00:00That you were standing inside a hip-hop history, or did you feel like you were just a young MC
00:05trying to make the next record?
00:09All I know is I was surrounded by cats that were incredible artists, and I was just trying to see
00:19if I could fit it somewhere.
00:20I was just trying to find my way, because Kane is over here with his crazy bars, Z-Rap's over
00:25here with these astronomical bars,
00:26Biz Mark is doing these incredible songs and anthems, and I understood what the bar was,
00:36and I just knew that I had to fight to have a voice on the label and to have a
00:43voice in the game,
00:45and so I knew it was going to be a tough, you know, to be noticed,
00:51and it really took me leaving that label and getting out of that crowded, talented pool of artists to really
00:59get an opportunity to shine.
01:01That's why I went to Delicious final for my second album.
01:07Wow, wow. So, um, but I've realized, right, like, um, one of the things that, like, has separated you, right,
01:16um, from many MCs is, like, you have that ability to create, uh, characters, like, um, and also, like, narratives.
01:25Like, where do you feel that instinct, uh, to tell stories came from?
01:32That's always been, that's always been in me since, I'm talking about since probably 12 years old.
01:42Wow. It's just something I was born with.
01:44I remember taking an exam, um, it was like one of these, uh, standardized, uh, statewide tests.
01:52I was in seventh grade, and the, the, the assignment, um, that was on this test, and this was like
02:00every kid in the city took the same test.
02:03And the assignment was, they gave us a word bank, and the word, it might have had 25 words.
02:09And it was said, use some or all of these words and create a story using the words.
02:15And I had so much fun writing my story using, and I used all the words, like, you didn't have
02:21to use all the words.
02:22I used all the words, and I created this story.
02:26And, um, the teacher, so we didn't put our names on the exam, so none of the teachers knew who
02:34did what, right?
02:35And so the teacher, a couple days later, we were asking, hey, whatever happened with that, you know, that test?
02:41Um, and she was responsible for grading some of the tests, I guess.
02:45And she was like, you know, um, the teachers, we all sat down and we're grading the tests.
02:50And there was this one paper, um, that, that was just like, they had just, it was just like so,
02:55so imaginative and so, you know, and she was like, she starts telling parts of the story.
03:01And immediately, I-
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