SPEAKER_03 0:24

Good evening, ladies and gentlemen. We are back with another episode of Artist the Artist today. I have some very special guests. I wouldn't call them guests in my family. I got I got diplomats in the building with me. Yes, sir. Yeah. Duke of God. Yeah. JR Writer.

SPEAKER_01 0:46

Yes, sir.

SPEAKER_03 0:47

Hell Rel Rugerel. Salute. What up, Capo? How y'all do?

SPEAKER_01 0:51

Appreciate you for having us. You, you know, doing big things on this side.

SPEAKER_03 0:55

Life is great. That's without a doubt. Um, I don't even know where to start. It's been a long time coming.

SPEAKER_07 1:06

Yes, sir. Right.

SPEAKER_03 1:07

I start with Duke the God. I would say I have. I know Duke, I know you for about 40 years, right? Long time, man. 1199. So we just playing Manhunt. These kids say they don't even know what manhood is. They probably gonna look at this like manhunt. Them niggas is way old. Yeah, no, we definitely started Manhunt, Freeze Tag, basketball 21. Um. So we've watched each other grow up and from being in a place of running around the hood to uh a place of success and um disremembering bits and pieces of the journey. Um started a lot with bloodshed. Rest in peace, bloodshed. And that started in the high school, I would say. Yes, yes. 94, 95, 93, 93, 92, 93. Yeah. 94, yeah, 95. Blood used to run. I used to play blood a quarter for him to freestyle for me. Back in the game. A quarter. That was my price. Freestyle, you heard? Like, that's crazy. He had a dope soul, man. Yeah, Blood was super dope. You never get to talk about him too much. Yeah, I wish, I wish they was able to even hear Blood. Like, like they don't, I feel like, you know, he he just he passed away at a at a time before, like, you know what I mean?

SPEAKER_05 2:35

Before the internet, obviously, but way before the internet.

SPEAKER_03 2:38

You know what I mean? But he's definitely like, I wish they could could have heard him. I wish they could have heard him too, man. But that was a dope soul, man. Blood had everything back in the day. All the G.I. Joe's, he had everything first, all the draws first, everything. Man, bless Blood, man. Just wanted to make sure I touch on that. But how you been, my brother?

SPEAKER_05 2:56

I've been good. You know what I'm saying? I've been blessed, I've been thankful. You know what I mean? Um, you know, like I'm just happy to be even here doing this right now. Like, you know what I mean? Like, like we've been doing this for so long. Like, like you said, 40 years, nigga. Thomas niggas in this room that's not even 40 years old. You know what I'm saying?

SPEAKER_03 3:16

We got our first car together. Yeah, yeah, definitely. You want to tell a story how we told me.

SPEAKER_01 3:25

He's surprised. I'm like, man, you got that much history with cover.

SPEAKER_03 3:29

First of all, what we like 17, 18. I don't know who said they got to connect. We end up having to connect for some cars. I remember I brought the at cool at the famous at cool. The CL, the CL did the free joy. Oh, that's a car. The four door five series. Yeah. And crazy, and it started disappearing. But I remember when um we went to the dealership and it was like uh, you know, it was like um it was 1997, I remember specifically, and then I mean then and it was a dealer, it was like a we was doing some crooked shit.

SPEAKER_05 4:09

It was all crooked.

SPEAKER_04 4:10

And I remember that, you know, I wasn't like I was with, I was with the shits, but I wasn't really with the shits and like that. You know what I mean? And I remember like the dealership, but the dealer was like, yo, you sign this name right here. And I'm like, hold up.

SPEAKER_00 4:26

And it's with the oakie don't make it.

SPEAKER_04 4:28

This name right here, and it wasn't my name. And I remember I was about to, I was like, I'm not doing that. And I remember the dealer, the dealer was like, yo, and I was walking out the dealership and you saw my face, you was like, yo, Duke, what happened? You you got the car? And I'm like, nah, man. You was like, yo, what happened, Duke? I'm like, yo, he wants me to sign this name right here. And you was like, yo, fuck that.

SPEAKER_05 4:53

I'm like, yeah, I want the car. And you signed the name for me though.

SPEAKER_06 5:06

You mean we leave him with the cars?

SPEAKER_03 5:08

I'll never forget that right there. That was super dope. You know what I mean? And uh, like I was we was out. We was we was no, we was out back then. We was out. Remember Sugar Mom had the integra? Yes, you heard they got them first. I don't know what happened. We pulled the shit out of his shit.

SPEAKER_05 5:24

So we had the whip, so like if if it wasn't for you, I wouldn't have even had the whip though. And there was a stick shift no homo pause. That's a real reason.

SPEAKER_03 5:32

I was like, damn, that's your stick shift. I think I messed up. And we stole it back. We stole it back in the tunnel. Yes, I remember like homegirl, she stole stole a car back. We had like a BMW at the time. The the girl that we would that had the the hookup on the cars ended up stealing Duke car back from Duke. Whoa. Outside the club or something. And then we no, she stole. From the crib. She was from she was from California, but she had I'm saying what she stole a car, but what's she from? I was at the tunnel. I was at the tunnel. But how we got it back? We got it back from the tunnel to the house.

SPEAKER_04 6:13

No, we went to the house and got all took all the keys. We took the wallet key.

SPEAKER_03 6:20

Every key they had, we took every key. They have from our I remember that. We were really loose, bro. Yeah, definitely. But we need to come back. We're gonna get that. We had the five series. We had the five, this is a joke.

SPEAKER_04 6:34

We had the five series in 1997, and it was a it in the car with the 1997.

SPEAKER_03 6:39

1997.

SPEAKER_04 6:39

Yeah, that shit was fire, my nigga.

SPEAKER_03 6:41

Yeah. So I never forget those. I never forget those good times, man. Like we was like 18, 19, yeah, definitely. Onto the tunnel back to like, bro. I wouldn't care about nothing, but but getting fresh and having the car to go to the tunnel. I ain't care about nothing else in the world. You can I don't care about nothing. I ain't had no kids, no nothing. I need to go to the tunnel on Sunday. I need to be fresh, and I need to have a whip. I'm trying to slide something. They need to feel my pain. That's what we talk about. That was low. That's when you pull up to the tunnel and they wasn't letting niggas down the block. Definitely not in their car. Facts. We was pulling in that bitch three, four cars. I'm flying. I be trying to tell niggas about how I was bullying this shit out this whole club, bro. Niggas be they must be thinking I'm joking, but I like no broke. I have my way. I have my way with the tunnel. Any way I wanted to, I treated the tunnel. That was your own.

SPEAKER_04 7:32

Yeah, you put a lot of work into the tunnel.

SPEAKER_05 7:35

A lot of work and a lot of work. You know what I mean? Like we didn't want to hear nothing entering the club. We didn't want to hear none of that. You know what I mean? You put a lot of work into stories about the tunnel, but just know.

SPEAKER_03 7:47

The tunnel was ours on the law. But no, it just it just feels good to sit here and I feel like a kid again almost like just talking to the garbage. Got too many friends as long as you that can talk to you about my childhood and then end up growing up and doing business with them and end up being successful with them. Like you don't have too much of that going on. And everybody will talk about their day ones. And I love my day ones. And you dig and and you you're one of them, but it don't always work like that. You know what I mean? So I cherish the people that mean something to me. I don't care if they was my day ones, my day twos, or my day yesterdays, and things like that. I learned how to gauge different things in life and shit like that. And moving forward, uh JR?

SPEAKER_01 8:31

What's poppin'?

SPEAKER_03 8:32

How you feeling?

SPEAKER_01 8:33

Grateful, blessed, happy to be here.

SPEAKER_03 8:36

I know you happy. I know you happy. I know you I know you I you gotta you gotta you gotta you got a good heart, kid. I know you've been through a lot of ups and downs.

SPEAKER_01 8:46

Appreciate that.

SPEAKER_03 8:46

I had to do a little vacation.

SPEAKER_01 8:48

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 8:49

Right up. Came back, had a fairly fine.

SPEAKER_01 8:52

Snap out of it. Yeah, I snapped out of it. That yeah. That really got me focused.

SPEAKER_03 8:58

Yeah, I can see that. Yes, sir. How is it how how how you feeling about your journey and from where it started to where you at right now?

SPEAKER_01 9:07

Um, how do I feel about it? I'm grateful. I'm grateful for those, you know what I mean? Just leading up to now from where I started. How old were you when you first started uh with the dipset? Uh when I first ride for Killer, I was 17. Then when I started officially running around with you, I was 18. Were you out of high school yet? Yeah, I was out of high school. Well, I left high school. I gotta, I ain't have enough credits yet. Nah, but I ended up, I ended up, yeah. I ended up, I ended up getting my diploma though. You know what I mean? I ended up getting my diploma. But um, yeah, I mean, back then, even early, that's when you had the laptop with the Mbox. Used to call me out, yeah, pull up to the Sheridan, you know what I mean, or pick me up in the caddy truck, pick up, you know what I mean? Caddy coop. You'll go to I go with you the baseline.

SPEAKER_03 10:01

You know what I mean? I always wanted to know the the feeling that feeling you got when you felt like you had that opportunity to sign to the set because for me we are the set, and a lot of things that we were doing didn't soak in. We didn't understand it back then. We just was doing and doing. So I never understood what that feeling was like for you. Knowing that you was about to be accepted to the set at that such a young age. I wanted to know like what what kind of feeling was that for you?

SPEAKER_01 10:32

It was a dream come true because you know, Cam was one of my favorite rappers growing up. And um shit, I was telling I was telling Duke the other day. I remember like uh when I was in DFY, right before I came home. That's uh that was my last bit in DFY. And um my sister was like, she was about to go see Cam at HMV on the 125th, and you was there. Killer had the uh the solid white coogie on. And um she got the picture signed, he signed my name, and she brung it to me. And every day I just raped to that picture.

SPEAKER_04 11:08

Fire.

SPEAKER_01 11:09

Because I just, you know, I had the mentality where it's like one day I got a rap for Kim. And I used to write diplomats on all my rhymes back then. Then a year later I got, you know what I mean, introduced to him. That's fire.

SPEAKER_03 11:23

That's fire.

SPEAKER_01 11:24

Yeah, you was in the picture too.

SPEAKER_03 11:25

That's super dope. That's crazy.

SPEAKER_01 11:27

It was just y'all too at HMV.

SPEAKER_03 11:30

That's like full circle, six degrees of separation. And but they they say that you could you could will what you want in life. Right. Yes, sir. It's crazy when they say that and you're looking back and not kind of what you was doing. You was bringing your universe into another universe. This is what you this is what you're doing.

SPEAKER_01 11:48

Yeah, because when you're young, you got that confidence, nobody could tell you nothing.

SPEAKER_03 11:51

And it kind of morphed in FA. That's that that's just kind of mind blowing. So just because I don't understand, I I could never understand the effect that we had on people because I was still young myself. I got a bunch of money. I really wasn't doing nothing on purpose. I was just doing the shit that we knew how to do, and what I thought was fly to me. You know what I mean? But I didn't understand what we were doing for the generation around us and shit like that. Like I didn't understand what hell Ralph was like. What's up, Ralph? Good cobble? How you feeling?

SPEAKER_00 12:24

Life is great. Life is great.

SPEAKER_03 12:26

Life is great. That's what this is all about. Those type of answers is what I like to hear because I know there'll be times when life don't be great. Right. You know what I mean?

SPEAKER_00 12:38

We've all been there.

SPEAKER_03 12:39

To persevere through these ups and downs, it's not the easiest things, and that comes with a variety of things that coming at all of us and shit like that. And that doesn't mean a financial thing, it is just a life thing, and life be lifeless sometimes. Yeah, all about how you handle it and how you take it. Or how you weather the storm. And how you deal with it. That's fine. You could deal with it as a bitter man, or you could use it as fuel to become a better man.

SPEAKER_00 13:06

Facts. All facts.

SPEAKER_03 13:08

You know what I mean? And I've dealt with it in both ways. Yes, sir. I I could I believe that you'll understand what I'm talking about as far as things that I've been through. Absolutely. And I had to separate a lot of my personal from a lot of things that were done in business and try to figure out what was best for me. And not worry about things that were taken from me that I thought or things that were, you know what I mean? Yes, sir. Because there were a time where I was only dwelling on that. You dig? Yes, sir. And in that time I wasn't even taking up for my own accountability because of my loyalty to whatever it was. But nobody could do anything to me that I didn't allow. Right.

SPEAKER_00 14:00

Does it make it right? But Copper, we all know. You put the bird in your back, man. We love you for that, bro.

SPEAKER_03 14:05

But I'm just trying to tell you. But you're not about that. I'm just how we can.

SPEAKER_00 14:11

But when I give you a flowers on camera, damn, bloody. You carried the bird, man. We love you for that, man. At the end of the day, we we've been through trials and tribulations. The world witnessed that. You know, and uh through the ups and downs, you put the shit on your back and you you went through a fucking trailer and blaze, blood. And we love you for that. But we all put the shit on our back. Right. But when it counted, you persevered and you you you became a superhero.

SPEAKER_03 14:40

I was just in the right place at the right time, and God was able to push me to where I needed to be so that we still could be here when it counted. Absolutely. You heard? Absolutely. Because when it counted, wherever y'all was at, it still counted because y'all still had that shit on your back. But definitely, definitely. Y'all never switched the side or set another team or never. You heard that? No matter what the situation was. So as much as I carry it, I feel like everybody else carried it in their own way. That's one of the things I had to think about also. No matter how much work that I put in, that people could see, there's no way that I should feel like I could say to anybody else they don't deserve or feel the way I should feel about the bird, no matter what. That's honorable. That's honorable, God.

SPEAKER_00 15:24

That's honorable. Put working.

SPEAKER_03 15:26

And when it was good for everybody, it was good for everybody. Right. You always have to put work in. I just did I just felt that. There was no way I was gonna let something die out. That we all put so much hard work in for.

SPEAKER_05 15:47

Definitely. You definitely held it down though.

SPEAKER_03 15:50

And I appreciate that. But anything I did, I held it down with everybody else in mind, no matter what anybody says. Because right now, if everybody's smart, everybody can still eat off the bird. Correct. You heard? I don't stop, I don't block, I don't hate. Nah, you always throw bones, call it. No blocking. Never block. No, you never get hit. I don't I'm not into that when it comes to us. You heard? And any factor that has to do with it. You heard? Yeah. But what I do with mine's is what I do with mine's, and I do mine a little bit different, no matter, and that's what people don't get. Like this is my portion of it. That's how I play it. You heard? And I want people to see how big of a situation that we still have. This is how many years later? 20, 30? 19. 20 years. 30 years. For us it's 30 years later. For y'all is what, 25 years later? Yeah. Like 20, yeah. And we're still able to sit here and have a great conversation, make money, and eat off of something that we all put up working for.

SPEAKER_05 16:48

We all care about. You know what I mean? Like that's you know, that's nostalgic, special to wow gen different generations, you know what I mean?

SPEAKER_03 16:57

So God, you know how you seen this shit flip like you know how this shit started really from nothing. You heard? For real? Like like like nigga, this look at me. God to say I was able to make a million dollars.

SPEAKER_05 17:25

Yo, that's yo, yo.

SPEAKER_03 17:28

Yo. Yo, it's insane.

SPEAKER_05 17:31

Like, from from like, you know, for we used to be in a wreck playing basketball or what like whatever, like it's people that like respectfully, it's people that will never make a million dollars. You know what I'm saying? But like we used to be in a rec playing basketball or God, we was in 5H you know.

SPEAKER_03 17:48

Five H. Drop the chicken sandwiches soap and next to the brain.

SPEAKER_05 17:55

I'm sure you made several millions of dollars.

SPEAKER_03 17:57

I mean, I mean I'm just saying, like, several millions, but you heard um, but just to say that, to say I mean any money, but yes, Duke to God. The journey was was Duke to God. Yeah, you seen it. You was there, you heard it, yeah.

SPEAKER_05 18:16

Who would think that? Who would think? You know what I'm saying? Who would God is the greatest? You know what I mean?

SPEAKER_03 18:21

So I I watched your whole journey, you know what I mean, go from like we went from doing what we could to doing anything we want. Yes, literally, yes, you heard I mean we we might have put syllabus in ourselves because we were so hood, we didn't know how far we could go, but we literally could did anything we wanted, and we could have done more if we if we if we still won't do more, but I'm just saying at that time, yes, and we had the whole New York City.

SPEAKER_05 18:50

Like, I don't look I always be like, yo, I don't care if we was number one in the whole world for like one second.

SPEAKER_03 18:56

Bro, we was at least one of them to God. We were sharing for a second, we were sharing north faces, yes, yes. Yes, we were sharing clones, you heard? Not to say we didn't have flash it, but we were sharing flash shit, yeah. Selling her like sharing peleas and all that, you know what I'm saying? Nigga, coochies, all that, you know what I mean? So we figured it out. Crack the code, you know what I mean? Crack the fucking code, yeah, big time in our own way, and we never ever faltered, bent, folded, never did it anybody else's way but ours. You heard? Yo, the journey is crazy. I the journey is the best part about life. It's magical. Would you change the journey for anything? Not at all. I wouldn't. Not at all. But I just wish it, I wish, you know, in a perfect world, I hate to sound so cliche, but in a perfect world, yes, I wish things would have been a lot different. You know what I'm saying? Like, we like like just the struggle, just watching, like knowing each other's parents and like everybody, the grandparents to to to to you know what I mean?

SPEAKER_04 20:07

And it's just not it's just that everybody's not celebrated the same. I mean, you know what I mean? So I wish we we were all, whoever's I mean everybody that started was celebrated. You know what I mean? It would be a celebration of greatness, of excellence, of just achievement. So, you know what I mean? I wish it was like that in the perfect world, you know what I'm saying?

SPEAKER_03 20:28

And you know, so it's it's life. But uh let's talk about how Il Duke is.

SPEAKER_00 20:37

I knew he was gonna go there.

SPEAKER_03 20:39

I mean, I just want to talk about a little bit of his character, one of the most solid people I've known. Super solid since since I've been down. Correct. If he got it, you got it.

SPEAKER_00 20:47

That's a fact.

SPEAKER_03 20:48

Money never moved him at all. At all. You can't wave a dollar in front of his face and won't persuade him to do it.

SPEAKER_00 20:53

Millions in his account, you'll never know about it.

SPEAKER_03 20:55

To this day. I tell people 100%. Still I wait to this day. And his code of honor and the things that he's done in his past is why most people love him. Correct. But some of these things you've done in the past have been marketed and promoted to make people millions and shit like that, because of the way music goes and niggas don't be knowing who the ghost is when it came to this shit. When niggas be talking about State Street and niggas be making nigga. What year was that Nova? That was like 94, 93, 99. But what was the year of the Nova? How old was the Nova? The Nova that you used to drive in, nigga, the Nova. How old was the Nova? What year was the Nova?

SPEAKER_05 21:37

The Nova. It was 94.

SPEAKER_03 21:40

The car, nigga, the old school ass car.

SPEAKER_04 21:43

Oh, oh, oh, you talking about the um the um um it was a um That wasn't the Nova? No, it wasn't a Nova, it was a um, it was a Caprice. Was it Caprice?

SPEAKER_03 21:52

I don't think it was a Caprice. But how old was that shit? Like 79. It was 79, 1979. They went futuristic.

SPEAKER_00 21:58

They went super bag on left, right up.

SPEAKER_07 22:01

I don't think the first ever he had the 79 novel. 79?

SPEAKER_04 22:06

I know about it. 79 Burgundy. Burgundy joint. I got it still, it still exists too, though. It don't move no more, but it still exists.

SPEAKER_03 22:15

No, you need to put that no. We our parents have got it. Our parents have got it. We need to do something for that shit. That nova is a part of history. That was the city. That's the nova that we got across the bridge in Brooklyn Bridge to get to State Street. And we used to go. And we used to always ride in that shit. We did. That's the shit that got across when niggas be like State Street and they run out with the stash and all that shit like that. I don't know anything else, but I know the part that was played on this side, and I know who was the driver was, and I know he was driving by itself. 1979. I know he was the only man in that car. Okay. I know it wasn't no stop them people in that car. I know he knows how to handle that business, and that shit got across that bridge and got back. You heard? Just once, Jack. You heard? You did it? The one long seat in the front.

SPEAKER_05 23:04

It wasn't even a it wasn't even a long seat in the front and the long seat in the back.

SPEAKER_04 23:13

It was the one long seat.

SPEAKER_03 23:14

And had the roll up windows. You had to pop the lock. Stop playing real shit up here by the shit. The numbers was new digital. Them shit's real 79 vehicle. And that you still been dirty. You heard? We're gonna put that in the hall of fame. You heard? That would be fire. That would be fire. Yeah, man. Good old days. Good old days.

SPEAKER_04 23:33

We used to be in the tunnel with that. We used to be proud to be going up there like the tunnel. Skate key. I gotta smoke. I gotta go skate key with that. Skate key. Skate key. Allison? Allison, right? You don't acknowledge the new skate key like that.

SPEAKER_03 23:48

We definitely can't acknowledge the new skate key. I've been to the new skate key a couple times, but it's definitely is Allison in the rank.

SPEAKER_04 23:55

And when we were young, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 23:56

What was it? It was the error.

SPEAKER_04 23:58

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 23:59

The era was different. This was 92, 93. The era was different. It was a little bit of 91. Yeah. Yeah, 91, 92, 90. Oh my God. Yeah, nigga, I was like 15. Right? Yeah. Yeah. Even 90. Even 90, we was outside. Outside. Now we was out. Yo, now we yeah. Niggas was going out. 91. 90 we was outside. Remember Zeke? When Zeke got clapped? Zeke got clapped in high school. That was what? 91?

SPEAKER_04 24:35

Um I I I think so.

SPEAKER_03 24:37

Or 93.

SPEAKER_04 24:39

No, we got clapped in high school?

SPEAKER_03 24:40

Remember Zeke got shot in high school too. I think that was like probably 92, 91, 92. 92.

SPEAKER_01 24:47

I didn't know that one.

SPEAKER_03 24:48

Zeke Super Warrior. Yeah, Zeke is out his fucking mind. And he got clapped sticking up for somebody else. Another nigga got mushed or punched and shit like that. And Zeke up the pop up. But niggas was way ahead of time. Niggas was like, nah, we ain't we ain't fighting back then, nigga. This is 92. We not fighting what you heard. Dead on freaky. Nah, we been outside for a long time moving and grooving, bro. Like we got stories for eons and eons.

SPEAKER_05 25:12

Yeah, wow stories.

SPEAKER_03 25:13

But the blessing is that we are still here. So I was about to say, hell well, I've watched you go through some ups and some downs. Um I seen you from the beginning. Um you first got signed. Yes, sir. You started doing business with us, and then you had to do a bid. Right. How did that feel when you know that you just signed to the diplomats and you're about to have to go do a bid, and you starting to become one of the hottest rappers in New York City at that time, that Cam was going absolutely crazy for.

SPEAKER_00 25:44

I'm just telling you. I'm just gonna win in the time and shit like that. It was heartbreaking because at the at that time, like that time and shit touched the streets. Nah, at that time, like you and you and Cam ride anyway, get fly anyway. Oh, okay. Nah, nah, that that time, like, that shit was heartbreaking because I was leaving my brothers, like, y'all niggas was putting on Jim. You was like on fire, you was talking crazy on these records. The shit was like monumental. I'm like, damn, I gotta go to jail. I'm like, I was really going to run, Duke Yard. I'm like, I'm I didn't know a year outside. Like, this shit is crazy right now. But nah, like, it it was heartbreaking, but you know, black, y'all, y'all, y'all definitely like couple, like y'all, y'all put on and make sure I I came home to a career, and that shit was so monumental.

SPEAKER_03 26:39

And um thing about boy, that nigga, he was in his favor. He he was like, nah, boy, we gonna let the gonna come back home and put the story around him, let him go crazy and shit like that.

SPEAKER_00 26:51

He always touched me, Carbo, because at the end of the day, we you y'all I didn't have paperwork, I was assigned to y'all at that time. So for y'all to take a risk on me and put me in front of the world and stamp me like that.

SPEAKER_03 27:05

That's why I made sure that's why I made sure I did what while I while I what I did while I that's why I made sure I did what what I did while you was locked up.

SPEAKER_00 27:14

Nah, that shouldn't be locked up.

SPEAKER_03 27:16

I don't think people know the in-betweens of that. Nah, they don't know. They don't know they don't know the bridge, the bridge that really kept things moving to to come home and make your own.

SPEAKER_00 27:29

Like while I was in jail, like I ain't need for nothing. Commissary copo paid it, like every time I sent my baby mother to Rockefeller office, taken care of, everything situated. And for a nigga to do that for artists that's not signed to them, is real love. You know what I'm saying? Like, niggas don't do shit like that.

SPEAKER_03 27:52

Because you gotta we'll the way we move and the way I still move is I I love who my brother. But Capo, you've been on that time though. Yeah, because you know what it is. It's right to back. But I love who my brothers love. That's how it's supposed to be. Right. You heard he expressed something to me, right? And I'm gonna make sure that you did that the shit gets kept like that and shit like that.

SPEAKER_00 28:11

But and and Cam, like, you know, Cam Cam heard me on the CD, you know what I'm saying? He he he heard me. And he said, really, he, you know, Luca Brazi, I ain't gonna lie, he he he talked to Luca Brazi, he heard me on the CD. He he he he said, nah, he needs to be down with us. And when I pulled up to the hill, Copper was there, fresh to death, 100,000 in his pocket, like he always does. You know what I'm saying? You know? Shout out to Weeks Avenue. Yeah, you know, shout out to Weeks Avenue. I know no, but Copper was running around with 1,500,000 on before the deal. I just want to let that clear, like, this ain't no new shit. So, like, when he called me to, when they call me to the hill and say, Yo, Rugby, we want you to be down, that shit was monumental, bro. Like, I wanted to cry. Because you gotta realize, like, Cam and Jim signed to the Rockefeller at 2001, 2002 was monumental. This is pre social media, pre-You tube, pre all niggas taking pictures with their phones. So when you heard about it, that shit sounded like a man died.

SPEAKER_03 29:22

Right, heavy on the bleeps, yeah. Heavy on the bleeps.

SPEAKER_00 29:25

You feel me? So, you know, I should change my life, man, and I'm just happy with it.

SPEAKER_03 29:30

And then you know how we stayed in touch throughout a time, maybe not as close as we supposed to be, but through tabs and shit like that, and then just and so but you always extended the olive branch, Papo. A hundred percent.

SPEAKER_00 29:45

That shit was always there, so whether I stepped to the plate or you know, I had a lot of shit going on in my own personal life, but you always extended the violin branch, whether it was studio time, whether it was trying to get me a deal, whether it was trying to give me a look, whether you was on the radio and shouting my name out. And you just was always a team player, and we love you for that, bro.

SPEAKER_03 30:06

I mean, we team players, we we always gonna be team and shit like that, so uh that that's just who I am. But just watching your journey and seeing the things you went through, right? Athlete success and diplomatic and dealing with the streets and dealing with and then being able to be back in that. Both you and him did something that I have not been able to accomplish.

SPEAKER_00 30:29

There you go.

SPEAKER_03 30:38

Do some flashy like that. Yeah, yeah. Wow, you see how light worked out how to get their masses back. I still ain't figured out how to get mine back. I'm like, that's what I'm saying in my mind, like, God damn, I need that bag, but and then it's like just to know the ups and downs you've been through in these past few years leading up to this, uh that goes to show the hard work that you put in. And a lot of times we forget about that hard work when we gotta deal with life, because life be life in it. Life be life is definitely for a nigga. To think about no old shit that you already accomplished and shit like that. But just to know the type of foundation you was able to sit down, put down for yourself to be able to collect all that shit back right now. And I know it came with a bag, your niggas looking at it. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, definitely, definitely. So it's like, how did that make y'all feel? To be able to get that done. Because I still I need to know. I I need to know how to do it. I need it.

SPEAKER_01 31:37

I need to figure this shit out. It made me feel, you know, I'm still I'm still grateful. I'm still super grateful. You know what I mean? You know, I got the new crib, penthouse, you know, overlooking DR. Talk your shit. You know what I mean? Oh white. I'm in a different space, so you know, I'm I'm happy. You know, got my masters on all my musical, at least 99.9% of them. Uh, and yeah, you know, I'm I'm I'm super happy.

SPEAKER_07 32:02

Got that smell on like long, combo.

SPEAKER_01 32:05

Yeah, but I was I was able to um I had got my old contract, I was able to find some loopholes in it, figured out that Koch Records, you know what I mean, was in the wrong as far as like it was a licensing deal. So once once it it it expired, they wasn't supposed to even continue to exploit it. And I'm not even mad at them because you know they they they did the right thing. Business is business. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 32:28

They won't tell you until you find out. Facts. And when you find out, they're gonna give you the room to correct it, you heard? But if you don't find out, they're not gonna they're not gonna put your coat there. They'll keep they'll keep all your money. That's what the game is built on. The game is to be sold, not told, and that's why a lot of people in this industry don't take too much likely to my opposition because I put niggas up on game. I don't like to always do and shit like that. Yeah, that's because that's what you're like. When you on the block, you put your nigga onto a hustle. So shit. And then when I got in the game, I'm trying to put as many people onto this free money as possible. If they could figure it out, then shit, you gonna get a bag. And I still do that to this day, you know, and I do that with expecting nothing in return.

SPEAKER_01 33:14

Always, always. I bump into you in the hood at the barber shop, like, yo, come down to the studio. You get what I'm saying? So, yeah, it's always been that. Masters, y'all niggas getting some money, yo. Eating I keep talking about. Charles, stop it, come on.

SPEAKER_03 33:26

Okay, right. I keep thinking, but did you figure out how to get your masters back? For me? I got my master.

SPEAKER_06 33:50

See what's going on. Oh it's a marketing money, but I just very blessed.

SPEAKER_03 34:07

I'd be happy that I was able to, like, I was like I I'm just thankful that I kind of like, you know, like my all my all my deals I did was kind of like blessed that they was my deals.

SPEAKER_04 34:20

You know what I mean? That you know what I'm saying? Like even Cam let me do the deals myself.

SPEAKER_03 34:24

Bro, you was doing it. So I was able to do that. Bro, do the big deal. You the first you the first killer. You the I don't even know how this like for the world, because you know we brothers, but in the world, it's like you the first nigga homeboy to make a million over music. DJ ain't no nothing. Bro, he was putting out albums and doing 30, 40 units a week in the first week. I knew artists that couldn't do that with their life. You know, hundreds of thousands of records. It was so dope that I got my numbers back.

SPEAKER_04 34:55

I got my numbers back recently. You know what I mean? Where did you get the numbers from? Shout out to Jared Rider for helping me get my numbers back, you know what I'm saying?

SPEAKER_03 35:03

But I I sold a couple hundred thousand records. You sold probably a little bit more than that.

SPEAKER_06 35:10

Probably a little bit more than that, but how many albums you put out?

SPEAKER_04 35:14

I put out I put out like official albums. Four official albums. I had the the the first two one.

SPEAKER_05 35:21

I had the uh the movement moves on, I had more than music volume two, and I had the DIP agenda. You know what I mean? I have four albums, official albums in stores.

SPEAKER_03 35:29

Like Yeah, you sold some records, guys. Yeah. Your master's looking like I gotta get down. Who you who your lawyer? I need to speak to you niggas lawyer, bro. I saw some records, bro. I sold a few records, bro.

SPEAKER_04 35:45

You sold a what a lot of records, man. You you killed the and you were the blueprint for a lot of niggas, though. Cause like after I remember like when you first brought you brought couch to the table. You brought couch to the table. Nobody knew about coch records, and I think at the time it was only Onyx over there or some shit. That's whatever.

SPEAKER_03 36:03

Fredo stars or something. Some some dumb shit like that.

SPEAKER_04 36:06

Like Fredo had like a Ferrari or some shit.

SPEAKER_01 36:07

I think Gloria and Capone was over there too. Were they over there? That's what I'm saying. Gloria and Capone was one day. No, not before.

SPEAKER_03 36:14

But before you was walking in the office, bro. Yeah, no, no, no. This is before. This was before. Oh three? Oh two. Oh two, oh three. Oh, two.

SPEAKER_04 36:22

So you bought after after I find gangster drop.

SPEAKER_03 36:24

Fredro was there.

SPEAKER_04 36:27

Fredo was over there at COX.

SPEAKER_03 36:28

When diplomats did they deal?

SPEAKER_04 36:30

In 2003. Deft came out February. No, no, no. March 13th.

SPEAKER_03 36:36

That came out. That came out. Came out. We signed that deal in 2002. And I signed my deal in 2003 also because remember they ain't wanted. Remember, Dame ain't wanting to give me a million dollars. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Alright, cool. I'm gonna give my million anyway. I know how to do everything. Watch this trick, nigga.

SPEAKER_06 36:53

Blueprint for this shit like the blueprint.

SPEAKER_03 36:56

Well, I put some me. And it'd be like, yo, bro, I don't want to sit down and explain to these people how much things that I've done in this hip hop game. You are iconic. I'm a technically too fashion. Like, nigga, I've I've the reason you niggas got a studio in your crib is because of me.

SPEAKER_01 37:13

Yeah, we had the GPU.

SPEAKER_00 37:17

Didn't he have a studio on the candle truck?

SPEAKER_03 37:20

Um, no, no. You used to record in there though. I used to have that uh laptop with the M box in there.

SPEAKER_04 37:26

You were the first one. I go front, you were the first one with the with the with the Apple Mac G5 with the with the um the Mbox. Yeah, remember Carlo?

SPEAKER_03 37:35

Remember Carla? Remember Carlisle?

SPEAKER_00 37:38

Carl had that.

SPEAKER_03 37:39

Remember he was the one that told me what to do, and I was like, yo, what's up with this pool tools, bro? We you could do it here, we could take it outside. And he was like, nah, you gotta go get the Mbox. He showed me how to engineer. Yeah. Carla? I remember that. Carl out. Carla showed me how to engineer. I went to Guitar Center, brought the Mbox, the computer, the whole G5 setup, came back there. He started giving me, and I started being able to go. I was engineering J, I was engineering everybody. Then I started engineering Kid. Remember, I started taking the engineering sessions?

SPEAKER_05 38:03

Yeah, I remember.

SPEAKER_03 38:04

They was getting paid like$9,000 a week. It was her. It was only so sweet. Carl showed me how to engineer, but every studio back then came with an assistant. It wasn't just an assistant, you know, the system had to know everything the engineer knew. I was like, there's no way I could lose. I'm the engineer. I made the assistant do everything. Yo, do this, do that, dude. What the fuck you talking about? You heard like what def chair?

SPEAKER_06 38:28

Let me get 90,000 for this past two months. Easy money.

SPEAKER_05 38:32

What?

SPEAKER_00 38:33

Trying to call up.

SPEAKER_05 38:36

You was definitely the first one I ever saw in my life with a G5 inbox setup. Like ever. Like, we didn't even know what that was.

SPEAKER_03 38:43

Nah, we futuristic. I was next to the city.

SPEAKER_01 38:47

Y'all two was the reason why I even got my own studio too. When it got that was like my first purchase. G5 and a motherfucking inbox.

SPEAKER_03 38:55

Then Joel's got his studio. Joel's the reason why I brought my studio down to when I bought the big, big studio and shit like that. Joel's studio was stupid. This studio was crazy. Yeah, 28th Street was stupid.

SPEAKER_00 39:06

28th Street was crazy, Cabo. 28th Street was almost very sexy stuff. That shit was fixed.

SPEAKER_06 39:10

That shit was fire. That shit was energy in there. That shit was in the middle of the city.

SPEAKER_03 39:14

You could it felt like you could touch Empire State building that motherfucker? You're now that bro. The shit that went on in that shit was yo, bro. Lock that studio up right there.

SPEAKER_06 39:25

Go go put some cups on the whole building right now. Let's lock the building up.

SPEAKER_03 39:31

Bro, I remember Cat Williams came up. You don't remember when he was on the news, he got locked up for a bunch of guns in the city. Yeah. He got locked up in my studio, bro. And then he had the studio get raided. So now we got literally like a hundred cops downstairs. They got the big spotlight, the SWAT spotlight in the bro. You got the cat? Bro, this is about police days. Uh huh. You heard? So you know they got my whole profile. They follow me every day.

SPEAKER_00 40:00

So you was hot back then.

SPEAKER_06 40:02

You was like nine guns and some dumb shit in this car.

SPEAKER_03 40:09

Like nobody came back and found that shit with my studio, bro. Bro, bro. They make everybody come downstairs one by one. You heard yo, bro, yo, bro, nigga.

SPEAKER_00 40:28

Nasty.

SPEAKER_07 40:29

And then they check the bottom of that fucking elevator shaft.

SPEAKER_04 40:32

Then they check the bottom.

SPEAKER_07 40:38

They soul into that elevator shawl.

SPEAKER_03 40:43

Yo man. No, man. I can go on and on the case. Shout to Cat Williams, though.

SPEAKER_01 40:52

I was the first one to do a song with him. I remember. I'm like, yo, why y'all using me to do the song? Duke picked me up. It's on my album. I need you to pop out, man.

SPEAKER_03 41:04

But yeah, it came out. I ain't gonna lie, you got your masters back. You need to put that record back out right now. You probably push get some money off of Cat Cat Bubble and this name worth my album pushing out right now, nigga, and get some streams off that. I'll put all that shit back out right now and get some streams. Putting out strategically though. Put out a couple joints though. I need my masses back. Damn, Couple, you've been talking about heavy.

SPEAKER_04 41:31

Heavy masses talk, Couple? Yeah, I was back after a certain amount of years. But you own.

SPEAKER_01 41:38

If you sold it, I don't know. I didn't sell it. Oh, you didn't sell it.

SPEAKER_03 41:41

Somebody. Somebody let me sign a bad deal. I'm gonna blame it on myself. I let myself sign a bad deal. I should have never been a follower or trusted anybody for my own mistakes. But yeah, it didn't work in my face.

SPEAKER_05 42:00

Like all that. I'm just saying, like, I'm just you know, like, you know, like always the first one, like the first your first love, my nigga, like whatever. It's always the best shit. You know what I'm saying? So, you know, like even all my way to church, and you know what I mean?

SPEAKER_00 42:13

Like, stone, cowboy. Like all that shit is like Mount Rush, don't rub it in.

SPEAKER_04 42:25

All that shit is fire, son. Like, I've been saying, like, that's the that's the beginning, like, you know what I mean?

SPEAKER_03 42:30

Like, somewhere with Miami, all that album, like, you gotta get that, bro. You gotta get that. So in your journey, along your journey, do you feel cheated about anything? This is truth, is nobody. This ain't for that. You heard? This is an uplifting. You know what? I'm gonna keep I'm gonna I'm gonna answer this first because it's hot of my brain.

SPEAKER_04 42:56

Like, I don't really feel cheated because I feel like even for Duke the God, even for me, I feel like honestly, I was never really included in the main plan. It's just that I'm from Harlem and I like to hustle. So I came up with different things to make my my my shit wiggle pause. You know what I'm saying? Like, so it's like so I don't really feel like I was, for me, me, I don't really feel slighted because you know I mean, like I always be like, I gotta be honest, like Killer gave me the keys to the to the whip. You know what I'm saying? And he let me rock, you know what I'm saying? He let me run the whole show. He let me like your first album, your first mixtapes, you know what I'm saying? Like like the rotter music and all this other shit. I was a I was running all that shit, you know what I'm saying? All you you came home, I was running your tapes. Writer's block one, I was running your shit, you know what I'm saying? So I don't really feel slighted. I really don't feel slighted for me. Because they did, it was never like it was never like a a a play for me to woo to to to have a plot in this right here. I wasn't a rapper. I wasn't like a main producer. You know what I'm saying? I was just like, I just figured shit out. You know what I'm saying? And I mean, so that's I'm gonna answer it for me though. You know what I'm saying? But, you know what I mean? Like, I just kind of like figured out the whole loop and just figured out how to sell mixtapes, how to sell merchandise. I used to make the merchandise in my house, and I still make the merchandise in my house to this day. You know what I mean?

SPEAKER_05 44:24

Um, and just able to put out the mixtapes and do the graphics and all this crazy shit for the mixtapes and just keep shit current. You know what I'm saying?

SPEAKER_04 44:34

And and I real quick, I my staff, I had Karen Sivil. Yes, you did. I had Karen.

SPEAKER_03 44:41

Yeah, Karen. Yeah, I had to get it.

SPEAKER_06 44:47

Listen, I'm gonna turn the girl single. That's who you were, boo.

SPEAKER_03 45:09

It's like your brother coming and they have him under the desktop and shit like that.

SPEAKER_06 45:17

Yeah. So like Murph? The world had a nigga rally.

SPEAKER_04 45:24

Diplomatic.

SPEAKER_01 45:25

He would have definitely yeah, Ju cam, everybody down to the no good, bro.

SPEAKER_06 45:31

He started acting like people and yours.

SPEAKER_03 45:36

Yeah, nah, Duke's, you you, you, you, I mean, so I would say this that you were way more valued than people may have made you feel. There was no way we could have got through this journey if you wasn't a part of it. Which you may think were little pieces, those were the most vital pieces to most of our careers. To let you take care of my mixtapes at the time I wasn't nobody, that helped me become somebody, and for all of us. For all of us, that's a fact. The position he made you f it made made at that time may felt less than because a record felt way more bigger than a mixtape, but the mixtape was the foundation that made all of us who we are today. And before there was a mixtape, there was just Duke the God. And Duke the God is a part of the dynamic, just like bloodshed was. Just like nigga, you wanna tell the truth? Yeah, I was not in the group. Remember that. That wasn't my gig, nigga.

SPEAKER_04 46:48

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 46:48

I'm Jomo, nigga. I haven't had nothing to do with nothing. Niggas see me whatever. West side, east side, downtown, you know. This is me. You heard? I knew I figured my own life out when I was young. I'm just gone for my eyes. You heard? That shit that happened was just out the kindness of my heart and knowing niggas could rap. You heard? Remember, I still used to come to the east side, still for bloodshed. Me and bro relationship was more of a competition than anything. From coming up to getting fresh to everything and shit like that, you heard? But we still was gang, still was team. And as we got older, last year high schools and all that shit, these niggas went to college. You heard? You went to Julia Richmond. Yeah, I went to Julia Richmond. I went to Julia Richmond too. I went to two dogs. I went to Richmond after I got kicked out of cabin. I know, I know, I remember. You heard? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Carl Hayes.

SPEAKER_00 47:39

Shout out to Carlton Hayes, man. I went to Carlton Hayes.

SPEAKER_03 47:45

I'm a problem. Zek went to Carlton Hayes too. He went to Rice too. We both got kicked out Cardinal Hayes the same day. He ended up going to Rice and then ended up going to Julia Richmond was the wildest. Yeah, you graduated. I remember I graduated. I schooled Loon girlfriend in Julie and Richmond.

SPEAKER_06 48:06

I didn't know who Bloom was. That's Bloom, bro. You gotta go to the school. That's loon, bro. I'm like, what?

SPEAKER_03 48:17

Oh shit, I'll be cool. I remember in school when they got yo loom outside with like 30 people. I'm like, what you mean? Yo, uh like 30 people? I slipped to the first half extra and got in the cab, oh yeah, we might get jumped.

SPEAKER_06 48:31

Nobody heard.

SPEAKER_03 48:33

Just the loom, man. What the loom? But isn't it funny how all these connections about people, some younger, and then some of these people you end up being in the industry? What is this? It's crazy. Like Ali Bob School. Absolute basketball. Absolute one of the nicest niggas I ever seen play basketball period in my life. Yeah, but I'm talking about with Michael Jordan and all of them like that. Like one of the nicest. Like one of the nicest people I ever seen play basketball in my life. Me too. Like, and not to take nothing away from Shamgaard, right? Right. Shamgaard made the NBA, got his own moves and all that. But people, if you think Shamgaard is ill, and he is. He is. And he is. Yeah. I just can't explain how nice the Black Widow was.

SPEAKER_00 49:29

He gave me like Kobe vibes, right?

SPEAKER_03 49:31

Everything vibes, bro. All right. I thought I was tripping. Everything vibes, bro. You wrap it around your body, dance in the middle of the joint, cross, like bro. No, he was different. Since high school. You remember? High school with he was barely dunking. I remember this whole shit though. Like, you did do?

SPEAKER_06 49:48

I was there. I was there. I was my man. Kim was nice too in high school, too.

SPEAKER_03 49:52

Kim was nice, yeah. Kim was super nice. Dumb nice in high school going to rough. I I I give him that. But that's what I'm saying. That's how far it goes back to the essence of the beginning of then niggas go to school, get kicked out, and life starts. But that's what it was before. Like I guess, like, like I guess rap. Basketball was so prolific. It was like being a rapper in Harlem. It was nice in basketball. Yeah. Especially in the summertime. Oh yeah, summertime. You was one of them niggas was in the paper in the winter, and niggas just watch you in the winter and looking at the paper like then the record came around, they be talking about you, and you go crazy, that'd be made. That made you a rapper in Harlem. Yeah, what it did.

SPEAKER_00 50:32

Basketball.

SPEAKER_03 50:33

You heard you was hot outside.

SPEAKER_00 50:34

You was that nigga.

SPEAKER_03 50:36

Yeah, so a lot of a lot of that niggas had the advantage of. And then that led to a lot of basketball players hustling, getting fame from that. And some of them start rapping and hustling and getting fame for that and shit like that. Yeah, hell yeah. Facts. But you're gonna holler. That whole think about that shit coming up, how close net Harlem was to like we we had it's like felt like we had the internet before there was an internet. Because it was like anything that went on in Harlem, you knew. It was like you had your own personal stage. This shit is a hundred percent. Like when I'm thinking about that shit from what Herbert McGruff had it when Big L was shaking and all that type of shit. Just to seeing how uh Blood and all of them was trying to get into the music, and then dude, we be at the studio with them. It'd be bloodshed, it'd be uh uh Cam, it'd be motherfucking uh Big L. Herb McGruff, it'd be like, yo, bro, this think about yo, this shit was crazy. Bro, you remember Black Door when when the locks broke the mic on us? When we had the black door performance on Lennox Avenue? You remember when we did the first like the first diplomat performance was at the black door? We was hype, we wouldn't have got fresh for that shit. The black door is the biggest disc area, right? It was like as big as this right here with a stage, bro. But it felt like the Linux had a thirty thing. It was a black door, the shit was grimy, right? It was using them locks. You remember that shit? And them niggas broke the mic on us, and we had we were trying to niggas jump in us, bro. I was so pissed off that day, bro. Like, nah, bro. I I know the black door though. I remember the black door. I definitely remember the black door. Nasty spots in Halloween Blue Gard. Nah, shit was dope, but it's like a journey from where like niggas came from.

SPEAKER_04 52:17

Like, and to say that like if you look at it like locks, I know they made millions. I know Dipset made millions, you know what I'm saying? I'm just saying, like, I'm just saying, like, collectively, you know what I'm saying? Like, God damn. You know what I mean? And just got so much classic type of shit, though. You know what I mean? Like, just imagine.

SPEAKER_05 52:34

You know what I mean? Like, where we started from. You know what I mean? Like, I I I remember when we started from niggas, you know. That's why I be I be confused.

SPEAKER_04 52:43

I be like, God damn, niggas ain't have shit. Niggas at home with their grandparents, mothers and fathers and shit. Like, I mean, to say where we at right now, that's what I'm saying.

SPEAKER_03 52:55

We done evolved that, you know what I mean? Like, I'll be trying to tell people be grateful for what you got. I lost mine early and I was there by myself. Remember that, bro. You heard? And it was just me, bro. I didn't I didn't my mom wasn't around. I didn't have nobody, nigga. You heard? I was just Joe, nigga. You heard? Losing my fucking mind outside. You dig? It was by God's grace that I was able to even figure some shit out and have the foresight to understood how talented of the people that I was next to. You heard? You dig? That takes a lot of foresight and a lot of vision. A lot of willing, nigga. You dig? That's why I don't want you to ever, ever, ever, ever feel like you were not in the group, nigga. Cause you was in the group way before me, nigga. You started with them, you you for them, you was always on front line. Thank you, always helping out. You always had the cars, thank you. You always taking niggas around, driving niggas the way they need to go. You ain't no driver, nigga. You was doing your part of the plan. Nah, I thank you. I always want you to remember that. Nah, I appreciate that. There's nobody bigger than Duke the God on the scale of what we built. You one of the families, bro. You might have not been in the pictures. You not in a because you don't rap. Yeah. But you should be in the pictures. Nah, I appreciate that.

SPEAKER_00 54:09

Nah, that's powerful.

SPEAKER_03 54:09

I'm telling you, you didn't do nothing that we didn't do. Only thing you did, you didn't rap. You did the most important jobs. The jobs that we were too proudful to do. You heard? The jobs that we thought we were better than, we felt that we could push on you. But guess what? Those are the fucking biggest jobs that helped us out. Nah, I appreciate that. I appreciate that. Like I tell people, I don't I can't get away from the fact that I did my damage too vicariously by being a boss in a situation. Right. You heard? Because there's plenty of situations where I should have spoken up if I felt some way about how people were being treated. You dig? So a lot of the times I hold myself accountable for a lot of the shit that goes on. You dig? So I don't want anybody to ever think that I'm trying to get away. I'm I'm not better than nobody. Let's let's let's get to that.

SPEAKER_00 54:59

I mean a lot of you saying that, Capo. I'm not. Not for it.

SPEAKER_03 55:02

So why did I tell us to do the guard anytime? So if y'all ever felt any way, I would like to hear it. Nah, we don't take a personal. I'm not a fucking angel. And I know I partook in this mission like everybody else. But I was at the head of the threshold. You heard?

SPEAKER_00 55:16

Your fight? I was here.

SPEAKER_03 55:18

This was, you heard? It was one and two. I was two to the one. You heard? Like.

SPEAKER_01 55:23

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 55:24

It wasn't nothing that went on that I wasn't aware of. You heard? Whether I agreed with it or not, I was aware of it. And I don't think a lot of times I handled it the way I should have. No, you did you, you did good. You heard it. Like, I'm being honest, God. You were the first one that like like I I I can't even remember a time when it was like, yo, Jim, I need you for this verse. I need you in this song, you didn't get on the song. Or I need you this video, you didn't do you. Yeah, that's cool. That's me paying my debt to me knowing that this shit is fucked up. So even now, that's still in my character if anybody knows me and shit. I'm just a giver. That's me naturally. You heard? But when you in a business and shit like that, and you got a plan and you a boss, it's like certain shit I couldn't, you heard? So the way I try to make balances of it is try to be there as much as I can for y'all niggas. Nah, you was though. You was, Couple. You was. You was. No regrets. No regress. So it's like I'll be fucked up sometime about it too. But I didn't get the it's not like I got the the best side of anything anyway, you heard? But my struggle from your struggle were two different things, and I was in this in a in a position of leadership, you know, and I know how to lead very well. Right. And I know what didn't feel right. And I should have done. You heard so at any point, even if it's not today, you want to call, pull up, pull up on me. Because if it's something that ever was on your mind, nigga, we can start. You heard that's dope. That's dope that you conscious. You consciously.

SPEAKER_01 57:02

You play and and killer. You get what I'm saying? Because honestly, like, even though maybe the deals ain't go how I wanted to at first, um I was never literally signed to Cam or Dipset in general. So I was still able to go move on, go get a quarter mil for a mixtape, go do certain things. Because of that, though, because of the push you and killer gave me. You get what I'm saying? So you know, I'm never ungrateful, especially now. You get what I'm saying, since I got my master's back.

SPEAKER_00 57:38

So And I don't want you to ever question your own leadership, Cabo, because you you you you laugh, bro. Looking at high side, you might not feel that you play certain parts, but you did. You always was there, you always encouraged us, you always, like I said, extended the dollar branch, you know what I'm saying? Kim. You know, he he he he set this shit off for all of us, you know, we all grateful. But, you know, when when shit fell short and and you know things got rocky, you always was there though. I don't know if it was a studio session, it was a deal, it was a a look, or you was on the radio.

SPEAKER_01 58:20

You always made sure we was even with the verses, you tried to get us a I I was talking to you.

SPEAKER_00 58:27

And a misconception, not a misconception, but you know, Crapo, you know, everybody look at the dipping matches you, Cam and Juels. Regardless of the fact you always respected me and Jewel's talent and put us at the forefront and knew we was talking that shit.

SPEAKER_03 58:48

I put your niggas on all my albums. Every album I was on.

SPEAKER_00 58:52

No, every album I was on. I'm on Honey Dead. Every album I was on, Popo. And that shit means a lot to us. Even though we didn't get the big looks that we wanted, you made sure you gave us those looks. And we always honored you for that.

SPEAKER_03 59:09

Nah, we still got some more looks to do. It's a funny game, bro. If you can persevere and get through, if you can make it through, because you gotta go through it to get to it. We gotta get through the fire. Everybody don't make it. Everybody don't make it. Able to get through that fire, nigga. It's more to it. We got we got more work to do, and it doesn't necessarily mean it's music, but we put in the place of this big ass world of entertainment where there's so many things that we could will in our favor, and there's so many businesses and so many other things that we can make worthwhile for us to be beneficial of it, for our families to be beneficial off of. So and now y'all got your masses back. Also, I want you to be financially responsible. And I know that doesn't sound right coming for me because you know I've I've now you are big bro, Capo. Come on, you brick.

SPEAKER_01 59:57

You watch me spend the most I you don't blue, I remember the first call, and I told you, yeah, I ain't put no money down. And you looked at my man plot, you're like, yo, why you let him do that? Like, nah, you should have never you was trying to break break it down to me. Cause I was so young, I thought that was fire. I'm like, I had the money for it, but I didn't need to put no money down. I took it like that.

SPEAKER_03 1:00:18

You were. You were smarter than me. I was burnt out. I want to buy everything, nigga. I wish I would have known don't put no money down, have credit, all that back then. Cause I just had the hustles mentality. I got it. We buying all this shit. You heard? How many cars I had when you bought your first car? I was burnt out, bro. I didn't have to I didn't have no more spaces on my block for cars and shit like that. I started making my cars everywhere. I got bunk. Bunk bunk bunk.

SPEAKER_00 1:00:43

You went stupid.

SPEAKER_03 1:00:44

You heard? Right. But we still here. Yes, sir. And when I'm telling you about be financially financially responsible because this shit don't happen that you're able to get your messages back after all this time. Correct. And it comes with money. Right. Yeah. You can't spend the money the same way you used to spend the money. And you gotta think about what's going on in the future. And y'all niggas got kids and family. Be smart. Yes, sir. Rap is a business, but don't chase it. You heard?

SPEAKER_00 1:01:11

Yes, sir.

SPEAKER_03 1:01:11

You gotta figure out how to invest in some shit that's gonna get you some money constantly where you can go to sleep and make some money constantly, and it'll be way easier to rap after that.

SPEAKER_00 1:01:24

I heard that.

SPEAKER_03 1:01:25

You heard? Heard that. It'll be way easier once you know that money is straight, your bills are being paid, and you ain't got to worry about certain shit. But if you chase this rap and use your twos and fuse, trying to do what these niggas is lying about, look good, all that shit comes with the cost, it's gonna go fast.

SPEAKER_00 1:01:42

Oh no, we've been down that road, right?

SPEAKER_03 1:01:44

So I'm just telling y'all as a person who's been through it, and I know we've all been through about it. Yes, sir. I've been through it. I've been very, very, very, very, very, very rich, and then very, very, very, very, very low.

SPEAKER_02 1:02:01

Not low, because I'm gonna be able to do that.

SPEAKER_00 1:02:02

And then very, very, very, very back up again. Don't do that again. I mean, but that was a few times. Uh for you.

SPEAKER_03 1:02:09

You know, super almost lost it all.

SPEAKER_00 1:02:14

Super, super back up.

SPEAKER_03 1:02:15

And learn and from learning from everything. So you're rich copper.

SPEAKER_00 1:02:18

Don't do that, Couple.

SPEAKER_03 1:02:19

I'm not. I'm rich and spiritual. Spirit. I don't know. You good. I'm a good businessman. I know how to make a dollar. Yes, sir. You heard? But I'm broke, baby. I'm not with that. But no, man. I just I'm I'm glad we got to have this talk. You know what I mean? Because I know when people see a little bit of it or with shit that put us on the gram or they the first thing they're gonna go for is that it's a teardown session.

SPEAKER_00 1:02:46

Nah, we don't know.

SPEAKER_03 1:02:47

Nah, nah.

SPEAKER_00 1:02:48

And what did I tell y'all the other day when y'all was here? When you first sat us down, you sat Roger, Jail Rider, Duty Guard. This is not a tear down session. This is uh Nothing about slander.

SPEAKER_03 1:02:58

Right. No slander, yeah. It's about your story. It's about your story, the journey, the journey, the ups, the downs, absolutely how you was able to overcome. And in the midst of that, we could talk about our truths, but it's you heard because it's about me. If we're gonna talk about anybody, y'all can talk about me. Right. When you have a face-to-face with anybody else, you could talk to them about them. Right. You heard? I can't talk for another man. But it's no quarrel, I'm just saying, I'm just telling you how I feel. Like these conversations, like we got our thing, and I only could talk about me and my side.

SPEAKER_08 1:03:33

Right.

SPEAKER_03 1:03:34

Right. You heard? You have a chance to talk about the other side. But I'm glad I got to have this conversation with y'all. Got to have this face to face with y'all. Because I haven't got to sit down with y'all. Nice. You heard like since you've been back home, I haven't really got to sit down with y'all. I haven't got to sit down with you in in in a few years like that. So and Duke the God, I haven't got to sit down with him in a few years. So this is like this is not pre-meditate. This is something that's happening in real time. And this is our this is a very close conversation, personal conversation that we have for people to see. But I thank y'all. I thank y'all for pulling up. Thank you. Thank y'all for what you're displaying. And I'm not sure.

SPEAKER_01 1:04:15

Both two two two fire shows. You get what I'm saying?

SPEAKER_05 1:04:18

And I'm thankful for everything, like, everything that you've done. Like, like it's mad shit. Like, I could go back to like like I said, the videos you to come to, like you to always first the the first lines of the video shoots and even signing for my car to Acura Integral. You know what I'm saying?

SPEAKER_03 1:04:38

Like, it was just mad things, and I just wish that. I wish that I like I'm saying because it's certain things like like the Wu Tang clan that's just so like I'm I'm sure they went through like you know what I mean, with the Reds are mad at Ghostface, Goldface, whatever they want, whoever was mad at each other.

SPEAKER_05 1:04:58

But I just wish that I wish that like in a perfect world, quotations. I wish that we didn't have no bickering, you know what I mean?

SPEAKER_03 1:05:06

Because we could have been bigger than like life, like you know what I'm saying? That's just me. I just gotta say that. Bigger than life. But I understand what you're saying. I just that's just me. But let me tell you something real. Like let me tell you something. You know, I seen a lot of a lot of problems get solved. With a lot of money. That's a fact. With a lot of money, I ain't got nothing to talk about. It's the money. I seen money, I seen money make me happy a lot of time when nobody died. That's a factory, man. But that's just that, me talking out loud. I thought that was funny as sh like that. Um, this has been another episode of Artist the Artists. Yeah. Thank you, JR. Thank you, Howrell.

SPEAKER_00 1:05:57

Thank you both for me.

SPEAKER_03 1:05:58

Thank you for having us. Stay tuned. We got more coming, bro.

SPEAKER_01 1:06:03

Double trouble.

SPEAKER_07 1:06:07

Dope. Fire appreciate you.