On this episode of The Numbers Guy and Dom are joined by their good friends Fresh and Akon. The guys discuss Lil Baby's recent viral status, the NFL playoffs, and much more. The guys also discuss the current state of the NBA playoffs and give their predictions for the Super Bowl and NBA Finals.
00:09:37.000The media's job, and I know people think because of social media, they don't need to care about the media.
00:09:44.000But do you really want to go against somebody like academics who 365, 24-7 is going to be able to have a microphone, a blog or something to shape a narrative about you?
00:10:00.000And especially if you guys have been doing this for a while, which I know you guys have, if something happens, the perspective on what happened or why it happened is how people think about the event.
00:10:11.000You really want to beef with that guy?
00:10:13.000I think it's always a stupid decision, but a bunch of people have tried it.
00:10:39.000Is beef really that important to grow, you think, or no?
00:10:42.000It depends on the star for the most part.
00:10:43.000It depends on the star and how much they're loved in the industry.
00:10:45.000So if it's someone that was really well known, let's, I don't know, if those are some like Will Smith or something, if you get them to respond, if you're an absolute nobody, it can help, but it just depends on where you're trying to get in the long run.
00:10:56.000Because he can make phone calls and block a lot of doors.
00:10:58.000I know Charleston White, you know, had a problem with T.I. and he confirmed on camera, I think T.I. blocked a couple of them doors.
00:11:05.000So it just really depends on who the star is.
00:11:07.000But it's always an extra boost in front of people, bro.
00:11:10.000You're always going to get in front of the people, depending on if you're beefing with a big star.
00:11:13.000You start punching up too high up, you're going to get some doors shut.
00:11:20.000Well, I've always approached conflict when it comes to the social media space as evaluate where you're at, what's your stock, how you collaborate that stock, how much you matter, and what ammo you have versus what ammo they have.
00:11:35.000This is not, you know, if you're the emotional type.
00:13:48.000Remember, he has, I think he has a 30% chance of winning and looking good, which is he gets in the ring with me, he knocks me the fuck out, and they're like, yo, you ended this guy.
00:13:59.000And even then, he didn't end me because nobody expects me to win.
00:14:28.000The thing with most gangsters is that, like, you know, with the introduction of guns and now that you got money that you could control, like 15 dudes or 500 dudes that don't make like these guys are broke.
00:14:39.000They're living on government assistance.
00:14:41.000You get to rap like your Pablo Escobar like you're the toughest guy.
00:14:45.000But if you were, if you didn't have 50 dudes with you, you're talking like that.
00:15:40.000So, like, so when you, when people are saying, oh, you're talking to Lil Baby, I'm like, if you really do a real poll in a physical combat that a scrawny drug addict, right, who basically can't say his ABCs, he's dyslexic, you know what I mean?
00:15:56.000He's half schizophrenic, missing a couple chromosomes.
00:16:20.000All right, well, if we factor that, you're right.
00:16:23.000If we factor that in, maybe if he goes in there off like 15 perk 50s and you know, like now I'm choking him half to death and like, you know, his corner gets to put like, you know, a fucking perk on his lip.
00:16:39.000But all I'm saying is that the kryptonite of these rappers, and somebody has said, Act, you only talk tough to these rappers because nobody sees you.
00:16:49.000I talk tough to these guys because I don't think if they didn't have their crew, they could back it up.
00:16:56.000And if Lil Baby shows me otherwise to say, this is why you nerd ass in-the-house ass niggas shouldn't talk tough to the king of Atlanta who be stepping on shit.
00:20:56.000You know, in hip-hop, they consider when these street dudes, like, they're of some integrity and they stand on some type of, you know, morals.
00:21:05.000So let me ask you what man shit is, right?
00:21:46.000Nobody wants to talk about the real shit about this because the guy you like, either he's a fucking snake and a bitch ass nigga, or he's literally the definition of being untrustworthy, right?
00:22:47.000Do you treat that situation saying, nah, even though I had a conversation with Dom, I'm like, you know, I'm just going to get mad at the camera.
00:22:54.000Or you're saying, either Dom is with this behavior or he never checked the behavior.
00:23:05.000Either he agrees with it or he didn't check it.
00:23:07.000And if you can't check your man's to say, hey, listen, yo, you know, me and him had to get to another understanding after you try to do something that I didn't sanction.
00:23:16.000He didn't try to do it because I'm in there with his girl.
00:23:19.000He tried to do it on the strength of Lil Baby.
00:23:23.000So I said, if you didn't check your man's, or maybe silently you approve of it, regardless, I don't care which one it is.
00:23:53.000I'm telling you, his label paid me 30 bands to give him some grace and promo an album.
00:24:01.000And his CEO that sold his company for $300 million, who I'm friends with, called me two months before me and him got on the phone and said, let me ask you a personal favor.
00:24:13.000Could you at least not say anything bad about the album since it hasn't come out?
00:25:08.000My job is to make sure he doesn't back out.
00:25:11.000If he wants to fight in Poland, I'll go.
00:25:13.000He wants to fight on Elon Musk, I'll do it.
00:25:16.000He wants to fight 10,000 feet on the water, I'll go there.
00:25:19.000If he wants me to drop 50 pounds, I will.
00:25:22.000Me and Lil Baby got to get in that ring and see each other as men.
00:25:27.000But the thing is, what people don't want to accept about their favorite gangster rapper is that they only, they're good at their chat GPT for rhymes.
00:27:22.000I mean, I agree, but this is why the dudes that street dudes got to start, they need a better plan for the internet.
00:27:32.000The thing is about being tough is at some point, someone will call your bluff, or some or the people who you're trying to portray to as being tough online want to see it.
00:28:38.000He knows ain't nothing going to go too crazy.
00:28:40.000And that dude tried to intimidate him because that's the only thing.
00:28:43.000The thing is, ever since the internet got created, street niggas never evolved.
00:28:47.000The sidewalk niggas, the nerd niggas, people like me, we have 50, like I got 50 different skills and 50 different things to deal with if we get to certain places.
00:29:39.000It's more important for the old guard, for like older, like the rappers from the past or either street niggas, it would be more important for them.
00:30:22.000But when they see people like go in front of Neon, and I think 6ix9ine set it off, it really started 6ix90 ahead of his time because a lot of kids you see are now imitating that.
00:30:30.000They have no respect for the streets, no respect for anything that was traditional, bro.
00:30:35.000So I would say for Hollywood celebrities, PR still is important.
00:31:01.000Advertisers have a harder time, you know, getting their money back, their proceeds back from streamers, but they're seen more than rappers.
00:31:07.000They're seen a whole lot more than rappers, or at least from the youth.
00:31:11.000And I can even see now that more kids, at least in my opinion, and you've been a hip-hop for a while, more kids are now saying they want to be streamers.
00:31:17.000My whole time in America, bro, everyone has always said they wanted to be a rapper growing up.
00:31:21.000And now I'm seeing young niggas say, I want to be Kai.
00:31:55.000PR matters when you're aligning with those brands.
00:31:59.000The thing is that you could be a creator and be making millions of dollars without getting to that level.
00:32:06.000If you want to get to the level of Kai Sinat, you want to be at the level of these guys that someone could possibly think, man, should I put him in a Super Bowl lad?
00:32:35.000But at the upper echelon, like when Kai Snat is like a movie star, Kai Snat right now, he's going through a PR crisis, if you ask me.
00:32:44.000Kai Snat, for the very first time, I think people are looking at him like, yo, we were looking at you like a danza in distress, even with him tweeting out, I'm single.
00:32:52.000And then they quietly seeded out the story, like, oh, I got cheated on.
00:33:39.000Yeah, unfortunately, when you have success, it breeds a lot of leeches and it breeds a lot of bad personalities.
00:33:46.000Unfortunately, I think Kai Snat has a very pure heart, but then you get people around him and these people are incentivized by money.
00:33:55.000And I've been there, not to Kai's level, but I've been there where people have infiltrated my circle and they're motivated by the wrong things and they have the wrong intentions for me.
00:35:55.000And sometimes these people need to be fucking cut off.
00:35:57.000And that's exactly what the fuck I've done, you've done, he's done, and he's done.
00:36:02.000And let me tell you this: I've been in the position, though, and I've always told people, you know, I feel like I'm very like clairvoyant in the sense of even acknowledging some of my ongoing faults.
00:36:14.000I've been the person historically, if you ask me about any past saga, I've been too forgiving.
00:36:22.000I've been the person that says, yo, you still had this motherfucker around you?
00:37:45.000I couldn't let them go because I said they started with me.
00:37:48.000The hardest thing, at least for a loyal nigga, is like, we started this.
00:37:52.000For me to, I didn't want to be the person that says, oh, yo, he left me behind.
00:37:57.000But if you're not aligned mentally, you realize people are down to risk what you're building and you're putting 10 times the amount of effort in.
00:38:06.000That's not, they're enjoying the benefits of it, but not, that's not their passion.
00:38:12.000At some point, you're going to get slapped in the face enough.
00:38:15.000And what I mean by that is like, you're going to get enough, like, oh, this isn't done right, or look at how you are disappointed here that you're going to eventually realize you're going to allow this ship to burn or crash and burn, or you're going to have to start firing people or getting away from people.
00:38:32.000It was hard for me because I wanted everybody who I started with, I finished with.