Speaker 1: Wake that ass up in the morning. The Breakfast Club.
Speaker 2: Morning, everybody, It's DJ Envy, Jesselarioscharla mean the guy. We
Speaker 2: are the Breakfast Club. We got a special guest in
Speaker 2: the building, got the brother d One.
Speaker 3: Welcome Brom d Man. Thank y'all for having me.
Speaker 2: Man, I didn't know this was your first time up here.
Speaker 2: I thought for sure you was up here with D One,
Speaker 2: was up here before you. Serious, Bro, I honestly did.
Speaker 3: Man.
Speaker 4: Well, hey, that's a good thing.
Speaker 3: That's a good thing. That means my presence must be
Speaker 3: getting felt. You hear me even if I wasn't here.
Speaker 5: You know, because you running the D one so much,
Speaker 5: so many times back in the day. He's running D
Speaker 5: one a lot.
Speaker 1: You know. Want to just be you know, you be out.
Speaker 6: Yeah, yeah, that you go touching the people. That's that's
Speaker 6: always been the goal. I've been to your book signers
Speaker 6: before you hear me. In South Carolina, I just send
Speaker 6: you backstage at a three C not really working because
Speaker 6: I never had anything given to me in this industry.
Speaker 6: So when I stopped being a middle school teacher baging Louisiana,
Speaker 6: I was like, damn about to be a rapper.
Speaker 4: Now.
Speaker 6: It was important for me to go out there and
Speaker 6: make it happen. So how you make it happen you
Speaker 6: form organic connections.
Speaker 5: Yeah, I saw you. Know you showed me to twot
Speaker 5: that saw you when you posted it earlier this week.
Speaker 5: But when he did decipher back in twenty fourteen, Yes, sir,
Speaker 5: I just tweeted d One spitting yeah.
Speaker 1: Because he was. So it's good to see you still
Speaker 1: ten years later.
Speaker 6: Bro here organic, bro, longevity is so hard to accomplish.
Speaker 3: In this industry.
Speaker 6: So that's one thing I pride myself on is I
Speaker 6: remember when I was a teacher in Louisiana.
Speaker 3: I used to be Fredo Bang's middle school teacher.
Speaker 6: You heard me, like literally, And I remember before I
Speaker 6: told my class like, look, I'm about to stop teaching
Speaker 6: after this year to be a rapper.
Speaker 3: I was like, dang, is.
Speaker 6: There gonna be longevity in the music industry the way
Speaker 6: there is if I was to stay being a teacher,
Speaker 6: And all these years later, I'm still here and still
Speaker 6: ascending you hear me.
Speaker 3: So that's God, Bro, That's why I know my path
Speaker 3: is divine.
Speaker 6: Nobody could say, well, d you had this person to
Speaker 6: put you on God orchestrated my blessings bro to where
Speaker 6: nobody could get the credit it stuff for him from me.
Speaker 2: I was gonna say that was gonna ask you tell
Speaker 2: you said you're a Fredo Bang's teacher. Did you know
Speaker 2: when you were teaching him that he was gonna be
Speaker 2: a rapper he was gonna be a star?
Speaker 3: Not at all? No, I just knew he was a
Speaker 3: funny little dude. He was cool.
Speaker 6: He had a sense of humor, and he was smart,
Speaker 6: you know what I mean. And he was not to
Speaker 6: be playing played with. He was serious, you know, he
Speaker 6: was serious about just demanding his respect.
Speaker 4: But it was just a cool dude.
Speaker 5: I did a video with him because you put out album.
Speaker 1: Called Yes I'm Sad, and like you know, I.
Speaker 5: Did a video with him encouraging him to go to
Speaker 5: go to therapy, and then I actually connected him with
Speaker 5: a therapist. That's that's coming out soon. He actually sat
Speaker 5: down with a real therapist. And I don't suggest people broadcasted,
Speaker 5: but if they want to, I'm not mad at it.
Speaker 3: What if people broadcast going to therapy.
Speaker 5: I mean, you know, sitting down like the actual session, like, oh,
Speaker 5: the actual session, didn't.
Speaker 1: Doing the actual sesson I'm not sure. I'm not really here.
Speaker 5: I think I did that once for VH one, and
Speaker 5: I never doing like that.
Speaker 6: Yeah, bro, because it's hard to be transparent, that's right,
Speaker 6: you know what I'm saying, super hard to be I
Speaker 6: went to therapy.
Speaker 3: Actually, right after that BT Sipher, I started going to therapy.
Speaker 5: Bro.
Speaker 6: I was signed to r c A at the time, right,
Speaker 6: And you know you're on the BT Sipher, you think
Speaker 6: in your life about to change after this, Like That's
Speaker 6: what I was thinking.
Speaker 3: And nothing changed after that night, you know what I mean?
Speaker 3: Nothing changed after that night.
Speaker 6: So I was like, damn man, and I was feeling like,
Speaker 6: I know I'm the underdog in this industry because you know,
Speaker 6: I'm on some I'm on some righteous stuff. I'm on
Speaker 6: some put god first stuff. I come from New Orleans. Like,
Speaker 6: after that, I felt I blew my shot and it
Speaker 6: started messing with me with me mentally to where I
Speaker 6: was like, dang, I kind of don't even want to
Speaker 6: be here no more.
Speaker 3: Not in the industry, but on this earth. And when I.
Speaker 6: Started realizing like that, I'm having suicidal thoughts behind feeling
Speaker 6: like I'm professionally a failure, I realized I couldn't separate David.
Speaker 3: From d one at that point, and that was unhealthy,
Speaker 3: you know what I mean.
Speaker 6: And for the first time in life, I went to
Speaker 6: therapy because I was like talking to my friends that
Speaker 6: ain't getting it at this point, talking to my grandma
Speaker 6: rest in peace, that ain't cutting it at this point.
Speaker 6: So therapy really did help me, but ultimately would helped
Speaker 6: me even more than therapy was understanding my God given purpose.
Speaker 3: For like, man, I know who my creator is.
Speaker 6: I know why I was put here, and I was
Speaker 6: put here to glorify him. So who am I to
Speaker 6: think that my whole life is a failure because one
Speaker 6: moment didn't elevate me professionally.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 5: I wondered about that because you know you went you
Speaker 5: you went to LSU, right, Yeah, I graduated from ls
Speaker 5: You got kicked off the basketball team.
Speaker 1: Yeah, but you didn't have those thoughts then.
Speaker 6: Like, man, No, my freshman year, first, before I got
Speaker 6: kicked off the basketball team, my girlfriend cheated on me
Speaker 6: with a couple of football players, he.
Speaker 4: Said, a couple, not even one.
Speaker 1: Jesus.
Speaker 6: Yeah, you feel that pain, Yeah, Like I still my
Speaker 6: heart just jumped when I said it. Ast you to man,
Speaker 6: that stuff that happened freshman year. Then I got cut
Speaker 6: from the basketball team. Then my roommates started selling drugs.
Speaker 1: You heard me.
Speaker 6: When we got to l s U, we shared a
Speaker 6: dawn rum. Then one of my best friends in New
Speaker 6: Orleans got murdered, so I got that. I got the
Speaker 6: text message. When I was in English class. I looked
Speaker 6: down at my phone and my homegirl told me that
Speaker 6: my boy Ryan had just got murdered.
Speaker 1: Right.
Speaker 6: All this happened freshman year. So that was the first
Speaker 6: life changing, like rock altering moment that I had. And
Speaker 6: during that time I could have found the streets. I
Speaker 6: could have found a lot of stuff. I found God
Speaker 6: in a real way, in a real way, like not
Speaker 6: in just like a week from the south.
Speaker 3: So we all believe in God, but.
Speaker 6: Like, no, like I get it, Like I submit everything
Speaker 6: to you God from this day moving forward.
Speaker 3: My only role out on trying to be like is Jesus.
Speaker 3: You heard me?
Speaker 6: And I started living like that and I started rapping.
Speaker 6: Rapping was my therapy at that time. So when I
Speaker 6: started rapping, I had a lot to talk about and
Speaker 6: I was like, why would I glorify murder when my
Speaker 6: best friends just got murdered? Why would I glorify smashing
Speaker 6: your girl when a couple of football players.
Speaker 3: Just smash my girl.
Speaker 6: You know what I'm saying, Why would I glorify a
Speaker 6: whole bunch of money that I know I ain't got you,
Speaker 6: feel me? When that that ain't just how I'm living.
Speaker 6: So from day one, rap was an outlet for me
Speaker 6: to be able to spit reality. But you got to
Speaker 6: make that reality charismatic and entertaining. So I just had
Speaker 6: to get real good and spitting reality. No.
Speaker 1: I'm from NEWORLEANWI.
Speaker 3: I went to college in band Ruge, and I taught
Speaker 3: in band Ruge.
Speaker 4: Okay, let me ask you. You know they consider you
Speaker 4: a Christian rapper, right.
Speaker 3: I don't know. I don't know if they do or not.
Speaker 2: You know, because the reason is is I feel like
Speaker 2: they put you in a box. But there's a lot
Speaker 2: of rappers that preach positivity and don't preach gang, don't
Speaker 2: preach guns, don't preach violence, and they're not putting that
Speaker 2: same box.
Speaker 4: But they seem to put you in that bo.
Speaker 6: You know why, It's because they smart. The other rappers
Speaker 6: they crafty. I ain't gonna say it's smart.
Speaker 3: They crafty.
Speaker 6: Though they had a positive message, but then they'll sprinkle
Speaker 6: in some but I smash your girl, you know what
Speaker 6: I mean, Or like my partners will come to spin.
Speaker 3: A bend and and and and and and and murk
Speaker 3: you you know what I mean. They're they'll slide a
Speaker 3: little bit of that in there.
Speaker 1: There you go.
Speaker 3: But I don't think that's I don't think me put
Speaker 3: the candy in the medicine.
Speaker 1: No, put the medicine in the candy.
Speaker 6: Put the medicine in the candy. Yeah, so they and
Speaker 6: I don't think that that's I don't think that that's
Speaker 6: wise because I's just like that kind of comes across lukewarm,
Speaker 6: you know what I mean.
Speaker 3: So with me, it's one of.
Speaker 6: The things where I was like, if I got to
Speaker 6: sacrifice a little bit of professional like growth in order
Speaker 6: to say I'm gonna be uncompromising about my message, I'm
Speaker 6: down for it because wherever I get, that's where I
Speaker 6: was meant to be in God's eyes. You know a
Speaker 6: lot of people got selfish ambition, and that's different from
Speaker 6: godly ambition. What godly ambition is God, I just wanna
Speaker 6: make you proud, And wherever that lamb me at, I'm content.
Speaker 6: Selfish ambition is the world telling me to chase being
Speaker 6: a billionaire, the world telling me this's the newest car
Speaker 6: to get, the world telling me that this the brands
Speaker 6: I need to be rocking. That's selfish ambition that had
Speaker 6: you chasing or moving target for your whole life. And
Speaker 6: I never fell victim to that because around the time
Speaker 6: I was starting to get materialistic, I went to Ghano
Speaker 6: when I was thirteen years old.
Speaker 3: I saw real poverty. I thought I grew up in
Speaker 3: the hood till I went to Ghana. You feel me.
Speaker 6: I came back. Man, I'm not tripping on jibo jeans
Speaker 6: no more. I'm not tripping on you know, having a Yeah,
Speaker 6: have this jewelry and be like the hot boys or whatever. Man,
Speaker 6: I just seen people who they joy is their weapon,
Speaker 6: you know what I mean. I don't need to carry
Speaker 6: no gun. My joy is my weapon moving forward. I
Speaker 6: want my smile to light the room up when I
Speaker 6: come in there. That's what I've been on for a
Speaker 6: long time. So you apply that to the rap game,
Speaker 6: and people gonna be like, oh, he different, and because
Speaker 6: he different and he he loved God.
Speaker 3: He a Christian rapper, You know what I mean?
Speaker 6: If that's what people call me cool, but a lot
Speaker 6: of people they're just like nah, bro, he's a college professor,
Speaker 6: he's a Harvard University fellow, he's a dope rapper, he's
Speaker 6: an activist, he's you know, he's a bunch of things.
Speaker 6: He's an author. This is my children's book.
Speaker 3: I just wrote. Yeah so that I wrote that at
Speaker 3: Harvard last year. And it's uh based on.
Speaker 1: You being bullied while growing up. Right.
Speaker 6: I used to bullet when I was in kindergarten, you know,
Speaker 6: like a lot of people, and when I was bullied
Speaker 6: at the time, I didn't know how to you know,
Speaker 6: I didn't know how to get over that. So this
Speaker 6: is an anti bullying hip hop children's book because uh, yeah, bro,
Speaker 6: just like the story of David and Goliath, David was
Speaker 6: able to defeat.
Speaker 3: Goliath when he found his sling shot.
Speaker 6: You feel me, David didn't use nobody else's weapons when
Speaker 6: they was like here, take this shield, take this sword.
Speaker 6: He was like, now I'm good on that. I know
Speaker 6: what my gift is. My gift is using this sling shot.
Speaker 6: The way I overcame my bully is I found my
Speaker 6: sling shot. And you know, when you read the book,
Speaker 6: you realize what my sling shot is, but you realize
Speaker 6: that we all got a sling shot. And when you
Speaker 6: find your sling shot in life and you use it
Speaker 6: for the purpose God designed it for, You're going to
Speaker 6: defeat the golias in your world too.
Speaker 1: I love that, you know.
Speaker 5: You know, when Biggie said, I'm black and ugly as ever, however,
Speaker 5: always say that.
Speaker 1: All of us have it.
Speaker 6: However, all of us got a how all of us
Speaker 6: thank you, bro, And that's I just want hip hop
Speaker 6: to start being like hip hop is my sling shot, clearly, Bro.
Speaker 6: Rapping is what got me here. I'm on the breakfast
Speaker 6: club right now, Bro, Like this is huge. Like I
Speaker 6: don't want to act like this is just normal to me.
Speaker 6: I know every thought I've been here. You know what
Speaker 6: I'm saying, Bro, There's still a big deal to me, bro,
Speaker 6: And a lot of people are cheering for me right now,
Speaker 6: a lot of people who've been a part of my
Speaker 6: whole journey. But I just want us to like look
Speaker 6: at hip hop as being a tool that we could
Speaker 6: use in a more healthy way to help us reach
Speaker 6: our goals in life. Bro, if you listening to music,
Speaker 6: and if you're making music, it shouldn't have to glorify murder.
Speaker 6: It shouldn't have to glorify drug dealing. It shouldn't have
Speaker 6: to do that. She goes it shouldn't, you know, it
Speaker 6: shouldn't have to do all that stuff in order to
Speaker 6: get us where we're going in life.
Speaker 3: Man.
Speaker 6: And I'm just trying to show people that I'm a
Speaker 6: success story. So if I could do it while other
Speaker 6: people can't do it.
Speaker 1: Do you want to just a liars?
Speaker 3: You can have a hug. Now you got a book
Speaker 3: for you, Yeah, okay, this is yeah.
Speaker 4: Now.
Speaker 2: You were very vocal about rappers using their platform. You
Speaker 2: spoke about of course me and Jim Jones, Rick Ross,
Speaker 2: and you were upset with You felt like the music
Speaker 2: that they put out was hurting the youth opposed to helping.
Speaker 4: Yeah, break that down a little bit.
Speaker 2: And all those brothers in their music have uplifting songs
Speaker 2: and positive songs. It's not just all about bang bang
Speaker 2: shoot them up after your girl, But you felt like
Speaker 2: the singles that they put out were well.
Speaker 6: I just feel like we got a lot of selective
Speaker 6: outrage in the black community in general, a lot of
Speaker 6: selective outrage if a white person say the N word
Speaker 6: one time, all it take is one time for them
Speaker 6: to say it.
Speaker 3: We at the top, we on their head.
Speaker 6: Oh no, you say, damn world, we're trying to cancel you.
Speaker 6: We'll never let you forget that. But if artists, if
Speaker 6: it's like yo, where they rap about murdering people, you know,
Speaker 6: in fifty percent of their songs, but in the other
Speaker 6: fifty percent or all in eighty percent of their songs,
Speaker 6: but twenty percent they rap about economic empowerment and some
Speaker 6: positive stuff like.
Speaker 3: Shouldn't that be okay? We're content with a state of
Speaker 3: lukewarm this, you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 6: That's something that I'm just like, Yo, that's confusing. That's
Speaker 6: confusing to these kids. I'm with the kids on a
Speaker 6: daily basis.
Speaker 3: You feel me.
Speaker 6: I'm a college professor currently in addition to being a rapper, Like,
Speaker 6: I'm seeing that these kids who ain't from the trenches
Speaker 6: at all, now their identity is rooted in like, well,
Speaker 6: if I'm black, I gotta be able to relate to
Speaker 6: this type of music to even feel like I'm authentically black.
Speaker 3: And that's because that's what's getting pushed. And I'm just
Speaker 3: telling the.
Speaker 6: Artists like, bro, we know, like we made it from
Speaker 6: that we shouldn't have to be glorifying that stuff. There's
Speaker 6: a difference between narration and glorification. You feel me when
Speaker 6: you narrating something. Man, I came from this hood. I
Speaker 6: came from the East Side night Walter in New Orleans.
Speaker 6: I've seen this. My best friend got killed. Glorification is Look,
Speaker 6: I'm gonna be the one to come when I get
Speaker 6: off breakfast club and come mrk something. I'm gonna be
Speaker 6: the one to come slide on my apps. I'm I'm
Speaker 6: gonna give my young boy.
Speaker 3: A bag to go and get you dead. You know
Speaker 3: what I'm saying.
Speaker 6: We are content with the glorification of drug dealing and
Speaker 6: murdering and disrespecting our women.
Speaker 3: And that's a problem, bro, is it not?
Speaker 1: It's it's definitely a problem.
Speaker 5: What if we switched our our mindset about how we
Speaker 5: look at the music, Like, is there a way to
Speaker 5: look at the music?
Speaker 1: Is just entertainment, the same way we look at movies.
Speaker 1: You you TV?
Speaker 3: You being serious right now? Are you just playing devils?
Speaker 5: Because these people, all these people are in character. It's
Speaker 5: not like they're saying, hey, my name is such as that.
Speaker 1: They're all in character. We do it in movies and
Speaker 1: TV shows.
Speaker 5: We know it's not real, and they glorified even worse
Speaker 5: probably than the music.
Speaker 7: I think, I, yeah, you're playing you get your budd
Speaker 7: also feel like what Challan says, not to say it,
Speaker 7: and I get what you're saying that it's an influence.
Speaker 4: But we know these are rappers. Ain't killing nobody.
Speaker 1: No, we don't know that.
Speaker 2: They're not running around shooting nobody majority of them, Bro,
Speaker 2: are you serious?
Speaker 1: They are heavy?
Speaker 3: Listen, listen you listen, Bro. I just watched y'all show
Speaker 3: the other day. Bro, I'm a fan of the show.
Speaker 3: First of all, I just watched the show when y'all
Speaker 3: had my brother French Mantana up.
Speaker 6: Here, the young brother with Fred not not not the
Speaker 6: young queen, but the young brother with He was like,
Speaker 6: y'all you was like, yo, French smashing of the rappers.
Speaker 1: Wise.
Speaker 6: French was like, nah, that's rap, cap, I'm just saying that.
Speaker 6: The young brother was like, man, I make drill rap,
Speaker 6: Like what you mean if we ain't living it, like, shoot,
Speaker 6: that's lame. We gotta be living Scheana.
Speaker 1: Man.
Speaker 6: They're telling you that, Bro, They're telling you like, no,
Speaker 6: this ain't just fiction rap like this is non fiction.
Speaker 6: Rappers implied to this auto biographical, and you're telling your
Speaker 6: real story.
Speaker 3: You heard me.
Speaker 6: D one is just a stage name. It's not a character.
Speaker 6: It's extension of who David Augerstein is. That's what rap is, bro.
Speaker 6: I could remember my favorite rap lyrics from The Hot
Speaker 6: Boys from twenty years ago.
Speaker 3: I can't. I don't.
Speaker 6: I don't walk around quoting my favorite movies from twenty
Speaker 6: years ago, line for line from the whole movie.
Speaker 3: But I could wrap you any Lil Wayne lyrics from
Speaker 3: twenty years ago.
Speaker 5: I definitely got me a thirty eight snub nose because
Speaker 5: of tupacin Juice third.
Speaker 1: That was a movie, though, That's what I'm saying.
Speaker 5: I've definitely been a I can't see that goa haven't
Speaker 5: been influenced by movie.
Speaker 6: You get mold though, that we are way more influenced
Speaker 6: by music than we all movies, bro. And at the
Speaker 6: same time, when the last time you seen these actors
Speaker 6: from movies out here getting killed and getting rico charges
Speaker 6: and getting putting it, I agree, thank you. So since
Speaker 6: we agree with that, it's clear that like music has
Speaker 6: this pull on us, but we content with this state
Speaker 6: of lukewarm in this show I'm telling y'all, and all
Speaker 6: I'm saying is we all massively successful. Who's sitting here
Speaker 6: right now, all of us massively successful with our platform.
Speaker 6: Like I feel called to not make the next generation
Speaker 6: feel content with with saying yeah, like let's glorify this stuff,
Speaker 6: but not let's just not go do it in real life.
Speaker 5: I wonder if you can narrate without glorifying. I don't
Speaker 5: think you can, because even somebody like I think about
Speaker 5: the jay Z. Jay Z has always been a narrator.
Speaker 5: He's always told you the good, the bad, the ugly,
Speaker 5: the consequences everything. That don't mean you still won't go
Speaker 5: out there and experience it for yourself because a lot
Speaker 5: of time but Nah's the same way that now Is glorifies.
Speaker 5: I mean he narrates it, you know, like I can't.
Speaker 5: It's just to me.
Speaker 1: It's kind of the.
Speaker 4: Nas talks about it, and a lot of it, I'm not.
Speaker 2: Nias talks about a lot of the life that he
Speaker 2: lived in Queens and a lot of it was the
Speaker 2: stuff that we're talking about, drugs and guns and all
Speaker 2: that other stuff. But NAIs also has a lot of
Speaker 2: records that's positivity.
Speaker 6: I'm saying, now's my favorite rapper. I'm saying like nas
Speaker 6: inspired me to be like, oh, this is a sophisticated
Speaker 6: hood dude same as me, Like I can relate to that,
Speaker 6: Like he clearly smart, but he's seen a lot of stuff.
Speaker 3: He's been through a lot of stuff.
Speaker 6: Glorifying something is just simply saying, Bro, how many records
Speaker 6: that are either getting played on the radio or that's
Speaker 6: at the top of these playlists nowadays? How many records
Speaker 6: are glorifying I'm gonna spin on my apps.
Speaker 3: I'm spinning the being, I'm sliding on you. I'm gonna
Speaker 3: bust your head, like, come on.
Speaker 4: Thank you.
Speaker 6: That's glorification, bro. Narration is saying, Yo, I've seen this
Speaker 6: stuff in my past. This happened to my best friend,
Speaker 6: Da Da Da Da da man one of my students
Speaker 6: murdered another one of.
Speaker 3: My students who I used to teach this is real life.
Speaker 6: If I'm narrating that, I'm still talking about murder, but
Speaker 6: I'm not glorifying it.
Speaker 3: Like that's to be replicated and duplicated. You feel me.
Speaker 5: I wonder about people's environments too, though, because I feel
Speaker 5: like the environment you come up and influences you way
Speaker 5: more than music would. I just think the problem sometimes
Speaker 5: is that people provide soundtracks for the environment.
Speaker 6: Okay, okay, so that's where as OG's and hip hop
Speaker 6: and as success stories, we should be able to yo
Speaker 6: to the youngest coming up. Let me show you how
Speaker 6: you can take that environment and make your environment be
Speaker 6: a product of you because.
Speaker 3: You was chosen. You hear me.
Speaker 6: If you're an artist and you got a huge platform,
Speaker 6: you know what our responsibility is.
Speaker 3: It's to make the revolution irresistible. That's a famous quote.
Speaker 6: The role of the artist is to make the revolution irresistible.
Speaker 6: That means you can take something. You could take concrete
Speaker 6: and you could be the roles that grew from it
Speaker 6: and have everybody looking like how did you do that?
Speaker 3: And it's like I'm gonna show yall. I'm gonna y
Speaker 3: all the blueprint we chosen. Yo. You know how many
Speaker 3: people wrapped in this world, but they're not here right now.
Speaker 3: I clearly was chosen.
Speaker 6: It's bigger than me. I could spit with the best them.
Speaker 6: I'm better than ninety five percent of the rappers in
Speaker 6: this world. I know that you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 6: But with that being said, it's still takes more than
Speaker 6: just talent. So I was chosen. So it's like, dangn
Speaker 6: since I made it, what's my responsibility. It's not to
Speaker 6: keep feeding lies to people.
Speaker 3: I didn't have.
Speaker 6: Rappers had these type of convoys with me outside the booth,
Speaker 6: and then the engineer'll be like, all right, the beat
Speaker 6: is ready, and they leave from their chair. They go
Speaker 6: hop in the boot and they gonna kill faulty people
Speaker 6: in their song.
Speaker 2: But some of but some of your favorite rappers do
Speaker 2: the same, Like you're talking about Lil Wayne, Lila.
Speaker 4: Wayne has has said it, Jay has said it.
Speaker 3: Now, that's not that's what.
Speaker 2: There's also a lot of rappers that are doing it.
Speaker 2: On the positive side, you got your chance to rappers.
Speaker 2: You got your j Coles, you got your Kendrick.
Speaker 1: Even the new ones. I love the Russell you got,
Speaker 1: I love rahaps you got Kendrick. I give what you.
Speaker 1: I feel like the last ten years of hip hop,
Speaker 1: at least.
Speaker 5: The guys that were really really on top, with the
Speaker 5: exception of Maybe Future, they are nothing like the artists
Speaker 5: we grew up on, like J Cole, Kendrick Drag.
Speaker 1: They're nothing like we grew up on.
Speaker 5: Some cbfore the envy was putting guns in his manolo
Speaker 5: blocks because.
Speaker 1: Rappers was talking about it. But whatever what I'm saying,
Speaker 1: we grew up in the area.
Speaker 5: You had to be hardcore, you had to be just
Speaker 5: to survive facts.
Speaker 3: You know, Well, think about it like this.
Speaker 6: We can name all of the artists who y'all saying
Speaker 6: got a message nay music, probably on two hands.
Speaker 3: Meanwhile, there's whole.
Speaker 6: Genres of rap, trap, rap, drill rap a genre because
Speaker 6: system like one hundreds of artists, they got a whole
Speaker 6: genres that dedicated to the murder music at this point,
Speaker 6: they got a whole genres just dedicated to the negativity
Speaker 6: being glorified.
Speaker 3: You know what I mean.
Speaker 6: Unfortunately with our young queens, our women, what's being rapped
Speaker 6: about vagina booty, you know what I'm saying, just the
Speaker 6: power of what was between the lead.
Speaker 4: Though. Yeah, but how do you change that? Because you know,
Speaker 4: how do you change that?
Speaker 2: Because I heard you said in the interview it's like,
Speaker 2: you know a lot of these rappers you feel are
Speaker 2: serving two masters, right, yeah, the man upstairs and then
Speaker 2: or the man and woman upstairs, and then also the money.
Speaker 4: So how do you change that?
Speaker 6: You gotta pick one. And who created you? Did money
Speaker 6: create you? Or did God create you? God created you?
Speaker 3: So that's what you're.
Speaker 6: Supposed to be serving. Don't become a slave to a
Speaker 6: green piece of paper. Shout out to my brother Styles
Speaker 6: p Man, that's a song of his. I lived my
Speaker 6: whole life for a green piece of paper, you know
Speaker 6: what I mean. I'm like, dang that that song hit
Speaker 6: me back when I was in school because I was like, dang,
Speaker 6: I don't want to live my whole life for a
Speaker 6: green piece of paper that could be torn up and
Speaker 6: then once you teed it up, it has no value.
Speaker 3: I don't want to do that.
Speaker 4: Man, You don't think that.
Speaker 1: You know.
Speaker 4: People have to evolve. They have to they have to
Speaker 4: see it in themselves.
Speaker 2: Like we've seen j Evol, We've seen Styles p Evol,
Speaker 2: some of these people stabbing Styles was like.
Speaker 1: Jesus put it. But I always tell you Block that
Speaker 1: I loved Block. I love their growth and the evolution.
Speaker 5: But growing up, when I used to listen to d
Speaker 5: block music, I used to want to stab somebody with
Speaker 5: something sharp.
Speaker 4: You just said it, didn't you. At Queen's Bridge on
Speaker 4: the side of his head when he had hair Oh.
Speaker 5: Wow, I want you to I don't disagree with nothing
Speaker 5: you're saying. The only thing I want is that I
Speaker 5: don't like when you say what you say and then
Speaker 5: people take it away and then they want to get violent.
Speaker 5: I'm like, yo, how can you.
Speaker 1: Know what I'm saying? I want people to hear you,
Speaker 1: but you're not wrong.
Speaker 6: Yeah, and I don't have any beef with any artists.
Speaker 6: By the way, like I'm.
Speaker 3: Full of love.
Speaker 6: I hope y'all could feel that radiating from me. I'm
Speaker 6: also knowing that, like man, time is ticking. Man, we
Speaker 6: all got an expiration date and we don't know when
Speaker 6: it is. When I was in college, Jeremy and I
Speaker 6: had three dudes walk up on me out the blue.
Speaker 6: I was playing one on one basketball with my boy
Speaker 6: and these dudes walked up.
Speaker 3: They thought we had broken their homeboy's car. You heard me.
Speaker 6: So they was like, man, y'all broken out pot and
Speaker 6: the car. We was like, nah, not at all. They
Speaker 6: was like, man, y'all lying. One of the dudes pulled
Speaker 6: a gun out. Dude got a gun right here on
Speaker 6: my temple.
Speaker 3: You know what I'm saying?
Speaker 6: Real quick, I got my hands up like this, I'm like, damn, bro,
Speaker 6: I never thought I'd died as same way. My best
Speaker 6: friend just got killed a couple years ago. I thought
Speaker 6: my life was over right there, by the grace of God.
Speaker 6: The girl was walking to her apartment. She looked down
Speaker 6: at the basketball court. She was like like, oh my god,
Speaker 6: you know what I mean. And they looked up and
Speaker 6: they got spooks, so they put the gun up. They
Speaker 6: ran right in that moment, I was like, oh, shoot,
Speaker 6: I'm sure it's an impact over income.
Speaker 3: You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 6: Because if I'd have died in that moment, all the
Speaker 6: money that I had, that money couldn't have did nothing,
Speaker 6: but the impact that I left in this world, that
Speaker 6: impact would be here forever, even after my life was gone.
Speaker 6: So that's when I was like, I'm not gonna be
Speaker 6: I was a business major, you feel me. I used
Speaker 6: to intern for Jimmy Hinchman up here in New York
Speaker 6: when I was in college. I was gonna work in
Speaker 6: corporate America. Man.
Speaker 3: I was like, forget that, I'm gonna be a teacher.
Speaker 3: I became a middle school teacher.
Speaker 6: When I was a middle school teacher, one of my
Speaker 6: students came in class one day with Mob tatted on
Speaker 6: his arm, the same with CHARLOA man had QB tatted
Speaker 6: on his head. Right, my student came in with MOB
Speaker 6: on his arm. I said, Bro, what made you get
Speaker 6: that tattooed?
Speaker 3: You know what that stand for?
Speaker 1: Right?
Speaker 3: Money over?
Speaker 6: He was like, no, sir, I don't know what that means.
Speaker 6: And I was like, then why did you get it?
Speaker 6: Because his favorite rapper, Lil Wayne has a tattooed.
Speaker 3: On his chest.
Speaker 6: The influence when I saw that from Pop huh Wayne
Speaker 6: and Wayne probably got that from pot Bro. That made
Speaker 6: me want to be a rapper. And I was like,
Speaker 6: I want to be a rapper because of the influence
Speaker 6: that I see the rappers are having. Man, that's it, Bro,
Speaker 6: so been in this game. Just dropped my eleventh album,
Speaker 6: From the Hood to Harvard. From the Hood to Harvard, talk.
Speaker 5: To me about working with Jimmy Hinton. I'm gonna ask
Speaker 5: you about that, Like, just walk walk me through that experience. Well,
Speaker 5: I needed to graduate.
Speaker 6: I was a marketing major, so I had to have
Speaker 6: an internship under my belt.
Speaker 3: And at the time I was like, dang, he was
Speaker 3: managing the game.
Speaker 6: I feel like he had Rick Ross, he had a
Speaker 6: Gucci man you know what I'm saying. He had a brandy,
Speaker 6: he had a few different people, and I was like, dang,
Speaker 6: this is crazy.
Speaker 3: It'd be amazing to work for him.
Speaker 1: Bro.
Speaker 6: I just called the number of his office and shout
Speaker 6: out to my sister Lashina, you heard me.
Speaker 3: She was working the front desk at the time. She
Speaker 3: answered the phone and she was like, Hey, how you doing.
Speaker 6: I was like, look, I'm a college student trying to
Speaker 6: get an internship, and I sent my resume over they
Speaker 6: hire me just like that. I didn't get paid. I
Speaker 6: ain't get paid, but I was up here in New York.
Speaker 6: I was living in the Bronx that summer and intern
Speaker 6: with him. I was on the Games Street Team. So
Speaker 6: years later, the game was on my last album I
Speaker 6: just dropped a few months ago. So to go from
Speaker 6: interning and working on the Games Street Team to him
Speaker 6: being a collaborator on my album, that's like a full
Speaker 6: circle moment, bro. But it showed me that summer. It
Speaker 6: showed me that I don't want to be in this
Speaker 6: industry unless I could be an artist, because I I've
Speaker 6: seen a lot of people who was pushing music that
Speaker 6: after they finished promoting the music, they would look at
Speaker 6: me and say, man, I don't even want my own
Speaker 6: kids listening to that music.
Speaker 3: But this is just my job.
Speaker 6: I was like, ooh, I wouldn't want to have to
Speaker 6: live my life like that. You got to push something
Speaker 6: that you don't even really stand behind because it's your job.
Speaker 6: I was like, the only way I'd be in this
Speaker 6: game is if I could be an artist, because I
Speaker 6: could control my narrative.
Speaker 5: How many times you got called Poppy in the Bronx,
Speaker 5: I know they confused you for space They.
Speaker 6: Did, yeah, and I was like, bro, I'm black, Bro,
Speaker 6: I'm from New Orleans, Jeremy.
Speaker 3: As soon as I said you heard me, they was like.
Speaker 8: Oh here and from here.
Speaker 5: When did you first realize you were using your gifts
Speaker 5: for their intended purpose?
Speaker 6: Well, the first time I did a show, it was
Speaker 6: a it was a talent show at LSU and I
Speaker 6: miss a Phoenix Shakur was at my school right Tupac's mind.
Speaker 6: And when I got off stage, I didn't win first place,
Speaker 6: second place, or third place in that talent show, but
Speaker 6: when I got off stage, she was like, young brother,
Speaker 6: your passion on that microphone when I see you perform,
Speaker 6: reminds me of my son, and when she told me that,
Speaker 6: I was like, oh, I got something special, Like even
Speaker 6: if people not recognizing it in the moment, I got
Speaker 6: something special. Tupac Mama just told me this, you feel me.
Speaker 6: And at that point I was like, all, I know,
Speaker 6: if I use this for the purpose it was designed for,
Speaker 6: it could be life changing.
Speaker 3: Bro.
Speaker 6: I got letters in my pocket, bro, from students who
Speaker 6: like when I visit these middle schools and these high schools,
Speaker 6: they write me letters about like how much my music
Speaker 6: has inspired them and they wanting to be like me.
Speaker 6: They writing raps and they're giving this to me when
Speaker 6: I come to their school, Like I see this. You know,
Speaker 6: I'm speaking at a school. By the time I get
Speaker 6: off stage, the little girl and like drew a picture
Speaker 6: of me. You know what I'm saying, Like this is powerful, yo,
Speaker 6: Like this is organic stuff that I experienced on a
Speaker 6: daily basis. So I'm like, who would I be to
Speaker 6: have a water down message when I know that this
Speaker 6: message could be life changing for people in a good
Speaker 6: all bad way.
Speaker 3: And you're a professor, right, yeah, and talks university.
Speaker 5: And you teach students about the intersection of hip hop
Speaker 5: and social change.
Speaker 6: Yes, sir, that yeah, So my course that I designed,
Speaker 6: it's all about how hip hop has been used to
Speaker 6: make social change in the past and how we can
Speaker 6: use it to make social change moving forward, because unfortunately,
Speaker 6: it's kind of veered in the direction of Yo, I'm
Speaker 6: just trying to get the bag. I ain't even a rapper.
Speaker 6: I'm just a game spinner. I'm just a hustler. You know,
Speaker 6: it's kind of veered in that direction. So people now
Speaker 6: focused on making change via hip hop right, And I'm
Speaker 6: just saying, yo, as a class, we're going to learn
Speaker 6: how different artists have been able to use their platform
Speaker 6: to really make real change. I was on tour with
Speaker 6: Macklemore when the thrift Shop song came out, doing a
Speaker 6: nationwide tour with him.
Speaker 3: I saw the change.
Speaker 6: That they were making, even in the LGBTQ community when
Speaker 6: they had the same love song. I saw all of
Speaker 6: the legislation that they were a part of, and how
Speaker 6: they had people getting married at the shows and all this.
Speaker 3: I'm like, I'm seeing real social change be made via
Speaker 3: hip hop.
Speaker 6: I done seen the impact that l fox ones then
Speaker 6: had on the whole you know, a whole country make people.
Speaker 3: So we just study about that stuff.
Speaker 6: In my class, Bro, And I'm empowering my class to
Speaker 6: want to make music but also consume music that's gonna
Speaker 6: make change, because why are you consumer music that's glorified?
Speaker 6: Like one assignment I had for my class was to
Speaker 6: write Kodak Black a letter while he was in jail.
Speaker 3: Just now.
Speaker 6: Kodak just got out last week and me and Kodak
Speaker 6: are cool. So we were dming yesterday and Kodak hit
Speaker 6: me like, yo, I got all them letters from you
Speaker 6: and your class. He was like, that stuff really inspired me.
Speaker 6: Thank you, bro, y'all snapped. I want to come and
Speaker 6: visit your class.
Speaker 5: Kodak is a perfect I'll go ask you to what
Speaker 5: strategies do you use? So I want to get back
Speaker 5: to Koda. But other than like writing letters to Kodak,
Speaker 5: like what other things have you done?
Speaker 3: Yeah? So my class is actually creating an album, you
Speaker 3: know what I mean?
Speaker 6: My class is creating an album because I want to
Speaker 6: show them how hard it is to create hip hop
Speaker 6: and actually make it make social change. Because nowadays, if
Speaker 6: you want to have a message in your music, you
Speaker 6: automatically the underdog. But I love that my students could
Speaker 6: be like, wait, Professor d one is dropping music is
Speaker 6: on the freaking breakfast club.
Speaker 3: Like it's possible, you.
Speaker 1: Know what I'm saying.
Speaker 6: Totally independent, one hundred percent independent. They see that as possible.
Speaker 6: But I want them to see the things that they
Speaker 6: didn't see, which is me and you connecting ten years ago,
Speaker 6: Me and you connected almost ten years ago, y'all seeing
Speaker 6: me grinding. I'm making my class do this as they
Speaker 6: create an album, because making the music is the easy part.
Speaker 6: But make the music connect with people, you know what
Speaker 6: I mean. So I'm showing them with a little a
Speaker 6: little tough love, you know that, Like, we're gonna learn
Speaker 6: about artists who have done it successfully. We're gonna learn
Speaker 6: about artists who are on the right path, but then
Speaker 6: they let the bag get in their way and they
Speaker 6: changed their message along the way, and then we're gonna
Speaker 6: learn how to do it as an artist.
Speaker 1: Can't you be multi faceted? Though?
Speaker 3: Can't you be Can't you glorify killing and want to
Speaker 3: save the world? No?
Speaker 5: No, But maybe can you be a social justice advocate
Speaker 5: and just be a street rapper from Philly talking about
Speaker 5: your experience?
Speaker 3: You can definitely be.
Speaker 6: And by the way, but I hope that you know,
Speaker 6: I hope that's not still out in the air that
Speaker 6: d one has an issue with Meek may Or, Jim
Speaker 6: Jones and Rick Ross.
Speaker 3: I hope that's not.
Speaker 1: Well, you were specifics. That was the other thing too.
Speaker 5: I think that if you weren't specific and you just
Speaker 5: were talking about I think the message would have been
Speaker 5: received a little bit better. Because when whenever you, you know,
Speaker 5: address somebody as an individual, they're going to take your personal.
Speaker 6: Gotcha, it just are And and that wasn't my intention
Speaker 6: for anybody to take that personal because I literally, like,
Speaker 6: I love other brothers in a real sencere way, bro
Speaker 6: to say, just know, Oh, I'm just saying that, dad,
Speaker 6: I know, in.
Speaker 3: A real way.
Speaker 6: But when you use examples to make your point, if
Speaker 6: somebody say, man, people in the NBA need to conduct
Speaker 6: themselves better off the court, that's super vague. When you say, man,
Speaker 6: John mort need to stop, you know, flashing guns in
Speaker 6: his videos.
Speaker 3: Oh that's a real example, all right. Cool?
Speaker 4: Have you spoke to those brothers after man?
Speaker 3: Me and Jim have text each other and it was
Speaker 3: all love via text.
Speaker 6: I hope to link up with Jim while I'm out
Speaker 6: here in New York in person, like that'll be love.
Speaker 3: That's gonna be the next.
Speaker 4: That conversation happening on text. You hit hear me hit.
Speaker 6: You No a mutual contact. My brother Antonio and my
Speaker 6: brother Shabbaz the o G. They they they linked us
Speaker 6: via text, right, and then I sent them a video
Speaker 6: one day.
Speaker 1: Man.
Speaker 6: I woke up one day and I was like, man,
Speaker 6: all of this middle man and stuff and group text.
Speaker 6: I sent them a personal video speaking from the heart
Speaker 6: for a minute. Jim, this d one brother da da da,
Speaker 6: This was my heart, this was my intentions, this is
Speaker 6: my background. Da da da put that out that to him.
Speaker 6: That brother hit me back in five minutes. I appreciate
Speaker 6: you reaching out.
Speaker 3: This means a lot. I respect what you stand for.
Speaker 6: You know, we should have a conversation, he said, because
Speaker 6: I realized sometimes in life people are trying to get
Speaker 6: to the same destination, but they just taking two different routes.
Speaker 6: I respect the heck out of that. So we haven't
Speaker 6: met in person yet. We haven't verbally talked, but we
Speaker 6: text with Meek and Ross. I haven't communicated with them directly.
Speaker 6: I know people who know all of them, you know,
Speaker 6: so I would love for the link to be made
Speaker 6: just so they know like, Bro, this ain't no. I
Speaker 6: just want us to be the best version of ourselves, man,
Speaker 6: because it confuses the kids if we are giving turkeys away,
Speaker 6: giving toys away, giving shoes away, advocating for social justice reform.
Speaker 3: And glorifying the opposite type of message in our music.
Speaker 3: And that's all I'm saying.
Speaker 5: You know, is it ever appropriate to use unconventional means
Speaker 5: to achieve righteous righteous sense?
Speaker 3: It depends on what those unconventional means are. Bro, that's it.
Speaker 6: Like I wouldn't get up here right now and disrespect
Speaker 6: any of y'all.
Speaker 3: Physically or verbally to say, hey, the goal was to
Speaker 3: go viral.
Speaker 1: The niggas will a lot of to go virus.
Speaker 6: N Like, I don't think that that's That's just not
Speaker 6: how I'm cut. I'm not that thirsty for validation or
Speaker 6: for fame. Like I actually been famous for a long time,
Speaker 6: you know what I mean, I haven't. I haven't taught
Speaker 6: since I was Fredo's teacher, you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 6: That's like over a decade ago, brother, Like, Like, I'm good.
Speaker 6: I'm in a great space mentally, physically, financially, all that stuff.
Speaker 6: So for me, it's like the slow grind to continue.
Speaker 6: Rising might not come along with the antics, but it
Speaker 6: comes along with integrity. It's making God proud, it's making
Speaker 6: my grandparents, my parents proud, and it's giving people a blueprint.
Speaker 6: You know that that viral stuff. Man, you'll be here
Speaker 6: today and gone tomorrow.
Speaker 5: Can you talk about being in this world but not
Speaker 5: of this world? I know on the song line drawn
Speaker 5: on the entry.
Speaker 6: You say that, Yeah, so lines drawn is me saying, like, yo,
Speaker 6: this whole industry has become content with the state of
Speaker 6: luke warming this bro like we cool with a this song,
Speaker 6: we popping my lists, we popping pills, we selling dope,
Speaker 6: this song, we're doing something positive and we're cool with
Speaker 6: consuming it all. That's why other communities don't take us serious.
Speaker 6: You can't play with gay people like that. You can't
Speaker 6: play with jewels like that because they don't play with
Speaker 6: themselves like that. But when they see us disrespecting ourselves,
Speaker 6: they're like, man, the black people, they're not tripping man
Speaker 6: like it is what it is. They glorify killing themselves.
Speaker 6: Who cares if we disrespect them?
Speaker 3: You know? With that being said, does everybody in here
Speaker 3: believe in God?
Speaker 6: Of course percent If we all can say that, then
Speaker 6: that should make it way easier to understand my why
Speaker 6: why I do what I do. It's because I don't
Speaker 6: I don't serve my fans. I don't serve the industry,
Speaker 6: I don't serve Instagram. I serve God. And I'm simply
Speaker 6: using my music as a vehicle to reach people.
Speaker 3: But I'm not serving the people.
Speaker 6: So if we all look at what our slingshot is
Speaker 6: and what our gifts are and say, how can I
Speaker 6: use this gift to be of service to God, automatically
Speaker 6: it'll be like, Oh, there's no way that I can
Speaker 6: justify glorifying killing and glorifying just a bunch of negativity
Speaker 6: to say that, Well, I'm trying to make money, so
Speaker 6: that's going to justify it at the end of the day.
Speaker 3: There's no way. So I say it.
Speaker 6: I'm drawing lines and I'm saying what side of the
Speaker 6: line are you on? Do you want to represent righteousness
Speaker 6: or you want to represent evil? And drawing that line
Speaker 6: in the sand.
Speaker 3: That's made a.
Speaker 6: Lot of people on hip hop uncomfortable because now it's like, oh,
Speaker 6: I got to pick a side. I was comfortable in
Speaker 6: the middle. I ain't want to have to pick a side.
Speaker 6: We was all comfortable in the middle. Actually, man, I'm
Speaker 6: just drawing a line, that's all. And that's why I
Speaker 6: put that song out. That's the first song on my album,
Speaker 6: and that song shaking things up?
Speaker 3: You heard me?
Speaker 8: How often do you get a student that still just
Speaker 8: goes against the ground, you know what I mean? Like,
Speaker 8: you know, because everybody's not gonna go yeah, everybody's not
Speaker 8: gonna do the same thing, you know. I know you
Speaker 8: help a lot of students. I can definitely tell that
Speaker 8: you help a lot of a lot of kids, But like,
Speaker 8: how many how often do you get the ones that's
Speaker 8: like nah?
Speaker 3: Every day? I got students in the graveyard right now.
Speaker 3: Want to listen. They're resting in peace, like literally literally, Man,
Speaker 3: that stuff tough.
Speaker 1: Man.
Speaker 6: One of my students, g Money. He was a popular
Speaker 6: rapper and band ruge. You know, he got murdered a
Speaker 6: few years ago. That was Fredo Band's rapping partner. It
Speaker 6: was in the group together. Man, he got murdered. Man,
Speaker 6: I was talking to him two days before he got murdered.
Speaker 3: He was involved in.
Speaker 6: Some beef down there in Louisiana and I wanted him
Speaker 6: to come with me to a show. I had in
Speaker 6: Memphis at the time, but he adn't asked his phone
Speaker 6: when I hit him up, and I didn't want to
Speaker 6: seem like I was bothering him, right, but I was like, man,
Speaker 6: get out the city. Man, come with me for the weekend.
Speaker 6: Let me just pour into you, bro. And he ain't
Speaker 6: come with me to that show. He got murdered before
Speaker 6: I could make it back home. I mean, but I
Speaker 6: knew that. It's like you involved in this beef, but
Speaker 6: it's because you're getting caught up in wanting to play
Speaker 6: this role of who G Money is instead of the
Speaker 6: young brother that I know Garret Burton is, you know.
Speaker 6: And I just seen hip hop make people do that. Man,
Speaker 6: Like I got adrenaline running through me right now. Man,
Speaker 6: I'm on the breakfast club. It's gonna make people like
Speaker 6: want to amplify something inside of them. Thankfully though, because
Speaker 6: I know I'm serving God. I'm like, amplify the righteousness
Speaker 6: in U. D like, don't amplify because I got darkness
Speaker 6: in me too. I got wretchedness, I got craziness. I
Speaker 6: got evil in me as well.
Speaker 3: We all do.
Speaker 6: But I don't want to amplify that part. I try
Speaker 6: to suppress that part as much as possible. But man,
Speaker 6: I see people make the wrong decisions every day, and
Speaker 6: I just try to I try to still be here
Speaker 6: for we gotta still have grace with people.
Speaker 3: You feel me, And.
Speaker 1: What could you tell?
Speaker 8: Like my black son, he's eleven years old, right, And
Speaker 8: what I noticed about him is, you know, he lives
Speaker 8: between me, my mother, and his father. So that's three
Speaker 8: different households, you know, because what I doing, what his
Speaker 8: dad does.
Speaker 4: You know, I'm always on the road.
Speaker 8: I live in New Jersey now he's between here and
Speaker 8: Baltimore and then his dad. Total different household. He has
Speaker 8: siblings there. I don't have other children yet. I'm pregnant
Speaker 8: right now. But it's a different it's different household, so
Speaker 8: it's different things that I don't allow him to do
Speaker 8: that his dad may allow him to do that my
Speaker 8: mom don't. So he's he's listening in the gospel when
Speaker 8: he was herd but down when he that's not what
Speaker 8: he wanted to listen to.
Speaker 4: He's listening to NB a young.
Speaker 3: Boy in school and stuff like that.
Speaker 8: And I notice a mood change, you know, not to
Speaker 8: you know, shut on and be a young boy or
Speaker 8: anything like that, because he has things that he's going
Speaker 8: through as well, and he makes that very known. But
Speaker 8: my son's mood will change, He'll he'll get like down
Speaker 8: a little bit, you know what I'm saying. But he
Speaker 8: loves to listen to him right now, I listen to
Speaker 8: all types of things.
Speaker 3: I don't have him listen to.
Speaker 8: My son know Marvin Gay songs, he knows Anita Baker
Speaker 8: like he knows so many different because it's different.
Speaker 3: I listen to rap.
Speaker 8: I listen from everything to rap, rhythm and blues rock.
Speaker 3: All of that.
Speaker 8: But I notice how it's a change.
Speaker 1: It is.
Speaker 8: It's a mood, and influence from music is very impactful
Speaker 8: because my son just goes into a different mood when
Speaker 8: he listens to like Juice World an NBA young Boy,
Speaker 8: and I'm.
Speaker 3: Like, why are you listening to that?
Speaker 5: You're like, I like it.
Speaker 8: I'm like, can you understand what they're saying?
Speaker 3: No, not like that, not like that.
Speaker 8: But he understands some of that stuff and he puts
Speaker 8: them in a different mood.
Speaker 3: You get it literally changes your mood.
Speaker 1: You know.
Speaker 6: It's life and death in the power of the tongue.
Speaker 6: That's Proverbs eighteen and twenty one. It don't say, life
Speaker 6: and death in the power of the beat.
Speaker 3: You heard me.
Speaker 6: The beat could change your mood or your frequency, but
Speaker 6: life and death is in the power of those lyrics.
Speaker 6: So that's why it's like, we all say we believe
Speaker 6: in God, so we can't ignore that scripture that's real.
Speaker 6: So that's why I'm like, bro, I don't even want
Speaker 6: to play about something that could have life and death implications.
Speaker 3: You feel me, and that's just real, yo.
Speaker 6: So now it's like, instead of just being the person
Speaker 6: that's anti it is anti dead, I gotta be just
Speaker 6: as dope, but in a different lane. So that's why
Speaker 6: I gotta beat it to counter act the murder music
Speaker 6: with stuff like I don't care if you know me,
Speaker 6: you're about to respect high step.
Speaker 3: Why would you think I'd.
Speaker 4: Ever fear you.
Speaker 3: I don't even fear death. A scare of boy. Need
Speaker 3: a gun like bad breath? Need a gun? Yeah, your
Speaker 3: teeth clean, But I know the power of the tongue.
Speaker 3: I'm a man of God.
Speaker 6: I ain't superstitious from New Orleans, where Birdman quotes get
Speaker 6: treated like Bible scriptures. But me, I ain't the type
Speaker 6: to brag about without in bolt. I make silent moves,
Speaker 6: but I get loud results. If d one talk about
Speaker 6: his pain, you gonna really relate. Do you want to
Speaker 6: talk about his paper?
Speaker 3: You gonna know that his street.
Speaker 6: Do you want rap on top of your beat? You
Speaker 6: gonna know that he ate d You wanta rap on
Speaker 6: top of your beat? You gonna know that he ate you?
Speaker 6: Bragging about with you then been through Potner. We survivors too,
Speaker 6: and you calling boys your brothers. But which one's gonna
Speaker 6: rhyme for you? Ain't no g cod, no more boi.
Speaker 6: The streets then lie to you. That's why I be
Speaker 6: in my bag, but I be in my bible tool.
Speaker 6: They don't like me, but they know they can't deny me. Man,
Speaker 6: I'm a real gangster, and they no right where to
Speaker 6: find me. G A n g st A. Do not
Speaker 6: try me growing their nurturing. If serving the almighty, keep
Speaker 6: up a lot of people feel how I be feeling,
Speaker 6: but don't speak up. I'd be out at Harvard in
Speaker 6: my office with my feet up.
Speaker 4: God, why are.
Speaker 3: You so good to me?
Speaker 6: I need answers. Slaves built this school. Now I own
Speaker 6: real estate on campus.
Speaker 3: That's how I gotta come bro Charlamagne, I dare you
Speaker 3: say that, ain't it?
Speaker 6: Bro?
Speaker 5: I da say, you don't have to say nothing.
Speaker 1: But of course that was dope. What would you do on?
Speaker 7: Yeah?
Speaker 1: How much?
Speaker 3: Yeah? I own it.
Speaker 6: So it's this huge, huge, multi purpose facility that's being built.
Speaker 6: It's going to be office buildings, is going to be
Speaker 6: mixed income housing, and it's going to be a student
Speaker 6: academic center that's being built.
Speaker 3: We just broke ground on it. What that was December first?
Speaker 6: So I'm part of a team and take a team
Speaker 6: to make something big like that happened, brother, And thankfully
Speaker 6: I was connected to brilliant black minds that were like, yo, man,
Speaker 6: we got the opportunity to own real estate on Harvard's
Speaker 6: campus when our ancestors built this school. Man, we got
Speaker 6: to do that. And I was like, bet, that's what
Speaker 6: I'm using my money on. I don't need the newest car.
Speaker 6: I drive behind the cord proudly. I don't need a
Speaker 6: boo gouty it.
Speaker 3: I can have that.
Speaker 6: I can have a lambo at this point, I don't
Speaker 6: need none of that. Man, give me that real estate
Speaker 6: on Harvard's campus.
Speaker 1: You know what?
Speaker 5: You know? I got a couple more questions with d
Speaker 5: one because you've you've been propositioned to compromise yourself at
Speaker 5: different points in this industry.
Speaker 3: Right, I know what you're talking about.
Speaker 1: I don't want if you're not going to say, I'm not.
Speaker 3: Going that's it?
Speaker 4: Okay, Yeah say it.
Speaker 5: Since I mean, is it true that you are pressure
Speaker 5: to participate in homosexual acts for a major?
Speaker 3: Is it true that you were pressure to participate in
Speaker 3: homosexual acts for you?
Speaker 1: Get that?
Speaker 4: I didn't see that on this It's true.
Speaker 3: No, it's very true. I don't know how you heard that.
Speaker 3: Maybe you heard another interview or something. It's very true.
Speaker 1: Brother.
Speaker 6: That's when I was. That's when I was a local
Speaker 6: rapper trying to get on. And when people see that,
Speaker 6: you are vulnerable because they know they got the leverage.
Speaker 6: There's certain people in this industry who will be like, oh,
Speaker 6: I think he'll be willing to do something strange for
Speaker 6: a piece of change, you know what I mean? And
Speaker 6: I had somebody was trying to get somebody to manage
Speaker 6: me at the time, and the person I was trying
Speaker 6: to get to manage me, I drove out of time.
Speaker 6: I went to a video shoot that they were part of,
Speaker 6: and during the video shoot, we were gonna have a
Speaker 6: meeting and talk about that. And yeah, that person kind
Speaker 6: of you know, implied to me like yo, like I'll
Speaker 6: manage you. You justally gotta do something for me.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and you see them managing artists now you like man.
Speaker 6: That So actually that person is christ Yeah, bro, No,
Speaker 6: that's a real thing.
Speaker 3: This ain't. No, I'm surprised y'all don't know more stories
Speaker 3: like that. I do know a lot of about it. Yeah,
Speaker 3: but it's so it's a real thing that I know.
Speaker 6: And unfortunately people so that person they're not like some
Speaker 6: big model nowadays, whatever trajectory they were on.
Speaker 3: Like they fell off.
Speaker 6: I say that, but I want people to know that
Speaker 6: story because I could have said yes, and I could
Speaker 6: have I could have had something. To this day, that's
Speaker 6: a huge skeleton in my closet that I'm like, damn bro,
Speaker 6: like I'm traumatized behind that. And I had to do
Speaker 6: that to get on. All I had to do to.
Speaker 3: Get on was be real, be righteous, and be relevant,
Speaker 3: keep God first.
Speaker 1: Man. And I ask one lest thing about in posita syndrome.
Speaker 5: You got a record in positive syndrome, and you're clearly
Speaker 5: at a place of worthy right now. So when did
Speaker 5: you get to that place of worthy and was able
Speaker 5: to say, you know what, I know who I am.
Speaker 3: Man.
Speaker 6: Any time I'm entering a space where I feel like
Speaker 6: I'm being tolerated and not celebrated, shout out to you
Speaker 6: for that.
Speaker 3: I got that from you.
Speaker 6: I still feel a sense of impostera syndrome in the
Speaker 6: music industry. For the most part. I feel like they
Speaker 6: tolerate me, but they don't celebrate me.
Speaker 1: Right.
Speaker 6: My fans, man, my fans want me to win so bad.
Speaker 6: That's why my fans like, we'll name our own price,
Speaker 6: d we'll.
Speaker 4: Pay for your album.
Speaker 6: We'll go stream it too, but we'll pay up to
Speaker 6: a thousand dollars for your album. I got fans that
Speaker 6: love me, but the industry, bro, I still feel like
Speaker 6: they're like, dang d got so many followers, he making
Speaker 6: so much noise, Gotta let him on there, so we
Speaker 6: gotta open this door for him. But they just tolerate me,
Speaker 6: they don't necessarily celebrate me. So I still feel impasta
Speaker 6: syndrome a lot of times when I'm in industry spaces,
Speaker 6: because you can kind of tell when people are like
Speaker 6: you too big and too powerful at this point to
Speaker 6: not have you here, but we ain't necessarily like championing you.
Speaker 6: Like you can see the industry pushing some people to
Speaker 6: the forefront, you know what I'm saying. So it keeps
Speaker 6: me humble, It keeps me with a chip on my shoulder.
Speaker 6: It keeps me feeling like I'm that underdog from New Orleans.
Speaker 6: I'm David with mogul lives to have to fight.
Speaker 5: You think it's more like Sharif in minutes though, It's like,
Speaker 5: oh here come d One again. He about to preest
Speaker 5: us and tell us put the weed down and put
Speaker 5: the liquid down.
Speaker 6: Man. That's I don't, bro, cause I never get that
Speaker 6: from people. They're like, man, you come across preachy or
Speaker 6: anything like that.
Speaker 3: I'm passionate.
Speaker 6: But that's why I'm able to be on the phone
Speaker 6: with a Boosie, on the phone with a Kodak black,
Speaker 6: you know what I mean, kicking it with man in
Speaker 6: fresh juvenile like all these like, Man, I'm just a
Speaker 6: regular dude, bro, I'm really just a regular dude who
Speaker 6: is simply not a slave to money. And I know
Speaker 6: who I serve, who is who we say we all serve,
Speaker 6: which is God.
Speaker 3: So because of.
Speaker 6: That, cool man, I can't be content with things that's
Speaker 6: not glorifying God. That's happening all my watching in my
Speaker 6: space while I'm in this industry. Man, I got a bro,
Speaker 6: I'm on a breakfast club right now. Man, i gotta
Speaker 6: say some stuff that's gonna impact people even after we
Speaker 6: long gone and we're not on this earth no more.
Speaker 5: I understand it because the negative is definitely amplified. So
Speaker 5: when people say things like, man, how come do you
Speaker 5: want just don't reach out to some of these people personally,
Speaker 5: I mean, you gotta say what you're saying about the positive,
Speaker 5: and you gotta amplify that too, right Like that gotta
Speaker 5: be saying publicly.
Speaker 6: If the negative is public thank you, bro, thank you listen, man.
Speaker 6: Public actions deserve public responses. We have an industry that
Speaker 6: is putting this music out publicly every day. If I
Speaker 6: go on every playlist in the world right now, it's
Speaker 6: being curated with murder music, with music that's disrespecting our women,
Speaker 6: that's glorifying drug Dealing with that being said, man, it's
Speaker 6: got to be addressed publicly.
Speaker 3: It can't like, why are you gonna hit all.
Speaker 6: These individual artists up behind the scenes And I'm not
Speaker 6: interested in let me go at the industry. Who is
Speaker 6: the industry. I don't know who the industry is. Y'all
Speaker 6: had Leo Cohen on here talking about A them people
Speaker 6: got to a I got miles to feed too. You
Speaker 6: know what I'm saying, Man, listen, America doesn't want to
Speaker 6: heal your trauma. America wants to monetize your trauma. This
Speaker 6: industry don't want to heal your trauma. They want to
Speaker 6: monetize your trauma. So I'm like, let me empower the
Speaker 6: artists and the fans to simply be smarter and say,
Speaker 6: let's continue to make hip hop. Let's continue to listen
Speaker 6: to hip hop, but let's make a healthier version of it.
Speaker 6: That's gonna be better.
Speaker 3: For all of us. You know what I'm saying. Just
Speaker 3: about the platinum players you get out of the platinum plans, oh.
Speaker 2: Man, before you before you go into that, you know,
Speaker 2: I want to ask you mentioned the game?
Speaker 4: Yes, Now, how do you decide who you're working with?
Speaker 3: Right?
Speaker 2: Because the game has been a rapper who's been one
Speaker 2: of those rappers. He's been on both sides, right heat
Speaker 2: positive songs.
Speaker 4: He uplist, but he's been a shooter too.
Speaker 2: Yeah, So how do you decide who d One is
Speaker 2: working with because somebody might say that you work with
Speaker 2: the game in the game, he's on that line, he ain't.
Speaker 6: So the game is a center, right, d One is
Speaker 6: a center too. There's nobody on the face of this
Speaker 6: earth that I won't sit down with that I won't
Speaker 6: work with. Hearing me the book that I add here
Speaker 6: to the Bible in Mark chapter two, verse seventeen, I
Speaker 6: believe it says healthy people don't need a doctor, sick
Speaker 6: people do. With that being said, what would I look
Speaker 6: like to say, Oh, man, I can't associate with the Game,
Speaker 6: or I can't associate with Kevin Gates?
Speaker 3: These are all this I what you mean? They people
Speaker 3: just like me.
Speaker 6: That's why I've collaborated with them, and I collaborate with
Speaker 6: anybody on the face of this earth. Man, Like, we're
Speaker 6: not supposed to sit here and point a finger and
Speaker 6: judge people. Man, we got stuff. Me and the Game
Speaker 6: both lost loved ones to gun violence. That's what the
Speaker 6: song is about. Me and Kevin Gates. We both come
Speaker 6: up in Southern Louisiana.
Speaker 4: Man.
Speaker 6: The song is about what we done seen behind people
Speaker 6: chasing money.
Speaker 3: When we got music together, you know, what I'm saying.
Speaker 6: Like this is I got a song coming out with
Speaker 6: Project Pat in two weeks. I got a song coming
Speaker 6: out with Raheem DeVaughn in a week like bro like
Speaker 6: I'm out here. I collaborated with Loope Fiasco, Big crit
Speaker 6: you know, all kinds of people, bro, Like, that's what
Speaker 6: I want to do because I love making people say
Speaker 6: he belong in this box, and I love breaking that
Speaker 6: box and making a hit and people be like, wait,
Speaker 6: what that wasn't supposed to work. I was with Killer
Speaker 6: Mike two weeks before the Grammy Awards in Atlanta. That's
Speaker 6: my big brother. I went on my first tour with
Speaker 6: Killer Mike. Man, it was so powerful to see that
Speaker 6: brother win three Grammy Awards. Bro, and let me know
Speaker 6: that a shift is happening right now. This is the time,
Speaker 6: right now for all the boxes to be broken. Oh
Speaker 6: you're too old, Nope, Killer Mike just won a Grammy Award.
Speaker 6: Oh you got a message in your music? People don't
Speaker 6: want hear that. Nope, Killer Mike just won three Grammy Awards.
Speaker 3: We got it. So with that being said, it's time
Speaker 3: for us to all come together. Man.
Speaker 6: Can't nobody say why would you work with this artist
Speaker 6: or this artist. Me and fredill Bang got a song
Speaker 6: about the drop.
Speaker 3: You know what I'm saying?
Speaker 6: What would I look like to not work with my
Speaker 6: student just because it's like, oh, man, will you be
Speaker 6: rapping about some different stuff than me? Bro?
Speaker 3: So I can't do that now.
Speaker 2: Because people will say, you know, you pointing a finger
Speaker 2: at Let's say a artists like Jim Jones.
Speaker 4: Would you do a record with Jim?
Speaker 6: I already got a record for Jim if he would
Speaker 6: be down the hip on it. Man, I got a
Speaker 6: ton of songs that I'm like, Jim, I think this
Speaker 6: will be fire for us. But if not, because people
Speaker 6: love to call you a cloud chaser, right, you're.
Speaker 1: Bringing him in your worldly.
Speaker 3: Oh I'm always bringing people into my world if I
Speaker 3: do a song.
Speaker 6: You know what I'm saying. Yeah, Like, you gotta respect
Speaker 6: my platform. I don't curse in my music. You know
Speaker 6: what I'm saying, Hey, if you could respect that, the
Speaker 6: game hit me and said, guess what, Libro, this the
Speaker 6: first song of my whole career. I'm not gonna curse on,
Speaker 6: but I'm gonna do that for you. That's a testimony, Bro,
Speaker 6: That's powerful. You feel me so of course I'll.
Speaker 3: Do a song with Jim Jones, with Meek Mill, with
Speaker 3: Rick Ross. But if it don't come to that, it's
Speaker 3: okay because it's not about that. Brother.
Speaker 6: I'm good already, Like generational wealth has been built already,
Speaker 6: you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 3: The im pagg is being made.
Speaker 6: The calendar is full with speaking engagements and booking and
Speaker 6: touring and all that.
Speaker 3: So the platinum pledge I in the.
Speaker 6: Music industry, the highest standard of success is gone platinum, right,
Speaker 6: So I turn a platinum into an acronym. It stands
Speaker 6: for people leading a transform involving newly unified mindsets. That's
Speaker 6: what platinum stands for. The platinum pledge simply says that
Speaker 6: we are taking a vow that we will not create,
Speaker 6: support or promote music. There's glorifying murder, glorifying drug dealing,
Speaker 6: glorifying the disrespect of our women, and glorifying sexual irresponsibility.
Speaker 6: That's the platinum pledge. And I'm unifying people to say, yo,
Speaker 6: there's actually more of us who agree with this than
Speaker 6: don't agree with this. But the industry will make you
Speaker 6: feel like, man, I'm the only one who I'm lame.
Speaker 3: If I don't want to hear murder music. You know
Speaker 3: what I'm saying. So the Platinum Pledge, Brother.
Speaker 6: Thousands and thousands and thousands and thousands of people have
Speaker 6: signed it already.
Speaker 3: Bro. Now I'm on the breakfast club talking about it.
Speaker 6: People could go to my website D one music dot
Speaker 6: comde the number one music dot com, and go sign
Speaker 6: the Platinum Pledge. And I'm unifying all these thousands of
Speaker 6: people together to say, now here is how we create
Speaker 6: a healthier hip.
Speaker 3: Hop space for all of us. That's what the Platinum
Speaker 3: Pledge is. Bro. I would love for y'all to sign
Speaker 3: the year real man. That's bro. That is life changing. Bro.
Speaker 6: That is life changing when we see this ain't about
Speaker 6: canceling nobody. This ain't about we don't love this person.
Speaker 6: We want everybody to be a part of.
Speaker 3: This shift, but we want to make it together. Man.
Speaker 3: That's huge, bro. So that's what the Platinum Pledge is.
Speaker 6: And I've been doing these meetings going from city to
Speaker 6: city called Rappers Only in New Orleans, I kicked it
Speaker 6: off in my hometown. We had one hundred rappers in
Speaker 6: the same room. Gangster rappers, Christian rappers, backpack rappers, females
Speaker 6: all kinds of stuff, right, and we in that rappers
Speaker 6: only and were talking about what's the mental side of
Speaker 6: what goes into why we make the music we make monetarily, like,
Speaker 6: how important is it to make money off of the
Speaker 6: music we make?
Speaker 3: What's the message we want to put out there?
Speaker 6: It's basically therapy for artists and me doing this and
Speaker 6: doing these rappers only meetings from City of the City.
Speaker 6: This stuff is making artists feel like dagn bro, Like,
Speaker 6: finally I could express some stuff that I couldn't express
Speaker 6: to my fan base or I couldn't express like to
Speaker 6: other people that don't just get me. Man, I'm trying
Speaker 6: to unify us so we could be better, bro, and
Speaker 6: not trying. We're doing it at this point.
Speaker 1: You heard me, give me your Twitters and Instagrams and
Speaker 1: all that stuff. Do you want?
Speaker 6: All my social media is d one music, d Ee
Speaker 6: the number one music you heard me. All my social
Speaker 6: media and on streaming platforms is just d one d
Speaker 6: Ee Dash the number one. I got eleven albums out
Speaker 6: and counting, y'all go check it out newest album from.
Speaker 3: The Hood to Harvard please and look. I want to
Speaker 3: bless y'all with these patches limited edition patches.
Speaker 1: Yeah, be real, be righteous, be relevant.
Speaker 6: That's my collaboration I just did with Levi's Envy. I
Speaker 6: got you, brother, Remy, Yeah, man, So that's my model.
Speaker 6: When I say three year is up, that's what it means. Brother,
Speaker 6: be real, be righteous, be relevant, and hip hop. I
Speaker 6: know we could do all them things and we're gonna
Speaker 6: win together.
Speaker 3: Thank y'all.
Speaker 1: Man.
Speaker 3: I can't wait to see y'all next time, bro, because
Speaker 3: we gotta keep this journey. Gun.
Speaker 4: You heard me, lewis right, d one.
Speaker 1: It's the Breakfast Club.
Speaker 4: Good morning, Wake that ass up in the morning.
Speaker 1: The Breakfast Club.