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00:00 I just want to know like, cause like...
00:04 I don't like the leg crawls.
00:07 This feels like Gayle King.
00:08 I just, I gotta, I don't like this.
00:09 I just want to talk about, I'm trying to have a serious conversation.
00:13 Okay, alright, I'm gonna be serious.
00:14 Cool.
00:15 Please do me the honor of helping me welcome to the stage Lil Yachty and Tierra Whack.
00:29 All are energetically aligned in a lot of ways.
00:32 One of those ways is I feel like you're just students in the purest sense.
00:35 Students of creativity.
00:36 It doesn't matter about genre, it doesn't matter about medium.
00:39 So I want to know about maybe a piece of art that transformed the way that you view your
00:45 creative lens and when you experienced it, watched it, heard it, you were like, "Damn,
00:50 I want someone to feel the way that I feel receiving this."
00:54 Could you repeat the question?
00:55 I go.
00:56 Okay.
00:57 For me, it's Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Mall.
01:03 That was the first time I heard that album.
01:07 It altered my perspective on music in its entirety.
01:13 As creators, I just felt like after hearing that album, it sunk into my brain that we
01:20 have been so limited with our content compared to the things that we are able to do.
01:29 In music in general, I feel like we just do what the recipe is.
01:33 You know what I'm saying?
01:35 There is endless ways to form a sonic wave.
01:40 In realizing that it came out in '68 when there was no autotune or no Pro Tools or no
01:47 Fruity Loops, this is all hardware.
01:50 You hear what I'm saying?
01:51 These niggas is old.
01:52 Yeah, hardware, that's a big one.
01:56 But I realized that through the years of while we got all this great, amazing advanced technology,
02:03 I feel like my personal opinion is that it handicapped us as creators and it made us
02:10 very limited.
02:14 Back then, all you had was your brain and your skills.
02:19 I got really obsessed with watching old artists' live performance videos.
02:27 I just think about, "Man, them niggas had no in-ears."
02:30 Just raw, just raw dogging it.
02:34 I could never do that with no in-ears.
02:36 It was on key, in tune, in arenas.
02:39 It's all kind of reverb and that's real talent.
02:43 You know what I'm saying?
02:44 And they rehearsed all the time.
02:45 Yeah, and the speakers, the technology was nothing like what we have in today's time.
02:50 It was just raw talent.
02:57 Obviously I'm sure the effort put towards the craft is 50 times more.
03:01 You getting off topic.
03:03 No, it's right on topic.
03:05 No, I'm following you.
03:06 I'm thinking about Busta Rhymes' "Gimme Some More."
03:10 That video, crazy.
03:12 It makes you feel like it's slow-mo but fast-paced at the same time.
03:16 It just puts you in a trance.
03:18 I used to watch all of Busta's live performances because that's the reason I get so animated.
03:25 I get so crazy because people feel that.
03:30 You just got to be over the top and just turn it up.
03:33 Definitely I got to give a lot of credit to how I performed to Busta Rhymes.
03:37 Are there any artists that you can think of right now in terms of their evolution that
03:42 really you look to and you're like, "That's how I want to do.
03:46 I want to continue to best myself in this way.
03:48 I want to continue to think in a different way and run it back."
03:52 Are there artists, when we're thinking about their whole career, that you think of when
03:57 you think about true creative evolution?
04:00 Tyler.
04:02 Just how he hones in and he caters.
04:06 When he starts his era, he's in that era until it ends.
04:12 He takes us through each era.
04:14 I feel like whatever he's on, I'm on it.
04:16 From start to finish.
04:17 We're growing with him.
04:18 Absolutely.
04:19 We slowly just grow with him.
04:20 We just accept him as a human.
04:23 But he's an artist too.
04:25 That kind of leads me into "T.D." which is one of my favorite songs off Lobo 3.
04:31 I want us to just hear the instrumental just in case you didn't know.
04:35 Because the sample already is crazy.
04:37 Thank you.
04:38 One of the hardest beats ever.
04:39 I listened to this beat like 30 times before I even said anything.
04:40 I was like, "Oh my God, I got to kill this shit.
04:41 Oh my God."
04:42 She fucking bodied us on that track.
04:43 Yeah, in a big way.
04:44 It was crazy.
04:45 I wanted her to.
05:03 That's why I put her on it.
05:04 No, I still have the text messages of him saying, "Please kill all of us."
05:09 I was like, "Okay."
05:10 Absolutely.
05:11 Because I've always been one of her biggest fans.
05:15 Day one.
05:16 I got to give ... No, really.
05:19 Guys, I have a lot of rapper friends, but this is my real friend.
05:23 He's been there since day one.
05:26 When people weren't sure about me, like, "Yo, she's kind of weird."
05:30 I'm not like ... He was the one.
05:31 He was posting me, showing me love, reaching out, checking on me, the most genuine artist
05:37 that I know.
05:38 I'm so happy that people are finally seeing what I saw in you also.
05:44 You are a megastar.
05:46 You're everything.
05:47 I appreciate it.
05:48 I love that he sent a beat that we all were able to get on and do our thing.
05:55 Because artists will send songs around, it's like, "I hear you on this," but it won't make
06:00 sense.
06:01 Sometimes it just doesn't make sense.
06:02 I love putting her on records because it's like ... It's really me just trying to ... I
06:06 want anyone who fuck with me to be like, "Hey, y'all.
06:10 This is what you really need to be listening to."
06:12 You know what I'm saying?
06:13 I swear to God, I'd be so happy, bro.
06:15 I'd be trying to ... I'd be trying to ...
06:18 You know, you got balls.
06:22 So many men are afraid to get on a song with me.
06:24 Yeah, but you know what it is?
06:27 I don't think it's I got balls.
06:28 I just don't have ego.
06:29 No ego, yeah.
06:30 No ego.
06:31 You know, I just ... I don't ... I just ...
06:32 No ego, but you got balls, yeah.
06:33 I want you to win.
06:34 I want to see you win.
06:36 I want to see you at the top of the mountain.
06:38 I appreciate it.
06:39 It's so rare, so that's why I thank you.
06:41 You always ... You're like, "Oh, of course," but I'm like, "I thank you every chance I
06:44 get."
06:45 Yeah, no, I mean, you the fucking ...
06:46 Thank you.
06:47 You the shit.
06:48 Thank you.
06:49 You the actual turd, a little dookie.
06:50 All right.
06:51 You like a little piece of ...
06:52 I'm kind of pushing it.
06:53 You're a little crust of green boop-boop on a tissue.
06:58 It's zero on the clock.
06:59 You can stop.
07:00 After you wipe.
07:01 But on your podcast, A Safe Place Podcast, which is now ... This is now A Safe Place.
07:07 You talked about competition, and I think with J. Cole specifically about certain tracks
07:13 or being an artist who's featured, maybe it's to be a compliment.
07:18 You talking about on Sick Recipe?
07:20 Yes, yeah.
07:22 But I'm thinking more about competition with yourself, because I think that's something
07:26 that really points to where you two are right now.
07:29 Who was I?
07:30 Who am I?
07:31 And how can I go harder?
07:33 Do you think ... Is that an active thing that you factor into approaching creative projects,
07:38 trying to best yourself?
07:40 Or does it just happen and you look back like, "Damn, I did that."
07:45 I just want respect.
07:46 And I still ... I just feel so alone.
07:49 I feel like yet to get it.
07:51 And the older I get, the more important it is to me, because music is my life.
07:58 Yeah.
08:00 So I think all I care about is ... This is what I care about most in my life.
08:05 And I feel is that a lot of people may have not taken me serious for different reasons.
08:10 Maybe because of the era I came in, or maybe because I had red hair and was a kid, or-
08:15 Hey.
08:16 I don't ... I'm talking about at the time, like 2016.
08:23 He's like, "Red hair is so old news."
08:25 Nah, I completely forgot you got red hair.
08:27 Bringing it back.
08:28 But I don't know what it is that ... I just feel like people always looked at or treated
08:34 me like a kid.
08:35 I was always the kid that like, "Okay, cool.
08:39 You think this trash?
08:40 I'm going to go fix it.
08:41 I'm going to go work on it.
08:42 I'm going to get better.
08:43 I'm going to come back.
08:44 What about this?"
08:45 I really studied music, man.
08:46 This shit is like everything from interviews to fucking concerts to fucking merch.
08:54 I studied this shit.
08:55 But just to be fairly honest, it wasn't until I got a little older that I truly ... To be
09:01 honest, it wasn't until I fell in love with that Dark Silent Moon album that I completely
09:07 changed my perspective on creative music and creating albums as a whole, and felt that
09:13 like, "Oh man, bringing back that experience is important."
09:17 I just want to make music and art that I'm proud of.
09:20 That's it.
09:21 Just period.
09:22 I hear, I can name Caught Out There by Khalees.
09:24 I love that song.
09:25 I wish I made it.
09:26 If I can make a song and be so proud of it that I can't believe that I made it, I'm good.
09:32 The deal is done.
09:33 That's all I need.
09:34 I just want to be proud of my own art.
09:35 Hell yeah.
09:37 That too.
09:38 I used to ... No, no, no, no, no, no.
09:39 For real, for real, for real.
09:40 Let me tell you.
09:41 Let me tell you.
09:42 I used to ... This is a true thing, right?
09:45 I never would go outside.
09:47 I never went to any events.
09:48 I've never been to a fashion show.
09:50 I never did any Paris Fashion Week, New York Fashion Week, and I'll tell you why.
09:54 Because I would always go to events where I'd go out and people would say to me, "Oh
09:58 man, Yachty, man, I love your music, bro."
10:01 I used to be like, "What song?"
10:03 Because I didn't even ... At the time, I didn't love my music.
10:06 I'm like, "How you ... " I stopped going out.
10:09 I never went out because I was ... I would feel like I'm in a room with all these artists
10:12 and they all respect each other.
10:14 I feel like no one respects me because I don't have a catalog that's maybe up to par with
10:19 them.
10:20 I just stopped going out.
10:21 I was like, "Man, I need to make an album that I respect and that people respect and
10:28 that I'm proud of and I can really hold my nuts."
10:32 Really be like, "Yeah, I made this shit.
10:35 I can go in any room and like, 'Hey, what's up?
10:38 How y'all doing?'
10:39 They say, 'Man, I love what you did.'"
10:40 I'm like, "I know."
10:41 You know what I'm saying?
10:42 I wanted to feel like, "Nah, I'm doing some ... I'm contributing some good shit to the
10:48 world.
10:49 Good art."
10:50 That was my switch.
10:52 It all hit me at the same time, but yeah.
10:54 Tierra, you tweeted, "Yachty and Cole, greater than."
10:59 Sorry, that way.
11:00 "Meek and Ross, Dirk and Cuddy, Earl and Vince.
11:04 Rap is on fire right now."
11:06 I said to her, "Why did you do that?"
11:09 I loved it.
11:10 I don't know why I do anything.
11:11 I loved it.
11:12 Why would she do that though?
11:13 Because she loved the shit at the time.
11:14 She used votes.
11:15 It was a lot of good music out.
11:16 Yeah, and you used seven people.
11:17 It was a lot of good music out.
11:18 Yeah, and you used seven exclamation points, so I know you felt that shit in a real way.
11:23 I really did.
11:24 Why would she set that standard?
11:25 Because it was important to do.
11:26 I was tapped in, but what I love most about that list is the breadth of it.
11:34 It wasn't just one type of song.
11:37 Exactly.
11:38 Yes.
11:39 Where do you think hip hop is right now with looking at that list, looking at this love
11:44 that you two share?
11:46 It's very diverse.
11:47 You can do whatever you want.
11:48 You can be whoever you want.
11:51 Just freedom.
11:52 Yeah.
11:53 That shit sucks.
11:54 Okay, let's dispel this.
11:55 Man, no, hold on.
11:56 Let's talk about it.
11:57 Let's talk about it.
11:58 Let's talk about it.
11:59 The place that hip hop is in right now is a terrible place.
12:02 What are we talking about?
12:03 But you're looking at it glass half empty.
12:05 No, no.
12:06 I mean, hip hop is hip hop, but you ask me, "Where is hip hop right now?
12:09 The state of hip hop right now is it's a lot of imitation.
12:12 It's a lot of quick, low quality music being put out.
12:17 It's a lot less risk taking.
12:19 It's a lot less originality.
12:22 Everyone's so safe.
12:23 I'd rather take the risk and take the L.
12:26 I love that.
12:27 Always.
12:28 But I think there are people doing that.
12:32 I think you're doing that.
12:33 I think you're doing that.
12:34 So there are.
12:35 Yeah, but hip hop as a whole is like you just named two people.
12:38 It's hundreds of people in hip hop.
12:41 Should we go off a list?
12:42 Should we ask the audience?
12:43 No, no, no, no, no.
12:44 You do it because you said it.
12:45 Go ahead.
12:46 I'm going to ask you that.
12:47 Without naming Tyler-
12:48 Or Tierra or Yachty.
12:51 I mean, honestly, one of my favorites is JID right now.
12:55 I love JID.
12:56 I love JID.
12:57 He excites me.
12:58 But JID is one-
12:59 Wait, what does JID stand for?
13:00 A beautiful person.
13:01 What is J-I-D?
13:02 What is that?
13:03 I don't know.
13:04 Jumping indoors.
13:05 I don't know what it stands for.
13:06 Is that really what it is?
13:07 Is that what it stands for?
13:08 I don't know.
13:09 You do.
13:10 I don't know.
13:11 But JID is such a beautiful person.
13:12 He got the spirit of a real Atlanta Negro.
13:18 True.
13:19 And he is such a good, kind person.
13:26 And he was one of ... I don't know.
13:28 He just always embraced me with open arms.
13:32 So I got nothing but respect for JID.
13:36 I've never heard a bad voice from JID ever.
13:38 I want to talk about being a woman in hip hop.
13:42 Okay.
13:43 And not only being a woman in hip hop, you're a dark-skinned woman in hip hop.
13:50 And praise to that, right?
13:54 But I just want to talk about what comes with that.
13:59 Do you ever feel like something ain't adding up?
14:04 Because I do.
14:07 Sometimes, but not for the most part.
14:09 I think sometimes people force that on me, like that question that you just ... I get
14:13 asked that often.
14:15 And baby, the people love me.
14:18 The brands, I be on everything.
14:20 Listen.
14:21 That's good.
14:22 They love Wack.
14:23 And I'm following your footsteps.
14:27 You were one of the first rappers, especially ... What was that?
14:30 What year XXL was that?
14:31 2016.
14:32 2016.
14:33 You've got that memory.
14:34 2016.
14:35 Yeah, you were one of the ...
14:37 You were the best rapper on that cover, if I'm being all the way honest.
14:44 You were able to keep a clean image.
14:46 You weren't really promoting drugs or violence or any of that.
14:51 You were literally my twin.
14:53 And I'm doing the same thing as you.
14:55 And I think that's why we're here.
14:56 It just all makes sense.
14:57 But yeah, I mean, we're just being true to myself.
15:01 And I think the people who accept me and respect me, we just ... I don't know.
15:06 It just works.
15:07 Do you think not doing that, not talking about those things, makes it harder?
15:18 Like for me, I take it-
15:19 Not talking about ... I don't ... Come on.
15:20 If I ... My God.
15:21 I'm only asking because for me and my career, when I was younger, when I was 18 and 19-
15:27 The people that I looked up to growing up, my mom.
15:29 My mom is a really strong, independent woman.
15:32 She's black, of course.
15:33 Black, strong, independent woman.
15:34 Yeah.
15:35 She worked hard.
15:39 She wasn't a slut.
15:44 She wasn't selling her body, showing her body.
15:46 I had a perfect role model.
15:48 You know what I'm saying?
15:49 And then musically, Lauryn Hill was my everything.
15:52 So I'm just following the people I look up to.
15:55 That's it.
15:56 I knew ... Yeah.
15:57 That's not what I asked you.
15:58 What'd you say?
15:59 That's not what I asked you at all.
16:00 What?
16:01 That's not what I asked you.
16:02 What'd you ask me?
16:03 I'm sorry.
16:04 I was asking you, do you think that ... Do you find it-
16:08 It's not hard to not talk about sex.
16:10 That's not what I'm asking you.
16:11 Okay, I don't understand.
16:12 I'm sorry.
16:13 You're not fucking listening.
16:14 I'm asking, do you think it's harder to gain certain traction?
16:18 You know what I'm saying?
16:19 Because this is the only reason I'm asking you.
16:22 Yeah, I'm taking the hard way.
16:23 Is that what you're asking?
16:24 Yes, I'm taking the hard way.
16:25 Fuck you.
16:26 Is that it?
16:27 No.
16:28 I was younger and coming up the class I had glorified drugs, face tats, fucking everything
16:35 under the book.
16:36 You know what I'm saying?
16:37 What I learned as I got older is that I never had the fan base of certain peers because
16:43 I didn't glorify negativity.
16:45 You don't glorify shaking big booty.
16:48 I could.
16:49 Right.
16:50 I'm saying, did you see any ... Did you too see any of those challenges?
16:56 Or you're like, "Nah, not really."
16:58 No.
16:59 If I'm just being myself and following my own path, I can't see anything else.
17:03 I'm just focused on me and having fun and being myself.
17:05 Yeah.
17:06 I love it.
17:07 I'm just asking.
17:08 Yeah, you're going to beat my ass.
17:09 No, no, no.
17:10 I just wanted to know.
17:11 Let me just justify.
17:12 My mom is a very respectable woman.
17:15 I love her so much.
17:16 She's my everything.
17:17 She's my hero.
17:18 All I'm saying is I had a great role model growing up and that's why I'm on this straight
17:23 path.
17:24 It's so crazy though.
17:25 I feel like a lot of artists have great role models just be like-
17:29 That's not true.
17:30 Not all of them, but I feel like I guarantee you there's a lot of artists that make crazy
17:34 songs that have good role models.
17:41 By the way, I was snubbed on a Grammy nomination today.
17:44 What the fuck is y'all clapping for?
17:47 I was snubbed.
17:48 Let's talk about it.
17:49 The fuck?
17:50 Fuck y'all.
17:51 I was snubbed.
17:52 Y'all supposed to boo.
17:53 It's true.
17:54 I just wanted to create something that you loved.
17:57 That was the intention.
17:58 Absolutely.
17:59 But also, it would be great to get some recognition for that.
18:03 I just don't feel like anyone put a better album out.
18:08 Sonically.
18:09 I'm not saying lyrically, maybe, but sonically.
18:12 Wait, guys, the live show is amazing.
18:15 It's the best show I've seen in a long time.
18:17 I'm not just saying that because he pays me to say it.
18:19 I'm saying it because I love him.
18:23 I just worked really hard.
18:24 You did?
18:25 From start to finish.
18:26 I just don't know.
18:29 But does that make you want to create more?
18:32 Does it make you want to go harder?
18:33 Does it make you want to do anything different?
18:34 No.
18:35 Honestly, I handled it way better than I thought I did.
18:36 I thought I was going to be throwing shit around, mad as hell, but I didn't care.
18:45 When it came out, honestly, .5 seconds after, deleted it out of my brain.
18:51 It's crazy because the last eight months, I've been thinking about it.
18:56 Creating that album built such a new level of confidence for me.
18:59 I've gained to love my artistry all over again on another level.
19:04 Again, become so confident in myself and knowing that was the starting point for what I can
19:09 do and what I'm going to do.
19:11 Now my last question, Tierra.
19:12 You just said, he asked you how long it had been since you dropped something.
19:17 What makes you say, "Okay, now it's time to drop"?
19:19 I'm going to just be real.
19:20 It took a long time to get my videos done.
19:22 I have a lot of videos stacked now.
19:25 It just took a long time to get videos done, to be all the way honest.
19:29 Before that, I just wasn't making stuff that I was proud of.
19:32 I'm not just going to put out bullshit.
19:34 It's going to be stuff I really care about, stuff I'm really proud of.
19:37 All right.
19:38 Thank you.
19:39 All right.
19:40 Thank you.
19:40 (whooshing)