Yeh, what ups you boy?
Whiz Khalif for Man and make sure you check me out on the Bootleg CAV podcast.
Hey, before we start the episode, we're gonna remind everybody, Man, we got one of the biggest radio shows in the country syndicated in almost one hundred cities all over. Shout out to iHeartRadio. All right, some of the latest cities that we've been able to add. Man, want to give a shout out to ninety three point nine the Beat in Honolulu. That's right, Hawaii, we over there going crazy. I also want to give a shout out Hot ninety eight three and Tucson. Shout out to Tucson going crazy.
Also want to give a shout out to Wild ninety four one in Tampa going crazy. We just got Richmond. We also just got the good folks in Bakersfield at Hot one O four to seven. So we're going crazy on the radio with my partner James Andre Jefferson Junior for the Bootleg CAV Show. So make sure you tune in and you can listen anywhere on that iHeart Radio app. That's right, Let's get into the interview Brutleg CAV Show. Blutlet Cab podcast. We got a special guest in here,
Christian Orgrews two. It's out right now. I just told Will today it might be your best album.
It is.
I think in terms of official releases, mixtapes aside. I think it's your best album.
It is.
I think it might be better than Rolling Papers.
It is. I say it on the album it's the best one yet.
Yeah. And then like, you know what I loved about this project? Well, first of all, I was like very nervous because when you name something after you know, a classic like Cushion Orange Juice, the expectations are crazy. And then sonically I'm like, well, damn, like it's twenty twenty five, whereas west Head's going to be at But like man, sonically it was right in that pocket.
Production wise, like very very happy that that's the reception of it.
It was incredible. And then for you, like when you started working on this, was it like intentional or did it start to just feel like, oh, I think we could do a Cushion Orange Juice too, or was it like we're going to do a cushion Orange Juice too. Let's go find those, let's go, you know, let's get with Cardo let's give it, you know, the crew.
Like, yeah, it was. It was intentional, but it's something that took a minute because you know, I had to figure out like what that was like for real, Chris, Cushion Oorjers is the music, but it's the feeling as well.
And I started the concept of Cushion Oorjews too really like around this time last year, like when I started thinking about doing it and I announced it to my fans because I was in the studio and I was working, and I was going through beats and I was just trying to figure out like what direction I wanted to go in, and I really just felt like taking it back to my roots. I was like, I don't really
feel like trying anything new. I liked the newer styles of music, like I love the production and I love the energy and things like that, but I just couldn't see myself like doing that for my next full project. And yeah, to me, like the most exciting full project for my fans and for anybody who really fucks with me. I think Cushion Orange Juice Too would just be a no brainer because if I try to make some ship up, you know, it might hit or it might miss. But
with Cushion Orange Juice too. That's something that the fans been asking me to do forever.
Yeah, you're exciting, you're exciting the basis.
Yeah, and they've also asked me to do it, and I said I would. I never would, So I was like, I'm never doing that, Like why would I do that?
Like why would I touch a classic?
So it was kind of just me like going back to my roots and doing exactly what I know my fans want me to do as opposed to trying to make up some new ship.
And yeah, it was will and yeah, it was.
It was a process of finding the sound, finding the pocket, getting people ready for to embrace it and digest it, and then doing the things that I know that they were like, like you said, getting with Cardo. Cardo is so essential to the Cushion Orange Juice sound. It wouldn't be what it is if I don't have these Cardo beats on there.
And there's just moments and things.
That I do or my delivery or you know, just the way that I rap or my tone of voice.
That I think your tone is important. Yeah, yeah, I feel like these freestyles that tone is like, yeah, it's different. Yeah, like it feels like like fucking BLOGI.
Yeah, for sure, And that's something that I was able to turn on, you know, just by being in touch with the fans. Like it's not it's still my performance voice is what you hear when I'm on stage and things like that. But you know, there might be songs where are like what's happening is a little bit more laid back. There's there's songs where I can you know, relax my voice or whatever whatever. But on this particular project, I know, as soon as you hear it, what's gonna
sound like cushion orange juice. And it's not just me like making this up. It's based off of my fans in their reaction the.
Max Water Water, thank you, the Max be interlude, the way you came in on that motherfucker.
Thank you man, it was crazy, thank you good?
Look what what how new is that? Max Be? Uh?
Like?
Was that something? Because it sounds good. Obviously it doesn't sound like it's on the phone. It sounds like he he probably you know, I don't know how he gets that good, but whatever it was.
Now I appreciate it.
It's all energy drinks in there round water.
I have a big ass jug in the car if you want to. Yeah, no, I'm glad the vocals sound good on there.
I'm glad everybody's.
Damn near sounds like you've had it for like since before he.
Was Nah, I mean, I definitely it's definitely a recent verse. It's definitely something that you know, was specialized in, you know, given to me personally from him. And I'm just glad that it came off the right way, you know, because that was like in my head, that was the Godfather moment, you know, just to keep the wave alive and to you know, show Max be his respect, but also like bring it into now.
And like the way that I wanted to use it in the.
Album was to keep the album flowing and not like, you know, depend on this Max b moment, but have it really paint the picture of the whole scenery of what's going on. And that's why I think it does too. It blends in as well as like stands out, you know what I mean, because it was one of my favorite songs from the beginning. I've had that song for a year.
Yeah, I just feel like you came in, like it reminds me of like when Rick Ross came in on Devil in a New.
Dress, Like, Yeah, yeah, Sledgroing produced that one, so shout out the Sledgeer.
You also like on this project, you have a very very vulnerable for for whis Kalif a very vulnerable record. The record with Rumor, the just to See You Smile record where you dedicated to your your mother, your mom, shot to moms and your brother who passed away. Was that like when when you get into stud because I've been in the studio with you, Is that the kind of record where you could write that and record that with the because your sessions are usually pretty vibe for
the most part. Yeah, Or is that some ship where you got to like kind of clear the room, like what was what was laying that down like and writing that record?
I actually wrote that one at my house and but I was on live.
I was on I Live.
Yeah, so it was something that I wrote in front of people that I don't know it was like it might have been like twenty five hundred people in the live that day. But yeah, that was something that again I wanted to feel confident presenting that to my fans and.
To the people who loved me. So if you're gonna hear it later.
I want you to hear it while I'm making it so I can know what pocket to be in and what feels good and what was not. So that was something that I was confident, more confident in making than it was difficult to make. And me and Rumor we had made. I think we did three songs in our session that could have went towards Christian Orange Juice too, but that one, to me, was the most meaningful and the most It was the most It was the one that stood out to the people who saw me recorded
the most as well. So wed I we decided on that one, and when he gave me the hook, he gave it to me, it was like, Yo, I know you just had a daughter, so you know you might be able to write the song about your daughter. And but it just made me think about my mom more than anything, cause she just moved out here to la and I've been seeing her a lot, and she's been hanging out with my kids, and it just, you know, made me really just grateful for our relationship.
And then it also made me think about my brother who passed.
Because during the month of February is when I was writing a lot of this stuff and that's the month that he passed away, and that's usually like a difficult month for me. But as time got you know, as more time went by, and especially this year, I was just in a really good headspace. I was able to record, I was able to work. I was able to you know, play my son's birthday party, playing my mom's birthday party, get a lot of my album you know, completed, and
do a lot of work on myself as well. So it just felt really good to you know, kind of just talk about you know, him too in our relationship.
What do you uh, you know, in terms of this energy you've been on man with these freestyles, just bringing back the nostalgic like even the style of these like quick shoot music videos. Yeah, it just just very much like puts me in that twenty ten eleven twelve space. You know what inspired you to? I mean just because I'm man, you've been in your back like in a very very strong way. What has inspired the energy?
I knew I was getting into album mode and just the energy of just keeping going and saying fuck it, that's really inspirational. I know how that feels to be inspired by that, and I know how it feels to own that too, So I kind of just started applying that and just said, fuck it, I'm a post, you know.
However many times a day. I'm a post.
However, whatever time I want to during the day, and I'm gonna you know, kind of control the narrative and allow my fans.
And people to really.
Enjoy it as much as I'm enjoying it, because when they see me having fun and being free, then that allows them to you know, feed off of it and do what they do. If I hold on to it or if I wait, or if I try to surprise them, then they may or may not get it. But if I get in my bag and it allows me to practice too, Like it gives me a lot of like practice for the things that I'm setting myself up for. So there was only positive for me getting active and doing stuff like that.
Yeah.
I feel like two artists these days, like they don't even think about Like all they think about is like, well, if I put this out, I can't I can't really monetize it. Like for example, you don't squabble up or the Tupac freestyle, like those are like strictly for your fans. Yeah, yeah, like you're not able to like put that on Spotify or I feel like a lot of artists have gotten so far away from the idea of like getting fans excited.
Right right, because yeah, it's easy to get away from that because everybody wants that one big moment because they're waiting for that one thing to go viral or whatever.
And my whole thing was and.
I talked to a problem or Jason Martin about this.
It was January, and he was like, man, what's up with the album? Man? He was like getting frustrated a little bit.
He's like, when we put an album out, I'm like, you gotta wait, yo, Like, it's not gonna be one thing that pushes this over. I was like, I'm gonna be on like my fifteenth freestyle and then people will
finally get it, you know what I'm saying. Like, I've already planned ahead, knowing that it was gonna take fifteen twenty however many it ended up catching on way earlier than I thought it would, but knowing that in the long run, you have to set it up these small little things that end up being you know, a big,
big wave that causes motion. But yeah, I'm not depending on the one little thing I always just wanted to keep building it up, and that was the idea behind Christian Orange Juice too, as well as to extend the experience as much as possible, like not just drop one focused track and then dropped the track list and then put the album out, because we would have been done already. Yeah,
so we wanted to extend it. We've been working this album since October last year, so October, November, December, January, February, March, and we dropped in April. So we worked the whole album for six months before we even put it out, and we put the album cover out back then as well, So it's been in your brains and that was the idea behind it.
Yo. Did do you know if Kendrick heard the Squabble up remix?
He probably did at this point.
Yeah, I feel like because I played that shit on the radio audire so I feel.
Like, yeah, yeah, I've heard that's type. Man. I appreciate that.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, great, great, great freestyle. My favorite was the pop one, the pop one, yea.
The prom was hard.
The freestyle's got such a great reception, Like, I'm such a fan of that and I'm so happy that people still receive that and that it was able to you know, revive a feeling.
For people, because that's what it's all about.
And I feel like it sets it up for so much more, like that was only the beginning.
Yeah, even like the cloud ship with coal.
Clouds with coal, yeah, all of them. I got a special place in my heart for all my little babies.
So that like the col like record. Did he like so he had sent that to you ahead of time?
Yeah, well he sent it to me to clear the laugh because if yeah, there's like a whiskalif laugh.
And yeah, he didn't have to. He was just being cool out of respect.
Out of respect, he showed love and was like, yo, can we use the laugh? And then this is when I was doing all the freestyles. I was on one. I was like, Nigga, let me put a verse on there, and he's like, all right, cool, So I put the verse on there. But the same night, I just dropped it on my Instagram like and then everybody started going crazy, like people start picking it up, and it just created this, you know, this whole narrative. So he ended up releasing
it on his website as well. But it was cool, it was fun.
No he's doing a real good job of taking like a non traditional approach to whatever we're in with him, like this rollout, he's got blog posts and podcasts and YO, talk to me because I've been saying this, like the blog era of hip hop, you know, for all of its strengths and weaknesses, to me, it was an era where there were actually gatekeepers, but the gatekeepers had good taste for the most part.
Who do you think we're the gatekeepers?
I just mean, like, you know, if you think about like not right two dope boys, Like if like these guys really, if they posted your music, they had the power to like change your your your your momentum. There was like a lot of those you know, whether it was rap radar, whether it was there's so many of those blogs.
Yeah, And I think the cool thing about that blog era though, like it was blog era because of the blogs, but it was bigger than the blogs though. It was about the fans, right and it was everybody. We all had our own fans, and the blogs were to entertain the fans. Like we went to the blogs because that was the underground at the time.
That was the underground for sure, and.
That was people's jobs who didn't make music. They were like, okay, let me right, let me go and get a share.
Getting new music.
But the blog era the artists like we were on tour, we were underground. We were just you know, in our fans' faces. And I think that's bigger than the blogs to me. Like, I love the blogs, but the blogs didn't make us though, like Twitter, you know what I'm saying, YouTube and stuff like that. That's what really really made it crack because without that, we wouldn't have an outlet to our fans that the picked up later.
It was almost like that was the first time that artists had a direct to consumer.
Yeah, exactly, exactly, and that was good. Yeah, And that was good because with the blogs, they were directly running it, so we didn't have to go to anybody, you know, any higher ups. We had our direct to our fans, and then we had our direct to our media as well, so we didn't need anybody to promote us. We were promoting ourselves through our network. That was the blog era,
and it was cool. It was fun. We were self sufficient and we all knew each other, We all have respect for each other, We all you know, we all assisted each other's come ups, you know what I mean.
I don't think like one.
You know, like even even people like Drake, he started exactly where where we all started from, doing exactly what we were doing. And you know, his plan is what got him to his super duper stardom, you know what I'm saying. And even Kendrick too, he opened up for me and Mac on tour crazy, you know what I mean. So he was not under us, but we were all literally on the same you know, path for a long time, and the trajectory of it just panned out due to
like us as individuals and shit like that. But I think there's way more strengths to the blog era than there are weaknesses.
No, I think it was. I mean, it's my favorite era of music ever, so.
Other than other than the nineties, like the you know what I mean, like the Pioneer.
I just think of like the discovery of new shit and how excited you were to discover like new shit, and how easy it was back in the day. Yeah you had to go to the record store and go to hopefully find an album used, you know what I'm saying.
I like how safe the blog era was too. We wasn't worried about too much. We wasn't really like shooting at each other. Nobody was killing each other, nobody was you know, using you know, too hard a drugs. Lean started to like come in towards the end of it, but it wasn't really about all of that ship like before, and it was really safe and we were promoting safe stuff. We were promoting stuff that you know, later on in
life you could still apply these values and more. And you know, like I said, in the nineties, people were very diverse, and in the blog era was really diverse as well. Like you had freaking Freddy Gibbs, and you had flat Bush zombies, and you had you know, currency, and you.
Had motherfucker, you had Mike Posner. Mike Posner.
Yeah, just like random everybody who was popping up in a blog eraro was cracking, Like you.
Had a big crid in Ritz and they had like a fuck yellow wolf. Who else was just crazy ye had?
So yeah, there's a you had. Yeah, you know.
Charles Hamilton was hard.
Charles Hamilton, great name in the blog era.
Yo pill was dope pill. Charles Hamilton, though sick, he was one of He.
Was one of the ones.
He was very consistent, even like the the mood music ship that Joe Butden.
Joe Budden was doing mood music so good man.
Yeah yeah, I feel like glass House is kind of like the the quintessential like put it in, put it on the mantle of blog era rap, thank you? Yeah, I mean it was on two Black Classic projects.
Yeah yeah, yeah we made that at south By Southwest damn.
Rest in peace in the Airbnb.
Yeah yeah, south By Southwest used to be the ship man ill Moore was cracking.
The ill Moore was jumping. We just used to roam the streets the south By Southwest. That's that's she used to be fun. I was was the blog air days.
Yo.
The headline that's going around today, you're the latest flat earther.
For real? Yeah?
I saw, she said. I heard your explanation on the Joe Budden podcast. Yeah, so break because you have obviously been all over the world. Do you truly think that we live on a flat plane? Is that I'm just I'm just trying to just watch out idea a little more.
I just believe more what I see than what I what you're told. What I'm told, especially the older that I get and the whole concept of space is way too big for my imagination anyway, It's too big for a lot of our imaginations. We would love to believe that, we could think we know what the shape of the world is, but the reality behind that is like, it's impossible. So you choose what you want to believe, even if they are facts supported by you know, scientists or uh whatever, whatever.
You believe that. You know what I'm saying, it's a belief.
It's not they haven't that. It's like most of these people haven't been in space.
Yeah, it's just a belief. You just choose what to believe. Yeah, that's all. So.
I don't even think that there's right or wrong. I think that people choose what they want to believe. If you choose to believe that what the scientists say, cool. If you choose to travel and find out for yourself or see as much as you can for yourself and base your beliefs off of that, then you know that's another choice. And that's more or less what I did.
And based off of me traveling, I've only moved flat, I've only moved and looking at the map and how we in the routes that we take, it doesn't seem like we're going around anything. It just seems like we're just going straight over you know what I mean, over top of where it could look like a circle. It could be circular if you rounded it out, but if it's just one thing, it connects exactly the same.
So I just don't see the difference.
That's fair. Yeah, I also find it very peculiar that we were able to go to the Moon in the sixties but we have yet to do that.
Again, that's questionable. A lot of stuff is questionable.
Like I think the whole moonshit was.
When you start allowing me to question things, that's when I start to believe other things right, And I'm not like sold on anything, but it's just from my experience it really don't even matter to me all like that because I'm not leaving Earth anytime soon to find out.
Are you going to if Jeff Bezos hit you to take the Katy Perry flight, are you doing it?
And no, I'm good man, I won't I won't gain I won't gain anything from that. But it's just funny to me, like how like people are so tripped out about either the Earth being around or the Earth being flat, Like you can argue about that all day, Like you can't argue that that hat is black. That's that black hat, right, correct? Yeah, so like we can't argue about that that's a fact. It's not a fact of either, like you know what I'm saying. It's just whatever you believe, even like you.
Know what I'm saying.
So, yeah, it might seem cool to like go back and forth and all of this, but nobody really fucking knows who knows who knows?
I feel like if there's like anybody who would have known, they wouldn't They obviously probably wouldn't be here anymore because they would have fallen off the who knows the side who knows? The permuter triangle could be where the Earth ends, because a lot of people disappear when there's that permute, A little that's probably a vortex, some sort of alien.
So much stuff as possible.
They say that that that this is where we live, and that there's so much earth. There's like ice walls that we can't go past. Have you heard about that?
Yeah? So my producer, my producer is, do you believe that's a flat earther? Yeah?
But do you believe in the ice walls? I don't why not.
I don't know. See, I don't how about this, I don't know, you don't want to how about this? I don't know.
You don't know what.
We don't know exactly who knows? It's my whole entire approach approach. That's my approach with religion because I'm not a religious person. But like the people who would know what happens to you after you die are dead, so like we just choose.
To believe, Like I don't think that they're dead, you know.
I'm saying that those people, like whatever whatever happens once we transition to whatever is next, how do we It's not like we could find out firsthand what they had, what they went through once they passed away. Like, so I feel like most religion is you know, it's it's it's all very similar and it's all very man made. But like who really knows?
You know what I'm saying, and not who as in who, but who.
You. I know you've done a lot. I know you've done a lot of shrooms and ship do you feel like when you've I don't know if you've had like that like kind of spiritual breakthrough or you feel like super small on psychedelics. I feel like that is being like super fucked up on mushrooms. I think I ate eighth ones and I was just I was tore back, dude. It's like the closest thing I've ever been to like believing, like damn, maybe there's some other shit going on.
There has to be some other shit going on. We are a speck in the universe. That's that's for real.
That believe aliens.
Yeah, I believe in aliens. I believe that.
I read a lot of books and stuff like that, and in some of the books they talk about like sharing technology with aliens.
Yeah, since at least the seventies.
At least I think Roswell was before then, though, Yeah, because I just saw like an article where they said that they tried to reverse engineer or whatever the Roswell crash was back then and they failed.
Yeah. But to me, it's like much cooler to believe that shit than to not believe it.
It also makes sense it does.
To me too, bro, how this world is, because like, damn, bro, you know, they would love to like keep us blind and just keep us right where we're at. But the more we start to like get the information, they're like Oh, they won't believe it.
It just sounds fucking crazy, so they'll never believe it.
Did you know, I don't know, Like last year they had those hearings about the UFOs and the Pentagon acknowledged. Yeah, but during that time, there was so much political shit just getting thrown at the wall that it just like came and went like if that shit was like in like ninety nine and they told us UFOs are real, be the biggest fuck. Everybody be losing their fucking mind. Yeah, it was just another too, like no one cared.
Here, nobody gives a fuck.
This is so much going on, and we're like, even if they like start exposing it, people will be completely fine with it because it's like there's so much other shit going on.
I think we've been preconditioned with movies and TV shows to if we found out aliens are real, we all are kind of mentally, whether we know or not, just kind of like okay with it.
Yeah, well I think they that they like, like you said, they conditioned us, but they made aliens look like little roundhead, little bug eye things.
If they like, yeah, if they will they look like the predator, We're all freaking out.
They might look like us.
They might feel me.
You know what I'm saying.
They might look exactly like us, And that's why they did all of that to throw us off.
If anyone's an alien, my money, if you had, you know, the betting favorite in Vegas would probably be Elon. You think I think he'd be the betting favorite.
He might be mixed with alien maybe, yeah, I think he's like a hybrid.
I'm trying to think who else is very like alien like? Kanye is not? No Victor Webmanyanna from the.
Spurs all right, shout trying to think about alien.
Like people, alien like people. Breeze could be an alien.
Trying to think of a real deal freaking alien. I don't know, man, they hear though.
I feel like most of the tech guys are very like like Mark Zuckerberg feels like he could be like like inside of his brain, there's like do you remember from the Ninja Turtles Crane like inside life on men and yeah, and he's like driving the person and ship.
Oh yeah, that type of stuff.
Talk to me. You obviously, you know you were ahead of the curve in terms of like doing the vlog thing. You still do it. You still do the day to day stuff, and then recently you've started to embrace like the new wave of hip hop media and just media in general, and where the attention is at the streaming shit. What what's your thoughts on the streaming ship? I know you were with Playboy Max and you went over to h dd G ship. You're at DG sh right, Yep, Yeah,
that was a production. Yeah it would you ever dip into the like you're obviously have gone on live with fans and stuff, like an official Whiz stream on Twitch.
I would do a stream, I would fuck with one or two, but I wouldn't become a streamer. I wouldn't do it like full time.
It's a commitment.
It's a huge commitment.
A lot goes into it, gotta there's ups and downs every stream, ate the one, you know what I mean.
And then you're super exposed.
Hell exposed, and it just takes all the time away from all the other stuff that you have to do.
Which is cool if that's how you're coming up.
Yeah, because those dudes put a lot of time into it, put a lot of effort into it, and the ones who win are the ones who outstream each other. It's
not a popularity contest. It's a work, hard, grind contest, and I love that for them because they're able to you know, come from nothing and start from real humble beginnings and based off of their work ethic and their you know, communication with their fans, they're able to build you know, their own companies and make other companies a lot of money, which is cool.
I love.
I mean you were doing you were doing a game like I've been your video game.
Yeah yeah, yeah, I've done that stuff, which is in support of my you know, efforts to get in that world. But for me personally, I can't see myself putting all of that time into it because you know, that's what they do.
Like that's like asking them, one of them to come on tour, ye.
You know, put an album out, put an album out promoted, go on promo tour, go on tour after it different. They might want to do a song or two, but they ain't trying to do all of that. So it's the same thing. Like I think when it works for me to pop in, I pop in, I show love. I understand the importance of the platform and support it genuinely, and that's pretty much how that goes.
Yo, you got to Uh, you were on a Jelly Rolls album. Yep, you've done Stagecoach before. Would you ever like do like a like a country esque like body of work because a lot of rappers are doing country songs right now.
I tried.
I recorded like a little country pack, Yeah, and I listened to it and I just didn't. I didn't think it was I didn't think it sounded right.
Thank you for that, buddy. I thought for sure you were cooking something.
Yeah. Yeah, because I saw like.
You do, like a big ex of the player has done such a good job because he's just doing him.
Thank you for putting it out. No, for sure, Yeah, no, it wasn't it. It's not what people want from me.
Yeah. I feel like I feel like, you know, you gotta know what people want. You gotta know what people want from you, and you gotta, you know, be very self aware when you're like, yo, this sounds like I'm forcunate. It's got to be organic too, Like.
It's got to be organic.
It was fun, it was cool, and as much as I would just love to just love my own music, it was like, that's not what I wanted to represent myself with. And that's not I'm people. They don't want that from me. They want to.
One hundred. Is there a song of yours? Because you I like the tour this summer, because you're you're doing smaller venues. It's Taylor Gang tour. You know what I'm saying. Chevy's opening and and Bonics will be there. Obviously Bonics is all at all the shows, but he's on the bill. Shouts to Bonics. Is there a song you're tired of performing?
Like?
What is the one song? If if you? I mean, obviously you have so many big records, but there's got to be one that where you're just like, no.
No, I don't have any songs that I'm tired of performing. I love performing all my songs. I explained it as there could be somebody who's been a fan of mine for at least fifteen years. Christian Orange is fifteen years old, So you can be a fan of mine for at least fifteen years and not have ever been able to be able to make it to one show.
And this might be the show that you make it to.
And if I'm tired of performing your favorite song, and god forbid, I don't perform it or perform it with not enough energy.
That's gonna ruin your whole experience. It's not on me, it's on you. I got you.
Are you going to bring out any like B side shit or any any like random for the Newtoria. Yeah.
Yeah, we're starting off like the intimate running. Then we're gonna go do amphitheaters after. And so with the intimate run, that's the exact point is to start with the new music and kind of engrave that and the people show them how to move to it, get them used to it, and try some stuff out for the bigger stages as well,
and create that sense of urgency too. Like I was talking with somebody and they told me that there was a concert that only had two thousand tickets and that they were just so pissed because they couldn't get one, as opposed to.
Like, you know, having the option to get one. I may or may not go.
They were like, I need to get a ticket, and I'm like, that's that's a really good feeling. It's a good opportunity for me to connect with fans who haven't been to some shows, or you know, sometimes the show may be a little too far out, or it might cost a little bit too much money do some merge. It just creates a really good experience that I know lasts forever, and especially with having new music, I've had
this feeling before. I know what this this feels like, like you said, like this being one of my best albums, my best album actually just as far as albums, but as far as my collection goes. I've had projects where I've dropped them and I felt good about them. I've had projects where I've dropped them and I wasn't, you know, as connected to them, but knowing how Cushing Orange Juice felt just as a whole reaction wise and plan wise,
trajectory wise, this feels, you know, very very familiar. So I love this feeling that I'm capitalized on off of it, and I'm doing all of the right moves to make this whole experience what it's supposed to be, not just the music, but make memories.
I saw a mixtape mount Rushmore floating around online. Did you see that? Yeah, Big fifty was on there. Wayne. I feel like you got to be on there because I feel.
Like, yeah, for sure, Christian or Juice is.
Probably the greatest mixtape of Maybe I make the next one, but who I mean, I think some somebody just generated it on j GPT. But with that being said, who would you have up there with you on the mixtape Mount Rushmore. Let's say your era though, because I think it's easy to say fifty fifty e fifties, like forever up there.
Currency me Max B.
So for everybody who's on the album, Oh yeah, yeah, yeah exactly, and you're talking about like twenty ten. Yeah, who's stay consistent with mixtapes?
Little bee shout, Yeah, it'll be.
Had a lot of ship out. Yeah yeah, and yo, someone needs to bring back the dance, the cook the cooking d Yeah, and everybody was saying swag yeah, yeah shouts a little bee man, protect a little be at all costs. Once you said that you're gonna do ampathey to run after the intimate run, Yeah, have you figured out because you're the summer that's.
What you do. Yeah.
Yeah, we haven't announced it yet, but that announcements coming real soon.
Are you How often are you doing more tie a week?
I'm still doing five days a week.
Damn.
Yeah, I'm doing muy Thai five days a week. I'm doing hot yoga three days a week now so I'm doing all that stuff now.
Is it like, while you're working on the album you have late night studio sessions? Is it a bitch? Like we'll get up the next day and still nah nah, Like like are you napping? You got like a cool nap hour?
Like yeah, do I get a little napping?
I feel like you kind of need it.
Yeah, I needed a little napping. After two o'clock is when I get out of yoga. So between like I get home around like three and I eight lunch, So between like four and six, I get a little nap because then I'm up and then I make sure my kids go to sleep and all that. I'm usually I'm awake with my kids in the morning before I go to the gym, and I'm with them before they go to bed, and then that's when I go to the studio.
What is the difference been, Because there's obviously there's the experience of being a dad for the first time, yeah, and learning everything. What has been the experience having your second kid and and and you know now that you've cause you're your son bashes like he a little dude, Like he's grown.
Yeah, he's up there.
But like, what is the experience been like the second go around for you.
It's.
It's really awesome, like for me because I'm in a great headspace. I'm in a great space for my family, I'm in a great space just like as a human being. So just having that and knowing where my values are as well being able to do all of this stuff like you said, and then make it home to my babies in my newborn you know what I'm saying. Like people think that you have to sacrifice that, like you have to like for sure, you know what I mean.
But I'm like, no, I'm doing all of this and I'm waking up going to sleep next to this motherfucker.
So it's a beautiful thing.
Just to be able to balance that and know that that's where my superpowers come from.
Yeah, yeah, no, I think that's dope. Yeah, Like you said, people feel like if you have to have a certain level of success, like your fatherhood's got to dip off, Yeah, your personal life's got to And yeah, at times I'm sure can but at times.
But those times are like when it's absolutely one necessary, when there's no other option.
It's not.
You know, it's not me giving in and you know, saying that I can do that later. Everything revolves around that and when the time comes then of course, you know, we do what we have to do. But for me, I just know how important that is to do both as opposed to just one or the other.
And you got to learn how to, like, you got to really know how to say no to shit too.
You gotta know when to put your foot on the guys and when to you know, just let the car cruise.
You still have motion, you know what I'm saying.
Do the baby mamas get along. Everything's kosher.
The baby mamas get along.
Everybody's everybody's Cool's one big, happy family.
As far as parenting goes.
Of course. I mean you guys have always been great co parents.
Yeah, yeah, we're really cool.
The respect level is super duper high, the fun level is super high, the communication is good. What else, It's just a good team, man, Yeah, really good teams.
You've somehow hacked that shit well, everybody being these toxic as relationships with their ex and their kids. Mom, you and Amber have had the shit hacked for like ten years.
Not for Shure, man.
We figured it out for sure, And you know, I wouldn't say it's not easy, but it is easy with her.
We don't we don't really go through anything.
Do you feel like like when you see, like obviously she was a big Trump supporter, she spoke at the RNC. Yeah, but like it was funny to see like so many people who like fucked with Amber turn up on her online, Like like when you see that kind of shit, does it like bother you?
I don't really read that stuff. I don't look at that that shiit like, I'm not into it. It's better to just act like it doesn't exist because it's not real life. It's the Internet. It's fair.
Yeah.
Yeah, and that's what I explained to her too, Like when she even made that decision, I was like, you know, if people stop fucking what you based off of what you do, they was just looking for a reason and not fuck with you anyway. Yeah, so it's like it's not even worth it.
One hundred Yeah. Would you ever do another movie?
Wiz? Yes? Absolutely. I feel like I'm working on a movie now.
It's called Moses the Black Oh really yeah yeah, it's with Omar Ebbs and some other cast members.
I feel like you have obviously you have a you know, a cult classic with Snoop and then you have the really really the weird Cowboy movie.
Yeah, yeah, I have a cameo in a Cowboy movie.
It was funny though. I liked that.
You know, it's funny too, because like I looked at that movie, like I'm sure like when we were growing up, like you'd see like Nas would be in a movie, like you go to Blockbuster and they just have a picture of Nas, yeah, and then you'd rent it and it would be like a quick cameo, die real quick. Or then there'd be like you know, bust A rhymes and exhibiting full clip.
Yeah, you've ever bro It's the DVD days right there, straight to dvd.
What do you think is the worst rap movie ever? I'm gonna say Belly too, starting the Gamers.
I didn't even watch that. What's the worst rap movie that I've seen? I usually like all the rap movies. I like like Kill the Season, Classic, Yeah, I like State Property.
I Got the hook up? Was that ship?
I got the Hookup? Was hard? All master P movies was hard. I'm about it was hard.
I'm about it was dope. Yeah, master P man he had some ship.
Yeah yeah, yeah, Mac and Devon go to high school was hard bro for sure.
That was a good movie.
I always say that Belly is the best worst ever.
The storyline gets a little trip, yes, but it's like they threw all these like all your favorite like yeah parts of your favorite, like yeah, all into.
One out of respect.
I just love it though, Oh instead of I'm just mad Hip Williams didn't do more movies because it was in the.
Cop like started getting the DMX to like kill the dude like that was.
That's when it started to take a turn. They were like like weird Malcolm X type shit going on, and it was like there was like scarfaced remnants and then shout out to nas who's you know? Just I love Belly, though I love Belly. Some classic moments in that.
Oh, Snoop made like some really good The Wash that was a good movie. Wash Bones Yeah, Bones was fire.
Yeah the wash was solid. Bones was interesting. Yeah, there's been Yeah, shout to uh, shout to Snoop. I think, uh, baby Boy one of the best feelings of all.
Time, baby boy bossing up? That was a good one. Good Snoop movie you've seen bosting up?
Oh wait, was that the new one where he's that was paid?
That was the pen movie.
Though I didn't see Boss It Up.
You should watch that.
I watched all the Member the Pimp documentaries.
Yeah, dude, Yeah, Pimp Hose down.
Down there was like, mister white folks, it was pimping.
Can they don't? They don't. They denounced themselves from that movie.
Recently, did they?
Yeah, because they said it was like, you know, pushing poverty on America.
I don't, I don't. I don't disagree with him.
Yeah, I mean there was that era. I mean, you're like former.
You know what I'm saying. They grew out.
Of there, they grew up. Yeah. Yeah, shout out to uh, shout out to those guys. Se I just remember that era, like pimping was like a fucking Godfather was on.
W w F Oh my gosh.
He had the whole train dog Like.
He'd be like, you want some hose? Don't you just giving people hose?
Yeah?
I just saw him. I went to WrestleMania this past weekend and he I went to an indie show and he went.
Form being in the Nation of Domination, of being Godfather.
And before that he was Papa Shango. Oh he was guy, but he's running. Ah, he runs cheetahs. In Vegas now the Strip Club, the Godfather Run Cheetahs.
Man, we've got the real host trade now. I love it.
Man, is there gonna be a de lux for this? I feel like you kind of already kind of put out the Deluxe because there's some stuff after the outro obviously.
Yeah, its already done. You guys got everything, Cushion, Orange Juice. I don't think I'm done.
Working for the year, though. I think I'm gonna.
Release some stuff that based off of like the freestyles that I was doing, and then it would be cool to do a Tailor Gang album before the end of the year.
That'd be Dopey who always would be on the Tailor Gang album.
These days, pretty much everybody who you heard on my album j TI.
Yeah, pretty much every everybody.
Who you heard on on my album would be on the Tailor Gang album, plus a few other artists maybe producers.
Are you like still actively signing new artist? Is Taylor Gang? Or is it like I feel like you got a lot of people you just fuck with?
Yeah, that's really what it is. I haven't signed anybody in a minute. We've done some management deals. Those have been more made more sense than actual record deals.
And things like that.
But now that we get into like releasing more projects, and you know, after the success of this one, just seeing the rollout and how it happened, it's going to open up a lot of opportunities for us to do some things.
What is uh, you know, obviously you're insane entrepreneur. How did you get involved with Liquid Death?
They came to me a.
Long time ago, definitely before COVID, but just pre you know, blow up, and it was kind of just as far as like growing the company and adding to to to what the already expanding business was. But just you know what I'm saying, pushing that over the top. And there was an investment and there was also percentages and things like that that.
I'm shout tour boy Will who hit me up like three days before the deadline and he was like, hey, you got X amount of money you can get in. I'm like, buddy, that's seventy two hours from now. Thanks for the fucking heads up.
Yeah yeah, yeah, but it was like, yeah, it was an investment and there's percentages that that that were you know, negotiated, and then here we are years later and it's super duper successful and we're happy to be part of it.
You've done so many like side hustles. So I mean obviously the PFL was there ever an investment we haven't heard about. It just didn't work out, of course.
Yeah, it was like what was it?
Probably like some apps that I invested in that we thought were going to be next level, some social media and stuff.
You know what I'm saying. Yeah, some shit that we tried out.
It's not like anything that you know, I would like freaking wouldn't do.
I mean with those it's like you got to shoot a shot.
It's hit or miss.
Yeah, some stuff works, some stuff doesn't. And you know, the narrower the scope began to be, we were able to focus on actual, real companies that we could help grow, as opposed to just try to like latch onto the next thing.
Yeah, because that's gat's gambling. I mean, when you're trying to if you're trying to find the next Twitter.
Yeah, good luck.
Yeah, it seems like you know, sometimes it seems cool. Sometimes you just gotta get out of there before it even turns into anything. And a lot of those situations like that's what it was, was we were out of there before it even you know, turned into that.
Yo, You and Currencies relationship has been so like you guys are synonymous with each other. Your guys' careers are, like, you know, very similar trajectory wise. You guys been working together for over fifteen years, right, so yep, just gave us an album a few years ago together. Talk about y'all's friendship and just y'all's bond because Currency and You, like you guys obviously had a very similar come up.
He continued to just run up the underground, run up the catalog, turn into this icon culturally obviously you go and you're you've turned in a fucking pop star, you know what I mean? Like, but you guys always stayed locked in with y'all's relationship, Like, man, how important is that?
Super important?
Just because that's like my real friend and besides music, you know, it took us like two months to record our album because we were just watching movies.
And smoking the whole time.
That's funny.
Who we didn't want to record. We just wanted to hang out. And as long as we have that, like, that's all we really care about. Like the music is is a byproduct of our lifestyle. And I always see him happy he's buying cars like every freaking week, and that's like.
The model cars.
Like he does like a whole channel for that, like where he like commentates and everything, and he's that's the stuff that he's passionate about. And that's what the people who love Spita, they love him for that because he goes on tour and he wraps literally so he can do that to support his Yeah yeah, yeah, and you
know that's why we love him. And for me, like it was always my plan to like kind of you know, navigate the industry and do the whole marketing and you know what I'm saying, Like that was always my thing. Like even when we met, I would be on the couch on my computer and you know what i mean, tapping in blah blah.
Blah, and he was just.
He would he would admire like my work ethic when it came to that, because he understood parts of that world.
But he wasn't.
He would just put his music out and be like, you know what I mean, it's cool, like whatever happens happens. And the people who love him took care of him, and I was more like we got fans in Arizona, we got fans and blah blah blah, like the technical you know what I'm saying. So it's like we've always played our roles when it comes to that, and we always will and we always include each other, you know, and everything that we're doing, which is just because we're
more brothers than anything. And it's like with this album, our song on there, it sounds so freaking good, you know what I mean, because it is we never lost that combination and no matter what worldwide record I do, I'm always able to get back on my bro and make that sound that people love us for. And you know, so that's the music side of it that I'm that. I'm really happy that people always get to enjoy in our friendship. Ain't never going nowhere, never has and never will.
Yo. You you it was obviously speculating, and you've talked about it because I remember when you got on the Super High remix with Ross and Neil, I for sure thought you were gonna sign with MMG.
Yeah, that was a crazy time.
That was a great record, by the way, Yeah, because that was like your I would say, like your mixtape Buzz was just so crazy at that time, G felt like the biggest shit ever they just signed Meek Mill, something made came out? What what was was there? Like, obviously you you made the intentional decision to you know,
do your own thing. But was there ever like a a like that situation or another situation that you seriously considered doing before just deciding like now we're gonna do this our own way.
No, I never considered signing with anybody all. Always knew I wanted to just do Taylor Gang and build my own way. I didn't know what it looked like, but I definitely knew that I had put myself up there with those guys as opposed to like being somebody like right that they and I love Ross and that was like a you know, it was a huge compliment for him to want to sign me, but that was just the wrong time to.
Try to do it because I was just so popping on my own.
Yeah.
It was like yo, like nothing that nobody could have.
Done for me ever that I wasn't going to do for myself. And I was very self aware of that. And it takes like a real person to tell you that, like, I love you, but you can't do more for me than I'm going to do for myself.
I saw you fanning out, which was a dope moment to see.
Yeah.
Yeah, I feel like sometimes we just get so jaded by like going to shows enjoying shit.
Yeah, a lot of people I don't know, man, I'm not too cool to just show my appreciation.
Wrap the words.
That's what I go to concerts for, to get loose and to trap the words. And I want to experience it and to see it live. You know, Wayne is influential to a lot of different you know, generations, but for us, he's always gonna be our goat, our allegend. We're gonna remember, you know, the Lighter Flick. We gonna remember the mixtapes. We remember Money on My Mind, we remember go DJ like we're gonna remember you know everything.
My father like son, very underrated.
Come on, man, so yeah those we were singing that outloud.
Shout out to Tie too. Ty's performance look insane. Yeah, on the screen he had Draysonatra dressed like a fucking CEO.
It was tight. He made me wear a jail outfit too.
How dope has it been? Because I feel like, you know, Ty has been on a pretty crazy run with the Vulture stuff Carnivals a number one how dope was it for you to just kind of see as a friend
as like a fan, like just like that wave. Obviously you and you have other connections, but I'm just curious, like, what was it like for you to just see that, because like it was it was so dope just to see Tye go to an arena or a stadium and just play his like they won't even perform, there's no fucking microphone.
Yeah, it's good.
I love seeing the people that I respect and admire get that same love, respect and admiration across the board because aside from being you know, friends with Tie, he's a super talented artist, Like he's alien extremely talented artist in the studio, he's like a monster, you know. And just to know that somebody that people consider one of the greats and you know, uh, somebody who if they say it's good, then the rest of the world say
it's good. You know what I'm saying talking about, Yay have that much respect for ty and push him to the top and push him on his platform, and I mean that's like that's a win to me for everybody. And I just see it as like That's why I'm your friend.
Because I see you saw from the jump.
Yeah, I mean not even just from the jump, but just I know what they see at you, like I see that exact same thing. I know exactly why they feel that way. Sorry, my phone's usually off.
Obviously You've done a lot of collab projects. Would you do because I'm hearing you and Larry on this album, I'm hearing the l Russell record. I know you and the Russell I think did two?
I got we did two that day, We did three that day.
Actually, would you do just throwing those two names out there, because I feel like a Larry June Whiz project would be insane? But would you do another collab project with another artist?
Yeah?
I would definitely do another, uh collab project with an artist. That might be the best thing for me to do after this solo joint.
Yeah, let the solo shit, you know. Yeah, either do the Taylor gam or do it like a low collab project.
Yeah, that might be the best thing to do.
And then you're kind of like you're like independent now right.
Yeah.
I think a lot of people know that.
Yeah, I think they know because.
You were with Atlantic forever before that Warner Time.
Yeah.
We released this album through BMG and They were really cool, super cool with the whole process. But it's like a licensing through BMG. BMG, so we still own it. But excuse me. Yeah, BMG was really really cool to work well. We did have meetings every week everything. They came to the studio listen to the album like four times. They waited for me to get done, all the way till the last final day till I turned it in. Yeah,
they weren't tripping at all. It was a really good process too for me to feel free, but to still also use a system to get this album to where it was supposed to be at.
Yo, is it like when you heard? Because because I think to see you again. The biggest biggest music video on YouTube is.
One of them. It's definitely top five.
I think it's like top two or three.
It's top three maybe.
Yeah, it's like insane. I think it's like the what was the Asian guy's.
Name, Gangham style?
Dude, that gam style.
I think it's like either that or baby Sharks.
Those are the three.
Then yeah, yeah, yeah, that's crazy.
That is insane.
That's cool.
Yeah, that's gotta be cool.
I like that.
Yeah, and I feel like that song you could take that like like you performed that song after Kobe passed away and the Lakers game, which had to be a tough.
Thing that it was tough, but it was an honor as well.
Yeah, and as that song is gonna live forever, yeah, world worldwide.
Well, the new album is incredible. Go get it. Yes, Vinyls on the Way.
Vinyls on the Way, Tour on the Way, Merch on the Way. Yeah, yep, go support it. Man Cushions used two of them things, two of them.
Let's go bulet cap show boom fire.
Nice.
To this camera.
Ye just say check me out on the Blue Leg Cap podcast. Ready, Yo, what up your boy? Whiskalief for man? Okay,