Big Boi and JID sat down for Rolling Stone's Musicians on Musicians. Two of the sharpest lyricists in Atlanta meet up at Stankonia Studios — the birthplace of too many classic verses
to count — to trade industry stories and favorite bars, and talk about how they want to see hip-hop keep evolving.
to count — to trade industry stories and favorite bars, and talk about how they want to see hip-hop keep evolving.
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MusicTranscript
00:00 To me, as being an MC, hearing his music
00:03 make me wanna rap, you know what I'm saying?
00:06 And that's, I love that, that's that shit,
00:09 we be like, "Ooh!"
00:10 - That's the highest level,
00:11 that's the highest compliment right there, like,
00:13 "Babe, you want me?" - Hearing his music
00:14 make me wanna rap, you know what I'm saying?
00:15 Like, that's what it's about, like, "Okay, yeah!"
00:18 You know what I'm saying? - Yeah, yeah, yeah.
00:19 (upbeat music)
00:29 - Yeah, that video.
00:31 - Yep, yep. - Right?
00:32 That first time we met was, it was actually,
00:35 we was on stage doing-- - The Masego video,
00:37 the garden party. - That was the same thing.
00:38 Yeah, yeah, yeah.
00:40 I was happy he got you on that song.
00:41 I remember starting it off with him.
00:43 We was in the studio in LA,
00:45 and bro played it, you know,
00:46 it was real beautiful and shit.
00:48 Then I put a verse on it, I feel like that day,
00:51 I ain't even wait, we just made it in that moment,
00:53 and then he told me he got you on it,
00:55 and I lost it for real. - Yeah, he didn't,
00:57 it was crazy, he didn't even tell me he was on it.
00:59 - Yeah. - No, I didn't even,
01:00 until it came out, I didn't even know,
01:01 and I was like, "Oh, that's dope."
01:03 - Yeah. - Dope when he put it on there,
01:04 'cause like, man, you one of the ones,
01:06 you know what I'm saying?
01:07 The new ones that I, like, I don't listen to a lot of shit.
01:08 - Yeah. - I mean, and then to know
01:10 that you was from Atlanta representing a rapper like that,
01:12 I was like, "Yeah, folk."
01:13 - Yeah, that was perfect. - Yeah, yeah, yeah.
01:14 Just like with this right here,
01:15 that was like, who you wanna pair with?
01:17 Yeah. - Easy.
01:19 - That's it. - I appreciate that.
01:20 - Yeah, man. - That's hard.
01:22 And then we, what was that show?
01:25 It was Afro, not Afro, I don't wanna miss.
01:28 - It might've been something.
01:30 - Something like that. - It was some festival,
01:31 and we performed the song.
01:32 - We performed it.
01:33 It was part of the video. - The day after the video shoot.
01:35 - Yeah, bro, that was fire.
01:36 That was fire, so we got a chance to perform together.
01:38 - Yeah. - After, you know what I'm saying,
01:39 getting a record together, that was for me,
01:41 you know what I'm saying?
01:42 Coming up, listening to you, listening to y'all.
01:44 - It was dope, man. - Come on, man.
01:45 I know all the words.
01:46 - Hey. - I know all the words.
01:48 - Keep it organic, man, for sure.
01:49 - For real, for real.
01:50 - So I know y'all did a lot of the stuff in the dungeon,
01:53 you know what I'm saying, from the folk tales,
01:56 whatever, you know what I'm saying, what I heard.
01:58 A lot of it done in the dungeon,
01:59 but I wanna know, since we in Stank On You Studios,
02:02 what specific, give me the earliest memory
02:07 of y'all working on a body of work in this space.
02:09 - Okay, so first, we started out at a dungeon
02:13 in the basement, so there was no sound booth
02:16 and no none of that, just a free-flowing microphone.
02:19 And we wrote all of a sudden, in the dungeon.
02:24 - In the dungeon. - In the dungeon.
02:25 We wrote it there, we wrapped it, but didn't record it.
02:28 We recorded to like dat tapes, but not professionally.
02:30 - Okay, all right, let me stop you.
02:32 What year, give me, let's go to the,
02:34 I wanna feel like I'm in a, you know what I'm saying?
02:36 - Like 1992. - Okay, all right.
02:38 - In the dungeon. - I'm two.
02:40 - Okay, okay, okay, okay, 1992.
02:43 I'm 17. - Yeah, that's right.
02:44 - And we, that's when we kinda first all got in there
02:48 together with Goody Mob and everything,
02:50 so we started actually just kinda writing
02:53 like all of a sudden, play a listic, right in the dungeon.
02:57 I think the only other song I started was like Ben's Abema.
03:00 So it was working on Goody Mob, Soul Food, and everything.
03:03 So when we got the deal, we got the budget to come here.
03:07 This studio used to be called--
03:08 - '93. - Yeah, it was called Boss Town.
03:11 It was Bobby Brown's studio.
03:12 - This spot? - This spot,
03:13 it was called Bobby, it was Boss Town.
03:15 This is where everybody recorded at, right?
03:17 This is Bobby Brown's shit.
03:18 - That's crazy. - And the B room
03:19 is right here, is where we had this main room
03:22 where we would record, and then they were mixing
03:24 in the A room.
03:25 Some years passed, and we were at a show,
03:29 and we saw Bobby Brown.
03:32 And it was like just after we'd been on the road for a minute.
03:35 - It was a good time, every time we see Bobby,
03:36 I know it's great. - I know, right?
03:37 So we was recording in like Patchwork then,
03:40 after the fact, and Bobby Brown was like,
03:42 "Hey, man," and we was like, "What's up with the studio, man?"
03:44 'Cause we were closed, he's like,
03:45 "Hey, man, y'all could have the studio."
03:47 We were like, "Shit, we didn't know how Bobby Brown
03:49 "got down then," you know what I mean?
03:50 - I don't feel like nobody knows this information right now.
03:52 - You know what I mean?
03:53 Nah, so we went back and told our manager,
03:55 we were like, "Hey, man, Bobby Brown said we had a studio."
03:57 He was like, "Man, get the fuck out of here, man."
03:59 So fast forward, we did a deal with Sylvia Roan
04:04 to get a quote on our records.
04:06 We looked up the studio, it was in foreclosure.
04:09 Sylvia bought the studio out of foreclosure
04:11 and gave it to us as part of our record deal.
04:14 - Boy, that's crazy. - Yeah, yeah.
04:17 So we've been here going on a good 20 now,
04:21 you know what I'm saying?
04:22 And after me and Dre did an OK20,
04:25 since he records mainly in his own private space
04:27 or at his house, or he's in LA right now.
04:30 Dre was like, "Man, go on, buy me out, man."
04:33 Since we be out, so now I own it 100%.
04:36 - That's the hottest, that's the hottest, that's the hottest.
04:39 - I recorded a part of one of my songs
04:43 that was on my album, it's on my go.
04:45 - Okay, we need that back.
04:46 - It's called "Dance Now."
04:48 - No, I left it at the jam, at the jam.
04:50 - Part of the second verse and figuring out
04:53 like the last part, I did it here.
04:54 - Yeah, talk about something, man.
04:55 - I don't know what wrong with it.
04:56 - Talk about something, man, that "Dance Now" for sure.
04:59 - Appreciate it.
05:00 - Yo, man, Bamu blasting the shit out that shit, man.
05:02 For real.
05:03 - You know, like today, everybody blow up viral
05:06 any second, but when was the moment you felt like,
05:09 "Oh, we here, we gonna kick the door down?"
05:12 - Okay, so it started off like this.
05:15 Before L.A. Reid gave us the album deal,
05:18 he was like, "Okay, I wanna see what the guys can do."
05:21 We did a showcase for 'em, he was like,
05:23 "I still don't know if they good enough."
05:26 - Showcases is crazy.
05:27 - Yeah, well, we did, man.
05:28 - You do not do that now.
05:28 - We got turned down, like, L.A.,
05:30 actually, we got turned down like twice
05:33 before we actually got signed.
05:35 But he was like, "Okay, I'm gonna give y'all a shot."
05:36 And he was like, "So we got this Christmas album."
05:39 - Okay.
05:40 - And Rico came to the dungeon like,
05:41 "L.A., give us a budget."
05:42 - Yeah, I know this.
05:43 - "But it gonna be on the Christmas phone."
05:44 - Okay.
05:45 - He was like, "Man, they tryna fuck our career
05:47 "up before we get started."
05:48 So we just talked about what we did at the dungeon.
05:51 Then fast forward, "Player's Ball" came out.
05:54 - Crazy.
05:55 - And the fun fact was, we had picked between two beats,
05:58 and it was the "Sleigh Ride" beat that TLC had.
06:00 - Yep, yep.
06:01 - And it was "Player's Ball."
06:02 - That's the one.
06:03 - And we took "Player's Ball."
06:04 - That's the one.
06:05 I didn't even know it was a Christmas song
06:07 until I got way older, and I learned the history of it.
06:10 - So later on, it went six weeks number one on Billboard,
06:14 and then he was like, "Okay, boom."
06:15 - Yeah.
06:16 - And that's how we got the whole Southern playlist deal.
06:18 - Oh my gosh.
06:19 - Yeah, man.
06:19 - That's insane.
06:20 - Yeah, man.
06:22 I think for me, how the A changed,
06:24 when we was in high school, we was listening to Kilo Ali.
06:28 You know what I'm saying?
06:29 He was the hottest thing on the street.
06:30 Raheem, "The Dream."
06:31 - My hood.
06:32 - Yeah, for sure, and then Atlanta Jam.
06:33 So it always had a dance component to it, too.
06:37 You know what I'm saying?
06:37 With the geek dancing, the whole culture was not just
06:40 rapping and rhyming and shit.
06:41 It was like, it was dancing, first.
06:43 Like, it was dance competitions.
06:45 You had this side against that side.
06:47 I mean, I don't know, you might have been too young.
06:48 - You weren't no dancer, though.
06:49 - Nah, nah, nah, nah, nah, nah, nah, nah, nah, nah, nah.
06:50 - I know you weren't no dancer.
06:51 - Nah, nah, nah, nah, nah, nah, nah, nah, nah, nah, nah.
06:51 - I know it.
06:52 - Nah, nah, nah, nah, nah, nah, not that much.
06:53 We been slow dancing.
06:54 - Yeah, yeah, it gonna be a groove.
06:56 - Yeah, it gonna be a groove, yeah, yeah.
06:57 - What the dance for, y'all just so fresh and clean dance?
07:00 That was as far as you going.
07:01 - That, yeah, we do a little boogieing,
07:03 but Rico and them, they was in full-fledged dance competition.
07:06 - Okay, yeah.
07:07 - Organized noise, so it evolved from that
07:11 to us being in the dungeon
07:13 and just wanting to be respected as lyricists.
07:15 You know what I'm saying?
07:16 That's one thing about the whole squad
07:17 is like, we, iron sharpens iron.
07:19 So we was all living in one house
07:21 and it was a battle to get on certain beats or whatever.
07:25 So whoever could annihilate whatever,
07:27 like, okay, this mine, or we gonna finish this.
07:29 You know what I'm saying?
07:30 So it was like, the main goal was to kill that microphone.
07:33 You know what I mean?
07:33 - Yeah, for sure.
07:34 - And to get that respect, we was gonna have to take it.
07:38 - Yeah.
07:38 - Yeah.
07:39 - Same goal.
07:40 - Yeah, I could hear it.
07:41 - Yeah, it was on the same goal.
07:42 - That's why I hear somebody like you
07:44 and I'm like, yeah, boy, he get it.
07:45 You know what I mean?
07:46 I love MCs, you know what I'm saying?
07:49 That really, I mean, not just rap and just this,
07:52 but they're saying something at the same time.
07:53 You know what I mean?
07:54 - And then being from the South, you know.
07:55 - Yeah.
07:56 - They try to discredit just because of the lingo.
07:58 You know what I'm saying?
07:59 We closer to slavery and all of it, whatever, whatever.
08:01 So it's like, oh, we a little dumber,
08:02 but y'all was like the first to be like, uh-uh.
08:05 - No, man.
08:06 - You know what I'm saying?
08:07 Nigga got them.
08:07 - Yeah.
08:08 - Know what's going on.
08:09 - Yeah, yeah.
08:10 - And we can use this and whatever else need to be used.
08:11 - It gonna be slow, but we gonna get it to you.
08:12 - Yeah, 100%.
08:13 - For sure.
08:14 - 100%, like you was saying, like the collective thing.
08:17 We kind of just took a page out the playbook
08:19 and my dawg, like Earthgang and the other homies,
08:23 you know what I'm saying?
08:23 Black and Mariba and all them people.
08:25 We kind of mirrored that image, you know what I'm saying?
08:27 Mirrored that and tried to take it a little bit further
08:30 because it's definitely Iron Sharper, Irony.
08:32 - Yeah, for sure.
08:32 - It's fun, like doing stuff with people you love
08:35 and care about, you know what I'm saying?
08:36 That's like the best type of music you can make,
08:38 having those real conversations and then going in there.
08:40 - And doing something.
08:41 - Yeah.
08:42 - And at the same time, too, it's cool
08:44 'cause you don't always gotta be the lead batter.
08:46 You know what I'm saying?
08:47 To have somebody else go bat first
08:48 and then you feed off of what they doing.
08:50 It changed the whole dynamics of a song
08:52 when you got a CeeLo Green or you got a Andre 3000
08:57 who had to come behind all the time.
09:00 You can just go back and forth, but it's good though
09:02 'cause we push each other to be that much better.
09:04 - And you really can't even tell who,
09:06 it's whoever the best that day.
09:08 - Yeah, yeah.
09:09 - It ain't got nothing to do with whoever did the best
09:10 on their song 'cause it's always gonna be another chance.
09:11 Like, I love this.
09:13 Cujo went crazy on that.
09:14 - Yeah, exactly, exactly.
09:15 - You know what I'm saying?
09:15 Get whoever.
09:16 - Cujo was like most feared back then, too, man,
09:20 'cause his cadences and his thought process
09:24 was just different.
09:25 - Yeah.
09:26 - And it was just like, you had to unlock his verse.
09:27 You know what I mean?
09:28 - Well, one verse that stand out from Cujo specifically,
09:31 "Who's scared, who's scared?"
09:34 - Oh, yeah.
09:35 - He could make anything move.
09:36 Even Tyson can get laid down with this tool.
09:39 Bruh, that's the hardest line.
09:41 Tyson was his heyday.
09:42 He was Papa Shell Tyson.
09:43 - Let me tell you, Tyson walked up on Cujo
09:46 at the BET Awards or some awards show
09:47 and like, what you gonna say?
09:48 Oh, yeah, oh, yeah, oh, yeah.
09:51 - They about the same size though.
09:52 - Yeah, yeah, yeah, but Tyson got a lot more fights
09:55 than he did, but Cujo ain't back down or nothing.
09:57 He was just a young folk.
09:58 - Yeah.
09:59 - You know what I'm saying?
10:00 But Mike Tyson, like, "You ain't said something."
10:00 (laughing)
10:01 - Come on, bruh.
10:02 - Yeah, for real, man.
10:03 It's so much shit, man.
10:04 - That's so hard.
10:05 - Yeah, man.
10:06 - That's legendary.
10:07 I feel like this is the first time he's hearing that.
10:08 - Nah, they don't know, man.
10:09 - That's all right.
10:10 - That's why I'm trying to keep Serge 10 under wraps, man.
10:11 - Come on, man.
10:12 Shout out to Tyson and Cujo.
10:13 - Yeah, and Cujo for sure.
10:15 - Boy.
10:16 (laughing)
10:17 I'm fucked up like that, bruh.
10:19 'Cause when I heard the line,
10:20 I'm putting the music in the years.
10:22 I'm like, "Oh, no, Tyson just knocked out,"
10:25 you know, whatever his name is.
10:27 I need to put that in.
10:28 I'm like, "Man, he hard for that."
10:28 - You laid down with this, too, yeah.
10:31 I think it was the "Dance Now" record.
10:33 And I, like I said, my son was bumping it, bumping it.
10:36 I'm like, "Man," he's like, "Dad, you gotta hear about it."
10:39 Like, I'm listening to the lyrics, and I'm like, "Okay."
10:41 - Yeah.
10:42 - You one of them ones.
10:43 Talking about something.
10:44 - For sure.
10:45 - You know what I mean?
10:46 Like, it's special.
10:47 And then I hear what you're saying,
10:48 I hear you loud and clear.
10:49 And I dig that shit, and I appreciate that shit, too.
10:52 I appreciate that.
10:52 - For sure, man.
10:53 You got trap, and then you got drill,
10:55 and you got this, and you got that.
10:56 But certain sounds and stories transcend all of that.
11:01 You know what I mean?
11:02 And you have to do that.
11:03 It's what you do, you know what I mean?
11:03 That's what makes you special.
11:05 You gotta have substance in it at the same time,
11:08 and still gotta be jamming, you know what I mean?
11:09 'Cause you don't wanna be too preachy, preachy.
11:11 - Exactly, gotta be fun.
11:12 - You know what I mean?
11:13 Gotta be fun.
11:14 And I think you've mastered that.
11:16 - You know what I think about, too?
11:18 We both got a song with Lil' Dragon.
11:20 - Oh.
11:21 - We both do.
11:22 - Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.
11:23 - I love them.
11:24 One of my favorite groups of all time.
11:25 So when y'all song came out, I was like,
11:27 "Oh, this is like my world's colliding."
11:29 You know what I'm saying?
11:30 - Oh, I haven't camped out in here for about a month.
11:33 - They were here?
11:34 - Yeah, yeah.
11:35 - Yeah, I'm saying.
11:35 - We got a couple records that we ain't even put out yet.
11:38 - So when we talking about the others,
11:40 the sub-drummers, the hip-hop,
11:41 when we doing a song with pop, techno, soul,
11:46 full group, Lil' Dragon is boundless
11:49 as far as where we could take the music.
11:51 - I mean, if you got a talent and you can slice that cake,
11:54 man, you gotta use your knife.
11:55 You know what I mean?
11:56 - Exactly.
11:57 - You can never be one-dimensional.
11:58 And another fun fact, Lil' Dragon,
12:02 I did a song called "Mama Told Me,"
12:04 and I was on Def Jam.
12:06 And the label told me, and I was like,
12:07 "Oh, nobody knows them."
12:09 I never followed this shit again.
12:11 I mean, even though I love Kelly Rowland,
12:13 she did a great job, but the spirit of the song changed
12:17 when I took them off and put on somebody else
12:20 just for a commercial radio feel.
12:23 And I just shoot myself in the foot every day,
12:25 like, man, why I even do that shit?
12:27 Yeah, they tried to convince me,
12:28 so I don't play by the rules.
12:30 - I feel you on that.
12:31 And they definitely a group,
12:33 it's hard to replicate what they do.
12:35 So I know they're probably left with a bad taste.
12:38 - Super cool, the whole band,
12:39 we used to go bowling and shit and everything.
12:40 They went on my bowling league night,
12:42 they'd stay every Wednesday, come bowling with us.
12:44 - I took 'em to Cheetah's.
12:45 - Oh, shit.
12:46 - I took 'em to the strip club.
12:47 - 100%, and we ate real good.
12:50 And we took 'em to the strip, gave them some ones,
12:51 I got pictures, it was crazy.
12:53 - Oh, man.
12:54 - The whole band, after they opened up for,
12:56 I believe, Leon Bridges, maybe?
12:57 - Oh, I love that, Leon Bridges was raw, too.
12:59 - Yeah, 100%.
13:00 So I wanna know, what specifically,
13:03 I see you work with a lot of artists and stuff,
13:05 but what specifically made you work with Lil Dragon?
13:07 What was the thing about them?
13:08 - It was the sound first, and then that damn,
13:14 Ykemi, her voice, man, her voice was like,
13:17 - Silk.
13:18 - It's, boy, she can sing on anything,
13:20 and it don't sound like something you ever heard.
13:22 Anything she touch is something brand new.
13:25 You know what I mean?
13:26 It's just, the music was unpredictable,
13:29 and I wanted the song that we did
13:30 to be unpredictable as well, and man.
13:33 - I know exactly what you mean.
13:34 - You know what I'm saying?
13:35 - It's the same thing, all of 'em,
13:36 even like, a record we worked on,
13:39 I sent her something, sent it back,
13:41 but they all produced on it.
13:42 Like, you know what I'm saying?
13:43 They sent it back with they flavor,
13:44 like, oh, this is a good beat,
13:45 but we gonna add on top of it to let you know.
13:49 - They put that hop on it.
13:50 - They put it on there, and it was one of the best things
13:52 I could've ever expected, 'cause I didn't expect it.
13:54 - See what I'm saying?
13:55 - You know what I'm saying?
13:56 - So, I mean, with that being said,
13:58 has there ever been a time where you knew
14:01 something was right musically,
14:02 and somebody or something made you change it
14:07 without you, your gut was like,
14:08 no, I don't really wanna do that.
14:12 - Maybe in a small occurrence,
14:13 but I kinda live in that world that you were talking about,
14:16 of like, nah, I'm not playing by any type of rule.
14:19 You know what I'm saying?
14:20 So, it could've been something small,
14:22 a change on a song, but nothing made me feel too bad.
14:25 I'm pretty fearless when it comes to it,
14:27 just because of what, you know what I'm saying?
14:28 The standards y'all set, I'm pretty fearless.
14:31 The second album we dropped, we dropped it on a Monday.
14:34 Like, you know what I'm saying?
14:35 That's pretty absurd in today's time,
14:37 when it's like, oh, Thursday night,
14:39 you got that album coming up,
14:40 we decided to drop on Monday,
14:42 missed the whole little Friday, Saturday, Sunday,
14:44 what's the name, just to do what we wanna do.
14:46 Let us drop on Monday, let the music come out how we feel.
14:49 So, that's just like, one instance I can tell you,
14:51 we were super fearless in our attempt
14:53 to get the music out there.
14:54 - That's dope, that's dope.
14:56 Right now, it's a certain type of sound
14:59 that's being pushed into a certain theme,
15:01 that's just only one thing, you know what I mean?
15:03 But there's so many artists out there
15:04 that got so many dope songs, album concepts,
15:08 so much talent, you gotta have,
15:10 but you got J. Cole behind, which is super dope.
15:13 You know what I'm saying?
15:13 I mean, but he know what he doing, too.
15:15 - Yeah, it's up, it's up.
15:15 - You know what I mean?
15:16 But when you open up them floodgates,
15:18 a lot of times, they don't want that realness,
15:20 they don't want the truth, you know what I mean?
15:23 You gotta reinvent yourself every time you come out.
15:25 You know what I mean?
15:27 For me, that's why it be so hard sometimes to write,
15:29 because I done wrote so many songs,
15:31 I don't ever want the same pattern,
15:33 I don't wanna use the same sentence,
15:35 I don't even wanna use the same slang,
15:36 you know what I mean?
15:37 So, I'm in here trying to just,
15:38 I'm like, I'm digging for gold,
15:40 but once I strike that motherfucker, it's over with.
15:42 - It's on.
15:43 - It's over with.
15:44 - I'm still pushing for, you know what I'm saying,
15:49 trying to open up the sound,
15:50 find new, like you was saying before,
15:52 like just trying to do new patterns,
15:53 like make it all fresh,
15:55 just keep being organic with the music and growing with it.
15:58 I was a kid, what is it,
16:02 it had to be a criminal.
16:05 With the, y'all had the lady, she was naked on there.
16:08 I used to carry that around and show my friends,
16:10 'cause you could see, there's nothing like that
16:13 within my childhood, embedded in my memory,
16:15 because it was so fearless.
16:16 And it's like, yeah.
16:18 - That's crazy, I mean, when we first started doing it,
16:20 you know, that's Drake drawing that shit.
16:22 - Yeah, I knew that.
16:23 - And it's just like, every city was like,
16:25 man, what the new girl gonna look like?
16:27 You know what I'm saying?
16:28 And the first one, you could see the nipples and everything,
16:30 the ATLAs, you could see some nip.
16:32 - Bro, this was crazy.
16:33 - And then by the time we started getting up there,
16:35 they was like, hold on now, we gotta just do a silhouette
16:38 of the nip, we just can't be showing no pussy on no ass
16:40 like that.
16:41 I mean, but it was great, like it's art.
16:42 Which it is still art, the most beautiful thing
16:44 God has created.
16:45 - And it was amazing, bro, 'cause the music was,
16:48 you don't know what's gonna happen, you know what I'm saying?
16:50 And then the titles, everything about it was just
16:52 pushing everything forward that led to like,
16:55 someone like me, or like the Earth Gang,
16:58 or black, like Marie, but these type of artists,
17:00 like, definitely parallel.
17:01 - Yeah, that's dope, man.
17:02 That's dope, man, like, I mean, we,
17:06 listen to a lot of Parliament Funkadelic,
17:09 so we see the album covers, and like,
17:11 the maggot brains, and the different--
17:14 - Man, y'all did a song with my boy.
17:16 - George?
17:17 - Yep, y'all did a song with George.
17:17 - Oh yeah, yeah, Synthesizers, yeah.
17:18 - Synthesizers that won.
17:20 - Yeah.
17:21 - For real.
17:21 - Yeah, man, I mean, George is like,
17:22 he is the grandfather of the funk, man.
17:24 I worked with him a couple of times,
17:26 and it's just like, you never know what you gonna get.
17:29 I mean, he went in the booth, and then he just unleashed,
17:32 like, in one take.
17:34 - I would love to see how that session goes.
17:35 - In one take.
17:36 - 'Cause you was singing at the end,
17:37 you was leading the choir at the end,
17:39 and synthesizer, you know what I'm saying?
17:40 - That was all of us, that was all of us, man,
17:42 playing in this group called 4.0,
17:45 that was signed to Organized Noise, too.
17:47 - Dang, that's hard, that was amazing.
17:49 - Just put all elements into it, man,
17:51 you know what I'm saying?
17:52 Like, a song has to be an adventure,
17:55 I mean, to me, to be an experience,
17:57 you know what I mean?
17:58 So it just can't be verse, hook, verse, hook, bridge,
18:01 whatever, give 'em--
18:02 - You need some flavor.
18:03 - Yeah, absolutely, man, just cut outside
18:05 the lines.
18:06 - Exactly.
18:08 - I'm getting into a different space with animations,
18:11 I got, like, a couple of animated series
18:13 that I'm working on that's, like, super cool,
18:16 that's coming, and what's crazy is,
18:19 you get to create these worlds,
18:21 and also, you know, create the music to 'em,
18:24 'cause we're doing the music behind it and everything,
18:27 and tell different stories, it's wacky,
18:29 I can't say a whole lot about it,
18:31 but it's coming, man, as soon as they write a strike,
18:33 I'll be like, "Oh, man."
18:34 - I'm ready for the season, birds and falcon fin,
18:36 I'm ready.
18:37 - Yeah, oh yeah, yeah, that too.
18:38 - I'm inspired by the falcon fin.
18:39 - Oh yeah, football season, for sure, you seen it.
18:40 - Come on, man, I'm ready.
18:42 I'm ready for football season,
18:44 just like, I don't know, just new experiences every day,
18:46 I'm trying, like, new ventures,
18:48 you know what I'm saying, I can afford things now,
18:50 so now, like, I'm trying to invest,
18:52 I got, not even trying, I am investing,
18:54 I'm buying stuff, I'm just trying to, like,
18:57 step into--
18:57 - Secure your future, man.
18:58 - Exactly, step into the business more.
19:00 - That's, boy, that's, it's a must.
19:02 - Yeah, for sure.
19:03 - Watching your journey and growing up,
19:05 being a super fan and just seeing, like,
19:07 how y'all transitioned into manhood,
19:09 and like you saying, like, owning this shit,
19:10 like, doing your thing still, like,
19:12 that's amazing, bro, that's,
19:14 like, what you saying, like, the rock,
19:16 like, I got a little, I like rock,
19:18 I got a little B for it, just because I want our hip,
19:20 I want our journey to be able to grow,
19:22 you know what I'm saying, let's do all the same things,
19:25 the Rolling Stones and all them on stage,
19:27 like, making sure, like, this culture is respected
19:30 and watching how y'all, like, flourish and through it
19:32 is just amazing to me, you know what I'm saying,
19:34 so I try and incorporate that into my everyday,
19:37 you know what I'm saying. - Yeah, you know,
19:39 really, the whole key to it, man,
19:41 I call that shit out-the-way records, man, like,
19:43 just ain't even staying in your lane,
19:46 'cause all lanes are our lanes, you know what I mean?
19:48 Just dominate, get in, whatever you're gonna do, dominate,
19:51 you know what I'm saying, and if you do it from your heart
19:53 and you really focus on it,
19:55 then you're gonna kill every time,
19:56 you know what I'm saying, whether it be music or business
19:58 or parenthood, you know what I'm saying, like, dominate.
20:02 Just go super hard, man, you only got one life, for sure.
20:05 It's probably like our second or third time meeting,
20:07 but it's like I've known you, you know what I mean?
20:09 And the vibrations are right here, just,
20:12 shit's super chill, man, like, he is like,
20:14 I want, they asked me to do this several times,
20:17 and like, "Well, who you gonna do it?"
20:18 I couldn't think, I was like, "Oh, I know who."
20:20 - Yeah. - Yeah, man,
20:21 give me my dawg, man, for sure.
20:23 But no, it's definitely, it's an honor, man,
20:25 and to have another comrade from Atlanta,
20:27 they'd be like, "Hi, Atlanta, still thriving,
20:29 "it's because of people like you, man,
20:31 "artists like you that really take the craft serious
20:33 "and kill shit."
20:35 - No, I appreciate your job, bro,
20:36 you're straight, like, inspiration, like,
20:38 if I make you wanna rap, like,
20:40 I can literally say, like, you made me rap,
20:42 like, you know what I'm saying?
20:43 - That's dope, that's dope.
20:44 - And that's the whole thing, like,
20:46 I'm able to live a life now, you know what I'm saying?
20:48 - You stepped it all the way up and all the way out, man.
20:51 - Yeah, and I'm gonna keep on pushing, just 'cause.
20:52 - I'm gonna, I wish, hey, kill a mic,
20:55 you, and to name 'em all names,
20:57 even without the titties out, all this shit.
20:59 - Yeah. - Come on, man.
21:01 - Yeah, yeah, yeah, push it.
21:02 (laughing)
21:03 - Yeah. - That was great.
21:04 - You're sick, man.
21:05 - Appreciate it. - That's right,
21:06 that's right.
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