00:00i said it's getting hot in here so take off all your clothes i am getting so hot i want to take
00:08my notes on how are you could you see you i'm good i'm good how you good you know it's funny
00:15i had a ig memory come up and it showed me i met you eight years ago uh at the listening party for
00:21mo um okay yeah so yeah for you thinking well good to see you again good to see you uh thinking
00:31about that you know i know you're preparing to release new music now um so how would you say
00:36your music sound has evolved since 2013 because here's the thing i mean you know when anything
00:42that's successful people tend to gravitate to so to speak so and i say that and i say that in a
00:48respectful manner to work i mean you know the whole radio if you think about it almost sounds
00:53like nelly at this point at at some type of some type of you know interlude not saying that these
01:00young brothers and sisters aren't putting their own thing on it of course they are because just like i
01:05had influences with my style you know what i'm saying i see low green you know what i mean your
01:11bone thugs arrested development you know what i mean like these are people who inspired nelly
01:18even dmx he had a lot of melody to what he did i think his his melody is is definitely underrated
01:24and what he was doing with his music you know um but i think that's a blessing because i mean that
01:33that shows your impact man that that that's what you want as an artist is to inspire and when you
01:41have and you know if you're being inspirational people are going to take uh what's what has been
01:49um you know what has been successful and they're going to put their own twist on it and that's what
01:54anything with life so i mean you know one person invented a car but you got people taking your in
02:01taking you as an influence is it's a form of flattery you know i'm thankful that i could impact
02:07and have an impact and and something as big as hip-hop yeah thinking about that because i'm from
02:13the midwest too so like you said for me it was bone thugs and harmony and then like you uh but so i'm
02:18curious like when you came into the industry did you feel like other rappers the community as a whole
02:23like embraced you or did you have to kind of fight you know for your space both both people don't
02:29understand when i say i had no co-signers there was nobody to back nelly you know what i'm saying
02:37there was nobody to stand up for nelly people showed me love but there was nobody to stand up for me
02:44meaning there was nobody who was already solidified to say yo he's good or you see what i'm saying and
02:53you can't name me nobody that's successful in my era or in what i do that that didn't have a
03:01co-signer everybody had a co-sign of vanilla everybody had a co-sign of vanilla from tupac
03:07to biggie to snoop dog to you know what i'm saying only person who probably did not have a co-signer
03:15who i think it's a reason why we're so close a lot of times and we see things like it's ti
03:21mm-hmm you talk about getting it out the mud yeah you're talking about getting it out the mud
03:29it's like yo you know kanye had a rockefeller chain on yeah i didn't have a rockefeller i didn't i didn't
03:35get a rockefeller chain you know what i'm saying like uh my cat ja my cat ja ja you know what i'm
03:42saying he he was on a record with dmx and jay-z before anybody knew his name yeah you know what i mean
03:48like and and it's the same with me like no i came out with a new sound from a new place a new face
03:55and we literally had to work work that to accomplish and to be here like the way that we are
04:03again it's man it's it's it's you know you're grateful yeah and you know thinking about that
04:09so many young artists will talk about you know being taken advantage of by labels or just trying
04:14like how did you kind of manage that it's not it's nothing to manage it's just part of the business
04:21yeah people are always getting taken advantage of it's not you're not gonna not get taken advantage
04:25of it because it's it's all about how you see it you can see it as being taken advantage of or you
04:31can see it as paying dues okay you can you can see it as part of the game okay you see what i'm
04:38saying because nobody gets a chance to come in and set their own mark well some people do very few
04:43though very few but that's just like life it's just like life period you know we live by percentages
04:49nothing is 100 absolute fact but you know and i don't want to bring it bring the interview down
04:56but death you know what i'm saying that's the only thing that's absolute fact yeah it's absolute you
05:02know what i'm saying one day you know what i mean but other than that we live by percentages you know
05:07and we try to put the larger percentages in our favor and whatever moves that we make it so you know
05:13if you want to not be as taken advantage of it's only gonna be so many masterpieces you know nobody's
05:21gonna come in here and get 85 15 out the gate you know what i'm saying some people you're gonna have
05:27to go through it like like puff puff went through it you know what i'm saying he boom boom boom boom but
05:33now he's he's buff i don't feel like he felt he was taken advantage of he probably learned great
05:39valuable lessons and i'm one of those people i believe everything happens for a reason and
05:43you know there's a quote that says you know success is the worst teacher because it tricks smart people
05:51into believing that they can't lose you know what i'm saying so it's it's just like you're like oh okay
05:57i get it so i'm never knocking anything that a lot may look at as a negative i just try to say okay
06:05there's a lesson in that i'm missing it let me find out what that shit is so that it doesn't happen
06:10again and so i can learn how to build okay and you know you also i mean your crossover pills insane i
06:17think unlike anything we ever saw for a rapper were you prepared for that success and do you remember
06:23like the moment you were like oh i'm exactly the first album because you know and i was just i tell
06:31the story is it's the truth um and you're probably going to ask this question but i'm gonna say it
06:37like even the music that i just released the heartland album you know i don't call it country
06:42out of respect for country music and out of respect for country artists and out of respect for you know
06:48the art form that is country music no i don't do that why because if one of garth brooks or toby
06:56keep for somebody was to wake up and say i'm doing a rap album a hip-hop album i'll be like okay you
07:02know what i mean like i don't know how that's gonna work but what i can do is do an album that shows my
07:08appreciation for that form of music because of what they the love that they show me the only difference
07:15between them waking up one day doing that is because from from the first time i came in with country
07:21grandma i was getting booked at rodeos i was getting booked at county fairs i would go from
07:27one stage or one event to where i have a major country artist headlining and i would fly the next
07:34day and dmx is headlining i'm on a show with dmx and this is all in my first album i'm doing the same
07:41show i'm doing the same songs i'm doing it in the same order there's nothing different but people are
07:48accepting my music and i'm looking at the crowds and yeah the crowds may look a little different as
07:52far as the faces and and the staging as far as the backdrop but they're singing the same words and
07:59they're singing them just as loud and i knew i had something i just didn't know what so i was trying to
08:05make sure that um you know somewhere down the line i got this right and i was trying to figure out
08:11that um how this was a blessing for me and and and 22 years later i'm sitting there talking to you
08:18and we're talking about certain things and and certain accolades being given because i was able
08:25to understand what was happening um sooner than later yeah and how does it feel you know i am hip
08:31hop award i love the name of that like it's such a bold honor how does it feel to know you know you're
08:36going to be presented with that it's an honor um again shout out to bet because bet has stood up
08:41finale all throughout my career um period um just on their station in their hearts uh being in that
08:50building you know what i'm saying like in the in the beginning and even even when the homie bob johnson
08:57was there and we moved on to miss deborah lee who's always stood up for nelly man you know um
09:04shout out to shout out to d lee man she she's incredible she's superwoman for real you know
09:09what i'm saying like like she's she called she a cold beast man and like um no real talk like she's
09:16so real she gets it she gets it man and you know you you love to see sisters like that um you know
09:24powering through and pioneering so and she stood up for nelly for a lot of things and i love her to
09:30death so um other than that it feels good man you know you're thankful yeah yeah and then lastly um
09:38you know you've had amazing collaborators all throughout your career i know there's some
09:41coming up on heartland uh but is there anyone that you haven't worked with yet that you hope to still
09:47i i don't know you know i i want to work with who want to work with me you know what i'm saying
09:53is um you know we talked about the heartland project of course there's a few uh
09:58few country goats that that that that the attention my man hank williams and things like
10:03that you know what i'm saying i wouldn't mind a good gulf brooks to hollis and people you know
10:08shania twain you know i'm saying reba mcintyre oh dolly borden you know i'm open i'm open but again i i
10:17i'm i'm just grateful that i'm here today talking to you when i'm 22 years later because
10:21you know i dreamed it but i i i didn't i didn't imagine it yeah you know but i definitely dreamed
10:28it so we're congratulations thank you so much thank you so much it was a pleasure talking with you
10:36as well
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