Straight From The Yap with Promise
Promise sits down to have indepth conversations with guests from the worlds of Media, Entertainment, Sports etc. The media personality /comedian also gives humorous takes on movies, pop culture, current events ,everyday life and more.
Straight From The Yap with Promise
The Philly Fly Boy Episode
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A candid conversation with acclaimed director Philly Fly Boy as he shares his journey from Milwaukee’s underground scene to shooting for icons like T.I., J. Cole, and Lil Wayne—dropping game on creativity, hustle, and navigating the music video industry.
People in Tip's camp start hitting me up to shoot videos. Shot the guy, his cousin. I'm shooting with uh this other dude Book who's on the label. So I'm shooting with like everybody around Tip. Okay, but not adjacent. U T-I adjacent. Exactly. But not because I'm roaching. They're hitting me up because they see Trey's videos. Yes. So then literally randomly, probably after like two, three years hanging around with Trey, I get a call from a number I don't know, and it's Tip. Wow. And he's like, hey man, we gotta shoot some shit. And I'm like, all right. The particulars of your music videos are exactly. So I'm like, I'm like that.
SPEAKER_04Yo, you know who it is and what it is. If you don't, it's the one they call Promise. Appreciate you tapping in to another episode of Straight from the Yat with Promise. Today I got a special guest, man. This is an honor to have this dude in the building. I have admired his work from afar for a very, very long time. Excited that I finally got to work with him this year. He is a cinematographer. He's a director. He's an editor. He didn't shot videos for some of your favorite artists. T.I., Lil Wayne, J. Cole, Sexy Red, Milwaukee's own, Chicken P, Jacob Lattimore. I can go down the list, man. Of course, Trade the Truth. He also has worked on film projects independently, and he just is an all overall dope dude. Super duper talented. I got the one and only Philly fly boy in the building. Philly, what's good, my dude?
SPEAKER_01I need that recorded for the mixtape drop right there.
SPEAKER_04I got you, man. Take me on the road with you.
SPEAKER_01That's that radio voice right there. Yeah. I need that. I got you, man. Do the PFB mixtape series. Just how you like DJ Clue just dropping all the shit in the beginning.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, yeah. Ha ha.
SPEAKER_01That's what I need right there with the reverb.
SPEAKER_04Put the reverb and the echo on it. Bro, appreciate you uh pulling up, man. I know you got a dumb, busy, crazy schedule. You constantly working, always grinding. So, man, thank you for coming and sitting down in the app house, bro.
SPEAKER_01No, I appreciate it. Uh uh, it's it's funny because I get a lot of requests to be on pods. And and a lot of the times it's you know, all over Atlanta's and New York's and different stuff like that. Yeah. And they, you know, a lot of the times they want to do like Skype, Zoom and stuff. That shit just don't hit. It don't feel the same. It it the connections off, the whole vibe's off. So I I turn down a lot of different pods, not trying to gas it up. Oh, I'm booked the fuck up. Yeah. But I'm saying, like, so if whenever I can do in studio or if I'm available to do stuff like this, you know, it always makes more sense to me just because, you know, when you can actually talk to people or whatever, too. It kind of eliminates the whole reason for the pod, I feel if it's via Zoom. Cause then it even with the consumer to watch it like that, too. And being a production guy myself, I know that's a tough one for you. It's like the vibe is you, you know, and then the delay, there's a it's not like, you know, it's a what you say? Yeah, yeah, you can't hear nothing. It's all weird as hell. So I appreciate you having me too, uh, and being able to be on set. And and and the new set, man, what you can do. You got the fixings on this joint. It got all the fixings.
SPEAKER_04Yeah.
SPEAKER_01How'd you pick out all the stuff?
SPEAKER_04Man, you know, I just try to think of different things that match my personality, right? From different from music to video games, sports, women, you know, fashion, just different stuff I like, man. Culturally, just wanted to put stuff in here to invite people into the crib, you know, this is the case.
SPEAKER_01I feel like the I feel like a pie is kind of like the man cave.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, no, definitely. Like it, yeah, for sure. And it's it's gonna it's gonna evolve over time. Like, I may add things, take things out, depending on what the vibe is, but just give people a little taste of, you know, what my personality's like and things that I'm interested in.
SPEAKER_01I got I got I got my the I got thriller on vinyl. Oh yeah, thriller. I got it on vinyl. I got the vinyl when I was seven years old at a at uh I remember I was on 20th and Leighton. And there was a me and my mom were driving in the station wagon and we pulled over to a uh garage sale.
SPEAKER_04Okay.
SPEAKER_01They had to join us out, and they had and they had to join out, and I had it, and I got the thriller on vinyl, I still got it. And so you still got, and that's crazy because you know now the whole wave records are popping out.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, so you had it before it was even Yeah.
SPEAKER_01But I was because I was a big Michael fan back then. I used to do the whole shit dance in front of the mirror. Bro, who listen with the fans on? You ever put the fans on to dance? I swear I'd be hey.
SPEAKER_04You had the glove?
SPEAKER_01I never had the glove, I ain't gone that far.
SPEAKER_04The glove or the or the socks.
SPEAKER_01But I had the what I had the white the dress shirt. You know how you did the dress shirt in front of the mirror with the joints. Yeah, going crazy. The black and white video, yeah. Might turn into a panther, bro. I'm saying, but you gotta so so now here, look, I'm gonna I'm gonna fuck you up with this. So what's so crazy is the black and white video, perfect example. So the morphing where it morphs between white folks, black folks, Asian folks. Oh, when they flipping, you know what I'm saying? And it and it's switching between people. Yeah, so that shit was like a million dollars. And you're talking in it. And not only that, because I remember when I like got in the video, that was a big inspiration because I was a big Mike fan, and Mike was one of the video, like music videos. If you look back in, you know, that was like doing cutting edge VFX. It was an event. Yeah, like do you remember when he when he drops into the floor? To the sand, yeah, and all that, like the VFX and that, and black and white, and I actually it was crazy because I was not recently, but probably a couple years ago, I was kind of influenced by the black and white video. Okay. And I'm like, yo, I want to do morphing, right? Okay. So I look just, you know, what's the best way to do the morph? How to, you know, and and the way that you do it now is basically you kind of just, you know, you got to get the shot almost exactly the same, mirror them out, cut out the person, and then create the transformation, right? But I essentially I could do it myself. Yeah. Like I didn't really need a lot of VFX help and all this other shit. So I'm like, yo, just out of curiosity, I'm like, yo, let me research the black and white video. Because I know back then that shit was like you know what I'm saying? They're shooting on film, it's a whole nother thing. So I looked, it was like a million dollars just to do those VFX shots. Just for that part of the video. So a million dollars for that. And I'm over here at the crib doing it. Yeah. So it was like one of those things where you just see how tech changes. But in the moment, now if I did that, no one even cares. But like when Mike did it, yeah, I mean, that was like crazy. Of course. But like, dog, you had the fat Asian lady turn into like an old white man. Right.
SPEAKER_04Like, bro. The video, like you said, even to this day, even though you know the videos, it's still the quality of how it looks, like, is timeless. We we've never seen anything. I mean, for a million goddamn dollars. It better. But I'm saying the man, the man beat up a car with a baseball bat screaming, kept grabbing his meat. You know what I'm saying? Ha ha! But even like they turned into a damn Panther.
SPEAKER_01The whole video game in general, like, I do a lot of work with uh Eric White. Eric White is Hype Williams' uh nephew. Okay, dope. So he was on set for like all the Pac videos, for the Nas videos, for all like every all the big videos. Like Belly. He was on set with Belly. Wow. So me and Eric worked together, and Eric was like little buddy, right? And now he's big buddy. Eric does a lot of film and TV, he's he's a big dog now. But when he was coming up, Hype was the man, and obviously Hype's his uncle, I think it is. They're family. It's either uncle, there's a they're like first blood. Okay. So he literally, like he me and me and him working together and whatever, and I didn't know just because he's Hype's nephew, at first I didn't know if like they'd ever work together. He just followed in the footsteps. So of course I'm on set with him. And he's telling me about hanging out with Pac and Big and Aliyah. Yeah. And he was he was there for everything. And he was just like, at first the coffee guy. Okay, then he started doing lighting, then he started learning Cam. Then he started like, so he's showing me all these different, you know, credentials that he's had throughout all these videos. Then he pulls out the pictures. Like, bro, he's like 19, 20 years old with Pac, with with all these different dudes. Wow. And he was telling me that hype would and and and and now I'm remembering what he said. So if I get the numbers wrong or something, you know what I'm saying? But it was I'm close. He was saying that when in hype's heyday, yeah. To get him to write a treatment. Okay. And the treatment for people that don't know is the idea. So like the idea of the video. So, like, hey, here's the song. What do you want? This is my vision for what? This is my vision. Yeah. So nowadays, to write a treatment, you gotta have pictures, even video examples, like the shit.
SPEAKER_04So they still do the video board or no?
SPEAKER_01They they do like however you can razzle dazzle this shit. Okay. You know what I'm saying? It's damn near like flashcards now. They just want to see photos, they don't even care what you write on a thing anymore. Okay. So he was telling me that to get hype, not to get the video. Yeah. Just to write a treatment, he would charge like six figures. Just for the treatment. Just to r and he would just write it. It'd be like two pages. Damn. Like a word doc. Yeah, he'd here you go. Yeah. So he would literally, like, that's the kind of money that was happening back in the day, before pre, you know, Napster and I think in the 90s and 2000s, especially late 90s, early 2000s, big budget music.
SPEAKER_04The big pimping video, you know, when they did that, they shot that in, I think, Trinidad or at Carnival or whatever.
SPEAKER_01Like, you know, on a yacht. You know what's crazy? So Pimp C's not in that video. Yeah. Pimp didn't, yeah, he didn't want to go. Yeah. So they had to go back to his house. In Miami, they were in Houston. Okay. It was in Houston. I said. Yeah, that was at his crib, and they had to shoot him there. He they asked him like 15 times, like, bro, just, you know what I'm saying? It's gonna mess up the whole thing. And he just said he stood on it, like, I'm not doing it. Right. So that's like, and now people are like, oh, that's crazy. So back then, like right now, if that happened to me, yeah, that's like a couple thousand bucks. I got we gotta fly in, get some equipment, find a location, a couple thousand dollars. Like back in the day, Pimp not being on set cost a lot of money. Probably cost a couple hundred thousand dollars to just go do that pickup shot of just him. But I mean, what are you gonna do?
SPEAKER_04With the with the video vixen in the car.
SPEAKER_01That's what I'm saying. Right. Because they got they're shooting on film, they got full crews, you got four or five guys, probably three cameras rolling, full lighting setup. So it's like a different world. And when I hear those stories of just the amount of absorb like they were telling me, he was telling me stuff. Eric told me a story. The the other one that blew my mind was they wanted like Mr. Charles or something for lunch. Yeah. And they were like in Atlanta or something, and they flew to they had an assistant take the private jet to New York to pick up lunch and come back so they could have it on set.
SPEAKER_04You talk about a budget, boy.
SPEAKER_01That's what I'm saying.
SPEAKER_04You just talking about lunch. Yeah. That's the lunch, bro. Facts.
SPEAKER_01We're not even talking about equipment, girls, cars, rentals, like and I mean now it's the it's so much different in the space. Like now you'll have 40 different directors writing a treatment for one video. Okay. And they all, and what's crazy is this is how the labels kind of play it too, and what they'll do is they get a pool of directors. You're the artist. Yeah. Give us your song. Pitch. We'll have 40 people write for this motherfucker, even though the label knows who they're gonna pick. Oh, that's so it's a game. So they make it, but they want to make it seem like they're bringing value to the to the artist. Okay. So they like, hey, promise, you with the label now, bro, we're gonna have the top 40 directors write a treatment for you. Okay. Okay. And since everybody's trying to, you know, clam on to any kind of work they can now, and since the budgets aren't what they used to be, yeah. So like hype had to shoot four videos a year and he was a millionaire. Yeah. Now you got to shoot 50 videos a year to make to make that kind of money. You know what I'm saying? So, but how the label, they're trying to leverage the artist to make it seem like they're bringing all this value to the artist. So they like, yo, bro, we're gonna have the top 40 directors run this to you. Make you feel like they already know who they want to use. Okay. But in order to make you gassed up, yeah, they gonna take, they're gonna put the word out. So I've like, I I I kind of slowed down on that with who I write treatments for now, too, because one, I've had shit that I've wrote get taken.
SPEAKER_04If you ride around anywhere in Wisconsin by now, I'm sure you'd have seen the billboard. Bald head dude, sunglasses, beard. That's my boy Russ from Nicolay Law. And if you ever find yourself needing an injury attorney, there's nobody else you should call. You get the beard, you get the win. Holla at Nicolay Law for all your injury needs.
SPEAKER_01I didn't want to believe it at first. Okay. I was like, nah, they ain't taking other concepts, but there was literally a Kodak Black video that they literally my whole idea. Oh shit. I'm like, there's no way they took, they they just happened to have the exact same whole lot. And it was a- You know, sometimes you like minds may think alike, but when you like this, it's walking in the footsteps. But it was, it was way outside of Kodak's normal shit. Okay. That's how I knew I'm like, hold on. And I knew the the people involved in it. Like, I knew the people involved, and I'm like, yeah, I definitely, they definitely saw that like that, but they knew they their director that they wanted to shoot it. Yeah, that he didn't have that concept. So they took my concept, told that director to shoot it.
SPEAKER_04So let me ask you, okay, so you know, like when you do film or television, obviously people can write scripts and you can, you know, have your works protected. Yeah. When you have a treatment, is it is that shit just kind of fair game where like you hope people have integrity and they don't do that, but once you put it out there, if the artist picks it or not, is it like you might have to just take an L? Is there no way to protect yourself from people taking treatments?
SPEAKER_01Is it just I mean, I'm gonna be real with you. Like, I wasn't even tripping on like on on the on the situation that that happened. The reason why I knew that they they did that, yeah, so I got confirmation, because I've had people hit me up with someone else's treatment. And be like, hey bro, can they like this treatment, but they want to work with you? Can you do this to you? And I'd be like, fuck no, I'm not doing that shit. I've turned it down.
SPEAKER_04Got you.
SPEAKER_01Just because off the strength of the fact that, like, yeah, I could come up, make a couple bucks or whatever, and who cares? But I'm like, I know how I'd feel if I was the other director. Okay. Plus, I don't want nobody stealing my shit. Facts. But I don't even really to be honest with you, I'm at a space like now where like one, I wouldn't even care even in the beginning.
SPEAKER_04Okay.
SPEAKER_01But now, like, everybody, like, in some way, shape, or form is taking ideas from other things. Sure. Blatantly stealing things. It's different. It's been, but it's been happening forever. I mean, you can- in all forms of media and entertainment. I I've seen it so many different times with songs to beats, to I mean, you can go online and just Google, like, hey, someone just put somebody stole my song, and there's, I mean, every time there's a hit record out, someone pops up, like, hey bro, I had this. We need a piece of that. Yeah. You know what I'm saying? So I think for me personally, like, yeah, you could do the copyrights and you can do other stuff, and that's cool. But then do you have the money to sue?
SPEAKER_04It might cost you more money to do the process than you even could get on a.
SPEAKER_01And that's where that, and they know that. That's why I think a lot of the time, and I'm not saying that this isn't like all the the everyone's predatory or trying to steal. But it happens, and I mean, I feel like for me personally, when it when it did happen to me, I wasn't even really mad about it at the end of the day because I'm in a good position. Like, I'm working a lot, I got a lot of shit going on. One music video isn't the end of the world for me, which is like I know it's it's I'm in a good space. Yeah. So I was cool with it. I, you know, maybe from a perspective of nothing was going on for me and that was my great idea, yeah, and it got taken. But at the end of the day, just with everything in my life too, I just kind of, you know, what are you really gonna do? Not that I don't want to fight for my things. I got you.
SPEAKER_04Is it worth the everything might not be worth the hassle?
SPEAKER_01But but also keep in mind, too, I always feel like when you're when you okay, so this is your path. If you stop on this path to to do a pit stop trying to fight for this thing, yeah, not only are you stopping here, right, you're not advancing anymore. So what makes more sense? I'm trying to get to my goal. Yeah. I get it. I can stop here, I get it. Yeah. I I get it. But is it really gonna advance me to where I'm gonna be?
SPEAKER_04Probably not. Well, my major goal is. And too, at the end of the day, like, you dope enough to re like, you have that one. I got way more in my bag. And if that's how they're moving around, that ain't gonna last. That's not gonna sustain.
SPEAKER_01Exactly.
SPEAKER_04So, no, I totally get it. But you mentioned something, you you you spoke about beginnings, and that made me pivot. I want to pivot for a second because you have such an amazing career and a lot of things I want to talk to you about, but we kind of got to go back for a second, really, to your start. You know what I mean? Because some people don't know how you got in the game. And, you know, being at you from the 414 originally, I got to see some of your stuff early. You know, I remember you shooting some of the dopest videos in Milwaukee, right? Before you even started shooting for all these major and these legendary artists. I remember seeing some of your content shooting cats in the city and being like, yo, whose video is that? You know what I'm saying? Who's shooting this? And we see the Philly Fly Boy logo and your name starting to come up and just the quality that you had even back then. But I remember um, you know, when you were making music, and I wonder, I always wanted to ask you, like, when did that shift come to you? Because you had quality videos yourself. You shot for Talent Couture and all the people was around you at that time. When did you decide, like, you know what? I don't want to focus on making art in this way. I want to pivot and I want to make art visually.
SPEAKER_01So that I mean it it was it was always all together. So I made music, yeah. I had artists, the record label, I did photography, I did graphic design. Yeah, you did, you did it. But I always from the from the jump, I always did everything. Okay. So like stop shot. Yeah, just because I've always been into art, like any form of art. Okay. I've tried almost every form of art, and I've enjoyed every form of art, actually. Like, there's really not a form of art where I'm out of that in it. Okay. I just enjoy art. I've painted. I got a full-fledged media arts degree from our institute of Chicago. So, like, you know, my dad's my dad's a commercial artist, so I've always been into art. Gotcha. You know what I'm saying? And music is in our form, absolutely, you know, and producing and putting stuff together, but I've always had a business mind to everything. Okay. So that's where the structure comes in. Yeah. So like the label, the record label was my idea. Okay. With the guys, I I met a literally met a dude at work that was like, yo, my boy's fired, and that was talent. Okay. So everyone says their guys fire. Sure. So I remember I was like, I'm 16, 17 at the time, and he rapped for me in some teen club out here. Like, bro, the music's blasting. He's rapping in my ear. In your ear, right. And I'm over here trying to act like, you know what I'm saying, like some music executive dude. I'm like, I got a I got a Radio Shack microphone on my wall in my mom's crib on like a 95 Windows 95 joint. So I was like, Bet, come by the crib. Okay. Bro, I didn't know what I was doing. So you're we're we're we're taking what this is crazy too. We we were literally, Hitboy was one of the producers on mp3.com. Hitboy was a no-name dude, but he had a little buzz on on mp3.com. This is pre-hitboy Hitboy. We were buying, they they had it, they were called Surf Club. It was him chasing cash, Hitboy, Surf Club Car, a couple other guys. Okay. And they were like a little collective and they had a nice little presence on mp3.com and they had beats on there for 25 bucks. Okay. So I got probably four or five different, probably more than that, five, six, seven Hitboy beats on my email right now from 20 years ago. Okay. When they weren't, they were just, they were called Surf Club. Damn. And Hip Boy was the producer on him and Chasing Cash were the were the producers on there. And I was buying Hit Boy beats for 25 bucks. Damn. So we go on mp3.com, buy a beat, put it up, write to it, boom, boom, boom. So immediately I was like, okay, I gotta structure this. This gotta be legit. Okay. Because my whole thing, especially you know how Milwaukee is like we're trying to look better than everyone else in the city. That's how we always with everything. Not thinking about it. We don't even think about the big picture. We just trying to be the best in the city. And thankfully it's grown and we got better. Yes, but I'm saying back in the day, and it wasn't even on no bad energy. It was just like, okay, we're gonna do this. We gotta be bigger and better than everybody. Yeah. So right away, I'm like, structure, label name, let's get a real recording studio or like, you know, a real recording studio. Right. So it was it was kind of that. And what do we need next? We need fire ass mixtape covers. Yeah, we need, you know, the MySpace page booming out the rafters. Yeah. So I was already doing design work. So I got into the design and the photography real heavy. Okay. Well, then natural progression. What do we need? What do we need to be better than everybody? Video. People were lacking music videos heavy in that era. So that that was the thing. Like back then, having a music video set you apart because it was in that space of like you needed to be a millionaire to have a music video. It sounded like it was so astronomical, like you said. And if you got on MTV or BET, like that was back when if you got a video on MTV or BET, bro, it was you're done. You're out of there. Out of there. You're you're good. Like your millionaire status in a week.
SPEAKER_04Then it evolved into the whole world star era and all the blogs.
SPEAKER_01You know, the impact of the music video was probably the m one of the top five things as a music artist you could do.
SPEAKER_04Specs man, especially in this heyday when we used to actually sit and wait for music videos to come on. Yeah. We couldn't, it wasn't no YouTube. Like you had to wait till your joint came on.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, so we basically I I f I'm like, okay, so I'm always, you know, trying to figure out how how to get the play going. So I literally got a camera from my guy whose dad worked at one of the news stations here in town. Okay. And they could like rent cameras out from the from the station. Yeah. So they they got it, we got a camera from I think it was Fox 6, Channel 12, one of these joints. Okay. And use that camera to shoot a music video. Damn. Okay. And then I rent I found another buddy of mine who had had rented lights, like they rented lights. Yeah. And these are like the big crazy lights. Like this ain't no like LED joints. It's like you can fry a steak on these boys. They were so hot. Okay. So we we got that going and we just put it together and then I figured out how to edit. Um, but I was editing like analog, like with the tape originally. Okay. So like putting the tape in, finding an endpoint, finding or whatever. Like it was cra it sounds crazy right now. Figuring that out, and immediately the impact of the video was like it was like overnight. No one was messing with us at all. Second we dropped video, yeah, everyone in the city was like, yo, who are these dudes? So immediately I knew this is it. We gotta go this route. Okay. Forget everything else. We shooting everything video. Yeah. So then we start, we collectively get everybody together. Bomb my mom, fast forward, we shooting videos for everybody. Now people calling me to shoot their videos. Yeah. I'm telling them no. Like, no, not having it, not having it. Well, then they kept offering more and more money. Yeah. Because at the time we used to keep it in-house. Because I wanted to just crush everybody in Milwaukee. Makes sense at the time. So that's what I'm saying. Yeah, you know, I get it. So the motivation was like, we're trying to be a good one. What's our let go? What's our advantage? That's it. So I'm over there doing my thing, and people keep calling for videos. And then Ray Rizzy was over there with us for a while doing stuff. Yeah. Then I'm shooting with Rizzy. And the second. Yeah, you know, Rizzy's like an icon in Milwaukee. Man, one of my favorite rappers from Milwaukee. Every. That's what I'm saying. Me too. And he was one of the few dudes like from the north side that like blended in with us. Yeah. Because it was we was all Puerto Rican, Dominican, white dudes, like, you know, Southside. Yeah. You know how it is in Milwaukee. Facts. He was one of the few black dudes that was messing with us because you know how it was back then. It was like Southside, Northside. That was it, Southside, Northside. For sure. So Rizzy was like that bridge, and he's always been that dude. Like Rizzy good everywhere. Right. He can go any neighborhood. He knows somebody. Everyone is cousin. So in the same head. Exactly. In the same sense, Rizzy brought that whole situation back together. Okay. And we started, like, we're everywhere. Like we were like 30, 40 deep Puerto Ricans in questions. Okay. Like on some, like the record slow down when we walk in. Movie calls. I'm in there with 30 Puerto Rican dudes. Yeah. In the all-black club. And I'm the only white dude in there. And Rizzy and Rizzy right there. And he was Rizzy. Like immediately people were like, hold on, Rizzy just brought in this movie. So then all immediately because we were with Rizzy, it was all good. Stamped Boom. And then it just started going crazy. And that's when I opened up and I started realizing because we started traveling, going to LA, New York, all kinds of stuff. Like it can't just be about who's best in Milwaukee. Like, no one even cares about Milwaukee like that. We have to make them care about Milwaukee. Gotcha. And the only way to do that is if we're all popping. Quality. So that, yeah, that's why really, really to be honest with you, I opened my mind to like, okay, I can't think I'm the best in Milwaukee. That's not gonna work for me. Okay. I gotta think, how can I make Milwaukee look the best? Yeah. And that's gonna benefit me, and that's gonna benefit everybody in Milwaukee. You know what I'm saying? And once I made that switch, that's when I started shooting other people's videos, and things started going crazy. And then Cause was your first, was your first video outside the city?
SPEAKER_04Was it Trey? Was Trey the Truth your first? Okay. What was your first one that that got you out of the city working with uh other artists and major artists? That's a good question. Because I always I don't know why. I always thought it was Trey.
SPEAKER_01Uh uh. Okay. So it wasn't Trey the Truth. Trey was probably Trey might have been, nah, it was probably it was probably uh Young Berg. Berg, okay. It was probably Young Berg. Hitmaker, yeah. For those who don't know. Yeah, it was probably Young Berg, was was probably one of him and uh so I'm trying to think what that was. I'm I think that might have been the first one we shot in LA. Okay. And because it was talent, an artist on my label, he was the network god, and he had connected with some of Berg's team at the time. Yeah. And it was damn, I'm gonna I'm forgetting all this shit now. That shit's so long ago. So it was yeah, but it was Berg. Berg, okay. And I remember when we shot, that was like, we were like, oh shit, we were in LA, downtown LA, we shooting, we we shooting with Berg, and then that pretty much like that was when Berg was kind of ending his music career. Yeah. Um, but he was still young Berg. So like it was crazy. I saw the flip on people. Like a lot of people that were like, oh bro, I'm not paying this much for videos, or I'm not paying over 300 bucks for a video. And then it was crazy to flip. Was once they saw me shoot with somebody from the industry, motherfuckers were just throwing money at me. Like, well, how much you need, bro? Like, I'm like, what happened to the Where does unlimited budget come from? Yeah, but that's just you know, it's and I get it. And once I realized that too, like, I was never salty about that. I feel like a lot of people get in their feelings about like, oh, why don't the city mess with me? Or why don't and I'm like, bro, you gotta give them something worth messing with. People ain't just gonna support just for the like out of the level of their heart. But that's what I'm saying. Like, and I I wasn't, I never was that guy in the first place. I never felt like the city owed me anything, right? Yeah, I never felt like anybody really owed me anything. You just I was like, yo, I want to make it so that I ain't gotta call nobody. They're calling me. Okay, and the only way you're doing that is by way throwing that flag in the air speak for you. And keep that flag flying. Yeah, and that's what I did. I kept grinding with my team, then I started working outside of the city, and like I said, the city started waking up to me crazy once I started shooting outside of the city. Yeah, and people always like they die, they like the crazy shit to me in a lot of small cities is people knock that, right? Like, man, I had to leave the city to blow up. I'm like, yeah, motherfucker, that that's what they need to see you working in order to say, okay, that's somebody I can support. They ain't just gonna support you because you live in the city. That doesn't even make no damn sense. But for some reason, I feel like a lot of people get caught up in the sense of like, hey, just because what does that real word support mean?
SPEAKER_04You know, the definition of it, because it could be different to different people.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, what are you expecting from people? But I mean, take the city out of it, right? Would you support somebody that wasn't doing what they're supposed to be doing for any other reason? No.
SPEAKER_04Or just in general, just because it's like if you have something quality or something that I need or something I enjoy, then I will pay or I will patronize it. But like you said, just because that's like just because you're my guy. You should come come to my store just because I'm your guy. I can show love, but it would be better if I actually genuinely like your product, then I shop with you. And I ain't expecting nothing for you, no plug. I want to actually see a girl, I want to invest in it, I want to come support it. Not just because you're the homie, you know what I mean? It's like put the work in and have something that people should support.
SPEAKER_01No, and that's what that was my mindset. So when people started supporting me like crazy in all Philly this and da-da-da, like I was like, oh, that's it. Yeah, and I immediately it flipped the switch though, too. Like I said, I'm like, I gave them some worth supporting, gave them something worth paying money for. I didn't, they're not doing it out of guilt. Yeah. Not guilt, but like, you know. They see the value in what you do. That's what I'm saying. They want to pay this money now because they see the value instead of like, oh, that's the homie from Milwaukee. I I'll throw them. Yeah, that's what I'm saying. So it was like, once I realized that, and it was the same thing like when I shot with Jacob Lattimore, I hadn't shot no RB videos. I was the rap guy. So I couldn't get no RB videos. And I wanted to shoot RB videos, but everybody looked at me like the rap guy. Okay. So Ray Nitty plugged me with Jacob, and boom, I shot Jacob. Second I shot Jacob, all of a sudden I'm I'm doing RB videos like crazy. So I realized those two moments were big shifts in my just mental understanding of how just anything in life works. Yeah. Like you gotta show them. You gotta have some proof. And I get it, it's a catch-22. How do I shoot an RB? I've never done it. And that, but that's the thing. Sometimes you gotta do it on your own. Get get who do you you gotta know somebody that sings, right? Yeah, you gotta know somebody that does a certain thing so you can showcase those skills. And once I figured that kind of that meth method of the madness, yeah, is is finding a way to break that barrier, is you gotta show them. Like you can't just say, bro, hey, I know how to fix cars. Yeah. You ever fixed a car before? No. Can you show me a car you fixed? No. You know what I'm saying? Go fix, how about this? Go fix your own car and show them, like, yeah, man, I fixed the whole engine in this joint. Here, let me show you the. Fuck it up. That's what I'm saying.
SPEAKER_04You figure it out.
SPEAKER_01But but now you have an example of the work and it gives people the confidence in the in into getting getting that work from you. And once I figured that out, it changed my dynamic, and that's when I really started to grow.
SPEAKER_04And I also know that one of the things that obviously stamped you and solidified your work is, you know, when you start working with Tip, you know, T.I. obviously one of the greatest rappers of all time, and you start shooting a lot of quality content with him, hustle game, grounds, all of that. One of my favorite videos you ever shot was the was the Whitney video, the one with T.I. and uh and Ryan had a lot of people.
SPEAKER_01That's one of the so bad sunburned that day, dog. That's one of my favorite ones. I was out there all day in the sun with no fucking nothing, no hat on, no nothing. And I remember I remember Tip, we were about midway through the video, we on Biscayne Bay. And Tip like, hey man, I'm like, What? He's like, You look a little red, dog. And you know, I this like I had just kind of started working with Tip. Yeah, and that video, I'll tell you the story on that video. I'll video the story on that one. Crazy. But yeah, it was bad. I had to go into the hotel for three days and not touch the sun for three days after that video. So I barely know Tip. I've been around Tip for like four years at that point. I met Tip through Trey. Okay. I'm shooting all Trey stuff. I'm not like a roachy ass dude, so when I'm around other people, I don't talk. I'm not gonna sit in a couple of things. Like, bro, hey, check my videos. I never I never never never been on no roaching ass shit. So I'm with Trey, I'm like, I'm Trey's people. I don't need to, I'm not in here for any, but Tip's always around us. Sure. Trey's working with Tip now. Long story short, a bunch of other people in in Tip's camp start hitting me up to shoot videos. Shot the guy, his cousin. I'm shooting with uh this other dude, Book, who's on the label. So I'm shooting with like everybody around Tip. Okay, but adjacent, you TI adjacent. Exactly. But not because I'm roaching, they're hitting me up because they see Trey's videos. Yes. So then literally randomly, probably after like two, three years hanging around with Trey, I get a call from a number I don't know, and it's Tip. Wow. And he's like, hey man, we gotta shoot some shit. And I'm like, all right. The particulars of your music video. So I'm like, I'm like that. So he's like, all right. So the first, I don't, I think I shot Memories Back Then first. The joint with him, Kendrick, yeah. Is it TI Kendrick, B O B, and uh Chris Steffens. Yeah, on the hook. Okay. So we shot that video. He called it he calls me. Yeah, so I had shot some little shit with Tip where he featured with Trey, but I never shot one for just straight tip. I think Memories Back Then was the first one. Okay. If not, it was with me. Vice versa. Either way, they're both in the same pocket. I'm little buddy, can't FID, little camera, don't really know shit. I'm running gun shooter. Tip wants to shoot like a video video. I don't know what the fuck I'm doing. So he called, but and and then on top of that, he calls me like 36 hours advanced notice. I'm in Milwaukee, call me, like, hey bro, I got this song, trying to get it done. Doesn't tell me who's on it, nothing, just sends me the record. Okay. The record says like, you know, demo five. It doesn't say that artist, nothing. So I'm listening to it. I'm and I've already shot with Kendrick at this point, but this was before Kendrick blew up. Right. But I hear Kendrick on it, and I'm like, oh shit, this Kendrick's popping now. Yeah. So I'm like, oh shit, this song's crazy. Because this is good kid Mad City, Kendrick. Yeah, okay. That's already out.
SPEAKER_04Okay.
SPEAKER_01He's already out of there. Yeah. So I'm like, oh shit. He got Kendrick on here, B.O.B.'s on there, you know what I'm saying? So I'm like, all right. He's like, yeah, I want to shoot in LA. You know what I'm saying? I want to do this, I want to do that. He's firing off all this crazy shit. Yeah. And I'm, bro, I don't know how to do any of this shit. Like, I'm literally like, bro, I'm a fish out of water. Like, I'm like, pull up and shoot, buddy. I'm shooting on the corner, buddy. So you ain't even at this other level yet that he expects you to be at. Not even that he expects me to be at, but I'm like, bro, like if we do this, we got to do it my way. Cause I don't even know how to do this the right way. Okay. So I start coming up with all my ideas. Yeah. And all my ideas consist of us showing up on some straight up stealing the scene, no permits. Like, but I'm like, I'm with Tib. I'm with Kendrick. Like, bro, I can't show up. So I'm like, whatever. I told Tib, I said, yo, you got to roll high roll. If you want to, if you want to shoot with me, we uh like I literally, because I'm like, bro, I can't do this in 36 hours. I'm no legit. He's like, Bet, let's run it. So, no lie. I want to shoot on a 6th Street Bridge, which is the famous bridge in LA. Okay. Where it's the right on the viaduct right there, and you see the city behind it. Okay. Major film spot. You need a permit, you need police, you need everything to shoot on this bridge. So I'm like, yo, I'm about to have Tip Kendrick, everybody out there. No lie. We go, I land that morning, I go on the way to the shoot, we we drive by a construction site and we stole some of the orange cones.
SPEAKER_04Okay.
SPEAKER_01To block. So we steal like six of these cones, me and my guy. We go to this rental house. I'm like, yo, what could I get that's not hard to use that makes me look professional? So they were like, get a dolly, there's a little dolly. They're like, get a reflector board so you can reflect. The guy's showing me, I've never used a reflector so I can reflect the light. Never used one. He's showing me, we're in the back of this rental house. He's showing me, like, hey, look, see where the sun's at? See? I'm like, I bet. He's showing me how to use the doorway down with my guy. Then we're just taking notes, like, I bet. We get to the 6th Street Bridge, boom, we put out, we we block a lane of traffic. Tip pulls up, he got a couple cars with him, BOB, a couple cars. MTV News is there. Oh shit. MTV News producer comes over to me. He's like, hey, yo, we're all good permitting wise, and we got everything. I'm like, yeah, yeah, we're good. Bro, we had no permit, no nothing. But we hey, no lie. The the cones. Yeah. And then we had my guy. He had on, like, not like a police outfit, right? Okay. But kind of like a Dickies outfit. Okay. Like he had a reflective vest on or two? Nah, not like that, but like the Dicky shirt that looks like a work shirt. Okay. So he looked like a security or something. He looked like something. He looked like somebody. But he was really just like a little buddy. Okay. And he was out there acting. He's like, you know what I'm saying? Can direct the track. I'm like, bro, act like you know what's going on. Yeah, listen. Dude, like seven cops come by. Okay. He waving them off. He, yeah, we're good. Like, bro, there, because it looks crazy. Like, we got all this stuff out here. We going nuts. So we shoot on Sixth Street Bridge. Then we go down. Then we go down. We got Kendrick on there, all that stuff. So this is like Kendrick. I'd already shot one of when he was young. Now this is Big Dog Kendrick. He comes, he comes with uh Top Dog. He did the whole thing. When I first met him, he came by himself in like a beat-up car.
SPEAKER_05Okay.
SPEAKER_01And we shot in the middle of the neighborhood. Nobody knew who he was when I shot for I'm On. And then when I shot with him here, he's Big Dog. They pulled up in like all the R8s, like four of them, like going crazy. So I remember a vivid moment when Kendrick had to change outfits. He plays two characters in uh himself. Okay. One big dog Kendrick, one pre-Kendrick. So he goes from nice outfit to like street outfit. Okay. And I remember he was like, he literally came over to me and he was like, hey, Philly, we got we got uh trailers to to change in. And of course we ain't got no damn trailers. So I literally remember I told Kendrick, I was like, bro, like, uh, don't holly with me now, bro. I remember when we shot in the neighborhood, bro, you changed in your car.
SPEAKER_05Yeah.
SPEAKER_01And he was like, uh, you right. And literally would just like change and went into his car and changed.
SPEAKER_04But he had to spin K Dot in order to be.
SPEAKER_01Because he tried, you know what I'm saying? He came in like, what's up? We got he wasn't on no Hollywood show. He was asking a legitimate question on the music video. Yeah, we got we got we got trailers. I'm like, it ain't getting that kind of party, bro. You're like, so then we switch it out. We're down on um, we go down to the pier, we go to Santa Monica Pier. Yeah, I pull out of Santa Monica Pier with Tip, Kendrick, everybody. Bro, Santa Monica Pier is packed to the brim of people. Yeah. Tip's like, we're gonna shoot here. I'm like, no, we're not. There's a thousand million people here. So no lie, there was a hot dog stand right here at Paws, and then literally behind it.
SPEAKER_04We paused in the glizzy's now.
SPEAKER_01Hey, right behind it, there's like a part of the pier, okay, but it's for the workers. Okay, it looks like the pier. So I gave the the hot dog buddy like 300 bucks, and I was like, can we go back here? Because it was only for employees. Yeah. So you had to go through the gate. I gave him a couple hundred, he lets us go through the gate, and I shoot. If you watch B.O.B. scene, we're literally back where the employees are at because he's by himself. It don't look like no one's back there with him. So we snuck that one, and as we're leaving the hole, all the people saw us, and then we got swamped with people. We got in the cars and burned off. So, like, you know, that's just that was, and I'm shooting on like, you know, a thousand dollar camera, not knowing what I'm doing. And that video is at 165 million views, I think, right now. Shit.
SPEAKER_04And then to go from that to all the videos you've shot since then, you know, you didn't shot everybody from Snoop Doll to Sexy Red. And besides shooting music videos, you parlayed into. I want to talk to you briefly about going into, you know, film, yeah. The difference. Like, you know, you were a part of the apartment shit that they did, you know, with TI, DC Young Fly. You um shot the soul man.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, Myron's on there too. Myron, shout out to Myron Drew from the crib. I didn't even know so people thought, like, I got Myron in that movie. I didn't. I didn't even know Myron was on the movie. He was a down in Atlanta already worker. He was on Tip found him on Instagram. Okay. From one of his skits. I think he found him from that skit when he's in the underwear and stuff. No, he was in the underwear. He was being his draw. Yeah. When he was in his drawers and the girls chasing him. Yeah. That's the Myron. I'm pretty sure that's what Tip told me. He said he found him on Instagram, but I think it was from that skit where he was in the Timberland boots and he was in his drawers. Yeah. I got the I got the receipts. Yeah, so I get there on the table read day one of the movie, just for the departments, and Myron's at the table. Yeah. And he's like one of the lead dudes. And I'm like, bro. And Tip didn't even know he was from Milwaukee. He thought he was an Atlanta dude. Wow.
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SPEAKER_01Kelly's been in a movie I just did. She's from Milwaukee. Shout out to both of them. So it's like a bunch of Milwaukee energy going on all in the and then K Dub, you just found out K.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, we had a conversation off the record before this. You telling me that, yo, but you know what? Milwaukee, I used to joke and call it Milanta. I'm like Milwaukee and Atlanta have so many connecting pieces and stories, you know what I'm saying? Even look at our sports team, the Brewers and the Braves, you know what I'm saying? But so many connections and I.
SPEAKER_01I mean, Tip's surrounded by, if you really look at it, he's surrounded by Milwaukee talent. He's, you know, he works with me all this time. He's got Myron on that movie. Kelly Kells is. Y'all doing apartments, not to cut you off, part two, right? That's already shot. That's already shot. Okay. Yeah, I don't know what to, I'm pretty sure it's done, but I'm saying you you got Myron around him, you got Kelly Kells around him, you got me around him, you got K Dub around him. I mean, that's four or five people from Milwaukee. It was just with ties around tip.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, which is which is dope, man. And is there a difference like when you're shooting um music videos versus shooting like television or film? Like, does it is your eye different, or is it the same approach? You just have to edit things differently.
SPEAKER_01Nah, I think the biggest thing that I've learned with movies is coverage. So when you watch a movie, you don't realize how many times the camera's cutting from a wide to a tight to a detailed to another wide, okay, to camera over here, camera over there. And that's really what it to me, I always tell people like, how do I how do I make my films look different? More coverage is better will will immediately make it look like it's a higher budget film. Yeah. So doing the same take 12 times with 12 different angles, yeah. I mean creative angles, you don't want to just shoot anything. Just to shoot it, but more coverage of a scene. A lot of the times you see a lot of movies that are lower budget and it'll be like one take. Okay. And it's just this shot right here, and that's it. We never see a wide, we never see a tight, okay, we never see your hands. You talk about something over here, we never see a cut to that. So, like when you when you hear things about a movie and a scene taking like a month to shoot, it's because of coverage. They got wides, tights, aerial, detail shots, all these different things that put it together. Okay. And you don't even notice it as a viewer. But just go watch any scene from any movie that you like, literally any movie, a high quality, but big budget movie, and you'll see, even in a conversation like me and you here talking, it'll cut every three, four seconds to a different shot, different shot. Very rarely, it'll come back to some of the same shots, but it's going wide. You got a perspective from outside the window. Okay. You know what I'm saying? Yeah. All these different things to keep the viewer entertained. So it's not just this and this. You know what I'm saying? It's not these two shots the whole time. Now, in a cheap movie, boom, it's just these two shots. You know what I'm saying?
SPEAKER_04But I mean, that's your hat keep changing direction, ain't no continuity and shit.
SPEAKER_01No continuity, but it's really about the amount of coverage. So I always tell people like the easiest way, hands down, for your production to ramp up to the next level. Okay. Is if you did four takes with with three different angles, yeah, double that. Okay. Whatever coverage you think is enough, yeah, double it. Okay. And that's what that's what you're starting to get closer to a full blown production. Take that time. And that's really the biggest thing. As an indie, we don't have time. Yes. We got no money, we got the Shooting a move, a whole movie in three weeks. That's it. Not even eight days. I just shot I just shot that one with me and Trey that sold. We shot it in seven and a half days. Wow. Because we only had certain people for this many days. The location only gave us one day. So we're doing 18, 19 hour days inside of that shoe store we shot in. So we're inside of that shoe store. We had to shoot 19 hour days because they only gave it to us for two days. So we have to shoot every single scene in there. So I'm saying, you know, it's harder to do that, but you just got to be as efficient as possible because the more coverage you have, that's the biggest cheat code. That and lighting. Lighting, you get your lighting right and get your coverage right. Yeah. You've already stepped outside of the Tubi box. You don't have to bring it up. Even though I love Tubi. And that movie's on Tubi. Fact, it is. Tubi's fire.
SPEAKER_04Tubi has the best in the book. The best of both. But you can learn good or bad.
SPEAKER_01But look at it, and this is how I look at everything. Even like, you know, people from being from Milwaukee and all this other stuff, too. You can learn how to do things right and wrong by seeing things right and wrong. I agree. You know what I'm saying? So if you if you apply what's wrong to something that you see that's not correct, dissect why it doesn't look right. Yeah. And then the opposite. So if you see something that doesn't look right and looks wrong, sit down with a notepad if you're trying to improve your own skills. Why does this not look right? Okay. Well, this is inconsistent. Dude's got a mustache in this scene. Now you ain't got a mustache. You know what I'm saying? Like dissect, right? Reverse engineer. Same thing with something good. When you see something good, sit down with a pad as a director, producer, whatever you are, editor, and dissect why it looks good. Well, the lighting looks good, the consistency, the conversation, write down why it looks good and start applying that to yourself. And that's how I got good at music videos, bro. I just stole everybody's stuff. Why does that scene look good? I used to watch hype. Hype was one of my guys, and that's why I brought up. I'd say, why does it look good? Because he's shooting low, wide. It's a low angle and it's wide, and it makes the dude look like a superhero. Okay, let me start shooting like that. I'm gonna implement the low wide in my shot. And then I see this, and so dissecting even the bad stuff. I dissect my own bad stuff. I shoot a whole bunch of stuff I don't like. And I look and I'm like, why doesn't it look good? Why is this not hitting like it's supposed to hit? And then I learn from my own mistakes. So you don't just learn from watching Steven Spielberg, you can learn from stuff that that isn't where it needs to be at whether it's yours or somebody else's. You just take pieces of it, reverse engineer it, figure out why it was good or why it was bad, and then you just you take that out.
SPEAKER_04That bro, that that's a Philly fact.
SPEAKER_01That's a big Philly fact. I like that perspective. That's a big Philly fact.
SPEAKER_04Now, I know you I know you're a super busy dude, and you got another project you gotta shoot today. Um, we're gonna have to have you back for a part two. But I got you on a payment plan. This was a promise.
SPEAKER_01I'm gonna fucking promise to pay me. We got we got a little fucking paid shit, yeah, but he promised to pay me.
SPEAKER_04We got layout for the camera. But promise to payment. But then but there's a game I play with all my guests, man, that always do call first and last. So I definitely want to have you come back for a part two so we can jump into some more dope stories you got. But I want to play my game of first and last with you. So we got first and last with Philly Flyboy. Philly, what's the first thing you do when you wake up?
SPEAKER_01First thing I do when I wake up, I drink a C4 energy drink. God white boy shit. See, that's some white boy tingling. It makes it C4? It makes your forehead tingle, bro. It gets you going, dog. That's like workout crack. I get it. That's it.
SPEAKER_04The powder from my number bank. I was on that pot, man.
SPEAKER_01I don't know what you're doing with the powder. I wouldn't even do the powder. The powder unregulated. The powder banned at 48 cents.
SPEAKER_04Listen, when I say I worked out, dog, for like four hours, I could not go to sleep. I was at Kohl's, it was around Christmas time. Cole's was 25. I know them C4s. Man, hell yeah, I know, but I can't do it.
SPEAKER_01Shots out of C4. That's yeah. Out the Ripper. You gotta get that C4. Wow, boy. Get it moving. Gee. Hey, all my editors know that caffeine is real deal. You gotta get that, you gotta be at about 8,000 CC's of caffeine out the Ripper. All right, let me ask you this. We talked a little bit about film and cinema. What's the last movie you watched? Last movie I watched. Yeah. So I just watched two movies recently. I don't really watch a lot of movies unless I know I can't waste my time because I got I'm I'm always editing. Editing really consumes most of my time. Yeah. You shoot for a day or two, five, six, seven days, and you edit for weeks, months, whatever. So the last, last legit movie I just watched, I just watched the rip on on Netflix because I I fuck with Ben and uh and Matt Damon. Ben and Matt Damon, yeah. Um I feel like it was cool. It was a made for Netflix movie, though. Okay. For what they can do, yeah, not good. For a Netflix movie. For Netflix budget Netflix. And this is I I always I always advise people, just a caveat, when you're watching something, put it in the context. Is this supposed to be some blockbuster crazy thing? Then you can hold it to that standard. If it's not, take it for what it is. For what it is, a Netflix quick, you know what I'm saying? You enjoyed it. It's top-tier Netflix movie. I see what's going on. Top tier Netflix movie. Compared to all their other movies, but it's a different movie. Never compare it to their other movies. But for a Netflix, that that it's gone. Really good. I thought the story was great, everything was good. There's a lot of stuff that as a filmmaker you see and you're like, well, yeah, but don't watch it with a different lens, absolutely. Yeah, but I mean, for just to sit back, enjoy, watch a movie, you know, it was dope. Okay. It was dope. Um I would put it in like, you know, in the ballpark of like, you know, a lot of the other movies a little bit above a lot of the other Netflix movies. Okay. But like one of my movies that I watch all the time. I watch Sopranos. Sopranos is what I watch when I edit. Sure. Okay. So I've got a tier for you, like you or uh So the reason why I watch so the reason why I watch Sopranos while I edit, yeah, because I've watched Sopranos season one to uh six, which is with six A and six B, but I've watched it probably 50 times. Okay. So I don't need to watch it. I can just hear it and occasionally glance at it, and I'm ADHD as hell. So it's my cheat code to having something else going on preoccupying my mind. So I don't go on the phone and go on Instagram or go on other things. So it's that secondary thing that I need to be going for my ADHD to keep me locked in on one thing. I know it sounds crazy. Welcome to the C4 Life. So I hey, I I put sopranos on while I'm watching while I'm editing on my phone so that I and I don't have to really pay that much attention to it. Okay. But it's there. It's background noise. But it's there, and I know what's going on because I've watched it so many times. Yeah. So I have to like watch, watch it. You know, I can't put something on that I need to watch. Okay. Because then I'm over here, I'm over there.
SPEAKER_04I sometimes I used to put movies on just to go to sleep. Like Blue Streak. But you know, because you've watched it 50 times. I've seen it million times.
SPEAKER_01And I watched, that's how I used to do with Martin. Martin used to come out at 11 p.m.
SPEAKER_04Come on.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. Martin used to come on at 11 p.m. Yeah. And I'd already seen the episode 50 times. My favorite TV show of all the time. And it came on right at 11 when my ass was supposed to be in bed asleep. And I'll fall asleep to Martin all the time.
SPEAKER_04Okay.
SPEAKER_01First car. First car I ever had. Yes. I had a brand, I had a new, I had a Dodge Neon, a brand new Dodge Neon when I turned 15. And right before my 16th birthday. Do you remember when the Dodge Neon was cool back in the day for like a about a year? Was that the little one? Yeah, the little little buddy. Remember when Dodge had, they had a little run. They had the neon, they had the what was the one? Big timers had the uh the Plymouth uh Dodge Plymouth. I mean they had the uh what was it? The pro not the Prowler. Plymouth Prowler and then another weekend one. The the the I know what you wagon joint.
SPEAKER_03It looked like the little the wagon joint.
SPEAKER_01They had them in the video. In bling bling, they have a dodge neon, too. Yeah.
SPEAKER_04I got the dodge in because the other one with the fat bag. It looked like a little refrigerator. Why can't you think of the name of that?
SPEAKER_03Can be my producer. What was the name of that?
SPEAKER_01So the neon was in the neon was in the I think it's in the bling bling video too. So the the Dodge joints was going through.
SPEAKER_04No, no, not the neon. And in the bling bling, they had the the butt. Remember the beetles got popped. Oh, the beetle. They had the beetle jointle. Yeah.
SPEAKER_01So which is not a rapper stunt car at all. Because I illegally worked at a restaurant for like three years. One of my Italian guys, his parents owned a restaurant. So we doctored up my my uh my uh my age verification. So I was working at a restaurant and I was just stacking bread to get a car. Yeah, I was I was literally damn near associated with the mob. So I've been working in a restaurant just stacking bread because I wanted a car. So I bought a car, bought a Dodge Neon, and got my license in my car the day of my 16th birthday and out of there.
SPEAKER_04What color was your joint?
SPEAKER_01Silver. Silver. I had the neons underneath that hoe, too.
SPEAKER_04All right, last one. The last thing you do before you go to sleep.
SPEAKER_01So the last thing I do, I always pray. I don't pray like traditional pray. I've been in the church my whole life. I've been private school, all that stuff. You love the Lord. Yeah. So I I went through private school through first through eighth grade, and then I went to public school and high school. So my relationship with God kind of changed when I got into high school because I wasn't getting it every day like how I was uh when I was at uh like Christian school. Yeah. So I had to kind of figure out my, you know, because when it's like in front of you every day, it's easier to kind of, you know, pray and be all this kind of stuff. So when I got into high school, I I have more of a conversational approach to prayer. Okay. Like I just talk to God like He's my guy. Sure. You know what I'm saying? And I've always kind of He is. But I'm saying, like, you know, it's very non-formal. Right. Okay, I got it. I'm not like, dear God, please.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, you have a different thing.
SPEAKER_01You know what I'm saying? I'm like, yo, I appreciate that. I'm like, that's what's up. You know, I thank you for that. You know, da-da-da. Appreciate that. And I don't ever ask God for nothing, nothing. I just thank him for what was going on and whatever's gonna happen is gonna happen. Yeah. So I pray, I talk to God. I I say I talk to God because I don't really pray. Okay. I don't call it praying. So I talk to God.
SPEAKER_04Jesus on the main line.
SPEAKER_01The Lord, the Lord, the Lord, please, the Lord, Father, I turn into a black pastor at night. Oh, so you don't do Lord! You ain't doing a white guy pray, Father? Yeah. By the bedside, dear father. Dear Lord. Nah, so I pray, talk to God, usually, and then like what's crazy, this is like some weird subliminal shit. I I'm big in like financial education. Okay. And I always put on, I know this is bad, and I'll probably fucking get some weird shit going on in my brain for doing this dumbass shit, but I put my headphones on and I fucking put on a uh financial podcast and go to sleep.
SPEAKER_00Okay.
SPEAKER_01Probably not a good idea. Probably why I can't sleep for shit. And then that's why you get up and drink. So yeah, financial pod to go to bed. Not every night, but a lot of the times. Okay. And I I I get a good 10-15 minutes of that before you go. And then I wake up and it's on like I don't, it's on like 50 episodes later. Shit like R. Kelly's trying to do it. Yeah, it's like a whole, I'm like, bro, I gotta be careful, I don't even know what's playing during the middle of the night.
SPEAKER_04No, that's wild. Philly, if they not tapped in with you, man, please give out the social media so they can find out more about you or see all your work. If you want to give out the YouTube channel, check out the other.
SPEAKER_01So everything, all you gotta do is just search Philly Flyboy, all one word, all spelled correctly. So Philly Flyboy, my name's Philly because my male name's Philip. I'm from Milwaukee, I'm not from Philadelphia. The misconception had to clean up. Yeah, exactly. So my name is Steven Philip Topcheski. Okay, if you can spell my last name, I'll give you two words. Good luck. I'll give you 200. So they call me Philly from that. So it's Philly Flyboy, all one word. No caps, no spaces, all spelled correctly. If you just search Philly Flyboy on my Instagram, my YouTube, everything will come up.
SPEAKER_04Man, I appreciate you, dude, coming through. Appreciate you, brother. Thank you, my guy. It's another episode of Straight from the Yap, of course, sponsored by Nikolai Law. You get the beer, you get the win. Shout out to my boy Russ. Like, subscribe, follow, stay tapped in with us. We got more content on deck, and you're already know. It's not a threat, it's a promise. Yeah! The Lord! I could have kept going with you, but I know we gotta shoot this up.