Pauly On The Pod
Pauly On The Pod
Road Trips And Real Rhymes: Noah "Vudu" Griswold
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Someone can be a local skater in Jacksonville one year, then be sleeping in a truck in Colorado the next, chasing work and trying to keep a creative dream alive. That’s the reality Voodoo and his cousin Ian bring into the garage with us, and it turns into one of those conversations that moves fast from laughs to real life lessons without losing the thread.
We talk skateboarding at Monument, the OGs who actually help younger skaters level up, and how that daily grind mirrors what it takes to grow as an independent hip-hop artist. Voodoo breaks down his approach to honest lyrics, why he refuses the fake-flex rap template, and what it feels like to go months without studio time when you’re out of state trying to survive. We also dig into the practical side of music marketing: networking, venues, mini tours, merch, BeatStars leasing, UnitedMasters distribution, and the hard math of streaming payouts.
Then we switch gears into culture and current events: the Dave Chappelle stage attack, why comedians keep getting targeted, and how “offense culture” and social media censorship change the way people talk online. It’s part free speech debate, part parenting and resilience talk, and part reminder that context matters more than outrage.
Tap play for road trip stories, DIY music strategy, and the kind of perspective you only get after trying to build something the hard way. If you like it, subscribe, share it with a friend, and leave a five-star rating and review.
Welcome And Listener Shoutouts
SPEAKER_04Hey guys, your boy Pauly. Thanks for tuning in. If you don't mind, take this time to like, subscribe, and share the podcast, the Instagram, and the YouTube channel. I'd be very uh stoked and hella appreciative. Also, if you don't mind, take this time to uh give us a five-star rating and uh and a thumbs up. It is the best way to show your support for the podcast and uh to help us continue on this pattern of growth that we are on. Big shout out to all the new subscribers out there, especially the ones in Germany. We just had a bunch of them join, and we couldn't be more happy to have you listening. So, anyway, episode 32, myself and Doc, we link up with uh some fourth generation Doons Goons, uh Noah Griswold and his his cousin Ian Willis. Um Noah is a local aspiring hip-hop artist. He goes by the alias voodoo. He's got the low five vibes, uh the positive mental attitude in the lyrics. Super dope. Um but yeah, we we linked up with him and Ian because they just had a cross-country trip. They were in Colorado for a few months out in Las Vegas, and we just wanted to talk to him about uh uh shoot about their trip, um, about growing up skating in Jacksonville and Monument, about current events like Dave Chappelle getting attacked, and uh and everything from the good times to the bad times and everything in between. Featured are two new tracks uh unreleased that will be released here, I believe, in the next month or so by Voodoo. So definitely enjoy those, and like I said, check him out on all streaming platforms and performing at a venue near you. Check his socials for those dates. But without further ado, myself and Doc, episode 32, with Voodoo and his cousin Ian Willis. Let's fucking get it.
SPEAKER_01Yeah,
Unreleased Track Sets The Tone
SPEAKER_01yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. It's one swirl as fuck, man. Let's get it, yeah, yeah. I'm saying welcome to the world and everything that's in it. Enjoy it every day, be happy. Cause you fucking live and said his life. Girl, and you're the one that's in it. So call me we only need it. We can fucking kick. I gotta tell you what's up. And see your ass in a minute. Inside my love, be here forever. But my body's been distant. I wanna show you what's up. Tryna show you what's different. One event to everyone. It seems like no one will listen. So I just sell it to a tempo. And it makes me feel right. The only question left beside is how I'm feeling at night. See, I just really wanna let go. In the back of my mind, I feel like I'm the one who's stopping me from getting some shine. I gotta get right back to the path I was walking before. Gotta stop the fucking devil from knocking about my door. Tryna make my spirit happy with things that I can't afford. I hope this helps you. And the way that you're thinking, it's up to you to make sure this or don't seem bad when you're leaving. We gotta do what we'll regret, not doing up on our dead beds. So stop, drop, call it like every sentence. When you stop by here to see me, this is what I'ma tell you. Welcome to the world and everything that's in it. Enjoy it every day, be happy. Cause you fucking live it, set his life. Girl, and you're the one that's winning. So call me when you're lonely, maybe we can fucking kick it. Welcome to the world. Enjoy every day, be happy.
SPEAKER_05This should be played at high volume. We're listening to the on the hot.
unknownWe're listening to the pop.
SPEAKER_04Alright, alright, alright. It's
Meet Voodoo And Ian
SPEAKER_04your boy Pauly. We're back in the mix. I got my guy Doc to the right. Hey yo. I got my boy Noah Young Voodoo in the house. Yes, sir. And the homie Ian. Some some Dunes Goons representing my people. What up? Brought my people in. That's right, that's right. Another beautiful sunny day down here in Jacksonville, Florida. In the wonderfully uh um decorated garage of Doc Jones.
SPEAKER_03Hey man, I put my heart and soul into this thing, okay?
SPEAKER_04We are okay. We are here to uh to bring you some more enjoyable content. So I just wanted to uh start off, people that don't know, um, Noah is a uh local hip-hop artist. Yes, sir. Dig your stuff, man. It's kind of got that uh that real hip-hop vibe. It's none of this uh drugged out mumble rap bull shit that we be listening to these days. Yeah, we heavy 90s influence. I mean, by we this generation of hip hop. Oh, okay, okay. Um back when we were younger, you would hear music similar to yours on the radio more often. Naturally, yeah.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, it'll happen. All it takes is time in the right plays and just good marketing. I just gotta get out and knowing the right people is a big thing, too.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, yeah. And just uh you got a good head on your shoulders and just kind of keep in uh the dream and the vision, you know what I'm saying? In the crosshairs, and uh keep working towards that goal. Um you'll only get better, and inevitably everybody's gonna see what you have to bring to the table. Oh, yeah. And and I and I've got faith that you'll catch on.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, it's been an interesting journey so far. It's been lots of lots of ups and downs, but mainly ups because all the downs and everything have just been internal. It's always just been like money for studio sessions and stuff that's up to me, you know. Um there's nothing there's never been anything bad studio-wise, there's never been anything bad with the people I work with. So once as soon as all that's in check, everything else is good. And you don't have a sugar knight in your camp?
SPEAKER_03Nah, nah, nothing, nothing to worry about like that at all. That's how you're never gonna make it then, dude.
SPEAKER_04We gotta find him the muscle. We gotta find him the muscle. But yeah, uh, if you haven't uh checked him out, the stage name is Young Voodoo or just Voodoo or Just Voodoo, V U D U, yeah. And uh SoundCloud and all that, YouTube and all that. All platforms, all platforms. That's right out here, uh representing for take it to the bank. Born and raised. Born and raised, that's what's up.
Skateboarding Roots At Monument
SPEAKER_04So uh when did you get into skateboarding?
SPEAKER_00Ooh, skateboarding? Very young. Uh my dad put me on about ever since I was a child. So I'd probably say like five when I really started getting into it. Um after age ten. After age ten, uh I lived right next to Monument, um, right on Kernan. So every time I would get off school, I would just go right up to the skate park and I'd see people like Chris Jones up there, all the OGs and everything. Yeah, a bunch of OGs up there, and learned a lot of my style from people like uh people like Kyle Parisi, I got how uh heavy style influence from. Shout out KPZ, my boy. Zach Stroop got heavy influence from with the sweepers and everything, and just like the old school style and everything like that.
SPEAKER_04Big shout out to all those guys. Oh yeah. So uh what would you say like about the age that you like fully got into it? Like, what was your first like did you have a real board because your dad got you into it off the rip? Or was there like kind of a yeah?
SPEAKER_00He knew skateboarding, so he got me a good ass setup. It was never never not Walmart shit, always got me to write wheels. Dad, what's that like? Man, man, yeah. I think I think my first setup was actually not too proud of the board. It was a it was a world industries board. But um did it have flame blowing what it was it was actually like a Kona complete. I went to Kona and got like the whole complete setup and everything.
SPEAKER_04Now what age, what what year was this? Was where was the pro shop? Was the pro shop in this side where the stage is now or was the pro shop?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, yeah, it was the old school one where it was like the there was like mirrors next to it, you could rotate the skateboard stand and everything. Yeah, old school days. Yeah, that was I was probably this is probably I was 10 around 2010. Uh I think Jesus Christ. I know I graduated in high school, dude. Right now.
SPEAKER_04I graduated in 03. How the fuck you think I feel? Yeah.
SPEAKER_03I graduated in 2010.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, that's crazy. Anytime I download a new app and I gotta put in like my personal information, it's getting really, really long to scroll down to that 1985, dude.
SPEAKER_03Dude, yeah, it's bullshit because it starts at 2022. You're like, really, dude? Oh, there's a baby entering this right now? Yeah, like what the fuck? That shouldn't even be an option. Yeah, we wrote at the top. Yeah. I feel so bad when I go back to 92 just like you do with 85.
SPEAKER_00I'm like, all right, come on. Yeah, I know I'm gonna go. Just one one little slide. But um, yeah, I was probably I say when I when I first started getting into skateboarding and started going out to the skate park every day and like really trying new tricks and busting my ass and getting back up and trying it again. 15. 15 was definitely the age because then I was like, I was able to realize what I was doing. I was like, okay, like other people are making money from this. I see people like Lil Bill getting on flow teams and everything and getting actual like hardware. My boy, yeah, getting on getting hardware, getting boards, getting shoes, and just stuff like that. And all around monument, there was like a there's just so much inspiration, man. So many people were doing good, so many people wanted to see other people doing good. All the OGs amped up the young people. It wasn't like get the fuck out of my way. It was like, here, let me show you how to drop in, let me teach you this trick, bend your knees, go with the flow a little more. Like straighten them shoulders. Yeah, don't think about falling, just do it. Straighten them shoulders.
SPEAKER_04That's the that's the probably the number one thing, other than telling kids how to push correctly. Like, don't fucking push Mongo. Yeah, no, it's like literally, it's like telling them I'm like, straighten them shoulders and put your helmet on. You're not roller skating.
SPEAKER_02Put your goddamn helmet on. Yeah, pumping your knees is the biggest thing, too.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, yeah. We went out uh monument again this morning uh just for a quick little sesh, little roll around. I was struggling, but uh Ian man locking in the back tails fucking like butter, man. Big shout outs. That's very true.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, that was our first time skating since Las Vegas, probably four months ago. We went to a nice park over there.
Why They Left Florida
SPEAKER_00Jesus.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, you were telling me uh you guys have been doing some traveling. So we're all about some what what was uh the reason or the cause for these adventures?
SPEAKER_00Yep, the whole story um kind of started in September, I'm pretty sure. September, October type time. And uh I think we left here all like mid-October, and uh we went straight to Colorado. The whole plan was just see life out there and just see what it's like because the way that we get work here is by like ads and stuff. So it's like we can find it real easy out there, and even if it comes down to like knocking on people's doors and stuff and being like, hey, you got a big ass tree, it looks like it'll like it's rotting your roof because it's hanging over it, dropping a lot of you know, just stuff like that. Just certain stuff. If they have a shitty fence, we'll pull up and be like, Hey, here's our card. If you ever need a new fence, do this, do that. Um so we weren't too worried about like not finding work out there. It was always real easy to find here by word of mouth and just like physical altercations. Yeah, so we would just do it out there like that as well. Um, and it kind of worked out, but whenever we got out there, we realized dirt's different, so you can't always dig the dirt for posts for fences and shit. Yeah, yeah, it's the desert. Yeah, yeah. Is it even dirt? It's sand, dude. It's so fucking hard. Yeah, it's so hard.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, Colorado is hard as straight rocks in the ground, like no dirt. Like more rocks in the ground than there was dirt. Yeah, dude, mountain, dude. It's a full state's a mountain.
SPEAKER_04Bigger rocks. Yeah, it's fucking you're right. And when we got there, it's the mile high city, right? In Denver for a reason.
SPEAKER_03So and their airport's a conspiracy theory. I'm just saying, calling it. Oh, yeah.
SPEAKER_04Yes. Have y'all seen that YouTube video? Yes.
SPEAKER_00I've heard I've watched all that shit. I've heard a podcast episode from these guys called Theories of the Third Kind, and they had a badass episode about it. There's like gargoyles that like say random things in there, and there's like I think there's like a blue Trojan horse out there.
SPEAKER_04There was a really crazy mural that eventually got painted over, but it had like this post post-apocalyptic, like like militant dude in a gas mask with like uh with children and a bayonet on it. Yeah, like a whole bunch of dead people, and then there was like this I'm still pissed they took my portrait down. Yeah, your portrait was the utopian uh with the little blonde white girl in the middle. Yeah. That was you. Oh, yeah.
SPEAKER_02Did she have purple hair? Any purple hair? Hey, apparently there's like a whole uh underground tunnel system under the airport or whatever, too.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, and uh takes you to heaven, I heard. Oh man.
SPEAKER_04The other heaven. The other thing was uh that was really peculiar. There's two other things was a lot of wealthy, powerful people in the world bought land around there, like massive amounts of land, and all of the barbed wire around the fences fences of the perimeter were facing inward. When normally it'd be facing outward because they kind of like lean out to keep people from climbing. Yes, it was like concentration camp style where it's like, well, why are you trying to keep people in? You shouldn't be trying to keep people out. Damn. That's weird.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, I think there's some crazy shit going on in Colorado, like the frequency and energy out there that are like in those mountains and shit like that. I think it's like something real, like that you know, most people don't know about.
SPEAKER_04Let me ask you this.
SPEAKER_02Yes, is Bigfoot real?
SPEAKER_00Yes. I don't know. That's one I've always been teetering on the edge with because I find I'm big on Survivor Man and Les Stroud. And when he started when he started doing the Bigfoot shit, it was kind of like, come on, Lesnar. It got corny. What are you doing, man? Yeah, I agree.
SPEAKER_04I liked the uh the Survivor Man as well. And then once he got into that whole like, I felt I feel like though, if you want to sustain a show like that on Discovery Channel, like they all get it. You gotta go squat, you gotta constantly be finding it.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, dude. I mean, all right, well, okay, next question. Flora skunk ape, real or not real? I've never heard of that. What? Yeah, skunk ape, though. What none none of y'all have heard about the floor skunk ape?
SPEAKER_04I've heard people claim that we uh have a skunk ape. I do not know what it is supposed to be. Would that be like uh would that be like a skunk animal?
SPEAKER_03It's like our uh it's like our so it's half it's half skunk, half ape. No, alright, so it pretty much is like an ape with a big ass. It's practically it's practically it's practically like a sasquatch, but it lives in the swamps. Damn.
SPEAKER_00That it's real. Yeah. A fucking swamp ape? That's so it's the original man.
SPEAKER_03Yeah. I'm good on that. Dude, my teacher in uh ninth grade fucking told us a story about when he saw the skunk ape as a kid. It makes me laugh to this day because he's like, you could smell it from three miles away. Calm down, dude. Calm down. This is a professional show, Paul. Yeah, the uh dude, Paul. Let me answer it. Paul. Let me answer it.
SPEAKER_04That's my storage unit where all my tools are at. Yeah, we don't want to answer that.
SPEAKER_02I get those too, don't worry. Yeah.
SPEAKER_00The freezer going up.
SPEAKER_04That's why I'm gonna do it. I probably owe them about 1200. No, he's like, it's it's it's the seventh. Are you gonna pay me this month? Yes, Jesse. I'll call you back. In the middle of doing something, Jesse? Yeah. No, um the I when I was younger, living up in uh PA, I remember going to like this this scout camp, and like uh we slept overnight, and it was like this it was kind of in the mountains or whatever, it was weird, and there was this old dude there that said there was this congator, is what it was called, and it was this like weird, like a connotate It's always a mix of something like that. Yeah, it was like a mix of like all this weird shit. And we're up like north, so we didn't have no fucking gators up there. So the whole thing, and he would he would uh have us little kids out there looking for conegator teeth. What's the con?
SPEAKER_00Is it convict alligator?
SPEAKER_04No, the whole thing is the whole thing is he's he's he's conning the kids because it was a way for him to entertain like 300 kids all weekend on a fucking scout camp, right? Okay, so he's like, all y'all go out and look for congator teeth, and you would bring him these little stones that just happen to look almost like an arrowhead, or you would just find like when you're walking through bro, and he would bite it, and if his arm shook when he bit it, it was a tooth. So 300 like seven, eight-year-olds fucking scouring the ground. Oh, just trying to find these rocks. For these little rocks, yeah. Yeah, so fucking.
SPEAKER_03How is there not a fucking story about this guy? Yeah, dude. It was great.
SPEAKER_04He had a long beard, full-on mountain man, fucking had uh the suspenders and shit like that looking like that. He looked like he could probably, you know, whittle you a black bear out of a stick, you know what I'm saying?
SPEAKER_03Like an NPC in Red Dead Redemption 2. Isn't uh Pennsylvania where they have the Mothman also? I haven't heard about that one.
SPEAKER_04That one's interesting. Well, yo, y'all can watch uh there's a documentary on Netflix about Three Mile Island. Um that's not far, it's kind of in between Harrisburg and Philadelphia, so it's like Isn't that the monkey island? No, it's where when they first started advertising.
SPEAKER_03Isn't that where all the Sasquatches live?
SPEAKER_04Possibly, bro, because they had like a nuclear meltdown and they had to like evacuate everything. It's it's wild, but yeah. It's kind of one of the reasons why a lot of people are against nuclear energy because they use that or TMI, it's not too much information through the allen.
SPEAKER_03You know, I hate to be this guy or anything, and I'm not saying I agree with nuclear warfare and shit, but look what happened to Japan after we nuked them, dude. They fell in line. Yeah, dude. Get right in their place. Yeah, yeah. That's right. We're fucking locked and loaded over here. I mean, dude, they got their shit together real fast, dude. You know what I mean? They quit doing origami and started making PlayStations. And I respect that. Oh yeah. I respected that.
SPEAKER_00Didn't even know it.
SPEAKER_03But yeah, man, shout out to my little brother who just gave me a PlayStation 4 just saying.
SPEAKER_00Oh yeah.
SPEAKER_03Fuck yeah.
SPEAKER_00Yep. Colorado, Colorado was the play. Colorado was really interesting because whenever we first went out there, um, yeah, so the whole journey, the whole journey was we knew we could find work out there, so let's just go see life out there and enjoy it while we're out there. Um, because I'd really wanted to see the mountains and shit. Got tired of being hot. We work in the summer and out in the heat and shit. So it's like people don't realize breaks every five minutes and you feel like a bitch, you're like, bro, what am I doing? But if you're out there, you're gonna die, literally. Why am I such a pussy?
SPEAKER_04It's just like we got all the snowbirds that come down, they're always like, Oh, it's cold for too long up there. Oh, yeah. Bro, it gets to a point when you live here long enough, you're like, it's hot for too long here. I'm sweating on Christmas.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, you're like, dude.
SPEAKER_00AC fucking breaks in the truck.
SPEAKER_02I remember when I was like 12 or 11, it was like kind of cold. It'd be always cold around like October, you know, for like Halloween. Now Halloween's 89 degrees. Now it's like 90 degrees and shit.
SPEAKER_00Sweating while you're wearing your dark Vader suit and stuff.
SPEAKER_04As a kid growing up in Pittsburgh, bro, there was a couple of uh Halloween that I I was trick-or-treating in like two foot of snow. Like you couldn't even tell what my costume was because I had goddamn ski pants on and a fucking snow jacket. I just had random face paint and a fucking feather sticking out of my beanie. I'm like, I'm a native, I promise. That's what I am. I come in peace. My little brother's a pilgrim. I just want I just want candy. Yeah, just give me the candy, let me get out of here. I'm getting frostbit on my fucking toes.
SPEAKER_03I think Mel Gibson sent his kid around our neighborhood this year. I think kids going around Braveheart.
SPEAKER_04Hell yeah. Fuck yeah. So, so you guys just on a whim, we're like, let's pack up, let's go out there, let's do some work, let's see another part of the country.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, no ties, no girlfriends. Was it Vegas first or Colorado? Colorado, yeah. We went we headed to Colorado Springs first because I heard about that, and one of my friends, Marcus, stayed there. So we went out there, met up with him, and we were hanging out. Um you know Marcus, right? I do know Marcus. Marcus Barnes.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, yeah, I know Marcus. That's the big homie.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, he's cool, man. We went out there, met up with him in the hotel like the first night, second night, I think. I think he was busy the first night or whatever.
SPEAKER_02That was like the within the first week or so, I'd say.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, we were hanging out, and uh that was the play. But Colorado Springs was amazing and everything. It just seems like too many people that were there weren't from there, and it was real fast-paced. And coming from here, we were just trying to get away from that at first. Right. And then by the time we were all done with everything, we wanted to come back here and say fuck it, be around more people. Because when we went out there, it was Colorado Springs first. We went to Denver and we couldn't really find work and shit. So we were like, fuck it, like we'll find a way. So we were really good.
SPEAKER_02It started getting cold too, really cold.
SPEAKER_00So we were like, all right, um, like jobs aren't lining up right now. So in the meantime, we'll door dash and so door dash and getting hotels every night was sweet.
Colorado Work Hustles And Hard Lessons
SPEAKER_00It was great. And then we come up on this Craigslist ad because we're looking for jobs on there, and there's one that says labor for lodging, and it was like two hours of work for day a day for to stay the night there for free. Yeah, two hours of work. It was like, and it said like gardening word, wheelbarrowing dirt from location to location.
SPEAKER_04Like, I'm like, as long as you don't have me fucking like you know cleaning out border jobs or something, like we can, right? Spread your butthole.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, I need you to wink for the camera, please. Right? Yeah, I definitely felt weird about it whenever we like first found it, you know what I mean? Yeah, man, it seemed way too good.
SPEAKER_00It was just like because the pictures of it was like next thing you know, you're in a horror movie. Yeah, like put the lotion on the skin. Pull up to some random ass little hut, you're like a little fucking a little yeah, a little cheeky. You're like, what the fuck? Yeah, but no, we went out there and seen because we seen pictures of it and everything, and it was amazing. It was beautiful.
SPEAKER_02They had a real like website with everything that showed it. That's cool. It was like actually legit, yeah.
SPEAKER_00Facebook pages, YouTube channel, and everything.
SPEAKER_02The names matched up with like the people we were talking to, and the website.
SPEAKER_00So hell yeah. And then we really knew they were we they were legit because we started texting them and they said uh they were cool at first, and then they were like, Well, bad news after a little while. It was like later on that day, they were like, bad news guys, like we kind of changed our mind and everything. We don't want to have anybody come to the lodge right now and do that for us. Anyone else, because they had just had some people there. Excuse me. Get gassy as fuck, I just drank some of this sprite. Um fucking He's a rapper, so there's syrup in there. Yeah, you know what I mean? Nah. Um, fucking Yeah, so we get out there, we check that out, and uh we're talking to them, and they tell us that they're like, We can't have anybody come out here because somebody that was just there stole some shit from them. And we understand. And everything we're like, we're not gonna like make them feel bad or guilt trip down and be like, oh well, please, like we're really good people. We're like, fuck it, you know, we're out here. We're scumbags too. Yeah, like we're scumbags too, but we won't do that since they already did. Um our goddamn plan, dude. Right? And then uh keep door dashing, stay in the hotel, and then we're like, don't have much hope. We're like, Man, like we gotta come up with more money than this door dash and shit. It wasn't making much we stayed in the truck that night, yeah, and had to figure some shit out because like if we stay in the truck, it's straight. Um don't have to get to keep that. Yeah, we get to keep that money next day. We get more money, buy some weed, it's a much better day and everything. Shit got shitty out there, but it was like, man, like right after we slept in the truck and we're like losing hope and shit, and thinking, damn, should we go back because money's running low and shit? Because it was expensive to get out there, and we didn't go out there with much. It was like a thousand dollars. We were relying on the work, we were like, Yeah, we can get the work. Um, which is like our fault for planning, but at the same time, it's like we're young, fuck it, let's just go.
SPEAKER_04You're not talking about an adventure that's like building character, yeah, exactly.
SPEAKER_00Like we were just tired of like doing the same shit over again. Main part of it was like I'm in the same, I was in the same spot I was the year before, and I did not like that at all. And I was of course I'm different mentally, and I was different mentally and went through shit that made me a much special character. But at the same time, it was like I just feel like I'm not doing nothing, so I need to get out of here. So, yeah, we sleep in the truck that night and we wake up, we're losing hope. We're fucking all right, another day of DoorDash, and we get to drive, and we get a call. It's them, and they're like, Hey, you guys can come out here. We changed our mind again, we'll give y'all a chance and everything. We're like, fuck yeah. So we go to dispensary business and we drive all the way out there. It's in like the middle of the Rocky Mountains. It's fucking crazy. It was probably like a two-hour drive in like in Colorado.
SPEAKER_04But like the backdrop's like a postcard, I'm sure. That's crazy.
SPEAKER_00We got we got there, and it was like it was so hard to adjust your eyes to you. Like, what the fuck? Like, this is this shit real. Like, it's crazy.
SPEAKER_04The first time I went out to Salt Lake City, that's honestly what it was like for me. And I went in the summertime and we ended up going up to this mountain because like just the whole time that it was like these white-capped mountains in the backdrop. Yeah, and it was like I kept being like, it looks is that real? It looks fake.
SPEAKER_00Like, I couldn't know it was so hard to adjust your eyes.
SPEAKER_04And then in July we went up this mountain, and I've got a picture of me in shorts fucking standing on a glacier in the middle of July and shit.
SPEAKER_03Like, what the fuck? Dude, I well, yeah. When I was in Phoenix, uh, when I was 18 for the Vocal Mountain Parks contest, fucking like because Phoenix is it's called Valley because it's surrounded by mountains and shit. Yeah, yeah, and it's just fucking wild because like some of the mountains have snow on top of them, like in the middle of summer. Or well, I guess it was October back then, I think.
SPEAKER_04But but yeah, it'll be up there year round. But yeah, altitude and just the other.
SPEAKER_03And then like when the sun's setting, dude, like I had never seen a sunset like that. Yep.
SPEAKER_00Gay alert. Yeah, the sunsets were crazy out there. Out west, they really are different. Even in Colorado, like up in the mountains, it's so different. The altitude was a crazy difference, too. We did feel that shit going on trails and shit.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, I was gonna ask, just doing like the work and shit, being up there, like did it take it take you a couple weeks to kind of just get used to oh, it was months, really.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, even after like two months of being there, it was still hard to breathe whenever you're like walking a trail or something. Yeah, walk upstairs. Anything that makes you like breathe hard, it'd be like 10 times.
SPEAKER_04Well, that's what like a lot of people don't understand, too, like these mountaineering expeditions these people go on. Like, if they want to climb Everest, it's like a two-month ordeal because you got to go to base camp and you go to base camp. Yeah, and then you you go up so far and you'll stay there for a day, like overnight, and then you come back down for like three or four days. Then you go up a little bit further. Yeah, and you literally are training yourself to be able so you don't get the altitude sickness, yeah, as uh, or you can actually physically do it because kind of like when people go diving and they like depressurize themselves. You've got to build, I think it's the red blood cells in your blood, and because I think they'll uh go up to your brain and burst your brain or something like that.
SPEAKER_03That's crazy.
SPEAKER_04That's crazy. Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_03Fuck yeah.
SPEAKER_04One of these days I'm gonna climb one of the mountains.
SPEAKER_03Dude, yeah, Kilimanjaro is like the most the mountains, my ex-girlfriend's name from high school. Kilimanjaro. Already been up that hill, boys. No, dude. Oh, so Colorado. Uh there's this girl I used to hook up with uh back in uh high school and shit. Ooh, Colorado chip. Well, yeah, well, she moved out there. Yeah, she's so pale, dude. Dude, she's Jim Gaffigan, white, dude. It was practically see-through. But uh she uh she hit me up and she's like, hey, I live out in Colorado now, you should come visit me. And I was like, uh man, I don't really got the money. She's like, I'll pay for you to come. I was like, well, fuck it. Oh, hell yeah, dude. Let's go. Should go mama? Yeah, dude, what's what's the card number, dude? Buy my ticket. I'm ready. Baby boy's ready. Baby boy is ready. And she's like, Oh, I should probably tell you. And she's like, Oh, I should probably tell you. I have herpes. Oh god dang it, Poby.
SPEAKER_05Wow. Like, whoa, whoa, whoa.
SPEAKER_03So I'm glad she told me before I went. Yeah, because I'm allergic to latex and I can't play those reindeer games.
SPEAKER_04I mean, yeah, no way. No tank tone.
SPEAKER_03And so she was like, so you're still coming, right? Like, oh no. No, man. Oh no. I'm gonna stay home and masturbate. Fuck that, dude. Yeah, I would have had to block her. She would have got blocked. I'm pretty sure she blocked me. Oh. I said something. I'm pretty sure I said something mean. It's okay. I mean, dude.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, I don't blame you though. I'm not going down Rocky Road, you know what I'm saying? The birds will be back. Yeah, not that Rocky Road at least. So that joke show went way harder.
SPEAKER_04That joke show went way harder. How long were y'all at this uh location where you basically yeah, the Village.
SPEAKER_00Literally, it's like name of a scary movie. Yeah. It was, bro, we were out there for what, like three months? It was um about two and a half.
SPEAKER_04So I said that's we're at, though.
SPEAKER_00Um to hook up with mountain women? Nah, it was hard to do. Yeah, the place we were at, bro. There was no bitches.
SPEAKER_02It was like You would have had to drive about an hour and a half to go try to find something. Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_00Denver was where it's at, though. You just subscribe to an oldly fan and you make it through.
SPEAKER_02We got we got websites to help you. Exactly. Yeah, yeah. Texas had them on. There's free stuff out there, boys. Oh, dude. Spanish bitches. Don't believe these hoes. That's right.
unknownDog.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, don't believe these hoes.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, we
Snowstorm Exit And Heading To Vegas
SPEAKER_00were out there for about two and a half months, and then uh right after Christmas, I think it was like literally the day after Christmas, uh, we got told that there was gonna be like a badass snowstorm. So we're like, fuck, like we gotta like plan something now. At the time, we had somebody that stayed out in Las Vegas that we knew, and fuck him. I'm not gonna shout him out at all. Um, some shit happened. He's just on a totally different route, um, doing stuff that we just cannot mess with. So we went out there, well, tried it out with him. Well, we hope homeboy uh gets his shit together. Yeah, because it's nothing, yeah. We don't hope him to go into some bad spiral. No, I feel like that's it. Because before we went out there, it was all love and all respect. And then we got out there and seen the condition and was just like, man, like you need help. This is some shit. And he didn't, and then he didn't want it. And we were trying to give it to him, so it's like if he's not gonna take it from us, you know, why waste the time? He can't see it. And then it started tripping on us, shit like that. So, but yeah, that was the person.
SPEAKER_04In the longer run, you did the right thing.
SPEAKER_00Exactly. Because it would have just got worse. Relationships would have got broken in a bad way, and that's just not the way that I like doing it.
SPEAKER_04He'll never hit his rock bottom and see it, see the light unless shit like that happens. But tough love is necessary. You don't want to wish that shit on that button, really. Yeah, and it doesn't matter how long they've been in your life, if they're not fucking if their goals and their lifestyle isn't aligning with your morals and your goals and your lifestyles, man, you can dap it up, but at arm's length. Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, we did the smarter thing at Jiz Dip. So good for you. But yeah, that uh we headed out there to him because at the time it was all love and everything, and he had a so-called spot. So we go out there because we heard about the snowstorm and everything, got a two-wheel drive truck. Um, you can't be able to do it. Bro, we've slid out a couple times and had very merry moves rolling. So no joke. I had to learn how to drive. There's no guardrails anywhere. It's like, bro, what the fuck? Did you have a chain of tires?
unknownNo.
SPEAKER_00No, but we have before we left, before we left, but he has like these Baja tires and like off-road tires and shit. But it's not good for there. No, you need the chains. Yeah, I'm telling you.
SPEAKER_02I live in Florida and I know about the chains. Yeah, you need like actual snow tires for uh yeah.
SPEAKER_00Oh, yeah. So, yeah, we dipped out of Colorado. Um, sad day, but it was a bittersweet day because we were like, all right, cool, let's go see Vegas.
Vegas Culture Shock And Meaning
SPEAKER_00Yeah, let's go see Vegas, man. I was lit to see Vegas. Vegas was awesome. Just the people suck. It's it it is like bro, it's like a city full of money. Like, but it's exactly what it's like. It's a city full of money, but nobody has it, is what it seems like, and everybody's trying to get it. But it's just like this this figure that's like up there that nobody could reach. It's like everybody's running on a treadmill to something that is way.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, yeah, literally, man.
SPEAKER_00It was crazy, and it just reminded me of here.
SPEAKER_04Everybody chasing that lost dream. Yeah, man. It was like here.
SPEAKER_00One more goddamn quarter in the slot machine. I got this. Right. Like, I thought I thought Jacksonville and was fast paced and everybody was trying to get it, but I went out there and it seems like, bro, nobody laughs at shit, nobody has good humor, and that shit killed me a lot because, dude, like if you can't joke around and enjoy life, like you're doing something very wrong. Because we are all gonna die one day. So, what are we doing not having fun? Yep, like like this is really all gonna end one day. Like, nobody's gonna matter at the end of the day when their day comes.
SPEAKER_04So, yeah, yeah, this is the body is just a meat meat vessel for your consciousness and we just need to have a good time and touch.
SPEAKER_00It will expire. Speak for yourselves, I'll matter. I'll matter. Oh, yeah. I mean, we'll all matter and everything, just the things that we know and the stuff that's internal in us, I feel won't. Because I don't know. I've always been like, I've as a teenager, I've been very spiritual and shit. So I've always had thoughts of like, oh yeah, when we die, we're gonna like I've thought about reincarnation, I've been on its side, and then I've had times where I'm like, oh yeah, maybe this is the first life and our next life is even better. Or and then I've had the thought of maybe this is the hell, maybe we're living hell right now and everybody's stressing, not realizing it.
SPEAKER_04Maybe it's the matrix, yeah.
SPEAKER_03Or that. Dude, my daughter, my daughter yesterday when I picked her up from school, she goes, Daddy, do you know in some places they make up their own gods? And I was like, you know, they still do that today, right? They do that on back alleyways.
SPEAKER_04It's like it's like, sweetheart, do you know that that's all gods?
SPEAKER_03Yeah, hey, see that building right there?
SPEAKER_02Made up god.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_02If you ask me, we're like half alien, inbred, half uh monkey species or something.
SPEAKER_00Anunnaki. Anunnaki. Anunnaki. Yeah, through my journey of like spiritualism and thinking about life and death, I came to a point where I realized like to the natural aspect and to the logical aspect, like we're here and we go, and nobody's been able to tell us what happens afterwards. So maybe that is it. Like, this is all this might be it. So let's have a good time, you know? Like oh yeah, I mean you can plan it.
SPEAKER_02I mean, you can do anything you want to as long as you literally uh put your mind to it and everything.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, the mind is a uh a very crazy powerful thing. I actually just listened to um the talking Schmidt episode with Nathan Fletcher, um, and that was actually really fucking sick because he talks about how the most core important thing is like breath and like control and everything. Yeah, and he just brought it down. He's like, look, if you don't eat, you'll last a few days, if you don't drink a couple of days. If you don't breathe, you're dead in two, maybe three minutes if you're lucky. Yeah, that's it. And uh he was like talking about I think it's like the Wilmhoff. Yeah, Wim Hof. Wim Hof, yeah, yeah. And how he this dude just using breathing and shit has been able to do some crazy mind over matter feats.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, crazy exercises, crazy breathing exercises, and crazy like cold shock exercises and stuff. Is that like cold plunging? He looks like a he looks like a caveman. Yeah. He's like a mix guy? No, no, no, no. No, no, no.
SPEAKER_04That's no, that's just a pain. David Goggins, maybe? Baldwin dude. Yeah, he's crazy. Bro, David Goggins is a fucking bad bunch of shit. Yeah, bad ass. When I when I want to get amped up and I'm like, fuck, I don't want to do this. Yeah, but it sucks.
SPEAKER_03Wow, dude, he makes me feel like a bitch, dude. Everyone's like, when I get amped, I'm gonna listen to David Goggins. I'm like, dude, if I listen to him, it's gonna depress me because we are not the same. We are not the same, dude.
SPEAKER_02I'm like, that's just motivation, though.
SPEAKER_04No, yeah, we are not the same, and I get that from your standpoint, being with your diagnosis and your lack of mobility and the pain that you're in daily. I understand that. I understand. It would be hard for me not to be depressed if I was you.
SPEAKER_03Nah, man, but like the thing is people think like I don't I don't think life's that bad, you know what I mean?
Breath Control And Resilient Mindset
SPEAKER_03As much as people make it out to be. And granted, like, you know, I do have like a serious bone disease, and it's definitely altered my life in every aspect whatsoever. Yeah, man. But like at the same time, like, what the fuck, dude? I'm not gonna sit around and cry about it, and I'm not bummed because like now I get to get this hip surgery and I'm gonna get to become like two inches taller and shit, maybe hit six foot. You know what I mean?
SPEAKER_00And then you know two inches more bitches.
SPEAKER_03I'm gonna get I'm gonna get some more ladden in my hips so I can start moving them better. Whole different view of life. But you know, I'm just I'm not I'm not bummed on it, dude. And I heard like I've read a lot about my disease, and a lot of people with my disease end up like committing suicide and shit because they they just can't take it. Yeah, and like I was just like, Well, fuck, man, I'm not that weak of a person. I've never I've been through so much shit already in life. Like, this is just like silver lining playbook, dude.
SPEAKER_04It's corny, but that movie was actually fucking brilliant, and I related to that on so many levels. Have y'all seen it? I haven't with Bradley Cooper, Robert De Niro's in it, and then I can't remember the chick's name. Yeah, she's in everything. It's like a dude in Philly catches his wife cheating. He fucking freaks out, beats the shit out of the dude that she's like having an affair with. Is it Bradley Cooper? He ends up oh, Chris Tucker's in it too. No, no, Bradley Bradley Cooper ends up getting like bake-racted and does time like in the psych ward, gets out, and it's like him kind of trying to move on with his life. And and his whole thing from his therapist was the silver lining playbook was even when shit like it's a problem or something bad happens, like there's always something to be grateful for from that happening. And so the the movie Jennifer, what was her fucking name? The other actress no, uh Lawrence. Lawrence, yeah. Yes, yeah, she's a game's babe. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. She's in it and she plays like she plays like a damaged chick. And and you know what I'm saying? And like, so you kind of see two different perspectives, and like I don't know, because that's one thing I always try to work on is try to be solution-minded because every day doesn't matter how much money you have, it doesn't matter none. I have no money. Zero. You know what I mean? It doesn't matter what your background is or what family you're born into, like, every day you're gonna deal with a problem. And you can either let that problem like have a negative mind state, or you can be solution-minded or the silver lining playbook and be like, oh, fucking this happened, but you know, try to find the positive in it.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, run from it or learn from it.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, exactly. Hell yeah.
SPEAKER_03I mean, that's the shit that makes or breaks people, you know what I mean? Like, you can literally that's what creates like a man compared to a boy. And you can tell the difference in like guys, as we get older, like if that like if there was someone that's just gonna crack under pressure, or they're gonna just be like, fuck it, it could be worse. Let's get through this, you know. The ability to move on.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, there's always gonna be solutions to every problem. So you just gotta find that solution. Yep, yeah.
SPEAKER_04Um, so after uh Las Vegas, what'd y'all head home?
SPEAKER_00So Las Vegas, we're in Las Vegas. Um, stayed with that dude a couple nights and then left like we did because of the situation. Um, and then after that, it was back to door dashing and shit. But the hotels were a lot more cheaper out in Las Vegas because there's so many of them, dude. Everything's a hotel in Las Vegas, and every whores. Yeah, dude, everything's a hotel. Everything bro Las Vegas is literally everything that you think it is, like anything that you can think of Las Vegas, any listener that thinks about Las Vegas, like it's exactly what you think of and picture. Yeah, everything's there, the good and the bad. Like the good and the bad.
SPEAKER_04Well, I'm going uh next month. So like you know it's interesting. It'll be my first time. It's a lot of trash out there. That's what I didn't like. Yeah, dude. I'm glad that I'm going out there like that. I don't drink. Yeah, I think if I would have gone out there and I was still drinking and partying, bro, I'd like to do that. That would be a problem. No, not only that. I mean, yeah, there's fucking Paul makes really bad decisions.
SPEAKER_03I got a phone call last night from Paul in jail. Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, if you go to happened. If you go to a dispensary, uh, make sure you go to Jardin. Yeah, yeah, Hardine. So it's like J A R beautiful women up in there.
SPEAKER_00Hey, baby, what can I get you? Like, oh my goodness.
SPEAKER_03Phone number, girl. Dang.
SPEAKER_00Let me get you. Yeah, like what? You know, fucking Swede. Let me get a poly. Let me get a quarter of you. Yeah. Shit. I got pro punch. Yeah, we were out there with him, left, uh, staying in Motel 6. Shout out Motel 6, dude. We were staying in the Motel 6. They were so nice out there, though.
SPEAKER_03Shout out Continental Breakers. Blow your balls up.
SPEAKER_00Hey, I'm telling you, when I get big and start touring, the Motel 6 is gonna be my joint. Hey, there you go. Yep, they're gonna be my joint.
SPEAKER_03I'm gonna tell you right now, Motel 6 is not the same everywhere, dude.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, yeah, they're not. They're not. That's why I'm that's why I added in. Like out there, very nice. It's modern. There's like, I mean, it's Las Vegas, so there's no bugs, you don't gotta worry about that. The A's.
SPEAKER_04It's the goddamn desert. If the AC doesn't work, like they followed. Oh, yeah. I feel like that's a lawsuit for sure.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, rooms out of service for that. Yeah, we're out there staying in the hotels, and then after that, uh while we're staying in the hotels, Ian gets a really, really good job uh for like a salesman off of Reddit, which is crazy because like, bro, even the shit in Colorado that we went to, like, fucking Craigslist, man. Everybody thinks Craigslists are like sketchy, Craigslist weird, until they like actually find some good shit on there or get a good job or sell some shit on there. Man, we found the best place.
SPEAKER_03Got a lot of boys off Craigslist, too.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, it's crazy. We found the most beautiful place we've ever lived and ever stayed at. The best opportunity we ever came up on was on Craigslist. So that was beautiful. That was really cool, really interesting. Life is crazy because of that. Um it's just super interesting. And then the thing with Reddit, uh, Ian made a post on Reddit about uh needing work and stuff like that and willing to do any job. And uh he came up across this like really good salesman job, and he met somebody in the salesman job that was like really cool with some heard our story and shit, cool, and kind of like felt some type of way about it and felt like you know, like he wanted to help out for us really, like, really much because he, you know, he hears that we were staying in the hotels and shit and just didn't feel right at all.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, like willing to work, just need a leg up, just need the opportunity. Yeah, he's grooming y'all.
SPEAKER_00Yep, and then he uh he said he had this RV because he just moved from Las Vegas. Let us stay in the RV and let us rent it out. Did he go by the name Heisenberg? Dude, no, Heisenberg.
SPEAKER_02Man, yeah, this was actually one of like uh my co-workers, so he was one of the other like salesmen that worked there with me, too.
SPEAKER_00Nice. He moved there with his family, got a real nice house and everything, and then let us rent out the really nice RV. It was like a 36-footer. Did y'all stay in his yard and everything with the RV? No, it was it was on like an actual RV park. It wasn't even a park, it was like a resort. It was like the KOA. It was like two bands. Yeah, yeah, okay, KOA, yeah. Yeah, it was like two bands a month. Um, it was expensive. For the RV and the yeah, yeah, yeah. All expenses was like two bands a month. So that was that was interesting. The RV life was awesome, though, man. It was crazy because it was just me and him, and after dealing with the bullshit with the dude that we were with, it made me and him more grateful that we were the type of people that we were and that we were as close as we were, and made all the bullshit that we've been through, me and Ian, seem like seem like nothing. Yeah, Ian's my cousin, by the way, for all the listeners. Um yeah, man, we I it just made everything that we've ever been through seem like it never happened. All the bad shit. So we were super grateful, really happy, blasting music every night, smoking great fucking weed. Oh yeah, fucking enjoying life, and then it just got to the point where we were like, Man, like I just get tired of doing the same shit over and over again. If it's two months and we're doing the same shit over and over, yeah, something's gotta change.
Creating Music While Broke
SPEAKER_02I'm like, what's next? Yeah, my job was like super repetitive. So like I hated.
SPEAKER_00And the search to find uh somebody to make music with was very hard out there. Like here in Jacksonville, man, I got so many people I can head up to make music with or go to a studio, find studio time. Out there, the studio time was mad expensive, and I just all the money that I had had to go to like food and import and shit, rent and like living. So it was like I couldn't I couldn't just go to the studio and blow three hundred dollars on a session and a whole mixtape and stuff like that. But that was really what did it for me is I was like, man, like I fucking need to create some shit because ever since I dropped Dead End and 47 Dreams, those were the first two songs I've dropped in the past like eight months, man, which is crazy for me because I'm not the type of person to constantly be writing because I don't like to waste my raps or waste my rhymes or waste my ideas, because every time I come up with some shit, I really want to use it. Like most of the stuff that I write, well, literally every song that I have I've written either all in the moment, all right there, because I'm just going and going and going. And it's always like, bro, like it's always like right when I wake up from a nap or some shit. I get like the spark of creation. I'm like, bro, I need to write a song or like random shit. I'll get out from shitting and I'm like, bro, I need to write a song. Fucking, I'll be in the bathroom without my phone. I'll try to remember like this thing I thought of, and I'm like, fucking uh spiritual miracle, miracle. I gotta fucking fucking go write it down in a grumpy. Yeah, dropping a grumpy, dropping a grumpy, shout out JD. Um fucking man, yeah. So the creation out there was that shit got to me real bad. I was like, bro, I need to make something, need to make some music. Um so how many albums do you have you dropped? How like you know, one official albums. One official album, mixtapes? Well, see, because like the whole journey, um the journey for music has been real fucking cool. So it started off in high school and everything, and uh is basically 20 2015, and I started rapping in my neighborhood, like just with fun, like just fucking around with like the neighborhood homies and shit, just like smoking weed when a beat comes on, we'll just rap to it and shit. And everybody would be like fucking around, like, oh yeah, da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da. And I'd like to come in and like yeah, and I'd like lay some raw shit down, and I'd like everybody be like, Whoa, whoa, and I'm like, I'm like, whoa too! And like, I didn't know I could do that. And like, just like I don't know. My brain just works real good with words and coming up with something to follow what I just said, and I don't know. It was just real it I mean at the time, it seemed real it real easy at the time because everything was freestyling. I started off like freestyling and when you're a kid too, it's different. Yeah, yeah, yeah, exactly. Because you don't care what you're rapping about. Like nowadays, if I tried freestyling, it It would be like so structured, and I'd try to like Well, funny you mentioned that. Put the beat on, Paul.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Alright. This one's for you. Listen, yeah, break it down and roll. We bad to burn slokes. I ain't never seen a lot, look, look like this before. Watch us how it goes. Remember what we know. Reminiscing on that luck, luck, love. We have you full, like break it down and roll. We bada burn slokes. I ain't never seen a lot, look, love like this before. Watch this how it goes. Yeah, yeah. Remember what we know. Yeah, yeah. We have you feel like sometimes I sit in and think about the love you make me feel. I'm telling the question if it's made, believe. But you show me a strength and I'll lane. Think about the things you say and reveal. Made a promise, made a vow, it's something more than a deal. Surely wanna go to Italy. Run away, but in my arms tonight, it's where she is. Gonna lane. It just seems we're still going, still pushing, still loving. Wanna come real close and bring it right back to that summer. Have you ever had a love? I was broken by choice. Have you ever had a love that doesn't have its own boys? Break up just to get on track. And fell off more than ever. Now you're my baby, and I'ma hold it on forever. Like you said, anytime and anywhere that hit me up. Homie, don't do it. Like boo, I guarantee I'll tear it up. You're my ex thing from the past. And we're linking up again. Used to be my everything. My one and only friend. But see it change. We're such a race and there was games that we played. Now we made it back to square one. Scared of the pain. She ain't hurt my rats in two years. I had to make it refane. She said she popped up on my tracks when she was sliding. Break it down and roll. We got to burn smokes. I ain't never seen a lot, look, look like this before. Watch a side goes, remember what we know. Two minutes and on that look, look, love, we have your full life. Break it down and roll. We got to burn smokes. I ain't never seen a lot, look, look like this before. Watch a side goes, remember what we know. Two minutes and on that look, we have you fold like Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. You know who you are. That's it all for you. Summer 2015.
SPEAKER_00Like I would try to make a song to it, and it would just, I would get two in my head. I cause like one thing is like I never and I don't like rapping about things that I haven't done or don't do. Right. And like you can listen to all my music on all platforms right now, and there's not one thing that I've said that I haven't done or that I will or that like I don't usually do, or like something like that I do. You keep it true to your roots.
SPEAKER_04You're not out here talking about spending bands. Yeah, like if I don't have it. Right. Yeah or if I'm not doing it.
SPEAKER_03The corny thing about I had the bands, goddamn it, I'd spend them though. Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_04Well that's like 6'9. You know what I'm saying? Did y'all see he was recently because he did some fucking post where he like came out and he dropped like a quarter million in cash on the ground in front of a bunch of fucking weird colored Lamborghinis and shit, and he's like, I really live this and have like all these stupid looking watches and shit. And it's like those cars are rented. That's prop money. That's what I'm saying. You know what I'm saying?
SPEAKER_02Like those fucking I think he admitted to it being fake. Yeah, but it's like money or whatever.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, just to get public. Yeah, but it's so just to have views. That's what I'm saying. It's so fucking corny. But that's just how the rap game is, though. Like, really, Noah can explain that shit more. The rap used to not be like that.
SPEAKER_00Exactly. And that's where I get it from is listening to corporate bras and shit like that.
SPEAKER_03Like, because he's dying, dude, dog, he's a realist. Yeah.
SPEAKER_00One big thing is about people who make music is what do they listen to? Like, like, I'm sure Lil' Baby, Gunna, fucking duh baby, all of them, fucking something other baby. They all baby baby. Yeah, like baby baby, junior baby, baby baby. They all they all listen.
SPEAKER_04Young toddler up in this bitch.
SPEAKER_00Baby bacon burger. I'm very sure that they all listen to music like theirs. And when I started out, I was listening to like fucking pro era and shit. That's where like that's where the 47 originally came from. All the 47 shit was because capital Stees. He thought that the fourth chakra and the seventh chakra together, the fourth is the heart, and the seventh is uh I think it's like I I forgot because I haven't had my tapestries up and shit in a while. And they fucking, you know, I think that's the mental one. Yeah, yeah, it's like spiritual connectedness, it's not the third one above it.
SPEAKER_04Second blunt, since we've been sitting, the third and the is it gonna be on the way. Smoke we eat every day.
SPEAKER_00Hey yo. Um I read my scrolls, and the fo he yeah, he thought Capitol Stees believe that the fourth and seventh chakra are people that introduce the fourth and seventh chakra in their life life every day and keep it in rotation and just constantly being a person from their heart and being a person that like acts with wisdom or acts and connects with people with a higher consciousness, would be like the a utopian person or a utopian pedestrian, somebody that is like you know, because utopia is like the dream world, everything's perfect. So he believed if you if you keep this fourth and seventh chakra in your life every day and act like that, then you would be like, you know, the dream person, the perfect person in the world, and everybody would have peace and stuff. So centered, if you will. Yep. But as I grew up, dude, how about this? Fucking that was like the main 47 shit at first, and I just felt to a point where like I didn't want to enter I didn't want to have it in my name anymore because like I like I don't know them, you know what I mean? Like, I'm not gonna get popular and act like I know them or act like I'm part of the 47 team or shit like that. But how about this? Grew up on Monument, grew up in Monument, and that then Monument's X is exit 47. So I always really just use that. That's a big thing. So yeah, like it is so it does tie in. So like where I grew up is like exit 47. So sick.
SPEAKER_02So that boy was made for it.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, right? I bro the day I seen that shit, I mean I freaked out and texted my homie. I was like, bro, we fucking dude. Did you know that we grew up on exit 47? That's fucking sick.
SPEAKER_04Like, uh, what is it, uh Corey Feldman? I always had a passing interest in numerology.
SPEAKER_03Two two two? Yeah. The only things I know about Corey Feldman is because of the bonfire shout out to Dan and Jay. Oh, yeah, big shout out, big shit. I needed that.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, so uh let's switch gears
Chappelle Attack And Comedy Violence
SPEAKER_04a little bit, actually. I want to talk about some current fucking things that have kind of come up, man. Um serious. So, yo, a couple nights ago at the Netflix is a joke festival, Dave Chappelle tackled on stage.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, he didn't get tackled. He he almost got tackled, he was able to evade it.
SPEAKER_04He got shoulder kind of checked.
SPEAKER_02But bro, did that dude was five five, dude. What's up with all the comedians getting like slapped or blessed or whatever?
SPEAKER_04But like, dude had a a replica gun that like flipped out with a big knife blade.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, like what the fuck? What type of shit is that?
SPEAKER_04Damn.
SPEAKER_00He looked like the type too. He was a fake gun. Oh, they beat his gun.
SPEAKER_04But he was like a blade flipped out of it. Damn. So like, yeah, like some clown shit. Yeah, yeah. Like the bang. But you could hold the replica gun and like stab the dude.
SPEAKER_03Damn. Yeah. Yeah, that's funny. They beat his ass, dude. What shit? They gave him the beating that Will Smith should have got, dude. Yeah. Like straight up. I love it.
SPEAKER_02That was a very weird situation.
SPEAKER_03As a comic and shit, man, like seeing that kind of thing.
SPEAKER_02Very well.
SPEAKER_03People, I don't know. I don't even know what I don't even know why that dude got on stage and tried to do that to Dave and shit. But like people are so like easily offended or get upset about some shit where it's not even the worst shit probably ever said or could have been said.
SPEAKER_04I love that Dave immediately joked. He said, That was a trans man. Chris Rock ended up coming out with like and Jamie Foxx was like next to him, and Chris grabbed him. Damn it, was that Will Smith? Yeah, that's what was funny as hell. I was like, yes, let him fucking.
SPEAKER_02I gotta check that out. I haven't seen it.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, no, I bring that up because like you uh alluded to, Ian, like, what's up with all the comics essentially getting uh kind of attacked? People are just soft, man.
SPEAKER_00People are fucking losing the spice.
SPEAKER_04Well not like it's like it's like it's ri I'm an independent, okay. I I when it comes to politics, I'm not a Democrat. You mean like how Webby describes one? Exactly. I and D E P E sure you did. Yeah, be on the neutral side. Yeah, yeah. No, I vote on the politics, not not the party. And it it seems like with the liberal agenda and this woke uh movement, it's like they they don't get the concept of freedom of speech. Yeah. It's like they're cool with freedom of speech as long as it aligns with their ideologies. Yeah, which that is just censorship and oppression.
SPEAKER_00Exactly. Like you don't have to listen to certain things, but people put them in the position people put themselves in the position where they're around it. Like it's like following somebody on Instagram. Don't follow somebody, don't follow Siklan on Instagram if you don't like him. Exactly. Or else you're gonna see that every time you pull up your feed.
SPEAKER_04Well, this is I brought this up to my
Offense Culture And Free Speech
SPEAKER_04sister. Um, she's a school teacher, my mom's school teacher, you know, early childhood development.
SPEAKER_03The real heroes the real heroes. Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_04So we uh we were talking, and you know, she's like, you know, we do teach our kids that sticks and stones maybe, you know, but words can never hurt us, and that, you know, also that we need to respect other people and we need to talk to but my thing is we we need to teach our kids that but we also need to teach them that they are going to be offended. I feel like we structure so much around kids being like, oh, like don't talk to and you can't do that, that it's like, no, we need to teach them that yeah, you are gonna be offended, and this is what you do when someone's offending you. Yeah, you remove yourself and beat the shit out of them. You remove yourself from that situation.
SPEAKER_03Um, my dad always told me I have some tough skin. Yeah, I've I don't really feel like I like I'm offended by shit anymore. Like, there's nothing you can say to me that's gonna fucking hurt me. Yeah, offense comes from personal weakness. Yeah. Um that's a big thing.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, taking things too personal, really.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, and I've always kind of you know what actually does offend me though? What? Rape.
SPEAKER_04Rape. Hold on, we're getting to that. We'll get to that. I was trying to do a lead into it. That was a good say bring that back in like two minutes. Um, it's just, you know, uh damn it, you made me fucking lose my last fucking thought.
SPEAKER_00Uh we're gonna listen back to this and be like, oh yeah, that's what the fuck we were talking about.
SPEAKER_04No, no, it's just you know, essentially, you know, this woke, you know, I mean your kids having tough skin and shit. Yeah. You gotta Yeah, but the words, like I always, since I was a teenager, like I never thought and there were times someone would say something, we're all human, and it would get under under my skin. But it's more the context of the situation. I grew up watching my parents let me watch these VHS recordings of HBO specials of Rodney Dangerfield and Dice Clay and Bill Hicks, Da Merrera, like when I was a young kid. Vulgarity, like it's all about context. It's the way that fuck is one of the most beautiful words in the English dictionary because you'll be like, fuck you. Man, I want to fuck her. What the fuck, man? Like, what the fuck? Like kind of meanings. Yeah, it's like it's all about context and perspective. I feel the same when it comes to racial slurs. Like, I come from an Italian-American background. Like you could call me a walk or a wop, a wop dago fucking, you know, whatever you want. But you know, you guys are my boys busting my balls. Like we you call me white trash all you want, but then if you're using it in a demeaning way, in a disrespectful way, yeah, you know, so but it's like we're trying to-spaper shoe fits, though. Instagram and Twitter and everything, censoring people for using words. It's like you can't even say to someone that you know did say had a fire ass fucking clip that they posted, or like, Doc, you had posted a clip from your recent stand-up, you know, at an open mic. I couldn't even say, dude, you killed. My shit wouldn't get flagged. Yeah. It's just verbiage taking out.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, for sure.
SPEAKER_04You get you get what I'm saying? And it's like, you know, I don't know. It's just getting out of hand in my opinion.
SPEAKER_03No, the the the fucked up part is though, like everybody that's offended is that they're offended, but then they act like when they try to say something that's like crazy offensive, they're like, what? What? I'm allowed, I'm allowed to feel this way.
SPEAKER_04Right. So look, case in point, you know, uh I'm not allowed to say this. I'm not allowed to say this. Shout out Elon. Yeah, but Twitter. I know. He's gonna finally bring back free speech on a big one.
SPEAKER_03I used my McDonald's to fix all the ice cream machines.
SPEAKER_04But no, it's like you will get cussed out, you know, or fucking you know, talked down if you don't use proper pronouns these days, right? And it's like you don't know them personally, you know what I mean? And it's like, but then you can say things that are like, oh, gender is not real. And I'm like, that's going against science.
SPEAKER_05Like I'm willing, I'm willing to like when you tell me like my cut my cousin is trans, you know what I'm saying?
SPEAKER_04So it's like, whatever. She, I I dress her as she, her. Like every once in a while it slips because my whole life I knew her as Larry before she became Laura. Yeah.
SPEAKER_02Oh shit, Lawrence. That would be really hard to remember.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, but she's like super fucking, she's like really cool. Understand all you're about to say hi. Yeah, she's done podcasts and she's a very successful music producer in Atlanta. Yeah, nice. Yeah, yeah. And the dance music and EDM and um she kind of has the same perspective. It's all about like understanding, context and understanding. And it's like, you know, you can't expect me to to cater to you and what you want. Yeah, because you did it. Right. But then you can't, you're trying to jump on me and cancel me. Yeah. Like I'm willing to call you by whatever pronoun you want. God. But you can't censor my freedom of speech. I prefer doctor. You can't cancel my career.
SPEAKER_02Doctor, God.
SPEAKER_04PhD. You know what else we don't joke around joke about doc? What's that? Rape.
SPEAKER_03I never joke about rape. Rape is very, very serious. It makes me very offended. No.
SPEAKER_04This is this is this is kind of piggybacking. This is this is piggybacking. I look, there's I've laughed laughed at rape jokes. I was joking when I said, you know, rape jokes aren't funny. Whatever.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, yeah, that was a joke. That was a joke. Rape jokes can't be funny.
SPEAKER_04But we were down for uh Taylor Clark's uh comedy show, and one of the openers is a female comedian locally named Daisy, and she had this joke about how she was raped and how everything she has was like bought by big rape. Bought by big rape. And she like tried to get the crowd to like chant rape. It was really, really awkward. Yeah, that is super weird. It bombed, and it just kind of seemed like weird because it's like you want if that was a straight white man up there, they would be calling they would be calling for to cancel this person and ruin his life. So now her closing her closing bit was at the end, she was like, How many men are in the crowd? How many men? And like everybody's kind of hesitant. She's like, Raise your hands, raise your hands. All men, because we're like all skateboards, we're at a skateboard comedy show. No, it was a wonderful mix of crowd. I mean, there's a lot of girl skaters. It was, it was there was some ladies. There was a lot of ladies out there too. I mean, my girlfriend, my girlfriend was sitting next to me, and she was the whole thing. Shh, she had more to say about it than I did right after. But no, her her her closing bit was all the men, you know, raise your hand. So you look around, every guy ends up raising his hand, and her closer's like, I'm gonna fucking kill you, you suck, or some shit like that. She said she's gonna kill us, and then she says goodnight. And I'm just like, this is the same like r movement that wants to cancel Dave Chappelle for trans jokes. Yeah, like bro, come on. Like, that's not that's crazy. Right, right, but so wild. But if you was a straight white man or a straight black man, or just they would have started throwing shit out of us.
SPEAKER_00Hey girls, I want to kill you.
SPEAKER_03They're still investigating you right now. That shit was pulled out.
SPEAKER_04No, I mean, that shit's wild. Yeah, so my whole point on it, I don't know if I, you know, stoned um my way around to the point, is just like it seems like this woke culture only wants freedom of speech when it's what they agree with.
Social Media Censorship And Kids Online
SPEAKER_00And uh one big thing too is social media gave people a big ego. I feel like not everybody should have an Instagram. I feel like if you're you need like a like you know how they have the business accounts on there? I feel like you're I used to have a lot of. Dude, yeah, like you should, yeah, exactly. Exactly. Because it would be beneficial for kids too. Because say you do the test and it doesn't, it's not if you pass the test, you get Instagram. It's depending on your score or your liking or your your answers on the test, you'll get a certain version of Instagram. Go back to my certain followers go hang out with Tom. Yeah, you'll get certain pages of certain followers in the world that you can follow, but then there's certain ones that you can't. Say, like, say if you have a nine-year-old daughter and she gets Instagram and she takes this test, she's not gonna answer very good questions enough to where they're gonna let her see DaBaby, they're gonna let her see Megan Estallion, they're gonna let her see Lizzo, they're gonna they're gonna put PBS on there, they're gonna put fucking Disney shit on there.
SPEAKER_04I don't know if they could figure out an algorithm for that to work. It would be nice if they did, but I mean it just comes back to like you gotta understand. It would have to be a people are gonna control you. Yeah, I just don't think like censoring people like because you don't like racial slurs or vulgarity, like then just don't follow them.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, yeah, exactly.
SPEAKER_04Don't go to their comedy show, don't go to their music show, you know what I mean? Like, bro, if I didn't smoke weed and liked hip hop, I wouldn't pull up to a voodoo show. You know what I'm saying? Yeah, right. But I smoke weed and like hip-hop, so you'll catch me in the front row.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, I've I've been thinking of I've been denied entrance into a com like going to do a uh going to do a mic. I've been denied uh entrance into the building because I smell like weed. Damn. Like we don't support that.
SPEAKER_00I'm like, oh, dude, every time I do my shows, they know what's up with me. Yeah, speaking of, I'm trying to get another show for all the fans that are listening. I am trying to get a show very soon for all of y'all. They offered they offered me a couple, but I denied them because it's at Myth Night Club. And it's just, I mean, I would do it there, but that if I had if I made different music, but that's just not my scene. I'm gonna be in there rapping about love and caring and you know, like all my like my whole new mixtape.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, all of I do believe you get your ass chick for some shit like that.
SPEAKER_00All of all of Orchid, my new mixtape, is gonna be all about love. So it's like my next show I want to perform a lot of that, a lot of sapphire was like very positive and uplifting stuff. Very good songs that are just about like figuring life out, and a lot of my music is advice through experience. So it's like I give a lot of pointers in my music of shit that I've been through that I feel like people would have advantage knowing. Like it's like little cheat codes to life, not cheat codes, but just keeping that PMA, that positive mental attitude, yeah.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, yeah. It's literally like that's that's the key to success and a happy, fulfilling life.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, like I was saying earlier, it's like like those rappers that I was saying, listen, I'm sure they listen to rappers like themselves. And me, I listen to dude, I listen to fucking Lana Del Rey and fucking so much different shit, bro. Like, oh my goodness, like Amy Winehouse and Brooks, like people under the stairs, like just funky shit, shit that like or Nas or just like bro, so much old school and just weird shit, like Michael Jackson, bro.
SPEAKER_04Like to everything from classical music to bluegrass.
SPEAKER_00I'm so in love, I'm so in love with music to the point where it's like every time I make it, I have to be so certain about like how I'm making it because I know it's gonna be heard and I know it could possibly be heard by millions of people if I put in, but that's the thing about nowadays too, is people don't just blow up out of nowhere like we did on SoundCloud a little while ago, like in 2016. People don't just blow up no more, like all music marketing and making it in the music industry is all about part of it is knowing the right people. It's tough always knowing the right people because you gotta have somewhere to start. Somewhere to start is making good music and actually having love for music. Like, if you don't have love for music, you're not gonna figure it out.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, and and the key to the industry is is really networking. If I could say I feel like for you, for your next step, try to you know do as many shows as you can to perform, especially in different areas, even if you can uh r reach out to you know different venues around even the state of Florida. I have uh do like little mini tours, invest in some merch so you got something to sell, some product to sell. Yeah, because you've got the brand, you've got the music and the talent.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, um we had runs of merch, it was just small runs, and it seemed like every time I had runs of merch, everything that I went and got was already pre-sold by the time I even got it. Well, that's it. So it was so cool. Like we got the stickers and the shirts.
SPEAKER_04You travel, you know what I'm saying, and then you perform a different, you're gonna meet different fans, yeah, you're gonna meet different artists, you're gonna meet different venues, it'll all be networking. So the next time, you know, like you it'd be like the following summer, they might have like a big hip-hop festival come up. They're like, you know who we can contact to get on the bill. Well, Voodoo killed last time and he opened up. Like, let's give him the, you know, not the headliner, but you know, we'll give him the second slot on the bill. I've been seeing his boy Dr.
SPEAKER_00Jones features 15 minutes of comedy, chance creepy. Yeah. You know what's crazy too is that those shows that I do at Afton, uh, that's the company that usually signs me up for the shows that I usually do at 1904. Back to what I was saying, yeah, too, about Myth Knight Club. They've offered me shows there, but I did I decline them. Um, I'm waiting for the 1904 show or other venues because they're always looking for other venues. 1904 just always comes through. Shout out 1904. I love that venue.
SPEAKER_04What's the out there?
SPEAKER_00Um, yeah, that's Afton, the company called Afton. And uh it's real easy, it's not pay-to-play, so like I don't have to pay a dime, but I do if I want tickets. But I'll that gets refunded if I sell the required amount. So it's like usually I double the required amount because it's 20. So I usually sell like 40 or something just because I'll either buy them myself just to get the numbers up, or just like usual, like people would just like be on it.
SPEAKER_04Everybody like most of the time, it seems like everybody everybody here fucking supports you for the most part. Yeah, I know.
SPEAKER_03Neon that are uh looking for performers and shit to do uh shows and whatnot. I need to hit them up after this for sure.
SPEAKER_04Yep, yep. Big shout outs to Zori and and shoutouts to Devin. Uh booking you know, entertainments. Yeah, man. Uh they've been mainly doing like punk and indie and in and metal right now. We need to figure something out, get me, black toilet in there, you know.
SPEAKER_00For sure, for sure. Because you guys are the vibe of hip hop that that that venue would see.
Jacksonville Music Scene And Networking
SPEAKER_00Dude, we're putting bro if if me, Black Toilet, Alan, all of them, like Yellow Steve, bro, if we all, even his whole team, shout out Computer Foods. Computer Food, big shout out, bro. If we all get put on and all of like Jacksonville's real musicians get put on, like me, Bino, everybody in Third Iris, dude, Jacksonville is gonna be a problem, like a good problem, though. Like I say that in a the best way. Like, like we could be the next whole wave of hip hop. Like for sure. We make such good music, dude. And there was like a golden age in time of like where me, the black toilet, this dude named Hitchcock Martin, we're all doing shows. Bino would have a set, my homie Mextos would have a set. My boy Joseph, shout out Joe, he had a set. Like there would be it, it would be like it would, and we would all do it on our afton. So it's like they don't know that we know each other, we're just in there selling, we're the ones selling tickets because we all know the method. The method is real easy, it's just following instructions. You just gotta read the instructions, and it's a lot to read, but we have passion for the shit. Exactly. We have passion for it, so we read all the instructions and shit, follow it through, and it was real cool because we had a time where we were doing those shows, and it was like a neighborhood, just like like pure Jacksonville hip hop, all had a show that that time, and like color me Kona, We Rise, shout out them. Those shows were beautiful, man. Like, so much good musicians. Jacksonville is so special with all of its musicians. There's so many good people here, and everybody's everybody's figuring the life shit out, and everybody's still doing music, which is really good. Like, everybody's still dropping music, everybody's still dropping good music, and everybody's always trying to get better. And you could tell that Jacksonville, like there the musicians here love it, man.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, no, it's it's had a healthy scene for a while, and it's just been awesome to see it grow. It is. Um, back in the day, we had shows Hip Hop Hell down at the old Imperial and Fuel Coffee Shop and everything back in the day.
SPEAKER_03And dude, shout out Imperial. Yeah, trying to get bigger ones.
SPEAKER_04Shout out Mikey Sierro, that's uh my brother. Love that dude. He he used to run the door down there, and he does a lot of bookings around town, a lot for 1904 and stuff like that. That's why I asked, I was like, who was booking out there?
SPEAKER_00But uh Yeah, there's a couple different bookers.
SPEAKER_04There's like Black Sunshine, but I need to put uh Big Jeff's here, who's uh booking all the shows at Kona now, because that would be a cool end of summer. They're booking all the biggest.
SPEAKER_00Like a hip-hop night, or even like a mix night of just everything, man, because bro, hip-hop fans or just any fans in general that go up there, they love it.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, and it's it's all for the kids and all for the youth.
SPEAKER_00I mean like that's another big thing too, is my next step after Orchid, I want to make like I want to make a clean mixtape. So because one thing I found with my music is like a some of my family likes it and they're young and stuff, and not everything I rap about is for younger people because it's like just one thing is they can't keep up with it because sometimes I go really fast and the flows are complex and shit, and I'm saying a lot of big words and shit. So and I did this for Color Mikona. Both their little minds. Yeah, I did this for Color Mikona. I did something called uh, dude, I can holy shit, I can't remember. It was like uh uh for the youth. Um, I did a for the youth project. For dude, and it was so cool. I did all clean songs um that's rap and was able to perform them at Color Mikona, like in front of everybody, and felt real comfortable. Every song was like real direct.
SPEAKER_04It's not like corny music, like yeah, clean rap back in the day used to be really fucking corny. You know what I mean?
SPEAKER_00It was like it was all of it.
SPEAKER_04It was just it was all it was all fresh prints, you know, and shit like that. Like really, yeah. What I would do is just which A, I'd like to summer time's a classic. Yeah, however.
SPEAKER_03My parents just don't understand some my life motto.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, they get you the wrong skateboard wheels. Right, yeah, nigga.
SPEAKER_00Damn it, Bobby. Oh fuck, that's uh callback. Man, and fucking I actually hit up one promoter recently, and he's like giving me shows for like Tampa and all sorts of shit. Like opening up for like I know you've seen like people opening up for the uh Xavier Wolf shows up at 1904 and shit, and they always bring a big crowd. Like, I don't know, Jeffrey always performs there with him, and they just bring big big crowds up there. Um, I think some dude named like Scar or something like that performed there not too long ago. That's cool. Um, I forgot his name exactly, but he was a bigger artist. But yeah, man, I just gotta find more of those. But a big thing is like one thing with me is I know it's not up to the fans. I know me getting big is not all up to the fans. Like the fans are just the consumers, you know. Like I just have to put it in front of their face, but not do it too much, you know, like not do it to the point where I'm annoying. So I've been like recently.
SPEAKER_04That's the thing, is like everybody that like blows up and then and then flops, um, it's because it's all a gimmick. You know what I mean? You gotta be true to yourself and and uh and you gotta have the talent and you gotta have the drive. Yeah, that's all I said, man. Like if you can fucking put together yourself some like little mini tours, you know, like you will see a vast growth because of just that networking of you meeting other people, you know, meeting other artists that are like, yo, I'm gonna be performing in Tampa this weekend. Would you want to come do the show? You know what I mean?
SPEAKER_00So emotional in my shows too, bro. Because it's like, dude, like ever since I was a kid, I was like, bro, like I'm so lame, like fucking, I just want to be cool, bro. Like, I just want to hang out with people. I always had dirty skate shoes, I always had fucking going to school and skate clubs and shit. I look back and I love it now, but at the time I was like, bro, like what the fuck, man? I want Jordans and shit. All my fucking friends have like nice Nikes and shit. But so I was always like, Yeah, I mean uh yeah, so fucking every time I'm at a show and I'm like I have control over the crowd, because that's one thing I love to do, bro. Like my last show, first song, I get everybody clapping before the shit even starts. Like, and then and then it goes in and everybody's clapping with it, bro. Like, and dude, it gets me so emotional when I hear people rapping and I'm like, what the fuck? Like, y'all, like, I I don't expect people to know all the lyrics because I know it's complex and it's a lot to remember. Cause fuck, dude, every time I rap my shit in the studio, I'm reading my phone. I don't remember, I don't memorize that shit until afterwards. Yeah, most of the time it's so new too. I've had times where I go in the studio and I'm making the song in the studio. And you write it in the moment, yeah. So it's not like yeah, that's how I do a lot of my comedy, yeah, man. And uh, dude, it makes up there. Like dude, it makes the best shit, bro. All 90% of Sapphire's verses are first take. Like everything I've done for Orchid so far has been first take because I love the pure, like, and it's not like the first time I've ever wrapped it because uh Orchid and Sapphire have both been creations. Like, whenever I do albums, I'll set it up, have all the beats in mind, and then I'll work on it so it's more clear. Like, I know when I'm notching off everything.
SPEAKER_04Do you have a local producer that you fuck with normally, or do you like yeah,
BeatStars Leases And Streaming Math
SPEAKER_04yeah, yeah. The engineers whoever you can.
SPEAKER_00Um you mean like uh for beats, uh yeah, for producer, um, beat stars. I just use beat stars, but for Orchid is actually my first time I'm using all production from one person, so the whole tape's gonna sound like similar. Because like all of his drum packs are like the same type of drum packs, same type of lo-fi, um, same type of kicks and stuff like that, drums and shit. So um, that's my first time doing that, but really I use uh beat stars and it's like a marketplace for beats and stuff. Right, right, right. It's real cool. That's dope. Um, yeah, they're then the ones that I usually get are pretty cheap too. I don't ever like there's ones on there for like thousands of bucks. Yeah, I'm sure. Yeah, and then I get the leases to them, and like that's how I make money off of my shit too, is off of like all platforms because I like I basically own it because I have the leases up to a certain amount. The leases go up to like I usually try to pick it to a point where if I get to that point, I'm gonna have money to pay for the full lease. Correct. Because most of the time I look for like a million streams. If I crack a million streams, that's like $300 for me. So per song. Like if I do that, if I rack that up, but that's a guess. I don't know actually. It's probably like a hundred because every stream on Spotify, get this, people. Every stream on Spotify for me, every time you click my music and it plays for 30 seconds, Polly's pod too. If you play it for 30 seconds, that one stream on Spotify and Apple Music is 0.0003 dollars, I guess. So yeah. Um so but it adds up, you know. Like I'm finally starting to make consistent money off my shit, like $50 a month, which feels so good, man. It's fucking like because I I'm making it legally and I'm doing it right. Like I post on my story all the time. Like if I ever have like copyright claims on YouTube, like something that I post because the beat gets like people will flag like their beats um if it gets posted and stuff, and they'll just like need a dispute, yeah, yeah. And I'll dispute it, and most of the time it gets accepted because I have the lease and I write that in there and I'll attach the lease to it, and it always gets clear. So I'm always posting on my story, like this music shit's easy when you do it, right? Part one, part two, third three, like man, I do that all the time. Like, even when I'm like dropping music, because to submit releases for all platforms, it needs to be to a certain sound and certain quality and certain like you need certain things. Like, I need like they need to know that I don't have producer tags in there that are gonna get flagged. My artwork needs to be 3,000 by 3,000 pixels or more, or else it's not gonna render. Right. And dude, every time since I've started this shit, it's been accepted every time.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, I haven't had any issues. I use a publishing platform essentially. Um, me too. United Masters, that's what I use. Uh shout out them. No doubt. Yeah, and I I I mix all of my you know episodes that I record, obviously, and then I pay for a feature that kind of does a little mastering through their platform after Jones that kind of levels it with everything. Sound cloud does that now, like auto mastering and auto mixing. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And it goes to all all the different platforms. We are at like uh 2,130 uh downloads like of subscription subscriptions. Yeah, and uh it's crazy because it's like all over Florida, California, Colorado, New York, like all over the world. Yeah, so are my listeners, bro. It's crazy. I got lots of like Taiwan.
SPEAKER_00We got Japan.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, like crazy.
SPEAKER_00Australia, Voodoo's big in Zimbabwe. I think it's because voodoo is like a you know, like it's like a because that's another funny thing, dude, on Apple Music, and I kind of like I've been trying to fix this because it's I don't know if it's completely legal, but somebody else's music is under my shit on my Voodoo account on Apple Music, and I can't control it because every time I've hit up my uh United Masters about it, they're like, that's up to Apple Music. I'm like, okay, cool. So I'll I'll I'll message them and they never get back to me. It's like trying to it's like trying to talk to Instagram or Walmart, right? Yeah, no, and it's not gonna happen. So I've been trying to get this person's music off of there for so long, and you know what it's doing? It's fucking racking up mad views, and I'm getting paid for it, which is not good. And I don't feel good about it. It's good, but I don't feel good about it. Like I feel like I want that guy to be making bread, you know what I'm saying? Like you would think you would think that he would notice it, but but he's from he's somebody that's from someplace that like dude, like he don't even care. He just makes music and drops it. It's probably from a label too. Because like another voodoo, like the voodoo that gets posted under my shit all the time is like some some Hispanic music. Wow, that shit jams area. That's a good thing. It jams. I will it jams. I'll just let that shit play. I'll be like, yeah, voodoos, let's go. All my voodoo's around the world. That shit was funny though. Um, yeah, so yeah, I've been trying to get that figured
DIY Recording And Audio Mentors
SPEAKER_00out. But yeah, dude, the dropping in on all platforms is really feels good, dude, because whenever I first started out, like I was saying earlier, it was like freestyling and shit. And then in high school, my homie Mexto, shout out Chris. Um, he's part of Third Iris because he's been a he's been a staple since the beginning because he was the first person that got me, that told me like where to like gave me a software. Um he told me about Audacity, like the OG platform, like the fucking 90s one. And I was I started recording all of my shit on Audacity, and it sounded so stale, it sounded like a cardboard box type song. And that's how it was, too, dude. I literally like cut out this uh the shoe box, like I cut the top off the shoebox, cut a hole in the top, hung the microphone through it, and then put it up and then padded the inside of it so it was like a microphone cover. Yeah, trying to dampen it a little bit, and then made like made like this thing with like uh uh dryer sheets on it as like a pop filter. Oh, that's funny as shit. Every time every time I rapped, it smelled like summer breeze, dude. It's fucking I'm breathing in Bahama Mist and shit. Did the pop fit like did it work? Oh yeah, yeah, yeah. Everything wrote in the rain. It was cool. It was just I didn't know how to fucking like mix and master for shit. So everything just sounded real weird. Like all my stuff on SoundCloud just sounds real weird. Real stuff.
SPEAKER_04I got into like I played bass guitar and guitar and back in like middle school and high school, and I got into hip hop, started DJing, and and got into like I really wanted to record music and make beats, and that's where I kind of got into it. I was the uh assistant technical director at the landing for a few years and um ran sound for all the events down there, um, which was really sick. But yeah, it's kind of like that's where that's where my background in really you know audio and events and everything kind of comes from. But uh yeah, no, shout outs to uh my mentor, Fred Lewis Andrews, rest in peace, the old homie.
SPEAKER_00Shout out.
SPEAKER_04He was uh he had like a fucking he was your customado dude.
SPEAKER_00He was yeah, he was like, yeah, he was uh the great reference, great reference.
SPEAKER_04The Yoda to my to my Luke, Skywalker, if you will. He taught me pretty much everything. He had a career as an audio guy and then ended up down at the landing, basically running the shit for Tony Slaman when he was in in charge of it. And uh this dude would just fucking put back some coke. Nice bro, it was like 12 pack a day. He called it marching margin powder, dude.
SPEAKER_05He said a 12 pack.
SPEAKER_04This guy, he'd like he ran sound for like Ronald Reagan back when he was like president to like pour it with like Al Green and Paul McCartney. Uh the dude that fucked up trick daddy and shit. Like every like literally everybody.
SPEAKER_00Stories for games. The dude that did the sound for uh Color Mikano said that he did some shit for Woodstock too. That's wild, which is badass. I was like, damn. Yeah, that's it. 99 or it looked like it too.
SPEAKER_04He was old. Yeah. No, yeah, yeah, it it's definitely uh which is kind of crazy because you know, like thinking about your new music, this is one thing I've always said was I listened to a lot of older music because the way that it was recorded and the way things were produced when it was like everything was analog, like I really enjoyed hearing like the different imperfections. Yeah, yeah, exactly. Nowadays, like with everything so digitized, man, even if the the the chord structure isn't the same, it's like so much of the music sounds exactly the same.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, bro. And a part of it is like the mixing and stuff because the vocals all all have the same vocal packs on them, like it's you know all the production is the same beat packs and same drums and same 808s and shit. So that's why like I bro, like I dive into so much different shit. Like, if you go listen to my shit on all platforms, you'll listen, you'll hear all types of stuff. But like if not y'all better go listen to my line.
SPEAKER_03Or go.
SPEAKER_04You'll find it, you'll find it real. You're gonna go listen to Voodoo.
SPEAKER_03Yeah. Yeah, man. And uh, but after you listen to Poly on the pod first, though. Yeah, yeah, yeah. We need the money more. Yeah, this episode's going up. This one's doing good.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, no, we've we've been we've been talking for like an hour and 15 minutes now.
Plugs Final Thoughts And Sign Off
SPEAKER_04So I was gonna say uh it's been a pleasure, fellas. Uh if you want to uh let everybody know where they can find you on social media and find your music.
SPEAKER_03Uh can we have a moment of silence for the four for the May the Fourth people weren't with? May the fourth people weren't with it.
SPEAKER_05No time for that.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, man. Uh Instagram though is uh official.voodoo47, and voodoo is spelt v-u-du- um. Once you find me on Instagram, you can pretty much find everything else. I have a link tree on there, and in that link tree I have my Apple Music, Spotify, YouTube and SoundCloud link. So you can find me on everywhere. You can find his OnlyFans on there too.
SPEAKER_05Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Spreadsheet, dude. Oh, just come and watch.
SPEAKER_02Uh secret link. Yeah, tell them tell them where they can find you, Ian. Uh on Instagram, it's Ian Willis with three S's. And then um, I do have a business too. We build fences and cut down trees. Uh, you can find that on Instagram.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, if y'all need some work, let me come work on y'all's yard.
SPEAKER_02The business is called uh Green Valley Outdoor Experts. Um we do all kinds of stuff on there, so if y'all need anything done, just give me a call.
SPEAKER_03Yeah.
SPEAKER_02No doubt.
SPEAKER_04Doc, you got anything to plug?
SPEAKER_03Uh a uh doc a Doctor Dunes Goons Jones 904 on Instagram. I just I just changed it again from my I'm no longer the Bionic Jones because I haven't got that metal hip yet.
SPEAKER_04Right on, right on, right on. Well, you know what it is. Check us out. Polly on the pod on Instagram, Polly on the Pod on YouTube. I promise we'll get some visual content up there soon. Thanks for tuning in. If you don't mind, like, subscribe, share the podcast, YouTube, the channel, all that good shit. We'd be hella stoked. Until next time, peace loaded and skateboarding.