James was here two days ago and I was going to play a clip. I was going to play, he was on conan back in like 2003 he was on the conan o'brien show and i was i loaded up i was gonna give us a taste of what did ron james sound like at 03 he's like he's looking at me with this like kill it no he's like kill that and i'm like okay like you know the guest wants me to kill this i think i'll bring it down he was the cringe you could feel the cringe in the room.

Like he did not want to hear how he sounded in 03 because he thinks he's so much better now than he was then. And I was like, I'm glad to hear that that's not just me, that I'm not just obsessed.

It's not just you, and it's me too. Like I'm thinking now, like do I want people to go to episode 13 and listen to your first appearance? Here's the description of you in 13.

Okay, let's do it. In this episode, Rosie and I chat about hot dogs stuffed in pizza crust. Yeah, Rosie. I still follow Rosie on Twitter to this day. She, 40 episodes, I think she was here for the first 40, I think, before she... That's right.

She left me for greener. Were you in the Humble and Fred studio at that time? Where did you go? Tell me. Did you go to the Humble and Fred studio? I think so, yeah. Eventually, okay, so I start in the Humble and Fred studio, borrowing their where did you go tell me did you go to the i think so yeah yeah the first so eventually okay so i start in the humble and fred studio borrowing their shit and then at like really early maybe episode 20 i start broadcasting from my home interesting because you make a return so okay so uh what is it in this episode rosie and i chat about hot dogs stuffed in pizza crust see that's

the hard-hitting shit we were dealing with in episode 13. The Raptors. Weezer. I don't know what we were saying about Weezer. These were the good old days when you could afford to talk about these subjects. And welcome Toronto-miked theme song composer Ill Vibe. And that episode was 35 minutes and 47 seconds. This episode is going to be a lot longer than that. Cool.

I don't do 35 minutes. I don't have a job, so whatever. It's like, I woke up today. I had no idea it was Friday because we're between Christmas and New Year. And I don't know. Somebody, Cheryl, who's a regular, people who read my blog will know Cheryl's a regular commenter.

And she loves these open mics. And every Friday morning, I post an open mic. And I really just post it for her. She goes there and she chimes in. That's kind of beautiful. Yeah, I think so too. And I really think if she were to like stop commenting, I might just give up the open mics.

But she goes, I can't find today's open mic. This is on last week's open mic. And I had this moment of like, it was like 10 a.m. And I'm like, oh shit, it's Friday. I had no idea. No idea. So you came back to episode 40. Was that at my apartment? I don't remember to be honest. I had no idea. No idea. So you came back to episode 40. Was that at my apartment?

I don't remember, to be honest. Was it here? I don't remember. Oh, yeah, because as you told me on that episode, you were smoking a lot of weed. Are you still smoking a lot of weed? I am still smoking a lot of weed, yeah. Have you smoked today? I smoked earlier.

And I have a joint with me, but I decided not to smoke it freshly before so that I could be as coherent as I possibly can be. The best version of me that I have. Can you go a day without smoking? I can. And last year I did. Last year I went two weeks without smoking. I'm growing up and I'm trying to get control over my vices like all of us are.

So I took two weeks off and I scaled back my smoking quite a bit. There was a minute last year where I was approaching Rick Ross levels of weed smoke. But not as long as you don't hit Willie Nelson levels. I would argue that Rick Ross might smoke more weed than Willie Nelson. Rick Ross also has more friends probably smoking out of the bag. That's great. But I don't have a Rick Ross budget, so that was one of the biggest reasons why I took a little break.

But I do still smoke, yeah. Yeah, I remember thinking, like, every day, like, that can't be good for, like... Do you ever get bronchitis or something? It doesn't seem to be so much bad for making me sick as it is. It's not great for memory long-term, and it's not great for your banking. No, you don't remember. Otherwise, I don't find it's not too bad. You don't remember, so you came back for episode 40, but you have no clue.

I remember doing a second episode. I don't remember where or much about it. Okay, here's what episode 40 is about. Mike talks about his man venture with Elvis. I went on a man venture. I remember now, I went on a man venture with Elvis just before I got married. So I was getting married in June 2013, I want to say.

Yes. Wow. And Elvis and I went on a man venture. He's a buddy of mine. And Ill Vibe calls Mike the whitest guy he's ever met. That must have been the weed talking. I'm not. Come on. I'm the whitest guy. You're pretty white, but that's funny that I

said that. I don't remember that at all. That's great. That ties into the fact that your excellent theme song. By the way, if you want to refresh it, I will update it if you want. In hearing it today, I enjoyed it. It's more of, it's like you said with the... Anytime somebody says,

hey, that thing you made a long time ago that you haven't heard in a million years, we all listen to it all the time. It's just more about that than the Roses. I'm going to play it in the background while we... I don't want anyone to think this is starting again here. You get a Pavlovian response at this point. Oh, another episode.

Yeah, right. And I noticed like if somebody kicks out the jams and they pick Rosie and Grey by Lowest to the Low, like if I play that jam, people are going to like shut down the podcast.

Like it's over because I close every episode of that jam. But okay. So this song, I'm just listening to it. This beginning, what I like about it is

I like the theme song to As It Happens on CBC Radio, which is like a... I like that. And it's got this flute thing going. And I get the very similar... And when I hear that, I know I'm going to hear As It Happens. And I've been hearing it forever. My whole life.

I get that same vibe from this beginning. Is that like this flute-y part? I don't know. Yeah, for sure. The flute's great in this beat. Yeah. And then your rhymes

are really like, you're like, it's so customized. Like it's about Mike and his podcast about the city. Toronto, I think you called it

City Love. Yes, I did. Yeah. So it's like, it's ideal. And I'm like, if you were to refresh this, because even uh update that as it happens theme once in a while right like okay i'd be happy to do it but only if uh you know if you have the time and the desire uh much like you

i've got i've got a home base studio so that'd be fun so let's touch base after the podcast and we can see uh how we might update that i should tell people listening this isn't the last well there's another song that people uh hear on the podcast every episode now that you did and we'll get to it like organically soon so i don't want to jump ahead but uh i do want to say this is the first episode we've had together uh the reason we know each other like people like how do you know ill vibe like i'm not a cool guy I'm the whitest guy you ever met. You're a cool guy, rapper, producer, doing cool shit. How the hell do I know you? So we have to give props to the late, great Mike Kick.

Mike Kick brought us together. He did. And Mike Kick, anyone who listens knows my buddy Mike Kick passed away three days after my third born was born. So we're going back to April 25th. How old is Jarvis now? He's almost going to turn four. So 2014.

Wow. Yeah, April 2014. Can't believe it's been that long already. And that's it. Every time Jarvis has a birthday, I know we're three days away from the anniversary of Kik's passing. So I'll always know how long we've been without Mike Kick. I think about him often.

Me too, buddy. I see him a lot. He's got a look. He's got a look. He's a handsome big guy, and he had the beard, and he had this cool... I see him...

I see people on the street. I'm always out biking and walking, and I see people that look like Kick. And I always have a moment of like, is that Kick? And it's like i have this brief moment of is that kick before i remember that can't be kick it's kind of an interesting thing that is interesting it's it's it's you see him in the faces of smiling children is what you're saying

ready for i ready where else i see him which is this is gonna be kind of bizarre where i see him in the face of lebron james okay wow i i tell what, he would love that compliment. There's something about obviously they have different skin tones, but the beard and the facial structure. I see what you're saying. And I see a lot of LeBron, as you probably do too. I'll be watching a Cavs game.

I see a lot of them in the playoffs, but I'll be watching... He does have a shape of a white LeBron James. And when LeBron James talks, I see him. And the only other guy, another athlete, when he talks,

I see my kick, is Russell Martin. Russell Martin did this ad where he was talking, I'm trying to remember now, but it was maybe a Sonos or something, but he was talking about some, maybe it was Spotify, maybe.

Maybe, I don't know. He's talking about some audio streaming thing or something. And it's honestly got looks and sounds like kick. Isn't that weird? That is weird. So I see him play, but so you worked with kick? Like how did you know? Yeah. So back when I had a day job, uh, I worked in the ad business and kick was in the business as well. And so we were both like account managers or executives or whatever. Um, and when things got bad, he was kind of my rock. We would always meet up after work and smoke a joint. And he would help me get perspective when things were really dark at the office. You know, when your boss is mad at

you and the client's mad at them and nothing's working out. Do I ever, man? Yeah. Well, I mean, it doesn't matter what industry you're in. Everyone's had that moment when the boss is mad and the client's mad at them and everything's just bad. And Kick would always say to me, hey, man, it's hard for all of us, much harder than it is for you, because when you go home, you have a greater purpose. You've got this light at the end of the tunnel, something that you work towards. So this is nothing. This is small. You just have to go home and then you can get to what you're really working on.

Yeah, small potatoes. And that little context is something that I carry with me to this day and I still think about that all the time. And I think there's something to that about having a purpose,

having something that you work towards that kind of gets you through all the bad stuff. So that's the lesson that Mike left with me. Similar that, well, you know,

I knew him for a long time. I played ball with him and everything. And then I had this idea to start my own podcast, which to me was nuts because I hated the sound of my voice. I've never done anything. I've never done any kind of broadcasting or recording of any kind. So the whole notion like, hey, I'm going to start a podcast.

I'm like, who am I to start a podcast like six years ago? Like, that's ridiculous. But I had this thing in my head. I couldn't shake it because I had the blog, and I thought I'm going to make it a podcast. Totally. And I'm chatting with Kick about my idea and i'm like i want to like go bigger i want it to sound good like i didn't want it to sound like it's some

shitty external mic on some laptop or something like i wanted it to sound big i wanted to do it right from the beginning and i wanted a theme song like i had this idea like i'll have a theme song from episode one i had this vision and I'm chatting with Kick about it. And he's like, you got to talk to Ill Vibe. And he's like, you got to talk to Ill Vibe. And I'm like, who the fuck is Ill Vibe? And who calls himself Ill Vibe? Like, who's this guy?

Valid question. Ill Vibe. That's a perfectly valid question. And he's like, yeah. And he's like, so he hooked me up with you. And then the rest is history. And then I bump into you like, I saw you at the celebration of his life of course and the fundraiser we did

fuck I can't believe he's gone it's just because he's younger than me that's the thing was he about your age? I think he might have been a year or two older than me but it definitely is you know I'm one of the only rappers I know that hasn't lost a friend

because of drugs or violence uh and i'm really blessed and lucky about that i hear a lot of horror stories and but the one thing i do have is i lost a friend to cancer uh and that was a real wake-up call about you know mortality in life and um yeah it's uh it's you know when you when you lose that first person you love it's there's no you, there's falling in love the first time and then there's losing your first friend. And those are moments that I think kind of like shape you. No doubt, man.

It's definitely a part of me now. I'm so like, I feel so mortal. Like I'm so like aware that like I could easily not be here in six months. I have this whole like, only because with Kick, so September was when the slow pitch season ended, okay? Yeah.

He was playing ball like to the, he played in the playoffs only. Cause I remember my buddy Mofo and I have known him forever too, but we're like, kick's not hitting that well. Like we blamed it on the baby. We had a whole, like a whole thing.

Kick's not hitting well. He was a dependable slugger and he just, he didn't have it. And we thought, well, he's got a newborn at home. Yeah. The baby.

And you know, you know, and his wife's wanting, you know, he's got to help with the baby. It's like, fuck it. And of course that's going to fuck at home yeah the baby and you know you know and his wife's wanting you know he's got to help with the baby it's like fucking of course that's gonna fuck you up or whatever like that's it but that's september we finished the season in september he's gone before the next season begins yeah wow so i have this whole like like it's basically like i feel good now like i can even in the snow i can go now for a 20k ride i feel great like uh but you know in six months i could be gone. I just feel

like you don't take anything for granted. It's totally changed my whole perception of this thing we call life, man. Absolutely. I was just on tour in the U.S. and we had a couple of opening acts on the tour. A guy named Troy McGinn, really cool Canadian guy. And we had a guy from the U.S.

The manager's name was Beez. He's a friend of mine from social media. He's the kind of guy I have on Twitter and Facebook. And when he saw there was an opportunity to open for me on the road, he said, hey, I got a young guy from Detroit and I'd like him to be your support on the road. So we rocked a couple of shows together.

It was a blast. They took a few days off. And in those days off, he was robbed and murdered out of nowhere while in Detroit. He was on tour with you? Well, he went home for a few days. We had four or five days off. We hung out and murdered out of nowhere while in Detroit. When he was on tour with you? Well, he went home for a few days. We had four or five days off.

We hung out, we hung out in Wyoming where we were and they said, Hey, we got some business back home. We're going to go back home. And he was just, I mean, I don't know all of the details, but, uh, from what I had heard, he was here today, gone tomorrow, gone literally tomorrow. And bees is he, he owned a weed dispensary. So I guess he was, you know, he wasn't an accountant, but we're not talking about a gangster or, so it's just the kind of know, he wasn't an accountant, but we're not talking about a gangster or,

so it's just the kind of thing where all of a sudden for the rest of the tour, I'm like, every day matters, every show matters, every time you meet somebody, every impression matters,

you don't know which of those are your last ones and so it's a dark place to start, but I guess, much like our friendship, it starts with sadness and then in that place,

love and vibes grow. Roses grow from the cracks. That's it, man. So this episode is dedicated to the late, great Mike Kick. Yeah. I root for the Cavs in the playoffs so I could see more of him on my TV.

That's how that works. I like that, man. I like that a lot. I got to ask you about, uh, Canada's smartest person. That was fun.

Yeah. Like, okay. So this, so that people know this was a, like, okay, so that people know, this was a CBC game show, reality show? Yeah, game show.

Game show. And it got a lot of, like, promotions, so I don't think you could miss that it existed. Even if you weren't going to tune in, you knew it was going on or whatever. What's her name? Jessie, what's the name of the host? Jessie Cruikshank, I think, right?

Jessie Cruikshank. And you'd recognize her if you saw her. I think she's on The Goods now. Beautiful. This is a morning show. She's one of the host? Jessie Cruikshank, I think, right? Jessie Cruikshank. And you'd recognize her if you saw her. I think she's on The Goods now. Beautiful. This is a morning show. She's one of the most impressive humans I've ever been in a room with. What are you doing here?

I should have her on. You really should meet her. It's very impressive. What's impressive to me is that this show is called Canada's Smartest Person. And you're on this fucking show. I didn't really deserve to be, but... No, I'm way smarter than you are.

That's what I would tell. No, No, I'm way smarter than you are. That's what I would tell. No, 100% you are way smarter than me, for sure. So how did you end up? Tell us how you ended up on Canada's Smartest Person. Well, the story about how I got on isn't super interesting outside of... It's essentially, you know, I'm interested in avenues.

I'm always trying to find new opportunities and new adventures. And whether we're talking about career growth or just, you know, let's find out what it's like to travel around America. I'm open to those types of things. And so when I heard about Canada's smartest person, I thought, you know, I'm definitely not the smartest Canadian, but I am, I figured kind of a cool candidate for smartest person, just that I'm a rapper and I work for myself and I make YouTube videos for a living.

So I guess they thought that was somewhat interesting and they brought me in and I tested well. The thing is with the show... You're well spoken. Yeah, I mean I do my best, but there are people who are way better spoken than me. Oh yeah. But I think the thing with the show, like all shows like that, is whether we're talking about weakest link

in the US or whatever, it's really about operating under pressure. It's really about this very specific case. And on this show in Canada, it was about balanced intelligence. And that's where I do pretty good. I'm decent at math, more so than maybe your average person.

I'm musical and artistic. I'm great with words and word games. And so I was a good candidate for those reasons but the people who beat me on that show Mike it set it gave me a new understanding of the levels of intelligence that were available upon birth

you know what I mean like there's a guy named Tim Blaze on the show he's a famous YouTuber you can look him up he goes by acapella science he basically does covers and explains complicated scientific theory through pop songs. This man is like Rain Man, but without the rain. He can do literally everything.

He's perfect pitch. He's read a trillion books, and it's the kind of guy that when I met him in the green room, I was like, oh, I'm here for the cool rapper factor. You were there to be the... Yeah, exactly. They had a demo they needed to do. Let me tell you, though, brother, and I don't a demo they needed to do. Well, let me tell you though,

brother, and I don't like to brag because it's been two years, but that season premiere that I was on, I went up against a child prodigy who already works for NASA

and I went up against university professors and guess who won? Guess who won, my friend? I'm going to guess it was Illy. It was Illy. Wow.

It was Illvibe. Illvibe took it and then in the grand finale I had my butt whooped by three of the smartest human beings that ever walked the earth. It was Illy. Wow. It was Illvibe. Illvibe took it. And then in the grand finale, I had my butt whooped by three of the smartest human beings that ever walked the earth. But good for you. I remember the fun fact. You know, I like these fun facts. It's like, you know, one of

the guys on Canada's Smartest Person composed the Toronto Mike theme song. That was my fun fact. That's pretty cool. Holy shit. But I always thought, hey, what the hell is he doing on that show when I'm twice as smart as he is? I have personal friends who are my advisors on just about anything that

requires intelligence, and all of them took it as an insult. Well, yeah, maybe it's because you're high all the time, but I was thinking to myself, ill vibe, smartest guy in Canada. Is he ever the smartest guy in the room? Never. That's what I was thinking. I appreciate your level of hating. I'm just goofing. As all of the cast members on the room. Never. That's what I was thinking. Never. I appreciate your level of hating. I'm just goofing.

As all of the cast members on the show said, it's Canada's smartest people who chose to apply to the show. Okay. Well, good for you. That was good exposure. It was really fun.

But you can't be... A million viewers. You were known as Anthony on the show. Well, they did also Ill Say Ill Vibe and they let me rap twice on the show,

which is pretty cool. That is cool. Jesse Cruikshank tweeted out the link to my album. It's fun stuff like that. It was just a great little like, you know, when you're a musician in Canada anybody who's ever made music with any level of trying to put it out there and kind of with ambition

is very, very difficult. You got Maestro Fresh West's vinyl in front of you. Maestro and I are always talking about how difficult it is to make it in this business and it's really about the other things that you do that call attention back to the fact that you make music. He's on Mr. D. I haven't quite made it that far. He was in that

Four Brothers movie. Haven't made it that far but I'm super down for those types of other cool activities and adventures that come along. No, I mean, lately it's been quite the, this whole project has opened my eyes to how tough it is to make it in Canada in the show business world. It's so difficult.

Like, even a Ron James, and he sells out like soft seat theaters throughout this country, and that's where he makes his money. But he's got to hustle. Like, he's got to,

he works hard. Constant juggling when you're a Canadian. Constant booking the next tour. Yeah. Maestro's a great example because he's,

nobody works harder than Maestro. He has a new album out now. I know. I know. I got a sneak peek at it. I mean, it's out, of course. But yeah, I was listening to it.

It's got Skyscrapers, the video, I think, of Rich Kid. How come there's no ill vibe on this album? You know what? Well, I do all the lyric videos for Wes and all the single artwork for Wes. So I'm part of the marketing team. OK, good. And he owes me a verse for a future album. And I keep reminding him of that.

But yeah, Wes is a good dude. He's been a good mentor of mine and a good advisor and a friend. So I got a lot of love for Wes. No, good. Me too, man. I think he's fantastic. But like a lot of guys in his boat,

to me, he's a famous Canadian musician who's still producing good stuff. But if he stops hustling, he doesn't have enough cash in the bank where he could just shut it down and chill, right? I'm giving none of his information away because Wes has told me none of these things. But Wes does a lot of, I see from public calendars,

like speaking engagements at Rogers and Bell. Oh, right, the motivational stuff. He does corporate speaking gigs and his TV gigs. And so I think Wes does okay in that peripheral stuff. But I think you're right. If he stopped putting albums out, these kids don't know who he is. And so it's important. And he's done a great job. Four or five years ago, he started working with Rich Kid. And that was a really smart way to keep his sound fresh. I do something similar. I'm in my 30s now, and I work

with a young guy named Meyer Clarity, who's 23, 24, and he's really helped revive my sound and keep it fresh while still being authentically me. And so I take a lot of those notes from the teachers like Wes. Before we kick out your jams, which I can't wait to do, let's talk about your jams, literally your jams. I've still got ill vibe stuff from the olden days, like from 2012, that I throw on my mixes all the time. Interesting. I've scrubbed the web of a lot of old material.

Is that right? Yeah. Not all of it. Am I allowed to play older jams? And then we'll play new stuff, too, don't I? These are friends here, so I'm curious what old jams you'd even want to play. Wow. So what is this, 2012? We got sued by Guns and Roses. Is that right? So we had to pull this project from the web.

Guns and Roses 100% sued us and cease and desist on all Blunts and Roses. Is that right? So we had to pull this project from the web. Guns and Roses 100% sued us and cease and desist on all Blunts and Roses. So this is a collector's item you're telling me? This is a collector's item. That's so funny. This was from Blunts and Roses. Yeah, Mixtape

put out as like children I feel like. Well I'm a big Guns and Roses. Yeah, mixtape we put out as like children, I feel like. Well, I'm a big Guns N' Roses guy and I liked your stuff. So when it all like bled together, I grabbed a few tracks for sure. Let's get to the chorus here. Hold on. Oh, yeah, this is always coming. This is Knocking on heaven's door. I ever said Ever gonna echo Forever Now I'm knocking On heavy stuff

In dark To dark And no wonder You got the cease and desist Buddy Were you selling this Or were you giving it away No no we gave it away

For free No we gave it away For free But they But Guns N' Roses Doesn't play around With their brand They don't fuck around

Cause there's a I guess you know Girl Talk Yeah So he Greg Gillis Or something like that But he

I remember Girl Talk. That was hot for a minute. Yeah, it was hot around the same time and I was into that too, maybe a bit earlier. But I, he would put out these for free,

put out his albums and I fucking loved these albums he put out. The last two especially. But there was, there was, everybody was in there but I thought,

I thought he was getting away with it because he wasn't charging for it. That's what I thought. It was a loophole or something. It seems to not matter to them. So in my new material, not only do I not completely cover classic rock songs, but we've gone away from samples at all.

It's live instrumentation. That way we can own everything and do business proper. Okay, what would you like me to play? New ill vibe stuff. This is no longer living in the old dusty days. This new music that we're about to play it's actually out today. I'm celebrating release day with you. Get out of here.

What's the name of this album? Let me give the five seconds of backstory. So I was working on my next quote unquote big album and we had 18 songs done and what we found out was I was doing two different things. I was making these bluesy, soulful down tempo sad songs and I was making these bluesy, soulful, down-tempo, sad songs,

and I was making these fun, upbeat, Calvin Heresy, funky records. And I couldn't make it all be one thing. And so we thought, instead of doing what most labels would do, the fun of being independent is I don't have to just delete those other songs. I can put them out. And so we put today the Neo Blues EP, all the down-tempo, haunting, sad love songs that we wrote, they're out today.

There's eight songs. There's a cool collaboration with Mocha Only, former Swollen Members, and some other kind of boom-bap rap icons on there. And that's what we're going to play now, I think. Will you, like, Till I Come Home? Let's play Till I Come Home, because this is the signature Neo Blues sound that we cooked up for this record,

and I'm super proud of it. It's about missing my girl when I'm on the road. Here on Toronto Mic. We'll be right back. the love letter connect though i hope she get it because i let go hotter than never never forget no and even in missouri at our best show and even in the midst of all this smoke the midwest headed home for that next dose is that texan son i'm feeling sexy baby text me something girl i got you even when i'm gone you bless i get a message where i'm off to i don't know where i'm going I dig it, man. Yeah, man.

That's great. But you're like Drake, man. You rap and you sing. Right? I'm like Drake, yeah. I didn't say you're in his tax bracket. No, definitely not. Hey, I'm a big Drake supporter.

Good on the guy. But yeah. Well, man, my thing is I'm just trying to like grow as a songwriter. I signed a publishing deal this year. So my publisher's just like send us great songs, you know? And so I'm in the studio trying to write my heart out. That's really what I'm doing. There's no samples on this?

This is an original composition? The guitar is by a guy named Mike Needler. He's a guitarist we toured the U.S. with. And he plays on the whole project. You hear him do guitar solos on the whole release, yeah. But where, okay, so part of my ignorance, right?

But my daughter, she was just telling me how she's really digging the new 93.5 sound because they've added a bunch. But she says they just play the same 10 songs over and over again

but they're kind of heavy, cool tracks that they never used to play or whatever. Well, it's because Flo went to old school for a while. Yeah, retro. They're back to doing what they were doing before they were old school,

which is playing new stuff. But the new stuff is newer than it was before, right? I think probably now they're playing Post Malone. Big time. And what's this chick who's on everything now? Cardi? Cardi B? Yeah, she's on everything now.

Where did she come from? Cardi B is inevitable, bro. I mean, trap music did she come from? Cardi B is inevitable, bro. I mean, trap music is huge. I'm on the other end of the spectrum. I don't really have anything trap on my releases, although I do listen to it when I'm wildin'. But it was time for a female queen on that sound, and so she kills it.

I mess with Cardi B, and she's got great energy. Have you ever seen a Cardi B interview? No, I just hear her on every second track that plays on that thing. She's got a lot of love, a lot of appreciation. She's funny. She's cool. And I'm a big supporter. I say we already had like 18 or 25 of the male dudes kind of doing that same sound.

And Cardi really crushes it. So good on Cardi. You're right. I guess Nicki Minaj has to watch out, right? Because she was the only female I ever heard on this stuff. Nicki Minaj has to watch out, right? Because she was the only female I ever heard on this stuff. Nicki Minaj is funny because I've never gone on anything and gossiped about famous rappers,

but it is fun as a rapper to kind of go on Twitter and watch all the bigwigs kind of fight it out, and there's definitely some Nicki Minaj and Cardi B. Shots fired, as they say. I can imagine, actually. But yeah, shout out to Flo. I did one Flo interview before. The move, though. You got to shout out to Flo. I did one Flo interview. The move, though.

You got to shout out the move. Are they called The Move now? Yeah, big time. It's not Flo anymore. So I did an interview at Flo right before they changed to The Move, I guess. With the throwbacks. With the throwbacks. Which was good for Maestro because he got to let your backbone slide and stuff.

Did they throw that far back? Absolutely. Did they? Absolutely, yeah. Cool. I don't listen to the FM radio at all. I listen to podcasts. Good for you. Like I said,

my 13-year-old throws on that 93.5 a lot. So you hear Kendrick Lamar and stuff on there. Good. They're the only station in town I think that plays Kendrick. Basically what they're playing

is probably the same as what's big on US hip-hop radio, right? But you're right. It's a lot of trap, though, and it's I'm not sure I even like it. I don't hate it, but I'm not sure I like it. My thing is, I think in

the last 10 years, hip-hop did what rock did in the late 80s and early 90s, which fragmented into 16 other genres, you know what I mean? And so trap is having its moment right now. Me, personally, I really enjoyed more like this year, the Calvin Harris, even Kendrick, which, you know, that live funk vibe to that modern hip hop.

And so I'm still really with what the new kids are doing. A young thug is quite cool. But there's also artists that I equally that I'm not vibing to. But how do I get you, like, how do you get, not that it matters, but it seems to be how a lot of kids still discover music is radio.

Like how does a... I don't think kids do discover it on the radio. Maybe you're right. You're right. I have a almost 16-year-old and he doesn't touch the radio. But he listens to music

all day long. If he's in the car with you, he might put his station on. No. Oh, really? He'd rather have... Oh, interesting. He'd rather just have nothing

than the radio. He hates the radio. Okay. He hates the radio. Okay. He hates the radio. That makes sense, though. But yeah, I think these kids, it's more about Spotify playlists. It's more about social media. If they're really young, it might be the Musical.ly app.

That's a way that kids find stuff. So tell me, because we're now listening to... No Job. No Job. It's got a nice island steel drum thing going on. This is my song about how much I love not having a day job. He's got a nice island steel drum thing going on. This is my song about how much I love not having a day job. Fuck all my old bosses. They're probably all listening.

So, you mentioned you tour. So, how do you get awareness? How do you make people aware that your shit exists? There's two stages that's important. One of them is in person and one is digital. So I think these days you got to do a lot of digital. I do a lot of social media.

I try not to just have copy-paste memes or maximized algorithms. It's me. I try to build communities. So whether it's Instagram or Twitter or Facebook, I allocate a fair bit of time going on and just building and communicating with the people who... Who's the girl that you said checks all your blogs? What's her name? Who?

You said there's a girl. Oh, no. Cheryl. Cheryl. Okay. Cheryl comments on the opening. The reason that I mention her is, especially as a rapper, you'll have these Cheryls.

I've got like 16 or 20 of these people that will mess with everything that you do. And I think of those people as kind of like the coals of my fire, of my fan base, you know? And so I try to interact with those people, what matters to them. I take a little moment and try to throw a little value back to them. And so I do this social media building quite a bit.

But then if that's all you do, I think people don't know really what to do with that. And so I try to pair that with real life stuff. So I travel quite a bit, whether it's California twice a year. We tour the U.S. once a year. We tour Western Europe once a year. And I can't get everywhere in the world, but there's this level of, hey, there's this guy on Facebook I mess with, or this guy on Instagram that I really like what his mission is, and he came really close to me. So even sometimes I've got a fan out in Czech Republic, and I've never been that far out

there, but the fact that I got all the way to Germany makes me very real to her. Right. That I could actually potentially come to her country, or she could hop on a train and go see me in Berlin if she really wanted to. That's cool. I try to make that kind of like a part one, part two of my building, so to speak. That's amazing. That's cool.

I'm going to play a little Lone Wolves. Do it. This song means a ton to me on this album. It's probably my favorite. Whose voice is that? It's a female. Megan Nora, new signee for the label. I need the And the stars make you shine Start thinking it's a mother Too high Do I move me or the sky Do you prefer dirty for the future reference?

Absolutely Not even a comparison It's funny we're in a transitionary time Where some radio demands dirty And some demands clean Versus I think once upon a time it was all clean Yeah Well terrestrial radio I I guess, demands clean.

And then I guess if you get. You'd be surprised how much non-terrestrial conforms to that anyways. It's funny that Post Malone's got this track, Rockstar, they play the mess out of it. They censor it. Like even the popping pills, there's a big line there, popping pillies or whatever, they clean all that up like it's, not even, like you can't even

reference like drug use you know what I mean? Well I think during an opioid epidemic I guess that's true it just seems to little, it is art you know, okay Dude, sounds good to me. On that subject, to be honest with you, I'm a big advocate for

what's wrong with fuck. Yeah, fuck's a great word and you can use it in a million different I just mean, if you can have a song called Sex, Sex, Sex, I don't know why we can't

have a song called Fuck, Fuck, Fuck. You can. And if you have the two, I'm going to listen to the song called Fuck, Fuck, Fuck because I don't want the censored version.

I'm about it. I get pissed at my teenagers if they play a censored version and it's like, get this garbage out of here. I want to hear the F-drops. Come on. But'm about it. I get pissed at my teenagers if they play a censored version. It's like, get this garbage out of here. I want to hear the F-drops. Come on. But this is great. Next time, send me the... I will. Because I can just send you the album then. I pay extra to get the clean versions

made. Oh, man. I love it, man. So where should people go if they want to buy the new release? So, there's two ways you can get my music right now. And that goes for this album that's out today,

the Neo Blues EP. And that goes for the quote unquote definitive ill vibe coming album that's coming out in March, Anti-Gravity. And you can go get those on any music platform. I make it really easy.

If you're a Spotify person and that's where you get your new music, it's there and it's waiting for you. If you're an Apple music person, it's there and it's waiting for you. Same thing with Google or Amazon. Wherever you get your music, I try to kind of have it intuitively there. Like my podcast. Exactly.

I've got to be where you are. Where you're playing and your podcast, I've got to be there. But let's say you're really messing with the music or you've got a big old heart. There's another thing that you could do. I've actually got this project happening. It's been going on for the last six months and it's going to continue to go on for the next year. And that's this Elevate Everyone campaign. And basically the idea is if you go to my website, ilvamusic.com, you click on the album cover and we're giving all the money through that link to charity. So you can go buy the album, you can buy specialized versions on vinyl or t-shirts

and that type of thing. And every penny goes to charity. The charity is Charity Water. It's all about clean drinking water in communities that don't have it. And so we've been already giving this Neo Blues album away for the last six months to people who donate through that portal.

So as of today, it's available for everyone else as well. But yeah, that's another way that you can support as well. Social media for social change, man. That's it, man. Let's get back to our roots here. Dude, the world's a messed up place and I can't fix it. I'm not nearly smart enough to fix it. But when I saw what Charity Water's doing

with clean drinking water, I thought, hey, that's nonpartisan. It's politics free. It's all races. It's all religions. Clean water kind of works for everybody. So that's my little one drop in the bucket of trying to kind of help a little bit. Good for you, man.

If you're messing with the music and you've got an extra $10, $10 actually gets you a downloaded copy of the Neil Blues EP. And then on March 16th when Anti-Gravity comes out, you automatically get emailed a copy of that album as well. $10, two albums. Can't go wrong there. That's great. And I don't get any money

from it. But if you don't want to spend any money or you don't have any money, you can also just go stream it on your favorite platform. Cheap bastards. Hey, I mean, I get it, man. We all can't donate to every cause that means something to everybody. It's good to make it. I think this is what I think. If you can make that

opportunity available, you can set that infrastructure up, then it becomes about, it's up to you. If you'd like to get involved, great. And if we only raise $2,000, great. And if we raise $200,000,

that's even more great. Jordy, Mike Kick's wife, she's with Sick Kids now, doing work there. Yeah, I see that. So I signed up for this, they say a dollar a day comes up.

So they go, a dollar a day. I love that. Yeah. I love that. So I'm like, a dollar a day. In my head, I'm like, fuck, I can afford a dollar a day comes up. So they go, a dollar a day. I love that. Yeah. So I'm like, a dollar a day. In my head, I'm like,

I can afford a dollar a day, right? Like a McDonald's coffee costs more than that, twice as much as that. And then, did you know a dollar a day is $365 a year?

Did you know that? See, that's where it's like, holy smokes, I'm locked in now. Holy smokes, but it's a good cause. That's an amazing cause

and I'm glad that you're involved in that. I'm trying to do more of that type of thing as I become an old man. What's my legacy? How can I help a little bit before I walk off the edge? Good for you, buddy. You like beer?

I do like beer. Who doesn't like beer? Somebody doesn't like beer. I don't know. They're out there. They're out there. Well, I will drink their beer. So that's from great.

You have a six-pack in front of you. Is this me? That's yours, bud. You take that home with you. I like the texture of the sides of the beer cans. I'm a marketing guy. Okay, yeah. I love their labels over there, too.

And they have a new artist. He's the guy who does... On the Toronto Star, Corrigan. What's his first name? Corrigan. I suck. Something Corrigan. He's the political cartoons you read in the Toronto Star.

Okay, yeah. I wish I remembered his first name. Something Corrigan. Patrick Corrigan. Patrick Corrigan. What up, Patrick? Patrick is now the new artist for, like you'll see new labels coming out

from Great Lakes Beer with artwork by Patrick Corrigan, which I think is pretty cool. But yeah, that's yours. I appreciate that. They're a good local craft brewery. They're good people. I'm looking at each one right now. That one there, that's the Audrey Hopper.

Yeah, you'll, honestly, that's fantastic. That's my go-to when I can't get my octopus wants to fight, which I don't have for you. I'm going to drink some Great Lakes Brewery for New Year's Eve, I think. Do it up. Great Lakes Brewery, good people. Like I said, you can go to the, I always want to tell people about the great patio there,

but it's like minus 100 outside, so no one's going to be sitting on any patio anytime soon. But you still get the $5 pints from 30 Queen Elizabeth Boulevard, which is not far from the Costco there, kind of near rural York and Queensway area. So go to Great Lakes Beer, enjoy a nice cold beverage. You're going to need a pint glass. This is where it gets interesting people. So off the top we play an ill vibe composition. I'm going to play one right now because you have over

here there's a pint glass that's all yours courtesy of a gentleman named Brian Gerstein. Brian is with propertyinthesix.com and Brian has a message for you so let's hear from brian hey lvi brian gerstein here sales representative with psr brokerage and proud sponsor of toronto

mike thanks for the catchy jingle you produced for me that I'm speaking over now. 416-873-0292 is my direct number to have a real estate conversation as we enter the new year. I've been talking about listings for a while with the upcoming spring market, but don't forget I do tons of condos, both listing and buying, both new and resale. So feel free to reach out to me for that too. Question for you on creating content for other artists and musicians have you ever done something so kick-ass for someone else and you knew it at the time that you wish you had kept it for yourself i like this question like wow does he do that like for other guests uh yeah he now uh you get a if

you come on toronto mic not only do you get the beer and the pint glass, but Brian's got a personalized question and message for you. I love that. That was really great. And I like his question because I was thinking like you do this Toronto Mic'd theme and you did it whatever at the early days for your producing and stuff. And you kind of take this, what do you call that, a loop? Is it called a loop? What are these sound parts that you said you had like in your toolkit? The beat for you is a full beat produced by this amazing,

award-winning British producer. And this is the VK guy? VK. VK, right? That's why he gets the shout out? Okay. So let's say you use that for something for me. Yep.

You kind of burned it in a sense? Yeah. At the time, I remember I was working on an album, and previously I was going to probably use it on an album. And then I thought this would be a fun fun opportunity and we used it for this and yeah that type of thing does happen similarly when i'm working on a video for someone like maestro fresh west or somebody else i'll kind of create a new trick in in the moment while working on his song and then i'm like damn that's one of the coolest things i've ever done and now i can't use it probably for six

months because i don't want him to think I'm just copying what I did for his video or whatever the case is. Right, right. Yeah, it does happen. So it does happen. Is there any recent examples? Yeah, I mean, let me think of this. You know, the other thing that happens sometimes,

I think the example I'll give you the best is somebody will buy a feature from me. And what that means is it's another rapper working on their album and they want, you know, maybe like a buzzing rapper on their lead single or whatever. So they'll send me their beat with their idea and then I'll write my piece for it. It might be the chorus or a verse. And there was two or three examples, one for a rapper in Kingston where I wrote a chorus just in the moment over his song and I sent it to him. But then as I'm singing, as I'm walking around,

I'm like, damn, I think I might have given him the gold. That's the one. That's the one right there. But I mean, then you just go to the studio and you keep working on new ones. But yeah, that does happen. I mean, people who have been... Now, Brian Gerstein came on board, I'm going to say four or five months ago

if my memory serves me correctly. So if you've been listening recently to Toronto Mic'd, you've been hearing that jingle of his on every episode. So I wonder how many people realize that that jingle is by the same guy the theme song's by. Like, that's a small world. But I'm going to play this part again, that this voice is yours, right?

So here it is. It's my high-pitched jazzy voice that I do. Propertyinthe6.com That's you, buddy. Yeah, that's me. That's me. That's crazy. I've done a couple of jingles over the years. You don't get tons of them, but they're really fun to do.

Yeah. Jingles would be tough because it's one of those things, like I guess you build a jingle to like be a slow, long-lasting burn, if I'm right. That's a really good way to describe it. Thank you. Because my thought is like you can't listen to a jingle once and judge it on the one listen. Like it's one of those things where you like you can't listen to a jingle once and

judge it on the one listen like it's one of those things where you got to kind of listen to it a few times like repeat it and then see if you know at dinner the neck maybe that maybe later that night at dinner you catch yourself humming it or singing it because the key is especially being a songwriter the first thing you want to do is be wordy because you're like, hey, I got all these good words I know. But actually in the jingle, it's going to be six or 12 words total. And it's really about it having a catchy little rhythm to it. So even for me, it's funny to hear the property in the six dot com. But it's just about having a cool little rhythm to it, I think, ultimately.

And as a songwriter, it's really fun. It's really funny to think about getting paid to sing like four words. Right. When normally I spend four or six hours in the studio trying to nail like a big hundred bar fast rap verse or whatever. Right. But it's a lot of fun. And Brian's a really cool guy.

It was fun to work on with him. And that's just, yeah, it's a simple jazzy beat loop. But catchy as all hell. And it's, who, what listener hasn't been walking around on the subway or whatever and gone into like propertyinthesix.com? It reminded me of all my favorites

when I was a kid, like Sleep Country Canada or whatever. That's a good example. And the one I always go to is Fabricland, Fabricland. See, it's in that lane. I think I did okay.

You did great. I'm going to keep playing that damn thing. See, it's in that lane. I think I did okay. You did great. I'm going to keep playing that damn thing. Forever, that jingle will be part of this show. I love that damn jingle. You didn't write this one, right? I didn't. I wish. That would be a lucrative

composition for you. This is for paytm.ca, a free online bill payment service that helps manage all of your bills in one place. So at this, whatever, this time of year, any time of year, you got utility bills, mobile, phone, internet, gas, property taxes, education, credit cards, insurance, rent. You're paying all these things. You can pay through Paytm by connecting Paytm to your credit card or your bank account. I like this.

What I do is I double dip. I like to pay everything through the credit card because I get free groceries at no frills. Okay, that's what I get from President's Choice. Thank you. But I also get rewarded by Paytm for going through them. And there are some bills out there where you can't pay with a credit card. But you can still pay with a credit card through Paytm, okay? So you use it as like this gateway so everything can go through the credit card if you put

that middle layer, if you will, at Paytm. So essentially do this. And if you have any questions, let me know. But go to Paytm.ca, download the app. There's Android. There's for your iPhone or Android device. Get the app. And then when you set it up and you connect your credit card or your bank

account, pay something, I don't know, pay your property taxes or your utility, pay your Enbridge for whatever, pay hydro, whatever you want and use the promo code Toronto, Mike,

one word, and they'll give you 10 bucks towards that bill payment. Wow. Yeah. Free money. You'll get to do that double dipping I talked about because they'll keep rewarding you when you use the app. Does Paytm reward you as well? Yeah. Paytm rewards you

as well. And they have like really cool stuff where you can buy like let's say you buy an Amazon gift card through Paytm. It's not costing you any more money, but you'll get money from Paytm for buying the gift card through them. Wow. So there's a whole bunch of stuff. It's an interesting product. Yeah. It's really, it became like everyone in India uses this thing.

Okay. I have a guy named Roshan. I hope he's listening now. He's been listening forever. He lives in India. He's never been here, but he loves Canadian culture. Interesting. Yeah.

And I don't know how he discovered it, but he'll talk to you about like Danger Bay or Barenaked Ladies. He's Canadian, but he's lived in India his whole life. And Paytm is omnipresent there. It's everywhere. But they're in Liberty Village now, and they have a Canadian app now. And cool. My job is to let you know this exists. I like it.

All right, buddy. I got a question for you. Do it. Hit me. Are you ready to kick out the jams? One of my favorite songs of 2017. To kick out the jams. The jams. One of my favorite songs of 2017. A mate, empty my bank account And buy that boy with a pay Buy that boy with a pay A mate, a mate Empty my bank account

And buy that boy with a pay Buy that boy with a pay A mate Do you slide on all your nights like this? Do you try on all your nights like this? Put some spotlight on the slide Whatever comes, comes to a clip Do you try on all your knives like this? I might Put some spotlight on the side

And whatever comes, comes to a clip All this jewelry ain't no use when this is done Calvin Harris, Slide Love it Frank Ocean on the vocals It went too fast, we couldn't reach it without Love it. Frank Ocean on the vocals. When did the DJs get top billing on these tracks? When did that start happening regularly?

When their Instagram following mattered more than anything, probably. It's funny that it's commonplace now for a jam to be credited to Calvin Harris. Well, in this case, Calvin at least produced it. But there are cases, DJ Khaled, DJ Envy are examples, where the single isn't produced by them or features them in any way. It's all marketing, right? It's just whatever sells, I guess. In Calvin's case, because Calvin's a genius, though. Because Calvin basically said at the beginning of the year, I'm going to release all year music that makes you want to dance.

And then he hit us with like seven or eight number one songs that did that. So at least he produced them. I think of him as a genius. Is this the first Migos on your podcast right now? The first what? Migos? What's that? You don't know what Migos is?

No, man. I told you. At the top, we talked about this. I'm not cool. Migos probably sold a billion records this year. I should know this. Yeah, you really should. You're making me blush, man.

Tell me. Educate me. I'm not even a Migos fan. I just mean they're probably the number one trap group in the world. Oh, man. I feel like I an Amigos fan. I just mean they're probably the number one trap group in the world. Oh, man. I feel like I missed out on something. Cardi B just got engaged to offset of the Amigos. I didn't know that.

Good for her. Yeah. Oh, here's what I know. Calvin Harris had a fight with his ex, Taylor Swift. Oh, wow. That's the whitest thing you could know about him. That's funny. I remember that jam with Rihanna.

Rihanna, yeah. Fell in love in a hopeless place. Is that what it was? Yeah, he was really known for EDM, and now he's kind of shifted to funk R&B a little bit. Is this like you pitch up that part? Yeah, I think it's a sample. That's that Kanye thing, right?

I always hear Kanye of the old R&B, and he pitches it up. Yeah, that's right. Kanye is very well known for that. It works for him. Big tone. Nice slide, Calvin. Oh, man.

Come on. You got any ecstasy on you? We got to kick this party. I sound too white? What am I talking about? No, it's okay. It's okay? All right, buddy. This next artist is popular in this house

because my aforementioned teenage son loves this artist. You ready for your second jam? I don't remember what order they're in, so... Oh. One of my favorite rap songs last few years. Joey, badass,

devastated. The truth. One of my favorite rap songs last few years Joey Badass, Devastated The Truth And all that ever took was patience I used to feel so devastated At times I thought we'd never make it But now we on our way to greatness And all that ever took was patience Okay, just getting better each day Snacking that chili cheesecake Look up to the Lord, we pray Trying to be my best each day

Until I'm like the rest of we late Yeah, to the time being we lit Hoping I don't let it get all in my head And I don't need the money just to say that I'm rich Couple little honeys when they get in my bed But they used to run for me when I had nothing Now they wanna fuck, could you see me stunting? Nigga came up off the hustling

Living in a lab of lux and I'm feeling like the man If you ain't on my chucks then you wouldn't understand on me body's rubber bins on me make it one of this for me probably leave a man for me standing in the stairs god damn i'm glad you're here i have a question so joey badass just revealed that he was a ghost writer on the post malone hit rock star we talked about interesting yeah very interesting right but here's my question are you allowed to tell people you're a ghost writer itwriter on the Post Malone hit Rockstar we talked about earlier. Interesting. Yeah, very interesting, right? But here's my question. Are you allowed to tell people you're a ghostwriter? It depends on the relationship. So in the case that Post Malone isn't really a rapper's rapper,

so I think most of his fans won't have any issue with the fact he's working with other writers in the studio. That's interesting. I didn't even know they had a relationship like that. That's quite cool. Joey tweeted this, I think yesterday, I think. But my first thought was like,

I'm sure rappers don't want, if they hire a ghostwriter, like you compensate them financially. Part of that deal is shut the F up. Maybe he wasn't paid properly. Or maybe he misused the word ghostwriter. He should have just said writer. There's a chance that if you check the credits, it might list him anyways.

I don't think it does. I'm pretty sure. Really? But he said he quietly got his first number one. Because, for example, when Drake got caught having the ghostwriter, Quentin Miller. Is this Meek Mills? Meek Mill outed Drake having a ghostwriter. But Quentin Miller's listed on every song he's written as a writer.

So it's not ghostwriting in that case. It's listed on every song he's written as a writer. So it's not ghostwriting in that case. It's just writing. Right. You know what I mean? Absolutely. Ghost would suggest it was a secret.

So I think, you know, me personally, I'm a big Post Malone fan. I really mess with his crossover sound of country meets modern hip-hop meets like this bluesy thing he does.

Yeah, that's dope though. And my son tells me, because he listens to a lot of Joey Badass, he says, this is by far the most mainstream, accessible Joey Badass track. Well, the whole album is pretty accessible compared to previous Joey Badass. He was kind of known as the savior of classic rap,

and then he kind of got off that and took it to this really like revolution music type place. And it was my favorite, one of my favorite rap albums of the year. Nice. Yeah, Joey Badass. And for those who don't know,

Badass has, they're not S's, man. They're dollar signs. That's right. That's important. That's right. Brooklyn, New York, in the building. I feel like I should bring Monica down to put on the third pair of headphones

because she loves this artist, your third jam. Let's jump right in. Oh. What's the next song? Slept On Song. The one about me. Oh, yeah. I like this song.

What? Jimmy Mitchell never lies. Like Jimmy said. That you don't know what you've got till it's gone That you don't know what you've got till it's gone I have a feeling And I'm believing That you are the one I was meant to be But I know how I'm wishing

Me and dreaming About you and the love That I'd ever let you I'll come back to this when Q-Tip drops. There's a lot going on in this jam that I love. Not only is it a jam of Jackson, you're sampling Joni Mitchell, as you mentioned. Great sample. And well done. What a great flip of that sample.

And Q-Tip is featured on this jam. That's great. I would guess he probably produced it too. I don't know that to be true though. Janet is still out there performing, but she was Willis Jackson's girlfriend on different strokes. Do you know that? I didn't know that.

That's a long back. You go with Janet Jackson. Mrs. Jermaine Dupri. And Q-Tip always, he'll show up in all these different pop hits like... You act all wild when I tell you to settle I was working round the clock with your girls on the metal Talk about I heard you dance with this chick on this beach That was out with the tide but my love you impeach Now you looking at the walls, head and hand cold zonzin' Rigging my house, hanging up and imposing Now why you wanna go and do that, love?

Now why you wanna go and do that, and do that, huh? Now why you wanna go and do that, love? Now why you wanna go and do that, and do that, huh? Now why you wanna go and do that, love? Huh? Now why you wanna go and do that, huh? Now why you wanna go and do that, love? Huh? Now why you wanna go and do that, huh? Now why you wanna go and do that, love? Huh?

Now why you wanna go and do that, and do that, and do that? Oh, no. And best with headphones on, right? That's great. So great. Sounds great. I was going to say, the key's like in that, what is it? Groove is in the heart. It's got the Q-tip versed in it. You know what I mean? Like, he'll just, great. So great. Sounds great. What was I going to say? Groove is in the heart.

It's got the Q-Tip verse in it. Is that true? Absolutely. I didn't remember that. Huge part of that song. Of course I remember that record. I don't know if I ever made the connection that it was Tip. It was Q-Tip. You know, Q-Tip is one half of the creation of my rap name. Tell me.

Yeah, so Ill Vibe goes back to Buster rhymes the coming album you know if you might remember woo ha got you all in check yeah yeah uh and track three i think was a track two uh is a song called ill vibe it was two words not one and when they said it but as i caught the ill vibe tip yeah bus what what word that ill vibe tip. Yeah, bus. What word? That ill vibe tip. And so when I was super young, I thought ill vibe means a good feeling. And I also kind of like that idea of combining Busta Rhymes' aggressive style with Q-tips, like soft style. And meanwhile, I'm 16 years old, 21 years ago, 20 years ago.

So yeah, that's where my name comes from, actually, is the mad tip. Oh, that's great. That's great. Q-tip, I mean, I still, once in a while, my kids or whatever, if I don't hear what they'll say, I'll go, never on the left because my right's my good ear. Because that's from Scenario. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Classic.

Yeah, classic. That whole album's great. But I can't get enough of that guy's sound. He's got that cool, jazzy. It was great to have him back. It was great to have him back this year. So Q-Tip, you guys, you throw some Janet Jackson, some Q-tip. You've got some Joni Mitchell sample.

And you got yourself a jam right there. That's fantastic. I'm playing this next jam. I know you won't know it until you hear it, but I was not familiar with this. So I can't wait to hear you tell me about this. But here's your next jam. Anthony Hamilton, man. One of my favorite voices of

maybe forever. Saddest love song I could think of. I'm out. hard to swallow being alone she needs a running night that she can hold she must have told me a thousand times more silent cries i used to ignore god knows i love her did me hurt Baby, I'll be sitting here waiting on you to come home again My only promise, I'll be here to the very end By your side, to protect you and to love you and to be with you for life This is Charlene. Charlene, Anthony Hamilton. Does this have any personal meaning to you?

Any specific girl? Is her name Charlene? No, she's not. Although I will tell you that when you have a song that resonates this sad, there were many breakups that followed me

falling in love with the song that it's like, do not play this record for the next six weeks. I can't handle it right now. I'd go the other way, man. It's all I'd want to hear. Like there's a comfort

Oh, you like to dive into the darkness. That's exactly, I'm drawn to the darkness and i can go live there for a while i smoke weed and ignore it yeah that's my mistake i'm not drinking i'm not i'm not smoking anything like i need to live in the music is my drug and i somehow not that you know i've had much much love luck with love i suppose uh I'm a happy man. But something about that feeling, I like to feel stuff. I just like the feel.

So if a song makes me feel sad, I go right into the dark spot, man. And it feels good to be there. It feels good to feel. I love going there as long as I'm not already dying of heartbreak. Yeah, Anthony Hamilton. He's probably, I could get tickets to one concert. Yeah, Anthony Hamilton. He's probably...

I could get tickets to one concert. It might be his. So I miss a lot of things. I miss the Migos or whoever they're called. Well, the Migos are huge now. I'm not the hugest fan, but they're just probably the biggest rap group in the world right now.

But I hope nobody listening thinks this is not from the soundtrack to the Broadway hit Hamilton. Wow. Yeah, how's that? So how old is this jam? I'd say this song is probably six or seven years old. Anthony Hamilton is still around today, very respected in the sort of soul blues community.

He's got five or six really great albums. Yeah. That voice, though, that textured, bluesy, southern voice. Great voice. And again, sonically great. Like you're picking jams that just sound good

in the headphones, you know? This is one of those. When people shit on new music, that's what I often talk about is like put a good pair

of headphones on and listen to the mixes of these vocals on these new songs like It's it's really easy to get caught up on all old music with the good music and new music is the bad music But I got a lot of love for What what engineers can do today with these voices? Well good on you a lot of people kick out the jams including myself and everything is what they listen to as a teenager

We've got a few of those too. Oh, yeah Yeah, but the fact that you've actually, you know, that the Calvin Harris. Calvin Harris is this year. Joey Badass is only a couple years old. Yeah. We've got this year,

last year, and then we're going to, we did, that's probably five, six years ago. And now we're going to take it even further back than that, I think.

Let's go. Let's go back now to the 90s mobile. Way back into time. Time. Time. Uh. To the 90s mobile. Way back into time. Time. Time. I liked all Counting Crows, not just Mr. Jones, but you got to start there. No judgments here, my brother.

Oh, and feel free. You wouldn't be the first guest to sing along to their jams. I'm not going to fully cover, but I'll buy it. That part there always makes me think of Brown Eyed Girl Wow, of course Yeah I imagine He was a huge Van Morrison fan but who isn't? no

he's the right age that would have been an influence I think Adam Duritz? yeah can you believe he dated Jennifer Aniston? he dated everybody

yes there's a lengthy list of 90 sweethearts Sweetheart. I got nothing bad to say about this jam. Like, uh, it was a massive hit. Yeah. Huge hits all over the place.

So the only reason I think I might've, uh, I didn't dive into this jam was because it was everywhere. Like when jams are too big, you sort of repel or whatever. But as the decades now behind us, I can tell you, it's a sing-along, brother.

When I hear this jam, I'm singing. And this song did something that, and the couple of Counting Crows hits did something that not a lot of the bands did, combining that like, it's like fun and melancholy, and it's a, you know. They're responsible for one of the saddest songs

I love, Long December. Long December's amazing. Yeah. You do hear it quite a bit in December, like people have decided. Long December,

Round Here is another sad song by them. Yep. Yeah, Adam was a crazy, crazy songwriter. Yeah, Round Here,

I think was the follow up to this one, I think. Yep, that's right. Absolutely. This is a big album. When this album came out, I bought it on Columbia House

through my dad's Columbia House subscription. And I brought the CD. It would have been a new CD, I think, at the time. One of my first CDs. And I brought it up to my back porch and played it on loop and just wrote the lyrics over and over because I just wanted to soak the music up as much as I feasibly could is I remember it so vividly.

See, I know you're a lot younger than me when I hear this was your first disc because my first disc was Forever Your Girl by Paula Abdul. On CD too?

No, that's my first CD. Interesting. Interesting. Yeah. That's, yeah. It was in that first wave of CDs. I also remember I had a Salt-N-Pepa CD around that time

and some other stuff, too. You know what Counting Crows song I listened to the other day that I really love is Hanging Around. Do you remember Hanging Around? Oh, yeah. Hanging around this time. Great song, too. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Now, of course, I hear a lot. They recorded something for Shrek. What did they cover for Shrek? Oh, no. Yeah. Oh, they covered Joni Mitchell jam that's sampled by Janet Jackson. That's right. It's a good cover, too, if you say so.

Okay. It's subjective there. Sure. I like it. When I look at the television, I want to see me. Stare right back at me. We all want to be big stars. I watched that Neil Young concert. I watched it.

He did this concert in Omimi for Bell Media paid for it or something. And they put it on CTV and stuff. Anyway, I watched this. I love Neil Young. And I was thinking, Neil, he sounded great. He's still rocking. And I'm like, Neil, he sounded great. He's still rocking. And I'm like, we lost Leonard Cohen.

I'm like, sadly, we're going to lose Joni. Joni hasn't been well in a long time. And I'm like, that'll be a big one. What an amazing singer-songwriter representing this country, Joni Mitchell. Yeah, she's not well.

I went to the SoCan Songwriting Awards this year for the first time in Toronto. And it was really cool to meet and see a lot of those people. Joni wasn't there, but I more mean just like honoring songwriters, talking about great Canadian songwriters, and just really, I really had my eyes open to how many incredible of those old, old songs were written by Canadians. We had the guy who wrote Sugar Sugar there.

I can't remember his name right now. Oh, Andy Kim. Andy Kim. He did the Archies, yeah right now. Oh, Andy Kim. Andy Kim. He did the Archies. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Andy Kim. And it was just like cool to be in a room full of these

amazing Canadian songwriters that spanned like 60 years. That's cool because there really are. Like we just lost Leonard Cohen and we lost Gord Dan. They honored Leonard Cohen that night on our call as well. We lost Gord.

But you think about Bruce Colburn and Gordon Lightfoot and Neil Young and Joni Mitchell. There really are some just exceptional singer-songwriters. We just did some videos, a company I run called lyricviz.com,

we just did some videos for Rush for their 30th anniversary. There you go. I forgot how great those songs were because I hadn't heard them in a minute. I'm pretty sure you mean 40th. Is it the 40th? Yeah.

I didn't need to know what year it was to do the video. Yeah, but let me rephrase. For their anniversary album, whatever anniversary it is, 40th, East AU. But yeah, it was cool to hear Closer to the Heart again. Yeah, there's a band for you. All right, my brother, let's hear another one. Let's keep it moving. A little Farrow Monch.

A little Farrow Munch. I heard this jam for the first time when you told me to get it ready for this. And it's great, and I had never heard it before. This whole album is in this kind of gospel-y hip-hop vibe. It's great. The sound quality of this one isn't as good. No, it was tough to find, actually. Maybe Wonderhead was more obscure,

but I think I ended up ripping this from YouTube, I think. Pharoah Monch is most known for his song. Maybe you'll know this, Mike. Let's test your whiteness. Simon says, get the fuck up. Bum, bum, bum, bum. Do you remember that song? Nope.

Simon says, get the fuck up. Dun, dun, dun, dun. You don't know that? I don't think so. It's in a lot of movie soundtracks and stuff. That's the reason I say it. Oh. tracks and stuff, which is nice.

Oh. Yeah, there's definitely a bluesy funk, like an R&B kind of Edwin Starr kind of. Interesting. The first person to ever compare Pharaoh Mons to Edwin Starr. Yeah, but what do I know? No, but you're right in terms of the sound. What's cool about Pharoah is he's widely known as probably one of the greatest rappers of all time. But he's also a great singer.

And this was the album where he kind of flexed that a little bit. I'm the champ With the flow so underground with more public and notary push In this era of G.W. Bush we must Load mental ammunition and bust dust Mahoon you damn, I got you One more repetition and I'll spot you This is for my blue collar working beard guzzling Boop leg DVD selling heat hustling push If you represent the struggle then push Keep the pieces of the puzzle and push. Never let them place the muzzle, just push.

It's cool to listen to all these back to back. I can sort of hear the different musical influences on me even. Not to make everything about me. Well, actually, this is all about you. Yeah, that's true. This is the one time it's okay to be all about you. It's cool because, for example,

I'm starting to play with a band right now and listening to a Counting Crows record, I sort of hear the little bits of it that inspire me and make me me. And same thing there. I'm really about rapping, but trying to have it just on that edge of rapping

where you're almost not rapping, you're almost singing. And Pharaoh's a huge influence on that part as well. And here's a guy, we've mentioned him already during your jams. He's come up organically, if you will, but he doesn't rap.

But let's hear your next jam. I bet he could. One of the greatest all-time songs. Come on now. It's a marvelous night for a moon dance With the stars up above in your eyes A fantabulous night to make romance Need the cover of October skies

All the leaves on the trees are falling To the sound of the breezes that blow And I'm trying to please to the sound of the breezes that blow And I'm trying to please to the calling of your heart strings that play soft and low You know the night's magic seems to whisper and hush You know the summer light seems to shine in your blush

Can I just have one more Moon dance with you My love Can I just make some more Romance with you My love Well I wanna be Van Morrison

Moon Dance That song is so timeless, man. It's like I remember loving it as a kid when my dad would play it, and I don't think I love it any less when you played it right there. Want to hear a weird coincidence? Sure. So my wife, Monica, did not know your jams. I hadn't shared them with her at all.

This morning, we're sitting on the couch, and she asks me a question randomly. She asks me, did Van Morrison have any hits other than Brown Eyed Girl? This is the question she asked me. Honestly, she never talks about Van Morrison. I don't know where the question came from. I'm going to find out

after. I'm curious now where it came from. I start running down all the hits. Of course, this one, he's got lots of stuff. But I start running down these different songs. I go to YouTube. I play like Gloria. I play different stuff. Just if you don't know, like music, I mean, I know that Brown Eyed Girl was like late 60s or whatever.

But like a lot of the stuff is 70s stuff. But I don't know much Van Morrison like beyond the 70s I'm not sure if there's any big Van Morrison when I was in Barcelona

last year he was playing the Barcelona Jazz Festival with like a huge like 16 piece band so I think he's very much still like a musician

so he may or may not even be performing all of the hits you know I think he's kind of a musician's musician, even in his old age. But I think today, if you go see Van Morrison, I think you would be very upset

if he doesn't give you Brown Eyed Girl, Moon Dance. You can run down the list of songs he better give you, if you know what I mean. I'm with you. I came up on, my dad was a huge Van Morrison fan, so he played me whole albums. So there's songs that I don't even really know which ones were the singles. Obviously, I know this is a hit,

but a lot of the songs I used to listen to with my pops were just the cuts. I love it so much. There's a little inspiration in this, in your theme song, maybe even. I'm honest to God, I was about to say that. I hear the flutes. Yeah. I'll take that.

He's the wrong Ireland, but it's okay. My grandmother will be okay with that. I think he's Northern Ireland. I totally hear it. Yeah, I totally hear it. When I'm listening to music, the thing I listen for is soul. So a lot of the time someone will play me something and I don't connect to it because it sounds so cold.

And a lot of the pop music I don't listen to, and that's why I think I don't like trap, is because there's no soul in it. I'm with you, man. And your blaze. Can I just have one more moon dance with you, my love? One more moon dance with you, my love. Can I just make some more romance with you, my love?

One more moon dance with you in the moonlight. I'll imagine it. What is he doing there? Do you know? Is he like, it sounds like he's like doing the thing where you like play with your Adam's apple

when you sing. I don't know if he's good at that shit. He's good at that man. So great. That is great, buddy. That's great. You're taking me back right now.

You're doing it. That's what I love about kicking out the jams. Like you mentioned, it's not all about me. And I was like, no, don't say that, Anthony, because what I love about kicking out the jams is this is all about you. Like, really, like, this is you. You pick your 10 jams. You tell us why.

We kind of get a good no pun intended, we get a good vibe on what makes you tick, what formed where you are today. Love it. I love it. I haven't kicked out jams in a while. Steve Simmons from the Toronto Sun was the last guy to kick out the jams. This is going back in the life of a podcast.

I think three weeks ago, and I did a bunch in a row. Since then, I've done a bunch of non-jam kicking episodes in a row, but I'm glad to get back to this. I really enjoy... It's a cool aspect to your show. I like it. Thanks, man.

And I like that we get different perspectives. I can't just only have the Bruce Springsteen contingent. I went through a run there, and there's nothing wrong with that. No, my dad loved Bruce. Yeah, absolutely. Give me a 50-something,

maybe early 60s, 50-year-old white guy, and you're going to get a Bruce Springsteen song on their jam list. This is what I've learned. Yeah, for sure. By kicking out the jam. Let's kick out another jam. What do we got here?

So let me tell you, a few years back when I got my first MacBook Pro and I saw that iTunes could tell you what your most all-time played song was. You could click and it would organize all your songs and I thought, legit, I don't know what it would be. And it ended up being a few ill-vibed songs because you listen over and over trying to get them right. Sure. But the first non-me song was this.

And that was when I realized what I actually loved was not what people would expect. It was this song and it was Heard It Through the Grapevine, were the two most played songs on my iTunes. Wow. Yeah, this is your go-to genre when you just want a good tune. One hand in the air. Head back and forth with the eyes closed.

And please, if you don't know this song really well, play attention to the backup singers because they make the song. They're the eyes closed. And please, if you don't know this song really well, play attention to the backup singers because they make the song. They're the pips. I know, but in this song,

they contribute little bits of value to each line where they're like, oh, he didn't know. They'll add a little extra info to the line that she didn't already deliver

and I love it. He said he's going back Going back to time To a simpler place in time and I love it. They're confident. They're confident that she will be with them. I'd rather live in his world than live without him in mine. And of course, she is Gladys Knight. And they are the Pips.

I gotta tell you, this board I'm pointing to now, no one can see. Yep. The lights here died on me like, I don tell you, this board I'm pointing to now, no one can see? Yep. The lights here died on me like, I don't know, four or five months ago. Okay. They came back to life during your jam kicking here today. They are back. We resurrected the lights.

This is a miracle. I'm giving credit to Gladys. Yeah, wow. You just want to write one song that lasts as long as this, you know? Perfect. On the midnight train to Georgia I'd rather live in his world Than live without him in mine Oh, he's leaving On the midnight train to Georgia

So is this your dad's influence? What introduces you to Gladys Lane? My mom and my dad. We used to do, I'd come home from school and I saw the 45s piled on top of the speaker. I knew that they were already in memory lane. I just had my t-shirt recently. Okay.

What is it? It's the adapter for the 45s. Yeah, super dope. So yeah, those are the good days, right? I come home, my parents are already walking down memory lane. I remember Motown was probably the thing that they played that I responded to the most. And then there's other similar types of sounds. And as I got older, I found other stuff that even they didn't listen to.

You know, I found Al Green. I found more modern artists like the like anthony hamilton who we listen to who's kind of follows in those people's footsteps right and so i kind of just took that with me my whole life and even though i'm a rapper i spend way more time listening to bluesy soulful music than raps i do love raps and every time a great rap album comes out i make sure i check it and you know i want to form an opinion of the new Eminem album or of the new Kendrick album. But the ones that get me really, really excited are the soul artists. So the Al Green, you mentioned Al Green. Can I ask, because if you're like me at all, was

it Pulp Fiction that introduced you to Al Green? No, to be honest, it was, I'm trying to think what actually introduced it, but it was definitely more about, it might have been even in like Napster era or what, I don't remember where I was getting my pirated music from at the time, but I was- Lime, LimeWire? Might have been LimeWire.

I was burning out the Motown songs that my parents had introduced me to and I was looking for more. And I think, you know, Al Green and other artists. Kazaa? I'm sorry, I'm stuck in the- Bear Share? Bear Share, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Those were the days, eh?

I don't know which one I would use at this particular juncture in my music pirating history. Now we've got Torrent, so it's all good now. But back then, that was a real... I don't Torrent anymore. I'm Spotify all day. What I love about Spotify... You rent the music.

What I love about Spotify is being an artist and a fan. If you're an artist, it's a great link between the two because I do cool playlists. I have a playlist called Just Shit I Came Up On, and it's all the stuff that makes me, all the old rap songs that no one wants to hear but take me back to grade 6 or grade 8 or grade 11 or whatever. It's fun that I can post that right to my artist page,

and if you are curious what I came up on, it's right there. Oh, that's a good idea. That's cool. Yeah, that Glad's a good idea. That's cool. Yeah, that Gladys Knight jam is really cool and that was back in the day and here we are more current. Let's kick out your second last jam. Best

song ever. But not good enough to close with. This is the second best version of the song even, but it's so good both versions are equally amazing. I wish you had told me. I would have got the best version. No, the single version is slightly better,

but the album version is also incredible. That would have been a good detail to put into the email. That's okay. This is the version the world knows. The biggest difference between the single and the album is the album added more distracting elements on top of it, I found. But it's still a great song. I love myself.

Think for a second about Kendrick's career. Good Kid, Mad City comes out, blows the world's mind. Gangster album. And for his next follow-up single, what does he put out? A song called I Love Myself. Almost no rapping. Or no traditional rapping. It was such a risky decision for him to make, and it won me over.

This song is what made me a Kendrick fan. He stops rapping his verse in the middle on this one. See, it's those little things. Come to the front, come to the front. This is Obama's favorite album, right? Is this... I remember Obama did say that, yeah. Who knows how much of that is PR

Kendrick has such balls Two verses in a row He stops rapping the verse to talk to a pretend crowd And if you're looking for this jam though, it's actually only called I. Yeah, the song's not called I Love Myself, but he chants it, of course. And to add to it, I was going on vacation. I was living in England at the time, and I was going on vacation to the Canary Islands, and I downloaded a bunch of music to my phone

so I could have it on vacation. And I saw a new Kendrick single, and at the time I wasn't that big a fan. I just knew him for swimming pools, all the first singles he had. And I said, I'll download this new Kendrick song. I played it 1,000 times on vacation. And so now when I listen to it,

I think about dancing around the Canary Island beaches. How long did you live in England? Just for one year. One year. Basically, I got a work visa and I thought, hey, it'd be fun to go over there

and be a rapper there for a year. And that's where the VK thing is? That's where I met VK. That's right, yeah. It all comes together. Yeah. Kendrick sort of sacrificed this song to give the album this sound, which is why I love the single version slightly better. But they're both really great.

I think that's cool, though, because Kendrick's very present of mind in 2015 or now in 2017, where he knows his fans have the single already. So for the album to be this cool masterpiece, what is it to have a moment where he says, Hey, turn the mic up, turn the mic up. It's like we all know what the lex lyric is from the single he's really created a moment on the album so i actually well he's in this age he's brought back the album because in this day it's all singles like it's like the album is a collection of singles or whatever especially in the streaming age or whatnot but back in the day like whether it be uh sergeant

pepper or pet sounds or whatever like the album or Pet Sounds or whatever, like the album, like Dark Side of the Moon, like the album as an entity was everything. Yeah, absolutely. And Kendrick has held that in a time when

that's not really a thing. I'm going 90 more seconds on this, so any K-dot stuff you want. My son happens to adore this guy in his album, and I hear a lot of this guy around. Well, I go to Cali every year, so Kendrick is high on my California playlist when I'm driving from San Diego to San Francisco. He's my vote for maybe greatest rapper of all time.

Wow. The only reason I would even put a dot, dot, dot in there is because he's still young enough, I feel like, he's got to put a couple more points on the board to continue to earn that, you know what I mean? Better rapper than Big Daddy Kane is what you're telling me here. Yes. Big Daddy smooth words to mother.

There are some OGs who would be mad at me about that. Well, I am. I'm partial to Chuck D. Hey, Chuck D, these are the people who created the sound that Kendrick runs with today. He's just going. Too many artists gave her an explanation to hold us. Well, this is my explanation.

Straight from Ethiopia. N-E-G-U-S. Definition. Royalty. King royalty. Wait, listen. N-E-G-U-S Description, black emperor, king ruler Now let me finish The history books overlook the word and hide it America tried to make it to a house divided

The homies don't recognize we been using it wrong So I'ma break it down and put my game in a song N-E-G-U-S Say it with me, or say no more Black stars can come and get me Take it from Oprah Winfrey Tell her she right on time Kendrick Lamar

By far Realest Nika's alive Wow. Outro longer than the song. Are you ready for your final jam? The number one kick out the jam song for Ill Vibe. And although I know she doesn't listen,

we spoke about Cheryl a few times and Cheryl is the visually challenged commenter that has been writing open mic comments for, I'm going to say, well over a decade now on my site. So I've never met her, but I hear from her every week,

and I really would keep that open mic going just for her. If she was the only one who commented, I'd keep it going. She loves this artist. This is her favorite artist of all time. Dedicated to Cheryl. This is for her. If she was the only one who commented, I'd keep it going. She loves this artist. Great. This is her favorite artist of all time. Dedicated to Cheryl. This is for Cheryl.

Instant goosebumps every time. My dad's favorite song, my dad's favorite artist. I might be the only rapper in the world whose favorite song of all time

is a Bob Seger song. On an awesome highway East of Omaha You can listen to the engine moaning out his one-note song. You can think about the woman or the girl you knew the night before.

Live version. They don't do that anymore. Your thoughts will soon be wandering The way they always do When you're riding 16 hours And there's nothing much to do And you don't feel much like riding You just wish the trip was through Say here I am

On the road again There I am Up on the stage Here I go Playing the star again There I go Playing the star again There I go Turn the page This is an inspired choice.

Great jam. A lot of younger cats might be more familiar with the Metallica cover. I remember when that came out and expecting to hate it and loved it. They did an amazing job with that song as well. But this is a real singer song. This is a great songwriter song. He creates so many moments throughout the song where he just lets it hang. And that's such a ninja move in the songwriting world. Most times you can't hear him talk.

Other times you can. All the same old cliches. Is that a woman or a man? And you always seem outnumbered. You don't dare make a stand. One of the songs you played of mine is called Lone Wolves. And it's very much on the same vibe. I think right now I just realize how much it is like my version of that.

Isn't that funny? You don't even realize what subconsciously is inspiring a certain sound. Thematically, I'm re-singing all my favorite songs. George Harrison did My Sweet Lord, which is a gorgeous track. Yeah. And it's like, you know you just wrote

He's So Fine by the Chiffons. Like, but it was all subconscious. Yeah. Yeah, it happens a lot. Out there in the music industry or at least that's what I took from it

I'm sure there's it's not strippers? no but and granted as I said that Or at least that's what I took from it, and I'm sure there's... It's not strippers? No, but... And granted, as I said that, I don't necessarily know that's what the song was about, but that's from a child, from like 10 years old, that's what I love this record. That moment after a show and your ears are still ringing and you're just physically exhausted smoking that last joint that is that's such a moment in my life and it's very interesting having heard the metallica version so much

more the last like decade or whatever. Interesting. This now sounds beautifully slow. You know what I mean? Yeah. The Metallica one is faster. Rockier. Harder.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. And I keep thinking Bob's going to kick it, and he kicks it relative to the song, but not Metallica styles. So it's really chill. It feels almost like I'm in slow motion. It just sounds really chill. Best saxophone, though. And the crowd goes wild. You're right.

The live version thing, you know, there's certain songs you would hear on, you hear them on classic rock radio, certain songs, you always hear the live version.

Yeah. Was there a non-live version of that song that just didn't do as well over time? Because I always think of that live version with the little yelps

in the background. No, I don't know because now I always think of the Metallica version so I'm asking the wrong guy. And they did the same covers album that had Whiskey and the Jarrow, and it's the same thing with that jam. Like, when I hear Whiskey and the Jarrow or whatever, it's all Metallica now. Interesting.

I didn't know Metallica did a whole cover album. Yeah, I think that's a whole cover album. Interesting. I think. I just knew the one song because they happened to cover that all-time favorite, and so you kind of tuned in in for that but i've never been a big metallica guy dude this was crazy fun and i can't believe i think you have the record for the longest gap between appearances because if you haven't been here since 40 and by the way um i remember the first episode to have over a thousand downloads because this thing started from scratch like i used to be able to see the downloads and be like oh that must be my brother totally you

know what I mean? This guy clicked through the blog or whatever. But I remember the first episode that cleared 1,000, and then since then, the numbers are crazy. And it's just... Do you say numbers? How many do you say? I never... I'll ask you off mic.

I'll tell you off mic. Okay, sure. But it's amazing that... So you're from the pre... Even episode 40, which is your last appearance, you're from the pre, like even episode 40, which is your last appearance. 40 never got to a thousand. I mean,

it might've now, but I mean, at the time it never got to a thousand. So it's just, it's just crazy that you're finally back for 297. My last episode of 2017. And like I said, lowest to the low might close every episode,

but you start every freaking episode, every single one. It's been fun. Thanks for having me back, Mike. You're going to refresh that? I am. If you refresh it, I'd be honored and happy

and I would play the new one and if you didn't, I would be honored and happy to play the old one so I can't lose here. And that brings us to the end of our 297th show. You can follow me on Twitter. I'm at Toronto Mike.

Illy is at Ill Vibe Music. That's right. And the website's Ill Vibe Music? IllVibeMusic.com. And really, anywhere that you are, whether it's Instagram, whether it's whatever, if you type in ill vibe you can find me super quick and reach out to me

I love chatting with the weirdos on the internet so our friends at Great Lakes Brewery are at Great Lakes Beer propertyinthesix.com is at Brian Gerstein and Paytm is at Paytm Canada see you all next week.