What, for real? Oh, snap!
It's lactose-intolerant rapper El-P. That's crazy.
Oh. Oh, man.
We just been kicking it about music all day, man.
So did you...Do you play any instruments and stuff?
Yeah, I mean, I grew up playing a little bit of piano.
I grew up playing a little bit of saxophone.
I grew up... Saxophone?
God damn it, man. ...playing a little bit of trumpet.
You got to play some sax on the record, what? I know, I know, I know.
Here's the problem though. Although I'm kind...
Maybe I'm softening on it now, but at a certain point,
I looked in the mirror as a kid with a saxophone,
and I just looked at myself.
You thought it was lame? I was just like...Yeah.
[ Laughs ] And I was like...
And I was, like, playing RUN DMC or something.
"This is what my jams album is going to look like?"
Right. "I can't go out like this."
And I just looked at myself, and I was just...I just...
Like, fucking Kenny G. I just put it down. It was over.
[ Laughs ] There was...It's just really hard to look cool
and be a sax player.
I played trumpet. You can't tell? I can tell.
That's the way I rap. I rap like a trumpet solo. [ Imitates trumpet ]
Yeah, I got that literally from trumpet playing.
I swear to god. That's amazing.
But yo, you got any, like, albums or, like,
artists that you're, like, almost like a guilty pleasure
that, you know, like, it's dope to you,
but you don't really tell people about it?
[ Laughs ] [ Laughs ]
Yeah, and I'm not one of those people
that really feels guilt about music, you know? Yeah.
I don't really care what you think, you know, but...
And I don't feel guilty about this,
but I fuck with Lil Pump.
No, Lil Pump is dope. Right.
It's dope, and that's just me.
That's a stretch for me to say that that's guilty
because I don't actually feel guilt.
Well, for me, I guess I got caught up
in the whole new metal phase at a point in time of my life.
See, I could understand
a little bit of embarrassment about that.
Like, Korn... So Korn?
...and System of a Down and... Whoo, I mean, you know?
I was known to bump some Incubus on a Sunday.
I swear to god. I can't make this up. I mean, I'm not mad.
Look, everybody that you just mentioned had some jams. Yeah, yeah.
Everybody that you just mentioned.
I mean, System of a Down is, like, probably
one of my favorite bands ever.
Yeah, they're hard. Mm-hmm.
Like, so what's some of your favorite bands?
Some of my favorite bands? Yeah.
Talking Heads. Yeah, of course, you know me?
You know? If we're talking about bands...
My last album was super influenced by David.
You know what I'm saying?
David Byrne is, you know, yeah, a huge influence. Mm-hmm.
I met him years ago.
I was... I don't fan out much... Yeah.
...but I was at some dinner and I met him. [ Laughs ]
My version of fanning out is that I just don't talk.
Yeah. That's me fanning out.
No, I talk like a motherfucker.
I'd end up saying too much shit and embarrass myself for real. [ Laughs ]
I met Nas and told him my coke story at Coachella,
and he looked at me like a crackhead. Right, right, yeah.
You got to... That's the one thing...
You can't tell a coke story to everybody, you know?
I know, right? Not everybody looks...
Especially not people that was raised in the '80s.
Like, they was really, like, doing they...
Teenagers in the '80s,
they don't want to hear nothing about that. Yeah.
It's always... It's, like, "Yeah, that's cool.
Coke destroyed my family," you know? [ Laughs ]
Nice story, though. That's right. That's right.
But yo, I tell people all the time,
like, you're like one of my biggest influences.
If it wasn't for you, man,
I don't think I'd be here right now.
How did all of this start, man?
I got kicked out of high school.
That's how it starts for most of us. That's how it started.
Yeah. Yeah.
So you was already writing rhymes in high school?
Yeah, I was writing rhymes when I was 10.
Damn, man. Yeah.
"I'm Jam J, the impossible child.
When I tell my tale, all the girls will go wild."
See? Yeah.
That's how you know a real emcee
when a motherfucker know they first rap. Yeah.
Because mines was, "My name is D and the place to be -- Uh-huh.
...and I rock the mic so freshesly."
You see what I'm saying? [ Laughs ]
Yes, yes. [ Laughs ]
So what is something different, like, far as, like,
your process of, like, making songs
and stuff that you doing now that you didn't do back then
and you wish you could've told yourself back then?
You know what I'm saying? Like... I don't know.
I don't know. It's a really good question.
I would maybe, you know, that's a really good question.
I know, right?
It is a really... [ Laughs ]
You should have a show.
That's how you know I make music. Yeah.
One day you're going to get out of this basement, Dan. One day.