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Congratulations on the completion of this brand new record. This is how it starts.
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How do you even know where an album starts these days?
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Like was blessings always be like that one has to start the record? Always.
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Yo, for just when since I wrote it, I was like that's how you that's but I don't care what this record turns out to be.
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I said that's the first song. It's a one song album.
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It's a one song album, right?
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That's all I got in me, but here it is. Enjoy it. I love this, man.
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This this song is crazy and it and I love that you think that way, you know, cuz a lot of artists I speak to are sort of making it up as they go along.
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The puzzle eventually shows itself.
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But I can tell from the work that you've done thus far and the way that the music that you make that you do think like holistically and conceptually in the way you make, right?
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albums that feel like a complete thought.
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They feel like a vibe to me.
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They feel like a even if the story doesn't connect, the the the rhythm and the music and the beats and the concepts they it just feels like a complete thought.
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Finally getting a chance to speak to you.
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I've spoken to you know, a lot of people who speak so highly of you not just as a creative and as a performer, but as a human.
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You know, people people In fact, that's the first thing anybody says about you is what a good person you are and I think that that speaks volumes above and beyond the work.
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You were obviously raised well, right?
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I mean you you don't get to get that kind of accolade personal accolade without tracing it back to the way you were raised, right?
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I can't can't take credit for that kind of stuff.
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I can't take all the credit for for for people saying that, right?
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Like I got to give it give it up to my mom and my mentors, my teachers in high school, you know, who who looked out for me and you know, my my first counselor in in high school, Jason Jacobs.
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You know, it was the first time I had therapy in my life.
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You know, I didn't know I needed it and Miss H who was another teacher was like you need to keep you need to see Mr. Jacobs.
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She's like, you know, you're going through a lot and I was like, nah, I'm good. I'm good. I'm good.
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And finally you know, finally I did and you know, it changed the game for me, man.
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And then next thing you know, years later I get back into therapy for 2 years.
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I end up being in a TV show about therapy.
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I'm a big fan of therapy, man.
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You know, and for me I always find myself in a space where I need it personally to to to go to to grow, but then I always find the creative juices stir because it unlocks new things.
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Do you find that as well that that there's kind of a connection between the two to some to some degree? Yeah, for sure.
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And once you start opening up about being your life, you start opening up about that kind of stuff.
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Next thing you know, it only brings things out in the music, you know what I'm saying?
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It only brings things out like, you know, it's funny my therapist said to me, you have a problem talking about the things that you need.
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You have a problem asking for the things that you need. And that's so crazy.
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I'm like, you know, imagine you know, and and it helps an exploration of your music or whatever because it's like when I'm in the studio, I'm like, man, what do I really want to talk about right now?
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I don't it's not really necessarily what do I think the people want me to say.
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You know, cuz it's like it's like what what what do what do I want to say?
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What's what's on my heart?
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What am I trying to talk about?
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Do I want to turn up right now? So be turn up.
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What was your first impression of Lin-Manuel when you first met him?
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You know, when I first met him I was like, yo, that's the dude that wrote In the Heights.
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I was like, whoa, like, you know, cuz that was like In the Heights was like the only Latino cat like the only musical with Latinos in it at the time.
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Really like there was half half of West Side Story and then maybe like Man of La Mancha, but like nobody, you know what I mean? And that was it.
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And and I saw In the Heights in college and that was like the show that was I was like, yo, this is crazy that everybody these people these people look, sound look and sound like the people I grew up with.
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They they they they're singing music that feels that feels so familiar to me that that sounds like the music I grew up listening to, you know?
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I'm listening to these beats.
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I'm listening to these words.
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They're singing about stuff that resonates with me on a deep level.
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And and when I met him, I was you know, having having to be able to get into work with him, I was like, yo, this dude like it's one thing for you to see like brilliance in someone who's a genius.
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It's another thing for you to experience it first hand.
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And having had as much time as I've had with him over the course of the years like it's crazy.
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I'm I learn something from him every single day. It's it's wild.
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He'll go away and rewrite a verse and you're like, there's no way he can make this song better.
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This is so crazy right now.
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And he come back and like in Hamilton we'd be in the middle of rehearsal and he would leave.
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Our director would be like, all right, this section isn't working and we'll go on and we'll start rehearsing a different song or something like that while he fixes the other thing.
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Comes back and I'm like, holy how the did you make that better?
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Well, some people just have that ability to be able to I think I think it's a combination of talent and pressure.
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It's a beautiful kind of thing where out of out of that comes the diamond, right? It's like, how? And I've seen it.
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I've seen it happen as well.
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But for you, I want to trace back to something you said before about being in the in the audience seeing In the Heights, recognizing how it made you feel.
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Not just not just the entertainment factor in it, but how it made you feel inside, right?
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That's the that changes your life's direction.
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The feeling, not the surface stuff, the observations.
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The feeling is what changes your DNA, I think.
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Literally physically you All of a sudden you're going in this direction now.
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That's what manifestation is.
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Do you believe in that because it's it it happens to you. How could you not? the thing, man.
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And that's why I say like when you when when people have the courage to tell their stories, you give other people courage to tell theirs.
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Like I did and you also you also open up the door for people to be a part of a bigger picture, you know, especially like it was hard for me coming up. It was very hard.
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Like people were like, we don't know.
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He look like this, but he sounds like that.
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But he's from but he's not this enough or he's you know where you know, where is he from?
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Like I you know, I had people be like, change the way you speak so you could be more ethnically ambiguous.
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Grow your hair out so people could know where you're not from, you know, and you could play these different types of roles and you're not you're not like stuck to the in the Latino box.
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And I'm like, this is not a box. This is who I am.
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But it's just not people but there's just there's just no roles for Latinos really like right now, you know what I'm saying?
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Or rather these executives ain't making room for actors like me to to to to to have a role.
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Not even I'm not even talking about the lead, just a role in this movie.
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If you know, or or if the Latinos in there you know, you got the guy, you know, you got him saying a Spanish line and it's like the comedic but of of a joke or something like that and everybody's like, we speak English, blah blah blah. I'm like, nah, G.
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Well, we're more than that man.
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And there's a lot of pressure on young people's shoulders when they're growing up in an environment you grew up in and and your ambition is a is your ticket.
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But what is that ambition? What is it?
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Is it to be an artist, a music artist? Is it to be a performer? Is it to be an actor?
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I can't imagine unless you tell me otherwise that you a very young you is that is that able to to create a multi-faceted picture of the whole thing?
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Was it Were you zeroing in on one thing?
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The music was always you know, was always my first love, but but it was it was interesting that the music merged with the acting cuz that's what musical theater is, you know, it's it's is is you know, they call they they don't call people in musicals act musicians, they call them actors, right?
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I'm an actor in a musical, right?
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They're like, but they're singing and dancing.
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They're up there performing like any artist who's on tour.
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Anthony, it's because you're ultimately having to play a role and you can feel that role deeply and you can immerse yourself in that experience to make it authentic for the audience, but but you know, you know what the differentiator is.
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The differentiator is you're having to pretend to be something else in order to make a point.
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Whereas when you're in the studio and you felt this now making your own music, you're doing everything you can to not pretend.
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You're unlocking every part of you to avoid pretending, right?
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Aren't we all acting to some degree? Yeah.
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like when we get on stage, right?
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You know, you put on these costumes and you got these lights and everything is, you know, you know, you look at the songwriter credits.
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It's like 11 people on the on on who on the credits of the song.
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Like, you know, come on, bro.
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Like if we really want to get real with it, everybody's acting to some degree.
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You know, it's like it's like we we you know, I think it's just how people it's it's the context in which people define something.
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Identity is really complex and we spend our whole lives trying to sort of taking all of these things, I think.
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We call them influences or inspirations.
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We put real nice words on them, but a lot of them are just constructs to build up our own identity into something, yeah?
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And then you get to an age where you if you're lucky, you have the the altitude of the distance perspective to take a step back and decide, do I like that identity that I built for myself or do I have to actually undo it?
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And that is the that is a crazy moment in your life.
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Like, wait, I did this to myself?
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I mean, you hear stories all the time of people being like, man, how did I get here? Yeah.
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I signed with this label and then after I signed with this label I felt like I lost myself.
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I felt like there were all these voices trying to make me do this or whatever or I I did I did, you know, I did this this many movies now, but I'm playing the same kind of role and now I'm pigeonholed to this to this kind of role, but that that was never me in the first place.
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That was just kind of how I fit in at that moment in time or I had one role where I didn't I I never meant for this to go that far.
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I never meant to to be this kind of artist.
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I never meant to be that kind of, you know, and and it's like and and I think there is this challenge where, you know, where the word no is is something that that I think I you know, people ask me like, oh, what's something that you've learned over the course of your you know, you know, your time acting or your time singing and and or being an artist.
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And I said, yo, it's just how to say no.
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No, this is a song this is a song I want to put out.
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No, this is this is the kind of partner I want in an agent or in a label or in a this is the kind of role I want.
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I'm not going to play these kind of roles anymore.
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If that means I don't work for 6 months, well, guess what?
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Then thank God I saved money.
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That is a really important truth you just you just spoke there, which is the era of no.
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And no doesn't mean you have to do yourself a disservice or step back from opportunity.
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To your point, no just means that you get out of the pot of boiling water.
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Cuz what you described before was the frog in the pot of boiling water and you have no idea that you're cooked until it's too late.
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And that is the that is the trick.
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That's the trick that that's the trick the Listen, I don't want to be like, "Oh, anti-industry." I'm in the industry. I love the industry.
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Industry makes my dreams come true.
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But it is designed to put you in a pot of boiling water.
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I'll never forget, yo, Lady Gaga said to me, I remember I got signed.
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I got signed for the first time and she goes, "All right, just you know, just just just get ready cuz now you're swimming with the sharks, kid."
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She said that to me, "You're swimming with the sharks."
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Cuz she used to tell me these stories about about when she, you know, she used to be performing downtown and she'll have her keyboard with her and she'd be bouncing around Lower East Side like Lower Manhattan like playing all these gigs.
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You know, two or three gigs a night sometimes and and she she she was like, "Man, you know, it was hard."
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And and I think, you know, she's someone who I think has paved this beautiful like path for herself.
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But it's you know, but but but she did make make it a point to say it was going to be tough.
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And you know, and I think it is.
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I think her story I think one of my favorite Gaga stories is like I I don't want to paraphrase this wrong cuz I spoke to her a few times, but I vaguely remember her saying to me like, "I would get asked to come to these label dinners when people were trying to sign me.
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And I would sit down at these fancy ass restaurants cuz like I want to see how serious they are.
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And I'd sit down and then I'm pretty sure that they would all like order and she wouldn't order.
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She'd be like, "No, I'm not going to order anything.
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You know, I'm not here to eat." Right. Look, I love that.
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I'm not here to eat food with you.
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I'm here to plan and figure out whether or not we're in business together. We're not friends. Friends have dinner.
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We're talking You want to You chose this restaurant. That's on you.
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I'm just here to talk business. I feel That's great. I love that.
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But that's the difference between me and her is cuz I'm still talking business, but I'm eating the out OF THAT FOOD.
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CAN I ORDER WHAT YOU'RE ORDERING OFF MENU?
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AND we'll talk business while I'm having this filet mignon.
12:13
Is it nerve-wracking being a part of something like In the Heights, which is obviously a hugely anticipated release now?
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It's it's out now, but the anticipation up to it was massive due to its success and it means a lot to you and due to, you know, what it it inspiring you from an early age.
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But ultimately, you know, it's in the hands of other people to present.
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And you play an important role.
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And this goes for any role you have to play in a movie.
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Can it be nerve-wracking when it's time to see the finished result because ultimately it's the ultimate act of letting go, isn't it?
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You can control your performance, but you can't control what it will ultimately ends up in the finished product.
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I don't have kids, but I can only imagine, right?
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My you know, when if a I know friends with with kids who've been like, "Yeah, well, my kid went off to college.
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It was the most nerve-wracking thing ever when I had to release them to the world, right?
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Like they weren't under my care anymore.
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I couldn't see them all the time. I could right?
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Like we're not filming the movie anymore.
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I'm not making the album anymore. It's done.
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Like and now I'm giving it over.
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Like it's not mine anymore.
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You know, yes, me on there, but it ain't you know, it's it's now it's the world's, right?
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And I think it can be you can get nervous but because it's a thing that you care about so much and you want people to love it as much as you love it.
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But but you can't control that.
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And I think the only thing we can control is is to love it and to to do what you can in developing it as best as possible until it's time for you to give it up.
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And then after you do that, you did what you could.
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You know, and and and and and I think I think that's what's I mean, that's what's so amazing about about you know, what we do anyway because it's just like if if if I was holding on to everything I was ever working on, but I wouldn't be able I how would I be able to make space for anything new?
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I just be it'd just be a pile stuff, you know, in in the you know, in the closet me trying to stuff things, you know, as opposed to me as opposed to me saying, "All right, I I did that I had that adventure. I did that. I gave it up.
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People people felt what they felt.
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Hopefully, they felt the love that I put into it.
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But and then and then that's it, all right?
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And then and then now I'm on to the next thing and now I can pour into the next thing cuz I've given myself space to do that.
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So yeah, it can get nerve-wracking because especially you know, certain projects like you know, I yeah, In the Heights means the world to me.
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This movie uh this movie this musical was like the the musical that I saw on Broadway that really gave me hope that I could be on Broadway, right?
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Like I I had never I've never heard music on Broadway like that.
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I never seen characters like that.
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I've never seen a community on Broadway like that that felt so familiar to me that felt like the community I grew up in.
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So for me to be able to see that inspired me like, "Oh, that is possible. That is possible.
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Broadway isn't Broadway Broadway is expanding.
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You know, like everything is not sounding like it used to sound back in the day.
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And I think and I think, you know, it was it was encouraging for me to see a show like that and then, you know, 10 years later to be able to to have the lead uh part one of the lead parts in in the in the movie is a gift, you know, it's a gift.
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They could have given this part to anybody else and and I didn't take it lightly, you know, my mom is in the movie.
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My sister's in the movie.
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Like my you know, my brother came to set.
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you know, my brother came to set. My brother was emotional like it was a it was a blessing to be able to share this with my family because I think in in some ways they felt like, "Wow, thank God we'll have a movie like this to live on to live past to to surpass any of our lives, you know, that that our ancestors who people came before us fought so hard to have an opportunity like this and never got one or didn't get one like this rather we we
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performing this musical on on on such on a grand stage like this with the backing of a studio and you know, just to even get a studio to support a movie like this is unheard of, you know, and and you know, and and that for me is big and
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I hope it opens the door for more stories like this to be told and for you know, for for for more kids especially Latino kids, you know, all over the world to watch this and be like, "Dang, like yo, that's crazy. That person looked
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That person looked like my cousin.
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That person looked like my aunt.
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That person is my my father."
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That you know, like in in you know, and and that's the music I listen to, you know, maybe maybe I should maybe I have a shot, you know?
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So that's a long-winded answer, but it it this movie means everything to me, bro.