Speaks to the planet.
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Thanks to Chronic Goals, this is not your average show.
You're now tuned into the Reil mc ain't Big Stairs, the Streets Jam.
Welcome to the gangst the Chronicles podcast, The production of iHeart Radio and Black Effect Podcast Network. Make sure you download the iHeart app and subscribe to Against the Chronicles. For my Apple users, hit the Purple Michael your front screen, subscribe to Against the Chronicles, leave a five star rating and comment what's happening, What's happening, What's happening, What's appening? What's up? Another episode Against the Chronicles podcast, And I
got some surprising news. Got the Homeboy Og Dazzy D about to be joining me in m C eight on the podcast here on out. You know I need that. I need that third wheel, man. You feel what I'm saying. We need that third wheel, and we needed another og, not just anybody. Daddy's cracking with you, ma'am.
Hey man, you know how we do it. Brother, We're trying to keep it moving home. You know what I'm saying. I'm glad to be part of the team. Brother.
We'll show you know the Homeboy Dazzy D man Og producer, rapper extraord. Now we got another person man that's real hot. And hear the night Man coming on with us to talk about state of hip hop. Come on, Curtis King of Honored man. You know Curtis is like one of those intellectual hip hop tights. Man. So I'm honored man to have him coming here man with us, Man, come in the ghetto one time, man and shocking up with the brothers you know on the corner with the forty ounces.
I'm with it. I'm with it.
Especially when when I got the call, I didn't pick I didn't get to pick up because I was live streaming, but I saw I had the call with you and G so I know he only hit up. He only hit me up when it's important, important business. So I appreciate you having me on for.
Sure, man, you know, and you know, one of the things we'd be talking about offline, especially being daddy don't have this conversation a couple of times, is that him Pop is in this real weird space right now where it's a couple of these guys that are rappers. I don't even know they was rappers. I know them more from their online antis man than anything else. I don't hear no music. I can see antics, right, you know, whereas in my you know, in our day and time, Man,
if he was a rapper, you're wreck. You didn't go out and you know beat people up. You didn't go out and instigate fights and beat and all this other stuff. You know what I'm saying. Just wreck you feel what I'm saying. We in this real weird space now, and I don't know if we do come out of it no time soon.
M Yeah, I think you make a valid point. Ain't no mind you. I was born in eighty five, so I got to see what life was like before the Internet. I got to see what it was like when you were an artist and you couldn't lean on the Internet to get the worry out about what you're doing. So it's like I came into like I'm right there as a bridge between you know, some folks who might have missed the boat when it comes to the Internet, and then some folks.
Only know the Internet.
And because of that, I've been able to see, like, if they shut it down today, I'm gonna be all right.
I know five or six things I can do next, because I feel like the most important scale that I mastered was how to talk to people, how to sell yourself, you know, shout out some merds taking me out on tour in twenty thirteen, he ain't put no money in our pockets in terms of like to start off with, it was like, you got if y'all want to make it to every date, you got to figure this out and how to sell yourself and talk to people.
And so I'm talking.
About a whole generation now that is used to only being on the internet and then you put them in front of somebody to sell a T shirt.
That fucking lost, and so I'm not used to that.
So then what they end up doing is coming to folks like me who are able to kind of like translate it in a way that says, you just got.
To do more.
You can't you can't rely upon just your personality, are your online presence to get this going. Like the reason I can get access to certain interviews and certain people is because I had to get my ass out there and put feet to pavement.
Yes, real talk. And you know, with these kids nowadays, man, and I don't even want to call them kids necessarily. They're grown men, right, man, they're grown men. I might even gonna give them a pass to saying they little kids. A child to somebody who's nineteen years old. If you don't be twenty, you know what the hell going on? If you're eighteen, you really know what's going on right, I'm seeing these guys. Not to put out them names. I'm not here to blash nobody, because that's not what
we do over here. But you see a lot of these guys, man, they've turned into content creators. I hate that word, you know, because I've been podcasting, man since I think it's twenty thirteen something like that. Man, since twenty thirteen, and we got to deal with Charlemagne maybe five years later. So I've been doing this a long time, man.
And it got to the place man where I don't even post episodes on YouTube all the time because our online our audio following is so strong, and to be honest with you, I don't want to be putting the same category as some of these other people, you know,
because that's the one thing. I meet people and they say they have a podcast, and I asked them, you know, with's your iTunes, you know, your your Apple podcasts one or whatever, And they say, no, it's on YouTube, And I tell them, man, all the podcasts the audio thing, man. You know, it's both because I respected I respected man, but it's like, and I don't want to use this word, man, but it's real, like almost some some of these dudes that like they learned and disabled. Man. You remember they
had the LD classes. Yeah, yeah, school man. You know with some of the homies and like wild and stuff, they'll put them in there. It's like at the LD section on the internet.
Now man, Well, I mean, look, I gotta, I gotta.
I got one of my subscribers that always reminds me every time I get frustrated when I see some of this shit, She'll be like, don't forget Curtis before you get mad. The average reading level is level three or grade three. That's the average score. And it got only worse after the pandemic. And what I'm recognizing is like there was a point in time where it didn't matter, like what's your background. You could be the most gangst of gangster when you get in that room in any
English class. If you struggling with them, with them words reading through like any I don't care if they the bully, no matter what it is, they finish, they finish clown you, right. And I think being in that environment forced us to be a different different generation of teens, a different generation of eventually.
Twenty year olds.
You talk about a lot of a lot of the young ones are coming up, and I happened to mentor a lot of them. I'm recognizing that even their experience with music and their expectation is so low because of all the.
Distractions that got in front of them.
Like what other time have we had where I could have the phone open, here, the iPad open the here, I could be gaming in front of the TV, I could be having music in the background. It don't It don't sound like a fun or at least before last year, it doesn't sound like a fun activity for them to sit there and decipher lyrics or sit there and listen to musicianship.
All they want is quote unquote vibes.
When I understood that, and I was like, that's why that's why you and I are disconnect talking about them. That's why we're disconnected because I look for I look for my music to be like medicine at times. I look for my music to be the difference between fast food and soul food.
Yeah, it's sometimes where you just need to go grab something and.
That's cool, but I need that that food to stick to the bone, Like what do we doing? And there's so much stuff that I think, like you said, you don't know whether or not they're part time artists and full time streamers, and uh, I think they trying to figure it out too, because I tell you, even I just turned forty this year, there's a part of me that's like, Okay, well, what is my voice in the space. And when I'm realizing, I'm so glad. I'm so glad
that I'm so glad that y'all in the space. I'm so glad that there's there's outlets of wisdom because let the industry tell it many you know, this industry that I've always had the theory that they take all the energy they can, especially out of black men before they forties. They take you for your money, your masters, they take you for your your your.
Drive, and all we got left is to hopefully be.
Able to tell these stories, you know, on podcasts or whatever we're doing. But in terms of the creativity that everybody got to know about us, that's the first shit they take. And it's crazy enough, that's what colonizers do when they take over a country.
The first thing they do is take dart.
Yeah for real, So really, you know, speaking of Calvinisers to go on, you know, On another note, I like to travel a lot, man, especially as I get older, it's some that I appreciate, you know, to go see the world.
Man.
I started going to Europe, like maybe two thousand and four, two thousand and three, I started going over to England and Germany and different places just to see. I was going over there on business, but it really became an educational thing for me. So we just came back from Aruba. You and my wife was out there last week and part of this weekend, and the one thing I noticed, man, was the amount of Dutch people over there, right, And
I said, wow, man, these people really conquered the whole world. Man. They went over to Africa, you know, that was what slavery kidnapped us out of there. Then they came over to my islands like a Aruba in different places and took those over. And I was looking at their parliament, man, that had all of those you know, Dutch people in And I'm not nowhere near racist. I'm just keeping the
one thousand man. And I looked at the stuff we got going on here in America while everybody else in the rest of the world is kind of serious mm hmm. Like I looked at them little kids over there in the room. But man, these young kids man, maybe fifteen sixteen, they working jobs. They talked to you when they greet with their hello, sir, hello man, And I called Kicky was tracking o gine. It wasn't like that these little
dudentes are here working. And I said, man, we really are behind man, because I don't taking this disrespect man, but some of these little dudies be looking older than me and be hitting me up with what's up? Oc.
Yeah, no, no, because because because that's what happened when you hold on this shit. That's what happened when you when you don't have a foundation of lean on. You know, I'm grateful, like people always make the joke that my pops look like milcaelm X, but he more so furious styles like that that Poppa was always in the picture for me and he never hid anything from me. So you know, just like you said earlier, You're like, I'm not racist. I'm not either, but I'm not gonna act
like I don't got eyes. I'm not gonna act like I don't see this teacher who happens to be a white lady that is talking differently to her white her.
White students that she tests to her black student.
And it's like, these are things that I came up, you know, coming up in Carson, California, coming up and you know, I stayed in down there for a little bit. I stayed in you know, uh Loan Beach for a little bit. I've seen a little mix and then I went to the ie in two thousand and nine and up.
But I say that to say that I've seen a mix, and I do see the same thing that you're saying, and that people are aging so quickly because they taking on habits that usually you associate with, like you know, eighty year old, eighty year old, you know, the smoke of the cigarettes. I'm seeing like twenty year old chain smoking cigarettes. And I'm like, bro, what you stressing on?
Man?
I go back to this track thing. That's a big thing part got to figure.
Out, you know. The funny part of the curtis it's like with these young cats, they're almost trying to talk to you, like when they talk about age, like it's just like it's like a horrible thing to get older. And I had asked one of the little cats one day, what you plan on dying at thirty five or something? Bro Like, like do you plan on not being here. And it's like if you're trying to use my age to like hurt me and made me feel bad, man, my age is my strength. It's about a wisdom. Man.
This is you know behind these years come a lot of tears. I an't been through a lot of stuff.
Man.
That really just made me a better husband, made me a better father, made me a better businessman, entrepreneur, and just a better all around person. Like I was talking to Dashy the other day, man, and me and them met when we was both we here was that Dashy met with Tony Lane Lane with records?
Yeah about that was about what ninety six ninety seven?
Yeah, ninety six ninety seven, man, And it goes back there far. Man. You know we was in there with Sugar Free and you know Quick and all those cats, man, and time just flies, man, And I'm a whole different person than I was back then. I'm like, that's like to me eons ago. Man. I look at some of the stuff I used to do back then and be like, man, you know it was our own back then, you know what I mean?
Less And I'm still here for real, you know here, And I even look at you know, these cats when they come.
To the music and I talked to them, and I tell them, it really hasn't changed too much, man, not not to me, Not not to me anyway. I think it's I think, if anything, is kind of like regrets to just a little bit.
Sure.
I think we was a little and I'm not one of them dudes to be trying to give them a little homies heads man and talk about their music or whatever. But they just me getting order. I don't feel a connection with some of the stuff they're doing.
Well, you know, you know, I don't. You know, I don't hold that to you.
Is because I don't think they feel a connection to what they're listening and making. I don't think they their their their goal is connection. I think their goal is some level of relatability to the vibe, some relatability to this is what I want to have in the background.
To me, it's no, it's not a coincidence that in the same era that you see a lot of the youth, and I want to say all of them, because some of them do really seek out the stuff from their uncles, and then you know, I would be considered unk it come looking for me to give them you know, God and some music. But for those who are not like that, it started dawning on me. A lot of the schools
failed them too. And because the schools failed them, is a trickle down effect, is there's a there's a domino effect of if the schools are not doing their job, literary literacy rates are down. I watched the video where As, a documentary about why rappers are no longer writing anymore, and halfway through that documentary, it dawned on me, I don't think some of these some of these kids can
read like legitimately put these ideas together. So the best thing they have is their memory, which stiff over exercised, and they just wrap whatever comes to them. It doesn't have a connection. You gotta really sit down when you want to.
Write like a cube.
You want to write you know, like like like like like some of the the like Biggie like, you want to write like Poc. You gotta have some passion first of all behind what you do. But you also got to have care. And they're living in a time where everything is so desensitized, right like they want to have you devoid of emotion and just look for a vibe or look for a playlist. I think for the first
time last year. I feel like that was one of those what they call a cannon event that shook people up out of a hypnosis and they said, well, damn, if I want to have an ounce of success that I'm seeing with a Kendrick, I gotta do something different.
You know. You know what's crazy, homie is.
I remember about four years ago, right, I was at the studio we woul shooting video, but we were shooting at a recording studio, and man, the studio was immaculated. Bro, I'm talking about full press, right. So I talked to the owner. I was like, man, I know, you get a lot of traffic, you get a lot of business.
Is the studio beautiful? He was like, he was like, bru. The kind of clients we get these days.
They be youngsters, and when they don't even come in with their own beats or producers, first thing they want to do is hop on YouTube and pick them YouTube beats. Now, I gotta download that, throw that in the doll and then they want to get high and then go in there freestyle for two or three hours trying to figure out until they got enough to make a rap song.
I was like that, ain't it?
You know?
You know that would have got me laughed at the studio like I would have never been able to get back in there. And there was a point in time where you know, relationships was your ultimate value. You could have the best beats in the world, you could have the best production people. Gotta really sit there, the ones who are in charge of that room, gotta really sit there and say, do I feel like dealing with this nigga today?
Real talk?
I'd rather deal with somebody else that's not as talented. And that's how I kept getting invited back into the
TD studios. I wasn't more talented than sound Way, I wasn't more talented than Tabs and and all these other other Willie b But one thing I was is if ILI call me and say two o'clock in the morning, can you get those stems to me, I'm gonna be like groaning and be mad and shit, but I'm gonna still get up and I'm gonna go email that because I understand the way that business is conducted, and I
know the industry. I chose a lot of a lot of folks, a lot of and I hate just put it on you because it's it's artist, my age.
I still ain't got that shit.
They treat this like it's a hobby, and wonder why they got hobby results. We gotta if you want this to be a business, you gotta really And that's what started getting me to questioning things like why do we push so hard on streaming when they don't give us our data, no emails, no phone numbers. I'm like, you can't run a business this way. No business can be run successful without data from their customers. Treat us like, you know, like like we're customers, because it really is.
That's what it is. We buy studio time, not to use it, just to put it on the ground.
Yeah, and that model is slowly playing out. Man. What it's going back to? What's going back to? Really independence?
Man?
And I'm talking about real independence, not just putting your record on the streaming platform. I'm talking about getting your website, ship set up, maybe going to go press you five hundred copies and you're album up and sell them for twenty five thirty dollars and building you up and following them like when you talked about I was going over to as an independent artist. When I was rapping I was going over to England and I was going over
there doing shows for four or five hundred dollars. But I remember people would laugh at that, like, man, you ain't making no money. And I had to break it down to him one day. I said, so check this out. You go to a job, right and that job is paying you seven hundred dollars a week. I'm not about. I'm out here about to go do fifteen shows and here I got some of them maybe five hundred bucks,
but someone maybe seven hundred. But outside of that little money I'm getting, they also paying for my flight, and i'ma also sell my T shirts and my CDs over there for one hundred dollars a piece because they appreciate it over there. So if I sell twenty thirty CDs at night, I was you know, I bought my first house off.
Doing that, and I salute you for that because I'm like they only I shouldn't say only, but music is definitely one of their favorite ones to criticize at as if if I had a Mama Pop piece of restaurant on the corner and we only made fifteen hundred dollars, don't nobody say anything about that? We only made fifteen hundred dollars. No, No, it's this is your job. This is your business. Some days are better than others. This is the entrepreneurial journey that I chose. I think, what's so
what's so powerful about you being out there? Is one once you go overseas, the expectation is that you can come back overseas once you sell merchandise and all of that. And I'm not saying this as if you're stuff you
don't already know. I'm just saying, like I think for those who are watching who don't know, like getting paid five it's artists right now that were beg to get paid fifty dollars in a plane ticket to go to Germany right now because of how crazy it is and how cheap a lot of these venues and promoters have become. But can't You can't turn your nose up to something
that you haven't accomplished. And I think that that's one thing I noticed specifically on social media is that there's a lot of that going around where they'll look at somebody and call them a failed rapper or a failed producer, and I'm like, what have you ever succeeded at.
To be somebody that's got check. Anybody that gets a check in this bitness. Anybody that got to check out of hip hop man, salute to you. Everybody got to check out of the film if that was if they are basketball player, football player. I don't care if you played in the G League. I don't care if you played in the UFL or whatever, cfil or whatever. If somebody pays you to do your craft, that means you're better than ninety nine point nine percent if everybody else in your perspective field.
You know what's funny, It goes back. It goes back to what y'all was saying, though.
Bro, it's about see here's the difference between our generation and the new generation. Right, It's about antics now, right, All you got to do is how to correct antics, bro, whether it's messy, whether it's trying to be super gangster, whether it's trying to be super goofy. The antics attract
more traffic nowadays than actually good music, right. I could I can see somebody doing something off the wall, roll for like two or three weeks and don't even know they rap, yeah, steell me, and then when I do tune in to him to go Damn, I ain't know they rap. Let me check him out.
The trash trash.
I'm gonna give y'all one even better. So and I ain't gonna say this dude's name because I wanted to come and blast my house up, you know what I'm saying. But so my my attorney caused me one day, man shut out today. Man. He hits me up one day and says, hey, man, I want to get such and such on your show. And I'm kind of like, huh, I know who this dude is because I don't see him on Adam twenty two's. He's not our type of person, right, But it's my attorney, right, you know, shout out today again?
And I say, why not? So now treat this the person I was gonna have come in and like we was doing a live taking, so I have, you know, go to Hollywood and stuff. The one guy we had coming in there that was gonna come in. We had already been kind of like he was stilling, kind of telling me like I'm coming to night, bro, but next week would really be better. So I said, you know what, forget it day telling him to be here tonight. So I tell my man, hey, just coming next week. Bro,
Oh thanks, good looking out? So you know, problem solved? Right, So I go to the studio, right and I'm waiting for this dude to get here. Man, it's like five minutes past when you got a guess, I got a roll, I got a model, me and eight got a month. When you go find us out? Two sacks. If we in the studio and we waiting for you to come up, you haven't called us and you're running late. When it's past at ten minute mark, we gonna start doing the show.
Yeah, yeah, you start the show. Okay, we're starting the show.
So if you come in and you happen to make it, well, then like you got around a thirty minute marks to be allowed to sit down with us. If you coming in there thirty minute mark, we're gonna tell you to do one of these till you hold up. You gonna wait outside that look last, we're gonna finish the show, and we're gonna come out there and say what's happening?
Man?
Too bad you can't make it? You know why, because you didn't do western courtesy of giving us a phone call.
Yeah, and it takes two seconds to do that. It takes I'm.
Gonna tell you right now, We're not like these other shows. We don't pay for guests. You have. Everything we get is off the sprink of our relationships. Somebody want to come and sit down with us, we don't do. You know, if you want some money, you can win to the wrong show. We ain't gotten it for you.
I'm still my mind is still blowing it. That's a thing.
Like somebody approached me. Somebody came to me though, Like I understand if I reached out and you got your price, Okay, cool, that's your time, that's your travel. I still think that's wild because of how many interviews I did, especially up and down the West Coast for free, because I was like.
It's in exchange. You have a platform, I have a story, and this is what it is.
But I get it right.
But things evolved, Okay, cool.
But somebody reached out to me to be on my platform and then said I'll come down on my price.
And I said, it don't matter how low you come on on your price, you're not coming on it.
I had helped to me before. Now I'm gonna put this whose name? This white guy hits me up. He's on our clips channel, right, cause we got, you know, a couple of different YouTube channel. He's on our clips channel and he's like, man, y'all need to have me on the show. You need to have me on the show. So our cameraman shout out to Brian. He hits me up and like, hey man, this dude keep asking you on the show, so he gonna hit you. So he hits me up in the on Instagram or whatever and says,
what's up. And so I'm kind of like, what's up? Like what's having? Yeah, what's up? Y'all need me to come let me know what y'all budget is. And I said, bro, you hear us something to come over. I ain't reach out to you asked me to come on this motherfucker?
How you volunteering yourself to take me to put my money in your pockets?
How does that work? That's the part I'm saying.
And what am I paying you for? So let me get back to this little dude, right. So I'm sitting in the studio waiting, keep in mind, and he was sick that night. He was sick, just like you know for everybody else that to knowse everybody knows he ighties on tour this week. That's why ain't here's gonna ask me no more? Get me back here next week. So this dude coming, I'm waiting. I'm already steaming. I'm mad right the seven twenty. I'm by myself and I could
pull those episodes up. I've done them before, but I don't like doing them. I don't have no I don't have no planing. You you know what this seels. You do this for a living, bro, So you know what it is when you don't have nothing to talk about, kind of like you have something said it already and I'm like. So I called David and said, man, where your boy? And he said, oh man, he pissed me off. He said he's not coming. He said that y'all should be giving him a few dollars because he hot right now.
I told Dave, I said, man, first of all, you tell that little mother I call him everything. I said, man, you tell them go to eat a bag. And you know what, you know what I'm saying, cause I was mad as.
Hell, and I was like, here, if you got hot, why are you reaching out the platforms? If you got hot, not math it if you got it.
And that's the thing about it, like I always try to make sure that whatever I expect anybody else, I first take accountability and put them standards on me.
Right.
I make sure that that that if I'm not willing to show up the way that I'm gonna show up, I'm gonna tell somebody no, even if they have a large platform, like you know what, No, it's not a good time.
And I won't give you my best, but for you to go reach out to somebody.
I can't even imagine the mindset of reaching out to somebody and telling them, okay, yeah, so here's my price.
You you cold calling?
If you got a following, talk to your following. We in twenty twenty five, you go live stream by yourself. But when you got other people and they got cameramen, they got staffed, they gotta they gotta go from their families to come talk to you, which is really just you setting up cameras so they can waffle on about themselves.
Yeah, and you know what it deos too. I'm gonna tell you what these guys pay for and SEO, I got a plenty of homeboys out and they got really successful platforms, and that's their model and they're doing their things shout out to y'all. Y'all know who y'all is, right, But the thing is, when you pay somebody for something,
you have an expectation. Sure, that's almost like if you go on a date with a woman and she tells you, I need three hundred dollars for the evening you need to go tell to get the hell out of your car. You're gonna say, you know what, we could skip? Well, I can skip these movies in this restaurant. Now we going straight to the thumb or tell, because I was gonna spend that anyway. You feel what I'm saying right right,
So it's the same thing with these guys. If somebody's gonna pay you to come on their platform, they gonna ask you all the goofy stuff for this man. They will ask you if you shot somebody before, how was it being a crip? How is it being a blood? All your business? They donna want to get and they have a right to. They have a right to delve into your thing because they are paying for that opportunity to delve into your personal memoirs.
Yeah, but see, I'm the type person that say I'd rather just do it for free so I can walk away when you start asking them questions. I don't want to pay for something that's gonna lock me into having to answer those questions. If if I'm a I think that's something else too.
Is that.
A part of that? And I hate to say it because I'm I'm I'm I'm.
Obviously pro artists when I say this, as I know that y'all are too, but I'm not pro to bullshit like if y'all. If y'all are not gonna do the work to make content, you need people who got platforms to help you make content. So trying to like get around there and say I'm hot, Okay, you so hot, Hire somebody and delegate the responsibilities of doing content. Have them follow you around in the studio, have a little have a young editor who you know, I'm just just
is just trying to get their resume built. Go do that, But don't sit up here and think that you're entitled to other people's time. Which is why like even with me, like I do interviews from the house, but not everybody get to come to the house. Sometimes I do the stream yard simply because it's like, but even then, if I don't trust you in my house, it's more of a convenience.
I got to ask myself, why am I talking to this person?
Yeah, I don't have homies come to take over my house too. I haven't had that a lot, but the homies did. Like Glasses, Man, he will come over here, Glasses, it's my brother. He you know house, you know millions times as I am his is. At one time I had a key of Glass's house over in Lakewood because when he go out of town he's doing cash money. Peo would tell me, hey, man, you know how Glasses his glasses to call you eleven o'clock at night because I left this thing over here cause you go go
to my house and I think about it. I lived thirty minutes away from them. I'm like, dog, you were think of this earlier in the day. I gotta wake up and got to explain to my wife why I'm going somewhere to go get a piece of paper to tell him what to say on there. You know what I'm saying, that's Jedo.
That's Jedo because when I when I moved from Carson to to Rancho for a few years back, when I was trying to build him, I didn't know him on
the level that you knew him as a friend. I just knew him as I got my first placement because I sent them beasts when he was you know, all the Blue Division artists were there, and you know Ace Pawn was doing all of like the her stuff or the A and R stuff, and so he was like, he put out an email, Uh, Glasses kneeds beats for a project he's doing with mag ten And I sent three beats. When the church came back, I had a placement, so I was still trying to build on some kind of level.
I tell you this, it was.
It was times where I was like, dam an, I fine, really, I'm about to really go to the studio with Glasses. Was like twenty ten and I drove out there, and this is when I got to understand, like he's his mind works differently, like he operated on his own time. And I went out there had my laptop. She was like, I'm ready to play some beats, and they was like, oh, g left thirty minutes ago.
That's his dass right there. That's him. I ain't called you with nothing, ain't called you with nothing.
That's him, all right, Okay, so it's good to hear that.
I'm like, you know, what I'm saying, because you never know when you walk into it by now I know, but I'm just saying, like, I just think that's just the way his mind works.
I mean, you can't.
You can't love somebody's genius without understanding that that's part of the character too.
His man, your man, and I remember, you know he don't live close to here no more? Right, Yeah, So we go out there and I'm gonna give you two different times. This is when we started doing the podcast stuff. I was trying to get him to do it right right, and we had a little self he was recording at his loft downtown when he lived downtown. I go down there, man, and he hits me all that day. Man, still be bullshiting.
Man.
His wife ain't gonna let him work the woking and their thing. I'm down there dog waiting getting the building, and I'm waiting by his door. Ten minutes go by, twenty minutes go by. I finally called him, and keep in mind, he ain't got the best signal up there, man, so the call keep dropping. So I keep running down the stairs man, just in case he called her something. And he tell me, oh, man, I'm my bad cousin. I ain't gonna do a to make it. I said, man,
you couldn't call and tell me that. Man, I've been waiting out here for a minute. But that's just classes. You can't take that, man, because what do you do too?
He'd call you.
Man, you know, we gotta do this thing that that what you're talking about. We just got this thing in the valley, just out just paying around the city. You're like kind of around the city mouth and it's five o'clock in the afternoon and you talking about this five o'clock. Now you talking about need to be there about six. It ain't happen me.
It ain't.
But you know what, though I say this, especially as somebody that you know considers him, uh, one of the best mentors I had. It didn't matter. It didn't matter that the context of my music, It didn't matter that my story is very different from his. He got such a he got such a good eye for authenticity. And
that's one thing he told because I asked him. I said, he came out to my album release party I had in Pomona when I had moved to la He came out there and drove out there, and I'm like, at that time, it still was like it wasn't like Big Broke Glass.
I'm like, lasts, just get out to my release party, right, he didn't came out.
When I did a show at the House of Blues, he came out as a special guest, and I'm like, I asked him on to I said, ge, why you rock with me so much? Like you know what I'm saying, Like I know I ain't I don't look like most of your homies, and like I know, I might even be a square in some of these circles, he said, But you're not afraid to be you, he said, from all your flaws, you don't ever hide that. He says,
you're authentic and that's all you need to know. And it's and it's words like that that that that remind me like how grateful I am that. Uh, you know, I had an upbringing that said, you don't got nothing to prove to nobody, right you you you you, You show up as the man that you are, and whoever's supposed to be there will remain. Whoever's not supposed to be there, they'll voluntarily leave that situation.
Right.
So, yeah, I always appreciated about him, even during this battle Man. We we talked that.
We talked at at length about culture. We talked at length about what is this, What is this gonna mean for you, as Curtis king in this? What do you need to reconnect to?
Right?
What ar some Carson have you disconnected from just because of just how long you've been doing this journey and how far away you are, And all those conversations sat with me, and as I watched all this stuff unfold, I started to really step into this next era of Curtis Kinge. But I owe so much of that to the conversations I had with Glasses because he didn't have to do that.
Oh, he didn't have to do it. And you know, I'm gonna go and I talked about glasses flaws. I'm gonna tell you, Glasses is one of the best human beings I've ever met. He's his shirt off his back, and the thing about him, he's genuine with it. He's not whoever lied to you, he's not whoever to cheats you. He's not where to see you. He's not gonna do none of that stuff you talked about the time he was over there at TV Man, you know, I was renting with him, for a while too, man or I
didn't know, but yeah, those are my guys right there. Man, I remember that when he was just you know, when he was just Kato man, and they was really pushing Jay Rock over. The shots of them catch because they tested him into what it takes to make it in his business. When people ask me about dude, dog shout us at my homeboy, Top. I was just holding him
the other night. He was relentless. Yeah you was, And I'll tell you right now, man, if he don't, you know, he gets the credit obviously because this guy's you know, dotingham stay give him his credit. But I'm now m h. If it wasn't the Top Man, it probably wouldn't be a lot. I don't know if for to be Kendrick as talents is. It's hard to make it in this business, dude without a dude like Top behind it, prosbably wouldn't be one of the greatest references of this generation because
he was remmless. Though.
Just think about the infrastructure he set up, right And I didn't you know when I lived in Carson, I only lived like ten minutes away from the studio that they were.
There's two studios, right the house that was across the street.
And the cross street and one of the crosstreet with the studio on the back right.
I'd have been to both of those. And I'm going funny story too. And it's funny because I tall it to a few people. But the first time I went over there, I'm already familiar with Carson. I know it's borderline content. Where we at, where that article's at. I'm like, all right, cool, I know where I'm at. I know it can get tricky depending on what time you at, but I'm like, I'm going to a studio. Everything should
be good. Absol In botted me over because we had some records that we were doing and I was supposed to be Ali in the back studio. I call at so and I'm like, yo, I'm outside. Uh you know what do I need to do? They to go to the front door. He's like, no, no, no, just open the gate and go to the studio. I said, open the gate and go to the back. I said, I said, he said you good. He said, I gonna recognize you, okay. I said, all right, cool. I opened up the gate and I could not help but feel like it.
Was eyes just on me. It's eyes just on me.
Mm hmm.
It was top top said Nigga almost blew your blow your head off.
He said, who is you?
I said, I came here for a soul and I came here to work with him tonight. He was like, he's like, you need to you need to wait for him next time. That was my introduction.
But I say that to say that's true.
But I say that to say that's how protective he was over that environment and protecting everybody that was in that environment. I'll say you this. I've been there during those days. And I just talked to Ali on my platform about this where they go to that Louisiana Fried Chicken over there off Avalon, and they bring the basket of fries and they literally are going through studio sessions just Sharon fry.
He like might not not hand in hand, but like they eating and going right back in the booth.
I watched that happen, but I also knew that in that space, wasn't nobody concerned about nobody walking up, Nobody concerned about none of that. And I think a lot of that has to do with protecting your investment and not just talking about the artists, but the environment that space. I never went in that space feeling like I was at any kind of risk because I just knew how many folks was around that was taking care of home base.
That's important. Everybody don't have that dog.
I'm gonna tell you about tough dude dog Man. He was this type of dude. Man. He lets you know how he felt. And it wasn't never with no disrespect. He did the league with that right, but he was very various trait for a person. Like he told you, next time went outside, he meant that, you know, next time with outside, he ain't gonna put some foot around
with you. I remember, man, one time we was in Vegas at the arm They was out there shooting the Lollipop you know Top he had anywhere with some publicity. He went thinking about it. He was gonna make sure Jay rock and then was gonna get looks in that video. You gotta keep in mind at that time, Wayne is the biggest artist in the world. Right, He's with Kendrick Ills today back then, right, and they shooting that lolly
Pop video shooting man Top. You know, we gonna go out to the Vegas man, we MiB ab out there. Top stayed in that room man and made sure that Jay Rock got in that video. Like that's what I mean about being relentless. Now, he didn't press nobody or nothing, but he wasn't playing on games. You know, he was gonna make sure he was gonna beat in that video. And I think everybody knew the Top wasn't playing no games. He wouldn't really. He didn't really talk crazy to nobody or nothing.
It was just presan.
Look, I'll tell you this. My mama knew who he was.
I said, I told her the name, and she said, but say it again because she went to Carson Hyde and and and she and she was like, oh, I've known that name for a long time, but never have I seen him except for that one situation where I was out of I was out of you know, I was out of pocket, trying to go. I was listening to apps, so you know, I knew better now, But I've never seen him have to raise his voice. I seen him in situations where he came into that room.
I never forget.
It was one time where I was editing a video and I think it was for something. They were asking me, ay Curtis because I knew I was good with technology. It was like, you know, how to convert videos or whatnot. And so I just told him what I knew. You know, I didn't use Mac. And he was like, you're really good with this computer shit.
Huh.
I was like, yeah, didn't have many words, but you knew damn well.
Everybody in that room the energy shifted when he came in there because you know, like I said, he got a very serious demeanor. But at the same time, you know that, you know, he had the foresight for what he wanted this thing to be.
And look at it now.
Again, A dude, man, it's rough, and I don't believe say he just mean business. You feel what I'm saying. He no play he' you know, fuck guy, you know what I'm saying, No play play dude. He gave you a shirt off his back. Dog Yeah, Genie went, dude, he gave you a shirt off his back.
Man.
Now he that don't mean he lets you just you get over on his ass either. But he looked out for his people, you know what I'm saying. And he Genie went about that. He's a Genie went on this dude.
Yeah that that that that team.
You know, it's crazy because you know, Glasses got me my first paid placement. When I was over there, I wasn't looking for a paid placement. I was looking for an opportunity to be heard. I was doing stuff locally in Carson. I was trying to do like these open mics. I even did one of them. You know, I got scammed in one of those. Sell these hundred tickets and uh, you're gonna be in front of some A and rs and all of that kind of situation.
I never forget. It was at the Key Club. I went to the Key Club. I went up there.
I seen everybody on stage with the bands and the lights. I was like, always just gonna go up tonight, and they was like you wrap. I was like yeah, they said go downstairs. Huh, I go downstairs. It's a stage that couldn't be no bigger than this table right here, and uh there's people moving dishes from room to room. And so it's like, I know what it was before
I met them, and as they ascended. You know, Luckily I have my guy Apps, so I knew Apps sold before he was with TD, when he was with a label called Street Beat, E and T. He was coming to my grandmother's patio to record songs with me because I was a producer that just had a lot of the same interests sonically as he did. And when I listened to him, he see reminded me of a young jay Z and I said, if I get a chance to work with a young jay Z sounding artist, I want to do that.
And that's what I did.
And so he was like when he first the first day he got signed, he said, Curtis, give me a CD full of beats and I'm gonna floated around the studio.
I gave him a.
CD full of beats low Ki, hoping that Jay Rock wanted one of them because he was the biggest artists at that time. He took that CD of beats. Little did I know, one of the beasts, the first beats that the Schoolboy Q rapped over was over a beat that I made on if you ever heard this story, but it was a beat that had eight awaits and gunshots. I was trying to like eighta waits and gunshots because in my mind I was trying to like rekindle the Bone Thugs and Tupac song. I was like, I'm gonna
make a newer version of that. It was terrible punch. It tell you to this day, he like, they still say it's terrible. But one thing school Boy said is that audition, like he was already the homeeie, already around the environment. That's when he showed off how he could rap. And uh, that's what he rapped over was my beat. And so he was on shout out to my God,
Chuck Dizzle and head on home run radio. He said, man, the beat was terrible, but he's like gurt that you put me on, bro, Like, if it wasn't for you know, if it wasn't for having that there, they wouldn't have seen the skill set. I guess, you know, if you could make a bad beat sound that good, then he
must be something special. So I say that to say, like them dudes, I didn't need to get paid for any placements for that to be a life changing experience, because I always knew Curtis King on Curtis Curtis King gonna take care of Curtis King.
And all I needed was an opportunity and they gave that. Tell me for sure.
Yeah, shout out to the homie punch over there, man, punks punk Punch was my man. Yeah, that's my guy right there, punc your tearans man. But I just think right now, I think where things gonna go?
Man?
Is everything? Industry seems like it kind of filters itself out every few years, like dashy, I want to talk about a lot of people don't know. You was with Cuban them early on. You was part of Lynch mind right.
Yes, sir, one of the original members.
Oh wow, y'a al was over there. You're always doing a lot of recording with Jinks, wasn't y'all?
Yeah? Yeah, over there with Jinks Pool. Yeah, it was us. It was a squad.
How how old is y'all during the time period?
Well, when when when you first like got cracking cracking? Yeah, it was about was about seventeen eighteen left he left in w I think when he was around like nineteen.
Okay, So y'all's loot key is pretty much y'all the same age as most of these little cats.
All right, you know the points you about to make, all right to the points you about to Did you notice the difference?
Broom?
Yeah, because that's because seventeen year olds back then was grown in and the truest sense of it, like even the folks you consider knuckleheads had a decarm, they had a cold.
Now with the internet, it's like, well I could ben that cold.
What is cold? Really?
They're questioning things, which is what kids do. Kids question the wisdom of their elders every single generation that happens.
This one is different.
Because now you're getting justifications even when you're dead wrong from other people and strangers.
That's saying that's not so crazy to do that. No, it still is crazy, but you're talking about.
Man, it was new for us, Like you know, it was so new for us. We were still in all trying to figure it out. Right, Like, we didn't have we didn't have you know, we didn't have a blueprint. We was the blueprint for West coast hip hop right, we didn't have so we didn't go.
We didn't go.
We didn't have a TUPAC, we didn't have a NTA, we didn't have a glasses. We didn't you know what I'm saying.
We didn't have. So we had to figure that out on our own. And figuring that out we had to, like like my man just said, we had to grow up.
We had to go, Okay, what are we doing, Let's make sure we do this right because the money was right, everything was looking right, everything felt good.
So we wanted to keep that going. So that's what made us stay on top of our game.
Look, you know what's so crazy about you saying that? And I'm just realizing that right now.
One of the most genius marketing plans I've ever heard of in hip hop was for uh, I forget the song. But I was told by some some radio person now that he's that cube was sitting around. You can't do that now because of the anthrape scares. But it was a bag of it, wasn't it like a bag of like powder or something. And he had like a set
and some out of it. Because it's talking about the same era where you know they were doing like the Craig Mac Big Mac situation, Like that level of ingenuity, that level of creativity where you're using the same skill set you got to make a beat, that you got to make a song, and you're putting that into your marketing. It's a lot of kids who never had to like
build nothing, they never had to create nothing. I'm like, that's your cheat cod You literally make a living being creative, and then when it comes to your marketing on social media, you're the least creative.
Yes, I mean that's when we talk about that.
When the creativity ain't there, now, the anti's gotta take that place, you feel me.
Yeah, that's the low hanging through.
But the crazy thing about it is now an audience's uh is turned away from that, and you gotta do another magic trick?
What you're gonna do?
Yeah?
Yeah, they getting tired? Brother, I totally agree.
Yeah, And what happens is more than that, dude, the level of insanity kind of goes up. So if you got to do this last there is a guy online. He's picking the boogets out of his nose and nastally he's gonna start eating the motherfuckers right right, and people go start tripping over that next thing, you know, when they get bored with that. There's no telling him what he's gonna be doing next. He might start digging in the crack, you know, whatever, man doing that whatever.
But you know that in a way, right, you know, that's a real thing that you just said right now. And I know you were making that up, but you know that's so real. It's a it's a young dude called piss Man. You heard about him.
I ain't heard about it, but it don't surprise me.
Bro.
I don't want to give you too much details. I don't even want you to have to look it up because it's it's it's it's insane, but it's like that's.
What you talk what y'are talking about, that is the levels of what we're talking about is that he's literally got a following about how nasty he is inside his house, how junky his house is, how like unlivable his house is, and he's doing live streams in his house, and people are coming to visit him to see if they can spend the night there. I'm like this, like people on this platform don't not on his platform, but he got somebody who had a million to come on his platform.
And uh, I don't know if his name is actually you know his name is piss Man, but like his whole thing is like he does tricks with cartons and piss. Like, as I say it out loud, I feel crazy, but not as crazy as as it. I'm just saying, we're in the time period where even when you're joking about that, it's a kid right now, that's.
Like picking my bug is eating them. That's not a bad idea.
That's how bad it is, man, Because I'm anna tell you, and I told I told Jcus g was on this internet step early, yeah, when they had the girl with It's So Cold and the d and all them different people and the riffs and all the different people was on the internet. She was on the early And I told him, I said, Man, you really sitting in there
there giving this old silly shit in an audience. It's somebody to wind up killing somebody on the internet one day, I say, And it happened that dude in Cleveland was just going around shooting people on the Internet. You got stuff that's so crazy. Now, man, it's like I'm gonna tell you, somebody's gonna get wet next to a podcast
on the podcast. I'm gonna tell you this time it's coming, man, because right now this generation, man, see, when you don't have no talent, you got to think a little different stuff. If me and Sax wanted to come on here and make beats and rap, we could do that. Yeah, we could all redo that right now. I could be over here putting a drum thing together because all of us got to put me right in front of us right now. I could be putting a drum fad together. We can
all spit right a hot sixteen. These other cats can't do that. Man, they can't edit enohing. They don't have the patience and fortitude to think of anything. And people, you know this, One cat told me one day, he said, Man, don't nobody care. Still, your podcast is boring. I say, my podcast for you because you go listen to all the other stupida shit, I said, a my podcast is too intelligence for you.
Pretty much.
Well, and this is what I say, Like right now, there's a lot of those those toxic, toxic podcasts, and I have a question for y'all too. I want to ask specifically, but because I asked you this question last week, and I'm curious, but there's a lot of podcasts with like really really, all they do is just do stories about people's worst days. All they do is stories about people on their worst days, and they make an audi inside of all of that, and.
There's no regret for it.
They find their self doing it, and then when the tables turn on them, you know, they get very defensive because they can't handle the pressure they give to other people.
But with that said, the question I got for you is this coming up. I came up in many different environments.
Matter of fact, my mommy we used to live in the house off of a fifty fourth in Hoper in La by Saint.
Peter's Rock and my mom's used to play the keys there. I was brought up around a lot lot of street culture.
I got my street smarts even though like I didn't you know what I'm saying, I didn't graduate nowhere, but I got them for a reason to know how to handle myself in environments I got a question coming up. There were certain names that would never get brought up unless you was in the same circle. Every day I get on YouTube, it's another one of them names getting mentioned. It's street politics that used to be only internal that's now left open to a white dude from Ohio to
instigate right or a podcast or to comment on. Do y'all feel like it was a mistake for because it's good to see voices get platform because you given awareness to like this is what real, this is what the real is is like, stop listening to these rappers, this is what's really going on. But at the same time, a lot of folks kind of made themselves targets because now you broadcasting in front of a lot of people politics that TheInk got nothing to do with.
Yeah, I think that, Like you said, it was a time that you didn't speaking on certain stuff, like we got a homy right now. Man, it's fighting for his life right now. Often because of all the antics, you know, because of all the antics z on, you know from this whole podcast world right, people just say stuff because they ain't no accountability.
Bro.
Back in the day when we was in the business, you was running somebody. You had to go outside. It wasn't no it wasn't no marketing on the internet. You had to go to one of the industry parties, you had to go do shows, you had to go places. You was run into somebody. If you was out here talking slick, you was going for sure running somebody. Now it ain't that dog. It's people that talk crazy to me.
I'll never see bro, that's crazy. That's crazy.
They don't go outside. And I'm gonna tell you this, there's no accountability. I'm gonna tell you something. I saw a dude man sit online and say he chased me around the studio with a studio with a microphone and he threw me in the closet and tied me up on all kinds of stuff.
He said a podcast.
Yeah yeah, dude, around sixty years old, and just people would say and do anything, bro, because there's no accountability to it. They're not going to see me. I can't reach through the screen and grab y'all right now. But I sit up there and type all this shit I want to. I can go in in and the food. Yeah, right now.
That accountability, this is where I'm like.
People will be surprised to hear me say this, but I'm like that accountability comes from getting punched in the face. You gotta fill that pain when you know, like, damn it, do I really want to deal with these heavy hands coming at me from this person that I think is okay to troll. And you remember having the ice down the eye, You remember having the like get over the aches and pains and all of this stuff, Like you
gotta remember the embarrassment of getting your ass whatever the case. Like, there's folks who've never been touched before, and I have to remind myself there are people who will push every single button because they know that I'm a man that has integrity and has my own cold They'll push every button they can, but if I ever press the issue, they'll call the police.
Like a cold doesn't exist.
Many a heartbeat, brother.
And that's wowed to me because I'm like, why are you woofing it? Why you why are you barking so loud?
And then the moment that somebody presses you all of a sudden, it's is it's I'm a victim. Why are you so obsessed with me? And that's just literally the nature of the Internet that I'll be telling you. When I first came here, I was a lot more confrontational because I didn't get that some kids get on here, and not even kids, some adults get on here and think everything's a game. They can say what they want, get a few retweets, and then you move on to the next thing. And I'm like, no, that, if I
see you, we gotta we have to address that. At the very least, we gotta talk to you.
Know What's you know what's funny about that too?
Man?
It's like you know that saying if you if you love a star, never meet them because you'll always get disappointed.
Right. It's the same thing with a lot of these Internet bangers and gangsters. Man like they they they went the business all day. I give a lot of these cats that I that I deal with. They with the business. But on the other side of that, their sensitive thugs. I've seen. I've seen thugs. I've seen so called gangsters.
On their shows preaching you know, I peace. I'm not trying to do no drama. I love everybody. Everybody loved me. But soon as somebody hit that trigger for them back, they ain't on.
My must y'all, ain't I.
I'm like, man, you're telling on yourself right now.
And what are you doing?
Brother?
You crashing out in front of people that.
Crash out?
What you internet crashing out, that's a different crash out, but in crashing out in front of people.
Who don't look like us real talk.
And that's why a lot of the so called people caught up in these things they dealing with right now, with these week olds right now.
I hate to see it.
I hate to see it because, like I said, it's certain names that got brought up, and even in the rooms that got brought up, it was hush, hush. I never think of my life time I would see these names be all over the news and all that I'm like, it's all.
Of a podcast and it's still mind blowing me. And I'm sorry, go ahead.
I'm gonna tell you something, man. I knew it was gonna be problems as soon as Big You got a podcast. Yes, man, I just knew it. Now the man Big You was my man. It's my guy right there. But I just knew it was gonna be problems because you always have somebody. And I'm gonna tell you something, man, It's something about the allure of being the top dog in the streets
that just black men lose their mind. For if you ask the average young black dude come up in the community, what would he rather have a successful career in medicine or long you know mediciners, you know, doing something else? Or would you rather be the odes of the hood? Just the king of the hood. They'll tell you the king of the hood.
Why do you think that is?
It's just what they see, and it's a certain It's almost like when I was a little kid growing up on the East side, right, if I saw a cat in the corner with a cadillact man or a deuce in the quarter man had a not full of money in his pocket and a bad broad man. In my young mind, I'm thinking he lived life. I don't know what kind of penitentiary chance sound because I don't see all that. I don't see the other side of it, right, I just see him right there, relation in the truth
of his labor. Right, and I'm like, damn, man, that sounded like fly. I'm gonna tell you something. Man, you want to come to California from the East Coats, right, Not these coats, but the midwestern Cleveland. Right. I heard Ice Tea's album with him Darlene on the cover, you know you were in him with the strap, and I said, man, I want a suit like that. Man, I want a little ouzy chain like that. I want a bad bitch
by my side. Man. I didn't know what Darlene or Tease was, but I was like, I want that.
Man.
When I tell you, the tonge steaks life and death. When I tell you sometime later, I had me a bad bro a bad woman like that's my wife now, right. I got my cash ups started, you know, wearing little suits. I had a suit like Ice Tea and I just got I just found one maybe five years ago. Sex When I rest, he was like, now what you're getting there.
Old.
I say, hey, man, this personal to me right here.
I always want one of those.
Right, But you can speak whatever your existence is to exist into reality. Right. I see cats put curses on themself every day online. Like you said, talk about the homies is crash. Now I'm gonna do this. They just drawing all that bad energy to them. Somebody greeting me with bad energy. Dog, I don't have nothing to say to them. You can say whatever else you want to about me.
Yes, real talk, And I'm telling I try to tell them.
And I'm gonna tell you this, dog, I don't been in the streets out here with the best stuff.
Right.
I could do all that and more, but I choose not to because it ain't I don't have to prove myself.
I don't have to.
I don't have to perform stupid place my masculinity. You feel what I'm saying.
I don't.
I don't have to crash. I don't do stuff to prove stuff to myself because I don't have nothing proved to myself. I don't care about all that, dog want look out here.
Yeah, what I was gonna say is that the thing that makes is so dangerous and I think even probably more Lauren, is that here you got a bunch of faceless cheerleaders that are giving you rewards for acting that complete ass, like for acting way out of character you getting.
They're like, oh man, he going crazy right now.
Oh we gonna not not only are we gonna cheer it on, we're gonna clip this podcast and we're gonna send it to the other one.
I had somebody that's it.
I don't don't my crash outs online to be a lot different because I don't be emotionally involved in this situation. But people say some crazy shit about me, and every once in a while I gotta remind them, like dog, don't don't like, don't let the thumbnails fuck you up, like I'm not like I'm I'm I have.
It took me a long time to become this kind.
I've had my situations, and I realize there are people who sit online chronically online that will take what you said out of context, run to the next person and say, yo, I think he might be talking about you.
Now.
All of a sudden, this person is trying to make themselves the center of my world, the center of my attention because of what this acd this little person said, and they get to disappear. So I think the cheerleader, I think that the instigating where it's not even sometimes just the people. You gotta take accountability for your emotions. But we know the internet was made to trigger emotions that keep us on the internet longer. That's the less the DNA of Instagram, the DNA of Facebook.
YouTube.
That's why I don't care what you into. I'm into My Lakers is my favorite thing, right. They know how to keep me on YouTube, past past, when I want to, when I want to stay away, they just keep feeding me up shit. So what that said, I think the same thing is happening. And I think a lot of these brothers don't realize how much of a mental warfare it has been put upon them, and how their algorithm
is literally designed for their destruction. But then some of the and that also was them watching destruction and the algorithm saying, okay, you want more of that.
I got you.
You see what it is now? Man, People really getting themselves in a lot of trouble on this computer talking man. And that's the thing. When you have through confidence in yourself, man, and you have good self esteem, you don't concern yourself with the activities of just these peons. It's like, Man, my grandfather used to have a saying, man lines, don't associate with hyenas.
I definitely heard that.
Yeah, you feel what I'm saying. So it's like, man, I never felt the need to go back to somebody and prove myself all Man, he said this about me and my bother man. First of all, I'm not trying to go see it for nobody's jail, because see, I'm gonna tell you I'm one of them guys that's probably willing to take stuff a little bit further than what you think is though. Go gos. I don't bother nobody.
So if you can feed my peace of mind and I feel my family is in dangerous something like that, I'm gonna take stuff to another fiction level that you might not want to. I know that about myself, so I don't even engage because it's not worth it.
You know my new favorite saying, because somebody tried me like that recently and he found out. He found out how much I know how to use the internet too, because he got a bigger platform than me, and he tried it, and he he didn't realize how many enemies he had made throughout, throughout, throughout, throughout the years. I'm not a've gonna bring him up, but I say, leave quiet, loud people alone. I'm loud on my platform. It's my platform.
I talk about a lot of things going on in hip hop because I'm passionate about it and because I've done it. I'm I'm an independent artist. I call myself a di I wire right, I do it yourself. I don't go bothering nobody else's platform. But if you bring that to me and you think that I'm just gonna be docile and look the other way and not say nothing about it, First of all, you we gotta be
equally yoke for me to even say something. But there's some people who will who will try you because they are under the assumption that you are a easy target. And that's when I got to really think about this in a holistic way and say, first of all, this is worth the energy?
Is it?
Is it?
Is it derailing what I've already been building.
Or is there an opportunity here to make sure that this person serves as an example of why you.
Don't fuck with certain people just leave them alone?
Yeah?
You know what, man, this is what I said about that. I don't think that we should ever go looking for somebody man, Like that's my thing. I don't look now. I do have a list of people on his hand that I say, you know what, if I see this dude, I'm gonna knock his ass out. But I don't want to trust him. I'm not going to go look for him either.
Yeah, and sometimes got to make sure you never cross paths with this person because they know how serious it is you on.
This list right here. That means you really disrespected me though, And when I see you, I'm gonna make you stand on everything you ever said, and it's gonna get ugly, right. But I'm not wanting to look for that person. I don't think.
Man.
Again, lines don't concern themselves with the activities of hyena, man, because we don't have time for that.
Man.
It's like a lot of these dudes. Man, it's just a lot of these people. Man, something wrong with some of these people. First of all, some of these problems.
Man, how often you ask yourself is this person rap too How many times do you tell yourself, like, I don't think this person is rap too tight?
And I'm not even people tell us.
Something that's wrong with them, man, because they don't act like that. I'm gonna tell you something. This is the truth right right. I love black people. I love my people, man, And this is big fact.
Though.
Do you see any other race of people doing the stuff that are forty and fifty year old men be doing wine? Think about it. Brow. Now you have some people who you know, like you've got the dude, some jackass to get all the little silly, little stunts and stuff like that. I'm not talking about that they getting paid and making a lot of money doing what they do, right, But the just the stuff out here, man, just the stuff that used to be quiet. You know, from the
era I'm from. If you was a gang banger man, you didn't believe want nobody to know you banged, if you sold dope, you didn't want nobody know you sold dope, If you was really into that life, you just kind of was just low key. Yeah, you just kind of stayed to yourself because you knew what it could be. Right these dudes today, man, again, everybody is trying to become the ghetto god. Everybody wants to be the ghetto guy. And if you notice the ghetto god. Man, they die
all over the world. They get proven not to be gods because they get knocked down all the time and be surprised when it happened. Like, man, you saw they knocked such and such down. Man, that's the such a such as just a man at the end of the day.
At the end of the day.
Yeah, yeah, But you know what I am encouraged by because I hear what you're saying, and I think that that is a very real issue.
That is a lot of that stuff too. What they call that.
The I forget the law. It's like one of them laws of human nature or like that stuff. I don't know if it's dar wisdom, but like it finds its way to work in itself out as we evolve as people. I do think I'm encouraged by the same Internet that we can use, as you were saying earlier, to do all of this goofy shit and have it be amplified
all over the world. It's the same Internet that allows me to have a conversation with somebody who never came up like I came up, and give me a different way to think about life, give me a different way
to address issues on a daily basis. That's why I look at my responsibility sometimes in the space, Like when I was first just doing producer content on YouTube, I made an emphasis to be not just a god that did tutorials, but the guy that talked about mental health, the one that wasn't afraid to talk about the history of my people. And I'm gonna find a way to
bring it into what I'm doing. And I got a lot of hell because it wasn't a lot of black concent creators, even though this is a traditionally black art form.
They were giving me health. I got called things and mind you, I didn't been.
I went to Paramount High where first time I ever heard somebody call call me uh the N word with the e R was at Paramount High. And it was during the it was it was during the midst of a race war, and it was like Black folks was out numbered probably about ninety five percent to about three.
Huh you no glasses hit now Glasses.
Glasses been a little bit older than me, but I was going there probably two thousand probably to uh had to be like two thousand, two thousand and one.
But yeah, you definitely Glasses was going already.
Yes, I say all that to say I had that happen. I had a dude tell me one time. He was like, man, give me the answer to the to the test. And I was saying, give me you ship. He said, all right, well, I'm gonna just tell all the Latino as you said, f Mexicans.
M hmm.
Now you got me fighting thirty forty people. It's see the answer is see ship. Let me alone.
I say all that to say that the n that has by far and I've I've been called some crazy things to my face and I didn't fought form and all of that.
I've been called more crazy thing. The first somebody's been called a porch monkey. And I know, I don't. I don't. I don't.
Look sometimes people think I'm Puerto Rican or whatever, but like I'm I'm black. I'm black, and what my my name is? D apostrophe w A nd wan. But I didn't have people call me all kinds of things. But I'm like, damn, I only heard.
This in the books.
You don't know the Catcher and the Ride, all these kind of shit. I only see this in the movies and the slave movies. All that came out of the Internet and this is a different type of YouTube.
I say all.
I have to say that there's so much of that that goes unaccounted for. And I came into this with very I thought I had thicker skin to what I had, and I had to learn it quickly.
Because I can't. You can't fight everybody.
Broke and you can't care man, because you That's the thing you gotta remember. Man, Half these people, Man, if they saw you in a Walmart somewhere, don't you do, They're not gonna say nothing to you. They thrive on animenity. Man. So it's like, man, it's like it's like arguing with a motherfucker on Instagram who ain't got no profile pictures.
I don't do it no more. Now you know what I'm saying.
It's like you have and know me.
I ain't even paying no attention to you.
And that be the loudest too. I'm like, how you got?
How are you the loudest about somebody's appearance? And you won't even you too scared to upload a photo of yourself.
That's what I'm saying. Because they thrive on animenity, man, I mean you you got cats?
Hold me that make a page? Just to go through hate mm hmm.
But see what they don't understand is I came up in l A U. S. D. And if you didn't know how to clown somebody, you're gonna have a hard time in them years. And it's been a situation where I'm like, I better get some jokes. I better find some jokes because if not, I'm finna be lit up every single day until somebody saying, no, leave them alone, leave them alone.
You know, you know what I wanted to ask, ask you, sex man, But see this crazy brn. I'm the little sex then in the twenty years, and no, I never asked no this ship when I'm around them.
Oh wow.
Do you remember when Q found yo Yo? Whe did he always know her?
Nah?
He met her through jinks because Yoyo when we all went to school together.
Really, was she wrapping back you when you went to school with her?
Yeah? Yeah she was. She was in this school called Depth City.
Girls, Deaf City Girls. Yeah, so she wrote all her own.
Shit back in the day she did.
Yeah, Yoya art Man, Yoya was always one of my favorite female mcs. You know, the West Coast. I don't know why the West Coast don't have no real female MC's. Like, you know, people could say rage, but she went in really a West coast. She was from VA, you know.
Yeah, there's a.
Lot of transplants though. I think that's what makes it so unique, is that one thing is undeniable. I don't care where you're from when you touch down here. The same thing happened at Dilla too, when Dyla mat Mad live out here. Hm, them drums start slumping a little bit more. They started swinging a little bit more all of a sudden, he using basslines you never really heard in his beats.
When you come over here and you.
Touch down, it's something about this cooking, It's something about this environment. It's something about the speed of life that leaves an imprint on you no matter where you're from. But I agree with you, was that, Yeah, in terms of homegrown talent, you know it. Yeah, it's a list, it's a list for sure. But yeah, that's that's one of those where it's like I don't even look at them as not being from here.
Yeah, that's crazy, man. You know what, one day we would have to have Jinks come up here. Man. I talked to Jinks actually on Instagram and me and was going back and forth. We need to make that happen. Man, Jinks is probably one of the most underrated dudes out of here.
Oh man, we know, we know better.
We know.
Jeans don't do everybody. He did in some exhibits biggest records. Huh, Yeah, Jeanstone did some big ass hip hop records.
Man.
That's the thing about it, man.
You know, huh that coolie rap album Bujie Wrap.
I'm saying, man, you know when you think about like she probably just thinking about the changster rap side, but he made some pivotal hip hop records. Man.
Yeah, who was twelve hundred Yep, that was a ship for a minute a long time. That actually twelve Yeah, you can.
Just tell the way that just bit rate swinging that motherfucker dog. Just the way the drum sounded that motherfuger you just sampled something that motherfug It sounds way different than like in the NPC or something like that.
Shit, because that was that eight and twelve bit.
He just gave it a certain ring to a dog.
Yeah.
That's how e skill over here with the cheek holes right now. Ea, Ski is utilizing a lot of them sounds where it's like, why it sounds so much warmer than the sounds that's coming out of f L in the FL studio.
It's like, because it's not coming out of FL studio.
Yeah, he ski got a gang out board gear man, all that analog out board gear that should be slumping the converter and all that.
You know. I'm not. I'm not.
I didn't come up as a hardware hit. I had to like learn from those who had hardware. I came in at the tail end. Right, my mom's had a a rolling Phantom and that was the first time I had eating any kind of life physical equipment because I just couldn't afford it. Right, I was on a Quiznos. I was working at Quiznos. I had a Quizno's budget living in Carson, and I never forget that keyboard came with the floppy disc, and I just never got the
floppy disc. So anytime I made a beat, I made the beat and I just had to like take it and put the sounds right into my computer. But before that, I was making beats on the PlayStation uh in TV music generator WO.
I heard that.
That's when Son Weeds started making beats, said too, Yeah.
A lot of metro booming, a lot of the artists, a lot of producers, because it was like we came up where producers before my generation came up to where it's like, you're not even a serious producer if you don't got no hardware. A lot of us came up where it was like, this is when the hardwares were self aware of themselves, the companies, and they were like, we can start taxing now, especially when you got scratch magazines and I'm seeing all the ads and I'm like, I want it, but my mom's.
Ain't fin the shelf. She ain't got the money the shelf even working graveyard.
Then it was gonna be if you want the m c PC back then, dog, I remember, it was gonna be twenty five hundred dollars every bit, every bit five hundred dollars. And that was if they had on sale. Other than that, it was gonna be anywhere between three thoy thirty twenty dollars. Man. And that was back then, and I'm Jenny Man. The first drum machine I ever got was because remember they had the little rent on programs, dads. I remember you put me the rent turntables. I rented
a sp twelve hundred. Man, I think that things still on my credit man, because I man I made drop off. I had that, man, and I had that, and I got a pre keyboard in the fore track.
Yeah see, I had a home in of mine that worked. He worked to Lax and he started getting crazy checks working at Lax and he was my collaborator. Shout out to my guy John. When I was living in Carson, he would he want. He was like, man, I'm gonna get your MPC.
I was like, for real.
I was like, man, I appreciate it.
I sat there with it and I was like, I don't know nobody that used this, and I was trying to teach myself and I kind of figured out a little bit.
And I was like, I think I kind of want to see what's up with this fl studio.
I sold it and ended up getting to m Audio b X e eighties or EBX eight eight, b X eight was eighty whatever was the ones that was the tall monitors that had so much base. My neighbor would text me and say, Yo, that beat you working on is hard. I said, you can hear it. He was like, yeah, I'm upstairs. But that's what I ended up investing into because I was like, what am I good at? I wasn't a musician by trade. I never really had learned finger drumm, and I was like, what am I good at?
I'm good with computers, and for me, FL Studio was like, okay, I was on the rolling Fantom. I kind of got a little idea how to work the keys from here. I did the PlayStation. I kind of know how to how to arrange in program. I took all those skills that FL eventually our footy Loops whatever was called at that time, and it was just a match made it because it was like it was almost like going back to the video game.
Not not not to cut you off, Brope, but if you can man walk walk us through the process of your beat making, like from from start to finish.
Right.
So it's crazy because I'm trying to see if I got it on me right now, but I usually have around me. I got a book called The Prosperous Hip Hop Producer, and every single chapter of it is what that process is.
It's just just the titles like the kicks and snares. For me, now.
I've done every single process I can think of, from you know, starting with the drum, starting with the method. He's starting with all of these different things now because of websites like Splice, because of you know, things that allowed me to tap into musicians that will usually be musicians higher. My process now is I'm a sample based producer first, and I've been that. That's what got me
all of my first placements. I can do a little bit of keywork, I'll play my bass and all of that stuff, but for the most part, I just love sampling and chopping up samples so I get a sample.
Nowadays, we got royalty free.
Samples that sound almost as good as the stuff you used to get off of vinyl, and so now I'm using these and I'm just chopping them up. It's like that, not having to worry about sample clearance. I throw some drums on it, and I kind of had this thing where I need to mix as I go, because what I'm trying to achieve is what I call an emotional mix before a technical mix.
Right.
I had somebody tell me one time, and they said, never confuse your responsibilities as the scientists and as the artists.
He said.
The problem is sometimes people think that they're being the artist and they're actually being a overly technical scientist and they're trying to tweak the compression settings and get attacking it. So for me, I'm just going on to fly. Everything is pure emotion, me just throwing pain at the wall. After that, after I'm done being a kid, I'll be an adult and I start mixing and organizing these ideas. But from B to B, it really just depends on
who I'm working with. And now because I'm making beats live on on on stream, like you know, even that's changed my process a little bit because I know I could have five hundred, six hundred people who squit in AI is trying to figure out what I'm doing. It's just it's it's a beautiful period now to to to be making music because there's so many things you got access to that's in software instead of you know, the the heavy hardware sometimes so so you're an fl cap FL studio all the way.
Yeah.
Okay, see man, I'm just not getting to where I got MPC. I told you I want to MPC live Jazzy, and I'm just getting to where I do the computer based programming. I was always a hardware guy, and I even know me even though I still got the like the MPK two twenty five got the pass I got to steal my trunk.
Like that, you know.
But you know what, these kids now, that's what I'm saying, Like it ain't all bad with the kids because these kids now want a physical experience because all they've known is phone, iPad. Now they want something that feels real. And I'm watching these kids now, who they're not good.
A lot of them they're not.
You know, they're not the best finger drummers, but at least they're they're they're challenging themselves to go actually learn an instrument, because I don't get a twisted finger drumm.
And it's learning an instrument, right.
The pockets, the rhythms, the way that you space your fingers, these are all techniques you learn when you learn the keys. So same thing with that. I just look at these kids now where I'm like, Dug, y'all got a school program that'll teach you how to use the NPC. I wish, Yeah, we were still writing up whether or not rapp was real music to them?
Yeah, they man. But you know what, though, the thing is technology you have made it to where it's a lot easier to do a lot of stuff, man, And that's why I had to kind of get old and get you know cause sometimes when you stuck in your ways, you're like, man, ain't you know really making those beats and you know whatever like that you sign you get it done? Is it's all the same end result, you know what I'm saying, man, But I appreciate you coming to sit down.
With It's like, man, anytime an the invitation for real for sure.
And this is one of those intellects for discussions man about like halving every once in a while, man, just kind of talk about some real stuff, stay kind of rooted in reality.
What's going on?
Yeah, I mean it.
It's a beautiful thing that I think that the internet does present the opportunity to be connected because I think that all all those platforms that that y'all takeysue with, I'll take issue with because I look at it and I'm like, I know we can have so much more.
And I know that one day, two hundred years from now, it's gonna be somebody who's studying our time and they're gonna be trying to figure out like damn the you know, these these folks were so talented, but they less society stop them from making music at forty because of how it looked. So you're trying to tell me God gave you a gift to wrap, to write. And when you get the most wise in your life in terms of how you use your words, the most patient, that's when
you stop talking to people. Right, That's what I'm looking at it. I'm forty, and I'm like, I'm re energized knowing that you know, I still got my mornings, you know, my my psiatic nerve, my back is kicking my ass. But I'm excited that I get to tell stories that the twenty year old me would love to hear about. He want to know what's up the road, and I know if I talk to him, I'm gonna talk to
some I'm gonna talk to Hawaiian. I'm gonna talk to somebody who's like, damn, I never had nobody really say it like this. For those who are doing all that what you said earlier about shaming about age, you better pray with all the things around you, all the stuff in your ceilings, all the stuff and your food that you able to make it here all in one piece. I don't take that for granted, because I've seen a lot of people that are supposed to be here ain't here today.
So I salute you. I salute you both, and thank you uh for allowing me to you know, sharing, your sharing your platform. I appreciate that.
What show YouTube channels, I know those people that want to go check you out, you already got you got a big ass fellow on YouTube.
Yeah yeah, yeah yeah, Curtis King TV, Curtis King TV, Curtis King with two s's. Uh And like my audience always say hashtag r are. My mom's name is Rochelle. I made a goal this shire to retire my mama. So I've been putting up content every single day, going live almost every single day.
And uh, just running up interviews.
Uh.
Tomorrow I got an interview with Daylight. I know Daylight since I used to work at Quiznos back back way before he became the the tattoo face Daylight. I remember working with him at Quiznos. Uh during the night shift.
Uh in Homie Thursday's coming up on Friday. So it's just it's it's it's a good I don't know when it's Aaron, but I'm just saying it's a good time right now, because with this window, with this light that's being shine right now, because of what Kendrick did on the West Coast, I'm not fitna be one of them people that's gonna be sitting around and not doing nothing
about it. I want to make sure that while all this attention is coming from the rest of the world wanting to know about our history, I'm gonna do everything I can to bring them, bring those voices in quiet mind so that they can tell their stories.
So I appreciate y'all for sure.
For sure, y'all make sure y'all get home me such tax what's youw on Instagram?
Same thing at Curtis King to US's, as long as it's to US's.
At Curtis King, Saxon is yours?
Uh dazzy D dot O g d A z z I E D E E dot og.
Y'all know, go follow us up Against Chronicles podcast if you're not already, And on that note, we are out of here.
Well.
That concludes another episode of the Gainst the Chronicles podcast. Be sure to download the iHeart app and subscribe to the Gangst Chronicles podcast for Apple users. Find a Purple Michael on the front of your screen, subscribe to the show, leave of comment and rating. Executive producers for The Gangst Chronicles podcast Norman Stelled, Aaron M c a Tyler. Our visual media director is Brian Whatt, and audio edit is tell It.
Hayes.
Against the Chronicles is a production of iHeartMedia Network and The Black Effect Podcast Network. For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeart Radio app Apple Podcasts wherever you're listening to your podcasts