The Rec Show Podcast
David “Gldnmnd” Hicks is a Beatmaker and Hip Hop culture participant/supporter based in the United States. On The Rec Show Podcast, Gldnmnd interviews Beatmakers/Music Producers/Composers from around the world, hearing stories of beat culture, musical journeys (past and present), musical exposures and music technology. Topics include music genesis, inspirations, music superheroes, Digital Audio Workstations vs. Analog gear, Discographies, Local Beat Scene/community views and more while listening to each guest’s instrumental music compositions. Tap In!
The Rec Show Podcast
‘A happy hOHM’ - a Beatversation with Creators DOM CRUZ & TeedotEinsof
“Be a homie & let us know what you think”
What does it mean to build ‘a happy hOHM’ —not just a physical structure, but a spiritual sanctuary within yourself? Dom Cruz and TeedotEinsof explore this profound question through their collaborative masterpiece "a happy hOHM."
From the first whispered wind chimes of "Peace, Peace" to the triumphant reflection of "Spring Equinox," this album invites you into an intimate space where vulnerability becomes strength and honesty becomes healing. The project's title, deliberately spelled h-O-H-M, connects the concept of home with the universal sound "ohm"—suggesting that true home extends beyond physical space into spiritual resonance.
Through minimalist production that cradles confessional lyrics, Dom Cruz opens his heart about fatherhood, personal growth, and the complex journey toward self-acceptance. "I don't know if I'm enough, I just hope they feel the love," he admits on the album's closing track, articulating the universal fear we all face. TeedotEinsof’s & DOM’s soulful production creates the perfect foundation—sometimes meditative, sometimes raw and gritty—capturing every emotional shade of the human experience.
What sets this album apart is its emotional courage. In a world where men are often discouraged from expressing vulnerability, Dom and Teedot create a safe space for listeners to confront their own feelings. From the street narratives of "1000 G's" (featuring the late Pilla) to the spiritual awakening of "Plant Seeds," the album refuses to fragment the human experience into separate boxes, instead acknowledging how pain, joy, struggle, and transcendence coexist within us all.
The Love Supreme California collective shines throughout, particularly on the standout posse cut "Tribal Chiefs," demonstrating the power of community in artistic expression. But even surrounded by collaborators, the heart of this album remains intensely personal—a testament to what happens when artists strip away pretense and speak their truth.
Listen to "a happy hOHM with intention. Sit with it. Let it wash over you. This isn't background music—it's a conversation, a confession, an invitation to reflect on your own journey toward building something beautiful within yourself. Purchase Cassette & CDs here. Watch ‘a happy hOHM’ documentary playlist here.
Roots to Realms is a holistic based service providing medicinal, vegan treats for assistance in your spiritual wellbeing. Hand crafted with intention, and made for any and everyone looking to explore their mind.
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Edited, Mixed and Mastered by Gldnmnd
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What is that sound, you ask?
Speaker 2:Welcome to the Wreck Show podcast, a show dedicated to beatmakers around the world.
Speaker 3:Kick back, relax with the Maybach Party.
Speaker 4:The Maybach Party all right, check, check one, two. Peace and love everybody. Go to my back again. I told y'all we back outside. I told y'all we back outside. So look, this is what we're doing, man. We got another episode for the beat for station series where I go one-on-one with the creators of these dope albums, beat tapes, experiences, whatever you want to call it. Man, it's all of that. But this is where we go, kind of BTS, where we go behind the scenes for these albums man these beat tapes, these instrumental albums and stuff like that.
Speaker 4:Today I got a guest and I hope my other guest pops up too. But for right now we're going to talk to my guest who hails from California. Man, I got a lot of California homies out there man doing amazing things up on my radar when they were plugging it with the documentaries and stuff like that on a on a specific YouTube channel called A Love Supreme California man. Um, it was December of last year. Now, crazy enough, december of last year I was in California, um, in Barstow, california, dealing with some family stuff, but I couldn't go to the events that y'all were doing for this album release, man, so I was a little upset about that. But family first, that's what comes first.
Speaker 4:So I got my guest right now who's from California, mc, beat maker, vinyl DJ. He's from New York but now he's living all the way out in california. You know I mean he links up with, uh, I love supreme california. You know, I mean he's the homie man. He's, he's what? What's uh t dot say he's, uh, a loved one? Yeah, he's, he's, he's a loved one man. So yo give it up for the one and only dom cru man. What's good, dom Cruz? How you doing, man?
Speaker 1:What's good, brother, man, I appreciate you for having me on here. Man, I appreciate you. I'm just happy to be here.
Speaker 4:Yeah, yo, I'm happy to be even talking to you about this album, man, because this album, man, it hit me in what we call the heart chakra man man, it hit me. It hit me in the what we call it, the heart shocker man. It hit me in the heart shocker man Cause I can, I can relate to a lot of the stuff that you were saying, man, a lot of the lyrics that you were putting in this, and a lot of the guests that we're going to talk about, um, that were featured on this album as well, man, you and TI Dinesoft, man, I love Supreme California, love one man put together this amazing body of work. Can you like, for my first question, can you just talk about this album? Why this album? Why A Happy Home?
Speaker 1:I like that question, man, I appreciate it. I like that question, man, I appreciate it. Um, yeah, so you know, me and T-Dot. We have known each other for a really long time and throughout that that time we had constantly spoke about making music. But it was just, uh, it was. It felt like a timing thing, you know, and we, I think once, once we got the ball rolling, like once we actually had a song or two um, that idea a happy home came to my mind and I pitched it to him.
Speaker 1:I remember we was at the original location location for Supreme, I believe is in January or February of last year, 2024. And I just told him I was like yo, what do you think of a name? A happy home? Because I'm the type of person that kind of, when it comes to projects, I tend to like reverse engineer it. I kind of think of like the end first and then we work backwards, like we make the music. I tend to think of like a concept or a title or you know a couple things that, like the end version would have. So I pitched that name to him and I will say that I did pitch a couple other like ideas and names to him prior and it didn't feel like nothing was really sticking. But when I said that I remember that night it resonated with him. And then he, he, I love that he did this. You know, this is really to me.
Speaker 1:What makes the project super special too is, uh, he was like yeah, if we spell home, let's spell it h-o-h-m, which is crazy to me too, because he has a whole different interpretation of spelling it. Like that um to me, I interpret it as ohm is like the sound of the universe, like om is god, and I'm pretty sure, yeah, he has a different um meaning for that, actually um. So yeah, you know, hopefully we could get it, get it, get that from him. But yeah, that just came to me. You know him and I tend to have like very deeper on a deeper, deeper than surface level conversations nine times out of 10. For whatever reason, it just tends to go that way. I think you know that's kind of just how he is. I'm like that for the most part too.
Speaker 1:So I was coming off of releasing a project with splashes, which is esoteric poetry, which was. It was a little more fun, you know, it was like just just rapping, just loose, and I had a feeling we had to take it there. You know me and Tita was going to make a project, we had to take it like a little bit deeper. So, yeah, that I think that's, that's, that's why that that came to be. You know, we had the name. We name, we had the title. Um, when we came up with the title, we only had like two or three demos, but they all kind of I believe they were the first track, which is peace, peace, we have plant seeds and we have flowers, if I'm not mistaken, and wild wings. Those are the first four songs and those all really are probably like the foundation of that project when you really think about it.
Speaker 4:To me, yeah, um, that's crazy because that was gonna be one of my questions. The way y'all spelled a happy home, like um, like yeah, um, when I got that, when I was listening, I was like I got it, oh snap, the way y'all flip yo, that was crazy. But this artwork I'm I'm gonna share, I'm gonna share my, I gotta share my screen, man, because, um, I got, I got, yeah, I'm gonna do it on here because I gotta allow the listeners to to look at this album artwork man, this is, this is crazy, okay, so let me go, let me pull this up. Okay, can you see this?
Speaker 4:yes, sir okay, so this album, let's look at this. Let's look at the album artwork for one. Yeah, like the open hand with the, the eye in the middle, but then what y'all don't see if if you're not paying attention is the. It's like a flower and a mushroom. Yeah, from the fingers, yeah, coming from the fingers. You know I'm saying and then, in the words right there. It's like muted gradient sky, like bro you gotta talk about.
Speaker 1:Talk about this artwork too, man uh, that's love, man, and um, that's that was done by a homegirl of mine. Her name is jacqueline. Um, I met her through my wife, tanya, and, yeah, shout out to her, uh, the idea, the idea for the hand and everything. I believe, if I'm not mistaken, that was her idea. I'm kind of struggling to remember 100, but, um, I want to say it was her idea because we sent her, like most and uh, you know, just a couple lines like this is what we wanted to represent. You know which some of the core themes were, like growth, family, um, healing, and I, I'm starting to remember now. Yeah, she said the hands because she thought of healing hands when she heard the music. She said hands heal. And, um, you know, she went through a few different variations of the cover. Obviously, there's like an alternate one with like colored in and such, but we brought the process of the album, which was pretty much like damn near a year, a little bit over a year, in the making. We kept.
Speaker 1:I felt like me and terrence were both kind of stuck on that unfinished version and I like the unfinished version because to me that represents, that represents me. You know, I'm saying to me that represents me. It's not about being perfect. To me, um, there's nothing. Nothing in this life is really perfect, um, no one is perfect, um, and that's that's really, hopefully, the message that people get, or one of the messages people get from the music is it's not about perfection, it's just about completion, like wholeness. So I personally love that the colors are there too, like the palette is there, because it's like this is life. You know, you have the choice to choose your colors, to choose your palette and such.
Speaker 4:Damn, damn. Listen listeners, man. This album is deep. Man Like yo if you're not ready to go like, if you're on that surface level stuff, this ain't the album for you. Man Like this album this album goes deep, like in some man. It's it's healing, but it's also aggressive, but it's also peaceful. It's light, it's it's laughter in it, like it's all of the human emotions. I'm not sure if that was intentional, but you know know what I mean it was. That's what I got from it.
Speaker 1:It definitely was, man, it was intentional. Yeah, man, it was just a great experience. Man, it's hard for me to convey how that all happened, because it was intentional, but it also, for the most part, happened effortless. You know, it wasn't like we sat down like, oh, now we need hard, gritty track, now we need the posse cut. Some of those ideas were talked about in the beginning, but there were other ideas that we talked about that didn't happen. So I think what was meant to happen happened and that's what came about. Happen and um, that's that's what came about.
Speaker 1:So, yeah, like the grittiness, like a thousand g's, the, you know, the, the trauma shit, like journal entry to, um, the fun, the fun shit like role model, like that. That's all there for a reason. You know it's to represent completion, because we all, we all have many, many, many sides to us. Man, I was just thinking about this earlier. Like none of us are really two or three dimensional people. We all got many dimensions to us. You know it's just like can you be open to share that with other people?
Speaker 4:man, yo okay, we're gonna go, we're gonna start out, man, because for listeners this is a I want to say it's a 13 track album. Right, um, 10 of them are the main album, yeah and then it's good. Then it goes to 16 with the bonus right yeah, and then 17 if you got a cassette oh, and I got the and I got the cassette yo. So you know, I'm saying yo stop playing with them. Yo stop playing with them man we're gonna talk about.
Speaker 4:I got one too yeah, we're gonna talk about this. We're gonna talk about this album cover too. But, but, okay, so you open up, you open the album with you know snapshots of, like sunday mornings, like spiritual grounding, um, and then I believe that's your wife talking on that on the album, like basically like leaving you a message, you know, like saying a prayer for you, um, as you go throughout your day, correct? Yeah, okay, so we're gonna, we're gonna start yeah that is yeah, we're gonna.
Speaker 4:We're gonna play track one and then we're gonna talk about track one. I'm only gonna give y'all a snippet, man, because y'all gotta support this album. If you want to hear more of it, all right, but let me um word, yeah, yeah, yeah, let me, uh, let me go to share my screen. Let me start that, and then we're going to play track one for about 30 seconds and go from there and we'll be right back.
Speaker 3:All right, thank you. I'm proud of you for rising every single day with strength, with energy for the day ahead, and all while taking care of our home, no matter what. I'm so grateful for you and I'm so grateful for our cozy home so we can rest, create heal and love.
Speaker 1:It's like pancakes on a Saturday. It's like watching novellas with my abuela. It's like the simple things. Keep us remembering Straight from the source. Baby, I'm a gentleman. Pray for many men. I was a thug. That man I barely remember him. And two were masculine and feminine. A fresh start is vital to development. You hide your demons, me. I let em in. Let em settle in A happy home, confronts everything, all cards on the table. God is not a fable. God is not a label. They ask why I talk about God so much. It's because I'm able. What I'm supposed to reach for. You said the sky was the limit. I back yo, yo that.
Speaker 4:That, that first track, man, man that really like I knew it was gonna be dope anyway. But that first track is like it's's. So it's inviting man, because it's like nature, natural, like the way y'all did, like your wife's voice, where it's kind of like it's not overpowering the nature part, but then it's got the wind chimes in it and it's like come on, man, yo, how did y'all come up with that piece? The name of that track is called Peace, peace.
Speaker 1:Yeah, bro, um, you know, shut up, that's a T. That of course, bro, cause, first of all, that's a T, of course, just the whole album. Like huge, like. That is a track that he actually made like way before Like. That's one of the few joints that you know wasn't like literally made for me. He just made that, I think you know, a year or two prior, um, and he actually gave me the beat. I thought he knew this at the time, but he gave me the beat for a business who surrounds youtube channel. But I told him I wanted it for me. I think he just didn't understand that and when I started rapping it to him, like the demo notes in hand, he just said, oh shit, you're gonna rap on this. I was like, yeah, man, I got to Like cause I wanted.
Speaker 1:At that time we didn't have the concept fleshed out yet, we didn't pick the name and such, but I know how to rap over different stuff. You know I wanted to find different type of and just for creativity. You know, peace, peace. You know we both say that a lot. You know a lot of our homies say that a lot, and the way I started to envision it as the way the project was starting is like this was me literally inviting you into my house? We did most of this project in my crib. I would say like, maybe, sit in the crib, rest in the crib, disappear into other places, but we trying to paint a picture this is my house, this is who I am, you know. But yeah, that was pretty much the intention. You know. It's like welcome to the crib. You're going to spend some time here, so you know, wipe your feet off at the doormat, take your shoes off, get comfortable. We're going to go on a little ride, yo.
Speaker 4:Intentional man. Like everything about that first track is intentional to where. It's like just what you said. Like yo wipe your feet off, take them shoes off, sit down, relax, we're going to be here we're going to talk about some things.
Speaker 3:We're going to have some fun.
Speaker 4:You know what I'm saying. Yeah, and there's a like, that's the meditative openness. What I like to call it Like the peace piece is the meditative openness, but there's a strong blend of like confession but uplifting at the same time. How did you balance that like vulnerability and power movement in that first impression, like with peace piece, that like?
Speaker 1:vulnerability and power movement in that first impression, like with Peace? Peace, that's a good question. Yeah, I want to say I don't know, bro, to be honest with you, I want to say that I was writing that song in its own universe. I wasn't really thinking about the album itself when I was writing that song. So it wasn't like, let me write this because this is the intro. It was more like, let me just create, you know, let me see what I could do with a track like this too, especially because it is, you know, sounds like a meditation. So, yeah, it just naturally happened to fit, and there was a time in my mind where I was like we might not even put that on the album, you know, but but it makes sense, you know.
Speaker 1:It literally greets you it literally greets you and I like that, you say confession. That's a. That's a really dope word, that's that literally kind of fucked me up in the head a little, just because, like my music, I'll really be snitching on myself. You know what I'm saying word, that's that literally kind of fucked me up in the head a little. Um, just because, like my music, I'll really be snitching on myself. You know what I'm saying. Like like you know, for lack of better word, like like there's some shit, like you know, I feel like it maybe doesn't need to be said, um, but I got to, you know, like I to be said, but I got to. You know, like music is really my therapy, so if I don't let it out there then I might not ever, ever let it out. So you know, I think for that track that made sense. You know, it's just like I wanted it to be calm and I just wanted to match the vibe that Terrence created with that beat you know the instrumental.
Speaker 1:It's just, it's just it's just the answer.
Speaker 4:it's just the answer. Yeah, man Yo. Okay, I can speak about Peace, Peace all day. We got a whole nother. We got all of the tracks to talk about.
Speaker 3:Um the second track is called Home spelled.
Speaker 4:H, capital O, capital H, capital M. Right, so I know maybe it's. You know everybody's going to get something that different from each track and you know what they, what they are open to at that time, but for me it speaks to like home, beyond a physical space. You know what I'm saying. Like to me, um, like what, what personal stories, um, or memories shape the theme of this song. And you're gonna answer that once we play, all right, so I'll give you a little bit of time to think about that I appreciate you I, I got you man, let's go, let's see.
Speaker 3:All right.
Speaker 1:They say home is where the heart is. I'm on the road. I feel heartless, been on the go since I started. The goal was the goal post. Now we go beyond it, right beyond the margin, right to find the manners Layers to the unconscious Come, come up with double entendres From the blocks of the Bronx bombers promise. We, not farmers, grew up on top rhymin'. The day the sun don't come out is when I stop grindin'. Peaks and valleys can't stop climbin'. The journeys here can't stop arrivin'.
Speaker 4:That's it. I'm a real savage, that's it Real up yeah Culture, got him, got him, that's all y'all get you know what I'm saying? Yo, I love that you know what I'm saying, so I'ma just reiterate that question again. Man, you know, as far as home goes, like what personal stories and you know, or memories, shape the theme of this track.
Speaker 1:Bro, that is a great question. You got some great questions. I appreciate that I appreciate that.
Speaker 1:You really are the golden that's honestly what I started thinking about more once we decided this is going to be the title and once I started seeing things fall into place. So just because we had the name didn't mean like I had the whole concept fleshed out right away. And that beat man, that instrumental man shout out to T-Dot bro, like he absolutely merked that shit. And there's another version of that instrumental which you know the homegirl Greenaw raps on later on the album. That was the original version but we decided to strip it down so it could build um, because you know, the second verse comes in, third verse comes in and builds. But um, I was really trying to encompass so many definitions of home, like literal home where you live, then the, the statement like home is where the heart is. You know, you, as long as you're in tune with yourself, like your heart is always always, you should always be connected to your heart, your heart is always with you. And then, like you alluded to, with the actual question, like travel. Like travel, because you know, as you said when you was introducing me, I'm from New York, I'm somehow out here in the West Coast, somehow. I still don't believe this shit myself. On top of that, like I've been blessed to travel, you know other countries and shit and everything I carry with me. Everyone I love, everything I love, is with me in all those times and places. So that's kind of what I was trying to touch on, like who I am, who the people around me that matter are what it feels like to travel to these places with them, with me, but not literally with me.
Speaker 1:Um, and I think it was super important to include like my kids voices. Um, I think that's the only track where all three of my kids voices are on there, like that's my baby in the beginning and then I believe it's between the second and third verse, is my older son and my middle child, my daughter. It's a really old video, but it's them like playing in a park and like my son's like you're going. My daughter's like you're going too fast and she's saying that to my son in the video, but it like matches the theme and the song perfectly. So it's like another one of those things. It's like, like you said, it's like intention, even though we didn't sit there thinking like, oh, we're going to do this and add this. This shit just came together so fucking perfectly and I love that. That's generally literally genuinely like most days. That's one of my favorite songs, like top three songs.
Speaker 4:Yeah, man, yo Yo. I appreciate you doing that man. You know we family man. You know T Dot, t Dot. I ain't stopping in the house right now, man, what's good T Dot, yeah, yo, what's good. You know like, you know we all family right now yo. So you know what I mean. Hey, man, what's good. What up, how you doing Pat, I'm good man. How y'all man Good Great to blast man.
Speaker 6:Yeah, speaking of family, my bad y'all, I'm with the family right now. Black guy here, brother Topri here, fern here, my little brother here.
Speaker 4:So Boom, boom, boom, boom boom. A lot of Supremes in the house yeah, nah, I got caught in.
Speaker 6:We were making a beat and everything, so I got caught in the process. My bad yo, hey bud what up?
Speaker 4:I figured you was doing something man like you know what I mean. It could have been anything, man. I just wanted to make sure you were safe, that's all nah, nah bad love.
Speaker 6:That's my apology yo.
Speaker 4:So we talking to. Alright, here we go, listeners man internets. We talking to Dom Cruz and T Don Einsoff man, who are the creators of A Happy Home, which came out December of 2024, man, it came out as a 13-track album. If you get the cassette, it turns into a 17-track album. If you get the CD, that's is, is it 16.
Speaker 6:yeah, yeah, the cassette is 14. The digital release is 16, and I think the cd got every does. The cd got everything, though?
Speaker 1:it would depend, bro, because I think there's multiple versions like that's something we never really uh, I know that motherfuckers with a 13 track version and I know there's people with a 16 track version. So it just depends when you bought it, type shit yeah, yeah, that is, that is definitely correct.
Speaker 6:Um, because the the intentional aspect was journal entry. 3 was, personally, uh, bonus track for the cassette, that's why it's 14, but Dom's been sitting there and making albums. The last two albums had bonus records that he released um on top of the regular release. So it's like when you buy the shit, you get extra, you get extra joints. So that's where that idea came about um, within the extra means of three extra tracks. Yeah, so I believe that's digital version and I I do believe, like he was saying, some cds do got 16, some cds got 13.
Speaker 4:Um, yeah, there's a lot more music out there from this, all these sessions as well, yo, hopefully we get to hear them, hopefully they get to see the light of day eventually. But we're gonna talk about a happy right now, which is a very personal like. This is one of the albums like when I'm talking to my grandkids, like, and hey, like granddad, like yo, what was you listening to? Like, what was an impactful album that you listened to? I'm adding this to the list. You know what I mean. I got to add this to the collection. Like I'm going to make this, gonna make this own capsule, like a time capsule type of thing. You trying to grow as a person, you trying to grow as a human being, as a spirit. I'm putting that in there.
Speaker 4:There's other albums that I grew up with that I throw in there, but this is one of them. Ones Salute to y'all, man, for creating such a dope piece of like. I can't even just say music, man, because it's more than that. You know, it's for real, more than that, man I appreciate you.
Speaker 6:I got a question for you yes, sir, you don't mind you, you've been supporting me and listening to my music damn near from the jump. You know um, as well as understanding and observing the the journey I'm on as a human being. How does, how does this album line up to everything that has been created that you've heard or I've shared with you prior?
Speaker 4:this is, this is man. I gotta say it's a different spectrum for me, man. Like it's a different, it's a higher spectrum, like like what you were doing before was good. You know what I mean in its own right. Like for each individual piece of music when you were like working with. You know Jotty Unitas and you know all of the all of these different. You know amazing talented people, but I feel like I'm tapped into like a different, like the two of y'all. It's like a different spiritual energy, man. It's I can't even properly describe it, man. It's levels, levels above what you did.
Speaker 6:I appreciate you the reason why I was asking. I was just curious. The first interview, like years ago, oh man, I first started. Yeah, you asked me a lot of questions, so I just wanted to sit there and ask a question that presents like a third party observation. You know, that is just like. Okay, I think you go from this to this or from this feeling of intention within spirit and message to you know this whole album.
Speaker 6:That embodies Pretty much. I feel like everything that was spoken about or sprinkled in in every other release. You know whether that was personal pieces by me or like an album I did with Joey, the EP I did with Johnny being a part of other records that people asked me to produce for them. So it was just an interesting question. You've been a supportive individual, and not only that, but you've been friends for such a long time that it's like it's dope to get external pieces of information.
Speaker 4:Yo, I appreciate that when I first came across your music, I think I was in Japan, man, and I was just tapping into different artists from around the world. And then I ran across your page and then, you know, started supporting from there and I was like yo, he's like going to something, just like I can't put my finger on it, but I for lack of a better word I with it, yeah, like I with it, so, yeah. So I was like you know what? You guys keep making music like this. I'm gonna continue messing with it and supporting it, keep pushing it, keep pushing it. You know what, if you guys keep making music like this, I'm going to continue messing with it, supporting it, keep pushing it, keep pushing it. You know, into the masses, whoever it is Looking at my Twitter page and all that stuff. And then you know one of the albums. I think you did it with Johnny Unitas man, I think that is his name, right? Johnny Unitas.
Speaker 6:Yeah, johnny, unitas, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 4:When you came out with that album. I think that was one of the albums that I was like yo, I gotta start a podcast, man, because, yo, what I can say on Twitter is not enough. It can go and then disappear in one second, but if I start and really tap into, you know, have people listen to these albums and these these specific artists, they can, they can live forever. Man, whoever's like gonna be looking at this a year from now, two years from now, they're gonna be like, oh, all right, let me go back to this album, they vibing on it. You know they can talk so highly about it, but yeah, now it ain't about me, that's about y'all man. Let me talk about y'all man for a second. But yo man, um man, fatherhood and generational past and um and home. How did, how did you like approach writing so intimately about being a dad man?
Speaker 1:That's a crazy question. Um, I think it felt like once we knew the direction of the project, like once we knew it was really trying to take it there.
Speaker 1:There's no telling my story without talking about my kids. You know what I'm saying. Like they are me. You know what I'm saying. Like I don't exist without them is the way I look at it. You know what I'm saying. Like I don't. I don't exist without them is the way I look at it. You know what I'm saying. Like they, they honestly. Like if it wasn't for my kids being born, like from the very moment my first son was born, aiden like I genuinely don't know if I'd be here.
Speaker 1:You know what I'm saying. Like in my early 20s I was a little reckless. I wasn't, I didn't really have a lot of direction. But I know, when I met, when I like officially met my son, I was like this is, this, is a little bit bigger than me. Even though I truly didn't, you know, have the maturity at that time, I knew I needed to grow up and I wanted to grow up. And you know, when my daughter was born, same thing. It just like levels you up and I just felt like it was necessary for me to be uncomfortable, because the reality is I don't really show my kids my music right now. If they find it, they find it, or sometimes they hear pieces of it, but I know one day they will hear it and I want them to just hear the truth.
Speaker 1:You know I was saying that I want them to hear the truth, I want them to hear my perspective. So that's kind of where I was coming from with it, and I felt like it was also important to mention my upbringing within that same like that same vein. Like how my pops was in the room, how I had a step pops, um, wow, yeah, my dropped for a second. I don't know if, like, everything I said went through, but yeah, that after that, that your mic will mute it yeah, my was tripping as well.
Speaker 6:The last thing I caught yeah, my shit was tripping as well. The last thing I caught was the means of evolution. You wanted to sit there and speak upon it within your perspective, without sitting there and getting too caught up in everything.
Speaker 1:I'm pretty much out of this. I'm just going to pull off. I'm in the whip. Let me pull off to where I got a little better service. But um, I just wanted to speak the truth. You know what I'm saying, my truth, like I was saying earlier, like music is really my therapy. If I don't let it out here, I don't know how I'm gonna, how else I'm gonna let it out, at least in a healthy way, know so I I felt like it was important for me to speak on that relationship with my kids, whether it's the positive sides or the negative sides, and everything just kind of came out of me, bro, like that's the beautiful shit about music, at least for me. Like I can't help it, it just comes out of me. It is, like you said way earlier, like a confession in a way. Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 4:Yeah, man, okay, so we're going to go to Plant Seeds, which is another like standout track for me. But there's a lot of standout tracks on this whole album. Like I don't, there's no skips, and I'm bumping this album right now. Like when I go pick up my daughter they she's like yeah, like I'll pause it when they get in, because sometimes they don't listen to what I'm listening to. But, um, but she'd be like yeah, you can turn it back on, daddy. I'm like all right, cool, so we said that's fine so we started.
Speaker 4:Yes, the 16 year old, yes, he's, he's getting her musical like influences and stuff like that for me and her mom, you know, so you know. But uh, I was like all right, cool, so I started bumping it. But plant seeds. We're gonna talk about plant seeds. I'm gonna play a little snippet of it for the internets. Um, make sure y'all follow dom cruz on I think it's Dom Cruise Music on Twitter and Instagram, right?
Speaker 1:Yes sir, yes sir, Thank you.
Speaker 4:And then TI Dinesoft on Instagram and Twitter right.
Speaker 6:Yes, sir.
Speaker 4:Okay, so then, and then follow them on Bandcamp.
Speaker 6:Where else Apple Music, spotify, no not fuck Spotify, youtube, yeah, wherever you listen to music, wherever you enjoy your means of relaxation and audio. Look up Tom Cruise music. Look up TI. Look up Golden Mind.
Speaker 4:Appreciate the plug yo. Shameless plug, yo Yo. So we're going to get in these plant seeds real quick and we're going to come right back, and I got a couple of questions for y'all about that one too.
Speaker 1:Okay, all I wanna do is plant these seeds. Take my hand, take a walk with me, put your feet in the dirt, get lost With me, take a trip from the world quarterly. Support my seeds. Who's supporting me? Need some sort of ground. My skin is tan, my over brown out the window with a quarter pound on the road floor to brown, texas, georgia, back to New York, gotta get caught up. Brooklyn, fordham, all the places we was brought up from the bottom ground, grounded, rotten, absorbed the pilot. Now we blossom, evolving. We got sons and daughters. Look what this is them brought us. Look what this is them taught us.
Speaker 4:Yo, man, yo, like, you know what man, I want to play the whole track, but nah, man, we ain't giving that to them. Yo, they gotta go get the album. You know they gotta go get the album. You know we, nah, they ain't what we're doing, you know. But you know it's such a man they the the. But yo, it's such a man, the T-Dot man. Let me ask you this question first, man, from a production standpoint, I mean both of y'all, both of y'all are beat makers, music producers. Man, you took a very minimal approach to this track. It's just the pianos, you know, I mean some, some, some, uh, percussion hits, um, some, some ambient, like waterfall type of thing. Man, like, is that? Like was this, was it? Did you build the track like this or was it a lot bigger? And you just started stripping away what didn't match what Don was talking about?
Speaker 6:No, that beat was made in 2019 when I was still raw. Them vocals at Plants Seeds of Love is actually the homie Kevin Jerome Shout out to my brother, kevin. That's from a session we recorded in early 2019 and I just found a part of the vocals and I was just like I like this and I just made a beat around that. I was in a depressive state of mind, like I wasn't feeling really within myself. I had a lot going on in life, so that was why that came about was like a reminder myself I'm here to plant seeds of love. It doesn't matter if it's chaos and everything that's going on around me, like I'm still here to be myself through and through, through and through. But that beat is a few different layers, so it's just like Middle Eastern, middle Eastern sample and that's where you get at the end. It's like a sitar or this strings instrument. That's like yeah yeah.
Speaker 6:That's the beginning of the record. And then you got water and everything behind it, so I just used the water, I looped it. I sit there and create a feeling and an intention, and then I just built the percussion and everything around it. I looped it, sit there and create a feeling and an intention, and then I just built the percussion and everything around it. I don't really make beats like that. That was like probably one of the most liberating joints I've made, because I was really going through some shit in life and I was just wanting to let some feelings out. So it's just like OK, there's no subconscious structure. You know what I'm saying when you know, you know how to make beats and you just go about it the same way every time. Or like you just have this routine, you go about. There's no routine. It was just like okay, this feels good. Oh, this feels good. Oh shit, you about to sit there and cry a little bit. Keep going, yeah.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 4:Yo, that's a common theme, man, when you're talking about that, you're saying you know we're going through some things and you know when you were creating, it was just the most liberating. I feel like, as men, we don't often talk about our emotions, our feelings and stuff like that, which you know is a bad thing. Um, and it can be a bad thing, especially if we bottle up and just let things keep adding to it and adding to it. Then we explode and we explode and it's gonna cost us. You know it's not now. Yeah, you know what I'm saying. Like what you built, what you worked so hard for man, um, that I think that's important to talk about. Yeah, as men, we go through things. We're not women because women they talk. Women just talk. That's a natural thing for women to just talk. But men, if we don't feel safe around other men to convey our emotions, we're not going to talk.
Speaker 6:We're not going to talk. We're not going to talk For me personally. I'm around a lot of people. I'm not sitting there saying I know a lot of people. There's a big difference and I respect the means of knowing someone compared to being around folks, but that's for the means of sitting there saying for the people I'm around. There's that space of conversation.
Speaker 6:Me and Dom talk about life. On the top, we have a lot of similarities in our life, so it's been easy to sit there and reflect and learn from each other, like, especially now that I'm a father stepping into this new world, I ask him about advice or he shares his stories and experiences and it allows me to sit there and, okay, how can I tend to this a lot easier, a lot more efficient. Like you know, frank bernard tovery, he's a father, you know. Like being surrounded by other fathers, that allows the journey of that season to be a little bit more efficient, because you've got a lot of people around you that are balancing out Like you. You know you're balancing out being a pops, but then also being your own individual and sometimes, like I think we've spoken about before, it's like sometimes you've got to draw back and prioritize. That's also a part of being a man being able to sit there and stand in responsibility and not be selfish in our own desire, our own ways um dom you want to.
Speaker 4:You want to add anything to that?
Speaker 1:yeah, I mean, I'd say I'd say, like where we're at in the world right now, like I think it's important for us to just continue that conversation, like to keep encouraging other men to speak what you feel. However, you need to do that, whether it's through your music, through your podcast, in person, you know whatever. Whatever the case may be, because when you, when you, when you put yourself out there like that, what you're doing, you know a lot of times you're inspiring someone to do the same. And that's important because, like, if no one does it, then no one does it, but you got it's like the domino effect. You know what I'm saying. And once we could start speaking about these things, then it's not so taboo and it doesn't have to be an absolute truth, like we say it so often, like it's an absolute truth. Like men don't speak about their feelings. Well, I kind of disagree with that, because I do know men that speak about their feelings. It's just that the majority and the mainstream, like consciousness, kind of makes it seem like we don't. And I understand that because, like I don't, I won't just open up to anybody anytime, don't. And I understand that because, like I don't, I won't just open up to anybody anytime.
Speaker 1:But, um, you know, it's really about how well you know yourself. You know, because I think a lot of the times we don't want to communicate because we either fear being judged or, um, yeah, we, it's just some kind of fear or pride. You know that you're gonna look weak or something like that. But you know, I think by now you know, we all pretty Like, we know that don't necessarily make you weak. It actually makes you stronger because you're comfortable with yourself. You know you. You know that whether you open up to someone and how they receive it or not, that doesn't that doesn't define you. You know what I'm saying? That doesn't that doesn't make you any less than or even more than you know you're still just a person.
Speaker 4:That's right. Yeah, I appreciate both of y'all's insight on this man Cause that is, yeah, it is true, Like I do know, I do know some men that, uh, there's only a couple, a couple of men that I can really, you know, really just say what's on my mind. You know what I mean, Like what I've been dealing with without fear of judgment or reprisal, or you know being called a pussy, or you know like, or man up type of thing. You know it's like we got to express our emotions. Man Like, come on, man, come on. Man like, yeah, but okay, man um.
Speaker 1:We all human man. We all human at the end of the day, like I, don't know.
Speaker 3:To me that's still like I don't know.
Speaker 1:To me that's just a little immature man like to to. You know to say anybody, man or woman, is a pussy or whatever, just because they feel some shit. You know, people want you to be quiet or to be numb or to shrink yourself, because that's what makes them comfortable. Because when you start doing that, then they start feeling like they have to do that. You know what I'm saying. And they don't know how to do that, or it's scary to them to do that.
Speaker 1:You know that that's what the whole concept of like mirrors and reflection is, is like if you, when you present yourself, however you present yourself, whether that's open, closed, intellectual, whatever label you're gonna ignite that in another person. You know, like when someone's like, oh, I just got a haircut, they're like, oh, I need to get a haircut, or I was just listening to naz, they're gonna be like, oh, I was just listening to clips. Because that's how we connect. Like you say something, I say something that's as close, as close to that as possible. It's just like nature. But when you start taking it there, speaking about emotions, especially heavy ones, like pain or shame or guilt or whatever stress, even like now the person in the room with you. They kind of feel like they have to too, and a lot of people just don't know.
Speaker 1:You know, a lot of us were silenced by our parents, our school system or we even left alone. Some of us were abandoned, so it's like we didn't even have anyone to talk to. You know, I'm saying I definitely felt that way growing up. I was left alone, a lot in the crib I was talking to my fucking toys and shit, you know. And motherfucker had to learn like, had to go through, had to go through shit. To learn like. This is not healthy, you know, I had to be around people that like exposed that in me like yo, you don't know how to express yourself and I'm still working on it to this day, you know. But that's, that's. That's kind of the point. Because you bottle all that up with you, man, that's gonna kill you, that's gonna turn into cancer yeah, yeah, it is inflammation that part man um.
Speaker 4:Yo plant seeds right um this is the? This is the last question before this.
Speaker 4:We getting deep in here, man, I told y'all I told y'all internet, I told y'all this album is very like it's. It's not heavy in a bad way, it's just it touch. It touches on human emotions, man, and make you and make you start thinking and reflecting, like you know. I mean like what you're saying and the way the music feels, and yeah, but when you think about and this is a question for both of y'all when you think about seeds in your career so far, what have been the earliest seeds that are now bearing fruit, oh man, you want to take that down first, you can take that down.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you can go first bro.
Speaker 6:In all honesty, I want to sit there and say, just taking that chance in general, man, like there is a moment in point in time where it's like the end of the year, the EOTY EP with Johnny, that was my first project I ever released and that only happened because Johnny wanted to continue on with what the project was. It was. It was originally him, the homie Alpha Memphis from Queens and the homie Ray Clev from LA, and it was gonna be all three of them on all those beats, but the other two was going through life and Johnny was just like I'm still down. But I had to ask him like yo, I haven't heard from anything in a minute, like this is what's going on, this is the update. And he's just like, damn bro, he's like I'm still down. And for him to continue on and believe in me, to sit there and release that piece. And we there and release that piece, and we pressed it up on cassettes and sold out, and just to do that with my, my friend that I've known for I would sit there and say for eight years at that moment, nine years at that moment, was amazing because I was gonna scrap that whole thing.
Speaker 6:You know, if that, if it didn't work out like that, I don't know if that would have allowed me to move into releasing music or pressing music up, because after that I released the Girl, which was the first beat tape I released, and that was like the same month. So it just led to a domino effect of confidence Like, okay, I could do this. And I appreciate Brother Johnny for real. That motherfucker sat there and was like one of the first individuals, mc-wise and just like friend-wise, to really believe in me and be like yo bro, let's do this. You know the rest is history. So that actually led into the project with Joey Gordon. If I didn't do that with Johnny because Joey was recording all of Johnny's shit, it led into Retrograde and Retrograde 2 with Joey. So Johnny's really like a huge factor in a lot of his.
Speaker 4:Yeah, I can see him in your orbit and as you've been progressing over the years, he's definitely been the mainstay um from the beginning that's, that's still there, you know, I mean and he's growing too so he's amazing.
Speaker 6:Honestly, I don't want to get too much into it, but I remember having a conversation while I was tearing up because he was talking about wanting to retire and that was like a few years ago and I was just like, damn, bro, like there's so much more to do, like. But I was selfishly, like, in the midst of moving forward, like I'm seeing everything now, you know, but I'm newly creating. He's been doing this for a cool minute. So when he sat there and originally, when he originally said that I was tearing up and he's just like, yeah, bro, like, but I'm gonna still do music and shit, like I'm going to be A r and they're managing and having a label doing something, but then sitting there and seeing him continue to move forward to make music has been amazing because, like he's an amazing mc, he's a beautiful spirit, but he's a cold ass mc and to sit there and see him go against what he was initially feeling is is dope, because he deserves it.
Speaker 6:Like that album that he did with thank you amazing. That that he did with Thank you amazing. That shit that he does with Joey brother, joey Golden, the joint amazing. You know what I'm saying. Like Joey Golden is another MC, a beautiful spirit, amazing, and we just around some solid people. So it makes planting these seeds to add more to that planting these seeds a lot easier Because it's like it's family. I don't think I've ever worked with anybody that hasn't been family.
Speaker 4:Yeah, dope man Dom. What about you yo?
Speaker 1:Yeah, man, shout out to Johnny man. But yeah, man, the question was like what was the question? Again, bro.
Speaker 4:The question is what, what seeds in your career, like in your career right now, are bearing fruit for you right now that's crazy, man.
Speaker 1:Oh, because I've been through so much doing music, like I did pretty much retire for like seven years. You know I'm saying like I got a whole fucking back catalog that a lot of people do not even know about. Like I'm talking about I was rapping when I was 16, bro, I was making mixtapes on my homies' shit, burning them. I had so many mixtapes. The shit is nuts Like rapping over industry beats and all that shit. So I think, if I speak on that, that that showed me that I could do this like because I didn't even know where the game was going. You know what I'm saying. I was literally a kid, like literally a kid, 17 years old, hanging out with a bunch of like people in their 20s. And you know, honestly, I was in the streets running around doing things I probably shouldn't have been doing. But when I realized that I have a place that I could record my own music like at my own time, I was like, wow, I could do this. You know, like I could do this in tandem and I could be out there with CDs instead. You know I started like peddling this shit and you know, look at us now. You know it's like a good 10, 15 years later and shit. But it's the same concept, it's band camp, it's cassettes, it's CDs, and I think that showed me that, even you know, all you need is really a couple of people in your corner to make it happen. You know, granted, at that time I was ignorant. I don't think those are the right people to be with, but now I'm with the right people. You know what I'm saying. And now I got all that experience of of trying and and failing, failing forward, um, and now it's bearing fruit. Like you know that the album sells itself, the we on podcast. Now we play shows in different states. There's people in japan that buy the album. There's people in australia spending our shit when they dj um. To me that's the fruit, it's, it's because it's so easy, especially in music.
Speaker 1:I feel like you know, I hear this from a lot of artists like, like they see something bigger happening and coming and I'm like I agree with you, you know, I agree with you, but there's shit happening right now, like, like there's a lot to be grateful for, there's a lot that I never thought I would see happen. I never thought I'd see the light of day that I play music in what like eight states at this point now. Um, like, to me, that is a huge accomplishment in itself because, like I said at one point, I was done with this shit. I was 29, I had my, my second kid and I felt like man, I just need to be a family man and I need to just have a career to feed my family and that needs to be it. Um, and I really loved that I went through that.
Speaker 1:I'm so grateful I went through that because I felt that voice in the back of my head. I felt like my soul inside, like no motherfucker, like write, write a rhyme, write a rhyme, you know what I'm saying. And like see if you still got it. And it's like, little by little, it's like okay, I still got it. You know, post a little video. People like commenting it like crazy. It's like okay, I got it. And it's just like another domino effect, because I remember I posted like a freestyle, rapping over a JA Dilla beat.
Speaker 1:I think it was the day after thanksgiving or it's christmas eve or something like two years ago, and that was me still just fucking around like I didn't really want to make an album or take myself serious at all, and there came a few different producers sliding my dms, like yo, let me send you some beats, and the next thing, you know, I was working on an album. You know I'm saying, and then one thing leads to the next, and and it's just another album, and then it's just more connections, and it's like yo, you want to play a show here? Yo, yeah, and then you just keep going and you keep going, and it's a snowball effect, bro. So everything you do counts in this life, good or bad, and not just music. You know what I'm saying and that's why I'm grateful, man.
Speaker 1:I'm grateful for you know, for T-Dot, for people like you that support me, that, that that show me I'm not tripping when I know that, like I'm on to something with this shit, like you know what I'm saying, this isn't just all in my head, like it's real, like I'm telling a real story. My story matters. Um, my story helps other people tell their story and it helps other people feel, okay, like, damn, I'm not the only father that's stressed out, or I'm not the only dude that's trying to trying to balance being an artist, have a job, be a boyfriend or a husband and a father like I'm not the only one. And yeah, not to go on a tangent but I think that story in itself is a very human story and I think not only me, there's, there's tons of other artists like that. Like you know, johnny is a very, a very human. You know, like artist, like you listen to his music. He just talking about being a human.
Speaker 4:Really, you know, I'm saying, and it's beautiful, man, that part, yo yo, man, yo it'd be. It'd it be little like. You know what I mean Before we get to this next track, man, it be little moments that we all, every single one of us, can point to and be like. This is the moment where I didn't quit, I didn't give up on myself. I mean, yes, I was trying to take care of business. Be a man, be an honorable man, but then also be a creative man. You know what I mean Be able to express myself. You know what I mean Like. For me, the podcast is music For y'all. It's making beats, it's writing rhymes, it's connecting with, you know, all these different mutants around the world man like what y'all doing with the Love Supreme man, and you know, like Bong.
Speaker 4:What's his name Bong, bong, bong. Yeah yeah yeah, yeah yeah, and Black Eye 9, like you know, and Dom, like what y'all, what y'all did with this next track which we're going to talk about. But it'd be little moments, man. Those little moments be defining so much man. That's why, when I'm like making decisions, I got to go do it like what feels right. Yo Like what feels right, not what like nobody else needs. What feels right, not what like nobody else needs what feels right, you know that's.
Speaker 4:That's the only thing that you can really hang your head on at the end of the day, when you lay your head down and be like yo did, I. Did I make this decision for other people not to not inside your own little circle, but other people outside or did you make it for your family and for yourself? You know, I'm saying, but man, I'm going, I'm yeah, but man I appreciate all y'all.
Speaker 6:Man, I want to add, I want to add on to that one time yes, sir, let's, let's go you made me sit there and think about just the totality of everything.
Speaker 6:So like from 2017 to now, like the resilience and that journey, like I've spoken about in the in the previous interview with my grandmother passing, my best friend passing and continue to pursue I'm evicted living homeless, my family's homeless. I'm doing my best to continue to take care of them. I'm in an apartment, my mom's on drugs, you know to continue to move forward to now I'm at a space where I'm running a crib myself. My name got a new car. I'm doing all this.
Speaker 6:I made an album with my brother like in the seven years, eight years span, to not give up, because there's always people like yo, you could do this yourself. Leave your family, like, why are you with them? They make a mistake, yada, yada. But to continue to trust myself and understand it's not to them. Making mistakes is what I'm capable of due to me honoring my grandparents. That was and what is what I feel like is the most impactful seed I planted. To continue to make music through those times, you know, to continue to believe in myself through those times. I need to trust in the path and not disgrace what I feel like. My mission is here. So yeah, that's the biggest one.
Speaker 4:Man, because shout out to the abuelas I don't know how you say grandpa abuelos- Abuelos, yeah, abuelos, abuelos, yeah.
Speaker 4:Shout out to you know what I mean. Like my mama and my papa man and my grandma, francine man, like she, like when I'm thinking about how I'm becoming a man and what I'm doing right now, like I'm always thinking, like in the back of my head, like yo am I making them proud? Like, are they? Are they? Are they happy about the man I became and I'm becoming? And I ain't even done growing as a man? So it's kind of like you know, I'm thinking about all the stuff that they instilled in me too, all the stuff they instilled in y'all, y'all taking that wisdom and then building your own life with it, and then have them look down and say that's, that's my, that's my me-hole being able to honor their spirit as they transition, instead of leaving it stagnant.
Speaker 6:You know it's still energy in motion, so what are we going to do with it? Um is me and don talked about it and god, we have this inside joke and it's goku, because goku, when he was younger, he lost his grandfather, but that's what set him on his shit. You know his hero's journey super, super Saiyan for God, goku, you know what I'm saying Like. So that's another thing that we have in common that we be talking about. It's like we both lost a grandparent. That catapulted and get anchored the reasoning behind who we are and why we do what we do, you know.
Speaker 4:Yeah, there's always a always uh man. Speaking of the hero's journey, man, I was thinking like there's always a traumatic moment, like a defining moment that sets us on that hero's journey. You know, I'm saying like if, if not, we would never get pushed, we would never push, go towards what we're supposed to go towards.
Speaker 3:You know what I'm saying, so it had to take that defining moment to push you towards man.
Speaker 4:It's crazy. What's up y'all?
Speaker 6:my family just popped up. I got my woman, my kids in the building what up y'all?
Speaker 4:what up but yo, what's up, princess, what's up? Hey, hello um dude, what's your woman's name?
Speaker 6:my name. My woman's name is brian, but she goes by brema brema.
Speaker 4:Oh, that's who we about. That's what we're about to talk about. Um, wait, she is featured on this album too. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, we gotta talk about that, you know, thank you. Thank you, brema. Don't go far, man, we gotta talk to you, yo we gotta talk to you we gotta talk to you, but uh, okay, so let me go.
Speaker 4:But okay, so let me go to journal entry. Real quick. I'm gonna skip around just because we've been talking on some deep stuff, but it's needed. Needed introspection Journal entry featuring and it's Uncle Z's interview yeah, Uncle Z's. Featuring Uncle Z's, co-produced by Black Guy 9, Bong Bong Bagong that's a crazy name, you know and Dom Cruise man. So we're going to play a little snippet of this joint and then we're going to talk about that joint real quick, All right.
Speaker 4:You can see the dynamism you can see the passion, you can see the personalityism you can see the passion. You can see the personality of the young man there.
Speaker 1:They don't make them like that anymore. Really, ever since I peeped the order and the chaos, I've been on my job. Never would a day off. It seems pretty clear to me America is 8-0. After World War II, we got paid off Pyramid schemes from the Mayans to the Madovs and Billie Jean's jeans tryna take off. The military got a hold. Religion got our souls. Twitter, tiktok, instagram oh she do it for the likes. I wanted it for life. Wanna do a strength Temptation by the night. Got a soulmate, not a wife. Purity is my answer If you asking about my type. Woo, real up.
Speaker 4:Yo man man got you got super deep on this joint man, like for for for the internets that are listening and watching this man, just know, when you buy this album, man on um. On bandcamp they included the lyrics to these, to these tracks, maybe not not all of them, but the main ones.
Speaker 1:Actually, yeah, all my lyrics are on there. Yeah, I didn't got nobody else's, but all mine are on there.
Speaker 4:Yeah, so all the little lyrics on there, man. When you said, you know, ever since I peeped the order through the chaos, I've been on my job never with a day off, I felt that because I felt like we be working our ass off, man. But then you said, you know, it seems pretty clear to me America is Adolf. After World War II we got paid off, and then you go into the pyramid schemes with the Mayans and the Madovs and you know all of that type of stuff. That track right there, man, and it's titled Journal entry man.
Speaker 4:Journal entry number one yeah how did that come about, man? You wrote these lyrics, um, and then you got black guy nine, bong, bong, bong and you producing it, man. So how did those lyrics come about, yo?
Speaker 1:yo, that that, uh. So I will say shout out to black god, because if I'm not mistaken, if I'm remembering correctly, he said that sounds like a journal entry and then we just took it and ran with it. So then, like, we made another track. We're like oh, that's part two. We made another one. That's like yo, that's part three. But, um, yeah, they made that beat bong bong. Black god and t-dot made that first part of the beat.
Speaker 1:I co-produced the second part and yeah, they played that shit. For me it's called some crazy shit, like they named it like Bad Bunny Disco, some crazy shit. And I was like, yo, I need that Bad Bunny, like that shit, that shit is hard. I wasn't with them that day. I was supposed to be with them but I didn't pull up and yeah, that one just felt like kind of like fun, like I was really just trying to have fun and talk some shit. I remember I wrote this shit. It was real late at night. I was selling outside of somebody's crib waiting for them to open the door, and it was really honestly like some stream of consciousness, shit, like like just those things came to me and they kind of just developed into a story, because the story that I'm really trying to tell From the beginning is just how, like the world, uh, shapes and influences our roles. You know, so, like I feel, like america, you know, like I said, has got a lot of our, our systems from like fucking, what's that word?
Speaker 1:I can't think of the fucking word.
Speaker 1:But whatever, fucking the nazis are those motherfuckers, that type shit I feel like america has developed this whole system on that, and gender roles do play a big part of that. You know, like patriarchy and shit like that, where kind of like what we've been talking about, a man needs to be a certain way and a woman needs to be a certain way. So I know I start off like hella left field, talking about Hitler and Mayans and shit, but I pretty much start easing into like my role with my woman and how we kind of we don't really feed into that, like we do, but we don't, you know. So that's kind of the point of the journal entry. It's like a stream of consciousness and I really wanted to have fun with it, you know, because I feel like I felt the fun they had making that beat. So that's why, you know, in the beginning. And then you got that like tongue in cheek, shit like shake that ass, because I'm kind of like just bringing it back to having fun, like yeah, I'm going to say some heavy shit. No-transcript.
Speaker 4:Oh my gosh. Yeah, I think this is the track where you were talking about pouring into our women, right Like pouring pouring nurturing our women um exactly you know he's saying like pussy is power, but the pussy ain't ours. You know, I'm saying like yeah, because jay cole said that in the track, bro.
Speaker 1:He said pussy is power. And I don't agree with that shit, bro. Like men have no control over a woman, like in that way, like that's their power, right, you know, I'm saying they can hypnotize you with that shit, but your power is to you, your power is you and how you live and how you think and how you move that shit ain't got nothing to do with you, bro yeah, yo man, um man.
Speaker 4:I wish I could you know like that one is a um. That's a minimalist beat too, man, it's yo. I feel like a lot of the, a lot of the joints on this album are minimalist beats, not not disrespectfully or anything like that, but there there's just enough instrumentation to where you pay attention to the lyrics. You can hear the lyrics. They cut through, then you also listen to the instrumentation, the beat underneath man, which is a great balance to have.
Speaker 6:I love that. I appreciate you. It's. How can I sit there and say it's been amazing, because the majority of these sessions he was there for? So it's beautiful to sit there and have his way of sitting there, saying stop, because I'll be like I'll go overboard, I'll sit there and not save a beat, I'll make five beats and none of them matter. So to be able to have someone next to me, it was just like yo bro, no, that's the one, that's the chops, that's the, that's the groove, that's the. You know it's helped a lot because, yeah, I'll be overthinking shit a lot don't overthink it, man.
Speaker 4:Yo you did yo um man, I got um Yo man. I wish I had the voice note that I got from somebody that was featured on here, but I might play that for y'all later. Let's talk about the Emperor and the Sage featuring Storm Rouge. Who is Storm Rouge?
Speaker 1:first of all. Yeah, storm Rouge, that's Storm Rouge first of all. Yeah, storm Rouge, that's my homie, she out in Atlanta, oh, wow, you got that. Yeah, she a dope singer man. We just randomly started talking from my business page from Roots to Realms. I just saw her posting dope music and I was like yo, you got good taste. And then we just started talking and she started telling me she sings and shit and um, when the time came, when that track was like starting to be to feel more complete, I was like I know, I want a, a female voice to compliment me. So she was the first person I reached out to and yeah, she did a thing. Um, that's also another track, that's kind of like an alternate version, like she's like there's another version with her on the outro instead of me. But yeah, we just rearranged some things. But yeah, she did her thing. Man, shout out to Storm man.
Speaker 4:Yeah, so we're going to play a little snippet of the Emperor and the Sage and just talk about that title first of all. We're gonna talk about that title, but let me get, let's get into, uh, the emperor and the sage real quick.
Speaker 3:I like the wind, I like the clouds, I like the greatest mage in America. Sir, you didn't see the end of the score, you didn't see the future.
Speaker 1:You were better than us. You were the biggest, better than us, mad one from the horizon. Another tool on the belt of Orion, another ring on the planet of Iam this, your brain on drugs. Fresh out the frying pan. Up a fire in my environment, provide, provide for many, though, some say I'm a line man. Speak, kill on me. The words down in your diaphragm. Stop crying, fam. It's just black magic in his diagram. Kings and diamonds in my eyes and deja vu came through. Paid my dues, allowance facing time to shake my groove. Space and time to shape my groove. Woo yo.
Speaker 4:I see I can't, even I can't play the whole thing because they got y'all gotta go buy the album, man, if you wanna listen to the rest of what Dom was saying and hear Storm Ruth, but just yeah, I gotta, I wanna um, man. I wish I could fast forward this just to hear her voice, man, because when she comes in you know what she say. She was saying summer, spring, summer fall.
Speaker 1:Yeah, winter spring, summer fall. Summer winter, summer fall yeah.
Speaker 4:Yeah, I was like yo, that's dope man. Like, how did like yo, that's dope man. Like how did, like the emperor and the sage man, talk about that title real quick.
Speaker 1:Yeah, man, it's, since we produced that joint together it's not the only joint we produced together, but, um, the first part of that beat, because I believe that beat has uh like um, the first part of that, because I believe that b has uh like three sides to it. Um, when I wrote that first part, it wasn't like, oh, I'm gonna sit down and write a song about like me and t-dot, but there's like a lot of like, uh like inside things, like if you know, you know, you know I'm saying like mad one from the horizon, that's what t-dot always says. So it's like I start the verse off like that. So it's like just shouting them out in a subtle way. Um, and then there's other things scattered throughout the song.
Speaker 1:Well, I'm kind of just saying things that like we speak about. So he like another thing is like he always says like sage travels. So I just I just picked, I just picked that name, you know? Know what I'm saying. The next line, before you cut it off, is ride with an emperor, take your time with his temper. So it's kind of like all right, I'll play the role of the emperor or whatever. T-dot is the sage and that's what this track represents. It's kind of like who we are very loosely.
Speaker 4:You know what I'm saying I like that, I like that, yo, yo, I appreciate it. Internets man, y'all getting behind the scenes on this album. A Happy Home, h-o-h-m man. So no, you're only getting one track. I think it's one track on DSPs, your digital streaming platforms. You've got to come to Bandcamp and support your whole album, but you ain't getting none of it. I think you get two you can listen to, like two joints on Bandcamp before they cut you off. You know what I mean.
Speaker 1:No, I think it's like three or four, bro, but still, yeah, is it three or four? I thought.
Speaker 4:I saw two. I hope so, I think so I think.
Speaker 4:So, yeah, man, I thought I saw two, but either way I'm gonna support this album, man, because you want to hear more, man, you want to hear what we're talking about, like we, we only touching on little bits of what this album is, man, like yes, it's behind the scenes and all the individuals that are involved, and stuff like that. But yo, um, another another joint I want to talk, talk about is another, you know, like standout track. It's called flowers, man, which is a beat breaker. Y'all have a video um on youtube, man, and once this, once this comes out, I'm gonna link that, that video, so everybody can tap into it. Um, there's also a documentary about a happy home as well, man. So there's the documentary um, where it's the pre-re I think it's the release party, dom's birthday, but then it's also another documentary um, I can't remember that second, second part of the documentary, but um, it might be some shows.
Speaker 1:Yeah, maybe I was playing some shows, recording some stuff yeah, um, and then I think it's black guy.
Speaker 4:Nice he's. He's the one behind the camera following y'all yeah, yeah, shout out to black guy nine man his photography, and you know I mean video. What do you call that videographer skills? Yeah, yo, but flowers, man, we're gonna talk. We're gonna listen to a little snippet of flowers, um, and then talk about that as well, man, I love that. Right there, man, yo, we'll be right back. Man, let's listen to take a snippet of flowers real quick.
Speaker 3:Are you sitting there?
Speaker 1:You better put us on mute. You better put us on mute longer. I could roll alone, got missed messages, calls, alerts in my mobile phone. There's no space for the old ways. I've overgrown me myself and I introverts no zone. I feel it in my corosomes, chromosomes. Sitting in a silhouette, mixing emotions with machines like a gigapet. Plastic cup empty I ain't even poured a liquor yet, dwelling on predicaments, stress on my ligaments, wondering if it's meant for me, why I ain't get it yet. Maybe it's all mine. This isn't how I envisioned it. A year from now we'll see if I'm an idiom or idiot. Never falling on bending knees fall back. Take ten of these family tree. Got secrets like Genovese, blocked it out. No storage in my memory, blocked it out. No storage in my memory. Never falling on bending knees Fall back. Take ten of these Family tree. Got secrets like Genovese, blocked it out. No storage in my memories. Seen stranger things than this world in reverse.
Speaker 4:Woo, I wanted to say that next verse, but I mean that next line.
Speaker 3:but we ain't giving it to you. Y'all gotta buy the album you wanna listen to the rest of it.
Speaker 4:Yo listen, man, that sample, that sample, but then also like what you saying, dom is. Yo let me go to the lyrics, man, real quick, he said, even though I came. See, I'm saying it like you said it, man.
Speaker 6:Go ahead bro.
Speaker 4:Go for it, bro. He said. Even though I came to this world, I'm rolling stone. I don't know how much longer I can roll alone. I miss messages, call alerts in my mobile phone. There's no space for the old ways I've overgrown Yo.
Speaker 6:I need myself introverts.
Speaker 4:I feel that because I'm an intro, you know what I'm saying. I feel that, bro man, the gigapet, like the Netflix, you know what I mean. And I only know about that show because my girl's watching now, so I know. And when you said that, I was like, oh, he's talking about, oh, so yo, let's talk about Flowers, man, which is one of the dope standout tracks for this album. Man. Y'all got the video on YouTube. Man Should be blasting. It should have way more views than what it's got right now, but we're going to get it up there, you know. Talk about Flowers and how that came about, man.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I don't know if T-Dawg look busy. You want to speak on it bro?
Speaker 6:He having a good old time you know what was the question about man.
Speaker 4:Flowers, man. How did Flowers come about? Man?
Speaker 6:It was the question my man flowers, man, how did flowers come about, man? Um, it was a depressing day on my end, like I was. It was december 24th, so it was christmas eve. My, my family came over and I was sitting there attempting to celebrate something for them, because I don't like the holidays and end up being something that turned against me. So then Dom ended up picking me up and we ended up just picking it. He ended up allowing me to. Why did he pick me up? He ended up allowing me to be a part of his evening with Miss Tanya and we made music for Happy Home and we were sampling his records, and I don't remember what record it was that we sampled. Do you remember what it was, dom?
Speaker 4:No sample session. Don't even give it to him yo.
Speaker 1:I don't know what record it is, but it wasn't from our records. We sampled a few shits from our records. We sampled some Sunrise shit. I remember that and the shit was crazy. It was bugged out. But yeah, like he said, he just threw it out, like he just scrapped it, um, and then he think I believe he made another one, scrapped that one, and then when he made that I know the sample but I'm not gonna snitch he told me I didn't even remember that he used that beat, but it has been sampled a lot and he I feel like he fucked it up, like completely compared to what other people have done, in a good way, obviously, and uh.
Speaker 6:What is it Dead President 1?.
Speaker 1:Nah, it is. Uh, Jay-Z has rapped over that sample. I'll say that.
Speaker 4:But um, you got the internet. The internet's about to what Jay-Z sample? Which one, which one?
Speaker 1:Yeah, well, whatever who produced for him did, but yeah when he made that one, I was like all right bro, that's it, no more throwing away beats like, keep this shit. And uh, yeah, he was tripping because he felt like it was too simple or whatever you know, and I was like, nah, bro, like this has a lot of feeling to it, like, yeah, she made me want to cry, yeah, yeah yeah, my daughter be around the house singing that part right there yo, my son too, bro my one-year-old
Speaker 1:be singing that shit, because, uh, I've played that joint around him a couple times, like watching the video, whatever he like does, like his reaction to it, because you know he ain't really talking enough and he's like i'm'm just like all right, let's go.
Speaker 4:He got the cosign from the one-year-old yeah, I was thinking yeah, yeah, yeah, nah, for real.
Speaker 6:Nah, he ain't lying. That's the reason why we do the drums under it. The drums is some jazz shit that I took. I don't even know where I took it, but I took some jazz drums and then added an extra kick under them shits to emphasize a little bit more. And yeah, it's pretty much three-track, four-track beat, like that shit. It felt easy. That's the reason why I was like I don't know.
Speaker 6:But then Dom was just like, yeah, he was fed up, and rightfully so. I get it Like I was not having my best day. I was having a real shitty day because, like I really was doing my best to sit there and set something up for my family. So when, like I said, when Don picked me up, it was really him being there for me as a friend. It was just like yo, let me sit there and help you feel better and we made music and that came out of it. Like I feel like that is the score of the journey, at least for myself. I don't want to speak for Dom, but now that I sit there and think about life, that record could get played throughout the whole 33 years that I've lived and I'd be like that shit makes sense.
Speaker 1:That shit makes mad sense.
Speaker 4:Yeah, nah, I feel that too. Man, yeah, that's a dope, that's a dope joint man. That's, that's a dope joint man with my 11 year old. Just randomly be like yo put that strong on where it's like that's dope bro, that's hella dope bro. Thank you yeah man, um man. Last time I checked I was the man up in this bitch. Let's talk. We're going to play 1000 G's featuring Pilla. Who is Pilla? And can you plug whoever? That is like socials, Because what they were rapping on was dope too.
Speaker 6:It's the homie. Pilla Pilla and rest in peace. Like he's no longer with us. He's my best friend that passed away in 2017. So I took that verse from a previous record. If I'm correct, it's the last record he ever did before passing, and it was produced by his brother, skyhudge and I ended up taking that verse off of Thin Separation and adding that to this record because, first and foremost like that's my mans, like he believed in me, not like he believed in me before a lot of people believed in me, but not only that, he before a lot of people believed in me, but not only that he was a real cold-ass dude.
Speaker 6:He was the epitome of fearlessness. So to be able to honor him on this project through Brothers Dom's approval due to his relationship with his cousin, it was a mutual thing. I don't know it had me feeling good, because I've made other remixes with his verses, but to be able to have this live on something meaningful and everything he says, bro, he did it. 3 am poked out. Yeah, bro, he was no joke, but he was also the individual in my life that pushed us me and the homies, ray Clev and Kevin Jerome to believe in ourselves, because he always believed in himself, but he believed in us. So he was like yo, I'm around y'all. I wanted to honor him in that sense.
Speaker 4:Yo rest in peace to Pila man Yo. We thank you for your contribution, man and yo yo real quick man, we're gonna play a little snippet, but this is another standout track too. Dog like bruh.
Speaker 2:All right, hold on, man yo like, if I can add this to my um, cause I gotta, I gotta create.
Speaker 4:I'm creating playlists on Bandcamp right now. So, yeah, this is like my, this is like my, like my rah-rah, like when I'm, you know, about to go, anyway, all right, let me play this real quick.
Speaker 6:Let's go. Yeah, I love you, pillar, I'm not fucking with you. Tell me, else, man, I was plugged in way before I heard of record deals. I used to pop a Xanny just to dream about a quarter mil. Fez is on this. Now we gotta put our dreams up on the shelf. They shuttin' out accounts, bank accounts down, and now we movin' out, had to switch cities. Too many Niggas know my whereabouts. Drivin' up to five Can't drip, and all my left nostril six burners with me Ten pounds in that fuckin' Audi.
Speaker 1:I hit a hundred, like it ain't 307 in the morning, cuz I'm locked up. I can't pull up on that fuckin' corner 13 bands really. So you know. I went and switched the forms, hit my deuce for them, dropped some racks and then I kept it going. Last time I checked, I was the man up in this bitch. Had the grams up in this bitch. I was the man up in this bitch. Last time I checked, I was the man up in this bitch. Had the grams up in this bitch. Had the grams up in this bitch Plus a pineapple fit. Last time I checked, I was the man up in this bitch. Had the grams up in this bitch. I was the man up in this bitch. Last time I checked, I was the man up in this bitch. Had the grams up in this bitch. I was the man up in this bitch. Last time I checked, I was the man up in this bitch.
Speaker 1:Karate, chop half a pound while tap dancing on a brick. Got cash, but poppy gonna advance me for this trip. Just wanted fresh kicks. Had no plans of getting rich. Teenage years was a menace, hosted by the building, pitching to the tenants, no respect for teachers, elders or lieutenants. In my 20s got a little better understanding little higher. Can't catch no major cases, cause I caught one as a minor. Started rhymin' more. Kept it playin' with Mateo Danny and Cousin Brian. We was flyin' on the MySpace, facebook Grind. Started sellin' merch. My love for the music Started excellin' sellin' work. Now I'm in my thirties with three C's up under me, couple homies underneath. May we heal the wound From these troubled streets. Pour a little bubbly For the car, like yo, bruh, bruh, oh man yo, I'll be.
Speaker 4:I'll be in the car, like yo last time I checked I was the man of the life that's the point, bro. That's the fucking point yo man shout out to y'all for making this joke, man, like that's some real stuff, like you know what you were going through at that time, but then showing growth. You know what I mean. Yo man, it's a. It's a, it's a street record. You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 3:It's a street record. Yeah, A hundred percent but.
Speaker 4:But it's but it's a dope, like a thousand G's man featuring Peele man. Like who produced? Who produced that? And then like your flow on that Dom, like Peele's got his flow, but your flow I feel like you switched it up, like like maybe halfway I caught that yo talk about.
Speaker 1:Talk about that yeah uh, t-dog produced that man like he. You know that was another joint we did on my crib. Um, I remember when he popped up, like yo, I got the drums I want to use for the record with pillow, because that was a little bit, uh, premeditated, you know like we spoke about it, like you know if it was cool with him, like obviously I asked premeditated. You know like we spoke about it, like you know if it was cool with him, like obviously I asked his permission. Like you know, let's throw your homie that believed in you, that you know one of your best friends from your past. Let's do something like that to like honor him and shit. And uh, once we like agreed, that's something we want to try to do. Uh, he found those drums and then he was just playing the drums and yeah, he just fucking with the samples and shit, um, once we, once we played that sample. I think you know he just cleaned it up a little and yeah, it's just like off to the races to that shit. Like, once you, once you hear his verse on that shit, like, honestly, that shit could have been its own thing.
Speaker 1:Um, you know, I'm saying like I didn't even need to be on it. But yeah, you know what I'm saying. We went crazy with it. Like I had to just match that energy. You know what I'm saying. Like it's just very vivid storytelling, with the coke hanging out at the left nostril and shit, like when I heard that shit when we was trying to pick a verse, I was like that's the fucking verse I want, uh, because I love like vivid shit, like that. You know that it's like you had to be living it to say that shit. You know what I'm saying. Um, so yeah, I just I just matched the energy. You know, I just talked about things that I've been through that are similar and, um, yeah, man, that's one of my favorite joints too. That's a lot of people's favorite joints. Honestly, a lot of people have told me that's their favorite song man yeah, it's definitely one of them.
Speaker 4:Ones man it's definitely one of them. Ones, man. And then there's, you know, as we talk about um, oh, as a matter of fact, t dot see that um like the drums on that like oh, it's, it's like this. This is the swingy like ah, it's like it's so, like lazy chop type, like it's so dope man.
Speaker 6:So it. The original drum loop came from a pack. I don't remember the name.
Speaker 6:I'm sorry, I'm not really good at this shit you ain't gotta worry about it I chopped it up when I was actually in a session with brother bernard topry frank, it was me, frank, galaxy and black god and I was chopping up these drums and we made a whole different beat over that shit. That's another beat that I played for dom and I was just like this shit is the reference, but I was like I gotta make it real, real dirty, though. That's why I changed the whole sample and re-chopped it. But those drums came from another session and I'll see so, um, yeah, nah, it was pre, -meditated, like Dom said. Thank you, never mind D, it was premeditated.
Speaker 6:So I told Dom I had a specific idea, just like I do with Journal Entry 3, which is another record, the bonus record, but it was something that I needed. It hit hard because how his verse was so I didn't want to sit there and program something. I didn't want to sit there and program something that felt big. It was just like when I heard those joints and I chopped them. I just fit that record so perfectly. We already found that verse before I laid the drums. That verse was sat on for like two weeks, three weeks, before I came across those drums and the most I just did was the most I did.
Speaker 4:Dope man. Wow, that's it yo, that's definitely damn. Y'all gonna make a video for this one, yet we did already Wait.
Speaker 6:is this video up for this? This?
Speaker 1:dumb. Yeah, there's a video for this. Yeah, there's a video for it oh, I'm tripping yes, it's on the love supreme youtube channel I'm tripping, okay, yeah, I gotta go.
Speaker 4:I gotta go plug that one man like wow, like wow, okay, no fucking black guys out there and shot and edited it.
Speaker 6:It was in front of my house, we used my car and we used his car. My little brother was driving one car and my sister-in-law was driving the other car and went like I'm sitting on it playing the beat off of the SP, and then Dom's walking along the car and it's just like like shot and edited, chopped and everything.
Speaker 3:Uh-oh.
Speaker 4:Shout out to Black Eye 9, man, yo Yo, his yo. Okay, man, last two joints I'm going to play before I let y'all go. Man, we got to talk about tribal chains. Yeah, all man. We got to talk about Tribal Chiefs. All right, we got to talk about Tribal. I can't let y'all go without talking about Tribal Chiefs, featuring Jonathan Unitas, godbody, nadi Dio, the Soul, and co-produced by well, produced by T-Dot, co-produced by Dom well, produced by T-Dot, co-produced by Dom Cruise and Black Guy 9. Like man, I can't even play all five minutes and 46 seconds. You know, I may give them a minute. Yeah, I may give them a minute and let's see what happens. Yeah, all right, but I guarantee they're going to be like yeah, let me go get this album, man. All right, let's listen to Trib chiefs. Okay, we're gonna talk about this when I come back we look at the four directions.
Speaker 3:The four directions have each one has a gift over the need our ancestors thought it has to be, a need for special powers.
Speaker 1:Yeah, seven, seven, seven. Look who died and resurrected. Blood sacrificed for the ancestors and the ancestors. Time traveling, mind unraveling. Hit them with the spear, leave they heart on a javelin. Put your ones up to drive a chief from the rains. I could go for days. Ho, you don't know my pain In the studio.
Speaker 1:40 nights, 40 days. My mind too advanced. All you do is grow and age. 30 pull-ups on the ball trying to mold the rage. My story never finished. Better go pull the page. Leave a bookmark. Yeah, he book smart. Put him in the kitchen with the Pyrex. He cook smart. Got fam. That's ignorant. And they still hustling 10 bones in Carl Hart. They don't do construction, brothers of destruction. They put you under for taking the cane. Hell on earth. That's why we love making it rain. Huh, accepting my duality, I'm spitting signs that make you evaluate reality, know how to penetrate the subconscious through mantras. Signs of dumb trauma. Words cut deep. Fuck. Armor. Butterfly effect. Went back in time and snuffed proper. Before he nutted, mama said come harder, change the narrative, never comparison kings and queens, rations and pawns. It's embarrassing with a face palm. This is Nate Palm, eight pawns and a poem on my hand. I hate y'all, the archetype and architect and doctor. Like the sun, I'm set to find the boss, the chosen one, so come correct mission driven, navigating right.
Speaker 2:Love it or you hate it, that's the game of life.
Speaker 5:Do I fuck it?
Speaker 2:if you blow it still must toss the dice. Niggas, fuck, can't afford it. Always pay the price. Man is backwards. Too much flexibility Play around. They deny your capability. Oh no, now you in a limbo slice of life, backyard pinball knock the eyes out of your skull. 360, full, safe, 2020 hindsight. The world is out. I pray to god you make it home tonight that joint is bananas man yeah wow, wow, yo, and that's.
Speaker 4:That's only one minute in, like one minute and maybe 20 something seconds in. We didn't even we didn't get to the. Oh, it's my turn, oh, it's my turn. And then I don't know who that was, but they go, man. Yeah, tribal Chiefs. Man, how did this posse track come about, man?
Speaker 1:oh man, um, I know we definitely. It was another one of those like early sessions where we're kind of like brains, brainstorming more than anything and just having conversations. I remember we were talking about just like posse cuts and I'm not saying that it necessarily 100 went away, but we kind of spoke about how, like that, that was more of a thing back in the day. You know, I remember vividly listening to like a lot of posse cuts growing up, like rockefeller rough riders and all them. So we was like you know, we got to try to do something like that and you know we definitely like tabled ideas of who we wanted to be a part. There was a lot of names we discussed and yeah, we didn't have the beat yet and I think soon after we made that beat because we all made that together T-Dot on the drums, that woman singing in and out that sample was me and I think Black God kind of just like arranged everything and made it all clean.
Speaker 1:Once we made that track we were like, yeah, this is the posse cut, you know, and there's like two sides to it, like a, side A, side B. So we decided we was going to alternate it in. You know, you rap on side A, you rap on side B and, yeah, everybody killed it man, and I'm really happy with who it came out to be because it really is just a Love Supreme song at that point. You know everybody in it is pretty much Love Supreme man yo.
Speaker 4:That joint is bananas man Wow. Yeah, you right yo, like Posse Cut Stig used to be at that. I was a big Rough Rider head too, man, so I had the bandana you know I went to the hardware store to go get the dmx chain. You know, I'm saying like I was, I was all in man, but you know, but yo man oh man I love that track man tribal cheese.
Speaker 4:That's a dope name too, um, tribal cheese. Let's talk about um, oh man, I love that track man Tribal Cheese. That's a dope name too, tribal Cheese. Let's talk about Spring Equinox. For the digital people, that's the last track that they'll hear if they don't get a physical copy right. So, spring Equinox. Let me tell you something, man. It really feels like. It really feels like spring man. Let me get to my notes man because, Let me see.
Speaker 4:Oh, man, when you were talking about the metaphors in the track right, so you were talking about God particles, high consciousness you know feeling transformative. Man like you asked what's something that they can trust, right, how does trust play into the album's overarching message.
Speaker 1:You wanna, you wanna, answer that bro nah go ahead, you go first. I went first last time nah bro, I just did a whole tribal chiefs. I did tribal chiefs.
Speaker 6:I did tribal chiefs. Okay, okay, alright. What was the question again? So the question Tower of Tears? I didn't know, tower of Tears. Okay, okay, all right. What was the question again? So?
Speaker 4:the question. So for Spring Equinox, you know when they were talking about, Dom was talking about. You know, god particles high consciousness you know, feeling transformative and then I think Dom asked what's something they can trust.
Speaker 6:How does trust play into the album's overarching message? I love you, baby. Um. I think trust is a big part within the overall message, because I think that's the means of being a man. It's like, at the end of the, all we are looking for is a means of trust or a safe space to be able to emote quote unquote Like be able to share emotion. So I feel like trust is the foundation of everything, at least for me.
Speaker 6:Like within the majority of my relationships, the reason why they blossom is due to them trusting in who I am, regardless of making mistakes. Like I am a human being, I allow them to be a human being, but yet we're able to come together and still move forward to create something bigger than just ourselves. You know and I think that sits there and relates within family too Like my woman trusts me to sit there and solve a lot of things that are transpiring within our life, within family too. Like my woman trusts me to sit there and solve a lot of things within a lot of things that are transpiring within our life, or hiccups that might be presented. It's not that I'm only bearing that responsibility, I can lean on her anytime, but even that means of being able to be trusted, to be able to like let me see what you got and then, if you need me, I'm here you know, sometimes all it is.
Speaker 6:That's what it is. It's just like you just need a hug, you just need someone to sit there and be like. I got you, just in case you're not able to take care of it. You know, here I got you on the, the rest of the fourth that's needed, the rest of the third that's needed.
Speaker 4:So, yeah, for me, trust is a main thing man, dom, when you were talking about um, you said I don't know if I'm enough. We say I don't know if I'm enough. I just hope they feel the love. All these years in the mud, shedding tears in the sun, playing seed, smoking bun, pouring liquor for the ones man, like that's a real, that's a real emotion, man, I really felt.
Speaker 4:I really felt that because you know that's some sometimes like I be man, I'm gonna get personal. Sometimes I do be feeling like I ain't enough. You know what I'm saying. Like what I do ain't enough. You know, like as a man, I think you know all men probably feel like that, but you know it's. That's one of the strong emotions. But when you were, as we were going through the whole song, I had to run that back like 10 times, like you know, when you said a pessimist at heart. Look at how the pot is twisted. Take the pot and twist it. This is modern hieroglyphics. Other rappers got bricks, but I'm the one you run the bill with. But you know, talk about your lyrics on this show man, and you know those parts of that. You know, like God is not outside of us.
Speaker 4:You know what?
Speaker 6:I'm like.
Speaker 1:Which is true. Yeah, yeah, man, yeah, shout out to T-Dot Like that beat is amazing. It makes you feel like it feels very triumphant to me. So I knew I had a feeling it was something that I would want to be Like, kind of like an outro kind of feeling. And I really wanted to be like, kind of like an outro kind of feeling and I really wanted to just like put it all out there, like leave it all on the line, type shit. You know what I'm saying Because, like, for example, we got Tribal Chiefs where it's just bars. We got 1000 G's where it's like the street record. You know if we got to define these things.
Speaker 1:So Spring Equinox had to be like to me vulnerability for just me in totality as a whole person. So, you know, I don't know if I'm enough. I just hope they feel the love. You know that applies to all aspects of my life. Like there's music. You know I say they want someone they can trust. I don't know if I'm enough. Like you know, when we talk about like artists or someone to look up to, you know, or fatherhood or being a leader, like I do have those thoughts and those feelings sometimes too, just like you said, you know, like many of us have, like I don't know if I'm enough, um, but I just hope they feel the love Cause. At the end of the day, whether you know you, as long as you got love in your heart, like that, that's really what matters. So I just hope they feel the love.
Speaker 1:All these years in the mud, like I'm just bringing it everything full circle. You know, this is everything I've been through all the years in the mud, playing sea, smoking bud, pouring liquor for the ones. Rest in peace. You know, just get a moment and then just get right back into it. And a happy home name in itself is kind of like. It's kind of like a inverted meaning. You know what I'm saying Because, like, even though it's called a happy home, there's a lot of records that ain't got shit to do with happiness and that's kind of the, that's kind of the point what I say when I say that. A pessimist to like, look at how the plot is twisted. That's kind of what I'm trying to say. Take the plot and twist it.
Speaker 1:This is modern hieroglyphics, kind of a double entendre, because obviously hieroglyphics from like Egyptian shit, but then also the rap group hieroglyphics, because again, terrence has compared us to like the hieroglyphic group. So it's double entendre. The hieroglyphs hieroglyphic group. So it's double entendre. Um, modern hieroglyphics. Uh, what the fuck did I say after that? But yeah, man, I was just. I was just trying to go in, bro, I was just trying to like really paint a vivid, vivid picture and like leave, leave on a high note, and then we got all the people speaking. You know, after all these people like a lot of homies, um, that just threw some, some words out there, to to kind of double back and double down on that meaning of like family and community and shit, like the yeah man, um, that joint is that joint.
Speaker 4:So I ain't even playing yet, but I was supposed to play that and then ask you all the questions. But you, you know what Something just popped in my brain right now when you were talking about, you know, like the street records and the opening, I feel like this record represents every single season that we have. So, like you got, what is it like summer?
Speaker 4:like you know, spring, summertime, you, know fall wintertime where everything is just you know what I mean, like cold, grimy, you know what I mean. And then it comes back into springtime, like that's the point. Did I catch that? Did I catch that right?
Speaker 1:That's the point I didn't. You know there's so many concepts and themes, it's kind of hard to like make them all clear without just like making it a mess. But yeah, you know, like what a lot of the soundscapes like tdaw works with, like they're like very warm and shit. So like we started off with peace. Peace, like I said in the beginning, like it's welcoming you to the house, welcoming you to the environment. So to me that was kind of like spring and then we, we kind of get warmer you know we're like emperor in this age it's like summer and then we get dark and grimy, with flowers and uh, tribal cheese, and then it comes right back to to spring again, to end, to end it all off. You know it's like you experience the full spectrum, all seasons.
Speaker 6:Yeah, man, that beat. That beat that was made in the same session as Journal Entry 1.
Speaker 4:I'm gonna play a snippet of the Spring Equinox real quick and then come back and we gonna round it out for y'all fellas, All right.
Speaker 3:Nah most of all I appreciate you.
Speaker 1:Thank you, apartment 3D that's where it all started at Playing with the God particle. You don't want no parts of that. I talk about the universe, cause I'm really all of that In another space and time. These palms are an artifact. It's been three years since I've been seen with a super-tied rocket brain.
Speaker 1:My fam's asking who am I? Please don't scrutinize. We open, institutionalized. Don't shoot the messenger. Please don't shoot the blind. I'm aiming at the president. Whoever else tryna rule my mind. Brian, free from doing time. I'll hardly pick up the phone. It may ruin my vibe. I'm locked up inside dawg. I'm still doing my time Knotted up. Healing. It is not enough. God is not outside of us. Park the whip, let's ride the bus. I'm on a high. I gots to rush for the people what they want, want something they can touch, want someone they can trust. I don't know if I'm enough. I just hope they feel the love. All these years in the mud, shedding tears in the sun, planting seeds, smoking blood, pouring liquor for the ones. Rest in peace done. A happy home just means that we is optimistic, a pessimist at heart. Look at how the plot is twisted. Take the pot and twist it. This is modern hieroglyphics. Other rappers got bricks, but I'm the one you build with.
Speaker 4:I wish I was DJing right now, because then I'll just let it ride. But I can't man, because I got to support the album. Go get a happy home on Bandcamp. Don't just buy the digital, buy the physical. They got series and y'all got cassette still.
Speaker 1:Yeah, we got a few left.
Speaker 4:Yeah, y'all got a few left man, so yay, I don't know if they're doing another run I don't even want them to do another run, because this is, this is man this album man.
Speaker 4:Man this album is to be felt, man. Like not just rush through, not skip around, you know, not do all of that crazy stuff that y'all do with the mainstream albums, like yo, literally put this in, sit your ass down and press play and just chill. Yo Just listen, man, and you're going to feel something, man. You're definitely going to feel something, man, yo man. Thank you bro.
Speaker 6:That's one of the main things within my music. I want people to feel again, you know, because I feel a lot. I'm a very emotional individual. I want to really stand in that. Like I love emotions they help me guide myself through life like understanding the clarity within where things are rooted. So like being able to stand in that and allowing, like not even allowing I want to force people to feel this shit. Feel it, feel uncomfortable, feel good, feel great, Feel enjoyable, feel like damn, I got to do better. You know, like the abso-joint, like got to do better. Like that's what I want my music to feel about all the time. Like feel again, you know, because I feel like that's something that we do lack as a society. You know, because I feel like that's something that we do lack as a society is to sit there and feel Again we numb ourselves.
Speaker 4:Let me just give the internets a description of this album, real quick man. Just so once they get done listening to this, they go and support this album on Bandcamp. Man, a Happy Home is a sonic Let me get my deep voice. It's a sonic odyssey based on interpersonal relationships, healing, radical acceptance, truth and so much more. Conceptualized and created by Dom Cruz and TI, the album touches on all emotions and sonically provides the same range. All emotions and sonically provides the same range. The album covers paint palette designed by Jacqueline Soledad represents this wide range of sound and emotion, from the meditative opener piece piece to the conclusion wild wings you are guaranteed to feel nod your head. Wings you are guaranteed to feel nod your head. Rage and so much more. Welcome to a happy home fellas, yo man man.
Speaker 4:Yo, I wish I could play, but like I, said we ain't giving them that man. They got to support the album. They want to hear every joint man you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 6:I appreciate you just for the space and the time, bro, that is Yo.
Speaker 4:Man, it's my honor, man, to be able to do this and chop it up with y'all. Man, I'm just a big fan, man, I'm just a big fan of what y'all are doing. Man, I love supreme. I'm a big fan of you. Know what you are doing, dom and um with rooster realm. Speaking of, uh, speaking of that, I gotta plug rooster realm, man, I gotta, I gotta, I gotta hit you up. I gotta hit you up next week I got need brother.
Speaker 4:I got school clothes to get, but that's the priority. But yo, rooster Realm, man like yo. If y'all don't know about Rooster Realm, I'm gonna link that in the description of this show too, so y'all can tap in. Man, they're doing some very well thought out, well prepared. Um, what's the word I can use? Man? Um, well thought out, well prepared.
Speaker 6:What's the word?
Speaker 4:I can use man, Clean healthy, Clean healthy, Like treats for y'all. Yeah, yeah, Treats. Yeah, let's put it like that Treats. Yeah, it sucks, you know, man so.
Speaker 6:Good for the nervous system. They're great for the nervous system.
Speaker 4:Yeah yeah. Actually I need a nervous system reset too, but yo let me highlight the production real quick. So Production partnerships with T99 Salt Black Eye 9. Your boy Pax, who mastered this joint Shout out to your boy Pax, Burning, Burning Graff.
Speaker 1:Burning.
Speaker 6:Giraffe, giraffe, burning Giraffe, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 4:Okay, burning Giraffe when you go to band camp and you get the like like the exclusivity of Egypt. Light motion work, wild winds to spark discussion on strategy, okay. So, oh, I got one, I got something I gotta play y'all from, from where is he? Where is he?
Speaker 5:Let me get to it. Yo, yeah, in regards to the track light motion work, happy Home, you know. But basically, because you know, a lot of times I drop little works in progress and stories and highlights on Instagram. T-dot shout out to T-Dot man, that's my homie. He's always showing, you know, know, lots of love.
Speaker 5:Or if there's something you know, one of those works in progress that he's really messing with, you know, he'll give me a little bit of feedback, uh, but that one in particular was when I was first experimenting with a lot of like field recordings, things like that, and um, I think I just made like a drum loop, a drum loop in that one, and uh, and he hit me up. You know he was like, hey, yo, uh, if you don't mind, man, if you send me that one, I've got some ideas that I'd love to try to do on that one, and normally I don't normally do that and collaborate and stuff like that. But but you know, my man, my man T-Dot, I like his style and I was like, oh, yeah, for sure. So I sent it to him and a lot of time passed. I didn't really think much of it, but he did tell me, I think, one time at a show he played something. I recognized that break and I was like yo, that's fire. And he was like yo, this is what I did with your, you know your drums on it, so, uh, so I think he probably had that for some time.
Speaker 5:You know, whatever instrumental he did with those, those sounds that I made and then, uh, you know he would know the story better but looks like it landed, you know, on this project with the homie Dom. But basically my contribution is really just the drum sounds. I think he even maybe added some other, I don't know like if it's like a kick or a tom, but most of that percussion and a lot of those field recordings you know those are. It is basically a rhythm, a rhythm that I created, just with a bunch of abstract sounds. And then, you know, t-dot took that and you know he took the rest of the production from there. And then, you know, dom, he put some poetry over it.
Speaker 4:Yeah man, that's the homie Tachi Maki man out there in Australia. Yeah, I mean, I had to tap in. You know I started to tap in with a whole bunch of different people on the album man, just to go behind the scenes. I figured I'd surprise y'all with the Tachimaki that was dope.
Speaker 4:You know what I'm saying so, yeah, tachimaki's one of yeah, he's the homie too, man, I appreciate his sound, just like I appreciate y'all sound, man. So, okay, let's wrap this up. We're gonna plug this album one more time. Um, yeah, we're gonna, you're gonna okay. So, man, you know we talked about so much in this album, man, um, a happy home spelled h-o-h-m. All right. And oh yeah, dom said to you that, yeah, you can explain that home part a little bit more um, it's just phonetics.
Speaker 6:Um, home. It just reminded me of home, which, at that moment in time, I think I was just sitting really heavy on sound healing and the studies of Buddhism and their means of meditation and chanting and all that. So it just had me sitting there feeling like, okay, aum is where the heart is, but then the highest frequency of that vibration is home, which just circulates everything back into the fact that foundation is everything within what we do, you know, trusting ourself, feeling ourself, giving ourselves that space, that ability to move forward, regardless of how things are presented in a sense of uh chaos. You know, because, like everybody's experiencing life, and I feel like these are just trials and tribulations that are just testing our character and our spirit for betterment, not necessarily for anything that's supposed to uh hinder us, unless we allow it to. You know, home being in the nation.
Speaker 4:I like that. I like that, yo. You can pick up this album at domcruz D-O-M-C-R-U-Z dot bandcampcom. Let's follow Dom Cruz and T-Dot. I'm going to put all of that in the description of this show. Follow Love Supreme. I'm not sure put all of that in the description of this show. Follow Love Supreme. I'm not sure if y'all are doing any shows for this album this summer.
Speaker 6:Yeah, At this moment in time I don't believe so. We were having a whole run and then, you know, life presented itself. So we're still figuring that out, Like I think we're going to do something in fall, whether that's out in Cali or whether that's out in Oregon where he's at.
Speaker 4:Is there a t-shirt for that album coming? Not yet A poster. A sticker Not yet A poster.
Speaker 1:A sticker. Nah, man, honestly, the cassettes and the CDs for now, okay, but, like you said, like this album could live forever. So I think it's really helped me with my perception of time, like everything doesn't need to be done all at one time, you know, if you really believe in it, and it's really a mark on your legacy, like you could drop the merch next year. You know you can drop it whenever you want because it's timeless because the original idea for merch was like a candle.
Speaker 6:We were about to sit there and have a candle that sits there exudes a means of relaxation. You're going to have like, uh, incense teas, like things that represent a home, like a sense of pictures. Yeah, relaxation exactly, because, like it was incorporating roots around. So we were just you know what I'm saying. So that was the biggest, that's the big thing that we were working on is like how can we, how can we sit there and utilize this to continue what Roots to Realms is doing too, because that's a part of the whole, the whole experience. That's the home for Brother Dom you know what I'm saying In terms of his business.
Speaker 3:Like yeah.
Speaker 6:We were creating these like home decoration, home little miscellaneous items type shit there it is yeah, yeah man.
Speaker 4:Shout out to y'all man.
Speaker 4:Man, fellas, I really appreciate y'all being on the show. This Beat for Sessions, man, y'all brought it back for 2025. So y'all, the first ones, let's go For this Beat for Sessions to bring me back for Beat for Sessions on the Red Show podcast. That's a wrap for the Red Show podcast. Man, big love to Dom Cruz and TI and Saul for sharing the stories and the sounds and the soul behind A Happy Home, which you can get on band camp right now. All right, you can. You can preview snippets on the district. Uh, you know the streaming platforms. Go to YouTube and you know, check out a love Supreme California. Check out the documentaries. You know, as a further behind the scenes for the album. Um, but yo, if today's conversation resonated with you, make sure you stream the album, support the artist.
Speaker 4:All right, that's how they that's how they can make more albums. All right, stream the album by supporting the album and support the artist and then share this episode with a friend who needs that sonic healing, because that's what this, that's what this album is is a sonic healing man all right yo any final thoughts, dom and uh t-doc man, before we sign off, yeah um dom, you want to go first?
Speaker 1:yeah, I'll go first man, yeah man, just big thank you to you. First of all, go to my for having us on here taking the time. I could tell you definitely put thought into it and that means a lot. It means a lot to me because I put a lot of time into my art so for it to be received, you know, to be reciprocated that way. That really means a lot to me. I mean, from the first question I was like all right, this man wasn't playing question. I was like all right, this man wasn't playing um. But you know, obviously, thank you to to t dot. Like I really feel like we made something that that stands the test of time. Like we could listen to this album 20 years from now and it's still gonna hit um.
Speaker 1:Thank you to everybody that has supported the project, that's going to support the project and shout out, to shout out to you, man, shout out to what you're doing. I really love what you're doing. I really love what you're doing. It's so important for us to support each other and to give each other more platforms, because music has kind of like a glass ceiling, a gatekeep to it. So for us to do this to show that we don't need that, we don't need to even really pay attention to that because we got people like you that are going to highlight us, like that means a lot, it goes a long way and yeah, man, just thank you. I appreciate the platform. The time has been a great fucking experience doing this.
Speaker 6:Yeah, to piggyback off of what he said. Yeah, piggyback off of what he said, the support on the appreciation, the, the means of financial support, like, thank you very much for putting money in and investing into us. You don't have to do it, nobody has to do it. You know, this is like, again, a means of conversation that has turned into a record, and this is a record with between me and my brother down, like when we met each other. I wasn't making music at this time. This is just friendship, you know. Again, I appreciate him for trusting me to sit there and cultivate such a world. So for you to highlight it, it's just an honor, brother. So thank you again. Like you've been supportive from the beginning. So just sit there and have you really support this and understand where this is coming from. Due to this fact that you heard me and had me on an interview and gave certain questions and I gave insights to where I'm coming from. Like I appreciate you for that. I'm just grateful for that. I'm grateful for everyone that was involved, because, at the end of the day, no one really had to be involved. So for them to believe in us because, oh folks, interpersonal relationships with Black guys, they're an executive produce and to these intimate moments and these videos for us. Like I'm grateful for him in this time, you know, because it just presents a more sense of intimacy that went into this project than I might be aware of at the moment in time.
Speaker 6:That transpired like I'm sitting there and looking back and I'm just like, damn, that was love. That was love. He did this, that was love. Like it's giving me more gratitude for everything. And then you hear the music and it's just like yo chill out. Yeah, listening to the music it just has me appreciate it more because it really is a testament of time, like it's not a dated sense of perspective for man, it's a perspective for man that everybody experiences. Like we're given a testimony that could trans, transcend time. You know, whether you're 15, 18, 20, 25, 30, like everybody especially were areas where we grew up in. Everybody experiences some wild ass moments in life that were just like fuck, I wasn't ready for this. So to be able to give them a sense of positivity to think about was just like. Even if you did do this, it could turn out to be this you know it might look crazy right now, but 5 years, 10 years later you're going to be doing this, that and the third, and it's gonna be beneficial because you overcame all this shit that's man.
Speaker 4:Yo all love man to, to you, dom, and uh, t-dot man, I'm a, I'm a supporter, I'm a fan, I'm a be a fan for however long you know, like until I die. Basically you know what I'm saying. But, uh, but yo, I appreciate y'all, appreciate y'all giving me the opportunity to spotlight y'all's work. Y'all got amazing body of work and um put other people on and so you know if, if I can do that and you know it all, it is time, it's time and investment.
Speaker 4:Care about what you're doing, man, and I really do care about both y'all and the body of work that y'all put out, man, um, because y'all put thought and effort into this album, man. So thought, effort, time, energy, yeah, you know I mean into this album, man. So I can't come with nothing, but you know, know what I mean 100%, 110%, like I came ready to go Research. You know what I mean listening. I wrote down a whole bunch of notes but I can't say them all here just because you know it'd take even more longer than I originally thought. But I appreciate y'all man.
Speaker 1:Thank you, brother.
Speaker 4:Yes, sir man, I appreciate y'all man. So, um, thank you, brother. Yes, sir man, I appreciate. Hey, thank y'all's families too, for you know, um allowing me to take a little bit longer than 45 minutes an hour to talk about the album, because I know y'all home from work, you know they want y'all attention, man. So thank y'all significant I appreciate y'all.
Speaker 6:I love it, I love, I love sharing More intimate information. That shit is amazing.
Speaker 4:Yes, sir, yo so Yo Follow us on All platforms man At the Reg Show Podcast, with the exception of Spotify For more conversations With beat makers, producers and creators From around the globe. Until next time, start with the record, recognize the beats and always Keep building your own happy home. Peace y'all, peace yeah.
Speaker 1:A happy home just means that we is optimistic a pessimist at heart. Look at how the plot is twisted. Take the pot and twist it. This is modern hieroglyphics. Other rappers got bricks, but I'm the one you build with Homeless by the heart. How the plot is twisted take the pot and twist it. This is modern hieroglyphics. Other rappers got bricks, but I'm the one you build with.
