Episode 25 - Diamonds Are Forever Featuring Diamond D

On Episode 25 of Lemme Ask You This with Talib Kweli and Tef Poe, the guest is hiphop icon Diamond D. After Diamond is introduced, Talib Kweli and Diamond talk about the creation of their collaboration album, Gotham. Diamond shares stories about visiting Yellow Springs Ohio and Talib talks about how Diamond supported him before he had a career. Tef asks about the authentic NY sound and Diamond talks about how music has to evolve. Diamond talks about the legacy of Big L and the enduring nature of his Diggin' In The Crates crew. Talib asks Diamond about working with John Forte and Fat Joe. Diamond explains why he moved to Atlanta and tells the story of being in the car with Tupac during a shooting. Tef asks Diamond about his new music and Diamond talks about unexpected collaborations. Talib talks about making hiphop that resonates with women and his new song with Diamond, Black Queen. Tef asks Diamond about what he looks for in an MC and then asks Diamond about his fashion sense. Talib and Diamond talk about the elitism of NYC. Diamond asks Talib about his collaborative album with Large Professor and Talib talks about the importance of having one producer on an album. Tef asks Diamond about the evolution of hiphop and Talib compares hiphop to a collage. Diamond talks about the impact of his Stunts, Blunts and HipHop album. Talib talks about how working with Diamond on Pharoahe Monch's The Truth helped to cement his legacy.

Shot and Edited By Chino Chase. Additional Filming By Aaron Ross Media Co.

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Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:12

Ladies and gentlemen, how y'all feeling? My name is Talib Kwali.

SPEAKER_00 0:16

And my name is Tef Poe. Y'all know what it is. Another episode of Let Me Ask You This.

SPEAKER_01 0:21

But we have in the house with us tonight the originator from the Boogie Down Bronx. One of the best to ever do it. Foundational and architect to this culture that we call hip hop. Me and this man got an album together, and it's one of my greatest honors and privileges to be able to work with this man. Give it up. Digging in the crate's own. Diamond D's in a place to be.

SPEAKER_00 0:46

Super legend. All right. Super legend. Super legend. You got legends and you got super legends. You know what I'm saying?

SPEAKER_02 0:52

Super legend. What up, Diamond? What up, man? You good? I'm good, bro. How you feeling? All right. Shout out to my man Lord Finesse. You know that's family. No doubt. Shout out to Lord Finesse.

SPEAKER_01 1:00

Shout out to the whole D I T C. You know what I'm saying? Rest in peace to Big L. You know. Me and you, we did this before already. Yeah. You did People's Party. Thank you for doing that. And when we did People's Party, one of the main results of it was getting this album Gotham.

SPEAKER_02 1:16

The Gotham album, yeah, that came from that, actually.

SPEAKER_01 1:18

Yeah, because I don't know if people who watching this know, but Diamond is someone who I looked up to who I was striving to be like when I was a younger lad in my salad days.

SPEAKER_04 1:30

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 1:31

When I first started doing this hip-hop thing. And um when Diamond said he was gonna do People's Party, I wanted him to feel so comfortable when he walked in that room that he would just be able to share anything. And he had sent me a bunch of beats. So I was like, you know what? I'm just gonna rap to all these motherfuckers.

SPEAKER_00 1:51

Wow.

SPEAKER_01 1:51

And I raped to every single one. And that was the genesis of that project.

SPEAKER_02 1:55

Right. I thought you were gonna pick like one or two.

SPEAKER_01 1:59

Nah, man, it's Diamond D.

SPEAKER_02 2:01

That's how it all came together, though.

SPEAKER_00 2:03

No doubt.

unknown 2:04

No doubt.

SPEAKER_00 2:04

So let me ask you this quart. And you too, D. What made y'all name the album?

SPEAKER_01 2:09

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 2:10

He was in a New York state of mind when he wrote it. I was I was. I was listening to a lot of You was out in Cali for a little while.

SPEAKER_01 2:18

I was, yeah, we were out in Cali. I was working at People's Party a lot. Right. I was listening to a lot of Cuban links. That album is inspired by Cuban links in a lot of ways.

SPEAKER_00 2:27

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 2:28

It is. I was like, I even like to the point where I was like syncing up the BPMs where certain songs are Cuban links. Really? Because I was trying to catch a vibe. If you listen to that album, there's songs where I have a different tone of voice in each verse. So the first verse might be more smooth, you know what I'm saying? Like maybe a Raquan, and then the second verse be more hype, like Ghostface. I was trying to come with those dynamics. And you're right, I wasn't in New York State of Mind.

SPEAKER_04 2:54

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 2:55

That's why we call it Gotham. That was like right before the pandemic happened. Yeah, that's right. Right before it. Like 2019. It came out like it came out of 20. 2021, I think. 2021. Because pandemic, it was it was crazy.

SPEAKER_00 3:09

I thought you was gonna hit say you were gonna hit us with a brand new concoction or something.

SPEAKER_01 3:12

Oh, well, there's there's like three or four songs we did for a second Gotham that we never followed up on. Right. We should probably get back into that. But 2020 was crazy, Diamond.

SPEAKER_04 3:22

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 3:23

I was in Yellow Springs. Right. Shout out to Nico is Nico was out there.

SPEAKER_02 3:28

And um, you came out to Yellow Springs. Yeah, it was definitely 2020 because Dave had the um the COVID testers, the nurses out there.

SPEAKER_01 3:36

Yeah, yeah. Tell us about your experience coming from Atlanta to Yellow Springs with Dave Chappelle in 2020.

SPEAKER_02 3:43

Yeah, like I really didn't know what to expect, but you know, you know, Tyler was like, yo, you know, just come up here, we're gonna vibe or whatever. Um when I get up there, this is this is like the middle of the pandemic. So um Dave had his bubble up there. You couldn't get on the compound unless you were tested for COVID. You know, and I think that made everybody up there feel more safe.

SPEAKER_01 4:04

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 4:04

You know, definitely. Um, but yeah, yo, that was um one of the best times I had up there. I actually went up there like two or three times, but that very first time Chris Rock was up there, I remember. Troy, um, a few other people there, but yeah, that was that was a dope time, T.

SPEAKER_01 4:24

Then we went out to uh Dayton and we filmed a video for I'll Tell You Later. I'll tell you later, that's right. I'll tell you later kind of became the anthem of that summer. Yeah, that's right. Which was crazy. Like there's a song Me, Nico, and Diamond D. That's a song I'll Tell You Later. And when Dave heard it, he just could not stop playing. He would play it nonstop. He played it so much that everybody in that town knew the words to the song.

SPEAKER_04 4:46

Wow.

SPEAKER_01 4:46

So everywhere we went in town, I'll tell you later. I'll tell you later. Yeah. That was wild.

SPEAKER_00 4:52

Yeah, that's right. That's where y'all was in Dayton, Ohio.

SPEAKER_01 4:55

I mean, that's where we filmed the video at, yeah. Wow. Yellow Springs is a suburb of Dayton. Um, Dave grew up halfway in Dayton and halfway in DC.

SPEAKER_02 5:04

Right, right.

SPEAKER_01 5:06

Yeah. But hip hop started in the Bronx, New York City. And on People's Party, we talked about the Bronx. Right, right. But I don't know if Tef know the way, I don't even quite remember how we met, but I remember the first time someone in of stature, someone in the business who couldn't was a mover and shaker, showed me love for real, was Diamond D. And uh I asked him you to make some songs for me. He said, Come to the crib in Jersey.

SPEAKER_03 5:40

Right.

SPEAKER_01 5:41

And I was like, Bet. He invited me to the crib one night.

SPEAKER_02 5:44

This is before Black Star.

SPEAKER_01 5:46

Yeah, this is just want to put that out there. Yeah, this is a couple years before Black Star. Yeah, he said, uh, come to the crib in Jersey. And I said, Bet, and me and my man Rubik's, shout out to my man Rubik's. We stole my mom's Volkswagen golf. And it was a snowstorm, and the windshield wipers didn't work. And we we pushed that Volkswagen golf with him driving and me out the window being a human windshield wiper, trying to get to Diamond D's crib. We got to the Brooklyn Bridge, and that's when we turned around. Like, you know what? It's no turning back. Because we get if we go over this bridge, we're gonna be stuck.

SPEAKER_02 6:21

Oh, yeah, definitely.

SPEAKER_01 6:22

Yeah, so we we turned back. And I didn't make it to your crib. That trip, I made it eventually. But that was an early lesson in terms of like hip-hop for me. Like, if you want it, you gotta go out and get it. And I want to thank you for even providing me that opportunity for even to be able because I don't remember. I ended up getting to your crib because I remember coming to your crib in Jersey. Um, but for you to, I was an unsigned artist, I didn't have any marketing behind me. He just, you know, fuck with me on the strength of what I did. And that was important for a young and up-and-coming artist.

SPEAKER_02 6:55

Yeah, yeah. Nah, and you was always nice with a mic. So, you know, fucking with you, that, that, that, that was a no-brainer. I appreciate that, bro.

SPEAKER_00 7:02

So let me ask both of y'all a question. Okay. Um, there's a lot of talk about authentic New York hip hop these days, the sound, the textures, folks switching it up. You know what I'm saying? Uh, a lot of people aren't doing what traditional people are used to hearing from New York in terms of production, the types of beats people are picking. Um, what's your perspective on that as two legends in the game who are known for a certain quality, a certain standard coming out of the region?

SPEAKER_02 7:31

I mean, you know, music in general is all it's evolving, especially hip-hop. So, um, you know, people like Boom Bap, you know, you got the trap, you got the drill, um, conscious. Um, you know, there's many facets, but it's always evolving. So, you know, you know, if if you want to stay rooted in what you do, that's cool, but definitely have to have to evolve into whatever, whatever the next level might look for you. You know what I mean? So that that's that's my take on it.

SPEAKER_01 8:01

Yeah, I think that um in at the 95 Source Awards, when Andre 3000 said the South got something to say. It's because in a lot of ways, commercially and industry-wise, the South and the Midwest and the West Coast felt blockaded from the industry. New York had a lock on the industry. And I guess by 95, the West Coast was doing a thing, right? So the South particularly felt like um they was locked out. And so the South, really every place but New York had to develop the music independently. And when you develop it independently, you start to, you know, feel good about yourself and you pick up your chest and you feel like, you know what, I've fuck that New York shit. Like, I don't even need that shit. And that there's what there was a lot of those type of attitudes sort of um percolating. And when the music becomes something that's completely industry and separate from the culture, it becomes about assembly line, conveyor belt type of music. And then you have all the stations, right? In the south, all the stations had to be a line across the south from Miami all the way to Arizona. The stations started to get in the line, and they showing love to these records, and it got to the point where Atlanta, where we in Atlanta right now, Atlanta became like, for me, from my perspective, it the home of hip hop used to be New York City. And it went to the West Coast for a second, and then it came down south, particularly to Atlanta. It was in Houston for a second. Then it came to Atlanta, it's been in Atlanta for a long time. And it's it's been Atlanta is the cutting edge, Atlanta decide the trends, Atlanta decided, particularly for a long time, and I don't know, I'm a little older now, so I don't know if it's still the same, but particularly the strip club culture, and if your record wasn't in terms of commercial, industry-wise, mainstream. If you rec, if you're not coming through the strip club system, it's very hard to so people in New York, whereas our music used to go national, it stopped going national in the same way. And so people got frustrated with that, and either they'd be like, man, fuck all that other shit and just get more isolated in New York vibe, or they try to imitate the sounds. And whether it's a trap sound or a drill sound from Chicago or London or whatever, New York jumped on that, and it's very hard to hear a distinct New York sound in the radio and in the clubs. And it it I think it creates a conflict in the DJs because you can hear the frustration in the older DJs. The DJs are age, the flexes and the enoughs and the people like this who still working. You hear like them, uh, you know, when they're playing on the radio in the club, you can hear this frustration with what they feel like they gotta play versus what they want to play.

SPEAKER_00 10:46

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 10:46

But then you got new uppercomers like Adruski or whatever, somebody in New York who's, or Camillo who just the shape shifts with the well, whatever's going on in the club. And um, it's like Diamond said, you gotta, if you do it for a living, you don't gotta, because there's different people who exist without the industry system. But that's that's a very lucrative way to participate in the business, to keep moving with the times. And for me, I'm so glad that I'm at this age that I'm at because I used to be competitive like that. I used to go to the clubs and want to know what's going on and and want to compete and show them that what I could do in a conscious style and everything could is just a fly. But I don't feel the need to do that anymore. And the more that I let go of that, the better my music is, and the more my music feels more like real New York shit.

SPEAKER_00 11:36

Yeah, as a non-New Yorker, you know, I'm straight from St. Louis, Missouri. I remember buying my first Big L album. You know, we big Big L fans out there, you know, certain people in a certain age bracket. Uh, my man Fresh Voice, when my producers met Big L backstage in freestyle form and everything. And it's as people who don't come from the East Coast, these are moments that we kind of cherish because the truth is we did look up to y'all. You know what I'm saying? The giants of the culture came out of that. I remember uh buying my first digging in a craze record, you know, and for us, this was an education process, you know. So we are, I believe popped up. That's real shit. I believe that we uh we want East Coast rap to sound like East Coast rap. We want New York rap to sound like New York rap. I believe that there's a growing movement of fans that want that sound back, and they standing on business against the industry for trying to push it out. What about you?

SPEAKER_02 12:36

I mean, you know, the sound's always been there. You know, people, you know, you just gotta just look for it.

SPEAKER_00 12:43

I agree.

SPEAKER_02 12:44

Like you said, you know, once the game shifted musically, um, a lot of those artists, you know, who who were mainly doing the boom back thing, you didn't really hear them on a major platform no more. Because no, it had just shifted.

SPEAKER_01 12:56

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 12:57

You know what I mean? And um those who stayed true to that sound once it came back around, those are the ones that benefited. Yeah. You know what I mean? So yo, shit is crazy.

SPEAKER_01 13:08

Yeah, man. Rest in peace to Big L. Of course. Um you worked closely with Big L, which is a blessing. Uh, what was it about Big L? Because he was a legend before he passed away. Um, what was it about Big L that that set him apart, in your opinion?

SPEAKER_02 13:26

Well, first of all, he he he was younger than us, but you know, he was just mature in a lot of ways. Big L, you know, definite, a definite lyricist. Um you know, what's the freestyle with uh with him and hove? Yeah, stretch a barbito, yeah. Yeah, yeah. You know, if you listen to that, you can definitely see the projection of where of where he was headed. Yeah. You know what I mean? And um, but just an honor to work with L. Always laughing, always snapping on a lot of people. He had his street side too, you know what I mean? But um, rest in peace, my brother Big L.

SPEAKER_01 14:03

No doubt. Rest in peace, big L. Yeah, I never met Big L. Um, he, you know, he there was this whole business situation where he ended up putting out that posthumous posthumous. Right. Sounded fabulous, man. But it's by the time he came to album Ruckus. He put it out on Ruckus. That was after his pass. After he passed, yeah, the big picture. But I never I never met him.

SPEAKER_00 14:24

Primo after the fool. That was some good Primo beats, man.

SPEAKER_01 14:27

Some good beats on that. That's a good project. That Big Daddy Kane shit.

SPEAKER_00 14:29

Like some joints on that.

SPEAKER_01 14:31

Yeah, man.

SPEAKER_00 14:31

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 14:32

That was the ill era. That whole the big picture, right? Was that it? Big picture. But that era of digging in the crates was ill. What was yeah, what was going on with y'all where it was like, you know, because y'all were foundational to everything that people were doing. Like, y'all defined you and Shobez and Laura Finesse, and everybody defined what hip-hop should sound like, y'all architects in that way. One of them, yeah. Yeah, there's several, but y'all are just y'all got a few bricks, y'all put in. And um, but that raucous era, like when I was first starting my career, like, y'all was just like killing it. And to us, y'all was superstars, but y'all still was coming with the 12 inches and the white labels.

SPEAKER_02 15:13

Right. No, I mean, you know, that's foundational shit. You know, that's that that's that's what we did. You know, we made good music and um we did a lot of the lot of the promotion and marketing ourselves. You know, um, plus, you know, it was just the work ethic. You know, you had the showbiz and AG album, you know, you had my album, Fat Joe's album, Lord Finesse album, OC's album, you know, all within like a five-year span. Classics. Yeah. You know, so it was just like boom, boom, boom, right after the other. Yeah. Um, yeah, you had to be there.

SPEAKER_00 15:51

That was a good time. That was a good time for Hip How. Some of my favorite music came out of all those albums you just named. Some of my favorite joints. Word. Yes, sir. Yes, sir. I mean, this is the music that taught us how to rap, man. I mean, this stuff we listen to to study, you know, like I think Nico keeps saying I say the word canon, and that's a lot of what this show is is putting stuff in the canon or introducing it to people in a certain way. And uh, I mean, it's just it's just it's my mind is blown even hearing you say some of the stuff you're saying about these records.

SPEAKER_02 16:22

Did you ever work with John Forte? No, not not until not until our project on a Gotham.

SPEAKER_01 16:29

That's right, he's on Gotham. That's right. So yeah, we can't do that.

SPEAKER_02 16:34

We were both on the Fuji's album. That's what I'm saying. You was on that the score album. Yeah, that's about it, yeah. But the first time was on our project. Yeah, man, that's a piece of John Forte. How many songs you and John uh have together in the vault? In the vault?

SPEAKER_01 16:50

You still got any stuff? Yeah, I got some. I got I got an EP's worth in the vault. He worked with my son too. Shout out to Amani. Yeah, Amani got a round of applause.

SPEAKER_00 17:05

Live studio audience.

SPEAKER_01 17:06

No doubt, no doubt. Gotta put that AP out. Yeah, man. Um taking the crates as a crew was so influential. Um but when y'all first came out, people outside of the circle didn't really get to experience Fat Joe. And now Fat Joe the Gangster don't went from Fat Joe the Gangster to Joe and Jada to the point where his personality is so outsized.

SPEAKER_04 17:40

Right.

SPEAKER_01 17:41

And people come to that show just to hear him wilding out with the stories, you know what I'm saying? So I gotta ask you, is like when he wasn't as large as he is now, was he the same type of outsized personality back then?

SPEAKER_02 17:56

Yeah, always. Always the same. Yeah, yeah. I I I can't say he switched up. He always always been that way.

SPEAKER_04 18:02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 18:02

You know what I mean? Shouts out to Fat Joe. You know, you got you gotta evolve with the game. You know? So hats off to him and Jada, they doing their thing. I think they got that deal with Netflix.

SPEAKER_01 18:15

Yeah, it's on Netflix now.

SPEAKER_02 18:16

Yeah, so you know, that's the wave right now.

SPEAKER_01 18:19

I like that, man. We gotta tell our own stories, man. I like the control they took with that and and how they leveled up and how the partnerships, right? Because it's like we're not in this by ourselves. I like the fact that from different parts of the city, different, you know, it's it's from outside looking in. If you're not from New York, you might look at look at it and be like, oh, it looks all the same. But what where Fat Joe coming from and where Jadak has come from is very different places in the New York scheme of things. So they from different crews and all that. So it's it's beautiful. It's beautiful to see.

SPEAKER_00 18:52

Yeah, I pick up on that vibe when I'm in New York these days that a lot of New York guys are working with each other that traditionally haven't. It's a different energy when I'm out there than what I used to feel. I used to feel a mad competitive vibe amongst New York rappers, you know. I feel it's it's loosening up now, you know.

SPEAKER_01 19:10

So you get oversaturated too. But you've been out of New York for a minute.

SPEAKER_02 19:15

Yeah, back and forth.

SPEAKER_01 19:16

Back and forth. But you but you you've made put roots down here in Atlanta for a minute. What made you make that transition?

SPEAKER_02 19:25

Just growth. You know, I still, you know, I still still kept my spot in there. Still kept my spot there, though. Still kept my spot in New York. So I was just going back and forth a lot the first couple of years. You know, New York is always gonna be home base. But, you know, just growth, you know, and um I was doing a lot of work down here with Dallas Austin. Shout out to Dallas Austin. You know, and um different various producers, and um, it just made sense back then. You know, Eric Sermon was down here, Nas was down here, Ray Quan was down here. Wow. Yeah, Kirk was down here.

SPEAKER_01 20:05

And a lot of people don't know that when Pac was down here, yeah, that's right. And you was rolling around with him when he got in that situation. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 20:16

You feel like talking about that? Coming from the show at Clark University, and when we got we got to the corner of 14th and Peachtree, um back then the hotel was called the Sheridan. So we pull up outside and um we noticed two white cops harassing, you know, a young black dude. So Park jumped out the car, went over there to investigate. You know, just helping a total stranger. And, you know, at that point, that's where shit went left. They smashed, they smashed the car window. I was in the back seat. So then they tried to walk off. And when they tried to walk off, that's when Pa got out. And he had his strap on him, legit, legal, registered or whatever. And he shot them both in the ass when they was walking away. So a lot of people say, well, you know, how does a black man shoot two white cops in the ass and get away with it? Just so happens the cops were drunk, they were in another county with guns they stole from an evidence room on their person. So they was out all the way around in the wrong. They was looking for trouble.

SPEAKER_01 21:29

Riding dirty.

SPEAKER_02 21:30

Yeah, definitely. You know, and that's that's how he beat that case.

SPEAKER_00 21:35

That's an insane life story to be the person that was.

SPEAKER_02 21:38

Shout out to my man Mopreen. Shout out to Mo Preen. Yeah. What happened to the dude who was getting beat up?

SPEAKER_00 21:45

I don't know.

SPEAKER_02 21:46

They gotta get his story.

SPEAKER_00 21:49

It's crazy because you see people doing all these.

SPEAKER_02 21:51

But that's how it started.

SPEAKER_00 21:52

Right. You see people doing all these interviews about random stuff they did with Pac, and that that whoever that guy is, he ain't came out. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 22:02

That story is important though because a lot of people who wasn't outside at that time think that there was like real beef between East and West Coast and that artists wasn't working together.

SPEAKER_04 22:12

Right.

SPEAKER_01 22:13

You know, I think it's important to note that there were pockets.

SPEAKER_02 22:19

Yeah. Cause while I was going on, I was working with Pac. I was working with the Alcoholics. Cypress Hills, Exhibit, Farside, Razcash. So I was fucking around with a lot of a lot of major West Coast acts. You know, all in the midst of that. You know, that beef was really between two camps.

SPEAKER_01 22:39

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 22:39

You know what I mean? But the entourage is, each entourage blew it up. That article that the vibe wrote didn't really help either. Yeah, East Coast versus West Coast on the cover and all that. Yeah. You know, so it was just a lot of variables to it. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 22:58

We hear, man, 2026. Any new projects you want the world to know about?

SPEAKER_02 23:04

Say it again.

SPEAKER_00 23:05

Any any new music you want to know about? Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 23:07

I'm working on um on the Don Piece. Well, the last the last part of the Don Peace series is called Tria. Um just shot the video for Ty Lib's song on the album. Um I got Method Man on there, Corey Guns, Crooked Eye. You know what I mean? Just doing what I do. Like I'm good at matching artists you wouldn't normally hear together and putting them on joints. You know, I got Nico on there. Um, excuse me. But yeah, yo. It's gonna be just as good as the last one. The last one was called Duo.

SPEAKER_01 23:50

Yeah. That was like last uh summer, right?

SPEAKER_02 23:53

Yeah, last summer.

SPEAKER_01 23:54

Last summer, yeah. That's a good product. Duo and a lot of ill collaborations on that.

SPEAKER_02 23:59

Definitely.

SPEAKER_01 23:59

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 24:00

You know, the joint with me and Karas won the Kings. I got the joint with um RJ Payne and Sky Zoo. Um shouts out to my man Bone Crusher. You know, just different, different artists from different, you know, different parts of the country. You know, West Coast, Midwest, Down South, Northeast. You know, um but what I do is I pull everybody into my sound, you know, instead of me trying to, you know, to conform to what everybody else is doing. You know, everybody else likes what they like.

SPEAKER_04 24:38

Right.

SPEAKER_02 24:38

Um, but it's important if you're a producer to try to work with different artists, give them what they want, but still retain your sound because that's what draws people to you initially.

SPEAKER_01 24:49

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 24:49

You know what I mean?

SPEAKER_00 24:50

So Bone Crusher and you.

SPEAKER_02 24:52

Bone Crusher, yeah. That song, um, let me shot a video today. That's one of that's one of my um one of my my favorite joints on the album. Shouts out the bone crusher.

SPEAKER_01 25:02

Shout out to Bone Crusher, that's a good dude. So we just shot a video. Right. Didn't you shoot one with Nico? Yeah, Nico's on the album. Punchline? It is Nico and Punchline.

SPEAKER_02 25:11

Um Nico and Punchline.

SPEAKER_01 25:14

So you you you lining up all the visuals first.

SPEAKER_02 25:17

As I'm as I'm recording it. Right.

SPEAKER_01 25:20

Do you think you're gonna have visuals for every single one, or is this just like the last album had nine songs on it and it had eight videos?

SPEAKER_02 25:28

So this one, I don't know how many songs I'm gonna actually gonna make the album. Right. But the ones you know, I made a I made a conscious effort. Like if I record the song, get the video done too. You know.

SPEAKER_01 25:39

You've been on the videos. We was in Yellow Springs. I did the Qualifest, and you pulled up, and at the end of Qualifest, we was all partying. You was like, yo, we gonna go out trying to shoot the video right now. I was like, yo, I'm not ready for the video. And I was like, but we and then Nico came up to me and said, Nico was like, yo, Diamond wanna shoot the video for the song right now. I was like, oh man, I don't know if you got, hey man, I I can't shoot my video. Maybe you want to shoot your video.

SPEAKER_02 26:01

That was more or less I don't I don't be in Yellow Springs as often as y'all are. Right, right. You know what I mean? I was there, so but look, we got them done.

SPEAKER_01 26:10

Yeah, we got them done a few couple months later. Video shot. That's true. I video shot. Now, I want to thank you for the opportunity to work with you on this song Black Queen.

SPEAKER_02 26:19

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 26:20

The song that we got on this Dime Piece three.

SPEAKER_02 26:23

Yeah. But I'm just gonna call it Tria. But yeah. Call Black Queen.

SPEAKER_01 26:29

It's a good song, great song. I recorded it initially for Gotham.

SPEAKER_02 26:34

Right. I believe it didn't, yeah. I didn't finish it.

SPEAKER_01 26:37

I didn't finish it. Right. And I didn't like the way that I rapped it. Right? So it's like, but you kept fucking with it.

unknown 26:46

Right.

SPEAKER_01 26:46

Right. Tweaking it, tweaking it. I forgot about it.

SPEAKER_02 26:49

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 26:50

And um, he sent it to me like, yo, it's coming on the next album. And I was like, yo, let me work on it a little bit more. And we got back and we worked on it a little bit more.

SPEAKER_02 26:56

Went back in the studio, relayed.

SPEAKER_01 26:58

Yeah, man.

SPEAKER_02 26:59

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 26:59

But I want to thank you because the song for me is a very vulnerable song. And it's very tricky to write music that's about women without being pandering.

unknown 27:14

Right.

SPEAKER_01 27:15

For me. Or without, you know, because I grew up, I came in the game as like, okay, you want to have your club song, you want to have your lyrical song, you want to have your song for the ladies. Right. And it was Dream Hampton back in the days who said to me, Women, as far as her perspective as hip-hop fans, we don't want to hear that. We're like, we like hip-hop for the same reason you like hip-hop.

SPEAKER_02 27:36

Oh, that's what you were talking about in that song? That's what gave me that bar.

SPEAKER_01 27:39

You know what I'm saying? We like hip-hop for the same reason you like hip-hop. Why are you gonna make a song for the women? Just make the music you make.

SPEAKER_04 27:45

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 27:46

And we'll like it just because of how we like it. And she told me that a long time ago. And you would think I was an adult when she told me that. You would think I would know that already.

SPEAKER_04 27:55

Right.

SPEAKER_01 27:55

But I didn't. I had to hear that from her because the the capitalist system, the system that set up the patriarchal system, had me believing that I need to make the joint for the ladies. If I make a joint for the ladies, gotta be, and so it's like I've tried that song in different ways. But I was never, I never had the courage to lay it in the way that I did. And so I'm glad I got that off. But beyond that, for you to be like, yo, I like that. You kept hitting me. I like that song, I like that song. And he was like, let's do a video for it. And I was like, a video for that one?

SPEAKER_00 28:28

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 28:28

But I'm like, yeah, we pull a video.

SPEAKER_00 28:30

I was shocked to hear the record because when you hear Quali and Diamond D, you don't think joint that's gonna be specifically talking about that.

SPEAKER_02 28:37

You're thinking, oh Plus, you know, yo, songs like that are needed now.

SPEAKER_00 28:40

I agree.

SPEAKER_01 28:41

You know what I mean? I got a song with I you know, I got this record with Large Professor I've been working on it. And I did a song where I named every single female rapper I could think of. I think I named like 42 female MCs on the song. But again, I the song, like the idea, the intention behind the song was right, but the song didn't feel still need to work on it. And then I listened to the Nas of Premier Joint, and he got a song with the same concept.

SPEAKER_02 29:07

Yeah, I was about to say that, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 29:09

The same concept. And you know what? His shit's more John Blaze than my shit is.

SPEAKER_04 29:13

Like when I heard it, I was like, okay.

SPEAKER_01 29:16

Okay, okay. Like, same concept, y'all just nailed it better, which means that mine wasn't supposed to come out. But it means that, like you said, it's time for that type of music, it's time for that type of homage, it's time for us to be doing stuff like that. Is the album done? Almost. When that's not turned in, okay, but um, I'll play you some shit from it.

SPEAKER_00 29:35

As a person who has put together classics, uh, worked with people who astoundingly had it, I mean, put together super crew, super packages. What do you look for in an MC when you when you see a MC? Yeah, what are you looking for?

SPEAKER_02 29:54

Lyricism, content, delivery, flow. You know, those are the four basics. Four basics.

SPEAKER_00 30:02

I think what makes y'all interesting as well, though, for me from afar is also you brought all of that, but you brought style to it, you know. I think that's an unsung part of the story, is the fashion, also. Um, tell us a little bit about that if you don't mind. Right.

SPEAKER_02 30:16

Yeah, no, I agree. I agree definitely.

SPEAKER_00 30:19

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 30:20

I think Diamond, you you in particular, you rhyme about fashion in a very particular way. That it's like it make me want to dress like I'm an uptown dude. You know what I'm saying? Like I want to get a few. I think it made a lot of people want to do it. You know what I'm saying? Like, yeah, like I feel like I need to get it a certain type of whip, yep, certain type of all that sneaker, certain type of yeah, man.

SPEAKER_02 30:43

I remember about I don't know, about 15 years ago. You you saw me in a Robbie Graham shirt. I did, yeah, you was like, oh yeah, I'll fuck with Robbie.

SPEAKER_01 30:54

You know what's crazy about you saying that, bro? I was just in Miami. But those who know what Robert Graham was like, Robert Graham, I was just in Miami and I walked by the Robert Graham store. That's right. And they had one of them gaudy ass, loud ass shirts in the window, and I was like, man, we used to rock them shit. I couldn't believe I used to wear them shirts. Shout out to Robert Graham. It it is, but it's funny how fashion, right? There was a time that Robert Graham was marketing it to hip-hop. You know who put me on the Robert Graham? Pasta News. Oh, see, I didn't know that. Okay. Merce was rocking the Robert Graham. He had the ill Robert Graham shirts. But now, if you look at Robert Graham, they don't want nothing to do with hip-hop right now. If you walk by Robert Graham, you're not gonna think hip-hop at all.

SPEAKER_04 31:39

Right.

SPEAKER_01 31:40

But we was wearing them shirts, some loud ass, colorful ass, Miami ass shirts.

SPEAKER_02 31:45

Like early early to mid-2000s, mid yeah, mid-2000s.

SPEAKER_01 31:50

Yo, now that I'm thinking about it, with Soline, I did a party with Soline and Jay Rawls in Vegas, and I wore a Robert Graham shirt to that party like a few months ago. Now that I think about it. Okay. I saw I bought it, it was perfect for the party. You brought me a couple of things. Definitely. Yeah, man.

SPEAKER_00 32:12

But yeah, I think that's an unsung part of the story, man, because you start seeing cats from like um Missouri, uh Nebraska, uh, Oklahoma, all of a sudden, they start dressing like y'all. You know what I'm saying? That was their uh way of saying that, showing other people that they were hip-hop heads. You know what I'm saying?

SPEAKER_01 32:33

I think part of that though is that at a certain point, when you're looking at hip-hop, you got Five Off Freddy on your MTV Raps, and then Ed and Ed and Dre, and then you got Ralph McDaniels and BT. The only influence on the culture was that was that people were seeing nationwide was from New York, I think for a long time. So it's like that's even it's even confusing. Like when you watching a um a movie about some LA Mexican niggas, and it'd be a Puerto Rican, New York nigga playing the playing the dude. You know what I'm saying? It's like there's certain things that like yo, New York, like we was, we was blanking in the culture. It's like, it's like we it was it was so ubiquitous and diamond, you could tell me if you agree or not. But the way I the way that the people in New York felt, including myself, was if you outside of New York, nigga, you country.

SPEAKER_00 33:34

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 33:35

You know what I'm saying? Like, I don't care if you in Connecticut.

SPEAKER_02 33:38

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 33:39

Jersey, Pennsylvania.

SPEAKER_02 33:42

Nah, I wouldn't, nah, nah. Nah, we're holding we're not going to throw Jersey and Philly and Connecticut under the bus. We're not going to throw that. Niggas already mattered. Even though Tri-State.

SPEAKER_01 33:51

Tri-State. Tri-State, yeah. But we look at the we we we embrace, we embrace all of that as as New York. We embrace all that as New York. But I'm saying that to say that in the 90s, when I would leave New York City, they was on certain rappers before we was in Jersey and Connecticut. They was on Dreas Newt before New York was. They was on Master P before New York was. They was on E40 and Click before New York was. And in New York, we wasn't listening to none of that. We was like, none of that was on the radio. If you if you listen to E40 or Master P, you had a cousin down south. You have family down south. You know what I'm saying? You have family in the West Coast.

SPEAKER_02 34:29

Other than that, or you went to school down there.

SPEAKER_01 34:32

You went to school, yeah.

unknown 34:33

You know, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 34:34

Came back like y'all know about UGK.

SPEAKER_00 34:37

So it's the opposite where I'm from, right? Like they'll come, they'll go to school and come back with the East Coast shit. So that's how we would get hip. Like, oh, word? You like, yeah. So we might have been on more country rap at the time, and then somebody be like, man, turn some Jay-Z on. You know, turn some AG on, turn some show beers on.

SPEAKER_04 34:56

Right.

SPEAKER_00 34:56

And then so my big homies that played that type of music were kind of like the societal outcasts, in a sense, because they was like, oh, y'all want to be New York niggas, you know what I'm saying? But it that's how the music made its way. People who went to school and brought it back a lot of times.

SPEAKER_01 35:13

I got a theory. The colder it is, the more they want to hear underground boom bab hip-hop. Like, like if you go, I'm sure Diamond, I'm sure you like me, you've toured in Norway, Switzerland, Sweden. I'd under every cold ass country with snow and mountains. They love it. Denver, Aspen, the Pacific Northwest, forget about it. Seattle, Portland, I clean up over there. Yeah. But the warmer it gets, the less they want to hear the woes of the black man's woes over these hard ass.

SPEAKER_00 35:51

You're right, though.

SPEAKER_01 35:52

They don't want to hear that. They want to hear that sun music. They want a party.

SPEAKER_00 35:54

You're right. You know what I'm saying? You're right. You're right.

SPEAKER_01 35:58

That's true.

SPEAKER_00 35:59

I think the content is heavier in the boom bab beat. That's what it is.

SPEAKER_01 36:01

They're not trying to hear all that. The warmer it is, the more the warmer it is, the faster and more reggae tone the beats sound. That's right. They start talking about the sun and the sand and the girls and the party. The warmer it is, the more you hit pit bulls. You hear pit bull in warm climates.

SPEAKER_00 36:19

That's a fact, brother. Yeah, man. Open shirt music.

SPEAKER_01 36:22

Open shirt music. Let that taco me. Spill out. Pause.

SPEAKER_02 36:32

What's the name of the album of you and Large Pro? You have a title yet?

SPEAKER_01 36:35

I don't know, man. I Large Pro said to me, I asked him a year ago, because we were working on it for a little bit. I said, what should we call the album? He said, I don't know. I said, give me a list of um of thoughts you had. He gave me a list of song titles and album titles that he had been keeping like close to the vest. And one of them was cutting edge classic. That's a phrase I put in the song. And I was like, yo, that's after listening to the album, I was like, yo, you was with me. I said, yo, get the name of the album, I got it. I said, Cutting Edge Classic. He said, we'll talk about it. So as of now, I don't know.

SPEAKER_02 37:14

Right, right.

SPEAKER_01 37:15

But it's a very important decision.

SPEAKER_02 37:17

It's coming along.

SPEAKER_01 37:18

Yeah. So I don't know what it's gonna be, but I'm excited about it.

SPEAKER_00 37:23

Do y'all think people need to go back to doing albums with just one producer?

SPEAKER_01 37:27

I've done a lot of albums. I've done albums where I've curated the beats with a bunch of different producers, and I've done albums where it was like mostly one producer or one producer helmet whole shit. The older I get, the more serious I am about my music, the more inclined I am to do albums with just one producer.

SPEAKER_04 37:49

Right.

SPEAKER_01 37:49

The more that's exciting to me. Because it's like when you're creating an album, you want the sound to have consistency. And the older I get, the better I get at making music. So the better my ear is.

SPEAKER_02 38:00

Focus is dropper too.

SPEAKER_01 38:01

Yeah. I think I'm able to be like, this song is good. This set of songs is good.

SPEAKER_04 38:06

Right.

SPEAKER_01 38:06

But does it go with this set of songs? Does this does everything flow and match? And I I feel like I could, I could proudly say that. I feel like I've successfully done that more than once. I've successful, I I would say that in my I I got albums in my opinion, right? But I think the albums that are unquestionable, the Black Star album have multiple producers, um, quality has multiple producers, eardrum has multiple producers. I feel like in my catalog, unquestionably, people could say those are great albums. Right. Right. And I feel like I did a good job. Children and all the different styles.

SPEAKER_02 38:43

Definitely.

SPEAKER_01 38:44

But it was hard to do. And I don't know how how often I can do that. And the more I make music, the less I want to do that.

SPEAKER_02 38:52

But even with those albums, the you know, those albums, they they they had a certain type of sound. So I think each producer knew what what type of beats to craft to fit. You know what I mean? And that's why those albums all sound, you know, they all sound cohesive together.

SPEAKER_01 39:11

What's the album you had where you had the different producers making the beats?

SPEAKER_02 39:16

Um, that was that was actually a mixtape. Okay, yeah, the Huge Hefner. The Huge Hefner. Yeah, yep. Yeah, yeah. But you know what? I kind of I kind of got that idea from Jay Diller. Man, rest in peace to Jay Diller. Diller was signed MCA, as you know, and he was he was recording the album, but he didn't want to produce the majority of the beats. That's right. So he reached out to Pete Rock, he reached out to Knott's. That hot tech, that notch joint. Yeah, so you know, the song with me, is a song with me, Jay Diller, and Knott's. We all rhymed on the joints called Coke on Plastic. Coke on Plastic joint, yeah. I was like, damn, I wonder if Tyler was gonna play that shit. I don't even know if you have it.

SPEAKER_01 39:56

You know what's crazy about you saying that? So we just came from the Jay Diller celebration at City Winery. Shout out to City Winery, shout out to my duke. Thank you for coming through, Diamond. Of course, yeah. Um, and then when I seen you, I was like, I I was like, oh, the Coke on Plastic. And I went to the title to try to play that shit. It's not available on streaming.

SPEAKER_02 40:11

Oh no, no, I don't think so.

SPEAKER_01 40:13

It's not available, you can't just buy that record.

SPEAKER_02 40:15

I think it's on YouTube, you gotta get it from YouTube.

SPEAKER_01 40:17

So I think I was like, oh, I was because I was gonna play it, but then I was like, oh, I can't, I can't just land the military set. Yeah, you gotta, you gotta, I have to have had that one already. Yeah. Yeah. Cocoa and plastic. Yeah, man.

SPEAKER_00 40:30

Yeah, man. It's sometimes just uh participating in this show is uh beyond a gift because I'm sitting here, you know, just watching two guys who I know know hip-hop very thoroughly, just casually have a conversation with each other. It's it's mind-blowing to say the least. Um what what do y'all think production, lyrics, and all of that is actually evolving into? There's a lot of theories about where music is going. Some cats are saying you gotta have your melodies in your in your tracks, other cats are saying this, other cats are saying that. Uh, as two expert practitioners that kind of have a the ability to predict trends, what do y'all think is actually happening?

SPEAKER_01 41:10

Um, I think that the trends is not something we should focus on. I think that the closer you get to your true voice and what you truly have to say, the better music is. Yeah. Hip hop is sometimes can be too self-aware. And I I I can speak on this because I'm guilty of it in the past. We we as an MC, you start to uh focus on the the trend, what they call the algorithm nowadays. You start to focus on where the culture's going and what how I could fit in. How can I fit in what's what's going on in radio? Or how could I fit in what's going on in the underground scene? Or you know, how could I sound more like Griselda? How could I sound more like Alchemist? How could I sound more like Kendrick? How could I sound more like J. Cole? Like a lot of people.

SPEAKER_02 42:01

All of them have their own sounds, yeah. So why would you, you know, so why would somebody want to do that?

SPEAKER_01 42:05

And the and what makes what what unites all those people is they all did them, right? They all leaned into what it is that made them. That's what you like about them, yeah. You know, so it's like you gotta lean into what you like about yourself, and the closer we get to that, um the better off the music will be.

SPEAKER_02 42:28

Yeah, as a whole, I agree. Yeah, people you gotta be be true to yourself, you know what I mean? That's that's what Sean's through.

SPEAKER_01 42:38

That's the hip-hop aesthetic, though, right? The hip-hop aesthetic is be original. That's the original main focus on hip-hop. It's like, okay, we all have the same resources, we all in the same neighborhoods, we all poor, we we, you know, we all uh we don't have access. So without access, what we got in these neighborhoods, how do you flip it? How do you how are you original? How do you take this collage? What's different about your collage? These are all found items, these are all items that already existed. Uh nothing is new under the sun, right? So we take it things that already existed, whether it be a sample or you know, a Gucci hat or you know, some this pattern with that pattern, you know, the early, the early records, you know, whether it's it's busy bee doing suicide or Keras one taking Jamaica styles, you know what I'm saying? Right, right. And and I mean, I think about you use that reference. Yeah, I know, I know that's a that's a that's a yeah, yeah, that's a bar for you, you know what I'm saying? You was around for that. Yeah, but um, you know, it's just like we we su we take in all this pop culture. Um like even like like you know, I I got albums for Mad Lib. Um Mad Lib learned a lot from you. When I think about what stunts, plunts, and hip hop did for me. You talk about Chinese mock necks and having to run from niggas in the movie.

SPEAKER_02 44:00

Theater and shit. She that you know, we are related to. Right. If you grew up in the city around that time, you know what I mean?

SPEAKER_01 44:08

Like, there's a rhyme on that album that encapsulates what you was doing. Because you and you wanted when you was listening to that stunts blunter hip hop, you felt like you was part of a secret club. We was talking a coded specific language, and if you knew, you knew. You said gotta give a shout to the large professor. Yeah. Thought I lost this number, but I left it on my dresser. That's such an innocuous, innocent bar. It's not even like it's not even like an ill punchline. Right. It's not like an ill metaphor.

SPEAKER_02 44:39

Right, nah.

SPEAKER_01 44:40

You just relate to what the fuck you talking about. There was no cell phones.

SPEAKER_02 44:43

There was no you if you if you right before cell phones came.

SPEAKER_01 44:46

Yeah, you had to get in touch with somebody. You wrote their number, you carried a little memo pad. You wrote it, and then you sometimes forgot the numbers on your dressing. That's some shit that everybody's a good point. You brought that up. Yeah, man. But I remember hearing that lyric and being like me trying to be a writer, that lyric was liberating to me. And stuff like that. You know, it's just a day in the life of three black men. It's just a lot of people.

SPEAKER_02 45:09

One time I ran into you, Tyler. You was um, you was you was reciting some of the bars from um from I Wim For Mine. That's my record. Yeah, my name is Diamond.

SPEAKER_01 45:17

Yep, you guessed it. Put a thousand schemes and I never get arrested. I guess I'm lucky because I'm younger than a black man and intelligence, so everything is relevant.

SPEAKER_04 45:26

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 45:27

You man, yo, that record, that record is inspirational to me. Because it's like that record was like motivation, like like Tony Robbins to music. You know what I'm saying? This is like, for real, I went for mine. So go for yours, kid. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 45:44

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 45:45

When you when you said uh when you said uh the Edward Moses part? The Edward Moses reference, you know. Like you and like like yeah, man, the the the the metaphors, the bars, but no, when you said uh Jazzy added the flute.

SPEAKER_02 46:06

Right, right. Needs another loop, so he added the flute, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 46:09

Yeah. Like when you said that, and like now, now I know how production works.

SPEAKER_02 46:16

Right.

SPEAKER_01 46:16

I know what y'all did there. I I have an inside track.

SPEAKER_02 46:20

No doubt.

SPEAKER_01 46:21

But as a fan, as a teenager, your mind was blown. How did he do that? Dude, how do you know that was gonna come in right there? You know what I'm saying? Like, right, right. And it was uh, it was it's it seemed like such a simple decision in the studio, but it meant it meant the world to me. Yeah, man. That record, that record was important to me because it was long. How many songs on that album?

SPEAKER_02 46:42

Too many.

SPEAKER_01 46:44

It's a lot of songs. I think it was like 21 joints. But how you make an album?

SPEAKER_02 46:48

But it really wasn't 21 songs. It might have been like maybe maybe 17 and like four or five skits, something like that.

SPEAKER_01 46:55

The Reflection Eternal album, Me and Hot Tech, is like 21 to 17.

SPEAKER_02 46:59

Mercury, they was like, yo, we because I was like, yo, let's you know, let's just chop it down to like 12 joints. They were just like, nah, fuck that. We're gonna put all this shit out.

SPEAKER_01 47:08

But it goes.

SPEAKER_02 47:09

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 47:09

It goes it work. There's no no skip action. You're not skipping fast forward or nothing. You listening to that whole joint.

SPEAKER_02 47:19

But you know, Mercury, they didn't really get behind the album the way the way they were supposed to. But you know, it was a lot going on. Um Black Sheep was doing their thing. Classic. Um Vanessa Williams, the right stuff. The little boys called Hansen. Hansen was crazy. I remember Hansen. You know what I mean? So I'm you know, and then I was signed to actually a subsidiary, um, PWL Chemistry Records. You know what I mean? So chemistry wasn't too high up on that list as far as Mercury was concerned. But you know, the album came out, it did what it did, and um it's considered a you know a classic. That's right. You know what I mean?

SPEAKER_01 48:01

So I'm you know grateful for that. I want to thank you for being inspirational in my journey from the time you show me love when I try to get to your crib to even working on the first Medina Green record. Not Medina Green, excuse me, UTDs.

SPEAKER_02 48:15

UTD, that's right.

SPEAKER_01 48:16

Yeah, Yasim Bey, first group, UTDs. Diamond produced that single.

SPEAKER_02 48:20

The joint with me, you, and me, come, me. Well, it's you coming and Faro. The truth. On the truth. That's a big record for me. That's a crack. That might have been the first time we connected on the joint.

SPEAKER_01 48:31

Yeah, that's a big record for me because of that beats on that album. Yeah, he reached that thing.

SPEAKER_02 48:38

I did like three joints.

SPEAKER_01 48:39

Yeah. Um, that record cemented me as a force to be record with on my own outside of Black Star. Like before that, it was like, oh, Kuali, yeah, that's most F man. That's from Raucus. Okay, yeah, from Rawcas of Black Star. That record was like, oh, that's Tyler Kuali. Right. I could I could be with Farrow in common. That was an important record for me.

SPEAKER_02 49:00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 49:00

Yeah, man. Shout out to Faro. And now that now that I'm shouting out Faro, I gotta say, rest in peace to Mr. Complex. Oh, yeah, definitely. You know, we just lost Mr. Complex.

SPEAKER_00 49:10

Long live Mr. Complex.

SPEAKER_01 49:11

Long live Mr. Complex, a good dude. Yes, yes, Queen's dude, poly rhythmatics, great dude, great artist, great visual director, great MC.

SPEAKER_02 49:21

All around.

SPEAKER_01 49:22

All around musician. Um, you know, health is wealth, y'all. And um, Diamond, man, thank you for coming out, bro. It's always anytime, anytime, man. Man, all right. I'm glad we got a chance to ask some questions, have some cross-generational, cross-reasional conversation amongst black.

SPEAKER_00 49:40

It's a phenomenal yeah.

SPEAKER_01 49:42

Thank you, y'all, for paying attention. Let me ask you this. Peace.

SPEAKER_00 49:46

Peace.

SPEAKER_01 49:47

Yeah, freedom of speech. The freedom ain't free. There's always consequences better. Why did you say? Yeah, freedom of speech. But so do we think you take for granted can't be.