6LACK

- Endless summer escapes start here. Travel the worlds of Netflix IRL. Inspired by fan favorites like Stranger Things and Squid Game. Brave the upside down. Face off with the front man. Play leveled up arcade games. Shop exclusive merch. And enjoy themed food and drinks. Beat the heat. Play, eat, and shop on repeat at Netflix House at Galleria Dallas. Bring your crew and save. Get your tickets today at netflix.com/house. - Tours, to me, is neck and neck with creating music. - You love it? - Yeah, I really enjoy it. We try and space it out to where physically it's not too taxing. I love to see how the music affects people because it is so personal. And even though it can be a large emotional exchange, you know, when you hear the stories and you're talking to folks, I really do love to know somebody might've came to my show in the beginning when they were by themselves and then they come to the next one and they got a partner. And the next one they got kids. And I'm just like, to see people grow with me has been the craziest thing ever. ♪ Bad times, I don't wanna have bad ♪ - So I called you Sixlack for a very long time until like more recently, but it's just black. - It comes with the territory, yeah, it's just black. - It's a great way of spelling it. - Yeah, no, it's number six. - How many times do people ask you about that? - It's been forever. I mean, I came up with the name. So in the beginning I used to have a raps and freestyles to where I would kind of play off the name. But then we got into the era of the internet and social media and folks were just like, nah, I'm gonna call you what I wanna call you. And I'm just like, oh God. I'm like, we're here now, we're here. - Yeah, no, I wanna call you what you call yourself. - Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. - But I'm being honest because for a long time- - No, I already know. - I just said that. - I already know. - But it's great. - I get it though. And we kind of merged that, just like kind of played off of the name Confusion. And it'll always be a talking point too. So I never cared or mind when folks are figuring it out. Or don't know. - I used to think it's very cool. - Thank you, I appreciate that. - Very cool way to spell it. Where are you from? - Born in Baltimore, grew up in Atlanta. And yeah, Atlanta was like from age four until recently. - So you were in Baltimore from zero to four? - Yep, zero to four. - Do you have any like- - Memory? - Deep relationship with it? - Yes, because all of my family's from Baltimore. Like my mom, my dad, my aunts, my uncles, my cousins. So we would go every year. And I remember being like a stoop baby. You know, you just kind of grow up outside on the front stoop, playing basketball. But yeah, like those are my memories. They're like kind of patchy, but I remember being outside. I remember every house that we lived in. I remember some of the not so good. - Well, that would have been in the 90s? - 90s, yeah. - That was a tough time. - I remember all that. And coming back every year too, you were able to see people change and like circumstances change. - So yeah, I would come back and I was like, the older I got, the more I realized like, okay, we moved for a reason. - Yeah, yeah. - Yeah, I love it, but we moved for a reason. - Yeah, well, first of all, I grew up in Charles County. So that was like South, like Southern part of the state, but about an hour and a half from Baltimore and more DC side. So my dad and his parents were from DC and my dad moved out because they were in Southeast and then Southeast became what it was known for. And in the 80s it was like crazy. So he moved out to start his family with my mom. And then, so I always grew up down, like far down, but my grandparents still lived in that part of the city that became known for like crime. But it was interesting 'cause like, so he loved DC. I would go there in the summers to my grandparents' house, but like, I didn't have like a, I didn't live there. - Yeah, yeah, yeah. - I was visiting. - Yeah, I get it. - You know, I have a, a more of an emotional, an emotional relationship with DC than I do with Baltimore 'cause we didn't go to Baltimore a lot unless we were going to like a Orioles game. - Yeah, I think my emotional connection at this point is Atlanta and LA. - Yeah. - Like Baltimore, again, I love it. And I get to go there and like feel like this is really where I was born. - Yeah, this is where you were born. - Yeah, but the majority of my memories and my like extended family have come from Atlanta and LA. - I also feel like there's like this unsaid rule that you have to like have reverence for this place. - Yeah. - And you're like, you do have like this like appreciation or like this like emotional relationship with places you were born or where your parents are from. Again, like my dad was from DC. So I had like this reverence for DC. I could never say I wouldn't live there or whatever. - Yeah. - Although DC is amazing and I would live there. It's interesting how you have to like, you have to be like inside of- - It's like regional politics. Sometimes I'll have shows where people are just like, "Tell them you're from Baltimore." - Yeah, say it more. - Yeah, and I'm just like, it's cool. Like I have no issues saying it, but I'm like, yeah, I gotta understand what that comes with for me. Like I could go around just saying I'm from Baltimore, I'm from Baltimore, I'm from Baltimore. - But I grew up, actually. - But somebody from Baltimore is gonna be like, "Well, where? "What street you grew up on? "What side? "Who you used to roll with?" - Yeah, it's too much, it's too much. - So no, I just let people know I was born there, but Atlanta has been home and right now the West Coast is home. - West Coast is, for me, I've found California, again, also 'cause I go home to Maryland a lot, two, three times a year was a lot for me 'cause I don't like go anywhere that much. And people are like, "Why don't you live here?" I'm like, "'Cause I live in California and it's amazing." - Yeah, the range is crazy. - The rain, the weather, California. Listen, LA is full of lots of other, like every place has its stuff that you have to get to know and manage. And you have to be like, each place to itself has its own personality. You have to get to know where you live. I find once you get to know LA, it's the greatest city. - It's amazing. - But it's got its own personality. So you're not in Atlanta, you're not in Baltimore, you're not in New York, you're in LA. And it's just different. But people who move here usually don't leave 'cause it's such a great place to live. - Yeah, you got the beach, mountains, desert. - Never boring. - Snow, sun, you can literally go to any part of California in a couple of hours. It's just, you got all the range. - You could be vegan, you could be-- - Yeah, yeah, yeah, like health-forward. - Not healthy. - It's crazy. - It's crazy. - It's crazy. - It's crazy. - And who is this? - Oh, that's my daughter. - Hi. - Six. - What's your name? Nice to meet you. - I have a daughter as well. - Yeah, I got-- - She's 18. - I got a 10, almost an 11-month-old now too, so. - Oh, congratulations. - Thank you, I appreciate it. - Ah, that's great. - Love it. - I got a 16-year-old and an 18-year-old. - 16 and 18, I cannot imagine. I try sometimes, but I'm just like, stay little forever. - It's cool you got to come to work with dad today. - She left her controller for her Switch in the car. I was like, that's a sign that you're just not supposed to be on a video game today. - Is it in the car outside? - No, we went to check, it's not in there. - Oh, okay. - So I'm like, that's just a sign you're not supposed to be on the game today. - That's a sign. Do you take your kids a lot to work? - No, not really. Honestly, I try and keep her as much as I can. As much of a kid as possible. So she gets to kind of go between Atlanta and LA, and she has her home life in Atlanta, and she goes to school, and she does her routine. And when she's with me, normally, it's not work-related. She's been to maybe a couple of shows, once when she was small, and then once when she was old enough to understand what was going on. But it's not a priority to where I'm just like, you got to be a tour baby, or a studio baby, or you got to do music. It's just like, I enjoy seeing her just enjoy life as a kid, and not have to worry about social media, perception, or anything like that. And also, still get a little bit of it to where you can, I'm just like, you're not a normal kid by a lot of standards. You're a little more popular than you think, but don't let that be why you want to get on social media, or want to come to a show, or anything like that. So she has a good balance, because she can see when something is cool, and she's like, yeah, it's actually really cool, but then she'll just break back off into her own world and go watch basketball, or play 2K, and just that's it. - I agree with that. I think if we deny our kids the access they have, we're doing them a disservice. But if we make the access they have the most important thing, then we're teaching them wrong as well. Like, I feel like there's this balance, like what you're saying exactly. I'm just reiterating kind of what you said. I've tried to find the balance of like, well, no, you have more access, and you're in a more, what I would say, unique situation than I was, and I'm not going to raise you like that's not there. - For sure. - Because then I would be denying myself and you of your inheritance, which is like kind of, everyone frames inheritance like it's a bad thing, but it's actually, we have to embrace what we've inherited. - For sure, yeah. - And then, so whatever I inherited from my father, which I didn't inherit. I inherited money, but he gave me something. And because I'm his son, and whatever that was, I think about that and I'm like, I think culture and society like tell us that it's like, it's a dirty thing, or that it's a bad thing, or that it's like, it makes you a bad person, or it makes you lazy, or it makes you all this like, nepo, nepo, nepo, all kind of like bullshit. - Yeah, so it's part of how you, it's just how you're raised. Like who raises you, what morals they instill in you. And yeah, like what's the point of, of going so crazy, working so hard, spending so much time on something you love, if you aren't able to share what you make from it, whether it, is money whether it is a place to live whether it is just access to be able to be around a creative space like or if it's just going to a basketball game and getting cool seats it's just like yeah let's let's run it all like let's use it all and enjoy it all yeah and also it says like to me about the greatest kind of like actual gratitude in action is like something to me like stewardship so like if if you build this life right over the next um how old are you 33 okay the next 20 years for you is all building just building a life of actual achievements yeah legacy whatever you acquire whether it's real estate or this or that whatever all of it is part is it's all wrapped up in like someone who's going forward and doing things versus anything else right so that's what most artists like we're just we're building things and we're creating a world where we're just like we're building things and we're creating a world where we're just like we're we want to live in my last two years of my life has been like simplifying and cutting all the way back getting rid of everything i don't need because it was just so much clutter at some point where i'm just like i got these shoes that are worth whatever that i don't wear that someone gave to me that i'm not paying attention to that i could get some money from i got like just junk and things and just i need to really simplify my life i had to get everything back down to one household because i was in atlanta in la and i had a studio house up the street from where i live and it was just like rent mortgage mortgage and i'm just like these are my things so i have to take care of my things because yeah yeah and after a while i just sat down one day and i'm just like but why you know like are these the things that you truly want for the rest of your life or are they just in the way of you figuring out how you want to plan the next few years of your life like if you're moving around thinking about multiple mortgages and rents then you're not traveling as much as you actually want to travel because of your fixed costs you know and i just had to really talk to my business managers talk to my partner talk to myself and look at everything that i had and just say like what do you truly not need because again like the things that i want to spend money on at this point in my life like they need to fulfill me or make me you know feel like they're going in in a good direction versus they're just stagnant things that i'm trying to maintain because of uh friendships or work relationships or responsibilities that i just kind of put on myself and i'm just happy to finally be at the part where it's just everything is singular i'm like decluttering right now and what i want is starting to change and like sharpen a lot more like versus just kind of blindly feeling like i like something in a moment and then you know a year later it's just like what was the point of that this episode is brought to you by chat gpt hey it's bill simmons from the bill simmons podcast have you guys heard about chat gpt work it's the new way to use chat gpt for bigger multi-step projects and when you need more than just answers give chat gpt work access to your apps and files and it can create real work documents like spreadsheets slides and structured reports get started at chat gpt.com by selecting work mode available on plus and pro plans yeah you're at that age too that's the age you turn that corner into like i think we thought we were grown men in our 20s but we act like children babies yeah we act like we act like like that's the thing in our 20s we do like we have to be grace gracious and forgiving to ourselves because like i think it's just part of growing up but like you act young you think you're you're grown but you're still acting like a kid and then in somewhere in your 30s you actually realize like what being grown means and it's something else yeah it's way different it's hard to explain it's not having shit yeah yeah and but i do think you have to go through that for sure and the sooner you get it out of the way yeah like the sooner you get the keeping up with the thing I thought I was supposed to do like oh I have money now I'm supposed to do this I'm supposed to do that I'm supposed to do this and then it's like you get tired you're like wait a minute it's like I'm working for all these things now I'm not even like working or enjoying like myself like I'm literally working to keep up with all this stuff that I just picked up along the way and just like oh this looks cool this feels cool yeah just it got too much and I didn't realize how much extra stress it was putting on me because I can kind of assimilate or adjust to anything and I'm just that easy going to where it's just like oh it's all fine or it's all right but yeah you just you just never really realize it until someone maybe next to you is you know more aware or sharper than you are to be like hey you look a mess to me right now or like I see what's really going on behind the scenes or I can sense your attitude and I didn't really do anything to you so what's the actual issue you and then it just took a minute for me to just be like I got too much going on like I really miss when things were simpler and this is all like in my control and I'm just not necessarily making a move on it right now yeah I learned that too I think we all have to learn that again too like I think like we uh I'm I'm guessing like probably like most of us we grow up probably like more simple like I didn't grow up in a family with like multiple yeah houses and uh companies and you know what I mean so if I did I think I'd be more adept to have figured it out quicker but it's the thing no one talks about is like what success what we think success is what we think it looks like what other people say it looks like what Instagram says it looks like what the label guy who's actually just spending other people's money says it looks like what the you know we come into this world where everything feels important everyone's like and and and everyone's buttoned up yeah so they're not showing you their closet yeah their dirty laundry yeah they're not showing you you're not at their house where it's mess you know what I mean like like we go to an office that someone else pays for it's all decorated it looks so important you're like I'm gonna listen to whatever this guy tells me yeah yeah whatever he says I get it now and and then and then you you go yeah but but you're not at their fucking place you're not out there so you don't hear their private conversations you don't and so what I realized in in age was like there's one thing is what we see and then there's the truth and so what we see is some version of the truth doesn't mean it's all a lie sure they were successful in so many ways uh but what are the other parts of their life what does that look like are they successful are they balanced are they healthy interesting too like working really hard for other people was praised yeah it was like you gotta do it what a good guy he goes to goes to work every day for that grocery store yeah like they got groceries or gives a fuck about you so that's the thing is like I grew up with that for 18 years and then went into the world with that as my that was my background that was my information system so I was upside down yeah so becoming financially free was not well I was conflicted becoming healthy I was conflicted becoming emotionally like growth growth personal growth like any kind of growth I was conflicted so I had to go through my 20s conflicted like that and and then by about your age was when I turned the corner I was like nah I think I'm I think I'm good I'm gonna go to therapy I don't care what anyone says I'm gonna start investing I don't care what anyone says I'm gonna start working out I don't care what anyone says and then when I got on that track now I'm 47 so I'm about probably about 15 years in of the work and I realized I'm not gonna be able to do it I'm not gonna be able to do it I'm not gonna be able to i still work really hard in my career but i work just as hard at myself absolutely and if i had to choose one i would choose myself of course you know what i mean yeah of course pretty wild yeah my mind say early on i would have never thought that it would it would just be that easy of a decision for me like yeah if i at any moment felt like it was a choice for sure you know it's my my my partner my daughters my family even like i feel like doing the work over the last couple of years has made me realize how layered that portion of my life is and it's even down to like my guy friends like who's supposed to be around who's not supposed to be around who can put me in a compromising position who's not who's maturing like i had to really filter through a lot of folks who i have been kicking it with for my whole entire life and just narrow it down and say look if we're not maturing at the same pace we're not maturing at the same pace we're not that we you know can't be cool but you know i can't we can't kick it like that we can't we can't really share space that much because i'm just on a different path right now and it's not to say i'm better it's not to say you can't be on the same path like i got all the same tools that you got you can you need some advice need someone to talk to want to do some yoga want to drink a green juice like i can i can help however you want me to help but i can't necessarily like do it for you and i think for a minute i had a lot of guilt when you grow up just around folks and you grow up in music groups and you grow up in just crews in general there's always this this uh thing of you know when you make it you know you gotta bring everybody with you then once i started to just see how intricate this industry was i was just like that i can't do that like i pay my taxes like i got yeah there's just a bunch of percentages coming out to where like when it's all said and done daughters family myself that's where it stops so i can help you in yeah that that whole mentality of bringing the whole crew with you just it had to fall apart for for a while for me to truly understand like what it is to be my own man and to also just see like what other people are willing to do in their own lives in their own time like if you sit and you watch someone do something for 10 years expecting something to be given to you it's just like well i was practicing and i was reading and i was researching and i was studying and i was listening so why wouldn't you you know be excited to do the same and and meet me somewhere so yeah it took a minute for me to to let that guilt go i had like you know cribs where music homies would stay there and we would make stuff and i would foot the bill and it was just like yeah of course it all became my responsibility and then yeah over time i just had to start pulling the plug on everything one by one and just say no more studio house no more homie crib no more of this no more of that like i i really have to focus on being happier and not having multiple responsibilities multiple homes multiple things that are just holding me back right now the lie of like don't leave anyone behind that it's just not true it's just not it's not real life we all deserve to build our own life build our own families have autonomy from one another and make decisions that are best for each other and and we should have a relationship we're like hey man i wish i could do this but i have to go do that and right now that's the most important thing for me and then you go hey man go do it like that's a balanced friendship yeah um doesn't mean you can't work together on some things but dependency is a really dangerous thing and we so you know i'd say early on i kind of created it yeah i thought i was supposed to for sure i think it was for me it was my ego which i wasn't like fully aware of during time because i just kind of had this perception of myself that i'm more chill more laid back more whatever than than most so i'm good but my ego was like lurking beneath the surface to where again you just got multiple folks in your house something happens your girl might call it out and you're just like nah never like that's that's my boy from from from back then like he would never you know do anything to go against me or he would never steal anything or he would never purposely leave a sink full of dishes like something something must have yeah but i would make an excuse for everything and i just had to learn that lesson like immaturely multiple times i remember there was this one time where i had like uh my first like just crazy truck and i had it out here and i was gonna ship it to atlanta so i could be there for the holidays spend some time with my daughter and my girl's just like don't send that truck out there and i'm just like i worked for this truck i want to enjoy this truck i'm gonna be low-key i'm gonna be chilling it'll be fine of course i sent it to atlanta we go somewhere for new year's eve or something watch movies with the kids we come back to the car windows bust out everything ran through car seat flipped over i'm just like oh yeah you know this is a silly lesson to have to learn because i really just didn't have to bring this car here it sticks out like a sore thumb in this city specifically it's more you know normal in l.a yeah l.a is the land of cars so you get away atlanta yeah when the years first came out in atlanta you got a all black with the blue racing stripes it's like somebody's gonna see that and regardless of who you are or how you you know feel you are to people like no one cares like that they're gonna run through that and that's your fault and luckily you know it was while everyone was away from from the car and we didn't have to you know run into anybody or experience anything because we had kids all with us so yeah good learning lesson but it's it's nice for someone to to label it and kind of flag it as ego because for me i just would have never felt or saw it that way unless somebody was right there just like you're tripping like you didn't have to do that and you did that luckily we're safe but you should learn from that yeah but it's yeah it's young man that's what growing up is all about and and also i would have done the same thing for sure it's wanting reality to be different than it is like the personality of the place you go back to that you already knew it but you were the same thing i'm we've all but that's part of like growing up where you make a decision based on some other stuff besides yourself yeah and like we only get there by having experience yeah and then that's when you're the old dad telling your kid don't believe anything you see and half of what you hear or anything you hear and half of what you see my dad always just say that and i would be like what's he talking about don't believe anything you hear and half of what you see and now as a grown-up i kind of go oh no i know what he's talking about yeah it's pretty straightforward and simple how things work and in this career we like to we can over complicate or make things bigger or make things whatever but it's pretty straightforward but i think that's part of like where you're at i can feel it in your career i mean you've had a ton of success do you feel like you've had a ton of success yeah honestly this is not normal at all none of this is normal like i only wanted to do just at the base level some type of music that impacts people in some type of good way that was the the peak of what i thought i wanted to do you know i didn't like have a perception of like i'm gonna get nominated for a grammy or i'm gonna sell a million records or it was just like i just want to do something that feels good to me that feels good to somebody else and that's it so to be able to look back 10 years and just say wow like in 10 years too that's like a pretty short amount of time even though it feels long it's insane what we've been able to pack in the 10 years and yeah i i definitely feel like it's been it's been a success like i'm living a dream and even you know on my my worst days my overwhelmed days my stress days my figure it out days i still know that i'm blessed and i have an opportunity to do something special and yeah this this is this is what's the worst day what what is that like these days a worst day for me is not being on good terms with my partner if we have a disagreement and we can't and we can't figure out yeah welcome if we can't figure out a conversation like and i just told her like uh last night too when we had like a little disagreement i'm just like look i'm not being dramatic when i say when we don't figure it out i literally do not want to do anything i don't want to eat i'm just like i stopped taking care of myself like unintentionally and i can't it can't be that way you know i'm like we just need to figure out how to either call time out and end it before it gets you know too too colored or just come back like at any point let's just not let it get far because when it gets far it's just it just it kills me you know what i learned how to do how long have you been with your partner known her since 2013 met her in 2014 and officially in a relationship since like late 2017 2018. okay so you're coming up on 10 years okay so that's you're right on track because about seven years eight years in for me was when i was like okay the roller coaster was fun for the first five years i was like there's a lot of passion there's a lot of you know it's it's great at first and you're like i like a little bit of a of a challenge um then about eight seven eight years in i'm like i can't really live like this and then i'm in therapy though and i'm like learning how to communicate because i will be honest a lot of it was me she's the one to call it out she's the one to be emotional she's the one to get mad yeah she got the fire but it's it was me and what i learned how to do was compartmentalize it together and go hey i hear you can we put it on the shelf and look at it and just come back to it and i promise you i'm gonna make sure i fix this yeah and then she's like no about 10 times of trying yeah it started to like come down for sure and then because i would follow up though i would follow through like hey remember that thing you wouldn't talk about yeah is it good is now a good time you feel like you're in a good place to talk about it i don't want to upset you start parking back up but like then we would circle around on it and then in practice we got really good at it and now i will say me and my wife 20 years now we've been together 15 married 16 married this year we don't fight at all love that and we are together all the time so i still feel the same way i also will say the way you feel about uh your partner is the way i've always felt about uh nicole we're building a life together she's a true partner you know and we have both have our strengths and weaknesses and she's also very like a gracious forgiving person like she sees the best in me and she's been along the whole ride now because we've been together for so long i was i was like 27 when i met her or something like that she's been on the whole ride with me and that's taken a lot of like patience for sure and she's cool he's speaking my life right now man you know what i mean yeah for sure but i think the new record it feels like that it feels like someone who's in a self-realization period of their life yep pretty cool yes it's like the albums before i feel like have been a linear journey to get to where i'm at today like if you go to the first album and you kind of compare the storytelling from then and now it's a lot more self-reflection like you said in this one it's a lot more accountability in this one it's a lot more of like just understanding uh what my role is in all the relationships that i have and what i could do better and how like dedicated i am like at this point in my life to where you know it's not always going to be perfect but now i i don't just have the tools i'm i'm really working on using them so i like what you were saying earlier too just about how you handle conversations now because that's where i feel like i'm at to where i know better and my thing that i gotta get a little more sharper on is like circling back around and bringing it up and not just keeping it up here and like feeling something about it or like working myself up to like the right moment and just being like okay if you don't have that combo now if you don't fix that thing now then it's not going to be a good feeling later so yeah sidebar but yeah this album has been a large maturity leap for me and it is partly due to my partner and partly due to someone having that much patience and that much just grace like you said and that much understanding who can see like the best part see and say like even though we've had to go through these ugly parts like i really think i know who you are And I'm, I'm, I just want you to show me so that we can have as much fun as we can possibly have. I also would say on your other records, you are, we're sharpening, you, you got in the game and you started playing. They were all work. Like you were making, obviously making art, but like you get sharper and you get better. And what was a challenge for you then is not a challenge for you now. What was a mystery to you then is not a mystery to you now. So if we don't recognize that, like we aren't in the same place as when we started and that it's easier for us in some regards. So of course I'm going to dedicate myself more to my family because it's not as hard for me to come and make a record. I'm not as, uh, there's not as much in question. I know how I do it better and I know me better than any of you. So if I come in and work for an hour a day, I'm going to get the best hour or two. You know, I learned how to accept the idiosyncratic nature of, what it means to be me. And I go, you know, I work two hours on music. If I'm making a record, I work two hours a day. I come in and I kill it for two hours. Then I'm done. If some days we go longer, maybe, probably not. Some days I get it done in an hour. I'm like, that's it. Gas tank's empty now. That's the best I had today. Some people are like, I need to work for 12 hours and bang my head against the wall. I'm like, if that's what it takes for you, I don't understand it. But I'm not there anymore. Right. So. So it's different for everyone, but like no one knows better than you. Cause you're the one who has to, to mine it out. And I find that the family and the per just me, my, my real, my real lived life. That's what I'll say. The lived experience is being in a family and doing things other than make art. If I'm only making art all the time or only performing all the time. So like what I'm supposed to walk around all day and be, the lead singer of a band, that's not a true. It's nowhere to like pull experience from. Exactly. Um, and I think that I hear that in this record, I hear like a refined, experienced, uh, artist who knows himself, which is pretty, it's pretty cool to see someone get there because some people get stuck in purgatory almost like they never get all the way they become an artist. Everyone's like, you know, you have that first hit. Or that first moment and everyone else decides what you are. And then some artists get caught in that and they start living that and being that instead of, well, no, they were just a kid making art, reaching for greatness. And what does that mean? Well, it means go forward and try and, and when you stop doing that and you get caught up in like maintaining this idea that other people decided you get off. For sure. You know? And I think that what I see with you is someone who's going. Towards their own idea of whatever this thing is. Yeah, I think even before I knew that that was the path I was on, I just kind of felt the signs when the first album dropped and everything was in black and white and I had the hair covering my face and folks were saying the music is this or it's toxic or it's they were like labeling it, like all these things. And I'm like, I'm really just trying to figure it out. And I'm not, I'm not like assimilating to like being a specific type of person and there's purpose in the story, but before. You guys get an idea of who I am, I'm gonna just chop the hair. And that was the first thing I was just, as soon as I took off and like had that first little run, chopped the hair and everybody's like, oh, why would you cut the hair? That's your whole, that's your look. Yeah. That's your whole thing. I'm just like, I had the hair when it was dusty and nobody cared at all. So it was just like, you know, and also I've always throughout my life, I always kind of cycled having hair, growing it out and chopping it, but this time was just more of the, the permanent chops where I was just like, it don't, that's just not what I want. Yeah. It's just not where I'm at right now. Like the next time that I feel like I'm gonna have hair and it's gonna hold all my memories and energy in it. Like I need to be somewhere on a beach living like beneath my means and like, then it'll feel like more, more natural to where I'm at. But I was just hiding behind it for, for a minute. And I didn't really realize it until I started to see like a lot of concert videos and I'll just be like, hmm, looking at the ground, I'm not making eye contact. I'm like, it's all these like things. That are just compressed happening on stage. Yeah. And the second I chopped, it was the second that life just immediately got brighter and better. And I, and my eye contact and stage presence and crowd participation, it was just like out of here. And that just came from, like you said, just understanding that folks had an idea of me and then being like, let me just flip the script real quick. Cause no, that, that's not me. Yeah. It's so interesting. Cause when I hear you talk about it, it's so abstract to me. Cause. I don't relate to you in that way. And maybe it's because I came later and I went in and looked so, so I don't have a attachment. And that's interesting. Cause like when we get out of our immediate daily messaging, so like, again, like I always like check that too, like where am I getting my messaging from? And then I realized like the best thing I could do was learn how this works. Yeah. And how this works. Yeah. And then I just started looking at that and realizing like, and, and working, and not only therapy, therapy has been amazing. And then also just like, there's a lot of therapy. I say therapy in a broad way. Like I have a therapist. He's amazing. I found a guy who's more like a coach, but also is a therapist. Yeah. Then I started reading books. Then I start just seeking out anyone that has things figured out that feels like not on some like gurus show. Yeah. I don't want someone who makes me feel like I need to come to them every time I need the answer. I want someone who will teach me. Yeah. Like, like just mentors. Yeah. Just very cool, casual mentors. Yeah. And it took me a minute to get there too, to where I'm like, I'm in my thirties and I just started to look around, like I've never really had a mentor. Like I never had nobody who I looked at and was like, he knows more than I know in this area and he's cool and we can talk and I can learn and it can be no pressure. It's just like, pull up on me, I'm doing this this week and you can just, you know, chip. It took me a minute to, to, to finally realize that was something that I needed that was missing. And once, once that clicked, I was just like, oh yeah, I get it now. Like I can go to my, my guy, Alex, uh, he makes clothes, he's out here and he has his own brand, but I pulled up once to shop with him. And just when I saw how his whole setup was and just how his brain was working, I was just like, oh, I finally get to sit back and like, just, you know, not be the focal point and just watch somebody else work and hear whatever gems he has. And also just like. Have a new friend. And, and like, it was, it's just, it's better than money for me to be able to, to look up and know, like, now I have the right folks around me who, you know, everyone isn't looking to me for advice or everyone isn't looking to me for an answer or for inspiration. Like I can go somewhere and I can get that same thing from somebody else. Like I needed that. Speaker 2: Those are the excellent people. The mid there's a lot of mid, like most is mid, like a majority, and so it's like mid it's not inspired at all. And so. That's different. There's a lot of ego in mid. So a guy who, who is really good at this and you go to him and he is more ego than actually like, Hey man, it's, it's the teaching man to fish, right? It's like, yeah, man, you're really good at that. And he goes, Hey, let me show you how I did it. And then you're like watching and then, well, I wouldn't show you how I did it. If I didn't see you and think, oh, this guy, one, it's exciting that you're interested in what I'm doing too. I wouldn't talk to you if I didn't respect you like you trust you because most the genuine people move like that. I can't explain it, but it's like, you just find your, your people. But I think that teachers mentors, it's generosity with someone who gives information freely to people. They feel want it. They don't waste their words, but you know, when someone's interested, you know, when someone would, and so to me, like same, I had some mentors who started showing me and giving me real information that was truth. In fact, so, and then I started learning, you know, again, the cause and effect of life, the causality of life, the causality of the world. It's pretty simple effort over time equals results, measure the results, refine the process, go back to effort over time. And it's a cycle and you cycle up. And you learn how process works and then you do that process over time and it, it compounds. And then there's residuals. Once you build one wall, you don't need to build it again. Then you build another one. And before you know it, you have a house. Then you don't need to build that house again. You start building another house over time when investment is consistent and growing, it builds. And then you turn around and 10 years goes by really fast and 15 years and 20 years. And then people go, how did you do that? And you're like, you know what? I'm going to start building that house again. And then you start building it again. And then you start building that house again. song or the thing it like becomes really hard to to get past and it's cool when you're not yep not at all but i do it's been nice to to understand like the the duality and the balance of just like who i am as an artist because i've told folks that i work with too i'm just like you know sometimes i'm unplugged and i'm with the family and there's nothing that you could do or say that's going to like change what my focus is and then there might be a moment where i'm like maybe i do want to like go in and like with the intention to to make the the coolest song i could ever make for you know to go on the most fun tour that i could ever go on like that kind of comes and goes but yeah at the base of it is just somebody who has finally made it to the point where i know what is the most important to me and i know that what's the most important to me also just kind of connects back to what i do and what i love like it'll pay off in music you know as long as i continue to take care of the crib what's the balance of what how you work with other people versus how you work on your own stuff i i love my stuff more but i like that but i love the opportunity to go into someone else's world and learn something and bring it back to my world so i think that's why i've it's like visiting their house it's like that's why i've done so many collabs like i i kid you not in the last 10 years it's been over 100 plus collapse and i've been able to go into pop spaces i've been able to go on the rap spaces r&b spaces alternative spaces just and just learn something and bring it back so when i either go to my live show or i go to my studio it's just like i got something over here that i wouldn't have got if i just stayed in this bubble so i i like to to venture out into people's universe and uh just come back with like new tricks so it's always fun like i love collabing there's nothing you have a favorite uh space or genre or style of music that you like to go visit outside of your own weirdly enough i want to say and i know pop is just kind of like subjective and it changes depending on like just what people are consuming yeah but you know when you think of pop sometimes like i like the challenge that it puts me in sometimes because it's normally you know brighter and textures or or just different things to where it's almost opposite of what people perceive me as so it makes me like sit back or scratch my head or like think a little bit harder yeah yeah it's challenging yeah so i appreciate it because it challenges me and i think that has been what like excites me a little bit more these days it's like if i can get in a position to where something is like truly pushing me out of my comfort zone then it's actually a little bit more exciting these days so yeah yeah i would say pop spaces have been fun to figure out and then aside from that i think it might just kind of be over the hill as far as like what i might do next like i feel like my music has kind of slid to like a a space to where it's not always r&b or not always rap and people just have a more general idea of like okay here's what i'm gonna do here's what i'm gonna do here's what i'm gonna do here's what i'm gonna do here's what i'm gonna do here's what i'm gonna do do anything so with that yeah i'm curious to know like where it might go next and what spaces i might dip into what's the dna of your songwriting because what i hear is a little more not to say that there's less songwriting in modern rap music i'm not saying that because i don't think that's true but there is a bit more of like a song structure and a song writers yeah um almost like if you got an acoustic guitar and you played your song yeah or so that's where the genre lists what you're talking about to me when i hear that i agree with you yeah i wouldn't put it in a genre yeah because i think there's some songwriter sensibility that is like a bit more classical yeah in the sense of like if you took a guitar or a piano and you played the song it would be that classic song structure and for sure um you know when i look think of the catalog of american music when you think of like the great songs like there's a lot of there's a through line with the songwriting and i think that like it's classic yeah and so i think that like i wonder like that had to come from some classic music in my mind yeah i mean i was kind of a student of everything somewhere after my first album i definitely made it a point because before my first album i was everything was kind of digital so i was meeting producers online they were sending beats and it was like somewhat easy to put that project together but after that i just started to communicate to the folks around me i'm just like i'm gonna do it i'm gonna do it i'm gonna do it i'm just like i feel like i write my best songs when we start with guitar or when we just start on piano so even if it doesn't end there i want to start there and that came from i mean that came from prince it came from oh yeah johnny mitchell it came from like whatever i could find to where i was just like take everything else away and what they're saying and how they sound like if it's cutting through without drums without snares without distractions or atmospheric like pads and senses like if it can cut through without that then you have a really good song it's a really great song so we try uh and especially with this newest project to start with keys or start with um guitar and feel the song out first and that way we know like we're talking about something it feels like something and now if we want to like throw some sauce on it then cool but at least we know there's a song under there and it's not uh somebody just hiding behind you know some 808s and and tricking people yeah it's like uh if you could get a good song where you could even just sing in acapella all the rest is icing yeah it's all fun yeah and then every now and then you discover a musical hook that just makes the whole thing but like it it needs a song i know that what's next for me i've been feeling like not like a creative block or anything but there's like a barrier that i feel like i'm like pushing up against right now to where i'm like i know that this this uh this resistance that i'm feeling right now is because i need to truly lock in on guitar like i can't wait for someone else to make me something or you know always be in the mood to talk to someone through a feeling when it's as easy as just knowing your way around the guitar so i started my last album with lessons and i took it on tour i like played it for at the beginning of my closing song and i would just kind of preface to the crowd i'm like i'm shit i don't know like what i'm doing i'm still figuring it out in front of you guys so bear with me and some nights it was amazing some nights that wrong note would just echo through the venue and i'd just be like hey but it was nice to to suck at something in front of folks like it was like i've been running away from this feeling for a minute because it was again i just had the folks around me that could make the perfect thing that i was like trying to figure out yeah but now i know like that i'm getting further away from that feeling to where someone can always do that for me it's like i know it has to start with me and yeah like i need to i need to make that my business i need to go home and pick one of those five or six guitars up and just commit a little bit deeper so that uh whatever i do next can just continue to have that type of growth behind it endless summer escapes start here travel the worlds of netflix irl inspired by fan favorites like stranger things and squid game brave the upside down face off with the front man play leveled up arcade games shop exclusive merch and enjoy themed food and drinks beat the heat play eat and shop on repeat at netflix house at galleria dallas bring your crew and save get your tickets today at netflix.com house yeah i would start with um i i would just keep learning songs you love yeah like if there's a song you love that you wish you wrote that's a guitar based song learn how to play that one and then one song at a time you start learning how to get through a song and then it becomes more natural when you go back to writing on your like you start getting through your own songs but um i'm not good at guitar but i play it and probably better than the average person but like no but i'm in a world full of guitar players that are like elite yeah do you have a favorite artist that you've worked with favorite artist as a fan or and slash or as a friend favorite artist that i've worked with either that you just are a fan of or that like or someone that you just became friends with um i would have to give it to jid um my brother from atlanta uh-huh we came up around the same time in atlanta when there was a lot of other stuff happening on the music scene and we kind of felt like the the step children of what was going on we were just like we don't do that but we do something uh and working with him i think was it was just fun for me because i was naturally just more to myself and reserved and he was just more like yeah put a hook right there i'm about to go to work right now like and he would come back i would have like three four five demos just kind of lined up for him to do something and our dynamic was just like two of the same type of people but he was just a little more uh energetic than i was and i needed that to just bring a little bit more out of me so i like working with him because it's the most conversational session that i'll ever have with anybody like we get each other we trust each other we talk we laugh and we saw each other from what it was to what it is right now so i think jid would have to be my favorite even though we haven't gotten anything done recently but trying to think um i've been in the studio with young thug that is one of the most interesting sessions that you could ever be in for sure um setting is crazy it's a bunch of folks around it's a lot going on a lot of smoking a lot of just things are happening so you would naturally walk in and think you know how am i going to make something in this environment especially if that's not how you normally make right but it was another moment where i was like this is a test for me like what can you really do like when when you're on the clock and you know we want to make something cool and people are also kind of expecting you to do you so um but seeing him work was interesting for me because it obviously will start with like a bunch of mumbles and, you know, door opening and closing while he's recording. and you're trying to make out the words and he's like he's barely saying anything when he wants to recut it's like again again again again stop stop and it's just like you're trying to piece it together right and then after maybe like 30 minutes they takes his headphones off and presses play and there's a whole song with the whole verse and a whole hook and you're just like did that really just happen in front of me like yeah and i think there's a lot of folks who i think have that uh gift i feel like i heard about wayne having that gift like super early and when he was just just smoking everything and yeah there's just i heard about jay-z having just people who have a specific way that they do things to where you just like you make it look so easy and you make it look so effortless but when i hear the end result you would think that you know somebody worked hours on this beat or worked hours on this verse or thought so hard on this melody when it's really just kind of falling out of you just easily and yeah he has very interesting sessions because in 30 minutes you can you can get a lot in 30 minutes it's the genius part it's one part gifted genius talent type what you could say yeah one part experience and one part uh self he knows what he needs to do to get what he wants to get yeah and you watch it in real time and it looks confusing or it looks like um because it's not a finished product yeah but what he's doing is putting the pieces together in the places and moving them around it's like watching someone sculpt yeah and then suddenly after you know however much time the sculpture starts to come to life yeah and the lines are making sense and that to me is like the the nature of of an artist who trusts their process yeah and is no longer asking anyone yeah no insecurities no like it's just yeah and i felt like that was a good thing for me to kind of take back into my own world because sometimes i can overthink sometimes you know like spend too much on on a moment or trying to figure something out when really like to see someone just tap into a feeling to where they know you know even if i don't finish the song and like these are the specific lyrics or this isn't the word that i use when i go back and edit it like the feeling is there and i believe in the feeling and i believe in the melody and i believe in like the confidence that i have in executing right now to where i'm not going to be able to do it again and i'm going to be able to do it again and i'm it's just gonna sound good I feel like he's one of those artists and it's a few other folks I met too where I'm just like you could say any word like maybe words that I would never even like have in a song like you could say any word and it just it sounds different coming from you I have words that I stay away from like I don't I won't say that can't say that that doesn't sound cool but other folks are just like your word vocabulary it's just it just it's colorful it's super colorful I I commend that because yeah sometimes I have certain things are right into where I'm just that's interesting for you to hear you say that because I don't I wouldn't think that about you but I think what you describe about Young Thug I've never met him I'm a fan of his but I've never met him but he's celebrated in our house my son loves Young Thug and we listen to his music all the time it whether it's effortless or not he's himself yeah yes and so he's not in question yep so there's no room for anyone to question him who I am because I'm being myself and there's something that is really inspiring when you see someone who's achieved that whether it was through work or not whether he's naturally whether he's had to be whatever it is it's excellence and that's like an amazing thing to see when someone's really just themself yeah absolutely that would be fun to uh I've always wanted to like talk to Young Thug he's he's a yeah yeah I'm sure I have a lot of questions um I like him a lot um but I like you a lot too thank you uh congrats on the record thank you I don't know if there's anything else you want to promote if there's a tour yeah we do tour in the fall uh tours like to me it's neck and neck with creating music you love it yeah like I I really enjoy it we we try and space it out to where physically it's not too taxing I love to see how the music like affects people because it is so personal and even though I'm not a fan of Young Thug I'm not a fan of Young Thug I'm not a fan of Young Thug I'm not a fan of Young Thug I'm not a fan of Young Thug it can be like a large emotional exchange you know when you hear the stories and you're talking to folks I really do love to know like somebody might have came to my show in the beginning when they were by themselves and then they come to the next one and they have a partner and the next one they got kids and I'm just like to see people grow with me has been the craziest thing ever because I don't think that a lot of artists get to truly have that type of dynamic with their with the people who consume their music it's just always this barrier or the separation but my music is it's almost like a journal of my life so a lot of folks can be like we were going through the same thing or I wasn't there but I went back to that album and now I get it and like those personal stories make tour just so much more fun so uh tour is starts in the fall I'll be starting Europe and then we come back to the U.S. the last week of October and yeah we're gonna run it as far as we can run it I'm sure next year we'll do like Australia and everything but for now Europe, UK, and yeah I'm excited for tour congrats man I feel like you're open to expressing like growth and I think like you have people growing up with you and so like what you just what you just said it's like people are getting into relationships they're building families and your music has been kind of a sound a soundtrack weaved in to these different sections of their life and they could relate to you because you're a different person on this album than you were 10 years ago five years ago and so are they and that's actually like more true to life than just saying the same thing over and over again being a product or being a brand right and that's it is like the human brand I gravitate towards that too that's why I was like excited to talk to you thank you because I feel there's a person here trying to figure this shit out and that's the truth of life doesn't matter if you're a young thug if you're uh you or me or the guy down the street if you're the guy listening to this podcast right now if you're the guy coming to your show we're all actually just trying to figure this out every year and it's comforting when you see someone who's open and they're like you see growth you see them evolving and like we need those examples we all need like examples around us of people growing yeah and I think you're a good one so cool man thanks for coming thank you appreciate it thank you for listening to this episode of artist friendly you can also watch the episodes on spotify spotify premium users get no commercial breaks on my show make sure to follow like and comment because I always read the 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