Harness the Hustle with 2 Chainz

I don't remember things that don't mean a lot to me and we're like like if I'...

I mean how are you doing?

I'm What I would okay, I don't really need to remember this name I don't like waste room in my mind to try to remember You know what I hate nice of you. But then if it's Tuesdays that's how I was like get no No, it's getting why that's it. It's getting why

“I don't need to remember. No, don't mean nothing to it. That's why can you create you?”

I don't remember. I don't remember. I don't remember. It's important. It's important. I know my daughter Got prawn this weekend and I need to make sure she got her. Everybody she is. I don't need to remember. You left them with all the resources. Yeah, I'm going to put everything they need. The car, the driver, everything. This episode of IMO is brought to you by Progressive Insurance. Hey, how you doing today? I am doing great. I am so excited. I guess today. I mean, a bunch of people just if their their minds will be blown. Yeah on our own.

Let me tell you different level. We've got two chains. We got two chains and I know a couple of

“Brothers living in my house who are going to think I'm like the coolest dude. Yeah, because they I have no”

Credibility in my own house. My nephews don't think that I'm cool. No, no. You're the few think you're cool. They don't think I'm cool. Oh, but you're with me. Don't they think you're cool? No, that doesn't count. That doesn't count. Hey, let's get what I'm saying. Well, why don't we just just get right to it. Let's get right to it. So our guest today is two chains. Who is a Grammy award winning rapper songwriter actor and entrepreneur.

He is known for his platinum selling music that has garnered more than 11 billion streams as well as his business portfolio

that spans restaurants, hospitality, tech and beyond his new York Times best selling memoir, which is sitting right here next to me is Called the voice in my head is God. Everybody should go out and grab one of these is it is a great read. It's a truth tell a truth tell it, but it's a it's a fun read and without further ado, let's bring out our new pal to change this is my honor. I'm blessed, man. Thank you. This is my honor. You are busy. You are busy. You are busy. You got a tour going on. You got you got a prom going on.

You got college graduate getting ready to go to college. No, not college. High school graduate getting ready to go to college.

You chugling a lot of stuff. So this is my daughter. I got it. I don't need your help until I need your help. When really we could fix this in the first place.

So my daughter now is on her second prom dress. Oh, may no sense. The first one can't. I never knew this. The first one she ordered from overseas, the man at the door said he need money for tears before he can even give. I didn't know you paid a tear. You probably don't. I just said he came. He said why can't just take the box with me. So now this is my daughter's dress from Lord. I don't know rush. I'm going to wish you or just dress for you get the dress. You don't even like the dress. But you're really getting the dress based on a picture which I understand. Cool and then you get another dress that you love. So I'm happy about that and then today you go get some lashes and I've never heard of this.

You get your all your lashes done, but then you don't like them. So then you got to do you know, so I'm just really going through that, but I'm not there going through it, but we'll hold up let's back up for a minute. When did you start getting prom dresses without going to the store and trying it on wake up rip and winkle. They're tapping and tapping and stopping and stuff. Those are different. You know how they'll be using you know, AI to in a minute to put the they probably already are to put different dresses on with the different house has to also you know kids we all have and we all love them and you know.

“Here's the thing about that though, the fact that she's a self starter, right, that she does want to do stuff on her own. You know that can't be matted. That's a good sign can't be matted.”

You know that that's a sign that mom and dad did something right. Well, two chains we want to get into all your history and we really want to talk about your best. Congratulations. You told me you didn't even know you were on the best sellers list. I mean, I knew when I knew. Maybe you know, because I just really had my head down and a very hectic schedule maybe a little bit more ramped up than when I'm promoting a project. Definitely if it wasn't more ramped up, it was in different on different platforms that I want normally went to.

I mean, it just just paid up against my transparency, my honesty, of course m...

It means a lot to for you to embrace your story and to be able to tell it in such a clear, you know, it's just you bring clarity to stuff in a very special way. So I came up with the idea to talk about intuition and how it's like my gut feeling and this divine guidance that I've been using for a very long time and really hadn't talked about it.

“In any music, any platform, any interviews, almost like this secret sauce that I had, right? For example, when I started working on the book, I found my father was incarcerated a good bit part of my life, which we talk about in here.”

And so I found the stack of his letters, I don't know how I found this, but they were from 2003 and they were around the holidays. My father's birthday is on Christmas. So these letters were from like Thanksgiving to Christmas. Now, when I read them now, they're over 20 years old, but now when I read them now, I have a way different understanding for some of the things we were talking about. From the things that they were eating, the language that he was using, comparing, you know, the things that he was saying as far as like, he wasn't calling this self, I didn't mean it.

It was another term he was using, what they ate on Thanksgiving, what football game was going to read and all this, but it was something that I noticed on the back of it.

And I've always noticed this on the back of every letter it was God is love on the envelope. I've ripped the envelope up. I read it was inside, but it was on the envelope the whole time.

Yeah. And it was saying God is love and it really hit me one day that maybe that's just what it is. It's that simple.

“God is love. If you got love in it has God in it. And so I started, that's when the title came, the voice of my head, it's got to be God.”

You hear God, you're made in the image of God. God is inside of you. God. So I'm thinking, you know, it just felt like you hit me. So then I got really excited and started using a bunch of my like musical resources to put the book together, even with the audio part. Of course, I read my own book. I love reading. I read it like production. So on some of the things that I describe, you're here, tower screeching or you're here, sirens. And it's just, it just, I just made it really fun to do put together.

A little bit of that comes from somewhere. Can you tell us about your mom who I got to meet on FaceTime. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. She was, she was garden. She was on, she was on flip a phone around the street. You know, you're not supposed to, you're not supposed to face time. When would I tell them, but I was like, you know, I don't, she didn't seem like my baby. But she's she looked when you left the room. She's like, you got to see my yard. I got black Mozart.

We are there too. I'm like, mom, you know, you're going to need some more that black, you know. You know, it's cool to have your talks with your mom. You know what I mean? Like, you know, the black mongering or lyrics or something. You better get some, because we had the, I did this for you. You know what? I got hate now. So, anyway, we just had that conversation. But, you know, my mom is, she'll be 76 in July. Her and my oldest are born on the same day. It's, it's, it's, it's, it's insane.

And, um, growing up with my mom, he's always been there for him. She's always been there for me. She's always been a support of anything that I've done.

But a lot of my growth came from the nature aspect of just being outside, playing sports, riding the bus, meeting friends. It just, you know, like, my life, my elementary was different from my junior house. It was just different from my high school. I played on all these teams. I even went to college. So, all of these are like chapters in my, in the book of life.

“Yeah. And you, and, and all of those situations, I, I assume gave me this resilience and stuff like that, you know what I mean?”

It gave me a perspective. You got coaches that, if they are good coach, they could act as father figure sometimes. They have, you know what I mean? So, just like, those things when I look back teachers, it's some teachers that know how to be impactful. You know, um, so in my upbringing, it was a lot of that, too. It wasn't just my mom. My mom was there. She didn't abandon me or anything like that. But a lot of the, my teachings really came from like, people outside my family. Well, we, we are definitely going to talk about who says some point here. But, um, I am pretending to be my sister now.

And I want to know what was little two chains like, like your first memories and what that was like, what, what the smells were, what you ate, what, how you grew up when you were little.

Yeah.

So, I can actually remember some of those times. My daddy had a yellow catalac with a yellow leather. And he had a black catalac. Two catalacs. He wore cowboy hats. He was a hustler.

“My mom, um, ericisa, I can remember, doubled in real estate, like property, um, long management, long officer, whatever.”

Me, always the only child. Um, and my mom, my mother told you that she didn't, she don't tell you this, what a smiling face.

She didn't want to have me. Like, this is my dad's idea. She, she didn't want to have kids. Yeah. And she said, and she said, I hurt really, really bad. And my dad didn't want to help a girl. Yeah. So, she said, he, like, puts it. She, like, you come, she comes to the ex, you come push. And she says, uh, see, you know, I've been asked for like a brother or whatever. So, she says, she went on and told me when I was young, like, baby, you heard me so bad.

That I had my tubes, tie, clip, and burn. How I noticed exactly. That, that, that, that, that. And burn. They know, there's no way. I'm like, man, you didn't think she was like that day. I didn't want to see you. I was mad at your dad.

But obviously, you know, when it became just me and her, we became best friends.

We became locked in and, um, those memories are just like, you have those survival stories. But it's not like any other, nothing that you can't, a herd of that you can't come across. You know what I mean? We had encounters with, um, the law. We had encounters with, um, you know, maybe the neighborhood that we were standing. And what age where it just was it just the two of you from probably eight and nine.

Oh, okay. You know, and my mom, we stayed in, um, so, when I'm explaining certain things that are urban, like, on this show, I will talk about like the word trap, right? It's something that you hear.

“And don't feel like you have to, you know, just, you know.”

Just be me, right? Yeah. And it always works.

Yeah. That's good. You know, we know what you're talking about. You're talking to us. You're not talking to the audience. Okay. So, a trap. That's good. It's not a lot of ideas in here. It's right.

Yeah. So the trap. Um, the trap is a place where, uh, people come and they solicit. They buy things from this place. There's normally an apartment complex. They come and buy most notably drugs or whatever.

They come from that place. What I would like people to understand is that my mother lived in the trap. Like in paid rent or sectionated or whatever the heck we had. In the place where people would come in, college students get whatever they need it. Lee, whatever, whatever. So I lived in a neighborhood.

And so I say that to say that the neighborhood, it's just automatically influenced you, like any other neighborhood. And my examples are that if I was born in Hawaii, I would be like a surfer. Yeah. I promise you, like, I think the whole neighborhood, like, let's go. You'd be down far. You would be the best. Yeah. You'd be like, you know.

All right. And if I was from Colorado, like, great. Let's go. And I'm from a place where this is all they did. And when I try to explain, like, you know, who I am and what I am. It's actually known that I'm standing at a place and my mother's paying rent at a place where people come. And they solicit and they buy drugs and they want stuff.

And now normally in a neighborhood like this, if the older people in the neighborhood, if they notice something, if they notice like a bright light and a kid, they'll tell them. You stay away from this. Yeah.

“They didn't notice that with me. So they told me, you need to come on out here.”

And you need to do this to help take care of your family so for a long time. What I was doing didn't feel like it was wrong at all. It didn't feel like it was wrong. I did it. I did it in my neighborhood, I did it in school. I just hustled. I grabbed. I did that. And that will put that will grow you up faster than a lot of things.

You know what I'm saying? Just absolute. Period. The loss of innocence at an early age really helped develop who our was when it's when you're at 14, 15, you learn how to do money orders at the time to pay this Georgia power beer, whatever it is. And you got your responsible for this. And also, I'm someone who just enjoy school. So I wasn't going to drop out to try to which was like a trend when I was coming up a lot.

I didn't go on a school.

I enjoy literally learning. I don't make a see the college. I talk about that a lot to my own purpose. You're like, let me say I feel the normal. It was you can do better than this. I enjoy school. I'm like love and school, but still like got this dark side where I'm a mobile night. I'm outside. I'm sitting on a abandoned car. But I'm reading my book for tomorrow.

You could do it with your eyes. Yeah, I'm still reading this the most. I can say right now sitting on the back of a car. Street light. I'm reading somebody. Let me get this. I'm doing this. It's still like, and then people to next day, it like the teacher. She asked the question, I'm like, oh, man, you're on.

Yeah, I know the house. I can't wait until you're listening to my ears. But you know, I hear you talk about this and who you were. See, this was the part about me. Like you said, no adult saw the special in you. Enough to tell you not to be in the trap. But you had to have known that they were wrong.

You had to go out there and do it because that was the way of life. And you could do it because you could pretty much do anything. If you put your mind to it, you know, you could ski, surf whatever was before you. Didn't the instinct tell you, I better than they think I am. [Music]

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You know, I can't say the self-confidence has been at a high level my whole entire life. I have felt like I had something different apart from for sure because I attracted people. Like I could sit on a lunch table by myself and then everybody want to come eat round. This is eighth grade. So I saw that part.

But someone can project some doubt on you. Yeah. And you can feel that sometimes, you know, you may listen to it sometimes. But when I became up because I'm around people, I just hang around older people too.

Like, I didn't even feel like when I was 15, like hanging around a 15 year old would have been in it.

There's no way I could have hung around a 15 year old when I was 15. I had already went to juvenile. I was already like, I was like, you grown man. No, I'm a grown. I was going to be hanging up.

“I remember telling the kid that I went to somebody house.”

We like, grown kids. What do that mean? And I said something about Santa Claus. These people don't kick me out. This man is lying.

So this is late. I never get it. Jonathan, if you watch it, I haven't even been over it.

I go over there and we talk about this.

My mother looked at me so mad. And I thought my daddy been unto me. My daddy one time sent me to the truck to get some honored gifts in the truck. And then we stand in the apartment company. So I said, I have a chimney.

Right. All right. These are the levers that make sense. Yeah. It just hit me.

And you think everybody should be able to figure this out. And you think everybody should be able to figure this out. And you think everybody should be able to figure this out. And you think everybody should be able to figure this out. And you think everybody should be able to figure this out.

And I feel like if I'm in a tent right, hang with seniors or someone out of school is more of my speed or whatever. So when you graduate and you just out of school not doing that, it easy for you to project someone me as a sophomore, join you because you ain't really doing that with your life. Yeah.

“Or you working out of warehouse or whatever you're doing, you know what I'm saying?”

Let's go back to when you said you're talking about how. In most communities, people would see somebody like you and say, hey, you don't need to be going over there. You got too much going for you. That was me. Yeah.

I was, I was, you and I are not that different. Wow. I just had the folks in the neighborhood because we, me should, me should tell you, we grew up in the same type of a neighborhood. It was, it was, I'm older than you are obviously, but I want our, our listeners and viewers to know that because people might think we like close to the same age. He's old. He's 600 years old.

He's supposed to be a joke. I get, I get what he had. But, so they steered me away. They were like, Craig, the same for you. Yeah. You come up to the courts, gang guys playing everybody's playing. You be on this team, stuff's about the pop off Craig.

You better go home. Let's get you out of here. Let's get you out of here. You somehow didn't have that. And dealt with all this stuff you dealt with, but you circled back around on your own or with the help of some other people.

How did you circle back around?

Because you circle back around and was a good enough student, straight A, you know, A and B.

“Like you said, good enough ball player to be recruited, which I want to talk about.”

What A you team do you play for? I play with team Georgia. I'm sure I saw you play. Coach Outlaw. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I'm a brother.

Rest of the coach outlaw. Yeah. And then like a team sports, help kids. Yeah. Like teams sports.

I've been seeing stuff go viral. I don't put you key on the air. You tell all that stuff like man, but social development with. Man, you and some kids, you know, some parents got more groceries at the house. It's just like it's a part of like for me.

It was it was our depth of the a part of my upbringing. And then another thing I when I was playing basketball, it was a guy getting talent. Like how my son has God given talent. And I'm taking them and trained three, four times a week. It wasn't like that with me.

I just came out. I started playing when I was seven years old for, uh, in my okay. And I learned they had an eight hundred team. I started playing when I was seven. By the time I was nine.

“I remember when I, by the time I was 12, I was like, I could hoop.”

But what happened was when I got in high school, I was doing the one foot out. One foot in thing. So I was still playing ball. But I was still trying to like hustle for me and my whatever, whatever that excuse is. You know what I mean?

And I did that. I did one foot in one foot out all the way until I started doing music literally. And it took me that long to realize that you can't do both. You have to let something go. You have to share it all.

You can't have one foot in one foot out and do this. And like, it's just not going to pay off. So with basketball, even though I got 11 great. I had boxes of letters from D1. You know what I mean?

It was like me and my other guy, D.C., we get letters. You know, it would be so cool. Coach would come out. And I remember. Lavender Northwest and letters.

I remember Tennessee, that Tennessee orange. I remember Memphis. I remember the tiger. I remember these schools. I'm getting these different letters.

South Carolina. South Carolina State. Maryland, eastern shore. And but I'm still one foot out. I'm still like.

“I'm literally having days where I have a friend.”

And I say, hey, you go to the court today. I'm going to stay here. And I'm going to say, oh, drugs, all day. And then you have your one foot in one foot out. Because you weren't sure if you could make it.

Or was it a survival thing. It was absolutely survived. So you have you had to do that. You had to have one. You had to do this.

And then like, when you, when you, it becomes like a brotherhood thing. This may be too much information. But you start.

It's never too much information.

You start going in on packages with your friends. You're like, man, great. Give me, you know, we're going on a package. And now this is ours. You know what?

You know, I hope yesterday, man, you go. I stay here and handle this, but. Yeah. And you know, you go now. Now Greg is not better than me.

And I suppose to be the basketball star. But I got to give him like a day off to go do some. And then the next day, it's, it's crazy how organized it is. They're crazy. You know what?

Yeah. You know what, man. I hope, man. You, you're going out there with the boys. I stay here.

And I sell the stuff that we went in on there. And this happened to me. I'm talking about all the way through college. All the way through college. All the way through.

Yeah. I start rapping. I'm still one put in one put out. Mm-hmm. And it was this, it was this one thing that happened.

One thing that happened. And it was, I, I went on tour with with little way. And after two months of being on tour with way. When I came back to Atlanta, I went cold turkey. Mm-hmm.

People thought I was messed up. I mean, anyway, they did that for like a week. And I was just like, I don't, I don't do that. I don't do that. You came.

I hit me. I had to actually see like, oh, this is how you become a suit. I have a studio at the time. Yeah. I had a Porsche.

I had a, I had that. But I was still like doing it. Kind of having the same concept going on the road. Leaving this with somebody. Yeah.

And just the same concept. Just, and I, my design. Literally. What did you see? Yeah.

And what was little Wayne? What did you see with little Wayne? Oh, structure discipline. Yeah. Uh, very habitual.

Same thing. Oh, no. So full work all night. Yeah. Work, work, get some good news.

Thank you. Work. So work. We, um, make sure the family good do this work again. No, no, no, no, no, no.

And it's just like a level of professionalism. Man. Yeah. And I'm, I'm a, I'm a, I'm a great at observing too, like I learned a lot of stuff and just watch it too. I learned how to drive a fast beat.

Mm-hm. From watching my cousin. I used to be like, watch another.

No, granted the first time I took the trash out.

I couldn't get over the speed.

I learned a lot from observing.

So when I'm, when I'm with him. And I'm just seeing how you move. I'm talking about from having a chef. So you don't have to eat bad, right? You don't have to eat, right?

So you got to show. You got somebody that like can drive you somewhere. So you don't have to. To the lot of times with creators. We write a lot of stuff in our head.

Or think of stuff. So just driving could be a problem. Mm-hm. You just like, I don't miss my exit. I don't miss the time on the one way.

So just having those things when I got back. I mean, I got all that stuff. I mean, I got me a show. You know what I'm saying? This is what I mean.

You know what I mean? You got to put the right stuff in. You put the right stuff to come out. You know what I mean? Yeah.

I started just making things more convenient. And I started being able to focus just on this. And my whole life changed. Mm-hm. What age did music sort of you start thinking?

And I know it's one foot in one foot out, but you were thinking music might be a way for me. That's a good question. No, another good question. That's a good question. That's a good question.

That's a good question. That's a good question. The reason that's a good question is because most artists you see. They started very young.

And I had a childhood. I actually liked it. Like I had it. You had a childhood. A lot of rappers can say they used on it.

So I had a childhood.

“So one of these podcasts, I can't remember.”

They made me call like a teacher. Like I had a call a teacher on the spot, right? It was very informative.

It was one of the most sweetest things that I ever heard about myself because she's never told

me that her name is Miss Love. And when I got kicked out of school in my 12 grade year for 7. Mm-hm. So six teachers wrote letters to get me back in school. I remember Miss Love's letter.

Mm-hm. Clear. About not letting a child go to waste and how much I mean or whatever. So I call Miss Love. And she remembered the letter.

And she remember what the other teachers said at the time. And she said that I made her teach differently after I left. And she threw up a scenario that I don't even remember. You know, they used to ask us what we want to be when we grow up. Yeah.

If I were a man, believe whatever. And she said that I said, I'm going to work for myself. And she said, I don't think, you know, I basically said entrepreneur. But I'm not going to show up. I had this this word at the time.

Mm-hm. But I knew for a fact that the thing that I was hearing. And now I want to do that. So, you know, we would say basketball players just to get them up. I'll tell you.

But yeah, basketball, you know what I mean? But deep down inside, I didn't feel like I was going to the NBA.

“Like, you feel, that's what I'm trying to say.”

Like, you know inside. Like, if you were on a hit, like, you were a major. Like, you know inside. Yeah. So, I'm not going to the NBA.

But I know I'm not going to, like, be in traffic at seven in the morning. On a way to work with, like, a coffee thing. I've never seen it.

I never saw that in my mind.

I'm not going to be running late. Grabbing a briefcase. Like being in traffic or coming home. I never, you know. I never saw that in my mind.

Yeah. Right. So, it's older. I'm hanging with older guys once again. They wrap.

I'm just around. Interesting. This is so cool. So you got, you got, you got, you got once again. They wrap in.

They, they, they taking photos. You know, I'm just selling stuff at this car once. You know what I'm saying? But I'm watching these guys. And they say, I don't know.

So then sometimes I would, like, play around, like, kind of try to, like, freeze down. And they're like, man, you oughta come to the studio and, you know, lay some master down. Okay. So I'm learning again. I see how you do it.

Mm-hmm.

And like, the second time I ever record it.

I got so much great feedback that I told myself. Mm-hmm. You might be able to do this for a little bit. Some who gave you the feedback. But it was just, like, so we put this, we put a,

a compilation that I was called. Play us, like, we put a project out in a, in a neighborhood. And then I also took it down in the college. I went to school at Alabama State University. Mm-hmm.

And uh, this is CDs. CDs. Yeah, we were just talking about CDs. Remember this young people? Yes.

CDs. You know, we were trying to sell CDs out the trunk. I don't know. I was just trying to make, you know what I mean? And I swear to you.

People would say, you only wrap. Man, I got this.

“I got, it was on the, like, where I'm, I think it was like,”

I'm going to open it. I got this. It meant, what? You're here. Come on, boy.

I can't wait. And on that. They start coming. That was all, that, that, that was all, that, that was all. I started being like, you know,

Yeah. You know, so I started hearing, and so I got all the friends that's been rapping before me. And then, you know, they were talking to me like, Oh man.

What, what made you say this? It made you come that way. And I was just like, you really just kind of like, talk about it. Like, right?

You know, I'm just talking about it. I'm just talking about it. I'm just talking about it. I can do this. I can do this one.

You know, and, you know, you know,

had you ever kept a journal, had you ever, did you,

you know, I don't even write rhymes. Yeah. Yeah. I work every night. So I don't, yeah.

I write every night. I mean, I work every night. Try to recall every night. So so I go on. I go through my whole day.

This is, this is how I'm thinking about this. I think my mind work. I go through all day.

“And it just takes these little secret screenshots.”

Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. And then I'll hear a beat. And then it'll just make me say some about Michelle Obama for some reason. You know, I'm saying, it's okay.

Put me in your neck. Yeah. Yeah. It just makes sense. It just makes sense.

It just makes sense. It just makes sense. It just makes sense. It just makes sense. And so a lot of my creativity comes from just being

literally outside my house, moving around, going places, going out, seeing stuff.

But I saw something where somebody had a journal.

Mm-hmm. And although my handwriting sucks, I was like, it would be cool to like just be able to jot it down. Just up down. Mm-hmm.

But right now, um, that's not your idea. I use, okay. So we go to the gym. We work out on our muscles. We do this right here.

What's a brain exercise? Besides, like a cross-word puzzle, right? So for me, my brain exercise, is my brain push up and pull up. Mm-hmm.

That I remember this stuff that I'm putting in my head. Yeah. It's like, I still try to remember, Use my mind. Like, you know what I'm saying?

Yeah. And I talk about my brain a lot. Like, gigabytes and how I don't have as much room left. Mm-hmm. Yeah.

“So I don't remember things that don't mean a lot to me.”

Yeah. Like, if I'm out, I mean, how are you doing? Mm-hmm. But I don't really need to remember this name. I don't remember.

Yeah. Waste room in my mind. To try to remember. Yeah. I mean, hey, nice of you.

Within the music. Jesus, I was like, get no. No. It's getting wild. That's it.

It's getting wild. I don't need to remember nothing. Don't mean nothing to me. I have to imagine you create. You remember me.

You remember me. I remember that. I remember. I remember. I remember.

It was important. I remember my daughter. I remember this weekend. And I need to make sure she got her. Like, everything she needs.

I don't need to remember. You love them with all the resources. Yeah. I love them with everything they need. The car, the driver, everything.

But I'm not wasting my storage. Yeah. All something that just don't mean it to me. Yeah. Yeah.

“So you rely on the storage in your head.”

Yeah. I try to work my, I try to use my brand. And you still do stuff every night. Mm-hmm. Yeah.

Wow. I mean, I do stuff. Yeah. I do stuff every night. But I feel like.

Creators with so delusional. We go to the, we go. We go to studio. No. Nothing.

Just a. Speaker and an engine. You know, like, news. And we going there. And we.

We're going there. We, we tell ourselves. We're going to make a, we're going to make a song. It's going to change our life. People life.

And we're going there. We swing hard. Very nice. Sometimes it. Sometimes it's a file.

Sometimes it goes. But the weird. Musicians like myself. I don't. People don't write for me.

So I have to go in there and create. But like most people. They write for you just come in. And I just say this over. But if you're in there doing your own work.

You're one of the most delusional people on the face of this. Oh. You just like. Okay. What do you.

You like. All right. First of all. You know what's the. And then you hope.

I were two. Like. Okay. You know what I mean. So that's that's buried.

That's buried delusional. That's a delusional job. I have kids. They keep wanting to be a rapper. Think about that.

Go on. We're going to work. And I love. Okay. We need one.

Right. You've done pretty good. With your delusions. Yeah. Music.

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just spend less on your kids because every dollar you don't spend on them is a dollar you haven't spent on them. When how did you meet Keisha? I made Keisha in college. She was standing up. Alabama.

I was my mom stayed. I was around my boy, Troy. And she was sitting up there when I hear. But she and school. She was in school.

She was a little bit afraid of low-legged by me. So mom, what's that? He told me he's the man. He keeps her sheep from Atlanta too. I said, "Rail."

She just had this complexion. It looked like, "Why, see why I want to make up.

She never want to make up."

And then we started dating and then she would go to church. How'd you approach her? Like, I come back to my come-in. You ready for this ride?

“I don't know what the word was, but I approached them.”

She went, she bit. And at this time, I'm in school. I'm still like, "Hustling." I'm like, "I'm in Alabama, but I'm like well-known in Atlanta." You know, and her mom at the time, you know,

me and her mom are very cool and close now. But at the time, she like, "You won't have enough. This is the guy for you." So then I'm like, "Prot, I'm about to keep your car." You know, there's some like that little get around,

little pale, a little cell phone, beer. So the mom and I, I'm not going to pay your stuff. I'm like, "Cool. I got it." So I had my own places she had her own. And then eventually, it didn't make sense.

And like, "Pam, too, beer." So we moved in the gut against, like, older people. You know, like, shacking up and all of that. How long? We're in the college.

So while you were at school, you moved in the gut. We were in college. And then she would go to church. This would really see how to deal. She would go to church and take notes.

And then, like, highlight the notes. And then, like, look at them later on. Like, it was like a class. Like, later on, doing a week. I have a spiritual background as well.

You know, I very much believe in God. You know, and going to church all the time is something I don't normally do. And especially now, I can't. Last time I went to church was... Mother's Day, maybe a year or two ago and lower it before the church was over.

It was a photo line down. I don't like it. And then they didn't tell my mom.

She just saw me in there and did that same look.

You face on it. Oh, my God.

I just snuck in there in the back.

But with Kisha, we met then, you know, great friends. We laugh every day. People ask me to see, like, we laugh every single day. It's something that we're just going to laugh about every day. We can't close, build this union, had this little family.

They all look like us, so that's a good thing, you know. That's a good thing. And, you know, really, it's good to be. I want to say that everything has been perfect. Obviously, because nothing can be perfect.

But I'm not in that belief. Like, you did, right? Like you say, you pick a good partner. Yeah. And I say this all the time to young men.

You know, it's like, don't pick easy.

“You know, pick somebody that's going to help you win, right?”

Because if you were picking your pick, picking your pick up basketball team, you would get somebody that could do everything. You're not going to pick somebody that just shoots and doesn't dribble. You know, everybody's got to be able to shoot dribble score defend, right? And some, I think, some men, you know, you cute.

And it's like, well, you know what? Cute ain't going to help you when you, you know, try to raise good kids. You know, she got to have sense. You know, she's got to have her own hustle. She's got to have her own confidence.

That means she has a voice. And it may not be easy. She might not just, yes, you to death, you know. So, you know, excellence is hard on both ends. And some guys want easy.

And easy, doesn't help sometimes, you know. And it sounds like Kisha is a all around player. Let's, let's note and and two chains. Thank you very much. You got my sister to use a basketball analogy.

It was really good. I mean, it's just she. So you picking a team. You want to win. It was a good, it was really good.

And if you watch, if you watch this show any time, I do that.

It's like, why are you always talking about, you know, rubbed off all that was a good one.

That was a really good analogy, too. Like, you got to pick the right team. You want to win. And, and I wear her an ad from a family aspect. So, so now I'm going to be my sister.

So, talk about your fashion. Because I'm, you know, I'm trying to. You can, you know, tall, tall. You got the, you know, we got rid of that. That's already a dub in the column.

You tall. Yeah, you know, I'm saying you tall.

“You should be able to look good in everything.”

Yeah, so you tall. That's about finding out. As we age and body does different little proportions of stuff. It's about you finding out what kind of lay on you the right way and make you feel comfortable. You know what I'm saying?

There you go. Tight bag is a sweat. Is it T-shirt? Is it just, you know, what it did. And for me, I'm tall, dark handsome, small.

All those things.

And I have just always been into fashion.

And ever since I was a kid, I've just always been. I've always cared. Like a lot of people like don't, you know, care with it. But I've always just cared today. I went, you know, a little green to low pop.

That little brown to, I mean, that was a creative. That's a creative. To put that together right there. I gave myself a high five. I went in the mirror.

I was like, this is good. Because I know it's coming. You're sure. So I didn't want to be. I didn't want to be.

You know what I'm saying? I know. It's something out to me. Don't be wearing jury. Don't make noise.

Don't make noise. Don't make noise. Don't make noise. That stuff come out.

“The bubble gum thing is making our economy.”

No, my stuff don't. I said they must be sending that to me. Other rapper. I mean, I'm going to separate my stuff early on. I must have don't make that kind of noise.

But, you know, it's just a day. It's beautiful day out here in sunny California. So I, you know, I did about 40 push-ups this morning. Yes. Say it's like, we're going to let them.

We're going to let the guns out. It's like, we're going to let them out. It's like, we're going to let them out. You can do this. Do this on the foot of your bed.

And, you know. But I, I, the voice, it's crazy because I listened to the voice of my head when I'm putting clothes on. I, I, I listened to everything. It probably could be annoying to it. And that was from my listen to it.

For everything. Like, man, you listen. I'm just, it's telling me to do this. But my, I can see my closet in my head. I can, it go, it's just like, it's the wildest thing.

So with, with this, I guess, circling back to the book. I use, um, or this voice is just a part of. Most decisions that I, that I make. So the voice literally literally told me to put this on today. And I guess it, it worked out right again.

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I've always admired people who bet on themselves.

The friend who starts roasting coffee in their garage, the side hustle cake decorator, my wife Kelly, she loves flipping my old sports merch online. It's very fun to watch. Inevitably, anyone who wants to sell something online comes across the big question. How do I actually do this? That's where Shopify comes in.

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“Sometimes all this left is deciding to go for it.”

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And this question's from Leo. I've been interviewing for jobs for the past few months. In the last opportunity, I got pretty far in the interview process before being told I didn't get the job. Myself confidence has definitely taken a hit and now I either overthink everything or avoid trying all together because I don't want to fail again. I keep wondering if this says something about my abilities or if I'm just not cut out for what I'm aiming for.

Even though I know logically that failure is a normal part of growth, I can't seem to shake the feeling that I've fallen behind or let myself down. How do you reframe failure in a way that actually helps you grow instead of letting it chip away at your confidence? And how can you get back to taking risks when failure starts to feel more discouraging than motivating from Leo, who's in his 20s and Ohio?

First of all, I would tell Leo that that is no more to feel to have some type of feeling.

If you don't get something that you, that you want it. I can also tell Leo that that he was qualified enough to be on their radar. But may not be what they needed at the time. I also tell him that a company should not let him know what his value is. That the company could let that, you know, they didn't define his full potential.

They literally could have been looking for something else. And also the confidence comes when you show up for yourself. Yeah, it's not about the wins. You got to like, when you make these promises to yourself and you really follow up on your promises,

“I think that's how you build confidence.”

And yeah, you will qualify. So you got to, that's me by by the silver line.

You got to take optimism even from the nose.

So even with that, you will qualify. You will on the radar. So it's not a complete like loss. It's a lesson and it's something that's also. It's some experience that you could take with it. It's something that you can look back on and say, you know,

I don't know if it's like how you came till the. Were your own time were you it's the small things. I think you start looking at the smaller things when you don't get something that you want. Like, you know, I'm saying, you take that and you just add to it. Like, really the.

The fair, your part is something that just don't be on resumes. Like, everybody that you see up here has failed before. Everybody that you look up to has failed before.

“We just don't like life is about highlights.”

That's how social media has. So you're looking at even the people that you look up to fail. What do you mean you mean me? I fail more than I can even count. And so you know that the people that you look up to fail to but they didn't let that, you know.

Be permanent and they didn't let that define them at that moment at 20 something years old. Are you serious? You know how much stuff and how much growth and how much opportunity. And the way you don't get the opportunity is by being down on yourself. Feeling sorry for yourself and just staying in the house. As long as you get out, as long as you mingle, meet and greet.

Man, God, just may have something else that's better for you. So, but you can't quit and give up right now. Like this is a part of life. It has to have these little moments that discourage you. It's like it's called life. I know like people don't get it. But like this, that's a legit part of life.

Like this little discourage in part, letting me down feeling. That's so much part of life. But you come out of this way stronger than you come in and you learn. And you don't you the fact that you will consider. Let's you know that you have a place in trying to do whatever you're trying to do.

Well said, you know. That's my opinion. That's that is a beautiful opinion. That's my opinion. It is.

It's good when. Real, you push some years old. It's like the quit. Like don't do that. Don't do that.

Boy, boy, for real, what?

Don't.

Don't do that.

You know, and you be excited.

You, you, for real. I read your book, man. I pray it didn't work. You know, don't, don't do that. Like it's something in there.

Even the Holy Spirit is going through that. You've got to take that and add it to everything moving forward. Like the Holy Spirit is the whole process. You know, it doesn't. Honestly, that's your, it's, it's character building.

Yes. That's what it is. The failure is good for character build. That's how I got here, I think. Mm-hmm.

Yeah, losses, losses. Helps build character. Yeah. It sure does.

“And you, you know, life is life is like a big muscle.”

And, you know, you, you, you got to build it up. And every failure is like a push-up. Okay. You know, it's a rep. It's a rep.

You know, and the more reps you get the stronger you get at life. And you don't get the strength without the reps. You know, you don't use another basketball analogy. You got to practice your shot. Yeah.

You know, for every shot, you take you're going to miss something. If you consider that a fail, then you stop practicing. You know, so a lot of us get through because we build up the muscle for life. And then we have a muscle for failure too. Because you got to learn what your process for getting through failure.

We all figure it out. The older we get, you know. And some of it is, like you said, is disappointment.

You know, okay, that's the first step in your process is to be disappointment.

They need it. Maybe to play in, in quitting, you know, maybe you tell yourself that. You know, it's like, that's, that's good. And that's part of your process. But you can't stay in that phase.

You better be moving on to the, okay, now let me give myself together. I powdered for a day, you know. And I was ridiculous and thinking that just me, you did that. You know, you know, what was you now you move into what's your plan? You know, now start thinking about what you're going to do.

You know, first of all, I got to start thinking it different way. I got to turn that around.

“So I think we at this table, we've just been old enough.”

We failed enough that we know that is going to take a second. Yeah. But we will, we will come out of it. And then you, you know, now you know how to do it. You know how to fail.

You know, you've done it. And everybody's got to get good at it. And the more you do it, the better you get at it. And then the fear goes away. Mm-hmm.

You know, because it's the fear that keeps you from the opportunity. The fear and out. You know, when that, when that gets involved, it's hard to shake that. Yeah. Because you, we can't hear that either.

Only you can hear that. Yep. And Leo so young, I'll say one thing. Mm-hmm. And this is for the parents out there.

Don't protect your kids from having failures all the way up until they're 20.

So that they're first 20.

Yeah. Yeah. That's the task that's better than being married. That's it. We protect them from that.

Oh, my God. Now when they get it, it's such a traumatic experience. Man, they told me, no. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. Never tell them, no. You see, that keeps you. That's why they don't answer me now. I won't make sure they know what no feel like.

You know what I'm talking about? This is like, no, actually daddy. Nope. You know what I mean? To say that the girls tell me that, you know,

mom used to tell us, no, it would be like, why?

“Because you need to know what no feel like.”

Yeah. I need to feel that. Especially for kids like ours who, you know, there's no natural no. Mepobee.

We grew up with a lot of noes. It was just noes. You can't afford it. No way. You can't have that.

That that was the true answer. No. It was the craziest thing. I have a aunt. I have an aunt.

And she's to say, y'all can't go outside. It's too hot out there. Y'all can't go outside the two cold. That's like yo. When it's a good time to go outside over here.

Because, you know, if it's weather period, I can't go out in the rain. I can't go out in the two hot. I can't go out in two cold. But it's like, man, they just had to tell us, no, man.

Hey, man, what you can't go out in two hot air months. You can't go out in two hot air months. You can't go out in two hot air months. You can't go out in two hot air months. You can't go out in two hot air months.