Of Music & Men 49

The weirdest part of modern hip hop isn’t the beef, it’s the way the rules change depending on who’s getting judged. We get into the Jay-Z and Drake tension that bubbled back up, why Jay can’t sell “I’m above it” while still moving like an MC with something to prove, and how fans treat legacy artists like they’re untouchable even when the headlines get ugly.

From there, we pull the camera back to the real battleground: narrative control. We talk lawsuits, public perception, and the double standard of what gets blasted on radio versus what gets quietly brushed aside. Then we debate Jay-Z’s place in rap history compared to Drake’s unmatched chart run, streaming dominance, and longevity in the social media era where celebrity mystique is basically dead.

We also hit the business side: “Too Hard for the Radio” edits, regional politics, and how streamers and podcasters now shape rap opinions before most people even press play. Plus quick culture checkpoints on Vince Staples’ principles, pop stars chasing rap credibility, Kendrick’s Super Bowl optics, and the messy expectations placed on today’s women rappers.

If you care about hip hop culture, rap media, and the music industry machine behind the music, tap in. Subscribe, share this with a friend who argues about rap online, and leave a review with your take: who’s really controlling the story right now?

Transcript

Of Music & Men 49 (1)

SPEAKER_01 0:01

Lay in LA Life of Times of Music and Men episode 4. Me and Dre every day, bro. I guess the jig is up. Dre, what's up?

SPEAKER_00 0:14

These OGs rocking already.

SPEAKER_01 0:16

And Dre told you how the OGs was gonna act. The craziest. I mean, look, and it's funny because after all the interviews pre-albs.

SPEAKER_00 0:30

Bro, wait, no.

SPEAKER_01 0:31

Everyone switches their mindset up at PostgreSQL. Oh wait. Was that the GQ interview with the young interviewers?

SPEAKER_00 0:38

Yeah. Said he was beyond that shit.

SPEAKER_01 0:43

Now we don't sign up.

SPEAKER_00 0:46

Now he's doing that shit would have been cool in 2011, bro. I'm cool off that. The production's ass, man.

SPEAKER_01 0:56

Can I get a CDQ version of this? It's not inherently that the response was bad, though. It was not even addressing the main things that were brought up. But it was if you were above this, you know, you're no longer in the leagues of messing and interacting with these guys, then you shouldn't have felt the need to respond.

Intro & Jay-Z Setup

SPEAKER_01 1:20

Hold on. Let me preface this correctly. Okay, this is the Life of Times of Music of Men, episode 49, me and Dre all day. We are talking about Jay-Z, Hova, no rock. Okay. Motherfuckers are throwing rocks up in the air for this man. Alright, this is Jigga, what? Jigga, who?

SPEAKER_00 1:39

Alright? I'm not talking about anybody. We're talking about Hova. Alright, ain't no love.

SPEAKER_01 1:46

And the heart of city. I'm a big Jay-Z fan. So let's just talk about Jay-Z and the tension that he has with Drizzy Drake Rogers that is bubbled up at the Roots Festival. I couldn't believe he used the Roots to sell that type of plant. Oh, okay. Okay, I see. I see. Maybe you should have got on stage. You could have go off the streets. You know, I was conflicted too. Yeah, no, I mean, so look, they've had their back and forth spats over the past 15 years. They've collabed on songs, they've pressured each other to make better music. A lot of it came from the in the beginnings, I would say the immaturity of Drake want to prove himself over the outstanding acts. And then they kind of went their separate ways. But a lot of things got rekindled during the beef with Kendrick. Everyone's like, all right, well, Jay, you chose the side and you're helping push this narrative. Which, as much as I would love to get away from the beef with Drake and Kendrick, we're gonna have to return to that later stuff, too, because people still making moves that the show decides. But you were above this. You just did an interview. I swear it was 45 days ago. Where you're like, I'm above this, I'm Hove. I don't got no, you know, skin in the game between these two gals. We're just doing business and we want to do what the culture wants to culture won. Kendrick, he had a monster year. That's what he said. Kendrick had a great year, made sense to the Super Bowl. That's fine. Drake mentions Hove twice on this album, right? The one that Hove decided he didn't want to react to, though, was the Island Hop and Redacted names. He must have not heard that one. Most of uh media hasn't covered that line. Most of hip-hop media hasn't talked about it. I think it's just us and people who give a fuck. And that's a very small circle. Now,

Jay-Z Lawsuits & Epstein Files

SPEAKER_01 3:43

Jay-Z went on a run of a tour, interviews and conversations, trying to change the narratives associated with himself, coming off of these things that was going on. Jay-Z is coming off of a lawsuit. Jay-Z is coming off of being named in the Epstein files. He wasn't named directly in any crimes, but being named is enough in today's times. Especially with the hypocrisy and the situation surrounding Drake and himself and all these things. You know, I can't really take anybody serious. And I don't take Jay-Z serious at all as far as like his stances, as far as him saying, one, the this situation, oh, this culture is bad for us. I don't think that anything that's advantageous for Jay-Z is good. Anything that's disadvantageous for Jay-Z is bad. And that's just what we're dealing with. He's not the type of guy to be honest. He saw opportunity and he's still an artist at the end of the day. Jay-Z still has an ego at the end of the day. Jay-Z is an MC at the end of the day. And I don't never think that Jay-Z is a bum or out of his depths when it comes to this. But I do believe this just this happening, he's already lost so far to me. He hasn't responded to anything that was actually damaging to him. And he went at Nikki more than he went at Drake, which is another thing. Far as the personal shots. He got more personal with Nikki than he got with Drake. Because Drake is already talking about the redacted shit. So Drake is already at this level, as far as talking, talking about the fat checking shit. This is big shit. That's why I was gonna say, like, even besides the whole, like, so the other songs where he was talking about, you know, not looking up to no one answering or looking up the hoover, all that. We can ignore that. Let's just talk about people for a second. Drake gets accused of something. We talked about this, right? The situation that happened with the girl that was brought up on stage from his team in Canada, whatever. Like I say, once again, weirdo for that. Drake gets accused of being a pedophile. Drake gets accused of this, everyone runs with a story, everyone's singing in the concerts, we're playing it on the radio. Jay-Z's name is in the Epstein Founds, the biggest ring caught in human history. And we're hush, hush. Jay-Z has evidence up. Y'all know when Jay-Z started talking to Beyonce. Y'all know how they was moving around, Aaliyah. We have evidence. So why are y'all not having that same effort for him? But we've seen the way that y'all defend it or Kelly. We've seen the way that y'all defend Diddy. And I think this is a generational thing of older people who want to defend these people that they grew up on. And my thing is, what do you personally have to lose defending a guy who's never done anything for you? Dying on that hill to ignore Jay-Z's real life. Like we have facts for these things. To shame and slander Drake over accusations. Like, what do you gain from that? Like for people. Like I that's my confusion. Why are we so hush? Here's the thing, bro. Jay-Z has done the socially acceptable things, which is for blackness. He has sold drugs. He's willing to harm someone. We think that is cool. Drake had a job as a child, a better job. And we do not like that path. Because he did not come from the hardship that we have romanticized. And that's the problem. And it's a romanticized hardship, and it's a romanticized reality. And it's not even the reality that these guys live at all. It's over for them once they. I mean, after reasonable doubt, Jay-Z was touching a lot of bread and music. So I like how close was he to those situations after that? He's still talking about bricks. So like they tell- still talking about that. We talked about, he's like, you know, basically, Drake, the numbers that y'all were putting up, what y'all think? My net worth is I'm way over that. That's fine. Let's say he doubled what his previous net worth was. Let's say Jay-Z's pushing $4 billion instead of two, right? Or five. That's about to change when Drake gets his new deal. It doesn't matter.

SPEAKER_00 8:14

The billionaire talk is very it's going to be very long.

SPEAKER_01 8:17

If you're getting billionaire money off of residual businesses, Drake's about to actively get that money off of music that he can still keep making. I think here's the thing. And I really don't think they're comparable. And I'll be honest. And this is

Drake vs Jay-Z Legacy Debate

SPEAKER_01 8:35

why. Jay-Z was never the guy. If we talk about his run, we're going to start talking about other people. Yeah. Before Jay-Z got off, it was even before Big E Smalls and Tupac died, Big L was in front of Jay-Z. There was a lot of people. LL Coo J was in front of Jay-Z. He was competing for that position. He was competing against DMX. And he'd say himself he got beat by DMX commercially. DMX was murdering the game. And that's the thing. Like Jay-Z has always been one of, but he hasn't been definitively the one. And when he started becoming the one, maybe in 2000, let's say 2007, 2009, he still made the 2000s, yeah. In the 2000s, right? Like where he was really the guy, but you still gotta think about T-Pang came out, Kanye came out, um, 56 came out. He never came out and he was the guy by himself. Like Nelly was out. Right. All that shit happened. And we're not saying that like he wasn't because there was competition, but it was like the guys that were. Jay-Z got lucky, and if you want to be a conspiracy theorist, how much of things are luck, right? Especially we know we know that's how some of these people was moving, you know, puff. How did Jay-Z manage to like every all his competition either straight up died, right? You talk, like you brought up Big L, Pac, Big E, right? Went to jail for other stuff. DMX was locked up for a minute. Like you you talk about this your biggest competition? Something happened to them. You never beat them through music. Right, I'm just thinking about Lil Wayne? Lil Wayne, Lil Wayne actually. All right, so he really. When Jay-Z was at his height, Lil Wayne was out. And so that was That's what I'm saying. That's why there's so much tension because Lil Wayne was the greatest rapper at a time. He was the greatest rapper while Jay. So, all right, now we can really talk about it. There's a c there's a lot of eras in Jay-Z's career where there's somebody either as good as him or better. Better. And we can say we can even say the same for Drake's career, right? But I'll tell you there was been four to five years of stretch. Then I'll say what? Good kid Mass City dropped 2013. So that's four years. And then 2014, Forrest Hills Drive came out in 2014. And then if you didn't after that, it was up. So yes, Drake had like you take the penultimate years of Kendrick and Cole's careers, they both had a dominant year. You take those out, boom. I mean, yeah. Drake, what was it? Drake had a song in the top 100 every week for 10 years straight. It's it's different, bro. Like, and I think that's the difference because there wasn't such a clear difference between Jay-Z and Nas. Like they they they were selling the same, you know what I'm saying? It was comparable, it was comparable. They were lyrically dense. You know what I'm saying? Like, it's either it's either, you know, give or take, who you like more as far as Nas or Jay-Z. Yeah, it's preference. It's preference. Same thing for Drake and Clay. Cole and Kendrick. I see that as Cole and Kendrick. Yeah. They're both in a conscious storytelling lane that differs on whose experiences they choose to talk about and which vices. I see that as Drake and as Jay-Z. As Kendrick and Jay Cole. But they're like, you throw Drake over that. Talking about the most prominent person with quality, they're getting beat out. And that's just what it is, you know. That's the biggest difference. I think that's why Jay-Z, like, that's the root of the jealousy there. And it, I mean, listen, we don't get Washed the Throne without Drake. Like that, like it's been said. Like, and that's a crazy feat to have Jay-Z and Kanye get together to try to stop that run. So, yo, did Wash the Throne come out the same time as uh Take Care? 2012. 2012. It was the year after Take Care. So Take Care came out, which was 2011, and then they made Wash It Down. Yeah. Yeah. Kanye went straight to the lab. No, no, it was it. It was Drake dropped Take Care. And they were like, oh, hell no. Yo, we're never going to get it again, bro. Think about it. We got Take Care. Nothing was the same in Good K Mad City and then Forest Hill Drive. And then we got Born Center too. It's just out of the three, we have to say Good K Mass City was the best. But like. Out of what? Good K Mass City. Nothing was the same in um Born Center. Oh, out of Born City, yeah. I like Forest Hill Drive over a Good K Mass City. No, I like Forest Hill Drive over So like Forest Hill Drive is more of a story of it's past just black paint. It's black. Like he gets he gets further than what he, you know what I'm saying? Like it's emerald. If we line up all the albums between all three artists and we stack them together in an order, I'm putting like collectively, all three, but that's probably like 30 albums compared to most of them. Most of them will be Drake. But if we throw all of the albums together, I'm putting Force Souls Drive in my top three of the gener of these three guys' generations of music, period. I can say that too. I mean, that's what I'm saying. And I I can even say this for me, because we also have to think about inspiration, right? Take care changed everybody else, right? I have to put take care first because it came out before Poor Showdrop. Came out before Good Kid Man City. And then we got Good Kid Man City versus Take Care. But it's it's really dependent on what type of person you are. True. I mean, you know what I'm saying? I mean, I the way I see, like, if I take like all three, I'm gonna be honest, like from all three of the careers, to me, I might put views, you like viewing. And then Force Hills Drive. And I might put that in the top three albums of all three of those guys combined. Like, I would put those in my top three. I think I was a freshman when that shit came out, bro. That shit was crazy. Like that, that did something. That that was I think views was Drake accepting one, he was going to lose most of the friends in the industry that he had, and the industry in the game wasn't what he thought it was, and how he was gonna have to move differently from that. Like his his persona when views came out, I just think was when we see the like that was the start of the Drake we see now. Yeah, I think we'll get Iceman without views. It's just he had to get grittier on there and just be retrospective. That's why also we talk about mature like music and all this. To me, views was one of the first times Drake showed maturity and introspective in his life and how music had changed and affected him. Outside of lover boy stuff and girls and all of that. Like, I feel like views was when he was like, damn, like I gotta be a different person if I'm gonna keep doing this music stuff. It was fun. Young Money, all that was fun. It was just a group of guys making music. Wayne was showing us the light. That shit was crazy. Nothing could go wrong. Wayne was gonna handle it. I think it was like, damn, I gotta be the man of the house. I gotta be the man of hip-hop. Yeah, because that was the first time it honestly, he'd been in contention since views. Like people have been coming at him since views at to that

The Iceman Era & A$AP Rocky

SPEAKER_01 16:35

extent. Speaking of people coming at him, bro, we got ASAT Rocky.

SPEAKER_00 16:38

He's in the middle of his tour, putting the aisles, but he got targets on the aisles, target marks on the aisles. He uh he addressed the crowd.

SPEAKER_01 16:48

He was like, don't fall for the narratives, don't fall for the propaganda, don't be dumb, you know. Don't be dumb was like how you begging your crowd. And you know, it sounded like he was getting a little emotional. Mm-hmm. It's affected. Hey, what are you gonna do to the Iceman? The subfreeze. No, it's for you to bring this up. So let's watch this. Jay-Z brought it up, ASAP brings it up. Everyone was different, and we he talks about that music. All them interviews just done before I dropped that, keep that same energy. The album's out now. We're two weeks post-album, and now y'all have to move different. Y'all have to explain yourselves. Y'all need to reassure yourself. They were used to Drake being the passive. You know, you know what Drake was? He was the nerdy kid who got a bunch of money. You can't you you know he's not, and people would assume he's not like them, right? Because he's not going through the he's just himself and he's gotten here, and his self is not what other people had to be. So, like, when you're dealing with that, like because you you think about street culture in itself, like a lot of dudes are now on the block being themselves. No. Come on, bro. It's uh like these guys have all these personas, and when you get a light-skinned guy from Canada being himself, singing these love songs, breaking all these records, it's hard to maintain these frames of masculinity because they have issues with Drake, and he was nice enough not to bring it to the public and never show the tension. The tension's here now. Like if you cross me, I will make you feel it. My fans will make you feel it, and I will make you feel it. You're gonna have to play my music and feel away now. Yeah. And I really appreciate that from Drake because I think he was far too nice in his run from top to bottom. Jay-Z never did the shit that Drake did in his run. Jay-Z would just take your soul, the rights, all that shit. All of it. Yeah. Joe, it is so funny. Like, this is why I was talking about like people, how did Jay-Z get in this position? Jay-Z knew as much as that street stuff, hard stuff, whatever, and I'm not saying Jay-Z didn't do none of that stuff. Jay-Z knew about the bird to lose, to use the legal system. Jay-Z has been weaponizing the legal system. And he taught he makes that joke, and he's like, oh, go back to, you know, the white people who got your stuff from perpetuity and all this stuff like that. It's like, Jay-Z, you have been using white labor and labor and the machine to keep other black artists down way before Drake ever did it. If anything, the best businessman in the industry before Drake was you, Jay-Z. So let's not act like this blueprint, as he so puts it, was put out by you, and now someone else is using it. And obviously, you think you're better at it and you have different connections and stuff like that. But besides this, the way people are acting also goes to show, which is why I think it was an embarrassment from the beef. Regardless, yes, we can say Drake lost it. The way people are moving when they thought Drake was actually going to be canceled through the power of Kendrick L'Amour riding that chariot, a bandwagon. As soon as that didn't happen and Kendrick's not involved, no one is able to stand on their own tin toes to discuss Drake. And he needed Kendrick, and that's a shame. And also, Kendrick needed them too. Like, I was just

Kendrick, J. Cole & The Beef Origins

SPEAKER_01 20:35

talking about this. Kendrick did not start this beef by himself. He's on a track with future one in Metro Two, right? A lot of support in the room already. Three, he's responding to a bar that J. Cole put out there. Yeah. Let's think about this. J. Cole's bar started this. Okay? And then J. Cole stepped out. So of course, I love you because of the history, but I can never forgive you. Like now I understand that line. Yeah. Because if you are the it's like your line is the incendiary device that Kendrick is using to start the beef off, and you step out of it because you had a conversation, got a second opinion from home, and you you choose to stay in the city. Yeah, I think that's what that's what I'm saying. This is what I'm trying to put together. You see what I'm saying? So like let's think about it though. Drake never said a line in first person shooter that Kendrick could actually respond to. He said something about Mike Jack, but that shit without the um there is no big three fucking, it's just me. Like That line, it doesn't matter. That Mike Jack Jack line could be a sub and nobody will give a fuck. Right. Responded to the big three line, which is a cold line. Drake didn't give him any lines to like really like oh I'm like nothing to really feed off of. Because he knows that Kendrick, he needs someone to start it. If you listen to Euphoria, if Euphoria came out without like that, we'd be like, what the fuck is this dude doing? Is he alright? Like, like, what the fuck are you rapping about Drake about? Like, the jazz session. But uh But like with like that, the line responded to J. Cole, and then J. Cole putting out the seven-minute drill, it then push up, clean up. So do you not think though, just so the song was Drake's, right? The song inherently was Drake's. And the theme for the song, the the what they were replicating, right? Uh-huh. With the chess board and the two sitting there, like, you don't think that inherently in and of itself. That would have been a that would have been a that's still just a sub. It's a sub, especially because he invited Kidrick on. Right. So you don't think Kidrick would have responded off of that alone? Nah, I think he would have just subbed him. He responded, his biggest flip is the big three line. The big three line is what we gave a fuck about. That's what everybody gave a fuck about. Nobody was telling me about Mike Jack. Like it's in there. Right. But it was the big three. Because it was catchy, it sounded good. It's the biggest, it's the best line. It's like it's like the the freestyle he did in 2013. He's like, ha ha, joke's on you. Ha ha ha. I'm bullet print. We don't remember the rest of the bars. We remember that line though. Like that's where it started.

Drake's Record-Breaking Run

SPEAKER_01 23:47

But um Drake also has just broke every record. He just beat If J, referencing first person shooter. He said it. He just went away from Michael, beat it. He got him. Yeah. It's uh you can't really do nothing with this guy, bro. If this shit was if he bundled this shit, we're not it. And so you know what's crazy. And for people who are like, because I don't want people to try to go Google and then like get this wrong. So the record as for single male artists, it's Michael had 13 number one hits. There was only four people above Michael at that time, and it was Mariah Carey, first off, crazy numbers. But Mariah Carey has 19. The Beatles have 20, and then Taylor Swift had 14 or something like that. And then I think Rihanna also had 14. And then Michael, as a solo male artist, was the only one to have 13. Drake now has 14, he's tied with Rihanna and Taylor. Drake's gonna surpass them. So now he's competing with Mariah Carey and the Beatles, coming up in the next five years to get the most number one hits. Mariah's not making music no more. Beatles ain't making anything. Drake's about to put out, like as soon as Drake hits 21 singles, which he can easily do over the next probably five years. I mean, look, Jay-Z still making music and he's whole. Bro, Drake got 10 more years in him. Jay-Z still giving us poet poetic justice, bro. Right. I fuck with that, bro. Drake ain't even 40 yet. So yeah, he ain't 40 yet. He got time. He can keep rapping until he's like 45, bro. I don't know why, bro. If I'm Drake, I lead it to the whole Playboy. Like, I try to like get to that because like that's his brand at this point. You think he's gonna settle down? You think he's gonna keep doing it though? Even if after Adonis hit like 18, you know what I'm saying? Oh no, it's gonna be a bad look. That's a bad look. He got like five years in him. Yeah, he got five years left, bro. As soon as Adonis hit high school, he gotta stop. Yeah, Adonis be like, Dad, what are you doing? My teacher said you was DMing her. Like, dad, what are you doing?

SPEAKER_00 25:52

I'm still shooting, right? Retiring and shit, right?

SPEAKER_01 25:55

Bruh. All right. So the new narrative, Drake isn't great. He hasn't changed culture like Michael Jackson did. He doesn't have people passing out like Michael Jackson did. It's a different time, guys. Yeah, bro. You know, it's not the 80s, you know, it's not the 70s either. Things change. Stardom and like fanaticism. Outside of like that culture is dead in America, period. Let's say that. For sure. Outside of K-pop, you do not have extremist fans like that anymore. Yeah, I mean, that was the point in time where like celebrities were so like they were like mystified. Yeah, they were mystified. Like Michael Jackson had like prestige, and like we've got stories and narratives about Drake that are so personal because of the social media aspect of it, that like the relationship is never going to be the same or anywhere at as uh comparable. It was it's very wild. True. I think people are just trying to find anything to put him in his uh place to put him down because they can't argue with the numbers, right? Now, speaking of you know, having issues, speaking of having some bias, we are it we got DJ hit. He got he's he went viral for this. Yeah. And I'm glad that girl challenged him. Oh, I mean, it she's been challenging him with some of a lot of his points there. I think there's a lot of contention outside of that, like when they're done like, you know, recording and shit, because you can tell it's like, oh, this is kind of like a gotcha. Like, you shouldn't you think that's hypocritical? Right. So we got Drake. He has a song called Too Hard for the Radio. He is getting at Kid Drake using the West Coast flow. People like it in the bay. It's the number one song in the bay right now. Has a lot of bae influence and respect and backing. And people like it. But DJ Head and some West Coast guys don't like the disses in it. They are they have supplied and made their own version of the song that does not have any disses in it. This is the hardest disses towards Jay-Z as well. And I guess he was right about it, bro. It is too hard for the radio. Now, my thing is one, legally, can't Drake just stop them from playing that on the radio? He can't stop them from playing the version. He gave them a link, so it's a it's a way around. Well, he gets that, he get it knocked down for sure. That's that's what I'm saying. Yeah, he gets that knocked down as much as he get that done. But his excuse, he's like, oh, we don't, we're not gonna play that hair. He's like, I feel like, you know, people like the song, so we're gonna play it, but I feel like Drake's trying to put the Bay versus LA. And I said, I'm glad so he pushed back. She said, Oh, so like you changed the lyrics for your allegiance for Mustard. And he's like, No, I just don't want to, you know, he's coming at certain people. And it's like, so when did that matter? Y'all played Kendrick calling Drake a pedophile on the radio, no issue. Played the whole song, y'all just bleeped out a word. No issue. Y'all played that everywhere, y'all played that outside. Drake makes a song, people in the bay love it, but because it's talking about and it's a reference to Kendrick's song with mustard, now it's an issue. Now this is too hard for the radio. Now this is a problem, and you have to edit his song for you to be think it's digestible so it don't offend the wrong people because you planned it on your station. You've proven Drake right every day. Crazy, bro. You know, as time passed, everything that we've been talking about as far as this podcast, as far as this positioning, as far as the beef, and as far as the ramifications, it's all been true, bro. These dudes have been doing little weird shit. And before we talked about anybody being legal, somebody talked to communicated with the Tupac State to get that Instagram post taken down. Taylor Maid was a cease and assists. We're not talking about this. It's crazy. Yeah. Fucking, we're getting into the second week of Iceman Sales. It's going to sell 208. It's going to round out to 650 million plus in the first two weeks. And I'm not counting the other two albums. So he's already almost had a million all are. He's almost already fucking platinum already. It's crazy. That that album is so it's so easy to just listen to it. Oh, yeah. I can listen to Shebang and then end up and make them know. And I don't have any problems with that. Like it's uh it's an album you can play any part in. It's an album you can play from the start. Especially like the album, the first two couple, the first couple songs, the first eight songs are like you can just run through. Oh, you can just run through. Yeah, it doesn't start getting a little iffy on people until you get to like don't worry and shebang and little birds. Don't worry, it's not the one for me, bro. You don't like it? Hey, that that'd be a hit. I gotta listen to it when it was like faded, bro. That's uh, and that's straight. But like, as you say, this like there's no promises that this album is going to have 10-year longevity, right? But also, that wasn't the point. People still forget Drake's happy to make as much money off this album as he can. This albums were to get out of a deal. This is not Drake's best music. He's saving his best work for his own independent stuff when he gets that contract figured out. So with Santa Ana or whatever that Sony distribution company is. So, like, no matter how hard you think Iceman is, Drake's happy to make whatever off it. Doesn't matter. Yeah, I mean, bro, there's the you see that Lucy Asichi, bro. That could have been an outro for the album. That's just hard. Fantastic. Um, talking about beef, talking about what happens after Lil' Yachty is back with caribou. The one, not the two. I'm glad, bro. I said we as a weird situation. Yeah, I mean, a lot of people claimed a lot of shit, but now they're taking pictures together. That's crazy as shit. I've come to the term Yachty also does weird business. Oh, shit business. That's shit business. I would never have a public falling out and then go into business with them publicly again. That is horrible, bro. That means you can't run your shit. You can't run it. So you have a public falling out and discredit your artists, right? And now you're about to repackage and repurpose and put her back out and think and want people to promote and support. Yeah, that just looks bad on you. That's like, yeah, what is it? Does this person have something on you? Because there's no way you're moving like that. I think I mean what was sad is that they had an interpersonal relationship, be all business. Then why would you dickhead? Then why would you go about putting that information out on them like that? Because he's a dickhead, ego ego, bro. That's crazy. A lot of people can't control their ego. I I mean ego's like the biggest factor in this music business, bro. But hey man, concrete's back together. I like the music. I'm excited for music. I don't I hope they do the business right, but that's on them. When you go through a big situation like Caribou went through with this guy, and then you go back, that's on you. That's gonna be so weird to see. Hey, but if it's gonna be good music, room call with it. Fucking new Vince Staples is on the way, bro. Yeah, new album, very excited. Crybaby is on the way. Vince Staples has something to say. Um, he put out a single White Flag. White flag now I so like Vince Staples is who I thought Kendrick was. Okay. And I I really thought Kendrick was what Vin Staples is, and Vince Staples is not even an activist. He just has a line in his hand. Yeah. And I think that's it. It's extremely pertinent in these days that we're in. You gotta have a line and you gotta have some sense of respect for it and respect for others. And when you create these boundaries, you stick to them. Yeah, he's like, you know, money's great and all that, but he, I think every time he does something, he looks himself in the mirror and is like, yo, like, does this line up with my morals? And he moves based off that and his principles. Luckily, and I think honestly, I don't think he's trying to do it to be an icon or to be anything like that. I mean, shoot, he's done like people laugh, but like when he does interviews and stuff, and like he just straight up says stuff that like most people would be PR trained out of talking about. And people are looking at him like, oh, like you trying to be fired. No, he's just him, and luckily that just aligns with like good morals. Yeah. He's a he's a prominent artist. I really like his music. You know, I haven't like his last couple projects to me all been like eight, nine, ten. Like, there's such a lane of like, wait, people are lacking on these type of rappers. This is a high-quality rapper. We're not wasting any music on the singles. There's nothing we should be complaining about when there's artists like this coming out. Like, this is the quality that people are gonna miss out on. Like, people are talking shit, even if you didn't like the Drake album. All right, make sure you listen to the Vince Staple album. What the fuck are you talking about? Like, there's enough hip hop and music coming out this year. There's enough, bro. Jake J. Cole just dropped too. I'm still listening to J. Cole albums. There's a lot out. I just ran that whole thing back before this morning. Ran that whole thing back then played Iceman. I'm just like getting two of these in the same year. Like we're eating good in 2026. Bro, full plates, full plates, bro. We had to cook out. It's Thanksgiving, bro. I would love for Kendrick to drop, bro. He's not. Kendrick's dropping. Bro, bro, imagine Kendrick was Batman at Gotham. You're like, he's gone a couple more months, bro. You're gonna clean this shit up. You think so? Hey, I I hope Kendrick drop an album in October. Oh dude. Hey, yo, plot twist is in my top four.

SPEAKER_00 36:40

Yo, plot twist is so crazy.

SPEAKER_01 36:43

And the video is fire. Bro, if you think about him making fun of gang culture with that shit, it's crazy. That is crazy. Bro, bro, bro. This is how average people interpret crime. They're like putting his fingers and twisting at me.

SPEAKER_00 37:06

I never seen it.

SPEAKER_01 37:09

Like when you read the lyrics without the beat, it sounds insane. And to be honest, we gotta let that go. Of course, like we gotta that has to die. I understand the intention, bro. Well, no, I just meant like it's funny laughing, but like this is how people look. Like, yeah, we gotta let that part of it. Yeah, I mean, that's I'm I'm glad he put it out. He's like, twisted his actually. Let me take that back. I because I don't want to say we gotta let that part of hip-hop die. Gang culture was around for hip-hop culture to an extent, or they were separate, or they grew up next to each other, but when we started mixing that, that's when gangster rap and all that stuff came out. We gotta let that die. Yeah. Um, I really don't look towards nor think that people committing crimes in our environment should be the spokespersons of our environment. We gotta stop making this shit cool. You know, we got Katie Perry. I didn't even have this as a list. But we got Katy Perry, this kid is she just went guys. She brought the cup out. She's like, I need some sauce, Mr. Keith. Please. Yeah. Called up, Chief Chief. You gotta look at this shit, bro. Look at this shit with Katy Perry and Chief Keith. It's insane, bro. He's like, it was kind of like Kidrick and Taylor Swift, and she needed some bad blood, bro. I mean, that's you know how we this whole pop and the rap thing that mixed. I mean, sure. Future Future got a song with Tyler. Wait, for real? It's for the World Cup, bro. And it's it's what do you say? What do you say? What do you say, bro? And I'm Tyler's on there rapping, bro. Like, wait, what? Bro, Tyler's on their rapping.

SPEAKER_00 38:58

Rapping my head.

SPEAKER_01 39:00

I know y'all, like, obviously, I think each country maybe dropped a song, or I think they dropped like three intro songs for it. Tyler, you could have got on one of the Mexico beats and went crazy. Little South Africa and Spanish combination. That would have been great. Rapping with Future. Yeah, no. Yeah, I mean, I mean, I I don't even know about Shady Pass the single. Like the one single that came out that was hot, uh, Water. Everything else, I don't yeah, I never really listened to it. No, some of her, like her music's not her music's not bad by any means. And a lot of the music coming out of Africa is either coming out of Nigeria or it's coming out of South Africa at this point. Like, that's the two big industry hub. But bro, when I listened to that, I was like, what did we just it? That's what it reminded me. I was like, oh, this is another Kendrick and Taylor situation. It's like, why are we just putting people together because they're popular? Yeah, bro. It is hilarious, man. I didn't I like I don't know how like you just take a picture with somebody's like obviously this trying to get your sauce. Like she's wearing one of the hoodies, like that Chief Keith popularized. It's just he's like dressing a certain way. I'm like, cut it. I mean he needs the bag, I'm gonna sex it. You know, it's not making enough as a couple. I mean, those two, which we talk about shame and hip hop all the time. The biggest disappointment was the fact that Chief Keefe was young, 16, and dumb. Do I think the drill in that kind of music is great now? No, but at that time, Chief Keefe really was supposed to be. I remember that shit. 2012 was Chief Keefe's year. Like, we got screwed a Kendrick, the Cole, the Drake, all that, fuck all of that. 2012 was Chief Keefe's year. Chief Keefe was supposed to be the first artist signed by Apple, or wasn't showing up to meetings, showing up late to concerts or not showing up. He's 16, dumb and rich, and he's the hottest rapper in the world. From Chicago. Like it's actually dangerous. So nobody can really tell you. Nobody was gonna you listen to his music? He's 16 from he's telling you he's going to. Hey, babe. How old are a three or and maybe for a part of it, maybe it's a good thing that that didn't happen because then Drill didn't really blow up until 2016. But imagine if Chief Keith did manage in 2012 to stay the biggest artist. We'd probably have a lot more negative stuff earlier on. Oh, for sure. That's another thing we didn't have to really deal with with uh Drake running things. Like, yeah, he was so quote unquote corny that it was fine. It was fine. He made it popular for boys to be singing on the like every rapper want to sing now with a little auto-tune. Well, auto-tune though. Hey,

DJ Screw, AMAs & Vince Staples

SPEAKER_01 41:49

DJ Screw's catalog is finally on streaming. The Houston legend gets a new life. It's good to see that. You know, he just passed to have his music, his impact there. It's it's good to have our legends and their families have access to the opportunity, but that that's that's major shout out to DJ Screw, shout out to his music in his catalog, and shout out Houston, bro. We got the AMAs, Cardi B, Kendrick Lamar, Monaleo, they went big. I mean, this is the stars. The stars are out, bro. People are gonna got the these these are awards, these connections are just business. These these are digestible, these are digestible people. Like I know it's it's actually really funny that people think like, and it's funny because Drake made a bar like that too about you know, white people listening to music, and for the longest time, everyone was like, you know, Drake makes white people. But Cardi B. Meg, super digestible for white people. Kendrick, I don't think he wants to acknowledge that Kendrick's music actually is how white people gravitate to it because it's for a lot of them, it makes it feel like they're making a conscious effort to like not be racist so they listen to Kendrick. He's super digestible, super good guy for them to bring around. Well, so if I'm trying to legitimize my viewpoint on somebody's music in our culture, I'm gonna use the thing that signifies what the music in our culture is, palp our lives by. So you're gonna pick Kendrick Lamar, he's the black kid story that America likes. That's this is what it is. I mean, that's how I saw his thing was the one fashion show where they let him play the song where he was talking about all the clothes and the idols and all of that. But I'm like, if you really wanted to protest this, you wouldn't have showed up to legitimize that, like, hey guys, we're better, we're changing things. Kendrick's performing his song on stage. No, you should have protested it. You should have not showed up. That would have been the real way. So the Super Bowl isn't nothing, bro. You're doing you're Millie Rocking for the The dude G don't fuck with. Yeah, you're doing some little ass messages or some shit. Tell the dude that Drake this a couple times, though. And that's like the Super Bowl would have actually, to me, been black impact. You really wanted to show White America its impact and all this. Everything else you did at the Super Bowl lost its message as soon as you made it a comedy show. Bro, you did not like that's how come on, bro. Yeah. That's what the whole thing is. It's not about the message. You don't do anything else for the members.

unknown 44:42

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 44:42

If I'm like, hey, what did Samuel Jackson say during the Super Bowl? People are like, I don't know. We did scream pedophile, a minor though. We screamed that. Drake? Yeah, Rudy, this Drake at the Super Bowl. That's what people say. Clearly, that was the headline. People are saying this shit. Lotto drops Big Bulba. She is a Big Bulba. Congratulations. She just had a child. Yeah. Congratulations, Lebanon. Nah, because we so we talk, we talk a lot about we bash the male artist. We talk about the negative things that the male artists do. Like we don't say men. When we talk about the drugs and the sex and the violence and rap, it's more geared towards the male artists. We talk negative about them all the time. We've also spoken about the female artists and what they put out. We talk about the sexy raids. We talk about stuff like that. We talked the last time about it, wasn't Lada, it was Glorilla when they were making albums and a lot of it was just overhyped sexual and stuff like that. We talk about that stuff. A lot of the women in our culture, their aspirations, their role models are sexy red, make the stallion, Lada, Glorilla. And it just I always think back to that stuff where it's like, you know, Beyonce told y'all, you know, single ladies, and she's married kids with a man who should on her and never left, and then ran up a billion dollars like her tourist. Lotto pregnant with a dude who may or may not have another relationship status going on. What are you talking about, Rick Duke? Ain't she ain't 21 her baby daddy? So you dave them. Listen, listen. All I'm gonna say is it's a very interesting that these people are put on. Regardless of her music. Regardless of her music, we always talk about we talk about the men as well. We we bash, we talk a lot about the men and the artists and how some artists need to be falling off because of the music. The music and the content that was in Lotto's album. Congrats on being a mother. This isn't the like these people will tell you out anything in a music in an AIR moving like baby mamas. Yo, first of all, shout out 21. Shout out Shout out 21. Nah, because we're not gonna praise that behavior from him either. Like, this is messy. This is we gotta talk about that. We're talking about broken hums. We talk about having kids. Like, I'm not and I'm not gonna say everybody needs to get married. That's not what I mean by broken hum and all this shit like that. Bro, I don't put up half you said this man is saying, that's gonna be a father. And then she got one song with uh Glorilla, because I guess Glorilla's dating some NBA player. She's talking about getting pregnant by him too. And I'm just like, y'all just pick these dudes, y'all date them, y'all have kids. Y'all know these dudes is moving a certain way. Y'all move in a certain way. Is black culture making co-parenting cool? All right, man. I gotta stop playing around. Let me get serious. Is it? No, it's not cool, bro. That shit's not cool. Obviously, this is a horrible choice. And hey, I'll say it's a horrible choice if he didn't have bread, right? Bro has the capital to fuck around like this, and that's why women still entertain it. Let's be honest. If he was broke, it'd be a different story. And that, but that's the issue. They're telling their listeners, they don't ever get with a dude who ain't doing this. If your dude ain't dropping a bag on you, if you ever gotta open your wallet, that's a bum. That's a this and that. Lotto spends money on her men. Well, Rilla spends money on a men. They drop money. They telling you don't ever get with a dude who'll make you open your wallet and gotta do stuff. Let alone these women are going out of their way to do things for these men. And 21 got money, but did he got time to be a dad? Bro. Well, Cold City did, actually. I was like, remember back of that. Cold City did a lot. He got his kids in the studio, bro. I'm just saying, man. S21, Big Bang. You know, you know what I'm saying? Like, I'm just trying to run to Atlanta, bro. I was trying to make it back, but as far as her album, though. Yeah. Nah. Nah, shit was buns, bro. No. And that's yo, that was, but you know what? I'm not the target audience. She had Doja Cat, Sexy Red, Glorilla, and another female, Tiana Taylor on there. Everybody but Meg for real. But that was an album for the girls. But I'm looking at who's on this album, and I'm gonna be honest, everyone outside of maybe Tiana Taylor. The rest of them, I'm looking at and I'm like, this is not. Are these the I don't have, I'm not expecting a lot of rap, like a high-level rap from the shirties, unless it's Dolce. That's it. Yeah. Or Little Sims from UK. That's it. I gotta get it. Yeah, she was on uh she was on what you gonna call it? She was on uh what's the fucking show? Oh man, it's uh it's a London show, the UK show. Where Roadman uh, top boy, bro.

SPEAKER_00 49:46

Top boy, top boy, yeah, she was a top boy, bro.

SPEAKER_01 49:50

Okay, yeah, she is she's a rapper and she's uh she's very good. Lil Sims, UK rapper, very good. If you're talking about top ten BMW rappers, she's one of the top ten. She just don't drop enough. Her gypsy, Dolce. And then I do like Glorilla. Glorilla is like I do like Glorilla as a rapper. You can go and do shit too. Like you can work out to a Glorilla song. I mean, you can do a lot. She makes, I think right now, I had this conversation with a girl actually, and one girl said sexy red, and another girl said Meg the Stalin was her favorite rapper. I was like, y'all know what y'all talking about. But um, I do think Glorilla as a rapper is doing some of the best. Do you think uh you consider Cardi a rapper? Or she a pop artist? Cardi B. Cardi B? Yeah, she a rapper or pop artist? Pop artist, bro. Pop artist. They writing her shit. Just say it. I mean, just say the shit. You know what I'm saying? Don't don't do it yourself. I would put Glorilla as one of my top. Which is fine, bro. Right, for this, for this current era. Yeah, 100%. I mean, the lawn's like, I never no one ever told me, walked up to me and said, yo, Cardi B's an MC. No one's ever like, no one ever said that shit to me. He's never introduced me to herself as that way. So let's not even lie. You know what I'm saying? Let's not lie to ourselves, bro. She never told me she was an uh MC. She never told me she was gonna change anything. Where do you put Lotto as a rapper? Lotto as a rapper? I'm saying average. He's better than um most. Yeah, I would say she's better than most of the other she's better than most of the other shirties in her lane. But it's not like the bar for it. Like, sexy rhythm aren't rapping that well. You know what I'm saying? It's more so the beat, the swag. Really like the best that they split up. City girls. Yeah, yeah. City girls had a verse. That shit was crazy. Yeah, I remember that. Even though it's really it was just Yo Little Yachting. Yeah, but they but they had the voice, the tone, the performance. I would have had no problems, but you know, Yachty, he he got messy with them too. I heard he tags. Yachty be moving different with the female artist that he worked with, and uh nobody wanna pick up on that because everybody making, I don't even want to say making money. He knows how it goes man. Yeah. He knows how it goes. He probably paying their bread. Um, I mean, this isn't like

Hip Hop Media Power & Streamers

SPEAKER_01 52:23

a joke anymore. Hip hop media, power rankings, we had DJ Academics at number one, Joe Biden, the rest of the the crews, show me the guy, those are the top five. Listen, podcasters, streamers, they do control the rap narratives now. Yes. Yeah. It it's not a suggestion. It is the business. It used to be the radio. Now, as podcasters, now as streamers, that's why people's diss tracks are getting white labeled and whitelisted so people can automatically react to them and not have to worry about paying the fines or getting a strike on your page. This is the business. Streamers matter just as much as the first. It's like almost like you get a sampling size before you even have to really sell to market. Like if No Life Shack likes your album, you already sold a certain amount of albums just because of that. 100%. Or just yeah, a certain amount of streams they're gonna tune in. They'll tell you the best songs to listen to. But, you know, people tap into Joe Bud, and before the album comes out, before you give them a listen to it, bro's like, yo, this is trash, it's ass. Then people are gonna believe that. They're gonna be like, oh yeah, Drake, Drake's corny. Yeah, that's gonna be whack. It's gonna be Kendrick won. And I actually think that's the powerful. I don't think Drake is cool with DJ Ack, because he thinks DJ Ack's a cool person. You need a media person on your side if all the other media is against you. And you need someone in America. Like Drake can easily have media people from Toronto be on his side, no one cares. Especially in America. Personally, I don't care for the most part about Toronto Podcast or anything like that. So he goes and he gets someone like to push, because if you have everyone else against you, you need someone to push that narrative. Yeah, podcasting and streamers, people playing your music on streams for people to listen to, doing, you know, besides Drake doing his own stream to show it, having people stream it afterwards to keep it running to a hundred thousand people while they're just playing a game or yapping or something. Iceman's in the background. People are like, oh yeah. Like this is free marketing. Yeah, I mean, we talked about the business aspect, but like Drake it's incorporated the streamers like in his album, all the prominent ones, the largest ones, except for I Show Speak. And I'm sure sooner or later he'll develop and you know, set up a relationship with him as well. Possibly, yeah. Yeah, I don't think I think with streamers and most of these personalities, uh, uh act like Drake, so some song in his life and catalogue he liked, and that can be the starting point of the conversation. Playboy Cardi has an issue with the Iceman. Baby boy, please. I mean, I don't know what Playboy Cardi can really do in this. It's kind of like ASAP Rocky, I don't think his rapping level is high enough. Yeah. I also think like being punk rock is cool, all that grudgy, edgy shit is cool, but just like certain things, like those things aren't respected in certain circles. So you're not gonna get the massive pill that you're thinking you're gonna get. Like, Playboy Cardi, once he hits 30 plus, I want to see how his career looks. Unless he's taking his time and his money to educate himself on music. I'm talking about engineering, music theory, instruments, and pivots, you know, do a comethizine and pivot in the jazz or something. That's gonna die out. Yeah, that's what I'm saying. Like he has a sound now. I don't think it's gonna last. Like I am music did well because of the shock value, not because of the quality of the music for me. You know, songs like Evil Jordan. But uh this has been another episode of a music event, episode forty nine. Me and Dre L day giving our two cents to the guys of all the change. Half in it's playing LA.