Speaker 1: Hey, Guys's Edge Martinez is an encore presentation of my
Speaker 1: interview and sit down with the amazing Usher. He's having
Speaker 1: an amazing time. Super Bowl Bowl was phenomenal and after
Speaker 1: Super Bowl him and his wife got married in Las Vegas.
Speaker 2: What a day for Usher and his wife.
Speaker 1: And I think that this episode speaks to his happiness
Speaker 1: and why he has having this moment in his career
Speaker 1: that he's having right now. And he says to himself
Speaker 1: that he chose happiness, and he's put a lot of
Speaker 1: work into being happy, and he's put a lot of
Speaker 1: work into his relationship, and I think you'll see that
Speaker 1: in this episode. I think it says a lot about
Speaker 1: his relationship with Jen who is now his wife, and
Speaker 1: it also says a lot about the work that they
Speaker 1: put in to make this relationship what it is. So
Speaker 1: congratulations to the newlyweds and I.
Speaker 2: Hope you enjoy this episode.
Speaker 1: Andi Martinez in Real Life Podcast, I mean.
Speaker 2: Do we welcome hand with everybody that we appreciate him.
Speaker 2: He feels loved. But my crew they're like, yeah, whatever,
Speaker 2: what he made us work on Sunday? He made us
Speaker 2: work on Sunday.
Speaker 3: Yeah, Uh sure, baby, let me tell you something.
Speaker 1: I came to Vegas to see your show on Friday
Speaker 1: and Saturday.
Speaker 2: I've been working so hard, so Saturday I was going
Speaker 2: to do nothing.
Speaker 1: I was gonna catch up on emails and do nothing,
Speaker 1: and then I was going to come interview on Sunday.
Speaker 4: That was a plan originally.
Speaker 1: I went to the show on Saturday, and I was
Speaker 1: I know it was gonna be good. Your Russia, You're
Speaker 1: always good, but there's something really magical happening out here.
Speaker 4: Yeah, right, like it's different level.
Speaker 5: Goods were greater than every other person who came out
Speaker 5: here to interview. I wanted you to have an entire weekend.
Speaker 2: Experience, thank you.
Speaker 4: So we started on Friday and then.
Speaker 1: Come get why am I coming Friday for a Sunday interview?
Speaker 2: I think you set me up for a whole weekend.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's really magical, but it is.
Speaker 5: It actually is magical, and not just in part, you know,
Speaker 5: you know, based off of all of the hit records
Speaker 5: and the fact that we're here just celebrating years of music,
Speaker 5: celebrating twenty fifth anniversary in my way, but even some
Speaker 5: of the special guests that come. Fat Joe came the
Speaker 5: first day.
Speaker 2: Joe is here. Who was Donald Jones?
Speaker 5: And Jones came night was it was Robin Thick, Keith Sweat,
Speaker 5: and Teddie Riley. Yeah, so I got like this this
Speaker 5: donut in the middle of the show. It's like a
Speaker 5: special little moment for the you know, the the unknown
Speaker 5: to happen.
Speaker 2: Yeah you did. I saw Chris Brown came.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's like a moment to give people their flowers also,
Speaker 1: but then also have this like connection with them with
Speaker 1: everybody and.
Speaker 4: Well specifically in Vegas because it's supposed to be an
Speaker 4: accelerated experience here. Right.
Speaker 5: So for me, rather we've done Wreckords together, or rather
Speaker 5: we've just been friends for years, you know. For me
Speaker 5: and Robin, we go back, you know, to Confessions and
Speaker 5: the first time I ever met him, I was just
Speaker 5: so intrigued by his talent.
Speaker 4: So we finally got a chance to work together.
Speaker 3: It's like a smoothness like Jesus had about him, you
Speaker 3: know what I'm saying.
Speaker 5: And then he but over the years just building a relationship,
Speaker 5: I was like, yoah, there's no way possible.
Speaker 4: I'm gonna do this when or not? Have you come
Speaker 4: out and just share a little love and in the
Speaker 4: face records, right, yeah, it was the last night. Yes,
Speaker 4: La Reid was in the house. Mark Pitts was in
Speaker 4: the house.
Speaker 5: Donielle Jones he La didn't see that show, but I
Speaker 5: was backstage talking to don Ellen. I'm like, yo, dude,
Speaker 5: you realize how important the Face was for just the
Speaker 5: like the ground ling, like we set the fore plan
Speaker 5: for all of what Atlanta is. There was plenty of
Speaker 5: people were doing things, but not quite as sophisticated as
Speaker 5: La Reid and Babyface with the Face records, so being
Speaker 5: able to celebrate him. I mean, if I could get
Speaker 5: everybody up, he'd be great. But you know, we are
Speaker 5: the Motown of the South. So I was like, yo,
Speaker 5: I want us to be, you know, remembered, and I
Speaker 5: want the audience in the world to be able to
Speaker 5: see and share in that moment rather they know the songs,
Speaker 5: or rather they now will go back and understand.
Speaker 4: Oh wait a minute.
Speaker 5: Usher used to he worked with Donnield Jones' first album.
Speaker 4: Yeah, he did, And that's kind of how Motown was, right.
Speaker 4: They all helped each other.
Speaker 5: Rather they pitched him by way of song, by way
Speaker 5: of you know, production, or even choreography.
Speaker 4: Right, So you know that's that's a little bit of that,
Speaker 4: And I love.
Speaker 1: That you took so seriously the thought of like bringing
Speaker 1: Atlanta to Vegas.
Speaker 5: Oh without a question. Hey, look, everybody else brings that culture.
Speaker 4: You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 5: You got like South American culture through you know, sirch
Speaker 5: the Sole and all of those incredible shows here and
Speaker 5: the strip teases. We know what that is for the world,
Speaker 5: but you don't know what it's.
Speaker 4: Like til you go to Atlanta, you know what I mean.
Speaker 4: People want to know what it feels like to make
Speaker 4: it rain.
Speaker 5: By the way it was, it was it was partially
Speaker 5: my mom's concept and that this She was like, you
Speaker 5: gotta make it rain.
Speaker 4: So I was like, okay, all right, we're going.
Speaker 5: To say so to bring Atlanta's culture the same way
Speaker 5: that these other theatrical shows do the same thing in
Speaker 5: Las Vegas. I wanted that to be our culture, you
Speaker 5: know what I'm saying. Yeah, for me, I was like,
Speaker 5: you know, I'm an underpromise and overdelivered for this one one.
Speaker 4: That's what my entire career has always been.
Speaker 5: And this time I really get a chance to just
Speaker 5: celebrate and do some things that I wanted to do.
Speaker 5: You know, I want to try things that I've never
Speaker 5: tried before. I want to celebrate culture in a way
Speaker 5: that you know, preserves it and gives it a sophistication
Speaker 5: and a way that you know, for people who've never
Speaker 5: been to a club like that, they know what it
Speaker 5: feels like, who have heard the music, but they don't
Speaker 5: know the culture. Obviously, we were, you know, inching up
Speaker 5: on the twenty five you know, year anniversary for My Way.
Speaker 5: So the celebration of all those songs, it is a
Speaker 5: surprise for me every night to go out there and
Speaker 5: hear my original fans, who some I met when they
Speaker 5: were eleven years old. Now adults with kids are their own.
Speaker 5: So this is that moment to like kind of.
Speaker 4: Relive our childhood, but also to get sophisticated. Come see
Speaker 4: something fly, sexy, eat something nice. Rather you come out here.
Speaker 5: Alone by yourself, you didn't leave alone, you know what
Speaker 5: I'm saying, or either you came out here with your
Speaker 5: significant others.
Speaker 4: Just that was actually one.
Speaker 2: Of the girls. The second night there was a girl.
Speaker 2: It was the first night there was a girl sitting
Speaker 2: next to us, and she was by herself. She looked gorgeous.
Speaker 2: She came, she got dressed and she got her seat
Speaker 2: and she just sat there, had an amazing time.
Speaker 5: Yes, it's really beautiful to look out there and see
Speaker 5: all you know, all those beautiful women.
Speaker 4: Man, it's like I'm out numbered here. It's like we're
Speaker 4: the guys.
Speaker 5: You know what I'm saying. It's like girls everywhere, and
Speaker 5: I'm like, it's cool, it's great, it's great. But just
Speaker 5: to celebrate, you know, in many different you know mediums,
Speaker 5: not just the show, but also to the memes and
Speaker 5: all the other things that have happened as a result
Speaker 5: of like just getting back to the basics. I think
Speaker 5: I tried for so long, and you know, and every
Speaker 5: time I put out an album, there's some meaning or
Speaker 5: purpose behind it. I really, you know, had you know,
Speaker 5: kind of been in this in this you know, analysis
Speaker 5: paralysis thing that is all about trying to create the
Speaker 5: next moment the music.
Speaker 4: Right. So for me, it was like, let's stop for
Speaker 4: two seconds. Let's not put out an album.
Speaker 5: Because I had been putting out records here and there,
Speaker 5: and these songs were great. I did a record with Lama,
Speaker 5: you know, a couple of records dropped on the Pandemic,
Speaker 5: and I was just like, yo, I just really want
Speaker 5: to go back and celebrate the classic music for two
Speaker 5: seconds and enjoy all of the years I never get
Speaker 5: a chance to do that because I'm always focused.
Speaker 3: You know, that's what it is.
Speaker 1: Because I was trying to put my finger on the
Speaker 1: feeling of because this felt felt like a victory lap.
Speaker 1: It feels like a you know, we all we all
Speaker 1: come up and we're all chasing things and we're all
Speaker 1: working so hard and trying to come up with.
Speaker 2: The next thing. And what you're saying, I create and
Speaker 2: create it.
Speaker 1: But then you get to a point in your career
Speaker 1: where you're like comfortable and you're enjoying the more. I
Speaker 1: feel like I watched you do that this this show,
Speaker 1: like you just rocking your crown like comfortably.
Speaker 5: Well, when you've been doing it as long as I have.
Speaker 5: Part of it is analyzing it being perfect. But when
Speaker 5: you only just stop for two seconds and maybe look
Speaker 5: at all of the things that you've done, there's a
Speaker 5: lot to celebrate.
Speaker 4: And no one man is an island. You know these
Speaker 4: songs either.
Speaker 5: You know, we produced it together with other producers and
Speaker 5: writers and the creators that really helped me, you know,
Speaker 5: kind of curate the entire show.
Speaker 4: I think we were mindful of all that.
Speaker 5: Even where we're right now, like this whole immersive experience
Speaker 5: where you know, you begin to understand the world of
Speaker 5: where it came from.
Speaker 4: That wall over there. It normally is like full of
Speaker 4: footage and things for me when I was a kid,
Speaker 4: you know, my first talent show, you know, nineteen ninety one,
Speaker 4: footage of me at Atlanta talent search in Atlanta, you know,
Speaker 4: and then just going through out the entire process. But yeah,
Speaker 4: I think I have kind of had the opportunity to celebrate.
Speaker 4: I ain't resting, but I'm really celebrating the past, the music,
Speaker 4: the history that I've been able to create.
Speaker 2: Seems like you're having fun.
Speaker 5: I'm having fun one because I'm choosing to. The second
Speaker 5: half is I'm happy. Actually, I've never really taken the
Speaker 5: time to stop and really, you know, be happy. I
Speaker 5: feel like my relationships aren't a really good place. I
Speaker 5: feel like I'm learning how to communicate better.
Speaker 2: How do you do that? How'd you do that? What
Speaker 2: do you attribute all of this to.
Speaker 4: Listening?
Speaker 5: You can hear somebody, but are you really listening? You know,
Speaker 5: when you slow down and you begin to understand what's priority.
Speaker 4: Family is priority to me.
Speaker 5: Love, real love is priority to me, and I've had
Speaker 5: enough difficult situations in my life to now be able
Speaker 5: to assess the people who are really there for some
Speaker 5: reason there's an agenda, and then the people who really
Speaker 5: love me, whom I should love and I should appreciate,
Speaker 5: and I can take my time and enjoy and celebrate
Speaker 5: with some of those people I'm working with on this show.
Speaker 5: Some of these people I don't work with, but they're
Speaker 5: with me and we're able to just talk.
Speaker 4: Some people I've worked with, we no longer work together,
Speaker 4: but now we can just enjoy our relationship. You know,
Speaker 4: a lot of therapy.
Speaker 2: That I was wondering the field sounds like this therapy.
Speaker 5: Yeah, there is, and some people are a big It's
Speaker 5: a bit complicated for people who out there who probably analyze,
Speaker 5: you know, allowing someone to sit in and listen to
Speaker 5: your conversation and try to help you hear your partner
Speaker 5: or hear you know, your family member, or hear really
Speaker 5: what you're suffering is all about. And I think a
Speaker 5: lot of that has to do with my happiness. I
Speaker 5: think a lot of you know, my feeling is confident,
Speaker 5: and it's exciting, it's having great partnership. I got an
Speaker 5: amazing partner in life, Jennifer Goekochia.
Speaker 2: She asked if I.
Speaker 1: Wanted Puerto Rican food before we started. Yeah, actually Puerto
Speaker 1: Rican food. I was like, And then I'm going to
Speaker 1: tell you this, dude, have my glam come to the
Speaker 1: hotel before I came here?
Speaker 2: And I guess they must do glam for the show. Also.
Speaker 1: Yeah, they were saying how much that Jen takes care
Speaker 1: of everyone on the set. She just takes care of everybody.
Speaker 1: They just were gushing about her, how much they loved her.
Speaker 1: I was happy to know that you have somebody in
Speaker 1: your life that is that loved by your you know, yeah, everybody.
Speaker 4: And my mam would like her and love her too.
Speaker 6: That's great, I said, she like her.
Speaker 4: That's hard to accomplish that to those two things.
Speaker 1: But something had to change in you to be able
Speaker 1: to even be open to that. So you had to
Speaker 1: you had to shift something, right.
Speaker 5: Sometimes you go through ship to get to shit. You
Speaker 5: know what I'm saying, Uh, you go through something to
Speaker 5: get to something in life. Good friend of mine, DJ Rogers,
Speaker 5: you used to say this to me all the time.
Speaker 5: It's like, yo, that with no humps in life, there'd
Speaker 5: be nothing to get over. Like, oh man, it's hard now,
Speaker 5: I get it. You live long enough, you begin to
Speaker 5: understand and as I said, prioritize what makes you know.
Speaker 1: The best, love lesson you learned. In terms of like
Speaker 1: just correct self correction.
Speaker 5: Self correction, I think, I think loving yourself and forgiving yourself.
Speaker 5: You know, for whatever you you know may have you know,
Speaker 5: wanted to accomplish and didn't for you know, whatever you
Speaker 5: may have wanted to do and you didn't get you
Speaker 5: didn't get a chance to do it, or whatever you
Speaker 5: wanted to have and you didn't have. Sometimes we'll place
Speaker 5: that blame out, well, we'll look out. But when you
Speaker 5: take two seconds to really, you know, be alone and
Speaker 5: look in the mirror, ain't nobody else there but you
Speaker 5: and that other person in the mirror. So that means
Speaker 5: that's the one you gotta get right, you know what
Speaker 5: I'm saying. And you gotta trust yourself. You gotta listen
Speaker 5: to yourself, and you gotta believe without you know, any
Speaker 5: impression of what you think that you might need to
Speaker 5: be doing based off of what you're looking at or
Speaker 5: what someone else has, how do you feel and no
Speaker 5: matter what level you're playing at. If you take the
Speaker 5: time to deal with him or her in that mirror verse,
Speaker 5: you'll be a better person. Accountability, accountability, patience with self too,
Speaker 5: cause I think.
Speaker 4: Yes, yeah, yes, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1: We do things for other people, we don't we don't
Speaker 1: give ourselves the same grace and the same kind of
Speaker 1: like patience.
Speaker 5: And well, we're all out here looking for something else
Speaker 5: and not able to you know, be single, alonge, be
Speaker 5: single long enough to That sound crazy even saying that,
Speaker 5: because I'm never single long enough to even, but I
Speaker 5: did it.
Speaker 3: Some people are single foraying.
Speaker 2: How that feel for you? In those two months?
Speaker 4: Man, I was crazy. It was good, but it wasn't good.
Speaker 4: Is what I got? What you got better?
Speaker 1: It's funny seeing you on that stage and all that energy,
Speaker 1: and I was like, I wonder how that is to
Speaker 1: be in a relationship.
Speaker 2: Well, you clearly you like you like a relationship.
Speaker 4: I'm never like not single.
Speaker 3: You like love?
Speaker 5: Right, I'm never single, I'm I love love. I'm just
Speaker 5: fucking bad at it, you know what I'm saying. Better though,
Speaker 5: I'm getting better, you know what I'm saying. Good partnership definitely,
Speaker 5: you know, breeds great things.
Speaker 1: You know, Yeah, but if you're not ready, it doesn't
Speaker 1: matter the greatest person in the world, if you can't
Speaker 1: contribute to it, it's not gonna.
Speaker 4: Well it starts with you.
Speaker 2: Yeah, for sure.
Speaker 5: It's self accountability again. You know, when you're able to
Speaker 5: take that time and deal with yourself. I'm curious and
Speaker 5: you can be happy with anybody.
Speaker 4: You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 1: If I'm thinking about myself in terms of therapy and
Speaker 1: all of the things that one of my I had
Speaker 1: to be accountable for, Like saying what I want was
Speaker 1: like a thing for me, Like you know, like.
Speaker 2: You think somebody else should know what you need or
Speaker 2: what you want.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I had to.
Speaker 2: Learn how to.
Speaker 1: So that was the thing I wonder for you, Like,
Speaker 1: what was your thing that you had to fix about you?
Speaker 4: I'm perfect what you're talking about.
Speaker 2: No, you're not perfect.
Speaker 4: It might be perfect now by the way self correct Listen.
Speaker 5: One having a partner who will be honest with you,
Speaker 5: brutally honest with you, and you can take that constructive
Speaker 5: criticism because you know it comes from a good place
Speaker 5: and you've spent enough time your friends enough and you've
Speaker 5: established trust. Trust is the main, you know, component to happiness.
Speaker 5: And success in a relationship. Being able to actually hear
Speaker 5: each other and speak up.
Speaker 4: It's hard, right.
Speaker 5: To to even know what you really want and what
Speaker 5: really matters. I think most of the time you we
Speaker 5: all just want to be heard.
Speaker 1: You know, a lot of people when you say trust,
Speaker 1: they assume because I know what you mean. Because some
Speaker 1: people think trust means trust my partner not to cheat
Speaker 1: or to distill trust it. But it's also like you
Speaker 1: have to trust somebody.
Speaker 4: Those things can become trivial, you know, because.
Speaker 1: You have to trust somebody able to receive their information
Speaker 1: with love, You have to trust their intentions.
Speaker 2: You have to trust is.
Speaker 1: Way bigger than just whatever people normally connected with.
Speaker 4: Yeah, in fact, that.
Speaker 2: You trust her to tell you, hey, that was whack
Speaker 2: or you didn't like whatever the things. However, she asked,
Speaker 2: how I would say it?
Speaker 3: Whatever that.
Speaker 4: One hundred you know what I'm saying. Yeah, and I
Speaker 4: don't know about that, playboy.
Speaker 2: But you have to.
Speaker 1: Trust to be able to let somebody say that to
Speaker 1: you and know and be okay with it.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I don't.
Speaker 2: Know about that playboy.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 5: Well, again, just being able to hear each other, being
Speaker 5: able to I'm trying to find the exact word of
Speaker 5: what it's called.
Speaker 2: Take your time, but take your.
Speaker 5: Time the idea in a relation and by the way,
Speaker 5: ain't it's not like a perfect thing, right.
Speaker 4: But when you're in a relationship with someone and.
Speaker 5: They're talking, but you don't really get a chance to
Speaker 5: hear what they're saying because you're trying to get your
Speaker 5: point across, they're trying to get their point across. And
Speaker 5: by the end of the conversations you've just been trying
Speaker 5: to fight your at one point as opposed to actually
Speaker 5: hearing each other.
Speaker 4: Right.
Speaker 5: So an exercise that i've I've I've managed to work
Speaker 5: into life, not just relationship and love, but life period.
Speaker 5: If you give me what it is that your your
Speaker 5: issue is, and I hear it, and then I'm able
Speaker 5: to repeat it back to you before I respond.
Speaker 2: Yes, right, I'm sure I'm feeling like, yeah, whatever it is,
Speaker 2: you didn't listen to me last night, and then.
Speaker 4: You're angry because I didn't listen to you last night.
Speaker 2: This is good exercise. This is therapy one.
Speaker 4: And then and then you ask what else?
Speaker 2: Oh right, is there more?
Speaker 4: Is there more? They give you more? You repeat back
Speaker 4: verbatim so.
Speaker 2: That I know this exercise from therapy.
Speaker 4: It works, so.
Speaker 2: You actually use it, you do it.
Speaker 4: It actually works.
Speaker 5: It resolves issues, and it gets to the point, especially
Speaker 5: when a person is nervous, because it's like, Okay, I
Speaker 5: got a few seconds to try to get a word
Speaker 5: in and try to figure out how to get my
Speaker 5: point or either, and then it turns into this argument
Speaker 5: where I'm gonna one up you. Then you start insulting
Speaker 5: each other. Okay, now I'm gonna one up you in
Speaker 5: an insult and then before you know it, one party
Speaker 5: can walk away and nothing's resolved. I didn't hear you,
Speaker 5: you didn't hear me. We didn't get to any good
Speaker 5: point of communication. So how can we now get to
Speaker 5: a successful place where we're happy because we're gonna have
Speaker 5: to sleep in the bed together, or to be around
Speaker 5: the kids, or be around each other and do business together,
Speaker 5: whatever it might be.
Speaker 4: But to be able to perception check is what it's called.
Speaker 2: Some people just want to be hurt, that's it.
Speaker 5: Because the perception to perception check greater than just hearing
Speaker 5: what you're saying.
Speaker 4: To have a perception of exactly what it is you're.
Speaker 5: Saying and then repeat it for vatim You can't say
Speaker 5: you didn't hear me because you repeated it to me
Speaker 5: one ri. It's feed therapy, by the way, and this
Speaker 5: shit really cause work. You're welcome. It's free game in
Speaker 5: a relation. You want a successful relationship, you try this.
Speaker 5: I'm telling you it's gonna work. Is there more she
Speaker 5: gives it to you? Is there more by the time
Speaker 5: she's resolved whatever her issue is smaller because it probably
Speaker 5: is something much smaller than you whatever imagine it would be.
Speaker 5: And maybe as a man, I'm insulted that you even
Speaker 5: talking to me the way you're talking to me. But
Speaker 5: if I get past all of that and I just
Speaker 5: hear you, we get to the end of it. Now
Speaker 5: we're at the end of it. Nine times out of ten,
Speaker 5: I won't even have a rebuttal or a reason to
Speaker 5: try to come back at it.
Speaker 2: I want to be heard. Sometimes you just want to
Speaker 2: be heard.
Speaker 4: Sometimes you just want And by the way, vice versa.
Speaker 5: Women have to they have to try it the same
Speaker 5: way for men because sometimes it might be you know,
Speaker 5: it's hard for a guy to be vulnerable and really
Speaker 5: tell you the shit that he's going through as a man,
Speaker 5: any man, he has a hill to climb just I
Speaker 5: mean especially black man or minority men, minorities in America
Speaker 5: and whatever minority group you choose to stand with, right,
Speaker 5: it's hard.
Speaker 4: Right, So now I'm.
Speaker 5: At home and my house is supposed to be in order,
Speaker 5: and I got to be able to talk to you
Speaker 5: and tell you exactly what I feel, be vulnerable with you,
Speaker 5: only you. I gotta fight the rest of the world,
Speaker 5: but I want to be able to really talk to you,
Speaker 5: talk to you, tell you exactly what I'm feeling. And
Speaker 5: you say, it's everything else, and I have to think
Speaker 5: about it. I give you what else. Hopefully you don't
Speaker 5: take too long, but you eventually get to a place.
Speaker 2: You're heard. Then, yeah, you're heard.
Speaker 4: Don't just yes, well no, don't just hear me like no,
Speaker 4: don't just listen to me. You say it right, don't
Speaker 4: just listen.
Speaker 5: To me, really hear me and process perception, check with
Speaker 5: each other. That's one gift, that's one lesson, and I
Speaker 5: feel like it really helps us.
Speaker 2: That is not a small thing.
Speaker 4: It's really hard to because.
Speaker 1: The opposite of that, just for anybody who's never been
Speaker 1: to therapy. Right, So, hey, this bothers me, and then
Speaker 1: you feel you have to defeel attacked, you feel attacked, right,
Speaker 1: So now you're engaging in war that you can't win
Speaker 1: because neither one of you feels heard or feels, you know,
Speaker 1: like it's no connection. So that's normally what happens when
Speaker 1: people argue.
Speaker 5: Well, by the way, if you're dealing with a selfish partner,
Speaker 5: then that might be an indication that this partner ain't
Speaker 5: for you.
Speaker 4: Right. I'm not saying perception check with an idiot.
Speaker 5: I'm not saying perception check with a person who's just
Speaker 5: selfish and can't, you know, allow you to have at
Speaker 5: least some space to be able to be heard.
Speaker 4: I mean, these are signs.
Speaker 5: Right in the event that the signs are telling you
Speaker 5: it's not right, maybe you should listen.
Speaker 2: Ooh that's good. Oh sure, so happy for you.
Speaker 4: I'm happy for me too, right.
Speaker 2: Now, I'm happy for you. Everybody's I don't know. You're
Speaker 2: in a good it's so good and it's obvious. I've
Speaker 2: seen you perform. You're always great on stage.
Speaker 1: You're like happy up there, and it resonates different.
Speaker 2: We feel it.
Speaker 1: I feel it because I know you. I don't know,
Speaker 1: but I feel it. I'm sure other people tell you
Speaker 1: this too.
Speaker 5: Yeah, it is the ability to have a peace right
Speaker 5: and not feel as though I have to prove anything.
Speaker 5: I think that we all go through that I have
Speaker 5: to prove something that's noting.
Speaker 1: I wanted to ask you about you having a because
Speaker 1: I feel like even you as a kid coming up
Speaker 1: in this business and having all this talent that you had.
Speaker 2: I feel like when we look at Michael.
Speaker 1: Jackson and he was probably somebody you probably looked at
Speaker 1: Michael's career.
Speaker 2: Yeah, this is the goal, right, This is.
Speaker 1: From what I know of you and from them your career.
Speaker 1: Do you ever feel like you've reached that for yourself?
Speaker 2: Whatever that thing was.
Speaker 5: I think everybody has their own stories. Some people start
Speaker 5: later in their life, so they've had the opportunity to
Speaker 5: live out certain experiences, gather what they feel about life,
Speaker 5: have ambition, be ambitious, you know, have integrity or not
Speaker 5: figure it out hook a crook how you get there,
Speaker 5: and then the career starts. For me, it started before
Speaker 5: I had any of those experiences. No, I'm not quite
Speaker 5: like Michael, but I got my own experience and I
Speaker 5: have my own history, and I think it started by
Speaker 5: someone else's interpretation of me. Right again, we all have
Speaker 5: this speak your kid and we all have to be
Speaker 5: brought up. So long as you're able to look at
Speaker 5: every experience as a great one, good or bad, it'll
Speaker 5: work out for you.
Speaker 4: Don't just be all right with the yeses. Don't just
Speaker 4: be okay with the winds. Accept your losses, accept.
Speaker 5: Your moments that are perceived to be losses to only
Speaker 5: make you better for the future. Rather, you know, man,
Speaker 5: it was a really difficult start, and you know, I
Speaker 5: had to make so many sacrifices in the beginning. Great
Speaker 5: that you did, because now you can appreciate this moment
Speaker 5: where you're standing on the mountaintop. But it's hard. It's
Speaker 5: hard to do that when you're in the middle of it.
Speaker 5: Part of it is my upbringing. I'm very happy that
Speaker 5: my mother raised me and my brother the way that
Speaker 5: she did. I'm really happy that I had some elders
Speaker 5: in my life and also two mentors that are still there,
Speaker 5: consigliaries that you know are there to be able to yeah,
Speaker 5: to be able to help you really understand. And then
Speaker 5: life is as much as you choose to explore and
Speaker 5: educate yourself.
Speaker 4: You ain't shit.
Speaker 5: You can't read right now, So take if you can
Speaker 5: take the time to sit down and understand what a
Speaker 5: person's life was, where they started, what this story is,
Speaker 5: and gather something from it. But if you are fortunate
Speaker 5: to have mentors, if you're fortunate enough to have friends
Speaker 5: that'll keep it real with you, that'll be with you
Speaker 5: through thick and thin, then hopefully you know it'll lead
Speaker 5: you in the right direction. But you know, part of
Speaker 5: that madness. If we look at Michael's life, you use
Speaker 5: him as an example, all of being in that made
Speaker 5: him the genius that he is. You know, being in
Speaker 5: New York City with Biggie and Puff when he first
Speaker 5: started Bad Boy Records, and kind of being in the
Speaker 5: midst of you know, him working on my album with
Speaker 5: La Reid as he employed him to give me whatever
Speaker 5: it was swag. It kind of dimmed the light that
Speaker 5: was my own and gave me something. It gave me hustle,
Speaker 5: It gave me to nacity, It gave me you know,
Speaker 5: that man gave me focus because the ain't nobody more
Speaker 5: focused and got more hustle than Puff like in order
Speaker 5: to understand how to get it and also to motivate
Speaker 5: everybody around him to drive at their best. Yes, if
Speaker 5: you ain't running at one hundred and twenty percent. You
Speaker 5: ain't fucking with me. Get where I'm at and then
Speaker 5: we'll see what we're talking about. Otherwise, get what you
Speaker 5: can and I'll see you later. You'll thank me later.
Speaker 5: But for real, that guy right there, he was a motivator.
Speaker 5: And you know, everything that I was able to pick up,
Speaker 5: I did manage to use at some point. No, my
Speaker 5: first album wasn't the most wildly successful album, but when
Speaker 5: I play it out there, I got day one fans
Speaker 5: that love it and rather they go back and they
Speaker 5: are a part of it. And I feel fortunate to
Speaker 5: be able to you know, have have those you know,
Speaker 5: those those songs in those moments.
Speaker 4: But I really found my weight to my own light
Speaker 4: when I got to my way. You know, I think too.
Speaker 1: The thing I was thinking about it is like I
Speaker 1: put you in a category of greats. Right, I'm sure
Speaker 1: a lot of people do do you do for yourself?
Speaker 2: Do you think of yourself that way?
Speaker 4: Yeah? Yeah, right, you have to think of yourself absolutely.
Speaker 4: But some people would perceive that as like, you know,
Speaker 4: being arrogant and conceive no.
Speaker 2: It's just facts.
Speaker 4: Yeah, it's just fact. This is a basketball game. In life. Right,
Speaker 4: it's a football This is a football game in life.
Speaker 5: If I go out on this field and I'm like
Speaker 5: tiptoeing around, You're gonna knock my block off. I'm trying
Speaker 5: to get to the hoop and I'm gonna go. I'm
Speaker 5: gonna go through you. I'm gonna get through you to
Speaker 5: get where I gotta go. You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 2: Well, like a.
Speaker 1: Basketball player, the goal is the championship or the rings
Speaker 1: or whatever the thing is.
Speaker 4: It's one shot at a time.
Speaker 5: Really, okay, it's one shot at a time and understanding
Speaker 5: team balls. That's basketball. For music, it's similar. No one
Speaker 5: man is an island. It's understanding that collaboration is important.
Speaker 5: But you gotta believe this shit. You gotta believe that.
Speaker 4: Yo, I can do this. Anything I put my mind to,
Speaker 4: I can make it. I can do it.
Speaker 1: Say that to be a artist you have to be
Speaker 1: a little bit delusional. You have to be a little nuts.
Speaker 5: Yeah, yeah, that's true.
Speaker 1: You have to because you're thinking of it before anybody else.
Speaker 1: So it didn't exist before you thought of it.
Speaker 4: So you have to be able to think about something
Speaker 4: and not only are you thinking of it, but you're
Speaker 4: creating it. You're creating it in real time, and more
Speaker 4: than likely it's driving you crazy because it's in your
Speaker 4: mind and no one else can see it.
Speaker 5: So you got to manage to motivate, push the envelope,
Speaker 5: push yourself, and push everybody around you to believe what
Speaker 5: you see.
Speaker 4: You know, it's so good.
Speaker 2: But when you look at the greats, sometimes it makes
Speaker 2: them crazy.
Speaker 1: Chasing this. You're chasing MJ, or you're chasing whatever. If
Speaker 1: you're a basketball player, you're chasing Lebron or Jordan or
Speaker 1: whatever it is. Do you feel like, next to MJ,
Speaker 1: next to all the grades, that you are there or
Speaker 1: are you still chasing a version of that for yourself?
Speaker 5: Being able to walk in their footsteps was the first thing.
Speaker 5: So I followed them, I studied them, I trained the
Speaker 5: way they trained. I pushed myself the way they pushed themselves.
Speaker 4: You know.
Speaker 5: I analyzed what I knew versus what I didn't, and
Speaker 5: tried to speak to a more broader audience and tried
Speaker 5: to reach and reach and keep going. And you start here,
Speaker 5: but then they managed to get here. Not the same
Speaker 5: style of music, not the same genres, not the same production,
Speaker 5: but the same amount.
Speaker 4: Of commitment for me.
Speaker 5: Yeah, because I've been carrying their torch, because I've been
Speaker 5: standing on their shoulders, and now I'm in a position
Speaker 5: where I look forward and now hopefully somebody's coming behind
Speaker 5: me standing on my shoulders and going to push it forward. Yeah,
Speaker 5: I'll accept that. Yes, that that, by the way, was
Speaker 5: always the plan. It was never to be big as Michael.
Speaker 5: It was never to be big as Bobby, it was
Speaker 5: never to be big as Stevie.
Speaker 4: I just wanted the journey. I wanted to get there.
Speaker 5: I wanted to manage to every day have some place
Speaker 5: to go and someone to care about me being there
Speaker 5: or actually going for it. Right when you create, like, Okay,
Speaker 5: I just have to have this thing. I want the money.
Speaker 5: When you get the money, what are you gonna do?
Speaker 5: You made it about the money, it's over now. But
Speaker 5: when the journey is the destination, you never stop reaching.
Speaker 5: I don't know if I ever stop, and so long
Speaker 5: as I'm able to be happy in doing it, and
Speaker 5: hopefully you know, my fans will continue to carry me
Speaker 5: in that process and celebrate what I'm making.
Speaker 4: But the reason why I say that is because I feel.
Speaker 5: Like I'm carrying a standard right greater than the points
Speaker 5: that I'm putting on the board. The performers that they were,
Speaker 5: the fact that their mics were actually on and they
Speaker 5: were dancing and singing and performing and giving and leaving
Speaker 5: it on the stage. That's what I picked up from them,
Speaker 5: and I want to make sure that this generation didn't forget.
Speaker 4: About that part.
Speaker 5: Because it's easy to just put your TV track on
Speaker 5: or either your song on, go up and have the
Speaker 5: DJ's rocket in that sity.
Speaker 2: And the crowd likes it and it's fine, and.
Speaker 4: You gotta do the work. You got to put the
Speaker 4: work in. All the young cats, yo, I know all
Speaker 4: of them by the fact.
Speaker 2: You're so good with them. I was wondering how much
Speaker 2: of that is, Like.
Speaker 5: I don't close my door to nobody. You know what
Speaker 5: I'm saying, I'm big bro in that way. Unk whatever
Speaker 5: you want to call me, I give the information because
Speaker 5: it's important for us to continue to keep the legacy
Speaker 5: moving forward.
Speaker 2: Nobody should call you.
Speaker 4: I mean some of them young enough too. You know
Speaker 4: what I'm saying.
Speaker 2: I don't feel like you unk status yet.
Speaker 4: Come. I mean, I don't feel like nowhere near it,
Speaker 4: you know.
Speaker 2: I don't feel like.
Speaker 1: You got a lot to do, but I feel like
Speaker 1: you have You should have comforted knowing that if you
Speaker 1: did nothing else, which I know you will do more
Speaker 1: if you did nothing else, like you've done enough.
Speaker 2: Do you feel like that?
Speaker 4: I always feel like there's more though, of course, yeah, but.
Speaker 2: There's comfort and knowing.
Speaker 4: The comfort in knowing is part of it. But not
Speaker 4: feeling as though you have to prove something is what
Speaker 4: I think. I hear you saying. Do I feel like
Speaker 4: I have to prove something to anybody?
Speaker 5: No, I'm in my own light, and I got my
Speaker 5: own ideas and I'm pushing forward. And again, it's the
Speaker 5: integrity of what it is that I collected in my life,
Speaker 5: from these incredible grades that now has made me who
Speaker 5: I am. So now I can just be who I am.
Speaker 5: You can follow it. It ain't gonna be easy.
Speaker 4: I ain't making it easy for you.
Speaker 3: You shouldn't.
Speaker 4: No, of course, not good. And then points do matter
Speaker 4: in that light? You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 3: But you're competitive, You're competitive a little bit.
Speaker 4: A little bit.
Speaker 1: I watched what other people are doing, and is there
Speaker 1: people that are inspiring you.
Speaker 5: Or you just say I'm encouraged. I don't know that
Speaker 5: I'm you know, yeah, I'm encouraged. There are things that
Speaker 5: do inspire me because you know, as I think, you know,
Speaker 5: our culture changes and it flips, you know, music, R
Speaker 5: and B, rhythm and blues, rather it turned into hip hop.
Speaker 4: Rhythm and blues to me is the base of it all.
Speaker 5: Jazz for rhythm and blues is really the base of
Speaker 5: it all. And that was just this ever morphing thing
Speaker 5: based off of the person's interpretation of it an instrument
Speaker 5: that they picked up, or how.
Speaker 4: They chose to use their instrument. Rather they it was
Speaker 4: spoken word and they were spitting you know, bars, or
Speaker 4: rather it was you know, miles through a horn, or
Speaker 4: rather it was you know, Jimmy Hendrix throw a guitar.
Speaker 4: You know. So for me being able to contribute to
Speaker 4: any of it in this time, I'm happy.
Speaker 5: Rather legendary status, I'm carrying the torch of everything that
Speaker 5: I have seen and the things that I loved about
Speaker 5: them had everything to do with integrity, had everything integrity
Speaker 5: for the music, yeah, and integrity for.
Speaker 2: The art and legendary status. That's exactly what I was
Speaker 2: trying to get to.
Speaker 3: Yeah, there you got, you did it.
Speaker 5: Yeah, I don't know why I feel so hard, Like
Speaker 5: why I feel so hard just accepting that?
Speaker 2: Yeah, what is that?
Speaker 5: I don't know, you don't know about it? Is there
Speaker 5: a moment I think something in our history?
Speaker 6: Uh sure you are alleged, thank you? Yeah, yeah I
Speaker 6: did that, you did. But I'm telling you something in
Speaker 6: our history along the process. It's like, yo, be humble, Like, yeah,
Speaker 6: be humble, but be proud that you can even do
Speaker 6: any of it, because that's part of what's driving it,
Speaker 6: you know this.
Speaker 1: And it's also if you take yourself out of the equation,
Speaker 1: because I think we're all here to share our gifts
Speaker 1: with people, to write so that other people can take
Speaker 1: from whatever they take from us. Yeah, the fact that
Speaker 1: you are a legend and you have built that, it's
Speaker 1: inspiring and it brings joy to people. So if you
Speaker 1: don't acknowledge and accept that, it's almost like you're not
Speaker 1: even giving it to the you know what I mean,
Speaker 1: you don't even allow the people to fully feel that.
Speaker 5: So what part of it is this the idea that
Speaker 5: something is going to be taken away from you in
Speaker 5: a moment's time. Never, No, But my point is it
Speaker 5: could be something right.
Speaker 2: That comes from you being a young kid coming up,
Speaker 2: always trying.
Speaker 3: To have a hit.
Speaker 4: No, that's life.
Speaker 2: Trying to be hot, be not hot.
Speaker 5: That's life because in the Okay, let's say it's one
Speaker 5: record that is not as successful as the other records.
Speaker 5: Should I now not look at you as a legend
Speaker 5: That happens with artists.
Speaker 1: I think yes, But I think you have finally transcended that.
Speaker 1: I think there are certain artists that if you never
Speaker 1: make another record, or if you put out twenty horrible records,
Speaker 1: it does not negate the legendary status that you've created.
Speaker 1: That is not a thing that many people can claim. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's a handful of artists that are still relevant, that
Speaker 1: are still active, that could claim that status.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's it's a beautiful thing.
Speaker 1: Don't argue with me about I ain't argue with you.
Speaker 2: Hear did you hear what I said?
Speaker 4: You there? Anything?
Speaker 2: Is there anything else?
Speaker 4: Anything more?
Speaker 2: I'm using our exercise of listening.
Speaker 1: No, it's amazing, it's amazing. It seems inspiring. Man to me,
Speaker 1: what makes the show so special?
Speaker 2: Because it's like you feel that like it's just.
Speaker 1: Whatever we should talk about that I saw this in
Speaker 1: Was it the doc or is it the masterclass? Thing
Speaker 1: when you talked about prepping for a show like this
Speaker 1: that you do meditate with the dancers and the crew,
Speaker 1: and yeah, is that something.
Speaker 2: You Is that new in your life or is that
Speaker 2: a sinse therapy.
Speaker 4: It's so since therapy before.
Speaker 5: Actually, transcendental meditation was the first entrance into meditation for me,
Speaker 5: and then other you know, forms of meditation. I really
Speaker 5: picked up as I begin to kind of, you know,
Speaker 5: just invest in this idea of mental health and how
Speaker 5: we sustain. Being able to talk to someone having a
Speaker 5: therapist or either someone who is of sound mind to
Speaker 5: be able to share and you can be vulnerable and
Speaker 5: have trust with is important. But then there are things
Speaker 5: that we can do to really help file you know,
Speaker 5: our thinking and all of the things that were collec
Speaker 5: I think meditation is how I do that. Transcendental meditation
Speaker 5: was the first way of doing it. It was like,
Speaker 5: you know, basically a mantra, it's a word, and then
Speaker 5: you kind.
Speaker 2: Of, you know, my therapist keeps trying to get me
Speaker 2: to do it, and I just I.
Speaker 5: Want Silence is the hardest thing for any of us
Speaker 5: to cope with, especially thinkers and incredible people, legendary people
Speaker 5: like yourself. You want to get up and you move
Speaker 5: like your legs, moving your hands.
Speaker 3: Movie, it's so bad.
Speaker 4: It's so bad, believe it or not.
Speaker 5: Though transidental meditation teaches you not to run from that, right.
Speaker 5: But again, there are other deeper forms of medication, meditation, medication, yeah, meditation.
Speaker 4: That manages to really help.
Speaker 5: But by the way, medication versus meditation, no medication versus meditation.
Speaker 4: I would always go with meditation.
Speaker 5: But it's very hard, especially for people who have a
Speaker 5: great deal of pressure and expectation placed on them, because
Speaker 5: there's this idea of having to live up to something
Speaker 5: and you're then plugged with this activation of your brain
Speaker 5: and you've now managed to get it in this place where
Speaker 5: it's just constantly, constantly throwing you, ideas throwing you and
Speaker 5: which one sticks? And what should you do? What shouldn't
Speaker 5: you do? Oh, I'm gonna just I feel this, I'm
Speaker 5: gonna do that.
Speaker 4: I don't do that.
Speaker 5: Don't When you manage to slow it down and be
Speaker 5: in silence with yourself, rather you meditate, and you had
Speaker 5: for me it started off at five minutes and three
Speaker 5: intervals throughout an entire day. Then I managed to get
Speaker 5: up to twenty minutes. Twenty minutes is really there is
Speaker 5: a that's a standard. Twenty minutes, three times.
Speaker 2: A day, three times a day.
Speaker 4: Gotta do it.
Speaker 5: Rather, you just choose manage to get up early enough
Speaker 5: to just sit there in silence, even if your mind
Speaker 5: is going. Just sit there in silence. Don't do anything,
Speaker 5: don't pick your phone up, don't answer the phone, don't
Speaker 5: respond to anybody, give yourself.
Speaker 2: And what happens to you?
Speaker 4: You just you're in a You're in a state right.
Speaker 4: The most important.
Speaker 5: Part of our entire being is our state of being.
Speaker 5: What state of being are you in? Are you suffering
Speaker 5: or are you not suffering? Those are the two states.
Speaker 5: There's no other states to be in. You're the suffering
Speaker 5: or you're not suffering.
Speaker 2: Is that real?
Speaker 4: It is real?
Speaker 2: It is the only two states suffering.
Speaker 5: You're either suffering or you're not. And if you're managed,
Speaker 5: if you've managed to put yourself in a beautiful.
Speaker 4: State of being right where you're not suffering.
Speaker 5: Then you can manage to allow a universe to actually
Speaker 5: unfold for you. Oh that's good, cause what's intended to
Speaker 5: happen will You can try and fuck it up as
Speaker 5: much as you want to. But if it's intended to happen,
Speaker 5: it's gonna keep coming around until you finally get it.
Speaker 5: You're to say, like, man, I knew something told me.
Speaker 5: That's the universe telling you move this way, do this.
Speaker 5: But if you're not in.
Speaker 4: The right states, you're not gonna catch it. You're not
Speaker 4: gonna see it.
Speaker 5: And if in this hectic state of mind and state
Speaker 5: of being and suffering and trying to live or trying
Speaker 5: to do this, you ain't gonna get to it.
Speaker 2: That's so good. Yeah, suffering or not.
Speaker 5: Suffering two states. There's two states of being. Yes, that's it.
Speaker 5: You were either in a suffering state or a non
Speaker 5: suffering state.
Speaker 1: But if the answer is yes, I'm suffering, then what
Speaker 1: is the Then that's part of the problem.
Speaker 5: Okay, so now you know you're suffering. Now let's get
Speaker 5: into why you are suffering. Ah, you begin to open
Speaker 5: it up, you begin to understand. Man, it was something
Speaker 5: that I had in my mind that I thought I
Speaker 5: needed to fix.
Speaker 4: As a kid, I was three.
Speaker 5: I didn't know any difference any better, But that became
Speaker 5: the ploy of how I look at my entire life.
Speaker 5: Somebody told me no, so it was always no. So
Speaker 5: I always thought No, I always thought I couldn't do that,
Speaker 5: or I thought I shouldn't do that, or that was
Speaker 5: the wrong thing to do.
Speaker 4: This is deeper work, you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 5: It forces you to go back and speak to your
Speaker 5: your child sometimes, like get into the mind of where you're,
Speaker 5: where you were, and where you picked up some idea.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and why you're suffering?
Speaker 4: Yeah?
Speaker 2: Is this something you learned as something somebody taught you.
Speaker 5: It's something that I've experienced and I managed to see
Speaker 5: for myself in life through meditation, through you know, a
Speaker 5: great deal of just patience with myself, studying, trying to
Speaker 5: get myself in a better state of being where I'm
Speaker 5: not walking around just suffering all day.
Speaker 2: Were you suffering for a long time?
Speaker 4: Yeah?
Speaker 2: What was the cause of that?
Speaker 4: My suffering?
Speaker 5: I think primarily is the expectation to live up to
Speaker 5: something or either something that was missing. Right, I need
Speaker 5: to add something more to my life because I'm not
Speaker 5: happy in this present moment.
Speaker 4: I got to get to that other thing. You know,
Speaker 4: does it.
Speaker 2: Help you define it too?
Speaker 4: Right?
Speaker 2: If you don't even know who you're or recognize your suffering?
Speaker 5: If you, I think more than likely all of us
Speaker 5: are kind of stuck in the suffering state. It's the
Speaker 5: state that you choose to set yourself in. When you're
Speaker 5: actually meditating, you're more than likely calm enough and how
Speaker 5: to let shit. And this enables you right from being
Speaker 5: able to see what it is that you're dealing with.
Speaker 4: I'm frantic. I gotta just go figure out.
Speaker 5: Just wait a minute, just slow down, just just stop
Speaker 5: for two seconds. Then you realize it's not as pressing
Speaker 5: as you thought it was.
Speaker 2: I'm not even I don't know why I'm stressed out.
Speaker 2: I'm not even suffering.
Speaker 1: I'm not That's what it does to you, right, Do
Speaker 1: you have that thought, like why am I even?
Speaker 4: What can I do about it? Let me focus on
Speaker 4: the positive.
Speaker 3: It's so good.
Speaker 1: I saw you telling the crowd that a little bit
Speaker 1: on the first night of the show. You told everybody
Speaker 1: to turn their phones off, to be in the moment.
Speaker 4: And to be present.
Speaker 2: Be present.
Speaker 1: And then you said, I don't want to sound like
Speaker 1: the old guy, old man, or I forget what the
Speaker 1: words are used, but you reference.
Speaker 5: No, I sound getting older, right, And you know it's
Speaker 5: these mantras and things that older people are always coming
Speaker 5: up with, like these wise tales, and you know what
Speaker 5: I'm saying in the Land of the Blind, that one
Speaker 5: eyed man is king ship like that.
Speaker 4: You know what I'm saying, But I didn't.
Speaker 5: I didn't want to, you know, serve it as rhetoric
Speaker 5: or either anything like that. But yo, are we able
Speaker 5: to be okay with no as much as we are
Speaker 5: with yes wins as much as we are with losses,
Speaker 5: because they're the same. We don't see it, but they are.
Speaker 2: I've never heard it said like that.
Speaker 4: Hey, listen, I've heard you know.
Speaker 2: You learn from your mistakes. Everything is.
Speaker 5: Everything is a process you learn from yours. I learned
Speaker 5: something from my bestaut.
Speaker 2: But I've never heard yes. It's the same as no.
Speaker 5: It should be in our minds. We can't see it
Speaker 5: that way because we're all kind of like looking for
Speaker 5: the wind only. But there's measures, you know, there's measures
Speaker 5: in life. There's time, there's there's a moment for everything.
Speaker 5: And nothing is happening by coincidence. Everything is intended to happen.
Speaker 5: You just don't fight it. If you choose or try to,
Speaker 5: you're gonna make their process longer.
Speaker 2: So good, Yeah, how are you doing with like?
Speaker 1: Because this is like grown usher now, like, how did
Speaker 1: you because you started so young, you're grown, you're still
Speaker 1: you're still not unk status.
Speaker 5: I wouldn't say I am. I'm saying, if you're like
Speaker 5: six years old, are you trying and you want to
Speaker 5: call me up?
Speaker 4: That's cool?
Speaker 2: But how do you do? How have you dealt with age?
Speaker 1: Because because famous people and sometimes that challenging, especially when
Speaker 1: you start so young and you looked at as a kid,
Speaker 1: or you looked at as this young, you know, and
Speaker 1: now you're like a grown man four kids, Like, was
Speaker 1: there ever a weird transition for you in that?
Speaker 4: Yeah?
Speaker 5: I mean it became painstakingly obvious when I had to
Speaker 5: deal with a thirteen year old a fourteen year old
Speaker 5: who you know, are like in need of parenting, and
Speaker 5: you know, as complicated as it is to be our parents,
Speaker 5: it now that we're on the other side of it.
Speaker 4: As an entertainer, I don't know.
Speaker 5: I think that in you know, the eyes of my fans,
Speaker 5: I guess I'm as old as the experience that they've had.
Speaker 5: Rather they had it then or rather they're still having
Speaker 5: it now. So I don't know if music is able
Speaker 5: to give you age in that way. I think if anything,
Speaker 5: it preserves your age because you go back.
Speaker 4: To that moment.
Speaker 5: And for me, I'm actually working my way back in
Speaker 5: it every time i'm performing it. Rather i'm you know,
Speaker 5: doing a handstand or you know, you still moving thing,
Speaker 5: trying to get the body right in order to have
Speaker 5: that shirt off whatever.
Speaker 3: You're not doing any weird old man.
Speaker 1: You know, sometimes the dance as you get older has
Speaker 1: a little some of our favorites the dance a little
Speaker 1: later on it starts to get well, you're showing no
Speaker 1: signs of that.
Speaker 4: Well.
Speaker 5: For me, the performance had always been a major part
Speaker 5: of who I was, so it's always kept me young
Speaker 5: because that was the fun part of it, you know.
Speaker 1: But not everybody that transition from child to young to
Speaker 1: grown comfortably, especially if people in the public eye.
Speaker 2: They fight it and.
Speaker 1: We see them fighting, and it's never it's always uncomfortable
Speaker 1: to watch. But I don't think we've ever seen any
Speaker 1: kind of weird transition. Maybe internally you had one, but
Speaker 1: we didn't see it.
Speaker 5: You weren't like I think, if anything, that transition probably
Speaker 5: was difficult between me and my mom, and very difficult
Speaker 5: because of our work relationship that then became family relationship, right,
Speaker 5: and I think ultimately it had always just been about
Speaker 5: my mom wanting me to be the best or have
Speaker 5: the best, or not go through any kind of pain,
Speaker 5: which is her own suffering. Because she's thinking about what
Speaker 5: she went through and not looking at me for where
Speaker 5: I am suffering.
Speaker 2: She must be proud now.
Speaker 5: She's very proud now because she understands that no matter
Speaker 5: what she may have wanted, what was intended to happen,
Speaker 5: would always going to be good, always going to get
Speaker 5: where we were, and our relationship as mother and son
Speaker 5: is more important than anything. And now we can have
Speaker 5: all the other stuff.
Speaker 2: And she got these grand babies.
Speaker 4: Now she got grand babies that she got to deal
Speaker 4: with four Yeah, and she loves dealing with them.
Speaker 2: Of course they do. I hear. It's easier to be
Speaker 2: a Grandparent's more fun being a grandparent. You get to
Speaker 2: do all the fun stuff.
Speaker 5: Yeah, until you meet Sinco, my oldest son. He's fourteen.
Speaker 5: But now they have their code. I don't know if
Speaker 5: I go through the thing.
Speaker 4: With grandma the way normal.
Speaker 5: You know, everybody else says, you know, when grandparents get
Speaker 5: their kids, they just let them get away with everything.
Speaker 4: Because my mom she's still on it. Yeah, she's still young,
Speaker 4: she's still on it.
Speaker 1: Yeah, how's being a dad changed you? And a new
Speaker 1: and a recent kind of girl dad?
Speaker 2: Now?
Speaker 5: Yeah, yeah, girl dad has definitely made me you so off.
Speaker 5: I was just in a jumpy house, no socks. Yeah
Speaker 5: I went pump patching. Yeah, I did it with my
Speaker 5: boys too, But with your daughter is a different thing.
Speaker 5: Like I'm literally walking her through everything and trying to
Speaker 5: make sure I'm I'm the bodyguard.
Speaker 1: Yeah, security on stage last night. Then he was at
Speaker 1: the after party, and then he was at the pumpkin.
Speaker 5: Patch pumpkin patch, and then getting ready for school. You know, hey, yep,
Speaker 5: you got what you need. You know, noticed something yesterday?
Speaker 5: You miss class? No, I did miss class that I
Speaker 5: was a tutoring Okay, got it great. Just wanna make
Speaker 5: sure I'll let you know I see it. What's going
Speaker 5: on here?
Speaker 4: It? Yeah, of course you gotta be.
Speaker 5: You know what I'm saying, My responsibilities as a dad
Speaker 5: is more important than anything that I do here. You know,
Speaker 5: that's what changed me to be able to say that
Speaker 5: I could be you know, uh that for my kids.
Speaker 5: I suffered a long time you know, analyzing uh and
Speaker 5: making moves based off of the fact that I didn't
Speaker 5: have a dad. I wanted things to be perfect because
Speaker 5: I didn't have it right, or I wanted to try
Speaker 5: to do the perfect thing in order to make sure
Speaker 5: that I didn't make my son feel like I felt
Speaker 5: my own suffering had nothing to do with him.
Speaker 1: Isn't that crazy? How that does it to us our parents?
Speaker 1: Like I just did my last episode I did with
Speaker 1: Kelly Rowland, and we're talking about daddy issues and it's
Speaker 1: like for women especially, you know, daddy issues is like
Speaker 1: a big thing, but we never really talk about, like men,
Speaker 1: what that does, What that does to you?
Speaker 5: Yeah, well, not being there or either being around, but
Speaker 5: you know, kind of being an absentee. And probably because
Speaker 5: it's just the standards of where life was for men
Speaker 5: back in those times. You know, it's always kind of
Speaker 5: been this idea, you know, don't cry, you soft if
Speaker 5: you cry. I don't believe in that. I believe that
Speaker 5: your kids can cry, but they need to get up
Speaker 5: and to keep moving. You know, it's all right to
Speaker 5: be vulnerable, it's all right to have moments. Don't with everybody,
Speaker 5: because they ain't everybody's business. But to have a dad
Speaker 5: that you could talk to and you know, be able
Speaker 5: to be transparent with to help your kids. I think
Speaker 5: it's important to have that for men in our time.
Speaker 5: Earlier it probably wouldn't. I can't say it because my
Speaker 5: dad wasn't that I wasn't. I didn't have that kind
Speaker 5: of relationship with with my dad, you know. But changed
Speaker 5: everything about me. I think it made it gave me
Speaker 5: true responsibility, you know, it gave purpose for those late, late,
Speaker 5: late nights. Like I did that anyway in my life,
Speaker 5: but as a father, you do it for a different reason,
Speaker 5: with a different outcome, or at least expectation for an outcome.
Speaker 2: Are you a good dad?
Speaker 5: Do you think now that though I can be tough
Speaker 5: at sometimes, you know, And I think I managed to
Speaker 5: make everybody feel like I'm your dad, everybody's daddy, everybody's dad.
Speaker 4: I just want everybody to, you know, to be their
Speaker 4: greatest man.
Speaker 2: And what do you ask God for most? What do
Speaker 2: you pray for?
Speaker 4: What do I pray for most?
Speaker 5: Because everything his grace covering, I pray more than anything,
Speaker 5: given thanks that I'm able to pray, that I actually
Speaker 5: have the voice to be able to share it, the
Speaker 5: fact that He's chosen you know me. And also two
Speaker 5: people around as vessels for some purpose that could help
Speaker 5: me through life and also to help a lot of people.
Speaker 5: I pray for my children, I pray for my loved ones.
Speaker 5: I pray for those who are my soul circle, the
Speaker 5: people who is I love that, Yeah, the people who matter,
Speaker 5: you know, for life and will affect those people who
Speaker 5: because by the way, in this soul circle are all
Speaker 5: people who affect each other. Rather it's my mom, or
Speaker 5: my children, or my ex wife or you know, people
Speaker 5: who have been there. You know what I'm saying that
Speaker 5: shit gets hard, you know, but praying a covering over
Speaker 5: for the sake of making sure that as we go
Speaker 5: into the next season or whatever life has to offer.
Speaker 5: For my kids who have kids, you know that they
Speaker 5: don't bring the same issues that we had in ours
Speaker 5: into theirs. That we can remedy and fix some of
Speaker 5: those things.
Speaker 4: You know, what do you.
Speaker 2: Think now, because everybody's purpose?
Speaker 1: I think, well, no, some people they're born, they feel
Speaker 1: like they have a purpose, they know what it is.
Speaker 1: Sometimes they change throughout our lives.
Speaker 2: Do you feel like you know what yours is?
Speaker 5: We know it has something to do with music so far,
Speaker 5: but I think after that, rather it's an example of
Speaker 5: a business because business has obviously been a part of
Speaker 5: my life, not as much as a priority, but to
Speaker 5: be recognized as a businessman that.
Speaker 4: Speaks through I would have never guessed that.
Speaker 5: I mean, I've been I've made plays, I've done things,
Speaker 5: I've had involvement in major things, and also to more
Speaker 5: than anything, have been oddly enough of usher for other
Speaker 5: people to be able to be introduced into spaces and
Speaker 5: have benefited from that, don't get me wrong, But to
Speaker 5: now be in a position to prepare people and to
Speaker 5: create a standard, a standard that we can benefit from,
Speaker 5: an ecosystem that I think that we can benefit from
Speaker 5: better than happen to rely so much on infrastructure that's
Speaker 5: been set before we got here.
Speaker 4: So that's really my next focus.
Speaker 1: So you're going to go back to the student. I
Speaker 1: know you're in this moment, but I'm not done. Okay, no, no, no, no, no,
Speaker 1: no done. No matter of fact, I don't care what
Speaker 1: business I'm in. I'm going to still make music and
Speaker 1: also to either be a part of creativity in that
Speaker 1: space of music because it's something that I know so well.
Speaker 1: I understand what it is, I understand how to do it,
Speaker 1: and I don't take it for granted, but I love
Speaker 1: to be able to be creative in that space.
Speaker 4: But business that's.
Speaker 5: In a lifestyle that is aspirational, that is a part
Speaker 5: of our culture that leads to some sense of knowledge
Speaker 5: for all of our people to be able to continue
Speaker 5: to collect it and utilize it or either benefit from it.
Speaker 2: Is this something that's happening already there.
Speaker 5: There's many things, you know, you know, me and la
Speaker 5: Reed have been working together. Yes, you know, we hadn't
Speaker 5: been working together for a very long time, you know,
Speaker 5: so to be able to be back in each other's lives,
Speaker 5: and I think that he's been such a valuable commodity,
Speaker 5: you know, for so many industries and you know, and
Speaker 5: so many incredible entities. But now to be able to
Speaker 5: come together and have ownership in what we're building for
Speaker 5: a future label.
Speaker 4: It's going to be that in thens and.
Speaker 1: Then some yep, a network and a label or something
Speaker 1: like this. They're very mysterious.
Speaker 2: Well, but I'm excited whatever it is, we'll follow.
Speaker 5: I'm being mysterious because you know you're in the process.
Speaker 5: We're in the process. But you've seen us together, right,
Speaker 5: you better watch this. You know what I'm saying, but
Speaker 5: we we've been around each other recently, you know, just
Speaker 5: just reminding ourselves of why we got started and what
Speaker 5: it was about, where it came from, looking at and
Speaker 5: analyzing the things that have happened in life, what could
Speaker 5: have been better, what we could have done differently, and
Speaker 5: the importance of our legacy and the aspiration of what
Speaker 5: it is that we created, you know, and really being
Speaker 5: a product of it through and through, not just talking
Speaker 5: it because we talk it a lot. A lot of
Speaker 5: us talk about this collaboration and my brothers and us
Speaker 5: sticking together, no really doing it, sticking together and building
Speaker 5: you know.
Speaker 2: This sounds exciting.
Speaker 1: Yeah, did this surprise you?
Speaker 5: Well, I didn't know it would be as wildly successful
Speaker 5: as it was. Thank God for Eddie Bishop Long who
Speaker 5: created watch This. I don't know if y'all ever heard that.
Speaker 4: You know, I'm you know, as a as a kid,
Speaker 4: his sermons I used to go to and he would
Speaker 4: always do this, watch this, Watch this kind of picked
Speaker 4: it up.
Speaker 3: He didn't do.
Speaker 5: He't put that part together. Yeah, I just my own
Speaker 5: little remix up. But and it was a part of
Speaker 5: you know, confessions, like it's always.
Speaker 4: Been on the record. But I never kind of gave
Speaker 4: it a little meme visual.
Speaker 5: But by the way, memes were not a part of
Speaker 5: that culture at that time, and that was just having fun.
Speaker 4: Man. But y'all definitely watched this because there's something coming.
Speaker 2: I can't wait till you're ready to talk about it. Yeah,
Speaker 2: I look forward to that.
Speaker 4: Yeah, it's gonna be fun.
Speaker 2: Thank you for today. Thank you for an amazing weekend.
Speaker 2: We're gonna need b roll. I need to show people.
Speaker 2: Please you come back. You're gonna do it for more, right,
Speaker 2: because I keep telling people you got to see this.
Speaker 4: Sadly enough, I think by the time this is you know,
Speaker 4: it'll be over. So yeah, please, should there be.
Speaker 2: A documentary or something around it? There has to be, right, Yeah, okay,
Speaker 2: that's way it works.
Speaker 4: Of all that good stuff. Please monetizing.
Speaker 1: It's really magical. It really you bring in so much
Speaker 1: joy to people.
Speaker 5: Yeah, I'm very happy to be able to have done
Speaker 5: it now and be on the lookout for new music
Speaker 5: next year.
Speaker 3: And you are a legend.
Speaker 4: I am a legend, asher Baby.
Speaker 2: Thank you