Hip‑Hop legend T‑Money — DJ, artist, member of Original Concept, and MTV’s Yo! MTV Raps pioneer — joins BIG CED for a powerful, unfiltered conversation about the culture, the history, the growth, and the future of hip‑hop.
From Long Island’s influence to his days at WBAU and MTV, T‑Money speaks on the evolution of the culture, the transition from local tapes to global domination, and the obstacles Black creators still face today. The two break down generational gaps, responsibility, health, the importance of unity, and why older and younger artists need each other more than ever.
This episode is loaded with gems for artists, creators, and true students of hip‑hop.
👉 Guest: T‑Money (Yo! MTV Raps, Original Concept)
👉 Host:BIG CED (My Friends Are Better Than Yours)
🔥 Subscribe for more legendary interviews!
https://www.youtube.com/@BigCed
#TMoney #BigCed #YoMTVRaps #HipHopHistory #OriginalConcept #LongIslandHipHop #HipHopLegends #HipHopCulture #PodcastInterview #MyFriendsAreBetterThanYours #theindustrycosign
Connect with T‑Money
► YouTube: The T‑Money Podcast Joint
► Instagram / Social: (add links if you want)
⏱️ Timestamps / Chapters
00:00 – Intro
00:11 – Big Ced opens the show
00:41 – Introducing T‑Money
01:11 – Long Island roots & aliases
01:40 – T‑Money Podcast mention
01:59 – Gray hair & aging talk
03:01 – Beard dye disaster story
05:10 – Saluting longevity in hip‑hop
06:01 – Reinventing yourself in the culture
07:06 – Early hip‑hop environments
08:31 – How hip‑hop reached Long Island
09:54 – Mixtape era & DJ beginnings
12:09 – Forming Original Concept
13:37 – Meeting Chuck D & The Bomb Squad
14:02 – Realizing hip‑hop could be a career
15:04 – College, sports injury & choosing music
15:51 – Def Jam beginnings & WBAU radio
18:42 – WBAU’s impact on hip‑hop
21:01 – Could hip-hop go global?
22:54 – No‑rap era at parties
23:38 – 80s explosion of rap labels
24:50 – Why old-school hip-hop was diverse
27:01 – Territorial styles shaping sound
28:12 – Long Island’s hood culture
33:02 – Hood realities beyond NYC
36:08 – How Yo! MTV Raps changed everything
39:43 – From cheap videos to million-dollar budgets
40:55 – Marketing vs. talent
42:07 – Younger artists & respecting pioneers
45:07 – Gatekeeping, labels & control
49:02 – Barclays Center vs. Summer Jam
52:25 – Could hip-hop age like rock?
53:32 – The unity hip-hop needs
55:01 – Ownership, streaming & money
57:38 – Men’s health & longevity
1:00:05 – Sustainable income vs. entertainment highs
1:04:46 – Salute to Sadat X
1:06:03 – Platforms must support older artists
1:08:07 – T‑Money’s podcast & current projects
1:09:28 – Upcoming work with Ed Lover & Dr. Dre
1:10:01 – Guiding the next generation
1:12:20 – Growth, maturity & learning
1:13:40 – Closing & sign-off
Connect with BIG CED:
https://www.instagram.com/bigced328/
https://www.facebook.com/bigced328
https://x.com/bigced
https://bsky.app/profile/bigced328.bsky.social
https://www.linkedin.com/in/bigced/
https://www.twitch.tv/bigced328
From Long Island’s influence to his days at WBAU and MTV, T‑Money speaks on the evolution of the culture, the transition from local tapes to global domination, and the obstacles Black creators still face today. The two break down generational gaps, responsibility, health, the importance of unity, and why older and younger artists need each other more than ever.
This episode is loaded with gems for artists, creators, and true students of hip‑hop.
👉 Guest: T‑Money (Yo! MTV Raps, Original Concept)
👉 Host:BIG CED (My Friends Are Better Than Yours)
🔥 Subscribe for more legendary interviews!
https://www.youtube.com/@BigCed
#TMoney #BigCed #YoMTVRaps #HipHopHistory #OriginalConcept #LongIslandHipHop #HipHopLegends #HipHopCulture #PodcastInterview #MyFriendsAreBetterThanYours #theindustrycosign
Connect with T‑Money
► YouTube: The T‑Money Podcast Joint
► Instagram / Social: (add links if you want)
⏱️ Timestamps / Chapters
00:00 – Intro
00:11 – Big Ced opens the show
00:41 – Introducing T‑Money
01:11 – Long Island roots & aliases
01:40 – T‑Money Podcast mention
01:59 – Gray hair & aging talk
03:01 – Beard dye disaster story
05:10 – Saluting longevity in hip‑hop
06:01 – Reinventing yourself in the culture
07:06 – Early hip‑hop environments
08:31 – How hip‑hop reached Long Island
09:54 – Mixtape era & DJ beginnings
12:09 – Forming Original Concept
13:37 – Meeting Chuck D & The Bomb Squad
14:02 – Realizing hip‑hop could be a career
15:04 – College, sports injury & choosing music
15:51 – Def Jam beginnings & WBAU radio
18:42 – WBAU’s impact on hip‑hop
21:01 – Could hip-hop go global?
22:54 – No‑rap era at parties
23:38 – 80s explosion of rap labels
24:50 – Why old-school hip-hop was diverse
27:01 – Territorial styles shaping sound
28:12 – Long Island’s hood culture
33:02 – Hood realities beyond NYC
36:08 – How Yo! MTV Raps changed everything
39:43 – From cheap videos to million-dollar budgets
40:55 – Marketing vs. talent
42:07 – Younger artists & respecting pioneers
45:07 – Gatekeeping, labels & control
49:02 – Barclays Center vs. Summer Jam
52:25 – Could hip-hop age like rock?
53:32 – The unity hip-hop needs
55:01 – Ownership, streaming & money
57:38 – Men’s health & longevity
1:00:05 – Sustainable income vs. entertainment highs
1:04:46 – Salute to Sadat X
1:06:03 – Platforms must support older artists
1:08:07 – T‑Money’s podcast & current projects
1:09:28 – Upcoming work with Ed Lover & Dr. Dre
1:10:01 – Guiding the next generation
1:12:20 – Growth, maturity & learning
1:13:40 – Closing & sign-off
Connect with BIG CED:
https://www.instagram.com/bigced328/
https://www.facebook.com/bigced328
https://x.com/bigced
https://bsky.app/profile/bigced328.bsky.social
https://www.linkedin.com/in/bigced/
https://www.twitch.tv/bigced328
Category
✨
PeopleTranscript
00:00:10Yes, I'm back. No, my hair isn't braided. Yes, I don't care. Once again, Vic said,
00:00:17industry co-sign. If this is your first time here, welcome. The forum, my friends are better
00:00:22than yours. Briefly, I've been doing this for so many years. And even though I have celebrity
00:00:28friends, I hate speaking to celebrities. But if they become my friends, then I don't consider
00:00:33them celebrities anymore. But like I said, my friends are better than yours. I have a guest.
00:00:38And every time I always say I have a special guest, but all my guests are special. So, you
00:00:44know, it doesn't matter for me to say special guest anyway. But I have a guy I've known for
00:00:50about, well, I ain't going to say how many years, but we've known each other for a long
00:00:55time. Yeah, a long time. Too long. But many of you, I'm sure, will recognize him. And
00:01:03if you don't recognize him, you're showing your age and it's okay. But T-Money from Long
00:01:10Island. Yep. Strong Island representing all day, every day, baby. T-Money, Strong Island,
00:01:18T-Money, Original Concept, T-Money, The 5-10 Family, T-Money, B-A-U, T-Money, Original Concept,
00:01:29Yorl TV Raps, you know, WBLF. Too many things. Yeah, a lot of things, man. And now the T-Money
00:01:38podcast joint on YouTube. That's where we are right now. You know, what's up, Big Seth? What's
00:01:43happening, man? I'm here, man. I'm psyched. I'm here on your show. This is like role reversal.
00:01:50This is like role reversal right now. I'm going to be like you, but with hair. No.
00:01:56Facts. Facts. But I'm compensating. That's why I grew the beard. You see me?
00:02:01I like the gray. I'm trying to do the gray. And I can't wait to get away from their gray.
00:02:08So, you know, people try to try to get away from their gray. I'm trying to, I embrace
00:02:14my gray. So, especially this, you know. Yeah. Like we all should, man. We all should,
00:02:19man. What you going to do? You know, you going to keep dying it? You know? Nah, that's corny.
00:02:24Never. Never. That's corny.
00:02:27Listen, real talk. Let me tell you the story. So I tried to die my, my gray.
00:02:35Right? At first, I wasn't embracing the shit. You know, I always had a gray. I always had a beard.
00:02:40Had a beard back when I was on Euro. So I had, I had facial hair. Dr. Dre used to
00:02:45tease me.
00:02:45I had facial hair in eighth grade. I had, I had mustache in eighth grade. So, but I never really
00:02:52embraced my grades. Listen to this. You hear me? So I was dying it when I first grew up back
00:02:56set. I was
00:02:56dying it. My G. And I don't know what happened. I had an adverse effect to the dye. My G,
00:03:03my face swolled up, son. You know, I was looking like I had, I don't know, like I had some
00:03:08kind
00:03:08of growth under my skin. But yeah, I was looking like, like, oh, you know, like one of those
00:03:13monsters that you would see in like one of the horror movies. I was really like bugging right
00:03:18there. I didn't know what to do. I started to go to the doctor, but you know, it, it wore
00:03:21off after a couple of days. And needless to say, that was the last time I put it on my
00:03:25face.
00:03:25Yes. So I had no choice but to embrace the grades after that.
00:03:31I bet you did too.
00:03:33There's no question. And you know, it, it, it was, it was well received. So I said, I played
00:03:37myself in the beginning, you know, so it was whatever. So I rocked the grades and I learned
00:03:42that you got to embrace your, um, your age at times, you know?
00:03:47I'm gonna tell you what's funny. When I was younger, um, I used to see the distinguished
00:03:52gentlemen, the older men with the gray hair. And I, I said, I didn't want to rush my childhood,
00:03:58but I was waiting for me to get my grades. So that way I can look distinguished like, you
00:04:04know, the old, and, and it took a while, but you know, finally here, you know, I think when
00:04:13I was eight years old, I have one gray hair, literally, but it stayed that way until I was
00:04:18in like, like my thirties and then it started spreading. Then I had a little patch.
00:04:22And I was like, yeah, and it's finally, and it still hasn't spread as you can see, cause it's
00:04:28only right here in my face. But it took me years to even get this little bit of gray, you
00:04:33know,
00:04:34hair on my face, period. So I definitely embraced my grays, you know, before I got them.
00:04:40So, you know, that's super cool, bro. I embraced them. I was forced to, you know,
00:04:47cause my face, my face looked like a pumpkin. I didn't understand what was going on, you know,
00:04:52but it's all good.
00:04:53I can't wait until, and I get gray hairs on the head. It's like, I don't like gray hair,
00:04:58but I want it over here. But anyway,
00:05:00That's why they make razor blades, bro. You can shave that off.
00:05:05But you know, I just embrace it, but this is about to set out gray. So thank you for appearing
00:05:12and,
00:05:13and, um, congratulations on, on you still being around because you know, we're in the industry
00:05:17where, you know, after, after three months, you know, you might be, you might miss that cycle and
00:05:22that's it for you. So, you know, congratulations.
00:05:25Yeah, that's a fact, you know, I appreciate, I appreciate that. And it's very difficult to
00:05:30try to stay relevant in this culture. And I guess we'll get around to talking about the culture itself,
00:05:35but, you know, I just, I try to continuously push the envelope, you know, and, um, I try,
00:05:41I try to, when it comes to everything in my life, I try to, um, push the envelope, man.
00:05:47I try to constantly reinvent myself. I try to constantly think in terms of how I can,
00:05:53you know, um, stay, you know, active in the, in the, in the culture that I love so dearly.
00:06:00You understand? So, you know, I do, I do say a lot of times you do things, man. Like, you
00:06:05know,
00:06:06I had failed businesses and a lot of times you do things and they don't necessarily,
00:06:10you know, they, they don't gain any traction. They don't, they don't, they don't yield any fruit.
00:06:15Right. But you got to keep trying, you know, you definitely have to keep trying and you have to
00:06:19position yourself, um, mentally and physically, um, and financially, you know, find yourself in,
00:06:28in that place so you can leapfrog into something, you know, a lot of us, a lot of us said,
00:06:34as you
00:06:34well know that we, you know, we don't, we don't put that combination together. Well, you know,
00:06:39we might have, you know, the mental drive to do it, but we might be of ill health or we
00:06:45might not
00:06:45have any money because, you know, yeah, the industry don't pay shit. You know what I mean?
00:06:49You know how I go. So, um, you know, so you have to try to keep those three things in
00:06:54line,
00:06:55you know, you have to do what you have to do. Right. But, you know, not to get all into
00:07:00the
00:07:00culture aspect yet, but the only thing that we do have in common is the love of hip hop. And,
00:07:08you know, we grew up during the same time, you know, you might be about 14 years older than me.
00:07:12Um, but I grew up in the Bronx. So anytime I have a conversation about hip hop in general,
00:07:21you know, because regardless of how we started within the hip hop, there's, there's different
00:07:26factors saying hip hop started wherever, but being that the, the, the commercialization of hip hop,
00:07:33you know, started in the Bronx, you know, but like I said, that's a conversation for another day,
00:07:38but growing up in New York is definitely a factor because, um, hip hop definitely has its roots
00:07:44in so many different places, but hip hop is where we, that we feel it started. And when I say
00:07:50we,
00:07:50I mean, everybody, cause I don't care what anybody says, where it started. I'm going to say it started
00:07:54in New York because that's where I found it. But for you living in Long Island, which is definitely
00:08:03geographically, we're close, but realistically, like, you know, Long Island is definitely a ways
00:08:10from the Bronx. So how did hip hop seep into your life? And when did you decide to make it
00:08:17not just a lifestyle, but a career? Because it's two different things. And we both know that
00:08:22you can definitely live hip hop, but there are people that's living hip hop that hasn't made it
00:08:27a career and vice versa. How did hip hop seep into your soul where it became you as far as
00:08:36T-Money
00:08:36and your career? Because we had different paths and you were actually a rapper. You were actually
00:08:41a recording artist, but, you know, let, let the people know that. Oh, your start as a, as a career.
00:08:48I mean, Long Island, Long Island, you know, the five boroughs, Long Island, Mount Vernon,
00:08:53you know, it's, it's not like, it's not like Long Island is, um, is Connecticut or is he even, you
00:09:01know,
00:09:02down in South Jersey, South Jersey, or even like in a whole nother state of Virginia or Detroit. It's,
00:09:08it's, you know, when, when the, when that pebble was thrown,
00:09:13and I, and I, and I relate to that pebble as the, the beginnings of the culture, right? When that
00:09:20pebble was
00:09:20thrown, it was in its infancy stages, right? So when, you know, you, you throw a pebble
00:09:24in, in the ocean or the water, you know, there's ripple effects, right? So it just rippled,
00:09:29you know, it rippled through the, um, through the five boroughs, right? You've seen it in Harlem,
00:09:35you've seen it in the Bronx, you've seen it in Queens, you've seen it. So the natural progression
00:09:39of it was to go to Long Island, was to go to New Jersey, was to go to, um, Connecticut
00:09:45because it kept
00:09:46rippling. As it kept growing, it kept expanding. So due to the fact that Long Island, I mean,
00:09:53to be, to be honest, I mean, Long Island is in very close proximity to Brooklyn. I mean,
00:09:58you don't have to cross, you don't have to cross a bridge to go into Brooklyn from Long Island,
00:10:02nor do you have to cross a bridge to go from Queens to Long Island. I mean, they're connected
00:10:06bodies of land. So people associate themselves, you know, with the people Long Island and people
00:10:13from the five boroughs actually have lineage. Like myself, I have, I have relatives in the Bronx.
00:10:19I used to go to the Bronx every other week, you know, right on Ho Avenue, South Bronx. I was,
00:10:25I stayed in the Bronx, you feel me? So, you know, so, you know, the city was never a foreign
00:10:29territory
00:10:30for me, you know what I mean? And as I got older, I lived in Harlem for many years. I
00:10:34lived in the
00:10:34Bronx. I just, matter of fact, I lived in the Bronx just recently, you know what I'm saying?
00:10:39Until I got a place in Long Island, I'm back in Long Island, but I lived in the Bronx for
00:10:4312 years,
00:10:44you know what I mean? So, like, I've never, I've never been foreign to New York City, you know,
00:10:49or the five boroughs at all as a, as an individual. But as it relates to the culture,
00:10:57when, when we started listening to it, you know, and I think what happened was, and you can speak to
00:11:02a lot of my Long Island brethren in regards to how they started listening to,
00:11:08and my Queens brethren too, the rap tapes, the tapes that were being made, like Cold Crush,
00:11:15like, you know, the Fantastics, you know, all, you know, all the early MCs that were rapping,
00:11:21Charlie Chase and them, you know, how they were doing their thing out there, right? And then they
00:11:26spawned all these other DJs, like DJ Divine, King Charles, all these other DJs, right? And all
00:11:34those, all that music came to Long Island and Queens through cassette tapes.
00:11:40Yeah, cassette tapes, yep.
00:11:41We all, you know, we know what it is, right? You see the brothers that are walking down the street
00:11:44with the, with the box. What do you think he was playing? He was, he was playing that, you know,
00:11:50he was playing the Yes, Yes, Shaw, and you don't start, he was playing the Melody Melts,
00:11:53he was playing the Grandmaster Kansas, he was playing the Scorpios, he was playing all that,
00:11:57right? So that's when we first heard it. That's when we first was like, oh, that's dope. And we
00:12:03can do that out here because no one out here is doing that. And we always had a DJ culture
00:12:08out here.
00:12:08I mean, what I am by trade, as it relates to hip hop, you mentioned that I used to rap,
00:12:14but what I am by trade is a DJ. I DJed all my life. DJing, like when I see all
00:12:20these guys DJing now,
00:12:21you know, you know, you know, I go, okay. I mean, I can do that in my sleep because everything
00:12:26now
00:12:26is so automated. You could just press a button and all that. I mean, I DJ for real. Like I
00:12:30DJed on
00:12:31two turntables that weren't even the same kind of turntables. I use a volume control. You ever
00:12:37see one of those, um, say you old enough to see this, but you ever see one of those house
00:12:42stereos
00:12:43that like they had the TV in it and the stereo on top of it? I use that to DJ
00:12:50with a turntable
00:12:51on top of that. So, you know, don't, don't get it twisted. Like me and Dre, you know, and I
00:12:57have
00:12:57to salute to my, my, um, television partner, Dr. Dre. Um, you know, we formulated a little
00:13:03group and we call it the concept and you know, we, we became inspired because at the time when
00:13:11we started growing, you know, you know, everybody, you know, our music and what we did as DJs was
00:13:17well-received by the community, you know, and we start off like neighborhood DJs, you know, just like
00:13:22anything else, you know? And then, um, when we graduated from high school, we, um, we went to
00:13:29college and then that's when we met the great Chuck D, Hank Shockley, the Bomb Squad, you know, and then
00:13:38that kind of made it clear to us to a degree that this is what we could do for a
00:13:43living because
00:13:45it was amazing how they were to organize. I mean, they had an office space, you know, they were
00:13:50building their own equipment. They had, they had a recording studio. It was, that whole thing was
00:13:55disgusting. And we went, and then when we went to the first, my first time going to the series,
00:14:02to meet with Russell Simmons and, you know, go to Rush Communications, you're familiar with Rush
00:14:08Communications, right? How they had, they started having all the artists that we'd met, LL and all
00:14:12these other people. When I left that office, me and Dre were like, yo, we, you know, forget what our
00:14:18parents are saying, talking about going to college. We can do this for a living. Right. So, you know,
00:14:24so we embraced the culture when we were young and we always had in the back of our mind,
00:14:30where my parents said, go to college. So this is what we did. We went to college. I even,
00:14:35you know, I went to college, I played football because that was my, my thing. Sports was my thing,
00:14:39you know? Um, cause that's my family's thing too. My family, you know, football players that
00:14:47inspired to go pro. I have cousins that played for the Steelers and other cousins that played,
00:14:53um, football on a smaller scale. Right. And in, and in big colleges, you know, like Michigan and
00:14:59North Carolina state and stuff like that. So I said, okay, well, let me go and do the same thing.
00:15:04Then I got hurt in college. So now my natural thing to turn to was music, music, right. And I
00:15:12already
00:15:12had the groundwork laid out. And then Dre went to college and he, he didn't want to go away to
00:15:19Cornell. Dre turned down a full scholarship to Cornell to do his, to do music. So we said, forget
00:15:27that. We're going to do this music thing. We're going to DJ and do this music thing. And we did
00:15:30very
00:15:31well as DJs. We DJed all over New York city. Um, we used to DJ for Jessica Rosenblum. You know,
00:15:38I remember Jessica, right? Yeah. We used to do gigs for her. This is way before flex and all that.
00:15:44You know what I mean? So we were doing okay. And then we decided to become artists, you know,
00:15:51and sign a deal at Def Jam, you know, and that whole thing started because we were, we, when Dre
00:15:57went to
00:15:58Adelphi, we got together with Chuck and them to do a radio station called WBAU in Long Island.
00:16:06And that whole, that's a whole nother story in itself, but that spawned the career of so many
00:16:12people. Like that should be documented, immensely documented.
00:16:18Yeah. And, and, and I know what, cause like I said, I'm from that time when, you know,
00:16:23original concept was recording and things of that nature. And I say to people that because back then
00:16:29it was definitely like, I guess the mindset was different because when you're doing something
00:16:36within hip hop, like it was the ground, it was like the groundwork, like going into the studio,
00:16:41buying a reel, getting the, the, you know, having to do all of that. Cause today all you need is
00:16:47a,
00:16:47all you need is a damn computer and a phone and you can have a song playing on the radio
00:16:52within an hour.
00:16:53Back then. It didn't take much work. It don't take much work back right now said,
00:16:57you know, that doesn't take much work. You can right here, right now, while I'm talking to you,
00:17:02I can have one headphones. I can create a beat. I can do a song right here as I speak.
00:17:08Cause it's
00:17:08all electronic. It's all automated. It's nothing. Yep. You know, even, even doing events is really
00:17:13easy. I remember, you know, I remember us doing events through the radio station. And I keep in mind,
00:17:19this radio station, if you, if I can actually, actually, um, put this in perspective for you,
00:17:27we're, we're 20 years old, 1920, right? We have the full rung of a radio station. Now,
00:17:36keep in mind, if anyone's when, you know, when everyone watches this, when I say college radio,
00:17:42if they know anything about college radio, they know college radio didn't really transmit outside
00:17:46of the campus itself because it just didn't have the firepower to transmit. They didn't have the
00:17:52wireless. They didn't have it. Our radio station transmitted from Coney Island. You can hear our
00:17:59radio station all the way out in Coney Island, all the way to central Iceland, Long Island, which for
00:18:04those who are not familiar with Long Island, that's like way past Nassau County, way past Queens,
00:18:08out in Suffolk, past where Rockham lives, past where EPMD lives, past, it was central Iceland,
00:18:16far. So now we have that much land to cover and everybody from those two areas and in between
00:18:24can hear everything that we create. And that was big. That was big. That was everything. Are you kidding me?
00:18:33Like you actually have a real radio station and you're 18. Like, think about that. So Chuck,
00:18:40myself, Dre, Hank, Keith Shockley, salute. You know, I mean, I can go on for days. Play,
00:18:46Wild Man Steve, Mr. Bill, Bill Stephanie. We took advantage of that. We made our own songs,
00:18:57right? We produced our own songs. We played our own songs. We played all the new songs. And then,
00:19:03and at the time, the new songs were LL Cool J. They were, it was the Fat Boys. It was,
00:19:08it was, um, Run DMC. I mean, when Sucky MCs came out, we were playing the hell out of that,
00:19:13you know?
00:19:15So, and that's how myself and Dre, Chuck and Flav, um,
00:19:23we was in a new school. That's how everybody got deals because everybody was listening
00:19:29to WBAU. The industry was listening to that, you know, to find new talent, to see who would see what
00:19:35was popping to see, you know, it was the focal point every Monday night between 10 and 1. Like,
00:19:40we have to watch this show, or we have to, I'm sorry, we have to listen to this because this
00:19:45is
00:19:45important to the culture, right? So, and, and who, and who knew that many years later, that same energy
00:19:53as it relates to what people had to actually watch and be part of would be duplicated on New York
00:20:00TV
00:20:00Raps. Very strange. This was all before internet and everything, so. I would say, yeah, because that,
00:20:07that was definitely a big time. And I know that even back then, did you now being involved because
00:20:14I typically ask questions of, about at the beginning of, because I always label it commercial,
00:20:20the commercialization of hip hop, because like, we didn't see, we saw it even if, even though it was
00:20:26local, like local was everything to us because that's all we knew, you know? And hip hop didn't reach
00:20:32that scale yet. So, did you, did you even imagine hip hop even being on MTV? Because MTV was definitely
00:20:40a big thing. Did you even imagine hip hop to be, to reach the global scale that is currently on?
00:20:50No, and no one, and no one did. Like, you wouldn't, you wouldn't even, you weren't even thinking that big.
00:20:54Like, if you, if you, if you tell me, and if you were thinking that hip hop was going to
00:20:59be
00:21:00so big and it was going to be the number one music art form in the world back then, I
00:21:04would tell you
00:21:05that you're lying to my face, because that's not the truth, because you, no one knew. But what vehicle
00:21:09did you have to make it that big? There was no vehicle. There was no internet. There was no, you
00:21:13know,
00:21:13the growth process was different. It was about, um, keep this in mind, and you probably are up to speed
00:21:20on
00:21:20this. You know, me and Dre, when we, we first went to college, we were still DJing by the way.
00:21:26And we
00:21:27were, we were becoming producers of music, right? We used to DJ prominent events. And I'm talking
00:21:37at college, you know, you always do the events for the sororities and the fraternities. And you know,
00:21:41you always do those type of events, but you know, they didn't want us to play. They told us specifically,
00:21:47they said, do not play hip hop. Exactly. Don't play it. We don't want to hear what
00:21:51them see here. We don't want to hear that. We don't want to hear Spoonie G. We don't want to
00:21:55hear Melly. We don't want to hear Melly Mel and Scorpio. We don't want to hear that.
00:22:00So, you know, so you couldn't possibly think that the culture was going to have some sort of growth
00:22:05worldwide, because it could have been stymied right there, because our own people were saying,
00:22:09we don't want to hear it. Right. So I just couldn't, you can't tell me that you can conceive
00:22:16that this was going to be some sort of grandiose kind of, you know, culture that took over the
00:22:22world. It just wasn't happening at the time. But you were happy in your space, you know,
00:22:27alluding to what you said about your local being local and being happy. You were happy in your space,
00:22:33right? So that's what we did. And we just kept pushing the envelope, you know, and at that point in
00:22:41time, what are we talking? We're talking 85? Yeah. 84? Yeah.
00:22:48Record labels started developing. They started coming out with new songs every week.
00:22:53Yeah. You know, between 84 and 87, there was so many rap artists coming out. It was crazy,
00:23:00you know? I mean, it wasn't just Def Jam. It was Sleeping Back. It was Select. It was Profile. It
00:23:05was,
00:23:06I mean, you know, the list goes on, right? Yeah. So, and you know, the cool thing about music back
00:23:13then,
00:23:15unlike today, you know, and I'm not going to, I'm not a today basher, by the way. I, you know,
00:23:20there's a lot of music. Yeah.
00:23:23I can, I can't, you can't, man. You just can't bash today.
00:23:29You know, you just, you can't bash today without invoking any intelligence into it. And that's,
00:23:34that's what I don't like about some of us. We did say we don't like this because, but you gotta,
00:23:38you know, let's, let's, let's, let's put a little intelligence to it. Let's, let's think in terms of
00:23:42why, um, this is something you don't like, you know? But I hear a lot, I hear a lot of
00:23:48the old
00:23:48school guys say, well, I just don't like it. I'm not into it. Well, they explain to me why you
00:23:52don't
00:23:52like it, you know, you know, explain that because a lot of, some of the stuff that I hear is
00:23:58very
00:23:58creative, you know, it's not, it's not all bad. It's like, nothing is all bad. Yeah. You know,
00:24:04um, and we, we don't want to sound like our old uncles growing up when we used to do this,
00:24:09y'all couldn't do it. We don't want to sound that way. Even, even though we're not realizing,
00:24:14but we don't want to, we don't want to do that. You do not. You find yourself, you find yourself
00:24:18being exactly like your uncle. Oh, you ain't going to never get nowhere with that. You know,
00:24:22you should be doing these slow jams. You don't know what you're doing, right?
00:24:27Like Lorenzo in the movie, the NWA movie. Oh, you know, y'all should be doing those
00:24:31slow jams. You ain't getting nowhere with doing that. That's exactly how you sound when you do that.
00:24:37Come on, man. You know, then you wonder why you left behind. You can't do that.
00:24:41Exactly. You know, if I have any criticism as it relates to the new music though,
00:24:46said, I, I just think that, um, a lot of the reason why the old music has found a place,
00:24:52it's not just because of the generation that it spoke to. It, it, it's, it, it was so different.
00:25:01You know, everybody was so different, you know, like you, you know, you didn't have 10 artists coming out,
00:25:08you know, doing the same thing, having the same cadence, you know, talking about the same things in
00:25:14their music. Even, even the music itself is rehashed. Like, you know, the composition of the
00:25:21music is rehashed, you know? Um, it's just a different artist, maybe, maybe, maybe wearing a
00:25:26different outfit. And that, that in itself was kind of, that kind of pigeonholes the music into
00:25:33things that we don't want. We want, you always want to be progressive. You want to be different.
00:25:37I mean, keep in mind something, between 84 and 87, look who came out during that time. I mean,
00:25:43you're talking, I mean, the difference between Run DMC, the difference between Tri-Core Quest,
00:25:50the difference between Queen Latifah, the, you know, you know, you're talking,
00:25:56but, but, but, but, there'll be in rock camp, Big Daddy Kane, huh?
00:25:59I think the good thing about, because I guess when we were coming up, because,
00:26:03and I think it was specifically with New York, you know, with the boroughs, because,
00:26:07you know, like you said, the Big Daddy Canes and the Karis ones, like,
00:26:11we all came up at the same time, but everybody, I don't think that anybody wanted to be different.
00:26:16It's just that we had different expressions, because we grew up all in different areas,
00:26:20and we had different things.
00:26:21That's facts. That's facts. And I agree with that. I agree with that 100%, you know?
00:26:27Because Karis' experience coming up wouldn't be like Tri-Core Quest' experience.
00:26:32That's just totally different, right? And it's because of where they're from.
00:26:36Yeah. Interesting.
00:26:38Definitely. Yeah, I agree with that.
00:26:39And if you think about it, even, because I'm going to say specifically, because of what I know,
00:26:43even in the Bronx, if you're coming from the Soundview area, or you're coming from Bronx River,
00:26:48you still had, because even back then, we were territorial, as far as how we did things. So,
00:26:56when hip-hop came to get that rise, even graffiti writers, and the way you dance,
00:27:01it was definitely different because of the areas. And it's funny, because growing up in the Bronx,
00:27:07we had factions where it was still, people didn't want to be the type that somebody down the block was,
00:27:16simply because, like I said, it was territorial. And we didn't, I don't think it was planned that
00:27:21way. It was just that, that's how we were. And I'm pretty sure Long Island was definitely different,
00:27:25because Long Island was definitely bigger, and more spacious than like, you know, actually
00:27:31everywhere else, because Long Island was an actual island, when it, even though Manhattan's an island,
00:27:35and that, but Long Island was... Well, Long Island... Well, let me, well, let me tell you,
00:27:40do defend you for the Bronx, and I, I do have a platform here that I can discuss this. Let
00:27:44me
00:27:44explain to you, and some of my brethren might have a different take on it, but this, from my
00:27:49perspective, let me tell you how this looks, how this works. Long Island is divided up, just like
00:27:55Queens, or Manhattan, or anything else. There's a South Side, and there's a North Side, you know,
00:28:02there's an East and West, right? And a lot of these, there's a handful of towns, especially back then,
00:28:10that were predominantly Black. Yeah. I'm not going to invoke Hispanics at this, at this time,
00:28:17I'm just speaking about African Americans. There was predominantly Black. A lot of these families
00:28:24migrated from the five boroughs, right? Yep. Just like the Murphy's, Eddie Murphy's family,
00:28:30they came from Brooklyn, you know? A lot of my family came here from the Bronx, right? So,
00:28:38they migrated here, and that territorial energy that you're mentioning developed here,
00:28:46throughout these Black neighborhoods. So, you had areas like Roosevelt, where Public Enemy is from,
00:28:54where Eddie Murphy is from, where even Howard Stern, Howard Stern's family is from the Bell, Dr. J,
00:29:01right? Then you have Hempstead, you know? Then you have, you know, where I'm from, Westbury. Then you have
00:29:10Wyandotte, where Ra Kim's from, you know? Then you have Brentwood, where EPMD is from, you know?
00:29:16And so you have these areas, right? And they're Black, and then they fight, they were, when I was
00:29:24still in middle school, they would fight each other, because they had gangs out here, too.
00:29:31It was like they had in the city. It wasn't in the Black Spades, you know? But it was,
00:29:36they were Long Island gangs out here, and they would fight each other. So, that territorial energy
00:29:43transcended time, you know? When the gangs were still going, it was still the territorial energy
00:29:48in regards to how they lived their life. Because, honestly, back in the day when Roosevelt,
00:29:57again, where Chuck and I were from, they were the first people out here that started shooting
00:30:01people, there were people, they were cutting people, but they had always carried knives,
00:30:04they rolled in posses. That whole energy from the city came out there through them,
00:30:09and it spread, you know? And every town had to have the same thing, okay? Everybody was like,
00:30:15okay, well, you got your group, I'm going to have my group, we're going to fight, blah, blah, blah.
00:30:18And then it translated into music, too, right? So, that's how it was back then, you know? And people
00:30:29from the city don't really pay too much attention to it, because I can guarantee you, not too many
00:30:33people from the city don't even know what areas are in Long Island anyway. They just, they just,
00:30:38they blanket it like it's one big piece of land, but it's so not.
00:30:42I'm not going to lie. I do that. I've done that.
00:30:46Okay. It's so not because, you know, the areas of Long Island that the brothers do not frequent,
00:30:53I'm just keeping it 100. They just, to this day, they don't do that. So,
00:30:57it's a different thing, you know? And that was so funny, and being from Long Island, Ted,
00:31:04honestly, you know, I grew carrying this kind of stigma in my head. Like, I know my cousins,
00:31:11they lived in the Bronx. I had cousins, you know, that live in Queens, right? And I used to like,
00:31:16okay, I'm from Long Island, but at some point, you didn't have the, well, how can I say it? You
00:31:27the urban satisfaction of saying, okay, I'm from, I'm from Long Island, making it stick,
00:31:32right? You didn't have the same pride, you know, as being black, right? So, you know,
00:31:39it became, it became kind of crazy until I was on MTV, and I actually flew my first time going
00:31:45to
00:31:46California, and going to Compton, and I, and I, you know, and I'm driving through Compton, right?
00:31:56And we all in the van, and I'm looking around, and in my mind, I'm looking around, I'm like, okay,
00:32:00this, you know, this is a house, right? There's no huge buildings, right? But this is a house,
00:32:07the front, you know, that has the patchy grass, same thing in my neighborhood. There's this dude in
00:32:13the front yard lifting weights, okay, right? There's pit bulls out there. Same, if I took a picture of
00:32:19that, I took a picture of where I live, same, same energy, right? There are gangs in my neighborhood
00:32:25growing up, same thing. So why is my, why is Long Island depicted as being like this thing,
00:32:31like, oh, because it's not urban? It's because, and only because, New York City is the, is so unique
00:32:42in its urban activity that no one, even Long Island or Jersey or nowhere else can even compete with
00:32:48that. Yeah. Nobody. New York City is an animal of its own. That's why it's probably the greatest
00:32:57city in the world, but it's totally different than anywhere else. I mean, you could name them all,
00:33:02New Orleans, you know, any place, you know, Haitian town and Florida, anywhere, any hood you want to
00:33:11name, eight miles, I don't care where. New York City is different. Being, being a Bronx resident, like,
00:33:21finding out, like, there's actual, like, ghettos in, like, Westchester, Long Island,
00:33:26even in Connecticut, it was like, it didn't make sense because, like, from our, from our environment
00:33:34and from our viewings, this is all we know as far as, and I didn't grow up in a ghetto,
00:33:38but there was
00:33:39ghetto neighborhood. I grew up in the Soundview area where it was bad and things of that nature,
00:33:44so, like you said, I'm not thinking Long Island is like that. I'm not even thinking Westchester.
00:33:49So it's like. Nobody thinks, because nobody thinks that. That's, that's, that's the best,
00:33:53that's the funniest part because it's all, it's so, and so in your mind, the first thing you think
00:33:59Long Island, you're thinking, honestly, first thing you're thinking Long Island, you're thinking white,
00:34:03you're thinking privilege, you're thinking privilege, you're thinking there's a house, you're thinking,
00:34:07okay, well, shoot, if I had, like, you know, you might have grew up in a tenement,
00:34:12aka the project, aka, you know, impoverished in some sense, right? So you're looking at this
00:34:17person that, well, he got a house, why is he acting stupid, right? You know, that's what,
00:34:23you know, but that's understand, and that's understandable. Truth be told, that is totally
00:34:28understandable. I could, I can wrap my mind around that. But what I, what I never understood is
00:34:34how, as you grew older and understood life, and you've seen how, there's a ghetto and a,
00:34:41in a hood in every city, every area, every state, you know, but it's never, but none of them,
00:34:51and I'm talking everywhere, there's nothing like the five boroughs, but absolutely nothing. And I've
00:34:59traveled the world, I can tell you that for a fact. So when, when, when people in the boroughs,
00:35:05in Brooklyn, when someone said, I'm from Brooklyn, I'm from the Bronx, I go, okay, you're right,
00:35:10because y'all run shit. You can tell anybody that shit, you know? Anybody. And that's, that's,
00:35:19that's just what it is. And you know, New York City wears the crown. Salute.
00:35:22It's the aura. It's definitely the aura. Definitely the aura. Period.
00:35:27So, so let me, you know what, you know, I, I liken hip hop to, as you say, like the
00:35:33neighborhoods
00:35:34that we grew up in, because there's different factors, there's different, um,
00:35:38cultures within those neighborhoods. And, you know, both of us coming up in, in, in the hip hop culture,
00:35:45we've seen, been involved and witnessed many different things. And with that, as anything
00:35:51in life, things change. Now, coming from, because like I said, we have different stories
00:35:58when it comes to the culture of hip hop, because we grew up in different areas.
00:36:04Right. Knowing, since we're still both involved in hip hop, maybe not from an artist standpoint,
00:36:11how do you feel about the culture that's being portrayed? Um, and I'm always gonna say commercially,
00:36:18because we, we both know that hip hop is definitely a lifestyle, but you know, hip hop is, has, is
00:36:25so
00:36:25ingrained in society where it's involved in politics. It's involved in art. It's involved in anything
00:36:32breathing where, like, like I said, there's, there's, there's not, there's, there's not necessarily
00:36:40a standard in hip hop, because. I think that, I think that's, I think, I think that's our fault.
00:36:48That's, um, myself, Ed and Dre's fault. Uh, you know, when I think about it, I think, I think in
00:36:54terms of,
00:36:56you know, before, um, before I show hip hop was a regional thing. Yeah. You know, the world was
00:37:04doing exactly, the world was doing exactly what me and you were talking about as it relates to just
00:37:08New York City, Long Island, Jersey, the world was doing that at that point. Right. In 88, 89,
00:37:16the world was regional. There were regional video shows. You know, Ralph was doing this thing here.
00:37:22Ralph was king here. Right. That's a loop to Ralph, by the way. Um, but when yo hit the scene,
00:37:31it, things were no longer regional. Yeah. It became global.
00:37:35Yo and TV Rouse was, Yo and TV Rouse was the hip hop CNN. It was the central point. It
00:37:39was
00:37:40what everybody had to watch and whatever happened on yo is what people took to heart. It's what people
00:37:47took back to their city, you know, and did that deviation of it, you know, and, you know,
00:37:55Yo and TV Rouse became so popular, you know, it went to different countries and it helped format how
00:38:02people were actually shooting videos, what clothes people wore, what president to elect, you know,
00:38:08Yo and TV Rouse was integral and rocked the vote, you know, and the reason why,
00:38:13you know, part of the reason why, you know, Obama got elected is because, you know, we, we, um,
00:38:22uh, the precursor was to rock the vote thing. Correct. Yes. With us. And, you know, and the industry as
00:38:29a whole,
00:38:29you know, but we broadcasted it, you know, so it is, when I think about what you're saying right now,
00:38:36as it relates to that, I think in terms of how Yo and TV Rouse was highly influential in regards
00:38:43to
00:38:43the change of the culture. I mean, when we first started, people were actually doing videos
00:38:52for $10,000. Yeah. At the end of Yo and TV Rouse, you were doing a million dollar video.
00:38:57Yeah, I was about to say, yeah. That's a huge change in the culture. That's a huge change in the
00:39:03money.
00:39:04You know, rap artists became stars. Not saying that they weren't stars before, but these are,
00:39:11now they're worldwide stars on a greater scale. Like everybody's a star. You know?
00:39:16So it became, it became, it became a totally, totally different thing. You know? Yo was different.
00:39:24But adding on to what you're saying, artists started like creating whatever they were doing,
00:39:30their art based on trying to get on MTV Rouse. That's a dumb thing, right? They tailored their
00:39:37videos to that and everything else. You know? Without question. That's why they made those
00:39:44expensive videos. Yeah. They wanted to compete with, you know, other artists. They can't come with a cheap
00:39:52video. You know? The label wouldn't even allow it. You know? You know that. You know that very well,
00:39:58right? Yep. Exactly. You definitely know that part. Definitely. You know? So the culture now,
00:40:09as it relates to what we were just discussing, I just think that the growth of the culture should be,
00:40:20you know, it should invoke the intelligence that I spoke about earlier. Yeah. You know?
00:40:25And that, and that, but it means everything. You know? Um, because if you want the world to continue
00:40:31to follow you, if you want the world to continue to like embrace us as a culture overall,
00:40:38you have to, you have to grow with the world. You have to change with it. You know? Because another
00:40:43form of music or another art form or another culture will take over that energy. You understand?
00:40:48You can't just remain stagnant or doing the same thing. You know? You have to, you know,
00:40:53you have to mature. You know? Hip hop is doing its best to mature, you know? But that's not always
00:40:59the
00:40:59case. And I think what's lacking the most as it relates to the culture is that
00:41:06the younger audience, not even the audience, the younger artists
00:41:13haven't embraced what came before them. If you're a baseball player, right? Say for instance,
00:41:19you go to a farm league. I don't care what kind of baseball player you are. You know who Babe
00:41:24Ruth is,
00:41:25right? Yeah. If you're a football player, you know, you know, you know, you know,
00:41:30you know, Lawrence Taylor, if you play his position, you know, you know the history. If you run for
00:41:34president, you know who George Washington was. You know, if you're a rapper and don't know who DMC is,
00:41:39for run DMC, that's a problem for me. That's a problem. You know what I'm saying? Because to me,
00:41:45you're not embracing what got you there in the first place. Why are you even here? Why are you
00:41:49able to make money? You know? You don't even go to a job. You don't even go to any job
00:41:54not
00:41:56understanding what's required of you. You know, you go to a job and you have to understand,
00:42:00you know, what's required of you. Why is the job here? You know, you have to know some sort of
00:42:06history or some sort of, there's a playbook to this. There's a lot of artists that get involved
00:42:12with doing what we, with hip-hop, whatever hip-hop energy that they put out. And they put out songs
00:42:19and they do all these things, but they totally are devoid of what happened before them. And that's
00:42:27going to be the downfall of our culture if that doesn't change. You know what I'm saying? They
00:42:33have to have some sort of history. You know, and I love when artists, new artists, you know,
00:42:39go back and they do songs with artists that were before them. You know? I forgot some group,
00:42:45I forgot what group it was. They did a song with Melly Mellon and Squall at one time a few
00:42:49years ago.
00:42:50And they did stuff with Missy Elliott. And that to me shows that they have a sense of what came
00:42:59before them and why they feel it's important. You know? For them to badger or disrespect what
00:43:04came before them, it's sort of like that promotes the ignorance to me of the culture. It truly does.
00:43:10You know? I agree with you 9,000%, but I'm also going to put the blame on some of the
00:43:15older artists
00:43:17from my experience and what I witnessed when some of the younger artists were going up to,
00:43:24I'm not even going to name names. I'm not going to go out like that.
00:43:29But I can name a couple of myself. Yeah. I'm not going to say it either.
00:43:33Yeah. And like I said, I do agree with you. And I think that
00:43:39I see that some of the artists who became the it men going to advice for some of the people
00:43:46that
00:43:46were, and hip hop didn't reach that global scale yet. And I see the lack of respect that some of
00:43:52these artists have for the ones coming up, where the ones coming up when they got that title,
00:43:57they were like, fuck you, because when I came to you, you wasn't trying to hear me.
00:44:02And then they kind of had the mindset when they got to that position and they kind of took over
00:44:07the same mindset. And I'm like, that's where the problem lies, because some of the artists that came
00:44:11up like on their own were like, you know what? I came on my own for the ones coming after
00:44:16me.
00:44:16You have to come up on your own because that's how I came up there. So that's why I said
00:44:21kind of
00:44:23I get it. That's bad energy. That's bad energy. And I don't know. My phone had cut off a little.
00:44:29Hold on. But my phone had cut off. Sorry, sir. I hope it didn't record that, but it dropped out.
00:44:35It went black. But anyway, just so you know. But yeah, that's bad energy, bro. That's bad
00:44:42energy because you're not thinking.
00:44:46You're not thinking in the future. You're thinking about you and only you. And you're not thinking
00:44:51about how that affects the culture overall because you're not thinking about that. And that's bad
00:44:58because you manifest that a hundred times. And then what happens? Right. You know, you don't let
00:45:06anybody that barely knows what they're doing go out and do it without trying to teach them or,
00:45:12you know, guide them. It's our responsibility not to tell them what to do. But at the same time,
00:45:19it's our responsibility to guide their energy. Yeah. In the right direction.
00:45:25Right. In the right direction. That's really important. Like, if we're not doing that,
00:45:28what are we doing? Like, what do you, what, what? And how do you expect them? How do you expect
00:45:33their audience and them to embrace you after you do that? Like, who are you selling records to?
00:45:38Can, can I put, can I, can I deviate a little and kind of, and kind of put the blame
00:45:45on part of the
00:45:47blame, not on you, Ed or Dre specifically, but the fact that we know the gatekeepers from an entity like
00:45:58an MTV kind of having the leverage to push out the older artists and bring in the younger artists and
00:46:07the
00:46:07younger artists knowing that and them catering to what an MTV would be looking for, as opposed to,
00:46:15and like I said, not, of course, you, Dre, but specifically, I mean, like the, the powers that be
00:46:20that are in position to, because T money might be, hey, I want to embrace it. But so and so
00:46:30executive
00:46:30that pays that salary is going to be like, now we want to go in a different direction. So that's
00:46:35why
00:46:35when I say I want to deviate, not saying y'all specifically, because of course, y'all are for
00:46:40the culture, but the people that are living off the culture. So I always say that, um,
00:46:49blame can definitely go around to so many different places. But if I'm an artist trying to get on,
00:46:55and then I have the electors and the, the, the, the labels telling me one thing, because they're in
00:47:02cahoots with the MTVs and the VH1s. And yet, um, me being, um, one of the people that led the,
00:47:11the,
00:47:12the push to get rap in this position, or hip hop in this position, but it's like, but if I
00:47:18have no money,
00:47:19and this white guy is telling me that I need to do this, so that way I can get paid
00:47:25to do this,
00:47:25and it kind of hurts the culture, but it's like, I'm sick of living in poverty.
00:47:31You know, and it's a catch 22. Yeah, I feel you. It's a catch 22. It's sort of like,
00:47:39you know, MTV as a, as an entity is, it was just, just like any other entity at the time.
00:47:47Yeah, definitely. You know, they were, they were just, they were following suit.
00:47:51Everybody was in cahoots with that. You know, they, they, because they felt that there was more
00:47:56money in a younger market. They kept, they tried to keep hip hop young. They didn't embrace the fact
00:48:03that hip hop was growing. You know, um, I, I personally, you know, and I think Andre too,
00:48:11when we discussed it, I think we had a conversation about it. We were talking in terms of how hip
00:48:17hop,
00:48:17you know, should be like rock and roll, rock and roll artists, they perform until they got one foot
00:48:25in the grave. It don't, it don't matter. This is what you are. This is what you do. You know,
00:48:29Run DMC, you know, um, should always have done Las Vegas, you know, like Neil Young, right? Yep.
00:48:38Or like Billy Joel, right? This is what hip hop is. It grows, you know, when we did, um,
00:48:45um, um, the Barclays Center in 2018, 2018, right? Now I distinctly remember we had 17,500 in the
00:48:58Barclays. Now keep this in mind. This is no app, no promotions from the network, right? Very little.
00:49:07I think they promoted it first early and then just before 17,005. Now keep in mind the
00:49:15demographic, our demographic populated that place. The next day, Summer Jam was the next day
00:49:25and they got 47,000 in Giant Stadium. So the metrics say support, you know, the younger audience
00:49:38because that's where all the dough is. But, and, and no one's, no one's touching this demo because
00:49:45they feel that there's nothing there, but there's 17,500 people here that you did not promote for.
00:49:50Exactly. Right? So there is the money there. You just not, you just ignoring that, you know?
00:49:56It sort of, it sort of harkens back to like, um, um, it sort of harkens back to, um, um,
00:50:02Lucky Luciano telling Dutch Schultz, you know, you wanted to go get nigger pennies, right?
00:50:08You heard the story, right? Yeah. And Dutch was like, yeah, because that's money,
00:50:12you know? And you guys didn't, didn't want it. It's the same thing. There's money there,
00:50:16you know? So, and it, oh, wow.
00:50:23Okay. My internet connection had dropped out for a second. So, so yeah, bro. So that's crazy. That's
00:50:30what it is, you know? And, um, everybody follows suit. And if you got, if you speak of the suit,
00:50:36if you got, if you were like, oh, you, you looked the part, it got to the point where if
00:50:40you look
00:50:41the part and you can fit the suit, I'm gonna make a record with you because you know, you,
00:50:46it's more about marketing than talent. Yeah, definitely.
00:50:49You know? So it's crazy.
00:50:52I think the sad thing is that the, um, the, the, the, the bigger companies, the MTV's,
00:50:56the record labels, like for them, I think it was about, it was definitely about money,
00:51:01but I think it was about control because if you have, if you, if you're dictating,
00:51:05who could come up on the stage, you're always going to be, and if they were smart enough,
00:51:10they would have, they would have taken a, let's do with the rock and roll way because when Rolling
00:51:14Stone release the album or, or any of these older acts, they're going to get people that are
00:51:20committed fans to definitely still buy into it. But they changed the trajectory with hip hop,
00:51:25because it's like, well, if we control who can come in, we'll always have control because the
00:51:29older artists won't be able to dictate what they can do the way, um, these older rock
00:51:35bands can still dictate because like the Billy Joels and the Stings and all of them are still
00:51:40able to control it. Well, not Sting, but you know, still able to control it because they still have
00:51:45that core audience.
00:51:46With hip hop, we're going to tell you who the core audience is because we're still going to control
00:51:51it. And I say, and people, because people always have a reason why hip hop was destroyed in that
00:51:57level. I'm like, no, the thing is the gatekeepers knew what they were doing, but what they don't
00:52:02understand is they still could have kept control of the money and still allowed the older artists to
00:52:07still make the money and still have the younger artists. But they were so focused on destroying
00:52:13something that, um, like I said, but you know, it is what it is. Cause that's where we are right
00:52:17now.
00:52:18And we can't go back and let's, let's, you know, let's reinvent the wheel because it's definitely too
00:52:23late, but going forward, is it possible that like the, the, the Nicki Minaj's and the Lil Wayne,
00:52:32the ones that's on the cusp of being that old artist that no one's going to care about
00:52:37from the mindset of the labels. Now we're not, we're always going to say that we're, we're
00:52:42fucking with them. But when the labels are like, okay, we don't feel that they're fucking for you
00:52:46anymore. So you know what? We're getting rid of you. Do you think that it can still be salvaged where
00:52:51we can get that in the same vein of the rock? And I can't even say R&B because R
00:52:58&B is a little,
00:53:00it seems as if it's just black, you know, if you want to, if you want to be.
00:53:04Right. R&B is black, you know, rhythm and black. That's what that is. But, um, but no hip hop.
00:53:11Yeah,
00:53:11it can be, you know, but it's, you know, it says it's so deep, man. This is a deep, this
00:53:18is a whole deep
00:53:19thing. It's in regards to the, not just music culture, it's a black culture, you know, as it relates to
00:53:25unity,
00:53:25as it relates to working together. It's really, it's, I mean, I could go on for days, bro,
00:53:31us talking about that, but that's a deep question. Um, the answer to your question is yes,
00:53:38emphatically. Um, but can it actually happen? I don't know. I don't think so. Because I mean,
00:53:44you're not, it's very seldom you're going to have, um, and it's not like it hasn't been tried,
00:53:49but very seldom you're going to have powerful artists, um, come together, you know, for one
00:53:58particular cause to help the culture grow. Um, you know, without one person being so definitively
00:54:07ahead of the rest, you know, somebody is always going to try to win or be, you know, the person,
00:54:12the person in front of it, or, you know, it can't even be like an even thing, everybody. Everybody's
00:54:18always going to try to be like, Oh, I'll do somebody or be jealous or, you know,
00:54:23you know, it's just, it's just never, it never works in regards to that. But the answer to your
00:54:28question is yes, but we just have to change our mindset. It's here. It's here. You know,
00:54:33the changing of the culture starts here, you know, how everybody thinks about what's going on,
00:54:38because honestly, the hip hop culture is our culture. It's black music.
00:54:43In theory, no, but no, it's in theory, but we, we created it. So, I mean, I'm not talking about
00:54:52who actually owns it. We, we want to, that's another, that's another podcast. That's a whole
00:54:56nother podcast. Right. But, um, but we, we, we, we created this. So we should always think in terms
00:55:04of ownership collectively, you know, everything collectively from health care to royalties,
00:55:13you know, I just watched this thing with Snoop said, he, um, he got a million streams or something
00:55:19and, and, and, um, barely got 40, he didn't even get $40,000 from that. So it's sort of like,
00:55:26you know, we need to think in terms of what we're doing there, you know, collectively, it's just not
00:55:32just, you know, you know, it's not just one of us that can do this all by itself. It just,
00:55:38it has to be a collective, um, but, but you know what, as much as people hate Jay-Z, I
00:55:45think he was
00:55:46trying to do that with title. I think, I mean, I don't know that the exact business matter on how
00:55:52or why it didn't work, but I think that he was onto something when he tried to get all the
00:55:56artists
00:55:57to collectively be involved. And, um, I think that if that would have worked in the way that
00:56:04he may have looked at it, that could have been a part, because like you said, then you got people
00:56:10that's like, well, how come I didn't get my portion or how come this, that, that, that, and this, that,
00:56:14but I think he had the right mindset going into it, but probably it wasn't correct. Or maybe the
00:56:20people, I don't know, but, um, that that's what he was alluding to. And I mean, that's quite possible.
00:56:30I mean, you know, I can't speak on the title situation personally, because I don't know enough
00:56:36about what his overall plan was, but if that was indeed the case, I mean, I can, I don't know.
00:56:44I don't want to even speculate as to why it didn't work well, but it could be that.
00:56:50I think that maybe he probably thought in that vein where we could actually start controlling
00:56:56what we do with this. Like I said, like you said, I don't know the intricacies. I'm just
00:57:02thinking on a level of like looking at it from an outsider's point of view, saying
00:57:06maybe he was onto something that, or maybe, maybe the people running other companies prevented all
00:57:12that from happening because other people might have been like, you know what, he's right. And
00:57:17then more, it'd have been like a, a revolt for lack of a better word. It would have been a
00:57:22revolt.
00:57:22Right.
00:57:23It may have worked, but you know, I don't want to, I want to kind of go a little off
00:57:29topic to,
00:57:31because you mentioned something as far as with health. And I want to get into that because we're
00:57:35at a stage where the one thing I hate is when somebody does pass away, we say, oh, we got
00:57:41to
00:57:41start looking out for our health. And then the next week we're back to doing the things that
00:57:45some of us are dying from. Like, I want, I want to hear your thoughts on like, you know,
00:57:51on men's health specifically because we're men, but health in general, because like I said,
00:57:56fat school, like, like, you know, there's so many people that have passed away recently
00:58:00that in theory shouldn't have, because even though we're older, we're still young in terms of life.
00:58:08And as black men, like what, what, what do you think we need to do to stay on the path
00:58:15where
00:58:15we're still healthy and we live into our eighties and nineties because we're doing the right thing,
00:58:21because our parents, our grandparents and great grandparents lived to, you know, ages that, that
00:58:32let me tell you something. Um, God bless them because my father, my father will be
00:58:3990 years old in October, right? They don't make, they don't make people like him no more. They don't
00:58:45make the, cause I'm a punk compared to my father, bro. My father is 90 and he does everything I
00:58:52do
00:58:53almost. And he's 90, bro. Yeah. He'll be 90. So I'm looking at it like it's, it's about,
00:58:59it's not just about taking care of yourself. It, it, it, I harken back to what I said in the
00:59:05beginning
00:59:05of the podcast talking about how you have to set your life up to be able to sustain your journey,
00:59:14to be the best you can be in this culture. But this culture will eat you up and spit you
00:59:20out
00:59:20that you will understand off the bat. Even if you're successful, it will eat you up and spit
00:59:26you up. Right. Even if you're mega successful, they, they're going to search to get rid of you.
00:59:31Yep. You know, they're going to, they're going to find something. We have many examples. Yeah.
00:59:38Right. So my, exactly. So what you need to do is first obtain a sustainable income.
00:59:49Go get a job, bro. Don't be afraid to work. Why does that make you look bad? Get a job.
00:59:57Because you can't do nothing without no money, especially if you black, you still can't do
01:00:02nothing without no money. Go get a job. Right. Educate yourself with the money you sustain.
01:00:09Right. With money you obtain. Educate yourself, you know, go back to school and do something.
01:00:17Right. And that's, that's even coming, becoming dicey too. Now said, you know that, right? Because
01:00:22with AI in effect and all these things growing, jobs are scarce as a mug, bro. There are very few
01:00:29jobs out there and they're going to keep decreasing. Exactly. So you have to figure out how to sustain
01:00:36an income, educate yourself and do it. Find what you love doing and educate yourself and try to make
01:00:42money at it. Yeah. God, God bless you. If you're making money in entertainment, then you know,
01:00:48yeah, you know, you know, you're living a life now. Now you, now you're chilling. And especially
01:00:52if it's, if you own it, if you, if you're a producer, if you're doing something, you're making
01:00:56money fine. Long as it's sustainable, long as you can depend on that, like you got to keep calling
01:01:01somebody for your fucking check. Like, yo, where's my check at? It's been three weeks. That's not
01:01:07sustainable income. Okay. We get caught up because the entertainment money is a high.
01:01:12Cedric, you notice, right? That money is a high. You get that, you get that 50, 100,000
01:01:17dollar check. Oh, I can get another one of them. Oh, hold on. You might not get another one of
01:01:22them,
01:01:22bro. Uncle Sam want a piece of that check. The state want a piece of that check. You know,
01:01:27you got bills that you piled up over the last year and then you might get this much out of
01:01:33it.
01:01:34You're not always going to get that check. So you need a sustainable. Yep. Right. Right. You're
01:01:40going to buy a new car. Right. You're going to do foolish things with the money
01:01:44or things that you have to do. Sustainable income. Next thing you got to get is to make
01:01:50sure your health is clear. You know, with a sustainable income, usually it comes with a
01:01:55health insurance. Right. Go to the doctor, bro. Don't think the health insurance card is
01:02:01just in your pocket to carry weight. Yeah. Collecting dust. You need to go to the doctor
01:02:06even with any time you feel well. I mean, don't feel well rather. Go to the doctor.
01:02:11You know, don't go home and drink a ginger ale. You know, we don't, we're not doing that.
01:02:15Because that's not going to help you. You know, you need to go to the doctor and check yourself.
01:02:19Right. Checkups. So those things you have to, you have to do those things, bro.
01:02:25Those things to set you up. So you're able to be like over here. Now you want to do your
01:02:29career.
01:02:30So learn about what you're trying to do. Know the history, know business-wise, learn it. And then from that,
01:02:35you have to have your job, fuel that, and you're in good health. You have all those things combined.
01:02:41Now you're able to go. When your opportunities come, you're able to leapfrog into it.
01:02:47And you're able to sustain a life. And you'll be around here a longer time. You know what wins?
01:02:52You know what wins in any form of business or anything? Consistency.
01:02:58Yep. Definitely.
01:02:59Be consistent. Be there all the time. Then, then, then it works for you.
01:03:05A lot of people don't look at it that way. A lot of people don't think about their health. A
01:03:09lot of
01:03:09people think, well, I got to go, go, go. And you know, the term that, that, that, that kills me
01:03:14the most as it relates to that is I'm grinding. You're grinding what? You're grinding yourself
01:03:20to death. That's what you're doing. You're not paying attention to what you need to be doing.
01:03:24It's good to work hard, but we got to work smart. You ever heard of that term? That term is
01:03:30important
01:03:30too. You know? And the funny thing, like when you, when you grind, grinding means like when you're
01:03:35grinding like diamonds and stuff, you're grinding stuff down to non-existence or to create something
01:03:41else. And it's like, you're not creating something else. That's very true. You're grinding down. So,
01:03:45and people don't understand. Very true. That's very true. You're grinding it to non-existence. Right. Right.
01:03:52So you got to be able to do those things. If you keep those things, if you keep that trilogy
01:03:55going,
01:03:57you're going to grow in your job. So you're going to make more money. Yep. You're going to sustain
01:04:01your health. And then you're going to be around long enough to, you know, take advantage of the
01:04:06opportunities that you're trying to obtain in the culture. Definitely. I mean, it's simple.
01:04:14And people don't see that. People don't see that. They need to see it. You know?
01:04:18Yeah. You got to. Yeah. That's how that works.
01:04:21I want to, since you, you just, and this is the thing, uh, I want to give props to Sadat
01:04:27X.
01:04:27And the reason why I'm bringing him up, because when you talk about getting the job,
01:04:33I'm talking to him in three days. So it's like, and looking at him, like I said,
01:04:38when you was talking about getting the job, I was like, I thought about him immediately,
01:04:41because I'm like, first of all, good friend. And like, he does it. And not only does he do it,
01:04:47he's showing people he's doing, because people always look down. If you're a rapper or you're on
01:04:52TV, whatever, and your career isn't at the top of the game, like, you know, you were used to,
01:04:58but then it's like, you have to stay at that level. And I'm glad he's showing people like, nah,
01:05:03I'm still grinding. I'm not grinding. Excuse me. I'm still working. I'm still doing my thing.
01:05:08Right. Life still continues, because you're not always going to be on stage. You're not always
01:05:12going to be doing that. And like I said, he's not a little boy. He's a grown ass man. He
01:05:18got a job.
01:05:19And I don't know, I don't know if Sadat got kids or whatever, but you know, he might have kids
01:05:24and
01:05:24all that. Come on, man. What are you doing? What are you talking about? You know, you know,
01:05:29because all these terminologies are what we fall prey to. Exactly. Well, I'm grinding. Oh, he fell
01:05:35off. Oh, he's not relevant. Just knock it, knock it off. Just knock it the fuck off. Okay. You know,
01:05:43that's, that's what, you know, it's sort of like you're a pollutant to your own culture when you say
01:05:47that, you know, I, I watch, you know, like, just like, and I will salute the Nas too for putting
01:05:53out
01:05:53all these new albums that are coming out by all the old school artists, you know,
01:05:57sick Rick and everybody else, you know, right. That's a loop, man. You know, because that's what's,
01:06:02that's what's needed because we need, and now, now if anybody can hear me at the sound,
01:06:08from the, from the sound of my voice, platforms need to play the music so it could be sold,
01:06:13so it could be heard. You know, you know, this generation is the one that have to go streaming
01:06:18to find the music. They want to just hear it when they come on the radio or they want to
01:06:24hear it
01:06:24where it's accessible to them. You understand? Then they'll support it. I want concerts to be put
01:06:31out there by promoters to support the culture, support that, support this level. You understand?
01:06:39Because it exists, you know, how many, how many artists have been coming out with new music
01:06:45from this generation? They do it every couple months, man. I mean, Red Man come up with an
01:06:51album record every other day, I think. Red Man is still phenomenal in his, in his delivery and,
01:06:57man. That's right. And I dare, I dare a lot of these artists even touch him. You can't see him.
01:07:02You can't see him. But what I'm like, what I'm, what I'm seeing, what I enjoy seeing is when some
01:07:07of
01:07:07the older artists are still selling out shows that some of these new artists can't.
01:07:13Yeah, that's, that's very interesting. And you know what's so funny? I think, um, I think Eric
01:07:18Sermon said something a couple months ago in regards to the longevity of a lot of these new
01:07:24artists catalog that it's not going to be worth anything. And that might be true. That might be
01:07:30very true, you know? So yeah, man, it's just, it's just crazy, but we just need to honestly focus.
01:07:37And it's not really all about my generation. It's about the culture as a whole.
01:07:40The culture itself, exactly.
01:07:42Um, and yeah, and we just need to, um, invoke intelligence, man, and what we're trying to do
01:07:48moving forward. I mean, that's, it's, that's essential. Otherwise, we're going to lose out,
01:07:51man. The culture is going to die. You know, the core de la soul hip hop will be dead. That
01:07:57is a fact.
01:07:57You know, officially, officially. I do appreciate your time. But before, before we go, I want people
01:08:06to know, um, cause you, you're actually, you have your own platform as well now. And like I said,
01:08:11I know the conversation, but I want, I want you definitely to let the people know that what you're
01:08:15doing now.
01:08:17Well, um, I have a podcast. It's called the T money podcast joint is on YouTube. Um, the nature of
01:08:25my
01:08:25show is it's a teaching tool for those hip hoppers that are interested in knowing about the culture.
01:08:31I, um, right now we're at in our third season. Um, and we have over 60 shows, man, with a
01:08:39lot of the
01:08:39veterans for the hip hop culture and some that are veterans and we have, um, people who actually are,
01:08:46are related to the culture. We have actors and we have singers who actually have been part of
01:08:51the culture historically. And, um, and watch it, man. It's very entertaining, man. It's myself,
01:08:56Stax Cadero, who is my co-host. Um, yeah, Stax, man. Um, so, and we're doing our thing, bro.
01:09:03We're doing our thing. You know what I mean? So watch it. We're on YouTube, man. We shoot every
01:09:07first Saturday of every month. And, um, we're soon going to be doing a show in Times Square,
01:09:12until we're doing a live broadcast in Times Square. So stay tuned for that. All right.
01:09:17Is there anything else you got going on that you're about to do that you want to, um,
01:09:21mention? Yeah. Well, I don't want to, you know, I don't want to like broadcast some of the stuff
01:09:25that I'm doing, but just watch out for what me, Ed Lover and Dr. Dre are doing,
01:09:28because we're still going to be doing some things. Um, you know, that those things are in the works.
01:09:33Um, you know, so yeah, man, just be, just be, just be mindful that, you know, this culture is
01:09:41still viable. That's all I got to tell you. And as long as some people like you all around is
01:09:46still
01:09:47going to keep going and going in the direction it needs to go in because, um, you know, and like
01:09:53I
01:09:53said, I know that us older heads, we kind of like sometimes, um, make it seem as if like the
01:10:00culture, I mean, uh, the generation coming up or not doing the right thing. And, and that's not right.
01:10:05It's just that, like, you know, yeah, like I said before, I'm not, I'm not a hater of the news.
01:10:10I'm not a hater at all. I'm just, but if I, I do have criticisms, even if I have criticisms
01:10:18of my
01:10:18generations, like you were saying, how the, you know, you know, a lot of old, some of the old
01:10:23school artists, they're just not, um, I don't know, interested in, um, working with the new,
01:10:29the new artists for whatever reason, you know, and, and they actually kind of, they treat them like,
01:10:34you know, no, you, you do it yourself. That's not the energy that you should be invoking. That's not
01:10:40a good look, not a good look, you know? So yeah. And like I said, even, even if, even if
01:10:45some of the
01:10:46things that, that is coming out musically or even, even the way I always say to people that
01:10:52the, the good thing about hip hop is hip hop is, has always been based on the environment and like,
01:11:00like what you feel about. Cause like I said, growing up in St. Louis, growing up in Miami,
01:11:06growing up in New York, we all have different upbringings. And if it's part of the same culture,
01:11:10we need to embrace it, even if we don't like it. And as, as the older ones, we need to
01:11:17guide the
01:11:18ones that want to be guided. Cause there's some people that's like, fuck y'all. We don't need
01:11:22y'all. As long as you make it a culture grow, I'm with you, do it your way, but make
01:11:28sure that,
01:11:29you know, cause a lot of these people that have that mindset, when they get older, they think about
01:11:34what they've done and say, you know what, let me correct myself or let me correct the people
01:11:38coming up behind me. And I can appreciate that. I've seen it myself. Some people that were like,
01:11:43fuck y'all. Now it's like, you know what, I'm thinking differently now because I think that's
01:11:50what I tell people, you know what, some of these people who might be lost now, they're going to get,
01:11:59they're going to get on the right road because we all go through it. And when we're younger,
01:12:03we're going to have that attitude. Like I'm going to do what I want because I can.
01:12:08And then when you're in the game, you're like, you know what, I got to correct what I've done
01:12:12wrong in the past and try to right the wrong with the people coming up. So I can definitely
01:12:17appreciate the people. Cause like I said, there are some people I know first, I'm looking at them
01:12:20like, yeah. Okay. Now they're like, yo, let's work together. Let's do this. I see the vision now,
01:12:25this is that and other. So I can appreciate that. That's the reason, that's the reason why I don't look
01:12:29down at people that are going in a direction that they shouldn't go down, but some of them
01:12:34come right back and it's like, let's get on the right path. So shout out. Let's multiply that.
01:12:40Shout out to them. Be facts. Let's multiply that times a hundred thousand. Let's do it.
01:12:44You know what I mean? Because everybody needs to have that positive energy.
01:12:47When we embrace them, they get there quicker. But if we dismiss them, that's when they go off on
01:12:52their own tangent. And then, like I said, that hurts the culture more so than hurting them.
01:12:56Doesn't ever, doesn't ever. That's facts. You know, but I definitely appreciate your time. And
01:13:02and everybody definitely check out the, I was going to say the, the T-Money podcast joint, um, on
01:13:09YouTube. Um, as I always state, I'm just trying to make sure, like, I didn't miss anything. Because
01:13:16like I said, there's so much within you that people can definitely, you know, gather information from,
01:13:22um, which is one of the reasons why I want to talk to you and definitely promote what you're doing
01:13:27and make people realize that, you know, my friends are better than yours.
01:13:32You're your friends are better than your friends, T-Money.
01:13:34That's quite possible, sir. That's quite possible, my brother.
01:13:38Once again, I hope that everyone that tuned in, I hope that you definitely got a lot out of it.
01:13:44Because
01:13:44any people that I do speak to, I definitely get out of it, even knowing the people that I do
01:13:48know. And
01:13:49I want you to get something out of it. Once again, my friends are better than yours. And if you
01:13:53don't
01:13:53think so, present your friends and I'll prove myself. So T-Money, thanks for your time. Good luck with any
01:13:58and everything. And you know, I got your back. So if you need me for anything, definitely call on me.
01:14:02And I'm there. My brother. Thanks a lot, sir. I appreciate you, brother.
01:14:07No problem. Anytime. The industry co-sign out until the next time.
01:14:12Later. And as I usually do, let me try to hit this button. I got to find the button first.
01:14:16And so that way, you know, and I found it until
01:14:28Oh, because T-Money left. Okay. Well then, let's end the stream.
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