My name is Trevor Noah, and my voice is Desi Lydic.
My guest tonight is a Grammy award-nominated musician
whose new album is called Oxnard.
Please welcome Anderson .Paak.
(applause and cheering)
Hello.
(applause and cheering swell)
(whooping)
Yes, love!
Thank you for being here.
(Lydic laughs)
-He loves you. -I love you, too, then.
-I love you. I love you. -Yeah.
I love you, too. It's not just him.
We both do.
You're good at that.
Welcome.
This one?
Thanks for having me.
Okay. This one. Got it.
Look, I think a lot of people don't know that
Anderson .Paak's full name is actually
"Anderson Political Action Committee."
I think it was really smart to shorten it.
Absolutely. Dre... Dr. Dre gave me that advice for that one.
Uh, how do you feel
when people pronounce it "Anderson Pac," like "Tupac"?
Do you correct them, or are you kind of like "Well"?
I'm flattered, you know.
I feel like there's only one Tupac, you know?
That was the whole point of making it ".Paak."
I wanted to switch it up. Maybe people thought
it would be like a wolf pack or a group of people, you know?
-It works. -Yeah, so...
Um... are you sure? This is...?
Yeah. No, I should say that? Okay. Um...
-We're both mixed race children... -(laughter)
-...with global families. -Mm-hmm.
Uh, it really affects how I-I create comedy.
Does it influence your music?
-(laughter) -Um...
(laughs)
(laughter)
(applause and cheering)
How does it influence your music?
I mean, I grew up in a black household.
Like, my mom wasn't telling us like, "You're mixed race,
so, do things this way because you're mixed."
Like, I was just, you know, getting
whipped with racing car tracks
and just getting regular stuff, you know.
-Yeah. -Me, too. Me, too. Me, too.
-Yeah. -Me, too.
But, yeah, sometimes...
-Whipped with... -Yeah.
-With... with what? -Racing car tracks.
-Racing car... -Yeah?
Yeah. Me, too. Totally.
-(laughter) -Yeah. -Yeah. Yeah.
I-I totally feel ya.
(laughter)
The new album is called Oxnard.
Your previous albums were Venice and Malibu.
Are you worried that the more albums you do,
the more obscure parts of L.A. you're gonna have to explore?
-Yeah. (laughs) -(laughter)
Like, "This is my twelfth album.
It's called Downtown: Just South of Skid Row."
Mm-hmm. Yeah.
I'm up for it. I like adventure, you know.
(laughter)
Dockweiler, South Beach, you know?
-Coney Island. -Yeah. If there's one thing I learned in
South Africa, it's-it's adventure.
Oxnard? The home town.
There's not much there, you know?
I'm pretty much the biggest thing now they got going, and...
-(laughter) -LYDIC: Yeah.
(applause and cheering)
It's actually the next city, you know?
It's just, we were in Venice, we went to Malibu,
we skipped Zuma Beach, and then...
we got to Oxnard, and it just so happens to be my hometown,
and I grew up just, like, wanting to get out of the town
and get to L.A., but now I'm really appreciative
that, you know, it's, like, really small,
and I got to really focus on my craft.
And now we're coming back with all these, like, great stories
and adventures and famous people that we know now,
so we can, you know, take them to the city.
Is this album a return home for you?
Uh, yeah, in a way.
Yeah, um, I don't get back as much as I'd like to.
So it's like... kind of like coming home,
bringing the things that I learned from back...
all over the world from where Malibu took us.
You know, Malibu took us, like, on tour for, like, two years.
So now we get to come home,
show my hometown what we learned, you know?
Uh, this is... this is your first album...
Uh, sorry. Okay, I got it.
-This is your first album on Dr. Dre's label. -Yeah.
If you don't see eye to eye with Dr. Dre, who wins?
Because on the one hand, it's your album.
On the other hand, he is a doctor.
-Yeah. Yeah. -(laughter)
You got to take that seriously.
(laughter, cheering, applause)
Yeah.
He didn't listen to his doctor, and this is what happened.
Right, right, right.
It's always wise to take the doctor's advice, you know?
(laughter)
Um, but I think it just really depends
-on how much he's had to drink, and... -Mm.
uh, usually he sees it my way,
uh, once he, you know, sleeps on it.
He might not be seeing it the same way in the beginning,
but... you know, next day he's like, "Your call, A.P."
You know? "Hell yeah."
(laughter)
(applause, whooping)
Oxnard is available now.
Be sure to stay for a special performance after the break.
No... wait.
-One more question. -One more question.
Trevor has a question.
(laughter, applause)
Okay.
One of the privileges of success is being able to give back.
You started the Brandon...
Uh, sorry. One of the privileges of success
is being able to give back.
You started the Brandon Anderson Foundation,
which works to support the underprivileged
through music and education.
This foundation has something called the Paak House.
-Yeah. -What happens in the Paak House
and what do you hope to achieve through that?
-Man. -(laughter)
Great questions, man.
Um... Paak House...
-I wrote them all myself. -Yes, yes, yes.
You know, Paak House,
I eventually want to have a place where, you know,
the people that feel like they're getting left out,
the people that are...
sometimes overlooked, they get to be exposed
to the arts and music
and, you know, even different ways to...
uh, eat better, um...
shoot, sports, I mean, anything, if they need babysitters,
if they need someone to help teach them how to play chess,
you know, that's all I really want.
'Cause, like, when I was young,
like, I was exposed early to music,
and if I wasn't exposed early to music,
I probably would have been up to no good,
I probably would have no voice or...
-(laughter) -Yeah, that'd be terrible.
-(applause, whooping) -That'd be terrible.