If you met him and you got to have a conversation with him, nine times out of ten he left you
with something to think about that you probably never heard or you never looked at it that way.
I heard “Monkey Suit” once, like the actual song.
But I just fell in love with that Madlib beat.
I pull up the instrumental and I wrote this "Survival Tactics" verse to that.
And the next day I came, like, to school.
I see STEEZ in the lunchroom, I was like, "Yo.
You gotta hear this verse, B." You know what I'm saying?
You gotta hear this shit.
So you know I spit it for him or whatever.
He's like, "Yo, that shit is hard but you should put it on this beat and let's do it together.”
And then he had the “Survival Tactics” Styles of Beyond beat.
And I was like, "Alright.
Bet.
After school let's got my crib.”
I'm trying to accomplish one, the illest beginnings of all times.
I'm also trying to, you know, declare war on the rap game like, "Yo, I'm out here in
the middle of this shit, And I got a knife."
You know what I'm saying?
And that was just a metaphor to like us being here, like independent.
Not really having anything.
So we got them going, you know, P.E. is the gang.
Toy Story reference.
Got them girls next to wood, Woody, like they light year.
Trying to get a buzz like Buzz Lightyear, trying to get buzz like in the world, get
a buzz in my career.
Trying to pollinate like trying to blossom, trying to grow.
He had the presidential pack.
You know what I'm saying?
The trees, you know what I'm saying?
So it's time to inaugurate, time to bring it in. To our cypher and everything.
So, "No time for fake people" is a reference to sim, like the Sims.
They be simming, and it's Simmons like Kimora Lee Simmons.
I ain't gonna lie.
Like when he first said it, I didn't even know what a booster pack was.
I actually remember looking it up.
And I'm like, "Oh, it's like a fake card deck or something," like you know what I mean?
I was like, "Word."
He used to always say shit that I just never heard before and I had to ask him about
it or look it up.
That's a hard ass bar.
That was on of the bars like, "Damn. Why the fuck I didn't think of that?"
I was like, "Damn, give me one more month, I would've came up with that shit."
You know what I'm saying?
It's funny 'cause Steeze loved the Based God.
It was almost like a playful sparring bar.
And he was like a controversial thinker, so I already knew he knew how people would react
to that but he really loves the bass god though.
He put me on to the Based God, I think.
If I'm not mistaken.
Wow I just caught that too.
President election is P.E.
He wasn't one to start fights or start bullshit for no reason but when it came to that time
he was not gonna be absent.
STEEZ was a very loving person.
Loving and lovable, you know what I mean?
He had love for everybody around him.
He was the type of dude that would try to uplift everyone around him.
He always try to leave you with something.
I even remember being sixteen when he appointed me as the leader of Pro Era.
And I was like, "What?"
I'm like, "Bro, you the leader.
How I'm the leader and I follow you?"
He was like, "Nah.
I wanna be more like the teacher."
And right away I understood.
Soon as he said that I was like, "Bet.
I got you.
I see how, I see your vision."
And he knew that I as capable of taking it to where he wanted it to go.