Shadowing Practice: Kendrick Lamar & Rick Rubin Have an Epic Conversation | GQ - Learn English Speaking with Video
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All right.
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Yeah, man.
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Yeah.
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Do you usually start with a track, or do you, like, how does writing work for you?
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It varies.
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Usually the time me and the boys get in the studio, and I can just go off a simple drum loop that I like.
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Like, my process, it starts from just a whole bunch of premeditated thoughts.
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The process of me thinking about the ideas and what I want to say next.
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Yeah.
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You know, and by the time I get into the studio,
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I have to find that exact sound that triggered the emotion or the idea that I thought about two months ago.
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Would you have more than one of those going on at the same time?
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Like, might you have six of those before you go into the studio, or do you do them one at a time?
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Do them one at a time.
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So the concept will come, you'll sort of live with it and let it grow in you.
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Yep.
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Do you make notes?
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Definitely.
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All the time.
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I have to make notes because a lot of my inspiration comes from meeting people
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or going outside of the country or going around the corner to my old neighborhood, talking to a five-year-old little boy.
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And I have to remember these things.
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I have to write them down and then five or three months later,
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I have to find that same emotion that I felt when I was inspired by it.
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So I had to dig all the way deep and see what were the things that triggered the idea.
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Does it always come back?
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It comes back.
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It comes back.
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It comes back.
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Because I have key little words that make me realize the exact motion and what drew the inspiration.
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You?
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Yeah, man.
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Definitely.
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It's a process.
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It's a working process.
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I'm my worst critic.
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Tell me about that a little bit.
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You're critical of your, you just want to be really good.
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Yeah, it's really about me challenging myself.
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I think my excitement in doing music is me feeling like I'm never stagnant.
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Me feeling like I didn't get comfortable in my own skin of what I think is good
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or what someone else thinks is good.
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Stepping outside of my comfort zone and mastering it.
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That excites me when I feel like I've accomplished that.
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It just keeps the hunger for more going.
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I don't feel I can ever stop.
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Do you ever consider, so when you think about the challenge to yourself, do you ever consider the listener or who's gonna,
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like the audience at all or is it more like just self expression?
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How do you describe it?
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I used to.
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I used to consider the listener.
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But now I'm in a space where if I'm not inspired I can't really, you know, do the music.
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You know, I can't feel it.
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I think I put enough hours
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and work to be able to pin a hundred bar verse on the spot at any given moment.
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But for me to actually feel an idea and concept has to come from me.
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And a lot of times I have to block out a lot of different needs and wants, you know, just for my own selfish reasons.
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But at the end of the day, it comes out where, you know, whether you like it or not,
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you know, you're going to know it comes from a real place and it's going to feel unapologetic.
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I'm not compromising and it's gonna feel me.
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Has there ever been anything that you felt like, I don't want to say that on a record?
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Like it feels like...
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That's a great question.
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I always said to myself, if I said it on record, I never retract my statements.
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Yeah. Because it's my self-expressions.
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You can have your opinions on it, you can feel a certain type of way, but it's how I feel.
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And I can't contradict that at all.
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And sometimes I do come across them lines.
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As rappers, we always have that thing about us where it is controversy.
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But it came from some type of inspiration, and I have to say it.
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I have to be vocal about it.
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And do you ever look back on any and feel like you'd like to change any of the things that you've written?
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It would be me saying I want to go deeper.
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I should have went deeper.
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I see.
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You know?
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I shouldn't have held back.
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You know, but moving along, I know, okay, you're not going to be in the box and saying what you want to say, and that's where I'm at now.
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Content-wise, do you feel like you could talk about anything, or do you feel an obligation to talk about certain things?
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I can talk about anything.
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That's great.
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Anything.
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I can talk about anything, and this is the challenge for me.
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Being able to talk about anything
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and make it connect to a listener where the listener can either feel like you
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or feel like they understand you or you have just a deeper connection through the music with the listener.
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Talking to a little kid and making that represent something and feel like something or saying the most brutal,
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harsh things on record where society may not want to hear it.
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still having that connection and that's what I think music is about for me.
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Period.
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Period.
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Do you think about how to ask this?
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Let's talk about how you got to this place of doing this.
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What would have been inspirations along the way for you, musically, lyrically or philosophically that got you to this stage?
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Oh man, that was a journey.
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I think first off it had to be how I was raised, you know, in an environment where having the idea of my father being,
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you know, just a complete realist, just in the streets, and my mother having this idea of being a dreamer,
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and me traveling the world and doing all these things that I'm doing today, it starts there first, you know,
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before I even heard any type of melody or lyric.
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That was implanted in me first.
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That's just DNA, who I am and the things I talk about today.
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It's always the end and the game, the good versus the evil.
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And that's how I feel as a person.
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And eventually that pushed me toward the music that I love to listen to.
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and it came from Tupac, Biggie, Jay, I mean, you know, your usual suspect.
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These were the people that was played in my household that not only I loved to listen to,
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but it kind of complemented my DNA because these artists always had different perspectives on life in general,
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and they put that in their lyrics, and they put that in their music.
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And as a kid, I connected with it, you know, because I see my older cousins going through the same type of feelings, and emotion that these artists are going through.
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And as I started to write and dig into my own thing, it just progressed in that same nature.
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Was that music playing in your house your choice in music, or was it the music your parents were listening to?
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How did you get exposed to it?
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Definitely my parents.
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Parents?
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Yeah, my parents were fairly young in the city of Compton.
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And I was basically growing up with them.
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So the things that they played was more in, you know, there was the hip crowd, you know.
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So I was being exposed to all these ideas, you know, from Big Daddy Kane to Easy E to, you know, the Bay Area 2 Short,
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E-40, you know, back to Marvin Gaye and the Isley Brothers.
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This field of music, you know, just broadened, you know, my ideas to come.
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We never would have thought in a million years, you know, that I'd be doing it.
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Yeah, it's amazing.
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Yeah, it's amazing.
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So I owe my first ideas of how I want to attack music to them.
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When did jazz find its way into your world?
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That's crazy.
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Yeah, it's a trip.
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Because I was in the studio one day with my guy,
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Terrace Martin, and he noticed something about the type of sounds that I was picking.
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In my whole catalog from my mixtapes to my EPs to
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just my process of making my debut album to where I'm at now.
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He noticed this type of instruments I was picking.
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He was like man, a lot of the chords that you pick are jazz influenced.
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You're a jazz musician by default.
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The way your cadence is rapping over certain type of snares and drums,
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this is everything that a person on the saxophone and on the horn,
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you know, commute with how they hear music.
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And that's something that just opened me up.
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And then he just started breaking down everything, just the science of it, going back to Miles, Herbie Hancock.
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I'm listening to his score like, man, I like that sound.
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What is that?
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You know, that's a road key.
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So that's what I've been liking all these years?
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Yeah, you've been liking this for years.
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This is in your DNA.
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This is why you picked certain instrumentals you picked.
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So when was that moment when you had that experience in the studio where you realized that you liked it?
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When around was that?
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About three months until my second LP, to Pimper Butterfly.
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I was going to say that after hearing the first album, when the second album came, it was completely unexpected.
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Yeah, yeah.
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Nobody was expecting you to make that.
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Yeah, definitely.
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And I knew from the jump that there was going to be a challenge for my listeners here.
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But if I'm challenging myself in the studio, I want to challenge you as well.
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So I just went full fledged with it, man.
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And we built everything from scratch.
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Amazing.
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So do you feel like this will be, this is kind of a funny thing because I'm asking you to project the future.
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It's impossible.
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But do you feel like Butterfly, what What do you refer to it as?
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Butterfly to pimp a butterfly.
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Okay.
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It's a few things.
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Maybe too pimp.
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I was going to ask how you'd like to call it.
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Let's say the second album.
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Do you feel like that's more indicative of where things will be in the future?
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Or is it more like that's where you are then or now?
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And we should, based on the difference between the first album and the second album, should we continue to expect it to change?
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That's a great question.
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Again, it may not be possible to answer, but tell me your best thoughts.
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My best thoughts, the best answer I can give you, that was me then.
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Not to say that it wouldn't be a continuous or would not.
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You know, it'll always have some type of DNA in my music.
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But me as a person, just knowing who I am, I grow.
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I'm like a chameleon, you know?
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And that is a gift and a curse for me, you know?
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But more so a gift because it never pertains to me to put me in a box.
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and my ability to express it and to still make the connection wherever I go, that is my high points,
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you know, and that's something that I pride myself on.
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You know, it's always come from an organic place.
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Beautiful.
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It sounds like the connection you're talking about really is your connection to it more than other people's connection to it.
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Yeah, right, right.
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But I think the thing that's infectious about it and the reason other people connect is they feel your connection to it.
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Exactly.
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You know, it's not even necessarily that, like, probably a lot of people who are your fans, who heard your last record, might not have been that into jazz.
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Exactly.
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But they feel your connection to it, and it inspires them to open their selves to hear new music that they might not have heard.
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That is so true.
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That is so true.
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And you can look at a person, you can have a conversation with them, and you know if, you know,
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whether it's the music or who they identify themselves with, if it comes from an organic place, a real place.
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And we call the consumers, you know, we've been told to call the consumers done.
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But they're not.
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They know when it's real.
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Absolutely.
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And they know if they can feel it, you know.
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And that's something that I always understood, you know, just being a fan myself.
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You know, when I looked at still to this day, when I look at my certain aspirations as far as artists, when I look at Eminem,
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when I look at Jay, I felt the stories they were telling, whether it was fictional or not.
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These ideas that they were putting down made me believe in everything
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that they were saying
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because it just came from a space of whether a realistic point of just their imagination being
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so strong and so heavy that you just get bombarded into their ideas.
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That's how it comes across for me.
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Beautiful.
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I feel like even if you don't agree with what someone is saying, but if they're saying it and you know that they believe it, you resonate with it on some level.
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You don't have to agree with it to respect it and appreciate.
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It's just human expression.
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People really allowing to show themselves is a beautiful thing, whether you agree with them or not.
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Exactly.
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And that's a great point because I always...
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I've always been heavy on vocal tone and the way you manipulate your voice and things like that.
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Because different tones from me just gives off different expressions.
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I may wake up one morning and feel like this scenery right here.
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Or I may wake up one morning feeling like the depths of hell, you know
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and you may hear that grunge and that emotion.
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But that emotion, it translates through the music to the person
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that was feeling that way the day before or when they wake up the next morning.
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And I've always been a huge fan of that.
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When I hear you, I don't always know it's you.
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Because you seem to inhabit so many different characters with your voice that it's not always It's clear that it's you.
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Right, exactly.
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It's interesting.
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It comes from my personality and DNA, and it also just comes from being a complete huge fan of Prince.
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My father was a heavy, heavy still to this day Prince fan.
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That's all he was playing.
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And I just sat back and just, I could never tell when it was Prince for me.
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You know, he had a falsetto.
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You know, he had this baritone.
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He just gave you so many different emotions, you know, but I seen the way my father was always connected with him.
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And I studied it, you know.
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You know, alongside of lyricists, I've studied R&B, I've studied soul, you know, to even pop, you know.
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And eventually all these things, you know, gathered up to how I connect and approach music.
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It's really beautiful.
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It's a great journey you're on.
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I appreciate it.
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How do you go into the studio experience versus the live experience?
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The difference, your mental state going into each of those things.
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Man, that is a whole other beast for me.
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I drive people racket because I approach the stage, my stage performance, the same way I approach the studio.
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I have to think about it and live it and know how my mannerisms are, how I'm moving.
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You know, all that is, it has to be dead on for me,
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you know, from the hits and the licks on how we rearrange the idea just to give the fans a new experience.
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It's a process.
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The same way I sit with mixes and mastering,
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it's the same way I sit inside that that rehearsal room to make sure that everything is hitting on cue.
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Beautiful.
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And talking about the musical process, how involved are you in the, beyond the vocals and lyrics, how involved are you in the music,
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in the making of it, in the choosing of it, in all aspects?
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Man, I don't sleep.
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I don't sleep with my team, no, they can't sleep.
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Because I just, you know, not that I don't trust them.
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Yeah, yeah, yeah.
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I have 100% trust in my team, but I just have to be there for everything.
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Yeah.
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Sometimes I drive myself crazy.
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But it just makes me feel like I'm not only pushing them, but I'm pushing myself.
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I just have to be involved, man.
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It's a freaky nature sometimes, but I have to be there from everything, from the snare to the hi-hat.
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So if we gotta gain up this two more DBs, we gotta snatch this out and let this part of the section breathe, you know, I'm there.
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Have you ever written to a track and then afterwards decided to keep the song but change the track?
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Has that ever happened?
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Oh yeah, all the time.
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Definitely, definitely.
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Or in the case of building on the track and the pieces that we build it on, it sounds better than the actual bottom.
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And just being able to know how to be a minimalist in certain areas and pull something back,
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and letting a new thing breathe opens it up more.
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And these are, that's a trial and error, though.
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This is something I couldn't tell you 10 years ago, or six years ago.
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But it has been plenty of times.
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It's really just about pushing myself pushing the musicians to not settle in.
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We can put this in a space where it can be better.
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So do you usually have the musicians playing all together, or do you do parts individually?
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Sometimes we play all together.
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Sometimes we do parts individually.
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And if they're playing all together, would you conduct or say, let's try it like this?
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Yeah, definitely.
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I have to be.
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We'd be everywhere.
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It'd be just a bunch of crazy sounds, you know, with no arrangement, you know.
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And when I say musicians, it's not all the time someone that can play an instrument.
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A person that can chop and break down a crazy sample is a musician to me because that's a lost art.
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Someone that can pull out the MPC, you know, from out the dungeons, out the crates, you know,
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and be able to break down some crazy drums along with a crazy bass player, you know?
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These are the people that I like around me.
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Have you ever written anything more before hearing a track almost like it was poetry?
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Like, do you know?
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Yeah.
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A few times I've written four songs, and I had to find the actual instrumentation to match it.
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Wow.
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You know?
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And that's fun.
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That's fun because it gives me the, not only me, but it gives the producer the freedom to build around the lyrics.
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Certain words that get tossed out, a sound just might crack over top of that.
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They know the cadence. For sure.
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It's cool to have just a lot of different ways of doing it.
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It's like what moves to the basket.
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It's got to be good.
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Exactly.
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I never know how a song is going to turn.
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I may think I know, you know, but it may come a whole new direction.
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It may give off a whole new entity of its own.
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You know, from the approach to how I wrote it, to me going in the booth just freestyling,
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it usually comes across with no sign of how.
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How do you know when it's good?
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How do you know when it's good?
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Or how do you know when it's done?
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Man, I think that's the question.
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I think that's the question of our artists and just people who create.
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It's just a feeling, man.
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You can feel it.
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It's just a feeling.
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Great.
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It's not rocket science.
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Yeah, yeah, yeah.
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I'm sure you know.
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Absolutely.
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It's just that feeling that everyone gets, or that feeling that you just get along.
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Everybody may not get it.
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Everybody may not get it until it comes out.
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Yeah.
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And it'd be that thing, and then they'd say, oh, you know.
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Have there been any reactions to your music that have surprised you,
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either songs or projects where people reacted either better, worse, different?
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Surprised?
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Yeah.
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My first album, Good Kid, Mad City, this was me being fresh in the game.
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And I already knew what songs, well, in my head, I knew what songs were going to be.
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Big records, you know, radio, single.
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I'm playing the game.
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I'm a new artist.
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And I have enough knowledge just going through meetings
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and going to labels and trying to get signed in my early 20s and things like that.
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I just know how the game works.
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So I'm creating these records for the radio.
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Just for people, just ear candy for people to enjoy.
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So in my mind, I'm thinking these are going to be the biggest records on the album.
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But turns out that a song called Mad City, where I'm just rapping for maybe 40 bars or 30 bars,
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is probably the most song with the biggest connection on that project.
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And that threw me for a loop.
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But it also gave me an insight clear enough to know
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sometimes it's not about what you think is going to happen or what you feel.
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People connect to things in strange ways.
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And at the end of the day, you have to go with that feeling.
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Absolutely.
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OK, now I have a question based on that.
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Forgetting, thinking of what you thought was going to work commercially, how did you feel about that song on the album in the context of the others?
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In the context of the album?
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Just as a, for your taste, where was that song on your meter?
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I loved it.
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Was it one of your favorites?
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It was one of my favorites.
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But I didn't know, you know.
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Yeah, it didn't fit a formula, but it was one of your favorites.
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Yeah, it was one of my favorites for sure.
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I hope that has given you confidence.
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Oh yeah, oh yeah, definitely.
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Nothing has to fit a formula if you go with what feels good to you.
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Exactly.
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That's what works.
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We was having a conversation in the studio the other night, you know.
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You know, of course there are certain rhythms and tempos and certain note changes in music that immediately appeases the ear.
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But when something just feels good, it can be a tree branch falling off the ground
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and somebody hitting that right key or that right lyric on
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that tree branch and it'd be the biggest thing in life because you just can't stop sound and you can't stop frequency.
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I truly believe in music is just like that.
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It's simple, you know?
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Let's talk about All Right for a second.
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Yeah.
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It has become sort of our generation's protest song.
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Yeah, yeah.
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And when you wrote it, did you have that in mind?
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Did you think of it as a protest song or?
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You know what?
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I had that record.
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I was sitting on that record for about six months, the beat Pharrell.
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And between my guy, Sam Taylor and Pharrell, did you do it?
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When you going to do it?
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When you going to do it?
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When you going to do it?
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It was on me.
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You know, I knew it was a great record.
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I just was trying to find the space and to approach it.
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What was, what's the approach, you know?
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I mean, the beat sounds fun, but it's something else inside of them chords that Pharrell put down
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that feels like it can be more of a statement rather than a certain tune, you know?
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So with the blessings of For Real and Sam asking me, am I going to rock, when I'm going to rock on it,
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it put the pressure on me.
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It put the pressure on me to challenge myself
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and to actually think and focus on something that can be a staple in hip hop.
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And eventually I came across it.
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Eventually I came across it and found the right words of what I wanted to talk about.
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You know, it was a lot going on
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and still to this day a lot going on
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and I wanted to approach it as a more uplifting but aggressive, you know.
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Not playing the victim but, you know, still having that, you know, yeah, we strong, you know.
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that was one record that executed exactly how my approach was the moment I put that pen to the paper.
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So you had the beat for like six months and then you didn't have any words at that point?
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I didn't have any words.
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I think P knew that that record was special.
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P knew that the record was special.
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Sam knew that the record was special.
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They probably knew it before I even, you know, had a clue, you know, so.
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I'm glad that they put that pressure on me to actually challenge myself.
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Because sometimes as a writer, you know, you can have that writer's block.
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And, you know, when you like a sound or a type of instrumental, you want to approach it the right way.
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So, sit on it.
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Yeah, I think also sometimes like the, maybe like the right content wasn't where you were for those six months.
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Like, you know what I mean?
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It's like the universe has a way of, like, the timing of it is not really on our control.
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You can't say, well, I got this track I like, so I'm gonna write to it now.
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It's like it comes when it's supposed to come and it's relevant in the world.
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It's like it works the way it's supposed to work.
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Yeah, definitely.
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You just have to be open to it and ready for it when it comes.
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Exactly.
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Exactly.
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I remember hitting P on the text and like, man, I got the lyrics.
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You know, and typing the lyrics to him, he's like, that's it.
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And did you have a scat over it before or nothing?
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Yeah, I had a scat.
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I had...
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And it had that phrasing?
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Different cadences.
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Yeah.
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You know?
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Hook or not yet?
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P had the hook.
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Oh, cool.
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Yeah.
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A good hook.
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Yeah, P had the all right.
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That's him on the hook.
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Yeah, yeah.
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I'm just saying that, the all right phrase, what does all right represent?
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What does we all going to be all right represent?
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Yeah.
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You know?
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I'm glad that sparked the idea because that song could have went a thousand other ways.
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Absolutely.
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Yup, a thousand other ways.
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What do you listen to mostly, would you say, now?
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Now?
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My list of music right now is ranging just a whole bunch of oldies.
448
That's cool.
449
Yeah, it's kind of trippy.
450
Same usual.
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Marvin Gaye.
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Aisley Brothers.
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I don't know, man.
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I just...
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Would you say more R&B than hip hop?
456
It's more R&B.
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It's more soul.
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Could you imagine making an album in the future where you're not rapping?
459
You consider yourself first and foremost a rapper.
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Yeah, definitely.
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Yeah, I think I got the confidence for it.
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I got the confidence for it.
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I have the experience and the time to approach it.
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So I can master up the idea and the time to approach the right way, I think I can pull it off.
465
I feel like it's really interesting now with what's going on in hip-hop.
466
You seem.. it's almost like you're a throwback to when lyrics mattered.
467
Because it feels like so much of hip-hop today is more about vibe and swag and personality and less about words.
468
And sometimes it sounds like even the MC doesn't know what he's saying on today's record.
469
So it's interesting to hear the sort of clarity and depth that you go lyrically.
470
The clarity...
471
I got my clarity just studying M when I was a kid.
472
Always, you know...
473
How I got in the studio was just all off curiosity.
474
I had a love for the music, but it was curiosity, you know.
475
The day I heard Marshall Mathers' LP, I was just...
476
How does that work?
477
What is he doing?
478
How is he putting his words together like that?
479
What is that?
480
What's the track under it?
481
Oh, that's a double.
482
It's an ad lib.
483
An ad lib?
484
What is that?
485
You should go into Studio C.
486
I do that.
487
How is he projecting?
488
How is his words cutting through the beat like that?
489
What is he doing that I'm not doing now that I'm into it?
490
Yeah.
491
His time is impeccable.
492
You know, when you want to fall off the beat, it's impeccable.
493
You know, and these are certain things that through experience and time that, you know, I had to learn.
494
Lucky that you got to learn it as young as you were.
495
Yeah.
496
It just gave you the ability to grow so much.
497
Yeah, definitely, definitely.
498
13, 14 years old.
499
Crazy.
500
In one of your lyrics, you mentioned meditation.
501
Mm-hmm.
502
Do you have a meditation practice?
503
Yeah, man.
504
I have to have at least 30 minutes to myself.
505
If it's not on a daily, every other day, to just sit back, close my eyes, and I absorb what's going on, you know, the space that I'm in.
506
When you're in music, and everybody knows this, the years are always cut in half because we always have something to do.
507
Whether we're in the studio for four months, that go by.
508
Now you gotta go on the road for five months, that go by next thing you know five years don't went by and you're 29 years old you know and and
509
for me now i have to find a way to understand the space
510
that i'm in and how i'm feeling at the moment because
511
if i don't it's going to zoom i know i can feel you know
512
and i'm sure you know what i'm I'm talking about.
513
It just goes, you know, and then you miss out on your moment because you were so in the moment,
514
you didn't know the moment was going on.
515
If that makes sense.
516
Absolutely.
517
Yeah.
518
You can also get lost.
519
I know some artists get lost in touring, and they become less relatable.
520
Like the stuff they have to write about doesn't relate
521
because all they know is being on stage and accolades
522
and hotels like stuff that's like doesn't it doesn't their reality is
523
so different than everybody else's reality that it's not so interesting especially
524
if that's all you talk about definitely definitely it's definitely a
525
different it's a like to call it a cartoon world you know
526
and you can really get lost in it
527
so fast you know it's scary out there it's so scary man
528
and how did you get the idea to do the 30 minutes every day or every other day?
529
Well, just knowing my scheduling and how much I just think about music.
530
Someone brought it to my attention.
531
It's all I think about.
532
There's nothing wrong with it.
533
It consumes me.
534
It consumes my life.
535
I breathe it.
536
I can't think about nothing else.
537
And once I start realizing that,
538
OK, I know that I have to give it some time and space every now and then.
539
And that 30 minutes helps.
540
That 30 minutes helps where I can totally zone out and not think about my next lyric.
541
And it gives me a restart, a jump start, and a refresh, and lets me know why I'm here, doing what I'm doing.
542
Beautiful.
543
Does it typically take a long time from the time you have the concept until you get the whole thing written?
544
Maybe not produced the way you want, but at least written.
545
It varies.
546
I've written concepts in four songs, three verses each, 24 bars,
547
16 bars, four songs within an hour or six months.
548
Yeah.
549
It just moves like that sometimes for me.
550
When you have the concept, you said before that you're surprised sometimes by how the record comes out.
551
Yeah.
552
But do you know the message you're trying to get across before?
553
Oh, yeah.
554
So you always know that in advance.
555
Definitely.
556
That nature comes from the skills of loving to write in school
557
and knowing how to engage the listener
558
and knowing where I'm going to land it or where it's going to end or where it's not going to end.
559
You know, that's always been something I was always unique about and really focused on.
560
You know, where does this thing go?
561
You know, and I have that premeditated in the process of me pushing the lyrics.
562
Earliest memory of music?
563
Being in the living room and watching We Want Easy.
564
How old would you say you are?
565
Had to be four maybe
566
I actually said before him busting out it was a scene where he bust out of jail on stage
567
And he's rapping his verse
568
That's my earliest memories I think
569
Then after that it would be Snoop Dogg nothing
570
but a jeep thing I was heavy into music videos this one the box was out.
571
Yeah, you had to order You know, they constantly order, so the song was coming on back to back and I just sit in front of the tube, just watch it back to back to back to back.
572
Amazing.
573
Alone, my parents playing it every night, you know, they partied.
574
They partied every night, literally.
575
And, um, films or television shows that mean a lot to you, or you...
576
Oh yeah, definitely.
577
All those things play a part to the start of my imagination, you know.
578
Any particular ones you remember?
579
I used to look on the tube.
580
It could be from Dennis to Menace.
581
It could be from, what was I watching, Fresh Prince.
582
All these things constructed my imagination of what was outside of the actual house that I was living in, or the neighborhood I was in.
583
Because I'm looking at these figures, these figures almost are like, you know, imaginary.
584
You know, you're looking at Will Smith as the Fresh Prince.
585
You know, he's actually a real person, but as a kid you see him in the TV screen.
586
So to you To me I should say
587
He's almost like a character in a sense
588
You know when I look at Michael Jackson still to this day Michael Jackson is
589
The biggest imaginary character for me because I never got to meet him.
590
I've always seen him on television You know, I've always seen him doing magic on stage, you know?
591
So I'm looking at this guy as just a fig my imagination and me wondering how did they get,
592
you know, beyond to that television screen.
593
So all these things played a part with me being where I'm at today from the music to what I'm watching.
594
Just my perspective my perspective was always that I'm not just watching TV.
595
I'm trying to figure out How does he do that?
596
You know just curiosity Who were the people were there any people that you saw?
597
Growing up that you had that feeling about that you did get to be and and how did what was that like?
598
Oh, yeah, that was bugged out.
599
Oh, yeah, it's crazy Dr. Dre Snoop Dogg Dre for sure.
600
Tell me about your relationship with Dre.
601
Oh man, it's a great thing man because I once looked at it as just me being an ultimate fan,
602
I'm still a fan to this day, but to actually sit down and have conversations beyond the music,
603
he wasn't just a figment of my imagination that I was watching on TV screen.
604
It's almost confirmation.
605
The people I've watched, they just didn't get there out of pure luck.
606
They actually worked hard and they are human beings with real emotions, real drive, real consistency, real hunger.
607
You know, it's way deeper than just a fan now, you know.
608
And that always tripped me out because I told them about the story when I seen them when I was eight, nine years old with Tupac on Rosecrans.
609
Fast forward 15 years later, I'm in the studio with him, and I'm telling him that story, and he remembers it. So beautiful.
610
I just...
611
You remember that?
612
He's like, yeah, I remember that.
613
Everybody was out in the street.
614
Y'all was across the street from a burger spot.
615
Yeah, that's my burger.
616
I was one of the kids out there that was watching.
617
Crazy, right?
618
Crazy to me.
619
Yeah.
620
Crazy to me.
621
An interesting part of it is there's both.. both the amount of work that goes into doing it
622
and being able to keep doing it.
623
It's not, you know, sometimes when you're a kid and you see the person on the screen, you think, oh, I want to have that life, but you don't understand what goes into it.
624
But then also, even if you have the work ethic, there's still a tremendous amount of luck involved.
625
Even if you're the best in the world, not everybody gets to find out.
626
It's like so many elements have to go right.
627
It's crazy.
628
The stars, they really align.
629
It is so much, so many talented artists out there that I come across every day.
630
And things just don't plan out.
631
It can be from their own personal experiences or issues or management.
632
It's something that is an indescribable nature.
633
You know, it's an indescribable nature for sure.
634
On the second album you have the, I'll call it the poem that happens over and over again.
635
Yeah, yeah.
636
I remember you was conflicted.
637
Yeah, yeah, yeah, definitely.
638
When did that idea come up to use that over and over again?
639
It came into the process of me actually recording the records.
640
I wanted a thread conceptually just ties in the songs.
641
I've always just been a fan of just movie flicks and writers in general.
642
I just love writers, man.
643
Like, sitting in a screening where people just come up with the craziest, wackiest ideas, you know?
644
And that was a process that came along while I was writing a record, you know?
645
And it worked out, you know?
646
It's a little...
647
It's so cool.
648
Appreciate it.
649
Yeah.
650
But it wasn't, there was no influence of like, there was some old album you heard that did something like that?
651
Nah.
652
It must have been a, if anything, it was a movie, subconsciously in the back of my mind.
653
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
654
It resonates and feels unusual, but it pulls you further into it.
655
And then also, sometimes when I'm listening to it and it comes up, I remember the first time I was listening to it, I was always like, oh, wait a minute, I think it messed up.
656
It's playing again.
657
You know, like I didn't...
658
Those are things I like.
659
Yeah, absolutely.
660
Those things are fun and they're funny to me.
661
It also pulls you out of the normal experience of just sitting back and listening.
662
It's like it makes you question what's happening
663
and then it forces you to pay attention in a new way and force you to listen again.
664
It really does?
665
Or force you just don't listen at all anymore.
666
You know, whatever your taste may be at the time.
667
But you're gonna go back to it eventually.
668
How do you celebrate when something good happens?
669
That is the question of my team asks me every day.
670
Really?
671
I don't know if it's the actual moment or me getting back in and doing something new or furthering that.
672
I think that's the thrill for me.
673
I feel the same as you.
674
Yeah, it's a crazy feeling for me.
675
I don't know if it's not the actual celebration for me.
676
It's about not doing it again, but doing something fresh.
677
It's almost like the opportunity to do something new.
678
Can you think of a disappointment that you've had?
679
Finding the balance between family and music.
680
That is the disappointment because when you're doing this,
681
it comes a lot of sacrifice.
682
You're going to miss a lot of birthdays.
683
You're going to miss a lot of moments.
684
Those are my earliest disappointments appointment, the idea of that, knowing those times were coming and they came and there's going to be more of it.
685
And me not learning to find the balance,
686
it always was a stress for me.
687
Because you have certain people you care about and you love and sometimes you may get lost in the music so far,
688
you may forget how much you mean to the people that that you came up with, or your family, or your mother, or your father.
689
You can hear it, and you can hear, even if it's not as blunt or as vocal, you can hear the sort of disappointment.
690
For the most part, are the people around you supportive of what you're doing?
691
Yeah, yeah, definitely, definitely.
692
They're supportive, but everybody has feelings. Of course.
693
And sometimes, in the position that I'm in, And they may not want to express those real feelings
694
because it may bring worry or they don't want to bring worry or stress into my life.
695
So them finding that balance and the time to do that, it can be somewhat of a weary situation.
696
So on a personal scale, that would be disappointment for sure.
697
But do you have anyone around you Who tells you if something's not good?
698
Oh yeah.
699
Like either if you do something that they perceive is out of line or. For sure.
700
Then I'd be head over heels right now
701
if I didn't have a certain type of grounded family or team that just have my best interest, not only in music, but as a person.
702
Everyone that's around me, everyone that's even around This area has been with me since I was 15 years old.
703
And these are the same people I keep around.
704
And hopefully, eventually, I know we grow as people.
705
And I will grow some people in different natures.
706
But I will hope that these same people will continue to grow with me.
707
Because I can't stop.
708
Yeah.
709
I can't stop.
710
And musically, do you have anyone who's like, it's not good enough?
711
Or are you the biggest critic?
712
Your team will do it too?
713
My team will do it too.
714
Yeah, man.
715
Yeah.
716
I think that's how I became the biggest critic of myself.
717
Because through their criticism, you learned to be better.
718
Yeah, my skin is tough.
719
Yeah.
720
My top dog himself, CEO of the company, when I was 16, yeah, that verse ain't good.
721
That's whack.
722
You know, you know, you're a kid like, what?
723
You know, your feelings will get hurt.
724
But after constantly, you know, you grow tough again, and you get better, and you're being pushed.
725
It's in service to you.
726
Him saying that is in service to you.
727
Definitely, definitely.
728
Because it taught me to know what to do and not to do on record, you know, as far as lyricism,
729
as far as my approach because I've had the training.
730
I have the rap boot camps, being in there with my team and just going at it, sleeping on couches for hours.
731
I've had the process for 10 years plus.
732
And in doing that, I just developed a critique and a liking for what I know, what I'm capable of.
733
Yeah, beautiful.
734
Do you have any idea of the direction that's going coming next as far as writing goes?
735
It's soon.
736
I have ideas though.
737
I have ideas and I have a certain approach.
738
I want to see what it manifests to.
739
I want to put all the paint on the wall and see where that goes.
740
Maybe you can help me with that. For sure.
741
Do you usually, like for Butterfly, did you record more songs than the ones on the album?
742
I have so many floating around, 24 bars, 16 bars, hooks.
743
Really, mainly hooks.
744
Hooks and choruses and bridges and ideas.
745
You know, verses here and there, songs here and there, but really concepts of hooks and references
746
that I had in mind for other people to sing and things like that.
747
Where do you find the most inspiration?
748
You said early when we started talking about traveling around the world and talking to people.
749
Can you give me an example, just like one picture of something that happened?
750
Man, it's mainly kids, man.
751
I always say this.
752
Kids bug me out because they have no fear and nothing.
753
Like nothing.
754
I sit there
755
and I talk to kids kids like my little niece you know she's two years old
756
but she fears nothing and she has no concept
757
of reality as we know it
758
that always inspired me to write for some reason man it
759
don't necessarily have to be whatever the actual child is pertaining to
760
but it it gives me a moment talking to them It gives me a moment to step back
761
and look at the world for what I know it and for what this kid sees.
762
They say kids are much closer to God in that way.
763
Like they're not yet indoctrinated into society so they're closer to just pure essence.
764
Exactly.
765
Exactly.
766
Because deep down we're all kids at heart.
767
And I know I am.
768
I'm the biggest kid ever.
769
I can be able to relate and communicate with them in a way that I watch most adults can't.
770
I'll sit there and hold a conversation and go back to the studio and write the most bugged out song.
771
Like I said, it gives me a chance to sit back
772
and allow myself to look at the perspectives of the different spectrum of having responsibilities and not having any at all.
773
It's fun talking to you, man.
774
Yeah, man.
775
I'm ready.
776
This is great.
777
Great, great introduction.
778
Anything else you want to talk about?
779
Check out the space, man.
780
I'm in a creative zone.
781
This is this.
782
Should we go inside and record?
783
Right.
784
Right.
785
Exactly.
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Woordenschat en spreektips bij deze les
Deze spreekles op niveau B2 is gebaseerd op de video “Kendrick Lamar & Rick Rubin Have an Epic Conversation”. Deze video bevat 785 zinnen en 7818 woorden om na te spreken. Het gesproken deel duurt 49:12. De spreker praat in een natuurlijk tempo van ongeveer 159 woorden per minuut, dicht bij een alledaags gesprek. 87% van de woorden hoort bij de 3.000 meest gebruikte Engelse woorden, dus de woordenschat is goed te volgen.
Belangrijke woorden in deze video
De 15 moeilijkste woorden uit de video, met uitspraak en betekenis:
| Woord | Uitspraak | Betekenis |
|---|---|---|
| listener zelfstandig naamwoord | /ˈlɪs(ə)nɚ/ | luisteraar, toehoorder |
| emotion zelfstandig naamwoord | /ɪˈməʊ.ʃən/ | emotie |
| butterfly zelfstandig naamwoord | /ˈbʌ.tə(ɹ).flaɪ/ | vlinder, kapel |
| musician zelfstandig naamwoord | /mjuˈzɪʃən/ | muzikant, muzikante |
| verse zelfstandig naamwoord | /ˈvɝs/ | vers |
| critic zelfstandig naamwoord | /ˈkɹɪt.ɪk/ | criticus |
| disappointment zelfstandig naamwoord | /ˌdɪsəˈpɔɪntmənt/ | teleurstelling |
| vocal bijvoeglijk naamwoord | /ˈvoʊ̯.kəl/ | vocal |
| clarity zelfstandig naamwoord | /ˈklæɹ.ɪ.ti/ | helderheid, klaarheid |
| curiosity zelfstandig naamwoord | /ˌkjʊɹ.iˈɑ.sə.ti/ | nieuwsgierigheid |
| drum zelfstandig naamwoord | /ˈdɹʌm/ | drum, trom |
| cadence zelfstandig naamwoord | /ˈkeɪ̯dəns/ | cadans |
| impeccable bijvoeglijk naamwoord | /ɪmˈpɛkəbəl/ | onberispelijk |
| indescribable bijvoeglijk naamwoord | /ɪndɪˈskɹaɪbəbl̩/ | onbeschrijfelijk |
| pimp zelfstandig naamwoord | /pɪmp/ | pooier, souteneur |
Phrasal verbs die je zult horen
| Woord | Uitspraak | Betekenis |
|---|---|---|
| come across werkwoord | overkomen | |
| come back werkwoord | terugkomen | |
| break down werkwoord | stukgaan, kapot gaan | |
| come out werkwoord | /ˌkʌm ˈaʊt/ | uitkomen |
| wake up werkwoord | /ˌweɪk ˈʌp/ | wakker worden, ontwaken |
| come up with werkwoord | bedenken, verzinnen | |
| check out werkwoord | onderzoeken | |
| figure out werkwoord | uitvogelen, er achter komen |
Zinnen om te herhalen
Korte, volledige zinnen uit de video die je in alledaagse gesprekken kunt gebruiken:
- How do you describe it?
- Do you think about how to ask this?
- How do you know when it's good?
- Can you think of a disappointment that you've had?
- You know, you know, you're a kid like, what?
Grammatica in deze video
De structuren die de spreker het meest gebruikt, met de exacte woorden uit de video:
| Structuur | In de video |
|---|---|
| Present perfect continuous have/has been + -ing — iets dat eerder begon en nog bezig is | I've been liking · you've been liking |
| “Used to” used to + werkwoord — een vroegere gewoonte of toestand die niet meer klopt | used to consider · used to look |
| Present perfect have/has + voltooid deelwoord — iets uit het verleden dat nu nog telt | I've accomplished · you've written · we've been told |
| Lijdende vorm be + voltooid deelwoord — het gaat om wat er gebeurt, niet om wie het doet | was inspired · was raised · was implanted |
Uitspraak om op te letten
De spreker gebruikt 171 samentrekkingen en verkorte vormen, zoals I'm, you're, don't. Spreek ze kort uit, zoals je ze hoort.
- De “th”-klanken: thrill /θɹɪl/, booth /buθ/
- De klanken “sh” en “zh”: emotion /ɪˈməʊ.ʃən/, musician /mjuˈzɪʃən/, meditation /mɛdɪˈteɪʃn̩/, infectious /ɪnˈfɛk.ʃəs/, fictional /ˈfɪkʃənəl/
- Lange woorden — let op de klemtoon: disappointment /ˌdɪsəˈpɔɪntmənt/, curiosity /ˌkjʊɹ.iˈɑ.sə.ti/, impeccable /ɪmˈpɛkəbəl/, indescribable /ɪndɪˈskɹaɪbəbl̩/, musically /ˈmjuːzɪkəli/
Klanken die Nederlandstaligen lastig vinden:
- Stemhebbende eindmedeklinker — /b/, /d/, /g/, /z/, /v/ niet verscherpen: chord /kɔɹd/, supportive /səˈpɔɹtɪv/, perceive /pɚˈsiv/, absorb /æbˈsɔɹb/, catalogue /ˈkæt.əˌlɔɡ/
- /æ/ — opener dan de Nederlandse “e”: rap /ɹæp/, clarity /ˈklæɹ.ɪ.ti/, scat /skæt/, imaginary /ɪˈmæd͡ʒɪˌn(ɛ)ɹi/, absorb /æbˈsɔɹb/
- /g/ — een harde plofklank, geen Nederlandse “g”: burger /ˈbɝ.ɡɚ/, hunger /ˈhʌŋɡɚ/, catalogue /ˈkæt.əˌlɔɡ/, obligation /ˌɑ.blɪˈɡeɪ.ʃn̩/
Zo oefen je met deze video
- Luister de hele video één keer zonder te spreken en noteer de woorden die je niet kent.
- Begin op 0,75× snelheid, spreek zin voor zin na en ga terug naar normale snelheid zodra het makkelijk gaat.
- Neem jezelf op en vergelijk met het origineel; let daarbij op woorden als listener, emotion, butterfly.
Wat is de Shadowing-techniek?
Shadowing is een wetenschappelijk onderbouwde taalleermethode die oorspronkelijk is ontwikkeld voor professionele tolkentraining en gepopulariseerd door polyglot Dr. Alexander Arguelles. De methode is eenvoudig maar krachtig: je luistert naar native Engelse audio en herhaalt het onmiddellijk hardop — als een schaduw die de spreker volgt met slechts 1–2 seconden vertraging. In tegenstelling tot passief luisteren of grammaticadrills, dwingt shadowing je hersenen en mondspieren om echte spraakpatronen tegelijkertijd te verwerken en te reproduceren. Onderzoek toont aan dat het de uitspraaknauwkeurigheid, intonatie, ritme, verbonden spraak, luisterbegrip en spreekvaardigheid aanzienlijk verbetert — waardoor het een van de meest effectieve methoden is voor IELTS Speaking-voorbereiding en echte Engelse communicatie.