He is drinks chess, motherfucking podcast man.
He's a legendary queen's rapper.
He ain't segreed that your boy in O r E.
He's a Miami hip hop pioneer. What Ups dj E f N?
Together they drink it up with some.
Of the biggest players you know what I mean.
And the most professional unprofessional podcast and your number one source for drunk drinks Chans.
Mo postcavery Days New Year's Eve.
Listen, It's time for drink Champions. Drink up, motherfuck mother.
Would a good be hoping sooner it should be this your boy in.
O R E?
What up is dj E f N?
And this drink Champs Yappy? I will make something and right now. When we started this show, we want we said we want to interview legends, icons, people who's been in this game, who has changed this game. This man has not only changed the game, He's changed my life personally. He's been one of the greatest people I ever met in life period. He's one of the best CEO's best. I don't even.
He is.
He is hip hop. He gave me some of the best stories of my life in my career involves this man right here. And all of my friends know these stories too, by the way, because it's not like I said once, I say them fifteen million times and he's alumni too young. But in case you don't know who we're talking about, were talking about the one, the only motherfucker impeccable Leo Leo.
I don't thank you.
Your story is so beautiful, especially when with like like our producer just said, you know, starting from a road manager run DMC, how did how did? How did that come together?
Came together because I had a passport and they needed to get to London and none of Russell invited me to work at Rush and the record label. No, no, this is before def Jam. Rush management was started with Curtis Blow and the office was three people Bill Adler, Tony Rome, Heidi Smith. And when I went to the office for the first time Russell Russell never told them that I was coming to work, and they were all depressed and their heads were down, and I thought, like,
where's the marching band? I came all the way of a ride in Los Angeles to come to work and they were all depressed, and I said, what's going on? And they told me, we don't know who you are. Russell never told us that you were coming. But run DMC is that the JFK and they're road manager Jeff Flood. We can't find them and no one has a passport, so we're fucked.
I said, well, I got a.
Passport, and that's how I became run DMC's road manager. It's just simple as being in the right place at the right time. And we went for three and a half years. We never missed a gig. We were five people running Ray God bless his soul, Jay D, Joey and myself. Even when we sold back to back Joe Louis Arenas, we were five people, so we never ran around with the crew.
There was no excess.
We grabbed the needle, our bags and before the curtains were we're on the way to the next city.
God damn it.
When you show up to the airport, what do they say? They don't know you either.
Hello.
No, they knew me because they they were They had a show with me before that. That's how I got to because Joey was the one who convinced Russell like this white kid in Los Angeles is a crazy man and he needs to be part of our crew, and you should hire him, and so that's how that's how it happened.
All right, Well, I have a hit record that's called Nothing Right. And I don't know if you guys know the story, but I want to tell you how this story uh came about? Famous story, famous story. I'm sure I told he don't this is famous?
You said? Drinks many Usually usually.
A CEO would say, I'm gonna come to the studio. I'm gonna meet you. Don't have your boys there? Leo calls me and says, have all your boys there? Very weird, very I don't know if you remember this. Very So I'm like, okay. So Leo comes, has a video. I have a video where a lot of y'all don't know is I have a video with j Rul called I'm going to Live my Life. A lot of y'all probably didn't see it because let me get to the story. So we're in right track recording studio. Leo tells me,
have all my friends there. Leo comes in the room. He plays me the video of me and Joe. Rule of course, I love seeing myself, So I'm like, yeah, this is this is grant the.
Need to hear Mammy.
You.
So le all looks at the thing and he goes, so the video plays, We're all like, yo, I like it. I like it. And then Leo goes, it's popcorn, and I go, What's the first time I ever knew popcorn was bad? He goes, it's popcorn. He goes, I invested, And then this is this is how it is, how I know Leo is this motherfucker in the world. So he goes, I invested in Norri. You know, you know,
the war war rested in that. He's like if He's like, if you cut me, if I cut you, he said, if you cut me right now, ask me what I bleed? I said blood. He goes, no, if you cut me, asked me. So, I said, lee off, I cut you, what would you bleed? He said what dmc sucker mc. Then he said to me, so Nory, I'm gonna ask you again, if I cut you, what would you bleed? And I said, super dog? He said exactly for I was waiting for you in the studio. Listen.
There were a lot of dark days for me.
You know, there was a moment in time that I felt like there.
Was no room for me in this industry.
And I remember specifically that time was when bad Boy was dominating everything. And you have to understand that def Jam was designed black and white and shades of gray, and we were representing like CNN of what's happening in the hood.
Okay, remember before.
Run DMC, Flash and all of.
Those crews, Cold Crush, Brothers, Furious Five, all of them wore sequins and leather because it was the end of the disco era. And then run DMC came along and looked like forty drinking round Away guys, and that really took off. And that was really at the core of
the architecture of r of Deaf Jam. And so when bad Boy, bad Boy was about aspiration, we were about putting the camera on what's happening, and they were about putting the camera on the possibilities, you know what I'm saying, because and so and the possibilities was exciting for people. You know, they don't want to hear just about how tough it is being black in America. And so they wanted to get a piece of the American dream and
remix it and make it their own. But it was in technicolor, and I didn't know how to play in technicolor, and everything was colorful, and Bentley's dis private planes that we knew about rubber bands, okay, and and Seville's chevyes trucks pimblance. We didn't know Versace. We couldn't even spell versace if you get you know what I'm saying. So I said to myself, you know, it had a great run. All good things come to a fucking end. And I
was ready to go until that fucking Locks video. And then they put them in technicolor, and it got me pissed off. Okay, it made me so angry, like that's black and white and shades of gray. You don't technicolor that. And then I found d MX and one of the things that I love doing is taking polaroids of new artists, just taking a snapshot of polaroid. And what came on that polaroid I kept in my breast pocket and I said, fuck that.
There's room for.
Aspirational technicolor shit, but there's also room for our get down and our ability to continue doing our thing.
Okay, so almost don't want to get a DMX first, first of us, salute to you, Salute to you. So yeah, we had Warren g On here and there's a big room with that. At one point, Warren G's record or album saved Death Jam.
It fucking ain't right, it's shaved.
There's a rumor.
It's not a rumor.
There's actually I was getting swung out of Sony, out of Columbia Records, like we're getting thrown out, and we really didn't have a home.
To go because that was just some people who don't understand. I was a distributor.
Yeah, there were, there are partners.
You know, you have to understand that Death Jam, the original Death Jam deal.
Was sixteen points. That included the artists at the lay whoa.
Just as an FYI, you know what right now, sixteen points It doesn't get you.
Out of that exactly.
Thing For those who don't understand sixteen points to say off.
Of us sixteen not sixty sixteen.
No, no, sixteen points off of let's just say a fifteen dollars CD.
What is that? I don't know.
It's too little. It's too little. So we weren't happy about it. Obviously when we figured things out, which wasn't didn't take a long time. Remember there wasn't too much historical mentorship or history prior to us, so I couldn't call yo, what was your deal? And who's you know? How does this work? So we're making it up on the way and so we are getting swung out.
Of, out of and how did you get warm with g? Yeah?
And actually we shipped Regulate from Sony. They didn't. Actually I was so scared that because the ink wasn't dry with PolyGram, but I couldn't stop the record. And you know what happened with Regulate and we sold close to six million albums And so just imagine if for whatever reason that thing blew up too fast before the ink dried, they'll just rip that up and say come on back, buddy,
and the whole nine. But instead we shipped it and it was actual numbers that represented the letter of deaf Jam, because I didn't want anybody to know that this was associated with deaf Jam. So there are a few records out there vinyls that so D was four.
E was five oh alpha the alphabet. And so.
How I find found Warren G was he was part of the whole G funk movement. And I'm greedy, I'm you know, I'm looking for to expand def jam. Deaf Jam didn't just represent New York City. It represented rap music, and so I was opening offices in Germany and Tokyo. Fuck it, I'm going to open up an office in Los Angeles.
Okay.
By the way, we gave n w A their first national tour, and I knew what the fuck was going on.
With So yeah, I always believed that.
Run DMC and all my acts needed to bring the dopest openers, the ones that were going to give the hottest run for their money, because it was an expression of gratitude to your fans that you bring them someone that is so on fire and so important. So it's part of your story. But sometimes you bring someone so hot it puts heat on the.
Headliner.
I remember busting in that door and I said, run the MC, we got a problem.
And they said, what's the problem.
I said, I just stopped at the merch counter and they're selling seventeen T shirts to your one T shirt NWA Wow. So you know, you know what I'm saying. You know, if you're curious enough, you know how to suss out what's going on and what's happening and so, and I'm from Los Angeles. Fifteen eighty kDa was the first all wrap radio station. It was not in New York City. Yeah, it was fifteen eighty k. They get the fuck out right back to your history, Uncle Jam's army.
Please please understand that there was some real shit going on in Los Angeles, and so I wanted a piece of LA and so I was able to find Warren he was goin to being neglected and signed him. And Chris Lighting was incredibly important. God rest his soul. And what a beautiful man and a huge reason why I'm here today. He was a critical reason why we were successful.
Fucked with you, Norrid, okay, and he helped me.
And you know, Warren was being neglected by his crew. I snatched his ass up. And about the reason why I signed him is I used to never sign an artist unless I went to their house, okay, because you could fake all sorts of things at a restaurant to pull up in the whip and everything is fake. You could talk that shit, but they rarely can fake someone out at home. And what am I looking for when
I walk into someone's house. I'm looking for my duke's on a picture smiling, because there's got to be someone that put up with that creative side, fuel the creative side, and I remember walking in Warren's house and there was ship all over the rug, like literally shitty had dogs and it was like scary, like I'm not fucking with this guy, but there was his mother's picture. I said, wait a second, let me give him a chance. And then I went into his little room studio, no dog
shit there. It was pristine, and on the turntable was Carol King Tapestry and Bob Seeger. I said, and what the fuck do you know about these artists? He go, my grandfather played me all these records, and he started playing me the parts of the records that he's going to jack, and I said, fuck, I'm signing you right now, okay, And wouldn't let him out the door until I pricked his finger, you know, And for sure saved our career and my career. And there's a couple of artists that did that.
Red Man, I was dead and stinking.
I was, you remember for some match I was, I was. I was on the on the canvas.
Man.
I couldn't like that big dude, Tyson Fury. Remember when he all of a suddenly he came over. That's exactly what happened with me. I remember the ref saying seven, and I'm saying I'm not getting up aids and then time for some action. I got up and said, what.
I'm bad energy?
It gives you that, Yeah, yeah, Reggie.
Noble, Boy, Reggie Noble.
I spoke to him on the phone because of this whole city of Hope shit, and he told me he could do like.
A hundred.
Diving guy diving and I hear in his voice what a remarkable human being he is. And I tell them every single time I see him, You're the reason why I'm here, Okay, And so you know, gratitude is part of living a healthy, long life when you have gratitude. And so many good things have happened to me, and two of them were Reggie Noble and Warrang.
G came at the right time.
So think about me getting swung and then walking into a new company and selling six million albums right like that, what all of a sudden, they're throwing all sorts of stuff, yeah stuff, Oh you know, suddenly the deals they're explaining how I got was getting fucked, and how they're going to improve my life and the life of my click. And then it's just a beautiful, beautiful thing, and thank you Warren. Thank you, Red Man. It was just extraordinary.
We got Now. Now we've we've been doing this for seven years, right going into our eighth year, going into we've been we've been interviewing artists and we've been interviewing about people about the best record label, right, and everyone always has down says, they always say death Caam, but they always say the one seventy varicks slash one sixty sixty.
So let me tell you the crew to THEAY name Yeah, obviously, Leo, Cohmes, Russell, obviously, Russell, Leon, Kevin Leles, Mike Kaiser, Julie Julie.
Greenwaling, Greenwald, jud executive hands them.
Did I say Mike Kaiser, Mikeiser, uh randiaka y Rob Love, I believe.
Uh West Party Johnson, Yes, yes, rest in peace?
Do you do you know how special that labor is? Like I always watched Entourage and I watch Empire, and I'm like, if somebody actually really series did a real death jam, like the real depth jam. Let me just tell you how important this label was. I used to go there to get out the streets. Would still be in the streets because because you can roll dice there, get your haircut, and by weed right there in the safest place in the world. It was like, you know,
swear to God. And I was on this time. I was on violator management, which was like a part in the building. But what I'm saying, do you know how important that establishment was to hip hop?
So the answer is only now only because one of the biggest problems that I have, and the biggest regret that I have, is that I was so focused on forward that I didn't recognize how good now was. I did not take photos like.
I should have.
I did not document, I didn't stop and say than I was just I was fucking hungry, I was famished, and I was like, focused on tomorrow.
How does tomorrow work?
And so.
I'm not I'm not making that mistake again. I'm so grateful to be here with you right now and with your whole team, that I'm not going to forget this moment. Yes, okay, you know.
You know what they say. They say winners never enjoyed the moment because they always want to go to the next win. I was listening to that. This morning. A friend of mine lost came over and we started to work out, and he's playing the Michael Jordan Kobe Bryant Traynor's book, and he said, he said, he said he every time one of his clients won, he would give them a hug and just leave because he knew his
clients could not could not enjoy the moment. They went and looked at the book and said, I had two errors. Though I had thirty two points, but I had two errors. And is that how you feel you always play life well?
Number one?
I always felt my contribution to the culture was that I was going to outwork, out, hustle, out, focus, out delivery, and also a lot there are a lot.
Of mouths that depended on us winning.
And so I felt since I couldn't wrap, I couldn't do you know, design, I couldn't you know, take a photo of you.
I had.
My contribution had to be, as you know, moving this thing forward.
And so.
That's still no excuse. If I had to do it over again, I'll take more photos. I would say thank you more. I would have focused more on the present than I did.
But okay, all right, let's now, I know we got off. We've missed him earlier, and you said that that's how you used to sign artists. But DMX, he's another for change the game. How do you hear about DMX is the IRV got IRV.
IRV brought me up to Yonkers.
And they were supposed to.
Come at eleven o'clock.
By two thirty, they were scrambling like, you get over here and wrap for him, you know, because Exton's show up right So everybody in the room had to rap for me, you.
Know, because they're trying to.
They're trying to, Like I was going like, oh my god, what's going on?
This is like other artists he was.
It wasn't just say he's waiting waiting Wan d Yuan d were saying, what the fuck this guy is gonna jet in a second? You wrapt the cleaning man.
So then they X walked in and it was like all of them were pockroaches.
Ran right away, like you could feel the oxygen change in the room. And he had just had his mouth wired shut, but he was so excited to meet me that he started rapping. You could hear them breaking.
Wow. Yeah, it was a moment. It was a moment. And let me just put it to you this way. I'm not a fucking genius. My mother would assigned him.
It was that obvious, Like if my mom was at that table, come here, son, I'm going.
You know, it was really, really, really obvious.
And that's a real tragedy that we could all learn from the people. People loved X so much that they didn't let Earl Simmons live, okay, and he was didn't have the confidence in himself because he wanted to be loved. You know, he had a really difficult childhood, and so he wanted to be loved so much that because X was so loved, he kept X in front. You know, Earl Simmons, it's just a loved to fish, be with his children.
Quiet. But nobody fucked with Earl Simmons.
They all wanted X, and he didn't know how to let Earl live.
Earle loved fishing. Like we went up to I.
Don't know if the cats or Lake George or something. I put him up there and five point forty five in the morning, he was on the dock. I went to get some coffee and too fucking early for me to wake up, so I went back to sleep. Eleven o'clock he's still on the dock. So you catch anything, he said, No, this is just fishing. And I'm lucky enough to have had a relationship with Earl Simmons, and I care deeply about Earl Simmons.
You know what.
Exis XUS is a guy driving one hundred and fifty in the twenty miles zone.
That's what exes.
And so what do you expect if access supposts, if all you love is X.
What do you expect?
Yeah, you know that doesn't That doesn't well, driving one hundred and fifty and a twenty mile an hour zone, that just doesn't end.
Well. Let me ask you because, like a lot of to a lot of people, when they first heard d MX, he resembled Onyx, right likenaa, So what made you because did you think that would be a problem or you knew you knew the.
Difference now now it wasn't a problem. It was so fucking I never heard that.
I never I never heard I felt that.
So so whole norries referencing is you know that wire that's cut and it's that water that that's dangerous, and that's what that Those two bands were disorganized danger There was no like everything organized.
It was like fucking shit, could you go to an ONYX show?
And yeah, fucking to this day, you know yeah, it's a problems bit. Yeah. I told them in Russia before you. It was pretty curious you went to Russia before that, yeah, you know, yeah, yeah.
Thought that was the first time you went. There was another place, it was former so you just the yeah.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Because that Russia thing was different.
Talk to me, shout out to two moves here by the way, and he threw some tidbits at me, telling me I didn't know that you managed Dayla yes, and I hit pause immediately and he hit me back with a bunch of voice messages, which I appreciate him for doing, and he was just breaking down how you and Russell were involved in them and tribe and I didn't I
didn't realize. I didn't know that much about it, and about the tour they were on, that tour that you mentioned n w A one yes and you stopped Macio from joining the military, you know.
So we just saw. We just saw each other recently in London. They did something for me and Google and YouTube at a conference and I hadn't seen them in fifteen years, and it was really like an extraordinary feeling. There's a lot of stories that people tell me about, like They were telling me in the crowd about how I got them out of high school and college but insisted on them finishing their degree. So beautiful things about
me that I don't remember. I have an excuse, but they're very very important, very important, like that live wire and that little water on the ground.
They weren't that.
They were represented optimism and joy, uh and a different you know for.
Me, like I have all the illness rappers.
That was a juke move when I represented tribe and Deyla. I just juked everybody like they thought I was just one way like ry me.
And like did you know that he represented?
That's crazy, that's on the rush, that was on the rush. Okay, okay, like a sonic.
Pause and then pause telling me some stuff and then just thinking about all the groups and artists that Rush and Deaf Jam collectively that you were involved in and got to see developed.
That's extraordinary in terms.
Of lucky motherfucker. Lucky motherfucker.
I've touched more rappers than everybody else combined. Okay, period. Okay, Big Daddy Kane shout out to him. I just kim joined me. I haven't seen him. Must have been two decades he joined me two days ago at the Secretary of State's House where we did rekindling a new initiative around music diplomacy.
So Dave Grohl Bono and I brought Rock Kim and rock.
And did you know the Secretary of State of the United States is a musician guitarist and he was played Muddy Waters on stage. It was the most ridiculous thing. And so I saw that we had opera singers, we had Dave Grohl Bono, we didn't have any rappers. So we got a few late editions that was great, and one of them was Rock Kim And when he got on stage, shut that place so down, and it's all you know, guitarists and symphony people and everything like that.
It was it brought shivers to me because I mean, if you think about those lyrics and that man and just to see him and the life that he's created for himself. Man, big shout out to rock Camra My goodness.
So yeah, let's make noise. Let's make noise for.
Music diplomacy, American music. Let's not only send guns around the world, let's send our culture. You know, by being in Kansastan, you know, they Kazastan knows more about America through the movies and the music than they do. Buy the guns. They only can't even name the gun, but they can name you. They book you or Disney.
We're losing that influence.
We've lost.
I've been traveling and I've been and they've been telling us. They're like, we've like and specific to hip hop. They said, hip hop and you could take everybody could take it how they want. They said, hip hop is a business for you guys. It's you guys lost touch with what it really is. And so now they're looking to their to their regional peers. Like I was in Vietnam, they're looking to China and Korea, I was in Colombia, and they're looking to the countries.
Around them, of course.
And it's sad to see because I like to think of it, and I think it's true that hip hop is probably one of the biggest cultural exports that we we put out there that's impacted.
So important, so important that we, you know, culturally make people understand what an incredible country we have, feel proud of, what are, what we've accomplished and everything, and and make the world a better place through music. Okay, I can tell you something. This world is in a really really difficult place. This thing could go real wrong, real fast.
But music is a connector. It reminds us that we have more in common than what separates us, and so I want to do everything in my power to promote that. I'm glad that the American government Anthony Blincoln big shout out to Anthony blinkn Okay, our Secretary of State promoting and funding bipartisan support on funding American soft.
Power around the world.
So you know, one of the most important moments of my life was when we were opening up YouTube music in India and I was in Mumbai and the biggest slum in Mumbai in Asia is in Mumbai called Davari Is where slum Dog Millionaire is. In the middle of this slum is an after school program that's dedicated to hip hop rap music. These kids are breakdown, they're wearing hip they're wearing cagles.
It's like a time warp. It's late eighties.
Yeah, the little kids with kangos, they're breaking the.
Battles in these the biggest slum in the world, and it's rap music that's keeping them learning living off the streets. It's just such a powerful and important moment for me. It was amazing, amazing.
I get this out. Well, our show is about giving people the flowers, So we want to give you a flowers. Face to face man and man, tell you how great you are. You know what I mean? Tell you, Tell you how much you mean to the coach.
Thank you, thank you. This is really mean for to me. Grateful. I'm grateful to this. I'm grateful to you, know.
You the man. Leo, you man, you man. Let's make some.
Thank you so kind.
You want to do kick Thomas snob you got something, okay? Yeah, we have sunny going on this place, okay.
Or he could just slip the champagne.
Okay, he can set a champagne. You want to explain on the rules. We're gonna give you two choices. You pick one.
Nobody drinks, but if you say both or neither, which would be the political correct answer, we're all drinking.
Right, but you don't have to take shots. You would take SIPs of the champagne. Or if you want to designate a hit up my friend right there, baby baby shot. All right, So okay, you're gonna ask me.
We're gonna give you two choices, right, So I answered the question drinking.
No, no, no.
If you don't answer, then like if you say both, like you don't want to, you don't want to pick, say both or neither of them.
We're all drinking.
We're all gonna have it.
If I say one of them, nobody.
Drinks, Nobody drink nobody. I think I'm gonna do a for this. Well, you gonna tell her she don't know, she don't know about how to do the bikie shots. All right, cool, you're ready, you can go to the first one. All right?
Rick Rubin or Kanye West.
Mm hmm, fucking Rick Rubin, jay Z or Dame Dash jay Z.
All day, meth alad.
We're drinking, Okay.
I like how you understand the GA he understands okay Wu tang clan or public enemy public adem me okay, I like that.
D MX or tupaca, d m X right kiss or fab.
Hm kiss?
Okay?
Analog or digital?
That's analog, that's the good. That's I always go analog. Eighties or nineties hip hop? Are you skipped? Oh my bad? No, I gotta go back to that eighties and nineties hip hop.
I don't give a fuck. Okay, right, now okay, drink no.
No, no, Na's album Allmatic or Biggie Album Ready to Die Biggie Album.
Okay, all right, Run DMC or Beastie Boys, Run DMC. Okay, Primo or Pete Rock, Primo, who Rihanna or Mariah.
We're drinking no no, yeah.
That we're gonna drink with pre Move and Pete Rock. Okay, go ahead, Doctor dre r Puff I drinking.
Let me get it ready, got it? That should have been you again, Scarfhaser, ice Cube, Scarface.
Fixed, come on.
Crazy Yeah Yeah, Crush.
Or Beat b Street Crush Groups podcast or See I Wear My Collars Trying Yes Yeah.
Podcast or radio podcasts.
God, I love this game.
It's Doc. It's Doc and hell is high or Flesh of My Flesh. We got to put you up against yourself, you know, fuck it.
We're drinking.
I'm going Japanese de Leon.
You can keep you can have to say that anyone.
Okay, you guys have to work after.
This, something like that. I got to go be a father after this.
Okay, this is a good one. Russell Simmons or Kevin Lyales. We're drinking, okay, all right, okay, l L cool j or Snoop dogg L cool j As hard as hell battle anybody. I don't care you tell, I won't tell. Hey, oh my god, hold on? Oh okay, here mob deep.
E P M D all day, all day, it's my thing.
Go ahead, there, you got the chip, Midnight Marauders or low end theory.
We're drinking gez or Rick Ross, Rick Ross kick a Prie or Funk Master Flex.
Funk Flex.
Rad Alurn or grand Master Flash rather Alarn Rough Riders or Rockefeller drinking Slicker Rick or rock him drinking. Oh damn, come on, that's up reasonable out or in my lifetime Viole two.
In my lifetime. Loyalty or respect. Loyalty or respect that's disrespectful.
Respect. It could be both.
So the problem is a lot of people have fake loyalty. But if you have respect, then you have real loyalty. You want you understand what I'm saying. My whole team had to fight. They can't. They can't.
I can't be loyal to you if you're not going to.
You know, make that happen, right, I could just because you made the decision, not I didn't make the decision. Okay, So but you could only get respect if you're ready to do the work. So if you do the work, then I'm loyal to you.
Do you understand what I'm saying.
I'm just thinking of the people that earn respect through fear, and that's not that's not going to.
Get that's not respect. Power is not taken, it's given. People give you power, you don't take power.
That, my friend.
That was That was a pretty quick one of the quick You went through those answers pretty quickly.
So one point I supposed to go slow.
No, some people they just say both. They want to give it over and give relationships. And the reason why we do that is not to single people out. We want to mention these names, to have them in the conversation.
Yeah, for sure, thank you.
This. There's been a room at one point too, right that Sugar Knight try to like bully job rule off of the recordation.
No, No, I have no, I have no idea about that.
But I do know.
There was a moment in La I was at the Palace on Vine Street it must be a different place, and Chris Lighty comes up to me and pulls out a gun and says, come this way.
I said, what do you mean?
He says, look over there and was shuging his crew coming after me.
Really and this it was after I signed Warren g and he was very upset.
Oh okay, okay, okay, and Chris has me go through the kitchen.
Like wow, that was did that really happen?
And you know, finally got to the four seasons they were waiting for me. Took me through the kitchen to my room. Wow, yeah it was. It was a thing. And that's my Sugar Night story.
Face with Sugar.
Yeah, I had many.
Face to face I saw him in jail and the whole nine visit him all that.
Oh yeah, that's crazy. I wasn't ready for that.
But when you saw him in jails after that incident, yeah yeah. I mean, so you guys reconciled in a sense, there's.
No reconcile, okay, Just so you're clear, there was no apologies for what I did. Like I used to say to my artists, the same answer I'm giving you right now is the same answer when you fling me out the window and I'm about to hit the concrete and giving you the same fucking answer. The only difference is you're going to jail, so you're threatening me. And scaring me.
And I'm giving you the same answer. Okay, So once you take the fear out, once they realize there's no change, what he must be crazy?
How you know he's not going to change.
Once they realized there's no change, then it's a different relationship.
Does that make sense?
Yeah?
I feel like that creates the respect.
Creates respect.
But I think it's respect because I have a point of view. There was nothing wrong with me signing more and see he had all the opportunity to he neglected it the whole nine I didn't do anything disrespect for you know wrong. I just signed an artist, gave him an opportunity and that's it.
Kept it moving. Now, Now, how hard was it for you? Right? Def Jam was everything? I remember like like like you know, you know, it was everything, But you get this awful from Atlantic right and Atlantic is I don't know how this Atlantic deal was structured, but I know that at first you it was just who win and then those who could get are? But how hard was that not to hold that in?
Then the Atlantic stuff stuff happened six years later. It was really when I sold Deaf Jam. I was thirty eight years old and part of the deal was you either work for them or you go for five years on what they call garden leave, where you cannot go back in the industry that you love. I'm thirty eight years old. I didn't work for the paper. I worked for the Journey. I was on the Journey And that would have been a death sentence for me to.
Get this money.
From death Jam for selling it, selling but not be able to work. But not being able to work unless I worked for them. Oh, and that's why I created the Island Deaf.
Jam Music Okay. Now what happened.
Why I left the Island def Jam Music Group for the Warner Music Group is Edgar Broffman that owned Universal.
They bought PolyGram.
Okay, they bought a lot of things.
Eleven point nine billion dollars and Island def Jam was part of that group.
Okay.
And he went off to buy Warner Music Group from aol time Warner Wow. And because he saw my work at Island def Jam, he asked me to come along and own a piece of this new company. And it was one an opportunity for me. And we talked about the Warner Warner Music Group. I I was hired as the chief creative officer but the real reason is going to be the first time I've ever said it is universal did something really really bad to me. Now, things were going really great for me. Joh Rule was exploding,
jay Z was exploding, DMX was exploding. You know, it was all incredible, and I was broke the killers.
I didn't.
I transformed myself from the.
Rap guy to all of a sudden, to other types of music, the entrepreneurialism of rap music I introduced to the rest of the Suddenly. We went from the last place to the number one record company in the country, and I was good money. But I got harpooned because two of job Rule's original members went to jail.
Oh yeah, because you saw on cash Money click right.
And then they came back and they were on TVT Records, and so you.
Know when Steve Gott killed.
This is a really really tough story for me.
So these two guys come back from jail and say the job Rule, Yo, let's do a cash money And in the vault of TVT was a cash money.
Album.
Yeah, And so erv and job really didn't want to do that. Their career is going like crazy, bom boom boom boom. So they made me tell Steve Gottlieb that I'm not actually going to do this. Now, all of a sudden, I get a lawsuit person in a lawsuit that I led him on to believe that job rule can do cash money and accused me of fraud.
So I said, get the fuck out of here. I didn't do anything wrong.
I have jow rules multi Platinum, and you're trying to rekindle cash money.
It doesn't make any sense.
No, the courts didn't believe believe me, and I lost one hundred and thirty five million dollar judgment. Okay, one hundred and thirty five million dollar judgment, now think about it. So I was indemnified by Universal. I'm an employee at this point of Universal, Like, can you imagine if I gave job roll go ahead to another independent company multi Platinum job rull go ahead and do this cash money side project.
I'll be fired.
So I thought I did the right thing for the company, for the artists, everything. So I went. Now I'm embarrassed. Imagine they called me a fraudster. I'm in the paper. The whole nine lost one hundred and thirty five million dollars. Now in order to get a retrial, you have to post a bond for sixty million dollars. So I went to Universal and said, you know, you're on the hook for one hundred and thirty five million. Let's post a
bond and get a retrial. Because this went off the rails and they boked the people I gave my company. To the blood, sweat and tears that I gave that company, they balked on the sixty million bond that would allow them to retry the case that they were on the hook for one hundred and thirty five million dollars. At that moment, I realized, these people got me out here like crazy. Now put up the sixty MILLI went to retrial, through the case out. Finally they said this is absolutely crazy.
Steve Godlieb already spent tens and tens of millions of those dollars and court got thrown out, completely reversed. I was clear Universal saved one hundred and thirty five million dollars, but I could never forgive them, and that's why I left my company. In fact, I actually turned down Edgar and on January sixth, right after I got back from Barbados, I walked in the morning because I was under a
lot of stress. They were telling me this new Warner Music Group is going to be so valuable, hundreds of billions of dollars millions, and you're going to do great in the whole nine and what they universal did to me and I was struggling, but I didn't want to leave the company, so I turned them Warner down. I went that morning to the office, never had a key, and it was the first time that I couldn't get in the office. I said, this is a sign that I fucked up. I walked back home. I told my wife,
well what happened. She says, you're an idiot. You just went too early. Go back to the office. There's this sign.
Bullshit.
It just as I just as I was leaving, Edgar Brotherland called again and said, are you sure you don't want to roll with us? And that at that moment I said I'm coming and never returned back to that jam And that's how that's that's crazy me. Yeah, that was the first time that that story ever been heard.
Okay, so you get to Warner about to say Atlantic where you get to Warna. This is a room all not not you, but every CEO kind of gets to a new company and kind of fires everybody and brings in their own crew. Was that your plan?
I don't believe in that. I don't.
I don't.
I don't fire everybody and bring in my own crew. Everybody has a chance to win that that job. This is nothing personal. This is this is not a game. This is people's lives. We have a fiduciary responsibility to the artists and the songwriters. I was going to get the best click, period, and that didn't mean my click.
Okay, I like this, like this, what's your click there?
So what you're saying because they were the best, they were the best, just so you know, award your team.
Won, just just just so you know it.
That's really not accurate, Okay, cool, because many of the my click made it, the ones that you know about historical people in this industry, many of them didn't make it. Okay. It's simple as that. So, like I said, I believe that we need to win. You need the best team.
I believe that. That's simple as that. Goddamn it, damn god, damn.
Let me ask you, before you worked with run DMC, would you have considered yourself a hip hop head, a bee boy?
Like before you got into the industry.
No, I was a curious person.
And I was raised by two incredible parents that made sure that I did everything in my power to avoid work. Now, that's very strange think about Jewish parents. Usually, man, you go to school, become a doctor or a lawyer, that's your gig. My parents said, this is a very new concept to have a career. You see, a couple generations ago,
people didn't have a career. They went to work, right, And they said, because we're successful, we could afford you the opportunit unity to find your passion because if you find your passion, you'll be a very wealthy person.
And they weren't meaning money.
Right, They're meaning and by the way, I'm on the verge of being sixty four years old. I've been in this game for forty years. I do not know where the time went. It's weird. So they were right, found my passion have enjoyed almost every day. I work really hard, but I work in a a in a space that I feel incredibly passionate about.
So look was the reason the reason why I asked that is did you so you were you passionate about hip hop?
Prior to that?
Were you passionate about just the entertainment industry.
I was not passionate about hip hop until I came to New York. Okay, I came in New York during the Fever period. Encore, it's pretty early. You know the Red Parrot, where Fat Catch used to post up, the Roxy Danse materia.
This was a moment before aids, before crack.
This was a moment where New York was just on the verge of bankruptcy, just survived bankruptcy.
This was a moment where.
The exclusivity of Studio fifty four gave into the inclusivity of the Fever. This was a moment in time where at any given party you could bump into Jean Michel Basquiat, Madonna and the Warhol, Keith Herring, you know, Flash, Mellie mel kg You know. It was a melting pot because New York, because of the financial troubles, had affordable housing. So painters and the arts and people there were drawn there, and so it was this melting pot.
I don't know what the fuck question you asked me.
I'll ask you how much of a hip hop d were you getting it? Were you attracted to? So the first time as a hip hop head or as just the industry.
No, no, I'm pre sucker mc bro be clear. Okay, So there weren't that many hip hop hads fire to me. But the first time that I met the beat, my brother was wood shop teacher at Vermin Day in South central LA, and he used to bring me. Vermin Day had the national champion high school basketball team, and he used to take me to the games. And every break, a guy with a bass and some drums would run
up with some girls. I'm doing those moves and I was like eight years old, and I said, oh my god, I can't believe what I just heard, and they would race back and then every break or halftime.
Fast forward to listening to.
Fifteen ADYKDA and going to see an Uncle Jam's army event. I recognized that beat. That beat was familiar to me, and I liked it. You know what I'm saying.
It was like that that shit that I liked. It was familiar to me, and I wanted more of it.
But this is the reason why I was saying all of this, because you became the archetype of the hip hop executive. Like it or not, you became that person, and I feel like you come prior to the industry of hip hop.
That's why I was asking you, leading you into that question.
And now people look at hip hop the industry extracted the music and monetized the music.
But we both know, and we talked.
About internationally, the culture lives all these elements. How do you feel the the rest of like hip hop as a multi dimensional culture, how can it thrive further going into the future.
I don't know.
I'm not a It was funny one day I was invited into the global management meeting of PolyGram in Seville, Spain, and I sat next to the head lawyer of PolyGram and he said, so, Leor, what's to rap music? What's the future of rap music? And I turned to him and I said, I don't know. It was like really put off in English dot He said, so what do we pay you millions of dollars for?
I said, I don't know.
I hope you don't pay me millions of dollars to predict the future.
I hope you pay me.
Millions of dollars to create an environment, a safe space, a creative space where artists in that garage with a snot running down their nose that are going to change the future. Want to be with us. I never wanted to predict the future. That's corny to me. That's like what I want to create, and then safe environment for that future have to be.
Well, well, that is predicting the future too, because you're creating the future a foundation for a future.
I don't know.
I never weather veined thing. I can't tell you. I can't tell you. I can tell you the thing that lives inside of me. Okay, think about this. The center of the music industry is in New York City in nineteen eighty three. All the record companies were here. They weren't in La they weren't in Atlanta and Miami. They were all every decision maker, every single person record label industry, or the entire record label industry. It was in New York City. Now, how far is Midtown from the Bronx
forty fifty sixty, seventy eighty blocks. So think about that. A kid like me, Russell Rick, no money, no clout, no knowledge, I got high. All those four things alone is a reason why couldn't be successful, right, But it was because of the arrogance of these labels that didn't drive up to the Bronx and realized to get into the fever there was more demand than supply, and it was the arrogance of them not getting in a car for ten It wasn't in Poughkeepsie or Memphis. It was
in the Bronx Queens. All they had to do was go there. So because of the arrogance of the industry, we were able to incubate. And then five six years later and they realized, oh shit, this is not noise that's going away or fad. Suddenly we had money, we had clout, we had knowledge. Getting high was in the thing. No more, okay, And suddenly we were a beasts and they thought that they could get in just buy money.
Remember how they came in, Fuck it, we'll just buy the ship up and yeah, so I think that to me is so if you told me yep, you know about the motherfucker's jumping on one leg singing in the north of the d R in Pueta Plata, that shit is big. You know what I do, And get on the fucking plane and go just touch the baggie. I want to see it. I don't want to ever say that ain't possible, that's just noise. That's a fat I need to go understand that. Actually, because I remember what
I did to them. The only reason why I'm here is because they wouldn't get in a fucking.
Car drive some blocks down, some blocks down.
That's insane, insane.
This is a drink Champs p s A good be hoping what it should be? This is your boy, and what up is dj e f N. This is not drink Champs Happy. I feel drinking something drink Champs happy without the hour healthy hour, healthy healthy drink help you out. I don't think I've ever interviewed a doctor, so, I mean, the wait is on you. The closest document it got to is doctor Dre. Yeah, so explain, explain exactly what you do dot.
So I'm a cardiologist, but I am and I worked a long time and issues are on.
Health and healthcare and YouTube.
We've been really trying to build out the platform, arout how we get health and messages out to people, or we let people understand how to take care of themselves into a preventative way, but just in general, just how we improve the health of the community.
So how did you look up with Leo? So there is my guy? Okay, City of Hope.
No, no, no, no, This has nothing to do with City of Hope. This has to do with that we're colleagues work at the largest global platform in the world, you know, two point plus billion daily active users, insane from the you know, corners of Indonesia to the Geria, back to Chile, back to South central l a and and back to New York. We're global and doctor Garth
leads all the health initiatives that YouTube does. Okay, And so YouTube is not just about cat videos and music, no, no, we what we're what the leadership is attempting to do is use the power of the platform. And doctor Garth, uh, you know, we like Alton Ellis.
You know who Alton Ealyis is.
Okay, he was before Bob Marley, and Bob Marley really like fell in love with Alton Ellis. Let's hear it from Alton l Okay, diferent part of the being. Then you are from nor right, Okay?
Where are you from? Because I so I'm originally from Jamaica. Okay, yeah, well yeah.
Right, but actually part of my education here and then went off to all the places for medical school and everything. So think of myself as Jamaican little Floridan.
And then all over the place.
So what made me want to be a doctor and not like doctor dre.
You know, if I was going to be honest story, there are a lot of things affecting our communities, you know, black and brown people.
If you think even about you know.
The health of the community right around here in Overtwn. You think about Brooklyn, the Bronx, if you think about all of these communities across the world, our communities be the disproportionate impact of diabetes, hypertension, heart disease, and we're dying at a higher rate. So my goal and my life and and and all of our goals, I think to figure out how we can help the community get healthier. And you know, YouTube is the way we can do that. But he wants to know why you chose to become
a doctor. How did that even happen? Like instead of being a DJ.
You look like he might be a DJO.
Like try to.
Legend in Jamaica, you know, and Shapa and all of those people are still legend.
You know.
I saw my mom do a lot of things in Jamaica helping people. She was a nurse and she would really take care of people and not just inspired me to be on the same journey that I was just describing. So she was a nurse in Jamaica. She's a nurse in Jamaica and a nurse.
Wow wow, wow, you know what, what's crazy things in New York City. One of the first times we got encountered with health used to be these juice bars, right, and and we used to go there, and there used to be juice bars. But a lot of times we used to go there. We used to go there because they were selling weed, right, But by the time we were selling buying the weed, we would buy the juice war Like the roster man would come.
He was mostly Caribbean people that yes, they would tell us, all here, take.
A shot of ginger, you know, take a shot of wheat grass. And we're really there just for the reef. Call that bag, yeah, come back and the Caribbean. Why does it seem like Caribbean people are more healthy and holistic as well? That's very true.
I mean, you know, putting the weed conversation part aside. In a Racipheen region, a lot of it is about healthy eating, you know, a lot of it is about how you know, you eat food that's grown from the earth and So that's a big part of Caribbean culture, Puerto Rican culture. You know, that's a big part of a big part of all our cultures.
You know.
It's healthy eating. Yeah yeah, yeah, Well in our communities it's very healthy and excume the healthy. It's very popular to the fried foods. Yeah, why are we prone to liking fried foods?
You know, I think that's a flavor. That's one conceptual flavor that we kind of learn and understand earlier on.
But it also.
Doesn't mean that we don't like stuff that's healthy and green, like which you're drinking now. I mean I watch you all the time when you're out there running on the beach, yes, you know, and then pulling your kids along the state time. That's a part of our culture too, you know. And even if you think of like just all the different kinds of foods we eat that's grown from the earth.
So again, healthy living, I think is a part of just the broader Caribbean culture, and we need to think about how we get it all that message out more and more and more.
Now, is it safe to say that like a lot of us that have our parents when we were first generation Americans, that it was healthier eating, more organic eating in the home countries, and then we're here and it's just a fast paced living and that's the food that's affecting our health.
You see, you see generational changes.
You know, you see particularly even in Cuban and Mexican communities where women have lower birth rates of things like infant mortality with but the longer they stay here, the more you know, the culture and the stress and all of the things that make life unhealthy starts to impact our health.
So yeah, we definitely start to see a lot.
Of that generational dynamic developed, you know, as as more and more and more as we get accustomed to a lot of unhealthier addectivities.
I would say that it was also, you know, to be an immigrant very stressful, and then you have a predatory uh you know, fast food, commercial food indust commercial food industry that uh you know, wasn't regulated properly, didn't give information about what people were eating and the consequences of what they ate. I mean, there's a disproportionate share of fast food fried stuff in black communities that there are in white communities. So I think that aided that issue.
As well, and the symbolism behind it because growing up to us, McDonald's was like luxury food, like a big deal to go to McDonald's.
Yeah, you know, yeah, and it plays out right.
So we see like life expectancy in communities like right around here much lower than if you're the dry ten minutes into Miami Beach or where people are have other healthy options. So you know, this isn't just about about where we are now. It's about where we have been for a long time.
Do you know.
Let me put something in your in your mind.
For every dollar that America earns, we pay twenty to twenty three cents to healthcare. That's crazy, Like we are so out of whack to the rest of the world.
So I just want to put it in perspective.
If and it's all reactive medicine, most of it is all reactive. They're waiting for people to get fat, ignore their health, get sick, and then they go and it taxes the you know economy. Imagine if we could lower that down to ten percent, where does that thirteen percent go?
Education? Right, you know, communities?
Maybe we could have music back in public education or the arts and stuff like that. So when the money is going in the disproportionate way, to you know, healthcare. I think it's just insane that we don't tackle it. And that has nothing to do with how disproportionate all the effects of these diseases are in the black community. And so that's I think real. But that should highlight some of the big issues.
But doesn't it seem like an uphill battle to dislodge the politics of it and all the money in politics that comes from pharmaceutical industries and all these different industries.
And that's why we want to go bottom up. And every single one of your viewers and your listeners are important because if we could get them more focused on healthcare and being living healthy, it will deburden the the institution and and and I think it would change a lot of people's lives and change society's life too. We need more education, We need higher paid teachers, We need music and the arts back in these schools, and.
We need to just get this under control. That makes no noise in that Let me actually, right, one of these famous diets right now is this keto diet. So everyone is ket keto. And how you've recently been going to Europe this whole year, right, nobody in Europe but didn't nobody's overweight. It's like I'm looking like, how's the work?
Yeah, yeah, So you know what I tell my patients is stay away from fat diets. You know, there's really the thing about dieting is trying to be consistent over time. What you've see in a lot of different communities. Again in Cuban communities and Puerto Rican communities and Criban communities, you see healthy eating that's a part of the culture
and stays that way over time. And that's the problem with whatever diet of the month it is, or the diet of the week, is that people get on it, they go up and down, they lose lose gain weight, and so those are the kinds of challenges. So we the concept is how do you have a culture of healthy eating that lasts for the rest of your life. I know you pass on to your kids as well.
Right, because I'll guess my question is how come in America that's our way is like the no bread But in Europe that's like the first thing, like like they etceet you first, and religion and nobody's big out there. Are they making Europeans different than.
The control is a big part of all of this. R yeah, there's not.
Sometimes about what you eat is about sometimes about how much about you eat, and so if you eat a lot of carbohydrates, that has one particular impact. But it's not that everything all food is evil. A lot of times it's the quantity as well as the quality of the food that you eat.
Nor you know, I live in Europe, right, Yes, I know you didn't invite me to your spots.
Yes, I heard you're posted up.
There. It's pretty sure. So I was in Sardinia. It's an island in Italy. I wanted to go and visit one of the Blue zones, Okay, and the Blue Zone. There's five blue zones in the world, one in Japan, one in this place in the mountains of Sardinia, one in California.
I don't know whether Central America. What is a blue zone?
The blue zone is a community that lives healthy into their hundreds.
So it's just not a one off.
It's a community of people that for some reason are living you know, into their hundreds, not in the hospital bed, but like.
Playing after there.
And so I visited this community up in the mountains of Sardinia, and I can tell you what my observation was community. It's pretty simple, love companionship. But they're eating a cheesy yogurt that is a probiotic that this is the reason why this community and a certain type of wine that is very pro something about probiotic and the gut.
And I think that.
And so when I did some discovery on the other blue zones, you know, when you get paper for some reason, you're interested in all this hit.
So what I.
Realized, and I'm luck for you to confirm or not, it's something about the gut.
Is something super powered.
A second brain, right, yeah, second brain. I didn't know.
Yeah, I mean it helps to drive a lot of your metabolism. And so that's why a lot of these behaviors end up making you healthier overall.
I've seen a study that Tupac Chopo was talking about everybody everybody knew, and he said that they put rabbits in a cage and they fed them all poisoned. But one set of rabbits they massaged and they you know, played music to and like we're nice to. And even though they he fed them all poison that those set of rabbits that they were nice to took the poison
and and actually it became healthy. Is that something that we're supposed to be doing, Like, as we're eating, are we supposed to be thinking positive and feeling good about ourselves?
Well, that's stress too, Yeah, exactly that that part of it around stress is important. Listen, we have a challenge many times talking about mental health, stress and those kinds of things in our community, particularly even as black and brown men, you know, and so to the point of even understanding that we have to normalize talking about hard days, good days, bad days, stressful day, depression, you know, all
of those things. So so again, understanding how we normalize the sculsuons about stress and how we attack it and deal with it is a part of even that conversation.
And go back to what Leros earlier. He said, you know, you get some paper, you start to think about these things. A lot of the communities that are suffering from a lot of disease, you know, they're nomic struggle there, you know what I'm saying. But once you you come out of that struggle, you're like, oh, you have something to live for, you want your family to live longer. You know, you start to think about creating generational wealth. It's a whole different ballgame.
Yeah.
And I also say, let's think about creating generational health along with generational health.
And that's why we decided. You know, I don't like celebrating myself noriy. I like being behind the scenes and just watching this beautiful culture, you know, grow up.
See you choosing between lake.
It's just it's wonderful.
It's wonderful.
It's wonderful too to see there's a culture grow up and.
Be so successful.
But I realized that there's you know, I used to never know anybody who died when I was, you know, growing up. First person that died was jam Master Jake Wow. Wow, first person that you know. People used to say, oh I lost so and so and so. I didn't even understand that feeling. But as you get older, you start losing people, people that you care so deeply about that
you take for granted. You know, everybody wants to go to a funeral and celebrate someone's life, and while they're alive, they didn't, you know, they didn't take the time.
And so.
The City of Hope asked me to do this numerous times, and I really didn't want to do this. In fact, I didn't even know that the City of hope this event was something for many many years because I never got an invite, okay, until you know, rap music kicked down that fucking door. All of a sudden, I started getting the inviting and I started recognizing, like, wow, there's these events and these hospitals and these you know, the access to things. I had no idea, and I believe me,
I was a decade successful. So I felt it coming a sort of way like what you know, like Grouch and Mark says, I won't belong to a club that would take me as a member, and so I said to myself, why do I Why am I going to do this? I don't want to celebrate myself. And then all these people started getting sick, and I really really wanted started to try to understand this whole cancer thing. What is it? What is it about? How is people
getting affected? And then I saw the statistics about how the percentage of black people that get sick versus white people. Since my career has been based on black music, I felt like, wow, this is interesting. Let me talk to the hospital and discuss with them if they could do something to you know, fund this inequity in cancer. And they were incredible, like this hospital, which is the world's most famous hospital in cancer, cancer research, cancer treatment, the
way they treat patients, etcetera, etcetera, etcetera. They understood the inequity that was happening and they want to close the gap. And so the moment they said that they're ready to put money to mobile vans that would go inside communities, black communities to get early detection, I said, ship, get over my fear and and let's make this happen.
He said, yeah, I know, I'm bouncing around a little bit, but let me let me ask. At one point, my friend Roster, he's a vegan, right. Uh, he's also Jamaican, right, But I don't know, I feel need to say that. But yeah, I mean.
But listen, yeah, okay.
At one point I was a vegan, right, And I the reason why I kind of got off of being a vegan. I swear to God, I had no animal instincts, Like I sweld of God Like people were stepping on my shoes and I was like, are you okay? Like I was just like I was just too soft, Like I just like, wait a minute, you know the meat. I kind of felt like you only have animal instance if you're animal in you now was I walking? Oh? I don't know. I don't think there's in a data
wround that fact. Okay, right, because this is just me, this is my true right, right.
But what I say to people that my patients often is choose a diet that works for you, that you can be on for a long time, not just something that feels good or somebody else is doing or is engaging just for this week or this moment. Because these are lifestyle decisions. And that's why I have to say and shout out to folks like you and others who have been really talking about lifestyle.
You know, how do you?
It could be more an exercise think about these things.
So this is about creating a healthier lifestyle, not just about one die or vegan die. Works for you, then that works, but it doesn't work for you, and you need to find something that does.
Something that works for you. That's exactly right, exactly right. You like pescaria, You've been needing like fifteen years. You need fish to be That's what I'm saying. Yeah, I need fish to swim with. I'm cuting, what's that? Well?
I want to dive deeper into the cancer research and everything going on because obviously, you know, we know that a lot of people in different communities feel that there's a lot of conspiracy around that they feel that these treatments are there, that the cures are there, and they're just not giving access.
What's what's the truth, what's really going on?
Truth be told.
You know, the distrust between our black and brown communities and healthcare system has a lot of history.
You know, they think that it's a skey experiment.
All kinds of thing has happened that really have turned our communities off. And so we in healthcare need to make a proactive effort to engage people and bring them in.
And when we think about things like cancer, we have really effective screening for cancer, you know, for colon cancer, especially for those who getting up in there for it is you know, you know, think about poland cancer screening, especially for women as they get into their fort they thinking about breast cancer screening and colon cancer is really impacting our Black community. Breast cancer taking away a lot of our queens, i mean, the black and brown communities.
And so we have to really get out of the messagebout how we start to pull people in and listen. We've lo us a lot of our soldiers to cancer, you know, Guru from multim Milum, a lot of people who we all love and.
Has contributed to our culture.
So we have to think about how we start to again really get this message out of our own health and start to talk to our community.
Is more about it.
You're powerful, guys, your your your voice is powerful.
Yeah. Your plan on having it on the front page of YouTube or something like that, or we.
Are trying to recruit people like you?
You know what we want?
Yeah, well what we want we want we want influential voices to try to help us communicate to the community. You know, I mean you have a lot of particularly a lot of folks and hip hop comunity. We don't talk a lot about help. You know, if you look at styles, you know, sounds, I mean I love some of the stuff sounds to say, and all of that stuff is ingreensboy health.
And then how do we.
So how do we connect all of those voices around some of the evidence and help to communicate to our community. And that's why I think it's just an evolution and a revolution that we're starting to see really around how we get the mess are a non healthcare so we want to start partnering more with artists and other people who have voices, have the community, have the engagement around you know, again, how we educate our community around a lot of these health messages.
Yeah, that's that's that's that's that's a deep man, It's deep. It's very deep. What else? What else we got in there? Come on, let's get let's hitt to some points.
We No, I still want to talk about the cancer things. Yeah, Okay, I'm interested because, like I said, a lot of conspiracies around cancer research and whether or not there's there's specific cures that like people feel that there's cures and they're just being held back.
Definitely.
Yeah.
So I mean, truthfully, we have a lot of effective cres for cancer. We need to do a better job of how we bring in and get those cures to the black and brown community. I mean, we need to make sure that we're getting more folks into the clinical trials, but treatment and education and all of those kinds of things. So I would say that the healthcare system needs to do a better job, but we do have a lot
of effective cares. Cancers come a long way dej from where it used to be, especially when you think about pediatric cancers and all of these kinds of things screening and how we can detect a polyp earlier before it becomes colon cancer, you know, how you can detect you know, breast malignancy earlier. So all of these kinds of things we're seeing advances, but the skepticism I would say that
we've seen in our community. There's a history of where that came into being, and we need to respect that history. But we need to also do a better job of educating people and bringing them in doctor cancer be cured. You know, cancer is a big thing, right. There's a whole bunch of different kinds of cancers. There are some cancers that we have better treatment for than others, but
we have a lot of real good treatment. One thing I will say eliarer that we have with cancer is a lot of cancers that we can find early and do something about. Like I said, colon cancer being one of them, and a lot of others. So the concepts around early detection is important, especially in our communities where we see less of those kinds of.
What percentage I mean when you find out that you have cancer early versus like, what's the percentage opportunity of surviving that.
Big difference, big difference. I mean, that's why the concept of early is a game changer, right. You know, if you can bring free early, if you can find something at stage on before it becomes stage four, you.
Know, those things make a difference.
And this is what's really hurting our community when you look at those numbers around and what's happening in the Bronx Brooklyn, you know, Queens, when you look at what's happening in LA and all the South Central what's killing our community are these diseases. So we really have to do a really better job of kind of bringing in early detention.
But I think those ends up going back to economics because it sounds like screening is the big thing, like if you can catch it early. But I think a part of this issue is people not having insurance even if they do have insurance. I also even for myself, like I have to do the screening. I'm at the age where I have to do and me trying to figure out, okay, I have to go to the gastrologist and then you have to book this the day for the appointments months out,
like it seems confusing. It seems difficult, and that's me with someone with insurance. You imagine the person that first of all, they have to get insurance. Yeah, I then you have to navigate and it seems like like you know, like you're it's something complicated which shouldn't be complicated.
You're totally right now, we have to do a better job.
Although shout out to you for getting your colon cancer screening because it's.
On the books.
Shout out for even planning planning to get it done. So that's actually a big thing right right there. But you're right, we have to do a better job of like simplifying the process and again demystifying the process because we have that lives.
On YouTube, Like can you be to YouTube and actually go through.
You do you do?
We have we have a lot of information about how did they access that information?
Just yeah, you just have to put in colon cancer. Okay, you know colon cancer screening.
And what about the insurance side of it?
Yeah, I know, the insurance side of it. And that's where things always get a little bit more complicated. And that's where to your point that you just alluded to, you know, there are there are ways in which we need to build a better infrastructure to take care of our communities. And you're right, the maze of going through appointments and scheduling can be a challenge, but at the end of it is your life, right, you know, And it doesn't matter how much money you have. If you
don't live long, you don't live to enjoy it. So I would just say, you know, we do a lot of things. You know, if we're buying a house, we do a lot with a lot of challenges to get the mortgage, to get to get the house. So think about that when you go through all the challenges, and there are challenges and we need to do better, but think about the end goal of where you're trying to get to, and it really is about you know, saving her.
But imagine those struggling families were both parents are working, you know, full days, like imagine to even have the time to sit there. Like I told you, I'm going through the process and I'm like, this is crazy, this.
Is taking me forever.
I got to talk to my primary then they got a referral.
I got to give me a couple of referrals. I guess the first one.
Takes too and it's just I'm already, Like I can't I need an assistance, Like imagine the regular you know with kids in the house, all works two jobs.
Why, yeah, yeah, I mean you're right.
I mean that's where we have challenges with the system and ways in which we need to work on making things better. But you're exactly right, especially for our communities, we have a disproportionate burden of those challenges.
Right. I was watching the episode of Siindfeld the other day, right, sorry, the simple, simple, last ship, right, But I was watching an episode of Soundfeld and Jeorge the stanzas in the hospital and they've come in to take his tonsils out on them, and then and then and then Cramer says to him, man, I know somebody that would do it cheaper, right, So that he goes to the person and it's a
holistic doctors, a holistic doctor. But I didn't realize that back then, holistic doctors was looked at us as a cheaper route to go. But there's a lot of people who believe in holistic healing. Is that something that you know?
I think there's a role also a role for both holistic complementary healing the concept of spirituality and how all of that plays and these are either or they can work together. You know, you can get your screenings and pray. You know, you can engage in this thing and that thing. So again, what you find with a lot of this is that bringing these things together.
For now holistic.
Do you know someone who's not trained taking out your ton So that's probably yeah, I don't think that was a good Everything else in terms of like the complimentary holistic healing, I think as you're having that as a part of how we take care of patients is just how we take care of people.
How about supplementation, what's your Yeah, you know, it depends certainly.
I think if you're a deficient in a vitamin, you know, taking supplement there's there's some supplements that are helpful. So I think, you know, the other thing what I find about supplementation sometimes is it allows you to engage in this conversation about healthy eating overall, because the you know, the real crux of all of this is maintaining a healthy, balanced lifestyle over time. If you just do it for a month and it's fun, that doesn't really get you
the effect. So the thing is how do you choose and engage and you know, start running with your kids and doing things and walking and talking with your friends about all these things.
And that's the kind of stuff that pays off over time.
What about artificial intelligence?
Yeah, you know, is that going to play into beating cancer and making it easy for these communities to get access?
Yeah, you know, AI potentially has a role. You know that we're learning a lot about AI and health right now, and if it can simplify your appointment process and get the message out faster, then that's a good thing, you know. So anything that can simplify that back end I think is going to be important. So I think we're going to learn more about that Liria as the healthcare and
AI start to evolve. But I think anything that can make it easier for you know, our people to get the things that they need will be important.
How much do we need the government involved in this at all?
I think the government's essential in this. But the government, I think they can't supplement what we need to do, and that is get the word out that we should be more careful caring of ourselves prior.
To getting sick.
The whole medical industry is based on once you get sick, and I think there should be significantly more funding from the government education to prevent sickness, to lower the twenty two to twenty three percent of our GDP down to normal levels, so we could reinvest in the communities in education, music, the arts just make our societies a more healthy place.
We should be bipartisan, but unfortunately someone will hijack one way or the other.
Yeah, it should be bipartisan. And I hope you guys show up on October eighteenth to my event with you you yeah, not only you know, I'm not gonna say they're honoring me. I think they're gonna honor you know, fifty years of hip hop. Many of my artists are coming out, Nori Okay are coming out to New York City, you know, No La Los Angeles. Ready, it's a black tie and we're sold out. We've raised millions and millions and millions of dollars and so we're going to have
a great party. We're going to celebrate hip hop. We're going to do some good work.
Listen.
I was in Israel recently with my mother. She's ninety three years old. She had her four yeah, she had her four boys, sixteen grandchildren. Wow, and she's traveling all over the world by herself. She's fully engaged in life. And I turned to her and I said, you know, you're very lucky, and she says, I know how lucky I am.
I said, why are you so lucky?
And without hesitation, she said, the more you give, the more you receive.
That's it. And then like it's the mic drop, and so.
You know, this is the reason why I'm doing this, is just to give. And I love the fact that we have a lot of influence, a lot of power, a lot of reach, and so every once in a while doing some good things is a very powerful and important thing for us to do.
Do you think hip hop should have this own health insurance? I think.
The answer is emphatically yes.
I don't want any of the artists that to not be able to after I mean, this is a very short career. You know, not everybody could reinvent themselves. A lot of musical people that are, you know, in a different planet.
They're de vulnerable parts of our society.
Just because they're talented and we're successful and well known and made some money doesn't mean that they were able to keep that money flowing. And they should not be without an insurance card and something to fall back on. I'm wondering if the Grammys has a program of that, or Music Cares.
Or I'm not sure.
Chuck D and Chuck D I believe.
Well, Chuck D is like a beacon of good shit.
You know what I'm saying.
He just keeps He just keeps trying to push the envelope through the right things. Amazing and the whole nine. So yeah, I would like to see that. I would like to.
See this community grow old gracefully. Thank you.
I'm gonna tell you another a great meeting. I'm with you, and you offered me a great deal. But I was like, Leo, you know I'm hot, these people offer me more, and he's like, yo, you said to me. He looked at me like a man, and you said, if it's all about money, didn't take the deal. But if it's about your career, then you're at the right place. Thank you. I guess what, Andy, the way, you gotta understand how hard that is for a person to calculate that and say,
you know what, because what he's saying is righteous. It's saying like, yo, bro, these guys are just investing because you're hot. For now, I'm going to show you a career, and you showed me a career.
Thank you.
You know what I mean, I'm gonna show you. I'm gonna also tell you. I remember you're telling me. You and cav It's like, yo, we're gonna have you on tour for the and for the rest of the duration. And boy did I do tours from Survival or the Fittest to Amazing all these tours that and it was like I just knew that I made the right decision.
Man.
So I always wanted you to know that face to face, talk about you, talk about you like Jesus. When you're not not around, I can't say it in your face.
You know, thank you. I prefer Moses, but I'll take Jesus up. Okay, leave it. I need to get to London.
Yeah, I get to London. I haven't been in London.
I need to get Okay, you don't know. We see, we see the warning. So we got here's here's here's my question. Because okay, I mean I did. I'm a veteran of drink tram Yes, yes, yes, and I want to come back and do it again because I'm not finished.
Okay, but hold on, we got two more okay, okay. One is this is a lifelong question, not life long question, but for hip hop people it always pops up. Did le A is Lee all the reason Jay Z and Dame Dash is not together?
Absolutely not?
Okay, that's just like if Leon was the reason, then they never were together in the first place, Okay, right.
Like driving? Yeah? God, so okay, And then I had just next to the last ones. So now you do you dominate from Atlantic? I mean, excuse me for wanna you start three hundred? What makes you go from three hundred? And did you start all these new artists? You do it again? Like no one says you could do it again? Like you.
They're laughing at me, Norie, they're laughing at me when I started three hundred?
What do you say? We create? We create yourself?
Yeah, they were laughing at me.
They're saying, heaven the realized that the music industry is fucked, and what does he know? And shouldn't he just retire the whole ninth And all I could say to you is I don't pay attention to what people have to say about me. You give me the inspiration when I see you and the dapt the people know me, understand what I'm all about out and that's good enough for me. I don't really care. I'm not tethered to social media. I'm focused on waking up every day and trying to
contribute and do something good. So three hundred I knew that there was going to be a bounce in the business. Anybody who would bet against music always loses, So it was so obvious to me. Everybody's going shorting music. I would take that bet any day. Nine years later, sell the company for four hundred and forty million dollars.
Did you sell three hundred for four hundred? Yeah?
Yeah, and the and the.
Thank you?
I'm so grateful for the artists that believed in me.
And companies that believed in me, and it's just it's really great.
Well on behalf of all the artists who you've changed their life were happy that you believed in the thank you understand I'm saying, we were grateful and we take the faith. Man. What's the last question? So how do you transition from the guy that is uh now, I don't know, I don't know how you kind of put that, you know, but it's like the guy who's putting out the music as opposed to the guy that's creating the music and manufacturing it. This is the YouTube.
So YouTube is a very important platform.
It helps with.
The global culture.
It helps for artists to cut through the.
It allows them to be heard and connect with their fans. We build products to make it easier for their fans to discover new music.
We give everybody a voice and show them the world.
And it was a very difficult transition, but it was a told that I was willing to play because I get to play with a platform that has two plus billion daily active uns. So I want to make a difference. I want to make a big impact. And I wanted the music industry to understand that YouTube was their friend, not their foe.
You know that.
UGC used to be a four letter word. They hated UGC user generated content.
Let's go napstart though.
Right, No, No, no user generated When they when I said uses your song for their video, to me, I think that's a much bigger expression of care for your music than the passive listen.
And so thirty percent of the revenue and we sent over six billion dollars in the last twelve months, growing rapidly to the music industry, and thirty percent of that is from UGC user generate the content because we invested in content id.
So which pays the licenses that we.
Can detect the computer can detect when a creator or user uses your music and you get paid for it. And to me, that's a huge investment that we're the only ones that made. It's a huge campus in Zurich and Switzerland YouTube. So it's it's the respect for creations. It's the respect for creation. But think about when UGC was a four letter word, but now it's core to the industry. And I think the same thing is going to happen with AI and jen ai. Jen AI is
going to come in. There's there's a huge opportunity I'm sorry, generative AI where the computers learned from the computers.
And so there's no fear from your side of anything.
Of course there is, of course there is. There is a lot of focus. We've created principles and have guidelines and we're working with the industry to create a framework that is healthy.
It creates a.
Healthy framework of control, monetization and attribution. And once we have that framework in place, I think that you're going to experience a new era, an amazing new era.
What's your take on the Sorry, but what's your take on the AI generated like voices and basically redoing artists's.
Voice everybody tries to do Leo Cohen's oppression.
Yeah, I think that's just a bad I think there's just so much. For example, think about if you have writer's block and AI could help you.
Right.
I want this to be a tool for creativity. I want this to be a jet pack for human creativity, not a replacement. And so this is a brand new world that we're on the verge of.
Guys.
Be clear, this is coming so much faster than you could ever imagine. I'm co signing bold and Responsible AI that we work together in shaping the future.
That's what I co.
Signed responsible as the main word, bold.
And responsible, because we can't put our head in the sand and think that this is not going to happen like we did.
With NAP exactly exactly.
You've got to be.
On our front foot. We've got to be offensive and we've got to make things happen. Okay, entrepreneur hip hop style, you know what I'm saying. How we are the first adopters of new technology, new ideas. We're open minded to win so let's shape the future together and let's clasp last question.
Very last, d did you think that jay Z would be hip hop's first billionaire?
I don't give a fuck about this billionaire and bullshit. I think it's a bunch of bullshit, Okay, I I think I wasn't expecting that. I think what I'm proud of is jay Z as a father, as a businessman, as pushing the boundaries of the possibilities. All this billionaire bullshit is like a marketing tool. It's like hip Hop fiftieth It's a marketing tool. I celebrate hip hop every single day. I don't need fifty years an.
I couldn't think of a better way to in that. I ain't gonna love drop my job.
Drink Champs is a drink Champs LLC production in association with Interval Presents hosts and executive producers n O.
R E and dj E.
F N from Interval Presents executive producers Alan Coy and Jake Kleinberg.
Listen to Drink.
Champs on Apple Podcast, Amazon Music, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. Thanks for joining us for another episode of Drink Champs, hosted by Yours truly dj EFN and n O r E. Please make sure to follow us on all our socials That's at Drink Champs across all platforms, at the Real noriaegon ig at Noriega on Twitter, mine is at Who's Crazy, on ig at dj efn on Twitter, and most importantly, stay up to date with the latest releases, news and merch by going to drink Champs dot com