Bootleg cap Podcast. Special guests came all the way from New York City. Man out here shooting music videos, doing big shit. Nick Bucks, Yeah, with's sub cat. Welcome man, Thank you Rob representing Harlem, Sir. For people who don't know who you are, Man, kind of give me like a little background and like, obviously you're from Harlem, but just kind of how long you've been rapping and kind of you know, you've obviously been killing it. I told
you you had one of my favorite albums. It was like early twenty twenty one year album drop right, Yeah, I like right after was it. I don't know if it was Quarantina right after, might be right after, Yeah, But nah, Man, give everybody kind of run down man, just kind of your history books. East Harlem, you know what I mean, Young Spider, you know, one of the hardest from my size. You know, just real story, real authentic, authentic music, you know what I mean. I fuck with
the people. Yeah, I've been to East Harlem once, No twice. I got off on the train at the wrong stop. Oh yeah, I was in Harlem and then I got off early. I got off with the wrong stop to go see a girl like I don't know ten years ago, so shout out to Harlem and then I was out there shout out to both Degga bands. I got yep, Barrio for sure. He's definitely an East hallm representative. Yeah, yeah, yeah,
I go Hall for that. I'm affod to cut you over, but I go Hall for the East Side because you know, when people think about Hall of Them, they think about, you know, one area, you know, like of course Dip said, you know, forty eighth Linux, but it's bigger than that. The East Halem is like our own little lane, you know what, I'm right, And it's like heavily like Latin
community as well too, right, No, it's diverse. It's diverse, ok, Like East Hall them is very You got Jamaicans, you got African American, you got Puerto Rican, you got the Dominican, Mexican, you got were real diverse, but were small, but you know, were real diverse, did you feel like, because you know, with the Brant prices in Manhattan are so crazy, it's
like insane. Sometimes I just get bored and go on Zillo and just look at apartments in New York just to see and I'm like, fuck, has there been like a lot of gentrification in Harlem because it feels like Harlem is still kind of like an extension of Manhattan, but it's probably a lot more affordab with a lot of people been moving in in that area and shit, now it is it is. You know, we got it's
malls being built, you know, all kinds of things. So you know, when things like that come into the community, they gentrified, you know what I mean, It makes things more expensive one hundred percent. So like is it becoming like a lot like least affordable to stay in your own hood? Now? Yeah, they got they got these new buildings. They got a lot of new buildings being made, you know, like with a lot of amenities and stuff like that. So you know it was a very expensive. Yeah, I
see it changing. How long have you been rapping? I want to say I took raps serious, like when I was sixteen. I've been rapping way before that. I fell in love with it like when I was nine, of course, or what made you fall in love with it? G Unit? You know, the Unit was like a big influence to me. My dad used to sell like old school music, so when I was a kid four three five years old, he would push me around while he sold this music. So he would tell like love like burn CDs type
shit he would sell. At the time, it was tapes. Then CDs came a little That's what I used to do. That's how I got my name. I used to be at the Swat meet, was fucking CDs, mixtapes, all the junet radio shit. I used to be fucking getting it in. So definitely pirrating a lot of people's music back in the day before I was anybody. Well year it was done? You said two thousand, uh four oh five oh six? Okay, CD? That's like when did CDs come in? I don't even remember.
I just remember the transition the nineties nineties, right, Yeah, it was the nineties. It was like, nah, it might not have been in the nineties. It was early nineties. Yeah. When I was a kid, I had Dogs You Stay on CD. No, I had it on tape, but then I got it on CD and like, yeah, CDs was like mid nineties because I had I bought uh, like, what what would you say, man, I bought a quimini
from Walmart. So it was probably like ninety seven where it was like kind of like the norm ninety It was like ninety six, ninety seven, ninety eight was kind of like because I remember buying CDs. I don't remember many tapes, but Boys the Men in Bone. Yeah, well look when CDs came out, people still kind of use cassette tapes. Yeah, same thing with now people Like there's still people who have CD books. I don't know who they are. They don't even make college Like you know
what they say. Country music still sell CDs. So if you go to Walmart ever, they still got CDs there, but it's all country. Yeah tough. I don't know. I think some of them rednecks ain't smart enough to figure out the streaming respective. I mean, it's probably still money in there. Yeah. My car does not have a CD player, so it's like, what am I supposed to do with this CDs in the eighties, it was mid nineties. It
was mid nineties for sure. Yeah, because I had like a nice little CD book in like ninety eight, like tiny, little single page one, you know what I'm saying. CD book was crazy, but had all that the worst part was when someone broke into your car and jacked your fucking CDs. That was it's like you lost your life.
You ever had your CD stolen. Nah, that's before that shit, man, when you had this like collection of music that you spend all this thousands of dollars on and someone got up in your whip and got up under that seat and took your CD book, I shuld fucking make you want to kill somebody. Bro. Now we just got the whole CD books in your phone one hundred percent. Man, Hey, we got to stop the interview real quick to tell you about our newest partner to the podcast. Shout out
to our family at Hardan, Las Vegas. Man, listen, the number one dispensary in the world. I don't give a fuck. Man, craziest dispensary with the most selection. They got so much weed in this fucking place. You go to Las Vegas. You're fucking feeling good with your homies. It's recreational. You're like, damn, I could just go into a store and buy weed. Yeah, but you just can't go into any store in Las Vegas to buy a week because you don't walk out
with some fucking bullshit. No, you go to Hardan, tell them I sent you, all right, make sure you follow them online. Hard Dean Underscore Las Vegas. You see it down there you see them on fucking sweater we represent and by the way, can we shout out to them for sending me this this Bootleg cav podcast thingy. What is this called? No, no, no, it's a for cigars humid door. Yeah, the humid door. Now, this is what's great about it. We might start doing this for our
smoking guests. You know, we might have to bust open the Hardyan humidor and just get into some of these treats. You know what I'm saying a little bit of the treaties, you know, straight from Hardean Las Vegas. Even I mean, these are totally props, because you know they're props. But with that being said, when you go to Vegas, telling Bootleg keV sent you Hardan Las Vegas, I'm telling you it is like going to It's like the Bentley of dispensaries. It's so nice. The weed is the best, the selection
is the best, the bud tenders are the best. And yo, make sure you shoot them a follow Hardyan Underscore Las Vegas. Go to Hardinlasvegas dot com and when you're in Vegas, go to hard Dean. Baby. All right, you already know, let's get back to the interview you. I was telling you that the album that I really got hip to you on was the album you drove last year, Neighborhood Hole. Uh, crazy body of work. For sure. You got a new
single Autum two Chains. Obviously you just shot a new video with Whiz, so I know you're prepping the new album. But talk about Neighborhood Hole. Why did you like? Why that title? So you know when I said a neighborhood whole, you know that's the impact I got on my neighborhood. You know the same how big you know Hope is and what he mean of course to the game. Also, you know, I feel like my story related is you know how it was hard for him to kind of
get a deal. You know, it wasn't really respecting what he had going on and how he built this team and group of people and just went crazy with it. I mean I see a lot of that and myself. So that's why I went with that. What was for you? Like? Are you are you still independent? Like? What is your label situation? So I'm with my knock now. You know I got a product took over that monarch. Shout out the monarch, you know what I mean? They you know,
taking care of me. Did you find that it was like hard for you to get a deal or get a deal that you like, were comfortable with signing, because I think like it you if you have any sort of buzz, you could probably get some sort of situation, but the terms are probably terrible, right, Yeah, that's yeah, you say you said it the right way, like find a deal that fit me, because you know, I did so much alone already, so I just wanted to make sure that whatever situation come, you know what I mean,
they just add on to what I had going on, and it makes sense as far as the business. So you were pretty much strictly independent up until when I want to say, yeah, this year, like recently ship what is a I mean thighborhood. All that was done through distribution just distro, Yeah, just distro. Wow, everything been you know alone? What was the hard Like? You know, I
feel like there's gifts and curses to being fully independent. Yeah, you want to keep more of your money, but you gotta also work a lot harder, to work a lot harder, and you know you just gotta you gotta Yeah, without that machine, you gotta you gotta do a whole lot more and I mean, I'm used to it now, you know, I've been doing it so long, So that's a beautiful thing. Man, who would you say were your biggest influences growing up? You said G Unit obviously for sure, Dipset of course,
you know I'm from Harlem. Yeah, just just THEMB really dipsett in Unit Unit. That's why I watched you know on TV. So if you had to go with one, if you had to, let's say you're on an island, you could only take all of the dip set discography or all the G Unit discography mixtapes included, Which which c D book are you taking? I'm not gonna be politically correct and say hall them. I gotta go with the Units made me do it. You gotta go get
rid of that trying man. Beg for Mercy. Beg for Mercy was crazy, all the junior radios, and you can include the documentary from the Game Into Day because that was a G Unit album. Yep, Hunger for More, Hunger for More was crazy, and even the Young buckshit, Yeah, Buck was hard. Now that I go back and I listen to even the massacre, I feel like it's slept on. Of course, there's so much good fucking records on there.
I feel like the massacre was like somehow doesn't get enough respect because it wasn't as big as get rid of that try. But I'm like, yo, there was some real crazy rap shit on there. Ski Mask Way Baltimore love Thing, shout out to motherfucking Physician of Power. Even the what was the disc record he had Piggy Bank was hard? Damn that ship was hard. Yeah, fifty was flavoring back in the day. Have you been able to meet him at all? Yeah? I mean every time I see you, filf I take a pic with him, like
it's the first time. You know what I'm saying. I just racked my fifty send picks up. Well, have you tried for the future, No, not yet. I ain't even I didn't even get a chance to really you know, kick it with him like how I wanted to. But every time I see him, I left No, Like, yo, you're motivated me to do this ship right real. I let him know that every time. Hey, what y'all bootleg cap here, we got to interrupt the interview and tell
you about our family at Blue Chew. Look, if you go to blue Choo dot com right now, use the promo code Bootleg to sign up, and you will get your first month of blue Choo for free. That's right, They're gonna give you the first month of blue Choo for free. All you gotta do is pay five dollars in shipping and you're gonna get delivered right to your
door some great shit for your dick. Let me tell you what it is, all right, if you're dealing with the rectile dysfunction, if you're dealing with any sort of stress, and you just need an extra little you know, a little performance enhancer, if you will, all right for you, Johnson down there, all you gotta do is go to blue Choo and use that promo code Bootleg, and it's coming straight to your door. The same active ingredient as viagra,
as sialis. And then the new mint chewable. Breaking news, there is a new mint chewable that Blue Choo has just introduced to the marketplace, and it has the same active ingredient as Levitra and Stackson, I'm gonna try to tell you about this active ingredient. It's var dennaphil. Yeah, I fucked that up. Try it Out's supposed to be a little more potent than the normal Blue show. Whatever you need, regular Blue Shoe, the new Mint, Schewable, whatever
it is, You're gonna knock it out the fucking park right. Look, Barry Bonds needed a little performance enhancing when he hit seventy three home runs back in the day. He holds the record. Still, you might need a little performance enhancement in the bedroom. Your lady will thank you, your wife will thank you, your boyfriend will thank you. Whatever the
fuck you're into. We're not judging over here at the boutleg At podcast, but I am judging you if you don't go to Blue Choo right now and sign up with that Poma code bootleg and get a month for free. Try it out. It's literally free. All right, let's get back to the interview. Why do you think you're slept on? I think because you know there's no gimmicks. You know what I mean. I'm what you see is what you get, you know what I mean. I'm not trying to be
in people's circles. I'm not you know, on anybody line about features. It's like, if you respect what I do and you fuck with me, then you know you're tapping with me. And you know want to help me further what I got going on. So I'll just be mowing that. I'll be on my own vibe. Help me under because I think in New York obviously it's been a good year for New York hip hop. Joey Badass put out a great project, Obviously, the Griselda guys have been going crazy.
Benny Conway obviously that's not New York City, it's Buffalo. But the drill scene is so big. Do you feel like not being a drill artist right now and being from New York has it's like nationally, do you feel like it hurts you? I don't think so. I think that, you know what I do, I built a kind of a fan base all over you know what I mean. I think if this was probably like five years ago and this was going on, then maybe like if I'm
coming out and it's like, oh, you're doing this. But I think I built enough of a fan base, you know, in different places that people still support what I got to say. You know, what does your take on the drill scene? Because it's pretty crazy, man, that's crazy. A lot of dope music but also a lot of crazy shit. Like it's like some serious like man, I'm like, fuck man, these kids are like really that they all hang out on the record. You know what I'm saying. I mean,
I embrace it. I listened to it. I love because I'm a fan of music. I'm a fan of what they got going on. I mean, I feel like I kind of play the role of, you know, the middle when it comes to all that stuff, like I don't yeah because you're younger. Yeah I'm young, but I got it like a real mature Oh the soul. Yeah, you're like somebody who the young kids could fuck with. But also like if you're me and you're an old head, yeah I can appreciate it, nah, for sure. But I
played it. I played the kind of the role of, you know, embracing all of them. You know, they a lot of them call me for advice and yeah, you know what I mean, they come to the studio, you know what I mean. I play that role with them. So I embrace it. I love it. I don't like the violence, of course I don't. I don't like when it go further than music because it's music. But you know, other than that, yeah, shout out to all the Jill rappers. Yeah that's important. Who all do you have on this
new album? I mean two chains and whiz Yeah. We went heavy on this one. We got two chains, whiz, Selo selo green see green. Yeah, we got shild yeap tink. Shout out to man I every Scott one of the most talented you know people in the game. Am I missing anyone? Oh? Yeah, Benny, Bennie and Rayner Chef I cannot record. Yeah, shout out Darren. You on the beat too, for sure. Shout out to Bennie. Man I got, you know, every time I get on platforms, I gotta shout my
guy out and took me on tour with him. You know what I mean. Give me a chance to you know, get off the block and ship my talent with the world. Benny and his team are great. Shout out to Jake. Shout out to Tony the Narrow. Shout to my guy, My guys, So you were on the road. Was Tony the Narrow on the road with you? Tony? That's my brother. Yes, that's my Tony is just so yeah, that's my guys. And I could go on and on them. He's the kind of guy I like, Yeah, we party together, that's
my We always have fun. Together and here and holding nothing back any opportunity. Yo, I got this opportunity for you. Very unselfish. Yes, the whole cut super fire. Shout to Bennie. Shout out to them, and uh yeah, so ray Kwan Benny, you Darren your beat tough me. Wow. Yeah, I gotta hear that. Yep, Yeah, we're gonna put it off. Yes, crazy. How did you end up working with Wiz? So? Shout out the hit Maker. You know, him and hit got a relationship. I had this song and I told him,
I'm like, Yo, where is this sounds crazy? On this? So he called him Whizz got it done, no problem. And when I finally got a chance to meet with you know what I mean, it was love. We clicked instantly. He fucked with my vibe, I fuck with his and that's my guy. Track to hit Maker. He produced a song yep, yep, yeah, the executive produce producing. Wow, that's big, heavy, that's super big. How did that end up happening? He's
a great guy too, Shout yeah. I mean, man, hit Maker is one of the most you know, hardest working producers I've ever seen in my life. You know, he pushed me to work all this sure. You know what I mean, he don't. I thank him every chance I get. He allowed me to say thank you, man, get ahead with that ship. But I'm thankful. Shout out to him. Maker. Hey what up? Y'all got to stop the interview to tell you about our family at odd socks. That's right.
Go to odd socksoficial dot com right now. Use the promo code boots Leg. That's right, Bootleg. You will save twenty percent off at checkout now. Listen, we know that they have amazing socks. These are sour patch kid socks. These are hot Cheeto socks, half baked, you know what I'm saying. And uh, you know for those that like Snapple so much so that you would wear socks with Snapple's logo on them, and all my Naruto fans, they
have the Naruto. But let's bust these boys out. You know they got the underwear and the underwear are crazy love the draws. What do we have here? Oh? Oh we have we have Hey Arnold underwear. These are fucking amazing. Jesus, I'm gonna wear these. You know why I'm gonna wear those? Oh? Because I have Hey Arnold socks on You see what I did there. Yeah, that's right. We out here represent
odd socks, the most comfortable socks in the world. I promise you if you get the odd Socks basics like these, these are the basics, right, those are uh, I mean, you're not gonna get any better than that, you know what I mean? The odds Talk basics are incredible. All right, So, uh that's my favorite. I'm always wearing a black or white pair of odd Talks basics. But uh, don't like listen to me, try them out for yourself. Go to odd socksofficial dot com. Use the promo code Bootleg save
twenty percent off at checkout. And what was the initial introduction with y'all? Like, how did that? So? So Billy Billy manages me, you also manages hit? Oh that's perfect. Yeah, so it was just like I said, like the same thing with wiz Me and Hick click automatically and worked from the first day I met him. Yeah, and he just got some big records on him at all times and for sure awards. Yeah, that's real. That's I'm surprised to he tried to get you over to make a
sound imprint. I mean, yeah, that's family. I'm in make it sound. I'm in yeah on the album shout a Crazy album together. Ye would you say that like having him involved kind of like put you in a position to maybe have more commercial rec on this project. Yeah, So that's a that's the conversation I have, Like, you know, even with my brothers on the block or with my manager, I feel like this project right here was those songs, was the big songs. You know you heard my music.
I'm allver. I do it for the streets. You know what I'm saying. I love real rat, but you gotta have them records. You know what I'm saying. If you don't have them records, you're gonna be doing one thing. I mean, Jay had those records on his album and everybody you know, that's what big project is. This project is the records. It's letting the world know I can make music. You know what I mean. I mean, give ride, try and head in the club and twenty one questions
just that. Just that. So you feel like this is kind of like your level up, my level up one hundred percent. Bigger beats, you know what I mean, great features musically, it sound good, my cadence, everything sounds well. I feel good about it. Do you have the name of the album yet? Yeah, Blessed to the Max. You're the first one I know that, though I ain't say this yet. So the name of my album called Blessed to the Max. That's dope. I like that. Why that title, man,
because I'm blessed. You know, you got bullet in my head. You know, I maybe to survive. I'm still here lo l after l losses after losses. The people, you know what I mean, have been through a lot this year. So we blessed it. I didn't know you got When did you get shot? Twenty eleven? Shit? How old were you? Like a kid? I want to say, like seventeen, fu seventeen yep. So what what happened? Man? I want to say, it was like the wrong place for wrong time, you know.
Sometimes it's all you know, yeah, like different energies collided, you know, it was. It was just the wrong place at the wrong time. So you got shot in the head and the head or didn't go to the hospital. For every time I tell the story, people think I'm crazy. So you got shot in the head, didn't go to the hospital then, because I ain't know, I didn't know. I was shot. I thought I got grazed. So a couple of years after I figured out I had a
bullet in my head. So I lived like three years with the bullet in my head before I found out. So that's to the Max, bro for sure. How did you find out that the bullet was in there? So, Like I was still in school, I was having these like sinus problems and ship in my head was killing me. Yeah, so I want to go get the sinus checked out. You know, they give you the MRA right, and they told me like, yeah, you got like a piece of metal in your head. Maybe that's where it's coming from.
But yeah, the fix it. No, no, no, no, no no no, because it was the siginus issue. This wasn't bothering me. My bullet wasn't bothering me. It was the sinus issue. So when I got the MADS for the signings, the pain went away, but I still got the bullet in my head. That's how I discovered it. Yeah it's still here. Oh man, it can't go nowhere. It makes sense to take it out, right, yeah, because it'll start fucking things
up the fuck. Yeah, bro, blessed the Max. How did your parents feel when they found out that there was like I'm sure they knew about the incident, but like I mean, they thought it was great. So I went I went home to my step mom. I put some like bastuation, you know what I mean, little ointment on it, and I going on about life like we nobody knew when we found out, it was like, oh that's crazy. Yeah well yeah yeah. I feel like if you were I feel like a lot of rappers would just be
talking about that all the time. Yeah yeah, yeah. I mean for me, it is not nothing to glorify. It is. It is. I'm blessed. I think, of course every day, but being shot in I ain't trying to use that as you know what I mean. I just think back to fifty and we all knew he got shot nine times? We did we? Did you? I mean, I know Pop Smoke did a many Man remix, but have you thought about like kinda I mean, you kind of have a
pretty crazy I think. Look, Little TJ just did mini mental Oh he did a freestyle yeah yea, yeah, going to don Ce or whoever, I don't know, I think yeah, yeah, I think they was dissing each other on that. Yeah, and both of I mean don ces can really wrap the TJ's hard to yeh. Shout after them, guys man. Yeah, hey, we got to stop the interview real quick. Tell you about our partners at my bookie. That's right. Salute to
the family at my Bookie. All right. It is so much action to get in on right now in sports. We got the playoffs in baseball, we got NFL action every Sunday, and NBA season is upon us. Yes, if you want to get in on the action and make some of this money with me, I'm be gambling all damn day. Might have a problem with that being said. Go to my bookie right now. When you sign up, use the promo code Bootleg, and they will match your deposit.
All right. That's right, your first deposit when you sign up with a new account, when you use that promo code Bootleg, they're gonna match it, all right. That means if you put in five hundred bucks, you get another five hundred for free to gamble with. Yeah, all right. I'm loving some of the futures too. I love the over on wins for the Sacramento Kings in the NBA season coming up. I think they're gonna have a good year.
I'll also bet the over on the Phoenix Suns. They're gonna have more than fifty two and a half wins. What are we talking about? Plus NFL action every Sunday. Let's get this money. Go to my bookie right now. Sign up with that promo code Bootleg. All right. When you do that, they're matching your first deposit off the rip no matter how big or small. Let's run that shit up. Go to my bookie right now, use that promo code Bootleg and get your first deposit matched, free
money to gamble with when my bookie. Let's get back to the interview, Like do you feel like sometime times have you ever had like found yourself in the middle of of like being friends with two people who have problems with each other? Yeah, I stay away from all that. Men, I got we got. I got my own problems. Man, I don't be trying to get into nobody's situations. Then thank got nothing to do with me over some rap ship. That is the right approach for sure. I don't know rap.
This is music. Yeah. The problem is is like usually that happens and you should be in the middle and be like, hey, look y'all, this is on some rap like you said it's not some street ship. Yeah, but certain things you just certain things you just stay out of. You you know, you don't want nothing to do it. And I'm not gouy certain things, I just don't want none to do it. Would you say, obviously you have
the Ray Kwan Benny record. Is there enough on this album for the fans who really fuck with you, for the street ship, for the for the rapping ship to really kind of appease them? I mean I got a few, I think I think I think so. Yeah, I think so because something I was going back and forth with about my project. But I feel good about it. I think so? Is it? Uh? Do we have a date yet? Not yet? Now? Yeah? Do we gotta date? November eighteen? It was almost two years of a wait, right yep,
for sure? For sure ship. So you've been working, man, Are you gonna make everybody wait that longer for the for the the next time? I gotta keep guessing that I gotta show, I got to show on what's going on? What is something for you man? Like? Obviously, Uh, you've kind of had to do the independent thing. What would be some advice you would give artists who are were in a similar situation that you're being independent, having to do everything yourself. That you mean, I feel like, never stop,
you know what I mean? You gotta stay consistent. You can't stop. You gotta keep going. I mean just discouraging, you know it come. Being discouraged happens, but you gotta keep going. Do you think do you think there was ever a point in time where you had hit like a low in your career it made you kind of reconsider whether or not you wanted to really do this rap shit? Yeah, I mean it's gonna be plenty of them nights. You have plenty of those. I'm pretty sure
with whatever you do. But yeah, I had plenty of those nights. But you know, I kept pushing and I'm here. That's Gope man. Anybody else from Harlem that you want to shout out and the East Harlem rappers that you feel like? Yeah, h four Records man, shout out the popularity? Man? Is your label? Yeah? So you got a label? You signed the artists, yep, yep, for sure to launch it soon. Okay, you got one artist already. Nah, but that's who I'm working with closely, dope? Yeah, yeah, yeah, what's up with
Bodega bams Man shout at the Bodega bands. Man, I've seen his team. I seen Old Live, Old Lives. Brother, my man, Luca and are the same person, the same person I want to work with Bams. He's one of the guys who you know, motivated me to do this. I told you he from the East side of Harlem. So seeing somebody strictly for my Poppies album was so fuckingall. Man, I gotta I got a chance to, you know, move around with them when they was in New York City
a lot of times. Yeah, and I love you know what they did and doing still as an asap crew tapped in with you at all Rocky my brother, that's my guy. Yeah, Yeah, that's my brother. The album's coming November eighteenth. November eighteen, Blessed to the Max. Blessed to the Max. New single with Wizz is coming. It's coming soon to Change Records. Mask Up is out now and make sure you go get it on streaming platforms. The videos out as well. Boom Yo, go follow my guy
Nick Bucks your album already know of course. Man,