The Exchanges

Q a pink car in it, a stove in the yard, and you use it to promote your album, which was huge. And then it became one of Atlanta's number one tourist attractions. People flew in from other cities to take pictures. You had galleries and events, you know, even a free HIV clinic. What were you thinking when you started creating this, and why did you create this trap house?

A So I had an album that came out in 2017, it was called Pretty Girls Like Trap Music. Trap music, or the word trap means, in Atlanta, it symbolizes hustling, and, and most knowingly, it has to do with selling drugs, ok? When you hear a lot of people in Atlanta, they talk about trapping, it's hustling, it's selling drugs, so it's the type of music that some, that people listen to. It's, it's, it's bass, it's heavy driven with bass, and it has these, like, lyrical connotations dealing with Scales, and just, it's an underworld type of thing. So I had a project that was called Pretty Girls Actually Like This Type of Music. You just, you know, like, it's just not for like, and it's just this old thing, like, when you used to, when I used to come up, it used to be like, man, the good girl always wants the bad guy. That's kind of like what it was. And so we actually rented out a house, we painted it pink, and we used it like a live, immersive experience, and that's what it was. And we had art on the inside. So it was about me actually Making the word trap a positive connotation instead of it always being attached to something negative, and so we did everything from church to HIV to art shows, and it lasted a couple of months, but the neighbors couldn't handle all the traffic, so we had to get rid of it.

AI assessment note: “it was about me actually Making the word trap a positive connotation”

Q because I was looking at your background, your first solo debut that kind of blew up, you were 34, and like had been working for like 15 years, but then you completely rebranded, Charlamagne was telling me, like later in your career, he was like, that was super impressive, and I was kind of wondering, like what kept you going for the 15 years before you felt you had like?

A Made it. I just, I knew I was, I knew I had something special. I knew I was a star, and it was hard to, uh, explain it to somebody, what you have inside of you, without actually proving it. So, with me, it was like, I had been around stars. I had, once upon a time, I looked at my phone, and I had people who I knew Were millionaires. Like, I knew these people were millionaires. Like, I didn't, I never saw their account, but I just know. And I said, why can't I be one? Somebody number, why can I be one? So I really was like realistic about what I could be. Like, I just, I just knew it. I just knew I could crack the code. I just knew, I would change, just like when I walk in here, I walked in here, I could just change the room when I walk in. I just knew I had something, I had to it, and I just had to stay at it and not give up. I just knew I was special. I knew it was something to me. I just, God took his time with me, and I know that, and, and, and that's, and can't no words or comments or anything like that kind of derail what I know is inevitable. Like, I'm a real, you know, I'm, I'm a, I'm a superstar.

AI assessment note: “I knew I had something special. I knew I was a star”

Q I gotta go check this place out. Is it true that you went head-to-head with the Pablo Escobar estate?

A I forgot what they call these lawyers that just go around fishing stuff. But so during the pandemic, everything was shut down. Right. So except Atlanta, except Georgia, like governor Kent was like, we're going to work. We're going to stay open. We on work, all this. So half the people were like, this man is crazy. The other half was like, let's stay, you know, so it was this whole thing going back and forth the whole time. The United States is watching us and they're just coming to Atlanta. Like, I guess we can, And this is middle of the pandemic. Everybody wearing masks, six feet away, no hugging, people spraying you down with lifestyle. It just was crazy. Temperature, hand sanitizer. So I, Give back to the homeless during this time. I have, I have something set up outside. I have like pasta, something like that can fill you up and it's not, you know, so I like this pasta noodles. I got chicken. So across the street from Esco a little bit down the street is a homeless shelter. So I was like, man, let's just take this outside and feed the homeless while we're feeding the homeless. Of course, they're broadcasting this on the news. Somebody from somewhere else says Esco. You can't. And they tried to really like, You know, sue us. I think we end up selling this whole thing. It was a picture, so it was called Esco Bar, but I'm like a rapper. So when I came up with it, I was like, b…

AI assessment note: “Somebody from somewhere else says Esco. You can't. And they tried to really like, You know, sue us.”

Q But you have really been pretty prolific as a, an artist, as a business builder, as an idea generation, generator for, yeah, I mean, decades. So I guess I'm curious, for somebody that's listening that's like, I'm not a creative, you know, we always hear people say that. What do you say to them?

A I would tell them to quiet down the noise, maybe get my book. My book is not necessarily a memoir, but it has many stories on how I use My intuition, which is like a sixth sense in a sense for me, how I use my intuition, my discernment, that inner monologue to actually get things done, to come up with these ideas, to shut down the outside noise. Um, I've actually used that voice in my head. To get out of that rut. Like, you know what I mean? To be, sometimes you have to self-motivate yourself. That's one of the hardest things to do, and I know my peer group, some of my peers, like, man, how do you do it, man? You, you know, it's like, man, one of my friends was coming to the studio, much younger than me. He texted me and said, man, I don't know how you do it, man. You go to, you go to your kids' practice, you go to, he's like, I'm tired, I'm gonna come over tomorrow, and I saw the message, I said, man, I'm just, I'm just self-motivated. Like, I don't really have that battery pack, no one's just like, I'm just like, I can look in the mirror and say, and just give myself that pep talk I need to, to get my, to go further and get my day done.

AI assessment note: “I would tell them to quiet down the noise, maybe get my book.”

Q Will you explain how that works? Cause I don't think people understand.

A It's negotiating more than anything. You have to have leverage. That's, that's, it's not like you, it's not nothing that works. You got to have, like with any business, if you got leverage, then the conversation can be had. If you don't have leverage in any business, if you ain't got leverage, you know, I want to, I want to do this podcast at Times Square. Like, you know, you can't, Just tell people, you know, whatever. So with me, in these different phases of my life, I had a certain amount of leverage where I was able to get certain things. Normally, for syncs, and say if we were using my song here or something like that, we'd have to go through the label because they own it until it's reverted back to me, and then songs like birthday songs, something I made that I'm sure someone plays somewhere in the world every day, it'll just, it'll just be a bigger cut at the end of the day, a bigger split.

AI assessment note: “Normally, for syncs... we'd have to go through the label because they own it”

Q Yeah. Well, it's interesting, like, does that end up coming into your music now? Like, is your music always sort of a reflection of where you're at in life?

A That's a good question. Yeah, and a lot of my music is, I reminisce a lot. I use past tense. I used to, I had, a lot of it is me, like a reflection type of thing to a lot of my music. I used to, you know, so I'm not like saying I'm doing it right now. I'm not like, I'm not lying in any of my stuff. So yeah, but when it comes to, I guess like something that's personal as something like that I want. Although my newest album, I do have a song dedicated to my pops that has made a few of my friends cry. So I can't wait to that. So it's very like, just like plucking this heart string.

AI assessment note: “Yeah, and a lot of my music is, I reminisce a lot.”