The Dream

Yo, what's up? You tuned in to me, The Dream and my guy, Sean Stockman. We're here on that note and I don't know what you know about me, but I've written a couple records, one single ladies, one maybe baby by Justin Bieber, one maybe Holy Girl by Jay-Z. Some of your favorites, you know. Yeah, just a few. That worked real hard. I would really love it if you guys tuned in and just bear with two songwriters for a moment. Because everything kind of changed for a minute. It's like, do these people really care? Is it more about fame and less about the records? And we can see it. And you don't want certain people, if you have the luxury to, you don't want certain people singing your songs. If you have the luxury, that's a blessing to be able to say. Now I'd rather wait till she sings it than to give it to this person. They don't care, the label don't care, the team, the rollout team, nobody cares. And they're going to take that record and then at the end of the day, if you are bigger than those artists, they're just going to say, you're the one, the reason why I did whatever it did or I didn't do. Yeah. It was like, no, I'll just... That's always a scapegoat. Yeah. So it was like, oh, let's wait this out. And I was transforming my thing personally as an artist too. I didn't want people to get confused at the idea that I happened just in a time period. So I said, I'm going to do this other thing that I do well alongside the JZs, like no church, alongside the Pusha Tees, because I'm from the West Side of Atlanta. That's right. I know that too. Yeah. The exes are always crazy. So I know all that space also was in the singing group in high school. So I know all of these things about who I am. But naturally, like you said earlier, I won't go past a point where it just doesn't look like, oh, that's not me. I'm not doing a four on the floor beat on that. There's a good time and a right time for a four on the floor, but I'm not doing it because so-and-so is singing it. So we can... I'm just not. And people in the back of the there, you know, you say, call it sell out, but it was just more than that. Like, if the right time and the right place for it, like a baby for Justin Bieber, for instance, if it's a right time for that and that's the right artist, then yeah. But that's not a record for anybody else other than him at that time at his age. And if you won't have this, like, I'm not going to make another one of those unless I see somebody else in that space. Of course. But they'll call and ask. And it's in the artist and you're like, you know, that's not Justin. But it's necessary that people like you exist because you are the yin to the yang. Like they don't look at it. They will never look at it like you. They will never look at the process of making a record because that's just not what they do. They don't have it in them. Like I always say when I hear artists get upset because the label didn't understand because they weren't meant to understand. Labels don't understand the creative part. They just don't have it. It's literally the machines against Zion. Like they don't, that's not what they're created to do. They're created to mass produce it. That's it. Like whenever I see artists get frustrated over that, I say to myself, well, I say to them, you don't get it yet. You don't get it. Like they're not there for that. So don't frustrate yourself. Just understand how to utilize their tools. And give them the part of you, if you've got into a space where you're with a major especially, give them the part that's the sale. Maybe yeah, that song is for you. I'm not doing that song. But I do know you have to sell something. That's why I'm here. So let me give you something to sell. Not going past my innate ability or how I feel about me or me being honest in my songs. Let me give you something. I know the difference. When it's the walls are all purple feeling like an artist. I just want to do whatever. Cool. There's that person that's saying that everybody, whoever's an artist, you want to do something that can't nobody sell, but it feels good. And who knows, you may pass away and become Van Gogh. That's what Van Gogh was doing. Art that nobody understood at the time. And now here he is right beside DaVinci and all of these guys. If you willing to take that hit, cool. But if you're here to actually, if you got into a space with somebody else and they don't understand that part of you, just give them the side that they understand. Yeah. Well, and set it up for later. Because it's not, it shouldn't, when you're, I feel like when you're talented, you're not going anywhere. And the internet lies all the time. And they'll tell you not hot, you're not this, you're not that. It's all about people though. Yes. The people will. Connection. No way don't Spotify to tell you what's going on. So how do you connect to them? I feel like just innately being myself, showing up to these particular places with guys like you, speaking about what it is and how I care and love it. And I feel like my love for it is what they care about even before they get to a record. They know that I love this. They know I love this shit. Like regardless, I would do it. It don't even matter whether it was church, when we was growing up, or whether it's now just the pure idea of remembering going to work early in the morning and songs saves people's lives. You're going to a job that you know you hate. And it's a certain song that's going to get you to Friday. You're like, this is going to get me to Friday. Wow. I'm going to put my shit on. Friday come and put my shit on. I'm going to get paid. And yeah, I don't like this job, but damn it, I'm going out. I might blow this whole week. I might blow the whole check. Hold it. Hold it. But it's worth it. And those things, that's my job. That's literally what my job is, is to say, all right, let me communicate with the world if I'm ever so blessed to do so. Let me communicate with everybody to say whatever time you're in, whatever space you're in, whether it's maybe you did just get paid and you want to celebrate and you want to refresh Riviera or you might want to do your thing. Or you're like, y'all been pouring concrete all week. Oh, cool. God, I got you. Here's a record. All right, cool. That's expensive, but it's only $0.99 or something. Right. Right. So that for me was why I did this shit in the first place. I understood both sides of what the thing was. It's not as a kid coming into a space where I'm like, it's all about the fame or this or that. And even when it came to be about being an artist, it was to showcase songs and songwriting. It had nothing to do with being famous. I could care less. Like, oh man, you're going to be like, no, not really. That answers a lot of my questions, but we're going to get into it. But this is what happens when you catch us in the middle of a conversation with people that I know I personally respect and someone who I'm meeting for the first time, but have been a fan of his for many years, not just because of his artistry, but just everything. I observe. I sit back and I just watch people. I watch how people move. I watch the clothes they wear. I watch the food they eat. I was like, yeah, I just, I see it all. And we have a lot in common. That's me in a way. Yeah. I was just, you took it right up. I was like, yeah, that's me. In a sense of, that's part of, I think the journey in life is the learning. Yes. And seeing. Knowledge above everything. Yes. And talking to somebody like yourself who, you know, you're tapping into something into me just by talking to you because I've been this way for so long. I'm not saying there's anything wrong with me, but there's a cerebral component to being a great songwriter that many don't really tap into or don't know that it exists in themselves until you're talking to someone and then you hear it and you go, wow, this is like, at one point it was a dead language. You know what I'm saying? And then you start talking to somebody and it's almost like riding a bike. It's like, you know Spanish, but you don't really apply it. Until you're around people that speak Spanish and then all of a sudden it starts flowing out of your mouth. From a songwriter to a songwriter, I understand these thoughts, but because my mode took me off this highway and somewhere else. I had to be something else. Got it. So it's almost like a cleansing to hear how you speak because this is our religion, if you understand what I'm saying. Oh, absolutely. Like to write songs based off of connection. Fuck algorithms. It's not about social media as you say because they lie. What is it? Hearing pundits who happen to be peers of ours talking about what's dope, what ain't, what you got to do to be this and all this other stuff. And something inside me just makes my neck go like this. That's me. Because when you hear it, you go, nah, something ain't right about. You're not speaking. Please don't talk on my behalf. Right. Please don't. Right. But they have big mouthpieces. They have big soapboxes that people listen to. We was just talking about it. Previous. Like if you drill some in someone's head enough, they'll start to believe it. Absolutely. That's what happened to us as a people. Yep. You know what I'm saying? When they tell you you are this and not only do they drill it into you verbally, but physically. Yes. Like you tend to be unmade. You turn into this person until again, something wakes it up. It could be just a conversation. It could just be something, a person, a spirit, the energy where you just kind of think. But the point, you're like, hold on, what's going on here? What's going on here? I run from it. That space? Run from it. I run from it. I run from the idea of even if it's as simple as a certain type of accolade. Like, yo, we want a lifetime. I need to stay right here. I need to stay in this space because that sounds like I'm done doing a thing. And although, you know, when you get to a certain age, you're like, I'm kind of done today. Yeah. No, that's just natural. And you're fighting against all of that. You're also fighting against your comfort. You're fighting against the things that made you okay. Everything's okay. Maybe I can just not. And then you realize, oh, no, I'm doing this for a whole different, not just my kids. My kids will be okay. They good. That's the pragmatic part. That's the pragmatic part. Yeah. And then you realize that you're not going to be able to get into which we know in a songwriter's brain. Yeah. We're like, you know, this doesn't make that much sense, but I'm going to go along with it anyway. I'm going to do this thing, these rules that you guys have set out for my life. Yes. Because the system at this point works for me. They, all right, man. Who's, who's interviewed? Yeah. What's going on? This shit. This is the place obviously where we speak a language. We all understand and that is music. My guest today, let me tell you something. Again, I've been a fan of this man for years and just watching from a distance, listening to his stuff when I'm at home or I'm traveling in Paris or if I'm going somewhere, his music tends to suit the mood everywhere that I personally go. And that in itself makes his, his, his, his repertoire and his material useful for me. He speaks my language and I know he speaks a lot of other peoples as well. He's the most, one of the most successful songwriters in the past 30 years. He's written some of the most iconic records for the biggest artists in the world from Britney Spears to Justin Bieber to Beyonce to Rihanna. He's responsible for creating the anthems, anthems, many of them actually that to this day are heard all over radio stations, arenas, stadiums, movies, TV shows and everywhere else in between from hood classics to straight up pop classics. His pen knows no bounds. He's not only written hits for others. He scribbled a few for himself as well, making his own solo efforts, multi platinum success There's no doubt you have absolutely something in your playlist. He's touched no doubt. If you, if you know, you know, and if you don't know, you know now. An eight time Grammy award winning songwriter, producer. Nine time. Oh, sorry. Nine. Oh my bad. You got another one. Yeah. Congratulations. Thank you. Hey, let it be known. Let it be known. That's what's the listen. This is the show where you puff your chest all the way to the right. All right. Cool. Don't you don't even trip because I'm like you you. So I can say that you have no, he's like, oh, I'm cool. Don't even trip. I only have four. So, you know, hopefully, you know, I have zero, but I have nine shit. I got nine. That's not nine time. Grammy award winning songwriter, producer, music executive label CEO. He's also a father and a lover of fancy things and fine wines. Ladies and gentlemen. Yes, please give it up for Mr. Terrius Jet Steel, Diamant, a.k.a. The Dream. Thank you for having me. You don't understand how happy I am. Oh, I'm drunk. I got on that road. So it is like, yo, you need to send your car. I said, no, I'm driving there. I will drive. He really is happy when I told him you were coming on last night. He was like, B, I'm so fucking ready. Let's go. It's mutual. I'm just letting you know. Yeah. OK. That's good. It's mutual. That's good. That's good. How you been? You look good. Thank you, man. I'm just trying to hold it down. I look wealthy. Keep. You look well. My granny will do that to you. When they say you want to smoke, like you're trying to think to yourself, like when you're starting to do this, as you, you know, y'all came up in a different time, though. Yeah, we did. But now you can't. Why they pocket watch in? Yeah, they can do nothing. But you know, we were so happy for y'all when we was young. Yeah. What? Yeah. Boys to men. We don't care what boys to men. We don't care if it's Jolicy. We don't care Jermaine Dupri, Dallas Austin. We was like, go get them. Yeah. Man, when we came up, it's like the whole thing changed. It's like, oh, I can't stand that new. Yeah. What just happened? Don't you find that funny? It's the craziest thing because they know we came from nothing. I don't get it. It's like, you know, you have to know if you've done any job that's hard to do and you finally did it. It's like working out. It's like, when you finally get that body sculpted right, you're like, you know, man, I've worked hard for this. Is that and then at the end of it, it's like, man, whatever, man, you're like, but and you don't need the praises at all. But I don't need that. What's the hate come from? That thing and I see it happening. It's a fact. It's manufactured, Teres. It's manufactured. Absolutely. I don't believe it. I refuse to believe it. To see people like I have a credo that I go against. Like I consider these guys in my, I have a small crew of people, but that roamed me on this podcast specifically, but they're like my family to me. My credo is never go against the family. I don't care what we go through. I don't care what issues we might have. I could talk about him. You can't. This episode is sponsored by BetterHelp. May is mental health awareness month, guys, and it's a good reminder that whatever you're dealing with, you don't have to carry it by yourself. Life doesn't move in a straight line. Some days feel good. Some days feel heavy. And when something's been sitting on your mind, keeping you up at night, stressing you out, it's very easy to feel like you've got to figure it out on your own. But the truth is nobody has all the answers. And having someone to talk to, someone who's there to listen and help you sort through whatever you're feeling can make a real difference. BetterHelp connects you with a licensed therapist, and they do the work to match you based on your needs. If it's not the right fit, you can switch it at any time. It's straightforward and it's built around helping you focus on what you need. With over 30,000 therapists and millions of people served, it's become the largest online therapy platform in the world. And people are seeing real value from it. You don't have to be on this journey alone. Find support and have someone with you in therapy. Sign up and get 10% off at betterhelp.com slash on that note. That's betterhelp.com slash on that note. Man. You understand what I'm saying? Like I could like my group members. It's law. Nate is known in the group and he knows it's a joke, so I say this, but he's known to be an asshole. And only you can say that. Only I can say that. That's how I go. That's the law. Only I can say that. You can't talk about my brother like that. To me, maybe somebody else, but it's going to be a problem. Oh, yeah, it's a fight. So I apply that same thing with industry people, people that are at my peers in the business. We've all seen a lot of people go through a lot of things in their lives, in their personal lives, and things like nature. Some real serious struggles. And I've seen even our own people, but I've seen others rip them apart. And my thing is, y'all understand a lot of people, they're real brave behind those phones. And they say a lot of things about people that's very mean and condescending. And they hide behind their IG username. But you don't understand how hard it is to go through life, let alone life in this business, where there are so many things that are flying at you that you are just told to just take in or understand or understand fast. Get to this money fast. Get to that show fast. Get to that award show fast. Talk to that person. Yeah, but I like it, but you got to. You got to talk to them. That tends to really play a mind game on you. Because after a while, reality and what's not real tends to merge. Yes, right. So you see a lot of people take a deep dive into the sunken place. And I've seen it. And I've seen it too. And I know it when I see it. So when I see people speaking on certain artists, and they're to talk, oh, he's this, he's that, and the third. Leave him alone. Leave her alone. Let this human being be a human being for one fucking second. Allow this person to go through his trial. We all have that family member who we protect because we know the nigger crazy. Oh yeah, Unk crazy. Unk crazy. You know he crazy. Unk is crazy, but he's Unk. Yes. And we love him. He's blood. How a guy. You can't do it. That happens because people know I work with a lot of people. Oh, I heard so and so is so and so. I'm like, yeah, what, how did you know that? Well, just one day I did this thing and she wouldn't take a picture that day. Are you kidding me? That's what I want. That's the first reply is like, you got to be kidding me right now. But you're thinking about it in life. And I'm like, well, I know people in my family that aren't famous, that don't want to take a picture at no time for the day. And will curse you out and fight you. Like so. And I'm like, well, I love them to death. So this one time this person didn't want, I don't know if they were hungry today. I know I have an eight and probably like 25, 26 hours. I don't know how human you have to be or to even look at that person if they look at them other than they're just. This hero of sorts. Remember, I started that's why I'm the conversation. Like, right. The thing is, is that. People just look at Spider-Man. Yep. Right. But he's Peter Parker. Period. He's Peter and he was Peter first. He was Peter first. He became Spider-Man. And now everybody expects him to be Spider-Man all the fucking time opposed to saying, yo, now I'm Peter. Going to sleep with that suit on. Right. Like now I'm Peter. No, that's that's where we are. And I wouldn't. And the idea. To know that it's not, you know, a real space, I've given it time. And yeah, it's not a real space when it's people that don't know any better. When it's certain people, though, that I know. Have been in this music thing long enough to know better. That's when we have a problem. Yes. I agree. On outliers. Man, say what you want to say. If a contemporary of minds, if I hear or see a certain thing, ask all of them. Anytime I had a problem with them, I called them direct on the phone. Yo, what's up? Ain't do ain't got no. I don't have Twitter fingers. I don't have none of that. I'm calling you because that's what I was taught to do. I'm going to call you like, yo, what's what's up? Oh, that one that that was just, you know, I was just. Why would you? I would never say that about you. Like, why would you say that? Oh, man, we were just having fun at my expense. Or our expense. But I tear you and you are this thing that means something to all of us. I'm tearing the whole thing up. Back to the thing. I can't go out and be like, oh, let's talk. Let's talk about all crazy. To these strangers. Who don't even know who wouldn't even know. Oh, man, he been he been in the military. Right. You got shot at. By the way, it ain't right. Leg ain't right. He can't even sleep. Well, that's the uncle you talking about. Right. You just saw him that one time at Starbucks. You're like, oh, yo, this is kind of tweaking. Yeah. Something wrong with him. Of course, life is what's wrong with him. Life is what's wrong with all of us. And we're managing a particular thing. So that's why when we appreciated the things that y'all did. And it's probably because I grew up with that. Oh, man, I grew up with my grandfather. So there was no day off. And he was a no nonsense type of guy. Like didn't play no games. I am not playing with you. And that's when weapons were still weapons. Yeah. They're like, oh, yeah, go get my belt. You better get the big one. Yeah. Don't come back playing no games. Yeah. That's what I'm saying. That guy, concrete Mason, pulled a whole fam from the country, brought him to Atlanta, gave him jobs. That's the guy that raised me. And so for me, these phone calls that I have, these relationships that I have in protection, even of my family, comes from that particular guy. You can't say nothing ill will about that person. Right. I don't have to know Sean. I don't got to know you. I ain't going to sit in a room and allow that. That's a pillar. You tie that down to building. That's what's wrong with the building, which then goes over into another space. That's not even about how we feel innately as human beings. It's you're tearing down the infrastructure of a thing that now is the reason why you can't even negotiate the right thing for yourself. You cheap in his position. He was being funny. You cheap in his position and instead of them 10 m's he got, he got five. Right. And then it go get you too. Class is in session. Class is in motherfucking. Listen up. But see, listen, first off, let me let me point out that the conversation that he said he told me make the phone call, whatever, yo, what's good. Whatever, I come from the same school. I'm never the type to oust anybody. You got a problem with me. You got a problem with me. Call me or I'll call you and we'll talk about it. We men. Let's knock this out. And if you still don't like me at the end of the day, at least I know. But the key is that we did it in private. Like men, like if you got a problem with me, I'd rather you pull me to the side and say, yo, I had an issue with what you said. Okay, then let's talk about it. Let's knock it out. You know what I'm saying? And then after that, we come to some sort of agreement. We hug it out. We back. That's how we grew up though. That's, but that's a. We can fight and we're going to play. We, we back outside playing, man. That cold got scratched out. Yeah, I know. And it hurts because there's no way I can undo that type of learning for me because those, that's my foundation. I can't undo that. All I can remember is this is my best friend. We go, he gonna be Jordan today. I'm a B bird today. I'm going to be Dominique this day. He's going to be, we're going to get to fighting. And in about three hours, I'm going to miss him. He going to miss me. I'm going to find a Twinkie and cause we go split that joint. I'm going to give it to you and we back playing again. Amen. That's how it went. Now the people, especially as brave as they are, do things where you can't even come back from because it's certain things still in your foundation that says, I can now not even have a conversation with you. You broke code. You went too far. You broke code. That's it. You broke code. And there's a lot of cold breakers out here. Man. See, that's why I fuck with Atlanta dudes. Like, seriously, like, like, no, no, straight up. Like, there's something about a lot of people understand that we spent a lot of time in Atlanta, like the first album, even the second album. Yeah. I was young. Yeah. Remember, we stayed in Atlanta. Like, you know, that's where we did the first record. Most of it, we did most of the second record, you know, at Doppler and all those other studios and, and not to mention both my mother and my father's, they're from Savannah. Oh, so I have family in Savannah. I always joke and say half the population in Savannah is my family. And no idea. Yeah. So, so there's, there's a lot of connection when it comes to, especially the brothers in Atlanta, like there's a, there's a kinship that like I sit and I listen to you and I hear some of my relatives. And I hear, like, you know, just, just hear how y'all talking. It's just your cadence. It's like, it sounds like, you know, understand it, you know, MLK was from there. So it's like, there's a preaching, stirring soul that comes from when a brother talks from Atlanta. Like, I don't care how country he might sound. If you, if you decipher the words, you, like, you know where he coming from. And you know, it comes from a real place. Yes. Um, again, the, the part that I admire about you the most is, is how you're able to translate that through song. You say the most poignant things in the simplest of terms. And, and, and it comes across where everybody understands it's almost like church is like when you just like the, the, the record you just heard, which, how about this? If you don't mind, I don't know when the singles coming out. I don't mind. I don't know. Okay. But don't matter. Okay. Cause I want to play this at the end of the show. Yeah. I got more records. Okay. Cool. I want to play that at the end of the show. I want to play something else too. Okay. Cool. Play me everything. All right. You guys. But the point is, is, um, like there's a, how do I say it? There's a, a, a, a upliftment. You know, when, when we come from a place where, when songs were, were played in the club, like from pop or from biggie or whatever, it was transcendent. Like you, it was deeper than just the music itself. It made you feel like this is, this is just so, I mean, I need this. This is this I'm present. I'm listening to it. I'm listening to biggie's voice cause he was also, he sounded like a freaking preacher. So I'm just talking to flex about this when they were playing hypnotized the night, you know, it's played like 50 times. Were you there? Were you there that night? No, but I don't, I actually know this feeling though. Go ahead. Yes. No, I know this feeling. So I was talking to flex about that project. I'm working on for Pock and big and, and he was telling me about the night that biggie was killed and how he was there that night at the Peterson and they played, they must have played hypnotized 50 times in a row. Oh, and everybody's vibe. It never changed. Everybody was no the whole time. That's one of the ones. It's gospel. It's got. Yeah. It's gospel. Yeah. Sick of doing your average popular. Like give me chills. Yes. Thinking about it. Niggas don't think she stink pink gators. My Detroit players, teams for my homergins in Brooklyn. Like. Yeah. I just painted you. Not only is, and it's not just with, it's not paint. It's like these. It's like DNA. Like it's, it's flashes of flashes of blood, sweat and, and just a lot of resilience. You hear resilience when those got one pocket big. It's resilience that you really, really resonates. I feel like with black men. Yeah. We can feel it. It's like amongst and against all odds. What made them great is that I'm preaching. They knew how to slay demons. Yeah. Oh, oh, that's good. That's what made them great. Like they knew how to slay. We watched it. We've watched them literally slay demons in front of us. No doubt. And, and, but that's the dichotomy, I think, because. Wow. They were in the business of it. And somehow it's like in any warrior, sometimes you're going to get hit. Yep. And that's what happened. They were in the business of demon slaying. But they both should still be here. They both should still be here. That's no question. That's what this is me. I'll say both should still be here. But that's the bigger, that's the bigger. That's the part though, right? That's the pillar I'm talking about. Yeah. You cut one thing down. Yeah. The foundation. Michael makes you cut a pillar down. Yeah. The foundation of black people haven't been the same. Martin hasn't been the same. Those are what you said, demon slayers. That's exactly what we've been missing. Somebody to look at that person and say, Oh, well, you can't really do nothing in my career. Yeah. I'm going to call you out on something that's not right here. These things aren't right. That's not right. You're worried about the wrong thing. You're worried about rap, hip hop, or the somebody's cursing or not. You're not listening. You're not listening from here. You don't understand it. You don't understand love at all. You understand my pain and how I deal with it, how I profess it, how I actually deliver other people from that thing, all the while slaying. Those ones over there. Who happened to be looking at me as if I could try. I could trump whatever you've done to us. So either it wouldn't even show up in history. It wouldn't show up. You take it and you just bag back in history. It wouldn't even show up. I'm making trouble. I'm saying this. But it's hard to have people understand love when they never knew what it was. These are the same people that are in control. You better tell them. They don't know what love is. They synthesize love. They create what they see, what they perceive as love. They never knew. The original AI. That's why they were able to create it. It's only a reflection of themselves. Let me make something that I can relate to. It's why we listen to music. Like when we hear artists, we're not only listening to the artists, but we're listening to part of what is who we are. That's why Poc and Biggie was so legendary. They touched so many people in a way that made everybody say, I'm him. If I could be like Mike. They don't say, these superheroes are superheroes because as powerful as they are, we look at them with a level of hope and reverence because we see ourselves. Yes. Which is why when we dap them, when we touch their hands or whatever, it's different. It hits different. Like damn. It's again, we're so far from the true essence of who we are as humans. Because again, the people that really don't understand what love is, told everybody else what love is. And we follow it. Wow. We follow it. We literally follow it. We play it out. We are literally using the slave master's tools to create, try to create. That's it. A castle out of sand. Yes. Yes. And that was a lot to do with growing up those mason's man at my house every weekend. Playing P. Knuckle. Those were grown men. They ain't work all day. My grandfather hands were just, they even look right. You know, like didn't look. It's better to submit on every type of clothing other than these suits he had that were marvelous back in the day when I was younger. I thought it was terrible. And I had to grow up. I was like, Oh, I didn't know he had. It was fine. He had them joints. Yeah. No, he had the joints. I had no idea. But these guys, they sat there, they played cards. I put, I was roasting the peanuts for these guys listening to their conversation. Rome men, the hardest working men in America was at some point in my house over the weekend in Atlanta, Georgia, speaking about a Maynard Jackson and a MLK. And these stories about Martin as if it's regular to them. We're learning about a thing in school. They're like, you remember where? And I'm like, this is crazy. We just learned. I'm in fourth grade. I'm just learning about these particular things about my history of what I think history is. And these guys are just speaking as if it's, Oh man, that's just, that's just from my man from around the way. I was just in the sixties, man. This is like, yeah, you know, some of the guys in the fight was, I told that man that he didn't give us that contract for that airport down there. I mean, we will come by there and do something to him. It's like, what is going on? Like, and these things, as they checked out in a real way, because you grow up and people who I hadn't seen, older people look at me and say, Hey, man, you're your honey son. That's his nickname, honey. You, you honey's grandson. I remember he used to take you everywhere to the hall, to all the meetings. Like you, I'm glad you you're all right. He was hard. So yeah, he's hard. But he was the exact thing that's probably missing today. I couldn't even, and he's, he passed away in 97. I couldn't even imagine how he would talk about demon slaying. Right. He just wasn't an artist, but he was that. You go pull up to your, if it's anybody get fired in the job on something that looked like it sideways, he's leaving his job coming to your job. You need a good reason. Why are you let, why are you let him go? I need a good reason. I need it right now. Hmm. That's who he was. And so watching those men operating that way, I, that was understood before the music thing. I started playing trumpet in the third grade because my best friend was playing trumpet. I was like, oh, cool. I didn't know exactly how good at music I could be. But Atlanta had started to transform. Yeah. You guys was there. You seen the city at that time? Yeah. Yeah. I'm the nineties kids. I'm looking, I'm why you can make a living off of this. Yeah. This was crazy to me. This idea. You play a few instruments. Yeah. Piano. It became this place for me to dream in a way. I can get out of here with this tool. Okay. You know, I was pretty cool at sports. I wasn't crazy. I was crazy good. But I knew I had something. But most of my foundation of my thing, and I say all that just to say was built off of those men in my house. So less to do with how talented I was. That was, I, that was coming. It was either in there, but how I translate those things that we were even talking about from one thing to another is just watching those guys shake hands, hug, speak to certain people, race out the house if something happens to a woman. Oh, don't my mom regal got stalled. Three hours later, that bewick is back. Right. In the driveway. Right. Out of respect. Oh, that was your. Mr. Honey, we suck. We didn't know. And that's how Atlanta works as well. You can't even do certain things. You had to be from out of town, do something crazy. And that's one of the most craziest things would happen as a kid, because everybody knew everybody's like, you better take that call back. Right. You know, we know exactly who. Right. That thing made all of this possible. Those, not a billion of those. Who'd you tap into musically? What made you instead of becoming a mason? Like what, what, what, uh, those hands, man, I don't know if I could take the no, I dig it. I need a lot of manicures after the hand look great. That's different. But like, who did you listen to? What, who inspired you to become Sam Cook? Otis, of course. And not just Sam, Sam, when he was with the Solsters, when he was, my mom would play those like super old records game. Yeah, yeah. And you know, you're in the South, man, you go to church, you're in the choir immediately. Yes. Nobody cares about what you talk about. There ain't no joint in the choir. Nobody had to even look for you to join. It's like, yo. Yeah. You got a high tone. Get in there. We need a. Yeah. We need a male soprano. We need, yeah. Right. Right. Right. Right. Like, okay, cool. You know, and we all thought we was Michael Jackson back then. So, you know, I'm like, I cool. Let me get myself together. I was definitely not Michael. Right. Right. Right. But that had an impact in, but every time the introduction, no, the true introduction to from soul music and R&B, Al Green, like all those things, they were always relevant at my house. But the true thing that crossed the bridge was a burgundy vinyl record that my mom bought and it was salt and pepper. So I'll push it. Oh, push it. Yeah. Yeah. That merged my world. It's like my mom's, I'm over here trying to scratch the record. My mom's mad. She's like, I just bought that. I'm in there trying to stretch. I was on a regular turn. Say, I'm thinking this is how they do it. It's not how they do it. I tore that record up. I had to replace it and they ain't had the money like that. Then I forgot what I had to do. I forgot how many yards I had to cut. I was a grad. I was a grad cutting food. Right. I know how to get some bread. I'm going to get it. I know that's right. I got that one vinyl. I could see it so clearly. Yeah. Merged both of my worlds to an understanding that I wouldn't even. Get until I got into this space of. This is who I am. Yeah. The nineties. A little bit of that eighties mixed with a lot of fifties and sixties because of what your mom and your grandmother was. Good to. And, um, and that's who I am. Singing came before songwriting. Yes. I didn't even know it was a song. Man, we just just rap. But first of all, you know how it is. It's cool. It's about wit. Everybody's like sensitive now. They had jokes about it. Man, they talk about your mama so bad. Man, you better don't even play. Like you manage probably a fight out of the school every day because if you're the witty is one, that mean that mouth is real good. You better be ready to fight. Don't cause somebody else going to run out of wit. Right. It was about wit to me. Like I just got good at words. And then when rap came along, I got good at rapping because it's still wit. Yeah. What makes sense if it don't make sense, don't say it. Yeah. That was my whole thing. And again, that world coming in and you know, pop big, like you can go back to those things and we had so many great things already happening, though, that we could touch. You had outcast you could touch good. He mob, you can touch them. You can see them. You knew who these people like, oh, I know. That's cuz old. Right. I know. We know. Which made it more, oh, it's not hard to get there. Right. And LA Reed had a lot to do with that. Yeah. He formulated a thing, which was went from the church to a y'all just making music. You just lyrically just you cool. You want to have a lot of wit and you just hanging out with the boys. But you do know that's a business. LA was the first person I saw where it looked like a business. Second person Dallas Austin. Yeah. And not because I spoke to him anything. Yeah. It was something very, very worldly. He ran Atlanta. That I seen. Yes, sir. I ain't no Woody Ramsey. What I did know, Mr. Sean, what I did know was that's a Ferrari. That yeah. And I want to know how you got said Ferrari. Yeah, yeah, I want to go for sure. Yo, he got that Ferrari from doing what? Yeah. This is the truth of how it happened. Linux mall. How he get that? Right. Oh, he writes on you mean this shit that I be doing. Just for play play. He did what? Oh, my God. So that's where it came from. That was me. My my whole bread settings changed in my. Yeah. Cool. Right. I'm right. These songs. Yeah. Because that seems to be the thing to do. And I was always just trying to be better than I always wanted to write the 10th. My goal was Thriller had nine records on it. If I'm correct. Yeah, I believe so. I tried to write as if I could get on that album. I will always call it the 10th song on Thriller. That's how good I want it to be. Do you have one in your catalog now that you think could have been the 10th? Oh, yeah, I got a couple. Which ones would you call out? Um, well, fancy would be one of them immediately. I would love that. Yeah, I would love to hear Michael voice on fancy right now. Because that would be crazy. Yeah. Come on. Yeah, that would that would be. And plus his minds. I feel real good. Real good about that. Let me let me let me preface this by saying there are very few people I can count on one hand that I revere as having music that sounds expensive. I it's hard for me to explain it. You just got to hear it. And he's one of the guys that not even just for himself. The albums that he created, but the songs he made for other people. It just sounded very high end. It's really hard to explain, but I know it when I hear it. Like with what you and tricky did. Like the sounds that you guys create in the studio. It's it sounds like y'all took care of it. Like y'all a cue the bass. So crispy and beautiful. Like the snares and perfect sync with the with the with the track and it's laid in perfectly. The the change up of the track was so thoughtful. Like it was by the way I drove drove them crazy. I drove them crazy. Well, what? Those changes. They just I wanted them. I wanted them. I wanted them the segues. It mattered because because it made it made all the difference in how again, to make something sonically interesting. Is what I listen to and and they put the work into it. Like that everything is just so meticulous from the lyrics to how the lyrics match the sounds and how the sounds compliment what he said. And all of like y'all have such a yin and yang man. Like I admire it. Like I listen to it and get different things from it all the time. Like it's really hard to explain you understand how much of a fan I am. Because again, I know quality when I hear it. And then add on to the wordplay, the tongue in cheek lyrics. Yeah, still sensible and soulful, melodic, not too much, not too many words, not too like you hit the statement, you you made it clear. And you sometimes it's just yeah, this is what I said. I said what I said, type shit. Yo. And it's so it's so like in your face, you got to laugh. Yes. You know, I'm laughing at myself the whole time. Like, oh my God, I'm gonna say that. Like that's what I guess what I'm trying to say is. Your creativity, your creativity, you and Tricky's is intelligent. Yes. It's not just a bunch of dudes in the studio, just, you know, while and out, like there's real thought put into it. And the simplest of ideas takes sometimes the most thought. Yes. The difference between you and songwriters, I hear that just they got a lot of words when all they could have said to cut it off is I love you. Or do you love me? Or do you love me? You didn't have to say all of that. That's why women get frustrated with men in the first place, because we say a bunch of shit. Instead of just saying, man, just say what you mean. What it is, you know what I'm saying? Like just say what it is. Say what you mean. You're saying this, you're saying that. I love you. Let that sit for a second. That's more powerful than that whole fucking verse that you wrote with three, three to 15 stanzas that had no reason to be in there. Like he understands how to get a point across and get up and then here you live with that. Yeah, move out the way for their thoughts, by the way. We're good at writing. We are. But it comes a time when a person still must digest what you said. Yeah. Have their own thoughts and opinions about it. I can't do that if I hit. But. Amen. Reprieve. Can I get a little space? Your body's here with me. But your mind is on the other side of town. You're messing me around. I heard that for the first time as a kid. As a kid and understood it immediately. Instantly. You're like, dang, that's what's going to happen. You already know what you're hitting for with the rest of the lyrics. Yes. You already know what's going on. And then you felt it like, oh my God. I got a question for both of you. No, no. That was it, man. You picked a good one. I'm just saying. Oh, that's a good one. I'm just saying. What's the most beautifully written record that you like? If you had a record that was perfectly written, which record is that for you guys? Any record in history? We just heard it or read it, whatever. I haven't written it yet. You've been written. I mean, I hear you. One that has been written. He's like, let me rephrase this for a second. History. That's a good question. One plus one is one of mine. By B. Super simple. But it means there's lyrics in there. It's just the sweetest thing imaginable that somebody could say in the most simplest terms. What you got, Sean? It's a lot going. Of course it is. He's like, yeah. It reminds you of people at home. This is on the spot. This is what they're here for. They're pulling it up right now. They're like, yeah. They got a little in front of them. This is just off talk. Can't stand a rank. Yeah, it's hard to argue that. Like that being an impressionable teenager. Hearing sunny days. Everybody loves them. But tell me, can you stand the rank? That's good. Isn't that good? Yeah, it is simple too. It's so right to the point. Like, girl, you know what I mean. That's a good one. You know what I mean. Man, you gonna be so bad. You think? I hope so. Yeah, yeah. I'm gonna get you back outside right to Ricketts. I hope so. Yeah. Because I still feel like I'm not somebody. No, stop it. Cut it out, man. I'm dead ass. Yeah, okay. I did okay. Yeah, all right. Well. I'm still the guy though. Yeah, literally, okay. I'm still the guy that people tend to... And only people will know. You're just not Sean. You're just not loud. That's it. But you know, I don't know when I look... And you can't be. No, because it's just not me. That's my problem. That's one that literally is like, hey, maybe... And I had to trust me my whole click. We're nerds, man. These are the things that we like. Like, of course, I mean, I'm from where I'm from. And I like expensive shit. Like, I like certain things in life. There's a... Innately, I was born with. I can't help that part. That has nothing to do with being loud. I'm not loud. I'll buy something that just I love. I'll take all the badges off of that GT3, and you don't have to know exactly what it is, as long as I know. Yeah. Not loud. Can't... It's hard to do. Especially at the stage, you know, in the space that we're in. But you do notice that... And that's what kind of hurts in the end. Because then you started to see, oh, these certain awards and accolades and stages are meant for loud people. Somebody was just asking me. It's like, yo, why you not on Coachella? Why you never did Coachella? It's like, I ain't loud enough. Right. And they say, yo, discography is. They say, well, absolutely. I say, but I'm not loud enough. I say, well, they left me the other day. It's like, oh, I'm gonna go be loud for you in the morning. I say, well, go ahead. I say, I'll definitely do it. I'll definitely be there. Right. But yeah, when you're not... But that has... That's on us. Okay. Yeah. And not in a bad way. It's just, it is what it is. It's like, oh, y'all don't know what I did, but I know what I did. Again, we spoke a lot about how things are... How people operate. Now, that's the problem. Because now you got to pick what your job is. Right. Because now, as somebody would say, throw it on the table, you're like, why I got to come out here? And say, plethora of things that y'all gonna hate me for saying. It's like, I mean, I can't believe you called in and tell me how many great things you did. Right. What I don't want to hear. But you want to hear about the five great things this mother person did, and you didn't get no slack. But I can't say what has truly occurred in the last 20 years. I cannot put it there. And that's on... We can't... And I don't want to say can't. That's not the right word. We choose not to do it that way, because that's etiquette. Well, whoa. Wait a minute. That's what this is for. This is one of the reasons why I wanted to create this podcast. Because I'm fans of the people that sit across from me. So you don't got to do it. Because I understand again how this world operates. So instead of you doing it, nah. Because I know how they're going to treat you. Don't do that, T. Don't do that. I know where you're coming from. I know what you did. But if you say it, it ain't going to come off right. It's just not. Like you're not going to recover from that. People are going to look at you and go, you are... So let me do it. As a matter of fact, that's what Treaks is. But no, no, no. As a matter of fact, let me do it. Let's do it now. Right? Oh, God. In case y'all don't know who this man that's sitting next to me is. Okay? I'm just running down a short, a super short rap sheet. Like he did this song called Bed with this dude named J Holiday. Oh man, beautiful song. Yeah. Like work, I guess. Right? Platinum single. Right? He did this song with this girl named Beyonce. I think that's her name. That's her name. That's that her name? Beyonce. Yep. That's it. Yes. It's a song called Single Ladies. Yep. That's it. Yeah. He did that one. Right? This guy's headlining Coachella that's getting 10 million for the show. The name's Justin. He did his first single that y'all love. I know you love it. Right? He did that. That is the camera, is the camera working? Okay. It's recording. I see the light. Take a good look. All right? Take a good look. You ain't even got to put it on me. Like just keep the camera on him. All right? But don't cover your face. Don't cover your face. You got nice rings on, but fuck that. Oh God. Good. Okay. Heard of all of the lights. Duh, Kanye and Rihanna. Y'all heard of that, right? Yeah, everybody practice. Yeah. I think that guy. Elton John. No church in a while by this guy named Sean Carter. Forget his performance name, I forget, but his name is Sean. Great name, by the way. Break my soul. Depeyante girl again. Boy, she's good. She is good. You agree? Yeah, she's really good. She's really good. That's my sister. Yeah, she's good. She's good. She's a good person. She's a really talented. Yeah, he did that. Oh, you did the Savage Remix too? I didn't know that. Wow. Oh yeah, the other one. It's about to, you use it for rain when it gets wet. A young lady. You need an umbrella, I think. That's it. I think you need an umbrella. The billionaire girl. The other billionaire girl. The girl from Barbados? Reree. Reree. You hear all those songs I mentioned? That's just the tip of the fucking iceberg. When are you going to get started? That's the question. Yeah, when are you going to make some real songs? When are you going to make some hits, man? When are you going to make some real shit, bro? How many records have you sold? Oh man, I don't know. Do you know? No. Eight trillion, I think. Give or take. Eight trillion, we'll just say eight. That's a good question. All right, now let's run down his shit. Shawty is a 10, which when I heard that right, I ain't going to lie. I was like, no way this is going to go. You know why? Because it's too simple. Bane turning like that. I was like, nah, nah. Just call the responses. It's not going to work. Yeah, that ain't going to work. Boy, did I was wrong. I was hella wrong. I was like, yo, and after a while I was like, Shawty is dead. Like I was like, okay. All right, but that's cool. Let's see what else he does. Seriously, not knowing he did other shit, but I was like, all right, let's see what else this dream guy does. All right. Falsetto. Oh man. Great record. Great record. Yeah. I love your girl. So brash. So that's such that's so mean. That's dirty mac and to the like dirty mac and dirty mac. Like dirty mac and yo, like he just say dirty mac and. He made he made dirty mac and sound so nice. Sounds so sweet. Yeah. He is literally telling some grown ass man. No, I love your girl. Not mine. Yours. Yours. No, I like her. You know what I mean? She got a you got a good taste. I like her. Yeah. She dressed so nice. This levels to this shit. Oh my God. It's like rocking that thing. My love. Listen, I'm going to tell you my favorites. You mentioned Fancy. Amazing record. Amazing record. Proudly just piano and his vocals. With an accordion. Yep. That's right. Definitely. Yeah. Yeah. Needed that purple kisses. We just have a new visual for that. I'm going back shooting visuals on record that I know purple kisses. It's it's it's classic. It's timeless. It's relevant to this day. Thank you. She needs my love. Some type of way. That's just so aggressive. It is. It's one of those johns, right? Right. That any man and I'm going to say this personally, like of some level of status or whatever want to feel like like when you got the baddest chick and everybody is on them and she's stopping them. No. Ain't no way. Ain't no way. I don't care. Flush the keys to your fandom. It's cool. I don't think those chicks exist anymore though. Oh, they do. But but but they do. They do. But but but that's what I love about it because we want that chick. Yes. That's the chick we want. Definitely less of them. Yes. It's less of them. That's a 90s chick for sure. Like yeah. It's definitely less of them. Again, we talk about cold. Right. Breaking. True. It goes with the ladies too. That's true. A lot of ladies cold breaking. Oh man. They cold break. Like they they have no cold at all. I don't know what's going on. Yeah. Making me start a podcast. I don't know where we started. But I got I got a love hate podcast just for that. Yeah. Literally. Yeah. It's bad. Like what's going on out here in these streets? It's it's it's ridiculous. Fast car. I'm trying to tell you. Race track waiting in the bedroom. Give me the green. Tell me the green. Living a lie. Oh man. You got listen. You in there. You in there. You know bro. No bro. I want to touch on mama. Man. I can even. Yeah. I know. But but we got to talk about it. No. No. We can talk about it. Yeah. Definitely. Obviously a song about your mother. If anybody has heard this song. You can hear the emotion. You can hear him crying. In the track. And it's such a beautiful tribute. To your mother. Tell me a little bit. About what you remember. About your mother. And how she inspired you to be. Man. The man you are. This this being of a thing man. Sweet isn't good enough. You know because it's a it's her temperance for her temperament for strength was always still there. And I and the what comes to mind immediately because I think it from the end back to the space where she was alive alive and where you're taking it for granted as a son you know with parents or you're like she'll be here forever. Yeah. Her strength in knowing she was leaving. And I remember this in the ninth grade and I was going to school. I would leave school and I didn't tell my grandfather because he would get upset. I feel like he would understand but he would he would still be. I didn't want to test it to find out and I would have leave school at 12 miss whatever class is at the 12 to go make my mom a baked potato because that's one of the things she could keep down on her stomach. Literally the only thing she could keep down and there was no microwaving baked potatoes back then. So that's 40 minutes in the oven. She had taught me how to how to make it a course over the course of just getting older. How strong and beautiful she was looking at death. And it was my first time seeing something I haven't seen anything like it since though. I haven't seen no one stare death in the eye that way and just unaccepting of it though. In a way like I'm not accepting this is I'm going to live on. And I didn't know statement of oh I'm going to make this statement I'll be living in you. I knew with her actions what she was relaying didn't make it any easier but I knew what she was dealing with even as a 15 year old knew exactly what was coming. Before that my mom was this and her cousins of course and they're if they're looking at this right now my aunt Liz my aunt Leslie my my her sister my aunt Jewel who passed away a couple years ago. They were all just around this space where my mom was even my uncle Amos to this day talks about my mom's man your mom's man that lady just her energy and what she attracted to her space bigger than life. You could tell the missing of this person like something was pulled out. It's like and her to my grandfather like the yin and yang she would be like the roses on that side where he is the what the concrete is. You know she was that part of what I am and her whole just the whole whole aura. This is a reason her and my aunt reason why I wear these bracelets in there and and tipp had had something funny to say the other day we were in the studio and he was like like you just like trinkets. It's like what do you mean? He's like man he's like he had a necklace on. I was like yo let me get that necklace diamonds. I was like yo let me get that necklace. He's like you can have but I know you don't want it. I was like what you mean? I love diamonds. He's like yeah you love diamonds but you love trinkets more than you love diamonds. I was like what do you mean? He's like you'll go buy a chrome heart pen that's like ten thousand dollars that don't nobody even know there's a pen and just wear those things and anytime somebody tells me something like that I know exactly who it came from. I know why my bracelets aren't super thick like I know why it's it's not oh man Van Cleef and he's like no no no this is what she would have worn. All of these things set a thing for this jewelry that I love and I and I take it back to a moment where I bought her this last necklace and I wanted to sew very badly. There was some gold exhibit downtown or whatever and I'm thinking I'm paying of course there's nothing now literally this 25 dollars that I paid for this 10 karat necklace and I think it had a heart charm on it. That was probably another like 25 dollars whatever it is. I have this 50 dollar thing. I'm so happy about it and she put it on and that was the last week she would put anything on. All of those things they never leave you ever. Good times all I think about is Friday of course slits maulikable. Yes slits you know you gotta you gotta know something to know what that is. Yeah. Instance beads between the kitchen heading into the hallway you know it's all of these things the her wanting to get she couldn't get Elizabeth Taylor perfume. Oh your white diamonds. White diamonds a lot of the time but she would get it she would get this kind of you know how they come up with the oils you know they had the oil joints like yo and they had the like the papers now oil on the paper that's sliding off and they had Elizabeth Taylor on it this whole time by the way I'm growing up thinking like oh Elizabeth Taylor is just one of the flea markets or something because you know that's where they're like no idiot. That's Elizabeth Taylor like right. Well why she selling her shit over at the Guts? Those things um is my mom was just this divine creature that set so it's the reason why I'm able to speak that way even on I'm I'm a I'm a black man from the west side of Atlanta and the sensitive and most vulnerable part that stuff comes from her I'm able to understand re I'm understanding be I'm understanding them at a speed where I just see them like I saw her. So that's where it comes from. That's exactly where it comes from so she set a template that we see today I have less to do with that than you think you know that's like 70 percent of my mother whether it's trash talking because she was around a lot of boys so you had to hold your own still it wasn't no yeah you know um but with grace a certain amount of grace even we had no money like that you know my my first job one of my first jobs was with my mom um busing tables at this place called Ryan Steakhouse Steakhouse. She was like I was like yo I want to make some money so I know you want to make some money come to work with me go to work help her and the other ladies y'all bust the tables and stuff and she was a hard worker it wasn't even about the amount of money it's just literally I'm passing away and went back to work after the chemo then work went back to work and you watch this person like become a shell of themselves where they of course they can't no longer at a certain point um and there's nothing you can do about it other than be thankful um be grateful of the time you know that I had with her which makes you also on another side really um confused in this world when we have certain things and people can't find happiness in those things that they have because they truly don't understand the nothingness that can come out of nowhere. I have no idea and I'm watching it I'm just and I'm getting on my own children like just hey man call me what are you doing I don't even bother you like that I'm just not that type of that I'm not right I don't do that I'm gonna break it down when it gets to that time but I'm not I'm not overbearing I want you to do some regular things for me though I want you to pretend you care until you care because one day you're not gonna be able to care because I'm not gonna be here your mom's not gonna be here and I don't want you to deal with that it's not for me it's for you I want you to deal with that what's gonna come with that in a way I didn't get I was robbed of how I was gonna be as a son at 20 or at 25 or at 30 my life would be different no doubt about it there's certain girls I wouldn't have even met or even came across because when you have a mother there it's just different getting past that thing so you're going through life in a way it's like all of these things I think about all the time and we were talking about earlier about just managing just a regular day to be a good human and try to get some shit done man just to get something off and nobody understands the life set up and here you are with all of your people you won't even go see your mom you better take advantage you won't see your dad and you're talking about I if anything is called doing the most with less that's what I did they have none of those things father grandfather the certain point of time grandmother passed before I was even born and then I lost my mom at 15 so I was the orphan in this space so grateful to still just be breathing though and I can I tell then my wife I tell everybody oh I enjoy and appreciate this thing more than you do not because it's money like no I can literally go eat uh an egg muck and in the front yard and have a great time yeah fine egg muck it's a great too yeah they are they are they are still pretty pretty great I can't I can't at least once a month you should just still go by Mickey D's like don't play yourself 100 yeah don't play yourself yeah um but I can have that thing is built inside that's how I know money doesn't do that no it's like yo that's not gonna no I'm the same person I was then as I am now unfortunately things change and of course you grow up and your protection becomes different about who you bring in with you yeah and the people you put on this earth yeah so you're a little bit yo but you want to be because when you don't have a family then this whole thing's become my become my family we say yo well why is him and B quote that's my family right him and J so close that's my family right like that's this is who it who it is it's not a and it happened like that it just happened I didn't pick it yeah you know they were in a certain place before they met nobody needs another person to to get to the blessing that's coming to them anyway that's right they work for them in I'm in the car with other people the same way people in the car with me but you still get to make a choice whether you want to get in or not and hopefully I can take you to the destination that you're trying to get to yeah and I don't remind whichever seat the hump in the back you know like the shotgun you want me to drive yeah whatever I need to do because that's what families do and I was robbed of all of those particular things so that song I didn't even make it to the second verse and that's I couldn't I couldn't sing it I don't perform it I act like it doesn't exist yeah I understand I just I just can't and there's several and I'm lucky in that way for for somebody like B Mariah Rihanna to get these feelings off because I know that I'm giving them a part of this person that they've never met yeah yeah and that's hard to even talk about here yeah you know I appreciate you doing it all love man I love and by the way yeah he working with a ride character forgot to mention that see you know what I'm saying see how that happens see how to see how you stand are you keeping up B are you keeping up with me man everything turns into a part two here that's all I'm saying absolutely but let's let's get into some some some things I want to ask you like shoot because you've done a lot mm-hmm are there any milestones that you've said have so many ideas that you sat alone in your own space sitting in your house and you said fuck I did that like yo that's wild yo I'm so good at ignoring the things that have been done I had been really good at it to a point I don't have a plaque for my first album or my second or my third now which is also um cold or platinum wherever it is I used it as a tool for myself um to push even when it was happening I wouldn't let it happen for long I wouldn't let celebrations happen for long and now I yearn for them you know just more so in my personal space I've stopped and I look and I'm like well in this way I'm nothing like my mom where I should be um celebrating a certain thing because you're not just celebrating that thing for you and as you you would know that you know you're celebrating for the uplifting of everything that they went through one that they didn't get the FaceTime for so you did it for this who you did it for you did it for for Hawkinsville Georgia for for Rockingham North Carolina you did it for your ancestors that jumped off the boat like that's what you did it for and it deserves to be um put in lights and it took me a while though to accept it it's like some type of um remorse you know there's this is this guilt that I wanted to feel isn't that crazy it wasn't even real I made it up yeah oh that's so crazy self sabotage is real that's a real thing it's certain things happen so well cut my wings off yeah that you literally do something to fuck it up yes just to feel too good to be true it's too good to be true so a lot of times again that's why I say well I was talking about with the artists that go through the things that they go through that humans just being human yep you have no idea how this person has chosen to deal with their success not even their plight which is the most Sean it's the most beautiful thing yeah to to put something in the back see I just did it too much though right it's a beautiful thing because you watch your parents do it yeah you watch them push they hurt here yeah you really understand it when you get old but you watched them say you're thinking ain't that going on you know he got a pocket full of money right my granada coming he got them not so it ain't no day he ain't got no care he don't even play like that yo see this money it's my money you need to get you some money this is my money right here though right there's not a day where he wasn't hurting now you know for sure there's no way push it to the back push whatever they were saying to him on that job to the back I know I was like man you went through a time I know you wanted to kill everybody in the most righteous way you've been wronged I now know the story you've been wrong about me hey man I don't even know if I could do it you've been wrong but it does teach you a thing but because I allowed I was allowed to watch his pain and my mother's pain it was so much that I said oh my pain is a nothing and will offset your pain the celebration of what you went through yeah yeah that's the champagne to your whole thing yeah but if you don't allow yourself for that to happen you can't even get the awards aren't enough you need to do that thing in private amongst people who really love you that's not enough 100 you know it's not it's just not you know that's for tv that's cool but it's amongst your people where they say hey man and one of the greatest things I heard my uncle ever said he's gonna probably call me up these he's like hey what's up nephew um he said um and nobody said this not one person he came to my house and he looked he's the only brother living out of my grandfather looked at the house and said man your grandfather if he knew and I needed him to say that more than I understood at a point I just got to a point where these are things just this yeah I'm accomplishing these things I know I'm doing it for some but don't lift your head up to see you might get a little yeah you might get yeah right yeah yeah yeah then I can't go break records and you know right catch the people I've been trying to catch yeah I can't catch Quincy if I just if I come up for air and it's like yes you can yeah you need to come up a little bit because you're gonna end up having those I have this whole dark humor about myself where I'm like well yeah they're just my kids are just waiting on my publishing they're just like bye dad yeah we're gonna sell everything yes he's gone and of course you would pray that that's not the case right but that's my humor in myself to say hey man you better celebrate this before you won't do them to have it's okay you know what they're gonna do it's really okay you know what they're gonna do right oh yeah they go ain't no yeah well yeah I mean yeah yeah they they don't understand what it took oh no they go in that garage immediately oh he just left yeah I've been waiting to dry this the whole time yeah he has two miles on it he worked so hard yeah you know tea is okay to celebrate yeah it's all right I'm just now getting to a spot where it's not only okay but dealing with what we deal with now which is a complete different once they turn internet on they want no turning it off and so you have to feel like you know you deal is two at short sort one you're like yeah I feel fine I'm definitely old enough to appreciate what's been done and on the flip side though I negate shit who's just trying to show you trying to show out and in a way from Atlanta you have to be like well actually I mean I'm not trying to but you know you consider it sure I can't help how you're gonna see what this is I saw those guys when I was young and I was never afraid fearful had any doubt of myself being like none of those things I was so happy for them I'm happy for anybody around me right now that could be successful in this thing that we do this shit box yeah you can get something out of this this is a shit box this would be like comparing like they say you make it in New York you make it anywhere that's the music business yeah if you can make anything I don't give a shit if you sell 20,000 copies you can sell 20,000 copies of this you can go create a whole knife set and sell 48 million of those whatever business you want to get into after you've been through this course this true music course of business you should be able to accomplish anything yeah it's that bad it's tough it definitely builds a a callous absolutely it 100 the music industry is not it's not sweet it's not sweet like it's about sweet things yes but it's nothing sweet it is a very ruthless very hard business to be in we have we're chosen to protect it yeah the songwriters by the way yeah we're the ones that protect the whole thing we have to look at it when is we know better we know better Nietzsche in this book called um genealogy of morals he says this one line he's talking about all of the poets and philosophers he's he's like um um speaking on I think marriage at this particular point but it's just a reference of it overall and what it meant he's saying a married philosopher belongs in a comedy because you know better you know that's not how that works that's not how this works we're gonna do our part though but you you out of everybody know that's not how y'all gonna work that system of events if your songs have to make sense everything in life has to make sense it has to add up to something you cannot be a great songwriter if it doesn't make sense right that means everything does it's like the timing on the car the timing belt like all of those things have to hit at the right time or the car won't move the eight spark plug is out it's not going though it's good it's going but it's barely getting there right a songwriter's job is to make it make sense for everybody but what happens is it turns on the part of your brain where you're trying to make sense of all of the shit right you're like something ain't adding up right we go along with it anyway though yeah and that's why we're gonna love anyway we know better we're gonna do it anyway we're gonna do it anyway and that is brave so if anybody gives anybody credit for some shit like when you know you're like no baby i know i'ma love you anyway yeah but for me it has nothing to do with a woman a man it just has something to do with this particular thing that you could be innately given as a gift that allows you probably in other ways to break down barriers and change certain things for the better but in life you know that one line in that book and it wasn't even more so about marriage and relationship between man and woman it was more so about marriage to these particular ideals makes no sense to you and you know it yeah you belong in a comedy you just want your line to say by the way if you are lying to yourself at least admit it and then continue right like all right cool these things aren't going to make me love you like i just love you because i love you nothing's going to make me do anything that's a whole that's a whole other thing you do that that's i'm gonna tell you right now that that's going over so many people's heads like like they they i'm telling you that like i've i've and there's no disrespect to the opposite but i've discovered quite recently that there are a lot of stupid people and it's no disrespect like straight faces like it's just a lot of stupid people there's a lot of it's a lot of stupid people like there are a lot of people that are they are getting up every morning and going to the bathroom and eating their eggs and driving to wherever the work they go into being stupid like that's crazy that's that that that's like honestly that that is really astounding to me and they show it like they they literally they're and again social media got people so gassed no it's like because people will proudly display stupid how stupid they really are yeah and because other stupid people are going yay they're going to see and you're like i was saying i wish we had a cure for dumb there isn't one we need one it's called knowledge it's called what knowledge but but that's the thing like what what the scriptures say about knowledge like you know see get wisdom with all that getting get understand true like people just i didn't say you're gonna be able to get it i said that's the cure though you still you gotta understand what you know that's true and why you know it yeah it's very true there's so many elements to just wow learning the abc's we understood later on why we learn them right oh i can put words together versus saying what i need that for yeah what you need this for it's insane how you go run this house what are you talking about what you need this for what you've got us for okay let me ask you something you've done a lot what else oh man what else man what else you got like like it's like you've literally lived three lifetimes yeah right blessed 100 to even i feel like those those are that's the cross my mother and grandfather passed on right because their lives you know but what do you wake up what motivates you to wake up in the morning um i know your joy in this thing yes it is i'm not gonna i'm not gonna say it's not well you couldn't oh they're not yeah you're right i'm gonna say that yes um it's the joy of this thing because i know without the bullshit it's the most singular device that connects us all once said osiris music it's a language it's a there's a thing and i know in the end you know they have these um these movies if you're into sci-fi movies and they're like it's always still based around some type of tone some type of musical component or something it has to be something that helps deliver understanding whether it be the sound the person that actually did the score or even just written into the script of what the things are do do do do right that's how that's that's what wakes me up is i'm that sound and those things um the same way you are the same way uh um the same way trick is these are the components of the things that we wake up to do without even thinking about them there's nothing of a certain type of harm or you can never rip me to a space where it won't be first it's not going to happen people have tried it it never happens it's like no you there's a certain type of joy that comes from this i will always wake up for okay fair enough because it's like it's not like you have to no not at all i could i tell now i get to say that to my kids i'm like you guys do know yeah i could you can write off in the sunset we just cash out we know we just cash yeah by the way if you know the law you get it back in 25 years anyway y'all be straight yeah what's your favorite restaurant oh that's a good one because i know you like nice shit so you probably know you know his hamburgers is probably like we already know you said by the way my wife is on fire right now she's on fire i said that publicly i just did what what you mean and she's gonna be so happy oh yeah she's on fire man she's on fire i don't know what happened it's like we just woke up and she's just going crazy her and my sister-in-law like they just turned the kitchen into a whole it's a diner i don't know what's going on today is this scallops and caviar okay let's go that's what we doing today okay what is going you just go turn on that grill huh that used to just sit over there one day it was just on i was like and i know i paid for it sometimes they feel that way no she been feeling that way it's not a like now it's not like a every now and it no no it's every day it's a celebration it is and i'm happy about it i'm like this is crazy this is it i don't i don't know what the fuck going on man but when you when you're not at home and and you want to take the missus out or even yourself like long day in the studio i have so many of them no man i have so many man i know you do but give me one just give me one give me a good one i'm sorry i still what's unbeatable for me and i'm going to do it when i leave here yeah is the new style salmon at no boo tell you no boo's that shit which one in Malibu or las yannigan that's so good everywhere but the one in new york on 57th i think it's on 57th i didn't go to that one for i'm under one in london yeah and they got one in newport too right up here where the boat is and you just ride on over there just post up and they just bring it down to the boat okay that thing is something about i don't know what it is man just yeah you know i grew up it ain't like we grew up with sushi and she's like yeah no hell no we didn't know what the hell sushi was man you lame hell saw that you got uh eating that sushi saw that you go out and make you break out some japanese like what yeah right ain't no japanese here in the hood all right well tell you you a no boo right you have yourself that salmon you know nice glass of red and you look at the entry way and in walks a younger version of yourself look what you're doing here little little terriers he was looking for you that's who came in okay he was trying to find out just get some jewels of wisdom from his future self and and what to look forward to what to look out for whatever anything you want to tell him so he sits across from you and he just stares what would you the older terriers say to the younger terriers find you a day probably sunday and try your best to give yourself that day don't work through it whatever you did for the six days don't do that on that day i don't care if you pick wednesday try not to pick the one where you know you need to be working for real um because i know my younger self still wouldn't do it but at least the thought would occur to enjoy some hours from that time because there's days and weeks where i went was back to our other point where i'm just you're flying through things and you didn't get from that what you was supposed to get from it because you didn't sit still enough to think about it what actually just happened or what occurred so you missed the moments truly you kind of heard about it maybe you huddled around when umbrella became when it got into the seventh week at number one i don't really remember it you're like why why other people remember it more than me and you try to tell yourself oh yeah because i work and that's i was gonna work anyway you should have gave yourself more time to appreciate what you did and not because it's going to throw you off where you're going but because you don't want any doubt to come in to where you're going because that's when you get hesitant and that's when you start to make mistakes that you that's not really in you that simple time is just like oh look chill out for a second it's just take it in so i know when i walk into this place exactly what i've done i'll have to think twice like well did i do that well or did said person who has a loud mouth say oh yeah i wrote the whole thing and i just dot dot dot dot it's like well you know why that person is able to say that because you just put your head down went back to work instead of saying oh no no oh i did all that talk your shit them all my these are everything that has written that's mines if certain people to a certain point that didn't even know it's like or get in the studio it means like you produce i just look at them like are you serious yeah they're serious of course they are nobody knows you're like you're now taking pride in i like it that way not like yeah well the the younger you don't yeah the younger you is man stop playing we celebrate it for that thing you can you can have both of those you know you already don't have these things over here that has already left that feeling of emptiness so fill up more on this right here just take it in and so i think that's what i would tell my younger self like just give yourself a day and if not at least some hours to just think about what happened this week don't let song anniversaries come up now man i just miss them i didn't even remember like hey you know you just did so and so i almost cause i do so much work that ain't what it is it's hard for me to even remember yeah that it's been done and it didn't happen that long ago for me to start it this started happening way earlier not just now it's just wouldn't even know hey man your second album came out on this date okay yeah let me retweet it like right in other words kids no matter how hard you work on a concrete take time to smell that rose in that concrete yeah and on that note ladies and gentlemen y'all please give it up for my new friend the dream thank you brother hey y'all and that was on that note hope you guys enjoyed it and if you did here's a couple more videos for you to check out do not 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