SPEAKER_01 0:25

Welcome back, everybody, to another episode of Artist the Artist. This is a special edition, Artist Edition. I have a very special guest in the building today, Gorilla Nims itself. How you feeling, my brother? Every day is a blessing, man. Grateful. I like how that sounds. I like how that sounds. Um I've been um I've been kind of watching your story for a minute. For those who may not know your story, just not artists, it just came around like you felt a lot of recent success, but come to find out that you've been grinding for years and years and got a hell of a story from like we all do. Ups, downs, pitfalls, and the rise after the fall, you know what I mean? Like, so I don't know if you want to make people familiar where you're from.

SPEAKER_00 1:10

I'm from Coney Island. I'm from the bottom of New York City, man. If you look at a map of New York City, I'm right at that. Coney Island's at the bottom. Nobody wants to go to Coney Island. Everybody knows of Coney Island because the Rod, but the Rodge is like a three-block radius over here. Then there's a whole community of like 30,000 people that people don't, you know, in the wintertime, they just forget about. And ain't no really rapper got on from there. There's rappers, yeah, there's rappers from there, but nobody really got on, got on from there. A few basketball players can't get there. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Bashy, Steph, Lance.

SPEAKER_01 1:44

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:44

Couple, you know what I'm saying?

SPEAKER_01 1:46

Yeah. Shit, so how does it feel to be one of the few artists that really has some success coming out of Coney Island as one of the few?

SPEAKER_00 1:54

It's always been um like a it's it's like a dream, man. You know what I'm saying? Like I always, I never seen myself doing no nine to five since I'm little. I don't know. I either, I just I got something in me that just wouldn't accept living a regular life since I was little. Like I knew my pops died when I was four, my moms was always gone. I was just in the crib by myself.

SPEAKER_01 2:18

You went to high school in Coney Island too?

SPEAKER_00 2:20

Nah, I went to high school all over the place. I went to Brooklyn, Staten Island, the Poconos. That's where I started writing raps in the Poconos.

SPEAKER_01 2:27

So when did you start doing music?

SPEAKER_00 2:30

Like 15. Because when I went to the Poconos, I had to stay with my grandparents because I couldn't go to no New York public high school. And I ain't really f with nobody out there in the Poconos. I would come home every weekend. So I would just go to school during the week, come home, and I ain't have nothing to do. My grandparents was old. I just was locked in in my room and started writing rhymes.

SPEAKER_01 2:50

So was this early 2000s, the 90s?

SPEAKER_00 2:52

This is like the late 90s, like 99, 98.

SPEAKER_01 2:56

So when you got your first when would when when would you got your first notoriety in the game before?

SPEAKER_00 3:02

Fight club. Fight club. Fight club. So I started writing rhymes and the polkinos, I didn't have no friends. I ain't with nobody out there, but I seen kids rhyme. And I would be like, I know I could come up with some better than these fumes. You know what I'm saying? And I just wrote a rhyme one day and I was like, yo, the nicest dude. I was like, yo, I want to battle you. So I started off writing battle rap. And then after that year, I came back home to New York, and I just kept going, started going to the studio, and then my man was like, yo, there's a battle going on. I want to bring you to it. And I was like, nah, I don't really want to go. He was like, come through. I went, it was the fight club. But fight club, people don't know. It was like invite only at first. So I won, I beat the first guy. They hit me, yo, we're doing another one two weeks, and I just kept going. And I just kept beating everybody. This before, like, really the internet. So it was just like magazines. I was the I was the champ of fight club before anybody. The first one, before any URL. I think I got like 25, 26 wins, like one or two losses. Nah, like three, four losses.

SPEAKER_01 4:13

So since so since the flight club to now, you wanna talk about a little bit of what it took to get here?

SPEAKER_00 4:23

Oh, hell yeah. Well, with the fight club, like, since I was the top guy there, I was dealing with Riggs Morales at Shady, right? So they was like, yo, we wanna sign you. But I was mad, I was I was fucking up. I was going in and out of jail. I wounded up doing a one and a half to four and a half for robbery. Then I started doing, I was fucked up on drugs for a minute. I didn't smoke crack, I didn't shoot needles, but everything else I was doing. And they was just like, yo, you more of a liability than an acid. They stopped returning my calls. I was like, damn, that was my shot. And then I became homeless. I was all fucked up. And I really just started just heavily on drugs, um, sniffing dope, you know what I'm saying? Doing sniffing coke, all types of crazy shit. And uh I was homeless for a minute, for a minute. Like sleeping on the beach in Coney Island, like on the lifeguard chairs in the wintertime on in the fucking in the staircases. And um I said to myself, like I was on like a like a three-week run. Probably didn't shower. I was robbing everything in Coney Island and fucking dollar cabs, people, for just everything. And I just seem, I don't know, I seen myself from like the outside looking in for I don't know, maybe it's like a moment of clarity or psychosis. I don't know what the fuck it was. But it was like, yo, I could I could keep going how I'm going. And I'm gonna be dead real soon. Cause I had people, I was I had all types of shit going on. Or I'm gonna be in jail again, but this time for a longer period. Or I could stop everything right now and fucking live my dreams. And I had been to like jail didn't make me stop doing drugs, fucking um uh rehabs I've been to, fucking church people praying over. I never could stop. That one night, I bet I went to my mother's house and my mom was I was like, Ma, please, let me stay at your crib. I want to stop, and I never touched nothing from that date. That was in 2009. And I never touched nothing from I don't smoke weed, I don't drink. I do have my little vape, my little nicotine shit, but other than that, there ain't no drugs. I don't do nothing since then, since 09. And ever since I started that, that shit just started. Once I started that journey, my life just started taking off. And then, you know, um, because Paul Rosenberg, Eminem's um manager and the the head of Shady, and he was the head of Dev Jam. I see, I see. They banned me from Shady. I see Paul all the time in the gym.

SPEAKER_01 6:52

Oh, what? Yeah, we work at the same gym all the time.

SPEAKER_00 6:55

I just spoke to him. I just spoke to him. I said, yo, I'm in the studio with Jim. I gotta go meet with him tomorrow. But um, back then, I have real fuck your life on the doors of Shady. But I was just tagging up, and he banned me from the building. They stopped fucking with me. And look, from just kept my head down, just kept putting in work. Just kept putting in work. You know what I'm saying? Being outside, doing the necessary things, and then fucking 10-15 years later, he signed me.

SPEAKER_01 7:23

How did I feel being that full circle moment? Did d well did Paul ever tell you why he circled back to sign you?

SPEAKER_00 7:33

Um, I'm a big believer in see a lot of people see me on the internet and they think like this guy's either an asshole, or with the don't ever disrespect me, that I'm ignorant, or or it's an act. A lot of people think it's an act. But then you meet me in real life and you like, oh nah, this is him. You know what I'm saying? So I think Paul, a lot of people get it misconstrued that I'm putting on the act or I'm fronting or something. But when you meet me, I'm the same person I am online as the same person I am in real life. This is me. I don't put on the front for nobody. If you don't like me, fuck your life. Um and and and he seen that, and um, and then he, you know, he they see I'm not about no bullshit, I'm about my business. You know what I'm saying? I I I take this shit serious. I don't like I said, I don't drink, I don't smoke. How I have fun is working.

SPEAKER_01 8:25

So did Did you have the podcast or television show before you got signed to Paul on him?

SPEAKER_00 8:35

Um, the podcast. That's right when bing bong shit happened. Revolt came to me. And they was like, yo, you wanna do a podcast? I was like, nah, I don't want to do a podcast.

SPEAKER_01 8:44

The bing bong is this something you just started out of nowhere or yeah, I was I was doing merch.

SPEAKER_00 8:49

So I I worked for sanitation. I was a sanitation worker right up the block. They got I just seen they got a garage. So when I came home from jail at 23, my mother was like, yo, take this test. Or you can't be paroled to my house. I was like, I'm not taking that time. I don't want to be a fucking city worker. That's the only job you can have, a felony in, no city job. I took the shit, I got a hundred on it. I was mad high. I don't know how I got a hundred, I got a hundred. Well, they didn't call me for like six years. By the time they called me, I already had stopped doing drugs for like four years. I could give them clean piss, all that, so I started working for them. And um when I started working for before them, I had gotten stopped doing drugs and I started hustling. But then when they called, I was like, I can't hustle, I can't do this and have a city job. I gotta pick right now. You know what I'm saying? And when I first was getting the checks from sanitation, I was like, I can't survive off of this. I just got a new apartment, you know what I'm saying? Like, I was just getting my shit on track. I was like, but I can't do a legal hustle, so I gotta start doing something. I was like, what I got? I said, Oh, I got my merch, my G logo. You know, once I stopped doing draw, I got fat. I was I used to be skinny, I got fat like a fucking gorilla. So I said, my logo is a G with gorilla hair. Boom. And it's fuck your life. Everybody, even if you don't like me, you'll buy a shirt that says fuck your life. So I started doing the merch shit. And then um the merch shit just fucking was taken off. Then I bought a house. I bought my mother a house. And uh just off the merch, not even off the sanitation shit, not even off no record deal neither, just strictly off a merch. Um and I would show my merch every week. I would just do limited drops. Yo, we dropping this. I'm making a hundred pieces. Once it sells out, even my fucking grandmother can't get this shit. You know what I'm saying? So but so I used to show every week what I was doing. So I used to be like, check this, bong, bong, bong. I don't know, maybe one day I one day I must have got some pause. I was in a good mood. I don't know what the fuck was going on, but I was like, bing bong, bing bong, check this, bong, bing, bong, bing. People started laugh. I was like, oh, I got something. I got something here. And I just kept saying it. Then we started saying it on the block, and then Coney Allen, and I was like, oh, I got something. And Side Talk kids was like, yo, we want to do an episode with you. I was like, come through. And then when they came, I was just bing bong. Fuck, yo, say that. Yo, Byron, the bum here, breakdance. Say bing bong. I directed that whole shit for them. And then the bing bong shit fucking took off. And then I seen the president say it, and I was like, I quit sanitation. Well, I ain't quit. I just stopped going. I just was like, yo, I'm never going back again. Because that's when I started doing walkthroughs for more than fucking.

SPEAKER_01 11:27

So what made you start doing the podcast or the show that you do on the podcast?

SPEAKER_00 11:31

The podcast revolt. So they they hit me. I was like, I don't want to do a podcast. But then one day Exhibit came to the block. He was hit me. Never had met him, and was like, yo, I'm gonna come through your block, chill out with you. He came through, cracked a 40. He's chilling with me on the block in beach chairs.

SPEAKER_01 11:48

So people know you from YouTube success, or like how do people know you?

SPEAKER_00 11:53

However the fuck they know me, they know me. Some people know me, some little fucking babies and old ladies in Iowa might know me from Bing Bong. Some people might know me from Don't Ever Disrespect Me. He knew me from rapping, but he all but the Bing Bong, once Bing Bong was at that time, that shit was the biggest shit when Bing Bong came out. You know what I'm saying? It was used over a billion times. There's eight billion people in the world. So it was used an eighth of the fucking population of the world.

SPEAKER_01 12:20

God bless you.

SPEAKER_00 12:21

Um so my the merch shit went crazy too. It was crazy. But so exhibit hit me. Y'all want to come to your block? I want to see where that bingball shit happened originally. So I guess he knew me from the Bingball shit. But then he was like, yo, I'm doing an album. I want you to do it so he knew about the rap and shit too. But as a fan, I'm a student in the game. I know about I used to just, before drugs, it was fucking going to the CD store, buying CDs and tapes of everything. So I'm a mad student in the game. So when I was sitting with him, I was just asking him shit that I always wanted to know. Like, yo, exhibit, yo, you fuck with the alcoholics. What happened with that? Yo, you do this. And I was like, yo, yeah, but alcoholics. That's crazy. So I was like, this shit is fire. So it just rang a bell in my head when Revolt said, yo, we're gonna throw this. At first I said no, but then they said, we're gonna throw this money at you. I was like, yeah, I'm with it. And I said, Well, I'm gonna differentiate. I said, well, I had Exhibit come, I had DJ Muggs come, and I just asked them questions like a fan. So matter of fact, I'm just gonna put beach chairs outside my store. Well, I didn't, it wasn't the store yet. It was just the block we choked on. And I was like, yo, I'm just gonna do it on the block and call it outside with Gorilla Nymphs. And um, and that shit just took off.

SPEAKER_01 13:38

What led you to get the store?

SPEAKER_00 13:40

Um that block, 16th and Mermaid and Coney Island. A lot of times I when I would do the limited drops, I would meet people on the block. That was just like the headquarters had the barbershop there. My my cousins before they passed was running the, you know what I'm saying? So that was just where I met everybody. And then I got the idea. I was like, yo, when that fucking cell phone store finishes, I'ma fucking open up my shit and just sell my merch here. And um, you know, we facilitated the process of it getting out of there. And um, it got out of there and I took the shit over.

SPEAKER_01 14:13

Nah, that's fine. I need people to hear this and shit like that to see how you took them.

SPEAKER_00 14:17

And I wanted to show, like, yo, you don't gotta leave Coney Island. I wanted people in the community to see, like, you don't gotta leave, like, Coney Island is fucking miserable in the especially in the wintertime, there's people killing. It's the hood, just like every other hood. You know what I'm saying? So what I did is I was like, I don't want to wait for this shit to get gentrified to beautify this shit. So I started bringing artists in from all over the world doing murals. Um, when my cousins Ricky and Takeover got killed. I did a like a mural for them by the like the world-renowned artist called BK Fox. And when she did that, I was like, all right, this wall's open. I'm gonna have this dude from France come over here. I'm gonna have this guy come do this, this. And I've made it like an art district. And I want the shit, I want the kids in the community to when you wake up seeing fucking brick walls and fucking bums sleeping on the floor, man. You don't think there's much out of life, man. You get discouraged. If you wake up and see some dope art, see somebody that you see on fucking TV, the internet, everything, got a store there. I'll be on the block in my free time. You know what I'm saying? Like, I it inspires people, man. So I want we ain't I ain't have no rapper to do that coming up. There wasn't nobody from Coney Allen, you know what I'm saying? So I want it to be that. That's why I take pride in that shit.

SPEAKER_01 15:30

Nah, that's that's super fast. I want people to see what it takes sometime to turn your dreams into reality. Like a lot of people wait for the right moment and always tell us. We talk about this all week, there's no such thing as the perfect moment. You gotta get up and just try some shit and do some shit sometime with most people, but it's be stagnant, especially in this game. So and I also want people to hear a bit about your story, because I know it wasn't easy getting to where you are today. Like, and people think that uh overnight success. Shit took 20 years, this overnight success. And they say a overnight success usually take 10 years, your took 20 years. So think about that. You know what I mean? Like, like I like I'm going on, I f I keep telling people like I'm going on like I feel like I'm going on like my third overnight success right now, shit like that. You know what I mean? Like, uh, but that's how amount of years I've been in the game and shit like that. So with that being said, being are you signed to Paul?

SPEAKER_00 16:27

Yeah, yeah, yeah. I'm the um I don't I don't think there's no other artists because he started Goliath Records. So he used to have Goliath Management. I think they had Blink 182, Action Bronx. They had a whole bunch of people that Eminem that Paul managed, and it was Goliath artists. So he just started his another label called Goliath Records, and it's through Virgin. So it's like Goliath slash Virgin. So I'm signed to a couple albums there.

SPEAKER_01 16:52

That's a very that's a that's a very good situation to be in. Paula's a super legend in the game when it comes to the industry. Yeah. Eminem 50, all that type of shit, you know. And action Bronson, you I see that you've done a lot of things with him. How cool are you with him? I ain't really do nothing with him. No, no.

SPEAKER_00 17:09

I didn't see you do nothing with him. Nah, I ain't do nothing. I mean, I'll see him, you know, it's regular rap shit. You see them and they show love and then.

SPEAKER_01 17:15

Uh, you know, I see I see a couple pictures and shit like that. Yeah, I took some pictures with him, definitely. I thought the correlation between y'all being. Nah, he's Queens, I'm Brooklyn. I mean being in tied to the same tied to the same label. Not um, not the correlation of just being from New York, nigga. I'm from Harlem, you from Brooklyn, but it's like the same shit and shit like that.

SPEAKER_00 17:33

Now I'm very big on. That's why a lot of times I don't reach out to other artists. Because I'm very big on, I don't want my success tied to any other artists. And I feel like a lot of artists in the game do that. Like they they latch on to somebody that might be more popping at the time than them, or something like that. I'm very big on doing it on my own, sometimes to my own detriment.

SPEAKER_01 17:56

Yeah, you gotta take you. I mean, I totally feel how you feel, but I don't think you should take it as you doing business or you building a rapport of an artist as uh your success is a test of theirs, and somehow they're responsible for no. I don't believe it works like that at all. Um, as you being an artist, I do believe that you need to build alliances and rapports with a lot of different artists and do as much music you can with a lot of different artists and shit like that. Like that broadens your chances at more success, also broadens their chances of more success. Like you have a fan base just like they have a fan base. There might be some artists that are bigger than you, but that don't mean that it's still not an even trade when it comes to your getting in that booth and making great music and your fans never become hit like Vikers and shit like that. But that's what the game is about. I don't think nobody deliberately saying that they are responsible for your success. Yeah, nah. I mean, it's only a few artists that you might be like, but even with that, that's a gift to be able to do music with a big artist that might catapult you to success that you might not have gotten if you just did it, try to do it on your own. Like, don't don't shoot yourself in yourself in the foot for you being a strong person and feeling that you could do it on your own. Can't nobody do nothing on their own when you look at the big picture. Like, you must have a team around you that's you heard, so you take it like that. I'm learning a lot, but it's every day is a learning process. The game is weird too. Like, you dig, like, and I know that part too. Like, a lot of a lot of times I I don't reach out because I don't want to be put in a weird place of feeling somebody's trying to dig, tell me no, or that's I choose chose a lot not to do that. But then again, there's a lot of people that tell me, nah, that shit, nigga. What does it hurt to reach out? And so you want to do that.

SPEAKER_00 19:43

That's one thing I'm learning now. So a lot of times I'm like, nah, I ain't asking nobody for nothing. And then I'm this year I actually switched my shit to nah, I'm asking everybody for everything. Yes. Cause what the fuck is they gonna say? No. You know what I'm saying? I got to where I'm at by not being scared to fail.

SPEAKER_01 19:59

And you've been worse, you've been in worse places. So what's a no to a nigga like you that been through everything? You know what I mean? Like, so that's what I also think about in this game. Like, for the amount of shit that we've been through in the places, places that we come from, like the trials and tribulations of this game is really nothing. It could be motherfucking psychological because it's money involved, and this is a person's livelihood. But when you look at the the big picture, the shit we go through in this game is nothing that we went through in real life before we got here. Absolutely not. You know what I mean? This is easy. Yeah. This is super easy. A lot of people get lost in a lot of people get jaded in, a lot of people don't understand business, but there's a lot of reasons for people that don't keep up in this game. But for the most part, everybody got the same opportunity if you were one of the few that hit the lottery of being successful in this game. That's all how you upkeep it and keep and keep that going. It's I mean, it's very easy to get rich. It's very hard to stay rich. You know what I mean? Absolutely. And the same thing with everything else in life and shit like that. It's all how you maintain it. So it's like for you, like shit, fuck all that. You gotta broaden your chances at making this shit pop because music is changing. It's not like it used to be with us. It's definitely so many people, and it's like a traffic jam when it comes to music right now. Absolutely like that. You know what I mean? For you to get through the traffic, you you you need a uh you need a you need a fucking motorcycle or something and shit like that. So it's like you gotta go. You gotta do everything.

SPEAKER_00 21:28

You gotta do the fucking look, you got it. You gotta fucking this like a fucking content paradise over here.

SPEAKER_01 21:34

Yeah, that's what it was.

SPEAKER_00 21:34

You know what I'm saying? You gotta do everything now as an artist. You gotta be on the internet. The one thing that kills me is all this, nah, I don't do that internet shit. You fucking yourself up. You know what I'm saying?

SPEAKER_01 21:44

Well, I wasn't like that. But you from the era before that, because that's what I did the drip report and all that, but when I saw the podcast thing, I didn't really wanna be categorized as a podcaster. As a podcaster. So I felt I had Something more to bring to the game, but then looking at the way it's played is like, nigga, anybody that comes on the internet and does any type of show is considered a podcast. No matter if they have an elaborate setup that looks like the Arsenal Hall show or look like Saturday Night Live, it's still considered a podcast. You know what I mean? So it's like, man, fuck this, man. I'm I'm jumping in because people are making real money. And that's another thing I didn't understand is the money that could be made from this shit. When I really understand that, I'm like, oh, alright. This is what I got this building for. We about to go crazy in this shit. Like, you know what I mean? Like, I'm trying to put 30 minutes.

SPEAKER_00 22:36

Nah, he just showed me the back, the church, the fucking Puerto Rico set. That shit is fire. That shit is legendary.

SPEAKER_01 22:43

I'm trying to work, and that's what we that's what I'm that's what we're building here. Like building a uh multi-purpose content creation space for me and.

SPEAKER_00 22:51

I need to say this too on camera too, that Jim, I like I was thinking on the way over here, like, yo, you can't be in the game this long without being mad professional. Or just just like I was saying, like people might just see me online and think I'm a certain way. Or might people might do the same shit with you. But this from the from the moment I saw I met you, I think it was at the heavy hitter shit, you've been nothing but a fucking good dude. Like, like, like not gatekeeping, giving information to the younger artists. And like I really, really respect that. You know what I'm saying? And um, sometimes people gotta give you your flowers, man. I know you get a lot of hate a lot of hate, but sometimes you gotta get a lot of flowers too, man.

SPEAKER_01 23:34

Yeah, I I get the hate, but the hate is cool, man. Uh rather they talk about me or not talk about me. You know what I mean? Sometimes you can turn you can turn hate into love, man. You capitalize off the hate. You're one of the few that capitalizes. I definitely do. If you don't understand hate, then you go and let that shit tear you up. I've been going through hate all my life, man. Shit, they hated on Jesus. So who am I to really let that shit affect my mission and where I gotta go to and shit like that? You gotta lead by example. And if you got a bright light, you're gonna shine wherever you go, whether they're hating on you or not, they gotta see the light. You know what I mean? You cannot avoid seeing the light, and that's one of the things they're hating on, is that bright light that they see. So sooner or later, they'll catch up and shit like that. But I've been trying to make my mark in this game, you know what I mean? Like I've been one of the people that they've been gatekeeping on. You know what I mean? Like they never let me in the gates the proper way, and if I do get in the gates, they got security guards trying to stop me from getting in the palace. And I get to the palace, they got the the moat, then I'm trying to get it over the bridge, so I'm gonna go hit by the piranhas. But you know what I mean? Like, uh I I've been blessed to find my way into the castle. I'm don't know if I'm got to the top of the castle yet, but I'm still finding my way. I was outside the wall, so I'm telling you, it's not easy to be where I'm at now. But you got past the moat with the alligators. Yes, man, and that's not easy. That's one of the hardest parts of shit like that. And I've been through it all in this game from being blackballed, talked about, said I couldn't rap, said I couldn't do this, and shit like that. And I never let nothing discourage me because I know what I wanted to do and where I needed to go. Plus, I knew that there was nowhere else in this world that I could figure out how to make a dollar like this game. Facts. You know what I mean? Like everywhere else would take a risk from what I knew how to do. You know what I mean? This is not really no risk in getting a dollar, it's just more wit and smartness and how you could maneuver.

SPEAKER_00 25:27

A hundred percent. I said that, you know, there's nothing that this shit could show me that I ain't seen a million times, man. And sometimes you just gotta run through it, man. Fuck what people say. Fuck, yo, embrace failures. That's one of my biggest things, man. You gotta embrace, even when I was doing the fight club shit, what the the the out of 26 wins, I ain't learned nothing. Then two, three, four losses that I had, that shit gave me the fire to come back and fuck and learned a lot about me. And just even from the homeless shit and doing and doing, you learn from your losses. And it's like merch. I might drop something this week that sells crazy. Drop something next week that fucking don't sell. Who gives a fuck? You know what I'm saying? You have to learn from your failures and stay consistent. That's it. When people know what to explain, know to look for you because you're constantly doing it, that's when you win. And that's what I'm all about, man. That's why I'm outside all the time. I'm not on no bullshit. I'm I'm just happy to be here, man. This is a dream come true. I get to be around fucking artists that I've grew up listening to, yourself included. Ghostface, like I'm on Ghostface New album. You know, I'm a big Ghostface fan, you know what I'm saying? Like, shit like that is like, I get more out of that than doing shit with newer artists because it's like I used to write shit in my fucking rap book. You know what I'm saying? Like, yo, I want to work with this one, I want to do songs with this one.

SPEAKER_01 26:48

Who are some of your favorite artists coming up?

SPEAKER_00 26:51

Um I like, I like um, I like early fucking um well, prodigy. Like people that molded my style was like Big L, because he ain't take no bars off. Every bar was hard. Um, prodigy, um, sticky fingers. I like, I always like sticky fingers. I just did a joint with him. I was hype about that.

SPEAKER_01 27:14

Onyx had a wave. I can't take nothing away from Onyx. Facts. Sticky finger Fresh or them niggas had. They mean I I I I cut my hair all off when Onyx was sticky. See? I had a Baldy one time because Onyx. I had the Baldy and the black flight jacket and never forget that.

SPEAKER_00 27:29

They was they was like the the top guys when they first came out.

SPEAKER_01 27:32

Super top guys. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 27:36

We like even um, even early, early Cam. Like when he because he was mad disrespectful. Mad disrespectful. Kidnap your family, make your brother eat your mother out.

SPEAKER_01 27:50

Cam was nasty with it. He's still nasty with it. You know what I mean?

SPEAKER_00 27:53

Even the first year, Jimmy, I'm gonna get you up out of 5H, you know what I'm saying?

SPEAKER_01 27:56

Yeah, we got some classics. Got some classics out there, shit like that. So what about now? You got any uh artists that you fuck with now? Any favorite artists or any artists that you fuck with personally?

SPEAKER_00 28:07

Um I just keep my head down and just do shit, man. If if we if I link with him and we do some dope shit, we do some dope shit. I like working more with like different producers than other artists. Like I'm doing the whole shit with fucking Ron Browse right now. I respect that.

SPEAKER_01 28:22

He got some hard shit, you know what I'm saying? Yeah, I did uh so I was I did a you know naturally I did the one with uh Heatmakers that was El Capo. Um I did album with um Harry Fraud. Um Fraud's my guy. I got an album I did with Scram Jones that I never put out.

SPEAKER_00 28:39

Yeah, what happened? That was the same time I was doing that shit. And you ain't give me a fucking verse. You said you was gonna give me a fucking verse.

SPEAKER_01 28:45

You ain't give me a fucking verse. Oh man. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, man. It'd be hard. Music is not as easy as people think, man. It'd be so and the way music is put out right now, and you trying to put music out fast, and you're making so much music. Like, I make music still every night. So I'll be forgotten. I will forget whole albums that I've done and shit like that in the midst of my running going forward and shit like that. And sometimes if I do music and it might be like from last month or two months ago, then I start feeling like that music is outdated. Yeah, yeah, and then it's like forgetting. I gotta make some some and I know it don't work like that, but that's how much we move in in real time and shit like that. Like, but that's dope. Do you still enjoy the process of creativity, like doing the music like that?

SPEAKER_00 29:31

I love this shit. I love this shit. I because because I'm still hungry. I feel like I ain't reached nowhere close to where I see myself going. You know what I'm saying? Um, and and that's always a big thing with me. Like, yo, I'm like people might think I made it or I'm I'm this is nowhere near where I see myself at. So I still look at myself like I'm on the ground, and I still be sometimes surprised when people, other artists that I fuck with, like, fuck with me and they know who I am. That's just still because I treat myself and I have a mind state of nah ain't do shit yet.

SPEAKER_01 30:07

You know what I'm saying? Let me ask you this, and I don't I don't know what is your nationality? I'm Puerto Rican and Irish. Alright, Puerto Rican and Irish. Yeah. Um do you think the game accepts you the way you're supposed to be accepted? Um do you run across any stigmas when it comes to that?

SPEAKER_00 30:29

Absolutely. There's stigmas, but I don't give a fuck. I don't give a fuck. I'm gonna break balls down. I don't give a fuck when nobody thinks of me. I don't care if you try to blackball me. I don't care if you, I'm not gonna stop until I get my desired outcome. You know what I'm saying? There's not listen, when I was fucked up, people used to call me piece of shit, these are this and that, and it used to be true. Nobody, everything about me, now I'm a stand-up individual. I'm a man of my word. I do what I say and say what I do. And nobody could tell me that I'm not gonna get there. You know what I'm saying? There's nobody. Nobody could say, yo, nems, you can't do this because I'm gonna do it twice. I don't care if there's a stigma. I if you wind up thinking about shit like that, you'll bug out and you'll be like, oh, I can't do it. Nah, they they doing this, they ain't letting go fuck, man. Fuck that.

SPEAKER_01 31:20

So since from sitting on that bench to being able to travel around the world and do everything you're doing now, did you have any inclination this would be you?

SPEAKER_00 31:30

Absolutely. But you I'm I'm still on the bum level, though, in my mind. Still gotta get in my mind, I'm that guy. Like I'm where I'm gonna be at. It's touching billions, being in movies, doing fucking comedy, fucking So rap was the one thing you always wanted to do. Yeah, I'm a rapper. Like, if people be like, yo, where do you want me to put you as fucking content creator? Like, nah, I'm a fucking rapper. I don't care. You might have got to know me through Don't Ever Disrespect Me or Bing Bong, that might fucking be your intro to me. But there's always gonna be like that's why I go and do freestyles a lot. I go to Sway or I go to Flex and just or on the radar and just be like, nah, let me let you know what I really do. You know what I'm saying?

SPEAKER_01 32:15

Because this is like so knowing who you are, of course, through social media, internet, crossing paths, and shit like that. But I didn't know how nice you was until I seen you on the radar. I think I told you that. Yeah, you told me that the radar.

SPEAKER_00 32:31

That shit had me hype too. I was hyped until that.

SPEAKER_01 32:33

I seen you on the radar and you black. Like, I I haven't seen too many people black like that um in a long time. So that also puts you in a different category in my mind. Like, oh, I kind of get what people would talk about kind of brings the whole story together and shit like that. You know what I mean? As far as the music concerns, as far as why uh Paul would sign you to a deal and shit like that. Cause you know, for the average person that don't know your story or don't know that you really get busy like that, like two sides to the game. So it's like, but seeing that it was like broke the barrier for me. Like, oh, I I totally get it. Like dog is dead, dead, dead night. So I'm I'm I'm it made me feel good to see that, you know. And then watching you work in here, I'm always a fan of watching people work and shit like that. I've been working for years, but to see you how you got in the booth, and when you said you started with battle rapping, I could kind of hear that shit in your bars for the way you approach bars, but the bars are so witty, they be slapping at the same time. It just not like a battle rap. Like I've seen battle rappers go into the booth and it don't come out the same way, like in person. Yeah, yeah, yeah. You know what I mean?

SPEAKER_00 33:40

But that's why I stepped off that.

SPEAKER_01 33:42

You you you know how you figured made that medium mind how to twist that shit into put it on music. 100% shit. You know what I mean? Like, so and I and for and I would say this for other battle rappers who want to create music, you gotta find, you gotta find that medium. Like you dig, like some of y'all are incredible in front of a crowd and would like to turn it into music, bro. They'll figure out how to do that shit. Y'all could be some dope ass artists, man.

SPEAKER_00 34:12

Word, like it's this game, though. Sometimes you go through your whole life thinking, well, me. Or and and I feel like other battle rappers do this too. Going through your whole life, fucking taking two hours on one line, fucking feeling like, yo, I gotta be the nicest out there. And then you come a point to a point when you get on in this game where like, yo, none of that shit fucking matters. None of that shit fucking matters at all. And it's mad fucking discouraging.

SPEAKER_01 34:43

It's true, it's it's true.

SPEAKER_00 34:44

But you also gotta dumb it down a little bit. Percentage, yeah. You know what I mean?

SPEAKER_01 34:50

But for the masses, elect few, but for the masses, no. You gotta dumb that shit the fuck down. That shit does not count to the masses. You know what I mean? They're looking for the pretty much the simplest, woodiest thing in the sticks. I mean, you know what I mean? So it but it still each is own. Like music is funny like that. Sometimes it might be still it it's all about the feeling and shit like that. You know what I mean? Like that's what I've tendency. Like, it's no right way to do music. Because the moment we say, Oh, you gotta dumb it down, somebody might come with some shit that it is going hit. You heard you know what I mean? So it's like continue to give people that feeling, is, is, is what I like to say about it. Um before you get out, before we get out of here, how you feel? New York has been doing in a hip hop category as far as the country's concerned. Yeah, I feel like the race for a long time, you know what I mean? So how do you feel?

SPEAKER_00 35:49

We ran this shit for mad long, you know what I'm saying? And when you run shit for mad long, people just start to get sick of you and hate. And I'm not saying that's what the case, but sometimes other shit gotta get on as well. So then they went down south for a minute. They had their little run. Right now, I feel it's on the west. They got the they got it right now. But everything comes back. You know what I'm saying? Everything comes back to where it all started at. I feel like we not at the top spot right now, but we'll be there soon because everything comes back to that, man.

SPEAKER_01 36:22

I f I feel like in in that spectrum of I've I feel like we're not at the top spot, we're definitely not where we used to be. Because it was a point in time not too long ago where we damn near wasn't even in the race. At all. You know what I mean? Yeah, yeah. And now it seems like we've starting to find our identity again. Um, we got our own Bob. Seems like New York is paying attention to New York, and that was big. That's big. It was a moment that felt like New York wasn't paying attention to New York artists, absolutely music. That we was listening to everything else but what we make home, and we all fans of our own.

SPEAKER_00 36:58

Because now we even got a new competitor that was never even in the race, which is London, Europe. They was never even thought of. You know what I'm saying?

SPEAKER_01 37:07

You never even from the New York hip hop perspective. Yeah, from from the New York perspective, nobody even they they cracked the code. So now it's like and now people are biting they're so so many lanes, but to see that we back to a real steady pace makes me feel happy in this artist like you that's been contributing to the re-surgence of New York music, which is dope, you know what I mean? And and that spreads out because they was putting this in a box for a minute and shit like that, you know what I mean. So I I urge you to continue doing music, and it seems like you got a hell of a hustle with you, man. And you need to talk a lot more about your hustle also because these people need to hear about it, uh uh, about what what it really takes to put yourself on and turn your dreams into reality by taking control of your destiny, and that's by doing things that's gonna work for you in your favor. And you being going from homeless to going cold turkey to begin a job and beginning a job was one of the most important things you said. I see so many people out here that like the household. We all like the household and stuff like that, but that was my first job.

SPEAKER_00 38:17

That was like, you know, having people get accustomed to it. So I had my plan A, which was rapping, and so I had 30. And that's when sanitation called me. I was like, Yo, I tried my plan A. I'm not gonna give up on my plan A, but I gotta work on plan B and get my life right for a minute, and ain't no shame in working that's a hundred thousand a year, benefits, pension, all of that. Which in the long term, you don't got no pension, unfortunately. You don't got no medical coverage, nothing. You know what I'm saying? So unfortunately, when I'm from working that job, now when I get to my old age and my sixties, all of that, God willing, I'll have that for the rest of your life. I'll have some pension, I'll have some benefits.

SPEAKER_01 38:59

That's what I want to tell you. Like, that's no shame in that. No, like having a job, you can turn your job into a hustle until your hustle turns into your dream, if you understand what I'm saying. Yeah, no. Don't be ashamed about getting a job.

SPEAKER_00 39:14

Now, my motto while working that was like, yo, I'm gonna let my life dictate my job, not my job dictate my life. Meaning, if I gotta stay out doing a show till four in the morning and be at work at six, I'm not gonna give up that show. I'm gonna just do that and might call out the next day.

SPEAKER_01 39:30

It takes a lot of sacrifice and a lot of discipline, which people lack. People wait to be motivated. But you said a lot of things that I live by, which is consistency, and that's that's why I'm here today, out of everything. I stayed consistent. No matter what worked, no matter what didn't work, every day I got up and I chipped away at the goal, and I'm still chipping away at it today. So just to hear your story, man. I'm very inspired by it. I'm glad you came by. Um definitely got a dope record. I'm gonna I'm gonna I'm gonna finish finish the record up. So we definitely drop that shit to do the video. We do the video in the building. Um, and yeah, the building is here, so yeah, we want to get out of Cornell Island for a little bit. Yeah, no, we're gonna we're gonna shoot some episodes, man. Come up and have some have some good time, man. Um, but yeah, ladies and gentlemen, this is another episode of Artist to Artist. Um everybody give a round of applause to Gorilla Nems from Brooklyn, the island's own.