No he won’t start singing the song until everybody’s got their lighter out.
Somebody may be sitting at the front just like…and I’m like, “I’m not playing."
"I’m not ‘bout to start this song until you take your phone light out.”
And we light the whole joint up and it’s like a movie every time.
We were working with Timbaland, and I think it was like the third day we were working
with him.
And eventually I think he just like ran out of beats or whatever.
We didn’t hear from him for like 4 or 5 hours.
We got stuck and I just yelled out the 'Dawson’s Creek' theme song like
“Yo that’s actually kinda tight.”
‘Te sang him the joint and he’s like, “Yo let’s keep going with it.”
And we rolled with it and just made it a whole record.
Paula Cole definitely showed a lot of love.
Like she cleared the song, let us use the line.
So like yeah, thank you Paula.
“Dante’s Creek,” I did not want that to be the name of the song in the beginning.
I don’t think anybody did bro.
And I was like, “Yo we have to change that."
"That joint sounds wack."
"We cannot keep that as the name of the song.”
And then it just became a running joke.
And then eventually, it was such a joke that people were like, “Nah, we just gonna keep it.”
If we were gonna sample any type of song, I’d want it to be something that almost
everybody could recognize right off the bat.
When you open a song like that it allows people to wanna listen to it, gravitates towards.
If you like somebody or have feelings for somebody, go ahead and take that shot.
You know.
Shoot your shot.
You never know if it could be something.
You know what I mean.
But, 3 years later down the line you see that shorty with another dude and stuff.
You could have had that shot.
Like why didn’t you take that shot? You know what I mean.
I feel like that’s happened to me before.
‘Cause I seen shorties and I was like, “Dang. I could've had that.”
You have to learn that you can’t necessarily trust everything that people say to you.
You know, you gotta know that there’s gonna be some bad times.
There’s gonna be some things that don’t work out.
And two, the thing that you can’t waver from is that belief in yourself.
The belief that you know what you’re doing and that even though you’re going through
a low spot or maybe even being at a high point.
It’s all about maintaining that stability within yourself.
I think that “Ooh” part is just a feeling.
‘Cause when I first came to L.A. one of the first things I used to always do.
Once or twice a week, I’ll go to the Santa Monica Beach and I’ll just sit on one of
the little docks and just collect myself.
And it just reminded me of that time when I would just sit there and kind of close my
eyes and have a feeling.
And you’re not looking at anything.
Honestly it’s just a moment of feeling.
And that’s what that “Ooh” part was supposed to bridge between the hook and the
next verse.
Just a moment or feeling, and it’s different for everybody.
That feeling is different for everybody.
Yeah that part was just a freestyle.
Just off the dome.
He was just kind of riffing and just kind of going in and he did that one take.
That wasn’t like, “Oh, we had to comp it together.”
It was just like, “Boom.”
He just knocked it out in one take.
I was like, “That’s perfect.”
It gets so easy to overthink.
Even just the smallest things about life in general.
You know what I’m saying?
So I think just even the main message of that is, “Let’s just stay present and not even"
"think about what’s coming tomorrow, what happened in the past."
"Let’s just be together like in this moment.”
I live to serve as a voice for all the outcasts.
All the kids that everybody made feel like they weren’t worth nothing.
‘Cause that was me.
I felt like crap for the longest time.
I ain’t feel like I was worth anything.
My mom and dad didn’t even honestly believe in my music career.
As much as I love them, I don’t know if they honestly and truly believe that this
is what I’m supposed to be doing.
Keep doing it.
Keep trying.
Give it a shot bro ‘cause you know, it only takes one thing to click before everything
else blows up.