BIG FACTS feat. STARLITO

Starlito chops it up with the Big Facts podcast crew, diving into his journey with his loyal fan base and his iconic feature on Jeezy’s mixtape with “Grey Goose.” He keeps it real about his standing with Birdman and Yo Gotti, and opens up about squashing beef with Young Buck.

Starlito also shares how his daughter has transformed his life, his take on authenticity in the rap industry, and gives the lowdown on his latest project.

This conversation gives fans a raw and authentic look into Starlito's world, blending personal insights with industry truths.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Big bang what it is. You don't be on nothing,
I be on okay, So let me ask you bring
you big big facts right now.

Speaker 2 (00:10):
Visit the new website today, big factspod dot com. A
line from the Culture Lab and the atl is time
for that big facts. We hear, Big Bank Baby j
d J screen Welcome in Nashville's home, the one, the only,
the legendary.

Speaker 1 (00:24):
Starting lead on ski startling though.

Speaker 2 (00:28):
Man, yo yo, your fans interesting, man, they've been threatening
us about this. Man, your fans don't play man. How
did you get this type of loyalty from your fan base?

Speaker 3 (00:38):
I say, just stand down. You know, I think I
earned my fans one, one by one. That's the way
I feel about it. Yeah, after trunk hand in the hands,
even on the internet, you know, I take pride and
on what you see is what you get. And I
think people you know, honored that you give and give respect.
So I feel like my audience I look at them

(01:00):
more as an audience or almost like a family or
a bond I had with the people that take to
my music and my brand.

Speaker 2 (01:06):
So you feel like you give them as much as
they give you too, like you pour into them. You
give them music, all the time. You give them shows,
you get them lifestyle, you give them merse, you give
them game like you feel you pour into your fans
like they're pour into you too.

Speaker 3 (01:18):
I try my best to you know. It's a lot
of my music is like almost like move music, I guess,
so sometimes you might not have it, you know, the
way they bring it to me. A lot of times
the people that that type of my music lift me
up and give me, give me together, and give me
a pocket. But I try to reciprocate, try to give

(01:39):
it back to them as best I can.

Speaker 2 (01:41):
A lot of a lot of the a lot of
the world, at least Atlanta, like the streets probably first
heard you, even though you were doing music before that,
on that Great Goose record with GIZI and Got It.

Speaker 1 (01:50):
Yeah, on that mixtape. Yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:54):
Did you like, did you envision at that time that
that was going to plan and seed to help you
get to where you are now?

Speaker 3 (02:02):
Nah? Hell nah, you was just rapp It was it
was just making music. I was like nineteen all the time,
and uh that shit was like an inside joke from
my neighborhood, and uh it just kind of caught fire
around my way. I think Coach K. Coach K and
Jazzy Fad was in the club in Nashville and heard
it or heard it. May have been that sign been

(02:23):
something else they heard it brought it back this way.
I guess Jesus heard it the same time. Yo, gut.
It was reaching out from some of my other music
I was putting up. It just kind of like the
perfect storm. Like at that time we had similar followings,
you know, on our home bases where we were from,
and uh, you know, they all reached out in a
cool way passing through Nashville whatever, and like did another

(02:47):
version remix of the record, which ended up being the
one we serviced the radio and ended up on tracking
like yeah, you know, classic moment. But no, I didn't
I be lying to say money then or no the
deal cash money probably came in the months six months,
I think January, I think five is when I did

(03:10):
the cash Money universal Alltown Dud. It was through y'all
guy in his company. But uh, but no, I ain't.
I didn't envision it. Being that it just happened, was
like a perfect storm.

Speaker 4 (03:21):
Then I would then I would be your passion music.

Speaker 3 (03:25):
Now I was in the basketball before that, I was
probably high school times, but just reality, like, you know,
the odds against you with that, that's one in a
million shots. So sometime around the same time, I wanted
to do the music, and it was a hobby, it
was something to do, and enough people started telling me
I was good at it, I started to believe it.

(03:46):
And by the time I went to college, it was
like being around. I went to TSU, I went to HBCU,
been around that many Black people are the same, you know,
age and culture from different places. It kind of you know,
it was like a launching pad for it, but now
it was it was sports, you know, just trying to
get out the hood. Like this is what we looked

(04:08):
at as a ticket for it. But it went from
a hobby to a passion to a hustle. Yeah, and
you know, once it started making sense and once it
become lucrative, it was like, I'd rather do this than
than what the other options was.

Speaker 2 (04:25):
You feel like you're the biggest from Nashville, Like that's
the statement, the biggest.

Speaker 3 (04:34):
It ain't for me to say like, uh, good right,
I mean, it ain't for me to say now just
now this this is my truth though, but it's a
bunch of reasons why I say that, Like one, just one,
I am, like, I'm you know, in the process of

(04:57):
killing all my ego. So I say, it's not for
me to say because if that's what I subscribe to
and that's what's important to me, I can lose myself.
And like, as far as metrics go, I ain't the
most accomplished. I mean, it's certain things I could problem
myself up on, But what do it really mean? You

(05:17):
know what I'm saying. I think Buck went like double
platinum or something like that. If I'm not mistaken of
Gun the group four three or four times platinum. You know,
Jelly Rolls a rapper my partland one of the big arguments,
one of the biggest superstars in the world right now

(05:39):
in another line of music. You know, he come from
hip hopably come from a rap lane, and so like,
I don't just see the value in comparing it. Like
one of the things I'm probably proud of is staying power,
you know, sustainability. Y'all was just talking about me getting
a deal in two thousand and five, and I'm you know,
I'm still here, still later. Yeah, there's still people that

(06:01):
want to hear me and see me. So it ain't.
I don't think it's about being the biggest. I think
it's about like what what kind of value you can retain, longevity,
how you go to the farther It is the file.

Speaker 2 (06:14):
But but but one day I gotta salute you on
and that's how cool. I receive that energy. But you
doing this shit and dependent the real independently for sure,
Like when you say grind hard, like I hear about it.

Speaker 1 (06:30):
Like y'all go.

Speaker 2 (06:32):
Shout shots, a dun trip to y'all go to a city,
pack out of show.

Speaker 1 (06:35):
Ain't no radio, ain't no none of that. It's just
people know.

Speaker 3 (06:39):
Yeah, for sure, Yeah, ain't. I ain't took a record
the radio in fourteen years, probably twenty teen, you know
what I mean. Not that it's the right I don't
think it's the right or wrong way, you know, it's
however you get to, you know, respect your don john
my bood. But like being signed, I had people like

(07:01):
trying to guide me in a certain direction. We need
this kind of record, we need a single, we need
to hit yeah, you know, six words or list in
your chorse this and then I'm like, as an artist,
that kind of watered down my craft. You know, I'm
in there wracking my brain trying to do it, trying
to make another great goose, trying to create a moment.

Speaker 4 (07:18):
When losing your people too at the same time losing myself.

Speaker 3 (07:20):
Yeah, yourself, because I might just got something to say
that somebody gonna feel fat. And as you see music change,
well a lot of hits don't even got courses no more.
You mentioned don Tripp he got in the game with
the letter to my Son record didn't have a course,
just pain ocean passion, you know what I'm saying. Going
through a custodian situation with kid poured this ship out

(07:44):
when it got a deal with the score, like he's
still in the game, just off being him, you know.
But it's like I started to see that then were
running through the budget. You know, we get a record,
it costs to work records, you know, so I soaked
all that up. I'm like, yeah, I don't think that's
the only way to do it, because I'm seeing a
lot of things work. I'm like, well, I like I

(08:05):
like that. I'm gonna try that for myself. Yeah, just
you know, just work, trying to work my own plan.

Speaker 1 (08:13):
So do you.

Speaker 2 (08:14):
But have you ever desired like plaques and Grammys and like,
have you ever desired that?

Speaker 1 (08:21):
Have you ever had that moment.

Speaker 2 (08:22):
Where you're like, man, maybe damn, maybe it would be
nice to have a Grammy plaque or some of that
other more mainstream ship.

Speaker 3 (08:30):
Man, that's funny. I got two plaques last week. It's
from some stuff from yesteryear. But I just never physically
had the plaque, just being independent, just you know, certain
parts of it. I mean, the records registered in otherwise
I got paid the coordling and that matter a little
bit more. But I got a plaque from like Father,

(08:51):
Like Son album, and I got a plaque from a
Little Baby album Harder than ever. And it's a lot
of other artists that I work with, and this is
just my truth. A lot of times I lived through
their successes in terms of the trophies of it, because
I'm like, we all part of each other's story, and
I'm like, I'd be so happy, Yeah, I'd be so

(09:13):
happy to see other people come up. It's like, as
long as I'm still in it, Like my trophy is
the testimony of people that are reached because a lot
of times, like I mean, for show, the plaques is metrics,
this sold this, this streme is the numbers metric or whatever,
but awards itself, it's politics and all it and not

(09:34):
to mention like I don't. I took myself out of
the mainstream, right you did, so, like I ain't. I
definitely ain't in it for that.

Speaker 4 (09:42):
You know.

Speaker 3 (09:43):
It's it's cool, you know, even now I'm doing some writing,
I'm doing some other things behind the scenes, and some
of that might end up, you know, with the level
of achievement, and that's cool too, But I just ain't
in it for like the recognition fact. Uh. Like it's
just truthfully, I think it's cool for whoever it does
matter or apply to. It just don't matter to me.

Speaker 5 (10:05):
You think you're gonna continue to do like be in
the music business like throughout the rest of your life,
like regardless.

Speaker 3 (10:14):
If I can get some of these other moves working,
for sure, because that's that's what I'm like. I'm from Nashville.
We got it's like an epicenter like music business, but
it's outside the route and if I can figure out
to get into some of them doors, some of them
rooms there here, yeah, because it's just too much money,
like yeah, development and exactly, like, because that's that's part

(10:37):
of it. I feel like I got the market in mind.
I just don't really so much have a desire to
be at the forefront of it myself. It's like, if
I can find something that this could work, yeah, we
could do that, Like I could do that to something
old and gray, you know from the cut.

Speaker 6 (10:52):
So my thing is with you, like when it comes
when it comes to Nashville, when it comes to music,
and when you put those two together, you are worldly
considered a legend in that era, like from both of
those worlds. So coming from that current legend status, is

(11:14):
there anything that you feel like you could accomplish or
that you haven't done that you want.

Speaker 4 (11:21):
To aspire to do?

Speaker 3 (11:22):
Yeah, for sure, I got I got my own like ideas.
One of them is taking my music or physically going.

Speaker 1 (11:29):
Out the country with music international.

Speaker 3 (11:31):
Yeah, that's that's one of the things I was. I
felt like I was kind of on course to do
it when we after we dropped Step Brothers three and
then I fucking around got in some trouble and yeah,
and then after that I had a child and between
you know, yeah, life exactly, and so I kind of
shifted my focus away from that being like just a

(11:54):
direct goal. But that's they did something I want to
do because because rap music got you know, ass a pill. Yeah,
all the same way.

Speaker 6 (12:03):
You have legend status over here in the States. I'm
sure that status will translate internationally overseas.

Speaker 3 (12:11):
Maybe, But regarding yes, will, I mean hopefully. You know,
I'm just saying for it to take me there, like whatever,
whatever the results of it, because because I've been able
to do that, you know, me come from Easter Nashville.
Like I can remember my first show in Florida, my
first show in California, my first show, Like every time
it was like surreal, whether it was for free, whether

(12:34):
it's for the low, whether it was for the strength,
whether I was throwing the show and pack it up,
like just the fact that like this took me there.
So look, that's what I'm like. I ain't being funded,
I ain't being fake humble to say that. I'm just
not telled to the results. You know, It's just something
I took in and like enjoy the journey. A lot
of times we'll get so fixated on the destination and things,

(12:58):
or we can sell ourself of short just by expectations,
like if I can get off across the water wrapping
and it's like i't have to come out of my
pocket to do it. That's the that's the when if
I end up being able to stay there, come back
all the time here y'all rather. But I know that,
like the court, like following, like that ship was a

(13:20):
brick by brick. That was a grind. So I don't.
I don't never expect to just go somewhere and just
be wild fire. You know. I used to stay down
here and was just a guy in the crowd. I
can remember one time going to get something to eat somewhere.
It was like outside food truck type of thing. It's
probably like twelve thirteen years ago, and I'm standing away
on my food and five six people back to back

(13:41):
run up on me, and this after I like, I
got family here. I've been here since I was a kid,
back and forth and it was just like damn. I
couldn't say what happened. Yeah, it was like, damn, it's different,
like they you know, I'm being recognized exactly. I wasn't
here doing no rap shit. I was just here. I'm like, damn,
I'm somebody in this face.

Speaker 5 (14:00):
But I've been you know, is it somebody ain't got
a chance to work with it that You're like, Man,
I know I make some hardship this, n.

Speaker 3 (14:08):
Oh nah, not really. I'm a fan of I'm a
fan of like lyricism and more like the purest rap level.
Outside of that, I feel like I work well. I
missed with people that they got different styles, but I
ain't never like seeking it out. Like I collaborated with

(14:31):
a lot of people, a lot of like big dog
namesake type of artists, but I never like pursued it. So,
you know, as far as collaboration go out, I be
wanting to work with like vocalists like R and B
singers or somebody just bringing something different to the folks.
Like I said in the space I've been in, I'm like,

(14:51):
music is music, writing is right, and I can put
the words together. I'm like, can come with some collet
ship for you to sing kind of thing or you know,
But no, I can't like pinpoint like specific producers. Yeah,
I mean, whoever can bring somebody of them in a
different sound like I can't you put me on the spot.

(15:15):
I'm trying to think of. But you know, a lot
of time as an ind like you said, it's to
throw the name stacks out of there, it's a ticket
to come with it. Like I'm you know, I'm a hustler.
I'd almost rather work with the upstart. I'd rather like
discover something, try to blow some somebody's situation up and
be in on it. Then you know, just attaching to

(15:35):
the to the namesake. But it's it's a lot of
producers that I work with on it come up. I
like to circle back with and see what we come
up with. Now that we probably both found our sound.
And I talked to de Rich the other day, and
that's somebody that I watched sty down, you know, create
a sound and he still like got a sound in
a certain pocket and still making hits. And we always

(15:57):
just kept that kind of relationship without making a whole
lot music. Just we just leveled, you know what I'm saying.
Signed type of people, and you know, I reached out
like I want to work with them, want to get
them in with some of my artists I got on
my label. Now it's just like for sure you got
the track record or hit Mica or whatever. But yeah,
I just I just feel like what's for me is

(16:17):
for me. I don't like to go a way out
of my way for it.

Speaker 2 (16:22):
What there was going some stuff like going on in Nashville,
just some I don't know if it created like division,
but just some like a little back and forth. I
think your name was in it, Buck and some other people.
Is all that have y'all buried the hatchet and all
that is? Everybody at least cordial, like we're just gonna
let it be what it is.

Speaker 3 (16:37):
Yeah, yeah, that that specific situation. I just brought Buck
out at a concert for sure. Yeah. Yeah, we passed
were more than straight, like just grown man time, et cetera.
I brought him out. I brought out a few artists
from from Nashville. It was a It was a concert

(16:57):
celebrating a twenty year run for me and band played.
The producer band Player was on the bill as well.
But I brought out a couple of artists on my label,
Trapperman their Big Top. I brought out papers An artists
I collaborated with since since the beginning of my career.
And I brought out Quantit Cash and Buck and Quantity

(17:19):
and Bug represented like I was trying to tell the story,
like this is where it was when I got in
the game quantit Cash was on fire from my side
of town. Young Bug obviously came through did what he did.
Me and Paper kind of in the same like generation,
same class are doing it. And then the other two
artists trapping Mandal Big Top, like is where I see

(17:39):
it going as far as Nashville street music. Otherwise, just
the culture that you know that I emerged from. But
I brought out buck last. It was like it was
really shocking, you know, considering our history back and forth.

Speaker 1 (17:53):
But we got think that was just ego stuff or
was it.

Speaker 3 (17:57):
It was I think it was. It was ego. No
got a problem, Nah, nah, it was. It was a
territorial It was imaginary crowns. The same thing I was
saying where I kept a detached from the whole ego
part of it. It was, you know, we got a
rich history of working since five o six and did

(18:19):
a whole type together at the time, thirty four of
the records, always like everything was everything. We've had ups
and downs even prior to then, and it was you know,
this this game it can turn into a pisson contest
or it's like you know, somebody's up here, somebody's up here.
You're passing each other on the way, the way it's
people in your ears. You know, it just got weird

(18:42):
on the ego level. But and when it came to
a board, I charged it to both of us, you
know what I'm saying, As I can say I was
ego tripping as well, but the way it played out,
it was just I learned so much from it, and
uh because it was like a setback, even like psychologically,

(19:04):
because because it forced me to like check myself and
take inventory on like perception, because a lot of times
were moving off that we're moving off how we think
people feel about us. You know what I'm saying, It's
really more important how we view ourselves. You know, what
you see in the mirror because that situation that you know,
what what was like visible to people. You know, I

(19:29):
don't I ain't got to relive and going to the
detail of it, but I use a whole lot of
restraint not to go somewhere else with it in the moment,
you know what I It was in the high school
or a basketball game of three fifty seven of my draws,
and it's like I could have went somewhere else with it.
And then you know, the media aftermath, it's like, oh,
maybe when I said two days later, I overreact to,

(19:53):
you know, a situation, get aggravator south the same people like, man,
you're crashing out, you know. You like between the two
situations like literally for that hours each other, I'm like,
you can't win. You can't win with people. So I'm
a gangster if I take it there, you know, use
my better judgment. I see police at the end of

(20:15):
the east side of the highway. I just need to
get up out of here. I don't care about the
optics of it. And then on the other end, it's
like if I react how y'all say I should, then
I'm stupid. Then y'all you know what I'm saying. And
it's even if it's just environmental or how you just
prone to react or something or whatever. Even even if
that was a mistake, it's like people won't let you
live it down either way. So it's just like I

(20:38):
died it back and it was like, then, how do
we even get to that point like you should? It's ego.
It's ego because I'm like I got to a point
where like, man, I ain't I ain't living for this
rap persona. I ain't living for approval. I've been through
a lot of shit to the point where I was
even in that environment like that, moving like that, it's
because I'm out ease. I'm in my old stompaing grounds,

(21:01):
whereas then I don't been through a little bit of
head things. So I'm gonna protect myself and I'm carrying
myself a certain way. But I'm really here on community
time and I'm like, so, but I don't know's it's
a lot to it.

Speaker 2 (21:15):
Yeah, but it's good y'all got past that. Yeah, for
as y'all considered, like be honest, like the ogs of it.
So that's it's a precedent for.

Speaker 3 (21:24):
Yeah, all right, example a better example because also people
feel like you gotta have problems. That's gotta be a
part of your come up story. It's like you gotta
it's gotta be me versus and that that's something we
just pro that's just programmed a want in our psychis
like in order to come up, I gotta put something

(21:44):
else down in order to be big me has got
to be little something else And that ain't that ain't true.
We really better off as a collector, you know. So
even with that show like even with niggas sending things
to the side and figuring out a better way to
you know, I'm saying, go about it is. It was
about that was a conversation, really, I mean, we had conversation.

(22:04):
Proud of there. But it's like, man, it ain't about you,
it ain't about me. It's about it's about the people
that's gonna come after us. To be able to see
a better example and see that. It's like, it's a
better way to go about this.

Speaker 4 (22:19):
Else what you were doing, Like what your upbring was
like just straight up.

Speaker 3 (22:29):
I mean I was it was. It was me and
my mama for the most part, single paying home. I'm
you know from I ain't gonna say the absolute worst
of it, but I'm you know from from around the way.
And uh man, I grew up smart, I tested gifted,
I skipped first grade. I came up in a in
a rough area. But I thank my mom for like

(22:54):
putting me in better schools and whatever like it gave
me some some options. But I also came up seeing
everything that it was to see. So by the time
I was coming to age and could figure it out
for myself, Like I said, when it wasn't sports. It
was a lot of other stuff, you know what I'm saying, environmental,
The neighborhood was right there, you know what I'm saying.

(23:16):
It was well, I'm gonna try to get me some
money kind of thing. And uh, I say. I just
had a diverse upbringing.

Speaker 1 (23:26):
How you get into the music.

Speaker 3 (23:31):
Just trial and error. Just I actually wanted to make beats,
and there was some niggas around my way, some people
I went to school with that was like more inter rapping.
I wanted to try to make beats for him, but
I would always write something to air beat I made
and my beast was sorry as hell. That was really
really the end of it. Like I hear other people

(23:53):
beasts and just like, yeah, that shit better than mine.
But every time I write something, they'll be like, man,
get on the song with us, like your verse home
what kind of thing. So that evolved and I left
the beat making a loan and kind of got it,
you know, fell in love with the writing. The wraps
put you know, actually recording recording myself. That was probably
around fifteen sixteen, But that was, like I said, it

(24:15):
was a hobby. It was just something to do. By
like eighteen, I was trying to put the put the
music out and get heard. And the first thing we
put out just from the neighborhood, between the neighborhood and
the campus, you know, which was cross town from each other,
it just kind of caught fire. Like I put out
some music nine months later, I damn that had a deal.

Speaker 5 (24:38):
Oh so yeah, when you when you when you stop
when you start rapping, and ship got seen about the
music that you quitched everything else Cold Turkey just focused
on music or what you one one foot.

Speaker 3 (24:49):
It was a man I was. I was in the
I was in the thick of it, you know. My
peers and my support system was that. Yeah, it was
that so so I was. I was in it, you
know what I'm saying. Like, but but I was the rapper, Yeah,
you know what I mean. So it's one of them

(25:11):
things like you in it, whether you choose to be
in the lie you know, all the way up to
probably I got accomplished enough to be able to separate
myself from it. But early on it was like like
I said, when I dropped that first type and we
was and we could get five and ten dollars a CD,
and I'm going home with money in my pocket off
the CDs. Right. It was an instant decision, like I

(25:33):
rode a hustle this, yeah, but you know everything else
is the same environment. It's it's like because it's gonna
slow up and you know, but I had a partner
that told me I can remember losing all my money
shooting dice and uh and I'm like from something, you
know what I'm saying, just put me back in the
game kind of thing, and he shot off on him,

(25:53):
was like, man, you need to get some more CDs.
It's like fuck that you need to get some cee
these And I'm like, and I was because you know,
I'm trying to get back instantly. But it was like
the advice or the gravity of advice was so real
because it's like I took so much more than what
he actually said. It's almost like if I if I
give you this and you go get jammed up, and

(26:16):
it's gonna be on my conscious knowing that you got something,
you know what I'm saying, better than this, or you
got something to come like almost like risk free, so
to say, like to see that the music is a
sweet lick if you if you work hard enough at it.
And I took from that. I won't say it was
like a cold Tarket thing at that time because it

(26:37):
was one for then one for that, even even with
being signed and all that, because it's like, man, that
shit comes slow. They'll release a budget or they release
half your budget on the front end, and you sitting
until they sign off on it, and it's like yeah,
so it's like that kind of dry up or I
ain't just gonna sit around y'all and wait on. You
know what I'm saying, direction like I'm gonna go for

(26:59):
what I know. I gotta go back home. I got
to make something happen. But it was, like I said,
them conversations are like, man, this is what you're supposed
to be doing. Kept me, you know what I'm saying.
The geared with that, And.

Speaker 4 (27:11):
What's the first city that picked up on you heavy,
like outside of your city?

Speaker 3 (27:15):
Memphis? Memphis, Tennessee. It's like two and a half hours
from Nashville. And like I said, the first person to
reach out was yo, got it. This is while I
was still in college. But a lot of people from
TSU are from Memphis. There's a lot of people, you
know what I'm saying. It's almost like half and half,

(27:35):
and I think a lot of people from Memphis then
went to school with me, was going back home with
the music. And by the time I started working with
got it in, like, oh, foh it just a lot
of people think I'm from Memphis. You know, I've seen
people I seen Memphis artists make the top five lists
and have me in it, which is crazy to me,
Like I ain't even from there, but a lot of

(27:57):
people from other places, like I've been on the West Coast,
like you from Memphis, and I'm like, that's just how
much they embraced me. Now, you know, when I was
working music and radio, I had songs going number one
back to back on both stations like from you know,
street level radio. Everything, Like they always took to my

(28:19):
music and always treated me like like them. So yeah,
Memphis was definitely the first, and still to this day,
it's just like second home type of time.

Speaker 2 (28:29):
Anybody that follow you know, like your daughter is your world, man,
tell us about how having the kid change you, and
also talk a little bit about her, You being comfortable
having like her in the studio with you, because we
see them pictures too where you like have her in
the studio with you, like while you're cooking up and
all that.

Speaker 3 (28:47):
That part just happened recently as far as involving in
the music making process. My daughter's five should be six
in like a month, change everything from the same thing
I was saying, the timeline of going through some stuff,
catching a catching a fresh case. And then I had

(29:08):
a child maybe six months later or the following year.
It changed my own mind front, Like I already was
kind of like detaching from the whole like rap game,
rap persona thing, but it just made things white reller,
like I ain't just living for me. I mean, it

(29:31):
was like a different purpose, a different approach to what
I'm doing. And on the same way y'all, like you
got training or whatever, I'm just mold conscious or like
what I put out the energy wise, the things I
say and otherwise. Because I got a little person that's
list hanging on her word and she know how to
work our passed. She'll end up finding this terview for

(29:52):
what is worth Like at the top of the year,
you know, she was I was on like local TV
on like a new station, but it was an interview
platform and she was watching it.

Speaker 4 (30:03):
She was like, why she keep.

Speaker 3 (30:04):
Calling you that I'm like, I ain't thinking none of it.
She's like, why she calling you Lido? And I had
to kind of explain it to it. Then I'm like,
it's my stage name, this and that, and you know,
then she go up granted, like, you know, the name
of my daddy's stage is start Leado. You know, I'm
tripping off of it. But since then she just a

(30:25):
little by little understands it a little bit better. I'm like,
because I ain't gonna really had nothing from her. I
told myself, I'm always keep it yeah, keep it real,
be as honest.

Speaker 1 (30:34):
As I can.

Speaker 3 (30:34):
But I know it's things I said and done that's
gonna be difficult to explain. So the best I can
do moving forward is is make sure i'm you know,
everything is like it's best I can on up and
up to the point where I feel comfortable bringing into
my work environment, you know, because it's different than it
used to be looking you know, it's a different vibration

(30:56):
and everything. And then she got her own dreams and whatnot.
So she's she's featured on my last album. She's actually
singing on there. You know, I got like set up
in the crib. She wants to record more than I
do half the time at the house. But yeah, just
it just changes me completely. Man.

Speaker 1 (31:13):
So i'mnna throw this out there because I want to
hear what he goes.

Speaker 2 (31:16):
This is gonna be good. It's your daughter birthday, covering up.
You're supposed to take your daughter whatever.

Speaker 1 (31:23):
Right, But they call they.

Speaker 2 (31:26):
Got triple the bad what you usually get for a show.
What's star lad though doing.

Speaker 3 (31:34):
Man, I'm gonna keep it real. We uh, we're gonna
we're gonna do it triples big when we resevered what
we got going on, Like that's just the right. Yeah,
I mean that's.

Speaker 1 (31:45):
That's that's the nature of how you that's the nature
of what it is.

Speaker 3 (31:50):
Yeah, other way, I ain't. I like to say I
wouldn't cancel something. It's best I could. But you know,
as far like even on the family and like as
a as a provider, as a bread winner, like I
can't see, uh, unless it's something we just absolutely can't
work around. Like I can't see whoever. I can't see

(32:12):
a mama not going to work handle a business like
we have to move things around, like you know, we
scheduled this today. I told you I left a soccer
game and came here. You know what I'm saying straight
from the soccer field. But it's like I gotta go
to work and you know what I'm saying, my support
system gotta understand and Brycete if anything, it's like, well
let's pile up, y'all go to the city with me

(32:33):
with the show. Is that.

Speaker 1 (32:35):
When I get one, you're gonna find.

Speaker 3 (32:39):
Yeah, turn it into that, like what you saying, triple,
It's like, you know, it is what it is short
of a you know, uh, I mean it's this gain
don't wait for nobody. It's hard to like you take
things for granted and think it's on your terms and
your time. It'll leave you behind, like regretfully, like had

(33:01):
to miss a funeral before because it was you know
what I'm saying, We got contracts and otherwise, and it
was like I had to make peace with my attachments
to this person. Wouldn't you know what I'm saying. It
wasn't defined by whether I was at this funeral service
or not. And you know, and even the other family
members was they understood it or whatever. It's like, you know,

(33:26):
we got a business gotta get tended to, not to
say it comes before any or everything. But it's just
gonna make it make sense on the other end, because
if I ain't earning my key, then you know, I
can't really but halfway through my job as a father.
That's real. But for sure, it's not that this music
thing or whatever take precedence. It's just like I said,

(33:49):
it's my hustle to it. Yeah it is. I gotta
I gotta earn my key.

Speaker 2 (33:53):
Trip you fully comfortable though? What if she wanted to
jump in all the way or like rap and be
in this industry? You're fully comfortable with that it nah?

Speaker 3 (34:01):
But nah, But I will say I'm behind or support
of whatever it is you want to do.

Speaker 4 (34:08):
So why you're not comfortable?

Speaker 3 (34:10):
Oh, because I'm not as much a fan of the
culture of it or the you know, like Bank asked me,
like I might be in the business of it for
as long as I can. But comfortable, I say, nah,
because it's not necessarily what I want for her, you
know what I'm saying. Because it wasn't easy. It's not

(34:33):
a you know, people can see they see the highs
and kind of miss the loss other times or what
it might have took to get there. But I ain't
gonna like discourage her from it or try to keep
her from doing it. That's what she want to do.

Speaker 5 (34:46):
I just basically saying, you don't want to see her
to go through the stress of this shit, right and yeah, right, No,
in the manipulation of trying to make you something that
you're not, Like you said earlier, you get signed to life,
she go to a major. Now it's certain things they
want you to do outside of what you wanted to do,
like make are three word whatever you just say earlier,
you remember.

Speaker 3 (35:06):
Yeah exactly what Yeah, just overall, I just like part
of it for me is like, like I said, I've
been at this professionalist since our eighteen like a little
bit over twenty years, and it's consumed so much of
my my life. You know what I'm saying, This became
my life, like I wanted to live free and have

(35:29):
my own experience. Is part of what I'm saying. Like,
because whatever she's doing, I want her to be the
best at it or whatever. So if it's like most recently,
just she says she want to be a movie star,
And I mean, I don't know as much about that game,
but if that's what she want to do, then it's
acting classes, it's theater camp or whatever. Like I'm gonna

(35:50):
support it. I'm gonna embrace it, nurture and all that.
But it's like, do you want your kid to be
a child star because a lot of a lot of
the child stars ended up with with weird, weird stories
to come with it or you hear you know, Hollywood.

Speaker 7 (36:03):
And like, so the best I can do is I
think you had to pack it up though, like you
have to pack up your everything you're doing. Yeah, to
pursue that, for sure, that's the only way I would
do it like that, Like my daughter, she would dish
the business.

Speaker 4 (36:16):
Noney, Yeah, I can't let you go out there with.

Speaker 3 (36:18):
No right.

Speaker 1 (36:21):
Her parents type shy.

Speaker 4 (36:23):
At least you get a you know, get your husband
some something.

Speaker 3 (36:26):
Yeah, for sure. But but I mean, so that's just
my truth for like, I don't I don't necessarily like
I want that, for want of the choose this, But
I ain't finna like like right now, she the sports,
She into, I want her to play basketball because I
like basketball. But I asked her, like you want to
play basketball? She said no, that we ain't playing basketball.

(36:47):
You know what I'm saying. She want to play soccer,
we're playing soccer. Whatever it is, I'm I'm with it,
you know. I think I said on the song or whatever,
you're with on with on the on the song that
she featured, I'm talking to her pretty much on the song.

Speaker 2 (37:00):
That's the cycle though, because you you probably didn't end
up doing what your people wanted you to do.

Speaker 3 (37:06):
Not necessary, right, So yeah, it wasn't. Yeah, my dream
probably wasn't legitimate to everybody that that loved me or
bought me up or whatever. But you know they ain't.
They ain't ship on it necessarily either or discourage It
was just kind of like but yeah, I remember that
it being like rapping like until it's like, damn, are

(37:27):
you rapping for real? Like when I got a deal
or whatever. It was so but like you said, I
just gotta be hands on with it. I can't just
let let it wrong.

Speaker 5 (37:35):
While Hey, when was that moment for you? I always
ask people that like that moment when you just start
like feeling like yeah.

Speaker 3 (37:45):
Oh, one of them, I'm gonna pinpoint a couple of difference.
One of them was, oh fo, I was at the
Essence Festival, me and me and my partner drove straight
from I think it was in Clarsville, Tennessee. This is
about an hour the opposite way. It was at a

(38:06):
you know, small club, hood club kind of thing. We
left out of the club drove the New Orleans and
to link over God in them. They make the introduction
with you know baby and Slim Little One, et cetera.
We go down to Essence and and I get there
and it's like they kind of like know who I am,

(38:28):
know the music, and you know, it's clear like they
I'm like, damn, I'm in at this time, like in
a room I never saw my you know what I'm saying.
That's how we listened to, Like I'm like, damn, they
really want me to be you know a part of this.
I was kind of like a deer in head license.
I was so young and just impressed by it. But
it was a moment of I'm like, damn, I ain't

(38:49):
think I ain't think i'd be here or I'm hearing
I'm somebody so to say that was That was a moment,
but it wasn't really like a defining moment.

Speaker 4 (38:58):
What do you do for your company to do that moment?

Speaker 3 (39:00):
Oh man?

Speaker 6 (39:03):
It was.

Speaker 3 (39:03):
It was unreal. I don't even know if it did
as much for my confidence. It was just like it
was like a pinch yourself kind of thing, like, damn,
am I really here like this? You know, from seeing
somebody on TV or listen to somebody at that time
with five six years and you there and you're supposed
to be there kind of thing. I don't know if
it did as much for my confidence. It's just it

(39:26):
was just unbelievable. But it was a moment that it
was like, damn this, this shit really happened. Is I've
already at taken it farther than I could have seen
or imagined past that I made the Billboard charts were
talking about plaques and otherwise, and it wasn't like I

(39:48):
don't remember what I was fifty sixty something, but it
was the top two hundred album charts. In twenty thirteen,
when I dropped the album called Cold Turkey. It's funny
that you asked me call Turkey thing. I dropped the
album call Call Tark and it charted on Billboard and
it was I was ready to put the music out
for free, like on live mixtapes and all that, and

(40:09):
my partner had linked me with Empire, and I just
serviced it like an album, just trying some shit, and
at that time, I was like, even though I've been
in the game down in ten years, at the time,
it was at that moment I'm like, damn, I'm again,
I'm bigger than this. These are metrics, like I'm bigger

(40:29):
than then. I saw myself with that, then I imagined,
and obviously with that, it was also return on it.
It was like from working in somebody else's system and
trying to just fight to get you know what I'm saying,
get back budget money or whatever and cut corners to
like I did this myself and people taking to it.

(40:50):
I'm like looking at reading them. I get an email
from real board and I'm like, ain't nobody do this
shit with me? You know? At that point it was
like okay, yeah, I'm I'm here.

Speaker 4 (41:01):
Seeing that direct direct check.

Speaker 3 (41:03):
Yeah, and then that was okay, yeah, that was probably
the next quest. Yeah, and then I dropped the next
like four or five projects. I dropped out here, Bill,
because when I got that first check, I went right
back to the studio. I'm from drop a note, one check,
got email, you know, and I dropped Fried Turkey four
months later. He Bill board drop step Brothers too, and

(41:25):
it was like top top fifty something went on the
tool with Kevin Gates and it was that moment when
College Turkey, it was like, oh yeah, I don't like,
I don't need nobody like I took meetings with labels
after that, and I'm like, y'all really can't move me
because the thing I'm doing, the things I would be
going to y'all to try to make that and so like,

(41:47):
to me, that's that certified me as like an independent.
Like everybody can use help. I don't want to say
it wrong, like I don't everyone needs help, but I
don't require it in the sense of like y'all help.
I don't necessarily need that kind of help. I don't
need y'all money because I know I can make money
out of this now. It's just by recycling my money

(42:09):
or refining it, doing it better, building my team up.
Let me instead of using you'll people, I'm gonna hire
some of my people to do some of the same things.
I'm gonna find some people that's passionate and to go
harder for me. Then then I'll be number ten in line.
If I sign up over there, I'm number one. Over here,
but yeah, it was. It was that moment with called Turkey,

(42:29):
and that just that pushed me forward probably the next
five years.

Speaker 2 (42:34):
If you're talking to an artist like right now, like
tell them what it really is to be an independent artist,
Like what is really gonna take? Because I think some
people don't. They like the screaming, but they don't really
know what it's gonna take and what it really is.

Speaker 3 (42:48):
Man, the game changes so often and so fast now,
I think what it really takes is being adaptive, being
a quick learner, and and being willing to learn. Like
independent is a word people throw around like that could

(43:08):
just be a fancy Wells saying I ain't got to
deal yet, unsigned and but truly being dependent means you
gotta be soaking it up as you go and figuring
out how to apply it in real time. Like because
like I said, I don't think it's a cookie cut
or blueprint or success. I don't think it's one way
to do things. But you got to figure out what

(43:29):
works for you in mash and really do that. Like
independent and large part I mean spending your own money
so a lot of times that's the hard part.

Speaker 1 (43:39):
And not being scared to spend it.

Speaker 3 (43:41):
That part that's that's a big part of it. But
I think I think learning and growing with this because
we got all the tools. Like man I met I
met this cat that's in college now that was sharing
his music with me, and I was like, where you
you know here just moving were recording that. It was like, man,
I did all this on my phone and I played

(44:04):
it in the car, like sound like my music, like
quality wise, like sonically, and I'm like, man, I ain't
no excuses, you know what I'm saying. We have to
pay so much to get our music to sound like that.
I'm like, he got an iPhone and so it ain't
no excuses, you know what I'm saying. We got We
got the resource to get your camera, get your engineer

(44:26):
or whatever, you know. Interface all these tools. They ain't
necessarily cheap, but they're cheaper than they ever being. It's
they more accessible because you can rent shit, you know
what I'm saying. So part of it is the game
I would give somebody as an independent is man, you
gotta try, you gotta push, Like I know so many
people with talent, they think that's enough. It's to push

(44:49):
more than the talent, you know, what I'm saying, that's
that's anything else. It's hoopers that is cold as NBA players,
but they ain't cultable, you know what I'm saying. Or
they don't do the they don't do the leg they
don't do the conditioning work. It's somebody going harder then you.
You might be better than them, but they going harder.
And so it's that's like I said, learn as you go,

(45:09):
and don't be afraid to try ship and use all
these resources that you got, Like I said, the earning
fans one for one, it's like, all right, I ain't
going to the radio because that costs five figures every
time that we go to try to do that. But
I got these platforms and these mediums where I can
interact with people. Somebody feel like they're a part of

(45:30):
what you got going on, they more likely to go
share with somebody else. And that's how you grow audience,
just as well as being on the station, you know,
one time or ten times a day or however that
might go.

Speaker 2 (45:41):
So I'm sure you take pride to and being independent
and actually owning all your shit, and so what you
think about the artists that go sell all of it?
Would you would you sell all the rights to you.
Would you sell it off for the right ticket? That's
the key phrase, for the right ticket. The same way
was like like would you take you know, triple for this?

(46:03):
You know, that's just that's just being rational. Yeah, that's
just being rational because you can have attachment to something,
but it's like what is it worth?

Speaker 3 (46:13):
What is it worth to you? As I say, everybody
got a price, It ain't even that. It's just like
what you're doing is for you to sell it though, yeah,
on some level, so you're.

Speaker 4 (46:26):
Selling it at that man, man, I wish you mother
will come to buy my cat.

Speaker 3 (46:31):
But but I think it's about knowing big. It's like
knowing what you want to get out of because the
only place I really disagree with that is selling yourself
short or selling it off too soon, because it's like,
like you said, if you build up the value in it,
it's like anything else, you're building a value in it

(46:51):
to wait till it don't got no value no more,
or you know, you want to sell it at the
highest point kind of thing or license or seller part
of it. I think it's about making it makes sense.

Speaker 4 (47:03):
But iin't. I don't feel like i'm finishing it.

Speaker 5 (47:05):
So if I said that they finna give me the
money to boot me up, I'm going to make my
best ship.

Speaker 3 (47:09):
Now right right right, you know what I'm saying. That's
what I see some people in the headlines and people
like why he's selling. I'm like ship because he's still
on fire.

Speaker 4 (47:17):
Like again, I'm.

Speaker 3 (47:19):
Gonna take this second. Yeah, you know what I'm saying,
make a greater value, gonna really turn it, or I'm
gonna find ten more of me to go invest in,
you know what, build some more catalogs up that I
got ownership stake in or whatever. So yeah, I think,
like you said, the right ticket, if it makes sense.
I do think people sell themselves short, going in on

(47:42):
the front end and selling it off before they even
make it.

Speaker 4 (47:46):
That's not like a publishing deal.

Speaker 3 (47:48):
Not even that, because that can make sense. I'm just
saying people to go sign up, like you know, you
signing your rights away on the front end. You know
they give you a big checks. Like man, that these
people give you a million dollars, it's probably because they
see it as being worth ten or twenty in this life.
So you might all have stayed down and put the
work in and go earn your teen rather than taking

(48:11):
the one. And then that's that's all you ever saw
was doing that. That's what you know, the one conflict.
And that's why I was at when I was building
a value up. I'm taking meetings like what you want
to do, like nothing, keep grinding because you know what
I'm saying, because trying to cast me out right now,
I do the math.

Speaker 5 (48:29):
It's just all I'm doing is got damn waiting a
little longer to get more. Yeah, but taking this now,
if I take this now, it's cool because because I
feel like I need it now.

Speaker 4 (48:40):
But I'm already worth this.

Speaker 3 (48:42):
Yeah. And if you're working, if you if you're actually
working your move, then you're gonna make more.

Speaker 6 (48:47):
It's just like taking a fucking the first settlement offering
a car accident. Like they offer you some ship just
to get you out of the way, and if you
need the money bad enough, you'll take it when really
like you deserve more because.

Speaker 4 (49:01):
You fucked up in the bag, be taking that ship.
It ain't really be down, really be hurt.

Speaker 3 (49:08):
This is.

Speaker 1 (49:11):
What they take it off the table.

Speaker 4 (49:15):
But they got to investigate this ship.

Speaker 1 (49:17):
But look, but look, this rap ship could be like
that too.

Speaker 3 (49:22):
Some people doing this as a link. If you're doing
it as a link, the cash out get low and
go like. But I'm saying that at the point I knew,
like I got value in this, I got staying powered,
I got the formula for me at this point, like,
I don't want you all money to build me up
because I don't. I got equity in it. I'm building

(49:43):
up to this point already. I'm gonna just keep building
and turn it into something else, and y'all might and
double back in a few years and put another zero
in that or something and we can wrap. But you know,
it's it's different if it's like you know, it was
probably times in my career was like shit, I don't know.
If I don't, I don't be around next year to
make more music. So what you got? You know what

(50:03):
I'm saying. That might have been your mindset about it.
But you know, at the point when I'm like my
feet planning in this and I'm at it, it's like, nah,
I'm let me just get back to the studio and
find something else to put out, because like you said,
I ain't I'm not doing traditional promotion. I'm not doing
none of the ship, y'all gonna have me go and do.
I can do this on my time, my turns, And

(50:25):
I'm saying an instant return like folks.

Speaker 5 (50:29):
On a different level though, like your people really fuck
with you. Niggas fuck with you so they own you hard.

Speaker 4 (50:35):
You know what I'm saying. I've been hearing niggas for
years and years and years.

Speaker 5 (50:38):
Like, nah, I fuck with bro like even rappers like
till y'all can't even rappers like me, Nah start leaving.

Speaker 4 (50:45):
You know what I'm saying. I don't never heard the
niggas say you know what I'm saying. Nah, you know
what I'm saying. That's on some real ship.

Speaker 5 (50:55):
They'd be like, who hard that nigga a hard You
know what I'm saying. They be saying, he started a
lot of ship. The nigga don't know. You know what
I'm saying. You know what I'm saying, Like for real,
I just give you that right now, face to face.

Speaker 3 (51:06):
That's real, that's real. Yeah. Should I honor those that
say it out loud too? Yeah? You know, because that's
in the game too. People hold their nuts on you
and act like they didn't see what you doing. Just
just the same and it's like, so put.

Speaker 4 (51:22):
The book bag of nuts on their backs.

Speaker 3 (51:25):
Counting enough so the people that that do recognize and
cold the nuts in fact around stupid. It's real, it's
worth something, you know what I'm saying. That's that's worth
something to me.

Speaker 4 (51:43):
Thank you, dope broad big See they won't glad. I
ain't went no real rap because that should have been
hard for me to stages.

Speaker 1 (51:57):
So like you just so god damn poised. You know
what I'm saying is what the word poised?

Speaker 6 (52:02):
Yeah?

Speaker 5 (52:03):
You know what I'm saying, Like you don't seem like
you easy get rattled. You know what I'm saying, Like,
that's a gift, bro, Yeah.

Speaker 4 (52:08):
Ain't you don't pop it when you can pop it?
You know what I'm saying, That's a gift because I'll
be talking shit.

Speaker 3 (52:16):
But a lot of experience, man, like they say, probably
come before the file, and I just the times when
I was most full of full of myself, that's when
the bullshit come my way, you know what I'm saying,
And that's that's just on a life level. So I
take it good the bad in between, I type the
ship and stride. You know what I'm saying, My my

(52:37):
brightest days or damn, it looks like the worst of
it cause one week condition where I come from to
tuck it in, you know what I'm saying, when you
go through something, And that's why I put certain shit
on my music because it's like I know what they
feel like to have to act like, ain't nothing wrong
with you and it out yeah, Or I'm speaking with
somebody that you can't see.

Speaker 4 (52:57):
You don't know how to and don't even got the
nuts to let it out there. Yeah, for sure, what's
the what's the uh?

Speaker 5 (53:04):
Like one of the most memorable experiences from a fan,
like walking up on you telling you their story or whatever.

Speaker 3 (53:10):
Oh man, somebody somebody told me that they was they
was going through something that was in the hospital. They
was I don't remember the condition they said they had,
but they was going through it and it was like, damn,
the deathbed type situation. And they taught their people to
play play my Mental Warfare album and uh, they was

(53:33):
like they listened to it every day and they attribute
that to them turning the corner with they you know
what I'm saying, from their illness the spirit together. Yeah,
And I was like, they was crying telling me telling
me this and now that's just you know, in confidence,
and I was like, I for whatever was worth. I
believed the way because people shared other things like that,

(53:54):
but it was it just it moved me because I
know why I was there when I made that music,
and I couldn't pinpoint what it was. They heard that
they had that effect on them, but they believe that
moving forward, and for them to be able to share
that with me, it was like, damn, Like the power
of music, you know what I'm saying. You can be
making something to get yourself out of a dark space

(54:15):
or whatever, and then it come back tenfold for somebody else,
you know. And it's been a few stories like that,
people like I was going through chemotherapy and I made
them play this every day, and that was just it
was just programming my mind and like I'm gonna be
all right kind of thing. I'm like, damn that that
just do something else for me as a like as

(54:35):
an artist and as a person. You know, a lot
of times I meet a lot of people that I
ain't encouraging it, but I meet a lot of people
that got ground hard, got my logo tattooed on them,
and things like that. I'm like, damn, like this comes
from the block. This is from the neighborhood. Like you,
I'm in Colorado and you know what I'm saying, and

(54:56):
it's something that you attach yourself to that much to
you know, like damn, it's a lot of moments like that.
Like you said, the people, if they rock with me,
it seemed like they rock with me completely, like people
grew up with me. It's a lot of times that
you know, the all the farther I go with it
all that. I get a lot of people like man,
I've been listening to so I was in sixth grade.

(55:16):
I'm like, which make a nigga feel old, But at
the same time, like damn, and you're still rocking with
me kind of time or like I said, just just
things that like whatever I was doing back then wasn't
in vain because it brought you along and you still
hear kind of thing. But yeah, people is like testimonials
almost because I'm like, damn, I ain't. I ain't see

(55:39):
myself as that I was. Like I said, I started
off just just on some man I was. I was
a punchline rapper. I was rapping probably like fab or
somebody when I first started just you know, trying to make.

Speaker 1 (55:53):
Every line be.

Speaker 3 (55:57):
Like you know, to evolve into like uh like storytelling
to just being relatable and all that. I'm like, so
I ain't see starting off when I was first putting
pee in a past that somebody would be able to
say my music was life changing for them. Will save

(56:17):
they like when people say stuff like that, it's like, damn,
that's that's deep, you know what I'm saying.

Speaker 2 (56:24):
You still like throughout the process of your career, Like,
did the communications stay intact with somebody like Stunning Gotty,
Geezy and all them.

Speaker 4 (56:32):
Nah?

Speaker 3 (56:33):
No, I probably talked to got It most recently. A
lot of people know me and God that kept a
open line, a pretty a pretty cool relationship past that.
I think our last song, money bag Yo, brought me
out in Nashville his arena tour, and you know, it

(56:54):
reached out and I chopped it over got It backstage there.
And I think because of how and when we linked,
we you know what I'm saying, our bond kind of
more or less they of the same.

Speaker 6 (57:06):
You know.

Speaker 3 (57:07):
When I went on went on my own, I think
it was a respect thing because not only it was
just you know, I came into it as as my
own man, but I also took it, took it up
a notch on my own. And I mean we had
conversations about that or like like I said, on respect
and vice versa, like he definitely took it up ten
not since then even I command him turning up so

(57:31):
many other artists because I was one of his first artists,
and like I don't have no I don't have no
regrets of how things worked out or played out with
our situation. But the same thing I was saying, I
look at it as part of like part of that
success stories to learning curve or you know what I'm saying,

(57:52):
the hiccups and the hurdles with our situation. I'm sure
that he got some game when he learned some things,
you know what I'm saying. Broker in a deal with
me or the other artistles around at that time was
able to, you know what I'm saying, get right or
do some better different moving forward. So I always am
like we for show a part of each other's story
and their regard the other people. Like nah, I think

(58:19):
some of the other situations was what they was. It
ain't they ain't like no negativity or bitterness or whatever,
just on certain levels just business and then in real
time like, uh, some of the situations just kind of
stopped where they was. But now I ain't really kept
kept in touch.

Speaker 1 (58:39):
Why imposta syndrome?

Speaker 3 (58:41):
For the name of this project, my album, imposter syndrome
kind of it was a double meaning one on the
literal like scientific like medical or whatever. The imposter syndrome
is like like the belief that your best isn't good enough.
It's like if you like self doubt or or whatever,

(59:04):
like having imposter syndrome, if y'all sat here and was like, man,
I don't I don't know, I don't think. I don't
think big facts is top tier like that kind of mindset.
So that's something that probably I might have dealt with
it early in my career. I think a lot of
people deal with of like and I feel like I've

(59:24):
conquered that I got on the other side of it,
of like I'm the best there ever will be it
being me, and so like I don't have imposta syndrome,
you know, And it's like showing improven like look why
I am now I ain't dealing with it? Like that's
a that's a flower mindset. It was like, now, as

(59:45):
long as I'm doing my best, that's good enough kind
of things. The opposite, the double meaning of it is
also the rap game. I think, damn there, everybody is faking.
I think a lot of people are wearing a mask.
I think the rap game in large is full of impostas,
and so it's my commentary on it. It's kind of

(01:00:05):
like I said, double a sword, or like most of
the people y'all listening to their posture and they're putting
on you know what I'm saying. I think a lot
of people are miserable just what they present. And it's like,
so I was, you know, it was kind of a
play on words in the sense of like the the

(01:00:26):
record y'all your favorite rappers are damn live. I remember
that song. It's like, I like, that's that's my commentary
on it, and I'm I am proud to not be
in that space. Then I ain't wearing a mask. When
I walk out the booth, I'm the same person. You
know what I'm saying, Go get in my car and
go home. I'm the same person. Like that's what that's

(01:00:47):
what I'm bringing to the game, And I ain't knocking
nobody for listening to nothing else. So I enjoy some
of the music. I just know I crossed paths with
some of these people and it ain't with you. And
so it was between that, like I said, on a
mental health level of like, man, you good enough, you
all right, You're gonna be all right, like just stay

(01:01:08):
down or whatever else. And then I'm like, you ain't
gotta be like nobody else, So you ain't gotta You
don't have to do what everybody else doing to succeed
or win. And I'm proof of that. I'm living proof
of that. Like you said, I'm comfortable in Mom's skin,
so I don't have to you know what I'm saying,
certain things don't matter. It don't matter to me anymore.

(01:01:29):
And that was part of the theme of it. I
ain't I come from a certain element and it's proving
and whatever else, but I don't have nothing to prove,
so on this album, I'm not really I'm not propping
up like street shit. If the songs one I'm talking
about street things is like from the element of regretting

(01:01:52):
it or from like thinking better of it, I'm detached
from that or even you know, on the outro, it's
Kyle finished line again a double meaning of like, man,
I did all it, Like that's cool, but it really
ain't cool. But also are they finished line? Because they
ain't did half of this And it's like and y'all looking,
this is man, you hear that? Like, Like, I mean,

(01:02:16):
I don't lost so many homeboys, friends peers that like.
And I've been on both sides of out of foolishness
to say that, ain't it? That ain't cool? Like you
know what I'm saying. It's probably some drill rap that
I hear and like and turn up to if I'm
out of feeling it. But I'm like, I can't. I
can't do that, Like I almost feel like a sucker

(01:02:38):
if I do it in this space because I've seen it.
I've seen the results of it, and it's like that
ain't nothing to celebrate. But you know what I'm saying,
I'm older, I'm I've grown a little wise out of
vives to this point, So I'm just trying to speak
to certain themes and ideas from like all around it
because a lot of times we can only get we

(01:02:59):
only get one vantage point on one perspective and That's
why a lot of artists be stuck in that mold
because they might have broke through talking this kind of
talk and it worked, it hit, it might have been real,
it might have really been their story. But then you
had all the success and you stuck there. And that's
the only kind of music you can make. Now at
that point, you're faking, you know what I'm saying, because
you ain't living like that.

Speaker 2 (01:03:19):
I think the power tongue can attract certain stuff for sure,
for sure.

Speaker 3 (01:03:25):
Yeah, and that's why I'm like, nah, I want to
I rather keep it real, you know. And even just
on the narrator level, you know what I'm saying. I
got three or four relationship songs on the album. It
ain't really been my strong point of my focal point
on my music, but that's more of my reality than

(01:03:47):
shoot them up, bang bang or sell this. And like, man,
you know what I'm saying, I got more dealings with
women than confrontational stuff on this level. And I can
talk about this molde directly and in a better space.
But but I saw it's like what you're taking from

(01:04:07):
and what you learning from it, Like I used to
be afraid to make them kind of songs for thinking like,
oh man, they gonna say I went soft for this
and there now in the space like this is my
reality and what I found is some of the Street
Cats and everything, like man, that's my favorite song, the
love song, the breakup song or whatever. It's like, Damn.

(01:04:29):
It's like because we're human, you know what I'm saying,
And ain't nobody doing it. Ain't nobody making them songs
because it's just like we just gotta be hard on
the gap. We gotta you know what I'm saying. It's like,
what about being hard on yourself because you know what
I'm saying, you messed up or whatever. You know. So yeah,
it's like being in a certain pocket or like, man,
I ain't wearing a mask and I think I think

(01:04:51):
we need to pull the mask about. Yeah, you know,
free yourself from it because I seen it. Man, I've
seen people with a lot of success. They're like they're
miserable because it's like I got put.

Speaker 1 (01:05:11):
You're looking in the mirror, Look in the mirror.

Speaker 4 (01:05:13):
Stress nigga fakeing fuck?

Speaker 2 (01:05:15):
Man?

Speaker 4 (01:05:15):
Yeah, you nigga know they faking fuck wake up every
day trying to go outside and be faking. Yeah, that ship.

Speaker 5 (01:05:25):
That ship has to be miserable even even even even
even like in relationships or anything else, like you know
you're faking them, motherfucker.

Speaker 4 (01:05:32):
You gotta remember your line exactly. You have to remember
your line. You gotta practice this ship that then you
lose yourself.

Speaker 5 (01:05:42):
Once you lose yourself, you're gonna be mad all the
time because you know you ain't even got you will
you just mad as fuck? Man, you shaid faked fuck
like this ship eating you up. It's a lot of
niggas going through that ship. Yeah, nigga, many mad niggas.

Speaker 1 (01:06:01):
You know, I know, nigga, man a mother, have the phone,
Just have the phone and.

Speaker 4 (01:06:08):
Come on, man, niggas don't want to stop. Fans nigga want.

Speaker 2 (01:06:14):
You a bit.

Speaker 3 (01:06:16):
You Yeah, for sure.

Speaker 4 (01:06:18):
I'm just saying, like real ship. It's just like, man,
you folks help you.

Speaker 3 (01:06:21):
You.

Speaker 5 (01:06:22):
You gotta remember that time you was big. You you
couldn't wait till somebody wanted the picture to be heard
or you know what I'm saying.

Speaker 4 (01:06:29):
You couldn't wait till motherfucker recognized you.

Speaker 5 (01:06:32):
Now that they recognize you, get on your nerves because
they you knowing they're not recognizing you.

Speaker 4 (01:06:38):
They finished line.

Speaker 3 (01:06:40):
What you said, they finished line. They recognized no facade,
and like you said, now you gotta you gotta own it.
You gotta embrace that. And I mean that's got to
be exhausting and everything else. Like man, I remember a
conversation and I kind of spell the details or how
it went, but I was encouraged to rap about certain

(01:07:01):
things like when I was young, and I mean, truth
be told, it was it was my reality. So I'm like,
it's second nature. I know all about it to talk
about it. But it was like from a corporate level. Later,
the older I got, I was like, damn, this is
a this is an agenda, this is like this is

(01:07:22):
what it the type to get to, you know. And
I don't know if it was agenda, if it was
just what was working. So they like go with this move,
and I'm like, man, I can't beat them just because
that's working for them. But I also like fast forward
and look at it like they stuck though. They can
never get out of their caricature, like because I guess

(01:07:44):
because it worked or because they took it so far
like just exaggerating shit, and you know what I mean,
I'm like, no, I mean I might wake up in
a bad move. I might want to tell you everything
and went wrong. You know, I remember that song breaking
through walk a Flog Funk my money up now that
that song moved me because up until the end, it

(01:08:06):
was just like a hundred bricks, We're gonna you know
what I'm saying.

Speaker 7 (01:08:09):
I'm like to hear young niggas say everybody nigga seventy
five million times.

Speaker 1 (01:08:15):
Yeah, it's like.

Speaker 3 (01:08:16):
They're relatable, you know what I'm saying. Just being given
a different perspective of it was like, Damn, that's.

Speaker 2 (01:08:22):
Why people like the pay music too, Like like the
wrong way with the Resisshauns or whoever the case is.
The nigga that just going there and saying, man, I'm hurting.

Speaker 5 (01:08:31):
You need to stop hurting God Damn, Like some of
these niggas ain't never gonna get out that part.

Speaker 1 (01:08:40):
It's power for something that saying that, it's power. The
tongue so good.

Speaker 4 (01:08:44):
I'm just saying, like how many niggas like, damn, bro,
I want to see you happy? Bro? Yeah?

Speaker 1 (01:08:48):
Yeah that too. It's gotta be balanced.

Speaker 3 (01:08:51):
It'd be business too on that level.

Speaker 4 (01:08:53):
I guess happy heal at home, nah man, I just think.
I just think you just can't take this ship literal
no more. You know what I'm saying. Like we're just
saying last last week was interviewing.

Speaker 5 (01:09:13):
Yo, like you can't take these artists literal, like back
in the day, I used to take like artists literal,
like too short.

Speaker 4 (01:09:20):
You can't tell me that Nigga wasn't too short. You
know what I'm saying.

Speaker 5 (01:09:24):
Eight bolling brother, I was that I was. I was
with them Nigga was talking about in my mind. You
get what I'm saying. So then I funk around, turned
around to.

Speaker 4 (01:09:32):
Meet you, and it's like, I ain't doing that. I
ain't never since then, I ain't ever believe in that
type of shit no more. It's like I don't take
it literal like the tooth fare, Yeah, you can't.

Speaker 5 (01:09:47):
You just gotta look at it for what it is.
And I tell my kids that, I tell my grand like,
this is the same thing you see. Okay, you see
the man that died in this movie, right, I'm gonna
go his Instagram that he go, he ain't dead. Same
thing you see the boy rapping by he doing all that.
He hear you what it like? You guys just letting

(01:10:08):
them know that this ship is like like you said,
cartoons or some ship. Yeah, I mean it would memorize you.

Speaker 3 (01:10:14):
It's a it's a very like smile select few that
they appeal, they aesthetic, their lifestyle actually matches, you know
what I'm saying, how they're rocking. And to me, that's
the that's a sweet spot, and that's you know what
I'm saying, that's the ones that's here to stay. That's
the ones that people like really embraced because because people
feel that fact, you know, And that's what that's my

(01:10:37):
trophy is for somebody, you know, to be able to say, man, nah,
I met dude and this happened. You know, Man, I
met him. I had my kids, right, they asked, but
my kids great? Like do real like that ain't in
my wraps. But it go parallel with what I'm rapping about.
Yeah you know what I'm saying, especially like now, like
like you asked me, like being a parent is at

(01:10:59):
the front, Like that's what I wake up and go
to sleep doing. I'm daddy before him anything else. So
it's spilled over into the booth. Two hours ago, my
almost paternity leaves like it was coming out of covid.
I'm spending twenty four hours with my child, like the
world shut down. Like I was telling you, that's when
I got most hip to y'all show. I'm watching the
Zoom episodes and I'm like, I'm but I'm she right there.

(01:11:24):
You know what I'm saying. Everything she eating, I'm cooking.
You know what I'm saying. It's like I ain't leaving
an eyesight when it's time for me to go make
some rap songs because I missed rapping because I couldn't
go to the studio. I couldn't get out of the
damn house. So when I could, I ain't really had
nothing else to wrap about. It's time I'm living like
I couldn't leave out of there and go wrap about.
I ain't nobody doing no street shit unless you're scamming

(01:11:46):
or you know what I'm saying, whatever, getting anything like that.
But I'm like this what I'm doing. So you know,
I spoke on it and it's like shit, I imagine
it's a lot of other people doing the same thing,
you know, and so it become relatable on their level,
but a lot of people don't have it. Like That's
that's what I cherish more than how much your sales,

(01:12:07):
how much your stream. And fortunately it's still like viable.
It's still you know what I'm saying, still like in
you know, in the mix.

Speaker 4 (01:12:17):
That's why I like I said, this ship with folk
like we've been conditioned.

Speaker 6 (01:12:23):
Man.

Speaker 4 (01:12:23):
You know what mother can tell you got to learn
how to act. I hate that. Don't tell me to
learn how to act. Ain't acting. I'm being me, Yeah,
just don't fuck with me. You can't act like that
around them. I ain't acting.

Speaker 5 (01:12:36):
Like in certain places you can't act like that. Well,
I don't need to be there if I can't be me.
That's a real nigga shit though.

Speaker 4 (01:12:42):
You got a lot of people feel like if you
got it.

Speaker 5 (01:12:44):
Bro, if you gotta go in a environment and change
who you are to be in that environment, eventually you're
gonna you just all you're doing is pulling your man
down and then you get mad if a motherfucker try
you a certain way when they trying the nigga you
acting like you here.

Speaker 4 (01:13:00):
If I was being men you with, then I ain't
going for that what you're doing.

Speaker 5 (01:13:03):
I don't even play like that. I don't even talk
like that. I'm not engaging in that type of conversation.
It's just like you put yourself in one of them parties,
one of the weird parties that you know these folks
doing in the party, you know what these folking on for,
and they try your niggas feel on your.

Speaker 4 (01:13:16):
Ass and you ad like, you may see what we're
doing this party? What was on? I ain't even going
so I can't act like.

Speaker 5 (01:13:30):
But niggas is not acting though for real even not
even just rapp acting real life people. Like it's hard
to even it's hard to even distinguish if your loved
ones acting.

Speaker 1 (01:13:40):
Friends and your family.

Speaker 5 (01:13:41):
It's hard out here, bro, Like cause this this this
internet ship. Don't put like a facade one dough over
everybody eyes. Bro, It's like I gotta be like this,
so I gotta act like this. I gotta shit fucked up.

Speaker 3 (01:13:53):
Yeah, for sure. That was That's what I was going
with it with the album, was like, of course, I'm
speaking from my own unique perspective because I like music,
and I'm comparing it like rap game because it's it's
a competitive space and it's like how do you set
yourself apart? Or this? What like I said, this is
what I bring to the typele it's different, but on
a like human night your level, or like you said,

(01:14:15):
the human condition where we at like most people are
posturing or because of that, we programming the idea that
what you're doing ain't good enough. You know, like I've
seen it, like you got your your own memories, you
got whatever to share, and you're like, man, well I can't,
I can't post it. I ain't gonna post my car

(01:14:36):
because it ain't this kind of car, you know what
I'm saying, Because but it'll be somebody else that rent
at that car and took a bunch of pictures in
front of it, but they making you feel like yours
ain't good enough. You know that J Coles love yours
like no such things or life that's better than yours.
Like that might be one of my favorite rap songs,
just the mindset of it, because it's like that's impost syndromes,

(01:15:01):
like we are lost in large part because we it's
keeping up. It's you know, comparing your life or whatever
your optics to somebody else's like, nah, it's good enough.
You're waking up, you breathing, you healthy, whatever you got.
It's something you know what I'm saying, you can want more,
but you know it ain't a successful failure based on

(01:15:23):
like if that's the you know what I'm saying, you're
giving it all you got. Like, man, that's that's great.

Speaker 4 (01:15:29):
You know what soppy my life turned out?

Speaker 3 (01:15:33):
For sure?

Speaker 5 (01:15:33):
Then how it go, I'm straight, you know what I'm saying.
However it go anything from this point on, it's extra, Brook.
We weren't even supposed to be here in niggas mind.
Niggas ain't supposed to be here.

Speaker 4 (01:15:43):
Doing this, this sen in no podcasts. You know my
leg cram this ship extra whatever else come after this, Bro,
I'm already blessed. That's how I look at this. Niggas
be one what another nigga got. That's what they say.
Comparison is the cousin of hate.

Speaker 3 (01:16:01):
Joy.

Speaker 4 (01:16:01):
No, that is the cousin of hate. Comparison. If you
see a nigga always comparing himself. But I got the
though you slick hate what the fuck is me? And
you were not in competition on thumb or two?

Speaker 1 (01:16:13):
Tell you what your ship hard?

Speaker 5 (01:16:14):
I ain't gonna say turn around and be like, but wait,
do you see mine? You know what I'm saying to
me that slick hate. Yeah, why do you even gotta
say that?

Speaker 3 (01:16:26):
Yeah?

Speaker 4 (01:16:27):
Oh boy, you Sally got now. But you just killed them,
But you don't be killing them like me.

Speaker 1 (01:16:35):
Yeah, startled man. We appreciate you.

Speaker 7 (01:16:38):
Man.

Speaker 1 (01:16:38):
Finally touch it down on Big Facts.

Speaker 2 (01:16:40):
Make sure you'll definitely shot the capo too for putting
this together.

Speaker 1 (01:16:48):
Got us aalute capo, you know what I'm saying.

Speaker 2 (01:16:50):
Tap in with starleto check us out at Triple W
dot Big factspot dot com, the Big Facts networks right now.
Visit the new website today, Big Fact expod dot com
dot com