DJ Vlad & Elliott Wilson Interview Hit Boy

0:00Man, Elliott Wilson, man. With DJ Vlad, we got the drums and everything, man. The Twin Towers and Media, you know, we said we're gonna get together and try to choose some great content. You know, talk about the state of hip-hop with things, but also end of you, artists to the impact of the making noise. And I've end of you, this gentleman many times. Yeah. Hip-wrap. What's up, hip? Man, chilling, you already know. We gonna wave, wave, wave back. Yeah, sir, yeah, sir. And we actually had an interview back in the day. You and Guru together. We never actually had a duel. I know if it's you or whoever, but people hitting me up from your page. I tried to make a habit before and it kind of fell apart and so forth, but I've always been a huge fan, man. I appreciate that. You're huge. You like it, man. Respect. I'm a fan too. I mean, thank you. Seeing your show go crazy. Watching the press. I'm gonna say, that's a good guy now, this guy. Speaking of changes. Alright, that's for some, man. Sir is going on. We've all dealt with this thing called success, man. And I think that you really coined the phrase crazy with this concept of, you know,

1:02yeah, the hit story, which is your first project, you rereleased that. And now we have hit story two. Success is a dirty word. I think we all can relate to that. But like, what made you land on that concept? And what do you express when you say that? I mean, yeah, hit story one, hit story two is like 14 years apart. So that's a lot of life, a lot of growing, a lot of, you know, just me moving around in the music industry, trying to make my name and all that. And that's success is a dirty word, bro. It's, it's my dad big hit being on stage with Kendrick Lamar, you know, me and at the pop out holding my son. I was there. Me, somebody who actually produced for Kendrick. I played the side. I let him do a stand, get his shine. Okay, we got him on stage, right? He up from his stage. Yeah, exactly. Like success is a dirty word. It's me for getting spending a million dollars on our campaign. I blow it up, spent the million dollars on my pops, like just on the videos on the traveling, on the housing, on the clothes, on all the shit and just making our dream a reality. Yeah. And him still turning around and, you know, not respecting it, not seeing the vision.

2:05And it's like, I'm trying to, like, yo, you actually living it. Like, you know, me, you don't got to go back to none of that, you know what I mean? And then it's like, shit, like him catching other cases while he's out. Like, I'm like currently, like already paying for all this shit, or already doing all this shit. So you're kind of bringing new drama, not even to the show. New drama. It's like him catching this little case in North Carolina. Like, I had to fly out there. How to take like time away from my son away from my music, the shit of my lifestyle, what I do. Went down there, country ass, low town in North Carolina, hired a lawyer. Like the best lawyer I could find in the city, high price, got the lawyer. Went to the, went to the joint, went to the hearing, you know what I mean? From my pops, he come out mind you, he was just on stage with Kendra. And then now he's in shackles, had to tell red junctions and the fucking sitting next to the lawyer. What was the case over? It was over some PPP shit that he was doing.

3:05He was still locked up for the other big, the nine year bid he was just doing. He was some shit. But I think it was more so like, he had this wife he had that he met when he was in prison, like somehow. And when he got out, he like divorced her, you know what I mean? So basically she got mad and was like, oh, he put the PPP shit together. I, but this nigga was doing it the time already for some other shit, whatever. But I put a name on it and everything else like that. So they tied it up. I really don't know like all the shit. That's just what the basis is. But basically man, I go out there, I'm in the fucking courtroom. And the judge is like, ask me if I wanted to come up and say anything. I get up there. I start telling my whole life story about the hell I've been through, you know, with my dad, like him being locked up since I was three till I was a grown man. Basically fucking just never having that real time to really bond. And now we find I'm telling the judge that's like, we finally got something that's cracking. Like we finally got a real like lead on what we want to do in this music and snoopers

4:07embracing my dad Kendrick YG like the whole album with the game. Did I hold out with the game? You know what I mean? I went number one on iTunes, you know, man, all type of shit. And basically the judge is like filling my story. He's telling me, filling what I'm saying, like I fucking start crying and all type of shit. I'm talking about my whole life. Does your plan on speaking like that or is this kind of getting out? No, it just happened, right? And so basically the judge is like, all right, cool. I'm gonna give him another shot. I'm gonna let him come back to Cali. I'm gonna give him five years probation, no jail time. Okay. Wow. So he comes back and basically my pops is like, he just said, fuck the whole thing. He fired the lawyer. He went back trying to fight the case himself and they threw his ass in there. He was like, bro, I actually would rather be in prison and do these couple more years in there than be on a fire's probation. Really? So at that point, I'm like, what else can I do with it?

5:09What I'm talking to you about it. No, exactly. Like I put the money in your pocket. I gave you opportunities. Made you hurt famous, no, nigga. And it's like you basically just said, fuck me in that moment. And that's how I felt. So it's like, that's what success is a dirty word. It's why nigga like it's dirty. And it's not just about my pops. I still got love for him right now. Still got, you know, admiration for him. Like just for being my dad. And it's like, we're not seeing eye to eye, you know what I mean? What's the problem with probation? I mean, because the end of the day, I could be on ten years probation. Right. And I don't plan on doing anything. Like this. Like I haven't been arrested by ten years or so. I mean, my husband going to prison, I mean, going to jail since he was like a teenager and he got locked up in prison at 19. I was three. But a lot of the times you're doing that to maintain your lifestyle, right? But now he has you. He doesn't have to do anything to live his life. But he's used to be an institutional person. I'm saying he's not used. Like, my thing is this, he don't differentiate real life from prison life. It's all one thing to him. For me, I think about prison.

6:10I'm like, I don't want to be around for fuck sake. Miggas all day. I don't want to be around. I want to move. I want to eat what I want to eat. Get dressed, get fly. Like, that is hell for me. But him, he like, nigga, I do this shit. You know what I mean? It's like, so it's like, I could fucking do everything in the world, spend a million dollars on you fucking take you everywhere. Like do anything in my power to try to like give you a new lifestyle. And you know, he just so just ingrained in that life that is like, it didn't help. You know what I mean? It only hurt our relationship. And that's what success is dirty. You know what it is. Me not having relationships with a lot of niggas in the industry, you know what I mean? What you say you could do a diamond record with somebody? Yeah, that's so. I don't talk to you. Yeah. Niggas, Niggas and Paris is his second diamond record ever. Yeah. It's stupid as fuck that we ain't cool. But friction, time, other bitch ass and niggas talking shit. Whatever it is, it's just a lot of shit that, oh, make success a dirty world. And I just feel like if you have a certain amount of success with a niggas, you should

7:13do this explore the shit more. You think there's less ego with producers like you are alchemist kind of thing and artists just trip out like the MCs trip out like the college. I mean, I spoke the Nas at three years. We did 80 songs in three years. I don't have it spoke the Nas. You're not a run. I mean, I'm just six albums. 80 songs. I still can't believe you did that. I produced every single song on this album. I don't want to grab the kids. But we will go years like we can't get Nas to make an album. There will be like all the concerts, but where's the, you know, I got to put this out here, right? Because I can't do this interview without mentioning this. Let's do it. For a long time, I used to say that after a romantic Nas was the worst beat picker of all time. Oh, you started that. I started it. You started it. You see that? It came from this guy. I was frustrated. I was frustrated. I was frustrated. I was frustrated. He had his moments, but I felt like the magic from El Matic, which is one of my favorite albums, period.

8:14He couldn't quite match that after all. Do you think he stopped? Because with El Matic, he had like the great producers, East Coast producers of that time. Yeah. Come here, a lot of professor. Did you think he stopped like really collaborating producers and trusting producers? Like in a way, he finally probably did what you were. He's trusting your vision. You got a lot in. You're becoming a group. They're there, right? They're in a great star. I can't find a game. You heard me say that. I mean, I don't know if you know that it came from me, but you got to come from you. I've heard me from a scene. I've heard people say, and I've got to come from you. And I've told this when I interviewed large professor, I've told this when I interviewed Salam Rehmi. What I've said is, Nas is the worst beat picker of all time after El Matic. In terms of artists of his caliber, I felt that his beat picking disappointed me a lot. One of the things that sort of been brought up in a lot of recent interviews with me in terms of what I've debated with people is that I personally feel that Nas being at the caliber of artists that he is, I feel that he's one of the worst beat pickers of all time.

9:17You know what I'm saying? Like I don't know. What I'm saying is that just from the media perspective back then, you know, I was just getting in the game. The source giving El Matic five mics and acclaiming this out the gate for a new artist was huge for the culture to give him that stamp because, you know, you have to pay your dues. You're a new person. You got to get your little smalls right up. You don't get that big stamp. But Nas got that out the gate. I had that LeBron James kind of like, he's the golden child. So when he did the second album, it was written most of us like more hip hop era. We didn't like the commercialization of it. Like we didn't really like the Lauren Hill shit as much. And we were critical of it. But Nas time is going on. It's age very well. People see it as a classic. The drain, the deal, but Nas is coming in the third. I didn't. So Nas was going on. So Nas was going on. Like that's why Hey Me Now came after that and all that type of stuff because Nas felt like, I'm sure he's had these conversations like people were front of him because he grew and becoming the commercial star because Biggie took that and ran with that and eventually Jay would become that. So, you know, a lot of us that were pure, we hated on that. But looking back on it, again, I think when you look at some of the element of it, whether

10:19you could question his production era or not, I do think that he didn't value a producer as like, this is my personal. I want to work with this producer and him and Salam Rehmi kind of had that a little bit of times. But it really took like you and him to really like kind of carve that. That's crazy. I mean, yeah, man, that shit was just honestly putting up shots. You know what I mean? Like it wasn't like, I mean, it's shit is deep. You know, I didn't do the down. He wanted to get to one to where we did a lot of great work. But I don't see us working again. Really? Yeah. Yeah. For sure. Was there a reason why you're not working again? I mean, it's a lot of reasons. I mean, but it's something I just really don't want to dig too deep in because it's just like pretty deep. You know what I mean? But it's like, yeah, you know, respect to what we dig. Yeah. It accomplished in three years. So to me, the big challenge though, it's like, you know, we obviously reveal Naz is one of the greatest MCs, right? That exists. I think it's still many ways. You're still very underrated as a rapper, right? I feel like I'm underrated as a producer too, bro. I feel like almost all producers is pretty much underrated because the average person is only looking at the star, looking at their style and looking at what they're doing.

11:22They don't even understand really what a beat is doing and what it is. Like, you know what I mean? They just like even down to like, oh, this rapper sampled this old song, nigga, the producer sampled the song in bait and beat. You know, it's like the average person is going to say it like that. So I feel like we all still just fighting to really make this production thing respected as it should be. When artists, like I feel like, dog, nigga would be like this when you're working on his album, you might niggit. So when it's over, you, nigga act like he don't even fucking know you a lot of times, you know what I mean? And it's like, damn, that's how this shit is. Success is a fucking dirty word. But nigga, like, so it's a burly like, because we always say, you know, you know, red kind of people are shady, music industry shady. So to me, it's a bounce of like the same thing as the music industry. The same like this, just some shady business that they did a day and people get real kind of cut-rope and- It's shady business, but it's ego. It's ego. It's family and stuff at the same time. Yeah. Like all those things are balging against the success. I can't say that. There's a lot of things, man. This ego is, is, is security.

12:24This is like, you know, there's a lot of shit. Man, that goes into this, man, but whatever it is, you know, success guy, this beautiful parts, but you know, at the end of the day, man, I just didn't see too much, man. Like, you know, I mean, I, I'm sitting there telling you all like, I'm not seeing eye to eye with my own dad because I made him a rapper. Do you know what I mean? I love it. A legit one fucking rapper with albums out of shit and the nigga is still saying, fuck me. I mean, being a rapper is one of the hardest jobs. Made him a rapper at 50 something years old too. I'm gonna put that out there. Yeah. Get me a star at that age. Yeah. That's of being established. Like, for example, right? I could interview, let's say, Farell, right? And I know that it'll get millions of views. I know the way I structure it, the way I put it out, I'm almost guaranteed. This is why a lot of people, you know, I started paying people appearance fees. I paid over a million dollars in appearance fees. Yeah. Cause I started to understand, okay, this is a business and I could sort of eyeball it.

13:28I know if I pay this person 10K, I could probably make 20K and everyone eats and everyone's good, right? So I could do a beat with the hottest rapper, and it could flop. It just doesn't connect with the audience. So trying to create a hit song is one of the most elusive things in this industry. What I do is way easier. Streaming is way easier. This is why a lot of the rappers are going into streaming and doing interviews. They're so busy. They ain't not really doing shit, but hanging out with the rap. Right. So it's like, when you have a rapper and they're still trying to chase that, you know, they're not just a catalog rapper anymore. You know, if a guy is still trying to be on the edge, right? So when these rappers turn their backs on people, they work with it shouldn't really be that surprising at this point. Because they're chasing something that's the hardest thing you ever get. You see what I'm saying? And maintain. And maintain. Yeah. And maintain. Yeah. Anyone, anyone can get a hit record, right? I can't rap for shit. But. You probably could put a freestyle out with the right real rap.

14:31I don't know. I'm just trying to get more views than my shit. And I've been actually making music for 20 years. Exactly. Like, talent is not required for one hit. Talent is required for multiple. Ongemony. And, you know, time out the time. So here, I think with your music, whether you're just producing a rap and it's your songs, I think you find that great balance of like, I feel like you've made massive big records, right? You made sickle-molymended as a past. But I feel like you still lean more towards the art, right? Like when you, when I hear you out, I don't feel like you're chasing like, this is the first single. This is the second single. This is the third single. Like, it's more like, how did you approach a making music change through the years? Man, I had to realize that, you know, even though my name is Hit Boy, like, and that's like a natural manifestation, I'm gonna like stumble across hits. I don't really know how to make no fucking hit, bro. I just make music and some of them will become hits. You know what I mean? Like, and that's like how I had to look at it because when I did get Niggas in Paris and shit like that, I started to chase that. And I started to feel like if the record wasn't going diamond and Jay-Z and Kanye wasn't

15:32on stage performing the shit 20 times in a row, it wasn't a success. Remember that. Yeah, they'll just keep letting it go. But I was in the all-work out there. I'm doing backseat for the staff. I'm in Paris. I'm doing backseat for the staff. I'm doing backseat for the staff. I'm doing backseat for the staff. I'm doing backseat for the staff. I'm doing gody for A.S.I. Rocky. I'm doing one train for A.S.I. Rocky. I'm doing a bunch of different shit. But I'm like, fuck, none of this shit is Niggas in Paris. Like, you know what I mean? So you almost like chasing that shit like from playing. It starts to make you feel like you're not doing as well. Like, you know what I mean? That's how it made me feel because I guess the shit was just so astronomical seeing these my favorite two rappers. And this is one of the biggest songs. You know, they ended they show off with the song. It was like, you know, that shit did a lot to my ego. You know what I mean? That shit did a lot to the people around me. Just like. Also career wise, you don't want to be defined by one record. I think me mill struggles with that because dreams and nightmares are such a... Right, he did part two. Right. And it's like no shots in me. He's still dope. But like, you don't want to be the Niggas in Paris guy, right? Like, how do you not beat it?

16:32You have to show... That's what the whole Niggas was about for me. Like, let me really, that's why I went so hard to make three, I mean, you know, six hours. Six hours. And just like, let me show Niggas that I'm not just Niggas in Paris. I'm not just trophies. I'm not just like this energetic club producer. Like, you know, I can make anything. I think like I can make RMB shit pop. I don't work with JLo. I used to be in a studio with Pussycat dolls in early M.I. career when I was nine. 19 years old because I was fucking on polo to dance. He was made as my DJ and won Millie who was Jimmy Harvey's nephew. So we always just, you know, running in a circle and shit. And, yeah, man, that whole shit, like my last, like, probably since like, racks in the middle, up into the nod shit and whatever else has been about me just, it's just showcasing, like my art showcasing that it's not about just me trying to chase a hit. Because anytime I chase the hit, I'm never fucking made a hit anyway. And that's why I said, I don't know how to make a hit. Because when I chase them, it don't happen. But when I'm just cooking and having fun doing what I do, that's the hit. That's when the shit becomes, you know, platinum, double platinum, whatever the fuck it is.

17:36And also your versatility, maybe you don't have a signature sound. Like it's, this is exactly. Yeah. And I feel like that's why I feel like sometimes my brain ain't respected or known as well because you can't really pinpoint my sounds. You know what I mean? Going from all the different shit that I do, all the different types of sounds. I feel like, you know, with a must do, you just, as soon as you're getting shit. Yeah. You know what I mean? Even down to like a mechal with the tag, like certain artists, certain producers, you just, you're gonna know who it is. Me like, could be anything. You know what I mean? It could be anybody. But when you made the Paris record, you know it was gonna be a monster hit or was it just another record in a bunch of sessions? I mean, originally it was just another record until I got in that energy and started being around Yegan Jay and fucking just going to the observatory and seeing how everybody stood up when Niggas and Paris played because Kanye had told me already like, oh, we got a smash. Obviously Niggas wasn't sending Niggas and Paris off here, but we didn't do that in the studio together. You know what I mean? Oh, okay.

18:37You just had them to beat. Yeah, we had done other songs. We had done a bunch of other shit, but that was a beat. I just, I'll happen to see it. I wasn't thinking too much of it. But when he told me it was gonna be crazy, like, you know, I start thinking like, okay, this shit could be something. And then when I went to the observatory in New York and they played the song, everybody went crazy. I was like, yeah, that's just, you gotta tell us about us in Paris, though. This is what I know if that was a time. So if I had a niggas, I was talking about him, Jay. I was like, I gotta see Niggas in Paris, right? So, hook my own travel. Of course, you know, I get credentials to go to the show, but I put my own travel when I'm there. And I think I made, I had made hip-hop maybe once or twice before, but hip-hop was there. And like, not only did they do the record and start that whole like again, again, they put hip-hop on, hip-hop on stage. Like, young producer, like, I don't know where, like. Man, that shit right there just gave me fucking PTSD, man. Like, I'm gonna produce this sound. No, no, no, listen, though, because I'm gonna tell you why. It sound like a beautiful situation, right? Okay, so it was two shows at Bercy back to back, right?

19:38First night. Bercy. I mean, that one was having a time in my life. I got a Hennessy bottle. I'm not in a room. I got his game on, I'm assuming a little too much is going on. Crazy, right? So look. Sorry. I boom, I go close to the stage. I see Hove looking at me. He like, he like, he said, oh shit, like he mad. I was like, oh shit, right? So he pointed at me. Then he told me, come on stage. So walk around, come up on stage. I'm all fucking, you know, Hove is like, man, that's an incredible young producer. Da-da-da, man, he made one of the biggest records of all time talking about Niggas and Paris. He like, boom, you come over here, come stage, Da-da. He's like, nobody touched the stage before. You know what I mean? He's like, he actually only one person. I think Rihanna had, came on the wash the throne stage. And that was the only other place, right? So me and Rihanna, boom, I get on there, I staged, I was a great night, Da-da-da. Next day, come around, they got him walking around, Paris shopping, they're going to G1, I see hanging out, Ivan, Yeh homies, this shit, he's been a money kickin' in, I'm feeling like, motherfucker, right?

20:38I get to this show. And like, we all in the dressing room, like everybody, Yeh Hove, I can't believe the, I say this, everybody there. You was in that month, fuck it. So everybody just like, start clearing out. Boom, they just time to defer them to go on stage. This is before the show. The nigga, it's like, boom, everybody go out, me and Yeh walking out, just nigga, Yeh tat me. They had no touch in the stage tonight. And I'm like, what? What? I don't know, I don't know no more. I'm like, nigga, y'all just hit the whole North American playing my song, 100 and 15 times, nigga. And the y'all overseas, playing the song I produced, this many times, and you gonna not even let me get three minutes to shine, I think it like, you know, so it's like, we always had back and forth, but like, that's when I was like, I gotta get the fuck out of this good music shit. You know what I mean? I was signing a good music. That's how you were signing on a production deal. So everything I was doing, goating, all that shit, Kanye was getting a piece of that, Rihanna, whatever, I was working a bunch of shit.

21:39He was getting a piece of that, but just for him to say that, I was like, oh, this is something else, you know what I mean? Like, this guy is running there in the sense, right? And it's like, it's so crazy, like the whole nigga's in a pair of shit, it's like, if you in the music, you know who Hit Boy is, you'll probably know I did that song, but the average one for a kid still don't even know. I did that song, and I'm gonna tell you, when we was just at the Yankee Stadium shit, I'm like out there having a blast, like nigga standing crazy penthouse sweets in New York and shit, like just living, like doing my shit. This is like month or so, whatever the shows were. So like basically, I had some cash on me. I'm just drunk as fuck, like got the cash on my phone and shit, like, you know what I mean? I put it on my story, and I was like damn, like I just saw, you know, J perform, you know, clicking niggas and perils, you know, like, these is records I made back then, producers keep going, like this is the type of shit you can get. And it was like, I put that shit on my gram, and I put that shit on my Twitter, two some million views on a bullshit ass post,

22:41but it educated people. And I'm like, I didn't been on the fucking the news, the niggas, ABC news, I didn't have interviews with Elliott Wilson. I didn't told niggas in so many fly ways that I've done it as a perist, but you're already act to this bullshit little money. It's like 50 bands, bro, it was nothing, I think it like, you know what I mean? It's like, but for people to view that so many times and get educated, like, oh, I didn't even know you didn't even get a perist. I didn't know you did click. I'm like, this world is insane, bro. It's insane. The Will Ferrell part and the perist record, was that your idea or someone else's? That was your idea. Okay. Well, movie was that a blaze. Let's go. Let's go. It's so work still. Yeah. So that comes in. Yeah. It's just so picking off. Perfect. Left field, you've never really seen that in a song before. Exactly. Even Will Ferrell, I just think interviewed about it. He was like, he's like, he was surreal, hearing his voice on a hit song like that. It fits so perfectly. Yeah, it's crazy. Will you first heard that part, what you think? I thought that was crazy.

23:42Yeah, I was like, fuck did he think of this shit? But, but, but, but, you remember, I remember Jay telling me in the beginning though, it's funny. They really wanted to be a group like the way you and I, I mean, you and I was kind of like, they wanted them to call him the drone, right? Yeah, but I was like, well, you got to put Jay Z in Kanye because of all the catalog and stuff. So they had a, I think that we're going to agree that they weren't going to do the song without the other person, but that's going out the window like, Jay does that. I mean, that's one of Jay's biggest, you know, that in PSA is like one of his turnips. I'm so glad to record it because Kanye's probably not going to do it, but Jay now does that record. Kanye doesn't do the right thing. He doesn't, he doesn't, he doesn't do it. I'm sorry. I'm gonna show it because he doesn't do it. But I went to one of his shows the first time you did the shit with the globe. Yeah, he performed it. He performed it. But I think with Jay though, it's become up there with PSA is like, you know, especially to, again, a whole new generation because also you think about the bounce of that, they might not even assume it's a hip-hop producer that did that right. I mean, because it sounds like it's a Skrillex. Yeah, it's like you could get a 10-pound size. I'm not saying that. So you could think what that sonically is that too. So I know. For sure. So you got to claim in this era because, you know,

24:42people don't know. 100. Now you were in a fucked up deal during that whole era, right? Crazy. Yeah, that's another layer to this. Right. Yeah, I was in a copov deal with UMPG and Paulo D'Arth 18 years. 18 years. How long? 18 years. Just Paulo D'Arthony UMPG, man. You have a lawyer when you started 18-year deal? I did, bro, but this is the thing. Remember, I told you Paulo was managed by DJ Marmelie, Jimmy Irvings, and FU. And then, Doug Davis, Clive Davis, son was Paulo's lawyer. So when I did my deal, when I did my deal, you know, I mean, they basically had me hired as a guy Matt Middleton from New York. Me and my boy, Jason Cash, we both hired Matt to sign our deals with, you know, same deal. And as soon as I did that deal, Matt got exed out. And now Doug Davis was my full-time lawyer. So that shit was just a fucking ring, you know, it was a triangle, you know what I mean? He was representing Paulo and working with DJ NM, but didn't try to represent me too. So I was never, I never had nobody that really had my back, you know what I mean?

25:45It was more so like, shit, we got this thing. You know what I mean? Basically, you know, in the MDRC and different wording in the contract is what made it go for that long. So when did you feel like it was bad and was like holding you back? And also how could you create and make these prolific productions and still be known that the business is not where it needs to be? To be honest, bro, like I did the Dylan O'Savvy and that time I worked with different people, J.Lo, FlowRider, I did the Eminem and Lil Wayne dropped the world. Me and my boy Chase produced that. We did a bunch of shit. But when Niggas and Paris came, I'm like, now Niggas, this is superstar level. Like, this is an actual hit. Number one on hip hop, Billboard, where's the money? Like, you know what I mean? I go to the company and they're like, oh, well, no, you sign this. So we don't really got to honor. Like, you know, we're going to treat you as a viewer producer who never made it still. Just keep earning out on a normal level. So I'm like, I never got to feel rich. You know what I mean? I never got to feel like really on like that.

26:46You know, from that point, this was the thing that was like so disheartening because, again, that's part of the trying to chase a Niggas and Paris trying to chase a hit of that success where it's like, you know, I'm feeling like such a failure because I'm like, maybe if I'm making another Niggas and Paris, I make a bigger song. I'm getting the shit right. Backsy freestyle, gody, flawless, filling myself. I'm slugging it the fuck out, Niggas, and I still can't get out this deal. So I felt like I was in hell. My Niggas just wake up every day. Like, we're all shit just quit this shit. Or I should just talk to them. I'll pop some prison. Niggas, you want me to have something just run up in the office? Okay. So, there's a question right now. When you heard about the whole push-I-stee Kuchime situation, were you kind of like, yeah, I get it. I see. No, I see. I see people in my comments. Like, you know, like, you should like push-I-stee at one point. You have like a push-I-stee thought at one point. I mean, more or so just like, you get a close. I'm going to get a close. Get a close. Get a close. Get a close.

27:46Get a close. Get a close. Get a close. Get a close. Get a close. Get a close. I just know where for real. You see where that nigga at push-I-stee? Like, I don't want to be there. So it's like, I thugged it out. I legit went through the fucking, you know what I mean? I went through hell, bro. All right. So, if you were to count how much money got to you from the Paris record, how much money you got? I made $1 million on publishing just off that. Okay. So you made a million, I did, for sure. What would you have made if the deal was different? Yeah, maybe five million. Maybe I'm fucking no, you know what I mean? But you still made a million. So it's not like you got robbed. Over time. Over time. Over time, I did. From start till now, you know what I mean? For sure. But it took a while to get that money in it. I mean, one thing I think I heard in your favorite though, you did get it on in print with Jimmy Avin. I think at the time you signed it. Oh, exactly. So I was able to count the balance that shit I was trying to get those total tragedy. Yeah, no. For sure.

28:47Like, something is don't even get that. Like, you know, and that was all. I had no idea what I was doing. Like, you know, I was trying to have artists signed to me, trying to rap and produce and still be a hot producer too much, bro. I'm like, I'm giving away songs to my artists that Kanye is asking for the beat for. I'm trying to, now I think I'm standing on. You dumbass. Like, I should have just gated to get the beat. You know what I mean? H.S. H.S. H.S. H.S. H.S. H.S. H.S. H.S. H.S. H.S. H.S. H.S. I am telling you guys, there has been a major aspect of me at righ I got my pops on this song. I got my homies on this song.

29:48We feel like emotionally tied to this shit. You know, so I'm like, bro, listen, take the beat. You know, do your own version, use the hook if you want to and you can put them on it. And you know, well, both just use it on our albums. When we were in person, he like, all right, for sure, it's cool. And then the next day, I got an email, long winded, basically just saying like, if you don't give me this song, we ain't working together no more. Oh, from Kanye. Yeah. So it's like, I'll test that stage and give me that beat. Damn, you know, again, another fucking gut punch. You know what, I was like, damn homie. So like, it was like, either let this nigga homie right now or say fuck, fuck it nigga. I guess we just ain't gonna have no relationship like that. And we ain't had no relationship like that. So it is what it is. But you know what, I knew I was sacrificing a lot. I knew that it would take me a lot longer to be like famous. It would take me a lot longer to like get the respect, you know, because like, I feel like when you just connected to Kanye, you get the extra cloud, even if you ain't that fucking good. You know what I mean?

30:48Like, I was on a level making niggas and parrots and click type records, TheraFlu, all this shit. And you know, whatever bro, like the shit is what it is, man. But see, but it could be worse. Let me tell you a story about how bad it could really be. Yeah. Even though he never admitted this when I interviewed him, I interviewed Sir Mix a lot. Yeah. Sir Mix a lot. And we talked about this in the interview, has made about $100 million of Baby Got Back. That was crazy. Over time. Yeah. Because think about all the movies, commercials, it's still getting streamed. Yeah. It's an anthem, right? Yeah. Charlie's Angels big budget movies used Baby Got Back. That's a crossover record, yeah. Mm-hmm. He produced and wrapped on that record. Yeah. Oh, I forgot he produced a record too. How did that beat come together? I was just telling you the truth. I love techno, man. I love, I mean, I'm a big craftwork fan. And I ain't going to be in front of heavily influenced by craftwork all in my career.

31:50I've been a craftwork fanatic. And that's where it came from, man. Yeah, Punish, Punish did all the scratch his man. That cat is, he's a beast too, man. It's like, yeah, he had a lot to do with it. That's the show. He didn't program any of that. No, that, I mean, but he influenced it in what he was playing. He was playing some craftwork mixes and stuff. And that's where I got the idea to keep the techno. But the story I heard for way back in the day was that his DJ, DJ Punish made that record. He bought it off for $500. Mm-hmm. $500. Yeah. Imagine. I'm scared. Looking at that $500 and that $100 million. Yeah. I'm not. That $100 million. Isn't that no way you go fight for that? I mean, I guess if they saw it. He sold it. He sold the beat. Paperwork, every paperwork and everything. Because he got to think that that was not like mixed lots first album. That was like his third album I think. Yeah, yeah, yeah. He was a local cessation of stuff. Yeah. But you know, recruitment was signed in by that time.

32:50And you know, recruitment I think executive produced it. You know, you messed around with it a little bit. But he knew what he was doing, record wise. My post-eal and Broadway was already out. And beepers was out. So he had already made money. Yeah, but not the big massive crossover. Yeah, he had that big hit. And you know, he heard the beat. That's what I heard. Hmm. Paying 500 bucks. He had the song in the beat or just the beat. He had the beat. Oh, he wrapped on it. Damn. Wow. Yeah. I mean, you know, it's a lot of horror stories. I'm just like, you know, that's mine. That's mine. That's, you know, that's this is my shit. This is the shit I've been through. Like, this was shaking me, you know what I mean? And molding me to move high. Move, which is just more like me. Y'all see, I, Niggas, every time I pull up somewhere, they's like, you doulo? Like, I'll be wrong. I'm gonna make it like I'm in. It's like I'm in too many Niggas, man. Like, it's just so. You say it early though, like I don't see the West Coast, but you don't, you don't, you don't get caught up in any of the politics stuff I see. Yeah, you know, how's that happen though? Have you been rocking with someone who hates someone else? And it's like, listen, if you go work with this dude, I don't know. It's gonna be some tension.

33:51Not that they're threatening you, but it's like, nah, not, not really. I mean, but I have had, started shit that I'm not going really speak on because, yeah, I don't, you know, I don't feel like, she's gonna get too deep. But yeah, I've had a little weird, certain things. Certain things. My fuck is trying to position themselves for their own gain, and but making it look like it's for you, you know what I mean? It's just a little weird shit, man, but that is what it is. Well, I remember on your first hit story album, you talked about the whole East versus West. There's a whole song about that. You kind of break down the big E, two pod, everything else like that. Right now, Keith, he's on trial. Yeah. Has me speak. I was watching some of that yesterday. And, you know, I did his first interview right here in this room, right right where you're sitting with the drum set in the back. I was like, this drum set look familiar to me. Yeah, I was wondering. Yeah. And he had already written his book, because he's holding up the book in the interview, right? Yeah. This is my book here. I would like to, you guys to buy it and get the real truth instead of from a cop or some fucking industry people,

34:54some bulls, you getting from a real motherfucker. So go get the book, you know, and you can get the real truth about this whole situation. So when you see him on trial right now when you're a West Coast guy, and did you know about the two pod story before the interview started coming out? Of course, yeah, for sure, but I mean, you know, I've been to nine years old when pod dies. You know what I mean? Like, we've all known about the Orlando story. I've been known about it. It was like, hip-hop's worst, you know, kept secret. So when you see Keithy on trial right now, what do you think? I mean, I'm, shit, man. If pod get his justice, I just hope his family actually feels something from me, you know what I mean? His mom is going at this point, it's like, yeah. You know, I just hope the people that did actually really care about him feel like, just a closure. Yeah, it's a closure, yeah. I mean, I do talk to people around them, like me and Edie are really close and so forth. Yeah. The story is like, how do you feel? I mean, you brought a, you brought a, you brought a to light. Like you said, people forget that he wrote a book,

35:55addressing these things that wasn't like Vlad, brought that from out of nowhere. It made him laugh. He read the book, glad that his research, Vlad interviewed him, but your interview is kind of magnified his position. And now it's finally being brought to the courts. Well, I felt that up until the point I did that interview, it was all conspiracy, it was, should got him killed. The government had him killed. He's still alive in Cuba. They switched the bodies, they did this. There was a helicopter, there was this, there was that. And I'd always heard the story, the story is always consistent with everyone I talked to that was either there or new people that were actually involved. Mm-hmm. So I set out to actually lay out the whole story from beginning to end and put all the pieces together. And at the time, he had already written the book. So I read the book and I'm like, do you want to talk about what's in the book? And he was like, yeah, so I said, okay. If you, you know, he felt confident that he had a proper agreement that protected him about talking about that. Yeah.

36:55So I said, okay. Any eyes at the law, okay. And the eyes at the law, I said, okay, if you want to do it, usually I'm very careful. You know, for example, like Draco, the ruler called me when he was in jail. He was facing that murder case. And he wanted to do an interview and get a side out because he'd been dragging on for a bunch of years. And I said, I'm not going to do it because this will be part of your case. Whatever you say, something slips out wrong and I'm not aware of it. I don't want to be the reason why you get alive from prison. But as soon as you get out, I got you. And as soon as he got out, he was right here on Vlad TV. So I generally try to protect people that I interview over and criminate themselves and getting caught out. They got you, Miss Kastuto on. Yeah. But in this case, he wanted to do it. He wrote a book. Yeah. Let me see. He wanted to pull up. It's like, you know, I'm sure like, you know, some names I named today might fail away after what I'm saying. So it just is what it is. Yeah. I mean, but this is my recollection. This is my reality. This is how I lived it. You know what I mean? Yeah. I mean, if you're in the day, he'll probably be found guilty. Yes.

37:56It seems like it's hard to get around, describe, you know, putting yourself into a murder. Mm-hmm. Like if I kill someone, I don't know anything about it. I don't know what you're talking about. Who? Never met him. Take news. Like I talk about shit, past the statute of limitations. Or you know, for example, like your dad, if you know, when your dad taught him about doing an interview and we could talk about what he did that got him in prison and the time that he did. But I'm not going to talk about active crimes that he's doing. I don't know about that shit. And Vlad, you don't feel compelled to go to Vegas and check the trial out. You've done your work here. Yeah, I'm cool. There was a shootout in front of the trial. Wow. You heard about that? Yeah, I mean, that didn't surprise me. Yeah. That could happen. I mean, yeah. You know, yeah, that's the whole nothing. Because you got to do it. 30 years. It's just stirring up a lot of stuff. I seen a reading documents from 98 and all type of shit. I'm like, damn, this is crazy.

38:56Talking about situations and conversations they had with Keith, you do back in the 90s. Like, wow. But back to your business, you did get these things for so far, finally, with this. Yeah. People pulled a dime. Rock Nation. They're very popular lately in the news. Jay Zia Desiree helped you with this. Not exactly how does one get out of such a horrific deal situation? I mean, I was being managed by Jay, you know, rock nation at that time. So they basically, you know, this was me vittin' the hoe like, bro, I got emails in my email. I was like just looking at the other day from like 2018, 2019 to me emailing the whole universal staff. Well, fucking polo just going, crying, going off our niggas like, you know, we ain't like going crazy. So it's like. I was just, yeah, for sure, you know, just like vittin' for the first, filling that frustration. Like, he was sick of mold that came out at that point. And I was like, okay, man, they're like, y'all, we're on the record. Another thought. Really going to keep playing with me like, you know,

39:58just basically like just, you know, he felt my gripes. And he was like, yo, this is a terrible contract, like type shit. And then whatever they did, they had the conversation with, you know, whoever at UMPG, whether it was Jody Gerson or whoever came back with this 2021, he was like, I wanted to be out then. I wanted to be out in 2021. They was like, not gonna let you out still, but we'll give you an end date in 2025. So I had to do them last four years, you know, me. And I feel like a prison sentence, you know, me, oh seven to 2025. The music business though is a really rough place because signing a new artist or a new producer, you make more money with scratch off lottery tickets. As a whole, right? Take someone that no one's ever heard of, sign them to a deal, give them some upfront money, pay whatever you need to pay, whether it's studio time, he needs a car, he needs a place to stay.

40:59Cause I told you I had to be beginning, I spent a million dollars to make my dad go pop. You know what I mean? Like, I didn't make nothing. I made zero off that. I'm saying, it's like, yeah, I get it. And that's your dad. So there's a certain level of spillover fame. Your fans will go check them out, cause that's your dad and so forth, right? You're a multi platinum producer. Take a rapper, no one's ever heard of or a producer, no one's ever heard of and put some money behind them. Probably if you look at it as a whole, not just record labels, but the deep boy who's got the local rapper who's hot, that's gonna put some drug money behind them. The real estate guy who feels he has an ear for music, and wants to start a record label, you know, the doctor who thinks he's a musical genius behind the scenes that wants to finance. It's hard to make this a move. It's causing it or whatever. Money or no. 99% of the time, you will lose all your money. Is that right? 99% of the time. It's a money suck for sure. You will lose all your money. Get in, radio, promotion, all that stuff.

42:00Exactly. But then when you have a hip boy who's the 1% and he makes a bunch of money, that money is used to finance all the failures of the other 99%. That's right, so you get fucked. Yeah. But, because you're the 1%, if you were the 99%, you would have to give that money back, right? Everyone who lose money on doesn't owe you that money back. That's just a write off at that point. So unfortunately, your situation is fucked up, but it's always gonna work this way to a certain degree. Because you have to finance the 99% of the failure. There's no other business that I could think of. Like I said, I could do interviews all day long. Occasionally, I lose money, but most time, 99% of the time, I make money. In the music business, you will usually lose money. How many artists do you think Dr. Dre has signed to him over the years? Again, I work with a budget, maybe like 100. Joe Beast. You heard Joe Beast? Yes, I want to face it from you. I work with Joe Beast.

43:00He never put anything out. I'm not going to do Joe Beast with the party. Brooklyn, the girl. Brooklyn, they were all more priorities than the game. At one point. It's just like this. That's motivation for me because nobody talks about the 90 other rappers that didn't work for Dre. The four or five that did work. Right. That shit overpowers everything. And that's like, that's motivation for me. It's like even with just dropping albums and dropping songs, that shit don't go number one or meet my expectations. Just go do another one. You know what I mean? Just keep that shit pushing. Like because people, they pay attention, but they're not paying that fucking closer to you. Yeah, what is success for success is a dirty word in your mind. Like what is it? What do you expect from a project? Man, just seeing people embrace my artistry and my growth. You know what I mean? Like I feel like I when I started, I was at super novice level just putting my words together, getting my delivery right, just picking the right beats that I should be on and all of that shit. But now just dialing in and seeing people like, damn, Rob, I've been listening to you. Since the start, I can see the growth.

44:01I see how much better you've gotten, type shit. And it's like that's motivation for me to make more shit. When I see my, just filling my own growth personally, but then when I put my shit out, and I see other people can sense it too, it's like that make me want to keep going. So you feel like a better rapper? I want to hunt it, for sure. Well, I started out as a producer, right? All through college, I was making beats at NBC 60, at ASR 10, and I reached this moment where I had to look myself seriously and say, I'm never going to be Dr. Dre. I'm never going to be DJ premier. There's something about them intrinsically that I don't have musically. That's what I pivoted into DJing, and eventually video and so forth. I got a lot of success. DJing, I got mixed tape of the year and so forth. So I was like, okay, now I'm in my rhythm, but I knew, and I still know, I'll never be a great producer. What is this? What is this in his shows, though? That's a producer. No, but I'm musical. I'm musical in audio. Yeah, yeah, yeah, right from the West. Like, at what point did you know that you had something musically

45:04that other people just don't have? Because it's a very rare kind of gift. I can't even call it, man, just I guess just seeing how people gravitated towards me, even before I made it, like just being in my mom crib, I would have just, you know, local artists, always coming to the crib, like I had this black wall with a silver marker, and that bitch was filled up with just artists. So I was already getting prepared to be a producer and to do my thing, like early, like 17, 16, 18, whatever it was, like, you know, I just always had people gravitate towards what I did. And I was able to create like a community, like people wanted to be around me, producers, writers, artists, like they always just wanted to pull up on me. So you thought it felt the earliest, but what was prodigy level? For sure. Was it because, cause you have beat makers and producers, right? Yeah. Is it because you were actually producing, you were actually with the artists helping them work on the hook, structuring the lyrics and so forth, they're not really. I haven't been through both phases, you know, the prodigy's the beat maker and just, you know,

46:06and then, you know, once you start getting in there and you start engineering and then you start doing more jobs than sitting making a beat, like I engineer most of the notch, like most of the vocalists recorded by me, literally just us touring the room, you know what I mean? So that's like your six albums out. Exactly. Exactly. The cause, wait no more, fucking like, now it's gonna be here. I want engineer Kang here to help three. Yeah, it's two hours lost. But instead, he'd get there and play the right beat. That nigga's right on it. So it's like, you know, For a Noscow Changes mind, that shit already mixed. No, no, no, for sure. So you're engineering and, uh, impredeously. Okay. Were you ever writing for any of the artists? For sure. Yeah. Believe it. You guys, you have to, you have to say, but it's in the credits though, isn't it? Not all the time. Not all the time. She was those writing basically. Yeah. Okay. It's definitely had that session where he's produced with somebody. He's like, I better do this motherfucker. All right. You know, I just might have a better line. I might have a different way to think about it. But you know, man, I definitely got my pen on some credits, man,

47:07that I, you know, me on my own songs that I didn't get credit for. Mm-hmm. All the rappers you ever worked with, who was the one when you're like, this is just an alien? The way this rapper or singer puts things together is like nothing I've ever seen. And I've worked with all the greats. Mm-hmm. Shh. It's a good question. I worked with so many greats. Yeah. I mean, so many. Well, I guess like, you know, just on a personality, like Kanye just got electrifying energy. So like, he could just be in a studio rocking, saying some bullshit and you're still going to fill it. He could just fucking off. Just, you know, but it's like this process. His energy is going to make you like, damn, this just sound hard, you know what I mean? Or like, damn, it's the energy type shit. But yeah, I think like that's someone fucking he and he definitely an alien for sure. Okay, so the artistry between Kanye and Jay. And I've had this kind of, you know, me and hip hop just didn't interview it.

48:09Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, I've seen that. Yeah. And Kayon Bull. Yeah, and he's obviously worked with both of them very closely. Who is the most talented artist that you've ever worked with? I mean, it's easy to say, Kanye. That's what I would say. Yeah, because like they say, geniuses of process is not a talent. You know what I mean? And he's to me a proof of that. So if you want to really say talent for the talent's sake, it will have to be Jay. To me, well, I would say that, you know, Jay is a genius and Jay is probably the most talented. I say, there's always the art like who is the better artist? Kanye or Jay Z? Or who's the better rapper of Kanye or Jay Z? Both great artists, two different type of artists, you know, I mean, I went to the Ye Show with the Globe. He kind of far away from the people. He kind of like just doing an artsy thing. Like, yeah, Jay is up on Yankee Stadium rapping. As if it's a B. Yeah, that's what I said.

49:10You know what I mean? You get up on like, you know what I mean? It's two different things, but they great artists. Like the rapper shit, fucking Jay Z rapping the verse, this close, like he sitting here was just us in the room. He sitting here, I'm sitting right here. That's the first time he ever raps. Like awesome, I got fella to me. Like I didn't know what the fuck I was hearing. And I was like, that's the A.V. And I like, I forgot about the time we was in a halftime. It's 2013. I was working on Beyonce. I, and you know, oh, was just kicking it out there. We was like able to chop in this shit. You know, I was coming off from Niggas and Paris and clicking on all that shit. So it was cool. And the Niggas just wrapped a verse for me out of nowhere. Pro like, no beat, nothing just like, and I was just like, I mean, just came up with it. The way like it floated in the fucking air, bro. Like the words was floating in the air to me. Like I'm like, oh, that shit was different, man. I'm like, okay, this is what a rapper is. You know what I mean? Yeah, I've always felt like Jay Z the better rapper, traditionally, but Kanye's the better artist

50:12because musically Jay can't do what. Well, Jay's not a producer. Well, not even, I'm not just just in terms of the singing, the harmonizing and so forth. What Kanye puts together, not the production wise, but vocally, I don't think Jay could do that. Whereas Kanye could rap. Maybe that was quite a nice Jay. Fucking Jay Cohen on auto tune, trying to sing a verse. You know what I mean? Like we wouldn't even find that shit. So that's what I said, just two different things. Like Jay is like a rapper's rapper. You know what I mean? Yeah, it's just like the clothes, the fucking lifestyle, like everything that comes along with it is like what we enamored by. It's like the MC artist, the beat. Like, the one's the ultimate MC, one's the ultimate artist in terms of, you know, I love for both of them, you know what I mean? Hey, man, change your life. The way so how does your life change? You finally, so this is 20, with 20, 25, the business is now in order. You just start getting massive checks. Like how does your life change? Like, yeah, I mean, you know, just doing good business. And moving pieces around the chest.

51:13You're just placements now, Vlad. I see less placements is this. Yeah, not because I mean, you know, I'm doing a really been foggy lately on just like scoring shit and just doing movie type stuff, you know what I mean? I feel like, not even feel like, bro. They cut checks faster. They just like business is clean. I mean, I'll do some shit on the rapper. I'm, I'm come out, they start the tour. I still ain't been paid. The fucking, up front fee. They get it. It's like, bro, you get tired of it. You start rapping just when I tour. You get tired of that, bro. It's just like, you know, that's why it's like, you know, doing business in different ways. And it's other ways to showcase your production and showcase your music versus standing next to a singer or a rapper like TV's film is all that he's different, you know. And that you're more financially stable. So you're less tolerance, probably, for the knucklehead. James the rapper down. For sure. Otherwise you get to check. Most times when it comes to a new rapper, it's usually a rapper producer team, right? It's usually, a lot of times the producer

52:17taking some rapper under their wing and then the two of them make magic together and they blow up together off that sound. Have you ever had, because I feel like you're almost a reverse. Like you got picked up by some of the big dogs kind of early in your career. But have you ever had moments where it's like, okay, I'm gonna take this unknown rapper. I'm gonna throw my all into it and we're gonna make magic together and I'm gonna introduce the world to this new rapper. I mean, definitely when I had my deal with Interscope and I signed a sign of gang of my homies, you know what I mean? Right, but which of them actually blew up though? I mean, shit, none. And that's my whole shit, you know what I mean? I spent the money, I spent the time, I sacrificed beats that could have went to Kanye and went to big artists to give them to my artists doing multiple albums from my artists. I didn't go nowhere and that's, they get success. But is that door closed for like, if you ran across a young rapper that you've heard something special, whatcha here? I mean, I'm not gonna say this close, but I'm more so would just wanna make music with him or fuck, I'm not really looking to-

53:19The business, bro. To like, you know, chase this, this is just a money suck, bro. So money pay, it's like, it's a lot of shit you gotta do with Interscope. On top of that, it's an emotional thing. Like, even down to trickle down from my dad, he brought my little sister out here named her hit girl, Elena, after me, his name is Big Hit because of me. You know what I mean? It's like a whole family tree. I actually met her. I actually met your sister. Exactly, right? And it's like, I didn't grow up around my sister. I didn't really know her like that. You know what I mean? I've seen her when she was maybe like two, three, four years old, sometimes when she moved to North Carolina, right? She moved out here, nigga. Put a whole team around her, I put money behind her, photo shoes, you know, me and the maintenance, whatever the fuck, like making sure she had part of what I'm doing. And basically, I posted one real on my page of her rapping over, I think it was a beat I did. She was rapping DJ premiere, gang, boy, one, all these motherfuckers that's tapping in, bro,

54:19y'all sister dope is fuck like, you know what I mean? All this shit, bro. She started like making it seem like she was putting me on. She started making it seem like, you know what you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, I don't know what you talking about, you know what I'm like, you know what, I couldn't, I'd better like literally like the pose, this her first pose on a gram, it's got thousands of comments. You made it for the country. 18 year old girl rapping, she like, she like my dad twin as a female, like they got that super gangster as energy, you know what I mean? Just like, but so people take to that and they was fucking with her. But like after a while, it just started to be like, I was working for her, like she trying to tell me how we need to move on what we need to do. So I was like, that's, that was my final straw of me trying to put an artist on. Like if my dad and my sister turned against me and started acting like they was doing me some special favor, nigga, I have nothing coming, bro. Like you know what I mean? I remember my man DJ Greg Street, he sent me this interview.

55:20He did. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Shout out to Greg Street. He did interview with LA Reed. LA Reed was talking about how he had a deal with Clive Davis, think for the face records. Yeah. And he was in Atlanta and he was signing all these artists. And he was saying to him, Clive Davis and Clive was passing on all of them. Right? And he was like, I don't, he was frustrated. Like no one, Clive was just basically acting everyone he was sending over. Right? So he went to New York and he met with Clive. And he was like, I just don't understand what's going on here. I'm signing all these artists. You're churning them all down. Clive was like, let me play some before you. You played Whitney Houston. Right? And LA was like, oh, I get it. Better artists. I have to sign better artists. Okay. Now I get it. The bottle's a little hot. And he went back and that's when we signed outcast and that's when he kind of went on their run. Do you feel that trying to put on your dad, put on your sister, put on your friends, you're

56:21not focusing on purely the best artist that you could possibly get? Because you're trying to be loyal and you're trying to be family and so forth. Yeah, that's a part of the downfall of it too. Like being loyal to a fault and just wanting to see the best for my people and make good on my word. Like before I made it, I told a lot of my homies who I signed that basically trying to put you on when I got on. I got on and I did my best. I didn't wear a best. When it got a crib in Tarzanah, big ass crib, studio, every room down there had everybody moving. Recipe for fucking disaster. That was a terrible idea. But I was able to learn. I was able to learn. I was my college years without going to college. I blew millions. So just trying to figure it out and I figured some shit out for sure. You can't put on your friends. Your friends just got to be your friends. Yeah. When you try to do business with your friends and your family, it always goes to hell. You got to find the best possible people you could find and put them in those positions.

57:26My staff, I've hired hundreds of people over the years. None of them have been my friends. They've always been the best people I could possibly find. It doesn't matter who they are, what they look like. There's sexual orientation. Nothing. I don't give a shit. If you could do the best job you could do. For sure. I'm a pay you. I did. I did have one other artist signed to me named Kay Roosevelt. It was an army artist, right? Oh, yeah. And he had a song that started to kind of move. It was called Do Me Now. I probably went on a six hat, put it in a rotation. It was moving. I remember the label coming to me, right? And this is how fucking just don't know shit. I didn't hold up any like, well, we should triple down on this. This is actually working. I'm like, but my other artist, my rap group and my other homie who rap, like, I got to put some energy into it and then I just kind of let that moment die off. You know what I mean? And it's like thinking back, like, maybe if I would have really developed that artist and really put, you know, everything into him, shit could have been something different. But I guess, you know, it just wasn't meant to happen that way.

58:27Like when I heard Khalid, the rapper, the singer Khalid, that blew up a couple of years after Kay Roosevelt, them nigga sound identical. Really? Except that Kay Roosevelt actually produces his own music. So it's like, this dude is like really nice with it, but timing, whatever the fuck it is, you know, just like, it just be like that. And I'm listening to Khalid, like, what the fuck bro? I had an artist that is like on this level just like a year ago, type shit, two years ago. You know, it's like shit like that, that fuck would you sometimes. You just have to have, you know, do you look back at the leave and you would choose surviving and being successful? Is it really come down to success? You have to have a certain resilience to surviving his business? 100 man, you got to, you got to push through no matter what, no matter what. Like bro, really was like the straw and just like fucked up when I knew that the Kanye relationship would never be what it was. You know, we was actually traveling around together. We was working a lot. We was making. I'm the real protégé. Kanye, yeah. All right. I'm the best student. I'm the best student. I'm the best student, you know what I mean? I'm the Kanye ever had.

59:27I'm supposed to produce a rapper shit, you know what I mean? But it's like, I was like fucked up about that, you know, me for a lot of, for a long time, just like feeling like whatever it was, like that was my fucking idol. That's why I studied, like getting close to him and then not having that relationship no more was just like, damn, that I fuck up, you know what I mean? Yeah, but Kanye circles back around. Because Kanye really does have mental illness. Let's just put it out there. Like, and that's what makes him great to a certain degree. Again, I feel like a lot of the shit, a lot of the back and forths and spat. So you would have, I should have never taken under that shit personal and I did, you know what I mean? Just, you know exactly. I should have, but I feel like I should have never taken personal because it's like, you will say fuck your dead homie. Say anybody. Most of the homie say, oh my dead homie. Kanye said fuck his dead homie. You know what I mean? And it's like, if he had said that, I shouldn't have never taken under that personal from his nigga. I mean, I wasn't as close with him as Virgil. And even though we made hits and kicked it or whatever, like that was his guy.

1:00:29So it's like damn bro, like he really is on some other type shit, you know? I was actually supposed to have an interview with Kanye for the bully album. To the point where he sent me the whole album, we were going over questions. There was a certain studio he wanted booked that was expensive as hell to shoot or die. He didn't want the drums? No, he didn't want the drums. I offered him the drums. No, he wanted this one white studio, all white studio, the Kardashians film ad, she was an arm and a fucking leg. But you want to do it? We want to do it. We're going over questions or certain things he didn't want to talk about, whatever, whatever was going on. So he was talking points. And then we got right to the end and it was like, yeah Kanye is trying to figure out his medication right now and he's not lucid enough to do interviews. If you notice his bully album, the first album he ever dropped, no interviews. One print interview. Not even just a little boy, right? Not New York Times, whoever. There was no interviews because he's still trying to figure out his medication because he

1:01:29really is bipolar and so forth. So you can't really, you know, this is the same guy who did hailed Hitler songs and so forth that you can't really take what he says completely seriously. Because that's just how he feeling at that moment. Still got so much like, he wanted the funniest people on the planet to me. Like, it's niggas funnier than the lot of comedians just watching them just being around him like the outlandish shit. He'll say, and like the most, he'll say, he'll say some blunt shit to a big actor, big rapper, big, what's the crazy shit you're gonna do? I'm not even gonna repeat that. I'm just saying, I've heard him say some shit right like in front of people's faces where it's like, hey, you. I'll tell you because I did a, because I was talking about, you know, how I did an interview with Kanye around 2005, I think. Yeah. Right. And so this was during comments, B recording sessions, right? So we go in the booth. Record plant.

1:02:30In LA. Yeah. Like so. It's not open no more, but I used to be a spot. Yeah. I think that was a spot, right? And so we go in the booth to do the interview. It was an audio interview. I'd lost it since then, right? And during the interview, I said, you know, I just realized before this interview that you produced stand up for ludicrous. And you were the last person I thought to do this beat because it's so different that all your other beats. You know what Kanye said? If you hear a hot beat, I should be the first person to stand up. You think about it. Yeah. When you hear a hot beat, whatever it sounds like, I should be the first person to say, you think about it. And he was dead serious on that stage. And this was before he had a hit. He had his own hit, right? Yeah. This was before Slow Jam. Right? He was still kind of the producer at that point. Yeah. But he, yeah, he just had a confidence that they didn't really make a lot of sense to everyone. We were told that before you got here about, you know, we all, in my era, like, you're

1:03:34a great producer. You on this run with Jay-Z, you're doing all these things. Like, you could be the greatest producer of all time. You could be a good doctor. Drake, why do you want to rap? Like, we didn't, we discouraged him with the rapping side of things. Through the wire was a good cool moment. But it really was like, Slow Jans was a hit. And then all of a sudden, he had the cause drop out, the core of the record already done. But like, we didn't view him as he's going to be a rap star like it alone. Why is he so hard for a producer to be like, look at as an artist? Just to speak to the, yeah, shit, I feel like when you watch, you know, his interviews and see that he'd been drawing shoes and since he was a kid and doing all that, I feel like everything for him is that conduit, producer, to rapper, rapper, the fashion guy, like, all it's like, he's just always using this one thing to get to the next thing. But I mean, I feel like people like the box, people in, man, period point blank. They just like to, this is what I see you as, this is what I see you for. And that's all I'm except. And it's like most people are closed minded in the world in general. So, you know, it is what it is. But if you got that passion and you feel something when you do other things, follow that shit.

1:04:36Is that what led to when you did the project with Alchemist? Like, it's both great producers, but you like, you both enjoy rapping. And you rap well. Why? Why come together and do a whole project, Glowford? Being a fan of Alchemist, man, and seeing him do his thing. Like, I was seeing him go on stage with fucking Larry June rapping that role in loud festival stages doing this shit, playing, you know, DJing and then come off and start rapping. And I'm like, that shit is hard. That's like, you know, that's what the shit I'm on. Like, I'm trying to be on and it's like, just linked up. I'm like, man, let's do a song like, but instead, like, you give me a beat. I'm a rapper. I'm gonna give you a beat, you rap on it. And it'll just be a different little twist. Once we made that and the slippin' in the darkness, joining it, they got a few million views. I'm like, we might as well do a whole album. We just, you know, we end up doing a movie and doing a album. Yeah, movie's wild. Yeah, yeah, yeah. We still gotta drop that too. Yeah. Well, I'm 53 right now. You're a hold? 39. 39. Once you hit my age in the 50s, the biggest difference you see with people financially

1:05:38is not who made the most money throughout the course of their career, but who invested. Early. And how big those investments have gotten, right? But when I first started making money in 2011, I learned about stock investing. And I have a whole Vlad Stocks membership tier on my YouTube channel where I talk about my actual portfolio and how I invested in Google back in 2011, it's grown like 3,000 percent and so forth. Yeah. You yourself. Yeah, you had a fucked up deal, but the money was still coming, right? And now the money's getting better. Were you investing your money up to this point? I was invested in myself and my people. I'm an artist, my family, like, you know, just not like on some stock market type shit. Like, but my best investment has been myself. You know what I mean? Investing in making sure I'm always having a place to work, like no matter what, no matter if I am down to my last little bread, I'm gonna get me a little spot I could just cook up in regardless. Like, you know, and it's like investing in myself in that type of way. Yeah, but you get to a point where you're good, right?

1:06:41You have a place to live. You have whatever car or cars you want. You have the jewelry that you want. Got some extra money. You're not it. You know, you're not making ends meet right now, right? Yeah. Have you thought about that? Oh, no, yeah. I'm not JP Morgan on speed out. I'm, I'm checking. I was sitting back there. I'm watching. Like, you know, it's like, you know, I used to wake up and fucking check the gram, check Twitter, I wake up and check the stock market, check NASDAQ, S&P for 100. Like, I'm watching that shit. Seeing if it's in a green, if it's in a red, what is doing to my shit? Like, yeah, I'm watching. Like, what stock should you invest in? All type of shit. I'm not invested in like all the grip of stocks. There's a ton. Yeah, just like the overall market. Okay. The NASDAQ P500 basically, okay. I mean, over time it's a good way to do it. I'm gonna play the long game for sure. I'm gonna work with that because I want some stock tips. Off-send it. Yeah, nah, for sure. I'm gonna be great, man. My life. Okay.

1:07:41There are three, when I look at my life, I have three greatest financial decisions, right? Number one was starting flat TV because that financed everything else. Number two was investing in stocks because all the money, all the profit coming from flat TV was going into big companies like Amazon, Google, Tesla, and so forth. Yeah. And number three was getting a prenup because once I left a lot of work, I was like, it actually helps you. It actually protected what I actually made. Like if my prenup, if I didn't have a prenup with a divorce I went through, I would probably just quit flat TV. I know that I had to give my ex half of what I make. I'd probably done right now. No one would try to sit up. I wouldn't be able to stuff like that. I'll sell the drums remain, baby, the drums. The drums are here. The prenup, the pre-dumbs are here. The drums are standard. But you really start to see though. People can make a lot of money but they can spend it all.

1:08:44Right? If you're, I could have been buying Rose Royces and flying private and so forth. And I did it. Instead, I was letting the money work for itself. And it got to the point where the money's making money, more money than my actual revenue from my real job. To me right now, flat TV is a side hustle. My stockboard folio is my main job. No, well honey, for sure. That's how I'm feeling. But the money I was making from when I started to actually make some real money getting a deal with Jimmy and Fiddestia, God blown. Bro, that shit was good. I wouldn't always still just like had PTSD of like fuck. Like me and my mom was just standing in the wick line. My mom was just on section 8. We was just sleeping in the living room on a fucking floor with a blanket. And pillow was like no couches and shit. Not that fucking longer ago. So I'm still like in my mind, I got to get out this fucking deal. So I don't got to go back to that. I mean, I'm like, this still a possibility that shit could happen.

1:09:45So like I'm just fighting to get over that part of my life from Niggas and Peris till a few years ago type shit. You know what I mean? So now having just the right moves and having the right team around me and shit, I'm able to stop and just like put money into money markets and whatever the fuck it is. And having a wealth manager, not having business account since I was fucking 19 since like oh six, oh seven. But wealth managers is a whole different thing. Yeah, a wealth manager is cool and I've had him before. Yeah. But you should learn how to do it yourself. No, for sure. No, really. No, really you should really learn how to do it yourself. Oh, study. Because a lot of times these managers will put your money in places where they get little kickbacks on their own. I feel it. And they'll divert and they'll set your shit up in a way where it's so safe that they don't look bad, but you're not really going to get real gains the way they, you know, I had a wealth manager back in 2011. They put my shit in bonds and different stocks, all that type of shit. I sold all that shit. I started reading about War Buffett and how he did it.

1:10:46And started learning from the books that he read like, you know, Benjamin Graham and so forth and David Fisher. And I'm like, okay, I think I could do a better job. Well, I talk about this more off camera. Blast stocks, man. Everyone sign up to Vlad Stocks where actually they have my real portfolio and I talk about my, what I buy and sell. What made you decide to do that to share the game, share the game? Well, because I had a lot of people that were making all this money around me like, like little baby, it was a good example. Right. Little baby got rich rich. Right. Because. A juice world. A juice world. A juice world. And then the white kid that he signed. I forgot what it was. It was this white kid that way. Yeah, he blew up and then, you know, Justin Bieber's management signed him eventually. And they're making all this money and they don't know what to do with it. Right. They think, oh, real estate. You know, they're not making more land. But the stock market is always outpaced the real estate market historically. So what I started doing was, you know, I would get these phone calls for people like, baby

1:11:50or Mazi or whoever. And I would say, listen, this is what I do. These type of stocks I invest in. You know, I sometimes I would show my actual portfolio and I'd be like, I don't want to be involved in what you're doing because I'm not a financial advisor. I'm not trying to take a piece. I'm not whatever. This is what I do. You go off and do it. If it works out cool, come back and do interview. You know, if not, I don't gain or lose either way. I'm not in people's pockets on any level. And like, baby made millions and millions and millions. Like he started going heavy into Apple stock and so forth and that shit. He had a lot of money to invest. So he made millions. And you know, and I sat down with Boosey, I'd put baby on the phone, I'd show my stock portfolio. But what I started realizing is that most people just wanted to hustle. They wanted to just keep making money and keep buying cars and putting, you know, like Boosey put money into his house. That's cool. That's cool to put a lake in your backyard. But that property is not really an investment.

1:12:51You're not really going to sell Boosey estate to somebody with a lake in the back because there's so few buyers that are going to want that. This is just things they want to do. You know, community on the street, right? Exactly. Exactly. So I started realizing that people are just chasing money and then what I learned before I started making money was how easy it is to try to flip your money and lose it all. Right? So when a game's people, this one scumbag named Johnny, I forgot his last name. He was a big real estate guy. I gave him some money. You know, he had the Bentley and all that. I gave him some money. Didn't even have a contract to invest in some property that he gets busted by the feds and then all that money's gone or you know, you try to flip your money and you end up losing it every time. And I learned like, okay, let me start seeing how people really do it on a high, on a Forbes level and everyone was investing in stocks. Every single person on the Forbes list, including Jay-Z, are not there because of his record sales.

1:13:56They're not there because of their touring. They're there because they own stocks and huge companies. Good investments, man. Yeah. Exactly. So, no, man. Yeah, no money. No, I'm only going to get this music though. Success is a thirty-way. Yeah, yeah, exactly. Well, the music, you use the music to kind of funnel the money into the bigger investments and so forth. And yeah, like to me, that was the second greatest decision ever because you also had to learn the mentality of investing, right? It's not about chasing after, you know, like you got to think, I have Google's talk from 2011 that I never touched. That it's up like 3,000%. That's sad. So, 10,000 churned into like 300,000. Right. You see what I'm saying? Like, is that type of numbers? So, once I learned that and it got to a point because money doesn't buy you happiness, but it does eliminate a lot of one happiness.

1:14:58The stress of getting, you know, paying your bills, being able to take care of people around you. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I support over a dozen people right now. Like, I literally support over a dozen people and that brings a certain level of happiness to me. And it's not like I'm supporting them and I'm fucked up myself. Yeah. Right. You gotta be able to do it. That's why I tell my family, like, you know what I mean, if I can do it, then I'm gonna do it. Yeah, if I'm not. But you can't let family take advantage of you. Right, but you're not at all. And there's a trap, right? Because, you know, you good? You good? Yeah. I was doing it. I was doing it. I was doing it. I was doing it. I was doing it. I was doing it. I was doing it. I was doing it. I was doing it. I was doing it. I was doing it. I was doing it. I was doing it. I was doing it. Really? Yeah. Yeah. And I was doing it. Yeah. and he was basically taking care of all these people and he didn't want to tell them no.

1:15:59So now he starts flipping bricks of cocaine with Southwest T and that led to his murder because drug deals go bad. And you got these dudes, these still in the hood. He's still in the hood, studio's still there. Everyone knows where he is. But you don't wanna be in your 50s, trying to flip a brick. Not at all. You see what I'm saying? And you see like with your dad, he's still trying to thug it out. He's probably close to my age, right? You're like 55. Yeah, he is today. There you go. Happy birthday to you, baby. Two years older than me. But he, you know, trying to thug it out as you get older, it gets less and less effective. Because you have less and less time to work with. I'm not shit, ain't effective at all, bro. My positive thing, I can't remember that nigga spinning a couple hundred dollars over, I spent the million dollars on them on nigga. Like you don't mean who put a million dollars. Yeah, it's on our campaign. I went to my, I had to go, I had to go to my accountant,

1:17:00like once he got locked up and he had somehow got some random people around him that wanted to just see like what the investment was that I put into him and I just started going through everything, wrote like housing, clothing, traveling, video shoots, photo shoots, every fucking thing. It was like added up to like 1.3 million on what I spent on our campaign. You know, a lot of that was just to give him, I'll like give him opportunity, give him a career, you know what I mean? And it's like it went down the fucking drain, you know what I mean? Well, I just said the loyalty, I swear, that's your dad. He had just done a bunch of prison time. You have money, you have these hit records and so forth. But to try to break an artist in their fifties for the first time is essentially an impossible task if you look at history. Even like the noblies, like the two chains of the world who finally got in their groove, it was still like in their mid 30s, maybe late 30s, right?

1:18:02By the time... In the name I've been doing, I think. And they had been like consistently, you know? The fact that I got to sneak out in my game, stays with kids, songs with Snoop, songs with YG. You know, we never seen a father in son, like this, like a legit way, like that, right? Like where the son, the father on versus a master, people and his kids on or something like that. That was just like a different thing. And I saw like, you know, people into the story of it. They was fucking with like, and like this is a dope situation right here, you know what I mean? So just like, I wanted to just keep feeding the people, keep feeding, you know, the opportunity for us to bomb, finally. You know what I mean? That was like a big thing too, like actually getting to spend real time with my pops. Him getting to know my son, my, someone's three at the time. He's six now. You know, it's just like all that shit, man. It was healing, it was fucking, you know, it was traumatic. It was a lot of shit at one time, man. And that's just like how he is here live wire, like he's liable to do anything, you know, any given day.

1:19:03And it's like, that's a dangerous type of person to deal with in general. Do you feel like you were trying to buy your dad's love in a way? I don't feel like I was trying to buy his love at all, because I feel like we always had like love for each other. Like I always feel like we wrote letters. My grandma was like, this Jehovah witness lady, resting piece to her, like she was the nicest person ever. She always made sure like, I want to see my dad drove me to see him and made sure my letters got to him all of that shit. So we really did have a bond. And we talked about this shit years ago. We talked about, and then I'm gonna get out one day, I'm gonna do this music shit. I just was more so on my, I want to empower myself. I want to like stop having a chase placement. I want to stop having to chase these fickle-ass rappers that are fuck what you want today. Then don't fuck what you the next. I'm tired of this fucking industry really. Like let me do some rogue renegade shit and put a 50 year old rapper on who's actually my dad, you know what I mean? Like whatever it takes, I'm gonna triple down. That's the type of person I am. I'm just determined. So if I got to spend some M's to prove a point,

1:20:04I'll do that shit. Even if I lose them. Cause I know I got an opportunity to get this shit back, you know what I mean? I'm 39, but I still feel fucking 29. Some people say I love 29. Niggas, so I'm just like, What are you talking about? What are you talking about? May. I got what? Shit. Got some months. I mean when you look at production and hip hop, you usually see this hot producer have this run. You have a signature sound. Right? It'll be like, okay, this is three years. Three years. This is snap music. Here's the hop snap music producer and he's doing everyone's shit. Remember, you know, you can go back to beat nuts. Everyone wanted to beat nuts beat that day. That's because production was just like this customized thing and had personality in tour. Like the guys behind the music, that was like, I'm sure Timberliss personality is like weird like his beats. Yeah, yeah, yeah. They're like a real colorful like his beats. Dr. Dre dark gangster compton, like, you know what I mean?

1:21:04Now I feel like there's no bloodlines. There's no fucking rapper from the West could just be on none but trap beats, you know what I mean? And Niggas, a damn they're accepted. That would have not been accepted back in the day. But you're like a small percentage of producers that have consistently had hit songs over the course of years. And also don't exactly have a signature sound. Like when I hear a hip-boy track, I couldn't tell you it was a hip-boy track. Right, whereas, you know, you can usually hear a farrell track. We hear a Dr. Dre track. You can hear Timberliss track. The great ones. You can hear it right away. Right away. Which is almost, you know, a gift and a curse. Where it's like, okay, you know. You would not produce a tag. You know, you get five, six songs on the radio after a while, mobile music is tired of you sound. Little John, right? He was selling the same beat to multiple people. Right? Usher and Pee Poplo had damn near the same beat with his songs associated with it. But little John is not putting out, you know,

1:22:06his songs anymore. I mean, he's a legacy artist and he's doing well and not a shout out. I know John, you know, shout out to John. Sure. But it's like, you have these runs and he definitely had a sound as well. But they end and that sound has just played out. Yeah. Right? You can't, and these guys just never really come back. Yeah. They go on and figure out that these are DJs. But is that even more reason why it should be an artist, right? Because you always have to tell your story. Yeah. And your story. That becomes the end. Because I feel like nobody got nothing to latch on to them. Be like, this is the head boy thing. This is the head boy brand. This is the type of drums he uses or the type of keyboards. Like, I'm just like a raw ass nigga, bro. Like, I just make shit. And that's just the rawest music I can make in the moment when I'm making it. And that shit far worse, supposed to be like me making my own music and doing my own albums is just like completely about empowering myself not having to chase nobody, not having to wait on the nigga, not having to go in a studio and make 10 fire songs with a nigga

1:23:06and they don't drop none of them. And then they drop some other shit. And I'm like, I don't, I'm not gonna be trying to have an ego, bro. But I know music, I love music. I'm like, what's fucking beat is nowhere near to this fucking beat I sent you, my nigga. Like, what are we doing with? That's the hell you got to deal with, bro, as a producer. So it's like, if I got a hard ass beat, I do. And I see niggas like, oh, nigga, you should like certain little, you know, niggas like the troll and shit. Oh, you shouldn't be rapping on this beat. You should have gated to that. I send beats out. If I got some hard shit, I'ma send it to whoever I got access to. If they don't hit back, I'ma rap on that bitch. You know what I mean? Or, or I'ma just hold it until I do get that right. I do get that right session when they get picked. And I was another thing that discouraged me too. And I'll make some shit. I'm super hype about loving it, going to studio, playing for artists and they just skip right over it. I'm like, damn, thinking that shit wasn't good. But then like three, four years later, I might sell that beat. I might sell that shit to the right artist. That would have been making it a bigger song anyway. You know, and it's like, you know. Somebody has to align.

1:24:06It's a time and watch. It's a line, man. Yeah. Have you ever been in the studio with an artist or gotten a song back? From an artist that you produced where you're just like, I do not want this out. This is not working. Man, no. Like, most of the time, you can't believe my name. That's what he did. That's how he did it. That's how he learned how to do it. I got all the sessions. Have you just been like, I don't... I guess records he mad me to be proud of you. Yeah, like, they don't go as well. Probably not in the body like no major artist. Like maybe you just like a random one. Like, I was selling a beat to him. Like, this shit is not that good. But fuck it. I need the chili. I want the chili. Like, so I'm gonna go for it. I'm gonna do it. But, yeah, it's like pretty much, you know, having an opportunity to produce that shit is... I don't like... I used to be too press-ass. I feel like about my beats and shit. Like, I didn't... You want to hold shit. You know, I'm not gonna play this for this person. Like, I'll play everything for everybody. It forces me to have to make more fly shit. More fire beats. Find new pockets.

1:25:07Like, get all this shit going. I'm gonna go for thousands of beats. Like, thousands on thousands. So, like, let me just keep making shit. Yeah. I mean, appreciate your time, man. Yeah. Especially with the personal life stuff. I know you don't really touch on it. But you never go as deep as you did today. And I'll pause. So... Appreciate that. You know? I appreciate we finally got to sit in on a solo dollar. My God. Is that? Now, Ellie had been supporting me since the beginning. He made this happen, man. It was an interview magazine. Did you do the double-axing? Respect magazine. Respect. Respect, that's what I saw. Yeah. But he had a song, Jay-Z, the interview, told me about manifesting stuff. Like, Jay-Z, the interview song, and then he was running around Austin, Texas, you know, South by South West and all that. Oh, yeah. So, in the video, you see the first time he comes up, that's me, I'm like, in a car, just riding around. I was a surf club, where he's doing shows, walking the blocks, hopping on stage, hopping off, going in, and that's South by South West. I was just... But this is a new musical. I was like, you know, I remember Vlad, we're coming with the double-axing stuff like that back. It's a DJ. DJ's, yeah. How long y'all know, you tell?

1:26:08He knew Leo Rose, and that is his work with me and stuff. You know, the thing about what we say is, like, people, again, success is the challenge we all face, but there's respect for people that survive in this motherfucker in longevity, and really deal with the ups and downs, because this shit is hard. Not hard. The longevity is the hardest part of it. Yeah. Anyone could have a stroke of brilliance, and it just takes off, especially in the social media era, right? The dumbest shit could become dumb. I'm a shit. I go viral for dumb shit once a month, right? It's not in the conversation. You got to catalog. Right. But to do it five years, ten years, twenty years, and to be able to just kind of pivot, right? I mean, he started out doing print, and then he had to go into my world where I was already kind of establishing myself. Video stuff, right? I prayed off podcast. I read the rap, right? I read it. So forth, you had to start making beats and being a fucked up deal. To, you know, rapping, to making the connections, because, you know, doing six albums for

1:27:11Nas, that had to start with some sort of friendship of some sort, for him to really work with you on that level. At least I thought so. You don't need me, but we're going to leave it at that. Yeah. But to be able to maneuver yourself into these types of rooms is an art form in and of itself. Because people are constantly fucking up their position. You know, when you talk about, you know, and I met your sister before, right? I think Stevie J was having like a little dinner. You know, that's right. He invited me. She was there. Okay. That's right. Briefly matter. It's like, it's easy to feel like, okay, I'm hot to death. I'm going to start shitting on everybody. And then you think it's going to come back around and never does. Yeah. Yeah. It just never does. Yeah. And when you end up messing up a relationship with someone that's way higher than you, they

1:28:12have no reason to work it out with you. They're not going to be beefing with you, but they don't have a reason to come back down, work it out, and then reestablish the relationship, right? That relationship is gone forever. We fumbled that. Forever. You got to go find something else. And there may not be something else. Yeah. So to be able to, you know, like, you could say, well, I got a lot more hit records. In the future, but you may never have another hit record. That's just the reality of life, right? I may never have another interview that goes super viral, right? That's just the reality of putting out content and so forth. So when you see the people that are 5, 10, 20 years in, they're all some shit. And I feel that you have been on some shit. You have been on the cutting edge. Yeah. It's a bitch. You was like the young dude of the day and like, you know, there's something there. Yeah. Guru, who is a legendary musical figure, right? You may not have a Jay Z the way we all know him if Guru was not on that engineering table putting it together.

1:29:12So you doing what you know from, that was the last time we saw each other. That must have been like, I don't even remember that shit. I think the Paris record just came out because we're talking about it. That's 2012. 2012. 2011. So this is probably about 2012. This is like 14 years ago. It's crazy. Right. Me and you didn't have kids back there. Yeah. I had just put my first tape on his story. Exactly. It was the first one. 2012. Exactly. You know, it's like when I had my deal like Spotify and Apple Music and shit, it wasn't even a vintage. It was just about to start. So I got signed even just at a, you know, it's like, you don't look at that. You don't think about that type of shit. But it's like, I was real hard on myself. But it's like, I really, I got signed by Jimmy and he was like, gave me a couple million dollars and dropped me off and said, do your thing. You know what I mean? But as he was going to beat starting beats and doing about the shit. You was going to put out of the old school. So it's like, yeah, exactly. I was like, still looking at it as the old record business. I'm going to hit this bread. I'm going to give my homies.

1:30:13I'm going to do this. It's going to blow up. The game was changing. You know, the streamer shit was on the way. So now it's just like in retrospect, you know, I did my best. But like, you know, everything wasn't set up for it to be what it should have been anyway. Yeah. So congrats for what you got here, man. It was now, yes, sir. Appreciate it, man. Give me your flowers. If no one else did. Good looking, man. And yeah, man, a lot of big huge hits under your belt. And I know there's a lot more hits on the way. Well, man. It's worth it. It's worth it. It's worth it. Yes, sir. Oh, yeah.