Art Official Intelligence feat Lupe Fiasco

me and people, uh, to do a row hit was running the radio programs.

“And I was like, hey, do y'all want to do a radio show.”

And so me and my man, Bishop G, it was like we're going to do F and F radio. Right? That's pretty. Yeah. Remember that.

And so, but it was either the show before or the show after. We didn't, and we didn't know what we were doing. So either the show after us was, uh, Ford home radio, which was Virgil. So Virgil was DJing and playing like music from all over the world.

Yeah, it's different stuff. And so then he would stick around to produce our show, meaning like, work the board. It's all the way back again. Yeah, running the music stuff like that.

So Virgil was like our tech production dude, um, and then that was how our relationship kind of began. And then it went, St. Alfred came to Chicago. He went to a yay concert. He knew, he knew a track from DJing.

Yeah, a track was the A's DJ at the time.

“And then that's how all that stuff starts to happen.”

So anything that I needed, like, even early looping march is all Virgil. This is the Almanac rap. Welcome to the season finale of the Almanac rap. The show that wonders if anyone has noticed that there's usually a joke right here. I'm your host, Don Will.

And today's episode is about AI, and our guest is Lupe Fiasco. Lupe has a one-of-a-kind talent who's skilled at making songs with layered meanings. Got our still jam in his foot.

We'll get into all of that in a second.

But first, I got to kick the ballad. AI is everywhere. And much like sodium or sugar, it's the not-so-secret ingredient that makes things more delicious. And by delicious, I mean, convenient at the risk of your own health.

If you don't watch your intake. And just so we're all the same page about what AI actually is. I google the term, and I run it to the end of their AI overview. Tell me that artificial intelligence, aka AI, is a set-up technology that enabled machines to mimic human intelligence and perform tasks that typically require human intelligence.

So got an intelligence.

“Believe it or not, AI has been around since the 50s.”

But thanks to the evolving tech landscape, we're seeing a more rapid implementation of it than ever. And overall, there are bits of interesting use cases, especially with the music. This is my regular voice. This is my voice, but the Kanye West AI voice filter.

This is crazy. But can it make me rap like Kanye West? Let's hear what this AI feels to consume in verse 2. I'm ready, yay, how about chill? This is verse 2, Kanye from Shot Town here to bring back the Soul, kick down the James

Friends. And I say, I'm trying to build this rapper. I'm actually going to write the song, find the right beats, find the right lyrics, and everything. We're going to go with Jay-Z's lyrics.

Jordan Lucas. We're going with his flows. We're going to go nearly courses. Jay-Z's a general. Let's see what's going with his appearance.

Low pump. We're going to production as opposed. We got two pucks. Voice. Okay, I guess there's nothing else left to do, but pull up old Ferti-Looch studio and start

writing this rap song. Alright, well, here it is. I love it hot in here by Lil Poxy. I'm the blue print, picking pieces in the city. From the streets to the streets, I'm so no pity.

I'm starting from the bottom, now we're climbing to the top. I'm so down the plot. I'm making deals not stop.

Alright, a Drake first about how he doesn't like beans and chili.

I want to taste the beef in spices, not just the bland bean, Drizy Drake talk to him. Woo! He might use the job in both. Let's copy this verse, put it in an overdog, synthesize. Test the beef in spices, not just the bland beans.

Okay, let's, uh, pull this up and able then. Dick to my guns and say no to the beans. I don't like them in my chili. It's just how it's done. Don't use that.

That's awful. Companies like Spotify have even turned their algorithm into a full on character named DJ X. Here he is on Good Morning America talking about the character that he created. It was going on Barry.

It's really great to be here with you. I'm Xavier. My friends called me X and from this moment on, I'm going to be your own personal AI DJ on Spotify. The man, how did you become the voice?

You know, I've been in a music industry for a while. I was on a record label side for a bit. And then I came to my dream company, Spotify eight years ago. And then somewhere in the mix, I started getting asked a host podcast in different company events to be in a company spokesperson and then AI DJ came along.

let's make it official. We got this really cool thing coming out. It's going to shock the world and then they said it has to be you. Now he's essentially just a guided tour of your playlist and recommended songs. But I am mad at it because I'm all for humans taking AI's jobs.

So more power to you, Xavier. One case used to did not go over too well was when Timberland said that he wanted to do a full album with AI Biggie Smalls.

I always wanted to work with Big and I never got a chance to until today it came out right.

Play. Hell no, personally when I heard the song hearing Biggie say it's not giving was jarring in a special kind of way that you can only feel up your person of a certain age. But no. With that in mind, some rappers have used AI voice models for good.

Like Benny Siegel, whose voice was forever changed when he was shot in 2006, which caused his lung to collapse. It took him a long time to even be able to speak again at all, and he's been using the technology to train his own voice model to get back to that signature raspy flow.

“I think I felt a good friend with this AI thing.”

A lot of people frown on AI, but I think that's going to work out for me. Yeah, I had a colorful life, so I've been through two things that ended up my life.

So you've been to say that, yeah, I got you started like these back then.

You said. Okay, we're on soon too. Ta-da la sign is also a fan of the technology as it relates to stem separation among other things. And if you don't know what stem separation is, here he is to explain it.

We used a lot of AI on making my newest, I'm with, yeah, with drums or with different sounds. You could separate things now, so it's like, we're back in the day we would just sample the song straight up and just take the whole little piece. Now, I could just take a piece and only take the drum, only take the vocal. Da la sign.

And of course, AI played a big model in the latest rap beat, for instance. There was Drake's Terramate Distract that featured AI voice models of Snoop and Tupac, wildly offensive. We also had King Willonius using AI to turn Rick Ross's throwaway joke about Drake having a BBL into a 60s era solo song that Metro Bowman then sampled to create a modern

day bang. And there was also a high Whitney, a very fake Drake song about Kendrick's very real life. Sidebar.

“Does anybody else remember that fake Drake dude named Izzy Drake?”

That was popping up and doing club appearances. Based on simply looking like a poorly drawn version of Drake. Yo, yo, it's your point. Izzy Drake, Ovio, Ting's already know we all signed. I just signed with Celebrity Boxing August 27th upon Drake out for a friendly boxing match.

If I win, you got to sign me to Ovio, you got to give me a million dollars. If you win, I'll change my name. It's an Ovio thing you already know. We live in a very wild time. This all begs the question of if there can ever be an actual AI rapper that's accepted

into the culture.

And if FN Mecca is any indication, the answer is a resounding no.

No. And if you don't know who FN Mecca is, here's a quick clip of an earth gang interview from 60 minutes where they explain it all.

“They remember seeing AI being used to create music with the inception of virtual rapper,”

FN Mecca. This is an AI artist which was some computer-generated black kid who had this type of style in the swag of so many black kids that actually living right now in the music that they create. The digital avatar went viral on social media, claiming to use AI to generate songs,

earning a record deal before public backlash forced the record label to pull the deal, apologizing to the black community for what they say was their insensitivity. You're using this thing to make money when you can actually just hire somebody for real and just put money behind somebody who has a real story as real talent. He's trying to make a quick book while cutting this out of the process.

Fuck off FN Mecca. One rapper who's doing cool things with AI is today's guest loop AFiasco. He teamed up with Google's large language model to create a writing tool called TextFX. And our conversation with him, he talks about that technology as well as his career and his martial arts history.

Let's get into the interview right now. Today's guest is one of the most innovative lyricists currently making music. To say that he's mastered the concept album to be an understatement and as of late, he's been making strides in the world of education and technology.

It's loop AFiasco. It's good, man. What's up, sir? A lot of Facebook videos. Let me, let me, let me, I was a big amount of harmony piece, all those things.

“I appreciate thank you for bringing the call to the table, you know what I'm saying?”

You need that. But so I'm going to try my best not to narrow it out on this interview, you know what I'm saying? Because I've been following your career following your music for a long time. You know what I'm saying?

But first things first.

I can't make a promise on that, though, first of course.

What was the last time you were on a skateboard? You still kicking and pushing? ♪ I'm sorry young man, there's no skate in here ♪ ♪ And so we kick, push, kick, push, kick, push, kick, push, kick, push, kick, push, kick, push, push, push, push, push, push, push, push, push, push, push, push, push, push, push, push, push, push, push, push, push, push, push, push, push, push, push, push, push, push, push, push, push, push, push, push, push, push, push, push, push, push, push, push, push, push, push, push, push, push, push, push, push, push, push, push, push, push, push, push, push, push, push, push, push, push, push, push, push, push, push, push, push, push, push, push, push, push, push, push, push, push, push, push, push, push, push

♪ So we came push, kick push, kick push, kick push, kick push, kick push, ♪ I left it there for five years. So that crept up on me, not too long ago, and I had no cars, and I needed to get to the grocery store, so I was like, "Yo, I had like, I got like this electric scooter on my skateboard, I was like, "Yo, I'm going to take my skateboard, I'm going to take my skateboard to the grocery store and I'm going to die." Yeah, I was wondering, 'cause I live on a big hill, so it was like, whenever I see people skating down hill, it's just like, "You stop." But I didn't get killed going down hill, I got killed on the flat with some groceries on the sidewalk, trying to like, maybe like,

"You're a block away from the crib, and I had a crack and tumbleed over and dropped the bags, it was bad." Damn. I'm happy you didn't break anything, or not. Maybe the ego. And it was in front of somebody too, and it was like, "Night and I was like, "What are you doing now?" I was like, "To see me take an ill like that." All right, so that was, that was an icebreaker question, so, but since we're on the subject of food and liquor, a little bit, you know what I'm saying? You've been, I'm like, "How you did?" - Kick push, transition, okay. - Yeah, yeah. - For sure, it's food, okay. You're going to be analogizing this interview from a lyricist.

- I don't think I know choice. - You don't have a sister. This is just who my mind does. - Yeah, yeah, yeah.

- But so you've been shouting a free chill for a long time. - Yeah. - And he's finally home. - Yeah.

- And food and liquor was, I want to say the last project, you work based on research with the last project you worked on with him around.

“- Yeah. - And Samurai is the current project, and he's back at the helm executive producing. My question is, what was it like working with him again, and like, how did his presence affect this album?”

- We've worked on a little bit of the cool, I think he went into prison when the cool was just like either coming out or something like that. You know, back then, the tale of those albums we might have been working for two years. - Okay. - I was just on a record. But yeah, like the first record where he was like back fully, but even with Samurai's weird, so he would be in jail. He's been off like a year now. He was in like 17. He would be in jail over the phone still doing like EP stuff. - Oh shit. - And like he would get, like the lawyers would like get him music or something like that.

He had a way, I call him the reality vendor, because he could just be in physics and just make sure you have it. But he would do little stuff like that over the phone. He kind of really had a record to try and play the record for him over the phone.

He was always trying to get things like, you're trying to create a system where the engineer could play something over the phone.

He could hear it just as if he was there, it was like wow shit.

“But this was the first time that we were all back, but even that's what a grain of salt, because I did Samurai back during the pandemic.”

Oh, really? - Yeah. I just said the concept that I was building, it was kind of unfinished, and he called me one day and was like, "Hey, from the joint." I was like, "Yo, I need to do a record." I was like, "Oh, I'm working on this, this one thing about anyone else." He was like, "No, I'll fuck that." I need to do something new. - I was like, "Yo, but I'm already, need to even sign." He's like, "No, no, I'll do something new." So that's what a drill music is. I don't understand from him, because it was like, all right, I'm going to just do something from scratch, but I'm going to try and do it in a day.

So I can get back to working on Samurai. And so I'm going to just do this whole album in a day, so it's just negative, be satisfied, leave me to fuck alone, then I go back. That's how I get drill music. And then when he came home, I just, I went to the studio and just played him everything that I had sitting. So I got this idea, I've been working on something like this, working on something like that. - You played him, like, bodies of works that you had seen in, like, concepts, bodies of work.

And then I played him, the pieces for Samurai. He's like, "Oh, that's it." And I was like, "Nyka, I took it." - Yeah, it was beautiful. It was beautiful, like, we got to work on, like, completing Samurai. You know what I'm saying? Like, finishing the project, finishing the thought. But he being a studio every Friday, like, we got a big compound in Chicago. And he being there and take all the producers, all the musicians, writers, all the writers, all the writers.

- You, you derailed my trend of thought, because you said you made drill music as an honor of the day. Three days, time to get to three days.

“So like, when you say you made it in three days, I mean, like, did you, did you already have the idea, kind of, sitting dormant?”

And you just, like, palestone, or did you just, like, some scratch just decide to work on it? Decide to make, I had the name drill music as an honor. I said it, it came up in a freestyle, I did, and I said, "Oh, that's dope." Let me say that. And then I got a ton of soundtrack beats, a soundtrack, my producer. - Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

- Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. So I got tons of beats from him. So I just, like, all right, I already got the beats. So, but starting from scratch, meaning no preconceived notion other than the title. And then just, I will open up a beat of folders, a folder of beats.

So I never heard, most of my I never heard before.

And I will just play it, I'm like, okay, let's go, that's that. That's the answer. - I'm just like, from like, a little bit, and I might do a little bit of, like, let me hear another beat, but it really was, like, as soon as I heard the beat. So, okay, that's the next song. And then just, and try to do it in the day, but it's time to select three days.

- That's insane. - For the level of, 'cause again, like, for the work that you do, every song every album has so many layers, and it's dense. It's, it's thoughtful in a way that, like, a casual listener can listen to it and enjoy it. And but a super fan will get Easter eggs, the stories and concepts.

So, the thing that I want to know about your discography is, is every album, a concept album, and is there a overarching thing to the whole discography. So, but, so, grain of salt with all that. So, there's definitely albums that are not concept albums. So, like, drove us like, was actually just, like, my last record on Atlantic,

that they had, like, interesting. So, they had, like, points or something on the record. - Yeah.

- And I was like, all right, and I was like, y'all, I'm never giving Atlantic anything

that I care about. And it just so happened to be the last, after Tetsu on you. And it was like, all right, I'm going to just give them a record, so I can just be off the label, right? - Hit it with that freak ocean.

So, I gave it to the album.

“- I gave it to that sort of joke as light as, right?”

- Yeah. - So, that's definitely not a concept record. And then, like, what else? I mean, things that have a thing that run through them, right? And for some, it just might be the title.

You know, like, what's happening? So, like, house EP, that I did with Kayla Nellus, and Virgil Ablode. That was like, 'cause we were in the house, you know? - Yeah. - We're in, and then it's like, all right,

let me get a picture of a house that my home was that painted. That'll be the cover. - Yeah. - We'll talk about Korea, I guess. They have Virgil talk about careers or something like that, you know, whatever.

But like, the cool, you could say as a concept album, but it's only, like, four or five records that deal with the concept. And then the rest of it is almost like commercials. And if it was like a TV show and it came all one day,

“like, all right, a percentage of this is the actual show.”

And another percentage of this is, like, the commercial statue we'll see. - I got you swinging show. Now, only one that's super cohesive and I'll land on this. The only one that's super cohesive is drug us wave,

but only the first half of drug us wave.

So, the first half of drug us wave is about, you know, slaves who jumped up backslash it, didn't die, and walked back to Africa, single slaves on the way back. But the other second half of that record is just like joints. They're drug us drugs, drugs.

So, the second half of that album is like about drugs. You know, loose in a loose way. It sounds about ecstasy, sounds about this. I don't think that I have, like, a true pure, okay, concept album kind of, how, like,

ASAP rock, ITWAD, or, like, even fool, like, I don't think I have concept records that are woven together, like that deeply and intricately, but I got a couple. All right, so, I feel like asking you which album is your favorite, it's kind of an unfair question.

But, what song would you consider to be, like, the centerpiece of your discography, or what album would you consider to be, like, a good, like, your favorite album that you have? That's a simple question, that one's album.

It depends because they age and they evolve. They age, right? Like, as I age, they age, they don't age. I we age, right? And our relationship to them changed. So, for me, probably, like, if I had to give it to every other album

and just keep one, I'll keep drug us away. So, I want to move on to another topic. Okay. Supergroups. Because, as a member of a rap group myself,

it's just a time you're working with. I love rap groups. And I also love supergroups, right? It's an amalgamation of superpower rappers. You belong to a few that I want to bring up in this interview.

of album releases on your Instagram page.

“And the caption said, "Project info and details”

will no longer be teased by you as it complicates expectations and to an unmanageable degree." So, with that in mind, this next question might fall under that clause, but I have to ask you, because you're here at the table. Child rebel soldier.

You know what's coming. We're still talking about this. Now, you know what's coming though? Twenty five. Twenty five years later.

We're talking about it, because you said you're going to... You said you're going to... I can't even get the clause. Because I knew that. I knew that it was real.

Okay. But wait, wait. So, child rebel soldier was a group for real volumes and yay Kanye West, and you put out a song recently and said that it was going to be a solo project.

I think, tentatively. You're thinking about making a solo project. Okay. tentatively.

But my question about it is...

So, this is my question. Aside from as it's still happening. This might be a fan theory in my mind. This is just me. You play some...

The internet said you play it song for Tyler the Creator. And I saw Tyler at your co-channel. Yeah. Are you going to like...

“I'm going to make a new Tyler Creator child rebel soldier?”

So... You can just say the clause says... We can not tell you. The story of child rebel soldier goes like this. There was a...

I was just doing mixed tapes. Yeah. And mixed tapes to me back in the day. Well, I'm going to take this record. I'm a flip it.

Or I'm going to take this beat. And this was... This was the error. People were still playing a safe. Yeah.

So, our error. We're coming up. Yeah. So, people were playing a safe. And this error.

Yeah. We're... People weren't taking risks on the rap side. And sometimes, the origin of it should be. People were keeping it very standard.

People were still trying to get deals. So, deals required you to be in a certain frame. So, you could... I could do something like, "Oh, often a rap over this radio hit beat." And it'd be like, "Wow!"

You found the radio hit? That's crazy. It was crazy. It was crazy. It's like, "Wow, you rap over it."

That means nothing. So, I was... That was my mixed tapes. I was like, "I'm going to do these real exotic, you know, pieces and collabs, whatever." There was a time-york record called the eraser.

Yeah. So, I was like, "Oh, I'm going to take the little loop section that's rapable. I'm going to loop it up and I'm going to rap over this joint. I'm going to put a verse on it." It was like, "Me rapping over radio hit beats."

Right? To keep it playing. And just so having to get a P to jump on the joint. And then, I think, "Yay heard it." I was like, "I want to be on it too."

And then it turned into like, "Okay." Oh. Oh, this is pretty dope. Vosty shot a video. Okay, cool.

Somewhere in between that was in studio. And P was like, "Yo, we should just be a group." Right? And we should call it "Trial Revolution." Right?

And loop it up. You're going to be the child. Yay going to be the rebel. I'm going to be the soldier. We're going to...

This is the album cover by us. Okay, cool. Let's start doing beats. And then that's when you start getting, like, don't stop. Excuse me.

The remix for everybody knows. And all that kind of piece. And then it was just like, "Niggas got rich and crazy." And then... Then it was overwit.

And what it was always like a good idea

to just could never try to get together. And so we would just randomly maybe be on tour. But, you know, P and Chasing Fashion, Yay Chasing Fashion. Yay, all that shit come together. So the point where it just like, "Look, this shit not for that."

Yeah, yeah. But the fans are like, "I want in." But I'm telling the fans like, "Look, it ain't me." Yep. It's not Lupay.

It's them. It's these two exorbitantly rich dudes, right? I'll do a rich shit. And then the idea just comes about. But I look, if we not going to do it,

what does it look like to give somebody else? The brand is there, people love the brand. Yeah. And if we can make whatever we want out of it, make be whatever we want to be.

And then that's the idea that comes out where it's like, "Yeah." What if CRS is, you know, Tyler and, I don't know, Chance and whoever. And we just kind of like, we had our moment with it. Yeah.

It was something that we contained. So we passed this rebellious child. Yeah. The next generation.

“Somebody got raised like raised the key.”

Yeah, right? And then it was kind of like, "Oh, maybe that's the thing. Maybe that's not a thing." And then it lands at like, "All right, look, I'm going to just take it back to the essence."

We're going to, let's try and find, let's go back to the energy of me just wrapping up

And I had some demos of that.

And I was going to send them to pee. I think I sent them to pee. And I was like, "Look, there you go." Would like that sit. Right?

And if it inspires somebody, it inspires somebody. And then it didn't inspire anything. So I-- He got a Lego movie working on me. He got some shit to do.

I was like, "Cool, I'm going to just put this out. I'm telling the fans, hey, this is what it was. Spotted it out. I'm just putting these records out. See what happens."

And what happened was radio-haired synthesis in the system. This is what you can-- Oh, shit. Take that shit off your unit page. Not touch right now.

And that's the end of the CRS. Moving on from CRS as we got the closure on that. Yeah. Another group was the All City Chest Club. Yes.

That group included Ashuro Charles Hamilton.

Yeah. The cool kids. Yeah. Blue. Mmm.

Diggy Simmons. Yeah. Jay Cole. It's not people. Wallay.

Yeah. And dosage. I don't know if I got everybody. I might have got somebody out. Uh-huh.

My question is, how did the lineup come together? Why wasn't I included? I'm joking about that. That's why not. You can be serious about that.

That group to be completely honest for me was like, "You remember when Kendrick dropped the control verse?" And if he didn't say your name is like, Yeah, irrelevant. I guess you're knight it.

Yeah. So, I don't niggas. Yes. Yes. I remember that very, very well.

Okay.

“But my question is, are you guys still in the touch of their group chat?”

You don't say it? There isn't a group chat. And what? Child member, not child member of social media. What All City Chest Club evolved into was a very close relationship with Nikki Fax.

Yes. I see. Just a Mickey. Everybody's still in that mix. So cool kids.

Still homies. They're like rocks, you know, Chuck, all of dudes. And it turned into salsa. Society is smoking hard. I had to come in the right.

Yeah. But it was like, all right. Cool. We may, that one remakes the beam and remakes, which is fire. Fire, fire, fire.

And then it was just kind of, I let's try and do this. And we really tried. Like, same thing, see, all right. It's like, let's, let's get a person who's like, who's not a rapper to organize this.

Yeah. And I've been somebody who's working with, with, with Mickey at the time. We had his deal. I was like, oh, just make sure this happens. And it didn't happen.

But you know, it's fine. Yeah. But it, that energy went into social. Yeah. So social is another one that I was going to bring up.

Yeah. And it's the cider spoken art. And I'm not going to list all the names because there's a lot of it. It's more names than the All City Chest Club. Yeah.

But this one, it appeared that it was like an application process. And all the type of stuff.

“So whatever, whatever, whatever, what were the requirements of being a part of social?”

Is this still a thing? Social still thing. Um, so I can be part of that. I can join it. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. I was thinking, you want to join social things. What did you think of your role? So social was like, oh, rappers are getting fucked in the industry.

Um, because we don't have any collective bargaining power. This is being right. So we need something in the shape of a union or something. How do we do that? Right?

That's what steps do we take? And it was kind of like, all right, we can show what collectivity can do. And if you can get to a space where even if it's a social issue, if you can get all of the top rappers to wrap about that particular issue in unison and then to their various communities, you can affect some real deep, like, change, at least from a sonic level.

Whether it's new song that you can't escape or the subject managed to escape. No matter who's mixed tape you go to or sound cloud page or YouTube, whatever. Everybody pointed at this particular subject. Like how unions do, you know? Yeah.

So how do you build that? But also navigate all of the parallels of working with other artists. So their management, their egos, their all these other pieces. And so as I, all right, we can't do it from a creative standpoint, right? Was like, hey, would you think of my verse lately?

Would you think about my verse? Yeah. I think about Joe first. As far as I know, I would can't do it from like a creative, everybody in the studio started to wrap and shit.

There was a lot of people from a business standpoint.

And there's a group called Actors Equity, which basically negotiates contracts for

like, like, stage actors, right? So there's a whole big thing. And the standards are set in the contracts go to them, whatever. But they got tons of lawyers from doing it forever. Their business is very stable, you know, et cetera.

But it was like, oh, you know, everybody got their own lawyer. You know, everybody got their own management. Some people don't want their management angle, want their contracts to get looked at

“because they're taking 99% of their shit for 200 years, right?”

Music business? You know, how it goes. So, and I can talk about the label. I'm talking about just their personal management situations, right? It could be something else.

You know, I may look at it like, oh, you can fuck. But it's like, no, I'll do help me recover from my drug habit. Yeah, right?

So who knows what it might be?

So, all right, we can't do the business. Because we're going to be too many lawyers trying to fuck us over. So it's like, okay, why don't we do academics? Because everybody's stupid. So can't nobody say like, yo, I'm smarter than you.

It's like, no, everybody knows. No, no, no, no, no. So, but it was like, all right, let's do it on academics. But let's base it around communication theory, linguistics, computational politics.

Just a range of things that involve the spoken word. And let's become masters of that part, right? So most rappers know what they're, no, how to do it, but they don't know what they're doing. Beyond the certain level.

So it's like, I'm metaphor. So I wasn't metaphor. Yeah, right. I don't know what metaphor is. But I told you to make his name a little bit.

But we did, so we bought a bunch of books. Like the same book distributed until a few cats. Everybody started reading linguistics for dummies. I was like, nah, this ain't the same, the ones. So we're like, let's find another book on linguistics.

And then let's talk about communication theory, semi-oxic. Before you know, we had this curriculum together. And went on tap, like, to our considered time and still to the data best rappers in the world. So daylight, IT, Chinox, LIT, rest in peace.

Rest in peace. Who else is all in there? Mickey facts, IT. That's like, this core kind of foundation members, ASAP, rock, IT, like, all these.

And I went to Homeboy, Sam, and Homeboy Sam was like, well, that's I'm too good for that. And he loves books. We got a book club together, that's the homey. But went out to all these different rappers.

And at the same time went and matched it with all these different professors. Right? Different institutions. So went to MIT, went to UPM, went to Harvard, went to all these spots.

“And just like, hey, what's a book that speaks to this?”

You know, that is dumb enough for us to be able to process, but then also challenged us. So we got a whole curriculum together. We got this kind of journeymen or master core. It's founding members.

And then we opened it up to apprentices. So the apprentice program is two years. Whatever your skill level is, we go for higher in kind of MCs. But that's not the point. The point is to like get you informed on this educational sort.

So we had two apprentice classes thus far. They were up for two years. Our master core is deep. And then we got a bunch of academics and residents from different schools,

from Yale, this down at the third.

And at all of that kind of was cooking for like the past like eight and a year. You know, so Nikki J90. To Nikki J90. I hope it's the glue to keep it all together. And it's some phenomenal MC.

So why there isn't an LCD chess club group chat. There is a wild and crazy social group chat where people just dive in with lyrics and thoughts and theories and stuff like that. And so now we kind of scaled back because I went to MIT. And so MIT is an extension of the social energy. Anyway.

And so now it's like, we just tap particular people like that as need it. And then I hope is in the next like five to ten years. As this tease two apprentice classes are approaching their mastery phase. You come master a ten year. And so they're in a journey of stages now.

When they're accomplished then we'll open it back up to do more like deeper apprentice programs. So then, you know, Mickey Fax, IT and Shilla Jones, IT are doing pendulum ink. I'm at MIT. Yep. Nikki J90 is at rhyme stairs.

There's different folks in different spots that are just still keeping that energy going. Okay.

“And when you say IT, what do you can't tell you that?”

Okay. But the reason that we call each other IT is because you know, because it's a top secret city. I love it though. Yeah. I love it.

Shout out to social. Shout out to Mickey Fax.

I want to say shout out to him because that pendulum ink shit is amazing.

Yeah. I got love what he's doing with that over there. But, I want to get off the group subject after this one glass question. Yeah. Because this is not a group that you have planned.

But you'd like to start groups. So I'm going to pitch one to you. Just call it. Guys with glasses. Nigga with glass.

Bigger workshops with glasses. Niggas with glasses. You could workshop the name. You know what I'm saying? But I feel like this is a collective.

I get on the ground floor up because I've been rocking glass for the whole time. Sometimes you take them off. Sometimes you don't. But you know what I'm saying? I really want niggas who need glasses to see versus niggas who need glasses.

Yes. Actually, that's two different things. So, yeah. Like making facts out to you. He don't need glasses.

He don't. He wham. I look one day and he had a lenses in his glasses. I like brown. No.

What we're doing in these three? I thought he would have contacts when he didn't have lenses in. I don't know that. Fashion glasses. Yeah.

He might, you know, you just flip script. He might have had contacts.

“I think I think making facts would such a style.”

Maven. But I feel like he would put in contacts to wearing frames. Just for a set. Just to kill the game. The niggas.

The niggas was killing it. He was the fart. Like that super shit. Oh man. We could.

All right. Niggas who need glasses. Niggas who need glasses. I like that. My question for you about glasses though.

Because you've known for your glasses. At least for me. As a person of words glasses. Okay.

Have you ever like switched up the style glasses? Yeah. Yeah. I switched them up. I got like joints.

This is right now. I'm in practical old man mode. Yeah. Yeah. You're free.

I get this kind of thing.

“You're just through my health care provider.”

Can you let me get off that? Counterglass. I switched it up. Whenever you see me in sunglasses, they're all prescription. So all my glasses are prescription.

If I take these off, this becomes a void. Yeah. So you're not going to have penetrated. You put in contacts. No.

I've never wear contacts.

Oh, shit. You just go sunglasses. You just go sunglasses. They're under behind the machine. No.

They're prescription. Oh. That's all my glasses are prescription. Yeah. It's not even rich.

It's like practical. It's not rich at all. I got transitions. And I hate them because when I come in a room, I'm just thinking. Yeah.

But so, okay. I'm getting some prescription shades. Yeah. Fine. It's a vibe.

It is a vibe. I just haven't never tried to do it. But outside of us and Mickey. I can only think of two other rappers who constantly have prescription lenses on. Okay.

Pempsy. Okay. And sexy red wear glasses a lot. So she would just. I think sexy red and these glasses.

She wears glasses all the time. She is not taking the glasses off. She has it. Yeah. It does that kiss.

She's sexy in a group. I'm with it. Can you think anybody else? We can add to this. And wear glasses.

That should be in the group. Because it. Me, you Mickey, sexy red and Pepsi. Um, recipes, Pepsi. Um.

Scarface wears glasses, right? Face smile. Face smile. Yeah. Face smile wear glasses.

Face smile. This is a lot of people that wear glasses.

“I think that in their older age, they have to put.”

But have a who need them. That's the cut off. I want to talk about technology. Yes. Because something I stumbled across on your Instagram page.

One of the most amazing things I've seen.

In tour technology. If you made the hood microwave. Oh wow. Do you remember this? Are you talking about my engineering fees.

We got the pizza. You feel me, bro. You feel me, bro. You feel me, bro. You feel me, bro.

You feel me, bro. You're engineering fees. You were a builder. You remember this? I remember.

It was. I'm going to describe it for the viewing audience. Because we probably got to put a clip of it in here. Whatever. But it was a pizza box.

Where the blow dryer mounted on top of it. I was throwing a cup in another cup. And the blow dryer was heating the pizza. It was like a pizza oven. This shit was.

This is a motherfucking genius outside of the wrap. Yeah. It was crazy. Good microwave. Right there.

So. And as a dude. He's been on tour.

It had the warm-up food in the hotel.

We've ironed pizza niggas. Yeah. Yeah. That's messy. It is messy.

It is messy. But you do what you got to do. My question is you have a history and invention and engineering. And being innovative. Yeah.

Another invention that I found out was credited to you. Is rap genius? Yeah. They made rap genius because of you. Yeah.

That's the. It makes sense. It makes sense when you think about it. But I was like, nigga, what am I reading? Yeah.

Yeah. That was the thing. I remember. This one was when it was. It kind of just first.

Styles bubbling. To the point where the labels were paying attention. Yeah. And I remember the kid who started it came up to Atlantic. Shout to my man busy.

We had a meeting and he was like, yo. You know, we started rapping. He just got breakdown of your lyrics. I was like, okay. Can I have some money?

But I think.

“But I think part of it is they did it to just break down all types of dense text.”

Yeah. So I think it was like some literature in there. Maybe some other some other pieces in parts. Because it wasn't just rap. Right.

Yeah. But that's the story. And I'm sticking to it. So listen to some of my programming wrong. And I'll be resting pace.

He passed away. So there's nobody to refute. Nobody to refute. And only witnesses to like it. That's what happened.

Like those would do. I'm a witness. It's been documented. We got three cameras. That's a thing.

He is the rap genius. And speaking of being a genius. You are a say broke fellow at Yale. Yeah. And part of MIT's cast program.

Which is Center for Arts Science and Technology. Yeah. Rap has been used as an educational tool for a very long time. Yeah. They're purposefully or inadvertently.

You learn a lot of shit from rap music or teachers. Might put some information in the song. Yeah. My question is what do you feel like it's being gained from teaching rap inside of a classroom setting? As like an art form.

That's one of the central tensions as solsa. It's like even though we do that. We're not formalizing standard. There's folks in solsa who are like, you know, it's in the wild.

It's a thing that's learned in the wild, right?

“And to perfect it into mastery, you know, it's in the wild.”

And to standardize it, does something to it. You know, that pulls things out of it. But get not to cut your off. Because the argument can be made about like how jazz got put in institutions. Right.

You know what I'm saying? I thought of. But I also see the value in it being taught in classrooms. I just wanted to get your perspective. Right.

So it's a little question. So this is what happens. So you make that statement. It's like, okay, let's go proof it. Right.

And he said, all right. So on the leaning on the jazz piece, right? The Miles Davis go to school to learn music. He did not. Yes, he fucking did.

He did. I don't know. He did. He dropped out. Right.

But he went to school. There was school to go to learn music. Okay. Yeah. And a structure way.

Right. But do most people who go to school for anything. Anything come out doing that profession. And doing it to a degree where they're actually like change makers or icons of that field. Whatever it be, I'm talking about fire department.

Right. Or whatever you want to school for. So there's a. Maybe we put too much weight on a academy. But it's the same time to put too much weight on the learned and in the wild.

Right.

“And there's certain things you can't learn in the wild, right?”

Because those areas don't exist. I'm going to want you to draw and pass and shit the other day. Whereas like they as a training campus for the dudes who do like like electrical work outside. So like railroad electrical junction boxes and like light poles and stuff like that. And you drop as their campus.

And this is all these like lighting poles. And there's like a like a fake railroad track. But set up like a railroad track would have stopped and whole thing. And it's all for them to go train.

Because you would never do that.

You can't just like, oh, I'm going to be able to train. Right. I mean, just go pick a box and start playing with you can't do that. So I think there's certain stages to wrap. I think there's certain things where like, no, you're not going to become the signed artist.

Like it's not going to happen, right? But in that also, that was so much of just a commercial goal. So culture, so is not commercially oriented at all. Like I don't care about your commercial career, your commercial successes, whatever. We're just interested in you understanding the fundamentals of your craft.

And then understanding the fundamentals of your craft, you understand the fundamentals of language. When you understand the fundamentals of language, you understand the fundamentals of cognition. Because our language is a product of our cognition now, we think. Once you start to understand cognition, do you understand the human brain? He was like, oh, these are other pieces.

You become a, you open up windows to the world, right? So now, when you go become whatever you're going to be and you just wrap on the side, but you're prepared in a different way. Like you understand the human capacity, you understand the human moment. You understand that you understand why people synergize, why people separate.

And hopefully in a way more informed way than somebody who doesn't have that type of train. Right?

“And those things you have to learn in the structure way.”

You're not from the land linguistics on the fly. Right? It's just true. And I would make the statement, I'm getting my daughter out now and I'll land now. You can't, there is no such thing as the wild.

That's my position. There's no such thing as the wild. Everything is formed. Everything is, I'm a formalist. Everything is structured.

Right? So the wild is just a type of structure. Right? And why not refine it to get more optimal results? You know, that's my piece.

Spoken like a true Saberic Fellow. Thank you. You know what I'm saying? So sit out in this bitch. You're also partner.

You're also partner with Google's web your world winning text effects. Why I got to be so sad in this bitch and not like Yale up in this bitch? Yes, like Yale. But so say in this motherfucker. Let me let me let me let me reverse.

We're not like so. Save Rook up in this bitch. There we go. In my T offer for this whole bitch. Save Rook.

Say we're gonna let that. Say we're okay. All right. So you also partnered with Google's web your world winning text effects project. Yes.

How did you become the face of the project? You said you developed it. You developed it. And did you have any reservations? I know that answer to this question, but I just want to get you this.

Yeah. Did you have any reservations about helping them use raptor train a large language model? No reservations to help train or to help them train a model. The models are already trained on raptor.

Okay. Right. Siri, back in the day, you got access here to wrap for you. Siri would kick averse for you. That sound like big.

Really? Yeah.

I've never had cereal in my phone with them.

Oh, okay. I don't turn on voice. Because you. Why? Because my Cincinnati accent.

It never understands what I'm saying. Like when I say some shit sometimes, like the way I pronounce certain vowel sounds, it just does not understand me. It's the most frustrating shit on earth. So I just type it in. Okay.

I can't see. I'm sorry. I'm sorry.

I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I apologize. Feel speech impediment. Speech.

I'm just a parent. I'm just a parent. No.

The model and text effects.

So the model's the model. It's just as big. Large language model that it's just there processing, right?

“They can spit out gibberish if you want to.”

It can spit out something that's very specific. It's just how you apply the model. So you still need kind of like, you know, things to kind of plug into it to make it do something specific to meet your needs, right? The model doesn't care. Like the model itself doesn't care.

What you. Yeah.

What you want it to do, right?

Yeah. So for me, it was like, oh, I want it to not write whole wraps, right? Because you already got things that can do that, right? I want it to take my thought processes. I call them microbes.

So when I go into writing a wrap, my mind already has like certain frames that it just like Daisy chains together or like similarly, right? Right. We're now in Simmelimo, so it's just great about Simmelis. Um, word pars mode. So let's break out the words, let's take, take table, right? And table, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah

Play with this word, right, start flipping this word around and then mirrored everything, etc., etc., etc., and as I, I just want those, I just want those micro. I don't want the whole thing, because I'm not interested in removing the wrapper, right? Right. I'm removing the human. But with that said, there's things that exist to even a time when we're building text effects that already did that. So you had chatGBT still rocking it, and you had other, I had a, I keep a phone, we're doing, you know, building salsa.

I'm checking in on anything that has to do a wrap in a computational space, so there was tons of apps, you know, like rhyme and dictionaries, you know, rap generators, I got them on my phone. I've come in and out of existence, um, but in their moment, you know, it's like, yeah, you could have, you know, in 2000 and 15, there was a rap generator app that you could have used to write whole rap for you. They had great raps, you know, they were decent, where they trained on somebody, yeah, you know, there were some, you could see that they were trained on M&M, someone were trained, like whoever was the popular dude, yeah, that whatever training that they did to generate that was, was available.

So for me, it's like, I remove all styles, remove training on a particular person, I just want the way I think to represent it.

“And so that's what it is, so text effects is like AI loop it, you know, so we sat down, they mapped my mind, just like, you know, when you do this, what do you do?”

Okay, when I think about a word, this is what I do, step by step by step by step. And then the real genius is that Google, um, to be like, okay, let's translate those big steps into computational mathematical steps. And then we can feed that back into the model and then build, right, that kind of little mini program for you.

Um, and that's basically what it was, and we did that nine times, you know, across nine different little fun guys.

So I was using it, like I was telling you, and it's absolutely brilliant. Another thing I want to talk about is martial arts. Yeah, you were a part of a doc, you series name, beaten path, beaten path. That followed you on a journey to apply your lyrical skill to martial arts movements and learn from the masters. Yeah, what is your overall connection to martial arts? Days were long, the training was actually actual training, so it wasn't anything that was like, like, watered down or anything like that.

Even though it was more basic forms, there's so much stuff that you don't see that was happening, where you like, oh, it just looks like you learned that really quickly, it took me four hours, you know, to learn that one sequence or to learn that one stance or to learn this one thing properly. So shout out to Bonnie Chanwoo, then my partner in beaten path. Um, I was actually the catalyst for putting all that together, taking me back to China and doing all those so shout out to Bonnie. Um, who actually runs complex China?

Oh, really?

“Um, anyway, so she's in the culture. I know you have my magazine around somewhere.”

Yeah. Shout out to Joe. Shout out to Bonnie. Super loopy in the cell. I wanted the calls cover though.

They paid the calls cover. It was too hard. It was like to tie James and then they had calls. And so it was two covers. It was like a double cover. Yeah, yeah, the other cover on this one is, it's for real.

Not this one. Oh, no, no, okay, okay. Shout to Cassie. So it's for real. Yeah, for real had calls.

Yeah, cause I have an article in the end. Yeah. And the article was talking like the article, like the, I guess the headline tag I was talking about the, um, everybody knows remix which ties into the CRS thing. So beaten path is the product, um, you know, or introducing people to my, my real thing that I really do is martial arts.

So my real family business, if it was like, hey, what's your family business? It was like, oh, ours is karate schools. You know, so my dad started, I don't know how many karate schools do his live started to martial arts when he's like 14, um, mastered a bunch of different things.

Japanese martial arts, uh, Chinese martial arts, some Korean things, some African stuff like that. Just different, just a pool of all this kind of martial arts information. So you kind of tell how else it was a library. It was like a martial arts books. Well, he's different things.

“So I'm the key at reading Sun Zoo comic books, you know, reading all these different, like the art of war as a comic book, right?”

Just for key history. And so that was our thing. So I grew up doing martial arts. You know, judo, karate, EIDO, Japanese samurai sword, Wushu, Chinese martial arts, all these different things.

So being a path was kind of like, my dad always used to say,

uh, if you get to opportunity, go back to where these things started. He's like, for me, I'm just giving you glimpses and even on masters certain arts. I'm still just giving you kind of glimpses into these spaces, right? But what he always wanted his students to do, something called Mushu Shugio, which is like the warrior's journey.

So after a certain point in time you leave your dojo, you leave your compound, you leave your house and you go explore the world. He always wanted his students to do that. So it's like, at a certain point, go back to Japan, learn karate in, you know, Okinawa, right? Go back to China, learn kung fu at Shalvin, right?

Go learn. After martial arts, go learn, come with, like, in Angola. Like, if you're going to do this, you're going to do this.

So he always pushed people back to the source.

So being a path was me going to China, right? And it wasn't deep. It wasn't like, you know, like, I'm there for months. Um, but it was enough to kind of honor my father's, like, legacy in a certain way. Um, and then we're supposed to do him in Japan and in France.

Wherever there's a martial arts culture, we're going to go, like, hit and learn and do that stuff. Say, that's my thing. So, and what I also saw was that Virgil, me and Mr. Peace Virgil, made a dojo. Oh yeah, yeah. Then honor of you.

Yeah. And now I'm discovering of your dad, the karate school. Yeah. Which, like, the question that I had about that other than it just being, like, really cold. Like, see you.

Was like, what is your connection to Virgil? Like, you know? Yeah, that was a, to explain that to folks. The, the, the last Louis show that Virgil did. Um, it was like martial arts themed.

Um, and so the, the, the school, like, the video might still be up because it's like a whole movie. Like a mini movie shot. The video in the, in that movie, there's a school, like you go to like this weird forest. And then I was like the storefront. And then it's a karate school.

And it's called four wins, right? Yeah. And so four wins is representative of my dad.

“He had a, our schools, the tornado school, the martial arts school or four wins, right?”

Oh wow. And so that the tornado, all of that stuff was like, take, like, kind of pull from my dad. So he wanted to honor, like, black martial artists. And so he went, he came to me the reason he could do that is because I've been no original for, forever. Did you know a pre music or you're met in through the new him? This is probably like 05 because doing a,

when he was doing his master's at IIT, um, Illinois Institute technology for architecture, I think. Um, they had a radio station there. And they offered us to do somehow get somehow through the, you know, you're coming up as artists. I mean, people, uh, to do a row hit was running the radio programs. And I was like, hey, do y'all want to do a radio show. And so me and my man, Bishop G, it was like we're going to do F and F radio, right?

Yeah, but it was either the show before or the show after. We didn't, and we didn't know what we were doing. So either the show after us was, uh, Fort Home Radio, which was Virgil. So Virgil was DJ and playing like music from all over the world, all this different stuff. And so then he would stick around to produce our show, meaning like work the board.

Oh, wow. Yeah, running the music stuff like that. So Virgil was like our tech production dude, um, and then that was how our relationship kind of began. And then it went, St. Alfred came to Chicago, he went to a yay concert. He knew, he knew a track from DJ and, yeah, a track was the A's DJ at the time.

“And then that's how all that stuff starts to happen.”

So anything that I needed, like even early loop a march is all Virgil.

Even never knew it was like, you know, but hey, can you make this logo for me?

Like, yeah, so it scales up to the end where, what's it end? He reached out to me one day and was like, man, I'm working on a show. You know, I want to represent your dad and did the whole thing and then pass away. Man, that is tragic but beautiful. It's, it's a beautiful, like button on the story.

Yeah, but I think he knew, and in that period of his life, he was just giving the biggest gifts, the most optimal gifts to all of the people in his life. You know, and so for me it was like, hey, I'm going to do something for your father. It's martial arts thing. That's like, bro.

And what it gives, like, to go from, like, just engineering your first radio show.

You were like trying to figure it out to, like, that is just, that's a crazy art man. Yeah, he had a wonderful life man. Yeah, yeah. And to, as a bit of a transition, you also collect stuff in my mind. Do you collect?

Kind of sort of? I used to kind of sort of. Okay, yeah.

“So related to karate martial arts, like, how many gigs in the samurai scores do you have?”

Oh, man, I got tons of swords. Um, I just bought a sword name to Starlight. They all have different names? Not all of them. Okay.

The ones that deserve names. Yeah. Starlight as well. So it's a straight sword for doing Wushu. It's very, very heavy in this one piece of steel.

Um, I got different swords. I'm working on this. So I'm working on a brand now called Nishigawa. I don't club.

Um, which is, you know, the first, the first person I ever saw with a samurai sword was a black man.

Uh-huh. And on the west side of Chicago, you know? Yes. So Nishigawa means west side. Um, so we're making, still freaking out what I want to do with it.

I want to build it, but one of the goals is to make swords. You know, become a sword maker. Like my dad. Yeah. My dad may weapons and sword and stuff like that.

So yeah, I got tons of swords. Favorite swords is probably going back to Virgil. I guess we can wrap it up, right? It's a, a movie called, um, long wolf and cub. It came to America as show men's assassin.

Show them the assassin. I know them well. Warrior assassin with the kid in the baby carriage. Yeah, right? His, I got his sword.

Not the sword from the actual movie.

But the sword that he carried. There was a company that did a remake of that sword. And there's a scene in the movie where he has a sword in the ball. And he's like, you know, with the little baby. Yeah.

You know, join me. Choose the ball. Join your mother. And then. Well, look at that.

I've heard the gist of the book. Okay. So follow me. Yeah. Virgil made that ball for me.

And exact replica of that ball. Wow. Right. And so that ball and that sword are sitting on my mind. They're my like prize possessions, like sitting on my man's well.

From what I can tell, you have a pretty intentional media diet in terms of what you listen to. Yeah. And I say that because I was watching some interview where you were saying you hadn't really listened to. You hadn't really kept up with the Drake Kendrick back before.

Yeah. Because at a certain point, it got a little bit to dark and we're for you. Yeah.

“What do you, like, what do you currently listen to?”

Like what rappers and what sort of music are you into right now? I don't listen to a lot of rap. Okay. I only because I'm saturated, like my students, like I have to grade rap now. Like that's people send me rap all the day for the dragon.

I'm going to listen to this shit. So I'm going to listen to a lot of rap. Just enough to stay current with certain things. But then my exploration is more historical in rap. So I'm still, I'm still deeply researching like bonebap techniques.

Yeah. Yeah. Stuff like that. But anyway, not to say the ton of great. I just met this kid overcast the other day from overcast.

Right. Well, it was dope. It was a freestyle session man. But I listen to a lot of smooth jazz. Right? Hell yeah.

So I'm listening to like diamond dress. Right? Like it's so much stuff that we missed for the sake of just being like targeted by hip hop. Just to just be, if you black, it's rap. And that's it.

Maybe some R&B.

“But that's what, that's when you get old, you know, like whatever.”

Like Indian ragas. Spanish or Minko joints. Watch a lot of like this. A lot of ill like Indian yoga dance joints that are like crazy. Indian yoga dance.

Yeah. So thing. And just sound like three words you put together. But when I work out, I listen to just pure like dance music. E-E-E electronic music.

But my main thing now on a daily daily basis is smooth jazz. Like I have to, I have to surround myself with like smooth melody. It makes you walk, walk out the house with a different pop. Yeah. Now I know why it exists.

It's like this exists for when you turn 40. It's way different smooth jazz.

But in your 40s, it's like, this is chiropractor.

Chiropractor. This is for your soul. I inherited my dad's record collection. I have all those records. And like, I remember in my 20s going through a shit.

Like, we're not here. Now they're good. Every record is a slap. It's all just jazz, smooth jazz. Right.

You know what? Now I get it. It's depressed. Ten stressed out. Like some of the things going by on a stage is why they come home.

Like listen. So I kill everybody in this house. Let me put on this Kenny G real quick. And it's new jazz being made. Yeah.

Like there's brand new jazz artists, brand new jazz songs. So I just whatever radio station or even if I'm on like Apple, I go straight to like smooth jazz radio and just let it rock. Yeah. So going from jazz to drill.

We're just going to the opposite of the pool right now. Okay. Jazz to drill. Drill music and Zion. Yes.

What's the name of your album? My question is about drill music and general. Do you?

“How do you feel about drill music being that it was originated in Chicago?”

Yeah. Yeah. Like it's gone global. Like, what does it feel like? Not what does it feel like.

But what's your take on drill music? I mean, it still terrifies me.

It terrifies me when I first seen it come out.

Yeah. You know. But not scary in that way because I'm on street shit too. Right. I don't know.

Yeah. I'm not. That's the other. No fuck with Luke about that. Oh, fuck with me.

In fact, I would have. But no. No. Leave me alone. Leave me alone.

Leave that man alone. Because I, are we taking a serious? Like are we really taking a serious? Like black life. Right.

And the black quality of life. And the black futurism. And where are we going as a as a race of people in America, right? Their conversation changes when you go to different countries. But in America, like, what are we doing?

I wouldn't be really doing.

I'm not letting my kids even watch anything that shows violence at any capacity, right? I'm showing my kids hopeful, helpful, beautiful messaging. I'm going to surround them with that. Right. I don't even want them listening to shit.

They got words in it. So they're going to play the piano. This move, Jeff. Right. Yeah.

I feel real. I can play the piano. Right. Like, what do we, what's the, and is this question this past? Because I already know the audience.

Right. But at that time, it was like, the music I was making was like, man, this is up lift, less, be prepared for whatever's coming. But less, you know, I tell my kids at some of the kids at my school. They're not even in my class.

It's not a lot of black kids at MIT. But when they come, you know, I sit and come off, it's for whatever reason. And it's some of it's harsh. But some of it's like, I keep it real because I'm laughing a lot at them. I look, man.

We don't need anymore. Mark is garbage. You know, like, we don't need anymore balls to wall. You know, revolutionaries. We got enough of them.

Right. We don't need anymore rappers. We got, we're super saturated. We good. We good.

We don't need more rappers. Right. What we need is you to be a physicist. We need physicists and chemists and engineers. That's what needs to be, you know,

at nausea in the black community. Right. Yeah. Well, even the bankers are financialed. Like, we need, like, folks who, like,

win Nobel prizes at nausea and repeatedly across time. Right.

“And I need you to remember that as a student here.”

Because you're on the pathway to do that. Right. To stay in the lab and invent that thing. Fuck the hood. You know what I'm saying?

Like, fuck that. Fuck who just knew gang chief just got out of prison. And he's doing the interview on such a such. And you've been to spend an hour. Fuck that.

Spend an hour on YouTube. Not researching the, you know, Hoover, Hoover gang war. You know, shout to the age. But like,

how to study more accurately or just talk on nuclear physics. So just do some other shit, right? So to note that that's not what was happening. And, you know, the whole time was being incubated.

Was like, kill more black people shit. But at 12. And some of the kids like 10. I'm in a little mouth.

Little mouth. You know, that shit was terrifying. Yeah. Right. Not because I was afraid because I got more guns and y'all.

I know more killers and y'all. Yeah. Right. But just seeing.

“But just to see that that's what we create in child soldiers.”

Like, that's the shit we get upset about seeing in the Congo. Some shit like that. Right. Kids run around with AK47. But you turn around.

Look at Scott. You got kids run around AK47. Yeah.

So it, I had to come to terms with it.

“I just had to get into my gangster shit.”

And it was like, let's get into shit. Okay. Cool. Just make sure that you don't make sure I keep that shit over that. Which is what most people want.

Keep that shit in English. Right. Or keep that shit contained to y'all a little gang peace. Right. To y'all a bit.

Yeah. And if it's y'all gonna whack each other. And, you know, it hurts. But okay. But just don't fuck up literature who on his way to college.

Right. So he getting straight A's and B's or he interested in that. Protect him. As long as you're protecting him. Even like y'all whack in each other.

Cool. And some of them do that.

Some like, we have never let it touch this side.

But I'm killing this nigga when I see him. Right. So I, cool. Um. I had to separate the music from the lyrics.

So the beats is ridiculous. Yeah. The beat, the energy, the. And it was like, I had to appreciate this.

“But at a certain point, I tapped out too.”

I can't keep listening to this shit. You know. But shout to the homies, you know. Shout to the homies. I went and got niggas like went to the hood and did songs with them.

And next thing, you know, they in jail for murder. You know. So. Hopefully, at the end of the day, everybody get what they need to get out of it. But.

All right. So come up on the, this is the end of the interview. I got one more question to ask everybody for a word of advice. Yeah. My question for you is, what advice do you have for someone who's struggling with being disciplined

and suffering? Man.

I'm just, I'm just, keep carrying on with the master say.

One master to another master and another master. Another master. Um. David Goggins like quit being a bitch. No, that's not too much.

Still. Um. Persistence. All that, all that. However, you say it's super harshly, super subtly.

More comfortable. So everybody can get it. Say it in a way. We feel like it's your own idea. Whatever tactic you need to, for a lot of a person to get them to.

Understand that persistence. Persistence. Right. To stay persistent. And this is coming from.

Uh, a Jiu Jitsu master. Uh, Donna. He's seeing him say this on a podcast.

“You know, just like the persistence is the key to mastery.”

There's all these other things, right? But that one piece about persistence is, is the vibe to stay in it. Um. At the expense of everything. If you're trying to be a master, mastery isn't a pretty thing.

It's a hard thing. You lose family. You lose friends. You lose money. You lose opportunities.

You create repertoire for yourself of being an asshole like myself. Right. Um. You make a lot of enemies. You make a lot of friends.

You do a lot of beautiful movements and things like that. But you're going to. Carpet bomb. This village. Yeah.

Right. You're going to like poison this society. Love like having personal relationships with people that are healthy and not talking. You're going to have a bunch of other shit that's going to pop up and pursuit of that mastery. If you want it.

So it's there to be hot. So I can understand some people's discipline being shaken because they're realizing like this is pushing me away from my family. Right. This is pushing me away from my peers and the social groups I want to be in. Because I really want to master this fucking.

Some simple. This video game. Right. I really want to master this craft of rap. Yeah.

You know, I really want to master whatever it may be. Stripping. Um. Master it. Master that booty shakes.

Master that pull. But just stay persistent. But also understand the whole thing. It's it's dark and light. And it's all intermingled.

And the DNA is locked in. And too much. Evolution. Too much change. You got cancer.

Not enough change. Not enough movement. Not enough adaptation. You die from some random from. Stubbing your toe on some shit.

Right. Um. I'll end on this. In a dark way. But in a lightweight.

My dad and our karate schools.

He always had these signs.

We're just like little things written on it. And the one thing that always stood out for me was he had a sign that said. That said, die well. Right. Die well.

And it was like. Yeah. The one thing you can't control. The one thing you can't control. The other thing you can't.

So everybody's gonna go. How do you go? That's something that you can't control. To a degree. Listen.

The word of advice was a word for real. Like die well. Be persistent. Lupa. Thank you so much for sending the table with me.

Grab jeans right here. Once again, shout out to Lupa Fiasco for stopping by the show. He's currently touring a samurai album. But if you hear this episode after the tour ends.

And that's not only the end of our show.

But the end of the season as well.

“Which means that you should either go back to the episodes that you missed or start from”

the beginning and listen again as a binge.

The ominous rap was created.

Hosted in written by me. Don Will.

“The show's executive producers are Don Will.”

And I should say. The show was produced and directed by Travis Harris. Hassan Sproul is the assistant producer. The show was edited by Kobe Baphore.

“The camera operators are Travis Harris, Calshik felidindi.”

Melissa Buddy Elyon and Kobe Baphore. Art direction was handled by Calshik felidindi. Grapping designed by Crystal Simone. The technical director is content timbrewolf. Music production was handled by Vaumpi.

Rihanna Harris is the production assistant.

And for those of you who always stick around after the credits for a little sum

extra, here's the clip that was probably the Canadian Co-Mine regarding all of this AI business. It's hologram 2-Pok at Coachella. That's it. And I'll see you guys next season on The Almanac of Rap. Who's up Coachella!