Boutlet cap show. We got a special guest in here. He is a living legend. I appreciate that, brother. Welcome to Acon. Acon is here. Man. Hey, First of all, I just want to say props to you. Man. I always talk as a radio guy. I always talk about a few eras in music. There was the T Pain era.
Before that, there was you and and T Pain was signed to you, and for about seven years straight it was hard for program directors to separate music because y'all are both on every fucking song, Man, every hook, every song it was a Coon or T Pain. It was just man, So salute to you. Man. I remember do you remember the rap phenomenon remix to your ghetto record that like green Lander did? That was my ship me too. Oh my god, that ship was crazy. Yeah Man, that
was Yeah. Your first album was I mean I was. I was hooked just right away, locked up with such a special record man. So welcome man. Uh, So you tell me, because you've kind of been doing so much outside of the music space, what has inspired you to drop new music? Actually, you know what, the first go around, it was more about the business of the music for me, Okay, So I was more focused on the business, and I didn't get a chance to really enjoy it, right, you know,
like I enjoy it. It was all business. But I said the second time around, I want to be able to really enjoy it, man, take it, breathe it in, and enjoy it all of this luxury that you know we work for, because it don't even make sense man. And then I watched the younger generation how they get this blessing to make this many opportunities and millions around the things that they do, and they just out here killing themselves, Like what is the purpose like to do
all that to get out the hood? Just to bring the hood with you. Also, like it's probably different now because you're doing it just because you want to, not because you have to, as to where when you first got in the music industry, like this is my way out. Yeah yeah, sure, So you got to treat it as such a job. It's a bigger difference. And then, you know, like the way I feel like about you know, about the life now is like, Okay, cool, I made some
good money, investments are all secured. My legacy isn't a good place. It's like, okay, now I can really go back into the music and have fun. But then again, I kind of missed the music too because it's been I didn't realize how much time have flew past. When's the last time you dropped a single? Thousand and eight? Was the last time I dropped the record? Was that? No? The last one was beautiful? Okay, okay, okay, I remember that record. Be a long time. It's been a minute.
That's fourteen years. Yeah, I mean you've hopped up, like, you know, hopped on people's stuff, you know, here and there. Yeah, you know, some collapse here and there. But that's wild. That is crazy. But it was pretty crazy fourteen years. Man, I got a seventeen year old aout. That shit is wild.
Obviously you're very smart, You're you know, I think we're gonna get to like just your accolades is just not only just the artist, but you're you know, I think you're one of the When we talk about CEO's eyes
for talent, you're one of them ones. How would you say since two thousand and eight would have been the biggest things about the music industry that has I know, obviously TikTok, streaming all that, but just in terms of, like, you know, from when you first got into the game to now, is there anything that you dislike about the current for like, like music forecast? Anything that I dislike about the music forecast? Honestly, the only thing that I can probably say that I would put a negative stamp
on is the originality. I just think there's not enough variety in hip hop, Like everything sound the same. This is true. That's the only thing that I dislike about it. But I love the hustle. I love the opportunity that
that the hip hop is bringing to everybody else. I love the you know, it's it's it's it's literally taking well should take niggas out the hood, but it's it's creating opportunities that we didn't have before for sure, because before it was either it was either it was either music or basketball, right right, Okay, Now basketball is still regulated, so you can't just jump into that an alien level athlete.
Whereas music, anybody can do it. It don't even matter like you can just any anybody can just go in the room now and just get on you know, garage band and make a record and go to straight to
SoundCloud and go straight up SoundCloud. Because when you got signed, did you get sign off of a demo tape, which was kind of like back in the day, I got I got, I got actually signed out of creating demos wow, which is interesting because I started off as a producer song writer first, and I would write songs for other artists, right, So at one point, you know, they heard my record, it was like, man, this is a dope record. I would love him to write for our for our artists,
But who's the guy singing on the songs? Who's that? You know what I mean? And that's how I got pretty much discovered. You kind of came out swinging with a record like Locked Up, which is when you first come out with a song like locked Up featuring Styles, p right and you're you, You're very like you said originality. When you first came out of the scene, no one sounded like akon nobody. That's why it was so hard to get that record played, Like Locked Up was out
a whole year before I got Styles on it. Wow, Like you know, MTV thought it was too urban and BT said it wasn't urban enough. So I was stuck in the middle. It was nowhere to go. So then when Styles got Locked Up, it was like, wait, hold up, he can actually and he had the streets Bag back then, you know, oh yeah, for sure all the mix. I actually reached out to a lot of other features before even Styles, and some either evil, either charged me way
too much, or just said they couldn't do it. They wouldn't do it because the record just wouldn't you know it was it was to them it was an R and B record. So when Styles off of the due the record, he actually heard it and loved the record already and was like, man, I would love to do it. So he's the one I give credits for helping me break that record. I mean, once he became on there,
it became urban automatic. Yeah, it became like a rap record, right, even though, like I feel like you're kind of like one of those artists who I just look at as like, like an artist, You're not a rapper, You're city. You sing obviously, but you're kind of like, you know, when people put a title on Future Post Malone is like rappers, I'm like, nah, They're just artists who just make good music. Right.
The ship might be hip hop, some of this pop. You know, I'm curious because at your peak as an artist, when you're extremely active, you were like the go to hook man. Everybody had to have an acon hook you had, you gave people careers. There was people who was getting deals or getting bags just because they had you on a hook. What was the biggest bag you got to do a hook? Well, actually mine would have come to
hook bags. It was a little different because every song you ever heard me on that hath the hook on it was a record I produced. So I would give them the beat with me already on the chorus. So they had to pay for both. They had to pay for the whole thing. So like, because there's been a lot of artists who have done songs that like clearly they did for the bag. Was there one of those for you where you were like, Yo, this bag was
so crazy. The song might have been I might not have loved the artist, but the song it was a bag. You know what's interesting. In the beginning, there was one record that I can recall started with a bag and then I was so happy I did it because the relationship came out of it was amazing. It was Baby Bash. Oh. I love that record. You know that because I before I did that record, I had never heard of baby Baby. I'm back man, Yeah, Baby, I'm back. I never know
that song. And it was interesting because once I was like, okay, cool, some good money, so I did it. But then when I met him we connected, I was like, damn, glad I did this record. He's such a cool dude. He's like the coolest guy, the coolest dude in the world. Yeah, I said, so, I was like, man, I'm so happy we connected this way. You know. Then I felt bad because I was like, if I know this, I would have never charged him. Yeah, it's crazy because at that time,
you probably aren't hip to what he's doing, right. It was too different. The Latin world is so different. It was different. First major label debut and you know, he came off that franky J record, Yeah, cyclone Baby, I'm back. Yeah. He tapped in with Convic Music for sure for that first album, you know, and right after that we send him over the t Pain and got another record. Yeah.
It's crazy because I talked to Pain and he had told me that you had offered him a record deal super early, and he said that a major label came and offered him like a substantially crazier amount of money. They did, but he said, I trusted a kind I believed it and his movement, and he's like, I'm living
out my car, me and my girl are struggling. He's like, and I passed on the bag with this major situation and stuck with Akon and signed the deal for less money because of his vision, because of all the things that you bring to the table that money can't buy. Like, what was it about pain? Obviously he was in a group called was it the nappy Head? Yeah, Robberies my shit,
by the way, that's a Tampa classic. But what was it about pain that like initially kind of struck your interest and had you kind of take a chance on him, And he also took a chance on you at no he did. I mean, to this day I thank him for just believing in me because that kind of changed your label. He was the first artist I signed on car, right,
he was like literally the first artist. So it was not only because he was the first artist that I had to prove for future artists that I plan to sign, but because he took the chance on me, I made sure that I put whatever I had in him. M Like, because I gave a promise that I'm gonna give you a career, said they could give you a bag but I'm gonaive your career. I'm gonna give your career, and I made sure that that happened for him, And to this day, I still fight for him, even though he's
off and doing his own thing. I always will always be in debt to t pain for sure. Yeah, pop pop. Convict Music off a label as a label pop yeah, No, without a doubt. It was our franchise player. Who else woan obviously Lady Gaga? Yeah, but see Gutay was on con Live. At the time, I had two labels, check you out. I had con Live, which was the pop label, and then I had Convict Music, which was the urban label. There's always speculation, are you still getting money off of
Lady Gaga? No? No, not no more, no no more. How many albums in was it before the bagstop? I had her for four albums usually you had her for four albus, so after the four albums, the deal is over. But then how did she have four albums? Nah? She never got to four. So you eventually were like, hey, look well, at that time, it was a lot of moving parts, and I kind of seen where the future was going because of how the parts were moving. And that's when I made a deal for my portion in
stake of her, and I bought out. I sold out. Oh so you sold your portion of whatever she does right before the dip. Oh that's smart. Do you think that that's why artists are currently selling their catalog right now like they're publishing, because they feel like it's a depreciating asset. Maybe. No, I think a lot of them are selling for because they don't know that. They don't I don't think they know the value of what that
is they're selling. Yeah, because I saw like Future sell like a ridiculous amount of titles for like seventy five million, A lot of people were like, Yeo, he probably should have got more. Well, actually, yeah, that many like Future, I think you could have gotten definitely more for the
amount of titles he sold out. Yeah, but sometimes they look at it differently, like when you come from the street, you're looking at how you can flip the seventy five million, Right, So maybe he has some other shit at line, maybe Future stupid like of course, smart guy, and I'm sure he's like, Okay, cool, I can go ahead pull this away. Because just people don't really even know that that interest just on that seventy five million, he could live forever
and not have work ever again. Yeah, if you manage your money properly, put that part, that money in certain you know ventures you never have. That money pays for your lifestyle forever. Literally, So now everything you make on this side is bonus strip c love money. That's beautiful. You know what was was it a comparable bag for your lady? You gotta buy out? It was enough for me to retire put it out that hadn't made a
record since. That's crazy. So would you say that, like obviously being a part of Lady Gaga's career, being able to capitalize off that you took a chance on her early just dance, poker face, all that shit is it was worth it. It was worth every pinny. She's another one that I treat like t pay and I'm gonna always and forever be there for How was your How was your current relationship with her? Oh? Same same? Yeah? Yeah,
what was it about her? Because I feel like when she first came into the game, I don't think we really understood how talented she was because she wasn't necessarily diving into the type of records that fully show us her potential. Yeah, her range. Right, So what was it about what you saw in her early on that, like,
you know, you were like, oh yeah, nah, yeah. Well the thing is I had already recognized all of that, and I was like, man, if she get the chance to be able to express herself as a real artist and not be pushed left or right for a label telling her what she can and cannot do, she's gonna be out here. Wow. Because she's the kind of person that creates like movements. And I saw that as we was promoting her and how she was creating that monster movement in itself. I was like, ooh, this is big
all we gotta do now, just let her do her. Yeah. I think that's what happened with the second album, right Yeah. First album was like kind of like the first album was pushed more between me and Red One, giving her the sound that we felt could break her through and it worked and it worked, and then the second album was really more her taking over saying okay, thank you guys for the you know, training wheels, Now I'm a go disc Because like, was bad Rooman's on the second album,
I was on the first. Oh it was on the first Oh shit, that's one of my favorite songs. Yeah, she's a legend, man, She's a legend without a Yeah, it's pretty crazy if you think of like Lady Guy got t pain. Everyone's career you've been involved in it's been Who else was on your ship? Was Kobe? Yeah? Kobe was there. He was actually supposed to have been. Well, he was the first, Justin Bieber put it that way. No, I remember. I remember doing that when I was an intern.
I did a high school mixed tour with him. It was so crazy, man, we did. But you know, his dad was there, and I just remember his dad being a weirdo. I remember being like, Yo, that Kobe kids cool as fuck, but his pop's kind of strange. Unfortunately, his father was the reason for his downfall. And I hate to say it out loud, but unfortunately that was the only thing his His father is very over zealous and kind of lived him. His his his dream through
Kobee because he had some dope records. Yeah, so I think he's still I think he's still writing records. Was man, that's the only only project. Knowing what I know today, I would have moved differently. I know that at the time, I would have definitely went back and forth with the pops. But because it was father and son, you don't really want to get in the middle of blood when it comes to money, Yes, you could get weird. I would have definitely intervened. I know it would have ended up
the way it did. That's yeah, I get that. Uh what you know there's certain artists. Correct me if I'm wrong, But you and Jay never did anything together. Me and j don't work together. Just crazy. It is crazy. It's not like even me. I'm like how I've worked with every artist in the globe except jay Z till this day. I don't know why it never got close to happening.
It never was even acquired. Wow. Because the thing is, I think I think it was the the timing in each other's careers because at the time when I was in at peak musically and moving some way, he was moving to the executive executive right jam, And I think it was that timing at the moment when I'm going this way, He's going this way. Yeah, he'd rather have you do a record for one of his artists, right, I think yeah, Because at that time I was producing
records for deaf Jam and all that. I even got to the point where my brother was in death Jam at the same time, So it was like I think it was. But to his dad, I never understood why didn't have happened? Yeah, I mean because, yeah, you got records with everybody else, right, Fuck? I never understood that. Yeah, you give Eminem one of his best club records. He's ever I feel like Smacked. That's a song that like still gets played at like fucking eleven pm at whatever
club you go. Ya. But see what it was interesting because every record I ever put out I actually produced except Smack. That really did Eminem produced that record. I missed Eminem when he was crazy, Yeah, I missed I missed the Eminem producer era when he was producing a lot of his own ship. Yeah. I know, his beats weren't the craziest, but his beats were like very distinct. You heard it and you knew his sound. He knew it, right, And I'm like, oh, that's dope. At least got his
own skins. Remember he was doing he was He produced Renegade, he produced the Cross for Nas on God's Son. He produced a lot of dope ship. But I don't know, I think he got I don't know if he got away from it, or maybe I'm tripping or he just stopped sounding like that. But I feel like the last album had a lot of his own ship that I was like, Oh, That's what I was always had. There's always some small little sounds that thing. It was something minute that you just I think it was like it
felt like I was like, oh this eminemb. I can tell ye had some heat rocks that day. What up, y'all? We got to stop the interview to tell you about our new sponsors, our family at Hardan, Lost Vegas. You see what it is. You see what it is. Welcome to the family hard Dean Man. We're so excited. I've been going to Hardeen for so many years. For people who don't know, Harden is that premium cannabis dispensary, the
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the blot leg discount. You know what I'm saying. Get them packwards too. They give me a packwood the other day. Geez, I'm still recovering from that shit. Blew my whole fucking face off in the best way Hardan, Las Vegas. All right, shout out to them. Let's get back to the interview. Uh okay, talk to me about your your crypto project A coin a coin. Now he just help me understand, because I think a lot of people are down on
crypto in general. NFTs have taken a shit the whole entire whole market fil well, the whole entire space is like it felt a little predatory, right, So I feel like you've gotten some negative feedback for your project. Explain your project and why it is obviously, is it still going on? Is that's the thing? A coin is an African coin, Okay, So most of the things that's happening in the US, it doesn't really affect us because we
have our own currency in mind. Was turning mobile minutes into currency because out there you have to fi your minutes still, right, Yeah, so it's a whole nother concept, whole number you know, like our exchange rate for minutes don't even exist in America, Like because they don't, you can't turn your mobile minutes into actual spending money here. Yeah, because bandwidin Africa is like less, it's so much less.
But a lot of people don't know that cell phones have been operating in Africa since ninety six, way before he was even operating here in America. Like they so advanced when it comes to mobile and the kind of technology have mobile carriers is just on a different level. So your coin, if somebody has a phone plan in Africa and maybe they don't use one, hundred minutes for the month exactly. They can convert those for groceries exactly. Wow,
that's dope. Yeah, so it's it's totally different. But now we're converting the wallet to where you can be able to use it in the States and I'll be launching that before the end of the year. Oh that's dope. And now what about just the city that everyone says you're building Wakanda? Yeah, it was Akanda. Now I'm just joking.
It's Acon City. But I play on that because the movie kind of actually, believe it or not, the movie did a lot for Akon City because people never knew that Africa could even be or could look like that, not realizing that we were already in process of building a smart city already before the movie was So before the movie came out, you were already in the worst concepts in twenty ten. Wow. Yeah, but we just were
literally just starting to construction. That's beautiful, man, that's a serious thing to build a city, Like, how do you get the funding for that? Besides Lady Gaga. It's more the preparation though, right, you know, so when you start dealing with all these major developers globally and then you start dealing them with the studies, like from the environmental studies all the way down to soil studies. You gotta have, you gotta have all that stuff. Me I learned so
much in the process of this. I mean, building a house is one thing, but when you talk about building the city, the infrastructure that's attached to that is on a different level. Then we're talking about smart city with technology that people don't even know exists yet, right, you know, so it was what technology doesn't exist yet? Oh wait, I can't wait to write you out of the city. A lot of I got to keep under closed nda conversations, but for the most part, when y'all finally are invited,
it's going to be a treat. Well, everyone get internet. Oh yeah, that's what I'm saying. Yeah, everyone don't have internet. That's what I'm saying. That's beautiful. How many square miles one square mile? One square mile? So it'll be very small community. It starts off in it, but it's set up to where it can scale out. Wow. Yeah, that's dope. Man. Yeah, Well,
salute to you. Man. You know, I'm excited about it, though, ship I'm trying to go No, you will you mean you definely go to be obviously it's somebody who uh never really made afrobeats, but to see as an African, to see it be I mean, I just talked to somebody last night. Burna Boy was the number one song in urban radio and it got overtaken by Thames right se, which is so fired rights so far? How how dope
is it? Just to see afrobeat be like the new just it's kind of like what everyone's doing, even if you're not from apt like, it's just the it's just music now, it's not an African. Yeah, And that was one of our music fights. Yeah, yeah, one of our biggest fights was just introducing it into the you know,
into the world. And then once it was introduced, okay, don't quite generalize it because I remember when it was first, you know, I remember that when I was trying to shop whiz Kid over at Sony and it's like two thousand and ten, and if people don't know whiz Kids like an og everybody thought it was I mean, they thought it was reggae music, right, But at that time, it wasn't no information, so you didn't you never really knew.
But ultimately it was always a fight. But then when it worked in the UK, it opened up the door. And then when YouTube became super popular, that's what did it. Social media and YouTube is what opened the doors for afrobeat to actually shine. Yeah, because YouTube is the biggest platform people consume music on in Africa. Right, it's there, and I think it's audio Mac is there too because it doesn't take a lot of bandwid yea audio Max there. It's huge in Africa. Yeah, so you were fucking with
Whiskey in twenty ten? Was he signed to you or were you just helping him out? I's sign him in two thousand and eight. So you signed Whisky in eight? That's crazy back in the way it's a con liver or to convict. No, that's that's convict Africa. Wow, So how well explain it? Because now he's a global superstar, he's super super super bowl, so you sign him. Obviously he was probably buzzing where he's from. Like, how did
you guys initially meet and what ended up happening? Well, so what happened was when I went to Africa after the World Cup, we were looking for ways that we can take the local music branch it off. So at that time, it was the local music was so traditional musically that it wouldn't break outside of Nigeria, Ghana anywhere, right, So we started adding like commercialized music and music like instruments around her. Like, we commercialized a lot of it. So it went from Afro beat to afro pop. Wow,
basically you follow. So once we did that, then we signed We signed it whiz Kid first. Then after that was another group called Peace Square. Pea Square was two twins that came out of Nigeria. They ended up becoming the poster childs of Africa beat at that time. As a group, they were the biggest streaming selling all of that. But that was all of us pushing that point. Wow.
As that went more popular, whiz Kid as a solo artist just became bigger and bigger because he had the whole Feloff vibe like the younger generation swag, you know. So as that started moving, everything else started branching as we went. As we were signing acts and pushing them over, then it was like, okay, so now that this is huge in Africa, let's start chopping it and shopping it in America, right, And that's when all the other records started coming about but we just couldn't get the US
labels to catch it. They didn't get it yet you were ahead of your time. Yeah, they didn't get it, you know, they didn't. It really kind of took the UK hopping on board. And then I really feel like he played a huge role when Drake did One Dance because Drake was so heavily influenced about what was going on in the UK and afrobeats. But I feel like One Dance made like America okay with the sound, They're like, oh, Drake, did you know what I mean? I feel like labels
look at shit in a shallow way like that. Yeah, the labels probably looked at the success of the One Dance with Drake and then but Drake, Whizz, Drake already knew how big it was. That's why he did in the first place, Like he already knew what it was. So what end it happened? Happening with you and Whiz kids. So ultimately, right now, Wiz is no longer signed to us, but we're still affiliates and work all his records internationally
along with Sunday. At what point in time did you guys split on the label side Ten years after Wow, like twenty eighteen. Oh shit, that's not I think I interviewed him in twenty eighteen, Yeah, right around. I think he was on to show that if he was in lad he was the reason why you got here. Oh wow, that's crazy. That was that was his first run in the US. Are you still getting a piece of wiz Kid? No?
No, no no, no, no, no no no. But the kind of relationship we have with all of our artists, even after they no longer on the label, we still bring work, we still commission from it. So I always try to keep a relationship to where it's not a boss employee type of you know, relationship. It's always been a partnership and oftentimes it's certain things that we as convict music just do better than anybody else. So they always come to us for certain services and we always be attached
to them. Okay, take me back. Let's say hypothetically, I'm an independent rapper. I happen to be a drug dealer. I got stupid money. Money is not a problem. I'm a rapper in two thousand and four, two thousand and five, and I'm like, yo, I hate a convict music, and I'm like I need the acon special I need the song, I need the hook, I need everything. What do you hit me upside the head? For two hundred thousand? Now does that increase if it's a major label. It's two
hundred thousand, whether it's major or not. Wow, two hundred k. The price didn't change. Plus you get your pub Oh yeah, I mean you get everything's supposed to get. That's just for our services. That's amazing. Two hundred k. You were doing a lot of those. Oh, we did a lot of those. It was the busiest year you had. The busiest year was I mean years. The busiest years was from two thousand and five to two thousand and nine. Wow, five good years. That's crazy. Yeah, yeah, you had it. Man.
Did you ever hear that from radio programmers? They everyone I went to. I mean I remember they had created even this. I don't know if it was a law, but it was a little system. It was whatever you're about to say, it was a real thing. I don't know, because like an ACN rule, right, okay, you can't play at I want to say. It was Acon and T pain you can't be you can't play It was one
hundred percent of thing right. Oh, I didn't even know that because because because back in the day, there used to be artists separation where people would program the logs for radio station. And at one point in time it was you and Pain and then once the Wayne shit really took off, it kind of all intersected and then it was like, there's no way this is possible. We can't.
It just didn't make sense. And then fucking t Paint and Wayne or On got money together, and that's just the double fuck you to program the records because it's like, how do we program this fucking song? They're both on it. It's crazy. It was fucking crazy, man. What so tell me about smack that because you said that that's the only song that dropped that you didn't produce. Did Eminem send you that beat? No? No? Actually, when I went to visit M in Detroit, he was like, so what
you want to do? I said, am I want to do whatever you want to do. I want you. I want to come into your world. Like yeah, because if I bring into my world, it won't be no differences out there now. He was like, all right, well, you know I got some beats. I said, nigga, you produce He said yeah. I said, we'll play with some tracks. He gave me a photo with like thirty tracks on there, and out of the thirty, I picked five, and out of five I recorded all five. But the one that
stood out smack smacked that. Yeah. I was like, bro, this is it? Are you I was there? Are you still actively doing the production thing? Oh? Yeah, that's yeah. That that never changed. You know, like a lot of the records that you got that you're hearing out now got something to do with you and eminem here smack that it gets laid down. Are you there when he records his verses? Well, actually, once he heard my concept to it, then he was like, yo, I'm jumping on
this one. Yeah, And I said, you know what if he jumps on this one, this is the single? Oh it was the single because that was your record, right, that wasn't his record? Yeah, yep, it was my record. Yeah. You guys had more than one record, just one. That's the only one we had together. Yeah, besides the other five that didn't But I still have them. Oh wow,
that's like I literally still have those records today. Is there any songs that never dropped that you have on a hard drive that you were like, Man, if this would ever came together the right way. Those are all the records that's going to drop in the future, Like did I that I'm romoting now? These are all records that was recorded that I knew for a fact was smash hits, but I didn't want it was reasons why I didn't drop him at that time and time and
also made a difference to it. Also, like you make timeless records, so it doesn't matter. It doesn't even matter. If you turn on the radio right now, you might hear I want to love you, or you might want to you might hear I mean shit, maybe I'm back where it depends on what part of the country. You're
definitely gonna hear sol Survivor, Yeah, yeah, do you. I feel like Soul Survivor did so much for Jeez because obviously had and then what which I think was the first single off Team one one, but it was like it was it was a dope club record, dope street record. But to me, Soul Survivor just changed the whole narrative because there was this guy who everyone knew was the street rapper. He was in Boys in the Hood and he had an undeniable hit record like Soul Survivor is
probably one of my favorite hooks you've ever done. Like that record is special, man, And you made the beat that beats crazy it was. That's one of your best beats too, Deniably that shit's hard. Yeah, it's one of the ones. Yo. It's boulet keV here to tell you about our partners at my bookie. Damn it football season. We're in the thick of it right now. I hit big last week too. Man. I want to give a shout out to UH, to my guy who gave me
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same way you've shaved your head all these years. What's up with the hair? What are we doing here? How can I get the acon? What do I gotta go? You got just a little bit more, you know? I got? I got this fucking eminem hairline. My dad's all this fuck. So I don't go to the barber. I just go to my bathroom. And I just shaved my head twice a week. I haven't shaved it about a week and a half. But like you obviously have hair. Yeah, so oh no, I went to Turkey. I went to Turkey
and got a procedure. Was it pain don't forget. In the beginning, my whole front was loose. It was real thing. Was it painful? Nah? No, No, it's the painful part is the beginning when they got to number you up. That number ain't no joke. What do you speak of? Needle like this big NonStop. Did they do the graph thing where they take a piece, So that's what they did too. Because your ship looked good, looks amazing. Yeah, I love it. Like Tory Lane should have went to
your guy. I told Hi, Nigga, I said, toy should have cana my man. Yeah, bro, you gotta you know. And Turkey's no for Turkey. No, Turkey is known for two things. That's hair and teeth. They're really good and also being terrible towards Armenia. Shout out to Armenia. I love my Armenian brothers and sisters out there, but yeah they are no. People go out there and get their teeth down or they get their hair done. But hair is a specializing hair. People are getting beards now. Yeah,
I mean beard is a whole. Not Floyd got the you know the because me, I can't grow hair on my face meet me either, Like I can I go facial hair like a twelve year old. It's terrible. It's bad. Dude. My son like legitimately, my son's seventeen. He's half Mexican, so he's hairy. That motherfucker has way more facial hair than me. It's embarrassing in my own house. That is, in my own house. It was a hairrier male in
my own house. Now, I gotta go to Turkey to get my ship, right, I gotta get your guys numbers. The face is right, though, I'll connect you for sure. Was it expensive? Nah, that's the thing. It's so forward. It was ridiculous. Yeah, white, I was about to say, but for what I did, it would have cost me fifty grand. Here in America, I paid Look seventy eight,
seventy five hundred. That's it. That's it. Are you worried about like paying seventy five hundred for something so serious when you have the money to do the fifty No? Because here they're overcharging anything related to healthcare or any kind of medical procedure America. I mean they tag on ten times. Because I think some people might be like, well, a Kan, you're rich, why not just I'm not, man, I work hard for this money. I'm not. I don't care. Yeah,
it's that's fair, you do, because think about it. Even the teeth procedures over there here, the same job the people are paying forty fifty grand forty they charge you five hundred seventy five. I go to Tijana and go to the dentist because I work for myself, so I don't have insurance. So I just go to TJ get some Mexican food, get my teeth worked on it. You got veneers the front. Yeah, that was that painful. Nah, that was simple. You just woke up from the numbing
and you were like, shit, look at me. Easy. So there's obviously the singles out, but are you you're obviously preparing a new album as well. Yeah, the albums. I can't wait any features you can. Uh, that's the thing because I've been having so many features on my albums. This album is less features, right, but the ones that's on there makes all the sense in the world. I'm wondering all the sense in the world. You have the type of records that were so played out, right, Which
song of yours do you hate the most? Because it was just so I think I don't hate any of my records, not hate, but just the song that you're the most tired of, the one, the one song that I've heard so much to the point where I can do without hearing it today. Yeah, it will probably be smacked at. I feel you, it will probably be no, like everywhere I go hear it, and then when I walk into any establishment that they're like, oh, ship, he's
here playing smack that. You have to smack that because it's a club record, And I'm sure I am probably tired of hearing it too, because I'm sure he gets it sing. I really legitimately think that might be Eminem's on the club song that, like he had that one in the Nate Dog record. What was the Nate Dog record he had? That was like, uh, the Nate Dog fucking was it? Shake? Shake? Shake that shake that asked for me? Yeah, that was it. Yeah, because all his
other records were more storytelling. No one's playing just lose it in the club. Yeah that's true. Depending on which club you go to, they might drop lose yourself if it's a lot of white folks in there, just to get them to sing along to something. As a matter of fact, because he was more of a like a lyricist, and then he told a lot of stories. So you're getting more play from him on a video channel than you would in the club. I want to fuck you
another classic. Oh yeah. Shout out to Snoop. I remember when that song first came out. I had no idea that it was dirty because I was just so used to the radio. And then when I got the album, I was like, oh, ship, was that that was on Blue Carpet Treatment? Right? Wasn't it on Blue Carpet Treatment? No? It was on a convicted album. Okay, okay, But but what I did I cleared it so he can have it on his album. It was shared it. Yah know that that was one of those ones, man, It was
one of the ones. And you did the beat. Fuck that's crazy. Your genius man, Thank you man. I appreciate that. Brother. Speaking of geniuses, your brother has been in the past a part of Kanye's team. Shout out to Boo, who was a music industry legend in his own right. Absolutely, He's done a lot in the business. He stood on his own independent from you, which is very and that's that's what I was proud of the most. At first. In the beginning, I was like, yo, Boo, like, I
don't get it. I've already paid the way for you. I always want to start over and do it all from day one, you know, His whole thing was when I don't want people just when they see me, they already see a cause little brother, because you guys are also obviously brothers physically physically brothers. So then I you know, I said, Okay, you're right, you got that. What are your thoughts on this, Kanye, last couple of weeks with just there's so much to the last couple of weeks.
It's not something that surprised me obviously. I mean, that's yea, but I think sometimes you have to also realize that everybody's not like him or think like him, so you
can't force your opinions on other people. There's a lot of history that goes with black and whites in America, and it's so much more that he needs to, you know, desensitize himself from and realize that there's certain things that may not have affected you, but it's affected other people because real lives were lost in the process of these actions. So you can't just say white lives matter in the
case like that. Specifically. Of course, everyone knows that all lives matter, but there's a specific history, I mean America that just needs to be recognized and acknowledged because of the history of black people in this country. That's all it is. Yeah, I think that it's to the point where it's like we all recognize that black lives Matter is a true statement. We also can recognize that the
organization might not have did the best business. But we also have to recognize that the term white lives matter. It is a term that racist people use like the roots. But to be said, it's also a true term if you say it out loud. Factually, yes, everyone's lives matter. But at the same time, black lives matter became a slogan because it was obvious that black lives did not
matter as much as everyone else's. And historically in America, if we're being honest, I mean, listen, historically everywhere, man, No, for sure, you know, I mean the colonization of parts of your home country. Say in your home country, Yeah, I heard in Africa it's still bad in some places. Well, it's Africa's kind of changing. I don't know if that's for the good. But in certain parts in Africa, white people are in the projects and the black people are
in the mansions, and it stayed that way. I mean, listen, man, So it depends on what side you want. Part of Africa's at I mean, oh that's some South Africa. Okay, yeah, South Africa. The white people now are screaming for quality, which is crazy, right, It's like you guys colonize it. You guys colonize South Africa. Yeah. Yeah, the UK is calling you. Yeah, the UK is like hold up now. But there's nothing they could do because they never left the UK. They just they literally claimed it from the UK.
They started selling off land that they never even owned, right because they had the weapons. Obviously they're all powered people. But as the uprises and everything came, the revolt happened and people start fighting back. Yeah, hey what up? Y'all's bootleg cap here to stop the interview? Sorry, uh, but we got to pay the fucking bills. And you know, not only do I have to pay the bills, but we also got to take care of them cocks out there. That's right. Make sure you go to bluetoo dot com
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first month for free. So go do that shit. I think a lot of things with the Kanye things people are like a little shook up about is I saw. I don't know if you saw. Maverick Carter just said that he's uh they he came and recorded an episode of lebron show The Shop, which is an HBO show, right, and they decided not to release it because he was I guess saying some wild shit, Sam anti semitic shit,
you know what I'm saying. But you probably have a better insight to yay than most people, considering how close in proximity A brother work for him for people don't know your brother manage him for some time, right, Yeah, he managed him for some time. He's not currently managing him now, but he does do it. I don't know if anybody could manage Kanye. Well, Kanye is unmanageable because he pretty much managed himself. All you can do is put barricades to help him, protect him. Yeah, that's the
only way. That's the only job of a manager around ye is to protect him from himself. I was gonna say, would you, because I think some people they don't know him like everyone else does, would you say he's like a genuinely a good dude. No, genuinely, he's a really good dude, good heart, great intentions. I just think that he's in a position where he believes that his opinion matters in the world. And when you do that and people telling you, well, you don't, your opinion don't matter
in my life. Yeah, And you're forcing your opinion to matter in their life, but not getting all the details of why his opinion matter in your life. It can create an issue when you're too confident, you know, yeah, and if you're like so sure that you're right and everyone else is wrong. Exactly. It's like that eliminates any nuance or discussion to be had about any particular issue because you're saying this is my way because I'm Kanye
and I'm a fucking genius. Because you know, without taking anything from you, he's been through a whole spiritual journey, so he's seen things that the average man didn't see. Like I honestly believe that he's went through spiritually a journey that average people don't go. He really did. But the thing is, when you believe that people understand you the way you understand you, that one becomes an issue
because not everybody understand his position. And when you're trying so hard to explain it to people who will never get it because they have to go through your journey to get it, it becomes an uphill battle trying to you know, and people have to give you the benefit of the doubt that you're what you're saying isn't what you're saying, that you have a bigger message behind it, And when you say certain shit that he says recently,
it's like, I don't really care what your thought process was, right, right, and you're and you don't care enough right exactly, so that's when that's when everyone takes it personal, and when it goes personally, then it's hard to talk about. Yeah, that's fair. Okay. Can you tell us any of the features on the project? You said that they make sense? Oh? Yeah, yeah,
this is I'm gonna kind of as they drop. Yeah, I think that that that that approached to me because I want to leave a little bit of sense of mystery, because nowadays social media allow you to leave no mystery. You know everything before it even happened. You know, the video before it even shot, because at the video shoot, everybody shooting, and then it's seen the video scenes and
I know how everything will be broadcasted. So I said, the only thing I can control that I can at least give something something some some people something to look forward to. Is who's going to be on the album? How many records did you cut with Dre for the Detox Ship, because wasn't one of the only records we got, weren't you on? Yeah? Actually the last two record that he was putting out for the Detox the records that
I produced or a rode on. Yeah. I mean, and I don't think we're ever gonna hear the quote unquote detox. But I was lucky. I was blessed. Yeah, we heard your ship. Two records that I've you know, been released on. One of them was the Uh I'm so bad with titles. It was me and Snoop and Dre. I remember that one. I forget the name of it to wait man. Remember Cush, Yeah, Cush, it was Cush. And then the second one was Cush
was Hard. What was the other one? That one was just Dre and Snoop and I was on the chorus as well on that one. I don't remember the other one. I remember Cush is the one I was thinking of. Cush was a monster that it was hard and it could have like to me, Cush was the type of record because he did that one and then he tried to put out that I need a doctor record and I was like, oh, we're getting singles, this should equal in the albums. Yeah. Dre is just such a you know, perfectionist.
I think he's too perfect for himself, I think. And it was a lot of fear involved as to not being number one as well too, Like if he puts the album out and it's not number one, right, I think that had a lot to do and and again I'm not speaking for him, and I could be completely wrong, but from the outside looking in, it felt like he put too much on himself to succeed and be successful when I thought, you sack yourself out. Yeah, I believe personally that he don't need it, like he has nothing
to prove to anybody. To me as the greatest producer out of the West Coast and influence, and when it comes to hip hop and gangster music that no matter what he would have dropped, everybody would have thirst it up. They'll took it in. I think when you have the first two chronics being as perfect as they were, right, But that's what I'm saying. It's like Michael Jackson trying
to outdo Thriller. Right. Some projects are meant to just embrace a group of people a certain way, and some it may not be statistically number one for what he may see it, but it may be a body of work that may incorporate or you can say, uh impact of certain types or a certain group of people that might change the world. So every record may do something totally different. I don't think change the course of music or changed the course of life. Right, So when you
look at Bob Marley and his music. For instance, his music changed wars in Africa and in the Caribbeans and also also as say later on, But those records weren't number one on the charge, no, but the right, and I think Dre has he has to see it from that standpoint too. His records could have changed the mindset of gangsters, especially this generation because this generation is fucked up. This generations as fucked But Dre was actually kicking a little bit of knowledge in the mix of all of that,
like you can actually get some perspective. And I think when he stopped it kind of changed the course of the direction of where the future gangsters were going. That's fair, yes, rough right now with just all the violence and it's crazy, it's deep, uh yo. When we think of we talked about you, we talked about pain. There's been other artists who have had their runs and been called the new Akon a few times, guys like ty Dolla Sign. There's been a few guys who are like been the hook
guy in hip hop at the time. It feels like every four or five years we get a new guy who they compare to you or paying I love it. Who do you appreciate just as a fan that you just like that that kind of reminds you of maybe the early and I don't know if anybody can actually you actually mentioned him. I love Todd Dollars. Yeah, he's a legend, man. I love Todas And he's a talent, like one of the most talented guys. Super I think
he's probably the most underrated. I agree, like this dude is so amazing, man, Like, he's so dope and he can switch into any genre, like toss anything in front of me and flip it and kill it, you know what I mean. He's definitely one of those. But I think if I had to think, but that was that was a little coming off of my generation. I think another one that's super underrated is Tory Lanez. Toy's incredible.
He's another beast. Yeah, like on a different level. His new album's fired too, you know, like that kid never missed me, Like he's really and he had to always go against because he's fighting that Canadian. And then Drake is always obviously the number one artists out there and he's he's also had an interesting come up, like he was people don't know changed the course he was undershown
Kingston for a little bit. He kind of was like a behind the scenes guy with the pen dropping his mixtapes and like, I feel like Tory has always had a chip on his shoulder, and you know, not a lot of people can drop independently, and so that'd be the number one album of the week, like he just did with. I think his talent always supersedes people's expectations. That's fair. I really believe that, you know, I think
he does. He definitely did. But I think the best that ever did it of this time and me being allowed to see it was Drake. Yeah, honestly believe that, because his consistency to me was amazing. You know, Drake's an alien. Yeah, he's an alien. For he's the biggest rapper ever. He's the biggest. I didn't say he's greatest,
but he's the biggest. He's the biggest. He's long, honestly with that's to be debated too, because I think as far as him being the greatest, I'm talking about I'm talking about just the amount of time, because I think peak, but even amount of fifty even in the amount of time, he's still consistent. No, I'm saying He's like, it's not like we've never looked at Drake since like O nine
and said, Yo, are you falling off Drake? Never, not once, Like Drake's always got hits right HEREO exactly successfully because no one's been as consistent and been that motherfucker for as long. I think there's been peaks and rap where people were bigger, like I think Snoop in ninety four when Doggy Style came out, I think, uh, fifty, get rich of I tried fifty. I don't know, man, that was something else. He was a beast. He's another beast. Just that juneit two years, that first two years of
the Juve the shit boy whoa. He motivated me heavy like I'm like, oh I got something and coapting. Now we gott to stop the interview. Tell you about our partners at odd Socks. Well, first of all, let's check out the brand new collab. Look at these the bootleg keV sock. You see my pink ass facing those fucking socks. Nobody wants to buy those. We're gonna figure out a way to give him away, though. But look odd Socks and the most comfortable socks in the world, and the
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twenty percent off at checkout. Go to odd socksofficial dot com one more time. That's odd socksofficial dot com promo code Bootleg keV and you will save twenty percent off your order. Of course, we're presented by odd Socks, and we are proud to say so. All right, let's get back to the interview. Yeah. I just was speaking to a friend of mine who just sold their life story to FX for a TV show. You have a pretty amazing life story considering where you came from to where
you are now. Would you ever sell your life story for a movie purpose or Netflix series or anything like that. I'm definitely planning on doing a life story. I don't know if I would sell it, I would part or produce it yourself. I would I wouldn't produce it myself either, but I would definitely partner with the right producers to do it. Yeah, because I feel like we get you know, certain stories like a snowfall. Do you watch snowfall? Snowfall?
It's great. A lot of people say it's about Freeway Rick Ross, but but they can't technically say it because then they have to cut that man a big check. Exactly. Somebody could fuck around and put out like a generic version of your story. Yeah, but I mean that's fine. I mean because even with music the way like when I listen to today's music now, I know for a fact that we influenced a lot of what you're hearing today. Yeah, had we not left, we probably would have still been
consistent the same way Drake is now. But I see how the music has changed from a standpoint of now. R and B is rap because I remember when I first dropped, rap was so serious that people were battling. It was about lyrics. But then we came and started singing what rappers were rapping about, and specifically you, right. I always like to say we because I never look at it like I'm the because ghetto ghetto was winning
them once. It's crazy because I told you earlier. I was like, yeah, when I heard that rap phenomenon mixtape and Greenland and did whatever remixed it, I thought that was the original. And then when I got the album, I was like, wait, wait, there's a whole other record, a whole record. But yeah, you were doing you were bringing the I feel like you probably were the first person to do that to bring the genres together content
wise and musically. Obviously, Bone Thugs in Harmony was very melodic, but I wouldn't consider them like they were making they
were I wouldn't consider boning the discussion. I would say that, like if you look at nowadays, the genres are so forged together, like futures making R and B sometimes, like Roddy Rich is making R and B records sometimes, like so much of the music is now just like it's just music, like it's rooted in hip hop or it's rooted in R and B. But yeah, it's definitely you know, yeah where a Yeah, I love it too, man, So do we have an idea when the album's dropping right now?
I'll probably release the date for the album release, probably the next few weeks, next few weeks, yeah, because I've been kind of shuffling between do I want to drop it in December of this year or I want to drop it first of the following year and just take that whole year and ride it out. Yeah, before you go, can you share just the most interesting god Got story you had with her? Maybe maybe it was early on, maybe it was when she I don't know where a
meat dressed to the day, I don't know. I mean, like a crazy Gogt story you haven't shared yet. I think the probably the craziest goy Got stories when we went to San Francisco to push a record for the first time, and I remember we went to thisdio station, you know, and the radio artist, I mean, the radio DJ kept asking me about what I got going on, and I was like, yo, you know, it's my new artist.
Guy got you know, we're pushing it, and they were like, yeah, yeah, but what do you like At the time, I'm like, hold up, I'm here, you I ain't going nowhere. But I need the world to understand that this girl right here is going to be the biggest artist in the world. Right And he had this look on his face like whatever, wow. But the beautiful part about it was that he said, the only way that I can see that happening is if, obviously, if she caters to the you know, uh, the gay
community basically. And so he was like, so, speaking of you, what do you prefer guys or girls? He has heard that, Yeah, And right before she can open the mouth, I was like both and she was like, nigga, what the fuck is wrong with You're you serious? Yeah? She's very curious,
she's colorful. I know she probably wanted to kill me at that moment, but at the same time, she kind of I think she knew exactly what I was saying, and then they kind of elaborated on her and she had the best answer and she was like, yeah, well, you know, I just I'm I'm just a free spirit. And the guy was like, see, we can rock with you. What's the plan And they played her record. Wow, I mean and it's in San Francisco. Yes, the moment they played her record, it became number one on phones the
same day. Wow. That huge. It was like, I mean she's an icon period, but also an icon in that community. Right, no, no, she But then it was interesting because as her career developed, that became one of her biggest like movements is oh yeah they love it that yeah, shout out the shout out to the yeah. Yeah. Anyway, listen, man, I appreciate you pulling up. I appreciate man. Go get the new album whenever it comes out. Yes, it's called Aconic. It'll be coming out very very soon. Oh so we got
the name what is it? Iconic? Oh instead of Iconic. I see what you did. I see what you did there? Acon. There it is, we got a coin here you go. Wait, what's the name of the city, Acon City? Acon City? You know you have a real theme going on with these business ventures Convict con Live, everything got con in somehow buttricit uh No. Actually the African uh side of
the philanthropy aspect is all energy. And then of course we're building entertainment music schools now, so we're taking the schools that already exists that's probably beat up or whatever. We furbished them and make them, like put the conditions very comfortable to where the kids can go and they actually have good education. But then we add musical curriculars in it as well too. Last thing, I promise you are one of the most iconic Africans of all time.
Elon Musk also is South Africa, North African. Have you guys linked up about any of this ship you got going on? Interestingly enough, when I was doing the acon lighting projects, we actually met up with Tesla to do the home kits for those areas in Africa, so we did align with Tesla. But me and Elon together, haven' have you guys met at all? No, we haven't met. Wow, we haven't met. Yeah. His parents were not all the same people though, but him have never met yeah, yeah, yeah,
yeah yeah, because he's from South Africa. From South Africa, yeah, that's crazy. What part are you from again? I'm in West Africa? Yeah, damn, what is it? And it's so crazy how Africa's so different depending on what. Yeah, it's wild man. Well look I appreciate you pulling up a con the legend my man. Appreciate you, brother Boom