What's good, my people? You're now locked into the world's most dangerous music podcast in the game. All right, it's called Bidding Wars right now. Listen, folks, this podcast, you're going to hear the mindset and the blueprint of amazing artists in the music game. The word Bidding Wars means two opposing sides that want to purchase or acquire the services of something valuable, right? Record labels enter into Bidding Wars when they want to sign an artist. iconic labels have battled to the end to sign the next superstar in music the bidding wars podcast illuminates hidden jewels in the game of music there's music there's swag there's lyrical content and other star appeal places them on a whole nother level ladies and gentlemen my name is dj westwell and i'll be your pilot on this g5 flight today so make sure you connect with me on Instagram at DJ West Will. That's DJ W-E-S-W-I-L-L. And without further ado, let's start this Bid Awards podcast in epic fashion, ya dig? And I'm super honored today, for real, for real, to present to you guys the entrepreneur, the major recording artist. Old man Callie is in the building. DJ, DJ, DJ, DJ. the west wheel man i appreciate it man you the best right yes sir yes sir so listen old man cali this music journey of old man cali this is going to inspire the folks this is going to make you believe that anything and everything is possible so now cali i want to welcome you to the bidding wars podcast syndicated on 99.70 heat right here on iheart radio the biggest platform ever how you doing my brother man i'm doing great man god is good how are you doing man i can't complain it's one day at a time but i'm doing fine my man i'm doing fine so listen let's jump right into the fire here um i got like a two-part question right now got starting off starting off negative but you'll understand why listen the music game is super shady it's it's unforgiving it's treacherous risky and life-changing all at the same time. My two-part question is why in the world would you want to be a part of this business and why do you feel that you're built for it? You know, I believe I said like last time, I was trying to do music when I was really young, like 1920, and then I had my son first. And in Sacramento, it's a very dangerous place to be, especially rap or R&B artists and try to survive. So really, I left music to raise both my kids and then came back at a later age. I say that to say this. Now, the struggle is harder because in music, or at least in hip hop, if you're older, a lot of people don't want to hear it. They want what's new. They want that music, you know. But I look at the positive of the negative, which is I missed all the Diddy parties. And even though no accusation won, I'm not on the jump on the Diddy bandwagon or whatnot. But I will say this. I miss those of us who are in the game now when it's hard. Joe Button just said nobody's making money in music. Not even the biggest time. So those of us who are left, we love this, right? Anybody that is recording now, that's putting their songs out now, you're doing it for the love of creating a song. And look at all the hurdles we did not go through. We didn't go through the after parties that might have got a little risky or we didn't get jerked on our contracts. We really skipped the 360 contracts, which I'm glad. you know so if you're doing music now and you you own you still own all your stuff you know you're ahead of a lot of people that signed those contracts i just seen i don't know who it was on dreamville but she said was it summer walker or somebody else she said that her her record label wasn't looking out for her who wants to be an artist who already signed away your publishing you sign away your masters you have nothing and then everything you record from from your contract from the time you signed your contract everything you record until that contract is over you have it's not yours anymore it's the company's you know matter of fact uh the the number one person who can show you how that works is drake drake would have been dropped another song on kendrick lamar But because he got that $400 million contract, basically once Not Like Us came out, the people who gave him that contract said, we got to stop your bleeding. The shoes aren't selling. And they linked up with Kendrick, said, hey, man, we're going to take all of Drake This Is About You off of the program. You know, you can't find him on his catalogs. And so when you don't have power in your own creation, that's what makes it hard. But the really negative thing is when you don't own your stuff and you didn't get nothing for it. Can you imagine giving away your artistic stuff, your IPs for free just for a whole thing? You're right. Right, right. So it sounds like more, you know, in your conversation that it's really it's really an independent model right now. Like we don't need the labels. We don't need the backing, quote unquote, to a certain extent now because of all of the restrictions, what you give up, the creative freedom, the business freedom, really. But with technology right now, it is really an independent person. It's an independent artist game right now. The world is yours for the taking. You know, if I was, I agree with you. If I was 18 years old, my first album would have blew up. If I was younger, see, this game is for the young, you know, and it's good to be in it if you're older. I mean, really, the reason why I'm doing music is I want to be the first amateur producer who's older to actually make it in some kind of way where people know me and say, oh, my God, that's such a bad, you know what I mean? because we don't have that. We had everything else. But if I said to you, hey, name a rapper over 40, a rapper over 40 that hasn't been doing it since he's been 20, that you know and still play their music. It's not like that. But also, too, some of it is on us. If you're older and you're following this dream, you can't just make a song and say, hey, I think it's good. So, so that's it. You know, I, when I make music, I'm thinking, okay, what is everybody else going to like about it? Now, unfortunately I make music. You kind of groove to, you know, I make music that, you know, you're going to bob your head. And nowadays they're not really looking for that. They're looking for somebody to murder. I grew up with players and movies like The Mac or Superfly. You know, if you want to know why we looked up the Ice Cube, most people love Public Enemy more than Ice Cube because they were before Ice Cube and we loved the struggle. But the one thing Public Enemy didn't have is they wasn't going after no women. and now you had Ice Cube who was fighting for the culture and he got girls and he stood up for himself So really that the type of music I make I make the type of music where you know one you not going to be bullied. Two, you're going to be able to talk to women. And three, you have an inner self of being proud of the culture and be able to walk in, whether it's the club or a business room, you'll be able to walk in with your head high and be able to be respected. I appreciate that. Yeah. Well, you know, I was raised with my mom in L.A. where we had different music. And then when I went to Sacramento with my father, he's from Harlem, New York. And so, yeah. And, you know, the thing about it is my dad let me listen to as much music as I wanted to. Now, like, if you ever hear the song Father Did I Have on the original Father, I say it's jazz in the car. When I when I wrote with my dad, we was listening to jazz. He was listening to it. So I had to listen to it, which I appreciated that because most kids nowadays, they if it's not what they want to hear, they're not going to listen to it. Sometimes you have to be trapped in a situation to say, wow, that was clever, you know. and that's what jazz is i would recommend anybody who love hip-hop and love the culture if you haven't stopped over to a smooth jazz channel and just let it go then that can build another part of you jazz shows you another way of making great music and and most jazz doesn't even have words to it. But anyway, I'll get too deep into jazz. So basically, what my dad did was he let me listen to whatever I listen to, and I listen to music all the time. So there's always music that I find great, like Patti LaBelle, Smokey Robinson. Matter of fact, over the weekend, I said, man, I keep hearing about the spinners. Let me turn on the spinners. I turned on the spinners. they got all the songs that I grew up on. And I didn't even know it was them. But anyway, the point of it is, is I was allowed to enjoy music, find what I love, and go through different genres. And that's what created me. And what people don't know is songs are power. You know, yeah, songs are magical. You know, a lot of times, if you have nothing playing, you're playing. But if you put on something, you might mimic that mood you know i'll tell you a secret when i used to fight back in the day and you know this is when i used to go back and forth from new york to uh la or new york sacramento or alabama and um back in the day while everybody else was on hip-hop time i'm paying i'm playing if we about to fight i'm playing a thrash metal like metallica in my mind as we about so you on that smooth yeah hey man hey you on that smooth man i'm a i'm on that white boy yeah you know why because in that that's what so that's what i love about music you know a lot of people are close-minded to where if you're hip-hop i'm just hip-hop I'm not, I don't listen to rock, you know, and if you can't, if you, by listening to something else and understanding what that's about, you know, rock music, I'll tell you this, some of the most tragic music out there, you think that these rockers are out here thinking that they're superheroes, but when really, they're like victims, you know, and you hear a story and it's like, oh my God, you wouldn't do that, you know? So anyway. Yeah, right. Yeah. Matter of fact, I find that that is why I make music the way I do, because I was blessed to be traveling from, you know, I was blessed to be born in Los Angeles. I'll say that. And then travel since I was a baby. And then from a kid, I remember being on American Airlines when it was three sets of rows of three. And let me say this. Back in the day when you used to land in New York, all you smelled was urine. You know what I mean? I think they cleaned it up now. But boy, if you remember the early days, my man. Right? But that's what you did. But the whole point of it is, and let me say this, too, on a deeper level. So, you know, my girl passed in September, right? And, yeah, I appreciate that. And she was a school teacher. And what music allowed me to do was if you hear songs like Luckiest Man or I got a song called Shopping, I wrote songs about her and she was not into music. She was not into entertainment. She was more into kids and teaching and stuff like that. Good woman. Right. And so what music allows you to do is imagine this woman who never had any thoughts of being in music limelight or anything. She have over five to seven songs written specifically about her. And that's going to be forever. And that's what music does. It gets you. It's almost like an entourage, you know, somebody make it. And this person who never had a thought about being in this prestigious limelight, they're there now. And it's like, you know, so it really helps out. But yeah, you know, my music, I try to make it exciting because life is exciting. You know, I understand why a lot of these guys, I only criticism have for a lot of guys is when they're talking about women in their music. And the way it goes, hey, she want to do this to me. And I'm like, boy, you ain't I've been around for a little bit and I had to spit a lot of game in my lifetime. I never just had a chick come up to me and say, you know what? I want to do this to you for free. You know, so so the game ain't there, you know. And so when I when when I'm, you know, the whole point of it is, is, you know, I was blessed to, you know, you know, New York. New York got a raw mouthpiece when it comes to getting a woman, you know. And I will tell you, I'll say this, New York or the East Coast, you know, I've been to Jersey myself, too. I'll be honest with you. When I went to East Jersey, East Orange, New Jersey, man, when I seen those apartment buildings, man, I swear. Even Brooklyn didn't have that, man. Get me out of here. What the hell is that? And shout out to my people in Trenton, New Jersey, too, man. The best, man. I remember when I first met people from Trenton, I said, damn, they talk like robots. And I said, they, my bad, they talk like robots. And I was like, wow. To me at that time, you know, this is in the 90s, you know, but they were some wild, wild boys. Yeah. But yeah, you know, I tell you when it, when it comes to, see, I believe that's the thing that a lot, like recently I was going through Sacramento Cyphers. Okay. Let's see what everybody's doing. And I'm not going to say everybody was saying the same thing, but I heard a lot of murder. I heard a lot of shooting. I heard a lot of yo girl this. And I said, man, you know, I remember what it was like back in the days when we had digital underground DOS effect. You know, the other day I looked up a fooshnik. You know, I don't know if a lot of people know about the fooshnik. There was. Right. And so so we don't have that those different caliber. And I'm not saying they didn't because I love Sacramento artists. I do think that my music is a little bit different than what they was doing. Because you know if you young right now everybody in the trenches ready for war you know And here I come this old man with this dancing music Like ride It says my favorite. You already know. Even though I love Deluxe and I love Jadakiss, but you 100% right. Because my dad is from Harlem and his nickname is Harlem. But at the same time, when Cam'ron, because Cam'ron, I put like Ice Cube, Snoop, then Cam'ron. So imagine, here's an East Coast dude that took up the third spot in my top five. You know what I mean? Because he rapped it well. Matter of fact, I still play, what's that, Purple Haze 2. Man, he got a song called Big Time or something. A Big Deal. Man, if you ain't never heard Cameron, big deal. I rewind that song about 30 times every time I do it. But anyway, the point of it is, is that, yeah, anything that was Harlem, you know, I had an extra connection to this for my family from. So I was glad when they came out. And, you know, but yeah, when it comes to, like you said, I like when Ludacris came out or Missy Elliott. When that when it's my when is it's my I can't stand the rain by Missy Elliott or yeah, Timberland and Mr. Magoo. You know, I remember when Mr. Magoo first came out, I was like, man, this guy now I'm wanting Mr. Magoo. Where are they at? I mean, thank you, Kendrick. And I'll say, oh, yeah, yes. And I'll tell you this, too. So there's two points in the era that changed the whole game. One, when R. Kelly came out with I Wish, the remix, he said the N-word so many times at the end of the song. After that, that's when you're seeing the Asians, Hispanics, Latinos, everybody said the N-word. Because once the way that R. Kelly, before R. Kelly, that song, I Wish, remix, only black people would say. after that so everybody you can stop and and that's what uh just look at life before r kelly i i wish remixed and then but then the other thing was too little wayne when little wayne you know dropped off from hot boys and everything and everybody started trying to be like him and we're still in the era of everybody rapping something like little wayne and so you know it wasn't his fault. He even said, I don't think they sound like me, but everybody tried because that was their idol. And so instead of saying, Hey, I'm going to do my own thing. They say, Hey, I'm going to talk, you know, scissor like little Wayne, not knowing little Wayne, he had a seizure. And then a Rick Ross had a seizure off a scissor. And that's when you start hearing that thing go down because, you know, they wasn't going to promote that anymore. Yeah. So little Wayne, And he definitely made a staple of after him, after he left Hot Boys, there was a whole millions of kids that start rapping like little ones. Yes, sir. Man, thank you. Yeah, it's America. In parentheses, we're ready. Yes. Yeah. Well, you know, during this political time, I started noticing that where we came from and who we are today are two different people, right? So in the first verse, I'm talking about the people who came before us. And as soon as I mentioned their name, you already know what they did. But I also mentioned different dates that things happened where it changed where we was going. And a lot of that is that we had to fight to get the comforts that we had today. Not us, but the people that came before us, right? And basically what happened was we got lazy. They gave us so many computers. I got four tablets and five phones, and I only mainly used one. So we are comfortable. So you have the people who really control everything. They are making sure that our rights are being taken from us. So what this is saying is that we're ready to to make sure that we go forward and, you know, fight for our freedoms. So they're not taken away because because everything that we're given, they'll take it away if we let them. And you're right about that. It's about culture, too. You know, because we get relaxed and say, hey, we made it and we're not ready to fight. And that's what we're ready is for, especially that the first verse is where we've been. The second verse is how we're doing today. The pain, the hardness of life. That's what the second verse is. And so and when you hear the hook, the first part of the hook is what we did. And then, you know, what we're going through. But then the second part of the hook turns fantasy. I don't know if you noticed that. It turned kind of fictional, right? Because in order to help us now, like we are in it so bad where it would take a miracle for us to be saved that we would have to have comic book heroes to save us. We're in that deep. So that's the reason why on the hook you hear it go from, all right, we're here. We need to fight. But now we're such in a dream that there's no more. there's really nothing we can do unless everybody said hey you know what we're not standing standing for this no more so now we got cartoon characters who have to save us that's where that comes i hope that was clear kind of i kind of rambled yeah i see it's um 20 yeah it's still recording on my yeah okay i hold on now it started recording is it still recording on your end yep 30 minutes and uh Nine seconds. It's only 20 seconds on my end for me. Right. So it kind of restarted. Okay. I will keep going. I'm going to let Jonathan know that he's going to have to edit this, that little part that we were trying to get things situated. But hold on. Let me get into my start to podcast. Yes, sir. What's up? It's DJ West. Will, I'm in the studio right now with old man Cali. Man, this is the Bidding Wars podcast. You and Cali representing that West Coast life to the fullest. What's up, my brother? Yes, sir. What's up? And you know, I got love for the East and South, you know, and I guess up North too. But you've been everywhere, man. Like, we're going to call you Passport, Cali, now. Man. Right? Yeah. Well, you know what? Call me Passport. I always say, you know, I always say I love going different places and running into people because a lot of times if you're not comfortable around people, then that's where problems can happen. Always, I'm never uncomfortable around the culture. Whether I'm in the worst part of New York or even Mississippi, if it's the culture, hey, what's good? Not for sure. Yeah. So it's inspiring to get around something that's different from your norm. You know what I mean? It gives you a sense of perspective sometimes. it gives you a sense of creativity sometimes and you know you don't want to ever get stuck in a box just in life man i encourage everybody to get outside get active well see you know what and i think that's why there's a lack of diversity in the music nowadays because imagine you got all these young people that only been around their block and the most places they went is music you know what i mean so of course you know if the music they listen to the person like yeah i'm gonna Pop this person. You know to be honest with you I was going to make a song that says you can shoot but can you read Be honest with you you know and the song was going to be about yes it easy to go get a cheap gun it easy to point it shoot it yes you can take me out can you read can you get a job can you you know be responsible can you show me that you're more than this destructive person that you know i'm supposed to be scared of you because i'll come and take you out yeah but what can you do that's difficult that's the easy part you know that no you're right what can you do that's difficult and you know something that builds you know difficulty builds character you know what i mean it does losing build character people no i was just gonna say i gained i became a i don't know a legend but i wasn't always the you know the good person but um a lot of mine came from losing fights first i didn't just start coming in, whooping everybody, and then that was good. What made me a legend in Sacramento was that I would go through the battles that seemed unwinnable. And I seen it, and I ran toward the fire and not away from it, and that was it. So even times that I thought I got my butt kicked, people, oh, man, I can't believe you did that, you know, giving me props, even when I thought I lost, you know what I mean? You never know. I feel you on that. I feel you on that. What makes some, what do you think makes you fearless then in your pursuit of making it as an artist? You know what? I swear I know a lot of artists like Biggs. I know people who sold a million records. I got family that's in the music business and you know, you would have thought by now that somebody would have said dang, he's making good music let me see if I can take advantage of this and we can start making some money and get stuff out there. And there's a reason why they don't, because a lot of times when if you're wondering if you're a good artist and you're wondering why nobody is picking you up and take you under their wing, it's because other artists have done that already and they got backstabbed, betrayed. And then you come to find out the same person you put on. That's the one that's talking about you. You know what I mean? And so, yeah, it would be if I had like an investor or something. And yeah, it'll be way easier, you know, because I can write literally three songs a day, I believe. So it'll be easy to do. Plus, because I create these songs, I can make a song for this person, that person, that person. So we can be recording three different songs in one day. You know what I mean? Right. But the point of it is, I believe it hasn't happened like that for me is because if you accept somebody else's money, or let's say they don't even give you money. they're just giving you their prestige, then you have to start doing things their way. And I think that I am fortunate enough to where I'm able to do this journey and create these songs in my own way and with my own crew. And, you know, the only thing I want somebody to do is hear it. And if they like it, play it. That's it. You know, it's not really about the money for me because really, if it was about money for me, I would not be spending my money on making the music. I make enough to live a great life. Like I said, I got four tablets, five phones. Life is great. I do music because as artists, musical artists, we're able to create something and then put it into the world. If people like it or not, who knows? But that's our power. That's the thing. I live for I live to look and see something that nobody else has thought about. And then I created myself. That's the only reason why I do music. So people, you know, while everybody else is doing this, I'm over here doing that. You know, while everybody else, you know, are hating men or hating women and women hating men. I'm still doing love song. Just in case that come back one day. And it never gets out of style. You know, make sure you say that. Yeah, hey, man. I mean, all this other stuff is a fad. I play Chaka Khan. I play Gerald LeVert, my favorite singer. And I'm going to tell you, I couldn't believe this, but I listen to her so much. She's so powerful. Patti LaBelle, bro. I mean, of course I like Chris Brown. Of course I like Usher. You know, Michael Jackson. Michael Jackson and Prince are on God level. So when I say my favorite artists, you can't even, you know, they're already at the top. But what I'm saying is, for me, I listen to like Smokey Robinson and people like that, Temptations. And as I said, I was just listening to the Spinners and, you know, the Four Tops, you know, because you have to know where music came from to know where you want to take it. You know, Patti LaBelle, she got a song called Somebody Loves You. throughout the whole song she's saying somebody loves you you don't know who she's talking about you can kind of tell she's talking about her but then when she said it's me bruh right like like I mean I mean that's what songs is you know songs you don't have to bury the lead at the beginning you you uh you create something and hopefully have a payoff at the end of the song you know you don't you don't yeah so anyway yeah Oh, you already know it. And Drell LaVert, rest in peace his soul. But on one hand, me myself, I'm a fierce competitor. I want people to make better music. You know what I mean? Because in the end, my music is never going to go anywhere. So if the norm is these songs that really, they're going to be here today, going tomorrow. But I'm making music to last for a lifetime, but they don't sound like the microwave songs. So mine will never get a chance because I'm not at where the industry standard is. You know what I mean? But I mean, I could, like I said, I can go and I can make songs just like they make. You know, I can make it and make it catchy and do that. But I don't want to, me, myself, I like playing music that I can be proud of. You know, sometimes, like, to me, I be listening to some songs, and even in R&B, they say something nasty to where it's like, okay, that was uncalled for. And then it kind of takes, you can't play it around your grandma or your auntie or your folks, you know, your parents, you know what I mean? You have, you know. And so everybody's doing a shock value thing. And so, you know, I'm trying to stay away from that. But if a big enough bag come, take it. All right, man, I can go real quick. Cross that train track, come back. All right, right? I got a song called Proud Father. And now I'm working on two more other stuff, man. I put in work for the coach. Everybody better come through. Yeah. So my IG is Real Old Man California. My Facebook is my actual real name. It's Abdul Lambo, L-A-M-B-O Ahmed. So it's A-B-D-U-L and L-A-M-B-O, which was my first rap name. And then H-M-A-D is my last name. And then on TikTok, Old Man Cali. Twitter, Old Man Cali. Oh, matter of fact, you can Google me. You can find everything. right right that's what's up ready to put radio pushers shout out you already know man next month hey next month man I'm I'm I'm I'm yeah we'll talk to him and get it done next month if we can you know I don't see nothing wrong with that I appreciate you bro
