[MUSIC PLAYING]
Number one show on late night.
Nothing but illustrious guest. - Baby.
Mero, who is in the building today?
Oh, man, BX's own, or VA's own, depending on who you ask.
You know what I'm saying. - No, we're BX.
MERO: Pusha T. - You're about to start a war.
MERO: Yeah, baby.
Pusha T, AKA, Push a ton.
What up. MERO: In the building.
DESUS: The God. - What's up.
What's up.
The coke God, the lyrical God.
Yes, sir.
Oh, man.
I wear all of that.
This interview has been a long time coming, man.
How are you feeling?
Really good.
I know you're excited about the album.
Oh, for sure.
Title.
"It's Almost Dry".
Oh!
You know what that mean when it's almost dry.
Time to get to work, papa.
You see where we at?
- We're in the bodega. - Yeah, we're in the bodega.
You know what happens back here.
This is where the deals go down.
Behind that beaded curtain is a place you can
only go if you know somebody.
And a lot of y'all like, Pusha T,
all he does is rap about coke.
So?
That's what we want.
- Hello. - That is what we want.
Duh. MERO: Hello.
DESUS: OK?
How do you keep the coke talk fresh
though, because every time you talk about it,
it's like you're coming at a new angle, new words, new wordplay.
A lot of people take the coke talk as--
I don't know.
It's just like a surface level way
to describe what it is that I do.
I feel like the drug references are just like the common thread
that really encompasses everything,
culturally, what's going on, what's going on in the streets.
It's just as time progresses and so on and so forth,
you just draw the parallels between the time
and what's going on in the drug culture.
Got you.
It's not really--
I used to get upset.
Yeah, I used to get upset about, oh, that's coke
rap, when it's like, man, no.
That's all you hear?
It's more intricate than that.
Yeah, it's metaphors.
Exactly.
MERO: Dig into it.
Exactly.
Dig into the subtext.
PUSHA T: Exactly.
As you're walking around through the day,
are you just in your head?
You see things, and you're like, oh, OK, I'm going to use that.
How does it work, because I'm not a rapper.
I want to know the process.
I don't write a lot.
I think that sort of explains the timing between my albums
and so on and so forth.
Right.
I don't write a lot, and I don't write to everything.
If it inspires me, then I go.
Right.
I think it's just, man, you've got to live life.
You've got to live life, and as you're living it,
that's where the bars and those parallels and everything
comes from.
The source material.
Got you. All right.
Now, you're my favorite coke rapper,
but you've also inspired me in a different part of my life.
What's that?
I'm renovating my apartment.
Just copped a penthouse.
- Oh, man. - And listen.
What?
I got the motorized shades, bro.
OK.
DESUS: I got the motorized shades.
Let's talk about it.
You said the shades controlled by the iPad.
PUSHA T: Right, right.
When did you first get those?
Well, I've had them in a couple of homes.
OK, flex. Jesus.
Yeah.
Easy, easy.
Man, my wife, bro, she's found this interior design passion,
and she's just really good.
We had moved to Maryland, right, and I was like, man, let's
get a designer or whatever.
So we started working with a designer.
The woman actually designed Dame Dash's penthouse in New York.
DESUS: OK.
Right?
So we're in Maryland.
She tells me.
I'm like, OK, cool.
By the time she was done, she offered my wife a job.
Listen, you should come work with us.
Because she was so good at it.
PUSHA T: Yeah.
I just really put everything in her hands
and let her just do it, but she knows.
I've got to put interior design bars--
Exactly. PUSHA T: --in the raps.
In the raps.
Of course.
Yeah, the iPad.
with the blinds and so on and so forth.
She knows that's going to help inspire me.
- Exactly. - For sure.
As a married man.
How did that situation come about?
Did she come to you and be like, yo, listen,
I want carte blanche to do whatever
the fuck I want in the crib.
Are you cool with that, or was it more like a collaborative?
Or were you like, yo, I don't care
about the color of the shades.
I just want them to be controlled by the iPad.
Yeah, exactly.
I want the rappable shit. - Right.
I want to say the rappable shit.
You don't care about the nuance.
Yeah, I don't care about--
The 10% gray and all that.
Oh, my God.
You're not trying to do--
PUSHA T: It gets annoying.
I was at the shade store.
It's a lot.
It gets super annoying, but when she asks questions,
because she know I don't care.
DESUS: You got other things going on.
I don't give a fuck.
Yo.
But she really runs that.
On your Instagram, something you're
really proud about, you're always
showing pictures of your kid. - Yes.
DESUS: You love being a dad. - Yes.
- Look at you smiling about it. - I do, man.
Is that one of the greatest things that's happened to you?
For sure.
I don't know why I waited so long.
DESUS: Yeah.
Like, man.
Listen, I might be trying to do that this year.
What's up?
Talk to me about this.
My son is 20 months, and he's by far the best
thing I've ever created.
Ever.
The best thing I've ever been a part
of, best thing I've ever created, best thing
just in life.
Every time you see him, you feel like that?
Every single time.
For the first 18 months, he didn't even
care if I was around.
Right.
But these past two months, when I leave, he cries.
He's now like--
Daddy.
PUSHA T: Yeah.
Daddy, where you at?
PUSHA T: Come in the room.
Looking for you.
Looking for me.
It's like, it's getting weird, and
people don't even understand.
When they ask me to do shit or when the label calls me,
and it's like, yo, you got to--
Your priority shifted.
You mean I've got to leave my house?
It pisses me off.
It burns me up, especially when I really, really don't want to.
Right.
But it's because of him though. - Right.
That's the thing.
That's a beautiful thing, bro.
I always ask fathers this.
When he was born, you know what I'm saying, because I got four.
And when my first son was born, something in me
changed chemically that I can't describe.
PUSHA T: Yeah.
Can you put that into words for other fathers?
It's selflessness.
I'm very selfish.
I'm a stupid selfish person.
Yeah.
PUSHA T: With my son, I have totally taking myself.
It's all him first.
Bro, the selflessness is like--
I was going to say that, even with the beef
you have with Drake.
He has a kid now.
You have a kid now. - Yeah.
And even in an interview, you were like that's
water under the bridge.
You're not even really trying to talk about that.
You're doing your thing now.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
You see a bigger picture?
Well, you know what it is?
I don't like the energy of mentioning
my son in that type of energy, or any kid
in that type of energy.
It's just not my--
I feel you.
It's not my thing right now. I got my son.
That Papa bear shit.
You be ready to fuck somebody up.
I feel you.
And with me, I'm just not going to play
about anything involving him.
I don't play--
At all.
--nothing.
It's even higher now.
Yeah.
It's like, you know what, I'll just--
DESUS: Got you.
MERO: Let's just cool it.
Let's cool it.
Still got the ramen restaurant?
- Yes. - How's it going?
First of all, name of the restaurant.
Kitsuen. DESUS: OK.
Kitsuen. It's in DC.
Do you have a favorite ramen?
- No. - No?
Not at all.
You don't like ramen at all?
Yeah, I like Oodles of Noodles.
Oh, you like the hood ramen.
PUSHA T: Yeah, I like the hood ramen.
The VA ramen.
Yeah, for sure.
I respect that.
PUSHA T: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
I respect that.
Cut up some hot dogs in that.
1,000%.
That'll hold you down when you're going through it.
You get a box of those, you're good for a month.
Many a day.
Your sodium, however, not so much.
Oh, really?
It was killing me?
Listen, if you look at each pack,
that's something like 60% of your sodium intake per day.
- Never read it. - Never read it.
Never read it.
Just rip that bitch open, throw in the water.
The trick is don't use the little packet.
If you take it out--
Oh, really?
--and you throw eggs in there or chop the bacon.
So don't use the--
Don't use the seasoning.
Don't use the greatness.
DESUS: That greatness, don't use that.
You try that.
Listen, when you taste it, you feel your blood pressure go up.
Know that.
I'll just drink a glass of water right after.
I'm like, I'm good. - Too late.
DESUS: That's not a good thing.
Your heart be looking at you like, what you doing?
I'm throwing hot sauce on that bitch, all that.
I'm like, yeah, we're adding extra salt.
What can we expect with the album?
Oh.
DESUS: Just more greatness? We're lucky.
You know what I'm saying?
Number one show on late night.
We got to hear the album behind the scenes.
Yeah.
Hoes went crazy.
There's a Jay-Z verse that doesn't--
Jay ain't have to do that.
He didn't have to do that.
I believe Jay-Z said I have your mansion on my wall.
God damn.
Are you shitting me?
MERO: Are you shitting me?
DESUS: Imagine that.
Imagine you're just in your house.
You're just in your house, and Jay-Z just shit
on your whole Zillow contract.
Fuck out of here. PUSHA T: Yeah.
Like, yo.
He does that.
He does that a lot.
Take all my acreage.
Get out of here.
But I feel like he's like, yo, I'm Hov.
I'm getting in the booth.
I'm getting in the joint with Push.
I've got to bring my A-1 [INAUDIBLE]..
You know what I'm saying?
That raw.
Yeah, and that's why I reach out to him for music.
It all happens.
It happens over email.
Yeah.
This is the wildest part.
I'll have a beat, and I'll be like, man, this is crazy.
And I'll write to it, and I'll say everything
I can say crazy to it.
I'm like, man, who belongs on this beat,
and if I don't feel like anybody can match up,
but I feel like it needs a feature,
because I can't say anymore.
I think I've done it all.
This happened with Drug Dealers Anonymous as well
as the new joint for the album.
The song's called Neck and Wrist.
I record it, and I send it to him.
I just email it to him, and he hit
me back, whether it's emojis.
Yo, P.
Yo, what the hell.
Just flame emojis.
I think he said, what the hell you want me to say to this?
Yeah.
I know I can count on him to say
things that I just can't say.
Right.
You know what I'm saying?
Bro.
He's on a different level.
PUSHA T: Yeah, different level. - He's up there.
It's J-Hova.
Yeah.
And I feel like, a lot of times when I do features,
I do features for people to really take the record
to the next level, like really take it to the next level,
really step it up, because I'm doing the feature for an album.
Like I said, these albums come few and far between.
So it's like, man, they've got to be masterpiece level.
Exactly.
Now, there's two people trying to go to the Roc Nation brunch.
You talk about email.
Is SC@gmail not Jay-Z's email address?
PUSHA T: That's 1,000% not his email.
Is it J hyphen?
No.
Is it with the umlaut over the A like the old school?
Dog, no.
It's not Shawn@Tidal?
PUSHA T: No.
Because we've been emailing, and we
ain't been at the brunch.
Y'all haven't been at the brunch?
Nah.
We've had the same outfits under the mattress since 2016.
For a minute.
Dog, listen.
I think it's because we moved around.
Listen, I've been, and you definitely are missing out,
and I hope that they have the brunch this year.
I hope that they have it.
I'm going to try to get y'all in.
I think I can get y'all in.
I think so.
I might be able to.
If you do that, because, listen, we're already plugged an album.
No, for sure.
Yo, Hov, yo, I got the Rangers on vinyl.
You know what I'm saying?
I'm out here.
I'm dedicated.
I'll bring out the S.Carters.
We go old school.
Blunts & Armadale, dog.
I know it word for word.
We've got to talk about the watch game.
What's your favorite watch right now?
Oh, drug dealer Rollies.
What's a drug dealer Rolly for those that don't know.
It's my TikTok trilla.
Insecure bitches getting lip fillers.
Covered in white like bridezilla,
but never been caught.
So what's the shiggy dance for a brick nigga?
[TONGUE TRILL] Pop, pop, pop, pop, pop, pop, pop, pop.
Easy.
Drop the flame emojis all over the place.
No.
To me-- I like a lot of watches.
Give me a top five power ranking overall.
You've got the Nautilus.
Do you do it by watch person thing or like hood nigga?
Bang.
You know the fucking vibe, because that's it.
I got niggas that are like, yo, Desus, you should get this,
you should get that.
And I'm like, nigga, a Rolly is just an investment.
You could sell it if you ever get in trouble.
Nah, and I do them.
I like a lot of watches.
I love the APs.
Patek.
I love the Pateks.
You know what I'm saying?
Richard Milles.
I love them all, right?
And a lot of my friends wear them all.
The Rolly, to me, just speaks to me.
It just speaks to me, and it speaks to ghetto trophies.
Exactly.
Fam.
This is the first ghetto trophy right here.
It's like the guys that you grew up admiring, they had it.
Right, exactly.
You can usually-- well, I can buy any of them.
Yeah.
But it's like--
- It don't feel the same. - It don't all feel the same.
- It don't hit the same. - You know what I'm saying?
Yeah.
When you got it on your wrist, you're like, I did that.
Yeah, 1,000%.
What do you recommend for a dude like me with a big hand?
You know what I'm saying?
I'm looking for some 42 millimeter, 44 millimeter.
PUSHA T: I would say find a 41 millimeter, big face.
Something in the Water coming back this year?
Something in the Water is coming back this year?
Know what I'm saying?
PUSHA T: Oh, man.
Shout out to the homie Pharrell.
Shout out Pharrell, man.
Something in the Water is probably
one of the best things he's had his hand in and created.
This particular year, Something in the Water
is going to be in Washington DC.
And speaking about Something in the Water, what
is in the water in Virginia that produces
so much motherfucking talent out of one state?
Yeah.
You know what I mean?
You got you, Pharrell.
Allen Iverson.
Teddy Riley, Allen Iverson, Mad Skillz.
Missy.
Shomi Patwary, by the way.
Yeah, Shomi Patwary.
What's up, G?
You bought him his first camera.
- Did I? - Yes.
Yes, you did.
- I did buy the camera. - Yes.
Did I buy the camera, Shomi?
Shomi, is that not true?
I probably did.
You did.
Let me just tell you.
Shomi was really instrumental in putting us
on to just online, the visuals, the viral shit,
and we used to shoo the shit out of him.
Man, what the fuck do you want to tape us for?
Man, please.
He had the vision.
PUSHA T: And he was so first.
DESUS: Yeah.
He was like so first when I just think back at it,
and I might have bought the camera.
I don't even remember.
He was just our man.
I don't know.
What was it?
Was it a Pepsi commercial?
It was Pepsi.
It was Pepsi!
Shomi, come out here.
- Yo, you won't. - Come out here real quick.
Come out here real quick.
[INTERPOSING VOICES]
All day.
Yo.
what year was that?
DESUS: 7D.
You started, and that's why we got him here.
Listen, Push, we're loving this interview.
We could talk to you for hours.
- Come on. - But we're running out of time.
No! DESUS: Yes!
Keep going.
DESUS: I want to keep going. MERO: One more.
But we're running out of time on the SD card.
Ah.
Listen, nothing but illustrious guests.
Everywhere that comes in the bodega gets a neon sign.
Pusha, what would you like your neon sign to say?
Remain loyal, even when they didn't
DESUS: Ooh.
A lesson everyone can learn.
If you outside, you know what that means.
Pusha, what's the name of the album?
"It's Almost Dry".
[NON-ENGLISH SPEECH]
Dropping soon.
Get that right there.
Push Ton T.
Yes, sir.
Out here.
You know what it is.
Yup.