- I feel like I don't...
I don't need to rely on anyone for anything,
you know what I mean?
Like if I need to make a beat
and ain't nobody gonna make it for me,
I'm going to do it myself.
If I gotta write a song, I'm going to do it myself.
If I got to sing that mug, I'm going to do it myself.
(upbeat music)
- I definitely grew up around a lot of good music,
you know, form all avenues, all the genres.
I was born into it for real.
My father was a drummer.
He played for New Edition, After 7, a bunch of great bands.
And he was also a music producer
produce a few gold records, Kevon Edmonds and Dean Howard.
My mother, you know, she's into like neo-soul,
and my momma could sing so, at one time,
she did the gospel, so, you know,
she just loves it and she loves to perform,
she loves to be on stage, she still does it today.
Like as a kid, I always wanted to like rap or a sing,
or, you know, make beats, but I think it was just me seeing,
you know, my family doing it.
Like my brother, he's a rapper.
Like from a very young age, I was little,
I would watch him, you know,
write words and write lyrics down in his book,
and I just be like, "Yo, what are you doing?"
Like, I remember I was super young, super young.
I might've been like six, seven,
and he was writing, he was writing raps.
I just asked him like, "Yo, like, what are you doing?
What was going on?"
And he told me he was rapping me a rap for me or whatever.
And that's when I started like actually trying
to like write some stuff and rap, so that was cool.
And, and then I knew my dad made beats
and he made tracks, so, you know, I wanted to get into that.
I think I tried to do everything, but sing for awhile.
I guess I tried to distance distance myself
from the singing more just
'cause it's not something everybody was doing.
Like where I'm from is not too many like singers,
unless you're like a female.
Like I'm a dude, I just kind of felt it was a little bit,
I guess, soft at one point, you know what I'm saying?
I didn't really believe in myself.
I didn't want to audition for anything.
I didn't, you know, I didn't want that.
I tried to run away from it.
My mom, I guess she just knew I never really auditioned
for much before, but it was when I did the...
the first "X-Factor" audition.
It was wild, it was just a wild thing.
I'm like, "Man, I'm going to do something
I've never really done before.
I'm going to sing in front of producers
to put me on a television show."
I go with my mother,
this is the first time we talked about it.
I made sure that she came with me
and she had to audition as well, that was the deal.
The deal was to audition together.
Yeah, I made it through.
I got three out of the four the first time.
I didn't get every judge, I think...
Which judge said no?
I can't remember.
I can't even remember who said no to me.
Somebody said no to me.
I made it through that.
I get through there and I'm thinking,
"Man, I might be honest something.
They really liked me.
The crowd was going crazy, I'm like...
I just had never really felt that type,
you know, support, like, you know,
a large amount of people like that.
Like I performed them, you know, in choruses and things like
that in school, but it was never to this capacity.
So I'm like, "Let's just see," you know what I mean?
Like at this point I'm like, maybe I am hot.
Like maybe I am tight.
(upbeat music)
Second season was just, it was definitely different just
because I was by myself the whole time,
you know, all eyes were on me, you know,
but it was different since I didn't have
to do the preliminary rounds,
they called me back to come, you know,
do the second season and just try it out
as a solo artist, so it was just, it was just wild.
And then, you know, yeah, me getting cut, I was ready.
I was ready to get cut.
I was ready to go.
I was ready to be off of that, you know?
I had met some cool people kind of thought I would be,
you know, hopefully, this time talk to sign or whatever,
but nothing happened, nobody talked to me, nobody called.
It was nothing.
They let me out of my little contract or whatever with them
like ASAP, pretty much told me they wasn't gonna do nothing.
And I was back at school like that next day.
(upbeat music)
You know, after "X Factors", you know, I moved to Cali.
So at that point, I'm just kinda trying to find my way.
So, you know, if there's any session or any studio
or anything, I can get my hands on, I'm kind of doing.
But luckily, you know, within a few months,
I landed in a studio, which led me back to the Underdogs.
So I really just took the writer route
and that's where I, you know, I started learning how
to, you know, make records for other people
and learning how to really write records.
You know and experiencing things
that I could put into my music.
So, you know, linking with the Underdogs.
It was just...
It was amazing for me to be able to, you know,
learn from some greats like that at that point in my career
'cause I really needed to learn the basics,
I needed to, you know, take baby steps.
Meeting and Berg was...
That was the start of it all, honestly.
They call him Hitmaka now.
It's hard for me to call him Hitmaka,
I ain't gon' lie to you.
But, yeah, man, that was the start of it all.
You know, he was the first person to be like,
"Yo, we about to go do something.
Like, this is what we do.
Like, I'm about to take you, about to do these records,
about to sing this and when we gonna get to these records,
like, this is what I'm on."
I'm like, "All right, bet."
Like this is the first person that's letting me come in
and, you know, sing, like...
Like actually do something
'cause I was supposed to have a session with him
just to be a singer at that point.
I was only called in just because the person
who hadn't showed up to sing the record
like, well, I guess wasn't coming.
So then told me to be quiet, don't say anything, and go...
"Like don't say anything, go record the song."
And that's what I was intending to do.
As soon as I get in, he's like, "You do melodies you?
You write?"
I'm like, "Yeah," he like, "Go in there."
First thing, first take, killed it.
He like, "What did they have you doing in here?"
I'm like, "I don't know, nothing."
I'm like, "Yo, nothing, not a thing."
So it just kinda hit it off like that.
And that's how he started building his empire right now.
Everything he got like we was
in the trenches at that point.
And it wasn't hit, it wasn't, you know,
he got all the hits we got on his songs.
No number ones, no nothing at that point right now,
like all his stuff he had did before hand.
So now it was just, it was really time,
and we used just really just killing stuff.
We was selling shit.
(upbeat music)
The goal was to always be an artist, but I did find a love
for writing and being behind the scenes.
You know, at one point I did think
that's kind of what I wanted to do.
I got to a point where I didn't want
to work in that system no more.
It's like writing for people every day, and then...
'cause it was just...
it just became like a circus man.
There's just so many people in the studio now.
Like it went from me and Berg being in the studio,
now we got about 12 people in the studio.
Now we lit, we got this, you know what I'm saying?
It's everybody, it's the homies, it's female...
It's like it's lit now.
So there's so much attention and so much on this
and it's so many people trying to be a part of that thing
that I kinda just was like, "Man, like if I'm ever get off,
you know what I'm saying, how I feel,
I got to get away from this."
(mid-tempo music)
When I recorded "We Ain't Homies",
it was definitely something about it.
It just had a great energy about it.
Everybody was going crazy in the studio.
So I knew it
♪ Stop that acting like you know me ♪
♪ Talking 'bout my old friends like we homies ♪
♪ I get a high living ♪
♪ They don't know me ♪
- I always get excited when I'm doing something
and I feel like I hadn't heard of before.
So that was like, I kind of felt like I had some,
I felt like I had something that with me
for the first like strictly me, you know what I mean?
Like this is mine 'cause we made the beat.
Like I made the beat, wrote it, everything.
So it's like, I felt I had something,
but I couldn't even enjoy it
'cause that night, like I made the song,
and just basically like, as I was making that song
like right after I made that song,
like that's when my cousin was killed.
He got shot and was left in the park
where we used to play like baseball and shit,
like where I'm from.
So it's like, it was hard to kind of like enjoy that
and kinda know that I had something like,
I felt it, but that year was just,
it was just crazy, man.
This shit was just nuts.
So it was hard to enjoy,
but eventually I got the first verse
and it inspired me, you know,
and, yeah, I thought I had something,
but, yeah, I made "We Ain't Homies" like literally
like, right then and there.
(upbeat music)
"Platinum Fire" is definitely a moment in time,
and I definitely have to say it's like chaos, man.
It was a lot going on at that point, man,
a lot of highs, a lot of lows, super low,
but like my life was going, you know what I'm saying?
Like my work, my job was going, you know,
I'm going up, but emotionally I'm like,
"Oh my God, like bro, I'm losing everything."
So it was just kinda, it was a lot, man.
And being in a relationship was a lot, you know?
'Cause you know, I touched on that in the album,
but it's just real.
When you're in a relationship, man,
you gotta really know how to communicate.
You got to really know how to love
and really, you know, understand the other person.
And I think that was just, you know,
the biggest thing is just really just me trying to do that
and have a kid and try to like, you know, like balance that.
"Platinum Fire" was just a...
it was a wild time and it showed I had a lot like,
you know, to gain, you know what I'm saying?
You know, I figured that, you know,
at that point, bringing another life into this world,
I had a lot to lose and I had a lot to learn.
But "Platinum Fire" overall, it's just, you know,
one of my biggest blessings
All right, guys for the 50 millionth time, I done fucked up.
I've got some shows in November.
It's like three of them.
It's a mini baby little tour.
The 18th, the 22nd and the 25th.
The 18th, we are at The Roxy in LA,
the 22nd, we are at The Masquerade Purgatory
in Atlanta, pull up.
And then we are at The Knitting factory
in Brooklyn to finish it off before the holidays.
Please get y'all tickets.
I really need y'all to be here, you know what I'm saying?
I'm trying to show out, we got a big show,
you already know, and these are headlining shows,
so you never know who might be opening up.
So get them tickets, pull up.
I'm obviously going to be there.
So let's do this.
This has "Change" featuring Kehlani, check it out.
Let's go!
- [Radio Presenter] New tune, (indistinct crosstalk)
Hot 97, Baby! (men whooping) - Hot 97!
(mid-tempo music)
- Let's go!
We in New York, baby, we live!
♪ You've got me all in my feelings ♪
(Arin screaming)
And they said they don't play R&B out here.
This what we do.
Hot 97, er'day!
Let's go.
With "Change", you know, I did with Kehlani,
but I wrote the first and second verse,
like I had that, I had the song done,
with even the hook, I had done before I gave to her.
♪ Goddamn ♪
♪ I was thinking of you (Thinking of you) ♪
♪ It's all I do (It's all I do) ♪
♪ Honestly... ♪
- What Lani did was, you know, when she goes...
when she starts rapping in the middle of bridge part
that whole part when we going back and forth,
she wrote that whole part.
I just happened to like when she left the studio
'cause she was doing the whole thing,
she did the whole thing, I put myself on the second half
and like made it a you and me thing
'cause like after that would've been
like a whole Kehlani song 'cause she had the verse,
the hook and the whole little bridge, like it was six...
I'm like, "Dang, we gotta switch this up."
But it was cool, 'cause it made a dope moment in the record.
So I was like, man, it was cool.
But, and I definitely just, I know she's a writer, you know,
I know she loves to write and, you know,
it's not easy for her to sing other people's music,
you know what I mean, like other people's lyrics like that.
So for her to even sing the verse
that I written just for me, like was dope just to see her,
you know, like, you know, give up a little bit,
like, you know what I'm saying?
So that was dope.
So I definitely, you know, she is a great writer,
so why not, you know what I'm saying?
She created so many dope records before me working with her.
So it's not like I'm doing anything super significant
to change, you know, what she does, but you know...
It was great though.
It was definitely really cool
being able to just kind of see how she worked too.
(drums playing)
I'm not an R&B artist.
Me personally, I'm not a 'cause what I think R&B is,
you know, what I know, and you know what I remember,
that's not necessarily what I do in that sense, you know.
I take pieces from everywhere, you know what I'm saying?
Like just different things.
So nah, I will never be put in that box,
and it's not a bad thing, I love R&B music,
but I just can't say that I'm just like totally on,
because some songs I don't sing out.
I sing with a different tone.
Like it's just the way I do it,
it's like I play with certain sounds and different tones,
and I play with my voice a little bit.
I feel like I'm a little bit
too all over the place to just say I'm R&B.
(upbeat music)
I definitely want to produce more for people.
I definitely want to write more for people.
I just want to work with some artists that are, you know,
up and coming, new from my city in Cinci.
That's another goal I have.
I just want people to, you know, remember the music,
remember I was, you know, I tried...
I tried hard to really push the envelope
and keep it going where we were in our...
You know, 'cause we're in a time where everybody likes
to sound the same these days, you know?
So I just want people to remember me for
you know, being, "Hey, he really, you know,
he had some dope like different shit.
Like he really tried to, you know,
keep bending these genres,
keep doing things that they say, you know,
Black folks can't do or shouldn't do, or shouldn't
you know, try," because you know what I'm saying?
We belong everywhere.
We shift the culture, we are a cultural, we are...
you know what I'm saying?
We are music, man.
Ain't nothing, ain't nobody stole from us.
So it's like, you know, I'm just trying to push it forward
and just keep it in, you know, keeping in people mind
that they can do their own thing and they can,
you know what I'm saying?
You know, make it from anywhere.
(upbeat music)