Video URL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zea2IFOHGBU
hello freak [ __ ] yeah I I just feel like um there's a a certain amount of energy that people get from wanting to prove other folks wrong yeah I know for sure for sure and uh it can it can help you in some ways it can certainly help you but I think sometimes even like when you're talking about the benefits you had of cocaine like there's benefits to it there like you could say things and do things he ordinarily wouldn't be able to do yeah well this this the motivation of of like proving people wrong you know I'll show you you know you said I wasn't going to be [ __ ] I'll show you like you get to a certain point in time that could kind of play against you too right yes it can backfire because then it becomes it it for me it becomes like and I definitely did my last not the album I did my album before last with that an angry I'll show you spiteful like villainous energy you know and I was able to make some really great records but it was the most aggressive music I had ever made right and um some of it was the most aggressive on a lot of levels not even in the mean way but just like you know just the music itself um and that and I benefited the the the you know what I set out to do you know it it all benefited you know but um I didn't it wasn't the normal way I went out about making an album so it was weird you know and and it was something that I took a step back with afterwards and then dropped a second Alum I'm like all right this one's not so I'm I don't really feel like I I'm like going you know up against the masses like I really have something to prove here this is more just like about like just being at some type of Peace you know and just having things sorted out once all the madness is all done and it's kind of just like now it's just like right right you know and that's why I did indacut and then I did satellite flight you know cuz I feel like indacut was me just figuring out how to produce you know and make records and then satellite flight was me having it mastered and finally putting together something that was just like fine-tuned you know but to in a different structure where I have like some instrumentals and then you know with you know they're kind of like interludes and then you know records that they just completely you know formatted in different ways maybe not
the three verse two hook formula maybe just one long verse and one outro and you know maybe no hook at all maybe no drums for the first minute and 30 seconds but there's like raps you know just experimenting and trying things you know now that I had that expertise with creating a record you know did you ever um listen to The Brand New Heavies I know some records yeah the Brand New Heavies did this rap thing where they're God it was trying to remember the name of it um there's a but it was it's along those lines like very experimental and this is like back in like the early 90s they did like cooli WAP did one of them and it did it like to like some like actual music behind it like it was pretty interesting stuff but I remember that and I remember thinking like man like why don't more people do like weird [ __ ] with music like how many people are thinking the way you're thinking like saying like okay how about we just do no drums for like the first minute and a half and then just start rapping and then the drums kicking like these kind of things where you're just like coming up with uh like just a different approach a slightly different entry I think people are just a little scared that they'll lose the the audience's attention which is the very uh real fear it's I get it you know but it also goes back to what I was saying like I've just been blessed with a family thatat like you know is into what I'm doing no matter what you know uh and that's that's just dope you know but the average artist no they can't just experiment and there's that fear where they might not sell records and then that's bad for business and this is a business you know um so you know um it's it's understood why most guys don't really do it you know I would like to see people do it I feel like there's that's not an excuse I feel like there's a way where people can be a little bit more creative and push the envelope a lot more within music uh where it fits in in a in a in a way that makes sense and it's true to their their art um and their formula I feel like yeah there's always a way to try something new and be uh Innovative and and bring something different to the table if anybody wants to check out that That Brand New Heavies that I was talking about it's called heavy rhyme experience uh and it was the
Brand New Heavies it was '92 way back in the day when I was I was living in New York and um my friend God damn it trying to remember his name stand up comedian told me about him he goes you got to listen to this [ __ ] these guys are doing some weird stuff they did a a duo with cool G Rap they did one of them with a uh Gangstar it was pretty badass that a bunch of different uh collaboration so like jazz singers with like rap like serious like best of the class back then hardcore rappers rapping over their uh their Rhyme or their music was pretty cool oh wow yeah um but your your point about having the fan base that allows you to [ __ ] around and practice and and take chances that is huge isn't it like ability that you know they they like you as a person as well as like your music so and they want you they want to see where you go with it you're always going to do your best they know it comes from a pure place too they know I'm not like they top they know I'm just trying to make some cool [ __ ] that they can connect with and that's the extent every time it doesn't go beyond that and the minute it tries to it just starts to get frustrating like start thinking about a radio record to please somebody at the label then it gets frustrating if I start to think about this and that for this it gets frustrating if I keep it just based on like hey man this sounds gnarly and this make sure we it's not too trippy and let make sure it's not too this and not do that but a a effortless combination of everything all at once you know and and and that's really what these past couple years for me have been like just mastering that uh technique as a producer MH and um you know really really just uh going all out creatively and just uh trying new things because I also internally don't feel like I have anything else to prove um as a musician but I I have that itch you know like I need to create like I feel like that's it's like working out for me it's like doing reps and staying mentally fit creatively fit you know um so when it comes time to do an album I've got some new powers I've acquired in the past year just like you know from just [ __ ] around in the studio for a couple months just going every day making beats whether I'm in the studio for 5 hours or 2 hours I'm making
something I'm making at least like on average I make about like in the studio I'm making at least two to four beats a day and when I say beats I'm talking about completed sequenced uh instrumentals that I could make records on so like not just some [ __ ] I started a little bit and then it's kind of cool and I'll get back to it later I have probably like a baker dozen of those in one session but I'll have like four that are officially like oh these jams are dope I'm going to sit and live with these and see what comes up so when you sit down to write music do you do you sit down do you have an idea in your head or do you let let it come to you while you're there like how do you know how to start um it it comes different every time it it doesn't um it depends it could be a baseline that I'm thinking of that inspires me or it could be me not have anything in my mind and just going through the sounds uh or it could be like the you know a rhythm I heard or you know anything it could be a movie I'm watching I like to you know produce while I'm watching movies with the sound off um and that kind of helps me with scoring you know when I get into scoring and I'm you know doing that that's my next step you know I want to get more into scoring movies and sound design um but it's all for me it's all just experimentation and just seeing what happens and and you know it's any pressure and when you hear a beat like when you're making a beat and you're creating it are you hearing lyrics are you hearing are you thinking about yeah yeah I'm hearing I mean here's you know when I when I'm hearing something I hear it completed right so when I'm starting a record and I feel like I got something I'm like all right this song I'm like I feel like and it's back to what you were talking about cuz you know I feel like you know time doesn't really exist so an hour from now it's happening right now right so there's songs that are created that I haven't made yet so when I'm in the studio I feel like I have this small like Peak into this other world in this window that I can hear the song but it's my job in the present to find the pieces to make it so and sometimes it might
come out exactly like what I'm hearing and sometimes it might not but it's never it's never really spot on you know I just hear glimmers of what the song completed sounds like until it's completed and then it's just everything's perfect but that's how I can sit there and listen to a mix and be like something's off cuz in my completed version you know it's like a coloring book every record starts off in one way just blank and I'm just filling in all the colors and then there's one color still missing you know that's what's happening in the final in the nth in and you know when we're mixing the album I'm like man there's still some colors that just not in there yet and then I'm going through sounds and I find the colors and everything's fooled and I'm cool or I might not find an exact color but some close enough I'm fine and like that's literally where it's at where you have to make the executive decision like all right I'm done with this or I'll be sitting for another two weeks trying to sit with this mix because I'm really anal about it and if I don't just back away and let it be you know we'll never hear any music that's a fascinating insight into the creation of music I don't um I don't know anybody that does that like well or they could tell me about the entire process from the beginning to end so it's interesting to get a a window into that world cuz I always wondered and I also always wondered like I Know Jay-Z never writes his lyrics down he keeps them all in his head do you do that or do you actually write them down somewhere um nah sometimes I'm sometimes I mean a lot of my hooks are in my head but I need to write you know certain things down to just kind of make sure I'm making sense I used to do a lot of my earlier stuff just off the Dome just freestyling [ __ ] you know and and sometimes that works good with Melodies I do that a lot I'll go in there and just hum flows and try different things like that and Melodies but it's really just a combination it's never just like you know always like writing off the Dome like some ballots I write completely off the Dome you know I don't need pin and paper for a ballot but like if there I like that term off the Dome yeah that's a great term I'm going to use that from now on whenever there's a joke that I have that's not
written down anywhere it's going to be off the Dome yeah that was and I feel like that it it kind of like you know gets people to understand that this is some you know this the spontaneousness of it you know um is that some a term that rappers use all the time or is that your term off the Dome is that yours I I can't let's say it's yours I like to say it's yours I like to say I know the guy came up that [ __ ] off the Dome it's a very popular phrase amongst the youngsters now but it all came out of kid I'll take it take it take it I'll start spreading that RoR so you're you're essentially you're open me whatever which way ever comes you just show up you show up and you put in the work you you put in the work creating the Beats you put in the work come up coming up with lyrics whatever way it comes up whether it comes up all in your head or whether comes up writing it down on paper and the sessions are really me and my engineer Ian and and occasionally I have like my brother from another mother Dr genius coming through who you know was in a band that I came up with a couple years ago that you know we kind of just put together because we wanted to try something outside of the world we were already making music in you know I it's this the sessions are really small it's not like I got 20 dudes in there right they're kind of sad sessions you know they're really sad they're probably not sad well I always wonder feel bad for me like oh he got nobody in the studio with him but then like but then like you know like I'm in there like a mad scientist like you know I'm inventing it's not like you know an inventor don't got 20 [ __ ] in his his lab while he inventing [ __ ] [ __ ] to steal his [ __ ] or they'll you know rack focus and you know distract him you I find that when you have your friends in the studio you got you know couple guys on World Star couple guys on Twitter a couple guys over here and everybody's talking about what's going on over here and what's going on here you're trying to write this song you get distracted you're like what happened oh hell no that's funny funny next thing you know it's two hours are gone by you're still working on this record you had some laughs but what you came to the studio for is not done yet right you know and there's money being spent
there's time time is of the essence this is what we hustled and worked hard for you know and I have to I had to remind myself it's like man this has turned into a [ __ ] party like we're here for work so I also have this like really gnarly work ethic like cuz I've been working since I was 15 like my first job was Wendy's I I remember why I wanted to work it was cuz I wanted my own [ __ ] I was tired of asking my mom for stuff and also didn't think it was fair you know to ask my mom for stuff cuz I know we a have much so you know I just had work for me is always like one of those things that's very important yeah but like there was also some jobs that I didn't [ __ ] take seriously like American app Pearl you know where I was like coming in late and I didn't give a [ __ ] and like when my boss fired me like he took me to like this office and kind of told me and and when he said he's like I'm have to let you go I was like yeah I figured that yeah because I didn't give a [ __ ] you know it was like now I can go to the studio well it's prob I can like work and like work on my craft and then maybe find a better paying job you know that doesn't have me in the [ __ ] basement of some building you know sweating my ass out F and closed everybody says you should always do your best at every job you do a champion in life is a champion in everything they do so if you're going to mop floors do your best at mopping floors the [ __ ] out of those floors I that's great on paper but the reality is when you're a young man it's sometimes it's good to [ __ ] off at something so you know you don't ever want to do that again they fire you and then you learn yeah and there's some there's some value in that it's unfortunate but we don't all learn the best way sometimes we got to get fired from American Apparel yeah yeah you know at least I didn't get fired for like stealing something I got fired for being a shitty landscaper kept scalping people's Lawns yeah that's [ __ ] up now that would that would [ __ ] somebody's emotions that would hurt my Fe feelings if somebody just if that was like the word around town that I've been you know my main bread and butter I've been doing investing my life in that I was just shitty at my feelings yeah I wasn't invested in being a landm lander
boy landscaper yeah no I know what you're saying man it's a there's a completely different thing when you're creating your own stuff when you're working for yourself then it's like a focus like an obsession almost type Focus like the laser beam I I love that term the lab too that's one of my favorite terms for the rap the rap World they love talking about being in the lab creating material you are like an inventor you're a scientist you know and it's it's kind of like I treat it I in every sense of the word in every sense of that that that that that term I guess you know lab it's like where I'm working it's work and I and I almost don't like playing around in in the studio like that like cuz it is a place for work it is an office you know well especially if you're trying to write if you're trying to write things there as well you're trying to write lyrics and dudes are all jumping around not even that what if I'm not even just me sitting there and I might not have an idea yet even if I might just silence right right right I might just need [ __ ] silence for a little bit yeah I don't I've never been to any sort of uh recording studio where anybody was doing anything like serious like that but I would imagine it's very difficult to avoid the party it's like hey we're in studio and guys come to visit you come on by come to visit we did that so it's like I did that like now it's like I mean I was I've been doing professionally since like 22 23 going to Studios and having those moments with the Buddies cuz in the beginning it's like you want your boys around so I kind of got that out of my system and now it's like all right 30-year-old Scott goes to the studio by himself he's got his book bag he's in there for maybe five six hours and then he goes home that's smart you know what I'm saying and then he's like this a Friday night you know like in in I'm in bed by like 11: 11:30 kapow [ __ ] that live that's beautiful yeah yeah yeah no hey man that's how you get [ __ ] done that is how you get [ __ ] done I'm just psycho with it man those uh music videos though when they show the recording studio it's always a giant table there's like all those little switches that nobody understands maybe you do everybody's everybody standing in front of all the switches and then everybody's
partying everybody's in the background having a good time but that could also be when the album's done and they're celebrating it cuz that's what also happens like when I'm done with you know say's I finished maybe eight songs and I feel like I've got the album I'm like and I just need maybe a couple more jams you start inviting people to come here what you got and get their opinion so you have those moments too so you might see that happen and but but there's a year and a half of just Studio by myself before that happens wow you know like I don't really and maybe occasion I have one or two friends you know maybe some one of my director friends or or my fellow actors who I just kind of want who have never really got a chance to been in be in the studio come by and just see get the experience but they're not in there distracting me they're just watching and paying attention and want to just be a fly on the wall and see how it works yeah well a lot of people are really curious about it cuz it's a it's almost a sort of a mysterious type of creativity if people aren't involved in especially the creating of music it's such a cultural uh it's such a cultural influence it's so such a powerful influence like music has it inspires people like when you listening to music at the gym it it can make you work out better like you put your headphones on and you play some awesome songs you don't give a [ __ ] that you're on some stupid stare machine like a hamster you just keep going and the music you you like the music so much you get into it and it's only it's in your head drowning out everything else sometimes you don't realize how heavy you're breathing until you know you take the earplugs out you're like holy [ __ ] I'm [ __ ] working here it's because of nothing else like hits you like that like people's words they don't sustain that way you can't like read an incredibly passionate essay and it sustains you through a workout like that no it's like it needs to be just something that like there's nothing like music in that respect it has it has an impact that very few things do so that that process of creating it is always fascinating and mysterious to people like me that don't have any musical Talent at all yeah I see it I
um I just approach it in a different way uh because I'm I'm just I do feel like I'm just every time I'm in the studio it's just like um me just you know trying to create the uncreated and it's a very private thing sometimes you know I want to I want to be able to you know have my privacy when I do that right right yeah no I totally do you do all your writing and everything at the studio or do you sometimes sit at home oh it comes whenever man right I'll be in the shower do you have be shower thinking of some [ __ ] you know do you ever use that uh note app on the the phone on your phone where you talk into it um record memos yeah a lot a lot of the times not even that I mean the note app you know you can talk to it and a voice recognition oh no no no I just kind of see if I'm recording something it's a Melody okay I see if I'm thinking of something it's a I'm not like thinking of Raps like those earlier days it's less about that now and it's more about like like just Melodies and coming up with songs and structur so you want to hear the sound of yeah and then the lyrics come next because the music is just going to tell me what to say you know wow wow that's [ __ ] wild that's so cool now how much of your creation is done under the influence of marijuana man it I don't smoke to create I've come up with a lot of [ __ ] sober sometimes when I'm fresh waking up in the morning sometimes I have the most ideas at like 8:00 a.m. sometimes a lot of people say that man a lot of writers like Stephen King I believe does all of his writing in the morning I think he does it like 9: to noon every day yeah it's like man I'm fresh in the morning with something but it's a melody and and it usually comes just walking through the house makinging breakfast and you know I it could be whenever dropping a deuce you know I I come up with just Melodies here and there and and I record them all if something really catches me CU if I don't record them immediately then I lose them so I you know I got to record them somehow but it's it's very um I'm always I'm always thinking about music as much as like I like to deny it and you know go shoot a movie and [ __ ] and you know I always think about music I'm obsessed with the idea of just making you
know the the most beautiful songs that like you know really make people feel some type of comfort or some type of understanding cuz the world is so [ __ ] and uh you know I I just really am obsessed with that idea I think I'm always going to be and now I'm just trying different different ways of doing that you know uh we did the rap [ __ ] we did The Rock album now I'm just trying to be this like weird instrumentalist you know and I don't really know what that's going to be but I'm just really I guess in the process learning how to produce better too which is uh is something that you know I've been trying to you I always want to be better so it's good to you know be learning and getting better as I'm creating do you do any other things like other than music do you have any other Hobbies or any things that like you also get locked into uh I like designing sometimes like uh you know I wouldn't look at myself as like a fashion designer but you know uh if an opportunity comes around I'll do a collab or two you like designing clothes like what kind of clothes yeah like I've done about five t-shirt collaborations with bathing ape um I used to work there that was my last job before I got famous you know so like I have you know Roots back in New York and and that that was pretty much one of those the only job I really kept in touch with you know that I went back too and and you know did some things for the fans so you just end up creating [ __ ] all kind of different you know it really for me I'm starting to write a little bit more it's just staying creative like a book or like blog entries like what do you mean like uh TV show TV shows horror movies ideas I've had in my head for a while just start jotting them down and you know just everything right now is just me just expressing whatever comes to mind you know uh anything that creatively strikes me yeah see that's a dream job for people to be able to just come up with things all the time just work on creating your your entire day spent mostly just concentrating on creating I'm not doing anything with those things yet but it's it's stimulating you know it doesn't mean that I'm might have some TV show tomorrow or or anything or it's just for me it it it just it's stimulating you know and and [ __ ]
knowing me I [ __ ] around and might write the next [ __ ] you know like definely write something that you yeah something sell or something that could lead me to something yeah who knows but um and it probably also helps your your your creativity in the other areas as well right but then on top of that I I'm I was the king of being like Oh I have this idea but no that's not for me or no I couldn't do that I'm I music is my thing no I couldn't do that so now I'm like past that now there's nothing if it pops into my mind then I can [ __ ] do it cuz I thought about it for a reason mhm so now it's just about finding time for certain projects and I'm not in no rush you know I so you're not worried about being pigeon hole you're saying no I think I think I've done enough strong arming and let me get you know my space as an artist where I can kind of do whatever I want now at this point um so you reached out to me on it still has to be good though like don't get me wrong like I'm always feeling like I'm vulnerable to make some [ __ ] you know like I don't I don't feel like I'm Invincible like and I think a lot of artists do get to that point where they feel Invincible like I am very capable of making some weak [ __ ] it's just y'all [ __ ] don't hear it you know and that's because I'm sitting there and making sure that this not weak [ __ ] wrapping the ones that are and and and working on the ones that started off weak but you know making sure that they were where they needed to be before you heard it um do you have are they like you got to know when to abandon them oh yeah you I know when to abandon some [ __ ] immediately it's certain feelings you get you know when some [ __ ] is the right one and when it's not there's there's jokes like that too it's very similar it's very similar some of them you just got to let go yeah and you can't and for songs is it's much more emotional to let go some [ __ ] that you like cuz it might be on the right track to being something gnarly like it's put it on a shelf maybe like say revisit it yeah I'll go back every year I go back and listen to the [ __ ] that I made the year before how do you categorize them do you do you make notes or do you just no they all numbered you're just numbered you just so you go back and you
go okay this is from 2013 let me just listen to what I was doing yeah my my engineer I'll just tell them pull up everything we'll just listen to things one by one flag the ones that are good and the ones that you know cuz that's the thing you you always got to give yourself a break and uh it's always good to listen to stuff with fresh ears I find and and also uh to just give your your your brain a break because for me I'm sitting in the studio for hours listening to the same old [ __ ] like the same old beat that you're working on you know so it's kind of like you need to back off a second like I like to you know work on a record bounce them whatever you know bounce them means kind of compressing all those sounds to one track to make that MP3 but you know that's what you bounce down a file that's what you guys get on your um iPods is a bounc down file of all of all the files um so I'll bounce down everything uh every one the ones that I feel like we're close to being finished or reasonable enough for me to listen to and write to and um I won't listen to him that night I'll wake up the next day and while I'm making breakfast I might listen to him then with fresh ears and I'll be like oh [ __ ] most of the time it's like oh this is dope and but cu the night before I'm just like ah this [ __ ] sucks I don't know I'll listen to it Tom you know cuz I've been in hour I've been in the studio for hours too close I'm by myself and I don't have nobody to tell me like yo that [ __ ] is fresh it's just like me and my own expertise I'm just like right now I think this is all [ __ ] but I'll bounce it down and I'll listen to it tomorrow and see how I feel and almost every time I do that if I bounce it down it's like dope and a lot of this [ __ ] could be for someone else and not for me mhm do you that it's a it's a thing about music too it seems like when when there's a song that I really like any genre it's like I really like it I like it at first and then I start really liking it when I keep hearing it a bunch of times and then as I'll hear it like the fourth or fifth time that's when I'll really get into it yeah and it's interesting how music does that like there's there's songs that you need to hear a bunch of times that's why people don't like new [ __ ] like if the Rolling
Stones go on tour like they better play those [ __ ] Classics nobody wants to hear some weird [ __ ] you've been writing Keith yeah and that's what I learned I learned the hard way you know um you go out and you do Coachella and it's like all right I got [ __ ] Coachella to do just come with the let's give them let's give them the joints they want to hear you know I'm not going to go out in Coachella and be like all right guys so I know you guys know these songs as they are produced on the album but we're doing them all acoustic tonight and I'm doing them all in different keys so they won't even be formatted how you remember them but I promise you you have me tonight on this stage for at least an hour and a half Maestro it's just the worst show ever you know yeah when you go and do a new show like if it's totally new thing do you do a smaller clubs you [ __ ] around with like rock clubs no what you talking about like like if you're going to work like the first time you're going to do a live perform like any of you new stuff material yeah tour tour because the tour is like for me it's the fan club you know I could go up there and and and fumble as many times I want all night and my fans are just like it's all good this is the clubhouse right right you know this is where you're supposed to [ __ ] up you know when you go and do Coachella there's no time right there's no time to [ __ ] up everybody's watching it's like the clubhouses where you dick around it's like you know when a comic goes to like the com the the the the the um the club he used to do standup at before he blew up because he knows those as his people and he could be himself there and can try new jokes right you know that's the same deal like that's how I approach tour you know I don't let press in unless they buy a ticket you want to come to my show then [ __ ] buy a ticket cuz most of the time you give the Press their ticket and they're writing talking [ __ ] it's like you're giving [ __ ] a free pass to come see your show so they can talk [ __ ] like no [ __ ] you want to talk [ __ ] about my show you're going to have to pay for it people feel like they can't get any attention unless they talk [ __ ] that's a that's a big issue with folks but it's
like a like you know whatever the case may be I'm going to make you work hard to get in there to talk [ __ ] because it is a [ __ ] membership it's like the only people I want on my concert are people that really give a [ __ ] about what we're doing as artists you know and and and you know understand me as a human being you know so let's say this is a very psychedelic point of view yeah I mean because it at the end of the day like we were talking about before it's all an experience you know and and the show is even more so because it's bringing the songs to life like I'm there it's like a play for me it's theater like I'm out there I'm I'm I'm I'm the showman for tonight and and I'm taking you to a place it's kind of like leave your worries behind yeah it's like you I don't really want kids to you know the average hip-hop show it's like you see your favorite artists come out at best form the hits they're almost there but you can't touch them but it's just dope to to know that you're in the same building with them and then that's the end of it and that's just what you take it's like man it was we were in the nose beds but it was really nice we was you know there tonight with that my favorite rapper or whatever this [ __ ] with me it's more therapy I'm confessing some things through song you're seeing me you know confess these things you see the emotion as I'm performing you know and then there's kids out there that are connecting with it in such a way where it's like man I already connect with this do but he's performing it in such a way where he means it even more he's singing it in a way where he means it even more in this environment you know it's like it's a different experience and I love giving people that experience you know I love connecting with them in a way where you know everybody at that concert is paying attention and and they're there because they they they want to experience something [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music]