CHANCE THE RAPPER Talks Chicago, Mixtapes and Mentors

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The Adam Friedland Show. Oh, it's the Adam Friedland Show on ITV. All of our episodes and your name in the credits if you join at the second or third tiers. Also, we have a Patreon. If you prefer to support the show through Patreon, there's a link in the description below. Finally, last piece of housekeeping, we have merch. TheAdamFriedland.show. Check it out. It's good. It's cool. My guest this week is Chicago artist Chance the Rapper. Now, of course, famously, the last time I welcomed a Chicago artist, it sparked a firestorm of controversy. In the world of rap, me and my guest G Herbo had some criticisms for journalist DJ Vlad who responded in kind with a direct message. Some called it a shot heard around the world. Months later, tensions have remained high between Vlad and G Herbo who've been trading blows on social media. In that time, I've kept myself. I've kept my head down and I've done some reflection. And I'm ready to move on from this maelstrom. In fact, I have a potential gig for DJ Vlad. If he's willing. If he's willing to hear me out and what it is, um, so I finally decided to respond to the direct message and he was open to further dialogue. So with that, let's give him a call. Hello. Hello, sir. It's Adam. I just wanted to parlay with you real quick. Uh, and just kind of squash this, whatever. What? Whatever the, whatever the, uh, misunderstanding was, do you guys ever DJ or is it just a screen name? Well, I had a long history of DJing before Vlad TV started. Well, I'm getting married this year and perhaps, yeah. Oh, and she's lovely. Well, I was just, perhaps I would want you to be part of the greatest day of my entire life. Uh, yeah, sure. I'll show up to that. Okay. Well, sir, sir. I, I feel, I feel like my conscience is cleared and, uh, have a, have a great day. I think, I guess. Okay. Live long and prosper. Bye. See you. He bought it. Folks in this crazy world we live in, we don't need any more beef. We need peace. And if two sworn enemies like DJ Vlad and myself could see eye to eye. You know, let that be a lesson to all warring people's around the world. And so with that, please enjoy my interview with Chance the rapper. This episode is sponsored by Roe. Roe Sparks are a two in one prescription treatment for guys who need a secret weapon. It's the new wave. They hit the bloodstream faster because they dissolve right under the tongue. So no more waiting to perform. After Roe Sparks dissolve, they work in 15 minutes on average. They give you the boost to last longer and they can give you bigger, longer erections and sparks stay active in your system for up to 36 hours. So you can go back to back round after round and be ready the morning after. Folks, I've been pretty busy on the show. You know, I haven't had a lot of time to have sex, you know, but when, once that starts up again, I think in the quarter three, 2029. I having a big boner is the way I want to be doing it. 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I just had, no, no, sit down, please. Uh, I, I had herb on the show and I, and I paid tribute by giving him a bottle of 1942. Have you had that before? But this, the liquor store, they, I think I bought the last one cause it was like last week. So they said this one's good. It's called Casa Azul. I'm familiar. Do you know this one? It's got the ding. I see it on, uh, like real housewives kind of shows vibes. Yeah. Like a, like a rich lady who's about to cheat. Yeah. Yeah. She like, uh, with like, uh, the pool boy. So we're going to, we're going to stress out. You have the same, you got, you have the same, uh, publicist. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So you're going to get stressed out again. You have a hard out at five, but we're going to be having this. Uh, what is this ceramic? Mm-hmm. So let's do the, you want to do L'chaim? Yeah. What we do is we bless the bottle, bless it. Yeah. You just, oh, you, uh, you do grace. It's sort of, yeah, sort of the same thing. So just tap the bottle. Do you want me to do the Jewish style? That was it. That was the Jewish thing. Oh, no, no, no. I mean the Jewish prayer on tequila. Uh, do you, do you say, do you have to say grace before every meal? If you're a devout Christian or just like, if it's a drink, you have to say grace or if it's like a No, that was more like, that's like some kid. I know. Weird shit. When I bless in the bottle that, that actually has. I don't know. I don't think that I didn't think of that as, as religious, but, but like if it's a snack, do you have to say grace? That's a good question. I think you do. You do. I think in Judaism too, for like, for different, this is the most boring conversation. Let's go. Let's, uh, let's have a look. Let's explore each other's faiths. I don't have, I don't, I don't faith. I don't faith. Do you, you faith? You're a God fearing gentleman. Amen. Yeah. Amen. But we've had out today, this is really blowing my mind. You were in the Jewish student union. I was in the JSU. Why? Because I have like a ton of Jewish friends that like were really into the same shit that I was into when I was in high school. I went to like a really like a. Smoking bud. Smoking bud. Yeah. You know what I mean? Like, like I was on lit mag. You know what lit mag is? You got good grades. I didn't get good grades, but I was into things. So I would be into something. Uh huh. And, and I would go into, I would just go and like join and lit mag, um, was like all of the, the like quirky writer folks at my school. Yeah. Girls were there, were there like the girls, the glasses, girls, indie girls. I would like the indies. The indie girls. I was into the indie girls. L'chaim, my friend. The A24 girls. Here we go. The bisexual lighting, the purple light. Sorry. Okay. Uh, thank you for coming on. Thank you. Um, yeah, it's interesting cause we just had, uh, Herb on the show and it's like, you're of the same generation, but I feel like you're like the good kid side of, uh, Chicago and they were the, they were the going outside, uh, boys. It would seem that way. Yeah. That's not the truth. We're from the same hood. We both from 79th. I've known Herb for a really, really long time. He's a great guy. He's an amazing dude. And you know, the hood, the hood is the hood. You know what I'm saying? It's really, really good. really just about what you do for the and Herb does for the hood. Like he has a school. He like works with mental health facilities. He's got like kids that he mentors like me and him are very, very similar. And yeah, and we talk like like once a week. That's my dude. Let's get to like your upbringing, your family and stuff like that. Like your your father was involved in politics. Both your parents were. Yeah. Yeah. My mom a little bit, but my dad, yes, for sure. He worked for he worked for he worked for Obama. He worked for Harold Washington. He worked for Rahm Emanuel. He so my dad really I guess I got to start with my grandmother. My grandmother was very like politically active and at a young age and she had all her kids young like my dad and my auntie's young. In Chicago? In Chicago. Yeah. And so, you know, Chicago super politically active space. This is where Freya Hampton is is organizing the Black Panthers, where Stokely Carmichael and all these people are gathering and having. So she was like really swept up in that stuff. And so. She would volunteer her kids for certain things. And then Harold Washington, first black mayor of Chicago. And like I think the first it might have been the first black mayor of a major of a metropolitan city. And so she got them all to sign up for that. And that kind of got my dad into politics. And then I think from there he just always stayed like, you know, it still has like this grassroots thing of like, you know, he was my block club president. Like my dad was very like on some like activism shit. But he worked he did also work for for Barack too. And so that's your boy, Barry Barry. That's not my boy. But you know that you've met the goat. I met that I met the goat before for sure. Really? What's his what's the energy like? What's what's. He's just like he is on TV written. No, he's not. Yeah. As a guy, 100 percent. Yeah, he's like, let me maybe he's just like he is. He says, let me be clear to you. Yeah. And he does this. He does the really I don't got the Brock impression. What do you think he's up to these days? He's got to be so bored. I don't know. I don't really talk to him. So I don't think of him as like a person like I think of like. Listen, your best friends will Obama. Yeah, that's what people that's what that's what I feel like. That's the. No, I'm I'm I'm honored that they gave me like they gave me some some shout outs in the past. I got a humanitarian war that you make one of his best of lists of for the year. I was on a playlist once. Yeah, you're that way. That's nepotism. Your dad, your dad thought you could have been. People know people, you know what I'm saying? Like that was really. What I got into the industry for was like. To get to know Obama to get on the playlist, you know, to get on the Obama playlist of the year. Yeah, yeah. What else did he have on that March Madness? I think he did. No, he didn't know. I feel like he did. No, he did it. Maybe not March Madness. No, he has like he has like smart stuff on it. No, he doesn't have dumb. He doesn't have. I'm on so many drugs. Like wink wink on there. He's a wink wink. He has like I cheated on you, but it's only because I'm depressed. The narrative of future as the. Is the best. Yeah. Because you still feel bad for him. He's like. Yeah, he's a. I'm so sad. That's why I had to get so much, so much pussy. It's great. He's so much. It's hilarious. He's like, I just it's because I'm so because I feel so lonely and you're like you buy it too. Can I vape on your show? Is that a thing? I feel like you're more. You hit V? We're drinking. Dude, have some more. Yeah, of course, dude. Are there a lot of rape? Yeah. Rapper. Are there a lot of rapper vapors? because vape i didn't are there a lot of vape rap vapor wrappers vapor wrappers uh you hit jewel that's old yeah no i'm definitely i'm like so i don't know i need to be a part of the class action lawsuit because i am thoroughly addicted to these and i am like just so i could watch this back later you are addicted to these it got me so into it it made me so addicted but now i started upper deckies here's a problem and this is gonna this is gonna lose us all our tobacco sponsors but the i don't have an issue i'm joking the issue is that like think about this because you used to smoke cigarettes i'm guessing yeah so which are cool yeah they look way cooler um faster uh death the thing is like with cigarettes it's fine going to like like weaning yourself off you know you get like the patch you know what i'm saying where you get the gum and there's like a regimented schedule for how you get off of it where it's like okay to do this much today then you do this much the next week does it work i'm sure a hell of people quit smoking cigarettes but this doesn't have a this has the unlimited this is just a cart a cartridge i did it in bed my girlfriend would be like you're you disgust me it's the least second you know it's like you're not like humphrey bogart for hitting a jewel i get that right no girls like i've wanted to like i want to ride him like a bike because she sees him with a geek bar you know it's not a sexy thing you no sorry okay no uh let's let's get into like one thing i found interesting about you is that it came kind of out of your education like your career kind of like it seems like the schools that you went to kind of fostered you becoming an artist is that correct i thought you're gonna go in a different direction what i would say is like i thought you're gonna say so my first mixtape was called 10 day it was about a suspension from high school weed for piffing yeah i got suspended too but i smoking no for uh i told my dad if if i wanted to go to like this like this teen summer program i told my dad i get straight a's and i got six a's and two b's and i forged my report card and my dad fucking bitch ass ratted on me to the school this story took 10 left turns like i thought she was gonna get in trouble six things i've never i don't you said you forged your family report card and your dad told on you to your school went to the dean who looked like a mole this guy looked like a man i got called in i got and i said to when i got in trouble i said i was like i'm lying to my parents and i'm not really lying to the school um so you got in trouble and then you wrote your first mixtape 18 years old yeah i think i was uh yeah i was 18 i started at the end of my high school senior year of high school and put it out i think when i was 19 yeah and yeah like the influence of school and me feeling so dissociated from like the building or the idea of work or the idea of these adults being teachers and not just being regular niggas that hated us they're losers let's let's be honest teachers are losers so so just let the record show i don't i don't think they are losers some of these guys we had oh yeah sorry no my bad yeah yeah my teachers was losers for sure teachers in general back in the day back in the i'm talking back in the day i'm talking in 1943 1944 in antiquity i'm talking about like fucking stone age i'm talking about i love saying i'm talking about it's the end you ad lib it sounds like a song to me go ahead this is a track right now i was gonna say like aristotle okay pedophile yeah okay so let's so let's let's make a pivot okay um um let's go he was a teacher though right yeah that's what i was gonna say let's go talus of miletus right they what used to happen was one person would teach one person right so you're not gonna be able to teach one person right you're not gonna be able to you get that one-on-one education a mentor typically it's your father but yes or you go to a mentor who's a philosopher and they teach you one-on-one what the game is yeah and now we have a standardized education where we send 30 random kids into a room that sit all day with an adult who just got a divorce yeah and so they have they owe nothing to this child they don't think that you know and it's not this child it's 30 childs and next year they'll have another 30 child so it's like and i should be saying children but you gave me child whatever it's a come on dude the point that i'm making though is like it's uh i think the issues with teachers are that they're overwhelmed and they're human beings so when they're you know i'm saying getting fucking uh fucking markers thrown at them and tiktok challenged all over like at a certain point they'd like they check out and i think that you know back in the day post stone age pre-1941 there was a lot more um you know like direct education or at least like more sizable to just be with one adult guy wearing a fucking toga that'd be annoying no that would be whack i want girls to be there and kind of try to have a girl mentor girls could teach you too no but you're like but you can't i mean i guess in what i'm saying is like a school that socializes you right like yeah the fun part about school is that you like you're terrified to get beat like get called gay when you're in sixth grade like you're trying to survive and it makes you a regular human being right no fact apparently they're trying to take bullying away i'm like these kids are going to become sociopaths you develop a personality by being terrified right that's it no i mean bullying away no really funny that's what i'm i'm going to send my kids they're trying to take bullying out of the schools i did read that you have to bring bullying back because that's really where you're that's what we're built on i need through like a like darwinism to find something to survive you're like i'm gonna get really good at rapping i'm gonna get really good at rapping i'm gonna get really good at rapping and i was like i'm i'm like you know i have i have to do something that'll be funny i have to be funny facts i fucking feel you right so like if you send your kids to one of these goddamn sixty thousand dollar a year schools where they're told that they're amazing they're gonna be fucking sociopaths facts you have to tell them that they suck and the teacher has to be a loser going through a divorce yes that's how we got here that's sorry that's my rant on schools um no but also in writers programs and stuff like that yeah right we used to do after school like the fucking um jewish student alliance jewish student Alliance was more for the pizza. There was a thing. What, Jewish pizza? No, dude. In this day and age, you can't just act like you didn't do it. Like, when you go to JSU, you get, like, there's a dude named Mr. Katz. He orders a whole fucking pizza. And I say whole fucking pizza. I mean a whole fucking pizza for me. He orders, like, ten pizzas for everybody. And then I would come in there. I would get pizza. They would talk about a lot of stuff. Israel. I don't know what they were talking about. But what I'm saying is that. You're just like Jewish girls. I'm not Jewish girls. I'm a Muslim. Big ones with a skinny waist. I want to ask you a question about, like, your first mixtapes, like, the first three. Like, is there a freedom in, like, making art when you're so young? Because you're, like, not afraid of, like, being corny. I think you still have. For the kids that I know, the kids that I grew up with, like, we were all, like, we already believed that we were rappers. We weren't, like, going to grow up and become rappers. Like, we were already taking everything that we did super seriously. So I don't think that there was ever a point where I had, I damn near had more pressure on me when I was making ass rap and coming back. I never really thought about it like that. As a young person. Yeah, because you believe that your existence and your identity is so based on this thing that you, that you at least felt like you were when you were in the comfort of, like, I go to fucking school every day. Like, my mom gives me. She gives me lunch money. Like, versus being 19, being outside, like, having to figure out a way to pay for stuff. You, like, you take it even more seriously. But, yeah, all the way back when I was in the after school programs, I was doing, like, fucking, what is it called? It was called Young Chicago Authors. You get, like, prompts and, like, imagine all these kids getting up and they're doing poems about, like, real fucking trauma and fucking redlining. And, like, we're all, like, we're those kids. Like, but all the way back in 2010, 2009. Yeah. We're, like. The kids wearing keffiyehs and being, like, vocal and being, like, we write poetry and we, like, we're radical. Like, that's the kids that I grew up around. And then some kids also that grew up, like, Lucky and Mick Jenkins and certain people that came out of Chicago that, like, you know what I'm saying? Like, it was a very, very diverse, like, group of people that were in the, like, after school shit that I was in, rapping and stuff at a young age. But everybody took it super serious. Right. Because there's such a, there's, like, a kind of a sweet naivety about being a kid where you're, like, I'm a real rapper. I really believe in this. Yeah, yeah. I believe in this. I feel like, I think a lot about, like, with music, like, it's, like, for, like, Nas made Illmatic when he was 17, right? Yeah, yeah. You know? And it must be, like, there's a freedom in expressing yourself as a young person that might, like, you know what's, like, you're not afraid of, like, maybe I'm going to fuck up something or something. Like. You know what I think it is? No, you're right. It is a freedom in that you don't have certain knowledge that you, you know, think of as a, as fact or, like, a, or a. Like, you don't have, like, restrictions or boundaries about what you put out or what you say or how you say it or when you drop it when you're a kid. Because there's this little thing in the back of your head that's, like, you know, this shit might not work out, you know? And not, and not as, and, like, how I just did it, you know what I'm saying? Yeah. As this gesture, like, oh, this shit might not work out. So, I'm going to do what I'm going to do, but, like, I don't got kids. I don't got, you know what I'm saying? Right. No real responsibilities. I haven't tasted the success yet, so. Stand-up's the opposite. You know that? You don't, like, most, most great stand-ups get great. Like, after 40. Like, it's very rare. I have heard that before. It's very rare for a young person to be, like, like, Chappelle was a phenom. Yeah. At, like. He was a child, probably, like, 14. At, like, 18. Yeah, yeah. I, I started stand-up in D.C. where he started stand-up. You know, Chappelle's my mentor. He's your, he's your Aristotle. Yeah, that's my real-life mentor. Yep. He's your, your. The toga man. He's your toga man. Mm-hmm. He's your number one. Yeah. What has he taught you? A lot of things. A lot of, like, jokes that, like, if I repeat them, I'll get canceled. But, like, he's very, very, like. No, but say it's a quote. Yeah. All right. So, Dave Chappelle was talking about. No, I'm just joking. No, but, like, he's, like, I met him in 20, I think, 14. He had a show before he did the Netflix deal in Chicago. And we bought tickets. He invited me backstage, me and, like, my whole team. And we stayed there, like, smoking cigarettes and joking around the piano for, like, till, like, 5 in the morning. And we stayed connected through that. He was at my wedding. He was, like, you know, knows my kids. Yeah. Like, I was just at his 50th last year in New York. Like, this is, like, somebody that I really, really look up to. But what he taught me and what I think really shines through in the album is that, like, one of the most important things that you have is self-determination and being able to define who you are and what you're going to do. And, like, we don't always talk about it because it was so long ago. How old are you, by the way? I'm 32. So, okay. So, do you remember when they blackballed him, though? I remember when he went to Durban. But they didn't call it going to Durban. They called it going to Africa. And there's a sensation of lies. And people said he was on crack. And they said he was on crack. And even though he's a devout Muslim and never smoked crack. Well, beyond that, he was the funniest guy in the world. But he did make a decision. It's a very brave thing. And that's what I'm saying. Sometimes you make a decision or a left turn and media can be strong enough to push you in a direction where you feel like you're not in control anymore. Yeah, yeah. Even though you're literally taking control. Hollywood likes to do that to black people. Yeah. And people period. Kind of. You know? No, no, no. I think black guys. I appreciate you saying that. I mean, I don't know if it's kind of. Yeah, yeah. But you're probably right. I mean, it's like, it's, yeah. I mean, he's talked about it before, too. Did he give you that type of advice? He's like, if shit gets too hot, just like take time to yourself. He talked to me. Like, he talked to metaphors. And I don't want to butcher it. But he talked about this thing about taking your ball and going home. And the metaphor was about. Classic. You go to the court. The classic. Take your ball and go home. You go to the court. You play. Everybody wants to play with you and use your basketball. And then when they start playing by weird rules and hacking and fouling you and doing all that shit, you take your ball and you go home. Because they could find another ball, but is it going to be the same ball? Hell no. I don't know. So they're going to wait until you come back and ball out like Jordan wearing a 4'5". And that same spot's going to be there for you, but you have to be strong enough to walk off and take your ball. That was one of the things he told me in 2019 that like. But he said a bunch of things. He said this thing about, that I always quote about the yearbook photos. So he says like albums, whether it's a music album or a comedy album, these albums are yearbook photos. They're not the photo of you as a human, even though as an artist you want to do that. You want to create. It's like where I'm at in eighth grade. It's where you're at in eighth grade. I was busted. But it's important to take that yearbook photo because that's what you are. You're a documentarian. Your whole power is your voice and being able to say this thing happened. So you have to take those yearbook photos so that, you know. You're a 38 year old self. You're 48. You're, you're, you're throughout your life. You can look back and people can get all these pictures of you at different times. Yeah. What is, what's the distinction as someone that came up through mixtapes, what's the distinction there? Because like, for me, I understood like when I was, uh, younger, like there was like the drought and the dedication and those were just like, you could tell a little way was just like taking people's beats and then just doing the songs better for beats is what they call it. And, but like, it seems like, you know, if you're reading this as too late, it just, to me, that just registers as an album. Like acid rap just kind of, in my mind registers as an out, like, I don't understand what the distinction is in people's minds. I'm like a, what do they call it? Not an etymologist, but a, a linguist. So like my whole thing is like attributing power to words and like, or like reevaluating the power of words or removing power from certain words. And so, um, the. The whole mixtape thing was like a, is it, I'm just fucking around. No, but that's how the world perceives it because it's not commercial. But the thing is that it's, it's hella work. It's hella love. You want a Grammy? Yeah. Off of mixtape. That's crazy. It is crazy. Like, I don't understand like what makes it 56 nights of mixtape and what makes Dirty Sprite 2 an album. It's this existence to me at the time when I was growing up, when I was putting out my first mixtapes. It's, it's existence outside of the market while having an influence on the market. So albums are already within the commercial landscape of like, there's a system, there's labels that press records and have control over radio time and all these other things. And then there's, you know, then there's the culture separate from that where I might burn 50 CDs and I know all the gas station niggas, I know all the, the radio DJs, I know all these people and I'm going to make this. You do it out the trunk. I'm moving it out. Exactly. So that's the mixtape. Vibe DJ Paul style, you know, so much I love, I love music shout out to MC hammer, like niggas don't really talk about it, but MC hammer and a little bit later, they, they really like started that out the trunk vibe, like Memphis multi multi-state like movements of that shit, the Memphis stuff that those DJ Paul like mixtapes, like little flies of like, that is the cool, it's some of the coolest music in the world. It sounds like it's coming out of hell because the production is so bad. It sounds like it's like coming out of the depths of hell. It's some of the coolest music I've ever listened to. No facts. Yeah, it's freeing. Folks, if you know me, you know, I love to work out and a lot of people have been messaging me asking for what my secret is. And this is what it is. It's momentous creatine, muscle performance and cognitive function. Sorry. I use it every day and it's not just for building muscle. It's become. A daily essential for strength, focus, recovery, aging, and cognitive performance. Imagine being really. strong and really smart. These bite-sized lemon lime chews make consistency effortless. You just chew and then you fucking go. Each chew delivers exactly one gram of Creapure creatine monohydrate. 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Open an account in two minutes at Chime.com slash TAFS. That's Chime.com slash TAFS. Chime feels like progress. Your sausage McMuffin with egg didn't change. Your receipt did. So you should get a discount if you're getting a discount on a meal. Do you have a mentor in rap? My mentor passed away. So my mentor is a dude, and I'm so glad I get to say this on your show. No. My mentor is this dude named Mike Hawkins, and we called him Brother Mike. He was a rapper? He was a rapper, poet, revolutionary, mentor in Chicago. And a lot of the people that people fuck with from Chicago out of my era, Vic Mensa, No Name, Mick Jenkins, Lucky X, Nico. I'm missing a lot of people. Was Juice in your scene? Yeah, Juice didn't go to the same after school program. I don't think he went to U Media, because he's from South Suburbs. So he came up, he's a little bit younger than me. He like emo. He kind of, to me, invented that. Was he like an emo boy? He invented that. No, there was emo before it, but it was emo, right? I'm saying like, emo in the culture. Like, in terms of like, he's like, I think one of the highest selling artists of all time. Like, definitely the highest streaming artist of all time. So his music, and that's not posthumously, that's like during his lifetime. He's a, you know. He's a genius, people say. Genius in his own right. And I got to spend a little bit of time with him before he passed a couple of times. And just like, got to pick his brain about that whole era. And he was aware of like, Like, we thought of it as an after school program, but niggas outside of that shit looked at us like a super group. You know, I'm sure you've heard of, have you ever heard of Saba? Or Pivot? Yeah. Or like, all of these people came from this little like, we used to go to this after school program and literally just be kids rapping. You were the good kids. We were the- You and Vic and Felix Biederman, you guys were the good kids in Chicago. To you, for sure. I think the point is like, there is a value in like, having a- A cohort, like a group of niggas that are all trying to do the same thing. A scene. Yeah, a scene that like, that blew up. I'll take a little bit more of it. Who else is in your scene? Wilco? Shout out to Wilco. They're a little bit older, but Wilco's from Chicago. Band. Incredible band. Do you think your fan base knows Wilco? Oh yeah. Shout out to Wilco. Shout out to Jeff Tweedy. You feel me? Dude, yeah. You like John Prime? That's another Chicago guy. I feel like I know that name. I'm blanking right now. He made like, country music. You have to go now? No. He's a guitarist, right? He's a guitarist? Oh, he's like a, yeah. It's like country folk, but he's from Chicago. Yeah. He's a god. He died from COVID. Damn. Yeah, unfortunately. Maybe that's when I might have heard him. I feel like I heard that name recently. Yeah, yeah. I'm gonna check him out. How much were you exposed to like, old blues? Like, Chicago is such a music city. It's like, so rich in history. I'm reading the Keith Richards autobiography right now. They signed in Chicago, didn't they? Well, they like, being the coolest guy, I guess, when they were like, young men, was like, having the best records. And they literally, they couldn't get, they like, had to write to Chess Records to get Muddy Waters records sent to England. Yeah. And they like, had this music that no one else in their country had heard, basically. Yeah. Well, you know, the invention of like, celebrity as a musician is all kind of basic. It's based off of like, trade embargoes opening up, and being like, okay, we can move music and media as like, an export from America. And so people that had never been to these other countries started becoming famous off of that. And famously, a lot of the, you know, like, you know, what we think of as like, the vanguard of rock were all like, influenced by like, Chicago records finally coming out of, like you said, Chess Records. Right. They are the, they're the GOAT, Swagged Out White Boys. They never even got the cultural appropriation, like, accusations, the stones. Yeah. They were just doing it black. But they went on tour with. And people were like, we fuck with this. Like, they were opening up for Little Richard and for Muddy Waters, and like, literally singing their songs like that. And they, I think they don't get that, because they were always open about where their influence was coming from. They loved it. Yeah. They loved it. Little Richard took the Beatles on tour. Mm-hmm. He's a god, that guy. Hundred percent. Hundred percent. Tootie Fruity is a song about butt sex. The architect. That's what he is. The architect of rock and roll, man. You know that song is, it's Tootie Fruity, Big Booty. I did know that. I saw, wait, was that real? He was a gay guy, like a psychopath gay guy that was just an unreal musician. Yeah. Unbelievable guy. I love Little Richard. He influenced, like, Bob Dylan, too. Everybody. Yeah. He's the architect of rock and roll. That's the, like, the deep thing about, like, all music. And as time goes on, it's like, we continue to do shows like this where we can have conversations. It's like. I love music. There's such a rich history of music. There's such a rich history of black people making something raw before we get it. And then us stealing it. And popularizing it. Yeah. We can call it whatever we want to call it. But like. Especially gay black guys, too. They'll be gay. Watch out. Chicago House. Chicago House is, like, literally. I didn't know that it was started by gay people, but I wouldn't be surprised because Chicago as, like, a culturally rich city, like, we have always been progressive and always been, like, on the forefront of, like, music getting introduced, so, like, a lot of the, like you said, deep house, jungle, all that shit comes from house music in Chicago and that comes from the club scene or, like, the basement party scene. Yeah. It's amazing. Like, techno comes from Detroit and house comes from Chicago and then it was exported to Europe and they don't understand that. I feel like when you go to, like, Germany, you go to, like, a, like, a fucking, like, it sounds like, it sounds like the Matrix. It doesn't sound like, there's no, like, there's no, like, black, there's no soul in it. It's super different. And it's just, like, they, but they're, like, consuming something that they don't realize, but it, where it comes from. What's funny, though, is I will say, like, Germany and, like, fucking Poland and I think that Brits, they have a greater appreciation, I feel like, and knowledge of the history of something. So, just yesterday. Yeah. We was in Hyde Park in Chicago. Germany loves their history. Yeah. We met 10, like, multinationals from, like, Korea and Germany and all these other places that were footworkers. You probably don't know what footwork is. Yes, I do. Of course you do. Okay. But, like, you're, like, most people, my fans, don't know what footwork is. I know what footwork is. But. Can you do it? I can. I won't today. I showed Herb a video of Derrick Rose doing it in high school. Yeah. Have you seen that video? My God, he could have been a dancer. We all grew up footworking, but it's such a small subculture of a subculture of a city in America that the idea that I'm telling you, I met like 10 motherfuckers with thick accents that could footwork better than like a random person that grew up in Chicago because of the influence and the reverence that they pay overseas to, you know, DJ Rashad music. That was my guy. That was my guy. Yeah. No, I, that music is incredible. Yeah. Yeah. Rest in peace, DJ Rashad. That was my big brother. That was another one of my mentors. You knew him well? Very well. My first tour ever was with me and DJ Rashad. Have you ever, do you make music as well? Have you ever like- Like producing? Yeah. Yeah. I'm not that good at juke music like that. Like I got the same, like two rhythms when it comes to making that, but like other rhythms for sure. It's cool how they, I don't think it, I don't fully actually buy it, but when they say Rick Rubin doesn't know any of the buttons, he's just vibes. He has to know the buttons after all these years. Yeah. I'm certain. But being so good at, at chilling that you, that you can be a, like a, a super producer. Yeah. That's the coolest kind of guy you can be. Not for sure. It is about vibes. It is about who you got in the room, in the studio. Like somebody can throw a vibe off or like set the- Dude, we have to go to the studio right now. I'll get the guitar. Do you get to set the vibes? Get the guitar. Get the guitar. No. Yeah. I want to, I want to talk to you about like kind of your path. Because it's, it's interesting because you, you got so successful so young, right? And now you're 32, right? And like, I think that like, yeah, like does this feel like, what is, what does the term comeback mean to you in the context of your new album? I feel like, I guess it just means coming back to the fans. It's been six years since I dropped a project. Yeah. Do you like the fans? I do. They can be annoying though. What's weird is like my fans. My fans, like usually we talk about the whole thing about trading cards and about the, you know, devaluing the human part of people that we consider to be celebrities or famous or whatever. But what's weird about my fans is like, because it was so grassroots and like me literally hand-to-handing mixtapes and like selling merch and doing small shows and growing over time, my fans are really like, my fans are really, really invested in like me as a person and like, you know, when I meet them, like I get stories that like fuck me up. Like stories about how music genuinely saved their life. They were in a dark place or, you know, I got divorced when they got divorced or I got married when they got married, or I had this when they had this and like. They should go to therapy, probably. They're telling me their story. Instead of a song. No, but they're like, it's like a, I think there's a value in being outside when you're me in that, like. The type of like fan that I have is so at random and so like so many demographics, so many different like kinds of people that like I never expected. And the stories, they'd be like, you want to sit and listen to it. Really? Yeah. People have said that to me that they were like, I was depressed and suicidal, but the Come Town podcast got me through it. I was like, you should go to therapy. Or listen to a coloring book. CTP, I was going to tell you, when I first saw you, I'm like, man. What's that? Come Town. Oh, you know. Oh, Come Town? I was going to tell you, I was going to fucking kill myself. No, shut up, dude. Really? What? From what? No, I'm just joking. I'm just joking. It's not funny to joke about killing yourself, but he gave me hell of a degree. It's funny. You can say it. Yeah. You had a mentorship with Kanye as well? Yeah. Yeah. I mean, like when I was in 11th grade, like College Dropout came out. That's so crazy. I think, and this is a compliment. He was the best. I think you're younger than me. I know you already told me that you're older than me, but. I look young. You look young. Yeah, yeah, yeah. When College Dropout came out, I was in fourth grade. That was the first hip hop album I ever had. I had, no, well, I had Ready to Die. I liked Biggie before that. No, no, actually, no, no. Fifth grade. Do you remember when Biggie died? No. It was on the news. I was like little. I was not watching the fucking news. I was watching Sesame Street. No, no. I remember Mace. I remember like Harlem World. I remember like. That's post Biggie. That's towards the end of Biggie's career. I remember life after death. Fifth grade, I was sick. I was home from school. I was home from school sick and I watched Jerry Springer and then Maury and then I watched MTV and then I heard Feel So Good by Mace and it became my favorite song in fifth grade. That's ill. And then middle school, Eminem. When we was in sixth grade, Mace had a comeback and he had a song called Welcome Back and that was our shit, bro. He also found God. And Breathe, Step, Shake. Yeah. Breathe, Step, Shake. Let it go. That's how I learned how to Harlem Shake. Shout out to Mace. Are you from New York? No, I'm from Las Vegas, Nevada. I didn't know that. Yeah, yeah. Uh, you got the second wave, Mace. I got the original stuff. Yeah, you got the first. You got the OG. That's what I was just thinking. It's like you were already a formed hip hop fan by the time you got to Kanye. I wasn't. No, I wasn't. Well, the other thing is the boys my age. What are you stuttering on? We love rap. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But for me, I'm saying like. The white boys our age. Imagine your introduction to, like you said that your introduction was Mace. And like Mace, low key has a lot of similarities to Ye to me. And they worked together before. So, Kanye did the Welcome Back Mace album. Well, he. That's the other thing about Kanye that I don't think people say enough is that he could potentially be the best producer of all time as well. It's Ye, man. It is crazy to me. It's Ye. Are you guys in touch these days? Is Ye all right? You know what's so crazy is people ask me that like I'm his therapist. Like, I don't know. I mean, like, I'm sure that he's that he's fine. I think he just did like a sold out show in Korea or something like that. Huge show in Korea. But I like I haven't. Like, I have not texted him recently. That's the point. Yeah, yeah, yeah. You want to tell him I'm chill? Some of them are OK? I'll try. No, I'm just joking. No, I got to say this. Like, the anti-Semitism is talked about a lot nowadays. It's really annoying for me because it's like a lot of the time it's just people criticizing Israel. And it's like it's it's just a bad faith argument and not what anti-Semitism is. It's like you criticize a genocide. That's not anti-Semitism. It's like two separate things. But the first time I didn't feel it growing up ever. But when Kanye said, I want the Jewish kids that love me to ask their dads why Ye's mad at us. I think I got you into your dad. I got my feelings hurt. I was like, but I love I love you. He's I mean, he's so important to like boys my age. Yeah. When we were in high school, because he was the first like he was like he went he worked at the Gap and stuff. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. He wasn't he wasn't like it was like you could be a nerd also kind of be good at music. But no, I mean, he's my favorite musician. I think like what good artistry should do is make you want to be yourself. Like, I think anybody that ever fell in love with an artist, they were like, damn, it's also it's obviously like, oh, this person's talented. Their voice sounds good and shit like that. But like. I feel like most people fall in love, like when it gets past a superficial phase, they fall in love with like artistry and like. Like well-written songs and songs that feel like it speaks to them and they're like, damn, this person is being themselves. And I think like no matter who that person was for you, if it was, yeah, if it was Stevie Wonder, if it was whatever the fuck it was like, yeah, you fall in love with the idea of somebody being themselves. And I think he was he's always like unapologetically going to say the wildest shit that comes to his brain. And I think that like for a lot of people when we were younger, it was like it felt like empowering. I don't think he was that wild early on. He was talking about like when he was at college and stuff and that he wanted to drop out of art school. I wrote my college essay when I was in when I thought I was going to go to college. I wrote it like from the perspective of like I was like, this is I'm never going to go to college. I wrote a college essay. That's a repressed memory. I wrote a college essay because I went to a college prep school. So in Chicago, you go to public school for grammar school and then you went to a magnet school. Yeah. Yeah. And then when you go to. When you go to. And so magnet school is a public school that basically pulls kids from black and brown neighborhoods or different parts of the from the of the of the school system. Yeah. Or neighborhoods to go to a school that has like, you know, that's for smart kids. Right. Yeah. And then I went to a magnet school to vibe. Yeah. It was embarrassing. And then when you go to high school, you could do this thing called selective enrollment where you can test if your school is like a good school. You could test into like another good school where you don't have to your parents don't have to pay, but you get a good education. And I went to I went to to to Jones and was like exposed to a lot of shit that I wasn't typically exposed to. And it was like a very artsy school. And I guess like in that time, like I learned a lot about I think I lost my train of thought. I feel like I forgot what you went to a school that inspired you to be an artist, to be an artist. Yeah. Kanye went to art school, too. He dropped out. Yeah, I got plenty. For me, it's like, you know what it was? I'll tell you my age again. When the Harry. Potter books were coming up, growing up. I remember that he was one year older than me. And I feel like each year he went back to Hogwarts. I was like, now I'm that. And it's like, yeah, when he wanted to like he wanted to clap Cho Chang. I was feeling that kind of way at school. Yeah. You know, like he wanted to take down Cho Chang. Yeah. Why? Why is that name so fucked up? Why am I talking? I mean, Harry Potter is so racist in retrospect. Yeah. Yeah. They they ask. But I'm a huge. - I'm a huge Harry Potter fan. - Yeah, me too. - I call myself, on a lot of my projects Harry Potter the boy who lived oh really yes who's the Voldemort in your life King Vaughn no I'm kidding I'm kidding I'm kidding I'm kidding I'm kidding I'm kidding were those guys nice to you even though you got good you went to a good got good grades and stuff I would imagine it would be a little bit like I don't want them to think that I'm a nerd each other look cuz I was a nerd too right and like the I used to cuz I like me that you cuz I like I like weed and that's how I got the cool kids to like this the kids that were being bad what's the word for like you like what like you vibe with somebody but I can't even think of a word thrilling it's like incredible to be around what do you work resonate yeah you feel I feel like you but what I was gonna say is like the way that Chicago operates we all got oh yeah we all got to see each other we all got to work together so like so they wanted you to get good grades they're like I'm proud of you for getting good grades it's not like California I think what you're referencing is like when niggas be like this and this is good nigga he's gonna go to the NFL like Kendrick out the streets like Kendrick right I hear what you're saying is that when I first saw the don't like video I was like it was scary to me because there was no girls in it and there were no they were just boys just talking about they're an empty apartment there was no hose like rap was always about trying to get a lot of girls right and I'm like these kids just have guns and they're they have their own apartment whose apartment is that their children and they I if they and they're your age demographic too and you and Vic must have just been like a little bit butterflies know before you met the lads yeah it was I think it's like real about this yeah no I mean they're also younger than me are they young they're younger than that makes it like two years that makes it scarier too cuz you know the younger kids have less of a moral compass to be honest they got on before us like if I'm being super real if it wasn't for Keith of course Vaughn was later but Keith Dirk is kind of my same generation and not generation we all like close in age but like he was like that second wave but like Keith and King Louie both blew up out of Chicago around the same time 2011-2012 like 14 15 years old Louie's older than us but but Keith yeah younger than me and around that same time was when MTV started coming to Chicago to do documentaries like a documentary series on Chicago by my block Chicago the vice one is really good vice one is crazy I might what is racism the rice what is like most of those documents we're here at all we're here at old block where we're the murder where the child murders are happening yeah um with like I saw an interview recently with Sosa where he's like like when we were consuming it from the outside I was like people I think people said that he was autistic and that's why he's so good at hooks and like racism well no but then it just he was like there was an interview with him last year and he's like yeah I just had to get out of Chicago he's like now I live in LA you know he's just he was like on a lot of drugs I think as a kid probably yeah you know it's also environment like you got to realize like he just seems so annoyed like he's doing great Vegas right yeah Las Vegas is super different from New York and I'm and even though it's close I'm sure super different from LA when I and when I say LA I mean like in terms of Hollywood like terms of how many opportunities there are it's like Orange County camera well I feel like Las Vegas has happened and I'm not saying it's not a big city it's just like Chicago it's a big city but it's not a media export so what you so imagine when like if Vegas had a Keith it's like there was somebody that was so you know Jimmy Kimmel Jimmy Kimmel it's like a Jimmy Kimmel from Vegas yeah he is crazy play break Greg Maddux who else is from Vegas panic at the disco the killers CSI Las Vegas CSI Las Vegas shouts out CSI Las Vegas they were kind of the King Von of my childhood I think there's a there's a there's a there's a time period that happened where Chicago became the epicenter of like of hip-hop music and what was gonna be the new thing that white folks were scared of and the and that popularity grew so many careers and and really created a scene in Chicago that yeah you know I think like put us at the forefront of music for a long time and even to this day like I think Chicago slang Chicago artists like still have a great influence but it's not New York it's not LA so I think for a long time it was only in LA that Atlanta Atlanta for a little bit Houston yeah and then yeah yeah everybody has their regional you know points in time it was just common basically and then Kanye Kanye a comment yeah I feel like and then you know you you yeah you were with someone for 20 years for 22 years who your ex-partner your ex-wife or you knew her for 22 years we are in Chicago so I've known her for like most of my life yeah so in doing the research for this like I saw like the way people are so wrapped up in like you're like it has to be a product of celebrity that people are like I thought this was relationship goals but they you know like that people are like so invested in it in a certain way and the first thought I had was like going back to that future point right mm-hmm futures like uh was it you think that people are so wrapped up in in your shit because they thought of you as like he's the good happy go lucky guy and I think that's super possible I think like there's an outside like when you put out when you publish something you publish the work but you also just published the cover right so it's like people don't have to open the book to like know what everything's about they just have to see it on the shelf and that metaphor I'm just saying like if I'm a celebrity like everybody that watches that interview doesn't necessarily do a deep dive into my music they're just introduced to me in this video and so I think like with celebrity and with like personal lives being shared I think that there's people that don't have a full context of anything other than maybe something that they've read or like something that I've put out there about how long we've known each other you know what the relationship feels like yeah versus like people that are my fans know like I was you know I got married like four years after I had already had my kid like I've known this person for a long time we've been in and out of things but I have like a you know really really strong relationship and I think that when I was very public about being married to her and being happy about getting married and being you know do you regret being so open about your personal life no I'm a rapper like that's a that's a big part of being a rapper is being open about your public life and being I'm sorry about your personal life and being open to criticize and to analyze the real world as well as your own vulnerability it's a little bit annoying right like you're going through a personal experience and then people have opinions on like yeah your personal life it's only annoying when you don't like the opinions but like when they're good opinions don't you like it like when somebody's celebrating your success I don't care what a stranger thinks of my girlfriend niggas don't care no like we just hit it yeah but I'm just making a point I was just joking we got a rap sorry for saying that I was just making I was making a point I want to go I want to get back to the point I made about future right like no one's team Russell Wilson everyone's like yeah future he's got he's you know he didn't make March Madness but like people what I'm saying is like people are like I what I found was like and I didn't know about this because I don't like consume this type of media but like the response to your divorce is like that people were like had it we're like it felt big or something because it was relationship goals it's like get a fucking life like it's like the future doesn't get that right because it's like the assumption is is making this he has to get pussy I was making like everything that we see like celebrities are the flagship of conversation we push product right so when any headline that you get from a blog or from a shade room or anything it's it's pushing a story but it's also pushing a specific moral boundary where people have to feel you know hot or cold on either side and so everything is politicized even if we're not that politics that's just but that's the way the media where it's bad for society though no one would like no one was like facts no one like there was the Beatles or like Elvis Presley no one would like felt like personally betrayed by their personal lives like that there was a there was a distance between the the artist and then the audience and I think for sure probably the internet early yeah probably the internet has the internet has blurred that line like remember when like women couldn't wear skirts past their knees on TV like remember when like people I don't remember that well there was a time when like it was controversial to have a black person on TV on sharing the same set as a white person I'm saying like through media as it's as society and culture is revolutionized there's been more and more like a close relationship to TV and of and it's grown as society becomes cooler with things that used to be taboo are you single gentleman now or yeah have you considered doing doing what what the God did you get like a girl that looks a little bit like the last one and then make her be naked what that is hilarious so uh you've traveled a lot right you have Uh, you said that, uh, I've seen other interviews with you. Like Ghana was a heavy influence. Uh, tell us about like the, this is this, the CD. So this is, this, this is the CD, right? And people don't typically have CD play them. I'm sure you probably don't. So what I did with this project was in an attempt to create a physical handoff with between me and my fans. Cause that's what people used to really like is like, I could get something that I own forever that I got from this artist that I love physical. I gave them some physical, but more importantly, I wanted to give them something that, um, was, uh, functional. So this has a NFC technology. I'm sure, you know, NFCs are, but national football conference. That was incorrect. So what NFC is, is it's a, uh, near field communication. So what you could do with this CD. As you could just tap your phone straight to it without like using a QR code or anything. And a link will populate and come down and it'll take you to the album. So you can Bluetooth it, um, straight from your phone. So at any point, like if you keep your CD, you could play it on any speaker. You're the first person ever first person. Really? You invented a new thing. It's like when two iPhones touch and then you, it's the same technology. Or like when you use like your, uh, when you do, when you touch another person's, uh, a hot girls thing happens and vibrates and there's a vibrate. And you're like, are we. Fuck. You right now? It's a little bit like that. Uh, can facts. So what do you like your first single is, is called tree, right? My first song is called tree. So it was, uh, a record that took a long time to put out, uh, that I love dearly. And I feel like it's a good thesis for the project. It's a, it's, it's not, uh, it doesn't cover all the topics of the project, but the song itself is about, um, you know, my mom, my, you know, how we grew up with these certain taboos around weed, you know, like how we, how weed is represented when it comes to hip hop artists and black culture versus how we look at it as a financial, like, yeah, exactly. Like, uh, you know, so there's a, there's, there's a separation there, but it's also mainly, uh, about the inequities in the cannabis industry. Um, how niggas go to jail, but other people make billions is there's a, there's a, there's a overall. Oh, I'm sorry. There's an overarching disparity when it comes to ownership in agriculture. Black farmers, um, access to produce access to, to, to fresh foods and access to the monies that those things make. And there's a, a microcosm of that is in the cannabis industry. But there's like, there's a larger conversation that I'm having that has a lot of connection to sharecropping and to slavery and just the way that capitalism was allowed to, to, to go crazy in this country. So this whole album, it's called Starline, um, it's named after, uh, the black Starline, which was started by Marcus Garvey in the twenties. He started the first ever black owned shipping and trading company on these big ass ocean liners that would send beans, coffee, all types of stuff, um, for other companies to South America and central America. He print off that he, he, he did, he had a, he had a place called, uh, Dirk has a trucking company. Dirk does have it. So all of this is in line. There's a lot of actual trucking companies that are named Starline because that's typically like a freighting company name. And the point of this project is to kind of like for the first time, I think at the forefront of hip hop highlight black entrepreneurship, uh, black self-determination and, and, and I think just shining, like, I feel like that's what you. You see this. So this was painted by Brandon bro. It's the same art from, uh, acid wrap and coloring book. Yeah. Yeah. And what he really focuses on is the composition, which is always typically the same with like the portraiture in the center, but he's very, really focused on like the fucking that's the Aurora Borealis, also known as the Northern lights. If you're not a nerd. Have you ever seen it? I've never been there. You got to go to Iceland. Boys trips. Last trip, dude. I liked the way you said it the first time. Last trip. Iceland. Iceland. But last trip. I think weed should go back to illegal personally. It's not cool anymore now. No effect. It's too much weed. You walk around New York. It's just like these and the dispensaries, the aesthetics, they don't have good, they don't have like, like, uh, like cool, like they look gross. It's a government scam. I think it is actually. Remember when they legalized, I keep saying, remember? Like you were there? I'm just saying like, remember in history, I remember all of the end of prohibition. Yeah. Same vibes. They did that because the great depression, they did it because of the commercialization of alcohol and how much they could, you know, viably make off of, you know, not allowing gangsters or black folks to be the only people making money off of liquor. Really? I think us boys were making a little bit of money, so hey, man, get in where you fit in, you know, I think us boys used to print a little bit off of that. I think us boys too. I mean, but it must have made like hitting beer so cool when it was illegal. You could also go blind because it's somebody's uncle making moonshine. So regulation isn't bad, but also you don't know who's regulating it. I think that's the anti, anti. That's anti what? That's the anti beer. That's the anti beer propaganda, dude. Big beer. Yeah. Beating off does not make you blind. Uncle's moonshine does not make you blind. Anyway. Chance, we have to go. Adam Friedman, baby. Once again, she's upset at me. Yeah. Are you upset at me? Maybe a little bit. All your- Did you make her upset last time? No, no. We were just- This is my home girl. Herb was like, "I could go all day." He's like, "No, we're staying." I was like, "I can't." No, yeah, we're late to, we got to go to this premiere. Where do you have to go? We're going to this premiere. No, but this is real because your shit is huge. Is Green mean that it's on? Is this our cam? It's not live, so you can edit however, but basically, hey, make sure you get my album, Starline. It comes out August 15th, the same day as Spike Lee and Denzel Washington's new movie that I'm going to see the premiere of. Right now. You're going to go right now? Yeah, we got to. That's why we're late. You got plus one? I don't. Come on, bro. I had a plus one, but I already gave it to Taryn. Really? You're better friends with her. Yeah. Yeah, I guess so. Enjoy it, dude. I'm a big fan of Denzel Washington, actually. He's one of my favorite actors. I'm going to name my first son Denzel Friedland. Let me write all this down so I can tell him when I- My guy. I appreciate it, man. That was fun, man. Thank you so much, man. Thank you. Thank you. Peacemakers. Risk takers. For the optimists. Pessimists. Coca-Cola. For everyone. Pick up some Coca-Cola at a store near you.