Rap Radar: Nipsey Hussle

Yeah rap radar podcast elliott wilson this is b beat up in california baby back at it again yeah round two i know this guy man but he's a little different now yeah knock it off man knock it off knock it off don't do that grammy nominated yeah that's congratulations nick thanks for having me i got a drink today thank you let's Toast that message thank you long time coming victory lot how does it feel i mean let me tell you what you say he tried to get all humble said rolling stone he said those opinions

can deliver a really prestigious award to an artist but it's just opinions at the end of the day that's your humble response it's people though yeah i didn't know the process until you know i did a walk-through a Little before um the nominations came out and they just explained the process of how they pick you know and when they explain it to me as artists as producers as people in the music industry and it's like a voting process yeah so just people's opinion you know i mean i know it's just how people feel but that

award is so prestigious that those people's opinions can deliver you a uh a grammy you know what i mean yeah That's what i meant by that not to like downplay yeah what that is but is it feel good as an artist for people to appreciate your art you know i mean whoever it is if it's somebody to be like man i should change my life bro or if it's the grammy so yeah any form of appreciation is always like man that's dope you know but to set that template i mean you from jump was like

trying to Make this like album of the year worthy type body of work yeah you know it has to feel like another level of validation to the work that you put in that's crazy you know um i try not to let it feel like validation but it does feel like like appreciation or recognition but it's like my whole goal with this pro this wave That we you know just went through with the victory lab release was just i wanted the story to be music around me you know what i mean it was always like oh

great marketing good business man real [ __ ] you know authentic i wanted it to be music i wanted the story to be music and i intentionally did things even though i talked and i made everything about the music this time and so forth to be recognized the way It's being recognized and for it to be a music moment that's what i wanted not just the business actually you know what i'm saying not obviously that's the bottom line at the end of the day we hustlers but we artists too and i wanted this time around

i wanted to put all the attention on the music you know were you apprehensive about putting victory lap out at the top of the year because you know we're in december and People are still talking about it people get lost in the shuffle i mean i i considered that but then i just i play i play volume two still from jay i play don't get b nothing yeah i mean i don't even mean to say that to beat up my bad because it's my favorite biggest favorite nah but i play i play machiavelli from park

still you know timeless classic like authentic Music i can still play the fix from scarface still i play miss education for my daughter i introduce her to classic music so i don't feel like i don't try to make the or i don't try to consider oh it's like it's it's going real fast right now everybody's dropping i'm thinking i try not to think in that term i'm thinking like you know make some great music and People won't appreciate and be able to live with it you know so when the nominations came out you were in

the gym at five in the morning or something like that how did you know that it was an interview oh i told you i said that yeah yeah i was working on we're trying to get we got to get buffered um we had just been working out for like a week we had to start a new program um And so we were just in there i didn't know that it was going to be announced that early but it came out 8 30 new york times which was 5 30 at laton and my engineer jumped up

g and just was like you know celebrating you don't normally say too much like just get the work done but you know i mean he's like yeah it's official so i checked my twitter i seen the feed i'm Like damn that's big yeah the other thing i saw you said is it's rewarding for you to be recognized because people feel like this is a really strong year of hip-hop like there were a lot of big reasons that's another thing this was everybody put music out everybody put albums out this year and you know um you

know everybody put out great rap Music this year there's a ton of classics it was like legendary artists dropped music new artists dropped classics and just great music that got them you know looked at and then the artists in my class have been around i feel like solidify themselves again and just like kind of prove why they still here yeah you know what i mean but yeah it was it was a busy year i feel like the ones that most of the marketing Know like that this is the rap album of the year was like

you and pusha t right like both was on that program right no j-rock right right oh yeah i feel like i feel like redemption was a classic too i feel like you know that shout out today you know and i don't like to tell people what they should do as far as like oh yeah i should have put that in but i feel like that was a great rap album this year yeah i was going to ask you That because the interesting thing is that you know if you know b like some of the nomination

categories they increase it to eight nominations gonna be increased yeah i was gonna ask you who you would add because they did cardi b invasion of privacy uh mac miller swimming u pusha daytona travis scott astroworld so that's no j-rock there's no the carters There's no like you know i mean there's a lot of other ones that could have been in that consideration yeah that's um i would add j-rock yeah i would probably what else came out rap uh we got royce the 5-9 kod kendrick i would add caleb yeah yeah cole you know what

i'm saying um when you think about an album like best rapper out of your work you gotta Consider that in my opinion yeah just it was like conceptual whether that's your type of hip-hop or not you gotta consider it was a gang of great rap music because you was criticizing the state of the game or something so like the weirdo rap y'all used to but it seems like even with ushering your music it's like it just seems like it was it was celebrated now in a climate that seems like it's in a better space Like

hip-hop is yeah i think this year was like and i don't even want to be like an old-school fundamental you know i mean but just like rap like people people i think revisited like the core of what we love about rap you know what i'm saying in my opinion so is nip hustle and influence in that cause like beat i said you you set that template at the top of the year sometimes things have happened at the Top of the year yeah influence that's that's that's the cycle i might i might be i don't know

if you'll i mean i could i could i could look at it and say that but who knows how long you've been working on projects you know it takes more than a couple months to put together albums so yeah i feel like maybe i don't know you know what i mean i couldn't i don't know what people was thinking but yeah that's something to look at you Know right like i said earlier i didn't think you were gonna get nominated because i didn't think the grain was gonna you know get it right this year but

you know let's say you do win you have an accepted speech prepared and all that good stuff i don't have a speech yet i will though you know i ain't going up there um empty i'm gonna have some if i you know the outfit planned out not yet I'm trying to build i'm trying to finish my studio i'm building a new studio overall i've been my main focus yeah okay yeah so we'll have it together by february no problems at the awards show this year too nick because we still haven't knocked that out let's call

it victory slap nah i don't know how do you do the open hand slap with you with the flip-flops on man the forum Is immaculate man y'all got to stop victory man you know how are you what i will say oh bt you know they they kept it all the way 100 with me ag did you know the people that actually own the property i had to speak to executives from both them companies and when i explained what happened and my intentions are coming to the show and how i do business Yeah they understood and

they're like you know what we're going to let you know because it became it was a big viral moment but it seemed like it got handled professionally right right right quickly behind it ain't that ain't what i represent you know people be impressed by that type of [ __ ] but we trying to do business and that's really a mistake you know i got a team in front of me for that you Know i mean but we men and sometimes you go off your rocker a little bit yeah no but it's crazy because it's like

because the the you know the other side of it right it's like we known you in the game for a minute but it's like now you're like in the tmz radar more people look at everything you're doing more like if you're at the laker game and um oh Boys get into it rondo chris paul yeah like why didn't pulling his pants up like he got ready to go i thought i thought that i thought it was gonna spill into where i was at yeah it was like close you feel right oh come on man i'm

not jumping in no nba fight i don't know that word up let's talk about a little bit of the music some um because last time we interviewed the album wasn't even out right so now i'm listening to like you know with fresh Airs or whatnot but i noticed on the intro you had wifey do some vocals you got that okay did i tell you that nah i caught that how did you know you seen the crazy that's how you sing that yeah that that's her saying victory lap yeah okay yeah and then all through the

album in between songs you hear a woman's voice that's wrong yeah oh so she she's getting pub on the Uh album too royalties like some yeah she what how much is that word how much percentage you tell me what she deserves she deserves everything i don't i don't know about the title man yeah what's you have still you have a favorite uh song because it probably changes probably from there i like it right i like victory lap that's one of my favorite records yeah on the album Yeah yeah what about what's your favorite elliot yo

you know what i did i went through each song i'm a nerd and i was like i wanted to ask you about a key line from each right bracket what's your favorite um i think it's uh make a million while you're young right and i have a hot take about i feel like this album is very motivational so whenever you get like a paycheck or you Get some money or win full i listen to that record and think about how it's invested i said on twitter that i think the second verse is like uh ted

talk right for you know how to save money and stash right and um whatnot and i really like that right who was who's doing that little interview part what was that it's a um it was actually from an interview With a real estate developer named don peeples he was being interviewed the guy speaking is the interviewer yeah so he was asking don peeples tell me about your deal that made your first million yeah and um i actually know don peeples through my business partner dave gross and when i when i sampled it i didn't know

him and i just randomly do our um real estate Stuff we're doing you know six degrees of separation dave was real close with him we met oh wow so that's how we got it cleared wow but like elliot said there are lines that i like like on the intro the [ __ ] wanna hear your cdfo yeah like that just resonating that's one of my favorite lines yeah you have somebody in mind when you said that one i mean you know you out that was one of Those songs that i just went in the booth

and i ain't really right to it so yeah that was just like that's what we call mean streets right you didn't even know it was going to be the intro yeah exactly yeah um that was one of the when we did the sequencing that was one of the last decisions i made was to put that record first because i didn't i i had it it was kind of hard for me to figure out what i was Going to put first yeah i can put right hand to god first it's gonna sound like an introduction you

know what i mean but when i really thought about it i'm like this need to be actually copy told me that we was listening to the songs copy like put that first bro you think that's the intro and i listen to it i'm like you're right no the whole the the first five like Look through that rap [ __ ] last time i checked it's just it's the highest bar like i think right if any album like even if you don't miss anything if you want to debate if it's not the best album i think

you have to can't it's hard to not argue that the first five yeah the energy of like the way that it kicks off right it's it sets the standard nah thank you and that comes Down to sequencing so i know that must have been very painstaking to like yeah it was it was it took a long time but think about albums or projects when you when you when you're done you know you done once you got you know what i mean i think i did like the last verse to blue laces and then the last

verse last time i checked and then those were the last verses i did and we was done We had a ton of songs that was like concepts that could all be finished but when i did those two last verse and finished those two last records it was like we're done is there anything you would have done differently listening back on it yep i'm gonna do it on the second album but i did learn as i went on tour and just you know what i'm saying went out into the world i'm like okay i see what

i got I see what i don't have i see what i need you know what i mean but as a as a project as a concept i think i executed on the concept yeah you know what i mean and you always said that part of what makes it good is the stories and that they're basically rooted in truth right you know you live on your [ __ ] you say no exaggeration for the content of my songs Yeah like and i think you always say that one thing that resonates with classic material whether it's from

like adele or lauren hill or whoever is the honesty in the music right how did you how did you continue to push yourself to to execute it that way or give that level of like honesty and sincerity um i really went back and listened to my mixtape catalogue and i was just like what did i do over The course of these 10 projects that got people into this this music i'm making the movement where what what happened what did i do and i just listened and i'm like what songs can i still listen to from

oh eight from oh 9010 and i could still listen to a few not all of them but i i remember it kind of gave me some insight on you know what i mean what i did right And um i just when i went into this project i just was like i want every line to be something that you know if we cut the music off you know stan it's it's solid you know i mean it's not all i don't want i want every song every hook every verse every line i just want it to be

pure and just on the bull's eye and we had to do a lot of songs and take a lot Of time but what i thought was like damn if i took three off of this mixtape excuse me for this mixtape one off for this one four for this one i had a timeless piece of work and you know that's what the fans are into you for because they got all of them and they probably made that playlist that yeah you know what i mean but if they Got it all on one project that project would

have been timeless so what are some of like those classic in your mind like for them like popcorn hustle in the house if they wanted to make a list yeah also in the house right the hustle way off volume three right um rap rap music or volume three that's the record i feel like it's a pure record um key to the city key to the city I thought that was gonna be on the victory light when i first saw the tracklist he was like nah nah nah no yeah a record like keys to the city

um blue laces uh so as long as you did sequels to also kind of hold that that's why i did that that's why i did sequels to him yeah i got a record on a marathon called love you know what i'm saying i think like um ocean views off slauson boy 2. classic You know what i'm saying i was uh save the world right okay face the world face the world face the world knife to produce that yeah you see us yeah check me check me out you know what i'm saying it's lost in the

christian true story the outro i think there is times when i hit my bull's eye yeah me as a fan yeah you know you make music for the time sometimes yeah or you feel like damn i need to be Stronger in this area let me do a feature but then when the time is over and you just look back it's certain songs it's just like you purely just being yourself getting off on him right yeah and so that's what i try to do on on the victory also was interested with the orchestration about using other

voices like whether it's a cello or a dream all these different elements Right what was that transition like for you like not even just rely so much just on yourself but like like travis scott i think does an amazing job of using other collaborators and putting them in position but you execute that in a similar way on this album where they're showcased well whether it's buddy whether it's dream whether it's celo a lot of that was stevo stevo was taking records that i didn't do hooks Um and he like he wouldn't tell me nothing he

had just sent it back and i'm like oh yeah that's crazy then you know what i mean um he reached out and he got the ceelo record done also yeah you know what i mean um but he was just a young dude that we was in the same studio he was working with mike and keys yeah and so we met And he's somebody that to be around him like you're gonna end up believing in him and loving him you know what i'm saying so i just seen him do his first couple mixtapes i'm like nah

let's do the artist yeah you know me from compton and you know you're a young dude out the west so i just became a fan and we was always around each other so that was the record that he did originally i asked him to let me have That for my um how did you get puff involved like you don't realize that damn did sean combs touch it though bug introduced us originally and then um i think like last time i checked video dropped and puff hit me like man you look like you doing yoga [

__ ] what you got going on over there you know what i'm saying focus [ __ ] on some [ __ ] you just look you look like you focus you know i mean Like let me i don't know i feel like you got you about to drop a classic going i'm like pull up on me i'm like yeah i'm pulling up i pulled up played the records and then you know we just had a convo about the music and um you know what i'm saying it was he was just like you know i told

him what i wanted as a producer i mean as an artist from a producer and yeah he like let's do it you know i Ain't worked on no rap in a while and we just open the records up and start you know what i'm saying trying to make him better take him to the next level really really i would say puff's major impact is on rap [ __ ] he told me he he played um natural born killers and he like if it don't sound like this go back to the drawing board bro this record

is way louder and it came out in The 90s wow this [ __ ] way more aggressive you got to get your [ __ ] on that level with the production and we went back and beefed it up so he felt you had a concept but you wasn't fully executed it didn't get all the way where we was trying to take it until we went back after that combo and was like all right boom and then we kind of like juiced it up And how did you get him to talk on your [ __ ]

i heard you had everybody make sure when he came in the booth smoking and drinking we just was like we was trying to get him to get in the booth i was trying to get him on rap [ __ ] because i wanted him in the make in the video like he was with heavy metal yeah yeah but he like not like young [ __ ] so i'm like all right He's like i'm going in i'm going right now i go in and he start you know i'm saying you know artists bro it's like you

don't want to you really as a let me say this as a producer you want to you want to be able to make your artist comfortable to just unlock and go big and just go all the way in comfortable yeah so when he's in artist mode i'm in producer mode now i'm like you know when You come out you pump him up get him let him know that [ __ ] fire because i wanted him to like unlock and go all the way in yeah he didn't need his two hours just trying to like keep

the energy up yeah yeah and he had a remix coming soon we talked about that a little bit we got the remix yeah i mean i was i just teased it on on instagram a while ago but um i haven't i haven't mapped out how i'm gonna drop it yet we kind of We was gonna put it out early but then this is the young [ __ ] no for rap names he's talking about the rapping yeah um so we met we had a little audible in the team we was planning on doing something so

we pulled the record back we still got it we're gonna release it we just ain't got the plan i was kind of surprised um even though you had this been a year Outside of victory lap it feels like you were kind of quiet right like outside of you would think you know when you dropped a great album you would do features you know a lot of collaborations but you were you weren't you kind of scaled back was that strategic um i just wanted the album to get the attention i've been i've been working i've been

doing a lot of business stuff too but I really just wanted the album to get his full attention and really go deep into the album shoot videos we've been shooting videos all year went on tour right and then you know it's a lot of business stuff i'm doing behind the scenes too but you know i really i really wanted the focus to be on the album this year you know i mean right yeah you mentioned videos you said the uh double up video was based on a real experience Um roughly you know what i mean

roughly yeah it was it was slightly autobiographical yeah that's like my second favorite song like i know that song was special because i played it so many times right and i realized yo this song is six minutes right and i'm running it back multiple times so long it's a great record thank you thank you what's the other record you said you said that's your second favorite oh uh The first one is make a million while young so double up was like number two why was double up a bonus track though seemed like this i just

couldn't find a place for it in the sequence you know i mean i think it's kind of it's kind of slow so i didn't i didn't want the the tempo to drag too much throughout the project yeah but you know i took it off the album at first wow and then um you know one of the People atlantic like bro please you tripping back on the record so i'm like all right i liked it too but since you said that i'll keep it you know what i mean but i couldn't i couldn't fit into the

sequence i couldn't find where it fit in you know what i mean yeah yeah how has it been with atlantic i mean jay seemed to like it too though remember yeah put on this playlist that was love yeah the whole atlantic deal like when We first got with you last year around this time you had just got the deal was a big deal like you know what does it mean independent powerhouse nip hustle right breaking bread with julie greenwald mike all these people right now when you look at it now like do you feel like

again not to go back to words like validation and vindication is like it's part of all this the master plan That that you have elevated that you necessarily didn't have to go like super commercial with it but you're being recognized on that bigger scale right is that is that signs that atlantic is the right partner for you um i it was signs before that you know just how the whole album rollout went just from the process of assigning to get an album on the shelf or on the platform yes um just Everything bsps holidays whatever

it is everything's been solid across the board you know what i mean so i had a convo with julianne um kaiser just about that like you know [ __ ] being clean you know i had a i had an experience at a at a label that left me a little bit you know what i mean skeptical yeah about just the relationship that you could do That right but just first and foremost was the terms we went back in on they we they met the terms and then after that just the experience with them everybody men

and women that they were you know what i'm saying it mean it being smooth and fluid the whole way yeah even so even after you drop the album you get all the claim you're like two months three months in How does the relationship still feel strong to you that you feel like the the this is where i need to be i mean it's just like i know i know what my job is and i know what their job is if everybody do that job we good everybody's gonna be good and so i'm focused on my

job and to know that the people that's you know the partners they wake up every day they focus on their job Yeah so we good i don't got no other expectations i'm gonna do my job you do yours we're gonna be solid clearly they're doing theirs you feel me so we're good right how was that how was that a tour too you took the tour with the live band yeah that was crazy what was that like that was dope you know the album was really a lot of music you know i mean it was a

lot of live Music so i wanted to perform them records with that band you know so it was dope man you know we got rolled a loud coming up too so we're gonna have a band out rolling out in a couple days yeah that's dope i was thinking talk about earlier how you know mention some of your old songs that you felt like you hit the target on so i was you know going back and i thought about this record from volume One bullets uh that on me i put that on me yeah put that

on yeah yeah yeah and there's a story that you talk about like how you and fats rest in peace i was in vegas yeah i was in vegas can you explain that whole story man that's a real story so the cops took y'all caught y'all riding dirty and the cops took your car and you had to walk to Yeah they we was we was um driving back to l.a from vegas so it's a town in between atlanta vegas called barstow and it's basically the halfway point between vegas and l.a it's two hours from l.a it's

two hours from vegas um so we was in bardstown and little did we know barstow's a racist town i never stopped in bardstown unless he was like going to it's like a little halfway point to vegas so you might use a bathroom get Some gas and keep going but we got pulled over i'm smoking no matter of fact fat smoking but i'm driving no matter of fact he driving because he goes his license is revoked yeah right yeah so let me think who's driving first yeah i drove the first half which was from vegas to

barstow and i didn't smoke because i'm like police bumpers i don't want to be hot So boom we get halfway i tap faster you drive i'm about to light this blunt but you get behind the wheel his license revoked i got licensed though he's like all right so he's driving he's speeding all these bumpers man we got hammers behind the ac all they do is shine the flashlight they gonna see the guns so i'm like damn you know [ __ ] i don't think the police that Uh interested i think he just was speeding right

so boom police bumpers he like get out the car he um search the car don't find nothing licensed fast license revoked i'm like i got a license he like yeah but too high i smell the weed because i'm telling him he the driver wasn't smoking i was smart he like yeah but too hot you can't drive i'm like bro we in the desert you know what i'm saying you can't You can't pound the car out here bro it's like coyotes and [ __ ] bro you can't take the car but where are we gonna go

right he like well i'm taking the car but it's a little truck stop i'll take you right here you know we like damn so he he take the car and pound the car mind you got two guns in the corner right and drop us at the truck stop it's like six in the morning now we go we walk in this little restaurant at the truck stop Everybody had turned like life you seen life yeah when martin uh asked for the white only right yeah we walked in one of them places and they just looked at

us and we like um you know we ordered some food and you know we're like man we we sick we like where's the bus station and this you know it wasn't uber back then like where's the bus station we gotta catch the ground we had we had some Static in vegas you know we was out there hustling so we took a hell and you know have some police issues and we're just trying to get back home and um they like to you know the uh greyhound station a mile down the road y'all could walk we

like [ __ ] we walking down the road bro two people pulled up in a pickup truck threw a bottle at us and said [ __ ] [ __ ] wow i could not believe it was funny to me bro i'm just Like insane like just last night yeah and just we got the car impounded we took a l in vegas then we walking down the street throwing a it's like 2 000 and something yeah i don't even know it's still racist people that just said yeah i'm just like damn so just hold on i

didn't know it still racist people but yeah i'm just like you know it wasn't it just kind of saw It it was just like a movie i couldn't believe it so we walked to the ground station catch the bus back to l.a and you know how we got the car back you know all that that's another there's another story tell you off camera what do you think fats would think about all the success victory lap has had throughout this year man i think he would be satisfied and inspired you know what i'm Saying and just

feel like job well done he worked with us from day one you know i'm saying like we was riding bikes with teenagers and like he would be what's the word like i don't know like just feel completed you know what i'm saying i feel like you know i mean uh full circle job well done like he did it you know what i mean yeah but even with the situation like real life still Is part of what's going on because i saw your brother sam bailed himself out yeah recently yeah just honestly bro like that situation

was just a case of the police just being um devilish you know what i'm saying for no just clearly just they see what we doing they see what the the the the energy is they see what direction We're going in and just the history of where we come from they still hate that yeah and so they they take time they take over you're still in it's the texture of things that happen that if it happened anywhere remotely close they're going to try to put it on some involving us yeah and so you know he built

that went to court and got it they said nifty Better than mine this like put some respect on his name don't do that one million yeah sam but you know he went to court and thank god the case was uh i didn't even get picked up by the d.a that's correct you know i'm saying so his first court date got rejected oh that's great shout out to that's dope i always thought about your brand the marathon you know you talk about that all the time you shot it out and Eventually marathons you know do have

a finishing line right but for you like when do you feel like you're going to come to your end of the race um is there an end i mean yeah life at the end of life right no but i feel like regard it don't it's not it's not limited to music that point of view it's not just about making music it's just about you know a mentality in my Opinion just you know how to take your lumps in life you know what i mean because you know you're going to take your elves you know your

ups and downs so just a philosophy or a point of view on how to how to look at the journey you know i mean you got where you at you got where you're trying to be and then you got all this [ __ ] in between that's not gonna matter when you get here You know what i mean so i feel like and it was a way of inspiring myself also just like a pep talk i was telling myself why i was in a uh vulnerable moment you know what i mean yeah that the marathon

go it goes on you don't start you know what i'm saying i've been doing this i i i it wasn't about um this moment i was doing this way back then doing this back then got me here so Reflect bro just you know what i'm saying keep it going right what do you mean you said never let a hard time humble us never a lot of hard times because you know it's it's the game won't test you it's ups and downs and so like you know you got to be who you are at all times

right you know what i mean so you know just like a like a principal to live by you know yeah yeah Even though we're still in the victory lab are you working towards the next album already oh you want to ask who's gonna be that cause he's gonna give it to lebron first so lebron's gonna be on the victory lap man what's crazy bro is that you know um i made no pressure after victory lap you know what i'm saying so all in records came after victory lap everyone i like that that ep yeah everything

on there coming in the Show we just cuz i was working i'm like just what you said how you gonna [ __ ] come with some records out there and i got 50 songs none of this could have been a victory lap though that's like none of no none of this yeah yeah it could have and uh stuck in the ground could have been on youtube you know what i'm saying but you know i just wanted to make music we mixed the album i got the album done Like mastered in my hand all right what

are we going to do now we gotta shoot videos we got to mix the music we got to do the marketing i mean we got to work on some more music and then figure out the release and all that but i don't want to i want to stay in music mode you know what i mean yeah yeah so to answer that we been we got a ton of music you know i got like two other Collab projects i did right b no well with bino that we're gonna figure out what to do with the records

i saw you and nips and nipsey uh you and me for teasing something like you could do a collaboration album you you would download that you're a streamer yeah yeah i'll give you ten dollars for it right now we're gonna charge a hundred we're gonna be proud to play with that nah i think That'll be dope i think that that last meek project i mean i think we all feel like that's yeah his best project i think that's you know what i mean like some classic street rap music that we ain't got in a long

time i think that um people would love to see that we've been like talking about it for a while doing records like that never came out but i think it'll be crazy yeah there's also A gentleman dallas uh lifestyles this is tie-in with dallas morning dallas martin yeah he uh he you know are both your projects yeah can you talk about what what do you guys think he got righty rich that's you know okay he's been working with roddy rich from from cool early on so you know just he had a great year you know

i mean he's been a what's crazy about dallas man Me and dallas been talking about trying to figure out how to how to get me to put an album out um proper yeah since like oh 11 when mmg was at warner brothers and todd which was the was the executive and so you know um you know what i mean just to see what how the the growth he's had in the progress he made that's that's somebody that you know i've been i've seen him work his way up and put His work in and you know

work for the position he got you know i mean and he always believed in my [ __ ] was like bro you know i mean like however whenever it's time you know what i mean let's figure something out and so it was though we got to work together when i came to atlanta yeah how did he add to the process in your mind i mean somebody that's what i learned at my last situation that It got to be somebody that really believes in the building on the other side you and your team got to believe

in but on that side also got to be something we got to represent you and you yeah and understands it also and it can articulate and say no listen you know what i mean this is what nip's trying to do here yeah and this is why this is important this is why you gotta you know what i mean and so it's not me Saying it because of course i'm gonna say it you know on me passionate artist for somebody that's you know work on that side and they what they say is their reputation so when

they say things and it comes back it's not true that's that reflects poorly so they got to say things that they believe in it mean and have somebody campaigning on the inside it's priceless You know what i mean yeah do you feel like you've gained new fans from victory lap 100 i never sold that many records all my messages yeah i'm saying so that's in fact we got more fans but um you know just going outside i get more of a reaction after the album then obviously the mixtape we never had this level of marketing

i never was able to Have this many videos and be able to get a proper rollout you know that's something julie told me earlier she was like you know i want to give you a long runway i want to make sure you got a you got a proper rolex you never had that you deserve to see what that'll do for you mm-hmm and that's what we got to do with victory lap yeah are you surprised by some of the I guess people that had listened to victory lap like who i saw you uh you had

a picture with denzel washington seems like y'all oh man i don't know if you listen to the album okay you know that was just we was at a laker game and i had a i had a story when i was a kid you know my sister's father used to work at the forum and the lakers played at the forum when i was young so i'd be able to go to some of the Games sometime and you know we'd be at you know some a little higher ups and i i used to be a little kid

trying to sneak down there and get autographs and so i snuck down and i seen denzel and i'm like denzel i was probably eight i'm like what's up let me get an autograph but the security grabbed me he like nah bro like go back to your seat denzel like or his wife tapped him and he looked is that like watch out man Let the little kid come get an autograph and i came down of course i wow and he gave me an autograph so now i'm sitting next to him wow years later and i'm like

hey i don't even mean to be in your space but man i was a kid without the form and i told him what happened i'm like and your wife tapped you and you you know flagged security to let me through and he you know he gave me some some good words you know and i you know I just shook his hand yeah you also got to touch that rose bowl stage man callie brought you out there oh yeah yeah that was crazy yeah yeah that was crazy shout out khalid and um lenny s you might

inspire [ __ ] bringing out the vest again the rolling investor with the rolly and the vest yeah that's crazy that show was was incredible our show was next level i had seen it first in philly you know i Seen y'all at the rose bowl yeah like i had my kids and [ __ ] with us it was crazy though but you also went back home to uh to africa yeah what was that experience like man you know that was cool i didn't get to stay as long as i did last time so i didn't

have the same it didn't get to sink in last time i stayed for three months you know i'm saying it was no twitter it was no ig it was no so we Weren't as connected so when he was in africa he was in africa this time you know i stayed at the hotel i'm nip now so i different when i go outside but i got to see my family and you know um it was dope you know just breathing that air and going i got to meet the president oh wow you know what i'm saying

and um i landed at the airport and they had A minivan waiting for me you know drove into the country oh wow yeah i'm saying they gave me my passport they handled everything for me wow so yeah they treated me great you know i ate good um you know spent time with my family i think i stayed for a little bit over a week mm-hmm a little like 10 days maybe and i had to get back and get ready for tour yeah it was cool though right i'm a Little concerned of you getting your bylines

on man players tribute man you're trying to take me out you're writing articles now man what's going on oh oh yeah that was that was that was the idea but you know i worked with a writer so yeah he took what i wrote and then he you know put his spin on it you know what i mean yeah yeah the players should be So it was about a build you're building with i guess with puma yeah in your area crenshaw you're building like a basketball uh rebuilding a basketball court situation yeah so it's an elementary

school called 59th street elementary and uh it's in our artist on our area and um puma just relaunched a basketball campaign so part of the part of the campaign they wanted to go into certain Communities are they you know brand ambassadors and just like do basketball events and so we talked about um what school or what what playground we could renovate and you know i mean just beautify and also you know create a vibe to have events and so that was the one we chose and you know the artist came down he painted the courts

re-denim painted The handball courts and everything and just you know the school is chain-link fence cover so when you drive by you see the painting the whole playground look colorful now yeah so you know shout out to chief at puma and i was on something he put together with us that's what's up streets ain't for everybody to get them grades up right that's my second favorite line on The album yeah you said he was gonna say some of your favorite lines elliot you had some besides the yeah will you pick a song man pick a

song oh [ __ ] like which one is your favorite uh um favorite song do you have that blue laces too though it still takes me in that zone man that might be one of my favorites because they said you know jay with the What's free that's one of the best verses of the year but that nip hustle and that last verse on blue laces two though right yeah that that's when i knew my album was done i was listening to my album and i'm just like damn you know i started listening to classics and

i'm like damn you know that that third verse on one love from nash the stan song from eminem you know what I'm saying it's certainly like uh it was all good just a week ago them stories you know what i'm saying i'm like that's what i'm lacking i don't got a story for real like and that we talked about you know on young [ __ ] it was like a little quick little um flashbacks but it wasn't an in-depth story you know so when i when i did blue laces i'm like all right it's complete

now you know yeah you know what it says about yonder Though it's like you just it seems like you're just kind of dancing on the track of puff and do that and then you just go into a rap mode where like you catch a zone yeah and then even the ad-libs on the back of it just like you just kind of go in yeah yeah yeah that was off the head too you know that was some you know i did that record a long time ago and we we changed the production on It but i

heard that i did that record uh probably two days after that party next door record came up so whenever that west district original came out i told my producer to flip that beat and let me wrap it up you knew right away you once yeah immediately i was riding around listen to that record i'm like i'm going to rap on this man i hit party and then they hit back in Time i'm just like man flip this record man but then party they ended up clearing it they ended up you know so he was actually

like low-key featured on it yeah yeah are we gonna get any more videos yup i'm gonna do a video i did a video of the victory lap the intro i'm gonna do on the blue laces to finish oh yeah we didn't get to redo that video yet not yet We working no there's gonna be a video for you okay yeah and we're gonna do one for blue laces yeah that's awesome i feel like there's gonna be is there a sequel to the album you're going to get a like a attended version i do have i

do have records you know that that was being considered but i don't know i just got to think about what's the best move to make i'm really trying to make new music you know what I'm saying but i wouldn't hold the music back i land it somewhere i'm gonna do an all money in project with the the team that i'm getting ready to push as you know the official artist on the label yeah you have a new artist right yeah killer twine kills one yeah then pac-man he's like send me some beats man killer swan

ready to i go like i got like 15 songs i'm gonna play for y'all on my phone he's been in The studio over the last month he's going crazy he got the [ __ ] in gardens and um if you really listen to the bullets hang on any volume one kill a twin on there oh okay he's on the last record you know so we've been working with killer and you know like i told you all off camera out the focus was to get the album out but we had a we had a in-depth plan

of what we wanted to do And so part of that is getting the label really solidified you know what i mean yeah and so like i said we got killer we got pack we got j stone cobby bh and then uh we working with a ton of other artists too but you know we're gonna come with the original home team of my homies that grew up in the section with us and and you know building the sound with us and then it's going to turn Straight music you know what i mean yeah i would say

you're never with stingies like i think about buying three you always had a lot of collaborators like hobby i mean that's just how we that's how we started making music we had studios in our neighborhood if i had the equipment it was in my my spot and in my closet was the mic and cuz he would come pull up and lay a verse and caveat Verse and then you know robin hood to have a studio and we got us his spotting record so you know that was just or how he made music it's times when

it's like a solo personal moment and it's like this is a solo project but it's a solo record but overall we all make music collectively together yeah how's granny feeling about the success man oh man we took granny with us to vegas she was On the puma [Laughter] yeah yeah because in the players tribune thing you you spoke a lot about her like for people that don't know her role yeah i'm sure anybody grew up how he grew up you know granny's an important part of the family and my granny was just like backbone you

know what i mean and we live with granny for the first seven years of my life you know what i mean so We she had a two-bedroom house and it was me moms and bro in the other bedroom and the bed together and granny wake up cook breakfast every morning you know what i'm saying like an old school you know what i mean structured never really angry always good energy it's she's a she's a unique person but you know easy easiest person to love anybody you might get an elevator And love granny by the time

you get off that's just how her spirit is she talked to everybody she just you know i mean a happy person 86 and still wake up every morning yeah dropped my son off she had my son all day she go out to the you know events with us and all that took her to the pop premiere when the poc movie came out she just you know she's just a it's a pure spirit you know Yeah yeah that's awesome man we see the family in up front man yeah you know my thing is really like a

family business for my dad is a part of the marathon clothing he worked every day at the st shop you know what i mean my brother is my business partner you know my sister worked with us you know what i mean moms everybody it's really like a family business for you know my girl is in all my videos Right they said you put a ring on it man man that was you know for the record you know what i'm saying just for the record i mean i want to give you a box of by the

way by the way the caliber woman lauren is that's a wife off top right side period you know what i mean but we didn't get married you know what i mean so um we was at the club celebrating her Birthday i'm sure i tell i might be inviting everybody to dinner honestly bring your wife's right y'all might not be married y'all know how we talk you know what i'm saying but you know um he was just having fun celebrating her birthday yeah yeah you know i mean we don't we going out tonight too she's hosting

that moreno okay yeah yeah it's great to see you Like you're out there more you know yeah sharing with us right you know that it just tmz was in front of the club you know so they caught us just after we ate dinner drunk some shots you know good mood they got a little little extra out of us it's all good i heard you say something about in terms of like the business how people can see music that so you had an interesting quote you said Like almost like the metric for success almost is inspiration

because a lot of times before you even have the catalog people always speak about nip hustle like he inspires me he talked about how that like it still continues to be like to me like the foundation of what you do like right you creating great content but it still inspires others right um yeah i think i read that that Somewhere it was just like the highest human act is to inspire you know what i mean and so for me it's like why do i don't care really the business side of music outside of just being

a hustler when i when it comes to music i i love you know i might pay attention and get informed about how the album performed but it don't really influence how i feel about the music So you know when i thought about what is the what factor make me like the music you know what really is it and i think it's like the music that inspires you that's what you really that's the stuff you play over and over again that's the music and you got [ __ ] to entertain you [ __ ] that you

know uh motivates you by being at the core all that inspires you to dance It inspires you to get some money it inspires you to fall in love but it inspires you you know what i'm saying and i think that that's the goal of making music is to inspire some emotional reaction from people you know yeah yeah so whether it does gold platinum that's not really important to you it's more so about i mean it's what i know you create classic music it's gonna it's gonna People gonna catch on right it's gonna it's gonna you

know i'm saying it's gonna perform how to perform you know what i mean but as a hustler yeah i want my [ __ ] to go platinum you know what i'm saying i want my [ __ ] to be clear because i want to charge what a platinum artist charge for everything you know i mean and i want to be multi but it steps you know i mean we're going We're going to play the game how to go right yeah i think you said something too that kendrick don't get credit in the sense of how

he cracked that commercial code but in a sense you feel like he never really went commercial with his music that's how many people just responded that way they took it i think they came to what he was doing yeah section 80 doesn't sound too far From good kid they completely different sonically in the storyline but they don't sound like a different artist yeah you know what i'm saying up into where he at now to where i feel like you know i think it they just came to him and i think that's the goal you know

i mean because it's like you didn't pursue it and you ended up with it so you don't gotta change four you get to be who you Are do you feel like the next step after ricky lap this next album is maybe even that thing that takes that i mean i feel like like you know you got to think the last project i put out was mailbox money or crenshaw like officially right i had mixtapes before after that but you know from that to this you know that's the hell of a john that's the hell of

that You know what i mean and so from victory lap to what we do next you gotta think i learned a lot from when i put out crenshaw and mailbox money and all everything went into victory lab that i learned and i learned i'm gonna learn a lot from now until you know this next thing that comes out i've learned a lot just putting this project out it's my first major label release Absolutely yeah i mean it's the first time i actually you know mix and mastered the project you know i mean it's the first

time we really did a full campaign and marketed the album and did radio runs and all that and you know i feel like um cool i got it i figured out what it looked like i know the whole process the whole team at atlantic i know who everybody is we got to work in history the next one Got to be bigger you know what i mean it gotta gotta you know uh continue to grow you know what i'm saying in my opinion yeah yeah can you give us a sneak peek into 2019 man more music

that's my goal you know more than anything just to be up front i got a ton of business stuff y'all going to see as that unfolds right but the music is what you know everybody's tuned in for Yeah so just more music for her we appreciate it that man good luck all right thank you man yeah yeah y'all killed y'all cup i was going slow huh let me catch up yeah the victory's sick baby thank y'all love absolutely evaporated