- We got one life to live, you know what I'm saying?
How are we going to maximize our time
while we on this earth?
Like, I'm just thinking about my legacy.
This is the first time in my life I'm able
to do music full-time, like my full time occupation
and career is making music.
So this is the first time I've been able to do that.
I love making music and I'll never take that for granted,
not acknowledge the blessing that I have,
to just be able to freely create as an artist
and as a creative and make a living off of it, you know?
So it's super dope.
I was in the studio, it was me, Kid, Jeanius,
they was going through samples and they found a sample.
I was like, nah, I speed it up and I found a BPM
and 'cause I'm real involved in a production process
so I had them speed it up to the exact tempo
I knew I wanted in my head.
Man, I think something happened that day, man,
or somebody just had me fucked up,
I don't know what happened, I can't quite recall it,
but somebody that day had me fucked up.
I just was in the studio like,
♪ last year I made seven million and then I had ♪
I was just on my bullshit, you know, that day.
You can fact check, you know,
like I was in the Coca-Cola Superbowl commercial
in 2020 with Jonah Hill, Martin Scorsese,
that sounds fucking crazy and I thought it was like,
you know, the C's, you know, like shout
out to my niggas up at Coca-Cola for the check
they cut me at the Superbowl, you know?
I thought, I was playing around with that.
Money can't buy you to get in the studio
with Dr. Dre on your 21st birthday.
You can only get that by being dope
or being cool with Anderson Paak.
You know what I'm saying?
I mean this is the fucking entertainment industry.
I don't like get mad at it, shit, I can't knock it.
Whatever works for you, you know?
If you feeding your family with that,
putting people on, putting people in positions of power
by fucking acting and portraying a lifestyle
that you ain't really living, like nigga, fuck it.
Go do that shit, that ain't got shit to do with me.
I just know I can't do that.
I wouldn't be able to live with myself.
I don't want no fucking problems with nobody either way.
It's a lot, the shit that come with that, you know?
I just want to put out high level energy, good energy,
operate at a high level of frequency
and not just plugging in High Level,
but this shit is really a lifestyle.
You know what I'm saying?
I never been dumb with money, like I never was the type
to just blow hella bread on dumb shit.
I always been saving money, I've saved probably
like 90, 80% of my total income, for sure.
Even within my career of music, like now,
we always have to conduct extremely dope business,
like you gotta be a man of your word, you know?
You gotta always, my execution had to be better when it
comes to certain things within the business side of it.
So just recognizing the growth that I needed
to be a better overall artist, businessman, entrepreneur,
and just a nigga that's trying to stack some bread,
you know what I'm saying?
Like, yeah, so like I said, ♪ I keep that drip on me ♪
♪ My nigga, I'm a big homie ♪ you know what I'm saying?
But I love that part. That's why my favorite part.
Some people may not love it, but I love that part.
My mama did say like, man, like you add,
she remind me all the time,
like you in such a blessed position in life,
like you got to execute and take this as far as you can go
so you can't fucking take no days off.
Like when God gives you blessings like this,
you got to take it to the moon,
as far as He intended for you to take it
and even, you know, further 'cause we all have
our own special assignments and missions
that were given and we got to execute on it, you know?
So when I pray, I just asked God to just use me as a vessel
to do Your work on earth and with that,
comes a lot of responsibility
so I can't be taking no days off, you know?
I got to go to the studio every day to make
the best possible music as I can.
Like we gotta maximize it man, so like I said,
I'm gonna live life to the fullest
with every single breath I take.
To inspire, to uplift, to make dope ass music,
to make dope content, to do some dope shit, you know?
Super dope shit.
For me to, you know, be one of the best ever,
like that's my fucking life, you know?
This is my legacy at hand, you know?
I can't play with it.
And sometimes in records, you manifest too,
so, you know, I'm the greatest nigga,
you can't fuck with this, you know?
But right now, I'm not the greatest, you know?
I got fucking one album out, you know?
But nigga, I'm trying to be,
and so hopefully like 10 years from now,
niggas will be looking like, oh shit,
this nigga been said that, you know?
Yeah, as a senior in high school, man, I was getting,
I was getting, I was getting bread, I ain't gonna lie.
Like I was dropping little local mix tapes
and I was putting it on TuneCore,
making my money from there.
So I'll make like $500, $700, you know,
as a high school kid, that's a lot of bread.
And I just remember like having little stacks of cash
like this and you know, as a kid,
when you earned it yourself, you know,
it's like a whole thing.
I thought I was fucking Al Pacino, you know what I'm saying?
So yeah, I'm not new to this, I'm true to this.
Like shit, I remember when I dropped YBN,
you know what I'm saying, like it wasn't a popular thing
at the time, you know?
I was getting killed online and I got tough skin.
Like, this is just what come with the game, you know?
I don't be tripping off anything.
I can't be talking to kids about ownership
and all of this, you know,
when we pushing this brand that we don't even own.
And you know, obviously it go without saying,
it ain't nothing against Nahmir and Jay,
like, you know, before I came to the conclusion that,
you know, I was going to drop the three letters,
I called Nahmir, I asked for his blessing, you know?
That was what was most important to me.
I didn't care what anybody else think.
As long as I had Nahmir's blessing,
and which he gave it to me, that's all I needed, you know?
Like I got forever eternal gratefulness
and appreciativeness of that dude, you know?
Like for real.
Sometimes life experiences are the biggest blessing.
All my niggas got passports.
All my niggas done seen the world
a couple of times over, you know?
So that within itself is a blessing,
that's why I got my little cousins playing badminton
'cause that's not no shit that, you know,
no little black kids usually be doing, you know?
Just try to open everybody's eyes
to different life experiences.
That's one of the big blessings in this thing
and like I said, when you have blessings,
you gotta be a blessing because they're always reciprocates
and come back to you.
You know, the most dangerous person in America
is the young educated black man.
I'm a young, wealthy, educated black man,
that's even more dangerous.
So I was not supposed to succeed at this level.
I'm not supposed to be here.
I'm not supposed to be fucking in Paris with the homies
you know what I'm saying?
I'm not supposed to be texting a deca-billionaire, you know?
I'm not supposed to do all of this fly shit
that I'd be doing all the time in life based upon the system
that was structured so young, rich and black?
Boy, them niggas hate me.
They hate me in America, for real.
Everybody's goal is to be the best, you know?
If you're, whatever craft that you do in life,
whether you want to be a doctor, lawyer, engineer,
you got to want to be the best at it
or else why the fuck you doing it?
Because I wouldn't to be able to live with myself
as an old man if I didn't put all of my energy
and transmute it into something great,
and just be the best person that I can be possibly.
You know, I can sleep when I'm 90 years old,
I'll be like, man, I really put my all into this shit.
I think T.I said in the song "To a Motivation,"
with God with me, who can be against me, you know?
I'm gonna just beat myself to the fullest
and unapologetic as fuck.
That's it and anybody who got a problem with that,
like, nigga, fuck you, you know what I'm saying?
'Cause I got God with me, bro.
When God with me, like it don't matter who is against me.
You know?
My peace of mind is what's most important to me.
Your peace of mind is worth a $1.50 to you.
You'll do whatever for the fame and the money
and the accolades, you know what I'm saying?
Like, nah, bro, I wouldn't do anything that sacrifices
my morals, my values, my ethics, my belief system,
any of that, because I need my peace of mind.
Peace of mind is priceless.
You know what? I got that from J Prince's book,
you know, "The Art and Science of respect."
He always talking about movement and not a moment.
That's something that I really take to heart
because I'm always thinking about long term, you know?
One of the Drake lines I love, man,
Y'all niggas party too much, man, I just chill and record.
Like, oh my, like, I could talk all day
about that fucking "Nothing was the Same" album,
how incredible that was.