00:00I felt like I had something to prove.
00:01Ed was providing the fire, so I had to step it up and provide the fire as well.
00:05You know what I mean?
00:06It's crazy because we're in 2024, where the idea of a full, well-rounded song is not
00:13a necessity.
00:14We could put out heat, one verse joint, cut it, and that's enough content to keep people
00:19happy for however long.
00:21He's coming in here writing, for lack of a better term, Tupac kind of records with a
00:27dialed-in chorus, saying the line of the chorus every four times, filling it in, doing
00:31not the standards, but songwriting.
00:41For the land, I think the beat was originally called Gremlin.
00:44You know what I'm saying?
00:44It reminded me of that, but then it was obviously super Muggs-inspired.
00:49You know, with the...
00:50Felt like I could have wrote five verses to this beat.
00:52You know what I mean?
00:52It's so crazy.
00:53So crazy, dude.
00:55That sound reminded me of that early Cypress Hill, you know what I mean?
00:57And those anthems.
00:58So I wanted to craft something more anthemic for Los Angeles.
01:15For me, this was the banger of the album.
01:18So I wanted it to be definitive, you know what I mean?
01:21Of the whole record.
01:22When I started crafting the idea of Los Angeles, I needed the Los Angeles song.
01:28You know what I mean?
01:28And I was like, the land, man.
01:30You know what I mean?
01:30It just fell into my hands.
01:32I was playing off the narratives from different songs, and this became that pivotal song.
01:37You know what I mean?
01:38That definitive joint.
01:53You feel that vibe growing up in LA from different people.
01:57You know what I'm saying?
01:58You just get that vibe.
01:59Like, damn, this fool could kill somebody right now.
02:01You know what I'm saying?
02:02When I first heard that song, how I could just kill a man was killer.
02:06That killer instinct was put in the song and given to the world right there.
02:10You know what I'm saying?
02:11I can relate to it.
02:12You know what I mean?
02:13It was relative to me.
02:14You know what I mean?
02:15Like, okay, that's like such and such.
02:16Or sometimes pops be acting like that.
02:18Or the cousins be getting down, talking about this shit.
02:21You know what I'm saying?
02:22That beat is just one of the best, you know, to me.
02:24It's just too unorthodox.
02:26The breakdown is not in the same time rhythm or a different tempo.
02:30At that time, that meant that there was no pro tools.
02:32I mean, you were cutting tape and just being a fucking...
02:35You were high as fuck making that.
02:37There was no other way around it.
02:38Yeah, yeah, yeah.
02:38High as fuck.
02:39Yeah.
02:49You want to be colorblind, but you can't be colorblind in LA.
02:52You got to be aware of your colors.
02:54You got to be aware of your surroundings.
02:56You know what I mean?
02:56Check in what they say when you get to the land.
02:58It could definitely go down.
03:00That's also the energy.
03:01You could wear whatever color, but then...
03:02Depends on the area you're in.
03:04You could be wearing your shit and then get Ubered down to the wrong street.
03:08Yeah, yeah, yeah.
03:09Damn, I got to get out of here.
03:11And then that happens.
03:22Living here isn't bad.
03:23It's the best place to live in the world.
03:25You know what I'm saying?
03:26In many ways.
03:27You know, the best weather, best women, best trees.
03:30You know what I'm saying?
03:31Big West.
03:32But you could be in Hollywood and it could go down.
03:39Uncle Sam is like America's mascot.
03:41If you out here flashing Uncle Sam's bread.
03:43If you out here flashing them dollars, man.
03:45You may get got.
03:46You most likely will get got.
03:48You know what I'm saying?
03:49So you got to watch your surroundings.
03:50Have a back catcher.
03:51You know what I mean?
03:57I seen a civil war outside of my dad's pad.
04:00That's like the red and blue color.
04:02That's the red and blue color.
04:03That's the red and blue color.
04:04That's the red and blue color.
04:06That's the red and blue color.
04:07The red and blue coats in a civil war.
04:09You know what I'm saying?
04:10You see that just, you know, walking outside.
04:12You know what I mean?
04:12Damn, I didn't even connect that.
04:14I didn't even connect that.
04:15You know what I mean?
04:16Oh, what?
04:18Yep, the red and blue coats, man.
04:36Come on.
04:37Come on.
04:51Nia is another way of saying the homie.
04:55And it's a breakdown of the word California.
04:58It's really they looking for California, which is the land.
05:08I was just playing on a pyramid of Giza.
05:21You know what I mean?
05:21Because of how it's spelled, you could look at it like Giza.
05:25In Egypt, you got the pyramids in the middle of the city.
05:28You know what I mean?
05:29In the middle of the whole city.
05:30In LA, we got a small ass downtown in the middle of this huge metropolitan area.
05:35You know what I mean?
05:37I had to shout out the Mount Rushmore of the West.
05:48You know what I mean?
05:49But I had put it in a particular order.
05:50Ice Cube, Ice T with the Ices.
05:53Ice T, King T with the Ts.
05:55Snoop Dogg, Too Short with, you know, Short being also known as Short Dog.
06:00You know what I mean?
06:01Too Short and the Tupac, the Twos.
06:03So it's like the Ice, the Ts, the Dogs and the Twos connecting.
06:20Picture Crips and the Bloods killing each other.
06:22You know what I mean?
06:23You picture that when you think of LA, but the pigs still kill Moe.
06:26You don't really equate that.
06:28You know what I'm saying?
06:29It goes down out here, but it really goes down too
06:32when you fucking with the police.
06:46All the picture references was definitely a homage to the bigger picture.
06:50I started to label Bigger Picture in 2021.
06:53You know, and the first record was Planet Asia, Rule of Thirds.
06:57And then I did Damo Genesis intros and interludes.
07:01And then third is Los Angeles.
07:03For me, I was born and raised in South Central.
07:06I felt Los Angeles was one of the biggest things in common.
07:10Me and Ev have in common was Los Angeles.
07:12You wake up every day, you in LA, man.
07:14That's another story to tell about your surroundings.
07:17You know, when you're 40 years old, you've been in the same place.
07:20You got a lot to say about the city.
07:23I learned a lot today.
07:26That's crazy.
07:27Just another, I mean, I expect it.
07:29But I was actually iller than I thought.
07:32Good luck, show.
07:33My man.
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