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could you do me a quick favor if you're listening to this please hit the follow or subscribe button it helps more than you know and we invite subscribers in
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every month to watch the show in person music is game of thrones bro when you see game of thrones they kill the main
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character do you what i'm saying they don't mind doing that wembley makes the noise for reds feature together
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i think the best turning point for me was when i was 16 and my mom threw me
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out she feels like it was a harsh thing to do but i'm like at the end of the day if you don't do that for me at 16 i
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don't become rich we signed for a single which was tractor
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that was my ringtone twin said to me he was like this song was going to change your life and then yeah bam it goes in
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the charts and everything changed after that the obsession made me better made me more hungry when
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you find your passion here you find your calling bro you're not fair to no one everyone comes second bro my daughter
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she has no recognition of living with me i just became a monster man i just you can't skip what's important man how many
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we get 80 years maybe now your legacy can can triple that broke have the right one what if it just hadn't worked out
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it had to so without further ado i'm stephen bartlett and this is the diary of a ceo
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i hope nobody's listening but if you are then please keep this to yourself
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[Music]
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rich take me back to tottenham when you're growing up um i'm a big believer and to
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be honest i always start these podcasts in the same way because i came to learn when i was younger the importance of those early years on shaping who we
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become as adults and someone said this wonderful quote to me that we're actually just children living out the stories we told ourselves about
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ourselves long ago so take me back to tottenham where you grew up in the context in which made you the man you are today grew up in seven
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sisters in a state called tibetan tottenham was just notorious in it for a lot of madness a lot of crime a lot of
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this a lot of that and i think for me just growing up and learning how
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to navigate through that how to understand who you are what you're here for
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and also my parents and grandparents and all that they were proper embedded
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in you know fighting against police brutality so i always had a lot of understanding about certain
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things that were probably above my age i feel like i was always someone that could get along with everyone like
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whether our cool kid uncle kid whatever i like i could always have something to speak about with
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anyone and i think throughout life that's always helped me and it's always been beneficial but i definitely started when i was young
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um in their state just like the regular the regular stuff man that was happening you
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know i'm saying like a lot of badness um stabbings a lot of this a lot of that
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but we just when we were very young we just wanted to play football you know i mean when it's a play out play football
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play games but as you get older you you know you start seeing other things hearing other things and
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sometimes even not even i wouldn't say not unwillingly sometimes you're just you become a part
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of things because you're there on the day or you're there at that time and i think a lot of
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them early scenarios kind of shaped who i thought i was going to become at
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that time the best turning point for me
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was when i was 16 and my mum threw me out because
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i now had to be the adult that i thought i was so before that i was you know walking
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around the house had a bravado had attitude for i was a big man for i was a bad boy for i was whatever
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and you know all the time my mom's kind of like single mom you know there's um at that time there's a three two older
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sisters and two younger sisters and myself in the house and just like at that time just feeling like i'm
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feeling myself a bit too much and my mom was always like look i know you feel you're beyond your years but you're not
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you're actually 15 or you actually fall in and if you continue moving like this you're going to be forced to be 21 at
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16. obviously as a you you're not really taking that in taking it serious one day
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i come home and my bags are on the door so i'm kind of like all right cool and i'm like
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mad prideful as well so at the time my sisters were like look just have a conversation with her
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she's gonna throw it out just calm down a bit whatever whatever but i'm just feeling myself still too much so i'm
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kind of just like whatever i took my bags went to my cousin's house for a little while
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then i just felt like i was just in other people's space obviously their family but i just felt like i'm in the
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way i don't like feeling like that went to my sisters still did feel like i was in the way
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even though to her she'll say i wasn't but like i just don't want to be a burden to anyone so then yeah just went to the
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housing and yeah 16 years old i was in my place and i learned so much man and i think that's the best the best thing
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anyone's ever done for me in my life why did she throw you out i was too
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too vibing man i just thought i was too i thought i was it do you get what i'm saying and i think
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as well it's like when you think you're it and you're making a little money on the roads and
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whatever and you're giving someone money here and there you're thinking you're doing your part so maybe i'll give you 200 this month
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maybe next month i don't give you anything maybe the next month i'll give you a grand maybe the next two months i don't give you anything but
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i'm always reverting back to the fact that yeah but i gave you yeah but i gave you oh yeah but i've done this so yeah but i've done that but what you don't
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realize until your adult is every month the bills are coming they don't come staggered like you're
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giving the money so it's not like she can't just pay 600 pound rent in january and nothing in february do you
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know what i'm saying so it's like but you don't have that understanding as a child you need to be an adult to have
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that understanding like these bills are coming regardless and i think
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even though she was saying it to me i was still you know like you're still calculating what you're giving like no
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but i gave oh but i've done this so i've done that it's not enough the bills don't work like that being 16 and learning them
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harsh lessons this is harsh reality and i was just like right i actually thought i was a big man and it's like
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like years i i was angry with my mum for a bit at the time as you would be not speaking to her kind of like kind of
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trying to be like that but you know like letters are still going there so he's still getting there i'll get asked my sister give me the letter bring out the
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letters don't really want to go in whatever still you know being attached to pride and being attached to too much
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attitude and i just had to like humble myself one day and i'd just be like you know what mom that was the best thing
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anyone's ever done for me and she was like to this day like when she hears me say it she still it still upsets her because she feels like it was you know
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very a harsh thing to do but i'm like at the end of the day if you don't do that for me at 16 i don't become rich at
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20 odd because he's too comfortable rich comes out of being uncomfortable
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being backed in the corner being forced to be you know to be a provider being forced
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to be the man of his house rather than thinking he's the man of his mom's house
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the man of your house did you know your father yeah yeah did you have a relationship
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yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah my dad's a very was very very serious man very serious very serious very strict
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very well respected because of you know in the area with all the the police brutality and all of that all the
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things that they fought for and still fight for him my uncle and my nan but just very very very harsh very harsh and
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and the dj as well so old school you remember they used to string up sound systems like my mom's house like all the
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speakers throughout the passage one of the rooms all the speakers like all of us had to share because the
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speakers had their own room you know i'm saying i'm like mom can't i at least sleep in the in the
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speaker like i'm sharing with my sisters i need a little space or whatever but um yeah so yeah yeah good relationship
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obviously him and my mom parted ways and um yeah still still kept a relationship
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like i don't have that i don't know my dad thing like i know my dad yeah and uh your grandmother one of the
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things you said about her was that watching her take care of your grandfather
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who had cancer yeah um was what a really pivotal moment watching how sort of caring she was with
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him and right up until the point that he passed away you know like when you're young
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your first experiences of death are like so severe man like so impactful not that
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not that it gets any easier but you understand it more i think when you get older and i just think at the time
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i don't i don't i've never understood strength until i met
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that situation with my grandma and it was just how she how she was you know like caribbean so when i'd come around she's
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like make sure you come back again you know because i'm soon dead and i'm saying you're saying to me he soon did
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like he's not gonna die i don't even understand the severity of cancer as young as i was at that time
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she's like yeah man i'm soon dead managed that and all my friends that he liked she's like make sure you bring them to say goodbye and i'm like say
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goodbye like what the hell this everything's cool but it's like she's saying it to me like that but my
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mom and my dad they're not like explaining the severity of the situation to me they're not saying like
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there's a countdown so i've got my aunt saying like yo we're giving him organic food we're doing this so i'm thinking yo
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we're fighting it but every time i'm going back it's like he's becoming like i don't know less and
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less and smaller and smaller and now i can see it but i'm still i don't know i
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guess the words naive in it that you're very hopeful and you're naive thinking nah nah nah it's going to be cool
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because he'd been to be fair he'd been saying he was sick for years but he was undiagnosed he was ill but we didn't
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know when he went to the doctor he died once he got diagnosed it's a countdown now so i don't know if mentally
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something happens there i don't know if how that works but just watching a
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you know through when he became in was incontinent like washing him buffing him feeding him just being there
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the whole way through i was just like that to me is was the real definition of
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a marriage that is you know um sickness and health do you know what i'm saying that is death do us
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part that was literally till death do us part and i'm like i don't know if i'd ever see that level
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of strength again the other thing that i really stuck out to me about your childhood as i was reading through your
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backstory was that moment when you're nine and a car comes up next to you yeah tell me about that what happened uh what
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did that teach you at that point like tottenham was warring with a lot of surrounding areas in it so
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it was like food fiestas back then tinted cars rolling through the estate just
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looking for whoever they're looking for but i live in the middle of it and being young but being tall
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and remember back then when when when everyone's warm with each other like now we have the internet so everyone knows
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who everyone is what everyone looks like whatever back then nobody didn't it was just a description like he's dark
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skinned and skinny do you get what i'm saying so they're coming looking for a dark skin and skinny guy but i'm nine
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and i'm going shop and then i remember the car was breezing up to me
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and i'm thinking right why is it driving like that skids wind down the window and then i look in
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the car i'm like bro but it's like it's just like
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nah nah and then drive off and i just thought wow like what the hell like just imagine if i ran like because you know
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that for a second i was gonna run and i was thinking right the cars because he's driving towards me i can run that way ain't gonna be able to spin around but i
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just remember thinking like i haven't even done anything do you know what i'm saying first of all but then when it stopped and they've done that i
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was like let's drive off and i think that thing there made me feel like
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it's probably better to be involved than to not at the time
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do you get what i'm saying because at the time i'm not involved i'm actually just a clean-hearted good you i just
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play football and computer that's it you guys i'm saying so when that happened it made me feel like right that could have
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happened to me for no reason like i might as well give you a reason do you know what i'm saying someone
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could have done something yeah something something could have like i could have been shot whatever they was gonna do and i think that kind of put a chip on my
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shoulder do you know what i mean for the next the next couple years which obviously is what led to my mum feeling like now
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you're feeling yourself a bit too much go and fly the nest like if you don't you know if you don't
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if you don't push the bird out then this it won't fly you know if you're not throwing in the water you don't have to swim kind of thing and a lot of men i
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mean this happens not just on the estate but men that don't grow up in such circumstances they start using that like bravado as a as a
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form of self-defense but it ends up um inflicting self-harm in some way i mean that's what you tend to see with a
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lot of gangs right you join for to defend yourself or to try and fit in but it leads you down a path of self-harm
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yeah because you go from i'm doing this to fight back yeah and
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then you go from fighting back in the form of defense to offense now because it's gone from i'm just defending myself
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to now i'm out in a club or i'm out somewhere and now you're getting into situations with
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people that you feel look like you might end up in a situation with so now it's just happening now it's
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proactive yeah i'm saying if you both were just defending yourselves then you
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can be cool to walk past each other or be in the same club at the same time or whatever i think a lot of like things being
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unsaid like when things ain't clear like you're in just because you're in an environment
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and you feel i don't know you might not have an issue with anyone in the environment but
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because there's no clarity yeah because they haven't said we don't have enough of you and you haven't said we don't have nothing with you it's just tense
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yeah yeah i mean that's life right relationships you know what i mean is communication yeah there's just a little
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tenseness and it's like why is it tense and then depending on how the ice breaks i'm
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saying if it breaks the right way it's cool if it breaks the wrong way then it's just erupting into something that didn't even exist to be fair in the
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first place and at that age what did you want to be when you grew up what was the aspiration
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probably wanted to be ian wright realized early on that ain't gonna happen
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um i liked music i didn't want to be a musician though
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why it didn't seem realistic you didn't know anyone in your tribal
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circle that i had gone yeah it was like the musicians were like other people jay-z yeah you know i'm saying tupac or
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naz like that was somewhere else so it's like yeah you can do it for fun so we do it for fun we
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write whatever i record on tapes blah blah blah but i never thought like
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this could be a career i could make money from this i could live in this space so i guess like i was into trying to
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understand what else happens outside my estate because because also what happens
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you feel like your family your friends become your family in the estate the sweet shop is basically a
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supermarket um so you don't need to leave you just move from house to house then we're all
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outside we play football then it's 9 p.m we buy ice poles then everyone goes home we do it again tomorrow and you just end
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up in a cycle of that but then someone told me actually i saw one of my friends in an
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advert a guy from my estate called frank yeah he was in a lexus advert
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as a kid and i was like when he when he come when i tell you i was like mom that's francis he was over there i said
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frank when i saw him i said frank how did you get an advert he was like i've got an agent how's that is it how do you
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get agent who's that there's a newspaper that comes out every thursday called the stage so it's like by the stage it costs
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a pound but it just shows you so much different things so i used to buy that newspaper yeah just to see like
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what else can happen like what else is there and it should be like auditions or whatever to be fair i never
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really go to any but i think like i was just intrigued about like what
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else exists like what other people are doing then i'd see something about the british school i'm like i wonder what that is like all these things that we
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don't know nothing about anna shears i used to see sylvia young all these things in the paper but there
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was always a price a cost like sign up for this or pay for the portfolio or
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whatever and obviously at like 11 12 13 years you can't you know i mean my
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mom she's not gonna there's too many of us to ask for that we need school uniform first and foremost everything else is secondary so
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um yeah how old are you and you decided that you were gonna like record a mixtape
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and like publish it and try and sell it 2006 when it came out yeah 2006
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learn from my mixtape came out that's my first cd 24 songs on there
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i tried getting it on spotify i couldn't no it's not it's not i need to you know i need to get it up one day people ask but i think there might be one or two
00:17:08
american beats right so that's why we're struggling with that but um yeah man i think at that point i'd been
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on pirate radio i've been on heat fm and i was just like
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then i became obsessed i was obsessed i was just like i need to go studio as much as i can everything i was doing
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was to put into being able to record and then once i had seven or eight cds with about
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nine songs on each it's like right what about 50 60 some songs like this is mad maybe i
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should just do do a project so then i came up with the idea learned from my mixtape because i wanted it to be like quite educational
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like not in a school way but in a streets way like i always wanted to like educate the youth and let them know
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there was other ways of doing things kind of thing that's always been my thing so yeah came up with that made that
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project the funny thing about that cd is that you give it to the guy to press up you
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pay your six or seven hundred pound and then he he presses it up but there back then
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they were so long you're rigging him every friday is it has it arrived no it's not arrived yet
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ringing ringing ringing ringing so the day my son's born i'm in the hospital i get a phone call
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and it's the guy and i'm like so the baby's born healthy everything's cool answer the phone he's like you see
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these are here come now because he's not i don't know i don't remember if it was a friday but he
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wasn't in tomorrow he wasn't in for the next two days so he was like come now so obviously i'll come off the phone
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i'm in the hospital holding my son so like his mom's looked at me and she's like who was that i was like yeah man
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the cds are here but she knows that this is my thing so this is like
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but this is the thing when you make music you're obsessed bro you're obsessed so i'm like looking at
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my watch like yeah i'm saying she's like
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then she just looks at me and she goes to go and get the cds man just go and get the cds i'm like
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thank you man jumped in the car ripped the cred and
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picked up a thousand cds thousands you got them all in the car thousand all in the car bro thousand
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like seats two of us in the car seats down cut like a thousand it takes up bare
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space as well got them back so then like just put them in the hallway
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when i picked them up brought her home and she was just like you need to get these out of this house because now there's a buggy
00:19:39
there's moses basket there's all of this stuff i'm just like i'm just feeling mad pressure i'm just like
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that was just it was just fun and exciting man it was like it was like my life was born
00:19:51
was reborn my son was born i just felt like a new energy i was re-energized and i just i
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just wanted to go man so it was like spent the next couple weeks doing the
00:20:02
salem return so you take them to a shop if they don't sell them they come back bro and at that
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point i don't care about the money bro i just want to be heard like i want someone drove past me and they were
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playing my cd bro you can't tell me i'm not jay-z back then when i heard that and i don't know the person normally you
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know them i'm looking i'm like right he doesn't even notice me he's driving past me i'm like yeah this is like this is
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happening we're growing we're growing so yeah just re-energize man and sale in return is long because you're no one
00:20:33
the the shop guy he shows up fool so he's like yeah we'll take five i'm like my guy i have a thousand of
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these take 50 bro i won't even come back for the money i swear to you bro like i'm cool bro he's like nah nah give me
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ten bro you know what i'm doing just to get rid of them i'll buy the 10 back yeah
00:20:52
and then he'll call me and he'll be like yeah the 10 went fast you know that'll make someone else do it doesn't matter if i don't lie what do you want you want
00:20:59
a 50 now yeah yeah bring the 50 yeah we've got 50 for you coming so you'd get a friend to go in and buy this yes you get what i'm saying so now i can go and
00:21:05
give him 50 that's half a box out bro this was taking up so much space so yeah doing that
00:21:12
oxford circus birmingham cried and like all the music shops and yeah it was
00:21:18
different time in it when you were running around shot on those cds what were you doing for money because i'm sure that wasn't that wasn't covering
00:21:24
the bills right now me and my my manager he's my manager now he was just he's always been my
00:21:29
virgin like my right hand we just every every penny we made from anything
00:21:34
we just put it together and put it in this and put it in this so it's like
00:21:40
sometimes we'd go back for the sale and return as well so we'd get a little drips and drabs there this and that and
00:21:46
just literally just sharing money it's like we had one bank account if i'm honest like it was we're just sharing like
00:21:52
anything what do we need then we needed to do a video how much does a video cost 2 500.
00:21:58
whoa all right cool but now my um at the time like my son's mum's like yo
00:22:05
we need buggy let's say we need a buggy but it's like i need to do a video it was like i felt like i was always trying to decide
00:22:12
between a bug or a video yeah bro that you feel so guilty but you but you know
00:22:18
it made me understand it made me understand like the the need and the obsession and
00:22:23
the love i have for this thing because i'm actually always comparing it like it sounds mad to hear
00:22:29
me say but it's just when it's your purpose is your purpose bro every single month we're growing we're growing we're
00:22:35
growing it's getting bigger and bigger and bigger and bigger and when it gets to that point we'll have
00:22:40
how many buggies do you get i'm saying we have the best car everything it will be able to spin what you get i'm saying
00:22:45
they'll put the cop will put the baby to sleep whatever you know what i mean sma champagne um
00:22:51
so yeah but that was like that was when i was understanding that you've like you've actually got some kind of
00:22:56
obsession or some deep rooted love for this thing that should probably not be like that
00:23:02
you know what i'm saying like what you're weighing up against the other thing it just but it just was man how long were you in
00:23:08
that phase of like trying to like trying to give people your cds and like how how in years or months how long was that
00:23:14
that phase where like people weren't because i was watching the kanye netflix yeah documentary recently
00:23:20
it reminded me of that that you got that young man who believed in himself more than anyone else did you see that scene where he plays like bro it
00:23:27
all falls down all falls down and she's not paying attention she goes on the phone yeah yeah she's on the phone she's
00:23:32
intentionally trying to tell him to piss off ignoring it reminds me of that like
00:23:37
so how long were you in that phase of your journey just like selling them cds i think so if this first cd came out
00:23:43
2006 i reckon since like 2003 i'd been giving out music but what i was always
00:23:49
very clever at like i always wanted everyone to like my music so i had different cds
00:23:58
with different songs on so i'd have like a cd with 10 gram songs a cd with 10 love songs a cd with five
00:24:04
songs about trying to turn your life around i just had different cds and what i'd do
00:24:10
i'd give the cd to each person as to what i think they would like so i give the man name that one but what
00:24:16
was happening is that i gave a man that and then i gave his sister a different
00:24:21
one but his sister was like yeah but my brother's got one that's got different songs on but i'm not i don't think you'd like that so it was like i was always
00:24:28
just i had music enough music to please everyone but then everyone wanted the other songs as well so that kind of made
00:24:34
me decide that you know what if you put everything on 24 songs then maybe they can all be centered to this disc and it
00:24:41
can start there and it worked yeah i had a few words to say about one of my sponsors on this podcast my girlfriend
00:24:47
came upstairs yesterday when i was having a shower and she said to me that she tried the heel protein shake which lives on my fridge over there and she
00:24:53
said it's amazing low calories you get your 20 odd grams of protein you get your 26 vitamins and minerals and it's
00:24:59
nutritionally complete in the protein space there's lots of things but it's hard to find something that is nice
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especially when consumed just with water and that is nutritionally complete and that has
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about 100 calories in total while also giving you 20 grams of protein if you haven't tried the cured protein
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product do give it a try the salted caramel one if you put some ice cubes in it and you put it in a blender and you
00:25:24
try it is as good as pretty much any milkshake on the market just mixed with water it's been a game changer for me
00:25:30
because i'm trying to drop my calorie intake and i'm trying to be a little bit more healthy with my diet so this is
00:25:35
where heel fits in my life thank you for making a product that i actually like the salted caramel is my favorite i've got the banana one here which is the one
00:25:41
my girlfriend likes but for me salted caramel is the one
00:25:47
2003 2006 you were trying to move them cds mixtape comes out 2006. yeah but
00:25:52
what what were you using as metrics to figure out if it was actually working
00:25:57
bro if if i heard my song on the radio we was winning every time i heard it i was like cool
00:26:03
i'm a manager we are ying and young like i'm all creative and this guy is ooh
00:26:08
genius in another way so he would be like i'd go to his house and he'd be like all right cool we're going to this
00:26:14
show in nottingham these people are performing when you see this guy he thinks he knows you yeah
00:26:20
because i've messaged him off your account and you'd have had a conversation so just make sure you say hello to him
00:26:25
i'm just like have you even how do you even know who's who but he'd already engineered some idea and
00:26:32
so then we we we were like proper that the first station to proper like really show us mad love was like
00:26:39
one extra so it's like dj cameo ace and veers like all these bras kwame
00:26:44
all these twin b like all these people were just showing mad love like come in man do an interview and like i like to
00:26:50
think i'm likable people like to conversate so with talking and then this guy would introduce me to a
00:26:55
producer then the producer would introduce me to a next person then we found out about
00:27:01
press and pr and started working with a guy called charlie at visions and he was like yeah you pay us 500 a month and we
00:27:08
can get you in magazines like right magazines crazy like it was just like everything was just
00:27:13
one person away so each person introduced us to a different person and that's how i'm how i was measuring the growth so i'm
00:27:21
like i can come back and i'm like yo man i just met this guy manny he shoots videos or i met this guy he does pr i
00:27:27
met this guy he's a photographer like and she's in her head she's probably thinking oh shut up yeah like what's the
00:27:33
photographer gonna do but i'm like it's another step each step each step each step one hand
00:27:39
is washing the other and we will wash the whole body i promise you know what i mean like
00:27:45
in that in that phase you're starting to get these radio plays and stuff which is kind of like a sign for you it's that reinforcement that things you're moving
00:27:51
in the right direction yeah was there and i'm sure you get asked this a lot but was there a moment when even
00:27:56
your partner at the time said to you do you know what i think oh you could see it because
00:28:02
sometimes they don't say you can see it in their face yeah when they hear it on the radio they see you know yeah i
00:28:07
always knew that i was ticking her off man like in that interesting in that not in everyone in that in that aspect because
00:28:14
even like at them times i used to write at home bro i don't know if you've lived with a musician i've been around a musician bro
00:28:20
that beat is on loop for hours you get what i'm saying and all i would hear like when i pull it back is just
00:28:28
like as if you do again and i just was like you know what i need to just start working in the studio because this
00:28:35
like it's not fair like it's when you find your passion here you find your calling bro you're not fair to no
00:28:40
one you only fear to yourself you know i'm saying you're not fair to anyone everyone everyone comes second bro everyone and
00:28:47
it's not intentional it just it just is what it is so me thinking that i'm spending time with her because i'm writing in the house
00:28:54
even though i'm not talking to her the song's just on loop and i'm writing i'm thinking i'm spending time i ain't
00:29:00
spending time do you i'm saying that's just being present so it's like but then it's like in my head i'm
00:29:06
thinking yeah but if i'm in a studio for eight hours i'm at home yeah i'm at home but it's it's
00:29:12
actually all about me bro it was only all about me my calling and making this making this music like i
00:29:20
wake up every day i think music before i go to sleep i think music i used to have a dream that happened every time
00:29:27
and in the dream i'm in a studio and i'm writing a verse and i'd wake up and i'm like i can never
00:29:34
remember the verse and i'm trying to remember trying to remember one day i woke up i'm like i need i had
00:29:39
a pen and paper by my bed i left it there i wrote out the verse that i wrote in my dream i was like bro this is like
00:29:45
to me i'm like i'm believing in this now i'm like this is this has to be
00:29:50
fake or something like this has to be engineered by someone higher than you man like from your writing in your sleep
00:29:55
literally so just and just going and going and going
00:30:00
i want to get up to the point when you release black and white in 2011. yeah what happens between that mixtape coming
00:30:06
out in 2006 to 2011 is that what are the most significant moments or pivotal moments where things took a a turn in a
00:30:14
good direction okay like more more exposure and little things happening here and there like mtv asked
00:30:20
us to do something for black history month it was like a freestyle that was strong because it showed
00:30:27
people i could write perform stick to topic then one extra gave us an award for getting
00:30:34
i think one of our records was the most played right so it was like that was quite cool like most street heat that
00:30:41
was dj centex is that punctuation i think it's punctuation yeah punctuation
00:30:46
getting a lot more bookings and twin b
00:30:52
twin b from one extra um always having conversations with him like he just
00:30:58
gave me an understanding of the game on on the other side because at the time he was working with at
00:31:05
ministry and he just had so many gems and he made me understand because i used to think like why am i not signed like why was i
00:31:11
not signed why am i not saying i'm not good or that's not about good or great it's about
00:31:16
timing and it's about what can a label help you do how can a label help you be bigger what do you need to achieve
00:31:22
before you step into a label so with all these conversations you know doing loads of collaborations
00:31:29
as well and then richard antoi and twin b they form a record label called levels
00:31:37
and they're like we want to sign you man and i'm like bro okay like what happens now kind of
00:31:43
thing it's like now you need a lawyer now you need you know all these other things and it was just like
00:31:50
once it got to that point i knew that i was serious because richard anthony had worked with adele
00:31:55
so many different people do you i'm saying and i knew that this guy was serious twin music lover we'd had
00:32:01
endless conversations on the phone about music and they had their situation with ministry of sound so they were like a
00:32:08
subsidiary of ministry of sounds it was like center levels like you know and ministry as well
00:32:14
and i just i just knew that that was the right thing to do at the time when you get that news that yeah they
00:32:20
want to sign you what's ashley saying do you come home and you're like ah yeah
00:32:26
we've um i don't think i do you know i think i guess by that point
00:32:35
just me being about me the relationship's not where it it could have been a way it should have been you
00:32:40
know i mean so i think by that time we're already going our separate ways yeah kind of drifting apart
00:32:45
but um yes i didn't get to to kind of have that that thing but i
00:32:52
think i think she's you know she's happy for me always been happy for me always one always knew that this was what i needed
00:32:58
to do she knew that it was a need and not a one because of the things what everything i
00:33:04
was weighing it up against she knew that this is a need like this guy needs to do this like he needs
00:33:10
it so yeah and then black and white and then black and white yeah so initially we signed
00:33:16
for a single which was tractor that was my ringtone that was 2012. yeah
00:33:22
that was my ringtone i don't even know what phone it was but it was my ringtone when i first i did one day at university before i dropped out and that was my my
00:33:28
ringtone from day one my guy yeah we had that record and twin said to me
00:33:33
when i put the verses down he was like this song was to change your life really he said that yeah and i was
00:33:39
like i don't know how you know that but you're my guy so i'm believing in you and i'm like
00:33:45
i just didn't know what would happen next so i'm still going back to them times
00:33:50
when i'd go to the record shops yeah and kind of
00:33:56
buy back the cds to give more so when i'm out in the club if they're playing the tune or they're not playing the tune i'm
00:34:02
making sure they play the song you know i'm saying like i'm saying yeah what does it take what all the drinks cool a lot of drinks play that song when the
00:34:08
dreams come like i'm making sure that this song is being heard we're trying everything we're not trying to we're our fingers
00:34:14
always floor to ceiling we'd say we'd make sure we'd covered everything floor to ceiling and then yeah bam it goes in
00:34:20
the charts and literally everything changed everything changed after that take me
00:34:26
through that process so it goes in the charts and then you start just what's it like because i've you know never had a i never had a hit
00:34:33
bro it's like you get throughout that week sort of say like the songs available to
00:34:39
buy on sunday it was back then so monday morning
00:34:44
like the labels kind of knows the numbers in it so they're kind of like
00:34:50
your number eight i'm like bro number eight they're like
00:34:56
yeah but we'll catch we'll catch seven and six maybe five then the next day it's like yeah you're
00:35:02
number six i'm like what the hell like and it's just going higher then it gets to four i think and it goes back to five
00:35:08
and it's like it's five and it's like right we've got one hold in in in the top five
00:35:13
and it's just i don't know i just think at that time yeah you just
00:35:18
you almost step into a vehicle and then it just starts moving
00:35:23
and it's like you know like when you're driving through an area you're looking at the window you're just seeing things and you're just seeing people and
00:35:30
but you're just moving it just it was just moving bro like it was just moving it was moving and then
00:35:36
you're doing glastonbury and then you're doing wireless and you're doing v festival when you're doing everything was just
00:35:42
moving everything was everything happened so fast that i don't think i don't think i even
00:35:48
stopped to take it in at that time and then it and then it was cool you done it once that was one
00:35:54
single now we want to do an album what's the next single that's like now you've got to do it again and it's like i
00:35:59
didn't even really know how i'd done it in the first place if i'm honest like you i'm saying it was a cool song sounded good and it worked and
00:36:06
then it was just like okay make second single and then made a second single while making the album and it was just
00:36:12
it was just moving man everything was just it was it was it happens you know when they say like
00:36:18
you you wait your whole life or does it happen overnight literally waited a whole life was it happened overnight and
00:36:23
it and once it happened it just didn't stop it just kept the ball kept rolling man were you prepared for it
00:36:29
mentally and i don't know socially we prepared for that train to pick you up and and
00:36:34
drag you off into your dream like that i don't think so now but i think luckily
00:36:43
the only thing i wanted to do still at that time was make music i think if i wanted
00:36:49
to i can see like how like you know like a artist has a hit and then just all over the papers and
00:36:55
just getting involved in different things i can see how that can happen temptation right yeah because you end up in other places
00:37:02
other than where you should be but for me it was still always about the studio like i'd go raving but
00:37:08
i'd go raving at one o'clock because the engineer's tired or the producer's tired and we finished and
00:37:13
i i don't have the best night's sleep i don't sleep too well so it's one o'clock yeah i'd go out but
00:37:19
then tomorrow it was studio like it was always i was always in and locked in so i didn't veer from that so i think
00:37:26
in a sense i wasn't prepared for one side of it but for what i needed to do i was prepared for and i was serious about
00:37:32
my half my half of the deal yeah and then so that album becomes a huge success um a real breakthrough moment
00:37:38
for you um and then obviously when the album's done you have another pressure right which is
00:37:44
the expectation of that album right bro go again do you what i'm saying like
00:37:50
flip a coin 10 times and get heads yeah all right cool now do
00:37:56
another 10. do you know what i'm saying it's literally like how am i gonna yeah get heads every time every time i'm
00:38:01
saying get heads go and do it well you've done it do it go for me like making music is the part that i'm in
00:38:07
control of i never feel pressured about that never because i have i have what i have to say
00:38:13
i feel what i feel and i'm gonna pour all of that into music i'm going to put all of that into
00:38:19
that album no problem i just think at that time what what was getting tricky was
00:38:26
ministry was kind of happy that we'd had three top five singles and
00:38:31
was kind of just you know more as a business more happy to stay in that domain like yeah let's just turn out the hits
00:38:38
and i think after black and white and all of that and all
00:38:43
the things like you know just i think i had a lot of frustration in me
00:38:49
and and and it was it was almost it's almost the side of my life which i
00:38:56
i saw my uncle and my dad and all of that talking about the police like that side of me was coming out whereas i'd
00:39:02
always mention it in my music i just felt like i i wanted i i had something else to say
00:39:08
you know i'm saying everything happened with mark duggar and all of that and i was like i need to speak about what's going on and and i think
00:39:15
it was it was a bit of a difference of opinion you know i'm saying ministry of sound wanted these kind of songs ain't
00:39:21
hit record so it was a bit of a bit of friction so we had to work our way
00:39:26
you know around that and it was just about you know getting to the point where we could release that album which was
00:39:32
growing over life and it was just for me it was it was it was important that i released
00:39:38
that record man and and following black and white when you look back on how you reacted and you know that tension with the label and
00:39:44
stuff like that in your maturity and wisdom now
00:39:50
is there do you wish you'd behaved differently following the the release of that album and its success is there
00:39:55
something you wish you would you know in with the wonder of high school yeah
00:40:00
yeah change nah nah because i wasn't like i wasn't aggressive i just like to
00:40:06
understand i like clarity and i think what what can happen in an industry is
00:40:13
not everybody wants to be crystal clear whereas it's like if if you're crystal clear with it and say you know what if
00:40:18
we can get another don't go and another tractor and another blackout then
00:40:24
whatever so it's like all right cool then you understand an assignment of what you're after but it's like if you're not being crystal clear then it
00:40:30
kind of leaves you in limbo so you're sending in songs and it's just like and they're not being clear about what
00:40:36
yes the feedback's a bit like don't think this one's a single fact say
00:40:42
it was a single sister it was a song that kind of thing you know what i mean so it's like yeah just trying to gain understanding i
00:40:48
think that was what my frustration was was like just getting understand but twin b obviously twin being richard and always kept it 100 always was just like
00:40:54
look if we can have if there's any moments where we can i think they're like you need to say what you need to say in it
00:41:00
you know what i'm saying and if their other moments arise we'll find them and you'll engineer them you're the best at doing that you know when you're
00:41:07
comfortable to do it you do it i'm saying ain't no pressure come in from our way and i came up with six words
00:41:13
which was um written within that within that space and within that time
00:41:19
and i was like all right cool i've got one the one you want is the one you want kind of thing um
00:41:25
so yeah but i think with hindsight i didn't like i didn't fly off the handle i didn't i didn't i didn't get angry i'm not i
00:41:31
didn't get aggressive it was pointless did you stray away from your like your principal passion of making music during
00:41:37
that phase did you did you find yourself like not showing up obsessed in the studio in the same way after that hit
00:41:42
because sometimes when people reach the mountaintop they they lose a bit of orientation and motivation sometimes and
00:41:48
you know there's other temptations now you've got better money so you don't need to be the hunger's slightly different
00:41:55
no no no love it like i think for me
00:42:00
always wanting to be the best rapper always wanting to say the sickest things the things that people are like how did
00:42:05
you get to that i'm saying like so that that never left me so like there
00:42:11
was always freestyles there was always you know always raps always versus you
00:42:17
know collaborations like at the time like my manager zeon used to say to me like he's just like bro sometimes you've
00:42:22
got to make something make sense like these people are asking you for a feature they want to pay you 20 bags of
00:42:27
us or 10 bucks a verse and you're saying no and your bridging around the corner is
00:42:33
rapping you're giving reverse for free like we've got a i'm not saying don't do the verse for free but i'm saying
00:42:41
i'm saying there's some over here that make that verse make sense as well so it's like also as well navigation and
00:42:47
just being like oh yeah yeah you're right kind of thing and just some things work well for positioning you
00:42:53
know i mean as well but just always yeah just always wanting to be the best
00:42:58
artist man just always wanting to have the best album i think that's something that's never left me and i
00:43:03
think if that does leave you as an artist that's probably when it's like you know
00:43:09
like when you see mike tyson in the ring at the end and he's fighting some guy you haven't heard of
00:43:15
and he's just mashing him up and you're just like mike man do you i'm saying like mike five years ago you would have finished him but he's
00:43:22
like mike's not mike do you know what i'm saying mike got that that same one you don't love it anymore
00:43:28
do you know what i'm saying the love's gone you can see it in his eyes and i feel like if that happens to you as a musician
00:43:34
it's yeah it's not it's not good to kind of like mess up your legacy man like one of the things that's always made you
00:43:40
stand out even when i listen to your fire in the booth and i listen to all of them i have them on replay i actually played one last night to my girlfriend i
00:43:46
was like right she's coming i played uh the one you did with is it
00:43:51
yeah i played that one a lot is the subject matter of what you write about is isn't about
00:43:57
buying rolexes and fast cars now as a young black man myself um
00:44:03
i tend to feel a sense of disappointment when i go on instagram and i see like
00:44:09
the new school of like hip-hop artists all putting their hands in and showing their roles because for me
00:44:14
it's like leading um our people astray in the sense because i
00:44:20
would like them to show their investment portfolio or their the the equity they have in businesses
00:44:26
and stuff because like you know um what's your stance on that i
00:44:31
actually was gonna put some stuff on my story the other day because i saw i don't wanna name names because it's not about individuals it's about a
00:44:37
culture um i saw some rappers that actually follow me some big big hip-hop
00:44:42
uk rappers that follow me all like showing off the material things that really disappoints me because i know there's thousands in this case
00:44:49
there's 800 000 people that follow this guy and they're now gonna aspire to buy gucci
00:44:56
before they invest their money or put it away what's your thoughts on this i think we've
00:45:02
growing up here i think like we were so like bedazzled by
00:45:08
the american rap culture and we'd always seen them have things
00:45:14
have jewelry have all these things and whatever and i think even myself at a
00:45:19
point for me that was like a trophy or a measure of success
00:45:24
do you know what i'm saying it's like the rolex was a measure of success and i and i think like like i've heard you say
00:45:30
yourself as well it's like once you get it it's like
00:45:35
it doesn't really make you feel inside yeah it doesn't really give you nothing like that and i think we haven't
00:45:42
had we haven't had the luxury of of information
00:45:49
and i think information comes from people who look like you and people who have been through it had success and are able to
00:45:56
tell you so now i'm in that position i'm able to talk to her 18 year old and be like yeah man you can get that
00:46:02
but at the same time make sure you've got that one of the dumbest things i'd ever done in my life i don't think i've said this
00:46:08
anyway is so obviously when i um my mom's got a council flat
00:46:14
bro when i signed my deal i left my house i left the whole house and just went left the council i left just left
00:46:21
it but people at the time were saying to me yo man buy it like why don't you buy it and i'm
00:46:26
like i don't i'm not going to live here like it was in tottenham i'm like i'm not going to leave here i'm going to yeah i'm saying no like no you don't
00:46:32
just buy it but the people that were telling me to buy it didn't own a house so i'm like what do you know yeah what
00:46:39
do you know that i live in princess park manor do you know what i'm saying now like this is gated community
00:46:44
like this is way better than this bro that was a very stupid mistake i should
00:46:49
have bought that that would be my first one on the ladder do you know what i'm saying they give you a discount bloody bloody blood whatever
00:46:55
but even though i had the information it wasn't coming from
00:47:02
a success story it wasn't coming from someone that had done it before do you get what i'm saying so now i'm
00:47:08
the first one that's like yo where are you going to rent like
00:47:13
think about what you're doing because then even myself like i wasn't even in princess part mana forever and even in there like i wasn't ever
00:47:20
like thinking about buying property and they were like don't you want to buy the one that you're in i was like nah
00:47:25
i'm not going to be here forever like in in my eyes property was you buy to live not buy to let and you
00:47:32
can't move yeah i'm saying in my head i'm thinking no i'm going to buy where i'm going to live but i'm like i never really
00:47:38
understood that no you can buy and move and just own it and then rent it yourself you know what i'm saying i
00:47:43
didn't really understand the principle of that so um i understand
00:47:49
i understand why it happens i understand why we we want all these trophies i get it
00:47:55
but i think it's it's about people like myself who can now conversate with the with the
00:48:00
young a lot and be like look man like i get it it looks nice but bro like this music is game of
00:48:07
thrones bro music is game you see game of thrones they killed the main character bro do
00:48:13
you want they don't mind doing that music is game of thrones bro you're michael jackson on monday your t.o
00:48:19
jackson on tuesday bro like and then you can be michael again by sunday you get i'm saying like the mute it's musical
00:48:25
chairs bro like you have to understand we're not always going to be number one forever so
00:48:31
just make sure you're buying a foundation for your foundation man
00:48:36
yeah when you had you know your first big breakthrough moment at the time did you somewhere in your mind think that this
00:48:43
was meant that you would be number one forever is there a part of you that goes oh we've done it now in terms of like
00:48:48
now i know the the uh the equation yeah a bit of complacency maybe
00:48:53
i kind of think like the more you understand because obviously but at that time there's a
00:48:59
there's a route to get to number one and it's like your song's launched
00:49:05
by mr jam or annie mack and then the pre-order's out and then you go for playlisting on radio
00:49:12
one one extra capital and there's like a there's a route that puts you
00:49:18
on the pitch do you get what i'm saying attention to it yeah to get it so there's all the steps so
00:49:24
but the problem is you can't believe in the route
00:49:30
more than you believe in the fruit so you can't think that
00:49:36
this root can work with whatever fruit you give it do you get i'm saying you still still has to be an apple bro
00:49:43
like it still has to be fruitful it still has to be a record a sick record you get what i'm saying so then
00:49:51
you know you you like we've had some records that i thought yeah like there's one or two that i thought like the root
00:49:56
can carry it and then when the root don't carry it you realize like that this is not work every time you don't once
00:50:02
again you don't you don't just you don't get 10 heads in a row bro you
00:50:08
get i'm saying you get toes one time and then it's and then it's how you bounce back from that have you had to talk to me about bouncing back from that then
00:50:13
because you know even as a fan of yours like i'll play i'll play records of yours when they
00:50:19
drop and i'll be like i'll say it say to my boys i'm like we got this little chat on whatsapp i'll say this one is a
00:50:24
[ __ ] like this was um i'm like this one's gonna be right and then it might not get there and another one might you
00:50:31
must have that all the time and how do you manage the expectation of like building creating a project
00:50:36
you believing that it's x y and z i mean i do that with these podcasts as well you just never know and which episode's
00:50:41
going to bang right and then putting it out there and that bit being out of your control
00:50:47
how does that feel like and if you had moments like that when you've created something and put out there you go what you have to understand that that's the
00:50:53
side that we're not in control of do you get i'm saying like
00:50:58
and as an artist just make it for you make it for you put your best foot
00:51:04
forward but make it for you because if i make a song
00:51:09
that i think is rubbish but i think everyone's gonna like yeah and i put a song out everybody likes it it goes to
00:51:15
number one i now have to perform this song this song is in my discography this is
00:51:21
in my catalogue like my great-great-great-grandkids are going to hear this song see i'm saying and not
00:51:28
even i've had a conversation with me that's going to be their representation of their great great great great great
00:51:34
grandfather be proud of your art man do you get what i'm saying be proud of
00:51:39
it so for me it's like i put my blood sweat tears and skin in my album when it
00:51:46
comes out if they like it if they don't like it
00:51:51
what can i i can't i can't do anything more than i done and i and i put my best foot forward and i think
00:51:57
you have to live by that man because you either you you either have the hit that you don't like
00:52:03
or you put out the record that you don't like and it's not a hit so now you've got now you're wrestling back to get back to
00:52:09
where you was for something you didn't even like anyway do you get i'm saying just put your best foot forward man and stay true to
00:52:16
yourself yeah stay true to yourself man because it's your this is your legacy like me now
00:52:21
i try and look at my like it all made sense to me when i started
00:52:26
seeing my career from the end till today and i'm like
00:52:32
what what what navigates me is will i be happy with this at the end
00:52:38
so i make a song today and i'm listening to the tune and i'm like will i be happy with this at the end
00:52:45
can work for today then but if i feel like at the end i might feel like oh
00:52:50
i don't think you should have put that one out it's not worth it it's not worth it it's not worth it bro oh yeah what we get what we got how many
00:52:57
we get 80 years maybe now whatever you like your legacy can can triple that bro do you what i'm
00:53:03
saying like have the right one have the right one you've got you're in control of that that's what you are in control
00:53:09
of and you've had a taste of the like the empty nature of like fame and like
00:53:15
people writing about you every single second and people running up and falling and all this stuff you've tasted that so
00:53:21
what what have you learned about what that means being on dragons then now i get it a little bit more so i get
00:53:26
people coming up to me and stuff and i'm in the early stages of like figuring out what it means to you know like have
00:53:32
daily mail reporters standing outside the house here and taking photos of being my girlfriend when we walk out and i'm trying to understand what this
00:53:37
attention means is it something i can use does it make me feel good what is it it it didn't make me feel good man
00:53:45
i didn't that's one thing i've i've always wanted to be in the shadows like i've
00:53:50
always not wanted that part of it some people understand how to use it though do you get i'm saying because say for
00:53:56
example you're you're designing clothing and it's like every time they shoot you they're putting it in a magazine i'm
00:54:02
saying like you're being you're being mass exposed and your clothing is being mass exposed but it's like if you don't have
00:54:09
if you don't wish for that if you don't desire for that then it's like i feel like it's
00:54:15
it was useless for me being in the front of certain magazines for
00:54:21
for nothing like nothing artistic do you i mean i know people say like
00:54:27
any publicity is good publicity i'm like sometimes you can just be
00:54:32
famous for nothing and no one wants to be the guy that's like the most famous person in the world and
00:54:38
no money do you know what i mean or like not not and i don't say money like to be rich i just mean like
00:54:45
everyone knows who you are and everywhere you're walking you're stopping and he's having a conversation taking a picture taking it taking it out
00:54:50
taking it out but like your thing's not in order like you're not going to feel good being that person
00:54:55
so like i just yeah i never i never really liked it man i never liked it man i was the one i was hiding from the
00:55:01
patch man all the time in your comment but did you ever experience what they call like imposter syndrome walking into
00:55:07
rooms and feeling like what the [ __ ] am i doing here or being in situations and going like i don't know if i deserve this that voice
00:55:13
inside for a shoot period of time but you know who made me overcome that richard entomy
00:55:18
like he passed away but this he's such a champion this guy would walk he walks into any meeting
00:55:25
fearlessly any like you could be sitting down with the head of hmv or d and he's going to
00:55:31
tell them yeah you need to take twenty thousand of our cds and did it and you're just like
00:55:37
right like you're just like he made me feel like you're you bro
00:55:43
like you're gold you're the gold as well you know you're gold bro like don't now walk into that room and because you
00:55:48
think everything in here is is gold becomes silver no no i'm cold as well i'm saying and i think
00:55:55
being around him and then that drip down to my manager zeon as well and he's got that thing as well where
00:56:01
bro we were like we were having like i remember i remember we were um we done a thing with lukaszade where
00:56:08
they put us on like on the balls yeah on the bottles yeah and i remember like i was sitting down and we were like
00:56:13
tapping each other so like yeah what do you want to put on the bottles like yeah man you want to put our estate
00:56:19
on but i'm thinking they're going to say no but they're like yeah yeah that would be sick like yeah picture of our state
00:56:25
yeah yeah what else yeah man and this and that and i realized i was like you can get
00:56:31
the things that you think you can't get you can get like you are the gold as well there's a reason why lucas aide
00:56:37
want to partner up with retreats you know what i'm saying like there's a reason and it's like sometimes we think it's
00:56:42
they're so big they don't but any it's a it's a two-way thing it's a two-way street so i think
00:56:49
yeah for a short period of time i did but then like zeon richard twin like they just they just
00:56:55
made me understand the importance of like knowing your worth yeah knowing your worth and just being fearless man
00:57:01
just walking into any room as me like and and like i did feel that as well at certain
00:57:07
times because obviously now we see the festival lineups like wireless and all that like you see miss banks you see
00:57:12
stef london you see gets you see gigs you see you see so many names 2011 it wasn't like that bro
00:57:18
you see tiny might see chip she rich do you get i'm saying it was like or certain festivals
00:57:24
i'm the only representative of this genre so it's like when you're stepping into that
00:57:30
like then you're feeling like if i mess up like if i even forget one line of my lyric they ain't booking no one next
00:57:36
year do you get what i'm saying so it's like then you've got this thing where it's like the fights on where you're fighting for
00:57:41
the scene you know i mean and you've got to wear it like a badger honor i remember like doing glastonbury and like
00:57:48
the guy who like books the tent like standing on the side or whatever i can't remember what facebook was but it was standing on the
00:57:54
side like it's asking me bare questions like why do you have two drummers
00:57:59
it's just like bro i've got electronic sounds on my album he plays electric he plays acoustic like so the the music's gonna
00:58:06
sound exactly like the record oh how come you set a stage up like this how come how come like so many questions that i don't
00:58:13
feel like he was asking anyone else he just wanted to check if we knew what we was doing and at that point to be fair not
00:58:19
everyone's shooting in the dark i'm saying everyone's we're all guessing bro at that point we're all shooting in
00:58:25
the dark just don't be the casualty don't be the one that gets hit that was that was the theory so um
00:58:30
[Music] yeah we just felt our way through but them times i did used to feel a little thing but then
00:58:35
afterwards i was like nah man i'm coming like we're coming we've got stuff to add i've got hit records as well they want
00:58:41
to hear us and then the festival lineup needs to be more diverse like we're ten years after
00:58:46
that now and the festival lineup is more diverse but i do feel like at that time if tiny temple wasn't turning up or chip
00:58:53
wasn't doing what he had to do even professor green wasn't doing what he had to do i mean she had to do what he had we had to get
00:58:59
it right and we had to or we i don't know if we'd be here today when you come from the estate like you do
00:59:05
and you end up in these like boardrooms and these fancy meetings with these you know rich white men in suits
00:59:11
um what i see in a lot of like young young people from those those kind of
00:59:17
backgrounds is they kind of walk through life with a bit of a an expectation that the cards are
00:59:24
stacked against them yeah and i i worry sometimes that that belief
00:59:29
whether it's true or false it is often true the belief that the cards are stacked
00:59:34
against you can be equally or more harmful than the cards
00:59:40
actually being stacked against you yeah do you know what i mean yeah the belief of the cosmetics against you can be the
00:59:45
deterrent of you even playing the game exactly do you know what i'm saying i don't even want to deal now like don't do me anything there's no point i'm
00:59:51
going to lose anyway you know what i'm saying but i don't know what that comes from but i
00:59:56
was fortunate man like i can't i can't say it enough like richard anthony
01:00:01
like just just a g he was a lawyer he was a lawyer as well a music lawyer so he
01:00:08
he understood that side as well so he could he could speak whatever language do you get what i'm saying at any table
01:00:15
he could like if they started talking about split some points he can he can go there with you do you i'm saying so when
01:00:20
you're walking into a game with that bro you're you ha you're fearless bro quick one as
01:00:26
you might know crafted are one of the sponsors of this podcast and crafted are a jewelry brand and they make really
01:00:32
meaningful pieces of jewellery the really wonderful thing about crafted jewelry is it's super affordable it
01:00:37
looks amazing the pieces hold tremendous meaning and they are really well made i
01:00:42
think i've worn this piece for almost a year it hasn't broken hasn't changed colour
01:00:48
because it's really really good quality and it costs roughly 50 quid people will
01:00:53
be surprised when they hear that they'll probably assume that all of my jewelry is like solid gold and cost thousands and thousands of pounds but what's the
01:00:59
point when you can achieve the exact same effect from a piece of jewelry that's high quality and cost 50 quid
01:01:05
that's why i buy crafted green machine you started this business with your um business partner
01:01:11
and it's um now i believe the the largest cbd
01:01:17
shop in europe by the number of shops that you have a number of stores square feet they say square feet tell me about
01:01:23
green machine green machine um if i'm honest i'm someone who like
01:01:28
don't believe in paracetamols i don't like take stuff like that
01:01:34
a mate of mine was always telling me that like he's going into this
01:01:39
cbd space and i'm like what's cbd and he's like
01:01:44
it's basically a natural alternative to medicine so i'm like okay it's gonna be it's
01:01:50
gonna be the future that it's going to be the future so i'm like all right cool what does it do he's like well people come in cancer
01:01:56
patients people with ms people with fibromyalgia people with lupus people that can't sleep people that suffer with
01:02:02
severe headaches okay and what does it do for them it wouldn't say it cures them but
01:02:08
it helps them manage their illness so i'm like all right cool
01:02:14
so to me this sounds like paracetamol because i don't believe in paracetamol it don't work on me so i haven't i don't need to i don't take it i haven't taken
01:02:20
it for years so i'm right cool so i can't link him and i get
01:02:26
all the products yeah i get all the products and i give it out to family members
01:02:31
someone's got fibromyalgia can you just try and just tell me what happens like it's absolutely nothing to do with me just give me honest feedback
01:02:38
severe headaches you can't sleep anxiety whatever giving out giving it out everyone came back and was like
01:02:47
i couldn't sleep i'm now sleeping or the times when i was having joint problems i'm rubbing the cream on
01:02:54
and i'm okay so i'm like all right cool i haven't told these people this might potentially be
01:03:01
anything to do with me they're just being honest so i'm like all right cool what do i have that i can personally try
01:03:06
so i'm like all right i can't sleep so let's try some of the others try some of the olds bro i'm sleeping i'm like
01:03:15
all right this is a real thing so then like i was like cool let me have a
01:03:21
conversation with like the actual founder yeah uh a guy called paul which is absolute
01:03:28
genius in this realm and i'm like what's your story he's like well chronic arthritis
01:03:34
and he literally like has a cannabis background but he was using cbd to help manage his pain
01:03:41
and he was like well why can't we you know open it as a business and you know start start moving forward and helping people
01:03:48
you know um so yeah and then i was just like i haven't like put
01:03:55
a lot of time focus on money into a lot of other things other than music and i've always been waiting to find something
01:04:01
but i wanted to fight like i didn't want to go that down a clothing route like i want something that reflects who i am i'm an
01:04:08
individual who likes to help people do you i'm saying like
01:04:13
a people's person and i honestly think like this is like the future
01:04:18
of medicine man like and so hopefully you know it will go down the route where
01:04:25
you'll become prescribed like if you look at if you and and for us it's like it's about
01:04:31
growing a business we're hoping to have like between 50 and 75 stores within the next three years
01:04:37
wow um and hopefully if it goes to the point where
01:04:42
it it does turn into like a former chemist like the fingers of the chemist you go there and you're like i've got
01:04:49
a headache what can i take they recommend you think oh i've got itch on my back you can actually speak
01:04:54
to someone and they can tell you oh no no you're better off getting that cream that works better for you cool like we
01:05:00
want to be that kind of version for people that come in because it's it's it's a two-way educational street
01:05:06
because people are coming in a lot of people coming with ms a lot of people coming with cancer and i'm like as much as
01:05:13
everyone in the stores are equipped to tell them there's still new things to learn and there's like still new ideas
01:05:18
for different products and it's just a new space that you know i get to to put some
01:05:24
focus in and this is is something that i think is is honestly going to benefit people as well
01:05:30
and we've tried a lot of the products they're all amazing this one actually tastes amazing as well the grapefruit and mint drink and we went down there earlier we got some coffees
01:05:37
and some other and some of the oils and stuff the creams that i'm going to try as well super interesting the other thing that you're involved in which i
01:05:43
think is a fairly new thing is the def jam position so you're now the creative director there yeah that's though
01:05:49
that is just mad yeah it's i'm working with a like such a cold bunch man like
01:05:54
everyone everyone's extremely talented man and i think for me more than anything like a
01:06:00
sick to be on this side because understanding it from the other side like being the artist coming into
01:06:06
an office or coming into an environment i'm gonna know the answers to a lot of the things what
01:06:11
they're asking because i've been through it as well so um always on my come up like i've always
01:06:16
worked or had long conversations with artists that are coming like whether it be stormzy would be avalino it would be
01:06:22
young and krypton whoever whoever it may be and i think like there was never like a
01:06:28
role or a title or nothing and it's like you're not doing that for money or for finance like
01:06:33
you literally want to see the game nourish you want to see everyone blossom so it's like
01:06:40
the games got bigger and i think now it's about showing that we're able to work in the
01:06:48
infrastructure and add value do you know what i'm saying like it's it's valuable our artist being inside to be able to
01:06:54
speak to eyes you know i'm saying to be able to create to be able to implement ideas because what happens is you
01:07:01
like i say like you we jumped on a train at the beginning of 2011 and it just moved and then i i had to meet a tour
01:07:07
manager and i had to meet a booking agent and all these things and it's like i can literally talk you through
01:07:14
everything step by step and that's like if we're signing artists at ground zero sometimes there's artists that already
01:07:20
put a paper he's already here already established he signed to us um but it's like just having artistic
01:07:26
conversations with artists do you know what i mean and i think it's beautiful man i wake up and think ah wake up and think creative so
01:07:33
to be able to be in a space where i'm able to do that with artists that i love and respect with people that i love and
01:07:39
respect as well win-win man yeah earlier on you said till death do us
01:07:45
part notice you um you don't have a wedding ring on no no no no what's the situation now you're in a
01:07:51
relationship you're dating or sir uh yeah in a relationship not married have you struggled with relationships or have
01:07:57
you have you found it being a fairly obsessive person because throughout your story i had i saw this word hunger over
01:08:03
and over again yeah other people described you and i'm thinking back to ashley on that kitchen table getting
01:08:08
annoyed at you you know yeah i think i'm understanding balance a lot more
01:08:14
i think that's come with maturity and that's come with age like balance is
01:08:19
important i had no balance back then none it was all
01:08:25
about making this happen and i don't know if it's because it happened do you know what i'm saying
01:08:31
maybe if it doesn't happen maybe we don't get this version of me where i'm more understanding that
01:08:36
you've got a divide time i think also what was a big eye opener for me like once again talking about jumping on that
01:08:43
train yeah um from like 2011 to 2014 15
01:08:51
bro certain times my family's having conversations yet and i'm like when was that
01:08:57
i know like that was when you was off yeah it's like i was it's like i was dead for four years i was just off the
01:09:04
grid and it's like it's never ever sat well with me do you know what i'm saying so now like i make
01:09:11
a conscious effort conscious decision to be like as someone who is the back the backbone and the head of the family to
01:09:18
be it i'm saying because there's two there's two types of of you know of men that hit the
01:09:24
family and this and it's one that everyone's financially okay and when if there's any red letters
01:09:31
but then there's a there's the one that's able to do that but is also there as well like a hour on the phone or
01:09:38
let's go and sit down and talk for four hours is as powerful as someone who can make a
01:09:44
bill vanished you get what i'm saying and i think in 2011 i was more the other guy yeah i'll show
01:09:52
it out i get um phone this person they can sort it out phone like someone can sort it out i'm shooting it out but it was like
01:09:59
i'm missing and it doesn't make me feel good i miss graduations and do you know i mean like so much things
01:10:05
that because you're busy they might not invite you to now because we asked you to come last week but you couldn't make
01:10:10
it like i was generally out the country but maybe i could have made that one but you didn't ask you know what i mean so it's like it doesn't feel good man i
01:10:17
think i'm probably ready like a guy now it's horrible yeah and not giving enough attention to
01:10:22
family in that regard like how do you how did you balance it with my family it really really it's a
01:10:27
really difficult thing um they kind of live all over the place as well so they don't all live in one place so
01:10:33
really like what i do is i try and bring everyone together for christmas and i fund the situation at christmas um but i
01:10:40
know i'm not doing a good enough job and it's something i want to work on fortunately i met a young lady who
01:10:45
is very unnegotiable about balance yeah and like i genuinely feel that if i don't
01:10:52
i've got make sure my terminology is correct here because sometimes sometimes when people describe their relationships especially people that are really
01:10:57
obsessive they start to use words like which is which which
01:11:03
make it seem like i'm doing something to please someone so that they don't go yeah well it's not
01:11:09
i want to do it but she has given me the desire to want to be balanced in my life
01:11:15
which means like today during the work day i went for lunch
01:11:21
with her then came back quickly and like carried on with my research on you and stuff i would never have done that before yeah i would have just woken up
01:11:27
in the morning eight o'clock and i would have worked till one a.m until i'd fallen asleep and then i would have said to whoever i was with
01:11:33
probably kind of like gaslighted them in some way and said like ah you don't understand yeah no no you found the right person then
01:11:40
yeah because then you want to then i want to do it yeah then you want to do it you know
01:11:46
what i'm saying then you want to it's about balance man it's about balance and even me with the kids as
01:11:51
well like my son's 15 yeah yeah my dude was 10 it's like that balance as well like it
01:11:58
you know at the time when i had my dual arm we then you know then but we separated
01:12:05
and it was like it hurts me like my daughter she has no record recognition
01:12:10
of living with me do you know what i'm saying it's like she's like yeah yeah my mom said like
01:12:16
like you used to live like i'm like what do you mean yeah i used to of course i'd used to live there you should wake up when you come to me and i remember
01:12:23
then i'm like you i need to over extend to build this relationship because my son has that
01:12:29
we've had that waking up him going to sleep waking up seeing me do you know what i'm saying and it's just them little things
01:12:37
where it's like like the kids will come over and i'll be like oh we're going to do this
01:12:42
and my daughter might say to me i have to ask my mom she's like her concept of a dad was probably more like an uncle yeah do you
01:12:50
know what i mean like you know like to your uncle you say no i gotta ask my mom but not to your dad but it's like she had to i was like no no i
01:12:56
mean i'm on the same level do you know what i'm saying but because she's not seeing me every day
01:13:03
like or waking up to me or do you know what i mean i'm not tucking her in i was just like bro
01:13:08
i had to that it was so important that we we get here we get here we get and we're here now but it took
01:13:14
it takes time to rebuild man so it's better you build it than have to rebuild as
01:13:20
well what if um you know when you were shot on those cds and trying to get people to buy those first thousand cities from
01:13:25
your mixtape line for my mixtape what if it just hadn't worked out
01:13:31
has that ever crossed your mind what if just you know what if it didn't didn't work out it had to
01:13:37
it had to like the plan b was revert back to plan a anytime you felt like you needed to
01:13:43
remotely think about doing something else it was revert back to plan a it was always
01:13:48
it was always going to happen there's a lot of people that think that and it just doesn't work out you know like yeah
01:13:54
i want you a little bit just i think my need was too much man my need was to
01:14:01
i became too good at it like the obsession
01:14:06
made me better made me more hungry i just i just became a monster man i
01:14:11
just i'm like no one can rap like a rap do you know what i'm saying but that's because
01:14:16
i'm listening to everyone rapping and i'm like all right cool how right this is what they're doing yeah like all right triple rhymes cool i'll
01:14:23
do quadruple do you get i'm saying like i was always trying to challenge trying to push trying to push trying to push and like
01:14:30
when you've been rapping like when your year group is like gets volcano or i mean or giggs or whatever like that
01:14:36
that's like man's age group they're my age mate so it's like when you're listening to gets and he's doing
01:14:42
that you're like cool i can't even flip a second you know i'm saying i've got a i've got a push i've got a push
01:14:49
i've got a push i can't it had to happen man i don't see any the story wasn't ending
01:14:55
any other way or like the story wasn't having any other middle and what would you say to musicians that you know are
01:15:00
now coming up in this world of tick tock and you know what what do they what do you think they need to to make it and to
01:15:06
follow in your footsteps i mean now that you also know the
01:15:11
industry as well in the mechanics of that because tick-tock is tick-tock is powerful now man
01:15:16
it's the new taste makers the new the library yes the new discovery man
01:15:23
and it's like so remember when i said that there was a formula and it was like if that dj plays it
01:15:29
first on thursday and then tick tock is a part of that formula now like you put a song on that sounds a
01:15:36
certain way it gets a certain amount of views and that's an indicator to the record labels
01:15:43
that this song is going to be amongst you know on the playing field of the hit playing field
01:15:49
it's it's become that and i think you can use it to your advantage but i guess
01:15:56
once again like the part we are in control of
01:16:02
is the song is the quality like always make sure the quality is
01:16:07
top-notch regardless because all the things everything else will change bro like michael jackson put out
01:16:14
tapes vinyls now chris brown goes
01:16:20
on streaming platforms do you know what i'm saying and i launched records on radio first now
01:16:26
they launched records on tick-tock foot like the everything will change well but the quality
01:16:33
will always remain you can't skip it you can't skip leg day man you're at me then
01:16:40
we have a closing tradition on this podcast where um the last guest writes the question for the next guest
01:16:45
and they don't know who they're writing it for they always ask but we never tell them so they've actually written two questions which is interesting the the
01:16:51
first question they wrote i'm going to read them both at the same time is what for you is the life well-lived and
01:16:56
then they wrote how do you make the most of this moment
01:17:01
so what for you as a life well lived and how do you make the most of this moment a life well lived
01:17:09
is waking up every day
01:17:15
and having multiple reasons to smile and within that making multiple people
01:17:20
smile um i always think like
01:17:26
life is a record it's not a record put the needle on and it comes inwards
01:17:33
so it's coming inwards just getting smaller and smaller and smaller then it gets to the end in the middle and it stops
01:17:38
and my thing is like what song are you listening to
01:17:45
why your your your time span is shooting and is it something that's
01:17:51
that's that's that's full of purpose something that's making you smile and something that's energizing other people
01:17:57
and and and for me it's like i want to be able to be a positive soundtrack
01:18:04
for key moments in other people's lives as well so life well-lived is me being happy bringing happiness
01:18:10
and being able to also add a soundtrack to people's happiest moments
01:18:16
though very part sir and then the second question was how do you make the most of this moment how do i make the most of
01:18:24
this moment live in it man live in it and i think
01:18:30
appreciate it as well i think um
01:18:35
i say living it because it's it's it's easy to be on that train
01:18:40
i keep going back to that train it's easy to be on that train and just to keep going keep going keep going but
01:18:46
for me we don't meet anyone for no reason there's no meaningless conversation
01:18:53
you know there's always something to take from a conversation that you thought what the hell was that about do you know what i'm saying
01:18:59
because we're all bro we're all like we're all seeds bro we're all seeds that grow into fruit bro we're all seed so if
01:19:06
you're you're having a conversation someone's planting something that can become fruitful later on
01:19:12
so to make the best of this moment just live in it do you know i mean don't just be in it
01:19:18
live in it man be present thank you thank you thank you it's been such a great conversation and it's a
01:19:25
real privilege to me like i said i've been a student for a long time and i'm still a mega fan um
01:19:30
all right upon reflection i think it's probably gonna be in my little spotify rap thing as some
01:19:35
of the most played song album that i think you've released recently and uh yeah it was
01:19:41
that 2019 yeah it feels like it was you know it feels like it was more recent than that for some reason maybe that's
01:19:46
because i still spin it but tasmanian we lost two years as well in it no no i genuinely say this i have i have this
01:19:52
debate with my my one of my long-standing best friends and i genuinely think lyrically in terms of
01:19:57
subject matter and art i think you're the goat in our country so thank you and i think a lot of people share that
01:20:03
opinion so it's a huge honor to have you here and then your wisdom thank you brother love man thank you
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