#24 - Symba

our new freestyle series. Trying to figure out whether or not we're gonna like put those straight on Spotify or not. But we launched a freestyle series with Benny the Butcher and Hem from BSF. You could check that out on the YouTube page. If you haven't already go peep that out. Just google Bootleg cav on YouTube. It'll pop up. This week's episode featuring a young MC out of the Bay Area. His name Simba. He signed to Atlantic Super Talented, Dude, Crazy Bars and really just a dope dude to have

conversation with. I have a everyone's gonna be really like on this dude's dick in about six months. So shout out to the homie Simba. Man big ups to our sponsors. Obviously odd Socks always holding it down. Man, solue to odd Socks. Make sure you go to odd socksoficial dot com. Use the keyword bootleg keV and make sure you just scoop up some stuff. Man, scoop up some socks, some masks. You know they got all the crazy licenses. Look breaking

bad socks, Nickelodeon socks, Damn Ghostbusters. You know what I'm saying. Whatever you need et chucky for the Halloween joints, use the keyword bootleg keV at checkout and you will receive twenty percent off the most comfortable socks in the world. Also shout out to our other sponsor, man shout out to vapin. Hit up that vapincbd dot com. Get you some of that good good some of that good smoke, some of that good v CBD goodness. Man the lotion. If youve got aches and pains and all that, you

rub that joint in, it's all good. Vapincbd dot com keyword bootleg keV receive twenty percent off. Let's just get to the podcast. Had a rough, rough night, so we're just gonna get straight into the episode. Simba episode twenty twenty something. All right, the homie Simba, I promise you. I know a lot of people haven't heard of Symba yet, but Yo, just press play on this conversation and enjoy it.

We had a really dope talk. Lots of crazy hip hop debates in this one, lots of back and forth Simba on the Bootleg Cap podcast right now, Yo, man, bootlet Cap podcast. We got the homie from the Bay Area, sir who has very polarizing hip hop opinions. Homie Simba is here. What's adding it with you? Brother? What's up? Man? Feeling great? Thank you for having me man. I'm a big fan of the show. I love that Freddy Gibbs

Greg Gibbs episode. Yeah, that episode got sloppy. We drank a whole bottle in nineteen forty two and it was entertaining his shit. Yeah, shout out to Freddy Man because he don't got no filter anyway, and then when he's drunk, it's There was a lot taken out of that interview. We had to take some shit out. I think started with that interview. Freddy might have it going back and forth with three of them, but he might have album of the year, dude, me and you see things in

the same way. Okay, Alfredo to me, what's your what's your three that you're going back and forth with? See, Benny just kind of fucked ship up because I had I had Alfredo, I had, uh, Who's what was the fucking album I was listening. I can't even think off the top right now, but I had Alfredo, I had Nas in there, I had I had Big Sean in there. It was one more that I can't think right now at the top of my head. But I had those three for sure. But Bennie album is like, yeah, dope.

I did as I did a list earlier in the year before a lot of like Big Sean and Nos dropped, and I had Alfredo's one, and then somewhere in there there was like Pray for Paris from Westside Gun. Yeah. I think Run the Jewels four is dope. Run the Jewels was definitely dope. But since then, I mean, Little Baby My Turn is not an album that I necessarily but you got to give him his respect. That was mine's.

You gotta put that up. It was Baby because for me, I've been listening to a Little Baby since he first came out. So to hear the growth, hear the growth, and just not only his tone and voice, but just his lyrics and beat selection and the way he jumping in and out of cadences any subject matter. For sure, I think, Yeah, I think Big Sean Detroit too is up there. For me. I just felt like it was a super vulnerable album. Definitely conways. Shit, it was that

time too for some movies. It's been a great year for hip hop, but I think that Alfredo is still number one. I'm with you, I'm with you. It's not too far from Withie. You're You're from the Bay from the but you don't make the music. You're you're a Jedi on the mic man I like to call it certain rappers jedis lenthally You're special. Why why is it that when I hear your music, I don't necessarily hear

the Bay Area influence off the rep Great question. I grew up like just Bay Area to the core, you know what I mean, white T shirt, blue jeans, and Nikes, just three times crazy, just listening to all the base shit mac mall right, and I think around the high the era, right when the high Fi era came in, I started traveling a lot like with my parents. My parents was like heavy in the real estate game. And I tell people all the time, I grew up kind

of opposite of how most of my friends did. So a lot of my friends they had like struggling upbringings when they was very young. I didn't, right my parents, it's kind of that's your parents on. Yeah, me and Mom's in Vegas, so they had shit going on. Cardinals won that game, by the way. I told us that, but they already had things going on. So we was

able to travel a lot. So my parents had homes in like Atlantic City, Las Vegas, and we would just move around and I would notice, like a lot of the songs that I loved back home wasn't being played in these other areas. So I would make friends in Vegas, and make friends in Atlantic City, and make friends in Philly, and I would play these songs and they would be like, what is this, bro? What's this right? You know what

I'm saying? And for a minute, I used to feel like, Oh, they don't like to beat or they don't get it, or they don't they think it's it's like a gimmick or something like that. But what it is is we live on like an island, right, So our culture is very just like independent and it's us to the core. So a lot of people don't really know about PEMP culture, right, you know what I mean a lot of people don't really know about bipping and you know what I mean,

certain things we do in the bay. So when we talk about these things in the songs and the lyrics, the rest of the world is like, what's that? Like, what is he talking about? Like I don't get what he's saying because it's something they not used to seeing every day. So when I started making music, I started like writing from not like an eye perspective. I feel like a lot of artists where I'm from write from an eye perspective, Like I take the bitch, I do this,

I got the whip, I do this. I try to wrap from like a wee perspective to where anybody could see it. So it's like I say, lines to where the bay get it. It's like you think you gonna get the panties if you make a paddic freeze. I could take a bitch to apple Bee. She won't be mad at me, you know what I'm saying. But it's an Applebee's everywhere. Everybody wearing paddics, you know what I mean, Everybody spending money on girls that two for twenty apple

Bee is man, you know what I'm saying. So it's just like always try to speak from a perspective of being from the Bay, but where the world could identify with things I'm saying within the music, Yeah, I think that the Bay is Like we were just talking a little bit about this, but I think the Bay is

its own. It's it's very There's the only place that I can kind of like on a very much smaller scale is I moved to Tampa, and I when I did radio on Tampa for a few years, and when I went to the club there, I heard some shit called junk music, and it's only in Tampa will that shit get played nowhere else. It's like one hundred like a go go thing. It's like one hundred and five bpms with bells in it. It's like it's like it's some shit. It's called Tampa juk music. And I was like,

what what the fuck is this? And I feel like in the Bay it's the biggest example of that as far as like except for you know, the Bay has influenced everybody. I mean no, Like I feel like the Bay does not get there just do. And I say this all the time. I think the Bay has so much influence on hip hop and they don't get their just hip hop shit fashion technology chech. Now of course,

of course you know what I mean. Like it's a lot more weed, But I feel like it's just an island and it's like okay, Like you could go to the Bay and they'll be like they'll be like records that go up that aren't even necessarily Bay records that are just so big in that you'll be like, yo, this song was like this was a big record, like what you won't even really know like that. Yeah, you won't even really know this song like that unless you come to the Bay and you see the effect of it.

So you're driving through the Bay, you hearing it on the radio, You're seeing people in the car plt you big. You have a big DJ. So I'm sure you've had a lot of DJ gigs up there where you're spinning in the clubs and you hearing the people coming to you telling you to play records that you might not even have, Like what the hell is this? You know?

That that happened to me one time, and then I just I had to be like okay, I had to hit a home man and be like, yo, I just need the I just need the folder of like the odd records that I should just have on deck for

if I'm ever done. And it was like just crazy shit like Trunk Boys, Cupcake, no feeling shit that you just would never expect, Like I want to say, like baby Boy, that just some like random ship that like you're like, yo, I didn't know this song was a thing, Like I knew about the song, but I don't know anywhere else gave. But nah, I do think that it's like, you know, obviously with the rich history of the Bay is dope that there is, you know, for what you do,

there is a dope side of the Bay. There's you know, back in the nineties there was high Row and Souls a mischief and all that. But I think that like you're bringing a lot of people associate Mazi with the bass from Sacramento shut Out to the Feller Feller to shut out Mai shut Out to Sacramento too. But I feel like you're in an a dope position where you're you can make music that that everybody in hip hop respects,

and you also happen to be from the Bay. That's a life could go because I think a lot of times a Bay Area artists, we associate them with being from the Bay first, and unfortunately there's some sort of preconceived stigma that comes with that that you might have already made up your mind about that artist, even though you know that's not fair, that's not okay, But I mean, it's is. It is what it is. It's life, you know what I mean. Like we look at things and

we judge it. Sometimes like twenty four Ker Golden's got the number one song in the country and I had no idea recently, you wouldn't know he was from the Bay. But it's like he's doing a different type of thing, you know what I mean. Most people, like you said, you know they're from the Bay because you could hear it in the music. You can hear it in the sound, you could hear it, and how they represent themselves certain things they may post on Instagram or where they may be.

But there's another level we could take things to. That's a Gez level, Ki Lane level, or now twenty four K level, So where we could take things to another level, to where the world could identify with us and rock with us, and we could speak for the and be a platform for other artists in the Bay. They want to take it to that same level. Yeah, talk about your situation. So I met you probably like two years ago. Came up to the studio with your boy. I forget

your boys name. Yeah, oh Lou no lou Me and Lou set up my brother Lewis built and your freestyle. I think Nico, Nico, Nico Blitz. Nico Blitz is who put me on. Yes, he had Nico Blitz And guess what he's actually the most cringe cringiest part of the Bay. Just go on Nico's page and you know whether it's this fool is thiszzing and doing all kinds of ship like he'll throw yee on anything he can. It's unnecessary. Yeah, like yo, faan, like what that is? Why do you there?

Nico Blitz? But that's that's how he is in the Bay, Like we're passionate about it's really a coach. We got. I feel like we got everything a culture has except the flag, right, Like we got our own type of food, we got our own language. You know, I'm I mean, the way we moved, the way we dressed, just everything. It's that's our language. We stand on the ye's and the yadata means and you know what I mean. So help me understand, because like you came up in freestyle

and that was about two years ago. Yeah, I didn't know. You had just told me that you would, like you were like around during the beginning of the Young California. Yeah. Yeah, so we can get into it. So kind of give me, give me, give me all that your background, like your journey. So basically Brouh, I always been like doing music. I was playing ball and doing music. After high school, I realized I didn't want to go to college, right, it was just like something I didn't want to do. I'm

not someone fit for a school setting. So I was like, I'm gonna do music for a time. And I gained like popularity in my community very fast, in like the Pittsburgh Antioch area. So you ever heard of Young Kirt. Yeah, I was like the label that pushed the young Kirt. So it was me, it was Kurt, it was Young d It was a bunch of us, and I was kind of more so playing the executive role and Kurt

was the artist, so I had to stopped rapping. I'm being his hype man a certain shows, doing certain meetings and everything like that, to where I was just in executive mode. So we kind of had a falling out and I went back to doing music. That's when I met Amen Nick Knack and everything, and we had came together. I never forget this day. It was at PF Chains

in em Reville. It was me a men Charisma starting six Young Murf, Bobby Brackens, and I am suit right p LO two, and we were starting this thing called Young California and it was gonna be like a label where we all collabed and did music and everything. And what happened was about a few weeks to maybe a month later, Beat the Pussy Up just shot the fuck out the fucking world. It just just went out the fucking world. And that brought a lot of exposure to

the Bay. It brought a lot of publicity, a lot of publicists started coming out, a lot of these big brands started coming out, and HBK was at the forefront of that because they had the they had that was really a sue record too, by the way, it was a Sue record that Due didn't want to be. He didn't want the record. Sue was like a real lyrical

rapper at the time. He was tripping, by the way, like he was a Sue was rapping on Ship like Jay Electronica Exhibit C and shit like that, right, So he didn't want it to be looked at like he was trying to make like a yeah, like a sellout record, So he let Rance take the record. And Rance was a party promoter. So Rance is going to all the parties every fucking night, grabbing the mic, playing this ship over and over and over and over, and it just shoots the fuck up, right, So it brings a lot

of attention to the back. Now you got fifty cent getting on the record, t I and g Z and Pleasure P and Chris Brown. Shout out to Jay Valentine who put that together, that that Jay Valentine remix, the one I play, Yeah Yeah, that's my dog shout out

Big Broke. So a lot of that had happened, and a lot of the artists under that kind of got lost in the sauce because we just didn't have what HBK had going on, and it was their Tom DeShawn, so HBK took off and I kind of started noticing like they was getting bigger than the Bay, right, And then you started seeing like G come out, Geezy comes and then he's taking everybody on tour, you know what I mean. He's bringing Sue, He's bringing j in, He's

bringing Nef to Farrell. So now we're starting to get recognition. But it was certain artists who was getting those looks. That wasn't the people I just named, But they were hitting the ceiling. And I always noticed they would hit this ceiling there, get a record, They go to Petalumadu shows, get a couple of Thiszler posts, do a couple summer gems, and it was over. It was never nothing after that. But Sue and G and everybody they shit was still going.

And I noticed it was going because they wasn't just staying in the bay, you know what I mean. They started moving around and doing different things. So at the time, I was like, you know, doing little bass shit, you know, we all do scams and little things that he was doing to get money. Saved up enough money and I moved to LA and the minute I moved here, I realized for the type of music I wanted to make.

I wasn't good enough. So I met Phonics who had me around like while he's making no role models for j Cole, I'm going to sessions with hit Maker while he's writing Ray Shrimmer hits and just like all these big ass songs, and I'm like, oh shit, all I can do is rap. I can't write a hook. I don't know how to structure a song. But if you put on the instrumental, I'm a flame thisss motherfucker right.

And it wasn't until I met somebody around almost around the time when I met you, the homie d Brooks, who is from Chicago does a lot of work with like Dirk and Herbo and everybody, and he kind of was the first person to put it in perspective for me, Like, bro, a lot of your raps its hooks. You could take this part and make it the hook, you know what I mean. You can move this over here, you could do this. And I started learning how to structure ship. But then the problem I start having was I would

hear something and try to duplicate it. So one day I'll be a rapper and the next day I'll hear some future ship going up, and I'm like, this is they won't. I think that's what a lot of people get sucked into. Many are they? I mean that s dope that you admit that, because a lot of artists get wrapped up in that. It's easy to super easy,

especially if you consume music as a fan. You're like you waking up every fucking Thursday night at nine p m. Or in the morning, and you're looking at the new fucking music that drops, right, it's very hard not to be influenced by it. And you see this ship. You see it like, Okay, this is what the fuck works? Well, ship, let me try. Let me do this, you know what I mean. And you try it and it don't work.

It's not organic. It's not organic, right. So what I realized by doing that I wasn't developing an identity for myself. So I had to sit back, bro, and I really had to think, like, what is it I want to do. It's around the time I had met you in head, when y'all had brought me up there, And that goes to show how real y'all is. As DJ's right, and not even just DJ's just culture curators to bring somebody who's trying to figure it out up there with no record,

no nothing. It's just like, shit, the kid can rap. Let him come up here, you know what I mean. So I appreciate that. But around that time I start figuring out, like, what I really do great is rap? Right? And I met my homie cast that you met, my producer. He went out to eat and he had two videos up and me, I had this song out one time where I was singing and another song where I was rapping. And he put them on two phones and he asked

me which one are you right? And I said I'm the rapper and he was like, then why are you singing? I'm like, well, this what people told me. This what they like to hear. And he looked at me and he said it, man, don't ever run from rap. Don't ever run from rap. You too good of a rapper to run from rap. And ever since that day, running from rap to me started meaning this's the first time I ever said this publicly, is don't run from responsibilities

and principles. Right. I had a responsibility as a rapper, you know what I mean, to be dope and to be great at that. That's the gift I was given, but I'm running away from it to try to chase what other people's things is. So I'm basing my values and my expectations based off of other people. It's getting rather than just living in my own truth of what I am. And a minute I start doing that, bro, it was like shit start clicking. I started realizing, like, Okay,

I don't want to be somebody in the streets. Let me make a song about that, you know what I mean. I don't want to be selling drugs and scamming my whole life. Let me make a song about that. And that's how I started developing a consistent message and the identity of what I'm standing on as far as growth and as a man of doing something different than what we all are supposed to do as black men growing up in poverished communities. Wow, man, yeah no, that's I

think that. Like what you just said, man, a lot of artists can relate to if they're seeing this. It's like you don't like not everyone's path is the same, and like you can't like you know, if you if you look at who is the best, right, who's been around for ten years, fifteen years? Like if you think of Kendrick Cole. Obviously Drake, Drake can do everything. He's

an alien. But like those guys are like superior MC's like you look at them as rappers right first, and then like you said, like I think a lot of artists, they might put some shit out and if it doesn't set the world on fire, it starts to question. They start to question themselves and then they think, oh, well, nah, I got it because I'm not doing what's popping. And it's like and it's very hard to fall in that trap because you gotta think. I know, for me personally,

it was hard for me to develop a team. Yeah, so this is the first time in my life, well first time in my rapping career where I've had a consistent team that know what the fuck they're doing. Every time else it's been like me and my friends, and

that shit is frustrating, you know what I'm saying. When you in the studio with your homies and you just wrote the ship, just wrote your life on a whole song, and you get in the car and they put on just like Future, you know what I'm saying, or money Man, and it's just like, damn, bro, you don't fuck what I just did. And it's like you ain't got no malice towards money, man, But it started making you think, like, Okay, should I be doing this? You know what I mean?

Because this is what my people like? So should I be making it to confuse you? So it's very important to to you know, have those people on you. You said want you to become comfortable in your own skin. That shit don't phase you. Don't phase you, bro, because you really anything in life fact that could be you know.

That's why I tell people all the time who go get whack ass car payments that they can't afford and like, yo, man, like wouldn't you rather just have a normal car and to be paid off than string about like they be comfortable in your own skin? Be comfortable, bro. But it's people's expectations. Bro. Were living in a society where also instant gratification society, that's all I was just about to

go into. Were living in a society where you're supposed to be a millionaire of twenty five or look like or look like it. Right, So every girl like you broke if you can't take them to roof Chris every night, you ain't you ain't doing it if you can't buy the bitch chanel every night when and all actually reality, this ain't real life. Motherfuckers is on Instagram every day with four hundred thousand up they arm you're not walking around with four hundred thousand dollars every day like this

is that's not real life. But it'll make the consumer feel like, oh, I'm not good enough because this is what they doing. They walking around do you're down every day. I think it's even worse now because there's just normal people hitting these eded checks. Lord, bro, just looking like kid they just went to jail. Yeah, the kid who raped about it and put a video out snitching on himself, Like why would you put that out? He really snitch

on himself. He's not looking at it like that. He's looking at it from the perspective of this is what I have to do because this will get me some like this will give me a post on. Yeah. No, that's what's crazy. It's like, bro, like you're snitching on yourself yourself. Bro. Yeah, I'll be seeing a lot of these these scamming, scamming rappers like that that kid from Detroit, TJ. Whatever his name is. I'll be like, bro, you be snitching on Like God blessed, nothing's happened to him. But like,

I don't know who that is. It's this kid from Detroit. His whole thing is scamming. And I'm like, yo, man, like you're putting a spotlight on yourself. Why if you're active, actively still doing it, like chill out, bro, But yeah, I think that's so you your current situation that with that,

how did you end up getting on that? So when I met Cash, I had once I had don't run from rap just in my mind, I went back to the drawing board of living like an up and coming rapper, right, so I always he's been able to take care of

myself and pay my bills and shit like that. But I had to go back to the actual art of sitting at the computer and writing a verse right, listening to rock him, studying cadences, studying scheme, studying four bar elements, you know, studying voice inflection, just playing with different things, studying character. When Hoover hit the now, you know you got to, you know, hit him back like that. You got them back like that, You're right, you know what

I mean? Like when niggas is playing with their tones and playing with their voices. I had to go back and relearn that, right, right, I had to relearn the art. So I'm watching the art of sixteen bars documentaries every day. So I'm just writing, writing, writing, writ and writing. And I met Casts in September. So from September to March, me and Cast would be in the studio every day and I would write a verse. He'd tell me that ain't it? Write another one that ain't it? You should

say it like this, that ain't it. They got to a point where I'm like, this motherfucker hating you know what I'm saying, Like he wants me to sound like how he think it's to sound. But he was, really he was. Even though some of the shit I was writing was dope, he was making me a supreme version of myself to show me, like, you can go deeper, you can go further with this. So around March I started making these songs. I made a song called Trapped.

I made a song called Black Jesus in a song called Loco, and I heard I heard the Black Jesus record. Yeah yeah, so Black Jesus, I tell you crazy story about that that are going to That record's not out right. No, no, no, it's not out. So I made these songs in like three days. Okay, Right, So Cas gets a text from Dallas because they're cool just for me, know, industry shitting

knowing each other and everything. He gets a text from Dallas like, Yo, I'm having an oxcore party tonight at Warner you know, some artists tell him to come through and play some music, right, So we go up there and the first thing I know, this is like everybody's on the same shit, right. They jumping on the table, they dancing, they pulling the money out, they showing the wadch stage, you know, doing all this. So I'm just in the back of the room and I'm just observing,

just not saying nothing, you know what I mean. So Dallas looks at me, He's like, ain't you that kid that be freestyling on Instagram? I'm like, yeah, like you ain't got no music? Like yeah, So I grabbed the dog's court. I play Black Jesus. Darryl Jones stops the song like, what the fuck is this? Shout out to Darryl Jones stops the song. He' like, what the fuck is this? Play this again? I play it again. Dallas pulls me outside. He's like, what's your name. I'm like, Simba.

We're talking for a minute. Next day I wake up, Cash texts me Dallas wanted to meet at the office. Right. So it was crazy because everything we've been doing for those eight months before I met Dallas, this was preparation for this meeting. For meeting, yeah, you know what I mean. So I had records ready to go. He asked me the freestyle. I was ready to go on this spot. I knew how to talk in the label. I knew how to speak, I knew when to shut up, you know what I mean. So it was preparation. So I

played Dallas about five records. He was like, what you gotta do Thursday? And he's like, what you gotta do Tuesday. I was like shit, he was like, we're going to New York. Like cool, Tuesday, come shoot out to New York. I get off the plane hopping the uber. Dallas tells me to meet him in the studio. I walk in the fucking studio and Meek is in there. I'm like,

holy fucking shit. Right So, in this moment, I'm thinking like, okay, they about to try to test me right now, to like you never like, yo, look you gon battle one of these dudes. I'm like this this Meek fucking Meal. You know what I'm saying. This ain't no average Joe. This is Meek fucking Meal. You know what I'm saying. So I'm I'm like, all right, boom, I'm cooling. I sit back. But he's making a song. So I'm just sitting back making a song. So Dallas like, y'all want

to play you something? Meek so like simple plug up. So I'm like, oh shit, So I grabbed the ox, play the music. Meek. Look at me like, bro, you just inspired me. Look at me dead, and I like, you just inspired me, Bro, Like I haven't heard nobody rap like this in a long time. You just inspired me. From that day on, I started feeling like I belong. It's nothing nobody could tell me that helps you and your family. And that's a that's a very secure man

right there. He cares about his family. You see that ship right there. I don't know what just happening. He got the alarm to make sure his family is fucking straight. Take notes. I don't know what just happened. No, my phone thought we're talking to it anyway. But no, you say, nobody, nobody can tell you shit. Nobody can tell me shit because it's a Moti Platinum artists. In one of my you know, idols, I kind of look at in this shit telling me to my face, I just inspire him,

you know. So I'm like, can't nobody tell me shit? Right? The next day I have the meeting. I walk in the meeting and I'm not even knowing who I'm really in the meeting with till the next day. Right, So it's me Dallas, Craig Kalman, Mike Kaiser, and Julie Greenwald, right, Donnie Chase? Whose are my managers? Right now? I know these names, I don't know how big they really are. Like, I know Craig Calmen used to be like a DJ back in the day, and I know Julie Greenwall worked

at like Lee or Kohen and all these things. But I didn't know how big they actually were, right the guers, So I play two songs. On the second song, in the middle of the song, Julie stands up and gives me a hug. Stands up and hugs me, and she says, welcome to a lamb. She looked at Dallas. She looked at Mike and she said, don't let him leave till

we get this done. Right. So now I'm like, all right, you know cool, But being like I said from the Bay, we don't really know the industry shit like this, so I'm still learning as I go. So I'm like cool, you know cool. And we walked out of the office and Cash is like, she's like, nigga, you know me, Like, do you realize what the fuck just happened? Like nigga Julie Greenwald, just like I don't know who that is. I'm like yeah, like yeah. So we're on the elevator,

he's breaking down and she did this she did. I'm like, oh shit, you know what I'm saying though, like I didn't really know all of this. So we leave New York. I get back and from that day on, bro it was just like a week later. I went to the BT Awards. Damn. So sitting I'm sitting five rows back from the stage and I see again right, and he like, what's up. I'm like, oh shit, you know what I'm saying. I just at the time, I got a little money, but I'm I just blew like twenty five hundred on

the outfit. You know what I'm saying, I've really got it to be in here like this right now, you know what I'm saying. Because the deal wasn't done yet, so I'm in the bet shit and I'm just just peeping it, bro, and just getting in my in my

aura like it's time, like it's game time. And just from that day, Bro, I just started walking in the studio with that confidence and knowing like I'm competing with the best of them, you know what I mean, I'm competing with the top people at this point, and it's all about making that great music. Yeah, I mean, I think the way you just ran through everything, it seemed like it happened quickly. But i mean we're talking when was the Love Ranch record That was like twenty twelve Yeah,

years of preparation, eleven twelve years. We're talking like this shit happened. That's almost ten years sex and even beyond that because it was like a rapping in like nine. That shit's crazy, you know what I mean, it's just after high school. I'm like, I'm do it professionally. Yeah, do you feel like how much pressure? Like, because like

you said, you're really comfortable in your own skin. But do you feel like any sort of pressure as far as like being like staying staying true to yourself, but also like kind of putting off for the Bay at the same time, I don't feel pressure because I feel like sometimes pressure comes from like not having an overall plan of what you want to do. And I think with you know, being from the Bay and sounding different, my overall plan is to bring something different to the Bay, right.

So I'm not saying, uh, I don't listen to s ob Slimmy b go to fuck crazy, you know what I mean? I fuck with I fuck with Slimmy. I'm saying, now we have a lyrical side of that, So now you have a second option. You can do the Slimmys, you could do the nef the Farrells, you could do the forties, because we all do different things. But now we have a symbol, you know what I mean. So if you want lyrical content and you want some you know, more mainstream sounded things, we got this over here. So

it's not really to you know, have pressure. It's just more so for me to be able to help people from the Bay who's trying to do the same thing. I'm trying to be that platform for them to be able to come out and do the same thing. Now we had gotten into it over. You put a best Bay Area Rapper of all time lists together? Yeah, sure, that's twenty five. That's twenty five in my opinion. Okay, So who did you have as you're like, top five? Okay, I had shit, I had two short e forty mac dre.

Who did I have in there? It was? It was I think I had. I want to say you had somebody that was like pretty high. Who I didn't? Fucking I never even had heard of it. I can't even remember. I don't got the list off the top. I want to say it was a se Bow shout out to ce Bow. I think I had c Bowl in there. Let me see if it's nah, take it down. It was getting too hectic, I bet it was. Yeah, it was getting too hectic. But it was a top five list. And you know, Kevin hit me up because my man G. Yeah,

you didn't have. G wasn't on the list. Now I understand Gez is like, you know, not the the Gez is a pop star. I get that, But I think G is a rapper first, and I feel like he's put he's he's done so much to try to push the Bay Area forward, even even as ah. So we got into it because I was like, wait, G, how's G not on this list? In my opinion? Right? How how I looked at the list is based off just Bay Area rap, right, people in the Bay Area that just rap. Right. So G is, like you just said,

a pop star. So G is able to have the meet myself and ours, right, So you're looking at it through like the lens of like the Bay Area island. Yes, okay, I'm looking at the people that has to do New Parish and you know, the consistent circuit in the Bay. Andre Nicotina was who I had for the Nicotina He's a Bay Area legend, right, But you never gonna hear Nicotina make a pop record that he's rapping on. He's just gonna stick to his core, you know what I mean.

Forty makes big records, you know what I mean? Forty and shortest they out of here. That's bigger than the Bay you know what I mean. Forty can't even talk about that. But just from the perspective of people that was in the Bay and all they had was rap, is what I was basing it off of. So to me, G is bigger than rap. G is somebody that helps

lift rap in the bay. So for me to put him on that list, to me was kind of disrespectful because I would put G up there with the Drakes and the you know, the the pop stars, the big He's bigger than that. So that's how I for Who do you like being your like the artist that you are? Who did you like you talked to? You said earlier that you got Drake is like number one? Go yeah? But like who who like growing up? Like? Who was your like go to? I mean, shit, you're obviously a

hip hop head. You know. You say you got the Gibbs album number one for the year, which I agree with, But like, what what was like the kind of shit that you kind of grew up listening to that like kind of formed your lyrical your lyrical shiit No, definitely because it wasn't Slimmy Ben. But shout out to Slimmy though, because you know, that's that's why I say, don't run from rap because that's rap. Two? Yeah, for sure, I mean we are rapping, but number one would have to Behole. Yeah.

I feel like just even the way I grew up as far as in a family that was rooted in business and him coming into game speaking on ownership and just being a business minded person. I always kind of related to that. Number two, and I'm and I'm not saying these are my top five are the people I listened to the most growing up. Number two would have to be Tupac. Okay, my auntie was like a big Tupac fan. She thought she was gonna marry this motherfucker,

you know what I'm saying. She loved Tupac, and she used to force Tupac on me as a kid, like when I was like three. She used to like make me like learn, like try to learn the lyrics and things like that. So Tupac was one. Number three would be Biggie because I'm a big fan on like Cadences. Oh here the best. So when Biggie would hit the windn't the rymies in the system, ain't no telling what fucking or not this something? That's what they be yelling.

I was infactuated with how to fuck. He fit words in that, you know what I mean, and he kept it flying and player. So Biggie was one. Four would be DMX I. DMX made a lot of songs that mean a lot to me. Dark and Hell's High and fucking Flesh and my Flesh were like, man, everything, bro, it was like everything, And as a kid, you didn't

really go through those things yet I felt them. Moved to the Hard Knock Life tour and left like jay Z did one song and we left because Jay closed that tour out and this was volume two Hove and I was just like I came here for DMX. I was twelve. I was like, let's get the fuck out of here. Beat the line like we came here for X. Yeah, jay Z's queued up there with his fucking he had like a bends on stage and shit, I honestly think X was like on the verge of being like bigger

than pok Oh. Yeah, like because he had to and he didn't have his personal demon. Man, he would be up there up there, Yeah, up there, up there. So I got X four and number five for me would have to be fifty for show fifty on some rapping now related to I said before I get that a lot. I said before you said Joah rule over fifty when we talked first, See this is where this that guy Can used said growing up, when I was kicking it

with the girls, I would play more jar Rule. So when I kicked it off right and here it was like what I'm like, bro, I'm not saying on the fuck with fifty, I'm saying I just played a lot with Jo that way. I don't recall it that as diplomatic. We're gonna run it back. We're gonna run it back. If I'm like he was, you was Jo roll over fifty? Like, no, it's never over fifty. It's just I listened to Jo Ru a lot more growing up. But then as I got older and got into you know clip, Yeah, no

it's good, it's on it's on YouTube. Yeah, we'll find it, we'll put it in there. But as I got older, Fifty related to me more. But as a kid from Melodies, was was catchy as ship I did not. The only was Benni Vennyvich. You don't fuck with three three six, you don't fuck with uh. I was out on all that ship Man. The last Temptation, I like, I'm taking care of the murder inc School. After we wrapped this up,

I was hoping I was opening murdered job. I was hoping Murder Inc. Was gonna be whole jow Ruling DMX and then, you know, because they were supposed to be, they did that record together. But yeah, after Venni vetty Vici, when he started doing all that, I was just like, you know what, this ain't for me, bro Josh, it wasn't for me. Bro. No, he had I mean, he had great hit records and like I went to an old school concert a few years ago with my wife and but he lyrics him busy though, like you niggas

is pussy punani va. Johnny, your monologue is getting tired, so it's time to rush. So take off that silly chain. Put back on the watch. I'm on fire. Hoghy dipped that octange Lady's coach Bang coach balance back Joe Rule's career. But I'm straight, Bennie vetty Vicci was my ship. Shut out the giant fifty man, I know, you know, and hey issues like I went to I went to a show and it was him and a shanty at Microsoft Theater and I was like, damn, this motherfucker had some joints.

For sure, Yeah, big hits, but I might But at the same time, I'm like I was like, I wasn't fucking with it. Like I also like outside of Country Grammar, I didn't. I was also I felt the same way about Nellie No, we're not about to do this. No, because I fucking loved Country Grammars, but Nellyville and all that shit. We didn't like Nellieville. I'm good man. I liked im number one, but like once, look as a kid,

once you start, you didn't like Sweat and Soup. Hell no place, fuck No, I don't think anybody like that song. Buy you listen. I like Latinum record. Country Grammar was incredible fire. So the second album wasn't dope. It wasn't for me with with Diliminent juice here for me? Come on, kid, what are we talking about? I'm just saying for me as a kid, I was like, man, it's kind of the same way now, like we can have a conversation about Drake and I can respect it. We don't do this.

You're not gonna disrespect right. I think Drake is one of the greatest of all tame. But I can also say that for the most part, as a grown ass man, I am not in my car riding around listening to Drake and as a fucking twelve year old, thirteen year old kid, fourteen year old kid, I was not bumping the new Nelly in my discman, I don't know, man, in my disman, there was fucking because I ride around and listen to Drake. Now I might not listen Drake is.

I don't ever want to compare Drake and Nelly because Drake is a far more superior artist. Drake is a listen Drake is one of the greatest of all time. I will say that here, but but Drake lyrically, if you get in my car, you will not hear Drake. And it's you're telling me Drake puts out a new album. You telling me you've never been in the car by yourself and you've never played I ever had. It's it's been a while since I've like, okay, so you never

play energy by yourself? That that that whole product, Like I kind of just like I'm listening to like ship that nobody's heard of for the most part. You get my car and it's like you might you might hear like Beanie singal the Truth for some ship, like like you get a mic like like like I respect Drake I respect what he does, but like I mean, I just it's kind of the same thing for me. It

just doesn't tickle my fancy for the most part. But there are records like tuscan Leather like, there's like Drake records that Here's why I respect Drake so much. Oh, he's the greatest. Here's the reasons why I respect Drake, the multiple reasons why. But one of the main reasons is Drake never runs from rap. I don't disagree, right, so Drake, except for put when push your t he did?

He did? He didn't push won the battle. He ran from RAP at that point list he decided it's getting did he not say things are getting a little too hairy, saying this can affect business? Okay, But did he run from RAP then effectively run from REP? But he didn't. He didn't reply and he said this could affect business. So this is me making a business decision to not rap. He didn't run from REP. He did. Okay, that's the only black eye besides the ghost writer. He didn't run

from the rap. He stood on business. With that being said, push the T won the battle? Fine right here, But he did run from RAP though, Okay, he might he stood on business. He's sped walk away from he stood on business in one another way. But he didn't run from reed, walk away from rap. He didn't run from Okay's. He was a light jog. Here's a light jog. Here's what I love Drake. Drake will give you. Drake will give you God's Plan and give you a murder Listen.

I will give you a hit record and give you four AM and Calabassiti. So he understands a lot of people found me rapping right, and I can do the big songs, but I'm still gonna give him red Listen. People wouldn't do that, Bro. Drake is an all time great lyrically. He can rap circles around ninety nine percent of all rappers. He's incredible. I give him all that all day. But at the same time, like, I don't know.

If Drake makes music for me, that's fair, you know, for you, But I can grab some so you know, if I dig through his album, I'll find some shit that I fuck with. Yeah, And you know, I really like to laughing cry later record. I really like that. I really love this last I only just put out with the Lucy's the old songs. Yeah, well yeah that that shit was. That's the Drake. I like, I'm like, yoh, I remember when this sh was on Soundclass. Yeah, like

even for sure, I think Drake is incredible. Like I said, it's just in general, Like if Drake and you know, fucking Conway put an album out on the same day, like, I'm gonna go to the Conway album first because I'm gonna hear the Drake album. I'm on the radio, so like the Drake, I have to listen to the Drake album, like I have to, Like, it's part of my job. He's the biggest artist in the fucking world. But that's why I wasn't riding around listening to Nelly just as

a kid. If you went into my CD book, you would not see Nellyville in there. See here's what's crazy. It might be burnt. It was a burn CD. If it was in there, you disrespectful. I definitely was disrespectful. Definitely. How the fuck did you burn a diamond album? The only album of Nelly's had bought was Country Grammar. I thought you said you burnt Country Grammar. No, no, no, I bought Country Grammar the same day I bought three six Mothews. That's fair. If I was in San Diego, Diamond,

I was gonna say, how did you burn No Country? Grammars? Incredible? Okay, okay, okay, we're on the same page. Grammar. Here's what's crazy what you just said. If Conway and Drake was to drop album on the same day, I would do the same thing, right, but I would listen to it for different reasons. See, I would listen to Kanye Conway first to get me in my zone, to be able to listen right, to open my ears up. So when I get to the Drake thing, I'm already prepared for what's better I listen.

I appreciate Drake's music. I think take Care is the closest thing he has to a classic. I think that I'm still waiting for him to wait a minute, wait a minute. I don't think he has a classic like undeniable classic. I think take cares by the closest, the closest thing he has. Yeah, because it's not a consensus classic. It's a classic to me. Take Care is not a classic. I think it might be to me, but I think

it's not a consens like you know, doggy style. No one would tell you Doggy Stoyle isn't a classic take Care people will be like, nah, that wouldn't like there are like like I'm talking, we know the albums Get Richard I Trying is in the rafters? What? And by the way, I have to only wrap to make a classic album. Eminem doesn't have a consensus classic. He doesn't I agree which one, buddy, Eminem? Come on, man, but are we talking fucking Marshall's LP is a consensus hip

hop classic? Not at all, sir, I don't know, not at all. No, there was some bullshit on that album. I don't know. I'm a care on this one. But Eminem is one of the great and and by the way, he's got three really good albums that are close to great albums, Marshall Mathers, LP, and Eminem Show. There's arguments to be made that those three albums are classics, but they're not consensus classics. Eminem doesn't have an album better than Give Richard I Trying period. Eminem doesn't have an

album better than Doggy Style or Illmatic. Like the consensus classics are the ones where there's just no Drake. I think has two classic ish the take Care Wait, what are the three, Okay, it's they're on the same level. I don't know, I don't know, I don't know. I

would take take care of a classic. I would take take to me it's a classic, but it's not like and I'm a hip but just this is why I want to ask this question because I feel like, right we cheat people with the classic where we say people don't have a classic because they may have a song where they're singing no no, no, no, no no no. I don't think so when you're saying, but I feel like a lot of times we do that because, like Drake said in an album before, classic is just ten of

E's you know what I'm saying, where he's just saying like like y'all just want me to rap. So there's something not become a hip hop classic because it may have a pop record on it. Naw. You know what I think with Drake's missing from his repertoire is that I think up until Scorpion, Drake had a really hard time of letting us into who he really is. Wait wait wait wait wait, I mean that like through his music and furthermore, Drake has never really taken a stand

on any sort of political issues. Or like dance out of his comfort zone when it comes to the content he's rapping about. Is that not fair? That's not fair criticism A lot of only hearing this by the way, let's like, let's listen to this, Like, come on, guys, this is on a classic album drug ballad on this sucks, dick? Did you hear what he just said? So this is this is on a classic album. This shitty ass eminem song is on Marshall Moders this song suck. Did you

hear what you just said? What did I say? You just said? Drake never opened up until Scorpio. I mean, like about his pers like he's talking about He's been telling us about his life. He's talking aboutes, he fucked, he's talking about heartbroken. But I'm talking about his mom and his dad's with lace. I know his girlfriend name from, have no idea I know the girlfriends. I don't know. I don't have stayed on. Have no idea what Drake's political leanings are. I don't know how it feels about

social issues. I don't know who. Maybe that's okay, that's different. I have no idea who, like, I don't know where. I don't know his opinion on a lot of things outside of he likes fat bitches with the girls with fat asses that used to work in hooters. You know what I'm saying. No, Drake also is the kind of guy I would suspect. Drake also subscribes to a lot of only fans accounts. For sure. Listen, Drake opens up about a lot of things. Does he not how many

only fans account subscriptions? Do you think you guys my business? I think Drake's and the dms are only fans, like, yel what's up? Girl? This is Drake? No for real, it is. I just wanted to sad give you this. Fourteen ninety nine one of the three. I think take Care. Yeah, if you're reading, it's too late, you know what. I can't. I know a lot of people say that, but yeah he didn't write and yeah, nothing was the same. Nothing was the same as the two. For me, it's nothing.

I think Nothing was the same as his best album. Personally me too, But I think take Care is the one. It's like, there's not one song you can skip, won't take Care. I don't disagree. It's a great album. You can't skip one song on take we can skip I think that's the only I think in the last uh, you know, recently. We'll say the last ten years, twenty twelve,

so we'll say the last eight years. I think that the only I'm not saying that there's not other classics, because I do think Freddy gets a Mad Live God classic. But these are classics that like, well, Kendrick has three classes. No, listen, I was gonna say the only consensus, non deniable classic album that's come out is Good Kid, Bad City, because To Pimp a Butterfly is a very controversial album. It's very polarized. I don't disagree with you. I think Kendrick

dropped three classics in a row. I mean through the lens of like, nobody is gonna say the Good Kid Mad Good Kid, Mad City is up there with Good Richard. I true to Pimp a Butterfly is one of the most polarizing albums ever. I think it's a classic. I actually think it's probably Kendrick's best album in my opinion. I think Damn, No, that's his worst album in my opinion, But Damn is a classic. In my opinion, he kind of missed both. No, I agree, but Damn is a classic.

So for me, just out of those three I put it, I go, you know, either Good Kid, Mad City to Pimp a Butterfly, you can go the way they came out. But I think the only album in the last eight years that we look at and we're like, that is a classic. Nobody can say shit is that album? Now. I have opinions on other projects that I think are classics, okay, but I just mean, like, there's just those albums that you're like, would you say my Twisted Dark Fantasy? Of

course that was twenty ten, that was twenty ten. That to me is the best album ever. That was twenty ten. I mean, Connie is my favorite artist. Watched the Throw. No, I don't think that's a classic, not a classic. I think it's a good album. There's some good shit on there. You know, get it, get it, you know. I actually think I think Jesus is a classic. I think Yessus changed sonics and hip hop. I agree. I think at

World is a classic. But guess what I'm talking about, Just like you like, there're nobody could say shit about Good Kid, Mad City? No, I agree. I'm saying Damn is my favorite because and me maybe maybe Forest Hills Drive maybe and I don't maybe maybe, but it's an not on the same level as Good Kid Mad City. See what Good Kid like it's so dope because it was like, not only his first introduction, but it was

just so classic, right. But for me, as an artist, the psyche of an artist, it's hard to continue to do that, right. So for him to come with something that's polarizing us to Pimp a Butterfly and then Mesh to Pimp a Butterfly and Good Kid Mad City into a damn yeah, damn commercial. As an artist, I have the biggest records. Yeah, Like, that's a plenty, and I don't want to say that there's not other classic albums

in that eight year span. I think My Crazy Life by YG is a classic, but I think I think that. I don't know if I definitely think My Crazy I agree, but I don't think people like if you talk to motherfuckers in New York, they might be like, nah, that shit was just all right. I mean, like, yo, these are this a Hall of Fame album. Nobody's gonna say ship when you put that up there on the mantle. No one will say shit if my beautiful dark Twist and fantasies on the back or reasonable doubt or a

good kid mad city get rid of that. Yeah. So I mean, look, Eminem's all time great, and I personally, I don't think he's got a consensus classic. I agree he has great albums, but as far as just a classic from top to bottom in my opinion, I don't know. Yeah, I don't know. But without them and I think Eminem Show is my favorite Eminem album. Eminem Show is my favorite Eminem album definitely. I even like the Encore album

as well. Though Encore had some ship on it that was like it had some really bad ship, like some of the worst shit I ever heard, But it has some ship that I love, some dope shit. He had something like that that uh that that he just had some ship. I was a really toxic relationship and he had some ship. I was like, yeah, this ship talking to me. All right? So you got this is gonna come out for your two chain single comes out? Yes, sir, I know you have a lot of records you're sitting on. Yes,

what is the like, what's next for you? Obviously we got the Change project, the videos out or the Change single. Rather, is this leading into a project that yeah, he don't run from rap, don't run from responsibilities and principles. The name of the houris Don't Run from Rap. No, No, he dropped from rap. He didn't run. Drake didn't run from rap. He ran from Push Your T. He's still on business. He ran to run from Ray. He ran from pushing. Shout out to push your T too, because

that's the big homie, one of the greatest of all time. Facts. But shout out to Drake because he didn't run from rap. He's stood on business. But like I was saying, yeah, the project is called Don't Run from Rap. It's coming very soon, very very soon, before the end of the year. I'm very excited about it. I haven't dropped the project since twenty fifteen. Wow. Yeah, so I've been like doing

a lot of You've been training, You've been in the gym. Yeah, so this is like the first thing I've dropped in five years, you know, Like, I'm hello excited about it. Bro, can we get a EP with you and Cash? We're gonna do an album. Okay, We're gonna do it out. Miss already in the in the works, and I've heard a lot of records with you two together. That are fucking nuts. Yeah, like we already doing that. Shut out my brother Jason Cash straight out of Carson the Limo's

Best You feel me, shut out my boy. But yeah, the project is coming. Got two chains on their money bag. Yo is on there. I got a record with this girl named Ayiannis who's on Atlantic as well. It's actually one of my favorite records on the project. But really, man, my overall plan, bro is kind of what we was talking about before, is to you know, bring a new platform from the bay. I look at my music as like a stepping stone to be able to do bigger things.

And you know, the content world is crazy right now. It's crazy. So I talked to a lot of my friends just about, you know, movie ideas we had. We work on a lot of scripts. Me and one of my good friends. We got a script we was talking about called Dad Friends. You know what I mean, just about I don't even want to say it, but it's some dope shit you don't give I'm gonna take. But another one of my friends, we got another movie we're

working on called Sugar. Another one of my friends, we was working on a small docu series about a San Francisco cop who started beef in San Francisco, you know what I mean. So it's a lot of these stories from the Bay area. The Hook actually happened a big time beef in San Francisco. So there was a cop who started a rat beef, No, not a rap beef, beef like on purpose, just to some deep shit. Oh, some deep shit. It's some real deep shit. You got

stories like the Hook Mitchell story. You know what I mean. A lot of people don't know the PayPal mafia was was started in fucking the Bay. Hey, I feel like the Bay. Everything was started in the Bay. Yeah, like you know what I mean. A lot of these stories don't get told. So being in an era where content is king, where TV shows and YouTube shows and all these things, I want to be someone that highlight these stories. Hey man, that's the way man, have your your eggs

in all baskets. You said that your parents came from real estate background. Do you dole and dabble in the real estate game at all? It's tricky. My mom always gets me into it. I just got my first crib out here in lam You overpaid. No, I actually got a good deal, And I don't want to say where I live, but it's a cool area. Everything's fucking expensive out here. Man. If you dig, bro, you just gotta be on the outskirts of the valley. No, I know, that's why I'm looking. I'm looking at like to Hunga

and all kinds of spots. I'm like, damn, when you right in the center everything, it gets pricey. But yeah, my mom is like heavy like on me about real estate all the time. But I'm just somebody that's so caught up in my dream. I feel like I can't really You've got to put blinders on it. I can't put energy to nothing but pursuing what I'm trying to do right now because I know this is what's going to help me be able to do that later. No for sure. And plus the markets at like an all

time high go down, Yeah, no for sure. Well, look, don't run from rap coming before the end of the year, definitely. Big Homie with two Chains is out. Shout out the two Chains too, man, that's that's the big Homie. Shout out, Sleepy Road, shout out Tech, shout out to the whole Truth camp and the homies right there Boom Simba makes you follow them at the real Simbo on Instagram. Perfect mm hm