- What I like about Jack's bars is, like,
he's gonna pop some shit
and he's gonna have, like, some fun moments.
Sent her back to her boyfriend
with my hand print on her ass cheek.
See who's talkin' and taking notes
Oh, I thought that was fuckin' fire.
Hold on, let me think; let me think.
- I'm chill. - I have a bad memory.
Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, and like other fun lines.
like, "I'm done making jokes
'cause they got old like baby boomers."
I'm a joked out-ass motherfucker
You know I'm always cracking jokes online.
I, like, felt that 'cause a lot of people,
like, when they see me having fun with them on live,
online, like, laughing and stuff,
they don't think I take what I do seriously,
but I very much do.
- We feel each other, you know what I mean?
We do two different things.
You know, we're in this industry for two different reasons.
You know, we came in with different music,
but I feel him, and I'm a fan of him,
and I'm a fan of what he's doing and what he stands for.
I think he's becoming a icon.
I just like what he does, bro.
Like, I salute him; I think he's brave.
- Thanks, brother. - Yeah.
- The very first day of "Industry Baby,"
me and Daytrip, Roy Lenzo,
like, we were all in the studio, and we were thinking like,
like, "what the fuck are we making right now?"
And I was, like, upset
'cause we tried, like, seven different songs,
and nothing was, like, hitting for me.
And I heard, like, that...
I was like, "Hold on, what that is?
Run that back."
When I first heard it, I was like,
"Wow, this sounds like some, like,
king intro, kind of Jay Z, royalty kind of beat," you know?
"Whatever happens with this,
I definitely have to pop my shit."
I was still, like, in the mindset of like,
"Okay, these rappers, like,
they not really fucking with me like that.
Fuck these niggas.
But then, you know, I started like
talking to Jack like online or whatnot
and he was like a real cool guy.
And from there I was like, ah, perfect. Boom.
- I liked what he was talking about.
It resonated with me.
Y'all thought I was just going to be here for a second.
Look where I'm at. I'm here to stay.
That's how I feel. You know what I mean?
When I first came out, I think a lot of people,
they had this feeling of "man, we'll see"
It maybe it's a fluke.
So for me, this felt like a chance to "look, I'm here too."
So I really resonated with the content.
I love Nas, everything he's doing,
but what he was saying on the song, I was like, I feel that.
I feel that I want to give my story.
- This was during the time
before I even started back releasing music.
So, it was like, all right, let me pop my shit, you know?
'Cause everybody's always like trying to
minimize my accomplishments to like,
"okay, he did this one thing."
It's like, hold on, hold on.
We're gonna- let's bring this back. You know?
When people are telling you that it's like over for you.
Especially, like, when it's a lot of people
that you even like, look up to
or like, you're like super cool with.
Or like, you've like, been watching online or whatnot.
It's kinda painful.
But it also like builds armor for you to come back stronger.
Once you finally do have that breakthrough moment again,
it's like this weight lifted off of your shoulder, you know?
Cause it's like, you always knew.
But now they know too.
So this was like a nod to my mixtape, Nasarati.
Where I was like already like super cocky and confident
about where I was going.
So it's like I told you, I been told you.
What's happening right now is a manifestation of that.
It's been so many things in my career that I've done
that most people would see as a career ender.
For the simple fact that, you know,
my first big song was like the biggest song, you know?
I do the video for Call Me By Your Name.
I've had to like, fight a lot of battles like, inside,
especially this last year and a half
I could have gave up. I could've stopped pushing.
I could've stopped moving, but
I know where I'm headed in life.
I know what my future is going to look like.
So I'm not running, you know?
So like go get whoever, go plan whatever,
go plot whatever, go try to find whatever about me.
It's like, I'm not stopping, you know.
It's kinda like those like backhanded compliments.
"I love him, I hope he saves his money."
"He don't even have to do anything no more. He's set."
"I think he's cool. He's funny.
But I don't know about his music"
and it's like, you're not really on my side.
You're not really rooting for me.
You don't really fuck with me.
It's like, you're putting on this act.
With this verse, it's kind of like,
me walking back into this place and it's like,
making my demands.
First, I need to get my album done.
Like something I'm still working on.
I'm putting the final tweaks on it. I need more number ones.
I mean, I got, I just got another one. Let's get some more.
I just want it all, you know,
like I want consistent success, growing success.
I'm not like going to like pretend that I don't, you know?
Cause I feel like especially nowadays people want artists
to like, "oh, I don't really care about the-.
the charts. I don't even care about the sales
and I just, you know, I just wanna make music."
And of course, I love fucking making music, but it's like,
I want those accolades and respect for my hard work too.
You know?
I still consider myself a rapper too. Like I rap too.
But it's like, I'm much more,
there's a lot of one dimensional rappers, you know?
I mean like literally do the same flow,
the same cadence and everything on the same song.
It's like, I don't see you.
It's like, I'm on a whole 'nother level, you know?
I feel like this is super important because I know like
following Call Me By Your Name,
a lot of people like expected me to like,
"okay, he's learned his lesson. He's going to calm down.
He especially wouldn't do this in a song like this."
It was like, you know what?
Nah, I'm going to like keep saying shit like this.
Like these are, these lines are my life.
Like this is actually me.
And there's somebody growing up, like hearing that.
They're like, " damn, when I rap,
I'm gonna say shit like this too", you know?
I believe, like, law suits come with it
I feel like, you should be more concerned
if people aren't tryna sue you when you're in this industry.
But I've seen quite a few of those headlines
before I may have even known about it.
So I'm just like, "wait, I'm being sued. Huh?"
Luckily, most of them didn't go anywhere.
But yeah, everybody's tryna sue me, man. What's going on?
When I like grew up, like from zero to ten,
like I lived in Bankhead Courts.
It's like this hood Atlanta.
I had my nickname since then.
And my family members still call me like Doobie
They be like "Doobie".
I think the name came from like
when I used to watch Scooby Doo a lot, you know?
Scooby dooby doo and you know,
everybody was like "oh, Doobie."
For you to have a desire to bash me
For you to want me up outta here.
For you don't want me to be done, like...
Maybe I'm flexin' too hard.
Maybe I'm puttin' on a couple too many jewelry pieces.
Now, maybe you don't like how it looks.
Y'all shouldn't have let the world gas me.
Cause it's too late. They let me in.
I'm here. The world's feeling what I'm doing.
Y'all shouldn't of let 'em. Y'all shouldn't have let me in.
I always felt like I was here to stay,
but there's been moments of confirmation.
I remember the night that, that's what they all say.
My album in December came out.
I was in Atlanta. I had a little get together.
We ended up all going to Magic City
and I was in there with Drama
and I don't love the club. I don't love the strip club.
but we were in there. I wanted to celebrate.
It was a good night.
I had people that had worked hard on it,
but I remember there was a moment
I was standing there with Drama.
And I was kinda thinking about the album
And I was thinking about his album,
I wasn't really there and he tapped me on the shoulder
he's like, "how does it feel?" I was like, "what?"
He's like, "you're here."
And I was like, "you think so?"
And I knew he wasn't just saying it in a loose way.
He was saying any minute I'm here.
Moments like that have, you know, given me the confirmation,
I'm here to stay. I'm not going anywhere.
Being from Louisville, Kentucky.
I get a lot of love out of there,
but there's also plenty of hate.
I keep up. You know what I mean?
I see things. Probably more than I need to.
Sometimes I think the place you're from
has more hate and envy than other places.
I've seen people I grew up with, old classmates,
people I knew, switched to crucifying me online
when some people have my number.
I love that line because I think every time I hear that line
I think of that line. It paints a picture.
You see it happening. You see the dinner,
you see, you don't even have to know who it is.
You just know somebody that's an OG to me,
holding up a toast saying they're proud and choking up.
It's beautiful.
I genuinely feel like anything I want I can make happen.
Out of pure will and determination.
It's a cliche to tell you as a kid,
if you want it, you can have it, but you can
You know what it is, I'm a control freak.
It's something I'm actually trying to learn how to balance,
but I'm a control freak. I try to control so much.
It's really hard for me to let go.
In that, I'm so extreme.
And I think a lot of people that are ambitious could relate.
I feel like I can control my destiny.
I feel like I can choke hold out of this life what I want.
I feel like I can get what I want outta this life
by pure will and determination.
It's different. You get to this level
and you have to like have this moment where you
kind of just let go and you realize
you can't control what they're saying about you.
You don't have any control over what the narrative is.
So, for me, it's been, over the last couple of years,
a real process of stepping into the limelight a little more
and realizing that some of these stories are going to run
and I don't need to address everything.
People think this and that,
and it's a real freeing thing for me to step back and say,
whatever you want, whatever you want. Think it.
I'm at peace.
I don't feel pressure to joke all the time.
People love when I joke, they want me to joke.
You know, last time I was on here, I had some jokes,
but I don't feel no pressure
I've gotta make 'em laugh, I've gotta make 'em laugh.
Cause I'm a human being.
I'm not a two dimensional character.
I'm not somebody that feels like,
"Ooh, gotta stick to the script. They need to love me"
When I wanna be serious I'm gonna be serious.
When I wanna be funny, I'm gonna be funny.
When I wanna be outgoing, I'm gonna be outgoing.
When I wanna be shy, I'm gonna be shy.
We'll see if I'm really done making jokes.
I just want people to know that I'm real about this.
And I like bounce bouncing in and out.
Nobody can tell me what I am. I can't be put in a box.
I can't be pigeonholed.
I've experienced that my whole life.
Seeing skeptics turn into, "you know what? He's pretty hard"
I've seen a lot of people on the fence
come over to my side. So I've experienced that.
I think I meet, sometimes, people that are older than me
in the game and like, they learn,
as much as I can take from them,
they can learn something from me.
I'm competitive and I see my peers.
I see the people that are in my class and my generation.
It's like, "oh, you think you're the one?
You think you're the one that everyone wants to raise up?
You think you're that guy?" You're not that guy pal.
That's how I feel though. That's how you're not that guy pal
You think it's coming soon for you? It might be.
But mine, my time is coming sooner.
I'm 'bout to take over this whole shit,
The Oklahoma Sooners, University of Oklahoma's mascot,
is the Sooners.
In high school I couldn't dress that well,
I don't think I was cuttin' my hair
the way I would cut it now.
You figure out how you want to look along the way.
But I was figuring out who I was first.
I wasn't masking myself with appearance. I was being me.
I just think as I got into this and I realized
"oh, you gotta look a certain way." I started cleaning up.
I started paying attention to how I wanna look.
I don't think I, you know, I switched it up.
I just think I grew into myself a little bit.
What am I seeing online? Ratio, ratio, ratio.
L, L, Young Boy better.
The Computers by Rowdy Rebel. His very first line,
"all these social networks and these computers."
That's kinda what I wanted to pay homage to.
I'm that motherfucker that's grown up watching everything
watching everything, how it plays out.
I've learned the fall downs of artists, the risings
and what happened and why it happened.
And I'm acquiring that knowledge for myself.
All right, let me look like I'm not anxious or anything.
- And posture
- Aw man this is great, this is great
might be the first time I'm doing this.
- Bring it man - I'm gonna be like this
the entire interview.