ROB: We should probably move, before we lose light.
DESIIGNER: After I come back we gotta play.
We’re just walking around and talking? That shit be lit, like some walking and talking
shit that’s hard.
ROB: We in Brooklyn, man, welcome to Genius.
DESIIGNER: Much love for my man Rob in the building, much love bro.
ROB: My man Desiigner man, listen, I know you from Bedstuy. Over on Tompkins right?
DESIIGNER: That’s a fact. Next to Tompkins. BedStuy, baby. We in the building.
ROB: We had you over there I think it was only right to do this in Brooklyn. You just
scored the number one record in the country with "Panda".
WENDY WILLIAMS: At only 19 years old, our next guest hit number one on the Billboard
Hot 100 charts with his very first single, and he’s here to perform Panda
ROB: You just scored a platinum record with Panda
DESIIGNER: Yeah.
STEPHEN COLBERT: Here with his chart topping Platinum song, Panda, please welcome Desiigner.
[ CROWD ]
DESIIGNER: I came from nothing, I’ll tell you that. It was a blessing.
MUSIC: Panda Panda Panda
MUSIC: I got broads in Atlanta
MUSIC: Twistin' dope, lean, and the Fanta
MUSIC: Credit cards and the scammers
MUSIC: Hittin' off licks in the bando
MUSIC: Black X6, Phantom
MUSIC: White X6 look like a panda
MUSIC: Goin' out like I'm Montana
MUSIC: Hundred killas, hundred hammers
[ CROWD ]
ROB: Let’s go back a little bit and talk about the first time that music came into
your life.
DESIIGNER: My house was with music. My pops was always on some old school funk. They had
some old school stuff. Then my sister was on Jamaican-Reggae. I was the ladies boy.
I was the one that was on the floor, singing happy birthday and all that. That was my thing.
Go to parties, go to little girls’ parties on my block and sing happy birthday to them.
That was just like, music was always me. Music was just always in me. Everybody knew me for
music or doing something funny with my voice.
ROB: And just so people know, this is Desiigner’s natural, talking voice. There is no auto-tune.
DESIIGNER: Ain’t no auto-tune.
ROB: On this interview.
DESIIGNER: Ain’t no auto-tune.
ROB: This how you really sound. In like, real life.
DESIIGNER: Yeah.
[ SINGING ]
ROB: Around 14, I learned that you started rapping around 14 years old.
DESIIGNER: Yeah.
ROB: And you got shot around the same time too. I believe in origin stories, ever since
I was a kid, I would look at rappers like superheroes and I feel like everybody has
an origin story. And how did that affect you, getting shot? What were the circumstances
that led to that and how did that affect and shape who you are today?
DESIIGNER: I’m not going to lie, I was a bad kid. I was a hot head, I was in the streets,
doing dumb shit, you know stupid shit, you feel me? I got hit in my hip. Right here.
Yeah right there in my hip. And it just was like, it was a little bit of blood, and that
little bit of blood, it wasn’t no serious; in and out. I was in the hospital ten min,
30 min. But it was just that moment, that really said, “Yo, Mind your business.”
When that happened to me it just was like, I knew I wasn’t supposed to be there. I
always had a voice in my head, that said “Don’t do the bad.” To see my moms and hear my
moms passed out at work, it wasn’t pleasant. It hurt my heart.
ROB: What does your mom say now? I know that is a whole different thing.
DESIIGNER: My mom smiles at me like a muthafucka. It’s a blessing. I just moved out. I just
went from selling everything. Then I said, I ain’t gonna sell that, I can’t do it,
it wasn’t working for me, so I’m like you know what I’m gonna do, I’m gonna
sell my talent.
[ MUSIC ]
ROB: “Panda” is the big record. That’s the breakthrough. A little bit before that
was “Zombie Walk.”
[ ZOMBIE WALK ]
DESIIGNER: I was always an artist that teased my shit. In the hood, I was the man you came
to for the music.
[ MUSIC ]
DESIIGNER: You want me to hook your shit up, you wanted me to spice shit up, put something on it
[ MUSIC ]
DESIIGNER: Going to everybody’s hood. Getting the best rapper, “Let me jump on your record.
Let me do this, let me do some hooks for you. Let me do something.” I was already gaining
my momentum by doing that so I would just put snippets out of me doing my own work.
If you really know me, I would be in your inbox. Late night, “Hear this music. Please
check it out. Please check it out. Hear this little snippet of my hook.” I wouldn't
give the whole thing. I would give you a snippet of the hook and let you vibe out to it. Everybody
would post it
[ MUSIC ]
KING SAVAGE: Desiigner, what up? It’s that zombie walk, making records, breaking records.
DESIIGNER: I started finding apps on google and started finding all type of things, like
doing my own little situation. Promoting my own thing.
[ ZOMBIE WALK ]
DESIIGNER: I had the whole hood screaming “Zombie Walk.”
ROB: Wow
DESIIGNER: The whole hood! I had my whole school. It was just going.
[ MUSIC ]
DESIIGNER: As that’s going, I had Panda on the side. I’m thinking also awesome,
like, I wanna give away Panda cause I’m like, I don’t, I don’t know what to really
put to it. I want to rap it. I want to give it to somebody. And she’s like “Nah that’s
a dub.”
ROB: Zanaray, your manager
DESIIGNER: Zanaray like, that’s dumb. My manager, Zanaray like that’s dumb.
ROB: She said “Panda” was a dub?
DESIIGNER: Nah, she said “you're not giving that away. You're not giving ‘Panda’ away.
ROB: Ohhh! Okay okay okay.
DESIIGNER: You're going to keep that.” She liked everything else but she was like “finish
‘Panda.’ Alright, I’mma finish Panda.
[ PANDA ]
DESIIGNER: Finished it, in like, a year and a half. It took a year and a half. Now, word
go out. So now niggas is fiending for “Panda.”
“Let me say this right now man, when Panda drop, it’s gon’ be a hit. We all know
it’s gon’ be a hit, but this is the message to that young relle nigga. Don’t remix Panda.
I’m telling you that now. I don’t wanna hear “I got broads in Atlanta” cause I’mma smack the shit out you."
DESIIGNER: Some dude named Pudgy, puts out the verse
ROB: So he tried to take the wave?
DESIIGNER: Yeah, but look, that’s my man. He put it out on Facebook.
ROB: Wow
DESIIGNER: I got the verse.
“A lot of people thought I had it. He never sent it to me though. I was hoping. I asked
him a couple times that I’d get it. But I just gotta wait. You know if I had it I
would send it to you, bro.
DESIIGNER: He playin’ it, he being funny, eating cheez-its, acting like he on the phone
saying I ain’t got it.
“Alright. If I get it I’ll send it to you. I’mma keep trying. I’mma keep trying.
Alright word.”
[ PANDA ]
DESIIGNER: Niggas started going crazy, everybody starts going crazy. Posts. Posts. Posts. It
started going stupid. I was on my block at my homeboy crib, sitting in there. I’m on
the phone, I was like, “This song is going to get leaked.” I said, “This song going
to get leaked. Something is going to happen to this song.” The song really got put up
on soundcloud.
ROB: Somebody else put it up on soundcloud?
DESIIGNER: Like 5 different accounts.
"This just another Panda remix."
"Just another Panda mix."
[ MUSIC ]
ROB: a lot of people still don’t know what Panda means. They feel like you might be talking
about a zoo or Pandas. But I heard it was inspired at first by a video game.
DESIIGNER: It was inspired by GTA. I’m in the crib.
ROB: Grand Theft Auto?
DESIIGNER: I was thinking about it like Grand Theft Auto
The other day before that I had just seen the Panda emoji.
It was just like, it was one of those things I brought up to put in there. My mind was
thinking about all type of things.
ROB: But you saw GTA, you’re playing GTA
DESIIGNER: A movie.
ROB: You're playing GTA and the BMW, the white,
DESIIGNER: White X6
ROB: White X6 DESIIGNER: White X6.
ROB: Is in Grand Theft Auto?
DESIIGNER: Nah the white X6 isn’t in Grand Theft Auto. I saw the white x6 outside.
ROB: G: But that’s what makes you different. I see a white X6 and I think $75,000. You
see a white x6 and think
DESIIGNER: Panda.
[ LAUGHING ]
ROB: That’s why you are the rapper and I’m the journalist.
[ MUSIC ]
ROB: You was out in LA, who were you meeting with out in LA? This is interesting.
DESIIGNER: I was in LA. I was in an 11 label bidding war.
ROB: 11?
DESIIGNER: 11 labels.
ROB: Are there even 11 labels out there? To bid on you?
DESIIGNER: 11 labels. They were all going nuts. Some of them gave it to me. Some of
them was like, “Let’s see how ‘Panda’ does.” They lost. But I’m in great squad.
GOOD Music/Def Jam are family. I”m here and we doing our thing.
ROB: How did you get on GOOD? Because that, is more than just a record label. They really
shape the culture over there between Kanye West, Pusha T, Big Sean...they really shape
the culture and not just the music we listen to but they affect the way we dress. They
affect the slang that we speak.
OBAMA: I was gonna quote Kanye, but I can’t. Cause there’s a family audience, but it’s cray!
ROB: And they just don't go and sign everybody.
DESIIGNER: They definitely don’t.
ROB: For them to sign you, made me feel like they seen something, maybe that the rest of
the world ain’t seen. I’ve heard some records but maybe the rest of the world ain’t
see it yet. What was those first conversations like for you to get with GOOD? How did that happen?
DESIIGNER: I gave them the vibe that I was ready to work. Off jump. I came in the studio,
Mike Dean working. He working on something, I came in there and took the beat straight
from him, like it was mine. You can ask Mike Dean. This no disrespect to my man, cause
that’s my boy but I didn’t give a fuck who beat that was. It was just like, “I
needed that.” So once I gave that vibe and then I finessed it. It was like “he just
came in and did that track in 15 min.” “Alright he does that. Let me hear something now.”
I got a lot of shells in my gun. So we go into the room, we playing
it. I got the whole room going crazy. I gave it to them. I gave them everything.
[ MUSIC ]
ROB: G: One thing that comes up with your music. I’m from New York. I’m a Brooklyn
man. My hay day, my golden era was in the 90s. Biggie, Nas, Jay, Wu-Tang, all of that.
And New York had a sound and an energy, now with you being from NY and you being from Brooklyn,
it's a question about how you sound and whether or not that sound is NY and I wanted you to
explain your sound.
DESIIGNER: When music is played...Music doesn’t have no law. Nobody could put a barrier on
music. Period. Just cause you come from Brooklyn, you are supposed to sound like you are from
Brooklyn. I don’t know what a Brooklyn sound is then. If a mouse can make a song, niggas
going to rock to it. We gonna put it on the internet and we are going to go crazy.
ROB: You know who don’t put any barriers on their music?
DESIIGNER: Who.
ROB: Kanye West. That’s a guy who puts no barriers
DESIIGNER: Exactly.
ROB: And Kanye has this album he is putting out called, The Life of Pablo.
DESIIGNER: And I’m The Life of Desiigner.
That would show you. It has no law. Had that man thought of Life of Pablo and I was already
The Life of Desiigner, we bonded on that type of tip too.
ROB: How did he approach you? How did it work out that he used your record? Because traditionally,
you won’t sample a record that just came out.
[ MUSIC ]
ROB: When we talk about people that don’t live or make music within a barrier, that’s
something that most artists wouldn’t do but he did it and it made sense. How did that
happen? On Father Stretch My Hands 2?
DESIIGNER: Creative. Being creative. And having the creative shit. Music has no laws, if I
feel like I could put something on a song and make it have even more enhanced than everybody,
then there’s so many more remixes that, everybody was just enhancing Panda. Everybody.
Even the diss tracks was enhancing Panda.
“I’m tired of this fucking Panda song, I’ll stand alone. I just wanna wrap my fucking hands across Stab the head, and break the fucking panda’s
jaw Burn em up and turn the fucking candles on
Choke em, beat em, put a couple hammers on em
Dab on a nigga while I'm standing on em”
ROB: I really like Joyner Lucas’s.
DESIIGNER: And that shit is crazy.
ROB:I can’t speak for him. I felt like more when he said, “Kill the panda,” the beat
is panda, he’s going to kill the beat like a rapper would kill the beat.
ROB: That shit is ill.
DESIIGNER: He ripped the shit.
“I’ve been on Animal Planet, I got my hands on the phantom
I kill it again, and nobody gotta hand me a Grammy
God damnit I barely don’t even want to hear what they planning”
DESIIGNER: Everybody have their own creative mind to it. It was just being creative and
building on top of music is what makes music. So it was like that with Kanye. He built on
it. He had an idea for it. He put something on the beginning and let me rock out in the
end. It was crazy.
[ MUSIC ]
ROB: I want to go into these lyrics. There is a lot of things that need to be decoded.
We already broke down what the panda is the White X6.
DESIIGNER: That’s a fact. The White X6 with the black windows.
ROB: Okay, “I got broads in Atlanta.”
“I got broads in Atlanta”
ROB: When you wrote this record, I had read that you hadn’t been to Atlanta yet.
DESIIGNER: I never smelt it, tasted it, walked on it.
ROB: Have you been there now? Been to Atlanta since?
DESIIGNER: I’ve been to the airport.
ROB: We got to go. Genius gotta make the first trip.
DESIIGNER: I mean the airport. But just the fact is that facebook is this lit, I did have
a bitch in Atlanta. It’s just like that. I had a bitch in atlanta and I was saying
And then broads was like,
I was saying broads like, chicks, broads right? That was the slang I was using at the time.
Cause I always switch it up. When I say I’m smoking weed, I say I’m
smoking jew people. Or jew kids. It’s something you would remember cause it’s not normal.
It's not normal.
ROB: Definitely not normal.
ROB: Pockets swole,
DESIIGNER: Danny.
ROB: Danny.
DESIIGNER: It’s a real reason why I said this. This is real life shit again. I did
a song "Danny Devito".
[ MUSIC ]
DESIIGNER: So when I was saying saying “Pocket swole, Danny"
I was shouting out that song, “Danny Devito.”
ROB: “Wake up Versace shit like Desiigner.”
“Wake up Versace shit like Desiigner.”
ROB: Do you own anything versace at this point?
DESIIGNER: Nah, I don’t own anything Versace
ROB: Genius need to be, the first time you go to the versace store, we need to be there.
We got to make these lyrics come to life.
Your first trip to Atlanta, might need to be with Genius. So we can live the lyric…
and we need to visit your broad.
DESIIGNER: Yeah for real, I know those girls goin’ crazy.
ROB: She still around? The facebook one?
DESIIGNER: No no no no, she long gone.
ROB: You wouldn’t wanna give a shout out?
DESIIGNER: Nah I can’t give a shout out man, she’s a skeeze.
ROB: I like this. This is a bar. This is rap. “Call Phillip-Phillip, gon’ fill the bank.”
How’s it go did I get that right?
DESIIGNER: Yeah
ROB: So you’re gonna fill the bank, so your money is stackin.
DESIIGNER: Yeah, you feel me? Call up Phillip-Phillip, gon' fill the bank Niggas up in the bank,
we gon' drill the bank Fuck we gon' kill the bank, get it
ROB: Okay and then what would you watch, were you a fan of the Fresh Prince of Bel Air?
DESIIGNER: Yeah, Phillip Banks.
"Phillip Banks. Phillip Banks. Phillip Banks."
ROB: That’s a bar.
DESIIGNER: Much love.
ROB: That’s real rap. Alright. Jeff the Don.
[ MUSIC ]
ROB: I know who Funkmaster Flex is. You shout out Flex. You shout out Bobby Trends. These
are Hot 97 NYC DJs. Then you shout out Jeff the Don and me and the Genius community was
like, “Who is Jeff the Don?” I don’t know who this is.
DESIIGNER: Jeff the Don, that is my man. I was calling him Jeff the Don. I always give
my mans nicknames.
ROB: I’mma need a nickname.
DESIIGNER: Rob the God
ROB: I’ll take it. Rob the God. You heard it first. Let’s go. But Jeff the Don, did he work
D: Yeah he definitely worked. He worked with Bobby Trends. That’s Bobby Trends’ assistant.
I worked with him better. He was taking out time out of his day and out of his time working
with Bobby to actually feel me— He had faith in me. He got me beats and all that.
ROB: I think we understand Panda now. I think there’s no other questions about what Panda
means, what Desiigner is saying, what’s next for you? You got one. I believe
DESIIGNER: Get another one!
ROB: This is the do it again business. Alright? So when you get one, that’s cool, do it again
DESIIGNER: Yeah, do it again.
ROB: What’s up next for Desiigner?
DESIIGNER: Give them something else funky that they can vibe to. I definitely got another
one, I definitely got another one. I give you that one when me and you private, yeah,
I got another one. So, it’s coming. Mixtape. Merchandise. Albums. Tours. It’s going crazy.
ROB: Well, Desiigner, man I feel like the 2 most valuable things that we have as people
is time and energy
Your time might be a little more valuable than mine, but time and energy. And you gave
Genius both your time
DESIIGNER: Thank you, bro.
ROB: and your energy and you were very generous with it. So we appreciate you for that.
DESIIGNER: I really appreciate you too. Rob the god, again.
ROB: The life of Desiigner.
DESIIGNER: Rob the God, you hear what I’m saying? Rob the god! Don’t call him Rob.
Rob the god.
ROB: Genius, let’s go. We out.