DJ Mustard is riding high off of his success with Kendrick Lamar’s “Not Like Us.” He sits down with us and gives us the inside scoop on how he helped create it and how it’s changed his life, how Nipsey Hussle helped name his new album ‘FAITH OF A MUSTARD SEED’ and his opinion on why the Kendrick & Drake beef was good for hip hop. He goes in depth about his latest single “Parking Lot” with Travis Scott, his divorce, collaborating with Rihanna, Mariah Carey and more!
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00:00Drake and Kendrick, and even J. Cole,
00:03they all came and just made this thing the top of,
00:06it's just, it's that.
00:07Would you guys have rather me stay with this lady
00:09and me be unhappy and me dogger or something?
00:12What would you want me to do?
00:14I remember like the last conversation I had with Nipsey,
00:16he was telling me to name that album,
00:19Faithful Mustard Seed.
00:20What up, it's Mustard, and you're watching Billboard News.
00:23♪ Who is he? Who is he? Ay, mustard on the beat, help people eat. ♪
00:34You picked the perfect time to stop by Billboard,
00:36Hot 100, number one song, Not Like Us, man.
00:39How does it feel at this point in your career to be topping the Hot 100?
00:43Man, I keep saying it, and I can't say it enough,
00:46it's gotta be God.
00:47Because if you think about it, it's like,
00:49I think like a couple months ago,
00:51I knew I had this whole album,
00:52and I'm just like, okay, what am I gonna do
00:55to get myself back hot?
00:56What am I gonna do to, you know,
00:58I can't, I don't wanna do drip checks no more,
00:59I did that already.
01:00I don't wanna do the weight checks if I've done that already.
01:02I wanna get as much in shape as I can,
01:04but, you know, I was just like, what am I gonna do?
01:06How are we gonna spark for people to be like,
01:08oh, I wanna hear Mustard again?
01:10You know, that's just like,
01:11I think every artist would think about that,
01:13and then the song came out,
01:14and then it was just like, again.
01:16Well, there's my Apple promotion.
01:17There's my rollout, that's all I needed for a rollout.
01:20They not like us, they not like us, they not like us.
01:23Me and Kendrick have been talking for years.
01:26Like, literally, I've been trying to get a song
01:28with him for years.
01:30Maybe two years, maybe three years.
01:32Before I even made him, made that beat,
01:35I was sending him, I got into a place
01:37where I was just like, you know what?
01:38I'ma just send five beats a day.
01:40I'ma send four beats, I'ma go in the studio,
01:42I'ma send five beats.
01:43I maybe send him five beats a day for like,
01:46maybe two months, three months, maybe three months.
01:48I still do it right now.
01:49I still do it right now.
01:50I'm still currently sending beats.
01:51I'm still doing it right now,
01:52just in case he wanna record something.
01:53I sent him that beat, and then I think that day,
01:59I won't make it a point just to go to the studio
02:01and make a couple beats to send to him.
02:03Just in case, this is before all the stuff.
02:06I didn't know nothing about anything.
02:07Right, but even with the style of the track,
02:09you know, K.Dot's not really necessarily known
02:11for this club vibe that you guys captured
02:14in such a beautiful way with that track.
02:15So, did you think that was gonna be the one he?
02:19Nah, I didn't know.
02:21I had no idea.
02:22I think that when I go in to make music,
02:24I'm just like making stuff that I think is tight.
02:27I'm not gonna send anything that I think is like,
02:29yeah, you know, like so.
02:30In my mind, when I made that, I was just like,
02:33I remember getting a sample,
02:35and my homeboy sent me the sample.
02:36His name is Sean Monberg.
02:38He sent me the sample, and I started chopping it up,
02:41and I sped it up, and I was just like,
02:43I did the drums, and I'm like, this is fire.
02:45I didn't know what anyone would do to it.
02:47So, once again, I was just sending him beats at the time.
02:49I sent him the beats, and I remember I was going
02:51to my manager's birthday party,
02:53and that was like April 6th,
02:55and I was going to his birthday party.
02:57He was having like a surprise birthday party,
02:58so I was running late.
02:59I'm like, I gotta go.
03:01So, I did those beats, sent them, went to the dinner.
03:04He never responded until like 12 at night.
03:06He was like, this is fire.
03:07Wow.
03:08I didn't know what that, I mean,
03:08he had said that about a couple other beats,
03:10but I was just like, okay, all right, cool.
03:11And then, yeah.
03:13Ah, that's so tight.
03:14And then what do you think about the cultural impact
03:15as well?
03:16Because, you know, obviously with the lyrics,
03:17talking about colonizers, and they not like us.
03:19Yeah.
03:20I mean, the people singing at the club,
03:21at the barbecues, I mean, it's everywhere.
03:23So, do you see that, and do you think about
03:25the cultural impact that your song has?
03:27Yeah, sometimes I'm like shocked myself,
03:31you know, when I look, and I'm seeing this.
03:34I always tell everybody this, though.
03:35Like, it only takes one.
03:36You need one song.
03:38Like, you can work your whole life to get one song,
03:39and it can change your life forever.
03:41And it's just, that comes with repetition,
03:43and just doing it over, and over, and over again.
03:45But when I see people, like how big that song is,
03:48I don't think I even understood how big it was
03:50until it was like number one.
03:51And I was like, this is the biggest song
03:52I ever had in my life.
03:53You know, and it was, I was so,
03:55I was more just happy to have a song with Kendrick.
03:57I was just like, let's see.
03:58He just wanted the Kendrick track.
03:59He didn't expect a number one in the audience.
04:01You come from California, you from here.
04:03Like, I'm born and raised in Los Angeles.
04:05Compton is right up the street.
04:06It's not far.
04:07And you see, like, people like Kendrick.
04:09You just like, man, I want to get a song with Kendrick.
04:11It's only a few things that I want to do
04:14that's like, that makes me happy.
04:16And not about, it's not about anybody else.
04:18It's more of my self goals.
04:19It's like, I want to do a song with Jay-Z one day.
04:21I want to do a song with Beyonce.
04:22At one point, I wanted to do a song with Rihanna.
04:24I always put all that, speak it all to existence.
04:27And I'm just, I manifest everything.
04:29I think about what I want to do,
04:30and everything I've manifested, I've done.
04:32And I don't think there's no, like,
04:35there's nothing that can get in my way.
04:37I just always in my mind, I know it's gonna happen one day.
04:40And then in general, when it comes to hip hop culture,
04:42how do you feel about what this has done for beef?
04:45Some people are like, oh, beefs are back.
04:47This is great for hip hop.
04:48Some people are like, they never left.
04:50How do you feel about this whole process?
04:51I think it was good for hip hop.
04:53I think that what people are not realizing is that,
04:56you know, they were, people were saying that.
04:58The labels were firing people.
05:00People were losing their jobs.
05:02And Drake and Kendrick, and even J. Cole,
05:05they all came and just made this thing the top of,
05:08it's just, it's back.
05:09And I don't think it ever left,
05:11because I just, you know, I do hip hop.
05:12I do rap music.
05:14But I think that that whole time, at that moment,
05:17I think everybody was on their phone.
05:18Like, what's gonna happen next?
05:19What's gonna happen next?
05:20People were addicted.
05:21Yeah, it was just like a...
05:22And another track, and another track, and another track.
05:24And then it showed you how, like,
05:26how good both, all those guys really are.
05:28To record that fast at a record time like that is,
05:32that's crazy.
05:33Like, it don't even make sense.
05:35It's just like, I mean, definitely what it did for me.
05:37So I'm like, wow.
05:39♪ 5 a.m. in the parking lot ♪
05:42♪ Four black trunks taking parking spots ♪
05:44You also worked on your first single,
05:45Parking Lot, with Travis Scott.
05:46You guys had a great relationship with some hip music.
05:49So why was he the one that you wanted
05:50to get on the first track out there?
05:51Another thing is like, it's just God's time.
05:53I had a whole nother song that I still have,
05:56and it was like, him, 21, and Uzi.
05:59And I went to New York one day to do some stuff with Ella,
06:03and he was just like, yo, where you at?
06:04I'm about to pull up.
06:05And I'm like, all right.
06:05And so he came, he did a couple songs,
06:07and that was one of them.
06:08And I was like, I really feel like
06:09this feels like summertime.
06:11And I just fell in love with that song.
06:12And then a couple weeks later, a month later,
06:14he came and he finished the song.
06:16And I was just like, this is it.
06:17This is what I want to lead off with,
06:18because I just felt like it was just like,
06:20felt so summertime vibes.
06:23And that's where I go for it.
06:24I always want the summer.
06:25Yeah, I just like the summertime.
06:26So I thought that's what would feel good.
06:29♪ Outside boatin' beautiful for the summer ♪
06:31♪ She don't wait on me, but wait a minute for the summer ♪
06:34Why was Faith of a Mustard Seed the album title?
06:36Because when I was doing Perfect Ten,
06:39I remember like the last conversation I had with Nipsey,
06:42he was telling me to name that album Faith of a Mustard Seed.
06:45And I'm just like, what?
06:47Like, I already got my title.
06:48I'm not switching my title.
06:49And we talked for like hours that night.
06:51And I always just kept it in the back of my head.
06:53And he was just like, well,
06:54if you're going to name this one that,
06:55then you should name one of your albums one.
06:57You got to do an album called Faith of a Mustard Seed.
06:59I had this period of time in my life where,
07:01I don't know what it was, but I just felt like
07:04when you are coming from somewhere,
07:07like the ghetto or whatever,
07:09you tend to think that like bad things will happen.
07:14And I asked Nipsey, what do you think that is?
07:16We just used to have random conversations.
07:18I'm like, what do you think it is that,
07:20you know, you always think something so good,
07:22you can be, your life can be in really, really good condition.
07:25You doing good, best things that happen to you.
07:26And then you think like, oh, something bad's gonna happen.
07:28That would be in the back of my head.
07:29And I remember he sent me a TD Jake's
07:35I think when he was like preaching
07:36and he was like talking about, you know,
07:38it's just because of where you come from.
07:40You start to think in the back of your head
07:41that something good happens, something bad gotta happen.
07:45And it was just like, that's just like a thought.
07:46It's not, it's not real.
07:47It's not a real thing.
07:48That if you don't have faith,
07:50you'll walk away and change your course
07:52because you don't think you can do it.
07:55The track with your mom,
07:56this album as a whole is pretty personal for you.
07:58You sample your mom and your sister's voices on there.
08:00You're talking about COVID-19 and people that you lost.
08:02So how was it to kind of take such a personal approach
08:05with this project?
08:07I think as I was making it,
08:09it kind of like start,
08:11I started diving into like what faith and mercy meant,
08:15reading the Bible, reading, you know,
08:16what God said with the faith and mercy,
08:18you can move mountains.
08:19Then I started thinking about my life in general.
08:21And I'm just like, ah, you know what, what's going on?
08:24And I started thinking about like COVID.
08:26When COVID came, I lost the most weight in my life.
08:29I have been trying to lose weight for so long.
08:31COVID came, I'm a hypochondriac.
08:33So like, I can get a cut right now and be like,
08:35I need to go to the hospital,
08:36you know, like something like that.
08:37When I thought about that whole thing
08:39of like the faith and mercy,
08:41my grandparents, both of my grandparents passed in COVID,
08:44from COVID.
08:45And it was just like, what was going on?
08:47And then, you know, I lost friends,
08:49I got divorced and all that type of stuff.
08:51So it was just like,
08:52I just feel like God was just like,
08:54it was so much going on at one time or that time span.
08:58It was just like, I don't know.
09:01I think this whole album has contributed to like,
09:03it's not a gospel album.
09:04I don't want people to think that,
09:05but it was like, I feel like right now
09:07where I'm at in my life is I can only contribute.
09:10And up until this point,
09:12I can only contribute my success
09:13and what I'm going through and feeling
09:15and how he's removed people from my life to God.
09:18I know you probably have pressure as well
09:20from people wanting to know like what happened with you
09:22and what happened.
09:22Everybody always, of course,
09:23talking about your relationship,
09:24you mentioned the divorce.
09:25So how was it to kind of like address that stuff publicly
09:28on the record?
09:29I think like what people don't understand is that like,
09:33I don't have no hate in my heart or no ill.
09:36I don't move with like that type of aggressive,
09:40aggression towards a person.
09:42But I think with the internet,
09:43they feel as if that like,
09:45you're not allowed to be, to not, to leave a situation.
09:49It's almost like, you got to stay with this person.
09:51And it's like, I sometimes wonder when it's like,
09:54you know, like I'm in a whole new relationship.
09:56I'm having a baby girl.
09:57It's like, in my thought process,
09:59it's like, it's been a long time, guys, let it go.
10:00You know, it's okay for people to separate.
10:02But I often think about like when my girl that I'm with,
10:07she may post something and just get crazy comments
10:09or crazy shit that comes along with it.
10:11And I'm almost like,
10:12would you guys have rather me stay with this lady
10:14and me be unhappy and me dogger or something?
10:17What would you want me to do?
10:19They don't want anything.
10:19You know, it's just like,
10:20it's almost like y'all want to find a reason
10:23or you want to find a scandal.
10:25That's the part of my life that I think
10:27with this Faithful Emotional Seed,
10:28I think like the internet is not a real place.
10:30You know, I get up every day.
10:32I take my kids to school.
10:33I, you know, I'm with my kids.
10:35I have them half the time that she has them.
10:37It's like, I've never and never will say anything crazy
10:40on the internet about this person.
10:42And I don't even put,
10:44I don't project that type of energy out.
10:45You know what I'm saying?
10:46But I do understand that the internet's not a real place.
10:49I do understand that I get up every morning.
10:51I take my kids to school and I'm a dad and I'm with them.
10:53And I have all the support that I need to help them
10:57get to where they need to go.
10:59So that thing is like a little confusing for me.
11:01Well, people can learn from you.
11:02I mean, the internet is not real people.
11:04It's definitely not real.
11:05Also, you're a CEO, you're a boss, man.
11:06So talk about like owning a label for 10 years.
11:11I think it's been a journey.
11:12I think what we've created and what we've done so far
11:16is only like the beginning.
11:18And I think that what we're looking to do
11:20is going to be much bigger than what we've ever done.
11:23And we've got like people like Amira and District
11:26and even Kiana Lede.
11:29We got a good roster, but it's kind of hard for me
11:30to like juggle everything sometimes.
11:32As far as like musically,
11:33I try to put my hand in everything, but.
11:36And do you ever think about like the past
11:39when you think about where you've arrived now?
11:40Like I was just looking at the 2014, the source cover.
11:43It's like you and Ty and YG from Prince of Zing.
11:47What year was that?
11:48That was 2014.
11:49That's tough.
11:5010 years to go to.
11:51So I was like, how has it been to like,
11:54y'all had an album y'all were supposed to put out.
11:55Yeah, we just.
11:56Are we going to get the album?
11:58I don't know.
11:59I think we just have like a,
12:01we're some crazy guys, man.
12:03I don't think it's any one person's fault.
12:05I think that we just be moving around
12:08and everybody's doing something.
12:10So hopefully one day I think, you know, it could be tight.
12:13But if I think about that, like that time,
12:17I think at one point we were supposed
12:18to all do a label together
12:20and we just didn't do it for whatever reason.
12:22But I'm kind of happy we didn't
12:24because I found Ella and I'm happy.
12:26But when I think about stuff like that,
12:28I just think about, man, whoo, that was a long time ago.
12:30♪ Nah, nigga, can't answer calls cause I'm balling ♪
12:32♪ I was waking up getting racks in the morning ♪
12:35You peaked at number 11 with Roddy Ricch with Ballin'.
12:38Yeah.
12:39So take me back to that time.
12:40And did you know that song
12:41was going to have the legs that it had?
12:43It was two people that told me about that song
12:46that was like, this is going to be a good song.
12:49And it was going to be big.
12:51When I did it,
12:52I made the beat with one of my producers named Gil Tripp.
12:56And then Roddy would always come to the studio.
13:00Even if I wasn't there, I'd be like, yeah, just pull up.
13:02David there, my engineer's there.
13:03Just pull up and do some stuff.
13:04And I remember David texting me.
13:05He's like, you're doing a song right now.
13:07I asked him, how's it going?
13:07I'm at home.
13:08Like, how's it going?
13:09He's like, it's going cool.
13:10He just did this one song.
13:11He sent it to me.
13:12I was like, this is fire.
13:13Which was Ballin'.
13:15And then we got to the album time, close to the album.
13:18And Nipsey was supposed to be on that song as well.
13:21Yeah, Nipsey was supposed to be on Ballin'.
13:23And Young Thug was supposed to be on Ballin'
13:25at one point in time.
13:27And Nip, I don't know what happened, how Nip did it.
13:29I think that's when he passed or something like that.
13:32But he was supposed to be on that song.
13:34And then I went and seen Kanye.
13:37Like, once I was done with my album,
13:38and I played on my whole album.
13:40And he's like, this right here
13:41should be your intro to your album.
13:43And I was like, what are you?
13:44Well, when Ye speaks.
13:46Yeah, I'm like, that's not going to be the intro.
13:47And then my manager, he was like,
13:49man, this is going to be one of the ones.
13:50And I was like, all right, cool.
13:52I never thought about it anymore.
13:54And then it was just like, crazy.
13:56Your career has just continued to get bigger.
13:58So I wanted to throw some of these out
13:59and just see what comes to your mind
14:01when you think about these collabs.
14:02Mariah Carey.
14:03Crazy.
14:05What do I think about it?
14:06It's like, I just think that,
14:07sometimes I'll be forgetting about stuff like that.
14:09Like, Mariah Carey, she's cool.
14:11She's super cool.
14:12I remember talking to her in the studio
14:13about this crazy Birkin bag she had.
14:15It was insane.
14:17The Birkin bag shocked you?
14:19It shocked me, yeah.
14:20It definitely shocked me.
14:20It's like a crocodile Birkin.
14:22Like, it was something crazy.
14:23This was before, this was a long time ago.
14:25Maybe, I don't know how many years ago that song was,
14:27but it was a long time ago.
14:29And I was just like, how much is that bag?
14:30And she was just like, expensive.
14:32Like, something crazy like that.
14:34That's amazing.
14:35What about Rihanna?
14:37Man, I love Rihanna, man.
14:38I remember that night when I did Needin' Me,
14:42or when I was going to do Needin' Me,
14:43I wasn't even, I had went to the,
14:46where they was working on the album.
14:48It's like this crazy house in Malibu,
14:50or Santa Barbara, something.
14:52And I was in my studio,
14:54and I remember I went to the house before,
14:56I didn't really catch nothing that night.
14:59And then one of my managers was like,
15:00come back and do some songs.
15:02I was like, I don't wanna go back.
15:03I really didn't, I wasn't gonna go back.
15:05And I don't remember who it was,
15:06but somebody called me, told me,
15:08man, just come on, man.
15:08I'm gonna just drive you there.
15:10And they drove me there.
15:12And I called Starr and Prince Charles,
15:14and I went to,
15:17while they were doing,
15:18the beat was done,
15:19and while they were doing that,
15:21writing the song,
15:22with that whole situation,
15:24I was in another room, just asleep.
15:27And I woke up, and I remember,
15:28and I never thought nothing of it.
15:30You're kidding me.
15:31Yeah, I promise.
15:31I never thought nothing of it.
15:33I never thought it was gonna be like,
15:34I didn't think about it after that.
15:36After that, I just left.
15:37And then one of my managers called me,
15:39he's like, hey, you got one on the album.
15:41I'm like, for real?
15:42That's wild, bro.
15:43He was like, your tag is the only tag on this album.
15:45I never noticed that.
15:46Wow.
15:47That's amazing.
15:48♪ Mother on that beat, oh ♪
15:50♪ I was good on my own, that's the way it was ♪
15:52I actually wanna ask you about that, the tag.
15:54Obviously it's YG,
15:55but where did it,
15:56what's the origin?
15:58I think just me being in the,
16:01in Englewood,
16:01where I used to be at YG house all the time.
16:03I used to damn near stay there,
16:05and I used to just go through his files
16:08of songs we did,
16:10and songs he did,
16:11and I would remake the beat to him.
16:14And the song, I'm Good, came about like that.
16:15We did a song called I'm Good,
16:16and it was just a song that he already had.
16:19It was a beat to it.
16:20It was, and I was in his room.
16:22He had the studio in his room.
16:23He was gone.
16:24And I just remade the beat to that song,
16:29and I did it right there on the spot.
16:30And he had said it in there,
16:32and I just took it from there.
16:33I wasn't thinking.
16:34I didn't know what I was doing.
16:35I just took it from there,
16:36and I was like, I'm gonna put this on all my beats.
16:38And that's how it happened.
16:39Wow, so you just digging through
16:41and found some gold, apparently.
16:43We were talking about, of course,
16:44your album, your new Hot 100 No. 1,
16:46but do people know that you really
16:47wanna be a tennis champ?
16:50Man, I try to tell people all the time
16:52that when I get on tour,
16:54when I do go and play in Wimbledon,
16:56I don't want anybody to be surprised
16:58because I've been busy.
16:59Except when I go to play Wimbledon.
17:00I've been like this.
17:02I'm every day with it.
17:03And you play with some of the biggest tennis pros,
17:05and you get coached by professionals as well.
17:08Yeah, I play,
17:09I returned one TI for a serve.
17:10I don't know if he was going really hard,
17:13trying to be serious with me,
17:15but I'm gonna hold on to that
17:17because even if he wasn't,
17:18that's his fault, it's not mine.
17:19So I returned one of his serves,
17:21so now that gave me the confidence
17:23to know that, but like I said,
17:25I really feel like,
17:26I'm not even joking right now,
17:27I really feel like I could do anything I wanna do.
17:28No, see, I trust you.
17:29You went to the U.S. Open.
17:30Yeah, you know.
17:31I mean, people don't play
17:32that go to the U.S. Open.
17:33I was really in there
17:33when it was working out and everything.
17:35Carlos Arden was, what's happening?
17:36What's up?
17:37I got pictures to prove it.
17:39I was really there.
17:40So I don't think it's gonna be unusual
17:41when I'm suited up,
17:42really ready to play against them.
17:43Oh, people are gonna be ready.
17:44I'll be telling them that too.
17:45When I see them, I'll be like,
17:46I'll see you when I'm ready,
17:47when I get.
17:48Is this something that's been in your whole life?
17:50Is this like something recently happened
17:51or were you like a tennis pro in high school?
17:53Nah, nah, nah, nah.
17:54This is something new.
17:55I did see Lil Dicky,
17:56he said on something,
17:58I seen the clip where he said
17:59he was good in high school.
18:00I like to play anybody that's a celebrity.
18:02Anybody that thinks they're good,
18:03I think I would love to play them
18:05because I think I'm better than all of them.
18:07Anybody in this caliber.
18:08As far as on some music stuff,
18:11I think I'm the best.
18:12Okay.
18:12Hey, I think this needs to be a whole thing.
18:14You need to line them up.
18:15They don't wanna play me though.
18:16It'll be like Mustard versus.
18:17Like Ocho Cinco,
18:18he'd been running for a long time
18:19and I didn't expect him to run
18:21cause he like,
18:21I mean, I do,
18:22he played football.
18:24I didn't expect him to dodge me like this.
18:26Like it's kind of embarrassing.
18:28Well, now it's out on Billboard News.
18:29So Ocho, I think you really gotta play a tennis match.
18:31Yeah, but he gonna duck it.
18:32He gonna duck it.
18:33He can duck it.
18:34It's out there on the internet now.
18:34He been ducking for a long time.
18:35He gonna duck it.
18:37Anybody, this is like,
18:38I tell everybody,
18:39this is a buffet.
18:40You can get anything you want
18:41for as long as you want.
18:42So I'm definitely ready to play whoever.
18:45I love it, man.
18:46Obviously excited about your new project,
18:47but what's on the horizons?
18:48What are you thinking about in the future?
18:49Well, what am I thinking about?
18:52My kids, making sure,
18:54like I want all my kids to have like a good structure
18:56and like play tennis,
18:58do the right thing.
18:59Just, you know, like teaching them that,
19:01that's like my first thing
19:01of like trying to get structure
19:03or trying, you know, just any kid.
19:05I don't know why I want to be in like structure,
19:06but that I'm definitely going to start working
19:10on a new album,
19:11new music with everybody,
19:13but just not spreading myself too thin.
19:15What about YG?
19:16What about Read Up 3?
19:17Read Up.
19:18YG.
19:19I mean, it's pretty much done.
19:21I think it's going to be.
19:21Oh, pretty much done.
19:22It's done.
19:23I think it should be out.
19:25Okay.
19:25Yeah.
19:26All right.
19:27The label back here, like.
19:28I think it'll be out by that time.
19:31All right, man.
19:32Well, thank you so much for coming
19:33and hanging out with Billboard
19:34and congrats on the Hot 100.
19:35Thank you, man.
19:36I appreciate it.