Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: What's going on, y'? All? Corpus Christi Originals back at it again. Today we got a special episode. We got Isaac Sanchez as guest host interviewing Trip. But real quick, before that, I wanted to give a shout out to our sponsor, South Texas Lacrosse. Non profit organization, Veteran owned and operated.
They are. The next event is September 27th at 10am Waldron Field.
Learn the basics of lacrosse before the fall season starts Oct. 22. He's got a link tree South TX Lacrosse. Check them out. But yeah. So without further ado, I got Isaac to come on the stage so he can go ahead and host this podcast for us.
[00:00:39] Speaker B: Man.
[00:00:41] Speaker C: Appreciate it, man. I just want to say thank you for allowing me this opportunity, man. This is really cool.
This is when we started, the conversation started. I wasn't expecting this, all this to come from it. But I'm glad to be here, grateful for this opportunity and I'm glad to have our, our guest here, man. You've been somebody I've been wanting to like, kick it with and like, talk to for a minute. I honestly, I found you at the or. First time I saw you was at the. The Zoos MC Battle. I had never. And you're local, so I was like, when you asked, like, if you were gonna interview somebody, who would it be? You were at the top of my list, ready?
[00:01:18] Speaker D: So I appreciate that.
[00:01:18] Speaker C: Why don't you give yourself an introduction, man. Tell us about yourself.
[00:01:20] Speaker D: I'm Tripp, born and raised here.
Spent a lot of time here.
Later chapters of my life ended up being overseas, pursuing some work opportunities.
But, yeah, this is, this is home. This is always going to be home. That's where my roots are, are growing in and, man, I love the opportunity, be able to share, kick some knowledge.
[00:01:39] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:01:40] Speaker D: You know, just spread some stories, man. There's a lot of. A lot of life interested in. We got a lot of. So that night, that night with the MC Battle, I didn't know if I was going to make it or not because. Because I got driven down from Alabama. I was doing a job in Alabama, some side work, and I was trying to make it down in time. And we literally came straight into the event, dropped me off, I changed clothes on the sidewalk right there, hopped into the event and just, I was just ready, man. Being in the car that long, you know, you're ready to let out some aggression. So first opponent, good luck.
[00:02:11] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:02:11] Speaker D: And I got to battle my brother Indy, that's in the finals. I've never thought of battling Indy because, you know, he's, he's a Staple here, man.
[00:02:18] Speaker C: He was in here, like, talking about how we.
He didn't win because people were saying we rigged it and all that what not. And I was like, that would ring Andy getting smoked in the end.
[00:02:29] Speaker D: Love you, bro.
[00:02:30] Speaker C: But that was. Ended up being a good battle.
[00:02:32] Speaker D: Yeah. I mean, that's a stick. That's a little stitch that gets annoying when you hear it because, you know, Public Zoo has been putting on shows for more than 25 years. Up to my knowledge of just my existence with within the. The group and.
And they've always shown mad love.
I've always been comfortable doing shows and knowing where their hearts are at when it comes to music, expression, the dance and DJing, you know, the whole element of the matter. And.
[00:02:57] Speaker C: And I think. I don't know when I Even just the little bit I have seen and heard of you, like, you're one of us. As far as the purity of it. Like when we talked about on our episode. And I want to dive into that here in a bit, but I would say you come from a purist heart, like style similar to all of us in that sense.
[00:03:15] Speaker D: Well, I think a lot of us share the same cloth of.
Especially internally. We love to fraud check people.
We love to see something happening. Be like, we could tell when someone just learned it last night and trying to, you know, the first time they read a book, now they want to be the first one on the mic to say they learned something. They come. Calm down, man. There's a lot to it because, I mean, I. I got my. I mean, my first hip hop album that I ever owned was a CD, and it was Bone Thugs in Harmony East, 1999, man. That's what kicked it off.
[00:03:46] Speaker C: I was gonna ask, but I want to circle back a little bit, though, and just curious, because this is Corpus Originals podcast. And one of the ideas I had is because when you're hanging out, like, with random people, one of the things, especially local, like, what's one of the first things people always ask? It's like, yeah, what school did you go to? But I want to take it back. Like, what elementary through high school did you go to? What side of town are you from, man?
[00:04:08] Speaker D: All right. Like, the original south side before it started expanding.
[00:04:11] Speaker B: Okay.
[00:04:12] Speaker D: Because I barely counted Kings Crossing south side. That almost felt like its own division. Almost my highest.
You know, it felt like it was its own division.
Yeah. Saratoga and Weber.
[00:04:24] Speaker B: Okay.
[00:04:25] Speaker D: But more in between. Saratoga, Holly. So the elementary that my parents ended up taking me to was not one that was in my. My area. Not in my district. They ended up taking me to Chula Vista, which was more on the west side of Horn.
[00:04:37] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:04:38] Speaker D: And my sister had already gone there. They. They loved the fact that it was a fine arts school and you could take electives at that age. You know, we're talking about 1991. 92.
[00:04:46] Speaker C: And that would feed back in. So that means to Wilson. No, no, not Wilson. Was it the gifted arts.
[00:04:52] Speaker D: It's.
[00:04:53] Speaker C: It's an elementary now. What is it?
That middle school? It's. It's a. Oh, no.
[00:04:57] Speaker D: So I.
So that is the feeder school. Right?
[00:05:01] Speaker C: Right.
[00:05:02] Speaker D: And I remember doing field trips over there to check out Windale. But Tom Brown is.
[00:05:06] Speaker B: Okay.
[00:05:07] Speaker D: That's right. That's in the neighborhood. And what.
[00:05:09] Speaker C: What years were these?
[00:05:10] Speaker D: So I graduated elementary. If that's 1995.
[00:05:16] Speaker C: No, we're not too much.
[00:05:17] Speaker D: So then I started.
Yeah. Getting into middle school around those ages. 1999, I'm a freshman.
Time flies. Okay. I went from Tom Brown to Carroll High School.
[00:05:29] Speaker C: Right, Rip?
[00:05:32] Speaker D: Yeah.
[00:05:32] Speaker B: Right.
[00:05:33] Speaker C: Have you been.
[00:05:33] Speaker D: Right. Yeah. Yeah. I pass it by often, man. It's. It's no longer.
[00:05:37] Speaker B: Not the.
[00:05:38] Speaker D: Not the place I used to leave my footprints at.
[00:05:40] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:05:41] Speaker D: And I only stayed there for about a year and a half.
I then head to King High School. Went over there off of a sports move. I was. I was super involved with sports, just mainly basketball. I played a bit of everything when I was younger for many seasons. And that's what kind of. Kind of built my rapport with so many sides of. Of the town. You know, if you're in.
If you're part of sports, at least if you're playing four sports a year, anything six years old, seven, eight, nine. I mean, these are four sets of teammates that you meet every year. So at least 40 new friends every year that you're just collecting and collecting.
[00:06:14] Speaker C: And people don't understand that about Corpus. Like there's. There's a small town feel here that you have.
[00:06:21] Speaker D: But is it small?
Is it. Is it really that small? I mean, what's the. What's the population?
[00:06:28] Speaker C: The five laws of connection or whatever? Did I say that right? But everybody here, I think it's even closer here in Corbus, like three or four.
[00:06:36] Speaker D: So here's something interesting about Corbus.
[00:06:40] Speaker C: Let's hear.
[00:06:40] Speaker D: It's about 320, 000 population.
[00:06:42] Speaker B: Right.
[00:06:43] Speaker D: That's bigger than Pittsburgh.
[00:06:45] Speaker B: Wow.
[00:06:46] Speaker C: That's in perspective for you.
[00:06:48] Speaker D: It's roughly the same size as Cincinnati.
[00:06:51] Speaker B: Okay.
[00:06:52] Speaker C: Texas, man. That's what we consider small.
[00:06:55] Speaker D: And of the the general population, it's even bigger than Venice, Italy.
[00:07:00] Speaker C: That makes sense.
[00:07:01] Speaker D: You know, and so where. Where does Corpus get this? You got to stop feeling small after a while.
[00:07:08] Speaker C: Yeah, that's fair.
[00:07:08] Speaker D: You know, we're. We're in a part of the. The states rapidly.
[00:07:12] Speaker C: Yeah, but like you. Like you said, like, you play sports with people, like.
[00:07:18] Speaker D: Oh, yeah, you see.
[00:07:19] Speaker C: Yeah, you see everybody, you know, Everybody.
[00:07:21] Speaker D: Yeah, Everybody you ever met, you can see in a year.
[00:07:23] Speaker C: 100.
[00:07:24] Speaker D: Yeah, it does, man. And, you know, but that's some of the charm to it as well.
[00:07:29] Speaker C: That was.
[00:07:30] Speaker D: I can say that that was peak 90s.
[00:07:31] Speaker C: You went to school from, man. So what was this walk? Paint a picture, man. What was. What was the fashion like back then? What were you rocking? And I'm gonna piggyback on that.
What was your first intro into hip hop? You said it was the. The Bone Thugs and Harmony cd, but.
[00:07:47] Speaker D: Was it a lot to unravel with that? So fashion wise, I didn't know how to dress. Like, I didn't know what I was wearing. Like, once I figured it out, like, the first things I ran towards was the South Pole Fat Farm.
[00:08:03] Speaker B: Okay.
[00:08:03] Speaker D: Fubu, Rockaware, Aniche. I was just running towards whatever was nice off the rack, like at Marshalls.
[00:08:11] Speaker B: That's fair.
[00:08:11] Speaker D: In Ross and. Or even at Burlington. That's where I find my pants at.
The only thing I knew how to do was wear jerseys, man. I was wearing them Champs jerseys, the throwback ones in the early 90s, you know, that's all I wanted. Size 40, size 44, you know, those.
Those good old days, man, when. When jerseys were affordable.
[00:08:29] Speaker C: Yeah, that's so.
[00:08:31] Speaker D: Yeah, man. As a transition, the one. The one parallel I loved with. With basketball in the 90s is that there was a strong connection with hip hop and how hip hop was almost being adopted with basketball, as that was.
[00:08:45] Speaker C: Kind of like a part early years, that. That was kind of coming around.
[00:08:50] Speaker D: Yeah, I mean, like, when Spike Lee's doing, you know, joints with Jordan and you're hearing Heavy D, you know, with Michael Jackson, like, you start to see elements of hip hop starting to take shape and form in pop culture. And I think kind of basketball was one of the. Cause a lot of Hoopers think they can rap.
[00:09:06] Speaker C: That's fair.
[00:09:07] Speaker D: And a lot of rappers think they were once Hoopers.
[00:09:10] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:09:11] Speaker D: And I mean.
[00:09:12] Speaker B: Yeah. Yeah.
[00:09:13] Speaker C: You ain't wrong.
[00:09:14] Speaker D: So some of the first.
Man, some of the first times I can remember, like, really diving into, like, wearing hip hop on me is first I need to find my voice okay. And we. There's no Internet really like that back then, you know, the library might have had it. But I'm trying to find lyrics to songs and I remember having to, you know, tape cassette, rewind, play and just copy out lyrics.
[00:09:39] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:09:39] Speaker D: Some of the first lyrics I ever copied out was Bone Thugs in Harmony song. Thug Love. Tupac's verse.
[00:09:44] Speaker B: Okay.
[00:09:44] Speaker D: I remember writing it on paper and then just rewinding it, playing it again and rapping it. Rewinding it, playing it again, rapping it. And my friends, around that time, I had a few friends at Tom Brown that they started break dancing off them.
[00:09:56] Speaker B: Okay.
[00:09:57] Speaker D: And they're pretty nice with it. I was always a little heavier, so it was tougher on my hands.
[00:10:01] Speaker C: But you got down. I was going to ask.
[00:10:03] Speaker D: So was.
[00:10:04] Speaker C: Was MCA and rapping your first element that you. That you kind of got into? Because I know you naturally.
[00:10:10] Speaker D: I'm a writer, so I was. I was naturally already writing things.
I'd already tried to write some, you know, some whack rhymes as some start outs, but it starts with the pen with me. So I'd say my. My wit, you know, the. The gab that I was able to. To get from, you know, endless game sessions with my parents where the whole room's talking trash and you got to learn how to snap back.
[00:10:32] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:10:32] Speaker D: You know, you kind of form your tongue at an early age. Then when. When you notice you're around people, how your responses, like your rebuttals to things are pretty sharp because how. How you grew up out of home with that.
[00:10:42] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:10:43] Speaker D: And so I always felt like a natural mc. But when you start. When you just start seeing. Because remember at that time, footage was limited. Right. And when you saw it on tv, you were shocked to see someone break dancing. You almost wanted to run and just, you know, record and play at the same time just to rewind it and see what move they did or something like that.
[00:11:00] Speaker C: So how to copy in.
[00:11:01] Speaker D: So for sure. Thinking about, like Beach Street.
[00:11:04] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:11:05] Speaker D: And catching, you know, Wild Style. Even Star wars, you know, this is around the time I started trying to graffiti for the first time. You know, you got to get out a thousand whack ones before you finally.
[00:11:14] Speaker C: Yeah, I'm still working.
[00:11:16] Speaker D: Shout out to Dose Dose holding it down, man. He's going worldwide with his stuff, man.
[00:11:21] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:11:21] Speaker D: Out in love to see it. Let us see it. So I would say the order was MCing, then trying to B boy.
[00:11:29] Speaker B: Okay.
[00:11:30] Speaker D: And then graffiti.
[00:11:32] Speaker C: It popped here around that time.
[00:11:33] Speaker D: Yeah. Yeah. And this is me trying to B boy at like 97.
[00:11:37] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:11:38] Speaker D: But it was a short span. I stopped by about 99, 2000.
[00:11:41] Speaker B: That's fair.
[00:11:41] Speaker D: I broke my.
[00:11:42] Speaker C: That was a lot of people.
[00:11:44] Speaker D: Several places in basketball and I had to focus.
[00:11:47] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:11:48] Speaker D: On priorities.
[00:11:50] Speaker C: And so was there, I mean early. I mean we're talking like early years of corpus hip hop. Right There. Was there a connection between the elements or was it just like these cats are riding, these cats are breaking and we all kind of just like minded, or was it like embraced as one culture back then? That's something I've always kind of wondered.
[00:12:13] Speaker D: I mean, just because someone may do the same things you do doesn't mean they're relatable to you. That's so. It doesn't mean you have to hang out with them. But I feel like it was maybe one of the, the most unrecognized formulas of a, of a grouping of individuals that didn't know that they belong together. Like a down by law pack. Like you're from that cloth. Like you see thing.
[00:12:37] Speaker C: Like it's like a skateboarder and a BMX rider. Like.
[00:12:40] Speaker D: Yeah, same, same. We'll take like a skateboarder. Because skateboarders adopted a lot of hip hop as well. I love them for that. Tony Hawk. That's. That's another separate memory, that game, man.
[00:12:50] Speaker C: Yeah, Nigel.
[00:12:52] Speaker D: And.
But when you have somebody who's come from a different, like two. Two different kids that came up in the same household that now met each other through two different expressions, but were.
[00:13:02] Speaker C: The elements really rocking with each other like that back then or were you just like. Like you said, you're cut from the same cloud.
[00:13:08] Speaker D: They were. But it was more aggressive.
[00:13:10] Speaker B: Okay.
[00:13:10] Speaker D: It was more aggressive. You had to test somebody to see if they were about it as much as you were about it.
[00:13:15] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:13:16] Speaker D: That's what, you know, that's where battling from. That's where you're marking out territories, you're marking out new tags because they beat you to it and you're just bitter they beat you to it. Like you. Everyone wanted to prove it to each other.
[00:13:27] Speaker B: That's right.
[00:13:28] Speaker D: But it was that iron sharpens iron and what was left of that, that, that became. That becomes crew.
[00:13:33] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:13:34] Speaker C: You know, kind of what were some of the crews? Do you remember any from that time?
[00:13:39] Speaker D: Man, I, I don't see. I went away to college.
[00:13:42] Speaker B: Okay.
[00:13:43] Speaker D: Right after High School, 2003.
But that's right around the time when it was flat broke. Hustlers, public zoo, man. Who was out there? EMAC was out 5 cent Willie Nichols was 5 cent at the time he was out.
Am I forgetting people? I'm forgetting hell name Gotti Gang was.
Had a great stretch. Then soon after that, we had the Unbeatables and then we had the Gulf War battles. And it was like the scene was rocking. I feel like the scene was really rocking soon after that time. But as far as Cruise back then.
[00:14:21] Speaker C: Yeah, that's all.
[00:14:22] Speaker D: And my head was on bat, like just looking straight at basketball for it.
[00:14:25] Speaker C: You know what's cool, it just popped up on my Facebook. This is one of the only reasons I keep it around is for the. The ability to see the memories on there. Fifteen years ago, I had last month or I had my first breaking battle and it was hosted by Public Zoo.
I was already kind of into it up until that point. I had been to San Antonio, kind of got exposed to what real Texas breaking looks like. Came back super motivated. And then they. The OG's, indie and all them were like, hey, we're. We're hosting a breaking battle. And I was like, oh, I'm gonna.
[00:14:58] Speaker B: I'm gonna kill it.
[00:15:00] Speaker C: And it ended up being us versus a San Antonio crew. We had enough. We turned a one on one into a crew on crew. Super improv, super hip hop.
And it was a. It was a dope night, man. That. That night was after that first battle, I was like, I'm. This is it. And so it's pretty cool.
[00:15:18] Speaker D: That's. That's a feeling right there. That.
The feeling of when it's over and you realize the state of mind you're now coming back out of. Like you're normalizing yourself.
[00:15:27] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:15:28] Speaker D: You just caught the glow.
[00:15:29] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:15:29] Speaker D: You know, for that moment that happens on stage, him seeing, you know, doing shows, battling, you get. You get locked into this. This laser focus to where it's just, you know, what's my mission? Yeah, like, I'm gonna execute my mission no matter what. There's nothing that can disturb me. Nothing distracts.
[00:15:44] Speaker C: No one's. Yeah, I was gonna say, no one's gonna mess this up.
[00:15:46] Speaker D: You're just in your own element. And not a lot of people have experienced that, so it's hard for them to. That's what I wanted to know why it's so bad.
[00:15:54] Speaker C: Like, early years of battling. What do you remember your first battle as an MC or what are your earliest memories of battling?
[00:16:03] Speaker D: It would be like, Jones and really, like in the locker room.
[00:16:05] Speaker B: Okay.
[00:16:06] Speaker D: Like two bars set up.
My name is. Yeah, I'm from like. Or making fun of each other. We'll just do on the bus. Coming back late night from like a Harlingen game. And it's, you know, midnight, we're on the bus and of course we cracking up. We got the Victory and kick, a little freestyle session. Now we can get a little silly. And it always turns into someone disses someone first and then it turns into everyone dissing each other.
[00:16:29] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:16:29] Speaker D: And so, you know, that's a little precursor to it. But I just started noticing that I don't like, I don't like the way a lot of people move and I like to observe crowds.
[00:16:44] Speaker B: Okay.
[00:16:44] Speaker D: If you ever see me by myself, man, I'm looking at, I'm looking at the world like an experiment.
[00:16:49] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:16:49] Speaker D: You know, I'm so zoomed out, I feel like I'm in the. I'm in the rafters watching the game. I'm not part of the game. Because you can't notice the rafters if you're in the game.
[00:16:57] Speaker B: Right.
[00:16:57] Speaker D: But you notice everything that's happening in the game from the rafters.
[00:17:00] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:17:01] Speaker D: So when I'm out by myself, that's how I like to move, you know, I like to feel like I'm not noticed because I want to be able to notice everything in the process.
[00:17:07] Speaker B: Okay.
[00:17:08] Speaker D: And so I started shaping my tongue towards, you know, rappers only that I didn't like.
[00:17:13] Speaker B: Okay.
[00:17:14] Speaker D: And I used to, man. And it would come.
There's an interesting, there's an interesting tell, man. There's only a few that know about it too.
When I was about 16, 17, I pinned a disc first. I. I needed targets, man.
[00:17:27] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:17:27] Speaker D: I need targets. I pin towards third degree out of San Antonio.
[00:17:31] Speaker B: Okay.
[00:17:32] Speaker D: Talented brothers too, man. I don't even know why I did it, man. I was just, I was young, 15, 16.
[00:17:37] Speaker C: Killing yourself.
[00:17:38] Speaker D: And I'm like, man, you know, you know, you. You want to climb the ladder, man? Yeah, of course I'm. I'm not gonna target someone. I feel like a beat.
[00:17:46] Speaker C: I was gonna say. And you always want to shoot for someone.
There's a little danger there because, yeah.
[00:17:51] Speaker D: There'S talented brothers over there. And somehow somewhere in my 10 Walmart mic and cool Edit Pro Nasty mastered, you know, this two track version of this diss on the Nas Hate me Now beat, huh?
And they got in their hands and they caught wind of it. This is like right when P2P file sharing was available. So they, they got it. They got it. You know, it took 10 minutes to send one song, but they got it.
[00:18:21] Speaker C: Which was quick back then.
[00:18:23] Speaker D: And they didn't Like, I just remember they didn't like it, and they came down for a show, and then I heard my name mentioned like that. Oh, that's true.
That's like 12 of them, man. It was like me and my homeboy Marcus, man. And. And no, they were cool. At the end of the day, they were cool, man.
[00:18:40] Speaker C: Did y' all go. Did y' all throw some rounds or no?
[00:18:42] Speaker D: Nah, man. They were there for a show, okay? You know, and I was popping up to show love for the show and just water under the bridge. I knew what it was, man. They know. They knew I was whack at the time. Just, you know, trying to reach to the top, trying to take some shortcuts by the, you know, throwing some rocks at, you know, some credible people in the scene at that time. Yeah, same thing. My first original name was Ace, okay? Ace. And that was titled because I was trying to be a better freestyler than the Freestyle Kings.
So Freestyle Kings were popping, and I'm like, you know what.
What better way to push yourself than to put a title on your back? Like, you put a target on your back by saying Ace when everyone's bumping kings.
And I had to sharpen the pen. I had to sharpen the tongue. And I wasn't afraid of the work. I'm always. I'm always down to put in the work.
[00:19:28] Speaker C: And so what was your first, like, actual, like, sign up on a list battle, do you remember?
[00:19:37] Speaker D: Man, I remember having some battles.
[00:19:40] Speaker C: Or do you have any that, like, do stick out that are like, yo, there was this one right here. Any.
Anything like that?
[00:19:48] Speaker D: The format for the format to be what it was. It was until Golf wars, okay? It was until. Because I think Texas Battle League had come down, right?
And Michael White had battled a man named Stats.
[00:20:01] Speaker B: Okay?
[00:20:02] Speaker D: Stats is from Boston.
He had Stats. To me, had, like, such an ill delivery. Like, I always looked at Cool G rap style delivery, the way he was formulating stuff.
And I remember he was just talking loud after he beat Mike. And I told Mark, I said, I need him. I need to battle him.
Because we were styled. One was already. It was already in discussions.
And one thing about Gulf wars, one is not every battle that happened came out on video.
Some of the footage, One of the best battles of all time was, I think, loudmouth and canine back and forth slugfest. Rocking the whole venue. And it was right there, man.
And, man, that night was. Was incredible. Shout Out, DJ Devious. He was there. Everybody who was either part of the scene wanted to be involved in the scene. Or was trying to see what the new scene was about. They were there, everybody was in intended. So there's a, there's a shot on the intro of the Go Force One video where you see everybody in that crowd.
[00:21:00] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:21:01] Speaker D: And man, that, that's a legendary night. There was a lot of key people in there.
[00:21:05] Speaker C: That's cool, man.
[00:21:06] Speaker D: Shout out Magnus too.
[00:21:07] Speaker C: Shout out Magnet. Shout out Almighty Public to you, man.
[00:21:12] Speaker D: Johnny Moog.
We have Fang.
So.
[00:21:19] Speaker C: That was like, where was the first time you actually like, I'm gonna take it back and we'll move on, I promise. But I just, I love, I love the subject. Where was the first time you saw like all four elements? Where, where they actually had, it had a label like, yo, this is hip hop. Do you have, do you have that experience? I mean, so I feel like a lot of people do some. It sounds like you kind of just grew up and this is what it was. You're like, I'm, I, I, I have.
[00:21:45] Speaker D: To research what I'm going to be a part of.
[00:21:46] Speaker B: Okay.
[00:21:47] Speaker D: I don't want to be a part of anything without, you know, knowing what I'm getting into. And so with hip hop, I remember seeing KS1 and like, as a very, at a very young age, not even rapping, he was hosting.
[00:22:00] Speaker B: Okay.
[00:22:01] Speaker D: And I never heard any of his raps before, but for some reason I kept saying, like, when I think of hip hop, this guy emulates exactly what I think of hip hop. You know, strong with his words, powerful voice message behind everything, statured, like, this is hip hop. Like, this is strength in hip hop right here. And then when I, when I started, I went to go listen to his first albums, Criminal Minded. And I'm hearing all this and then in the libraries, I'm looking up, what's hip hop? What's hip hop? I see names like Cool Hurt, Grandmaster Flash. I'm seeing Theodore Funky four plus one more. I've seen all these. And then I've seen New York City Breakers, Rocksteady Crew. I started seeing that. And, and, and then once you see it, it's like once you're exposed to it, the universe now is going to re expose it to you in different ways. So it's like once I saw that a week later. Now Beat Street's on and it's the breaking scene in Roxy.
[00:23:06] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:23:06] Speaker D: And you know, you're just trying to find a tape. I'm in the closet yelling, can I get. Where's the. I need room on a tape to record this. Yeah, you know, it's on tv. And so you just start connecting. You know, they were rapping, they dance like this. That is music. And, you know, you put it all together. There wasn't like one event, okay. Before, like emceeing for, like battling blaze battles, the ones that idea took care of. I think KRS1 hosted that one. And then finding on like the first message boards of all time, like finding scribble jam battles and the DJ battles and the break dancing battles there. And it just felt like a cult classic in the making.
[00:23:46] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:23:47] Speaker D: That I. I need to be a part of. Something's making me want to be a part of this and more than anything else.
[00:23:52] Speaker C: So let me ask this, ask you this. When you, because you, you travel now, when you started traveling, was this. Because this isn't hip hop related, right. That's something you do with work.
[00:24:03] Speaker B: Is that.
[00:24:04] Speaker C: Did I get that right?
[00:24:05] Speaker B: Right.
[00:24:07] Speaker C: And I feel like that's kind of where like yours and I experience differ. But you were.
When you did start traveling, you were already an artist.
[00:24:15] Speaker B: You.
[00:24:15] Speaker C: You never. Did you ever travel as an artist or for the art. Did you ever take any trips, like, outside of Corpus?
[00:24:20] Speaker D: Never.
[00:24:21] Speaker B: No. Okay.
[00:24:24] Speaker D: Bills to pay.
[00:24:24] Speaker C: I mean, I hear you.
[00:24:25] Speaker D: You know, it's.
It would. It would be hella convenient if what you're passionate about pays your bills, but that's not the life.
[00:24:33] Speaker C: And you know what? A lot of the realness I've learned, like, in. In hip hop, like, it. It doesn't. Especially when you're not willing to. To cross certain lines or. Or wear a certain brand, man. I was listening to your album on the way over here, and your style is like. Even though we come from different elements, like, I love like that the. The beat behind it, man. Like, that's. I love you. Look at all my breaking clips on Instagram. Like it. I'm. I love that east coast feel, man. And I think that's what I liked about you that night that I saw you. Was it that style?
But yeah, and I was, I was curious as far as.
If you ever did. Did, you know, get out of court business for us battling or if you have any, you know, running out of gas on the way to Austin stories or anything like that.
[00:25:23] Speaker D: I mean, I. I'd been able to be fortunate enough to do a couple shows in Austin so long ago, I barely even remember what I wrapped or what I did when I was over there in San Antonio. I had done some shows on campus because I went to. Graduated from utsa.
[00:25:39] Speaker B: Okay, cool.
[00:25:39] Speaker D: And so I was able to do some shows Whenever I'd find people who had open mics or spoken words and I would go there and just drop some bars.
[00:25:45] Speaker C: That's actually something I wanted to get into too. So you, you are a bit of a poet. So I'm curious who. Who inspires you as an artist, man. Like what. What rappers? Because I feel like I have a list and I wonder if any of the guys I'm thinking of are going to be on it.
[00:25:59] Speaker D: So there's.
There's poetry, there's a spoken word stuff that I do, and then there's.
[00:26:05] Speaker C: It's like about the McDon doing that before.
[00:26:07] Speaker D: So the spoken words always kind of loosely been involved since I was in high school.
[00:26:13] Speaker B: Okay.
[00:26:13] Speaker D: I'd always love writing, but the spoken word, it lets me.
It lets me stack multis and rhymes and yeah, wordplay in a way that a beat won't allow you to. Based off of rhythmic limits.
[00:26:27] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:26:27] Speaker D: You know, you have to cut out a few words so for the bar to hit right on the snare, you know? You know, so I look at that as like almost a raw. A rawer feel of. Of how my writing can actually get. Because much of the album, there's about four or five verses off this album that are heavily influenced almost word by word, influenced by a former foreign poems that I've written.
[00:26:50] Speaker B: Okay.
[00:26:51] Speaker D: And it's just when I write a spoken word, it's. It's about seven, eight minutes long.
[00:26:56] Speaker C: You were writing poetry essentially longer than you've been MC or is. About the same time.
[00:27:02] Speaker D: About the same time, yeah.
[00:27:03] Speaker C: That's cool, man.
[00:27:04] Speaker D: Like, because it gave me something to carve raps from.
[00:27:07] Speaker B: Nice.
[00:27:09] Speaker D: One thing about that I wanted to make sure with. With the album is I feel like there's a lot of albums now that sonically sound beautiful.
Wherever you're playing, it sounds amazing.
But what's the replay value? Like, what's the longevity of the actual content that's on there?
[00:27:25] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:27:25] Speaker D: Are you creating just 10 songs and calling it an album? Are you creating 10 chapters to one book? And that's what you call an album?
[00:27:34] Speaker B: Right.
[00:27:34] Speaker D: And so I wanted to theme this project and I didn't want to stray away from any of the themes that, you know, I made sure to. To become this nucleus of this project who were some. But before, let's get into influence. Yeah.
[00:27:49] Speaker C: But also I'm gonna ask that same question on the. On the writing side. So who are some of the poets that you've. You've studied or that you. You who. Who inspires you, man, bar none.
[00:27:59] Speaker D: I think one of the best wordsmiths and just articulate men of all time was Malcolm X.
[00:28:06] Speaker B: Okay.
[00:28:08] Speaker D: Malcolm X is.
You gotta be sharp, cuz.
That's all he knows.
[00:28:14] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:28:15] Speaker D: The way he can cut through a tense room, you know, with such precision that he never loses confidence with any.
Any way he goes with this, with the points that he's making, he's high on that list.
Gil Scott Heron, man.
That brother right there, man.
[00:28:33] Speaker C: That brother right there. Let me talk to you about that. So.
And this is something just from my own journey, man. I.
When I started breaking 16, 17 years ago, I was looking up all these Texas B boys, man, and I found this one dude named Marlon shouts to Marlon Lazama. He ends up seeing this clip, but he's a. He's a poet and a writer. And it was a video. He's a world famous B boy from Houston, Texas.
Been all over the world. And I was already kind of watching his videos because I loved his style as a B boy. And there was this one video of him reciting poetry and I was like, what is this? And mind you, at this time, I'm living, dropped out of school, going to night school for my ged, working, all my friends are in college. Like, it's kind of, I would say, a low point, right?
Hip hop's kind of the only positive thing I got going on. And then I find this guy and what is this poetry stuff? And mind you, like the early uneducated days, I didn't realize, like, you can be book smart and street smart, like you can, you can wear both hats. And seeing him reciting poetry and the way he, he conducted himself and the way he talked after about education, it changed the game for me, man. And it was from that point on I. I started taking school serious. I ended up, you know, we'll get.
[00:29:57] Speaker D: That's.
[00:29:58] Speaker C: This isn't about me, but, man, I picked up books and I became. I got into reading and poetry and Gil Scott, like maybe a couple years later was. I mean, I have his book, man.
The Revolution Will Not Be Televised, man.
[00:30:15] Speaker D: Save the Children.
[00:30:16] Speaker C: Yeah, man.
[00:30:18] Speaker D: Powerful figure, powerful man.
You hit it with books. Autobiography. Malcolm X was one of the first books I can remember finishing from books that I personally chose to want to read. Remember, school would try to reload of the flies. You got to read Animal Farm. You got to read, you know, a Mice of Man. Yeah, you know, the classics. But let me find my style.
[00:30:38] Speaker C: Do you remember I ask everybody this. Do you remember Harrison Bergeron? It was a book. It was Like a short story that was in, like, an English book in, like, seventh, eighth grade.
All right, it's off top. It's a wild story, but keep going.
[00:30:52] Speaker D: Scary stories, right?
[00:30:54] Speaker C: With the goosebumps inside the. The textbook goosebumps included, man.
[00:30:58] Speaker D: Yes, man. I need to get my accelerator reader points up, man.
[00:31:02] Speaker C: Gotta get that free personal pizza.
[00:31:04] Speaker D: Ain't lying about that. Yeah, yeah.
As far as MCs, okay, man. Okay.
This is a tough one because my.
[00:31:18] Speaker C: We got time.
[00:31:18] Speaker D: My favorites to listen to when I just want to listen to hip hop are not who inspired me, okay? Like, for instance, my favorites are like Crazy Bone, Project, Pat, okay? You know, Pimp C, Big L, like, it's corrupt. You know, there's a lot of.
A lot of styles in that. But then the ones who, like, paved the way for my pen, I'm looking at Cool G Rap, okay? Looking at Rakim, I love her big, elegant Lord Finesse.
The whole Digging in the Crates crew, okay? I had a moment right there with them.
And then Grand Pooba jru, the Damager Po, Righteous Teachers, Arrested Development, that. That soulquarian group, you know, with De La Soul and Tribe Called Quest, you know, and then they started later adopting elements like Pharaoh Munch is heavily, heavily involved in, you know, Pharaoh Trip, Pharaoh March. Like, there's no mystery behind it.
Nice. Oh, for sure. NAS AZ.
[00:32:20] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:32:21] Speaker C: It's the list of all time.
[00:32:25] Speaker D: Of course, NASA's on the list, man.
[00:32:27] Speaker B: That.
[00:32:28] Speaker D: It's. The list is extended going back to the.
[00:32:31] Speaker C: The Poetry Man.
[00:32:33] Speaker B: What about.
[00:32:36] Speaker C: I just had his name, too.
Saul Williams.
[00:32:38] Speaker D: Yes.
I. I failed to mention. Now, he actually ran through my mind as well. We were talking.
[00:32:44] Speaker C: I was wondering.
[00:32:47] Speaker D: What'S this. What's the joint he had. He did it on Deaf Poetry Jam, where he was.
[00:32:51] Speaker C: I was gonna ask.
[00:32:54] Speaker D: Poetry Man. There's some. There's some sick. There's some sick bars, man, that still. They still echo in my head from some of his performances. Yeah, and he's a brilliant, brilliant guy. Brilliant guy, man.
[00:33:05] Speaker C: I used to love that show. Lemon Anderson, he was another one from that show that I would watch follow. I had his book.
[00:33:10] Speaker D: How can I not mention Most Def Mo Deaf? Yeah, I.
Before I had the cd, man, that burnt cd I had. I need, like, three copies. Scratching them left and right, man. But Black on both sides was getting much play. Black Star getting much. But I think. I think most death's verse on Thieves in the Night and on the Black Star joint is arguably one of the top 10 hip hop verses of all time.
The penmanship on that is mind blowing. Mind blowing. And that's one thing that I love taking with me overseas.
[00:33:43] Speaker B: Okay.
[00:33:44] Speaker D: Like finding which students, you know, in schools, because I worked here for five, six years roughly before I made the jump.
[00:33:53] Speaker B: Okay.
[00:33:53] Speaker D: And I made the jump because I just felt the monotony kicking in too soon.
[00:33:56] Speaker C: Yeah. So walk us through that. So you. You do go overseas and this is for work. Are you free to talk about that at all?
[00:34:01] Speaker B: Like.
[00:34:02] Speaker D: Yeah, yeah.
[00:34:03] Speaker B: Okay. Yeah, of course.
[00:34:06] Speaker D: Yeah, that's. Yeah, that's all good. It's all good.
[00:34:11] Speaker C: Morning.
[00:34:11] Speaker D: So I.
Everyone, I feel like, comes across a point in time where they want to make a difference, an impact, you know, bigger than what's just happening in their home, but they want to feel impactful towards other people.
The simplest route for me doing that, having my bachelor's in philosophy and always, you know, scope in the field is, you know, how can I attribute some of my experiences that I've gone through already and help out younger generations, you know? You know, it's like a mechanic, right?
[00:34:39] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:34:39] Speaker D: All these young minds are coming to you a bit flawed because the world we're living in is a flawed one. So they're. It's raw ingredients coming to. And a mechanic just does some fine tuning so that when you leave the mechanic shop, you're. You're riding much smoother, you're thinking much clearer. And that's why I like to treat the 10 months in the classroom like. And I'm doing it through the vehicles of math and science mainly.
[00:34:58] Speaker B: Cool.
[00:34:58] Speaker D: And so I was teaching fifth grade for the longest here for just math and science over at West. Oh. So my last couple years when I was here and just life, life itself, the world is.
It's not really a big place.
[00:35:13] Speaker C: That's fair.
[00:35:14] Speaker D: It's not really a big place once you leave.
But I had to check it out. I need to see what it was about.
[00:35:20] Speaker C: I felt like, what was the first stamp that you. You put on that passport, man?
[00:35:23] Speaker D: It was China.
[00:35:24] Speaker B: China. Okay.
[00:35:25] Speaker D: It was China. I literally finished fifth grade in June and in three weeks arrived in Beijing.
[00:35:32] Speaker B: Okay. Raw.
[00:35:33] Speaker C: Walk us through that.
[00:35:33] Speaker D: And I never. I never traveled outside of. I've never had a passport before then.
[00:35:37] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:35:38] Speaker D: And so I was just ready for change. I was ready for the challenge.
I'd always felt like I had a global perspective, you know, as far as, like a natural filter in my head of considering how things were, because America is relatively young as a country. Very young.
And I mean, there's soups in the Mediterranean area that predate America.
[00:36:01] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:36:01] Speaker D: You know what I mean? Like, they got foods that are older than America, and so there's a lot of hidden chambers out there.
[00:36:07] Speaker B: Does that.
[00:36:08] Speaker C: How's that work? Do they. Do, you know, like, more or less where you're going, where. Where you're going to be staying?
[00:36:13] Speaker D: So, yeah, there's a few. There's a few online sites that allow certified teachers such as myself, to. To upload their resume and be able to. To log in for a fair price.
And it. What it does is they serve as a middleman, and they. All they do is provide links of available places that are looking for this, this, this, this, or this. You can filter out your searches. So I. I applied to about 20 countries. China's the one that responded back with the best offer.
[00:36:38] Speaker B: Okay.
[00:36:38] Speaker D: When they told me they're going to pay my rent, they're going to pay me more salary than what I was getting here. Plus, they're paying my rent. And it's not coming out the check. Like, it's as a stipend, you know, that's enticing, you know, And I. I took that leap. And what were some of the things.
[00:36:52] Speaker C: You got to experience?
[00:36:53] Speaker D: Probably the greatest decision I ever made, man. Oh. But it's. It's odd because you. We always build up a world in our head that isn't realistic to the world that we end up living.
[00:37:04] Speaker B: How's that?
[00:37:06] Speaker D: I'm looking at China. Like, oh, my. Like, I'm going to China. Like, I'm nervous. Like, knees weak, arms are heavy.
[00:37:12] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:37:13] Speaker D: And, you know, you're walking through the airport. You don't have no service on your phone. You're in a whole new continent, so you pretty much have no phone.
You're by yourself.
Your language means nothing there.
[00:37:25] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:37:25] Speaker C: I was gonna ask, how do you.
[00:37:27] Speaker D: Navigate the language you just got, man?
[00:37:29] Speaker C: You just have to just make it happen.
[00:37:31] Speaker D: You just have to stay calm, man. You're going to think better the calmer you stay, for sure. And so are you the dumbest person in the airport with that many people? If you don't feel like you're the dumbest person in the airport, then you're going to figure out how to get out the airport just fine. Like, that's what I'm saying. Everybody's going to get out.
[00:37:47] Speaker A: What's going on? Y' all just jumping in. I heard y's conversation. I was like, damn, I got to get in.
[00:37:51] Speaker C: Get in on, man.
[00:37:51] Speaker D: Pretty cool. I ended up. People came up to me immediately. They thought I was somebody, you know.
[00:37:59] Speaker C: We wouldn't have that.
[00:38:03] Speaker D: Getting approached. And they're like, they're doing that little arch and look like, is that the guy?
[00:38:08] Speaker C: Were you wearing a jersey or what?
[00:38:10] Speaker D: Adidas sweatpants. I had some Kobe's on. I looked apart. Yeah. You know, and I had a few people help me out and I got hot spotted onto some service.
[00:38:20] Speaker C: Find some autographs.
[00:38:21] Speaker B: Gotcha.
[00:38:22] Speaker D: I got picked up, man. But. But I have. I mean, so China was the first time.
[00:38:27] Speaker B: Okay.
[00:38:27] Speaker D: And I stayed there for a little more than two years.
[00:38:30] Speaker C: Was there any students that stuck out? Like, any ones that you're like, that kid's gonna, you know.
[00:38:36] Speaker D: All of them.
[00:38:37] Speaker C: All of them.
[00:38:37] Speaker B: The. The.
[00:38:37] Speaker D: The school I was working at, the student population for my area was 99% Chinese. Okay, well, 99.9. I'll say.
[00:38:47] Speaker C: And they nasty people.
[00:38:48] Speaker D: The way they could just flip the switch with learning from joking to being silly to.
We're revealing. And it's just game time. They're ready to take.
Nobody's talking.
And it's that type of environment where if someone's talking, they're shutting them up for you.
[00:39:05] Speaker B: Oh.
[00:39:06] Speaker D: So I love that as a teacher.
[00:39:07] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:39:08] Speaker D: Like, because this matters. They gotta. They gotta deliver these results to their parents who are paying this much money to have them at this school to get a foreign teacher to teach them, you know. Oh, man.
[00:39:17] Speaker A: You teach the same stuff here that you do over there.
[00:39:20] Speaker D: No, so actually my. The least amount of my teaching experience was here because it's so strict on. On, like, for instance, I'm certified grades four through six, all subjects, all core subjects. I chose math and science because I think they're the best subjects.
[00:39:36] Speaker B: Okay.
[00:39:36] Speaker D: They're easy. They're easier to have the most fun with if you do them right. And they also mean something at the end of the year because they're tested. Right. Right. And I think they're translatable subjects wherever you go.
[00:39:48] Speaker B: That's fair.
[00:39:48] Speaker D: They matter. And so when I went to China, they pegged me at an English training school, and I got out of it. And then I ended up working at a high school, and I never taught algebra, two honors. Chemistry, two honors. Biology, two honors. This is a big step up from fifth grade.
You know, I'm now in Beijing, the capital of China, you know, teaching kids who are expected to be something in life.
[00:40:10] Speaker C: How much of that was like learning as you go? You're so.
Oh.
[00:40:17] Speaker D: 80% of teaching is how well you host the information.
[00:40:20] Speaker B: Okay.
[00:40:21] Speaker D: So a good host can always get by any lesson. That's right. If I Need a. If I need a stall, I can have them research things and come in.
[00:40:28] Speaker A: Do you feel. Do you feel like you need to know the subject? Like. Like all the way or just a little?
[00:40:34] Speaker D: But you don't. You don't need to, but it always helps. I didn't have time to learn algebra 2 chemistry in biology.
[00:40:40] Speaker B: Right, right.
[00:40:41] Speaker A: Oh, okay.
[00:40:41] Speaker D: In one school year.
[00:40:42] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:40:43] Speaker D: But I have time. Shout out to the brothers over there. But I had time on my taxi. I had 30 minutes every day to get up there.
So I'm learning. I'm gonna learn algebra 2 right here. My first period was an off period, so I'm gonna learn chemistry and biology right there. And so I had, you know, set moments.
And I did it the same day because I didn't want to lose any information overnight. I want to keep it fresh if I'm going to teach it. And I had students like, as I check for understanding, I always have students, you know, model their work, doing their own presentations, doing things like a business world will want them to do. You know, we'll set it up. You know, business. Like, I give everybody surveys on what they felt they could have improved from it. And, you know, anonymous survey. It was very respectful, very honest, very open, and they end up teaching you a lot more about the subject as well. When you allow their voices to be heard, you know, you don't know everything.
[00:41:34] Speaker C: That's fair.
[00:41:34] Speaker D: Obviously I don't because I never even taught it before, but I know I have the ability to teach chemistry. And since that time, what I learned.
So after I left China.
[00:41:44] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:41:44] Speaker D: I ended up in Thailand teaching middle school.
[00:41:47] Speaker C: Coming back to the States.
[00:41:48] Speaker D: Yeah. I was the department head for middle school science.
[00:41:50] Speaker B: Okay.
[00:41:51] Speaker D: And my sixth graders in there were learning chemistry by the end of the year. It's amazing, man, because we went online. So I got to Thailand in 2019, 2020, when Covid kicked off, and we had to go to online.
By the end of the year, when we had to do online lessons, we'd already finished out the entire curriculum.
And so our mandatory hours, sessions online, I had them doing chemistry work. And I kept telling them, finish it and go back to your parents. Go.
[00:42:16] Speaker B: Let them know.
[00:42:17] Speaker D: Don't let them know what we just did. And they're. They're counting atoms. They're counting. They're able to balance equations.
And it's.
And that's what I mean by the hosting of it. I'm not there to act like I'm smarter than them.
[00:42:29] Speaker B: Right.
[00:42:29] Speaker D: I'm there to introduce some things in a way that I feel like no one else is introducing it. Like, like, like with math, for instance, I said the biggest number you're ever going to deal with is nine.
[00:42:38] Speaker B: Wow.
[00:42:39] Speaker D: That's literally the biggest number you need to ever execute nine.
Because let's say you have 91 times 91. Well, that nine times nine is going to be the hardest part of it.
[00:42:49] Speaker B: Okay?
[00:42:51] Speaker D: Everything is single digit calculation.
[00:42:54] Speaker B: Okay.
[00:42:55] Speaker A: So rudiment, the rudimental portion of guess, of that, of that, whatever. Like mathematics, for instance, is just 0 through 9, as are the basics of math itself.
[00:43:06] Speaker D: Right. 0 through 9 has created an unlimited scope of the depth of mathematics.
[00:43:12] Speaker B: Okay?
[00:43:13] Speaker D: And to me, that's, it's fascinating. But at the same time, get your one through nines down every way you can know how to divide by nine, no matter what the number.
You know, And I, and I, I, in my head, I'm looking at it like tool sizes. Like if you're going to use the nine drill bit, it's gonna make, if you're dividing, you're gonna cut out this much each time, you know, doesn't matter how big it is, if you're using this bit, you're gonna, it's gonna be more numbers because it's a smaller bit.
I have a million analogies. I love tossing the students just to let them find their way because I never found a teacher that taught me a way that stuck to me. I had to figure it out myself.
[00:43:48] Speaker C: Does your stage presence, like, do you think it helps being a teacher and being able to deliver things like this?
[00:43:54] Speaker D: Yeah, because I roast them all the time.
Going at them, man, I'm going after, like.
[00:43:59] Speaker A: Did you start, did you start roasting people? Like, is that how you. Or you know what I'm saying?
[00:44:04] Speaker D: I reinforce our objectives in a rather entertaining way while exposing the benefits and advantages that you have that I didn't have.
You know, I have to give them, you know, it's, it's just little things. I mean, you mean to tell me, like you're, you're hot, you're bothered, you know, this is bothering, this is bothering you. You can't do your math. Meanwhile you got air condition. Meanwhile you got wi fi. Meanwhile you got a PlayStation at home. Meanwhile, you get three recess breaks in the day. Meanwhile, your parents are getting delivered food for you for lunch that doesn't come from their kitchen, it's coming from this restaurant over here. Because I'm getting these kids, you know, that they're paying 15, 000 a year to go to these schools. So I'm Getting these kids, I mean kids that have never been told no before.
[00:44:49] Speaker B: Oh yeah.
[00:44:49] Speaker D: And then they meet me, Mr. No. Yeah, you better, you better look convinced.
[00:44:56] Speaker C: Man, because the world's gonna tell them no.
[00:44:57] Speaker D: Yeah. And, and I, I just remind them like you have all these head starts and advantages, but somehow you let me laugh you because at that age I could tell you what I was doing.
And you know what? You may pay your way to get ahead, but when it comes to actual manual work, when it comes, when all, if all this shuts down, I'm needed way more than you because my skills show that. You said you should never allow yourself to not have the skills because people are willing to pay for skills.
[00:45:26] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:45:26] Speaker D: So equip yourself with enough skills that people are willing to pay for at the end of the day.
[00:45:30] Speaker B: Facts.
[00:45:30] Speaker D: Because daddy's money will run out one day.
[00:45:33] Speaker C: Facts, man. That's cool.
So you said China and then Taiwan.
[00:45:39] Speaker D: Thailand.
[00:45:39] Speaker C: Thailand, that's right.
[00:45:40] Speaker D: Oh, that was, that's a crazy place, man.
[00:45:42] Speaker C: So what was that crazy place?
[00:45:44] Speaker D: Hold on, let's gloss over Thailand a little bit.
I was in Pattaya, Thailand and it's one of the last spots that have been pretty much renovated by tourism.
[00:45:54] Speaker B: Okay.
[00:45:55] Speaker D: It's known mainly for walking street, super huge red light district and man, entertainment there is wild. I mean you get some of your who's, who's.
I was doing a basketball tournament and we flew, they flew us over to Vietnam for, for the weekend to go be part of this tournament. And on the plane, oh, on a plane ride back, some of my, my athletes, they noticed this one, this, they said it was an artist. He said you've played them in class because I always play music in class.
Yo man, the only thing that's quiet are jail cells and padded rooms. Don't turn a classroom into one of those because there's. I already got theories of how the education system has been monitoring, you know, the prison system.
Some of our schools even look like it from afar. Show somebody. Show somebody like Tom.
[00:46:44] Speaker C: Take Tom Brown.
[00:46:45] Speaker D: Just do a quick scan, send it to somebody who doesn't live in this country and tell them what is this? And they're going to say a penitentiary or.
[00:46:51] Speaker C: Yeah, if you look at all the new designs of all those schools locally.
[00:46:54] Speaker D: It'S all principal's award and teachers correctional office.
[00:46:58] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:46:59] Speaker D: You get an hour of rec time.
[00:47:01] Speaker A: How do you feel about home? How do you feel about like homeschooling kids?
[00:47:05] Speaker D: I more in favor it. The more I live because I'm aware of like my teaching I've literally taught every grade, every, every level. And I feel comfortable being able to not only teach my, my kids, but a lot of it's having the time to be able to do that too.
[00:47:21] Speaker C: Yeah, it's tough.
[00:47:22] Speaker D: But there's, there's also life missions I want to do. I don't want to teach algebra to somebody and it's just paper algebra right now. Let's go to the store. Here's $20. Show me three ways that you can buy these items or how much of each of these items. Give me three different scenarios work because that's, that's algebra.
And be able to now translate that into a script and have them see how that script represents what they just went through. Because the test is learning the script. And not everybody knows the script.
[00:47:51] Speaker C: I don't.
[00:47:52] Speaker D: It's.
That's where I think it's tricky.
[00:47:55] Speaker C: I, I did all three, man. I did homeschool, public school and private school. And I. People always ask what I like better. I think what I liked better was.
Didn't line up with what was best for me. If I'm being honest. I would say private school probably would have been the best option. We couldn't afford to keep doing that. You know.
I liked homeschooling, but I missed the public aspect of public.
[00:48:20] Speaker D: But the survival of public school.
[00:48:23] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:48:24] Speaker D: There's a. You learn well. Especially how we went through it.
[00:48:27] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:48:28] Speaker D: Because you. There was no knowing everybody going back.
[00:48:31] Speaker C: To public school, man.
[00:48:32] Speaker D: There was no knowing everybody.
[00:48:34] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:48:34] Speaker D: Now social media has connected everyone you have, the whole classroom is following each other. That didn't exist in our day. You only talked to maybe one person. If you got lucky to have a friend in that class.
[00:48:43] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:48:44] Speaker D: And you had to make friends. And you're looking around. I already don't like that person.
[00:48:49] Speaker C: Like I'm not even allowed to sit near that person.
[00:48:52] Speaker D: But your inner monologue is, is speaking to you and you're finding out your insecurities.
[00:48:57] Speaker C: That's actually, man, one of the questions I had for you too is, is growing up in, in your times, in our times. I like I said I'm only a few years behind you.
How do you think it compares to to now like grow kids growing up today?
[00:49:10] Speaker D: Scarier here. Oh, I bet scary here. So I say that because.
Let me, let me jump ahead a little bit. I most recently came back from Greece.
[00:49:20] Speaker B: Okay.
[00:49:21] Speaker D: And so where I was living at and I was living in Keep Selly and it's.
It's well known area in Greece just above the city center. And some real residential areas.
But every time I arrive home and walk out to go get food at a restaurant, the kids are out, everyone's playing. The moms are out, the dads are out, the kids are out.
[00:49:44] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:49:45] Speaker D: You see the young kids, you know, kicking the ball around, setting up their own goals and whatnot. You see the older kids already grouped up, like, looking at the. Looking across the section. The girls are looking at the boys.
They're figuring out how they're gonna break that eyes.
[00:50:00] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:50:00] Speaker D: You see other. The cool life happening. You see the other youths that are like, hiding in the alleyway, smoking their little cigarettes they stole from their mama's purse.
I was feeling like it's 90s.
[00:50:11] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:50:12] Speaker D: In a way. Like some of the last time, like some of the last images I remember seeing in certain areas of just being outside.
You know, you don't live inside and.
[00:50:22] Speaker C: Not being afraid of what's coming.
[00:50:24] Speaker D: And you go home for protection, comfort, rest.
[00:50:27] Speaker B: Right.
[00:50:28] Speaker D: Because of what's outside.
But if the. The neighborhood is taking care of itself and watching itself like that, there's no, no place you'd rather be than outside.
[00:50:37] Speaker A: Have you always been like an observing person?
[00:50:40] Speaker D: I've always felt that way. I've always felt that.
[00:50:42] Speaker A: Is there like a moment that like.
Or. Or that's just how. That's just like how you are.
[00:50:48] Speaker D: You know what opened my eyes the most, I'd say, especially on a global scale, is in. In 1996.
My parents had already been trying to raffle off and win Atlanta tickets for the Olympics in 1996.
And after like a year of being in these raffles, they showed us what we had gotten from it. And we had a bundle of tickets, including the Dream Team 3 that was up there and the women's Dream Team as well.
Lacrosse event. So I mean, we're going, we're going, but we're not flying. We're thinking we're taking a van. Taking the van. So I begged my parents to give me like a little like almost like a five by five box black and white TV that had the connections for my Super Nintendo.
And the two games I rinsed the most, of course, Mario Kart. Mario, you know, you got to do it at 50, 150 class, you know, old school style. And Ken Griffey Jr. Baseball, because you do home run derbies, everything, man.
And so I rinsed those. We got there, but when we got there, I'd never seen that many cultures in one place, hearing that many type of accents and languages all there for one purpose. And it's almost like I got the world under one umbrella.
[00:52:00] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:52:01] Speaker D: You know, before I even got to middle school.
[00:52:02] Speaker B: Cool.
[00:52:03] Speaker C: That's cool.
[00:52:03] Speaker D: You know, I got to experience about a week and a half of that, you know, and I never, I can't. To that point, I don't think I'd ever been out of Texas.
[00:52:12] Speaker B: Okay.
[00:52:12] Speaker D: So that was, that was a big moment. You're traveling through the backwoods of Louisiana, Mississippi. And this is.
[00:52:19] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:52:19] Speaker D: And this is why I'm like, wait, don't they got a movie like Mississippi Burning? Like I'm nine. You know, when you, you know, you used to open up the newspaper to see, you know, what, what's showing. And in.
[00:52:29] Speaker C: Some of the houses look different, the trees look different, the layout, the landscape looks different, the people talk different.
[00:52:36] Speaker D: And, And I always like to use that as symbolisms of, of the current status of where the generations being the, the way they're now allowed to think, it's almost dulling it.
It's. It's losing its vibrancy. And, and you don't think. I think that's dangerous.
[00:52:53] Speaker C: You don't think that's. So the, the phones and social media.
[00:52:55] Speaker B: Has a lot to do with.
[00:52:57] Speaker D: No, for sure. Shorter attention spans.
A short attention span will rely on more resources for entertainment.
And so the more resources you're allowing yourself to be distracted by, the more influence you're allowing to be puppeteered by.
And there's not many people thinking for themselves anymore. Some people are so caught up that they don't even know they're caught up. And they're the most dangerous ones.
Those are the most dangerous ones. I, I take no place in politics. I take no place in religion. I take no place in anything that I felt like has already been manipulated more than.
More times than days I've been on Earth.
And so I'd rather take a step away, especially when I see the reactions that come of people when they're debating or going about things that way. It gets very violent very fast.
[00:53:48] Speaker C: And, And I just.
[00:53:51] Speaker D: Not all violence is the same violence.
[00:53:53] Speaker C: You can't help but notice. And I think even what we were talking about on the, on the Public Zoo episode with like the, the kids battling, like coming from a generation where we had to go and make friends without devices, where we had, to your words, there was consequences. Yeah, we have free speech in the, in the playground, but free speech could get into getting punched in the face.
[00:54:16] Speaker D: I was just saying that, man. Look. Yeah, like.
[00:54:20] Speaker C: And so when you come up like that and you go to a battle, whether it's break dancing or mcn. Like, yo, like, I'm fine after this. Like, I'll take an L because you know what I mean? Like, it's in the.
[00:54:34] Speaker B: In the.
[00:54:35] Speaker C: It's not that big of a deal whether the odds were in my favor or not. You know what I mean?
[00:54:40] Speaker D: Right. Right. And you touched on something. I don't feel like. I don't feel like free exists.
I don't feel like freedom. I think it's more an illusion. It's. It's not.
It's not a solution. It's not a realistic place to get.
I have it as a step above the word hope.
The.
The mindset of being free.
That that's something that should be of relaxation and bliss almost.
And I feel like if you say we're in the land of the free. No, we're just in a place so big that we don't even know how far the fences stretch. But they're there.
[00:55:15] Speaker B: Wow. That was real.
[00:55:16] Speaker D: You know, they're there.
Look at recent events. You know what freedom of speech gets you? Like I said, there's people that find those fences of. Of. And then they want to stand on them. And hey, don't, you know, you. You can't have it both ways.
You know, words are weapons 100. And how do you think religious battles get started?
[00:55:37] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:55:38] Speaker D: So if, if, if you want to try to justify one thing or justify another thing, you know, everything has consequences.
[00:55:46] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:55:46] Speaker D: You know, and. And even to a deaf person, you know, they'll feel the energy.
There's still the energy behind it.
[00:55:51] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:55:51] Speaker D: You know, I have a friend of mine who's deaf.
[00:55:55] Speaker B: Yeah. He breaks with me here and there.
[00:55:56] Speaker C: He's one of the most annoying. No, I'm just kidding. Angel, I love you, man. You see this?
[00:56:05] Speaker D: So let's go back to leaving Thailand.
[00:56:09] Speaker B: Okay. Yeah.
[00:56:10] Speaker D: Everything shut down.
[00:56:11] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:56:12] Speaker D: We have 6pm curfew. They shut down the beaches. They shut down alcohol. They shut down bars. They shut down everything. 6:00pm everyone's home.
I'm. I'm two minutes walk from the beach.
I can't even go there. You know, they got it right.
[00:56:29] Speaker C: Like I was gonna say.
[00:56:30] Speaker D: Yeah. It's policed and I gotta get out.
[00:56:34] Speaker A: Talk about not being free.
[00:56:36] Speaker B: Wow.
[00:56:36] Speaker D: So I ended up getting a flight in June. I got a flight to Qatar from Bangkok to Qatar.
[00:56:43] Speaker B: Okay.
[00:56:43] Speaker D: It was an eight hour flight and there was only three people on an international flight.
And I was one of the three.
And I don't like flying already.
I just. I just asked for some whiskey. Well, the whole bottle, you know, what am I gonna do?
I'll go to sleep quicker. And I ended up in Qatar. And from qatar I flew 16 hours to Chicago.
And then it's. But you're. I'm already seeing how Covey is being treated in Thailand, now in Qatar, now in Chicago. Wow. And of course in America, we have 50 different, you know, ways of behavior due to 50 different states.
And so Chicago, when I came down to, to Corpus, that's when I stayed some time down here. I mean, we didn't. Nobody knew what the hell was going on at that point.
And oddly enough, after enough time, it's time to go back to work. I got to get back to work.
I've caught up with everybody.
And I ended up taking a job in 2021, and I flew there in September and it was in St. Petersburg, Russia.
I went from Thailand to Russia. And you know, someone who has come up, you know, with ears, you know, I hear the news for two of my first three countries of living in to be China and Russia.
But what, what I love about it is China doesn't think I'm American. Thailand doesn't think I'm American.
[00:58:08] Speaker A: Wow, that's crazy.
[00:58:09] Speaker D: Russia doesn't think I'm American. I'm not the identity of America, right?
So I'm, I'm being called Brazilian.
What they call it exotic, Egyptian.
[00:58:21] Speaker A: How did you get your, your, your name, your guess, your MC name?
[00:58:25] Speaker D: So Trip. Trip is Pharaoh, right? It's Pharaoh Trip. So the Pharaoh Trip came from, you know, me just deep diving into ancient Egypt and, you know, discovering just a whole lot of truths at, at a certain layer that gave me confidence that there's more to be seen. Like this, this earth has a lot more to be seen. And this is just one example of, of possibly dozens, you know, different sites.
Trip is short for triple.
So my real name is Marcel.
[00:58:51] Speaker B: Okay.
[00:58:52] Speaker D: But my father's name is Marcel and my grandfather's Marcel. So I'm the third.
So in the household, Marcel is my father, Trip. It was just a shorter version of the third Trip. Triple.
[00:59:02] Speaker A: That's cool.
[00:59:03] Speaker D: And so my parents always called me Tripp. I've never heard them ever call me Marcel, so that's just naturally been my name.
[00:59:08] Speaker A: So are you, are you for. What's the nationality of your folks, if you don't mind?
[00:59:11] Speaker D: So my mom's from Robstown, Texas.
[00:59:13] Speaker C: Yay.
[00:59:14] Speaker A: Come on, bro.
[00:59:15] Speaker D: Shout out cotton pickers. I see the videos, I'm like, no. My mom picked cotton.
Uncles pick cotton. You know, this. That's the reality.
That was the best job available for people there for a long time.
And my father was from original Hillcrest, Northside.
[00:59:34] Speaker B: Okay.
[00:59:35] Speaker D: Wow. And so he came. My father was born in 52. My mother's born in 55. So if you think about the crossroads that it took for a Mexican woman and coming out of Robstown and a black guy, Hillcrest. Oh, wow. How did that go over when they met and when they told their parents?
Because that's real, too.
[00:59:53] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:59:54] Speaker D: You know, they. They almost crossed the tracks to meet, you know, because a lot of people don't even know what that means.
[01:00:00] Speaker A: You're not supposed to cross.
[01:00:01] Speaker D: Yeah. Yeah. A lot of people don't even know what crossing the tracks mean. And, yeah, they had. They had to really, really work that out together, you know, pretty much two underdogs that found victory.
[01:00:12] Speaker B: That's awesome.
[01:00:13] Speaker D: Yeah.
[01:00:13] Speaker B: And then.
[01:00:14] Speaker D: And everything they've done is everything they worked for in life, provided me for a platform where I'm able to see what I'm able to see right now.
[01:00:22] Speaker A: Yeah. What are your thoughts on the Hillcrest? I guess because they got the diesel and all that stuff going on, and people were saying they're pushing them out or whatever. I don't know the whole story myself since, like, you're. Did you spend time at. In Hillcrest as a kid or.
[01:00:35] Speaker D: No, no, no. So my. My father had already moved out. They'd already gotten out. It's just one of those natural things where, you know, your father doesn't want you to repeat the life that just came out of. Right, right, right. You know, he. He'd rather take chances elsewhere. And my mother was the same way. And so they. They.
They met mutually on that. Decided to, you know, put me, I guess, in a growing area of the city. And it worked out. You know, it worked out real well.
[01:00:59] Speaker B: The original.
[01:01:00] Speaker D: Awesome.
[01:01:03] Speaker A: Which is where, like.
[01:01:05] Speaker C: Like. What are you saying?
[01:01:06] Speaker A: Like, the original south side?
[01:01:07] Speaker C: I mean, I always figured it where the baseball. Southside baseball field is, like, you know what I mean?
[01:01:14] Speaker D: See, I'm closer to cabinets.
[01:01:15] Speaker A: Okay.
[01:01:16] Speaker D: But I'm. I guess I'm more on. On the eastern part, on the South.
Oh, man, you just. You just touched up on something. I'm slipping my train of thought right now. Slipping my train of thought.
[01:01:28] Speaker A: Was it about the Hillcrest community, man, the new bridge?
[01:01:31] Speaker D: What's the deal with, like, okay, you.
You push all these people out, right, and you're going to name the bridge what the. The new harbor.
You're gonna name it, starting with the.
[01:01:44] Speaker A: Letter H. Oh, you gotta start it, bro.
[01:01:46] Speaker D: Or did I?
[01:01:47] Speaker A: I've got you started. I got him started.
[01:01:48] Speaker D: So the letter H, we could have used to just call it Hillcrest Bridge. Oh, damn.
[01:01:53] Speaker A: Yeah, I was listening to Creon's podcast, You know Crayon Martin.
[01:01:56] Speaker B: Right.
[01:01:57] Speaker D: It's the.
[01:01:57] Speaker A: It's called the man look podcast. Anyway, he's talking about. He's talking to somebody from Hillcrest that Elliot Grant was a guy from the Hillcrest community. And they.
[01:02:06] Speaker B: They.
[01:02:06] Speaker A: They named Elliott Grant, I guess on the south side. They gave it to one of them schools over there.
[01:02:10] Speaker D: I was like, well, shout out to Mayor John Wimbish. That's my guy, John Wimbish. Holding it down over there.
[01:02:16] Speaker A: Yeah, but that was interesting that you were talking about, like, just naming it the Hillcrest Bridge. It's right there.
[01:02:21] Speaker D: I mean, there's small acts that will let people at least know that you notice some part of their struggle with.
[01:02:26] Speaker B: Yeah.
[01:02:26] Speaker D: Having to transition out of where they grew up.
[01:02:29] Speaker B: Yeah.
[01:02:29] Speaker D: You know that that's. We see it often in history. And if you want to hear more about that, American Autopsy talks all about picked up, gentrified, moved out.
It's a cycle. And it's a real thing.
[01:02:41] Speaker A: It's a real thing.
[01:02:42] Speaker D: And it's a color coded cycle.
[01:02:45] Speaker B: Yeah.
[01:02:46] Speaker D: That's crazy. It's a color coded cycle.
[01:02:48] Speaker A: So you have a lot of that in your. Obviously in your. In your music and stuff like that.
[01:02:52] Speaker B: Right.
[01:02:53] Speaker D: A lot of irony.
Because I think irony and hypocrisy sleep together.
So. So it's ironic you say this, but you do this.
[01:03:01] Speaker C: Yeah.
[01:03:01] Speaker D: Don't that make you a hypocrite?
So they definitely sleep together. And I love my writing style, loves to find pockets of irony.
[01:03:08] Speaker C: That's a poet in you.
[01:03:09] Speaker D: And I. I. A lot of my students always come out and. And they have things they want to ask about America and everything. I got to give them sharp vagueness. For instance, I have a. I have a bar where I say, if it can be fixed and it's not fixed, well, guess what? They don't want it fixed.
So if you find a solution, that's. That's pretty sound and it's Occam's red. The room agrees on it and. But somehow it's not gonna work.
[01:03:35] Speaker A: They're not gonna put it in the practice.
[01:03:37] Speaker D: They want you to spend your time talking about that.
[01:03:39] Speaker B: Yeah.
[01:03:40] Speaker D: You know, because it gives more attention to what they need.
[01:03:42] Speaker B: Yeah.
[01:03:43] Speaker D: You know, their pockets feed off of attention, commitment, showing that you're still raising your POM. POMs, when they're on screen, you know, it's deep, man. And that's one thing I love seeing overseas. Like, so when I got to Russia, 2021. So what happened in February 2022, the invasion of Ukraine all over there, when that popped off. Oh, yeah. We.
Our head teacher, our principal, and, like, six, seven members of staff, like, jetted overnight. Didn't even think twice. Internal body, we didn't know until we showed up to work.
[01:04:15] Speaker B: Yeah.
[01:04:16] Speaker D: Understaffed. And then embassies are leaving left and right, which means those kids have to leave, too.
[01:04:21] Speaker B: Yeah.
[01:04:21] Speaker D: And those kids have been friends with these kids. And I'm seeing friendships split because of war.
[01:04:26] Speaker B: Yeah. Yeah.
[01:04:26] Speaker D: You know, these are the.
I will say intentional acts. There's no unintentional acts when you send missiles.
[01:04:33] Speaker B: Yeah.
[01:04:33] Speaker D: Or when you're targeting, you know, areas that aren't bases, going to residential areas. And that goes for anybody. Yeah, man. It's. It. There's a lot of social, emotional healing that needs to be done. And that's where I feel like your duty as a teacher is. Is, you know, suited. You know, it's not when class is perfect. It's when real life is happening, happening. And these kids still rely on you for six hours of the day. You know, they need to hear something that can stick. And so all I did was just try to give them things that can stick in life. You know, I pretty much threw out the curriculum.
[01:05:09] Speaker B: Yeah.
[01:05:09] Speaker D: And I said, what. What do we need to do right now? So, like, when we had English classes, a lot of it was them voicing out, you know, personal frustrations and venting about, you know, what's currently going on, because we can't be loud about it.
[01:05:22] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah.
[01:05:22] Speaker D: But we can pin things down. We can author it, you know, we can keep it to ourselves, you know, treat it like a class diary.
[01:05:29] Speaker A: Do you consider that, like, a way of teaching them, like, I guess, hip hop?
[01:05:33] Speaker D: Everything is hip hop. Everything. Yeah.
[01:05:36] Speaker A: I'm starting to think that because I've been having you guys on and stuff like that, I'm like, damn, is what I'm doing. You know what I mean?
[01:05:42] Speaker D: So hip hop is the soul food of music, because soul food came from the scraps.
[01:05:50] Speaker B: Right.
[01:05:51] Speaker D: Hip hop was born out the scraps.
[01:05:53] Speaker B: Right. Wow.
[01:05:54] Speaker D: It found itself and it created a generation. And what we're seeing is a generation that now is representing itself with the elements of it having to find itself.
There is no. There is no father of hip hop. There's a birth of hip hop.
[01:06:10] Speaker B: Right.
[01:06:11] Speaker D: And there's a bunch of influences. There's a lot of ingredients that go into it. But when we're talking about like the, the nature of it.
No, it's not like blues.
[01:06:20] Speaker B: Yeah.
[01:06:20] Speaker D: You know what I mean? Blues goes back to an instrument which goes back, you know, to ancient, ancient times in the world.
[01:06:29] Speaker C: How do you figure with there being four elements?
[01:06:31] Speaker D: Well, because, because hip hop, the energy in hip hop was rooted more on I'm gonna prove you right. Or it's the have nots. This is all I got.
[01:06:41] Speaker B: Yeah.
[01:06:42] Speaker D: You know, for instance, when you bomb a train, right, for the first time, all white train. No one's done that. And put on your goggles of a 13 year old kid in like 1980 who bombed his first train, who's a, who's not excelling at school, probably coming from a broken home on the street more hours in the day than, than he needs to be.
And he sees his peace ride by knowing that the whole city sees his peace.
Like that little spark of like, like that's hip hop that you now felt seen.
[01:07:16] Speaker B: Yeah.
[01:07:17] Speaker D: Your story felt seen. Yeah. There's pain behind the words or struggle in the progress.
[01:07:22] Speaker C: So this is something that I wanted to kind of dive on. It kind of brings up a good point.
[01:07:27] Speaker B: So.
[01:07:30] Speaker C: That, that feeling, right, I feel like from my own journey, man, I was chasing the, the scene and a status and, and, and the game, you know what I mean? And getting the various points where you're almost like, like too hip hop or too different, you know what I mean?
[01:07:47] Speaker A: It's like commercialized hip hop. Would you say that?
[01:07:49] Speaker C: Like, like you too much of a purist? I would say, you know what I mean? Like if you didn't do hip hop my way, like and this is early years after many books and you know this, that books will do this to.
[01:08:00] Speaker D: You for a little bit.
[01:08:00] Speaker C: Like they'll flame the ego. Like you said earlier, the first the homeboy reads one book and then he wants to go and torch for like, like coming from that, that side of things, how do you negate like your experiences coming back to your, your local hater, you know what I mean? And not having some kind of ego trip about it, you know.
And I feel like this is something that like now in my older age I, I've gotten a, a better grip on. I'm a man of faith, so I attested to that. But that it is something that I feel like a lot of us like who do get out and do experience these things like that we wrestle with, you know what I mean? Because as Much as you. You always have, like, your core people who are supporting here, but then you got those ones that are like, yeah, yeah. So does that make sense?
[01:08:52] Speaker D: It does, it does.
I personally can't knock anything that I don't participate in.
[01:09:00] Speaker B: Okay.
[01:09:00] Speaker D: And that. That deals with hip hop too.
[01:09:02] Speaker B: Right.
[01:09:03] Speaker D: I don't take part in drill rap. I don't listen to it. I don't have an opinion on it.
[01:09:07] Speaker B: Right.
If.
[01:09:08] Speaker D: If you play in the room right now, I have a choice to not be in the room if I don't want to hear it.
[01:09:12] Speaker B: Right.
[01:09:12] Speaker D: I'm not gonna protest. Too many people wanted to stand their ground and protest something immediately to feel heard. Oh, you're annoying.
You're gonna make me want to be around you less. Yeah, There. There comes a time and I felt like I've, you know, certain experiences will do it to you. Like, you Yoda out.
[01:09:31] Speaker B: Okay.
[01:09:31] Speaker D: You just hit a level to where if somebody's upset with me or frustrated with me, they clearly don't even know who I am.
[01:09:37] Speaker B: Right.
[01:09:38] Speaker D: Because everybody I've had a chance to sit down with, talk with, build with, eat with, we're all good still.
[01:09:44] Speaker B: Right.
[01:09:44] Speaker D: No matter what areas in life they chose to take after that, they know that there was always peace when we were around each other. I got. I don't go around the world making enemies. They're already naturally there. I don't need to make more to make my job harder.
You know, they're already going to be there. And so if anybody, you know, has an opinion, maybe they. It's just not their time yet. You know, it's not everybody's time to understand the words that you speak.
[01:10:06] Speaker B: Right.
[01:10:06] Speaker D: You know, there was a. There was a point in time where I would have been annoyed with myself with this album. I want to hear that. Like. But now I'm at that point in my life where, you know, I feel, you know, this is. This is essential. It's what the soil needs, you know, to grow.
[01:10:18] Speaker C: Yeah, no, I was. I guess I was getting that, like, more chasing, I think, for a while. And this is just from my own journey, man. Like, I had this notion of what I wanted to look like and sound like and be like and. And break like and think like, and. You know what I mean? And then when you finally get that, they get to a level where. I wouldn't say if I ever fully achieved it, but you get to a certain level where you're there, and that's cool. You got what you wanted. It's not.
[01:10:50] Speaker B: Yeah.
[01:10:50] Speaker C: I don't know you're still not satisfied.
[01:10:51] Speaker D: With who you are with writing. Yes.
[01:10:53] Speaker B: Okay.
[01:10:53] Speaker D: 100. With writing.
Beat making. All beat makers. We all think we're the best. You know, we think we're the coldest.
You know, you didn't hear it in my, you know, my JBL that night.
[01:11:04] Speaker C: You know, practices, like, we're always the best B boy in practice for sure, man.
[01:11:10] Speaker D: And. But with writing, I. I feel that way heavy with the writing. I'm. I'm so meticulous with the writing. I.
I love hearing somebody say, this guy's nice, because it makes me want to now scope it, see, like, to my skill. Is he nice?
One of the first artists I felt like that about was Lupe Fiasco.
[01:11:32] Speaker C: Because I was just talking to my.
[01:11:34] Speaker D: Church brother about that guy. So Lupe Fiasco let me backtrack it at UTSA one weekend at Stubbs, Roots were having a show, and so me and my homeboy pj. Shout out, pj. We got tickets to go see the Roots. We show up, and we didn't know that Jean Gray was also on the undercard and that Pharaoh Munch was on the undercard. But they were introducing this young brother to the world. And, you know, he goes on stage. And long story short is Lupe. Oh, he hadn't even. He hadn't even dropped a music video yet, but he had the songs done.
And I mean, he was a talented guy, but just friendliest guy in the world, right? Like, he's young kid, like, on stage, and I'm already looking at him with lasers in my eyes.
Like, if he calls someone to battle, I'm running on the stage, man. I'm ready. Like, I'm just ready for attack, you know, Especially when it comes with, you know, the pin.
[01:12:27] Speaker B: Yeah.
[01:12:28] Speaker D: Wordplay everything.
I can't be boy like that no more. I'll battle a kid in class.
Yeah, I'll do.
[01:12:35] Speaker A: You just won the. The zoo. What is it?
[01:12:37] Speaker D: The.
[01:12:38] Speaker A: The rap battle, Right? That's cool. Con, shout out to Zu, the producer, wanted to know if you had to learn Mandarin now.
[01:12:44] Speaker D: You just learned, man, you learn a lot of phrases on the go. I can't read or write Mandarin, but there's. There's plenty of phrases that.
That you just learn. Learn on the go. And I need gentian some, like, have a. Like, have a good day, I believe, or.
Man, I'm. I'm a little rusty with that.
[01:13:02] Speaker A: Talking about. Was it Lupe Fiasco?
[01:13:05] Speaker D: Yeah.
[01:13:05] Speaker A: It made me think, like. Like, just you talking, like, do you feel like you're a competitive person.
[01:13:09] Speaker D: Oh, for sure, for sure. But I don't show it.
I don't show it. I'm saying I, I don't like to show my cards.
[01:13:17] Speaker C: Thank you, cuz.
[01:13:18] Speaker D: A bluffing deck. A bluff, A bluffing pot.
[01:13:22] Speaker A: What you say?
[01:13:22] Speaker D: I said a bluffing debt could win a pot.
So you don't know what I got. But I know I'm working with some aces.
[01:13:28] Speaker C: Yeah.
Know what it bring that back pocket aces.
[01:13:34] Speaker D: And so man, but that came through sports, right? Through competition, constant competition. And that's, that's where you find your grit, how you figure things out or now the world becomes applicable because you know, it takes practice to get better.
[01:13:48] Speaker B: Yeah.
[01:13:48] Speaker D: So whether you're going to get better with tools or with instruments.
[01:13:51] Speaker C: Funny that you say that, man. My wife and her family are extremely competitive and I mean it could be like sequence the card game, it could.
[01:14:01] Speaker D: Be a household man.
[01:14:04] Speaker C: Sequence is, is their jam. But it could be basketball, pickleball, whatever the case, man, they are extremely competitive. And I'm, this is my personality, man. Like if I'm angry, he gonna lie and say I yell, but he don't count in the corner.
[01:14:22] Speaker D: But I could play a 10 year old in basketball right now in the back of the school. There ain't no friendly one on one.
[01:14:31] Speaker B: No.
[01:14:31] Speaker C: But my wife's always like, you're not competitive. And I'm like, in my head I'm like, man, I'm one of the most competitive people I know. I just don't go about it the way y' all do.
[01:14:39] Speaker D: Well, because if you, and if it.
[01:14:41] Speaker C: Bugs me, I'm not gonna go out and, and, and say it. You know what I mean?
[01:14:45] Speaker D: If you show your armor, someone's gonna attack.
And I don't always want to leave the house ready to defend myself of attack just because I'm wearing something that's going to magnetize somebody that wants to challenge me. So I'm not going to go out, you know, being loud and obnoxious and say I'm this, I'm this. I'm this. I'm this. No, you know, my confidence lies within.
[01:15:04] Speaker B: Yeah.
[01:15:05] Speaker D: I don't need a reminder.
[01:15:05] Speaker C: And when the time comes, we'll prove it.
[01:15:07] Speaker D: We'll see. Exactly. Exactly. And that's, that's, that's what a moment felt like, you know, at the MC Battle, you know, and I hadn't been in the scene in forever. I now came back and it was good to, to make a splash at the pool, you know, everybody felt. And no better, no better. Crowd to do it around than the ones that have been supporting me from the beginning.
And I'm not crew, but we're family facts.
[01:15:32] Speaker A: Digging the dreads, bro.
[01:15:34] Speaker D: Take a while to get them there. Oh, man, you know, I get Lenny Kravitz. I get Bob Marley overseas, man. So I used to have the fro. Like. Like the photo I submitted, man. I used to have the fro. And. And that was at the time where every airport I was in, they're thinking, I'm calling.
I couldn't go nowhere. I get Zach Delarocha when I had.
But yeah, so.
So going back to. To Russia after the Ukraine situation, I ended up getting illegally taxied out on land because the situation with the airport was crazy.
[01:16:08] Speaker B: Wow.
[01:16:08] Speaker D: They were charging like five grand to get out through. Through flying because they knew all the European airports were banning Russian planes because of NATO. It was all that I. This is a whole. Another podcast. I can't wait to go in.
I got some strong opinions about it, but long story short, I get. I get help getting taxied out. Pretty much coyote out, crossing the border.
A few problems at the border when they see my American passport. But, you know, it wasn't. It was. It was nerve wracking. But I was. I was. I got everything I need.
I'm not American, remember?
And. But the crazy part about it is the guy who got me out, his name was Igor. Shout out, Igor.
[01:16:53] Speaker B: Igor.
[01:16:53] Speaker D: But Igor had, you know, the whole.
The whole Russian stereotype kid, you know, in a beamer taking me out, paid 500 to get him to do this. So he came from Finland.
He came down to pick me up in St. Petersburg.
[01:17:09] Speaker A: How'd you find out about him?
[01:17:11] Speaker D: Through a South African that was married to a Russian.
I got some good people over there, man. Shout out. Shout out my South Africans, too.
[01:17:21] Speaker A: You pay 500 for him to take you.
[01:17:23] Speaker D: So he picks me up, we cross and everything. Five minutes before we get to the border, he pulls over and he goes, I need you to sit in the front.
And I'm like, all right.
I heard rumors that this is okay. He wants to look like we're. And then as I'm getting my stuff, because, my friend, I am. I am very sorry. You don't want to hear Saul.
Five minutes from the border.
[01:17:45] Speaker B: Yeah.
[01:17:45] Speaker D: He goes, this is. This is very dangerous.
I'm like, yo, like, you could have told. You could have prepped me on this.
[01:17:53] Speaker B: You could.
[01:17:53] Speaker C: Yeah.
[01:17:54] Speaker D: Trying to figure out how to tell you.
Blood pressure machine here. I'm done. Just see how tense I am.
[01:18:00] Speaker C: Could have this conversation at the start.
[01:18:02] Speaker A: Funny.
[01:18:02] Speaker D: And so he go, oh, everything fine. Everything fine. Cuz the car had Swedish license plates.
[01:18:07] Speaker B: Okay.
[01:18:07] Speaker D: And then he showed me a Swedish passport. No, this guy's not Swedish.
He is not Swedish. His name's Igor.
[01:18:15] Speaker B: Yeah.
[01:18:18] Speaker D: And man, sure enough, you know, that he. His documentation. They let him pass. Like nothing. Like nothing. I'm like, oh, he got it together. I'm looking at her car. They're like stripping the car. They're taking out the seats. They're looking for every type of contraband they can.
[01:18:32] Speaker B: Yeah.
[01:18:32] Speaker D: They didn't find nothing. We get past. I get past. We take off. And he goes, my friend, I am.
I'm not from. From Sweden.
No, Finland. Finland. Not from Finland. I'm like, apologize for that mistake.
So where are you from? So I'm from Ukraine.
Well, my brother from Ukraine.
Ukraine. Oh, it's all funny, man.
Kind of joke is this, man. So wait, so. So that's the crazy part. Ukraine refugees moved to Finland because they were offering packages for refugees.
[01:19:06] Speaker B: Okay.
[01:19:07] Speaker D: They allowed them to like, instant citizenship.
[01:19:09] Speaker C: And he's picking up.
[01:19:10] Speaker D: He picked up a car, Swedish plate, Finnish plates, and a passport. And he's been taxing back and forth from Russia, picking up people like me. He did it. He said he did it 17 times.
[01:19:23] Speaker B: Uber right there.
[01:19:23] Speaker C: 17.
[01:19:24] Speaker D: He had done it 17 times.
[01:19:25] Speaker C: I mean, that's a good record to have.
[01:19:28] Speaker D: Yeah.
Like, I didn't know. I didn't even know what to call it. It was like, yo, the Harriet Tubman of the Slavic region.
[01:19:35] Speaker A: Like, so you. So you traveled to. Where to?
[01:19:39] Speaker D: So after I left Russia, I got a job.
[01:19:43] Speaker B: Wow.
[01:19:44] Speaker D: I got a job in Costa Rica. So I flew over to Costa Rica, stayed there for a year, and ended up getting a job opportunity in Athens, Greece. And then I jumped over there. Every spot I've been in, though, I find a way to get involved in the scene. I've been involved in the scene somehow, some way. Everywhere I've done open mics, everywhere I've been. Wow. I've done shows. I hosted hip hop night in Beijing at a club called Hot Cat Club for multiple months.
And it came about after I bombed on a comedy open mic night. So too much whiskey.
I bombed that. I liked it. So the manager said he enjoyed my set and he. He said he was thinking about. Oh, he was playing some Pete Rock and premiere beats.
[01:20:24] Speaker B: Okay.
[01:20:25] Speaker D: And everybody left and I was like, can I rap? Is the mic still on? So he said, yeah. So I started freestyling in. It didn't bomb that, like, 15, 20 minutes. Like, we're just freestyling. My homeboy Rupert's right there, and he calls me over, said he wanted me to. I have the. He said I looked the part to host Hip Hop Night there. So he let me do it.
[01:20:42] Speaker C: And this is supposed to mean this.
[01:20:45] Speaker D: Guy is a Uyghur, The Uyghurs of China. That. That's so that division of Chinese people, through my understanding, I could be very wrong, but they're more of, like, a Muslim faith that is completely being eradicated. Well, they're. They're being Gestapo.
[01:21:05] Speaker B: Wow.
[01:21:05] Speaker D: No questions asked. Take you. You're thrown into camp.
[01:21:07] Speaker B: Whoa.
[01:21:08] Speaker D: And last I heard, his shop was boarded up like. Like, it's intense. They don't document it, they don't talk about it. It's not to be talked about. On China, you get prepped every year. You get prepped at the same time not to talk about the three T's, Taiwan, Tiananmen Square, and Tibetan massacres.
[01:21:27] Speaker B: Wow.
[01:21:27] Speaker D: You can't even search it.
[01:21:29] Speaker A: Hope this video doesn't get taken down.
[01:21:31] Speaker D: And if you talk about it enough, you talk about it enough in your group chats in China.
[01:21:36] Speaker B: Yeah.
[01:21:36] Speaker D: You'll get a knock.
They'll come knock on your door, figure out what you're doing. That's wild.
[01:21:42] Speaker C: That's definitely changes your perspective on.
[01:21:44] Speaker D: So coming back to America, especially Corpus. That's why I'm like, yo, like, I don't have any problems with no one here. I'm here to support the scene. I'm here to just, you know, implement a lot of the thoughts and ideas that I can incorporate.
[01:21:57] Speaker C: Age, like, that's kind of where I'm at too, man. Just supporting everybody. And I think you and I kind of met at a. At a dope time. It's been. It's been a great conversation with you, man. I'm sure you and I could chop it up.
[01:22:08] Speaker D: Oh, for sure, man. We got. We got a lot to talk about.
[01:22:12] Speaker C: Oh, man. I mean, we only touched on the battlene, like, nowhere near as much as I wanted. I wanted to get into your traveling. I wanted to get into your. I wanted to get into the poetry, man. Like, a lot of people don't realize how into it I am.
[01:22:25] Speaker A: You're into it also.
[01:22:26] Speaker C: Yeah, man, I love poetry. I. I write it with the goal of doing an open mic one day, but I've never done it. I've always chickened out, and that's because I love speaking in front of people. I've done, like, public speaking at my old jobs. And stuff like that. But just that is. It's. It's on the to do list. Just every time I get close, I check it out.
[01:22:46] Speaker D: Stick to the pocket of your. If I had any advice, stick to the pocket of your delivery.
[01:22:50] Speaker B: Okay.
[01:22:50] Speaker D: Don't write to a beat, but the pocket of your delivery.
[01:22:53] Speaker B: Yeah.
[01:22:54] Speaker D: There's certain parts of the bar you want enunciated, but then don't leave that absent when you get to the next bar, you know, you just introduce that. That part. Reintroduce it. Reintroduce like you're nailing home a part of it that should be delivered differently. Yeah, Yeah.
I would tell people to focus like that because a lot of it goes monotone, Right. Because a lot of my favorite spiritual.
[01:23:15] Speaker C: Are the ones that. That are animated. You know what I mean? Like the Saul Williams of the world.
[01:23:21] Speaker D: I feel like I'm saying something I should have said a long time ago, and I'm finally getting the time to say it. So I'm, like, anxious to say it. I'm like, yo, okay, yo, did y' all know, like. And I just started going on it like that.
[01:23:32] Speaker A: So you. So you have to present it to some. To an audience at one point.
[01:23:37] Speaker D: I. I prefer to. I don't write.
Everything I write I plan to. To speak out about. And that's what helped me shape how I write with the intention of it being seen by multiple people.
[01:23:49] Speaker C: I think for me, as much as I would like to, I'm comfortable just having a black book and writing things down.
I use being on various platforms, whether it's, you know, something like this or speaking in front of people to get that itch out because it's something. Or even at. Even at work, talking to people and controlling a conversation and being able to bring in others. And I feel like if that's so much more natural. And there's. And that's why I asked earlier if is there an aspect of the performance in the classroom?
Another. Another similarity, man. I was subbing in between my. In between jobs recently, and I loved it, man. I was doing. I was subbing kindergarten.
Yeah, it was great, man.
[01:24:31] Speaker D: But I think above being personable, you're speaking to real people with real problems, right? You have. You're a real person with real problems.
Stop. Stop being so many characters.
You got to keep up with every character that you. That you mask yourself with.
The more you stop, the better you feel in every room you walk into.
[01:24:54] Speaker B: Right?
[01:24:55] Speaker D: And so, like, at school, students know immediately what to expect when I walk into the room because I don't change. You're gonna get this every day. There's different versions but it's the same person.
And as far as what they're seeing and all that. Yeah, man. I mean I.
I see kids always bring me their. Their favorite songs and stuff. Want me to listen to stuff like that. And again I'm like, he's trash. You know. Yeah, I'm better than him. But.
But you gotta. You. You can't lose touch. You can't lose touch. It's important. It's important for your mind to stay relevant with what's going on 100 your interest may not have to but let keep your mind sharp and relevant to. To the awareness of the full scope hope of what to consider. You know, the, the glory of going to a supermarket. It's. It's not the few items you purchase, it's the option of how many items you can purchase. And so let your mind, you know, always be available to explore any chambers it needs to 100 you know, to fully develop. But you know, you have your chambers that you're gonna often go to. It's just keep the other doors unlocked in the meantime.
[01:25:58] Speaker A: I definitely. I think of it like, like always have some type of creative. Something creative. Because I'm creative. Like I play guitar for years I've been in bands and stuff like that. And I feel like even this podcast is a part of me being creative. So.
[01:26:12] Speaker D: Absolutely.
[01:26:12] Speaker A: I think there's always some avenue of creativity.
[01:26:17] Speaker C: Man.
[01:26:18] Speaker D: I haven't even told you about the Bow wow this I did in the MySpace days that caught you.
I did a Bow wow this. Defending Will Smith. No, because Bow wow I was looking for any reason to dispute for.
So I was like, wait, he dissed Will Smith right after he did.
[01:26:31] Speaker A: What do you think about what else Will Smith did to the comedian?
[01:26:35] Speaker D: Words or weapons? Be careful of the response. It's like, good thing it wasn't a gunshot.
Wow.
[01:26:41] Speaker B: Yeah.
[01:26:42] Speaker D: You know, everybody wanted to, you know, talk. Talk negative about Will Smith, but he didn't kill nobody for what they said.
I've been slapped for saying the wrong things.
[01:26:53] Speaker B: Yeah.
[01:26:55] Speaker D: Lesson learned.
[01:26:56] Speaker B: Yeah.
[01:26:56] Speaker D: Chris Rock ain't gonna do it again.
[01:27:00] Speaker C: Well, not there.
[01:27:01] Speaker D: Yeah. His brother's the one that's. That's been talking mad now. But I disbow Wow. I wanted a reason to disbow out for a long time.
[01:27:08] Speaker B: Really.
[01:27:08] Speaker D: He became like the BET heartthrob. And that's when BET was making this big change. MySpace days, he was turning into like Robert Johnson. Sold it. Everything was getting commercialized out. This is when they're getting snap rap and all that. Laffy Taffy's coming in the mix and Bow Wow. Just. Just. Just for existing, I dissed them. And.
And so that track took it. There was like 50, 000 plays off off that. Oh, in MySpace thing. I'm like, what? And so I'm getting hate mail from all this little teeny bottom.
[01:27:41] Speaker B: Wow.
[01:27:42] Speaker D: And a message board for Jazzy Jeff, Fresh Prince message board. I. I was Googling, you know, to see if anybody was picking it up, and they had a whole discussion about it. And it eventually got me to join the discussion, you know, to let them know, you know, Yeah, I did it because they were loving it, so why not.
Why not join a room and speak about you?
And so I hopped in there, and there's a few people I met there that I still keep up with to this day. And this was 2005, 2006, around that time. And I would do songs, we'd send verses overseas. And one of the guys, I did the breaks, shout out breaks. One of the songs we did in 2006, we were able to link up. When I left Russia, I went to London and I. I hollered at him, said, I'm in London for a few days. We linked up, he played the old song, and in the park, we did like a little verse video with it. And it's crazy to think that, you know, 11, 12 years after you make a song, you finally meet the person, you did the song on their territory, man. You know, in a park in London.
[01:28:41] Speaker A: Nervous.
[01:28:41] Speaker D: That's cool. Wow, man. Cool, dude. Too cool.
[01:28:44] Speaker C: That's.
[01:28:45] Speaker D: Man, we're worldwide, man.
[01:28:49] Speaker C: Man, thank you for coming on.
Thank you for having me. Let me have this opportunity to do this, man. This has been such a dope experience, man. I'm looking forward to. Man, we're gonna work together one of these days, man. Something, whether it's writing or some more zoo events. Wish you the best with your travels. Whenever you're getting ready to get out of here.
[01:29:07] Speaker D: Yeah, man, I'm about to. About to go see my better half.
[01:29:09] Speaker B: Yeah, man.
[01:29:10] Speaker C: You know, same.
[01:29:11] Speaker D: The one that keeps a smile on.
[01:29:12] Speaker A: My face yes, sir.
[01:29:13] Speaker D: This world tries to take it off yeah Gotta find the people that put bars.
[01:29:18] Speaker C: It's good to have you. Thank you, gentlemen, for this conversation.
[01:29:20] Speaker A: Wait, before we go, is there anything. Is there anything, Anything you want to say before.
[01:29:24] Speaker D: Man, American Autopsy, my debut album. It's. It's just meant for the. For the ears, man. It's. It's. If you had any frustrations towards this country at one point in time, there's definitely some bars in there for you.
I think we all have a lot to say. It's just we don't feel like we are allowed the right avenues.
We feel restricted on the. The ways we can say it. Especially now with, you know, more speech laws and what you can put on in the Internet and what you can't put out. It's like they're trying to filter what's raw. You can't filter raw. It's either raw or it's not. And so American Autopsy is an uncut, you know, scope of how I've been looking at things, you know, being multi, multi diverse. You know, I'm a cocktail of cultures already with my bloodline.
And so, you know, shout out to Trenton. Who mixed it down?
Kaia Vance, the Quota Team, Bobby Glory Trey.
Man, that group really.
They really inspired me to get back into the music. There's some of the first that once I got back into the scene, I was able to watch them, you know, great young talent over there. Kaia's poet laureate of the city. And so being able to watch them perform. And they introduced me to Trenton, who sound engineered the whole project for free.
[01:30:36] Speaker C: Man.
[01:30:37] Speaker D: This man did it like, come on, man.
[01:30:40] Speaker C: Yeah, you ain't beat.
[01:30:40] Speaker D: I can't. I can't pass an opportunity like that. I mean, he ain't free no more.
[01:30:45] Speaker C: My favorite.
[01:30:45] Speaker A: My favorite song is the Bar.
[01:30:47] Speaker D: The Bar.
[01:30:48] Speaker B: Yeah.
[01:30:48] Speaker D: Yeah, man.
[01:30:50] Speaker A: It's real chill, bro. Your voice is like. It's. It's a real good.
[01:30:53] Speaker D: Not every boy becomes a man. Check his mannerisms.
[01:30:55] Speaker B: Yeah.
[01:30:55] Speaker A: The way you even kick it off, it's like talking about learning physics and whatever went.
[01:31:00] Speaker D: From watching.
Yeah, yeah. From watching Astros to learning.
[01:31:03] Speaker A: There you go.
[01:31:04] Speaker D: Have to make me feel that way Black.
[01:31:06] Speaker A: Go ask the catalysts. Cataclysmic yeah, yeah When I was born.
[01:31:10] Speaker D: Yeah, the planet shifted. Go ask a catalyst they're gonna say My first steps are cataclysmic catechisms of Catholics and Baptists. Imagine Christians lying to me about the black Egyptians. Sacrilegious.
[01:31:21] Speaker A: Yeah, that's a good jam right there.
[01:31:23] Speaker D: I appreciate that, brother. Man.
Every song on the album, by the way, had about four versions.
[01:31:28] Speaker B: Whoa.
[01:31:29] Speaker D: Because the beats all came from overseas. When I was overseas.
[01:31:33] Speaker B: Okay.
[01:31:33] Speaker D: I started shaping all the rhymes once I got back here. But there are pieces from other.
[01:31:38] Speaker B: Yeah.
[01:31:39] Speaker D: Other unfinished notebooks.
And I just made sure it all worked out right.
[01:31:45] Speaker C: Perform any of the other versions. Like, when you do.
Or do you think It'll be like a. Like a. Like a feeling kind of thing. Like, you know what? Tonight, I think this.
[01:31:56] Speaker D: It'd have to be impromptu.
[01:31:57] Speaker C: Yeah.
[01:31:58] Speaker D: It's not something I can decide because there's definitely some edits I made purposely.
[01:32:04] Speaker B: Yeah.
[01:32:05] Speaker D: And I got to keep it vague. You know, that's the. That's the point of secrets, man. I got.
Put it this way.
[01:32:11] Speaker C: Show me your cards. I got you.
[01:32:12] Speaker D: There's a Lost files coming out.
American autopsy. Lost files. What? Didn't make the cut, but some of those.
I had to make a business decision.
[01:32:22] Speaker B: Yeah.
[01:32:24] Speaker D: Oh, man, I keep a cutthroat, man. I. I feel like we've all been dealt shady hands, and we're all trying to play the best. The best of our abilities, and so I. I appreciate y' all giving me the time to.
[01:32:38] Speaker C: Likewise, man. Thank you.
[01:32:40] Speaker D: You know, get some exposure, man. I've been. I've been, you know, like a fly on the wall, watching.
[01:32:45] Speaker A: Cool, man.
Public zoo, bro. Shout out.
[01:32:49] Speaker D: Yes, sir. Shout out to all. Public zoo, man. Yeah, I really held it down. Shout out.
[01:32:55] Speaker B: Just.
[01:32:55] Speaker D: Just everybody, man. I don't have enough people, you know, to. My people out in Russia, you know, Hasta la victoria, siempre.
[01:33:06] Speaker B: There you go.
[01:33:07] Speaker C: That's a good way to end it, man.
