- What really inspired the concept for "Walkin'"
to be honest with you, Spaghetti Western movies
and like just seeing the intro of "Django Unchained"
or seeing the intro to like "A Fistful of Dollars"
or, "The Good, The Bad And The Ugly"
or "For a Few Dollars More," you know?
I wanted to give that like, Clint Eastwood vibe
and when I heard the beat, it sounded like a Western
it sounded like something that you hear
when you just walking through the desert, you know?
I was listening to the album in its pre-stages, right?
I was like, damn, I got a lot of boom bap,
I got a lot of like traditional hip hop stuff on this.
Something need to turn up.
So I was telling Kyle Banks, I was like, yo,
like, I nailed the first part already.
And I was like,
"Nah, you need to make a second half to this man."
He put his headphones on,
started making a second half to the beat.
I was like, cause this bitch gotta knock.
I heard it in the headphones,
I'm like, I don't know if this thing knocking.
And he was like, "Play it on the speakers."
Shit started rocking the whole studio,
so I'm like, yeah that's it.
When I was doing, "Walkin'".
I'm like, man, majority of the guys
in those films I mentioned,
walk alone in those movies, you know?
And so, it was just like ♪ me against the world ♪
♪ It's me, myself and I ♪
'Cause it's like so many things happening in the world
but it's just me, you know?
part of getting in touch with my soul,
it was really just getting the body right
and getting the mind right.
And eventually the spirit will cultivate.
♪ Life is an ice cream without monopoly dough ♪
♪ The property grows in value and rightfully so ♪
♪ I gotta have it I see the way that people get treated ♪
♪ Is problematic, they ready to set us up for failure ♪
♪ It's systematic ♪
Say for instance, a person like me,
a person of color,
if something happens to me, nobody cares.
Like everything is set designed for people like me
or people of color to fail.
Not saying I'm perpetuating like racism
but you gotta call it what it is.
America's racist as fuck.
And I've been seeing that for years
even with my brother's death.
And I've just been advocating for that ever since.
You see all the things that happened
on January 6th and you like, where was y'all?
Where was the police?
Where was the military for this shit?
But you wanna call a military and a police
for black people protesting a murder.
That's crazy.
Majority of the stuff
that have been advertised in commercials,
on your social media,
they're advertising all this stuff to poor people.
It's either you are a buyer or you are a seller
and America sells us bullshit all the time.
Even though the times are changing
people do not change.
Unless they are willing to change.
Most people aren't willing to see what's happening.
So history is always gonna repeat themselves.
It's just a cycle.
It's just, people are going through the same cycles
because they're not willing to change.
When a Hawk is like hunting something,
I'm Hawking down the next goal,
like I'm hunting for the next goal.
I just thought it was clever.
Just like I'm Hawking down the next goal.
The names ain't Stephen
like Stephen Hawking.
Now.
I think when I really just eliminated my distractions,
and started really taking therapy serious
and like getting closer to God,
I just felt like, my soul was worth redeeming
because I have a lot of demons that I did not face.
Once I seen who I was on front street.
I wasn't afraid to talk about it.
I needed to have that time to myself.
You see what was happening with Black Lives Matter.
You see all these problems that was happening in the world.
You seeing riots and you get this virus
and you gotta deal with your own problems.
It's literally circulating.
Of course my perception of the world was like,
yeah this world is fucked up.
Like I was running away from majority of my problems
for majority of my life.
When I finally faced them, they go away.
But majority of the time I was running away from them
because I wouldn't believe like I'm this kind of person.
Confronting yourself, confronting your demons,
confronting your actions,
confronting your flaws and accepting them
and understanding them
and learning how to get better.
That's how you break the cycle.
Well therapist, she basically was like tryna link
all the stuff that I'm doing now,
to all my past traumas that I had.
There's something that you probably do right now
that you are like, I don't know why I do it
but there's a reason behind that.
You just gotta dig.
It's nothing but digging
We get distracted here and there,
yeah, it's life.
But we have to keep moving.
What's the main objective with your life.
What do you want to accomplish with your life?
You gotta gotta move with intention.
And that's what my managers, my therapists
my martial arts teachers,
they've been telling me this for years.
My parents tell me this for years,
my brothers told me this for years,
and I didn't listen.
So, I'm trying to tell the person
who is listening to me right now,
move with intention and keep walking no matter what happens.
You know what I'm saying?
Don't give up.
In this game I was indulging in sin.
Like a lot of sin.
So, my relationship with God,
my mom is the main one who be preaching to me like,
yo, you guys keep God on your side,
you gotta keep God on your side.
Gotta keep God on your side.
So God has always been in my life.
You feel me?
And then there was ways I strayed away from God
because I wasn't ready to like, you know what I'm saying?
Be the good boy.
You know what I'm saying?
'Cause girls like the bad boys,
so you do bad things just to get somebody to like you,
but it's not even in your character.
So, I was indulging in sin throughout all these years
of becoming a rapper and being a guy
and thinking like this is the lifestyle,
this is lit, this is what it is.
It ended up damaging me as a person.
And going against my morals and just being the opposite
and just realigning myself with God,
You know, God is always gonna be there for you.
That's a letter to my unborn child.
I wanna make sure whatever I'm doing right now,
he won't have to go through.
That's what my father and my mother did, you know?
They bust their ass so me and my brothers
could have a better life, you know?
So I'm trying to bust my ass now,
so my kid won't have to go through that.
Jane Elliot told a summit of students,
"If you want to be treated like a person of color,
"please stand?"
She repeated the question twice and nobody stood up.
You guys understand and see everything
that's happening right now,
and you're allowing it to happen to somebody
that's not your color.
Why would you let people mistreat them
when it's not happening to you?
You should say something because you have that privilege to.