Maino hosted by Jim Jones (ep. 18 )

Tap in with a powerful episode of Artist to Artist hosted by Jim Jones, featuring Maino in one of his most honest and reflective conversations yet. In this interview, Maino opens up about his upbringing, how he was raised, and the lessons that shaped him into the man and father he is today. He speaks candidly about the impact his mother had on his life, both in struggle and strength, and how that influence carries into his own parenting. Jim Jones and Maino also take a deep dive into their real-life friendship, giving viewers an authentic look at their bond beyond the music. From personal growth to industry experiences, Maino also breaks down the meaning behind “Maino Day” and what it represents in his journey. This episode is raw, insightful, and full of gems for anyone navigating life, relationships, and legacy.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:25

We are back, ladies and gentlemen. Welcome back to Artists and Artists, where we say it's a conversation that needs to be had. I have a very, very dear friend of mine as my guest today. Today's a very special segment. It's called an intervention segment. Keep your kids out of jail segment. Um, got my man Maino in the building today. I like that. Keep the kids out of jail. I like that. Intervention. This is crazy. Where are we going with this? I feel like Cody was behind some of this. No, no, I'm not sure. I'm just playing. I'm just playing. I'm just playing. I'm just playing. Kids, I'm not sure. I kind of like it though. I'm just playing. Shout out to Playmaker. You know, we get some money together with Playmaker. Big shout out to Playmaker. Brought to you by Playmaker. But now what's up? My brother, how you feeling? I'm feeling, brother. I'm good. I'm good. I can't complain. I'm working. Like we usually do. I know people uh they always get to see us together with the gang and uh right, right, right, right. They always see us cracking jokes. So this is basically like cheating, though. It's like a cheat code? It's like a cheat code. Like you get to like interview your friends. Yeah, in a bit. That's what it's about. It's a conversation that needs that needs to be had. Right, right, right. It's not really about getting everybody, it's more like getting the people that I respect and admire, people that I want to interview. You know what I mean? Even with that, I gotta stop being selfish with that, because there's a there's a lot of artists that need to be interviewed and I need to know more about them. Do you like interviewing? Um I like interviewing people I like interviewing. That's the thing, right? So, so I don't know if I really like interviewing people, right? But I've been in situations where I've interviewed people that I've that I've never met. Have you interviewed somebody you never met? Yeah, that's the that that's the tricky part. You're trying to get into that comfort zone. That's what I gotta get ready to get into that comfort zone. You know what I mean? Like dealing with people that you never met, don't know nothing about, but they all deserve an equal chance at telling us their story and who they are, especially if they actually in the game and they making some type of noise and got some motion and that. Do you feel like it's harder to do that because you don't have a no chemistry with them? That's what I feel like, but it might not be so, and I can't I have to take my personal out of me and away from it. You know what I mean? It's it's not personal. It's not personal. It's like kind of like uh acting. Right, right, right. You know what I mean? You ain't got no you you can't act like uh from the hood all the time. They're not gonna give you that luxury and sh like that. You might have to be an actor, it might have to be a fire, I mean, I have to fire man, might have been a police, might have to whatever that takes. So it's like there's a little bit of that with this. You can't really just be all comfortable with interviewing people you know and know things about and shit like that. Right, if you're gonna do it because I mean, because other than that, you just gonna interview only the people you know and got relationships with. 100%, and it's way more people to plus I want to learn about the new generation, I want to learn about new artists, artists that I'm really not up on, but really do have motion, like you know what I mean? So I I gotta kind of get out of that. I mean, but it's also new for me, also, you know what I mean? Like me jumping into this whole uh Right. This is a different, this is different Jim Jimothy Jones. This is real journalism and shit like that. Not like me getting in front of the camera and just doing what I need to do and getting out of there and shit like that. You know what I mean? Like something you really gotta dive into. So when you deal with people that you don't know, you still have to be intrigued, even if they don't have a story that's that compelling. But what you don't know. This is what I'm saying. You don't know until you actually get into the conversation. And that's what I'm telling myself. They might be the dopest people out there. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But you won't know until you know I mean, you know what? In in the conversation, you find out something that you you like, what? Wow, okay. 100%. But how you feel? Because I know um Washington, you see, what people might not realize is that you are uh for artists, you're probably one of the first few artists, aside from the big names that people know, the Joe Buttons, that space and Noah Reese and all that, but one of the first few artists that actually had your own podcast. And I also did I also did an interview up there.

SPEAKER_01 4:30

Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_00 4:30

Yep. How was it for you doing that podcast, and how do you feel now seeing everybody adapting to the new wave of entertainment? So when I yeah, when I did my podcast, it was 2020. We were still in the house. We were still pandemic, and I was figuring out something to do, right? Because we was there anyway, so I was like, we just gonna shoot it in the kitchen because everybody was telling me I should do a podcast, because I was going in my car, you know, dropping jewels or whatever. I was talking. So I was like, yo, just do it. Right? Before that, though, they had um, I had had a a podcast with Uncle Murder. It was called Brooklyn Boys, I think, and we was doing a deal with Revolt. Shouts to him, psych. Um, but but we shouldn't be. We need no Uncle Murder Slip. My bad, my bad. I'm fucking around. Let me do her for that. Right now. I'm giving you a story. See, this is this is not let's rap about it, nigga. We this is a this is serious talking time right here. We're serious. We're serious. Okay, we had a we had a we had a we had a uh a podcast. We shot two episodes, but it was something about what was going on in in Revolt that it didn't happen. So I was so and that was back in like 2017. Yeah, really. So I've been was trying to get in the space. Revolt had collapsed and then right, and then it built back up. Yeah. So so I started doing it in my in my crib, and I ain't gonna lie, I didn't I loved doing it when we was in the house, like when we was home, but once we got off of quarantine, I didn't I didn't love it. Yeah, I didn't love it. I didn't love it the same. It didn't feel the same because you felt like you was missing something because now everybody outside and you felt like you. You know what it was? We were shooting on Sundays, and then my house was like the party cribs. It was like I got I got food there. You know, you coming there, got food in the house. It was a vibe. It was a vibe, you know what I mean? It was like how we do now, right? But it was smaller, right? It was more contained. Nobody was outside anyway. So it it it felt good to do it because it was like, damn, we ain't going nowhere anyway. So let's go back to the beginning. Let's give some people a little history about me. Maybe I get to learn something about you, also. So where are you from, my brother? Where I'm from? Mm-hmm. Nigga, you know where I'm from. You know where I'm from. I do, but this is. I'm from Brooklyn, man. What part? Best star, the greatest side. Greatest side. I'm not gonna stop. Don't say it. Leave it alone. Keep it there. I'm not gonna stop. Best star, Brooklyn. What school you went to? I went to a couple schools. Um but when I started getting in trouble, you know, you know, you up in family court, you know, the the judge will put you in schools. I went to an ADT school before. What's that? Some court-appointed school. What is it? Is it a name for ADT? I I I never knew what it stood for. Maybe uh something to tension. Tension, something. And it was only like nine other people in the whole school. Literally. Attention deficiency, yeah. Yeah, it was like nine other people. So what it was was like if you was like a troubled youth, you know, in and out of Spa Fit or, you know, and wasn't going to school and you needed to be in school, and you had family court cases. Was it ADD? Like what kids had? I don't know what it was. A T D. ATD? A T D school. ATD school. I don't know what it was. It was like in a church. It's like special. Wow. Yeah, it was special. It was wow. Like nine other people in the whole school. There you go. Achieving, achieving a dream. When you saw coming outside, oh, very early. Too early. What did you say? It was teenage years, 13, 14. No. Um before that? Yeah, yeah, yeah. So, so um when I was 12, I feel like is when I started to really get excited about the street. Before that, was it something you wanted to be? A stunt man. I'm asking you. A stunt man. What was it? What was that show we used to watch back in the Fall Guy? It's my man right here. Buck Rogers. What was the name? You know what I mean? But that was the actor from Buck Rogers. 100%. And he was the actor from Buckingham Bionic Man. Bionic Man. He was getting busy back then. Yeah. 100%.

unknown 9:10

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 9:11

Yes. Stump man. I like that job. I want to be, I went to. Funny thing is, you want to hear what I wanted to be when I was coming up? I want to be a journalist. It's crazy. Really? 100%. When I was younger, I always said I was. So you felt you want to be a journalist and a teacher. You felt like you saw yourself. I used to just love watching the news, and I always say I want to be a news reporter. And then somebody told me, oh, that's a journalist. And I was always stuck with me and shit like that. What got you off that path though? Um, nothing. I ended up being a hell of a journalist. I ended up being a rapper. Right? Boy, got bars. That was good. Full circle moment. That was that was good. But as we dive deeper into it, man, what I've been doing, creating my own news channel and my shit. I was like really coming to it. Yeah, you kind of really wound up doing it. You know what I mean? But I think you wound up doing it too, all the stunts you we pulling. I think we had, I think, I think so. You don't even catch that run. Huh? I said, I think you did pretty good too with all the stunts you be pulling. I don't like this stuff. Yo, listen. You told me what your career was. I could not let that moment go. That was like, this is too easy. Is he really doing this? You just tried to mommy up. You like yourself up. I didn't try to mammy up. I didn't want to be a stuntman when I was younger. You wanted to be the stunt man. You see, you know what your problem is your problem? Let me hear it. I try to confide in you. As a brother, I shared something with you. And then you just reversed it on me. No, no. You ridiculed me. I did it. You did just now. You dove into your purpose. I can't share with you. No, but I can't share with you. I told you I wanted to be a journalist, and I said it came back to me. I'm I ended up being a journalist. I end up still being a stuntman. Action movies. Yeah. Lot of action. Oh. So uh what uh in in in Brooklyn, they got another nickname they know you by when you coming up? Yeah, a few. People that real close to me call me L Bill. L Bill? Yeah. That's crazy. I never know that one. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Ellie Billy, yeah, yeah. Lily Billy? Yeah. People that's very, very close to me. That's any rock people? And they rock, yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. I'm just trying to give a few little backstory. They always see you moving and moving. Every now and then, like, like, like you'll see Cena or somebody call me China Man. Chinaman? Yeah. My family on my mother's side called me China. Chinaman. You had to grow up with your moms and your pops? Early on. I had my mother and my father. Um, but my father was probably in that first wave of when that crack hit. My parents too. Yeah. So when that first wave hit, early 80s, I think he was in that first wave. So um by the time I got about 13, 14, he had already passed. He had passed about about 14. Um, so yeah. Did you get get did you get to have a good relationship with him while he was here? I think I had a great relationship with him, but I think the relationship deteriorated, deteriorated. Yeah, don't get caught up in hell. Yeah, don't get caught up in hell. Don't get caught up. We will go viral. Yeah, we you will go viral, not me. I think the relationship spun in a negative way when once that pull from the crack started to happen. So you know, this is back when we was going to school and we see all the capsules and the crackheads and all that. So once he started to become that, there was a of course, it's a natural progression of things that he couldn't be the father that I knew him to be prior to that. I remember him when he was some of his great side, right? But then then I started to see him um fall off and then look bad and and then you know go through periods of time when you know he got his weight back. And I'm like, yeah, my dad back, like, yeah, like, you know. So I watched all that. And you know, what they said it was, you know, back then was that when you was addicted to drugs and that matter, it was a disease. So, you know, he fought, but he was never able to come out of that. And um it's it's weird though, because when I see some of the older, older dudes that he used to be with that still get high right now, I'm just like, damn, crack really didn't kill. You know? It's it's it's it's interesting. So but I I think I had a a great relationship with him. I knew I think I knew where his heart was at. I think that he just couldn't get past what yeah. Yeah, like most like a lot of our parents or elders from the 80s uh still stuck in that wave, which is sad. So you'd be saying that from wanting to become a stunt man to running in the streets, where how did that, where did that, where did where was that switch at? I think, well, see, like, you know, you sitting in a house and you dream and you're watching TV shows, you want to do, you want to be whatever. Like you watching Voltron and you know, you're watching all your cartoons or whatever, but you gotta remember, we come from an era where everything we did was in the street. We walked right outside, we was right there in the middle of everything. So I I come from a block that was highly active, very, very, very crowded. And I wanna say around the time I got to be around 12 is when I think I really got excited about being outside. And at this point, my my father's already full speed into his hell. So my mother, and you know, trying to cope with having two kids. Uh yeah, so now I'm hanging out. I'm hanging out, you know, I'm running around with BO and them, and they got hammers, and they put me on the back of the bike with the with the with the with the book bag and the hammers in it, right? And you know, they getting in the shootouts and I'm right there. I'm passing the hammer off, and you know, and I was excited about that. I thought that that was the man, I thought that that was the everything, you know, because I attributed respect with with being violent. You know, like the niggas that I looked up to had that was like name brand, all had respect because they were they were known to to take it to that place, you know? I mean I I I feel like you feel, but I know as a youngster, it's easy to be influenced by such things when we don't see too much else. So from 12 your first better getting in trouble to now you have a career in crime. What when did you start? When did you start feeling like I gotta get ready to change something? Change what? Uh your life. For the better?

SPEAKER_01 16:39

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 16:40

Oh, that didn't happen to I was actually in prison, but I don't know if I actually felt like I needed to change my life or I felt like I just needed to do something different because I always felt like see the thing is the hardest thing to do is to do something different. Right? I felt like at this time I only knew how to be a person in the street. I only know how to this was my whole world. Everybody I know is in and out of jail. We selling draws, we shooting, we doing, we doing whatever, right? Now, being in prison, I don't know if I told myself I was actually gonna change. Um I felt like I was there, but I was always thinking about, you know, when I'm gonna go home, I'm gonna get money, I'm gonna do, you know what I mean? I wasn't I don't think I was there yet. The music is what came to me. Me starting to rap is what came to me. Me being in Southport 23 hours a day, SHU for years straight, that came to me and gave me hope. It wasn't for me, it wasn't so much about me changing, it was about me finding something that I could believe in. Finding something that was that was different than than the shit that I'm involved in. You know what I mean? Because what we really doing? We gonna come out, we're gonna sell drugs, we're gonna kill niggas, we gonna like I'm like, oh, we could do this. We can do this. We can do this thing right here. This is look at what's happening. Like all these guys, they say they street, and it like we really that. Like we we can do this. And it gave me something to hope for. And after a while, I was just like, I believe. Nah, that's crazy. I asked you that, because you know, in most people's situations, they usually have a point in their life where they got locked up for a crazy crime, or they did something that was wild, or there's something that happened and be like, yo, nah, this is what happened that made me like now I got everything. But for you, it was just like that wasn't the case. It was the the music that made you change it. Like maybe this. The music, it gave me something to focus to work towards because you know, I'm in there, I'm not really trying to learn a trade. They they give you, they give you opportunity, you know, to weld and carpentry and you know, all these things that you could pick up and come home and use. I was in there going to class, sleeping. I wasn't, you know what I'm saying? I'm gonna be honest. You gotta remember, I went to jail when I was 17. So my whole upbringing in prison, I still was young and I still was a knucklehead. I'm in there selling drugs, I'm in there robbing, I'm in there getting into a lot of uh uh contention, a lot of issues. So, you know, wasn't I'm like, I'm not going home to be no fucking carpenter, right? So I didn't even want to be selling that fake shit to myself because I knew I was gonna go home and do wrong. Honestly, I'm being a thousand percent. But the music made me feel like man, the ends could justify the means, and when I went home, yeah, I'm I still had was doing shit, I still was involved in things, but the music was like, yo, we going to the studio. Where you going? I'm going to studio. Yo, I gotta go meet K Slay. I gotta like it gave me something to work towards, bro. So you felt like the music has saved your life? Absolutely. Absolutely. The thought of not having that as a dream or having something to work towards, sometimes you need, sometimes change don't come that way. It didn't come that way to me where I just woke up and said, I just want to change. It was a gradual thing. It was me having to open up my eyes through action. It was I got something to work towards now that's different than I ever done, and it's fun to do. So after a while, my body is following my mind. So when you start getting money, that makes you start diving to the things you like more. So how long before how long after you started getting money did you realize you gotta get ready to let some things go? When I started to see that some of my actions was preventing the opportunity for other money or bigger money, right? So it's like, bro, you're not gonna outreel this shit. This is business, okay? You're not gonna come out here with all this because of whatever your track record is and think that that's that's what the game is about. This is a business. And the business is to sell music. And you gotta sell an image to sell the music. So I'm like, I got the image, I got the look, I got the history, but I didn't understand that there's a there's a way to do everything, bro. You know? And when I realized that when I'm at the label and they telling me what everybody's invited except for you, you can't go. Well, I can't go. They don't want you there. When I seen that it was preventing or stopping certain opportunities, because opportunities breeze money. When that was happening, I said, nah, man, I gotta I gotta figure this out. And then you got to also understand. I had never been nowhere in my life other than the streets in prison. I've been nowhere else. I was in the streets as a kid. I went to prison. And when I came out of prison, I was back in the street. Music gave me an opportunity to start traveling and not to be selling drugs. Traveling to perform and traveling because people wanted to see you. And now I'm going from state to state. Now I'm going out the country. Now I'm in Japan. Now I'm in Africa. I'm saying, hold up, man. Don't nothing feel greater than living, man. So when I had an opportunity to live, I wanted to live, nigga. What year you signed? My first deal, I signed 2006. 20 years ago. Yeah, bro. Alright, check this out. You've been here for 20 years. How many artists you seen come and go? Oh my God. Like a number that is unimaginable. So I'm sitting here just watching you figure out how to reinvent yourself and persevere through all these years. Some of the biggest artists we've ever seen that we don't see no more, some we're just here for a short ride. But somehow, some of us who people counted out and prayed that they wouldn't still be here, that shouldn't still be here, are still here like yourself. What do you attest that to? I'm gonna be 100% honest with you, my nigga. I'm not a heavy religious person. Alright? When I was in prison, I felt special. I felt protected from from it's hard to describe what I'm saying, right? Because it's just a feeling. There were things that was happening there that I was seeing that I didn't want to be a part of. I had three rules for myself when I was there that I don't know why. Nobody gave this to me, nobody told this to me. The three rules was if I do any of these three things while I'm here, then I'm actually leaving my spirit in prison and I'm gonna be back here for the rest of my life. I don't know why. I made that I made that up. The three things was one, I will not come into prison and pick up a drug habit. I didn't come in here with one. I wouldn't two, I would not engage in any homosexuality. I'm not that. That's not my thing. I'm not coming in here to do that. Three, I would not become a jailhouse snitch. That's not who I am. I will not come to jail and become something that I'm not. And those three things, I felt like I would be giving my spirit to the prison walls, to the prison yards. And I stayed away from that type of shit. And and when I walked out, I felt like it was something else for me, bro. I didn't know how I would connect every dot, but I just felt like it was something special about me. Before I even wrote my my first rap, there's a this is shout out to J-Rock, he's a legend from Fort Green, you know, killer van and rest in peace. Listen, it was in Southport Box in the morning, and J-Rock he rapped, and I would just like to listen to him rap. And one morning he said to me, he said, yo, you should rap. I said, I don't rap. And he said, You look like a rapper. When I think about that to this day, it give me chills. It gives me chills because he seen something to me while we in the cages. I'm talking about anybody that's been in the prisons, know we in the cages. We in the prison is the bottom of the, the bottom of society. So to be in SHU in a box is the bottomless pit. You can't go nowhere lower in life. We at the bottom of the totem pole of life. I'm in my cage, he in his cage, and he's telling me I look like a rapper. Yeah, man. Unbelievable, brother. So you use those same traits to persevere in this game? I think it's the same thing. It's the same thing. Some people understand how to navigate. I think I was a person, maybe from young, that understood the temperature of his environment. If you put me in an environment that's cool, I'm naturally cool. If you put me in an environment that, you know, that there's like, you know, we we got we thinkers, then I adapt to that. If this if the environment is aggressive, then I get with that too. So it's like music is like that, the music business, because things come and go, right? You know, there's styles, there's there's errors, there's sounds that come and go. But to be able to still exist and still be notable and still have people wanting to do business with you, come on, man. That's that's a blessing, brother. So now you're in the rap game, you get to meet all the niggas you thought was dope coming up. How does that feel? I always talk about that. Because, and I never, see, one thing is like I'm not a I'm not afraid or too hung up on myself to tell another nigga, yo, I fuck with you. I was I was a fan. When I met Kiss, when I met like everybody that I want to know, when I met Fat Joe, every like every like anybody that I sat in a day room and I would watch videos 106 in park, and I would be like, damn, I want to do that. I want to be right there. So, you know, we we was sitting up in there, listening to tapes, listening to DMX, listening to Hove. And then I met all of them, and they all was like, yo, I'm gonna fuck with you, or I, you know, good to meet you, or whatever. Like, that to me was was was a lot. I want to ask you something, and I don't want to get too personal, but I just want to ask you this because I know it's always been on my mind. With all that you've done in life, all the bad that you seem to be able to turn good and flip your life around and do things that you've never ever done before. And through all of this, I know your mom was a witness to every step of your life. And we just lost Mama Deuce not too long ago. Yep, four years. But does it feel good to be able to show her you turned your life around and made a complete change of yourself from what she known you to be. Yeah, one of the greatest things because I had the type of moms that I I didn't even understand her love for us. She she was like, What? My kids ain't bad. He was down the block shooting, like, you know what I'm saying? Like, and that's what I was trying to explain. So when we was talking about the had and the mad, and I was like, I couldn't, my mom's wasn't really the hate she was with with everything we was with, but looking back, I understood, kind of understood, but I don't want to interrupt you. I remember being suspended one time for whatever, and my mom's coming up to the school and losing it just because the teacher, the principal was like, oh, he's bad, or whatever. And um, it was me and Moldog. Yeah, shout out to Modog Free Modog. So it was um, so she would, she would, I she would allow me to be, and and some people don't agree with this style of parenting, but my mother had already had got to the point where she said, Listen, my son is already in the street, right? So don't hide nothing from me. Right? So, you know, one time she she walked in and I was, we was at the at the at the at at in the kitchen with the razors and the and the in the in the work, right? We and she walked this, don't hide it. Don't hide it. Because at the end of the day, if this is what you're doing, I need to, I need to be aware, right? So that I could I could protect you, right? So I didn't have to, it get even deeper. I didn't have to hide machinery from her, nothing. Like, it's it's five, six guns in the house. I don't gotta hide them from my mom's, none of that. Yep, driving like, so you know, my mom's then got locked up for for shit that I done done. Um so when I when I was in jail, she used to always say, I'm proud of you. And I'm like, the f proud of me? How? Like I'm sitting in a box for two years. Like, what? I'm in here fucking up. I'm not even doing good here. Like, what like I'm like, I'm not even doing good in here. Every time I'm just I can't, I'm having, you know what I'm saying? I'm getting into it all the time. Like, and she would write these letters to me and shit, and she was like, I'm just so proud of you. And I didn't understand what she was saying until many, many, many years later. She was basically telling me that she was proud that I was still pushing. Like I still had strength in me to still move forward, that I wasn't giving up on myself. And I understood that. And I understand that now when I got, when I'm as a father. So when I get home, my mother is my biggest fan, right? She's riding, driving her car, you know, CDs back then. Yeah, this is main. Yeah, listen to my main rapping, yeah. And I'm like, I hate it when you listen to my music because I'm talking crazy. Right? But she she just was so proud. And it the greatest thing for me was allowing her, getting her to see um me change my life, me, you know, getting a chance to move her, or uh, uh for her to see me have kids and have a relationship with my with my son and you know, and daughter. So those things was was like the a full circle moment because she knew what it was very early, bro. Like, you know, um, you know, violence and and and and shit of that nature. So to now, you know, my son is on TV. Son is son's a rapper. And you know what's so crazy. My mom's past while we was doing lobby boys, and I remember one time she's like, Yeah, I see him studio Jim Jones. What y'all doing? Say, we working on lobby boys, mom. We coming. Yeah, it gotta be an incredible fit. Yeah, just to know that she knows that baby boy didn't change up. He's not going back. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. And you got the family. See, yeah, I know you I know your position because I we kind of married. I never did no jail time, so we don't mirror each other like that. But our plan, my bad. No, man. We got the same story, brother. I respect you a lot. No, 100%. Likewise, we got the same story. You don't have to go to prison to have the same similar story. We grew up in the same era. The ghettos is really the same. We all connected, and I realize that because we all got the same struggle. We all come from, you know, families that was affected by things, whether they was on drugs or they they family members was on drugs, or they was caught in violence, and and then we grew up not knowing what we what we wanted. We didn't have no direction, and we tried to figure things out, and luckily we was able to withstand because our friends was dropping in front of us, and when I was 15, my friend died right in front of me, and I watched him die, take his last breath, and and change me mentally. Yeah, you understand? So you didn't have to go all the way in there to have some of the same ethics and the same principles, bro. So, what what with the parenting that you came up on? Do you think even myself, you think that turned us into gentle parents? Because we like suckers when it comes to gentlemen. Um, yo, listen to me tell you something. 100%. I'm on the softness. We soft as hell. Yo, do you understand? What soft as hell, bro? Yo, listen to me. I need you to understand. I'm being honest. I'm telling you, I'm in here with honesty. I'm telling you, I'm not in here playing games. I be soft as hell, like yo, bro. Listen to me. You know what my father, you know what my father used to do, bro? My father, if I had a problem with a kid in the neighborhood, my father would go get the kid, sort him out, and say, You wanna fight my son? Come on. Let's go. Yeah, my mom used to do that shit. Get me, come, bring me down, and make me fight. Yo, I couldn't, I couldn't even do that. No, I couldn't. All this tough shit I've been selling, I couldn't, I couldn't even do it. I didn't, I I didn't, I would like not I didn't do it. Yo, listen, I didn't think I didn't raise no punk, but it's not like I didn't put him through the fucking shit that I was put through. Brother, I didn't fought in front of my mother, father, grandmother, aunt, like the hit him, hit him back. That's right. Yo, let me tell you something. I was telling somebody yesterday, so we come from the same exact era, so I think raising young black kids in their 80s, early 80s, and all that, it was it was rough for our parents because they was young, right? So here's the thing, right? My mother would be, you bet not come in here crying about some shit. Or if somebody did or hit you, somebody hit you, you you hit them back, and they they too big, you pick something up. Next, you pick something. So you pick anything. I had stress going in the house because one time I was in the bathroom in the second grade, and I don't know, I was, you know, me and somebody was playing around, and he might have got me in a in a chokehole, and I cried. Made me cry. Okay? I cried. And my man Gabby G. Nothing in second grade. You're not you right now. Yeah, I cried. I cried. And my man Gabby G, he gonna tell me he don't remember this. He gonna tell me he it wasn't him. It was you. Out of nowhere, nobody asked him to come to my house, knock on my door, and say, Miss Lynette, um uh boy, the boy made uh man cry in the in the school earlier today. What? And she said she was so cool about it. 100%. She he said, really? She said, really? Okay, thank you, Gary. Hmm, okay, close the door. Come here. And I gotta ask women for crying, for not fighting back. You see? So do I think different type of error? Yeah, it's a different type of, you see? So it's like, but I think the cause and the purpose was different because you you you couldn't raise weak black men like that in this era. You can't it was very rough, so you couldn't raise them to be soft and to be punks. You had to raise them because they coming from a rough era. Can't have you out here. My mother used to say, you, you pussy footing. I remember when I was real small, she said something. You know, I'm a Virgo, so it's like you say something, I'm like, she says something to me, and I'm sitting in the corner, tearing up, and she said, What's wrong with you? And in my mind, I'm like, I'm gonna say this, and it's gonna make her love me. It's gonna make her like show me, like give me affection. I said, You hurt my feelings. She said, What? She wild you up. Get the fuck up while I gave you something to really cry about. No, that line was crazy. You be crying after you just gotta answer, but they talk about you want me to give you something to really cry about? You just you just gave me something to cry about, obviously. You know, they don't say that no more. The mothers of today don't use those those words no more because first of all, if you go like this to your kid, they couldn't call them boys on you. Like calling people, oh my god, you can't hit the baby like so. It's life different. Yeah, it's way different. It's no hand-to-hand combat in the house right now. You gotta be very particular how you even talk to your kids. Yeah, yeah. Crazy. And definitely not in public. Crazy. How about my mom's you definitely was getting your ass kicked when I was younger? Oh man, now. Let's get in the rappers. Yeah. You got you got like you got like a favorite rapper of all time? No. No favorite rapper at all. I think I think Tupac was probably the most influential rapper to me, for me. Big was Big made me feel because he was from my neighborhood and I couldn't like visualize it, and he was around the homies and everything. I was like, he made me feel like I can do it, but Pac touched me because I felt like Pac. Pause. Pause. Pause what? Pause how. Pac touched you. How did he touch you? Where did he touch you at? Like, I'm curious to know which. You see, this is what I'm saying. This is this is not less rap about it, nigga. I need you to focus. It's life, though. Give me some grace. He can't be running around here talking about Pac touching. He touched my soul. I'ma just let it go with some of the things that he was saying. Okay. I felt like he explained the black male experience in that era better than anybody. He did. He definitely did. You know, he he was touching on having enemies and being out of prison and homies dying and you know, going through these things and trying to. And it meant so much. It meant so much at the time. Yeah, it was like having a hopeless feeling. Yes. A feeling of hopeless, not knowing where you're going, you know, and being trapped in a world of trouble, you know, like all these things. I got cases, and I'm going to court and all these things. And, you know, so I think that he he influenced me more. Well, you put yourself to the side. Top three rappers in Brooklyn. In Brooklyn? That's dead too? No, I mean, this is dead or lie. This is this your top. Top Cove, Biggie, Fab, the top three. Hoe, Biggie, Fab, I like that. Yeah, yeah, in Brooklyn. I like that. Yeah, all right. I like that. 100%. I'll fuck with that. You've been in, you've been in, you've you've been in in in uh been in the press lately. Yeah. I don't want to. Because of you, nigga. Because of you. It is what it is. Yeah, I just wanted to give the floor to that because I I didn't want to just leave that, let that, let that go. But we already understand that. See, it's not because of me though. It is because of you. No, it's not. But it's okay, but I'm telling I'm telling you it's all right. No, it's not because of me. Why why why not? Why would you say it's because of me? I already gave you this conversation already because in inadvertently, because of your, you know, you being Jimothy, you know, and you, you know, a lot of things was coming your way, you know, but that's what happens, though. Because when you don't pick a side, somebody else is gonna pick it for you. I'm cool with it. Yeah, it's all weak. But what I do love about it is how you were able to turn it over and use it as a press run which works better in your favor than anybody else's favor. Absolutely. Have to learn to play the game. That's that that's another that's another element of reinvention and controlling your narrative and then navigating through the through this new time. Because this is a different era right now, right? The culture of the internet now is different than it was six, seven years ago. You didn't have what you got going on now on YouTube back then. So, you know, the culture of everybody having pages and they weren't monetized, so then there's a there's a there's this like, yo, I'm gonna say the most deplorable things about these people because I want people to watch it. And I ain't gonna care because it's content. So now I'm understanding that okay, this is this is just the law of the land. This is where it's at in the culture. So let me figure out a way to kind of manipulate that to benefit me now. Well, what about being responsible in those in in that in that fact? Like this do you feel that uh some of these people should be responsible? I oh I always felt like that. But this is what I had to learn though. But nobody cares. Nobody cares. Nobody cares about responsibility. I'm screaming, yo, you niggas is not checking the facts. I'm screaming, yo, you niggas is is is is is promoted. Promoting lies and falsehoods. Where's what? But nobody cares because now we at a we at a place now where it's just about sensationalism. It's just about the story at that time. It's just about the algorithm. And everybody wants to be in it. So no, it's no, it's no. Although I would like to see what you said, I would love that. Right? For niggas to stand on principle, but nah, they not. You ever felt you hit rock bottom in this game before? Many times. Many times. Uh mentally, spiritually, financially. I've been there, bro. I've been through every bump of this game. When you hit rock bottom, do you feel like there's some people that should have came to your aid? No, I don't necessarily feel like that. I don't necessarily feel like anybody needed to assist me. I felt like I needed to always figure out a way to maneuver out of whatever space or whatever was making me uncomfortable, whatever the problem was. Because at the end of the day, it starts and ends with us, bro. Like we the driver of our own machines, bro. But I mean that in the sense of we are very we we help so many people, right? We help people damn near when we don't got it. And sometimes it gets to a point where we are rock bottom. And I mean, like, you look at all the people you have helped, you don't feel like, damn, but all these people that I have helped, they see that I'm down a little bit. You niggas don't even give a call. I get I I get that. Well, I so here's the thing. I never expected too much from anybody that I met in the game, right? But I'm fortunate enough to have a close set circle of friends that we we really brothers, we really tight, we've been friends all our lives. And there were times when, yeah, nigga, I needed help. I needed that half a man, or I needed that, but like, you know what I'm saying? Like that, and and to have people in position around you that, yo, here go, here go 50. You know what I'm saying? Here go 30 with the times that I may have needed that, or to do whatever they they had in their power to help me. So yeah, I I'm I'm fortunate to have that nucleus of people like that. You know what I mean? No, I just want to know that because I know there's been a lot of people who have hit rock bottom and choose to opt out. You know what I mean? Like done with it. Like I can't even cope with the game no more. You know what I mean? Like, so it's like it's just go back to being able to persevere and reinvent yourself and things like that. Cause there are a lot of I've been through that, I've been through those moments a lot in my in my career, like a seesaw, and I've been to very, very high heights, and um should I been right back to the bottom? And when I was coming up, they used to tell me, be careful when you're going up, especially who you piss off. Because when you come back down, those are the ones that are gonna piss on you. And um Wow You you dig? That's that's how the trickle falls. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Literally. You heard my hat then got wet a couple.

SPEAKER_01 47:30

What's that on your hat?

SPEAKER_00 47:31

It's P. Yo, but the game, the game is designed like that, and it'll have you, it'll have you questioning yourself, your own purpose, and sometimes, you know, so um you'll go through through times when you know you you you you hitting those those those blocks and you stumble a little bit, man. But to be able to get back up is a testament to a nigga's strength. That's uh that's how you really judge a man. You judge a man, not in the times when it's all good. You judge him, you judge him by his ability to deal with chaos and adversity. How he's able to take losing, falling, and and uh working his way back. Speaking about working out working working his way his way back, so now music is always gonna be music, and it has changed a lot for us because we've been here through a few eras. And we got to see music changing from tapes to CDs to her iPod, iPad U day. So it's like now we're at a place where music could be consumed so easily anybody could wake up and do music. Two-year-old, ten-year-old, don't need nothing to be a rapper. Cool. But moving forward for rappers like us that have been here for so long, um and they try to put a rapper in a box of it's a young thing when it's not. You know what I mean? It hasn't even matured yet. Right. But for that matter, it's like for us, it's like the whole new thing is content. Content is a new way for artists like ourselves to have legs in the game to go further. But you feel like this is where we're going now, since uh with all these podcasts and the scene, everybody kind of turning over into, or do you think that this also will become oversaturated like music have? Um both. Two things can be right. Um one, yeah, I see the game, it it has become a content-driven world, right? You look in Instagram and the reels is just going off. They they they pushing you to to put out more content because the the the fan is is more in tune with that than anything now, right? Uh as far as the podcasting thing, I think, yeah, everybody is starting to want to do it. It may be oversaturated, so to speak. Everybody is not doing the same thing, so I say go for it, right? Um, but I think it's gonna continue to grow. But what I also think is is is happening is interesting, is AI is now figuring out how to incorporate AI and use AI in your hustle. I think like I've I've been working with AI, I've been trying to understand it. I've been doing things on AI. I wrote a fucking movie script with AI. I mean, I didn't have him write it, but I wrote it and helps you uh break something. Help me break it down and stuff like that. Um the music now on AI, now you can make a song in literally 10 seconds, you know. I think that's a cheat code for artists that are. It is, but here's what I'm trying to tell you is that we gotta educate ourselves on it because if not, then we're gonna be left out. We can't be out here looking like cavemen. So, so yeah, it's a content game, right? But it's also going into a next level of what AI is gonna do for that content. You know, they they doing whole things, think about the fact that if you do a movie, say you do a movie the old-fashioned way, right? And now you want to do a soundtrack. Now you can go do AI songs and have a song for everyone. You ain't gotta do no clearances, you ain't gotta pay no artists. They got AI artists on the charts right now. It's going, it's not gonna leave. So for us and the niggas like we are, we niggas that look at things and figure, oh, okay, how can I make that work for me? How can I figure out what you know what I'm saying? So you hustle. You think that uh you think you still have things to prove to this industry, or you feel like you kind of pass that? Like prove as far as music-wise, or there's anything for us, it's a lot of variables to that. But music, I mean in the music industry, music, who you are, you think that you still don't in the race to do that, or is that I I think about that sometimes because I always felt underrated. I've always felt way better than the than what I've been given credit for. Um so sometimes like, man, these niggas been playing with me, they just don't know, like, you know what I mean? Like and but I don't know if in the grand scheme of things, if that really matters. Right. What I think matters more is is is continuing to build the brand and to create the maximum value for for the brand. You see what I'm saying? Like what we was able to do with less rap about it added more value to the brand. No, exactly. And speaking of less rap about it, I do want to say thank you for helping me actually put that show together. Because you know, a lot of people just see from the outside, and you know, me and Mamie really connected on a whole nother level. And I kind of I kind of felt like you knew what I was doing from when I had your come for that interview. Like I I Nah, I didn't though. I really didn't, bro, because you was like, because you like a little, see, see, from and I told you this. I said you want, you, you, you a nigga that you'll hit me at like four o'clock, and we'll have a regular conversation. 5:30, you'll hit me back, like, yo, we should just shoot a video. Like, you'll just have so many different ideas. But one thing that I always respected is the fact that you act on your ideas, bro. I told you that. It's millions of people every day that got ideas of being something or somebody and and have not found how to act on that. They have not found how to how to apply that. They have not found the courage or the will that it takes to bet on themselves to do something without somebody doing it for them. So you always was a nigga that I respected when it came to saying something and then doing it. So when we came on the show, I kind of just took it as okay, Capo doing his his show, and we gonna come in and we gonna vibe because we got a relationship and we're gonna do what we do, right? It wasn't until I started seeing the comments, and when people was like, yo, never knowed it, no, I never knew that we needed something like this. And I was like, oh wow, this is this this could be, and then it was like at the same time I was seeing the comments, you was on the line, like, yo, we need to do this. So you you had your your vision, you know, and it worked, and it worked, you know, it worked, and it worked. I I I was like, I was gonna ask you, oh, yo, we should do a show. And I was like, nah, because you gotta think about who's and I was always thinking about fab, and you know me, you know how we treat, you know what I mean? Fab is fab, man. It's every big deal out here. So it's like I'm like, man, I gotta finesse them. So I gotta finesse my guys, but I gotta finesse these niggas into seeing what we can do. I'm like, fuck it, they gonna give me an interview. I said for one thing for sure, we don't come in. You know what we were talking about for the interview, because this is what we said. This is what we do anyway. I said, They pop up, I got them, and the niggas agree. So it's like, yo, I do want to, I uh, and I appreciate all of y'all. I mean, I'm having I am having the time of my life on that show. I can't say I look forward to every Wednesday in my life right now. It's like it's like a thing for me. It's like Wednesday is a day for me. Like I'm getting drippy, it's like it's a whole thing. It's like you know what I mean. It's like having a residency in Vegas or something. Like, nigga, I'm you heard every Wednesday is lit in this motherfucker. You know what I mean? And then the energy, the the brotherhood, you know, coming up with no brothers, you know what I mean? I've I've gained a lot of brothers coming uh throughout my time. So this brotherhood. That's why it works. You understand why our dynamic on the show works in a space that's different than what other podcasts, because the way our conversations and topics is constructed, it's not about interviewing a nigga, right? It's not like, hey, bro, like when you, you know what I'm saying? You doing your interview thing now, right? But when we don't let's rap about it, the conversations is different because the relationships been laid for years to be able to do that. It's like, remember, me and you would be in the studio arguing about what Brooklyn started, what Harlem stole from Brooklyn, right? You know what I'm saying? We was arguing about that. We always be going back and forth with shit. We always was having the same conversations that we had on Let's Rap about it, but probably, but you know what? Timing is everything. It was the timing. And you know what's funny too? Because we would always used too, like, even with Fab, like niggas don't be knowing how greedy Fab be talking. And that stuck on me, like, yo, but we could get Fab on TV to do a little bit of how he be how he be. Super funny, slick with it. He's a shoe, he's he definitely shoot it, like so. I don't want to keep you too long, but is is there any is there any side of Maino that we haven't seen? I think people, I think people starting to see it now more than ever. And I think it was the show that did it. You think it's more of your charisma that people haven't seen? Yeah, it's more of my of because the show gave me the opportunity to be be me without not in the interview space. So, like when you know you go on the interview, right? A nigga asking you a question, you just answering it. Now he got a chance. Now we sitting in the space, I'm with my niggas who I really hang with, and we talking about things that apply to us. So now people get a chance to see me the way everybody else did outside of the camera. You think the show helps break the stigma of what they paid us to be? Yes. From being rappers and our history and the stupid shit that we've done. But that's a whole different thing, is what I be trying to tell people. Like, yeah, you might see us do so much shit in rap or in the streets and shit like that. But that's not, I wouldn't say that's not really who, but it it's a whole different side of us, a human side. You know what I mean? Like it's it's I don't know how to how to explain it to people with shit like that. Like that shit was some shit that was done out of survival and some shit that had to happen along the course of life. 100%. You know what I mean? Let me let me tell you something, right? Growing up, I took this into consideration when I was growing up. Every nigga that I looked up to that was, you know, you know, lit or whatever, that had respect or props or whatever, every name brand nigga that I knew was funny when you got to meet him and was so uh secure in who he was that he didn't act the way that you heard his name. He you like, damn, that's such and such. Yeah, that nigga, he's a funny nigga, he's a cool nigga. You know he'll go somewhere else with it, but you know, you know, so so those was was the niggas I was like, it's it's okay to be who you are. It's okay to laugh, my nigga. It's okay to, you know what I'm saying? It's okay to show a human side, it don't take nothing away from nothing else. You see? So that's why I'm super comfortable being me on 10,000. And it's dope because there's so many people that don't even know us for being rappers, so and they seen the show, and it is taking us for who we are. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I like that. Who people know to be a shit like that? Yeah, and the ladies love it, man. And so speaking about being able to show people your your authentic self and not have to use your armor, you have Maino Day in Brooklyn, which is a pretty big deal, I would say. I don't know too many artists that have their own day in their own town while they're still alive. Yes, you know what I mean? So you've been in both of them. What prompted that? Um which is another side of who we are, right? So I was, you know, going to my neighborhood, you know, doing coke drops, doing things for my hood, and she's trying to be. Oh, I thought you said doing coke drops. I was like, where we my bad, my bad. Alright, I'm I'm serious. Serious. So so I was, you know, I I would get, shout out to my man Blessed, because he, you know, he he he hooked me up with um, you know, getting coats from Macy's a few years back. And when Macy would give Macy's would give us their inventory um at the end of the year, they would give us like$40,000,$50,000 worth of coats that they had to get rid of. So they would give them to us. I would take them to the PAL in my neighborhood on Gates and like, you know, give them to the kids, to the families, and you understand what I'm saying? So just trying to be more proactive at trying to make a difference is is is how I got the day. Shout out to Bianca, you know, um, for helping me get that, you know, uh kinesia, for putting that together. So the uh the Brooklyn Borough president, you know, gave me a proclamation and said, you know, Maino Day, you know, and I asked him to can I can I have it on my mother's birthday? So every August 16th, which is my mother's birthday, which is Maino Day. So I told him I didn't want to just have that just to just to have it. I ain't want to just be one guy out of the day and just be running around. So I wanted to really like do something in my community. And so every year we block off two cities, two city blocks, you know, on one end we got, shout out to SOS for always, you know, coming through. We got, you know, rods and in things for kids at the game trucks, like, you know, bouncy houses, you know, you know, kids getting haircuts, you know. So we giving, we're doing give backs, we got healthcare out there, you know, it's like a festival at the same time. Uh you got a stage on another on the up opposite end for the local artists. So it's just a day to, you know, to give back and and have something for kids to do in the neighborhood, man. You know? No, that's pretty dope. I I I like that. I'm a uh, you know, I'm a I'm a person from my neighborhood who's chosen to give back in my own special way. I don't do it the most conventional way, but I give back from my heart and I do it a lot. I do it continuously. Uh whether it's advice, whether it's money, whether it's actual items, Turkey Day. I believe that people in our position who came up like us, is it's it's our duty and it's also tradition that we're carrying on from our days when we watched the people that was getting money and take everybody to get hit cuts, take everybody to great adventures. Right, right. Now we're on a different level and we're able to do that much more. And I just want to give you your flowers for putting on for Brooklyn in that way. 100% before we go to here, I got one more question. What's that? How have the escorts affected your career? Now let me stop. With that being said, ladies and gentlemen, shout out to playmaker. This is another episode of Artist, the artist. We're gonna catch you in the next, it's my man Maniac.