 It's a unique hustle, nigga, big shit, big shit, big shit, big shit, huh. Name another podcast like this, who gonna bring it to the table, boss top. Check it, check it, check it, it's a unique hustle. It's your boy, E-CEO, and I'm here with a lovely official. Mr. Maker, what's going on? None of them, they all walk on. Man, hey man, I'm down here in, hey man, I'm down here in ATL. We down here in ATL. It's going down, man. Hey man, we got some very special guests in here. I didn't know your name, man. Antoine, is you the real Ashanti? The real Ashanti. Real Ashanti, and so the real Ashanti, you do the music. I heard your music, I actually looked you up. You sure? So, what made you get into music? Growing up, that's all I heard, that was all around me. I grew up in a music environment. At what age? I was born in a music environment. Explain. I'm from the same hood, shot a low, shot boys them, yeah. Oh, you from Born Home? Yeah, Born Home. Really, I just interviewed, matter of fact, shot a low tune, you're supposed to be over here in just a couple, you'll be here a little bit later on. Yeah, for sure. Yeah, yeah, that's today, you got seven. So, yeah, yeah, man, shout out to that boy, man. So, how is it, how was it? You hear the stories, you know, everybody rap about being there, but it's nothing like being there. So, how was it growing up over there in Born Homes and just, you know, you really from over there, cause T.I.N.M. was trippin' on, he was over there and he was trippin' about that. Y'all remember that thing was trippin'? Nah, I was born in Born Home, like, born in Born Home. My door number was my birthday. Wow. Yeah, born in Born Home, so. Weren't you only child? No. How many siblings? Only, no. Hey, you used to see how she did it. Nah, a friend of my mama got eight kids, my daddy got like 12, I think. Are you the oldest, youngest, where? I'm the youngest on my mom's side and the second to the youngest on my dad's side. Wow. So, you had a lot in front of you. Mm-hmm. So, are any of them in music as well? My brother was. Oh, okay. That's it. So, did he influence you at all? Oh, yeah, for sure. I used to try to compete with him, like, bro, I need to rap like you. How much older is he? I think he's 23. Oh, okay. So, he like four years older than me. Okay, so y'all like grew up back to back? Mm-hmm. So, is your mom and daddy worded together when you were growing up? Mm-hmm. You can say that. Start now. We're just in the house together, so I guess so. Okay. I guess so. You did have the mother and father influencing your life though. Oh, yeah, yeah. So, who is this young man right here? What does he mean to you? He's my cousin. Can he rap? What's going on with him? That's my right hand. He's just with y'all all the time. Yeah, for sure. Already, man, so he ride or die. Yeah, for sure. Already. And you from over at the Born Homes as well? Nah, I'm not from Born Homes. Yeah, I'm glad you didn't lie, nigga. Nigga, nigga, you be trying to... Nah, I ain't from Born Homes. Boy, that's a serious situation when you say you from somewhere and you really not. Nigga, that'll ruin your rap career right there. When a nigga say he from somewhere and he really not, nigga, I'm gonna find out where you from and go over your grandma's house. Mm-hmm. You don't have to put you up on the internet like, bruh, he's not from here. So when you look at your style of rap, the way you're Cade and Cizils, what do you think puts you on another level from others? Females or male, like what you wish. Well, there ain't no female or male. I'm different. There ain't no female or male in this thing. But what makes you different? I ain't heard of artists in my age where they can compete with each other. Artists in my age where they can compete with me yet. Really? Yeah. How old are you? 19. Oh, and ain't nobody can get with you? Nobody. If they can't tell them, come see me. Nah, for real. Okay, and you say you're different, but have you always been different from the day you started rapping? Because, you know, sometimes people evolve into that. No, I've been different. I've been felt the way I'm feeling now. Like nobody can see me. Wow. That's crazy. I feel like I'm ahead of my age. Like, I done seen more stuff than people. Feel me? Witnessed more stuff than people. So, like I can talk about stuff that oldest artists in my age probably can't. Wow. What's the most tragic thing you've ever seen? Most tragic thing. I don't, like, that I done been in front of or what? I ain't been in front of it. I was just around it. I don't wanna see it, feel me? But I done heard it, like, grown up and born home, like, going to sleep. You feel me? He ain't gunshot. So, you got to wake up out of your sleep, you feel me? Type stuff like, being outside, he ain't gunshot, got to run in the house, all that type of stuff there. Wow. So, I mean, so family members and everybody, all of them come up and born home. Yeah, all my family. Yeah, so, and you been pushing that music out, man. I heard you, you and Dorez Deshun, y'all got a song. Yeah, for sure. Dorez Deshun, my brother for sure. Yeah, yeah. How did you make that happen? My manager actually made it happen. My manager in shock. How did you hear about it? Heard about what? When the song was going down. And how did you come up with it? Oh, he just told me, like, we finna go to it. I'm finna go all the way into it. He told me, like, he was just like, we finna go to the studio. I got some for you. He didn't tell me who it was with at first. Get to the studio, then, um, shock was calling Dorez Deshun on the phone. And that's how I knew who I was doing the song with. Come in the studio, boom. I told Dorez Deshun, like, you go first. I'm gonna go off your vibe. Oh, so you, oh, you just got, oh, you just gonna tell Dorez Deshun, you just gonna go off his vibe. Yeah, I told him I'm gonna go off your vibe. And then, and then he went in there and did this thing, and you came, and I love that song. I love the way you came with it as well. You can't be playing, how did it make you feel, though, knowing that he, you know, established artist and you was getting ready to have to be on the song with him? Good, like, I knew, like, I'm gonna be there one day, you feel me? So it went, it went really like a task for me, I know. Yeah. Cause I already know how it was gonna come. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. So yeah, just go ahead. What female in the industry do you look up to? Female. I really don't look up none of these females in the industry, not gonna lie, but. Even in the past? If I was, it would have to be like, Nicki Minaj. Nicki Minaj? Yeah. Why? Because of the lyrics? Yeah, I just, yeah, I feel like she different. She can switch it up, she ain't just gotta talk about, you know. Body parts and stuff. That statement you made earlier about male or female, that ain't the way she think. Yeah. She straight get to it no matter who get on in front of her. Yeah. She gonna come on with it, so it ain't no male or female when it come down to what she do. Yeah. So I know already, if you on that, if you on that right there, them boys in trouble, them girls in trouble. In trouble. No. So. And do you consider yourself a versatile artist where you can switch it up? Yeah, I can do whatever. If y'all need me to do a hundred flow, I can do a hundred flow. Wow. How long did it take you to process the music? I'm a freestyle artist. It don't take me no time. So do you write everything down? I don't write anything. Or are you punching? I don't write nothing. She punching in? Punching in. Yeah. Just go. Wow. Like, I feel like she gonna say, give me a tattoo, I'm gonna go off your tattoo. That what we say, she gonna go off the tattoo. It's her whole song. The whole song? Put the girl off one tattoo. Nah. I saw she was going to freestyle, she said, give me a tattoo. I don't have to keep correcting it just one time. Wow. Okay. So, what out of all your videos are out of all your songs? Which one would you say was your most creative work? My most creative work? Mm-hmm. The recent one I just did called Bands on the Sprinter. I seen that, I seen the video. That was dope. Bands on the Sprinter? Yeah. How long did it take you to process it? Song? I free-stop the song. They just have a feeling that time. Really? Yeah. And so you feel like you just jumping that booth in this song. So, you can do this all day. How long do you stay in that studio? How often are you in there? Like, how long when I have a session? Like, five hours. Four, five hours. Wow. Four, five hours. All day, all night. What's your day? Is it a day process or a night? It don't matter any time. I go at night time. Night time. She's a night out. Mm-hmm. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. So, when you say, what was the first video that you put out? Was it like a trap spot? Like the first video I ever put out? Mm-hmm. Now my first video, it was called Black Lives Matter. Whoa! Oh yeah. Oh yeah. That was a heavy one there, huh? Yeah. Black Lives Matter. Boy, that's the good stuff right there. That was my first song to ever make. How was it? It was all right. How long ago was that? I was in like, eighth grade. Oh, wow. Okay. Wow, eighth grade. I can't, I'm not even gonna say what inspired that because it speaks for itself. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Love the music says she was born into it so you can't be mad at that. So, who's your favorite rapper? Who's the top three artist of all time? Dead or Alive. Any genre? Baby? Mm-hmm. Number two. Lil Wayne. Did you say baby? Yeah. Come on, man. Plain, bro, it's not plain. Lil Wayne. Baby. That's my new one. That's my new one. Tell me. I'm gonna go with Nicki Minaj. Wow. I gotta have a girl in the category. So you like that? You like that? She just named all of the Cash Money, Young Money team, right? Yeah. That's who you rock with? Yeah. Already, man. So, who would you like to work with if you could pick anyone? And it could be one of them three, but if you could pick anybody to work with in this world, who would it be? Who do you think? Baby. That's your favorite rapper? Yeah, baby. I gotta give it to the baby. Wow, man, hey, man, I cut for you. That's my guy right there. I think they can make magic. Yeah, yeah, she know already. She watched the process. She know what she dealing with. Anytime you're dealing with that guy, man, it's a lot of success coming behind him. Yeah. There's a lot of millionaires being established as you hear all of the riffraff. So, hey, man, I'm gonna go get my million and y'all can keep talking. You know what I'm talking about? So you... Penny. Yeah, yeah. What is the hardest thing you've had to encounter right now in the music industry as a female? What's the hardest thing? Mm-hmm. Hate. Hate. But anybody gonna get that? That's good stuff. Hate and... That's really it for me. Because some females will say it's harder for a female than it is for a male. It is. How? Because, like, labels like to see young boys rapping, holding guns in videos. I don't know why, but they bring the attention. Yeah. So I feel like with the generation that we dealing with now and the industry type of time that we on now, like, if you're a male, you can make a song. It don't even gotta make sense. You will blow faster than a female that song actually makes sense, you feel me? Well, I think a lot of times you can't never really call it. You don't really know, you know, if you good. Yeah. It don't matter. If you good and you work harder than everybody else, it don't matter. Yeah. If I work everybody, you gonna win. I really believe that you got a dope style. So if you work and you keep working, your work ethic is what's gonna win out. For sure. Most people don't work. They don't put that work in. They want the results before the work. They want fame. They don't want the money. Yeah. So this is what's going down. I want the money, though. I wanna say, everybody always know their strengths and weaknesses. Yeah. Name one thing that you think that you could improve on. That you know you're not going as hard as in that category. Cause no matter what, when we give our all in something, we always, something always lag. Cause being a brand, it's an overall business. But we can't have time for everything. Yeah. Something that I can improve on. Get it used to people more. It's about the only thing I can say. I ain't gonna lie, sometimes be shy sometimes. So yeah. But that's a point. Yeah. You gotta work with that. You gotta keep going. Cause you're gonna have your fans that's gonna approach you and all of that. Yeah. It's okay to be shy. When them lighting scam reaction come on, you know what time it is. Yeah. I ain't gonna be shy when I'm lighting them up. No, I think it's, I mean, that's dope that you would even admit it. Most folks, you know, they run around and they try to prop up, but you gotta open up to change, right? Yeah, for sure. Right? Right, right? So I'm waiting on you to jump in the game. In a minute, I'll really do. I'll see you. I'm like, you can jump in the game. Have you met that fan yet that approached you and said that, man, your music changed my life? Not yet, but it's coming. Or have you met somebody to be like, yeah, man, I love your music. Not that it changed their life, but I done had some fans come up to me like, you need to keep dropping on, at least nobody else type of still like that. Wow, that's dope. I done had people walk up to me in the mall and all that. Yeah, cause you working. Yeah, everywhere I go, somebody know me. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. That's what it's all about. Yeah, it gotta be, it gotta be that work, man. I'll work and no play, right? Yeah, for sure. So, do you like to own a label one day or would you like to, you know, what's your end game? Anything gonna lie. I do want to own a label. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, y'all do keep hollering, baby. You gotta, it gotta be owned in a label somewhere. Cause like, when I be licking at some other artist, it be like, I see some hard artists out here too. But if I had my own label, everybody ain't gonna get overlooked. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Cause you know, some people got labels, but they don't really pay attention to everybody. I get it. So the people that I see, you feel me? If I like them, then you might of well give them a shot. Yeah, I think a lot of times the game is different, man. So when it come down to the business, you know, I know you got your managing, you got everything going on, but you know, as far as turning everything to our life for the youngsters, that's where you start to see the challenges right now. Everybody, a lot of people want to rap, but they don't know how to change this thing to a money game. The way we can bring in some income through the rap. So the thing I say is that's the thing that I challenge all the youngsters with, man. Like everybody, they jumping up, getting these videos, they doing they thing. Now they ain't did it like you, they ain't got no song with the red. But they somebody can't, they just put music out. So what would you suggest to them to try to figure it out and get it a better position? The artist to the artist. Really just keep going. It's always somebody watching. So watch what you do, watch how you do it. But no matter what, even if nobody ain't looking to keep going, because somebody gonna recognize it. Wow. Yeah, is it a chemistry to that, to the algorithm of the Instagram and all that, you know, it's be like, the algorithm of the Instagram and all that, you know, it's be losing the Instagram lately, man, everything. Y'all been seeing that? Yeah. It's the crazy, it's gonna be trippin'. It's gonna be trippin', it's gonna be trippin'. Mostly black people though. Nah, hell nah. This ain't no white folk. Snatching them Instagram, blacking it out. I think academic lost hills. I think, say Chi lost his, got him back, you know, but. Chi Ness Myron lost his. Chi Ness Myron he ain't got his back yet. But what I'm just saying, these people get losing these pages with all this, you know, they generate revenue through these pages. Yeah. And so. But you know what it shows me? In everything that you do, you always have a backup, just like some of them have their backup pages. It'll show you in life, you always have a backup. Yeah. I think you should have multiple ways to get money streaming on different platforms anyway. You gotta figure out a way not to use just one person because they'll dumb you down to one position. Anything you do where you put yourself in a box, you messin' up. Yeah. So you gotta have something like a YouTube, Patreon, you know what I'm saying? Everything. You gotta have, and then you gotta have something to wear t-shirts. Like you got the shirt. Let's talk about the shirt, man. So how did you come up with this brand? Well. The t-shirt, the logo. No money, no money. No problem. Really, no money. No money, yes, problems. Well, you got the shirt, so no problem. You ain't got no money. If you ain't got no money, you gonna have problems, right? Yeah. Of course. Yeah, you know how people be like, you ain't got any more problems. But. They lying? No, it's a lot of damn problems come with money. Yeah, problems come with money, though, without it. But I feel like you have more problem with no money. Well, I really had a problem with the money. Yeah, cause you can't do nothing if you ain't got no money. Bring the damn money. All right. I take the damn money every time. And the problem, bring the problem in. Tell my, bring the damn money. All right, man. So, hey, man, you know, you guys, man, y'all dope, man. You definitely wanted one of the highlighting moments of what's going on for me today, because I didn't even know you, you know, the red, that's a big hit. That's a big deal right there. For sure. Yeah, and so who else you wanna work with? Future. Like here in, oh, future. How about saying that? Hold on. Yeah, future. Yeah, future too hard. That's who you wanna, that's who you wanna ride with? Baby, future and thought. Wow. That's the hell of a song. Yeah, that's the hell of a song. Baby, future and thought. Yeah. Ooh, that's heat right there. Crazy. Right? Oh, I can't forget about Lil' Dirt, though. That's your boy? Yeah, Lil' Dirt hard. He hard? So what do you think? So Dirt, Dirt is a, you think he's pretty much, he's harder than some of these Southern rappers? Or what's up? You know, I'm just start being biased right here. You say, do I think Dirt harder than some of the other rappers? Yeah. For sure. Future? He harder than future? I would say. I just say, I listen to Dirt more. Yeah. What about Young Boy? Young Boy, he just all about that. He harder than Dirt, I mean, no. Dirt harder than him and me. The numbers don't lie? I know, but I'm saying to me, like, Young Boy got a crazy fan base, though. So the numbers don't lie? Yeah, numbers don't lie. Wow. So you got any more questions? Hey, man, we want to tell you thank you, man, for coming on the show, man. How can people get a hold of you? Instagram, at the real shanty. D-A-R-E-A-L-S-H-A-N-T-I. Yeah, and if you want to get a hold of a nigga, y'all go over to Born Home. She over there too. She might pull up on you, nigga. I can't go to Born Home. They tore it down. They tore it down. I knew it. Hey, I was hurt behind it because y'all had me wanting to. I never got to go. And when I seen that tore it down, like, man, the history right there, they just, ugh. And they always trying to act like they helping the community, but really they not, you know? They be, that's a lot of history over there. But then a lot of people say it's so much, you know, stuff that went on, they'd rather see it gone. Right? Which one did you, would you rather see it gone? You wanted it to be there. They ain't seen no change, they see it left. They ain't did nothing else. Wow, that's crazy. You see what I'm saying? But that's what they do. They do stuff like that in the community. And then they don't help our people. I don't like it. I hate it. Yeah. Yeah, man. So hey, man. So one thing I can tell you is, man, keep on going, keep on doing, striving. You know what I mean? Keep on pushing, man. I'm gonna be watching. I'm gonna be watching, I'm gonna be talking. That's what I do. I talk. That's why I got a mic. I talk. So check it, man. Hey, man. I appreciate you coming on the show, man. It's been another great segment of Boss Talk 101. And we know.