Rap Radar: Teezo Touchdown

Teezo Touchdown's got a lot on his mind besides a crown of nails. This summer the Beaumont native released his debut album, How Do You Sleep At Night?. Prior to that, he guest starred on albums from Tyler, The Creator, Lil Yachty, Don Toliver, and Travis Scott. With Drake calling his album "One of the best collections of music",Teezo stood up with us to discuss his first offering, stardom, family, Lil Flip, OG Ron C and more!See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Yeah, wrapping up podcast.

Speaker 2 (00:01):
Elliott Wilson, my name is beat Out, beat Out, that's
your name, baby, what's up beat out with you?

Speaker 1 (00:05):
So I feel the great Elliott Wilson. I saw him.

Speaker 3 (00:09):
And you're in the road, man, I'm in the road.

Speaker 2 (00:10):
We're going to Atlanta, Separate, separated witches man, what's going
on in Atlanta?

Speaker 4 (00:14):
Yeah, we're going to Atlanta for the Revolt World. It's
Revoked World. This ship, it's REVOLTD World.

Speaker 2 (00:18):
It's Puppy's world, man, you know what I'm saying, and we're.

Speaker 1 (00:22):
Just living in it.

Speaker 4 (00:22):
So going Revote World of having a cool panel with myself,
Trina Wallow, Simba and Tierra wack Oh talking about the
top fifty rappers of all time. Conversation that should be fun.
I'm actually kicking it off like I'm the opening set.

Speaker 3 (00:37):
Okay, okay, b get it together manm jalous. But I
appreciate that.

Speaker 1 (00:42):
No, man, we're opening up, the opening up the set.
So it's gonna be fun.

Speaker 3 (00:45):
So what you got a whole freestyle, you got the monologue?

Speaker 1 (00:48):
How you said it off?

Speaker 3 (00:48):
I don't know. We're gonna figure it out.

Speaker 1 (00:51):
You're gonna greet the people.

Speaker 3 (00:52):
I don't know.

Speaker 4 (00:54):
I mean we we did it last year, so I
don't know. I'm kind of I guess at this point
where revoke World's veterans.

Speaker 2 (01:00):
Hey, Man, I didn't get the invite this year, Man, Hey,
that was going on. That's on you this time a
solo album, man, Bobby brown Man, drop that album and.

Speaker 1 (01:06):
Don't be cruel. It doesn't matter because you're going to
be at Atlanta too. For Jermaine Duprie.

Speaker 3 (01:10):
So so that yeah, so so Death Study of Anniversary
Jamado Prix.

Speaker 1 (01:14):
I think.

Speaker 2 (01:15):
I think the panel he's putting together is gonna have
bow Wow t I, a couple other people just JD
and bow Wow stayed together.

Speaker 3 (01:21):
Should be comedy.

Speaker 5 (01:22):
Because you know they always end up getting into it
over something.

Speaker 3 (01:24):
So if you're gon chopped double JD.

Speaker 2 (01:25):
But back to what you were saying, h you'll put
your panel Tierra Whack. That's that's my new bestiae man
with friends.

Speaker 5 (01:31):
Man.

Speaker 3 (01:31):
I met her at the Kamala Harris.

Speaker 1 (01:33):
Think so I like her.

Speaker 3 (01:35):
I've never met her in real life.

Speaker 1 (01:36):
It's Terror's dope.

Speaker 6 (01:37):
Man.

Speaker 1 (01:37):
I was hip to her music a few years ago,
and I actually told Paul and jay Z about her
a long time ago, so I'm happy to see.

Speaker 5 (01:45):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (01:46):
I mean, listen, man, we've been here for a while.

Speaker 2 (01:48):
Be not always trying to get somebody's side, man, you
know what I say, Hedrick Lamar and all that little something.

Speaker 1 (01:54):
Right, Yeah, man, you gotta keep your head to the street. Man.
She was on my wrap radar early, so I like him.

Speaker 2 (01:59):
I beat up beat up having these minded scenes like
let's say, let's call them industry assists kind of things.

Speaker 3 (02:04):
But you never you never speak on it the people.
You let the you like ho, you let the people
speak on it.

Speaker 1 (02:09):
Man.

Speaker 2 (02:09):
It takes the village, Elliott. It takes the villains to
keep this reppering our podcast going.

Speaker 5 (02:16):
Man.

Speaker 2 (02:17):
We got to figure out, you know, it's about there
to you know, September time, back to school, third quarter,
fourth quarter.

Speaker 1 (02:21):
We gotta close this year a strong beat out. Man.

Speaker 3 (02:23):
We need some big ones. Man, what you're thinking, what's
the landscape looking like?

Speaker 1 (02:26):
I mean, Allen Hughes was a good landscape.

Speaker 2 (02:28):
Yeah, Allen Hughes his great man. Shout out to my
lfe skinned brother. Amazing stories. Everybody loved it. You know
our Kelly's canceled.

Speaker 3 (02:34):
We understand that, but that's still it was a great story.

Speaker 2 (02:36):
Hopefully you guys enjoyed that. Sorry about that, but can't
We can't change history. I think it's dope.

Speaker 3 (02:43):
I was surprised that you approved this guest.

Speaker 2 (02:45):
The people that don't know me and b Iu we
haveing argument sometimes behind the scenes about.

Speaker 5 (02:48):
Who should be on the program.

Speaker 2 (02:50):
You know, can I share one, for example, beat out
if you don't mind god my girls sexy reski Ye,
I want sexy running the show man beat out and
shutting that down?

Speaker 1 (02:59):
Man? What are the people think?

Speaker 5 (03:00):
Man?

Speaker 1 (03:00):
Help me? Oh my gosh.

Speaker 3 (03:02):
Ye come on, man, I read the slopper. Was that
not the summer anthem?

Speaker 2 (03:05):
Ski? Ye? Come on, that wasn't it wasn't We need
female emces? Man, come on, Ben ski he should be
fun man. Maybe Murray take keys together. Man, we'll go
see how I gotta take Keith Man. I think you should.

Speaker 1 (03:18):
Consider it man considering, But he didn't.

Speaker 3 (03:23):
He didn't have to just consider.

Speaker 2 (03:24):
He approved this guest we have coming up in I
was surprised, man, because he's a different type of mc man.

Speaker 4 (03:29):
When we got to that, he's no touchdown, you know,
I call him like your favorite rapper's favorite rap at
this point, you know, like he's everywhere. He's on a
Tyler Trade album, He's on a Trap Scott's album, He's
worked with Don Tolliver. Drake loves him like he's everywhere,
you know what I mean, he's inescapable, so he's no touchdown.

Speaker 2 (03:48):
I was surprised you liked him go beat out a
different type of style, different type of look cloud. How
did you How did he personally connect to his uh,
his music?

Speaker 4 (03:55):
I mean at first it's it's kind of jarring because
it's like, who's this guy with nails in his I
thought it was a week, but it's like really nails
in his head.

Speaker 1 (04:03):
You know.

Speaker 4 (04:03):
It reminded me of like early Andre three thousand when
he used to wear the wigs. Yeah, full shoulder pads,
the furry pants. Is just kind of really eccentric. But
will you give him a chance? Like, Okay, this music's
not too bad and of course I love them on
todl of the Creators album on run It Up, Yeah,
so I thought you know why not?

Speaker 3 (04:20):
Yeah, like you said that how do you sleep out?

Speaker 2 (04:22):
And he just put out getting high praise from his peers,
Drake in particular.

Speaker 3 (04:26):
You know, he tells his story.

Speaker 2 (04:26):
I love how he tells stories about his interaction with
other artists, but he's always he's still also protective of
like telling too much information about them. Like we asked
about him playing Drake his album and getting Drake's feedback.
He was, you know, he gave us just enough, but
he didn't violate you know, any kind of behind the
scenes conversation or you know what Drake said in particular specifically,
you know.

Speaker 4 (04:46):
Right, And I think you know, you can't judge a
rapper by his brades, I guess because the thing that
stood out to me the most in conversion with him
is like he's really a student of the game. Like
he's watch all of our previous interviews. You know, he
loves hip hop, he loves media. So it's like, wow, okay,
this guy, you know, he's.

Speaker 1 (05:07):
Got a good head on his shoulders.

Speaker 3 (05:09):
Yeah, when you watch the video version, he drove us
crazy or produced a lore.

Speaker 2 (05:12):
He was like assistant that he didn't want to sit down,
He didn't want to do the normal setup of a
podcast music due he won us all to stand up.
So it's like we'll standing up like it's a game show, right,
beat out about to hit the buzzer.

Speaker 3 (05:24):
Like a little game show.

Speaker 1 (05:25):
After what we've done five hundred episodes the First War,
we were standing up. So yeah.

Speaker 2 (05:30):
So the crazy thing was, like beat, I said, this
guy has nails all through his head, Like you have
to be up closer to really understand how progressive and
nuts it looks. And the funny thing is if you're
doing a conversation the podcast and like fifteen twenty minutes
into every moment, all of a sudden, you hear one
of the nails hit the ground.

Speaker 4 (05:45):
Like pet, you don't be really dope. If we could
have like a nail counter for every time the nails dropped.

Speaker 2 (05:52):
I think it was like three to four times. Man,
all the audio picks it up. But yeah, it was funny.
But I liked him though. Like you said, he's a
good dude. Man, he's a real student of the game.
His energy, you know, he's definitely a new artist that
has a lot to say, coming with a fresh perspective.
And I think people should really check out his album,
and I think it's inspiring a lot of other rappers.

Speaker 5 (06:08):
Even he was bigging it.

Speaker 3 (06:10):
Up too, and you know, just such a creative approach
right with the music.

Speaker 4 (06:14):
Yeah, absolutely, you know, I think that's the most exciting
thing about it was just he's different and not in
a way where it's like forced, you know what I mean,
Like it's yeah, it's just it's just a different take
on the game. So shout tis no touchdown.

Speaker 3 (06:27):
Teas A touchdown, Man, we know you're gonna enjoy this.

Speaker 5 (06:29):
Man.

Speaker 3 (06:29):
You don't say a rap it up podcast. Man, we
only talk to the best.

Speaker 5 (06:33):
Man.

Speaker 2 (06:33):
This guy's has a potential be one of the good ones,
one of the great ones out there.

Speaker 3 (06:36):
So it's time to talk to him.

Speaker 1 (06:38):
Man, let's get it. TEASO Touchdown rap rate all podcasts.

Speaker 4 (06:42):
Yeah here it's a rap radof podcast. My name is
bet I Elie Wilson Elly. I think we got the
hottest guy in the game right now.

Speaker 7 (06:48):
Man, no touchdown? Thank you having absolutely the album.

Speaker 2 (06:54):
Man, is everybody's talking about high praise, high prays for
the album.

Speaker 5 (06:57):
Man.

Speaker 7 (06:57):
Yeah, I've been staying offline. I've been staying offline. It's
just been accepting like the the personal thing that people
been telling me. And it's been great reviews. My team decided,
I'm excited that the people are like accepting this album.

Speaker 2 (07:08):
Board it is like, so, what was your overall vision
with the project. How do you sleep at night? This
is your official debut.

Speaker 7 (07:14):
Right official debut. The overall vision was just this album
is just my extending my hand out. I say it
was like an icebreaker to a very long conversation you
think about, like the brand you have for years, or
like a girlfriend or wife. You know, it all started
with that first conversation. So this is nothing to me.
We k extending my hand Hello, my name is too touchdown.

Speaker 6 (07:32):
How do you sleep at night? This is an icebreaker conversation.

Speaker 5 (07:35):
That's the that's the question for icebreaker conversation.

Speaker 6 (07:38):
Oh yeah, it is. I think I think that translates
through the music.

Speaker 7 (07:41):
It's a very you know, I'm taking your right to
the bedroom, a very private and personal space.

Speaker 6 (07:45):
So it's I'm going right there with you. This type of.

Speaker 7 (07:47):
Relationship we're gonna have, very honest, very open.

Speaker 5 (07:50):
MM. How did you land on that? How do you
sleep at night?

Speaker 7 (07:53):
I'm glad you asked that because at first I always
said that I pre trivel and success. You know, I'm
not afraid to try. And you know, if it doesn't work,
whatever stakes we keep and if not we r it
rolls off. So I was alred the mandre on after
we had a conversation about cause I had this rollout
that was showing depicted me at twenty eighteen, and at
first it was a it was an exciting start, but

(08:14):
as we kept going to engage, we started to go down.
And I remember Dante Ross told me when cause we
been had this idea of like doing like this biopic thing,
he was like, people aren't gonna care because it's so
early in your career. And then even after when we
go cut, when we shot that, I was like still
going back to my same places. So it's like I'm
showing this twenty eighteen thing, but like not much has changed.
So we had an honest conversation to say, Yo, this

(08:35):
is not translating and it's not connecting. We need to
make a pivot. So we made that pivot. We made
at the mandre on and we said, okay, so what
are we gonna What are we gonna do? And I
looked over right at the bed and the number one
question I get asked because of you know, my appearance
is how do you sleep at night?

Speaker 5 (08:52):
Hm?

Speaker 7 (08:52):
And I remember just hopping on top of the bed
when me and my manager, I'm all and door, and
I was like, what if I we named that the
album how do You Sleep at Night? And we do
like the the the art around, the visuals around it all.
It has like this constant thread or beds. And if
you go back and look at like my garage content,
I there's always been this constant thread and that was
out of the necessity at first, but it kind of
I think that's where really, that's where you find what

(09:13):
the good stuff is when you don't have anything. Yeah,
so yeah, I wanted to have this constant theme of
how do you sleep at nights? So when that comes, alright,
comes dreams, it comes this very intimate space. So yeah,
in a madreal standing on top of the bed when
it just hit me in it just you know, glew
out like that.

Speaker 4 (09:31):
It makes sense now when you look back on your
Instagram page, you like laying down on all the the
the clips for the for the songs.

Speaker 6 (09:37):
Yeah, we shot that.

Speaker 7 (09:38):
We had that conversation about two weeks of planning and
then we shot all of everything you see in like
two days. Album covering included MM so my U again,
I gotta commit my team.

Speaker 6 (09:47):
I have a great team.

Speaker 7 (09:48):
The reason I shine, theory I shine is because of
the you know, the people behind the cameras.

Speaker 2 (09:53):
How did that personal style develop s t to this
look you think you have now?

Speaker 5 (09:56):
Like that, what was that journey like?

Speaker 7 (09:58):
So that was when I came back from LA in
twenty nineteen, which I thought was the scariest thing. I
was like, my managers sending me back to Beaumont, they
gonna think I failed, and I'm gonna think they gonna
think I failed. But I just when I something hit
me when I came back that like, there's no other
place like this. You know, in LA and New York,
you meet a lot of different people, a lot of

(10:18):
different accents, but I never really ran into someone for Beaumont, Texas.
So I went home and I just started romanticizing where
we you know, my surroundings. And my dad is a handyman,
so he had like tools around the house, and I
started putting nails in my boots and like you know,
it first started the brim of my hats, and then
we started putting our shoelaces, and then like a few
months later, I was like, yeah, I'm thinking about putting

(10:40):
these nails in my hair. And it kind of went
from that and as far as like the fashion again,
when I went to when I came out to LA
for the first time, when Trip called me and said, yo,
like we got your flight.

Speaker 6 (10:51):
I just took my laptop.

Speaker 7 (10:52):
I had some skinny jeans and a white tank top
and that's all I went to LA with. And I
went at for a minute to the point, like a
few weeks in he was like, y'all, I know you
can't out here with nothing. If you wanna go upstairs,
you know what I'm saying, you can grab a few things.
And all I went and grabbed was just some some change,
just to wrap around myself. Like so I wanna commend
him for just being so welcoming mm cause you know

(11:13):
I literally came out here with you know, the close
of my back and yeah, even then, like I think
the repetition are wearing the same thing over and over.
It's why I'm so confident and just seeing what works,
seeing what sticks. So like this all, if you go back,
you can look at my career on my journey and
see everything a a tiny thread goes back.

Speaker 6 (11:29):
To the again.

Speaker 4 (11:30):
Your video A hundred Drums is the one that caught
Trippy res attention. He flew you out to LA right.

Speaker 7 (11:34):
Absolutely so with a hundred drums. I just had the
idea that I just wanted to do something, something different.
I just hit my friends. I had to depending on
it disco instrumental. I just hit all my friends like yo,
be camer ready on whatever dad was, and I did that.
I remember my boy Jet who house we used to
record at in Bowman at the White House. He came

(11:55):
in and hurt the instrumental and he was like, I
don't know what you gonna do with that, and then.

Speaker 6 (11:58):
He walked out.

Speaker 7 (12:00):
I didn't know I was to do with it either,
but we recorded that then we filmed it. But I
I had this energy. I knew something like yeah, you
know tie inside of twenty twenty. But when I when
I had this vibrado and even how like how my
hair was, I just started painting my nails like I
had this thing of just being a student and understand
that I needed something that was gonna take me apart me,

(12:20):
you know, separate me. So I just had this vibrado
going filmed that posted it up, and then a few
days later I remember saying a prayer, just thanking God
for everything everything that I have right now and everything
I didn't have MM and then The next morning, I
wake up my boy Jet who else we recorded that?
Texted me No.

Speaker 6 (12:38):
He called me you like, you know, Chance to Rapper
just posted you.

Speaker 7 (12:41):
I was like, nah, you lying. I went on the
story Chanced to Rapper posted me, hopped out of my bag,
ran outside crying and like and that was like the
that was the trick of effect. And I always think
people would asks like why I do the fan of
interaction and why I do that? That m that what
I felt in my stomach from just him doing a
story post.

Speaker 5 (13:00):
Ye.

Speaker 7 (13:01):
I wanna make everyone who who's in who's in tune
of what I got going on feel that just just
I just want you to feel how good that felt.
So I started with a Chance to Rapper. Things are
going crazy. I come out to New York for the
first time. You know, I'm getting the uh the interest
from like labels and stuff like that.

Speaker 6 (13:17):
And then.

Speaker 7 (13:19):
Trippy Red not before I go to New York, Trippy
Red it happens to be in Houston and he posted
he posts it depends uh track I did like in
twenty eighteen, and then I DM Hi.

Speaker 6 (13:31):
He's like, yo, where you at?

Speaker 1 (13:32):
Uh?

Speaker 7 (13:33):
I was like, I'm in bo Mane. He was in Houston,
and I was like, that's an hour and a half drive.
So we all hopped in the car drove down there,
and yeah, he said, Yo, man, I'm about to finish
up these few shows, but like in a few days,
i'm'a send for you to come come to LA And
I wanna give a send love to Hunter, his best
friend who was the one who showed him Hunt the drums,
but Trippy Red just being so intrigued on it, he

(13:54):
clicked on it depends and that's what he posted.

Speaker 6 (13:57):
And that's, however, is so wild.

Speaker 2 (13:59):
Yeah.

Speaker 5 (13:59):
I know.

Speaker 2 (14:00):
Another early support was Tyler the Creator, where he uh
post a strong friend.

Speaker 7 (14:03):
I think, yeah, very early on. I wanna say that
was like the end of maybe end of twenty twenty. Yeah, yeah, Tyler.
I always say he's very we all know how intentionally
he is he how inally is always say.

Speaker 6 (14:12):
I've only met him twice.

Speaker 7 (14:13):
The first time when we record Running Up, and the
second time was in the green room up as Arena tour.
He moved with purpose and I really appreciate that.

Speaker 5 (14:20):
Yeah, y'all to run it up together.

Speaker 6 (14:22):
Yeah, okay, we didn't run it up together.

Speaker 5 (14:24):
And I don't grabb me award winning album.

Speaker 6 (14:26):
Congratulations on that. Congratulations on that, y'all.

Speaker 7 (14:29):
And I do you know, I like to keep propacies
like when when we were creating, but I wanna say
when we created that, the AC was out in the studio.
And the reason I pointed to that because I always
say it reminded me of recording it.

Speaker 6 (14:41):
What's the name house?

Speaker 5 (14:42):
You know?

Speaker 7 (14:42):
Yeah, what's the name house? And there's no AC. Y'all
sharing headphones and it's some mic. So I always love
when I could see the similarities at this high level
that you would see at the beginning.

Speaker 4 (14:52):
MM got you when you're having a hell of a
twenty twenty three though, Man, hey man, he kicked off
the Yeah litl Yachties album. Yes, let's start here on
the ride? Did you know the direction he was gonna
go in for the album?

Speaker 7 (15:03):
No, that was just I'm wonder was it a fashion
week or did I just come out to New York
for that?

Speaker 1 (15:09):
No?

Speaker 7 (15:09):
I just met the met the Raisin, met sad Pony there.
He was just in New York. And I knew cause
I met I met Yachty in Atlanta. But when I
seen him in New York, oh yo, this is a
different Yachti in New York. It was something, it was
something different. I didn't know the signings of which album
was gonna become.

Speaker 5 (15:26):
H Mm.

Speaker 7 (15:27):
That was just the the few records that we worked on,
like I w I have. It was me, Bennie X,
been next to brother James. We all just pulled up
and Yachty just had these musicians all throughout the room.
Mm and I I didn't know what he was playing,
and you know, we just did the ride and wow.
And so to hear this album, which gets better each
time I listened to it, Yeah, congratulations. I'm so humbled

(15:48):
and thankful to be a part of that album. Also
the jump to the beginning of my story. The day
before I flew to New York to sign, I was
at Yachti's crib because I was at I was on
the trip tour and I was like, Yo, they about
to they about to park the bus for a few days.
And then I was like, but I'm not trying to
do that. You mind if I come to at your house? Yeah,
come on. And so yeah, those few days right before

(16:11):
with the two days right before I signed, and you know,
I was.

Speaker 6 (16:14):
At Yachty's crib.

Speaker 7 (16:15):
So Yachty, very early supporter, always still checks upon me
and and just tells me he loves what I do.
So I gotta say thank you cause I used to
watch when I met When I met him and coach,
I was like, yo, I used to have this USB.
When the cable used to go out, I would go
to the library and download interviews and stuff. And I
had his press one that they did in New York,
a part of those interviews that I used to watch
all the time. So all the first round with game, yeah, yeah, yeah,

(16:37):
I break the press one, so yeah, Man, Shauta Yati,
thank you.

Speaker 2 (16:41):
Yeah, Traving Scott too, right, mind, Jaim, you got some
incredible placements.

Speaker 7 (16:45):
I've been doing a lot of great things in New York,
doing a lot of great things in New York. I
always say New York if like a trampoline in me
every time I come here, about higher and higher, and
another story on that.

Speaker 5 (16:55):
I'm big.

Speaker 7 (16:55):
I'm big on privacy and respect the privacy. But this moment,
which is me and the engineer, so I'm I'm in
the studio, I'm trying stuff, trying stuff, and I'm like, yo,
try man. I don't think I don't think. I got
nothing and there cause you can't see in the in
the in the live room, and I hear the engineer.

Speaker 6 (17:12):
And say, yo, he just stepped out for a minute.
You say he'll be back.

Speaker 7 (17:15):
So in that moment and me giving up, he wasn't
even in the room to even hear that. So that
made me step back, take my time, and then I
went back and then how you have what you hear
on modern Jam?

Speaker 2 (17:24):
Wow?

Speaker 4 (17:24):
So I feel like there was more to your verse, man,
I feel like you wanted to get a little bit
more or was that what we heard?

Speaker 6 (17:31):
I think.

Speaker 7 (17:32):
I think I'm never to serve, so like take whatever
you know. I just lay everything down. And you know, Travis,
ever since our barrow has been very a music producer genius,
so he knows what he's looking for.

Speaker 6 (17:42):
Oh okay, he knows what he's looking for.

Speaker 5 (17:44):
With those collaborations.

Speaker 2 (17:45):
And even like as soon as you plus play your album,
you listen to a song like okay, you know what
I say?

Speaker 5 (17:49):
Is that a rock song?

Speaker 2 (17:50):
Like? Do you feel like you know you're stretching these
genres and how to define music with this album?

Speaker 7 (17:54):
I think that's important for you, for you when you're
coming out or with if you wanna just be you know,
in the in the history books are to be researched.
You want to kind of offer something new. And I
say that in the little term. I'm all about service.
So this is my offering. I don't want anything back
from it. This is my offering to the game. And
my sound is called rock and boom. You know, it's
R and B with the antenseitia rock the penmanship of

(18:16):
hip hop, and the boom is gonna shake the world.
I made sure I led with hip hop. The reason
that my pen is so well, I gotta give all
credit to hip hop.

Speaker 4 (18:25):
I gotta give you some more credit though. Man, you
were also on that Don Tolliver project. Yes, yes, luckily
I'm having I love that song. Another New York reference.

Speaker 5 (18:34):
I just.

Speaker 6 (18:37):
Very soon I'm gonna be. I'm gonna be either either
gona be a Brooklyn boy or a Manhattan man.

Speaker 4 (18:43):
And you king from Queens. We'll talk about your relationship
with Don Tolliver. I read that why you was creating
the album. You used to go pull up on him
and give him, like try to get feedback from on
the project.

Speaker 6 (18:55):
So me and done.

Speaker 7 (18:56):
You know, boy from down the street down in Houston,
we met, We met backstays of the Call me if
you get lost, you know, call it if you get
lost tour, and just bonded off of being from Texas.
You know, our twain got a little heavier, you know,
just boy.

Speaker 5 (19:09):
Yeah, and.

Speaker 7 (19:12):
We talked like, yo, we wanna get him the studio,
like while we're on the road. We ended up in Dallas.
A lot of great music history happens in Dallas. You know,
Prince and Rick James first met in Dallas. It's a
lot of things that happens in Dallas. That's the one
I can just come off the top. But we go
to the studio. Another studio story, cause there's a message there,
and the engineers weren't as as verse that we needed

(19:34):
him to be, you know, hm, But Don couldn't smoke
in the studio. But Don, being a true professional, I
was like, man, you can't. I thought he was gonna.
But Don, being a true professional, stuck there, stuck throughout
the whole thing. And that's where we started. Luckily, I'm
having But we ended up wrapping it up in Los Angeles.
And yes, you're a point of of me pulling up
to Don. I pulled up on him, s I had

(19:57):
the album probably like sixty percent done. But when I
pulled up on my playing something that I had made
like that last night instead of playing on like the album,
and he told me like, nah, too, you gotta stand
on your album. You gotta stand on it, like really
focus on this body of work that you got right now.
And when the album dropped, I called him and told
him like, Yo, thank you. Well, every time I talked
to him, I tell him thank you, Cause when I

(20:18):
go and I work on these projects, that's the first
thing I think, like, Yo, you got to stand on this.
You have to really be focused on this body of
work that you present, cause I have songs, I I
have probably the album worked with songs, but this is
my first body of work. So any advice I'm getting
on this, I'm taking it. And that was a solo
when he gave me. Did you feel like uncertain about
some some of the songs.

Speaker 5 (20:36):
That you were creating?

Speaker 6 (20:38):
Absolutely? Absolutely.

Speaker 7 (20:39):
I felt like I had a period of time when
I felt like I was making music for my team,
m making music for my A and rs and the
people at the office, and not really making like what
I wanted to make. And that was just me when
being scared to fail when he get scared to get
dropped or whatever whatever. But I think my team was
very honest and he heard that and I and I
expressed that to him like they like, nah, you need
to one have fun and cliches the sound. Just have

(21:02):
fun and also embrace collaborations. Once you're at this level,
everyone's good. So it's something you can learn from everyone
in the room.

Speaker 2 (21:12):
Is there a moment when you started recording this album
that it clicked it this is the direction or this
just seemed like I forgetting my confidence, this is why
I want to go with it.

Speaker 7 (21:19):
It's not on the album, but it's when I recorded
I'm Just a Fan. That's when we had that conversation
with just talking about, Yo, you gotta have fun. I
know understand you have a producer background, but like, let
the other people in the room really collaborate because they're
here and they're here for a reason. So I would
say it starts from I'm just a fan. That's where
it starts. And as far as the rock and boom thing,

(21:41):
maybe like the best like potent example.

Speaker 6 (21:43):
Of yeah, because we had this, I had.

Speaker 7 (21:46):
The album that we were supposed to put out in
June done, and I already started working on the next album,
which was we're gonna call it Rock and Boom and
just working on this sound.

Speaker 6 (21:56):
And I just said, I.

Speaker 7 (21:57):
Don't want to have the ego and think that I'm
gonna have a second chance to make my first impression.
M So let me mess these two together so they
can see what rock and Boom is now.

Speaker 5 (22:05):
Mm.

Speaker 6 (22:05):
So that's why we have rock and Boom on this album.

Speaker 7 (22:08):
And I'm I'm eager and excited to talk about it
and you know, just play into the world.

Speaker 5 (22:12):
And were you still recording a song a day during
this whole process?

Speaker 6 (22:16):
Absolutely?

Speaker 7 (22:16):
Absolutely, song of day, very not strenuous days, but like
you we may do four hours just on vocal production,
doing harmonies and stuff. So like, yeah, just a just
a song of day just to get it complete.

Speaker 5 (22:27):
Mm. Yeah.

Speaker 2 (22:28):
And what do you make it the high praise it
seem like we was teasing, like how it seemed like
your every rapper's favorite rapper right now, Like a lot
of the praise from your peers, Like yeah, I know
Drake in particular set, it's you know, it's praise And
how creative the collection wasn't music?

Speaker 5 (22:39):
And I think you pulled up on him on tour
and played in the record first.

Speaker 7 (22:42):
Right, Yeah, we definitely we met in LA And to
go home and see that see that post, it was
was insane.

Speaker 4 (22:53):
Uh.

Speaker 7 (22:53):
When I first I first told him, I was like,
I'm excited for you just to you know, we know
his lyricism. I was like, I'm excited for you to
hear you know my pen So when I go home
and I see that that's what he said about the album,
it was, you know, I've been a Drake band. I
remember when I first you know, found out about Drake.
You know, some girls put me on, you know, girls

(23:14):
put me on. And then you know that same week,
my mom's friend had some had her like nieces come
down from like Chicago. So like this is the time
when I got I got my Infinity Q forty five.

Speaker 6 (23:23):
With the rims.

Speaker 7 (23:24):
Okay, uh, you know what I'm saying, showing these young
ladies like this time of Bowl went, you know, with
Drake being the soundtrack to that. So the fast forward
to ask me look him in the eyes and then
hear what he says about this album?

Speaker 6 (23:34):
What more can you ask for?

Speaker 5 (23:35):
What was it like playing it for him? He played
it for him backstage or it was exciting.

Speaker 7 (23:39):
I played it for my DJ app so I was
I was like, my low end is getting you can't
really hit these books, so let me let me turn
it down the low end, then you turn up the
men's and the highest.

Speaker 6 (23:48):
Cause I was very making this album.

Speaker 7 (23:50):
I was very self conscious about the mix cause I
was doing a lot of research listening to the debut
album debut studio albums. I was like, Yo, my mix
isn't sounding like I get Richard I try and like Nellyville,
like what's what's happening? It's not sounded like B two
K bump bump bump. So I was just that's one
of my references. I love that, that very clear tone
of that song. So yeah, but now I'm so excited

(24:13):
about how it sounds like shot out to my my
mixed of Scottie Demerison in Boston. But yeah, you know,
I'm just I'm protecting the prophecy of the absolutely respect
that absolutely Speaking of Drake, he brought you out on
the tour.

Speaker 4 (24:28):
Yeah, and I read that you said bringing him bring
you out was like one of the highest and lowest
points of your life.

Speaker 5 (24:33):
No.

Speaker 6 (24:33):
Yeah, with the same day, No, yeah, it got higher.

Speaker 7 (24:36):
So it was high playing the album and then I
went online and seeing just just the comments, the negative comments,
and I was literally curled him in bed, like hearing
it in the in like in the hater's ears, Like
wait a minute, what if they're right?

Speaker 6 (24:53):
Like this is you know, I'm scared.

Speaker 7 (24:57):
I literally went to the show and my teams like
have like we at the Drake Show like, and I personally,
I'm like, yo, like I think we might need to
go back to the drawing board. I don't think the
world is messing with it. And my manager Malwa was like, oh,
you know you playing it? And then Jay Hill was like, nah,
he's serious, He's serious. So but Monica, my hairstyle just
told me. She was like, once you if you got

(25:18):
a hundred people that love you and teen people that
dislike you, when you get a hundred thousand, that level,
that number of people who dislike you is gonna increase.
You just gotta she said, Are you gonna listen to
what Drake just said in this comment section? Are you
gonna listen to what a faceless person just you know,
but what.

Speaker 5 (25:34):
They hate you online about? What was what was speaking of?

Speaker 6 (25:37):
Just this wasn't. Is this what Drake called the best
music that he ever heard?

Speaker 7 (25:41):
Okay, I'm a TEASO fan, but I kind of expect
a little bit more from what, you know, what what
I was getting, Yeah, a lot of that, and it
got me down. But I would say, you know, charying success,
use me at learn from my mistakes, learned from my
from my corrections. I think once you first started, once
you first starting off, nobody's gonna care. Then the people

(26:04):
who do care probably gonna be in your immediate vicinity,
so like it's gonna be all great things. But once
you break past that level, you're gonna get the people
who are indifferent and don't really I think that's a
good sign, so don't really run from it.

Speaker 6 (26:15):
I'm speaking from experience.

Speaker 7 (26:17):
When I first felt it, I've curled up in the bed,
But I can't really speak past level because of when
I'm at right now. No, yeah, I can, because the
album is out. I remember receiving good love in person.
So after you get past the internet part, you're gonna
start running to the people that actually tell you how
much they care for you, eye to eye and face
to face.

Speaker 6 (26:34):
So don't even trip on.

Speaker 2 (26:35):
That and no, family is important too, Like though it
was interesting that familiarity stuck around, right, that's one of
the earliest releases.

Speaker 5 (26:43):
Why did that still need to be on the album
in your judgment, I.

Speaker 7 (26:47):
Think just because story and just I want that story
to be. I think I need you, I need you
to know that about me. Like I said, this is
a very intimate album. I think you need to know
when I'm doubting myself, I think you need to know that.

Speaker 6 (26:58):
And then also this.

Speaker 7 (26:59):
Morning I was getting ready, I want I want to
correct myself on the line I said, I said, I'm
a little old for roommates. I want to send this
out publicly. You never your story ain't got nothing to
do with nobody else's story. However long it take. That's
on you. Don't don't trip on that. Don't put yourself
on the timeline. So this is me publicly said, I
apologize for putting that line in. So if you got
a roommate or whatever, it's all a part of your journey.

(27:21):
Don't even be ashamed of that. On the course of
that song, you said I'm not coming back home until
I'm a man.

Speaker 4 (27:26):
Did you feel like a masculated that things weren't taken
off at the time, probably.

Speaker 7 (27:30):
Not even mascualated, just felt small, I think before before anything.

Speaker 6 (27:33):
But it's funny.

Speaker 7 (27:35):
Before I before I left the hometown on this previous
trip that I haven't been back since I'm in jack
Books airport, I'm like, yeah, I'm like, man, I'm not
coming back home to star and I just said that
just you know, just it with that verbrido. But here
we are right now. I'm on rap Radar debut album,
and I think I think those words are I think

(27:56):
those words are definitely coming into paration for sure.

Speaker 5 (27:59):
I love the scene. Is that really your dad in
the video? Oh?

Speaker 7 (28:02):
No, no, no no, So so that's that's that's Thomas Bishop, right,
So we found we found Thomas By. It's funny because
you initially found him on TikTok because he he did
he had like stitched together as a video I did
on another interview our Generation Music, and he was like, cool,
hurt not it being hip hop for you to walk.

Speaker 6 (28:21):
Around with these nails in your head. You probably can't
even probly do an airport.

Speaker 7 (28:25):
But during that time, we were looking for the person
who was gonna play my dad during this stuff, and
I'm all knowing my managers like, yo, this may be
the person that we that we should that we should
use as your dad.

Speaker 6 (28:38):
And it's funny that he said, like you probably won't
be able to.

Speaker 7 (28:41):
Get on the on the airport and we flew him
down and pulled out the Texas to play my dad
and that thing. So like it's it's crazy how you
know how that works, how you can take something something negative,
you know, and use it for the positive. But I
also want to say, I don't want to keep rewarding
negativity because that fans who's been hitting me up every day, like, yo,
he didn't, he didn't, he didn't respond by I seen
he just responds to this negative comment. It's gonna make

(29:03):
that person wanna switch and say, oh, I see what
you react to. So it ain't gonna work again. That
was the one time, So stay with family.

Speaker 4 (29:10):
Like your dad was a DJ, right, absolutely, He's the
one that kind of exposed you to all the the music.

Speaker 7 (29:15):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, my dad was the first one.
My first like Christmas gifts and stuff that I remember
was like DJ Christmas, like Soriado and stuff like that.
Actually having a I remember we had like the digital
version then like I wanted viny just because you know
it's hip hop. So yeah, my dad from elementary school
every weekend ally up until college, just download and Billboard

(29:38):
one hundred, sorry about that, and just DJing wedding's retirement parties,
graduations and just seeing what songs, seeing what songs brought
people to the dam floor, what took them off?

Speaker 6 (29:50):
Oh this made them go get something to eat?

Speaker 7 (29:52):
Oh, y'all loved the single of this album, which I
don't like the B side of it, like, so just
seeing what what people really like. So I credit a
lot of that to my dad and just DJing r
U d J yourself right, Oh yeah, I still got
the DJ app on my phone right now. I just yeah,
I still.

Speaker 5 (30:06):
Scratching all that.

Speaker 7 (30:10):
That's definitely pictures of me were like techniques in front
of me for sure.

Speaker 5 (30:12):
Okay, you still could do a party now.

Speaker 7 (30:14):
I just did want off the phone, just just a
little curation. But I'm definitely gonna definitely bring those back
out and do that for sure. You going by Touchdown
as a DJ, oh No, I was going by king
La Shane.

Speaker 2 (30:29):
Kinglan Shane what some shan go to records records you
kind of remember enjoy playing.

Speaker 7 (30:34):
I don't remember, but I do biblically remember playing Little
John and actual fight springing out.

Speaker 5 (30:40):
Yeah, there you go, that's it, and.

Speaker 7 (30:43):
Just feeling that, like that's one thing that I remember
just playing and then this, you know, someone getting slammed
into the wall on the side.

Speaker 6 (30:50):
And I'm a kid, why this is happening?

Speaker 7 (30:52):
So I think just seeing that, also DJing parties and
playing like a three six Mafie and hearing kids and
scream and terror.

Speaker 6 (31:01):
Because they're like, no, this is the Devil's music. So
like seeing that.

Speaker 7 (31:05):
Yeah, yeah, so I've seen like the extremes of what
music can do, which is really cool.

Speaker 5 (31:10):
Was you into the screw and chop stuff?

Speaker 7 (31:12):
Oh, come on, I'm glad you bought that. Of course,
Little Flip is my favorite rapper. Oh okay, my favorite rapper.
So yeah, I think I used to be so fanned
out or like hearing like a big mo and hearing
him take breaths in between lines, like I remember holding
the radio to my ear just hearing them breathe, like whoa,
this is a human, like this is like a person,
and with them being from Houston, even when pictures get

(31:32):
taken to Houston, when artists perform in Houston. To me,
it looks so different, like y'all right down the street
from my house. So yeah, of course, I just I
think one of the real surreal things of this moment
that I have right now was being able to call
og Ran and see a few days ago and just
ask him about this R and B group that I
that I was asking about, and him being able to

(31:53):
like just tell me like who had been there firsthand
and be able to see this. So to be able
to still call those people and talk to those people
with this, I think that I'm a fan of What
more can I asks for her? So yeah, a huge
group friend, hu, huge group end. Yeah, it seems like
you're a big fan of Janello Net. She's on the
album as well.

Speaker 4 (32:10):
You said, uh on Twitter, I can't believe I have
a song with Janell Monet.

Speaker 7 (32:13):
Yeah, just you know, talking about debuts, like I remember
how they how Janemo on the debuty and her showmanship.

Speaker 6 (32:19):
Out the gate mm and still.

Speaker 7 (32:21):
Continues to do that, to still continue to push to
p uh push what artistry is in the self expression
and to meet her. And I always say that the
great people who are who are who are ran into
they have these three qualities, and now these three qualities
are what I stand by. They all have hospitality, they
have professionalism, and they have to twinkle in their eye
because they.

Speaker 6 (32:39):
Love what they do.

Speaker 7 (32:40):
MM and Genemo, they definitely has that. I was honest
that that was the first person who I played for
on this album.

Speaker 5 (32:46):
Why was she the right voice for the US for
that song?

Speaker 6 (32:49):
I think that's just her talent.

Speaker 7 (32:50):
I think I think my team reached out and was like, Yo,
what if it Janelloynae Cause janellmo One has been showing
me love Like I was at her house.

Speaker 6 (32:59):
I was born on Halloween. I was at her house
at her party.

Speaker 5 (33:01):
You know about her parties.

Speaker 6 (33:03):
Now, yeah, the first time, the first time, I always
say the first time I met her.

Speaker 7 (33:07):
I don't even know if I truly met her because
it was a rabbit that grabbed me from the front
door and escorting me in. So so yeah, just person
played person played for jelmo One and the beautiful people
that wanted to land and just them just pouring into me,
telling me what they love about the album and just
sharing those stories like I'm glad that that was. That
was a great first person that first played for and

(33:30):
the first person that you hear other.

Speaker 6 (33:31):
Than me on this album.

Speaker 4 (33:32):
Yeah, you kept the features kind of to a minimum
on this time around, right.

Speaker 7 (33:36):
Yeah, out of fear. Out of fear and uh, just
of asking for things. I'm working on it, but yeah,
that was just out of fear of just being scared
to ask someone to It was to the point that
I wouldn't even I was like, I'm not even gonna
make something with them in mind because i know I'm
gonna have this fear of asking. So I'm working on that.
So like Janel Monee, I didn't come up with a fear.
I have my you know, our teams connected bouchet. We

(34:00):
just had a relationship of just being friends and so
that was natural.

Speaker 6 (34:04):
And then Isaiah Russ, I'm a fan of him.

Speaker 7 (34:05):
He's the front man of a punk band and he
used to fade them all. So it's like with my peers,
I don't get that that that.

Speaker 6 (34:11):
That bubbui feeling in my stomach.

Speaker 7 (34:13):
But like with the stars, me being so many years
of being a fan, they're still stars to me, and
I'm still scared.

Speaker 5 (34:18):
I'm still scared. Were you scared of stuff?

Speaker 4 (34:20):
In that stage with Toddler the Creator during uh, call
me for get Lost tour.

Speaker 7 (34:24):
I wasn't because he came in and he told me
something that I always tell people who are like going
on the first tour or just about the gone stage.
He told me, he was like, they're gonna be standing there,
They're gonna be looking at you.

Speaker 6 (34:34):
Don't take it upfins to it. They're just processing you.

Speaker 7 (34:38):
So as an opening act, Yeah, that took away any
fear or worry of going on that on on that stage.
My man concerned was just giving these people a great show.
But then him telling me that took away any stage
fright or fear that I have.

Speaker 5 (34:51):
I read before you go on the show, you listen
to gospel music.

Speaker 6 (34:55):
I haven't done that in a while.

Speaker 7 (34:56):
But what I do now I just call my dad
and we say the Lord's Prayer before I go on.
So we still got God in the room.

Speaker 6 (35:03):
Still on the writer.

Speaker 2 (35:06):
Talk about family again too, with the Daddy Mama drama, like, yeah,
how do you balance that? Like it's I guess whatever
fame looks like, right in terms of celebrity or getting
noticed and still dealing and being there for family and
the challenge of that.

Speaker 7 (35:18):
The day the album came out, cause I played my
dad a few songs of that album, but I didn't
play on Daddy Mama Drama m And I would hear
other artists say like they would play like these personal
records for people before they put them out. I didn't
do that only because I knew this wasn't like a
oh I hate my parents' thing like my I had
the blessing of my I was the first child that

(35:39):
my parents were able. When I say able, I mean
that they were able to raise you know what I'm saying.
My mom from uh what she from? She from wood
Be in Mississippi. My dad's from Nacadocha's you know, life
is crazy. But I was the first one they were
able to, you know. And I always commend him. I
was like for me to be the you know, the
first child that y'all raised together and y'all make a start.

(35:59):
I always come in them and tell them thank you
so much. A lot of the hosperciity that I have
all comes from, you know, my parents. So when I
did like a song with Dandy Mama Drama and I say,
you know, when I turn thirteen, they say, when I
turned thirteen, I just stopped caring. And my dad told me.
He was like, yeah, man, it's like I want. When
people tell me they got kids, the first thing I
ask him is they made that change it when they

(36:21):
just stopped liking your parents stop liking themselves. So mm
hearing that, I'm I'm also afraid of of having that
moment when there's thing that you have seen and you
held one day just whatever happens to it's just, you know, stops.
But that's support system for my for my family. I
think I'm thankful for it. I think out of fear,
you know, they they want you to go to college,

(36:43):
you know, yeah, they just want you to be alright.
So for for just to start happening for me, they
become my biggest supporters. And I think for the next generation,
you know, when we start having kids, I think they'll
have a little bit easier because we are to live
and breathing thing that it's possible support the kids like,
let them do whatever they want. And you know what
I'm saying, lead by example.

Speaker 2 (37:00):
Yeah, going back to being from Texas, Like a lot
of times we'll see you could be successful in Texas
and have a career, right, but you seem like you
from jump Addup ambition. You want to be bigger and
be bigger than just the home state.

Speaker 7 (37:11):
Like absolutely, in Texas, we definitely have that privilege of
we can basically survive just by being you know, big
in Texas. But we also have that standard of stars
that come from Texas.

Speaker 6 (37:21):
We have Beyonce, we.

Speaker 7 (37:22):
Have Aerykabaddu you got, Larry Graham, you got, the list
goes on and on and on. So we do have that,
but we also have these stars that want everything is
bigger in Texas. I think our aspiration and our drive
is also big as well.

Speaker 5 (37:37):
I mean Beyonce the biggest in the game.

Speaker 6 (37:38):
I mean right, yeah, absolutely.

Speaker 5 (37:43):
When did you start to feel like you were really
making strides?

Speaker 7 (37:45):
Probably when I call O gran Cy just cold call, like,
let me I got a slam, Let me call him,
but explain who he is? Oh yeah, O girn c
O Giron c are the chop stars Man, legendary DJ
Houston person And I'm not even gonna I'll say slash
person mentor DJ. I'm gonna shout out this. This YouTube

(38:06):
page called Rare Texts, this mixtapes. If you want to
go see Paul Wall, Mike Jones on the ground, passing
out DVDs and text to relays go check that out.

Speaker 6 (38:14):
So I think just being able to.

Speaker 7 (38:17):
Call these people and call and aks for help, and
being able to just talk to like the people who
I'm a fan of, like a Don Toliver and so
on and so forth, I think that's when I started
realizing that I was probably moving and doing something.

Speaker 5 (38:28):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (38:28):
Ah, so I feel like twenty twenty, you know, during
the pandemic is when you really start to make waves.
He shot like eight videos in front of the garage. Yes,
did the pandemic afford you that opportunity to create?

Speaker 6 (38:39):
No, so to jump back to one hundred drums.

Speaker 7 (38:42):
I shot that and then Trip was like come to
LA and it's like that momentum was going, but I
didn't have anything else to like follow it up with.

Speaker 5 (38:50):
MM.

Speaker 7 (38:51):
So when I went back when we shot those videos,
I was about to go on the road. On the
road trip, he offered me to like to just you know,
I feel like when Trip.

Speaker 6 (39:00):
Brought me to LA.

Speaker 7 (39:01):
He didn't say what his intention was, but to me,
how I took it was like I want you to
see this up close. I want you to see this,
this thing that you're chasing up close. That's my perspective.
We still haven't talked about why, but I think I
know why. He's a loving and caring person, so I
think that just shows his heart. So I was like,
I am about to go on the road and I
want to shoot something so I'm able to post while

(39:21):
I'm stilling the road and I won't lose that momentum
being away from the garage, being away from my team.
So I just shot those and again me speaking, I said, Yo,
I'm gonna drop these videos and I'm gonna get so
hot they're gonna have to pull me off the tour.
And that's exactly what happened.

Speaker 6 (39:36):
That's exactly what.

Speaker 4 (39:37):
Happened, right, And people still want you to shoot videos
in front of the garage.

Speaker 7 (39:41):
Still, they asked about it, and they think that like
this is like a this is like me moving on
and moving forward. Oh yeah, I also want to say hero,
right Brad or I own that garage. Now at first
we used to trust Pass, we used to trust Pass,
but I own that garage.

Speaker 5 (39:56):
I haven't said thank you, but you wold shooting her
for the community?

Speaker 6 (40:02):
Oh yeah, absolutely not.

Speaker 7 (40:04):
Yeah, because like I said, the money one hundred dollars
by the time I edited the video and got it
back to your money is gone. So a big part
of why I was one hundred dollars was because I
couldn'tford videos and I knew my other like other artists
AROUNDMIC come there for video, so it's.

Speaker 6 (40:18):
Not a money thing with me.

Speaker 7 (40:19):
Yo, spend a little hundred dollars so I can get
something to eat and put gas in my car and
be able to go to the studio myself. I'm gonna
edit that video and I'm gonna have it to you
in the next day, just because I don't want to
hold up your dreams. I didn't pay I used to
pay like music videographers. I probably still ain't got a
video now I want my video. I still ain't got
my video yet, but I wanted to. I always felt

(40:41):
I didn't want to hold up nobody's career, Like I
knew we all chasing something. So let me shoot a
video for you and go do your thing. You go
to my YouTube page right now, I gotta playlist all
of those and it's like twenty you had twenty videos,
and I was like, I don't never remember having one
thousand dollars. I don't loan two thousand dollars. So that's
closed to show you doing all of that work. But
the money, it wasn't for me to have money in

(41:02):
my pocket. It was just to support its all.

Speaker 4 (41:04):
Was that you still keep the old stuff up on
YouTube like you're not archiving them or taking them down.

Speaker 7 (41:09):
Like yeah, that's because even how I talk about interviews,
and I could talk my interviews, I was in boment
watching y'all talk to these artists and watching them get
that game, watching those j Z those straight interviews, watching
that and knowing that I couldn't search up how will
TISO touch down?

Speaker 6 (41:27):
Blank blank blank, But there was.

Speaker 7 (41:28):
A lot of great interviews that were a lot of
great journalism that I could go out and the study.
So the reason I leave that up, the reason I
do my interview so well is for that next person
who's searching up how do I want to do?

Speaker 6 (41:39):
How what's my story going to be?

Speaker 7 (41:41):
So I want to show you that I say I
believe in trial success, watch how I mess up?

Speaker 6 (41:46):
Learn from him?

Speaker 1 (41:47):
Right?

Speaker 4 (41:48):
Is that what tisos Suave did? How did we evolve
from tvOS Suave into Save was just abhoor invitation in
Rico Swave. I just had to grow up and let
that go, and te Thow Touchdown came. You know, I
was I was a band kid, you know, I played trombone.

Speaker 7 (42:06):
Okay, and my boy, my boy Sewn Lewis, who was
a football player, we would always joke about, like, yo,
band ain't a sport. Now we're talking about how bad
the football team is. But at the end of the year,
at the end of the season, all of the football
players were getting together their highlight tapes because they were
all going to the They want to go to the
next level. And here I am making a mixtapes and
stuff because I want to go to the next level.

Speaker 6 (42:27):
So the reason my name is t Tho.

Speaker 7 (42:29):
Touchdown is because that that that similarity of like the
athletes putting together these highlight tapes to go to the
college and then go to the NFL to take care
of their families.

Speaker 6 (42:39):
I feel like musicians we do the same thing.

Speaker 7 (42:40):
We put together these highlight tapes, like these albums in
order to go to the next level.

Speaker 2 (42:46):
Be getting probably prior for your pen Like what thing
draws me a lot of the records the album, it's
that opening line that draws you in. Like we were
talking about Spider Man this, so maybe you could have
been a painter, like speak to that as the right
like how important it is to kind of grab the
audience with that opening ball.

Speaker 7 (43:00):
I think this is my first album. I understand my championship.
I understand like a few like similarities and repetitions that
I have, but I haven't gotten down to the point
of like, this is why you know what? No, I
think I have a My first love is music, secondest film,
thirdest journalism, and my fourthest comedy. So I think a
lot of that comes from watching comedians and not looking

(43:23):
past the joke, looking at the timing, looking at you know,
looking at their timing, their writing. I just went to
the comedy store for their first time so I can
see it up close, and then I went again and seeing, oh,
you're doing the same jokes, like they're working on their
on their craft. So I think a lot of that
wit comes from wanting to evoke one of the emotions,
ether it be happy, sad, anger, or laughter. So I

(43:43):
think right now I'm going to credit that to my
love for my love for the comedy and timing.

Speaker 5 (43:50):
You said one girl was a comedian man, excuse.

Speaker 7 (43:52):
Yeah, it's funny. It feel like I'm being a comedian.
Yeah with the laugh track. Yeah, I love comedy.

Speaker 5 (43:58):
Who's your favorite comedian?

Speaker 6 (44:00):
I don't really have one. I think I just love
the arts. I haven't really found one.

Speaker 7 (44:02):
I think I'll probably find that as I go to
more shows and see them in person.

Speaker 6 (44:06):
Yeah, what song.

Speaker 2 (44:07):
Albums you are you most proud of? From a lyricism standpoint.

Speaker 6 (44:12):
I'll probably say I want I loved.

Speaker 7 (44:14):
Like I said, I created thousands, not thousands, but a
lot of songs.

Speaker 6 (44:18):
I feel like already always say, yo, thousands.

Speaker 7 (44:20):
A lot of one on Yeah, a lot of songs.
But I am proud of this is being like a
complete body of work. But I want to say I
think neighborhood, neighborhood, that's my favorite.

Speaker 6 (44:29):
Yeah, neighborhood. And that was.

Speaker 7 (44:32):
That was just a just stream of consciousness, like just
I I didn't understand when I when I.

Speaker 6 (44:39):
Got the first verse done.

Speaker 7 (44:40):
I was like, Okay, here's an opportunity to talk about
I guess perspective. I have this trend in my writing
where sometimes the first verse is kind of like the
second verse.

Speaker 6 (44:48):
But that's that was.

Speaker 7 (44:49):
I feel like that trend being graduated and just expounded upon.
And I think a hard second after Neighborhood was going
to be Impossible, the last song that I recorded for
the album, and that's when the budgets running out.

Speaker 6 (45:02):
I don't know if I can afford my engineer anymore.

Speaker 7 (45:04):
Like something out to shake right now, And I think
I want to give love to Andrew Keller, my engineer,
who did a lot of like the vocal production and
stuff on this.

Speaker 6 (45:12):
But like that's the last session.

Speaker 7 (45:13):
I was like, you know what, let's trip it down,
none of that crazy, crazy stuff we've been doing for Impossible.
I was like, let me just you know, talk to
the perspective of the first person who told someone you
can't do this. I kind of I wrote that song
from the perspective of the first person to say, well,
that person, but the person that told them they couldn't
do it, and like and so on and so forth. This

(45:34):
trend of just projecting that you can't do that to
the next person.

Speaker 6 (45:39):
So those two I probably say, I love depending on that.

Speaker 4 (45:41):
Yeah, I like, okay, cause it seems like it's a
middle finger to all those nays says.

Speaker 7 (45:46):
Probably probably uh huh, okay, I'm gonna do it anyway. Yeah,
I think subliminity It definitely was that. And you know,
I say this is my Icebreakers, so like even the
first line on my debut album is someone stopped me
and said, hey, do have you seen this spider Man?
Like yes, it gets as straightest level as that all
the way down to like a daddy mama drama.

Speaker 4 (46:05):
MM.

Speaker 7 (46:05):
So if you listen to if you haven't listened to
it again with that perspective, I literally started reading Icebreaker
for this album.

Speaker 4 (46:10):
Right, what's your dad think about all the success that
you are experiencing right now?

Speaker 6 (46:15):
He loves it. He loves it.

Speaker 7 (46:16):
I remember, like right before, I remember the conversation you
had with me once, say maybe twenty eighteen or twenty yeah,
like into twenty eighteen when he came in and brought
the chair in the room and said, yeah, your mama said, what.

Speaker 6 (46:28):
Y'all was talking about?

Speaker 7 (46:28):
Your saying, you know when we just had that conversation
with your parents, when you were able to process your childhood,
you just wanna have that conversation with him.

Speaker 6 (46:34):
And he came like, your mama said, well tell me
what you was saying. You put the chair down.

Speaker 7 (46:38):
You was like, but you need to find out what
you're gonna do, cause usually if it don't happen for
people around this time, it usually doesn't happen mm.

Speaker 6 (46:44):
And a few months later for him to.

Speaker 7 (46:46):
Come home from work, I'm like, yo, Daddy, I about
to dip child be read about to reing me to
uh l to la. I just remember him sit down saying, man,
it's it's all happened so fast, but I wanna go
back a few a few weeks before that, when I
told him, like, yo, Dad, I really don't want to
work at a gas station anymore. I really want to
put all into my music. And he told me, like, yo,

(47:06):
the reason I'm doing all of this because I notice
what you want to do. And Barry Movie s he
had this map of Boma in Texas and I didn't
know what it was. It was just a big scroll
and he got it and he like hold his in
of it and he held it and then he dropped
it out was a map of Boma and he said,
you gonna put both money on the map.

Speaker 5 (47:20):
Wow.

Speaker 7 (47:21):
Yeah, So I wanna when I talk about Daddy Mama drama,
and I want to show the whole spectrum of your
parents as you're going through this, and your family and
your friends accepting this to always say what we're doing
is achievable, but sometimes it can be unbelievable. Whatever we
are here, So don't be jaded, don't take it a
personal that people don't see it. As long as you
see it, that's all that matters.

Speaker 2 (47:40):
You also touch on relationships and women and what do
you think the feedback has been from that side of
things in terms of making that type of content.

Speaker 7 (47:48):
From the the women who talked to me about the album,
they they love the R and B.

Speaker 6 (47:52):
They they just love it. So I think that's just me.
I think that's tea.

Speaker 5 (48:00):
But is this some vulnerability in it or is it?
Is it just more save to you? Oh?

Speaker 6 (48:04):
No, definitely vulnerability.

Speaker 7 (48:05):
I think I gotta go back to giving Drake the
credit of making that cool and acceptable to be that.

Speaker 6 (48:11):
Like I remember, like I.

Speaker 7 (48:12):
Said, when those girls showed me Drake, like I was
immediate in the studio, doing my horrible impersonation of the
behindest vulnerable, putting voice memodes.

Speaker 6 (48:20):
From my dad and my boy like, doing all of that,
you know.

Speaker 7 (48:23):
But I think just you know, with his offering to
the game, you know, there's many students who just took
that and expounded upon it. So I think that's what
That's definitely where it comes from, for sure.

Speaker 4 (48:33):
And there was a girl that was real significant in
your life that passed away.

Speaker 6 (48:36):
Absolutely.

Speaker 7 (48:38):
Yeah, I was gonna say how important was heard? Yeah,
you know, very important, very important. I want to give
a give love, give love to the family.

Speaker 6 (48:48):
You know, I don't want to.

Speaker 7 (48:51):
I've not been saying the name just you know, I
don't about absolutely to the family. And that was the
person she really when I was out of prayer view
just still DJing off my phone and.

Speaker 6 (49:03):
Like she but she took that seriously.

Speaker 7 (49:05):
She would go with the people like y'all, I know,
you'll got a party like ts don't need to be
like the DJ like y'all need to have T was
like I'm telling y'all tso, And she would be that socialite.
And I give a credit to a lot of while
I work the room the way I do because of her.
So she I think she was the one who was
like who kept telling me, like, yo, you need to
really really do this. But I was just being a

(49:25):
college student, you know, just turning up. But I give
a lot of credit to what you see today, to
that family and to her absolutely.

Speaker 5 (49:33):
Because you should, like once one hand of this and
like you keep to yourself.

Speaker 2 (49:36):
And then you had a line there about new they
talking about why are we talking in the club.

Speaker 5 (49:40):
It's music's too loud in the club.

Speaker 7 (49:42):
Yeah, I think, I think definitely probably I gotta get
credit to y'all's podcast with with Taler the credit when
he's talking about like just the performative aspect of that.

Speaker 6 (49:51):
And then ever since then, I was like, wow, I
see that. I see that a lot.

Speaker 7 (49:55):
And I went to a party once and I had
a studio session the next day and me trying, I
want to talk in the club when it's smoking that fog.

Speaker 6 (50:02):
Really, you know, damn it is my vocals.

Speaker 7 (50:05):
So I was like, Yo, it's no need to even
have this conversation or when we're out somewhere, like hey,
do you want to meet such and such. I'm all
about me and you in a very intimate setting. It's
like it's no disrespect, but it's just like, this isn't
the place. I'm not trying to do the hand on
the shoulder yelling at you're tell me how much I
appreciate you. I would trying to do it in a
very intimate sesson So you can understand that I mean
what I say, and I really appreciate you. So yeah,

(50:26):
new name was just I feel like it's definitely inspired
by that, So thank you all for that.

Speaker 5 (50:30):
Yeah, of course, of course. But I mean that's the thing.

Speaker 2 (50:32):
It's like if you have it, like you come in
with a unique look, people are drawing to you right,
absolutely capture. So like child sweeps about that a lot,
like how are you dealing with like now all this
newfound extra attention to everything you're doing.

Speaker 7 (50:42):
I move with my big three hospitality, professionalism, and I
care and I love what I do. So when I
step out of my hotel room or my wherever I
step out, I'm t tho touchdown, and the first thing
is hospitality and professionalism. So feel free to that new
name thing that's only for the club anyway.

Speaker 1 (50:59):
Else why I can hear you.

Speaker 7 (51:00):
And I can look at your eyes feel free, like
I remember when it was zero people interested in this.
I'm gonna always have time to talk to you, like
I'm here. I always say I want to be the
biggest start in the world, but I I I said, like,
I want you to be able to close your eyes
and think of like your friends who you told everything
to you know where the body is a head. Y'all
have memories and stuff. He just happened to be the
biggest start in the world that you could still call
it the text. So I want I want you to

(51:21):
come up and talk to me. This is why I
do it for it right, But as you would send
you know your stars rising? Are you having a hard
time saying you know?

Speaker 4 (51:28):
I'm sure people are knocking down your door wanting to
collaborate features things like that.

Speaker 7 (51:33):
I think I'm just having a hard time. I'm not
saying yes so fast cause I hate letting people down.
So I'm always like, yeah, let's do it. But it's
like I just have to instead of giving them a
yes or no, just like you give me a second
so I could check on my team and make sure
that my schedule even allows it, because I would hate
to let you down.

Speaker 5 (51:50):
M that's a good one. I'm about to use that.

Speaker 6 (51:54):
I would hate give me a second.

Speaker 2 (51:56):
Yeah, what made you close the obum out with? The
original's better? And what's kind of the message find it for.

Speaker 6 (52:01):
The original was better?

Speaker 7 (52:02):
I think that goes back to my t that's all
of my loves, you know, the love of film and comedy,
and you know when you were here like, oh they're
doing another remake. Oh, Like it's just the idea of nostalgia.
And you know what we usually when nostalgia the reagion
we love these albums, are these movies is because it's
connected to a memory. That's why when I dropped my album,

(52:22):
I was like, I want for your first listen, put
on some pajamas, wind down, and really take on this experience.
Because when you attach your memory to the music or
the art, it's gonna be with you forever. So I
think the original was better with just like a conversation
about nostalgia. It's a it's a sonic punchline as well,
you know, being there with uh with Dylan for a
hundred from a hundred x R y two K, being

(52:44):
in there just joking, like having it the song start
off like this, doing this idiom remix in the middle
of the song and then going back to the original.
So that's and not only is it a lyrical punchline,
it's also a sonic punchline.

Speaker 2 (52:56):
Can go back and listen to it, m Well, I
wanna go back listen to this man as one of us,
you know, yeah, wack out with it man, But nah,
thank you know the creativity man.

Speaker 5 (53:08):
You know, definitely thank you. As people are saying, you know,
we definitely need that.

Speaker 2 (53:11):
You know, people say everything sounds the same, but just
to have you come with the right energy and like
take your time with this and have this body of work.

Speaker 5 (53:17):
That really represents you. It's definitely a standout of the year.
Thank you.

Speaker 7 (53:20):
I think that comes from me just being a fan first,
and I'll look at it like what would I want
to see from my favorite artist, and I just do that.
That's that's all you see right now, just me being a.

Speaker 5 (53:29):
Fan first, true student of the game. Tizo.

Speaker 6 (53:31):
Absolutely up to your success, brother, Thank y'all.

Speaker 5 (53:35):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (53:36):
Rap Parade off podcast Sipe up, Swipe up, Subscribe, rap
Radar is Interval presents original production from hyper House, produced
by Laura Wasser, host some producers Elliott Wilson and Brian b.

Speaker 1 (53:49):
Dot Miller. Permittival Presents executive producers Alan Coy and Jake Kleinberg,
Executive producer Paul Rosenberg.

Speaker 4 (53:57):
Editing is sound designed by Dylan Alexander Freeman, recording engineer
Mike Urban, visual director Josh Perez. Operations lead Sarah Yu
Business Development Lead Cheffie Allen Swig and marketing lead Samara
Still make sure to follow Rapperator or listen on Apple Podcasts, Spotify,
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