Gil Thompson: Influence of Hip Hop, Mental Health, Relationship w/ Family

Transcript

[00:00:05.520] here do you know this is your fault oh this is my wasn't satisfied with the kitchen i was like
[00:00:10.680] yo we got to promote your album it's coming up we got to get a conversation going long form
[00:00:15.880] it was perfect and then i don't know it just turned into well let me get one mic let me get
[00:00:22.720] two mics at first remember because i said i wasn't going to do guests oh yeah that's right
[00:00:26.560] yeah you wasn't gonna be down here by yourself everybody was like oh let me get on i'm still
[00:00:30.200] gonna do videos i'm still gonna do content by myself but yeah so welcome why don't you tell
[00:00:36.540] the people who you are yeah gil thompson from allentown pennsylvania lived in philly for like
[00:00:42.180] eight to ten years of my life had a lot of experience down here and came back and um started
[00:00:49.090] high school in 10th grade william allen and that's where like i really really fell in love with hip
[00:00:54.470] pop and it was like it's kind of like that classic story at the flagpole my boy john will shout out
[00:01:01.550] to john well him and him and his boy nick and i actually mentioned that on the album it's funny
[00:01:06.190] and um they were freestyling and i was just like yo i should write something he was like he's like
[00:01:12.090] bro go do that shit so i like took me like three hours to write eight bars like you mentioned a
[00:01:18.410] telephone pole you guys have met at a telephone pole yeah it was like it was right at the um the
[00:01:22.930] flagpole actually after school like they would always freestyle and i would just watch and i
[00:01:27.190] was like yo i want to write something john well was like yo do that shit so i took mad hours i
[00:01:32.410] think it took me like four or five hours to write eight bars because it was so hard i never trained
[00:01:36.330] that that part of my brain before right right and i did it and i came back and i was i spit a little
[00:01:41.150] and they responded i was like yo and johnny was like yo keep doing that shit and i was like word
[00:01:45.090] so then i got i just kept doing it then i went back you know went into the history i was like
[00:01:49.990] who can i study to get nice and then i just started studying everybody and that's how my
[00:01:54.810] whole journey started with it name some people who who would you study i mean i know but tell
[00:02:00.050] tell some of our younger listeners well the person that made me fall in love with hip-hop
[00:02:04.070] that grabbed my heart first was pop because the emotion in it but once i got into the i would say
[00:02:08.590] on the mc inside the first rapper that i ever wanted to be like was method man because i loved
[00:02:13.730] his voice and his cadence shout out to meth yes oh my god was just so much um it was so captivating
[00:02:19.130] to me and especially when him and redman did the blackout album the rock wilder that's one of my
[00:02:23.710] favorite songs you put that song on now i'm gonna go nuts it's microphone checker it's winning so
[00:02:27.970] electric like the way he does it he just sounds fire and like then i went into like a cannabis
[00:02:32.970] phase for a while the real technical lyrical oh my god yeah my style of rhyming is ancient like
[00:02:38.930] aztecs and mayas because i recognize it's all about time and me and my freestyle alliance
[00:02:42.810] practicing african voodoo science i was like yo this dude is crazy like so he had me going nuts
[00:02:48.070] and then and then i then i went into the knives the knives has been my favorite ever since once
[00:02:52.910] i started really dissecting all his shit and common i think if you could kind of blend my
[00:02:58.180] style in general because i don't sound like anybody i would say a combination of a more
[00:03:03.260] common personality but knives is kind of writing style if anything and then i blend a whole bunch
[00:03:10.620] of other shit in there but yeah knives has been my favorite because ilmatic is my favorite hip-hop
[00:03:15.320] album of all time ilmatic yeah i can of all see it's hard for me to place my top of all time
[00:03:22.260] but that makes sense that's about the the natural progression for some of our younger listeners
[00:03:27.080] i don't know if they realize how influential rap was oh my god it was a culture it was a movement
[00:03:34.200] and we had studied you know the 80s the cool g raps we had studied the the rock kims the people
[00:03:42.140] that kind of invented the culture and then as we're adapting it in the 2000s what was uh when
[00:03:47.380] when did eight mile come out was that 2001 i think that was it was 2002 yeah 2002 because
[00:03:56.340] slim shady lp was 99 marshall mather was 2000 i remember that because that was the year it was
[00:04:02.920] competing with supreme clientele but ghostface so then 2002 was m&m show and that was around the
[00:04:09.720] time he did eight mile all right so yeah 2002 and it's 20 years bro yeah that's crazy a little over
[00:04:16.300] 20 years that's crazy it's insane that's why i hear people clown eminem and stuff and they're
[00:04:21.700] like dude just the fact that he's still doing it you know what i mean it's like it's like trying
[00:04:25.220] to break down god did verse oh yeah be like oh dude just at that level alone at that age i remember
[00:04:32.360] when jay-z did the kingdom come album when he first came back after the black album when he
[00:04:37.120] his fake retirement i remember i seen an interview with um with red man that year he was and he said
[00:04:43.120] this then this is before jay-z became a billionaire red man was like man if i was making jay-z money i
[00:04:47.660] wouldn't be rapping like that are you crazy and this is red man everybody loves red man especially
[00:04:51.920] from the 90s a super stone cold legend he said that then and jay-z like kept rapping after that
[00:04:57.960] you know so i was just like red man could say that shit he got all the credibility in the world
[00:05:02.240] it shows you that jay-z just has something in him that he wants to continue to prove excellence
[00:05:07.120] I mean, shout out to Hov on that one.
[00:05:09.600] Yeah, shout out to Hov, definitely.
[00:05:11.760] Well, you got your own excellence to prove.
[00:05:13.780] We're promoting Riding the Heel dropping October 24th, right?
[00:05:18.120] Yeah, October 24th.
[00:05:19.660] What's the significance of that date?
[00:05:21.800] It's my mother's birthday.
[00:05:23.780] RIP to my mom.
[00:05:25.040] She passed away October 21st of 2019.
[00:05:30.420] So ever since then, I went through a whole bunch of internal stuff that I needed to work out.
[00:05:35.900] and writing this album definitely helped me through it.
[00:05:38.680] It's very therapeutic because I lost a lot of people in my life.
[00:05:42.300] But when I lost my mom, that shit broke me and I had to go to therapy.
[00:05:46.140] I took 12 week courses, learned, did a lot of reading, learned about how to reprogram
[00:05:50.420] my mind and my own feelings, because at the end of the day, nobody's going to pull you
[00:05:53.660] out that hole but yourself.
[00:05:55.000] You can have people that love you, that support you, can be there for you until you make the
[00:05:59.220] internal decision that I want to get out of this and do certain routines every day to
[00:06:04.260] try to pull yourself out with positive energy taking action to legitimately do things you're
[00:06:09.940] gonna stay in that hole and i was like you know what i wake up and i was like i have a wife and
[00:06:14.380] two beautiful children that need me so i can't keep falling down this hole so i started climbing
[00:06:19.220] out not to paraphrase one of my song titles and now but i had to had to literally climb out that
[00:06:24.660] shit and it took me a while but through the process i was writing and i was like you know
[00:06:28.540] what let me get these emotions out because i need to and this album helped me a lot with that lets
[00:06:32.540] me put stuff in perspective once it was down on wax so yeah can't wait for everybody here and the
[00:06:38.680] 24th is her birthday so shout out to mommy oh man she's she's loving this she's loving this
[00:06:45.720] no that's great i did get a chance to get a sneak that's funny so we put together the album cover
[00:06:52.020] which you're seeing here that's going to be released so this podcast will probably come out
[00:06:56.380] either a week before or right around the same time as the release date it'd be great if i can get
[00:07:00.760] everything edited and put out right beforehand so this is a promo piece for people to so at the
[00:07:05.920] time of listening this it'll either be out now or out in a couple of days so we'll make that
[00:07:11.100] available so why don't you go into i think you touch on some good things hearing the album this
[00:07:17.280] seems to be more of a story of growth and healing there's a big difference in the first half of the
[00:07:23.260] album versus the second half of the album oh yeah definitely this shit starts off like confused
[00:07:28.660] angry i mean just the first the intro is called circles of insanity you know i mean so it's kind
[00:07:34.840] of like just the chaos is going on in my mind and how like i'm i'm trying to wrestle through the
[00:07:40.040] idea of instead of staying in that zone i gotta do something to get it out of my head you know
[00:07:46.060] which kind of goes into track two break your face which is literally just like anger and how i deal
[00:07:52.060] with people um because you know when you come from the hood and hood mentality and you get older
[00:07:56.640] you try not to be so reactive you try to um take in the situation and think about it before you
[00:08:02.480] execute your emotions but when you're young you got that that energy and you just react sometimes
[00:08:07.760] so it's kind of me battling the fact of all right i'm older now so i can't just be aggressive every
[00:08:13.860] two seconds i got kids to raise i got responsible shit i have to do you know so it's just kind of
[00:08:19.560] like me wrestling with those emotions like yo just let me in my own space you do you i'll do
[00:08:25.320] me but if you push me there i could take it somewhere and that's that's why at the end of
[00:08:30.240] that track when i'm like you know what i need to vent it and write down sink my teeth into a herd
[00:08:35.240] of mcs and bite down the cypher yeah heard of mcs and bite down that was the last track that was the
[00:08:41.180] last line literally the last line so then i go into the next track where i'm just barring dudes
[00:08:45.940] up and bevel boy so it's kind of like a process of like circles of insanity everything's going
[00:08:51.480] crazy yo i need to get this out and then i'm venting literally my anger and personal conversations
[00:08:57.000] with people and and then you know what let me let me let me vent it through hip-hop and then i go
[00:09:02.220] into my cypher stuff and i'm sending mcs you know i mean so it's a process of me letting out this
[00:09:07.200] anger becoming more self-aware and just kind of being honest with myself and taking accountability
[00:09:13.060] accountability track five right yeah for my own my own personal like um my my place in all this
[00:09:20.740] Like, I know the world might have done stuff to me, but how did I react to it?
[00:09:26.280] Was it in the most positive way?
[00:09:27.860] Was it in the most helpful way?
[00:09:29.500] Was it that I come from a place of love?
[00:09:32.340] Like a mantra that me and my wife use every day now is bathe in gratitude and lead with love.
[00:09:38.620] And I repeat that.
[00:09:40.140] Yeah, gratitude, yeah.
[00:09:40.560] Yeah, we do that every day.
[00:09:41.540] So I try to do that.
[00:09:43.260] You know, this situation pissed me off.
[00:09:45.180] How can I lead with love through it?
[00:09:46.880] And if you approach everything in life like that, you're going to go towards a more positive answer.
[00:09:52.080] And that's what I try to do.
[00:09:53.000] Even when I'm angry, I try to ask myself that.
[00:09:55.020] How can I lead with love in this conversation?
[00:09:57.140] And how can I bathe in gratitude at the things that I do have, even if I don't have everything I want?
[00:10:01.620] So it's just a constant process of like wash, rinse, repeat of getting better and putting my mind in a better state.
[00:10:10.040] Cause I want to reach that, that, that mental level of gamma that monks are at that where they just be at peace all day.
[00:10:17.340] Like those are the, those are my heroes.
[00:10:19.780] Like I want to be where they at doing like crazy stuff all day where they're just like, they're eating ice cream.
[00:10:25.580] It doesn't matter what's going on.
[00:10:27.580] It just, they don't even have to smile about it.
[00:10:29.980] There's anarchy everywhere, but there's this like perfect Zen in their brains.
[00:10:33.980] It's, it's crazy.
[00:10:35.180] It's amazing.
[00:10:36.160] Well, no, I think that's great to be able to flip the perspective.
[00:10:38.800] like you said lead with love uh that was part of the reason you know that it was a hard decision
[00:10:45.740] not to make this a hip-hop podcast i was gonna have the i will not lose the jay-z cleared it
[00:10:52.120] was gonna drop the beat everything everything but then i thought you know what it's really
[00:10:56.540] just a matter of the the i will not lose the stories of successes learn from failures so
[00:11:03.420] flipping it not necessarily musk landing the spaceship on mars but what comes before when
[00:11:10.100] he failed in paypal what led him to become the person that now he can land a spaceship on mars
[00:11:16.480] does that make sense and it's really just the opportunity to find the success in everything
[00:11:23.860] that you may look at as a failure yeah it's um yeah it's always a process and the thing people
[00:11:30.460] have to be comfortable with and recognizing that it's okay to be a work in progress many people
[00:11:35.840] think well i've done all this stuff and i became aware i'm not naive to certain information anymore
[00:11:41.220] so i should just know better and do better which is true but you got to take an accountability that
[00:11:46.300] you're still a human being you're not going to be 100 all the time even after you know positive
[00:11:50.800] information why it's because we have a lot of habits that you did for years think about
[00:11:55.300] if you were like uh just a prick for like 20 years and then you met a really nice person that
[00:12:00.900] touched your soul and made you really want to be better you're so used to being a prick that
[00:12:05.580] it's gonna take you a while to get out of those habits it just is like all that stuff your daily
[00:12:10.620] habits and all and i explain this to everybody is you know whenever you drive somewhere every day
[00:12:15.540] and sometimes during your drive your commute whether it's to work or a friend's house like
[00:12:20.540] you might lose time for like five to ten minutes but you're like wow i don't even remember driving
[00:12:24.560] here but your body still did that's all in your cerebellum like that's where all your habits are
[00:12:29.200] so you're like well how can i retrain my cerebellum to become more actively aware and present in the
[00:12:35.780] moment and that's what your cortex is you got to be in you got to do habits that get you in the
[00:12:41.180] zone so that when you are relaxed and when you are on autopilot your autopilot is doing positive
[00:12:46.120] shit and that's going to change your whole physical reality things of that nature so that's
[00:12:52.040] why i would just do stuff when i wake up in the morning i wake up like i don't have to be to work
[00:12:56.260] till well 6 45 a.m now i'm waking up at like 3 45 because i'm not a morning person but i know that
[00:13:04.120] about myself so i'm not gonna wake up at 5 15 oh man you know i wake up at 3 45 i get up i do my
[00:13:11.020] my 4 7 8 breathing i say daily mantras of myself you know i mean i read my positive affirmations
[00:13:18.360] i get myself right i get my coffee my water i sit there and just i'm present before i even get on my
[00:13:25.680] phone i don't get on my phone for like almost an hour or whatever yeah that's been a big one i need
[00:13:29.920] to be at peace because i deal with so many different energies at work and then when you come
[00:13:34.960] home i'm i'm a husband and a father my kids want to tell me about their day my wife wants to vent
[00:13:40.420] to me or tell me about her day and i need to be present for those things especially people you
[00:13:44.400] love so i gotta put myself in a mental space where i can handle all those energies and you
[00:13:48.660] gotta be honest with yourself if you are more of an introvert person you gotta know that all right
[00:13:53.320] there's a but so much energy i could take within the course of a day so i need to set myself up
[00:13:58.560] for success i can't just all right i know i'm an introvert but i'm putting myself around people
[00:14:03.160] every two seconds you gotta you gotta like work yourself towards that and i think the the biggest
[00:14:08.660] thing people need to do is be honest with themselves and know how to kind of work into that
[00:14:12.560] You know what I mean?
[00:14:14.430] That makes sense, man.
[00:14:15.750] Dropping some wisdom.
[00:14:18.090] You remind me, I just finished a book this year called The Upward Spiral.
[00:14:21.810] Are you familiar with it?
[00:14:22.970] I've heard of it, but I haven't read it.
[00:14:25.370] I wish I knew the author.
[00:14:26.810] It was one of those ones that I flew through, but it talks about the different patterns that you can get that lead you further and further towards depression.
[00:14:35.690] And The Upward Spiral is just little things like taking a walk.
[00:14:38.710] Not only did you get a little bit of exercise, but if it's a sunny day, you got some sun.
[00:14:42.650] you got some vitamin d it's just different things to wire and you use the analogy about driving one
[00:14:48.770] of the things they mentioned is you ever notice how like you realize every light that you don't
[00:14:53.770] make you don't realize that you just pass four green lights you just realize that one red light
[00:14:58.450] yeah your brain actually gets into a pattern of recognizing the negative things and the further
[00:15:03.050] you get towards depression you start to remember bad things so i'm to the point now if i find
[00:15:09.470] myself aware of just thinking about like i'll think about an argument from 13 years ago it
[00:15:14.130] wasn't even a serious argument it's just all of a sudden i'll be like wait a second so maybe my
[00:15:19.550] brain's trying to tell me something maybe i need to to do this oh man it was like the level of
[00:15:24.030] petty is still there that's crazy i wish one could come to my mind but i honestly i just throw it out
[00:15:30.350] it doesn't do any benefit there but it lets me realize and recognize this has helped too
[00:15:35.210] you got a smart watch yeah well uh well not yeah i got me a fit bib because i track my steps or
[00:15:41.280] whatever yeah there you go yeah this is a big one oh my god yeah i probably get like 15 000 a day
[00:15:46.980] 15 000 yeah you work on your feet yeah i'm on my feet all day i'll get just 12 at work and i'll
[00:15:53.540] come home like if i work out or if it's a workout day then i'll probably end closer to 20 maybe
[00:15:59.540] i don't even think i get 15 000 i've got 16 000 once but i was dealing with a lot of anxiety i
[00:16:05.260] use this to track if my pace is too fast i'll know from my data before i'll know from my actual
[00:16:11.620] oh the way you're feeling yeah i won't know like am i over caffeinated am i anxious i won't know
[00:16:17.260] that right away i'll have to look oh you hit your daily step limit by like 11 a.m but maybe
[00:16:22.860] that's crazy yo i remember the one day i was in steps 12 p.m like damn no even when i run my steps
[00:16:32.020] don't go that crazy like when i was running three miles a day i think i was only averaging like
[00:16:36.820] nine or ten thousand steps a day really i would get most of well i mean i'm at an office most
[00:16:42.080] the other oh yeah that's true that's true my uh watch tells me to get up and go walk it'll tell
[00:16:47.460] me to do upward stretches or something watch it's gonna go off during the podcast i'll be like wait
[00:16:52.460] uh-oh but uh no man so that's crazy so hip-hop is a a crazy force and it's amazing how it comes
[00:17:01.160] full circle to allow you to i mean if you think about a lot of rappers talk about the self-expression
[00:17:06.140] that hip-hop allows you to have they're like look it didn't teach me and don't get me wrong man there
[00:17:11.420] was some people who were like you know they heard that pop verse and they got a different message
[00:17:15.120] they were like i gotta pick up a 38 and we gotta roll and ride on these enemies right now like
[00:17:19.480] it didn't influence i'm not gonna get out here and say hip-hop did everything but focusing on
[00:17:24.000] the good parts of it i mean it's uh i wish i could quote the line you know classified canadian
[00:17:30.380] rapper oh yeah he produces too something like that he puts out a ton of work but uh he had
[00:17:36.320] said something about that it never made me want to pick up a gun it made me not ashamed of who i was
[00:17:40.680] or something like that like yeah he's nice i haven't heard some of his stuff in a while but
[00:17:44.320] yeah i remember bumping some of this shit at least like five seven years ago i had an album
[00:17:49.460] is i wish i could remember the name of it but it was fire i can't remember the name but he's dope
[00:17:53.140] yeah a couple of his he's dope it's just crazy yeah hip-hop is just it's an incredible thing
[00:17:59.920] because like i used to be one of those more um jaded guys that you know you grew up in a certain
[00:18:05.980] sound and you like it to be that way but then once you start living and getting out into the world
[00:18:12.450] and you see how different bops and vibes influence people and energy surrounded makes you appreciate
[00:18:18.630] it more if you're in your house all day and you like if you like i don't like club songs but you
[00:18:23.530] don't never go out then you can't appreciate it if you go to a club and you see certain energy
[00:18:28.410] and you see people enjoying themselves having a really good time and it's great energy and they
[00:18:32.710] mouthing all the words i'm like yo like this is different yo it is and it makes you appreciate it
[00:18:38.370] oh yeah same thing like i remember like like when the meek intro came out i was just like yo this
[00:18:43.890] is dope but once i seen i was in a setting and you see like 50 people mouthing it word for word
[00:18:50.510] you're like this is something different to the point when the eagles won a championship they
[00:18:55.010] walked they ran out to that shit i was all this shit is different you know i mean so that sometimes
[00:18:59.570] you got to be out in the world to experience it somebody could tell you all you want but if you
[00:19:03.770] don't feel it then it's like that that's why i suggest before you criticize certain styles of
[00:19:09.630] music go exist in that energy yeah of where it's at its peak at and then come talk to me because
[00:19:16.130] i'm like wow it feels a lot different it makes you appreciate different styles of music a lot
[00:19:20.850] better once i did that i stopped being as jaded yeah and then i get out of philly for a little
[00:19:25.270] bit i was like yo let me chill y'all i'm bugging right now what about out west you ever been out
[00:19:28.850] west no i love that music man kendrick lamar j-rock they've been rocking the last couple years
[00:19:35.710] oh yeah i love i love anything that sounds like that just with that west coast bop they they west
[00:19:41.330] coast did a great job of instrumentally sounding the same even even nipsey nipsey got that west
[00:19:48.070] coast vibe and you hear it and you're just like that's a west coast beat you know yeah yeah kendrick
[00:19:53.450] kendrick he's probably my favorite of this new generation and like of the leaders you know it's
[00:19:58.190] always between like drake j cole and kendrick like i like they're all doing their thing but
[00:20:02.610] kendrick lamar and i think it's with me personally why i probably love him the most because i'm a
[00:20:10.030] person that if you do something that i think is like extremely hard to do that other people can't
[00:20:16.050] do i admire it so much i'm like wow like how did you do that where most people don't give a shit
[00:20:20.770] about that and that that's fine but me personally like when he did like to pimp a butterfly the way
[00:20:25.590] he put together good kid mad city like those are very complex yesterday highly detailed albums if
[00:20:31.130] you listen to that shit in headphones and you all the sounds and shit going through i like yo this
[00:20:36.730] shit took a long time to put together like this is a masterful that switch up in good kid mad city
[00:20:42.390] this is crazy bro and when i got that i was like yo this generation ain't doing shit like that
[00:20:48.190] they get a beat and they rap over it and if they killed it they killed it oh this beats dope these
[00:20:52.670] bars is dope kendrick could have the the track one flowing into track 15 and track two connected
[00:20:59.610] to this i was like this dude is different bro so that's the only reason why i appreciate him
[00:21:04.690] because i know in order to do what he's doing you really got to put a lot of thought into it it's
[00:21:08.990] not just i walked into the studio and spit a hot verse and that's why i could i appreciate him more
[00:21:13.430] like out of this generation of rappers but he got so many features i just heard him on classic man
[00:21:19.550] that jay denna john uh oh yeah i heard him on that i heard him on he was back on like
[00:21:25.750] with asap rocky and drake yeah on fucking problems you know what i mean like he's just
[00:21:32.090] he was on uh then i walked into wawa i get a sandwich and i hear taylor swift bad blood and
[00:21:37.250] And I was like, that's right.
[00:21:38.070] He was on a remix of that.
[00:21:39.730] That's funny.
[00:21:40.270] Yeah, I was just talking to my daughter about this.
[00:21:41.930] She was like, wait, Kendrick was on the track with Taylor.
[00:21:45.050] So I was like, yeah, it was a while ago, though.
[00:21:46.450] That's funny that she brought it up.
[00:21:47.430] I was literally just talking about that yesterday with my daughter.
[00:21:50.190] That's funny.
[00:21:50.730] For as little as he drops, he stays relevant in every conversation.
[00:21:54.370] Yeah, even the album he dropped this year on Mr. Moran and the Big Steppers.
[00:21:57.330] That was very deep and detailed.
[00:22:00.110] And the story he told about his own healing and therapy and stuff like that.
[00:22:04.510] I really enjoyed that story.
[00:22:05.990] i haven't given a deep dive yet i was like wow and yo the track mother i sober bro it's like
[00:22:11.550] towards the end it's like right for the last right that is one of the deepest songs i heard
[00:22:16.030] in the last five years to talk about the stuff that directly relates to the black community
[00:22:20.910] and stuff with molestation and stuff the diving in and how i went into his family and people don't
[00:22:26.150] talk about that people having sex with their family members i was like that's crazy niggas
[00:22:31.450] don't talk about that shit yo they they like in the fact that he went there and talked about
[00:22:35.950] like i was like wow bro and sounded so vulnerable that song touched me yo i was like wow like he's
[00:22:42.170] different so you could do a turn up song all you want you do a 50 million but that song is better
[00:22:46.790] than like 50 turn up songs yeah oh yeah because that shit's gonna be around forever people don't
[00:22:51.010] get that vulnerable music he leaves in the room on it for an album he's able to carry that buzz
[00:22:56.710] that they want him to drop something else he'll get the features if he had you got to think about
[00:23:01.930] it back in the day you dropped 12 tracks if you didn't have three bangers to run it until your
[00:23:07.450] next album you had to they had it all planned out you were in the club and then you had
[00:23:12.230] dude albums followed the same format that's one thing that i love about newer hip-hop it's not
[00:23:16.990] that same okay we got three skits it's gonna be verse chorus verse no we're gonna have the
[00:23:22.370] Yeah. No, for real. You always had to have like a, and then to the point,
[00:23:29.390] if you listen to jazz last albums, it was just hit after hit after hit.
[00:23:33.110] It was like,
[00:23:33.890] we had thrown his album on at the party and play it front to back.
[00:23:36.730] Yo, I can't remember the last time I listened to Ja Rule album.
[00:23:39.710] That shit is great. He didn't do good at the verses though.
[00:23:42.010] What was it against Fat Joe? I think it was.
[00:23:44.370] Ja Rule and Fat, was it Fat Joe?
[00:23:46.450] I think it was. I think it was Fat Joe. They did a verses.
[00:23:48.970] I think it was like last year or so.
[00:23:50.230] Excuse me a second.
[00:23:50.870] yeah i i didn't get to watch it but everybody was saying ja rule did really good and it made
[00:23:56.710] him realize how many hits he had back in the day he was like you know what ja was my dude yo i heard
[00:24:01.270] a lot of people saying that see what it is is it was our dude in middle school it was we were a
[00:24:06.110] little bit i'm 35 you're what 39 39 yeah yeah so you were you were in what high school when ja was
[00:24:14.500] out yeah like when i just yeah i just graduated i'm not talking about like ashanti and ja rule
[00:24:20.640] I'm talking about when he was putting out like Yellin' Murder all the time.
[00:24:24.220] Oh, like Holla, Holla.
[00:24:25.500] Yeah, that was the Vinny Vinny Vinci album.
[00:24:27.680] Yeah.
[00:24:28.000] Yeah, Vinny Vinny Vinci.
[00:24:28.440] That was like 99, I think.
[00:24:30.120] I want to say I was in eighth grade when that came out.
[00:24:32.960] Yeah, that's crazy.
[00:24:34.260] Yeah, I remember that.
[00:24:36.070] That's when he was getting a lot of DMX comparisons, so he had to switch it up.
[00:24:40.050] I was just going to say that.
[00:24:41.770] DMX, that reminds me, he was preying on the album and stuff, just that whole.
[00:24:45.630] Then he switched it up and came back with, every little thing that we do.
[00:24:48.650] and it was like yo and then he had his own shit and then he just he did his hits or whatever that's
[00:24:53.890] funny jaw rule dude i was at his concert this year that was a great that was a great time oh
[00:25:00.030] it was good great i i was i was scared about that i was like damn is he gonna go out there
[00:25:05.010] embarrasses because you never know no shanti shanti carried it but no he had he had energy
[00:25:10.590] the whole time oh the whole time oh he did oh that's what's up john did his thing yep then
[00:25:17.190] them was like all right we gonna do it how we really gonna do it take his shirt off and stuff
[00:25:20.990] like that show his wing tattoos and stuff i was like all right that's right i gotta remember
[00:25:25.010] it's like if i go to a drake concert oh yeah he's not there for the dudes yeah facts facts
[00:25:30.070] it's john didn't make music for dudes after for the last 20 22 years yeah he's just been making
[00:25:35.930] hits for the for the woman the ladies it's all good though he made his money yeah i ain't mad
[00:25:40.730] at you he made his money that's crazy it's wild to get somebody but that's why you got to go with
[00:25:46.620] the like the fact that he's still doing music uh this generation knows him for fire festival
[00:25:52.240] did you know that oh yeah that shit that one left yeah i heard about that that's crazy i didn't dive
[00:25:58.820] into it i didn't dive into it but i was just like because i don't really i don't really be following
[00:26:02.620] like stuff john ruby doing like that anymore but if anything the the people that i probably
[00:26:09.020] listen to the most that would be of the private like griselda with like conway like conway benny
[00:26:15.160] and west side gun like i love them or like even trust with like 38 special ransom and shade noir
[00:26:21.220] like i i listen a lot of that underground 38 special i don't know you're gonna have to send
[00:26:25.380] me some links yeah he's he's dope he's a they're all dope just like bars shit that we came up on
[00:26:31.060] more grimy instrumentals things of that nature you know i mean but yeah that's that's who i'll
[00:26:36.580] be listening to matter of fact on my way here i was listening to tana talk for shout out to
[00:26:40.140] benny the butcher oh man i was listening to tainter talk for i was like yo he's on that that
[00:26:45.180] that conway feature on the new danger on the new danger mouse what's the one with con i think it's
[00:26:50.620] called saltwater oh yeah towards the end of the album i know what you're talking about the cheat
[00:26:55.320] codes out yeah yo black thought spazzed on that album something wrong with him man i don't think
[00:27:02.240] he's human he has to be alien or something like how do you just you just keep getting better like
[00:27:07.020] Dude, if you just came out and was like, he was like Asperger's or somewhere on the spectrum where just like language like that was his gift.
[00:27:13.320] Yeah, he's just I don't know.
[00:27:14.880] He's just different.
[00:27:16.040] It don't matter what area he just kill shit.
[00:27:18.600] Like I still every once in a while, I just go back and watch that 10 minute flex freestyle.
[00:27:22.940] And I'm just like, yo, I think you did it like it was like two or three years ago now when he did that.
[00:27:26.820] And he just spit for 10 minutes straight.
[00:27:28.760] Like, I don't know if I could reference that.
[00:27:30.500] No breaks his own flex.
[00:27:32.020] Look up the the Black Thought Flex Freestyle.
[00:27:34.960] I think it was in the last three years.
[00:27:36.140] word that shit is crazy 10 minutes straight just boom boom i was like bro you did that on the
[00:27:42.970] tipping point album that was what i really got in the black thought was the web and then uh boom i
[00:27:48.410] think it went from web was like number six and boom was number seven black thought is different
[00:27:52.750] that's why and that that's the only i'm gonna be honest that's the only thing about me that's still
[00:27:58.090] a little bit jaded about my time when people talk to me about new rappers i'll be like yo go listen
[00:28:02.690] to this black thought freestyle that he just did two years ago this dude been out since the night
[00:28:06.370] tell me if anybody you like is messing with him and i'm pretty sure the answer is gonna be no
[00:28:10.830] you know so i'm like and that's why i was like that's the only time i'm jaded like
[00:28:14.550] when it comes to just a skill level if you're saying well i like this person's music better
[00:28:19.750] because i like turn up stuff or i like a different vibe i'm cool with that because you know you can
[00:28:24.170] like any vibe you want but when you talk about lyricism that's specific you're talking about
[00:28:28.670] bars cadence flow punch lines you know you're talking about something very specific then you
[00:28:35.090] start getting to like black thought maybe a lupe fiasco territory where these dudes are just
[00:28:39.310] advanced they're mine or if you want to go into more freestyle look up king loaves look up any
[00:28:43.970] any freestyle king loaves does he's probably the best freestylist i've ever heard like this dude
[00:28:49.210] is incredible i think i seriously believe that if you scanned his brain there's probably a chip in
[00:28:54.450] there you know there's somewhere there has to be a chip because i don't understand how he can
[00:28:59.410] freestyle like that fluidly and that complex on the spot i've i'm like that's what i'm wondering
[00:29:05.010] i gotta wonder how much of is it now what i did do i didn't write for two years back in my journey
[00:29:10.550] when i rapped when i got to college i stopped writing and i only exercised the freestyle
[00:29:15.610] and it is a muscle it's something different you got you got the studio you got performance and
[00:29:20.950] you got freestyling and you can only choose two of those i'm serious serious even even drake come
[00:29:27.310] on you never heard drake coming off the top with stuff he puts out like produced tracks and
[00:29:33.510] allegedly as a ghostwriter i don't know i i mess with drake but it's it's not cared about as much
[00:29:41.870] as it used to be i mean even if you talk about you talk to some local rappers in this area they're on
[00:29:46.810] um you know you're kind of allowed to steal you don't have to sound like yourself and that's what's
[00:29:53.530] so funny i go and i play stuff i play uh tracks that i recorded 10 years ago nobody was trying
[00:29:59.290] to hear the way i was rapping 10 years ago but there's a market for it now it's so funny my son
[00:30:04.330] i stopped rapping for my son so i could be there for him and he's like man you should never stop
[00:30:09.850] rap it man it's like well damned if you do damned if you don't right yeah no it's it's it's crazy
[00:30:17.670] though just with the whole um just the that's the bar concept of like mcs and stuff i i just see it
[00:30:26.160] through do a different lens like you can like any type of music you want only time i personally
[00:30:31.100] um challenge people is i want them to be specific in what you like you know i mean like be specific
[00:30:37.520] and articulate in what you actually mean because somebody could say something like say if you sell
[00:30:44.060] drugs heavy on the street and somebody like yeah i sold a pack i got the ratchet i got bitches with
[00:30:50.580] me and they could say it in the most simple format but they said something that you do every day
[00:30:55.220] right people like yo this dude is nasty and it'll be like he's he's nastier than black thought i'm
[00:31:00.360] like no you're using the wrong terminology you relate to that more say the word relate don't
[00:31:06.440] say he's nice because if we look if somebody goes the door that fell on the floor right and you're
[00:31:13.960] like okay that's a simple rhyme scheme by definition you look it up it's a simple rhyme
[00:31:18.240] scheme and then if you hear somebody going to go drastic flow have it mastered the rap shit
[00:31:22.280] with graphical taxes and you start hearing words connect that is by definition a more complex rhyme
[00:31:27.440] scheme so you can't say that takes more skill than that you just can't like so you got to say
[00:31:33.400] i relate to this style more and that's why i love it i'm cool with that but don't say it's nicer
[00:31:39.140] than black thought just say you can't relate to that it's almost it's almost like you gotta
[00:31:42.880] separate it you got the cannabis flow like i got i got my i went through and organized my spotify
[00:31:48.400] playlist yeah the other weekend and i got hip-hop rap lyrical jedi mind tricks all that boom bap is
[00:31:57.770] just its own stuff shout out to king magnetic i was listening to him this morning as well too
[00:32:02.110] but when I'm in a vibe like when I do that especially when I'm cleaning and stuff like
[00:32:06.490] if I'm if I'm going I'm setting stuff up and I have to play music for the house I can't always
[00:32:11.010] they don't want to hear Griselda all the time that's true when I'm in the shower and stuff
[00:32:14.830] it's I'm going to play something that might be a little melodic because I know people can hear it
[00:32:18.710] and that's when I have my headphones on and I'm going nuts and stuff sometimes I just want to
[00:32:22.170] hear I've been on a Vinny Paz kick lately oh wow Vinny Paz I know they're gonna somebody in the
[00:32:27.550] comments is going to be like how do you shout out king man again vanny paz watch but it's all good
[00:32:32.430] um yeah and he's he's definitely a legend for sure that's a philly bull too but they got a lot
[00:32:39.330] of younger dudes too like i like esoteric uh apathy was on a track with some dude man there
[00:32:45.910] was i forget there was two white rappers i was listening to lately one of them is one in tech
[00:32:51.890] nine strange music uh jerry robinson shout out to jerry robinson i'm not sure if i heard i think
[00:32:57.530] then when i think oh what's his name is it riz ritz ritz or something like that i remember
[00:33:04.610] hearing he was pretty nice music yeah he he raps like fast he raps a little more like he was pretty
[00:33:09.050] dope i haven't ever heard i do i do like tech nine tech nine is a legend i just can't always
[00:33:14.830] vibe with his in particular because some of his shit is just out there too much for me just my
[00:33:19.430] personal taste but i think skill wise he's up like he's i mean you can't listen to him and not
[00:33:25.370] be like this dude's not incredible no he drops the incredible stuff and he drops carobaloo
[00:33:30.150] like i think i think let's talk about tech for a second the interesting part about his career
[00:33:35.550] is he started with a failed album that they tried to market to black people when he had orange hair
[00:33:41.990] and he was like he's like they're not relating with this you know what i mean like i'm in a
[00:33:46.630] jumpsuit with orange spiky hair and twisties and stuff so he bought his album back i think that
[00:33:51.170] was angelic and or re-released it i don't know what the exact that's one on the cover when he's
[00:33:56.670] look crazy and the dreads are going everywhere i think he's got the orange hair in it yeah and
[00:34:00.250] he's like his hair's going crazy i think yeah that was the one that got him out there but he
[00:34:03.750] dropped that independently and sold like a million copies yeah he's his hustle is crazy all his
[00:34:09.190] masters got like 30 albums i think something crazy like that probably more plus more than that more
[00:34:15.330] artists than that yeah he's cess crew got multiple albums out ritz got multiple albums out jerry
[00:34:21.510] robinson i don't know how many he's got i don't know if he's newer if i'm just late but uh is i
[00:34:27.430] think daylight well daylight's the song he got with tech on it but i don't remember what the
[00:34:32.250] name of the actual album is we don't got a jamie here ladies and gentlemen we don't got somebody
[00:34:36.950] getting uh paid to just google stuff and pull it up everything that you see up here is done in post
[00:34:42.470] so it's like i'd love to get there but right now i'm worried about the recording dropping out if i
[00:34:48.890] start surfing the internet you know for real that should be done oh yeah he's yeah tech he's probably
[00:34:55.590] i don't know this factual but he has to be like a top three most successful independent
[00:35:01.090] like mc that i've ever seen yeah i think joiner lucas just passed him out
[00:35:06.790] joiner independent wise insane i don't know if it's more than tech because tech been doing it
[00:35:12.950] for a longer time but it depends on what rating you're going for yeah he's been doing it for a
[00:35:17.050] longer time but i mean in terms of the month because i think the streaming sales tech had a
[00:35:22.090] whole like i seen this um because you know for a while he might still be doing it tech was dropping
[00:35:27.270] like documentaries with each album he was doing i know he had one with six um all sixes and sevens
[00:35:33.130] and something else and then um i don't know about the documentary special effects he was he was
[00:35:38.270] dropping like documentaries when we were showing how like he created the albums he did that for
[00:35:42.150] like three or four albums in a row i don't know if he's still doing it but um yeah i would go in
[00:35:46.910] there and they would show he has a whole fucking building that's a warehouse where they make all
[00:35:51.490] strange music product like oh his merch isn't yeah he was walking through the whole warehouse
[00:35:56.350] i don't think jordan lucas got that you know i mean no no no i just think the metrics i think
[00:36:01.030] the metrics are different or honestly it might have just been a verse where he said i'm the
[00:36:04.750] number one independent artist in the world like i'm not citing my sources here i'm going uh but
[00:36:10.310] i mean in terms of i don't know if it goes by how much you tour or what goes with what because
[00:36:15.690] strange was strange tech tours and sells out and stuff like that but it's not like madison's did
[00:36:22.820] he sell out the garden i don't think he does things on i'm not sure well let's kind of gear
[00:36:28.180] away from that thing because i don't want to be dropping facts that i don't know but the
[00:36:31.300] interesting thing was he put that uh the acronym was b-i-t-c-h bitch breaking into colored houses
[00:36:37.600] and he's like i'll be the first rapper to break into black folk i think that's the one with t
[00:36:43.200] pain on it it has t pain on it and he did t pain on all sixes and sevens he had features with little
[00:36:49.020] wayne he had a couple people like big names that he bankrolled for them to be on i was like oh he's
[00:36:54.960] trying to break into the mainstream yeah yeah like he's doing his thing it's hard because if
[00:37:00.480] you it's like trying to tell somebody to watch marvel now that didn't know nothing about the
[00:37:06.460] comics didn't know nothing they're just seeing like miss marvel or like whatever the new stuff
[00:37:11.760] they got coming out uh you can't you can't do it it's like watching endgame that's why i tell
[00:37:17.740] people what god did it's like watching endgame without watching any of the avengers if you don't
[00:37:22.780] know jay-z's whole career like there's even oh damn my bad it's all good i got i got alarms going
[00:37:28.380] off and shit how are you on time you gotta get out of here no no i'm good i just have like because
[00:37:33.940] you know when you be getting old and stuff you just be forgetting everything yeah there you go
[00:37:38.040] so i have stuff to remind me by this time you know i mean do this well that reminds me i did
[00:37:45.470] forget to put airplane mode on so hopefully nobody gets uh nobody gives a call or whatever but
[00:37:50.410] we'll start the audio version i'm excited about this man i'm glad you could come over this
[00:37:55.990] literally this is for you this was this was something i mean it's grown into something
[00:38:01.110] that could be for other people but i wanted to see you to be able to have a an outlet and i just
[00:38:06.390] think this album is so important you know i've been doing your albums for a while and they're
[00:38:11.410] always at a different point in the life yeah but this very much says it's not like you're at the
[00:38:18.010] end of the road it's just that you're finally aware of the journey now yeah that's a good way
[00:38:23.430] of putting it yeah that is true you know you're not in anywhere zen buddha or whatever but you're
[00:38:28.370] able to do there's a i'm gonna recommend a book for you you know uh robert green i've heard the
[00:38:34.950] name yeah i've heard of that but i've got another one called mastery you never read 48 laws of power
[00:38:40.570] no i got it in my office i'm gonna let you hold it gotcha will you will you at least page through
[00:38:44.970] you can't read it front to back it's a fucking encyclopedia oh it's like 48 laws of power he
[00:38:50.110] goes through each of the he gives a law of power and then he goes through an example of that law
[00:38:56.150] like how somebody in history followed it then he goes through the reversal like how somebody
[00:39:00.710] reversed it so like it's real cool like one of the laws of power is always appear dumber than
[00:39:06.370] your mark so he tells a story about how these guys conned a bunch of rich people into they
[00:39:12.310] literally just paid for raw gems and laid them in a mine and they're like oh we don't know we
[00:39:16.910] think we found something you guys want to get some excavators and they were like yo we're gonna take
[00:39:21.130] advantage and we're gonna sell it he's like i don't know name your price he they once they
[00:39:25.290] tricked the experts once they had the experts like oh yeah these guys are don't know what they're
[00:39:30.750] sitting on yeah then it was over yeah they they made like a ridiculous amount so then it'll also
[00:39:37.830] go and it'll tell you what is the reversal to always appear dumber than your mark like uh
[00:39:42.550] pickpockets will put up signs that say uh beware of pickpockets and they'll watch people watch that
[00:39:48.790] sign and reach for where their wallet is so it's like yeah i got you it's just all sorts of cool
[00:39:56.330] stuff like that but it's it's made to be referenced it's all sorts of different things you can learn
[00:40:00.670] from but he's got another one another encyclopedia called mastery you'd be really into it it's about
[00:40:07.350] how we learn things and how we at first we like we think we know it all and then as we get better
[00:40:13.670] we start to realize the mistakes we're making then we get so good that we don't have to think
[00:40:18.370] and our brain kind of automatically corrects those mistakes when we're when we're sleeping
[00:40:22.550] it goes through the whole thing and like ties it into the human existence how we learn through our
[00:40:27.510] life is ridiculous that's great well yeah it's true like you're always uncovering new stuff
[00:40:32.450] about you i i had just um i think i yeah posted yesterday because i was talking to my boy at work
[00:40:38.030] and he was talking telling me about his whole um journey with like math and like random conversation
[00:40:44.610] how like he had issues with math growing up and i and i was thinking to myself i was like you know
[00:40:49.370] what i did too i never really like i stopped liking math and then when i was thinking about
[00:40:53.270] it i was like you know what but i did i did pretty good in math up until ninth grade my um algebra
[00:40:59.290] algebra one i did really good and that's when i was still in philly in ninth grade in bartram
[00:41:03.730] and i remember i had on mr richmond he was super dude like like thick and chubby black dude he's
[00:41:09.530] hilarious he was super smart dude and caring and charismatic and i remember one day he had me
[00:41:15.430] cracking up at after class we're standing the whole way he had me rolling like i was crying
[00:41:20.130] i was like this dude is hilarious and then i came in the next day and they said he died of a heart
[00:41:24.430] attack and i was like damn yo and like that the whole school like it just is like a dreary vibe
[00:41:30.030] and then when i thought about it i was like yo after that i never did good in math again
[00:41:34.410] for the rest of high school even when i came to allen like i was only getting c's and d's in
[00:41:38.830] so i did enough to graduate you know i mean but i never did good i never got another a in math
[00:41:45.310] after that and i and when i was talking to my boy about that i was like yo i really had trauma from
[00:41:50.910] that and the like and that's something like my album's been written for done recorded for a
[00:41:56.970] couple months now but i'm still uncovering shit you know i was like that's crazy like so you're
[00:42:02.410] always going to be discovering new things about yourself the point is to be aware of these things
[00:42:07.890] and to acknowledge them and okay what can i do going forward now because i'm not in school
[00:42:12.890] presently i wouldn't be able to apply that but for something else when i go to learn something
[00:42:17.750] if there's resistance in my body about it maybe i should explore that more why do i have resistance
[00:42:22.770] about learning a certain subject is there anybody in my life where something might have happened
[00:42:27.270] when i was first introduced to this subject that would make me have resistance to it
[00:42:31.070] so now it blew my mind so that literally put
[00:42:33.970] yeah i'm asking some questions right now no but that's that literally this shit just happened
[00:42:42.590] yesterday bro like i'm telling you like this is mad exclusive like this shit just happened
[00:42:46.270] yesterday so i was like yo so now just that lesson itself like that could make that into a whole
[00:42:52.290] track if i wanted to you know what i mean and that's not even on the album this is just like
[00:42:56.810] this is the bonus track right here you know i know i was like he's plugging uh he's plugging
[00:43:01.490] the part two that drops afterwards i mean like this is crazy but i mean that's how it is bro
[00:43:07.190] like every day like i pick up things and i pray for the awareness to be able to capture those
[00:43:14.000] moment so that i can express him in the most precise way possible because we can always express
[00:43:20.900] ourselves all we all the way i know for years in my life people will say communication is key
[00:43:25.600] communication is key no comprehension is because you could talk to your blue in the face or
[00:43:30.520] somebody you could try to communicate but if y'all arguing the whole time that was a wasted
[00:43:34.240] hour or two of your time comprehends yeah so i'll always try to find understanding even if i don't
[00:43:38.720] agree with you if i could understand at least where you're coming from then at that point i
[00:43:43.720] can make an assessment are you the type of person that i should be around that doesn't necessarily
[00:43:47.920] mean you're a bad person it just means that our energies aren't aligning and i'd rather be around
[00:43:52.740] more people that align with my energy just like you should want to be with people that align with
[00:43:56.620] your energy and it's okay to respect those differences and walk away from people people
[00:44:00.860] always think because you walk away from that you have beef or you hate them no a lot of times it's
[00:44:05.760] just a difference of opinion that's it because just the way i think and the way i govern my life
[00:44:11.160] And that's good for me, might not be good for you based off of your upbringing, what type of food you eat, anything, your health situation.
[00:44:18.260] Like I could eat certain things right now that make my body feel great, but you might have an allergic reaction.
[00:44:23.740] So you eat that same thing that's making me healthy is making you sick.
[00:44:27.020] So how is that helping you?
[00:44:28.360] We have to be aware of all this shit.
[00:44:30.120] It gets deep.
[00:44:30.660] and just like i remember when um and this this blew my mind personally because i never thought
[00:44:36.400] about it until i got more into meditation and learning about the mind and how literally your
[00:44:40.880] mental health controls so much you know when people would be like well this person was healthy
[00:44:44.920] all their life and their brother was was um was drank and smoked and that person outlived the
[00:44:50.520] healthy person so kind of do what you want and stuff like that because you never know there is
[00:44:54.600] some truth to that but what people don't get down to the to the little detail sliding under that
[00:45:00.280] is that the person that was smoking and drinking had a healthy mindset. Yes, maybe they were putting
[00:45:06.800] physical stuff that wasn't always great in their body, but their mind every day was like, yo,
[00:45:11.660] I'm happy. And just that thought of euphoria in your brain, like raises your body levels up so
[00:45:17.360] much. And if you're putting stress in your body, you're getting healthy, but then you're in a state
[00:45:21.480] of depression. And the way you could prove that is you could go to work. You know, most people that
[00:45:26.320] go to work every day they have a routine down especially if you're at a job for a while yeah
[00:45:30.600] literally you could go to work and have a day and just be thinking regular thoughts oh this is a
[00:45:37.380] solid day and go to work the next day and think about something that happened 10 years ago and
[00:45:41.000] do the exact same thing but that day is horrible which literally and you can have knots in your
[00:45:45.200] stomach in there which literally proves that the way you think changes the dynamic of the way your
[00:45:50.440] body feels yeah oh yeah so stress everything yeah like literally you could do the same exact thing
[00:45:54.800] but what happens up here changed the whole perspective of your day for you so imagine if i
[00:45:59.800] if i go and i just put pressure on your neck right now for two for like 30 seconds you'll be like yo
[00:46:04.360] that feels uncomfortable what the fuck and then i let go and you're like all right now if i held
[00:46:08.640] that down for like a day now you might have like oh shit i might need to get a massage there's a
[00:46:15.270] knot in there now imagine i held that down for a year 10 years now you might have health issues
[00:46:21.350] that's what you do when you go into depression so literally you could be doing healthy shit all
[00:46:26.170] this stuff you know i mean to put in your body but if you put in that constant stress on your body
[00:46:31.530] it's going to kill you quicker than somebody that's happy but maybe drinking every weekend
[00:46:35.830] and that's the piece that they don't talk about so they just be like oh so just eat whatever you
[00:46:40.790] want to and be unhealthy because people just die no because this person had a happy mindset and
[00:46:45.970] this person didn't that's the thing we're not talking about how powerful mental health is
[00:46:50.030] Now, if you imagine a person that eats healthy, does everything well, and has a happy mindset, that's a monk somewhere in the mountains living to 150.
[00:46:59.790] That's that dude.
[00:47:01.210] And that's where I'm trying to be.
[00:47:02.990] I've experienced both sides of it.
[00:47:04.710] I'm not like 30, 40 pounds down now, but that's my second time losing 40 to 60 pounds.
[00:47:12.430] I did that in my 20s as well, too.
[00:47:14.830] Gained it back.
[00:47:15.670] So I know what your body feels like when it's craving the grease and that stuff like that.
[00:47:21.570] But I mean, it's it's crazy.
[00:47:24.510] And I can say that since I stopped drinking, my mental health is it's just ties hand in hand.
[00:47:30.330] So like drinking is not for everybody.
[00:47:33.380] You know what I mean?
[00:47:34.020] Some people could drink every weekend.
[00:47:35.640] They'd be fine.
[00:47:36.220] My mom drinks like she drank Blue Moons to drink like two or three couple nights a week.
[00:47:41.140] She's not an alcoholic.
[00:47:42.320] She's fine.
[00:47:42.820] That's not my story.
[00:47:43.640] I can't I can't do that.
[00:47:45.500] Neither can I. I stopped drinking since December. So in a couple of months, it'd be a year for me. I just woke up. I was like, I'm done.
[00:47:53.920] Yeah, no, definitely. But, oh, I just thought of something. Did you see that link that I sent you where it was like XXS Tentacion versus Biggie and Pac?
[00:48:05.550] Oh, I didn't see. I don't think I've seen that.
[00:48:08.630] Where's my phone? Do you got your phone on you?
[00:48:10.510] Yeah, I don't think I've seen that.
[00:48:12.110] ah we'll find it i'm not going to be able to throw it up in post because we'll get a copyright issue
[00:48:16.970] but um yeah you probably can't even play it on your phone but i just wanted to talk about it
[00:48:21.810] if you saw it did you send it on facebook um probably would have sent it on facebook
[00:48:28.420] oh yeah because i don't i don't see that like i'm already at september's 11th this was a this
[00:48:35.000] was a minute ago oh so it was a while this was like before yeah yeah i'll look it up i mean you
[00:48:39.040] could look it up probably rap battle pock versus sentacion but they animated it like dragon ball
[00:48:45.240] z style so it was like it started with the beat going and it was like it was uh i forget if it
[00:48:51.340] was the beginning of uh the west side what's that track with pock wherever he's like look at him
[00:48:56.900] over there or something i forget but he's talking shit on every every track that opens but they made
[00:49:02.400] it and it was like they were walking in heaven and they looked at each other they had the whole
[00:49:06.000] dragon ball z mountain area cleared out with the thunder and when pock starts rapping he's like
[00:49:10.820] powering up oh shit no i didn't see that that's crazy i'm gonna show it to you man it's something
[00:49:16.020] they were battling they were battling they did a verse from pock then they did i think a verse from
[00:49:21.100] uh juice world or xxx tentacion oh and there were people watching the battle they were like oh man
[00:49:27.700] pock's getting smoked but then like as the dust settled pock was still standing there and then
[00:49:31.660] he drops the uh the matter was it was it um damn was it like um south park graphics similar yeah
[00:49:41.130] like i think i know dragon i think i do remember that now but i watched it in the morning so that's
[00:49:46.030] why i'm thinking about i was like yo i think it was like a south park um type grab i think i do
[00:49:50.650] know what you see that's where somebody either somebody my age did it but i don't got the time
[00:49:56.370] to do something like that yeah like that's crazy if somebody somebody wants to sponsor
[00:50:01.730] for me and bankroll me i love to do something for hip-hop like that but back when we were in the day
[00:50:06.170] we had a little blink 182 and they played it over top of dragon ball z clips it was like super blurry
[00:50:12.870] gif pixelated but it was just adam's song by blink 182 to like vegeta falling somebody just put those
[00:50:21.510] two things together and made like media i think that yeah that's dope and i and i think now that
[00:50:28.170] now that you're saying i do remember because i think i remember because i know like the
[00:50:31.650] hit him up song they took the pieces out of it that could be applied to everyone yeah instead
[00:50:37.750] of like because he had a lot of biggie stuff he was saying it so he took out the parts that could
[00:50:41.110] be generalized and i remember it i was like yo that's dope the way it's like it's like he's
[00:50:44.970] really talking to him i was like that was it so i do remember that yeah that was a minute ago you
[00:50:48.730] sent that to me yeah i do remember watching that though yeah that was fire though and it shows you
[00:50:53.330] like like and i think the beat they had was a more like um more recent beat it showed you how
[00:50:58.610] timeless um pop's flow is i was like that's just on fire on that beat but that that opened up a
[00:51:04.490] hole that had me i went back to the resurrection album with the the soundtrack that eminem produced
[00:51:10.910] oh wow running yeah why am i dying if i'm just living to die wow yeah i remember that shit that
[00:51:20.270] was crazy yeah man it's it's so much so much i i still i'm excited about this content coming out
[00:51:27.740] I like JID or J-I-D.
[00:51:29.440] Oh, yeah, his album, what's it, The Forever Story?
[00:51:32.500] That new one that dropped, that's a dope album.
[00:51:35.360] The Forever Story, what?
[00:51:36.580] He started with The Never Story, right?
[00:51:38.360] Yeah, then there's this new one that's called The Forever Story.
[00:51:41.200] It's actually his best album, in my opinion.
[00:51:43.980] He did, he's very intricate.
[00:51:46.300] He's going in, mad different.
[00:51:49.240] Very personal, a lot about his family, stories about his family years,
[00:51:53.320] family singing on it with him.
[00:51:55.040] He got clips from stuff that they're doing.
[00:51:56.920] like it's very interesting like he kind of handles it and i don't want to compare it for people to be
[00:52:01.320] like going to it but it's kind of like attention to detail the way kendrick went into good kid mad
[00:52:07.140] city like that type of level of attention to detail where everything he's even singing on the
[00:52:12.260] album and he sounds great to the point you don't think it's him effort you'd be like wait but you
[00:52:16.020] hear this he sang on uh working out you know a song called working out he sang the hook he said
[00:52:22.870] i forgot the name of the song on the album but just like halfway into it he's singing i was like
[00:52:27.750] yo he can like it's and i'm not even bullshitting you it's to the point where if jib was like yo i
[00:52:32.610] want to make like a singing ep i wouldn't be like i'll be like all right it's probably gonna sound
[00:52:37.070] fire because he can legit sing you know i was like put it this way he could get on a song with
[00:52:41.950] anderson pock right now yeah yeah and they could go back and forth and you wouldn't be able to tell
[00:52:46.250] me who had the better singing performance like that's how good of a singer he is and i didn't
[00:52:49.630] know jib had that in him i was like yo this is a nice new wrinkle to his whole you know i mean
[00:52:54.810] his whole artistry i was like that's great so yeah he did a great job on this project i definitely
[00:52:59.090] fuck with it it's dope especially like how we talk about like new and old generation like that
[00:53:04.190] sounds completely new like it's today's hip-hop but done very detailed and intricately while still
[00:53:10.290] having great songwriting because he has turned up joints and all that but he handles everything
[00:53:14.170] with a level of detail that us older generation appreciates do your fun shit do this do your life
[00:53:20.430] shit but do it with a level of detail where we know you cared about it and jid's the perfect
[00:53:25.070] explanation for that a young rapper that spits nowhere near the griselda cadence that i personally
[00:53:31.290] love yeah but he does it with such detail that i'm like i fuck with that just as much as griselda
[00:53:36.030] well he also got that he got that essence he got like a different accent yeah so one thing i always
[00:53:41.590] try to remember like coming from the east coast and getting used to east coast rap we're used to
[00:53:46.070] hearing that east coast accent or that philly accent yeah you don't have that at all yeah and
[00:53:50.350] a lot of newer rap a lot of newer rap it's just proper english yeah it's they pronounce things
[00:53:56.030] the way they're meant to be pronounced it's unless you're a mumble rapper right well i mean yeah the
[00:54:00.750] mumble rap but honestly like you said for understanding differences and being able to
[00:54:04.850] respect it i can't get mumble rap i can't do it but i also can't do what little john the yadi
[00:54:09.810] or Lil Jon does and all that.
[00:54:12.470] Like, I can't do the East Side Boys.
[00:54:14.870] I can't make music like that.
[00:54:16.270] I've tried to make a club banger.
[00:54:18.030] It's just not me.
[00:54:20.230] That's because we're overthinkers
[00:54:21.750] and we're always thinking about the next bar.
[00:54:23.990] Them dudes is going off a feeling.
[00:54:25.930] Like, I know this, shout out to LG Izzy.
[00:54:32.170] Young boy, he be doing music.
[00:54:33.610] He doing a lot of stuff out here in Lehigh Valley.
[00:54:36.630] I remember I had a conversation with him one time
[00:54:38.590] because he would drop so much stuff in the studio.
[00:54:42.270] Like, I remember he showed me before he dropped, like, a project years ago.
[00:54:45.450] He had, like, 40 songs in a clip just chilling
[00:54:48.470] because he's always in there recording.
[00:54:50.170] I'm like, bro, like, what?
[00:54:52.350] And he'd tell me, he just goes off a feeling.
[00:54:54.570] Like, I'll watch him sometimes.
[00:54:55.830] I'll go down there, and he wouldn't even, he wouldn't write.
[00:54:58.570] He would go sing a couple lines,
[00:55:01.130] and then he'd just pace around the room for, like, five minutes,
[00:55:03.990] and then he'd have a couple more lines in his head and keep recording.
[00:55:06.470] He would record himself sometimes.
[00:55:07.970] and that's how he does it just off of his feeling so it's not really intricate but it's a real
[00:55:13.010] feeling and he's a he's a vibing type dude he goes off of what he feels and and the songs come out
[00:55:19.010] that way and that it's a lot easier to be catchy that way too because you're going off a feeling
[00:55:23.170] you're in tune with the melody where me i'm sitting here like then putting pieces a lot of
[00:55:28.350] times i write it to a different beat i write it to the shit ones beat you know i'm seriously like
[00:55:32.670] when you write shit to that there's no way you could go off or you you sitting there trying to
[00:55:36.090] piece stuff together all intricately and and these dudes out there just vibing so i think
[00:55:40.610] i think there's a beauty to both you know i mean and the real special rappers are the ones that put
[00:55:45.830] both of them together and that's when oh like they put melody and heavy bar structure together
[00:55:52.110] that dude's different you know who's been uh probably i guarantee spotify's gonna say it's
[00:55:57.530] my most listened to this year um you fuck with saint john saint jhn i've heard of the name but
[00:56:04.840] haven't listened i'm gonna put you on a couple of tracks he got he got some with he got a track
[00:56:10.440] with little baby that really put me on to it i think it's called like 5 000 singles it's just
[00:56:14.620] like 5 000 yeah it's like it's auto-tuned it's like upbeat and then when i started listening
[00:56:20.920] to his other stuff he got like a melodic flow but it's kind of like rap singing like i don't know
[00:56:26.660] and it's kind of like remind me you remember when like tony sunshine would have an r&b voice like
[00:56:31.940] he could really sing but he's rapping about killing people and loading up the clips and stuff
[00:56:35.960] he was with pun and fat joe they was in the streets doing crazy shit yeah it's like it kind
[00:56:42.560] of reminds me of that he'd be like melodically talking about loading up a semi but but man i'll
[00:56:47.480] put you on to some of his music it's not it's i don't think it's rap i don't think it's like very
[00:56:54.600] melodic he sings hooks but it's not r&b it's like some new stuff he's wildly popular though
[00:57:00.920] wildly wildly popular tons of streams there's so much stuff out there that's the one thing i can
[00:57:06.700] say when people say stuff about hip-hop hip-hop is such in a good space if you're actually like
[00:57:11.100] a listener of it i'm not like a not a casual listener i listen to a little hip-hop here and
[00:57:15.560] there but if you're immersed in a culture there's so many like there's dudes with like 50 000
[00:57:20.640] followers that live off hip-hop like they literally make thousands of dollars you know
[00:57:26.350] i mean and provide for their family and they have fan bases and they have like seven eight albums
[00:57:31.490] worth of material that sound official sonically inner artistic and they live off of hip-hop and
[00:57:37.390] the average listener never hear of them and because they don't they'll think hip-hop's in a bad place
[00:57:41.590] but there's like literally thousands of artists like that now there are others that are struggling
[00:57:45.870] to never do anything and then there's the next that are like a tear past that a tear past the
[00:57:51.430] 50k would be like griselda because they're like known but they're not no no and then after that
[00:57:56.530] would be like the jay coles falls it falls in a weird place it does because real real popular
[00:58:01.390] they are real popular underground they're real popular but griselda's kind of at the space that
[00:58:06.650] talib qali was at when he did get by it was like he was popular but he wasn't jay-z famous yeah and
[00:58:12.830] that's how i look at like radio's playing it because everybody's playing it not everybody's
[00:58:16.490] playing it because radio's playing exactly like griselda's at that talib qali space but
[00:58:20.870] where jay-z was at then that's where like say drake is now what drake's probably past that
[00:58:24.990] because drake does like international music and stuff like that in terms of popularity but like
[00:58:30.870] there's drake and then there's like i would say kendrick and cole right under that in terms of
[00:58:35.450] popularity and then the grizzel the you know stuff like that in terms of popularity but
[00:58:40.750] yeah man this hip-hop's a crazy thing i know you're talking about some of the like the mama
[00:58:46.770] rappers i remember one dude that i got i don't listen to him but i got appreciation for what he
[00:58:52.870] does was like i think it was and who was it was it who dropped the album jeffrey was it little baby
[00:59:00.350] jeffrey he dropped the barter six or something like that was that that wasn't little baby
[00:59:05.250] no i i can't tell you i can't tell you none of the babies maybe it was little yadi
[00:59:10.190] uh whoever whoever dropped the album called jeffrey when he had the japanese hat or whatever
[00:59:16.670] the asian like hat whatever i can't remember the name of that whatever rapper that was i think it
[00:59:21.350] was little yadi i don't know but he he had um he had a couple songs where he wasn't saying anything
[00:59:30.160] but the way he was rhyming his cadence to these melodies was so inventive like i i never heard
[00:59:37.020] cadences like that before i was like what i was like and i'm thinking like the lyricist in me if
[00:59:43.040] you put bars in that you would be hitting like a royce the five nine type flow like that's how
[00:59:48.980] intricate his melodic presence was he kept switching up cadence he wasn't saying anything
[00:59:54.160] but but the way he was i was like this shit is crazy for my artistic expression but we're so
[01:00:01.520] bar heavy if it don't got bars i'm not listening to it like we get in that zone but when i just
[01:00:06.520] when i put away you know i mean my judgmental view and i just went into it listening like
[01:00:12.040] and i i learned to appreciate him i just i would i think it's a little yada yada whoever dropped
[01:00:17.400] the jeffrey album because i remember somebody's listening to this screaming at the tv right now
[01:00:21.880] put it up on the board yeah whoever dropped the album called jeffrey that's what i'm talking about
[01:00:27.620] it was it was years ago but it's probably called like george or jeff with a geo yeah but it has
[01:00:33.360] like a it looks like a some type of i'm not sure what culture but it's like of the asian and he
[01:00:39.080] had like one of those like samurai hats on he was like this i feel like i've seen it you know i could
[01:00:43.520] google i have google right here we're gonna mess it up it's cool but i think it was around that
[01:00:49.280] time where i listened to him i was like yo and that's why i started learning to appreciate these
[01:00:53.080] vibers more because of him i was like yo some of them really have some brilliant cadences
[01:00:57.780] i just personally personally need more substance in order to relate to it so that i could connect
[01:01:03.740] with it because i could other than that like i'll listen to it and i'll appreciate in the moment i'll
[01:01:08.120] never listen again if you got content that i that's relatable even if i can't even if i didn't
[01:01:13.840] experience your story personally if you do it from the heart and it's detailed enough where it follows
[01:01:18.960] the story beginning the middle and end and it's told coherently with words and you're not mumbling
[01:01:24.080] through shit i could vibe with y'all oh that's what's up i feel where you're coming from because
[01:01:28.800] you don't every movie we've seen that might have touched us hasn't been stories that we've been
[01:01:33.140] through but because it was depicted the right way we think of putting that right actor in that role
[01:01:38.100] he killed that role i felt it i never went through that but the way he he presented it
[01:01:42.620] was something so compelling and captivating that i was drawn into it same thing with music i don't
[01:01:47.360] have to experience everything to go through but if your performance and the way you convey it
[01:01:51.660] is so brilliant then it's like it's undeniable and that's all i'm saying is no matter what you
[01:01:55.940] talk about it just make your performance undeniable so i can at least connect with
[01:01:59.780] you on some level say you know say real words say something that's that's real to you you know
[01:02:05.460] i mean because everybody has a different experience i'm not going to experience be able to experience
[01:02:09.020] everything but i could still respect your perspective who's the this had me thinking
[01:02:15.340] somebody recently it's gonna mess with me it's another white rapper i've been listening to
[01:02:19.420] i think prof p-r-o-f you've heard of him i don't know if he's popular or not i don't think i
[01:02:25.680] something came up and just the way that he was rapping on it it was like goofy it was like he
[01:02:31.660] wasn't taking it serious but he actually had bars and then i looked up the video and it was like
[01:02:36.820] like g easy does this a lot where he'd be like in like an old newscaster suit and they'd be moving
[01:02:41.420] like it's in the 50s like it's all production but yeah i mean hang on give me one second
[01:02:49.240] oh technical difficulty no we should be good might have gotten quieter but i turned you down
[01:02:56.840] a little bit you were getting you're getting into it let's get mad hype but it's all good
[01:03:01.340] just be more posts later uh so i wanted to get back to your album for a little bit i had some
[01:03:07.020] notes here give me one second so told us about the growth i wanted to know the one bar that stuck out
[01:03:13.460] to me was and shameless plug the album is called writing to heal we had spoke about having like
[01:03:20.860] therapy through writing your process what does writing mean to you you kind of
[01:03:28.100] leader that you come into the conclusion that you change your goalposts the goal is not to be
[01:03:33.320] the next jay-z with your music you want to elaborate on that a little bit yeah it's kind of
[01:03:38.080] um i would say around 2007 um when i dropped the album called the classic i had um i had
[01:03:49.040] ambitions at that time to be the best rapper it was still that it was still like i want to be that
[01:03:54.540] so when i wanted to every bar every concept whatever that was always in the back of my
[01:03:59.040] mind no matter what i was talking about and then um you realize once you really get into it that
[01:04:06.280] in order to take it as far as it needs to be there needs to be a lot of crazy sacrifices you have to
[01:04:12.700] have the right team around you like nobody could do it by themselves and the first person that
[01:04:17.200] actually pointed that out to me the first signs of that was when jay-z dropped the black album
[01:04:21.640] and i looked in a linear notes in the back of the book and he was saying yo i couldn't have got this
[01:04:26.240] far without my team he said that like you can go get the black album and read that shit in the back
[01:04:31.540] and the notes and he said i couldn't got this i was like wow jay-z's saying this yeah you know
[01:04:35.440] what i mean and then when he signed and then again i seen it again and that same message was thrown at
[01:04:40.500] me when jay cole dropped the sideline story and that's jay-z's artist he signed he signed jay cole
[01:04:46.900] to um the rock nation joint and in the back the first thing jay cole said was yo you cannot make
[01:04:53.580] it this far without a team he was like because you can't do everything and i always used to think
[01:04:58.820] that there was something i was lacking like and i realized that i would have teams over the years
[01:05:04.120] but everybody wanted to be a rapper it wasn't like you're just doing the photos you're just
[01:05:13.020] doing the promotion i'm rapping you're just doing that everybody's like all right so it's my turn so
[01:05:18.380] they're helping you but they're not really helping you because they're waiting for their turn you
[01:05:22.020] know what i mean and we are never on the same page like let's all go on on my album now let's all go
[01:05:26.740] on his album or let's go on her album whatever everybody was always out for themselves not in
[01:05:31.540] the like selfish like fuck this dude went because i'm still cool with everybody there's some sort
[01:05:35.240] of altruistic motive i know what you're saying and because of that that's why like i can never
[01:05:39.680] get out there and then once i got to the point where i started figuring out things then like i
[01:05:44.840] got married and i had children yeah and then i don't care what nobody says and i this is actually
[01:05:51.100] a small pet peeve of mine i say small because only time like i only talk about this once in a
[01:05:56.360] while but it's when dudes be like yo i got children and i'm more successful well first of all bro you
[01:06:02.020] was probably selling drugs i don't sell drugs i go to work every day so i don't got a hundred
[01:06:07.860] stacks just to put up on music so that's how you got up on me because you were doing something
[01:06:12.800] illegal while i wasn't too um you know outside of doing that they'd be like well i have i have
[01:06:20.380] a wife and have children too yeah but your wife hates you your girl's always posting bullshit
[01:06:24.960] about you my wife actually is happy you know what that requires that means that i have to spend time
[01:06:30.180] with her you can't tell me you got a girl too but you're not spending time with her once you invest
[01:06:34.500] time with somebody that takes what time you have to spend time you have to build rapport that takes
[01:06:40.260] away time from doing music and all the other shit kids that have actual relationship with your
[01:06:44.900] children you have to spend time with them i'm going seeing my daughter do cross country my son
[01:06:50.380] doing hip-hop dance classes spending time with him telling him different things to be as a man
[01:06:55.000] getting on them about their chores making sure they're academically right what do you need for
[01:06:58.800] me that takes time if you're not doing that and you're just hiding by and then taking pictures
[01:07:03.740] yeah you look really good but no your kids and your wife or your girl is suffering so don't
[01:07:08.640] hit me with that bullshit i got a wife and a girl and i could do this too no my dude you're not
[01:07:13.600] really doing it you doing the shit for the gram but you're not really putting in the hours because
[01:07:17.000] if you put in the hours into your family you wouldn't have time for music you know i mean
[01:07:20.660] that makes me hot you know i mean because i hate when people try to put that image out there like
[01:07:24.400] you know you can't first of all you need a team and then first of all at some point you got to
[01:07:28.660] make a decision what you're going to sacrifice for your family and since um i came up in a single
[01:07:33.730] parent home with my mom i understand what it's like to not have the other parent around you know
[01:07:39.290] now i've been over the years like i went through a lot of anger towards my father and we've had
[01:07:43.510] a conversation last year where we're at speaking terms now you know i mean but i went through a lot
[01:07:48.250] of anger and we got to a point like we're talking now like i send them pictures we cool where we're
[01:07:53.310] not perfect or nothing like that but we got to the point where i could actually have a conversation
[01:07:57.750] without being angry you know i mean so it's just it's just one of those things where the combination
[01:08:03.100] all those things the only time you ever see a rapper have a healthy relationship with his kids
[01:08:07.760] is if he made it then he started a family that's why jay-z's able to have a great relationship
[01:08:11.820] he ain't have children so after he was already super rich yeah that makes sense like every other
[01:08:16.760] rapper that i've seen you go look up interviews about their kids they're like yo i lost mad time
[01:08:20.460] with my kids and it suffers from one of my favorite underground rappers joel ortiz and he
[01:08:24.720] was never even out there out there he even says in songs that his kids suffered because of it now
[01:08:29.800] he's trying to play ketchup i don't ever want to play ketchup with my daughter and son yeah and
[01:08:34.400] and when i looked at it from that i was like if i make it off of me being a husband and father
[01:08:39.140] and i'm still able to do it all right cool if not that's fine i do music and hip-hop because i like
[01:08:44.560] the feeling i got one to bring it full circle when i was at the flagpole with john well and and i spit
[01:08:50.080] something i got a reaction out of them you know and people hearing my bars and or when i was going
[01:08:55.580] back and listening to rock him and carol rest one and studying chuck d and ice cube and ice t
[01:08:59.960] you know up to naz and jay and wu-tang growing up on them and then going up to appreciating
[01:09:06.240] Scarface and T.I. and Redman and Method Man and all, you know, when I got into all that stuff,
[01:09:12.080] I was like, I want to listen to everybody, you know what I mean? And going through the G unit
[01:09:16.580] phase and oh, wow. Like, look at the songwriting, the way they're able to consistently make catchy
[01:09:22.300] stuff, but still hit hard and DMX and Rough Riders, Jadakiss, The Lox, all of them. Like
[01:09:28.540] you study all this and you take pieces and then you develop your own style. And that's such a
[01:09:33.240] passion of mine that even without money i'm just a hip-hop purist i probably listen to like 50 hip-hop
[01:09:41.000] albums a year most people don't do that and that's like a bit obsessive but that's how much you said
[01:09:46.220] i'm a casual listener you use i'm gonna run the tape back i'm pretty sure you said you were a
[01:09:50.480] casual oh no not me not me i'm definitely not you said if you're a guy like if if okay if i was but
[01:09:55.680] i was like no no you sent me the list
[01:09:59.040] i was waiting for jnd to drop something you just gave me a review on it
[01:10:05.000] oh thanks y'all want in i didn't even hear that new one yet no it's dope it's dope and it's very
[01:10:09.740] intricate but no that's what i mean like i listen to so much hip-hop you know i mean i'm so into it
[01:10:14.320] that that's that's who i will be without the money and once i realize that then i gotta do music for
[01:10:19.400] me and then i've i've been in situations where i know i have something to offer like i remember
[01:10:25.770] one time when i went um to church years ago and um the pastor said that i could share something
[01:10:34.650] that was on my heart and um i went up there and i spit acapella it was like 40 bars or something
[01:10:40.470] and it was about what i was going through i kept it clean because i was in a church obviously but
[01:10:44.770] i spit something from the heart and how where i was at in my life and bro when i was done a 60
[01:10:51.880] year old white woman and then like a 28 year old thug dude or whatever both came to me separately
[01:10:59.000] in tears yo what you said touched me both of them two different types of people went through
[01:11:04.120] different things in their life had different opportunities and they both were crying because
[01:11:08.360] what i said on the microphone acapella with no beat i was like yeah i got some shit to say
[01:11:13.780] nobody can take that away from me and i've done that plenty of times i've spit stories told stories
[01:11:19.380] on the mic and people came yo bro what you said touched me and i've had that i went to brooklyn
[01:11:24.720] and i was spitting and then this thing and people was talking they stopped and was like
[01:11:29.200] and walked up and was posted up like yo like listening to me i was like oh i know i got some
[01:11:34.560] shit with me nobody can't take that from me i could go in front of anybody and like you know
[01:11:40.160] when i'm you know i mean start spitting stuff or a song or perform what you know i mean get myself
[01:11:44.740] prepared and they're gonna feel it on some level if you like hip-hop if you don't like my vibe the
[01:11:50.360] only way you wouldn't like me is there's two things either you don't like my style of beats
[01:11:54.300] that i pick they're not for you yeah there you go or you don't like the texture of my voice
[01:11:58.660] that's what i was gonna say you know i mean if you're not into like the my style or the texture
[01:12:04.160] of my voice that's it but the skill level is unquestioned dude in bevel boy let me stop you
[01:12:09.520] I'm going to take, I'm going to take over for a second in bevel boy.
[01:12:12.700] I think it was verse two on a beat switch. Yeah. Yeah.
[01:12:17.470] That was the crazy out of all your albums I've heard.
[01:12:20.090] That was the craziest and correct me if I'm wrong,
[01:12:21.990] there could be something else,
[01:12:22.870] but that was the longest that you had the same pentameter going.
[01:12:26.790] And then the sentence switched up the, I think you,
[01:12:31.480] you were going and then the beat switched and then you started switching.
[01:12:34.680] You went like half measures, you were rapping faster. I was,
[01:12:38.600] i was literally listening to it i was like that was one of my notes that i put in i was like that
[01:12:42.720] was that was really something um and normally i don't hear like the stuff i hear on your albums
[01:12:50.140] is different than stuff that you're like featured with gallo you know what i mean there's still that
[01:12:54.780] competitive and stuff and that was kind of where i struggled with making music was pulling it all
[01:13:00.880] together because i just love that hype just i want to rap go in that battle cry joel ortiz just
[01:13:07.260] just want to spit no crazy battle cries crazy yeah it is i'm gonna listen to that when i leave
[01:13:13.480] that's crazy oh man yeah no um yeah i get into a zone i still look for newer hip-hop and i
[01:13:24.100] as weird as it sounds i'm getting a lot of it from the apathy uh chris webby hasn't for a little bit
[01:13:30.680] but i would really like chris webby's stuff is just like it's weird it was fun it was like
[01:13:36.720] talks about add and shit like that just i mean it's weird to hear to to take like one of my
[01:13:46.300] biggest things with mental health was for me to go and identify as my condition and not just have
[01:13:50.660] it be like something separate or something i wasn't afraid of so the fact that chris webby
[01:13:54.880] could poke fun at himself for having add i think that's kind of a mentality that we should have
[01:14:01.140] yeah because people don't even people talk about mental health but they don't consider add a part
[01:14:05.200] of that oh yeah that's true that's just your kids being bad it's just a boy thing like they don't
[01:14:11.500] realize that and like to treat it with meth yeah that's that's crazy it's insane but
[01:14:19.790] it's gonna affect somebody with add's brain different than if i go and sniff an adderall
[01:14:25.980] or something you know it's just different but um i don't know let me see what else we got going on
[01:14:34.360] here we're at uh we're at an hour and 15 minutes bro oh that's what you're asking me about um if i
[01:14:41.530] you said if i did something to the level of bevel boy or something like that oh yeah do you have
[01:14:45.890] anything else like that uh i've wrote so many things it's kind of hard and you're talking about
[01:14:52.380] just going in like that of what what this style i'm trying to think i know i have a song called
[01:15:02.050] high note that was on the now i know album that second verse i kind of did a whole bunch of rhyme
[01:15:06.730] schemes on that um i think like the third verse i'm going all out do you know your verse for
[01:15:16.500] bevel boy the second one you know with me if i don't know the first couple lines i can't remember
[01:15:21.380] the verse oh my god it's hard because a lot of times after i write an album that i forget
[01:15:26.660] i gotta practice so good is there any song other than bevel boy that you would want if we were to
[01:15:33.060] leak a track what would you want me to play i'll probably um probably i'll climb out that's a good
[01:15:42.360] one i'll climb out yeah what featuring on brie yeah that's that's probably a great one because
[01:15:48.390] that's kind of like you know i mean coming out of the first half of that album that i was so angry
[01:15:55.360] a lot of the anger yeah after being accountable for stuff and it's like a a good way to really
[01:16:02.240] tell people and not only that but it's a banger too like the drums is heavy and it goes hard to
[01:16:07.740] always like harder hitting shit you know yeah so like that snap yeah has that snap to it
[01:16:14.640] a good chorus on it well for people just listening so you know if you've been following gil's career
[01:16:21.100] this is one of the first ones that you had the parental advisory sticker on it right
[01:16:25.180] yeah in a minute it's been a while and it was just it was just more of a um because a while
[01:16:30.640] ago i made a conscious decision to stop cursing in my rap for a while even though i still kept my
[01:16:37.860] content adult it was always adult content and i'm not even gonna lie it came because a lot of times
[01:16:45.680] early on i would have my daughter with me a lot when i had the opportunity to write and you know
[01:16:51.090] you recite your stuff so i was like damn i don't want to be saying this crazy i don't want to say
[01:16:55.130] this crazy shit while she's sitting right next to me so let me figure out a different way to still
[01:17:00.090] say this but worded differently so the challenge came because she was right next to me and she was
[01:17:05.070] a pretty content child once i got her or something but she had to sit next to me so i couldn't go
[01:17:08.910] too far so i was like all right so i was like all right let me put my earpiece into here to beat
[01:17:13.290] she's sitting next to me watching the show but all right so let me start writing and i would
[01:17:18.450] learn and i'll be mouthing it or whatever and i didn't want her to hear me saying nothing crazy
[01:17:22.270] so at least if i made it a little bit more intellectual that she couldn't process it yet
[01:17:27.510] you know what i mean and i could still get my point across exactly so that's how it started
[01:17:31.430] trying to like write around her that's crazy and then i kind of just stayed in there i was like oh
[01:17:36.710] i don't gotta worry about making clean versions personally i feel like it's a lack of vocabulary
[01:17:43.430] if you can't replace fuck yeah so i mean to say fuck to to show power yeah to show that presence
[01:17:50.210] then you're just not as good of a lyricist so for me it was a challenge of finding ways to say
[01:17:55.650] around it i don't think i ever recorded the n-word i definitely didn't record f-word or
[01:18:01.390] anything like that i never put anything on my albums with parental advisory yeah i think with
[01:18:07.550] this album since i went through so much of a like a devastating depressive i think i needed
[01:18:12.630] to allow my and with my kids being a little bit older and understanding and not like knowing that
[01:18:18.670] like they know they've heard adults curse and they know they're not going to walk in a room
[01:18:22.950] disrespectful and cursing they know that now whereas when they were more impressionable for
[01:18:27.550] that to take place that's why i was being careful about how i wrote when i had the opportunity to
[01:18:32.090] write around them now like my son and my daughter ain't gonna go to work cursing even they heard me
[01:18:36.750] curse you know i mean they're like that's something adults do you know they know not to be going
[01:18:41.630] around not me being disrespectful you know i mean i'm bad in front of my kids you know i mean first
[01:18:47.310] to admit it i mean i i mean i still do have slip-ups in front of them but i like i i control
[01:18:52.590] it you know i mean like it's not like i'm not just flying off the handle or whatever because i don't
[01:18:56.710] like to raise them in that type of space i want to be realistic like this how i feel and they'll
[01:19:01.610] you know i'll curse here and there but i try not to be excessive with it because i don't want i
[01:19:06.130] don't want them to be in that type of space i just want their energy to be good you know i mean so i
[01:19:10.250] just i want to push i want their space to be way more peaceful than mine was growing up and that's
[01:19:15.090] what you really want my mom i remember when i first um became a homeowner at 30 she was like
[01:19:22.250] baby i'm when she was still here she's like baby i'm so proud of you because i didn't become a
[01:19:26.710] homeowner till i was like 45 you did it 15 years before me that's success and when i looked at it
[01:19:32.690] for an episode i was like you know what she's right she looks at me like yo you're married
[01:19:36.730] and you're a homeowner by 30 i had none of that stuff at 30 and and she set me up so i was able
[01:19:42.610] to accomplish that you know it's always like words so i gotta set my kids up even better
[01:19:46.530] yeah i feel a battle coming on the battle of the dads yo i'm here with my kids i still have a
[01:19:53.370] i still have yeah but i had a house by 30 by 30 holla at your boy instead of dad jokes have like
[01:20:01.450] now that was that concept i was telling you about maybe i'll have you eventually write it for me but
[01:20:06.770] we all end up at the same red light you know i had people growing up with me that it was like
[01:20:10.910] oh you you're not going to this college or you're not you're not doing that you're going off with
[01:20:16.070] the art you're gonna do the art thing and it was a lot of people who went i've realized that when
[01:20:20.690] you compare yourself to other people like humble people are not in they're in the battle trying to
[01:20:26.350] figure out how to perfect themselves they're not sitting here trying to compare themselves to
[01:20:30.850] whatever like yeah i'm still gonna take some things like people oh what is he gonna be the
[01:20:35.630] next joe rogan was he no that's cool we'll figure it out what is he gonna yeah there's influences
[01:20:40.170] from podcasts i listen to but shout out to your brother naughty nuisance we'll throw his tag up
[01:20:45.550] there um i love the track that you have with nigel uh or to nigel what's the name of that track um
[01:20:51.350] you came a long way you came a long way that was a really good one and that one is literally just
[01:20:55.750] bar for bar talking at nigel yeah just telling him like from like big growing him pretty much
[01:21:03.030] yeah just from from a kid to him now being a father of four and just everything i've seen him
[01:21:09.930] how his whole mentality changed because you know as a big brother you kind of look at your little
[01:21:14.250] brother where you go through a situation you're like man i don't want to be around him he's
[01:21:17.690] annoying and i gotta take him everywhere going through that to the point where he became his
[01:21:23.910] own man and then we got respect and love for each other and then i seen him going through his stuff
[01:21:27.990] with mommy and i had to be the mediator for a lot of the stuff they went through and then how he
[01:21:33.090] started making her proud and before she passed she felt he was in a great place and i just when i
[01:21:38.830] looked at all that stuff and i wrote it down i was just like yo you came a long way bro i'm proud of
[01:21:43.690] you and i love you and i just felt i felt like you know what i never made a song about my brother
[01:21:48.390] i was like you know this is the time because then right after that is a song about my mom so i was
[01:21:53.070] like yo this is a perfect way to go from him to her you know i mean to two of the most important
[01:21:58.870] people in my life ever you know i mean so that's how i felt it was just like it was the perfect
[01:22:03.550] time for that madness dude it was it is really masterfully crafted listen to the album a couple
[01:22:11.730] of times there's no problem listening to it front to back that's some of the problems i've had with
[01:22:17.330] albums sometimes where it's like you got to listen to it in pieces you know people throw seven deep
[01:22:21.890] tracks that all require you to break them down and stuff it's like i was still trying to figure
[01:22:27.150] out what was going on on the last one now we're over here now this is real even starts with your
[01:22:32.010] personal journey it starts with you coming to accountability and then your kind of message
[01:22:37.310] from that new perspective to your family and to your loved ones so um definitely check out the
[01:22:44.090] whole thing we'll make sure you know i'll time it so we can drop this so that the album is out now
[01:22:48.230] i'll either drop this like the 25th or if you drop it on the 24th we'll have this part of your media
[01:22:55.830] run so we'll drop it like and it's going to be on all like streaming websites is going to be
[01:23:00.270] everywhere but at the same time i will be selling it on gillthompson.com as well so if you want to
[01:23:05.650] support it and get it directly gill thompson.com you know i mean yeah and when you see that big
[01:23:12.310] logo this man right here designed it he designed it he designed all the album covers that you're
[01:23:18.550] going to see on that website let's throw up all the album covers right now shameless plug you know
[01:23:24.690] we call that catalog baby yeah no definitely have a catalog between uh singles and stuff but look
[01:23:30.750] out for writing to heal gil thompson on all streaming platforms now go ahead and grab that
[01:23:35.670] we're gonna take a listen wrap this up here unless you got anything crazy i'm gonna play bevel boy
[01:23:39.750] oh yeah i did want to give a shout out to um a man angel aka mr soundproof a murder he produced
[01:23:46.550] the first um i believe five tracks on the on the album and then jock quay um aka triple threes
[01:23:54.470] produced the last four you know i mean so i had two producers for the whole album you know i mean
[01:23:59.730] they both of them they did they did their thing triple threes and mr soundproof they so if you
[01:24:04.810] like the beats them two dudes put their foot in it they find them on instagram or what yeah you
[01:24:09.990] find mr soundproof and triple threes and um um mr soundproof just spelled out is for triple threes
[01:24:17.120] he puts tr3 the number three then ple3z like so he spells it unique we're gonna throw it up yeah
[01:24:25.180] there's no way anyone listening on audio like man i'm not doing that it's like
[01:24:29.640] Yeah. Now that works. Cool. So this is Bevel Boy off of the new album, Writing to Heal by Gil Thompson.
[01:24:36.720] Yeah.
[01:25:15.000] I'm driven with the focus, armed and deadly
[01:25:16.880] With explosive verbal stanzas, killer grammar
[01:25:19.000] A sophisticated mantra that I use
[01:25:21.040] To go to war with all opposing propaganda
[01:25:23.120] So, check your arsenal
[01:25:24.720] All of your verbal retinue, make sure it's all
[01:25:26.940] Collectively correct before you step to me
[01:25:29.000] If you start dissecting me with holes in that
[01:25:31.120] Directory, I'll take the life from every
[01:25:32.940] Shot you send, more than vasectomies
[01:25:34.640] Tossed into your face the great holocaust of a
[01:25:36.860] Lost debate, I forced my hater boss whose entire
[01:25:39.020] Draws up in caution tape
[01:25:40.260] Two ferociously victims inside coaches
[01:25:42.720] Stands approaches with a facial expression
[01:25:44.640] I smell atrocious, I killed it
[01:25:46.540] Yeah, let that breathe a little bit
[01:25:48.640] So your mind doesn't weave in the riddle hits
[01:25:51.420] My brain storms, seeks seeds in the drizzle fits
[01:25:54.220] Growing mental feasts, all feed in your nipple bits
[01:25:57.020] I bare my soul when my people in the tightest spot
[01:25:59.720] Like instrumentals hit me with my guard down the writer's block
[01:26:02.580] Go to war with them, every ball got a fighter's plot
[01:26:05.320] Delete the unethical decease where the fighters rock
[01:26:08.260] uh wait you said you wanted to play i climb out right yeah all right introduce the track
[01:26:16.500] oh it's still playing it's going oh shit yo yo this is gil thompson got a single called i climb
[01:26:26.930] out featuring brie angeli off the latest album right into hill dropping october 24th baby let's
[01:26:33.430] go beneath the rubble in the darkest pits of my consciousness is where the greatest version of me
[01:26:42.220] was buried but i had to crack the foundation of who i was to build who i will be with every trauma
[01:26:49.200] and tragedy i clawed at the darkness until light shined in and once i got a taste of that light
[01:26:54.760] i stood up and ran through won't fall too strong look at my eyes you'll see that i'm ready to rule
[01:27:01.440] all reign long over my doubts i'm a weak insecurities once i came hard striking attacking
[01:27:06.160] the evil that lives in me killing the source hitting the core lighting a match burning the
[01:27:09.680] Corpse still here, chin high.
[01:27:11.520] Knowing the route that I took was a recipe made my soul strive.
[01:27:14.480] Giving me clout and with strength in my legacy, making me king.
[01:27:16.700] Over my mind, focus the truth, spirit combined.
[01:27:18.920] Now that I bring everything I'm meant to be through, lyrics I'm fine.
[01:27:22.080] Before the record, there's many things that I have rejected and disrespected.
[01:27:25.960] My mental health when I don't correct it.
[01:27:27.980] My mother died from a cancer, I feel my soul's infected.
[01:27:30.920] I know she's smiling on me, the heavenly angel is free.
[01:27:33.740] It's hard to pray, I'm resenting God and I'm trying to shake it.
[01:27:36.900] To honor what she believed and valued is very sacred.
[01:27:39.680] Even if I disagree, my kids are believing in me
[01:27:42.660] To God and show that to quit is never the key
[01:27:45.140] In dark spaces, I seem to find out
[01:27:48.540] I have the strength in me to climb out
[01:27:51.400] My grip's on the edge, I keep pulling
[01:27:54.200] My grip's on the edge, I keep pulling
[01:27:57.200] In dark spaces, I seem to find out
[01:28:00.280] I have the strength in me to climb out
[01:28:03.200] I climb out, I climb out
[01:28:06.200] My grip's on the edge, I keep pulling
[01:28:09.040] My every finger was sliding because my spirit was hiding
[01:28:12.340] Too many thoughts are colliding, bashing my soul
[01:28:14.900] I'm like a zombie that's hanging, rapid deterioration
[01:28:18.280] I need my soul to awaken, tighten my hold
[01:28:20.700] Locked in, building muscle through my struggle
[01:28:22.880] Dropping, adversaries, mental pictures I will always crop in
[01:28:26.520] When I'm dealing with pain, feeling insane
[01:28:28.420] Running from goals, filling my veins
[01:28:29.940] Servers of hate, blocking the truth
[01:28:31.400] That I could use, healing my stains
[01:28:32.960] It's really getting wicked, my heart is too inflicted
[01:28:35.960] And heavily addicted to vices I submitted
[01:28:38.800] I really tried to quit it, I'm trapped and deeply knitted
[01:28:41.760] Twisted in a pit of existence, I know my mind invented
[01:28:44.700] Tired of being careless, no longer will I wear stress
[01:28:47.640] Daily in my life, enhancing all of my awareness
[01:28:50.460] I'm still learning, but I found my direction
[01:28:53.340] Resiliency is what I'm reflecting
[01:28:55.520] Dark spaces seems to find out
[01:28:59.630] I have the strength in me to climb out
[01:29:02.510] My grip's on the end, I keep pulling
[01:29:05.340] My grip's on the end, I keep pulling
[01:29:08.320] In dark space it seems I find out
[01:29:11.340] I have the strength in me to climb out
[01:29:14.300] I climb out, I climb out
[01:29:17.320] My grip's on the edge, I keep pulling