Styles P

00:00:00 Speaker 1: Quest Left Supreme is a production of iHeart Radio. Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to another episode of Quest Left Supreme. I'm sorry you aboard with Questlove Supreme, just indeed host Questo with us. You've got a fontigolo but not the Blue Room. I kind of like this daytime version of courst Left Supreme. Yeah, yeah, it's a little welcome her out the way. What time is it out there? Laya nine? Yeah, I tried doing Question Left Supreme and nine in the morning. Sorry about that, You're okay? Yeah, it's new. You're waking and bacon. I'm swall so far just waking, but keep watching. I get it, I get it. And of course, uh Bill Sermons probably on Sesame Street right now, so well, I don't know, I mean, oh wait, no, yeah, everything. Are the Muppet sag actors? Like are they? Are they? It's like hold of signs? I see, I see yeah, Yo, Ladies and gentlemen. Of course, it would be remiss if, in this year of Our Lord twenty twenty three, if we didn't start celebrating hip hop's fiftieth anniversary at least with some some key interviews with legendary figures that have pushed the culture forward. So basically, I'll say that for the last twenty five years, we've watched this young man grow and evolve and expand definitely one of the most respected and consistent mcs in the game right about now. Of course, he co founded of love group in the culture of hip hop of course, as the Locks. He is an amazing solo career and has been pretty much part of a handful of songs that we all know by heart, including one I forgot about, the Rising Down record that You're You're You're on Rising Down with Us, And I'll say that more importantly, he is pivoted to not only cultivating his music career, but also entering the health space, which you know was also influential to me. Like it's good that both Fonte and and our guest today are on here, and I kind of credit both men and there, and they are small subtle ways with planting seeds about me personally thinking about my time on this plane, on this earthly plane, and how how I could make it and actually be exemplary my damn self taking my life series with my health. You know, our our guest today has opened up juice bars across New York City, including his hometown of Yonkers, which actually just found out is not far from where my farm is right now. He's bringing change to the community, uh, he and his family is basically I'm showing people the pathway to you know, better health, food, body of mine. And you know he's he's an author, he's pinning novels, twenty albums to his name, Grammy nominations, and one of the best voices in the hip hop Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome Styles Pete to quess love Supreme. That's good man. How are you doing? What's up? Family? I have feeling feeling good brother. Good to see you, good to see awesome, awesome right about now? Where where are you? What part of the world are you in? I'm assuming that you're in New York City? Yeah, I'm I'm in. I'm in New York outside of the gym. Okay, love it, love it, the outside of the gym, sitting in the Oh my god, how long were you in the gym? Styles, I was in the gym about an hour. Yeah, I just left the gym, my damn self. The day legs Cardio what we oh today? I just did cardio to be honest as this is a it looks like a windbreaker, but this is actually like a sauna suit. So that's what it looks yo. Yeah, definitely the work. Yeah, they could not not just for a lot of people do it. They think you put on a sauna suit. One is great to sweat and lose weight, but it's also great to get rid of toxins. It's a great way to get rid of toxins that kind of speed up your sweating. Sweat a lot. I'm big on sweating, stretching, sleeping, all the essenes are very important in your life. Sleep and sweat as much as possible. What's your what's your cardio choice? You you walk, run, StairMaster? Like what you what you do? I like? I like the air bike a lot, like the role machine. I hate the row machine. Man, I love the roll machine. I hate my training uses that as punishment. Yo. It's it's a it's a good machine because you get the work everything today I got on. I hurt my knee a little bit last week. I don't even know what happened. My knee just turned to my enemy out of nowhere. But it's feeling a lot better. Called forties now, Yeah, my whole master went into my knee and it ain't been the same since. So today I got onto some of my see the elder people get on all the time, and I thought it was I thought it was a joke because all you do a ship there and go like this. It almost killed me. Not the elliptical, you just sit down and doing your hands like this. Yeah, the bike, the bike join with your hands, Yeah, with your hands, I put. I thought it was sweet that that. That machine is no joke. You're right. I no, My enemy is a machine called Do you know about Jacob's ladder? Oh, yeah, that's the that's the the first a climate is the worst machine. And they that's why it's always empty. Is that the steps? The steps? Did you just walk up the steps and walk up endless ladder? I'm in it. It's like the actual easiest way to say, your mountain climbing without mountain climbing without a mountain. Oh make whatever part of your body is not in shape, that machine will let you know what part of the body that is. Before you worked out, what did you do, like, what did you put in your body before you worked out? Today? I didn't do anything but a juice I had a kill saloncio cucumber lime juice. We did this previously with Dave Matthews or I kind of just threw the script out and just kept the conversation going only because I'm still curious about this. I'm gonna I'm gonna story sort of a student and kind of cast aside the the question of supreme one on one questions because really I'm being selfish and just doing it for my own benefit. But I've really, you know, I've been following your storyline in terms of you pivoting your life and taking your your your health seriously. And of course you know, you already know Fonte already knows, like I mean, everyone everyone on on this on this current conversation knows that we're kind of in an arena where it's very likely that in a in a flash, you could you could instantly leave this earthly plane in a matter of seconds. This this morning was one of those mornings. You know, one of my best friends in the world made his made his exodus to the next life. And it's almost the point where it shouldn't be numbing when you hear about this, especially when you hear about you know, it's more health related, but just the fact that you know, we're barely getting the pleasure of celebrating our fiftieth birthday, let alone an older age. And so for me, I would like to know what was this draw that broke the camel's back for you in terms of like, you gotta make you gotta make a change, and you gotta not only focus on your own personal health, but amplify that message for us that are out here listening to you. I believe being in being in hip hop and moving to a more affluent neighborhood was really my wake up call to be honest to you years ago, you know, through hip hop. Fortunate enough, I was able to move from where I originally lived. I think I want to say I moved. I'm forty eight now, around the time when I was twenty one twenty two is when I first moved to a better neighborhood and just really noticing the differences and the stores and the differences and what's being sold when you live in a more affluent neighborhood. And hip hop is a very braggadocious verbal sport, but it's unrealistic when you think of poor people, like everybody you know naturally, we're supposed to brag, said we better mcs and talk about your lifestyle. But when I started thinking about it, how much how many people were aspiring and to get things that most likely they wouldn't be able to get or wouldn't be able to afford, and that their life is focused on that due to hip hop. It kind of made me change my outlook on the message I wanted to deliver. So it was like, Bro, you want to Bentley, but you can't afford the civic. And to be able to afford the civic, you have to have a certain work lifestyle, work ethic, and the best way to do that is to take care of yourself. And between between that and then looking at the difference that a healthy lifestyle made for me personally, the things that it was able to change about me early styles, I would say my temper was extremely bad to the point where I was smart, but I would do stupid things. I let my ego and my pride kind of run my life and what I was doing, so you know, I was not gonna have security type of guy. If I have a problem, I'm and handling on my own. And then that later on led me to being more cowboyish, and then I had to sit back and think, like, what's' wrong with me? Like I'm too smart to be this way? But why am I am I this way? So I came up with my own hypotheses that I had some sort of chemical imbalance and that was coming from what I was putting in my body. I was at the time, I was around two forty. I had postnagel drips, side and nightis egzema and a horrible temper, and just from juicing up and eating better, I noticed the changing myself. I noticed the change of my spirits. So it was like, you know, I started looking at things out of the boxing from how I normally would look at things, And then I kind of knew that was all due to me just changing my lifestyle and caring about myself more. I think a lot of us we say we care about ourselves, we say we love ourselves, but we're programmed and condition to do things that people before us did, whether it's our parents, our grandparents, our great grandparents, our neighbors. You know, we kind of put ourselves in a box of not treating ourselves right because people we love and that came up before us and around us don't treat themselves right, so we get conditioned to thinking we don't owe ourselves the best, Like I like material things like you know what I mean, But I don't love them more than I love my people. I don't love them more than I love myself. And some of us we don't even love ourselves enough because we don't really know to like. We we run around, we chase the dollar, we chase the dream. We're trying to be here for our family. We're trying to have our families live a better life. But that really all starts with your personal health. And like you say, when you think about it, in hip, we're the most influential genre that's across the world, but we also the genre that suffer is you know, being that where mostly black, brown, people of color, whatever you wanna call it. We don't pay attention to diabetes. We don't pay attention to high blood pressure. We don't pay attention to cancer. We don't pay attention to the things we're eating. We don't we don't look up the ingredients of the things we're eating. But you could go buy the best outfit, you could buy the best watch, by the best car. You don't remember the styles. It wasn't until what the nineties is when brothers were still saying I ain't gonna live till five anyway, right, that was that was a lot Like I'm forty eight. I know there was a time in my life I didn't even think about making it to fifty. The future that wasn't even in my mind. You know that that was like a bonus and a plus. And then we lose so many people, but we don't look at why, like in technology is so fast and speeding nowadays that we're not all taking care of ourselves properly. So I think it's important to do that the scope of how we look at things and how we're here for ourselves and our family. Real talk, man, like what year did you open your juice bar? Thirteen years ago? Almost fourteen years ago would be the be the first one. Yeah, I'll probably say, you know, and a lot of times, like you know, like people who are pioneers and they never get the credit, Like you'll never hear anyone say like, oh ll cool, Jay's in my top five, although we'll acknowledge him as God will acknowledge him as the goat or whatever, but you know, we'll always do like our like, oh, well, this big dead Kane Cools you've had, but no one ever says ll like Lle is so good and so pioneering. It's almost like Thriller will never be in anyone's top five lists, as like albums that change, you know what I mean, Like it just goes without saying that if I really think about it. So there was a point in my life around two thousand and nine twenty ten and which I think we were doing like the first we did, like the second Roots Picnic in Philly, And that's probably the one concentrated week in which I will return back to Philadelphia like my home. Like I'm here in New York because of the Tonight Show and all that stuff. So I live in New York now, but when its Roots Picnic time, between all the rehearsals and all that stuff, I'm going back to Philadelphia and I don't know, like I do this weird thing. And when I was younger, I used to always like kind of ridicule you, Like you'll hear about like old ball players going back to their projects or whatever, and You'll be like, yo, what the hell are they doing? Like why would you put yourself in that dangerous. It's like I'd be super judgmental that, but I'd also know that I do that to a lot, like I will three in the morning drive by my Grandmam's house, like between like eleven PM to four in the morning, what I called chasing ghosts, like and I want to know, like why do I have an addiction to like visiting the worst parts of my childhood just to like, is this how I deal with the balance of connecting of like maybe feelings of guilt that I have of like where I am now like the same thing living in an affluent neighborhood, or like is this me balancing out? But the whole point was that the Second Roots picnic another way that I go back to whatever nostalgia is also a very toxic way, which is food. Now, Philadelphia is a food town, so right, I will make plans like, Okay, on Tuesday, I'm gonna go to this hog and then Wednesday and Thursday I'm gonna go to my favorite cheese steaks Spots and Da Dada. So I remember the night before, the night before the second picnic, I kind of overdid it on the cheese steaks, and I felt horrible and I realized, like yo, man, I went to neighborhood and realized that everything that I've consumed all my life, which explains you know, at some points I was like four hundred and thirty pounds. Currently right now I'm like two ninety. But back in my four hundred pounds days, I've realized like yo, like every every fattening food that there ever was, it's almost like by design, every like why are the cheapest foods? These powerful foods is accessible? Right? So then skip to me seeing a clip of you talking about this, it was like the ribbon cutting of your your juice spot. And when you said what you said, I was like, I was like, that's it. Not only am I going to tear my personal life around and not to mention like Fonte had already like released a song about how you know, we're getting older now we need to you know. He called it expensive genes punt on jeans and that that also planted see to me. But when I saw what you did, I was like, that's exactly like I'm gonna have to be the paradigm shift. So cut to now, like my entire investment portfolio is investing in plant based, healthier figuring out how to turn its conversation around without people like rolling their eyes like all right, here he comes again, like preaching or whatever for you though you influence me and I'm not in your inner circle. Is your inner circle taking note of this? And are you being influential on them or they're now looking at you like here he goes again, like telling me to put the liquor down and come to the gym with him. I get, I get a bit of both. For the most part, I can say most of my inner circle has changed. I am. I guess I'm annoying with it, but I look at it like this, Uh, it's a war, like you know what I mean. It's it's it's literally a war on people our color that we don't know where in so I and I also don't look at it like I'm the leader of the pack. There's been Dick Gregory before me. There's there's been plenty of people who don't done it. I'm just probably the most loudest voiceous person in hip hop. Even in hip hop, there's plenty of plant based people. There's plenty of vegans. As you said, like I'm haunted by going back to where I'm from because no pun intended. You do that because you connect it to your roots. And when you're connect it to your roots, it's hard to forget where you're from. And when you when you escalate, you always want to somewhat stay in tune. I think that's the musical part of us, is staying in tune with the foundation. But when you start understanding that it's a war, I don't really care how you look at me. I don't care how annoyed you get. I do my job as a messenger. I am a messenger, and I don't look at it any further than that. And if whether you take the messenger, you don't take the message, that's not on me. It's on me to make sure I just keep throwing out the message so to be able to go from one juice bar and see the you know, when I first started doing this, I'm style speed from the locks hardest him see of you know, the guy who's done plenty of more than enough stupid shit in my lifetime, of the guy with a history of violence. So when you understand that, and you understand where that comes from, you don't really have time to worry about how people are taking it. When we're losing so many great people in our culture, when we're losing so many great people in our families in the streets, I don't really worry about if how I rub you. As long as I got the message out, as long as I did my job, I was able to not only see my inner circle change, but my neighborhood change. Through that, we have been able to connect with the mayor, build up parks. I'm doing something with the y m c A. Now, Well, we're gonna have soup kitchens and we're gonna give our plant based food. We're just gonna keep pushing it forward. We're not gonna worry about I'm the now Vegandale has a bunch of other rappers coming to it. I don't think you really got the time when when we're doing what we're doing, when you're pushing forward, you don't have the time to worry about it. If you're rubbing people the wrong way, or if they're tired of hearing you. The messenger hit them one day, maybe sometimes when it's too late, maybe sometimes early enough, maybe sometimes just on time. But as a messenger that that's our job. And fortunately I have been able to see enough enough people change before for me, like you got know this fun fund and YouTube was when somebody comes up to you and go, yo, your music has changed my life. Yo, this song means so much to me. Yo, that performance means so much to me. That's a that's an out of this world feeling. It really humbles you in a way that it's hard to put it in words. So for me, although God's family has always been God family hip hop, the shift has been able to change to God His family health then hip hop, because without health we have nothing in until you really realize that, like, there's so much of us who suffer from so many things and it's just not cool to talk about. So I don't get rid. I don't I don't care about it if it's not cool. Now we're into making it cool. Now we're able to change now to say we went from one juice bar to five juice bars, the almost six juice bars to now pharmacy for life online to a pharmacy for life brick and mortars. So what I do is understand is people are what they don't say is cool in front of everybody, they'll still come up to you on the side and go yo, bro, how'd you lose that weight? Yo? Yo yo? Your skin looking like that? Oh yo brow? Oh man, I see you can do pull up to stretch this amount of munching, and how do you do it? So it's about the impact and changing and people, whether you do it intentionally or not, when people see you change. Leading by example is the best thing you could do, because even like you tell people on the juice bar, we give out a menu like literally, I have five juice balls by how many people could physically make into that juice bar, and they're all in New York. So what I do is to tell people get a juice or get a blender if you come back. If you come in our juice bar and you never come back, that's fine with me. But take a picture of it and bring it home to your loved ones. At least do that and practice by example, because you bringing your kid into the juice bar is beneficial for me, but your kids seeing you wake up in them warning, whatever it is, your partner, whatever you have, when they see you put the things in the blending, yourself and the juiceaid that leads by example. Like our kids listen to us, but they watch what we do more than they listen to us. But also, isn't being an evolved man right now? Like that is actually trending. I was just talking to Freeway about this, and I was like, the fact that we have more mcs showing their full selves instead of just all of the best parts. I mean Freeway being an example, and I was asking, I said, it seems like it's a nice group of y'all who actually communicate with each other and lift each other up that way. Isn't that It seems like that's the case of that way right? Yeah, I don't think it's the truth. I think it's the shifting lifestyle. Thank god, the kids would call it the trendy. A tremd will come and go. I think a shift and your lifestyle is being connected to somebody who genuinely cares about you. I don't. I'm not interested in having I think old hip hop is. I have to have more watches and the better watch than you. My car is more expensive than you. I could buy more bottles than you. I have more fine women around me than you do. Like my my thing is, I'm a married man, I'm a family man, and I care about you for who you are. I want to be the best me that I could be. So fortunately it could help myself first and foremost, then the loved ones around me, then my friends, my immediate inner circle, than my community. And if you move, move with life, with going that, I think that's that's the change that's needed. That's the change that's needed because, like like what I said, I don't know if I'm gonna be here, Like you know, I think people kind of look at life and I've lost enough people in my life, family members, close friends, people in a community where I know I'm not promised five minutes later. So I'm going to do what I could do to make the difference to say, when I go, you're not gonna think about the things you did. You gotta think about the things you didn't do. And I don't want that to be on my conscious the way I didn't push, I didn't push the envelope as for as much as possible. No, I really want to, you know, thank you for that. Normally we saved this part for the end about yeah, where your life has changed, But for me, man, it was it was really important to hear that, and I want people to hear that that sort of shift is important. Can I ask though, especially in light of how we're dealing with mental health in the pandemic. Was therapy at all a part of your shift as well? Definitely my wife, my wife, Thank God for my wife. Thank God she made sure I implemented that within my routine. Even when I did, I forget I've been on so a few of them shows now forget it camps, Black Love was good for the for the mind and so but even doctor is doctor Ishra was a great adding for my life because he helped me figure out a lot of things. And now what's crazy is I need to go to therapy more. But I pretty much used my wife as a therapist, which probably I'm like, well, then who does she use as a therapist, because that means I think learning how to talk out. I think a lot of us have a problem with understanding that it's okay to not to understand that your mind needs a break. Like even if you think about today's just life in general today, Like I was telling somebody this the other day, besides having trauma, for me, just lagging on the Instagram some days makes me need mental makes me know some kind of therapy because if you think about it, like I was sitting. There's no way that you would have a conversation with this many people real life. I'm not hearing even over one hundred and fifty people's thoughts today and how they feel, the negative energy, that attitude. But when you log on, you're taking in so much in the world so fast, and it's just so hard to even get a grasp of what's going on. So in the back end of that of how you don't even know how you if you've met people in real life or just seeing them on the Instagram, don't know what's going on. So to taking them people starts, feelings, energy, what's on their mind. We all need some sort of therapy. We all need some sort of a laxation. Your mind needs a lot, like we all it's black people, we have PTSD period, just being black. So on top of that, I'll think about how fast things are moving, how fast technology is advancing, and human beings aren't advancing as fast as technology is, and all of these things, like even me, for the like the normal things that probably won't make the average person need therapy, makes me need therapy. Like I'm thinking about how AI is coming, I'm thinking about like a lagging I went to see I went to see this movie the other days, Sound of Freedom. Right after I left Sound of Freedom, and I'm thinking, damn, all of this is happening to the kids, and you know, people are losing their jobs the AI. Then you get on Instagram and you got to hear of everybody's personal thought, not on anything that's almost relevant, and it made me go, I need I need a break from the world some days, like I don't care about how she's dressed, he's dressed, Who said what? What? Rapper did this? Who doing what? I just want to live in a healthier world and contribute to that. But it doesn't kind of always pan out that way. So that alone could kind of break you down mentally, Like if you're not surrounding yourself around people who think like you, who move how you move, you're gonna need some kind of kind of therapy. And like I've lost the daughter to suicide me myself, I suffered from rage before without without knowing what was happening. Like you hear people's suffering from depression feeling this way, but nobody speaks of the kid who suffers from rage. So knowing all of the things that we deal with in our community like we did the mind, body, and soul. I believe all three needs to be worked on constantly because you need to have them lined up to have the best you in place. So it's not just the body. It's not just me and healthy. It's like I live at healthy lifestyle more so from the health aspect of you know, the physical health to spiritually and mentally be be healthier, to not full victim to the things that I usually were full victim too, because I don't feel good. Like, like think about it, Like how many people you could get on Instagram and go I love red. Somebody's gonna come on go fuck red, I hate red, blues, my color, this and that. Like that's a lot to deal with. And the people who will just come on your page saying negative shit, that's because they don't feel good about themselves. Like so a person who doesn't feel good about themselves, they're bound to push their negativity on you. And if you're not in a mentally healthy enough space to understand that, that could ruin your day and bring you down, which most aren't. You. Now you're carrying about what strangers are saying about cyber strangers, Yeah, yeah, saying about you like, that's a that's a that's a we're in a we're in a very different time like in this day and age, like we're in a time you can't even disagree with somebody like like you know what I mean, It's like, okay, you're you know, if you're not a Democrat, the Republicans are mad at you. You're not a Republican. The Democrats are mad at you. If you're not either one, then everybody's mad at you. You could say, I'm thinking people instead of having a conversation to understand why you're coming from that point of view, they'll rather just drag you and call you names instead of even understanding. Let me have a conversation to see your point of view and why you feel that way. And I believe that's why healthy lifestyle is is very important because it's not just about physically being healthy, it's about mentally being healthy. And then spiritual spiritual health means a lot too, which you do really about one the day to day basis, but your spiritual health means a lot because you don't want just people coming in and putting their energy on you. Up. I think we found another meditator. Can we found another meditator for sure. How do you take care of your your spiritual health? Is it prayer? Is it meditation? Like? What are your tools? Prayer? Meditation, and surrounding myself around people I feel spiritually grown or that can help me spiritually grow. I also like the ground. I like to take my my sneakers off my side, step on a dirt a minute in contact with the earth. UH. I like the star gaze. I like hikes in the nature. H I yell, I screamed, I cry, I laugh. I thought, I do what I gotta to make go feel better. You said something, Now, this is weird. You talked about rage, right, yeah, and man I felt I got so I got so envious because here's the thing. It took me all right, So you know, I'm certain that this this episode will be on UH in the month of after around April and May, I realized something. Usually the most stressful time in my life is between February and June, simply because of again the weight the weight up throwing that festival in Philadelphia. You know, you're you're going through everything, You're going through every artist, You're you're trying to cater at everyone's needs and you know, so there's a lot of stress there. And I realized around May how I've been doing this wrong the entire time. And I'm certain that almost ninety five percent of humanity does the same thing that I do, which is I've only been chasing one emotion only, and that's happiness. I've been chasing happiness, which in the scheme of things, you think, well, what's wrong with chasing happiness? But then I realized that someone ever revealed to me maybe a year ago, and I didn't listen to him good, that it's like yo, a mirror, there are over forty eight other emotions besides happiness, and they name the whole spectrum. They showed me a graphic chart. There's some dark shit like jealousy and sadness, there's some light shit like laughter, like happiness, and so there's a whole spectrum of emotions, and I only knew happy, you know what I'm saying. And so what I realized was that, you know, I thought, whatever my eat, whatever my personality is to certain people like oh miror never gets angry and da da da, I realized that I'm absolutely not in touch with any other motion besides happy. And that's why like most of us self soothed. That's why, like I always went to bad foods. That's why another cat will go to cocaine. That's why another cat will drink to death or whatever. And so a friend of mine had gave me a link about a retreat that I should go to for people who've never ever expressed rage ever, because I told them that, oh, I never get a And when they said that, they said this to me, They said, you not getting angry a mirror. Yeah, so when's the last time you expressed your anger out loud? And I was like, oh, I said probably maybe twenty years ago when I was angry that someone put the wrong mix on my album and now it's stuck on my record. I got angry. And they're like, you're telling me the last time he expressed the anger was twenty years ago because of a mastering session glitch. And I was like, yeah, I don't get angry much, and they were like that you just said, yeah, I'm right, Well, one you take it out on yourself. He's like, at least you know you you expressed anger, but you was like, you know what, I'm gonna eat these feelings away instead of expressing right and at that not expressing anger. It is almost like you saying, you know what, I haven't. I haven't urinated in two decades. And so I went to this retreat. It's a three day retreat that I went to in June, and man, I realized, with the exception of an occasional roller coaster and even then, when I think of my roller coaster experiences, my level of screaming is more like a muppet like that sort of thing. That's not like real rage, that's just like I was, you know, that sort of thing. This this thing that I did. You know, they they literally teach you how to scream, like we had to spend twenty four hours learning our our baritone voice, our auto like, our chakra like from our voice, from our throat to our stomachs. So cut to us actually doing the rage exercise. And I didn't realize how much anger and rage I've had in me for five like just bottled up again. It's it's literally like not defecating for fifty years or take it. And I didn't realize that, like, oh, the key to life is not chasing happiness. It's in the most healthiest way to express all emotions. Definitely, and I didn't really so when you were like yo, like I was a rageaholic, I was thinking here, like, damn, man, I would I mean, no, I don't want to be toxic to other people, but I wish I would have known what that feeling felt like like to express anger, which i've you know, never done outwardly. So I don't know. I just felt, but I felt you on that man. That's that's that's amazing, man, I'm thank you. I guess i'd be remiss if we didn't talk about like your craft in your art, right, like music memories and stuff. Not really because the craft I think. I think in the music business, that's what we do a lot, and we don't. These kind of conversations aren't held enough because people don't feel comfortable with talking about where they're add in life, like well, vulnerability. People don't want to feel vulnab. You don't want to feel vulnerable, So like we weren't always allowed to feel vulnerable y'all too. We have to acknowledge that, Like it took me for years to realize, like I I was the hardest MC out of reach, out of just really wanting to hurt something like I had to realize later on, I was like, Wow, I knew myself the whole time, subconsciously because I always told people I was a gangster and a gentleman, like I'm the rapper who you can hear and make some real gangster ship. Then I'm I'm I'm the I'm the rapper who also got a song with Fantic, right, I mean I lived listen that. So I've always walked a fine line of balancing. So throughout my music career, I've been fortunate enough to say that I've been able to work with with the greats and be able to be myself genuinely on both sides. As I got old, it really took me to as I got older, like somebody I didn't think, I really realized that one day time I had an interview, somebody was like, you may be one of the only few artists who are walking that fine line who gets accepted and both. And that made me appreciation of my craft and saying that is a pretty dope thing to, you know, to be. But I also subconsciously realized I introduced myself as that in the beginning. I told people I'm literally half and half, so I guess to say what I'm saying is our careers short of reflect our life and who we are. Like like you've held in that rich question, but you've always been the guy that people go, I'm gonna go fuck with him. We love these guys, we love what they do. Like my early career, I almost ruined my fucking career out of almost ruled my own career with not being a tune, with being two and two and with some of my feelings. And then I think our careers are a reflection of of who we are, and we just have to learn other ways to be. Like it took me to learn. I like, they got to a point where I said, I don't really want to feel like walking around with two guns all the time and embracing a certain energy. So I left the guns home and left the security, but I brought a good energy with me, saying God's gonna be my security and if it's my day to go, it's my day to go. That was written. But I also walk somewhere in a light and even with my history of the music I made and the music I'm doing and just being in a place of going the people got to accept me for who I am, and I let the chips fall where they may. So I've been blessed to have a you know, a great, a great music career. I would like to say I've been able to be around the rates and work work with a lot of the greats, and be on a lot of songs. I feel like, when it's all said and done, I've been a very hard working MC and I appreciate it. But my journey now, more so than my music career, is to also make sure that people in music are also understanding to connect your connect your career with your personal life and your health, because without your health, you're not going to really enjoy your career. Since we are talking about career a little bit and then we talk about the fiftieth, it seems like, of course you've been involved in a bunch of stuff this year, but has there been anything that kind of really blew you away as a as a fan of the craft, not just a participant in the culture, as a fan and the participant I would I would have to say, and not to be funny just because we're here, but rocking that Grammys and being part of that for you know, every time someone brings it up, that was one of the most beautiful things that I was to participate in, I would say, in my career. But whar got there? Like this is what I'm saying about about life and your health. Like even before I got there, I don't think I got to the first rehearsal that I understood the magnitude of it. Then when I got to that first rehearsal, I was like, and you saw and salt and pepper iced tea, L L. Black thought ourselves, just the whole room, and just understand that I was part of something that greater than to be fortunate enough to be there and to see all my childhood superheroes, so to send those coming up after me to be part of something that great was very very I wanted to say humbling, because that's not the appropriate word. It was ling. It was humbling, but it was more so of of a realization of how great this thing of I was, Yeah, this, and how fortunate enough that my area has been to be called to be part of it. Like you know what I'm saying, No, I know, because I was wondering if you understood that the moment when the fans and the people watching that show saw the lot Sia, y'all come on the stage. What that means to that performance too, Like you understand that, like when they see you, it's like, oh shit, yes this is for real. Hell yeah it was. It was just it was beyond words. And I got to and you know, it's crazy when you and your group members and like we all were saying the same shit like this is absolutely fucking cree. I was like a kid in a candy store. I was like, this right here is a moment that I will never forget because I think, especially in hip hop, I think people get used to the other accolades like all right, I got a home, now I got this amount of cars, I sold this much for me, I'm you know, I grew up in a at the time of hip hop where for l l iced tea to know your name, know your songs, for rock him to want to hug you, is what something that I could express, Like that's better than any award that I could ever get, To be acknowledged by the greats, to be loved by them, to be respected by them as a big oldward than any award that I could possibly get. It's an unreal feelings. Were you to that point to speaking to your point about you like kind of getting though that accolades from the greats. Last time we saw each other in the flesh, it was Kennedy Center, it was parall Manches show. We were in DC. This is pre Pandemics, pre COVID, but we saw each other and it was in the hallway and I told Pooh, I never get it. I was like, it was our album middle of Watch. It came out. It just came out, and I saw you and he was like, yo, like you know, we got each other. Gave me a big hug and he was like, yo, man, I love this record. It sounds like y'all missed each other, you know what I mean? And I knew from you you like. I was like, he no, you know what I mean. So he was like, yo, man, sound like y'all missed each other. Man, Like I love this record, like you could hear it. And so I just really like hearing that from you like that, you know. I mean, that was it. Like we didn't tell another record after that. I was good, and I wanted to ask, man, how do you keep a rap group together? Like, I mean, you you know, she ja like, how do y'all because it's just a very rare thing for groups like exists. Brotherhood has to be more than anything, Like when I feel like the game has split up a lot of groups with them prioritizing the game over brotherhood, Like we made an old when we came in with brothers. Like if I don't get on the record for you to say kiss or Chic is better than me, I want you to say I'm better than them. You like my first better, But when you don't, If you don't, I'm still cool because it's a win for the team and we accept it. But nobody gets you on the basketball court looking for somebody else to be the MVP. But if you understand that team and brotherhood over everything, it keeps it together. Like our bond goes beyond music. Our bond will always go beyond music. Our family members rock with each other because we're family. We understand that is family first, and everything else kind of just falls after. Like you you can't, you can't let feign materialistic things, money, women, what people say, what other men say get in between what you have, Like what you have has to be sacred to you. You have to appreciate making music is something we love. Uh, It's fortunate enough that we've been able to do it for you know, this thing of our starts as a hobby. Then you make it a job, and if you're fortunate enough, you get to make it a career. And then it's really fortunate enough, people say, you know, you're doing leg and every ship and you work on being a legend. So understood, Yeah, understanding that we've just always put ourselves and our brotherhood before anything else, and we we've always kept it that way. But when do you pinpoint the time period of which the three of you said let's start a group, because I don't know the genesis of how you guys actually met high school kissing sheik knew each other actually since I want to say single digits. Uh, I met them. I met them in junior high and then we end up going to high school together. Like they lived on the north side of Theynkers, I lived on the south side of Yonkers. Uh. As an MC, you get to hear who's the other MC's ringing around town and they name will always ring. And in high school we formed the group. It was bomb Squad. It was UH. It was more so like they were EPMD and I was k solo at first UH, And there was other people who rapped with the Bomb Squad. Also their professionalism and the studio taught me a lot very young, like when everybody else was banging on the hooks and just kind of saying versus outside, they were making hooks, they had song format, they know how to they knew how to lay in the studio down the saying that they sounded outside in the studio. So I guess my work ethic got driving just being being close with each other, like we would call each other over the phone, saying each other's rhymes. Here, here's what's going on. And just as we kept going. Actually I had a job at eye Job. How we got on is I had a job at eye Job. I was still part of me, but I was still truckloads of ship and one day we just I stole the truckloads of tapes. Then we made a demo, and that demo just kept circulating around. And their professionalism, and I think the trials and tribulations of us, what we went through in high school, what we was going through outside of school, having stock jobs, part time criminals, having dreams of being an MCS and just sticking without sticking to the guns and believing in it. It, it forms something. And then when you split, when you split, a pizza of three ways or six ways or whatever amount of Homeboys is dead. When you get a couple, you know you're getting a couple of chicken wings and fried rice and you're breaking it down. That kind of sticks with you. You don't you don't forget those times. And I think we never forgot those times, and that's always kept our brotherhood together. Like, even if you think about it, I don't a bad boy. When we was there, that was like we were on the Chicago Bulls of rap and to risk it together, we're saying, I like, uh fuck it, U feeling good here? We don't like it here? This and that all right? We made it. We could make it again. So I think even going through everything we went through was kind of put us in a place in a position of saying, you know, where what we have is always bigger than what the what the game is. We had a brotherhood. We built it together. We came about the Mother together, and knowing that it just it kept us tighten under We understood what we were. We understood that the brotherhood more than a group. You know, when people speak of yonkers, of course, they think of you first, they think of Ex, they think of Mary. Were there any other hip hop legends from Yonkers before that's you Mary with the first legend, Actually Mary with legends before we got on, right? But yeah, what made There's also Bill Blast? He was definitely legendary. There was an MC I loved. His name was Universal. We had colleague Cool, we had my man Og, Dusty Mike, we had a few few few people. But I would say Ex, Extra Mary were the first legends of the town. Like, what makes Extra legend is he was a legend. He was making solid music and tapes that everybody from our time pretty much knew X would be a star. Uh. I think what made him legendary is we happen to get on first from rat. But X is the one who brought us to Rough Riders, brought rough Riders to us, and I think for us to get on first and him, I've never seen any bitter feelings towards towards that from X, like I never seen, you know, because I think if the situation was vice versa, I would have been pissed. I think he had the confidence in knowing how much of a huge star he was. He knew what was coming, so it was important for us to throw, you know, make sure he was on money power, respect, And I just think he understood the magnitude of how big and out Hugi was and where he was gonna go in life. So I would say, X and Mary are with legendary before they were even knowing, Like Mary would sing in the parks and the whole town would come out. Like I knew Mary since single digits. I actually knew X and Mary before I knew she can kiss. I knew I knew Mary Harry because she lived up and my cousin are close friends, which they still are to this day. Like Mary calls me a little Dave to this day, to Mary, I'm little Dave, Like you know what I mean. I knew Marry since I was I was seven. I knew X because he's from the South Side too, so he lived a few blocks from me, So I knew if X from it is extra curriculum activities in the neighborhood. He was a legendary on both on both sides of a defense. But so when I used to work at rough House Records as an intern, and I joined rough House right when DMX was signed, to rough House. First, he had a single out called Born Loser. I believe that halftime by Naas which was on the zebra Hit soundtrack and Born Loser that came in the box the same day, so I deserve it. That's the DJ's. Were you guys like aware of that level of DMX and link We knew him like even as zebra Head. You remember speaking of zebra Head Deshaun I went to school with him where? Yeah, I went to Wow. I think his name is DeShawn Castle, correct, Yes, Shawn Castle. He used to wrap his ass off too. That's another person who used to run from Yan because I think actually I met she threw from DeShawn and Junior High. Me and Deshan I knew him. I got kicked out of that school, but we went to it was a school called Hawthorne for the Gift Betting Talented, and they kicked my black ass right out of there. That was too bad for that one? Is that? Is that the same Deshaun that was on the show Biz an AG album? Was did he ever Sean? You're talking about him and make any records? I don't remember if he was on show Buses an AG album? I do know he was the star zebra Head though. Okay, all right, day, Yeah I never knew his name, but he was dope. Yeah, so I actually met she through him and about seventh seventh grade, so uh yeah, I didn't know actually knew it. The song Ship, we used to play it, we used to love it. And that's another reason, like God bless my brother asks why I have the utmost respect for him, because most people, when they get an opportunity, they lose out. It doesn't work the way they work. They took they tail and make it back. He never That's why he used the dog in real life. He had dog drive, he had dog will, and you know, I believe he had a lot of dogs in them and a whole lot of God in a mix because his driving, his willingness to keep pushing foe was crazy. And if you've ever seen a d I mention in the battle his level like we're fucking insane, it was that. The level of ferocity, tenacity, ferociousness was literally insane. At least, the perception was, Oh, you're going to be the first generation of privilege in hip hop, where you know your your level of success is not going to be that of like Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five or Ultramaticneticum sees like, you guys are actually going to be like National Known and all that stuff. So just in the beginning, in the very beginning, when the bad boy thing seems to be real, Like, at what point did it get real for you to know that, like Jesus Christ, like, we're literally about to We're about to make it. I would say when we heard that Puff heard heard the demo from Mary and he heard it on the told us and he liked it and he called us up, we pretty much knew that we were gonna make it. That's one thing we had. We had a chip on our shoulder because we were from Yonkers, like because nobody from Yonkers was on God Bless the Dead Heavy d was on prior to us. Brand New Alians is from New Rochelle. Mount Vernon is after Yonkers, so the Bronx is before Yonkers. So we were literally like the Yonkers is attached to the Bronx, Like as soon as you get out the Bronx, you're in Yonkers. So we felt skipped over for so long that we we had the I believe part of us getting on was we had the utmost confidence, and we always knew our ship. We always rehearsed a lot, we always memorized everything we were saying. We always had good time. So by the time we got to Puff and they said we have to meet him at his office and rhyme, we were already on. We're getting on. There was no no doubt about it in any of our heads. Like we were looking at it. It's like we're so overlooked, but we're we're fucking nice. That's that's how we used to go about it like. And we traveled enough around and you know, from different boroughs, different places, and just wrapping our ass off to the point where we knew how good we were. So by the time we got there, and I would say, that moment you're asking for is when we we did. You'll see. And then we found out Big was getting on your seat, we knew, we knew we were in the books because when Big met us, I would even say, before getting on, it's when Big met us and he said, y'all are fucking m sees. Yeah, we got on MC's and I'm glad to have you out here. For us, that meant a lot because at the particular time he was the king of New York. He did he'd done something someone no one had ever did. And it wasn't just rhyming good because he rhymed well, but it was the fact that he was such a well rounded MC that he kind of did everything well and he changed the trajectory of how the game was gone. He was big, He was owning it. He was making fat people proud. He was saying things that nobody was even saying. Black and ugly as ever, how like he was just going from an angle of saying ship that was like wow, like us, it's crazy, like you know what I mean. I believe Nas opened the door for our generation of rappers like he Nas is the He's the I call him the baby of the grand Masters, which the lyrical grand masters, which would be Coolgie Kane, Carol Rests and Rock Him Nasty all of that, but from the child who's seen crack outside and drug dealers and robbers and knew how to bring it to the table. Then I felt whole Big wootang Nas and all of that really I mean escalated it. But I felt Big also was able to put the vision of what drug dealers wanted outside what we were looking for the finding things in life. I felt he was able to mess it all and then just bring something new to the table. So for him to feel that way about it has really made our confidence kind of boost out the door. Like we already was very confident, and then to get that love from somebody who was on who was on top, who you know was me and crowned the King of New York meant a lot to us. And then just being in obsessions and working with him, speaking with him. Because besides that, like when we got into the Bad Boy, our rooms used to merge, like we would go chill with you and Ma Fi and Big, they would chill with us. We would smoke together, we would drink the together we were you know, I got to see I got to see him make it most of life after death. So that kind of feeling just puts you in a whole new way of belonging, Like you make it somewhere. To make it somewhere is one thing, but the question if you belong there is another. But to know you belong there's a whole another feeling. Like so we had that feeling of knowing we belong, So it just made everything kind of great for us. Quick question. How did you guys come up with the name of the group. Well, we were the Warlocks, okay, the Warlocks, and Buff told us the war is over and drop it so for real, the Wars over. So y'all can't be the Warlocks. But we wanted to be still who we were. So then we went home and I was like, you know what, actually what we were doing was and music wise, was we were living off our experiences and that's what we put in our music. I was like, Yo, living off experience y'all, and it was like, that's it, that's us just a lot. Okay. I thought you guys were just enthusiasts for really good bagel sandwiches. I didn't know where the Locks came from. So wow, sorry it's Steve steal my joke. Next time. I wanted to ask, man, I've read a interview a quote somewhere where talking about the let the Locks Go campaign when y'all were getting off bad Boy, that that was Pluff's idea. He wanted to kind of make it, you know, kind of on some uh you know, p T. Barnham like make it a thing. You know what I'm saying. That's that's a lot Okay, talk about it. That's a damn lie. No, we went would let the locks go because we understood that we didn't have the financial power or the lawyer power to deal with to to win the fight we were trying to fight. But what we understood was that people actually loved us on the street at that time. We did a lot of rumbling, a lot of making our name known, so people felt kind of connected to us, and we were blue collar rat so we think we would do be smarter. But and will that we had, we was like, all right, we can't win with money, we can't win with lawyers, but how do you pull out a strategy that works for you and it's most and came up with, uh, we're gonna have the public join in and just tell people what we're going through because at the time of the public opinion embarrassed to say, I'm not And what's crazy about it is we had a standard industry contract, which we literally we pretty much had a standard contract. But we also, like I said, we were kind of I think we're a pitome of blue collar and white collar mix and being streaked but being also a little a little nerdy, like everything is if you sign a deal out of how bad it is. You should be able to renegotiate if you get get somewhere, like if you sell drugs. You know, I sold ten pieces for ten dollars. That's one hundred dollars. Now, when you tell me I'm putting out an album, you know what I mean. I'm coming straight off the streets. So there's no way I was gonna read all this paperwork and everything that's happy. I wanted to be this summer signment. But if you're telling me I'm only getting not even a dollar if this album every album sold, or not even two dollars, Now I got a problem and we gotta we gotta fix this. This ain't even cool. So we didn't really care about the image that everybody else was worried about. So we came with let the locks go, and we figured we'll use the power of the people, throw the T shirts on on summer jam, let everybody sit and involve the people with it, and have the people on your side. That's where Raper Records came from. Right. I could keep hearing it in my head because they'd be raping you, raping you, raping yup. So we just strategize and use what we felt would work for us, which was a campaign letting people know how we felt and that we didn't want to be there. Thanks for clearing that up, man, I read that before and it Yeah, thanks for clearing that up for it's good at it. So just in your career, like, what would you say, is can you name at least three like the magic moments that you were there for or that that really impacted you. I'm getting on when you first get on, I would say it is, uh, very atful. Two. I wouldn't say it's a particular particular time and moment. But as I said, I sat down and reflected on all the artists that I worked with I was able to work with, and it made me have a high level of appreciation for myself. I think when you take a conscious look at your catalog and are able to say, oh, man, I worked with him, I worked with Huh, I did this, I've done that. It made me very proud. And then the Grammy's definitely was a highlight moment because I felt that was that was worldly, like you know what I mean? And how do you put this? When you could do a stadium and you could do a small room, it puts you in in in the realization of what you mean in the hip hop, thinking about being on BIG's album, Hole's album, a roots album, doing a song with Mariah doing you know, being on a Mama album, being on a j Loo album, being on a Toiler album. I would say after Versus two that after about to ask you about versus Yes, Yes, the versus where kids came tooling us going we're gonna learn our rhymes, We're gonna stop rapping over the track. Uh, We're gonna have our show tight. We see what our brotherhood brings to the people. That was very important because I didn't understand. I never thought the magnitude of the after effect would be that big. And I'm so glad. Yes, yeah, So that was also a great moment in our career where we were able to say, staying on the hamster wheel pays off, like you you know what I mean, being able to stay on that whale and I work out and do what you do continuously. Sometimes you don't get credit for what you do. You don't get acknowledgement, you don't get your accolades, you don't make certain lists, you don't get certain acknowledgement. If you stick to what you do or to come around sooner or later, and versus versus shoulders that because it wasn't about we love the set, those is our brothers. But to see that many kids come up to us after gone, we're gonna learn our rhymes and we're gonna stop performing over that track with the words on meant a lot to us because we felt we now did what we were supposed to do for the hip hop we grew up on. That's the one thing I was hoping. I was like, out of everything that came out of that versus I was hoping that young artists are watching this and seeing what to do and what not to do. Yes, yeah, so that meant a lot to it. One more question before you go, because you mentioned you mentioned you and your wife ASWA do a couple of these shows. And I'm so curious because when we see as as a consumer and as a watcher of these shows, what we see you and your wife on them, we know what that brings. It brings a certain level of legitimacy to these couple shows, right because we know that y'all shit is real, y'all work on y'all shit every day. Whatever. But I'm so curious for you and Azuwa. Why what what's your motivation for doing these shows. I'm one, you want to build your marriage up, you want to learn what you can, but you also want to show people like, uh, we pride ourselves. There's never been a show where we were in ourselves or somebody could pay us to be out of pocket act on civil Uh so we're big on black love and black family and do what we can do for the black family and represent black love. Thank you, thank you. It's great. It means a lot to us to see y'all. Thank y'all. Thank you. Thank you. Brother Steve. I know you didn't get your cream cheese. That's all right. I'm sure there'll be somebody else from him. Thanks. No plant based cream cheese. There you go. Oh that's yeah, I do like the plant based Yeah, yo, styles, Thank you so much for doing this. And really I really appreciate you for having the courage to really live in your integrity. And I know you're like, I'm not a leader, but you're an absolute leader and you're a seed planner, and you know, like we're out here listening to you, and I'm especially out here listening to you. I thank you for that. So because that that'll make me, that'll keep me on the straight and narrow as well, and then that'll inspire someone else and so on and so on. So no, Man, from the time we met, like the first time it was when you were first kind of opening your juice bar when we did the Farrell Martch Black Cast side video. I love that record, man, but we shot you know that in you know, in your in your bar, and uh, you just always been every time. I didn't even think you even knew who we were, you know what I'm saying. When Farrell hit me for that record, he was like, yeah, man, what you do a hook? And I got styles. I was like word like stop, I was like for real and I heard it. I was like, oh this shiit dover was hell. And so when I met you, man, you just always every time we saw each other, it was always love. You just always been just one of the most solid dudes in this game, man, and I just wanted to just you love him to speaking. You're having me on the project. Bro told you. I'm a fan, man, big big fan, and question I owe you a person who think I was scared to do something I asked quest for a request at a party, dude a record to play a record. Not only did he request the record, I actually comply to because I'm world famous for not but on top of that, on top of that, to this day, my first five records is Dreams. I played it. He has me played Fleet with Mac Dreams, and I was like, wow, but I got scared. That was one of the see I could have mentioned my feelings. I was like, oh fuck, I think I offended questions. I knew better than the ass but I was like, I had to ask this one. I felt like it was a good time to ask. Look he waved me off, like no, it's like it was like what record. I was like, free Fleet with Mac and that ship. I appreciate that. Thank you though, no, because the thing was I was in my drawing like, oh, come on, man, I got this. I know what I'm doing. And then I thought about it and I was like, wait, he don't even know that. That's the perfect record to mix him right now. And I did it, and to this day is now in my first ten records. You brought that to my repertoire. So thank you again. You're changing my You're changing my health and my creativity. I got the request a question love. Nobody does that. You're right, I've been trying to years. I think that's gonna work right now. I gotta give it a try. Yes, like shitty. I was like, oh my god, no, no, because I was. It was like juggling plates like trust me and people, yeah, don't, don't, don't get encouraged. Don't get couraged at all. That was and it was a vegan. It was a vegan Clint based right. Shout out to this chef Daniel home too. Daniel. That was let me tell you something to a question you are you know what it is, You're absolutely astonishing, amazing DJ too, because that whole night was a lesson for me because I went, you know, sometimes you think people are great just in their field, and I've seen question in other fields, but to rock that fucking party, what he was playing, what he was doing. If I was at DJ, I would have been taking notes. I would have I probably would have written everything down in my note notepad. But you're no amazing person, and thank you very much, thank you, And that's a big part for me. I made it. I got it. That's gonna go on my hip hop on my hip hop great things I did, I gotta, I gotta. I was able to get a make, make a suggestion and it happened. You made it happen. Yes, you did. A rare moment in Quest Left history. Thank you very much. Onna be After Steve and Fante and Layah and Unpaid bill Uh and the Great Style Seat, there's another classic episode of Quest Left Supreme. See y'all next. Tra Left West Love Supreme is a production of iHeartRadio. For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.