Episode 470 | Label Madness

This is an iHeart podcast. Guaranteed human. Let's go. Our iHeart radio music awards are coming back Thursday, March 26th. Live on Fox. Watch as we honor the biggest stars from all genres of music that you loved listening to all year long on your favorite iHeart radio station and the iHeart radio app. Hosted by Budakris. Icon award recipient John Mellencamp. Innovator award recipient Miley Cyrus. With performances by Alex Warren, Kaylani, Lainey Wilson. Budakris. Ray. TLC. Salt and pepper. And in vogue. Plus Taylor Swift makes her first award show appearance this year. Also gold medal Olympian Alyssa Liu. Neo. Nick Colesure Zinger. Nikki Glazer. Sombra, Weiser and more. Watch live on Fox Thursday, March 26th. At 8 7 central and listen to iHeart radio stations across America and the free iHeart app. I'm Daniel Alarcón and this is my friend is much more famous than I am. I wouldn't go that far. But I'm John Green cohost of the podcast The Away End with my old friend Daniel. On our podcast The Away End, we'll share with you the magic of international football, all leading up to the 2026 World Cup. Together, we'll find out why of all the unimportant things, football, soccer is the most important. Listen to The Away End with Daniel Alarcón and John Green on the iHeart radio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. Oh, you know, Peej hasn't said ready positions to us in a very long time. You want Peej to tell you to get in a ready position? What is your ready position? Face down. As you stand in the chair, somebody says ready. You've seen the Spotify picks. Yeah. Always in a triple threat. Disgusting. Drill passion. No, you never know what I'm going to do. No reason to stand on the train station in the platform. In a triple threat. In a triple threat. Yeah. Now, I miss that. That was always like God is going when Peej was like already positions. This is my ready pod position. Chest up. I have bad posture. Yeah. I think so. Yeah. I think I kind of like slouch. Yeah. That's how I know you can't fight. By the way, he sits. Yeah. He ain't. He ain't ready. Like I might be fucking with you. You're not on point. You like you not on your peas. Like if you slumped over, like you got to get in a ready position to fight. And it already swung. Rory square up. Square up, Rory. And so I know people don't know how to fight because when someone says square up, they're actually square. Anybody knows how to fight. We won't be like this. Well, I mean, yes, technically, yes, but you're not standing square into. I know. But I can tell when people really can't fight just by their stance. Like you literally have no idea. No, that's not true. Because I've seen some dudes that look kind of awkward, but they got hands, though. And they hit and they hit hard. So it's like and if I only you only you and you can't just take a bunch of hits. It only takes one. I'm not saying to stop a street fight for sure. And sometimes you get snuck enough and attention. I agree with you there. I'm just saying everything doesn't have to be a boxing match. But if you're standing there like this, I know you just can't fight. What's the fight in Irish? So Irish fight. Actually, no, because you're putting your shoulders this way. So you're much slimmer and you're like this. It's straight on. Oh, that's just for the photo. That was the real stance of the fighting Irish. This is your back leg. And you're like this. No, but it's here because the jab used to be this. You can't even. But no, if it hits you like this, you ain't got no defense for that. You know, you know, no, more. That's for the for the photo for the pub. I'm saying the back leg is this way. So you're you're throwing from your hip. You're not throwing from your shoulder or your arm. Yeah. But yes, it comes from it's still this. It's just not that. That boy, I ought to ask stance. Nigga hit you with one of these. The match. You're not getting up. What was that shit in elementary school that they used to get kids with? Something arm wrestling where you go like this and like this and you just get the you'd let your hand go and they push themselves in the nose. Oh, yeah. It was probably something racist. What was it called? No, arm wrestling. It was like Chinese arm wrestling or some shit. Oh, it was something that definitely derived from Chinese correspondent. Brian, was that a thing? Yo. That's the. He was just born. You did that in our pranks used to have people with bloody noses. They're their pranks are, you know, they swat the iPods and shit like that. Cinnamon challenge. Look at that fucking dumb ass. Tablespoon full of cinnamon. They that's a good idea to die. Was the saltine challenge the first challenge? What the fuck is the saltine challenge? This was like my space days. It was something like like seven saltines in a minute or something. Peas with no water. And of course, the crackers know about the cracker challenge. Eat six saltine crackers in 60 seconds without drinking any liquid. It's impossible. Six saltine. I definitely tried it when I got a homegirl with a wet mouth. No way. It do it. Well, what's her G? That's the hero. You already follow her. I do. Mm hmm. I know who you talk about. Oh, I knew it. I knew it. Baby, that one free video on the only fans is her doing the saltines. Oh, I knew it. I started to ask you was her mouth wet. Like, no, just certain pictures. I'd be like, she got that juicy mouth that. Yeah, like, yeah, good mouthwash. I already know. Yeah, that good saliva that, you know, that look like aloe. Yeah, you know, the saliva. I'm talking about you got little bubbles in it in the saliva. You know that. Yeah. Why are you out of freak? Top of the episode. I'm just my aloe vera. That's all we were talking about challenges. Yeah, that's all teen crackers, though. I never heard of that one. I never did. The first challenge it was was planking. All right. Do we agree that that was the first? This was this was this predates planking probably by a decade or more. I've never heard of that. Yeah, I was young. Yeah, that didn't make its way over to the whites. The whites were definitely doing. Yeah, no pun intended with Salting crackers, but. Marshmallow. What was that one? How many marshmallows you could fit in your mouth? Yeah, nah, we never did that. My football coach is just dipping their mouth. I'm sure. Chubby buddy. I feel like there's a pause. Which marshmallows was it? The miniature, like hot cocoa marshmallows? Or was it like the the s'mores? The the jet puffs? Yeah, the big ones. Oh, yeah. No, that's crazy. Yeah, I just ain't gonna do that. No, we shouldn't. I promise you. I y'all could do it. I'll judge. What do you judge? You don't judge. It's a counting thing. Did you hear you? You're going to count? Yeah, count how many marshmallows you put in your mouth? Baby, he might win that one, though. So. Yo, and respectfully to Baby D for like PR purposes, she should win because if a man won that over a woman, that's kind of crazy. Yeah, how do you celebrate? Like, what do you do as a man if you beat a woman with the chubby buddy challenge? Like, how do you celebrate your victory? You get super excited. Some people have really wide mouths. Like, I got big ass front teeth. I'm not going to be able to like fit a lot in my mouth. Rory might be good. He got. I found out when I got my veneers that I definitely wasn't gay because every time my gag shit was like, hey, you just stop like putting anything near my mouth, please. Yeah, I knew my body could never go there. But it's getting because I don't suck dick. Now me, you ain't gay. There's gay men that don't like give head. Yeah. Then what do you do? What do you? You just a anal specialist? You like what? There's gay men that don't give head. Yes. Is there a lesbian that don't eat pussy? There's women that don't give head like. Yeah, but we wait. So what I mean, they give head, but they don't like they don't enjoy it, but they'll do it. Like if this gay man is not gay, it's like, fam, you might as well just be straight. You might as well be heterosexual. Right. Right. Wrong. That's like, that's like playing basketball. You I don't play defense. You might as well go sit down. Because it's too sad. He said, look, you might as well do that to look at you. You might as well go sit down. It's like, come on, fam, you might as well sit down. And as like progressive and welcoming and cool as the gay community is, I feel like in 2026, if a gay man walked gay bar, I said, I don't suck dick. They said, sir, get out, get the fuck out of here. Yeah. What are you doing? Be heterosexual. Just talk to the ladies. I think I think the gays would call a gay guy that doesn't suck dick to F word. They'll get this F word out of here. Yeah. That's that might be the origin. That might be the origin of the word. I think we just found it. So it's actually anti homophobic. Yeah. Oh my good Lord. That might be the origin. They definitely call in the gay guy that doesn't suck dick that word. And he's not allowed at the party. I'm never allowing Ryan and Google again. What do they call a gay man who doesn't suck dick? That's the Google search that is up on the screen right now. Yes, I love Ryan already. Yo, he looks for the important things. He's a oral. What? Oh, your algorithm is going to be nasty. Anyways, first time we've all got to chop it up as a crew since St. Patrick's Day. How was everyone St. Patrick's Day? Everybody St. Patrick's Day was a month. I'm seeing you was out on Fifth Avenue, the parade. I was it was good. Yeah. Yes, it's what it always was. Just just a love fest. Everyone in good spirits. You have a redheaded child, so I know you like a celebrity out there. Oh, listen, she was a celebrity. The amount of because we were by St. Patrick's Cathedral, which is like where a lot of the news people go. The amount of newspaper people, everyone just come up with the demand. If we take a photo of your daughter, I'm like, just say she looks like the quintessential fucking Irish this is the magazine cover for St. Patrick's Day. Yeah. A fucking smiling redheaded girl with sunglasses on that are shamrocks. I get it. Yeah. This is a walking stereotype. This makes it. This is like it's St. Patrick's Day for real now. Exactly. But no, we have fun and it was calm. Usually debauchery happens after, but just just went went back home with a mar. We did have a good time. The weather was pretty decent, too. It was cold, though. Well, I mean, you know, it's New York City this March. Mondami came through and and and let the people knew that that we were slaves, too. I appreciated that because as Irish people, we can't bring that up, which I understand because now we're just white in America. But thank you, Mondami holding it down, letting the people know what happened to us because that's it's taboo when it comes from a white person. Mondami can like be our spokesperson. But hey, they went through some shit and we still support Palestine, only Western state that does. But did you hear about his non-billion dollar budget to house the homeless? I did not know. Which you see who got a hold of that bill down. But anyway, I'm a New Jersey resident. So I know not what you speak of. I'm here for the social media. Whatever you all going through, I don't do a fuck. He's got a nice smile and he says the things I like. But he does. I bet he does. You know, my did I tell you my New Jersey ID legitimately looks like a fake ID? Why? It just looks fake to you because you're not used to a New Jersey ID. It's it's like thin and yeah, I've had fake IDs. It feels like a fake ID. It's thinner than like way thinner than New York IDs. Really? Yes. New York ID you throw down. You could it makes noise when it's a master car. Yeah, it's got a hieroglyphs with your face and shit. It's or unless it looks like a printed fake ID. I just have a fake Michigan ID and that's exactly what it looks like. Well, Jersey doesn't have our budget. What? What budget do they have? They don't have the New York budget. Well, nobody has no other place in the world. Exactly. Has a New York City budget. No other place. That's like confirmed like no other place in the world. Yeah, maybe Dubai. No, no, I would love a Dubai ID. What about you? You know how you go about acquiring one? Do you know like the steps you got? He's setting you up. No, I'm cool. I'm just asking. No, I'm just asking. No, I'm cool. You can get one. We can move on. Now you can get one. You can't be the guy that doesn't suck dick. I'm like, no, that's not. They're not having that over there. Like you're going to suck some dick over in Dubai. Yo, you're going to do more than that. You guys know. Hey, them Saudi them niggas fly you all the oil tackles. Oh, you suck and dick for sure. I thought about moving to Dubai. They have a like a big like creator program. You can get like a golden visa. A couple of concert creators who have like moved over there. I was looking at some people that have moved to like Thailand and things like like the houses you can get. I'm like, bro, like what are we doing? What are we doing in America? Yeah, Ireland's giving out like stipends and stuff to I think like 90 grand for people that want to be creators and Ireland, you can move there. That's fire. But Canada was always great with that, too. Like I love what Daniel Caesar, all the Canadian R&B artists that we talk about all went through that program where you can get grants and loans as an artist. I I wish America did that. But I mean, come on, we got to focus on Iran way more important exactly than the arts in America. Anyways, we have some order has been restored. Sports are back. March madness, March madness, baby. Do you watch March madness? No, you know, you want the car, you want the circuit. So you should I didn't go to Syracuse. You didn't all this time. I thought you went to Syracuse. No, no, no, no. Why you take class accused at one point? No, I know L.I.U. But I thought when other colleges in Syracuse, but I went to college in Syracuse. But if you from Syracuse, like you're going to Syracuse. No, I got accepted, but I didn't go to Syracuse. I wanted to go to Long Island University for some reason. You just you just wanted to be in the city. That's what it is with you. You just wanted to be in the city. I wanted to get out of my hometown. Who wants to go to school in their hometown? I feel you. That makes that makes sense. That makes perfect. But I eventually graduated from OCC. But yeah, no, I did not go to SU. But shout out to them. Yeah, shout out to Syracuse. Um, are they wait, but they didn't even make the tournament. No. They didn't. Oh, no, no, I'm yeah, I'm looking at shout out my nigga Gooch. Brackets officially came out today. But I mean, listen, man, they got to get Mello's son back in the rotation. They'll get there. They got a lot, a lot, courtside. Some dollars just start coming in. I think Q's will be there by next. How long before you think they name Mello the head coach? I mean, I was thinking that because this whole season, like all the viral clips were Mello at shoot around before with the sales. Like, all right, they're already getting the press without Mello being the coach. But I could I could see it happen. Yeah, because I think Mello would be a great coach to know 100% but the thing about Mello being a coach is the culture changes. That's Syracuse. And now you got a coach that a lot of these kids grew up watching. Sure. Grew up like being a fan of one to emulate the game after Mello. He had arguably the greatest one year, one season in college history, winning the national championship at Syracuse. Like Syracuse University is Mello. Like you think of Mello Anthony, like, and I think that him being on the sideline coaching, I think it entices some of the top players in the country to go to it. Yeah, he could do it with Dion. Yeah, I think that it would like I'm going to play for Mello. He's a cool coach. You know what I'm saying? Like he won a championship. It's like I watched him growing up. Like, you know, I'm saying he's he's he's older than us, but he's still young enough for us to like kind of relate to him and things like that. I think he changed the entire culture over there. And now you kind of have a dominance of the amount of great high school basketball players in the Northeast period. Now you have that hub too, even though I think what Rick has done is St. John's and we'll get to the bracket is great with the St. John's program now. But yeah, if Mello coached at Q's, the entire Northeast is all of the top kids in the country would want to go play for Mello. Yeah, that's a fact. And I think that it means it makes sense. So I would like to see that if that happens. I mean, the marriage you got the plug, right? We get courtside seats next to Lala. Me, you stole Lala. Me, you stuff, a nasty front row. Nasty hardwoods. And orange men stole baby D and Lala. No, I think that could work. But yes, the bracket was announced. And I want to make everyone very, very clear. You can bet with Hard Rock bet right now with all of your March madness. That's the only dream to be bet in this hard rock. I mean, come on. It's us. Who? Why would you not? Who else but hard rock on the hard rock? Why would you not want to bet with hard rock rock on the hard rock? And on top of that, like you can bet every day. That's what's fun about March madness. Like they did properly name it. You can bet on so many games in one day. It's kind of absurd. Yeah, but you was hard rock for that out the gate. I'm going to do my bias pick. St. John's five seed minimum sweet 16. Right. Hometown team, we feel sweet 16 for St. John's. Yeah, I see them getting to the 16. Come on, Rick. Rick, Shane's culture over there. Yeah, no, he did. How soon? How soon until Lamar Odom starts coming back to back back to back? Big East championships. Yeah, that's there. But number one seeds, Duke, Florida. Looking over here, Michigan and Arizona. Are you guys picking just just that's your final four? No, no way. I know Peej is going Kansas out the gate. Duke almost lost the other day. They almost lost. Yeah, I don't have Duke in my final four and we'll post our brackets next week and keep everyone updated of how bad they go. I think it's one of those things where de Maris wins our office pool with a bracket. Like, she'll just get lucky because she likes the logo of the team. The colors. She likes the uniforms. Yeah, she dated a guy that went to Louisville. That's exactly how March Madness happened. It's not it's very rarely ever who you predict. Like, OK, they're going to win it all. Like, I've never been good at brackets. Like, every time I'm like, Michigan State's going to be my sleeper and then they lose first one for me. I do like Illinois's asleep. Even though they're three, I like Illinois out of the south. I definitely outside of my St. John's bias. Yukon is still Yukon. Yukon is Yukon. I kind of have Yukon over there. I think they made this this week, 16. Yeah, for sure. I know, I think Yukon goes final four from really East. Yeah, I have I have Yukon over Duke as far as the one and two seeds in that regard. You got Yukon over Duke. I don't think Duke is as good as much as I want to love him because because Booze is over there. Like, I want to see them win because I I hate Duke, but I love Boozer. And I love that his son is over there and everything. That makes me want to cheer for them. But other than that, man, it's fucked up. Long Island is in it. Tamaris. OK. That's what's that. They're up against number one seed, Arizona tomorrow. Now, it's clear for sure. Yes, it's fine. We we say that. But that's the thing with March Mad is that we say like, nah, I allow you to get them out of here. They might they could win. They probably won't. They probably won't. But they could win. And then everybody in the country's bracket is fucked after that. That's it. That's like a bracket buster. Like everybody's bracket is fucked. Yeah. I mean, listen, the only time I actually had a good bracket was when I was being dumb and St. Peter's went to the elite eight. And I was just doing it because that's I mean, I wouldn't say all. I didn't graduate, but still my school. Yeah. I only had a good bracket that year because I was just being silly like, nah, St. Peter's the final four. They made it to the elite eight. Yeah. But other than that, I mean, this could be your year. Take Long Island. Fuck it. All the way they going all the way. They're not, but it's OK. I fuck with you, but they not going away. What's always funny, though, is like if that happens, yeah, let's say Long Island beats Arizona and the craziest March Madness upset. And then two days later, they get steamrolled by Villanova. Like that was a fluke. Oh, I think Villanova's going to go all the way. That's my dad's favorite team. That should pick. I mean, Villanova's a great tournament team. They're number eight. But even they're going against that eight and nine first round is always the toughest one like Utah State could. Clip them. Round one. But I mean, other than that, I don't know if this is going to be like the crazy years that have been in the past. I kept up pretty good with college basketball. I think outside of Duke, it's pretty standard of what's going to happen. I had to match another Long Island team, the Hofstra. The real the real Long Island. Alabama's in, you know, they in a little bit of trouble. They star player, got arrested, got caught with that. Oh, no, that's that's the hard rock bet right now. That devil's lettuce. He got caught with everyone. He's going to hard rock to just go, yo, Hofstra. This might be the way I make some money. So Alabama being a number four seed, Hofstra being a number 13 seed. But the star players out. Mm hmm. Hofstra or Alabama. OK. Yeah. What's that? You can never trust the Aiden. No, you trust the Aiden. I don't know if I trust the Aiden's. You trust the Aiden. Why not? You can trust no Aiden, a Kaden, a Jaden. Yeah. None of them. Nothing with Ian at the end of it. Yeah, no. Always always bet against that on hard rock if they got that on a squad. Well, Hofstra most I mean, but listen, Alabama is still a good team. But when you start players out for, you know, some legal issues, I mean, Hofstra has to be the favorite now with that team. Well, it's also funny about this game. This may be the craziest game again, because he's out. If you look at all the networks like TNT, TBS, TBS. Play it on true TV is hilarious. Yeah, he just got caught with weed. He got arrested now they on true TV. Like the to be sandwiched in between impractical jokers episodes. Yeah. For Hofstra versus Alabama. You know what comes right after that game? First 48. Storage wars. Storage wars. You ain't a. He had a storage lock. Oh, I mean, no, seriously, hopefully Aiden is, you know, he's all right, man. I mean, he got caught with some some weight, some weed. But you know, I mean, it's marijuana. I mean, Aiden, what the hell you was doing with almost two pounds? They're like, you know, what you doing, bro? I mean, it saves you some trips like you buy it. No, no, I get it. He's a. There's no reason why people go to BJs. Yeah. If Aiden has if Aiden Holloway has a Costco membership, you got to let him go because all he knows is bulk. Like I don't need this much mail, right? But I got to buy it. There was no small mail at Costco. Like I got to get it. But if you think about it, too, these teams are, if they're lucky, on the road for the most part for all of March, like you got to go buy a pound. Yeah. If you smoke every day, like, yeah, I got to prepare to be on the road for the next small to like, all right, you know what I mean? Is it was this? It was a sale. Like what you want me to do? Like that shows focus. Yeah. Not going out in Tennessee trying to find where the reggie at. How do people like smoke weed and then like try to like play sports? Like I don't. A weed affects everyone differently. You ever heard of Michael Phelps? Yes. He uses his lungs more than eight in Hollywood. I promise you that. And he was out there winning gold. So to me, that's not like I understand Ricky Williams with the pain that you're in as a running back that you smoke weed before and after a game. Ron, our test drink in Hennessey at halftime to me is the wildest thing of all time. That makes sense. They used to they used to drink. They used to get hammered at halftime in NBA. Listen to some of the plays in the age, the way they told my days to drink and just talk about the second half. Like, all right, well, we got to go out then drinking a bit like it's Gatorade. I mean, I can see that in football, but like basketball with the amount of hand-eye coordination. If you have two beers at halftime when you're a football player, you'll be fine. You'll probably actually might be a little bit better. But trying to shoot a three off a few beers. No, I'm missing. I think it's the opposite. I get really coordinated when I'm drunk, but not toe up. When I'm like just drunk, like I move so swiftly. What? All right. What is how do you move before you get drunk? Like, no, because like I can't focus. But like if I come home drunk, the swift movement with which I take, all right, clothes off, shower, makeup off, like I do that shit in record time when I'm drunk, not toe up, but drunk. Yeah, it helps you like. Yeah, I don't know. It helps me lock in. Like I be drunk and locked in. But that's because you're more focused on not fucking up. Whereas when you're sober, it's just like, yeah, exactly. Exactly. But that that's fine. But that turns into the terrible person that's like, I drive better when I'm drunk. And it's like, you need to sit down and give me your keys. Those people aren't sick. Those people exist. I know. I know a couple of them. I hate when people say that. And just because they do this, they think. They're better at driving. Well, hopefully Aidan Holloway is, you know, he gets through the situation, you know, even though we're making light of it. But, you know, hopefully he gets through this and is able to continue his career because he is a he is a he is a good young player. So yeah, which the best form, but he will be missing this tournament. That is a fact. So Hofstra over Alabama is, I think, is the favorite number 13 over the four seats. So we shall see. Staying in the spirit of March Madness, I thought we could do something fun for our podcast in in bracket style. Low funsies. Yeah, we've seen like vibe used to do the rapper bracket, which caused commotion. Like we've seen that before, but I thought it could be kind of cool for us to do a March Madness style bracket with rap labels. Because we've kind of debated that before. Actually, we've even debated with Nikki on Queen Radio about cash money being the greatest label of all time. I think that that conversation happens, but probably not as much as it should, because sub labels have kind of gotten into a weird place. There's only so many left. But I put together a list of 41 here and I thought we could do a do our picks today. Okay. To try to put together a bracket. So not saying this is going to be good, because I feel like we're going to argue about a lot of shit to try to seed four number ones, four number twos, four number threes and so on and so forth. I did put somewhat of a criteria together. Artist roster, cultural impact, business impact. Ryan, when you highlighted, I can't see it. Longevity, quality of music, star power, classic albums, hit sales and chart dominance. And the fans are going to vote, right? Yes, this would be something that we would put up. On a link where the fans can vote and, you know, whoever gets the most moves on to the next round. Is there a prize at the end? I don't know. I know for the master P to give me something, not the other way around. Master P's been on Forbes for 30 years. Is there a project? Yeah, we all stream cash money records. Birdman's doing fine. You're right. Sorry. But yeah, put this list together. I have one thing I want to debate before we get into the list. Is Def Jam included in this and now hear me out. Most of what I put together here is like sub labels. This is not any order, but just for example, Death Row, Bad Boy, No Limit, Cash Money, Atomath, Rockefeller, Rough Riders, Murders, Anxil, Def QC, etc. So Def Jam at one point, yes, I think would fall under the sub category, but in the 90s, it became the universal conglomerate of rap labels because Rockefeller, Rough Riders, and Murder, Inc. were all under Def Jam. And once we include them, now I feel like you have to include Interscope and then Death Row is under that. Aftermath is it gets weird. Def Jam is not a sub label, which should be on this list. I just don't know if it's fair to put them on the list. I think it's better. Because to me, they're more of the Interscope like that world. Yeah, I think it's better to leave them out. I think it makes the bracket easier and more fair. But on the same side, I think it's kind of fucked up because they were an independent label with Run DMC, LL Cool J, like that. Yeah, they turned into... But when they started, they definitely were like, they were no different than a CMG or something like that. Yeah, because like Cash Money started out independent and then they signed their deal with Universal. I just feel like it's kind of unfair with Def Jam because then you have to include Interscope and all that. And I just don't think that's very fun. Because you're just adding so much other shit outside of hip hop and R&B. So Def Jam is not a part of this bracket, but only because... Yeah, I'd prefer not to put them. Because then I think you'd have to put Def Jam and then parentheses 85 to 96 or something, which I think is kind of weird. I agree. I agree. So I know no one ever pays attention to the things that we actually say when they want to rage bait. Maybe we put it somewhere on the bracket, like Def Jam is not included. Yeah. But even then they'll read that and then be like, you know, they didn't put Def Jam there? Yeah. Can't win for losing. Let's leave that out there. What do we think the best way to go about this is to just start at number ones and go around the room of what we think the four number one seeds should be out of this list? Yeah. Yeah, that would probably be the best way to do it. Okay. So before we get to number ones, I put together 41 labels that we have to get down to 32. Bear with me. I'm just going to run through just so everyone's aware of what's on this list. Death Row, Bad Boy, No Limit, Cash Money, Aftermath, Shady, I put together Rock of Fellow, Rough Riders, Murder, Inks, Soso, Def, QC, Dreamville, TDE, OVO, CMG, MMG, Good Music, YSL, Rockus, Duck Down, Strange Music, Hypnotized Minds, Rappalot, Stone's Throw, Ruthless, Loud, Tommy Boy, G-Unit, DTP, Empire, Swishahouse, Cold Shilling, Grand Hustle, Griselda, Rostrum, 300, Diplomat, Baby Grainage, Uptown Records, Rough House, 1017. You left YSL off? I put YSL there twice as well. Oh, okay. I just used that. I think I covered pretty much everything. I don't know how you guys feel about Empire and 300 and labels like that because that kind of bleeds over too because they were more of a distribution company. I'm fine with leaving 300 and Empire off this list. I think Empire. Because even 300, while it is a label, yes, with FETI, like Migos is QC, but then they did distribution with 300. I just think it just, you get in the weeds with Empire and 300 as far as what they're doing as label services. I'm cool with taking them off. Take 300 and Empire off. I'm cool with that. All right. Let's start. Number ones. I don't know if I have four. We can just start the conversation. I obviously think Death Row, Bad Boy, Cash Money, Rockefeller, Soso Def are all in the conversation for number ones. Okay. Where you guys land with four of them? I think Death Row and Bad Boy goes without saying. I think everyone's fine with those two for writing and writing down as number one seats. It's the other two that I think are more debatable for number ones. I think Cash Money is there, no question. So what would be the fourth? So Death Row, Bad Boy, Cash Money. Cash Money. What's number four in the number ones? It would have to be, I'm going Rockefeller. I mean, I think that goes without saying I'm going Rockefeller. Just like you said, based on the criteria, impact culture, impact business. You got some of the greatest artists of our time from Rockefeller. I think, yes, they have to be a number one seat. I think they may end up being the best two seed, but loud records roster is kind of fucking insane. Can you tell us some of the people that are on it? Big pun, dead press, mob deep, Wu Tang, three-six mafia, alcoholics. It gets kind of nuts when you get into loud and the impact that they had. And from there, you even get everything Tara Squad derives from what Steve Rifkin put together. I mean, they don't get brought up. I don't have that. To me, that's not a number one seat. We can argue for number one seat. But like you said, the number two, they could upset a number one seat, though. Yeah, I just think people could debate against the Rockefeller when you have Wu Tang, Big Pun, Mob Deep, the beatnuts, MOP, three-six mafia, Twisted, dead press. I'm fine with loud being the best number two seed, but I do think someone could argue that. But I'm fine with Rockefeller being a one seed there. I'm not saying we're the arbiter of what is right and wrong in this. So you guys can kill us for putting Rockefeller there and say we have a bias. We'll own it at this point, but I'm fine. I'm fine with that. I'll take that by cash money is including young money, right? I think it does. I'm not sure how you could argue that, but same way I have aftermath shady together. I think that's fair. Okay. But yeah, I mean, yeah, I mean, it is YMC and B. Right. It's cash. It's cash money. It's young money, cash money. Yeah. So yeah, I think you get you get young money on that. And to me, I mean, let's not get ahead of ourselves, but I'll show my bias already. I think cash money is the greatest label, Woldem. Okay. If we're going off what what we're saying here. Not mad at that. All right. They could have been they could be a number one seat. No, they are. All right. Out the gate, we said death row, bad boy, cash money. Okay. It was that fourth number one that we were looking for. Got it. Have Rockefeller there. And yeah, I'm sure that's going to be the one that pisses people off the most that we just put Rockefeller there. But number two seats. I think aftermath shady is there. I think loud is there. In my opinion, I'm open to aftermath shady. I'm not mad at those two because I mean, granted, it's not the the length of the roster with aftermath shady isn't crazy, but you do have all of all of M&M's catalog, all of 50 cents catalog. Yeah. That kind of just like I get it. When you go through other labels like Dan, they only take 10 acts to beat that. Yeah, it's going to take 10 acts combined to beat that. Yeah. That's absolutely insane. I'm going through some of these rosters and seeing who I might want to be. But like I don't give them all a G unit because like banks, Yale, all of them, they put everything under G unit. Of course, it was a subcategory of aftermath, inner scope and everything, but G unit put out there, even the Beck for Mercy album wasn't shady aftermath per se. It was 50s imprint with G unit records, but all of 50 solo shit and all of M&M's solo shit is shady aftermath after like they're kind of a number two to me. I don't really know. Great. I know Yellow Wolf didn't go crazy, but You wasn't fucking with Yellow? Catfish belly. It was based on the trunk. Oh, Yellow Wolf. I mean, you know, white on white crumb and hip up. Need a little white on white though. We need that. He's talented. No, definitely. He is. Yeah. One of the weirdest things ever in my entire life. I went to some showcase that was like the new shady after it was somewhere on Bleaker or something, the new shady, uh, Siney's showcase concert and I'm standing next to the stage and a drunk Bam Margera comes this clock. I think our noses almost touched. They say, do you have a wolf gone yet? I could smell the wild turk like just wild turkey hitting my face from Bam Margera. I was like, no, man. He almost made out with me is what I'm saying. So I think that's why PTSD with Yellow Wolf. I just think I think of Bam. All right. So aftermath, loud. I'll throw it out there. Number two season number two seas. Fam, what are we doing with QC? What are we doing with TDE? As a New Yorker. QC. What are we doing with TDE? Hmm. As a New Yorker, I think we sleep in our rough riders, but this, that's New York bias. That's my New York bias. I hear it because, because I also think no limit could be in that conversation as well. The two seed, this was my scariest category to me was the two seeds. Yeah. Because I really think you could put, I think QC is a solid three seed. TDE, I think you could argue is a number two seed. As far as the criteria that we have up there. Okay. Look at their like. As far as as far as modern labels go, TDE, it's TDE and QC. No disrespect to OVO and Dreamville. I think they both have had their great moments. I love what Dreamville does with all their artists. I think it's incredible. But you talk about impact QC and TDE, you could argue are right up there with all these amazing. But all of their impact is coming from what? Three artists? I mean, sometimes I saw you need. We just said Shady Atrimack with 50 and Eminem, Kendrick and SZA. Like, yeah. And let's not act like schoolboy hasn't had hits that have charted crazy before. Sure. But not in comparison to a lot of these art like schoolboy in comparison to a lot of these other artists that we're looking for at a number two seed. If everyone listening, this isn't hate. We think everyone on TDE's roster is incredible. Mm hmm. Just talking about more so the criteria, but we have to be consistent in our argument. Because if we're saying this about aftermath, you can put Kendrick and SZA in a conversation of Eminem and 50. Sure. And the longevity that they've had. What's about death row? Death row was how many years? TDE, when did they start? And they're still going. They got Dochi now, who's clearly making noise. Mm hmm. That's who. SZA is still the biggest R&B artist in the world. Mm hmm. Um, yeah, 2004 with with Black and with the Abso, KDOT and J-Rock. So you're thinking about putting them as a number two seed. I kind of feel like they need to be there. It's hard to it's hard to not have them as a number two seed. But then we have to make a decision between no limit. I hear you are rough routers, but. Soso death has to be there too. Right. No, no, no, no, no, no, no. Hear me out. Hear me out. Hear me out. You yoned. I don't know what they yoned. No, I didn't yon. I didn't yon. I said, ah, because I wanted to put Soso death as a number two. And then I went back and looked at the roster and it's like JD Valdivra. The impact is there. Escape Jagged Edge, Chris Cross. Mm hmm. I mean, Anthony Hamilton, franchise boys. I mean, this the impact is there. It's a lot of records sold. Was Chris Cross on Soso death or that was just before Katie started. JD, I'm sorry, started Soso death. Katie is actually. I know my bad. My bad, JD. No, I think. No, I think Chris Cross was. But I had to be Soso death. So if you're looking at the longevity and impact of what Soso death did for. Almost 20 years, like going from Chris Cross to Jagged Edge is nuts. For sure. Yeah. See, this is where I knew to was going to be our longest debate. Mm hmm. So so where we have now we have. Let me see. Hold on. Soso death. That's right. Aftermath. I mean, it's it's so. Because I put Soso death above TDE. Technically, they so so Chris Cross wasn't it was Sony, but. Okay. I mean, that was JD though. All right, but let's let's let's at least try to just keep. Within the parameters of it had to come out on that because then we'll start to get into. Yeah. Because then you can start saying Drake is technically Rappalach. And cash money. Yeah. Yeah. Like then you just get in a weird place. Yeah. So all right, well, either way. Okay. I can come up off the TDE for three. So so death after math. No limit. And then what would be our fourth? That's rough. Loud. Damn, we not good. No good music. No good music. I'm going to say something very blasphemous and pardon my white face, but I'll take the brunt of it. I keep saying no limit as a number two seed with such confidence. They had a huge impact. Masterpiece made more money than damn near every single rap mogul. Get off and get all that out. Get all that out. Masterpiece a legend. If we're being consistent. New Orleans is one of my favorite cities. Get it off. Yo, salute to Holly Grove. Salute to the night. Yeah. Yeah. Magnolia. Salute to all the wars. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Uh huh. The Callio. Yeah. Yo, what's up Callio? Yeah. If we're staying consistent, which I'm fine with those two artists that can carry a whole fucking label. I don't know if no limit is seeing rough riders when you get into the locks, DMX and Eve. Yeah. Regional bias. And I know the locks a big majority of their hits are on bad boy. I'm not counting bad boy locks, but you still have hits with the locks with rough riders. DMX I think goes without saying. I don't need to explain that one. And Eve's run was fucking nuts. Yeah. I don't know if I don't know silk the shocker seeing Eve. I'm just going to be honest. I'm putting I'm putting rough riders as a number two C though with no limit. I'm coming. They're going to call us so regionally biased. No, but just based off what you just said though. They definitely are. We just we took my impact. Who not many not many labels have had an artist that has had the impact of DMX. Let's just start there. No artist period. Look at the Woodstock footage of DMX. Right. So I mean, let's that alone. You know, I mean, like we love no limit. We love Master P. We love silk. We love all of those guys. But we took my DMX. Like I think I think no alone. I think no limit is more important for its business model than it was for its artists. That makes sense. Like I think Master P deserves all the flowers in the world as one of the greatest execs in music period, not just rap. I just think their business model is more impactful than what their music was. Because cash money is impactful on that side as well, whether you agree or disagree with their business practices. But they also have the music for 20 years to back it up to. Yeah. It's not of course no limit. Got it. Snoop had a couple of projects that I get cool, but I don't know if they're number two, man. I kind of take back everything I said, but putting rough riders there, we are going to get killed. I want to make that clear. Because somebody would argue somebody would argue rap a lot could compete with rough riders. Pull up rap a lot for Austin for me. Because you're starting with ghetto boys, Scarface. Everything Houston period outside of what Swisher House did was was rap a lot. UGK Zero, Trader Truth, Devon and Dube, do it with Big Mike, Fifth War Boys. You get you get Mike Dean from Rap a Lot. You get a lot of shit from Rap a Lot. And I mean, of course, we're staying in the boundaries of what was released and what wasn't. But I mean, Drake is part of the Rap a Lot tree as well. No. No. Drake. Yes, we get it. Drake was signed with with Jay Prince's son before he was signed with He get it, but no. Yeah, fair, fair, fair. I'm just saying impact of this ties there. It is. But no, my time. My time, but yeah, we go like this. How come you haven't gotten us this hat yet? You know, I want I want that hat. No, you don't. You don't even wear hats. I'd wear it in Houston just to be safe. All right. Yeah, we just got to make it make a decision here. Ah, we all we all agree on shady. So it's rough riders. Right now we agree on shady. We agree on loud. We agree on so so deaf. What is it? What is this last one? Oh, wait, murdering came in the conversation. I think murdering is us. Number one, three, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, we don't have TDE off the board yet. We were arguing if they were number two. TDE is the number two. See, what the fuck are we talking about? All right, cool. All right, cool. All right. So it's staying here. Our two seeds are TDE, loud records, so so deaf and shady aftermath. Okay. TDE has to be a two seed. I agree. I agree with that. You got Kendrick and Cesar. Like, I mean, we told my impact business model, like everything top is done over there since 2004. Like, I agree. They're a number two seed, bro. Like, this is not arguably could be a number one seed. Yeah. You know what I'm saying? So we can't, they can't fall to the, to a third seed. That's just crazy. And I was thinking we was going to get killed for the Rockefeller thing, but I just want to note that 70% or 80% of Kanye West catalog is Rockefeller. So please leave me alone with that regional via shit. Yeah. Like one of the greatest geographies of all time outside of JZ's. There's another artist named Kanye West. Yeah. The majority of that's why good music has not been selected yet because the majority of Kanye's albums are not really something good music. No, warrior now. Today's show is brought to you by our presenting sponsor, Hard Rock Bet Mall. That's Florida sportsbook. Everybody knows that it's tourney time, March madness. And my favorite thing to do at this time of year is fill out my bracket and get mad. Yeah. But does give me some opportunity to win some money at the end of the day. So join me in the volume bracket contest presented by Hard Rock Bet. The grand prize winner scores a two night stay at the Guitar Hotel at Seminole Hard Rock Hotel and Casino in Hollywood, Florida. And if you're lucky, mall will be there for a meet and greet and you get it. And you get a thousand dollar in bonus bets to use on the Hard Rock Bet app. All you have to do is head to bracket dot the volume dot com and fill out your bracket. That is bracket dot the volume dot com to make your picks. And once your brackets locked in, it's time to hit the hardwood pause on the hard rock bet app all tournament alone. Well, so don't sit on the bench, download the hard rock bet app today. And let's get the party started. Payable and bonus bets, not a cash offer offered by the Seminole tribe of Florida and Florida, offered by Seminole Hard Rock Digital LLC in all of the states, must be 21 plus and physically present in Arizona, Colorado, Florida, Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, New Jersey, Ohio, Tennessee, or Virginia to play terms and conditions apply. Concerned about gambling in Florida, you call one eight three three play wise in Indiana. If you or someone you know has a gambling problem, once help call one eight hundred nine with it. Gambling problem called one eight hundred gambler Arizona, Colorado, Illinois, Michigan, New Jersey, Ohio, Tennessee and Virginia. Live on Fox Thursday, March 26th, at eight seven central and listen on iHeart radio stations across America and the free iHeart app. I'm John Green. You may know me as the author of The Fault in Our Stars. And now I guess also as the co-host of the away and a brand new world soccer podcast. I'm Daniel Alarcón, a writer and journalist. And John and I have known each other since we were kids. My first World Cup was Mexico 86. I was nine years old. I watched every game and I fell in love on our new podcast, The Away End. We'll share with you the magic of international football, all leading up to the 2026 World Cup. For us, soccer football is a story we've shared for over 30 years since Daniel was the star player on our high school soccer team. Very dependable. And I was their most loyal and sometimes only fan. I love this game. I love its history, its hope, its heartbreak and above all, its beauty. Together, we'll find out why of all the unimportant things, football, soccer is the most important. Listen to The Away End with Daniel Alarcón and John Green on the iHeart radio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. All right, for the rest of the bracket, you can go to any of our socials. We'll be posted with the link to the full bracket where you can also vote for the first rounds and all the information will be on X, Instagram. Somehow, maybe we'll get it on TikTok. Who knows? Who you next morning? Of like our label bracket that we just did. I think cash money should win. In my opinion, I don't know if it will win. But judging by like, you know, because we look at our data and our demo, the Northeast is the heaviest like listenership for us. So like Rockefeller could squeak through. I could see it happening. They can run through the tourney. The Cinderella story. If it means I can get a pass from Biggs, then yeah, I hope Rockefeller wins. Bruh. While we were recording. I can't tell you. All right, go ahead. No, go ahead. I'm sorry. I didn't mean to cut you off. While we were recording, Jay-Z has just been announcing concert dates. Like he's a new artist. Every time I open my phone. He is a new artist. Where's he performing next? Well, he'll be performing in the Bronx. He stayed him two nights for the reasonable doubt, 30 anniversary and then blueprint 25 year anniversary. I knew that the years that they came out. But I I guess I never realized that that's there was only a five year difference between those, which is like kind of insane that Jay-Z was by famous standards and absolute nobody. And then five years later was at like the peak of rap. And the amount of albums he put in in between those two. Like I almost look at blueprint like he's getting old to end his career. I cannot believe it's only five years. What the reason the interesting thing is reasonable doubt was the first album obviously. And it was so overlooked when he first dropped. Like he could have just did one night with just 30 anniversary reasonable doubt. And obviously it's going to sell out. But the fact that, like you said, five years later, he puts out the blueprint on 9 11. Jay-Z could do spoken word in right field and it would sell out. I don't know what you're talking about. Yeah, he had your result and blueprint just to make it one. No, no, he didn't have to. That's what he didn't have to. But it's just crazy. On the 30 years later, his first album that was so overlooked is the album that everybody probably loves the most. Oh yeah. No, for sure. Square up. Square up you. Me, you. Square up. You. You knew. What? We pressed. What? You knew. Of course I knew. But we pressed you even off Mike as like your friends. We pressed you and you didn't tell us like anything. So I don't leak nothing. It's no. We would assign the NDA. You would assign the NDA. Right. I wouldn't tell you how to sign NDA. I just wouldn't say shit. See how that works. That's fucked up. How I'm going to say, yo, yeah, not Jay's doing shows in New York. And then what was it? I still can't buy. I could have got a job at Yankee Stadium. So I come forward to tickets. My plan was to figure out when the next event at Yankee Stadium is and then hide in the bathroom until July. Okay. Just like the last stall, just like bring a backpack of snacks and just see how long I can make it. Or you have time to like dig a secret passageway. That could work too. Something. Cause it's just going to be off the charts. I could try to long jump from the platform or just keep riding the four train and hopefully get a glimpse. He's just back and forth. Just go to 160 first on 67. Just keep going back and forth. Just keep going back and forth. You catch a glimpse of this. You going on? Yeah. To all three. I mean, to all three shows. Just just. I don't know about. I don't know about Roots picnic. See what I'm doing that day. Yeah. I don't know. I don't know if I'm going to Roots. I don't really, yeah. No, I'm not a festival person. I don't really like festivals. Roots is the probably the best run festival though. Oh yeah. No, for sure. But I just don't want to go to one. Roots would be, I think your pick. Yeah. It's just like too, it's going to be too many people in the field. I have to walk over here and go back and this is just, I don't want to do all that. Okay. Yeah. You stay in there. It was a little more like pull up, go in, leave home. Yeah. I think my best shot is Roots. I emailed every talent agency in the world. WME said, every last one. I emailed quest loves assistant, Black Thoughts little brother, anyone that's been in the Roots band. I'm getting into that fucking festival. Anyone that supported the Roots using their phone. I DM Scott storage, you know, I'm hella high water man. But I mean, I haven't missed the roots. I think I've only missed one Roots picnic ever. So I was probably going to go regardless, but obviously this changes things drastically when it's Jay-Z and Eric Abadu co-headlining for two days. But I don't even know if I'm not even going to try to play myself for the Yankee Stadium one. I'm going to try to get in the ticket queue and just buy tickets, but I would never ask anyone for those tickets. That is probably the best bet. I'm not really. I'm just going to try to buy tickets. People know me. I don't ask nobody for shit. I always buy tickets. Like if I want to go somewhere bad enough, I'll buy tickets. You buying tickets to that? Yeah. For sure. Okay. Yeah, I'm buying tickets. I don't ask nobody for tickets. You know, you know, I don't ask nobody. I know you don't ask nobody for tickets, but I ain't know if like there was like a family like hidden list that like big just put you hard even if it is. I don't, I'm not even thinking about it. Not that I would ever text Lenny S or even text bigs for that matter. Before even that thought would cross my mind. They both posted on their Instagrams. Lenny said, I'm sorry, but these are not the Lenny S shows. I wish they are, but they're not. What is that Roots Pixar show and Jay-Z is headlining as a guest performer. Yankee Stadium is a Jay-Z show. Again, it's not a Lenny S show. 400 people have hit my phone. I do not have access to free tickets. I'm hoping I can get in myself. That's the best way to do it. And then bigs, I think bigs just hit him with a crazy lie. Like I'm not even gonna be in town, which is probably not a lie. That's the funny shit. I mean, if obviously bigs is busy, has other things going on, but I don't think he'd miss at least the reasonable doubt show for sure. Because that's like so much part of his story. It's his 30th anniversary as well in that regard. I mean, he owns part of the album. So I mean, I thought bigs was lying, but I was never going to ask him. I cannot tell you how much my phone has been like blown up since that. Men or women? Both. But more men or women? More men. Yeah. But reasonable doubt is that it's that type of album though. I get it. You know what I mean? It's like the album that most guys grew up on, that I know grew up on. That was the album that we all kind of was like going to school, listening to, grew older, still listen to. So I understand it, but I, you know me, I'm just like, I'm not even responding. Like, bro, what makes you think that I'm going to get you and your little cousin into Yankee Stadium? And your little cousin is framey. Like, what are we talking about right now? But tickets are not on sale yet, but they will be on sale for both shows soon. So what do you think those, those resells are going to be? Jesus. Because that's another thing. Like if I were lucky enough to be able to get a purchase, a ticket, if I can, you know, click space bar in time, I would be tempted by those resells. Like if they're live streaming and I'm selling my ticket, because you know those prices are going to be insane that you could resell for. Oh yeah, for sure. Like I could probably pay a month of my mortgage based off that. Yeah. So it's definitely going to be higher than bad money. The resell? Jay Z at Yankee Stadium for a 30th anniversary and 25th anniversary. I think yeah, at least part of what bad money would do. What would a bad money resell to looking like? Three, three, four grand or some shit. From 550 to 3000. I don't think there's going to be anything lower than a thousand for section 100. Like yeah, I think Bleacher seats won't even go for 800. Yeah, it's going to be expensive ticket for sure. Probably well worth it though. The city going to be lit. Boy, they're going to have last slap. They're going to have a Bronx. The city is going to be insane. I can't wait. I was going to say, we could like, Peej, we could post up at stands and just see if we could hear the music. You could definitely hear the music from Stan. You know that for sure. Do we think he'll bring out anybody to celebrate? I mean, obviously the rest of peace to big. But the only other features would be Eminem on blueprint, right? Eminem blueprint, Mary on reasonable doubt. Yeah, sauce money, sauce money, jazz, oh, maybe bleak. Peach, I bought up how sad it is that Kanye won't be coming out because of the shit that he's done and said, I mean, he was a huge part of blueprint. And yeah, he definitely won't be. You'll never see Kanye around. Yeah, I know, I know, but he bought how sad it was when we were off camera and it is, but that's a big part of his story too. But yeah, yeah, I do hope. And I mean, I'm sure they will. But I hope they do a proper Clark Kent tribute. Indeed, especially with a reasonable doubt one, because he obviously produced on that and put big and J together. And performed on it. Yeah, that's him on the hook on Brooklyn's finance. Yeah. So I mean, I'm sure Hope already has something planned for that record with a Clark resting piece. Clark Kent tribute for sure. But I mean, this this is incredible. I just don't I just don't think I'll be one of the lucky ones. I don't think I'll get the golden ticket. Oh, man, you'll get it. I'm so bad at trying to get tickets at like the right time. Like I think I'll get it. And then like the time will run out or something. The part that's gonna piss me off is all the people that are not true J fans that are gonna get tickets and sell it. So all the guys that always get the sneakers and try this like, bro, you don't even you don't even wear sneakers. Like how do you get in all the sneakers and you just reselling them like in late game? You don't let it go. Oh my God. Like the amount the amount of like Audi execs that are going to be in the Audi lounge in left field is just going to make it's going to make me want to throw up the Audi execs. It's going to make me want to throw up. Yeah, I don't even know this album. Neither one of them don't even know them. Y'all know Sean Carter. Y'all know Jay Z. Do y'all think any new music is coming? Yeah, with it. You do. Okay. I don't know like it like that day or whatever. But I do think we'll get some new Jay music. I don't know if that's a full project, but I think there will be new Jay music. I think he's being very intentional with changing his name because I'm sure he owns the other version of Jay Z with the dots on it. I think he's just gearing up to put out stuff that he owns finally. So I mean, if I can get one ticket, I would literally I would go to that show by myself. Oh, for sure. Well, you know, you know, you go by yourself and have a blast. Yeah, you go by yourself. But because it's the album that's so much of his love, you won't be by yourself. No, it's kind of like you go get there by yourself and then you're surrounded by people. We are all here for this one common goal to rap every lyric and every verse to an album that we all love so much. So do we think the roots picnic will be not a rehearsal for say, but would it be reasonable doubt in its entirety? Do you think? Do you think he'll do like a regular mixed bag Jay Z festival set? I think he'll do something similar to what he's done with the roots already. A little bit of, you know, everything. Yeah, albums. I think obviously, the Yankee Stadium shows are more intentional. Yes, more focused on blueprint and reasonable doubt. I think the roots is more of a jam session of just like a medley of all his hits. Yeah, I'm on that side as well. I but don't get it twisted. I think he's going to perform Oh, for more songs than just reasonable doubt and blueprint at those shows. But I think that'll be the focus will be those albums and then he'll get into, you know, other joints. Yeah, I went. Was it the fresh? Was it Governor's ball? Fresh metal? Whatever. Whatever one he did at City Fields years ago, that was like a rehearsal for the 444 tour. But he did like 444 shit with the same set, but added in like hit records festival. I don't know where everyone stands with state property and their relationship. Like the shit changes every day. Sometimes everyone's cool. Sometimes everyone's not. I don't have no idea what Jay-Z stands with everyone at state property. But I think a proper reunion in Philly with the roots would be great. Fire, right? Yeah. I just don't know. I could see that happening. Like it has been said anything crazy like no, no, I think beans been pretty chill. Yeah, I think everybody is because I know I know state property. They just received an award in Philly a couple months ago and beans, Chris and Neve, Freeway, were all there. So I mean, for the most part, I think most of them are still kind of like, you know, on in good standards with each other. Okay. I hope so. They were on at the City Impact Award as they should be. I mean, listen, I watched Jim Jones, Cameron and Jay-Z come on stage together at Webster Hall. Anything is possible. Yeah. Anything is fucking possible. I just want to make that very clear. Like if the three of them can be cool and to go on stage at Webster Hall, anything can happen at the roots picnic. The one person who I think he may bring out, which would be incredible at Yankee State, even is probably Nas. Yeah. That'd be fire for him. I mean, for dead presidents, it wouldn't make sense for Nas to do the hook. And they've done that in the past where I forgot what verse Nas raps over that when they perform it together. But yeah, I could see Nas coming out for dead presidents too. That would make a lot of sense. But yeah, I'm excited. Even if I can't go, I do hope that they stream it or at least like make some time about it or almost positive. They will stream it. Yeah. Just on what platform though? On Netflix. Of course. What other platform exists? Is there any other streaming services out there? I don't know. I'm only on Netflix. That's the only thing I watch. Literally. It's the only thing I have. The only thing I have is Netflix. Yeah. If it's not on Netflix, Jay, I'm sorry. I'm just... Yeah, Jay, I don't know. I mean, we could negotiate the Netflix streaming bag for you if you need Mr. Carter. If that's the case, if one of us does get a ticket, let's just make a pact that you have to FaceTime and hold your phone up the entire time for the whole crew. The whole show, you just gotta go like this. So we can watch. Even worse, you got to get like the handheld thing that you move the phone with. You got to get like, you got to really look like a streamer. Yeah, you got to be out there the whole time. Give us some good camera movements. Oh my god. Camera movements. Crazy. That would be fun. All right. If I do get passed for routes, though, would you go? Because that's like, I'm semi-confident that I'll be able to get and if not, I probably just buy tickets. We can make a day trip out of it. Yeah. Hi, can I come? I'm not even gonna say on mic how you dropped the ball. Bro, I dropped that ball. He not responded to me either. You got fucking right. Fucking shameless. My god. You have any shame? No, I don't. I don't want to come to Jay-Z. No, I'll do whatever I have to. Maybe we'll say that that from the back picture on story one day. From the back. If anybody's listening, I do whatever I have to. Slow and sloppy. I'm gonna slap this shit out of them all. I'm gonna slap this shit out of them all. Hey, remember when we used to could joke? Y'all remember that? No, we can't. Damn, we can't even joke no more, man. You'll be joking though. I'm joking. I don't even know what the fuck you're talking about. Like, I'm just joking with you. But to anyone that listens to this podcast and like is in touch with people that can get you passes, everyone I know at Rock Nation bought tickets to Roots Picnic. So it's probably a dub for you if it's a dub for them. Yeah, that's always the best way, man. If you can, because it's going to be crazy to kind of be in that queue and try to get tickets, but it's always best to just buy tickets if you want to support. If you want to, you know what I mean? Stop relying on people that you think may be affiliated or may have access. Everybody wants access and I understand that. But some people took years to build their access and build their relationships. And that doesn't mean that they're going to use their relationships and access that they built to pull you in with them. And you shouldn't expect people to do that, which is why I never ask people for shit. Yeah. If I want to go that bad, I'll buy a ticket if I can buy a ticket. If not, I'll see plenty of clips online, hopefully streaming. If not, just somebody just tell me what a beautiful night it was. Oh, yeah. Oh, most bullshit. Yeah, I know. That's what you I ain't even big say is I'm going to be in town. More will be in the ace of spades suite or whatever the fuck it is. Listen, I promise you, I do not know that for a fact. You are going to be with your jacket, hands in pocket like Joe Tory just sitting back watching the entire shit. I don't know that. I mean, I don't know. I would love to. I would love to, but I don't know that for a fact. I'm just saying, hopefully, yes, you're right. I will be there. Yes, hopefully. Okay. If you are going to go that way, just let me know what time you get there and I'll try to like grab a guitar case and follow Guru and just look like a roadie. Pick up some. I wear all black. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Just just try to just try to fit in. Yeah, just that's all you got the face. You got the fit in face of Yankee Stadium. I like your work here. No, absolutely. With that said, good luck to everyone trying to get tickets. It's going to be a fun summer when Jay-Z is outside performing. We also have Kanye West speaking of tickets you can't fucking get. I think it was like the highest queue in history of that was insane. I've never seen a million people in the queue waiting for a ticket to a show. Sophie Stadium, April 3rd, 2026. What if he pushes the date to July on the same dates? I mean, yeah, that doesn't affect nothing. That's an LA. But no, but then he performs blueprint. So what would he perform on blueprint? Everything he produced. And he's on don't change on the hook. True. So you just do don't change for an hour. Those people that waited in that queue will be pissed the fuck off because they didn't go there to hear that. Does this surprise anyone that it had one of the highest demands of tickets in history? For Kanye West. Yeah. It didn't surprise me, but I saw a lot of people were like so much for standing up for what you believe. I'm like, nobody cares. Nobody cares. I tell you all the time. Nobody cares. Everything that people get outraged about online. And it's that it's like nobody cares about that. The people that you are never you'll never or you rarely see people that support somebody be the ones trying to cancel them. It doesn't work like that. It's always people that never supported you or wanted to see you canceled anyway. That'd be the first ones to try to cancel you for something. And one of the things I've realized because what we do for a living, we're so like online and so aware of what's going on online. There is just like such a large group and community of people who have no idea of the shit that people say in interviews or what hits the the blogs. They have no clue about any of that shit. They just like, oh, Kanye has a show I heard about like they don't give a fuck about none of that shit. They don't care. They don't care. They don't even know. Even if they know about it, they're like, I don't give a fuck what he said. I'm going in here. College dropout. I'm going in here 808. I'm going in here. You know what I mean? Like Jesus walks. I don't care what he said on a on stream. Like I don't give a fuck about that. Like people don't care about that shit. Only people that want to cancel you from in the first place are the ones that are calling for you to be canceled because of something you said. When you say something crazy, your fans that support you, not times out of 10, they know that's how you felt anyway. And sometimes they agree with what you're saying. So then it's that part of it. Like a lot of your fan base, you say something crazy that looks crazy or sounds crazy to the rest of the world. Sometimes your fan base is like you think he didn't feel like that all along. Like we knew that's how he felt about this or that. Like they don't care about that. They're going into here music and have a good time. And that's why a million plus people were waiting in queue. Yeah. And I mean, I like the strategy of doing a tester in Mexico City, a city of Catholics. Yes. Where they probably agree with a lot of things. Listen, man, listen. The opposite of cancel culture. Yeah. From the Catholic side. And didn't he shake hands with the rabbi? Yeah, they could. Oh, come on, man. Yeah, that handshake. That was a million people in the queue. He's rarely know. Yeah, that was a million people in the queue. Soon as he shook the hand. Go look at the queue. Million plus waiting. Everyone's outraged. Like you have to protect mental health. Yeah. Guys, remember. But I watched the stream. If they added all the clips from the Mexico City show look incredible. I mean, Kanye is a moment we know, we know visually his production at a live show at a stadium. I mean, that's like a canvas for him to just create. Like we know what that even if it's just a block in the middle of the stadium, and he's just standing on a block the whole time, he's going to have it lit a certain way. He's going to have smoke. He's going to have all of the things that's going to make it look like the most incredible show that you've ever seen. So do you ever do you think he'll ever retire? And I know you think rappers don't retire, but I'm not talking about as a rapper. Yeah, Jay Z was said he reason without was his was his only out. He keep retiring, but no, for real, like Kanye, just like as a producer and just as that whole entity, do you think he'll ever retire? No, I don't think Kanye will ever I think Kanye is a creator. So he's always going to create something. He's always he has his energy. His mind is always in creative mode, whether it's music, fashion, whatever it is, he has to create something. I think he'll always go back to a different world chaos. He's always going to create something even it so he'll just jump back into the worlds that he's created for himself as an artist. Okay, let me go back into music. Let me go back into fashion. Let me go back into, you know, whatever, real estate, whatever it is, let me go back into developing companies and he's going to always be a creative. So when you're creative, I think that you that's something that just stays with you forever and you just find ways to kind of revisit things and find inspiration and things that you did or created before. So I don't think Kanye is ever going to retire. I think that he may not create music and have the output that he once did, but I don't think he'll ever retire. Yeah, and I mean, how many kids does he have? Like six now? Five, six? I don't know. I mean, North already announced her EP that's about to come out. Clearly North is extremely talented and into music. I mean, he'll be he'll be producing for the family band forever, I feel like. Yeah, I think his kids will keep him in music even if he wanted to leave music. Like there's no way we're not going to get a North produced album by her dad. That's going to happen. Even in the trailer she put out for her EP. It sounds like a Kanye beat. I love it is, but it sounds like a Kanye beat. That's incredible. Have your dad being one of the most amazing producers, creators ever. And now you're at an age where like you're in love with music and art as well. And you just have that access like and even for Kanye, that has to be like a something a dream come true. Like, you know, my kid is now wanting to create and express herself as an artist. Like that has to be an amazing feeling and moment for him. And not only Kim as well, just to see that because, you know, Kim is a creative as well too. So yeah, did you see the clip of when she performed at the Mexico City show with him? Yeah, like that was incredible. Yeah. And your dad being that level of genius with music that can help you create it. And then you have a mom that's probably the most genius marketer that we've ever had. And blue as well seeing blue on tour with Beyonce. Oh, I mean, like, you know, I mean, that was just just seeing that like because we're old enough to remember when, you know, these kids were born and to see them now, you know, on stage with their parents and things like that is just like, I mean, one, we're getting old, but two, it's like, it's just dope to see it. Yeah, the coolest shit about blue was watching how much better she got with each show, like watching her each show from the first one to like mid-tourist, like, oh, she's smoking shit. And like in real time, you watched her get good at that. And some people that were saying she was off beat at the beginning, like, you know, have you ever performed this stadium? No, no, no, as an adult, not even not even as a kid. Not even performing in the stadium. No, not even performing the stadium. Have you ever had to perform on stage with an artist, the caliber of Beyonce? Like, like, what are we talking about? Like, we watched blue learn and get better in real time. I thought that was dope. Like, for just, you know, a parent, a mom to be like, you know, like, yeah, like, come out here, you're gonna learn on the fly, you're gonna get this, you know, me, you're gonna end repetition. And then now watching her, you know, become, you know, her own person and find her, her creative energy and express herself as well. It's just dope to watch the kids get older and grow up, man. Yeah. No, absolutely. We getting old, bro. I mean, that's the bottom line. We getting old. Yeah. We, I'm youthful. You are youthful. You have a youthful face. You're only as old as your ability to process new information. You're welcome. You got that jewel for free. Oh, thank you so much. That necklace is yours. Staying on music. I'm excited because black aka six lack is finally starting his rollout for his album. We love black. We support black over here. Bird flu is out now for the album love is the new gangster. I'm always excited when black decides to make music again. Same and that song sounds incredible. Yeah. Yeah. That's any peek into what the album sounds like. Thank you, black. Thank you LVRN. Thank you to the beautiful team over there. Yeah. And I appreciate it because I know black probably just wants to retire and hang out with his kids and never speak to anyone again. Right. Like never be seen, never be. Yeah, but that bird flu song is hard. Yeah. A little tone deaf on the title, but I'm just joking. It's not tone deaf. I'm joking. I'm joking. We can joke. I don't remember that. Yo, you can still joke. I don't know. I don't know if we can still get jokes off. I just don't know is what I'm saying. But no, we love black song is hard and the victims of bird flu and you know, prayers to any victims of bird flu. But what this song bird flu is that does that sound is that little is that J. I. D. coded or is J. I. D. jacking black sound? Well, they're all like grew up together. Okay. Okay. J. I. D. black like that. You can go with me and still my soul. No, we don't mean that. That's also not. You know, you know, I mean, you wasn't even looking at those sneakers. Why you got them now you got those after I got them and you sort of outfit I put together. Now, all of a sudden, here you come walking up the block with the same bag of sneakers. Each one's each one. This is our sauce. I like it's either way. It's more of an Easter Atlanta sound. Okay. I don't know. It's a lot. You know, you know, how many people from East Atlanta? I know a lot of people from East Atlanta. You know, a lot of artists in East Atlanta. Yeah. Not a lot of artists sound like J. I. D. and black. That sounds exactly like every Gucci man album to me. Not even not even a Gucci song. His whole photography is everything he performed in versus sounded just like that. Yeah, that song. That song is hard though. I don't know if I hear if that's J. I. D. coded. What? You don't think that song sounds you don't think that bird flu song. I could hear J. I. D. on a beat like that. I don't know. I'm gonna get on J. I. D.'s album. That sounds like it could have been on his last album, but that's still in like the black coded sonics that he's always had since free black for sure. But I'm saying that's what I'm saying. Is it is it a thing where J. I. D. is like jacking some of blacks sound and energy or like is it black jacking some of J. I. D. I know they know each other. I know they know they work together before obviously they were all from the same clique. Yes, they just split up between all the R and Andrew. Right. But what I'm saying is is it I mean we know does I mean a lot of schoolboy doesn't sound like a lot of Kendrick. Well, I mean that's a gang of you can hear him. You can hear him. You can hear some of Larry's for a thing. But I mean with them too, they definitely even their tone is very similar. I guess I mean free black did come out before J. I. D. had black was the first one from their their crew to like actually blow up and then came J. I. D. and earth gang and everyone else. But I don't I mean I give that sound to black. I could be ignorant. It could have came from someone else. But that was the first time I heard that type of sound was from free black. And this is I think a lot of people stole blacks sound in my opinion. And it's not a negative thing. I just think that they both sound similar like God damn if I if I wasn't looking at that video and I heard that I was like, yo, is that J. It was that I wouldn't know if that was black especially because black. Yeah. Hell yeah. Absolutely. Just even the tone like it's it's so similar to each other. Like sometimes J. I. D. goes into that register with a little yeah. He definitely deeper lower octave. Like he's not really like as animated. Like he still has melodies. Like they're very similar on say sound very similar on certain records. Well, I mean as a consumer the first time I heard that tone was from black before J. I. D. But again, maybe who knows in that regard. Because at one point, which I don't have a lot of black used to be a battle rapper. So maybe Jid was like, nah, you got to sing like this. I'm the rapper. I'm the rapper. You sing. I did not know that he was a battle rapper. That is. Okay. Now that you know that he was a battle rapper first, go back and listen to free black and the rest of his catalog. And you'll be like, it makes so much sense that you were a battle rapper. The lyrics. Yeah. Yeah. Like his pen he fits so many words in to a sound that shouldn't have that much lyrical content. No, he's 1000% a battle rapper. He's just now he's now battling a girl instead of somebody on stage. Yeah. That's that's what it is. But I'm excited. That's hard. Yeah. Shout out to LVR and for for getting black. Yes. Back out here. Shout out to Amber. Shout out to Justice. Right over there. LVR in. Yeah, I'm excited. We're recording before the Mike Will made it reset album is out because it is Thursday afternoon right now. But I'm excited to hear anything Mike Will related. We did touch upon it last episode. But that is out now. And is there anything else we would get a Georgia Smith song? The song is out price of it all. Okay. You like George Smith? Are you a George Smith fan? I'm a George Smith. But but you want George Smith or Naomi Sharon? George Smith just because I need more from her. It could end up changing but there's just not her her just one project right? A Georgia's? No, Naomi. No, she got a couple projects out. Okay. That obsidian project she put out is still one of my favorite. That's the one that I've heard. That's like two years, three years for sure. Obsidian is incredible. That's the one that I've heard. Oh, I guess I got to find more. But just because I've heard more Georgia Smith music, I'd go with Georgia Smith. But what this tells me as much as I like her music, this is more of a groundhog day type of thing for me. If we see Georgia Smith's shadow, it means we're getting ice man. This is going to piss this is going to piss Drake off. I don't care what's said in this record, but the nerve of Georgia to even sing on a microphone. We may get ice man next week. He might even do a weird Monday release or something because Georgia Smith put a song on. Okay. All right. Listen, man. That's how you feel. Listen, I'm here. I'm here for it. Man. That's how you feel. All right. Cool. Yeah. Georgia is the groundhog to Drake summer. That's that's really how I I view that's how you do your lens. Okay. Got it. I mean, she is responsible for one of the greatest it may be the greatest Drake R&B song of all time. Jaded is is top three to me. Jaded is definitely top three to me as far as R&B Drake records for sure. I would have to think about that. That would be a good draft. Oh, you made me drive three hours to your moms for what? No, Jaded is incredible. He went fucking nuts. I hold that regularly. That's one of the most incredible hours to your family's house for what? For what? For what? What was I in Mississippi? Never mind. Go ahead. I'm sorry. And then just tie crooning in the back. Yeah, that's a great record. Tie just sighing. Yeah. That's anytime Georgia Smith does something. I think it motivates Drake. I really think that's his real muse at the end of the day. Like for real. Okay. Like that's his Yoko. All right. That's how you feel? Listen, as much as I like her music, I know it comes with a bonus track, which is a soft little trick. Got you. I feel you. Okay. And price of it all. Like could this be finally a Jaded response all these years later? I don't think so. I don't think it is. But I don't think them people think about each other. I promise you they're not. Coco Jones. I saw the snippet of that record. It sounded really good. She looked great in in that snippet. Well, respectfully, I know she's no, no, no, she she she's engaged. I don't know. They're not married already. Her and Donovan married. That's a very serious question. They're engaged. So now does this Coco's content change? She's engaged. She's an R&B. So she's always made R&B. Yeah, but you know, but oh, no, I know Coco's good for a toxic situation ship song, but she's been leaning more towards like the loving, loving song. But she does do. She balances it out because I'm not it's called love a girl. Yeah. No, I mean, naturally. But I'm looking closely at Coco's content and how what she's singing about and what she's saying and also Meg. I'm listening close to Meg, how her content may change. Like, because you know, y'all love to say, yeah, yeah, yeah, I thought y'all thought we was outside of summer. Yeah. But my man coming to pick me up when I'm done partying. Like, so is it going to be that version of Meg and Coco? Meg said, just like Clarissa, he let his papusie. Who said that? Meg said it might be over. Just like Clarissa, he loved his papusie. We might have lost Meg. That fast. Look, I didn't even hear that ball. She's rapping like Clay is playing. When did Meg say that? She said it in the BBB remix with Juvenile. I think I played BBB for y'all. Juvenile song. That's which is one of my favorite rap verses of not the best, but one of my favorite rap verses this year. This is a new Meg verse. This is like a lady. Yeah. She she remixed the she actually went crazy. But that one line is like a joke in line. But she had fun with it. But don't do that again. No, don't don't. But afterwards, she said, getting that flow state, he don't want to lose me. So I mean, she cleaned it, you know, state he don't want to lose me. Maul Boost. Mola is proving that you don't have to overpay with great wireless unlocked savings with the $25 a month forever unlimited plan today, not just St. Patrick's Day week. Maul, this happens all the time. You would think you'd get lucky enough just because of St. Patrick's Day. This is forever. No, this is forever, Maul. Okay. It's a permanent price with no contracts and no price hikes. You can keep your phone and your number, but you save up to $600 a year compared to any of the major carriers. Maul, can you please stop overpaying and switch to a fair price at boostmobile.com based on average annual single line payment of AT&T Verizon and T-Mobile customers compared to 12 months on the boostmobile unlimited plan as of January 2026. For full offer details, visit boostmobile.com. Let's go. Our iHeart Radio Music Awards are coming back Thursday, March 26th live on Fox. Watch as we honor the biggest stars from all genres of music that you love listening to all year long on your favorite iHeart radio station and the iHeart radio app. Posted by Ludacris, Icon Award recipient John Mellencamp, Innovator Award recipient Miley Cyrus with performances by Alex Warren, Kehlani, Lainey Wilson, Ludacris, Ray, TLC, Salt and Pepper and Invoke. Plus Taylor Swift makes her first award show appearance this year. Also Gold Medal Olympian, Alyssa Liu, Neo, Nick Coleslaw, Nicky Glaser, Sombra, Weezer and more. Watch live on Fox Thursday, March 26th, Eddie Seven Central and listen on iHeart radio stations across America and the free iHeart app. I'm John Green. You may know me as the author of The Fault in Our Stars and now I guess also as the co-host of The Away End, a brand new world soccer podcast. I'm Daniel Alarcón, a writer and journalist and John and I have known each other since we were kids. My first World Cup was Mexico 86. I was nine years old. I watched every game and I fell in love. On our new podcast, The Away End, we'll share with you the magic of international football, all leading up to the 2026 World Cup. For us, soccer football is a story we've shared for over 30 years since Daniel was the star player on our high school soccer team. Very debatable. And I was their most loyal and sometimes only fan. I love this game. I love its history, its hope, its heartbreak and above all, its beauty. Together, we'll find out why of all the unimportant things, football, soccer is the most important. Listen to The Away End with Daniel Alarcón and John Green on the iHeart radio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. What's your flow state song when you drive? Yeah, Rory. I don't know if I have a flow state song. What? You don't have a flow state song? All right. What do y'all? Oh, tears of fears. Everybody rules the world. Okay. What? When that comes on, I don't even know where I'm headed. I'll be in the car. Welcome to the round. Yeah. I end up in Albany. I'm like, how the fuck did I get here? Like I was going to the store. I look up. I'm like, I'm in a whole nother. I'm at the Canadian border. Like, how did I get here? You just hit 87 and keep going north or you put that on? It's no stop. You got to put on the Nas version to drive home. Oh my God. It's no turning back once you put that record on. I don't know if there's a specific song. There's probably albums though. But I like doing, especially COVID got me into that. I just just driving. Yeah. Like just driving the fuck around and put music on. Like COVID has turned me into that person six years later. You don't have like road trip like albums or songs that you have to hear when you're on a road trip? It depends the mood that I'm in more or less. It depends on the flow of traffic. It depends. There's a lot of factors that go into flow state. It's no traffic to what's going on. Flow state is no traffic. But sometimes you can't anticipate that. And no, it's traffic and then you hit it. If it's traffic, that's it. Flow state is over. Yeah. Now it's like I put on loop or something because I can't. That's how I think that's how road rage is birth. When people are in flow state and then traffic happens. It's like, why the fuck? What is going on? Why is everybody on the road? I thought it was just me on the highway right now. I was driving to the beat of the music and now y'all fucking my shit. Yeah, it's like it was supposed to just be me, the only one on this entire interstate right now. Why is everybody outside flow state is like that feeling. Oh yeah. Pizza when the blinker sound syncs up with the beat. Yeah. That's flow state, yo. That's flow state. Just start throwing your hazards on. Just it's like the metronome. Yeah. Destiny's Child, Destiny Fulfill, Channel Orange, Frank Ocean, The Emancipation of Mimi by Mariah. Oh, well, you're just naming the album. The Black Album. Yeah, those are my flow, my road trip flow state albums. Like, okay. Oh yeah. Novocaine. Novocaine would at minimum get me the new Brunswick when I was on my way to a meeting. Yeah, the song's like 14 minutes anyway. Anything Shade really? Or they love with Jesus on the highway? Yeah. For sure. That's how I feel about the Naomi Sharon Obsidian album. Distant River. Out of here. Like anything Shade really, I'm probably not even realizing I'm driving a car. We're just going. Watch the throne too though. Who gonna stop me on the highway? Oh my god. It's not really rap for me though on the flow state. It's not really rap. I don't want to hear you niggas rapping. Who gonna stop me on the highway? It's crazy. It's just they gotta be a certain tempo. It has to be a certain melody, a certain octave, a certain like just emptiness of space and just music. I don't want to hit too many words. Don't give me too many words in the flow state. Have you ever been on 95 at 2am and Miguel Candles in the Sun comes on? That's a good one. Kaleidoscope Dreams in general is an incredible album. You're driving. You may miss your exit perfectly like nah. I'll go around. We're gonna loop the thing. We're gonna loop the thing. We're going around. Don't worry about it. But I mean flow state, that's a young man's game. Now like where I'm at in my life, I'm at the like angry old man parent phase where it's not flow state. It's what I'm gonna listen to in my driveway while I wait 20 minutes before I walk inside. I'm in that phase. Okay. Yeah. Let me just sit here and just and sometimes that's just dead silence. Just staring at my garage. That's serial killer. That's like you would you do. No, that's dad. That's like I think every movie that I've seen where before he goes and I was the kill just entire family, he did that. No, he's not. No, no, no. See, this is where I'll disagree. When you don't do that, that's when you kill your family. Like that 20 minutes of silence is needed as a man coming home from work before you walk into your house. It's not a bad thing. It's not like you hate your family. If you just go right in, right into the chaos, all that's going to get built up and bottled up. And then that will end up becoming a Netflix documentary. If you take that time to just unwind, then you're getting all the serial killer vibes out of your body. Yeah, but I feel like if you're taking that time to just stay at the garage door, I think you're going over your checklist of everything to clean the house after you massacre your family. Bleach, limes, duct tape, shovel, rope. I think you're going over that in your mind. Or like your mares. Who just got caught for he asked Chad GBT how to kill his wife or something? Oh yeah, one of the football players. Yeah. Yeah, he's cooked. He might as well just go and just just turn yourself in fam. It's over. He's cooked. Did he get arrested yet? Yeah, well, he was looking. He got arrested. He got his phone. He didn't ask Chad GBT how to kill my wife. He said, yo, like she ain't moving. She was acting crazy. Like what should I do? What should I say to the like, what should my friend say to the police? That reminds me this episode of first 48, right? This dude. So they know they knew he killed his girlfriend. So they're like, Yo, so tell us what happened. He was like, you know, we were arguing. Once they say that, it's like, fam, you're done. So when you say you was arguing and your girlfriend is dead, you did it like this. Nobody didn't come in after the argument. It was like, yeah, and it's kill your girlfriend. It was like, it was you. He says, yeah, like we was arguing. And then, you know, I held on the floor and I was on top of her and I told her, don't move. Stay there. And then I got up and she just stayed there. And I left. Where? And look at your ass in that back cell. And they go back to the coincidence. Yeah, I know. Take your ass in that back cell and close it behind you. Yeah. I mean, nothing was crazier than that guy who I hope is under the jail at this point that killed his wife and his two girls, like put them in that water tower. Oh, yeah, he's. But that doc, like when the cops with the with the body cam footage and he's walking around like he lost his keys, he's like, huh, where'd my family go? Yeah. Like literally walking around like he lost his key. But I love the fact that cop was outside and was like, yeah, he's way too calm. Like this is. And the neighbor too was like, yo, what's up? What's up? That was like, it's like fam, come on, fam, you did it. Your family's missing and you just calm. You're not panicking. You're not crying. You're not like, like, fuck the cop. I'm like, we need to be out, like get people outside. We need to be looking for my family. Like, yeah, people don't practice. Okay. I don't want to sound crazy when I say this. People don't like practice those scenarios in their head before they ever even commit the crime. Like how do you not know how to lie when you finally commit the crime? I'm sure you do. The lie and the tears and all of that. I do that sometimes. I don't have no plans to kill. I'm sure they do. But you don't, you don't know how to react unless you're really in that moment. You can think about it. You can plan it. But until it's done, that like when you know in your mind, you just killed your family. I don't care how many times you played the scenario over in your head. When somebody approaches you and starts questioning you about, yo, so what happened with you? Your mind is all over the fucking place. So you're going to start to say things and act in a way where somebody's going to be like, this is not natural. Like you're way too calm and like like detectives, they know body language and they know energy. If somebody tells you to demerit your entire family is missing right now, you're not going to be in there like, but I don't wear. Could they be? That's not true. That's not even it's like, wait, somebody, the detective was gonna be like, I will use that last night. They know of rip, like body language, energy, like you're not, they know natural reactions to certain things that they say is like, it's just your energy is going to tell everything. Tuesday, she plays cribbage with her friends. She never came back. But that guy was so sick that like, I'm pretty sure his kids were still alive on his way to the water tower. Like that guy is a different level of like, I hope somebody slowly dismembered him in that jail. I was sick that that guy was one of those that you need to just kill him slowly. But as far as crimes in the court system and justice, let's have a big round of applause for our guy Afro man, not guilty. Y'all got to feel me. For those that don't know, a few years ago, Afro man lives in a small town in Ohio. And a few years ago, the cops raided his house, busted his door in based off shitty information of him having a bunch of weed in kidnapping people, busting his, his crib. He's not there, but he has cameras. They go on to steal his money, fuck up his house and don't find anything. And then on top of that, his money goes mysteriously missing from the evidence locker. And yeah, they just straight up stole his shit. They cut his cameras off while they were raiding the entire thing. So he was not charged with anything because he didn't do anything wrong. But for the next few years, he continued to make songs about each officer that was involved in the rage. Some of the funniest songs I've heard. Those cops went on to sue him as of last month for defamation and which today he beat the case. Have you guys heard any of the songs that he's put out? No, I haven't. One of the songs was about him fucking one of the cops wives. And the guy said it ruined his marriage. They did fake tears on the stand. Afro man only had one witness in this civil suit and it was the cop's ex wife. She got on the stand and said, our marriage did not end because of this fucking song. It was like case closed in a second. Look at that. So it was, I encourage all of you to go listen to every song from this entire mixtape series. I'm glad that he was found not guilty though. It's, I mean, there's one in the CC footage, one cop during the raid has his gun out and keeps looking at the cake like he wants a slice. And Afro man made a whole song about that cop. Just looking at the cake. He said it made him put his firearms down. Well, what were they charging him with though? What was the original? They got faulty information. They never truly explained how they got the info. That he had weed and was kidnapping people. I had like some layer in his basement with kidnapped victims and was like not the case whatsoever. So they couldn't even charge him with anything because they walked in there and didn't get anything except for his actual money. And then he made these songs to troll the whole police force. I like that. The songs are so fucking funny. They're the funniest things ever. And Afro man is in court in an American flag suit. He's a patriot. And that's what he wears in all the videos too. It's the greatest. I'm a character the whole way through trolling the shit out of y'all. See, that's the energy of somebody that's not guilty. See the marriage? You start playing with them like, what the fuck are y'all talking about? Like, no, I don't want this. No, then you can have fun. You teaching me right now how to get away with crime. I'm well that I'm mine. Moll Gbt. No, it's not Moll Gbt. Don't I'm not teaching the marriage anything about. No, you are. You are. It's okay. I'm gonna tell the cops that too. I just watched a lot of first 48. So I do my, you know, why would you call anyone after you committed a crime? What do you mean? It's 2026. Why would you call anyone after you committed a crime? Why would you do anything with a phone? Yeah, like just just anything period. Buy anything with a credit card. I don't like exist really. Anything that connects to cellular towers or Wi-Fi. Like let's just please just leave it where it is. Yeah, that's why if you commit a crime, people will student leave your phone home. Who you got to call? Why you committed crime? But exactly. I checked the timeline. Why you committed crime? Right. Go sit in that back. You pinged off this tower. She got killed right there. Yeah, it was you. Niki get back getting that back. So before we get out of here, do we want to do a paradise update? Yes. One more episode left. I was going to say wait until Monday. Does it a new one come out on Monday? Sunday night Monday morning. It's been a whole new episode since we talked about it last. Okay, we'll go ahead. I haven't seen it yet. So yeah, I will have to talk about it. But let's do spoiler alert, spoiler alert. If you haven't seen it. If you haven't seen it, I don't want to spoil it for you. I don't mind spoiling for the listeners. I don't want to spoil it for you. That's their fault. But I'm almost on the side of saying paradise is easily one of the best shows in TV history. And it's only two percent for sure. Is the second season better than the first? It's a different it's a different more characters are coming into play. You're kind of getting the story of each character a little bit. Jane, who is a character from the first season, she was an agent for the president, Secret Service agent. We're getting her character, her story now. A lot of y'all are raising James right now. Yeah, yeah, yeah, 100%. So yeah, this I like the second season is probably just as good as the first. It's probably I don't know which one I would say is better. It's one more episode left in season two. And I'm going to guess, Rory, that there's a season three coming. I mean, I would hope so. Yeah, this is a whole story coming. I'm with you. They're they're drastically different seasons. They're hard to compare. I would say the first one is better, but it just had it had like more action, more like holy shit moments. And like every episode was a crazy turn. This one has been a slow burn in a good way. I've really enjoyed season two. But they're hard to compare. I would say season one is better just because it was maybe a little bit more action. But it's about to get crazy. So I mean, the ending of this last episode was kind of crazy. All my predictions were correct. Shout out to Sterling Brown, another because he has another one of my favorite, probably our favorite shows ever in TV history. This is us. And people versus OJ Simpson. Yeah, that. And I think he's an executive producer on Paradise. Okay. So he's he's like, he has that on his resume now, like he's executive producer producing one of the best shows on television right now. So shout out to Sterling Brown. And I'm yeah, how are you? I'm in a catch up. I will I will try to make room to do it. There's only one left. So you got to watch seven and then eight comes out Sunday night, midnight. So I'm actually kind of jealous of you because I was I was kind of pissed watching that episode and not being able to watch the finale. I would wait till the day the finale comes out and just watch seven and then go right into I'm gonna try to tonight. I'll try to squeeze it in before my flight and then yo, the she's going before your flight girl squeeze the episode and watch it before the flight and then watch the other one before I come into work on Monday. Okay, cool. Cool. Um, as we're going to Houston this weekend. Oh, yes, it's that was next week. No, that's my birthday is next week, but I'm going to host burgers and bottles this weekend. Burgers and bottles. Shout out to the burgers and bottles team burgers and bottles burgers and bottles outside. Yeah, we all saw we yeah, I invited y'all y'all don't want to come to Houston with me. So it's whatever I go to Houston for burgers and bottles. I'm not coming back. Let me just be honest. I get on a flight Sunday. Definitely not leaving Houston on the Sunday. I don't know who does that. I leave Monday morning and Monday. Of course you leave Monday. Nobody flies out of Houston. I fly right into here. I'm coming right into work. Yes. Yeah, worry. I wouldn't even play my I wouldn't even attempt to do that. I'm not leaving Houston. We just move the whole pocket. I'm not fucking leaving. Not fucking leaving. I'll be in the lobby. I don't think I've ever left Houston on the day I was supposed to leave. I'm being 100%. If you're in Houston for a week and it don't change your flight, you are lame. You ain't get no you have no fun. You ain't mean no people. You just like you catch your flight. What are you doing? You got to change your flight. Yeah, man. Yeah, no, I don't play myself. I stay with you. I'm coming into work. The airports are nasty. So if I get like delayed, I'll let y'all know. But I'm I land at 11. We recorded 1230. That's called 4D. Yeah, that's called 4D. I'm four steps ahead of you. Yo, listen, the airport is nasty. She telling us this on the Thursday. About Monday. Monday. Baby D know what the TSA lines look like in Houston on Monday. And we're recording on Thursday. Yo, Lodge is crazy. It's nasty. You know, the Iran oil prices up jet fuel is crazy right now. Yo, listen, they don't even have peanuts on the flights right now. It's nasty. I might not make it. Yeah, I like that baby D. And you know, she like pretend to be mad like I just want to get home. Yeah, I'm just trying to get home. Definitely gonna want to be home by Monday. I'm gonna want to be home. I'm so tired. Like I was telling Rory like 32 is coming next week. And I'm tired all the time. I really know more for real. Like not how I used to joke and be like, I'm done being outside. Like I really am just like exhausted all the time. My body tired when I drink and make me sleepy now. Like I'm just gonna summertime yet. Soon as that sun come out. Oh, it's the sun you think? Yeah, of course. Yeah, that's all. Soon as the sun come out, you're gonna be just gonna be hard to keep you in the house. Soon as that sun hit, baby D outside, tan, skin glowing, less clothes, pedicure feet out. When the feet out, you ain't home. When you got to put socks on, that's when you're like, I'm tired. That's when you're acting like an auntie when you got to put socks on. Soon as you can have your feet out, you outside. Okay. Yeah. It's a power engine. Morphing, she just takes the socks off and turns them on. I'm not listening to the marriage. She know damn well, as soon as you start getting warm outside, you're gonna be in the house. You said 4D because that just reminded me that a bunch of women, I hate the word expose, but posted game DMing them the same thing. Like game has a Rolls Royce white ceiling for all his DM shit as well. He has like a template. Not nudy. What is it? It's a great character trait. He said D3. She said, huh? He said, oh, my bad. I thought this was a vending machine. I was trying to get a snack. No, no, no, no, no, no. No, no, no. I gotta let that breathe. Let it breathe. Let it breathe. Y'all not hearing game. Y'all not hearing them. Red Rolls white ceiling. Yeah, you just reading messages. You got to hear them though. 3D. I'm starting with that because he know that's gonna prompt the, huh? Oh, that's not a vending machine. I was trying to get a snack. Come on. And we're gonna go deeper. If you ever seen a vending machine, 3D, you know, that's the best snacks. Yeah. All the best snacks is 3D on the vending machine. And I thought these women were a little over dramatic. Like he was doing the same thing because on this next one, he said F3. And she said, question mark. He said, oh, shit, my bad. I saw a snack and thought this was a vending machine. He's so fine. He don't got to do that. And then one girl didn't even accept a message. It just says F3. This nigga speaking in Moscow. Yo, game. That's a word, Smith. I feel like you're just coming up with something else. Oh my God. The greatest rappers about your version of the National Game. He was red, rose, white ceiling in the DMs. That is crazy. That's his money bag. Because this mad combo is F3D3GA. It's mad. There's so many combos on a vending machine. Like he Yo, game. It's like, see, they this is why you gotta have my guarantee that's worked a lot. 1000% is worth. There's a reason why he doesn't at this point. And the girls is doing that. They don't never show they responses though. But you got to have game as a like you got to have game as a woman though. Because my response would have been, yeah, but you got to tap the pay first. You don't get to say what I'm saying. So you three dollars immediately. That's almost some chips caught $3 here. Mm. What's your chips girl? Your game is tripping though. You can't do that though. That girl's pretty. They just shows like screenshots. It doesn't show what girls he was talking to. Come on. It matters who he's who he's getting that off to. It matters. I don't even think it matters the game. I think he probably just you said what? Ghoster. My favorite vending machine snack. I was a big famous Amos cookies. Some dry ass cookie. What in school high school for the famous Amos the bag. What? That was the shit little dry. I mean, yeah, but you high school. I mean, you got frutopia. Damn, what fucking year were you in fucking high school? Oh one frutopia for sure. Frutopia famous Amos cookies. Yeah. Cheez-its. You always had to get the cheez-its. White cheddar or the regular? Not white cheddar. No, never go white cheddar. White cheddar was all the rage when I was in high school. Y'all like white cheddar? No, they're nasty, but you like hot white chocolate. You want to know? Yes, I do. You do? Yeah, that is the nasty shit of a hot white chocolate is the nasty shit of it. How do you drink that? The name of the next Jack Harlow. It was right there because I kind of like it was hanging fruit. I would have done the pot of disservice if I didn't try disservice. Oh, yo, not that I care about numbers, right? You know I don't care about numbers, but can we just see what Jack did first week? Is it out yet or does it come out Tuesday? It has to be out. Well, his predicted, I think if I'm not mistaken. I saw a nice little PR cleanup. Rolling Stones, like what's all the outrage? It's great. Yo, Jack, I don't care about numbers, I promise, but I just want to see what Monica did first week. That's all. He is expected to move around 25,000 units in its first week, putting it on track to debut outside the Billboard top 20 of the Billboard 200 for comparison. Come home, the kids, Midge, Mishoo did 113,000 units. Damn, that's a brick. He put up a brick. What did Jack man did? What, 30? I think they said. I can't remember. We talked about it, but I mean, listen, no rollout, no single. Did 35, Jack man? Damn. So 10 less than Jack man. Well, it's also a genre that unfortunately doesn't sell well and you had no single, no nothing. No, nobody just expected that sound from Jack Harlow. He did it for the love. He didn't do it for the, I cannot believe that Demaris laughed in my face when I sold 12,000 first week. I did not laugh in your face. I was so proud of you. I cannot. He just made that up. I was so proud of myself. I did not. He's lying. I can't remember. I can't remember. He's lying. I did not laugh in his face. We were all very proud of him. Like he's, he's lying. He's talking about when we did that past the phone too. And in the past the phone too joke, remember we can't joke anymore. I said I'm passing the phone to someone whose album went double copper and that is what he's. Oh, okay. He never let that go. No. Yeah. Okay. Got it. But I was very proud of the second joke because he laughed before and then I explained to her like how album sales work and I was like, yo, her sold 30. 12 is amazing. Yeah, man. I'm not a numbers guy. I really don't care. But yeah, but that's a for Jack Harlow. That is a low 20. I know it matters to his label. Oh, 1000. The music business, of course it matters to his label. But yeah, all right. Well, so now it's not bad. The music is not bad. We just, we weren't expecting that from Jack. That's all. You're gonna go to the show. He's, he's touring that. I would. I mean, he didn't say anything, but I would assume that he would be touring it. I'm sure like small intimate venues. I would hope if you try to go like tour that you can't do Brooklyn Steel with that. Yeah. No, I don't want to see Jack do that. I don't need to go see Jack do that live. I don't need to see the acoustic performance of Monica. So yeah, I'm cool. But not about our like Prague like Sloan Prague. It's not a bad album. Just it's not what we wanted from Jack. What do you think the audience will look like? What do Jack Harlow fans look like? Now what he said to the wrong, forget it. Definitely not what New York Times said. I'll tell you that. I just can't. I mean, Nail Tech was such a banger like Churchill Downs. What are we doing? Monica? All right, whatever. Cool. Well, right now we also have our Ray Daniels episode out. That is great. Yeah, shout out to Ray Daniels. Our Patreon as well, patreon.com forward slash new Rory Mall. Socials. We got merch out. I hope everyone has a great and safe, safe weekend. Yes. Yes. Is anyone outside this weekend? I might be free Sunday. I didn't get my Sunday last week, but I think I might get one. Yeah, I don't know if I'm outside this weekend. I mean, I don't have no plans to be outside. Why? Of course not, baby. She'll be in. Oh, she'll be outside. Yes, definitely. Make sure you follow me on IG. Make sure you follow me on IG. Can I get back in the close friends for this weekend? Well, I mean, honestly, the only close friends I mean, I'm gonna be posted in my subscriptions. That's where that's where it's at. I already done started. I was just about to say you got to plug your subscriptions. My subscriptions are getting crazy. Those might spike for this weekend. Yeah, I'm going wild. And I already started posting. Bush. The airport in Houston. Yeah, come on. Come on, get your mind out of the gun. You're flying into Bush. Like, yeah, you know, you got to get some. It's hobby Bush. Like that's always LaGuardia, JFK, which one you go into? It's the same thing in Houston. It's two airports. Yeah. Oh, man, we talk to you soon. Be safe. Be blessed. I'm that nigga. He's just ginger. Baby D is outside in Houston. Go get her. Oh, my Jesus. Jesus Christ. You're listening to all year long on your favorite I heart radio station and the I heart radio app hosted by ludicrous icon award recipient John Mellencamp, innovator award recipient Miley Cyrus with performances by Alex Warren, Kailani, Lainey Wilson, ludicrous, Ray TLC, salt and pepper and invoke. Plus Taylor Swift makes her first award show appearance this year. Oh, I'm Daniel Alarcón and this is my friend is much more famous than I am. I wouldn't go that far, but I'm John Green cohost of the podcast, the away and with my old friend Daniel on our podcast, the away and we'll share with you the magic of international football, all leading up to the 2026 World Cup together. We'll find out why of all the unimportant things football soccer is the most important. Listen to the away and with Daniel Alarcón and John Green on the I heart radio app, Apple podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. This is an I heart podcast guaranteed human.