- This in your man, Conceited, and what's crazy is
I became a meme by accident.
And this is that story.
See, and this story starts way back in December 2009.
An average day in 2009 back then,
I was battling heavy.
So I was just writing rhymes everyday,
keeping my sword sharp anytime I had to battle.
That and going to the mall to shop.
Back then I was going to,
I was in New York, so I was going to the rugby store a lot.
Ralph Lauren had the whole rugby line.
So that was basically how my whole day-to-day was.
Writing battle bars and going to get some rugby gear.
What was driving me back then career-wise
was actually what I was doing,
was really just battle rapping.
That was really all I wanted to do.
I didn't want to be a studio rapper,
or a musician or whatever.
It was just to battle, be the biggest battler
or one of the biggest battlers.
The battle world is a,
it's weird 'cause it's a very big but very small world.
I mean, its, big, it has zillions of views online,
but all the people are scattered all over the place.
That's when battle rap was taking off,
getting a little more mainstream.
As I would go to Times Square or go somewhere here,
I mean, we would get noticed and that was a big deal for us.
Yo, I was in Miami today.
I was on South Beach and got noticed.
I walked through the mall in St. Louis and got noticed.
So I mean, that was a big deal.
So it was definitely happening.
At the time, I was a big battle rapper.
So, it was me and Hollow Da Don
that supposed to go out there to battle to St. Louis.
Aye Verb set it up.
There's some dudes out here that want to battle.
This is when SMACK had their first event in St. Louis.
My first time going, SMACK's first time going.
It was a dude named Jesse James.
They would pay out of his own pocket so he could battle.
I'm like "Well, of course.
"That's the way it's gonna have to go."
I was like "I need this amount of money.
"Flight, hotels, of course."
They're like "Aight, cool, we got all that."
So I'm like "Aight, I'm gonna go battle this up-and-comer."
So my job was to make sure
you never want to be seen and heard from ever again.
So that was my mentality going into the battle.
Other than that, my first time in the Lou,
I'ma just see what's, let me see what's up,
me trying their Chinese food,
their Pizza, their this, their that.
I mean, I was just ready and really comfy,
'cause I'm like, I knew there's nothing he could do with me.
- Welcome to the murder capital.
But don't get too relaxed, nah,
'cause we don't (bleep) with rappers that's whack.
- So he was going against me.
He's rapping, and then he stumbled.
- But I don't need that strap to drag you 'cross the tra...
Second he touch that runway,
they find his body floating in front of that.
Picture above a article next to the...
- So when he stumbled, I just made a normal face.
I was just like "Oh,"
basically tryna, like "Oh, oh, aight.
"Aight, now, alright.
"You're about to kill yourself."
And then when he got back on track,
I'm like "Aight, boom, he got it together."
Nowadays, the fans are a little more lenient.
Back then, it was more like, you stumble you finished.
Especially, see, I forgot my damn line.
Psych, you must be out your damn mind!
After the battle, it was after the battle.
That's it.
It was just as if nothing happened.
Done. It was just like aight, boom.
Another, just another person
to put in the backyard, in the grave. That's it.
You watch all my battles,
even from when I battled in the Jungle and Grind Time,
I was always making faces.
And it was usually just my facial expressions
for when I would say a line
that I think would get a hit.
I'll lean back, let the crowd go crazy.
So I would just always do facial expressions.
It was never for a bigger purpose.
It was just my character.
I wouldn't do it purposefully to try to gain something
'cause it's gonna look forced and look corny.
Because if I really put my focus into that,
I probably start doing (bleep),
making faces that I don't normally do.
And then it's like, yo, what is this kid doing?
So fast-forward to six, seven years later.
Now I'm on television.
I was still battling a bit.
Me and Dumbfounded had the battle,
was as 10 million views now.
Television, doing the whole Wild N Out thing,
reoccurring cast member.
Things are, you know, going good.
And then I start seeing the meme come up sporadically.
I don't remember the first time seeing it,
but then it started gradually going.
And then one day, I don't know what happened,
it just exploded.
Everybody was using it.
ESPN, they got one where they put the face on Jesus.
And it was like "I'm single because
"God is waiting for me to find that special someone."
And it was God that was...
It just was crazy.
There was no limit to where they would put it at.
It just goes to show that it's so dope
that something organic can just happen.
Real life event, and then boom, let's make a meme out of it.
And it was years and years later.
Damn, you revived it after all these years.
Why? For what?
But, I mean, I'm not mad at it.
I remember like it was yesterday.
A dude walk up to me.
"Yo, oh snap, yo!
"Yo, what's up, can we take a picture?
"Woo, woo, woo!"
So he's like "Yo, you're the meme guy, right?
"You're this guy."
And I was like "Yeah, yeah, yeah."
So he was like "Yo, yeah man, dope."
So he took the picture, and then my man was like
"Yo, yo, yo, hold on.
"That's where you know him from?"
He's like "Yeah, yeah, I see his meme all the time."
He's like "You don't know from battle rap, Wild N Out?"
He was like "Nah, I don't watch battle rap.
"I barely watch TV."
I was like wow, this dude actually just
was coming to me strictly for the meme only,
and knew absolutely nothing else.
But I just thought about, damn, it's actually dope
that people can send my meme in a text, in this and that.
It didn't really, I didn't really take it as far as,
yo, this is gonna be the new form of communication.
Even though on the iPhone, when you can just send a gif,
you can just type in "conceited," that pops up.
So, I mean, it's just, I think that's fire.
I got nominated for an award for it.
The Shorty Awards.
And it was for, I think, best meme or something.
So I'm at a table,
I'm at a table with other Shorty Award nominees.
We were all talking, like "Yo, oh, yeah
"What are you here for?"
"We here boom, boom, boom."
Now I'm like, "Yeah, I'm here for meme."
They're like, "Meme?"
They're like, "Holy (bleep).
"Wait. Is this you?"
The dude had it in his phone queued up and everything.
Then he showed his girl, she's like "Oh my God!"
She pulls out her phone,
"Look! I just sent that text to my friend!"
I was like, "Oh, (bleep)."
So, you know, that was really cool.
My perspective has changed completely.
It was a little different for me because
I already had, you know, some kinda notoriety already.
But, you know, I was always thinking about
the girl with the hand like this,
the dude on the phone with the glasses,
I always wondered, like,
"Damn. I wonder what their life is like right now."
Do people come to them, "Oh, shit, can I get a picture?"
They're like, "Why?"
Now, if I was able to do it again,
I would do everything exactly the same,
but this time, after, I would capitalize on it way more.
I would try to blow it up to something way, way, way bigger.
Try to hopefully get a
digital cartoon series maybe, or something.
Just anything.
(mumbles)
Day-to-day for me now,
is basically still the same as before.
A lot of places, a lot, a lot, a lot of pictures,
but I'm still the same on the video game,
going shopping, shoes and clothes daily, and just...
I'm still writing raps, still writing jokes,
you know, just everything.
It's still basically the same, just elevated a little more.
So my advice for anybody who gets caught up
in this whole meme thing, and becomes one: embrace it.
Embrace it, go along with it,
joke with it, and capitalize off it.
Y'all can follow me,
my handle is @ConceitedNYC and that's all around.
That's my Twitter, my Facebook,
my YouTube, my Instagram, everything.
Let me see y'all around on the internet.
Aight, peace.
I really mean it.
(chill electronic music)