 I don't lie about this shit. I came from Best Buy, bro. I was rapping. I had a vision to make music from Best Buy. I just kinda, like my story essentially is I just wanted to be, I just wanted to do the shit I love for once and not do the shit that everybody was telling me to do. I can't remember how many people hit me the day after that Nashville show, but you didn't speed on it. It was like, bruh, you really did this shit. Like you really, like you really set your mind out and did this shit. What's up, what's up, what's up? I'm Brian Mashan. I'm Cory. And we are back with another episode of No Labels Necessary Podcast. You can catch us every Tuesday, every Thursday on YouTube, Spotify, Apple, wherever you stream your podcast here at the intersection of creativity and currency. You know here on No Labels, we love to bring value through showing you people's journeys who are moving differently throughout the industry and the creative economy, the music industry, all that good stuff. And today we got a great example. So glad that Chris Patrick, an artist, a rapper who got the bars for y'all but got the swaggy melodies when he rapped too. Chris Patrick, appreciate you for pulling up, bruh. Now, I appreciate y'all having me, bruh. How y'all feeling today, bruh? It's been a good day, man. Thankfully it's sunny, you know what I'm saying? So that's all we can ask for. Sun is out, man. I feel you, bruh. I feel you, that's it, man. I'm not gonna lie. I'm so used to, like, sun not being out of shit. Like, Jersey is whether it's ass a lot of the times. I ain't gonna say it's ass, it just be spotty. Like, sometimes it'll look like it's about to be a sunny day then it turned out to rain. Or then some days on the rain, you can't see all day. That shit don't even rain your area. Sun is out, you know what I'm saying? Or it gets insanely windy sometimes. That shit mad weird to me, but this is nice. It's consistent as fuck. Sun is cool, vibes is right. Hello, Christ, you know what I'm saying? It's very good. And it's crazy, man, because I wanted to take you as a man from Jersey. Like, you don't feel like a northeast part of the first round. But you feel, I thought you were from Atlanta, you know what I'm saying? Like, you got the locks, you hang out with mostly Atlanta people from the scene. And you don't rap like a New York artist, like, or a Northeast artist, like, you get it a lot? Absolutely, I ain't gonna lie. For a, we'll be in 2023, I think for the whole year, 2020 to like 2022, everybody thought I was like from Atlanta. So like, sometimes I'll be making jokes like, yeah, I'm from, my man's, my man's, Marco gave me a fucking place to say I was from, or whenever Niggas thought I was from Atlanta. I can't remember where the fuck it was, but it was some bullshit out the way shit. Like, he kind of from Atlanta, but he not really from here, so it makes sense. But yeah, man, I just, I went through that for two years, but then I had to just start telling people like, yo, I'm from Jersey, I'm from Jersey, I'm from Jersey. Definitely a lot different, but I grew up on a lot of niggas. Like, I grew up on a lot of like northeast shit, but like a lot of the favorite niggas is from the south. You know what I'm saying? I grew up on a lot of niggas from Chicago, you know what I'm saying? A lot of niggas, I feel like don't be walking around with their dress swinging, but that's my vibe, so that's what I be on. Yeah, it's normal for me, I get that a lot. Does Jersey play out in your music at all? Like any of your energy? Oh yeah, everything, every story I tell comes from a place of trying to almost, Latin niggas know we here, you know what I'm saying? I feel like Jersey's been a slept on place for a very long time. We do have a lot of amazing talent coming out of there, but I still feel like there's a light that should be shined on that area as a whole. From the aggressiveness with which I rap, I think it comes from that space, you know what I'm saying? Cause you don't really see that too much. You do see that in the south and stuff like that, but I feel like that, you know, shut up, dickhead energy come from that nerve issue. You feel me, that's the best way I can really quantify that shit. Like I feel like that swag and that braggadocious energy to try to impress or just show that shit comes from that space and time, you know what I'm saying? There's a lot of, I've been seeing Jersey Club music take. Yeah, I have a moment with that. Yeah, they going crazy with that. So like I've been incorporating a lot of that shit into my music again, which is really, really dope. Unreleased shit that has yet to drop, but I've been adding that shit to the template. And then honestly just, you know, again, by telling niggas I'm from Jersey when they think I'm from Atlanta, that's a big thing for me too. Just letting niggas know, like, hey, this the representation. I've seen a lot of Jersey niggas leave and not say anything about where they from, but for me it's very important that I tell niggas, like, hey, I'm from Jersey, East Orange to be exact. So that way niggas from Jersey know, there are people pushing to make that, you know, build that infrastructure for, you know, that area. That'd be big for me. So, like at this point, you're official in the industry, right? So you move this shit, you just talked about being at Best Buy, right? Thanks. And now you out here, you know what I mean, LA, you know, you've been through situations. Now, like you said, you're in between situations. Yeah. Like, let's go back to that Best Buy, as a matter of fact, right? What was it like? How did you think about you were going to get into it? Did you say, hey, I just need to go get signed? Did you say I want to be indie or I'm just trying to go viral on platforms? What was your approach in mindset back then where you were trying to get about it, you know, on a day job? You know, it's crazy. When I was initially doing this shit, I never thought about getting signed, none of that shit. I just thought about community building. That was the first thing I always clicked in my mind. I had realized the power of this shit. This is so fucking funny, but it was the summer of 2019, I believe it was, and my homie named Dean sent me a video, he sent me a video about some of the homies. My dog, his name's Shofu, he lived kind of in raps that kind of revolved around like the anime Pokemon world and shit. He was like, yo, bro, you should rap with this. I'm like, bro, I don't even really do this. I haven't played a Pokemon game in like 10 years. But he like, bro, look, don't even look at that shit like that. Look at it as an opportunity to grow this shit. I'm like, bro, are you fucking serious? Like, you did that? And he like, yeah, bro, do that shit. And I did that shit. And that video did like a fucking million views for them niggas in the first month. And I remember spending every day after Best Buy when that shit dropped, I was two hours. I would come home, lay in my bed, I was tired as fuck, and I was just commenting on every single person who commented on my shit. Oh, Chris Patrick got the best verse in this shit. It was like 20 motherfuckers in the cypher. Every nigga that said Chris Patrick got the best verse, I was commenting, commenting. Hey, bro, thank you, bro, thank you, bro, thank you, bro, thank you, bro, thank you, bro, thank you, bro, thank you. And then eventually, I didn't want to post it on Twitter, but one of my homies posted on Twitter, went viral, all them niggas who saw that shit on YouTube saw it on Twitter and then connected with me. And then from right there in that moment, community started building. And that's when I realized, I'm like, bro, this ain't, this shit ain't about nothing else but building a community. To this day, I've seen a lot of them niggas pop out to the tour. They in the merch line talking about some, bro, y'all wasn't here since the Chris Patrick Pokemon Cypher days. Look at the fuck y'all know about that shit. We just did a sold out tour, 2023. That's fucking amazing. So like for me, it's always been community building. I was in Best Buy, writing raps and shit, just thinking, all right, cool. I know that my story is something that ain't different than nobody else's. I'm working a nine to five, I got dreams too. If I keep putting these raps out and I keep hitting this specific audience of motherfuckers who just work this job that they hate and they want to be something greater, it's gonna connect. And from there, we just kept building the story out, bro. That's been the whole thing, just building community. And I've watched the community building take me farther in this shit than anything else has. Like fuck cosines, fuck working with whoever. Community building has been the biggest piece for me that has opened more doors for me than I even realized. Yeah, so how have you built on that? Like what is community building for you right now look like? For me right now, it's, I interact with everybody. I interact with everybody. You DM me, I'm gonna hit you back for the most time. Sometimes I don't get the things cause sometimes I just be all over the place, but I try to do everything in my power to like cater to that, whether it's hopping on lives and talking with folks. Folks DMing me, seeing people outside in real time and talking with them. That was probably my favorite thing. Like 2019, I'm building a community. 2020, I think I had a good moment to grow because we're in the pandemic and I already had a community that was stuck in a crib. And then 2021, getting outside and seeing all these people for the first time is fucking amazing. So for me, I just try to pop out to things. I try to respond as many DMs as possible. I try to do lives. I try to let my personality show as much as I can. Like I feel like rap be too serious sometimes. So, you know, I just try to let my personality shine. Cause I think that's one of the biggest pieces that has helped me with building this community. I'm a fine motherfucker who likes to rap about and sing about all the same shit we all going through every day. You know what I'm saying? What would you say to people that relate to you? Kind of what's their vibe? What do they believe in? I think they believe in just being better for themselves. You know what I'm saying? That was probably the biggest thing. I feel like everybody who's ever came to one of my shows or seen me perform live. One of the things that I always hear synonymous over every comment is like, bro, I remember where I was when I heard your music. This is what I was going through. And when I bumped this song, it helped me get through that moment. And that's been the piece that has linked every single fan of my music. I don't even like to call them fans cause it's honestly be a big ass giant family and shit. But like that piece being like, hey, your music got me through a really hard point in my life or I played this when I celebrated a really big win. That's been the piece. Like everybody's trying to be better. You trying to be better, you trying to be better. Y'all trying to be better. Like we all trying to be better in some capacity. And if my music can be a home for people or even just show people that it can get better, it's a win, you know what I'm saying? And I live on that. I don't mind. I don't mind being transparent about the things I'm going through. I don't mind telling my story because at the end of the day, like my industry ain't no different than y'all industry. Y'all industry ain't no different than the person who's working in 95. We all just trying to reach that next height for ourselves. Yeah, got you. Okay. So a couple of moments ago, you said that the community building stuff is done more from you than any industry co-sign, any industry connect. Absolutely. But 2023, Chris Patrick does have an industry co-sign and does have an industry connect. Yeah, got some cool shit, buddy. Can you talk about like when that started to happen for you? Like when was the moment that you realized like how I actually am breaking through into the, I guess the more serious side of the music industry? You know, it's crazy. I still feel like I still got my work to do but I feel like as I started to pop out and people started to, like I got a lot of favorite rappers right now. When I started linking with some of my favorite rappers and they telling me like, yo, you shit hard. Like I know who you are. I tell you shit. I was like, oh shit, that's fire to me. Like I couldn't even believe that shit. Cause for me, I'm sure for y'all too, we kind of work in a place, we work in a space where our head is always down. We don't always look up. And by the time you look up, you're not even in the same space shooting anymore. Like you're not even in the same space you used to be in. I remember 2020, I'm, you know, I told you this before, 2019, 2020, I'm in the crib writing raps, getting songs, watching y'all videos. And 2023, here the fuck we are. And I'm in one of y'all videos, fuck what y'all heard, bitch. You know what I'm saying? Like that's crazy as fuck to me. But it's like, you know, I just, I still feel like I gotta, I still feel like I gotta put some work in. It is crazy though when folks say like, Hey, I know who you are. I had a funny runner with a Ibrahim, a co-manager one time. We was trying to, I was trying to get into some party with the homies and here in LA. And my manager at the time was like, yo, that's E bruh. And I'm drunk as hell. I'm like bruh, I can't go talk no E right now. I'm drunk. What if I slur my words? He like, nah, bruh, get it the fuck together. Go talk to E. So I walked over to him and I was just like, hey, what's up E? I'm like, Chris Patrick. I'm an artist from New Jersey. Blah, blah, blah. He like, what's going on? They got to know who you are, bruh. You hard. And in that moment for me, I was just like, oh shit, you know who the fuck I am? That's crazy. But like, you know, again, it is dope to see folks, you know, know who I am, but it still don't feel like it yet. Like I still feel like I'm a rookie in the league. Try and put these numbers up. Like I don't know when motherfuckers realize this is a bad example, but a good example. I don't know when motherfuckers realize John Morant was that guy, but like, you know, I feel like that. I feel like I got all this talent and shit, but I still got to cultivate that shit into a better way for motherfuckers to realize I'm him. Yeah, I got to. What does that look like for you because like you talked about that Pokemon moment, right? You didn't even want to do it because you didn't want to be boxed in, but you did do it. Obviously you're not boxed in right now. Like did you have to intentionally escape that box or was it really not that big of a deal when you think about it back and then? I think when I look back on it, I was so pressed over that moment in my head because I was thinking like, how would I be perceived? But looking back on it, it doesn't really matter. Like I am what I present myself to the world, you know what I'm saying? Like if I'm presenting myself as a rapper, I'm a rapper and I don't really care about the labels at the end of the day. Like I know I'm better than niggas. Like it's not even like me trying to be cocky, but I'm very confident in my talent and my journey and my direction of where I'm going that I don't think a label or a box is confining enough. For me, when I think about what it looks like, I think it's more so just people acknowledging the cohesion over, I think it's the cohesion mixed with the versatility. Once people can acknowledge that I'm one of the greatest at that, that's when I think I'll be satisfied. But I still got more work to do. I got more shit to prove to people, more shit to show. You know what I'm saying? Again, I feel like a rookie in the league. I'm excited about this. I respect everybody who has come before me, but at the same time, I do want to kill too. So it's like, I still got more, I got more to do to prove that to everybody and myself. You know what I'm saying? I know I'm him, but I still want to give my own accolades going with this shit too. Yeah, I'll prove it a little bit more. Absolutely. I'm competitive in nature. Like I was an athlete. So in my mind, I do a good job of breaking it down. It's like, okay, as a person, I know I'm on the right path to do shit, but as an athlete, I still want to go out here and hit the milestones too. You know what I'm saying? Okay, talk more about the tour. Cause I know I caught you on the tour with Dende. Yeah. And then you did your own tour, right? Yeah. So it's two tours y'all set up in a year. Let's talk about that, bro. What was that like? So the tour I had initially did, it was a four city tour. It was really, really cool. Sold out majority of that shit. I think Atlanta was the only one we missed, right? Again, it come back to community building. I knew at the time, so Rewind, I got the idea actually when we was watching Brent Fias. Brent Fias initially started by looking at all his Spotify metrics and tried to figure out how to plot his tour and shit. Here I am, little Chris, trying to figure out how to do the same shit. We just followed the same thing. Went to Spotify and saw which cities were the most poppin' for all the music that I was fuckin' with. And it was Chicago, New York, Atlanta and LA. Now, prior to that, I had did one tour with my dog, Grip. Shout out, Grip, took me on my first tour ever. We had hit cities like New York, Chicago and LA. We sold out in New York, Chicago and LA. Atlanta, we came close. I truly believe the only reason why we missed Atlanta was because we had never had any history or footprint in that city prior to that before. So with this tour, it was really, really dope because we got to see whether our ideas between community building and the vision for what we had would come together and it damn sure did, you know what I'm sayin'? LA, turn that shit up. New York, turn that shit up. Atlanta, turn that shit up. It just came down to like really honing in on where the community was at. Like at this stage in my career, I kinda just see it as like a leveling up process. Like okay, cool. We did four cities at this cap size that we sold out. Now the next goal is to try to do bigger caps in those cities again and then also open it up to more cities that we hadn't hit before. It's just about really just watching those metrics and then just building upon them, you know what I'm sayin'? Then they doin' the same shit with his tour. They kind of labeled like he basically set up the cities based on his community. Like we don't run away from what works or where we see it work and we go straight to it. I feel like a lot of times artists tend to run away from what works for them, but you gotta go out what works for you. Okay, so one of the most important things that artists have to realize, if you truly become a brand, then everybody that buys from you no longer has to be a fan. I know that sounds mind boggling. You have people buy from you who support your career, who support your movement that aren't even fans, but the truth is regular businesses do this every single day and that's how we had this realization that we then began to capitalize off of with our artists. And if you wanna see this for yourself, I'll show you for completely free. If you go to www.nolabelsnecessary.com slash monetize, you have to put in www. And if you're on YouTube, you can find it in the description somewhere. So just go there and I'll show you the massive paradigm shift that we had that allowed us to start to help our artists monetize their audience way faster. While increasing the amount of people that they can monetize at the same time, so basically a lot more money, you know what I'm saying? So check it out, www.nolabelsnecessary.com slash monetize while it's completely free to check out back to the conversation. I've always wanted to, man, because I'm looking at your, cause Crossroads is not a label, right? Is it more of like a management company? Yeah, a management company, CXI, yes sir. Yeah, so you, from what I've seen looking into you and then they are kind of like the flagship artists, are y'all competitive in any way? Because of that? Fuck it. Absolutely, absolutely, absolutely. Oh my God, I can't even tell you how competitive me and him get. It's like unspoken, that's my best friend. So like we go at it and stuff like that. And we joke all the time, but when it comes to making music, bro, that shit is crazy. I remember hearing, I remember he heard X-Files and was like, yo, I gotta get my shit right. I'm gonna fucking drop fucking EP in a very stellar album. And I'm over here like, all right, cool, you don't raise the bar for me. So now I gotta go back and get crazy, but in this, I don't know like toxic shit. Like, oh, I got to kill, bro, but it's just like, you know, I respect his artistry. I respect him as a person. I respect everything that he's doing. I respect everything he's creating as he's paving the way for himself. And it's like, as his brother, you know, I want to be able to match that same energy too. You know what I'm saying? And again, like, when John Morant was off, he had Desmond Bain. This is so funny how I'm using John Morant. Niggas be telling me I look like Joc. So this is great. But when John Morant was having bad days, Desmond Bain stepped up, killed shit, you know what I'm saying? That's just how it go. And that's ultimately going to help make what we're building grow and to be something greater. Like, you only as strong as your weakest link. And if somebody's slacking off, you want to make sure you get on them. Like, watching Dende's work has taught me how to make better songs as a rapper. You know what I'm saying? Like, one thing that rap need is great songs. Watching him and show me that shit. So like, you know, I just been pouring more of my time into that. Like, he's a great person to learn from, a great person to work with and a great person to work against as we building in this motherfucker. Like, I kind of think we got the idea from Earth Gang and Jay. Watching them go back and forth and shit crazy. Yeah, let's see a point though, it's an advantage because like I said, if you're having an off, I don't know, let's say you like me, I just want to step back, make some music, take a little bit off then. Like, then they can carry it away for a little bit. Yeah. And then y'all switch. Straight off. And then when y'all both ready to come out at the same time, then Crossroads as a whole is just an extra get. Yeah, bro, that's, yo, I swear to you, that's literally how we've been looking at it. Like, even to the point where like, so sometimes we see things that are happening further down the line. Like, Janice Minow did their co-head line to her. That was fire as fuck. I got to be a part of that shit for a little bit. And I got to watch that shit. It was cool. I was on the Nashville show. That was fire as fuck. We started thinking, I said, like, what if we do the same shit? What if, what if me and then they release a project and then we do our own version of that? Who said we can't do that shit? It's going to help build the community. Everybody's going to come out. We probably going to sell them dates out. Like, we think in the same way. We're just trying to build this shit up. We're trying to build the movement of CXR up to an even bigger level. So we'll just step by step, you know what I'm saying? That's it, bro. Yeah, man. I wish I had everybody here, man. Cause like the way y'all have been telling me about how y'all are like building, I don't know if I can talk about it out loud. Yeah. Like a lot of the media stuff y'all are doing, man. Oh yeah, we crazy. We crazy. We're not cases, bro. Because thinking about it like this, like I think one of the things that helped for a lot of folks who were having their come up in the pandemic was we all on phones. We all looking at our shit. What else are we going to do? We can literally create the narrative that we want to create and build for ourselves. Obviously a lot of what we've been building has been authentic to ourselves, but we've literally done everything in our power to make sure we solidify the conversation and talking points. Like obviously you know how we've been operating and shit, but like it makes sense. Like I'm a rapper. I know who they compare me to. I know who they say I'm similar to shit. Let's build that conversation. Let's build that. Let's start that up. And then obviously as I branch away from that shit, it just works. Like not giving out too much detail, but you see how they, who they be comparing me to. And then you see me around these motherfucking like, it's a full circle moment too. You know what I'm saying? I don't know why that should happen, but this whole thing is about creating a legacy and creating a story and building something that everybody could be a part of. That's the biggest thing. I'm big on inclusivity. I don't like exclusivity. I like everybody to be a part of this journey as well because we all try and grow to be crazy. If you see the random motherfucking that you've never heard of who worked at Best Buy start to make his way up in that shit. Everybody going to want to be a part of that shit. Everybody wants to be able to achieve their dreams. There's a lot of people who want to do what we're doing who can't. And we're giving them the outlet and giving them the ability to, maybe they may not reach it, but they can see their dreams being lived. They're living through it vicariously. And that's an important responsibility that I just feel in my head, we have to keep upholding as we move this journey along for a, for a. Yeah, got you, got you. Okay. How do you do collaboration with other artists? I like it organic. You know what I'm saying? I've always been a people's person. I like to pull up on people and just hang out and stuff like that. Like I've hung out with so many people in this past week and just not made no music. And that's cool with me. Cause it's like at the same time, I can't make good music with people I don't really know all that well. Like I'd rather get to know folks. There are times where some great shit does happen. Sometimes, you know what I'm saying? But it's way cooler when you know folks. Like when you got that relationship with people, it always makes the music sound better. Like me and them, they got a really good relationship. It's like, when we get in the booth together, we know exactly what we're trying to accomplish. It's not even like we wasting time trying to make me and shit. We try to make great shit just cause we, you know, we know each other very well. I think as artists, as we are moving through this, it is important to get to know the people you want to work with. Not even jumping at the first chance to get a feature or to get a first, they just get to know these people. Cause you might get a feature, and they might be a terrible ass person versus linking that person and realizing they're even a greater individual. It's like, fuck, if we work, we work. If we don't, we don't. It don't even matter. You're just a great fucking person. You know what I'm saying? Like one of my homies, Dr. Murph game. We got a couple of records together, but that's a great person. Fuck it if we ever had any songs together. That's just a great dude all around. You know what I'm saying? And I just appreciate the friendship more than anything. Records are gonna come when they come, you know what I'm saying? But that's a great person. Dende, even if we ain't had no records, that's my brother. Great person. Jordan Ward, another guy. Great dude all the way around. We don't get no records, that's mine. He's just a great, just great person. You know what I'm saying? But I definitely think what collabing should be, something that just happens organically, something that's seamless, something that should be forced. Cause when it's forced, you can almost feel it sometimes. Oh my God, like it's crazy when you think about it, but like I've listened to records before where you can almost tell where folks ain't been in the same room or have that relationship. It don't sound like a diss record, but it's almost like a fuck you. Like I didn't really care for this too much. You know what I'm saying? But you, as an artist and knowing how much I put in this, I can hear that shit. And you know, you can tell when it's not like, why it's authentic. Yeah, but wasn't that like a, that was a basketball player that we complained about. He bought a burst from some big rapper. Oh no, that was a football player. A football player. I'd have been in Levy on bail and he said, what's the baby's guy? Oh, the light skinned dude. Stunner? Stunner. Stunner. And it might have been Money Bag. Money Bag, yeah. And he was just like, basically they phoned it in and he just never put the songs out. Yeah. Yeah, be like that. You might not feel that shit. You know what I'm saying? That shit is tricky, man. But it really is important to get to know people and stuff like that. Cause at the same time, when I, when I collaborate with you, it's not even like I'm just one person that I'm investing in you as a person too. You're investing in me as a person. Like we might as well get to know each other to know what we're about to be a part of together. Cause our legacies are both tied into this shit. Let's say that shit is a hit. We tied together forever. We locked in twin. Like, you know what I'm saying? So it's like, it's cool to get to know these people. It's just interesting though. Cause I think from, from the artist perspective, it's relationship building from let's say the labels perspective is, is marketing. And then from the fans perspective, it's just like cool to see artists you like link up. Even if they all like, we've learned later that y'all don't like each other behind the scenes. So like, do you ever feel the label side of it and the fans side of it conflicting with like your, you wanting to build a personal relationship first? Like, do you ever feel that pool is to make something with somebody you don't have a relationship with because you know it could be a good marketing app because you know your fans would like to see it or something like that. Um, no, not really. I like, I look at it like this. Like, I think I've cultivated a fan base that's understanding of just patience and just, hey, we gonna give y'all the best shit ever. When it's time to give you all the stuff that y'all hoping for is gonna happen. And I feel like the time it takes for something like that to happen makes the moment so much sweeter when it finally hits. Like, imagine you ask for, imagine you say, yo, I want a billion dollars and I give you a billion dollars tomorrow. You're gonna appreciate that billion dollars, but if you worked for that a billion dollars and it came over a long time, that shit gonna, I mean, granted, if I gave you a billion dollars, we still turned the fuck up. Like, we, we all saw it. Like, what'd you do? Spend like a million in shit, clown type shit. We could be in wherever tomorrow. Like, we could be in. Hey, we might lose it. That's the problem though. Exactly. You know me, it's not as sweet. You don't really feel that shit, but like when you work for some shit and it hits over time, it's like, ah, man. Like, imagine, and this does happen, imagine 500 month fuckers when they go edit somebody to say, yo, work with Chris Patrick. They don't even feel authentic at that point. Versus like working into that space and getting into that room and having that moment. It's just like, damn, it feels better for me. It feels better for the fans watching and fuck whatever the label's talking about. But, you know, that's really what it come down to at the end of the day. Like, we all gotta be able to see this whole cycle roll, you know what I'm saying? Like, I remember, I remember, you know, being a fan of Jig, you know, like, waiting for that moment, he got his record with Cole. And then he got all these and it's like, fuck. That's crazy, like, oh, shit, you know what I'm saying? Like, or just like, even, let me see who's another one that I was really, really, really, really stoked about. Oh, recently, just happened, Coco Jones with the ICU with Justin. That's fire. That was cold. That's cold as fuck, like, wow. Cause I remember they did the end of time joint with her and Leon Thomas. And that shit was fire. And then, boom, here we are. I don't know if that was a player or nothing, but that's fire as fuck to watch. Imagine if he just jumped out of the gate and hopped on it. It would have been like, okay, that's cool. But like, to watch those steps, that's important, bruh. Everybody wants to see the process. Watching like LeBron James not win nothing in Ohio, then going to the heat, winning shit, and then coming back to Ohio. That's fucking fire. Yeah, it would have been fire if he won that shot the gate, but still, that's fire. We love a great journey, bruh. Everybody love the long route. So I'm cool with taking my time. I don't ever feel pressured from nobody for real. Not no more, at least. I think I used to, but I think I'm getting, I know myself very well. I don't move at nobody else's time. I move on my own time, and I just know everything takes time for real. Yeah, so what was the connecting point for you with that? Because you're right, right, like, I don't think a lot of artists realize that sometimes we are equally, if not more invested in the story than the music sometimes. And like you said, like, it's usually not a story out the gate, like it takes time to build a story. So what was that kind of like light bulb moment for you with that? Man, I got a couple. I ain't gonna lie, I got a couple of crazy ass stories. I was working at Best Buy, and I was in my homegirl career, and I got a, somebody tagged me in some posts, talking about some, yo, you should work with Chris Patrick. You should work with Chris Patrick. And this is this random dude from Atlanta named Beyonce Hitchcock, who I had no idea who this was. Bro ended up linking me, ended up creating an amazing joint flow out to Atlanta. We made a song called Typical Shit. That was one of my first ever songs that got playlisted on Spotify. That was fucking amazing for me. I had a really cool moment with, you know, even since 80s camp, like I had a really cool moment with like the whole jazz shit, like Phantom Bro, to even have that moment where I was able to open up a Nashville. As a full circle moment, like everybody know, like, I don't, you know, been a fan of them, Earth Gang, all that shit, like to see that shit happen is really, really dope. I've had a lot of moments like that where it's just like the hard working itself has paid off and shown dividends. And it's so much cooler to watch it happen over time. Like, again, I don't lie about this shit. I came from Best Buy, bro. I was rapping, I had a vision to make music from Best Buy. I just kind of, like, my story essentially is I just wanted to be, I just wanted to do the shit I love for once and not do the shit that everybody was telling me to do. And to watch doing what I love, bring me to places I never thought I'd be. It's amazing, bro. It's amazing. I feel like that's been the thing. Watching these full circle moments happen that I've probably tweeted about years ago or even spoke to people about it. Watching them happen is crazy, bro. I can't remember how many people hit me the day after that Nashville show where you didn't see me and I was like, bro, you really did this shit. Like, you really set your mind out and did this shit. Whole time I'm just like, bro, thank you, but like, I know I got more to go. But again, for the fans watching and everybody who's supporting this shit, it's something that they too have been dreaming about. Wanting to see happen. How does that feel? You always think about people achieving something in that feeling themselves. But to have other people, you know, like be happy and not just like, oh, congratulations, but almost feel like, yeah, you almost helped them achieve a dream, like you said. How does it feel to know you got people on a long journey that they feel like they're living on what with you? It's really beautiful. I feel like as we move through this path a lot of the time, I know for myself personally, I've always been with myself. I get the sensitized to a lot of this stuff. I'm a head down type of person. I just want to keep working. I want to keep working. I want to keep working. But when somebody hits me and says like, bro, I've been watching you since 2017 when you only had mix tapes on SoundCloud and you just opened up for them at this show in Nashville, it grounds me again. And it really makes me sit back and remind myself of like, damn, this is a long time journey, you know what I'm saying? Like, I don't cry over shit, you know what I'm saying? I'll be in my bag when I don't cry over shit. All them text messages kind of made me cry cause it made me realize like, damn, we did come a long ass way and it is fire. And again, it makes me feel like, you know, obviously I don't owe anybody anything, but it makes me really cherish the responsibility I have to keep this shit moving. Because again, there are a lot of people who may not be able to do the things that they want to do in life, but if me doing what I'm doing is opening, you know, if it's giving them a chance to just feel a level of happiness and bliss, bro, let's keep it going. Let's keep building this shit. Let's keep being great. Let's keep doing this shit because again, I might at the moment not be all that excited about a win, but somebody else that I might have not even met is getting them through their days. Fuck it, let's keep going, let's keep doing it. Like literally, it really is amazing. It does make me feel like really grounded. And again, just to sum it all up, I know I have a responsibility to keep this shit going and keeping it transparent with people because again, I'm helping people get through their days every day. Like, I had Cole helping me get through when I was coming up. It's crazy to think I'm doing that for somebody else. There's an interesting paradigm that you just said, not owing anybody anything, but still having a responsibility. What's that mean to you? I think that's the journey of manhood in general. Like, we don't owe anything to anybody, but I feel like, especially as black men, bro, we have a responsibility at least paid the way for the people after us. And I kind of just take those same messages that my pops gave me and I transcend it to everything I do in this industry. Like, even though I'm in this for myself and I'm with my guys and we working this shit up, there's still a kid out there who is just like me in school listening to my music thinking, like, yeah, it's gonna be okay. We gonna figure this shit out. We gonna, we have a dream and we could eventually get there. Like, I remember when dollar and a dream drop, I'm playing Call of Duty thinking, like, damn, this motherfucker talking. Like, you know, like, not dollar and dream silent story. I'm listening to dollar and a dream three and I'm just like, damn, this motherfucker really talking to me. And I'm in motherfucking seventh grade hearing this shit. Like, even though I don't own nobody, I have a responsibility to keep this shit going. Just keep upholding myself in the best way possible because it's then you're paving away for people. Like, who knows where my journey ends? Like, who knows where my journey ends? All I can say is that, you know, eventually down the line, nigga Cole gonna realize he influenced a nigga like me to influence another nigga who might change the world. It's just how it go. We just vessels for this shit. So as long as I continue to uphold being a vessel to the highest and just keeping the vibes positive, who knows what comes next? You know what I'm saying? Like, y'all could be inspiring the next great genius filmmaker right now. You never know. You could have had somebody seen. I saw y'all videos build my shit around y'all. You see how this shit all just come together? We have a responsibility to at least be our best version so we can influence the next people because it comes back to us in ways we don't even realize. One of the greatest quotes I think I ever read was, we have to plant seeds for trees that we might never feel the shade of. That's how that shit go. You feel me? That shit. I told y'all because I'm pulling with that shit, baby. I literally, man. But as, you know, I feel like we just gotta, we have a job in this motherfucker to just keep pushing good vibes for the next man through. How do you look at, do you consider yourself an optimist or a pessimist? I consider myself, I consider myself as a man just trying to be realistic about life. I don't really lean too far optimist. I don't lean too far to the happy side. I don't lean too far to the negative side. I think all of those shits make me a very well-rounded person, but I'm realistic too. It's like, if I'm sad right now, I gotta do everything in my power to remove myself from that space. And if I'm too happy, I gotta also be self-aware of how quickly things can change. And with that mindset, it always keeps me on my toes. It always keeps me in a space where, you know, we gotta keep the ball rolling. Cause I feel like when you lean too far one way, you miss so many things, you know what I'm saying? I try to stay as well-rounded as I can. I try to, you know, me and my guys, you do the same shit too. We don't ever get too high. We don't ever get too low. We going through shit right now, you know what I'm saying? But we balance that shit out by just keeping the work moving. And when we get too high, we always pull ourselves down and be like, hey, keep the work going. And I think that's important, you know what I'm saying? Like, as I'm developing in this shit, there's never a time at least for me to just, oh, I'm gonna kick my feet up and chill and shit. Like, nah, we gotta keep this ball rolling. Keep this shit going because there's still more things I gotta do. I do keep a positive energy about me though, cause I don't never want people around me to ever feel down and stuff like that. But truthfully, I just realistically push myself forward. I'm like, all right, I got a dream. I don't like Best Buy. I hate this shit. Cool. Either I'm gonna stay here or I'm gonna figure it out. It's that simple to me. And I just told to figure it out. And I realistically moved my life through that. You know what I'm saying? I think it's pretty easy, you know, for the most part. Thinking back to the Best Buy moment, the Pokemon song, right? Like you said, there was something you didn't want to do. Or you didn't feel like it was right. It worked out for you. Has that changed the way you view certain opportunities now? Like, do you look at certain things and be like, hey, even if I don't necessarily feel like this is where I could find value from it, or do you still go 80, 90% off of how you feel about the opportunity? It really, now, so me, I do it all feeling. My dog, you know what I'm saying? He be like, hey, bro, do this make sense? What do we do with this for? Do it make sense? And I think it's sometimes about finding the balance between that. Like, I know I could be a hard ass sometimes. I'm thinking, no, no, you know, like I could be a hard ass at times. But it's like, you know, if it makes sense, we gonna do it. But if I feel some shit strongly, I'm gonna do it too. You know what I'm saying? That's just how it is. I don't really put too much stock into it. Obviously, when it comes to the marketing and brand and shit, that's they bag, you know what I'm saying? I'm never gonna go against that. But a lot of times I do things based on feeling. People have sent me songs before and I'm like, hey, I really like this. Fuck everything else, let's do the song. And I learned that from a nigga like Deontay. Deontay just fucked with the song. It was like, hey, I'm gonna do this. Again, paying it forward. So for me, I just based it on feel. There are some times where it's like, okay, we definitely not gonna do that because that don't make no sense. Like, you know, me going to the Pornhub Commission, that might not make no sense for me. Shit. That's just a random example. That's like really super far. I've never been about the Pornhub Commission, you know what I'm saying? But that's like super far right. But yeah, I just, you know, if it feels right, I'll do it. And if it makes sense, I'll definitely do it for sure. Does it ever come flip? Ah, nah, usually when, hmm, has it ever been a moment where shit conflicted? Nah, I'm a pretty easy going person. Like, things make sense to me. I don't ever, I'm no super hard ass or shit like that. I kind of like, okay, can I see this making sense? Can I see where this goes on the line? For sure, let's do it. And then there are times where it's like, okay, that really don't make sense. Let's just stay far away from it. But most times I could feel that in my gut too. I just trust that a lot of times. Yeah. I'm not speaking too fast. Let me know, man. I had Jersey shit, I'm sorry. No, you're good, man. You're perfect, bro. You gonna keep them entertained. Yeah, sir, it's gonna be up. Yo, man. Oh, Christ. I'm sure you've seen it. It's a- That's my shit. I made a sugar spice connect a lot of cinnamon. Me and my bestie, we the same. We like- Yo, I love that shit. We gonna keep you in his estate, you know what I'm saying? If any of you remember, I'm here. But man, what I wanted to ask you, man, is like a really interesting conversation in the rap space over the last, at least like three weeks or so, has been one, we didn't see a number one rap album until, I guess, Uzi, technically. Yeah, that's right. But before Uzi, we hadn't seen it. We started to create the narrative that rap, specifically hip hop focus rap is starting to die. It's dead. Yeah, it's dead. Or is dead, yeah. So you are a rising hip hop artist. You are someone that's building in the space, making momentum in the space. How do you feel about that conversation? Do you feel like there's some merit to it? Or do you feel like it's just, I don't know, maybe people just not paying attention to the right spaces or something. Folks not paying attention, bro. And really not paying attention. Like, I don't think hip hop did. I think right now we living in a space where virality is taking a little bit of a front seat to everything that's going on. R&B's having a really good space right now because for a while, folks were saying R&B was dead, but it just took a lot of time. There's a lot of bacon artists rising it. You know what I'm saying? They having a moment right now. Like, motherfuckers is getting back to taking their shirts off and crying in the rain, but they showed he like, we back today. You know what I'm saying? But it took time to get back here. And even with rap, it's the same shit. Like, you got Suave, Ben Riley, Marco Plus, Saab, Joseph Chilliams, Tree Novi, Wakai, myself, Noski, damn, I could name like a thousand motherfuckers right now who going super crazy, fresh. Damn, I got motherfuckers on top of my head. There's just so many rappers right now that like, I see in the top of my, Domani, Ruben Vincent, Ray Vaughn, Deontay Hitchcock. Like, there's niggas off the top of my head as I keep thinking about our coming up in this shit. And it just takes time. Like, everybody's talking about our biggest rap album or whatever. You know, it was Uzi shit, but like, nobody talking about what Gia did with the fabric story. Like, that nigga slowly building his shit up to a point where when eventually he dropped, it's gonna beat him, you and I say, everybody's like, oh shit, da da da, but it don't happen overnight. It takes time, bro. It takes time and it takes consistency and it takes putting shit out and it takes being present and creating worlds for people to fall into. Like, Cole ain't just wake up as Cole. Kendrick ain't just wake up as Kendrick. It took time to get there. And the whole rap is dead shit is cool, but like, it's only like that because nobody's willing to appreciate the journey of artists right now. Everybody wants to finish fucking product. Everybody wants to finish fucking product. Like, I love Coco Jones, but that's a product in work. She had to get to where she was, you know what I'm saying? I hope motherfuckers don't like try to put no crazy expectation on her, but that took time too, you know what I'm saying? Somebody like Jordan Ward took time, bro. It takes time to get to these places. And right now we're just in a space where maybe, maybe, maybe, maybe right now it may not seem like we got no leaders, but they there, they there, they coming. They on the way. Like, there's a lot of niggas right now leading the forefront. Like, we gotta give Vince Sables more flowers. We gotta give Jim more flowers. We gotta give me Jenkins more flowers. Like, there's so many max niggas right now that's going crazy for us to be saying rap is dead, or at least this lane of hip hop is dead. Like, nah, these niggas are nice. And I think they're getting better with time. The songs are getting better. The shit we're talking about is getting better. Like, back in the day, the conscious motherfuckers wanted to talk about the hoes. They talking about the hoes now for show. They talking about them. Kenny Mason, like, there's a lot of, I'm just keep rattling off niggas as we go through this motherfucker. But like, there's so many raw motherfuckers. Topaz Jones, there's so many raw motherfuckers coming up in that shit. And for people to say rap is dead, we just not paying attention. Like, if you just look, you're gonna see it. But what's gonna happen is in about two, three years it's gonna be an abundance of us. And everybody's gonna be like, oh, rap is back and alive. And it's like, bruh, it's been like this since 2023, shut up. Like, I don't think people realize how many great rap albums dropped last year. There was so many phenomenal albums. Like, didn't Tyler drop last year on Trippin? Or was that a year before? I think it was a year before. I think it was a year before. That's a boom. Tyler kicked that shit off. You got Saaba dropping on some wavy shit. Me drop some wavy shit. Jid drop some wavy shit. Kenny drop some shit. I drop some shit. Marco Plus drop some shit. Ben Riley had a fucking moments while they drop some shit. Like, everybody was dropping last year. There's a lot of up and coming niggas. And maybe niggas don't know their names now, but in two, three years, everybody gonna know their names. Niggas nice. So here's the only pushback to that, right? I do a lot of times when they have that conversation, they're speaking at the most pop level. Yeah, for sure. See, I'm credit, these people are on, you know, they're about to take the reins for the years to still be nurtured. Why do you think we have that gap though right now? It's a hibernation moment. Like, as a rapper, I feel like there's a desire to wanna prove yourself. There's a desire to wanna show my fuck as we can rap. It's the training ground. That's how it goes. Once we get over that shit, good songs start getting created. You know what I'm saying? It's the process of this shit. Cole was rapping crazy as fuck, gunning his shit off. My fucking game was working out. It might not have been a song that was appreciated at the moment, but that shit did a lot for just, culture of trying to move this shit forward. Look at Drake, you know what I'm saying? Like, it takes time to get there. Maybe right now we ain't got it, but it's coming, it's coming, it's coming. It's well on its way. Like, again, I hate to reuse the example, but like, look at what Jid never story sounded like to what the forever story sounded like. There's a lot of growth from him just being a rapper to him being a rap superstar. Nigga make songs. Nigga had the Imagine Dragons shit that's like one of the biggest joints in the world. Like that nigga is paving away for this shit too. You know what I'm saying? Vince Staples moving from a space of just rapping to creating soundtracks that are being synced. Like we in this shit, Earth Gang, creating generational joints that are literally synced. Crazy, like, you know what I'm saying? Just take time to get there. Maybe we're not there right now, but folks are developing and getting right to get to that space. You played on a differentiation a couple times here. I would love to know, what's the difference between just a rapping and making great songs? But you said you had to learn how to make that. Yeah, I did. I could wrap my ass off, but you know, Strong Hooks, like since the dawn of time, Strong Hooks has been a thing. I wanted two of my dolls that I really fucked with. I can't say they name, because they gonna blame me. They know who they are though, but I went over to they crib in Atlanta and they was telling me like, man, why you always want to sing all your fucking hooks? Why don't you never just put a woman on that shit? You know what I'm saying? Why don't you do that? Like that since the dawn of time. Look at Why Lay. Why Lay was making great songs, writing these 16s and having women sing hooks. And they went crazy. Shout out Barry and Zeke, by the way. I don't know why I'm not saying that. You know how that goes. But it's like, you know, they were putting women on songs and making them hook strong. Like if we want to get to that level where as rap superstars and we want, like if we want to get to that level where we want to take over the world again with rap, we got to start going back to the way it's traditionally been done since the dawn of time. Like we can't run away from the formulas. Let's get back to making good songs. We all can rap. Everybody can rap. We all can rap if y'all want to, you know what I'm saying? But good songs really do separate a lot. Like look at Kendrick's story. Like, Good Kid Mad City. Incredible, incredible, incredible raps. Damn, incredible songs. Great raps on there too, but them songs are so cohesive and well-structured. There's a reason why that motherfucker has won so many different awards and been critically acclaimed. Good songs rule the world. Rap is for like, you know, us as we grow up in this ship of good songs, bro. Take over the fucking world, man. That shit is deep, right, for real. Great songs have literally like, let me think of a great song that really, think about Bad Bunny. I don't even know what Bad Bunny be saying. Great songs though. Shit took over. Shorty be shaking the ass to that shit. I can't knock that. I don't know what he's saying, but great songs, generational shit. Michael Jackson, generational. Beyonce made generational music. Great songs. If we wanna, as rappers, wanna compete with the heavy hitters, we gotta make great songs. And then once we make great songs, we make amazing songs. That's it. It's that simple. We really wanna get back to like, rap is not dead. We wanna get back to the big three, powerhouse conversation. We gotta make great fucking songs. Jack Harlow, throw up that jeans, center that ass, center that ass. And I don't remember the words, but great songs. If we can get back great songs, that whole rap is dead conversation. Won't even be a thing no more, bruh. That's it. I'm trying to compete. So let's make great songs. Please fellas, let's make great songs. And shout out to the women too. The women are smoking shit right now. They're having a moment right now because they're making great fucking songs. Like, you know what she say? My pussy pink booty whole brown. I don't even know the song, but that shit go crazy. He do go ahead and finish the bars. Ah! Put it on the floor. Like, laughing to the bank. Shit is not a joke. Imaginary prop, like, come on. Like, we gotta get back to making great songs. Ice Spice, great songs. If we can make great songs, we can take rap back to the levels of the glory days. Like, everybody was fucking saying it was back in early 2000s and shit. Like, niggas hate on ludicrous. Great fucking songs. What we talking about? Great fucking songs, man. That's it. I'm laughing at you, bro. Oh, you're saying you finish that shit? Yeah, bro, like, they been trying to demean my sexy rap fandom for the last time. Today, I appreciate it. Listen, I hear you, like, I hear you. You don't even catch me out singing that shit, but I hear you, though. Hey, you always gotta, you know, you gotta give everybody a hard time, man. Absolutely. You gotta give everybody a hard time about songs, right? Yeah, I expect you. She saying I'm not good enough, done them all, done all that shit that I shouldn't. She understand I'm just wondering, like, come on, man. I feel you, like, fucking, bro. We gotta, we gotta get back to that, though. We gotta get back to good vibes and shit. Cause we don't got no, we don't got no anthems like that. We got future, future holding us down. But we're future and Drake holding us down. 21 holding us down, but we need some more. We need more. Too much weight on our back. Yeah, man, we gotta take that shit off, man. Like, brah, brah, getting old. Drake not getting old, Drake getting crazy. Drake getting crazy. I swear to God, Drake getting crazier. But, like, eventually, we gotta have somebody come in and take the mantle and it starts by, like, obviously studying the games, understanding the greats, and then applying that to what we do. Not everybody gotta be a Drake, but we can all make good songs. You know what I'm saying? Not everybody gotta be a Cole. That's another thing too. Like, we're not gonna get another Drake. We're not gonna get another Cole. We're not gonna get another Kendrick. That's just how it goes. But it's not for the reasons everybody thinks, oh, we're not gonna get another Kendrick because X, Y, Z. I mean, Kendrick is Kendrick. Bro, he grew up where he grew up. I'm Chris Patrick. I grew up where I grew up. If I'm gonna be the next nigga, of course I'm not gonna be the next Kendrick. Nigga, I'm gonna be the next me. Like, there is a next coming. We just have to be open-minded to what that new shit looks like. And it'll be undeniable. When it hits, we gonna know. But we gotta just be open-minded to what the next looks like. Yeah, yeah, yeah, of course. We're not gonna get the next Drake. But we're gonna get a nigga who's nice too, who's not Drake, but has a level of impact that will be unrivaled. That we'll be able to appreciate when it's all said and done. You know what I'm saying? I love that. I love that. As a final question, man, I would love to know, what do you think, no, I'll say it this way, what does the term no labels mean to you? Um, cause I feel like you went no labels. You could be a part of a label and still be no labels. I think no labels is limitless. I think it's limitless in everything. It's limitless in creativity, limitless in the way that you move, limitless in the way that you present yourself. As people, we are ever changing. We're not just one thing. I woke up as Chris Patrick today, but the Chris Patrick I woke up as today will not be the Chris Patrick tomorrow because the Chris Patrick would have grown by then. You know what I'm saying? It's limitless. And we have to be open to the idea of us being like water. We're formless. We have the ability to grow and change with no labels. Again, live your life under the guise that you can be whoever you want to be. You can push for whatever you want to push for. It just takes a matter of you believing in that. Like, if the idea is, I'm gonna be an astronaut someday. Who the fuck telling me I can't? Like, who's gonna tell me I can't do that? If I put the work in, I'm eventually gonna get there. I didn't think when I was back at Best Buy that I'd be sitting here with y'all having watched our videos when I was in college. Y'all, I remember specifically, I was in my fucking stats class that I was fucking failing in the back with my head down like this, watching our videos, trying to figure out, all right, what I'm gonna do when I get out of this motherfucker with my music. And it's like, here we are. You know what I'm saying? But it's about being limitless. Understanding, obviously having a direction of where you want to go, but just not limiting yourself to any shape or form. Just understanding that if you, this is what you want to do, push for that shit all the way. Don't limit yourself in your creativity. Don't limit yourself in the way that you operate. Don't limit nothing. Just keep going. So that's why I see with no labels. Just, we can do whatever fuck we want in this motherfucker. There ain't no box that can confine you. You are where you place yourself. That boy's about to go in the ad. That was crap. I mean, me and myself. Y'all, I'm trying to tell y'all niggas, man. I come here ready with a quote. Spoke with me, Chris Patrick, every day from the 07017, you know what I'm saying? Ian Stars, spoke with the boy. You know what I'm saying? I dropped that there. Oh, we can't end it. No better way than that, man. Yeah, yeah, yeah. This is No Labels Necessary Podcast. I'm Brandon and Sean. I'm Cory. And I'm Chris motherfucking Patrick. You did it. And we out. Peace. Appreciate you for watching. If you like content like this, you'll love seeing our music marketing strategies that we use as an agency to actually blow up artists to millions and even billions of streams that are available for free at nolabelsnecessary.com and the cool part about it that's gonna really make you love it is we don't have to be all entertaining and add all this fluff just to get some use that we do on YouTube. We get straight to the information. There's play by play in courses that give you a breakdown of every step that you should do to get success. And you have the ability to have communication with us. We get on live talks, a lot of cool things for members and it's free just to hop in. So check it out right now at nolabelsnecessary.com.