 He's such a man, don't say that. Check it, check it, check it. It's a unique house. This your boy, E-CEO. And I'm here with the lovely official, Mr. Mako. What's going on? None, none, none. You know him, Adele? Hey man, say man, we got a special guest today, man. You know this guy right here, man. We in the ATL first ball, man. ATL. Down here hanging out with the best of them, man. You know what I mean? And we ain't rocking with the rest of them. You know what I'm saying? Say, man, we here, man. We got my boy DJ Ace in the building. What's that mean? Man, it's so good to be here, man. Good to meet you. Good to see you, meet you. Hey man, thank you for everything that you have done. I done heard you. I done seen you behind the scenes. You know what I'm saying? And it's dope, man, just to see the way that ATL move, man. You know what I'm saying? The music, man. I appreciate that on behalf of ATL. Bro, you impact the whole culture down through here, man. Y'all dope people, man. That's what I like. That's why I wanted to come down here. It's the first time we came out the studio, right? Right. We don't never come out the studio. We be in our place, in our zone. Right, right, right. We here. You're never here. I don't want to know what is the recipe for Atlanta, because a lot of times when we be talking on our show to different entertainers, they always say, Atlanta entertainers are so together. They do a lot. It's not like Texas where Houston over here and they rep Houston and this is Dallas and Dallas rep. Dallas and they don't really do that much stuff together. It's like, but Atlanta has this recipe where everybody is just doing stuff together. It looks like they respect each other on a whole level. But they just held her back for so long, man. I mean, you know, West Coast had their time but North had their time and they just never gave the South the respect, you know what I mean? They just never would get the South the respect. So as far as that, Atlanta just, you know, when we start doing music and people start respecting it, it's like, okay, well, we ain't gonna just let y'all respect it. We're gonna keep the dough down, you know? Atlanta got they be to where people don't fuck with certain people. They don't mess with certain people. But, you know, when it all set in that shell, Atlanta get together and just throw a whole big dark party every single week. You see, that part. And Dallas don't do that. He, Texas period don't do that. Watch your mouth. Watch your mouth. You know, don't get down here and get beside yourself. Watch my mouth. But okay, can you tell me when Texas did that? We've had issues, you know? But at the end of the day, a good family gonna fight. Right, right, right, right. You know what I mean? Like I said, we do have our problem and we do have our situation. We just had a situation on the news. They had like a thousand people in the park a lot. Yesterday, somebody just got killed. You know what I mean? It was just yesterday. So don't get me wrong. I ain't just praising us. We do have our ups and we have our downs, you know what I mean? But as far as the music comes and how the music going, that's just what happened in the hoods. As far as the music, man, Atlanta come together in a minute and just go crazy. You know what I mean? We've been here up back for so long, man. Like they wouldn't never, they still don't want to get a respect. They say, Migo, Mamba, Rappers. Migo, Biggs, I'm round them on my show. They're the biggest group out here right now. Bro, I got on them on my home. I don't play that, bro. I don't play that. He's not to talk about nobody from the South, period. But I'm not the one. I'm not playing that game. But you feel what I'm saying? I know what they say. They still won't get them, man, you know what I mean? They still won't get them. They flower. They still won't get them. That's it. So let's back up a little bit. I want to know. Hold on, hold on. Don't you just jump in there like that? I know what you're trying to do. Say, man, we want to know who is the DJ Ace. Who is he? How did he start? What's up with? Before the music, before all of that, like the young DJ Ace, before he was DJ Ace. Before I was DJ Ace, man, I was I was a star football player in high school. I played back when Quincy Carter played. Wow. Quincy Carter was my he was my neighbor across the street. Played for the Cowboy. Yeah, played for the Cowboy, man. The Cowboy was my weed, though. Yeah, you know, we both, you know, we're crazy. I wanted to see the grow. We went to Southwest to Cal. And he was supposed to go to Cedar Grove and be a quarterback. OK. But he brought a BB gun to school in the in like middle school, elementary school. And my daddy, he lived with his mom. OK. He was the head of their mom. So my dad, you know, went to court with him and basically acted as a lawyer for him or whatever. So I think in the end, he just couldn't go to his home school. He ended up going to Southwest to Cal. His home school was Cedar Grove. It was a blessing for me because I was able to go to Cedar Grove and start as a ninth grader. You used to run that ball, didn't you? Yeah, I already know. I was a quarterback. I was a quarterback. Yeah, but I was ranked. I was ranked number one in number three in the county five in the state. But I was ranked in Russian and passing yard. You must have been fast. Yeah, but he built up like a running back. So he can do both. Yeah, man. That's dope. I started playing football, man. But at the same time with that, we all played Gresham Park. Everybody played at Gresham Park. Me, Quincy, Felix Alden from Southwest to Cal. At the same time, I was racing dirt bikes. OK. Yeah, my dad had been big in racing dirt bikes. Very active. Yeah, we had sponsors, WD-40, Troy Hellman. WD-40, good. We had different sponsors. We was racing all up in, like, Florida, California, Tennessee, and all the big AMAs, like they do in the stadiums now. So anything you touched turned to go. You did it very well. I didn't want to say that, but my daddy kept us active. I ain't gonna lie, he kept us active. How many of y'all were there? There's three. I got a little sister, too, and she was even racing dirt bikes. Wow, wow. That's dope. I know you like that. I love it. So was your mom in your life? Yeah, my mom, yeah, my mom lived with us all together. My mom and my daddy had their own band, though. They had a live band. My daddy was the drummer. But that's where the music came from. My daddy was the drummer. My mama was the lead singer. When I was about 10, A-Town Players came out. Yeah, yeah. A-Town, dropping all that kids around. My brother was one of the dancers. OK. He was doing all the cranking and stuff. So as I'm about 10 left, I think I was like, 12 years old, man. I woke up one morning and one of the dancers couldn't go on tour with A-Town Players. So you had to do it. My dad, my brother asked my dad, my dad, it's a hell no. Boy, I was like, 12 years old, even though I don't know a road to a job. So you're the youngest? No, I got a little sister, too, in the middle. So I'm like, 12. They asked me to go and the show was with 95 South. Wow. Tag team. Whoa. All of them had one of these. You hit them. You hit them juggler bikes. It was all up. Yeah, yeah. It was at the Miami Hurricane Stadium there, you know, in Miami. So my dad said, yeah, he let me do that. That's don't let nothing happen to him. Did you freeze? Oh, no, I was ready for it. I was ready. Shit. I was ready. I couldn't wait to do this, man. I was waiting to put me on a plane. We flew down there. And that's crazy, because I was young. This at the time, we didn't have to have no ID. So I flew on his name. Yeah, I remember those. Yeah, I remember his name. That's the way it used to be. I was 11 years old. But all of you remember the days when kids was half price? Yup. I remember that when I was a child. Man, we get on the plane. I'm riding limos and all that. That's why I first learned how to smoke weed. Shot the bonnet keys in and play a punch up. 12 years old. Yeah, I used to steal my daddy's weed. That got me in Miami. Yeah, you're early on. Yeah, yeah, man. So when you went on that stage and that feeling that you got, is that a time when you're like, man, this is what I want to do? That was what I wanted to do. But I wanted to rap. I wanted to do, like, it would. I saw thousands and at least 20,000-30,000 people out here. Mind you, Woop There It Is was the biggest song. Yeah, it was. All three of the artists with Woop There It Is is on this show, along with other people, like Woop and other folk. And it's in the Miami Hurricanes Stadium. And I'm like, man. So I'm dancing though. I'm cranking it. Oh, go on all that. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, you rock out. But as I came back to, you know, back to Atlanta, and I'm watching kids rock, DJ. I'm watching Raheem Adrien. I'm doing shows. I'm like, man, I want to rap. I like how one person is controlling thousands of people. They can say, put your hands up and a thousand hands up. They can say, shut up. And everybody be quiet. Everybody get your phones out. I was like, damn. But I didn't know how to rock. So I put it into a DJ's perspective. I started DJing, like, after the football games, I would DJ the basketball games at school. And I started doing house parties on the East Side. Did you buy your own equipment? No, my dad had his own band. When they wasn't doing nothing, if I wasn't running this time, I was just taking their speakers. I was doing the basketball game for, like, 50 Lottles a game. Then my little cousin, he got, oh, he locked up. He got three life plus 25. He's gonna be my little host. So we used to go to different little, little bowling at little clubs. We would charge him, like, 50, 75 Lottles. He the host on the DJ. I don't know how to talk on the mic. He talk on the mic, our host. And we would get, look, get 75 Lottles and split it, you know what I mean, through the house party. But the house party started to get to the point where they started getting shined up back in like 95. I'm too young for this shit. So I moved to Clayton County out there with my mom in 96. And then when I met the neighborhoods of Ellenwood and John Lake, met everybody from like Rex Roll, Mount Sin, like people like Granddaddy Southside, Tricky Dollar was one of the first. How old were you at this time? Shit, I'm about 18, about 16, 17. I was a 20 break. I'm 12 to 18. Yeah, I'm about 17 right now. And was your cousin with you even at that time? In and out of prison, well, in and out of jail. He been in and out of jail since seventh grade. He talked about school in seventh grade. It's your first cousin? Yeah, they're my first. They're my dad's brother. So me and my daddy took him in like, I even moved in the house with them to help him stay out of trouble. You know what I mean? I'll try it. Be that positive influence in his life. Yeah, yeah. And I think when I left, when I left and went to Clayton County, I left him out there by itself in jail where Haywire. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Because you say that he was- He never killed nobody. He got three life plus 25 for kicking in those. That don't make sense, man. He never shot nobody and never got killed. But he beat up people. He never beat nobody. No, he's just kicking in doors. That's it. Look at you down the door. That's an evasion. It's not- Well, they charge you for everybody in the house, too. Yeah, yeah. But it's not a big deal. But he was, I guess they gave, what they say, the three strikes, a habitual offense or whatever. But they gave him through like, he never killed nobody, never shot nobody. He ain't got no violent record. That don't make sense. Because sometimes if you have a really good lawyer, I hear you can hear him. He didn't have no lawyer back then. That's why. That's it, right there. Now he say he got like 900,000 in the account that he's sitting in prison. He been in prison since he about 30 now. He probably been in there, basically. He was 17, man. But he- Can he still appeal it now? Or is it not? No, it's too late now. Yeah, yeah. So, okay, you said that he was your voice and because you didn't like to talk. Yeah, he was on the mic and we just spent a month. But since he's gone, you had to speak. Yeah, so that's where it came out. I used to, like I say, I used to watch, I DJ T.I. When T.I. first came out, remember when he came out with, I'm serious. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I DJ, my dad ran the sound. That's how I got that show. So, you know what I was saying? If you know somebody, you can get in the game. My dad was a sound man down in Athens, Georgia. This club called the Gator mouth or something like that. Down with George Bulldog. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah. What's the white boy? The fact, the fact white boy used to be out. I don't forget, man. Big little something. Oh, yeah, yeah. I know the fact of the white boy you're talking about. The fact of the white boy. The country white boy. He was with, who was he with? Bubba Sparke. Bubba Sparke. That's him. Bubba Sparke. He just came out. Yeah, I was a young nigga man at T.I. Conrad Parke. Well, that's who Bubba was. He was there with his release party, but it was T.I. singing release party. And I just happened to, since my dad ran the sound, I was the DJ for it. Okay. You know what I mean? Definitely not my hand Clayton County. Now I'm not getting big show, but my first, that one of my biggest shows. Like, I'm like, man, I'm out here with. They feeling you? Yeah. So then all the way down to, well, I started doing high school, high school parties and house parties in Clayton County. Wow. They started getting too big. Like the houses wasn't big enough. Yeah. So kids of rock was getting skating rings, man. He started getting skating rings and he would get like, yin-yang twins with his folks. Smurfs for all them with his personal folks. Sammy Sam and I was the DJ for that. Wow. But mind you, it was my daddy's sound system. I was the DJ. It was my flyers. I would wake up, get somebody to make the flyers, go to the rent office where my mama live at Clayton County, run all the flyers off in the rent office. We would go to the schools, pass all the flyers out in all the schools. I ain't be like 17, 18. I'm out here riding around, patting flyers out and everything. Wow. My boy, kids of rock and fuck with you, but he would charge me, he would give me 150 for all this. So I sat back with my partner one day. I was like, bro, I'm getting $150 and I'm doing all the work. It's my daddy's speakers. I'm the DJ. I'm pressing up the flyers. I'm paying for, now he paid for the flyer. He paid for the paper from Walmart. But we ran them off and then we go to the schools and we put these flyers out and all the money went to go. And all the money go to them and they break us out. Wow. I said, I ain't going back. I ain't doing it no more. You done? I said, I didn't. Did you tell him or you ain't tell him? I ain't tell him. You done with it? I'm done. I said, bro, let go find our own. So we went riding around one day and we found this one in Skate Ring. And the Skate Ring say, we went to Old National. They say, well, we don't do parties over here, but we know somebody who will. Send us over to Far Park. We were like cool. We went over to Far Park, got Far Park Skate Ring and the man was like, You tell my son for the kids. Wow. I would love to do that. So he gave us an opportunity, man. And the first show I ever did was Thug Nation. Okay. Saying that Thug life. Thug life. Yeah. But I didn't know how to book shows. So when I did the Thug life, I just put them on the flyer. Yeah. Put them on the flyer. They called me like, bro, you put us on this flyer. We're going to get paid. I'm like, we're going to get paid by who? He was like, you're going to pay us. Y'all put us on that flyer. We're going to get paid. And I'm like, bro, I ain't know nothing about that. I didn't thought you put us on the flyer and get paid. Yeah. So he said, I'll tell you what, man. I'm going to come on out and do the show. Just make sure we get paid. The show went so big. I ended up giving them that money and paying them that night for a second show. Wow. That was my first two shows that I ever did. My third show with Patrick Troy, it was Christmas. It was Christmas. I'll never forget. It was Christmas, man. It was December the 20th. Some crew Mazeve. It was iced up. Patrick Troy was huge. Tom might not be. Yeah, I know. No more playing G8. The only song he had the vice of, not vice versa, Deronda Hill. Yeah, yeah, yeah. He called it crazy, man. So I wanted to book Patrick Troy. I'm a young nigga, man. I don't know how I'm going to do this. I just went through it with the nation. How about to ask you that. So I just took a chance. I just took a chance and caught the number, man. And somebody was talking to me real fast. I had a feeling it was Troy, but I ain't know. But to this day, I know it was him. I know how to talk. You know what I mean? So we set it up, man. He charged me $2,500 back then. And I was scared of it. And I was like, man, what if I'm gonna make it? That's it. I'm looking for it. It was iced up. The streets was iced. The schools closed because the streets was iced. Man, Patrick Troy came through and everything performed like a whole album, everything for them high school. Man, that might have set me off for life. Hang on. He did that dog. Like the whole Clayton County looked at me as like, that's our DJ. I'm doing all the house parties. I'm with Ella Wood and Jutley. I'm with Mount Sin. I'm with Rex Roll and all of them coming to everything I do. So as that, now people starting to rap. God, coming out to East Side. No Gucci. Got the black team. That's what I'm about to ask you. Like how did, how did, I know you saying people starting to rap, but there was a relationship between you and Gucci and Walker and them like- Right. Well, how did it mean Gucci? I can't know Walker. Okay, so when you and, how did you end up linking up with Gucci? I've been doing Gucci since like third, fourth grade. Oh, so y'all, it's- Yeah, Gucci from the East Side. Even like Trigga Doll. I know him. I know Trigga from the East Side. I know Gucci since third, fourth grade. Gucci know the fur girl I've had. And you know, I'm somebody younger than him. So was it like the first- To my virginity. There you go. There you go. How did y'all end up, you being the DJ to, you know, rock this? I seen Gucci after some years, after I'm out here in Clayton County. They had a club called Club 112. Okay. I read that. Back in the day, out there on Cheshire Breed Road. Club called Club 112, man. Gucci, at the time, Gucci had black teeth. Yeah, yeah. My daddy was the sound man once again. Your daddy only. You gotta be plugging in all the time. My dad was running the sound for the DJ. He would, mind you, the club got their own sound system. So they don't need my dad, but my dad is just so respected out here from sound system. Every club. Is he still doing it now? Yes, still doing it now. Church pay him 1500 a Sunday for running the sound. How old is your daddy? My dad, like 65. He's young. He's still young. He rocking. Yeah, man. I gotta call him. His birthday is July 11, mine is July 12. Oh, y'all, y'all something else, man. Y'all Kansas. Yeah, yeah. Y'all something else, man. So we in 112, man, and Gucci come up to me. Gucci said, Corey Cran. Yo, your whole name though. I said, what? Boy, what's up with that? You doing this? He said, what? What you doing here? I said, you know what I'm DJing, that my dad has a system. What you doing here? He said, nigga, I rock. Black team, my song. I'm like, dang, I ain't heard of your song like you was on it, but like, boy, come on over there, bullshit. Yeah, yeah, yeah, like, boy, that's my shit, boy. So I'm not talking. I'm like, Gucci been rapping though. He had different songs. Yeah. Like, Gucci got song before the end with saying himself that we did, but I didn't know he was rapping, rapping. Yeah. Everybody can rap. Yeah, yeah. Okay. But rapping for real. I can't rap. I'm just saying. It's a known thing when a person, everybody wanna be a rapper too. Yeah, everybody. But you don't know. But black team was actually buzzing. No, it was. Black team was buzzing. Look, man, I'm gonna prove you. He didn't have a release at this time. No. They were the original black team. Yeah. But they'll never get in niggas over there. I don't got them Gresham Roll. It's still fuck with them to this day. So he was like, yeah, man. He was like, man, let's do some shows. Boy, I can't wait to do some shows. But that's what, I'm just popping myself off. So big. So it was a blessing to me because everything keep falling in place. Now, mind you, franchise boy had the white team. They definitely had the white team. Throwback boy had the up and my throwbacks. Yeah, yeah. They CEO is my partner. He paid me 10,000. Shout out to what I can't tell you, man. He paid me 10,000 to promote the throwback boy. Wow. You know what I'm saying? Like, hey, I need you to promote this song. This throwback boy, you're up in my throwback shit. So I promoted that. I had the white team from franchise boy could probably end up my partners. Yeah, probably. And then Gucci, I went to school with them. So I might have thrown shows with all the white team versus the black team versus white team versus you up in my throwback. Man, this whole deal was jumping off back then too. The guy called Chevy Ali came up with a yep in my something I forgot. So I had him at it on. So now I got this whole campaign going. I'm taking there. Well, we take it over national. I hooked up with right here in the dream. He got shows over there doing shot a low first. Yeah, yeah. I'm about to bring him into it because you can't get that laughing taff and all that stuff was going on during the time you're talking about. Shout out to low. And Jack came out, man. I'm taking these shows everywhere. So I was DJing a little spot on Terry Boulevard in Clayton County. It was called J-Pause. And this at the time with the red, the shine was. Man, you messed me up with that one earlier when you said that off line. Now he had another name. Man, he had five different names. Five different names. It takes whatever you're taking it off. Man, we don't want to do so much, but everybody wanted to rap. Okay. So I ended up finding this spot. My daddy was running sound over on 20 grand. I was DJing in the club called J-Pause doing hardest there, but I wanted a bigger spot. Yeah. I'm taking this white teeth thing, black teeth thing to different spots. And I wanted to make some money. So my daddy got 20 grand on Old National. It was a two side club. It was a concert hall side and it was a club side. And I came up with a plan to do Gucci, Pastor Troy, Kaia all on one show. They ain't nobody ever seen Kaia was huge, too. Yeah, I remember her, too. Kaia was huge. Yeah, yeah. Pastor Troy was huge. Gucci was huge. And nobody ever seen that before having on one show. You didn't see all this stuff even coming together like this before that when he had brought Pastor Troy for that first time. You know, I like doing stuff that nobody's ever seen. But when you first done it though, like this, you know already it's just after God for all this to come together full circle like that. Yeah. And mind you, I ain't got no sound man. My dad's the sound man. It's on. So all the security is my own security from the club I was DJing in that over on Terra Boulevard. So I didn't brought my whole campaign. I did the promotion myself. And I had one investor shot in my boy, Ricky D. He gave me the money for that. We did that like small. We did that like $5,000 total, maybe seven, maybe like 20. So I wanted to test the waters. Now I just did a big spot. I did the high school for the skating rings. I done did all that. I did the 20 grand with the black team, Gucci, with the, with the Pastor Troy Kaia. I wanted to test the waters out. Gucci come to me one day and Gucci say, bro, you but don't know about my new music. I said, what? What new music? He make it so much. He fast with it, man. He can go. He go so fast. He hard work. That nigga work hard, bro. Now you know, he had already been working this in the midst of I'm still promoting black tea. And white tea. And white tea and I'm promoting to jump in my throwback with throwback bars for Kentay. He already got this emotion. He come to me one day and say, bro, you don't know nothing about my new music, do you? Wow. I said, by what new music? He said, my song with Jesus. I don't know who it is. I said, with Jesus. He said, bro, don't worry about it. He said, come to my show Tuesday night. This after I just did that big ass show. Yeah, yeah. Come to my show. I think it was that it was across from vision to maybe in the velvet room downtown. Yeah. I go to this show man, everybody in all white. Everybody. Trina there. She in all white. Jesus there. He in all white. BML there. They in all white. All white. Gucci, we pull up. Gucci in all white. Gucci a whole clique in all white. We all in all white. And I'm tripping. I'm like, damn. Okay. Now there's another party. Gucci said, why there? So they don't know that now we party. We chilling, popping bottles. That song. So I said, come on. The whole club went absolutely crazy. Everybody. BML throwing ball to everybody. I mean throwing money. They popping bottles. Wow. You got Gucci rapping. Everybody. Jesus. They having a good time together. It's the first time you ever see Jesus and Gucci on stage together. Wow. First time. This will be the first and only time you see Gucci and Jesus on stage together. And you was there. And I was there. So I got in my mind. I went back to my, my investor. I said, bro, I got, I think I got Jesus and Gucci together. I got a hot song that I know we can make a killing off of. All I did. God, Jesus spoke to have a hot name. If we can get him, I got Gucci. We can do that on one show. And we'll be, we'll make a killing. He said, Jesus. He said, I messed with those guys. It's kind of fine. Him and Coach K. Potters. Wow. Yeah. Coach K. was managing back then. Riga D. Him and Coach K. Potters. I'm Gucci's DJ and road manager. Big Cat and Jacob, they doing the managing. I'm doing the road. I do all the bookings. Gucci told Big Cat and him if Ace don't sign my contract for doing my paid show, I ain't doing the show. Wow. They did the radio bookings. I did the paid bookings. I did all the features and all that. So cool. I said bet. So I went ahead and set it up with Gucci. And I said, Rick, if you can get Jesus on this show. I went through Gucci first and let Gucci do it. But I didn't know Rick was like this with Coach. It just made everything fall in place. So I got the only show in history until they do this big stage together. Yeah, yeah. With Gucci and Gigi on stage together. They got it on video and everything. I threw it in the 20 grand concert hall we had about. Wow. Bro, it had to be about 10,000 people in there. Wow. It was wall to wall. And then in the end, there was already back and forth. It wasn't no beef at that time. Yeah. But all G's in them car got broken too. When they got there, you know, they in the hood. Okay. They done told Jesus in the parking the back of the goddamn club. Okay. Mind you, we on old knack. Wow. Group city. So they on, yeah. Man, they went and went through photo with through all the cars or something, photo went through. Got the guns, got their money and shit. So I guess they thought we had something to do with it. Mind you, I'm driving Gucci's van. I'm driving the van and everything. Oh, you giving up detail cause I never heard this story. I'm going to nobody to know. Jesus and I'm surrounded to be man, Jesus, all the security and everything. My daddy in the club with a third-eighth special. That third-eighth. Revolver. Yeah. Old school. That's old school. They surround me and I don't know what they surround me for. So somebody come and told me, bro, they out, they broken all G's in them cars. Wow. And I'm like, what? And nobody else's cars, but just theirs. They parked in the back. Yeah. I mean, they're running the show. And this before any other, any, all other stuff happened just before everything ever. Just think this was like the beginning of the this was like the kickoff. Okay. Because Jesus and them felt like Jesus and their Gucci and them set them up. Wow. When that wasn't the case. Yeah. You knew me or Gucci, nobody knew nothing about that. Yeah. You know what I mean? It just fell that way. It just fell where the people who the people who work the parking lot, they work for the club. They parked them in the back. Wow. We didn't know none of this shit. Parking out here. It was a big, you know, the Walmart and all that was the club. So they basically, that was the club was they where we don't know, you know, but those guys to park them in the back like they could have been the one. That's what I'm saying. But it left me vulnerable because in the end over everything, everything was me. Right. Yeah. I'm driving the Gucci van. They know I'm Gucci DJ. You know what I'm saying? He calls back on you regardless. No matter what. Yeah. So, you know, in the end. So when they surrounded you, how did you get out of there? Man, I sat back and I think when my dad came over there, I think that kind of did kind of sell. Cool. But I had my security too. Mm-hmm. My security work for me came in and they was like trying to see what was going on. And they never touched me or nothing. Jesus in them said they were just a big circle. And I'm in the middle like this microphone. I'm standing there watching all this security around me and everything. And I mean, I know they got something on them because niggas holding their passes. Yeah. But in the end, you know, everything got squashed. But like I said, I think that was the beginning of a long journey right there. Yeah, yeah. You know what I mean? Yeah. Man, we used to go on a roll with AI-15s in the bags. Yeah. We're going to shows and we're taking six, it's me, Gucci, and two security guards. We got six guns. Wow. You know, when you got a license, you can take up the three guns on the plane. Yes, sir. Yes, sir. Yes, sir. All right. So it's... Where you got, hold on. When you have a license, you can do what? You can take up the three guns. Three or four guns on the plane. Oh, I didn't know that. With a gun license. OK, I got that. Man, we all strapped. She said, I got it. I got it. That's all I need to know. It had to be, though, because this was a hard time. Yeah, it was serious, dude. We're talking this serious, bro. Yeah, man. It was to the point where we had Gucci doing shows and Bulletproof vices. Wow. Let me bring you up to like today's sound. How do you feel about where the music is today in Atlanta, like versus back then? Because you've seen it all. Oh, I'm talking about all since my daddy and them were doing live band stuff. I mean, I feel good about it, man. You do. I feel good about it now because people are able to make make money off the internet and, you know, make their career off the internet off off the press of a button versus having to drive. OK. I never forget Bigger Rankin' to tell you. Shout out to Bigger Rankin'. When OJ the Juice first came out, I drove. We didn't have no internet. Wow. We didn't have no e-mailing. So I had to drive that arm kit in my hand. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I drove it. I drove the CD down to Bigger Rankin's in the snow, in the snow, October, Halloween, man. Bigger Rankin' to tell you, 10 people all the time. Wow. And I drove it down. Now I went down there. Hey, Bigger, man, I got this new artist, OJ the Juice. He ain't know who the hell he was. Didn't want to even play this shit. He wasn't even, man. He love him a damn now. He's like, boy, I got you, I got you, I got you, I got you. I'm like, Bigger, man, you got to drop my boy shit, man. It's OJ the Juice. He was Gucci. He don't even know. He was Gucci. He was like, man, I got you just hold on. So I held on for a while. You know, Bigger did me like anybody else. He helped me. He made me wait by the hour. I'm feeling like, I didn't drove six hours, dropped it, man. You feel what I'm saying? But he not respecting it, you know, getting in, could that what we would have did up here? Yeah. He ain't going to get what you want with you on the win, our mix right now. Oh, really? Yeah, yeah. He end up playing later on, man. I'd be damned if a couple months later, we up in the lounge. I'm over there, up house. Somebody come knock on the door. I don't know. He's going to open it up for me. I'm going to open the door. Hit Bigger Rankin'. Bigger, what's up? Bigger, what's up? You got me all over. Get what you were coming up to. I ought to talk about. Oh, J.D.J. Oh, J.D.J. I was very sad. So like I say, man, back then, man, it wasn't on internet. Now you ain't got to drive six hours. Yeah. You drive six hours to go network. Wow. Now you can just press a button. Exactly. Now you can go do your video and you can upload it on YouTube, man. You can go do a video right now in the parking lot and you can upload it on YouTube. You know what I'm saying? Yeah. What? Go ahead. I'm about to ask. I got to get a question out. What I want you to know, OK, in all the categories of entertainment, you have your videography, you have your producers, engineer, your artist, you're DJ. Right. All of them at the top of their game have all their business together. Who makes the most money? Kind of who makes the best deal. No, no, no. I'm just saying. If all of them at the top of their game, all the top of their game, all of them have their business, their lawyers, their contract, everything set. What category can make the most money? If the artist don't get messed over, the artist and the CEO should make the most money. But it ended up happening. Game crazy, ain't it? Yeah, but the game is so crazy that your management has set it up to where they're making a bigger percentage than what they're supposed to be making. And that's why you get artists to sit back and they change their management and all that years down the line. I've never signed a contract with nobody I've been with. Wow. Nobody. Nowakha, OJ, the juice. No, the only contracts I've signed and when people finna pay me five and 10,000 for promo, them the contracts I signed. But as far as the artists, I've never signed a contract. People said me I'm stupid. They tell me I'm stupid for it. Because I could be getting way more money and all that. And I just feel like, you know, when it's time for me and the real artist to sit down and sign a contract, we get to that then cool. But in the end, it's like the artist is the CEO. If the artist stop rapping, the whole project is over with. That's why I love the role with Gucci because he kept getting locked up. These ass man, what God help for you, man? It's coming to you anyway. Yeah, I see, you know, I always say that, man. I always say that I don't look for nothing like a shop. I didn't ask a shop for not $1. But pay me $2,500 for that first mixtape. I ain't asking for a dollar. I just say let do it. Then you can't, hey, boy, I got a show to do. I need you to play three songs. Then you turn around and gave me a stack. I'm like, man, I ain't asking for this. You know what I'm saying? You just keep coming to me. But, you know, the artist, the artist and the CEO is supposed to be the top of that dollar, man. But you got these managers out here. You got these cricket accountants, you know, doing their thing to where they're making more money than the artist making or just as much money as the artist making. Push show, man. So give me top three artists of all time. We do the same. Dead or Alive. Dead or Alive, top three. Any genre. Michael Jackson. Michael Jackson. We can do the future. Future. And Gucci. And Gucci. Quick. That's what I'm saying. I think you people already know. You are the quickest on the job. They never do that, man. Everybody be kidding. Man, that is the future. You and everybody. It ain't that. It'd be, uh, yeah, you did that. Hey, man. So what do you think? So when it comes to why Mike, why number one? Man, Mike did everything, man. Mike did the dancing. Mike did the singing. Mike did the concerts. Mike did the sold out concerts. Mike set the stages for Jay-Z. When they say, oh, Jay-Z, the legend and all that, man. Mike set that off, man. Wow. All this dancing, everything. They dancing. They doing the dancing that Mike did. Wow. The Mike and such, somebody and they faint. Huh? Yes. Mike put his hand out the window. For real, man. You don't have, has anybody in rap ever had that impact? No, not yet. No, but future, if I ain't gonna lie, if it wasn't on Mike, future would be, man. He'd be the one. He'd be the one. Future, future going crazy. Now, Lil Baby, Lil Baby making the money. Lil Baby, I hear about all the time. That's the reason we have number ones a lot. Oh. Yeah, Lil Baby number one, because he hot right now. That's it. I'm out all around. See, people ain't giving them respect to who already been out. You know what I'm saying? With Gucci, Gucci really came from them trenches. Yeah. Gucci really came from selling dope and going robbing niggas. I'm talking about niggas. But Gucci done robbed somebody and sitting in Blaineville. And reinvented himself and said, so. And rapping about it. And ain't scared to go on the street and say, hey, how you doing? Yeah, I robbed you like, man. I'm trying to tell you. So we're winding down now. So where can people get a hold of you? How can people find? 447236449 or the real DJ Ace, man. I don't care how much money I make, man. I don't care everything in the real way to go the way. I got an assistant and all that, man. But I'm straight about to come talk to me personally. I like that. You can talk to me about being an assistant and a publicist. They really can't get to the bottom of it. But talking to you, you know what I mean? If I need to sing it, I'll sing it up. But far as me, you go straight with me, man. My Instagram, the real, the common country. So they say, I'm saying the real. Yeah. But it's T-H-E-R-E-A-L-D-J-A-C-E, man. All right, man. Thank you so much, man. We love you, brother. And, hey, man, this been another great segment of Boss Talk 101. Boss is on it.