00:00:00.064 --> 00:00:02.661
- This group, Abstract Mindstate,
is not so much as local,

00:00:02.661 --> 00:00:05.411
we just unsigned 'cause
we've done probably more

00:00:05.411 --> 00:00:06.729
than the average signed artists.

00:00:06.729 --> 00:00:10.116
We just haven't got our big break yet.

00:00:10.116 --> 00:00:11.264
♪ Windy windy city ♪

00:00:11.264 --> 00:00:13.816
- [Host] Representing Chicago...

00:00:13.816 --> 00:00:14.679
♪ Windy City ♪

00:00:14.679 --> 00:00:17.215
- the group is called Abstract Mindstate.

00:00:17.215 --> 00:00:21.314
- Who has the guts to
call their hip hop group

00:00:21.314 --> 00:00:22.897
Abstract Mindstate.

00:00:23.776 --> 00:00:26.446
It takes you to a realm
of subconsciousness

00:00:26.446 --> 00:00:28.636
that most people wouldn't dare tread.

00:00:28.636 --> 00:00:31.417
- When I say "abstract"
you say "mind state".

00:00:31.417 --> 00:00:32.390
Abstract!

00:00:32.390 --> 00:00:34.375
- [All] Mind state!

00:00:34.375 --> 00:00:35.583
- Abstract Mindstate is equiponderance.

00:00:35.583 --> 00:00:38.690
- Equal size, equal
distribution of weight.

00:00:38.690 --> 00:00:40.612
West Side, South side.

00:00:40.612 --> 00:00:43.634
We Chicago, we represent
the entire Chicago.

00:00:43.634 --> 00:00:47.006
- You cannot talk about
Chicago Hip hop without talking

00:00:47.006 --> 00:00:48.774
about Abstract Mindstate.

00:00:48.774 --> 00:00:52.858
- The groups like Abstract
Mindstate laid the foundation

00:00:52.858 --> 00:00:55.775
for Chicago to have a hip hop lane.

00:00:59.390 --> 00:01:01.264
- They had such great talent.

00:01:01.264 --> 00:01:04.147
EP and Greg, they were so lyrical

00:01:04.147 --> 00:01:06.889
and they had such a following.

00:01:06.889 --> 00:01:08.972
I mean Chicago was there.

00:01:10.164 --> 00:01:11.205
- Where we at y'all?

00:01:11.205 --> 00:01:13.074
(audience responding indistinctly)

00:01:13.074 --> 00:01:15.680
- Abstract Mindstate
first caught my attention

00:01:15.680 --> 00:01:18.013
in the mid to late nineties.

00:01:18.854 --> 00:01:20.432
And they were doing their thing, like,

00:01:20.432 --> 00:01:22.534
Abstract Mindset was moving around, like,

00:01:22.534 --> 00:01:23.915
popping on the scene.

00:01:23.915 --> 00:01:25.712
They were a popular group in the city.

00:01:25.712 --> 00:01:27.035
- So many groups in hip hop.

00:01:27.035 --> 00:01:29.392
To be the only duo to have a male female

00:01:29.392 --> 00:01:31.152
configuration is incredible.

00:01:31.152 --> 00:01:34.192
- They'll give you the
substance that you need

00:01:34.192 --> 00:01:36.832
as a person from the music.

00:01:36.832 --> 00:01:38.694
So it's like pure hip hop.

00:01:38.694 --> 00:01:42.032
- And when they rocked it was
just, like, it was magnetic.

00:01:42.032 --> 00:01:44.475
♪ We be from the city where
mics get gripped and ripped ♪

00:01:44.475 --> 00:01:47.472
♪ Stages get flipped and
townships set on fire ♪

00:01:47.472 --> 00:01:50.213
- They created these
larger life characters.

00:01:50.213 --> 00:01:53.552
Man, it's to describe them
is really, it's so diverse.

00:01:53.552 --> 00:01:56.174
It's, like, it's just hard
to really put them in a box.

00:01:56.174 --> 00:01:57.974
- The music play a part in it,

00:01:57.974 --> 00:02:00.875
but it's really who they are,

00:02:00.875 --> 00:02:02.672
what they talking about.

00:02:02.672 --> 00:02:03.857
♪ Who's their master ♪

00:02:03.857 --> 00:02:04.871
♪ Who's your messiah ♪

00:02:04.871 --> 00:02:07.254
(Greg rapping indistinctly)

00:02:07.254 --> 00:02:12.134
(EP and Greg rapping indistinctly)

00:02:12.134 --> 00:02:15.755
- Abstract Mindstate was the first artist

00:02:15.755 --> 00:02:18.838
independent, not signed, from Chicago

00:02:20.614 --> 00:02:23.014
that was featured in Rap Pages.

00:02:23.014 --> 00:02:25.132
- Their point of view was very distinct

00:02:25.132 --> 00:02:27.548
and I just thought it was
so bold and courageous

00:02:27.548 --> 00:02:29.548
and honest to speak that way.

00:02:29.548 --> 00:02:33.995
- EP just lyrics, just give
a damn lyrics at a time

00:02:33.995 --> 00:02:35.792
when everybody expected
women to kind of try

00:02:35.792 --> 00:02:37.173
to look this way or act this way,

00:02:37.173 --> 00:02:38.992
like, EP was just straight lyrics.

00:02:38.992 --> 00:02:40.214
Slay you like a dude.

00:02:40.214 --> 00:02:41.303
♪ You know hoes that flow ♪

00:02:41.303 --> 00:02:42.434
♪ But there aint many that's amongst ya ♪

00:02:42.434 --> 00:02:43.847
♪ That can function like the hellcat ♪

00:02:43.847 --> 00:02:45.131
♪ AKA the Lotus ♪

00:02:45.131 --> 00:02:47.710
♪ AKA the teachers last
pupils need to focus ♪

00:02:47.710 --> 00:02:51.035
- What impressed me by Greg
was he knew all the same stuff

00:02:51.035 --> 00:02:53.494
that I knew and I saw him
doing the business side.

00:02:53.494 --> 00:02:55.914
But then I saw him
doing the creative side,

00:02:55.914 --> 00:02:58.411
and at that time I didn't
see too many people

00:02:58.411 --> 00:03:00.432
that were that good at both.

00:03:00.432 --> 00:03:01.446
- Hire yourself.

00:03:01.446 --> 00:03:02.450
Hire yourself!

00:03:02.450 --> 00:03:06.533
- I'm the talent and
putting together VIP joints.

00:03:07.834 --> 00:03:09.766
Mindstate 2000.

00:03:09.766 --> 00:03:13.391
- I think since the
explosion of Chicago music

00:03:13.391 --> 00:03:16.808
with the likes of Kanye and other people,

00:03:17.734 --> 00:03:20.111
I don't know if the world always sees

00:03:20.111 --> 00:03:23.082
who are the people that
those people listen

00:03:23.082 --> 00:03:25.191
to when they were trying to come up.

00:03:25.191 --> 00:03:27.211
- Ye just walks out the photo shoot,

00:03:27.211 --> 00:03:28.555
he just walks right over to me

00:03:28.555 --> 00:03:30.891
and says, "Hey man, how
come y'all ain't never

00:03:30.891 --> 00:03:32.054
worked with me?"

00:03:32.054 --> 00:03:34.131
♪ Who do I turn to for my
problems to be solved ♪

00:03:34.131 --> 00:03:35.891
♪ When my day is finally done ♪

00:03:35.891 --> 00:03:39.771
- That time was great, then it
was painful at the same time.

00:03:39.771 --> 00:03:43.288
- The music business is a alligator.

00:03:43.288 --> 00:03:47.691
If you don't know the
way a alligator thinks,

00:03:47.691 --> 00:03:50.367
you gonna get chewed up.

00:03:50.367 --> 00:03:51.773
- The day the music stopped.

00:03:51.773 --> 00:03:54.848
The ups and downs have
finally took a toll on me

00:03:54.848 --> 00:03:57.133
to the point that my
lifestyle falling apart.

00:03:57.133 --> 00:03:59.213
- Greg's frustration started to kick in

00:03:59.213 --> 00:04:00.861
and I was like, if it don't happen now,

00:04:00.861 --> 00:04:03.539
like, maybe this is not
what I was meant to do.

00:04:03.539 --> 00:04:05.877
Because I thought, shit
we should have been on it.

00:04:05.877 --> 00:04:07.800
So why, you know, why am
I still doing this shit?

00:04:07.800 --> 00:04:09.843
Apparently this is not the
shit for me to be doing.

00:04:09.843 --> 00:04:12.563
- And Abstract Mindstate
coming outta Chicago,

00:04:12.563 --> 00:04:15.035
it was a lot of competition back then.

00:04:15.035 --> 00:04:17.480
And if you weren't on
like the super duper major

00:04:17.480 --> 00:04:21.021
that was spending a lot of
money to get your name out,

00:04:21.021 --> 00:04:23.261
it was hard to climb out of that.

00:04:23.261 --> 00:04:25.215
- To me, their sound is massive.

00:04:25.215 --> 00:04:28.290
To me, their sound can push change.

00:04:28.290 --> 00:04:31.957
To me, their sound can
touch a lot of lives.

00:04:33.157 --> 00:04:35.720
- Who we were, Abstract Mindstate, then

00:04:35.720 --> 00:04:37.529
was only the tip of the iceberg.

00:04:37.529 --> 00:04:39.543
- You know, Abstract
Mindstate is in your head.

00:04:39.543 --> 00:04:41.463
So we commentate from the spirit.

00:04:41.463 --> 00:04:42.860
That's what we giving you.

00:04:42.860 --> 00:04:44.599
We're giving you that
spirit for your Hip-Hop.

00:04:44.599 --> 00:04:46.679
- Why don't you take a welcome me

00:04:46.679 --> 00:04:48.929
through this Abstract Mind.

00:04:49.958 --> 00:04:51.125
State of mind.

00:04:52.435 --> 00:04:55.243
- Now when I look back
and I listen to the music,

00:04:55.243 --> 00:04:57.958
that music is so missed today.

00:04:57.958 --> 00:05:00.060
- I get a call at six
something in the morning

00:05:00.060 --> 00:05:01.417
and I'm tripping. 'cause I'm like,

00:05:01.417 --> 00:05:02.817
"What Ye doing up calling me?"

00:05:02.817 --> 00:05:04.438
He just started talking.

00:05:04.438 --> 00:05:06.355
"Yo man, I got a idea."

00:05:08.220 --> 00:05:09.217
I called EP.

00:05:09.217 --> 00:05:10.758
"What up? What you doing?"

00:05:10.758 --> 00:05:13.878
"Ye want to sign us and put
Abstract Mindstate back out."

00:05:13.878 --> 00:05:16.737
- It's love, but our
communication was sparse.

00:05:16.737 --> 00:05:18.918
Like that shit wasn't
happening on the regular.

00:05:18.918 --> 00:05:20.031
It just wasn't happening.

00:05:20.031 --> 00:05:21.205
- Mic check. Mic check.

00:05:21.205 --> 00:05:22.332
What's next big Lee?

00:05:22.332 --> 00:05:25.066
- [David] I think this is
one of the dopest stories.

00:05:25.066 --> 00:05:26.812
♪ That's why we still here ♪

00:05:26.812 --> 00:05:28.310
- We just hope that it has

00:05:28.310 --> 00:05:32.109
that storybook ending just
because they work so hard.

00:05:32.109 --> 00:05:34.724
♪ When the twins, we be
rocking right, activate ♪

00:05:34.724 --> 00:05:38.809
♪ We gonna show out ♪

00:05:38.809 --> 00:05:39.692
♪ It's time ♪

00:05:39.692 --> 00:05:41.292
♪ Yeah ♪

00:05:41.292 --> 00:05:43.889
♪ Y'all know it's time ♪

00:05:43.889 --> 00:05:46.255
♪ Yo, yo ♪

00:05:46.255 --> 00:05:47.722
♪ I spend nights thinking ♪

00:05:47.722 --> 00:05:49.350
♪ Will y'all ever hear what I write ♪

00:05:49.350 --> 00:05:51.771
♪ It's like the game went
dark and the mic is my light ♪

00:05:51.771 --> 00:05:53.379
♪ I ball them up and take a swing ♪

00:05:53.379 --> 00:05:54.492
♪ Through the verbals I fight ♪

00:05:54.492 --> 00:05:55.325
♪ It's the death match ♪

00:05:55.325 --> 00:05:57.153
♪ The death match is ready to strike ♪

00:05:57.153 --> 00:05:59.928
♪ I'm in the studio with
Kanye impatiently patient ♪

00:05:59.928 --> 00:06:02.128
♪ These labels finally
passed us the time ♪

00:06:02.128 --> 00:06:03.119
♪ We'll take it ♪
♪ We'll take it ♪

00:06:03.119 --> 00:06:04.360
♪ Its a shy town relay ♪

00:06:04.360 --> 00:06:05.193
♪ And Mindstates next ♪

00:06:05.193 --> 00:06:06.751
♪ What's broke from head nodding ♪

00:06:06.751 --> 00:06:08.776
♪ Mindstate's necks ♪
- It's like riding a bike.

00:06:08.776 --> 00:06:11.284
You can't lose it. You can't fake it.

00:06:11.284 --> 00:06:14.039
You don't have to practice
it. We never miss it.

00:06:14.039 --> 00:06:15.257
We practice it like...
- We could be down the street

00:06:15.257 --> 00:06:16.090
and the other one could be on the roof...

00:06:16.090 --> 00:06:18.754
- And we'll still be on at
the same time. Yep, yep. So.

00:06:18.754 --> 00:06:22.325
(exciting music)

00:06:22.325 --> 00:06:24.235
- The way that I met EP, it was one

00:06:24.235 --> 00:06:27.269
of the breaks going back home in 1990

00:06:27.269 --> 00:06:29.453
and we were on the train.

00:06:29.453 --> 00:06:31.029
You know the Amtrak went straight

00:06:31.029 --> 00:06:32.791
from Jackson, Mississippi to Chicago,

00:06:32.791 --> 00:06:33.685
you know what I'm saying?

00:06:33.685 --> 00:06:36.885
And inside the train station
in Jackson, Mississippi,

00:06:36.885 --> 00:06:40.085
me and Lee Majors, my cousin,
we sitting there waiting

00:06:40.085 --> 00:06:41.845
and we see this chick.

00:06:41.845 --> 00:06:43.505
- I was sitting on this bench outside

00:06:43.505 --> 00:06:46.168
of the train station in Jackson

00:06:46.168 --> 00:06:49.306
and Lee and Greg actually walked up.

00:06:49.306 --> 00:06:52.515
I was like, "Ah man, I ain't
get me nothing to drink.

00:06:52.515 --> 00:06:53.637
I forgot my liquor."

00:06:53.637 --> 00:06:57.933
And I remember Lee saying,
"Forgot your liquor?

00:06:57.933 --> 00:06:58.931
What?"

00:06:58.931 --> 00:07:02.989
Opened his bag, he was like, "We got you.

00:07:02.989 --> 00:07:04.109
We got you."

00:07:04.109 --> 00:07:06.702
And that's prophetic 'cause
they pretty much done

00:07:06.702 --> 00:07:07.789
had me since then.

00:07:07.789 --> 00:07:08.968
You know what I mean?

00:07:08.968 --> 00:07:10.712
They pretty much had me since then.

00:07:10.712 --> 00:07:13.946
- On that train ride
from Jackson to Chicago,

00:07:13.946 --> 00:07:16.450
freestyle started and we
started kicking rhymes.

00:07:16.450 --> 00:07:18.989
I started rapping and she was like, "Oh."

00:07:18.989 --> 00:07:21.688
Then out of the blue she just
bust out and start rapping.

00:07:21.688 --> 00:07:25.208
And of course the entire bar
car goes crazy, including us.

00:07:25.208 --> 00:07:26.931
'Cause we like, whoa!

00:07:26.931 --> 00:07:30.669
Because EP is absolutely
insane lyrically, right?

00:07:30.669 --> 00:07:32.849
- We looked up at no 30 in the morning

00:07:32.849 --> 00:07:36.086
and we were the only three still up.

00:07:36.086 --> 00:07:37.387
And we started talking

00:07:37.387 --> 00:07:39.809
and we didn't talk about
then the conception

00:07:39.809 --> 00:07:42.403
of Abstract Mindstate or us
being a group or anything.

00:07:42.403 --> 00:07:44.429
We just talked about what they were doing

00:07:44.429 --> 00:07:47.069
and what they saw for me.

00:07:47.069 --> 00:07:48.638
- I said, man, I really
want to introduce you

00:07:48.638 --> 00:07:50.227
to my crew, the Peace Posse.

00:07:50.227 --> 00:07:51.549
You would fit with us real well.

00:07:51.549 --> 00:07:53.784
See, I had this whole mentality already,

00:07:53.784 --> 00:07:55.027
like this crew thing.

00:07:55.027 --> 00:07:57.309
- I would just walk up
to people on the yard

00:07:57.309 --> 00:07:59.048
that were rapping and just get in.

00:07:59.048 --> 00:08:02.379
I loved doing it, but I
wasn't really thinking of it

00:08:02.379 --> 00:08:05.962
in a way that everybody
else thought of me.

00:08:07.544 --> 00:08:10.104
Like, for me it was just relaxing

00:08:10.104 --> 00:08:15.026
and waiting to get off feelings
of anxiety, family stuff.

00:08:15.026 --> 00:08:17.332
- You know, EP was, you know, our little,

00:08:17.332 --> 00:08:19.639
our West side sister and she was rough.

00:08:19.639 --> 00:08:23.020
And I felt that her having me and Greg

00:08:23.020 --> 00:08:27.384
in her life that we was
just sharing with her.

00:08:27.384 --> 00:08:29.585
- My whole life changed
when I left Chicago

00:08:29.585 --> 00:08:31.301
and went to Jackson State.

00:08:31.301 --> 00:08:34.401
I felt a freedom that I
had never felt before.

00:08:34.401 --> 00:08:37.143
And the day that I
unpacked and everything,

00:08:37.143 --> 00:08:39.724
I called my mom, told her I was gay.

00:08:39.724 --> 00:08:41.425
Called my dad, told my dad I was gay.

00:08:41.425 --> 00:08:44.260
Called my grandmothers, both of them,

00:08:44.260 --> 00:08:45.220
told 'em I was gay.

00:08:45.220 --> 00:08:47.126
My mom and dad was like,
"When did you figure out?

00:08:47.126 --> 00:08:48.203
We already knew."

00:08:48.203 --> 00:08:50.107
- I was just waiting for her to come out

00:08:50.107 --> 00:08:51.708
and say it for herself.

00:08:51.708 --> 00:08:54.322
It was her grandmother and her sister.

00:08:54.322 --> 00:08:56.392
Her sister cried.

00:08:56.392 --> 00:08:58.481
She said, "I told you not

00:08:58.481 --> 00:09:00.903
to let her be out there playing football

00:09:00.903 --> 00:09:03.121
all the time with them boys."

00:09:03.121 --> 00:09:06.524
My mom, she, it took her a minute.

00:09:06.524 --> 00:09:07.954
My grandmother, my mom's mom,

00:09:07.954 --> 00:09:10.957
she sent my aunt Jean
from New Orleans to come

00:09:10.957 --> 00:09:11.916
and pray for me.

00:09:11.916 --> 00:09:14.316
To pray to gay away, throw holy oil.

00:09:14.316 --> 00:09:16.295
I'm not making it up. She was there.

00:09:16.295 --> 00:09:17.709
I swear this was a Monday.

00:09:17.709 --> 00:09:20.312
My aunt was there by Friday pouring oil

00:09:20.312 --> 00:09:22.493
and throwing stuff, you
know, trying to, you know,

00:09:22.493 --> 00:09:23.617
exorcize that demon.

00:09:23.617 --> 00:09:27.159
But I came this way, so, you know,

00:09:27.159 --> 00:09:30.679
if God in me, you know,
I, you know, there it is.

00:09:30.679 --> 00:09:33.740
When I came to Jackson State,
it was like being reborn.

00:09:33.740 --> 00:09:37.652
It was like being reborn
because I was a terror

00:09:37.652 --> 00:09:39.356
in high school, you know.

00:09:39.356 --> 00:09:42.257
I fought almost every day, every week.

00:09:42.257 --> 00:09:44.733
In fact, when they got my, when they,

00:09:44.733 --> 00:09:46.855
when my mom got this
paper from Whitney Young

00:09:46.855 --> 00:09:48.817
telling her that I was
graduating and the date

00:09:48.817 --> 00:09:50.036
and everything, she was shocked.

00:09:50.036 --> 00:09:52.439
Because I had spent so
much time getting suspended

00:09:52.439 --> 00:09:56.199
outside of school that every year I went

00:09:56.199 --> 00:09:58.795
to summer school except my senior year.

00:09:58.795 --> 00:09:59.899
Every year.

00:09:59.899 --> 00:10:02.064
Let me tell you a story.

00:10:02.064 --> 00:10:02.936
Yes.

00:10:02.936 --> 00:10:04.769
How I got be so fresh.

00:10:05.988 --> 00:10:07.984
I was born and that's the end.

00:10:07.984 --> 00:10:10.827
I spit that ill
recommended it to a friend.

00:10:10.827 --> 00:10:14.842
- Danky is West side, through and through.

00:10:14.842 --> 00:10:17.159
Danky is a fighter.

00:10:17.159 --> 00:10:19.242
Danky is family oriented.

00:10:20.711 --> 00:10:23.252
Actually Danky, that's what Danky is.

00:10:23.252 --> 00:10:24.857
Danky is all about family.

00:10:24.857 --> 00:10:27.177
You'll never really hear him say Daphne.

00:10:27.177 --> 00:10:28.761
Y'all hear him say Danky, period.

00:10:28.761 --> 00:10:30.975
Like that's, that's just it.

00:10:30.975 --> 00:10:33.417
So Danky is my family.

00:10:33.417 --> 00:10:35.439
It's who I am at my core.

00:10:35.439 --> 00:10:37.481
- This is grandma, I love you much.

00:10:37.481 --> 00:10:40.420
I enjoyed the ceremony, it was very good.

00:10:40.420 --> 00:10:42.079
Keep up the good work.

00:10:42.079 --> 00:10:43.977
- She was always into something,

00:10:43.977 --> 00:10:46.144
but she was a avid reader.

00:10:49.292 --> 00:10:51.959
She loved TV, especially karate.

00:10:54.261 --> 00:10:56.418
She liked to sing the songs we sung

00:10:56.418 --> 00:10:58.818
in the sixties and the fifties.

00:10:58.818 --> 00:11:01.434
- It's always been at
the root of everything

00:11:01.434 --> 00:11:02.536
that I loved.

00:11:02.536 --> 00:11:04.974
We couldn't get together without playing

00:11:04.974 --> 00:11:06.974
these certain songs.

00:11:06.974 --> 00:11:08.056
It's like eating.

00:11:08.056 --> 00:11:09.656
You know how black families get together,

00:11:09.656 --> 00:11:11.176
like, around food.

00:11:11.176 --> 00:11:12.578
With us it was food and music.

00:11:12.578 --> 00:11:15.828
- Growing up with EP, EP was basically,

00:11:18.289 --> 00:11:20.457
she pretty much stayed to herself

00:11:20.457 --> 00:11:23.417
and forever writing rhymes.

00:11:23.417 --> 00:11:25.755
She had a booklet that she kept,

00:11:25.755 --> 00:11:29.172
just wrote rhymes all time, all the time.

00:11:30.383 --> 00:11:32.366
- She really got into it during

00:11:32.366 --> 00:11:34.574
her senior high school years.

00:11:34.574 --> 00:11:37.140
Her and her cousin, they thought they was

00:11:37.140 --> 00:11:39.322
the best rappers on the west side.

00:11:39.322 --> 00:11:43.255
And they used to have what
they called duals or something.

00:11:43.255 --> 00:11:46.784
And they be on the street and they'll say,

00:11:46.784 --> 00:11:48.214
"Go get Danky.

00:11:48.214 --> 00:11:49.722
I bet you she could get you.

00:11:49.722 --> 00:11:51.685
I got somebody to get you." You know.

00:11:51.685 --> 00:11:55.978
- I used to like beatbox and
we hung together all the time.

00:11:55.978 --> 00:11:59.069
And she called herself
the Queen MC as a rapper.

00:11:59.069 --> 00:12:01.319
And every Friday for years,

00:12:03.086 --> 00:12:05.511
I would drive my suburban truck.

00:12:05.511 --> 00:12:09.178
It was one of the old Wranglers
with the couch seats in it.

00:12:09.178 --> 00:12:10.736
She would be sitting in the front,

00:12:10.736 --> 00:12:12.948
I have a tape of her rapping

00:12:12.948 --> 00:12:15.744
and we would be drinking the Hennessy

00:12:15.744 --> 00:12:18.152
or something and vibing out to her music.

00:12:18.152 --> 00:12:20.242
And this happened for years.

00:12:20.242 --> 00:12:22.976
It was one of the main
reasons why our family

00:12:22.976 --> 00:12:27.976
was so close together because
of that music that she did,

00:12:28.092 --> 00:12:29.932
we all rallied around her

00:12:29.932 --> 00:12:33.515
because we really liked
what she was doing.

00:12:35.132 --> 00:12:36.633
♪ Its only fair that I do my thing ♪

00:12:36.633 --> 00:12:40.384
♪ I paid my dues that's
what hard work brings ♪

00:12:40.384 --> 00:12:42.309
- I grew up in the notorious

00:12:42.309 --> 00:12:45.771
Englewood South side 72nd and Perry.

00:12:45.771 --> 00:12:49.787
I'm my only child so the guys
in the hood was my brother.

00:12:49.787 --> 00:12:51.260
When I grew up, they were saying

00:12:51.260 --> 00:12:54.899
that my generation
wouldn't live to see 21.

00:12:54.899 --> 00:12:56.710
That's how bad it was.

00:12:56.710 --> 00:13:00.478
And it's great to see that
I definitely doubled that.

00:13:00.478 --> 00:13:03.155
I grew up in a two-parent
household, you know,

00:13:03.155 --> 00:13:06.056
which was a blessing, but it
wasn't my biological father.

00:13:06.056 --> 00:13:08.755
I was raised by my
stepfather and my mother,

00:13:08.755 --> 00:13:11.516
but my real father was in my life.

00:13:11.516 --> 00:13:14.478
He got murdered in, like, 1987.

00:13:14.478 --> 00:13:17.096
I was going to my junior
year of high school.

00:13:17.096 --> 00:13:19.588
So, you know, I was, he
was in my life, you know,

00:13:19.588 --> 00:13:20.938
so it's not like I'm not one of those kids

00:13:20.938 --> 00:13:23.068
that didn't know his father
and all this and that.

00:13:23.068 --> 00:13:24.452
We were cool, like everything.

00:13:24.452 --> 00:13:26.159
And him and my mother's
relationship was cool.

00:13:26.159 --> 00:13:29.039
- This is my son and I'm
very, very proud of him.

00:13:29.039 --> 00:13:30.975
I knew he was gonna make it one day.

00:13:30.975 --> 00:13:32.748
I call him Dink.

00:13:32.748 --> 00:13:35.953
Everybody else calls him
Greg, Olskool Ice-Gre.

00:13:35.953 --> 00:13:38.353
I call my baby Dink. Okay?

00:13:38.353 --> 00:13:41.615
Every Saturday was
cleanup day in my house.

00:13:41.615 --> 00:13:46.615
Greg always gravitated to me
because I had tons of albums.

00:13:46.718 --> 00:13:50.753
He listened to music, the
same music that I listened to.

00:13:50.753 --> 00:13:52.086
R&B, I love R&B.

00:13:53.055 --> 00:13:54.445
He loves it too.

00:13:54.445 --> 00:13:56.378
He knew all the words to the songs.

00:13:56.378 --> 00:13:59.578
He wanted me to keep playing
different songs for him

00:13:59.578 --> 00:14:01.578
and just had a joyous time.

00:14:01.578 --> 00:14:04.538
And music was just resonating
all through his body.

00:14:04.538 --> 00:14:07.621
And I'm just thinking to
myself, is he gonna be a singer?

00:14:07.621 --> 00:14:10.213
Is he gonna be a dancer?
What is he gonna be?

00:14:10.213 --> 00:14:13.162
But music has always been
in Greg's bones, always.

00:14:13.162 --> 00:14:16.079
- I first fell in love with hip hop

00:14:16.982 --> 00:14:18.065
the summer of

00:14:21.093 --> 00:14:23.722
probably 82 or something like that.

00:14:23.722 --> 00:14:28.020
It's a song by Grandmaster
Flash in a Furious Five.

00:14:28.020 --> 00:14:29.562
I don't know the name or the title,

00:14:29.562 --> 00:14:31.264
but I just know one of the lines

00:14:31.264 --> 00:14:34.180
and it goes, "The rhythm of the
twist that you can't resist.

00:14:34.180 --> 00:14:36.740
It goes a grandmaster DJ flash."

00:14:36.740 --> 00:14:38.315
Like, I'll never forget that verse.

00:14:38.315 --> 00:14:43.315
But my cousin on my stepfather's
side, his name was Micah.

00:14:43.456 --> 00:14:46.018
I'll never forget one summer
he came with this record.

00:14:46.018 --> 00:14:47.578
He had the record under his arms.

00:14:47.578 --> 00:14:49.242
It was crazy because he was like,

00:14:49.242 --> 00:14:50.557
"Oh, I gotta let you hear this."

00:14:50.557 --> 00:14:51.637
I'll never forget it.

00:14:51.637 --> 00:14:54.239
I was like, "Yo, what is this?"

00:14:54.239 --> 00:14:56.415
And he was like, "Yeah
man, I love this record.

00:14:56.415 --> 00:14:58.077
I thought you would like it too, cuz."

00:14:58.077 --> 00:14:58.910
You know.

00:14:58.910 --> 00:15:01.673
And I was like, man, I was
just, it just, it filled me up.

00:15:01.673 --> 00:15:03.976
I don't know what it was, but
I was like, "I like this."

00:15:03.976 --> 00:15:06.856
And at the time I was
break dancing, right?

00:15:06.856 --> 00:15:08.883
I was a break, so I was like, yo, I want,

00:15:08.883 --> 00:15:11.788
I wanted to know more about
this music right here.

00:15:11.788 --> 00:15:13.950
So he ended up leaving for the summer

00:15:13.950 --> 00:15:18.099
and I started searching to find
more of this type of thing.

00:15:18.099 --> 00:15:21.995
I went to Chicago Vocational
High School, CVS for short.

00:15:21.995 --> 00:15:25.092
And I met this dude named Chill.

00:15:25.092 --> 00:15:27.275
His name Anthony Garland
but we call him Chill.

00:15:27.275 --> 00:15:28.795
I met him my freshman year.

00:15:28.795 --> 00:15:32.353
But sophomore year we had gym class.

00:15:32.353 --> 00:15:34.955
- I used to rap a lot
in the hallways of CVS.

00:15:34.955 --> 00:15:37.275
Everybody was just, you
know, sort of remind you

00:15:37.275 --> 00:15:38.534
of like "Krush Groove"

00:15:38.534 --> 00:15:39.469
where you just in the hallways rapping

00:15:39.469 --> 00:15:41.048
while kids are walking by.

00:15:41.048 --> 00:15:43.325
Something happened in locker
room. We all started rapping.

00:15:43.325 --> 00:15:45.085
- I'm hearing beating on the locker

00:15:45.085 --> 00:15:46.523
and I'm hearing rhymes coming out.

00:15:46.523 --> 00:15:49.481
And I slide in there and
the dude is kicking rhymes

00:15:49.481 --> 00:15:50.988
and Chill is doing this beat.

00:15:50.988 --> 00:15:52.131
And I'm just watching.

00:15:52.131 --> 00:15:54.509
And then the dude stopped rapping

00:15:54.509 --> 00:15:56.685
and started doing the
beat and Chill rapped.

00:15:56.685 --> 00:15:58.765
That was my opportunity to
show that I could rap too.

00:15:58.765 --> 00:16:01.220
So while he was still
beating on the locker

00:16:01.220 --> 00:16:03.923
and the other dude hadn't
quite started his rap yet,

00:16:03.923 --> 00:16:07.288
I just jumped in, got my rhyme
off and he was like, "Oh!"

00:16:07.288 --> 00:16:09.309
And the whole locker
room went crazy, "Oh!"

00:16:09.309 --> 00:16:10.985
I was like, "yeah,"
I'm getting high fives.

00:16:10.985 --> 00:16:12.952
And dude was like, man,
you nice, you know?

00:16:12.952 --> 00:16:15.091
I was like, yeah, you nice
too. You know what I mean?

00:16:15.091 --> 00:16:16.288
And that was the beginning of, like,

00:16:16.288 --> 00:16:18.371
our friendship later to become a group.

00:16:18.371 --> 00:16:20.667
And so we became the Peace Posse.

00:16:20.667 --> 00:16:23.448
- One time we went to the Ford City Mall

00:16:23.448 --> 00:16:27.948
and him and Lee and Ant,
they did a video at the mall.

00:16:28.851 --> 00:16:30.747
♪ Don't get in my way on the mic ♪

00:16:30.747 --> 00:16:32.199
♪ because I'm ripping ♪

00:16:32.199 --> 00:16:34.206
♪ striping like my boy Scotty Pippen ♪

00:16:34.206 --> 00:16:35.465
- It was so funny.

00:16:35.465 --> 00:16:38.733
And it was on the screen that
showed outside of the screen,

00:16:38.733 --> 00:16:40.653
you know, they didn't
know they were being seen

00:16:40.653 --> 00:16:41.709
by all these people.

00:16:41.709 --> 00:16:43.592
And people were out there just like, "Wow,

00:16:43.592 --> 00:16:45.832
they really good, you know them?"

00:16:45.832 --> 00:16:48.413
I'm like, "That's my son," you know?

00:16:48.413 --> 00:16:51.613
But it was such a joy and I
knew he had it in his bones

00:16:51.613 --> 00:16:54.211
and there was nothing
that was gonna stop him.

00:16:54.211 --> 00:16:56.189
- We ended up getting a
connection with Farley,

00:16:56.189 --> 00:16:58.824
and I'm sure everyone knows
Farley JackMaster Funk,

00:16:58.824 --> 00:17:01.411
king of house music here in Chicago.

00:17:01.411 --> 00:17:03.309
House was really big back then

00:17:03.309 --> 00:17:05.432
and we was trying to find any way

00:17:05.432 --> 00:17:07.032
to break into the music industry.

00:17:07.032 --> 00:17:08.478
- I run to the crib, I said, "Chill,

00:17:08.478 --> 00:17:09.672
you ain't gonna believe this.

00:17:09.672 --> 00:17:11.496
Finally looking for some more groups to,

00:17:11.496 --> 00:17:15.371
he putting this album
together of hip house songs."

00:17:15.371 --> 00:17:18.515
And I was like, "I know
we don't do Hip house,

00:17:18.515 --> 00:17:21.312
but we are hip hop so we
can write to house music.

00:17:21.312 --> 00:17:22.435
We know how to do that."

00:17:22.435 --> 00:17:26.019
'Cause at the time it was
like Fast Eddie and Sundance

00:17:26.019 --> 00:17:28.450
and long story short, we end up recording

00:17:28.450 --> 00:17:31.210
a song called "Time to Party".

00:17:31.210 --> 00:17:32.577
(upbeat music)

00:17:32.577 --> 00:17:33.643
♪ It's time to party ♪

00:17:33.643 --> 00:17:34.476
♪ On the mic with Barley ♪

00:17:34.476 --> 00:17:36.830
♪ Throw up your hands it's time to party ♪

00:17:36.830 --> 00:17:38.255
- It ended up being a hit.

00:17:38.255 --> 00:17:39.375
It ended up blowing up.

00:17:39.375 --> 00:17:41.157
You know, it was even big overseas.

00:17:41.157 --> 00:17:43.599
And I remember when I was
hearing it on the radio

00:17:43.599 --> 00:17:46.874
all the time, but I was so
young to the business that,

00:17:46.874 --> 00:17:49.690
you know, we didn't sign anything.

00:17:49.690 --> 00:17:51.917
We didn't have any rights.

00:17:51.917 --> 00:17:53.775
We didn't know, we were just frantic

00:17:53.775 --> 00:17:56.575
to have the 12, the wax, the album on Wax

00:17:56.575 --> 00:17:59.492
to say, "Look, this us right here."

00:18:01.528 --> 00:18:03.911
My first day at Jackson State University,

00:18:03.911 --> 00:18:05.272
I got into a rap battle.

00:18:05.272 --> 00:18:07.014
(exciting music)

00:18:07.014 --> 00:18:08.635
My cousin, Lee Majors,

00:18:08.635 --> 00:18:12.033
he was already at school
two years before me.

00:18:12.033 --> 00:18:15.596
So he had told everybody
about his cousin who raps.

00:18:15.596 --> 00:18:18.268
- So fast forward, I'm
boasting him up, bragging.

00:18:18.268 --> 00:18:19.609
I'm on campus talking about

00:18:19.609 --> 00:18:21.057
wait till my cousin get down here,

00:18:21.057 --> 00:18:22.380
he going to smash y'all.

00:18:22.380 --> 00:18:23.377
Y'all whack.

00:18:23.377 --> 00:18:24.598
Y'all can't rap.

00:18:24.598 --> 00:18:28.116
- And this one kid just
was walking by and said,

00:18:28.116 --> 00:18:30.949
"I take him," and you know, I, oh.

00:18:31.980 --> 00:18:34.636
All the LL came outta me. Like, what?

00:18:34.636 --> 00:18:35.836
You going to take who?

00:18:35.836 --> 00:18:39.473
You know, man, we went rhyme for rhyme

00:18:39.473 --> 00:18:42.754
and let's just say I annihilated this boy.

00:18:42.754 --> 00:18:44.994
- Mic check, mic check. One, two.

00:18:44.994 --> 00:18:45.835
Me in the house.

00:18:45.835 --> 00:18:47.617
Stewpot Stowaways is in here.

00:18:47.617 --> 00:18:48.934
- Yeah, I can hear you now.

00:18:48.934 --> 00:18:50.384
♪ Well let me grab the
mic and do this thing ♪

00:18:50.384 --> 00:18:53.066
♪ You know, I can, I knew I
could ♪ ♪ So yo, I am man ♪

00:18:53.066 --> 00:18:54.732
♪ I'm going to slam ♪ ♪ Damn good ♪

00:18:54.732 --> 00:18:56.913
♪ So look out for the slim
one ♪ ♪ (indistinct) ♪

00:18:56.913 --> 00:19:01.407
♪ The one that's having fun
every time I get the job done ♪

00:19:01.407 --> 00:19:04.429
- I met Greg in 1989 in front

00:19:04.429 --> 00:19:06.668
of the student union at
Jackson State University.

00:19:06.668 --> 00:19:09.243
I remember vividly, I, 'cause I, I was a,

00:19:09.243 --> 00:19:12.684
all the hip hop guys used to
peep the other hip hop guys.

00:19:12.684 --> 00:19:15.202
And he was from Chicago
and I was from Chicago,

00:19:15.202 --> 00:19:16.566
but I didn't know who he was.

00:19:16.566 --> 00:19:18.043
I just remember he had to Don Newkirk,

00:19:18.043 --> 00:19:22.086
which was basically half the
box in the dreads right here.

00:19:22.086 --> 00:19:24.444
And he was all beaded it up, it was 89.

00:19:24.444 --> 00:19:25.724
So, you know, this was all,

00:19:25.724 --> 00:19:27.283
it was all about this in 89.

00:19:27.283 --> 00:19:30.246
So The Tribes and Jungle
Brothers and De La,

00:19:30.246 --> 00:19:31.365
we was all into that.

00:19:31.365 --> 00:19:32.863
The Native Tongue Sound.

00:19:32.863 --> 00:19:35.719
- So now I'm making a name for
myself down at Jackson State,

00:19:35.719 --> 00:19:40.185
and in making that name
people of like lyrics

00:19:40.185 --> 00:19:44.561
or like spirit started
to gravitate towards me.

00:19:44.561 --> 00:19:47.439
And it's like they started
singling themselves out

00:19:47.439 --> 00:19:51.586
and I started learning
that Mississippi had like

00:19:51.586 --> 00:19:53.382
more than just, you know, the cats

00:19:53.382 --> 00:19:56.040
that was talking Southern street hip rap,

00:19:56.040 --> 00:19:57.699
you know, and stuff like that.

00:19:57.699 --> 00:19:59.862
'Cause it was very, most of
the rappers in Mississippi

00:19:59.862 --> 00:20:02.022
or Jackson specifically were very street,

00:20:02.022 --> 00:20:04.980
but somehow because of my
presence became so big on campus,

00:20:04.980 --> 00:20:09.265
it was like it pulled out
the like-minded individuals.

00:20:09.265 --> 00:20:11.942
And that's when I started connecting

00:20:11.942 --> 00:20:15.004
with people from the city
who was on the same page

00:20:15.004 --> 00:20:17.046
that I was on lyrically.

00:20:17.046 --> 00:20:22.046
(audience cheering)
(rapping indistinctly)

00:20:32.782 --> 00:20:34.052
- As Greg would tell it,

00:20:34.052 --> 00:20:35.356
he was chilling in front of the union.

00:20:35.356 --> 00:20:37.295
He said I walked up to him and said,

00:20:37.295 --> 00:20:41.186
"So I heard you trying
to take over my city."

00:20:41.186 --> 00:20:43.514
And supposedly I said,

00:20:43.514 --> 00:20:45.143
"You know, it ain't
gonna be none of that."

00:20:45.143 --> 00:20:47.383
From there, it just became
a good relationship.

00:20:47.383 --> 00:20:49.383
We would just talk music

00:20:50.408 --> 00:20:54.397
and him being from Chicago
and me being from Jackson.

00:20:54.397 --> 00:20:56.992
So eventually we were like,
well, since we joined together,

00:20:56.992 --> 00:20:58.686
you know, let's make it even bigger.

00:20:58.686 --> 00:21:01.499
- We end up forming a organization called

00:21:01.499 --> 00:21:03.906
the Stewpot Stowaways to represent

00:21:03.906 --> 00:21:05.362
this style that we liked.

00:21:05.362 --> 00:21:07.016
But we was way in Mississippi

00:21:07.016 --> 00:21:08.178
and we called ourselves the StewPot

00:21:08.178 --> 00:21:10.361
because we said it's a
lot of flavors in the stew

00:21:10.361 --> 00:21:13.298
and everybody in the stew
pot had their own flavor.

00:21:13.298 --> 00:21:15.300
And we, the stowaways part came

00:21:15.300 --> 00:21:18.921
because we said, you know, we
were stowaways for hip hop.

00:21:18.921 --> 00:21:20.478
- New York was the big place.

00:21:20.478 --> 00:21:22.999
All the big prominent
people came from New York

00:21:22.999 --> 00:21:24.155
at that time.

00:21:24.155 --> 00:21:27.038
Not much coming from
Chicago or Mississippi,

00:21:27.038 --> 00:21:28.601
you know, on a major level.

00:21:28.601 --> 00:21:30.420
So yeah, let's jump on this ship.

00:21:30.420 --> 00:21:32.315
We gonna be be stowing away on this ship

00:21:32.315 --> 00:21:33.996
and we get to where we going, you know,

00:21:33.996 --> 00:21:35.618
we gonna jump off and, you know,

00:21:35.618 --> 00:21:36.857
people gonna know we arrived.

00:21:36.857 --> 00:21:39.161
- Those sessions that we used to have

00:21:39.161 --> 00:21:41.472
when we were recording were, for me,

00:21:41.472 --> 00:21:44.635
like being at home with my family again.

00:21:44.635 --> 00:21:46.997
♪ Get funky like a dead rat
♪ ♪ Niggas can smell that ♪

00:21:46.997 --> 00:21:48.758
♪ So they step back when I'm up to bat ♪

00:21:48.758 --> 00:21:50.678
♪ Straight from the gutter in the ghetto ♪

00:21:50.678 --> 00:21:53.424
♪ Kicking in 40 (indistinct)
♪ ♪ Yes, I'm a trooper ♪

00:21:53.424 --> 00:21:54.770
♪ Hang around like Mr. Cooper ♪

00:21:54.770 --> 00:21:56.600
♪ You'll get done in by the super ♪

00:21:56.600 --> 00:21:59.981
- We all, you know, were kindred spirits

00:21:59.981 --> 00:22:01.485
in hip hop, you know.

00:22:01.485 --> 00:22:03.364
Whether, you know, it was
people from Mississippi,

00:22:03.364 --> 00:22:06.605
Chicago from Michigan, you know,

00:22:06.605 --> 00:22:09.643
you know, Issa and Vic were from Africa.

00:22:09.643 --> 00:22:11.832
So, you know, we had people

00:22:11.832 --> 00:22:13.519
that were from all over the world

00:22:13.519 --> 00:22:16.274
that had a love for hip
hop and we all converged

00:22:16.274 --> 00:22:18.136
and we turned into their crew.

00:22:18.136 --> 00:22:20.711
- I think it's a collective unlike

00:22:20.711 --> 00:22:22.896
I've ever seen before, not just in rap,

00:22:22.896 --> 00:22:25.818
but in any form of entertainment.

00:22:25.818 --> 00:22:27.902
We were ahead of our time,

00:22:27.902 --> 00:22:31.292
on top of us being based in Mississippi.

00:22:31.292 --> 00:22:32.748
- On the Jackson State campus,

00:22:32.748 --> 00:22:35.456
I guess we kind of galvanized the scene.

00:22:35.456 --> 00:22:37.514
We built a little a little following

00:22:37.514 --> 00:22:40.112
and made a scene where we
actually did some shows

00:22:40.112 --> 00:22:44.069
on a regular basis in and
around the Jackson area.

00:22:44.069 --> 00:22:45.372
♪ You can release the ill flow ♪

00:22:45.372 --> 00:22:47.374
♪ And you know ♪ ♪ You know how it be ♪

00:22:47.374 --> 00:22:48.371
♪ When your in college ♪

00:22:48.371 --> 00:22:50.639
♪ Putting on your (indistinct) ♪

00:22:50.639 --> 00:22:51.831
♪ So you can kick it with your boys ♪

00:22:51.831 --> 00:22:55.073
- So at the time, you know,
hip hop in print was the thing.

00:22:55.073 --> 00:22:57.953
So to get yourself into
Rap Pages or The Source

00:22:57.953 --> 00:23:00.831
or Beat Down magazine was a big deal.

00:23:00.831 --> 00:23:02.791
So the Stewpot Stowaways got featured

00:23:02.791 --> 00:23:04.289
in all of those magazines

00:23:04.289 --> 00:23:07.530
and, you know, we were
coined the Southern Wu-Tang.

00:23:07.530 --> 00:23:09.169
Stewpot Stowaways is a huge part

00:23:09.169 --> 00:23:11.729
of Jackson, Mississippi history.

00:23:11.729 --> 00:23:13.421
You know, if you talk
about Jackson, Mississippi

00:23:13.421 --> 00:23:15.545
hip hop history, you have
to talk about the Stowaways.

00:23:15.545 --> 00:23:16.868
- [Greg] Check it out EP.

00:23:16.868 --> 00:23:18.308
How we gonna do this?

00:23:18.308 --> 00:23:21.086
- As time went on, I noticed that he

00:23:21.086 --> 00:23:23.907
was diving more deeper into the music.

00:23:23.907 --> 00:23:26.803
He was doing shows, he
was down at Jackson State.

00:23:26.803 --> 00:23:29.246
The music, the hip hop
scene in the nineties with,

00:23:29.246 --> 00:23:31.245
you know, (indistinct), Wu-Tang.

00:23:31.245 --> 00:23:32.385
It was just booming.

00:23:32.385 --> 00:23:33.683
The Tribe called Quest.

00:23:33.683 --> 00:23:34.867
It was so much going on

00:23:34.867 --> 00:23:37.027
and from a black college standpoint,

00:23:37.027 --> 00:23:39.668
he was able to really kind of

00:23:39.668 --> 00:23:44.113
work on the craft, work on the
lyrics, use stage presence.

00:23:44.113 --> 00:23:45.738
It was just different for him down there.

00:23:45.738 --> 00:23:48.378
And while I was at SIU,
I wasn't doing any shows

00:23:48.378 --> 00:23:49.375
or doing any music.

00:23:49.375 --> 00:23:50.799
So when we came together,

00:23:50.799 --> 00:23:53.834
probably about in 92 when
we started to, you know,

00:23:53.834 --> 00:23:55.334
really try to get serious about the craft,

00:23:55.334 --> 00:23:57.208
he had met EP.

00:23:57.208 --> 00:23:59.862
I saw the chemistry between them two.

00:23:59.862 --> 00:24:02.651
I'm like, you guys sound
really good together.

00:24:02.651 --> 00:24:03.918
This made sense for them

00:24:03.918 --> 00:24:06.399
to put themselves together as a group.

00:24:06.399 --> 00:24:09.090
Because at that time I
could see the passion

00:24:09.090 --> 00:24:13.964
and the energy that they had
was just on a different level.

00:24:13.964 --> 00:24:16.757
- Man, we had all kinds of names

00:24:16.757 --> 00:24:18.517
and so we said, let's
just put 'em in the hat.

00:24:18.517 --> 00:24:20.874
You pull one, I pull one
and we'll decide on the two.

00:24:20.874 --> 00:24:22.357
And I guess we still did that.

00:24:22.357 --> 00:24:23.354
- Yep.

00:24:23.354 --> 00:24:24.458
- Because I don't know which was which,

00:24:24.458 --> 00:24:25.877
one of us pulled Abstract Mindstate

00:24:25.877 --> 00:24:27.174
and the other one pulled

00:24:27.174 --> 00:24:28.825
the Misfitz of Dialogue.
- Misfitz of dialogue. Yep.

00:24:28.825 --> 00:24:30.657
- And we couldn't let those go.

00:24:30.657 --> 00:24:31.703
And we, that's when we said.

00:24:31.703 --> 00:24:32.536
- Yep.

00:24:32.536 --> 00:24:33.369
- Abstract Mindstate.

00:24:33.369 --> 00:24:34.822
- [Both] The Misfitz of Dialogue.

00:24:34.822 --> 00:24:35.655
- MOD.

00:24:35.655 --> 00:24:36.488
- MOD.
- MOD.

00:24:36.488 --> 00:24:38.236
And that's what MOD means.

00:24:38.236 --> 00:24:39.868
- That's what MOD 'cause a lot of people

00:24:39.868 --> 00:24:41.178
be saying MOD and be...
- People who don't know MOD.

00:24:41.178 --> 00:24:42.696
- like what the hell is MOD?

00:24:42.696 --> 00:24:44.607
That was the Misfitz of Dialogue.

00:24:44.607 --> 00:24:49.077
- I would describe Abstract
Mindstate as hip hop purists

00:24:49.077 --> 00:24:52.117
because they were around
from the beginning,

00:24:52.117 --> 00:24:54.837
and they didn't really let current sounds

00:24:54.837 --> 00:24:58.115
or environment change how
they present their music

00:24:58.115 --> 00:24:59.456
and what they stood for.

00:24:59.456 --> 00:25:01.216
- Our whole thing was we don't fit in.

00:25:01.216 --> 00:25:03.317
That was what Abstract
Mindstate was about.

00:25:03.317 --> 00:25:05.671
We always thinking our
mind is somewhere else

00:25:05.671 --> 00:25:07.978
and lyrically we just don't fit in.

00:25:07.978 --> 00:25:09.477
So we had an Abstract Mindstate

00:25:09.477 --> 00:25:13.338
and I, lyrically, we don't,
we misfits to what's going on.

00:25:13.338 --> 00:25:15.191
That's, we was proud to be different,

00:25:15.191 --> 00:25:16.736
like, you know what I mean?

00:25:16.736 --> 00:25:20.458
I hate to say it, but right
now everything is the same.

00:25:20.458 --> 00:25:24.652
You get heralded for sounding
exactly like the next thing.

00:25:24.652 --> 00:25:28.855
Then, not one of your favorite
artists sound the same.

00:25:28.855 --> 00:25:31.791
(upbeat music)

00:25:31.791 --> 00:25:35.129
My Loud Records experience
was how I was able

00:25:35.129 --> 00:25:37.662
to penetrate so effectively

00:25:37.662 --> 00:25:40.113
with the Abstract Mindstate run.

00:25:40.113 --> 00:25:44.063
Fast forward, I graduated
from Jackson State, 1994

00:25:44.063 --> 00:25:46.280
and shout out to Anthony Andrews,

00:25:46.280 --> 00:25:48.680
who was the road manager
for the Alcoholics,

00:25:48.680 --> 00:25:50.936
my favorite West Coast hip hop group.

00:25:50.936 --> 00:25:53.240
Through the Mix Management, you know,

00:25:53.240 --> 00:25:55.291
we established really,
kind of, cool impression

00:25:55.291 --> 00:25:57.320
with them guys and they
management, you know,

00:25:57.320 --> 00:25:58.971
kind of liked us, he dug us

00:25:58.971 --> 00:26:00.856
and thought we was some cool people.

00:26:00.856 --> 00:26:02.338
And he told me, if I ever come to LA

00:26:02.338 --> 00:26:04.178
or any of us, you know, give him a call.

00:26:04.178 --> 00:26:07.344
The famous little thing, look
me up if you ever come to LA.

00:26:07.344 --> 00:26:08.637
I took him up on that.

00:26:08.637 --> 00:26:11.362
And Andrew say, "Yo, if you move

00:26:11.362 --> 00:26:14.232
to LA I can get you a
job at Loud Records."

00:26:14.232 --> 00:26:16.030
And there I was like, what?

00:26:16.030 --> 00:26:18.113
Loud in 95 was the label.

00:26:20.776 --> 00:26:24.026
Like, it was no label hotter than Loud.

00:26:25.012 --> 00:26:27.795
When I got there, I picked up, like,

00:26:27.795 --> 00:26:31.235
I got introduced to a woman
by the name of Noah Ochi.

00:26:31.235 --> 00:26:33.541
I worked under her in publicity

00:26:33.541 --> 00:26:37.174
and she really allowed
me to stretch my arms out

00:26:37.174 --> 00:26:39.498
because she had already
been told by Andrews

00:26:39.498 --> 00:26:42.421
that I was sharp, I know what I'm doing.

00:26:42.421 --> 00:26:44.717
And I proved myself to her.

00:26:44.717 --> 00:26:46.973
Because even while I was
there, I got writeups

00:26:46.973 --> 00:26:48.351
for the Stewpot Stowaways.

00:26:48.351 --> 00:26:49.933
I got writeups for David Banner.

00:26:49.933 --> 00:26:51.833
I got writeups for everybody in the crew.

00:26:51.833 --> 00:26:55.152
All of their writeups
during 95, 96 and all that

00:26:55.152 --> 00:26:57.773
came from me because I
would send their packages

00:26:57.773 --> 00:27:01.757
to these people from me and
they would check 'em out

00:27:01.757 --> 00:27:03.213
because it was me sending them

00:27:03.213 --> 00:27:05.533
'cause I was the guy from Loud Records.

00:27:05.533 --> 00:27:06.536
You get what I'm saying?

00:27:06.536 --> 00:27:09.555
Rest in peace to a cat
named Bigga B, Bill Operin.

00:27:09.555 --> 00:27:11.523
In the industry, Bigga B was one

00:27:11.523 --> 00:27:14.077
of the most solid, respected

00:27:14.077 --> 00:27:16.456
and one of the top street promoters.

00:27:16.456 --> 00:27:19.621
Street promotions was a
big thing in the nineties

00:27:19.621 --> 00:27:21.613
and Bigga was the king.

00:27:21.613 --> 00:27:23.340
He was like, "Man, I'm
gonna take you out with me."

00:27:23.340 --> 00:27:26.452
He started taking me out
and while he worked records,

00:27:26.452 --> 00:27:27.892
he would teach me how to do this

00:27:27.892 --> 00:27:29.447
and what he's doing and explain it.

00:27:29.447 --> 00:27:33.292
So I learned the art of
how to work a record,

00:27:33.292 --> 00:27:35.689
you know, on the street from Bigga.

00:27:35.689 --> 00:27:38.465
- Greg has always had
a leadership quality.

00:27:38.465 --> 00:27:40.430
He's always had a great personality.

00:27:40.430 --> 00:27:42.113
You could put Greg in any room,

00:27:42.113 --> 00:27:44.350
he's gonna come out with something.

00:27:44.350 --> 00:27:46.350
- Gre was such a go-getter.

00:27:46.350 --> 00:27:48.687
He's a guy that never
takes no for an answer.

00:27:48.687 --> 00:27:52.354
So I saw him, you know,
open a lot of doors.

00:27:53.630 --> 00:27:55.732
I saw him knock down a lot of doors.

00:27:55.732 --> 00:27:58.066
And if it wasn't for Stewpot Stowaways,

00:27:58.066 --> 00:27:59.849
if it wasn't for him creating that here

00:27:59.849 --> 00:28:01.424
in Jackson, Mississippi, then there

00:28:01.424 --> 00:28:02.549
would've been no Crooked Lettaz.

00:28:02.549 --> 00:28:04.009
There would've been no
David Banner and Kamikaze.

00:28:04.009 --> 00:28:07.092
There would've been no us
getting a deal with Penalty

00:28:07.092 --> 00:28:09.148
and going to Tommy Boy and
going to Warner Brothers.

00:28:09.148 --> 00:28:10.329
That would've never happened.

00:28:10.329 --> 00:28:12.089
- I didn't make it for a full year at Loud

00:28:12.089 --> 00:28:16.256
because they went over
budget with Raekwon's album

00:28:17.448 --> 00:28:18.953
"Only Built 4 Cuban Linx."

00:28:18.953 --> 00:28:22.089
And Steve Rifkin, at least
this is what was said to me,

00:28:22.089 --> 00:28:23.581
he had to let a few people go.

00:28:23.581 --> 00:28:27.278
In those 10 months I did
heavy work handling all those

00:28:27.278 --> 00:28:29.362
different things for everything

00:28:29.362 --> 00:28:31.160
from the Ol' Dirty Bastard album,

00:28:31.160 --> 00:28:32.802
the "Only Built 4 Cuban Linx"

00:28:32.802 --> 00:28:37.122
and the Mobb Deep's
"Shook Ones", you know,

00:28:37.122 --> 00:28:39.719
so I put my work in for those records.

00:28:39.719 --> 00:28:40.882
- He got the Loud plaques.

00:28:40.882 --> 00:28:42.759
Every time I go to his crib, I be like,

00:28:42.759 --> 00:28:44.861
"Yeah, look at old Plaquey Mc Plauqe."

00:28:44.861 --> 00:28:46.779
- That was for that early work,

00:28:46.779 --> 00:28:48.219
but that made the ground work.

00:28:48.219 --> 00:28:51.885
So I'm back in Chicago
now with all of the tools

00:28:51.885 --> 00:28:55.716
I need to make pretty
much anybody successful,

00:28:55.716 --> 00:28:57.263
including myself.

00:28:57.263 --> 00:29:00.513
But the problem was EP wasn't home yet.

00:29:02.133 --> 00:29:03.954
She was still away, she
was still in school.

00:29:03.954 --> 00:29:06.839
So I practiced some of the stuff I learned

00:29:06.839 --> 00:29:09.053
on a group called Infamous Syndicate.

00:29:09.053 --> 00:29:11.799
And honestly it led to their single,

00:29:11.799 --> 00:29:13.639
leading to them getting a record deal

00:29:13.639 --> 00:29:16.617
because of the way everything
collectively was worked,

00:29:16.617 --> 00:29:18.119
especially from my street promotions

00:29:18.119 --> 00:29:19.479
and everything I put into that.

00:29:19.479 --> 00:29:22.082
I physically was the
one out there by myself

00:29:22.082 --> 00:29:24.358
like I was 10 people,
but I knew how to do it.

00:29:24.358 --> 00:29:26.418
So two years later, EP call like,

00:29:26.418 --> 00:29:27.797
"I'm coming home."

00:29:27.797 --> 00:29:31.394
When I tell you, as
soon as she got home...

00:29:31.394 --> 00:29:33.528
- [EP] We was in the studio.
- [Greg] We was in the studio.

00:29:33.528 --> 00:29:34.916
She didn't even get to breathe good.

00:29:34.916 --> 00:29:37.354
- I just wasn't applying myself, right?

00:29:37.354 --> 00:29:41.615
I just, you know, music had
become, like, my end all be all.

00:29:41.615 --> 00:29:44.351
So, and pretty much after Lee left,

00:29:44.351 --> 00:29:46.165
I didn't have nobody really stand on top

00:29:46.165 --> 00:29:48.693
of me about going to class.

00:29:48.693 --> 00:29:49.732
So I didn't.

00:29:49.732 --> 00:29:52.404
And so I ended up not graduating

00:29:52.404 --> 00:29:55.987
and I came home in
December of 97 for good.

00:29:57.615 --> 00:29:59.834
- So that's when I started
putting a team around us,

00:29:59.834 --> 00:30:02.334
you know, it was like Lee Majors and...

00:30:02.334 --> 00:30:03.332
- [EP] Craig.

00:30:03.332 --> 00:30:05.047
- And Craig on the street promotion.

00:30:05.047 --> 00:30:06.774
And me and Lee used to work close because

00:30:06.774 --> 00:30:07.930
although I was an artist and Lee

00:30:07.930 --> 00:30:10.049
was always about the business, we,

00:30:10.049 --> 00:30:12.250
I would always be next
to Lee on the business,

00:30:12.250 --> 00:30:14.554
but then I would still be
out in the street with Craig.

00:30:14.554 --> 00:30:18.100
You know, so I just put
this team together around us

00:30:18.100 --> 00:30:21.172
of people who somehow,
we all knew each other

00:30:21.172 --> 00:30:23.066
some kind of way for a long time.

00:30:23.066 --> 00:30:25.812
So it was trust and I knew
if we trusted each other,

00:30:25.812 --> 00:30:27.648
it can happen.

00:30:27.648 --> 00:30:29.231
- [Latina] Here's Linda.

00:30:29.231 --> 00:30:30.588
- Hi Latina!

00:30:30.588 --> 00:30:31.711
- [Latina] Hi sweetie.

00:30:31.711 --> 00:30:35.071
- One of the things that
I love about Ice-Gre

00:30:35.071 --> 00:30:37.904
is the fact that he will see things in you

00:30:37.904 --> 00:30:39.345
that you don't see in yourself.

00:30:39.345 --> 00:30:40.907
And that's a blessing.

00:30:40.907 --> 00:30:42.827
Everybody doesn't have that.

00:30:42.827 --> 00:30:45.204
And for him to see things in me,

00:30:45.204 --> 00:30:47.171
it was a moment, you know?

00:30:47.171 --> 00:30:49.547
And everything that that went on

00:30:49.547 --> 00:30:51.964
inspired me later on in life.

00:30:52.849 --> 00:30:55.707
- Management, you know, is more of a title

00:30:55.707 --> 00:30:58.722
because what we did as Abstract Mindstate

00:30:58.722 --> 00:31:00.289
was a collective effort.

00:31:00.289 --> 00:31:04.367
You know, I'd be remiss
if I didn't say that

00:31:04.367 --> 00:31:08.187
Greg was just as much
in tune in the business

00:31:08.187 --> 00:31:09.854
than he was as a MC.

00:31:11.766 --> 00:31:15.011
So he pretty much was
the research department

00:31:15.011 --> 00:31:18.465
and I was more of the activation arm.

00:31:18.465 --> 00:31:20.542
Can you reach Craig Elliot
about our night promotion?

00:31:20.542 --> 00:31:21.375
Don't forget tonight.

00:31:21.375 --> 00:31:24.166
- Greg and Lee, particularly Greg,

00:31:24.166 --> 00:31:27.745
was like, you know, you
out here, you got this.

00:31:27.745 --> 00:31:31.245
People are listening
to you, you work hard.

00:31:31.245 --> 00:31:34.552
Take this thing that we
have, we gonna package it

00:31:34.552 --> 00:31:36.846
and we going, you gonna present it.

00:31:36.846 --> 00:31:38.346
And, you know, he,

00:31:39.360 --> 00:31:41.889
man, he gave me that confidence to do it.

00:31:41.889 --> 00:31:45.867
To get outside and present
what it is that we needed

00:31:45.867 --> 00:31:46.782
to present.

00:31:46.782 --> 00:31:48.064
The Abstract Mindset, same thing.

00:31:48.064 --> 00:31:49.309
You believed in it.

00:31:49.309 --> 00:31:50.616
You know, they were phenomenal.

00:31:50.616 --> 00:31:52.739
They were fresh, the lyrics were amazing.

00:31:52.739 --> 00:31:54.119
The show was fantastic.

00:31:54.119 --> 00:31:58.118
It's a feeling that, you
know, I really can't explain,

00:31:58.118 --> 00:31:59.880
you know, but it made people happy.

00:31:59.880 --> 00:32:01.939
People were happy when
we stepped into a room

00:32:01.939 --> 00:32:05.036
and whatever it was we
told them that we had,

00:32:05.036 --> 00:32:06.157
they wanted it.

00:32:06.157 --> 00:32:08.365
♪ This conversation for the real heads ♪

00:32:08.365 --> 00:32:09.198
♪ The baldhead, the knotty
heads, the knuckleheads ♪

00:32:09.198 --> 00:32:14.198
♪ Whoever go a head for that hip hop ♪

00:32:14.237 --> 00:32:15.240
- We made everything an event.

00:32:15.240 --> 00:32:17.454
That was the whole
concept of our movement.

00:32:17.454 --> 00:32:19.197
Like, whatever we do, make it an event.

00:32:19.197 --> 00:32:20.419
I don't care what it is.

00:32:20.419 --> 00:32:22.600
And we had a 12 inch, nobody
was doing a release party

00:32:22.600 --> 00:32:24.477
for a 12 inch nowhere.

00:32:24.477 --> 00:32:25.656
And we did.

00:32:25.656 --> 00:32:27.859
- EP and Greg is doing the thing.

00:32:27.859 --> 00:32:29.534
They got the album drop,

00:32:29.534 --> 00:32:31.456
but hey, what's up with the album baby?

00:32:31.456 --> 00:32:33.306
- We got, we got this
little single with a B side,

00:32:33.306 --> 00:32:34.877
you know, called Misfits in this.

00:32:34.877 --> 00:32:36.979
And the B side is hip
hop manifesto produced

00:32:36.979 --> 00:32:39.517
by my man Cap D from All Natural.

00:32:39.517 --> 00:32:40.350
- Oh, yeah? Word, word.

00:32:40.350 --> 00:32:41.183
No doubt.

00:32:41.183 --> 00:32:42.641
- A single Andy C.

00:32:42.641 --> 00:32:43.557
Y'all sleeping.

00:32:43.557 --> 00:32:44.575
- Where Andy C at?

00:32:44.575 --> 00:32:45.408
- Andy C some where back there.

00:32:45.408 --> 00:32:46.463
- We gonna get Andy,

00:32:46.463 --> 00:32:48.190
we gonna get Andy.

00:32:48.190 --> 00:32:50.972
Hey, hey EP back in the
house. What's up, baby?

00:32:50.972 --> 00:32:53.300
- Hey look, I want to
thank y'all for coming.

00:32:53.300 --> 00:32:55.441
Abstract Mindstate for the nine eight.

00:32:55.441 --> 00:32:57.513
About to blow up in Chicago.

00:32:57.513 --> 00:32:58.588
That's how we do this here.

00:32:58.588 --> 00:33:00.553
West side, south side, north side.

00:33:00.553 --> 00:33:01.714
Getting busy, baby.

00:33:01.714 --> 00:33:02.547
- Yeah, yeah.

00:33:02.547 --> 00:33:03.630
This shit hot, man.

00:33:03.630 --> 00:33:04.505
Hey, wait.

00:33:04.505 --> 00:33:05.951
Oh, Andy C baby, what up?

00:33:05.951 --> 00:33:07.392
This is the mad producer, you know,

00:33:07.392 --> 00:33:08.676
he makes it happen, baby.

00:33:08.676 --> 00:33:09.509
What up?

00:33:09.509 --> 00:33:10.467
- Yo, what's up?

00:33:10.467 --> 00:33:12.032
Chilling in the place to be.

00:33:12.032 --> 00:33:13.034
- Chilling in the place.

00:33:13.034 --> 00:33:13.907
- What's up with you?

00:33:13.907 --> 00:33:15.413
- Andy C, our producer at the time,

00:33:15.413 --> 00:33:16.762
he came to us after that

00:33:16.762 --> 00:33:19.555
and he said, "It's time for y'all to start

00:33:19.555 --> 00:33:22.051
putting out music for real.

00:33:22.051 --> 00:33:23.155
Y'all need to, you know,

00:33:23.155 --> 00:33:25.248
y'all need to be done with demos."

00:33:25.248 --> 00:33:27.155
And I looked at EP like, wow, like.

00:33:27.155 --> 00:33:30.187
In a space that only supposed
to hold like a hundred people,

00:33:30.187 --> 00:33:33.795
we had like 150 people,
almost 200 people all out

00:33:33.795 --> 00:33:35.053
in the streets or whatever.

00:33:35.053 --> 00:33:37.508
And it was like a, a
whole thing, you know?

00:33:37.508 --> 00:33:40.303
And that's how the last demo was birthed.

00:33:40.303 --> 00:33:41.136
LaTina Cunningham.

00:33:41.136 --> 00:33:44.112
That's one of our investors.

00:33:44.112 --> 00:33:46.987
- I think his persistence
in trying to get me

00:33:46.987 --> 00:33:51.484
to hear the music,
understanding what he was doing

00:33:51.484 --> 00:33:55.467
and his passion, that's
what drove me to say,

00:33:55.467 --> 00:33:57.791
"Somebody's gotta get behind this group

00:33:57.791 --> 00:33:59.624
and make this happen."

00:34:00.497 --> 00:34:03.724
- [Interviewer] So how do you
feel about tonight's event?

00:34:03.724 --> 00:34:06.057
- Excited, long time coming.

00:34:08.682 --> 00:34:12.193
Work, but the kind of work that'll payoff.

00:34:12.193 --> 00:34:14.162
- Later, very, very shortly after that,

00:34:14.162 --> 00:34:17.485
and I say it was months,
Greg said, "You know what?

00:34:17.485 --> 00:34:19.986
I think we should start
an entertainment company."

00:34:19.986 --> 00:34:20.979
And it didn't take me long.

00:34:20.979 --> 00:34:23.426
I knew it was something
that I needed to do.

00:34:23.426 --> 00:34:26.205
- Soon as we finished the music,
I was able to send it right

00:34:26.205 --> 00:34:29.367
to the right editors at every magazine.

00:34:29.367 --> 00:34:31.703
So that's how I was able to
get these quick write-ups,

00:34:31.703 --> 00:34:34.726
you know, 'cause I was their guy at Loud.

00:34:34.726 --> 00:34:37.661
- About to blow section in Rap Pages,

00:34:37.661 --> 00:34:40.285
it's all about bringing attention

00:34:40.285 --> 00:34:42.535
to the next, the up comers.

00:34:43.456 --> 00:34:45.885
Like who people should pay attention to.

00:34:45.885 --> 00:34:48.221
You know, they're very
transparent about who they are.

00:34:48.221 --> 00:34:51.130
They didn't feel a need to
try to fit into any boxes

00:34:51.130 --> 00:34:55.717
that maybe the most popular
hip hop artists fit into.

00:34:55.717 --> 00:34:57.383
So I really liked that.

00:34:57.383 --> 00:35:00.093
- I was always impressed
when independent artists

00:35:00.093 --> 00:35:03.383
were able to make music that
was major label quality.

00:35:03.383 --> 00:35:05.647
Abstract mindset was also was able

00:35:05.647 --> 00:35:08.936
to deliver a good tag team style

00:35:08.936 --> 00:35:10.802
that we saw from a male and female

00:35:10.802 --> 00:35:13.079
that we didn't often have.

00:35:13.079 --> 00:35:16.503
And I thought that was also
appealing and distinctive.

00:35:16.503 --> 00:35:19.261
- Because I had the tools or the codes,

00:35:19.261 --> 00:35:23.501
quickly we were, like,
the, very hot in the city

00:35:23.501 --> 00:35:26.096
and our presence was felt fast.

00:35:26.096 --> 00:35:26.929
That was it.

00:35:26.929 --> 00:35:27.936
- It is literal. That was...

00:35:27.936 --> 00:35:28.988
- Yeah, that was the last demo.

00:35:28.988 --> 00:35:29.922
- That was the last demo.

00:35:29.922 --> 00:35:31.901
There would be no more
shopping of demos after that.

00:35:31.901 --> 00:35:32.999
- Right. This is real.

00:35:32.999 --> 00:35:36.416
(host speaking faintly)

00:35:38.701 --> 00:35:41.380
- And one of the, one of the winners

00:35:41.380 --> 00:35:44.162
of the WGCI music (indistinct).

00:35:44.162 --> 00:35:45.757
I want y'all to show some love,

00:35:45.757 --> 00:35:49.590
show some Chicago love
for Abstract Mindstate.

00:35:53.207 --> 00:35:57.381
- They really believed in
giving us different styles.

00:35:57.381 --> 00:36:01.737
You know, you'd have, like,
some underground boom bap

00:36:01.737 --> 00:36:03.279
kind of a vibe.

00:36:03.279 --> 00:36:05.359
And then you'd have something

00:36:05.359 --> 00:36:08.079
that had, like, a little bit
more of a commercial hook

00:36:08.079 --> 00:36:09.242
and a commercial feel,

00:36:09.242 --> 00:36:12.783
so we could feature them
on Chicago Home Jams

00:36:12.783 --> 00:36:16.261
because they gave a little
bit of all of the gamut

00:36:16.261 --> 00:36:19.023
of what you would want
from a hip hop group.

00:36:19.023 --> 00:36:21.322
They weren't just stuck
in the Boom bap lane

00:36:21.322 --> 00:36:23.183
and they weren't stuck in the,

00:36:23.183 --> 00:36:26.682
we're trying to be the next
big thing on radio lane.

00:36:26.682 --> 00:36:29.141
So we gave them a shot and, you know,

00:36:29.141 --> 00:36:31.376
it turned out really well.
♪ If y'all wanna get hype ♪

00:36:31.376 --> 00:36:32.692
♪ Like we wanna get hype ♪

00:36:32.692 --> 00:36:35.533
♪ And if you down with
Abstract Mindstate tonight ♪

00:36:35.533 --> 00:36:37.133
♪ Say all right ♪

00:36:37.133 --> 00:36:38.333
- [Audience] All right!

00:36:38.333 --> 00:36:39.699
♪ Say all right ♪

00:36:39.699 --> 00:36:40.901
- [Audience] All right!

00:36:40.901 --> 00:36:43.162
- Us becoming Home Jam
Artists of the year,

00:36:43.162 --> 00:36:46.181
it changed the face of
the seminar itself because

00:36:46.181 --> 00:36:49.919
before then it was almost
a them against us thing.

00:36:49.919 --> 00:36:52.479
Us meaning the streets and the underground

00:36:52.479 --> 00:36:55.039
and, you know, WGCI was a velvet rope

00:36:55.039 --> 00:36:56.202
and they were on this side

00:36:56.202 --> 00:36:58.543
and it is just too much
red tape to get in there.

00:36:58.543 --> 00:37:01.599
And here come this group
dead out the underground,

00:37:01.599 --> 00:37:05.967
dead out the dirty, grimy
hip hop clubs where the smoke

00:37:05.967 --> 00:37:08.127
and the real heads live for the art.

00:37:08.127 --> 00:37:12.117
We crossed the velvet
rope and get up in there.

00:37:12.117 --> 00:37:16.687
- I remember being at the
GCI seminar with Kanye

00:37:16.687 --> 00:37:18.659
and, like, we were sitting at the table

00:37:18.659 --> 00:37:21.983
and I'm already a fan,
you know what I'm saying?

00:37:21.983 --> 00:37:23.290
And I've seen him perform before,

00:37:23.290 --> 00:37:25.402
so I already know what to expect.

00:37:25.402 --> 00:37:30.301
But he hadn't, I just remember
him just looking at me

00:37:30.301 --> 00:37:32.426
and just like, like they performing.

00:37:32.426 --> 00:37:34.342
He just looked over at
me like, almost like

00:37:34.342 --> 00:37:35.343
"Are you watching this?"

00:37:35.343 --> 00:37:36.186
You know what I'm saying?

00:37:36.186 --> 00:37:37.765
And they trying to get
everybody up, you know,

00:37:37.765 --> 00:37:39.546
get 'em out their seat and get 'em going,

00:37:39.546 --> 00:37:40.682
and people are loving the music,

00:37:40.682 --> 00:37:42.543
but it's such a stuffy environment.

00:37:42.543 --> 00:37:44.143
But Kanye was so into it

00:37:44.143 --> 00:37:47.936
that he was like literally
the first person to stand up

00:37:47.936 --> 00:37:49.621
and start like clapping
and get in the crowd.

00:37:49.621 --> 00:37:51.312
And after he stood up, then everybody else

00:37:51.312 --> 00:37:53.141
in the whole place stood up.

00:37:53.141 --> 00:37:57.391
(Greg and EP rapping indistinctly)

00:38:03.221 --> 00:38:06.973
- I'm sitting there mesmerized
by what I saw on stage.

00:38:06.973 --> 00:38:08.340
Even though they were underground,

00:38:08.340 --> 00:38:10.479
they still had that commercial appeal.

00:38:10.479 --> 00:38:13.619
And then when they came
on stage, it was like,

00:38:13.619 --> 00:38:15.578
look, you've never heard the song before,

00:38:15.578 --> 00:38:19.541
it don't matter because we are
going to grab your attention.

00:38:19.541 --> 00:38:21.223
And that's what they did.

00:38:21.223 --> 00:38:25.381
- We're also going to add a
surprise prize for you guys.

00:38:25.381 --> 00:38:28.138
We'll be sending you off to New York City.

00:38:28.138 --> 00:38:32.718
Columbia Records WGCI will
fly you guys to New City,

00:38:32.718 --> 00:38:34.538
listen to this Chicago, to compete

00:38:34.538 --> 00:38:38.621
in Columbia's national
talent R&B Hip hop finals.

00:38:40.040 --> 00:38:42.589
(Crowd cheering)
- [Audience Member] Yes sir.

00:38:42.589 --> 00:38:43.747
Abstract!

00:38:43.747 --> 00:38:44.941
- When we kept winning these contests,

00:38:44.941 --> 00:38:47.087
I just thought that, okay, that's it.

00:38:47.087 --> 00:38:49.210
The momentum, like it was like a big ball

00:38:49.210 --> 00:38:50.663
and it was rolling, it was rolling,

00:38:50.663 --> 00:38:51.786
it was getting bigger and bigger

00:38:51.786 --> 00:38:53.263
because we had started
getting all these different

00:38:53.263 --> 00:38:54.586
things under our belts.

00:38:54.586 --> 00:38:57.684
- When I say "abstract" you say "mindset".

00:38:57.684 --> 00:38:58.703
Abstract!

00:38:58.703 --> 00:39:00.418
- [Audience] Mindstate!

00:39:00.418 --> 00:39:01.251
(audience chanting "abstract")

00:39:01.251 --> 00:39:02.168
- Abstract.

00:39:04.114 --> 00:39:04.947
Abstract.

00:39:05.855 --> 00:39:06.813
Abstract!

00:39:06.813 --> 00:39:07.646
- Mindstate!

00:39:07.646 --> 00:39:08.725
Abstract!

00:39:08.725 --> 00:39:09.723
- Mindstate!

00:39:09.723 --> 00:39:10.613
Abstract!

00:39:10.613 --> 00:39:11.446
- Mindstate!

00:39:11.446 --> 00:39:12.279
- Abstract!

00:39:12.279 --> 00:39:13.913
- Mindstate!

00:39:13.913 --> 00:39:16.396
- "We Paid Let Us In", for me, was

00:39:16.396 --> 00:39:19.424
the culmination of all the previous work.

00:39:19.424 --> 00:39:22.896
And we were ready, like,
everything else was working

00:39:22.896 --> 00:39:24.462
to get to a polish, right?

00:39:24.462 --> 00:39:26.741
I was perfecting trying to stay on beat,

00:39:26.741 --> 00:39:28.099
you know what I mean?

00:39:28.099 --> 00:39:30.173
Still today baby, you know,

00:39:30.173 --> 00:39:31.931
but, like...

00:39:31.931 --> 00:39:32.920
- Don't tell our secrets.

00:39:32.920 --> 00:39:33.753
- You know.

00:39:33.753 --> 00:39:34.586
(both laughing)

00:39:34.586 --> 00:39:35.436
- Don't tell our secrets.

00:39:35.436 --> 00:39:36.269
- But yeah.

00:39:36.269 --> 00:39:38.949
And, like, the quality of the work.

00:39:38.949 --> 00:39:39.808
- [Greg] Yeah.

00:39:39.808 --> 00:39:42.650
- And how far we had come from two poet

00:39:42.650 --> 00:39:43.901
and a portrait.

00:39:43.901 --> 00:39:44.887
- Right? Right.

00:39:44.887 --> 00:39:46.908
- I mean just not, not just the quality

00:39:46.908 --> 00:39:49.687
of production, but the quality of us.

00:39:49.687 --> 00:39:50.559
- Yep.

00:39:50.559 --> 00:39:52.305
- And and the maturity and the growth.

00:39:52.305 --> 00:39:53.138
And you could hear it.

00:39:53.138 --> 00:39:54.008
- Yep.

00:39:54.008 --> 00:39:55.224
- You could hear it being manifested.

00:39:55.224 --> 00:39:56.223
It was crazy.

00:39:56.223 --> 00:39:58.625
And so with "We Paid Let Us In",

00:39:58.625 --> 00:40:01.089
it was time to be, start making the bread.

00:40:01.089 --> 00:40:01.922
- Yeah.

00:40:01.922 --> 00:40:03.345
- It was time, like, we put the work in.

00:40:03.345 --> 00:40:04.609
It was time to live.

00:40:04.609 --> 00:40:05.729
It was time to live.

00:40:05.729 --> 00:40:07.772
- "We Paid Let Us In" was definitely

00:40:07.772 --> 00:40:09.910
our coming out as, like, pros.

00:40:09.910 --> 00:40:12.150
We started working with more producers.

00:40:12.150 --> 00:40:16.137
We worked in the highest
level recording facility

00:40:16.137 --> 00:40:19.129
you could work in, in the city of Chicago.

00:40:19.129 --> 00:40:20.252
- Yes.

00:40:20.252 --> 00:40:22.070
- One of our sessions we got
bumped out of our session

00:40:22.070 --> 00:40:24.470
for R. Kelly and Michael Jackson.

00:40:24.470 --> 00:40:25.348
- Yep.

00:40:25.348 --> 00:40:26.550
- He was working with Michael Jackson, so.

00:40:26.550 --> 00:40:27.548
And we was, like...

00:40:27.548 --> 00:40:30.012
(both speaking simultaneously)

00:40:30.012 --> 00:40:31.009
- It was one like that.

00:40:31.009 --> 00:40:32.658
So "We Paid Let Us In",
when you talk about that,

00:40:32.658 --> 00:40:34.543
that was definitely our
level where we was like,

00:40:34.543 --> 00:40:36.463
"Oh, we amongst the pros."

00:40:36.463 --> 00:40:39.503
I wanna introduce y'all
to my partner in rhyme.

00:40:39.503 --> 00:40:42.805
Now she goes by the name of EP.

00:40:42.805 --> 00:40:43.888
- [Both] AKA.

00:40:45.005 --> 00:40:47.181
- [Greg] EP the hellcat.

00:40:47.181 --> 00:40:48.264
- [Both] AKA.

00:40:49.205 --> 00:40:51.183
- [Greg] Riff raff.

00:40:51.183 --> 00:40:52.266
- [Both] AKA.

00:40:53.743 --> 00:40:55.243
- The white lotus.

00:40:56.763 --> 00:40:57.979
"I'm assassin on tape.

00:40:57.979 --> 00:40:59.387
I outlasted the fate.

00:40:59.387 --> 00:41:00.845
Bitches better start blasting the plate

00:41:00.845 --> 00:41:01.946
in case I want to eat."

00:41:01.946 --> 00:41:06.121
Like, it was the arrogance
of EP bars used to be just,

00:41:06.121 --> 00:41:07.723
what I needed to hear.

00:41:07.723 --> 00:41:08.970
You know what I'm saying?

00:41:08.970 --> 00:41:09.973
♪ Its EP the illest ♪

00:41:09.973 --> 00:41:11.024
♪ Why the fuck you asking ♪

00:41:11.024 --> 00:41:12.368
♪ I slay hoes on one leg ♪

00:41:12.368 --> 00:41:13.912
♪ On scaffolds sand blasting ♪

00:41:13.912 --> 00:41:16.486
- Andy brought something out of me writing

00:41:16.486 --> 00:41:18.008
because for a long time,
Greg will tell you,

00:41:18.008 --> 00:41:20.136
I used to write my rhymes
before I heard a beat

00:41:20.136 --> 00:41:22.624
because I never had beats to write to.

00:41:22.624 --> 00:41:25.893
And then when Andy starts
supplying the beats,

00:41:25.893 --> 00:41:29.949
then I'm like, okay, I
could say this at this time.

00:41:29.949 --> 00:41:32.285
I could say this at this time.

00:41:32.285 --> 00:41:33.709
I didn't have that before.

00:41:33.709 --> 00:41:35.393
I didn't, you know, it wasn't nothing

00:41:35.393 --> 00:41:36.462
I was trying to get before.

00:41:36.462 --> 00:41:38.359
- The maniac man himself.

00:41:38.359 --> 00:41:42.158
The the guy that will
kill your track board,

00:41:42.158 --> 00:41:43.411
Andy C.

00:41:43.411 --> 00:41:44.301
What's the deal.

00:41:44.301 --> 00:41:46.005
Hey, let me zoom in on my man.

00:41:46.005 --> 00:41:47.688
Wow, that's Andy C right there, y'all.

00:41:47.688 --> 00:41:49.507
Put this own production.

00:41:49.507 --> 00:41:51.071
We would say, man, he an unofficial member

00:41:51.071 --> 00:41:51.904
of Abstract Mindstate 'cause...

00:41:51.904 --> 00:41:52.744
- Yep.

00:41:52.744 --> 00:41:55.450
- he was so instrumental
in just our progression,

00:41:55.450 --> 00:41:56.973
our some music and everything

00:41:56.973 --> 00:41:59.481
that we considered him
a part of it, you know.

00:41:59.481 --> 00:42:00.573
- Thank you Andrew P.

00:42:00.573 --> 00:42:01.976
- Right, right.

00:42:01.976 --> 00:42:04.320
- Abstract Mindstate are pioneers.

00:42:04.320 --> 00:42:06.456
I mean that's, that's kind of

00:42:06.456 --> 00:42:08.776
the best way that I can frame it.

00:42:08.776 --> 00:42:11.978
They are precursors, they are forerunners,

00:42:11.978 --> 00:42:15.613
you know, they are responsible for a lot

00:42:15.613 --> 00:42:18.792
of people in Mississippi
knowing about Chicago hip hop

00:42:18.792 --> 00:42:21.671
and in Chicago they are responsible

00:42:21.671 --> 00:42:23.902
for opening a lot of doors for a lot

00:42:23.902 --> 00:42:25.148
of independent artists that are doing

00:42:25.148 --> 00:42:26.352
what they're doing now.

00:42:26.352 --> 00:42:29.328
♪ Point blank they say that
J Ivy's on some other shit ♪

00:42:29.328 --> 00:42:33.371
- I go down to CRC and I was
like, "Oh, this is different."

00:42:33.371 --> 00:42:35.627
Like this is, this different.

00:42:35.627 --> 00:42:38.144
This ain't the closet, you know.

00:42:38.144 --> 00:42:40.298
This is a real studio.

00:42:40.298 --> 00:42:44.344
And so for me that was one
of my first times being

00:42:44.344 --> 00:42:46.787
in an environment like that.

00:42:46.787 --> 00:42:47.784
It was fun.

00:42:47.784 --> 00:42:50.264
It really felt like I had
gone to another level.

00:42:50.264 --> 00:42:51.704
Man, it was magical.

00:42:51.704 --> 00:42:54.046
Like, it was a like a dope moment

00:42:54.046 --> 00:42:56.822
and it's a piece I've
been performing since.

00:42:56.822 --> 00:42:58.206
- Did somebody say "Wonder Twins"?

00:42:58.206 --> 00:43:00.206
- "Wonder Twins"! "Wonder Twins"!

00:43:00.206 --> 00:43:02.657
- "Wonder Twins" was the song

00:43:02.657 --> 00:43:05.864
that I just remember EP
going crazy about the beat.

00:43:05.864 --> 00:43:08.462
It was never a conversation
about if I was going

00:43:08.462 --> 00:43:11.118
to sell that beat, who
the beat was going to.

00:43:11.118 --> 00:43:12.366
They came to my house.

00:43:12.366 --> 00:43:13.864
I pretty much, they just
pretty much gangstered

00:43:13.864 --> 00:43:14.904
that shit from me.

00:43:14.904 --> 00:43:15.902
They just took it.

00:43:15.902 --> 00:43:17.410
♪ Wonder twins reactivate ♪

00:43:17.410 --> 00:43:19.964
♪ We gonna show out ♪

00:43:19.964 --> 00:43:23.040
- It was the overwhelming,
like, acceptance

00:43:23.040 --> 00:43:25.923
and validation of like, "Yo, I hear you.

00:43:25.923 --> 00:43:27.673
We, let's make this."

00:43:28.931 --> 00:43:33.093
- The way I met Chicago's
own Mr. Kanye West.

00:43:33.093 --> 00:43:36.154
I actually met him
because of my man Coodie

00:43:36.154 --> 00:43:38.904
who was driving The Source truck.

00:43:40.211 --> 00:43:42.020
- Source Magazine was the biggest thing

00:43:42.020 --> 00:43:42.853
in hip-hop.

00:43:42.853 --> 00:43:45.869
John Monopoly and Loom,
they asked me to, you know,

00:43:45.869 --> 00:43:47.274
start driving that around.

00:43:47.274 --> 00:43:49.434
So now I'm driving that
with speakers on the outside

00:43:49.434 --> 00:43:50.874
of the truck, you know.

00:43:50.874 --> 00:43:53.732
So I'm bumping music, you know,

00:43:53.732 --> 00:43:56.461
but I'm like, forget bumping, you know,

00:43:56.461 --> 00:44:00.053
Jay-Z and them, they already made it.

00:44:00.053 --> 00:44:02.736
I'm like, I'm gonna
bump Abstract Mindstate.

00:44:02.736 --> 00:44:04.791
Which I was a huge, I knew Ice-Gre,

00:44:04.791 --> 00:44:06.930
but I was a huge fan of them.

00:44:06.930 --> 00:44:11.312
And I just played that
album over and over again.

00:44:11.312 --> 00:44:15.456
- The clothing line, Mecca,
came to town to do a shoot

00:44:15.456 --> 00:44:18.773
with The Source magazine and Kanye was

00:44:18.773 --> 00:44:21.514
the principal guy in this photo shoot.

00:44:21.514 --> 00:44:23.490
And Kanye is like, you know, posing

00:44:23.490 --> 00:44:25.867
and he the hot new up and coming producer.

00:44:25.867 --> 00:44:28.053
And he posing, you
know, getting his shots.

00:44:28.053 --> 00:44:30.613
And I was watching
Kanye and I saw his face

00:44:30.613 --> 00:44:33.091
and he frowning up and you
know, in between takes,

00:44:33.091 --> 00:44:35.354
he was like, I saw him
lean over the Coodie

00:44:35.354 --> 00:44:36.533
and I could read his mouth.

00:44:36.533 --> 00:44:37.594
He was saying, "Who is this?"

00:44:37.594 --> 00:44:38.976
- He was asking me about the music.

00:44:38.976 --> 00:44:41.872
I was like, that's a Olskool
Ice-Gre right there, Greg.

00:44:41.872 --> 00:44:44.656
- And Ye just walks out the photo shoot.

00:44:44.656 --> 00:44:48.293
He just walks over across
Stony Island right up to me

00:44:48.293 --> 00:44:50.918
and says, "Hey man, how come y'all

00:44:50.918 --> 00:44:52.144
ain't never worked with me?"

00:44:52.144 --> 00:44:54.048
I said, "Because we know who you are

00:44:54.048 --> 00:44:55.405
and we can't afford you."

00:44:55.405 --> 00:44:58.198
And he literally said, "How
you know I won't work it out

00:44:58.198 --> 00:44:59.840
for a dope nigga from the Chi?"

00:44:59.840 --> 00:45:01.408
And I said, "Well act like it."

00:45:01.408 --> 00:45:02.405
He said, "Take my number."

00:45:02.405 --> 00:45:03.408
I said, "All right."

00:45:03.408 --> 00:45:05.776
After that meeting, he
started hanging out with me

00:45:05.776 --> 00:45:09.499
and it was like a creator
synergy between he and I.

00:45:09.499 --> 00:45:12.198
And right as that was starting to happen,

00:45:12.198 --> 00:45:15.615
he said he finna move to New York.

00:45:15.615 --> 00:45:16.713
- So who are you folks?

00:45:16.713 --> 00:45:18.951
- I'm Trizonna McClendon.

00:45:18.951 --> 00:45:21.231
I am, I'm on the album.

00:45:21.231 --> 00:45:23.398
Abstract Mindstate is like

00:45:24.317 --> 00:45:27.734
creme de la creme when it comes to music,

00:45:28.651 --> 00:45:32.891
when it comes to lyricism,
when it comes to dedication,

00:45:32.891 --> 00:45:35.710
when it comes to just sheer talent.

00:45:35.710 --> 00:45:37.220
So when Greg called me and said,

00:45:37.220 --> 00:45:39.051
"Hey, I have a song called Pain

00:45:39.051 --> 00:45:40.389
that I want you to be on."

00:45:40.389 --> 00:45:42.388
And he also invited me to write the hook.

00:45:42.388 --> 00:45:44.829
It meant the world to me.

00:45:44.829 --> 00:45:48.412
(Trizonna singing faintly)

00:45:54.979 --> 00:45:57.620
(audience member cheering)

00:45:57.620 --> 00:45:59.303
- [Audience Member] Sing it, baby!

00:45:59.303 --> 00:46:02.886
(Trizonna singing faintly)

00:46:04.780 --> 00:46:07.549
- Abstract Mindstate was
definitely groundbreaking

00:46:07.549 --> 00:46:11.046
in Chicago when it came to
like a group having, like,

00:46:11.046 --> 00:46:13.632
a grassroots campaign.

00:46:13.632 --> 00:46:17.783
They one of the first groups
from Chicago that had merch.

00:46:17.783 --> 00:46:19.451
I remember it because I copied it.

00:46:19.451 --> 00:46:21.166
Marketing was heavy and I guess that's

00:46:21.166 --> 00:46:22.707
'cause Greg worked at the label.

00:46:22.707 --> 00:46:23.921
So as I'm thinking about it,

00:46:23.921 --> 00:46:25.675
he had the cheat codes,
you know what I'm saying?

00:46:25.675 --> 00:46:30.310
- We had stickers, we had
jackets, we had T-shirts.

00:46:30.310 --> 00:46:32.155
Our logo was on everything.

00:46:32.155 --> 00:46:35.696
We was branding before we
understood what branding was.

00:46:35.696 --> 00:46:38.117
You supposed to know us
without even seeing our face.

00:46:38.117 --> 00:46:40.232
If you see that I wanted
it to be our bat signal.

00:46:40.232 --> 00:46:42.475
- That was one of the
things I wanted to convey

00:46:42.475 --> 00:46:44.757
in the image that it was, you know,

00:46:44.757 --> 00:46:45.776
a male and a female.

00:46:45.776 --> 00:46:47.995
That they were both, kind of, grassroots,

00:46:47.995 --> 00:46:49.570
meaning that it wasn't pop,

00:46:49.570 --> 00:46:51.192
it wasn't, you know what I'm saying?

00:46:51.192 --> 00:46:55.077
It was bare bones, which kind
of started my thought process

00:46:55.077 --> 00:46:58.802
of making the image as
stripped down as possible,

00:46:58.802 --> 00:47:02.385
almost kid-like, like
in it's innocent form,

00:47:03.236 --> 00:47:05.355
like this is hip hop.

00:47:05.355 --> 00:47:07.776
It was about as honest
as the logo could be.

00:47:07.776 --> 00:47:09.355
- So I just took it, bent it,

00:47:09.355 --> 00:47:11.936
put her in a crouching
position like she rocking

00:47:11.936 --> 00:47:16.073
and he over hit rocking and I
added a couple of microphones

00:47:16.073 --> 00:47:18.823
and put it, put a sphere around it

00:47:19.957 --> 00:47:23.877
and basically trying
to keep it simplistic.

00:47:23.877 --> 00:47:25.512
This is what we came up with.

00:47:25.512 --> 00:47:28.093
- We would have up to four
or five different spots

00:47:28.093 --> 00:47:31.101
every night, and we bouncing in.

00:47:31.101 --> 00:47:34.673
And now we go one way,
Craig hop out the car

00:47:34.673 --> 00:47:36.677
with the flyers, he go another way.

00:47:36.677 --> 00:47:38.576
All of it was intentional.

00:47:38.576 --> 00:47:43.576
Like, we set out to position
the group a certain way.

00:47:43.675 --> 00:47:45.595
- [Greg] We put color
on that on purpose...

00:47:45.595 --> 00:47:47.236
- [Interviewer] So we
could see it in the dark.

00:47:47.236 --> 00:47:48.755
- [Lee] So you could see it in the club.

00:47:48.755 --> 00:47:51.091
- Like, I never thought
about that, you know?

00:47:51.091 --> 00:47:54.174
- Gre was a visionary with promotion.

00:47:57.013 --> 00:47:58.669
Anytime I'm coming outta the club

00:47:58.669 --> 00:48:00.669
after DJing, there he is

00:48:02.176 --> 00:48:04.529
at 3:30 in the morning standing out there

00:48:04.529 --> 00:48:06.794
promoting Abstract or selling records.

00:48:06.794 --> 00:48:08.841
Or if he wasn't working with himself,

00:48:08.841 --> 00:48:10.550
he was promoting another artist.

00:48:10.550 --> 00:48:12.473
- And in a couple of short months,

00:48:12.473 --> 00:48:15.867
we was, the city was laced
with Abstract Mindstate

00:48:15.867 --> 00:48:17.516
and we was like to talk and it was like,

00:48:17.516 --> 00:48:18.618
what's going on?

00:48:18.618 --> 00:48:19.783
- It happened. It happened.

00:48:19.783 --> 00:48:21.724
- Yeah, it happened
pretty, pretty fast, right?

00:48:21.724 --> 00:48:24.161
- I was hosting a lot of
hip hop shows back then

00:48:24.161 --> 00:48:26.759
and some of the grimiest clubs in Chicago,

00:48:26.759 --> 00:48:28.082
you know, we went anywhere.

00:48:28.082 --> 00:48:30.641
I was hosting some nights
up at like Biddy Mulligans

00:48:30.641 --> 00:48:34.321
in some different places and
the one thing about Abstract

00:48:34.321 --> 00:48:38.505
is whenever they came, what caught me was

00:48:38.505 --> 00:48:41.340
they had a good show every time.

00:48:41.340 --> 00:48:45.404
Man, Abstract put on a show
every time I ever seen 'em.

00:48:45.404 --> 00:48:47.375
And that was the thing
that I loved about 'em.

00:48:47.375 --> 00:48:49.826
Like, every time they hit
the stage they was crisp.

00:48:49.826 --> 00:48:51.580
- They just were just, you know,

00:48:51.580 --> 00:48:54.583
they just knew how to engage a crowd.

00:48:54.583 --> 00:48:57.372
Like, they almost were like going to see

00:48:57.372 --> 00:49:01.658
an out of town act, but
they were from Chicago,

00:49:01.658 --> 00:49:03.810
that's kind of how I remember it.

00:49:03.810 --> 00:49:06.318
♪ My people on the right ♪

00:49:06.318 --> 00:49:07.859
♪ My people on the left ♪

00:49:07.859 --> 00:49:09.942
♪ Let me hear you say abstract ♪

00:49:09.942 --> 00:49:11.125
- [Audience] Abstract

00:49:11.125 --> 00:49:11.958
♪ Say abstract ♪

00:49:11.958 --> 00:49:13.208
- [Audience] Abstract

00:49:13.208 --> 00:49:14.616
♪ My people in the place ♪

00:49:14.616 --> 00:49:16.991
♪ I said my people in the place ♪

00:49:16.991 --> 00:49:19.116
♪ Let me hear you say we in here ♪

00:49:19.116 --> 00:49:20.107
- [Audience] We in here!

00:49:20.107 --> 00:49:22.234
♪ Say we in here ♪

00:49:22.234 --> 00:49:24.714
- They would eat people up
like, you know, straight up,

00:49:24.714 --> 00:49:29.093
like, just that energy was
like something that, man,

00:49:29.093 --> 00:49:32.003
I wish we could bottle that up.

00:49:32.003 --> 00:49:33.761
♪ Ladies of (rapping faintly) ♪

00:49:33.761 --> 00:49:36.061
♪ Just the ladies of (rapping faintly) ♪

00:49:36.061 --> 00:49:38.227
♪ Let me hear you say I like that ♪

00:49:38.227 --> 00:49:39.577
- [Audience] I like that!

00:49:39.577 --> 00:49:40.960
♪ Say I like that ♪

00:49:40.960 --> 00:49:42.543
- [Audience] I like that!

00:49:42.543 --> 00:49:43.909
♪ Ugh ♪
♪ Ugh ♪

00:49:43.909 --> 00:49:44.742
- [Audience] Ugh!

00:49:44.742 --> 00:49:45.927
(crowd cheering)

00:49:45.927 --> 00:49:48.175
- I had a big band of just Chicago music

00:49:48.175 --> 00:49:49.294
that wasn't getting played.

00:49:49.294 --> 00:49:53.018
Now I was able to play like
maybe one group once a week.

00:49:53.018 --> 00:49:54.794
That's not enough for me.

00:49:54.794 --> 00:49:57.797
I locked myself in the
studio one night at WGCI

00:49:57.797 --> 00:50:00.078
and I play all Chicago artists,

00:50:00.078 --> 00:50:03.375
and Abstract Mindset was one
of the groups I was playing.

00:50:03.375 --> 00:50:04.757
I'm going crazy, going nuts

00:50:04.757 --> 00:50:07.375
because I love Chicago hip hop

00:50:07.375 --> 00:50:09.077
and it was time for us to get our bread.

00:50:09.077 --> 00:50:12.799
It was time for us to get our
bread, bread, bread, bread,

00:50:12.799 --> 00:50:14.466
bread, bread, bread.

00:50:16.056 --> 00:50:20.282
- For Greg, I, my opinion,
he felt like a lot

00:50:20.282 --> 00:50:22.719
of the reason why we
didn't do what we supposed

00:50:22.719 --> 00:50:24.559
to do back in the nineties

00:50:24.559 --> 00:50:26.303
was the fact that we never left here.

00:50:26.303 --> 00:50:27.482
We never left.

00:50:27.482 --> 00:50:30.041
I couldn't. I couldn't leave my family.

00:50:30.041 --> 00:50:33.701
We can't get on here. It's not happening.

00:50:33.701 --> 00:50:34.799
It's not happening.

00:50:34.799 --> 00:50:36.383
We, it should have happened already.

00:50:36.383 --> 00:50:38.602
If it was gonna happen here,
it would've happened already.

00:50:38.602 --> 00:50:39.679
So he left.

00:50:39.679 --> 00:50:43.004
That didn't stop him pushing
for Abstract Mindstate.

00:50:43.004 --> 00:50:47.624
It just immersed him into
the culture that he loves.

00:50:47.624 --> 00:50:49.074
And that's the music business.

00:50:49.074 --> 00:50:52.458
- When I moved to New York and
I'm taking all these meetings

00:50:52.458 --> 00:50:54.715
and everybody has got a little interest

00:50:54.715 --> 00:50:56.610
and all I gotta do is
start leaning on people

00:50:56.610 --> 00:50:59.130
and really, you know,
trying to close these deals,

00:50:59.130 --> 00:51:02.134
Kanye offers me an
opportunity to rock with him.

00:51:02.134 --> 00:51:04.938
And I saw something real for myself

00:51:04.938 --> 00:51:08.719
and finally a chance to be
able to be a part of something,

00:51:08.719 --> 00:51:11.317
you know, 'cause by this
time Abstract Mindstate

00:51:11.317 --> 00:51:13.455
had so many ups and downs
that I just was looking

00:51:13.455 --> 00:51:16.399
for a up, and Kanye's
situation seemed like

00:51:16.399 --> 00:51:18.575
a real good up if I joined him

00:51:18.575 --> 00:51:20.253
and became a part of the team

00:51:20.253 --> 00:51:21.897
he wanted me to be a part of.

00:51:21.897 --> 00:51:23.658
So I took a chance, I'm a chance taker.

00:51:23.658 --> 00:51:26.534
So I took that chance and
we did some great things.

00:51:26.534 --> 00:51:28.694
I mean, he actually became
the college dropout.

00:51:28.694 --> 00:51:30.592
The thing we were building on happened.

00:51:30.592 --> 00:51:32.675
- And he'll tell you, he'll
probably tell the world,

00:51:32.675 --> 00:51:35.279
like, "EP, we need to go.

00:51:35.279 --> 00:51:36.858
EP we need to do Atlanta.

00:51:36.858 --> 00:51:37.855
We need to do LA,

00:51:37.855 --> 00:51:38.688
We need to go,"

00:51:38.688 --> 00:51:40.591
I wasn't having no parts to that.

00:51:40.591 --> 00:51:41.888
I had lost my brother.

00:51:41.888 --> 00:51:43.968
There's no way in the
world I was gonna let

00:51:43.968 --> 00:51:46.884
his kids go down the same path.

00:51:46.884 --> 00:51:48.709
(thunder booming)

00:51:48.709 --> 00:51:53.709
♪ I saw the thunder and
heard the lightning ♪

00:51:55.424 --> 00:51:57.288
- See my brother was brilliant.

00:51:57.288 --> 00:52:00.121
Toggie man, Ivy, Xavier, Sale man.

00:52:01.290 --> 00:52:04.123
He was brilliant but he was a case

00:52:05.033 --> 00:52:09.960
of a typical young black man
on the west side of Chicago

00:52:09.960 --> 00:52:14.293
whose family either sold
drugs or used them or both.

00:52:16.554 --> 00:52:18.971
And despite his intelligence,

00:52:20.352 --> 00:52:22.519
that is what he grew into.

00:52:25.253 --> 00:52:29.114
- She kind of put her
life on the back burner.

00:52:29.114 --> 00:52:32.531
She just felt that her nephews needed her

00:52:36.429 --> 00:52:39.762
and she, kind of, became the breadwinner

00:52:41.110 --> 00:52:44.245
that her brother was not there to be.

00:52:44.245 --> 00:52:45.078
Mm. Yeah.

00:52:46.921 --> 00:52:49.088
I'm getting emotional now.

00:52:51.867 --> 00:52:53.777
I got something.

00:52:53.777 --> 00:52:55.194
Sorry about that.

00:52:56.679 --> 00:52:58.236
- Every time I would come home,

00:52:58.236 --> 00:53:02.302
I would see him getting more
immersed into the street life.

00:53:02.302 --> 00:53:04.475
Yet I still, right now today,

00:53:04.475 --> 00:53:07.182
I harbor a little guilt

00:53:07.182 --> 00:53:10.672
because I sometimes I feel like I left him

00:53:10.672 --> 00:53:13.293
at the time when he needed me most.

00:53:13.293 --> 00:53:14.845
- You know, it was a crazy time for EP.

00:53:14.845 --> 00:53:16.325
You know, the word got back to me

00:53:16.325 --> 00:53:17.876
that she was, like, on suicide watch,

00:53:17.876 --> 00:53:20.193
and all she care about is her music

00:53:20.193 --> 00:53:22.857
and what's what we
gotta do to get to that.

00:53:22.857 --> 00:53:26.516
And when one of her best
friends said he'd invest,

00:53:26.516 --> 00:53:29.897
I literally sat down with Ye
and told him I'm about to leave

00:53:29.897 --> 00:53:31.977
and go back and do Abstract, you know,

00:53:31.977 --> 00:53:35.073
and he thought that I was
just going home for a minute

00:53:35.073 --> 00:53:36.695
and coming, and I had
to explain to him like,

00:53:36.695 --> 00:53:38.436
"No, my girl need me. EP need me."

00:53:38.436 --> 00:53:40.260
And a lot of people
thought I was completely

00:53:40.260 --> 00:53:42.537
insane for leaving, you know?

00:53:42.537 --> 00:53:45.699
But it was just a loyalty thing.

00:53:45.699 --> 00:53:46.697
It was a loyalty thing.

00:53:46.697 --> 00:53:47.998
Like, EP was my sister

00:53:47.998 --> 00:53:50.297
and I didn't even come out
here to do this with him.

00:53:50.297 --> 00:53:53.765
That wasn't my goal to help
Kanye become, you know,

00:53:53.765 --> 00:53:54.598
who he is now.

00:53:54.598 --> 00:53:57.219
And my goal was to get
Abstract Mindstate on.

00:53:57.219 --> 00:54:00.078
So I felt like I owed it to the group to,

00:54:00.078 --> 00:54:02.476
now that Ye is where he needs to be,

00:54:02.476 --> 00:54:05.657
now let me go back with
even more knowledge now.

00:54:05.657 --> 00:54:07.231
I got this Loud Records knowledge

00:54:07.231 --> 00:54:08.915
and all this stuff I done got with Ye,

00:54:08.915 --> 00:54:10.339
let me take this back.

00:54:10.339 --> 00:54:13.069
And that's when we created "Still Paying".

00:54:13.069 --> 00:54:16.440
♪ Do you actually know what listening to ♪

00:54:16.440 --> 00:54:19.415
♪ A shot to hip hop
mindstate is missing you ♪

00:54:19.415 --> 00:54:21.275
Like this was it for me, you know,

00:54:21.275 --> 00:54:24.372
so that was the anger in "Still Paying",

00:54:24.372 --> 00:54:27.379
the frustration in the
lyrics and everything.

00:54:27.379 --> 00:54:29.619
And I had gotten to the point, like,

00:54:29.619 --> 00:54:32.478
other than just walking up to a label,

00:54:32.478 --> 00:54:34.195
just cursing their out, like,

00:54:34.195 --> 00:54:35.539
let me just put it in here

00:54:35.539 --> 00:54:37.094
and hopefully they can hear it

00:54:37.094 --> 00:54:39.358
and go and sign us, you know?

00:54:39.358 --> 00:54:42.772
- And y'all have the songs
on quite a few people.

00:54:42.772 --> 00:54:45.231
I know on "Still Paying".

00:54:45.231 --> 00:54:47.714
Y'all had Special Ed on these raps.

00:54:47.714 --> 00:54:50.099
- Y'all had Common on "Nostalgia".

00:54:50.099 --> 00:54:53.450
Y'all had Kamikaze and David Banner.

00:54:53.450 --> 00:54:55.001
- L 57.
- L 57.

00:54:55.001 --> 00:54:56.890
- Welcome to Chicago.
- Kanye West.

00:54:56.890 --> 00:54:58.057
- Mr. Chicago.

00:54:59.141 --> 00:55:00.283
- Yeah.
- Ye West.

00:55:00.283 --> 00:55:02.347
We had John Legend on "No Love Lost".

00:55:02.347 --> 00:55:03.497
- [EP] Yeah. Yeah.

00:55:03.497 --> 00:55:04.656
- Who else do we have?

00:55:04.656 --> 00:55:05.489
- [Trizonna] Consequence.

00:55:05.489 --> 00:55:06.928
- Yeah, Consequence on "Downtown".

00:55:06.928 --> 00:55:10.208
This album should have
been the cooda grata,

00:55:10.208 --> 00:55:11.741
the hoo rodda.

00:55:11.741 --> 00:55:13.046
Yay. They made it.

00:55:13.046 --> 00:55:14.380
Look at what hard works does.

00:55:14.380 --> 00:55:16.027
This was "Still Paying" was supposed to be

00:55:16.027 --> 00:55:18.667
'cause everybody on it was special.

00:55:18.667 --> 00:55:21.099
♪ Hey yo, it ain't hard to
give this music a chance ♪

00:55:21.099 --> 00:55:22.880
♪ We ain't gotta pull
the gun out the pants ♪

00:55:22.880 --> 00:55:25.582
♪ We ain't gotta be the ones in the club ♪

00:55:25.582 --> 00:55:26.829
♪ Trying to break up the dance ♪

00:55:26.829 --> 00:55:29.693
♪ We got your mind, body, soul
in the trance with my music, ♪

00:55:29.693 --> 00:55:31.149
♪ My music ♪

00:55:31.149 --> 00:55:32.391
♪ My, my, my music ♪

00:55:32.391 --> 00:55:33.629
♪ My music ♪

00:55:33.629 --> 00:55:35.170
♪ My, my, my music ♪

00:55:35.170 --> 00:55:37.869
- I knew what they was doing
and I, it was just based on,

00:55:37.869 --> 00:55:39.560
I'm just thinking back,
like, how things was

00:55:39.560 --> 00:55:40.605
based on pure respect.

00:55:40.605 --> 00:55:41.917
Like, it wasn't about money,

00:55:41.917 --> 00:55:43.709
it wasn't about, "Well
how I'm gonna get paid?

00:55:43.709 --> 00:55:45.826
Well, what major record
label are you signed to?"

00:55:45.826 --> 00:55:48.146
It was like, no, this group
is dope and they're gonna,

00:55:48.146 --> 00:55:49.885
and they want me to work with 'em,

00:55:49.885 --> 00:55:51.325
so I'm really excited about doing that.

00:55:51.325 --> 00:55:52.509
♪ Yeah ♪

00:55:52.509 --> 00:55:53.847
♪ Yo, this is Common ♪

00:55:53.847 --> 00:55:55.607
♪ Big Illinois ♪

00:55:55.607 --> 00:55:58.861
♪ Chilling with my people's
Abstract Mindstate ♪

00:55:58.861 --> 00:56:01.861
- Well what Channel Zero
Injunction with Nike, y'all.

00:56:01.861 --> 00:56:03.104
This is how we do it.

00:56:03.104 --> 00:56:04.610
You know, I got my man
Rashid, Common sense,

00:56:04.610 --> 00:56:06.624
making it happen, baby.

00:56:06.624 --> 00:56:07.816
What's up with you, Common?

00:56:07.816 --> 00:56:08.649
- Chilling. Chilling.

00:56:08.649 --> 00:56:10.653
Just relaxing, enjoying the Abstract thing

00:56:10.653 --> 00:56:12.570
going down right here, you know?

00:56:12.570 --> 00:56:17.403
Abstract was really representing
hip hop in the right way.

00:56:18.739 --> 00:56:23.239
I like to rhyme with
people who motivate me,

00:56:23.239 --> 00:56:24.906
people who are dope.

00:56:26.102 --> 00:56:27.848
I want to be on dope things. True.

00:56:27.848 --> 00:56:29.725
And people that got something to say,

00:56:29.725 --> 00:56:31.347
people that I respect

00:56:31.347 --> 00:56:35.172
and they from Chicago
and they good people too.

00:56:35.172 --> 00:56:38.089
♪ So from the ill to the ceil
♪ ♪ It aint nothing but love ♪

00:56:38.089 --> 00:56:39.039
♪ So let it go ♪

00:56:39.039 --> 00:56:39.872
♪ Let it go ♪

00:56:39.872 --> 00:56:40.705
♪ Let 'em trip ♪

00:56:40.705 --> 00:56:41.538
♪ Let 'em trip ♪

00:56:41.538 --> 00:56:42.371
♪ From the shots ♪

00:56:42.371 --> 00:56:43.204
♪ Shots town ♪

00:56:43.204 --> 00:56:44.037
♪ To the silk ♪

00:56:44.037 --> 00:56:45.278
♪ Mississippi ♪

00:56:45.278 --> 00:56:46.961
♪ Got them coasted with follow ♪

00:56:46.961 --> 00:56:48.694
♪ We got this liquor in bottles ♪

00:56:48.694 --> 00:56:51.048
♪ That makes it harder to swallow ♪

00:56:51.048 --> 00:56:53.064
- We got together because
of our love of hip hop.

00:56:53.064 --> 00:56:56.088
We got together because
of our passion for it.

00:56:56.088 --> 00:56:57.288
♪ Not hold easy ♪

00:56:57.288 --> 00:56:58.984
♪ Come on, people don't leave me ♪

00:56:58.984 --> 00:57:01.064
♪ It's me and old skeezy
in the cold breezy ♪

00:57:01.064 --> 00:57:04.519
♪ - I remember recording these raps ♪

00:57:04.519 --> 00:57:06.186
with old Skeezy NEP.

00:57:07.592 --> 00:57:09.387
Actually that was one of my favorite.

00:57:09.387 --> 00:57:10.392
I always just ask them, "Yo,

00:57:10.392 --> 00:57:11.784
what's up with the joint?

00:57:11.784 --> 00:57:13.021
What's up with the joint?

00:57:13.021 --> 00:57:13.854
What's up with the joint?"

00:57:13.854 --> 00:57:16.444
- Right when we were about
to release the album,

00:57:16.444 --> 00:57:20.441
the, EP's best friend from high school

00:57:20.441 --> 00:57:23.118
who was putting the money up for it

00:57:23.118 --> 00:57:26.722
came to me and was like,
"Man, I hate to say this

00:57:26.722 --> 00:57:27.944
but I'm sorry dog,

00:57:27.944 --> 00:57:30.560
but I got hit hard and
I can't do it no more."

00:57:30.560 --> 00:57:31.808
(record scratching)

00:57:31.808 --> 00:57:34.322
Mind you, by the time he told me this,

00:57:34.322 --> 00:57:37.821
the album was recorded, it
was mixed, it was mastered.

00:57:37.821 --> 00:57:40.734
All of the promotional
items was made for it.

00:57:40.734 --> 00:57:44.140
I had already mailed
Advanced Press only copies

00:57:44.140 --> 00:57:45.235
of the album out.

00:57:45.235 --> 00:57:46.861
You know, everything was done.

00:57:46.861 --> 00:57:48.279
Oh, we was ready.

00:57:48.279 --> 00:57:49.457
We had a whole plan.

00:57:49.457 --> 00:57:51.159
It all fell to the ground

00:57:51.159 --> 00:57:54.760
'cause we had no financing to
promote or market this stuff.

00:57:54.760 --> 00:57:58.260
So a great album hit the floor flat. Blam.

00:58:02.536 --> 00:58:07.203
- At that particular time,
you, you gotta understand we,

00:58:13.506 --> 00:58:17.111
hmm, we have pretty much done everything

00:58:17.111 --> 00:58:19.444
that we thought we should do

00:58:22.683 --> 00:58:25.176
and that we was capable of doing it,

00:58:25.176 --> 00:58:28.208
and when it didn't work out...

00:58:28.208 --> 00:58:30.319
- We can come out with
a thousand reasons why

00:58:30.319 --> 00:58:31.887
(indistinct) had popped, right?

00:58:31.887 --> 00:58:32.720
- [Greg] Right.

00:58:32.720 --> 00:58:33.786
- But I could imagine him,

00:58:33.786 --> 00:58:35.477
because he captains the ship,

00:58:35.477 --> 00:58:36.906
sitting up there saying like,

00:58:36.906 --> 00:58:37.880
"I didn't, you know..."

00:58:37.880 --> 00:58:38.877
- What did I miss?

00:58:38.877 --> 00:58:40.713
- What did I miss? Like
this, that, and the other.

00:58:40.713 --> 00:58:43.338
So three more mix tapes,
were birthed after that,

00:58:43.338 --> 00:58:46.054
because of the fact that he figured, like,

00:58:46.054 --> 00:58:47.877
it was a kink in his armor, right?

00:58:47.877 --> 00:58:49.013
It's something that he missed.

00:58:49.013 --> 00:58:52.938
- And for me it's the
loyalty of what we created.

00:58:52.938 --> 00:58:55.279
So I got this thing too where like,

00:58:55.279 --> 00:58:57.814
"Nah, I gotta get this for EP too."

00:58:57.814 --> 00:59:00.396
So my not wanting to stop,

00:59:00.396 --> 00:59:03.335
besides being psychotically
not knowing how to quit,

00:59:03.335 --> 00:59:07.331
on top of that is, "Man,
it's me and EP, you know,

00:59:07.331 --> 00:59:08.336
we gonna do this.

00:59:08.336 --> 00:59:09.690
I'm gonna show EP some things."

00:59:09.690 --> 00:59:11.153
'Cause you know, by me
being able to travel

00:59:11.153 --> 00:59:13.175
and do the things I did on my own,

00:59:13.175 --> 00:59:16.353
I always wanted to show EP what I seen.

00:59:16.353 --> 00:59:18.295
I want her to meet the people I met.

00:59:18.295 --> 00:59:21.457
And the way to do it was
I gotta get Abstract on.

00:59:21.457 --> 00:59:24.663
And now we are there together
to enjoy these moments.

00:59:24.663 --> 00:59:26.709
So it was the loyalty to what...

00:59:26.709 --> 00:59:28.032
- [Both] We had created.

00:59:28.032 --> 00:59:28.865
- Yeah.

00:59:28.865 --> 00:59:30.797
And then she'll tell you,
like, I was loyal to, like,

00:59:30.797 --> 00:59:32.231
to the point of hurting myself.

00:59:32.231 --> 00:59:34.014
'Cause I just want, I wanted this thing

00:59:34.014 --> 00:59:36.337
to work that we started.

00:59:36.337 --> 00:59:39.153
Feel the vibes of this one right here

00:59:39.153 --> 00:59:41.253
Just gonna talk to y'all for minute.

00:59:41.253 --> 00:59:42.619
Listen to the story.

00:59:42.619 --> 00:59:43.944
Its from the heart.

00:59:43.944 --> 00:59:44.777
♪ Yo yo ♪

00:59:44.777 --> 00:59:48.211
♪ I spend nights (rapping faintly) ♪

00:59:48.211 --> 00:59:51.394
♪ Its like the stage is dark
and the mic is my light ♪

00:59:51.394 --> 00:59:53.510
(rapping faintly)

00:59:53.510 --> 00:59:54.893
♪ Its a death match ♪

00:59:54.893 --> 00:59:56.401
♪ And death match is ready to strike ♪

00:59:56.401 --> 00:59:57.823
When I'm like, "What am I doing?

00:59:57.823 --> 01:00:01.047
I keep sacrificing
everything I got for this.

01:00:01.047 --> 01:00:04.911
And we keep having these
ups that keep dropping down.

01:00:04.911 --> 01:00:07.273
'cause something with
financing doesn't happen."

01:00:07.273 --> 01:00:09.892
But I put so much of myself into it

01:00:09.892 --> 01:00:13.556
that my life was just,
you know, crumbling.

01:00:13.556 --> 01:00:16.415
'Cause honestly for EP all
she had to do was show up.

01:00:16.415 --> 01:00:19.193
But all of the, the
business, the connections,

01:00:19.193 --> 01:00:22.356
maintaining that, you
know, the creativity,

01:00:22.356 --> 01:00:24.692
all of the stuff, I was
the left eye of the group.

01:00:24.692 --> 01:00:27.752
You know, I'm the hook writer,
I'm the concept idealist.

01:00:27.752 --> 01:00:29.633
So I was just exhausted.

01:00:29.633 --> 01:00:32.815
- I had already been
married, had gotten married

01:00:32.815 --> 01:00:34.914
and I had a family.

01:00:34.914 --> 01:00:38.997
And so it was no more of
us not monetizing, like,

01:00:40.255 --> 01:00:42.596
we gotta monetize this thing.

01:00:42.596 --> 01:00:44.873
We can't keep doing it like this.

01:00:44.873 --> 01:00:48.473
- There was nothing really
said, like, it just happened.

01:00:48.473 --> 01:00:51.527
And I looked up and he was gone.

01:00:51.527 --> 01:00:53.574
- I got to the point that I was just upset

01:00:53.574 --> 01:00:55.311
at Abstract Mindstate.

01:00:55.311 --> 01:00:56.569
Like, this ain't it.

01:00:56.569 --> 01:01:00.774
Like, I didn't, I done lost
myself trying to be this,

01:01:00.774 --> 01:01:03.553
you know, this thing,
you know, that we created

01:01:03.553 --> 01:01:04.550
that was great.

01:01:04.550 --> 01:01:06.837
But it just, the reality of it just wasn't

01:01:06.837 --> 01:01:07.970
there anymore for me.

01:01:07.970 --> 01:01:10.553
(deep booming)

01:01:11.630 --> 01:01:12.930
- [EP] Play "Darkest Hour".

01:01:12.930 --> 01:01:15.465
- [Greg] Oh shit. The "Darkest Hour".

01:01:15.465 --> 01:01:16.773
- Yeah.

01:01:16.773 --> 01:01:18.606
Ooh, boy you start feeling that jerk

01:01:18.606 --> 01:01:19.614
when that part.

01:01:19.614 --> 01:01:20.714
(both speaking faintly)

01:01:20.714 --> 01:01:21.881
- Yeah, yeah.

01:01:25.860 --> 01:01:28.935
- I was like, "Yo Greg,
you gotta not think

01:01:28.935 --> 01:01:32.199
about Ice-Gre and think about Greg,

01:01:32.199 --> 01:01:35.366
and go and use your talent elsewhere."

01:01:38.963 --> 01:01:42.819
'Cause we know, I know
personally how smart you are,

01:01:42.819 --> 01:01:46.304
how intelligent and
how you know this shit.

01:01:46.304 --> 01:01:50.054
You really literally
know what you are doing.

01:01:51.070 --> 01:01:52.040
Go use that.

01:01:52.040 --> 01:01:54.149
Don't let that fall victim to you

01:01:54.149 --> 01:01:56.984
living for Abstract Mindstate."

01:01:56.984 --> 01:02:00.759
- I became this guy that
all people knew me was,

01:02:00.759 --> 01:02:02.582
is like Kanye homie.

01:02:02.582 --> 01:02:04.483
They didn't really know
nothing about what I do,

01:02:04.483 --> 01:02:07.090
who I am, how much I've been behind

01:02:07.090 --> 01:02:09.363
various people in the business.

01:02:09.363 --> 01:02:11.363
It was all about like getting on my feet

01:02:11.363 --> 01:02:13.182
as just like a man at this point.

01:02:13.182 --> 01:02:15.080
So I'm a college
graduate, what am I doing?

01:02:15.080 --> 01:02:16.904
Like what's, what am I,
you know what I mean?

01:02:16.904 --> 01:02:17.921
I'm heavy in the game.

01:02:17.921 --> 01:02:19.240
I run with the heavy weights

01:02:19.240 --> 01:02:20.617
and look at me, I'm tripping.

01:02:20.617 --> 01:02:25.384
- For me, it was the time
for me to say to myself,

01:02:25.384 --> 01:02:27.822
"Okay, you need to go back to school.

01:02:27.822 --> 01:02:30.243
You just lost your brother.

01:02:30.243 --> 01:02:32.458
He left these kids here."

01:02:32.458 --> 01:02:35.742
For me, started back for
me, focusing on my family.

01:02:35.742 --> 01:02:39.242
- It was a sad day, but it was also happy.

01:02:40.424 --> 01:02:41.297
Why?

01:02:41.297 --> 01:02:44.643
'Cause my cousin was going to do his thing

01:02:44.643 --> 01:02:49.060
and then EP was getting up
on her ass up off the sofa

01:02:49.939 --> 01:02:51.921
and putting her life back.

01:02:51.921 --> 01:02:54.563
So in one way I was losing

01:02:54.563 --> 01:02:56.146
Abstract Mindstate.

01:02:57.339 --> 01:03:00.422
But I knew Greg and EP would be okay.

01:03:03.860 --> 01:03:07.083
'Cause they kinda, hmm, you know,

01:03:07.083 --> 01:03:09.486
got that weight off they shoulder.

01:03:09.486 --> 01:03:12.846
- During the course of,
like, probably 10 plus years,

01:03:12.846 --> 01:03:14.904
I had another one of those up and downs

01:03:14.904 --> 01:03:16.682
'cause I got myself back in order

01:03:16.682 --> 01:03:18.286
and took a chance on another artist

01:03:18.286 --> 01:03:20.042
and that thing blew up in my face.

01:03:20.042 --> 01:03:22.817
And this time it really went crazy

01:03:22.817 --> 01:03:24.023
'cause I'm in LA.

01:03:24.023 --> 01:03:26.037
You know, I have to leave
out my apartment again.

01:03:26.037 --> 01:03:28.260
This time it got super embarrassing.

01:03:28.260 --> 01:03:30.639
Now I gotta ask my mom at, you know,

01:03:30.639 --> 01:03:33.380
40 something years old, 40 years old,

01:03:33.380 --> 01:03:34.741
can I stay with her?

01:03:34.741 --> 01:03:36.457
It was just the worst.

01:03:36.457 --> 01:03:38.677
So I had knew then

01:03:38.677 --> 01:03:41.119
that I gotta just stop
thinking about everybody.

01:03:41.119 --> 01:03:43.039
'Cause I felt like that
was my lowest point.

01:03:43.039 --> 01:03:44.799
And this took me about a few years

01:03:44.799 --> 01:03:46.741
to get back on my feet.

01:03:46.741 --> 01:03:48.796
And during that time, me and Kanye

01:03:48.796 --> 01:03:50.917
was outta contact for five years.

01:03:50.917 --> 01:03:53.098
We hadn't talked in five years.

01:03:53.098 --> 01:03:56.098
- As a mother, it hurt me many days.

01:03:59.018 --> 01:04:00.278
I would cry for him.

01:04:00.278 --> 01:04:03.734
I wouldn't let him see,
but I would cry for him

01:04:03.734 --> 01:04:07.970
because he put so much
into everything he does.

01:04:07.970 --> 01:04:10.091
He puts his whole heart into it.

01:04:10.091 --> 01:04:13.924
He would always work so
hard for his own music

01:04:14.891 --> 01:04:16.534
and others, you know.

01:04:16.534 --> 01:04:21.529
And that would hurt me to the
core, how hard he would work.

01:04:21.529 --> 01:04:25.611
And he would say, "Ma it's
just not, it's never my time.

01:04:25.611 --> 01:04:27.531
It's always everybody else's," you know?

01:04:27.531 --> 01:04:29.908
At all costs, don't give up, son.

01:04:29.908 --> 01:04:31.334
Don't give up.

01:04:31.334 --> 01:04:33.531
It looks tough, but don't give up.

01:04:33.531 --> 01:04:35.713
- I have a hero complex.

01:04:35.713 --> 01:04:40.389
I have that and that's
okay to a certain point,

01:04:40.389 --> 01:04:42.267
but sometimes it's to our detriment

01:04:42.267 --> 01:04:44.292
because we think we can fix everything.

01:04:44.292 --> 01:04:45.375
And we can't.

01:04:48.908 --> 01:04:51.908
And when you come to the realization

01:04:53.254 --> 01:04:56.421
that you can't change or fix the lives

01:04:58.130 --> 01:05:01.923
of everybody else, then yours changes,

01:05:01.923 --> 01:05:04.923
and you start focusing more on self.

01:05:07.821 --> 01:05:11.130
And it took me years to get to that point.

01:05:11.130 --> 01:05:15.297
And I think the unspoken
separation of us was due.

01:05:20.397 --> 01:05:24.230
When it happened it was
time for it to happen.

01:05:25.754 --> 01:05:27.421
He had to go out and

01:05:30.684 --> 01:05:35.324
find his niche outside of
Abstract Mindstate and he did it.

01:05:35.324 --> 01:05:39.922
I had to find mine within
myself and I did it.

01:05:39.922 --> 01:05:41.966
- I get a call from a number

01:05:41.966 --> 01:05:44.981
that I didn't even know the number

01:05:44.981 --> 01:05:47.884
and for whatever reason I was like,

01:05:47.884 --> 01:05:49.700
"I bet you this Kanye."

01:05:49.700 --> 01:05:51.874
Ain't talked to this man in five years.

01:05:51.874 --> 01:05:53.299
All this stuff going on.

01:05:53.299 --> 01:05:54.502
I'm worried about this and that.

01:05:54.502 --> 01:05:56.259
And he went, "Yo."

01:05:56.259 --> 01:05:58.179
And I was like, "Man, what's up?"

01:05:58.179 --> 01:05:59.947
I knew. I was like, "I knew this was you."

01:05:59.947 --> 01:06:01.723
And then he was like,
"Man, how you doing?"

01:06:01.723 --> 01:06:03.243
He said, "Man, I'm taking it back to that,

01:06:03.243 --> 01:06:04.624
God told me to call you."

01:06:04.624 --> 01:06:07.800
And I was like, "Word? Like."

01:06:07.800 --> 01:06:08.721
And he's like, "Yeah."

01:06:08.721 --> 01:06:11.978
And that was the beginning
of us reconnecting

01:06:11.978 --> 01:06:15.052
and re-building, we doing
music again together.

01:06:15.052 --> 01:06:17.260
He's having a good time.
I'm having a good time.

01:06:17.260 --> 01:06:18.760
Never looked back.

01:06:20.803 --> 01:06:23.136
- I mean 2006 up until 2017.

01:06:25.501 --> 01:06:27.905
That's a minute. That's a minute.

01:06:27.905 --> 01:06:31.926
We talked on the phone, you
know, sporadically or whatever.

01:06:31.926 --> 01:06:33.462
I would reach out and call

01:06:33.462 --> 01:06:35.564
and check on 'em every now and then.

01:06:35.564 --> 01:06:38.422
But we weren't even in like
close contact like that.

01:06:38.422 --> 01:06:40.282
We didn't talk to each other every day.

01:06:40.282 --> 01:06:43.884
And not even like once a month
or once every six months.

01:06:43.884 --> 01:06:47.034
- Now I'm a thousand miles away

01:06:47.034 --> 01:06:48.924
from being an artist at this point.

01:06:48.924 --> 01:06:50.981
I'm pretty happy not to be an artist.

01:06:50.981 --> 01:06:53.564
I'm pretty happy to not even
be dealing with any artist

01:06:53.564 --> 01:06:55.960
that isn't on the level, like,

01:06:55.960 --> 01:06:58.377
Kanye's circle kind of thing.

01:06:59.665 --> 01:07:02.485
So I kind of like put my whole world,

01:07:02.485 --> 01:07:05.505
my whole spirit and
everything into the real stuff

01:07:05.505 --> 01:07:07.105
and just didn't look back.

01:07:07.105 --> 01:07:10.287
We ain't practice "Sacrifice".

01:07:10.287 --> 01:07:11.204
- [EP] Wow.

01:07:12.436 --> 01:07:13.506
♪ Yeah ♪

01:07:13.506 --> 01:07:14.820
♪ Wow ♪

01:07:14.820 --> 01:07:17.153
- Volume two, check this out

01:07:19.103 --> 01:07:21.656
♪ Are you willing to leave
this place called home ♪

01:07:21.656 --> 01:07:22.839
♪ That's simple and plan ♪

01:07:22.839 --> 01:07:25.972
♪ To set up shop in the spot
where don't know your name ♪

01:07:25.972 --> 01:07:29.322
♪ Or even be trade the good
times for a whole lot of pain ♪

01:07:29.322 --> 01:07:30.813
♪ Or maybe get out the sun ♪

01:07:30.813 --> 01:07:32.529
♪ And just stand in the rain ♪

01:07:32.529 --> 01:07:34.562
♪ These are the things
that you might go through ♪

01:07:34.562 --> 01:07:36.753
♪ When you want something
bigger than you ♪

01:07:36.753 --> 01:07:38.561
♪ It's like leaving the crib ♪

01:07:38.561 --> 01:07:40.586
♪ Being loser and have
to stay with your aunt ♪

01:07:40.586 --> 01:07:42.911
♪ You're thankful but
it's not what you want ♪

01:07:42.911 --> 01:07:45.719
♪ I need to say, have you
ever wanted much more ♪

01:07:45.719 --> 01:07:46.552
♪ But settle for less ♪

01:07:46.552 --> 01:07:49.927
♪ You find the big booties
but you settle for chest ♪

01:07:49.927 --> 01:07:51.110
♪ You really wanna sleep ♪

01:07:51.110 --> 01:07:52.726
♪ But all you get is some rest ♪

01:07:52.726 --> 01:07:55.809
♪ Your clothes is okay but
you really want fresh ♪

01:07:55.809 --> 01:07:57.450
♪ You know just where to eat ♪

01:07:57.450 --> 01:07:58.791
♪ But you settle for mess ♪

01:07:58.791 --> 01:08:00.799
♪ But still you keep your head high ♪

01:08:00.799 --> 01:08:01.782
♪ 'Cause you swear it's a test ♪

01:08:01.782 --> 01:08:04.448
♪ People, these are the moments
that I'm talking about ♪

01:08:04.448 --> 01:08:07.664
♪ When you hung in that thing
while the rest broke out ♪

01:08:07.664 --> 01:08:10.855
♪ When you stop hanging
with people that's close ♪

01:08:10.855 --> 01:08:13.463
♪ Stop hanging with who
you hung out the most ♪

01:08:13.463 --> 01:08:16.438
♪ I promise y'all this a small price ♪

01:08:16.438 --> 01:08:17.271
♪ But though it's not half a nice ♪

01:08:17.271 --> 01:08:20.436
♪ I learned it's all sacrifice ♪

01:08:20.436 --> 01:08:22.581
Shout out to Duron 'cause I credit him

01:08:22.581 --> 01:08:24.122
for why we in our situation

01:08:24.122 --> 01:08:26.682
'cause he pushed me so hard.

01:08:26.682 --> 01:08:27.955
He calls me one day.

01:08:27.955 --> 01:08:32.021
I'm in the studio at the
time it was Noah Goldstein,

01:08:32.021 --> 01:08:34.720
that was Kanye's main engineer.

01:08:34.720 --> 01:08:37.221
And I'm an A&R at this point, again

01:08:37.221 --> 01:08:40.914
for probably the second or
third time with the label.

01:08:40.914 --> 01:08:43.541
But anyway, and Duron
like, "What up, Gre?"

01:08:43.541 --> 01:08:44.922
- I said, "Greg, you know what?

01:08:44.922 --> 01:08:47.002
I'm listening to
"Sacrifice" now as we speak.

01:08:47.002 --> 01:08:49.915
I want you to go and
listen to it right now.

01:08:49.915 --> 01:08:52.269
You going to have a reaction on that.

01:08:52.269 --> 01:08:53.923
I promise you's gonna have a reaction.

01:08:53.923 --> 01:08:56.040
I don't know what it is,
but you gonna call me back."

01:08:56.040 --> 01:09:00.715
And so he said, "Oh man, I
don't feel like listening."

01:09:00.715 --> 01:09:02.473
I said, "Man, please just do it for me."

01:09:02.473 --> 01:09:03.400
He said, "You know what,

01:09:03.400 --> 01:09:04.906
I'm gonna do this for you one time."

01:09:04.906 --> 01:09:06.576
- So I listened to the song

01:09:06.576 --> 01:09:09.326
and I was, you know, sound funny.

01:09:10.477 --> 01:09:13.501
It was my own group,
but it was so vibed out

01:09:13.501 --> 01:09:14.600
that it moved me.

01:09:14.600 --> 01:09:18.237
So much so that I just let it
keep playing past that song.

01:09:18.237 --> 01:09:20.157
And now I'm listening
to the whole mix tape,

01:09:20.157 --> 01:09:22.089
it wrap back around and I hear it back to

01:09:22.089 --> 01:09:24.564
that song again and I stop it.

01:09:24.564 --> 01:09:28.352
And for some reason I wanted to write.

01:09:28.352 --> 01:09:33.031
So as an A&R, I felt like
if that music made me

01:09:33.031 --> 01:09:36.672
want to write, Kanye
is in a writer's block,

01:09:36.672 --> 01:09:40.192
if I let him hear this,
he going want to write.

01:09:40.192 --> 01:09:42.749
That was my whole, it
was a strategy for me.

01:09:42.749 --> 01:09:44.053
He's gonna want to write.

01:09:44.053 --> 01:09:45.636
So I sent the link.

01:09:46.702 --> 01:09:48.749
Right then I get a call at six something

01:09:48.749 --> 01:09:50.789
in the morning and I'm, look, I'm tripping

01:09:50.789 --> 01:09:52.538
'cause I'm like, "Ye, you know, what Ye

01:09:52.538 --> 01:09:53.371
doing up calling me?"

01:09:53.371 --> 01:09:55.389
I answer the phone like, "What up?"

01:09:55.389 --> 01:09:59.472
He just started talking,
"Yo man, I got an idea."

01:10:01.247 --> 01:10:02.699
He said, "Man, you know what artist

01:10:02.699 --> 01:10:04.408
I want to represent Yeezy sound?"

01:10:04.408 --> 01:10:06.010
This is six something in the morning.

01:10:06.010 --> 01:10:07.013
I was like, "Who?"

01:10:07.013 --> 01:10:08.969
So now I'm like, okay, we
finna talk about, you know,

01:10:08.969 --> 01:10:10.570
we finna get creative and I'm excited

01:10:10.570 --> 01:10:12.954
for this creative talk we going into now.

01:10:12.954 --> 01:10:16.479
He said, "Man, Abstract Mindstate."

01:10:16.479 --> 01:10:18.888
I said, dude, do you
think the world is ready

01:10:18.888 --> 01:10:21.824
for some 40 something year old rappers?"

01:10:21.824 --> 01:10:23.189
"That's exactly what they ready for.

01:10:23.189 --> 01:10:25.429
The world need Abstract Mindstate.

01:10:25.429 --> 01:10:26.725
Y'all going to heal people.

01:10:26.725 --> 01:10:27.910
Y'all gonna help change lives.

01:10:27.910 --> 01:10:30.149
It's about us, bro. We the elders.

01:10:30.149 --> 01:10:31.584
We gotta teach these kids.

01:10:31.584 --> 01:10:33.872
Abstract Mindstate been about that.

01:10:33.872 --> 01:10:36.129
Y'all, it's time for y'all."

01:10:36.129 --> 01:10:38.453
- Give it up for my
niggas, Abstract Mindstate.

01:10:38.453 --> 01:10:40.612
(crowd cheering)

01:10:40.612 --> 01:10:42.365
- He said, "I want to
produce the whole album.

01:10:42.365 --> 01:10:44.053
This gonna be us. We gonna do this, us.

01:10:44.053 --> 01:10:46.250
This is Abstract Mindstate and Kanye West.

01:10:46.250 --> 01:10:47.370
It's a collaboration."

01:10:47.370 --> 01:10:49.770
And he said, "Man, get
her out here right now.

01:10:49.770 --> 01:10:51.109
I'm gonna give y'all a situation."

01:10:51.109 --> 01:10:53.276
I was like, "You serious?"

01:10:54.557 --> 01:10:55.989
He's like, "Yes, bruh."

01:10:55.989 --> 01:10:57.749
And I'm like, "Hold on, man."

01:10:57.749 --> 01:10:59.282
You know, 'cause I'm kind of thrown off.

01:10:59.282 --> 01:11:01.488
'Cause I'm thinking, I'm still
looking for it to be a joke.

01:11:01.488 --> 01:11:04.035
And I said, "So you
want me to contact the,

01:11:04.035 --> 01:11:06.961
the travel agent and get EP out here?"

01:11:06.961 --> 01:11:07.965
He said, "Yep."

01:11:07.965 --> 01:11:08.798
I said, "Right now?"

01:11:08.798 --> 01:11:09.631
He said, "Right now."

01:11:09.631 --> 01:11:10.464
I said, "Right now?"

01:11:10.464 --> 01:11:11.423
He said, "Right now."

01:11:11.423 --> 01:11:12.543
I said, "Right now?"

01:11:12.543 --> 01:11:14.340
He said, "Nigga, not
while I'm on the phone.

01:11:14.340 --> 01:11:15.492
Hang up and call her."

01:11:15.492 --> 01:11:17.746
And I just hung up.

01:11:17.746 --> 01:11:19.609
- I said, "Boy, get the fuck off my phone.

01:11:19.609 --> 01:11:20.615
Fuck you mean?

01:11:20.615 --> 01:11:22.492
I don't, I ain't got time for this shit."

01:11:22.492 --> 01:11:26.215
And he was like, he's
like, "EP, I'm serious.

01:11:26.215 --> 01:11:29.073
He wants you to come out
here as soon as possible."

01:11:29.073 --> 01:11:31.292
Mind you, I, you know, it's love

01:11:31.292 --> 01:11:33.549
but our communication was sparse.

01:11:33.549 --> 01:11:35.812
Like, that wasn't happening on a regular,

01:11:35.812 --> 01:11:37.153
it just wasn't happening.

01:11:37.153 --> 01:11:39.986
I said, "Listen, my daddy is sick.

01:11:42.816 --> 01:11:44.699
My dad has been diagnosed with cancer.

01:11:44.699 --> 01:11:47.612
He's just started dialysis
for some other shit."

01:11:47.612 --> 01:11:50.615
I said, "Listen, I don't
really have time for this shit.

01:11:50.615 --> 01:11:53.955
I don't, if you, you
know, I don't, I can't,

01:11:53.955 --> 01:11:56.240
like this is, what, again family.

01:11:56.240 --> 01:11:59.680
This is what's important to me now."

01:11:59.680 --> 01:12:03.019
- It's really poetic that
sacrifice is the song

01:12:03.019 --> 01:12:07.909
that is the catalyst to
this situation we in now,

01:12:07.909 --> 01:12:11.419
and we made it for what
we was in back then.

01:12:11.419 --> 01:12:13.134
- [EP] Yeah.

01:12:13.134 --> 01:12:15.936
- So in essence, if you just be unselfish

01:12:15.936 --> 01:12:17.397
and accept what's happening now,

01:12:17.397 --> 01:12:19.099
the sacrifice finally paid off.

01:12:19.099 --> 01:12:20.837
You know? So, I guess.

01:12:20.837 --> 01:12:22.656
- Well, circumstances
gonna humble you anyway.

01:12:22.656 --> 01:12:23.659
- [Greg] Right. Right.

01:12:23.659 --> 01:12:24.995
- So you don't even, you
don't have to be accepting.

01:12:24.995 --> 01:12:27.136
I'm grateful to God that he kept us sane.

01:12:27.136 --> 01:12:28.139
- Yeah, yeah.

01:12:28.139 --> 01:12:29.136
- Through all of it.

01:12:29.136 --> 01:12:30.176
We didn't lose it, you know?

01:12:30.176 --> 01:12:31.492
- We definitely could have
lost our mind in this.

01:12:31.492 --> 01:12:33.511
Real talk. Me and EP, we could have.

01:12:33.511 --> 01:12:34.513
- We could've lost our mind.

01:12:34.513 --> 01:12:35.511
We could have lost our connection.

01:12:35.511 --> 01:12:36.527
- Yeah. A lot could have happened.

01:12:36.527 --> 01:12:37.911
- We could of, a lot could have happened

01:12:37.911 --> 01:12:38.860
in between that span.

01:12:38.860 --> 01:12:42.417
A few days before I
received that call from him

01:12:42.417 --> 01:12:43.794
to where I woke up one morning

01:12:43.794 --> 01:12:45.521
and I literally looked in the mirror

01:12:45.521 --> 01:12:50.521
and I could see the weight of
being an MC come off of me.

01:12:50.895 --> 01:12:52.801
And I said it to myself, "That's gone.

01:12:52.801 --> 01:12:54.177
That part of your life is over.

01:12:54.177 --> 01:12:56.919
You are about to be a boy
certified behavior analyst,

01:12:56.919 --> 01:12:59.079
your masters, you'll have it in August.

01:12:59.079 --> 01:13:01.617
You're about to move on
to another profession.

01:13:01.617 --> 01:13:04.497
A profession that gives
you just as much happiness

01:13:04.497 --> 01:13:07.601
and joy as writing rhymes did.

01:13:07.601 --> 01:13:09.959
You have moved on. You have progressed.

01:13:09.959 --> 01:13:11.681
You have matured."

01:13:11.681 --> 01:13:13.692
And he called me.

01:13:13.692 --> 01:13:15.359
(Greg laughing)

01:13:15.359 --> 01:13:18.857
- Listening to her say that I was in a,

01:13:18.857 --> 01:13:20.898
at a point when Ye hit me with that,

01:13:20.898 --> 01:13:24.436
I was finally happy with
what I accomplished.

01:13:24.436 --> 01:13:25.439
- Yeah.

01:13:25.439 --> 01:13:27.300
- I had, I was like,
"Oh, I'm doing it now."

01:13:27.300 --> 01:13:30.476
I done made the calls, called
all the past record labels

01:13:30.476 --> 01:13:31.956
and owners of the labels

01:13:31.956 --> 01:13:34.756
and start putting, getting my plaques.

01:13:34.756 --> 01:13:37.620
I start creating presence on social media

01:13:37.620 --> 01:13:39.839
where you can see what I'm about.

01:13:39.839 --> 01:13:43.017
So I'm feeling great finally about myself.

01:13:43.017 --> 01:13:45.776
So like her, I'm like, "Abstract,

01:13:45.776 --> 01:13:47.636
it ain't time for this right now.

01:13:47.636 --> 01:13:49.269
This is about," and then Ye hit hit me

01:13:49.269 --> 01:13:50.822
with a curve ball.

01:13:50.822 --> 01:13:52.262
- I was straight up with Ye.

01:13:52.262 --> 01:13:53.495
I was like, "Dude, I was like,

01:13:53.495 --> 01:13:56.231
Dr. Dre couldn't get me out here."

01:13:56.231 --> 01:13:58.012
I said, "I'm doing this
shit because of you.

01:13:58.012 --> 01:14:00.113
My father is literally dying

01:14:00.113 --> 01:14:02.449
while I'm here talking to you.

01:14:02.449 --> 01:14:04.868
Don't fucking play with me."

01:14:04.868 --> 01:14:08.849
And I was so serious
about it at that time,

01:14:08.849 --> 01:14:12.092
after our meeting, when
we left on our way back

01:14:12.092 --> 01:14:16.289
to Greg's spot, Ye
called Greg and was like,

01:14:16.289 --> 01:14:18.908
"Do EP understand that I'm serious?

01:14:18.908 --> 01:14:20.252
I don't think she think I'm serious.

01:14:20.252 --> 01:14:22.647
I don't think she think I'm serious.

01:14:22.647 --> 01:14:24.407
Convince her that I'm serious.

01:14:24.407 --> 01:14:25.854
Tell her that I'm serious."

01:14:25.854 --> 01:14:27.687
So, you know, the rest

01:14:28.979 --> 01:14:31.004
is new Abstract Mindstate history.

01:14:31.004 --> 01:14:33.661
I'm the L to the O to the T-I-S,

01:14:33.661 --> 01:14:36.663
to the D to the A to the damn she fresh.

01:14:36.663 --> 01:14:39.847
He the O to the L to the S-K ooh.

01:14:39.847 --> 01:14:41.644
(Greg laughing)

01:14:41.644 --> 01:14:42.705
Yeah, I know y'all was ready.

01:14:42.705 --> 01:14:43.703
I know, I know.

01:14:43.703 --> 01:14:45.961
- [Greg] Thought you was
going off some domes.

01:14:45.961 --> 01:14:47.706
Thought there was some dome pieces

01:14:47.706 --> 01:14:49.247
getting thrown around this thing.

01:14:49.247 --> 01:14:51.494
- Big dome pieces.

01:14:51.494 --> 01:14:54.065
That's for another day.

01:14:54.065 --> 01:14:57.690
- Man, getting back in the studio with EP

01:14:57.690 --> 01:15:00.940
after all that time was, it was normal.

01:15:03.088 --> 01:15:04.810
It was normal.

01:15:04.810 --> 01:15:07.231
That's, you know, that was, it was normal.

01:15:07.231 --> 01:15:09.631
Like, that was where we belonged.

01:15:09.631 --> 01:15:11.428
The only difference this time is EP

01:15:11.428 --> 01:15:13.908
had the same writers block Kanye had.

01:15:13.908 --> 01:15:17.007
But other than that it was
just normal, it was us again.

01:15:17.007 --> 01:15:19.766
It was what we had done for so many years.

01:15:19.766 --> 01:15:21.104
It wasn't uncomfortable.

01:15:21.104 --> 01:15:22.970
And I, maybe it wasn't uncomfortable

01:15:22.970 --> 01:15:25.231
because I was okay as an individual

01:15:25.231 --> 01:15:27.647
and she was okay as an individual.

01:15:27.647 --> 01:15:28.730
So, this was almost like,

01:15:28.730 --> 01:15:33.063
it was just art class versus,
you know, hard knocks.

01:15:34.148 --> 01:15:38.258
I can honestly say Kanye
didn't just produce

01:15:38.258 --> 01:15:39.668
this album musically.

01:15:39.668 --> 01:15:40.970
He produced us.

01:15:40.970 --> 01:15:43.348
If I had any arrogance...
- He was the producer.

01:15:43.348 --> 01:15:45.146
- If I any arrogance. Yeah.

01:15:45.146 --> 01:15:46.845
I went, Kanye produced this.

01:15:46.845 --> 01:15:49.668
Like, if I had any arrogance or cockiness

01:15:49.668 --> 01:15:51.827
about being like the leader so to speak,

01:15:51.827 --> 01:15:54.084
that can make all these
decisions, it all went away.

01:15:54.084 --> 01:15:56.308
This man had me rewriting.

01:15:56.308 --> 01:15:59.268
I was getting mad 'cause
he didn't do it to her.

01:15:59.268 --> 01:16:02.527
I had to rewrite almost every
rhyme on this new album.

01:16:02.527 --> 01:16:05.701
And I was talking to EP
like, "Yo, that was dope.

01:16:05.701 --> 01:16:06.757
Like, what do you mean?"

01:16:06.757 --> 01:16:07.590
- And I was looking at him like.

01:16:07.590 --> 01:16:10.601
(both speaking simultaneously)

01:16:10.601 --> 01:16:12.804
- And, look, let me
tell you, lemme tell you

01:16:12.804 --> 01:16:14.765
what I needed to do for myself.

01:16:14.765 --> 01:16:17.360
Because even in the early
days of Abstract Mindstate,

01:16:17.360 --> 01:16:19.445
if Greg would've told me to change a line

01:16:19.445 --> 01:16:22.461
or to fix a line, that shit
would've turned physical.

01:16:22.461 --> 01:16:24.442
Like, that shit would've
turned into something else.

01:16:24.442 --> 01:16:25.546
- Right, so you hit a level, like.

01:16:25.546 --> 01:16:28.363
- So what happened when
Ye was saying this,

01:16:28.363 --> 01:16:30.684
like, I told Greg outta my mouth.

01:16:30.684 --> 01:16:33.583
I said, "Ye, that's a millionaire.

01:16:33.583 --> 01:16:37.204
Ye that everything he
touches goes to skyrocket.

01:16:37.204 --> 01:16:39.143
We gonna fucking do whatever he says do."

01:16:39.143 --> 01:16:41.967
And I guess by me saying that Greg, like,

01:16:41.967 --> 01:16:44.291
he let that shit go.
- I let it go. I did.

01:16:44.291 --> 01:16:45.368
- Because if I could let it go.

01:16:45.368 --> 01:16:47.087
- Yeah, and that was a strong thing

01:16:47.087 --> 01:16:48.868
because I heard EP say that to me.

01:16:48.868 --> 01:16:49.871
- Yeah.

01:16:49.871 --> 01:16:50.868
- I was like, "Okay."

01:16:50.868 --> 01:16:53.210
- I actually think it was
after my father passed

01:16:53.210 --> 01:16:55.551
when everything started, you know,

01:16:55.551 --> 01:16:57.867
getting better in that way.

01:16:57.867 --> 01:17:02.117
I think that part of my
life was, like, holding me.

01:17:04.628 --> 01:17:07.508
Like I had to be more concerned
about him than anything.

01:17:07.508 --> 01:17:10.788
So I think after my dad
passed that release,

01:17:10.788 --> 01:17:14.111
that freed me, you know,
emotionally to go ahead

01:17:14.111 --> 01:17:16.868
and get immersed in the project.

01:17:16.868 --> 01:17:19.407
And when we finally
finished all of the songs,

01:17:19.407 --> 01:17:22.067
I wanted to keep going
'cause I didn't want lose it.

01:17:22.067 --> 01:17:24.052
I was like, "Let's do,
let's record some more."

01:17:24.052 --> 01:17:25.666
He was like, "Shit, we got all of these.

01:17:25.666 --> 01:17:26.730
Let's just give him these."

01:17:26.730 --> 01:17:28.671
I was like, "Okay, but, you know,

01:17:28.671 --> 01:17:29.850
let's just keep recording."

01:17:29.850 --> 01:17:31.092
'Cause I didn't want it to go nowhere.

01:17:31.092 --> 01:17:32.250
You know, we was back.

01:17:32.250 --> 01:17:33.727
- To be here right now

01:17:33.727 --> 01:17:37.908
and end up recording 25 new
songs fully produced by Ye

01:17:37.908 --> 01:17:42.607
and 11 of them became what we
called "Dream Still Inspire".

01:17:42.607 --> 01:17:45.796
- Me and my wife was almost moved to tears

01:17:45.796 --> 01:17:49.557
hearing the project because
you are not supposed

01:17:49.557 --> 01:17:50.964
to be this dope this long.

01:17:50.964 --> 01:17:52.342
What's the incentive?

01:17:52.342 --> 01:17:54.362
If you are already Michael Jordan,

01:17:54.362 --> 01:17:56.015
what's the incentive for
you going in the gym,

01:17:56.015 --> 01:17:57.870
practicing when you are already a legend?

01:17:57.870 --> 01:18:01.382
So, for them, that's
where it really hit me is,

01:18:01.382 --> 01:18:02.862
damn after all this time,

01:18:02.862 --> 01:18:04.345
they can still do this?

01:18:04.345 --> 01:18:05.342
Just like me.

01:18:05.342 --> 01:18:07.200
But I don't hear that in other people.

01:18:07.200 --> 01:18:09.135
I don't get motivated by other people.

01:18:09.135 --> 01:18:10.164
That's what this did.

01:18:10.164 --> 01:18:13.081
- I can get a fresh new perspective

01:18:14.999 --> 01:18:19.211
that's scathing from
Hellcat, Ebony poetist,

01:18:19.211 --> 01:18:23.143
and I can get a little
sugar in the medicine,

01:18:23.143 --> 01:18:27.659
a little honey in the
tea from Olskool Ice-Gre.

01:18:27.659 --> 01:18:29.092
That's what the world needs right now.

01:18:29.092 --> 01:18:30.068
We need some healing.

01:18:30.068 --> 01:18:31.382
We need healing.

01:18:31.382 --> 01:18:35.713
So an Abstract Mindstate album
right now just makes sense.

01:18:35.713 --> 01:18:39.963
- Sometimes you gotta go
back to where it all began

01:18:40.804 --> 01:18:44.147
and really get a fresh perspective

01:18:44.147 --> 01:18:47.764
of what made you draw into
hip hop in the first place.

01:18:47.764 --> 01:18:49.665
They give us that feeling, man.

01:18:49.665 --> 01:18:51.385
That's, a contagious feeling.

01:18:51.385 --> 01:18:53.485
That movement was powerful.

01:18:53.485 --> 01:18:55.119
And I think right now we need to,

01:18:55.119 --> 01:18:57.044
on the real right now,

01:18:57.044 --> 01:18:59.188
we need to start gathering up people

01:18:59.188 --> 01:19:01.824
and gathering up that power supply again.

01:19:01.824 --> 01:19:03.990
'Cause it has depleted over the years.

01:19:03.990 --> 01:19:06.839
- Abstract Mindstate,
they don't even sound

01:19:06.839 --> 01:19:08.228
like they're in their forties.

01:19:08.228 --> 01:19:10.466
If they don't mention it
on the record as much,

01:19:10.466 --> 01:19:13.988
you wouldn't know because
the skill is there.

01:19:13.988 --> 01:19:15.284
The bounce is there.

01:19:15.284 --> 01:19:19.225
Like they're their one to
twin energy is still there.

01:19:19.225 --> 01:19:22.639
And I think it's amazing that
they're making this track

01:19:22.639 --> 01:19:25.142
and they're getting the kind
of support that they need

01:19:25.142 --> 01:19:29.326
or I feel that is warranted
for them to come back.

01:19:29.326 --> 01:19:31.326
- Because they were different then,

01:19:31.326 --> 01:19:34.076
almost like a breath of fresh air

01:19:35.824 --> 01:19:38.905
of content issues and and things.

01:19:38.905 --> 01:19:40.603
So hell yeah.

01:19:40.603 --> 01:19:42.766
To hear that today, we
definitely need that.

01:19:42.766 --> 01:19:43.945
Like, no dis to nobody.

01:19:43.945 --> 01:19:46.846
The babies and every
baby and none of them.

01:19:46.846 --> 01:19:48.868
Or, you know, what I'm saying?

01:19:48.868 --> 01:19:51.108
Nothing, but like, it's a time and place.

01:19:51.108 --> 01:19:53.688
And so I just think like today we need

01:19:53.688 --> 01:19:55.438
to hear a new bounce.

01:19:56.841 --> 01:19:58.025
We need to have a new bounce.

01:19:58.025 --> 01:19:59.065
You know what I'm saying?

01:19:59.065 --> 01:20:00.446
Not the, you know what I'm saying?

01:20:00.446 --> 01:20:03.425
We need to have a like,
okay, that's change.

01:20:03.425 --> 01:20:05.005
A change of bounce.

01:20:05.005 --> 01:20:09.005
- If there's anyone who
deserves to come out now

01:20:10.406 --> 01:20:11.953
it's Greg and EP.

01:20:11.953 --> 01:20:15.006
And we all like to think
that the best people,

01:20:15.006 --> 01:20:16.688
the deserving people, the loyal people

01:20:16.688 --> 01:20:18.122
who had these characteristics and traits,

01:20:18.122 --> 01:20:20.159
that they get what they
deserve, ultimately.

01:20:20.159 --> 01:20:21.183
We like to think that.

01:20:21.183 --> 01:20:22.479
And the fact that that's
happening is just,

01:20:22.479 --> 01:20:23.698
is how life's supposed to be.

01:20:23.698 --> 01:20:25.519
- For you to open up another chapter

01:20:25.519 --> 01:20:27.940
of what we love and what we into

01:20:27.940 --> 01:20:30.042
and deliver that to the world

01:20:30.042 --> 01:20:32.702
with one of the greatest
producers that ever done it,

01:20:32.702 --> 01:20:34.521
I think we are there for that.

01:20:34.521 --> 01:20:36.660
And you're gonna be speaking our language.

01:20:36.660 --> 01:20:40.875
You're gonna be speaking from
a grown person's point of view

01:20:40.875 --> 01:20:42.978
and we're gonna all groove to it.

01:20:42.978 --> 01:20:45.395
And what I heard was amazing.

01:20:47.380 --> 01:20:50.410
And when everybody hears
this, it is going to,

01:20:50.410 --> 01:20:51.243
it is going, you going,

01:20:51.243 --> 01:20:54.018
it's going, you going to feel good.

01:20:54.018 --> 01:20:57.416
Like when I heard it, I kind
of, like, got in the pocket.

01:20:57.416 --> 01:20:58.749
I was like this.

01:21:00.039 --> 01:21:01.539
Oh yes, thank you.

01:21:02.744 --> 01:21:04.003
Like, ugh.

01:21:04.003 --> 01:21:04.836
Thank you!

01:21:05.949 --> 01:21:08.557
- You put enough gold on?

01:21:08.557 --> 01:21:11.307
Did you put enough gold on, geez.

01:21:13.715 --> 01:21:16.298
EP, are you gonna stop fooling?

01:21:18.204 --> 01:21:20.415
You're wearing chains and gold.

01:21:20.415 --> 01:21:23.332
- I'm just ecstatic about the world

01:21:25.255 --> 01:21:28.622
finally have an opportunity to listen

01:21:28.622 --> 01:21:31.205
and hear this dynamic rap group

01:21:33.436 --> 01:21:36.853
and see what they're about and, you know,

01:21:37.857 --> 01:21:42.017
and see, you know, what
was to Abstract Mindstate.

01:21:42.017 --> 01:21:44.513
'Cause it's a hip hop story, you know,

01:21:44.513 --> 01:21:45.676
and we are writing it

01:21:45.676 --> 01:21:48.153
and that's what's so cool about hip hop.

01:21:48.153 --> 01:21:51.320
- [EP] The new stuff is the same heat.

01:21:52.283 --> 01:21:53.116
- Yeah.

01:21:53.116 --> 01:21:54.471
- But the message is so different

01:21:54.471 --> 01:21:56.711
and so grown and so needed.

01:21:56.711 --> 01:21:57.713
- [Greg] Yeah.

01:21:57.713 --> 01:21:58.586
- Right now...

01:21:58.586 --> 01:21:59.900
- It's gonna be great doing the new stuff.

01:21:59.900 --> 01:22:01.136
- it's gonna be great doing the new stuff.

01:22:01.136 --> 01:22:02.804
It's gonna be great doing
interviews like you said.

01:22:02.804 --> 01:22:04.470
- Yeah. It gonna be,
remember the interview is

01:22:04.470 --> 01:22:05.896
probably gonna be the best thing for us.

01:22:05.896 --> 01:22:06.729
- Yes.

01:22:06.729 --> 01:22:07.562
- The new stuff is so meaningful

01:22:07.562 --> 01:22:09.692
and significant and necessary now.

01:22:09.692 --> 01:22:11.429
- Yep.
- You know what I'm saying?

01:22:11.429 --> 01:22:12.348
Shout out to the homie for being like

01:22:12.348 --> 01:22:14.222
- Before the time.

01:22:14.222 --> 01:22:16.081
- His foresight is something

01:22:16.081 --> 01:22:17.584
that's to be reckoned with.

01:22:17.584 --> 01:22:18.624
It's not even a joke.

01:22:18.624 --> 01:22:19.681
- Yeah. It's scary.
- It's not even a joke.

01:22:19.681 --> 01:22:21.347
- It's scary. We talk about it too, like,

01:22:21.347 --> 01:22:22.601
man, this boy called us two years ago

01:22:22.601 --> 01:22:25.356
and said, "The world
need to hear y'all now."

01:22:25.356 --> 01:22:26.668
Now it's here.

01:22:26.668 --> 01:22:28.348
And it's like, as they say,

01:22:28.348 --> 01:22:30.743
it always on right on time.
- [EP] It's right on time.

01:22:30.743 --> 01:22:33.059
- It don't come when you need
it. But it's always on time.

01:22:33.059 --> 01:22:34.124
Can the church say amen.

01:22:34.124 --> 01:22:35.104
- Amen.

01:22:35.104 --> 01:22:39.042
I don't think Kanye really
knows exactly what he did.

01:22:39.042 --> 01:22:40.047
- Nah, he don't.

01:22:40.047 --> 01:22:41.319
- He, I mean...
- He definitely don't know.

01:22:41.319 --> 01:22:42.931
- He don't know what he did.

01:22:42.931 --> 01:22:44.969
You know, he brought my
brother back into my life

01:22:44.969 --> 01:22:46.902
on a, in a way that.

01:22:46.902 --> 01:22:48.147
- Thanks Piff.

01:22:48.147 --> 01:22:49.347
- Call me that shit again.

01:22:49.347 --> 01:22:51.603
Its gonna get, call me that shit again.

01:22:51.603 --> 01:22:53.622
It's going, Gre-Gre. Fuck outta here.

01:22:53.622 --> 01:22:54.455
Dink. Dink.

01:22:54.455 --> 01:22:55.502
- Dank.

01:22:55.502 --> 01:22:56.561
- You know.

01:22:56.561 --> 01:22:59.385
I, like, when I say Kanye
doesn't know what he did.

01:22:59.385 --> 01:23:02.363
It's just, like, this wasn't the plan to,

01:23:02.363 --> 01:23:04.243
for us to be back in each other's lives.

01:23:04.243 --> 01:23:05.076
- [Greg] Yeah.

01:23:05.076 --> 01:23:05.909
- [EP] On this game.

01:23:05.909 --> 01:23:08.649
I don't think it'll ever be six months

01:23:08.649 --> 01:23:10.866
or a year between us speaking.

01:23:10.866 --> 01:23:11.745
- [Greg] Yeah. Yeah.

01:23:11.745 --> 01:23:14.686
- [EP] Let alone, you
know, let alone six days.

01:23:14.686 --> 01:23:15.519
- [Greg] Right, right.

01:23:15.519 --> 01:23:16.780
- Without us like "Whats wrong,"

01:23:16.780 --> 01:23:18.724
texting or, you know what I mean, so.

01:23:18.724 --> 01:23:19.587
- [Greg] Yeah.

01:23:19.587 --> 01:23:22.784
- It's just, I guess things
have come full circle

01:23:22.784 --> 01:23:26.823
and things are always the
way that they're meant to be.

01:23:26.823 --> 01:23:27.965
- Dink and Dank out.

01:23:27.965 --> 01:23:29.405
- Out. Mad states.

01:23:29.405 --> 01:23:30.269
One to twins.

01:23:30.269 --> 01:23:31.267
- One to twins.

01:23:31.267 --> 01:23:32.211
- [Both] Activate.

01:23:32.211 --> 01:23:34.130
(both laughing)

01:23:34.130 --> 01:23:35.138
♪ This thing called life ♪

01:23:35.138 --> 01:23:36.850
♪ The vibe is so right ♪

01:23:36.850 --> 01:23:39.296
♪ To answer if we think it's on time ♪

01:23:39.296 --> 01:23:42.061
♪ It's always on time ♪

01:23:42.061 --> 01:23:43.961
♪ Now that we finally meet ♪

01:23:43.961 --> 01:23:47.278
♪ I wanna share this with you ♪

01:23:47.278 --> 01:23:50.852
♪ No such thing as pride, when it's love ♪

01:23:50.852 --> 01:23:53.015
♪ This is divine ♪

01:23:53.015 --> 01:23:54.813
♪ Good things to all
of y'all hearing this ♪

01:23:54.813 --> 01:23:57.512
♪ Good dreams to all that
fall asleep on this ♪

01:23:57.512 --> 01:24:00.190
♪ I'm not at all appalled
'cause y'all receiving this ♪

01:24:00.190 --> 01:24:02.500
♪ The energy level feel like Christmas ♪

01:24:02.500 --> 01:24:05.376
♪ It's the magician and the magicianess ♪

01:24:05.376 --> 01:24:07.731
♪ Hocus pocus, there go your wishlist ♪

01:24:07.731 --> 01:24:09.939
♪ Raise your hand ♪

01:24:09.939 --> 01:24:11.088
- Timing is everything.

01:24:11.088 --> 01:24:12.755
So this is the perfect time

01:24:12.755 --> 01:24:14.766
because when they drop,

01:24:14.766 --> 01:24:16.451
it's gonna be big.

01:24:16.451 --> 01:24:19.869
- This is what a process truly looks like.

01:24:19.869 --> 01:24:22.131
And sometimes you gotta sort of backtrack

01:24:22.131 --> 01:24:23.356
to go back up again.

01:24:23.356 --> 01:24:24.451
But that's how when life hits you,

01:24:24.451 --> 01:24:25.786
what are you going to do?

01:24:25.786 --> 01:24:27.948
Young people need to understand that.

01:24:27.948 --> 01:24:30.367
- They really are two different dynamics

01:24:30.367 --> 01:24:32.617
that kinda explain Chicago.

01:24:33.504 --> 01:24:36.168
It was inspiring because
that's what I wanted

01:24:36.168 --> 01:24:38.968
to see from my city
when it come to hip hop.

01:24:38.968 --> 01:24:41.968
(record rewinding)

01:24:45.027 --> 01:24:47.531
♪ Greetings to y'all within earshot ♪

01:24:47.531 --> 01:24:50.171
♪ Grieving the fall but don't fear not ♪

01:24:50.171 --> 01:24:51.713
♪ Did you feed the goats ♪

01:24:51.713 --> 01:24:52.728
♪ Well, it appears not ♪

01:24:52.728 --> 01:24:54.048
♪ 'Cause we out in the sun ♪

01:24:54.048 --> 01:24:55.190
♪ To make the year high ♪

01:24:55.190 --> 01:24:57.473
♪ State airplane fly
to make your ears pop ♪

01:24:57.473 --> 01:25:00.146
♪ Don't smoke, stay high
like souvenir shops ♪

01:25:00.146 --> 01:25:02.731
- Oh, they're created a genre.

01:25:02.731 --> 01:25:04.481
You know, it's gonna be
contemporary hip hop.

01:25:04.481 --> 01:25:07.238
This is gonna be
40-year-old and up hip hop.

01:25:07.238 --> 01:25:10.907
We gonna be creating radio
stations off of this music.

01:25:10.907 --> 01:25:13.074
- [Interviewer] Lastly,
what's your favorite

01:25:13.074 --> 01:25:14.376
Abstract Mindstate song?

01:25:14.376 --> 01:25:15.398
- You can't do that.

01:25:15.398 --> 01:25:18.699
I'm not naming a favorite
three. All of them.

01:25:18.699 --> 01:25:20.438
♪ A Jody Foster hit ♪

01:25:20.438 --> 01:25:23.019
♪ This ain't a freestyle ♪
♪ But it won't cost a nick ♪

01:25:23.019 --> 01:25:24.336
♪ Before the culture quit ♪

01:25:24.336 --> 01:25:25.659
♪ We the culture shock ♪

01:25:25.659 --> 01:25:26.859
♪ And we the opposite ♪

01:25:26.859 --> 01:25:28.017
♪ Of how the vultures rock ♪

01:25:28.017 --> 01:25:29.361
♪ So receive us well ♪

01:25:29.361 --> 01:25:30.561
♪ And we'll repeat the same ♪

01:25:30.561 --> 01:25:31.793
♪ So you can sit a spell ♪

01:25:31.793 --> 01:25:35.269
♪ While we complete the game ♪

01:25:35.269 --> 01:25:37.692
♪ Yeah, you can sit a spell ♪
♪ While we complete the game ♪

01:25:37.692 --> 01:25:39.841
♪ This wish is to you ♪

01:25:39.841 --> 01:25:43.058
♪ Good day, let's push through ♪

01:25:43.058 --> 01:25:44.624
♪ Hello, what's happenin' ♪

01:25:44.624 --> 01:25:48.124
♪ Hey, aloha, how you do ♪

01:25:48.124 --> 01:25:53.124
♪ Y'all all so special,
this is our salute to you ♪

01:25:53.174 --> 01:25:57.674
♪ Respect, much love, regards, salute ♪

01:26:03.632 --> 01:26:05.215
♪ This wish is to you ♪

01:26:05.215 --> 01:26:06.048
♪ Greetings and salutations,
what's good world ♪

01:26:06.048 --> 01:26:11.048
♪ We want to welcome you to this ♪

01:26:11.418 --> 01:26:12.434
♪ Mind state ♪

01:26:12.434 --> 01:26:14.175
♪ Experience ♪

01:26:14.175 --> 01:26:15.008
♪ Yeah ♪

01:26:15.008 --> 01:26:15.841
♪ Yeah ♪

01:26:15.841 --> 01:26:16.858
♪ Y'all all so special ♪

01:26:16.858 --> 01:26:18.958
♪ this is our salute to you ♪
♪ Enjoy the trip ♪

01:26:18.958 --> 01:26:19.791
♪ Uh-Huh ♪

01:26:19.791 --> 01:26:22.046
♪ Respect, much love ♪
♪ Enjoy the ride ♪

01:26:22.046 --> 01:26:24.111
♪ Regards, salute ♪
♪ Yeah, uh-huh ♪ ♪ Let's go ♪

01:26:24.111 --> 01:26:25.861
♪ Uh ♪

01:26:30.710 --> 01:26:32.619
- As you'll see in the
documentary, like I,

01:26:32.619 --> 01:26:34.038
I was the most offbeat.

01:26:34.038 --> 01:26:35.759
It took me such a long
time to record, but.

01:26:35.759 --> 01:26:37.941
- Hey, I saw it, wasn't offbeat.

01:26:37.941 --> 01:26:38.958
- No, no, no. Listen.

01:26:38.958 --> 01:26:40.621
- You're not gonna let
that be on the documentary.

01:26:40.621 --> 01:26:42.182
Our songs were never offbeat.

01:26:42.182 --> 01:26:43.542
- The songs were not...

01:26:43.542 --> 01:26:45.901
- EP just has her songs that she likes.

01:26:45.901 --> 01:26:47.142
We don't have off beat songs, people.

01:26:47.142 --> 01:26:48.749
- No, the point that I'm making,

01:26:48.749 --> 01:26:50.166
I write off beat.

01:26:51.118 --> 01:26:52.385
- We don't have offbeat songs, people.

01:26:52.385 --> 01:26:54.025
- And it takes, if it takes Greg.

01:26:54.025 --> 01:26:55.568
- Abstract Mindstate
songs are on beat, people.

01:26:55.568 --> 01:26:57.151
- If it takes Greg.

01:26:58.078 --> 01:26:59.622
- Don't listen to her.

01:26:59.622 --> 01:27:01.281
- Listen, if it takes Greg one take,

01:27:01.281 --> 01:27:04.448
'cause his nickname is One Take Jake.