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