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#2250 – Raekwon Podcast Episode Description
Raekwon is a founding member of the Wu-Tang Clan, critically acclaimed solo artist, author, and entrepreneur.
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#2250 – Raekwon Podcast Episode Top Keywords
#2250 – Raekwon Podcast Episode Summary
In this episode of the Joe Rogan podcast, the discussion centers around the influence of external forces on artistic expression and the importance of authenticity in creative endeavors. A recurring theme is the interference of non-artists, such as executives, in the creative process, often prioritizing profit over genuine self-expression. This is highlighted by the example of attempts to change artists like RZA, emphasizing the struggle between artistic integrity and commercial interests.
A significant portion of the episode features a guest speaker, who discusses the creation of a documentary titled “The Purple Tape Files.” This project revisits the influential album “Only Built For Cuban Links,” celebrating its 30th anniversary in 2025. The guest shares insights into the making of the album, the experiences that shaped it, and its lasting impact on the music industry. The documentary aims to capture the essence of the album and its cultural significance, with contributions from over 50 influential figures who were affected by it.
The guest also reflects on the power of manifesting dreams into reality, sharing personal anecdotes about owning a cannabis business, HashStory, which was once a dream mentioned in their music. This underscores the theme of speaking aspirations into existence and the journey from vision to reality.
Actionable insights from the episode include the importance of staying true to one’s artistic vision, being “undeniable” in one’s craft, and the value of investing in projects that preserve and celebrate cultural contributions. The overall message encourages artists to maintain authenticity and resist external pressures that may compromise their creative expression.
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#2250 – Raekwon Podcast Episode Transcript (Unedited)
Speaker: 0
00:01
Joe Rogan podcast. Check it out.
Speaker: 1
00:03
The Joe Rogan experience.
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00:06
Train ai day. Joe Rogan podcast by night, all day. Oh, for a mistake. That’s it. The chef is in the building,
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00:16
That’s it. The chef is
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00:17
in the building, ladies and gentlemen. What’s up? What’s up? Pleasure to meet you, man. You are a part of the most iconic band in all of hip hop. There is no question. There’s one Wu Tang. There’s only one Wu Tang. Nothing else is even close. You guys are are so different than every other band that ever existed. It was a giant group of you.
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00:33
Yeah, man.
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00:34
And everybody was a killer.
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00:36
Fucking meh, man.
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00:37
It’s a crazy band, man. It’s ai no one is if if you think about it, there’s been a lot of hip hop duos. There’s been a lot of producers and Meh. There’s been a lot of people that get together in, like, small groups, but there’s only 1 Wu Tang. There’s only one group of 9 assassins.
Speaker: 3
00:55
I tell niggas that all the ai. Like
Speaker: 2
00:57
It’s kinda crazy.
Speaker: 3
00:58
You ain’t gonna get another one of these.
Speaker: 2
01:00
It’s it’s crazy that it worked. Yeah. Because it’s so hard to keep all those alphas together.
Speaker: 3
01:05
It really is crazy to make it work, the most illest shah, some shit that I never would have thought would ever exist. It was able to exist because we tried it, but it wasn’t it wasn’t normal.
Speaker: 2
01:19
It wasn’t normal. It wasn’t normal. You tried it, but it was just, it almost seems like it was just instinct. Like, it’s not like a a business strategy that anybody would ever come up with.
Speaker: 3
01:29
Right.
Speaker: 2
01:30
9 dudes
Speaker: 3
01:31
No.
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01:31
And 9 of the realest dudes, ai, the rawest realest dudes
Speaker: 3
01:37
Yeah.
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01:37
And it worked.
Speaker: 3
01:38
Man, it worked. And it worked? I tell people all the ai, it was like when RZA, you know, he came with this whole philosophy of wanting to do it, it was ai hitting a lotto for him. Like, he didn’t know what to expect. It was more a reputation thing for us. It was like, yo, I wanna do this.
Speaker: 3
01:53
And, you know, he came to block, and he talked to some real dudes that was really had other shit planned in their life. You know? But hip hop was always like that backpack that we wore every day. But everybody had different plans, so he really literally came in and started to pick motherfuckers that he felt had potential. So it’s like the mob.
Speaker: 3
02:13
It’s like, you know you know, Lucky Luciano, prime example. You know, he knew that motherfuckers had potential. Right? He knew dudes have potential in any way. He’s from a different party. He’s from a different party. He’s from a different party. But, yo, what we could do right here is we could make money.
Speaker: 3
02:31
So put your fucking feelings down or whatever the case may be, and let’s talk about some money.
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02:38
Yeah.
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02:39
And that right there, kinda like, yo, Start shaking hands across the table. Y’all know you didn’t really fuck with me like that, y’all. I never had anything against you like that, though. But it just it was just something that he felt like at the end of the day. Let me try this shit.
Speaker: 2
02:54
Well, Reza is a genius and it’s it’s amazing that he was able to coordinate that because that’s often the case, right, with other killers, like, when when a dude’s a bad motherfucker, they always assume that everybody else doesn’t like them. They always assume that everybody else is the enemy or competition. Yep.
Speaker: 2
03:13
So to have 9 of you guys together like that as one group, you know, we always I told you when I sana I sent you a message, I said that we play protect your neck. It’s I know. Whenever we have a police escort, that’s what’s the most hilarious thing. So we do arena shows. We we hire police escort.
Speaker: 2
03:29
So it’s ai fucking sirens and shit. Protect your neck. Oh, no. The whole it’s ai the perfect song to play when you’re when you’re getting a police escort.
Speaker: 3
03:37
Oh my god. Ai. I don’t. I know. Trust me.
Speaker: 2
03:40
These young kids that I have at the club, like, I was explaining Wu Tang Clan to them the other night. I go, you have to understand how wild this band was. I go, when old dirty bastard was in Rikers, they went to Rikers and performed in Rikers.
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03:54
Do you remember that?
Speaker: 2
03:55
Yes. How the fuck you remember that? I told everybody. I was like, do you know how crazy that is? You’re talking about, like, the biggest rap band in the fucking world, and they’re performing in a penitentiary to one of the members who’s one of the biggest fucking hip hop stars in the world who’s in jail.
Speaker: 3
04:13
Who’s in jail.
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04:14
And then you guys go into the crowd.
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04:16
Mhmm. God bless his soul, 1st and foremost.
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04:19
Oh ai god. Old dirty bastard was
Speaker: 3
04:21
a classic. Yo Joe is the funniest shit because when we came in and when we seen him, he was eating a cheeseburger laughing and shit. You know, he remind you he never he never was, you know, dirty. He I don’t even think I’ve never seen him eat meat like that or whatever the case may be, but we came in, he was eating a cheeseburger and sai, laughing.
Speaker: 3
04:39
So we was dying laughing, and they kept you know, the people up in here, they kept telling us ai, yo, y’all can’t y’all can’t go into the to the, to the, crowd with everybody. You know, we not gonna hold no responsibility if something happened. Sai, you know, be like,
Speaker: 2
04:53
Alright, nah, nah, nah, nah,
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04:55
nah, nah, nah, nah, nah, nah, nah, nah, nah, nah, nah, nah, nah, nah, nah, nah, nah, nah, nah,
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04:55
nah, nah, nah, nah, nah, nah, nah, n
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05:01
It was love, man. It it was What you were love? Man, it had to be what? Ai say what? ai
Speaker: 2
05:08
what? 90 ai, 97? Wow. ai?
Speaker: 3
05:14
No Internet. Probably ai yeah. None of that shit.
Speaker: 2
05:16
None of that. Watch. Is there even a recording of that anywhere?
Speaker: 3
05:20
No. God. I don’t think so. I don’t think so. That would’ve
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05:22
been ai that video would be?
Speaker: 3
05:25
Yeah. I never knew that people seen that. I don’t know how the
Speaker: 2
05:27
fuck you knew that sai, like Oh, I heard about it. Yeah. Ai heard about it. I mean
Speaker: 3
05:31
But they lost this stuff.
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05:32
In the news back then
Speaker: 3
05:33
Yeah.
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05:33
That you guys performed in Rikers.
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05:35
Yeah. Yeah. Man, I was
Speaker: 2
05:37
The nineties for hip hop. It was ai people at need do you have to understand for young people, you grew up with hip hop, you’re only 20 years old. I get it. But you have to understand from my perspective, in the ai in 1980, there was no hip hop. In 1992, that was all anybody gave a fuck about. Mhmm. That is crazy. Yeah.
Speaker: 2
05:58
For a new art form, it will To
Speaker: 3
06:00
to emerge. Right?
Speaker: 2
06:01
Right. I mean, there was, like, Sugar Hill Gang. There was some hip hop, but it wasn’t the thing until the nineties. And nineties hip hop It
Speaker: 3
06:09
got big. It got big. Yeah.
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06:12
It got so big.
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06:13
I remember I remember it’s so crazy you said that because I tell people all the time, like, disco to me was hip hop before hip hop was. You know, disco, r and b, everything was a mixture. It was a mixture. Sai, really, when hip hop came, like you said, it came, like, maybe I’m I’m sai say 80
Speaker: 2
06:38
ai. It had to be 84 because I was
Speaker: 3
06:40
in junior high school. Yeah. Yeah. We was young boys. Right? So I would definitely say you you heard something and it was like, oh, shit. Motherfuckers is ai. Wow. Ai you know, this shit sound cool, though. You know what I mean? It sound cool. But, really, it it was a way to bring people together, you know, that was going through different shit in their life. You know what I mean? Yeah.
Speaker: 2
07:02
And you know what? It was earlier than that. Because in 84, I was in high school, so it had to be 80. 80. Because I was in high school. I was a freshman in high school in 81. So I heard Sugar Hill Gang when I lived in Jamaica Plain, which was in 1980.
Speaker: 3
07:16
Yeah.
Speaker: 2
07:16
So that was the first time I’d ever heard any ai of hip hop.
Speaker: 3
07:19
Yeah. Yeah. So, ai, yeah, like we said, you’re 80? Yeah. I was 10 years old. So me probably really, really gravitate into what I I probably was, like, 12, like you said.
Speaker: 2
07:30
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07:46
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09:24
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10:31
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Speaker: 3
10:48
The first shit that that grabbed me was, like how you said, Sugar Hill Gang. You know? Ram is ai.
Speaker: 2
10:55
Yeah. Rap is delight. Hibbett to the hip hop. Hibbett to the hip hop.
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10:58
Hibbett to the hip hop.
Speaker: 2
10:58
Don’t stop.
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10:59
That was the shit. You know? Oh my god. Now look. I had cousins. Ai had cousins. I had wild cousins and shit. They was, you know, they was wild. They was selling drugs. They was, you know, smoking weed and sniffing coke and you know what I mean? Doing whatever they was doing.
Speaker: 3
11:13
And, they used to live 2 they used to live 2 floors above me, and I used to sneak up there and shit and, you know, just BNA business, BNA world, and they would be playing music. They had the record player. You know, you see Coke on the table and Wow. Weed and everything. And my cousins, they was cool.
Speaker: 3
11:31
They was
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11:32
like, yo, come in, man. You don’t
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11:33
give a fuck. Like, just don’t tell your mother that you that you was around and shit.
Speaker: 2
11:37
You know what I mean? No. No.
Speaker: 3
11:38
I ain’t gonna say nothing. I ain’t gonna say nothing. And I would just be watching, and, you know, I would see weed on album covers and you know what I mean? Just motherfuckers running back and forth in the room, and you know they in the shit, but they always was playing music.
Speaker: 3
11:52
And a lot of the music was R and B, you know, disco, you know, and then next thing you know, I heard this fucking record, Sugar Hill Gang, and I’m like, the groove was dope. I’m like, holy shit. Like, this is what I wanna be.
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12:06
You know what I mean?
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12:07
I’m looking at the whole vibe. I’m like, this is who I am right here. You know? But
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12:11
It’s so crazy how it emerged. I mean, it emerged.
Speaker: 3
12:15
Yeah. Nobody expected that, bro.
Speaker: 2
12:17
Well, it’s it was a totally new thing. Yeah. And there was a lot of resistance. I mean, for people that don’t know, those little warning labels on your, when used to have CDs, that all came from Al Gore’s wife. Get the fuck out of ai. Wife, Tipper Gore, she was a democrat. She wanted a sense of rap music because this sai the first time anybody heard, like, Ai Tea, you know, ai, that 6 in the morning.
Speaker: 2
12:42
Everybody’s ai, what the fuck is this?
Speaker: 3
12:44
Yeah. Yeah.
Speaker: 2
12:45
You know? And that kind of explicit lyrics, they wanted to put a stop to it, and that’s why they and these dumbasses, they didn’t even understand. It sold way more albums.
Speaker: 3
12:54
Yeah.
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12:55
Because that’s what kids are looking for.
Speaker: 3
12:57
Where’s the
Speaker: 2
12:57
fucking this they don’t even swear.
Speaker: 3
12:58
Get this shit out of here. Once they got the label on it, it’s like Sai want it.
Speaker: 2
13:02
Exactly. Once the floodgates got open and kids got turned on to, like, real hardcore hip hop, you couldn’t sell the the the The regular shit. The regular shit
Speaker: 3
13:12
is ai, get out
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13:12
of here with that. Yeah.
Speaker: 3
13:14
But that’s what you
Speaker: 2
13:15
guys got through with regular shit, but it just didn’t last.
Speaker: 3
13:18
No. It definitely didn’t last. But like you said, though, everybody wanted the raw shah. And you gotta remember at that time, it was a tough time, man. Too much shit was going on. I mean, it was to the point where it’s like, yo Ai our neighbor, we asked we had, like, crazy people.
Speaker: 3
13:34
Like, if they catch you at night, they’ll kill you. Like, they’d be dressed up like a fucking drag or whatever, all this makeup on. And, you know, I remember one time going to the incinerator room. My mom’s made me go She made me go to the, to the, take out the garbage and shit.
Speaker: 3
13:49
I forgot to take it out, and she came home later that day. And I was laying down, and she fucking smacked me in the head with a broom. Like, yo, didn’t I tell you to take out the fucking garbage? So now I’m going out to the incinerator room, you know, walking. It’s it’s on the same floor.
Speaker: 3
14:03
And I remember when I cut the corner, I seen a motherfucker sticking his head out, and he had his hair all wild. His shit was ai green and red and all this, and he had lipstick going all crazy, and his eyes was all fucking bugged out looking, and he looked at me. And when and I got the garbage pail with meh, and it’s like, yo, once I seen him, I just turned I just dropped the shit and ran.
Speaker: 3
14:25
You know what I mean? Back then, you know, you yell your mother name and shit. You think that that that was something cool back then. You know, she’s your hero at that time. Came back, the nigga was gone.
Speaker: 3
14:35
But I think if he would’ve caught me in that incinerator door when it was closed, he was gonna probably try to run-in there and probably try to fucking kill me or something. And that shit was going on back then because the drugs the drugs was crazy back then.
Speaker: 2
14:49
Ai That’s the big shift is crack.
Speaker: 3
14:51
Yeah. Crack.
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14:52
That’s also in the 80s.
Speaker: 3
14:53
But sai but see before crack, you had that dope that dope that dope. So more focus is mixing dope and coke together, man. Getting high and shooting it. Yeah. Everything. You know what I mean? It was it was a serious time back then, ram. But, you know, that’s how far to me music went back, you know, listening to ladies ai. You know what I mean?
Speaker: 3
15:16
I had I had people in my store that had a candy store right on the same floor, but it wasn’t a candy store. They they had a bunch of penny candy just to make kids feel cool, but really, they were selling Coke in the back. Coke and dope, though. So, you know, all this was going on in the community, man. Wow.
Speaker: 1
15:31
It was
Speaker: 3
15:31
it was a serious time. Scary times back then. Mhmm.
Speaker: 2
15:35
But if it’s not for those scary times, you don’t get the kind of band that Wu Tang was. Like, that that has to emerge from an authentic experience.
Speaker: 3
15:44
Absolutely.
Speaker: 2
15:44
It has to. Absolutely. And that’s part of the appeal of it is that everybody kinda knew that. Mhmm. You know, it was part of the appeal. It was a there’s never been, like, a genre of music like that that’s so connected to, like, the grind and poverty and crime and ghettos. Like, the whole genre of meh to be authentic Right. You had to come from that.
Speaker: 2
16:06
You couldn’t be, like, some rich kid from the suburbs that was talking about some shit you never actually experienced. Nobody wants to hear it. Right. Which is kinda crazy.
Speaker: 3
16:16
Right. That’s true. I mean, you know, back then, you know, hip hop was really an expression for the ghetto. You know, the way that out you know, being that we was living in fucked up situations and nobody has shah, nobody had no fucking jobs like that. It was like, yo. We needed something to keep us cool, keep us in a vibe mode. You know? Back then, gangs was still relevant. You know?
Speaker: 3
16:43
We never looked at ourselves as a gang. We might have looked at ourselves as a tribe that, yo, when you’re from a neighborhood and you stick to your neighborhood. You know what I mean? And that’s why even back then, it was ai a lot of times, you know, you would beef with people that wasn’t from your neighborhood just because you wasn’t from here.
Speaker: 3
17:01
It’s like, yo, what the fuck you doing over here? You don’t live over here. Mhmm. You know, then it creates this animosity thing. And I remember for us, you know, being being in the area where it was ai you go up the block, up the block, stayed up the block, down the block, stayed down the block.
Speaker: 3
17:17
So for me, I was in the middle. So, you know, I Ai lean more towards up the block, you know, but then we would go down the block just to start trouble and, you know, then they would come up the block, and they would start trouble. And next thing you know, before you know it, we all fucking with each other. You know what I mean?
Speaker: 3
17:36
So that was our way of getting to know each other is to test each other’s heart, and, whatever may happen was happening back then. No. But the music, believe it or not, the music was keeping a speak. Now just to you know, the music was keeping a peace because they would do block parties.
Speaker: 3
17:53
Right? They would do block parties, and, you know, everybody knew all these different DJs was coming from different places and going and going to, sana to play some music and shit. So we knew every time they did that, we knew something was gonna happen at the end of the night. It was just mandatory.
Speaker: 3
18:12
It was just because people from all over, different different, neighborhoods would come out, and, everything would be nice. And next thing you know, you see a motherfucker riding down the street all crazy, you know, you know, trying to hit motherfuckers and swinging a golf club out the fucking out the window and shah, and, you know, somebody mother might have gotten knocked out.
Speaker: 3
18:34
You know what I mean? You know, but the music is still playing. You know? So, yeah, that’s the type of shit that, to me, that made it fun but made it spooky, but it still was fun because it was something to remember. It was like Well,
Speaker: 2
18:50
it’s fun because you survived.
Speaker: 3
18:51
Yeah. Yo. Yeah. Definitely. Survival. Yeah. You know? But we were young, so we didn’t we didn’t care about we didn’t care about whether we ai or died at that time. We didn’t give a fuck. It was ai, whatever’s gonna happen is gonna happen. That’s wild. But the music the music is what kept things in order for us, you know, because we always felt like that was a vessel to being calm. You know?
Speaker: 3
19:16
When you come from somewhere that’s fucked up, Joe, and sana nothing there, you can’t get a job because of your community. Your ZIP code don’t allow you to be like, yo, he’s hired. No. It’s it’s too infested over there. So you kinda you kinda become relaxed with that mentality of saying, well, fuck it. I’m a live off the land. I’m a sell weed.
Speaker: 3
19:38
I’m a do whatever I think that is gonna make me survive. You know? So everything is just survival. You know? And, music always kept us calm, and you always wanna listen to what’s the next being played.
Speaker: 3
19:54
Like, I I grew up on R and B music, like disco when, you know, all that all that fun shah, roller skating. You know, I ai motherfuckers in the neighborhood that was roller skating. You know, we would get off of Staten Island sometimes and go to these different parks and jams in the city. That was fun too, though.
Speaker: 3
20:16
That was that was fun times for us.
Speaker: 2
20:19
When was it so was it RZA that try did did there was it initially all 9 guys? Like, how did it get formed?
Speaker: 3
20:28
Well, number 1, it was RZA, his cousin, JZA, and his other cousin, Old Dirty Bastard, that they were super close. Now Old Dirty Bastard and JZA, they were from Brooklyn. RZA is from Staten Island. You know? We all we all Brooklyn babies too, majority of us in the ai. We all, you know, resided in Newton, Staten Island, but majority of us grew up in Brooklyn. But, anyway, it was those 3 that were close as shit.
Speaker: 3
21:02
So RZA, back then, RZA, he acknowledged herself, which was, you know, being involved with the Nation of Islam, and also JZA and O’30. They were a part of the nation at that ai. So they would go to a lot of rallies. This is a place where everybody go when they build. They talking about mathematics and all of this, but it was Jizz and Old Dirty who instilled the hip hop into RZA.
Speaker: 3
21:30
So RZA was a DJ back then, but he knew how to rhyme too, and he knew how to rhyme because of his cousins. So they kinda had this gang called not a gang, but they had this thing called the All In Together Now crew, which was them 3, and they would run around, and they would battle, you know, different guys from different cities and move around.
Speaker: 3
21:49
So, you know, some was kinda knew what they were about. You know, a lot of us, you know, found out later who they were, but when Jizzer and Old Dirty came to Staten Island, they came and they hang out with their cousin. So, you know, we started to see them a little bit more and know that, you know, y’all heard about your rhymes, and, you know, and Dirty, he was just a crazy motherfucker back then.
Speaker: 3
22:11
He was crazy, but, yeah, they they had their own little thing going on. And then, you know, next thing you know, Jizzer caught a record deal. He caught a record deal, which was rare back then. Like, if you had a if you fucking caught a record deal, that mean that you had to have relationships.
Speaker: 3
22:27
You had to know where to go. You had to have some cut some type of connects. So that’s what gravitated RZA into wanting to to do it because he’s seen that his cousin had had was able to, you know, crack the code on making a record. So when that happened, it was almost like it magnet it magnetized RZA to be like, yo. I gotta make a record now too. Mhmm. You know?
Speaker: 3
22:50
And the next thing you know, that’s they had their movement going on. So us on the outside looking, it was like, oh, shit. Yo. We know them. We know they super passionate about, you know, being in a game and doing whatever they sana do, but we wasn’t thinking that far.
Speaker: 3
23:07
We just love the music in general.
Speaker: 2
23:10
Wow. So and then so RZA is essentially the mastermind to put all the pieces together and to bring all you killers into 1 under one roof.
Speaker: 3
23:20
Absolutely. Absolutely.
Speaker: 2
23:21
Amazing how he saw that because, again, that’s not something that existed.
Speaker: 3
23:26
Yeah.
Speaker: 2
23:27
It’s like Eric being Rakim. You know, there was, you know, there was a few p EPMD. There’s a few people.
Speaker: 3
23:32
You know your shit.
Speaker: 2
23:33
Yeah. You
Speaker: 3
23:33
know your shit. You should
Speaker: 2
23:34
know shah. There was a few people that were together, but it wasn’t like you guys.
Speaker: 3
23:37
Nah. Nah. Because It
Speaker: 2
23:39
was kinda scary. It was like, goddamn. When you guys had a show Ai mean, I heard stores that it was just ai you guys would show up, like, 300 people.
Speaker: 3
23:47
Yeah. That was, you know, that was some neighborhood shit. But, ai, like you said, that was so rare to see a group that come out like that, and it was really a mistake. It wasn’t really designed to be that way, but when RZA had a record situation and they tried to make him be something that he wasn’t, and then, you know Always the case.
Speaker: 3
24:08
You know what I mean? He was like, yo. Fuck that. I don’t even care about this shit at this level no more. I wanna create this now, and I’m bringing in all my guys. And, you know, he just he just put that number together.
Speaker: 3
24:19
So believe it or not, I was one of the guys that he called first because we used to hang out. Like like, I I tell people all the time, like, yo, I might have been Rizz’s first, you know, big fan, So I kinda seen something in him already. I seen something. I’m like, yo. This guy really you know, him and his cousins, and I’m like, yo. These motherfuckers really got talent. You know?
Speaker: 3
24:42
Not only the ability to rhyme, but they was clever. Like, took my clever rhymes.
Speaker: 2
24:46
Right. Right.
Speaker: 3
24:47
You know? And meh was mixing it with the knowledge and, you know, smart rhymes. Not not these fucking regular Humpty Dumpty lines. Like, I’m talking about serious rhymes. I’m like I’m like, damn. You know what I mean? Like, yo. So, you know, this is something that I felt like I would wanna go chill with them just to be in the mix and be a fly on the wall.
Speaker: 3
25:08
Wasn’t even thinking about being no fucking rapper. I didn’t give a fuck. I just love the music, but I’m watching these motherfuckers, yo. I’m like, something about these motherfuckers that I love. Yeah.
Speaker: 3
25:19
You know, when next thing you know, when RZA, you know, RZA went out there and he came back to the, community, he was like, yo, I caught a record deal. So, you know, I was there. I’m like, let me see this shit looking at the this. See what the fuck it oh, yeah. I’m looking down here ai you said the the what’s the name?
Speaker: 2
25:37
The Fine print.
Speaker: 3
25:38
Yeah. The fine print is shit. I’m like, yo, this motherfucking name. Wreck it. Holy shit. Yo. Bow, Staten Island. That’s what’s up. We up. You know? But his situation ain’t work out the way he wanted it to, and that’s when he came back and he started to be like, yo, chef. This is what I’m trying to do.
Speaker: 2
25:55
Well, the dangerous thing for young artists in every industry is when you have potential and you’re young, you sign a fucking contract and you don’t know what’s going on, and then you get locked into these people. And then a lot of times, you’re getting fucked. And you don’t even know what you’re getting fucked.
Speaker: 3
26:10
Because they’re mandatory. Mandatory. Mandatory. Yeah.
Speaker: 2
26:12
You’re getting fucked, which is how they make their money. They make money by fucking young artists who don’t know any better. And by the time someone gets to, like, a prince’s level, he’s like, oh, you owe me? I’m I’m a fucking squiggly ai. Suck my dick. And, like, he performs as a symbol. I mean, that’s why he performed as a symbol because they owned him. Yeah. It’s crazy.
Speaker: 2
26:31
You take, like, the most talented people in the world, and they get owned by people who provide no value Yeah. Especially today.
Speaker: 3
26:37
Yeah.
Speaker: 2
26:38
Today, it’s even crazy. Right? Because there is no record sales anymore. It’s all gone.
Speaker: 3
26:42
Sold, babe.
Speaker: 2
26:43
It’s all gone. It’s all gone. For a young artist, it’s so important that they stay independent as long as they can. Just ai you’re hanging off a bridge. Hang on.
Speaker: 3
26:52
Yeah. That’s what I’m
Speaker: 2
26:53
sana. Keep grinding. Don’t sell it. Don’t sign. Yeah. If you sign, you’re gonna be fighting that shit 10 years from now.
Speaker: 3
26:59
Yeah.
Speaker: 2
26:59
You’re gonna be in court 10 years from now.
Speaker: 3
27:01
Yeah. You’re right.
Speaker: 2
27:02
That somebody’s gonna be getting not just 50%, but, like, some fucking ins like, Bill Burr was explaining this about his his first comedy CD that he got a 60 40 deal. He’s like, oh, great. 60 40. But it’s not really 60 40 because he has to pay for all the distribution. Yeah.
Speaker: 2
27:20
All the all the printing of the CDs, everything came out of his money. Ai
Speaker: 3
27:25
wanna ask you a question. Let me ask you a question. Put yourself in a artist situation. Right? You have talent. Right? You have talent. Here it is. I got I got everything you want.
Speaker: 2
27:34
Yeah.
Speaker: 3
27:37
You’re gonna have to make some ai. For sure. Because you know that, yeah, you may you may feel ai, yeah, I got talent, but I don’t have the resources.
Speaker: 2
27:45
Right.
Speaker: 3
27:46
So those resources come and tell you, yo, look. I’ll give you a shot. I’m a give you a shot, but either you take this shot or you stay in the hood. What are you gonna do?
Speaker: 2
27:59
You’re gonna take the shot.
Speaker: 1
28:00
I’m gonna
Speaker: 3
28:00
take the shot.
Speaker: 2
28:00
You’re gonna take the shot. And I agree with everybody who takes that shot. I’m just letting them know. Right. I’m just letting them know. You’re getting fucked.
Speaker: 3
28:07
You’re getting fucked. But but, see, it’s the sacrifice that I’m trying to explain to you that every every artist takes. They takes that sacrifice because sai the end of the day, you have to start from somewhere. Right. So even when labels are being them, in my mind, I’m saying, yo, I get a chance to have a job, Joe.
Speaker: 3
28:28
Niggas ain’t never had no fucking job in their ai. And now we get a chance to do something that you could maybe think that you could change the world with and love. It’s like you’re gonna go for it. So for us back then, being kids, we didn’t give a fuck. We didn’t care about signing. Yo. I sai because what the fuck I gotta lose?
Speaker: 3
28:47
I done been through everything. I done I done been over here. I done been kicked out of everywhere. Fuck it. I just wanna be heard.
Speaker: 3
28:54
So a lot of ai, that be the protocol is just to be heard. Yeah. To be heard, to be able to say, yo. Something happened. I don’t give a fuck. A lot of artists got robbed. A lot. A lot of artists sana especially our our OGs that did it before us.
Speaker: 3
29:13
Ai, you know what I mean? Sugarhill Gangs, all these different ai, they all have been manipulated to do what they had to do, but it almost gave them power too because they became famous. They became big. They became less.
Speaker: 2
29:28
Argument for that, but I think it should be more fair.
Speaker: 3
29:31
Oh, listen. I’m witches.
Speaker: 2
29:33
Of course.
Speaker: 3
29:33
I’m with you on that.
Speaker: 2
29:34
You are.
Speaker: 3
29:35
But we just talking about the sacrifice.
Speaker: 2
29:37
You have to do it.
Speaker: 3
29:38
Ai everything.
Speaker: 2
29:39
Young kid and that’s step 1 and now you’re on the runway, okay, okay. You gotta take it.
Speaker: 3
29:43
You gotta take it.
Speaker: 2
29:44
But You
Speaker: 3
29:44
gotta take it.
Speaker: 2
29:45
It just should be more fair. Oh. And it should be I agree. It shouldn’t lock,
Speaker: 3
29:48
people. Ai later on, things worked out. And, you know, now that you proved yourself
Speaker: 2
29:54
Once they become undeniable
Speaker: 3
29:56
It’s like I tell a motherfucker this. I’m like, yo, imagine you were a hustler. Right? And you run into the connect and the connect say, yo, you talking like you know how to move shit. I’m a give you £50 of marijuana back then. You know what I mean? Now you may feel like at the end of the day, you can handle it, but a motherfucker tyler you, Joe, I’m giving you these fucking £50.
Speaker: 3
30:17
But I need my money back today at this time. You could either take the 50 because you’re so fucking confident or take 1 and say, yeah. I’d rather take my time. You know what I mean? I don’t wanna be in debt with you. What are you gonna do?
Speaker: 2
30:31
You gotta take the 50. You go, oh, you owe. Yeah. He’s gonna take the 50. He wants to fucking get his head fucking chopped, though. You gotta take the 50. I don’t know. You gotta I mean You gotta know people. Yeah. Yeah. And you gotta bring everybody in, and you gotta share the money.
Speaker: 3
30:44
See? You gotta know people.
Speaker: 2
30:44
You gotta share the money. You gotta know people a
Speaker: 3
30:47
lot more. Confident in knowing what the fuck you need to know, I advise you don’t take them.
Speaker: 2
30:51
You shouldn’t be having that conversation. Shouldn’t be having that conversation. Anybody. But if you know some people and you’re generous
Speaker: 3
30:57
Oh.
Speaker: 2
30:57
That’s the thing. You gotta make it worth these people’s while. You gotta bring you gotta say, listen. We’re all gonna get something out of this.
Speaker: 3
31:03
And sai, now look. That philosophy that you said is what we took on. Yes. We took that on. We said, you know what? At the end of the day, we’ll take this little bit of money, but we sana go. We gonna be willing to sell ourselves to get to this level Yes. Because we know what we believe in. See, it all starts from what you believe.
Speaker: 2
31:23
Yes.
Speaker: 3
31:23
If you don’t have the belief in yourself to make it happen, you’re fucked.
Speaker: 2
31:28
It’s sai it’s a rising tides lifts all boats thing too. Oh. And with Wu Tang Clan, that was for sure a big thing because anybody that was associated with Wu Tang Clan was automatically respected. Automatically, people wanted to listen. Automatically. Yeah. Yeah. Automatically. So, like, that that just lifts everybody. That lifts but it’s hard for people to see that. Everybody thinks about themselves, especially when you’re struggling.
Speaker: 2
31:51
When you’re struggling, then you’re scared and you you know, And scared money doesn’t make money.
Speaker: 3
31:55
Ai money.
Speaker: 2
31:56
That’s what it is. Everybody gets paranoid, and they think Yeah. No. You got that’s when you gotta bond together. That’s when everybody you have to find real people and stick together.
Speaker: 3
32:04
You said the you said the keyword. Gotta sell that 50. You gotta know your
Speaker: 2
32:07
You gotta sell that 50.
Speaker: 3
32:08
Yeah. Talk to Carlos.
Speaker: 2
32:12
Go go down the bodega. Let’s make a deal, man. We gotta make some deals.
Speaker: 3
32:16
I guess that’s what Riza I guess that’s what Riza did is that Yeah. He danced with the devil for the right reason, and, you know, we took we took some scars. We we got hit.
Speaker: 2
32:25
It was a different world back then too in terms of the industry because today, all you need is a social media account, Spotify, SoundCloud. Yeah. You can blow up. Yeah. You can blow up today. Yeah.
Speaker: 3
32:36
Back
Speaker: 2
32:36
then, you needed the radio. Yeah. You needed you know, you could sell mixtapes, but it’s hard. Or you had to be some undeniable talent.
Speaker: 3
32:46
Yeah.
Speaker: 2
32:46
You know? Like, I we always play the video of Biggie when he was 17 on the street. Remember that video?
Speaker: 3
32:52
Yeah. Yeah. When he was in his neighborhood. Yeah.
Speaker: 2
32:54
That’s undeniable talent.
Speaker: 3
32:57
Yeah. Ai.
Speaker: 2
32:57
Like, that’s the kind of talent like, that dude’s gonna if he stays alive, you can’t stop that train.
Speaker: 3
33:02
Absolutely.
Speaker: 2
33:02
That train’s running everything over. You know what I mean? It’s like there was there was guys like that back then, but Mhmm. Man, to get out there and get your name out there, you had to you had to dance.
Speaker: 3
33:12
You had to
Speaker: 2
33:12
work. Dance with that devil.
Speaker: 3
33:14
Yep. You had to work. Mhmm.
Speaker: 2
33:16
And that business was so dirty back then. It still is, but real dirty back then in the record selling days.
Speaker: 3
33:22
Yeah. Of course. Of course. I mean but that’s what made us learn is that we had to grow through the we had to go through those growing pains. We had to get jerked to to learn how to say, yo, that was a lesson. So everything is a lesson at the end of the day. It’s like if you’re willing to sacrifice yourself and your time to learn something, I was I would always say go for it. Yes. You know?
Speaker: 3
33:47
Go for
Speaker: 2
33:48
it. Definitely. Go for it. It’s so much better than not going for it.
Speaker: 3
33:51
Yeah. Because then you’re gonna be you’re gonna be sitting in the same situation, and you’re gonna realize at the end of the day, damn, I should’ve took that opportunity. Some people are scared of opportunities when they come. And it’s ai, if a person offer you opportunity, 9 times out of 10, it may not work for you the way you want it to work, but it meh be opportunity to help you.
Speaker: 2
34:13
Yes. You
Speaker: 3
34:14
know, it’s all about you trying to help yourself and and get out there. It’s like, what? Watch your Scarface. And the nigga told him, he said, yo, give you ai grand. Better do and if you fuck this up, Chico, Scarface looked at him and said, man, the fuck is you talking about? We built for this shit, man.
Speaker: 3
34:34
You know when, he lost, he lost his man in the mix, but he was able to prove to himself that I could do it.
Speaker: 2
34:44
Yeah.
Speaker: 3
34:44
That’s how I look at rap. It’s like, yo, I don’t give a fuck. Yeah. We’ll take this we’ll take this little bit of money, but we’re gonna prove to y’all later on that we know what the fuck we doing.
Speaker: 2
34:55
And for young people listening to this, every chance you take where you fail, that’s a lesson
Speaker: 3
35:00
learned. Baby.
Speaker: 2
35:01
And you just keep taking chances. That’s right. Keep going. Yeah. Pick yourself back up, figure out where you fucked up, and learn from that. Now you’re better.
Speaker: 3
35:09
That’s right.
Speaker: 2
35:10
Now you have more experience coming up to this next thing. Just keep going.
Speaker: 3
35:13
Just keep going.
Speaker: 2
35:14
Just keep going. Especially as artists, it’s just ai so many artists, they don’t hit until they do.
Speaker: 3
35:20
That’s right.
Speaker: 2
35:20
And then when they do, it’s like, oh, and then people wanna go back in their past stuff. Like, oh, this guy had fucking 3 albums before this.
Speaker: 3
35:26
Yeah. Think about it. Think about all our favorite artists out there. You know, Eminem. You know? Eminem been trying to fucking get on. You know?
Speaker: 2
35:34
Mhmm.
Speaker: 3
35:36
You know, Rakim, Slick Rick, all these meh. They they went through they went through a lot to get on. You know what I mean? Biz Marky. You know? Nobody wanted to fuck with Biz at first, but, you know, he finally figured the code out and was like, yo, this is what I’m a do. You know, he start rocking shows in different communities, and next thing you know, people start hearing about him. And you’re like, oh, shah, yo. This guy is dope.
Speaker: 3
36:04
But it’s that sacrifice, man. I tell people all the time. Gotta sacrifice.
Speaker: 2
36:08
It’s time put in. Yeah. Time put in energy, effort, determination. Yeah. And you gotta have some talent.
Speaker: 3
36:15
Yeah. You gotta have some talent.
Speaker: 2
36:16
Is just god just gives you something or doesn’t. You know? Some people just got it. You know? Exactly. Some people, it’s also, like, artistic families ai Nas.
Speaker: 3
36:26
Mhmm.
Speaker: 2
36:26
You know? He he grew up in this, like, intellectual artistic family, and that’s why his rhymes are so good.
Speaker: 3
36:32
Yeah. His pops, man. His pops is a musician. Yeah. Good ai
Speaker: 2
36:35
of mine. Rewind? Yeah. That’s, like, one of the greatest songs of any genre anybody’s ever written. It’s a genius song.
Speaker: 3
36:42
So crazy. I was listening to that shit yesterday. Genius song. Comes back in the gun.
Speaker: 2
36:47
Yeah. Yeah. Genius song. The whole song backwards.
Speaker: 3
36:50
You fuck with lyrics.
Speaker: 2
36:51
And it’s a oh, I love Nas, especially for lyrics. His lyrics are incredible. They they were so good. They were so good.
Speaker: 3
36:59
Dope.
Speaker: 2
36:59
And and and unusual ai that. Like, say ai, I’m only the 1st guy ai make a rap backwards Yeah. And make it work perfectly.
Speaker: 3
37:07
Yeah. Yeah.
Speaker: 2
37:08
You know? I mean, it’s just hey. Did you ever listen to, any of the shit where, the ram new heavies got together with a bunch of rappers?
Speaker: 3
37:18
The brand new heavies. I know the name, but I’m
Speaker: 2
37:19
sure Ram new heavies are like a jazz band. They did they did a collaboration with Gang Starr, Cool G Rap.
Speaker: 3
37:25
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. A bunch of guys. Yeah. Yeah.
Speaker: 2
37:27
Some of my favorite shit of all time.
Speaker: 3
37:29
Yeah. That was more musical, though. Ai, it was more musical. Yeah. Have you
Speaker: 2
37:32
ever heard of cool g rap’s death threat?
Speaker: 1
37:34
No. Oh my god. Nah.
Speaker: 2
37:35
Jamie, play that. Fooling me
Speaker: 3
37:37
this shit.
Speaker: 2
37:37
Yeah. Play
Speaker: 3
37:38
that. That. That.
Speaker: 2
37:39
Find that. We’ll put meh gotta put on the headphones for this.
Speaker: 3
37:42
Come on.
Speaker: 2
37:42
This is in my, along with a bunch of Wu Tang. This is in my shah. Yeah. This is in my, Spotify playlist. Okay. This is cool g rapping, like, I wanna say ai. Yeah. 92. Cool. Listen to this. I never heard a chick before. What is this?
Speaker: 3
38:22
One of my favorites right there. Turn these chips with
Speaker: 2
38:25
small dicks.
Speaker: 3
38:35
Woo. Nice. So good.
Speaker: 2
38:36
Nice. So good. So good.
Speaker: 3
38:38
So this was on a ram new heavies album.
Speaker: 2
38:39
Yes. Never ai. Brand new heavies did one with Gang Starr. They they did a bunch of different artists. Nice. What year was this? 92.
Speaker: 3
38:47
Yeah. Phenomenal. Beginning. Yeah.
Speaker: 2
38:49
Yeah. I was on a road trip. I was doing a gig in Connecticut with a buddy of mine who’s a comedian. Right. And, he turned me on this. Ai, you gotta listen to this shit.
Speaker: 3
38:57
I was like, oh
Speaker: 2
38:58
my god. And then I I had a CD and I lost it, and I couldn’t find it forever. And then someone brought it up, like, a few years back, like, 6 or 7 years back. Ai I was like, it’s got it. You gotta be able to find it. And that’s the beautiful thing about today with, like, YouTube and, you know, some of these platforms, people upload shit that you totally forgot about. Like, Tim Dog. Yeah.
Speaker: 2
39:20
Hell, people forgot about Tim. Like, fuck Compton. Remember that?
Speaker: 3
39:22
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. He was a wildcat, but he was ai good, though. He was good. Yeah. He was wildin’ back then. Yeah.
Speaker: 2
39:29
Great shit, man.
Speaker: 3
39:30
Yeah. He was wildin’ back then, though.
Speaker: 2
39:32
But Kooji ram that to me was ai that defined like road gigs for me in ai 19 nineties when we would drive. Mhmm. That was when Cock Blocking came out. I remember that.
Speaker: 3
39:43
You know what I’m saying?
Speaker: 2
39:44
Oh my god. That song is amazing.
Speaker: 3
39:46
Yeah, man. Damn. So you you really you really pay attention to this fucking hip hop shah like that, man.
Speaker: 2
39:51
Yeah. Hip hop was a big part of my my childhood or my my young adulthood.
Speaker: 3
39:56
Okay.
Speaker: 2
39:56
You know, when I was driving around a lot doing comedy gigs, like, a lot of ghetto boys.
Speaker: 3
40:00
I’m a huge
Speaker: 2
40:01
ghetto boys fan.
Speaker: 3
40:02
Yeah. Me too. You know? Ghetto ai.
Speaker: 2
40:04
I was playing the other day in the green room, I was playing Fuck A War for these young kids. I was like, listen. This is a song from ai 19 eighties about the Iraq war. This is about George Bush in the in, like, the 19 late 19 eighties, and it applies today. You remember Fucking War? War.
Speaker: 3
40:22
Nah. You you Come on.
Speaker: 2
40:23
The headphones are coming back up.
Speaker: 3
40:25
Ai go. Schooling me on shit.
Speaker: 2
40:26
Like, what I talked to Willie d. Willie d told me he wrote the song in 40 minutes.
Speaker: 3
40:31
Wow.
Speaker: 2
40:31
Yeah. Just angry. Wrote this song in 40 minutes. And this is ghetto boys in their prime.
Speaker: 1
40:36
Hello. Can I speak
Speaker: 3
40:38
with Bushwick? You know that album.
Speaker: 2
40:39
Bushwick Bill. Hello? This is
Speaker: 3
40:41
I was my guy right there, man. Motherfucking
Speaker: 2
40:43
This is Bushwick? Yes, sir. Motherfucking Bill.
Speaker: 1
40:45
Inform you that you’ve been, drafted into the United States military.
Speaker: 2
40:50
United States once we’ve 91. 91. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Hey.
Speaker: 3
40:59
What’s up?
Speaker: 2
41:01
Look at that big phone he’s got. Yeah. Yeah. I had one of those
Speaker: 3
41:05
before too.
Speaker: 2
41:06
2 has happened.
Speaker: 3
41:07
Yeah. I don’t give a fuck
Speaker: 2
41:08
about you and all that bullshit you’re stressing.
Speaker: 3
41:11
Fuck a war. Fuck a war.
Speaker: 2
41:13
Something like this. Yeah.
Speaker: 3
42:29
He was in the NWA chamber.
Speaker: 2
42:31
Dude. He was
Speaker: 3
42:31
in the NWA chamber.
Speaker: 2
42:32
Dude. He was in the NWA chamber. Dude. That shit was good.
Speaker: 3
42:34
And his dad
Speaker: 2
42:34
is probably getting
Speaker: 3
42:35
me thinking. Yeah.
Speaker: 2
42:36
Shah applies today. We were all talking about what’s going on right now with Gaza and Palestine.
Speaker: 3
42:42
I know.
Speaker: 2
42:42
Yeah. Iran. I was like, listen to this.
Speaker: 3
42:45
And sai, this is why we love hip hop so much is because it was educational too. Yes. It was giving us jewels. It was talking about things that were going on in the world, and that became the television for us, the music, the music, the
Speaker: 2
43:02
news. Too. Like, you need to know what was actually going on. Like, fuck a war tells you what’s really going
Speaker: 3
43:09
on. Yeah. So when I think about those Compton boys, those NWA vatsal, and all of that that was expressing themselves. It was like that’s what we all were facing and living amongst. And, you know, like I said, I never heard that song before, so I could tell that was made around the time when NWA was doing a thing.
Speaker: 3
43:30
And, you know, you’re hearing about all these riots and shit going on and things happening. You know, us living all the way on the other side of the world. It’s like, yo, we not yo, what the fuck was that?
Speaker: 2
43:41
Right.
Speaker: 3
43:41
You know? But you heard it in a song and you knew it was real.
Speaker: 2
43:45
Right.
Speaker: 3
43:45
You respected it.
Speaker: 2
43:46
Yeah.
Speaker: 3
43:46
And to me, those perspectives and music were important for us because we were learning as we were getting older about society.
Speaker: 2
43:56
Right.
Speaker: 3
43:56
You know, you don’t think about society when you poor and and living in in in fucked up positions. You just think about survival.
Speaker: 2
44:04
Right.
Speaker: 3
44:04
You see what I’m saying? Survival is only thing on your ai. And you you you you you dealing with things that’s in front of you that at the end of the day, you’re like, ram. The fuck was that that just happened? Or what was this shit? But then when you heard it in ram and and motherfuckers ai Dee’s was talking about it and all
Speaker: 2
44:20
ai,
Speaker: 3
44:20
it’s like now you was like, oh, okay. I see what the fuck is going on. Yeah. It’s not just here. It’s it’s all over. It’s in every everywhere, every ghetto or whatever the case may be. That’s what was happening.
Speaker: 2
44:33
Yes.
Speaker: 3
44:33
So I never heard that before, though. You just you just put me on some real shit. Oh. And that’s one of my favorite groups right there.
Speaker: 2
44:38
I love ghetto boys.
Speaker: 3
44:39
Ghetto boys are real shit right there.
Speaker: 2
44:41
The the 19 nineties ghetto boy era.
Speaker: 3
44:44
Oof. Oof. Crazy.
Speaker: 2
44:45
That and that, like, I remember the day I found out about NWA. I was, teaching Taekwondo in Revere, Massachusetts, and I was at the gym riding on the stair climber. And, I just picked up this cassette and I was ai, NWA, I keep hearing about this. And I fucked the police was the first song I listened to.
Speaker: 2
45:05
And I remember I was on the stair climber going, this
Speaker: 3
45:08
is wild. You see what I’m saying? You see what I’m saying? Yeah. Yeah.
Speaker: 2
45:11
You’re you’re hearing people talk about the police ai they’re getting harassed by the police in a way you never
Speaker: 3
45:16
heard before. Saying. Yeah. Exactly.
Speaker: 2
45:18
The police coming straight from the underground. It was ai I was like, wow.
Speaker: 3
45:22
Ai straight from the
Speaker: 2
45:23
fucking It was a totally different kind of music. It was it was ai they were rapping and no one was listening. It was like they were rapping for themselves. Right? Yeah. Like, they didn’t give a fuck who was listening. They were rapping ai they were doing it for their friends, but they were doing it to the whole world.
Speaker: 2
45:39
And the whole world was like,
Speaker: 3
45:40
woah. Yeah. Yeah.
Speaker: 2
45:41
100 ai and running. Oh, yes. The whole world was like, woah. This is crazy.
Speaker: 3
45:46
So look. You had them. You had Public Enemy.
Speaker: 2
45:49
Oh, yeah.
Speaker: 3
45:50
All of them type of guys were giving us information that was relatable in our community that they became KRS 1? KRS 1, the teacher. You know?
Speaker: 2
46:01
Whoop. Whoop. That’s the sound of that police.
Speaker: 3
46:04
All that shit right there to me was was knowledgeable, knowledgeable rap, hip hop. I ain’t even gonna call it fucking ram, hip hop. Informational. Information.
Speaker: 2
46:15
Right. They like, especially KRS 1 and Public Enemy.
Speaker: 3
46:19
Yeah.
Speaker: 2
46:19
They were they were saying something. It was, like, very it but it wasn’t contrived.
Speaker: 3
46:25
You know? Right. Exactly.
Speaker: 2
46:26
It wasn’t like, you know, you see people say shit today, like, ah, you’re just doing that for claps. Like, they were saying shit to let people know about some information that you’re not aware of, and this is why you’re getting fucked. This is why we’re all getting fucked.
Speaker: 3
46:40
Absolutely. Come on. Come on. Even when fucking, Spike Lee meh do do the right thing. Yes. One of my favorite movies right there. That’s a classic right
Speaker: 2
46:48
there. Classic.
Speaker: 3
46:49
Classic. Shit. Wow. Classic. But like you said, we was getting information and, you know, you gotta remember, you know, at the end of the day, you know, a lot of people that coming out of the, you know, the hood and just being like, I know you.
Speaker: 2
47:03
You come from the hood. You you know what I mean? In Newark.
Speaker: 3
47:06
Yeah. He was born in Yeah. Shout out to Newark. So you you seen it
Speaker: 2
47:09
I wouldn’t exactly say I come from the hood because I went to high school in the suburbs.
Speaker: 3
47:13
Yeah. But you yeah. Yeah. That’s true, bro.
Speaker: 2
47:15
Ai lived in
Speaker: 3
47:15
Newark. I was telling you.
Speaker: 2
47:16
I lived in Newark when I was 23 for about 6 or 7 months.
Speaker: 3
47:21
Ai I
Speaker: 2
47:21
told you meh next door neighbor, he was selling dope and the the police raided his house while I was there. They battering ram his door and everything. He had a nice Audi. Right. Right. I looked at him ai, wow. This dude has a nice car. Right. Right. Selling dope.
Speaker: 2
47:33
He was selling dope, And they got him.
Speaker: 3
47:36
But she was around it though, so she was able to, you know
Speaker: 2
47:39
Well, that was also the time when I was the most into hip hop too.
Speaker: 1
47:42
I mean,
Speaker: 2
47:42
that was Nice. 1991, I guess. 90, ai, that was a wild era because that’s when hip hop was just exploding.
Speaker: 3
47:50
Yeah. Yeah. Exploding. Yeah. I would say definitely ai. You had Naughty ai Nature. You know what they had emerged on the scene. Like you said, Rakim and and Big Daddy Kane.
Speaker: 2
48:01
Oh, yeah.
Speaker: 3
48:01
Easy Ease and Ai Cubes.
Speaker: 2
48:04
To this sai, I go to work because it’s one of my favorite workout songs.
Speaker: 3
48:08
What would you say?
Speaker: 2
48:09
Big Daddy Kane, I go to work. Oh, yeah. Hell, yeah. Yeah.
Speaker: 3
48:13
Yeah. Yeah.
Speaker: 2
48:14
That’s what it about. Icon. Oh my god. I gotta work. The icons. Yeah. Oh, he was so smooth and so fast too.
Speaker: 3
48:21
Yeah. You
Speaker: 2
48:21
know? The wrong one. Big daddy Kane had, like, a very particular style. Absolutely. It was energetic. You know? You heard his style. It was, like, got you. You like, your blood started pumping. You know? Yeah. You can start getting moving.
Speaker: 3
48:32
And sai, those are the type of guys that paid the way for us to be so, you know, outspoken on a mic. You know, when I when I sit here and when I think about the clan, you know, the woo woo, how we, you know, form we form Voltron. Each one of us had a superpower that related back to those guys. You know?
Speaker: 3
48:54
All these guys that we talking about today, they was the they was the light bulb
Speaker: 2
49:01
Right.
Speaker: 3
49:01
In the in the in the house. You screw that shit on. You this is what I see right now. I see Slick Rick. I see Rakim. I see Cube. I see fucking you know, all these guys that paid the way for us. So the Klan at that time, we were so, you know, inclined on knowing about all these guys, knowing majority of them, we kept a piece of them in us that helped us become who we are.
Speaker: 3
49:29
Ai, I tell motherfuckers all the time. I say, yo, let me tell you something. When we came out, Naughty ai Nature was the shit. They was they was fucking shit up on the East Coast side of things. You know? And at that time, you had them. You had EPMD.
Speaker: 3
49:43
You had Queen Latifah, Roxanne Ai. All of these, you know, artists back then were blowing up. LL, Ram Funnel, LL, LL.
Speaker: 2
49:53
Oh, yeah.
Speaker: 3
49:54
Guy. L l was huge. Kooji ram, one of my favorites. I know that’s one of your favorites. You know, the Fat Boys. All these guys were just
Speaker: 2
50:03
That’s right. Fat Boys.
Speaker: 3
50:05
You know, these guys was giving us so much food for thought that we knew that if we didn’t come on that level Mhmm. We wasn’t built to be in a game at that time.
Speaker: 2
50:16
Well, there was so much high quality.
Speaker: 3
50:17
Yeah.
Speaker: 2
50:18
The the the High quality.
Speaker: 3
50:19
That’s the word.
Speaker: 2
50:20
The level was very high. Absolutely. The lyrics were so good. Like, you would hear lyrics and just go,
Speaker: 3
50:26
oh. Shit. Yeah. Oh.
Speaker: 2
50:29
That was the thing. That was the thing about
Speaker: 3
50:31
hip hop. To the lyrics. I love that.
Speaker: 2
50:32
Oh, my Ai I love that. Lyrics. Lyrics. Everything.
Speaker: 3
50:35
That’s right.
Speaker: 2
50:36
For be you know, it’s like That’s
Speaker: 3
50:37
what I
Speaker: 2
50:38
that was the style back then. It was like the most clever guy, the most clever lyrics. It was it was so important. You know? Because so many guys that just had everybody was battling for so it was ai more and more cleverness and more and more intricacies and more and more twists to what they were saying.
Speaker: 3
50:57
Yeah.
Speaker: 2
50:58
And it was just a vibrant art form, man. Ai, how many people cheated on their significant other because of OPP? Right. How many? Exactly. Look.
Speaker: 3
51:08
You know OPP. Yeah. You know, people
Speaker: 2
51:10
are cheering. Yeah. It was like a license to fuck. Yeah. People were cheering.
Speaker: 3
51:14
Exactly.
Speaker: 2
51:15
I mean, it had so the hip hop had so much influence on the culture, and it emerged out of nowhere.
Speaker: 3
51:20
I don’t know.
Speaker: 2
51:21
That’s what’s so crazy. Like, 10 years ago doesn’t exist. Boom. I mean, even rock and ai. I mean, rock and roll, you had the fifties, it starts to emerge, then the sixties really takes off and, you know, it’d been around for a while. Right. To have something like hip hop just explode Yeah. And make a lot of other things look lame.
Speaker: 3
51:37
Yeah.
Speaker: 2
51:37
You know, especially for young kids because when you hear guys like you and, you know, Ghostface and, you know, Method Man and, like, you’re dealing with real dudes
Speaker: 3
51:46
who
Speaker: 2
51:46
are talking about real shit and everybody else just looked kinda
Speaker: 1
51:54
lame. You know?
Speaker: 2
51:54
You know? It’s like
Speaker: 3
51:55
Ai was so stupid, baby.
Speaker: 1
51:56
You know?
Speaker: 2
51:57
It was like they didn’t even swear. You know? It sai like you you guys were wild. It was fun and it was clever. Ai I think RZA did a genius thing by naming it Wu Tang Clan because it connected it to this kung fu ai.
Speaker: 3
52:11
And I know shah she’s big on I know you big on kung fu shit because I’m coming through your shrine and shit. He got all kind of fucking shogun warriors.
Speaker: 2
52:20
Oh, I had a real samurai outfit out there. Yeah.
Speaker: 3
52:23
But shah. But you know what’s so crazy? I tell people is, like, when RZA when they was on a Wu Tang shit, we wasn’t on that. I grew up watching more ai Scarface and mafia movies, Once Upon A Time in Meh.
Speaker: 2
52:39
Oh, yeah.
Speaker: 3
52:40
One of my favorite movies. A great one.
Speaker: 2
52:41
People forget about Once Upon A Time in America.
Speaker: 3
52:43
That’s my fucking movie right there. That’s meh that’s my movie. So we were ai we were living in this we were living around a lot of hustlers. Mhmm. A lot of a lot of drugs was being sold in my community at that time. Right? So when Ai came with the whole Wu Tang philosophy, it was almost like, yeah, we love karate flicks.
Speaker: 3
53:04
We were watching you know about the karate flicks, 3 o’clock 3 o’clock. Yeah. We come on ai school, them shits is on, channel 5, all of that shit. But if you notice and you look at those karate movies, it was about a place that, you know, was filled with a lot of crime and aggressive people that were doing things that bothered other people and you either had to protect your people or you had to make a name for yourself.
Speaker: 3
53:35
Now when you think about Wu Tang, I’m a just give you a quick lesson on what Wu Tang was. Wu Tang was a school that was in Shaolin. This particular school, these niggas was crazy. They was fucked up. They got kicked the fuck out of Shaolin.
Speaker: 2
53:51
Really?
Speaker: 3
53:52
They got kicked out. Yo. Y’all bugged out. Y’all wailing. Y’all but these guys were very good, but they just couldn’t sai in Ai because they had a different way of looking at shit and doing shit. So when RZA came with the whole philosophy of it, it’s this movie that’s called Shaolin versus Wu Tang. Right? Check it out whenever you get a chance.
Speaker: 3
54:15
So whatever was going on in that movie, he made a reality of it because really at the end of the day, that’s how we were living back in Staten Saloni. You know? So we wind up changing the name and calling it Shaolin because we would have forgotten Barrow. You know? When you think about Brooklyn, Bronx, Queens, Manhattan, ai don’t we talk too much about fucking Staten Island? That bothered us.
Speaker: 3
54:38
So we didn’t We felt rebellious ai, yo, you come out here, you ain’t from here? You better know somebody. You’re not fucking coming in the projects thinking you’re gonna fucking act like you’re going over to your friends. I remember we used to see UFOs come through. We call them UFOs, under unidentified flying objects. The fuck he doing it? Yo. Follow him. Go. Yo. Yo. We we came to see. You know what I mean?
Speaker: 3
55:01
Because we had so much to prove, but it was the same thing that was going on in the karate flicks. Like, yo, you go to a new neighborhood. Who is this guy? ED is coming to play you. He’s coming to play you or or you sana play him.
Speaker: 2
55:14
This is all the shit that’s going on in
Speaker: 3
55:15
the karate movies. You know, the brotherhood. Yo. Oh, shit. My brother got hurt. What happened? Oh, hold up. Let’s go.
Speaker: 2
55:22
Right.
Speaker: 3
55:22
We gotta go get back to that. Yeah. We gotta go figure that out. All this shit that RZA was thinking about at that time was a reality check for us sai Staten Island. So even when he came with the name, it was almost like, yo. Wow. That shit is interesting. You know? Wu Tang Clan. Yo. You know?
Speaker: 3
55:39
And back then, he was hanging in Ghost’s community, which was Stapleton. So Stapleton was a place that was maybe, like, 10, 15 miles away from Park Hill where I’m from. I’m from the hill. I’m from up there, they were selling drugs and getting crazy with it and Jamaicans and Westernians and Guyanese and, you know, it was a melting pot.
Speaker: 3
56:01
You know, it’s a melting pot of different nationalities ram motherfuckers. You had the Spanish motherfuckers over here selling dope. You know what I mean? You had the white boys over here fucking doing what they doing. You know, all these things was going on, but in state what’s in, it was nothing but criminals and motherfuckers that wanna fight and and and rob and steal and, you know, when, RZA was hanging out there a lot.
Speaker: 3
56:28
You know? So they came up with this whole, you know, Wu Tang mentality thing that they brought up the block to us. So when RZA came with it, it was like, oh, shit. We like that. That’s kinda dope, but, you know, we see the vision of that. You know?
Speaker: 3
56:43
But, it was it was never for us to look at it at any given time like, yo, you ai to portray us as some fucking ninjas or some shit. You know, a lot of times people thought, yo, your niggas don’t karate in that sai? Ai no fucking karate, motherfucker. We don’t do that. But we grew up ai older cat. Our older brothers and sisters, they grew up on it. That was some early seventies shit right there. Yeah.
Speaker: 3
57:06
Sai, you know, back then, you might had a cousin that was a martial art. He knew the arts and shit. You know, you looked up to him ai, yo, this motherfucker is ill right here. He know he know the arts and shit. He know how to fight.
Speaker: 3
57:17
You know, your motherfucker would be in back of the building with 2 doberman pinches and shit. You know what I mean? Beating him with fucking laundromat hoses and shit and, you know, grabbing him and hanging him on shit. And, you know, back then, that was, you know, that was dope to see your cousins and all of them do it, but Rizzo, when he came with this philosophy, it kinda, like, fucked us all up and then but we agreed with it right away.
Speaker: 3
57:40
Because Wu Tang was to them was always something like sana expression. So if you’re drinking, this is Wu Tang. I’m drinking. You know, you you over here, yo, this is some Wu Tang shit or whatever because he was trying to say that we were just like them in the in the flicks.
Speaker: 3
57:58
It’s crazy. Wanna hear
Speaker: 2
57:59
something crazy? Whenever I kill an elk, you know, I go, bow hunting every year. Oh, shit. Whenever I kill elk, when I text my friend Cam, I text Wu Kang. Like, whenever I kill something, I’ll show you. Oh, wow. I’ll show you that that’s true.
Speaker: 3
58:11
I’ve seen some of the pictures that they No.
Speaker: 2
58:12
But I wanna show you that that’s true. I’m not making this up. It goes back years. It goes back years. This is ai our tradition. Whenever I kill an elk well, I’m a find this. I’m a find one the last time I said Wu Tang. I text him every day, so it’s gonna take a second
Speaker: 1
58:26
Alright.
Speaker: 2
58:26
To get back into some pictures. But whenever I get one, I say Wu Tang, and then I send him a picture.
Speaker: 3
58:31
Oh, shit. Crazy. Crazy.
Speaker: 2
58:35
It’s gonna take a while because I do scroll. But this is important to show you this is real. Come on, motherfucker. Go back and search Wu Tang, and it’ll show you. Oh, we’ll show you? Yeah. Oh, okay. Oh.
Speaker: 1
58:44
I’ll show you that.
Speaker: 2
58:45
Oh, look at Jamie.
Speaker: 1
58:46
Ai
Speaker: 2
58:46
Under Cam Haines or just Wu Tang? We then when you find Cam Haines, it’ll show you. Oh, look at Jamie tyler me how to do it. Sorry. Here we go. See all here it is. Right there. Wu Tang. Holy shit. And then the l’s down.
Speaker: 3
59:04
Wow.
Speaker: 2
59:05
That was from October. But I got it I go back, like, 5 years of doing that. Like, every time I shoot a elk, I text Wu Tang.
Speaker: 3
59:13
Wow. Crazy. When you started hunting since you came out here?
Speaker: 2
59:16
No. I started hunting in 2012. Oh, shit. Ai shot that deer, the deer that that head that’s right there. That was the first Wow. Animal I hunted. And then I was like, okay. That’s what I’m doing.
Speaker: 3
59:27
Wow. Crazy.
Speaker: 2
59:28
I was it was either for meh, it was that ai become a vegetarian. I watched too many of those PETA films.
Speaker: 3
59:33
Oh, yeah.
Speaker: 2
59:33
You know, those animal factory farming films and torture films. I was like, fuck this. Like, either I’m gonna be a vegan or I’m gonna learn how to hunt. And, my friend Speak Ranella took me hunting. I shot that deer. I’m like, alright. That’s what I do now.
Speaker: 3
59:47
Holy shit. And I’ve
Speaker: 2
59:48
been doing it ever since. Yeah. So I’ve been hunting for 12 years.
Speaker: 3
59:51
12 years? Yeah. So you consider yourself a marksman then?
Speaker: 2
59:55
Well, it’s like I’m not really good, like, compared to real marksman. You know, vatsal like saying you’re a black belt when you’re not really a black belt. Mhmm. You know, like like
Speaker: 3
01:00:04
Sai go through the courses.
Speaker: 2
01:00:05
Yeah. Like, how good are you? I mean, I’m good for regular people. Yeah. If you didn’t know, you would think I’m really good. For the people ai are really good, no. I’m not not near nearly at their level. Gotcha. But, you know, there’s ai professional archers that are, like, super accurate out to a 100 yards. They could shoot, like, a softball ai group at a 100 yards Yeah.
Speaker: 2
01:00:25
Consistently. Ai not a
Speaker: 3
01:00:26
couple of homeboys who could shoot like that, though.
Speaker: 2
01:00:28
It’s a lot of discipline.
Speaker: 3
01:00:29
Yeah. Lot of discipline. But they they come from they live on this side of town too, though.
Speaker: 2
01:00:34
Yeah. Well, there’s a lot of bow hunting in Texas.
Speaker: 3
01:00:36
Yeah. That’s what I’m saying. Lot of
Speaker: 2
01:00:37
bow hunting in Texas. Yeah. It’s fun.
Speaker: 3
01:00:39
Yeah. Yeah.
Speaker: 2
01:00:40
I like it.
Speaker: 3
01:00:40
I gotta get out there one day, man. I gotta, you know
Speaker: 2
01:00:44
I told you, like, we were talking before the shah. Like, if you wanna learn, I could put you on some people that’ll 100% teach you how to do it. Down. And because you’re you’re fairly close. Like, that’s a easy thing to do. No. You could hook it
Speaker: 3
01:00:55
up. Yeah. Definitely.
Speaker: 2
01:00:56
You would enjoy it. It’s a it’s also it’s a nice discipline to clear your mind.
Speaker: 3
01:01:00
Yeah.
Speaker: 2
01:01:00
Yeah. You set a target up in the backyard and just shoot the target. It just clears your mind because you have to really concentrate on it. And while you’re doing it, you don’t think about nothing else. Mhmm. For a guy like you, busy, so much shit going on, like, it’s good to have a thing like that to just
Speaker: 3
01:01:14
It’s like a sport to me. Yeah. It’s something to learn and and and kinda master. Yeah. That’s important.
Speaker: 2
01:01:19
But it’s one of those things ai like shooting a free throw. Like, at that moment, you can’t think think of anything else other than what you’re doing. If other shit gets in your head, it’s like you don’t have any room
Speaker: 3
01:01:29
for it. Focus. Right?
Speaker: 2
01:01:30
You gotta push it all out Right. And just think, oh, and that ai of stuff, like, cleans your mind.
Speaker: 3
01:01:35
Exactly. It’s
Speaker: 2
01:01:36
like it flushes your mind out.
Speaker: 3
01:01:37
That’s what it all that’s what it’s all about at the end of the day, man. Just kinda, like, get a peace of mind and vibe vibe to something different, though.
Speaker: 2
01:01:44
Yeah. I always say that for artists too. You should find some other thing you like to do just to give you a little break mentally from whatever you’re trying to do. Exactly.
Speaker: 3
01:01:53
You
Speaker: 2
01:01:53
could you could get too close to something and lose sight of the big picture if you’re all wrapped up in it.
Speaker: 3
01:01:59
As you ai into one scene.
Speaker: 2
01:02:01
Sometimes ai need something else that you also enjoy outside of it, and then you could look at what you do. Oh, okay. What am I doing different? Exactly. Maybe I should put a new wrinkle in this. Maybe I should take a new turn, you know. Ai it up.
Speaker: 3
01:02:13
Man. That’s important, man. Yeah. Important.
Speaker: 2
01:02:15
You know what? What’s another cool thing about today is that, it used to be thought at one point in ai, I think it was like the early 2000, that rap had that hip hop had a a shelf life
Speaker: 3
01:02:30
Mhmm.
Speaker: 2
01:02:30
And that there wouldn’t be classics.
Speaker: 3
01:02:32
You know
Speaker: 2
01:02:32
what I mean? Like, the Rolling Stones arya still touring. You know, they were at 58 years old back down. Like, this is crazy. The Rolling Stones are back on the road, but that was ai a new thing. It was like old rock and roll guys out touring was a new thing. But with hip hop artists, like, if you weren’t in now, if you weren’t new now, it kinda people weren’t in to go and to see you.
Speaker: 3
01:02:53
Right. Yeah. Well, when I see guys like LL and Kane and them perform and Slick Rick and Ice Cube, it it kinda it it it gives me more leverage and more strength to wanna do it because I see some of my legends still doing it today. But, yeah, man. Like you said, just to see a lot of guys like the Rolling Stones and Mick Jagger, and I’m still performing. It’s like, why not? Wow.
Speaker: 2
01:03:21
Why not?
Speaker: 3
01:03:22
Why not? Why ai give up on it? You know?
Speaker: 2
01:03:24
But with hip hop, it wasn’t really a thing for a long time. Like, all the hip hop. Ai.
Speaker: 3
01:03:28
You didn’t think that it would last.
Speaker: 2
01:03:29
Right.
Speaker: 3
01:03:30
You know what I mean? So you felt like you would get a 5 year run. They say any artist that was coming out back in the nineties, they was already putting a cap on how long or how far they felt she was gonna go. So even for us, we was like, yo. Hey. We do this shit for, like, 3 or 4 years. We good. Yo. We’ll be cool with that.
Speaker: 3
01:03:52
Sai they always put us in a what’s the word I wanna say?
Speaker: 2
01:03:58
What’s that? What’s A box?
Speaker: 3
01:04:00
Put us in a box Yeah. To make us feel like at the end of the day, yo, this shit is gonna be here for a minute, then it’s over. You know? But seeing guys still doing it, you know, I don’t give a fuck. Like, I listen to Billy Joe. I’m a Billy Joe fan. You know, he’s my fucking guy right there. That’s hilarious. People I know, people would be like, get the fuck out of here.
Speaker: 2
01:04:20
That’s hilarious. I love his old shit until he He’s
Speaker: 3
01:04:22
the hell.
Speaker: 2
01:04:22
Until he had that supermodel wife. Oh. Then everything got real soft.
Speaker: 1
01:04:26
You know,
Speaker: 2
01:04:26
he had too much pussy. Yeah. Too much good pussy. He got supermodel pussy, and it’s ai uptown girl. She’s been living in her uptown world. Before that, you go back to his other shah, you know, owing the good ai young.
Speaker: 3
01:04:42
Yeah.
Speaker: 2
01:04:42
Oh, that’s a great jam.
Speaker: 3
01:04:44
Yeah.
Speaker: 2
01:04:44
He’s got some great stuff, man. Scenes from an Italian restaurant. That’s a great song, man. Captain Jack. Oh, Captain Jack’s a great song.
Speaker: 3
01:04:52
Billy Joel, man.
Speaker: 2
01:04:53
But when he got older, it just became, you know hey. He was changing as a human.
Speaker: 3
01:04:57
In New York too. Right? Yeah. New York to the heart right there.
Speaker: 1
01:05:00
Sai
Speaker: 2
01:05:00
mean, that ai sold out Master Square Garden, like, 300 times.
Speaker: 3
01:05:04
See what I’m saying? Kinda crazy. Still going.
Speaker: 2
01:05:07
Yeah. Still going.
Speaker: 3
01:05:08
So those are our heroes. Those are guys that we we look up to that, you know, they still do anything, man.
Speaker: 2
01:05:15
Yeah. It’s just beautiful that, hip hop is like that now. Yeah. Because, I feel like in the 2000, only it was more overseas was showing you guys love. Yeah. Like a lot of Europe. Ai, a lot of my friends that were, like, maybe bigger in the nineties, they had to go over to Europe To come check out.
Speaker: 3
01:05:33
And they do.
Speaker: 2
01:05:33
Yeah. They
Speaker: 3
01:05:34
were like check out hip hop. Yeah. And I tell people all the time, like, being being from the states, being where we from, I think they appreciate it more because they they never really got a chance to grasp it as much as we did. Right. So they come out more.
Speaker: 2
01:05:49
Right.
Speaker: 3
01:05:49
Right now, today enthusiastic. They more. They love it more. You know? So They can’t believe it. There. Yeah. They can’t believe it. Yeah. But for me, I think I love performing a lot more when I go when I go out there because they come out and they never ever make you feel like they don’t appreciate you.
Speaker: 3
01:06:09
Mhmm. You know what I mean? And, even to this day, it’s like the clan still goes out there and makes a ton of cash. We see a lot of people, and we see young generations of kids now too. It’s like, yo, you look in the crowd.
Speaker: 3
01:06:24
You’re like, what
Speaker: 2
01:06:25
the fuck? How old
Speaker: 3
01:06:26
is that fucking kid that we just we just put him on stage, and he knew that he knew the fucking words. Like, yo, he’s might he might have been, like, 17, 16 years old. Like, yo, he wasn’t even fucking born.
Speaker: 2
01:06:36
Well, there’s classic hip hop now.
Speaker: 3
01:06:38
Yeah. You
Speaker: 2
01:06:38
know what I’m saying? Like, when I was a kid, there was classic rock. You, like, you listen to Led Zeppelin. It was classic rock. Now there’s classic hip hop Wow. Which is amazing.
Speaker: 3
01:06:46
Yeah. You know? Right. You’re right.
Speaker: 2
01:06:48
But so well, it just shows that the culture is, like, completely accepted it as an art form.
Speaker: 3
01:06:52
Mhmm.
Speaker: 2
01:06:53
And so now young kids that get into hip hop, maybe one of their friends will be ai, hey, you you ever heard of this? And then they turn them on to new stuff.
Speaker: 3
01:07:00
Exactly.
Speaker: 2
01:07:01
And they’re like, wow. Yeah. Yeah. And this is 1992, you know?
Speaker: 3
01:07:04
That shah. You know? And I think that that’s how we were. We always were infatuated with the music before our time. You know? Like how you just sai, like, yo, you know, listen to Sugar Hill Gang. You know? I actually had them in one of my videos before.
Speaker: 2
01:07:19
Really?
Speaker: 3
01:07:20
Well, you know how that and I bought them to my hood too. So you know how that felt for meh.
Speaker: 2
01:07:24
Oh, wow.
Speaker: 3
01:07:24
Fucking Sugar Sugar Hill Gang
Speaker: 2
01:07:26
That’s amazing.
Speaker: 3
01:07:26
Come out to my community. That’s amazing. That was dope, though, right there, man. But, yeah, meh, it You know, that’s why I always feel like, yo, I I I tell people all the ai, you have to respect the people that did it before you, man, because they gave you something to to dream about
Speaker: 2
01:07:43
to Yes.
Speaker: 3
01:07:44
Be able to instill in yourself. Like, if you don’t have that, then you’re not you’re not moving the way you’re supposed to be moving. You know, I remember old man would tell us, if you don’t know where you came from, you’ll never know where you’re going. So having that history, that history is is an experience that sticks with you forever. You have to have that.
Speaker: 2
01:08:06
Yeah.
Speaker: 3
01:08:06
Don’t try to front on that. You know? And I think a lot of times people, you know, they look at hip hop and they think certain things is hip hop. It’s like history of hip hop is something that you gotta know, man. You gotta know it. You gotta know it. You gotta know it.
Speaker: 2
01:08:23
You should know it like the history of the United States. Exactly. It’s it’s something if you’re an artist, like, that would that’s what lit the fire. Somebody had lit the fire. Mhmm. And if these young guys don’t know, like, hey, this shit didn’t even exist in 1979. Yeah. Didn’t even exist.
Speaker: 2
01:08:37
That’s not that long ago. And then all of a sudden, now it’s everywhere? Like, what happened? Somebody lit the ai, and if they didn’t light that fire, you wouldn’t you wouldn’t have it. Exactly. You wouldn’t have the embers.
Speaker: 2
01:08:46
You wouldn’t you wouldn’t have this desire to try this thing.
Speaker: 3
01:08:49
Exactly. Now look what it’s doing. Look what it did. Yeah. It’s like, yo, one of the biggest genres of music is ai, you know and there’s a lot of times people take shots at it. Like, you know, y’all ain’t talking meh, man. They talking this, and they talking that. It’s like, my thing to that is always like, yo, it’s no different from going to see a scary movie.
Speaker: 2
01:09:11
Exactly.
Speaker: 3
01:09:12
Jason. Exactly. Killing motherfuckers in the woods. I hated him. You know what I mean? Based on that, Heat is one of my favorite movies.
Speaker: 2
01:09:20
Great fucking movie.
Speaker: 3
01:09:21
I love Heat. You know? Dinero Dinero and that
Speaker: 2
01:09:23
But why is it okay to do that in a movie, but it’s not okay to do
Speaker: 3
01:09:26
ai a song? Right. I don’t understand it. I don’t, you know It’s hypocritical. You know, it’s hypocritical, you sai.
Speaker: 2
01:09:31
It is. It’s hypocritical because they say it encourages violence. Yeah. And that’s the same thing they’ll say about video games. Like, you know, doesn’t it everybody? Yeah. So what what’s going on really? What’s going on really is you have a bunch of disenfranchised people that don’t have any hope, and if they are around a lot of violence, maybe something will get them excited about violence.
Speaker: 2
01:09:50
If they’re not disenfranchised and they have hope, they’re not inclined towards violence.
Speaker: 3
01:09:54
Right.
Speaker: 2
01:09:54
It’s a societal problem. It has nothing to do with the art itself. The art itself is representative of real experiences.
Speaker: 3
01:10:00
Right.
Speaker: 2
01:10:00
So if you’re telling people that they can’t express themselves about real experiences, you’re just going like this. La la la la la. I’m not listening. That’s all you’re doing.
Speaker: 3
01:10:08
That’s how you feel at the the
Speaker: 2
01:10:10
This is these people’s lived expression. Yeah. This is that which is why Wu Tang was so good. The reason why it was so good is because it was real. Like, no one was questioning the authenticity of anybody that was in the Wu Tang Clan. Sai it’s like that the message that you guys were putting out, the way you were putting things out, like Wu Tang Clan ain’t nothing to fuck with.
Speaker: 2
01:10:28
Ai, that is that that it was ai from you to the world, you know. And if someone doesn’t like that, you don’t have to listen. Exactly. You don’t have to listen.
Speaker: 3
01:10:38
Right.
Speaker: 2
01:10:39
But if you slap a warning sticker on it, you’re just gonna sell more out.
Speaker: 3
01:10:42
To it anyway. Ai. You’re gonna you’re gonna you’re gonna get caught up in it anyway. Yeah. It’s like look. Prime example. When we made when we made the record Ram, right, Cream was a record that didn’t have nothing to do with anything but the realness of what we were looking at.
Speaker: 3
01:11:03
It wasn’t really a a song to rap to or have fun with. It was a reality. It was a picture he’s trying to paint.
Speaker: 2
01:11:09
Cash rules everything around me.
Speaker: 3
01:11:11
Cash rules, ai, around meh, not me, should never fucking rule you, but around meh. You know? And a friend from the neighborhood, he actually came up with that acronym. But I tell people all the time, my cousin I had a cousin from Brooklyn that he used to come to Staten Island, and he used to sell drugs for us.
Speaker: 3
01:11:31
And he came up with that word, cream, because he was like, yo. Yo. As long as I can make my cream, I’m good. I’m ai the fuck is cream? Like, you know what I mean? He’s like, yo. Cream. Yo.
Speaker: 3
01:11:40
You ever see Tom and Jerry the movie and, you know, he make those big fucking sandwiches and all of that, and he splash all that cream on it and then, you know, I’m like, oh, the Tom and Jerry, the sandwiches. Ai? Yeah. When he made the big sandwich and stuff them in your mouth and all. Nah. Real shit.
Speaker: 3
01:11:56
Real
Speaker: 2
01:11:56
shit. So the
Speaker: 3
01:11:57
cream that the cream that was splashing all over the place, he was looking at that as that’s his money. Like, Sai just want my cream. I just want
Speaker: 2
01:12:04
my cream.
Speaker: 3
01:12:05
You know what I mean? So we’re like, yeah. You wanna get your cream. You you sit up in a fucking spot all day. You wanna make it cream. You wanna get it. And,
Speaker: 2
01:12:12
sai who came up with the acronym?
Speaker: 3
01:12:15
A good friend of ours in the neighborhood. His name is Raid. Right? And him and Method Man is ai they was like real close ai brothers. So when we was in the studio, right into it, he was there, and he just sat back, and he just came up with cash rules, everything around me.
Speaker: 3
01:12:34
And meh meth, they put it together, and next thing you know, that that was a hook. You know? At that time, for me, I was still writing a lot of stories. You know? So I wrote believe it or not, I wrote 2 verses for Cream.
Speaker: 3
01:12:47
I didn’t write my rhyme never started off as I grew up on a crime ai. I was writing about drug dealers in the in the neighborhood. Like, yo, I know this kid by the name of Giganti. Giganti, a Teflon Don with a Diamanti. You know, the Diamanti’s back in the days was ai the, you know, the 5 series Benz is for us back then.
Speaker: 3
01:13:07
And, a good friend of mine was like, oh, that rhyme is cool. I think it’s ai. Like, why you don’t like the rhyme? Everybody else ai it. He was like, it’s cool. I like it. So he made me go back and change it. And when I changed it, I started to think before I wrote him.
Speaker: 3
01:13:25
Like, damn. He said, yo. You need to run about shah. That’s something that we could relate to that we’re dealing with around what the fuck we wake up to every day, and that’s when I came with. I grew up on the crime side, you know, the New York Times side.
Speaker: 2
01:13:41
Mhmm. So he he just told you harder?
Speaker: 3
01:13:44
Yeah. He just told me to think harder.
Speaker: 2
01:13:45
Harder.
Speaker: 3
01:13:46
Yeah. He sai, yo, shah. You could you could you could be a little bit more creative.
Speaker: 2
01:13:51
Well, ram is crazy because it became viral. That that saying dollar dollar bills, y’all, became viral. Like spread across
Speaker: 3
01:13:58
come from the dollar dollar bill, y’all. Dollar bill, y’all. Dollar dollar dollar tyler Rock. That’s a little bit. Oh, wow. You remember that record? Yeah. Money. It takes money. Yeah. Yeah. Whatever he was saying back then.
Speaker: 2
01:14:12
I haven’t heard that before.
Speaker: 1
01:14:14
Yeah. I
Speaker: 3
01:14:14
haven’t seen this record right there. Yeah. That’s a old school record ai. Fly shit, though. But, yeah, Meh them you know, Methan, my meh, Ram, they sat down, and they came up with cash, all everything around meh. And it was a perfect a perfect, you know, symbol of what we were trying to express that we were always trying to get money, but we was dealing with certain things in our community that, you know, that we were trying to get past first to try to make some money, and and it was a sacrifice.
Speaker: 3
01:14:45
It was like, yo. You do this shah. You might be able to get out of it alive or you might not. You know? So that record, you know, ai up blowing up so big.
Speaker: 3
01:14:54
It wind up being one of our biggest records, and it didn’t have nothing to do with it ai I guess, to me, it didn’t feel hip hop. It just felt like real realization, like real shit is is we need to start listening. Like, how you just played the Ghettos Boys shit. You know what I mean?
Speaker: 3
01:15:12
You’re ai to give off a meh, a message, and that’s what I think that people love about Wu Tang is that we give out messages. We give out we we like an emotional rollercoaster group. We could give you the Wu Tang Clan ain’t nothing to fuck with, and then we can give you the tears where it’s like, oh, shit. Yeah. The fuck.
Speaker: 3
01:15:34
He’s right. You know what I mean? Yo. We gotta be careful. We gotta look at things for real.
Speaker: 3
01:15:40
So all Ai had a lot to do with being around smart guys. You know what I mean? The the the smartness allowed us to write the way we wanted to write.
Speaker: 2
01:15:49
Right.
Speaker: 3
01:15:50
And, It’s contagious. It was contagious back then.
Speaker: 2
01:15:52
Yeah. But that’s what I’m saying about, like, really good lyrics and high quality rap. It’s contagious.
Speaker: 3
01:15:58
Yeah. Yeah.
Speaker: 2
01:15:59
Because then everybody else’s shit has to be tight too.
Speaker: 3
01:16:01
Yeah. And you know when you come in with a group of guys that, yo, he kill it, you better come in.
Speaker: 2
01:16:06
Right.
Speaker: 3
01:16:07
You have to come in and and say some shit that makes sense. Like, I give a lot of credit to our first ai, right, Protect Your Neck, and I know that’s one of your favorite shits. When Speak Deck sai, ai smoke on a mic like smoking Joe Frazier, the hellraiser. Raising hell ai the and Joe Frazier to hell raiser. Raising hell with the flavor.
Speaker: 2
01:16:25
Yeah.
Speaker: 3
01:16:27
That right there opened up
Speaker: 2
01:16:30
Yeah.
Speaker: 3
01:16:30
Something with all of us. Yeah. You know, and I always tell Deck. I’m like, yo, Deck, you are like a, you are like a Scottie Pippen. You always gonna hit if you get the ball in your hand. You know, and he did that. He created those that first verse that you notice meh. I jumped right in sana them. Yeah. Rhymes, rung, and they built like Schwarzenegger. Yeah. Then Meh came in. You know what I mean?
Speaker: 3
01:16:55
Everybody kinda ai
Speaker: 2
01:16:57
That’s what’s so amazing
Speaker: 3
01:16:58
about all
Speaker: 2
01:17:00
these killers, all these different voices, all these amazing lyrics, all on one song.
Speaker: 3
01:17:05
Yeah. Yeah. But we wanted to we wanted to show the world that each one of us had a style that was unreconned. Each one of us can paint a picture within our own way that you will love all of us. So it’s better to get us all now. You know, we’ll sacrifice the the little the little look for the bigger look later. Right. You know?
Speaker: 3
01:17:30
And that was one of the situations where we had to dance sai certain way to be like, okay. Yeah. We’ll take a little bit of money, but we know we’re gonna be able to sell. Like you sai, yeah. Give us those 50. We’ll sell them.
Speaker: 3
01:17:42
Now we know we you telling me you don’t got the money, but you got the relationships. Okay. Cool. As long as you got the relationship, long as you got the money. Yeah.
Speaker: 3
01:17:51
We gonna go out there and we gonna work to make it happen, but this is what’s gotta happen. And, you know, I I give all the credit to Steve Rifkin. You know, Steve was the guy that owned Loud Records back then. He was a part of RCA back then, and, he believed in us. He’s like, yo, I’ll give y’all that deal. I’ll give y’all that deal.
Speaker: 3
01:18:16
And next thing you know, when everybody started taking off, now you got Meh Man over here. You got Jizz over here. You got a Right. Bastard over here. So we did something that was so new to the world that it’s like, oh, shit.
Speaker: 2
01:18:30
From the outside, it felt different because it felt like a movement. Right. It’s like Wu Tang was like a movement. Exactly. It was it was different. It was like
Speaker: 3
01:18:37
Ai tried the boxes. Everybody tried the boxes as sai as a group. Yeah. So even though we knew we were a group, in our minds, we looked at it, like you said, as a movement being created that would eventually spread out and and and hit all corners of everything, and that was the plan all the time.
Speaker: 3
01:18:55
That was a premeditated plan because they wanted us to still be a group. It’s like, nah. We look. We ai in this and that, but we’re not going to box ourselves.
Speaker: 2
01:19:07
Right.
Speaker: 3
01:19:08
You know? So by us doing that, it kinda, like, really paved the way for other groups and other artists and everybody to to to kinda, you know, follow this blueprint. So now you have, you know, these other other guys coming out and creating their own labels and bringing in artists that they wanted to do.
Speaker: 3
01:19:28
So to me, this kinda made hip hop a little bit more interesting because it showed that artists were starting to get more smarter, which is important. You know, we didn’t wanna be just, like you said, yo, just coming in and you sell your soul and Yeah. You just sai there. Nah.
Speaker: 3
01:19:46
We can’t just stay there.
Speaker: 2
01:19:47
Is one of the hardest parts getting the right beat?
Speaker: 3
01:19:51
Oh, the beat is everything, bro.
Speaker: 2
01:19:54
Because it seems like all you guys are very prolific. Everybody can write.
Speaker: 3
01:19:59
Mhmm.
Speaker: 2
01:19:59
But if you don’t have a great beat and how many great beats can you make? Right? If you got an album then another album’s coming out next year, like, woah. Yeah. You gotta have 16, 20 great beats?
Speaker: 3
01:20:11
Yeah.
Speaker: 2
01:20:11
And then you gotta pick from those beats what what, you know, what goes what song and try different ways out, and you gotta make sure everybody shows up at the studio. How hard was that?
Speaker: 3
01:20:21
This shit is real, bro. I mean, I tell people all the time, like, number 1 for us, like, you know, being around so many different lyricists, lyricists, guys, beats are important. You know, I meh, one time a fan asked meh. He said, yo, what’s the most important thing to you? The rhyme or the beat?
Speaker: 3
01:20:41
He fucked me up the whole day with that. I was fucked up. And and and and I and I answered him. I gave him an answer, like, probably, like, 3 or 4 minutes later, and I was like, you know what? Nobody never asked me that. I sai, the beat.
Speaker: 3
01:20:54
I said, you know why the beat? Because the beat makes you think about what you wanna say and what you wanna get across. You know, anybody could make rhymes. I can have you sit with me for fucking a month and you could be a ill fucking rapper. You, I can take you there.
Speaker: 3
01:21:13
But to be able to have that combination factor of making a body of work or or that sound that you want, you need to have the right production. So a lot of times, Wu Tang wrote to whatever they felt. It’s like how you can listen to Protect Your Neck and you get that energy from us. Yes.
Speaker: 3
01:21:33
You know, you get a certain energy because of that production. Then you get this energy when you get you you get a ram, you get that.
Speaker: 2
01:21:41
Right.
Speaker: 3
01:21:42
So for me, I always tell people that beat is everything, you know. And us just sitting down and waiting for RZA to come up with something. Like, one thing about RZA, he was so clever. You know, he had a team of guys that was around him that was assisting him to helping him come with different sounds and, you know, play with different things.
Speaker: 3
01:22:02
And, of course, you know, just having his ear for music and listening to other people’s stuff, he was able to isolate himself away from everything and and start brainstorming for us. So it’s ai, he was like, he was like the Steelers back in the fucking eighties. You know what I mean? When they won 4 Super Bowls in a row.
Speaker: 3
01:22:25
He was like that when Terry Bradshaw and Owen was playing. Lynn Swann
Speaker: 2
01:22:28
and Who’s in sai zone?
Speaker: 3
01:22:29
He was in a he was really in his own way.
Speaker: 2
01:22:32
Especially because it became successful. Yeah.
Speaker: 1
01:22:34
And then
Speaker: 2
01:22:34
there was a lot of motivation behind it, a lot of energy behind it.
Speaker: 3
01:22:37
Yeah.
Speaker: 2
01:22:38
I hear what you’re saying, but without the lyrics, the beat is not the it’s I I see from your perspective as a lyricist and as an emcee that you would think that the beat is more important because it’s important to you to get arya.
Speaker: 3
01:22:51
To get started.
Speaker: 2
01:22:52
But ram for as a fan,
Speaker: 3
01:22:55
you The lyrics. You have to learn to get lyrics to it.
Speaker: 2
01:22:56
Just the beats by themselves. That’s not enough.
Speaker: 3
01:22:58
Look. No.
Speaker: 2
01:22:59
No. No. No. No.
Speaker: 3
01:22:59
You know
Speaker: 2
01:23:00
how many times me and
Speaker: 3
01:23:00
Winston would argue about that? And I would tell him, like, yo, listen, bro. It took it took all of us. It took yeah. You had that.
Speaker: 2
01:23:08
Yeah. You
Speaker: 3
01:23:09
had this. We had that. That’s what
Speaker: 2
01:23:11
It’s a 5050 proposition. It it’s a I think it’s more 6040. I think it’s more 60 lyrics because the thing is the lyrics are the thing that make you go,
Speaker: 3
01:23:19
uh-oh, shoot.
Speaker: 2
01:23:22
Ai, a great great beat makes you move your head and gets you going, but lyrics make you go, oh, shit. Yeah. Like, rewind that.
Speaker: 3
01:23:30
Well, you know, that you know, me is 5050 all the time because if I have nothing to give me that energy to write
Speaker: 2
01:23:37
Right. Right. Right. Right.
Speaker: 3
01:23:38
How can I give it to you if I don’t have nothing to
Speaker: 2
01:23:40
do with it? Collaboration for sure. It’s a collaboration for sure. But but it’s interesting that people would think, like, what’s more important? Like, what’s what’s more important, breathing or having a heartbeat? Shut the fuck up. Like, you need both.
Speaker: 3
01:23:52
You need both. Yeah. You gotta balance it. You have
Speaker: 2
01:23:54
to have both. But that’s the where the collaboration comes in. Yeah. I had Scott Storch in here the other day. Oh, shah? Oh, yeah.
Speaker: 3
01:24:00
I love that dude. Yeah. Yeah.
Speaker: 2
01:24:01
He’s so fucking talented. Meh. So out there. You know? His glasses on. His fucking you like, he’s seeing
Speaker: 3
01:24:08
feeling the
Speaker: 2
01:24:08
music. Yeah. It’s like a rare savant. There’s dudes like that that are, like, beat machines. You know? Like, he just feels it. It comes into his head, and he feels it and just coming out of his fingers. You know?
Speaker: 3
01:24:20
Yeah. He’s a super talented
Speaker: 2
01:24:22
Oh, so talented.
Speaker: 3
01:24:23
God. I love him.
Speaker: 2
01:24:24
But, like, that kind of guy is so special. And, you know, to team, the kind of guy like that up with Dre or, you know, with, you know, 50
Speaker: 3
01:24:33
or
Speaker: 2
01:24:34
any of these people that he collaborated with,
Speaker: 3
01:24:35
it’s like Yeah.
Speaker: 2
01:24:36
That’s that’s special.
Speaker: 3
01:24:38
And that’s why, like I said, you know what I ai? You you can’t never front on the Maestro. You know what I mean? Right. I remember that, you know, DJ has started it all. Let’s let’s be honest.
Speaker: 2
01:24:49
You know
Speaker: 3
01:24:49
what I mean? The DJ game Scratch your records. Scratching. You know, they created a a synergy to the artist to be like, yo. Let me let me try this. Even even if you go back to like I said, look at look at Quincy Jones, man. Look. Look what the fuck he did, man.
Speaker: 2
01:25:07
Right. Right.
Speaker: 3
01:25:08
You know? Look at look at Frank Sinatra. Like, who the fuck was handling his fucking music, man?
Speaker: 2
01:25:12
Right.
Speaker: 3
01:25:13
He was so clever. He needed a vibe, though. He needed something to who was that guy?
Speaker: 2
01:25:18
You ever hear of Frank Sinatra when he was young?
Speaker: 3
01:25:20
Oh, he was Before he
Speaker: 2
01:25:21
was smoking all those cigarettes? Ai is a super high pitched voice. It’s crazy.
Speaker: 3
01:25:25
It’s crazy. Right?
Speaker: 2
01:25:26
It’s crazy. You listen to the difference, like, wow. It had so
Speaker: 3
01:25:29
much rain. Was the production, though?
Speaker: 2
01:25:31
I don’t know. I don’t know.
Speaker: 3
01:25:32
You know, somebody never really got he never really got famous, I guess.
Speaker: 2
01:25:36
Well, the I think the whole thing back then was Elvis or whoever it was, you know, whoever was the person that was in front. Everybody behind the scenes didn’t really get that much respect.
Speaker: 3
01:25:45
Right. Right. Yeah. But he was a saloni. Yeah. Boy.
Speaker: 2
01:25:49
Who was that crazy dude that wore the wigs that shot that lady in LA? He produced all the Beatles shit. He had that he he got tried for murder, and every day on, in the courtroom, he’d wear a different wild wig. He created the wall of sound. Fuck. What’s his name? He was really insane. Phil Spector. Phil Spector. Phil Spector, back in the day, he was known for pulling guns on people.
Speaker: 2
01:26:11
He pulled guns on people, stick them in their mouths and shit. He was a complete psychopath.
Speaker: 3
01:26:15
White guy?
Speaker: 2
01:26:16
Yeah. And he’s a Jewish guy, I think. And he shot this lady in the mouth. Woah. Was he Jewish? I don’t want any Jewish people mad at me. Jewish people get bad when you say someone’s not Jewish and they did something terrible.
Speaker: 3
01:26:29
Hey. Look, guys. We we dieted
Speaker: 2
01:26:31
I’m just saying a little last
Speaker: 3
01:26:33
with nobody.
Speaker: 2
01:26:33
Talented successful Jewish people
Speaker: 3
01:26:35
in the entertainment business. Be clear, man. Yeah.
Speaker: 2
01:26:37
But that dude, he, he was responsible for the wall of sound, the the Beatles. Like, that was a big thing with him. Like, he was known for being a guy that would change people’s music. Russian Jewish. Boom. Meh.
Speaker: 3
01:26:52
Bailed it. Yeah.
Speaker: 2
01:26:53
What’s up?
Speaker: 3
01:26:53
And he was from the Bronx.
Speaker: 2
01:26:54
From the Bronx. Yeah.
Speaker: 3
01:26:55
Holy shit.
Speaker: 2
01:26:56
Wild wild boy. Wow. And, shot some lady. Picked up some lady at a bar, took her back to this place, and shot her in the mouth.
Speaker: 3
01:27:04
Holy shit.
Speaker: 2
01:27:05
Yeah. He would he would put guns in people’s mouths. Like, he was known for threatening people. Like, you wanna get out of this fucking contract and just shove a gun in your mouth?
Speaker: 3
01:27:12
Wow.
Speaker: 2
01:27:13
What’s that? Pulled a gun on Cher. He pulled a gun on Cher.
Speaker: 3
01:27:16
He pulled a gun out of Cher.
Speaker: 2
01:27:18
Cher recalls stopping Phil Spector in his tracks when he pulled a gun on her. He couldn’t pull that Cher with me. Right.
Speaker: 1
01:27:23
Right. Right.
Speaker: 2
01:27:24
Right. We had this really strange relationship. You don’t say. You don’t say. You don’t. Well, it’s like the music business at one point in time was run entirely by gangsters.
Speaker: 3
01:27:34
Of course.
Speaker: 2
01:27:34
That’s the story about Hendrix.
Speaker: 3
01:27:36
Mhmm.
Speaker: 2
01:27:36
You know, the story about Hendrix is that his manager killed him. That’s the conspiracy. Sai that his manager killed him because it’s more valuable for Hendrix to be dead. His music, he’s a, ai maestro, like a 1 in a a 1000000000 year talent.
Speaker: 3
01:27:51
Yeah.
Speaker: 2
01:27:51
And that they knew that they had all these recordings of him, and they could kill him. And so that’s why Alex’s girlfriend jumped off
Speaker: 3
01:27:58
the top of a building.
Speaker: 2
01:27:59
Yeah. To own his
Speaker: 3
01:27:59
shit. Right.
Speaker: 2
01:28:00
Because he was gonna leave his management. His, bodyguard wrote a book about it years later and it just came out, like, I wanna say, like, 10 years ago. Mhmm. When that long ago, whereas the bodyguard said, yeah. The manager killed him. Wow. Killed Hendrix and, threw the girlfriend off a roof.
Speaker: 3
01:28:16
Movie of them too?
Speaker: 2
01:28:17
Oh, yeah. They did a
Speaker: 3
01:28:18
bunch of movies
Speaker: 2
01:28:19
on that. Yeah. They need to do a real Wu Tang movie. I know Hulu had a series, but they need a real, like, Quentin Tarantino needs to
Speaker: 3
01:28:27
do a movie. Man.
Speaker: 2
01:28:28
I know Quentin Tarantino. That’s what I think. I think we talked Quentin Tarantino because he wants to do one more movie. How long he does a fucking Wu Tang movie? The real Wu Tang
Speaker: 3
01:28:38
movie. Quentin. I’ll ram him.
Speaker: 2
01:28:39
It’s like Hulu is great, but it has to be on Hulu. You can only get that sai wild on Hulu. Mhmm. You know, like, for it to be real real, it has to be a movie.
Speaker: 3
01:28:48
Let me tell you something. I wrote a book. Right? And, inside my book, I talked about how Q Tip, a good friend of mine, Q Tip, he had he had me and Leonardo sit down.
Speaker: 2
01:29:02
Leonardo DiCaprio? Leonardo DiCaprio.
Speaker: 3
01:29:04
Leonardo DiCaprio. Right? And I remember Q Tip was like, yo, set up a meeting for you and Leonardo to meet in Brooklyn at this small pizza shop, one of Leonardo’s favorite speak, and, he wanna talk to you. Sai, yeah, that’s what’s up. So me and Leonardo, we started talking, and he was like, yo, Q Tip was telling me that you was you was thinking about ai to, you know, get guys together to create a movie.
Speaker: 3
01:29:29
I was like, yeah. This is what I was thinking. So making long story short, I set up a meeting with RZA, myself, Leonardo’s Peoples in LA. And I told RZA, I said, listen. Before we do this Hulu thing, which at the end of the day, it was a RZA’s a RZA’s production thing or whatever he was doing.
Speaker: 3
01:29:53
I said, I think we need to make a realistic, real life movie of us. Sai it it shouldn’t be nothing that we should play with because people need to know our real story. So RZA entertained the conversation, but I don’t know. For some reason, I guess he felt like he was committed to doing whatever he wanted to do with Hulu.
Speaker: 2
01:30:16
He might already have a deal.
Speaker: 3
01:30:17
Yeah. Yeah. And, you know, like I said, at the end of the day, the clan Look
Speaker: 2
01:30:21
at that.
Speaker: 3
01:30:22
Ai I mean? Yeah. Yeah.
Speaker: 2
01:30:23
But JB faster than me. JB’s the best?
Speaker: 3
01:30:25
It was that it was that night, and I remember that. Wow. I wish we could have been able to sit down with him because the way I had him looking at it, it was almost like I told him. I said, this would be like a smack, like a, slash of of Goodfellas and, Minister Ai Yeah. Mixed in one. Yeah.
Speaker: 3
01:30:46
You know, to kinda talk about our story and whatever. He was super open. He was like, yo, Shah. What we gotta do? Yo.
Speaker: 3
01:30:53
Who do we need to talk to? But at that time, RZA was already in pocket on what he wanted to do. So I said, you know what? One day, you know, maybe I might get a chance to show my version of it because, come on, how many how many Pablo Escobar movies we looked at?
Speaker: 2
01:31:09
Right. Right. Right. Right.
Speaker: 3
01:31:10
You know what I mean? You got these guys telling it. You got these people’s story. It can
Speaker: 2
01:31:13
still be made.
Speaker: 3
01:31:14
For sure. Still be made.
Speaker: 2
01:31:15
A 100%. Just because there’s a Hulu suit, that doesn’t mean shit.
Speaker: 3
01:31:18
Right. But I think that at the end of the day, you know, god willing, we will really give you ai, another taste of of really how how we really see it, you know?
Speaker: 2
01:31:31
Well, I think it would be hugely successful. I think for a music from from a movie rather perspective.
Speaker: 3
01:31:36
Would you rather see it as a movie or would you a movie?
Speaker: 2
01:31:39
A movie.
Speaker: 3
01:31:39
There you go. That’s how I
Speaker: 2
01:31:40
Or you do it, like, on Netflix where you can get wild.
Speaker: 3
01:31:43
Yeah.
Speaker: 2
01:31:44
You know? Do it, like, you know, like Netflix has shit like Ozark. They get wild on Netflix. You can get wild. Yeah. That’s how it has to be. It has to be grimy. It has to be
Speaker: 3
01:31:54
That’s how you want it. Right?
Speaker: 2
01:31:55
It it can’t be in any way ABC After School Speak ai. You know what I’m saying? Ai, it can’t be it can’t be cleaned up through a filter. It has to be good too. It has to be ai good narrative.
Speaker: 3
01:32:09
Like, it
Speaker: 2
01:32:09
has to be set up. The scenes have to be set because it’s very hard to take an insane career of 9 of the best emcees to get together under 1 mastermind ai all these genius talents and they form this movement. Right.
Speaker: 1
01:32:24
Are
Speaker: 2
01:32:24
you gonna condense that to 30 minutes? Yeah.
Speaker: 3
01:32:27
Yeah. That was one of the really bigs right there. He was he was like, yo, Ray. Yo. Yo. Blah blah blah. Yo.
Speaker: 2
01:32:32
You know? But I think he could be done. I ai
Speaker: 3
01:32:34
what I said. I said, yo. Look. Come on now. I said, people do it all the time. I said, yo. Look at ram example. Look at NWA. I thought NWA movie was dope. You know what I mean? Straight Out of Compton. I thought they did a good job, but that was Dre and Cube and, you know, I’m sure I’m sure you always gonna have somebody around that’d be like, yo.
Speaker: 3
01:32:55
Now that ain’t it. That ain’t but it was so realistic that when I seen ours, it was like, alright. I get it. You know, RZA even said to y’all, you know, this is more for the younger generation to ai gravitate to, and once everybody loved it. They loved it, so it was like, okay. Y’all love it. We love y’all for loving it.
Speaker: 2
01:33:15
It’s great. It’s great. But hear ram me out. Mhmm. Opening of the movie, Rikers. Opening of the movie, you guys show up at Rikers to do the concert. We’re all deaddy bastards inside. That’s the opening of the movie.
Speaker: 3
01:33:29
Want all of you want.
Speaker: 2
01:33:30
That’s the opening of the movie.
Speaker: 3
01:33:31
All the real gritty. You want the But
Speaker: 2
01:33:33
that just get everybody on the hook
Speaker: 3
01:33:36
right away.
Speaker: 2
01:33:37
Ai then you bring them back to the beginning. Right after that, you you you know, you put the year, whatever
Speaker: 3
01:33:43
was how you make movies. You pick all of you pick all the greatest moments Yes. And then you start someone and threading. Ai.
Speaker: 2
01:33:51
Yeah. That’s a no brainer for a Wu Tang movie. You start with Rikers. You start with Rikers, which is what year was that? 95? What year is that?
Speaker: 3
01:34:00
When did What year was
Speaker: 2
01:34:02
the Old Dirty Bastard and Rikers concert?
Speaker: 3
01:34:04
Yeah. I’m about to say look up that.
Speaker: 2
01:34:06
And what year did you guys start? What was the very first year?
Speaker: 3
01:34:09
We started we started in ai 90 late ai. So you start you start the movie with Rikers and then you bring it back to ai.
Speaker: 2
01:34:17
Back to 92. That’s what it is. That’s what it is. I mean, just think about the incredible amount of saloni, not just not just ram bully. Jizz is ai a a world champion caliber chess player. ai or so? ai? RZA yeah. I got an interview RZA talking about it.
Speaker: 2
01:34:39
And doesn’t JZA have some degree in physics?
Speaker: 3
01:34:42
Smart motherfucker, man.
Speaker: 2
01:34:43
Doesn’t he have some crazy degree?
Speaker: 3
01:34:46
Smart. He’s like a
Speaker: 2
01:34:47
Look that up, please. Yeah. So you just that alone in the movies, like, come on. This is real? Yeah. This is something
Speaker: 3
01:34:54
people was looking for what they’re looking at.
Speaker: 2
01:34:57
Yeah. Think of a movie like that. Think of a movie that starts up with the gates opening, and you guys going in, put your put all your belongings in the basket, the whole shit getting frisked, checking everybody down, the guy reading you the rules, the warden telling you do not go into the crowd, do not do that.
Speaker: 2
01:35:14
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Cool.
Speaker: 3
01:35:15
Cool. Cool. Yeah. We got you. Yeah.
Speaker: 2
01:35:17
Yeah. Wow. Think about it. Yeah. That’s the beginning of the movie. Yeah. That’s an incredible opening for a movie, and it really happened. This isn’t bullshit. This isn’t a bunch of dorks sitting around a table coming up with some nonsense. This is some shit that you ai through.
Speaker: 2
01:35:32
That would be an incredible opening
Speaker: 3
01:35:35
for a movie. And and it’s just and it’s just so even credible even more on how we connected because, like I said, everybody come from almost the same poverty bullshit, but everybody had different philosophies on how they felt their lives is going into, you know, you know, I tell people all the time, you know, my neighborhood was about making money.
Speaker: 3
01:36:01
You know, Ghost neighborhood was about taking money. You know what I mean? Taking shit from you. You know? JZA, you know, being one of the Meh that could have been down with the Juice Crew. You know what I mean?
Speaker: 3
01:36:15
You know who the fuck the Juice Crew is. He turned it
Speaker: 2
01:36:18
down. Real.
Speaker: 3
01:36:18
It’s like they was the hottest shit back then. Master Ace, Biz, Kane, Koogee Ram. All these all these dope Meh, they asked me, yo, we want you to come and get get down with us. He’s like, nah. You know what? Nah. You know, all these things Ai meh, like, yesterday, like
Speaker: 2
01:36:34
Wow. You know,
Speaker: 3
01:36:34
we turned down the Juice Crew. He was like, I love the Juice Crew, but I just was in in this this chamber right here. You know, us dirty us with old dirty, like, yo, you know, old dirty always wanted to be like biz, biz monkey. He had that personality, that charisma, that that energy. So ai you said, these are the things that I wanted to sai.
Speaker: 3
01:36:56
Each individual, like, you know and like I said, you know, shout out Hulu, man, for for doing a great job, but I do agree like you. We need another movie where it really defines who we are.
Speaker: 2
01:37:11
Yeah. You
Speaker: 3
01:37:11
know? Riza, you know, Riza, you know, that was his his side of how he wanted to tell it. You know?
Speaker: 2
01:37:19
It’s a great story. It’s it’s fine. Great story. Ai Hulu thing’s fine.
Speaker: 3
01:37:23
Mhmm.
Speaker: 2
01:37:24
But I think there’s something missing, and I think there’s something missing is a movie. It’s a it’s gotta be a movie. It’s gotta be a big screen, big thing, and it could be bryden
Speaker: 3
01:37:33
heard it first, man. Yeah. I heard it first. I ain’t have to I ain’t have to argue with my brothers about it.
Speaker: 2
01:37:38
I mean, just imagine imagine when ODB does Ai, I Got Your Money.
Speaker: 3
01:37:45
Oh ai god.
Speaker: 2
01:37:45
Come on. Imagine that, and that becomes this massive hit. Come on. Massive hit.
Speaker: 3
01:37:51
Yeah. Do you know he had do you know he had the most hits on Out of All of Us. Right?
Speaker: 2
01:37:55
He was so fucking talented, meh, and so real. Wallace. Meh when he was on MTV and they started talking about, like, what are you gonna what are you gonna give who are you gonna give your money? He’s like, I gave my money to nobody. He’s ai,
Speaker: 3
01:38:05
he was like, yo, you’re gonna give
Speaker: 2
01:38:07
it back?
Speaker: 3
01:38:07
He was like, yo. Yo. Yeah. I remember that shit. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
Speaker: 2
01:38:12
And everybody was crying.
Speaker: 3
01:38:13
Yeah. Everybody loved them
Speaker: 2
01:38:15
so real because it was so real. Yeah. It wasn’t like, well, I think it’s really important that we establish some sort of a community fund. Shut the fuck up. He was like, meh
Speaker: 3
01:38:23
didn’t make nothing. You know what I mean? But, you know, we always gave back in our
Speaker: 2
01:38:28
own ai. Of course. Well, by existing, you give back. By existing, you inspire others. By existing, you know, how many rap careers, how many hip hop careers were inspired by Wu Tang Clan and all the members? Countless. Countless. Yeah. So many.
Speaker: 3
01:38:44
I sai that we definitely had a a piece of watching the the the the new generation grow and, you know, kind of, you know, build their build their arc the way we built ours. You know, that’s important, you know, to, to to reflect on that. You know, back then, like you said, nobody wasn’t giving motherfuckers this kind of money.
Speaker: 3
01:39:07
Like, we sai the first group that ever had a $1,000,000 video. Wow. You know, I remember that day me and Rizzo was coming up with the with the storyboard. And it was like,
Speaker: 2
01:39:18
yo, this is what
Speaker: 3
01:39:19
I want. Triumph.
Speaker: 1
01:39:20
Wow.
Speaker: 3
01:39:20
We did the Ai shit. It was like, you know, we came up with all this shah, and he was like, yo, this shit is gonna cost sai $1,000,000. We’re like, what the fuck is? It’s $1,000,000. Ai, do it. You know? And at that time, you know
Speaker: 2
01:39:31
Is this it?
Speaker: 3
01:39:31
Years. Yeah.
Speaker: 2
01:39:32
Over year this. Yeah.
Speaker: 3
01:39:33
Yeah. This is with my guy Brett Ratner.
Speaker: 1
01:39:36
By swarms of killer bees.
Speaker: 3
01:39:38
The first jumps.
Speaker: 1
01:39:39
They’ve been seen approaching from Brooklyn, the Bronx, Queens, and Staten Island. We urge you to
Speaker: 3
01:39:45
See the bees comment
Speaker: 2
01:39:46
though and shit.
Speaker: 1
01:39:46
As we will be bringing you up to the minute information. This just ends. Police are reporting that there’s a man on top of a skyscraper ready to jump. I’m told that he is possibly Old Dirty, a member of the Wu Tang Clan. The police suspect that there could be some connection between this Old Dirty Meh and Killer Bee. Old Dirty Man.
Speaker: 0
01:40:27
Possibilities body me. Battle’s guard, show gun. It’s posted when my men hits tremendous. Ultibollish shine blind forensics. I inspect you through the future, see millennium. Killer b’s sold 50 gold, 60 platinum. Jacqueline the matches with drastic grab tactics. Graphic displays melt
Speaker: 3
01:41:15
Whoo. Back takes me back to the Whoo. Old days of the Klan and
Speaker: 2
01:41:19
Is it weird looking back now? Does it feel almost surreal that you guys did it?
Speaker: 3
01:41:24
A little bit to me. Yeah.
Speaker: 2
01:41:25
It has to.
Speaker: 3
01:41:26
Yeah. To meh, for sure. I mean, you know you know, I always believed in my group, man. I mean, these guys is, like you said, very talented, very talented. Sometimes we don’t know our power when we come together, but we might be the only group that stick together so long, you know, because we all feed off each other every time.
Speaker: 3
01:41:47
So to be able to reflect back when we was in our prom, it was like we still ain’t even give our best. It was almost like, okay. Yeah. We’re gonna do it because we have to. Not do it because we’re all in a happy vibe or happy moment.
Speaker: 3
01:42:05
A lot of ai, we make great things happen out of nothing, you know, and the pressure. It might have been turbulence in the room. It might have been an argument that happened that day, but we still managed to come out with something great out of that whole time of of that moment.
Speaker: 3
01:42:20
You know? But,
Speaker: 2
01:42:21
That’s what’s incredible is that through all the disputes, you guys still Still
Speaker: 3
01:42:25
still together. Yeah. Yeah.
Speaker: 2
01:42:26
That’s because there’s no way you’re gonna have 9 dudes and not have disputes.
Speaker: 3
01:42:30
Exactly. I ai, especially
Speaker: 2
01:42:32
9 alphas, 9 killers.
Speaker: 3
01:42:33
There’s hard, man. It’s hard because, you know, everybody has an opinion, and and you wanna respect everybody’s opinion. You know? But it it made me think about sports, and it made me think about how coaches and people, you know, outside of the group are so important. Sai, how we were we were ai.
Speaker: 3
01:42:54
We we huddled up, but we never really had people around us kinda, like, push the narrative more to show us our true power. So we made a lot of mistakes, you know, of of being great, but still handling the business a little bit different ram if we woulda had some some coaches.
Speaker: 2
01:43:16
Some guidance.
Speaker: 3
01:43:17
Some guidance.
Speaker: 2
01:43:18
The problem was back then, no one knew what was going on.
Speaker: 3
01:43:21
Nobody knew.
Speaker: 2
01:43:22
Because it was so fresh. It was so new. The whole genre had only existed for 6 or 7 years.
Speaker: 3
01:43:28
Right.
Speaker: 2
01:43:28
So it was it was it was emerging and it was chaotic and it was so exciting, but there wasn’t a lot of experts Yeah. In how to manage it.
Speaker: 3
01:43:37
Yeah.
Speaker: 2
01:43:38
You know, it’s ai today, you know, you could you could, you know, a young artist would come to a guy like you and say, hey, What should I do? Help me out. Like, what what is what’s the path that you think that I should take?
Speaker: 3
01:43:49
Yeah.
Speaker: 2
01:43:50
And you could give them real advice where back then, like, who knew?
Speaker: 3
01:43:53
Who knew Wu Tang was gonna work? Know. Yeah.
Speaker: 2
01:43:56
They would have told you that’s not gonna work. There was you can’t get 9 dudes in a that’s crazy. How How are you doing that?
Speaker: 3
01:44:01
Yeah.
Speaker: 2
01:44:01
But it worked.
Speaker: 3
01:44:02
But it worked.
Speaker: 2
01:44:03
It didn’t just work. It, like, accelerated everybody. It, like, amplified all the voices. That’s what was so crazy about
Speaker: 3
01:44:09
it. Mhmm.
Speaker: 2
01:44:10
Is it just it it didn’t just work. It worked better than being by yourself.
Speaker: 3
01:44:13
Yeah. Yeah. I tell people all the ai. I don’t the Klan, I think we all got better based on us as a collective. A 100%. Nobody nobody couldn’t have did it by themselves and be great.
Speaker: 2
01:44:26
Iron sharpens iron.
Speaker: 3
01:44:27
That’s right.
Speaker: 2
01:44:28
And that’s what it is.
Speaker: 3
01:44:29
Sharpens steel.
Speaker: 2
01:44:30
That’s Yeah. You guys had so many killers together. There’s no way it could be great. That’s what’s incredible.
Speaker: 3
01:44:36
It’s ai
Speaker: 2
01:44:37
it’s so hard for people to do that. Yeah. That’s why it’s never been done before, which is amazing. If you think about the history of hip hop, how many artists have come up and not one group has come together and made ai a, oh, they’re just like Wu Tang. Not one. Yeah. Not one.
Speaker: 3
01:44:54
Yeah. Even when it comes to, you know, sales and, you know, each one of us sai blessed to be able to go platinum and gold. But we talk about that. You know, sometimes when we all are together, we we laugh and we say, ram. You know, no other groups did what we did. Like, come with guys that everybody in the group went gold and platinum and this and vatsal. And I can’t I couldn’t name 1 person.
Speaker: 3
01:45:17
They was like, yo, name 1 person that name 1 group that did what we did at that level back then. I couldn’t name it. You know what I mean? Because
Speaker: 2
01:45:25
Well, the Kettle boys branched out. You know, Scarface obviously went on to have a massive career. Yeah. Did you see his little tiny desk performance?
Speaker: 3
01:45:33
Oh, yeah.
Speaker: 2
01:45:34
Fucking incredible. Fucking incredible. Yeah. Incredible. That’s one
Speaker: 3
01:45:37
of my greatest friends too, man.
Speaker: 2
01:45:38
Scarface is different than anything else. Like, the way he did it, like, he adapted the lyrics to the environment.
Speaker: 1
01:45:46
Yeah. Yeah.
Speaker: 2
01:45:47
Oh, it was incredible. Incredible.
Speaker: 3
01:45:49
Scarface is a a a real guy too, man. A real One of the all timers.
Speaker: 2
01:45:53
One of the all time greats.
Speaker: 3
01:45:54
Yeah. You have Adam Coleen, you shah?
Speaker: 2
01:45:57
I haven’t yet. No. I’d love to have him on. I love that dude. I’ve had Willie on.
Speaker: 3
01:46:00
Okay.
Speaker: 2
01:46:01
I think that, like, there’s so many amazing talents that came out of that nineties hip hop era that, like, for a a young guy coming up, someone who’s, like, interested in a career in it now, it’s imperative that you go back. Go back. You have to. Gotcha. You gotta explore the classics. You gotta see what started this whole thing.
Speaker: 3
01:46:22
Mhmm.
Speaker: 2
01:46:22
Because and you gotta pull yourself in this ai, like, it’s hard to imagine my experience of it because you you’re not gonna be able to it. It’s always been around. But for me, it sai ai when it came around, it was this totally new thing. It’s totally new sound, totally new, like, avenue of music that existed and everybody was ai, wow, and all the young people were excited.
Speaker: 2
01:46:46
Everybody was ai, like, this is crazy. Yeah. This is so different than everything else.
Speaker: 3
01:46:52
Mhmm.
Speaker: 2
01:46:52
You know, and so for the people that are, like, making a career in it now, like, oh, you know, I know there’s, like, a tendency to think you’re the fucking man and everything else sucks. I’m telling you, you gotta abandon that bryden that thinking. Yeah. Go back and educate yourself, you know, because it’s free.
Speaker: 2
01:47:09
Just get on It’s
Speaker: 3
01:47:10
free. Yeah.
Speaker: 2
01:47:10
Go get on YouTube, get on Spotify, educate yourself. There’s so much classic shit from the nineties that you’re you’re missing.
Speaker: 3
01:47:18
And all we were doing really was just, like you said, just expression, you know? Yeah. Being in the studio, smoking a lot of weed, you know, and a lot of times when we were smoking and just vibing, it’s like we were mentioning things that you know, like today, like ram example, you know, I own I own a cannabis business, in Newark called HashStory.
Speaker: 3
01:47:41
You know what I mean? So you’re representing us. You know? We said in rhymes ai, can it be also simple? Yo.
Speaker: 3
01:47:47
I wanna have me a fat y’all in enough land to go and plant my own cess crops. But for now, it’s just a big dream. You know? So we kinda, like, spoke things into existence that at the end of the day, like, you know, now as I sit here and I’m a owner of a a cannabis business, I’m like, wow.
Speaker: 3
01:48:06
People talking about things. Yo. My first joint and it went ai. I put it on my mother’s, you know, my meh mother’s living room wall. You know, we did that. So we were kinda, like, saying things that meant so much to us back then, but still dreaming of it being a reality.
Speaker: 3
01:48:24
The next thing you know, it happens. You know? Like how you said, you know, GZA being so intelligent and talking about science and, you know, meth, you know, talking about certain things. And, you know, now today, he’s in the movie world and Riz is a a director and, you know, these were the things that were going through our minds as we were just smoking and listening to production and just saying, yo.
Speaker: 3
01:48:50
What what the right next? Where do we wanna go? You know? And I think that that is important as an artist is to dream and be creative. Don’t sit in one box, like, that’s the shit that just be driving me crazy a lot with hip hop today. It’s like, yo, it’s just sounding too fucking repetition.
Speaker: 3
01:49:09
Like, let’s make it bigger. Let’s let’s take it over here, over here, over here.
Speaker: 2
01:49:15
Yeah. But it
Speaker: 3
01:49:16
just sometimes it’s just sitting in one fucking box where it’s like, yo, come on. We gotta it’s not just that. It’s about opening up opening up the doors for everybody to be able to see so many sides. Like, now it just seems like like the hip hop shit is just being controlled by one person that’s saying, yo. We want y’all to stay right there.
Speaker: 3
01:49:39
We want you to talk ignorant. We want you to not grow. We want you to just
Speaker: 2
01:49:44
Whatever they think is gonna sell.
Speaker: 3
01:49:46
Why is that why is that the case? Because I don’t get it.
Speaker: 2
01:49:49
The same reason why they were trying to take the RZA and change him and turn him into something he’s not. People always do that. They do that in comedy. They do that in podcasting. They do that in music. There’s always some executive that thinks they know better, and they’re gonna mold you and shape you and change you.
Speaker: 2
01:50:04
And this is what we’re gonna do. We’re gonna hire an image team. We’re gonna do it’s all just bullshit. It’s non artists interfering with art. That’s what it is.
Speaker: 2
01:50:13
It’s when you have meh, you know. You have these people that profit off of your talent, and they think they’re gonna steer it in a way that’s gonna be the most profitable. They don’t give a fuck if you’re, like, earnestly and honestly expressing yourself. That doesn’t mean anything
Speaker: 3
01:50:27
to them. Right.
Speaker: 2
01:50:28
They just want you to stay in that box because that’s the box they’re selling. And once it sells once, they don’t want you to change it up. Remember when Ice T started a fucking heavy metal band?
Speaker: 3
01:50:38
Oh my god. Yeah.
Speaker: 2
01:50:39
Ice T who played a cop on TV for, like, fucking 30 years, he had a song called Cop Tyler. Mhmm. Body Count. And and everybody wanted him to be the rapper. Yeah. And Ice T was like, nah. I’m gonna do a hardcore album. I was like, what?
Speaker: 3
01:50:52
Ice T. I’m a motherfucking cop kill.
Speaker: 2
01:50:54
It’s like, what is this? Yeah. What is this? This is crazy. Yeah. But it’s ai, he just didn’t listen. He’s like, I don’t give a fuck what you say. I’m gonna do what I wanna do, and this is what I wanna
Speaker: 3
01:51:04
do now. Exactly.
Speaker: 2
01:51:04
And you have to give an artist that ability to do that. They have to be able to change it up anytime they want. Mhmm. Whatever because whatever got them to the dance is gonna keep them dancing. That’s right. And they ai dance to the beat of a different song, but it’s gonna be the same the same person, that same creative force that created whatever you liked in in the beginning.
Speaker: 2
01:51:23
Well, you probably like this new direction they’re gonna go into because it’s gonna be just as good. It’s just ai we all like diff like you were saying you like Billy Joel. We both like cool g rap. You know, it’s very different. You wouldn’t wanna see the 2 of at a concert together. Yeah. You know, but the but that’s what you have to give room for an artist.
Speaker: 2
01:51:39
And these executives and these people that are profiting off of art without being creative, their input’s always terrible. It’s always terrible because they don’t have a vision. They don’t really unless you’re ai a Rick Bryden, like one of those cats that’s just ai super eccentric, weirdo, genius dude who just knows what he likes and go, hold on.
Speaker: 2
01:51:59
Hold on. Do that again. Stop that. Stop. Stop. Stop. Do it again. Do it again. Do it that way. Okay. Can you make it echo? Do it. Do it.
Speaker: 2
01:52:05
Give me an echo.
Speaker: 3
01:52:06
So but he’s working with you because he’s Right.
Speaker: 2
01:52:08
Right. Right. Right. He’s barefoot and shit and fucking doing yoga.
Speaker: 3
01:52:13
One of the geniuses.
Speaker: 2
01:52:14
Super weirdo. A Scott Storch type character. Yeah. Yeah. You those guys
Speaker: 3
01:52:18
be great in their own way, though. You know?
Speaker: 2
01:52:20
They’re artists, though. It’s ai that’s different. But when you get these suits and the suits get involved, then they know that, oh, we made, you know, Raekwon sold a 1000000 and 700,000 CDs doing it like this. Sai this is what we want from this one too. We want it to be the exact same way. We sana do it like that. Do it like that again.
Speaker: 2
01:52:40
Like, oh, no. No. What’s this new thing you’re doing? What’s this new thing when you talk about discipline? Uh-uh. Uh-uh. Uh-uh. No. No. No. No. No. No. No.
Speaker: 2
01:52:46
You know? But that’s one of the most important things about hip hop too. It’s ai songs ai people to change their lives. Like like gang star song, discipline. Like that song inspires you to have discipline.
Speaker: 3
01:52:59
Serious song.
Speaker: 2
01:53:00
It’s a great fucking song with great lyrics.
Speaker: 3
01:53:02
Ai I said, like, yo, this shit became knowledge to us, man. Yes. You know, that’s what I miss about hip hop is the the knowledge fact that, you know, raising our kids to be smarter and, you know, not hiding anything from them. Like like you said, once you put that warning stick on it, don’t look at it. They’re gonna look at it anyway.
Speaker: 3
01:53:23
So why not let them see what for what it is and then say, yo, look. You can make these choices, but you go that way, you know what you’re getting. You go this way, you know what you’re getting.
Speaker: 2
01:53:34
I think all it takes is someone today to do what you guys were doing and blow up. And then everybody would wanna do it that way. If someone today became, like, this genius lyricist who’s, like, pointing out things in society and became a huge artist.
Speaker: 3
01:53:49
But you think that music is still you think you think the radio will play it?
Speaker: 2
01:53:53
I don’t think the radio means jack shit anymore. I think what means something now is people sharing it. That’s what means
Speaker: 3
01:53:59
something ai meh it out there,
Speaker: 2
01:54:00
though. Someone nobody gonna put it on Spotify, put it on SoundCloud, put it on YouTube. Someone sees it, someone hears it, you send it to somebody, they send it to 10 people, and then it goes viral. That’s what it’s
Speaker: 3
01:54:11
all
Speaker: 2
01:54:11
about now. I think it’s just be undeniable. Be undeniable. Have some shit where you listen to it. You go confident
Speaker: 3
01:54:16
in the ocean. Yeah. Be confident. Yeah.
Speaker: 2
01:54:18
And you have your friends, like, you gotta listen to this. Listen to this. Listen to this. Listen to first first lines first lines. Yeah. Yeah. Listen to that shit.
Speaker: 3
01:54:24
That’s how
Speaker: 2
01:54:24
we my god.
Speaker: 3
01:54:25
That’s how we always sold it anyway.
Speaker: 2
01:54:27
God. Yeah. Come out of the gate with a fucking haymaker.
Speaker: 3
01:54:30
Boom. This is what we do, though. Yeah. Sai, damn, you talking like how I feel about my album I’m about to drop. When is it going out? Well, you know shah. I just I just been working on this documentary ai for the purple team. So meh me just be honest with you, take you back.
Speaker: 3
01:54:45
I’ve been working on you know, Only Built For Cuban Links is my my What’s Goin’ On album, my thrill album that I made 30 years ago. This year, 2025, ai be 30 years. So what we done was we went back and decided to do a documentary about it, a real ai. So it’s called The Purple Tape Files because, remind you, Only Built For Cuban Links was the name of the album.
Speaker: 3
01:55:11
But being that I came with it as a cassette, everybody started to call this album, the Purple Tape. So now, you know, we came back and we decided to do, you know, me and my team from my camp. You know, not this you know, the Klan, of course, the Klan, but this is something that was my intellectual property that I said, yo. You know what?
Speaker: 3
01:55:33
Me and my guy sat down. My team sat down and said, yo. You need to do a documentary about this album because you can make 50 albums. People are still gonna talk about Only Built For Cuban Link. So I said, damn. You know what? You’re right. So what I did was, I said, you know what?
Speaker: 3
01:55:50
Let me invest in it and kinda tell a story of what helped us inspire that album, what helped us be a part of the culture, and how it still allows me to still exist today. Like, if you see a lot of these guys today in the game, they still win Cuban link chains. Yeah. You know what I mean?
Speaker: 3
01:56:08
So who would tyler thought that I’m calling my album Only Built with Cuba Link meh? Now this everybody and their mother is wearing Cuban link chains today, 30 years later. So, you know, that been something that I’ve been working on. And believe it or not, we’ve been working on it for 10 years.
Speaker: 2
01:56:24
Wow.
Speaker: 3
01:56:24
So I got over 50 influential people that was in my life that was affected by that album to be a part of this documentary. So now this is all in the making. We didn’t we didn’t actually go out there and start pitching it yet. We’re finally getting ready to do it right now as we speak.
Speaker: 3
01:56:45
As we speak, once the new year kick in and all that, we will be ready to go out there and position ourselves to go do a a deal with a network with this project. It’s gonna be ill. It’s a great idea. You know what I mean? So my thing is to talk about it in a way to where the way we made the album, all the experiences, all the things that we went through.
Speaker: 3
01:57:06
And, eventually, that that would wind up becoming a movie later on because the storyboard of how I talk about it is gonna blow people’s minds because it’s like, damn. This is what you was going through? This is this is how your mindset was? Because I just want people to know that that album was made because I love hip hop, man, and, you know, we were in a position to make something golden that at that time, I was already thinking cinematic.
Speaker: 3
01:57:37
I was already in my Martin Scorsese mindset because when I came in the clan, I was like, ai, I don’t do all the karate shit. I don’t know how to rhyme like that. I only know about drugs and hustlers and trying to get from here to there and and and turn my life around for the positive. You know?
Speaker: 3
01:57:54
So we talk about this in a documentary, and we go through some of the songs. And like I said, you know, I got some of my guys that, you know, we had we had, you know, we had, conflictions with some artists out there ai Big Biggie back then. Ai thought we had a beef and, you know, just it becomes interesting, but the bottom line is that’s what I’ve been working on alongside with working on some other music.
Speaker: 3
01:58:22
So I just said that, yo, let me get this done the right way first, and then I’m a, you know, drop some new music. So I got I got a definitely new album getting ready to come out.
Speaker: 2
01:58:32
And when is that gonna come out,
Speaker: 3
01:58:33
you think? The new album, Ai say probably, like, between Q2 right now. Yeah. And I never even mentioned the name of the album, but Ai mention it on your show. The name of the album is gonna be called The Emperor’s New Clothes. You ever heard that Dutch folktale, Tyler Emperor’s
Speaker: 1
01:58:50
New Clothes?
Speaker: 3
01:58:50
You familiar with that?
Speaker: 2
01:58:51
Ai no clothes.
Speaker: 3
01:58:52
Yeah. Sai that’s gonna be the name of it because I feel like the status quo today, everybody follows bullshit. Nobody wants to be genuine no more. Nobody wants to call out shit that makes sense. It’s like, oh, if you believe it, oh, I’m supposed to believe it.
Speaker: 2
01:59:07
I’m supposed
Speaker: 3
01:59:08
to believe nothing that don’t feel like what it’s supposed to be to me. Goes back to ai you said. And I’m listening to everything you’re saying about you have to do it from this way. Fuck that. Fuck fuck radio. Whatever is gonna stop you from being you. You know what I mean? So this is the same mindset that I’m thinking with my hip hop. My new album that’s coming.
Speaker: 3
01:59:28
Like, yo, I’m not gonna let you tell me that this is not what people still love.
Speaker: 2
01:59:33
You know what I mean?
Speaker: 3
01:59:34
I don’t care. I’m just I I know what I know from coming up as a kid who loved hip hop and what inspired meh. So I’m I’m a have a bowl this year, man. I got a lot of great things that I wanna give the world, but, yeah, that’s gonna be amazing on
Speaker: 2
01:59:49
my level. Love it. And I’m telling you, these, like, young kids that I have at the comedy mothership, when I play them 19 nineties hip hop, they
Speaker: 3
01:59:55
all Oh. Yeah. They don’t know.
Speaker: 2
01:59:57
They just don’t know yet.
Speaker: 3
01:59:58
Yeah. Yeah.
Speaker: 2
01:59:59
They just don’t know.
Speaker: 3
01:59:59
And we can’t fault them because they wasn’t allowed possibly at that time.
Speaker: 2
02:00:02
They got so much shit coming their way. Exactly. They’re getting inundated by all these new artists and
Speaker: 3
02:00:07
all these new TikToks. Going on. There’s so
Speaker: 2
02:00:09
much shah going on.
Speaker: 3
02:00:10
There’s so much going on, but, you know, I always say that it’s always a lane for people that love music. You know what I mean? I don’t care. It’s like you could be 50. You know, today, I’m sitting here as a 55 year old man that still have that kid in him to love what I what what what what helped me be who I am today.
Speaker: 3
02:00:31
So I’m still at my best when it comes to making music. You know? Like, today, the chef is is more of a a arya architect artist now. I’m not I don’t consider myself a a gangster rapper or a funny rapper. I’m a architect rapper, you know, because I like to reflect on things about growth and development. You know? And when people hear this album, they gonna be like, damn.
Speaker: 3
02:00:57
Like, yo, he still fucking got it. I tell people all the time, don’t ever think we sana lose that shit. That’s like sitting here saying Mike Tyson can’t fight. When you know at the end of the day, he meh lose a fucking bit when it comes to how he feels that passion for boxing or whatever.
Speaker: 3
02:01:15
I feel the same way with my music, so get ready. But then, like I said, the name of the album is called The Emperor’s New Clothes. Check for that
Speaker: 2
02:01:24
shit. I’m ready. I’m ready. Listen, brother. Thank you very much for being here. It was a real honor.
Speaker: 3
02:01:29
Course. No.
Speaker: 2
02:01:29
Real pleasure.
Speaker: 3
02:01:30
You ai god, man.
Speaker: 2
02:01:31
Thank and thank you for everything you guys have done over the years. I’ve been endlessly entertained by Wu Tang Clan for a long fucking time.
Speaker: 3
02:01:38
There you go, man.
Speaker: 2
02:01:39
And I hope somebody listens to this and makes that fucking movie. Make that movie. Do it.
Speaker: 3
02:01:44
But we gonna make it happen. Do it the right way. We gonna figure it out.
Speaker: 2
02:01:47
I wish I made movies. I wish I was a movie maker because that that’s what I would be I would make it that way. I ai open up with that fucking Ai scene.
Speaker: 3
02:01:53
Listen, Joe. It’s it’s never too late for us to do what the fuck we wanna do.
Speaker: 2
02:01:57
Never too late.
Speaker: 3
02:01:58
Never too late. Never too late.
Speaker: 2
02:01:59
Thank you, sai ai.
