This Past Weekend with Theo Von

00:00:00.180 Today's episode is brought to you by Gray Block Pizza.

00:00:03.980 For all of your pizza needs, if you need it, they got it.

00:00:09.860 If you're in Los Angeles, you can stop over there, get that taste, get that vibe, get your mouth full.

00:00:17.360 1811 Pico Boulevard in Los Angeles on the way to the beach.

00:00:21.160 Gray Block, get that hitter, baby.

00:00:23.060 Today's guest is one of the most successful and one of the most musically, maybe provocative or, I don't know, unique men that there is in the music market.

00:00:44.060 He has a new album out, which is kind of a country, well, I don't know what to classify.

00:00:50.500 We'll get into it a little bit, but it is Diplo Presents Thomas Wesley, Chapter One, Snake Oil.

00:00:58.940 It's the new album, I suggest you check it out.

00:01:00.740 It's got some real bangers on it.

00:01:04.080 Today's guest is none other than Diplo.

00:01:07.340 Shine that light on me

00:01:10.720 I'll sit and tell you my stories

00:01:16.780 Shine on me

00:01:21.480 And I will find a song

00:01:25.700 I will sing and just go

00:01:28.580 I mean, you did it, you did it more riff-raff here, right?

00:01:36.140 Was it here?

00:01:36.740 Riff-raff was in Florida.

00:01:37.700 Okay, so

00:01:38.140 Like he

00:01:39.940 You've kind of helped

00:01:41.640 Kind of

00:01:42.280 Yeah, I mean, I was, I remember he was living in Baltimore and I just was watching his videos and I had a label, I saw the label called Mad Decent

00:01:48.180 And I was just like, man, this guy, there's something special about him and I linked him and had him come up to LA and we worked a little bit and we made his, I signed him to his first album on my label, which for me, in retrospect, I think it was one of the most groundbreaking hip-hop albums of this new generation.

00:02:05.460 And people don't believe me, but every time I work with a young rapper, they always brought him up, like, because they were like 14, 15, they watch him on YouTube and he's like doing lines of coke or like acting crazy or just being unabashedly himself, right?

00:02:16.900 Yeah, yeah, yeah, that's what he is.

00:02:18.400 They had this free, they see that and they see like this idea of like the freedom that he did, because he was like, and he was like the people on Worldstar would comment, just, he would blow up on Worldstar to people just like, fuck this.

00:02:27.200 Like, you know, they were like, what the fuck is this bullshit?

00:02:29.480 But it's like drove the videos up to where people were like so confused.

00:02:32.740 And if you're like an older person, like, I don't get that hip-hop, but if you're like 14, 15, like, oh, I love this punk aspect of this.

00:02:38.080 So like.

00:02:38.480 That's a good word.

00:02:39.140 He's like punk hip-hop.

00:02:40.180 Yeah, he was punk and he was just, everything was freestyle too.

00:02:42.740 I mean, he was, that's what I'm saying with him, I bet the podcast is just so good because the guy is so fast.

00:02:47.580 Like, he just.

00:02:48.400 Oh, he's that cherry canary, bro.

00:02:49.980 The things he freaking comes up with, pulls out of space is just like, what the fuck, bro?

00:02:53.760 He's that tangerine Lamborghini, dude.

00:02:55.740 He has a, what was the album called?

00:02:58.480 I want to give him, I know he has a new album out right now called Vanilla Gorilla.

00:03:01.740 Vanilla Gorilla.

00:03:02.740 So everybody go and get that and support Riff Raff, man.

00:03:05.820 Yeah, I love him.

00:03:06.600 Dude, when I, so I went to his place in Florida.

00:03:10.060 Deerfield.

00:03:10.900 And yeah, yeah.

00:03:11.460 That's where he lives.

00:03:11.900 Yep, in Deerfield.

00:03:12.700 So we get there, we go to the front door, right?

00:03:15.280 And I'm kind of nervous because it's almost like meeting like an endangered species.

00:03:18.680 If you don't know him for the first time, he must be a pretty daunting creature.

00:03:22.460 Remember in Jurassic Park when they kind of are milling around and they know the dinosaur is out there?

00:03:26.400 And they just see the big old brontosaurus.

00:03:28.760 It's kind of like that.

00:03:30.000 Yeah, he's like that.

00:03:30.780 When you're riding along, you don't know where the animal is going to come from.

00:03:34.240 And then we get to the front door and it has been welded shut.

00:03:38.260 There is no way.

00:03:39.080 There's no actual door?

00:03:40.120 Yes.

00:03:40.560 It's just a huge piece of metal that is welded.

00:03:43.060 Why do you get in?

00:03:44.360 Bro, that's what I didn't know.

00:03:45.560 So I started just saying things that I'd seen on Harry Potter, you know, like Zillica's

00:03:49.900 trying to open the door.

00:03:52.060 And then he takes us.

00:03:53.620 Then he comes out.

00:03:54.280 His assistant comes out through the garage and he met us in there.

00:03:56.780 He had an assistant?

00:03:58.060 He had no.

00:03:58.840 This guy, Maserati Mike.

00:04:00.380 Maserati Matt.

00:04:01.420 Yeah, he always has people around that are just like crazy people that are his assistants.

00:04:05.980 I don't know.

00:04:06.740 Crazy, but also slash barber.

00:04:08.960 And Maserati Mike gave me some stripes in my head, too, that were really, really dope.

00:04:12.380 And I felt like when he did that, that I was like.

00:04:14.180 Did he have the mullet when you interviewed him?

00:04:15.740 Yeah, he did.

00:04:16.060 He just got it.

00:04:16.700 He has a good mullet.

00:04:17.640 Yeah.

00:04:17.920 Oh, he's got beautiful hair.

00:04:18.960 I cut his brother's hair, Victor.

00:04:20.740 Is that who you did on Instagram?

00:04:22.100 Yeah, on Instagram.

00:04:23.160 And he has good.

00:04:24.160 There you go right there.

00:04:24.980 Yeah, he has a good.

00:04:26.360 Yeah, yeah.

00:04:27.260 That's a young mullet.

00:04:27.920 Now your mullet's a little fuller.

00:04:29.700 Puffy.

00:04:30.000 Yeah, you shave the insides a little bit more.

00:04:31.700 Yeah, it's getting a little more.

00:04:33.260 I have the straightest hair that like my mullet, I'm going to get a mullet soon because

00:04:39.380 it's my last thing before I just shave the head off.

00:04:41.700 Oh, you're going all the way back to that.

00:04:43.880 Bro, I'm 41.

00:04:44.680 I mean, this is my last chance for growing my hair long.

00:04:46.580 I don't think this is like, it was like an accident.

00:04:48.580 I started doing it.

00:04:49.240 I'm just like, I can't turn back now.

00:04:50.580 It's like a one-way street.

00:04:52.240 And I'm so scared because when I do it, I just give up on the dream of having long hair.

00:04:55.920 Yeah.

00:04:56.240 Right?

00:04:56.500 So I'm going to get the mullet.

00:04:58.060 But I have straight ass hair, so it's going to look like.

00:05:00.180 Oh, yeah.

00:05:00.720 It's going to look like.

00:05:01.220 Joe Dirt.

00:05:01.960 Yeah, like Joe Dirt.

00:05:03.000 Like Joe Dirt.

00:05:03.240 But I don't even have the hair that sticks up, though.

00:05:06.240 Like how those guys, like the 80s guys had the fucking things that pop up.

00:05:09.280 It's not even like that.

00:05:09.840 It's going to look like.

00:05:11.020 I mean, can you pull up any like.

00:05:12.100 I don't know if you can pull up any mullets or straight hair mullet.

00:05:14.500 It's pretty.

00:05:14.940 Yeah, let's go straight hair mullet.

00:05:15.560 Well, Joe Exotic.

00:05:16.580 I think his hair was.

00:05:17.740 He bleached so much.

00:05:18.700 It got like fluffy.

00:05:20.540 But it's kind of hard to do the straight hair mullet, man.

00:05:24.080 Or almost stringy.

00:05:26.420 I didn't want to say it.

00:05:27.360 You said it, Nick.

00:05:28.020 Thank you.

00:05:29.200 Stringy hair.

00:05:29.720 I have thin hair.

00:05:30.300 I'll be honest, man.

00:05:31.020 It's like I'm on my last leg over here.

00:05:33.800 I mean, these are like.

00:05:34.940 There's a lot of women coming.

00:05:35.880 That one.

00:05:36.280 Go to the second one.

00:05:36.900 That's what it's going to look like.

00:05:37.740 A prison.

00:05:39.740 It's like.

00:05:40.540 That's what I'm going to look like, bro.

00:05:41.920 And I think it's.

00:05:42.700 And it's blonde.

00:05:43.420 So you're going to think I'm bald, really.

00:05:44.840 It's going to be pretty.

00:05:45.500 Dude, if you go full with the front.

00:05:47.420 Really, really low cut.

00:05:48.580 That's going to be a brave move.

00:05:50.000 But you're going to feel like a stallion.

00:05:51.860 Yeah.

00:05:52.400 I mean, you know who has a good mullet?

00:05:53.660 Diantward had a good mullet.

00:05:55.580 The guy from Ninja, Diantward.

00:05:57.800 He has a good mullet.

00:05:58.960 Oh, who's always.

00:06:00.260 He's a South African rapper.

00:06:03.220 And his girlfriend.

00:06:04.120 He was always talking about him.

00:06:05.740 Yeah.

00:06:06.560 Oh, yeah.

00:06:07.540 Oh, wow.

00:06:08.160 He does.

00:06:08.620 And his girl has a really good mullet, too.

00:06:10.740 Oh, yeah.

00:06:11.420 I'd watch their heads.

00:06:12.500 You never seen them?

00:06:14.200 Uh-uh.

00:06:15.360 They're a rapper from South Africa that like.

00:06:17.620 He's an old school hip hop rapper.

00:06:19.820 Like from that era from South Africa.

00:06:21.620 But he like thinks Afrikaans like the wackest culture in the world.

00:06:25.100 So, he kind of like made a fake version of Afrikaans rapper as like kind of a joke.

00:06:30.220 But it was amazing.

00:06:31.320 Like this culture of like these kind of like Cape Town.

00:06:33.840 Yeah.

00:06:34.140 I've been there a couple of times.

00:06:34.820 I really love it.

00:06:35.620 Yeah.

00:06:35.860 They made fun of the whole culture of like being like white South African Afrikaans rapping.

00:06:39.720 And they just made it actually cool.

00:06:41.600 He made these amazing videos.

00:06:43.260 Like super cutting edge.

00:06:44.280 I produced some of the music for them.

00:06:45.420 And they made a movie about robots and stuff.

00:06:48.780 They actually did amazing things.

00:06:51.220 Like full artist.

00:06:52.160 I love the guy.

00:06:52.880 And that's hit the girl in the band.

00:06:55.600 Sick rapper too.

00:06:56.660 And they both were like they had a child together.

00:06:58.980 And they're just like an awesome power couple.

00:07:00.320 And they're doing like cool things for in South Africa.

00:07:03.080 For the community there?

00:07:03.840 Yeah.

00:07:04.200 I think so.

00:07:04.620 I think they represent like Cape Town.

00:07:07.320 Like kind of like this kind of hybrid of like.

00:07:10.140 I mean South Africa would be one of the most amazing places like culturally.

00:07:13.080 My favorite country man.

00:07:14.040 Yeah.

00:07:14.300 I love it.

00:07:14.720 I mean like I go there.

00:07:15.840 I work a lot in Africa with like Mother Project Major Lazer.

00:07:18.640 And like I do shows like Nigeria.

00:07:20.440 We go to Uganda, Kenya, and South Africa.

00:07:21.960 It's just like a bubble.

00:07:22.700 Like it doesn't really.

00:07:23.740 It exists on its own because it's so diverse with like people and music.

00:07:27.780 And even the scene there.

00:07:28.720 There's like techno music there.

00:07:30.600 Like African techno, African house.

00:07:32.560 It's like African hip hop.

00:07:34.220 You know they speak Nkosa.

00:07:36.540 They speak like four different languages.

00:07:37.860 They have whole different music scenes.

00:07:38.840 And they have Afrikaans.

00:07:39.640 They have like you know rock and roll.

00:07:41.180 It's just the craziest, most vibrant place.

00:07:44.720 It's just like chaos there.

00:07:45.620 I love that place so much.

00:07:46.500 And then if you see Cape Town.

00:07:47.900 They have like these amazing communities there.

00:07:50.380 They're like doing like drifting.

00:07:51.780 And like they're doing like these crazy.

00:07:53.420 It's just such a bizarre place.

00:07:56.520 I wonder why.

00:07:57.040 Well I guess because I mean obviously they have so much African culture there.

00:07:59.760 Like anytime I've been there.

00:08:00.740 We even went up into like into the country.

00:08:04.160 Like away from some of the coastal areas.

00:08:05.760 And went to like some black colleges.

00:08:07.060 Like the first black college ever.

00:08:09.460 And like some places.

00:08:10.340 So I could see how they just have their influences are just all over the place.

00:08:13.920 Because it's also a real kind of avant-garde.

00:08:15.960 Like they're.

00:08:16.860 They had.

00:08:17.260 I mean there's like.

00:08:17.880 It was always the richest African country.

00:08:21.140 It's terrible because like you know it was colonized.

00:08:24.320 And I think it was you know it's this hybrid of European.

00:08:27.980 Like four different tribes that are really big in South Africa.

00:08:30.560 Then you have like Indian culture.

00:08:32.660 And then like a lot of immigrants.

00:08:33.740 And then the like you know like the last 20 years.

00:08:35.620 I mean apartheid only ended in like the 90s.

00:08:37.040 Which is crazy.

00:08:37.760 And then it kind of dissolved into like there's like chaos in the political universe there.

00:08:42.080 But in general it's very.

00:08:45.260 It's a first world country.

00:08:46.240 It's like the infrastructure was built during apartheid.

00:08:48.540 And it was always like.

00:08:49.600 They had like a space program.

00:08:50.980 You know that.

00:08:51.300 They had like.

00:08:51.840 No way.

00:08:52.140 In the 80s they had like a space program.

00:08:53.300 Dude I'd love to see that.

00:08:55.060 I mean it's like this kind of like sense of like.

00:08:57.340 I mean when you watch Diane Ward and their movies and some of this.

00:08:59.300 It's like sense of like aliens in South Africa.

00:09:01.660 You know like this kind of.

00:09:02.700 Oh the movie.

00:09:03.220 He did the movie with the guys who were like District 9.

00:09:06.040 Like they're.

00:09:06.500 Oh yeah.

00:09:06.600 That was great.

00:09:07.360 They're part of that.

00:09:08.160 That community that do that kind of.

00:09:09.460 So that's a full like South African film.

00:09:10.980 And it kind of feels like.

00:09:12.620 You know the message there.

00:09:13.760 That was amazing with those big aliens.

00:09:15.300 Kind of like it was like in a junkyard.

00:09:16.160 Like a realistic version of like how aliens.

00:09:19.220 It's a movie about refugee culture.

00:09:20.880 What do we do?

00:09:21.240 Because the aliens are like refugees.

00:09:22.420 And they're put into like this.

00:09:23.820 They're put into like the ghettos.

00:09:25.460 Yeah.

00:09:26.040 And it's like.

00:09:26.540 It's like if you take the idea of race and humans out of it.

00:09:28.680 You think about it from a different perspective.

00:09:30.020 That's the movie.

00:09:30.600 It's like kind of like.

00:09:31.200 Like you think about it in a different way.

00:09:32.580 Like how you know.

00:09:33.480 We're actually one species humans.

00:09:35.400 Right.

00:09:35.820 And how can you like discern like the idea of race and speed.

00:09:39.240 It's just like kind of a really strong conversation.

00:09:41.700 Because South Africa is such a violent history.

00:09:44.100 And you know.

00:09:45.380 It's kind of cool now.

00:09:46.100 Because I think the younger generation of kids I see when I go and play there.

00:09:49.180 They're like finally post-apartheid.

00:09:51.460 Like the way they think about people.

00:09:52.860 And like.

00:09:53.160 But if you meet people that are over 30.

00:09:55.240 They still have this.

00:09:56.300 They still have this sense of.

00:09:58.680 Inbred racism in their minds.

00:10:00.040 Yeah.

00:10:00.140 That they have to get rid of.

00:10:01.740 Yeah.

00:10:02.240 Racism is kind of fascinating man.

00:10:03.640 Because some of it is.

00:10:04.540 I think it's.

00:10:05.560 Some of it sadly.

00:10:06.840 I think just takes time.

00:10:08.860 To go.

00:10:09.480 Yeah.

00:10:09.860 Because some of it isn't even some people's fault.

00:10:12.340 It is.

00:10:13.600 It's the parent.

00:10:14.480 It's the grant.

00:10:14.960 Yeah.

00:10:15.060 It's just something that's like.

00:10:16.200 It's almost like that Reaganomics.

00:10:17.980 It's hard.

00:10:18.620 It's hard to change your parents minds.

00:10:20.640 You know.

00:10:20.880 Like it's just.

00:10:21.440 It's weird.

00:10:22.900 And.

00:10:23.520 Because they live in a different time.

00:10:24.720 Yeah.

00:10:24.880 South Africa like really.

00:10:25.820 When apartheid broke.

00:10:26.700 I think it was like a strong.

00:10:28.180 Like they.

00:10:28.960 The whole culture changed.

00:10:30.720 Rules changed.

00:10:31.360 Laws changed.

00:10:31.920 And like broke really.

00:10:33.420 America's had this like.

00:10:35.380 Sliding.

00:10:35.960 Dealing with racism.

00:10:36.760 Yeah.

00:10:36.960 Like that's never really gone anywhere.

00:10:38.520 We never really.

00:10:38.980 I mean.

00:10:39.080 We had like a.

00:10:40.060 Civil rights movement.

00:10:41.140 Which was.

00:10:42.160 You know.

00:10:43.140 People always go back to that.

00:10:44.160 Like that was a big movement.

00:10:44.860 But really nothing.

00:10:45.420 When you think about what's happening now.

00:10:46.660 Like nothing really has changed since then.

00:10:48.320 Right.

00:10:48.480 For black Americans.

00:10:49.820 To where.

00:10:50.720 It's still like.

00:10:52.240 Ingrained like racism in our.

00:10:53.800 In our.

00:10:54.160 In our society.

00:10:54.920 And you think about places.

00:10:56.160 Which is amazing about a civil rights movement.

00:10:57.460 Because you think about places like Brazil even.

00:10:58.660 Like they don't.

00:10:59.080 They never had that.

00:10:59.740 They never had places like.

00:11:00.640 Where they had a movement.

00:11:01.620 Right.

00:11:02.080 For like black Brazilians.

00:11:03.600 And Brazilians of color.

00:11:04.620 Like change.

00:11:05.600 The government.

00:11:06.040 The way the country is.

00:11:06.920 But America had it.

00:11:07.520 But we just still have no.

00:11:09.020 We're dealing with racism so slowly.

00:11:11.100 Right.

00:11:11.360 I mean the fact that we're still like Mississippi.

00:11:13.240 And I was born in Mississippi.

00:11:14.480 Is now.

00:11:15.240 Have the conversation to change the confederate flag.

00:11:17.500 Off their flag.

00:11:18.300 Is like.

00:11:19.560 That was.

00:11:20.060 The confederate flag was put on Mississippi's flag.

00:11:22.880 During like.

00:11:23.940 The 1890s.

00:11:25.140 As like.

00:11:25.860 To.

00:11:26.260 Because of.

00:11:26.700 That was a racy time.

00:11:27.580 Yeah.

00:11:28.000 It was definitely done as like.

00:11:29.200 A moment.

00:11:29.700 Like a really racist movement.

00:11:31.220 And it's like.

00:11:31.620 There's no reason to.

00:11:32.400 There's no pride or heritage in that flag.

00:11:34.520 Like for me.

00:11:35.520 Right.

00:11:35.720 I'm born in Mississippi.

00:11:36.660 And I.

00:11:37.000 You know.

00:11:37.520 I'm proud of it.

00:11:38.340 I'm proud that I was born there.

00:11:39.620 But I mean.

00:11:39.980 There's no reason for that symbol.

00:11:41.720 To mean anything to anybody.

00:11:42.820 It's literally the symbol of losers.

00:11:44.760 And it offends people.

00:11:45.920 So I don't understand what the.

00:11:46.940 What the argument is.

00:11:47.840 Well I think.

00:11:48.820 And I can even not.

00:11:50.140 I can't justify the argument.

00:11:51.620 But I know that.

00:11:52.700 I think there's some people.

00:11:54.500 Who just.

00:11:55.620 Grew up with it.

00:11:56.520 Not being like.

00:11:57.580 Maybe their grandparents.

00:11:58.660 It was a racist thing for.

00:12:00.240 You know.

00:12:00.620 But I think there's like.

00:12:01.800 Younger people who are just like.

00:12:03.600 Oh that means that I'm southern.

00:12:04.980 Or that means that I'm.

00:12:05.980 They.

00:12:06.800 There's a lot of disinformation.

00:12:08.120 Of like what it does mean.

00:12:09.020 Like when people.

00:12:09.600 When people.

00:12:11.200 Experience like.

00:12:11.940 What Black Lives Matter means.

00:12:12.980 Or defund the police.

00:12:13.800 It's like a shocking idea.

00:12:15.020 Right in the beginning.

00:12:15.800 But if you just read into it a little bit.

00:12:17.300 And kind of understand the concepts.

00:12:18.800 You can kind of be logical.

00:12:19.720 About the way you think about it.

00:12:21.140 If you think about the reason.

00:12:22.300 Of that image.

00:12:23.400 It's kind of easy to understand.

00:12:24.800 Why it's uninclusive.

00:12:26.040 But if you're born there.

00:12:26.940 And you just grew up there.

00:12:28.160 You want to hold on to that.

00:12:28.840 Because that's you.

00:12:29.540 Like I understand that.

00:12:30.440 It's a little bit of your tradition.

00:12:31.200 Yeah but you don't know.

00:12:32.340 You don't think about.

00:12:33.320 Oh wait.

00:12:33.780 That actually is something that was.

00:12:36.100 Extremely racist.

00:12:36.980 Yeah.

00:12:37.200 It was put into the flag.

00:12:37.960 Whatever.

00:12:38.260 So then you can feel.

00:12:39.600 Oh yeah.

00:12:39.960 That's why.

00:12:40.740 That's why it bothers people.

00:12:41.860 And then you got to realize like.

00:12:43.280 Is it that important to you.

00:12:44.960 Right.

00:12:45.220 As it is to them.

00:12:46.160 Because it's actually offensive to them.

00:12:47.700 For you it just means like.

00:12:48.660 Something that you don't really understand.

00:12:49.700 That it means.

00:12:50.140 But.

00:12:50.680 Right.

00:12:50.880 For you it's maybe something.

00:12:51.800 That you put up on your wall.

00:12:53.020 But I think.

00:12:54.300 You know because I agree with you wholeheartedly.

00:12:56.000 You know I know exactly what you're saying.

00:12:57.280 The tough part is getting.

00:12:58.840 People to see that other perspective.

00:13:00.600 Really getting them to see it.

00:13:02.280 Yeah.

00:13:02.400 You know.

00:13:02.940 And also.

00:13:04.060 Yeah I think for a lot of people.

00:13:05.480 And that would be my only argument against.

00:13:07.720 Not against it.

00:13:08.680 But for understanding.

00:13:10.020 Like having empathy for why.

00:13:11.520 Some people think.

00:13:12.720 Oh you're taking away a piece of my tradition.

00:13:14.820 Yeah.

00:13:14.920 You know.

00:13:15.220 It's just the tradition to them.

00:13:16.720 Not as much the history.

00:13:17.960 Yeah.

00:13:18.120 Everybody in America is like.

00:13:19.720 Feel like they're fighting.

00:13:20.520 The whole.

00:13:20.860 Like there's fighting for like.

00:13:22.060 Hold on to something.

00:13:22.760 Like but it's like.

00:13:23.300 You got to understand what is it.

00:13:24.680 What's it really mean.

00:13:25.460 If you kind of want to define it to yourself.

00:13:27.340 And if you dig that deep.

00:13:28.180 You'll be like.

00:13:28.700 Oh actually you know what.

00:13:30.240 It's kind of bullshit.

00:13:30.960 But it might take you a while to scratch the surface.

00:13:33.020 Right.

00:13:33.340 That's the thing.

00:13:33.760 And get there.

00:13:34.320 And that's the thing.

00:13:35.220 And that's the.

00:13:35.760 That's what I think.

00:13:37.720 You know.

00:13:38.200 It's like having empathy for people.

00:13:39.660 As they figure out.

00:13:42.020 What's that process.

00:13:43.520 And that's sometimes I think what's hard to do.

00:13:45.340 Between different sides.

00:13:46.380 It's like.

00:13:47.220 You know.

00:13:47.940 I've been lucky enough.

00:13:49.160 And you know.

00:13:49.860 To come from a place.

00:13:50.580 And to kind of get to another place.

00:13:51.700 Where you can kind of get a different view of things.

00:13:53.580 Even as going to South Africa.

00:13:54.840 Bro.

00:13:54.960 I remember the first time I went to South Africa.

00:13:57.080 It was the first country I ever went to.

00:13:58.340 Outside of America.

00:13:59.120 Why'd you go there for the first time?

00:14:00.680 I was working on a reality show.

00:14:02.040 And they took us there.

00:14:03.060 As a trip.

00:14:03.820 Oh yeah.

00:14:04.180 As a trip.

00:14:04.520 And I remember getting there.

00:14:07.560 And I remember there were so many.

00:14:09.060 We were in like these Soweto villages and stuff.

00:14:10.840 And there's so many black people.

00:14:12.360 Yeah.

00:14:12.800 Just so many.

00:14:13.480 And I grew up in Louisiana.

00:14:14.580 And it was really 50-50 in our area.

00:14:16.860 But I remember thinking.

00:14:18.600 Holy smokes.

00:14:19.280 All these people.

00:14:20.540 And there was a lot of Christians too there.

00:14:22.220 And I remember.

00:14:22.940 You know.

00:14:23.200 I believe in going to heaven and stuff.

00:14:24.580 And so I remember thinking.

00:14:25.340 Holy smokes.

00:14:26.480 There's gonna be a lot of black people in heaven.

00:14:28.280 I'd never.

00:14:30.120 That's kind of weird to conceptualize it that way.

00:14:32.100 It is.

00:14:32.400 But I'd never thought about it.

00:14:33.900 You know.

00:14:34.080 I guess I'd only gone to mostly white churches.

00:14:36.360 And you know.

00:14:37.480 Not that I thought heaven was only for white people.

00:14:39.340 But when I saw.

00:14:40.400 It was just.

00:14:41.340 I mean.

00:14:41.880 Some of the Soweto villages were tens of thousands of people.

00:14:45.320 Out in these like lean-toes.

00:14:46.900 The shanty towns.

00:14:47.120 The shanty towns.

00:14:47.660 Yeah.

00:14:48.140 And I was like.

00:14:48.900 Holy smokes.

00:14:49.640 Like all these people are gonna be in heaven too.

00:14:52.160 And I'd never put that other countries also go to heaven.

00:14:54.540 I think I just never.

00:14:55.760 I thought heaven was just for Americans.

00:14:57.360 You know.

00:14:58.180 It's crazy.

00:14:59.100 The thing about America.

00:14:59.840 That's the most segregated place in America.

00:15:01.540 Is churches.

00:15:02.460 Like literally.

00:15:03.080 Like you never see like white and black people go to church together.

00:15:05.280 Yeah.

00:15:05.420 It's always like a defined.

00:15:06.880 But church is chicken brings in everybody.

00:15:08.380 Yeah.

00:15:08.600 Church is chicken is the only place where it's like.

00:15:10.400 Everybody's there having a good time.

00:15:11.720 But I just thought about that.

00:15:12.840 It's not like a bad thing.

00:15:13.720 You know.

00:15:14.060 Religion is you know.

00:15:14.840 It's organized in a certain way.

00:15:16.080 But you never.

00:15:16.760 It's.

00:15:17.060 I went to church all the time as my.

00:15:18.760 As a young person.

00:15:19.420 It was just like.

00:15:20.320 Our neighborhood.

00:15:21.420 Down in Florida.

00:15:22.300 A city was like.

00:15:23.460 Like a white church.

00:15:24.540 Yeah.

00:15:25.000 And the black church was on another side of the street or whatever.

00:15:27.580 And it never was like.

00:15:28.980 The black church was fucking hype as fuck.

00:15:30.080 It was way more hype.

00:15:32.100 Like way more.

00:15:32.760 I was like.

00:15:33.240 Can we go to the black church?

00:15:34.160 You know.

00:15:34.360 Every once in a while.

00:15:35.320 Dude.

00:15:35.660 I remember going to a black funeral and being like.

00:15:37.720 Damn.

00:15:37.960 I want to be black man.

00:15:39.380 Because with this funeral.

00:15:40.180 Well.

00:15:40.380 With Louisiana.

00:15:41.280 You have like the most amazing funeral culture.

00:15:43.820 It's like creative.

00:15:44.400 The second line.

00:15:45.160 And like.

00:15:46.120 Jazz funerals.

00:15:46.980 And like.

00:15:47.320 Wow.

00:15:47.620 It's like.

00:15:48.040 Just.

00:15:48.440 The culture.

00:15:48.740 You're definitely going to heaven.

00:15:49.620 Are you going somewhere?

00:15:50.180 100%.

00:15:50.460 You're going somewhere way better than we are.

00:15:52.280 Yeah.

00:15:52.580 I don't want to go there.

00:15:53.500 And just like a guy like going.

00:15:55.040 I want to go there.

00:15:55.740 Where it's like fucking jazz music.

00:15:57.020 I know.

00:15:57.040 Come on dude.

00:15:57.620 I want the top of this.

00:15:58.540 I want the top of the casket to be wet.

00:16:00.160 That's how it is sometimes man.

00:16:03.260 We had a question that came in for you actually right here.

00:16:05.640 There's questions?

00:16:06.360 Oh shit.

00:16:08.520 Not sure if our audio is up or not.

00:16:11.300 It looks like my nephew.

00:16:12.500 It might be man.

00:16:15.060 What up Theo?

00:16:16.480 What up Diplo?

00:16:18.020 Hey.

00:16:20.000 Man Diplo.

00:16:21.260 I just want to know man.

00:16:22.600 What made you want to drop the country album?

00:16:25.480 Oh shit.

00:16:26.020 That thing slap.

00:16:27.660 Yeah.

00:16:28.220 I bump it every day.

00:16:30.380 Other than that man.

00:16:31.420 Keep doing what you're doing.

00:16:32.600 Gang gang.

00:16:33.380 Let's get it.

00:16:34.480 There you go.

00:16:35.260 Let me see you get dosing.

00:16:36.400 I was just talking to Ernest who worked with Morgan Wallen in the car on the way here.

00:16:42.320 And we were talking about like growing up.

00:16:43.540 I lived in Nashville for a couple of years.

00:16:44.980 At Hendersonville.

00:16:45.660 And I didn't consider myself part of like country or not.

00:16:48.100 I was in the hip hop scene there doing stuff.

00:16:50.360 But when you grew up there.

00:16:51.900 It's like the channels are like 31 is CMT.

00:16:54.960 And then 33 is BET.

00:16:56.900 And I remember when I got out of school.

00:16:57.760 I would watch the CMT Country Countdown.

00:17:00.080 And I would watch Rap City right afterwards.

00:17:01.800 And I was always like the fusion of that between commercial breaks.

00:17:04.200 I would switch channels.

00:17:04.960 I would watch like you know.

00:17:06.560 I'd see like Alan Jackson videos.

00:17:08.240 And then I'd watch like KRS-One or like Wu-Tang.

00:17:11.080 And I just was like grew up with that music everywhere.

00:17:13.320 And you know kids in their trucks riding around doing the same thing.

00:17:16.080 Listening to country and hip hop.

00:17:17.380 And my album isn't really a fusion of that.

00:17:20.220 But like the last couple of years I've been like getting more and more into country.

00:17:23.780 Because the artists are so awesome.

00:17:25.380 And like so much good stuff coming out of Nashville.

00:17:27.300 And songwriters.

00:17:28.600 You know from Morgan to like Chris Stapleton.

00:17:31.580 To my guy Sturgill Simpson.

00:17:35.860 Oh yeah.

00:17:36.440 And there's just.

00:17:37.160 I was like damn this stuff is like awesome.

00:17:39.380 Like Maren Morris.

00:17:40.260 You know Casey Musgraves.

00:17:41.680 And I was like getting into the vibe a little bit.

00:17:44.100 And I was just thinking like what this shouldn't be a taboo thing to do.

00:17:48.300 Is like work on country.

00:17:49.760 And when we first made the first song Morgan.

00:17:52.840 It was like very controversial for Nashville.

00:17:54.980 Even for him.

00:17:55.640 Like it was a trap record kind of.

00:17:57.180 I don't even think about that.

00:17:58.200 I just put the drums that fit on the record.

00:18:00.540 But it was like never got played on country radio.

00:18:02.220 We had to get it on.

00:18:02.960 Really?

00:18:03.420 Yeah.

00:18:03.800 It got on a highway and still not playing on country radio.

00:18:06.880 Because they don't.

00:18:07.400 They think it's too.

00:18:08.320 You guys' remake.

00:18:09.200 You mean the one that's on your new album.

00:18:10.940 Yeah.

00:18:11.340 It's called Heartless and Morgan Wallen.

00:18:13.040 And it's like kind of like got 808s and stuff in it.

00:18:16.000 So good.

00:18:16.660 So it's just.

00:18:18.300 But it's streamed like crazy.

00:18:19.960 So like all these kids are listening to it.

00:18:21.440 And people are doing a TikTok.

00:18:22.560 And I'm like this.

00:18:23.380 You kind of don't need the Nashville scene to do the country music.

00:18:26.560 Like you have to.

00:18:27.060 It's like an order to get in there.

00:18:28.620 I felt like.

00:18:29.100 And I just felt like me and Morgan.

00:18:31.240 We did this record.

00:18:32.060 And he believed in me.

00:18:32.740 I'm so glad he gave me this record.

00:18:34.120 And we did it separately.

00:18:35.820 We streamed the record.

00:18:36.780 And kids liked it.

00:18:37.400 And I think like kids that are that guy's age.

00:18:39.180 Like high school kids and older kids are just.

00:18:43.480 This music.

00:18:44.300 This fusion of kind of like club and hip-hop and country.

00:18:47.200 Which isn't forced.

00:18:48.340 Just we worked hard on making it make sense.

00:18:50.680 It really is a time for that right now.

00:18:52.400 Where people can.

00:18:53.300 Like I said.

00:18:53.720 No country radio is playing.

00:18:54.720 And we're almost having like half a billion streams in the album already.

00:18:57.780 But it's also interesting too.

00:18:59.320 Because I think that younger generations.

00:19:01.520 You see them.

00:19:03.040 They want it to be.

00:19:05.080 They want to find it in an alternative way.

00:19:07.640 And it's where we get stuck in ways that we kind of grew up with.

00:19:11.120 Like you want to get in on this.

00:19:12.280 Like I said.

00:19:12.760 Like we're just talking about the churches.

00:19:13.640 I mean when you go to high school.

00:19:14.580 You're like.

00:19:15.400 You get in with the art kids.

00:19:17.500 You get in with like the jocks.

00:19:20.000 You get in with like the goth kids.

00:19:21.440 I mean if you're a black kid.

00:19:22.600 You're going to do a certain thing.

00:19:23.660 Like you're going to live with your experiences in that neighborhood.

00:19:25.620 Like you might get into hip-hop.

00:19:26.520 It's going to be hard for you to get into goth music.

00:19:28.540 Or metal music.

00:19:29.520 But some kids do it.

00:19:30.740 Nowadays.

00:19:31.760 Kids don't have only the information in their neighborhoods.

00:19:33.940 They have YouTube.

00:19:34.560 They have TikTok.

00:19:35.240 And they're getting exposed to everything.

00:19:36.580 And they make the choices about what they want to be.

00:19:38.360 What they want to do.

00:19:39.640 Really early.

00:19:40.840 Like it used to be kind of like.

00:19:42.620 You know you have these genres.

00:19:43.800 And you kind of.

00:19:44.240 As people you get put into them too.

00:19:45.680 Because of the amount of information you get.

00:19:47.140 And I think the last couple of years.

00:19:48.640 It's just.

00:19:49.140 There's no genres.

00:19:49.920 We're like.

00:19:50.180 We broke that down.

00:19:51.020 I think that's why.

00:19:52.080 It's a time a record like this can exist.

00:19:53.600 You know.

00:19:54.180 And like people aren't.

00:19:55.420 You know.

00:19:56.520 Like I think Outkast is a good example.

00:19:58.260 When they came out.

00:19:59.060 They just broke down all barriers.

00:20:00.980 And they made quality music.

00:20:01.880 They made funk.

00:20:02.540 They made rock.

00:20:03.140 They made hip-hop.

00:20:03.780 They made like.

00:20:04.600 You know.

00:20:04.840 Trap music.

00:20:05.500 And they just like.

00:20:06.480 Crushed it.

00:20:07.400 Internationally.

00:20:07.760 And I think that was like.

00:20:08.640 A good example of what you could do.

00:20:09.960 You can mix everything up together.

00:20:11.120 And I think.

00:20:11.620 That from then on.

00:20:12.940 They opened the door for a lot of music.

00:20:14.120 To just be like genre-less.

00:20:15.160 And I've always been a.

00:20:16.160 Like a sponsor of that.

00:20:17.480 You know.

00:20:17.960 Yeah.

00:20:18.260 You seem really kind of genre-less.

00:20:19.560 Especially I feel like.

00:20:20.340 As you get more into like.

00:20:21.460 Kind of learning about.

00:20:22.380 You know.

00:20:26.520 Like you'll do some.

00:20:27.720 I mean even just saying.

00:20:28.680 That you've done shows in Nigeria.

00:20:30.160 It's in Tunisia.

00:20:31.480 I don't know if you said Tunisia or not.

00:20:33.140 But.

00:20:33.240 Uganda.

00:20:33.780 We did like.

00:20:34.200 We did.

00:20:34.360 We played like.

00:20:34.740 We played like.

00:20:35.360 Uganda Independence Day.

00:20:36.740 Wow.

00:20:37.240 Because the project.

00:20:37.820 I do another project called Major Lazer.

00:20:39.280 Is just.

00:20:39.740 Yeah.

00:20:40.360 It doesn't really.

00:20:41.700 It's not like a big project in America.

00:20:43.300 We had a huge record called Lean On.

00:20:44.520 That was here a couple years ago.

00:20:46.420 And like lighted up.

00:20:47.160 But never really like.

00:20:47.760 The brand never worked.

00:20:48.660 It's like.

00:20:49.540 Group of guys.

00:20:50.180 Like me.

00:20:51.380 My friend who's Jamaican.

00:20:52.540 My friend Mexican.

00:20:53.180 Ape Drums.

00:20:53.520 And Wall Street Fire.

00:20:54.200 And we're just like this diverse group.

00:20:55.520 We have dancers.

00:20:56.000 And we do a show.

00:20:57.340 But it didn't really fit into the trend in America.

00:20:59.160 Where we like.

00:20:59.640 Were able to tour it or whatever.

00:21:00.760 But.

00:21:01.100 And Africa just took off.

00:21:02.400 Like that project.

00:21:03.180 Because I think Africa is just.

00:21:04.180 Also a place where.

00:21:05.820 You see the fusion.

00:21:06.600 Like you see South Africa.

00:21:07.360 It's like that diverse place.

00:21:08.400 And like Uganda.

00:21:09.120 Kenya especially.

00:21:09.940 We had these big shows.

00:21:11.280 There were more people coming to our shows in Kenya.

00:21:13.320 Than I could get in like New York.

00:21:14.820 We have like 15,000 kids.

00:21:16.360 In like.

00:21:17.080 In Nairobi at our shows.

00:21:18.200 That's crazy.

00:21:18.720 And we actually got.

00:21:19.320 We got paid really well.

00:21:20.260 And then.

00:21:21.320 Africa is difficult touring.

00:21:22.220 Because you have a couple markets where you can make.

00:21:23.700 But Nigeria.

00:21:24.240 I'd always go there and play for free.

00:21:25.700 Like the first couple times I went there.

00:21:26.880 Because it was.

00:21:27.380 They don't give a fuck.

00:21:28.200 They were just like.

00:21:28.820 They had like.

00:21:29.300 The Nigerian music scene.

00:21:30.780 Is so enormous.

00:21:31.920 And it's so big.

00:21:32.660 And right now.

00:21:32.980 It's so influential.

00:21:34.200 That we had to like actually.

00:21:36.020 Chip our way into that.

00:21:36.920 And then finally had some fans come.

00:21:38.380 And then we had a couple records.

00:21:39.340 That were.

00:21:39.900 That did well there.

00:21:41.260 And.

00:21:42.280 For a couple years.

00:21:43.020 I just concentrated on like.

00:21:43.960 Africa.

00:21:44.540 And like.

00:21:44.940 You know.

00:21:45.220 Europe.

00:21:45.620 For touring.

00:21:46.300 For that project.

00:21:46.900 Because it was.

00:21:47.480 That was where my money was.

00:21:48.500 Yeah.

00:21:48.600 And then you know.

00:21:50.100 Being here in quarantine.

00:21:51.000 And working on the country album.

00:21:51.860 Is the first time where I've had like.

00:21:52.840 A record connect in America actually.

00:21:55.020 So I've been just pushing that.

00:21:56.520 I'm making videos.

00:21:57.200 And marketing it.

00:21:57.540 Yeah this song slap man.

00:21:59.160 I mean it's really good.

00:21:59.900 We have a guy who works on a.

00:22:01.440 A different podcast called King of the Sting.

00:22:03.020 And he is the only black.

00:22:04.680 Henry Rollins fan.

00:22:05.840 That I've got.

00:22:07.300 But it's interesting to see.

00:22:08.440 Like that.

00:22:09.120 A younger generation.

00:22:10.480 There's not.

00:22:10.920 Things aren't as.

00:22:12.780 Linear.

00:22:13.320 You know.

00:22:13.560 Like we talk a lot about beige power here.

00:22:15.340 That one day.

00:22:15.760 Like we're all hurtling towards.

00:22:17.320 This beige skin tone.

00:22:18.600 Eventually.

00:22:19.400 Where it's like.

00:22:19.860 Yeah one.

00:22:20.720 We're going to be one person.

00:22:21.760 Yeah.

00:22:21.880 Because of globalization.

00:22:22.840 It's like just.

00:22:23.460 You know.

00:22:23.940 It might be slower than you think.

00:22:25.080 But it might be faster.

00:22:26.060 And I think we're all going to work towards.

00:22:27.960 You know.

00:22:28.400 One culture.

00:22:29.100 I mean people.

00:22:29.800 We have only one YouTube.

00:22:30.840 Right.

00:22:31.080 At the end of the day.

00:22:31.620 So you have records that can go anywhere.

00:22:33.600 They can get big in Africa.

00:22:34.420 They can get big in China.

00:22:35.480 Japan.

00:22:36.020 And you have like.

00:22:37.420 It also equalizes.

00:22:39.040 Anybody can just upload a song to SoundCloud or YouTube.

00:22:41.080 And it can go.

00:22:41.680 You don't need a label.

00:22:42.360 You don't need.

00:22:43.160 You still need infrastructure.

00:22:44.580 Because that changes.

00:22:45.520 There's not as much of that glass ceiling.

00:22:48.920 The door keepers.

00:22:49.540 You don't need.

00:22:50.040 You don't need to.

00:22:51.100 To break through all these doors.

00:22:52.540 To get to where you are.

00:22:53.360 Like if you're in a band back in the 60s.

00:22:56.060 You first have to save up money to get a guitar or whatever.

00:22:58.480 Learn it.

00:22:59.120 Find people who like guitar too.

00:23:00.980 Become a band.

00:23:02.180 Spend your energy.

00:23:03.040 Leave your spouse.

00:23:03.580 Learning songs.

00:23:04.380 Divorce your wife.

00:23:05.220 Whatever.

00:23:05.580 Go to Sun Studios.

00:23:06.280 Find some money to go to a studio.

00:23:08.160 Record a demo.

00:23:08.820 This is already three years into your project.

00:23:10.660 Then maybe find someone to send your demo to.

00:23:12.820 And then maybe suck someone's dick at a label to get in the door or whatever.

00:23:16.580 That's true.

00:23:17.200 And then that's like three.

00:23:18.040 So you need a woman in the band.

00:23:19.680 You have to have.

00:23:20.220 It's crazy.

00:23:20.520 Or you need a man.

00:23:21.520 You need an eager man.

00:23:22.640 Yeah.

00:23:22.840 It was so rough.

00:23:24.860 And the process took so fucking long.

00:23:27.020 And then maybe they'll give you a deal.

00:23:28.620 Which is going to suck.

00:23:29.340 Obviously.

00:23:29.860 Yeah.

00:23:30.300 Then you've got to force them to market your music.

00:23:32.680 And maybe make a video.

00:23:33.940 Or go on tour.

00:23:34.460 We're talking five year process to get your one fucking song out.

00:23:37.420 Right?

00:23:37.680 Now kids are like 17.

00:23:39.580 Suburbs of Fort Lauderdale.

00:23:41.380 Have a fucking crazy ass haircut and a face tat.

00:23:44.300 Bang.

00:23:45.120 Drop a record.

00:23:46.060 And they're fucking low.

00:23:46.880 Peep.

00:23:46.980 Yeah.

00:23:47.420 It's got to be a fucking.

00:23:48.480 But it's got to be a movement.

00:23:49.300 Like for me.

00:23:50.700 Peep was like amazing.

00:23:52.460 You know.

00:23:52.700 It took me a while to like get into this music.

00:23:54.540 And I became a huge fan.

00:23:55.760 And like XXXTentation and the other guy were just like.

00:23:58.140 I was like these guys are like doing it from the heart.

00:24:00.040 Really.

00:24:00.280 Like even with Riff Raff in the beginning.

00:24:01.440 You just feel like it's really raw and real.

00:24:03.600 Like because they didn't have any.

00:24:04.920 It's almost like folk music.

00:24:05.760 They had no background to do it.

00:24:06.820 They just dropped what they felt like they could do.

00:24:08.480 And it was like people and kids connected with it.

00:24:10.280 Like wow.

00:24:10.880 Yeah.

00:24:11.060 They would even be like really fucked up making the music sometimes.

00:24:14.400 I mean Riff Raff.

00:24:15.140 I couldn't fucking make a song without a bag of cocaine.

00:24:18.440 Like it was a fucking.

00:24:19.640 We had a studio.

00:24:20.620 And there was a painting.

00:24:21.400 I got like a gold record on the wall.

00:24:22.900 And he fucking dug a hole behind the painting and hid cocaine there.

00:24:26.820 So I was like where's the coke coming from?

00:24:28.240 Like you always had a bag of cocaine hidden in a wall socket somewhere.

00:24:32.000 And I was like and without the cocaine he would just be like trying to write lyrics.

00:24:35.480 Like what the fuck.

00:24:36.060 And then with a coke drop go in the booth 16 fucking verses just dropping them like left

00:24:40.700 and right.

00:24:41.320 So not to say you should do cocaine but for some people it just helped a little bit.

00:24:44.840 Look it's Florida.

00:24:45.600 Look that's considered a hobby in Florida I think.

00:24:47.960 And it's a little wet.

00:24:48.760 That's the thing about that Florida cocaine man.

00:24:50.300 So it got a little damp on the top.

00:24:51.940 It's crazy the different places where drugs are so accessible.

00:24:54.880 Like Florida yeah.

00:24:55.620 Coke was like people in high school were just doing it.

00:24:57.320 I mean I don't even know what kids are doing nowadays.

00:24:58.880 That's crazy.

00:24:59.220 I don't know either.

00:25:00.140 But I don't know if kids are doing as much.

00:25:01.840 I want to tell a riffraff story too because it is so much fun.

00:25:04.960 There's something about him.

00:25:06.060 It's like seeing the only.

00:25:07.900 It's like somebody knows where there's like a freaking like hippopotamus and they're not

00:25:12.480 telling anybody else or something you know.

00:25:14.400 He's like he's just like and if you get it's he's had a career a long career now man.

00:25:18.820 He's been like doing this for like 10 years and if you go in that YouTube down the hole

00:25:23.220 tunnel you can go over there for like a week.

00:25:25.300 Yeah.

00:25:25.420 It's just crazy.

00:25:26.460 It gets deep.

00:25:27.800 He cut up a mango for me man.

00:25:29.800 He said he was changing his diet.

00:25:31.140 Mangoes only.

00:25:31.860 He told me.

00:25:32.180 I've seen him go for a lot of different diets man.

00:25:34.140 He was on a drug bending WWF diet once.

00:25:38.820 Oh yeah.

00:25:39.620 He's I think he's vegan though.

00:25:40.740 He's jacked.

00:25:40.920 For the last couple of years.

00:25:42.060 I mean he's in shape.

00:25:43.320 So I think he's doing good for him.

00:25:45.240 Yeah.

00:25:45.400 Last time I saw him he was getting more and that was more the vibe he was going for.

00:25:48.740 I took him to the premiere of that movie Game Changers which is a movie about Arnold Schwarzenegger

00:25:54.320 produced it and James Cameron.

00:25:56.880 It's a movie about like how you don't know this but the best athletes in the world are

00:26:00.520 vegan and they have been for a while.

00:26:02.020 Oh wow.

00:26:02.300 Like the biggest weight.

00:26:02.780 The guy who's like the straw man of the world like the biggest weight lifter.

00:26:06.720 This guy Armenian guy.

00:26:08.380 He's vegan.

00:26:09.460 The best female like bike riders vegan.

00:26:11.800 The best track runners are vegan.

00:26:13.760 And I don't suggest everybody be vegan because I think it's just you know.

00:26:17.080 Right but no that's interesting though.

00:26:18.500 That's an interesting through line.

00:26:19.540 But when you're doing when you're doing.

00:26:20.780 Yeah that guy.

00:26:21.380 He's vegan.

00:26:22.140 Look at that guy.

00:26:22.840 That bone.

00:26:23.160 So you can actually get big.

00:26:24.500 Or is he Iranian or something?

00:26:25.780 But he's he looks awesome.

00:26:26.800 He got the sickest.

00:26:27.660 I mean if you get the mullet and those sideburns.

00:26:29.600 That guy's an Icelandic guy.

00:26:30.840 That guy's a beast.

00:26:31.600 He's like seven foot tall the other guy.

00:26:32.980 But that guy.

00:26:34.040 Wow.

00:26:34.160 He's apparently the biggest weight lifter and he's vegan.

00:26:38.020 Huh.

00:26:38.660 So he did.

00:26:39.100 Yeah the Chris Paul was.

00:26:40.000 They were talking about a new diet that Chris Paul was doing.

00:26:41.860 I think it was vegan and how it was helping him.

00:26:44.060 Chris and Chris was at the.

00:26:45.500 Talking about the basketball player.

00:26:46.980 Yeah.

00:26:47.460 He was the premier and so was DeAndre Jordan who also.

00:26:50.560 He's hilarious.

00:26:51.380 He's big.

00:26:52.360 Yeah.

00:26:52.700 In Texas.

00:26:53.040 He actually went to high school with the riffraff.

00:26:54.720 Did he really?

00:26:55.340 I took him to Vegas once they recognized each other.

00:26:56.920 No.

00:26:57.140 Yeah I was like what?

00:26:58.880 Riffraff has the best stories.

00:27:00.040 So I'll pull.

00:27:00.600 I'll get there.

00:27:01.360 So I'll go into the garage.

00:27:02.420 He shows me all the clothes that I owned from 1991.

00:27:06.660 Right.

00:27:06.800 His clothes are yours.

00:27:07.700 They're his.

00:27:08.260 But actually they could have been my childhood clothes.

00:27:10.320 He just happened to have them in a box at his house.

00:27:11.840 Right.

00:27:12.080 He probably could still wear them and make sense of it.

00:27:13.880 Because.

00:27:14.280 Bro he had all just every.

00:27:15.860 Anything that was.

00:27:16.520 Type of color.

00:27:16.980 Yes.

00:27:17.140 Anything.

00:27:18.360 With the Air Jordan like four colors.

00:27:20.240 And like yeah.

00:27:20.560 Totally.

00:27:21.080 All of that in a box.

00:27:21.980 Then he's like let's go for a ride.

00:27:23.220 So he gave me this pretty cool.

00:27:24.480 Bice.

00:27:25.160 Was it a bicycle?

00:27:26.840 Yes.

00:27:27.200 Like a motorized bike.

00:27:28.340 And he got on a four wheeler.

00:27:29.300 And we literally went through his neighborhood.

00:27:30.700 That's what I was going to say.

00:27:31.100 He gave me a bison.

00:27:31.900 And I rode it around.

00:27:32.740 Yeah.

00:27:32.860 I was like whoa.

00:27:34.320 This would be just some coke.

00:27:36.240 Yeah.

00:27:36.320 Trash into a brick wall.

00:27:37.780 Well the bison went and bought a couple grams while I was on it.

00:27:40.320 I was like what a fucking.

00:27:41.500 That's a big bison.

00:27:42.380 He was strong.

00:27:42.740 I had to fucking bankroll that bison dude.

00:27:44.880 Yeah.

00:27:45.560 I'm like I don't know if Joe Rogan would eat this meat bro.

00:27:47.640 He might fucking take his own life.

00:27:49.380 You ever hear the story about the coked up bear?

00:27:51.900 And there's a bunch of coke.

00:27:54.400 Maybe you look up the coked up bear.

00:27:55.960 This is another good story.

00:27:57.100 A guy was like drug dealing and like a pain crash.

00:28:00.120 And he was like drug trafficking in Kentucky.

00:28:02.900 And a bear found all this coke and ate all of it.

00:28:06.200 And he was like he ate like a pound of cocaine.

00:28:08.160 And then they found this bear.

00:28:09.960 And they found he was like just raging in coke in the forest.

00:28:12.440 And he died within like 20 minutes.

00:28:14.100 But they've taxidermy.

00:28:15.340 And he's like in a state hall or something.

00:28:16.820 He's like the craziest coke bear.

00:28:19.680 There he is.

00:28:20.440 Pablo Esco.

00:28:21.280 Legendary cocaine bear of Kentucky.

00:28:24.000 But he died.

00:28:24.860 He did the most coke of any animal of all time.

00:28:26.860 Does Nick Cage now own this bear?

00:28:29.400 I feel like he would buy the Oregon bear out of the museum.

00:28:32.340 You'd probably snort some of the bear's hair probably.

00:28:35.940 Dude, what about Sway Lee?

00:28:37.060 I saw you had him on album.

00:28:38.020 I know he's from Tupelo as well.

00:28:39.160 Yeah, yeah.

00:28:39.580 Sway Lee.

00:28:40.060 Actually, my only show I ever did in Mississippi was in Tupelo.

00:28:42.540 They used to do that Christmas.

00:28:44.900 At the casino or no?

00:28:45.880 No, it was in a, it was in a, like, there must be a basketball arena for, there's a university

00:28:51.480 around there or something.

00:28:52.260 It was like 10,000 capacity.

00:28:53.740 Maybe northwestern Louisiana or something.

00:28:55.600 No, it was in Tupelo.

00:28:56.880 It was like a little tiny arena there where they must have country shows and things like

00:29:00.220 that, but we did a show there.

00:29:02.500 And honestly, bro, that show gave me a lot of faith in Mississippi because, I mean, I'm

00:29:07.300 from Mississippi.

00:29:08.760 They're both from Tupelo, the brothers, and then, you know, Elvis was born in Tupelo.

00:29:13.060 We went to his childhood home on our last tour.

00:29:14.760 We stopped over there.

00:29:15.640 The home he was born in.

00:29:16.680 That's in Memphis, I think.

00:29:17.580 They, they, they, the guys who sold him his first guitar came to my show.

00:29:21.180 They have, like, another museum there.

00:29:22.380 And they, he used to buy, hardware stores just used to sell musicians instruments back

00:29:26.660 in the, the fifties, I guess.

00:29:28.580 That's where you would buy, you didn't have a music shop.

00:29:30.080 So you had to go to a hardware store and they had a guitar up there.

00:29:31.800 And they had a, his hardware store came and gave me, like, a bunch of memorabilia and

00:29:35.700 stuff.

00:29:36.000 But that crowd was, like, I mean, it was weird.

00:29:39.180 It was segregated.

00:29:39.660 Like, there was groups of kids from different high schools, but it was, like, the first time

00:29:42.360 I think Mississippi ever had a show that was, like, equally white and black.

00:29:45.560 And, like, kids would just knew every lyric to every song.

00:29:47.920 And, you know, I'm glad they let me open because the kids didn't even know who the

00:29:50.760 fuck I was.

00:29:51.320 I was, like, up there DJing with them.

00:29:52.660 But it was, the mayor came out and gave me the key to the city.

00:29:55.380 Oh, that's awesome.

00:29:56.300 And, um.

00:29:57.100 Ray Strummers, I mean, those kids are amazing.

00:29:58.920 They're, like, outcasts to me.

00:30:00.040 Like, they're, they're also, like, a, like I said, kids that don't, they don't have

00:30:03.600 fucking rules.

00:30:04.500 Like, they grew up, like, probably listening to everything and Sway's voice is amazing.

00:30:07.420 We did a bunch of, we did a record with, uh, Ellie Goulding called Close to Me

00:30:10.800 that went, went, went platinum last year.

00:30:12.520 Yeah, I heard that, man.

00:30:13.380 Yeah, there we were right there.

00:30:14.340 Right, yeah, that was in Tupelo, actually.

00:30:15.800 So, that was the home that, yeah, that Elvis was born in.

00:30:17.600 We just stopped there on the last tour, man.

00:30:19.140 Yeah.

00:30:19.700 I'm a big Elvis fan.

00:30:21.400 Yeah, man.

00:30:22.260 It's interesting.

00:30:22.880 But then they also say that, and I know we brought the guy up last time, some of his

00:30:25.900 tour, some of his songs were bought off of a black, back then, I think a lot of times

00:30:31.600 they were.

00:30:31.760 I mean, he was definitely ripped everything off of a black rockabilly, uh, you know,

00:30:37.620 like, early rock artist.

00:30:39.660 I'm not even sure what the genre was back then, but I mean, he was, he had like 5,000

00:30:43.820 songs.

00:30:44.440 That's crazy.

00:30:44.500 Like, some crazy number in the beginning.

00:30:45.600 I'm sure he had black songwriters.

00:30:47.700 Yeah, they had-

00:30:48.000 He wrote some stuff at Sun Studios with, like, you know, Johnny Cash, even in, um, what's

00:30:51.460 the other guy who used to write Elvis' records?

00:30:53.680 Another East Tennessee guy.

00:30:55.640 Waylon Jim.

00:30:56.120 West Tennessee guy.

00:30:56.700 But, I mean, he was, I mean, everybody knows the Elvis story.

00:30:59.300 I mean, he was definitely, uh, no, it was, it was in Sun Studios, there's a picture of

00:31:03.000 Johnny Cash, Elvis, and, uh, Carl, Carl Perkins, and, uh, there's, like, the four of these

00:31:09.160 guys, it was, like, an amazing vibe in that studio, but, um, you can say what you want.

00:31:14.120 I mean, Johnny, I mean, uh, Elvis has a-

00:31:15.720 Oh, he still looked very, uh, people loved him.

00:31:18.140 Yeah, this picture's sick.

00:31:19.200 Look at this guy.

00:31:19.900 Million Dollar Quartet is, uh, Carl Perkins, Johnny Cash, Elvis, this mother guy, writing.

00:31:26.080 And Elvis got them baby cheeks, almost like he has butt skin on his face.

00:31:29.000 He has a beautiful face.

00:31:30.100 He had a nice, this early, looks like he had Botox back in Mississippi style.

00:31:33.660 Jerry Lee Lewis.

00:31:34.700 Jerry Lee Lewis, yeah.

00:31:35.500 That guy was a freaking-

00:31:36.780 Bro, he's from Vidalia, Louisiana, dude.

00:31:38.120 He wouldn't, he wouldn't, that guy would have made it these days, marrying a 13-year-old

00:31:42.020 sister.

00:31:43.200 Actually, in Hollywood, he still might have made it.

00:31:45.120 No, he actually, it ruined his career.

00:31:46.680 He actually-

00:31:47.320 Did it really?

00:31:47.820 He went to Europe, and it just became, like, a, it was, like, an early, like, tabloid thing,

00:31:51.000 and he couldn't really get past it.

00:31:52.460 Wow.

00:31:53.260 I saw him perform.

00:31:54.320 He, he, he was, and then he, him and, uh, him and Richard, Richard, uh, Little Richard

00:31:57.900 had this crazy fucking beef, where they were, like, they were, like, they were, like, they

00:32:02.500 were, like, always, like, asking who could headline the shows, and I remember, like, it

00:32:06.640 was always, like, they would play shows together, and it was, like, who's, who's the headliner?

00:32:09.560 And, um, at one point, either he or Richard just set the whole piano on fire, and, like,

00:32:14.120 walked off stage, because they opened for one of them.

00:32:17.040 And then, um, I think they became friends in the end, like, in the 80s, they did a

00:32:19.760 song together, but there was, like, a beef.

00:32:21.820 That's gangster, bro.

00:32:23.020 Yeah, because they were both, like, these piano-rocking southern dudes, and then-

00:32:25.560 Oh, yeah, man.

00:32:26.160 He's from Faraday, Louisiana, actually, I think.

00:32:28.500 I saw him about five years ago, actually, at, his daughter sang a couple of the songs,

00:32:32.860 but he would come out for, like, every other one, they would kind of wheel him out, you

00:32:35.380 know?

00:32:35.960 Piano on fire and played it.

00:32:37.480 Show, story, Jerry Lewis set piano on fire, yeah.

00:32:41.180 That's, like, the good old days, man, when you do a show, and you're so mad, probably fucking

00:32:44.200 drunk as fuck, and you're, you know, I don't know what kind of drugs

00:32:46.380 you're doing, but then-

00:32:47.660 Quaaludes or something, you know?

00:32:49.340 You've seen Walk Hard, that movie with John C. Reilly?

00:32:53.000 Yeah.

00:32:53.340 Uh-uh.

00:32:53.700 Oh, my, you gotta watch it.

00:32:54.760 It's one of the fucking best music documentaries of all.

00:32:57.760 It's fake, but basically, John C. Reilly does everything, like, invents country, invents,

00:33:02.320 like, punk, invents, like, he's Brian Wilson in a while in the studio.

00:33:04.920 It's like the Forrest Gump of-

00:33:05.600 Yeah, Forrest Gump, but it's like, they kind of do the Johnny Cash song, the Johnny Cash

00:33:08.820 movie.

00:33:09.680 Walk Hard, or Walk Tall?

00:33:11.040 Walk Tall, and they call it, make fun of that, but John C. Reilly does every genre, and, like,

00:33:15.700 is this crazy country guy, and has, like, 100 kids by the end of the movie, does every

00:33:21.160 drug by the end of the movie.

00:33:23.340 Dude, in those days, you were pulling up into town, and they literally, somebody would just

00:33:26.280 say, hey, these are drugs, and it would just be, like, almost-

00:33:28.420 The movie's so funny, because everyone's like, he walks into the back room, and he's, um,

00:33:31.840 what's the black comedian, the SNL guy with the movie?

00:33:33.900 Tim Meadows.

00:33:34.520 Tim Meadows.

00:33:35.020 Every time he walks in the backstage, Tim Meadows is, like, smoking weed, and he's like,

00:33:38.060 what are you doing?

00:33:38.920 Tim Meadows is like, it's marijuana, man, you don't want to do this.

00:33:42.580 He's like, what does it do?

00:33:43.260 It makes you feel happy, and it meadows you out, and you feel great, you don't want to

00:33:46.480 do this.

00:33:46.760 He's like, I think I want this marijuana, and he does that, and then the next, like, 10

00:33:49.700 years later, he's like, what are you doing?

00:33:51.320 And he's like, it's called cocaine.

00:33:53.060 He's like, what does it do?

00:33:53.740 He's like, I don't know, man, it's, you don't want this.

00:33:55.500 It makes you feel great and excited.

00:33:57.460 I'll try the cocaine.

00:33:58.700 And he's like, heroin, and then, like, three years later, it's just, like, every drug.

00:34:02.020 And it's not addictive at all.

00:34:03.680 He looks like Jim Morrison in the picture.

00:34:05.780 Look at that photo.

00:34:06.680 Bro, you gotta watch this movie.

00:34:07.700 It's my favorite movie of all time.

00:34:08.780 Wow, dude, no, I gotta watch it.

00:34:09.980 I just watched Uncut Gems last night.

00:34:11.560 That's dark.

00:34:12.420 Bro, it was good, though.

00:34:13.880 I wanted the guy to die so bad, man, because he just wanted the pain.

00:34:17.780 Yeah, he was an addict in every way.

00:34:20.400 There's no way this is going to end well.

00:34:21.900 You just know, like, you want him to get back with his wife, but the side girl was hot,

00:34:26.660 and then you want him to win, but you know you're never going to win, and then...

00:34:29.880 Yeah, and then you want him...

00:34:30.580 And then he does, and you're like, oh, fuck, this came together, and then he dies.

00:34:34.940 Spoiler alert, but yeah.

00:34:35.800 Yeah.

00:34:36.000 The last Jim gets cut.

00:34:39.480 But what's awesome about that movie, bro, is the fucking soundtrack is phenomenal, and

00:34:43.720 I think...

00:34:44.140 It was a unique way to do a soundtrack.

00:34:45.760 It wasn't...

00:34:46.360 It was sound that I felt like, this is my perception, it was sound that made me feel...

00:34:51.680 Uncomfortable.

00:34:52.460 Yes, and it made me...

00:34:53.600 It was like sound that tried to get me just through small sounds and repetitive beats

00:34:57.780 to get me feel a certain way.

00:34:59.440 One of my favorite musicians of all time is Hans Zimmer, and I love Blade Runner, and the

00:35:02.920 new Blade Runner I loved even more.

00:35:04.300 And the soundtrack was so fucking amazing.

00:35:06.380 I love ambient music, and I love that kind of futuristic music.

00:35:09.020 And the guy who did the soundtrack, I think his name is 10 Point Tricks.

00:35:12.400 This is an ambient guy.

00:35:13.620 And he just...

00:35:14.140 The fact that the director went with that guy to make a movie, and he just...

00:35:17.400 It felt so wrong when it's in the movie, the weird sense, but then you just...

00:35:22.480 Yeah.

00:35:22.600 It really put you on edge, on the right level for you to be uncomfortable watching that movie.

00:35:27.380 Yeah.

00:35:27.440 Yeah.

00:35:27.700 I never felt like that.

00:35:28.500 I never felt like what's...

00:35:29.600 I'm watching the movie, I'm enjoying it, but also something else is happening to me.

00:35:33.000 Yeah.

00:35:33.400 And what is causing that?

00:35:35.000 And yeah, it was just the...

00:35:36.360 Because soundtracks are really difficult to do, and to make...

00:35:39.780 Because you have to watch the film and put it in...

00:35:42.120 You got to kind of get closure with the whole film coming together with the sound, and that

00:35:45.820 guy, he crushed it.

00:35:47.220 I love that.

00:35:47.780 I love that.

00:35:48.240 I love the soundtrack more than the film, actually, when I listen back to it.

00:35:51.320 Have you been pushed to do soundtrack?

00:35:52.840 Have you done it before?

00:35:53.680 No, but that movie made me want to do it.

00:35:55.620 Ooh, interesting.

00:35:56.040 Because during quarantine, I haven't really worked on a lot of new music.

00:36:00.120 I've been putting out some of the country stuff and working on some house music, but I

00:36:04.100 just don't...

00:36:04.900 First, you don't want to do sessions, because this isn't really...

00:36:07.600 You don't really want to get anybody sick or whatever, or you don't want to get sick,

00:36:11.180 but then I don't feel like you can't really sit down during this weird time.

00:36:14.960 It feels a little more, like, less heavy than it did in March and April now, even though

00:36:19.120 it's technically worse, I guess, with some other cases, but...

00:36:21.460 Yeah, the vibe's a little different now.

00:36:22.780 It's not as...

00:36:23.280 It doesn't feel as an anxiety attack feeling, you know?

00:36:26.760 Like, you don't feel like...

00:36:27.620 You feel like there's some...

00:36:28.580 There's going to be ending in psych.

00:36:29.860 Some people are getting out of it.

00:36:31.260 Like, New York City, for instance, beat this thing, you know?

00:36:33.400 So we can do it.

00:36:35.060 But in the beginning, I was like...

00:36:36.400 I had, like, a lot of anxiety attacks.

00:36:38.000 I just felt, like, weird.

00:36:39.380 You don't want to, like, write a song about, like, a love song.

00:36:41.300 You don't want to feel...

00:36:41.860 You can't write a pop song during all that vibes.

00:36:45.140 The energy's not right.

00:36:46.040 So I was writing a lot of ambient music.

00:36:48.080 I was just, like, doing stuff with synths and making these records that were just, like,

00:36:51.140 spacey and, like, no drums.

00:36:52.720 And I did a whole EP that I'm going to drop at some point that I just made.

00:36:56.080 That's the only thing I've done during quarantine is, like, that kind of music.

00:36:58.460 Just sound.

00:36:59.240 Yeah.

00:36:59.600 Sounds and, like, kind of...

00:37:00.380 But you got to...

00:37:00.740 It's, like, kind of classical music, but with synths.

00:37:02.560 Like, I mean, that's kind of what neoclassical music and ambient music is.

00:37:07.340 It's, like, you put chords together and you kind of build things up with, like, arpeggiators.

00:37:11.360 And then you...

00:37:12.020 Like, you know Brian Eno at all?

00:37:13.400 You heard him?

00:37:14.200 He produced U2's Joshua Tree.

00:37:17.000 And he's, like, an ambient artist.

00:37:18.000 But he kind of combined these new ideas of sound with pop records back in the 80s.

00:37:22.580 And it's amazing.

00:37:24.240 I would consider him a composer.

00:37:26.060 But it's, like, yeah, it's, like, being a composer, I guess, doing this kind of music.

00:37:28.960 I just did that.

00:37:29.640 Do you get, like, a little bit jealous whenever you see somebody, like, do something, like,

00:37:33.020 a loophole or something or kind of, like, you start to see the new thing?

00:37:36.440 You're, like, oh.

00:37:37.260 Yeah.

00:37:37.520 I mean, that's how you work on music.

00:37:38.640 I've just been...

00:37:39.380 I'm a producer more than an artist.

00:37:41.520 You know, I think with this...

00:37:42.540 With the country album, it's the first time I've done, like, a full artist record on a major

00:37:46.360 label.

00:37:46.740 But before that, I've always just been, like, Beyonce want a record.

00:37:50.040 Usher wants a record.

00:37:50.940 You know, a rock band wants a record.

00:37:52.400 Or I work in the studio with different writers and propose ideas.

00:37:55.300 And I come up with concepts.

00:37:56.300 That's what a producer does.

00:37:57.160 You kind of, like, you work with an artist and you think...

00:37:59.500 Like, even with Riff Raff, you're, like, how can I make...

00:38:00.860 What I like about this guy, how can I make the best version of him?

00:38:04.040 That's what you do with anybody.

00:38:05.060 Maybe it's Madonna.

00:38:05.900 Maybe it's Adele.

00:38:07.600 Whatever it is.

00:38:08.180 You know, you aim for the biggest records and big artists.

00:38:10.380 Then you work with someone like Riff Raff because you're just, like, this is fucking

00:38:12.400 awesome.

00:38:13.080 Like, this is something really cool and I love what he does.

00:38:15.020 Or Sway Lee.

00:38:15.740 And, you know, you can find new artists, too.

00:38:17.300 But as a producer, your job is to create concepts.

00:38:21.240 And, you know, maybe not even writing the piano.

00:38:23.680 Like, you can be like Rick Rubin and just sit back and just, like, fine-tune that idea

00:38:28.580 with the chili peppers or whatever.

00:38:30.320 But is it hard to figure out, though?

00:38:31.720 Like, sometimes I find even for myself from doing comedy and doing just different types

00:38:36.180 of things within the world.

00:38:37.960 Is it hard to figure out what some of your real strong suits were?

00:38:43.020 And then to focus on those, even if those went against, like, sometimes somebody, you

00:38:48.300 know, people want to be the star sometimes.

00:38:51.080 But then you're like, oh, man, but I'm so good at this.

00:38:53.640 But this weird idea of a star always.

00:38:56.560 I've never been really good at anything, even playing music.

00:38:59.340 I mean, I've always been, like, like I said, I would come up with, like, weird.

00:39:02.020 I find the loopholes where no one was doing stuff.

00:39:04.660 Like, Major Lazer started because, like, no one was making this, like, reggae and dance

00:39:07.660 hall music, you know.

00:39:09.000 And I had done stuff with this girl in MIA who was, like, my girlfriend at the time.

00:39:11.640 We made amazing records.

00:39:12.780 Oh, damn, dude.

00:39:13.540 And then...

00:39:13.980 I went to MIA, this is just because it's full circle really quick.

00:39:17.300 I saw John C. Reilly at an MIA concert in New Orleans.

00:39:21.880 It started, like...

00:39:23.000 At the House of Blues?

00:39:23.940 No, this was in, like, a warehouse or something.

00:39:26.340 It was, like, 4 a.m. it started.

00:39:28.060 But anyway, it's the only time I've ever seen John C. Reilly.

00:39:30.080 I wonder if I was there because I DJed for a lot of her shows back in those days.

00:39:33.220 But we did this fusion.

00:39:34.640 She was an artist that really put me on to, like, how far you could go with just ideas.

00:39:38.720 And she had these ideas and she fucking crushed it.

00:39:42.060 And I learned a lot from her.

00:39:43.900 And I think we started, like, this Major Lazer thing because I was like, no one's doing this.

00:39:46.520 And we could do it in a different way, like dance hall records and reggae because no one's doing it.

00:39:49.920 And it took a while.

00:39:50.520 We made some big records.

00:39:51.860 And then it grew.

00:39:53.160 But it was something no one was doing.

00:39:54.600 Yeah.

00:39:55.080 And then back then, no one was even streaming music.

00:39:56.840 You know, we worked really hard in the streaming services

00:39:59.700 because a lot of the majors were not really pushing streaming.

00:40:01.780 They were still fighting to sell physical copies.

00:40:04.080 And I did it all independently.

00:40:05.460 We did it on our own.

00:40:06.980 And I learned a lot from there.

00:40:08.600 But I think you find little projects, like, that people don't do.

00:40:11.240 And sometimes you take risks and they don't work.

00:40:13.100 My first album I produced was a band called Rolo Tomasi.

00:40:17.260 And it was a fully metal math rock band.

00:40:20.020 I didn't know what I was doing.

00:40:20.780 But I just did it because that was my first job.

00:40:22.680 And then the next day I was working with Bruno Mars.

00:40:24.540 And we were doing, like, he was a songwriter back then.

00:40:26.500 When I first moved to L.A., I just did whatever jobs I had.

00:40:28.420 You just make your way up to where you could hopefully place a big record with somebody.

00:40:32.420 And you need to learn a lot.

00:40:33.200 Like, I learned everything from coming to L.A.

00:40:34.560 And leaving behind the idea of being an artist and being, like, a producer in the game here.

00:40:38.520 And then as I got better at that, I kind of got sick of that.

00:40:41.420 Like, I don't want to write records with other people.

00:40:42.900 Right.

00:40:43.280 And I started doing my own little projects.

00:40:44.840 And then.

00:40:45.700 And just being creative.

00:40:46.560 Yeah.

00:40:46.760 Because, you know, doing a project, writing the music is, for me, I think it's, like, 20% of the project.

00:40:51.960 The other 80% is coming up with the concept and the marketing and, like, what it is.

00:40:55.200 Video things.

00:40:55.960 Like, you think about the name, the style, the way you're going to address this project.

00:40:58.940 You kind of come up with these.

00:41:00.260 You create the artists.

00:41:01.280 And that's 80% of what artists are nowadays.

00:41:04.060 Huh.

00:41:04.580 In my opinion.

00:41:05.880 You have to come up with, like, a real brand.

00:41:08.720 Right.

00:41:08.820 You know?

00:41:09.020 And that's what people get first.

00:41:10.680 And the music comes secondly.

00:41:12.180 Like, when you see someone, like, that's fascinating, you're like, oh, what is this?

00:41:14.280 And you dig into it.

00:41:14.940 And you're like, oh, the music's all right.

00:41:15.480 Riff Raff is a great example.

00:41:16.520 Yeah.

00:41:16.720 He's all brand.

00:41:17.300 I mean, he was just, like, his music's great, too.

00:41:19.100 But it was all brand.

00:41:20.320 But another, like, Marshmallow, another guy.

00:41:23.100 You know?

00:41:23.320 Like, he's a DJ.

00:41:24.100 And I think, you know?

00:41:24.600 Oh, yeah.

00:41:24.980 He's, he might be, like, 90% brand.

00:41:27.280 Because he's just, like, the concept is so strong, what he does.

00:41:29.420 It's so easy to identify with.

00:41:31.700 And then he puts out quality music as well.

00:41:33.440 Like, he's a pop artist.

00:41:34.460 But, I mean, he, no other DJ could do that.

00:41:37.440 Because they're just another guy.

00:41:39.340 Yeah.

00:41:39.540 He's a Marshmallow.

00:41:40.340 So it's, like, kids can gravitate to that really easy.

00:41:42.760 And I think what he did is a great marketing campaign from the jump.

00:41:46.440 His manager and him really crushed that.

00:41:48.280 Yeah.

00:41:48.420 Him and Kane Brown have that great.

00:41:49.900 Yeah.

00:41:50.100 They have a country record.

00:41:51.100 That great song.

00:41:51.940 Yeah.

00:41:53.440 You know, I.

00:41:54.140 I had that record originally.

00:41:55.120 He sent it to me.

00:41:56.240 Really?

00:41:56.340 I was, like, I actually was, like, texting Kane.

00:41:58.020 I was, like, man.

00:41:59.160 It was, like, me and Marshmallow fighting for that record, actually, in the beginning.

00:42:01.560 Because it was going to be something for my project.

00:42:03.080 And then I lost the battle.

00:42:04.420 Oh.

00:42:05.240 It's whatever.

00:42:05.780 Kane Brown, you still owe me a record, bro.

00:42:07.080 Where are you at?

00:42:07.460 There you go.

00:42:08.200 There you go, Kane Brown, man.

00:42:09.620 I love Kane Brown.

00:42:10.600 Yeah.

00:42:11.260 You know, New Orleans, when I was growing up, a lot of the artists that were there were, like,

00:42:15.180 the big timers and, you know, Lil Wayne.

00:42:18.760 Did you watch that hip-hop evolution, the New Orleans episode?

00:42:21.180 Uh-uh.

00:42:22.060 I need to see it.

00:42:22.580 It's great.

00:42:22.960 This whole, I'm going to re-watch this whole episode and write down all the things I need

00:42:25.760 to go to.

00:42:25.780 The one in New Orleans starts with, like, Master P.

00:42:27.300 The, you know, in New Orleans, for me, bro, it's the, first of all, I think Memphis has

00:42:32.480 the longest cultural significance in hip-hop.

00:42:35.820 Right.

00:42:36.140 People can argue me, but, like, when you think about what music sounds like now hip-hop, it

00:42:40.260 all comes back to this Memphis sound.

00:42:41.780 Like, this aggressive, this dark, and the trap beats, and, like, it's just lasted forever.

00:42:45.700 And it was a small flash to the pan with 3-6 and, like, 8-Ball and MJG were doing it.

00:42:48.980 And then New Orleans was, like, the same kind of sound.

00:42:50.980 They had this, like, electronic drum sound.

00:42:53.300 They, like, loved electro.

00:42:54.260 They loved, like, Manny Fresh was making, you know, like, these kind of, like, 808 sounds,

00:42:58.060 and they mixed it with the second line, jazz, and then big-timers.

00:43:01.320 And then Master P came up with the idea of independent label, and he fucking crushed it.

00:43:05.600 And then Cash Money came out, and then they had this amazing bounce music, which I love

00:43:10.680 so much.

00:43:11.000 Well, and that's what I was going to get to, is the bounce scene, because, yeah, like,

00:43:15.520 Big Frida, like, some of the art, I mean, she's the most popular, but the bounce scene

00:43:18.420 there has been probably the biggest thing that's come out of New Orleans in a while.

00:43:20.980 It's never left, and it's the same.

00:43:22.700 Right.

00:43:22.860 You know, Frida, I worked with this, I worked with a couple of bounce artists.

00:43:27.540 There's Flyboy Kino, there's Sissy Noby, and it's very gay.

00:43:31.860 It's crazy.

00:43:32.400 People don't realize how gay the hip-hop scene in New Orleans is.

00:43:35.880 A lot of the rappers and labels, you know, you talk to, like, Mystical, or, like, these

00:43:41.700 guys.

00:43:42.060 I was with Mystical in the studio.

00:43:44.700 No.

00:43:45.480 And after I got out of jail, and I had just done this record called Express Yourself

00:43:48.700 with Nicky the Bee, who was another gay bounce artist from New Orleans, and it's like my

00:43:53.460 fusion of, like, dance music and New Orleans bounce back then, and I remember playing it

00:43:56.560 for Mystical in the studio, and I was like, man, could he jump on this?

00:43:59.400 It was super gay, and the video was gay, too.

00:44:00.880 And I was like, can he jump on this record?

00:44:02.060 And, you know, Mystical said to me, he was like, bro, that's hard.

00:44:04.520 That's actually New Orleans music.

00:44:05.800 And he knew that's, like, that's actually the scene.

00:44:08.400 He wasn't, like, homophobic or anything, but he was like, man, I just can't come out

00:44:11.940 of jail and do a, like, this record right now.

00:44:13.660 You know, I can't really, like, do a verse on a gay bounce record, but...

00:44:17.860 He was like, I'll be right back in jail.

00:44:19.800 He's like...

00:44:20.240 A whole group of new fans.

00:44:20.940 He was like, but at the same time, he had respect and, like, knew that that's, like,

00:44:24.400 real New Orleans music.

00:44:25.220 Because if you don't realize, like, even the, you know, Big Freed is in that record with

00:44:28.580 Drake that came out last year.

00:44:31.260 I don't even know that.

00:44:32.260 Because Drake's last album had a lot of bounce influences, a lot of New Orleans records on it.

00:44:36.040 But there's not, there hasn't been a, there hasn't been a strong, hip-hop's been the

00:44:40.340 only, or bounce has been the only real music to come out of that area, kind of.

00:44:43.720 I feel like it's interesting.

00:44:44.160 There's that one rock band in the 90s.

00:44:46.820 Oh, you mean Third Eye, Three Doors Down?

00:44:49.860 No, something like that.

00:44:50.480 I used their studio when I worked on music with them.

00:44:52.360 Oh, I know who you're talking about.

00:44:53.220 They're nice guys, too.

00:44:54.020 Yeah.

00:44:54.540 That's the only other thing I know from New Orleans, really.

00:44:57.180 I remember running through the wet glass, falling a step behind.

00:45:01.160 And there's another, there's a jam band from New Orleans, too, but I forget.

00:45:03.420 Just really wanted.

00:45:05.800 Uh, best.

00:45:08.120 The fucking, also the Meters, bro, you know them?

00:45:10.720 Oh, dude.

00:45:11.780 One of them owns a freaking restaurant where I take my stepdad all the time.

00:45:15.720 I mean, if you want to learn, for me, Meters is funk and country.

00:45:21.120 Completely matched.

00:45:21.800 You might just think they're funk, but they're like country, bro.

00:45:23.900 And they're instrumental.

00:45:24.700 Like, Meters are like, they're like one of my biggest influences of all time.

00:45:28.140 Like, they're so dope.

00:45:29.960 Like, a New Orleans funk is just like, if you want to learn about music, New Orleans is

00:45:33.660 the birth of all American music, in my opinion.

00:45:35.620 Wow.

00:45:35.860 Like, everything comes from New Orleans.

00:45:38.020 You know?

00:45:38.620 From the history of like, it's the perfect combination of African music and European music.

00:45:44.140 Go back.

00:45:44.540 No, that's not them.

00:45:47.900 Three doors.

00:45:48.680 It's not three doors.

00:45:49.500 It's third eye blind.

00:45:50.720 Dog.

00:45:51.180 Something.

00:45:52.880 It's got, it's like a one word name.

00:45:55.680 Oh, we might be thinking.

00:45:56.140 Just look up, look at indie band New Orleans, maybe.

00:45:58.140 Indie band.

00:45:59.600 Indie rock New Orleans.

00:46:01.080 But there hasn't, do you think there's a reason why there hasn't been a strong hip hop

00:46:05.640 artist that's come out of there in a while?

00:46:07.020 I mean, you'd think there would be so.

00:46:08.800 Well, there's like, there's, is it NBA Youngboy from Baton Rouge?

00:46:12.860 Is that his name?

00:46:13.400 I'm not sure.

00:46:15.000 He might be the biggest.

00:46:15.940 Oh, there's also Kevin Gates.

00:46:17.960 Yeah.

00:46:18.820 NBA Youngboy from, is he from Baton Rouge?

00:46:21.880 I mean, he's like one of the biggest.

00:46:24.040 Forms.

00:46:24.800 Like, low key.

00:46:26.560 Yeah, there you go.

00:46:27.240 Yeah, Baton Rouge.

00:46:27.680 Like, low key, he's one of the biggest figures in hip hop.

00:46:30.840 And I don't even know one NBA Youngboy song, but like, he just, every girl knows him,

00:46:35.220 knows his music.

00:46:35.820 Like, he just is always.

00:46:37.360 Yeah, people love him.

00:46:38.560 And Boosie, but he lives in Atlanta now.

00:46:40.720 Boosie is, that guy just came out of jail.

00:46:43.140 Like, he was like, he missed all technology and then just came.

00:46:46.760 Wasn't it so great?

00:46:47.740 And he denied it.

00:46:48.640 I asked him, because he came in, I asked him, I said, did you think that because you

00:46:52.160 were in jail, you missed kind of like the evolution of technology?

00:46:55.160 So you came into Instagram and were just way too real on it?

00:46:57.500 He was so real.

00:46:58.200 But he doesn't get, it didn't register for him.

00:47:00.240 But I thought, that's exactly what I thought.

00:47:01.480 Because I heard a story that he got out and he's like, friends gave him an iPhone.

00:47:05.040 And he's like, what is this?

00:47:05.900 Like, he was like, it was like, literally came out of jail and like, went from, it was,

00:47:09.040 he missed the clutch parts of technology and hip hop and just came back like insane.

00:47:13.640 Like, he's a legend though.

00:47:15.100 Anybody, you come back to him, a lot of people are like, if you do like that dirty hip hop,

00:47:18.420 he's the guy.

00:47:19.540 And that's, I don't know much about Baton Rouge.

00:47:21.760 I mean, I only went there once to, I actually went to Lil Boosie.

00:47:24.940 I did a, I was in Baton Rouge for like my birthday.

00:47:27.660 I had nothing going on.

00:47:28.500 I was in New Orleans for my birthday when I turned like 24.

00:47:30.740 I just went by myself to like read and just, I love Louisiana, just like go to bars and

00:47:34.580 stuff.

00:47:35.340 And I had a friend there and we went to see, Boosie did a concert at a mall in Baton Rouge.

00:47:39.020 And I went and saw him, it was before he went to jail.

00:47:40.840 And that's the only time I've ever been in Baton Rouge was to go see Boosie at a mall.

00:47:43.320 That's awesome.

00:47:43.840 So.

00:47:44.620 Man, we had so much fun.

00:47:45.840 I fucking love him.

00:47:46.480 Dude, when he left, it was one of the first times I ever felt like, man, I wish he was still

00:47:51.720 here.

00:47:52.060 Like, I'd be scared as fuck to hang out of him.

00:47:55.660 Well, here's what, but I would have not even like, I should have told you before he came

00:47:59.020 in, bro.

00:47:59.740 I was, I'd be so scared.

00:48:01.660 Glenn Davis was on.

00:48:02.560 He's a basketball player, big baby.

00:48:04.140 He played for the Celtics and he came on.

00:48:05.500 He's like, now Boosie's a real gangster, man.

00:48:09.180 He said he's one of the last gangsters.

00:48:10.520 Big baby played, he played for the Clippers for a while.

00:48:12.300 Yeah.

00:48:12.700 Didn't he play for Florida University of Florida?

00:48:14.560 Oh, he played at LSU.

00:48:15.560 LSU.

00:48:16.000 Yeah.

00:48:16.120 There was another guy, Demetrius, Demetrius was another big giant center, like fat basketball player.

00:48:20.780 It was called Demet Hook.

00:48:21.560 Like, I remember him.

00:48:21.940 Oh, yeah.

00:48:22.720 I forget his name.

00:48:23.440 Who was that guy?

00:48:24.500 Because big baby was not, he didn't look athletic, but he was a Clipper.

00:48:27.340 We loved him.

00:48:27.860 When he scored points, we were just, the crowd went crazy for him.

00:48:30.220 People love him.

00:48:30.660 Well, he's extremely lovable.

00:48:31.920 He has such a good.

00:48:33.400 He does not look like a basketball player, honestly, buddy.

00:48:35.580 He's 75% heart, you know.

00:48:37.520 Demetrius is Demetrius.

00:48:38.720 Demetrius.

00:48:39.280 He was big too.

00:48:40.060 I remember watching him play.

00:48:41.060 But he loves being, he lives in Las Vegas now.

00:48:42.880 He loves being, actually, he just hit me up after Dustin Poirier won that fight and they

00:48:46.280 ended up connecting, man.

00:48:47.980 Oh, there you go.

00:48:48.780 No, that's, is that Demetrius?

00:48:51.120 Is that Demetrius?

00:48:53.120 He played for Gators.

00:48:54.200 I remember that.

00:48:54.740 Yeah.

00:48:55.400 Yeah, that's him.

00:48:56.140 He was a big boy.

00:48:57.500 Dang, it's always fun when you see them big boys do it, huh?

00:49:01.420 It's always fun, man.

00:49:03.140 Shaq was big too, but he ended up, he wasn't really that muscle.

00:49:05.620 He was, but he's built like a big, giant human being.

00:49:08.480 Because a lot of the centers are not like that.

00:49:09.940 Not, well, yeah, they really don't have that center position anymore.

00:49:12.820 Shaq in college, where you throw up a picture of Shaq at LSU, he was lean at LSU, man.

00:49:17.560 He was long and lean.

00:49:18.280 I mean, who's that Lakers player that's just like, I don't think he plays with Lakers anymore.

00:49:23.440 Maybe Rockets?

00:49:25.120 Dwight Howard.

00:49:25.840 He's just like, the first buff basketball player.

00:49:28.520 He's a model.

00:49:29.300 I feel like, I always felt like he's more of a model.

00:49:31.200 Yeah, look at the little baby Shaq.

00:49:32.580 I mean, you look at young Shaq.

00:49:33.700 Man, I DJ with Shaq sometimes.

00:49:35.220 He's like.

00:49:35.780 Really?

00:49:35.980 Yeah, I played his podcast this week, and he did like a stream, and he just, this guy

00:49:40.340 is fucking dedicated to DJing, bro.

00:49:42.240 And he fucking loves it.

00:49:43.280 He's a dubstep DJ, and he's the most aggressive DJ I've ever seen in my life.

00:49:47.140 He just goes, dances, and before quarantine, every show he did, he would go out in the audience

00:49:52.460 and hang out with everybody in the audience, and he just could see him.

00:49:54.920 He's like, towers over everybody, but he's just like.

00:49:56.860 What is it?

00:49:57.320 You think that he just, he really loves doing it, or he loves the vibe it creates?

00:50:01.160 Have you ever talked to him?

00:50:03.200 Because he's just happiness, bro.

00:50:05.820 He just loves, he just found a lot of like contentment and like happiness after the

00:50:09.920 game.

00:50:10.220 I think he became, you know, he's a sports commentator, and just, he's just smart and

00:50:14.260 awesome.

00:50:14.800 Look at this guy.

00:50:17.020 Bro, the crowd.

00:50:19.280 He's just.

00:50:21.140 I love it.

00:50:21.900 That's so crazy.

00:50:22.880 Outside lands, like he is one of the most aggressive DJs ever.

00:50:26.020 Look at him.

00:50:26.300 He just can't even fit in the booth.

00:50:27.440 Wow.

00:50:28.800 Dude, so that's what it looks like when you're in there, huh?

00:50:31.240 Yeah, I don't look like that, but it looks.

00:50:33.320 Well, yeah, you look small.

00:50:34.360 I'm like, you're smaller than tiny.

00:50:37.600 Does it almost feel like sometimes like, like I noticed on stage, if I'm doing standup,

00:50:42.220 I can feel a crowd.

00:50:44.000 I can feel what's going on.

00:50:46.620 It's almost like at some points, it took a long time, but I feel like it's like.

00:50:49.540 That's when you get in the pocket.

00:50:50.660 Like I'm an orchestra.

00:50:51.780 Like I'm.

00:50:52.080 And when you're good too, at that point, you can just, like you said, like then you just

00:50:55.080 flow, right?

00:50:56.300 Yeah.

00:50:56.420 It must just feel right that.

00:50:57.560 Yeah, yeah.

00:50:57.880 Well, I can, there's a, but there's an energy connection.

00:51:00.160 There's a, in the beginning, it's this nervous other energy where it's like, I'm trying to

00:51:04.100 make sure I'm doing my job.

00:51:05.460 Yeah.

00:51:05.720 And then later it becomes this energy where it's like, oh, I'm, I'm orchestrating the,

00:51:10.760 the, the feeling of this environment.

00:51:13.120 Yeah.

00:51:13.520 Does it, what is it?

00:51:14.600 What is that feeling like when you guys are doing your job?

00:51:16.840 I think when you DJ, it's always, it's, it's even more than the standup.

00:51:20.980 You have to really feel the rhythm of the crowd.

00:51:23.160 I've even picked the records you're playing.

00:51:24.520 I mean, I'm a more of a, I'm more of an open format DJ, so I can, I kind of do whatever.

00:51:28.140 I kind of improvise.

00:51:29.120 A lot of people just go to their concerts and they kind of.

00:51:30.920 The set list.

00:51:31.420 The set list, you know, and I do that when I'm headlining somewhere because I have to

00:51:33.860 program my lights.

00:51:35.540 But mostly I'm in Vegas, I'm like doing three hours.

00:51:37.800 I'm just like looking at the crowd and playing records I want to play and then going where I

00:51:40.700 trying to go there.

00:51:41.880 Like, you know, with the jokes, maybe you go, maybe it's not funny, but you want to push

00:51:45.060 something.

00:51:45.420 You want controversy, which is probably hard, really hard for comedians.

00:51:49.580 I mean, you must have walked the line now, but you want to go as controversial than you

00:51:53.140 pull back, whatever.

00:51:54.200 So I think with me as a DJ, you still, you want to like sneak things in and like, that's

00:51:59.320 what, that's what DJs, that's what we've always been.

00:52:01.380 We've always been the people to push the boundaries.

00:52:04.140 We're the, we're the, we're the, we're the purest form of the distribution chain.

00:52:07.260 Like music happens and we're the ones to give to people on the nightclub or somewhere

00:52:10.420 where they can feel the music for real.

00:52:12.280 Like, cause you can't really feel it in your car on the radio.

00:52:14.260 You might get pop records, but we, we make dance music and hip hop to where we are.

00:52:18.420 Our job is to, is to push it as far as we can to be the best DJs.

00:52:21.800 Well, it's interesting.

00:52:22.520 It makes me think almost like if I'm in a supermarket, you got the area where everything's like in

00:52:25.980 the boxes and it's all boxed and packaged perfectly for you.

00:52:29.400 Then you got that produce area.

00:52:30.940 And that's wild west.

00:52:32.500 You might find an orange in a fucking cucumber area.

00:52:34.860 That's the real food.

00:52:35.660 Yeah.

00:52:35.960 But you know, I grew up, my sister, I remember going to eat at her house, like when I was

00:52:39.640 back in town and she only eats canned vegetables cause we grew up like that.

00:52:43.700 And she has, it's, and I don't, it's always like the Publix cans or like fucking, what's

00:52:50.360 the other shitty ass Albertsons or Piggly Wiggly.

00:52:53.300 And she just has never been to the produce section.

00:52:55.460 Wow.

00:52:55.820 She didn't know what it is.

00:52:56.420 You know, she didn't know what a green bean looks like unless it's wet in a fucking can.

00:53:00.820 Unless it looks like it's been through, it looks like it's been in Guantanamo.

00:53:03.660 I saw a green bean in a real one and she's like, what is that thing?

00:53:06.040 And I was like, she's like, green beans look like this.

00:53:07.740 And I'm like, okay.

00:53:09.040 My family, we just only ate canned cans.

00:53:10.680 I don't know what.

00:53:11.540 And my mom.

00:53:12.140 Well, I think it was just that time period too.

00:53:13.940 And I think it produces, yeah, you know what?

00:53:16.160 Produce section didn't really exist in like the eighties.

00:53:18.480 It wasn't, man.

00:53:19.720 You might get some bag of apples or whatever, a bag of apples.

00:53:21.820 You're not going to select your own apples.

00:53:23.320 No.

00:53:23.620 That's, no.

00:53:24.580 The government's going to select those apples for you.

00:53:27.060 Sorry.

00:53:28.880 Yeah, man.

00:53:29.540 Those apples, dude.

00:53:30.840 Yeah, those apples knew each other before they got here.

00:53:32.980 You know?

00:53:33.700 I'll be damned if you're going to feel them.

00:53:35.440 You're not going to.

00:53:35.740 You're not going to.

00:53:36.380 No, no.

00:53:36.680 Back the fuck away from those apples.

00:53:38.360 Here's your bag, motherfucker.

00:53:41.720 Damn, dude.

00:53:42.440 That's so true, man.

00:53:43.280 As an adult growing cropping, I'm like, I want to go to produce and like buy and shit.

00:53:46.460 But when I was younger, you never, mom didn't let you go over there.

00:53:49.580 Yeah, it was different.

00:53:49.920 That's for the liberals, sir.

00:53:52.620 The Democrats go shopping for the produce section.

00:53:55.560 What's that man over there feeling on that carriage?

00:53:59.220 Why doesn't he have a wife?

00:54:00.280 Nobody needs to pick their own pineapple.

00:54:01.920 That's, the government does that for you.

00:54:04.680 Let's get a question right here.

00:54:08.760 All right, what's this guy talking about?

00:54:10.340 I don't know how he's driving.

00:54:12.520 Oh.

00:54:12.920 I got something going on in the background.

00:54:17.380 You can't call me anything.

00:54:19.300 Is he singing the demo?

00:54:21.800 He's got a good voice.

00:54:23.720 We all signed that guy.

00:54:25.180 That would have been a great idea.

00:54:26.140 Sounds like Sean Mendez.

00:54:27.000 Let's go.

00:54:27.860 Now you're remixing podcasts.

00:54:29.000 Hey, what up, Diplo?

00:54:30.240 Hope you guys are doing great.

00:54:31.800 Hey, real quick, Theo.

00:54:32.780 I'm supporting my wildcat hitter.

00:54:35.260 Bear down, baby.

00:54:36.960 Bear down?

00:54:38.680 Diplo, I just had a question for you.

00:54:40.920 Would you ever consider doing a fresh banger with our boy, Tekashi6ix9ine, now that he's

00:54:46.940 out of jail and all?

00:54:49.880 I know Theo would love that.

00:54:52.400 I'm a huge 6ix9ine fan, honestly.

00:54:55.980 His music, bro.

00:54:56.700 He puts the music out and I wait for it.

00:54:58.560 I even show up at the time he tells me to be there on the Instagram.

00:55:01.080 If he was having an Instagram live, I got to stop the car and watch it.

00:55:05.200 I mean, honestly, he's the first.

00:55:07.020 Just the fact that he broke down.

00:55:08.980 I mean, I just love him just for being just the fucking biggest punk ass there is.

00:55:13.120 Oh, yeah.

00:55:13.460 Just like, I love all that.

00:55:14.820 And I love that hip hop had this like, it's kind of boring now.

00:55:18.880 It's kind of like, there's the older guys, they don't go away and they kind of like talk

00:55:21.880 about the same shit.

00:55:22.680 And they're beef and bullshit.

00:55:23.540 Yeah, and they're all bullshit beef and he's actually just fuck you and fuck you.

00:55:27.380 Here's a picture of you being a bitch and like, he's not scared of anybody.

00:55:30.820 And I just love that he just kind of deconstructed hip hop in a way.

00:55:34.240 And people are like, no one can kill him.

00:55:35.480 It's like impossible.

00:55:36.060 I don't know.

00:55:36.280 He came and bothered the guy.

00:55:37.280 And how can you not kill him if he's wearing the brightest color shit in the whole world?

00:55:40.100 And he just has all these like, he always talks about, I'm a rainbow hair guy.

00:55:43.100 And what the fuck?

00:55:43.880 Why are you mad at me?

00:55:44.700 Like, I mean, I just love that he, and he didn't hit the number one with that first thing

00:55:50.020 out of jail.

00:55:50.660 And then he learned how to do it.

00:55:53.360 And he did the, you know, tie it in with the sales of the clothes and the physical.

00:55:56.840 And it's all like a fucking hack at this point.

00:55:58.660 And he just hacked it.

00:55:59.540 And he like, he learned from it and got the number one.

00:56:01.220 And everybody, fuck everybody.

00:56:02.440 I love the actual fuck you, the everybody that he did.

00:56:05.040 And he came and did it.

00:56:06.060 Yeah.

00:56:06.460 So I love him.

00:56:06.980 And I would, I'd love to work with him.

00:56:08.080 I know him, his label head really well.

00:56:11.800 We worked on ideas back before he went to jail.

00:56:13.940 And I haven't connected with him since then.

00:56:15.820 But I'm also not really doing hip hop right now.

00:56:17.960 But I would do something with him just because I love him as an artist.

00:56:21.340 Yeah.

00:56:21.580 And it's controversial.

00:56:22.520 People probably like tell me that, that sucks.

00:56:24.880 But I just, I fucking fuck with him hard.

00:56:27.040 Yeah.

00:56:27.360 Yeah.

00:56:28.120 No, I feel you, man.

00:56:28.940 I do too, dude.

00:56:29.880 I'm like, and I love how there's all these haters that he's against.

00:56:33.180 It's almost like this invisible world, you know, that he's created in his head.

00:56:36.480 It's real renegade though, I think.

00:56:37.720 It is.

00:56:38.120 Well, even when you said deconstructed, I'd always heard people say, I'm going to deconstruct

00:56:41.580 something, but I never kind of knew what they were talking about.

00:56:43.440 Yeah.

00:56:43.900 But just now when you said that, it makes sense.

00:56:45.520 Yeah, because hip hop has these sort of like, you think about these rules and these little

00:56:48.840 things and he just kind of like embarrassed everybody to like, kind of like,

00:56:51.500 people had, people actually don't beef with him.

00:56:53.660 They're scared of him now because.

00:56:54.900 He's like, what the fuck y'all doing, man?

00:56:55.980 Yeah.

00:56:56.380 I'm on house arrest.

00:56:57.620 You can't win because he'll just do whatever.

00:56:59.880 You can't, there's no rules for him, you know?

00:57:02.120 Yeah, dude.

00:57:02.880 He's got, and then he gets Nicki Minaj in, which is crazy because they're always fighting

00:57:06.920 over who's Nicki Minaj's boyfriend.

00:57:08.600 Yeah.

00:57:08.880 But she, she was with him on the record, Fifi, back in the day.

00:57:12.140 I think she just also loves his, she's very controversial too, you know?

00:57:15.640 She'll say whatever the fuck she wants.

00:57:17.620 And I got a record coming out with her.

00:57:19.160 Really?

00:57:19.580 In Major Lazer this month.

00:57:20.480 And I love her.

00:57:21.220 And I honestly, I worked with her a couple of times and she is a fucking hard worker,

00:57:27.600 bro.

00:57:27.900 Is she really?

00:57:28.580 Yeah.

00:57:28.740 I was never, I've never really been a fan.

00:57:30.760 She, as a rapper, lyrically, I mean, she's like, no one's, no one can touch her.

00:57:34.480 I feel like.

00:57:34.840 And then at the same time, like I, we did the song together and she went back and forth.

00:57:38.180 Like, I'm just like small song, you know, maybe it'll be big.

00:57:40.880 She like liked the record and she did it for me and she likes me, I think.

00:57:43.580 But she just went back in the studio like four times to cut it.

00:57:46.820 I didn't even ask her to.

00:57:47.480 She's like, I want to change this part.

00:57:48.280 I want to change this part.

00:57:48.840 And she went like a bunch of times, asked me my, my advice on it.

00:57:52.780 And, um, a real pro.

00:57:53.780 She's a real collaborator and she does it.

00:57:55.220 Like her and Madonna are two women that were just like, they work harder than me.

00:57:58.880 And that's hard.

00:57:59.360 I feel like I work pretty hard.

00:58:00.300 So they both like.

00:58:01.120 It sounds like you do, man.

00:58:02.760 I wish that they could take your brain whenever you pass and just splice it into like, literally

00:58:06.980 a hallways of a library where people could walk through and see what you.

00:58:10.100 Might be some stuff in there, man.

00:58:11.280 I don't know if you want to open that up, man.

00:58:13.780 We'll have a special area.

00:58:15.500 Yeah.

00:58:15.680 I mean, you might need to define where you can.

00:58:18.180 Some of the guys are blocked off.

00:58:19.060 Those double doors.

00:58:19.920 Remember back in the day, they used to have a video store and they would have the double

00:58:23.120 doors where the pornography was.

00:58:23.760 Oh, the porno.

00:58:24.560 Yeah.

00:58:24.680 I would sneak in there all the time.

00:58:26.120 Me too.

00:58:26.440 Growing up in Florida, like I would go to my grandma's house.

00:58:28.960 My parents would just drop me out.

00:58:30.000 They're like, fuck, I couldn't afford a summer camp or nothing.

00:58:31.860 I had nothing to do.

00:58:32.540 They would just drive me four hours to New Smyrna.

00:58:34.120 It's a little small town.

00:58:34.740 Drop me grandma's.

00:58:35.620 And I could only walk in my little sand.

00:58:38.200 We don't have dirt roads in Florida.

00:58:39.200 We had sand roads.

00:58:40.220 Wow.

00:58:40.600 And I would walk fucking mild to the video store.

00:58:42.760 My grandma would give me like $5.

00:58:44.320 I would just rent every WWF video.

00:58:47.400 I watched every WrestleMania because I never paid for the pay-per-views.

00:58:49.800 I watched like the last five years.

00:58:51.200 I watched like one summer, I watched like 500 wrestling contests.

00:58:55.600 And in every Kung Fu movie there was, I just, then I found the porn area.

00:58:58.960 Oh, yeah.

00:58:59.640 Couldn't rent those, but I would go.

00:59:01.020 I'd go back there.

00:59:01.800 Go read the boxes.

00:59:02.000 I'd go see those boxes.

00:59:03.540 Dude, I'd read the boxes with my dick out, bro.

00:59:05.080 Can you rent?

00:59:05.900 Can you rent?

00:59:06.460 I mean, just the awkwardness of like going to the, and then renting them and then stand

00:59:10.900 in front of somebody and have like a stack of like these dirty pornos.

00:59:14.180 But dude, there's almost more of a respect there.

00:59:16.160 There's a line in the sand where you're like, okay, am I doing this or not?

00:59:19.140 Do I mean this or not?

00:59:20.480 Now it's too easy access.

00:59:22.020 There's no like.

00:59:22.840 You can be, it's too much privacy.

00:59:24.260 Back in the day, you're a fucking pervert.

00:59:25.860 We're going to see who's a pervert.

00:59:28.160 Or you can stand outside.

00:59:28.960 There's always a sex shop too that has like the pornos.

00:59:31.860 And like in Philly, there's like this one little area.

00:59:34.020 They probably cleaned it up since I was living there.

00:59:35.580 But there was like one little area where they had like the shops where you would just go

00:59:37.980 and you could just jerk off and like watch a girl behind a glass and they would do things.

00:59:41.680 There's like, there's like shops and then you go and there's video stores and there's

00:59:44.160 still those.

00:59:45.320 I mean, in New York had that shit too.

00:59:46.780 I've never seen that.

00:59:47.220 The idea of the sex, the sex shops doesn't even like, I guess it's not a thing anymore.

00:59:51.220 Not full on hookers.

00:59:52.580 I'm talking about like, there's this area in Philly where we're just like.

00:59:55.640 You can see a real woman through glass.

00:59:57.360 Yeah.

00:59:57.580 Yeah.

00:59:57.820 I did that once in Amsterdam.

00:59:58.900 I've never seen that anywhere else though.

01:00:00.200 And she would just do a thing.

01:00:01.080 It's kind of like what a, I guess what a chat, what's it called now?

01:00:05.020 The cam girl would do.

01:00:06.060 Yeah.

01:00:06.540 But the ones over there in Philly were probably pretty.

01:00:09.220 Dude, I remember this.

01:00:10.360 Now you make me think of it.

01:00:11.300 This one time I was in Amsterdam.

01:00:13.880 And so they had a thing.

01:00:15.300 You'd go in this little cage kind of and everybody's glass opens up.

01:00:18.100 And they, there's a wheel, there's like a lazy Susan in there and it has people and

01:00:22.880 there's like a man and a woman having sex and everybody's, then you can see everybody's

01:00:25.880 Oh, you see everybody else.

01:00:26.740 I thought it wouldn't be a mirror to see.

01:00:28.540 That's awkward.

01:00:29.380 That's awkward.

01:00:30.540 That's awkward.

01:00:31.720 You're the mirror goes up and everybody's just guys already like jerking.

01:00:33.640 You're like, oh, all right.

01:00:34.560 It was weird.

01:00:35.600 So you realize you got, you got to look right at the couple.

01:00:37.600 You can't be straying visually.

01:00:39.420 And then the crazy part was everybody else's slides went down after they were done after

01:00:43.320 the 15 minutes or whatever.

01:00:45.060 Mine wouldn't, didn't go down or something.

01:00:46.800 So I had another crazy part was watching the couple who were now dizzy from the thing

01:00:52.180 spinning, help each other.

01:00:55.140 It's like when you, when your kid on a, one of the little, uh, fair, little Ferris

01:00:59.220 with the park and you'd let your kid walk away and he just stumbles kind of drunk.

01:01:02.660 It's always a fun one of his ears.

01:01:04.020 I was 40 pounds.

01:01:05.620 Um, do you, you know, you've done so much with music over the years and especially

01:01:08.960 so much, I think with diverse, let's get a question right here.

01:01:12.940 This guy actually looks diverse.

01:01:14.020 Let's get him in.

01:01:17.660 All right.

01:01:18.260 What up?

01:01:18.760 Kev here from Toronto.

01:01:20.920 Diplo.

01:01:21.920 Where'd you rather party?

01:01:24.140 Trinidad or Jamaica?

01:01:26.880 Socar dance hall.

01:01:28.120 That's a tough one.

01:01:28.840 What's it going to be?

01:01:30.580 Um, I'm going to say Trinidad.

01:01:33.160 He's probably Trini.

01:01:34.080 It looks like he's from Toronto has a big, like Trini diaspora, but I just had a baby

01:01:37.820 in Trinidad, uh, with my ex-girlfriend and, um, well, she's like my, you know, she's an

01:01:42.220 awesome girl and I haven't seen the baby because I, I was going to go there in March for a show

01:01:46.520 and stay there for a month.

01:01:47.520 And then I've been, we tried to travel, man.

01:01:50.520 I have to quarantine in Trinidad.

01:01:51.800 Wow.

01:01:52.160 And, um, so I would go to Trinidad after I need to go there as soon as possible, but the city

01:01:57.760 itself, uh, port of Spain, Trinidad is like, people don't know this, but it's kind of like

01:02:02.300 this kind of probably one of the wealthiest Caribbean countries has good surf, has this

01:02:08.460 amazing music culture, but it has this crazy mashup of like, you know, European, African

01:02:14.200 and Indian, just kind of all like living there and little working in this crazy music scene.

01:02:19.200 Of course, Soca, they have reggae dance hall.

01:02:20.740 We used to do parties there and Major Lazer had a show there every December and it was

01:02:24.060 at this water park and it was like the craziest show we'd have, like people on shoulders,

01:02:28.100 like water flowing everywhere, like crowd doing all the different dances together.

01:02:32.240 And I mean, Trinidad, it was just legendary and I miss going there to do shows, but, um,

01:02:36.660 if you get a chance, check out Trinidad, man, for carnival.

01:02:39.320 I think it's like in the end of February, same time, right, right before Mardi Gras.

01:02:43.340 So you can actually, I did a tour last year.

01:02:44.700 I did, I did, I did, um, or two years ago, I did, I did carnival in Brazil.

01:02:48.900 Uh, had a, had a show in, I went to Trinidad to see the, see the car.

01:02:52.680 I didn't have to do a show there.

01:02:53.440 And then we went straight to Mardi Gras and did all the, the, the, the circuit basically

01:02:58.040 because it's all around the same holiday.

01:03:00.060 So what was that vibe like?

01:03:01.100 Was there like, obviously they must've differed from each other.

01:03:03.800 Oh, 100%.

01:03:04.220 The, the, the, the, the carnival in, in Brazil is just like the Superbowl.

01:03:09.600 I mean, there's like a Samba drum.

01:03:11.080 They have their own stadium just for the carnival floats.

01:03:13.940 And it's just, the music is insane.

01:03:15.780 It's like the whole country parties at once.

01:03:17.420 It's just so sexualized and beautiful at the same time.

01:03:20.580 Everybody's so fucking happy.

01:03:22.460 And then, um, Mardi Gras in New Orleans, just like, just fucking trash.

01:03:28.940 Like in the next level fucking, but we had this really awesome party drop off from one

01:03:33.220 of the, I love it so much.

01:03:34.360 Cause I love, I actually went to see some of the floats at the Mardi Gras for the first

01:03:38.080 time.

01:03:38.200 So I've been there for parties and I was like, damn, these floats are awesome.

01:03:40.360 Like all the different, yeah, they're really cool.

01:03:42.020 It was such a lower level, but I'm like, you see like the black community floats and

01:03:46.460 like the second line, you say the white people doing like the things and they just, it's,

01:03:49.520 it's like the one thing where everybody's kind of is together on the side of the roads

01:03:53.540 and seeing everything.

01:03:54.180 And I played a party with a good friends of mine, band called Arcade Fire.

01:03:57.820 You know, those guys.

01:03:58.340 And, um, when Butler is the, the lead band guy and he's also a basketball player and

01:04:03.580 he has a party there called Carnival Crew and it was amazing.

01:04:07.000 It was like drag Queens.

01:04:08.120 And like, we had, um, uh, Choppa played with me and it was like, um, he DJed in his

01:04:14.880 like Haitian band playing Haitian music.

01:04:16.660 And it was like, just like this really like multi-cold, it was like amazing party.

01:04:20.280 And, um, just like the most inclusive party you could, you could have in New Orleans.

01:04:23.500 Like, there's a lot of that there.

01:04:24.620 That's what, that's, that place is kind of anything.

01:04:25.940 That's why I'm saying like the bouncing is, is gay.

01:04:28.540 Um, the city itself is so DIY.

01:04:30.520 Like kids go there, like punk kids.

01:04:32.180 There's a lot of punk bands like in New Orleans and like punk kids, they go there and they,

01:04:34.840 they get a warehouse space and they have a little commune and they build, they make their

01:04:38.220 own little restaurants or whatever.

01:04:39.760 And it's like, you don't have, it might sound fucked up.

01:04:42.280 I think Katrina might've done the most work to preserve the culture of, of New Orleans

01:04:47.440 because right before Katrina happened, it really felt like New Orleans was, was destined to

01:04:51.780 be this big destination.

01:04:52.840 And like people were buying property and hotels were coming in there, restaurants and the

01:04:56.760 Katrina just wiped out all the investment in a way.

01:04:59.820 And people left, there was like 400,000 people in before Katrina and only like 200,000 left.

01:05:03.920 And it, and the city had to start over again, but what didn't stop, what didn't stop was

01:05:08.060 that all that cultural movement didn't really end and it just got bigger and more, it's

01:05:11.960 isolated, you know?

01:05:12.760 And you need the isolation kind of to build sometimes.

01:05:14.940 And I think, I just think New Orleans for me is, is like the, my favorite place in the

01:05:20.620 world to go all over the world just because it's a spontaneous and crazy and you don't

01:05:24.860 know what's going to happen.

01:05:26.100 And I love that.

01:05:27.040 I love that.

01:05:27.420 Well, you know, it's so interesting.

01:05:28.240 You talk, you talk, you talk about the, the investment side of it.

01:05:30.940 It's funny, like, you know, something really unique and special can start somewhere, be

01:05:36.500 it a festival, be it like a vibe, anything, but then eventually money comes in because they

01:05:41.440 want to own stuff in the area.

01:05:42.800 They want to make it bigger.

01:05:44.200 And then it kind of like, it, it weakens stuff over time, you know, but it's so funny

01:05:49.680 because if you, but if you didn't have money in the area, but then it's, it's funny

01:05:54.720 because it's like, we want money in areas to help, to help.

01:05:57.680 But then it's from no money that usually really beautiful things can come from.

01:06:03.860 Art comes from like, you know, desperation a lot of times.

01:06:06.080 So it's so funny to just have that dichotomy.

01:06:07.880 It's like, you, like when I was young, man, I'd have given anything to be able to, for

01:06:11.620 us to have some money for my mother, not to work for, you know, to just have a little

01:06:15.140 bit of time where we could have, I don't know, just felt like not ashamed of who I was

01:06:19.600 or something, you know, just, I don't know, you know, what we, I wish we'd had some money,

01:06:23.080 a little more comfort, but then it's like.

01:06:25.620 But you had to work, you had to work harder to do what you do.

01:06:28.060 You know what I'm saying?

01:06:28.740 I think for me, like I moved to Philly to go to university and I had like nothing there.

01:06:33.160 Did you go to Temple?

01:06:33.720 Where'd you go to?

01:06:33.940 I went to Temple, yeah.

01:06:34.500 You did?

01:06:34.960 Dude, Temple's fucking wild.

01:06:35.960 If you get up there on, is that Front Street?

01:06:37.200 What is that street?

01:06:37.640 My parents went to visit me.

01:06:38.860 My parents went to visit me.

01:06:40.060 It's on a fucking market and Cecil B. Moore.

01:06:42.960 Somebody trained a crow to drop off fucking cocaine for them up there.

01:06:45.860 Oh yeah, the drug, they run drugs on birds up there actually.

01:06:49.760 People would park in the middle of the fucking street and go do it.

01:06:52.700 But if you just go, Temple's like a little bubble of like, you know, university, but any

01:06:57.280 outside of that area, North Philadelphia, it just looks like apocalypse now.

01:07:01.860 Like it's burned out buildings and like, it's just, it's fucking street by street, just

01:07:06.780 crazy ghetto from like, from Cecil B. Moore all the way to like 40 blocks up, kind of

01:07:14.480 endless, like, and it's, it's, I worked up there.

01:07:17.840 When I went to Temple, I ended up graduating.

01:07:19.940 I didn't even graduate.

01:07:20.740 I got out my fourth year.

01:07:21.940 I left because it was like, fuck this, fuck school.

01:07:24.580 And I got a job as a social worker and I worked up in these high schools up there.

01:07:29.400 Wow.

01:07:29.940 That's been pretty gangster, huh?

01:07:31.280 It was fucked up, man.

01:07:32.400 I mean, like back to the drugs we were talking about.

01:07:34.880 We weren't talking about drugs, but I was talking about it.

01:07:37.940 I'm always talking about it in the back of my head.

01:07:39.600 But the kids, the kids I was working with were just so geeked up on Ritalin.

01:07:44.200 Like they weren't even, they didn't even, one of the kids couldn't even read.

01:07:46.620 And they didn't care.

01:07:48.820 It wasn't like, let's teach the kid to read.

01:07:49.800 It was like, give him Ritalin so he doesn't bother any other kids in school.

01:07:51.800 It was like fucked up.

01:07:52.960 And these kids were just like building these, the government was actually building these

01:07:56.060 drug addictions for these kids from like 10 years old already.

01:08:00.220 And that's how you put, that's how you, it's just, there was no, there was

01:08:02.880 no, there was no idea to fix this fucking place they lived at and like help with their

01:08:08.940 parents who were, you know, dealing crack on the side.

01:08:11.080 There was never like, how do we fix the situation the kid lives in?

01:08:13.320 It was like, just give him some drugs so we can move on.

01:08:15.320 Yeah.

01:08:15.600 That was like the way that the government in the city dealt with it.

01:08:18.400 And I did that for a little while and I just fucking quit.

01:08:20.680 And, um, honestly, I learned a lot from, that was my hardest job I ever had was doing

01:08:24.480 that, doing that.

01:08:25.480 It was called TSS.

01:08:26.480 It was like therapeutic staff support.

01:08:27.940 I went to schools with the kids and like helped, like wrote notes about the kids and

01:08:31.500 helped them with whatever he needed and stuff like that.

01:08:33.100 Like one-on-one with a kid for a few weeks.

01:08:35.580 And, um, it was rough to see like that, that I was like literally shadowing this kid every

01:08:39.880 day, helping him and doing reports on what he was doing.

01:08:42.600 You know, it's funny.

01:08:43.380 I remember growing up, like one of the hardest things was like, uh, just the amount of poverty

01:08:48.720 that there really is in a lot of the black community, you know?

01:08:50.800 Um, and in, in the white community too, it's just a little bit different, I feel like,

01:08:55.080 but, um, I mean, but there's, there's so much poverty in, in America still, like, and

01:09:01.060 it's going to get worse and worse for what we have right now.

01:09:04.020 I mean, just living in LA, you see the homeless situation, how insane that is.

01:09:08.740 And to see when you move here for the first time, I actually used to take people to skid

01:09:11.160 roaders to be like, who are from Europe.

01:09:12.240 I'm like, have you ever seen this?

01:09:13.260 Something like this?

01:09:14.100 Cause it's like block by block.

01:09:15.760 And it's like a little community there.

01:09:17.200 And, um, you know, a lot of people that are homeless in California are like, have mental

01:09:20.840 health problems where they have, they actually can't exist in a normal way.

01:09:24.600 And they have, that's like the last resort for them to survive is let me homeless.

01:09:27.160 But I've noticed during this pandemic, there's a, there's a little, I live in Hollywood, but

01:09:32.180 there's like one overpass and it just keeps growing small little community there.

01:09:35.160 And the people are younger and younger.

01:09:36.800 Wow.

01:09:37.140 And they're not even like, um, maybe they have mental health problems, but their kids are

01:09:41.160 like, they're well put together.

01:09:42.000 They have like some of this girls, like punk rock girls, like every day she's up at like seven

01:09:45.100 putting her mohawk in.

01:09:46.260 And, but she just lives in this tent because she, you know, when it was a stay at home

01:09:51.180 water, she had nowhere to go.

01:09:52.300 Right.

01:09:52.400 She probably lived with her parents or whatever.

01:09:53.580 And I had to leave.

01:09:54.220 So I think a lot of kids were seeing a lot more of this poverty situation happening with

01:09:58.260 young people that never happened before.

01:10:00.040 And I think that's not being addressed in LA is just, it's a fucking lot of homeless

01:10:04.180 going on here.

01:10:04.880 And I think it's a lot of money here too, which is shocking.

01:10:07.200 You know, it's really interesting.

01:10:08.160 I mean, even hearing you say about when you were doing the TSS stuff and, and that water bottle

01:10:12.020 might be uneven on the bottom of it.

01:10:13.700 I saw fall.

01:10:14.580 Yeah.

01:10:14.820 Yeah.

01:10:15.380 This has got a, what you took the lap labels off.

01:10:18.520 I don't know why we did actually.

01:10:19.860 That Poland spring sponsorship.

01:10:21.000 I think cause it was poor.

01:10:21.880 I think cause we were giving out poor waters.

01:10:23.320 We're going to do Dasani from now on.

01:10:25.160 Dasani sucks.

01:10:26.240 Core water is expensive.

01:10:27.000 I didn't, I was in, I invested in core water.

01:10:28.720 Did you really?

01:10:29.240 Yeah.

01:10:29.420 In the beginning, I made a lot of money out of core water.

01:10:31.200 I love core water.

01:10:32.060 They sold to Dr. Pepper and I got Dr. Pepper stock at the end.

01:10:34.540 I was like, what?

01:10:35.060 I had to wait a year to sell it.

01:10:37.040 And I finally did.

01:10:37.500 I was like, all right, now.

01:10:38.240 Dude, Dr. Pepper was one of the only beverages when I was growing up.

01:10:40.820 There was like five beverages and one of them was Dr. Pepper.

01:10:43.220 Well, here's the thing I wanted to say.

01:10:44.720 So like, it's interesting cause throughout time it's like, yeah, they try to put different

01:10:47.780 things into communities.

01:10:49.360 It's like, like you were saying, they try to, uh, you know, they'll try to diversify communities

01:10:54.080 like, oh, let's bust in kids from different places.

01:10:56.740 Let's, let's try and flood it with, um, drugs.

01:10:59.420 Let's use, oh, drugs will be the solution.

01:11:01.040 You know, I think we're starting to realize over time that, or money, let's just try and

01:11:05.500 pump money.

01:11:06.120 And I think money definitely helps.

01:11:07.620 You know, you know, a lot of people talk about white privilege and I think a lot about

01:11:10.900 green privilege.

01:11:11.480 I think there is some white privilege, but I don't know if, but I know that money, like

01:11:15.560 you go to, you look at a place like Atlanta, I was talking with Boosie about it and

01:11:18.420 just when you see that wealth, when you go to Atlanta and you see for the first time,

01:11:23.080 I remember the first time I went there, it was just, it seemed like just like a, the

01:11:25.980 place where the Braves play.

01:11:27.020 Right.

01:11:27.180 And then over time it's become, you see wealthy black people and you see, oh, this is what

01:11:33.020 happens when a community of people has money.

01:11:36.860 They are, they live more, I don't want to say comfortably like in their assets, but comfortably

01:11:42.660 inside of themselves as a human, you know, like there, you don't see.

01:11:47.280 I mean, I think the kids that I grew up around where it was like, you know, kids that just

01:11:51.140 were just, you know, some of them didn't have parents, kids like 15, 20 years old, couldn't

01:11:55.160 even read, you know.

01:11:56.220 Even the music scene, I think coming from Atlanta recently, a lot of these kids, you

01:12:01.140 know, when you grew up hip hop, you know, rappers came from like the lowest parts of

01:12:05.060 a city or it was like they had to call their way out to make music.

01:12:07.940 And I think the last 10 years you have kids from the suburbs that actually are like changing

01:12:12.840 the game.

01:12:13.180 Like Lil Nas X, good example.

01:12:14.200 He's like, I think, I'm not going to speak on his family.

01:12:16.940 I think he might be middle class kid, but he's like, he had the opportunity to put his

01:12:22.040 energy in something that maybe he wasn't, he wasn't going to be a rapper.

01:12:24.020 Right, right.

01:12:24.580 But if it wasn't middle class, would he have been able to have that ability to do that?

01:12:27.880 And then he changed the game.

01:12:28.520 Like the biggest record of all time, actually.

01:12:30.380 And I think that's something that happened because of, you know, putting people in a position

01:12:34.640 where they can have a little more opportunities.

01:12:36.480 Because at some point, I'm a firm believer that anybody in America can honestly make

01:12:42.660 their way up to where they can.

01:12:44.300 I know that I'm going to have a lot more opportunities being a white guy.

01:12:48.220 My parents put me in a place that made it healthier.

01:12:50.220 But my father, you know, he was dirt poor.

01:12:53.520 He had no opportunities.

01:12:56.020 He had to go to the Vietnam War just to get it.

01:12:58.020 He was like not even have a job just to get a GI Bill to go to college.

01:13:01.100 And he'd go to college since he was like late 20s.

01:13:02.540 And he's the only person to go to college out of like a whole generation of his family

01:13:06.000 for like 100 years.

01:13:07.500 And he made it and like went to college, graduated like when he was 30 or something

01:13:12.340 and got a job at a hospital, worked his way up to have a great job at a hospital

01:13:15.780 and put me to college.

01:13:17.720 Like gave me the funds to go to University of Central Florida.

01:13:20.620 So he didn't spend that much money.

01:13:21.960 But I would have never done it.

01:13:23.840 I wouldn't, I mean, I can get a student loan now, which I suggest never doing like to

01:13:28.720 anybody because I think it's the biggest sham there is.

01:13:30.580 But I, my dad was able to do that.

01:13:34.060 And I think, and he also maybe being white, you know, down South also probably helped him

01:13:38.540 secure a job in different places like Mississippi or Alabama.

01:13:41.860 But at the same time, I think it's possible for anybody, but it's different.

01:13:45.300 Like the road is going to be a lot flatter for me to climb than it's going to be for a

01:13:49.420 young black guy who has to go up, you know, high.

01:13:51.220 But if you're in the middle class, that's, you know, I think the economy doesn't really

01:13:55.960 see race.

01:13:56.760 It's like an algorithm.

01:13:57.520 It sees zeros and numbers.

01:13:58.800 It sees numbers.

01:13:59.300 So, right, you know, like I think tech funds, all these things like that doesn't, like

01:14:02.700 they're not inherently racist.

01:14:04.300 Our political, social, economic system in America is inherently racist.

01:14:09.760 It's probably by default because it's been built that way and you can't, you know, you

01:14:13.120 can't deconstruct it that easily.

01:14:14.560 But.

01:14:14.660 Right.

01:14:14.840 It takes time.

01:14:15.480 It does take time.

01:14:16.240 But I think, yeah, you said like money is going to give people more experiences that

01:14:21.500 they can, that they can take.

01:14:22.740 I mean, having disposable income is you're going to spend money on music.

01:14:25.640 You're going to go to concerts.

01:14:26.320 And when we're, when the economy is good, actually the music scene grows a lot more.

01:14:30.120 And I mean, right now you're not going to have a lot of new music in 2020 because no

01:14:32.840 one's touring.

01:14:33.640 People are scared to put out the records.

01:14:35.180 No one's writing.

01:14:36.200 No one's spending money at shows.

01:14:37.400 People are surviving.

01:14:38.000 I mean, even as you said, you know, it's like not a time.

01:14:39.900 It's a, you know, when people are, it hadn't really been the time really to make maybe new

01:14:43.180 music.

01:14:43.720 Yeah.

01:14:43.800 You know, um, it's funny.

01:14:45.420 Yeah.

01:14:45.520 I think, you know, piggybacking on what you're saying, it's like, yeah, when you're surviving,

01:14:48.900 when you have to spend, expend energy surviving, you don't, it's hard to fantasize or imagine

01:14:55.900 or to dream or to, you know, it's, you can't, it's really hard to do both.

01:15:00.680 Like me, I never had opportunity.

01:15:01.860 I didn't start making music till I was like 20, like really putting my energy into it.

01:15:05.460 So I was like 19, 20.

01:15:07.580 Most kids, like they started in like Billie Eilish, like 11, 12, you know, like I was,

01:15:11.860 as even as a DJ, I didn't put my first record.

01:15:13.500 I was like 26 and that's like, I'm a grandpa, you know, a rapper.

01:15:18.220 If you're, if you're not coming out at 16 years old now, you're like, yeah, you're old

01:15:22.880 as fuck.

01:15:23.540 So who's his dad?

01:15:24.520 But I think, um, I think now kids have that, that opportunity.

01:15:28.940 Like they have a little, like I said, like soundcloud, they don't need that.

01:15:31.420 They don't need that fucking the ceiling.

01:15:33.840 They can, they can break through.

01:15:35.040 Yeah.

01:15:35.260 You have a good idea, good concepts.

01:15:36.880 But right now there's not a lot of, we're in like a TikTok generation, like music.

01:15:41.860 Music's kind of, we're only digesting 15 seconds of songs right now.

01:15:45.420 Yeah.

01:15:45.780 It's almost like you have to have that hook.

01:15:47.140 Yeah.

01:15:47.560 Which is not, I don't think a lot of TikTok records don't, don't make artists though.

01:15:51.640 So it's, I hope it's a phase.

01:15:52.840 I don't, I'm not mad at TikTok and I've had, I've used my TikTok to my advantage sometimes,

01:15:56.120 but I think a lot of the songs that come out, you get this guy has a song on TikTok that's

01:16:00.440 like, shoot, I'm not gonna give examples.

01:16:02.120 Like might be, have like become a number one record and still has like, you know, 30,000 followers

01:16:06.660 on Instagram because no one's actually checking for the artists.

01:16:08.420 They're just looping this moment.

01:16:09.940 It's about the influencer that's, that's doing it.

01:16:11.980 Yeah.

01:16:12.160 I think TikTok is just like, it's this weird, yeah.

01:16:14.860 I don't know if it, if those people become real artists off of there.

01:16:18.460 Yeah.

01:16:18.660 They don't, I think it's a trend thing, but I think hopefully there might be someone that

01:16:21.240 comes out of it that you're like, Oh, you know, SoundCloud rap came out.

01:16:24.200 I thought it was all kind of garbage.

01:16:25.500 And then X, X, X, X, X, Tentation came out.

01:16:27.580 I was like, this guy, a real artist came out of it.

01:16:29.600 Yeah.

01:16:30.040 And like, had like, like kind of put the whole thing on his shoulder.

01:16:32.860 Even at 6ix9ine, I think he came out of it.

01:16:34.300 I was like, he survived it and lasted.

01:16:35.960 So, but all those other rappers that had like songs out, they're gone, you know, it's

01:16:39.820 like they had like one month people played the records and it was hype and then they're

01:16:43.840 out.

01:16:44.200 Do you feel like, cause you, you know, you do, I mean, you know, you really love to experience

01:16:49.540 different cultures, it seems like.

01:16:51.080 And, and I mean, and you talk about it's at the forefront of your communication, you

01:16:54.580 know, like, do you feel, you know, a lot of people get accused of cultural appropriation

01:16:59.640 and stuff these days, which, you know, it's, it's a huge discussion topic really, but I

01:17:04.300 feel, do you, but sometimes it's, you're more of a liaison for cultures.

01:17:09.220 I feel like.

01:17:09.360 A hundred percent.

01:17:09.920 I'm a cultural appropriator.

01:17:11.220 I mean, I think that's.

01:17:12.060 Do you feel that?

01:17:12.440 I think.

01:17:13.060 I mean, do you really feel that way?

01:17:13.980 I just don't think there's anything wrong with it.

01:17:15.420 Like even if, even if, even just me doing country music, I'm a pro, I wasn't like, you

01:17:18.880 know, I'm starting doing country music at 25.

01:17:20.160 You weren't born at a fucking rodeo.

01:17:21.360 Yeah.

01:17:21.620 Like I wasn't born, like I don't, I don't belong.

01:17:23.740 Yeah.

01:17:23.860 You weren't in Dallas Buyers Club or something.

01:17:25.640 So it's not like, yeah, it's not Dallas, that would be pretty epic, but like, I think

01:17:29.720 anything you do culturally, like, I don't think, what, what am I supposed to do?

01:17:33.480 Like what defines me?

01:17:33.940 Yeah.

01:17:34.100 What am I supposed to do?

01:17:34.720 Exist in a place.

01:17:34.900 I grew up in Mississippi.

01:17:35.980 I mean, I, Florida, am I supposed to like ride an alligator or, you know, just like work

01:17:39.180 at Walgreens?

01:17:39.780 I don't know.

01:17:40.540 There's not any, I don't think anybody should be defined.

01:17:42.680 And if you, if you put rules on culture and music, you're setting yourself up for like

01:17:47.820 constricting anything, any ideas of, I mean, someone should have said, Lil Nas X, you're

01:17:52.460 not, you're not allowed to do this.

01:17:53.440 You're not allowed to make country music.

01:17:55.920 I'm actually, I started doing like more random music earlier in my career to where if I started

01:18:01.980 doing like major laser now, I would probably would never have flown, you know, like, or

01:18:04.700 if I did like, I look back at like my video and my bounce video for Express Yourself

01:18:08.880 that's New Orleans, I can never make a video like that now.

01:18:10.660 Like girls twerking.

01:18:11.500 I'm like the only white guy in the video.

01:18:12.660 And like, I'm DJing.

01:18:13.900 I'm like in downtown New Orleans.

01:18:14.940 I mean, like I look back and like, that was a moment that couldn't happen now because

01:18:18.320 there's like rules and regulation to that.

01:18:21.240 Is there, I think, yeah, I'm a liaison.

01:18:24.240 As a producer, I'm just, that's always been my job.

01:18:26.420 I've been fascinated by music.

01:18:27.700 Right.

01:18:28.140 The people that, that, that inspired me, someone like David Bowie, you know, he did funk, he

01:18:32.920 did, you know, he did glam, he did like folk music.

01:18:36.860 His biggest hit was like, Let's Dance with Niles Rogers.

01:18:38.940 I mean, it was like full on, like the guy who did Chic.

01:18:41.120 Like, I mean, he just, and no one ever said like he's, you know, culturally appropriating

01:18:45.340 something.

01:18:45.700 He just was an artist.

01:18:46.620 Right.

01:18:46.720 I mean, art is art.

01:18:48.520 Yeah.

01:18:48.880 And you have to be influenced.

01:18:50.120 Like, you have to be influenced by things.

01:18:52.340 I mean, my favorite, Richard Pryor's my favorite comedian.

01:18:54.880 Chris Rock's my second favorite comedian.

01:18:56.820 And my other is this guy named Jerry Clower, actually, who's out of Yazoo City, Mississippi.

01:19:00.500 I'll have to send you some of his stuff, man.

01:19:01.640 Yeah.

01:19:02.000 You've literally, since you've sat here, it made me wonder if I can listen to so much more music.

01:19:05.540 Like, I mean, I think with music, also, we, I owe a lot, like a band like The Clash is

01:19:10.720 my biggest influence because they started with punk.

01:19:14.000 They did reggae.

01:19:14.640 They did hip hop.

01:19:15.920 And they had a record, my favorite record of all time might be Rock the Casbah, which

01:19:18.880 like political, it's a dance record.

01:19:20.580 It's beautifully done.

01:19:21.640 It's produced really well.

01:19:23.320 And if they came out today, people have been like, what are you doing that?

01:19:26.160 You know, like, what are you doing?

01:19:26.920 But I think that argument, I've been hearing that argument about culturally appropriating music

01:19:30.260 for like 20 years.

01:19:31.180 And I just don't go away.

01:19:31.960 People listen to my music.

01:19:33.680 If they like it, they like it.

01:19:34.800 I hope that my music affects you to where you want to listen to it.

01:19:38.380 And you're like, oh, I love this.

01:19:39.240 I love this country.

01:19:39.880 Even with the country stuff.

01:19:40.660 I mean, Nashville's not fucking with my country music sometimes.

01:19:42.920 I think you listen to it, they're like, uh, but if a kid, like, you know, I'm making it

01:19:46.660 for that 14-year-old kid driving around.

01:19:48.160 Like, I don't, he doesn't, he doesn't think about like the rules when he listens to my music.

01:19:50.860 And I'm like, oh, this isn't supposed to listen to that, you know?

01:19:53.600 And in fact, he probably doesn't want to listen to the conversation that his parents listen to.

01:19:56.660 I think he shouldn't, but I think he should have a lot of education on music because I am, as a DJ,

01:20:01.840 I've been in, I know so much about music.

01:20:03.420 I think that's my, that's my only, that's the only thing I've done.

01:20:05.900 So I know where I came from.

01:20:07.380 I know that, um, I wouldn't be here if it wasn't for black music, even like black and

01:20:11.980 gay music when it comes to house records.

01:20:14.100 Um, I know where the roots come from and I know to show support and love when I can to

01:20:18.200 those people, because that's actually my, that's what I can do for those people who

01:20:20.820 are in the scene.

01:20:21.400 Like if it's like a young black DJ, I'm going to fucking book him over another young white

01:20:25.180 DJ just because, or if it's a young woman, because that's something I can do.

01:20:28.900 Right.

01:20:29.000 And that's actually important.

01:20:29.740 If I can make music and get to a position where I can help other people make more music.

01:20:32.720 Well, it seems like you try to do that.

01:20:34.440 I mean, it seems like you try to do that with your label.

01:20:36.200 Yeah.

01:20:36.360 A hundred percent.

01:20:37.040 Is it, but is it, it does get hard to juggle though, doing your own and then also being

01:20:41.400 a producer.

01:20:41.960 Does it hard to get, is it hard to juggle?

01:20:43.620 Not really.

01:20:43.940 I think that, um, I used to just always like, for example, like Beyonce, I always mark a record

01:20:48.580 for Beyonce or Rihanna.

01:20:49.620 And if they wouldn't take it, I'd make it my record.

01:20:51.460 You know, I worked to make it for them because those are the two artists I was like, I was constantly,

01:20:55.240 you know, the manager, like, can we hear some ideas?

01:20:56.660 And I would focus on that and then I would never get the record done for them, but I

01:21:00.100 would just, I'd be like, Hey, I made this great record that they didn't take.

01:21:02.660 Like good stories like lean on my biggest probably record I ever made, um, with major laser was

01:21:07.260 written for, for Rihanna originally.

01:21:08.600 And the story is I played in the studio and she just was like, not fucking with it.

01:21:11.640 Wow.

01:21:12.220 And, um, but blessing.

01:21:14.460 Cause I own the master of that record, you know, and like I made like shitload of money

01:21:17.840 and, and the record reached a lot of people and I'm, I was proud of it.

01:21:20.760 And we made a video in India actually with like, with like no money, like $75,000.

01:21:25.320 And then if I made that video today, people would have fucking, it would have been canceled,

01:21:29.460 you know?

01:21:29.800 Cause like, we're just like, we're just chilling in India.

01:21:32.180 I had a show there, I played for all these kids.

01:21:33.720 Like, let me just spend the money I made at the show on the video and the, and you know,

01:21:37.220 here and we had the girl came out and the video, it's actually nice and awesome.

01:21:41.080 You know, it's, it's a vibe.

01:21:41.900 People are going to criticize it.

01:21:43.580 I mean, you're going to get criticism all the time.

01:21:45.120 You're going to get haters.

01:21:46.360 I've had it for so long.

01:21:47.640 It's hard, man.

01:21:48.320 It's hard not to.

01:21:48.920 And especially these days, I even worry more about comedy.

01:21:51.140 It's like, how can I talk about stuff?

01:21:52.960 How can I try and share, you know, my truth or share like, you know, what my story is

01:21:57.400 or even what my thoughts are without being like, I think sarcasm is lost.

01:22:01.920 That sucks for comedy.

01:22:02.700 Cause sarcasm is a fucking art form.

01:22:05.220 Right.

01:22:05.480 And I think, and people don't fucking get, they don't, they don't, they don't even take

01:22:09.260 a time to like realize it.

01:22:10.220 And then you get stuck on like the quotable or whatever.

01:22:12.160 And then you're, you get fucked on something that you don't, you're not listening to the context

01:22:15.960 of my joke or whatever.

01:22:16.700 And I think that's comedy should be indifferent to that, but it's never, yeah, I don't know

01:22:20.800 how it, how it gets back to that because yeah, it's like my first net, my first Netflix special

01:22:25.660 is a lot of his real tongue in cheek.

01:22:27.900 It's almost like a character, you know, in a weird way.

01:22:31.380 And yeah, some people take it verbatim and it's like, Oh, but you don't see what I'm doing.

01:22:34.660 You don't see what's going on here, you know?

01:22:37.240 But yeah, sarcasm is, is really, it's hard.

01:22:39.660 You have to be, if you're going to go see a comedian, you have to give him artistic license.

01:22:42.880 I think if it's a fan, you should, and if something happens and you, and the person

01:22:46.700 in the, it's taken out of context, dig into it.

01:22:48.840 And that person can defend themselves too.

01:22:49.980 I think it's, it's fair enough, but you should be careful because you, if nothing else, I

01:22:55.240 think cancel culture is pretty fucking whack, but if nothing else, it does help to take

01:22:59.440 away some of the things that shouldn't be done.

01:23:01.160 Right.

01:23:01.780 So, but I think we're going to survive this and people are going to like what they like

01:23:05.040 if something's funny and they know it's, you know, at the end of the day, be a good

01:23:08.040 person, be kind, know, be informed about things.

01:23:12.080 I think, but you know, when it comes to defund the police or black lives matter, things like

01:23:15.160 that, I'm going to talk about politics in the show, but I think if you get into it and

01:23:18.160 you kind of just read a little bit, you can understand a little bit more about what these

01:23:21.200 ideas, what the concept is.

01:23:22.840 The words themselves are really scary.

01:23:24.640 Well, yeah.

01:23:25.140 It makes me think, I mean, yeah, if you stay on Twitter, you're just going to get in

01:23:28.080 fights, but I think if you, you know, it made me think, you know, and I see you as

01:23:32.420 a big proponent of it and, you know, being out and involved, I saw you out and involved

01:23:35.820 in the protests and stuff on your, on your Instagram and it makes, it's made me think

01:23:41.040 as a person and then also as a white person, what do I have differences when I look at a

01:23:48.500 black person?

01:23:49.100 Do I have, you know, do I have different behavior?

01:23:52.220 You know, it just, it started to, it's definitely made me think that and that's, and that's the

01:23:56.000 best thing of it is to make me think what, you know, like, am I driving past impoverished

01:24:02.180 neighborhoods, whether they're black or white or any color?

01:24:04.300 Or it makes me think like, and, and thinking, oh man, those people don't have anything.

01:24:08.700 Right.

01:24:09.020 But then thinking, well, am I doing anything in my life to help be a part of, you know,

01:24:13.620 the solution?

01:24:14.420 Like, and even as you said, like you were working as the TSS and, you know, and then

01:24:17.720 they tried drugs to help with the kids and then they try like, well, let's bus kids from

01:24:21.180 different areas.

01:24:21.720 That'll change it.

01:24:22.600 I think in the end it's human connection really.

01:24:25.240 100%.

01:24:25.600 That, that, that.

01:24:26.660 Kids get together.

01:24:27.200 I think you see South Africa.

01:24:28.120 I was bringing that back up again.

01:24:28.940 And these young people, um, like, like these kids are like, like a young black guy I was

01:24:35.100 talking to and he's like, his girlfriend was white and, um, he never, he like never thought

01:24:39.320 it was weird.

01:24:40.280 But of course his parents and her parents probably were like scared as fuck.

01:24:43.980 A little nervous.

01:24:44.480 Yeah.

01:24:44.580 I think for them, and those are the kids that are going to change the world.

01:24:47.420 Like those are kids that have this new definition of what it means to be a young person.

01:24:52.280 You bring a black kid over and they're like past the bread and then like dad will be like,

01:24:55.220 you want me to bounce past it?

01:24:56.420 Like he tries to make a funny joke and you're like, Oh my God.

01:24:59.840 I mean, my dad and parents, like they're still, but they're trying.

01:25:02.680 Sometimes they're trying.

01:25:03.620 I root for them, but yeah, like the, honestly what's happened, all this attention on, on,

01:25:08.920 on information is turned a lot of like my nephews and stuff who were like actually probably

01:25:13.800 borderline racist about two years ago are a lot smarter and they live in a diverse neighborhood.

01:25:18.520 Like their high school is probably half, like half white, but they had to like, it's like

01:25:21.540 jail.

01:25:21.940 You had to like kind of like go, you have to like fucking find your click and live with it.

01:25:25.100 Like if you're not, if you're a white person to go to jail, you have to join, you have

01:25:27.840 to join a white supremacy thing immediately.

01:25:29.400 It's the only way to survive.

01:25:30.240 I mean, it's like kind of sucks, but it's like, that's the fucking definition we have

01:25:33.900 and like in a high school, same thing as kids.

01:25:35.480 Gay or German, bro, if you get in jail.

01:25:37.180 Gay or German.

01:25:38.480 So I think like we have, we have, that's going to be hard to get past that, you know, but

01:25:42.400 I think, um, at the same time, I think my, my nephews, like I talked to him a little

01:25:46.100 bit.

01:25:46.220 I'm like, why do you write something like that on Twitter?

01:25:47.720 Cause I was like, I was like kind of concerned about him.

01:25:49.700 And then like, I had to kind of explain to him, like not in a attacking way, but I'm like,

01:25:53.820 you know, to kind of think about things.

01:25:56.960 And, you know, I think, um, it helps just like conversate, like literally it's hard cause

01:26:01.560 there's so much misinformation, like honestly, cause we just, it's, it's in, it's not really

01:26:07.400 in our face when we see the problems that we just kind of cover them up.

01:26:10.500 So it's up to everybody.

01:26:11.940 You just got to learn.

01:26:13.000 I mean, if you go to school and everybody to learn, you got to learn and it's, but yeah.

01:26:16.620 And I think sometimes I even feel like attacked as a white person is like, well, is it, you

01:26:21.340 know, some people don't want to talk about, you know, equality or talk about some people

01:26:26.580 also are, they just want to be controlling and they, you know, so you have to, it's

01:26:31.100 hard to like, kind of, you know, it's just, it's tough.

01:26:34.700 It's a tough balance.

01:26:35.680 Cause it's a lot of, a lot of people are just, it's tribal, you know, that people feel

01:26:38.500 like this is my tribe.

01:26:39.640 I'm white and I have to, I have to fight for this or whatever.

01:26:41.940 They don't realize like that's black too.

01:26:43.760 Yeah.

01:26:43.940 Same thing.

01:26:44.400 And people think, and I think that's what, you know, we're in this position, um, you know,

01:26:49.460 and when, when Trump, he, his whole campaign is like based on division, he doesn't have

01:26:54.060 a campaign stance, you know, I'm not going to endorse anybody, but I think that it's

01:26:58.500 so easy for him to do that because that, that disinformation, that tribalism is what creates

01:27:02.940 any energy for him.

01:27:04.400 Cause he has no energy otherwise, cause he has no stance on anything.

01:27:07.240 He has like no, he has like no purpose as a president.

01:27:10.460 He has like no, nothing to stand on.

01:27:11.740 I've always seen him as a shady businessman kind of, which sometimes in some aspects of,

01:27:15.820 you know, it's what a lot of America has become.

01:27:18.100 Yeah.

01:27:18.640 So I'm not shocked that he's the, I mean, he's a, we, it's a, but emotionally he doesn't

01:27:22.660 have to, he doesn't appear to have that ability to connect on an emotional level or under emotionally

01:27:28.460 understand.

01:27:29.060 I love when someone asked him like his favorite Bible chapter, he's like, I'm not going to

01:27:33.220 answer that.

01:27:33.820 I love the whole book.

01:27:35.120 Old Testament, New Testament.

01:27:36.020 He's like, I love him equally.

01:27:37.280 Both of those.

01:27:37.700 Like he has no idea about it.

01:27:39.420 He hasn't even read the, he hasn't read the Bible his whole life, but like what a black

01:27:41.800 Testament, white Testament.

01:27:42.860 He's like, love them both.

01:27:43.560 Yeah.

01:27:43.720 He just doesn't, he doesn't have any opinion, dude.

01:27:45.440 It's almost, you know, it's so funny.

01:27:47.220 You're talking about wrestling earlier.

01:27:48.340 Everything is turned really into the WWE.

01:27:50.760 It's all about 15 second bits.

01:27:52.660 It's all about fucking WWE though.

01:27:55.400 God damn.

01:27:56.240 The racial stereotypes and how crazy it was, but it defined me as a kid.

01:28:00.640 I learned about everything.

01:28:01.640 Like there was like, there was like, there was like the fucking, there was like Sergeant

01:28:04.980 Slaughter.

01:28:05.600 There was the junkyard dog.

01:28:06.700 There was the fucking Australian dudes.

01:28:08.520 There was a fucking Chinese guy.

01:28:10.100 There was a Iranian terrorist, but even Sergeant Slaughter wasn't a good guy.

01:28:13.520 He was a bad guy.

01:28:14.200 It was like, there were no rules.

01:28:15.640 It was like Hulk Hogan became a bad guy for a while.

01:28:17.560 It was like, Coco beware came in with that bird on his shoulder.

01:28:20.200 Everything was like the most, they just built the stereotypes so crazy.

01:28:23.480 And as a kid, you like learned about everything.

01:28:25.920 You learned about it.

01:28:26.460 You were like Tatanka.

01:28:27.780 Yeah.

01:28:28.580 Wow.

01:28:29.000 That's one of your favorite wrestlers.

01:28:30.160 And yeah, but that's how a lot of us learned about, dude, the only Asian.

01:28:33.520 He was probably a hero at Tatanka, right?

01:28:34.800 You probably love him.

01:28:35.380 You're like, fuck yeah.

01:28:36.320 He was my guy.

01:28:36.960 I had a hatchet that he would come out with a hatchet.

01:28:39.440 There was no definition.

01:28:40.300 There was no good or bad.

01:28:41.020 Like after a while, like everybody was bad or the good.

01:28:43.080 Like he probably turned into a heel.

01:28:43.940 So if he was there long enough, you become the heel, right?

01:28:45.620 You become the guy that's like the evil guy.

01:28:47.420 Totally.

01:28:47.800 They got to spin it around.

01:28:48.980 I love it.

01:28:50.040 I got one last question I want to ask you.

01:28:51.740 And I'm just trying to remember what it is in my head real quick.

01:28:55.520 Tatanka.

01:28:55.980 And I could talk to you forever, but I just, you know.

01:28:58.240 Ricky the Dragon Steamboat 2.

01:28:59.820 Oh, dude.

01:29:00.520 That was the only Asian person that I knew brought up was Ricky the Dragon.

01:29:03.180 Nanyokozuna came in at the end.

01:29:04.540 He was the sumo guy.

01:29:06.000 Iron Sheik.

01:29:06.800 Iron Sheik.

01:29:07.320 I may remember Iron Sheik.

01:29:09.100 He got big on Twitter because he.

01:29:10.860 Yeah.

01:29:11.040 He DMed me sometime.

01:29:13.320 He had this amazing Iron Sheik and Hacksaw Jim Duggan story where they were like on a

01:29:18.600 coke bender together and they got arrested in like Alabama or something.

01:29:21.600 And they were supposed to be like arch rivals.

01:29:23.320 Like Hacksaw Jim Duggan, like the pro-American guy.

01:29:25.460 Oh, yeah.

01:29:25.480 I remember him.

01:29:25.900 Iron Sheik was like the like Iranian terrorist.

01:29:29.540 And they were like, they partied together.

01:29:31.480 And they animated the story once.

01:29:32.880 They got caught by the police and they had to get, they had to go to jail together.

01:29:35.160 And they got caught like other friends and it kind of ruined their whole fucking story.

01:29:39.060 Ruined the whole vibe.

01:29:40.200 Yeah.

01:29:42.300 Did you see the documentary, the Jake, did you see the Jake the Snake documentary?

01:29:46.420 No, I got to watch that.

01:29:47.300 Man, it's so good.

01:29:48.020 He's, he, no, has he become governor?

01:29:50.480 Oh, no.

01:29:51.140 That's Jesse Ventura.

01:29:51.880 Jesse Ventura, yeah.

01:29:52.840 Jake the Snake, his best thing was though, sometimes he, he had to check the snake and

01:29:57.240 they would put it down below in the plane and the cold air would kill the snake.

01:30:00.800 So he would literally.

01:30:01.780 He had to get a new snake all the time?

01:30:02.900 Or sometimes he'd bring out his bag with a dead snake in it and it just, it never came

01:30:06.840 out of the snake.

01:30:08.720 Damn, it could have been an emotional support snake nowadays.

01:30:11.920 Yeah, totally.

01:30:13.000 I bet they have those.

01:30:14.060 Do they have those?

01:30:14.820 There's a woman that had a kangaroo on a plane.

01:30:16.740 They had a horse like recently.

01:30:17.640 They took the horses out though.

01:30:18.520 That was too crazy.

01:30:19.980 I love these guys.

01:30:20.700 And also you can be a fucking wrestler and be like 45 and just still be like a sex symbol.

01:30:24.320 Yeah.

01:30:24.820 I need those.

01:30:25.380 I'm 41.

01:30:26.120 So I need to like figure out my next move is, man.

01:30:28.700 And wear those tights, man.

01:30:30.480 Do you have a, you know, I look at John Maerson.

01:30:32.900 You're not fit either.

01:30:34.300 And no, you just had to be a fucking man, dude.

01:30:37.980 They're not.

01:30:38.580 Well, I'm waiting for some real gay wrestlers to come out.

01:30:41.240 Oh, there was Goldust.

01:30:42.900 Oh, I didn't even know.

01:30:43.780 Goldust was a gay.

01:30:44.640 He was like borderline gay.

01:30:45.820 You don't know, but you didn't even, it wasn't even like a controversial thing.

01:30:48.360 Racism.

01:30:48.800 I mean, it was like, it was no rules, man.

01:30:52.200 Well, don't you find out how interesting it is.

01:30:53.820 Goldust wrestler, I think.

01:30:54.860 I think it was Dusty Rose's son.

01:30:57.100 Don't you find it interesting how online people are one way and in real life they're

01:31:01.920 different?

01:31:02.660 They're different.

01:31:03.300 Yeah.

01:31:03.460 I mean, also being online is anonymous.

01:31:05.740 You don't have to be anything.

01:31:06.500 You just be fake.

01:31:07.360 People are inherently like racist just because they want to do that.

01:31:10.640 I mean, that's what the kind of the online world kind of sucks.

01:31:13.820 Yeah.

01:31:14.180 Because you don't really get a real person out there anymore, you know?

01:31:17.340 Yeah.

01:31:17.560 And it's funny because you would argue with someone online, but if you met with them

01:31:19.980 and had the same conversation, you would not, it probably wouldn't be an argument.

01:31:24.100 Also, people like, you know, they want to stroke controversy and they like just, they'll

01:31:28.840 do a new retweets and just to get a little hype on things.

01:31:31.200 Like some guys, some of the DJs, right, like called me out during this whole process moment

01:31:35.600 and I'm like, I know the people and I'm like, bro, you're going to get a couple of

01:31:39.200 retweets for this and I'm DM like, you know, are you going to like, this is worth

01:31:42.580 like not having a friendship with me anymore for this?

01:31:44.280 And some of them are just like, you know, how to cut people off sometimes.

01:31:47.400 Like this like, yeah, it's just to get a little hype, get a little retweet is like, talk

01:31:51.640 to me if you have a problem, you know, like let's do something.

01:31:53.520 Let's hash it out.

01:31:54.720 Yeah.

01:31:55.000 Yeah.

01:31:55.180 Yeah.

01:31:55.320 Let's discuss it.

01:31:56.000 And here's a, here's Post Malone's son.

01:32:04.940 I can hear it.

01:32:06.120 What's funny.

01:32:13.840 Cause that's all I was going to ask, you know, John Mayer, I've seen him do comedy before

01:32:16.520 and he's, I thought he was extremely funny for a guy who doesn't get to get reps like

01:32:21.700 everyone else because, and the reason he says he doesn't is because I can't get up there

01:32:25.920 at a blank slate anymore.

01:32:27.200 It's just, they won't, it's not how it's going to interact with society.

01:32:30.460 You know, you get, people get to get up and practice the blank slate.

01:32:33.620 Yeah.

01:32:34.020 So, and I think he would have been a great comedian.

01:32:36.360 Is there, is there something else you like, uh, but he just didn't have enough time.

01:32:39.600 It's funny with life.

01:32:40.320 You only get really so much time.

01:32:42.100 I mean, he, he, I saw him once do it at the Peppermint Lounge with Dave Chappelle.

01:32:45.700 And it was one of those ones where you lock your phone up.

01:32:47.460 And I think it was a lot of the stuff that was on Dave's like, was that a Netflix special

01:32:50.580 or something like two years ago?

01:32:51.780 Yeah.

01:32:52.060 Yeah.

01:32:52.560 So he did a lot of that, a lot of that material and it was pretty controversial.

01:32:55.200 And I think he kept some of it out.

01:32:57.720 So I can't even repeat some of it, but it had like Eddie Murphy in the front.

01:33:00.900 It was like all the, it was like, and it was awesome.

01:33:02.660 Cause it was like, that was like a no fucking holes barred, like do whatever he wanted without

01:33:07.600 the phones.

01:33:08.060 Cause you can't really, word of mouth, he did something controversial.

01:33:10.620 No one cares.

01:33:11.500 A video of it.

01:33:12.260 Yeah.

01:33:12.400 It's like, it's, it's, it's evidence or whatever.

01:33:15.040 Right.

01:33:15.080 And clubs have started doing that lock in your phone.

01:33:16.680 Yeah.

01:33:17.000 Which is, which is kind of, which is, I think it's kind of the only way to keep, keep people

01:33:19.920 like that's, it's your experiences here.

01:33:21.860 You're not going to take this and go get a gotcha moment on a comedian or something.

01:33:24.380 Yeah.

01:33:24.740 But he did it with John Mayer and it was awesome.

01:33:26.400 They did like the, it was very improvised, which I think the whole thing was improvised

01:33:30.060 and that's scary to me, but they have reports like a podcast, I guess.

01:33:33.260 Right.

01:33:33.420 You just kind of, I mean, we wouldn't be very good on a comedy stage, but maybe, maybe

01:33:37.640 we'll have to put some practice a little bit, but they had it, they had the, they had the

01:33:41.200 chemistry and it just works.

01:33:42.480 I think John, but I just thought, I feel like John is just a genius and, and almost he could

01:33:48.160 have gotten into a couple of different things, you know, but he got into music.

01:33:51.280 And so that's where his creativity went.

01:33:52.980 His, his, his current mood is awesome though.

01:33:54.960 His little TV show he does on Instagram live.

01:33:57.760 And he was the first guy to do it before all these, before there was like pornos on Instagram

01:34:01.120 live, which took over.

01:34:02.220 He was like, had the first popping Instagram live and it was really funny and very clever.

01:34:05.920 And he's fucking smart guy.

01:34:07.700 He's a really smart guy.

01:34:08.540 Do you, but do you see, but is there something else that you feel like, man, if I'd have

01:34:12.500 had more, like, do you think you could have been, you know, you're a great producer.

01:34:17.860 Do you think, you know, an entertainer, musician, do you think you could have been something

01:34:20.840 else?

01:34:21.280 I'm always, I'm like a cultural agitator.

01:34:24.420 You know, you might say like, quote, like, you know, appropriate, whatever it is.

01:34:27.840 I think that you can go in and read a lot about what cultural appropriation means, but

01:34:31.200 I was always felt like a cultural agitator to where I'd like, I went to school.

01:34:34.540 The reason I went to temples, cause I went to school for, for, for anthropology, cause

01:34:38.280 I was obsessed with culture.

01:34:39.380 Like literally I was obsessed with like what it means to be a human being, like what, what

01:34:43.060 it is to be creative and what do you, what is it, what defines you from who you are to

01:34:46.900 create what you are.

01:34:48.080 And I was obsessed with like the history of people in like different places.

01:34:51.420 Like why do Japanese people dress like this?

01:34:53.500 And why do they make music like this?

01:34:54.780 And what's Hindu religion about?

01:34:56.340 And like, what does it mean to be like, uh, you know, maybe a, what's it like to be living

01:35:00.380 in Texas and like work at a cement factory?

01:35:02.080 Like, what is this?

01:35:02.800 Like, this is what I was always obsessed with.

01:35:04.400 And I went to school for anthropology and documentary filmmaking.

01:35:07.980 And I was like, I really wanted to bring people in, in culture to life and in a, in a clever

01:35:13.320 way, in a new way.

01:35:14.000 And I worked on some documentaries, even made one a couple of years ago before I started

01:35:17.120 making music about Brazil.

01:35:19.040 Cause I was like obsessed with like the music there and the culture and the weirdness of

01:35:22.500 it.

01:35:22.600 It's just fucking weird.

01:35:23.540 Like no one.

01:35:24.400 Yeah.

01:35:24.580 Salvador once and it was wild.

01:35:26.100 No.

01:35:26.260 Cause that place is just defined by it's a fucking mess.

01:35:28.800 There's no, it's like, it's European, it's Portuguese, it's African, it's Indian, it's Japanese.

01:35:33.380 It's like all those things create something.

01:35:35.960 And, um, that's what, that's why I've kind of like always shy away from like discussing

01:35:39.560 like what it means to create culture.

01:35:41.660 Cause new culture is mutations.

01:35:42.980 And it had, if to, for it to move into, for things to be created, you have to put two

01:35:45.880 things together that shouldn't belong or that are random.

01:35:48.300 Like, you know, a Japanese, like if you go to, in Sao Paulo, there's a neighborhood

01:35:51.680 called Liberdade.

01:35:52.300 And it's 1 million Japanese Brazilians live in this neighborhood.

01:35:54.880 And you walk around and see like Japanese guy, his name, like, you know, Miguel Carvalho Kawasaki.

01:36:00.120 And he's got like long hair and he's fucking walking around like a fucking G and you're

01:36:03.380 like, that's like, that's a real fucking, that's a thing.

01:36:07.860 And that's like, I'm like, I love that that is this.

01:36:10.220 And like, what, what's like, what's comes from that?

01:36:13.140 And I, why is there Samba music or, or Bossa Nova?

01:36:16.480 And it comes from these things that just explosions.

01:36:19.020 Right.

01:36:19.400 And that's what culture is to me.

01:36:20.500 And I always want to be part of that.

01:36:22.120 I love that.

01:36:22.560 You love culture, man.

01:36:23.460 So even if it's not just the music, music just seems to be the easiest way for people

01:36:26.640 to, to, to digest culture is like music.

01:36:30.440 Because that's like going to be your introduction to country music, your introduction to like

01:36:33.700 African music.

01:36:35.020 This, the music is, is it, you don't have to read about the history of Africa to like

01:36:37.980 understand Nigerian record.

01:36:39.140 It just affects you.

01:36:40.260 Right.

01:36:40.580 So that's why I love music and the idea of culture.

01:36:42.320 But, um, I would love to work back in film and documentary.

01:36:45.740 That'd be cool if I get older.

01:36:46.960 Cause I mean, you know, my days are numbered as a DJ.

01:36:48.880 I hope that I want to be like a 55 year old DJ.

01:36:51.440 If I, if I can make it that long, I'll do it if it pays the bills.

01:36:54.180 But I mean, at the end of the day, I want to, I want to age gracefully and do more, do

01:36:57.780 more things.

01:36:58.240 I think music was one thing I do.

01:36:59.580 Maybe it's film and TV next.

01:37:00.800 I don't know.

01:37:01.300 Yeah.

01:37:02.200 Maybe I own a pizza shop or something.

01:37:04.160 Yeah.

01:37:04.540 Maybe a woodworker.

01:37:05.500 I could see that, dude.

01:37:07.320 Would you, um, I have to fucking pee so bad, man.

01:37:10.340 I have to pee too.

01:37:11.060 All right.

01:37:11.260 Yeah.

01:37:11.420 If you want to watch the movie, it's, it's, it's, it's hour, it's hour and 25 minutes, but

01:37:14.860 it's not that well done.

01:37:15.980 But I funded the whole movie by myself.

01:37:17.460 Like I would get shows.

01:37:18.500 I would go back to Brazil.

01:37:19.460 Favela on blast.

01:37:20.300 Yeah.

01:37:20.500 I would get money from shows and go back to Brazil and bring a camera and like shoot

01:37:23.640 shit.

01:37:23.960 No.

01:37:24.400 Who shot it with you?

01:37:25.440 It's a guy in Brazil that I knew named Leandro.

01:37:27.080 He's a filmmaker that I met.

01:37:28.020 I worked at this magazine called Colors as a, as a young person.

01:37:31.420 I got a job there and I met a bunch of filmmakers and stuff and I just kept in touch with them

01:37:34.720 before internet, you know, and it's like 2007 or something.

01:37:38.040 No, 2004.

01:37:40.480 And I just met some creative people and I met this guy and we made a movie together.

01:37:43.540 And, um, I would never, ever suggest doing something like this on your own.

01:37:46.940 Like I, it's like the biggest waste of money I made.

01:37:49.180 Like, and having like the pressure of creating it and like having like be stingy on the

01:37:53.140 budget.

01:37:53.360 Like everything I made money wise, I put back in the movie for that couple of years.

01:37:56.860 So, and yeah, you go halfway down the road, you got to get all the way there.

01:37:59.440 Yeah.

01:37:59.820 Yeah.

01:38:00.140 I got to pee so bad.

01:38:01.040 I'm sorry.

01:38:01.200 Yeah.

01:38:01.600 Me too.

01:38:02.120 Should we go pee together?

01:38:02.960 Yeah.

01:38:03.220 Maybe go pee together.

01:38:06.020 Is there different stalls or how does it go?

01:38:07.360 Oh, this one I want to ask you about.

01:38:09.000 So ego.

01:38:09.880 So like, you know, in the last couple of years I've had a bigger career.

01:38:12.760 Right.

01:38:13.140 And so, you know, there are moments where my, where my ego starts to get big, you know,

01:38:16.880 and I, and I never, I always knew I had maybe some ego.

01:38:19.760 We all have it.

01:38:20.560 Yeah.

01:38:20.920 But I never really thought like, Oh, well, what is, you know, like, and there's moments

01:38:25.120 where it started to feel really, you know, not out of control, but it grows without my

01:38:30.440 consciousness of, of it growing.

01:38:32.580 Do you ever have any issues like with that?

01:38:34.200 Or just, were you ever able to see that in your own life?

01:38:37.360 I think, I think, I think that's, people probably see it more than I do, you know,

01:38:41.400 when it comes to ego, because I'm just like, I'm a, I'm a, I'm a kind of an independent

01:38:44.980 person and maybe it affects other people's lives.

01:38:47.460 I feel like my friends or my family and sometimes they put me in check, but for the most part,

01:38:53.980 I mean, being humble is where I think I got where I'm at.

01:38:56.600 Like you always got to pay dues and just feel, feel good.

01:39:01.140 But if you really want to ego check, just go on Twitter every once in a while and just

01:39:03.660 see what people are talking shit about and that'll fucking break you down pretty quick.

01:39:07.360 I also think I, I started about four years ago, I did ayahuasca for the first time.

01:39:11.640 And, um, that's a fucking ego deflator, like hardcore.

01:39:15.040 Like you do that and it's like a drug that kind of puts you, like you might even poop your

01:39:18.560 pants.

01:39:19.200 It just kind of breaks down that whatever you feel, you become like more of a, of a,

01:39:24.980 it naturalizes you in a way.

01:39:26.700 I don't explain it.

01:39:27.960 Yeah.

01:39:28.140 It kind of gives you the shame.

01:39:29.140 Yeah.

01:39:29.220 Like, and you're puking and you're thinking of things and you don't use it's, it's,

01:39:33.740 you're in a dark, it's dark and then it's bright.

01:39:35.440 And you just, you, you go through a lot of things.

01:39:37.540 The best way to explain it, how it helps you is that you have a messy closet, right?

01:39:42.360 When you, when you do ayahuasca, it kind of helps put everything in the drawers so you

01:39:45.900 can like understand things a little better.

01:39:47.200 Cause that's what your brain probably is.

01:39:48.520 It's like a messy closet sometimes, but I've done that.

01:39:50.980 The two times I did it, it really helped ground me to where I had another outlook a little

01:39:54.320 bit.

01:39:54.600 And I try to use that message now when I, you know, cause it is important to not have

01:39:59.620 an ego, but at the same time he goes back to six, nine, it got him where he's at.

01:40:02.680 Like, even if he, even if it's all big play, he knows he's using it towards advantage.

01:40:06.840 Sometimes it could work.

01:40:07.860 It kept, could backfire pretty easy.

01:40:10.320 If you don't have it planned out, if you're not playing chess with it, if you're playing

01:40:12.620 like checkers with it, it could backfire on you.

01:40:14.820 But yeah, um, we had, um, you know, one of my favorite comedians is a guy, Chris D'Elia

01:40:20.000 and he would always, um, reference you on his Instagram called, did you ever interact

01:40:27.180 with him about that?

01:40:27.860 Did you think that it was funny?

01:40:28.640 Yeah.

01:40:28.660 Well, he was friends with Dylan Francis, uh, early on.

01:40:31.660 And I, I think, um, I met him through, through that and I never met him actually, but we just,

01:40:36.840 I, I didn't understand.

01:40:38.000 I don't know if he was making fun of me or not in the beginning, but I was retweeting it

01:40:40.880 and I thought it was pretty funny.

01:40:42.000 Yeah.

01:40:42.300 It was so funny.

01:40:42.940 But, but I was like, I'm not even that special, but I guess I'm like a B level celebrity that

01:40:47.140 he picked up.

01:40:47.620 Cause I thought you could put, could pick somebody better or whatever, but it was kind of cool.

01:40:51.600 I got a lot of, like a lot of people always tagged me when he did that.

01:40:54.100 Yeah.

01:40:54.340 But, um, I thought, cause then I got to be, I got to go to, once I started getting like

01:40:58.940 nice green room and stuff, I'm like, what am I, Chris D'Elia?

01:41:00.860 It made it so it was fun for me because then I got to do it to, uh, just make fun, like

01:41:05.000 make, bring him into it, you know, be part of his thing from it.

01:41:09.400 Um, but yeah, I was just wondering how that landed on you.

01:41:11.580 I never, I never really.

01:41:12.320 We, we, we, he always commented on my Instagram and he was like, dude, fucking, he's bizarre.

01:41:17.880 Like, you know, that's what's really cool about him.

01:41:19.640 It was like, you scratch your head when you see some of the stuff he does.

01:41:22.840 And I think Dylan Francis and the DJ was like, kind of like borderline comedy and a DJ, which

01:41:26.160 is kind of a cool space.

01:41:28.320 Cause no one really does that.

01:41:29.560 Um, but Dylan was really, he would act and is in TV shows and stuff like that.

01:41:33.720 Um, but yeah, he's too, too creative, man.

01:41:37.160 He's like, he's like riffraff.

01:41:38.140 Sometimes you watch some of those videos, like what the fuck are you in the, he's trying to

01:41:41.680 not even land him to be funny.

01:41:43.800 It's just almost like, it's just, it's just something, which is great.

01:41:47.060 Was a real creator can kind of not really aim for like a success, but just like a shock

01:41:51.680 value thing.

01:41:53.140 Um, another guy who I love, who's kind of like half comedian, half dancer is this guy

01:41:56.860 named, um, fucking may have to look him up.

01:41:59.660 I always forget his name.

01:42:00.720 He's a dancing guy.

01:42:05.900 Um, he is going to take a second.

01:42:08.740 We've got to edit this out.

01:42:09.720 No worries.

01:42:09.980 There's a guy, Cholo fit creeper that I like.

01:42:11.760 He's Latino.

01:42:12.660 Oh, is that dog face guy too?

01:42:13.940 That he's like a, he's like a crip kind of like dances.

01:42:17.140 Yeah.

01:42:17.460 Yeah.

01:42:17.940 Yeah.

01:42:18.400 Yeah.

01:42:18.640 Yeah.

01:42:20.100 Um, I was, I sent his thing to, uh, Frankie, Frankie Quinones, which I think is the best.

01:42:28.440 If I could have any last name, it would be King Unis is a good one.

01:42:31.720 Yeah.

01:42:32.180 It's, uh, this guy, Casey Frey.

01:42:34.900 Oh yeah.

01:42:35.340 Casey Frey.

01:42:35.880 Bro.

01:42:36.600 I mean, he, first of all, he's one of the sickest dancers ever and he doesn't really dance

01:42:40.920 that often, but his, like some of his comedy is just like, so what the fuck?

01:42:44.820 And then the way he integrates like dancing comedy, like, I don't even think he does.

01:42:50.100 He, he does it on purpose.

01:42:51.240 He just is like, it's just special.

01:42:53.180 It's just who he is.

01:42:53.560 Yeah.

01:42:54.040 Yeah.

01:42:54.420 I played basketball a couple of times.

01:42:55.440 We know each other just from, he's, he's a friend of a lot of DJs and, um,

01:42:59.020 love that guy.

01:42:59.760 He's like, so he inspires me a lot.

01:43:01.680 He seems really cool.

01:43:02.400 People always, uh, say you got to, uh, talk to Casey Frey or you got to connect with him.

01:43:07.120 Maybe that's a good vibe that I need to.

01:43:09.180 Um, I think that's everything that I have, man.

01:43:11.500 I mean, I could keep talking about stuff, but you know, I just want to, yeah.

01:43:14.540 Thank you for your time.

01:43:15.600 Yeah, man.

01:43:16.220 And it's interesting.

01:43:17.020 Yeah, man.

01:43:17.300 I do think it's interesting how, like, even just from talking to you, it makes me want to

01:43:20.040 know a little bit more about, uh, you know, makes me want to know more about music,

01:43:24.060 but it makes me want to also have a little bit more respect for like the history of music.

01:43:27.680 Cause yeah, people don't realize like that even just like humans, like music comes from

01:43:32.520 like parents, you know, like music, like each sound has like a couple of parents to it,

01:43:37.400 you know, and grandparents.

01:43:38.400 And then, um, I mean, I think you do the same thing with that.

01:43:41.960 I do with comedy.

01:43:42.540 Like, you know, the history, like you said, some of your favorite comedians.

01:43:45.260 Oh yeah.

01:43:45.500 Yeah.

01:43:45.860 I do know a good bit about it.

01:43:46.880 I think I think it like, you know, you're, you're going to be, you know, you're, you're,

01:43:50.680 you're, you're the comedy of right now.

01:43:52.600 So you have to take all the things that happened before you understand that, twist it up and

01:43:56.340 then know how far you can push things.

01:43:57.660 And I heard Kevin Hart say it once.

01:43:59.360 He's like, he has a black comedian.

01:44:00.300 He always like, he's going to push it further than he, and then there's going to be someone

01:44:04.120 in five years going to push it further than him.

01:44:05.440 It's like their job.

01:44:06.540 His ideas just plays a trail.

01:44:07.960 I think you, it's going to be the same thing.

01:44:09.620 Like, you know, the history, you're going to push it as the character that you are and

01:44:12.420 the person you are.

01:44:13.520 And I think it's a little bit difficult now because you have to walk a tighter line

01:44:17.020 with comedy.

01:44:17.520 I almost like the challenge part of me sometimes last week I was like, you know, two weeks

01:44:21.400 ago I was scared.

01:44:22.340 Yeah.

01:44:22.700 And then last week I was like, you know what?

01:44:25.540 This is what it is, you know?

01:44:26.780 And I think that I can do it.

01:44:29.340 It's going to make people be a little bit tighter about what they do almost.

01:44:32.580 When you have a set of rules, it sounds fucked up because we were just talking about how

01:44:35.320 there should be no rules or anything, but it also can create something special.

01:44:39.260 I'm going to give you a really boring metaphor.

01:44:40.640 You're probably going to edit this out, but I went to film school and I went to a class

01:44:44.200 called Iranian cinema.

01:44:47.800 Damn, bro, that's crazy.

01:44:49.320 Because I live in Westwood, bro.

01:44:50.640 Okay, this might be some people.

01:44:53.020 But Iran has this amazing film industry in the 90s and there's a director called Abbas

01:44:58.420 Karasjami and he made a record movie called like Water for, or something about chocolate.

01:45:03.120 Water for chocolate?

01:45:04.100 Something like, something for chocolate.

01:45:05.040 Maybe look up the film because I don't want to fucking butcher this.

01:45:07.380 Water for chocolate.

01:45:08.060 Water for chocolate.

01:45:08.700 But he is a famous director because in Iran, it's such a Muslim country and the rules to

01:45:14.140 make a film.

01:45:14.700 You can't show any women without the hair mask.

01:45:16.880 You have to talk about God in certain ways.

01:45:19.300 There's all these fucking rules.

01:45:20.640 But these guys made these films where it's such a narrow line they can walk and they always

01:45:24.440 win awards worldwide for these films they make.

01:45:26.700 This guy especially because it's just like, he made a lot of films.

01:45:29.400 But I think having those rules and having to have to work inside that became something

01:45:33.440 really, you have to push even harder to get that creative juice and people to know what

01:45:37.280 you're talking about and make a message happen.

01:45:39.400 Dude, that's so interesting to hear you say that.

01:45:42.300 Yeah, because the rules, it was almost like when the teacher or the government, whatever

01:45:46.760 it is that tells you, okay, these are the rules.

01:45:49.560 There's something then inside of you that's like, okay, okay, I see your rules.

01:45:53.700 I'm going to play by the rules, but watch what I'm going to do.

01:45:56.440 Find a loophole or something.

01:45:57.400 Yeah.

01:45:57.920 Man, that's pretty fascinating.

01:46:00.420 Thomas Wesley, thank you so much for being here.

01:46:02.340 Do you like Diplo or do you like Thomas?

01:46:03.420 My real name is actually Thomas Wesley Pence, but just like I put Thomas Wesley, my first

01:46:07.820 and middle name because a lot of country guys have two first names.

01:46:10.860 It's kind of the vibe.

01:46:12.620 But yeah, Wesley's my real name.

01:46:14.680 People always call me Wesley.

01:46:15.780 Do you feel like you're still Diplo?

01:46:20.020 Do you feel like it's been like you're a snake or something ever that shed its skin?

01:46:23.200 Do you feel like it's just something that...

01:46:24.480 I mean, people, when fans see me now, they go, Thomas, because they just read my Wikipedia

01:46:28.700 page or whatever.

01:46:29.400 They don't want to say Diplo.

01:46:30.500 It's also not a very cool name, but it's like, you know, it's...

01:46:34.020 It's more of...

01:46:34.680 It almost seems tribal a little bit though in a weird way.

01:46:36.980 I kind of...

01:46:37.520 It doesn't...

01:46:38.420 It never had really a defined reason to be called that, but I...

01:46:42.340 You know, whatever.

01:46:42.840 It worked for me and I did a lot of different music, but at this point I have so many different

01:46:47.060 little bags.

01:46:48.480 Like a dude like Thomas Wesley did like the Major Lazer, did this thing called Silk City

01:46:52.460 with Mark Ronson, did a thing called LSD with Sia and Labyrinth, and it was like

01:46:58.080 a psychedelic project.

01:46:58.840 So I'm just like fascinated with like, you can do things.

01:47:01.000 You can do different things and...

01:47:02.080 You can be different people.

01:47:03.000 And that's kind of like...

01:47:03.960 It throws you into a tussle if you kind of want to bring out the cultural whatever.

01:47:09.480 I do whatever.

01:47:10.680 So you can't really...

01:47:11.460 No group can be mad at me for too long, so I'm going to move on to the next thing by

01:47:16.740 the time they figure out what they're mad about.

01:47:18.060 It's interesting the cultures that are kind of within us, even within our types of thought,

01:47:22.380 you know?

01:47:23.000 Like sometimes we might not even recognize that repeated thoughts that we have inside of us

01:47:26.800 or even take on a culture of our own, and if we're afraid to act on those, are we like

01:47:30.740 kind of putting a dam on like some ability of our own creativity and stuff?

01:47:34.780 I think art is like, man, that's the one thing, man.

01:47:37.860 Putting art in a box is like you're keeping yourself from so many experiences that could

01:47:44.440 happen, you know?

01:47:45.540 Yeah.

01:47:45.960 It's always about being like opening yourself up a little bit.

01:47:48.140 And, you know, it's all about just being a nice, good person, being kind, having empathy

01:47:52.540 and create, but create, you know, do things responsibly.

01:47:55.200 It's not that hard.

01:47:55.840 You can fuck up.

01:47:56.500 Also, you can fuck up and fucking fix it.

01:47:58.560 And say a fuck, yeah.

01:47:59.440 You can say, you can fuck up.

01:48:00.240 I mean, look, people always talk about XXXTentation.

01:48:02.900 I brought him up a lot in this conversation.

01:48:03.980 I don't know if you know his music that well, but he had a terrible...

01:48:06.640 He was a rapper that...

01:48:07.640 Yeah, I know just of his death and his...

01:48:09.120 He had a terrible history with women and violence in women.

01:48:12.040 And a lot of people, you know, wrote him off for that.

01:48:16.600 And I feel him.

01:48:17.740 If they want to, they can.

01:48:18.940 They have the right to do that.

01:48:19.600 But he affects a lot of people's lives where they just...

01:48:21.880 His music really touched people in a way that rap hasn't done that in a long time.

01:48:26.020 People like have records that had this like Kurt Cobain feeling, which was really in raw

01:48:30.500 and people affected that way.

01:48:31.860 Like little people did the same thing.

01:48:33.460 And I think it's okay for him to work at himself and be better.

01:48:37.420 And I think the music, like I said, music's about a feeling.

01:48:40.100 Music is something that doesn't have to have history sometimes.

01:48:44.820 A lot of people...

01:48:45.340 I mean, you can also define like Michael Jackson.

01:48:47.360 Take him off the radio.

01:48:48.080 Some people say that.

01:48:49.020 I mean, do what you want.

01:48:51.140 I'm not going to take Michael Jackson off my iTunes.

01:48:53.360 I'm not going to stop playing his records.

01:48:55.320 If you don't give people the ability to like recognize or learn or evolve or anything,

01:49:02.340 that's almost such a...

01:49:03.680 Not everybody should be defined by their history.

01:49:05.580 Look, a good example is like Malcolm X, you know.

01:49:07.440 If you had wrote him off like, you know, beating women and going to prison and doing things

01:49:13.180 and went to prison changed his life and became a great leader and an amazing, you know, philosopher

01:49:19.400 in a way.

01:49:21.360 So people have a lot to offer, you know.

01:49:23.540 I think you need to define like what is it that's not right and let them know that and

01:49:27.820 like let them change.

01:49:28.940 And hopefully that makes it better for other people.

01:49:32.180 Yeah.

01:49:32.440 Because cancel culture, it's easy to take down celebrities, but you're not taking down the

01:49:36.340 guy next to you at a bus or whatever that's actually doing damage or like verbally abusing

01:49:40.320 a woman that's, you know.

01:49:42.640 Right.

01:49:43.020 That's what we have to, we have to find the ways to change those things.

01:49:45.480 Like where it's normalized for people in everyday culture, like in a frat or whatever it is.

01:49:50.840 That's going to be the ones to change the world.

01:49:52.640 Well, not to, not just like a gotcha moment on a Twitter or something, but.

01:49:57.880 Yeah.

01:49:58.480 Yeah.

01:49:58.700 I agree, man.

01:49:59.440 It's definitely disheartening to see like some of that culture, you know.

01:50:03.840 But yeah, but to take it into our regular lives, you know, and to recognize, okay,

01:50:08.460 well, first of all, what are my own behaviors that I could be, you know, like even going

01:50:11.560 back to the Black Lives Matter movement and just seeing a lot of that go on, you know,

01:50:15.780 like it just made me think like, okay, well, what, let me really ask myself, you know,

01:50:20.900 if I, if I'm talking to a Black person, do I have different things in the back of my

01:50:24.620 head while I'm talking with them, you know, or if I'm, if I'm with one of my Black friends

01:50:29.420 and my behave, you know, like just little things, which some of it's okay.

01:50:32.580 Some of it's just nature and it's going to be, but just make sure just to check myself

01:50:36.640 to see what's going on, you know, and, and we have to, we have to allow spaces where

01:50:40.200 people can do that.

01:50:41.740 I mean, life's about learning and changing.

01:50:44.220 I mean, if we, if we want to say it so no one can change, fuck, we're not, we're

01:50:48.620 fucked, we're fucked because that's, we, we got to change.

01:50:51.000 Everybody's got to change and, and that's, it's, that's okay.

01:50:53.900 Yeah.

01:50:54.080 It's okay to do better.

01:50:55.120 Yeah.

01:50:56.040 Yeah.

01:50:56.360 It's okay to do better.

01:50:57.680 That's a good, that's a good statement.

01:51:00.400 Thomas Wesley, thanks so much for being here, man.

01:51:03.400 Thank you for having me.

01:51:04.360 Appreciate it, bro.

01:51:05.300 Yeah, we'll do it again.

01:51:05.660 Next, next country album.

01:51:07.100 Gang, dude.

01:51:14.220 This is a common cornerstone.

01:51:16.460 Oh, but when I reach that ground, I'll share this peace of mind.

01:51:23.240 I found I can feel it in my bones.

01:51:28.240 But it's going to take a little time for me to set that parking brake and let myself

01:51:38.620 Ladies and gentlemen, I'm Jonathan Kite, and welcome to Kite Club, a podcast where I'll

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01:52:59.540 or watch us on YouTube, yeah?

01:53:01.260 And yes, don't worry, my Brad Pitt impression will get better.

01:53:04.780 I'm not sure about Kite Club.

01:53:10.640 But then I'll be wondering if you want to contact me with Kite Club.

01:53:14.020 All right.

01:53:14.960 Then we'll see you next time.

01:53:15.940 Bye.

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This Past Weekend with Theo Von - June 30, 2020

E284 Diplo

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