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Good morning, good evening, good night, good afternoon, whatever time you're listening
in, wherever you're listening from.
Shout out to my Spotify listenership, Apple and Google podcasts, and YouTube if you're
watching in.
Thanks for giving me a reason to get dressed.
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Whether your right now is working, flying, running, driving, be thankful we're alive,
baby.
Failure can be frightening.
However, as Winston Churchill reminds us, success is all about going from failure to failure without losing enthusiasm.
This is I Will Not Lose Podcast, where we set out to prove everything is learned from failure, and we must persevere and recognize it as one step closer to success.
I'm your host, Tony Ortiz. Let's jump right in.
Holy shit.
Oh, shit. I ain't never seen no shit like that.
Like that, bro.
He popped a bottle cap with his teeth.
that was some movie shit i'm glad the cameras are rolling for that i'm gonna leave that in
sound good right there all right what's up man what's going on my guy how's it going
everything is everything bro i've been listening it's weird hearing you in speech i've been
listening to your catalog since early this morning yeah but one thing i gotta compliment
you on it is you could press play like if somebody's just discovering devin haley yeah
they could press play on the first track yeah and just play through the whole catalog
it all sounds consistent like for sure what was your first project in 2018 uh yeah moment
uh that was actually so technically it's not my first project it's my first released project
right like i've i've been doing this for you know a very long time um but up until that point i had
never um like professionally released anything you know so i have i have a whole back catalog of
over like 300 songs that are just you know there that i'm never going to do anything with that i
have released on like hard copy old mixtapes and things like that but as far as an actual release
you know moment was the first one for sure that's wow i was surprised it only went back to 2018 yeah
yeah i was like i was thinking at least 10 years 2013 or something like that right right but it's
cool and you can hear some growth like it's consistent the quality is consistent yeah i
will say there's a little more technical in your later stuff yeah like you've been working on i
think you've called it mathematics like yeah that's very mathematical with the flow yeah yeah
um i was just talking with phase earlier the the pauses yeah like the cadence that uh that track
you sent me cap yeah yeah yeah it's like perfect you like pause and go into the melody and keep
that going that really kept my attention i was like this is fire i played it back yeah so the
thing with that that's um that's coming out uh i don't know when this is gonna drop but it'll
that's coming out in december i want to say um but yeah as far as the cadence goes like you said
mathematics for me it's a lot about okay this rhymes cool we can say it in a linear way to where
every every line you know clicks the same way but I'm very calculated with how I say things where I
place things and like it has to make sense and I was just in the lab last night and it clicked to
me it's like I'm always building like there's really never in my verses you never really get
that climax it's like always a incline yeah and you'll get the punch lines and and the and the
haymakers in there but usually i lace them within that it's never like building up to one big
punch line it's just a constant you know except you know uh uh what i don't know the word but
it's a constant like rise rising tension yeah exactly exactly and you just never get to that
point so you're like on the edge of your seat waiting for it and then it's like all right that
bar was fired that bar was fired that bar and you're waiting for the haymaker and then it hits
you out of nowhere and there's still more to go so as far as cadence and things like that goes
yeah i'm very calculated with my approach that way you know what i'm saying like it's that's
very important to me the pauses and uh and uh because it's a language it's a conversation that
we're having you know i i like to give you that time to take a step back and like oh shit yeah
that was hard and then you jump back into it and then there's more and it's like you take a step
back oh man all right let's go for the next one like you even account for switch yeah yeah yeah
where does that come from i bro i kid you not i said it one day in like 2012 on a verse i was like
oh that's fire and i just kept saying it i said it in like a hook or something like a it was either
it was either the verse i want to say it was the hook but it might have been the verse but i played
it for the bro because i knew it was i know it was hot but i was like that's just a one-off
you know ad-lib then i played it for the bro and he was like yo that switch is dope because
i try to i try to position it to where the beat is the beat is changing or the pattern is changing
or the rhyme scheme is changing or the subject is changing so i'm very selective with it there's
times where i just throw it out because it works and it sounds good and i'm actually
in the process of like finding a new ad lib to use in those spots but um yeah the switch is the
switch is kind of a a signature trademark yeah it's a trademark for sure for sure and if you
ever heard anybody else say it you know where they got it from bro i was hoping you had an
answer like that i hope you weren't like oh yeah you know that's the new slang that they've been
talking for 10 years i'm like no i never that's dope that's dope so let's see we got it sounds
consistent i want to go uh the way i have my notes i go into your latest album and then i go into top
five but i actually want to switch that up i want to talk with uh top five first because that's kind
of like your it's bars it's weird like when you open up with him yeah oh it's so refreshing to
hear a structure in a freestyle yeah it's like a concept within it so for those of you that haven't
heard it devin goes through and puts all sorts of metaphors with the word him him carrie him
parsons i see the big bang i'm him parsons yeah that's the one that's the one and uh it was dope
when you open up like can't even be themselves how the fuck they gonna be him yeah that just
had me so ready for the album i'm like this is super dope so yeah to a lot of a lot of rappers
will go out and put out a dope freestyle and it has the video they put everything together
it's going crazy on tiktok right but it's just bar after bar yeah and i don't know i'm almost
barred out in 2023 like i mean i'm gonna be honest with you these days i'm kind of like
i'm sticking to my guns as far as my style goes i don't really see the industry coming back around
to lyrical rap i just don't see it i feel like it's a little too far gone to to go back it's like
the matrix you know everybody's just stuck there there's a select few that see the other side and
know the other side and once they get out of the matrix they don't want to go back but the majority
of people they're stuck there and that's okay you know not you know different strokes for different
folks but for me it's like nothing else matters because when when it's all said and done when
they go back in history and and study rap music and they look at the whole story the things that
stand out and that are going to stand the test of time are the lyrical mcs we're going to be here
forever because it's timeless saying dope shit is timeless it doesn't matter what generation you're
in if it's fire then it's just fire and it resonates through time you know yeah so for me
like i said nothing else matters be it a visual the hook the whatever like i i used to tell my
i used to tell my um like the artists that are under me if we can't listen to your shit acapella
and still be blown away what are we doing this for if you can't strip everything away and still
be amazed something's not right and we need to figure out how to make that even with even in r&b
a lot of r&b today you take the beat away it sounds crazy back in the day you take the beat
away you still have incredible vocalists those are going to be the people that stand the test
of time and that are you know those are going to be the fossils that they discovered in 50 100
years they're gonna go back and be like oh my god like anthony hamilton was incredible you know
what i'm saying he might he might not be popping right now you know in the world of the janae
aiko's and the brent fias but the vocals from that man they're gonna last forever and that's
how i feel about you know the bars and the lyrics like they're gonna last forever no matter what
so that's that's why it's so important to me so you could almost take even the vocals out and just
look at the lyrics written himself yeah and it's like taking a step further you know yeah yeah
yeah scripture you know what i mean it's doesn't matter who's saying it it doesn't matter what was
happening around it that is going to matter forever you know so yeah no i have uh i love
that line where he says all i know is bars that talk in long sentences yeah yeah and that's a real
so when you have the whole uh you you embody your music this is your this is your thing this is your
you know it kind of becomes your personality it's almost duality like your personality affects the
music and the music affects your personality for sure so it's cool to see that sort of like uh
back and forth where just writing would make you speak more eloquently yeah or like it's a trade-off
Yeah, no, for sure. And, um, oftentimes I find myself saying a bar and then using that in real life, like, you know, as a, as a model or a fact of life. Like I've done that oftentimes. And then a lot of times I'll be saying things in real life and then it ends up in a bar. So it's like, they, you know, they just play off of each other, you know?
That's super dope.
Yeah.
Does it work as therapy for you or do you?
Um, is it tiring? I just had this talk last night. Um, so it's, it's hard to in the latter years of
my, you know, of doing this, it's a little hard for me to say that I love it because I know
everything that comes with it. I know the headache that comes with it. It's like a lot of people are
in jobs and careers that they are very you know interested in but after a while it's like
do i love it still now i do it at the rate that i do it because i feel like it's a disservice
to the culture and the art form and the people around me to not because i got i've gotten this
good so to stop is like what are you doing you know makes sense but at the same time
it is a lot of work like a lot of people don't know or realize like my close circle knows but
i don't write any of this down like this is all done in my head like i don't i haven't written
a single verse in like it's 2023 probably like 14 15 years with all your lyrics you don't write
anything down i don't write anything down it's all put together in my head and like i don't
freestyle it just coming off you know i don't just rapidly just go ah okay so that's still
impressive so i'll get in there and i'll do 12 bars in my head lay it down maybe come back and
do eight bars lay it down sometimes i do two bars and then like sometimes i'll do 30 bars and lay it
but either way it's not nothing is being written so with that that's not easy because i'm really
in there in real like that whole top five project what people don't realize is that that's that
wasn't premeditated and i wasn't sitting at home taking my time writing it and you know what goes
like no I'm really in the in the lab going bar for bar like what like the bars that are in there
is what came to me in that moment in the studio in the studio you know so those four minute verses
those were real right there right then and there I didn't have those written for a month and then
go in and record it and make it sound hot like no those are those are one takes those are first
takes and i just go so that's work in itself a lot of people don't realize that um i kind of
i'm a little envious to artists that write still because you have the freedom to do it anywhere
i don't i don't do that like i might come up with a bar here and there i might come up with an idea
or a scheme here and there but a lot of times those bars don't make it into the actual song
because once i'm in the lab i'm not feeling that anymore so it makes sense yeah a lot of other
artists they have that advantage that they could just sit and write for five hours a day and they
gotta you know a thousand verses and this and that me it's like not i'm what you what you see
is what you get in real time you know so um yeah it's uh it's work so with that you got to think
about it and it's like all right am i having fun not necessarily because i'm making sure like
everything is calculated i'm making sure what i say is fire you know what i mean um and that's
where the whole idea of the project came from but no fun intended like yeah it's a it's the game
so it's presented and it's made out to look like it's fun but in all reality there's no fun
intended in this whole lifestyle you know and i mean it's work you know yeah no i can respect that
i um i've seen the i've seen the work i've seen how long it takes and you know even then you're
still at the point where you have the freedom to release and choose your dates yeah um nothing's
going to be held for a long time so the fact that you make it fresh if you will that's actually
pretty dope so people can follow yeah follow and go from there um well die for me that's not on top
four that's on the actual album yeah that's on the album that's my favorite track of all time
so much um just from the beat the beats like hypnotic as soon as you get into it yeah and
then i don't know it's a little bit like a slower cadence but every every word mattered
and then that switch yeah you had the the tiktok or the real going of that switch uh that's what
had that was the hook for me to the album yeah you know what i mean so it's just it's interesting to
to do those switch ups and big shout out to your producer face yeah um you know blending stuff and
just being able to make something playable all the way through yeah you know what i mean for
sure some of it even has a little r&b vibe do you sing i do i do is that you on i choose you
yeah yeah wow okay i do all my hooks the only hook that i well there's a few hooks that i haven't
done um and usually i'm going to if it's not laguita jay who's on my latest project who's
incredible as well um if it's not her then i'm going to um black rose who is a writer producer
he's written um for casey and jojo he was running around my dad and my uncle for a while and he had
his thing going um he's now working with his son the roses just he's an incredible he's an
incredible vocalist and he's an uncle to me he's like an uncle to me so um if it's not him or
then i'm doing i'm doing my hooks yeah i've i've um i've i've take very much pride in um
my approach and my ability to write and uh perform vocally you know in a in a in a in a more melodic
um realm not just doing the auto-tune thing and all of that like no i'm yeah no you were singing
i'm stacking vocals i'm doing stuff like that but that's where i come from like with my dad
and things like that like i do have some shoes to fill with that so if i'm gonna do it i have to do
it the right way because of the legacy you know what i mean ah that's fair enough man yeah that's
cool you could definitely tell you respect the craft there's a lot of stuff with um just just
callbacks and things like even the track 15 20 sedgwick yeah ave to to name it that and yeah go
and then have like the the beat with the bells that was uh that was dope um so thank you for that
for sure um i want to see let's yo do you know what's funny five three i was trying to figure
out what the hell that meant i was trying to figure out the significance i was going through
i was like man that's maybe something i gotta listen back to and see and it's very much on the
nose i was like i was writing my i was writing it down and i was gonna ask you and then i'm like
oh shit top five volume three that's funny yeah but i definitely enjoyed that project i listened
to it a whole bunch of times and then it had me ready for the new ones now i had heard of you i
had heard your music in bits and pieces yeah i never went and checked out a full album i never
checked any of that until earlier this year yeah so that's cool anybody that hasn't listened to
there's plenty of catalog to go back from and none of it's it's almost better because if you
had stuff from 15 years ago it's hard to tell somebody go back and listen to the first thing
especially if they're attracted to what you're putting out now exactly that's why i had to shout
out the consistency so i want to get into the latest album in which you got way more personal
yeah than just being a rapper you know this was the story this was like uh you had the track
Harris versus Haley yeah for sure for sure always so intro like did the introspective
interest I don't even know how to say it like did you become introspective over time
yeah I did um I was a I was a loose cannon back in the day um and when I say back in the day I
really mean like five six years ago um I was a little off the rails kind of lost didn't really
know where i was where i was going wasn't really taking heed to where i've been um and i and i you
know that affected relationships friendships that affected my mental um and it wasn't until this
past year or two where i really took a step back and said okay you're really grown up now
what are you actually doing with not even your life with yourself with your physical body what
are you actually doing um and it's not it's never easy to open up like that especially in a in a
public form as you know like an album or mixtape whatever you want to call it um but it was
something that was needed i had a few projects that i did before this that i scrapped um like
completely scrapped because it still wasn't as personal as i knew i needed to get for myself
yeah like i had to give myself a therapy session and the songs that i was doing they're great songs
they're gonna release you know eventually um they're just evergreen songs they're just good
they're timeless right but i knew like okay that's not enough you can dig way deeper and and really
tell your story and people have been telling me for years like oh you got a story you got to tell
it and i'm like nah i'm gonna wait till the time is right and it's like no there's never a right
time because the story is ongoing so it's like yeah you know even whatever story you tell right
now five years from now you there's going to be more to add to it so just let it let it go you
know what i mean um and yeah just just changing environments and changing the people that i was
around really made me look at things and say okay no matter where you are you're still dragging all
this with you you gotta let it off you gotta get it out you could change you could go anywhere
you're still you no matter where you are and until you identify that and let it out and cleanse
you're gonna remain in those patterns and and and with those habits so with a joint like harris
versus haley that's really me looking at it like okay devin haley's this way devin harris is this
way because haley's my dad's last name harris is my mom's last name but i have my mom's last name
that's my government that's my given name devin harris devin haley is the stage name so you know
the duality of that the dynamic of that is like okay you've been being devin haley for a very long
time but that's not actually you though now you have to show them who devin harris is and then
you can always go back to devin haley but devin harris is like scratching the like he's trying
to get out yeah you know so i had to let him out and that's where you get a project like no fun
intended super cool man super cool now do you know what the song that hit me the hardest was
liquid intentions yeah yeah yeah some of my listeners know and stuff i'm an alcoholic okay
so i'm actually going on two years january will be two years so i'm like uh i'm it's been a while
since i had my last drink yeah and so that struggle that listening to it even the chorus
when you know what i mean like you talk about your pops it was like it was just super personal
i'm like and that's a lot to go out and put like my listeners listeners know but there's going to
be people that hear that take and they're like oh shit i had no idea you know what i mean i don't
really put it out there like that but to hear some of your earlier music yeah where you're talking
about uh drinking smoking you know what i mean it's like it was crazy to hear that evolution
where it's like okay it's like you don't regret the choices you make like i don't wish to shut
my past away or anything like that but that was cool yeah you gotta like go on that i mean
i'm not gonna i'm not gonna act like i like i'm you know i'm not perfect right i still do enjoy
my bruise i still don't enjoy the twist one at the end of the night if i'm in the lab i'm doing both
you know um but as i said it you know it comes a point where you have to identify
your shortcomings and the decisions that you're actually making yeah and you know that is the
root of change if you if you can at least identify a problem or the problem you're on your way to
changing it might take you another 20 years but at least you know that okay this is a choice now
i'm choosing to live like this it's not i'm not just going with the wind no i'm choosing to do
this i may or may not have a problem but i'm choosing to do it i know that that exists with
a song like liquid intentions that's me that's it's i don't want to say it's like a cry for help
because it's it's really not but it's me just making people aware like okay this is my reality
i feel like i gotta get by you know i like that's just how i feel like because it's bored
grab a brewski you know what i'm saying and that's where that comes from i think that
what makes that song so intriguing is also the beat how it's more of a like you wouldn't expect
that subject matter on that beat that beat is a more playful beat yeah yeah the cadence is a
is a lot more you know jumpy you know back and forth um so yeah that that song is very important
to me too because that's something i've never touched on in music and um i still do the bars
where i'm rapping about the beers and i just had a bar last night i said um i said like 40 in the
car we gonna tilt that whole shit uh my bro got the bricks he done built this whole shit you know
stuff like that but that's devin haley talking to you that's that's devin haley with the bars
saying that devin harris is gonna say you know if my pops could get over it i can you know what i
mean it's kind of like get out of here devin haley like devin haley is like the devil on my shoulder
pretty much you know what i mean like he keeps me but i need it i need him because that's the spark
you know devin harris doesn't have much of a spark devin harris wants to be at home with his girl
with his kids watching you know the avengers and and all of that devin haley wants to be outside
and be on stage somewhere and you know things like that so it's like i said the duality you
know that's that's really it's the driving force of the project and songs like that you know yeah
it's like oh man there is a lot of conflict and going back and forth yeah that actually just hit
me right now yeah i listened to it a bunch of times that's wild yeah but um i wanted to get
into the plan that's probably my favorite off this album if not i mean that for me is dope
But like you said, when people are really looking to do your autobiography to figure out who was this person, who was this artist and deep dive, they're going to listen to the plan.
Exactly.
They're going to be like, this is a really big part of his life.
You know what I mean?
So you want to go for people that haven't listened to, and we'll get into listening to some music in a second, but for people that haven't listened to the plan, you want to go on that, like the concept behind it?
Yes. So if I'm being 100 percent honest, ever since I made the move to to California, it kind of put a strain on my personal relationships.
Some friends, some family, but mainly my kids, mainly my oldest.
He knows he knows what's up. He knows he's not a baby.
he knows when you're there he's no he knows when you're not you know what i'm saying he's a very
he's a very bright and sharp kid and like i said there's there's a bit of a strain on the
relationship and it's kind of a it's a tough it's a tough conversation to have with the child
yeah because they don't get it they all they get is what they see and don't see so you can say
oh i'm just going for a little bit i'll be back they hear that yeah but you're not there so it
really doesn't even matter what you're actually saying to them um and and with the with the plan
it was like okay because that's another thing i don't really talk about my kids a lot in my music
i might mention but i don't talk about them because it's just personal and devin haley is
not a very personal guy like nobody really knows much about Devin Haley so with the plan it was
like all right I want to do this but I got to do it in the right way I don't want to talk about my
kids I don't want to I have this thing where I tell people like stop talking above the topic
like like stop talking about the topic and talk to the person or this or the issue like solve the
issue with your words don't talk about the don't talk about the issue i don't know if i'm even
wording that right but i didn't want to talk about them i wanted to talk to them right and
and that's a theme in a lot of my music like you hear a lot of use i don't do a lot of they
you know and i mean it's very direct my bars and i feel like that's why they resonate with people
a lot because i'm talking directly to the person right um so with that it's like yeah let me talk
to them and let me just bear it i'm gonna just bear it all you know i'm gonna touch on everything
that i can within that three four minutes and the crazy part about that song is that second verse
which is like like 24 bars 28 bars or something like that i only had half of it and i was gonna
i sent it all i sent it to phase to mix then i was like nah it doesn't feel right okay it felt
incomplete so i actually went in and added um like a another 16 or excuse me or whatever to the uh
to the verse and um yeah that song is very important to me and i wasn't sure how people
were gonna react to it i thought it was gonna be like man get out of here we all got situations
with our our kids and all i might want to hear that but um the reception from it is actually
very warming like that's the one song that always comes back and people are like yo nah that's the
one that's the that's the one i like the most and i didn't think it was going to be that one so
i think that's really dope and i actually showed it to my youngest before it was done before that
last part of the second verse was done and it brought him to tears the kid was seven years
old it brought him to tears so i was i said okay yeah if if i could bring a seven-year-old kid to
to tears you know by talking to him on a song i think i'm doing i think i know what i'm doing
here, you know? Yeah, no, it's super relatable. I have, uh, my son's been on the podcast. I'm in
his life, but he hasn't lived with me for years now. And so, um, especially it's like, you know,
the time you want to spend with him, especially with the holiday coming up and things like that.
But I actually, uh, I left for a performance on his birthday on his, um, I think it was a second
or a third might even been later than that but you know i did the party thing and then left
afterwards and went to new york and poets cafe and performed and it just hit me shortly after that
like what am i doing you know what i mean it'd be one thing if this was paying some sort of bills
or doing something that i could justify this is why i'm doing it but i'm really you know at least
for me i was having fun yeah you know it was like i had to be somewhere else which is ironic because
now my son's 13 he wishes i still spit like uh right i mean i mess around and do a little
something here and there he loves it so i'm like you know maybe but uh but yeah no so that was
a lot i mean for it to relate to me for as much of the album to relate to me i know it relates to
a lot of people right right even if they don't man even if people aren't alcoholics people drink
and everybody's had a night where they're like man did i drink too much what am i doing why did
like that's not who i want to be or something so it wasn't uh it wasn't like you don't got to be
hardcore to go into that or anything like that right but one of the things i appreciate about
your mastery of the craft is you paint a picture like whether it be the samples with the beats or
whatever but at the one part you were talking about like uh it was seven past eleven dada was
spitting um yeah i felt like i was and i think that came right after the dada verse or that was
in the feeling what was the other song we were talking about the track list i would have to look
at um yeah so the thing with the thing with bro with dada so he just came home he just did a bit
he came home after like four years three or four years um so i had to get him on that joint and
then a lot of a lot of what i do is like easter eggs there's a lot of easter eggs in my in my
bars so i'm gonna say dada was doing this x y and z so people are like yo who's dada yeah who's that
guy he was spitting it was it was hot i gotta hear that i gotta hear this guy yeah then the track
comes on with him right right and then um yeah with the with the uh the seven past eleven and
that liquor was hitting i love doing that i love involving the people around me in in my bars and
just telling the story whether it's whether i'm just making it up or it actually happened yeah
you know i just love i love doing that and i love i love continuity like like i said i'm a huge fan
i'm a nerd bro like i love i love wrestling i love you know superhero movies and comic book you know
so yeah those stories never end and i feel like i'm telling like when you rap if you're doing it
the right way you're telling a never-ending story so things like that is like that's like a that's
like a like a play-by-play breakdown of an episode in this story you know what i mean so i really
enjoy doing joints like that you know walking you through a night of what went what went down or
how i was feeling that night in that specific time you know what i mean it's i find pure
enjoyment in that i really do that was cool the other thing you always fall back onto and i don't
have this written down but uh being in the studio with moccasins or flip-flops yeah or something
like that's real like it's real you know what i mean like i'm really walking around the lab
tank top messy hair's all messed up like the bar sound pristine but if you were to see me in the
lab you're like yo this guy's a bum what is he doing that won't make the tiktok yeah
i see you just pull the hoodie and zip it when you do the tiktok no that's how i am when i'm
designing but i um i say in my intro i say um you know if youtube if you're watching in thanks for
giving me a reason to get dressed because like when you're on and i choose to do a video version
of this podcast but it could be just audio you know what i mean i could do it remote and have
people not even here but i'm like no you know i want to put together i want to have hot water on
for the tea i want to make it and then the next time you come through it's like just open the door
and come downstairs exactly it's it's it's family so that's at least the show or the environment
the network that i try to create but yeah man i could definitely see uh the feeling in my head
we could get into some music in a second i didn't i didn't run a timer so i don't know how long
we've been running but we'll uh we could throw on some music do you uh if you throw it on your
phone i could add it in post i could do that uh you want to listen to some old shit or some new
shit um so i got i'm working on the tape i'm working on greedy season two i sent you um
the one we sent you the one i sent you earlier what was that the cap and uh secret secret secret
secret recipe yeah yeah i don't want to play that one that one if it's not finished don't
if it's not finished don't uh yeah let's do let's do one of the one of the mixes so the thing with
the with those mixes that i just the cap joint um we're actually and this will probably drop
before so this will probably be like the first uh announcement of it but um we're actually
launching the deluxe version of uh no fun intended we're adding i think i'm adding five
i think it's five but it might be six songs oh wow yeah so um just songs that didn't really
make the cut but still fit the the overarching you know story and do like a disc too right
something like that so like even with the song cap um what if i told you i'm famous i see your
life is simple let me change it but the whole song is pretty much me saying how much too far away
like i'm not doing a long distance relationship kind of thing and that your geography is a problem
right yeah and that that fits into the whole no fun intended like you want things to work for you
and you have this idea in your mind that it's just going to be easy but then geography plays a part
you're always i'm i'm always moving around you're in one spot you can't come out all the time i
can't make it to you all the time I'm I'm always doing things you know so just um I hope the one
thing that people take away from this is that us artists it's not all fun and games you know in the
industry and it's really hard to maintain those relationships and to get people to trust that you
actually care about them and do love them because it's actions speak louder than words but I feel
like as an artist a lot of times the words mean more than the actions because you're restricted
there's only so much you can do because you're pretty much an on-call entertainer you know um
so yeah i i hope that people can take that away but now i'll play the cap joint because i i love
that i love that song i'm gonna uh my phone's recording but i was going back and forth with
phase on that cap john this morning yeah let's just i'll i'll show you off camera what i was
talking with him about yeah it's a it's a it's for sure a joint bro like i i love it i love the
Yeah, I think so. I don't put it on.
and flowers they die by the time they got to your door good lord if they even found you
i love everything about you besides your geographical location sweetie that's a
complication love is music let's make a compilation but you won't have to hop on the interstate then
let me know which airline you taking how long you staying this ain't no vacation
i'm way too grown for a vacation i know you wait too long to stay patient i ain't one of the
niggas that just blazes and stays in the days while he plays his playstation come fuck with
the bed is way spacious you got the white load i'll be the way station
but if i told you i'm famous i see your life is baby put me on your plate i just want to roll
mine to be around girl i love it when you talk spicy baby don't hurt me you strike but you too
far too far away yeah here tomorrow but gone today uh uh for days i was puffing haze i drank a shit
load watching this relationship go up in a blaze i had something to say but why did it just slip
my mind you got me lost i'm stuck in my ways i promise you there's gonna come a day when i pick
up the phone and you say you on your way but if you can't stay long then don't stay baby girl i
joke but i don't play it's black or white girl there ain't no shades of gray you 50,000 miles
away this ain't no 50 shades of gray love is blind but I ain't trying to find my way if I
could fly I wouldn't fly to you I'd probably fly away you think you got a lock on me you want to
play but the pause for you is stopping me switch my life is a prophecy if you ain't here to look
me in my eyes then you not for me what if I told you I'm famous I see your life is simple let me
change it baby put me on your playlist I told you I'm evil I just want to roll my diesel don't want
to be around people and you just like me girl i love it when you talk spicy baby don't hurt me
you striking but you're too far too far you're too far you're too far away yeah here tomorrow
but gone today i'll play another one off the uh off the deluxe that was cap coming off the deluxe
that's not the name of it though that's not the name of it that's just so the way it works is
phase just names his shit random random words and letter combinations right yeah that's how
he names his beats so it's the hardest thing dev cap underscore oh three it's hard it's so hard for
me to go in because i'll be in the lab with him and he'll make a beat or he'll play a beat and
i'm like yo that's fire and he's like yeah i'm not feeling it i'm like all right and i try to
remember it and then i pull up the folder and it's just 10 000 random words and it's like i'm
never gonna find that beat you know what i mean so i don't name the songs until they release okay
like i don't i'm not the guy that's like yeah i want to name a song this and then write a song
about that it's like now whatever i say i'm gonna find something in the song and then name it that
or when it would have joined like 15 20 sedgwick there's nothing to name it so i just gotta name
it something significant a joint like five three there's nothing to name that i gotta name it
something that just makes sense you know what i mean so that's that's usually the last piece of
the puzzle whenever i'm put i'll have that the artwork the track list and then the day that i'm
putting it out the day i'm uploading it it's like all right what the fuck am i gonna do
as well yeah i'll play one more i did this back then and i just cleaned it up and made it you know
fit what i got going on now but yeah this has been laying around for a while
You never lied to me, you told me you fell asleep on ice
Let me catch the vibe, uh, give it back, intensified
Thinking about you was intellectual exercise
I left for time but then I came back, uh, wish I could erase that, uh
I left you with teardrops, uh, now I gotta face that, yeah
Round and round we go, this shit is like a racetrack, uh
No matter how long we drive, we on our way back, uh
We had some great chats cause I know you from way back, uh
I gave you food for thought, and baby you ate that up
We talked about the world, you said what you hate and love
And while we was making love, you let me know how special I am
Give me the green light, I need life, I want you
But I know I don't need you and that don't seem right
Switch, and as fucked up as it may sound
I don't pick up cause you stay down and maybe I don't deserve you
I'm not thinking straight so I curve you, you
Been through enough, I can't hurt you
Can't have that on my mental so I tread gentle
Or don't tread at all
I don't wanna get involved and get it wrong
Blame it on my pride
Your presence is desired if you oblige
I'ma be right there with you while you arrive
I'm dead to you, but you too can thrive
A mind is the best place to be alive
I took a ride, I'm sliding with the tribe
This game is do or die, I don't think you'd survive
How many times will I let it die?
And you let it slide
At least I'm honest with you, yeah
you never lied you fell asleep on but i never closed my eyes i think that's like the second
time i listened to that mix too that's crazy i had like uh like it wasn't a poppy feel it was
like uh like i would say more commercial than poppy like it uh yeah that could go i could hear
that on radio yeah um yeah for sure for sure i was just having a talk with uh with the bros last
night about the word mainstream and it's like you know everything is mainstream if you put the money
behind it yeah and put it and put it in people's faces it then becomes mainstream yeah they don't
like get together and conspire on this is going to be the sound for the next 10 years like they do
but as far as artists go we're in a position now where we're all on the same spotify we're all on
same apple music if we just put the money behind it we're all mainstream there's there's really
there's really no such thing as underground anymore because it's available for the world
no matter like underground used to be you can only find it in barbershops yeah yeah yeah in
in corner stores corner store the five dollar mixtapes right now underground is just your beat
selection and your rapping style so it's more of a genre than a category now and it's like it used
to be underground and mainstream now like i'm on the same platforms as jay-z like yeah and and i'm
only using him because he's like the let's use drake i'm on you're on the same platforms as
drake right yeah drake and beyonce you're on the exact same platforms as them how are you not
mainstream the only thing that makes it not mainstream is you're not putting the money
behind it yeah yeah yeah you know what i mean because if if little uzi does a boom bat beat
tomorrow and puts it on the radio then that's a mainstream hit it's a little uzi yeah you know
what i'm saying so it's more so just what you're doing with the actual music that makes it
mainstream than anything i feel like a lot of people get wrapped up in the idea like yo i'm not
i gotta make you don't gotta make nothing you just gotta put the money behind it i just look
at it as like what the most people would like like and there's a reason why they choose what
to put the money behind you know what i mean so if i go and i look at like uh like an underground
uh you know i fucking love underground music yeah so you go and you have like uh
i'm trying to think like not everybody could listen to everybody you know what i mean
rock marcy you know rock marcy right i don't know he's fire um put me on you know he's fire
he's fire but yeah like i don't know i just look at it differently because like if everybody could
listen to it versus like you know i mean if you played it for a hundred people my i i agree but
my approach is if all the top rappers just start making boom bap then that's the popular sound
because yeah who who else is gonna who else are y'all gonna listen to besides the most popular
rappers you know what i'm saying like the artists are in control of you know what gets heard and
what what crosses over yeah the labels and and and the powers that be for sure but it's like
if if everybody stopped smoking crack if everybody stopped doing drugs tomorrow the drug problem is
done if everybody just stopped buying drugs from dealers drug dealers would not exist like it's
it's that black and white that's really how i look at things so if all the artists band together
and create a union if all the drakes and all the kendricks and the coals and they said yo we're
only doing this you can't tell me nothing they can't i'm only doing this the whole culture changes
the artists are still in control the listeners think they're in control when they say oh nobody
want to hear that shit no you don't want to hear that because if drake starts doing only boom bat
and you're a diehard drake fan then guess what you then become a fan of boom bat yeah because
you don't have the choice actually now you think you do because you can turn off whoever and turn
on whoever but like i said if they're all doing one thing and that's the same thing with trap
everybody's doing trap so now we have it in our minds that that's the mainstream yeah but if
everybody just pivots and switches to something else then that's the new you know so the artists
are really in control that's if i could walk away today without you know was saying one thing
one heavy thing it's like artists you have the control to make whatever it is you make you might
not be the next kodak black you might not have that appeal but nobody's tombstone is going to
read he was lit yeah yeah like people's tombstone is gonna say an intelligent man a wise man a
thoughtful person but if you're not being that then you're just lit and nobody's putting that
on tombstones it's just gonna say your name and you're gonna die for nothing you know what i mean
so i don't know that's that's just how i look at it you know they try to they try to put artists
they try to pigeonhole artists and put them in a corner and try to put them in there oh you need
i got a writer i'm bringing a writer in fuck you bringing a writer in for have you not heard
my hooks on my other joints that like the reason i'm here in your studio is because you trust my
judgment the fuck are you bringing in a writer for or because you think i need you you want me to
make that kind of shit that's what it is you know what i mean so yeah that'll well the artists are
control and i heard you on phases show talking about that like if you have a music put that out
because the the listener could be connected with the artist now you know what i mean like people
are searching for stuff that sounds like your stuff if they you know even spotify has a great
way of recommending underground artists like i would have never thought but i i've been their
ai dj and it gives me somebody new that absolutely that i've never heard of behind something i was
like that's that's pretty cool yeah for sure but for sure i want to um i'm gonna start landing the
plane here soon i think this is a great great uh talk yeah got to go through some music get to know
a little bit about you yourself yeah uh where can people find you and what do you have coming up
that you want to plug um right now we're uh rolling out greedy season two um or volume two
i don't know it'll probably just be two because i got the top five volume series um so we're doing
greedy season two and then we're doing a no fun intended deluxe edition um and we're gonna have
some dope things to go with that as far as like merch and and different types of you know hard
copies and things like that um so those two i got a few more singles dropping at the top of the year
and um i don't know if you've seen but i i'm starting to roll out my diesel 991 productions
uh uh i saw that but i didn't know what that was yeah so the yellow and black yeah it's it's
pretty much just right now it's just a small production company that i'm launching um i have
a few artists that that i'm going to launch under that um and of course phase is involved in the you
know the producing and stuff like that and um my guy bud mugger he's doing some of the producing
too um but yeah i got a few i got a few artists that i'm trying to launch under that uh really
just to um plant my feet in the more administrative branch of the industry okay um because i'm just
getting to the point in my career where i want to help and i feel like i have a lot a lot of
knowledge that i could pass on yeah man um and i could say hey you don't do that try it try it this
way let let me do this for you if you like it you like it cool take it you know what i mean just
things like that um and of course it's my guy data who i'm going to be working with uh my original
group from back in the day that i that i started home entertainment i'm relaunching that and that's
all my bros that i used to rap with um yeah so it's just just things like that they're going to
be all over the greedy season two mixtapes you're going to hear from them soon and um yeah just
diesel home entertainment and greedy season two no fun intended deluxe and yeah damn man that's a
lot of shit yeah no it's got a lot going on i'm like i'm i'm very i'm in a point now where
i want to i i want to work like i said i'm i'm this good for a reason and i feel like i owe it
to the world to just keep feeding them and just giving them work like god blessed me with this
talent he didn't bless me with his talent for me to be one of those guys it's like yeah i ain't
dropping i ain't they not ready they not ready for it like that's corny like nah i really rap
like this i'm really like i'm leaving here i'm going to the lab to really rap the way i rap
you know what i mean it's not a gimmick so why not just put it all out lay all your chips on
the table yeah it's a lot it's a lot but you know it all it all land correctly yeah that's what's
up that's what's up even though like i don't post the episodes before they're ready to go like we'll
take a picture we'll take like a promo cool but i feel like until the link is ready that i could
just tap or swipe and click and see it what do i need to now it's different with music or something
like that that it's like i'm not gonna check for something that i just heard of the first time
yeah yeah but i'll go and i'll look back at episodes from february and it's like oh man
the downloads are going off somebody found it whether it was the title right or whatnot right
right right right trust me we were going to make the whole interview about Diddy we were going to
talk about AI rap like I was gonna I was gonna make it a culture podcast now but for real I think
people could definitely take from your message take from your lessons the fact of even just
becoming introspective like that's a huge level up just in life for anybody to be able to be like I
can start looking at myself i mean i only really started doing that maybe two or three years ago or
so like yeah once i put down the alcohol and it's not easy it's not easy to look yourself in the
mirror and be like you're fucking up like you dropped the ball like to tell yourself that
because we all live in this weird reality where we make excuses for like we won't tell anybody
like we're making excuses for ourselves but we make excuses for ourselves like ah nah i am tired
today i did work last night i do deserve this you know what i mean we convince ourselves into making
bad decisions and like i said if you can at least identify that you do that then you're already out
of the bubble and you can then look in and be like okay that was dumb you're an idiot for that
don't do that again and then if you do do it again you know that it's your choice it's not
like you're just it's not nothing's just happening to anybody like nine out of ten things that you do
that happen to you in life it's a direct reaction to an action you took whether it be earlier that
day earlier that week a month before it's a direct reaction to something you know what i mean
so yeah man if we could just start the journey that's half the battle right there oh yeah man
accountability is huge absolutely that's the word accountability absolutely got you man well
is there anything else you wanted to cover it's all that's it bro i mean that's it unless there
was something else you wanted to ask now now i'm trying to yeah when is uh when's the new
brodacy coming out um i don't know i told i told phase i'm ready i'm waiting on him to start
sending me beats i told him like yo it's time it's time that project is that project is special
to me um that project is special it's fire bro uh the way it came together was dope too like the
man really is a genius phase like all of the the sound bites in within the project that's all old
jodeci interviews you know what i mean so and that was that was like a collaborative idea because he
had some other crazy you know he's a maniac he has some other off the wall idea that i'm not even
gonna get into but i was like we're not doing that how about we do this and then he was like
oh okay and then that's when like that's when his gear started you know putting it all together yeah
yeah yeah but that project is dope i feel like we all were on a very high level rapping there um
and honestly it's been a minute since i've heard that many phase verses you know what i mean yeah
the fact that the fact that we could get what is it like 11 songs 12 so the fact we can get 12
phase verses is fucking bananas you know what i mean so yeah definitely a dope project but i'm
gonna shout out to phase i'm gonna help him get the website together pretty much by helping him
i mean just keep telling his ass to do it yeah you know what i mean either that or i'm gonna
buy it out from under him and hold it hostage bro he's an old man bro like he's to the point in his
life where he only does what he fully wants to do which is why i respect him so much because he's
he's that dope off the strength of just wanting to do it he's uh he's andre 3000 yeah exactly
he could put out a bass clarinet exactly album exactly and and it's gonna go somebody's gonna
to be like yo this is fucking fire you know what i mean dude i was getting ready this morning to
that it's uh it's healing energy clean your house to that andre 3000 album that's what i've heard a
little sage that's what i've heard yeah man it's uh and it's it's uh interesting the track titles
too yeah yeah no it's definitely a it's definitely a a body of work it's something i haven't tapped
into it i just haven't been in the i don't think i've been in the the mental space to tap into
but really like you gotta we gotta want to listen to that and want to calm you know be calm or
whatever don't do this don't tell yourself you're gonna sit down and listen to the whole album right
it's like 15 minute tracks you know you could throw on one track get a vibe of it and then come
back to it and it's like it's the little dancing he like paints little bits with the clarinet but
there's like one overall baseline or theme and it just kind of builds up but it's more like
like when i'm designing i'll throw it on yeah if i'm if i'm cleaning house or something that
for sure i don't need to really be listening to or paying attention to like that you know
for sure but shout out to andre 3000 go check out that new album go check out any of the things from
the catalog you got the love factory you got top five volumes one through three you got uh
what's oh i can't think of it no fun intended so we got moment in order it goes moment
moment top five volume one love factory top five volume two no bro to see somewhere in there
and then uh volume three and then no greedy season two which is a youtube exclusive i mean
season one which is youtube exclusive and then volume three and then no fun intended
and then we got greedy season two on the way so yeah i mean the back catalog is there uh don't
be afraid of the catalog guys um it's there for a reason artists put out this much music to be
listened to you know we don't put things out with an expiration date like it's there forever you
know if it wasn't there forever we'd be taking them down after they ran their course so um now
definitely tap into the to the catalog and i appreciate you for you know taking the time to
you know take those steps back and check out a moment or a love factory or a volume one or two
you know that means a lot i appreciate all of it i'll hit you up in the messenger with personal
tracks as i figure stuff out that's the thing that's always cool too to have an artist that's
accessible yeah yeah i mean that i can say here because regardless of what you're doing it for
yeah no artist that i've met doesn't want to hear oh i picked up on that little thing that you did
stuff like uh in that last track that you just played right before the beat switched up the
drums came back in and you switched your the the beginning sounds to like and obliged and like
hard sounds yeah yeah i gotta ask was that you or phase no that's so did you do that on purpose all
the drops that you hear like if i were to play you the masters and i don't mean the the the master
mixes i mean like the the original recordings of all these songs they'd be the most boring songs
in the world because the beat doesn't change yeah like like i said he sends me to four bars
and then i just pull that into logic and then just extend it and that and then i create a whole song
off of that like even joints like um even joints like uh what is it called freestyle 001 on no
fun intended like that was just what's like the the meat and potatoes of the beat that's all i
had and i just extended it and i rapped for like three minutes you know and then phase goes in and
he adds the drops what i do to assist with that is the pattern changes or the delivery changes or
you know the the ad-lib structure you know what might you know shift on on the last four bars of
the of the verse you know what i mean and it's kind of it's kind of an it's kind of like an
unspoken language that me and phase speak like i feel like i send him the vocals he lines everything
up and he hears it how i hear it in my head you know the actual song structure sometimes i might
ask him like hey send me the stems i'm gonna do some drops and then you just do the same just do
the same drops that i did and add whatever you want to add but that's mad weird i probably
happen like twice yeah you know um but no it's like a weird unspoken language that we speak
like i send him the vocals and then he sends me it back and it's like pretty much like eight out
of ten the way that i heard it in my mind so like the chemistry between me and phase is super super
dope especially being 2 000 miles away you know what i mean it's crazy like both of those projects
i recorded out here he mixed i mean i recorded out there he mixed out here so you're talking
about a 2 000 mile distance between two creatives and it still sounds like we were in there in the
studio yeah this is really dope that's super dope yeah well i'm excited to hear the dope stuff good
luck tonight i'm sure you spent some fire in the studio last night yeah yeah versus crazy so i'll
be curious to hear when it all comes together thanks for letting me in on your process i didn't
know about the not writing and stuff like that so that makes me appreciate the music even more yeah
you know thanks for coming through man absolutely this has been i will not lose podcast thank you
for listening love thank you for listening to another episode of i will not lose podcast
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