Ray Daniels on Past Beef with Adam, The Death of Street Rap, The "Steroid Era" of Rap & More

12:14Ray Daniels:And that's why Tesla's worth more than all of them put together. That's true. We all, the most valuable NFL team is who? The f***ing Cowboys. Jerry Jones. so I think we're starting to figure out that's why Rich Paul does a podcast everybody realizing you gotta lead from the front now like you're more of a rock star than any rap CEO if I was a label head I would give no jumper a deal and just say go sign whatever you want but they don't need they don't want that you around because you're cool of them. We're like Yo Gotti I ain't as cool as him. But Yo Gotti you are as cool as him in the white world like you don't have to do what he did you don't have to play by the same rules he did but what I'm saying is Yo Gotti still Yo Gotti as big as your guy is, he had to still earn that shit.

12:55Ray Daniels:He was still at Epic. Signed to Epic and had to do a label deal at Interscope. Why? That tells me something. You don't think he went to Epic first and said, I want to do a label deal and go big? And they probably said, we looking at how much money you owe us. We don't know if we want to add more debt on top of that. So now you got to go to Interscope. But look, Epic missed out on Moneybagg Yo. And Gorilla and all that shit. So a lot of it be, you know, you just got to play the game. But if I'm a label and I would give you that. So I've always thought like that.

13:23Adam22:Okay, but so you, like for people who don't know, you really like established yourself in the game managing artists and songwriters and everything like that. So somebody said something about you on my show one day. Okay.

13:33Ray Daniels:You interviewed Akon.

13:34Adam22:Shout out Akon.

13:34Ray Daniels:Akon was saying, he said, I had this group named Rock City that ran 40 % of radio and I had to fight with their manager. And their manager, we fought. I'm the manager. Oh, that was you, wow. Yes, I'm the manager. So I'm the guy, so I came in the business serving, like I was like a dealer. Like I didn't know it, by the way. I was just serving labels. Like that's how I knew everybody because everybody called me for records. So I've had hit records on the radio every year since 2007. I've had at least two records on the radio every year since 2007 hit records.

14:01Adam22:But did you find yourself in a lull as far as artists? Because I heard you on another podcast expressing like frustration of how difficult it is dealing with artists over and over. Like that did that ultimately kind of push you into the space of doing content?

14:14Ray Daniels:I was mad. No, no, no. What pushed me into the space of doing content was I'm seeing vice president of Interscope. And when you got that SVP title, everybody wants you. We all have that dream trip we've been wishing we could go on. But too often, life, or usually price, gets in the way. That's why Priceline is here to help you turn your dream trip into reality. With up to 60 % off hotels and up to 50 % off flights, you can book everything you need for your next adventure. Don't just dream about that next trip. Book it with Priceline. Download the Priceline app or visit Priceline.com and book your next trip today.

14:54Ray Daniels:I'm the SVP. Everybody should be calling me. And everybody was calling me, but they gave me a list of people that I need to call. Yo, this is hot. This is hot. This is hot. So now I'm chasing people. So now the SVP at Interscope, where I remember you used to chase Shakir. You had to chase KP to get them. Now I'm chasing people. So I'm like, this ain't how it's supposed to be. Like I thought being a rockstar executive meant people chase you. So when I started chasing people, I was realizing, I'm like, yo, I'll never forget, I'm telling the CEO of Warner, I said, he was the president of Interscope at the time.

15:25Ray Daniels:I said, the revolution is taking place outside and we gonna miss out. And he said, what you mean? I said, there was a point in time where they were all outside the doors waiting for us. Like you would look outside the Universal building, you'll see figuratively speaking thousands of artists, It's like, pick me, pick me, pick me, right? And whoever got in the building, it was like, you're lucky. Oh, my God, they let you in? And now it's at a place where it's like, we're like outside chasing them. Like, pick us, pick us, pick us. So I'm like, when did we stop becoming the bad bitch? Like, when did we become the motherfuckers chasing people?

15:57Ray Daniels:So you start understanding that information is the new star. Information is the star. Like, I always say, like, people are so busy. Like, artists are so busy trying to tell you about their music. No, tell me about you now. like, like, like, if I know about you, like, it's like, I know your girl. I feel lame. I'm from Atlanta. Let me tell you about Atlanta. We think we the coolest niggas on earth. We don't think nobody's cooler than us. Right. I feel lame if you, I know your girl, but you don't know mine. Like, that's an Atlanta shit. Oh, you don't know my chick, but I know yours, but you cool.

16:26Ray Daniels:You doing shit. You outside, you making noise. So I got to know your shit. So now it becomes like, yeah, I'm a podcaster. Yeah, I got more. I got, that's why I got so many plaques.

16:40Ray Daniels:So it becomes like those things matter more. Now it becomes like, I don't want to be with Ad. It's like people see me and you and they looking at us the same. No disrespect. But as far as experience, I'm way at a other level. But a young 21-year-old kid, 17-year-old kid, he really want you.

16:55Adam22:Because me and Ak have talked about this. Like we both tried to sign artists, done label deals. Bro, every time I go. It's a different skill set.

17:01Ray Daniels:When I'm at the label, but the problem is you guys need an A &R. I'm the first person that I know if he told me that took big you to a record label. Wow. I took because I got Crips around me. I got a number of young Crips around me because my brother. So I'm like, they always say neighborhood, neighborhood. I'm like, yo, we should do an album called Christmas in the Neighborhood. I just came up with the idea. Like, just like being around my little young 'un. So I hit Big U like, yo, Christmas in the Neighborhood. He's like, I love it. I'm going to tell him it's your idea. Cool. I fly to LA, take him to the label, say, Big U got this idea.

17:32Ray Daniels:Christmas in the Neighborhood. We're going to give him this much money. He's going to get all of the rappers who Crips and we're going to do an album. It's going to be celebrating. And they was like, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. As soon as they walk out, Ray, we're scared of him. I'm like, bro, how the fuck are we signing street rappers, but we're afraid of the streets? We don't, oh, y 'all, oh, I'm supposed to be out there with them. I'm, oh, I'm motherfucking 40 years old now. I'm going home to my kids. I'm not trying to hang around, chase an NLE chopper, nigga. When I say NLE chopper, I'm like, yo, I need to get me a young boy to run around and me know he's 17.

18:02Ray Daniels:No, no, you just need to be his uncle and just chase. I'm like, I'm not chasing no fucking 17-year-old kid. I just signed around. He's fucking every girl a lot. Like, what I look like. And not only that, I'm a black man. I was once a 17-year-old black kid. He's not going to respect me. Every time I see Chopper, swear to God, Adam, every time I see Chopper, no matter what, I ain't worked with Chopper in three years. Every time I see him out, he'd be like, hey, boy, you fresh as fuck. And you can dress your ass. It's like, I got to make sure he know I'm current. I know what's going on because why the fuck would he listen to me?

18:32Ray Daniels:Yeah. And that's what people don't understand about the business. We need to teach artists. but nigga you got niggas in a suit trying to tell cool nigga why in the f**k has a nigga in a suit ever told a cool nigga what to do can a nigga in a suit tell you how to get bitches I mean just honestly can anybody in a suit tell you yo Adam let me tell you how to get hoes I mean I'm sure

18:49Adam22:they got some game I don't know I don't talk to a lot of people who won't try they won't try that's my point bro you in a suit how the f**k you gonna tell me that's what's f**k me up though every time because all right when I watch you have a conversation it's like you're a networking guy like this is what you're good at you understand the value of that and that's like the number one thing that when I watch interviews with different uh I was just watching I watched Ak and Dre London a few months ago and that was another one where I'm like wow he really understood that him meeting people and forming these relationships was how he got Post Malone off the ground my main thing is like I got famous and like got money before I ever had to do any of that like I never had to suck up to anybody when I was at Atlantic or APG I was like basically like they would bring me into meetings I know these people are important I know I'm supposed to like have relationships with them and care.

19:33Adam22:But it's like, I can't, I've never had, I never had like a real job. I never really had to figure out how to fit into these worlds. I don't know how to massage somebody's ego and make them like you. So I felt like that was always standing in the way of me being able to play that game. And now I kind of wish I had focused on those kinds of relationships a lot more.

19:49Ray Daniels:It's so funny. I was, I was out here for Grammys and, you know, people have discovered me on the second half of my career. So I saw Busta Rhymes, right? And Busta jumped on my first artist record that got us an idea with Interscope. So I just wanted to tell him, thank you. Like, yo, Buss, what up, man? Because I'm thinking he know me as their manager. Buss is like, yo, that shit you doing? He's talking to me about what I'm doing. Like, yo, you are credible. We need to protect you. I'm like, Buss, I'm Rock City manager. He's like, what, nigga? That's you? So a lot of the times I've been the dude in the room, but I just, I play my position.

20:20Ray Daniels:But then I realized a motherfucker that didn't do shit was out here taking the credit. I'm like, man, if y 'all don't take y 'all credit, somebody else will. So that's why I got there.

20:28Adam22:And you talk about a Buster Rhymes or, you know, any of these dudes like me or Ak or whatever. It's like it's it's hard for people to understand how many people we meet and how much. And if you view everybody through the lens of like, is this person worth interviewing? That consolidates who's worth like caring about down to a very small core of people. Because such a tiny percentage of people like drive views. But really, if you like this one thing I've learned is like if you limit yourself to that, if every time you meet a famous or important person, you say, hey, we should do an interview. And if they say no, you're like, feelings are hurt.

21:00Adam22:And you feel like, oh, you don't fuck with me. Ah, fuck that, dude. That's just like such a limiting constraint. Because a lot of the most important people, especially in this day and age, understand that doing interviews does not really yield much of a result for them.

21:11Ray Daniels:No, I have only asked three people. First of all, I hate. This is why I like meeting people like you. Because I still don't know what I am yet. Yeah. Right? It's like, am I walking the red carpet or I'm interviewing someone on the red carpet? Like, where do I fit? so I interview LL Cool J now mind you Adam I'm in this motherfucker I can't believe I'm talking to LL and then after the interview he's like y 'all I told him to make sure I saw you I needed to talk to you so smart you know who I am Ice Cube same thing bro I told him I wanted to see you you know what I mean everybody that comes to see me is like I wanted to talk to you I just I'm not a fucking journalist it's like so now my audience is like let them talk I'm like they came to ask me questions like so for me it's been trying to figure out like this media shit So I watch the people who do it and I'm like, he got to figure it out.

21:58Ray Daniels:That's why I said I had to give you props first because I'm looking at you and I'm like, you remind me of like the hip hop barstool sports.

22:04Adam22:I'll take that.

22:05Ray Daniels:Like you got a whole lot of personalities around you. Everything is on camera. Everything is in four faces.

22:10Adam22:Because me and Dave Porter are from like the same part of the country. And a lot of times I look at him, I'm like, oh, that would kind of be like me if I had chosen to focus on sports. I spent the first 10 years of me doing media talking about BMX bikes. If you want to pick the smallest possible niche that you can make content about. And then it was only like because I just happened to be in the right place at the time that SoundCloud rap blew up. That was finally like, oh, OK, I can actually have an opinion because I was like a blog obsessed, like, you know, 20 something. Yeah. Reading all these different hip hop blogs.

22:42Adam22:But I never had the confidence. I always felt like I don't have enough of a specialty. I don't have the experience to be able to be somebody really talking about rap on the Internet, even though this is like the main thing I've been paying attention to my whole life. which now sounds like an insane perspective because everybody on YouTube, what the have they done? And they all making videos about the great fall off of so and so or how Jay Z destroyed his career this week apparently and all this shit. It's like these people have no credibility to hang their hat on and yeah.

23:09Ray Daniels:That's kind of what made me want to talk. I was like, to me it's funny because everybody in the music is looking at me like, what the are you doing? I'm like, I'm being honest with you, I just wanted another job. I just was like, I want a new job. I feel like I'm too good to ask for a job. out of my last job because I spoke up on some shit. So I was like, I'm not going to ask for a job. I'm just going to get hot on the internet, hoping that a label was like, called me like, yo, we want to hire you. And then all of a sudden I turn around and I got 200 ,000 people like, we love you. So I'm like, how the fuck do you monetize that?

23:38Ray Daniels:Right. Like, that's why I see people like, yo, I'm like, Adam has found a way to monetize Adam. I have to figure out a way to monetize Ray. This is like, this is 2020, 21, 22, bro. Like, it's like life or death.

23:50Adam22:So what do you actually do in the music business still on top of the content?

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25:26Ray Daniels:The biggest writer in the world. So you know the song, I Patan Patit. Oh, yeah. We did that. My daughter introduced me to that song. She went to school and came back with that song. Yes.

25:36Adam22:Telling Amazon, hey, Alexa, play that. Exactly.

25:39Ray Daniels:Yeah, so we did that song. So I managed the biggest songwriter. So I always say to people. But is it the Teron guy that you're - Teron, yeah. So you're still with him, okay.

25:46Adam22:But that's been what, like 10?

25:47Ray Daniels:20 years. 20 years, yeah. He was working at Party City. Wow. The last time he quit, he called me crying, like he can't pay his child support. I was like, quit, we'll figure it out. And I've been with him 20 years, but I tell people, like, I feel like people should listen to me because I built my business with the mother that blocked for Tom Brady. I done built a business. Like, anybody can walk in the room and say, I'm Tom Brady agent. Right. Everybody should know that shit, but like, who the fuck is Jeff Saturday? unless you watch SportsCenter to know he's on that. I managed Jeff Saturday. The world, the NFL universe worships him.

26:21Ray Daniels:But you can't get no money on the outside world. Tom Brady can go to Nike, but Jeff Saturday, it's like you're a center. I gotta figure out how to monetize a center. Okay, protection, let's turn that into a business. So with my guy, I knew that I managed writers, I knew writers didn't get paid, so I put myself in the front of the business. You wanna talk to them, you gotta come see me. Atlantic calls me. We got this girl. We think she's amazing. She's been in Atlanta for a few weeks. Can you meet her? Her name is Lizzo. Yeah, can Teron work with her? Yeah, we can work with her, but I need to see her first.

26:49Ray Daniels:So I meet Lizzo and I'm like, I'm cutting through the bullshit. Gay white men only. Exactly. Gay white men only. My dog. So I meet Lizzo. So once we figure that out, we come on board and we help. So I feel like we've been like this. I feel like we like the A team with a music business, but I didn't know that the world needed to know about me. It was like until I wrote this letter and then it changed my life. And then it was like, if I don't let the world know about me, I'm fucked.

27:12Adam22:Yeah, because I love what you said about Lizzo, about how she wanted to be a pure pop star. And you ended up telling her you have to make sense to black people in order for the rest of the culture to understand where you're coming from, which I found so interesting because I've had similar versions of that conversation about like street artists and stuff, because I've seen guys get get signed and all of a sudden they're shooting videos in Times Square or in the studio on the beach. And it's like, bro, in this early stage of your career, they have to really believe that you're from where you're from.

27:44Ray Daniels:It goes back to what I just said. Mike Caron can pull up in some Dockers and UberX and Pete has to pull up in a Phantom with three security guards and a million dollars a year. It's just you got to know the character they're expecting. It's like if I always say if they knew that Jeff Bezos was going to eventually compete with Walmart, they would have shut that bookstore down. He was trying to manage, learn how to do books first so he could learn the optics. So now he could turn into the online store, which he is. So with Lizzo, it was just like, that's happened to so many black artists. They want to be pop so bad.

28:17Ray Daniels:And it's like, pop just means popular. Where's your base? Morgan Whalen is popular. I don't, he's a popular country artist. I don't even know his name because his base lifts him up. You know what I'm saying? So when I'm meeting artists, I'm like, they want to be pop. I'm like, bro, you got to be with the audience scenes first. And the audience seen a big black girl when they saw Lizzo. Give them that. Yeah. Give them big black attitude. Give it to them. And then you can be pop because they'll accept you in. But you got to be the most. It's like Cardi B. She's pop as fuck, but she's the most hood ratchet Latino girl you've probably ever seen in your life.

28:49Adam22:Yeah, I was at a show last night and is looking out into the crowd. It's like unbelievable how many women are out there shaking ass trying to do exactly what she got the biggest ass here or the nicest one to be totally real. But like the crowd, just as far as you can see, is black women absolutely loving and worshiping. I texted my girl. I go, this is the era store for black women for sure.

29:10Ray Daniels:This is the store for women. I went to a Mariah the Scientist concert last, like three days ago in Miami. And I'm talking about 4 ,000 black girls. I couldn't hear her sing because they sung every word. And I'm looking, I'm like, it's like they knew her. And then my lady is telling me, this is the song she dropped when Thug went to jail. this is a song she dropped when she caught him cheating and i'm like that's how you monetize that's the relationship you need to have where we are together you i want you to know i got cheated on today so when i dropped my song that he cheated on me in 90 days y 'all like yeah he cheated on to get that motherfucker he deserve it you gotta leave from the front now nobody gets that nah facts

29:48Adam22:facts but okay so uh you know i just want to throw this conversation out here because i was just having this conversation with sean cotton but he's somebody signed a lot of artists his level of confidence when it comes to signing rappers right now is truly depressing.

30:04Ray Daniels:I thought you were going to say incredible.

30:06Adam22:I was going to say give me his number. I feel bad for the guys that he has signed currently because his overall vibe was just doom and gloom. Like this shit is not working. From your perspective why are we in this sad state of affairs?

30:18Ray Daniels:Because so I look at rap through the eyes of wrestling. Like I am a wrestling fan. And the way I like to tell people about wrestling is that everybody gets dropped on the elbow, right? But when you get hit with the people's elbow, for some reason, we know as the audience that that means the match is over. It's the same elbow, but for some reason,

30:39Adam22:when he does this, that's the spectacle.

30:43Ray Daniels:That's letting the audience know, cueing the audience. So I look at music through the eyes of rap. Now, here's what I think happened. I think it got, I think it became too accessible, too easy, and money became on the line. So like, let's look, let's take Big in Pock is the biggest example. They got to millions of records sold before they both got murdered. Now, you're not even getting that chance. You're getting, like, I was just looking at something on the internet and I was like, somebody just got arrested for something and I'm like, these motherfuckers can't get a chance. So now, it was like, and I just think the government focused on rap.

31:17Ray Daniels:The government. I think the government was like, like, look at it like this. We got, the first artist to ever put the President of the United States in a song was probably rappers.

31:26Adam22:Right.

31:27Ray Daniels:I'm pretty sure, right? You know what I'm saying? So it's like, we got a celebrity in the White House. A celebrity has more power than people that have been politicians their whole life. That is the new world we live in. So you better. So for me, I'm telling you to the artist, I'm like, you have to put yourself out there. You have to make yourself a character. What makes you different? Like, everybody raps, but what's your difference? What's your people's elbow? What's your Shawn Michaels leg kick? What's your Stone Cold stunner? Stone Cold called the stunner. Diamond Dallas Page called it the diamond cutter.

31:56Ray Daniels:But it's the same move. You have to find your space. And I think we don't have, things got serious, money got serious, and the streets took over. And once the streets took over, it was, it ain't about talent no more. Look at it through this lens too. I'm 46, so I grew up, I remember a kid grow up where they rapped about selling dope was a bad thing. Dog, I was 10 years old when Tretch from Naughty By Nature says, if you ain't never been to the ghetto, don't ever come to the ghetto, cause you wouldn't understand the ghetto. So I'm in the fucking projects where niggas is getting murdered around me all day.

32:29Ray Daniels:And that was pride. It was like, yeah, we got to protect ourselves. And all of a sudden, I think it was Jeezy. It was Master P and then Jeezy. Master P really started it. The first dope boy to rap about dope. Right. Like, he don't rap about trying to stop selling dope. He was laughing. Master P had a song called Make Crack Like This. I skipped school. Me and my niggas skipped school to watch about it and try to make crack. because C-Murda gave you the whole formula on how to make crack. And it got to the point where it's like, now it's not, now the drug dealer looked at, I think it's all about p***y too.

33:02Ray Daniels:I'm going to just be honest. The drug dealer saw the young boys getting the girls. Like, I'm putting the money up. They like you, he rapping about my life. Matter of fact, somebody write me a rap. Easy. You know what I'm trying to say? And it works, right? So now the street rapper takes over. So now, like any other thing, when the street rapper takes over, the talented rapper's going back in the m***h corner. I don't want no problem with this guy. He's a street guy, right? And I think that right now hip hop is in a place where I think it's done. I think street rap is done. And I believe that the only people who could save it is the podcasters.

33:33Ray Daniels:And I did no bullshit. I think because look, I discover more rappers from No Jumper than I do any music platform.

33:41Adam22:Right. But it's dark days right now because we used to have this pipeline where the labels are investing money into artists to make them interesting to the fans. And then someone like me comes along and interviews them, which obviously also part of the problem is that there's so much competition now that it's not just me trying to interview them. It's everybody on earth.

33:58Ray Daniels:You got my fuckers outside, no jumper on the corner saying, let me interview you before you walk into the building. I go, what the fuck is going on?

34:04Adam22:Nah, for sure. And now it's like, you don't have the labels investing into these artists because they don't see the value in it. And us as a result, we got to pivot. We got to kind of become a soap opera because in 2016, yes, we had a constant flood of new, interesting artists to have conversations with. And now it's super difficult to even think of a handful.

34:23Ray Daniels:Like it's like, it's like, I'm like, if we had the, if me and you found the next dopest artist, all we could do is put them on our platform. Think about it. Like we can't, it's no Rhapsody. There's no TV. Like it's like music, music, these labels. And if y 'all listen to me, please, these labels need to start investing in these f***ing media platforms and immediately. Dog, I tell people, last year, Young Thug dropped an album, right? You know what his biggest hit was? Whoop-de-doo.

34:52Adam22:Right. Okay.

34:53Ray Daniels:Think about it. It's still him, but it came out his mouth. It just wasn't on the rap. But when he go, we go to jail, whoop-de-doo. Nigga, that became the most viral shit.

35:02Adam22:And even that was just like a meme based on something that he had said in an interview a week before. That's my point. It's just crazy.

35:08Ray Daniels:It becomes like, you just got to put yourself out there. But I'm hopeful that labels are sitting around saying, who can we invest in? Because there's no more BET. There's no more MTV. There's no more VH1. So right now, all you got is Ray and Adam. it's like what the we gotta work together that's how i look at it on that album the other day and

35:27Adam22:it is jarring because you remember the most viral thing from the album was the first song where he says the n-word a bunch of times like aggressively and i put on the album the other day and i was like god what a throwback i feel like i i remembered how i felt looking at twitter on the toilet that morning after it came out and just seeing that and being like holy shit he said that

35:45Ray Daniels:like that like yeah it's a different time man we gotta that's why i'm like i feel like everybody's snoozing. I feel like nobody's paying attention to what's really happening. We can't afford to be fighting each other. Right now, we need to be figuring out who's the one. If I'm you on whack, I'm sitting around saying, which one of these motherfuckers do we think we can bet? Who can take the West the furthest? And I'm telling everybody, we getting behind him first. You second. Like, how they do with sports? Like, I'm a seventh-ranked pick. Ain't nobody mad at the first six? You're like, shit, I'm just happy I'm number seven, right?

36:14Ray Daniels:I just feel like we gotta get to that place where it's like, who's the guys that we should put our most energy in And that's who. And right now the business is like that. It's like who got the streets? Who's the realist? Who's the killer? Who's the most gangster? Who's the nigga that got the most money? No. Who's the nigga that has the most talent? Tupac was talented. Biggie was talented. It's not about. I think it got to a place where it was like he got the streets. He need to rap now.

36:37Adam22:Yeah. But it's like all the tricks have been kind of used up. Because you remember Jay told everybody on Rockefeller, somebody's going to come in and DMX the game. No, he said 50 Cent is coming. well then 50 ended up being the guy it wasn't anybody at rock and fella so then 50 comes in and he's more gangster than any rapper we ever seen before and it just completely shocks the game everything he became the sun where everybody's just rotating around him and then that worked for whatever period of time then you you know fast forward to maybe like 2011 you got odd future you got chief keith yeah so you got like the most violent 16 year old ever and then you got tyler and all his homies were just like, this is some freaky, esoteric, crazy, hipster shit.

37:17Adam22:And that completely shook the game from a different angle. And when I look back at those years, those were beautiful years of just pure creativity. The commercial side of things was kind of at an all-time low. People weren't really making money in the game at that time. That's what happened. It was interesting. It was fascinating. Then by the time we get to 2016, 2017, we got all these SoundCloud rappers. We were just seeing people be able to become rappers that you never thought were going to be able to be that. And then as like a reaction to that, then we get King Vaughn and we get dudes that the drill rapper side of things.

37:47Adam22:But where Chief Keef was a little bit lighthearted and fun. Now it's just pure violence and people are getting killed.

37:54Ray Daniels:And it's like you not even getting the chance to get to three year career.

37:58Adam22:Yeah.

37:59Ray Daniels:Like it's like either drugs or violence is killing us. So it's like I mean, I mean, if we think about it, Big had a three year career, 94 to 97. But look what he did. He did, Adam. I don't think people understand. He was a rap superstar. I don't think these guys want to be rap superstars. I just think they want to get the money, get the hoes, and kind of be that dude. But it's so much competition that you could be that dude today, but tomorrow you got to be that dude too. And the next day. And the next day. Because how many Adam 22s around here trying to be the next no jumper? Think about it. So you already know, like, I got to be here early and I got to be here late.

38:32Ray Daniels:Because I already know. I would be coming after me if I was me. Right. So that just wakes us up and just keeps us focused. But we got to keep that energy of knowing that. I think the game lost it. It's like, dog, we need a Lauryn Hill. We need somebody just to say something. I feel like we're all tired, and we just want somebody to say something that everybody feels like. It was like in 97 when Lauryn was like, you know, to the men with the Timberlands, and she was just talking about all that shit, and she was on that thing like, yo, but you still got to be a good person. Like, I see you. I see you, gang lady.

39:04Ray Daniels:You fine. and you got all these niggas on you, but you still got to be a good person to grow up. We just need that. And for me, we don't have that. So that's, I just think it's dead, man. And I think the Drake, Kendrick beef was kind of like the grand opening and the grand closing of this shit.

39:19Adam22:Okay, so explain that, because when me and Sean Codden were talking about that, because I've heard Axe say that he feels like that kind of created division and sides in the culture and that that is kind of like holding the culture as a whole back. Me and Sean kind of disagreed with that, but what effect do you think that's happening?

39:33Ray Daniels:I would look at it like WWE and WCW. Remember when Hollywood Hogan went dark? I did. And it was like, you know, he was a WWE fan. It was like, oh, he's on WCW now and he's a heel?

39:44Adam22:But it's like the race to the bottom right there because you can't undo that. It's like a taboo that maybe shouldn't have been crossed, right?

39:49Ray Daniels:I agree. But then at the same time, where else is Hulk going to go? So it's kind of like, it's like what we're doing. Like the one thing we don't give the shit, bro, is that we don't know. We could do this interview and they get one view and everybody's like, why'd you interview that guy? or we could do it and then get 100 million. We don't know until we put it out there. So I never punish somebody for effort. It's like, you got to try something different. You got to try. But I just think that Drake and Kendrick, that was a WCW, WWE. Like, dog, like, people really are still mad about this shit, bro.

40:21Ray Daniels:Like, this is a rap battle. Like, I want these niggas to understand. Tupac and Biggie got killed. Their mothers got f***ing tombstones for their son. y 'all niggas it's just a battle it was just words were said it's over but i think that that battle killed it because drake was the drake was kind of like the the what's that shit they call it in um stimulus package drake was a stimulus package for the business so if a little nigga in la got hot and he had a hot record or a little nigga got a from memphis got a record shoot shoot drake gonna come give him drake gonna come give him his biggest verse that's his little nigga in atlanta little baby making noise here come drake stimulus package so drake don't want to help nobody no more because he like all y 'all niggas so now we don't kendrick ain't giving nobody verses unless it makes sense for where he is in his career so now there's no excitement none it's like it's like you think about like kendrick i mean 21 would drop an album and then here come a drake verse and here come the drake's mask but it's like he's in a dark place now so he can't bring the light to the streets as he once did so i feel like that i feel like that played a big 21 did put out an

41:23Adam22:album and the biggest song was the drake collab but it didn't he didn't address it the way

41:28Ray Daniels:and so i'm saying so now it's like wrestling it's like you got your ass whipped when you come back out and get that microphone in the podcast but you got to say some shit let me tell you something brother you gotta say something you can't just be like man everybody that's saw me lose like yeah

41:42Adam22:it's weird because it's like you know that whenever there's dark times there's always something exciting that's going to emerge from that it's just very very hard to see what that's going to be because it feels like every lifeline that hip hop had has been kind of utilized and maxed out to the point where it's it's very difficult like what new trick like what trick

42:02Ray Daniels:and we trick guys like i can think of a good trick i'm like what trick can we pull up to that's gonna make the audience excited when when little nons x did that walking through the street naked i never got i said if he's not high he's done yeah black people gave him a pass when he went downstairs and did a lap dance for the devil. He's just lost kid. You came back again with another trick. If you ain't high, you're dealing with real problems. You're done. And guess what? They drug test him. The next day, they was like, he wasn't even high. Fuck him now. You can't even do nothing. You got to give us a great song.

42:36Ray Daniels:We don't even care about your great song because you played tricks and the tricks are over. So now we just need real artists doing real shit, saying real shit. I think that's what we want. No more tricks. Just tell me what it is.

42:46Adam22:Yeah, it's like it's hard to imagine because, all right, like Think about the Jay-Z at his peak or whatever in 2001 or whatever that era might have been. He had all these rappers around him that all had careers based off of his life. Yes. And it's kind of hard to imagine that ever being the case for hip-hop again. It's going to be individual talents. We love NBA Youngboy, and we don't give a fuck about the 10 dudes that hang out with him. He's not really putting him on songs like that. And the idea that the fans are really even going to care if he did is remote. Yes.

43:18Ray Daniels:you figured it out. You see what I see. So I'm like, where do we go from here? Only where we go is like, I tell artists, I'm like, you have to work for it now. Dog, I'm not even bullshitting you. I feel like you and Wack should really create a rap league. A rap, I'm not even bullshitting you. Like I've been wanting to tell us why. Y 'all should create like a rap universe because y 'all are kind of like Gene Oakland and Vince McMahon of rap. I'm not even bullshitting you. Like I'm on East Coast. I'm a Southern nigga. When I want to know what drama is happening and rapping, who's beefing? I'll look to y 'all's shit first.

43:50Ray Daniels:So my mind is like, why wouldn't you think about it? You're boxing porn stars. It's like, we already are WWE. You just ain't turned it into rap. Whereas like, I might make a nigga battle a nigga and put a song out. Then we put him in the ring and make him fight. And then like, imagine if one of them niggas go platinum. Just think about that. You just changed the world. Everybody's like, how can I be next? I feel like we got to create excitement again. And I look to me, the only people that understand are the People that can, if I can get in front of a mic and talk and make motherfuckers listen to me, I understand entertainment.

44:22Adam22:Yeah.

44:22Ray Daniels:And I feel like we need that. So I'm telling you, you'll actually put together a rap league. As a matter of fact, we have the East Coast, West Coast, right? I'm dead serious. I bring news in. And it might be something as simple as, I want to challenge Blueface to a diss diss rap. So now he battling Blueface. And now we got it. What if he wins?

44:38Adam22:We had that for a little while. Well, not exactly, because you're probably talking about more like underground or up and coming artists. But like the versus thing. The versus was. That was like fueling hip hop for a little while. And then it just torpedoed itself.

44:50Ray Daniels:But the problem with Versus is artists it up. Because Versus problem is the same thing most people problem is. Everybody wants to get that stick going like that. So it's like, you got to take it like that, but you got to bring something down regularly. You can't just do like this artist, this artist. And now it got to be bigger now. It's like, well, what do we want Michael and Pit Boy? Which we did and we got it. So it's like understanding. But Versus gets it. But it's like there needs to be another way because the problem with music, here's the problem with music. And I'm talking to you because I think you're really brilliant.

45:22Ray Daniels:The problem with music is we have no resolve at the end. What do you mean by that? Like, I could bet on sports. Your little one grew three inches overnight. Adorable. Also, expensive. Sell their pint-sized pieces on Depop and list them in minutes with no selling fees. Because somewhere, a dad refuses to pay full price for the clothes his kids will outgrow tomorrow. and he's ready to buy your son's entire wardrobe right now. Consider your future growth bird budget secured. Start selling on Depop, where taste recognizes taste. Payment processing fees and boosting fees still apply. See website for details.

45:59Ray Daniels:The game gets played tonight.

46:00Adam22:And now you can bet on album sales on Polymarket, which is crazy. So imagine taking that universe and bringing it into your own universe.

46:09Ray Daniels:It has to be it. And you bring in the big guys. And by the way, I start with the small guys. Like I start shit and it's really about entertainment. It's really about creating a spectacle. Once you can create the spectacle, Gillian Waller are really good at it. They really good on the East Coast to create a spectacle. This person don't like this person. We're going to fight it out. But like, imagine if they was rappers. We just got to get more organized. But WWE is it because we know it's fake. But we still can't wait for them to go off the top rope and be like, yo, because it's entertainment. And I think rap has to get to that space where it's like, yo, I'm just, I'm here to entertain, bro.

46:44Ray Daniels:This is just the character I do. I might see Adam out with his daughter and his wife and all of a sudden I stone cold stun him and now he's like, you happy with my wife? Tell Ray I'm going to get his ass, bro. It's like you got to find a way to keep, you just said it, the narrative, the storytelling. Rap needs a story now. And I think podcasts can save it because we are the storytellers of the hip hop world now. But they don't understand that they have to intertwine with us. So somebody needs to be on your shit saying, y 'all want this person. this might come on my shit now we're like yo adam i'm bringing my guy and you create the spectacle

47:15Adam22:say we actually did that say they're like you know me and you are filming crazy skits like that etc it's like or if we had rappers doing this or whatever it's like how does that then cause people to actually care about the music because we're constantly seeing rap beefs that are pretty engaging i'm glad you said they almost never seem like they have an effect on the actual

47:35Ray Daniels:sales i'm glad you said that my answer to you as a father is k-pop demon hunters amazing film You know why K-pop Demon Hunters has 50 million monthly listeners on Spotify compared to every other cartoon? Because them shits bang. Because they went and got real writers and producers. They got the top dog. They got Sivan. Sivan is the one who wrote Taylor Swift, Shake It Off. So they went and dated. Oh, no. They got the biggest writer. Like, this guy's the biggest. And he made the music. So, yeah, it's a cartoon. Yeah, it's for our kids. But they were saying, what if we put a little bit more effort into the music part?

48:09Ray Daniels:Yeah. And that's the key. The key is taking real talented people. Do y 'all know the K-pop Demon Hunters? It's the girls. Like, I know Golden, how it's done. I know you got a daughter, too, so I know you know these records. You know there's a whole boy side?

48:21Adam22:The Saja Boys.

48:22Ray Daniels:Yes, the bad guys and the boys. They're demons. They're demons. And that's my point. Like, rap should be that.

48:28Adam22:Yeah.

48:29Ray Daniels:He needs to be like K-pop Demon Hunters. It's like, he's just a character because the new world is beige. The world of kids are beige. I say this like, your kid beige, my kid beige. Black and white together, that's beige. The new world is beige. These kids don't want to talk about race the way we did. They don't like that shit. They just want to love their friends, love what they love, and be individuals. We grew up in a world where we needed to fit in. So I'm pretty sure you had the same thing I had. I just don't want to wear a suit and tie.

48:55Adam22:Bingo. That's my point.

48:56Ray Daniels:That's like the number one thing I cared about when I was young. That's why I dress the way I do. I'm like, number one thing I cared about is I did not want to wear a suit and a tie. So it's like these new kids are way more open. no one's just no one's just investing and it's we're all fragmented and right now we all need each other everybody needs each other right now because like dog like like me saying I said something about Future and Wayne I was like I think Future could watch Wayne and T.I. dog I've seen 300 videos get produced with people answering that now that's a new conversation a podcaster did that

49:29Adam22:yeah

49:29Ray Daniels:nigga I'm a label I'm telling Adam to say I think I think Atlanta got the worst artists I said my shit is bad yeah just so people can say Adam, fuck you. This girl, sing. This little 18-year-old girl, sing her heart out that she sings. And then I'm like, fuck you, Adam. This little girl, you just crush a little girl. It's just entertainment, bro.

49:48Adam22:Yeah, yeah. But a lot of it is so temporary because I searched Joe Budden Podcast Ray Daniels because I wanted to see. I knew you had been on there. And I'm listening to it. And some of these conversations, once they're a few months old, just seems so temporary. Because why are we talking about Lil Yachty saying that Atlanta controls what's going on in fashion and hip hop. Like so many of these conversations seem really fascinating at that moment. And then you fast forward a little bit and it's like, oh, like, why the fuck were you talking about that?

50:18Ray Daniels:But think about this. I'm going to go back to wrestling. You lead up to the SummerSlam. Once SummerSlam is over, we on to WrestleMania. Yeah. Once WrestleMania is over, we off to the motherfucking Royal Rumble. It's like we got to always have the calendar going. Something to look forward to. It's like, yeah, y 'all like that? we need wait till we have this yeah it's something like that you do because i i'm not a rap guy i'm a hit guy right like i'm the guy that the rappers come to to say give me the biggest song or attempt to give me the biggest song of my career so like i have a lot of big records in certain people catalogs but you guys are rap guys so for me it's like i've been looking i'm like man if they just and by the way aiden ross gets it he understands how he puts y 'all that's like i know that says It feels like nothing, bro, but that's the future.

51:04Ray Daniels:It's just, we ain't made nobody serious yet. You ain't made, let me tell you something. Change one life, every time you change a life in the music business, it gives you seven more years in it. So for every time you change a life, you get seven years of life to be in it. You change one life, sacrifice whatever it is for one life to make one person, no jumper, face, artist, no jumper did that. Once you change a life, everybody's running to you. And that's kind of why I'm on. So my mission is different. Like I'm a podcaster who's really looking to change someone's life in the process. Like, yeah, I want to get the whole lot of subscribers, but I don't want to be on camera for 40 years talking.

51:42Ray Daniels:Like I really want to, I want to be the Tyler Perry of hip hop. I'm a storyteller. I want to be that. So that's why I'm looking at it from that lens, but I'm a podcaster just trying to make noise. So I, I just think that y 'all should do it. I'm here, bro. Y 'all already had it. It was just, I wish I would have known whack. because I would have hit him and I would have said, I'm going to just use my bro right here. I'm going to use an example. This kid right here. Like I said, somebody tried to break in one of my houses, right? And my brother was like, yo, I'm going to send this kid to you. He sends me the kid.

52:12Ray Daniels:The kid comes to me. He's around me every day. He's a sign of my body. And about a month later, after being around me every day, he comes to me and says, yo, I want to let you know I got 10 for you. And Adam, I'm like, what the fuck are you? Like 10, 10 what? He was like, nigga, 10 years. I'll kill a nigga for you today if I have to. I said why the f*** would you do that? He was like I'm telling you what I'm here for. I said I'm your OG. My job is to teach you how to f***ing win. That n***a mom loved me and by the way he has a goal. He wrote Sierra Chris Brown, that's just how we roll. He wrote that.

52:43Ray Daniels:He got a gold plaque, he bout to be platinum on his plaque. His mom worships me, his mom loves me. Yeah my son out there to make sure you straight. But I know you the kind of man that ain't my son ain't gonna never have to. And you there to help him win. That's our job as OGs. our problem is we playing the game so when I'm seeing you whack I'm like y 'all are the answers y 'all are these little dog this room I'm in it's some little niggas that'll let you they mama to get in this room right now I ain't tripping like that they might be like ma you're at him for me please it's kids that will die to be on here my thing is they want to be on here cause y 'all got the plan it's just y 'all are doing y 'all own thing but for me y 'all gotta drive the car cause they looking at you they looking at y 'all If y 'all said, if Wack went to every young man and said, yo, look, let me show you.

53:29Ray Daniels:Because most little niggas, I was the little niggas ones. Most little niggas are just lost. Most little niggas just want somebody that's just going to tap them on the shoulder and say, you got potential, bro. You could do it. If that was a conversation, like, let me show y 'all all how to get rich. Yeah, we're going to start drama. Yeah, we're going to say shit about each other in this room. I know it sounds crazy right now we're talking about, but let me show y 'all how to get y 'all rich. They'll buy in. They'll buy in. They just need to know that there's a plan. I'm telling you, I've been watching y 'all.

53:57Ray Daniels:Cause that's why I'm like, I can't do that. I wish, I love Vlad by the way. Like I want to meet the, like Vlad is the best interviewer in hip hop, like he's the best. I was watching Vlad interview, what's my man name, Un Rivera. By the way, Un is a legend to me, right? And Vlad is like, yo, so did Jay Z stab you? I could never ask that. People from Rock Station gonna hit me like, what the fuck is up with you bro? So you look and I'm like, damn, that's your advantage. You ain't one of them. You could do shit. So I'm telling you, imagine you and Wack coaching these little young boys up like, we're going to create a real hip hop league.

54:35Ray Daniels:We don't know what it's going to be. But if you win it, you're a part of it. You might come to this shit and just talk shit one day on No Jumper about who you want. And now all you need is the best people. Now you're making records. Once one good thing come out of it, bro, your life changed.

54:49Adam22:It's interesting, man. Yeah. Maybe we are leaving something on the table with that. Let me ask you this. Does your pessimism about hip hop or street rap, does that extend to music as a whole? Because it feels like we kind of end up having this conversation about music as a whole.

55:02Ray Daniels:I think street rap is the only one that's going to die because I don't think the people, I think the people who was in it at first, that was investing in it, they didn't mind because it was kind of like, yeah, he might go to jail in five years, but we're going to get five years out of him. Now they're getting five months. you signed Poo Shiesty my boy signed Poo Shiesty gave him his deal gave him a deal and then a month later Poo Shiesty was in jail and he was like man my company looking at me because I gave him all his money I'm like that's the game bro so now I'm like I'm not investing in another one of those unless somebody does right one person wins then everybody's like you know open up the checkbook that's how you do it so the music industry right now is waiting for someone some outlet to figure it out and if it's y 'all you'll own this bitch and that's the key.

55:51Ray Daniels:And I just, I want to do something different. I want to be around these niggas like that, man. Like, I get irritated quick, man. Like, it's like, because I was an ignorant niggas once. I'm like, dog, you want to be somebody? Yeah, you do. So you can't act like that. And I'll just say something. Like, I'm just, dog, I don't play with my little niggas around me. Hey, bro, you going to be a man around me. We be going to little, some little shit like going through the drive-thru. He'll give me his nickname. Why the f*** do you do that? Like, do you think she going to know you? And I'm like, give me your real name, bro.

56:15Ray Daniels:Be a real adult. I'm trying to teach niggas how to win, and I feel like you guys are leading it, but if y 'all figure out how to turn y 'all shit into a league, whack and Adam versus Gilly and Wallow, and just get y 'all best and do some shit like that. I'm telling you, bro, I will watch it. And I wouldn't want to watch no shit like that, but I will watch it.

56:38Adam22:Dude, I mean, I remember there was a moment where Wack had started his own podcast, and he summoned Gilly, Wallow, me, and academics to all do this like big podcast together. Yeah. And he only did a couple episodes on this platform at that time. But almost immediately, Wack just starts bringing up Beanie Siegel, like punking Gilly and like smacking him in the head or throwing him on the ground or some shit like that. And like later, I had no idea what he was talking about at the time, but later I found out this was a real thing. And I think Birdman was there. Yes. And Birdman said that this like really impacted how he viewed Gilly or whatever.

57:09Adam22:and whack is just hammering him over the head with it over and over and over and i'm sitting there in disbelief like he just came all the way to la to do your podcast and you're just going to keep reminding him of like probably one of the most embarrassing things that's ever happened to him this is unbelievable but i i feel like a lot of times like the the beefs even when people try to orchestrate it it just ends up feeling like clubhouse slop like it just ends up feeling like boring gang drivel like these artists have to like achieve some level of importance in order for people who want to see them do battle.

57:40Ray Daniels:You know what they need? Just need a script.

57:43Adam22:They just need a script. A good script.

57:45Ray Daniels:A good... Hey, yo, look, bro. This is the character you're playing. Like, I'm telling you, like, these... Because a lot of these little niggas be playing the characters, for real. Like, they ain't really the rap character. Like, Lil Baby is... He's probably a different person with his mama and his babies, right? Right. He ain't a Lil Baby. He's his self, right? I'm pretty sure when 21 with his kids, he ain't street 2120. He's with his babies. So, you just... I mean, he's pretty open about that. Yeah.

58:05Adam22:But it stands out to me that like in 2016, people seemed a lot more fascinated with 21 Savage when they really thought that the only thing that's got thought about was me on that slot of gang shit. I know I was. I know like the new album. I listened to it once or twice. But in 2016, we bumped those 21 mixtapes over and over and over. And at that time, there was no way you could have told me that this was pro wrestling. Yes. And it probably wasn't. He probably was really like coming from that mentality to the point where he couldn't have told you that this was an act in any way, shape or form, you know?

58:34Ray Daniels:But I think everybody's just doing what they got to do to get their bread.

58:37Adam22:Yeah.

58:37Ray Daniels:And then you kind of like, like, I just like, all we want is our money, bro. And you do what you got to do and then you get your money. Then you kind of be like, well, who do I want to be now? Like, I don't want to be that guy. I feel like 21 was like, I'm street as f***ing. You start realizing people get murdered. People getting killed. People getting locked up. You can't even remember his lyrics. It's like, you know what, bro? Bro, I live like a king in Atlanta. I'm just going to do it the way I want. I'm just going to do it this way now.

58:59Adam22:Because everybody in Atlanta is allergic to talking about the street shit at this point because they seen it right in front of them. I'm like, you're going down.

59:05Ray Daniels:I seen Atlanta firsthand.

59:08Adam22:Yeah.

59:08Ray Daniels:I'm going to tell you a funny story. I moved to Atlanta in 1991. I was 12 years old. Just moved, just turned 12. Moved to Atlanta in 91. And I moved to College Park. I went to middle school with Tip, by the way. Tip went to, he went to McNair too. Tip and randomly Corey from the Kardashian. Corey Gamble went to middle school with me too. He went to middle school with us too. But I remember when I came to Atlanta, I was sitting in class and I knew every ghetto because every kid in the class wanted to make sure you knew they knew they weren't from College Park. Don't me. My family from Elay Meadow.

59:42Ray Daniels:Wasn't it? My mother's from Boa Home. Nigga mother's from Rumpio. We from Carver. And I remember just thinking, I just escaped the real project. Like people was trying to kill us. Like literally, seriously, like I came from the real projects with pistols on the floor. and I'm in Atlanta and everybody lives in two-parent households, but they wanted to be from the hood. So I watched Gunner Hood go from Pointer Ridge, two-parent households to Shady Park. It was in 1996. I'll never forget. Some Pointer Ridge niggas got into it with some pine tree niggas and they jumped them and they was like, Shady Park.

1:00:16Ray Daniels:I'm a f***ing kid, bro. I don't know what I'm going to do with my life. And then here I am, 30-something years old, and now I'm seeing niggas dying over Shady Park. I'm like, I remember when them niggas started this. It was a joke. It was like, but so I seen Atlanta trick itself out of his spot. Like Atlanta, Atlanta is a place, bro. It's a special place for black folks. Bro, it's like we free there. Everybody free. I know a nigga in Atlanta. One of my cousins got five baby mamas, no teeth in his mouth. Five baby mamas, but he got bitches on his dick because of who his family is. Nigga, my cousin, motherfucker, Ray Daniels.

1:00:51Ray Daniels:And he f***ing. And he's f***ing, by the way. It's like Atlanta black folks live so good. So when I seen the streets take over, I was like. This episode is brought to you by White Claw Surge. Great podcast pick, friend. No surprises there. After all, you're all about finding the tastiest flavors out there. Just like White Claw Surge. And with big, bold flavors to enjoy, like blood orange, blackberry, cranberry, and more, it's time to go all in on taste. Unleash the flavor. Unleash White Claw Surge. Please drink responsibly. Hard seltzer with flavors. 8 % alcohol by volume. White Claw Seltzer Works.

1:01:23Ray Daniels:Chicago, Illinois.

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1:01:57Ray Daniels:You know, we're going to let it happen because that's another thing about Atlanta. Like Atlanta, listen, L.A. can never have water boys. You ever heard of water boys? Oh, yeah. L.A. can never. Imagine some water boys running up on kids on Beverly and La Cienega. Knock on their window. Hey, man, I know you got, man, come on, man, give me some money for my water, man.

1:02:14Adam22:Yeah.

1:02:15Ray Daniels:Nigga, the Beverly Hills police would have them niggas locked up. But in Atlanta, it's like they're just young entrepreneurs. Little niggas will see you at the light.

1:02:23Adam22:Okay, but you tell me if I'm wrong. It feels like people rewrite Atlanta history and they act like Young Thug talking about gang warfare was the thing that made him hot. And I'm like, I was listening to Young Thug the whole way and we didn't give a fuck about that. Like we barely even knew that Young Thug was like really on that. All the shit that came out in the trial was very, very surprising to us. We loved him because he was eccentric all over the place, super innovative musically, and so many of these other artists too. You love YFN Lucci because he was a hit maker, because he was smooth as fuck.

1:02:55Adam22:Meanwhile, LA rap, you can't really separate it from the street shit. That's 100 % part of it. These guys were doing all that, and I don't blame them, but I never saw that as the big YSL value add.

1:03:07Ray Daniels:It wasn't, but it was just, man, you can't control it, bro. When you, like, if me and you started a company, a gang right now, the Adam Rays, and we do some shit today and some shit go crazy, it might be 10 years from now, little niggas on the block like, nigga, we Adam Rays, nigga, we don't play that shit. We looking at it like it was a joke. So for me, I think it's a lot of that. I think in Atlanta, it was just, dog, we was a shit and street shit started mattering more. And now it was not about talent. Let me describe, let me just describe Atlanta for you in the 90s. Let me just explain to you what Thug and all of us followed behind.

1:03:40Ray Daniels:I went to Bannica High School with Ludacris, Young Jock. We went to school. Atlanta is different in most cities. Like Atlanta, the school you go to determines a lot. That's why if you ever hear Killer Mike talking to me, I went to Doug. Like in Atlanta, the school you went to is the shit. Outkast went to Tri-Cities High School. I saw two dudes who was a couple years older than me go from Tri-Cities High School, which is up the block, go sell their first album, go platinum. Southern play, listen to Cadillac Funkin' Music. Second album, AT Aliens. Third album, Equimini. every album first 1 million 2 million 3 million 5 million stankonia and then they get the 10 million and on in the speaker box love below and then they win the grammy for best rap album some niggas we went to high school with and then they just peaced the and then you know took over the

1:04:25Adam22:streets yeah do you resent outcasts at all for not continuing that on because sometimes it's just

1:04:31Ray Daniels:shocking that they left that on sometimes i went to school with niggas like dre when you know people like Dre, like, Dre, if you go listen to Dre's album, The Love Below, you knew he was never rapping after that. When he, this dude was too, and like, how do you go from, I hope that you're the one, but if not, you are the prototype. Let's tiptoe to the sun. And now we rapping about street shit or rap, like, nah, you can't do that. So I don't think nobody's mad at Dre, but I mean, goddamn Dre, we wish to come, like, but he and Atlanta do, he gonna do what he want to do. He's exploring the world right now.

1:05:00Ray Daniels:When he comes home, he's gonna come back. I promise you.

1:05:02Adam22:Yeah. There's like two different types of people. some people get money and they just want to keep hammering away to be great at that thing and then there's other people who get money and realize like i just want to be happy but let me ask you

1:05:11Ray Daniels:this where the do you go from there if you're dre i just sold 10 million albums yeah i just won grammy like by the way they just fired la reed that nobody talks about that la reed just got fired from arista so now they like la come on stage it was like they broken the beatles bro they broke it up when they lost la it was like when michael jordan lost phil jackson you just knew they didn't have that person that they knew when Drake comes in there looking like an alien because he got his nose done like an alien nose they knew LA gonna be like let's go compared to another person might be like what the is this?

1:05:43Adam22:We might not speak about Outkast with the same reverence if they had put out a bunch of whack late stage albums you know something about leaving on a high note same reason we're

1:05:52Ray Daniels:having that conversation about Biggie and Pac but Dr. Dre is still the man because his last album was Chronic 2001

1:05:58Adam22:listen leave on a high note He's sick in the head though. There's something really wrong with Dre that he was never able to really put shit out at a certain point. How do you make two of the best albums of all time and then you just can't bring it out of yourself to release anything?

1:06:11Ray Daniels:That's how. So you got to understand something. I always tell artists like if you had nothing but Hennessy and that cheap ass weed from your nigga around the corner to make your album, don't get successful in a second album and bring in wine and the best weed. Go back to that place that made you great. Go back to that place, that tough spot you was in to make the album. That's what I suggest people like.

1:06:34Adam22:How much of the client street app you think has to do with the fact that people are just disillusioned with the streets in general? That same archetype that was so fascinating to us as young kids. Like, oh, you sell coke. That's amazing. Oh, you shoot people. That's so fascinating. It doesn't feel like the young generation has the same respect for that. They see through it. They think it's stupid and goofy.

1:06:54Ray Daniels:Yes. I was about to say, I use the mob as an example. Like the mob, like we knew who, when I was a kid, I knew who John Gotti was. I don't know who the mob, leader of the mob is. None of us, like John Gotti was the end of that mob character, you know, Teflon Don. Like eventually, because they know, if the government knows, if more people see John Gotti, we're going to have more John Gotti. So we got to shut them down. I don't think they minded rappers making money. It was just y 'all niggas is rapping about the shit y 'all doing and making money. So now y 'all playing in our face. and I feel like it was a, I think they're going to have to go out to radio next.

1:07:29Ray Daniels:I think it's a, they actually going out to entertainment because entertainment is too fat, too powerful. That's what I think has happened.

1:07:35Adam22:Or, okay, like just to expand upon that, like it's like Sean Cotton was saying that when he sits around and hears his 12 year old cousins or whatever, his nephews talk about who they're fascinated by, it's just like never rappers anymore. It's IRL streamers. It's all these like content creators.

1:07:54Ray Daniels:Just honest people. who are placing themselves in like just being vulnerable, saying this is me, this is what I'm going. That's what the artist needs to be. And gangsters aren't that. That's why we need to get the gangsters out and let them little emotional kids, that Juice WRLD kid come in that just wants to make a record about depression and what he's feeling. And that's how you bring it back. What you need right now, we don't have no fire starters.

1:08:16Adam22:None.

1:08:17Ray Daniels:That's scary, by the way. We always have a fire starter.

1:08:19Adam22:And there's just so many people too that are like, we're supposed to be in the prime of Juice WRLD's career. XXXTentacion, Nipsey Hussle, Draco. or the ruler, et cetera, et cetera. And these are all people that we lost so early on.

1:08:30Ray Daniels:You know, I tell people, bro, I said this, I tell people this, I said, the problem that most of us have is that we're trying to win. You did a video one day where you said, no jumper is in trouble, right? Because I was trying to win. I was going for a bigger opportunity. I tell people, don't try to win, survive.

1:08:46Adam22:Yeah.

1:08:47Ray Daniels:Like, I was just, I really think that the Dame Dash Kevin Lyle's moment killed black executives. like when as a young 18 year old impressible man when I seen Dame Dash cursing out Kevin Lyle's I wanted to be Dame Dash I didn't want to be Kevin Lyle's Kevin Lyle's turned out better at least right now he is right he just sold 300 for 320 million by the way he was embarrassed in that moment but he survived and mind you Dame probably went through drama because he was so busy trying to win every day so I feel like a lot of our problem is we want to win so bad that we run out of our chips It's like if you got$30 a day, don't fucking spend it the first, like take your time with it.

1:09:27Ray Daniels:I'm going to spend$3 a day. I'm going to just spend three. Let me spend 10 % of what I got. Let me see what I can do with three and then spend five and then slowly get there. That's what we make. That's the mistake we're making.

1:09:37Adam22:But so people keep saying, and I don't know exact examples, but I keep hearing that the labels are signing like streamers and content creators now as opposed to rappers. What do you think of that? Is the potential bag at the end of the rainbow anywhere near what it would be for artists?

1:09:52Ray Daniels:I'm going to say this. My biggest problem with the music business is that we the coolest motherfuckers in the room, but we jump on everybody. Like, let me tell you something. I don't give a fuck. If Jeff Bezos walks in a room, Leonardo DiCaprio walks in a room and Mick Jagger, Mick Jagger is going to get the fucking response. Because you know why? Because Leonardo, you're playing, you're playing other people. I mean, Jeff, you're just a businessman. That motherfucker got moved like it's just a difference. so music we lead the trends but we don't control the outcomes and that's my problem like we're not smart that's my problem with music that's why i kind of started talking more because i started realizing we're not smart you know how music up you know the story of um napster oh yeah so he's how he created but he thought this he's just a kid that was like let me help all my favorite artists and here's a new technology and they're like thief arrest this motherfucker lock him up hang And then they did all this.

1:10:47Ray Daniels:And meanwhile, Daniel Ek was like, oh, okay. All you got to do is get the licenses first. And he got the licenses. And now he's worth$58 billion. And he's worth more than everybody in the music business. Because he saw. But I would embrace this. I'm going to see you. I'm like, teach me this technology. Because I got kids in the house. You got kids in the house. Kids are into technology. My daughter plays the game. Remember when we was kids, you'd be like, I'm playing the computer. That's what we would say. My daughter says, I'm playing AI. When we're watching TV and I'm like, a commercial comes on.

1:11:14Ray Daniels:My daughter's like, why do we have to watch ads? She doesn't call it commercial. She call it ads. So we know what technology is. So I see somebody come in. I'm like, I'm thinking about my kids. These other guys are like, no, stay away. You're going to hurt our business. And that's why the business sucks. Because we don't want to control our shit. We don't want to invent. We don't want to do more work than we have to.

1:11:31Adam22:But how realistic would it have been for the music industry to have actually controlled the means of distribution? Because that seems like the main L that they took by handing it over to Apple and Spotify.

1:11:41Ray Daniels:You know what they did when they handed it over to Apple and Spotify? they handed over the keys to the gate.

1:11:45Adam22:Yeah.

1:11:47Ray Daniels:Spotify's a gatekeeper now. Spotify's a gatekeeper now. Matter of fact, Spotify tells us when we drop our music, Mark. Spotify tells us, yo, you need to put your music in six weeks ahead of time because we need six weeks in our system. And now think about, like I remember when I'm turning NLE Chopper album, it's like we in the last fucking, like we, I got to get, the album is doing three weeks. I got to get in there. And they're like, no, you're going to miss your pitch too with Spotify if you don't give it to them within six weeks. So Spotify now controls the music business.

1:12:11Adam22:Good for us. But you, I believe, you're one of the people who's been saying that streaming is going to die in some sense. What does that look like?

1:12:20Ray Daniels:I'm scared. Bro, that's like streaming dying is like YouTube dying. It's like, what the fuck does that look like for us? But I think it's streaming doesn't do anything for artists. Streaming, once again, I wish I knew them because I would tell them this is a business that don't matter how good you do, the people in the front of the stars. And whatever they say goes. And that's the world we live in. They are the stars. And streaming became the star. So now the stars are trying to find other ways to get their light shine. So, you know, all it takes is one artist to say, we'll do something like what A$AP Rocky did.

1:12:56Ray Daniels:Where he like go to like a company like Built and he's like, yo, y 'all got people with all them points they can't use? Let's take those points to an album. Then he sells, he streams 7 ,000 copies, but he sells 97 ,000 copies through Built. You got to find new ways to get your music heard.

1:13:13Adam22:That's what I'm thinking. Was that really like a way for Rocky to make more money or was that just a way for him to finesse the sales and make it look good? He made the money. He made both.

1:13:20Ray Daniels:He got both. I thought it was, shout out to Bianca. I thought that was genius. It's like, we, think about this. We have to find outlets now to go to. Music has nowhere to go, bro. That's the problem with music. It has nowhere to go. They're getting uploaded the same way we're getting uploaded. Think about this for example. Me and you signing artists. I'm not giving$5 ,000 for a music video you better shoot a TikTok vertical video for free and see if that works and do that 35 times and then hopefully the audience comes back before me and we put up$5 ,000 for a video if they're not going to watch you performing it on a special 45 second you think they're going to watch a 4 minute video I just think that we got to start thinking and the music business doesn't have thinkers

1:13:58Adam22:I think okay this is how streaming could die it's like we all already pay for Netflix on now I'm a Paramount plus subscriber because they got the UFC. All they have to do, all Netflix has to do is, because they just introduced podcasts, all Netflix has to do is maybe they increase the rate a little bit. Now, boom, you have access to all the music across the world. Even as I'm thinking about it, I'm like, why am I paying for YouTube premium and Apple Music at the same time? Really, because I listen to so much music on YouTube that when I go to do the Apple Music wrapped or whatever at the end of the year, it's not even relevant at all because I've listened to so much music on YouTube.

1:14:35Adam22:that I don't even bother to post it because it looks crazy because it looks like I don't even listen to music. And when I think about it, it's like in that way, a lot of those services could really be gobbled up by other companies that are doing the same shit, right? All YouTube has to do is have a better interface for playing music and I might cancel my Apple Music subscription.

1:14:52Ray Daniels:What if Amazon is in music, but they're streaming. But what if Jeff Bezos lets you use points to buy albums? I mean, I got all types of Amazon points. Like we just got to figure out the music business doesn't think. that's the problem you want to know what's around the music business motherfuckers are not entrepreneurs you and me wake up first and we try to figure out how to keep the fucking lights on yeah every CEO of a company has a cushy check it has a cushy catalog that brings in money that he can play so he doesn't even think like like that's why Jimmy Iveen was that motherfucker Jimmy Iveen treated Interscope every day like the world was ending yeah like guys we got to make this beast headphones before the world changes on us yeah that's why he's a billionaire and everybody else is stuck here trying to figure out like what we're going to do.

1:15:37Ray Daniels:Like, so yeah. Do you listen to that Jimmy Iovine interview that came out a couple of weeks ago? I'm sure. I listened to it three times, bro. Three times. Wow. Jimmy Iovine is the only person. If Jimmy asked me to come work for him right now, I'll stop everything I'm doing. My day kicks off with a refreshing Celsius energy drink. Then straight to the gym. Pre-K pickup. Back home to meal prep. Time for my fire station shift. One more Celsius. Got to keep the lights on. When the three alarm hits, I'm ready. Celsius. live fit go grab a cold refreshing celsius at your local retailer or locate now at celsius.com like right now and i know i shouldn't say that but and i'm talking about for six months for free i would just work for him like i've been around jimmy about 20 times my life every time i've been around him he gave me something that changed my life really every time i'm trying to i was in the room one time we was you know jimmy always said give me a hit you he's what was his favorite say I'm a dog.

1:16:33Ray Daniels:Hit me, I'll holler. Give me a hit, I'll holler. So you go to his meet and he'll be like, Jimmy, I want some beat headphones. That was like his mind. Like when beat headphones came out, everybody wanted them because you couldn't get them in stores. So if you had them, that means you were like connected to the resource. So you go to Jimmy's office and play him a record. And he'd be like, hey, yo, first thing you say, Jimmy, can we get some beats? Guys, guys, guys, play me a hit first. You're asking for things. I ain't heard a hit. Play me a hit. I'll give you some headphones. Play him a record he likes.

1:17:01Ray Daniels:He gives everybody headphones. he was a rock star he motivated us to want to be great i just feel like we don't have that no more yeah like the podcast is that like you're more influential influential than the ceo of a record label right now and they don't and they don't know that and that's another thing like i just don't understand i'm a record label i'm like who do the kids listen to come over here sit with me yeah adam teach me what you know i'm gonna be on your show once a week but see okay even you being

1:17:26Adam22:able to sign artists and stuff i just feel like i've never really been able to to execute on that As much as I've thought about it, I got artists right now from L.A. that I've thought about it with. And I just can't imagine myself pulling the trigger and actually going all in and actually really trying to make it happen.

1:17:43Ray Daniels:If you had a label head that was right, like a Jimmy.

1:17:45Adam22:Yeah.

1:17:45Ray Daniels:What would Jimmy say, Mark? Jimmy like, yo, Ray, stay on the mark. Stay on the atom. Don't let him move. Yeah. Make sure he has everything he needs. That's the difference. So you need that machine. We know you can do it.

1:17:57Adam22:Yeah. But from my perspective, the labels, they give up so quick. If I sign some kid, I feel like I'm indebted to him. I need to hold him down for years and years to keep trying. And I know that's not the methodology of the record industry. The music industry says if it's not working, you just give up.

1:18:14Ray Daniels:And that's why you should be ahead of a company over one of them. Because if I'm a kid, who hands I want to be? The kid that's like, you're one out of ten. Go be one out of ten. Or the guy that's like, man, I feel indebted to you because I signed you because you believed in me. Now we indebted to each other. Now I want to show you that you signed the right person and you want to show me that I picked the right person to sign to. We don't have that no more. There's no accountability. Let me tell you something. I remember with L.A. Reid when I was working at Epic. Nobody does this. This is a true story.

1:18:40Ray Daniels:We're in the office. Travis Scott was on tour with Young Thug. Travis don't have a hit at all. Young Thug has a few radio hits, but they were headlining the tour. Travis didn't have no red songs on the radio. So I remember LA was like, got in a room with Travis and he was like, yo, like how many kids was at the show last night raging? And Travis was like, I don't know, like 1 ,500, 2 ,000. LA was like, you know what's crazy than 1 ,500 kids raging? 20 ,000. It's like that moment on Facebook where he says, you know what's cooler than a million? A billion. He just changed the way they see it. And he says, 20 ,000 kids raging.

1:19:18Ray Daniels:Then he goes, Travis, you know how we get the 20 ,000 kids? Hits. you give me a hit I get you to 20 ,000 kids no let think of think about how that sounds that's so easy right now that should be every label yeah no label does that really because if I if you give me a hit see what LA did that I love was he put his balls on the line too you give me a hit I'll get you to 20 ,000 so once Travis delivers a record and then the record that Travis delivered actually because I worked there was that record 3500 Movin' Slow. Only Real Niggas Out. It was the first time 2 Chainz and Future was on a record together.

1:19:54Ray Daniels:It was supposed to be a single. And then the way it works, the Anecdote record just goes out because remember Travis kicked the kid off stage at Summer Jam. And now he was kind of on his trajectory up. And they was like, and he caught black. That was the first time he had bad flack for it. Like Travis is, I thought Travis was the man of the kids. And he told y 'all, bro, get off the stage. So that's what he made Anecdote for. To respond to that. So that's why if you listen to the second verse, he talks about it. Like, I just didn't like how he would shoot me with his angles. But it winds up being a hit.

1:20:23Ray Daniels:It wind up being a sound. And now Travis is one of the top artists in the world. But that's because a label hit. Every other label is, when Bruno Mars walks in, Bruno is like, they're like, what you want to do, Bruno? Like, this is what I want to do. Done. They don't never put their balls in the line. They don't never say, I'm going to do that, but let's do this too. They always say, because in their mind, if I do what you want, if it don't go well, who can I blame?

1:20:45Adam22:But meanwhile, rap has gone in this weird direction where like half the rappers I know, they don't even want to put hooks on their songs. It's supposed to be a minute and a half of like funny lines. And that's it.

1:20:55Ray Daniels:And you know what? And sometimes that works. You know what those rappers need, Adam? They need a person in the room to say, hey, bro, how much money you made on your last show? $2 ,500? If you put a hook in it, I can get you to$15 ,000. And that's what I mean by what you and Wacka do. It's really guidance. it's really helping them understand stay in the process right because sometimes what really us up is we expect results and those expectations of results affects our emotions now we disappointed man it didn't go i wanted 100 all i got 50 i'm i fell no you could have said i wanted 20 and now you got 50 and now you're happy you just set 100 so we got to manage the expectations of these people and show them how to move and the music business doesn't have that and that's what scares me.

1:21:38Ray Daniels:I don't know one label that I feel like I could send a young rapper to. And I'm really thinking about it. That'll nurture the label from beginning to the end that's not a boutique. That's a major? No, I wouldn't tell. Nobody signed directly to a major. And you don't have nobody fighting for you. You don't have nobody that they scared of. It's like registering for school and your parents ain't there. Sometimes you need your dad to come tell a f***ing goddess counselor, f*** with my son if you want to. Sometimes you need that and they don't have that right now. Yeah, it's crazy.

1:22:05Adam22:I have all these memories of 2017 and all these artists who got signed for millions of dollars that like literally nobody knows who they are they never did anything after getting that money well i signed 2k baby oh yeah so i signed

1:22:18Ray Daniels:2k baby he's a door dash driver now yeah right but like i remember signing him like this kid had a million strings when we signed we like like we i ain't gonna say we his life up but we gave him too much too early and we didn't give him the lessons and you can try but it's hard to tell a young black man with a million dollars in his pocket slow down. Well, he ain't never had it before and everybody around him is like waiting around like, when are we going? You know what I mean? So I signed him, I signed Rumble. I don't know if you know Rumble. I signed Rumble, right? Rumble was one of those interesting ones.

1:22:48Ray Daniels:Rumble just stopped. Yeah. Why do you think that is? I know why it is because he was like, bro, it's too dangerous out there. Rumble was like, I'm not playing with them. This is the true story. I hope you don't get mad at me for telling this. I remember trying to convince Rumble to do an event and then the guy got murdered at Rolling Loud Draco the Ruler

1:23:09Adam22:It wasn't at Rolling Loud but it was at a music festival

1:23:12Ray Daniels:It was one music festival Sorry Rolling Loud but he got murdered And I remember I knew I couldn't convince Rambo to come out the house anymore because he was just like Y 'all not understanding it's a lot of Real shit happening real problems I will fly to LA to meet Rambo And he will come to my hotel room It was like you gotta understand I'm in the business of music And he's like no it's real street shit And then when Draco, that thing happened to Draco, I was just like, I can't say nothing to him. Because that's kind of what he was like, bro, it's haters out here. I'm hot right now in music. And there's niggas that will try.

1:23:45Ray Daniels:And I'm not playing. And he's never performed before. That was another thing. Rumble, Rumble's funny. He's never been on the plane, never performed. Right. Ever. So I was trying to, you know, I'm trying to coach him up. Like, yo, let's get on the show. And he's like, you trying to talk about music, bro. It's real street shit happening around me right now, bro. And then I saw that guy got murdered. I was like, man, this shit is really different.

1:24:04Adam22:Because that was the crazy thing is that Draco did a feature with Remble. That's what kind of popped him off. Yeah, exactly. And because he made so much sense to Draco's fan base when that song came out and everybody was kind of like, oh shit, this is going to be the next through Draco's lineage. Yeah. And then he ended up not signing with Draco and that created a lot of resentment from Draco. Draco never really expressed it, but his squad, even after he died, it just became very clear like, oh, a lot of these people have real resentment towards Remble because he didn't go through Draco and Draco gave him that song for free and really kind of helped put him in position.

1:24:37Adam22:It turns out you're the guy who helped orchestrate that.

1:24:39Ray Daniels:I'm about to say the crazy part, but here's the crazy part. When I was meeting with Rymbo, that was his main concern. Yeah. Making sure that I didn't know. You got to remember, I'm from Atlanta. I'm just, Rymbo lawyer was a lawyer that Donald, Rymbo lawyer was NLE Chopper lawyer. Right. Just the NLE Chopper deal. So he was like, yo, I got this kid from the West Coast. I met Rymbo and I was like, by himself, no manager, no nothing. It would just be me and him.

1:25:00Adam22:He was a real dude, but I didn't understand the politics of like people really want to kill you until he was the first artist.

1:25:08Ray Daniels:Like, nigga, I'm not. No, I don't understand what's happening out there. We got to let this shit die or cool off. And by that time I left the label. So, you know, but that's still my dog.

1:25:16Adam22:It's crazy, too, because I felt like Remble out of the last, you know, five, six, seven years of like hip hop in L.A., he seemed like he had the biggest wave at a certain point. and I always didn't understand how much it was the label finessing to make it look bigger than it really was. It wasn't. It felt like, yeah. I'm seeing all these girls doing TikTok dances and even at that time, I'm still kind of green to it and I'm like, man, this kind of feels astroturfed. No, bro. Even though it was a good song.

1:25:42Ray Daniels:No, listen, bro. When we signed Rimbool, it was like a phenom. You don't understand. Rimbool was the first artist that I signed that I had people calling me like, I'm the A &R. I'm not his manager. They're like, yo, you think he'll do the show for 5 ,000? I'm like, I remember. I remember like, nah. Called me back a couple days later because he getting hotter. You think he'll do it for 10? He like, nah. He just didn't care, bro. He literally was like on some like, I know where I'm at. I know what this is. Ain't nobody going to trick me into going in these arenas and something happened and I'm taken away from my family.

1:26:14Ray Daniels:He didn't play. And it wasn't no fake shit. He literally had, dog, I had everybody call me about him. Really? Dog, dog. I mean, Rambo got invited to do the BET Awards. and said, and they sent the beat. And he was like, nah. Wow. You got to understand something. Mark, we're fighting to get anybody on the BET Awards. And they call us saying, we want him. And they sent the Khaled DJ Khaled Lil Durk baby record. No, no, no, no, no. See? They sent that record over to the beat, and they told Rumble write a verse, and they going to put on, and he was like, nah.

1:26:47Adam22:What the f***? Do you think he thought that he was Playboy Cardi, that he didn't have to play ball? No. He could just be in his mysterious era?

1:26:53Ray Daniels:I just think, no, it was nothing like that. He just wanted the money. And once he got, and by the way, once he got the money, he was, I'm straight. Like, I got enough. I'm like, yo, it's so much money. He's like, nah. All he wanted to do is get his dad out of jail.

1:27:07Adam22:Oh, yeah.

1:27:08Ray Daniels:That's his only goal. Get enough money to get a lawyer to get his dad out of jail.

1:27:10Adam22:Yeah.

1:27:11Ray Daniels:I was aware. It was like, he didn't care about nothing but to get his dad out.

1:27:14Adam22:That's so crazy. With someone like him where it felt huge and then now it feels like it's been dead for a few years. From your perspective, is there still life after that? How do you resurrect a rapper's career?

1:27:28Ray Daniels:We didn't bring him alive. He did it himself. It goes back to one of my favorite. By the way, I learned everything from movies. I didn't have a teacher. Nobody thought I was worth investing time in as a kid. I wasn't the guy that was like, you're going to be something. I learned everything from watching movies. And I always referenced the karate kid because he was getting his ass kicked. and Miss Miyagi was like, I want to show you how to defend yourself, but I want to give you, basically he had to teach him emotional discipline to be a real fighter. So he's like, wax on, wax off. So he's like cleaning all his cars and he goes crazy and then he's like, you got me cleaning your cars, all this other shit.

1:28:03Ray Daniels:He was like, shut up. I'm going to punch you. Wax on, wax off. And to me, I use that to say that for me, I look at myself like I'm that guy. Like I'm here to help you through the process. Just trust me. And Rembo, he wasn't with it. Like he wasn't with it. like chopper truck like whatever rimble was like no right i know this and i'm an atlanta nigga like that's another thing i'm an atlanta nigga signing a west coast nigga like he's schooling me to west coast politics i don't even understand like now we can't move like that we can't do that i'm out here and i don't even know who wanted to kill rimble from my perspective i don't even know i want to kill him i just think it was just everybody don't want to have the heat on him like that like sometimes it'd be weird like why would you want to be the hottest nigga on earth like why would you want to be puff daddy like i get it but it's like everybody looking everything you do is on every mistake you make and i think rimble was just like like i said i rapped to get my dad out of jail yeah i am not gonna have nobody trick me into rapping for nobody on stage that wasn't a part of my vision i need to get a certain amount of money to get a lawyer to

1:29:06Adam22:get my pops out and that's his goal yeah i would i would manage your son rimble right now i still feel like he got it lyrically just it was so good while it lasted but he just didn't really stay on

1:29:18Ray Daniels:it yeah i think if i was west coast based i would have worked with him more but like i was only out here once a month so i only i only could spend two or three days with him at a time but like that's my nigga man he my bro everybody was on him every rapper was on him everybody and he was just like i'm like yo such a sis called he wants you to do a song imagine that like imagine telling yo yo such a sis called he'd be like dope you know like i called chopper and say drake went to get a record when do you want me to get on you know everybody's talking like yo sucker just call

1:29:43Adam22:hey what you get on the song ha ha that's dope that's crazy okay what about chopper it's kind of like a different problem because i feel like his messaging became convoluted like it like it's it's easy when he was the young nba young boy style gangster dude toting all these choppers in the video but then it felt like his like and i appreciate the fact that he is smart enough to have wanted to take his message in a different direction. But I feel like at a certain point from the fans perspective that just started to seem like goofiness.

1:30:15Ray Daniels:Well, I'll say this. I remember when he wanted to drop the From Dr. Light album and we was on a call and this is like, we on fire. We got like, we put out Camelot, we put out the Shadow Flow remix of Blueface. Like, we made so much money off this shit and now he like, I want to go from Dr. Light. So we on the Zoom call and they're like, you know, white people, you know, a little passive aggressive you know so guys uh chopper he's not street anymore what are we thinking guys i'm like yo so i get on i'm like yo look tupac said keep your head up and brennan's got a baby but he also was like he fucked that dude bitch and he didn't give a i'm like he's 17 he's just growing into himself and i think i think the reason i think the problem with chopper is is that to me is that chopper needs a musical partner around him and he doesn't trust anybody musically so like i remember when we first started working like i had all these beats and we go to studio on choppers on youtube searching up nly chopper type beats like it's like it's like and it's like one of the things where it's like it's like sports like to me chopper's the number one draft pick but you can be Zion or you could be LeBron.

1:31:28Ray Daniels:But one has to think like Zion could be Zion if he just stopped eating as bad as he was eating. If you just get disciplined with your food, you could be LeBron. And I think with Choppa, it's like putting him in a room with the right producers who's going to produce him mathematically. It's hard though, because he became the biggest little nigga in the world without mathematics, without writing a hook, without doing it the industry's way. So trying to tell him that is like already like a problem. I remember the first time we was just, I hope Angelina don't get mad at me. First time we have our staff, our A &R being with Chopper, you know, we got, we got all these records, you know, everybody wants to work with them.

1:32:05Ray Daniels:We got all these producers and we just meet with them like, yo, welcome to the label. We want you to go in the studio with this person, this person. And you know, man, his mama goes, raise her hand. Who got a problem with my baby music? Y 'all signed my baby for his music. Now y 'all trying to put them in the studio with other big producers. Everybody shut the up. Wow. And we put out the records. And it, but my thing is, is that, but then you gotta, artists have to be challenged. Yeah. Like athletes have to be challenged. And I don't think there's nobody that's challenging any artists at any label period.

1:32:41Ray Daniels:And I know the label that Choppa's at, that they can't, like, they can't. Choppa needs to respect you to work with you. He needs to feel like, like dog, when I'm an A &R, when I'm working with Future, I'm working with Sierra, whoever I'm working with. Like when I suggest someone, I'm putting my life on the line. If I suggest to Sierra to get in the room with Adam, if Adam don't deliver, I can't make another suggestion. So every time I put my name on the line, my name is on the line, literally. So I just think that, you know, he needed somebody in the process with him. And even with the NBA Young Boys, I wish he would have done that.

1:33:14Ray Daniels:I understand what you was trying to do, but you're doing it to a guy that ain't going to play back with you. So it's like, I'm a strategist. I'm like, all right, we're going to put this video out. It goes crazy. What do we want to happen? Do we want him there? What if he doesn't respond? What then? What if nobody cares? What then? Like, oh, what if he does respond? What's our plan? Like, you have to sit at the table and decide. Any way it could go. And I know for a fact, he don't have that around him. His mother is around. His mother is doing what her mother's supposed to do. She's his manager, but her most important goal is to keep her son alive and safe.

1:33:48Adam22:Yeah.

1:33:49Ray Daniels:Yeah, we could sell 10 million records, but my son is going to be here. So I respect Angelita. But it's also about having someone who can coach him around him every day. And to me, I feel like I was great at it because I didn't ask him for a lot. But when I would ask him, he would trust me. But that shit is built on trust, bro.

1:34:06Adam22:When I first realized that 6ix9ine was a bit of a genius strategist was when Trippie Redd came for him and dissed him and was trashing him. And 6ix9ine was very reserved. And then later when 6ix9ine got bigger than Trippie Redd, He admitted that when that happened, that he didn't go at Trippie crazy because he realized that he had the bigger fan base and he wasn't in a position to go at Trippie. And then once he got in the position where he was more popular than him, then he starts heaping dirt on him. And I do think that like Annalie Chopper going at Youngboy, Youngboy is just too beloved right now.

1:34:40Ray Daniels:He's too far ahead. That's why I'm like, this is the wrong time to diss him. He got the streets. He got politics. Everybody trying to see this kid do good because they know the influence he has. You shouldn't diss him right now. I would rather you get on an interview with Adam. Listen to me, I'm in a room. I'm like, what you want to say to NBA Young Boy? Let's get in a room with Adam. Say it to Adam. Because now your message will be clearer. Now it's not like the song. Now I got to listen to the song and figure out what you're saying. And that's what I mean by like, I feel like podcasters can save it because we wouldn't care about the wrestling match if they didn't stop with me and Gene Oakland and say what happened.

1:35:14Ray Daniels:You know what I'm trying to say? It's like, you got to give those moments to make it. And I feel like I would have helped. But yeah.

1:35:19Adam22:Yeah. You know, a few years ago, I remember having the observation that my own personal listening habits had gone from listening to rap all the time to listen to a podcast and watching YouTube videos all the time. And that I couldn't help but feel like that was a big part of why rap music wasn't really doing as well. It was because of the fact that so many of the fan base was basically like taking their listening time and putting it into other things. And a lot of people told me I was crazy at the time. Oh, podcasting ain't that big. It's not going to stop people from listening to artists. Now that seems like unbelievably obvious to me that like, and granted it's not necessarily podcasting.

1:35:52Adam22:A lot of it is streamers, a lot of it is short form content. A lot of it's just scrolling Instagram. People don't listen to music because they're scrolling Instagram and looking at whatever the algorithm throws in their face.

1:36:01Ray Daniels:That's what I'm saying. That's the new TV. Like, I'm like, if I'm an artist, this is another thing I just said to artists, why are you trying to drop an album? Why are you trying to drop a single? If I'm an artist, I'm just dropping vertical videos on TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube shorts every day. of me performing two to three different songs and just performing it. And I'm not shooting a bit. Like, I wish I had a job. I always tell you, this is the best time to be an artist and work a job.

1:36:28Adam22:Yeah.

1:36:28Ray Daniels:Like, dog, I'm working at Popeye's. I'm rapping. I'm fine chicken rapping about it. I'm going to get out this motherfucker by my mama's house. You know what I mean? People feel that? Yeah. That might push that and be like, this dude is hard. It's a new way to be discovered. Artists just are so used to radio and TV. And I think all of us know that that shit is gone now. So now it's like, we better get them up for something or we ain't going to have nothing.

1:36:48Adam22:Short form content is cannibalizing podcasts and everything as well. Short form content is cannibalizing TV shows.

1:36:54Ray Daniels:It's cannibalizing. It's like I can get it in two minutes. I'd rather have it in two minutes. And to me, by the way, it's way more entertaining because I can go from this place to this place. And the algorithm knows me. They're going to show me some big booty chicks. They're going to show me some funny shit. They're going to show me some educational shit. They're going to show me things that I am. So sometimes I turn on my TV and then put on a movie. And then next thing you know, 15 minutes of movie, I'm scrolling.

1:37:16Adam22:Yeah.

1:37:17Ray Daniels:Because the movie is moving slow.

1:37:18Adam22:Yeah. And do you see that clip of like Ben Affleck and Matt Damon talking about how when you make a movie for Netflix, they want you to reiterate the plot over and over? Like three or four times in the movie, yeah. Because the fans are looking at their phone and not doing that?

1:37:29Ray Daniels:Oh, it's a new world we live in now. Now you're telling Matt Damon how to make movies. Like, say the plot. Say the rip. We better say the rip. Yeah. And I was wondering why they kept saying that in a movie like, this the rip. Oh, that's Netflix. and it's funnier because you're watching real people do it if you see a Netflix actor it's like oh yeah that's what y 'all do but seeing Ben Affleck it's like oh wow they make you and Ben you and Matt Damon do it that's different

1:37:53Adam22:yo so okay the controversy of the week was this clip that came out of LaRussell talking about Wayne and really had like a relatively measured take about Wayne that then imploded and seems like it's maybe even like threatening his career long term because people had such a, you know, people are so outraged by this.

1:38:13Ray Daniels:I'm going to tell you a story. I hope you don't get mad at me. But I just said earlier how I was obsessed with Master P. Yeah. I used to push wheelchairs in the airport. I was sky cap. Master P is the only celebrity I ever saw. And I cried. Really? Like, I couldn't believe that that was Master P. Wow. And I worshiped the man. And then I saw him drop Romeo. And it was Bugs Bunny and it was dancing. And it was like, what the is this? Yeah. So at that moment, I had to recognize that my, I'm 18, by the way. I'm a kid. I'm like, I had to recognize that my rap heroes are humans. Like, you tell me, not saying massive people, you rap about selling dope, but you send your kids to private school.

1:38:53Ray Daniels:It's the same concept. It's like, it's a contradiction. So I look at it through that lens. Like, I can't, you know, like, if you're talking this shit, this street shit, and you're not living it, that's why hip hop is dead. because the motherfuckers are smart enough to talk it. It's like, I'm not talking that shit. And the motherfuckers that need it bad are talking it and they don't even know that they're blowing up to the point where they get a check and then here comes the DA. Got your ass. So it's like, there's no more chances. Yeah, but that LaRussell clip. Oh no, I'm sorry, back to LaRussell.

1:39:25Ray Daniels:I was talking off. So here's the thing about LaRussell. Number one, he's not wrong. I said it about Master P to say that I became a man when I'm 15, 16, I'm listening to Master P. I love the man. I'm 1920 and now here come his son and his son is like a kid rapper like nothing like the No Limit Brand and I'm mad at Master P I don't even know this man I don't got his number I'm just pissed at why is he why are you doing this and I had to realize Master P ain't your god yeah these rappers are entertainers like they trying to figure it out too he might have saw Romeo and looked at his son and been like you know what I can't put my son in this bullshit yeah this street shit it's like we got to wipe up so I think what LaRussell happens is LaRussell is a rapper he loves Wayne Wayne is his favorite rapper in high school.

1:40:06Ray Daniels:Then he goes through the journey of what it takes to be a successful rapper. Lil' Russell's whole mission is meaningful. It's like I'm trying to build something for my community. Every step Lil' Russell takes is with intent. Lil' Wayne just rapped. So like listen to Go DJ. Go DJ ain't about a DJ. He's just spitting on your ass. Like that's what a milli. What is a milli about? He's just killing it, right? So when you hear it, you're like, damn, Wayne probably, he didn't really give me nothing. Like, I'll say this on record. Jay-Z taught me more about success than my father. And my father is the greatest man to ever live.

1:40:39Ray Daniels:I love him. Everything I am is because of who my father is. But I learned how to get rich from Hov.

1:40:44Adam22:Yeah.

1:40:45Ray Daniels:When Hov was like, when Hov say this shit, he don't hold on that new shit. Niggas like, how come? Niggas want my old shit. Buy my old albums. That fucked my life up. Because it was like, and then he goes, nigga stuck. I'm trying to do something. Y 'all stuck on the blueprint. And I'm like, and I was one of them dudes that was saying, Jay and Dame need to get back together. Well, I'm not going to support them. And then Jay dropped that shit. I'm like, I'm lame as fuck. I need to move the fuck on. And when Jay-Z said, all I need is the love of my crew, the whole industry can hit me. I thugged my way through.

1:41:11Ray Daniels:I was coming up in the music business. That stuck with me. When I would get played by somebody else, like I remember I ran up with Keitar Massenburg, and he was like, get your ass out, little nigga. I was like, I ain't going to fuck about you. My crew love me. And I was just thinking about Jay. So my point I'm saying is that, but as I get older, I see Jay differently. I'm like, I wouldn't do certain things he did. And I think that's what happened with Lil' Russell. It's my idol, but now I'm looking in the same, I'm sitting in the seat, maybe not where he was, or his peak, but I'm where he was at one point.

1:41:37Ray Daniels:And I'm saying like, damn, I'm a little disappointed in my goat because he never gave me nothing. Now y 'all beating him down.

1:41:43Adam22:Because when I really try to think of rappers who never put out, you know, sort of substance-less content, Jay is really kind of the person that comes to mind where you find me the Jay song that is just a bunch of garbage. Nothing. Just a bunch of talking shit. Every song was intentional, bro. It was just, and I feel like that's why he had to fall back early. Yes. And that's why he doesn't do all the rapper things that everybody else in his position does. But even then,

1:42:09Ray Daniels:look at Jay-Z for example. Jay-Z was at this place where he was hundreds of millions. He was the president of Def Jam. He couldn't talk street shit no more. So what does Jay do? Yo, give me that Frank Lucas American Gangsta album. And now he talks, I'm getting there. I'm getting there. But he was talking at Frank Lucas. Yeah. Not, not himself. So it's like, nobody understands that Jay is every word that comes out of his mouth is meant to be a part of his story. And Wayne to go back. Sometimes he'll start here and go there. Cause he really is just, he's probably the most gifted rapper alive.

1:42:42Adam22:Right.

1:42:42Ray Daniels:So you got to give him that, but he did. I respect what the Russell said. He didn't feed him.

1:42:46Adam22:Yeah. Cause I feel like if you're a rap fan, you are not human. if you haven't had that experience of putting on a new album from a rapper that you like and at some point by like song four just thinking listen I'm sick of hearing you talk about how gangster you are or how good at rapping you are or how many bitches you got or whatever like I just many albums over the years have been just full of this and that's all there is to it and if you haven't grown frustrated by that at times I I feel like you're not being honest it's like you gotta

1:43:17Ray Daniels:grow. Jay-Z is my favorite rapper. Kanye is my second favorite. Kanye is my favorite artist of all time. But Jay-Z is my favorite rapper of all time. But I tell them, you know where Ye was at in every moment. He was a college dropout. Now late registration. Now graduation. Now mom dies. 808 heartbreaks. I'm f***ed up. My twisted dark fantasy. I'm trying to figure out how to come back. The life of Pablo. Like I want to do gospel. Everywhere he was at, that's why they bought it. Because everywhere he was at, he told you this is where i'm at and i'm trying to figure this shit out and i think artists don't do enough

1:43:50Adam22:of that they just want to hide behind the veil and i seen a little russell tweet where he was basically acknowledging that this is the first time he's ever really gotten negative feedback in his career like because he as much as we talk about him a lot or at least now it seems that we're going to be talking about yeah he's not really that big like he's got a couple hundred thousand monthly listeners if you look at his interviews he's doing 10 20 000 household name

1:44:12Ray Daniels:in hip-hop but you don't like I'm from the Bay record is the first time he's going for it like y 'all want to know me for a song not just know me for my story yeah his story is famous and now

1:44:23Adam22:him having like a somewhat edgy take in an interview seems like it's a real threat to like everything he's building because now everybody who listens to him is going to constantly be looking for substance in a way that I don't know if he can really deliver on it and let's be real like most people don't really want substance in every single song they want hits and they're okay with it if you're just talking shit.

1:44:43Ray Daniels:So my thing to LaRusso is this, because you're actually right. How I'll respond if I'm on his team is I'm like let's keep pushing forward but eventually the goal need to be to get Wayne on the record.

1:44:51Adam22:Oh that's smart, yeah.

1:44:52Ray Daniels:Because now when Wayne get on the record because that's another thing. The fans are taking it personal because Wayne has to come out and said that's cool with me. It's like Wayne just said yo that's dope. All my shit ain't that. Nobody would care but it's like he said what about Wayne? We got to get his ass now. Come on man. We got to grow past that shit bro. We got to like dog Like, nobody is above criticism. Nobody, bro. Drake is top five to me. But you got to admit when you did wrong. It's like, by the way, that's my superpower. My superpower is you can change my mind.

1:45:19Adam22:Yeah.

1:45:20Ray Daniels:Like, you can tell me something. I could come in here convicted. And you can tell me something that makes me say, damn, I didn't think about that. You know what? You're right. You know what I mean? And I think that most people, I'm tired of the people that mind can't be changed.

1:45:31Adam22:Yeah.

1:45:31Ray Daniels:Oh, he's a bitch. We hate him now. You hate him now? Damn, you don't even know the real story. We don't care. We hate him. He said something about Wayne. We hate him. That's who we hate. come on y 'all y 'all niggas be working their life off to get here you can't write them up because they said something you didn't agree with everybody does yeah i'm a poker player and that's

1:45:47Adam22:one thing that is really prized within the culture of poker is the willingness to be open-minded about things and there's been times where i was doing a zoom call with my coach talking about a hand and he's telling me how i f*** the hand up and then all of a sudden as he's talking it through three minutes later he's like actually you know what i think this is perfect yeah you did the right thing and that in itself i have limitless respect for is like someone that could kind of continue to process this to the point where they're able to change their mind in real time but that's taken as being a hypocrite no no in public discourse they don't doubt i don't if you

1:46:23Ray Daniels:can change my mind that's what makes me powerful i can say one thing like dog i'm gonna be honest with you because we hear like when i'm coming here a lot of people like why are you talking to adam i'm like why wouldn't i oh he does this kind of i'm like you think that's what him and our conversation is going to be. You think we're going to sit around and like, yo! How many bodies you got ready? Yeah, exactly. It's like, y 'all don't understand. My thing is that we do have to do more of that, more fellowship, more conversation, more talking to each other. That's really the problem. Nobody talks to each other no more.

1:46:49Ray Daniels:We're just watching what each other is doing on the internet. We used to live in the real world and post what we do on the internet. That was our life. Now we live on the internet and whatever we do in the real world, we have to post on the internet now to make sure that the internet knows what's really happening. Yeah.

1:47:05Adam22:like the weirdest shit i do feel like my respect for the average hip-hop listeners uh reading comprehension or you know listening comprehension might have dropped a little bit this weekend because like the two biggest stories was la russell basically complimenting lil wayne but having a little bit of a critique of his output over the years and then dj vlad writing this long sarcastic post about the megan tory situation which we don't really have to get all into and and it getting like 100 million plus impressions on Twitter, mostly by people who thought that he was being...

1:47:40Ray Daniels:Yeah, they wanted to believe the story.

1:47:42Adam22:Yeah, that was crazy. Yeah, I mean, there's such an appetite for conspiracy theories and misinterpreting people that have the least charitable version of what they're saying.

1:47:50Ray Daniels:I think I know why, because we live in the pick me era now. We live in an era now where everybody is making content intentionally now. like we live in the era where like literally you looking at me the difference between them looking at you and i'm looking at me is life or death now right and because i think because we live in that era it's just taking way way more serious everything is there but i'm gonna just tell you something this shit is like living in a drama it's like living in a soap opera just survive yeah la russo like tory lanes didn't survive right he went to jail it's like but if you survive and keep your name hot enough, you get out and here we are again, you're back.

1:48:30Ray Daniels:I always just survive, bro. Everybody going for the big gusto. It ain't no more big gustos, bro. All of the Giants are waiting to see where we're going next. So you need to survive to figure out where you want to go next because the Giants haven't even picked yet.

1:48:42Adam22:Right. Okay, last topic is to what extent did the botting and the artificial inflation of music on streaming platforms corrupt the game? Because I keep seeing smaller underground artist whatever kind of having the realization of like oh i was judging myself for all these years against people who are not playing the same game as me i thought that i was one percent of this artist and it turns out maybe i was bigger or or close to on the same level as this person but they were being propped up by these fake numbers anytime there's numbers in the front

1:49:18Ray Daniels:it can be altered yeah it's just the world we live in it's like bro like have you seen the bots like the bots are like if you've never seen it, what we've done I'll just show you one. The bots are like I can order right now 3 million followers on a bot for$40.

1:49:37Adam22:Wow.

1:49:37Ray Daniels:But they might say do you want real bots? Do you want real followers or fake followers? Do you want real humans or fake followers? Like dog like my thing is that we're gonna, this is the steroid era for music. The bots are listen eventually gonna all taken down because the industry is going to have to land somewhere. So to me, I just feel like, you know, like that's just, this is going to be the bot era. It's going to be like, I want triple platinum, but in the bot era. Well, it kind of feels like even seeing

1:50:02Adam22:6ix9ine have mad plays removed from his shit on Spotify or whatever, that kind of feels like, oh shit, we're in this like new era where there's a lot of corrections to that, which I mean, they keep finding new ways to artists officially inflate people's popularity, but it feels like, if anything, the streaming platforms are a lot more motivated to correct that now.

1:50:23Ray Daniels:I think we're past the numbers error. I think that we just need like I said before I seen a footage if I didn't see that footage you could be telling everybody here man when I go to concerts man I get mobbed like the f***ing Beatles. You're like shut the f*** up Adam. You know what I'm saying but we seen footage of it. So now we seen footage of it we know it's real we got something it's something to believe in. We got to artists got to give people something to believe in bro like I know you I just think that all of the gold rush is over and all the fakes are gonna fall. And I feel like, I think you feel like that for podcasters too.

1:50:55Ray Daniels:Even like interviewing me is like, he might just be one of them pop up guys. Like I need to see him for another 12 months. I need to see him as like, it's not because you're not making me qualify. Just you know how much you put in and you like, I'm the one who waste my time with anyone that is not of this shit. And I think that that's where we are right now in time where it's like, you know, it's just, everybody's just trying to wait to see what's real and what's not. But if you be honest, if you're paying attention, who's killing it? The podcasters.

1:51:22Adam22:Yeah.

1:51:23Ray Daniels:No, making it the Joe Budden show is equivalent to being on 106 and Park, being number one on 106 and Park. It's like Joe let you come up there? Oh, shit. Yeah. Like, it's like, he's created that space for himself. Wallow and Gilly fly to go interview you. You gotta be hot. When they went to go do Finesse two times, I'm like, oh, Finesse, hot. By the way, Finesse, I just want to say this. I just, I hate when I see artists going through shit. He's funny as fuck. Yeah. He can be a comedian.

1:51:48Adam22:Oh, yeah. He is a comedian. He's a rare person who can do the social media antics and it seems like his music is actually hot and that the two things don't somehow cancel each other out.

1:51:57Ray Daniels:And I'm like, and when he was saying, yo, J Prince, I'm like, bro, you the hottest you ever been and you don't have a record out. Why are y 'all not thinking? If I'm him, I'm doing what Lil Duval did. I'm talking shit on the internet and I'm going to say one thing that's, I'm going to say one thing RB that they going to catch me. I'm living my best life. I ain't going back and forth with you niggas in the hickle future. I'm living my best life in the hickle. You know what? I'm going to turn it into a song and then it goes three times platinum. He did it in real time. Dog, if I'm somebody, if you at home trying to figure it out, you should be trying to get in the room with people like Adam, people like Ray, Wack, people like Gilly, Wallow, Joe, because we are, we are the stops on the rail of big roads.

1:52:40Ray Daniels:We have all the information. Everybody wants to talk to us. Like, think about that. Like we could direct traffic. Like, yo, you want to go? Hey, you should be a part of our league. Let me show you where the traffic is going. You should be over there with that person. You are a dumb rapper. I got a dumb rap crew that I can make you a part of that. You'll be perfect in. We got to start directing traffic. And I think it starts with us podcasters.

1:53:00Adam22:For sure. All right. So speak to me about your platform and what exactly you're doing on there so that the people can make sure to go tune in. And what are you building?

1:53:09Ray Daniels:Well, the most important thing I'm building is I'm creative director of this company called The Cut. It's a haircut app. A hundred million applications. I mean, 100 million appointments. We got 10 million users, 300 ,000 barbers. And we have this platform we created for artists to perform because I'm seeing it. I'm like, if we don't give artists an option, we not. So what I'm really trying to do is I'm trying to be like the complex of Atlanta. I'm trying to be an opportunity zone. You want to come perform? Come perform. You want to come get some game? Come get some game. You want to come learn?

1:53:38Ray Daniels:Come learn. And my whole shit is called Ray Dane's Presents. So I would say like, share, subscribe, follow me. but it's more about that shit don't matter to me. I know I should say it but what matters to me more is the people at home listening and learning. If you got it from Adam's shit, if you got it from my shit, I don't care. The most important thing is me is that you f***ing get it. And you do what you gotta do because we superheroes, me and you. We wake up every day and try to do what we gotta do to change the world for the better or what we see it to be. And it's hard as f***ing, bro. It's really f***ing hard.

1:54:07Ray Daniels:So I just tell the people at the house, man, it's gonna be hard but it's worth it. It's gonna be worth it in the end.

1:54:13Adam22:So that would be it for me. You're building something that has a lot of integrity and is clearly intended to help people.

1:54:18Ray Daniels:I'm still figuring it. Like, dog, I did Drink Champs Friday. Like, I can't. I'm like, Nori is talking to me and I'm still trying to figure out what I am. I'm like, I don't know. But I do know what I am. I am at the I'm at the intersection of culture and creativity and coaching. Yeah, I'm creative. I understand culture, but I can coach you through that shit because everybody who's ever listened to me got rich. No artist has never listened to me and not won. Because I don't give you what I want. I understand the science of what we're doing. I think you do too. You know what the fuck you're doing when you do the no jumper is going through this.

1:54:51Ray Daniels:And everybody know the OnlyFans is jumping. You know what the fuck you're doing. But what you're doing is you're being transparent with your audience, number one. But you're telling them what's happening in real time. So now they can roll with you or not. It's like, not like, man, we just going to figure it out. So I say it on camera. And the president of our company is right there. She hates when I say this, but we still figuring it out. yeah and I and and and for me to have gotten this far that's another thing bro I I haven't made money I haven't taken money from this yet right like I make a million dollars a year in music so I can make a million dollars a year from sitting on my phone right just in music because I got so much shit going so and I got royalties coming in from so many places so I don't do that for I don't do this for the money I do this shit Adam because I really believe that if we don't do this our kids gonna be listening somebody else who might be leading them down at some piece of shit.

1:55:39Ray Daniels:You know what I'm saying? So for me, it's like we got to talk because if we don't, who is? So that's what I'm here for.

1:55:44Adam22:That's real, man. Hey, Ray Daniels, appreciate you coming so much, man.

1:55:48Ray Daniels:By the way, f*** me more, man. I f*** with no jumping, man. I love what you're doing, man. Y 'all funny as f***, man.

1:55:51Adam22:For sure. I'm down to do this anytime.

1:55:54Ray Daniels:By the way, I'll be out here all the time. I'm going to come see you. When I'm in Miami, I go see Danza. I'm going to come see you when I'm in LA. Just pull up on you. Let's get it, man.

1:56:01Adam22:Ray Daniels, make sure you subscribe to his channel. Just search it up. Ray Daniels Presents, right? Ray Daniels Presents everywhere and Ray Daniels. It's easy. Ray Daniels or Ray Daniels Presents. That's me. The show. No jumper. Coolest podcast in the world. Like, comment, and subscribe. We will be reading. Appreciate y 'all. Let's go. Hell yeah.

1:56:16Ray Daniels:Are you dreaming of the perfect prom, but there's just one thing holding you back? Speak English, mom. Welcome to Ethnosync. Ethnic modification. What is this place? We help you reach your true potential. How are you feeling?

1:56:32Adam22:It's good to be white.

1:56:34Ray Daniels:Hey, new girl.

1:56:36Adam22:Hey, look at what you've done to yourself.

1:56:38Ray Daniels:For a new plant to grow, the seed has to die.

1:56:42Adam22:Slanted, rated R. Only in theaters March 13th.

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