 I was really, really, really into DMX. Stiches wanna try, stiches wanna laugh, stiches wonder why. DMX. Oh man, man, what? Yeah, like when DMX, yeah, when DMX died, I shared real tears. He died the day before my birthday. Man, I shared real tears. Yeah, we on boss talk one on one, one on one. Yeah, we gon' talk. When you was young, who, you say you love rap music. What was the, who was the artist that you love? Was it Pee and Nemo? Was it, what was the thing that you really listened to when you was coming up? That's a great question, bro. I love answering this. I was really, really, really into DMX. Stiches wanna try, stiches wanna laugh, stiches wonder why. DMX. Oh man, man, what? Yeah, like when DMX, yeah, when DMX died, I shared real tears. He died the day before my birthday. Man, I shared real tears. You know what I mean? So I was really into DMX. I was really into knives. How did, how did you, how did you, how did you learn about DMX? You just listened to the music, just hip hop head? Man, one of my middle, yeah, just listened to the music. That's how I found out about him. Of course, watching BET, MTV, but DMX's presence was so big when he got onto the scene that one of my math teachers in middle school, white dude named Mr. Adams, this man came in class one day reciting DMX lyrics. With us. What did he really want? Nah, the intro, he was reciting the lyrics to an intro skit where DMX said, Just cause I love my, Just cause I love my nigga, I shed blood for my nigga. Yeah. Of course he wasn't saying N-word, you know what I mean? He wasn't dumb, but he was like, I shed, oh, he replaced the N-word with students. That's what he did. He said, Just cause I love my students. I shed blood for my students. Little student, holla, where are my students? All I want to hear is right here, my students. Bro, that's when I was like, oh, DMX is on another level, bro. Then a lot of these other rappers, he got a suburban white dude in class, you know, rapping is to his students. So DMX, Nas, Juvenile. Juvenile. Lil Wayne, Lil Wayne was the youngest out the clique. So it was easy coming up, you know, my generation. It was very easy to be like, yep, that's the one we like the most. Cause he closest to our age. He the youngest one. He got the sound effects when he rapping. Chica-pa! You know what I mean? I felt that. So I really came up on them. No limit as well. I mean, no limit, no limit has so many artists that it was like, I just rock with the brand, you know, because man, it's hard to, it's hard to even attach to just one or two people. I mean, of course I loved Mac, I loved C-Merida, I loved Fiend. These are the albums I bought. I bought Barcelona, I bought Shell Shocked. I bought The Last Dying with the hologram cover. You know, I bought these albums. So the New Orleans stuff, no limit cash money, yes. But DMX and Nas, big yes to them. Wow, so. Oh, oh, I gotta add one more now. Who is that? Will Smith. Oh man. The guy will be slapping people. I used to rock with Will Smith, bro. I used to rock with him. Oh, you say you used to, after he slapped Chris Rock, you quit rockin' with him? Man, I mean, no, as a rapper I used to rock with him. Yeah, after he slapped Chris Rock, I kinda, I didn't respect that move, you know? Cause I felt like that move was in the effort to impress his woman, you know what I'm saying? And I didn't feel like that was with a real shoe. Any time it's two brothers, I don't really rock. Yeah, in public, in front of the world. Yeah, that's the part. Not in front of the barbershop, in front of the world. You feel me? That's what made it kinda, if they did it offside somewhere, I'd still be cool, cause they two dudes, bro. But so I didn't respect that, but when he put out like getting jiggy with it and that song, just the two of us dedicated to his son, all out, bro. Like, I used to could listen to rap, but my parents, they had one catch. I had to listen to clean rap. So it had to be the edited version. So when I bought 400 degrees, it was the edited version. Really? When I bought the block, it's high from Shirani Apeaches. It was the edited version, you know what I'm saying? Like, when I would listen to these albums, it was always the curse words bleeped out. Will Smith never cursed in his music. So I was like, oh, I could get like the real version of his album, not the edited version. And that's part of what influenced me. Cause I was like, man, this man went platinum with no curse words. Okay. I didn't even want to be a rapper back then. But when I did start rapping, one thing I always remember was like, yo, I don't want cursing my music. And that's aside from my religion and me being Christian and all that. Even outside of that, I love the fact that you could be a dude that's like, hey, this dude different, but dope at the same time. You know, and I just, I was up for that challenge. So. That's the crazy part. Cause I like to say, I just know that you, you know, you, you listen to, so you had to have some type of influence as a young. So how was you when you, when you really, I knew you was, I heard you say you was in college when you, when you started rapping, but when, when, how was you, when you knew that you had a possibility that I want to rap? So I played basketball and I thought that was going to be my ticket. You know, that was my first record. Were you good? Yeah, I was, no, I was really good. I was like setting records at my school and everything. Yeah, I was, and I had the opportunity to play in college, but I wanted to play D1. You know, if you're familiar with college athletics, that's the dream right there. You're trying to play at them big schools. I could have played D2 and D3. You know, I was on that type of level, but I tried to play D1. So I went to LSU, a D1 school, and I tried out for the team, tried to walk on, got cut, right? Whew, bruised my ego, you know? Cause I'm, I'm, I'm used to being the man on campus. I'm averaging 20 a game in high school, you know, district four A, like people that's in the NBA right now, like DJ Augustine, people that's in the league right now and played and put up real numbers, real legends where I come from. Bolester, McCaleb, you know, people like this. My man Milton, like, I was balling with them. I was, I was holding my own against them. You know what I'm saying? My man tweeted, the mind caught her. Like I was holding my own with these people. So of course, when I got cut from my college team, that stuff didn't feel right. So that's when I get cut from the basketball team. Meanwhile, all my friends in college, they all picked up a new hobby. Once we, once we got to school, it's like everybody turned into a rapper, you know? Everybody wanted to reinvent themselves and they all in the dorm room. They got their recording equipment and they having ciphers and they spitting and all this. So I was like, dang, everybody, all the black dudes in my school look like they into rapping. Let me try. You know what I just kind of got into it like that. Like let me try. And you know, when you're going around the circle and everybody rapping, everybody went home the night before and wrote something and now y'all all spitting it for each other. And when y'all all spitting it, you could kind of tell like, oh, he trashed. Like, oh, he better not ever rap again after this, you know? He straight. And then some people you just like, hmm, he got that it factor. I had that it factor and everybody knew it. You know, from the time I started rapping, I had the it factor. I just didn't have confidence at the time, you know? I had the it factor when it came to that panel and those lyrics. So I started rapping, yeah, in college, bro. And it was just a little high bed at first. But all in one year, my freshman year, I got cut from the basketball team. One of my best friends got murdered. Like I was talking to y'all about my girlfriend cheated on me with an LSU football player. You know, that stuff, that stuff, that was tough. And then my roommate in college started selling dope. You know what I mean? All this stuff happened in a small amount of time. So when I started rapping, I had a lot built up on the inside that it was like, man, I got to talk about this stuff, you know? So for me, real quick, it became therapy, free therapy. I think you, you know, when you, when you, and I didn't mean to cut you off, but when you bought it all in a nutshell and you put all those factors together, I always think about the three days are done. I always talk about that. You got to go through your, you call it, you know, issues, but it's three days are done. I mean, you had to go through that in order to transform. You know, did you get closer to God during that time? That's when I found God. Okay. Oh, he found you. But at the end of the day, that's the three days, you know, when you start going through with losing your girl, these doors start closing and these doors are closing for a reason that's God saying no. You know what I'm saying? Like, and basically getting you positioned to be honest with you, to make that decision to be on. So I think that's a beautiful thing cause I went through my three days of dying and I love it. You know what I'm saying? Cause I wouldn't be who I am today. I wouldn't even have this wife. You look back on it and now you're like, that's the thing that could have ever happened to me. I'm like, man, I was in tears, man, when these things were happening to me. And now I'm looking back. Like I would not be who I am without that stuff happening. So I'm thankful for it, you know?