LaRUSSELL - What Is This Egg Sandwich Worth To You?

And I was like, well, I'm just making sure you tell me the date because if you tell me a month from now, I'm not getting excited because just in case something happens. And she was like, so you're happy, I said, what was the date two days from now? I said, hell, yeah, I'm happy. Girl. Thanks shoutouts in Nicole from the Black Effect for booking you. UM super happy to have you. I love the name of your

company and I love what you're about. I'm the name of his company is called Good comp Penny as in Points, which I was like, oh, oh that's different, I said, Man, Larrussell's hitting us with so much in teg pretty you remind me of a cross between jay Z and Drake and anyone that has not heard your music or kind of even tried to cyberspy on you was like really

missing out, like on some good stuff. But um, since I have you in my kitchen, uh the eating while broke kitchen, I have to know what were you eating when you were broke? Man. Today I'm going to be making an egg sandwich. This was a classic. My mama taught me how to make eggs when I was like five, and I used to wake up every morning and make eggs and that was the only thing I knew how to make. So we're taking it back to the basics. We got some eggs, we got some salt and pepper.

Today we're gonna be doing it on garlic bread. Because I usually use regular bread. We just throw it in a toaster. But my boy Austin was like, you gotta do garlic bread, so I figured we spice it up today. Yeah, we've had a whole discussion about the whole garlic bread, you and I because I've actually never even thought of garlic bread. Actually, the first time I ever had garlic bread for real, for real was the Texas toast in the box. And now if you go into a store,

it is sold out, like you can't get it. It's a miracle if you find one maybe on eBay, but I don't know the pandemic. Just like said, take away the best bread on earth? Um, but um, I'm excited to eat with you, so let's get it cracking. Oh my gosh, an egg a crack. I listened to rap music so much that my girlfriend and I shout out to will Let behind the mirror over there. Um. I listened to wrap soap music so much that I actually speak in metaphors and sometimes people have to stop me

and say, can we get it? You know you don't have to, you don't have to rebreak it down in puzzle terms. I'm a metaphor speakers. Can I move this so I can crack some magazine? Slide over to my side the greatest? Are you eating one too? So I should make all you have to cook for both of us because if it's trash, we can both discover that garlic bread egg sandwiches is just not I'm going to drop some butt up in here because my mom would be like, use some PAM so you don't leave egg

stained all over the now. Are you one of those people that are really going to use metal on age? Yes? Yeah, yeah, we're not supposed to do that. Even every listener is hearing that scratching is like, what is he doing? That's crazy? What is he doing? His mama could have handled ever let him do that. Man, she did. You wouldn't believe how much stuff my mom let me do. Let I don't even think we had tesline back then. Maybe I don't remember. You're right, it was like a luxury. I'm sure, yeah, yeah,

back then. I think you're right. You just had to butter everything down. Otherwise it's stuck or you get that good old pam spray and you in it. Oh, I'm getting it all over there. I'm not. I'm not a you know, So tell me a little bit about what was going on. I know this is like the first dish that you ever cooked, But tell me what was going on during the time of Also, I usually add bacon beat bacon bits and cheddar cheese. But I heard y'all broke, so it wasn't here. So we're gonna go pepper.

I don't see salt over here. There's y'all struggling, Yo, so much fun of us over here. You're not even gonna use lorries because we don't Now, I'm not gonna use lorries. I've never done that. I'm trying to you could authentic. Wow, okay, okay, I respect it to be honest. I don't use lowries. Well, I just started to recently, but it's only because I married a black man from Detroit who believes loss everything season and yes, beautiful. Um, So what was going on growing up? Uh? Like around

when you were making egg sandwiches? I know you started at five, you know, making these, but like kind of tell me a little bit of your background growing up, Like where you middle class? I thought I was middle class until I got older and realized we're definitely lower middle class. But my pops was a hustler, so we were like we had enough money to be like the

richest nigga is in the broke neighborhood. Touch you feel it, but definitely uh lord class, just regular neighborhood and be hard to describe when people ask that question because you've got to kind of growth in it to to be familiar. Did you grow up in a two parent household? Yeah? Definitely. Wow, Okay, okay, a lot of people on the show haven't. I'm going in. Um, that's good. So when did you transition to music. Um. I've been writing since I was like seven, whether through

like writing poems or just journaling, um, drawing. Just I've just always used kind of writing an art as like an artistic expression inform um. So yeah, since I was seven, and it's kind of just cultivated me. And my sister had this boom box and we used to download instrumentals from line Wire and burn them on the CD the

instrumentals on the boom box and wrap over it. And I remember we had a wrapped over nucket you buck, and I was going crazy, but my sister was better than me at the time, so I just had to keep working. Your sister was rapping two. Yeah, my sister was rapping two So does she still wrap? No, she doesn't. So you surpassed her and the rap skills and then she was like, I'm good. I don't. I don't think she ever had a passion for it. It It was just something we like to play around and do, and I

just kind of stuck with it. Okay, okay, okay, that's pretty cool. So you is it that you like Drake, because its like from what I've researched on you, is that you from other articles and you could correct me if I'm wrong. But your goal was to be on the level I want to say, and on the I don't know, like numbers level, because obviously talent wise, you're on the same level as Drake, but I'm saying numbers wise, you want to be on the same level, but independently. Yeah,

is that correct? And not necessarily numbers wise, but impacting notoriety wise. You know, I want people to respect me as such, and partially the way to do that is

to put up the numbers. Right. If you're not scoring as well as Jordan's, people don't expect you respect you like a Jordan, right, Um, and yeah, to do that independently and just show people that it's possible to be the greatest at something without um having to utilize someone else's infrastructure that they tell you you gotta go through and you got to use these methods and you gotta sell away your ownership, you know, like everyone knows early

on Drake didn't have his masters and had a horrible deal. Um, I want to show people that you can get to that level without having to go through that. Right. When you say, uh, I just want to rewind you said it was important for you to have impact and notoriety, Like why, what does that even mean to me? It just uh, it enables you to two It enables you to make change, like right now, feed the whole hood where I'm from. You know, from down to the end of the year, I've been feeding the hood out of

my own pocket. And I've only been able to do that because of my impact and my notoriety. I've become so great that I make enough money to where I could take care of the place that birth me right, And a lot of people don't get to do that because they don't have either the talent, devil or the resource to do it. I've been able to do it independently. I finish dropped this garly bread on this joint. It's already,

it's already done, already toasted it in Oh that's crazy. Yeah, I try to cheat it because I wanted to get all up in yourkool aid. Wow, So I put the tempo because you can't find that anywhere intriguing. Okay, let's try it. Let's be a team here. Um dang, why do we have to break from your story? Though? Right? Is this not the hardest interview or process? This is great, This is great I'm a I'm a multitasker. I'm gonna

try this still, all right, So we get the bread. Everyone, we're getting the garlic bread situation together and we're putting eggs in it. Yeah, this is new. I've never had this. Shout out Austin for you have to turn off the store. Ye let me get right on there. Berthie was talking as mess about us being broke. Now, well, I was going to put garlic bread on there, but you know you guys did it so okay, completely forgot you were going to actually make it. You don't even know how

to make garlic bread, do you. I mean, I use Texas toes, so I was just gonna throw it up on that joint and then it does what it does and you're good after let's trying. Okay, let's go back to notoriety and impact and you feeding your community. Okay, stealing all your eggs, buddy, All right, here we go. Do you want to sample it first before we get into the nuts and bolts? Sure, all right, let's try to Here we go. Okay, bread, I think Texas garlic, but at least we now know we actually now know

how to do it in the future. But it's way too much bread on this one, way too much bread. It's like a bread with a side of eggs. It's actually garlic, a garlic bread sandwich. Would you ever serve the same? Almost? Mm hmm. That could be an ideal but within a bread, right, yeah, look at me? Do I Can we call it the eating wall Brooks and no? That would probably be horrible haunts to name it the eating wall broke sandwich? While you're at a pay pay as you go, is it pay as you go or

pay what you want? Let's pay what you want? Proud to pay? Well, comes sit sit with me so I can get all up in your who I know he jumped off camera on that one. Right, It's fine, it's real life, real life. So let's go into moments Momo's moms Cafe, momos cafe for a second. What inspired all of that? Mm hmmm, or at least a partner just seeing the need. There's a lot of homeless in Leo and just people who don't get to eat. And I'm always outside so I always see it. I'm always giving

someone money or take care of someone. Whether my mom would drop off boxes of merch to the homeless community, out there to the different encampments, and um, I'm just always trying to help, right, and this is the way that we can help now that I'm in a granded position. I've done a few of these prior this year, but just for a day. And when you do it today,

it's like everybody don't get a chance to eat. So this time it was like, let's make sure everybody gets a chance to e. Yeah, so I think what you're doing is great. I'm gonna circle back to your music again. Um, so you're a talented artist. Again, for anyone that hasn't heard your music, I definitely would say you're in the same lay as jay Z and Drake, which, by the way, I'm a hardcore jay Z fan. Everyone that listens to

this show knows this. I have a huge five ft painting that's literally the only one in the world that was custom made of jay Z like hanging out and projects. I'm from Brooklyn. But but I will say this in all truest form um. Currently, over the last couple of years,

I listened to Drake more and I feel guilty. I feel like I'm cheating, like for real, Like I don't let nobody know that, Like nobody knows that this is the first time I've set it out loud, but in my heart, I'm like, yo, just listen to jay Z today, dog and you don't have to always pick Drake. But um, I listened to your lyrics. I'm just wondering, like, what did have you ever been signed? Uh? Not in the capacity that artists get signed, Like I've never been signed

to a major deal. All of my deals have been partnerships, like distribution deals. Uh No, I've done like record deals, but in partnership for him, like fifty profit shares, like I don't belong to anyone on my own entity and we just split profit versus when a record label usually signed to you, you're in like a royalty deal and they own your ship. And if they don't own your ship, they like and said for twenty years and they have power and rule over when you release, how you release,

any of that. So I've never I've never been in a major deal. All of my deals have been partnerships. Currently, are you in a partnership deal or are you independent? I've been independent the entire time, So all of these partnerships are completely like me and my team do everything you see you're controlling all the marketing everything, so in they're controlling because nowadays it's a little confusing what a record label is really bringing to the table at this point.

It depends now I mean with I mean if oh my gosh, why am I spacing? Uh? When it comes to who is Drake in Little Wayne? And what's their name of their young Money is it? No, it's not young Money, it's but no, no, no, he was signed to Little Wayne, who was the young So they're so from what I know of the history of the music industry, Birdman had the best deal in the industry. So young Money cash Money has literally the best deals on the table. Cash money, cash money. So if cash Money calls you

up right now, I'm just playing it. It was advocated not to see there's a cash Money had the best deal in terms of their deal with Republic, not in him, of the deals that they gave artists. Really, you don't think they gave artists really good deals? No, because they Drake didn't have his masters. He just got him. He was in the royalty deal. A Little Wayne had to take him to court to get his money. How could they be in a great deal? Has been complaining for years.

How could they be in a great deal that doesn't make any sense? Yeah, I didn't know that. Yeah, but yeah, cash Money had a substantial deal. You know when dy Day was a part of helping put that together with Republic, they really broke the bank. When did you? So you're a music artist, what is intriguing about you is, for instance, today we gave you a release, Clarence, and you sat there quietly and read it. Um, you're a businessman all the way through. So where do you think you're an

entrepreneur before you're an artist? Definitely? Definitely. Before I was releasing art, I was selling beats. I was making like album covers for people and selling I've been I used to sell swishers. One of your parents, Yeah, my pops was a hustler. He sold everything under the sun except drugs, like everything. I was gonna be my next question, cause when I hear hustle, I'm like, what was he saying? Yeah, no,

man ever everything. But exactly so, you got your entrepreneur spirit from him, and then you're talent girls kind of came from you and your sister, like in this boombox. Kind of my pops as well, he's very creatively inclined, right, And he's a problem solver, right. And I feel like a part of my talent and just my skill, my business acumen is because I'm a problem solver. My favorite thing to say is I'll figure it out, and I will. Yeah, yeah, yeah,

spoken like a true entrepreneur. You know how to pivot, right, Yeah. That's whenever I see a problem, I'm always like, it's not a problem, it's a challenge. Right, what are we going to do? I was I was walking to get my daughter the other day and I was talking to my brother, and uh, I was like, man, are you looking for problems or are you looking for lu? You usually find whatever you're looking for. I like that, you know what you say? How I think. I think that's

why I like you so much. I genuinely I genuinely funk with you hard. I don't say funk on the show ever. Really, I genuinely mess with you. I was just like, yo, is he as dope? So what I've learned being a Christian and just living in the world is like, there's so many dope people that are doing great things externally. But now that I'm old, older, I've

grown enough. Wasn't to ask myself, well, if they're externally have all this integrity, I just wonder, like if I was a fly on their wall at home, you know, do they carry that same level of integrity? When I listen to some of your rap lyrics, I'm like, Okay, they're great. And then there's some that teeter into like how you uh enjoy women in the past. I don't know if current, I don't know. You know, it's hard

being a man. I'm not a man, So I just wondering, like I think, if you're a fly on the wall in my house, you'd see a human and supreme form right in every aspect on their roller coaster and on the journey. I think there's everyone around me could speak to my my heart and my greatness and my moral

and my character. But I also have issues as a human as well that I have to develop from and that I've had to grow from just through a journey, right like you, m you learn self respect and you learn value, and you learn respecting other people throughout your journey, depending on your experience and you're surrounding and what you witness, right,

most of us just replicate whatever we see. If you don't see anybody and like loving and nurturing situations and providing that you don't often replicate it, right, because that's not something you're familiar with, So just through that process. Of course, I'm a human, but I think for the most part, what you see externally of me, it's what you see and when you meet me, I'm the exact

same person. Right when I hear your lyrics, you're I feel like you're vulnerable, You're you're honest with yourself, and I think for a lot of men, I don't want to say a lot of men, for humans, I think we we tend to either tell ourselves the truth that we tell ourselves a lie, and it's the battle of you know, but the only way to grow is to tell yourself the truth. So there's a lot of vulnerability in your lyrics, and I love it like I love it for the same reason why I love a lot

of y'all. You know that you are my top three, you know, so, Um, now I do do snooping. Obviously I had the cyberstalk the hell out of you. Um, but um, I noticed you were, like, if you're a fan of mine, you come directly to me, Like, how did you even conceive that concept of like you want to come to my show, you buy the tickets from me. No ticket messing, no no middleman, Like where did that

come from? Um? Life? That's always been the process, you know, Like I've watched my dad hustle, and everyone who bought product from him pulled up on him, or he pulled up on them. If you want something from the Russell, you have to go communicate with the Russell. When you start adding third parties, you can either miss opportunity or something to you misplaced. Like I used to do booking for a theater and I was trying to book certain artists and I'd have to go through their agents and

It'll be like a C, A W or whatever. Sometimes they down even get to it, and then when I meet them later, I'm like, bro, I was trying to get you for it would have been dope because I was building this thing. And they're like, man, I didn't even know, right, And that's because you ain't holding at you. And then as the more middlemen you have, the more uh pie that's getting dipped into. And I'm a firm believer and if I'm splitting pie, it needs to be with people who helped me bake the pie, not some

on who's just there. Because the end, this is a standard. You need to have a business manager, You need to have a this that like, we're not going to do that. You got to actually provide something. If you didn't bring no ingredients or help bath this, you shouldn't get a slice of it. Now, you do have a team, because to get to you, I tried emailing, Okay, I was like, this is the email, this is how I gets him.

But you do have a team. Do you have a rule amongst your team that they don't get to say no, that you have to at least they have to at least present the opportunity to you. Because that's a valid point that happens in the industry. Just about everything comes to me. And I may have seen this, I was

telling Austin. No, I'm for sure I have. I was telling Austin when it first came I had seen the show similar and I was like, I don't know, because I've seen the tide that eating while broke thing, and I feel like a lot of people play on like poor people and ship and I didn't. I didn't like it. So I was just like, I'm not gonna deal with that right now and let me see as it cultivates. So, I mean, I've seen it. There's not too much that

comes through the email that I don't see. And if I don't see it, my two right hands always see it and it and it still makes his way to me. So with thet I broke, that was one of the reasons.

I was, like the title, I don't like when people play on the on poverty and like, it's just like when I created Eating Wall Broke, I I was like, I just I have so many dope successful friends that are like millionaires and blowing celebrities, entrepreneurs, and they always have these crazy stories like they were in jail, or they were male escorts or just crazy as stories, and I love them. I live for them. We go on a hike and like, tell me more, what else did

you do? You're a hugger? Okay, let's there, you know, And so I just love the journey. I actually don't even I do enjoy the solutions, but I love the journey. I love the storytelling. I love the hero's journey. And so when I came up with Eating Wall Broke, I was like, well, we gotta started at the root, you know that everyone can relate to, like, you know, people that are aspiring rappers that are literally only have two pennies to rub together. And I named the Eating Wall Broke.

But then I realized, damn. Every time I pitched the show, I have to say, hey, I have this great opportunity for you. It's it's ignore the name. Let me tell you what it is. And I always have to say, ignore the name, and then I tell them, you know, the show is about inspiring people and just kind of leveling with them and inspiring them that they can do exactly what you did, or they should believe in themselves no matter what their environment isn't. But I always have

to do this thing her. That's why I like certain things will get to me through email, but since it doesn't have full context, it's like I can't tend to it right because it doesn't resonate. But that's why I'm always somebody. I'm so open. If you see me anywhere, you can comes to me and address me, and once I meet you and feel your energy, it's like, okay, that makes sense, right, But emails have no context like that. Just you gotta take it for whatever you want I'm uh.

Pitpole told me this once. He said, if they locked the door, you're climbing through the window. I was like, oh, he didn't respond, and nicolete better use that show me you know, it's running this show and uh, you know, get his attention. And not only did I do that, but I liked you so much. I literally was like, and your Leisure should have him, Charlemagne should have him, all these people should have him, and she was like, mmmm,

I think they already did. Like I was like the last one to the table, like these are the shows he should be on. I don't even even never had an opportunity with him, but I was like, damn, all your publicists over there like this is who I want, um, And and that's you know why we name the show, you know, at the end of the day, eating Wall Broke. But I get it because I literally every time I sell someone on the idea, I'm like, just ignore the name, ignore the name. But I'm glad that you take time

to come and sit with me, and super excited. I love literally everything you're about um and uh sorry, uh. One of the things that kind of surprised me is the entrepreneur in you and like also, like, why did you name your company the good compenny? Right? Well, I mean good company just because there's a quote. Let's say your mamma say you just by the company you keep, right, So I feel like good company isn't compassing of just I like to have good people around me, and we

build great energy when we go into places. We're good company to have, right, just that name, it's welcoming. And then I use pennies because I feel like pennies are undervalued and overlooked. Right, if you see a penny on the ground, you usually don't stop and pick it up. But imagine if you stopped and picked up every penny you walk past throughout your whole life, only have more

money than a lot of the people beside you. Even though it's a penny, there's a multitude of them, Like we passed them up all the time everywhere, and no one really cares. Right, But it exists for a reason. I sometimes think pennies exists to go in my daughter's mouth. That was a terrible joke. I'm a new mom, I'm a random mom. I spend most of my days trying to commence my daughter, not to try a new way

to commit suicide right right now? You see. Now you see why our parents are like tired by eight o'clock because they spent the entire day like what do you have to do next? But? Um, but what can people expect from you in the future music wise? Um? A ton of it? Oh a lot of it. You know. I'm someone I live by this theory of like leaving empty. I don't want to leave with nothing on my plate and all the music I have I intend to release and get out. I don't want to sit on things

for years. Um. I'm currently building crazy infrastructure at home. I keep saying I'm building Disneyland because we're building something like that completely laterally. Um but really, uh, I don't know. I don't have any expectation of myself. So I think people shouldn't. They should just enjoy the journey. Like how you say you've been spying, Like, I hope when you spy you're smiling because it's just it's a hell of

a show to watch. You haven't got to see too many artists actually make it in front of us, right, Like we see the resulting that the label post and share, but we don't see like him going City of the City Hey, yeah, I'm out. I'm gonna do a pop up to you know, like we don't get to see that part of the journey, and I'm showing all of it. I'm showing us running merch fulfilment out of my house.

My mom is dropping them, dropping them off, like I'm showing the entire process, and we're sharing the gyms alone. So I think people should just stay tuned and and and this. We got enough sequels to to beat the Fast and Furious series, you know, like we're coming like that, and you will do your pop YouTube pop up shows, right, We're doing one tonight. I just I just got off a plane and I was like, man, I want to do a show. So we announced it and now the

show tickets have been selling tonight. It's going to be at going this is. This one's gonna be special because it's an unplugged version and it's like live Q and A like people eight, I'm not gonna lie, like I would love to go come on, please come on. Man's

dope about our shows. It's like this one is a bit different, but generally with our shows, like I used the second half of my set to just let the fans choose the songs they wanted here, and I wrap whatever they say they want to hear, right, So it's like a really interactive show. We did one in New York and Brooklyn when we went out there and sold out in six hours five hundred tickets. So now I've just kind of been in this wave where it's like I just be like, I feel like doing it, and

we do it and it usually goes well. And then who kind of does the logistics? So myself for Naughty, he's a member of my team. He helps with booking, Teata helps with logistics. Millie is on my team so anytime we go to a tour route and she kind of plans and give a guy in girl team. Yeah, yeah, I like that because sometimes you work with people and they like Slay Holder, like Charloagne's companies pretty pretty much ran by women, Black women, which is amazing. Man. I

wouldn't be where I am without women. I have a team of like the most incredible creative intuit and women when it comes to just business and everything. Now, one of the things I did see, and I could be wrong, maybe lack of research, um, but I feel like on one of the things you had posted was like if people buy your records, they have like some kind of ownership in it, so not necessarily if you buy it

some people so on on. Usually on projects, I'll sell my album before it comes to streaming, and anyone who buys that project is up for selection to receive a royalty. So I usually go through the list of buyers and I'll pick like fifty to a hundred people, sometimes a hundred fifty if I'm feeling good, sometimes two, and I'll give them a percentage of royalty in different songs from that album. You can also buy royalties, like you could

make an offer to purchase a share. So if you have a favorite song you're like, I love this song, I know it's gonna be big, or just I love this song, I just want to have a stake in it, you can make an offer to me and say I want five percent of the revenue from this song. I'm willing to give you a thousand dollars five hundred dollars, and I'll read I'll hit you and negotiate and say I'm willing to take this so I'm not, and then I send you a percentage through the distro you collect

every month into perpetuity for the rest of your life. Yeah, I've never heard of someone doing that, but I've never heard of song. I was like, did he do what I think he did? How do you? How do you? How did you come up with that? Though? How it was just a late night thought of Like, I've always been split in revenue with my team. Everyone who helped, producers, engineers, they all get a percent. So one day it was just like, we should give the fans something. They listened

to this ship every day. Imagine if your favorite jay Z song, I Man, you listen to it every day, but you don't want to present it my fans, like Baggas claim, blew up. Some of my fans had equity in that song when it first dropped, that a year before it even took off. So they for the rest of their life they're going to be getting money off, Baggs claimed, because they just made the right call. They enjoyed the song so and then, but they reached out to you, or how did you even announce that I

made this big announcement in Tieta on my team. She created this form for people to go fill out and you put all your information, you put your offer amount, how much you want it comes to a database. I look at all the offers. I'll email you and say, yeah, I sent your offer, I liked it, I accept me. I go every offered person over, even through email, like when we do bookings and ship like, people are always surprised that they're talking to me. It's like, it's my business.

Of course you're talking to me. It makes sense, right, I most of my companies, for social reason, cannot get them past a certain threshold. I don't know if it's like my whatever, but um so most of my companies are smaller. So I'll email, but I email under an alias. It would be like Samantha, and it'll be like Samantha was so crazy. When I used to send out emails to get booked, to go to venues and try to book them, I used to act like I was my

own manager. And then eventually it's like, bro, it's me, I am the Russell. I'm gonna venue. This is what I want to do right. And I've gotten so much more rapport response because it's like, of course people want to talk to you like I'm doing it right. You should you didn't feel at some point, um it hinders how much more you can get because like, I'll give it pretty v uh. I emailed her and I'm like, okay, you know, she responded and then like it was her

and then she got on the phone with me. She like just called me, and then I hear the Jamaican accent. I'm like, wait a minute, I said, and we ended up vibing on the phone like for forty five minutes. And but it was it was the first time that I cold called emailed somebody and not only did they respond in record speed, but I mean, first of all, that girl is as humble as they yet, but that was the first time that I've ever seen like someone on that level just be like, what's up, what's let's

do it? She was like what do you want me to cook? I got beans and then I was like nope. I was just like you know, you know, and it was past um, no team, no nothing, And you know, I don't even know it was her until she called me, and I was like, oh, it's you. You know, that's like if jay Z calls me after her n email and be like right, people usually get that same shot, but it just builds a different relationship, right You You respect what someone is building a lot more when you

know they're working it right. It's hard to suck someone over when it's like, oh it's you. They're right. There's a different report you have to do. You have a internal rule about letting new people into your camp because it seems like you have a very large camp. It is kind of my kind of Yeah, even my immediate group is pretty large. Uh, there's not really a rule, just an energy, right, if I know who I like and who I don't like, and who fits and who doesn't.

Sometimes will trial people out and it's like that didn't really work, and we kind of maneuver forward. But it's not really any rule, just your energy, how you feel, how everyone feels about you, how you feel about everyone, and we could usually get a sense of that really fast. I also have like I like to work with people who work hard, like the best. You know, I don't want to It's like, bro, I'm playing at a high

level at all times. If you can't keep up, you need to go on the other court and play with the little kids for a bid to your game. Get up. Have you experienced failure? Let me just rephrase that, have you experienced perceived failure? I hate the word, of course, yeah, of course about perceived failure and like what the experience was. Man, I've had shows where there was five people in the crowd and I had to pay for venue. I rented

a sprinter van to get my team there. We brought equipment, We brought a ton of merch that we didn't sail because there wasn't no one to sell it to um And I was a tough ride home. You know, I was silent. I'm usually allowding and talking and childing, but I was silent, right. And I've had several of those, uh moments of perceived failure even beyond that, just sometimes releasing merch and putting all your money into it and it doesn't go. The people don't react. Early on, I

had a lot of albums. I dropped twenty two albums. I've had a lot of albums. Early on, I was like, this is gonna be Yeah, we've been We didn't blow nothing. Yeah, way mote in not even twenty two singles. No, And that's just my catalog. I've written other EPs single albums for a bunch of other people, so, but just in

my own album, it's twenty two. When you experienced perceived failure, can you walk me through your thoughts um usually as negative first, right, it's all like I look for all the problems, what I didn't do, how I didn't do it while I could have done it better, And then eventually it just becomes like analytical solution based, like I always want to I always want to prove me wrong or anybody wrong. I'm like, well, I'm I'm Finnish. Next time, I'm gonna do it triple the sides and it's gonna

be a success. But yeah, it's usually just that emotional emotional turmoil that comes with it first, where you know, you feel that dark cloud over you and sometimes you gotta cry or you gotta sit in there and and kind of be in that space until you can work through it. I'm surprised that you didn't just say, well, maybe maybe this is a question. But in that negative space, have you questioned you're worth? Like whether you know like or five people. I get the logistics because I as

an entrepreneur, I get like, what did we do? What could we have done differently? But in that negative space, can you say and you are prolific for sure, but have you questioned your own not? Not in music, like anytime I failed in music. It wasn't a question of my own worth. It was just like they don't see it. Right. I knew, I knew I was it. I'm just like they don't see it. I haven't done enough work for them to see it. They don't see it. Um. So

I've never questioned my worth in that aspect. If I'm questioning my worth, it's usually through some life ship like me doing something um against my own morals or against my own code, or just I let somebody down on that's fear to me. Those are moments I questioned my worth when I can't show up for my daughter in a way that I felt like I should. Things like that, but not music, and I put my our case. No, yeah, no, not career wise at all. I know what I'm worth

in my career. I know what I deliver, I know what I bring forth, and even even through life like I'm getting to a point where I know my impact and how significant I am to you know, the life around me in the world. I'm feeding the community, needing the community. So there's a book I just recently checked out. I don't know if you've ever heard of it. It's I'm called Male Versus man, DeAndre Whitfield shoutouts to him.

I picked up the book. I thought it was for men, but so I got it from my uh my friend and um but I ended up reading it because I like to read. I'm literally in a book headed that I am obsessed with books. Um. But I read the book and one of the things he pointed out in the book, which I will gift you the book now that I have, I think I have your address on I'll get you information. Um. But anyways, one of the things he talked about was like the male versus man.

You know, the mail is self seeking and the man is of service, which is different programs. I never thought of that, Like, so when a guy takes me on a date, I'm like, are you trying to give it me? Are you trying to serve me? Now? At first I was like, oh, that's messed up to like seek service, But as a female, it's actually not because you know,

we seek protection and we proceed. Some of us do need help providing and some of us need of course, everyone wants to be professed to marry me the announced the world, I'm the one. Um. I also in a hip hop head and after reading that book, lately, it's like every song on the radio is like shout out to my sneaky link or or yeah, I'm having sex with a my side chick raw. But I'm never gonna leave you. I'm never gonna leave my family for you.

And I'm like, yo, did he really just say he's having sex with his side chick raw and that's why she's attached? And some of these lyrics are so terrible to women. I'm like, at what point? And who is responsible? And this is just an honest like friend or you know you you you have responsibilities as a philosopher and entrepreneur and a leader and being a vulnerable man yourself, Like who is who do you think is responsible? Is it the art form, is it the male energy, or

is it us women? Uh? I don't think anyone is responsible, but I think everyone is accountable. I hear the same music coming from females as well. I agree. I went to a nail salon. I saw nothing but strippers and all the girls. I don't I don't think there's a responsibility, but there's an accountability. And uh, I think that's one

of those things. Sad. It's hard to ever be what you never see right, A lot of these men that make it in hip hop and music, they haven't had great examples of leadership or of men that have that in them to not fall to desire, or that are disciplined or impeccable in their soul or fulfill to where they don't need to seek or go get extra and the same with women. So I think that's just uh.

We often ask these artists to build things that they don't have the tools to build, right, Like, if you go look in their toolbox, it's it's like you want them to build a house, you guys. Feel like jay Z kind of touched on that in uh. I want to say four for four one of the albums like where he was the first one to be where we're see that, Oh wow, you've upgraded your toolbox, right, But

a lot of artists don't have that. We're coming out of environments that don't nurture that type of behavior or system. Like when I was coming up, the older men around me was like players do like what you feel me, So you grow up embracing that and wanted to be like that. That's what you replicate, that's what you know. You don't see anyone I've I don't think I've ever seen a man that was just so in love and revere their family so much and treated the woman so well,

like they meant the world to me. For me to be like, man, that's what I want, right, Very seldom do you witness that and experience that. But yet you expect someone to conduct themselves in that manner, that's what's not gonna happen. That's interesting. So when it comes to accountability in your personal life, who holds you accountable? Is it? I don't want to answer questions. Um, everyone around me in a sense holds me accountable in some way, but

ultimately me like I have to be. I have to be the one that wants to get up every day and put in work and be better and want to drop my daughter off and pick her up and do work and things like that. But everyone around me, from myself, my mom, my dad, my daughter, her mother, Tieta, Milli, Testy, everyone, Fani, just all of my friends hold me accountable in some aspect. They're always in my you know, I can only stoop so low sometimes before someone it's like, hey, bro, what

we're doing? Oh? I like that? I like that? Okay, is there anything that your fans or me, I don't know about you. Um, I mean everything. I mean, I guess you only know the music because you're kind of signed a camera on your entrepreneurship. You also do all these little I don't want to say little, but these gems on social media. Um So when I say is there anything we don't know about you? I feel like you're It's like you learn a lesson. You're like, let's

put it out there. What about there really somebody else today social battle that I be like, I don't know if I want to be personal man real no such thing. I've had the realist reals, and I share there's no such thing. Because there's a billion people in the world and someone's been through exactly what you've been through, and they may need your help, right, but you're refusing to help.

You have all the tools and all the means to help them, but you're refusing to do it because of your own fear, right, And Like, I don't want to deny nobody of that tool. Like I want people to be able to grow. If that's going to be through me just sharing what I felt or experienced, that's an easy call, right do you do? And the the world is always a sensitive around this topic, but I'm gonna go ahead and throw it out there. But do you

believe in therapy? Do you do therapy? So I recently started therapy, probably a few months back, and I had a few sessions, and it's uh cool. I'm not consistent with it because I don't feel like, um, I'm gaining much from it. But I also had like an expectation of what I was supposed to get from it, like I'm supposed to be here, like I have a sessions, like man, I'm a gold new Man, right, And that's not how it happens, and um, for me, I just I just realized that it was worth that I need

to do right. I don't need anyone's help to be a better human. I just need to choose to be a better human and commit to that. That's not something I need to talk to someone about. If you want to, yes, But for me personally, it's like I built an entire empire. I could definitely build myself as a man, right. I don't need anyone's assistant to do that. But I chose. I've chosen not to write, I've chosen not to allocate my energy towards that, which is the only reason I

haven't grown in any way that I wish to. It's funny you say that because I recently full vulnerability here. I recently did try therapy and I kind of felt like, oh man, this is gonna sound really shitty for all those people that give it. But I felt like, yeah, I wasn't getting the response in that I needed, in the in the record speed that I needed, And it was like I knew the answers, but I just wasn't choosing to make the choice that I needed to make.

And in therapy, it takes so much uprooting of your childhood to get to the route that I was like, yo, I'm not trying to relive the thing that I ran from, like trying to give me PTSD. Like no, I'm good, But I do agree with you, and I'm glad you were honest about that because people say therapy, therapy, therapy, and I actually thought you weren't going to say that you do therapy because I low key feel like your

vulnerability and your lyrics is a form of therapy. Definitely, Definitely, that's where I get to get all of that from. And someone gets you, man, and like, because I feel like Drake every time. Writing and talking really helps. And that's the thing about the past, like you saying, and that shows you how much how deep your trauma is, because you think like speaking about it is reliving it. You can't relive the past, right, It's already been lived,

it's gone. It only exists in your memory. You can't relive it. But we when trauma hits in a certain way, it makes you feel like you're going through that experience again, but it's not. And you really have to work through that to get You got to go through it to get through it, right, yeah, yeah, Or you can try. I don't. I tried my hardest to I believe. I tell myself this. Every store at the end of every storm is a rainbow. So the faster I don't cope through it or the more I do not cope in them,

the faster I get through the storm. So like, if I were to number something, drink, get high, have sex, or do what ever it is, go go to the mall, look pretty, whatever I gotta do, go to the clubs um. If I cope through it, then it's gonna take me longer to heal. So if I go through it and like blow my girlfriends then to strangers and seven elevens. You know whatever, I'm gonna get through it faster even though it's gonna hurt, like you know what I'm saying.

So definitely, you definitely prolonged the healing process as you as you add, right, every every twinky you eat just makes you closer to the opposite end of where you want to be, right, and that that's how it is, or everything. Every time you do another act that goes against what you want to be, you're just adding it. Because the thing with with how the human system work is the more you do something, the better you get at it, right, So the more you live out, the

better you get at it. Some people are phenomenal cheaters, and it's because they do it a whole lot, right, So every time you do it, you're getting better at it, which means it's going to take a lot long ger to get better in the other direction because you're so exceptional at what you do. If you lie a lot, you're exceptional, it's gonna take you a lot to become someone who tells the truth exceptionally. Right. That's that's deep,

that's deep. But I think at the end of the day. Um. I mean, I personally give people a lot of grace. I'm one of those people that you can literally push me off my seat and be like, I was just angry my bad plan. So I'll be like, oh no, it's okay. Get But now I'm at the place where it's like, I get it, you're angry. I just don't want to sit next to you anymore. Take your anger out on the flowers over there, you know. But it's a pleasure to have you. I know, we kind of

we're all over the space. Um, I really would like to go to your show tonight. I do have some plans, but I'm gonna pivot and I'm and I'm a mother now, so trust me, everything is like a babysitter, babysitter, nanny, babysitter. It's like any amount of freedom costs you have to come. This is gonna be special. I'm definitely gonna come. I

am a true fan. I have so much ad ration for the way you run your businesses, how everyone gets to buy and how everyone gets an option to invest, and how you partner and do this restaurant where it's like pay what you what you want, which is brilliant and it's just something that a lot of artists aren't doing, you know. And I love the vulnerability and your lyrics. So I'm truly thankful that we finally got you on the show. Um, thank you all listeners for checking out

another episode of Eating Wow Broke. I'm your host, coly Wit and today we have wrestle in the building. Where can they find your Like your Instagram handle? What's your Instagram? I'm at Larussell on everything l A r U s AS E L L. You can find me on social media on DSPs, at home in Valeo, walking around. So you don't, oh, you stay in the Bay, I stay home. I live where I'm from and I'm there every day. I'm taking my daughter to school, I'm begging her up,

and Momo's checking in on people. I'm around. I'm at home. They when they told me that I got you, it was like I had like two days notice, like you know or whatever. And I was like negotiating with the team. Everyone's scheduled. There's like four people that have to all online schedules, and there was a hiccup and I'm like going back and forth, like yo, do you think we can push back and we're all like, no, it's not worth it. Think we got an hour, let's take it.

But thank you and thanks for feeding me. You and I both agree. You know, moving forward, we could do eggs, but maybe on not bread thunder garlic bread Yeah, beautiful. Keep keeper for more eating while broke from I Heart Radio and The Black Effect, visit the I Heart Radio app, Apple podcast, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows