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hey what's up I'm Zane Lowe I'm in a recording studio which is an environment I'm super comfortable and I know well this one specifically is in Chicago we chance the rapper is working around the clock night and day alongside his team
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collaborators producers his team to finish his all-important first official album which he's calling the big day myself and chance the rapper three years off from the coloring foot conversation we had it's a brand new day it's a big day chance to Rampur on Apple music
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[Music] what's up what's up man thank you for being here it's great to see you again I'm excited yeah yeah I feel there's a huge amount to talk about but what everyone really wants to know about right now is you really don't eat
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vegetables what the yeah that's like I'm basically talking that's a huge talking point right now you're about to release the I'm of your career and Evan wants to know about your diet yeah I don't know so what do you eat when you're finishing an album
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oh I don't to be honest like you just you you stop everything you like put everything into making it by the time this goes out the album will have been out for a few days and people will have become familiar with the big day yeah
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your dance plays a big part in the album yeah and you know we spoke about that when you release groceries you were saying you were trying to kind of create all different shades of dance music and things that were inspiring you and it sounds like that combined with your
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wedding day really was the moment when it started to take shape yeah I think it was always came out of the wedding day like the dance thing itself it's funny like my story I don't think a lot of people know this but like when I when I
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was a kid like I danced that was like my thing I don't I would say I was a dancer before I was a singer or rapper a poet or anything the first time I seen my wife she was dancing at I got a party when we were 9 years old so like dance has always been like a big
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part of like who I am beyond just me like within my family on I in all different kinds of ways sometimes I feel like the writing part is separate from the dancing part like there's the duality in certain songs of like yeah I'm just I'm rapping I'm saying what I'm
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saying it's like it's well-written it's clever it's real it's deep within other moments where it's like I really want it to work as like a producer and like built these tracks up to be stuff that you know can get played on your wedding
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day I can get played you know on on the day when you bring your kid home for the first time or at a soccer game or at you know just skateboarding or whatever you want to do like memories yeah 9 years old nine years old wow man I met my wife
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when I was 14 and she was 13 and we've been married 20 years this year that's crazy yeah you gotta have us beat nine years old that's crazy earth yeah I mean was a love at first sight for me it was she didn't see me or name for me yeah it
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was something first sight for me it took her like years to work yeah well I knew what was going on straightaway said that catch up you discussed the idea of like I guess this isn't in as many words the done thing anymore I guess we don't dedicate our lives to
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one another anymore we don't make this commitment you can experience love in lots different ways yeah but becoming a lifelong Union what was it about the union of marriage that was so important to you I think I'm the type of dude who
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like always thought I was gonna get married my parents have been married my whole life just being honest like I didn't even though I was with my wife for a long time I didn't know for sure I got a second chance that's really what it was was like I think I always knew
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that I would wear it marry my wife I think I was like interested in how much time I had and I'm trying not to make the wrong decision and stuff like that but I was extended grace and was able to get back with her and and not ruin my
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life forever when you're at your most visceral and most emotional when you're talking about your wife or you're talking about your for uni you know your family which is not to grow yeah you know I wonder what it was like kind of getting married in public and people
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talk about that but I mean really in public not just in public being who you are but at a time when it can be a very public experience yeah I think like things just happen like the first photos that came out of me proposing my wife
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were posted by friends of mine and I don't think that they knew that if everybody was impersonal it didn't upset me but it was something that like there was no TMZ at my at my grandmother's house so like but there is a level of fandom of capitalism of just like people
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selling buying and selling and using music and any different capacity as a jump-off so there's people that follow my friends that aren't in the industry at all wait for things like that to happen and then they repost and repost until it
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makes it to the shade room and things like that so I wasn't upset with them because it wasn't their fault sometimes things just can't be how you want them to be but I think it was also cool because like then the pictures that my
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friends took in the backyard ended up being the model for my album cover what's your relationship with fame now because in the last three years it's gone exponential my issue isn't at all with Fame like I I mean like I understand what it is and I think I've
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understood what it was for a long time so I have a great relationship with Fame I can manipulate it when I want I can the the issue is when it manipulates me you're about to become a dad again soon right a couple of months time and it's
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all been happening why you making this record after you got married it's a hell of a year for you yeah it's a lot about going on um it's different now because you've got kids growing up and does it affect cuz honesty is a big part of what draws us
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to you yeah I think a hundred percent yeah I'm glad that you said that that's a good jump off point for the fame thing I think I'm starting to realize I like what my what I owe to everyone what I even owe to myself you know what I mean
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just how much time I devote to being what we're doing right now like my daughter's next door right now and hasn't seen me in a few days and when I saw her for a second right before I came over here she was asking me to play with and I'm like I gotta go back to work I'm
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actually not done with it so thinking about things like that and I think it's like you get in a position where you reach success or you're what we're really you're fighting for success for so long you're trying to make it out there and then you reach that you say I
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want to be on SNL I want to win a Grammy I want to do this I want to that and then you do those things but all at the same time like the things that are really actually self-care are faltering further and further the only thing
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that's still gonna be there regardless is your family why is it an album and not a mixtape if there's so much going on around you already between becoming a dad again getting married you know building things social works everything
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that's moving on your life why did you not just decide to go and make a mixtape and give yourself some time why did just stay true to this and want to make it out know what's the difference for you I think this was just the time I would write a completely different
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coloring book right now if I could like it would have a lot more information on it and the same thing for aspirin I know a lot more about everything that I knew when I was 19 or 20 or 23 like just music as is everywhere and it's so now
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it's like literally just in the air like I wanted to give people something that that they could have that they could move around with that they could take with them for the rest of their lives normally you go looking for partners and
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you start to grow your business as well you and Pat your manager decided to remain independent you probably this would have been the moment Yeah right this would have been the moment when you would have gone all right cool let's see what the industry itself has to offer me
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if I'm gonna sell my music let's see if I should sell part of my business but you didn't did you ever entertain it no why not I didn't even know that before you just said that I never thought about that as an idea so crazy I love doing
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late now no you remain you remain you know absolutely resolutely independent what is driving you to do that now I know what was driving you in the first place because you've been open about this is still the same thing I just
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believe that artists should own what they create I don't need to be the testament to that like I'm cool it just work in you surprised more people haven't done it I don't think people really feel like they have a choice for one which they do and there's a lot of
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film and TV that comes out that depicts people going from writing raps on the bus and rapping at the shelter you know and like you know just like getting discovered that's the idea is you get discovered or put on and then you're in
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the game and a lot of people just don't recognize that they're already in the game now and I don't have an issue with any specific labels or like anybody that's out the labels it's just the ID it's just the business model of it is
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all away your wedding day bro we have to talk about a little bit more because like it plays such an important role and was there the legendary memory at the moment when you looked around and realized something was going on that could only have happened yesterday yeah
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I think the what sparked the spark the whole album was my cousin hmm he hit the percolator but in a way that was like life is grand type of way but also like I grew up smacking the percolator every time I hurt any type of song like
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this and he is my older cousin Brian and just like I remember just seeing that and seeing his face seeing how hyped up everybody else was and that was when I knew what I wanted my own and it'd be like was I wanted people to feel what we
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felt in the room that type of music that we heard and the story that it was you know in this record you definitely talked about faith in a very open way and you're not hiding from it and what prompted you to kind of go even further into into it this time around because
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you not everyone does her a lot of people who believe in all kinds of things and then they keep it at the door when it comes to making art you've really brought it with you this time yeah I think it's just who I am that's how you're supposed to do it like
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sometimes it's not necessarily understandable or relatable digestible or anything like but sometimes like in my case is when I make music it's really really good and you won't play it over and over and over again and faith is
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what God let me get married you know and faith is you know what got me to being able to make out I had a crazy life I'm only 26 but I'm not a crazy just happen in my life and did you discuss that last August as well because you know you and
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Kanye got the studio and it into me after that moment when you guys came together Sunday service started to become this amazing thing that people were drawn to which seems to be very much Kanye's focus as of recently he was
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there kind of a bonding over that the idea that more people need to understand who you two are in relation to that yeah definitely that's like yeah his number one thing that he tells me is talks about being the light of the world talks
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about being somebody that can just openly be me I can't pinpoint a moment when it was like yay had his I don't even know how to describe it it's not eating with guys revelation I he does often like reference me when he talks about it and I think that's important
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I think fellowship is the most important thing period and if we can't talk about faith is what it's like why are we talking you know the list of gifts that you brought onto this record man I mean it's unreal it's amazing surprises on
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there and getting back to the dance and the fun and the aspects of it that kind of make people want to sort of have a good time while so synthesis record in particular song called always which is just like the R&B or star moment of all
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time with you know on vogue era Lenox yeah and the Irish year you know what was the whole vibe behind that and where can you tell us a story about behind that my wedding was the best wedding of all time they need to make a movie about it
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when you're in that moment and it's your day the way that you dance is usually the best dancing I would say that you'll do in your life and the type of music that was playing was very very similar to what's on the out and very very inspirational to music that's on this
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album so always was one of like four or five different songs that were kind of in that genre and I just didn't want my whole album to sound like that how did you pick the people to sing on it you don't really pick them you aspire to
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work with them and then they pick you and vote came in I would say like three weeks ago maybe a little bit more than crazy who from vogue came in the whole group mm-hmm Wow yeah that's nuts yeah you must have pinch yourself moments when things like that happen
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definitely working with Randy Newman yeah that's on a special song too you know five year plan is one of the but it's it that's got to be a cornice for me that's quite a cornerstone the rigor I have no idea where that fits in the order of things right now cuz you won't
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know until you hand it in but you know the order I was sent it started and it was a beautiful it's the first song that you heard yeah that's crazy yeah yeah I can't imagine how I feel if I heard that song it was good yeah it felt really
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good it's one that you have to like that there's like a few songs where it's like you have to dive into it you have to listen it was great as well it's like here are the things you have to do with your five-year plan before we even get
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started let's just make sure we get our priorities straight maybe it'll be the intro who knows who knows who knows you got a heavy influence on me man Randy Newman oh that's a nice touch why that white Randy Newman I means obvious questions but I mean you've picked such
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a unique and varied selection against Ben Gibbard I mean some amazing people just kept 4qt when I first started working on the album the concept the theme like okay we have school we have acid we have faith and family and then
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the fourth one really the first one the concept was a best album of all time and that's not really a good concept to make music it gives you no direction gives you know does it lofty yeah it's a lofty it's a lot Bishan some of the questions I had to ask myself is
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like you know what what would make the greatest album if I was to find the greatest album sitting on the ground outside and it was you know actually in fact the greatest album what would it be it would be made out of diamonds it
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would be nostalgic but also futuristic it would have can't have a greatest album of all time without a ton of love songs all the best albums have love songs it's not all about me and my journey and how fast I could wrap it there like that it's about love and most
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of all you have to be able to dance to it like I don't the best time all time for me is not something that I need to listen to a reading glass it's like it's some what is it if it's not your album what's the best album of all time what's
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the one that was the benchmark before before this alcohol I would say to me personally the best album of all time a sitrep on the run it's one of my favorites on there it's a total it may be like that one I love that one is it gonna make it
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yes that one's gonna be on there you talk about going to Atlanta and buying a big house yeah that's that was like that was the first concept for them was I live in a very like specific space where like there's things expected of me
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there's you know relationships I have to tend to all the time and you know I think everybody has that but do I think maybe I just think there's a lot of specificity because I'm the one living it yeah you know so you you're an independent artist who surrounded
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yourself with a small group of people in a small space yeah well your living quarters are very close to your recording quarters in a very central part of a very very intense brilliant city yeah and so that's how do you get out of that exactly it's very tough to
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like up and move to Atlanta but you talk about it I'm talking about I'm thinking about it yeah it hasn't happened yet you're aspiring for some piece basically you want to get to a place with a piece is the best word in the world the big
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date will be the big day for me because I will have peace and I will be able to stay at home and watch TV and play with my daughter and go to the movies and go to the beach I've been in this so you got to understand a lot of people
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understand this like geographically Chicago we have a huge beautiful beach that stretches all the way from the south side of the city all the way along the north side of the city going into Lake Michigan and I'm literally two blocks away from it right now well we
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are sitting we're two blocks away from there's a lots of u-thor it exactly exactly yes is the answer to that I haven't so I'm I come in here every day make a right turn every day and on the big day I'm gonna make a left turn and I'm gonna
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walk straight to the beach and I'm gonna jump right into the water you know it's done it's finished even with a song with Gucci Mane on it which is fire by the way is that on there yep the big fish love that you like that song I think that's always wicked
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because it's great you and Gucci kind of coming from different places but ultimately meeting somewhere in the middle and it feels to me the unifying goal and that song is to is to lead by example as you say it in Gucci Mane's
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that's that's Gucci that says that line that lead him by example and he says early on as first as first line is anything is possible if Gucci could do it him and his wife's relationship is something that should be I think just revered by everybody I mean he went to
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prison for a long time and a person I handled all his affairs and kept his music going and kept his image out there and really held it down for him was his woman and when she when he came out he married her she wants him healthy she
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wants him happy and that's like that's the greatest relationship in the world it's like that one having somebody that's your one that has your back that is there for you so you guys live in marriage because old Summa that's why yes that's what the song is
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about right yes like you know that's what the hell yeah wait up what do you mean by only way to survive is to go crazy in Chicago we say go crazy that means to a certain extent when I think of going crazy I it means success it means you did it right and you did it to
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the furthering since my dad has this saying that he always used because when we were kids we have all these crazy toys that we had to do but one of the lesser ones one more normal ones is we just had to sweep he you know wake us up
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dragons had a bit throw water on us whatever make us come back out and move all the furniture and sweep again and we leave against the wall leave everything in places so there'd be a big rectangle of dirt underneath it but when you move
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furniture and everything that you do you can only be happy you can only feel success if you go crazy go full full out with it like the album about marriage I can't halfway do that you know I mean I'm about asset you can't half way do it
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like you have to be like full force this is it this is what I know about it at this time cuz that's also the best time it's like it's just like Christianity when you're early convert all you do is going around exclaiming Jesus's name and
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sometimes you can get beside yourself and start shaming people and you don't it is there ever a temptation to want to exclaim yeah and I think I do do some exclaiming so sometimes you know it's I don't think that I shame people I think
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it goes its way deeper than rap though it's not just like yeah same you know it's like my relationships in just in living life like everybody doesn't have the same rule book as me that's why I stay away from when people call me positive it's like positive is based on
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the idea that you choose your own morality and that there could be several different truths to what is right and wrong in any given situation and I don't go by that I actually go by the book by eight by the book you know and say I'm
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like not in all situations definitely not perfect and definitely still Center but a NIC that's at least trying to be sanctified that can recognize the feelings of discernment the feelings of conviction and certain action in certain places that I met and
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responding to it accordingly mortality bro that was something that really came up to me on this recur which was super super interesting was the idea of you discussing the song you talk about what happens to your legacy after you're gone and make sure that you know
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the right people who loved you a new you best will make sure that your name and your work will live on in good faith and it's crazy to me that you would have presence of mind to say that the age of 26 later on you talked about being
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obsessed with the 27 club when you were young I mean this will come as a surprise to people that you're there there's a morbid side of your nature sometimes there's a caricature of me that's like I only make happy songs or songs for babies and stuff like that
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in fact I make a lot of sad songs like a lot a lot of sad songs a lot of slower melancholy songs on most of my projects I think I've always made music about death ten day and a lot of parts of it and Asshur rap were very reflective of
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when my homie Rob passed and one of my homies died in front of me when I was 18 I think I always just had like a fear of like the neck they did that just like no obviously knowing who I am and just like I just saw I always had a weird
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relationship with with death I think from the jump and then the way that I talked about it on this one that was more reflective of my own life was just because I think I have for one a way better relationship with death and eternal life and understanding that and
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then also like spent so much time trying to keep my masters and keep ownership and everything but without a doubt this applies to everybody gonna be dead or not in existence for way longer than you are in existence right well regardless
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of way you believe in heaven a Hell or afterlife becoming a tree specks of dust whatever it is acts you will be alive for much shorter than you are not yeah I mean it's a spirit exactly and so there will be a long standing time when I'm
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not able to say about what happens with my music the concept that keep using of trading cards is that in a lot of situations you're Jerry is way more important to people than your actual body you know I mean like you're the memorabilia attached to you
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the CD separate from the music itself the way that you can sell it is more important to a lot of people sometimes it's not even just about the work I think that song is mainly mainly overall me finding out what's the most important thing I mean you got Pat the managers
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being a guy from day one yeah but he's not my wife he's my he's my best friend yeah but I have I had a lot of best friends I only have one wife here I mean I only have one person that will always be the mother of my children and it's so
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comforting to know that the person that knows me the best and side are now will always have you know it's a quite a complicated listen because on any one song you can go from like it landed for me I don't have to worry about a B or C anymore yeah I arrived but now those
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things have to be to some degree being replaced by these new things yeah which are annoying ish right yeah and they can happen all in one song sometimes or it's like wow it's like that that's my life yeah you could put so much pressure on a
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goal and then once you surpass it you realize there's fit the other goals left that's why you have to have as many as possible so what are the goals now that's such a good question so where we are right now we're two days or even
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finishing the big day so that means I have to the goals right now or a third verse on impossible which is not gonna be called impossible anymore finishing my verts on rube who was the latest to come in with the with that with a contribution so far the latest
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one that I got was Nicki Minaj yeah and you got that now yes as hunter reminded me of this the last time we talked was on the FaceTime video you were in here and we just dropped groceries and you said in fact in the last 24 hours I just
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worked on my favorite song on the album do you remember which one it was I think I did I say I wrote my best first ever yeah it was the third verse on we go hi that song is special is that gonna be the last song an album you don't know yet I don't think so
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do you think that should be my foot in my last song that song is crazy I mean vicarious you touched on that earlier on I'd imagine the story the beginning of that song to some degree is your second chance nope and then it ends in a way where you're
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kind of like putting a ribbon on it and that blossoms is spectacular why does it mean so much is my last song I never thought about that you've got your first and your last I'm here to help Zane you might be my EP I'm sane so it's
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like we get the hot shower that's like you start in your day off and then you get you know we go high that's like you know that's you that's those your bars your bars and bars it's always strong we go high as like such and it's crazy
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I feel like it also sets up the story well it tells you like this is my issue that I'm trying to get past it does end very triumphantly it does it's super bold in the beginning and I love it get it coming in out of the cold is not often discussed you have agree that you
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win and on that yeah it is a long right but I feel like it was my best was it a tough one to float to those closest to you or was it was transparent transparency just an absolute given when you're an artist it's a absolute given I think what it is
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is like sometimes like I had a line the earlier today that it's not gonna end up on now but it's somewhere I said like oh yeah I got some secrets I'm gonna die with some secrets that would make great songs and and that's like that don't
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have it all yeah it's like it's like what's the point you know Who am I trying to please there's things going on in your life right now like things that you're bothered by things that you that you're trying to figure out things that you just overcame that
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you won't necessarily tell me or these cameras I believe that there is a that there's you have the ability to share the wrong things yes and that's something that maybe I didn't used to think it was just about becoming
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official it was just about becoming a rappers do you feel official as a rapper now oh yeah I'm official tisha I'm not the transcendent when it comes to being official three years ago it was a different world and you're a different
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place as an artist and you were really tasting success and success beyond just music you were having meaningful impact in Chicago which are continuing to do and that had resonated in the upper echelon of office and you were having meaningful experiences with the 44th
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President of the United States the first lady yeah that era is no longer happening mm-hmm I mean it's the opposite era I always since I was a little kid had a super big just like admiration for President Obama because he was black dude they hired my dad that
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became the senator of Illinois and the only black senator in Congress at one point and then went on to be president brought my dad with him even though I was kind of salty at the time because my dad had to go away but I always had a
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huge disrespect respect for him over all what could end up happening I could foresee you know a lot of Fringe party things happening until it's like a reduction that becomes like an overall more like just flat-out then you know engine yeah the new norm and I think the
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next president is very likely that that person would be an independent or fringe party politician it was an interesting quote in an article by the wringer that talked about like whether or not your philanthropy referred to is is from
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Anthropy I sort of took it as the overall political and and philanthropic overview the interests of people and social justice could risk kind of becoming more are you becoming more known for that than almost your music and and I think that if you just take a
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step back from that being a comment about you that's always a fine line in the arts between people who feel they want to use their platform to do good and whether or not it can come home home being where the art is I always mess it
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up I can't remember it's Miles Davis it's not Miles Davis it's like a very famous jazz musician has a quote where he says something along the lines of like never be a better player than you are a person and I completely completely
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and totally understand that at this point and the truth is like there are people that are a whiz on this like then come in and express their feelings to a tea on the microphone but they don't know how to speak to people the right way or they don't know how to have
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compassion when they see something wrong but you know people like that how those conversations when you're talking to your friends who struggle communicating in a way that is adding value to people's lives on a human level but ultimately and making some of the
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world's best art I enjoy the sharpens iron like the thing is like when I'm in front of a camera even though I'm trying to be as real as possible with you I'm still like aware that I'm in an interview so like when people see of me is what even if I'm
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trying to be as me as possible it's still a subconscious like controlled element to it but I can be disrespectful I can be lazy I can be you know judgmental all types of different things and it is about being just being in a group of people that can tell you
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like yo chill out you know okay three quick things number one any any uncredited guests on here I'm sure I heard Kanye B V's on there am I crazy I cannot say but what I can say yes out what I can't say is mix there's a the
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Nicki feature the pretty sure you heard all her and what are you gonna do on the big day which will have already happened on the big day I'm gonna walk out the beach is two blocks from house on the left and not one time since October have
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I walked out and made a left and on the big day I'm gonna make a left and then you're gonna go and play some shows sorry yeah I'm glad you're going to her too which is awesome Congrats man three years in the making huh do you think was gonna take three
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years I was hoping it would take longer alright I hope you enjoyed my latest interview a chance to rapper but that's just the start of it if you're landing right here at the beats one YouTube page hit subscribe and make sure you keep up
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to date with all the conversations as they come in Matt Julie and myself Ebro as well as people like Elton John for Roe Williams and a whole host of incredible artists interviewing each other this is the beats one YouTube page go ahead and subscribe and stay close