Don Trip and Starlito on Grown Man Rap, Dealing with the Streets, Where they Fit In in Hip Hop

25:07Don Trip:I mean, there are obvious differences budgeting-wise and whatnot, but the game has just changed too. So me signing 19, 20 years ago, it was like I was just happy to be there as part of it like versus fast forward even 10 years from there, it's like, nah, I need A, B, C, and D, or I'm going to just not budge or not move, or I'm going to just do it myself. And also you figure out how to, you know, maximize your return. You know, whatever we aiming for, that changes, that evolves. Sometimes it's just getting to surface level. Then once you get there, it's like, where do we go from here? And I think those, like you said, those experiences make it a little, I won't say easier, but it's a different way of navigating all of it.

25:58Don Trip:Right, because, I mean, that's what's kind of crazy about it is that for a long time it's felt like the rap game or the music industry would dump millions of dollars into building up artists, and then maybe that artist doesn't work in a major label setting, but now he's very, very well known to the rest of the hip-hop fan base, and he's able to go do his own thing independently and benefit from the fact that the label promoted him so much and turned him into a household name even if he's to the average rap fan probably always kind of knew that this person wasn't really going to be able to fit in in this major label world but now we have like a new world where it's almost like the labels all sort of realized at a certain point like we're playing this game where we're throwing hundreds of thousands or millions of dollars that artists to try to sign them and then hope that they develop themselves into something what if we just don't do that like it's almost like the labels kind of just said you know what fuck it we're gonna let them figure this out on themselves on their own and then but now it feels like you have less artists who are really like benefiting from that process of the labels building them up i saw somebody point out the other day they're like who's the superstar rapper in their 20s right now.

27:10Don Trip:The youngest superstar rapper is Playboy Cardi. And he's like 31 or something. Young boy. Okay, you're right. Young boy is the other one. But it's like... How is he? He's like 24 or something. He's young as fuck. He can't be... No, he's a child. He's super young. He's in his 20s. But when you think about that, I think a big part of that is the fact that we just don't have the labels investing money to even be able to make the fans begin to pay attention to have that sort of like vision of these artists, you know? And that's kind of crazy when you can name a ton of superstars who are in their 30s and 40s, but then the 20s is like, and is that going to continue on?

27:45Don Trip:Or like, is everything just going to feel that much smaller compared to what was coming down the pipeline for all these years?

27:52Starlito:I think this shit's going to be unpredictable like it's always been. Yeah. I think that's where people were starting to get tricky when they start trying to predict a trend to see what's going to happen next. then they bet on something and then you know it's the complete opposite cause you know with this shit I don't know it's people we've seen survive or excel in their careers that you probably thought wouldn't exist later on and vice versa people you know you thought probably had the greatest potential and without a you know without a machine they don't you know they fall fall into oblivion so I think it's tricky I think it should just you know sometimes it just happens how it happens yeah I think it's

28:37Don Trip:a lot about adaptation and um I think the success stories are the ones that that learned and grew um cause you like back to the reference point of currency and like I said I'm familiar with that myself trip there's a a select few other artists that I could think of that maybe didn't reach their peak while on a major and still like survive the times or still flourishing. I can also think of so many more artists that got way more label support, got way more money put into their brand names and their careers early on. It just fell from grace. Or I guess I say it like bluntly, like they stopped making rap money not long after that support, you know what I'm saying, wasn't there.

29:26Don Trip:and so I feel like the difference was people that soaked up the game and learned why they were, you know, however it went on the front end, but, like, what did you take from it to pivot? I mean, I look at this is, I mean, he's a superstar success story. If I look at what Nas has done in the last five years or so as a reflection of that, even though he never, like, fell off or anything, but I feel like he figured out how to navigate the current terrain

29:59Don Trip:he figured out how to navigate what the game looks like today. And not just sonically. I don't think he ever lost it skill set wise but he realized it's a different way of reaching. He adapted. And a lot of people didn't. I saw people with huge records huge pushes and then they not rapping no more. put a light there. I remember seeing something though where Nas was talking about how it's kind of a... Trap God mix tape? Trap God mix tape? What, the Gucci tape? That is an amazing tape. You know what I'm talking about though? It's a Gucci Mane interview. Or it's a Rocco interview with a Gucci Mane crowd.

30:46Don Trip:He's talking about Nas. Oh, for real? What did he say about Nas?

30:50Starlito:Nothing. I don't think it had anything to do with Nas. I don't think anybody that they would have mentioned would have caught the stray.

31:00Don Trip:No, I mean, Nas is like, I've had that happen where I hear a young dude talking about Nas like he's just some corny-ass old rapper, and I'm just like, god damn. I've never felt older in my life right now hearing you talk about Nas like he's run DMC or some shit. There's a generational divide in rap. That comes with the time change. And the game took a drastic shift. And I think technology, obviously, was the corporate of it. But that's most industries. Everything is different. You go to movie theaters and it's empty. People don't get content in the same means or fashion as they used to. So you look at the people, the players in it differently.

31:43Don Trip:I mean, basketball is the same way. The game has changed. 100%. But I seen this thing in Nas where he was basically talking about how it's a gift and a curse because people will, you know, obviously Illmatic, one of the greatest rap albums of all time. People never shut the fuck up about it. People want to do collaboration capsule releases for that album, etc. And meanwhile, he don't own the album. You know, he's excited about his current output because he owns it and he's profiting from it. And I feel like so many times since I heard Nas say that, I will hear someone. because Nas is the kind of rapper that you hear like extremely casual rap fans glorifying him and 10 times out of 10 they're talking about Illmatic you know like people people will acknowledge that he's still rapping very well and still makes great music from time to time but I mean people just are just hung up on that album and it's kind of a weird battle for him because it's like on one hand yeah it's great to be celebrated and on the other hand it's like well I would rather you celebrate the stuff that I'm actually earning from right now.

32:47Don Trip:Yeah.

32:48Starlito:Yeah. It's tricky, man, because I would agree it's a gift and a curse because on one hand, you got a person somewhere that feels like, man, I've done all of this, and here you are saying, hey, man, where's your new music? So in a sense, you got the whole what have you done for me, lately culture and for him to be fortunate enough to have something that that that was strong enough to last long enough for you to still be pleased with i think you know like you said that's the gift in it but it's also the courage because now he he benefits the most from his his music and that's not the music you recognized so you know i can understand you guys ever feel like

33:38Don Trip:you're walking that tight rope where it's like you've got this back catalog that the fans are extremely enthusiastic about and sometimes it can feel like as much as they love the older stuff it's it can be kind of hard to get them as excited about new stuff or is it not so much well for me

33:54Starlito:i own everything but one song so you know i i think um what's the one song letter to my sons i don't know okay why why are you not on that one because of science and it's good but only one song One came out under them? Yeah. Really? Wow, that's crazy. That's the silver lining. Yeah. I'm like, you know, I had to bite the bullet for that one record. I get paid for every record other than that one. For sure. I take that. It is what it is. I just look at that like, what do you call it? Sweat equity. So be it. It costs money to build your house, and then when you start living in it, if you build it, in most cases, you love it.

34:38Starlito:I kind of look at it the same way. Letter to My Son was the foundation for me to start building. So I can't quite relate to Nas in that sense because he made much more money off the music that him and the label made a lot more money off the music that the label owns versus what he makes now. For me, like I said, I only had to sacrifice one record.

35:07Don Trip:so yeah I'm yeah I don't feel I feel how he feels in that sense I think your audience sometimes can not on a business side but like not grow with you in some senses like people man we want to hear we want to hear the old star right kind of thing and that that might be the space where it's like well I'm not there anymore you know I'm saying I don't go to the clubs I on my club music especially you you being putting on music when you were so young it's got to just feel like you have this other version of yourself that it kind of doesn't even matter because it's not like your fans really want to hear your ancient catalog so it's like you have this other version of yourself that was the reason why you became popular initially but now that just doesn't have utility anymore it's gonna be weird to like outgrow songs throughout your career that were previously the the whole thing the whole reason you had a career and then at some point you got to decide like that's just got no place in the track list right but you know the other side of that I guess the balance of it is realizing that I got people within my audience that came along later that don't even know that that stuff exists they picked it up at this point and so it's like I'm just the best I could do is just be myself because whatever I was doing in those different phases it was just me being true to myself or true to the moment and whatever came with it but we still in the business of trying to grow audience so it's like let's just be the best version of ourselves and whatever comes with that if we lose some people because they still stuck where we were 15 years ago I just have to live with that because we we can see that we're gaining people you know what I'm saying gaining new audience with some of the same deal like I

36:56Starlito:says I can go either evolve or die. I think that goes even for the person who wants to hear me rap what I rapped when I was in my 20s. If you're 40 and you want to hear my 20-year-old self rap, if that's what still speaks to you, then you might need to start evolving. You might be stagnant. You might still be stuck in that or in your 20s. In real time, like I said, I can only be who I am. I'd be lying to you right now to rap about the same kind of shit.

37:32Don Trip:Okay, when you listen to music from your 20s, what feels crunch? I don't listen to music from my 20s. You know, but have you ever heard like an old song and you're like, fuck, like that bar just sounds gross to me now.

37:44Starlito:Like I thought that shit was hard and now it just seems lame. Well, in most cases, not that. Sometimes I listen to it and it take me back to where I was. and you know I'd be thinking man I could have spent that money so much more wisely than I did whatever or you know sometimes I can hear an old record and hear what I could have said if that make any sense but other than that I don't like looking at I don't know I just don't like looking back I guess in real life I don't have I don't have childhood pictures. I probably got a handful of maybe about 12 pictures between me, my brother, and my sister that, you know, of us growing up.

38:34So if I had

38:36Starlito:to like grab baby pictures, I probably only got four or five. And even in those I'm at least two or older. And they are album covers. But now they are. So I don't even, you know, the world's seen all the pictures that I got. But I said that to say I don't I don't really, I reflect, but not so much looking back. I just, you know, sometimes I get moving and I say, well, you know, I remember when I didn't have this or I couldn't do this, and now I'm in the space where I can. But other than that, I don't want, you know, he'll tell you, I don't like listening to the old shit. To me, the shit old after we drop it.

39:14Starlito:So, you know, if we talking about 20 years ago, I ain't heard that shit.

39:17Don Trip:And then 90 % of those songs that you put out, it's like you can just forget about it. But then you have certain songs that become part of your performance. Yeah, that's right. And then you are reminding yourself of that song over and over and over to the point where it's just embedded in your mind. Because a lot of people don't understand that a lot of songs are it's 11 p.m. You're in the studio. You spit that shit. It's over in like an hour. And then you might really not ever hear it again, aside from occasionally just coming upon it or something. and it doesn't really occupy much space in your mind if you just record it and forget it.

39:50Don Trip:When you're constantly creating, when this is really your livelihood. We're artists, we're creators, so we don't really dwell on, you know, we did the deluxe and maybe listened to it once together just because we had a show the weekend after we cut the music. And then after that is how do we get it to the point of it being consumable? But I think to that point, it's just like, can your audience grow with you? Because there's a lot of, I saw like Webby's album drop 20 years ago today. I listen to that album all the time. Like I listen to it in the gym. Like it's probably on my year in review top, you know, songs and albums every year since.

40:42Don Trip:I still love it like it just came out. I'm going to go to one of these Jeezy shows. It's 20th anniversary. I think Juvenile's done something similar. I think sometimes your relationship, I don't think there's anything wrong with loving what somebody created in a moment because I think music is like a time capsule. When I hear that music, it takes me back to whatever I was doing at that time. It's just when it's our own personal music, we have a different relationship to it. So I say that with those other artists. It's like some artists, I would rather listen to that old stuff than what they're putting out currently.

41:18Don Trip:Some of them aren't putting out new music. So it's not even, you know, a decision to make. It's like I like that stuff, so I'm going to go to what I like. The difference or the space that we're in, I think we're still doing this at a really high level. I personally think the project we just dropped is the best of the entire series, which, I mean, maybe I'm biased because I'm in it. but for that to even be a debate or you know something that speaks to what we're doing or how we're doing it versus sometimes and some of my favorites they got to a point where like all right your music's not growing with me you know what i'm saying or maybe maybe you're just doing business and so you're trying to like create that spark that you had and i get that on a business level but i really rather hear like how you rock and how you living right now because i believe in that time when I gravitated towards your music that that's what it was and that's how you was rocking.

42:16Don Trip:So once it gets to the point where it's like, alright, you just rapping or you just trying to, you know, meet a demand for whatever you feel like your brand is supposed to be, then you can kind of lose me. But at least I can go back to that old shit that you did and, you know. But it probably ain't fair to an artist to ask them to do the same thing over and over because, like you said, then it's stagnant and then it just dies right yeah i mean like all all the rock bands that i listen to like i'll be hanging out with my kids and just put on like an old rolling stones album and it's like they have like 30 albums after that album and i haven't heard any of them you know this is like it would never even occur to me in a million years and like i've been i went to a rolling stones concert with my dad and a couple of his buddies a long time ago and i saw the way that when they play the new stuff, nobody gives a fuck.

43:07Don Trip:And when they play the stuff that everybody's heard on the radio a thousand times, the crowd's going crazy. Man, that's almost like a depressing. And they're like in their 70s. Well, yeah, I'm not saying for them. Like barely even able to physically do this. I'm not saying for them. I mean, I've had that feeling before, you know. And it prompted me to want to buckle down on, all right, I'm not doing something to make the music connect. the same way that it did at a different point. You know, I put out some new music. I was excited about it. And the crowd's looking at me like, all right, that's cool, but do the ones we know.

43:47Don Trip:Yeah. I mean, familiarity is like the whole thing with music. If you've heard the song eight times, you're going to be bobbing your head and singing along to the chorus or whatever when you hear the song live. And if they haven't ever heard it before, I mean, we've all seen like amazing artists who went on to become huge opening up when they were nobodies. and nobody uses shit and then you fast forward a year and that song is a huge hit like i've seen this happen way too many times to be able to just completely shut the door on that definitely but um yeah i mean okay because like if you when you guys tour what's what's a set like an hour it's an hour no okay i mean if you put out an album and even like one song from the album gets added to the set list, I feel like that's a pretty decent contribution to the set list, right?

44:35Don Trip:Because you already have so many songs that they're familiar with. You can really only fit, maybe you do like a little segment of the show where you do three new songs in a row because you want to sort of like fit that into

44:46Starlito:a place where it'll be a little more palatable. The wild thing about it, like you said, I gotta agree with the idea that what we're doing still resonates. We had six songs off the new project. and they know all the words and you know that of course you know you experiment so the first go around first show we did that you know we was like alright let's see what happens and like you said they knew every word and even started requesting more records from the tape so you know that was the test for it and the idea that we could still hold on to our audience and like you said a second ago we could still grow new audience i think that's you know that's that's exceptional so maybe for i mean i'm not really much familiar with rolling stones but i think for i think when it happens to to artists or to x i think that's probably the first thing you got to ask yourself like you said what what am i what am i not doing or what am i doing different that's not connecting that, you know, that, you know, that, that, that isn't giving my audience the same, same, uh, you know, the same desire or the same, same crave that this other, you know, this other thing I did does.

46:10Starlito:Yeah. Cause you know, they do the same thing with, um, like with everything really, like these movies that, you know, part one was great, part two was, and part three and four and five you know okay man yeah that's enough of that i don't want to see that no more but in some cases those same actors can go and give you something new and the new thing is the new thing was great because they weren't trying to go recreate something so in some cases you know maybe maybe it's that maybe you spend too much time trying to make sure you gave me what you gave me last time yeah and we in a space where i don't need what you gave me last time that's part of my the soundtrack to my life.

46:50Starlito:Now I need new pieces to help me move forward. But they go back to, like I said a second ago, a lot of shit unpredictable. You kind of just got to be true to who you are. If you work, it work. If you don't, you take the pieces that did work and you build on something new.

47:07Don Trip:I was watching a documentary about George Michael and this group Wham that he was in. George Michael.

47:15Starlito:He was very flamboyant. had the earring in his ear he was he was gay he was gay as fuck yeah but uh

47:24Don Trip:but like okay if you listen to his older catalog in particular it's almost like astonishing what an amazing songwriter he is like the hooks he's coming up with the melodies and the songs and stuff it's just like really unbelievable and they're talking about it and he acknowledged and i've had this conversation with a bunch of other people in the music business since then And it's like when it comes to songwriting, there's something inherent about you being younger that you're more likely to be in your prime as a songwriter. And it's just unlikely that you're still going to be at that level when you're in your 40s.

47:58Don Trip:I feel like rap is different in some important ways. But I've just kind of been really interested in that concept that much like a lot of athletes, you know, are basically in their prime in their early 20s. And then it's all kind of downhill from there. But then there's other sports like being a UFC fighter. You tend to be in your prime and you're like mid thirties.

48:19Starlito:Well, I think, I think it's, it's, it's a few different variables in it. Cause I still write music now for, for younger people. So I don't think it's, I don't think it's like one way for that to, I don't think it's only one way. I think in some cases, like, you know, I don't know what kind of music George Michael writes now. So I couldn't say if, you know, I don't know what was missing or the missing ingredients or what he added that's too much because sometimes that happens. I think that shit just is a case-by-case basis. Sometimes it works, sometimes it don't. And for some people in life, for some people when you experience a lot of success, when you do experience failure, it's detrimental.

49:12Starlito:That level of discouragement kind of stopped you in your tracks and you just stopped shooting for it. And for other people, you've missed so many times that when you finally did hit, it was worth it. So missing again don't really much matter to you. And you take something like a UFC fighter, it go back to like I was saying with the plumber, it's the experience. He's no longer afraid of being knocked down. He's been knocked down before. Now he's even more ferocious because what are you going to do now? Are you going to have to punch him a bit harder for him to be afraid now? And UFC is one of them spaces where they not, what do they call it, chasing the zero.

49:54Starlito:UFC fighters got losses in their standings, whatever the fuck you call it. Either way, I think that go back to experience. He's been through shit. They felt the thing we all feel when you're at the top and then you get knocked down. You don't got the same people around. You don't got the same aspirations. You don't got the same mentality. Again, some people, I don't know these people, so hopefully if they do hear it, they don't go, you know, like turn us into something that's not. But you take a person like a Ronda Rousey. Ronda Rousey got knocked down a few times and it just wasn't in it no more.

50:33Starlito:all the steam left about it. And then you got people I ain't super familiar with, like UFC. But you got people who lost and then came back with a vengeance. And, you know, wasn't nothing you can do after that. And, again, I think that go back to how you built for it. Some people, you know, you get so used to winning that when you do lose, you know, that breaks something in you. And then you got the people who, you know, lost so much that you lost so mean shit.

51:00Don Trip:The UFC is kind of like rap where there's almost never someone who's like a champion for like 10 fucking fights in a row. You know, and it's like rap's kind of like that too well. But actually when I say that, like if you really want to look at like the top three in rap, like it's been pretty solid for. Drake gonna be Drake. You know, like Kendrick J. Cole, Drake is kind of like, like when was the last time that it didn't feel like they were the three biggest slash most talented rappers? You know, and obviously we got to give credit to a million other, like, smaller, aspiring, more niche, whatever.

51:33Starlito:I don't know if I would say the most talented because that's just three people, but I would say the most popular of them.

51:37Don Trip:Yeah, but I mean, like, there's a lot of artists, like Travis Scott is super popular, but we don't look at him as some elite rapper. So it's like he's not in the big three conversation that actually sparked off the Kendrick versus Drake thing.

51:47Starlito:Did they just have the big three conversation? Well, that's what sparked the Drake versus Kendrick thing, yeah.

51:50Don Trip:Ice Crew got the lead. Oh, there's that too. Michael Beasley and him playing in. Yes. Steven Jackson well yeah that's not the big three I was referring to but yeah are you not going to be able to be an elite rapper at 21 that's the question does it take too much time to get back to elite the problem now

52:12Starlito:you my children my daughter my daughter is 13 and they call themselves the goats I don't know what the hell they even goats at but they call themselves the goats these kids say goat about everything That's what I mean. So, you know, I don't know. I think if you ask the right person, he'll tell you that Jay-Z is the most elite rapper ever. And then you can ask another person, you know, who's the greatest, and they'll tell you NBA Youngboy. Nobody's better than NBA Youngboy. You got a person somewhere who thinks fucking, what did you just say, Travis Scott? You got somebody somewhere that thinks Travis Scott shit is gospel.

52:52Starlito:So, man, I mean, obviously, you know, you got people that just need a concert passing out and shit. They even go somewhere where it's a potential to fucking faint. That's fucking ridiculous. You know, you ain't going to be able to pay me to go somewhere that, you know. You might not come back. Right. You know, I can't. You got to have a certain kind of allure to what you're doing for that to happen. So I think, you know, again, it's a bit subjective. I think that was you was just saying.

53:21Don Trip:Yeah, it's subjective. What are the metrics for it? Like, obviously, who sells the most is one conversation or popularity and, like, audience and reach and all of that. But in terms of appeal, like, you started with, like, the age, kind of ageism question of, like, what is someone's promise? Like, I think that that is starting to be a non-existent conversation. Well, I won't say non-existent. I think it's a shelf life in anything, but artists are figuring out how to reinvent themselves past what we would have called a shelf life in rap. When I started rapping in my late teens, I started rapping professionally in my late teens.

54:06Don Trip:I never saw myself rapping at 30. Right. It was just the mindset that came with it. Like, that was old.

54:13Starlito:I think I heard the Caribou girl say that she ain't gonna she ain't wanna be a rapper at 30 she said it like it was the worst thing remember somebody was saying that somebody was saying like

54:27Don Trip:man you you know something that was kinda shaming him for right Uzi was clowning people for still rapping when they were 28 or something and I was like bro that's coming right up now he's like 30 something so but I think he's blown past it to the last convo like they're a legacy artist There's people that are going to be able to go play their hits as long as they can stand and do it. And I think that's cool because they do it in every other genre of music. But then we see the clips, for example. They hadn't rapped together in a decade and a half. Obviously, Pusha T was doing things in the solo space that was substantial.

55:05Don Trip:But his brother was kind of faded from the forefront of it all. Full man of God. And yet delivered arguably, you know, one of the best performances of his career. Like, I mean, I'm a Clips fan going back to my high school days. And I feel like what does it matter what age they are, like rapping at will, putting together a good, crafting a good body of music. If it's for you, it's for you. And, I mean, even I think the metrics back to that, like, they may not be in certain conversations with big threes and the superstars of the rap world but I'm like I just see it as like an infinite space like with the technology and the way music is consumed I think it extends the shelf life cause people can just find what they like you know what I'm saying cause some of those artists in that debate I don't even participate in the debates cause the person that you might vouch for or go to bat for I probably don't even fucking listen to them so I'm just I don't listen to any of these people no he doesn't you know that's good though I mean you don't need to it's like hip hop has so many shapes to it so many forms I mean like I'll have a day in here sometimes where I'm interviewing like an underground rapper from Dallas a dude from Memphis a dude from Northern California and a dude from New York and they're passing by each other in the hallway nobody knows who each other is my fans even like the people who follow me on Instagram I'm getting comments.

56:38Don Trip:Who the fuck is this bozo? Why are you going to do this random dude? And it's like, I know about so many different hyper local scenes and I'm interested in what's going on and all of them. But it is like hip hop is so fragmented that these little worlds don't even know about each other a lot of times.

56:56Starlito:So definitely. There's definitely a moral multiverse in this shit right now. That shit's all over the place. But I think that's that's a gift from the curse as well. Because at one point, the only way you could be heard was to be signed to a major label. And now, shit, all you got to do is upload it. You know, you got to pump it. Yeah, entry level is lower.

57:22Don Trip:We losing certain identities regionally and otherwise. But I think to that same point, the shelf life's a little bit extended. I think ageism and rap is, for our sake, where we are in our lives, thankfully that's almost like a non-existent thing. We still get them comments though. Yeah, I mean that's just going to come with it.

57:44Starlito:Let's say I'm too old. Somebody DM'd me the other day and told me it's time for me to give it up. Just a DM?

57:52Don Trip:Not even like a comment where like the world can see it, but just between me and you. You suck. Hang it up.

58:00Starlito:That's pretty funny. And I told them that, you know, I'll consider to that when you know when my when my fun stopped and people started recognizing me you recognized me enough to want to share your opinion you know but i think entitlement's part of this shit too everybody thinks that if they listen to one of your songs they get to give you input and tell you how you should be doing it but you know i i don't think they do

58:27Don Trip:though they do what they do get to give input like because that's that's what i'm saying infrastructure except you used to have to write someone right a fan mail letter like i mean just now you can just text it in your phone and i emphasize with those or i empathize with those people because it's like in 2000 uh the year 2000 you know i wasn't writing letters to the source but if i was that would have been like my best bet at getting one of these rappers to hear what i had to say yeah and the fact that kids can just sit there with their phone and just literally try to think of whatever's gonna piss me off whatever they think they're just doing a little experiment like what's the one thing i could say to upset him i'm gonna say that and the fact that like fans can do this and like if they if they hit the lottery nicki minaj is quote tweeting them and telling them that her fans are gonna ruin their life or whatever it might be that week i mean that i understand why that is so fun to these kids and i think as an adult as a public persona you have to have the control to be like whatever.

59:26Don Trip:It just gets weird when

59:27Starlito:they ain't kids.

59:31Don Trip:Well, you got to get older to really like know what you're trying to get across here, right?

59:35Starlito:I should stop. Oh, okay. All right. But if I click your picture, you got a mixtape. Tell me I should quit. Okay. All right. Maybe you want me to quit so you can find some space in it. I don't know. It's always tricky. And the gray hair, you know, that's what I get the most. I get people come in and tweet me that I'm too old to do it because I got gray hair. I'm like, okay. Every rapper you know my age has got gray hair. I just don't use dye.

1:00:07Don Trip:That's the real Illuminati in this shit, man. There's a lot. Oh, my God. I got a couple.

1:00:12Starlito:Oh, you grayed a bitch. This beard has died. This beard has died. I'm sorry. If I wipe my hand across his head, she's going to come back like I reel my tire.

1:00:28Don Trip:probably like 2017 I go to the studio with Ghostface Killer and get a photo with him and interview him around the same time but when we get the photo I go to look at the photo afterwards and there's a little box of Just For Men sitting on the counter right now and I'm thinking oh my god I can't pose this photo because it's got this humiliating secret right there and now as a person who's like eight years older, I'm like who the fuck cares? Like this is the most this is the worst kept secret in rap.

1:00:56Starlito:They showed and we don't go too far. Just exposed everyone who's dying their beards? No, they showed Puffy. Puffy had got jammed up and then the next time you seen like, you know, they weren't really showing pictures. They were showing them drawings. So you see the drawing of Puffy and he full gray. Everything is gray. I said, see, that's the point I'm making. You can have me running around here with all my shit black. And then the one day I go to the grocery store and I ain't putting that shit in. He turned into an 80-year-old man overnight. I said, no, you know, the grades come with it, so be it.

1:01:34Starlito:I could be bald, you know. So I'm thugging it. And if that happens, I'm going to thug that too.

1:01:40Don Trip:Shameless plug, we got a music video with this album Cycle, a song called Shot on Frodo, and we intentionally age ourselves tremendously in the video. You guys went full homeless. Well, yeah.

1:01:53Starlito:Not literally. I looked homeless. But you were homeless. Yeah, yeah.

1:01:58Don Trip:My character was supposed to be homeless, and his was supposed to be better than bruised. Oh, okay, okay. Well, we were both supposed to be old. Old, though, yeah. Part of it was the ageism thing.

1:02:09Starlito:That was our subtle commentary on that. When they did my makeup, they couldn't add grades. because I already got him. I died, man. Yeah, she pulled the box out. She was like, well... Maybe we just leave this alone. I said, yeah, I think I got enough gray. It ain't going to make much of a difference. You give me a couple more gray hairs. Nobody's going to notice. Right. Like, I'm already gray, so, you know. I mean, I feel like it's a badge of honor. Definitely. This is an indication you're going to do some shit. You survived a lot. I know a lot of people that didn't make it this far. Yeah. I ain't in the ground, and I ain't behind bars.

1:02:47Starlito:Man, it could be worse. I'll take the grays.

1:02:49Don Trip:Yeah, and as long as we'll sign mine, I think it just gives us more to talk about. Indeed. It gives us a more broad perspective on things. Because, yeah, I mean, there's just a lot of shit I didn't know 20 years ago, 15 years ago. So I couldn't have possibly spoken on it. Or I would have spoken on it from such an ignorant perspective that I wasn't doing anybody any good by sharing my two cents there. So that's where I feel like rap at large, there's some, I think you still got to be good for it to matter. I don't think you want to hear a trash rapper at any stage, but as they get older, it probably gets worse.

1:03:33Don Trip:It probably regresses there. But to those that like take the craft serious, if you're going to, I think keeping up with the times is not about being trendy. It's about being true. and yeah that's where it's really it's a cool thing for ageism not to be like a detriment like I said I thought 30 was it's over with by that time and then I think Jay-Z on the Blue Reef I'm young cause I'm 32 right on one of them songs and I was like damn 38 was the year and then later that was like alright cool right with last year I made 38 mil I hope to be there at 38. Yeah, I mean, you can never convince a young kid that it's cool as fuck to make it to 40 or 50.

1:04:22Don Trip:You know, that just doesn't really resonate with them because they take that as a default. Of course, I'm going to get old one day. And who gives a fuck if I die young? That's the attitude like a lot of people have. Once you start to get there, you kind of realize like, you know, I might be a little worn down. I might be, it might hurt to get out of bed. I might have some gray hair and shit. But to just have made it to this point and to be reasonably successful is the biggest gift imaginable.

1:04:46Starlito:Sometimes you got to gain things to want to stick around for. I think that's, in most cases, that's what adds the value to it. You know, you take a 19-year-old with no kids, he ain't thinking about when he turned 30. and then you take a 25 year old with two children and he starts even if in real time he's not thinking about his future, he's thinking about theirs and to think about theirs you gotta be around for it so now now you're like well shit by the time I'm 30 I plan to do this this and this but that could be the same person who when they was 19 was calling a 30 year old old head like shit you're getting too old to do so on so but I think again they go back to the experience once you go through enough shit or lose enough people I think you know every step towards aging is valued or appreciated

1:05:45Don Trip:yeah especially when you have kids because then you're like all I need to do is stay alive you know if I can take care of them that's great too but like just in general as long as I can live to see as much of your life as possible then that's all i'm really gunning for here yeah because i could be relatively broke i could be all fucked up but if i get to see you grow up then really that's like the whole thing that's like the whole reason why i used to like plan to be relatively fucked yeah relatively broke

1:06:15Starlito:during it but i agree with what you're saying though i used to see a fight and run towards it

1:06:20Don Trip:to film it and now i see a fight and i'm like all right get an uber let's get the fuck out of here I'm 41.

1:06:26Starlito:Oh, shit. You said film, man. That's what I said. Okay.

1:06:29Don Trip:Yeah, yeah. I've been like that forever, though.

1:06:32Starlito:I see. I see. Well, for me, I've always been the complete opposite because I know how it's going to go. If it's me in the fight, everybody's a fucking casualty. I think y 'all are all for to participate. Right. So I always imagined that even when I was a kid. you know, when I turn around as a fight, breaking out there, I'm going this way. I don't want nothing to do with it. Because, again, if it was me, my people taught me that if there's no referee, there's no such thing as a fair fight. So, you know, especially now, now every fight is turned into a gunfight. So the last thing I want to do is run over there just to catch the bullet.

1:07:14Starlito:I'm cool. You know, you can tell me about it later. You know, I'd rather hear about it than see it. I don't want to be in the mix. but I've always been that way. Whatever they got going on got shit to do with me. I was once, well, it happened more than once, actually. We was in an altercation. We was jumping a person. That's all, you know, again. That's a good prompt to start this year. But we was jumping somebody, and somebody with us, they came out the crowd. They was waving guns, and they was waving them a little bit carelessly. So we ended up, you know, chill. And while he was doing that, every person present is paying attention to this guy that's waving guns, except the guy that was getting jumped.

1:08:00Starlito:He called one of us slipping, called my brother slipping. But he called him slipping because we're paying attention to guns. But when he jumped up, he hit whoever was right by him. So that's how I always think when shit happens. Like I said, everybody's a coward. You get up, you're trying to, you don't know. In most cases, if you get your ass knocked out when you get back up, you don't know if you got jumped or not. You trying to go at whoever was right there. And I can only imagine how irrational I would have been if I had gotten knocked out and got up and your ass was standing over me with a camera.

1:08:33Starlito:I'm coming. It don't matter who I was fighting, I'm coming out to you. But either way, you know, that's a thing that I think also come with maturity or age. Just, you know, I had seen enough shit by the time I was old enough to make the decision that I ain't, you know, I ain't want to stick around and watch nobody fight.

1:08:55Don Trip:Yeah. Seems like a crazy decision to run towards that as an adult now.

1:09:00Starlito:Yeah, definitely, definitely, definitely at 41. It might be. And, you know, they ain't aiming at nothing. They're shooting everybody. So they're shooting everybody but who they intended to shoot. And, you know, something about that just don't fascinate me, me being shot or shot as a fucking bystander you know

1:09:22Don Trip:I mean okay if you see enough videos of people driving by crowds and switching them down that'll really change how you think about it too because a handgun shooting one bullet at a time really don't seem like that big a deal once you've seen a lot of people get mowed down with switches

1:09:38Starlito:it's a big deal it's been multiplied with the switches now but it's always been a big deal cause you know

1:09:48Don Trip:guns are dangerous

1:09:49Starlito:little guns are dangerous big guns all of them shits

1:09:54Don Trip:yeah not to take anything away from it but when you see like 20 bullets go off in 2 seconds they only have to pull the trigger once

1:10:01Starlito:it's like this shit is not what it used to be I think it started to scare more people you know now you know in a environment where I might have been the only one that wanted to walk away, you might have a few more people that feel the same way now because you got kids with switches. And I've yet to see a person successfully hit only what they intend to hit with a switch. Every incident I've heard about, every incident I've seen, every person I've seen shoot it at a range or whatever, I've yet to see a person only hit what they intended to hit. I don't think well one you know them shits weren't designed for true ergonomics they weren't designed for you to truly control them I don't think it was like a fucking what's that shit like a quality control thing nobody sat down and said well it does this but it doesn't do that and I say that cause the Switch is really just a work around for a Glock 18 cause a Glock 18 is fully automatic but it's designed for you to be able to control the fire and the switch is not so much.

1:11:17Starlito:It's just an attachment you put on the back of your firearm. Nothing else supports full automatic fire but that switch.

1:11:26Don Trip:I'm sure you can tell he knows a lot about

1:11:28Starlito:guns.

1:11:29Don Trip:Well, I knew that from the Laird too. Yeah, you got a lot of gun bars. Yeah, well... You got a lot of guns too. I'm at 260. 260. 260 guns is what he's saying. I was thinking. I'm like 260 pounds. That seems like a little heavy for you. Okay. Really cool. Two weights. I'm thinking. I'm like, you don't weigh.

1:11:51Starlito:No, I meant like I was like 190. Okay, there you go. Last time I seen it start. Maybe like last time I stood on the scale, I was like 182. I'm working on that too. That's a whole nother thing. I feel it. Either way, the firearms, though, I used to think. Initially, I was going to stop once I had like five. And here we are. 260.

1:12:18Don Trip:Wait, all right. You know how there's that famous Boosie quote where he talks about how being a rapper is the most dangerous job in the world? In most cases. Do you guys look at that and think that's kind of a funny statement? because I feel like you guys make the kind of music that does not attract negative energy from people.

1:12:36Starlito:Well, I don't think... Go ahead. I don't think music attracts negative attention, but success attracts it no matter what you're doing.

1:12:46Don Trip:Yeah. So... I think... I agree with the sentiment of what he's saying, of it being a dangerous career path at large. in certain pockets more dangerous than others. I don't know. I think it might be slight exaggeration to say the most dangerous because there's some dangerous career paths you can choose out here. We're not thinking about being like a coal miner in those trenches. There's a lot of dangerous stuff you can be doing with your job. Yeah, for sure. I agree that what Craig was saying is like the energy the energy of the music can be a huge factor I remember Waka Flocka early Waka Flocka it was I'm gonna beat your ass you know he was fighting at his own shows I went to a show with him I think in Dallas and he was in the crowd and shit and we was kind of like entourage like damn this is this is a lot and then I watched him kind of pivot and change lines and he puts out a different energy and so he don't get, you know what I'm saying, that combative shit in return.

1:14:01Don Trip:At that time, when I heard him say it, like, people want to see if you really about that, what you saying, you know what I'm saying, when you saying you go hard in the paint, there's somebody in that city that feel like they go hard in the paint too, so they want to see, are you really that? So I think you, whatever energy you put out there comes back. And like you said, our music is, at this point, is not so, confrontation. Yeah. Yeah, we'll tell the – we'll narrate it. We'll tell the stories and kind of remove ourselves from it because in real time, like, fatherhood is priority over being in the neighborhood, so to say, or being of those activities.

1:14:40Don Trip:Yeah. And so – but success breeds contempt and envy and whatever else. And so you got to be guarded. You got to be prepared to protect yourself. Those people that just – I mean, on a certain level know that a lot of times we get paid in cash. It's just part of the, you know, comes with the gig. So you going into somebody's city to get a back end in cash, like, you got to be on point.

1:15:04Starlito:And also you got to not ruffle feathers while you there.

1:15:08Don Trip:You know, you got to respect the territory where you are. Like, we visitors, we guests, and we can only hope in them, even in them situations on a strictly professional level, that we going to be met with, like, hospitality and well-received because we go into some volatile environments, and we don't always have control over that on the front end. You got the asking price or you got the balance. We going, we showing up. And that might be a concert hall that's got a green room and a dressing room and it's nice and orderly. Or it might be the trenches. It might be a strip club, and they might want us to go on at 2 in the morning where everybody in here is drunk and high and such and such open the show, and he feel like they cut his show off too soon and some shit that got nothing to do with us.

1:15:54Don Trip:I mean, it's going to my memoir. So many stories of things that people wouldn't believe to where I would totally agree that this is like a dangerous line of work.

1:16:09Starlito:Yeah, because you wind up in, again, like I said a second ago, the bullet's back, much power. So an altercation that has nothing to do with you, you present still. and you know we've been paid to be like you say you know it gives it a lot of the shit that occurs don't necessarily have to be uh dictated or presented by us and you know consider that you know we come from from from places that might not have been um no ideal so you know it's people who come from where I come from who might hate me or dislike me only because I may somewhere from there and they haven't. They're still there. And, you know, once you factor all that in, I think, like he said, you know, I can agree with it to a certain extent, but I think any bit of success, if I sold fucking shit for so, not to I'm assuming that that's we not the weed that's a whole different kind of you know we got those concerns yeah but I was talking about the figurine that's beside it if I was successful selling those I still had to be mindful of my surroundings

1:17:29Don Trip:I mean you're the face of a brand like that's a part of the culture like people score points of putting chinks in other people's armor so to say like oh they up I'm down let me split the difference and let me bring them down to where I am or let me take something from them or you know or whatever the case it just so happens

1:17:51Starlito:that in rap music that that tends to be a violent outcome yeah I mean you get you know take a fucking what's called Jeff Bezos is that how you say it yeah Jeff Bezos right you got a million different media outlets who go out their way to find negativity for you know for him his backlash is is you know is press. For us, it's the opposite. That's not the opposite. For us, sometimes it's met with violence. Yeah, competition. Try your best to maneuver and prevent it.

1:18:27Don Trip:I seen a clip of Jeff Bezos walking down the street one time, and he just had one little dude in a suit next to him. Didn't look like a security at all, and I was just watching it, and somebody was telling me that someone like him moves with like one guy right next to him and a couple other guys at like decent lengths away. So he's super well protected even though in this moment on camera it doesn't really look like anything.

1:18:50Starlito:They're just real tactical. There's a guy, three people in front of him that look like he's reading his newspaper with some shit.

1:19:01Don Trip:He's the most dangerous one. Give me the 7, 8, 400 pound security guard. See, that's the thing.

1:19:09Starlito:Sometimes that's where the problem comes. I know you got them big guys, which we know they security. So, you know, now we're trying to tactically come up with a way to run up on you.

1:19:19Don Trip:Yeah, I was going to say the irony of it is like this space to operate in is dangerous because. In a lot of ways, it demands you to be dangerous yourself, like that's the appeal of it. And that's why I said it's the energy you put out there. But, like, people got to believe you almost to a certain extent. And there's more tough guy rappers. There's more rappers on, like, the street vibe or aesthetic than, like, lover boy, ladies' men kind of rappers. It just, I mean, you know, Pac and Biggie tried to kind of do both, I feel like, on the marketing end. But ultimately, like, it was gun violence.

1:20:00Don Trip:You know what I'm saying? That was in submersed in street culture. and even like you said the drill rappers the main selling point in modern current new rap is are you credible do we believe that you will shoot your gun or whatever the case so in order to exist in a marketplace you gotta be with all this bullshit and all this stupid shit that's gonna come back your way you put it out there and it's gonna retire just the same does that make you feel kind of resentful of the culture as a whole at times I think I'm saddened by it a little bit because it makes the ceiling of it all seem a little lower.

1:20:43Don Trip:Like I've lost a few peers and friends in rep, like people that I've considered like comrades or people I work with or people I just admire. I just like what they did. I've seen so many people lose their lives because this is just the times, the culture, the world we live in. And like, and it's, when I say the cylinder, it's hard to transcend it because it's like, I don't know what you call it, but whatever the sweet spot in the graph when it's like, all right, in order for you to reach mass appeal, you also got to max out on the certain extra shit that comes with it. and then you're going to, like I said, get the opposing forces of that.

1:21:28Don Trip:I mean, I'm sure there are some stories of people that was just minding their business or didn't have as much going on, but a lot of cases is, like, people project and put out certain energies, and it's like, like for bro to say he got 260 guns, like, I know him pretty well. he don't really rarely if ever make it his M-O to like bother anybody if that makes sense

1:21:53Starlito:even now you know I told you he got 260 guns and you know I ain't I ain't sitting here on no tough guy shit I ain't claiming to be you know John Wick or no shit I shit right before I said that I said you know I see a fight I'm getting up out of there ain't nothing to do with me but you know I think that's what he's saying you know In some cases, you kind of invite it by acting the way you act or rapping the way you rap in some cases.

1:22:26Don Trip:You got to be that now. You putting that energy out there. Now you got to stand on it. And what does standing on it come with? The police looking at you. Your ops feeling like, he talking about us. We finna, you know what I'm saying, and prove a point that we stand on that too or whatever. It's just like, it's a little bit, I can't say I resent it because I'm in it for what it's worth. And I'm not saying this from like a soapbox preaching standpoint. I'm saying it from the experience of it. Like I've been in rap beefs that went way, way, way too far. You know what I'm saying? In my younger years, I'm grateful.

1:23:09Don Trip:I'm very, very thankful to like think differently or see things and for sure approach things differently. But it's just a little sad because so many situations you're like, man, y 'all could have held a conversation. Like if it was so volatile because that's like the climate of things. It's like everybody tough, everybody got guns, nobody going for nothing. Right. Nobody's going to talk it out. Yeah, how do we coexist then? It's just going to – things are going to come to a boil or clash like that. yeah no it is crazy and especially because it's like you know if you're picking up a couple thousand dollar back end i mean the amount that you would have to spend on an appropriate amount of security in order to make that situation risk-free kind of like negates the amount that you're picking up in general if you were to be rolling through with three arm security or whatever the fuck you would really feel like you had to do to make it like a zero percent risk situation which can make a lot of like smaller appearances or whatever, just kind of seem like they're not even worth doing.

1:24:13Don Trip:Once you all of a sudden have all these costs associated with the way that you feel like you should move in order to protect yourself. Right. Yeah. Rap hustling is, it is, it is parallel to street hustling because you're dealing with the same client base. You're dealing with the same like culture of people, like in a lot of senses.

1:24:36Starlito:and yeah like and in some cases man just fucking security be scared they ain't never been in the

1:24:42Don Trip:environments you in i never had to deal with that but i've heard about this from many people that security oftentimes could feel kind of useless once it really starts going down yeah you know

1:24:51Starlito:you shit we the ones got i paid you to shoot it out and i gotta shoot it out because i can't fucking find you they start shooting you fucking through the nizziness man you're gone yeah but that you know that go back to like I said a second ago you know the bulletin got no yeah I was about to say

1:25:09Don Trip:you gonna be secured it up and moving smooth and properly and you you going into a city where they got some age old shit going on got nothing to do with you and we're in going through the the back entrance the point A to point B we're gonna get the hell up out of here but you know what I'm saying they so and so and so been big they here at the show to clash with each other You know what I'm saying? We're here to do our job and what we got paid for. And that happens. That has happened. You know, time and time again. So it's kind of like, what do you do? Not go hit the road? Not go play to your audience?

1:25:45Don Trip:Because, I mean, that's still the exception and not the rule. It's a thousand people in here. There's 20 of them that are on their bullshit. You know what I'm saying? That's 2%. Yeah. But 2 % could send the whole crowd stampeding out that door right now, which is a huge issue for everybody involved. Yeah, 2%, something could happen and then we not come back here because our name is not attached to it.

1:26:06Starlito:In some cases, how we approach it, they take how it turned out.

1:26:11Don Trip:Yeah.

1:26:12Starlito:Because, you know, you can peep certain things. Like, you know, it might be a lot of times, like, you know, you might look in the crowd and there's a guy that's just mugging you. And you're like, he's with the shit. In real time, he's drunk as shit and he's really just that much of a fan. And, you know, like watching, I don't watch some shits now. I might have seen a few when I was younger. But like how you could watch like them battle rap shits and the guy that's, you know, the guy that's just on the sideline. He watching the dude rap, he looking at him like, oh, he killing me. He killing me.

1:26:48Starlito:But the guy in the crowd, you don't know what the fuck he's saying. He's looking at you like this. Now, how we approach it after that, you know, sometimes that dictate how far it go. because you got the security guard that's trying to throw him away from the stage or body slam him and shit. And then you got us like, okay, I got drunk uncles, and he looked like he's just drunk. And if you reach your hand out and he shake your hand, he's aggressive as hell, but he shook your hand. He's really rocking with you. But if that went left because we misread it, then you in the city where you just turned out every street nigga in that crowd going to ride for him whether they're with him or not because nobody's going to let you come into their space and punk nobody.

1:27:31Starlito:So you just turned it into a volatile situation because you was too fucking, you know, too ready for a volatile situation.

1:27:38Don Trip:Yeah, I will say, like, younger years, I used to go to shows 20, 30, 40 deep. We'd pile up, caravan from the neighborhood, have them in, whoever wants to go, you know. Throwing a T-shirt. Throwing a T-shirt, you with us, and we mobbing. And almost every time... that shit would happen, we'd end up in a fight. You know what I'm saying? And like later, like, man, who was fighting for? Nobody, nobody, you know, man, he was throwing up his, and so I got to throwing mine up, and I was sitting back like, I ain't even in no fucking gang. You know what I'm saying? I ended up in a row. I was like, now I can't go back to the city and perform no more because I'm attached to something.

1:28:21Don Trip:So now it's like, man, if you're not working, if you don't have a, a job title down there. I mean, you know, whoever's welcome to come, but you kind of... I've seen it happen in Mad Times where it's like a rapper performing and then in the crowd, you got somebody, either an actual opposing gang member or just a fan who's really tapped in with the lore and they're throwing up rival gang sets, throwing up whatever to like this, this dude's loved ones saying shit to his face and like just seeing the rapper have to confront a fan who's giving them this kind of energy is like just such a mind-blowing thing.

1:29:00Don Trip:And I really can't blame them for swinging on the person in the crowd at that point. I mean, that's pretty much like this is what they're asking for. You still have to kind of, you know, you got to look at the other people the same way.

1:29:14Starlito:But, you know, the same way you can't blame him for swinging on them, I can't blame homie's big brother for jumping over six people to help reinforce and go to back. Because you jumped off the stage and swung on my little brother. And in real time, I don't know what he was throwing up, and I don't care. And then, again, we're back in the mix with some shit you really couldn't have anticipated. Shit just happened. I happen sometimes. So you guys got to get out of here? yeah we got I don't know what we're going to next I don't I read I tend to reverse but I don't really read

1:29:52Don Trip:how many minutes you got realistically I have no idea a few I mean you got I just got one last thing that I've been looking forward to saying the whole time I was at a conversation with a friend of mine the other day who's a rapper and I said you know it's like a fucked up thing about rap is that there's a lot of things you could be into as a rapper that it just would never make sense for you to rap about like I was like you like fishing right he's like yeah I'm like you think you can make a dope song about fishing he's like no he's like I don't got it in me I could last night okay but I'm just gonna speed run this last night so I'm I listened to a couple I listened to the old stepbrothers tape I listened to the new stepbrothers tape I think to myself like it's getting late it's like two o 'clock in the morning I'm thinking like I'm gonna watch a bunch of like solo stuff see what these guys are like as individuals a little bit more and I put on a dawn trip video and relatively quickly i realized that you are rapping about being in high school and you're and walking in

1:30:51Starlito:on your mom hooking up with your friend from high school and then they got married yeah you didn't

1:30:59Don Trip:go to the wedding no i didn't go and in that moment i was like this is a motherfucker who's very very down to get outside his comfort zone because that is not something i ever would have thought I would have ever heard anybody rap out. That's way crazier than fishing. I don't know. I guess I just want to ask when did it come into your head that this was something that you thought was suitable for a song? Also, this is like 20 years ago or whatever, you know.

1:31:27Starlito:If you remember when we first sat down, I said, I don't give a fuck about what happens out there. Sometimes I had to... Man, listen, I don't... I ain't got it all to go. I would rather release it than hold on to it. Because some of the things that I've had to release was already eating me alive. And that was one of them things.

1:31:57Starlito:I stopped turning the other cheek. I stopped trying to get you to hear me. I'm speaking on the relationship with my mama. I just got tired of it. I got tired of the one-sidedness. A lot of people feel like... A lot of people will hurt you and feel like they did nothing wrong. And then when you respond to it, no matter how you respond, you're wrong. And I just, you know, when it comes to music, that's what music is for me. That's my outlet. You can't combat it. You can't tell me what I'm feeling ain't true. You really can't say shit. You can respond, you know, later after the music is released.

1:32:42Starlito:But in most cases, I feel like somebody's got it. I ain't the only one dealing with it. Maybe not to the extent I had to deal with it. But I ain't the only one who, you know, who was in that environment. You know, it's people that can't introduce their older auntie to their younger friends because their auntie over flirtations or might fuck them or whatever. Those people that got to deal with that. and sang with Letter to My Son. That was a record that up until then, nobody would say any of what I said. So that's just how I feel. I feel like sometimes that shit that everybody would be afraid to say needs to be said, and that's what happened.

1:33:25Starlito:That particular record just happened to be that. But the first verse of that record, I'm apologizing to my sister in hindsight. I'm like, you know, we was growing up. We weren't trying to be big brothers. We was trying to get out of mom's house. Right. And, you know, now we look back and we see the damage it did to you. You know, we didn't do it on purpose. But, you know, I get it. I see it. And, you know, I hate that that's how it turned out. I wish I had been more. You know, I wish I had looked out for you more. But, you know, in reality, I couldn't. I wasn't there. I didn't have a choice. I had to leave.

1:34:03Starlito:And, you know, when the decision was made, it wasn't, hey, do I live here with my mama, you know, sleeping with my friend or, you know, used to be friend? Do I live here and, you know, and look out for you or, you know, or do I leave that one part of the decision? You know, well, you know, you get what I'm saying. Me being a big brother wasn't part of the decision to make.

1:34:29Don Trip:Does your fan base hear that kind of song? And do you feel like them being excited that you were willing to share that about yourself? Do you feel it in the comments and the response that they appreciate that you were willing to crack that open that you really didn't have to?

1:34:45Starlito:Yeah, I see it a lot. And I think for the most part, my core audience appreciates the fact that if anything, we'll be honest. You know, I'm going to tell you the good, the bad, and the ugly, whether it's in my favor or not. And, you know, I got records. I got records where, you know, I'm the one to blame. I'm at fault. I know I'm not perfect either. And, you know, I also have the, I only know how to call a spade a spade, even if the spade is me. I think that's one of the key attributes. That's one of the main attractions for people who listen to my music. you know I'm gonna be honest as much as I can

1:35:31Don Trip:100 % alright yo I appreciate you guys nothing but respect it's good to have some grown man rap conversations oh indeed man we appreciate you don't always get to do that everybody out there go check out the whole Step Brothers series but especially the newest installment Step Brothers for life Step Brothers for life which probably there's no movie I've seen more in my life than Step Brothers he probably could say the same it's up to When I moved to Long Beach back 15 years ago, we didn't have wireless. We didn't have internet. We didn't have nothing. And we just had a DVD player and motherfucking Step Brothers and a couple other DVDs.

1:36:07Don Trip:I've probably seen it like 100 times over the course of a year or two over there. I can dig it. Yeah. Appreciate you guys for real. Hey, man. Appreciate you. What's up? Salido for Don't Srip. Much love. Thank you for your time. No Jumper. Coolest podcast. Like, comment, subscribe. Good job.